ana min amerca

Since I began working with CPT, the same question has nagged me- By walking with people through injustice do we succeed in undoing oppression or in maintaining systems of oppression?

In Hebron we walk with children through checkpoints each day. An international presence often, though not always, prevents soldiers from detaining students for too too long.

CPT and other international groups regularly accompany farmers in their fields in order to prevent settler violence against the Palestinians and to prevent the military from chasing Palestinians off their farmland. This works- if one’s goal is simply to use the land for that one day. Or in Hebron, to go to school that one day.

It puts a bandaid on the situation. But what about long-term? Israeli settlers still have the power to abuse Palestinians. The Israeli government still receives billions of dollars from the U.S., much of which it uses for military operations against Palestinians. Israel still practices land confiscation and home demolitions. Gaza is still one large prison in which children and adults fight and die. Palestinians are still prevented from reaching their jobs, families, and land. The system does not change just because we walk one child through a checkpoint or sit in a field with one farmer. If anything, I wonder if an unjust system is strengthened by the fact that we as internationals use our unearned privilege to put bandaids on unjust situations.

While sitting in the field with Mahmoud (not his real name), he told us “The soldiers beat my sheep when you don’t come with me.” A few weeks ago teammates said that Mahmoud was so frustrated with this that he wanted CPTers and Operation Dove to hide behind a tree in the settler outpost and wait for the soldiers to come beat his sheep and catch the soldiers on video tape. He says that every time he is alone, the soldiers beat his sheep. For several days we sat with Mahmoud while his sheep grazed. Everyday settlers came out of their house and everyday the military came and told Mahmoud that he had to leave (but they did not beat his sheep). The military was wrong. Mahmoud did not have to leave. The land belongs to a family in a nearby village. Eventually, the soldiers chased Mahmoud away from that land. The day that they finally made him leave, they let us (the internationals) stay on the land (we were debating the law with the soldiers so it took a second for us to realize the absurdity of what was happening). The land definitely does not belong to me. Why was I allowed to remain while Mahmoud had to leave?

Another villager told us “The soldiers are just waiting until the minute you leave… then…” & he just shook his head...

A child in the village once told a soldier who was detaining his father, “be nice or my father will call the internationals.” What does this dynamic teach children?! They see their fathers detained by Israeli soldiers and beat by Israeli settlers. They know that Israelis can use certain roads and go certain places that Palestinians are forbidden. They know that the settlement next door to them has electricity and water while they do not. They know Israeli children can go to school without being beaten. Then they see these random internationals walk into their village with the power to alter certain situations. For some reason, Israeli soldiers can beat Palestinians on public streets but they cannot beat them in front of me? Who am I that soldiers think twice about what they do in front of me and my video camera? Why are they not held to the same accountability in front of Palestinians? Frequently when soldiers are detaining Palestinians they let the Palestinians go when internationals simply come into view. We have some power, but why? Where does it come from? Skin color? Passport?

By relying on these unearned and unjust privileges to put temporary “bandaids” on immediate physical problems, do we encourage a system that privileges citizens of certain countries? I cannot find a way to answer “no” to this question. I think our presence reinforces our privilege and in that way disempowers Palestinians.

Yet, Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills invited us here and want us to stay. Many say that our presence empowers them to go where they may not go otherwise, etc. i.e. our privilege allows them access to what would otherwise be Jewish-only… so what do we do?

In our last meeting, another CPTer raised a similar question to the one with which I have been struggling- Are we reinforcing systems of oppression by exploiting our privilege? We came up with no real answers except that CPT’s work on the ground here in Palestine is part of a larger movement. Being in Palestine is often just putting a bandaid on the immediate abuse. We write about the situation and work with other groups who take a more active role in changing policies and systems.

I do not know how to live in right relationship with my neighbors here and around the world. How do we live justly with Palestinian sisters and brothers? Is it by staying in the U.S. and working to change the U.S.’s unjust policies toward Palestine? Or is there some better way to live and work with Palestinians here in Palestine? A way that does not use or depend upon privilege? Is there a such thing as solidarity?

Our work is based on a belief that the nonviolent ways of Jesus actually work- that nonviolence is more powerful than violence, that good overcomes evil, love hate, and peace war. But when everything is entangled with different systems of privilege, I find it hard to know if it is the power of nonviolence or the power of passport that is at work in different situations here.