A Young Girl on Bicycle: Anwar Burqan vs Two Border Police officers

With everything else that’s going on in our part of the world, the incident in Hebron, at the end of July, with the two Border Police officers and the young girl on bicycle, seems like ages ago.

To refresh the reader's memory, here is the story as it appeared in Haaretz on August 2nd: “Two Border Police officers were filmed driving a Palestinian girl, who was riding a bicycle in Hebron, away and then, once she fled, one of the two picked up her bike and threw it into the bushes”

Obviously this incident has serious implications, how is it possible that two adults in their official capacity would scare a little girl to death and chase her away? Focusing on the story one important detail comes to mind: Anwar Burqan was not just another little girl, she was riding a bicycle.

The bicycle has been a feminist symbol, and an icon, of self reliance and freedom since the last part of the 19th century. The development of the safety bicycles, in the late 19th century, was especially crucial to women as they were also produced in a special form for skirted women.

Some feminist writers consider this point a revolution and a beginning of a new order.  Ever since the late 1880s women have started riding bicycles and it has given them a certain degree of independence. All of a sudden, quietly, women and girls gained freedom of movement and were able to come and go as they pleased and on their own.

For a long time, and in most part of the world, bicycling has ceased to be a symbol and became an integral part of life for everyone.

But in more traditional societies girls/women and bicycle just don’t mix. The Saudi Arabian film Wadjda which tells the story of  a bright girl who is determined to win money to buy a bicycle she’s forbidden to ride. She hopes to accomplish this feat by winning a prize in a Koran competition and for that dream she is willing to memorize endless verses of Koran. But when she finally wins the competition honestly and naively admits that she intends to get a bicycle with her money, she is denied the prize.

Apparently, Hebron is not different than Wadjda's world, here too the   bicycle is regarded as a dangerous symbol of independence which threatens the world order. Young Anwar Burqan was not allowed to exercise her right to freedom of movement when she rode by herself around her home town on her bicycle.

I would like to end with a quote about bicycling from the Feminist and leader Susan B Anthony: "Yes, I'll tell you what I think of bicycling, I think it has done more to emancipate woman than any one in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on wheel. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat and away she goes.”

Keep riding Anwar Burqan, away you go!

The post a[[eared in the Times Of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-young-girl-on-bicycle-anwar-burqan-vs-two-border-police-officer/

The Face of Jewish Settlers In Hebron: The Sheriff

I admit that there is a lot I don’t know, and don’t understand, about Hebron.  But when you walk along the deserted Shuhada street,  the former busy main road of Hebron which under occupation is renamed "King David" street, it makes you cringe.

The walking tour of Hebron included all the tiny Jewish settlements right in the heart of the old city. It was hard not to notice that the signs of the streets were written in Hebrew. Opposite Beit Hadassah settlement U saw steps with the name "The Steps of Hope."

There was very little hope in this tour, Palestinians are not allowed in those areas,  and Hebron is just like a ghost town in an American Western. It is a desolate city where the streets are controlled by a strong man, a kind of self appointed sheriff aided by young loyal deputies.

The sheriff's name is Ofer Ohana, he lately became a household name when, among his other feats in Hebron, he was involved in the case of Elor Azaria, an IDF soldier that shot and killed a neutralized Palestinian terrorist. Ohana was the ambulance  driver who was filmed kicking the knife toward the Palestinian terrorist, (allegedly to cover up for Azaria shooting an unarmed man) (Ynet June 26th)

I was in Hebron twice and in both times I saw Sheriff Ohana controlling the streets with his young deputies. Since most tours to Hebron are perceived by them as a threat, they were there to  protest.  They used mega phones, boom boxes with loud music, jumped in front of cameras, shouted, and mingled with the visitors holding big flags of Israel. It was clear that the show was orchestrated by Ohana  and that the boys were there at his beck and call.

The Israeli police did not interfere and the soldiers who were there kept quiet.  Nobody said anything to the boys who were harassing the visitors.  Actually I read testimonies of soldiers who wrote that Ohana was very warm and hospitable toward them, and invited them over for Shabbat dinner. I wonder if this type of fraternization should be allowed. The soldiers in Hebron have an impossible assignment, surely by feeding them and making them feel at home, Ohana forms alliances in the army as he exploits the plight of those young soldiers to promote his political and ideological agenda.

Ohana is not only an ambulance driver in Hebron, he is also the head of the Gutnik  visitor center next to the Cave of the Patriarchs. No doubt he is the face of the Jewish settlers in Hebron.

But on the walk back to the van, I was followed by another settler, a middle aged woman who kept filming me. Finally she said, “you haven’t heard our side of the story.” I told her that I was aware that there was  more to the story, and that in my previous tour when we visited the hilltop Tel Rumeida (the most extremist settlement), a distressed older woman pushed me and threw water in my face. I wasn't angry because I found out that she was the widow of Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan, who was murdered in 1998 by a Palestinian terrorist.

The settler listened quietly and then said, “ this was my mother, Rabbi Shlomo Raanan was my father.”

This is a losing proposition, even a powerful sheriff like Ofer Ohana could not protect his flock from thousands of imprisoned Palestinians who have nothing to lose. The murder of Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan is just one example. The tragedies of recent days should finally convince our government to take responsibility and declare that the state of Israel should not allow its citizens to live in Hebron.
The essay appeared in the Times Of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-face-of-jewish-settlers-in-hebron-the-sherif/

The Invisible Peace Activists: International Authors And Occupation

When I saw on Facebook that  Breaking The Silence was hosting a group of international authors, I was curious.  It announced: “The second delegation of authors has arrived! The authors are here to see and understand firsthand what Israeli military control over a Palestinian civilian population looks like, so that they may write pieces for a compilation ahead of the unfortunate 50th anniversary of the occupation. Among them are Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon who will be editing the compilation to be released next year. We wish them an enlightening journey full of eye-opening understanding.”

I asked to join their activities in Hebron, and when we got there last Friday Yehuda Shaul, the founder of the organization, was already hard at work explaining to the writers about the history and the daily life under occupation. He also read to them excerpts from soldiers' testimonies.

There is no one who is better equipped to talk about the reality in Hebron than Yehuda. His background  is very similar to that of the settlers in Hebron. He comes from an American ultra-Orthodox family and spent his high school years at a Yeshiva in the occupied territories. Unlike many Haredi men who don’t serve in the army, he did and was a combatant in Hebron. Upon his release in 2004, he founded Breaking The Silence with several comrades from his regiment.

Breaking The Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who served in the occupied territories. The purpose of the organization is to shed light on Israel’s operational methods in the territories and to encourage debate about the nature of the occupation (from the book Our Harsh Logic compiled by the organization Breaking the Silence)

Please keep reading in the Times of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-invisible-peace-activists-international-authors-and-occupation/

"I Am A Camera": Visiting Kiryat Arba And Hebron

We were standing in Kiryat Arba at the grave of Baruch Goldstein, who, in 1994, perpetrated the massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. On the tombstone in Hebrew was the inscription: "the holy Baruch Goldstein who gave his life for the people of Israel, its Torah and land  and had clean hands and a pure heart." The grave is located in Park Kahana, named after the militant extremist Rabbi Meir Kahana, a man whose political party Kach was banned by the Israeli government for being "racist” and "anti-democratic."

Suddenly not far from us I noticed a boy, of about 12, crying bitterly. He was one of the settlers children at the park, a man was comforting him as the boy kept saying “They call the holy Baruch Goldstein a murderer.”

In saying “they” he meant us,

Please keep reading in the Times of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-am-a-camera-visiting-kiryat-arba-and-hebron/