Sunday, March 15, 2009

Tristan Anderson

This afternoon, I received an e-mail message from a fellow member of the online organization mepeace.org. In it was a link to an event that took place on Friday, March 13, 2009 in the West Bank city of Nil'in.

Nil'in and Bil'in are often in international news media as two cities which have been divided by the separation fence/security wall/apartheid wall, as you see fit to call it. I choose the first, the separation fence plus the addition of separation wall.

Every Friday, various international, including Israeli and Palestinian peace organizations gather at Nil'in to protest the wall and the damage it has caused to the livelihoods of the residents there. Often there are clashes between I.D.F. soldiers and nonviolent activists.

Apparently, this past Friday the 13th, Tristan Anderson, a resident of Oakland, California, a peace activist and a journalist was hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired at the protesters by I.D.F. forces. Tristan suffered serious wounds to his head and is currently receiving treatment at the Sheba Medical Center located at the Tel HaShomer army base near to Tel Aviv. The hospital at Tel HaShomer often makes it into the headlines as it is the hospital where many Israelis, Palestinians and internationals receive treatment following conflict-induced injuries.

As far as Google tells me, no major news networks, until the last half hour, have picked up this story, although it happened already nearly three days ago. The Jerusalem Post now features a story stating that Tristan's condition is stable, although he is on a respirator.

I have a few questions.

According to the group Anarchists Against the Wall, the fact that Tristan was hit in the head by a tear gas canister is not that surprising. This group claims that it is becoming a recurring event that I.D.F. troops fire these canisters directly at protesters instead of in an arch so as to avoid direct hits.

If this is true, why are I.D.F. troops doing this?

If these protesters are nonviolent demonstrators, why are I.D.F. troops firing weapons at them at all?

Are the protestors warned?

If so, how are they warned?

If warned, how much time do they receive after warning to move out of the designated target area?

Are there regulations as to what kind of weapons can be fired at nonviolent protesters?

If rocks are thrown or catapults used, at what point does the army decide to use weapons?

What security breach or territorial breach are the protesters making, if any, which warrants a military action against them?

What is the responsibility of the occupying army to protect internationals in such a zone as the West Bank?

Another issue. There was a delay in transporting Tristan to Tel HaShomer because he was first attended to by medics of a Red Crescent ambulance and not an Israeli Magen David Adom or other ambulance service. Unable to cross the checkpoint, Tristan waited fifteen minutes before the Israeli ambulance arrived, transferred him from the Red Crescent ambulance to the Israeli ambulance and then he was on his way to the hospital. Israeli activists on the scene called the Israeli ambulance and I say, fortunately, Tristan was picked up in a timely fashion and swiftly carried to the Sheba Medical Center. Red Crescent ambulances are not permitted past certain areas in Israel because of the fear that they are a disguise for weapons and terrorists. People lose their lives pretty regularly here because of these past experiences and realities and the perpetual fear.

I live in Israel. I can say with all of my heart and soul that a person in this country is free to demonstrate, to protest, to libel and to slander the State of Israel with immense rage, freely and openly without fear of bodily harm.

Every year, in spite of threats from the Ultra Orthodox residents of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem that they will bomb buses if the Gay Pride Parade will take place, the Pride Parade proudly occurs with growing numbers every year.

Within Israel's borders, I am willing to say that things are normal for better and for worse, just like any other country in which the people are decision makers in the country's processes and actions.

However, when it comes to the Territories, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, it seems to me that everything changes. It is the wild, wild west, it is hell and there is no order and only chaos. And I can only discuss what I know from hearsay and from photographs and from links on the internet.

And if for a moment anyone wonders why Israelis don't rise up against the immorality that occurs on both sides of the wall, it is important to know that they are either so cynical and jaded by decades of conflict that they don't believe it, even the video footage, or, they are afraid, scared and willing to consent to anything that tells them the actions are necessary for security.

I wasn't there. I didn't see Tristan receive the blow by the tear gas canister. I watched the video clip. And I have questions. I don't know who will answer them.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Ahmadinejad Between the Palms of My Hands

Every good yoga class begins with a moment of silence in meditation on an intention. The intention could be a wish for oneself or for a friend or family member. The intention can be set on a principle in the physical, the emotional or the intellectual -- flexibility, compassion, acceptance, ambition.

Lately, when I sit down on my mat and fold my hands against one another to my heart, instead of pressing them to each other I make something of a cup. And in that cup, I like to imagine President Ahmadinejad. I hold him between the palm of my hands. In my mind's eye I can see him in the photographs of newspapers and websites and television clips. I think of his smile, he seems to always have such a sincere smile, it starts from his eyes. If you notice, his eyes in some shots actually sparkle. Once I have the clear image of him, I start to ask him not to spew such hatred all over the world. I ask him not to make statements that lead to the Israeli mentality that one day, Iran will send nuclear weapons to destroy Israel, as Ahmadinejad insinuates, dictates and rallies in exact words and nuances. I ask him to stop using his influence to instill fear that perpetuates violence that the majority of Israeli society believes to be justified.

Suddenly, Ahmadinejad morphs into Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, the Chinese government in its ocupation and administration of Tibet, the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Meshal of Hamas, Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud in Israel, and the hundreds of thousands of young men and women in the world, learning religion-manufactured and condoned hatred and intolerance -- in the madrasas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, in the fundamentalist revival churches of the United States and the extremist yeshivas of Israel.

Of course one will argue and take offense that I have equated some of these people with others who are outright terrorists, racists, bigots, plain haters. But my intention is not to call Netanyahu a terrorist, for I do not believe that is what he is, nor would I ever call Israel a terrorist state, as so many seem to be doing these days. My point is to draw attention to the spotlight and power of which all of these players possess. With guns, armies, youth and ideology, leaders of a military occupation of an interminably fragmented Palestinian nation, such as Netanyahu, leaders of pseudo-governments using terrorism to achieve its aims like Meshal and Haniyeh, and leaders of an Islamic repressive Republic with unapologetic ill will towards others like Ahmadinejad hold an incredible position in the eyes of the world. Often I am floored by the vast, limitless fanfare they receive for all of their misdeeds, for the oppression they inflict, for the hate and disaster with which they infest the world.

When I see Ahmadinejad between the palms of my hand and the rest of these men and movements, I ask them and I ask the world to give them attention for making positive contributions to the world. I ask Ahmadinejad to stop pointing a finger to Israel so that he may divert the misery and dissatisfaction of his people away from the sorry state in which Iran finds itself today. I ask him and his fellow leadership to take some damn responsibility for the way things are and to fix them, and not by method of destroying another nation-state. I ask al-Bashir to exorcise the Satan that resides within him and reflect on the genocide that he has orchestrated. I ask Meshal and Haniyeh to stop fighting the battle to the end of days, to lift up their people from the dependence on the compassion and sympathy derived from perpetual victimhood for the purpose of the Palestinian national movement's progression.

I ask Netanyahu to stop building settlements. Not because I believe, anymore, that that is the answer to the problems. But we have to do something that makes sense, something that comes from the need to live in the here and now with peace of mind.

At the end of the yoga practice, one finishes where one began. On the mat, hands folded, the journey completed. I see Ahmadinejad once again, full smile on newspapers, websites and television clips. With a full heart, I ask him and the others to try getting attention and adoration by leading from a different angle.