February 6, 2004

Unjust Practices Against Palestinians

[Bethlehem, West Bank] Bethlehem is a crazy place. I have no idea what's going on. There have been invasions into Bethlehem and Beit Sahour. A person was killed, others were arrested. Bethlehem is still under a closure -- whatever that means. And some sort of curfew for various places at various times. Who knows what is going on where? Is it because the Israeli security (separation, apartheid) wall is being built near the checkpoint? Does a closure mean that Palestinians are not allowed in or out? Or only at certain times? Or no one is allowed to cross the checkpoint? Or just internationals? Or just Christian Zionists? Or just UN delegations? Or just Jewish visitors to Rachel's Tomb?

This morning a close Palestinian taxi-driver friend of mine dropped off a man at the main Bethlehem checkpoint. For doing his job, Israeli soldiers detained him outdoors in the cold and drizzle for four hours. They told my friend that he needed a permit to take a person to the checkpoint. What? A permit to take someone to the checkpoint? What the heck is that? I have asked a dozen people, and no one has ever heard of this. I think it was just an excuse to hold my friend. It's the standard policy of harassment and humiliation. My friend has driven thousands of people to various checkpoints over ten years, and today he suddenly needs a permit? Of course, this kind of thing is not unusual. Dozens of men and women are detained every day. Sometimes I have seen hundreds standing there.

I visited several checkpoints today to try to get a handle on what was going on. After visiting them, I still had no idea. I passed through the main checkpoint several times without incident. I asked the lone soldier posted there for walkers if I could pass back and forth. Sure, no problem at all for me. But there wasn't one other person walking through the checkpoint either time I was there. I did see about thirty Palestinian men spread-eagle on the outside rock wall across the road from me. I guess they had violated some law that I hadn't.

Things like the detainment of my taxi driver friend and holding men with valid Israeli papers really make me angry. Come on! These are men who obey all of the Israeli rules, and they still get treated like trash. It has nothing to do with improper behavior. Nothing to do with anything they personally have control over. They get treated like garbage because their parents happened to be Palestinian. Is this fair? You know how my taxi driver friend sees his detainment? He say, "thank god I wasn't arrested and taken away."

I've always struggled with the injustice I see here everyday. It's very difficult for me to process and understand. In fact, I don't understand it. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that I am living in the modern civilized world and democratic state policies exist that include blatant forms of racism.

The Dalai Lama observed in "The Art of Happiness" that "some people in modern Western society tend to go through life believing that the world is basically a nice place in which to live, that life is mostly fair, and that they are good people who deserve to have good things happen to them. The inevitable arising of suffering undermines these beliefs and can make it difficult to go on living happily."

I think this is my problem. I don't expect people to have to endlessly endure unjust situations. Naively, I think the world is fair or -- like my good neighbor Ed offers -- that it should be. When I see the situation, and it never changes, I feel like I am beating my head against a brick wall. Alternatively, my taxi-driver friend sort of accepted his undeserved trouble. He understood that because he is a Palestinian living in an area controlled by the 37-year-long Israeli occupation, life is not fair. Today he was just glad that it wasn't worse.

Bethlehem Checkpoint, empty except for two bulldozers on the left.

Another Bethlehem driver, waiting at Beit Jala.