I overhear a lot of discussion in the Palestinian human rights community about using the Afrikaans word apartheid to describe the Israeli government's (and the international community's) policy that the predominantly Jewish Israeli population should be separated from the Palestinian Arab population. The South African idea of apartheid (a word meaning separateness) was essentially that different races are better off if they develop separately. It's an idea that was popular in the early 20th century. Australia had its White Australia policy and the United States had the Asian Exclusion Act, both of which severely limited immigration from anywhere but Europe. From the turn of the 20th century it existed in the United States as the doctrine of segregation - that physical separation between races is beneficial. Oppression isn't inherent in the ideas of segregation and apartheid, but flow from the unequal distribution of economic and power that existed in early 20th century America and South Africa (and that's why the end of these policies didn't result in equality).

American audiences understand the term segregation much better than the term apartheid, so I think that when talking to Americans we'd be better off using that term. Obviously the segregation in Israel and Palestine is more extreme and violent than it ever was in the United States or South Africa, but that's a matter of degree rather than ideas.

Qassam rockets aren't really a threat to life according to Aviad's uncle who we visited in south-western Israel a year and a half ago. Here he is standing next to a few that he's got in his office:

He lives on Kibbutz Sa'ad about 5 miles from Gaza. When the Qassam land in his carrot fields they don't explode because they don't really contain explosives, just fuel. If it looks like a metal pipe with sheet-metal fins welded on the side, that's because that's exactly what it is.

When the Israeli Defense Forces attack Gaza they largely do it from Boeing Apache helicopters each carrying 16 Lockheed Martin Hellfire II missiles, designed to destroy "urban targets". Hellfire IIs are laser guided and carry 9kg warheads. I imagine that when attacking houses they use the blast fragmentation / incendiary or thermobaric warheads. The missiles have an 8km (5 mile) range and the Gaza Strip is only about 12km wide at its widest point, and Israel controls Gaza's territorial waters they don't even need to fly above Gaza to kill any family they choose.

Last year dearanxiety and I visited our friends Emily and Aviad in Israel. A big part of the trip for us was visiting the occupied West Bank, seeing the work that Emily and Aviad do to work for the rights of Palestinians and see where the money being raised by the Jewish-American peace group that Sharon is involved with was going.

On the day we went into the West Bank, our first stop was Susia, a Palestinian town that had been driven into tents, refused building permits after their homes were destroyed. They were taking their first steps in working their land (yes, they have legitimate title to the land dating back to British and Ottoman control) since they'd been driven off the last time. An illegal Israeli Jewish settlement is a few hundred meters away from where the half-dozen families live in their permanent tents. We stopped in Susia because they expected, when they tried to farm their land, to be confronted by settlers who would threaten them and call the Israeli army. That's pretty much what happened. But we mostly hung out with the people, meeting their children, playing with their animals. Take a look at some of the photos Sharon took: http://flickr.com/photos/dearanxiety/tags/susiya/

This evening I looked at the BBC News home page. This is what was under the middle east section: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7451668.stm
Please watch it, it's just a couple of minutes long.

The settlers are now, covering their faces, and beating elderly women to stop them farming their land. This is so offensive and inexcusable I can't quite express how I feel. The families of Susia are some of the nicest people I've ever met. They just want to raise their children, keep their goats and chickens, and live on the land they've lived on for so many generations.


Last week we got word that there had been attacks by settlers from a different illegal settlement had attacked the nearby town of Tuwani where we Sharon's peace group, Jewish Voice For Peace has been sponsoring a school playground. This had happened a lot before, but this time the family of one of the communities leaders, a guy named Hafez had been attacked. On of his children and his mother ended up in hospital. Here's one of the pictures of his children with Sharon:


What the fuck?

ps: this post might be slightly rambly. I went drinking earlier this evening for other reasons...

pps: Sharon made a perhaps more coherent post. At least it has more pictures.