The American Jewish activist Sam Stein wrote that he grew up, like other peers, to look at Israel as an infallible state, but living between the Palestinians taught him fundamental facts about the reality of the occupation.
In his article 972+, this activist narrates his experience that started to join the “Mikina” program (an Israeli military preparatory program) in one of the illegal settlements in the South Gush Etzion bloc JerusalemAnd he ended with a resident of the Palestinians in Traveler YattaIt is a group of Palestinian villages in the southern hills HebronHer people suffered from the violence of the settlers and the army in order to displace them from their lands.
“The first time I heard the word” occupation “was when a rabbi of the illegitimate settlement of Alon Shepot settlement complained about the restriction of the Israeli access to The Noble SanctuaryHe said, “Israel is occupied by the Arabs.”
Stein’s hearing of a Palestinian student was studying with him at the Hunter College in New York, complaining that the study in New York required him to obtain Israeli permits to cross Jordan, which made him realize the contradiction between the lives of the Jews and the life of the Palestinians after he thought naively that they coexist as neighbors.
Seven years after the “Mishna” year, Sam Stein returned to Israel and Palestine, but with a practical understanding of occupation West Bank And awareness of the duty to engage in a tangible activity against the occupation, which made him join “everything that remains”, a non -hierarchical group of diaspora Jews committed to direct action against the occupation.
Stein regularly traveled to the West Bank, joined the Palestinian farmers in their fields, accompanied the sponsors with their flocks, participated in the protests against the violence of the Israeli state, and documented with other activists the settlers’ attacks and military incursions “in the hope that our distinguished situation in the eyes of the state will deter some violence,” he says.
After Stein joined the “Rabbes for Human Rights” organization as a field coordinator, he decided to move to work full -time in the traveler of Yatta, and as he says, “I put everything I owned in my car and started south towards a traveler of Yatta, and for a period of six months I lived among those who were told that they would kill me at the first opportunity.”
Stein summarized this experience in five tips to her to those who have been seen on the same concerns on which he grew up, especially since the traveler of Yatta is facing a demolition campaign that threatens to erase its inhabitants from the only land they know.
1- You must ignore the red signs
The Mishna manager has always indicated that the red signs, which define the entrances to the “A”, which is officially subject to the full Palestinian control, declared that the entry of Israeli citizens “illegal” and “danger to their lives”, and it claims that “this is the true apartheid”, bearing the exclusion of the alleged Israelis from these areas.
Later, the activist says that he realized that the Palestinians did not intend to exclude him, and that they did not have actual authority over these spaces, as he realized that these restrictions are not aimed at protecting the Israelis, but rather to strengthen a system and culture The apartheid Through psychological barriers.
2- The settlement of the settlement foci do not represent you
Stein warns those who are advised by those who spend Saturday afternoon to use phones to coordinate attacks on the Palestinians, and reminds them that men who manage settlement foci are not like the rabbis who taught them, describing them as ideological extremists “use our traditions as a weapon and trample on Sharia.”
3- The army is lying
Although most of the Jews and the Israelis have come to the fact that the Israeli army is infallible, Stein assures them that the army is lying and fabricating the reality altogether, as it creates unfounded fantasies, and he witnessed this himself, he says.
The writer set an example of Israel’s decline repeatedly from its official accounts, as happened in the wake of the assassination of the journalist Sherine Abu AqlaAnd he said that the world has today, while Israel is committing genocide In the Gaza Strip, behind a wall of censorship, to start that every official word issued by the army is a lie.
Experiments in the traveler of Yatta taught me that the most powerful antidote is to stand with the oppressed and the marginalized, not based on a false idea of coexistence, but rather a joint commitment to justice and liberation
4- The occupation operates around the clock
One of the activists described the response to the violence in the Yatta traveler as a “funny game”, where the morning emergency call was launched a new day of rapid running between hot foci and documentation of atrocities, which the writer was able to adapt to him – as he says – when it became clear to him that his mere presence was the Israeli soldiers strongly.
5- True Solidarity is the solution
Stein warns that his integration into Palestinian society showed him the cruel grip of the occupation, and “experiences taught me there that the strongest antidote to advertising is to stand with the oppressed and the marginalized, not based on a false idea of” coexistence “, but rather a common commitment to justice and liberation.”
Sam Stein concluded that an hour of the sincere listening to a colleague speaking at the university was the first station towards his awareness of the Palestinian experience, and he is now providing his experience after 6 months he spent with the Palestinians in a traveler Yatta, hoping that others will help those who were like him breaking the wall of deception.