a small contribution to The Cause

I lent my assistance to advocating change in the occupied West Bank today, by going with a bunch of other Israelis and internationals to a Palestinain farming community there (right next to a settlement) and hanging out where settlers and soldiers could see the international supporters. I would guess that there were about 50 people there in all who had come to show support.

It was my first time knowingly being in the West Bank. Apparently there are a number of neighborhoods that are on the other side of the Green Line, but I'm not sure that it counts, because it is still part of the city of Jerusalem and I didn't know that I had crossed The line.
The problem for Palestinian agricultural communities is that nearby settlers use aggression and other methods to prevent the Palestinian farmers from accessing their fields. They might set up barracades, or throw rocks, etc. When there are no outsiders there, the unfortunate truth is that the soldiers inevitably don't do anything about it. But when there are Israelis and/or people from the international community physically present, often the settlers don't even come out to the fields to try and stop anything. They just call the army, but the soldiers usually don't do anything either way, just watch. So the simple act of just being a non-Palestinian in the fields, allows the Palestinian community to access the crops to do the necessary work. Plus, it shows the settlers and the army that there are people who care about Palestinian rights, which is important - they can't just do whatever they want to these people.

All of this makes it sound much more exciting than it was, truthfully. We arrived in the town, and I think every child came out to greet us, as well as a majority of the men and some women. We walked to the fields and up to the border between the fields and the settlement. The soldiers came, but they just stood there and watched as we helped the Palestinians clear some of the rocks from the soil. The truth is that it was largely a symbollic action, showing solidarity for the Palestinian cause. My roommate and I found ourselves the center of attention of most of the young boys and men (I was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt, not provocative at all, I swear), more interested in staring at the foreign girls than in moving rocks. What can you do. Maybe they were wondering why the hell we were throwing rocks around the fields.

Eventually we all came back to the edge of the fields by the town, where we ate and sat around for a bit. I found myself the center of a spectacle again when I tried to talk to some of the young boys about their English lessons. Eventually they moved on to the Italian girls, and then to the Israeli guy who knew how to juggle. Apparently another group from our original 50 had encountered settlers who threw rocks, but for us it was more a day of showing quiet support. Plus I think the children will be talking about it for months, haha. I felt that for me, it was/is important to walk the talk; to take some sort of action in support of the views I have. I didn't cause trouble or interfere in anyone's life or safety. I just lent my Israeli identity to a symbollic show of support for Palestinian farming lands. And it was a small act, but maybe (hopefully) it is part of a bigger movement, planting the seeds for acceptance of Palestinian rights.