al-Ma'asara - Marrige in the name of freedom

In Ma'asara (near Bethlehem), the villagers lived a simple life and they still do. Their lifes, however, are being siffled more and more every month that passes. This because the village is one of many in the West Bank that has been harshly effected by the apartheid wall being built by Israel on Palestinian land.

The Wall. It is real. I have seen it. I have seen how it has tripled the unemployment rate in the villages near Jerusalem because it they no longer can go to work in East Jerusalem. I have seen how it has confiscated Palestinian land and deprived the families of their profession, to cultivate the land. I have seen how The Wall has stolen the most beautiful sunsets of all for the residents of Qalqilya. It has made people realize that not everything can be taken for granted, not even the right to see the sun set in the horizon and not behind a walll.

The construction of the wall has now reached Ma'asara. It will mean a minor disaster for the village. Their access to the highway will be taken away from them. The village will be virtually inaccessible. It will be a small appendix, a small peninsula where you don't go unless you must. Ma'asara's future is already a reality for many cities and villages on the West Bank. The best known example is Qalqilya (google it and read).

Instead of being paralyzed and wait to be eaten by The Wall, the Ma'asara inhabitats have used all peaceful means possible to stop the construction of The Wall. For over three years they have organised demonstrations every Friday at the site were The Wall will be built. Why? Resistance. But also because a 100 years from now they don't want their grandchildren to look back at the injustice of our time and wonder why their ancestors did nothing. At least they want to have an alibi, something to refer to which can calm their conscience. And Ma'asaras alibi is strong but ...
They demonstrate and The Wall gets closer. They invite international and Israelis to the demonstrations in order to increase the legitimacy and attention and The Wall still gets closer. They organise a wedding at the construction site of The Wall but The Wall is already here. Yesterday I and several other internationals and Israelis were invited to the wedding feast and the ceremony the day after (which also was the demonstration) to do a peaceful protest.
The party yesterday was very different from anything I've seen in Europe and also very fun. Traditional wedding parties here are held separately for men and women. When you come to the party you see the dance floor full of Palestinian men who dance with each other. With the feminine element gone all of the focus is on dancing and they surely can dance. Every Palestinian wedding has a segment where the best dancers in the family scatter the masses on the dance floor and show what they can do. They all danced the dabka and they did it well and in sync.

The day after (today) it was time to test the limits of their freedom, to see if they still can get married on their own land which still hasn't been eaten up by The Wall and the Israelis. It was time for marriage in the name of freedom. The demonstration was completely peaceful. Yet two Israeli activists were arrested by Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army's tactics at the demonstrations are at best the following.

Israeli soldiers line up behind barbed wire at the point where they want to stop the protesters. When the protesters arrive they straighten their backs and one of them starts filming the masses. This is done in order to identify the participants of the demonstration. When they've caught everyone on film and when they get tired of all Palestinian slogans they give the masses a 5-10 minute deadline to leave the area, otherwise they start arresting people. The most dedicated protesters (usaualy Israelis) put themselves in front of the soldiers and wait patiently for their arrest. If the soldiers are experienced the arrests are made without any significant violence, but if it's a young inexperienced soldiers, the situation can degenerate. Today, the soldiers used excessive force only twice (see picture below). The case is usaualy different in Bi'lin.
I admire the Ma'asara inhabitants way to stubbornly, peacefully and with finesse protest against the apartheid wall. But still I can't do nothing but to understand that The Wall will be built, the village will slowly suffocate and wither, the world will have forgotten Ma'asara in a few decades and the villagers will be forced into exile if they don't want to loose contact with the rest of the land which is under Palestinian Authority control.