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Letters about tours

Dear Machsom Watch women,

 

Yesterday we participated in a tour led by Anat Shafir. It was both instructive and depressing.

 

We want to express our great appreciation to Anat. She did an excellent job – her explanations were fluent, to the point, comprehensive and thorough. She handled the participants in an exemplary manner. We wish particularly to mention the effective way she dealt with the soldiers at the Huwwara checkpoint – assertively, but with consideration.

 

To her, and all of you, we say: Well done!

 

We’ll be happy to receive more information, to participate in, tell friends about and help your just, appropriate and moving struggle.

 

Thank you,

Sara Kanol

Alex Shutzman

 

 

Dear Pizi,

 

First of all I want to thank you for your guidance during the tour. I believe that things said from the heart reaches the heart directly, and your words, throughout the whole tour, penetrated deep into my heart.

The way you coped during the "ordered" moments deeply impressed me, your patience, gentleness, relaxed ton of voice. I have a long way to learn and advance. 

 

John Lennon Sings: "Living is easy with eyes closed" my eyes were never closed but now they are wide open with huge amazement at the way we live with the immense injustice we are responsible for. 

 

I am not the same person after this tour. I don't want to come up with big declarations since acts speak louder than words. Meanwhile I collect clothes to pass on to the people of  Jayus with Eli''s help. 

 

"One has to do for others and not turn a blind eye. If one sees a fire he must try and extinguish it, if he doesn't have a bucket of water, he may use a cup, if one has no cup, he has a tablespoon, and if he doesn't have a tablespoon - then he has a teaspoon." Amos Oz.

 

With love and great admiration,

 

A"K

Our tour of the seam zone and checkpoints in the central West Bank has changed our understanding of what it’s like in the occupied territories, in particular because of what we experienced there.  Apparently you have to see for yourself.

Pitzi guided the tour and provided information professionally, comprehensively and even-handedly.  I was very impressed by her ability to navigate the fine line between the mixture of fear and national pride every Israeli feels when dealing with security issues, and understanding and empathy regarding the Palestinians’ daily lives.

It was moving and unnerving to meet residents of the occupied territories.  And it was also frustrating to be unable to alter the reality (???).

So…first of all, I want to thank you for your efforts, and ask you to thank Pitzi for us.  And second, if you have a project or a challenge with which you need help/assistance – let us know.

We’ve very supportive of, and sympathetic to your struggle – we’re with you…

Bless you!

Eitan

 

 

(translated by Charles K.)

                         

Greetings,

 

I want to give you some of my impressions of the tour in Jerusalem on 21.12.13.  Machsom Watch’s activity is, on the one hand, a sacred endeavor, and, on the other hand, does Israel an injustice.  The fact that a mature person stands at the checkpoints, trying to insure that they operate appropriately, ethically, that basic human rights are not violated, is very worthy and very good for Israel.  But, on the other hand, you publish your photographs and show them to the media in Israel and abroad, though Israel has been vilified for a long time even without your efforts.  Don’t forget the lynch in Ramallah when you show the Qalandiya checkpoint, because the lynch demonstrates that every passerby seeks our sons’ blood.  Don’t forget, as you show the checkpoints, all the bereaved families mourning their relatives - how their lives have become joyless.  Think about the possible consequences of the material you publish, about the pressure and the sanctions that the UN could impose on Israel, think about what crossing permits could lead to.  When you show the areas Israel annexed think about where your children and grandchildren will live, where they would be able to buy an apartment in Israel.  And after you remember all that - your work is truly worthy of admiration, the fact you rise so early to uphold human rights.  Remember, because you’re truly compassionate women, the suffering of your own people, and don’t be so angry at those young, inexperienced soldiers standing there for hours, at all hours of the day and night.  Remember, above all, to do what’s best for Israel - and, in fact, when you notice inhumane treatment of minorities by the authorities, that’s very helpful to Israel.  But you should first notify the Israeli authorities, and only then, if the problem persists, publicize it more widely so that others may respond.

 

Thank you for hearing me out.  I wanted to express this after the tour, which was extremely interesting and educational.

 

Thank you,

 

Ilana

 

Translated by Charles K.

Boker tov, Daniela, 

Yesterday was an important, sad, and upsetting day. Yet your brilliant leadership — humor, intellect, patience, passionate belief in human rights for all creatures, and love of your homeland helped reframe the experience from total despair to understanding, bridge building, and glimmers of hope for change. Claudio and I have been on related tours, and this was the first where the leader was not pushing an agenda with eyes that can only see a black-and-white world. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, "Some are guilty, all are responsible." I think this principle drives MachsomWatch. 

 

Tamar Orvell

 

 

Hi Daniela and Alix,

I want to say thank you again !

 

It was a great moment in my life ... a day with you [ the tour in the West Bank], for understanding your reality ( the reality of the world ).

 

You are so brave ...

 

Continue ...

 

Valerie 

 

Dear Pitzi,

Here’s an opportunity to thank you publicly. Your work is holy, and you give us, too, hope that something can be done. I was impressed by the calm, matter-of-fact and devoted manner in which you led the tour. Your presence, your commitment – the moral stance and maturity that come from age and from life experience. I look up to you.

 

One of Grimm’s well-known fables, The Frog King, tells of Heinrich, the faithful servant of the young prince, who preserves in his heart the prince’s human aspect until the spell that turned his lord into a frog is broken; until then he binds it with three iron bands to keep it from bursting in pain. When the prince is feed from the spell his joy shatters them.

 

When the tour ended, I thought: You’re preserving our humanity until the country wakes from the spell it’s under.

 

Regarding your comment about young people – I believe that educating the young to behave morally is a political act – and not only here, not only now.

 

With deep respect,

 

Dafna Baryosef

Hello,

 

Yesterday we participated in Machsom Watch’s tour of the Nablus area, led by Dalya. It was wonderfully organized and extremely educational. We were amazed by how much she knew about the area and by the way she presented the material. Only by seeing with your own eyes can you understand how horribly and shamefully the state behaves in our name – behaviour for which we bear considerable responsibility. We want personally to express our gratitude and esteem. We’d also appreciate receiving information about upcoming tours in the Jerusalem area.

 

Keep up the good, important work!

 

Sincerely,

 

Ilana and Erez Bar’on

At first you think you’re travelling through others’ wounds. In “their” villages, surrounded by fences and walls. “Their” roads, on which only you are allowed to drive. “Their” shops, locked or gaping open empty to the street. “Their” old people and children wandering among overflowing, uncovered garbage bins. Checkpoints at which “their” young people crowd, jammed together, on their way to or back from their jobs and destinations. Only later do you realize that the wounds through which you’re travelling are your own.

 

Those are the feelings, and in particular the idea that it’s someone else’s catastrophe, that you get from a “Machsom Watch Tour of the West Bank, 10.2.13.” “Tour” – that’s what they call that trip…

 

I’d always dreamed about the commando units, especially since my obligatory military service (years ago) – the Matkal commando, the Egoz commando; and others as well. I envied the guys who served in them – they were, and still are, the elite. They’d been in Entebbe, in the Beirut airport, in Tunis and also in Tze’elim. And lo and behold – I’m in the “checkpoint commando.” Finally, in the commando. Armed with a camerainfo-icon, surrounded by group of older women… fighters.

 

I recommend taking this trip – also to those who feel, and think and understand things differently. I recommend this tour of the West Bank to those who love people, even if they’re different, and who love the Land of Israel and express their love by trips to the Negev and the Galilee and the Achziv beach and the Carmel. The trip won’t be easy – but the Israel National Trail isn’t an easy route either. It will be challenging – not to your legs, nor to your physique, but to your soul. And to anyone who may still be able to change their mind.

 

One glance at the soldiers (you’re forbidden to photograph their faces) leaves no doubt how they feel. The private security guards “are doing their job.” How intently they’re doing it probably depends on the particular individual and on the relationship between employer and employee. A relationship which demands “doing the job perfectly.”

 

Now, in the evening, when it’s over, you can recall the ideas you had when you began the tour this morning – perhaps they’ve changed. But your feelings must change. You’re no longer indifferent, no longer complacent, no longer comfortable. Now you’re concerned, pained – in one way or another.

 

Shim’on

 

Hello Pitzi and Judith,

 

First of all thank you very much for the fascinating tour in the territories,  I think you are doing a sacred job. 

Unfortunately I was slightly disappointed that even I, who are not young, was among the youngsters who took the tour. My impression is that we are creating (because of the separation wall) a young generation of Palestinians that knows Jews only through their encounters with IDF and the settlers, and on the other hand a whole generation of young people on our side of the wall knows no Palestinians at all. 

Besides knowing the other side, diminishing the fear and creating the possibility of a connection, it is extremely important that the public becomes aware of what's going on behind the wall. I suppose, Pitzi, that as a manager you probably organized tours to Poland. In our attitude to the Holocaust (although vastly different) we are angry with the German public who claimed they knew nothing about the Holocaust. We ask ourselves how is it possible that so many people did not know what was going on, about the extermination machine? The answer is simple, they simply did not want to know. On the other hand (again: vastly different) the wall enables many Israelis to say they know nothing about what's going on in the territories. I believe, as a descendant of a people who suffered persecution while the world stood by, we cannot "not know". Some might claim that the price the Palestinians are paying is justified, but at least they have to hear what they say before passing judgment.

Thank you again for exposing a little of what's happening in our neighboring planet. 

 

Shabbat Shalom.

Ehud Pazy