More fearful of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces than of the Israeli army

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Updates during Corona

Observers:

Neta Golan on the phone with Yamoun, Transled by Tal Haran

Apr-13-2020

Morning

Yamon: A rose in the neighbor's yard

Yamun: Za'atar grows in the garden

Had another phone call today from A. of Yamoun. As usual he inquired about my wellbeing, and wished me good health, God willing. I thanked him both on behalf of myself and of my Machsomwatch friends for the photos he sent of his village’s empty streets. He immediately sent some more: a lovely yellow rose from his neighbor’s garden, some thyme plants from his own, and praised the herb qualities. The thyme has been adding taste to their meager menu of flatbread and olive oil.

He and his wife are staying indoors with five of their children. They are especially concerned about their sixth son, who has been staying on his own in Morocco, no family and no money. According to him, curfew in Morocco is stricter than both in Israel and Palestine. To shop for groceries, one has to go out and come back escorted by police. A’ has no farmer permit and he is not too well-versed in the goings-on at the agricultural checkpoints. However he does know the places where the Separation Fence has been cut and one can cross in both directions. He claims that the Palestinians are even more afraid of the PA police than of the Israeli soldiers.

Why do we take the trouble to report in Corona times as well?

Because democracy’s watchdogs have fallen asleep on their own watch, so Israeli citizens have no idea what is actually happening in the Occupied Territories, especially now.

Day and night, Israeli soldiers (as the State’s emissaries) help extreme settler-colonists take the law into their own hands, unhampered. They do not stop even in days of a raging pandemic and do not hesitate to harm Palestinians – their bodies, property, and sources of livelihood.

Unceasing harassment of the weakened Palestinian population inflicts psychological harm as well. All – from babies through and including the elderly and the ill – are open prey to Jewish violence and terrorism which the settler-colonists are only too eager to exert.

We of MachsomWatch will not cease to report, certainly not now during these Corona times and under the threat of annexation, about the settlers’ increased rampages, those who hurry to set facts on the ground helped by the Israeli army.

Israel rules the West Bank, and by force of the Geneva Convention, article no. 27, it is committed to enforcing law and order there. The inhabitants of these Occupied Territories have the legal right “to decent treatment of their body and dignity, and should be especially protected against any act of violence”.

Ironically, this is not at all upheld.

Nor shall we cooperate with the commonplace ignoring of the Palestinian people’s suffering, and with the Israeli public’s indifference to it. We shall continue to follow up closely and report the goings-on in the West Bank, in its villages and encampments.

No one should be able to say ‘We knew nothing, we heard nothing’