Life under Israeli occupation

November 24, 1993
Issue 

By Vivienne Porzsolt

Ha'fa Baramki, director of continuing education at Bir Zeit University on the West Bank, was in Sydney recently and spoke to Green Left Weekly of her experiences of the Israeli occupation.

At the beginning of the occupation, she said, the behaviour of the soldiers "was more civilised. But as the occupation drags on and those who were born after 1967 came as 19- and 20-year-olds, their behaviour was not at all civilised. It reminded me of the way the first Australians, when they came here, were treating the Aboriginals. Because they were not considered human beings.

"Three years ago, an Israeli soldier came to my house, kicking on the door with his boots. When I refused to open up, he pushed the door.

"I asked him, 'What do you want? And if you want anything, please stay there and you talk to me and I will answer.' Then he pulled me from the door and started beating me. I'm not a terrorist and was not armed. I was trying to talk to him, but to no avail.

"That's why I say I don't think he saw any human being in me. He was seeing somebody else, somebody he was taught, maybe indoctrinated to see. He was old as my children, this young soldier, and I am sure he did not see anything wrong with his behaviour.

"This is really what is so sad about the occupation. Beating children and women is not normal."

At the time of the signing of the peace accord, Baramki experienced an incident which gave her hope for the future.

"We were walking down town to the see all the celebrations of the peace accord. We were walking in front of the police station, where we would normally be afraid to go, especially at night.

"Especially young people, for no reason, might be stopped and then be harassed and asked for their IDs or whatever. It might be soldiers who are bored and want to occupy their time.

"There in front of me was a group of three of four youngsters maybe 11 or 12 years old and about three or four soldiers, and for once the soldiers did not have a hand on them, and they were sort of chatting.

"And I said, 'My God, look at that!' It was really stunning — just to see that these are enemies and here they are talking and it gave me hope, in spite of everything. I said this is maybe the beginning of something."

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