August 1st, Adamit
Garfield lives. I have continued working with a reporter and I suggested that he write about the Bedouins of Aramshe. He received approval from his editor and I brought him to meet Latif, the school principal and Ali Muchamid, the head of the local council and we even went to Nawaghir to talk with people there. The people of Nawaghir are very close to the border and since their village is not recognized (unincorporated) they have no shelters. Families there are frightened, receive no information and little assistance. The reporter discovered when talking to people in Aramshe, that they are very loyal to Israel. Their declarations of loyalty and a common destiny with the people of Israel almost sounded like a mantra. Perhaps they feared being reported to the authorities if they were to vocalize any criticism. However the reporter challenged them and asked, “Wouldn't it be nicer for you to live in a Moslem country?” Their answer was immediately negative. They would not want to live in a Moslem country. “Why?” “Because in a Moslem country we can't do the things we do here”. It's true that in most Arab countries freedoms are limited, elections are controlled, higher education is difficult to obtain and there are many other limitations. Women are limited in what they can do, where they can work, how they dress, if they can drive. They said that in Israel they can do anything. They share all the rights and privileges and have no complaints about discrimination. It sounded almost too rosy a picture because there is some discrimination in Israel but everyone we talked to in Aramshe said they would not choose a Moslem country over Israel. The next day we went to Mitzpa, a moshav above Tiberias that has been hit by several missiles. We were there because the reporter had interviewed Michal, a young woman, that was finishing her third year in bio-technology, and her education has been interrupted by the war. A similar story is being filed in Beirut about a student whose academic career has been interrupted. The editor wants a story from each country. The campus is closed, there are no tests and she had no idea when she could continue with her studies. She has to sign up for her final year and now there are financial problems because a missile has damaged her family's house. There was a certain amount of luck. The missile did not hit her house directly but approximately 80 meters away. The missile was a long range Syrian missile full of small pellets. These missiles don't have much of an explosion. Damage is done by hundreds of metal pellets ripping through whatever they encounter. They tore through nearby trees destroying them as if a giant weed whacker had sliced through the branches. The pellets had enough momentum to penetrate the walls, drilling holes through the plaster and the cinder blocks. Michal's room is farther away in a separate building. At a distance of about 120 meters the pellets broke through her window and drilled into the opposite wall. I couldn't help but remember cartoons where the hero falls down a cliff and walks away without a scratch or an anvil falls on his head, but our hero continues his mission with just a bump. In the corner of Michal's room was a Garfield doll, unscathed and smiling cynically, while around him the wall and her closets, were pockmarked by the pellets. Light reflected from one pellet that had entered the wooden door so deeply that it could not be removed. These missiles are dangerous weapons that used against infantry could easily prevent a hundred soldiers from advancing. In this case it had been used against civilians just like all of Hizballah's attacks. I have been reading the news and it seems to me that it is considered wrong to aim at civilians. Israel has apologized when she has hurt civilians. Why aren't reporters asking Hizballah to apologize? The Middle East is full of double standards. Fortunately only Michal's mother had been resting at home and escaped injury but she is still traumatized. She works as a nurse and any siren or loud bang scares her till she is trebling. Only time will heal her. Even an apology will not help. I headed home from Mitzpa through the Golani Junction. I chose a southerly route that took me by the Arab city of Shfaram. I was in my car and my journalist compatriot was in his car on his way to Haifa when I called him to point out a small demonstration. Three demonstrators with placards written in Hebrew were demonstrating against the loss of civilian lives in the Lebanese village of Cana. I soon made a right turn taking me north and I passed the western entrance to Shfaram. There was a larger demonstration of about twenty people with red flags of the Communist party and more placards. People were unusually quiet and accepting. I was at a red light and I could see both Jewish and Arab drivers reading the signs but there were no outbursts. I would have expected some shouting by people objecting to the demonstration and angry that it was taking place while Israelis were sitting in shelters for twenty days. There could have been people honking their horns, which is customary when drivers agree with demonstrators. People were quiet. I think that Israelis know that a terrible mistake took place and feel badly that our attack took innocent lives. Arab Israelis from the Communist party wanted to demonstrate but did not want to aggravate. At first I was shocked that anyone would demonstrate while the army is fighting. “How could they demonstrate when Katusha rockets are landing in their vicinity”, I thought. Then came the revelation. The quality of Israel's democracy enables Arab Israelis to demonstrate. Citizens can demonstrate and people can read the demonstrators' signs and continue on their way while northern residents fear for their lives in shelters. They acknowledge that Israeli citizens have freedom of speech. Show me a similar country in Middle East, please!
Dan Kohn, Adamit