Unfortunately because our first tour and lunch took so long, we were nearly an hour late to meet our second tour guide. He was a 6th generation jewish jerusalemite who had worked in the military for many years including anti-terror intelligence. While we talked we had a great view overlooking many sections of jeruslem, but unfortunately we never moved, it was mainly a question and answer with him. Here are some of the photos from our perch.
He began by showing us a layout of the different neigborhoods around jerusalem and specifically the areas of east jerusalem, which formerly was a part of jordan before the 1967 war, and what neighborhoods, both jewish and palestinian, had been built since that time. Much of east jerusalem is palestinian, and he said that most of the areas shown in the photos above are palestinian.
Of course, the term palestinian is tough to use. As he explained, there are 3 clasifcations of arabs in the area. The first is arab-israeli. These are palestinians who stayed after both the 1948 war for israeli independence as well as the 1967 war and are israeli citizens who pay tax to the israeli government and have the right to vote. The next classification is a jerusalemite palestinian. This group lives in east jerusalem but chooses not to become israeli citizens. They still pay tax and receive all the same services as israeli's, however they do not have the right to vote in the kenesa, the israeli parliment, but they can vote in municipal elections. The last clasification is a palestinian, who, which not having palestinian citizenship because it is not yet a state, is governed and pay taxes to the palestinian authority government.
Most of the villages in east jerusalem are jerusalemite palestinians. There are also two villages further east of them which are israeli villages. Even further east still is the anti-terror wall, which I'll get to in a second. But I asked him why the wall wasn't carved out more carefully to include the jerusalemite palestinians in the east with the other palestinian villages. He said that the jeruselemite palestinians would have petitioned the israeli high court to stay within the wall because they want the services that the israli government provides for them.
Our guide spent awhile talking about the anti-terror defense wall. He repeatedly described it with a set of the same points:
-it is there to fight terror, it is not a political boundry
-it is temporary and would be taken down when an agreement was reached
-it is not electrocuted
-it has prevented many many terrorist attack (I can't remember the actual numbers, but he used specific numbers very often.)
He brought out a map of all of israel and the west bank and described the terror attacks that israelis faced durring the second intifada (I believe beginning in the 1999). since then there were over 300 suicide bombing attacks, he mentioned that one of which even occured in the malha mall. Malha is the area that we all live in at MEET, and I've already been to the malha mall to do shopping. although there was a heavy security precence as well and metal detectors when you entered, it still makes you think.
He descibed all of the different areas and cities in the region, including the west bank. He didn't describe much about the gaza strip because gaza has been surrounded by a fence as party of the oslo agreement that the palestinians at the time were in favor of. As a result not many suicide attacks have come from that area. The average suicide attack kill 4.5 people, and since the second intifada began, I believe he said that 1100 people were killed, about 600 of them civiilians, while another 9000 were injured. He also gave us facts about the profile of a suicide attacker. they generally are males, 18-37, and many were from the northern regions, specifically jenin, which is known as the home of suicide bombers. He said that the majority were well educated, 40%. I realize this statement is contradictory, and I don't know what to make of it, but that's what he said. (I should talk a little bit about his delivery. While the palestinians tended be talk with passion, he delivered this in a very straighforward manner. He talked a lot about numbers, about death numbers and terrorist attacks being prevented. He probably could have talked pationately in the same way the palestinians did families being effected by terrorist attacks, but that was not the route he chose. Perhaps it was from his military background to not be as emotional, or perhaps it was done on purpose, I don't know.)
He also described for a long time about why the anti-terror wall was needed. What often isn't understood in the west, and something that I didn't understand, is how small the area is that we're talking about. 75% of israels population lives on the coast, but even still most of the northern areas are within 10 miles of the west bank border, including tel-aviv, haifa, and other major coastal cities. As a result, with a long unchecked boarder a palestinian could be a 15 minute drive from any of these cities. He claimed that with the checkpoints in the west bank as well as the the wall, this prevented many terrorist to be able to move quickly and easily into israeli territory.
Unfortunately after about an hour he had to wrap things up because of how late we had been to our meeting. One of the final questions that he was asked was by one of our directors Tali. She asked if the price the palestinians paid was worth the security that israelis were allowed. He said that he really wished palestinians could have a good life, that he really did, but unfortunatley he had to protect his family and do what was best for them. He didn't really answer the question, it was a very tough one to answer in the 30 seconds he was given. He just reiterated how tough it was for him every time one of his daughters wanted to go out to a cafe or a mall, and that he wanted to protect his family.
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