Jeremy Corbyn
Behind prison walls
JEREMY CORBYN reports from Palestine on crisis and occupation.
THE road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is short. Travelling its route ought to be an experience saturated in the magnificent history of the places revered by faiths all over the world.
Instead, it is dominated by a huge checkpoint and a massive wall. Travellers queue for long periods and are questioned aggressively. If they are admitted into Bethlehem, they then leave the security compound under a huge hoarding from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism wishing them a safe and peaceful onward journey.
Once on the other side of the wall, visitors are greeted by a scene of poorly maintained roads and rubbish and face endless negotiations with taxi drivers to find out who has a permit for which route through further checkpoints.
The looming, pervasive presence of the wall, with its ominous grey concrete and watchtowers, dominates everywhere and everything. It keeps a town and its population under siege while the world watches and listens to Israeli blather on about its "security."
Last Saturday was the Orthodox Christmas and, while the Patriach and his party were allowed to drive on a military road through the wall, the other parties of bands and supporters were all searched and delayed before arriving in Manger Square for the festivities.
The same happened to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams when they made a similar pilgrimage just before Christmas.
'The looming, pervasive presence of the wall, with its ominous grey concrete and watchtowers, dominates everything.'
All around Bethlehem, the wall is growing even more. The arrival of the Israeli army - euphemistically called the Israeli Defence Force - is the usual prelude to yet more enclosure. It demarks a route, cuts down olive trees and clears the area to make way for yet more foundations for this vast undertaking.
All in all, the length of Israel's wall now equals the distance from London to Switzerland.
There is always a purpose behind the location of each wall - to take good land and olive groves, to gain access to an abundant aquifer or to locate yet another red-roofed Israeli settlement. All of the "settlements" are linked by settler roads for the exclusive use of them and the military.
The Open Bethlehem Campaign is doing a great job in trying to attract visitors to the city and explaining to them the damage that the wall is doing physically and environmentally, as well as the current economic disaster and soaring unemployment.
It also highlights the psychological price of the siege. Any youth growing up in a world of checkpoints, walls, unemployment and encirclement would be damaged, as are their prospects and hopes for the future.
Bethlehem is not alone in receiving this treatment.
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is as historic a route as anyone could wish to travel. The old road has now been replaced by a super highway. On each side sits a mass of new settlements and exclusive roads, disfiguring the hills inhabited by Bedouin families since before Christ was born.
They and their goats and sheep have been driven away by the madness of Israel's expansion and settlement policy. The only road map visible here is the one planning the roads destroying lives and livelihoods.
Jericho, now an enclave, is a beautiful old city with real verve and a determination to develop a life for Palestinian people. Israeli settlers live within sight of the city after another land grab. They grow crops under plastic for export illegally labelled as "produce of Israel."
The nearby Dead Sea, a magnificent and unique stretch of salt sea and the lowest point on the globe, is disappearing fast. It fell several metres last year alone, as the waters of the Jordan and its tributaries are diverted into irrigation and dams further upstream.
Trying to return to Jerusalem from Jericho in the evening is an experience. The buses do not run because of road blocks and checkpoints and taxis charge more for the endless waits at the hands of the Israeli army.
Stuck in a queue in the pouring rain near Abu Dis, just east of Jerusalem, I was struck by the miserable conditions faced by most of the people and the extraordinary friendship offered to us.
Coffee and nuts were offered and there was genuine concern for the safety of the visitors in their midst.
It provided an almost unbelievable contrast to the harshness of the vast high-tech checkpoint, with its abusive guards and commands screeched through loud speakers at Palestinians merely wishing to travel to Jerusalem.
The dishonesty of Israel in its whole approach is breathtaking. Despite signing up to George W Bush's fabled "road map," it is building more settlements, isolating east Jerusalem from Palestine, systematically depopulating it and aggressively settling even in the Old City itself, while its tourist brochures cynically talk about the city's "liberation" in 1967.
Ramallah, the home of Palestine's government, is a few minutes away. But the journey can take hours depending on the mood of the guards or is simply unattainable depending on the status of the Palestinian traveller.
The vast wall at its edge is covered in graffiti and the blotches left by paint bombs on the Palestinian side. It is surrounded by rotting rubbish and the city itself is full of uncollected garbage due to the non-payment of all public employees for nearly a year.
Israel has played a scandalous role in not passing on Palestine's rightful customs revenue. The decision by the EU and US to withhold all direct aid to the Palestinian National Authority because of the results of the election showed how much the West really respects democratic principles.
If their calculation was that this act would promote peace and dialogue, they could not have been more wrong.
Some fighting has already occurred between Fatah members loyal to President Abbas and Hamas members loyal to the parliamentary majority. In the meantime, Israel is continuing to mount operations that result in death and destruction, even into Ramallah itself.
'Ramallah is a few minutes away. But the journey can take hours depending on the mood of the guards.'
On Sunday, I took part in a journalists' demonstration together with the Palestininian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti. The journalists were mourning the death of one of their colleagues, Fadi Arouri, who, together with three others, was gunned down by Israeli troops near Ramallah's Central Square. We also called for the release of a Peruvian photographer who had been kidnapped in Gaza. Thankfully, he has since been released.
Not surprisingly, the stock and trust in the West by most Palestinians is at its lowest ever.
Israel invaded Lebanon in July and it took a whole six weeks, 1,500 deaths and a million people to be uprooted before the US and Britain could seriously call for a ceasefire.
The endless proposals for a long-term peace via the road map are greeted with a hollow laugh by Palestinians. They point out that, despite the much-publicised withdrawal from Gaza, the attacks and assassinations go on, that settlements and new roads are still being constructed and that the travel restrictions and wall-building continue.
The jailing of Palestinian parliamentarians by the occupier shows as little respect for democracy as do the decisions of the West to withhold funds as punishment for voting for the "wrong" people.
If the West was serious in supporting the rights of the Palestinian people, the EU-Israel trade agreement would be suspended immediately for breaches of its human rights clauses and the money owed to the people of Palestine would be restored.
On Monday, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem Riah Abu El-Assal spoke eloquently in the House of Commons of the historic injustices towards Palestine and the effect on its people, but, above all, the effect on the whole region.
There can be no peace anywhere in the region without justice for Palestine.
• Jeremy Corbyn is Labour MP for Islington North. He can be contacted at corbynj@parliament.uk
