by Maya Pollak
The first of three installments. An interview with Bassam Eid, who tells of his life as a small boy in Jerusalem before the Six Day War and his experiences as a human rights activist covering the Arab-Israeli conflict. He speaks without distorting the truth about either side and is dedicated to the truth no less than he is to his people.
Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav
You might think that the things that Bassam Eid says would
force him to go underground, or at least would make him constantly glance over his shoulder – but in reality, he seems relaxed as he emerges from the light
rail into the center of chilly Jerusalem. Over a cup of espresso in the café
where we agreed to meet, he immediately begins with an attack, without any
unnecessary preliminary remarks. “I think that if
we prosecute Israel in The Hague for war crimes, we must also prosecute Hamas
for war crimes against its own people”, says Eid. “Hamas served up the
residents of Gaza on a silver platter for Israeli attack during Operation
Protective Edge. They tried harder to defend themselves than to defend the
population. And launching rockets into Israel – was done for the purpose of killing
citizens, I have no doubt”.
The opinions of Eid, political commentator and human
rights activist, are based on methodical research of Palestinians for years,
including during the most recent fighting in Gaza. The evidence that he
brings takes on a special significance since they are coming from a Palestinian.
“During the military operation, I made contact with several families
from the area of Bayt Lahiyah. I heard from them that the IDF sent them SMS
messages telling them to leave their houses, but the Hamas people prevented
them from leaving and called them collaborators. As if to respond to the
Israeli soldiers’ call to leave means that you are a collaborator. Hamas preferred that these people
remain in their houses and be killed rather than flee to other places. This is
terrible in my eyes.
“A friend of mine from the Gaza Strip sells me that four
Hamas people came to him at 12 o’clock at night with a huge missile launcher,
knocked on the door and asked him to leave the house because they wanted to use
the roof to launch missiles into Israel. He told them that the children and
women in the house were sleeping, and could not be turned out at such an hour.
The next night the Hamas people returned, more of them this time, and beat him
severely until he was forced to send everyone out of the house. They went up to the roof, launched missiles, and the next day the house was destroyed by the IDF. Armed groups are
supposed to defend their people with their missiles and weapons, but Hamas
defends its weapons using the citizens. And UNRWA closes its eyes to the deeds
of Hamas, which hides missiles in the organization’s institutions”.
What is UNRWA’s angle?
“I think that UNRWA’s activism and hatred are a result of
the rise of antisemitism in the world. As long as there is antisemitism,
especially in Europe, UNRWA gains power as well as money. The rise of antisemitism in the world is no less dangerous than IS”.
Eid called
himself “the spokesman of innocent victims” in an interview for the program “London and Kirshenbaum” on Channel 10,
during Operation Protective Edge. Meanwhile, the number of those killed in the name of
Islam has grown, in our area as well as outside of our area, as happened in
France at the end of last week. “I expected an attack against Europe”, says Eid
on the series of terror attacks that began with the slaughter of the editorial board at Charlie Hebdo. “For decades, Europe has supported the Arab dictatorships that
created this terror. The Europeans will have to do some soul searching, both
inwardly and with relation to those people
who were oppressed with their monetary support”.
Will this event open the Europeans’ eyes or will nothing
change?
“What happened at the editorial board in the newspaper in Paris is simply beyond
comprehension, but unfortunately the Europeans will suffer an even longer and
more terrible wave of terror. Europe is in the center of the radical Islamist
organizations’ fight, and I am not sure that it will be able to deal
appropriately with the predictable terror attacks”.
Did the publication of the caricature really insult the
Muslims that much?
“It doesn’t seem to me that this was the real reason for the
attack. I think that the Islamist terror organizations are trying to find
reasons to justify their existence, and the caricature is simply an excuse”.
The future in exchange for rumors
Bassam Eid is a very angry man. He is angry with UNRWA, with Hamas, with the
Palestinian Authority, with Israeli Arabs. It is a little bit difficult to contain the entire man with his opinions,
especially when they are expressed calmly, in a pleasant Jerusalem café. One
must make an effort to bear in mind that the speaker is a Muslim
Palestinian who himself grew up in a refugee camp, someone that we would expect
to express totally opposite opinions. But Eid is an anthropologist with a
social platform who sees the Palestinian narrative as a chronicle of frequent
and recurring errors. In the past he served as a researcher for Betselem, but
today he does not identify with the organization. He is a consistent spokesman
against acts that the Palestinian Authority
carries out on its residents and on Israelis that violate human rights. His unconventional opinions have made him a popular interviewee in Israeli media, including the Haredi
channels, and a favored guest lecturer in universities and conferences in
Israel and abroad.
He is 56 years of age, the father of eight and grandfather
of eight; everyone lives with him in the Bayt-Hanina neighborhood in north
Jerusalem. In his childhood, his family lived in the area of the ruins of the
Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. They were nine children and he is the fourth. In 1966
the Jordanian government established the Shuafat Refugee Camp in north
Jerusalem, next to the place where the French Hill neighborhood was later
established. Five hundred Arab families that lived in the old city were evacuated to the
new camp, including Eid’s family.
“My father did not hesitate to relocate because they said
that UNRWA would give the families two-bedroom apartments and land for free”,
he says. "The Jordanian soldiers even arranged to move all of our things. Father
worked as a tailor in the old city, and he continued to go to his store in the
Jewish Quarter even after we moved to Shuafat.
“Even today I still can’t get an explanation, from either
Israeli or Arab experts as to why the Jordanian regime decided to relocate the
families from the Jewish Quarter. I know that the houses in the Quarter were
Jewish property and the Jews actually were returning to their homes. In the
place where our house stood there is a haredi kindergarten today. In
contrast, the Palestinians are always missing opportunities by moving to some place and not remaining in their place. In 1948 the
Palestinians abandoned their houses because of rumors that the Jews were going
to kill them, which was not at all true. We miss out on our future because of
rumors".
The Shuafat of his childhood, he says, was different from
that of today. “There was no crowding, the UNRWA people did many more
positive activities then, and they would supply food to the residents for the
entire year”. Eid was only nine when the Six Day War broke out. “On the
very day that the war broke out I traveled from the camp to visit my aunt in the
old city. Suddenly the war broke out and I stayed in the house for six days
without going out. From time to time I heard shooting, for the first time in my
life. I asked my aunt what it was, who was shooting whom, and she said that the
Arabs were going to kill the Jews. I asked ‘what are Jews’, because I had never
heard this word before, and my aunt answered that the Jews are man-eaters. I
became even more afraid, and I asked if they would be coming to eat us.
“When the war was over my aunt sent me to bring food
supplies, and then I saw for the first time in my life, soldiers with helmets.
They spoke excellent Arabic. I went on foot from my aunt’s house to Shuafat,
and on the way I saw dead bodies, apparently, mostly Jordanian soldiers. It was
very frightening, shocking”.
Part 2: Life under Israeli rule and an invitation to join Betselem
Maya Pollak
Source:Makor Rishon, Issue 910 of the Diokan Section
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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