Letters About Tours

Dear Machsom Watch women,

Yesterday we participated in a tour led by Anat Shafir. It was both instructive and depressing.

We want to express our great appreciation to Anat. She did an excellent job – her explanations were fluent, to the point, comprehensive and thorough. She handled the participants in an exemplary manner. We wish particularly to mention the effective way she dealt with the soldiers at the Huwwara checkpoint – assertively, but with consideration.

To her, and all of you, we say: Well done!

We’ll be happy to receive more information, to participate in, tell friends about and help your just, appropriate and moving struggle.

Thank you,

Sara Kanol

Alex Shutzman

At first you think you’re travelling through others’ wounds. In “their” villages, surrounded by fences and walls. “Their” roads, on which only you are allowed to drive. “Their” shops, locked or gaping open empty to the street. “Their” old people and children wandering among overflowing, uncovered garbage bins. Checkpoints at which “their” young people crowd, jammed together, on their way to or back from their jobs and destinations. Only later do you realize that the wounds through which you’re travelling are your own.

Those are the feelings, and in particular the idea that it’s someone else’s catastrophe, that you get from a “Machsom Watch Tour of the West Bank, 10.2.13.” “Tour” – that’s what they call that trip…

I’d always dreamed about the commando units, especially since my obligatory military service (years ago) – the Matkal commando, the Egoz commando; and others as well. I envied the guys who served in them – they were, and still are, the elite. They’d been in Entebbe, in the Beirut airport, in Tunis and also in Tze’elim. And lo and behold – I’m in the “checkpoint commando.” Finally, in the commando. Armed with a camera, surrounded by group of older women… fighters.

I recommend taking this trip – also to those who feel, and think and understand things differently. I recommend this tour of the West Bank to those who love people, even if they’re different, and who love the Land of Israel and express their love by trips to the Negev and the Galilee and the Achziv beach and the Carmel. The trip won’t be easy – but the Israel National Trail isn’t an easy route either. It will be challenging – not to your legs, nor to your physique, but to your soul. And to anyone who may still be able to change their mind.

One glance at the soldiers (you’re forbidden to photograph their faces) leaves no doubt how they feel. The private security guards “are doing their job.” How intently they’re doing it probably depends on the particular individual and on the relationship between employer and employee. A relationship which demands “doing the job perfectly.”

Now, in the evening, when it’s over, you can recall the ideas you had when you began the tour this morning – perhaps they’ve changed. But your feelings must change. You’re no longer indifferent, no longer complacent, no longer comfortable. Now you’re concerned, pained – in one way or another.

Shim’on

Hello,

Yesterday we participated in Machsom Watch’s tour of the Nablus area, led by Dalya. It was wonderfully organized and extremely educational. We were amazed by how much she knew about the area and by the way she presented the material. Only by seeing with your own eyes can you understand how horribly and shamefully the state behaves in our name – behaviour for which we bear considerable responsibility. We want personally to express our gratitude and esteem. We’d also appreciate receiving information about upcoming tours in the Jerusalem area.

Keep up the good, important work!

Sincerely,

Ilana and Erez Bar’on

Hello,

Last Saturday (11.5.13) we toured the West Bank with Pitzi and Nurit.

I can’t find words to thank you for your initiative and guidance.

There’s a reason for the expression, “You have to see for yourself.” You really do have to see for yourself, and in this case you have to look right at the reality we live in, which we usually prefer not to see, prefer to believe there’s no choice.

Thank you for the tour’s stimulating lesson.

Sincerely,

Rachel Lavie

Dear Pitzi,

Here’s an opportunity to thank you publicly. Your work is holy, and you give us, too, hope that something can be done. I was impressed by the calm, matter-of-fact and devoted manner in which you led the tour. Your presence, your commitment – the moral stance and maturity that come from age and from life experience. I look up to you.

One of Grimm’s well-known fables, The Frog King, tells of Heinrich, the faithful servant of the young prince, who preserves in his heart the prince’s human aspect until the spell that turned his lord into a frog is broken; until then he binds it with three iron bands to keep it from bursting in pain. When the prince is feed from the spell his joy shatters them.

When the tour ended, I thought: You’re preserving our humanity until the country wakes from the spell it’s under.

Regarding your comment about young people – I believe that educating the young to behave morally is a political act – and not only here, not only now.

With deep respect,

Dafna Baryosef