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A horizon to cling to
Photo: Keren Natanzon

In the name of humanity

Op-ed: Israelis who drive Palestinian women to Tel Aviv beach are heroines, not criminals

In recent months, a group of Israeli women that includes editor Ilana Hammerman and author Klil Zisapel is undertaking a controversial campaign. They use their vehicles to drive Palestinian women from their villages in the territories to the Tel Aviv beach.

 

These women, who never saw the sea before and whose only contact with Israelis is with armed soldiers at roadblocks, encounter a different life on the Tel Aviv beachfront promenade. After some hours of bathing, observation, and amazement upon seeing the sea for the first time in their lives, they return to their daily routine, which is light years away from their Israeli experience, armed with a joyful memory and a horizon to cling to.

 

Yet the Forum for the Land of Israel heard about it and raised a hue and cry. In an inquiry with Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, the group’s legal representatives presented 10 clauses which the Israeli women violated by driving those considered foreigners and bringing them into Israel. Hammerman was recently questioned by the Israel Police and without playing any games admitted that she knowingly violated the “Entry into Israel Law.”

 

Some will be outraged and say: Hammerman and her colleagues did not drive women, but rather, female terrorists; after all, every Palestinian carries explosive devices in their underwear. Others will say that these bleeding hearts are traitors, enemies of Israel, collaborators and whatnot. Yet in my view, they are heroines.

 

Indeed, they are violating the law and they are the first ones to be aware of it. They openly declare that they are unwilling to recognize the legality of legislation that allows every Jew to freely travel through most of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River yet deprives Palestinians of this right.

 

Not a ticking time bomb

Have we forgotten Abie Nathan, the peace hero who spent time in jail because he engaged in talks with Palestinians and knowingly broke the law? Some years passed and that law appeared to be illogical and incomprehensibly foolish and was annulled. Isn’t it time to re-examine the righteousness of the Entry into Israel Law and shake up bias that has become too entrenched? Do we need to wait for years before we understand this legislation’s needlessness?

 

A woman who never saw waves and sand on the beach is not a ticking time bomb. She’s merely a woman joyful over the sight of a blue sea, which we take for granted. A Palestinian woman from a West Bank refugee camp also deserves once in her life to visit the beach. Making people happy is not a crime; it’s a privilege.

 

Ilana Hammerman and her colleagues have presented to us with the bar for graciousness, limitless giving without any interest, and the assumption of personal risk, as the offences attributed to them carry a two-year jail sentence. These women are a small reminder to the fact that not all of us had become brutal and that the corrupting occupation nonetheless left some humanity in some of us.

 

Hammerman and her colleagues are fans of humanity. They salvage the quality of life of a handful of Palestinian women, and somehow also our own quality of life. One of these days, an olive tree will be planted in their honor rather than being uprooted.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.25.10, 20:55
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