by KEN HECHTMAN

The flyers say “Visit Sunny Palestine!” but they’re not travel brochures. They’re invitations to hear International Solidarity Movement (ISM) co-founder Neta Golan, an Israeli, and Olive Harvest Campaign co-ordinator George Rishmawi, a Palestinian, speak at McGill this Friday. The ISM have been the “human shields of Palestine” for the last two years. Armed with foreign passports, they deter settler and army attacks by sleeping in refugee camps, riding in ambulances and, for the last month, accompanying Palestinian villagers to their olive groves.

“For the people who could pick their olives, it made a huge difference,” Golan says. “The world hearing about the daily harassment is a great PR success. A Palestinian killed is a statistic, but when settlers beat two older American women with rifle butts, it made the front page of the Herald-Tribune.”

She acknowledges the rising violence against international volunteers. Last month’s dispatches from the olive groves report internationals with broken ribs, broken arms and other injuries. They also report three incidents of soldiers making good on threats to return and kill Palestinians the day after the internationals left their village.

“We always knew the more effective we are, the more they’ll try to deter us, including by violence,” Golan says. But, she maintains, “Israeli soldiers aren’t conditioned to shoot Israelis and internationals, and there’s still interest [when they’re injured].”

Checkpoint challenges

Two human shield contingents are being organized in Montreal, both expected to leave in mid-winter. One grew out of a fact-finding mission to the Occupied Territories in early October. “Bicycle” Bob Silverman, veteran activist and founding member of Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), participated in that trip. He returned to help write a report, attend a press conference and even infiltrated a separate, Canadian Jewish Congress-Combined Jewish Appeal press conference held last month to denounce his mission. (When CJA president Stephen Cummings criticized him for not meeting with Israeli authorities, Silverman jumped up and argued, “We saw ’em every day. They were at all the checkpoints.”)

Most of Silverman’s stories come from the checkpoints between Israel and the Occupied Territories. “There are supposed to be two lines: men and women,” he says. “Sometimes the soldiers make three: men, pretty women and ugly women. If you say anything, they make you stand in the sun until you dehydrate and collapse.” He says that, because pedestrian lines move faster than vehicle lines, the preferred method of crossing is taking a taxi up to the checkpoint, going through on foot and hailing another cab on the other side. This is called “the two-taxi solution.” He also describes what he didn’t see. “There are no searches. There are no ID checks against wanted lists. The checkpoints have nothing to do with security—they’re all about harassment.”

It was a checkpoint incident that inspired Silverman and another eight to 10 PAJU members to return in January 2003 as participants, not observers. On their first day in Israel, he saw a soldier at the Herod’s Gate checkpoint in Jerusalem choking a Palestinian child. “I was 20 feet away. I wanted to intervene—we all did. But we weren’t there to get kicked out of the country on our first day.”

Radical travel

The other effort, associated with the Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation, is a permanent organization to recruit and support ISM volunteers. “It’s a radical travel agency,” says JAAO member Scott Weinstein. “I used to organize trips to El Salvador 10 years ago. This’ll work the same way. We tell volunteers what to expect and what we expect from them.”

Volunteers are expected to publicize their experiences, whether by speaking, writing or being interviewed. “We should have six to eight people here working support, some of them in 24-hour cell phone contact, making sure live reports get out on radio, Internet, etc.,” says Montreal activist Jaggi Singh, who is also working on the campaign, describing the ISM’s proposed high-tech media war room.

Volunteers are also expected to help raise money for travel expenses. “We’re not Birthright Israel, we don’t hand out free plane tickets,” says Weinstein. “Instead, we’ll give workable ideas for fundraising. There’s a lot of money to be tapped. A lot of Jews are telling me, ‘I won’t go to Israel but I would go to Palestine.’ This might be an opportunity for them.”

Golan and Rishmawi will speak Friday, November 15th, at 7 p.m. in the Stewart Biology Building, 1205 Dr. Penfield, room S 1/4. :