I am glad to host this guest post by Hanna Beit Halachmi
I walked up this week into the painful knowledge that nothing has really changed in the Israeli anti-occupation activism in the last 28 years of my involvement. As in the past, now as before, women’s human rights are secondary to the Palestinians rights. As before, it appears that sexual harassment, rape and sexual violence against women are part of the anti-occupation female-activists daily reality, mostly by Palestinians who harass foreign peace activists and Israeli demonstrators in fairly large numbers, according to the Israeli demonstrators’ reports.
In my view, there are two serious issues to attend in this context:
- This horrendous phenomenon was being kept undisclosed from the public, until discovered by the right-wing news paper “Makor Rishon”.
- The semi official approach of the activists was: “We cannot bother ourselves with such marginal issues when our Palestinian brothers and sisters are living under occupation”.
Probably in order to cope with the frequent sexual harassment incidents, the organizers of the demonstrations published a request to all Israeli female-demonstrators to cover themselves while attending the East Jerusalem Sheikh-Jarrah neighborhood weekly activity. The request was signed by a group of men and women who wrote that they are doing this in response to a request conveyed by Palestinian women, who allegedly find themselves avoiding the demonstrations due to the Israeli’s fairly exposed summer-wear – as if having women undersigning a non-feminist and very much gender-discriminating request, would make it “kosher”.
The request stirred up the Israeli blogosphere. Women and men posted furious texts, which was the beginning of revealing the ‘top-secret’ of sexual harassments. That’s how I learned about the American peace activist that was raped and was convinced to withdraw her complaint in order “not to hurt the fight for peace”, and an Israeli activist that was sexually attacked and did the same.
One of the male activists wrote in my Hebrew blog that “more Palestinian women are suffering from the occupation than Israeli activists from sexual harassment and rape”, so it is not in their priority to attend to it more than they already did. The women should handle and prioritize this issue by themselves, he said, and not “run back like chickens to Tel Aviv”. Moreover, he declared his opinion on those women who protested against the sexual harassments, as not being “real feminists”, because “a real feminist”, to his opinion, “would know how to respond and how to prioritize her actions against harassment and against the occupation”. I wouldn’t have mention his answer were it not in the spirit of other organizers’ talkbacks in the web – some, I must say, were written by women.
And there is more to it:
Indymedia, which covers, documents and organizes most of the anarchists’ activities in the occupied territories, offered women a workshop called “coping with sexual harassment while taking part in direct action against occupation“. In their flier, that was off-lined immediately after the publication in “Makor Rishon”, they wrote:
“Women, men and transgenders from Israel are going every weekend to protest with their mates against the occupation and show solidarity with the Palestinians. In this field of solidarity and endangerment, a phenomenon of sexual harassment takes place towards women and transgender activists. In addition to other phenomena of breaking borders and breaching privacy, there is also a rude expression of power-based humiliating oppression, typical to sexual harassment. It reflects, in the field of direct protest against occupation, a reversal of power relations between women occupiers and occupied men transforming to a male controlling and a female being controlled. This phenomena itself may enhance the paralyzing effect that sometimes prevents women from responding. The target of the workshop is to share experiences and provide tools that will enable women to cope actively with sexual harassment connected to protests against the occupation”.
The issues that emerge from this text have nothing to do with the occupation – it has everything to do with the Israeli demonstrators being in some sense the occupiers. With such an approach to women’s human dignity and rights, it seems as if the protesters are part of the social and political system that created and sustains the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The activists’ responses and the workshop’s flier show a clear agenda of occupation, this time genderized-colonialism in its nature, and as disgusting as the occupation they fight against.
The good news is that the outbreak of this information raised a vibrant and deep discussion among Israeli left-wing activists, showing that there are still many men and women who will not accept the attitude reflected in those activists’ words and actions. There is a growing voice supporting a firm action against harassers, full transparency of information on what’s going on in these demonstrations and a full and active support of women demonstrators – by no way priorities with any other anti-occupation agenda.
To summarize it from the point of view of a mother – I will never allow my daughter to go and demonstrate where the alleged ideology of the demonstrators is used against her.
–
The author considers herself a feminist cyber-activist, demonstrating against violations of human rights of all kinds through her keyboard, and in her Hebrew blog.
New guest pogg post: Genderized hidden occupation in anti-occupation protests / Hanna Beit Halachmi http://dubikan.com/pogg/2010/genderized-...
[...] להלן הקישורים לדיונים בנושא ברשת: על נשים וערבים – בבלוג של דובי קננגיסר – "לא שומעים!", וגם באנגלית, נשים בסוף – נעמה כרמי, מבוכת הגבר הלבן – יוסי גורביץ’, הם לא פינלנדים (וגם הפינלנדים לא) – אריה עמיחי, כאן באתר, וגם שם (הבהרות) וגם פמיניזציה בשייך ג’ראח, לבוש הוא זהות – אורן ירמיה, לתת למאבק לשנות אותך – חנן כהן, צדק אדמות מול פמיניזם, ליברליזם מול פלורליזם – עירא אברמוב, שייך ג’ראח, ביקיני, פמיניזם – נדב פרץ, מגדר וחברה בישראל, דיון באתר פעילי שייך ג’ראח, הרשות הפלסטינית מנסה להשתיק פעילה זרה שעברה ניסיון לאונס מצד פעיל פלסטיני נגד גדר ההפרדה, "שטויות מהסוג הזה" כשנעשות עוולות נגד הפלשתינאים – בני ציפר, נילי לנדסמן – אקטיביזם סקסי וממותג, Genderized hidden occupation in anti-occupation protests [...]
As I’ve already said in your Hebrew blog, I don’t think that there needs to be specific response to specific types of crime. Any case of harassment (or worse) should be treated with the full force of law.
Simultaneously, the demonstrations (and other solidarity actions) must continue, because demonstrations and resistance to the steep increase in fascist-style population control in Israel/Palestine are a clear and present danger to everyone who cares about the people and the land there, regardless of gender and ethnicity.
There is no conflict between the two positions. Organizers misbehave? Become an organizer and change things. In my experience (mostly in the 80s, this had changed – or I had – in the 90s), the Israeli male activists were the ones who saw demonstrators as their sexual hunting-ground, and the same threat (“if you go to a demonstration, someone will try and rape you”) was used in order to try and control women’s political expression into channels that did not threaten or discomfit the men in their lives.
That repeated pattern is one that concerns me: is there really so much harassment, or are Arab penises being waved over the heads of the demonstrators as a threat, the way “Leftist Israeli” penises were waved over us in the 80s? One reason I suspect that it is an empty threat of phantom scare-mongering is that I see that trope repeat in various ways in Israeli society. There was the (rather ludicrous) trial of the man who was accused of obtaining sex by deceit when he was deemed to have pretended to be a Jew; there are articles such as Rivka Shimon’s piece in Kipah, that claim that Arab men have some magic potion by which they enchant Jewish women into sex and eventual destruction. And there is the series of accusations that you reflect here.
It feels like a pile-on, and it feels orchestrated (which makes me wonder if it really is orchestrated), or if this is a sudden cultural meme, a fad of accusing Palestinian Arabs of horrific behavior in order to sow division into an organization that is suddenly too effective.
As to the frequency and extent of the harassment, there are (as ever in cases of harassment) conflicting reports. That’s rather typical of the crime. If no Israelis are attacking activists, this is good news, because it means that people can learn (and that a process similar to the one used in Israel merits emulation). If Israeli activists are in fact attacking women demonstrators, there is even more work to be done, and it must be done simultaneously. I will repeat that ALL ATTACKS of whatever kind should be dealt with swiftly & decisively WHILE ACTIVISM CONTINUES.
And if indeed a cultural change is needed, it is a process that must take place in tandem with the work being done in solidarity with Palestinians, though. Because believing in equal rights is – as you said yourself – not something one can do halfway, and the danger being acted against is pervasive.
Dena,
Thanks for all you said here. I’m as well a “survivor” of the 80′s activism, but am probably less dedicated than you, because as soon as I felt sexually-humiliated – I decided to withdraw myself from all circles of outdoor activism. I do not think that the demonstrations in Scheich Jarrach & the occupied territories should continue as long as this issue of sexual harassment is not settled, by having strict code of behavior and response, which is agreed upon by both Palestinians and Israelis – at least half of the women. There is no place for demonstrating for justice, where the basic respect to human rights is absent.
You have no idea how sad I feel when I read you. It supports my view that women in the left activism in Israel are treating women as fresh meet to the male real leaders of the scene. As then – now as well they are being convinced that they lead the demonstrations. I guess we thought so as well at some point. The are being miss led – and it must be stopped.
As for the Scheich Jarrach “dress code” issue – I agree with the following text (in Hebrew): http://is.gd/eaNCP and think that human-rights-wise, their request is unforgivable.
I wish that we could unify ourselves against outside threats, but unfortunately it requires firstly to clean up our group from all this genderized dirt.
Love,
Hanna
Thanks for your response, Hanna!
I think I didn’t come across quite clearly enough: I do not see women as fodder for the male leaders. I see women as equal-opportunity demonstrators & organizers – and I don’t think that any of us have the luxury of waiting until the left is degenderized before we demonstrate. Things have gotten so bad, so quickly, that we have to find other ways of keeping ourselves safe.
You may have seen my response in the (Hebrew) dress-code post.
Thanks, as always, for being able to disagree and still continue the dialog. That is precious (and very rare!)
[...] Genderized hidden occupation in anti-occupation protests / Hanna Beit Halachmi [...]
[...] I think that Israelis are willing to show up in larger numbers complete with their own notions of cultural relativity. The psychological barriers that exist regarding entrance to the West Bank as a civilian are deep [...]
[...] I think that Israelis are willing to show up in larger numbers complete with their own notions of cultural relativity. The psychological barriers that exist regarding entrance to the West Bank as a civilian are deep [...]
[...] Genderized hidden occupation in anti-occupation protests, עוול, עוול תרדוף – כיכר המיואשים [...]