Tomás uncovers the real Palestine

FIGHTING the effects of tear gas as rubber bullets flew through the air around him is one of Tomás Mac Conmara’s memories of his visit to the West Bank late last year.

The young East Clare historian has conducted a huge amount of research into his own county’s history but said he was pleased to get the chance to visit one of the most contentious areas on earth. 
“I’ve been very interested in Palestine for a good number of years and I’d see parallels between what’s happening there and our own history. I wanted to go there and witness what’s happening.”
He said he had the opportunity to get off the beaten track a little. “I’ve been to a number of talks organised by the Limerick Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign so I’d be aware of various things that are coming up. Going to the West Bank can be done on the basis of going to see the Holy Land but going to see parts of the West Bank that the Israeli authorities don’t want you to see, that opportunity was available to me through this trip.”
Thirty people from various groups around Ireland travelled together. He said it was important to see how the Palestinians are living.
“I just saw it as an opportunity to go over there and see what is happening, to see the checkpoints, to see the barrier walls, to see what is, effectively, apartheid in Palestine today. The itinerary gave an opportunity to do that. If you go on a trip to the Holy Land, you could easily spend a week there but not witness what’s happening. We went to Hebron and we were told not to mention it if we were asked where we were going. We met people, talked to them about their daily experiences and while travelling, we saw the checkpoints and the Israeli soldiers and witnessed the type of oppression that is happening. For example, in Hebron there is a road that is divided by a 3ft barrier that forces Palestinians to walk on one side and Israelis on the other.”
Attending a protest shortly before going home brought him into danger. “We went to a protest on our final day before leaving in a place called Bil’in, which is west of Ramallah. This protest has gone on every Friday since 2005. It’s protesting against the occupation and the construction of a major barrier wall through their village, which is housing a major Jewish settlement. We were told it could be a dangerous demonstration, that Israeli soldiers are constantly there and they often fire. Two people have been killed at the protest over the last few years.”
After arriving, he quickly saw why he had been warned. “We walked a mile or a mile and a half out of the village to where the wall is constructed and as soon as we walked over the crest of the hill, the Israeli soldiers started firing tear gas rockets at us. A lot of the people there had never been at any kind of protest so this was very frightening. There might have been 30 internationals there, including our group. A number of us made our way up to the wall to make a peaceful protest but the firing of the tear gas cannisters continued as did rubber bullets and stun grenades. It got very serious. A rubber bullet bounced off a rock and it hit a young Palestinian man in the side of the head. He was badly hurt but he was ok. A Brazilian woman inhaled too much tear gas and she had to be brought away in an ambulance. It went on for about an hour, with very severe tear gas.”
While they all walked away unscathed, a week later, a 28-year-old man, Mustafa Tamimi, died after being shot with a tear gas canister at a different protest on the West Bank.
Tomás says something else that has stayed with him is the sight of a soldier in his early 20s shouting abuse and pointing a gun at a Palestinian woman in her 80s.
He says injustices are a daily part of life for Palestinians and the absence of equality and fairness are more noticeable than poverty in the region. “I wouldn’t say there is abject poverty, there might be relative poverty in some places but it’s more an issue of freedom of movement and expression. There are constant arrests and constant assassinations. There’s a serious issue of children being arrested by Israeli authorities and there are hundreds of them in Israeli jails who haven’t been tried. It might be that there was an issue of throwing stones at Israeli authorities or a clash with settlers. But there’s plenty of examples in Hebron, where we were, of settlers throwing rocks at Palestinian locals and they are protected in doing so by the Israeli authorities and we saw it ourselves.”
He found that most of the Palestinians he encountered are rather calm about the situation. “One of the most striking features for us was their absolute lack of bitterness, it really struck us when we were discussing it and saying how we would feel. They are very calm about the issue, they understand they are aggrieved. Maybe it’s just their natural disposition, they’re very calm in how they speak about their situation.”
Tomás’ own sympathy for the Palestinian situation was heightened by the visit, he says.
“I’ll remember the appreciation of the Palestinians for us to come over and stand in solidarity with them, I’ll remember their resolve, the struggle they have that continues on a daily basis and my own obligation to try and support them in whatever way I can and to call on other people to support them because it is such a naked injustice,” he concluded.