Thanks to you, we reached our goal! When we set out to raise the funds to purchase a new pickup truck for Ezra Nawi, we set the ambitious goal of $15,000 to offset the cost of the truck. However, a used Toyota 4WD actually costs nearly twice that amount! Your enthusiastic response has encouraged us to set the goal of raising an additional $10,000! Help us reach $25,000 by June 26th to ensure that Ezra's solidarity work in the South Hebron Hills can continue.
Help us raise funds to replace Nawi’s Toyota so that he can continue his work in South Hebron
A letter from Kobi Snitz.
As Obama landed in the Tel Aviv airport for his first official visit to Israel last month, a group of Palestinians, joined by a few Israelis and internationals, attempted to remind the President of the movement which made his election possible. Singing civil rights songs, wearing MLK masks and holding up pictures of Rosa Parks, we marched down a central Hebron street where the army strictly enforces a ban on Palestinian foot traffic. Hebron’s Palestinian residents wanted to tell President Obama that they too have a dream.
Not unlike Alabama in the 1950s, the marchers were attacked by soldiers and Jewish settlers within minutes -- three Palestinians, three internationals and two Israelis were arrested. The internationals were deported to Europe the following day; the Palestinians spent the night in jail and were lucky to be released the next day (thanks to the outstanding legal work of their lawyers); and I, together with another Israeli, was released the same evening.
This was a relatively minor event in the larger scheme of things. Yet, looking closely at how we Israelis, the most privileged of the three groups, actually reached home that night, helps expose some of the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of popular resistance in Palestine.
After being held for several hours at the police station, we were released. The police station, however, is located in the heart of the extreme right-wing Jewish settlement in Hebron, there is no public transportation, and the settlers there are certainly not known for their pacifism.
The one person that we can always count on for help in such a situation is Ezra Nawi. Nawi is a tireless campaigner who has been supporting Palestinians resistance to Israeli dispossession for well over a decade. It is no coincidence that he was in the area when he received my call. This time, he was on his way home after having visited farmers in a village south of Hebron, where thanks to his intervention goats that were stolen by settlers had been returned to their Palestinian owners.
Like the Palestinians who have been working with him for years, Israeli and international activists know that when they need to be bailed out, they can count on Ezra. In Hebrew, his name even sounds like "to help."
About an hour after I called, he arrived at the station and drove us in his trademark Toyota pickup truck back north to the freedom of our daily lives in Tel Aviv.
The 8-year-old pickup embodies the story of Palestinian resistance in the south West Bank. In the three years that Ezra has owned it, the car has travelled 270,000 km on rough terrain. It has been vandalized by settlers many times, sustaining rocks and clubs by those who are intent on uprooting the Palestinian people. And yet, it has persisted for years - day in and day out - to literally carry much of the struggle in the south.
Ezra's Toyota has traveled to every Palestinian village and grazing ground south of Bethlehem. It has been used to transport young children who were afraid to walk to school because settlers had attacked them the day before. It has escorted Palestinian shepherds, who had been terrorized by the settler hill youth. And it has carried blankets and warm clothes for scores of Palestinians whose homes had been demolished.
While we are constantly losing ground in South Hebron, thanks to Ezra and the combined efforts of numerous other activists, the residents of Bi'r Al Id have been able to return to their village, shepherds were able to return their flocks to graze in areas from which they have been driven out, and a sustained campaign gaining international support has been waged against the demolition of more villages. Supporters and detractors alike all agree that this change would not have been possible without Ezra Nawi’s activism.
To continue his indispensable work, Ezra depends on being constantly mobile. His 8 year old pickup truck travels about 1000 km every week and is very near the end of its life. Ezra, an openly gay retired plumber of Iraqi descent is an unlikely figure in the Israeli left. This difference underscores his unique level of commitment; he has dedicated his life and his life's savings to political work. Now he needs our support to purchase a better pickup truck.
MORE INFORMATION:
In South Hebron, 'new rule's are rather like 'old rules.' +972 Magazine
VIDEO: Israeli soldier screams at Israeli activists: "You are worse than Arabs!" +972 Magazine