For Israeli national and Anarchists Against the Wall activist Ronnie Barkan, 32, joining the nonviolent Palestinian struggle against the occupation is the obvious choice of humanity over nationalism. He describes his experiences of peaceful demonstrations that have turned ugly, and how Israelis and Palestinians are standing side by side to fight oppression
theguardianweekly
Friday May 15th 2009
Ronnie Barkan, standing in front of a protest poster featuring Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahma. Photograph: Karl Schembri
A lot of my friends tell me it’s dangerous to come to the West Bank, and that the vast majority of Israelis are brainwashed and think all Palestinians are terrorists. I keep responding that it is dangerous because there are Israeli soldiers here. When I cross over into the West Bank – and sometimes I come here on my scooter, so I’m totally exposed – the only people I’m afraid of are the Israeli soldiers, who are armed and dangerous. Very dangerous actually.
My friends don’t believe me when I say this, but when such a horrible incident like 31-year-old Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahma’s death here in Bil’in [on 17 April], or when my good American friend Tristan Anderson was critically injured; when you show them video footage of all this, some still try to deny it and come up with all kinds of excuses, but some people are genuinely shocked by what they see.
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