Seattle PI covers temporary eviction of tour participant
12 November 2004
Seattle PI covers temporary eviction of tour participant
Blood and blame pool on both sides of Mideast debate
Friday, November 12, 2004
By ROBERT L. JAMIESON JR.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
Some say Yasser Arafat was a terrorist whose hands turned red with the blood of innocent Israelis.
Others see him as a crusader who fought to restore dignity to Palestinians crushed by Israeli cruelty.
I’d like to share the perspective of a woman who dropped by Seattle last month. Hidaya Said Najmi is a 38-year-old Muslim Palestinian with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Najmi wanted people here to know what it is like to live in the West Bank town of Jenin. She has seen people gunned down and homes razed by the Israeli government.
“Massive destruction,” she recalled in a visit to the University District. “The smell of death … everywhere.”
Najmi left Seattle after her talk, closing one chapter of bearing witness. Another chapter in her life was about to begin, a story now timely to tell.
Within days of her return to Jenin, Najmi’s family was evicted from their home. She said Israeli soldiers seized their apartment building. Her loved ones, along with other building residents, had five minutes to get out.
When they tried to ask the soldiers why, they got this for an answer — guns in their faces.
Najmi had to think fast about what to grab. Family ID papers. Money. The kids’ books. The soldiers opened fire. The family fled to the safety of a relative’s home.
Najmi thought the soldiers would do what they normally do, either destroy the home of Palestinians they suspect of anything or make a show of force to keep good people cocooned in fear. The solders just stayed at the building, occupied it.
“Is there any law on this planet that gives them that right?” Najmi said in an e-mail to friends in Seattle. “All my things, all my life is there in front of them to do whatever they want. … I have seen what they have done to the houses they left. You can’t imagine.”
Last week, Najmi was allowed to go back to the building. “My apartment, thank God, is the least affected,” she said. “Others are much worse.”
The day before, a Palestinian boy had been shot by the Israelis. His blood was still in the street, and there was talk that four men had been assassinated. “It’s horrible here,” Najmi said. “Nobody is feeling safe.”
Absorbing her fresh words from so far away brings home this wrenching conflict in a powerful way. For people who have never inhaled the scent of death or had soldiers burst through their door or gone through what Najmi calls a “hell of nights,” her story offers a window onto the inhumane.
If such terror can visit Najmi, a champion for peace, then what hope is there for any Palestinian?
Najmi wants to see the day come when the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem ends, when the bullets, bloodshed and bombs stop.
She has partnered with others who share her vision. During her recent U.S. tour, sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Partners for Peace, Najmi traveled with Marianne Albina, a Christian Palestinian, and Gila Svirsky, a Jewish Israeli.
Together, they painted portraits of Palestinian suffering that is every bit as unconscionable as the violence inflicted on Israelis by the Palestinian suicide bombers — only less noticed.
Svirsky, who heads the Coalition of Women for Peace, said polls show strong feelings among Palestinians and Israelis in favor of Israel withdrawing from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She fears that the continuing conflict will exact a terrific toll on her own people. “We’re paying too high a price for the occupation,” Svirsky said, referring to about 1,000 Israelis who have died in the violence. The toll is more than 3,500 Palestinians.
Blood and blame pool on both sides.
Now, Arafat, a hero to so many, is dead. His goals — Palestinian liberation, securing land for his people — were noble, if not his means.
Arafat failed to rein in Palestinian terror attacks, crippling efforts for peace. A Nobel Prize winner, Arafat hoped the 2000 Camp David peace accords would be an answer. Time has shown that the accords failed to stop violence against Palestinians or the violence produced by Palestinians.
The situation remains a volley of human hatred, an intractable cycle of violence and revenge, attack and counterattack.
Ending the mess will prove daunting.
On the frontlines, Najmi is doing her part, using words of peace as weapons in the battle.
P-I columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. can be reached at 206-448-8125 or robertjamieson@seattlepi.com
