Fateful Triangle

The Palestinian Uprising831young children who approached us, surely assuming we were Israelis,chanting the common slogan “PLO, Israel No.” In the streets we foundsigns of recent demonstrations: metal remnants of the firing of “rubberbullets,” a tear gas canister made by Federal Laboratories in Saltsburg,Pennsylvania, with the warning, still legible, that it is for use only by“trained personnel” and that fire, death, or injury may result fromimproper use, a common occurrence. While we were being interrogated,a man who looked perhaps 90 years old hobbled out of a doorway withhis hands outstretched, pleading that he was hungry. He wasunceremoniously ordered back indoors. No one else was to be seen. Thesoldiers were primarily concerned that we might be journalists, andexpelled us from the camp without incident.Most of the participants in an international academic conference Iwas attending in Israel joined a demonstration at the Dahariya prisonnear Hebron, organized by several of the peace groups, mostly new, thathave sprung up in the past several months. These represent the mosthopeful development within Israel, and American support for them couldmake a real difference. * Unlike Peace Now, which remains unwilling toseparate itself clearly from Labor Party rejectionism, they are forthrightin calling for an end to the occupation, and committed to find ways toprotest it. Approach to the prison and the nearby village was blocked bytroops, but women and children, later men as well, gathered on hillsseveral hundred yards away and began to call back and forth with thedemonstrators. A few children drifted towards us, followed by manyothers and finally adults as well. At the end, a man from the village took*In retrospect, writing in 1999, one can only say that American support mighthave made a real difference. Support was slight, and internal resources did notsuffice to sustain them in a society that relies very heavily on what takes placein the U.S.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky