As the center-right government falls apart and settlers escalate their attacks on Palestinians with the help of Israeli soldiers, talking about two streets in the Ramallah district seems like a luxury, almost journalistic suicide: who cares about these trifles? But it is precisely the little things, and getting used to them, that show the success of Israeli-Jewish society in systematically violating international law, with total impunity.
Unidentified workers have completed a road that passes through the territories of El Bireh and Ein Yabrud, north of Ramallah. It is three kilometers long, and mysteriously connects the settlements of Ofra and Beit El. The Israeli Civil Administration in the Palestinian Territories has confirmed that the road is illegal, but has not explained how it was possible to carry out unauthorized works, with bulky machinery. , near its headquarters and in front of two military bases. We can only think that the illegal road was built with the approval of the army, while the Civil Administration turned a blind eye in encouragement, until the Palestinians began to protest.
Large amounts of resources and money; one hand (military) washing the other (civilian); the awareness that no one will be punished: here are the trifles that hide behind this road and the other hundreds built in the same way in the occupied West Bank. They shorten the route between settlements and outposts – all stained with swashbuckling Israeli crime – and between them and Israel. They are plundering of land and space, which we have learned with profit from our British, French, Dutch, Portuguese and other predecessors on continents other than their own.
Stolen time
Israel also excels at stealing time from the natives, as can be seen at the roadblock at the entrance to the village of Aaboud, northwest of Ramallah. The military outpost is accompanied by the slogan: “The mission: victory in every confrontation with the enemy”. It is the same attitude that guided the Israeli commanders and planners of the past: the land of the village was stolen to build the settlements of Beit Aryeh and Ofarim. Later, for the convenience and growth of those settlements, the roads leading from the village to the west were permanently blocked. In May 2022, the army blew up an ancient fifth-century church, the church of Santa Barbara. “We didn’t know it was a church,” the military justified. Ignorance is part of the necessary contempt for the natives.
At the top of the entrance road is a metal barrier painted orange. The nation high-tech knows how to use tools low-tech against the enemy. Concrete blocks, a lock and two armed soldiers are allowed at any time to steal the time of the approximately 2,500 inhabitants. Similar gates have been installed in most, if not all, Palestinian communities. With a single gesture, each village can become a cage. The army claims it is because of the stone throwing. Collective revenge is also punished by international law. But those who give and follow orders know they will not be arrested when they land in Berlin or Rome.
The barrier has been closed for two weeks. People have wasted time, effort and fuel to take another, narrower path. Calculate a thousand people, multiply them by the thirty minutes of time wasted to lengthen the journey: that’s five hundred hours a day. Multiply this figure by twelve days and you will get six thousand hours, which you can devote to your life, rest, study, gardening and family, and which instead vanish.
Wasting Palestinian time is one of Israel’s best-tested weapons, coupled with the engineering redefinition of Palestinian geography: We lock Palestinians in ever-tighter fences from settlements, and increase travel time and distance with roadblocks, road breaks, settlements, fences, military roads and so on.
On the night of June 22, the barrier was opened. On June 26, the soldiers closed it. Without anyone having explicitly told them, they know that one of their strategies to wear down the lives of the elderly, young people, women and children is to steal their time. It is the little things and their normalization that show the success of Israeli-Jewish society in systematically violating international law, with total impunity.
(Translation by Francesco De Lellis)