Mock checkpoint proves people don’t like to live under military occupation. Hmmm...

On Wednesday May 13th, 2009 a group of Evergreen students engaged in a street theater production that simulated an Israeli Defense Force (henceforth called the Israeli Occupation Force, or IOF) check point in Red Square. The demonstration was an attempt to raise awareness about the daily harassment that Palestinians are subjected to living under the Israeli government.

The simulation consisted of two boards painted to look like the security (read: apartheid) walls constructed on Palestinian land and three people dressed as IOF soldiers carrying plastic guns with bright orange caps. The mock-soldiers asked passing students for their ID and to reveal the contents of their backpacks. They did not enforce their demands if students were unwilling to comply.

Tessa Wyllie-de Echeverria, one of the organizers of the event, stated that the street theater performance was, “a great way to show people a glimpse of reality that they’re too busy with their daily lives to go out and research.”

Many members of the Evergreen community took offense to the performance. It was considered disturbing by some community members who complained both directly and indirectly to the demonstrators. A few students who were not consenting performers felt threatened. This reporter was unable to find any evidence of direct threats being made.

Hal R. Van Gilder, the Project Manager for Facilities Services at Evergreen, sent an email to Art Costantino stating, “No one and I mean NO One [sic] will be allowed to point a gun at me and threaten me in my work place. I believe that this is assault with a deadly weapon and brandishing a weapon for intimidation.” Later on in the correspondence he called the demonstration a “little deadly weapon assault.” In a reply to that correspondence, John A. Hurley, Vice President for Finance and Administration stated, “[n]o employee or student or community member should experience this level of harassment.”

Another member of the Evergreen community, Frank Fatseas, approached the demonstrators asking how they would react if he were to stage a mock beheading “like the Islamo-fascists do on CNN.” He went on to say, “I bet you’d call me a racist if we did that next week.” The reference he was making was not entirely clear, but there are no instances of Palestinians beheading anyone that have been shown on CNN.
Fatseas appeared to be comfortable linking an isolated terrorist act with the entirety of Palestinian people and felt it to be proportionate to use such an act to represent all, one can assume, Muslims/Arabs/Middle Easterners. An isolated incident of a beheading (It is unclear as to whose beheading is being referenced. Perhaps Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife?) and the daily reality of living under apartheid are two completely disproportionate things. Apparently, the crime of one Muslim/Arab/Middle Easterner/ North African/ South Asian is a burden to all members of the aforementioned groups and somehow has the power to dismiss the suffering of Palestinians.

With this level of outcry towards a demonstration in which no one was physically harmed, one would assume that those who expressed concerns would be extremely enraged to hear that this type of harassment is a daily reality for Palestinians. The ability to contact authorities and arrest a group of people who they felt were violating their rights is a privilege that Palestinians do not have. Those living under the occupation do not have the privilege of state authorities backing them when their human rights are violated, nor do they have a responsive organization to report the atrocities committed against them.

Wyllie de Echeverria said “[w]e heard many complaints that being dressed as authority figures gave mixed messages to people, but one of the points we were trying to make is that the authority figures in Israel are the ones who are abusing their power.”
B’Tselem, a group that aims to educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the occupied territories, reports that, “Israel’s policy is based on the assumption that every single Palestinian is a security threat, thereby justifying restrictions on his or her freedom of movement. This assumption is racist and leads to the sweeping violation of the human rights of an entire population on the basis of national origin. As such, the policy flagrantly violates international law.” In spite of the policies violating international law, the harassment and violence persists.

The actual walls in Palestine are roughly 8 meters high, topped off with razor wire, and surrounded by “buffer zones.” The buffer zones can be anywhere from 30 to 100 meters wide with electric fences, trenches, cameras, sensors, and military patrol. The buffer zone gives occupation forces an excuse to expel many residents living near the wall from their homes, as well as uprooting hundreds of olive trees. The occupation demolished at least 165 houses in 2007 in addition to the destruction of dozens of businesses. Ultra conservative Israeli MP’s recently protested a proposal to ease, not remove, the restrictions on Palestinians trying to get through the checkpoints at a checkpoint near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

It is frequently the case that the wall is erected just meters away from homes, shops, and schools. Passing through checkpoints in Palestine is a part of daily life; a Palestinian may have to pass through a checkpoint to get to work, visit a loved one, or even go to a hospital. Palestinians have been humiliated, detained, beaten and even shot at while attempting to cross through these checkpoints.
In the end, the performance broke people out of their daily routine and, despite their political stance, made the occupation in Palestine part of their discourse on campus.