For this issue of the ISM Newsletter, our team talked with Edmond Sichrovsky, an Austrian ISM volunteer of Jewish origin who was forcibly deported from occupied Palestine after six hours of searching, interrogation and harassment at the Ben Gurion airport in October 2019. During his time in occupied Palestine, he volunteered with ISM’s media team and witnessed, among other violations of Palestinian rights, the Israeli occupation army’s demolition of Palestinian homes in the Wadi al-Hummus area of Sur Baher, occupied Jerusalem. Edmond told us more about his experience as an international volunteer in occupied Palestine and the work of ISM in Palestine, which most of our supporters’ donations go to support. If you’d like to go to Palestine as a volunteer with ISM, please contact us at solidarity@ism-norcal.org. We’ll work to make sure you have the information you need to provide meaningful support to Palestinian grassroots, popular resistance.
Q:What is the situation you witnessed in Occupied Palestine? How would you describe it for people internationally?
I had the opportunity to volunteer with ISM in Occupied Palestine for 3 months, and during that time I witnessed racism and apartheid on a level I had only read about in history books before. There were segregated roads and sidewalks, with dehumanizing checkpoints and metal cages for some while others were able to drive straight through. Palestinians would be arrested for carrying something as innocuous as a scissor or shaver while Israeli settlers were walking by with pistols and semi-automatic rifles–it is a blatantly shameless system where human beings are continually punished and oppressed because of their religion and race.
As internationals, we were less affected by Israeli apartheid but still it affected us to some degree; for example, near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron there was an Israeli checkpoint, and every time we’d pass, we would be forcibly stopped and ordered to state our religion. Anyone who said they were Muslim would not be allowed to pass.
Q:What kind of work did you do with ISM?
My volunteer work in ISM fell into 3 main categories:
– International presence. This included providing an international protective presence for at-risk Palestinian communities, families, farmers, and children, throughout the calender year and especially during the olive harvest and school year in Hebron.
– Media and online advocacy. This not only involved posting direct on-the-ground updates, videos, photos, and breaking news, but also organizing petitions, inter-organizational events, and other projects to raise a voice about what is happening in Palestine.
– Direct action. When requested by local communities, we sometimes took part in non-violent direct action. This included protests, de-arresting fellow activists, blocking home demolitions, events to reclaim stolen land, and such.
Q: Why do you think that the Israelis targeted you for deportation and what do you think international activists should do about this kind of repression?
I believe I was targeted for interrogation and later deportation for several reasons. To begin with, young single male travelers are the demographic most often suspected as international activists by Israeli authorities. I was also media coordinator and very active in communications and coordination, which undoubtedly would have left a digital trail in Israel’s invasive surveillance system. Lastly, my phone was taken and checked by multiple Shin Bet (the Israeli domestic equivalent to the FBI) agents at Tel Aviv airport. While I did not have any Palestinians contacts or phone numbers in my phone at the time, they found missed or unanswered calls from unsaved Palestinian numbers, which they then declared as “proof” of my illegal activities.
My father’s side of the family is Austrian Jewish (both my grandparents survived the Holocaust by fleeing Vienna), so I had not expected to be arrested, interrogated, banned and deported. While the Israeli government claims to represent the Jewish people, a number of Jews have, in fact, been banned from Israel due to their political views, including Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, and Ariel Gold.
Q: How do you see the impact of COVID-19 on Palestinians given your recent experience?
It’s always a difficult time in Palestine, but now with COVID-19 it’s especially challenging. In rural Palestine, there are natural water shortages during the dry summer. This shortage is compounded by the Israeli seizures of wells and reserves, as well as the cutting of pipes and shooting water tanks, making water increasingly scarce at a time when it’s needed more than ever for hygiene and sanitation.
In urban areas like Issawiya in East Jerusalem, decades of being neglected and ghettoed by the Israeli occupation have left medical facilities underfunded and under-equipped for a large scale pandemic. (For Palestinians–Israelis can go to separate, much better funded hospitals.)
Q: How do you recommend people get involved and address these injustices?
Petitions and protests, shared both online and personally — these are some ways to help inform people about the reality of the situation in Palestine that the mainstream media rarely reports on. Supporting BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), and publicly calling out the corporations that profit off the ethnic cleansing of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank, has become an increasingly powerful tool for Palestinian rights activism.
More than anything else, I believe the biggest impact a single person can make is by going to Palestine to witness the situation and volunteer firsthand. Besides the direct work you can do through protecting, reporting, and documenting, your presence as an international sends a clear and loud message” to the oppressed, that we see their struggle and that we recognize their right to peace, prosperity, and self determination; and to the oppressors, that the world sees their crimes and that people will know the truth of what happens in Palestine.