Summary
A peace and solidarity movement bringing together Israelis and Palestinians against the occupation — Ta’ayush means “coexistence” in Arabic — which Makdisi presents bringing aid and vital supplies to besieged Palestinian communities south of Hebron, braving Israeli police and army barricades and settler violence; one of its missions is to remind the settlers and the world that there is another side to Judaism than the one the settlers present (Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, PDF p.187).
Details
- Denied the protection of the occupying power, beleaguered Palestinian communities in the hills south of Hebron are given aid and support by local and international organisations including Ta’ayush, which has organised protests and demonstrations and has persistently brought aid and vital supplies, braving the bullets, clubs, stones and fists of settlers especially enraged at the sight of fellow Jews coming to the aid of the Arabs (PDF p.187).
- David Shulman, an Israeli academic, author and Ta’ayush member, recounts in Dark Hope: Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine bringing blankets and supplies to herder families south of Hebron and coming under attack from a nearby settlement while helping sow barley; beaten to the ground by a settler, he writes: “What we are fighting in the South Hebron Hills is pure, rarefied, unadulterated, unreasoning, uncontainable human evil”; above the violent settlers “is a vast, ramified system, official Israel, that sustains them and protects them” (PDF p.188-189).
Related pages
Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, Hebron, B’Tselem