by Tamara Conrad

The Penn State Students for Justice in Palestine have been trying for more than a year to organize an event at which there is a representative for both the pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian perspective to debate the occupation in the West Bank. They have not succeeded.

But Anna Baltzer, a Jewish-American author and activist for Palestinian rights, told Voices in an interview that debating the issue is nonessential to the movement for Palestinian rights.

“In terms of the actual facts on the ground,” Baltzer said, “they’re not debatable.”

The Students for Justice in Palestine brought Baltzer to speak at Penn State in April. Baltzer, a former Fulbright scholar, documented human rights abuses and supported Palestinian-led non-violent resistance to the occupation while volunteering with the International Women’s Peace Service in the West Bank.

The segregation in the West Bank goes further than apartheid in Africa did, Baltzer said. In South Africa, black Africans were limited to 14 percent of the land; today Palestinians are limited to 7 percent in Israel, said Baltzer, author of “Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories and Photos.” The percentage is similar in the West Bank, she said.

Palestinians are getting pushed out of the West Bank, because the Israeli government and in essence the U.S. government, are paying Jewish people to move onto more Palestinian land, Baltzer charged during an interview with Voices. Pennsylvania’s share of total U.S. military support for Israel will be $1.2 billion over the next 10 years, Baltzer said.

“For us to sort of get into this controversy sort of stuff, instead of really focusing and saying, ‘OK, we know these are the facts, now what are we going to do about it?’ can be counter productive,” Baltzer said.

“We’re at a point where we have to end the apartheid system first, and then look at ways for Jews and Christians and Muslims in the area to coexist in the future,” said the Colombia graduate.

Baltzer said when she arrived to the West Bank she was initially shocked by the segregated road system for Israelis and Palestinians. She said the segregation stretches further, however.

“What hospital you can use, whether you can go to the hospital or not. What schools you can be at. Whether or not you have the right to build a home on your own land…”

Many have considered the two-state solution as a solution to the conflict between Palestine and Israel, but Baltzer does not think this would work.

“It doesn’t address the racism at all. It reinforces it and accommodates it,” she said.

Whatever solution is conjured up, she said she hopes it is based on human rights and not nationalism.

Baltzer, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, said she grew up with a positive image of Israel.

“We talked about it as something that was a peace-seeking, democratic entity that was constantly under attack and constantly trying to preserve itself and defend itself against anti-Semitism,” Baltzer said. She said the “myths” are not being recycled as much now.

“The sort of unconditional support for Israel is diminishing steadily over time among American Jews,” Baltzer said. This is truer for the younger generations of American Jews, she said.

“The seeds have been planted of doubt,” Baltzer said, “and over time, hopefully, they’ll blossom the ways that mine was into an understanding of why we have to come out of Israeli apartheid.”

Baltzer encountered the Palestinian perspective of the occupation while backpacking throughout Iran, Syria and Lebanon. During this time, she was taken in by many Palestinian families that introduced her to a different perspective of the history and present of the region. She was prompted to research the history to “prove them wrong,” but Baltzer said she soon learned that she grew up missing a lot of information.

As many Jewish Americans become skeptical, and even outright critical, of Israel’s presence in the West Bank, tension and debate within the Jewish American community has also increased. While there are some Jewish Americans pushing against segregation, there are others who do not want to hear or talk about the issue.

Israel has always been considered a safe place for the Jewish people, Baltzer added, but it really isn’t, because it exists through the oppression of other people, she said.

“By oppressing Palestinians, they are going to resist,” Baltzer said. The media covers the violent resistance, but Baltzer said there’s a long history of non-violent resistance.

“People think, ‘Why aren’t the Palestinians acting more like Gandhi or Martin Luther King?” Balzter said. “The Martin Luther Kings of Palestine are exactly where King was: They’re in prison.”

Baltzer said villages of people are marching down to protest the wall taking away their land and to the checkpoints, being shot at with tear gas, sound bombs, rubber bullets and live ammunition. They hold sit-ins, sing freedom songs and get hosed by Israeli soldiers, Balzter said.

When it comes to being a leader in the non-violent resistance movement, Baltzer gives credit to Palestinians.

“I’ve simply done what my conscience told me to do. I just sort of went to see, and then wrote it down, and then people wanted to read more, and I then told them, and then people wanted to hear, and I told them,” said Baltzer, who has written scores of articles, appeared on The Daily Show and tours the country with her story. “The incredible wisdom of [Palestinian] people who are fighting for their freedom, they’re my teachers.”