The story of the Palestinian woman whose newborn twins died on the way to the hospital — a trip that was delayed by Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint — is one that Anna Baltzer often tells. But don't assume, she says, that the story is unusual. Or that a story like that makes headlines in the Middle East.
"Palestinian tragedies don't make the news," says Baltzer, who has written a book that chronicles what she calls "the small, everyday acts of violence and humiliation" of life in the West Bank and Gaza. Baltzer will be in Salt Lake City today to speak about her book, "Witness in Palestine: Journals of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories."
The 26-year-old Baltzer grew up in California hearing her grandmother's stories about family members who died in Nazi gas chambers, and the corollary stories about how Israel was the answer to Jewish fears that the Holocaust could happen again.
When Baltzer was in college she made her first trip to Israel, a visit that reinforced her image of Israel as a "tiny victimized country that simply wanted to live in peace but couldn't because of its aggressive Jew-hating Arab neighbors."
That familiar narrative was turned upside down three years later during a backpack trip through the Middle East. Baltzer spent time with a Palestinian family in Lebanon who told her stories of Israeli-backed house demolitions, land confiscation and torture. Baltzer initially didn't believe these criticisms but began doing research and in 2003 traveled to the occupied territories as part of the International Women's Peace Service to see for herself.
The goal of the IWPS, she explains, is to document human rights abuses in the West Bank and to support what she calls the "widespread nonviolent resistance movement" within the occupied territories.
"Basically I'm astounded by the resilience of the Palestinian people and their overwhelmingly peaceful nature," she said in a phone interview from Connecticut, a stop on her book tour. "I think the Palestinian violence that does exist is predominantly a symptom of the violence and oppression Palestinians are surrounded by.
"Most people attribute Palestinian violence to anti-Semitism but aren't aware of Palestinians' legitimate grievances, like Israel's current policies of segregation and collective punishment in the occupied territories," she says. "It's not realistic to expect Palestinians to recognize a state that explicitly discriminates against them."
Daily life for Palestinians is restricted and segregated, says Baltzer. "Palestinians can't use the good roads. And there are two kinds of license plates, one for Jews, the other for Palestinians. A completely separate system has been set up" that is akin to apartheid in South Africa, she says.
Checkpoints not just at borders but within the occupied territories mean that trips that used to take half an hour can now take several hours or all day. The new wall built by Israelis, not just on the border but within the West Bank itself, cuts Palestinians off from needed services and families from each other.
Beyond these inconveniences, she says, the inequalities are sometimes more obviously tragic: In 2006, 27 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have been killed by Palestinian attacks, while 550 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israelis.
She understands, she writes, that "many on both sides truly believe that the other is out to destroy them and that violence is their only hope of survival. Fear makes people do crazy things. The struggle is to revive the humanity amidst the fear."
Baltzer will speak at 2:30 p.m. today, International Human Rights Day, at the Salt Lake Main Library, 210 E. 400 South. The presentation, sponsored by Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy Land, will be preceded by the documentary "The Iron Wall." For more information, call 435-783-4411.
E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com