Thematic Quotes from Iltezam Morrar
In 2003, I didn’t really have much information; I didn’t know what the Wall was and how it was going to affect our lives. There wasn’t much media coverage of this area and we never heard of marches against the Wall.
If you claim that you seek security - and everybody has a right to seek to secure their homes - if you build a wall, build it on your lands. It doesn’t make sense to claim you want to protect yourself and build your wall on your neighbor’s land. That way you are using someone else’s property that does not belong to you.
The construction of the Wall in the village started in 2003 and that’s when the people of Budrus started fighting it. I was in 10th grade, I was 15. My father was responsible for the Popular Committee Against the Wall and all its meetings were held at our house. I realized that as a young woman, it was my duty and my right to resist the Wall too.
there was a march of women and there was amazing participation and incredible enthusiasm. When the women went to the construction site where the Wall was being built, they were fired up; there was a sense of defiance, that we were going to do something. From then on, no march had only men. Marches were attended by both men and women.
During every march I was afraid but I would say to myself, in the next one I will not be afraid. But when I saw the army, I was afraid. But the feeling of fear did not make me forget that we have a duty to fulfill. When you first see the bulldozers and the soldiers, you spontaneously go to work. I would grab the flag or the megaphone before every march and just go down. The fear is always present because everything is possible. The soldiers have no compassion, no mercy, they might hit you, they might shoot you, or they might imprison you. But there is a duty that one has to perform.
At one of the demonstrations there was a whole wall of about 200 soldiers surrounding the bulldozers…I found a very narrow opening I thought I could get in. Suddenly I found myself behind the line of soldiers, facing the bulldozer. I was extremely frightened, and I didn’t know what to do. I got an idea: jump in front of the bulldozer. When I saw the bulldozer, I realized that I was alone and I was terrified. I thought, "What can you do against a bulldozer?" Any movement from the bulldozer and I could get hurt…The man in the bulldozer - I looked in his eyes and I think he didn’t know what to do. He looked at the soldiers and he decided to stop because he couldn’t do anything.
When I was a kid I used to go visit my father in prison and the only Israelis that I met were soldiers. It was the soldiers that came into our village and injured the men and hurt our village and stole lands. The image of an Israeli was that of the occupying soldier. But in these demonstrations, I discovered that there was another side to the Israelis, that not all Israelis are soldiers and they are not all occupiers.
The experience of Budrus was a very important and effective one because it included everyone. In terms of people from the village, it included people from different ages, children, young men and the elderly. It included men and women. It included all political parties. No party missed out. The other thing is that there was a presence of international and Israeli activists and of course this made the demonstrations in Budrus unique. We were like one body in the demonstrations, working together.
I believe that freedom is inevitable. No matter how long it might take or what sacrifices are necessary, eventually it is inevitable that we gain our freedom.
Our problems with Israelis aren’t about religion. The only problem between us is occupation. Israel occupied our lands.
From our experience in Budrus, I believe in nonviolence and peaceful resistance even more because it helped us achieve something. We actually achieved something important. Large amounts of land were supposed to be confiscated from the people of Budrus but because of these demonstrations they were only able to take a small portion of the lands that they planned to take, and they moved the Wall to the Green Line. This is a big achievement. Any theory needs to be tested and if it succeeds that means it is effective. Through these achievements our belief grows stronger that nonviolence is really effective.
Budrus proved one important thing: people can achieve whatever they want if they insist on it. Nothing in the world can prevent them from realizing their objective. People can take Budrus as an example - if a small village achieved such an accomplishment, everybody can.
