What About The Restraints?

Roaming Freely in a Land of Restraints
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/books/13walks.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
E1, 8/13/08
By Abby Aguirre

Abby Aguirre not only reviews Raja Shehadeh's "Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape," but accompanies and interviews Shehadeh on a recent walk in the West Bank. Aguirre points out her and Shehadeh's findings: a Crusader castle, a pottery shard from Roman times, a tall limestone bluff, wild artichoke, olive groves and of course, "red-slanted rooftops, unmistakably those of an Israeli settlement."

Interestingly, Aguirre also spots a Palestinian refugee camp. No explanation is given as to why a refugee camp is needed for Palestinians living in Palestinian controlled areas. Aguirre's review is remarkable for its rich descriptions of West Bank landscapes that are natural and for its poor descriptions of those that are man-made.

"Palestinian Walks" is an account of six walks Shehadeh has taken, spanning nearly thirty years, from 1978 - 2006. These walks, as Aguirre notes, have "become more fraught over time". Hence the title's "vanishing landscape".

It's not just this landscape that's in jeopardy. Palestinian "movement is everyday more limited by a growing number of Israeli-built fences, walls, barriers, checkpoints, settlements and the separate roads constructed to link them". This is true. Yet, while Aguirre explains the reason for separate roads (to link settlements), she doesn't explain the reason for fences, walls, barriers and checkpoints (to protect settlements, not to mention Israel proper). Why do settlements, or Jewish communities, in the West Bank need so much fortifying? Was it always like this? Aguirre offers no context for settlements, only that "they remain one of the most contentious matters of the conflict."

Aguirre tells us that Shehadeh judges harshly the "spreading web of segregated highways". She does balance this by saying they were "built after anti-Israel attacks". After this remark, Aguirre had a perfect opportunity to elaborate on the change in not only the physical, but the political landscape, from the first of Shehadeh's walks in 1978 to his most recent in 2006.

It may be a coincidence that Shehadeh first started documenting the changing West Bank in 1978, right around the time the settlement enterprise took off. Why is it that Israel gave the green light to Jews who wanted to move to areas that had deep historical meaning to them?

It had been more than a decade since Israel took control of the West Bank and in the air was not a whiff of a peaceful Palestinian parter to govern. Instead, the only recognized representative of the Palestinian people was nearing the end of one of their busiest decades -- highjacking, bombing, shelling, massacring women and children, taking Israeli Olympians hostage -- inside Israel and out.

The history of how the West Bank landscape came to be is a complex one, and perhaps one that can't fully be presented in this piece. However, a fuller history would've enhanced the readers' understanding, especially after reading how Palestinians today are inconvenienced.

Aside from these ommissions explaining the cause for Israeli eye sores dotting the West Bank, Aguirre does a good job conveying an intriguing and unusual book. We are painted a complete and colorful picture of the West Bank's diverse terrain, of roaming freely, but are offered an incomplete picture of the West Bank's "restraints".