Jose Bove takes his magic potion to the West Bank
Phil Reeves
The Independent
June 21
Jose Bove thrust out his walrus moustache, threw a defiant scowl at the
Israeli policemen and soldiers barring his way, linked arms with his
friends and then started to shove at the wall of muscle and guns before
him.
The celebrated French sheep farmer wrecker of his local McDonalds fast
food outlet, destroyer of genetically-modified crops and commando-in-
chief in the anti-globalisation war arrived in the West Bank yesterday to
serve notice that he was in favour of globalisation, after all.
"We want to show the world what is happening here," he explained, during a
break in the shoving-match, "We need people and governments everywhere to
understand that there must be international protection for the Palestinian
people. What is happening to them is a crime," he said.
The French media has given the short and stocky Mr Bovthe soubriquet of
Asterix after the diminutive cartoon character who spends his time duffing
up the hapless Roman occupiers, aided by slugs of Magic Potion.
Yesterday, Asterix was in action anew, although this time the occupiers no
less daunting and imperious than Caesar's men were equipped not with
spears and swords but M-16s, riot batons, tear gas canisters, flak jackets
and a fleet of armoured jeeps. And the magic potion? That was us, the
reporters and cameramen on whom the 48-year- old Frenchman depends to get
his message across to the outside world.
Mr Bov arrived in Al-Khader, a Palestinian village on the southern edge of
Bethlehem, accompanied by about 70 activists, including a group of
Israelis. He was among the crowd who clambered by foot over the giant
mound of rubble with which Israeli army bulldozers have blockaded the
village, in a vain attempt to walk up a nearby hill to a cluster of
three cabins the beginnings of another Jewish settlement, erected in
contravention to international law on land stolen from Al-Khader, and now
defended by Israel's security forces.
Among the protesters was 23-year-old Liad Kantorowicz, a graduate of
philosophy who returned home to Israel seven months ago after 11 years in
the US in order to fight for justice for the Palestinians. She, too,
knows about the powers of Magic Potion. Why else, if not to secure
headlines, would she have admitted to us that her last job was as a
dominatrix in a Seattle sex parlour, strutting around in her stilettos and
smalls and brandishing a whip.
And the crowd also included Neta Golan, the fearless Israeli radical who
has spent the last eight months out in the battle-zones, tirelessly trying
to stop Israel's soldiers and settlers from tearing up Palestinian olive
orchards, shooting into Arab villages, or taking land for settlements.
In a protest in the same village on Friday, an Israeli policeman broke her
arm at the elbow, yanking it behind her back. Yesterday, in sling and
plaster, she was back on the frontline.
It started peacefully enough. Mr Bov was greeted by the local Israeli
police commander, Ephriam Arditi, plus around 60 police and soldiers.
Surrounded by cameras, the Frenchman put his case. What were the Israelis
doing defending land that was not theirs? If it was as the police claim a
closed military area, then why were settlers allowed access to it? Did
they not realise this was a crime?
"I'm a farmer, and these (Palestinian) people are farmers too. So I am
fighting with them to help them protect their land," Mr Bov told the
watching media.
With Mr Arditi caught in the middle of the crowd, the soldiers started
elbowing reporters out of the way, and the shoving began. Minutes later
one of the activists was arrested and dragged away. "No violence! No
violence!" chanted Mr Bov and his friends. A group of Palestinians nearby
took up chanting but maybe misheard theFrench accent as they shouted: "No
peace! No peace!"
Then, Mr Bov and his friend changed their slogan: "We want to be arrested!
We want to be arrested!" The Frenchman got his wish as did seven others
amid a haze of Israeli tear gas. It was Mr Bove's first visit to the
occupied territories to drum up publicity for the Palestinians' plight,
and for the need for an international protection force.
He arrived five days ago, and has seen enough violence to be dismissive of
the current ceasefire, which officially remained in place yesterday
despite two more deaths. "If this is a ceasefire, then war here must be
truly horrible," remarked the Asterix of the peace movement.
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