Mine-Free Israel? It Can Be Done!

Jerry White is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Mr White is the founding director Survivor Corps, an international nonprofit organization that helps war victims recover and rebuild their lives.

This week, Israelis are starting to wake up to the nightmare of landmines.  Last Saturday, as Israeli families headed to the Golan Heights to play in the fresh snow, one family's fun turned into a tragedy when a mine exploded, mangling a boy's foot, injuring his siblings, and causing Israelis and people around the world to ask not only whether the minefield was properly fenced, but why hundreds of thousands of mines are still buried throughout the Holy Land?

Twenty-six years ago, I, too, thought it was all a bad dream when I woke up in a hospital bed after losing a leg to a mine on a beautiful hillside in northern Israel.

In 1984, as a young student from Boston, I had come for a year of Jewish studies at Hebrew University, but while hiking up north with a couple friends, I ended up stepping on a landmine.  The Israeli amputees from the Lebanon war who later shared my room at Tel Hashomer Hospital used to joke, "Welcome to our landmine clearance team."  Unfortunately, twenty-six years later, the only people who "clear" anti-personnel mines in Israel are still innocent civilians like me and 11-year-old Daniel Yuval.

When I returned last year to Tel Aziziat-the "scene of the crime"-with a journalist and photographer, I told them that I believed one day this place would be mine free.  The young reporter covering my story muttered, "It can't be done."  I countered firmly, "Yes, it can be done!"

How can I be sure?  I've seen it happen in Cambodia, in Vietnam, in Jordan, in Ethiopia and Afghanistan; all over the world, countries-no matter how poor-are cleaning up their minefields. One by one, this cruel and indiscriminate litter is being removed and land is being returned to its residents.

Data from diverse countries around the world all tell the same story.  Eighty percent of mine victims are civilians not soldiers.  Nearly one-third are children like Daniel Yuval.

Given the nature of the weapon, designed to maim and terrorize, 156 countries around the world have joined the 1997 Landmine Ban Treaty.  They have agreed to ban the production, stockpile and use of landmines and to clear existing minefields.  To date, more than 2.2 million anti-personnel landmines from more than 270,000 acres of minefields have been cleared worldwide. Through a slow and steady process, more and more countries have become mine free, including, recently, Albania, Greece, Rwanda and Zambia.

Israel is not yet a member of the treaty.  Neither is the United States.  But the United States isn't polluted by mines and mostly complies with the treaty as the world's number one donor to mine action.  The White House recently announced that the United States will review and reconsider its position.  Meanwhile, Israel has hundreds of non-operational minefields with 300,000 buried mines, contaminating more than 8,000 acres of the Golan, the Arava, the Jordan Valley and the West Bank.  Some of these mines were laid during World War II and are still active.  Others were placed by the Arab armies before 1967, and the rest - by the IDF.

Ten years ago, the State Comptroller revealed that Israel had hundreds of minefields, many unmarked, that are not needed for the country's defense. The Comptroller's report said that even though these minefields pose a risk to civilians and have prevented valuable land from being developed or cultivated, the government has yet to initiate a national policy to clear them. A decade later, still no policy has been adopted. Can Israel's leaders look into the eyes of Daniel and his parents and account for their irresponsible lack of resolve? Today, there is no action plan, no legislation, no budgeting, and no timeline for mine clearance in Israel.

It is time for Israel's military and government to take responsibility for the safety of their citizens and residents, of tens of thousands of children and adults traveling in nature reserves in the Golan, the Arava, and Jordan Valley.  It is time for the country to improve its international image and become a leader not an obstacle to humanitarian demining. Yes, it can be done.

Please join me in calling on Israel, with support from America, to clear all non-operational minefields in its territory and join a growing number of states that have become mine free.

Photo credit: SamLavi