New Western foreign policy: Censorship.
The Israeli Apartheid Week, an initiative aiming at making people aware of the apartheid policies Israel has against the Palestinian population (both in Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip), is now taking place in many countries all around the world, such as in the UK, France, Italy, the US, South Africa and so on.
Unfortunately, though, not everywhere it is easy to organize such an event. You may wonder why, given that the Israeli Apartheid Week constitutes a series of conferences, debates, mobilizing campaigns, organized by the civil society and that hosts not only Palestinian activists and western militants, but also Israeli academics. The reason is simple. Two intervening factors do not allow a serious, even-handed and above all needed debate on Israel and Palestine: European and American condescendence towards Israel dominant discourse and the power of the Israel lobby.
Some remarkable events drew my attention and need to be explained.
On February 16, Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian having written many books concerning the so- called Palestinian question, has been prevented by the Italian PUBLIC university Roma 3 from having a debate, in which he had to talk about the use and abuse of identity in Europe and the Middle East, at the Center for Italian and French studies. The university told Pappe and the organizers that the event had to be cancelled for procedural issues, though it has been perceived by Pappe and the organizers themselves as a “Zionist intimidation” and as one of the endless attempts to silence any critical discourse over Israel and its policies.
Not surprisingly, indeed, on the 13th of February, an article appeared on the website Informazione Corretta (a website aiming at giving an “impartial” version of what happens in Israel and the Middle East according to the founders) announced with satisfaction that thanks to the “roman friends” the debate (that they defined “full of hatred”) in the venues of the university had been cancelled. The article does not specify who those “roman friends” were , though a letter of protest addressed by Pappe and the organizers to the university argues that the Israeli ambassador in Rome and the always busy Israel lobbies exercised a massive pressure on the university. Eventually, the event took place anyway but in an inappropriate venue, given the number of participants who attended the conference.
That same university has also revoked the authorization to screen the documentary The Fading Valley by the Israeli director Irit Gal, dealing with water issues in Palestine, that was planned for the 27th of February. It is not so well reknown, but put it simply, Israel steals, illegaly, most of Palestinian water resources leaving Palestinian without water, which in turn obliges them to purchase it, at high costs, from the Israeli water company Mekorot. The screening was organized by the No Acea Mekorot Committee, that tries to end the agreement between Mekorot and the the Rome’s water utility Acea. The Committee reports that the university cancelled the event because it received a phone call by the Israeli Embassy in Rome.
Even more sad is what happened, last November, in the Museo della Resistenza, della Deportazione, della Guerra, dei Diritti e della Libertà, in Turin. The Museum, indeed, was hosting an exhibition, organized by the UNRWA, aimed at shedding light on the Palestinian plight since 1948. The Jewish community in Turin not only expressed its disagreement with the exhibition, by saying that it was organized by an anti- Semite organization such as the UNRWA, but it also threatened to withdraw from the Museum. The exhibition has not been withdrawn from the Museum, though the latter had to post a notice on its website to give voice to the discontent of the Jewish community. Additionally, the events scheduled during the exhibition, namely a roundtable, involving also the participation of a member designated by the Jewish community, and a reading of the poems of Mahmoud Darwish, have been canceled as well, because of the same pressures.
Let’s now turn to another country I’m particularly concerned with. France. The reason for that is that I’m living here and the more time I spend here the more I realized how hypocritical France and its society are.
Last week I had the chance to attend a conference- debate organized by the association AFPS, that managed to invite in Paris Max Blumenthal, who is, as he defines himself, an “American, white, Jewish”. He exercises the profession of journalist and writer and he is also a militant of the BDS campaign. The association had also managed to organize the same conference in the venues of the University of Paris 8/ Saint Denis, in collaboration with the students of the said university. The topic he has addressed in the first conference, held on the 3rd of March, was about the last attack against the Gaza Strip, that he had the chance to document. The second conference, that had to take place in Paris 8 on the 9th of March, was titled “Israel apartheid is real” and it was supposed to be attended also by a Palestinian activist, Bilal Afandi.
Whereas the first conference took normally place in the venues of an associative organization, the one to be held at the university found many obstacles on its way to take place. Indeed, after a first approval by the university, the organizers and Blumenthal were finally told that the conference couldn’t be held. After an arm wrestling between the students and the university, the conference was then approved. Though, just few days before, the university notified the organizers about the cancellation of the conference, due to logistic problems, such as the lack of an appropriate venue, and other problems, such as the presence of a controversial speaker and the risk for disorders. As Blumenthal had argued in the first conference, he was not surprised of such a decision, given that the obscurantist powers are always at work to silence debate.
Be that as it may, few hours ago I’ve been made aware that the conference took place in any case, probably because of massive pressure from students and the civil society.
Though, this doesn’t make me happier. Yes, the conference took place, but the organizers and the speakers had to fight and to resist in order to exercise their legitimate right to express their opinions in a country that proclaims itself the mother of the revolution and the keeper of freedom of speech and of expression.
We are assisting to creepy forms of censorship across Europe where, in the words of Ilan Pappe, “Ridiculing the prophet Muhammad in cartoon is the litmus test for a society that cherishes freedom of speech; however an open candid conversation about Israel and Palestine is disallowed as an incitement”.
I’ll let you judgning whether or not censorship is the current (and cheaper) Western foreign policy towards the Middle East, for me it is a kind of.
Not only Palestinian lives are not worthy to be lived and grieved when they are violently stolen, but none is even allowed to criticize governmental policies, in our case the Israeli ones, without being accused of anti- Semitism. The most disturbing thing is not that the Israel lobby tries to silence every candid debate about Israel/Palestine (indeed they act as every other interest groups), but the fact that European countries and institutions succumb to these unabated pressures.
The fact that public universities, the venues par excellence of public discussions and freedom of speech, accept the Israeli rhetoric and obey to these heinous power dynamics is terribly worrisome for our times. Indeed, they foster the Israeli rhetoric, endorsed by all the Western governments, concerning the Palestine/ Israel conflict, presented as a “clash of civilization” (where it is absolutely not the case) and whose only aim is radicalization.
This dominant rhetoric has not only the effect of producing (willful) misunderstanding on Palestine and Palestinians, but has also detrimental effects on the Arab countries and Arab communities living in Europe and more broadly in the West. Indeed, afraid of being condemned of anti- Semitism, of hate against the West and radicalized opinions, Arabs feel prevented from publicly expressing any kind of disagreement against discriminatory, biased and partial politics and measures.
Almost one month after the attacks on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, Europe and the West in general should engage in a serious and deep reflection of what they mean for freedom of speech and freedom of expression. And, if the conclusion will be that only the opinions in line with the dominant discourse are worthy and legitimate to be expressed in public, then, for intellectual honesty, they should declare that. If there’s a double standard, as it is the case, then there’s nothing more heinous than hiding behind speeches that substantially mean anything.
In the meanwhile, it is up to us to fight censorship and obscurantism with all the energy we have. Not only for Palestinians, but also for ourselves.
Sources
http://www.museodiffusotorino.it/ArchivioNews/1222/comunicato-del-museo
http://www.informazionecorretta.com/main.php?mediaId=0&sez=440&id=57187
Paris university reverses decision, allows Israeli apartheid event with Blumenthal
Never calm in Palestine
February ends with only one post. Well, it’s not because nothing happened in Palestine or because the situation is relatively calm. On the contrary, the situation is getting worst and worst. Though, Palestine occupied my energies and thoughts on other fronts.
I am often asked by friends and acquaintances if I see a solution to the Palestinian question, if it is possible to build an independent Palestinian State next to Israel and what solutions would I propose to put an end to this continuous and unprecedented, in the contemporary history, slaughter (the other term I have in mind is genocide and I think both describe quite fairly the situation).
To be honest, I have spent the past three years trying to explore the grass-roots causes of this conflict, why it has so badly exacerbated as to reach a deadlock, why the entire world just sat down and looked and what can we do now. So far, I have an idea of the causes of the so- called “Palestine question”, of how the situation exacerbated since the first mass immigrations to Palestine in the 1920s, of the reasons why the entire world allowed the “Naqba” (catastrophe) to happen and of the events that led to the current situation. What is still less clear to me is what we can do now or what I can do now.
My choice has turn to international law and diplomacy. These two tools could have a tremendous potential for a population and a State that for too long have not relied upon them, which in turn made them weaker when they had to confront with huge teams of lawyers, specialists and policy- makers. Eventually, Palestinians have tried, since the late 1980s, to make use of international law to their benefit as far as possible. The results have mainly concerned the establishment of diplomatic representations all around the world, the signature of the Oslo Accords (a real nightmare), the recognition of Palestine as a UN non- member State and, utlimately, the accession to many international treaties, along with the acceptance of the ICC jurisdiction. Symbolically, being a part of the international community has had a major impact on Palestine, whose statehood as always been neglected (in the words of Zionists, Palestine was a land without people for a people without land, so they had deprived Palestine not only of its human dimension, but also of its very existence).
But the real question is: what has international law done for Palestine? And the answer is quite easy. Nothing. It is fair to say that Palestine has done much for international law: Palestine renounced to the armed struggle, except for Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in order to not deteriorate the situation; Palestine has made a lot of concessions during the Oslo accords in order to struck a deal that eventually turned out to be unequal, unfair and disproportionate, other than legally “debatable”; Palestine has abided by international law principles even if it had not contributed to its formation and has patiently waited for its turn to acquire the independence promised in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate System. Though, Palestine has received nothing back, except for promises that will never turn into facts and condemnations of Israeli actions that never turned into real actions.
So, here again, I was asked why I decided to study international law if it’s so ineffective, useless and dependent on power relationships.
The truth is that I don’t have an answer and, lately, I believe less and less in international law and institutions. Palestinians are left completely alone to their painful destiny and sufferings by accomplice foreign governments that do anything but support Israel and its criminal attitude.
In the past weeks, a mosque near Bethlehem has been torched by settlers, the Gaza Strip has been flooded because Israel decided to open a dam, protests in the city of Hebron have been suffocated by Israeli military violence, the so- called Arab Israelis are striving to make their voice heard within Israel in the current electoral period, Palestinians in the West Bank are struggling to make a living after the Israeli decision to not transfer the taxes and custom duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority after the decision of the latter to accept the jurisdiction of the ICC.
That’s how bad is the situation in Palestine. And in the meanwhile, yesterday the schizophrenic Italian Parliament voted two contrasting motions on the recognition of the State of Palestine. One is about the recognition of the statehood of Palestine and the “fundamental” Israeli security needs. The other is about the support of a negotiated solution to the conflict, with the creation of a Palestinian State living peacefully next to Israel on agreed terms with the latter. As if Palestine did not already exist as a State and as if Israel would be willing to put an end to the occupation and to enter into serious, sound and meaningful negotiations with Palestine. This demonstrates how the European governments have the hands tied when it’s about Israel and how Israel is an important commercial partner for Italy, that has lost its diplomatic leverage on international questions.
Hopefully, for the civil society Israel is not only a commercial partner and Palestinians are deserving the same attention and dignity of all the peoples around the world. If it wasn’t for the civil society, engaged more massively in a commercial and cultural boycott of Israel, the condition of Palestinians wouldn’t be known outside their borders. Thanks to universities, militant associations and the BDS movement a new message is being delivered: no more business as usual when it comes to human lives. This is an important achievement for the peaceful Palestinian struggle for self- determination and, as I argued in many occasions, it is up to us to change the situation through our daily attitudes. We have been told that we can’t anything, but it’s not true. We can do things that go beyond our imagination and even if our achievements will be little and not enough in the short term, we have much to achieve in the long term, as the BDS movement and the Palestinians showed us.
That’s why, despite the depressing state of affairs, I keep believing that things can be changed and improved and that’s why I keep studying international law. I owe that to a people, my people, that is teaching us life in the most courageous way ever.
Despite everything, human beings never stop to believe in changes.
Gaza Running Short of Money…and Shelters
The UNRWA Director Robert Turner declared today that the agency might not be able to assist the population of Gaza, because the funds arrived from the international community are insufficient.
Last October, the international community, at the conference held in Cairo, pledged to the Palestinian Authority some 5.4 billion dollars, in order to enable Gazans to repair or rebuild their homes after the criminal Operation Protective Edge.
According to UN estimates, some 100.000 have been either damaged or entirely destroyed. The UNRWA said that so far it received only 135 million dollars and that it could help 60.000 families.
Though, this sum is far from being sufficient in order to rebuild homes and infrastructures. UNRWA estimates say that they need other 700 million dollars to reconstruct buildings.
So far, Gazans are living among rubbles, in the streets, in tents and sleeping bags. They are stuck between the Israeli and the Egyptian borders with no possible way to escape this horrible situation. The enemployment rate is tremendously high, there is no way to make a living, Palestinian fishermen are still fired when trying to fish by the Israeli army, children continue to die because of unexploded ordinances.
At the same time, though, Gaza is not on the spotlight. In the media, we barely read about the reconstruction and the daily life of this already exhausted population.
Personally, I am totally disgusted. This money comes, or should come, from the international community that is responsible for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, given that it has not been able to prevent this attack, to end the Israeli occupation, to end the siege and to assess Israeli responsibilities towards the Palestinians. This money comes from the taxpayers of UN Members, so us! We should collectively ask our governments to be held accountable for what is happening in Gaza. Where this money is? Why did it not arrive in the Strip? Why none asks Israel to rebuild what it has deliberately destroyed with its own money?
While Palestinians are suffering, we have also to bare the editorials Amira Hass writes on Internationale, an italian weekly magazine. Last week, precisely the 19th of January, Internazionale published the weekly editorial of Amira Hass. This time, the Israeli journalist, writing for Haaretz and living in Ramallah, complained about the fact that few Palestinians marched after the deadly attack on the caricaturists of Charlie Hebdo and the subsequent terrorist attacks in Paris. This hypocrite and privileged journalist, granting herself the luxury of choosing to live in the West Bank (whereas Palestinians do not have the choice to live where they want or where they are entitled to live or to return to their villages in Israel) went even further arguing that, instead, many Palestinians did not feel any empathy towards these attacks.
By chance, does Ms. Hass that Palestinians are not allowed to gather and march without being attacked by the IDF with rubber coated bullets, steal bullets, sound bombs and stun grenades? Does, always by chance, Ms. Hass that Palestinians have other problems to think about in this moment, for example their daily life constrained by arbitrary and ubiquitous checkpoints, affected by the lack of water, freedom, money, education and so on? Does Ms. Hass know that she should go marching and protesting against the policies of her own government towards the Palestinians? Does Ms. Hass know that she should protest as well in her country for the freedom of expression, that is hampered by her government without the need of terrorist attacks? Does she know that, in 1987, the Palestinian caricaturist Naji Al-Ali was killed, in a terrorist act, by the Mossad when he was in London? Did any Israeli show empathy towards him in that occasion?
Did the world show the same empathy it showed towards Charlie Hebdo, towards the millions of Palestinians who have been and still are killed, displaced, wounded and attacked for the past 100 years?
It does seem to me that, despite the terrible events happened in France (condemned jointly by Fatah and Hamas), Palestinians have something else to think about. And we should be the first ones to be outraged by the overwhelming indifference surrounding Palestinians since decades.
Petition to sign against advertisements selling homes in illegal settlements on Facebook: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/facebook_stop_ads_for_settlements_palestine_final/?snumzdb
Palestine and International (in)- Justice
One just needs to recall Antonio Cassese to understand and appreciate the value of international justice.
In an article published in 1998, Cassese analyzes the reasons why international justice is better than amnesties, revenge and forgetting.
As for revenge, it seems evident that it is not even a solution to be taken into consideration, because, as he says, it is a private form of justice that does not serve the main aims of justice itself, indeed it contradicts the very principles upon which justice is based.
As for forgetting, not only we could recall the German philosopher Habermas, according to who memory is essential for human beings and society because it is an indispensable tool to learn lessons from the past, but we should also consider that it is an impossible option with regards to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Indeed, Cassese argues that, even if genocides and crimes against humanity could be forgotten by some, the victims and the descendants of the victims will never forget what happened in the past. Besides, forgetting the victims of appalling crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity is as killing those people once again. It is ending the bloody job started by someone else without our consent. This is the reason why we should all remember as far as possible all the victims of all the crimes whenever and wherever they have been committed.
As for amnesty, while some societies can adopt it voluntarily as an option in periods of transition, in order to prevent more and harsher conflicts within one’s society, as it happened in South Africa, Guatemala, Haiti and others, in some other cases, amnesty is unconceivable and it might even be counterproductive. Indeed, amnesty could bring to impunity, that in turn encourages more criminals to commit crimes because no punishment is foreseen.
In the second part of the article, Cassese reviews the reasons why there should be international justice in lieu of national justice. First, international justice, or at least the criminal one, is more appropriate to be dealt with by international justices because it refers to crimes of war and crimes against humanity, which are a part of international law. Secondly, because international tribunals are in a better position to analyze and state on those crimes than national tribunals. Indeed, international judges are not, or better said should not be, politically biased; international tribunals might have more means to acknowledge facts happened in different countries; politically, they might meet less resistance by citizens, because “national feelings are hurt less”; they contribute to internationalize and universalize crimes that are a matter of concern of the whole world.
This post is not aimed at giving a course on international justice (which is not my field of specialization), but these short paragraphs serve the purpose of introducing Palestine’s accession to the International Criminal Court.
After the failed adoption of a proposed resolution to the Security Council that aimed at setting a timeline to end the (never ending) Israeli occupation of Palestine, the Palestinian Authority decided to join the International Criminal Court (from April Palestine will be a member of the ICC) and to accept its jurisdiction under Article 12 (3) of the Rome Statute over the crimes committed since the 13th July 2014.
The reactions to this decision have been far too shameful. First, John Kerry tried to convince Abbas to not go before the ICC. Secondly, the same threatened to withdraw the funding from the ICC and the Palestinian Authority. Thirdly, Israeli politicians criticized this choice, alleging that it will hamper further negotiations and that in any case Israel will do whatever is in its hands to hinder the international justice.
More than that, Israel has also decided to not transfer revenues to Palestinians. These tax revenues are collected by Israel on behalf of Palestinians, that should be transferred, under mutually signed agreements, to Palestinians. This money is Palestinian money and the measure Israel took is absolutely unlawful.
More recently, Israel also announced a lobbying campaign to persuade Australia, Germany and Canada to withdraw their funding from the ICC.
The ways in which the legal, diplomatic and peaceful means the Palestinians are using to achieve their goals have been welcomed is all but worrisome, creepy and disgusting. Those same States that proclaim themselves democratic, respectful of the rule of law and that pretend to present themselves as an example to follow (one worldwide and the other in the Middle East), then criticize Palestine for aiming at freedom, life, independence and dignity.
Be it as it may, the Prosecutor of the ICC, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, announced, on 16 January, that she opened a preliminary examination into the Palestinian situation. The examination will focus on preliminary legal considerations, it will take years and, even if the ICC pretends to be an independent and impartial body, it is likely that this examination will not give birth to any further serious investigation. There are all the reasons to be pessimistic, though we might expect other developments and probably for once we could assist to the predominance of justice over politics and diplomacy.
Whatever will happen from now on depends highly on us, citizens. We should do whatever possible to commit our national governments to international justice and human rights. Impunity cannot last forever and this is the moment to prove that.
Sign the petition to ensure that our governments secure funding to the ICC: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_governments_of_Australia_Canada_and_Germany_Please_continue_to_fund_the_International_Criminal_Court/
Sources:
Antonio Cassese, “Reflections on International Criminal Justice”, in The Modern Law Review, Vol. 61, No.1, 1998, pp. 10
http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/press%20and%20media/press%20releases/Pages/pr1083.aspx
Palestine in a Year
Al-Aqsa Mosque, Al Quds, December 2013.
One year has already passed since my first post on this blog. Many things happened, mainly tragic, and I tried to follow them as much as possible and to give you my very personal insight and point of view.
The year is coming to an end, so it is time to re-think about the events and make an assessment of them. Usually, people do that personally, I decide to do that for my Palestine.
Palestine from within
2014 begun with the ongoing and never ending “peace process”, that since the beginning was destined to fail. As it proved to be the case. Wrong bases, wrong mediators, wrong concessions and absence of trust and good faith, absurd requests.
This summer, we assisted to the reconciliation process between Al- Fatah and Hamas. The two main parties, one ruling the West Bank and the other the Gaza Strip, agreed to form a joint government in order to put an end to an historical rupture, lasting 7 years, that weakened the unity of the Palestinian people. This “unity” government, which has proved to be highly ineffective (we did not assist to any real change whatsoever), has been highly criticized by the international community and Israel. The latter tried to describe the agreement between Hamas and Fatah as a terror alliance.
While Hamas has been enlisted in the list of terroristic organizations since 2001, Al Fatah has not. This reconciliation could have been for Palestine and Palestinians the great opportunity to form a common strategy, that could have gone beyond ideological and methodological divisions between the two political parties (completely detached from the realities lived by the population) and that could have put Hamas in the position of renouncing to the armed struggle and of accepting the diplomatic means of action. In such a scenario, Palestinians could have talked to the international community with one voice and Hamas would have no longer been delegitimized in its political requests.
This has not been the case. Israel and the international community fear the unity of the Palestinian people and in particular they fear that Hamas could align with Al Fatah. On the other hand, the Palestinian political elite is more concerned with maintaining its power and privileges than with representing and fighting for its people. Moreover, the Palestinian Authority is often condemned for its complicity with Israel in arresting and punishing supposed Palestinian activists.
The Assault on Gaza
I still have difficulties in thinking about the brutal assault led by the Israeli army on an undefended and incarcerated civilian population this summer, under the eyes of a world that did not intervene to stop the massacre.
We are all involved in what happened and we are all responsible because we did not do that much to stop our governments to sell weapons and offer Israel logistic support to accomplish its murderous actions. Additionally, we did not do that much to push our governments to take positive actions in order to stop the killing of civilians.
In a nutshell, we threw phosphorous bombs, we bombarded homes, we killed entire families, we destroyed infrastructures, we destroyed and polluted water resources, we uprooted trees and crops, we made once again thousands of people refugees in their land.
They told us that now Gaza is under reconstruction and that the material needed for it is entering the Strip with the supervision of the UN. They told us that the international community pledged millions of dollars for the reconstruction. They told us that the reconstruction is under way. Though, when one reads the newspapers she/he finds out that the UN is not able to ensure the entry of concrete and other materials in the Strip, that it is not able to control and prevent corruption and bribery among its own personnel and that this material is sold to Palestinians at higher prices. How can one speculate from the sufferings of an already impoverished and desperate population?
Moreover, if Israel deliberately destroyed whatever is present in the Gaza Strip, why should Palestinians pay for the reconstruction of something they did not want to demolish and destroy?
Palestine in Israel
This year has been particularly harsh for Palestinians. The ones living in the West Bank are at the mercy of 18 year- old soldiers who decide of their lives in 5 seconds. The ones living in Israel, the so- called Arab Israelis, and in Jerusalem are at the mercy of the Israeli army, politics and society. During the assault on Gaza, protests spread and inflamed both in the Occupied Territories and in Israel. Israel responded with violence against peaceful protests demanding the end of the occupation and equal civil, political and social rights for the Arab community within Israel.
Not much has been achieved except for violence, provocations and radicalization. The symbol of the tensions has been the Dome of the Rock, the Second Temple for the Jewish population, destroyed by the Roman Emperor Titus in 70 a. C. The mosque, with its golden and beautiful dome, has been built in the 7th century and it is one of the oldest Islamic architecture. It is the second holiest place for Muslims and it has become, during the years, the symbol of the Palestinian struggle for independence and dignity.
The previous months we have assisted to unbearable provocations: Israeli citizens (mainly the ultraorthodox) entered the mosque escorted by the army and pretended to be entitled to pray there. In the meanwhile, Muslim prayers were arbitrarily prevented from accessing the mosque and pray. These events led to demonstrations in the mosque and the surrounding area, where the Israeli soldiers used violence and tear gas, stun grenades and sound bombs, violating a holy place. In Jerusalem violence from both sides dominated the scene, making the daily life of both communities (though, mainly that of Palestinians and Arab Israelis) unbearable.
At the same time, under complete silence, several families of the Bedouin community of Sawa (a village in the Naqab desert, Israel) decided deliberately and tragically to demolish their own homes, because they lost an appeal against a military order. The irony lies on the fact that while some of these families lived there well before 1948, some others have been displaced and located there from the northern Naqab desert by the same military orders that now expel them.
The astonishing thing is that this operation of forced displacement (illegal under international law, in particular human rights law) is taking place in these days under complete silence and denial.
The case of the Bedouin community in Israel is probably the one that best shows the deliberate policy of Israel of getting rid of Palestinians physically or by any other means whatsoever and that Israel is a State far from being democratic as Israelis want to make us to believe.
Another Naqba is under way and none cares.
New elections will take place in Israel in March. Little hope for change though, given that Netanyahu is seen as a dove and that right wing extremists are gaining more and more support.
Palestine and the International Community
If I had to mention an achievement of the incompetent and corrupted Palestinian Authority I would say that it was able to keep Palestine constantly in the spotlight for a year.
2014 has been an important year for Palestine, that had the attention of the media as never since the Second Intifada.
The results have been: the votes of several European Parliaments recognizing Palestine as a State (with non- binding resolutions); the vote of the European Parliament that agreed to recognize “in principle” a Palestinian State; the attention of the public opinion to the Palestinian plight; the removal of Hamas from the European list of terroristic organizations based on juridical grounds; the attention of the UN Security Council on Palestine.
Two remarks are important.
First, European Parliaments lost a high momentum for change and the opportunity to take real and concrete actions in order to act as more even-handed peace brokers in the region. These votes on the one hand are symbolically important and are representative of a change in the public opinion, that is no more biased by the anti-Semitism accuse when talking about Israel; on the other hand, they are dangerous if not followed by concrete steps, which involve the end of any commercial and cooperation partnership with the State of Israel.
Secondly, on Tuesday night (30th of December) Jordan, on behalf of Palestine, presented to the UN Security Council a Resolution that established a time framework for the end of the occupation and the steps to be followed in the future negotiations, that should ensure a contiguous, viable and independent Palestinian State living next to Israel. The draft resolution also indicated East Jerusalem has its capital and included borders (pre- 1967), prisoners, water, the endorsement of UN Security Council resolutions and security as primary issues.
The resolution needed 9 votes to pass and unfortunately was endorsed by only 8 countries. France, that endorsed the resolution, voted in favor. The UK, that few months ago voted a non- binding resolution recognizing Palestine, abstained. The U.S. voted against it on weak grounds and using the same old arguments: setting time frames is a unilateral move that does not help a peaceful unfolding of negotiations, the Israeli security concerns have not been adequately addressed (as for the border between Israel and Palestine, the Palestinian proposed an internationally controlled border) and a peace agreement can come only from hard choices and compromises from both parties.
The truth is that the US is the closest ally and the UN representative of Israel: thus, when they speak they speak for Israel and when they talk about hard choices and compromises they refer to hard choices and compromises to be done and accepted by Palestinians only.
This resolution was in line with international law and far from being extreme in its requests, which left room for discussions and negotiations.
The choice to not endorse and support Palestine has been shortsighted and might have negative repercussions in the whole Middle East.
Rumors say that in the next days Abbas will sign other international treaties and accede to the Rome Statute. While Palestinians put high expectations on the International Criminal Court, I am far more pessimistic and I do not think that this move will bring Palestine freedom and dignity. Indeed, the ICC has proven to be a highly politicized tribunal and there is a series of legal issues that might hamper its work.
Palestine and the International Civil Society
Great achievements have been reached thanks and through the civil society.
The Boycott Sanctions and Divestment Movement (initiated and led by the Palestinian civil society and supported worldwide by an active and organized civil society) has reached important goals and is gaining more and more attention also at governmental levels. Thanks to the actions of the BDS, European governments are warning firms and enterprises with partnership with and in Israel, because they might be involved in the commission of human rights violations.
If a burgeoning number of firms are being boycotted and if many others divested from Israel or withdrew partnership with Israeli firms, sanctions are far from being adopted because they need the implementation by States. As we have seen though, States will not impose sanction on Israel any time soon.
It is worth noting that the boycott does not involve firms and enterprises only, but also academia and arts. Many artists and universities, from the US to Ireland, are refusing to have any kind of cooperation with Israeli artists and institutions.
This latter phenomena, along with the more common economic boycott, shows that the civil society is ready to expose Israel to condemnation for its violations of international law, human rights and dignity. The society is no more afraid of talking about the crimes committed by Israel. This is no more a taboo. For those who have always denounced Israel’s crimes, this might seem as something devoid of meaning. But it is not. It is an important and fundamental change in the mind of hundreds of people all around the world.
Politics, diplomacy, economy and lobbies might want us to forget.
They might induce us to forget the sufferings of the Palestinians, not only in the West Bank and Gaza, but also in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Europe and the United States. They might induce us to forget how many people died in Gaza and how many still die today. They might induce us to forget the thousands of uprooted olive trees, demolished homes, humiliated people, imprisoned activists or simple citizens, the stolen lands, the destroyed crops. They might induce us to think that the Palestinian struggle is a limited and particular one.
Though, we will not forget these sufferings. We will not forget these humiliations. We will not forget any single uprooted tree or a demolished home. We will not forget our dignity and our right to live and exist in the world as any other human being.
We will not forget our struggle and we will not forget the universality of our struggle. Everyone is concerned when dignity, freedom and independence are threatened.
The Palestinian quest for freedom, dignity and independence is universal in the sense that it represents values we all aim at to completely deploy our existence in this world.
Recognizing Bantustans. Too Little, Too Late.
The 2nd of December, the French General Assembly voted a non- binding resolution recognizing Palestine and calling the government to do the same. The resolution passed with 339 in favor, 16 abstensions and 151 against. The resolution was sponsored by the Socialist Party.
The value of the resolution should be contextualized: amid a spreading movement of recognition of Palestine in Europe, France, that wants to assume once again a central role in the EU foreign policy, could not do anything but vote this resolution. Indeed, the same step has been taken by Sweden, Britain and Spain and France could not lose its turn. Though, this is not the only raison d’etre of this resolution.
Having lived in France for quite a while and knowing many French, I can say that, overall, French sympathize with the Palestian cause and the leftists in particular. Despite the fact that France host the biggest Muslim and Jewish communities in Europe (often engaging in some kind of skirmishes), Palestine seems to widely unite them.
Certainly, we cannot really say that the support is unconditional or that the French governments have been and are pro- Palestine. Disregarding the relationships between the French and Israeli governments, suffice here to note that, in 2010, the Ministry of Justice issued the memorandum Alliot-Marie, which interpreting a law against discrimination, criminalizes the appeal to boycott of Israeli and settlements’ products.
Apart from these considerations on French internal politics, will this resolution have a real impact in the never-ending Palestine- Israeli conflict?
I’m more than skeptical about that.
As it has been noted few weeks ago, the individual and symbolic steps of some European countries do not change the situation. These resolutions, morally appreciable as they can be, will not engender any change whatsoever in the politics of EU States towards Israel. Will these States end their commercial ties with Israel to pressure the government? Will those States stop selling weapons to Israel? Will those States play an even-handed role in some future, unlikely and unpredictable negotiations? Will these actions generate a more concerted EU policy?
In the short- term, I can only envisage negative answers. And in the long-run as well.
Even more importantly, these recognitions come too late. Have you ever thought to what they’re recognizing? It does not matter if they say that they support a two- State solution and that Palestine has an equal right to existance and statehood. The Palestine they are recognizing now is not the Palestine there should be in the future. They are recognizing an irregular constellation of bantustans, with few or any link with each other, intersected by expanding settlements and by-pass roads. Recognizing such a Palestine is recognizing a de facto and illegal situation under all points of view. It is a precedent and it is a dangerous one. That Palestine should never be the basis for the establishment of an independent and viable State.
The basis for the establishment of the Palestinian State is well rooted and grounded in international law and that should be our Pole Star and the guide of our actions, along with a sense of responsibilities for past Western mistakes.
We do not need to invent other categories, rules and resolutions. All we need to settle the conflict is there. What lacks is the political will to consider, apply, implement and enforce the set of rules and guidelines we already have.
Additionally, Palestine already exists as a State since ages. The fact that Palestinians are still considered a people without a State has a political, rather than a legal or factual, ground.
Important as may be from a symbolic point of view, this recognition adds nothing to the French foreign policy towards Israel and Palestine and, for sure, it will not boost a major change in EU foreign policy neither.
The hundreds facets of evil
While checking the news, the first thing my eyes saw was the face of a young Palestinian man hit and beaten by Israelis right- wing extremists in front of the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. For those of you who are following the news, this might not seem an exceptional event, but rather the ordinary life in Jerusalem. And still, even if we are getting used to read of Palestinians harassed both in Jerusalem and the West Bank, I cannot accept it. I have to condemn this blind and unjustified violence. What I feel is despair. We are taking a perilous path and it seems to me that we are reaching, slowly but steadily, a point of non- return.
The situation in Jerusalem is inflamed, a violent act every day follows another from both sides. Gazans are slowly receiving the humanitarian aid they need for the reconstruction, but this does not mean the aid is enough and it does not mean that the population is relieved. A woman from Gaza told me that they live with 6 hours of electricity per day, which is not even enough to make the destroyed water infrastructures work, that school has begun and, therefore, families are living in tents because students are going back to classes and that there is no will to return to normal life. To what purpose, then, reconstruct a house that will be likely destroyed in few years? To what purpose sow seeds, when it is likely your trees will not have the time to grow because they will be erased before flourishing? In the West Bank, the situation is not that dramatic, but it’s not a safe haven either. And my thought goes in particular to the Palestinians living in the Jericho Valley, where the living conditions are even harsher than in the rest of Palestinian towns.
What outrages and disgusts me is the silence surrounding those sufferings. And I’m not talking about the media. I’m talking about the institutions that could make the difference but would rather prefer to immerge their hands in Palestinian blood instead of denouncing criminals and defying lobbies and the economic power in general. Because, in the end, everything turns around money. And we, Palestinians, got the message clear and sound. Our lives are not worthy one euro.
According to an article of Aljazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/11/where-are-eu-sanctions-israel-20141123111629393982.html), Haaretz had published an article few days ago announcing a EU draft proposal on sanctions against Israel. Though, Federica Morgherini, the EU foreign policy chief during the Italian semester, denied that by saying that the EU has not in mind of sanctioning anyone (of course not Israel, unsurprisingly one of the main European commercial partners!). The EU was rather discussing how to broker peace in the Palestinian- Israeli conflict.
But please, let’s be serious. Negotiations? Again? We have been negotiating for the past 30 years and the only results we achieved were humiliation, land grab, settlements, violence and an untrustworthy neighbor. Not only the negotiations have been difficult because of the disparity in power (diplomatic, economic and, above all, military), but also because everyone has tried to meddle into the Middle Eastern affairs, further complicating the situation. It’s true that Palestinians alone, unfortunately, can’t challenge the fourth most powerful army in the world, but then, those who proclaimed to be even-handed peace- brokers, indeed weren’t (see United States).
Additionally, and here I’ll take Edward Said’s point of view, there is one unescapable pre- condition to enter the negotiations: the end of the occupation. This is not a negotiable solution. Unconditional withdrawal of the Israeli army from Palestinian territory, end of the blockade of the Gaza Strip, end of the validity of military rules and respect of the internationally recognized borders. Then, it might have sense to enter into negotiations. Not before, dear Miss Morgherini&Co.
As for the internal politics, the Israeli society and government are probably racing to show who’s more right. Civilians harass the Palestinian population, settlers take over Palestinian homes and the Israeli government demolishes Palestinian homes, issues a law punishing stone throwners (of course of Palestinian nationality. The settlers throwing stones at Palestinians will not be convicted), discusses a bill defining Israel as the “Jewish nation- state” (that’s not new, a similar bill was discussed earlier this year, when Israel asked the Palestinian government to recognize Israel as a Jewish State in order to continue the negotiations) and insults the intelligence of everyone at the United Nations, by saying that an independent Palestinian States will be a “terror-cracy”. Not only this later statement wants to play with the dumb conscience of Westerners obsessed by the terrorist Arab world, but wants to make Palestinians enemies of the entire world.
As if the situation wasn’t complicated enough, many want to make us thinking that here we’re dealing with a religious conflict, therefore transforming it in a zero- sum game, where each party has everything to lose and everything to win. Besides, this shifts the discourse from rights and law to a supposed universal “moral” where there are a good and a bad party. The only problem with such a vision of the conflict is that it is not true, it is dangerous and misbehaving. Here, we are dealing with a colonizer and a colonized population. Nothing less and nothing more. Jerusalem is not claimed by the parties because of religion, but because it reflects the national aspirations of both. Of course the religious symbol of Jerusalem matters, but religion has nothing to do with the current Israeli policy.
On the Palestinian side, nothing much can be said. I don’t see any clear direction or policy or leadership. On the one hand, there are the constraints of the occupation and the military rule which hamper the Palestinian Authority to rule its territories independently; on the other hand, though, governmental responsibilities must be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, we can wonder whether the corrupt political elite of Palestine really represents the Palestinian population and its interests or if it’s rather preserving itself for survival.
On the 29th of this month, the Resolution of the General Assembly which recognized Palestine as a State will have two years. In this period of time no progress has been done. This shows us that the means we have tried up to now are fruitless and helpless. We should find other and more innovative and creative solutions to the conflict before it is too late. The solution is from within. The solution is in the two peoples. When will they start to dialogue without the interference of politicians?
Propaganda: Extending Israeli Laws to Palestinians to End Human Rights Abuses
Some time has passed since my last post, where I made the point of the situation on the last decisions on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and on the latest news in the international community with regards to Palestine. Today, I will give you some information on the current situation in Palestine, but I would rather prefer to talk about a personal experience.
I would to begin with the recent vote of Sweden, which officially recognized Palestine as a State, making Sweden the first (and biggest) European State to do so. Amid harsh reactions from the Israeli side, Wallstrom wrote in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper: “Some will state this decision comes too soon. I am afraid, rather, that it is too late”. The government’s decision doesn’t come unexpected, given that the new elected government had announced that it would have done that one month ago. British Parliament has voted a similar motion, though non- binding for the moment and France announced that it is considering to do the same. In the short-term, this won’t lead to any change whatsoever, though it reflects a change in western people’s mind.
Another important event of this week is that Sodastream closed its factory based in the illegal settlement of Mishor Adumim. This is a good news, given the illegality of its activities in the OPT and, even if neglected by the company, the closure might be seen as a victory of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, that contributed to the withdrawal of Sodastream products from retailers such as Macy’s in the US and John Lewis in the UK. A good news, though, is always followed by a bad news: Sodastream, indeed, will open a factory in the Naqab desert, which will entail massive Bedouin communities displacements. It can be predicted that Sodastream will still remain the target of the BDS movement.
Last but not least, Jerusalem. Trying to follow and understand what’s happening in Jerusalem is difficult, frustrating, humiliating and not understandable. It seems that we’re assisting to a war and, indeed, what we get are war news. Arrests (of Palestinians), killings (on both sides), clashes in the Al-Aqsa mosque, closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque, protests ending up in arrests, injured and killed, proposal of a law in order to divide the Al-Aqsa mosque in a Jewish and Muslim part (as happened for the Ibrahim mosque in Al Khalil, i.e. Hebron), proposal of a law condemning to 20 year imprisonment sentences stone-throwing people (now they are 2), adoption of a law imposing the videotaping of children interviews by the police (excluded the case of children arrested and convicted for security threats, so basically no videotaping will be done, because this clause will be evocated all times), homes demolitions as a collective punishment and call from the Israeli government to increase the cruelty of its measures against the Palestinians, Hamas retaliating against the closure of the mosque and so on. I can’t go in detail on all those issues and I don’t have the space to comment them, though, those who are interested in deepening these subjects can find all the relevant information on the major newspapers.
I want to now turn to a conference I personally attended, held by Calev Meyers (Founder of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, Former Executive Director of the Knesset Caucus for Combatting Anti-Semitism, Former Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Knesset Social Welfare Lobby), Christy Anastas (I won’t spend a word on her beliefs, theories and lies) and Eli Hazan (historian , journalist, Vice President of Advocacy of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice). The conference was about human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza, committed not by Israel but by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. The speakers wanted to tell us facts and the Truth (as if truth with capital letters exists). I didn’t attend the conference because I support those people, but because I was curious about what they were going to say and because I thought that someone must have replied to them and who, if not the persons who know something about Palestine, Israel and international law? Given that the conference was held in my university, I went there and surprisingly (or maybe not!?), the class was almost empty, except for the speakers, an Israeli cameraman and an Israeli journalist and some Israelis and Jews. I must admit that I’m quite relieved that those persons don’t enjoy much credibility in my university. Anyway, the conference started and I want to share with you some of the arguments raised by Mr. Meyers and Mr. Hazan.
Mr. Meyers, the founder of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, began the talk by saying that back in the ‘40s, before the establishment of the State of Israel, the Arab States refused the idea of a two- state solution and that, nowadays, instead of focusing on land and national aspirations, Palestinians and the international community should rather focus on the very essence of human beings and human rights, as the only possible outcome for peace. Seventy years have passed since the UN partition plan, the Arab League refusal for a two- state solution and the creation of the State of Israel, with all the bad consequences and violations of international law (and I mean the international law of that time) it entailed, so it has little if not any sense to go back to those days to claim who is good and who is wrong. Going back to those days should be rather the basis to analyze the frenetic events that took place, establish responsibilities and build the bases for justice. I agree that the human dimension of each one of us is fundamental and it’s because of this consideration that the occupation must end, the Israeli army must withdraw, Palestinians should be granted their rights to self-determination and independence and the ICC should clearly state the crimes committed by Israel from 2002 and onwards. There can’t be peace without justice, when there has been ethnic cleansing, as was the case of the Former Yugoslavia.
Then, he said that his organization is helping Palestinians to reach their national aspirations (he didn’t explain how) and that the main human rights abuses Palestinians suffer occur in the neighboring Arab countries, where they are denied citizenship and access to many public professions (which is by the way sadly true). Therefore, as the situation of Palestinian refugees is worst than that of those living in the West Bank, Gaza and the so-called Arab Israelis, we should focus on Palestinian refugees first, by abandoning the notion and the implementation of the right of return and inventing a highly arguable new right, which he called the “right of absorption”. By that, he was meaning that Palestinians should become citizens of the State in which they’re living, be it Jordan, Syria, Lebanon or whatsoever, and therefore losing their status as refugees. I could agree on the fact that Palestinians should be granted the citizenship in the Arab States where they live, since they’re living there since 1948. Though, I don’t agree on the fact that they should lose their status as refugees, which entails the right of return, never recognized by Israel (while, at the same time, Israel recognizes the right to all the Jews world-wide to return to Israel, their natural and safe homeland). Indeed, being a national of one country is not incompatible with being a refugee or with holding a dual citizenship, which is often the case in mixed couples for example. This is clearly propaganda, aimed at getting rid of the refugees on political grounds, rather than on human rights considerations.
Subsequently, this gentlemen turned to the issue of human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, that, in his opinion, use the money and funding of the international community to maintain the political elite and sponsor terrorism. He asked himself why, given that the PA receives 26 billion dollars a year, this money is not spent on infrastructures, jobs and industry. I thought he must be kidding, given that Palestinians are prevented to build any kind of infrastructure without the consent of Israel and that the industrial sector is hampered by the Israeli occupation. The PA can’t even build or repair a water pipeline without the authorization of the Israeli Civil Administration, so how could he expect Palestinians to build other infrastructures or even an industrial sector? Another example of propaganda. As for the human rights violations committed by both Hamas and the PA, I must admit that I don’t have data on hand or field experience, though I know that some Palestinian and international NGOs, such as the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, are monitoring the situation, conducting research and issuing reports. Violations have been committed and are still committed and those reports show that, without being politically biased and without the intent to delegitimize anyone.
I would like to add also another consideration, which is related to the (non)respect of human rights by Israel towards the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and Israel proper. First, as Israel has de facto control over the West Bank and Gaza, exercises its authority over those two territories and it is a party to the 1989 Convention on the Rights if the Child and the two 1966 International Covenants on Human Rights (ICESCR and ICCPR), it has the obligation to respect and implement the rights of the Palestinians. This means that Israel can’t arrest them without a fair trial, it can’t build settlements, it can’t demolish homes, it can’t reduce their freedom of expression and movement and so on. And yet, these violations occur every single day since 1967 and when I asked the speaker why his association doesn’t focus primarily on the violations his state is committing he didn’t want to answer me. Additionally, even if Arab Israelis (never identified as Israelis solely, but always called Arab Israelis, which highlights the racial bases of the Israeli State) are granted the right to vote and have some representatives in the Knesset, even if they can go to public Israeli universities (but not other schools), even if they are granted some access to the health system, etc. (which sounds obvious, given that they work and pay taxes and are citizens of the State of Israel), they’re still discriminated on an immense number of other rights: no equal access to land purchase, no equal right in freedom of association, of speech and so on. So, what is the purpose of focusing on human rights abuses on Palestinians occurring on the other side of the border by the hand of an external actor, rather than on human rights violations of Israeli citizens?
I must assume, then, that the reasons are political and not humanitarian.
The other speaker, the journalist and (highly questionable) historian, Mr. Hazan talked extensively about Hamas (the evil of all evils) and the democratic deficit both in Gaza and in the West Bank. Additionally, he went on delegitimizing and criminalizing Hamas, whose aim, in his opinion, is not to build a State but to destroy one (referring to Israel). He did go further, by saying that the international community should have condemned the coalition government between Hamas and Fatah. But, if this reconciliation would have driven Hamas on a different political line, based on the recognition of Israel and negotiations as a viable means to solve the conflict, which is the main line of Fatah and that Hamas had to accept, why to exclude it from the talks? Hamas has been elected by Palestinians and we can’t support democracy only when it fits and suits our own interests and values. I’d rather think that Israel and Israeli hardliners have rejected this reunification because it would have changed Hamas mindset, would have reunited the Palestinian society and would have made more difficult for Israel to refuse to talk with Hamas and reach an agreement with the Palestinians.
Moreover, what about the fact that Israel has funded and created Hamas to get rid of Arafat? What about the democratic deficit in Israel, where one is jailed if refuses to serve in the army? What about the Israeli discrimination against Arab Israelis? What about the disproportionate reaction of Israel during the assault on Gaza? Given that he was saying that Israel had the right to defend itself and that it must continue the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip because if not “Arabs will throw Jews into the sea”, these seemed legitimate questions to ask. And though, the answers either didn’t come or were inconsistent and mere propaganda.
If the Israeli society is so scared of an autonomous, free and independent Palestine, why during the negotiations (both with the PA and, later, with Hamas) Israel didn’t accept the Palestinian proposal to have international coalition forces to monitor the borders and the situation?
The talk, which has appeared to be much more into propaganda of the moral superiority of the State of Israel than on human rights violations committed by Palestinians themselves, ended with the only solution to the problem, according the two Israeli speakers: that is, Israeli laws should be extended to all the Palestinian population (in Israel, the West Bank –called by them Judea and Samaria by the way- and Gaza) on the bases that Israel can protect their human rights and that 76% of Palestinians would rather prefer to live under Israeli rule than under the Palestinian one. From where they got that figure we don’t know, given that they didn’t tell us. That Israel might better protect the human rights of Palestinians has proved to not be the case.
Who will benefit from Gaza Recontruction?
The last days have seen Palestine on the stage again in the international arena. At least three events are worth mentioning and discussing.
First, lately, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon visited Israel and Gaza and, for the first time during his second mandate, as far as I can remember, he criticized Israel in an unprecedented way. Ban remarked that Gaza is the “shame of the international community”, that no report or document could have prepared him to see the overall and astonishing destruction of the Strip after the 50- day long attack and, most importantly, he recalled the root causes of Palestinian anger: that is, the 7-year long blockade which prevented and prevents Palestinians to live a normal and decent life. Many of you might consider these statements obvious or even useless, but they are not if contextualized. Palestine has not heard a word of comprehension or has never seen Israel criticized that way by a Chief UN Officer. These statements indicate a slight change in the international community. Additionally, Ban said that the raids of the Al Aqsa compound by Israelis and extremist Jews make things worse and are clear provocations to the Muslim part of the Palestinian population that has seen its freedom of religion hampered during the last 50 years (clashes at Al Aqsa have taken place the last days and the Israeli police intervened with sound grenades and tear gases).
In a joint conference with Bibi Netanyahu, Ban also condemned the settlements plans declared by the Government lately (after, I want to recall you, the biggest land grab in Palestine and the illegal occupation of several homes in Silwan, near Jerusalem), which are clearly illegal under international law.
Ban’s visit to Gaza comes after a conference held in Cairo on Sunday, where international donors met in order to discuss the amount of money to give to the PA to rebuild the Gaza Strip and its infrastructures and the manner in which the materials could arrive in the Strip. Even if the PA asked for 4 billions dollars, the donors accorded it 5.4 billions dollars, Qatar being the main donor. Moreover, Israel has decided to softly lift the siege and allow exports of dates, sweet potatoes and fish from Gaza to the West Bank and allow “movement” from Gaza to the West Bank. Whether this latter measure will be implemented or not is still to be seen, what I can argue is that little is changed: Israel is maintaining the status quo, as it has stated, and it has no willingness or interest in changing the situation.
What comes to my mind after this conference is: who’s going to really benefit from this money? The Palestinians? Well, in a certain way yes, if we don’t consider that they are still constantly under the threat of being bombed again as they were in 2009 and 2012. The real winner here is Israel: indeed, the materials can be imported only from Israel. In the end, the largest amount of that money will be injected in their economy and not in the Palestinian one and not at all in the Gazan one, if there is any. Additionally, the reconstruction would keep Hamas occupied for quite a while.
During the conference, Egypt also proposed to resume the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, which aims at normalizing the relations between all the Arab countries and Israel, at implementing Resolution 194 on Palestinian refugees, at establishing borders and ending the occupation, rejected by the Israeli governments. This move shows that Egypt is not willing to do whatever Israel wants as the latter might have thought, given the measures the new government had taken towards Gaza.
In addition to that, yesterday the British Parliament voted a non- binding motion that recognizes the Palestinian State: 274 voted in its favor and 12 against and the vote has seen many Conservative supporters of Israel voting for it and declaring that this vote represents a shift in the British public opinion and a growing anger against Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. Even if this vote won’t change British governmental policy towards Israel, it is clear that things are changing and that Israel can’t just behave as it pleases without consequences, on a diplomatic and moral plan, when not political. This vote comes after the Swedish one and France has declared that it could do the same. The catalyst has been the violent attack in Gaza and these two moves can trigger similar ones in the whole Europe. The path is still long, full of obstacles and slow but things that wouldn’t have happened few years ago are happening now and slowly we could assist to major political actions in the next decades. Unfortunately, I still remain highly pessimistic on a real improvement of the situation in Palestine and I still argue that occupation must end NOW and when I say NOW I mean NOW, because the lives of real persons are at stake!
Of course, in Israel, the vote has not been welcomed: as happened with the Swedish vote, officials argued that a Palestinian State can rise only through negotiations (which means when Israel will want to recognize Palestine as a State, which means never because they’ll find always a good reason not to do that); that the vote has any legal value (well, neither the Balfour Declaration had any legal value because it was signed by Britain well before the latter was entrusted with the administration of Palestine, so it had any legal entitlement on that territory, but here we are the State of Israel was founded) and it will make things worts for Palestinians. Also leftist Israelis criticized the British Parliament, by saying that this will only make extremist rightists angry and will play their game: so the message is, support the occupation, support harassments, killings, bombings and do whatever the rightists want you to do and wait until Israel will change its opinion. There is a clear madness in all that. Clearly.
As written by Noam Sheizaf:
“When it comes to the occupation, there is not much difference between the Right and most of the Israeli Left. Both sides agree on the need to deal with the Palestinians through military force; both agree on the settlements (make no mistake – the disagreement is about their location, on what makes “a legitimate” settlement, and not on the principle of settling occupied land); both view Palestinian diplomacy as a threat. And most importantly — both see the diplomatic process as a constant attempt to form an Israeli consensus and then shove it down the Palestinians’ throat. This is exactly what MK Bar’s letter was all about.”
Even if it won’t change things in the short-term period, these events send encouraging signs of change, at least in the public opinion (that has always been pro- Israel and has seen Palestinians are the illegitimate inhabitants of that piece of earth and has associated them with Islamic terrorists).
In the end, though, I think that the future of Palestine and the Palestinians is in the hand of the Palestinians themselves: only they can be the vectors of change and in order to do that they have to be as much united as possible and reconstruct their society and their national and collective identity. But this is another issue.
Sources:
http://972mag.com/easing-the-siege-on-gaza-but-only-on-our-terms/97599/
http://972mag.com/labour-mps-vote-yes-on-palestinian-statehood/97604/
http://972mag.com/worlds-delayed-reaction-to-gaza-war-kicks-in/97678/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/14/ban-ki-moon-visits-gaza-views-destruction-of-un-school
From Abbas’s speech at the UNGA to the Palestinian theatre: you can occupy our land but not our free spirits.
Since the last post, at least three things happened in and for Palestine that are worth mentioning. First, Friday 26 September, Mahmoud Abbas gave his speech at the UN General Assembly, where he submitted an application of full UN membership to the Security Council, he called for a resolution to be adopted by the Security Council establishing a deadline for the end of the Israeli occupation and for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestine, he accused Israel of having committed and committing war crimes and where he recalled the responsibility of the international community towards Palestinians. All the speech raised the harsh criticism and opposition of both Israel and the US, unsurprisingly I’d say, given that they are also above and out of the law.
What is interesting, though, is that one week later, on friday 3 October, the new elected Swedish Prime Minister (Stefan Loefven) recognized the State of Palestine. A move which caused the immediate negative reaction of Israel, which summoned the Swedish ambassador to protest against the decision and to express the disappointment of Israel. He also added that this move will not improve the relations between Israel and Palestine, but instead will worsen them. As if the relations between the two State were good. Additionally, the Israel’s ministry’s deputy director general for Europe, Aviv Shir-On, remarked that the recognition made by the Swedish government will give the Palestinians the illusion of being able to reach their statehood unilaterally and without negotiations with Israel, a rhetoric on which Israel, the US and the EU insist since a long time. Hey guys, wake up! First, Palestine has been recognized as a State in 2012 by a UN GA Resolution. Secondly, a State is the product of national aspirations and self-determination, not of negotiations and agreement.
If this is Palestine in the international community, from within the borders the situation is far from being just a matter of diplomacy and discussions. Last week, settlers took over 7 homes in the Palestinian village of Silwan in East Jerusalem. Seven families are now homeless, again, and the settlers’ policy continues on and on without punishment, being protected by the Israeli government and the inaction and passivity of the international community. This practice is not only illegal under international law, but, even more serious, it forms part of the Israeli colonial policy which aims at transforming Palestinian landscape and at colonizing as much land as possible, in order to jeopardize any possible overall control of the land by Palestinians. During the years, there will be no more contiguity between a city, a village, a town and the other. There will be little bantustans, where the PA will have little, if any, authority. All this is happening with a complete and dangerous impunity, to which we have absolutely put an end.
Despite that, attending a conference held by Haim Yacobi (an Israeli architect), I found out that more and more Arab Israelis (who are they you may wonder. Well they are the so-called ’48 Palestinians, that is the Palestinians who managed to remain in Palestine when the State of Israel was created. They hold an Israeli citizenship, though they do not enjoy the same social, political and civil rights of the Israeli citizens) are moving to West Jerusalem (the Israeli part of Jerusalem, even if Israel annexed even the Eastern part of the city in 1967). It is estimated that more than 2000 Arab Israelis are going to live in the richest neighborhoods of the city, such as French Hill, even if the life there is difficult. What bothered me during the difference is that, even if the speaker was assuming that Jerusalem is a colonized city, that the Israeli policies are discrimanitary against the Arabs, in a way which resembles South African apartheid, he didn’t pay attention to terms (which are of fundamental importance) and didn’t explain why Arabs are leaving the Eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Firstly, he used terms such as Jewish neighborhoods and Jews to describe Israelis and Israeli neighborhoods and defined the Arab Israelis as Palestinians, therefore giving the idea that Palestinians in general can go to live to Jerusalem and that the problems between the two communities are religious. Religion has nothing to do with the Palestinian conflict and this is clear to any critical person. Secondly, Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank can’t absolutely live in Jerusalem and they can barely cross the frontier with Israel. They need to apply for a permit to go in Israel (and Jerusalem is its illegal capital), that is more than often denied. Thirdly, the Arab Israelis moving to the Western neighborhoods have their good reasons to do that: the Eastern part of the city is not served by the public transportation, there’s only a hospital, water supply is intermittent and garbage is not collected from the streets. Practical reasons lead these people to move and it’s not an attempt to decolonize Jerusalem as he wanted to affirm.
Another conference attracted my attention the same week and it was about the Palestinian theatre, a cultural manifestation more and more present and active in the West Bank. There are many theatres in Palestine today and they’re doing a great job in terms of performance (if you have the chance to see a Palestinian play, just go there! The quality of the script and of the actors is stunning. They use allegories, humour, irony, simple but effective scenographies and they talk to your heart), in terms of building and enforcing national identity and in terms of relief to kids and young people, living under constant fear and stress. The audience was constituted mainly by leftist people, already educated on the Palestinian question, though it is always surprising to realize how stupid people can be. Given that in Palestine actors do not enjoy the support and the respect of the society (because acting is not providing money), one lady argued that theatre, in the end, is not part of the Arab culture and so neither of the Palestinian one. By that, she wanted to assume that theatre and art are Western prerogatives and not something inherent to any people on earth. Hopefully, a well prepared and educated Palestinian actor (of Yes Theatre in Al Khalil-Hebron) answered her that the Arab theatre has more than 2000 years and that the Palestinian one has several centuries on its shoulders. Then, another person of the public asked in what ways theatre does contribute to fight the occupation. One of the theatre’s director answered her that theatre helps people in their daily life through the improvisation techniques they teach and because there children and young guys and girls can be free to express themselves. I would add that culture is one of the most powerful tool we have to fight the occupation. They can occupy our land, our homes and they can uproot our trees, but they can’t occupy our minds, our souls, our hearts. By making art, we show that life goes on and whatever they do to us, we will not let them preventing us from living life in all its forms, art included.
wedonthaveacountry 