As we trudge through the terraced land, ducking under branches of olive trees and trying to avoid prickly bushes, I think about landscape, consciousness, and memory. We are walking through the land because Israeli soldiers are blocking the road ahead. They are blocking the road ahead so as not to allow people to arrive in the Palestinian village of Bil’in. We are going to Bil’in in order to protest the confiscation of the village’s land for settlement and wall construction. At Bil’in’s demonstration a week earlier, 36-year-old Jawaher Abu Rahme inhaled a lethal dose of tear gas. Her brother Bassem was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier at a protest in the village just under two years ago.
So we traipse through the olive groves, only slightly out of view of the soldiers on the road, and a line by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish comes to mind: “If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them, their oil would become tears.” Bil’in has become a battleground, the surrounding landscape a stage for a risky game of cat and mouse. What kind of consciousness does the land have? What would it say if it could? The wall is often described as a scar through Palestine, but right now it is more of a fresh wound. When the wall falls, will the scar left be permanent?
Two days before this protest, our group wakes up at the Yafa Cultural Center in Balata refugee camp, Nablus. We eat breakfast, thank our hosts, and get in a bus with the right color license plate, driven by a driver with the right color ID card, and head towards the city of Yafa. The Yafa Cultural Center is thus named because the vast majority of people living in Balata refugee camp come originally from Yafa and the surrounding area. Most of these people have never seen their original villages, or have not been back since their displacement in 1948. I am hesitant to tell our hosts where we are going, knowing that my visit to Yafa – and their inability to join us – is emblematic of the injustice I try so hard to fight.
On the way, we encounter another fresh wound / scar-to-be. We have split into two vehicles, and I am driving a small rental car with two Palestinian women from the West Bank, and two of our whiter and blonder American group members. When we see the checkpoint ahead, we take a deep breath, but we have no reason to believe this will be any different than the many other times I have used my undeserved privilege to “smuggle” Palestinians into parts of their own country that they are not allowed to visit. But this time is different. A soldier or security guard (it’s hard to tell the difference these days) signals for us to stop, and my trick of waving and continuing to drive is thwarted by a new metal bar that the soldiers operate. It looks like a toll booth, only the highway employees are armed and the context much more insidious. When she asks for our passports, we stumble a bit before saying we left them in a hotel in Tel Aviv. We say we are five American tourists. She is skeptical.
We are ordered to pull over and get out of the car. It continues from there: questioning, searching, rapid fire questions to the two Palestinian women about their names, their parents’ names, where they are from, whether they speak any languages other than English. It is maddening and terrifying, and I am standing there wishing we had prepared better, wishing my privilege-driven arrogance – which is often what helps me get through checkpoints – had been mitigated at least enough for us to have had a plan, a story, a mindset that might help us get through this. We tell the guard we had been in the Israeli settlement of Ariel, visiting a friend. I am making it up as I go along. She wants my friend’s name and phone number. I quickly call an old Israeli friend who doesn’t even know I’m in the country. He is surprised and happy to hear from me and asks, “When did you get here?” “There’s a security guard here who wants to talk to you about our visit to your house in Ariel,” I say. “I don’t live in Ariel,” he says, confused. “We’re at the checkpoint on our way from your place to Tel Aviv,” I respond. He catches on.
At this point I’m only trying to get us out of here, not even to get through, but with every question from the guards/soldiers, our story has more and more holes. Finally we talk our way out of the situation and are allowed to “return” to Ariel (where we have not been). Hearts are pounding. I am feeling guilty for my arrogance, and my Palestinian friends are feeling humiliated. They are not entirely surprised by the way they have been treated, but are deeply upset at the degree to which it has affected them.
We drive south, towards another checkpoint that is easier to get through, and I think about how much pain and injustice a people and a place can hold. None of us share exactly what we are feeling – probably none of us are able – but we make a tentative plan for the next checkpoint. We drive through without stopping, and have a small celebration in the car. But we feel uneasy. We are still nervous about being caught. My friend who would at this point usually take off her hat and put back on her head scarf does not do so quite yet. We feel the occupation in our bodies, in our minds. I am not experiencing anything close to what my Palestinian friends are, yet my visceral reaction offers a fragment of understanding of how this system is able to function.
We arrive in Yafa and go first to the sea. One friend has not seen it since she was a child – except as a reminder from the hills of Nablus on a clear day – and her eyes immediately fill with tears. She thanks me. I am speechless. The last thing I want at that moment is to be thanked for bringing a friend to her own land.
As we walk around Yafa and Tel Aviv, I am struck by a sense of permanence. Although I know that the Jewish presence in this city is only a hundred years in the making, while the Palestinian presence is thousands of years deep, it is hard now to imagine the undoing or even the transformation of this place. There are other parts of the country in which it is hard to imagine the continuation of an exclusively Jewish state, but in Tel Aviv, I often feel an overwhelming sense of the opposite.
A couple days ago I was talking with an Israeli friend who works with Zochrot. The organization raises awareness about the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) of 1948. They visit destroyed villages and place signs there with the villages’ original names; organize art exhibits and lectures; facilitate workshops for school children; and engage in other activities to affect the Israeli collective memory. My friend was telling me that he will soon start to focus even more on outreach to the Israeli public. A few minutes later the topic turned to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He excitedly told me that he has hope in this movement, that it’s clear from his perspective that the international movement is growing, and that only pressure from the outside can change the reality on the ground. “Then why do you want to focus more on the Israeli public?” I ask. He thought for a minute, and then responded: “My work is not going to have an immediate effect on the political situation here. What I’m doing is preparing for the day after Zionism.”
May we all be strong enough and imaginative enough to envision justice: to see roads without checkpoints, to remember when Bil’in was a village and not a battleground, and indeed, to work together to bring about the day after Zionism.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Thursday, July 01, 2010
BDS, books, videos, etc.
Dear friends,
This is a hodgepodge of an e-mail with a few links of projects/events I'm personally connected to in some way (plus a couple other things...):
1) On June 15 I took part in an event called "Jewish Perspectives on the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) Campaign." Yonatan Shapira and I spoke in favor of BDS, and Kathleen Peratis and JJ Goldberg spoke against. Moderated by Esther Kaplan. You can hear more about each of us in the intros in the video. There were 200+ people there, spilling out into the hallways of a church basement (after every Jewish space the organizers could think of had turned them down). It was a really interesting discussion to have within a room of mostly (but not entirely) Jewish people, and teased out some of the issues of BDS as well as some of the underlying issues behind the BDS movement and behind Jewish participation or reluctance in supporting the movement. There's a lot of discussion about the character of Israel as a Jewish state, for example. I'll say no more, but if you have 2 hours, give it a look (or if you want to see all the speakers' opening statements, they're each about 10 minutes long near the beginning. I'm the first one, and start at around 8 minutes (after the intros): The link: http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/jewish-perspectives-boycott-divestment-sanctions-bds-campaign
2. I have a chapter in a recently published book called "Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation." I'm happy to report that most if not all of the women in the book are not only confronting "the occupation" (of '67, as is usually implied), but going deeper into the core issues of Zionism, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and more. My chapter is about the search for my friend's home in Jerusalem; his family had been kicked out in 1948 and had not been back since. Check it out: http://www.shiftingsands-book.com/
3. Another book recommendation: "Letters from Palestine: Palestinians Speak Out about Their Lives, Their Country, and the Power of Nonviolence," edited by Kenneth Ring and Ghassan Abdullah. I am impressed by the variety of people and the fact that the book is in the words of the people it is about. I also know many of the people featured in the book, and several of them are people I put the editors in touch with. Sorry all I have is an Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Palestine-Palestinians-Country-Nonviolence/dp/1604944161/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277998162&sr=8-2
4. Just a little FYI and testament to the growing popularity, success, and visibility of the cultural boycott movement, CNN did a 3 minute piece a few days ago: http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/06/28/hancocks.cultural.boycott.cnn?iref=allsearch
5. Another powerful 3 minute video - this Jewish (and now Israeli) man is originally from Hebron (before Israel was a state), and recently met with the Palestinian mayor of Hebron to ask permission to be buried in a Muslim cemetary there and to state that he will reclaim his property in Hebron the day that Palestinians are able to reclaim the properties taken from them in 1948: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=294067 (scroll down for the video).
I'm sure I missed a million other powerful and interesting videos and books, but I just wanted to share a few here. I'm leaving for Palestine soon to work with the Students Boycott Apartheid delegation (students working on inspiring BDS campaigns around the country) and to participate in the Right to Education international student conference. I hope to write to you all from Palestine.
Til then,
Hannah
This is a hodgepodge of an e-mail with a few links of projects/events I'm personally connected to in some way (plus a couple other things...):
1) On June 15 I took part in an event called "Jewish Perspectives on the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) Campaign." Yonatan Shapira and I spoke in favor of BDS, and Kathleen Peratis and JJ Goldberg spoke against. Moderated by Esther Kaplan. You can hear more about each of us in the intros in the video. There were 200+ people there, spilling out into the hallways of a church basement (after every Jewish space the organizers could think of had turned them down). It was a really interesting discussion to have within a room of mostly (but not entirely) Jewish people, and teased out some of the issues of BDS as well as some of the underlying issues behind the BDS movement and behind Jewish participation or reluctance in supporting the movement. There's a lot of discussion about the character of Israel as a Jewish state, for example. I'll say no more, but if you have 2 hours, give it a look (or if you want to see all the speakers' opening statements, they're each about 10 minutes long near the beginning. I'm the first one, and start at around 8 minutes (after the intros): The link: http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/jewish-perspectives-boycott-divestment-sanctions-bds-campaign
2. I have a chapter in a recently published book called "Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation." I'm happy to report that most if not all of the women in the book are not only confronting "the occupation" (of '67, as is usually implied), but going deeper into the core issues of Zionism, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and more. My chapter is about the search for my friend's home in Jerusalem; his family had been kicked out in 1948 and had not been back since. Check it out: http://www.shiftingsands-book.com/
3. Another book recommendation: "Letters from Palestine: Palestinians Speak Out about Their Lives, Their Country, and the Power of Nonviolence," edited by Kenneth Ring and Ghassan Abdullah. I am impressed by the variety of people and the fact that the book is in the words of the people it is about. I also know many of the people featured in the book, and several of them are people I put the editors in touch with. Sorry all I have is an Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Palestine-Palestinians-Country-Nonviolence/dp/1604944161/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277998162&sr=8-2
4. Just a little FYI and testament to the growing popularity, success, and visibility of the cultural boycott movement, CNN did a 3 minute piece a few days ago: http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/06/28/hancocks.cultural.boycott.cnn?iref=allsearch
5. Another powerful 3 minute video - this Jewish (and now Israeli) man is originally from Hebron (before Israel was a state), and recently met with the Palestinian mayor of Hebron to ask permission to be buried in a Muslim cemetary there and to state that he will reclaim his property in Hebron the day that Palestinians are able to reclaim the properties taken from them in 1948: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=294067 (scroll down for the video).
I'm sure I missed a million other powerful and interesting videos and books, but I just wanted to share a few here. I'm leaving for Palestine soon to work with the Students Boycott Apartheid delegation (students working on inspiring BDS campaigns around the country) and to participate in the Right to Education international student conference. I hope to write to you all from Palestine.
Til then,
Hannah
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Breaking the Law of Return
February 2010
I am excited to share with you a statement that I have worked on with Anna Baltzer, Nava Etshalom, and Amy Kaplan, and to invite you to sign and/or support it. Throughout the years, many people have drawn attention to the injustice of Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes and land, and Israel’s simultaneous implementation of a “law of return” that affords Jews from anywhere automatic Israeli citizenship rights and privileges. In “Breaking the Law of Return,” we are pledging not to take advantage of this law of return (promising that we will not take Israeli citizenship), and we are doing so in the context of the Palestinian-led Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) movement. We are, essentially, boycotting the law of return. The full statement is below.
What you can do:
1. If you are a U.S. Jew who supports this statement, sign on by e-mailing breakingthelawofreturn@gmail.com with your name, city, and institutional/organizational affiliations, if any. (We won't publicize institutional affiliations.) Do it now - it only takes a minute!
2. If you are anybody anywhere in the world who supports this statement, Jewish or not, join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=296967332350 and invite all your friends to join! Do it now - it only takes a minute!
3. Stay tuned for further announcements as we gather more signatures on the statement. It is not simply a statement; we will use it in BDS-related actions in the coming months, and will keep you posted about this.
Looking forward to seeing many of your beautiful faces on our Facebook page, and your names on the statement.
-Hannah
Breaking the Law of Return:
We are Jews from the United States, who, like Jewish people throughout the world, have an automatic right to Israeli citizenship under Israel's "law of return."
Today there are more than seven million Palestinian refugees around the world. Israel denies their right to return to their homes and land—a right recognized and undisputed by UN Resolution 194, the Geneva Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meanwhile, we are invited to live on that same land simply because we are Jewish.
We renounce this "right" to "return" offered to us by Israeli law. It is not right that we may "return" to a state that is not ours while Palestinians are excluded and continuously dispossessed.
In 1947-49, Zionist militias destroyed more than 500 Palestinian villages and made more than 800,000 Palestinian people refugees in order to create a Jewish state on land where the majority was not Jewish. It is Palestinians who have the right to return to their own land.
Now in Gaza, where more than three quarters of the people are refugees, the State of Israel not only denies the population its right of return, but also incarcerates the entire Gaza Strip under illegal and inhumane siege conditions.
We reject the notion that Israel is a "safe haven" from anti-Semitism for Jews. No one is truly safe when the price of that "security" is oppression, inequality, and occupation of another people.
Today there is a growing transnational movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, called for by Palestinian civil society and supported by activists, artists, and academics around the world, including an increasing number of conscientious Israelis. As part of this campaign, we pledge to boycott the "law of return." As an act of political and ideological divestment, we repudiate the claims the State of Israel makes on us as potential citizens.
We protest Israel’s colonial policies and discriminatory laws toward the Palestinian people, as well as the U.S. government's political and financial support of these policies.
We hereby renounce Israel's "law of return" and refuse to lend the state our support, resources, or passports.
------
TO SIGN THE "BREAKING THE LAW OF RETURN" STATEMENT: email breakingthelawofreturn@gmail.com. Please include your name, city, and institutional/organizational affiliations, if any. (We won't publicize institutional affiliations.)
Note: This statement specifies the United States because of the enormous funding, political support, and international legitimization the U.S. supplies to Israel. Israel's "law of return," however, applies to Jews throughout the world, and we hope organizers in other countries will make use of the statement and adapt it for your own use.
We are inspired by the letter by UK Jews, "We Renounce Israel Rights," published in the Guardian: http://bit.ly/aidlq2
I am excited to share with you a statement that I have worked on with Anna Baltzer, Nava Etshalom, and Amy Kaplan, and to invite you to sign and/or support it. Throughout the years, many people have drawn attention to the injustice of Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes and land, and Israel’s simultaneous implementation of a “law of return” that affords Jews from anywhere automatic Israeli citizenship rights and privileges. In “Breaking the Law of Return,” we are pledging not to take advantage of this law of return (promising that we will not take Israeli citizenship), and we are doing so in the context of the Palestinian-led Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) movement. We are, essentially, boycotting the law of return. The full statement is below.
What you can do:
1. If you are a U.S. Jew who supports this statement, sign on by e-mailing breakingthelawofreturn@gmail.com with your name, city, and institutional/organizational affiliations, if any. (We won't publicize institutional affiliations.) Do it now - it only takes a minute!
2. If you are anybody anywhere in the world who supports this statement, Jewish or not, join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=296967332350 and invite all your friends to join! Do it now - it only takes a minute!
3. Stay tuned for further announcements as we gather more signatures on the statement. It is not simply a statement; we will use it in BDS-related actions in the coming months, and will keep you posted about this.
Looking forward to seeing many of your beautiful faces on our Facebook page, and your names on the statement.
-Hannah
Breaking the Law of Return:
We are Jews from the United States, who, like Jewish people throughout the world, have an automatic right to Israeli citizenship under Israel's "law of return."
Today there are more than seven million Palestinian refugees around the world. Israel denies their right to return to their homes and land—a right recognized and undisputed by UN Resolution 194, the Geneva Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meanwhile, we are invited to live on that same land simply because we are Jewish.
We renounce this "right" to "return" offered to us by Israeli law. It is not right that we may "return" to a state that is not ours while Palestinians are excluded and continuously dispossessed.
In 1947-49, Zionist militias destroyed more than 500 Palestinian villages and made more than 800,000 Palestinian people refugees in order to create a Jewish state on land where the majority was not Jewish. It is Palestinians who have the right to return to their own land.
Now in Gaza, where more than three quarters of the people are refugees, the State of Israel not only denies the population its right of return, but also incarcerates the entire Gaza Strip under illegal and inhumane siege conditions.
We reject the notion that Israel is a "safe haven" from anti-Semitism for Jews. No one is truly safe when the price of that "security" is oppression, inequality, and occupation of another people.
Today there is a growing transnational movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, called for by Palestinian civil society and supported by activists, artists, and academics around the world, including an increasing number of conscientious Israelis. As part of this campaign, we pledge to boycott the "law of return." As an act of political and ideological divestment, we repudiate the claims the State of Israel makes on us as potential citizens.
We protest Israel’s colonial policies and discriminatory laws toward the Palestinian people, as well as the U.S. government's political and financial support of these policies.
We hereby renounce Israel's "law of return" and refuse to lend the state our support, resources, or passports.
------
TO SIGN THE "BREAKING THE LAW OF RETURN" STATEMENT: email breakingthelawofreturn@gmail.com. Please include your name, city, and institutional/organizational affiliations, if any. (We won't publicize institutional affiliations.)
Note: This statement specifies the United States because of the enormous funding, political support, and international legitimization the U.S. supplies to Israel. Israel's "law of return," however, applies to Jews throughout the world, and we hope organizers in other countries will make use of the statement and adapt it for your own use.
We are inspired by the letter by UK Jews, "We Renounce Israel Rights," published in the Guardian: http://bit.ly/aidlq2
Monday, July 20, 2009
Security
“The war is with the Arabs.”
I saw this sign as I was entering Nablus last week, again on my way to Ramallah, and again near Bethlehem. The phrase is printed in Hebrew, presumably by Israeli settlers, on huge signs throughout the West Bank. Israeli racism rarely shocks me anymore, but its blatant display still makes me stop and catch my breath as I translate it into other contexts. Imagine driving through the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood in a US city or town and seeing a humongous sign that says, “The war is with the Blacks.”
I think about security. Israel’s abuse of the word has rendered the concept almost meaningless in the region, but the importance of security on individual and communal levels cannot be underestimated. However, most discussions I see in the media about security ignore the Palestinian people’s right to security. “The war is with the Arabs” is a new sign, as far as I know, but for years in the West Bank I have seen stars of David scrawled on Palestinian shops and homes, and signs like “Death to Arabs” and “Kahane was right” (Kahane was an extremist political leader who promoted ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people; this sign is essentially equivalent to “Hitler was right” in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood).
But signs are not only created; they are also destroyed. Since 1948, Palestinian people inside Israel have experienced erasure and denial of their identities that is perhaps stronger than that of any other group of Palestinian people. I visited a friend in Lyd last week who lives on Giborai Yisrael (“Heroes of Israel”) Street. Driving around the Palestinian neighborhoods in Lyd, we passed roads bearing the names of Herzl, Jabotinsky, and other Zionist leaders. None of the old Arabic street names remain. Even the large cities with considerable Palestinian populations are now seeing the Arabic names officially erased from the signs. In Arabic script, “Yaffa” will become “Yafo,” “Nasra” will become “Natzeret,” and “Al Quds” will become “Yerushalayim.”
Lack of security goes beyond denial of identity and history as visually expressed through signs. A Palestinian friend with Israeli citizenship told me he has heard a rumor that a huge piece of land in Jordan is being cleared and built up for the eventual arrival of the Palestinian population of Israel after they are transferred from their homes. “It may be conspiracy theory,” he said, “but I don’t know.”
“I’d like to think that Israel couldn’t get away with that,” I responded.
“Of course they can,” another friend from Lyd said, “and if the conditions are right, they will.”
Imagine living day to day thinking you might be expelled from your country in the near future. Or in Gaza, wondering if you will be killed tomorrow, or if you will ever be able to come in and out of your country at will. Or in the West Bank, if your son will be arrested, or if you will be able to get through the checkpoint in the morning to get to work. Or in Jerusalem, if your residency will be stripped or your house destroyed.
Imagine little correlation between choice and consequence, an arbitrary relationship between cause and effect. If you are just as likely to get shot and killed sipping tea in your doorway, or sitting in your fourth grade classroom, or participating in a demonstration, or joining the armed resistance, is it any surprise that some choose each?
A friend of mine from the West Bank once told me that she never feels safe, so safety is not a consideration for her in making decisions. As much as I may try, I cannot truly imagine this lack of control.
I met a woman in Jerusalem who was displaced from her home by settlers, physically removed from her house by dozens of Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night. Twice a refugee (1948 and 2008), Um Kamel currently lives in a tent near her house that has been destroyed and re-pitched six times in the past six months. This is perhaps the height of insecurity, and yet Um Kamel stays strong and determined. Many in Palestine would call it sumoud, or steadfastness.
This kind of strength is seen remarkably often in Palestine, and indicates a deeper security that comes in part from faith. Faith in God, sometimes, but also faith in each other, in the justice of one’s cause, in the tide of history that has shown that no single occupation in Palestine lasts forever. This, of course, is also Israel’s deepest fear. That no matter how many walls they build, how many people they imprison, how many homes they destroy, how many signs they erase, and how many people they expel, true security will remain elusive, and eventually, Zionism will fail. As many older Palestinian people have said to me, with security, “We have lived through many occupations. This too shall pass.”
I saw this sign as I was entering Nablus last week, again on my way to Ramallah, and again near Bethlehem. The phrase is printed in Hebrew, presumably by Israeli settlers, on huge signs throughout the West Bank. Israeli racism rarely shocks me anymore, but its blatant display still makes me stop and catch my breath as I translate it into other contexts. Imagine driving through the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood in a US city or town and seeing a humongous sign that says, “The war is with the Blacks.”
I think about security. Israel’s abuse of the word has rendered the concept almost meaningless in the region, but the importance of security on individual and communal levels cannot be underestimated. However, most discussions I see in the media about security ignore the Palestinian people’s right to security. “The war is with the Arabs” is a new sign, as far as I know, but for years in the West Bank I have seen stars of David scrawled on Palestinian shops and homes, and signs like “Death to Arabs” and “Kahane was right” (Kahane was an extremist political leader who promoted ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people; this sign is essentially equivalent to “Hitler was right” in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood).
But signs are not only created; they are also destroyed. Since 1948, Palestinian people inside Israel have experienced erasure and denial of their identities that is perhaps stronger than that of any other group of Palestinian people. I visited a friend in Lyd last week who lives on Giborai Yisrael (“Heroes of Israel”) Street. Driving around the Palestinian neighborhoods in Lyd, we passed roads bearing the names of Herzl, Jabotinsky, and other Zionist leaders. None of the old Arabic street names remain. Even the large cities with considerable Palestinian populations are now seeing the Arabic names officially erased from the signs. In Arabic script, “Yaffa” will become “Yafo,” “Nasra” will become “Natzeret,” and “Al Quds” will become “Yerushalayim.”
Lack of security goes beyond denial of identity and history as visually expressed through signs. A Palestinian friend with Israeli citizenship told me he has heard a rumor that a huge piece of land in Jordan is being cleared and built up for the eventual arrival of the Palestinian population of Israel after they are transferred from their homes. “It may be conspiracy theory,” he said, “but I don’t know.”
“I’d like to think that Israel couldn’t get away with that,” I responded.
“Of course they can,” another friend from Lyd said, “and if the conditions are right, they will.”
Imagine living day to day thinking you might be expelled from your country in the near future. Or in Gaza, wondering if you will be killed tomorrow, or if you will ever be able to come in and out of your country at will. Or in the West Bank, if your son will be arrested, or if you will be able to get through the checkpoint in the morning to get to work. Or in Jerusalem, if your residency will be stripped or your house destroyed.
Imagine little correlation between choice and consequence, an arbitrary relationship between cause and effect. If you are just as likely to get shot and killed sipping tea in your doorway, or sitting in your fourth grade classroom, or participating in a demonstration, or joining the armed resistance, is it any surprise that some choose each?
A friend of mine from the West Bank once told me that she never feels safe, so safety is not a consideration for her in making decisions. As much as I may try, I cannot truly imagine this lack of control.
I met a woman in Jerusalem who was displaced from her home by settlers, physically removed from her house by dozens of Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night. Twice a refugee (1948 and 2008), Um Kamel currently lives in a tent near her house that has been destroyed and re-pitched six times in the past six months. This is perhaps the height of insecurity, and yet Um Kamel stays strong and determined. Many in Palestine would call it sumoud, or steadfastness.
This kind of strength is seen remarkably often in Palestine, and indicates a deeper security that comes in part from faith. Faith in God, sometimes, but also faith in each other, in the justice of one’s cause, in the tide of history that has shown that no single occupation in Palestine lasts forever. This, of course, is also Israel’s deepest fear. That no matter how many walls they build, how many people they imprison, how many homes they destroy, how many signs they erase, and how many people they expel, true security will remain elusive, and eventually, Zionism will fail. As many older Palestinian people have said to me, with security, “We have lived through many occupations. This too shall pass.”
Friday, May 22, 2009
Leonard Cohen to play in Israel... unless we stop him!
Dear friends,
For those of you who haven't been following the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, I have good news: It is growing! And even meeting many successes! Not too many in the US yet, but I do believe we are well on our way. Just as in the movement against apartheid South Africa, which is in many ways a model for this movement against apartheid Israel, cultural boycott plays a key role. Some of you may remember "Ain't Gonna Play Sun City." Well, we are now encouraging artists to say, "Ain't Gonna Play Israel." Many cultural workers (musicians, writers, directors) have canceled recent trips to Israel; some (like Adrienne Rich) have declared support for the BDS movement, and some have simply cited "logistical concerns" but were actually in private conversation with leaders in the movement.
We often try to put pressure on artists who are otherwise progressive, who otherwise believe in peace and justice. We remind them that performing in Israel right now will only serve to whitewash Israel's apartheid policies, and will be used by the Israeli government to legitimize its actions. We say this now to Leonard Cohen. If you haven't already, please write to Cohen's manager Robert Kory - info@rkmgment.com - and encourage him to cancel the show in Israel. It is scheduled to take place on September 24, but tickets have not yet been put on sale. Some fellow activists of mine met with Kory last week in New York, and it seems that we have a fighting chance, if only because they are desperate to avoid protest. We need to tell them that the way to avoid protest is not to perform in Israel! To take a stand against apartheid, instead of for it.
If you need some inspiration, watch this video of our demonstration in New York last week when Cohen performed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjU_zdfX9Eg It's complete with chants and songs that you are welcome to use. And please forward to anyone you know in eastern Canada, Denver, or the various places in Europe that are on Cohen's tour schedule in the coming weeks and months.
And... for the Facebookers out there, join the group "Leonard Cohen, drop Israel from your world tour!" at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=81564072660&ref=ts.
For more on the NY Leonard Cohen demo and to download the flyer: adalahny.org.
For more info on cultural boycott: pacbi.org.
Hope all is well with all of you. My next e-mail may very well be from Palestine.
Best,
Hannah
For those of you who haven't been following the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, I have good news: It is growing! And even meeting many successes! Not too many in the US yet, but I do believe we are well on our way. Just as in the movement against apartheid South Africa, which is in many ways a model for this movement against apartheid Israel, cultural boycott plays a key role. Some of you may remember "Ain't Gonna Play Sun City." Well, we are now encouraging artists to say, "Ain't Gonna Play Israel." Many cultural workers (musicians, writers, directors) have canceled recent trips to Israel; some (like Adrienne Rich) have declared support for the BDS movement, and some have simply cited "logistical concerns" but were actually in private conversation with leaders in the movement.
We often try to put pressure on artists who are otherwise progressive, who otherwise believe in peace and justice. We remind them that performing in Israel right now will only serve to whitewash Israel's apartheid policies, and will be used by the Israeli government to legitimize its actions. We say this now to Leonard Cohen. If you haven't already, please write to Cohen's manager Robert Kory - info@rkmgment.com - and encourage him to cancel the show in Israel. It is scheduled to take place on September 24, but tickets have not yet been put on sale. Some fellow activists of mine met with Kory last week in New York, and it seems that we have a fighting chance, if only because they are desperate to avoid protest. We need to tell them that the way to avoid protest is not to perform in Israel! To take a stand against apartheid, instead of for it.
If you need some inspiration, watch this video of our demonstration in New York last week when Cohen performed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjU_zdfX9Eg It's complete with chants and songs that you are welcome to use. And please forward to anyone you know in eastern Canada, Denver, or the various places in Europe that are on Cohen's tour schedule in the coming weeks and months.
And... for the Facebookers out there, join the group "Leonard Cohen, drop Israel from your world tour!" at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=81564072660&ref=ts.
For more on the NY Leonard Cohen demo and to download the flyer: adalahny.org.
For more info on cultural boycott: pacbi.org.
Hope all is well with all of you. My next e-mail may very well be from Palestine.
Best,
Hannah
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Hampshire College divests... and needs your support!
Dear friends,
I am so excited to report to you that Hampshire College has become the first US college or university to divest from Israeli occupation, just as they were the first to divest from South African apartheid in 1977! You can read all about it to your heart's content at the Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) website: http://www.hsjp.org/
But Hampshire SJP, and the boycott and divestment movement at large, need your help! The Hampshire administration has distanced itself from the decision, claiming that the board's decision to divest was a broader one, not tied to any particular political cause. The Hampshire community knows better. Alan Dershowitz also knows better, and has threatened Hampshire with his own divestment campaign against the college. It seems the administration is trying, as Alan Dershowitz has said, to play to both sides. Let's help them be clear, by writing to them, congratulating them, and encouraging them to be proud of their groundbreaking decision!
Below is a suggested letter that SJP has drafted. You can feel free to use it or write your own to Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521.
And do check out the students' website for more, including:
SJP's press release
SJP's response to the administration's clarification
videos of student and community voices in support
Onward!
-Hannah
From Hampshire SJP:
The following is the script to guide you in e-mailing the president's office [Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521]:
Hello, my name is _____. I am calling/e-mailing to express my congratulations to Hampshire College for your historic decision to divest from the Israeli Occupation. This move should be an example to all institutions of higher learning across the world.
However, I am disappointed that the administration has been trying to distance itself from the decision and de-politicize the powerful statement that divestment sends. In your response to the Student's public campaign, you have repeatedly insisted that the divestment decision had a "variety of reasons" for going through, and that it had no regional or political significance. However, the length & intensity of the campaign that the Students for Justice in Palestine have run makes it clear that it was their efforts that brought this divestment to the table. I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your position on divestment and express your support for the students' efforts in an official statement soon.
Lastly, your failure to condemn the threats Alan Dershowitz has made towards SJP's spokespeople is deplorable. Dershowitz has called for a boycott on the College and you have still maintained your "neutral" position, hurting the students, the college, and yourself. I urge you to protect your students and their right to speak out on this monumental occasion.
Thank you.
I am so excited to report to you that Hampshire College has become the first US college or university to divest from Israeli occupation, just as they were the first to divest from South African apartheid in 1977! You can read all about it to your heart's content at the Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) website: http://www.hsjp.org/
But Hampshire SJP, and the boycott and divestment movement at large, need your help! The Hampshire administration has distanced itself from the decision, claiming that the board's decision to divest was a broader one, not tied to any particular political cause. The Hampshire community knows better. Alan Dershowitz also knows better, and has threatened Hampshire with his own divestment campaign against the college. It seems the administration is trying, as Alan Dershowitz has said, to play to both sides. Let's help them be clear, by writing to them, congratulating them, and encouraging them to be proud of their groundbreaking decision!
Below is a suggested letter that SJP has drafted. You can feel free to use it or write your own to Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521.
And do check out the students' website for more, including:
SJP's press release
SJP's response to the administration's clarification
videos of student and community voices in support
Onward!
-Hannah
From Hampshire SJP:
The following is the script to guide you in e-mailing the president's office [Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521]:
Hello, my name is _____. I am calling/e-mailing to express my congratulations to Hampshire College for your historic decision to divest from the Israeli Occupation. This move should be an example to all institutions of higher learning across the world.
However, I am disappointed that the administration has been trying to distance itself from the decision and de-politicize the powerful statement that divestment sends. In your response to the Student's public campaign, you have repeatedly insisted that the divestment decision had a "variety of reasons" for going through, and that it had no regional or political significance. However, the length & intensity of the campaign that the Students for Justice in Palestine have run makes it clear that it was their efforts that brought this divestment to the table. I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your position on divestment and express your support for the students' efforts in an official statement soon.
Lastly, your failure to condemn the threats Alan Dershowitz has made towards SJP's spokespeople is deplorable. Dershowitz has called for a boycott on the College and you have still maintained your "neutral" position, hurting the students, the college, and yourself. I urge you to protect your students and their right to speak out on this monumental occasion.
Thank you.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
update on Gaza mother's story, and some inspiring activism
Dear friends,
Since my last e-mail, many of you wrote asking for more information about the story I shared of a mother whose five children were murdered. Barbara Lubin, director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, was the person I was quoting, and she has also received many e-mails, prompting her to look more fully into the story. The most recent update follows, and is from an e-mail that Barbara received from her friend Talal, who did further research after Barbara left Gaza. You will see that many of the details are the same and many are quite different. You can also find this family’s story on various new sites online. Below is the e-mail from Talal.
Let us also remember that despite a “cease-fire,” Israel continues to bomb Gaza on a daily basis (albeit less so than during the “war”). People in the hospitals continue to die because of the ongoing siege and lack of treatment. And… the world continues to protest. Congratulations to the South African dockworkers who refused to unload a ship with Israeli goods last week: http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/286, http://www.anarkismo.net/article/11864. And kudos to all the university students who have been occupying campus buildings to demand justice for Gaza and divestment from Israel. Most of those students are British, but a special shout out to the students of Rochester, NY, who have conducted (with success!) the first campus occupation at a US university during this time: http://prometheus.scp.rochester.edu/ursds/node/86, http://www.thesitch.com/occupation/.
Let’s keep on keeping on.
-Hannah
E-mail from Talal to Barbara:
Dear Barbara,
It's the first time i have had internet. I hope you are O.K...you and all of our friends. I heard from Dr. Mona that you are under great pressure because of the story you have published about the crime of that woman. Be sure that it was a fact and we are ready to receive any investigation committee to check out the facts. But as you know during the wars and when death is very close, the popular memory interferes and colors the action with it's special details. We all heard the story on the local radio as I narrated it to you. But when you wrote the story and you faced so much pressure I decided to investigate and caught the real story.
It's not so far from from what you reported because the victims are the same...the story happened in Bourij Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The Israelis called the woman Manal Albatran and told her that they wouldn't kill her or her husband Hussein Albatran, instead they would make them die of sadness because they would kill her children. The next day they shot her house with a rocket killing her and 5 of her children.
The dead:
Manal Albatran 30 years old
Walaa Albatran 12 years old
Islam Albatran 11 years old
Belal Albatran 10 years old
Ezz Albatran 8 years old
Ehsan Albatran 7 years old
The father who is an employee at an UNRWA school and the youngest child were saved.
This is the real story and I hope the amount of victims will convince others to believe the crimes we face. Thanks a lot for your appreciated visit and I hope to see you again soon.
Regards,
Talal
Since my last e-mail, many of you wrote asking for more information about the story I shared of a mother whose five children were murdered. Barbara Lubin, director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, was the person I was quoting, and she has also received many e-mails, prompting her to look more fully into the story. The most recent update follows, and is from an e-mail that Barbara received from her friend Talal, who did further research after Barbara left Gaza. You will see that many of the details are the same and many are quite different. You can also find this family’s story on various new sites online. Below is the e-mail from Talal.
Let us also remember that despite a “cease-fire,” Israel continues to bomb Gaza on a daily basis (albeit less so than during the “war”). People in the hospitals continue to die because of the ongoing siege and lack of treatment. And… the world continues to protest. Congratulations to the South African dockworkers who refused to unload a ship with Israeli goods last week: http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/286, http://www.anarkismo.net/article/11864. And kudos to all the university students who have been occupying campus buildings to demand justice for Gaza and divestment from Israel. Most of those students are British, but a special shout out to the students of Rochester, NY, who have conducted (with success!) the first campus occupation at a US university during this time: http://prometheus.scp.rochester.edu/ursds/node/86, http://www.thesitch.com/occupation/.
Let’s keep on keeping on.
-Hannah
E-mail from Talal to Barbara:
Dear Barbara,
It's the first time i have had internet. I hope you are O.K...you and all of our friends. I heard from Dr. Mona that you are under great pressure because of the story you have published about the crime of that woman. Be sure that it was a fact and we are ready to receive any investigation committee to check out the facts. But as you know during the wars and when death is very close, the popular memory interferes and colors the action with it's special details. We all heard the story on the local radio as I narrated it to you. But when you wrote the story and you faced so much pressure I decided to investigate and caught the real story.
It's not so far from from what you reported because the victims are the same...the story happened in Bourij Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The Israelis called the woman Manal Albatran and told her that they wouldn't kill her or her husband Hussein Albatran, instead they would make them die of sadness because they would kill her children. The next day they shot her house with a rocket killing her and 5 of her children.
The dead:
Manal Albatran 30 years old
Walaa Albatran 12 years old
Islam Albatran 11 years old
Belal Albatran 10 years old
Ezz Albatran 8 years old
Ehsan Albatran 7 years old
The father who is an employee at an UNRWA school and the youngest child were saved.
This is the real story and I hope the amount of victims will convince others to believe the crimes we face. Thanks a lot for your appreciated visit and I hope to see you again soon.
Regards,
Talal
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Gaza in my heart
I am sad.
Deeply sad.
A sadness that is somehow scarier than the anger, because the anger is an expression, and the sadness just sits.
I want to share my sadness with the world. Somehow I believe that if everyone in the US felt the sadness I feel about Gaza, no massacre would happen ever again, anywhere. Part of my sadness, though, and my fear, is that I am not sure whether this is true.
Unread e-mails sit in my inbox. I still haven’t watched the video plea from the doctor in Gaza whose three daughters were killed. I still haven’t read the testimony of the nine-year-old boy whose father was shot and killed in front of him while his hands were in the air. Or the girls who walked out of their house carrying white cloths and were shot and killed on the spot. Or all the children who somehow survived with no food for days as they lay next to their dead relatives’ rotting bodies or crawled to nearby buildings to wait out the bombing. I read the headlines only, and then I stop. I cannot continue.
I received an e-mail today from an American Jew I know who has just entered Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. She shares one story: “I met a mother who was at home with her ten children when Israeli soldiers entered the house. The soldiers told her she had to choose five of her children to "give as a gift to Israel." As she screamed in horror they repeated the demand and told her she could choose or they would choose for her. Then these soldiers murdered five of her children in front of her.”
The nightmare of reality is truly more horrific than anyone could imagine. And yet I worry that if I share this story, or any number of others that are flooding my inbox, some might not believe them. They are almost unbelievable. And yet. Story after story. I worry that some might dismiss the unbearable suffering of 1.5 million people as mere propaganda. And I worry, quite selfishly, that I cannot handle the doubts right now. That I am holding all this sadness and all this anger and that my faith in humanity is on the line, and one more person who dismisses a tragedy as propaganda, or one more person who justifies massacre in the name of security or self-defense, might just break me.
So I wonder if I should share these stories. I go back and forth. If this mother’s five children were still alive, would Israel’s army be any more moral? If the 1,312 Palestinians killed in the past month were still alive, would Israel’s 18-month siege of Gaza be justified? If Israel had never occupied Gaza in the first place, would it have any more right to exist as an ethnically and religiously exclusive state?
I search for the roots, I write from the roots, I act from the roots. Israel is bad from inception, Zionism is wrong, and we need to boycott until all Palestinians have rights. Yes. This is true. But right now I’m thinking of this mother. And all the mothers. And wondering if this pain can just spread, spread until it is diffused. I’m wondering if the world can hold this pain, just for a moment. Hold it collectively. I don’t want to have to fight anymore. I don’t want to answer questions about why “they” hate “us” and I don’t want to resent the lightheartedness of strangers on the street. I just want this to stop.
I know, of course, that for it to stop, we must know where it started. Tomorrow I will get back to working on that. But right now, right now, let us just hold the people of Gaza in our hearts and hope that somehow, against all odds, they will rebuild their lives, that soon they will get a full night’s sleep without nightmares, and that sometime they will feel joy again.
-Hannah
P.S. And because I can’t end any e-mail without sharing more resources, check out the new website www.thinkpalestineact.org. It has lots of great multi-media and popular education tools regarding Gaza and Palestine in general. And keep checking it. It will grow. And check www.endtheoccupation.org for updates about campaigns throughout the country and for ways to engage President Obama (I know, I know, maybe naïve, but I do believe that the image of Obama, if not the man himself, has created the biggest opening we’ve had in electoral politics in a long time).
Deeply sad.
A sadness that is somehow scarier than the anger, because the anger is an expression, and the sadness just sits.
I want to share my sadness with the world. Somehow I believe that if everyone in the US felt the sadness I feel about Gaza, no massacre would happen ever again, anywhere. Part of my sadness, though, and my fear, is that I am not sure whether this is true.
Unread e-mails sit in my inbox. I still haven’t watched the video plea from the doctor in Gaza whose three daughters were killed. I still haven’t read the testimony of the nine-year-old boy whose father was shot and killed in front of him while his hands were in the air. Or the girls who walked out of their house carrying white cloths and were shot and killed on the spot. Or all the children who somehow survived with no food for days as they lay next to their dead relatives’ rotting bodies or crawled to nearby buildings to wait out the bombing. I read the headlines only, and then I stop. I cannot continue.
I received an e-mail today from an American Jew I know who has just entered Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. She shares one story: “I met a mother who was at home with her ten children when Israeli soldiers entered the house. The soldiers told her she had to choose five of her children to "give as a gift to Israel." As she screamed in horror they repeated the demand and told her she could choose or they would choose for her. Then these soldiers murdered five of her children in front of her.”
The nightmare of reality is truly more horrific than anyone could imagine. And yet I worry that if I share this story, or any number of others that are flooding my inbox, some might not believe them. They are almost unbelievable. And yet. Story after story. I worry that some might dismiss the unbearable suffering of 1.5 million people as mere propaganda. And I worry, quite selfishly, that I cannot handle the doubts right now. That I am holding all this sadness and all this anger and that my faith in humanity is on the line, and one more person who dismisses a tragedy as propaganda, or one more person who justifies massacre in the name of security or self-defense, might just break me.
So I wonder if I should share these stories. I go back and forth. If this mother’s five children were still alive, would Israel’s army be any more moral? If the 1,312 Palestinians killed in the past month were still alive, would Israel’s 18-month siege of Gaza be justified? If Israel had never occupied Gaza in the first place, would it have any more right to exist as an ethnically and religiously exclusive state?
I search for the roots, I write from the roots, I act from the roots. Israel is bad from inception, Zionism is wrong, and we need to boycott until all Palestinians have rights. Yes. This is true. But right now I’m thinking of this mother. And all the mothers. And wondering if this pain can just spread, spread until it is diffused. I’m wondering if the world can hold this pain, just for a moment. Hold it collectively. I don’t want to have to fight anymore. I don’t want to answer questions about why “they” hate “us” and I don’t want to resent the lightheartedness of strangers on the street. I just want this to stop.
I know, of course, that for it to stop, we must know where it started. Tomorrow I will get back to working on that. But right now, right now, let us just hold the people of Gaza in our hearts and hope that somehow, against all odds, they will rebuild their lives, that soon they will get a full night’s sleep without nightmares, and that sometime they will feel joy again.
-Hannah
P.S. And because I can’t end any e-mail without sharing more resources, check out the new website www.thinkpalestineact.org. It has lots of great multi-media and popular education tools regarding Gaza and Palestine in general. And keep checking it. It will grow. And check www.endtheoccupation.org for updates about campaigns throughout the country and for ways to engage President Obama (I know, I know, maybe naïve, but I do believe that the image of Obama, if not the man himself, has created the biggest opening we’ve had in electoral politics in a long time).
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Gaza: Day 18
*At the bottom are suggested resources and action items for Gaza.*
Eighteen is a significant number in Judaism. It means life. Today is day 18 of Israel’s war on Gaza. More than 935 people in Gaza are dead, with thousands more injured. Taking the total population into account, this is equivalent in US terms to about 200,000 Americans. That’s right, two hundred thousand Americans dead in less than three weeks.
I turned on the news for an hour yesterday. Across the bottom of the screen, over and over again, ran the statement, “Israel says only targeting Hamas, not civilians.”
#1: Bullshit! A third of the people murdered so far have been children alone. The equivalent of 65,000 American children. The Israeli army is not so sloppy as to miss its targets 300 times. Are they deliberately killing civilians? Perhaps it is a matter of semantics. I’m not so sure they said, “Let’s kill Miyasar Abu Maatak and her four young children today,” but they certainly aren’t trying NOT to. In other words, at best, the Israeli army is targeting no one, and therefore potentially hitting everyone.
#2: Huh? Only targeting Hamas, not civilians? Suppose someone bombed the US and then tried to justify it with, “We are only targeting Republicans, not civilians.” If you protest, “But the two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, most Republicans are civilians,” the response would come: Sure, but Republicans are in control in the US, and therefore should be held responsible for every crime committed by an American while they are in power. (I am not even talking here about the massive war crimes committed by the US government itself, which gives much more legitimate reasons for bombing the US).
And so, once again, we are in the twilight zone. Where houses, schools, universities, and mosques are fair targets. Where Israel can close all entrances and exits to Gaza and then become indignant that people dig tunnels to transport necessary goods between Gaza and Egypt. Where Israel claims to be humanitarian because it stops indiscriminately bombing for up to 3 hours a day (and even during this short time, people are not safe; on Sunday 14 people were shelled and killed in these hours). Or because it drops leaflets as a precursor to bombs, warning the residents of Gaza to leave the area. Leave what area? Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and the people are closed in from all sides.
I watched the new for only an hour yesterday, and cannot get the images out of my head. Parents crying over dead children. Injured children being rushed to the hospital in ambulances, in taxis, on foot. The interview with a 16 year old boy whose mother and four brothers were killed in the attack on the Samouni family in the Zeitoun neighborhood last week (soldiers forced the entire family into one house, supposedly for their safety; the next day it was bombed). Were there 30 people killed there? 70? Accounts vary, mostly because the Israeli army will not allow journalists or ambulances to approach the neighborhood. One young EMT, exhaustion and trauma written all over his face, explained to Al Jazeera how he and others were able to enter a few houses yesterday and pull out the injured only after parking the ambulance 2 kilometers away from their intended destination and passing by 9 dead bodies on the road. Are these bodies counted in the 935? What about those in the houses the EMTs did not reach?
I saw these images, heard the stories, and heard the desperate pleas of Gazans and internationals (UN officials, EU parliament members, and more), the smug assertions of the Israeli army that their operations are going well, and the smirking George Bush as he once again blamed Hamas for the actions of the Israeli army. I wanted to throw something at the television. After less than an hour of news, I, a nonviolent person by disposition, felt my anger and hatred lead me to thoughts and desires I rarely have, some of which would actually harm me and my loved ones. I can only imagine what people living through this horror must feel. Or Arabs and others throughout the world with less personal connection to the enemy, be it Israelis, Americans, or Jews. I must admit I have little concern at the current moment for Israel’s safety, but if Israeli leaders have any concern at all for their own people’s safety, what the hell are they doing?
The princess of Dubai, a humanitarian official with the UN, gave an exacerbated interview in which she talked about the anger of the Arab streets and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. “What scares me most,” she said, “is that the news is repeating itself day after day, and those in the West can just turn it off.”
Shortly later, I turned the television off. I couldn’t bear it anymore. But we must not turn off our opposition. Running across the bottom of the screen, right after, “Israel says only targeting Hamas, not civilians,” is “World protests continue over Gaza war.” It is important. It may not seem like it right now, but whenever this does stop, it will be sooner for the protest. The people of Gaza cannot afford our inaction.
Take action:
US Campaign to End the Occupation – info on lobbying, protests, and more: www.endtheoccupation.org
Donate money for emergency supplies: http://www.mecaforpeace.org/
Media monitoring / letters to editor: http://www.writetruth.org
Buy a Gaza t-shirt, or 10: http://247463.spreadshirt.com/-/-/Shop/
This is more long-term, but no better time than now to launch a boycott campaign against Israel: http://bds-palestine.net/
Recommended articles:
“What You Don’t Know About Gaza” by Rashid Khalidi: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html?_r=2&em
“A 14-year-old in Gaza Has One Question: Why?” by Eyad El-Sarraj: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/01/11/a_14_year_old_in_gaza_has_one_question_why/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
“Hello, this is the IDF” by Muhammad Ali Khalidi: http://www.counterpunch.org/khalidi01052009.html
For more about the attack on the Samouni house in the Zeitoun neighborhood: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-zeitoun-attack-deaths
Recommended sources for constant information:
Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/
Blog of Sameh Habeeb (journalist in Gaza): http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com/
Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/
Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net/
Free Gaza Movement (the folks who have been sending boats to break the siege for a few months now): http://freegaza.org/
And more. A good combination of news, resources, and action: http://gazasiege.org
Eighteen is a significant number in Judaism. It means life. Today is day 18 of Israel’s war on Gaza. More than 935 people in Gaza are dead, with thousands more injured. Taking the total population into account, this is equivalent in US terms to about 200,000 Americans. That’s right, two hundred thousand Americans dead in less than three weeks.
I turned on the news for an hour yesterday. Across the bottom of the screen, over and over again, ran the statement, “Israel says only targeting Hamas, not civilians.”
#1: Bullshit! A third of the people murdered so far have been children alone. The equivalent of 65,000 American children. The Israeli army is not so sloppy as to miss its targets 300 times. Are they deliberately killing civilians? Perhaps it is a matter of semantics. I’m not so sure they said, “Let’s kill Miyasar Abu Maatak and her four young children today,” but they certainly aren’t trying NOT to. In other words, at best, the Israeli army is targeting no one, and therefore potentially hitting everyone.
#2: Huh? Only targeting Hamas, not civilians? Suppose someone bombed the US and then tried to justify it with, “We are only targeting Republicans, not civilians.” If you protest, “But the two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, most Republicans are civilians,” the response would come: Sure, but Republicans are in control in the US, and therefore should be held responsible for every crime committed by an American while they are in power. (I am not even talking here about the massive war crimes committed by the US government itself, which gives much more legitimate reasons for bombing the US).
And so, once again, we are in the twilight zone. Where houses, schools, universities, and mosques are fair targets. Where Israel can close all entrances and exits to Gaza and then become indignant that people dig tunnels to transport necessary goods between Gaza and Egypt. Where Israel claims to be humanitarian because it stops indiscriminately bombing for up to 3 hours a day (and even during this short time, people are not safe; on Sunday 14 people were shelled and killed in these hours). Or because it drops leaflets as a precursor to bombs, warning the residents of Gaza to leave the area. Leave what area? Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and the people are closed in from all sides.
I watched the new for only an hour yesterday, and cannot get the images out of my head. Parents crying over dead children. Injured children being rushed to the hospital in ambulances, in taxis, on foot. The interview with a 16 year old boy whose mother and four brothers were killed in the attack on the Samouni family in the Zeitoun neighborhood last week (soldiers forced the entire family into one house, supposedly for their safety; the next day it was bombed). Were there 30 people killed there? 70? Accounts vary, mostly because the Israeli army will not allow journalists or ambulances to approach the neighborhood. One young EMT, exhaustion and trauma written all over his face, explained to Al Jazeera how he and others were able to enter a few houses yesterday and pull out the injured only after parking the ambulance 2 kilometers away from their intended destination and passing by 9 dead bodies on the road. Are these bodies counted in the 935? What about those in the houses the EMTs did not reach?
I saw these images, heard the stories, and heard the desperate pleas of Gazans and internationals (UN officials, EU parliament members, and more), the smug assertions of the Israeli army that their operations are going well, and the smirking George Bush as he once again blamed Hamas for the actions of the Israeli army. I wanted to throw something at the television. After less than an hour of news, I, a nonviolent person by disposition, felt my anger and hatred lead me to thoughts and desires I rarely have, some of which would actually harm me and my loved ones. I can only imagine what people living through this horror must feel. Or Arabs and others throughout the world with less personal connection to the enemy, be it Israelis, Americans, or Jews. I must admit I have little concern at the current moment for Israel’s safety, but if Israeli leaders have any concern at all for their own people’s safety, what the hell are they doing?
The princess of Dubai, a humanitarian official with the UN, gave an exacerbated interview in which she talked about the anger of the Arab streets and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. “What scares me most,” she said, “is that the news is repeating itself day after day, and those in the West can just turn it off.”
Shortly later, I turned the television off. I couldn’t bear it anymore. But we must not turn off our opposition. Running across the bottom of the screen, right after, “Israel says only targeting Hamas, not civilians,” is “World protests continue over Gaza war.” It is important. It may not seem like it right now, but whenever this does stop, it will be sooner for the protest. The people of Gaza cannot afford our inaction.
Take action:
US Campaign to End the Occupation – info on lobbying, protests, and more: www.endtheoccupation.org
Donate money for emergency supplies: http://www.mecaforpeace.org/
Media monitoring / letters to editor: http://www.writetruth.org
Buy a Gaza t-shirt, or 10: http://247463.spreadshirt.com/-/-/Shop/
This is more long-term, but no better time than now to launch a boycott campaign against Israel: http://bds-palestine.net/
Recommended articles:
“What You Don’t Know About Gaza” by Rashid Khalidi: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html?_r=2&em
“A 14-year-old in Gaza Has One Question: Why?” by Eyad El-Sarraj: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/01/11/a_14_year_old_in_gaza_has_one_question_why/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
“Hello, this is the IDF” by Muhammad Ali Khalidi: http://www.counterpunch.org/khalidi01052009.html
For more about the attack on the Samouni house in the Zeitoun neighborhood: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-zeitoun-attack-deaths
Recommended sources for constant information:
Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/
Blog of Sameh Habeeb (journalist in Gaza): http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com/
Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/
Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net/
Free Gaza Movement (the folks who have been sending boats to break the siege for a few months now): http://freegaza.org/
And more. A good combination of news, resources, and action: http://gazasiege.org
Monday, December 29, 2008
Gaza continued
Dec 29, 2008, 11:30pm in Palestine
The death toll in Gaza has reahed 350. 1650 injured. I wonder how the injured are counted. Are these people who reach the hospital? How many others must there be? We watch the footage on the news of children screaming, men and women wailing, fathers with tears streaming down their faces as they kiss the heads of their dead
infants. We see the destroyed buildings. A university, a pharmacy, a police station, a house...
I just sent a text message to my friend in Gaza (the same one I wrote about the other day, the university student), asking how she was. Her response: "We're out of home now because it's ruined. Dad and brothers injured." I tried to call and she didn't answer. She then wrote, "Please!! I can't say a word now but we're fine. Take care." I wrote and said I am so sorry, that I will continue to write to people in the US and to protest. I asked her if there's anything else she can think of that I can do, knowing there probably isn't. I offered to get her a phone card if she needs credit. "What can a phone card do," she wrote back, "with my dad's leg! It needs operation. I don't want more than safety. I want you to know I appreciate you."
I was supposed to go to a friend's house this afternoon in the northern West Bank. She was going to cook me lunch for my birthday. When I got to the area she was unable to cook or think or do much of anything. She grew up in Gaza and most of her family is there. Last night when she talked to her brother in the middle of the night, a bomb had just exploded nearby and the children were all screaming. They are in Rafah, very close to the border with Egypt. Today she has been unable to reach him.
Please, please, stop what you're doing and go out on the streets in protest. Write to your newspapers. Especially those of you in the US. Today everyone I talked to told me the US streets are silent. That there are protests all over the world (people talk about a huge protest in London that got a lot of media attention here), but that the US is doing nothing. I tell them about the many e-mails I've gotten in the past day of protests scheduled in New York, Boston, DC, San Francisco, etc. And yet, it is not enough. Nothing is enough.
But please, do not continue as usual. 1.5 million people who have been under siege in the largest prison in the world for months, even years now, are now being bombed indiscriminately. We have ignored Gaza for too long. Every day, every hour, every minute counts.
I will pray that the rain and clouds continue through the night. Yes, the people fleeing their homes who are now outside may be cold and wet, but the Israeli army is also having difficulty, apparently, bombing in this weather.
This is insane.
(For anyone who still thinks this attack is a response to Hamas rocket attacks of the past few days, read this Israeli article about how the attacks have been planned for months: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050448.html)
For US folks who don't know where to look for actions: endtheoccupation.org
The death toll in Gaza has reahed 350. 1650 injured. I wonder how the injured are counted. Are these people who reach the hospital? How many others must there be? We watch the footage on the news of children screaming, men and women wailing, fathers with tears streaming down their faces as they kiss the heads of their dead
infants. We see the destroyed buildings. A university, a pharmacy, a police station, a house...
I just sent a text message to my friend in Gaza (the same one I wrote about the other day, the university student), asking how she was. Her response: "We're out of home now because it's ruined. Dad and brothers injured." I tried to call and she didn't answer. She then wrote, "Please!! I can't say a word now but we're fine. Take care." I wrote and said I am so sorry, that I will continue to write to people in the US and to protest. I asked her if there's anything else she can think of that I can do, knowing there probably isn't. I offered to get her a phone card if she needs credit. "What can a phone card do," she wrote back, "with my dad's leg! It needs operation. I don't want more than safety. I want you to know I appreciate you."
I was supposed to go to a friend's house this afternoon in the northern West Bank. She was going to cook me lunch for my birthday. When I got to the area she was unable to cook or think or do much of anything. She grew up in Gaza and most of her family is there. Last night when she talked to her brother in the middle of the night, a bomb had just exploded nearby and the children were all screaming. They are in Rafah, very close to the border with Egypt. Today she has been unable to reach him.
Please, please, stop what you're doing and go out on the streets in protest. Write to your newspapers. Especially those of you in the US. Today everyone I talked to told me the US streets are silent. That there are protests all over the world (people talk about a huge protest in London that got a lot of media attention here), but that the US is doing nothing. I tell them about the many e-mails I've gotten in the past day of protests scheduled in New York, Boston, DC, San Francisco, etc. And yet, it is not enough. Nothing is enough.
But please, do not continue as usual. 1.5 million people who have been under siege in the largest prison in the world for months, even years now, are now being bombed indiscriminately. We have ignored Gaza for too long. Every day, every hour, every minute counts.
I will pray that the rain and clouds continue through the night. Yes, the people fleeing their homes who are now outside may be cold and wet, but the Israeli army is also having difficulty, apparently, bombing in this weather.
This is insane.
(For anyone who still thinks this attack is a response to Hamas rocket attacks of the past few days, read this Israeli article about how the attacks have been planned for months: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050448.html)
For US folks who don't know where to look for actions: endtheoccupation.org
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Gaza
Today, 271 men, women, and children who were alive yesterday are now dead in Gaza. More than 900 are injured, including 180 critically. The death toll is rising as more people are dug out from under the rubble, and the Israeli government promises that the attacks will continue, and asks its people for patience.
Patience in the face of massacre?
I was on a tour yesterday with the Israeli organization Zochrot. We visited Ras al Ahmar, a Palestinian village in the north close to the Lebanon border, that was destroyed in 1948 and all its inhabitants expelled. We heard the news from Gaza while on our way there, and the leaders of the tour remarked, “Today we talk about a Nakba [catastrophe] that started 60 years ago, and that continues as we speak in Gaza.”
When we arrived back to Tel Aviv in the evening the bus was continuing on to an Israeli protest against the bombing. There are demonstrations and calls for revenge throughout the Middle East. Hamas, who hasn’t carried out a bombing against Israel in almost four years, is calling for a third intifada, a militarized intifada, including suicide bombings.
When I first heard the news yesterday, standing in Ras al Ahmar in front of a landscape of Lebanese mountains, I tried to call my friend Summer, a Palestinian student who has never been able to leave the 140 square miles that make up the Gaza Strip, despite several times being accepted to foreign programs and even being granted visas.
My phone calls wouldn’t go through. Finally, I got her on the phone for a few seconds before the line went. The text message I received from her just afterwards said: “There’s shelling everywhere, more than 120 killed, it’s horrible here!”
When I finally talked to her late last night, she told me she had been in a meeting on a roof when she saw the first F16 drop the first bomb in her area. She went inside. The windows were shaking. Her sister was at the university when a bomb hit. “The bombing is everywhere!” she said. I asked if it was still going on and she said she wasn’t sure, the last bomb she had heard was a half hour earlier.
When I talked to Summer last week and asked how she was, she said fine, and was her usual cheery self. When our connection failed in the middle and I had to call her back, I asked, “Did the electricity cut out?” “Electricity?” she responded. “No, of course we don’t have any electricity; I’ve been talking to you in the dark the whole time.” She went on to tell me she’d waited in line for hours the day before for bread, and hadn’t found any. “They say a truck might get through the crossing tomorrow,” she said hopefully.
At the same time, John Ging, the director of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza said: “Two weeks ago, for the first time in 60 years, we ran out of food.”
This was all during a supposed “cease fire” which meant Hamas was not attacking Israel at all, and Israel was not committing daily bombing massacres against the people of Gaza. But the slow massacre of siege, border closing, lack of fuel and electricity and bread… that was all part of this “cease fire.”
So Olmert’s statement that “[t]he quiet we offered was answered with mayhem. Our desire for calm was answered with terror,” is almost laughable. If it weren’t for 271 dead and 900 injured. If it weren’t for the Bush administration’s statement that the people in Gaza are “nothing but thugs” and that Hamas is to blame for Israel’s largest massacre since 1967.
When I see the footage, and then read these statements, I am speechless with sadness and rage. I cannot respond. But Mourid Barghouti, in his 2003 book I Saw Ramallah, has already responded:
“It is easy to blur the truth with a simple linguistic trick: start your story from ‘Secondly.’ Yes, this is what Rabin did. He simply neglected to speak of what happened first. Start your story with “Secondly,” and the world will be turned upside-down. Start your story with “Secondly,” and the arrows of the Red Indians are the original criminals and the guns of the white men are entirely the victim. It is enough to start with “Secondly,” for the anger of the black man against the white to be barbarous. Start with “Secondly,” and Gandhi becomes responsible for the tragedies of the British. You only need to start your story with “Secondly,” and the burned Vietnamese will have wounded the humanity of the napalm, and Victor Jara’s songs will be the shameful thing and not Pinochet’s bullets, which killed so many thousands in the Santiago stadium. It is enough to start the story with “Secondly,” for my grandmother, Umm ‘Ata, to become the criminal and Ariel Sharon her victim. ...
The houses built on top of ours gallantly declare their willingness to understand our odd predilection toward living in camps scattered in the Diaspora of gods and flies, as though we had begged them to throw us out of our homes and to send their bulldozers to destroy them in front of our very eyes. Their generous guns in Deir Yassin forgive us the fact that they piled our bodies high at the sunset hour there one day. Their fighter jets forgive the graves of our martyrs in Beirut. Their soldiers forgive the tendency of our teenagers’ bones to break. Israel the victim polishes its hot, red knife with the sheen of forgiveness.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*There are protests all over the world right now. Please find one where you are.*
Patience in the face of massacre?
I was on a tour yesterday with the Israeli organization Zochrot. We visited Ras al Ahmar, a Palestinian village in the north close to the Lebanon border, that was destroyed in 1948 and all its inhabitants expelled. We heard the news from Gaza while on our way there, and the leaders of the tour remarked, “Today we talk about a Nakba [catastrophe] that started 60 years ago, and that continues as we speak in Gaza.”
When we arrived back to Tel Aviv in the evening the bus was continuing on to an Israeli protest against the bombing. There are demonstrations and calls for revenge throughout the Middle East. Hamas, who hasn’t carried out a bombing against Israel in almost four years, is calling for a third intifada, a militarized intifada, including suicide bombings.
When I first heard the news yesterday, standing in Ras al Ahmar in front of a landscape of Lebanese mountains, I tried to call my friend Summer, a Palestinian student who has never been able to leave the 140 square miles that make up the Gaza Strip, despite several times being accepted to foreign programs and even being granted visas.
My phone calls wouldn’t go through. Finally, I got her on the phone for a few seconds before the line went. The text message I received from her just afterwards said: “There’s shelling everywhere, more than 120 killed, it’s horrible here!”
When I finally talked to her late last night, she told me she had been in a meeting on a roof when she saw the first F16 drop the first bomb in her area. She went inside. The windows were shaking. Her sister was at the university when a bomb hit. “The bombing is everywhere!” she said. I asked if it was still going on and she said she wasn’t sure, the last bomb she had heard was a half hour earlier.
When I talked to Summer last week and asked how she was, she said fine, and was her usual cheery self. When our connection failed in the middle and I had to call her back, I asked, “Did the electricity cut out?” “Electricity?” she responded. “No, of course we don’t have any electricity; I’ve been talking to you in the dark the whole time.” She went on to tell me she’d waited in line for hours the day before for bread, and hadn’t found any. “They say a truck might get through the crossing tomorrow,” she said hopefully.
At the same time, John Ging, the director of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza said: “Two weeks ago, for the first time in 60 years, we ran out of food.”
This was all during a supposed “cease fire” which meant Hamas was not attacking Israel at all, and Israel was not committing daily bombing massacres against the people of Gaza. But the slow massacre of siege, border closing, lack of fuel and electricity and bread… that was all part of this “cease fire.”
So Olmert’s statement that “[t]he quiet we offered was answered with mayhem. Our desire for calm was answered with terror,” is almost laughable. If it weren’t for 271 dead and 900 injured. If it weren’t for the Bush administration’s statement that the people in Gaza are “nothing but thugs” and that Hamas is to blame for Israel’s largest massacre since 1967.
When I see the footage, and then read these statements, I am speechless with sadness and rage. I cannot respond. But Mourid Barghouti, in his 2003 book I Saw Ramallah, has already responded:
“It is easy to blur the truth with a simple linguistic trick: start your story from ‘Secondly.’ Yes, this is what Rabin did. He simply neglected to speak of what happened first. Start your story with “Secondly,” and the world will be turned upside-down. Start your story with “Secondly,” and the arrows of the Red Indians are the original criminals and the guns of the white men are entirely the victim. It is enough to start with “Secondly,” for the anger of the black man against the white to be barbarous. Start with “Secondly,” and Gandhi becomes responsible for the tragedies of the British. You only need to start your story with “Secondly,” and the burned Vietnamese will have wounded the humanity of the napalm, and Victor Jara’s songs will be the shameful thing and not Pinochet’s bullets, which killed so many thousands in the Santiago stadium. It is enough to start the story with “Secondly,” for my grandmother, Umm ‘Ata, to become the criminal and Ariel Sharon her victim. ...
The houses built on top of ours gallantly declare their willingness to understand our odd predilection toward living in camps scattered in the Diaspora of gods and flies, as though we had begged them to throw us out of our homes and to send their bulldozers to destroy them in front of our very eyes. Their generous guns in Deir Yassin forgive us the fact that they piled our bodies high at the sunset hour there one day. Their fighter jets forgive the graves of our martyrs in Beirut. Their soldiers forgive the tendency of our teenagers’ bones to break. Israel the victim polishes its hot, red knife with the sheen of forgiveness.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*There are protests all over the world right now. Please find one where you are.*
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Caution: Settlers Ahead
One of my first stops upon return to
Somehow this story is the most frustrating to me. When settlers attack, Palestinians get punished / sent home / re-routed. It is as though the settlers are a natural phenomenon. They could place a sign in the road saying, “Caution: Settlers Ahead” and it would seem as natural to the soldiers as a sign saying “Caution: Storm Conditions Ahead” or “Caution: Road Curves Ahead.” It is as though the condition of settler attacks is unpreventable.
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All reports can be found on hannahinpalestine.blogspot.com
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Hello from Lebanon
Dear friends,
Thanks to all of you who responded to my last note from
After my Arabic class ended, I left for
In my car ride to
As we crossed the border into
This abrupt entry of memories of war into otherwise normal life would be repeated again and again in the coming days. Sitting in traffic, a driver would point to the bombed bridge next to us and say, “Traffic wasn’t like this before the summer of 2006.” Walking to a fancy café in the evening, my friends would tell me how they walked there once during the war and were terrified. When we arrived at the café they told me the whole area had been closed during the war. “Was the Lebanese army here preventing people from entering?” I asked. “No,” they said, “the army wasn’t allowed in either. Hizbollah controlled the area.”
You can’t walk or drive in
I took a day to visit the south with my friend. I spent only about a half hour in each of Saida, Sur, and Bint Jbayl, but even the ride was worth it. I saw the hills with olive groves and thought, “This looks like the rural
We arrived in Bint Jbayl, the town that successfully resisted a ground invasion by the Israeli army in 2006. Many buildings still show the scars from bombing, but mostly life just continues. I realized that while I think of Bint Jbayl and Qana (which we also drove through) as sites of resistance or massacre, they are first and foremost places, like any other, of daily life. I looked up at the mountain and thought about how
In
I think about the concept of security, something most certainly missing from people’s lives in
Of course, there are certain things that do cross all the boundaries, that unify all the people of the region, and that once again remind me of the arbitrariness of borders. Right now, there is one that stands out to me most: Turkish soap operas (dubbed into Arabic). :)
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Hello from Syria
Dear friends,
This will be more of a “blog” than my usual e-mails. No deep thoughts or political analysis, and not a publication-style essay. Just a little “Hello from Syria” message after three weeks of being here and not writing.
What prompted me to write, to connect across the ocean to where most of you are, is that my host father told me this morning that he had just seen a report on Al Jazeera about a 20,000 person protest in the US, something about a military training school. When I realized he was talking about the SOA (School of the Americas) I got excited. “The SOA protest was on Al Jazeera?” I asked incredulously. I can only wonder whether it finally got some decent media in the US this year as well or not. [For those of you who don’t know the SOA: soaw.org]
So… I imagine you might want to hear a bit about Syria. I came here to study Fus’ha (written/classical Arabic) for a month and to live with a Palestinian family that I met when doing Re-Plugged work here last February. My class is in Damascus, but the family lives in the extension of a refugee camp 20km outside of town called Khan Eshieh. It is super quiet and peaceful out here, something that I loved for the first week or two as I took the time to study and read and sleep, but I’m starting to feel a bit stifled by being in such a rural area (even though I go to the city every day).
Damascus is a beautiful city, and is the oldest capital in the world. The market in the old city attracts foreigners and Syrians alike, all of whom are pretty much considered tourists in the market. For the most part, Damascus feels like a very Arab city with less foreign influence than other cities I’ve seen around here (Beirut, Amman). There are still no McDonald’s anywhere to be found, although there is the new KFC phenomenon.
Life is very affordable here. It costs me 30 cents to get into the city from Khan Eshieh. Food is cheap, education and healthcare are subsidized by the government for Syrians and Palestinians (most of the new Iraqi immigrants do not have the same services). While the government has changed a bit over the years, it is still pretty socialist and fully secular. It’s one of the more stable countries in an unstable region, and people generally seem pretty happy.
Which makes the Big Brother feeling a little confusing. There are pictures of the president (Bashar Assad) everywhere – on billboards, houses, stores, cars. I hear from people that there are secret police in more places than we might think. The government collects people’s names and ID numbers when getting on certain buses and going into certain buildings. There is definitely some sort of norm that people are expected to fit into, and then within that is freedom for diversity. Most people seem to happily fit into that norm. Not me. Part of it is just familiarity, I’m sure, but I feel more comfortable in Palestine than here. The major reasons:
1. Palestine. While most people here are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and are quick to criticize Israel, I can’t actually tell anyone that I’ve been there. See, the Syrian government prohibits people who have been to Palestine from coming here. Why? Because it’s all occupied by Israel and they see it as normalizing relations with Israel. So if they see an Israeli stamp on a passport (which could mean you’ve been hanging out on the beach in Tel Aviv or doing solidarity work in the West Bank or anything in between), they will deny you entry. So I have to keep a low profile about where I’ve been and where I’m going from here (my host family knows, of course, as do many of the other Palestinians I meet, but I can’t talk about it openly in Arabic class, for example, or even to taxi drivers – I’ve heard stories that may or may not be true of people getting turned in by taxi drivers and deported).
2. Being Jewish. I don’t understand the situation enough yet to know whether folks would be comfortable with my being Jewish, but my assumption is usually not. In Palestine people are more directly harmed by Jews on a daily basis, but there is also more contact in general, and thus more awareness that not all Jews are Israeli, not all Jews are Zionists, etc. Here I’m not quite sure that’s the case. So I’m worried that if I tell people I’m Jewish it could reflect badly on my host family, or that people might assume that I’m a spy. I could be wrong.
3. Gender. My hair is short. In Palestine, this often causes people to do a double take, or even sometimes to assume at first glance that I’m a man but to change their minds once I give a subtle cough (I do this sometimes when I know that men who are sitting next to me assume that I’m a man, because there is generally far less personal space between men in the Arab world than in the US and far more between men and women). Now, in Syria, I find that people don’t even look twice. I am almost consistently perceived as a man – and usually a Syrian man. Incredibly, I’ve found that even when I speak people often do not change this assumption (if I speak more than a few words, of course, they’ll hear my accent and figure out I’m not Syrian, but will still often think I’m a man). It’s interesting in many ways, but in such a gendered society it can also be awkward, like when the driver of a shared taxi orders me to squeeze in the front with him and another guy in order to let women get into the body of the car. Or when a man giving me directions puts his arm around me to push me in the right direction, something he clearly would not have done if he thought I was a woman. So I have to decide on a pretty constant basis whether to try to keep passing as male or to make my gender clear… I have more empathy right now for my trans friends than I ever have before (though of course it’s not the same and is only temporary for me).
I’ve also been sick for much of my time here, which I’m sure isn’t helping. First a cold, then stomach issues which seem (knock on wood) to finally be getting better.
The best thing as of late was my meeting a friend of a friend, a young woman who is a breath of fresh air in a way that almost makes me too un-self-conscious. She’s Syrian, but has gotten very interested both in Palestine and in Jews, having questioned her society’s assumptions about Jewish people. She’s planning to do Master’s work researching relations among Muslims, Christians and Jews in Andalusia, in pre-48 Palestine, and today in the Middle East, and how these relations have been affected by war. You can see how we might connect? So the other day we got together and I showed her a bunch of pictures of Palestine on my computer, occasionally saying, “Ramallah” and “Gaza” a little too loudly as I excitedly pointed to pictures I had taken. We’d look around nervously, but nobody was paying attention to us. We also talked about synagogues, Reconstructionist Judaism, and anti-Zionist Israelis.
I have another week here, then I will likely go to Lebanon for a few days and then make my way back to Palestine.
And that’s my update from Syria.
For those of you who I know, please send me your news. My being sick these last couple weeks has led to being homesick as well, and it would be great to hear from you.
Till soon,
Hannah
This will be more of a “blog” than my usual e-mails. No deep thoughts or political analysis, and not a publication-style essay. Just a little “Hello from Syria” message after three weeks of being here and not writing.
What prompted me to write, to connect across the ocean to where most of you are, is that my host father told me this morning that he had just seen a report on Al Jazeera about a 20,000 person protest in the US, something about a military training school. When I realized he was talking about the SOA (School of the Americas) I got excited. “The SOA protest was on Al Jazeera?” I asked incredulously. I can only wonder whether it finally got some decent media in the US this year as well or not. [For those of you who don’t know the SOA: soaw.org]
So… I imagine you might want to hear a bit about Syria. I came here to study Fus’ha (written/classical Arabic) for a month and to live with a Palestinian family that I met when doing Re-Plugged work here last February. My class is in Damascus, but the family lives in the extension of a refugee camp 20km outside of town called Khan Eshieh. It is super quiet and peaceful out here, something that I loved for the first week or two as I took the time to study and read and sleep, but I’m starting to feel a bit stifled by being in such a rural area (even though I go to the city every day).
Damascus is a beautiful city, and is the oldest capital in the world. The market in the old city attracts foreigners and Syrians alike, all of whom are pretty much considered tourists in the market. For the most part, Damascus feels like a very Arab city with less foreign influence than other cities I’ve seen around here (Beirut, Amman). There are still no McDonald’s anywhere to be found, although there is the new KFC phenomenon.
Life is very affordable here. It costs me 30 cents to get into the city from Khan Eshieh. Food is cheap, education and healthcare are subsidized by the government for Syrians and Palestinians (most of the new Iraqi immigrants do not have the same services). While the government has changed a bit over the years, it is still pretty socialist and fully secular. It’s one of the more stable countries in an unstable region, and people generally seem pretty happy.
Which makes the Big Brother feeling a little confusing. There are pictures of the president (Bashar Assad) everywhere – on billboards, houses, stores, cars. I hear from people that there are secret police in more places than we might think. The government collects people’s names and ID numbers when getting on certain buses and going into certain buildings. There is definitely some sort of norm that people are expected to fit into, and then within that is freedom for diversity. Most people seem to happily fit into that norm. Not me. Part of it is just familiarity, I’m sure, but I feel more comfortable in Palestine than here. The major reasons:
1. Palestine. While most people here are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and are quick to criticize Israel, I can’t actually tell anyone that I’ve been there. See, the Syrian government prohibits people who have been to Palestine from coming here. Why? Because it’s all occupied by Israel and they see it as normalizing relations with Israel. So if they see an Israeli stamp on a passport (which could mean you’ve been hanging out on the beach in Tel Aviv or doing solidarity work in the West Bank or anything in between), they will deny you entry. So I have to keep a low profile about where I’ve been and where I’m going from here (my host family knows, of course, as do many of the other Palestinians I meet, but I can’t talk about it openly in Arabic class, for example, or even to taxi drivers – I’ve heard stories that may or may not be true of people getting turned in by taxi drivers and deported).
2. Being Jewish. I don’t understand the situation enough yet to know whether folks would be comfortable with my being Jewish, but my assumption is usually not. In Palestine people are more directly harmed by Jews on a daily basis, but there is also more contact in general, and thus more awareness that not all Jews are Israeli, not all Jews are Zionists, etc. Here I’m not quite sure that’s the case. So I’m worried that if I tell people I’m Jewish it could reflect badly on my host family, or that people might assume that I’m a spy. I could be wrong.
3. Gender. My hair is short. In Palestine, this often causes people to do a double take, or even sometimes to assume at first glance that I’m a man but to change their minds once I give a subtle cough (I do this sometimes when I know that men who are sitting next to me assume that I’m a man, because there is generally far less personal space between men in the Arab world than in the US and far more between men and women). Now, in Syria, I find that people don’t even look twice. I am almost consistently perceived as a man – and usually a Syrian man. Incredibly, I’ve found that even when I speak people often do not change this assumption (if I speak more than a few words, of course, they’ll hear my accent and figure out I’m not Syrian, but will still often think I’m a man). It’s interesting in many ways, but in such a gendered society it can also be awkward, like when the driver of a shared taxi orders me to squeeze in the front with him and another guy in order to let women get into the body of the car. Or when a man giving me directions puts his arm around me to push me in the right direction, something he clearly would not have done if he thought I was a woman. So I have to decide on a pretty constant basis whether to try to keep passing as male or to make my gender clear… I have more empathy right now for my trans friends than I ever have before (though of course it’s not the same and is only temporary for me).
I’ve also been sick for much of my time here, which I’m sure isn’t helping. First a cold, then stomach issues which seem (knock on wood) to finally be getting better.
The best thing as of late was my meeting a friend of a friend, a young woman who is a breath of fresh air in a way that almost makes me too un-self-conscious. She’s Syrian, but has gotten very interested both in Palestine and in Jews, having questioned her society’s assumptions about Jewish people. She’s planning to do Master’s work researching relations among Muslims, Christians and Jews in Andalusia, in pre-48 Palestine, and today in the Middle East, and how these relations have been affected by war. You can see how we might connect? So the other day we got together and I showed her a bunch of pictures of Palestine on my computer, occasionally saying, “Ramallah” and “Gaza” a little too loudly as I excitedly pointed to pictures I had taken. We’d look around nervously, but nobody was paying attention to us. We also talked about synagogues, Reconstructionist Judaism, and anti-Zionist Israelis.
I have another week here, then I will likely go to Lebanon for a few days and then make my way back to Palestine.
And that’s my update from Syria.
For those of you who I know, please send me your news. My being sick these last couple weeks has led to being homesick as well, and it would be great to hear from you.
Till soon,
Hannah
Friday, November 07, 2008
What We Know (aka why we must confront Zionism and boycott Israel)
What We Know
(aka Why we must confront Zionism and boycott Israel)
by Hannah Mermelstein
November 7, 2008
Story #1:
A protest tent in the middle of a neighborhood. Thirteen Palestinian families wait for Israeli authorities to demolish their homes in the coming days; dozens more live under constant threat of home demolition, though there is no telling if and when it might happen. After the demolition, the Israeli government will send these Palestinian families the bill for the demolition and the cleanup. Why is this happening? Officially their homes are “illegal.” Officially, each of the families has requested and been denied permits to build on their own land over the past several decades.
Story #2:
A 14-year-old Palestinian boy and his friend are arrested for seemingly no reason. They are not charged and are not told why they have been arrested, but are beaten severely for five hours as the police threaten that they will inject the kids with HIV and dump them on the beach to die.
Story #3:
A group of right-wing Jewish Israelis marches through the neighborhood that they are trying to “Judaize,” yelling “Death to Arabs” and throwing stones at Palestinian homes. They set homes on fire, sometimes with the residents still inside, and several homes are burned to the ground. The Palestinians who try to resist are arrested and held; the few Jewish attackers who are arrested are released right away. The police refuse to investigate and they tell the Palestinian residents there is not enough evidence to charge the attackers.
If you have some familiarity with the situation in Palestine, you might be thinking, “Occupying soldiers can be cruel” or “Hebron settlers are crazy/criminal” or, like Jimmy Carter, “There is apartheid in the West Bank.” You would be right, but incomplete. In fact, all three of the stories above took place inside Israel, and the Palestinian victims are all citizens of the Israeli state. The policies we so often attribute to occupation have actually been the cornerstone of Zionist practice since the inception of the movement.
The problem is not a few bad settlers or soldiers, nor is it, at its core, the ongoing military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The problem is Zionism. The problem is the false idea that a country can be democratic while it defines itself not as a state of its citizens but as the state of a particular group of people, regardless of citizenship. Under Israeli law, I, as a Jewish American without Israeli citizenship, have more rights to land in Israel than the Palestinian people who are from there, including both the Palestinian refugees around the world AND the Palestinian citizens of Israel.
We know these things. In the past several years Israeli leaders have talked more and more openly about the “demographic threat” of the Palestinian citizens of Israel. They talk about population transfer, about Judaization of the Galilee and the Negev, about the need for a Palestinian state so as to once and for all get rid of the “problem” of Palestinian people (the current Palestinian citizens of Israel would theoretically, in a two state solution, either move to the Palestinian state or give up all national rights within their own homeland).
We know these things. We know it is not just about occupation. We know that there is a contradiction between supporting secular democracy in the US and supporting an exclusivist Jewish state in the Middle East. And yet many of us still refuse to publicly acknowledge that Zionism is a form of racism, a form of colonialism. Many refuse to apply the term “apartheid” to Israel unless speaking only of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many either think that working against military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is enough, or that it will necessarily lead to a broader analysis of the issues at large.
But it is not enough, and it will not automatically lead towards anything beyond itself. We must work to end the occupation, yes, but this must be within, and not before, a context of support for overall justice, equality, and self-determination for indigenous people.
To paraphrase a friend of mine, Zionism is able to survive primarily through the promotion of its ideological narrative, so this is where we must attack it, particularly in the Western world. Our task is to expose the contradictions within Zionist ideology, particularly liberal Zionist ideology, and to make it clear that Israel must choose between being a Jewish state and being a democratic state.
Our task is to support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. [You can read the call, reasons, and demands at bds-palestine.net.] To those of you who say BDS against Israel will never work, remember that people said the same about South Africa. But things change, things always change, for better and for worse. We live in a dynamic world. Zionism will not end tomorrow, nor will any US political leaders make any significant strides towards anything resembling justice without a change in US mentality from the bottom up. This is a long-term and grassroots struggle, and it starts with our own moral consistency. It starts with open opposition to ethnic exclusivity. It does not require great political sophistication or memorization of every important date in the history of colonialism and nationalism in the Middle East. It starts simply with what we already know.
------------------------------------------------
There have been many BDS successes already, from the UK to South Africa to Canada and even to the US. Congratulations to the Somerville Divestment Project and others who worked on the ballot initiative in Massachusetts that received overwhelming support in Somerville (62%) and Cambridge (73%) on Tuesday. While the question was not specifically about boycott, it was about one of the major demands of the BDS call: equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. The text of Question 4 follows: "Shall the State Representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a non-binding resolution calling on the federal government to support the right of all people, including non-Jewish Palestinian citizens of Israel, to live free from laws that give more rights to people of one religion than another."
(aka Why we must confront Zionism and boycott Israel)
by Hannah Mermelstein
November 7, 2008
Story #1:
A protest tent in the middle of a neighborhood. Thirteen Palestinian families wait for Israeli authorities to demolish their homes in the coming days; dozens more live under constant threat of home demolition, though there is no telling if and when it might happen. After the demolition, the Israeli government will send these Palestinian families the bill for the demolition and the cleanup. Why is this happening? Officially their homes are “illegal.” Officially, each of the families has requested and been denied permits to build on their own land over the past several decades.
Story #2:
A 14-year-old Palestinian boy and his friend are arrested for seemingly no reason. They are not charged and are not told why they have been arrested, but are beaten severely for five hours as the police threaten that they will inject the kids with HIV and dump them on the beach to die.
Story #3:
A group of right-wing Jewish Israelis marches through the neighborhood that they are trying to “Judaize,” yelling “Death to Arabs” and throwing stones at Palestinian homes. They set homes on fire, sometimes with the residents still inside, and several homes are burned to the ground. The Palestinians who try to resist are arrested and held; the few Jewish attackers who are arrested are released right away. The police refuse to investigate and they tell the Palestinian residents there is not enough evidence to charge the attackers.
If you have some familiarity with the situation in Palestine, you might be thinking, “Occupying soldiers can be cruel” or “Hebron settlers are crazy/criminal” or, like Jimmy Carter, “There is apartheid in the West Bank.” You would be right, but incomplete. In fact, all three of the stories above took place inside Israel, and the Palestinian victims are all citizens of the Israeli state. The policies we so often attribute to occupation have actually been the cornerstone of Zionist practice since the inception of the movement.
The problem is not a few bad settlers or soldiers, nor is it, at its core, the ongoing military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The problem is Zionism. The problem is the false idea that a country can be democratic while it defines itself not as a state of its citizens but as the state of a particular group of people, regardless of citizenship. Under Israeli law, I, as a Jewish American without Israeli citizenship, have more rights to land in Israel than the Palestinian people who are from there, including both the Palestinian refugees around the world AND the Palestinian citizens of Israel.
We know these things. In the past several years Israeli leaders have talked more and more openly about the “demographic threat” of the Palestinian citizens of Israel. They talk about population transfer, about Judaization of the Galilee and the Negev, about the need for a Palestinian state so as to once and for all get rid of the “problem” of Palestinian people (the current Palestinian citizens of Israel would theoretically, in a two state solution, either move to the Palestinian state or give up all national rights within their own homeland).
We know these things. We know it is not just about occupation. We know that there is a contradiction between supporting secular democracy in the US and supporting an exclusivist Jewish state in the Middle East. And yet many of us still refuse to publicly acknowledge that Zionism is a form of racism, a form of colonialism. Many refuse to apply the term “apartheid” to Israel unless speaking only of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many either think that working against military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is enough, or that it will necessarily lead to a broader analysis of the issues at large.
But it is not enough, and it will not automatically lead towards anything beyond itself. We must work to end the occupation, yes, but this must be within, and not before, a context of support for overall justice, equality, and self-determination for indigenous people.
To paraphrase a friend of mine, Zionism is able to survive primarily through the promotion of its ideological narrative, so this is where we must attack it, particularly in the Western world. Our task is to expose the contradictions within Zionist ideology, particularly liberal Zionist ideology, and to make it clear that Israel must choose between being a Jewish state and being a democratic state.
Our task is to support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. [You can read the call, reasons, and demands at bds-palestine.net.] To those of you who say BDS against Israel will never work, remember that people said the same about South Africa. But things change, things always change, for better and for worse. We live in a dynamic world. Zionism will not end tomorrow, nor will any US political leaders make any significant strides towards anything resembling justice without a change in US mentality from the bottom up. This is a long-term and grassroots struggle, and it starts with our own moral consistency. It starts with open opposition to ethnic exclusivity. It does not require great political sophistication or memorization of every important date in the history of colonialism and nationalism in the Middle East. It starts simply with what we already know.
------------------------------------------------
There have been many BDS successes already, from the UK to South Africa to Canada and even to the US. Congratulations to the Somerville Divestment Project and others who worked on the ballot initiative in Massachusetts that received overwhelming support in Somerville (62%) and Cambridge (73%) on Tuesday. While the question was not specifically about boycott, it was about one of the major demands of the BDS call: equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. The text of Question 4 follows: "Shall the State Representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a non-binding resolution calling on the federal government to support the right of all people, including non-Jewish Palestinian citizens of Israel, to live free from laws that give more rights to people of one religion than another."
Monday, September 15, 2008
another boycott call - and some context
Dear friends,
I recently sent you a letter that the No Time To Celebrate Campaign wrote to Paul McCartney, asking him not perform in Israel. This week, No Time To Celebrate has issued another letter to several Hollywood stars who plan to attend a $1,000-per-person event in LA on Sept 18 to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary. You can find the letter at www.notimetocelebrate.org.
After the McCartney letter, some of you wrote to me, confused for a few different reasons about our call for boycott, and I realize now that I should have given it context. So, here it is:
On July 9, 2005, on the 1st anniversary of the international court decision against the wall that Israel is building on Palestinian land, hundreds of Palestinian civil society organizations issued a call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The reasoning: When our governments do not enforce international law, we as citizens have the responsibility to do so. Boycott is a nonviolent tool that can be used by individuals and groups to hold institutions and governments accountable for their actions. The Palestinian call was rooted partially in the successes of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and around the world.
For the past three years since the call, hundreds of campaigns have sprouted up throughout the world, from academic and cultural boycott to consumer boycott to campus and city divestment resolutions. Some have been "successful"; others have not. Part of the thinking is that pointing out Israel's nature as an apartheid state, bringing that into the public realm for debate, is useful whether or not resolutions immediately pass. Ultimately, success comes not from the monetary damage of boycott but from its political damage. And so, here we are, trying to support local campaigns and lending our voice and support to the international campaigns.
I'll include part of the BDS call below. You can see that the demands are very clear and have to do with treatment of three different groups of Palestinian people. A lot of campaigns have been incorporating these demands into their own work, whether or not the campaigns are specifically about boycott. For the full BDS call, see www.bdsmovement.net (also has definitions and explanations of the different elements of the campaign, FAQs, etc.).
Here's the closing part of the call:
"...We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194."
I hope this is clarifying to folks, and perhaps even inspiring - Go out there, join campaigns, start your own campaigns, and be in touch if you want advice on any of this (or if you want to get involved in the next incarnation of No Time To Celebrate, which will be focusing on BDS).
-Hannah
I recently sent you a letter that the No Time To Celebrate Campaign wrote to Paul McCartney, asking him not perform in Israel. This week, No Time To Celebrate has issued another letter to several Hollywood stars who plan to attend a $1,000-per-person event in LA on Sept 18 to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary. You can find the letter at www.notimetocelebrate.org.
After the McCartney letter, some of you wrote to me, confused for a few different reasons about our call for boycott, and I realize now that I should have given it context. So, here it is:
On July 9, 2005, on the 1st anniversary of the international court decision against the wall that Israel is building on Palestinian land, hundreds of Palestinian civil society organizations issued a call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The reasoning: When our governments do not enforce international law, we as citizens have the responsibility to do so. Boycott is a nonviolent tool that can be used by individuals and groups to hold institutions and governments accountable for their actions. The Palestinian call was rooted partially in the successes of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and around the world.
For the past three years since the call, hundreds of campaigns have sprouted up throughout the world, from academic and cultural boycott to consumer boycott to campus and city divestment resolutions. Some have been "successful"; others have not. Part of the thinking is that pointing out Israel's nature as an apartheid state, bringing that into the public realm for debate, is useful whether or not resolutions immediately pass. Ultimately, success comes not from the monetary damage of boycott but from its political damage. And so, here we are, trying to support local campaigns and lending our voice and support to the international campaigns.
I'll include part of the BDS call below. You can see that the demands are very clear and have to do with treatment of three different groups of Palestinian people. A lot of campaigns have been incorporating these demands into their own work, whether or not the campaigns are specifically about boycott. For the full BDS call, see www.bdsmovement.net (also has definitions and explanations of the different elements of the campaign, FAQs, etc.).
Here's the closing part of the call:
"...We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194."
I hope this is clarifying to folks, and perhaps even inspiring - Go out there, join campaigns, start your own campaigns, and be in touch if you want advice on any of this (or if you want to get involved in the next incarnation of No Time To Celebrate, which will be focusing on BDS).
-Hannah
Friday, September 05, 2008
Open Letter to Paul McCartney: Do Not Perform in Israel
The No Time To Celebrate Campaign (www.notimetocelebrate.org) has joined the Palestinian campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and other allies in issuing an open letter to Paul McCartney asking that he cancel a scheduled concert in Israel in late September. More information is available from PACBI in Palestine (www.pacbi.org) and the BIG Campaign (Boycott Israeli Goods) in the UK (www.bigcampaign.org).
Sir Paul McCartney,
We write to you with sadness and urgency as we hear that you are preparing to perform in Israel at the end of this month, and we ask that you cancel this performance. As Jewish North Americans, we are outraged at the policies the state of Israel has implemented in our names and with our government's financial support for more than sixty years. Palestinian people in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem live under occupation and siege; Palestinian citizens of Israel have fewer rights than Jewish citizens of Israel; and Palestinian refugees, who make up two thirds of the Palestinian population, have been denied their internationally recognized right to return to their lands and their homes since 1948.
At the same time, we write to you with hope that you will heed the unified Palestinian civil society call for boycott against Israel until it complies with international law. Boycott is a nonviolent tool that has been used by ordinary people countless times to hold countries responsible for atrocities when our governments fail to do so. In South Africa, the boycott movement helped bring about an end to the apartheid system. The boycott is both collective and individual. In this case, we call on you as an individual to take a stand against Israeli apartheid and cancel your performance.
Whether you perform or not, you are making a statement. If you perform this month, at a time when Israel is celebrating sixty years of existence, you indicate that you support the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people (now millions) and the ongoing policies of ethnic cleansing of an indigenous population from their land. If you cancel your performance, you indicate that you will not, in the name of profit, turn a blind eye to both the suffering and the call to action of millions of Palestinian people.
With stature comes responsibility, and we hope you do not take yours lightly.
Sincerely,
The No Time To Celebrate Campaign
a campaign organized and implemented by thousands of Jewish people in the US and Canada this past spring to protest Israeli Independence Day activities and to commemorate the Nakba (1948 displacement of Palestinian people)
www.notimetocelebrate.org
Sir Paul McCartney,
We write to you with sadness and urgency as we hear that you are preparing to perform in Israel at the end of this month, and we ask that you cancel this performance. As Jewish North Americans, we are outraged at the policies the state of Israel has implemented in our names and with our government's financial support for more than sixty years. Palestinian people in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem live under occupation and siege; Palestinian citizens of Israel have fewer rights than Jewish citizens of Israel; and Palestinian refugees, who make up two thirds of the Palestinian population, have been denied their internationally recognized right to return to their lands and their homes since 1948.
At the same time, we write to you with hope that you will heed the unified Palestinian civil society call for boycott against Israel until it complies with international law. Boycott is a nonviolent tool that has been used by ordinary people countless times to hold countries responsible for atrocities when our governments fail to do so. In South Africa, the boycott movement helped bring about an end to the apartheid system. The boycott is both collective and individual. In this case, we call on you as an individual to take a stand against Israeli apartheid and cancel your performance.
Whether you perform or not, you are making a statement. If you perform this month, at a time when Israel is celebrating sixty years of existence, you indicate that you support the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people (now millions) and the ongoing policies of ethnic cleansing of an indigenous population from their land. If you cancel your performance, you indicate that you will not, in the name of profit, turn a blind eye to both the suffering and the call to action of millions of Palestinian people.
With stature comes responsibility, and we hope you do not take yours lightly.
Sincerely,
The No Time To Celebrate Campaign
a campaign organized and implemented by thousands of Jewish people in the US and Canada this past spring to protest Israeli Independence Day activities and to commemorate the Nakba (1948 displacement of Palestinian people)
www.notimetocelebrate.org
Thursday, August 28, 2008
zine, gaza, refuseniks, return
Hello everyone!
I don't usually send out digest kinds of e-mails, but there are just too many exciting things to report.
1. Palestinian girls'/women's zine now online + lots more paper copies I want to mail to YOU!
2. Gaza siege broken by international activists
3. A new group of young Israeli refuseniks sentenced to prison
4. Zochrot, one of my favorite Israeli organizations, held a conference on the implementation of return (for Palestinian refugees) in June. Read the opening remarks below.
5. A personal request: If anyone has a cell phone from Palestine/Israel that you're willing to lend for the last 2 weeks of October, please e-mail me.
1. Zine now online + lots more paper copies I want to mail to YOU!
So, after many requests from people, I decided to take some photos of the zine, create a PDF and put it on my blog. However, it doesn't look nearly as good online as it does on paper - so you should get yourself a paper copy (or 10) too! Remember, send $3-5 for each copy (closer to $5 is best because of shipping costs). Or if you're going to use it for educational purposes, share it with other friends, organizations, etc. (or if you don't have money), I'll send it to you for free. Send me your address and tell me how many you want!
Also, there was some confusion about whether Shireen's article that I sent in my last e-mail was part of the zine. It is not, but Shireen has a couple other pieces in the zine and is one of the editors (and also lives and studies in the US and is available for radio interviews and more if you want...).
2. Gaza siege broken by international activists
I'm so glad I can say that many of you (most of you?) have probably already heard about this, because for once, most mainstream US sources actually covered this remarkable story. 46 activists from all over the world came together to do what all our governments refuse to pressure Israel to do: break/end the siege of Gaza! They arrived by boat on Saturday. While two small boats cannot come close to bringing to the Palestinians of Gaza their basic human needs that they have been deprived of for so long, the goal of raising awareness in the international community and bringing some sense of solidarity and hope to people in Gaza seems to have been reached. We must not let this be the end! The Free Gaza folks intend to continue taking boats in and out, but there is more. I don't ever want to read another story about women, men, and children dying in their homes or on the borders of Gaza because of lack of adequate health care and medicine. I don't ever want to read another story about people in Gaza calling radio stations instead of ambulances when they needed to get to a hospital, because there was a better chance that someone listening to the radio had fuel in his car than that an ambulance would. This is such a preventable disaster.
For more information on the Gaza boats and what the activists are doing now (and for photos!) see freegaza.org. You can also google "Gaza boats" and find lots of great photos and news coverage.
3. A new group of young Israeli refuseniks sentenced to prison
Many North Americans think that because Israel has conscription, Israeli citizens have no choice about whether to join the army or implement occupation and colonization policies. While it is still true that the easier path (socially) is to join the army, more than half of Israeli citizens do not finish their army service. A very small minority of those are people who declare publicly that they are opposed to Israel's policies (most people get out for other reasons). This year, a new group of high school seniors ("Shministim") issued a letter to the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defense (among others), stating their refusal to serve. The letter begins, "We the undersigned, Israeli girls and boys, believing in the values of democracy, humanism and pluralism, hereby declare that we shall refuse to take part in the occupation and repression policy adopted by the Government of Israel."
One of the young Israeli women who has been sentenced recently is someone who I have worked with in the past. Sahar has been participating in Palestinian-led nonviolent resistance since age 12, and has been on the Israeli activist panel portion of our Birthright Unplugged and other delegations for the past few years. The story about her is at http://www.newprofile.org/showdata.asp?pid=1240. You can get more general information at newprofile.org.
4. Zochrot, an Israeli organization, held a conference on the implementation of return (for Palestinian refugees) in June.
One reason I've been optimistic since this summer is that I see more vision coming out of Palestine than I have for a while. A big part of this for me is the fact that among certain sectors of Palestinian and Israeli society, the discussion is shifting from talk of the right of return to talk of the implementation of return. In other words: Of course Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their/our homes, so let's talk about how that's going to happen and what our communities will look like when it does.
Below are the introductory remarks from the Zochrot conference, delivered by the director Eitan Bronstein. I am moved by the work of Zochrot, I was moved by the couple hours I spent at the conference, and I am moved by Eitan's words. I hope you are too.
Zochrot conference on right of return
http://www.zochrot.org:80/index.php?id-669
Introductory remarks
Eitan Bronstein
22-6-2008
I am moved and happy to open this conference: "Towards Return of Palestinian Refugees: Practices, Strategies and Visions." This title
promises a great deal, and if I may be permitted to do so right at the beginning, I'd like to be slightly more modest. I hope that today we
may begin a discussion of the actual return of the Palestinian refugees. It's a little like beginning to learn to walk, like a baby who begins talking without really having a command of language, so she tries, and fails, and stumbles. We're here today to begin to stumble over our words, in order to create a language that will allow civil discourse about the return of the Palestinian refugees. Perhaps, in fact, not only in one language, perhaps in many languages, speaking Arabic, English, Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish…about the Palestinian refugees who will one day return to Palestine. This will be a new language, and it's difficult to say much about it today. Because we don't know much about what that future will look like, and also because we don't really have the words to speak it. The title of one of Oz Shelach's writings can serve as an example: "Grandpa, how do you say 'decolonization' in Hebrew?"
The well-known Viennese Jew – Theodore Herzl – is one source of inspiration for our attempt to speak in an entirely different language
and about an entirely different place. In 1896 he published his book, The Jewish State, in which he proposed establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. That, incidentally, was after he asks: Argentina or Palestina? He set down his vision in a storm of emotions, before he even had visited the "homeland of the Jews," as he called it, for the first time. His book details a vision of what life will be like here,
and how the Jews will implement this project. All this - 64 years before it was implemented in the 1948 Nakba. His essay discusses
issues that are very relevant to us today: the constitution of the future state, labor laws that will apply there (he proposes a seven-hour work day), immigration regulations, where and how will people settle? Language (he proposes that each person speaks their own
mother tongue, as in multilingual Switzerland), separation of religion and the state, the flag, and more.
I suppose that today we won't design a flag for the post-colonial future – maybe we'd rather do without flags? But we will dare to
envision, to suggest possibilities, to argue about alternatives…?
Today's discussion can be viewed as the third leg of a tripod. The other two, I think, are more familiar – accepting the fact of the
Nakba, and accepting the right of return. Otherwise, any discussion of the decolonization of Israel is doomed to fail right from the
beginning, and we will remain in the same violent arena in which we now find ourselves – the current reality of our lives.
Knowing the Nakba, and taking responsibility for its consequences, is necessary if we are ever to understand where we ourselves stand, where we live. Here are two good examples: A few weeks ago Zochrot received an email from a concerned mother. Her adolescent daughter came home from school and told her that the teacher taught them that before the Jews arrived the country was empty. The mother began to tell her daughter about the Palestinians who had lived here, and been expelled. Her daughter got angry and replied: If I have to choose between your story, and the teacher's, I prefer to believe the teacher.
How is it possible to speak about the return of Palestinian refugees before we understand that we expelled them, that we prevented them from returning?
Three days ago Zochrot's web site received an email from Micha, who fought in 1948: "I'd like to correct an error in the above quotation,
from your web site. I was one of the soldiers in Battalion 52, which captured 'Aker. The village fell without a fight, after we fired only
a few shots. The inhabitants were brought to the village square and asked to hand over their weapons. They were given 24 hours to do so, and in the interim we left. When we returned at the time we had set to collect the weapons, the village was empty. The villagers left
voluntarily. No one was expelled. I'm proud to have been a soldier in the Giv'ati Brigade in 1948, the only one of the brigades in the War of Independence in whose sector not a single Arab remained, without having expelled people from their homes."
First he tells us that shots were fired and they ordered the Palestinians to turn over their weapons, and then he claims they left voluntarily.
And then he continues, and asks us: "The offices of Zochrot are located in the Zionist settlement of Tel Aviv, on the lands of Jaffa,
Sumeil, Jamassin and Sheikh Munis. Is that kosher?" It's not kosher, I answered, and invited him to come here today and
think about what could be done about it.
If Micha meets that teacher, perhaps he could teach her a thing or two about the Nakba and the ethnic cleansing that occurred in Palestine in 1948. Unless we know about it, how can we accept responsibility for it?
Whoever had to be reminded of how important it is to acknowledge the Nakba, was reminded by Tzipi Livni, Israel's Foreign Minister, who stated that peace will come only after the Palestinians remove the term "Nakba" from their vocabulary. From her point of view, she's absolutely correct. Acknowledging the Nakba, and preserving its memory, contradicts the Jewish state as it has existed so far.
The second leg on which the beginning of our discussion stands is the right of return, that is, the opportunity of each refugee, male and
female, to choose whether to return or receive compensation and be resettled elsewhere. The right of return also includes returning
property. When we know something about the Nakba, and understand the tremendous crime committed against inhabitants of the country, we also understand that the right of return is the "natural" moral and political response to it. It is also the basis for the discussion in this conference. International law, and in particular UN Resolution 194, adopted in December, 1948, calls for the return of the refugees to their homes in the near future. Israel was accepted as a member of the United Nations in May, 1949, only after it promised to fulfill this resolution, and the time has come to accept and act to implement it. In recent years there have been many important conferences in Israel and abroad devoted to this topic – the right of return. The most recent was held last weekend in Haifa,
and its scope was extremely impressive.
Now we come to the subject of today's conference, which is the third leg, and the title of our deliberations: the return of the Palestinian
refugees. Whenever we talk about the Nakba and the return of Palestinian refugees, we're asked, "Ok, so what do you propose? What
can we do now? Go back to the countries we came from? Swim away in the ocean?" All the fears of Israel Jews float to the surface. That, exactly, is what this conference is about. In fact, for the past two years and more we've been trying to develop answers to this question, the question of implementing the return of the refugees. We established a study group on the subject, and this conference is one of its products. The idea is to try to think about what might occur in the future when the refugees actually return. When we began to think this way we discovered, somewhat to our surprise, that almost no research, or developed ideas, exists on this issue. There's a great deal about the right of return and about the Nakba, as well as comparative research on refugee issues elsewhere in the world. But there are almost no serious attempts to propose how the return could actually come about, and what its implications would be for our lives here. It is important, in this connection, to mention what may be the only existing text, The Feasibility of the Right of Return, by Salman abu Sitte, which shows that most of the area of the Palestinian villages is still vacant today.
We want our discussion to peel away the layers of myth that have accumulated over the years. Here's a realistic example, from a
selction by Anton Shamas that appears in the third issue of Sedek. Shamas writes how it's impossible for A' to return to Palestine.
"Rahat Filistin, that is, going to Palestine. True, the territory didn't disappear in 1948. But their territory faded away – its name was changed, it was pulled out from under them, and so – it went. So there was no home to come back to. But A' wanted to go home to
Filistin." He goes on to cite the Lebanese author who once wrote, "It's impossible to return to Palestine; you must just go there. And if
that's also impossible a person must, perhaps, create a Palestine of his own." We simply want to begin going there, because if it's
really "impossible to return to Palestine" as it was, we should createsomething new that deals with what occurred here in 1948.
Discussion will begin with ideas about the actual return, and criticismof them. The second session will present projects prepared primarily by planning professionals. The third will deal with the situation after the return of the Palestinian refugees, and the final session will address what can be done now to bring about their return. Today's meetings will conclude with performances of song, some of them quite startling.
Before we begin, I would like to thank our speakers, who rose to a challenge that was by no means simple, given the topic. It should be
mentioned that, for a variety of reasons, it wasn't easy to find appropriate speakers.
Nor was it a simple matter to find a place to hold the conference. This setting, the home of the Zionist Organization of America, should
be seen not only as a cute joke, but precisely as an appropriate setting to begin a discussion of the decolonization of Palestine. Here, in the middle of the Hebrew city that is busy cleaning itself up for its centennial celebrations, 114 years after the appearance of Herzl's The Jewish State, and sixty years after his vision was realized, the time has come to think about a completely different reality. This is a necessary political act in the present circumstances, and we'll hear more about this during the day.
I would like to thank the coordinator of this conference, Rona Even, who landed in Zochrot in order to organize it – actually, it landed on
her – and who worked day and night under difficult circumstances to guarantee its success. Nor can I ignore the contribution of two partner organizations that are very important to us: the Committee of the Uprooted, and Badil. The Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Uprooted in Israel, whose representatives will address us today, has been a partner since the beginning of our work, and we are particularly pleased that Wakim Wakim is here with us. Badil, from Bethlehem, has encouraged us since we started. Unfortunately, Mohammad Jaradat did not receive permission from the authorities who are finalizing the occupation of Palestine since 1967, to be with us here. A few months ago, when we began discussing the conference with them in Bethlehem, he said that the very fact that it is being held already represents a success. Today I understand just how right he was.
The Iris O'Brian Fund provides financial support for the conference, and we are grateful to it.
Yesterday an exhibit opened in Zochrot's offices, curated by Ariella Azoulay, on the architecture of destruction, fear and subordination –
in other words, on the destruction of buildings and other forms of repression in the territories that were occupied in 1967.
The third issue of Sedek, published by Zochrot, has just appeared in conjunction with the conference, in cooperation with Parhessiya and Pardes Publishers, and most of it also deals with the return of the refugees. Some of the texts it contains will be improved during the conference discussions.
In addition, Erased from Space and Consciousness, by Noga Kadman, a member of Zochrot, has just been published by November Books Ltd. It deals with the repression of the memory and the physical presence of the Palestinian villages that were captured and mostly destroyed in the Nakba. It is an exact, detailed study, and required reading for anyone who wants to understand the country in which they live.
The conference continues tomorrow, and your program provides details for everyone who wishes to participate in the planned activities.
I'm happy to invite our associate, Nada Matta, who will chair the panel, to open the discussion.
*****End of text*****
5. A personal request: If anyone has a cell phone from Palestine/Israel that you're willing to lend for the last 2 weeks of October, please e-mail me. :)
Thanks for reading, friends!
Love
Hannah
I don't usually send out digest kinds of e-mails, but there are just too many exciting things to report.
1. Palestinian girls'/women's zine now online + lots more paper copies I want to mail to YOU!
2. Gaza siege broken by international activists
3. A new group of young Israeli refuseniks sentenced to prison
4. Zochrot, one of my favorite Israeli organizations, held a conference on the implementation of return (for Palestinian refugees) in June. Read the opening remarks below.
5. A personal request: If anyone has a cell phone from Palestine/Israel that you're willing to lend for the last 2 weeks of October, please e-mail me.
1. Zine now online + lots more paper copies I want to mail to YOU!
So, after many requests from people, I decided to take some photos of the zine, create a PDF and put it on my blog. However, it doesn't look nearly as good online as it does on paper - so you should get yourself a paper copy (or 10) too! Remember, send $3-5 for each copy (closer to $5 is best because of shipping costs). Or if you're going to use it for educational purposes, share it with other friends, organizations, etc. (or if you don't have money), I'll send it to you for free. Send me your address and tell me how many you want!
Also, there was some confusion about whether Shireen's article that I sent in my last e-mail was part of the zine. It is not, but Shireen has a couple other pieces in the zine and is one of the editors (and also lives and studies in the US and is available for radio interviews and more if you want...).
2. Gaza siege broken by international activists
I'm so glad I can say that many of you (most of you?) have probably already heard about this, because for once, most mainstream US sources actually covered this remarkable story. 46 activists from all over the world came together to do what all our governments refuse to pressure Israel to do: break/end the siege of Gaza! They arrived by boat on Saturday. While two small boats cannot come close to bringing to the Palestinians of Gaza their basic human needs that they have been deprived of for so long, the goal of raising awareness in the international community and bringing some sense of solidarity and hope to people in Gaza seems to have been reached. We must not let this be the end! The Free Gaza folks intend to continue taking boats in and out, but there is more. I don't ever want to read another story about women, men, and children dying in their homes or on the borders of Gaza because of lack of adequate health care and medicine. I don't ever want to read another story about people in Gaza calling radio stations instead of ambulances when they needed to get to a hospital, because there was a better chance that someone listening to the radio had fuel in his car than that an ambulance would. This is such a preventable disaster.
For more information on the Gaza boats and what the activists are doing now (and for photos!) see freegaza.org. You can also google "Gaza boats" and find lots of great photos and news coverage.
3. A new group of young Israeli refuseniks sentenced to prison
Many North Americans think that because Israel has conscription, Israeli citizens have no choice about whether to join the army or implement occupation and colonization policies. While it is still true that the easier path (socially) is to join the army, more than half of Israeli citizens do not finish their army service. A very small minority of those are people who declare publicly that they are opposed to Israel's policies (most people get out for other reasons). This year, a new group of high school seniors ("Shministim") issued a letter to the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defense (among others), stating their refusal to serve. The letter begins, "We the undersigned, Israeli girls and boys, believing in the values of democracy, humanism and pluralism, hereby declare that we shall refuse to take part in the occupation and repression policy adopted by the Government of Israel."
One of the young Israeli women who has been sentenced recently is someone who I have worked with in the past. Sahar has been participating in Palestinian-led nonviolent resistance since age 12, and has been on the Israeli activist panel portion of our Birthright Unplugged and other delegations for the past few years. The story about her is at http://www.newprofile.org/showdata.asp?pid=1240. You can get more general information at newprofile.org.
4. Zochrot, an Israeli organization, held a conference on the implementation of return (for Palestinian refugees) in June.
One reason I've been optimistic since this summer is that I see more vision coming out of Palestine than I have for a while. A big part of this for me is the fact that among certain sectors of Palestinian and Israeli society, the discussion is shifting from talk of the right of return to talk of the implementation of return. In other words: Of course Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their/our homes, so let's talk about how that's going to happen and what our communities will look like when it does.
Below are the introductory remarks from the Zochrot conference, delivered by the director Eitan Bronstein. I am moved by the work of Zochrot, I was moved by the couple hours I spent at the conference, and I am moved by Eitan's words. I hope you are too.
Zochrot conference on right of return
http://www.zochrot.org:80/index.php?id-669
Introductory remarks
Eitan Bronstein
22-6-2008
I am moved and happy to open this conference: "Towards Return of Palestinian Refugees: Practices, Strategies and Visions." This title
promises a great deal, and if I may be permitted to do so right at the beginning, I'd like to be slightly more modest. I hope that today we
may begin a discussion of the actual return of the Palestinian refugees. It's a little like beginning to learn to walk, like a baby who begins talking without really having a command of language, so she tries, and fails, and stumbles. We're here today to begin to stumble over our words, in order to create a language that will allow civil discourse about the return of the Palestinian refugees. Perhaps, in fact, not only in one language, perhaps in many languages, speaking Arabic, English, Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish…about the Palestinian refugees who will one day return to Palestine. This will be a new language, and it's difficult to say much about it today. Because we don't know much about what that future will look like, and also because we don't really have the words to speak it. The title of one of Oz Shelach's writings can serve as an example: "Grandpa, how do you say 'decolonization' in Hebrew?"
The well-known Viennese Jew – Theodore Herzl – is one source of inspiration for our attempt to speak in an entirely different language
and about an entirely different place. In 1896 he published his book, The Jewish State, in which he proposed establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. That, incidentally, was after he asks: Argentina or Palestina? He set down his vision in a storm of emotions, before he even had visited the "homeland of the Jews," as he called it, for the first time. His book details a vision of what life will be like here,
and how the Jews will implement this project. All this - 64 years before it was implemented in the 1948 Nakba. His essay discusses
issues that are very relevant to us today: the constitution of the future state, labor laws that will apply there (he proposes a seven-hour work day), immigration regulations, where and how will people settle? Language (he proposes that each person speaks their own
mother tongue, as in multilingual Switzerland), separation of religion and the state, the flag, and more.
I suppose that today we won't design a flag for the post-colonial future – maybe we'd rather do without flags? But we will dare to
envision, to suggest possibilities, to argue about alternatives…?
Today's discussion can be viewed as the third leg of a tripod. The other two, I think, are more familiar – accepting the fact of the
Nakba, and accepting the right of return. Otherwise, any discussion of the decolonization of Israel is doomed to fail right from the
beginning, and we will remain in the same violent arena in which we now find ourselves – the current reality of our lives.
Knowing the Nakba, and taking responsibility for its consequences, is necessary if we are ever to understand where we ourselves stand, where we live. Here are two good examples: A few weeks ago Zochrot received an email from a concerned mother. Her adolescent daughter came home from school and told her that the teacher taught them that before the Jews arrived the country was empty. The mother began to tell her daughter about the Palestinians who had lived here, and been expelled. Her daughter got angry and replied: If I have to choose between your story, and the teacher's, I prefer to believe the teacher.
How is it possible to speak about the return of Palestinian refugees before we understand that we expelled them, that we prevented them from returning?
Three days ago Zochrot's web site received an email from Micha, who fought in 1948: "I'd like to correct an error in the above quotation,
from your web site. I was one of the soldiers in Battalion 52, which captured 'Aker. The village fell without a fight, after we fired only
a few shots. The inhabitants were brought to the village square and asked to hand over their weapons. They were given 24 hours to do so, and in the interim we left. When we returned at the time we had set to collect the weapons, the village was empty. The villagers left
voluntarily. No one was expelled. I'm proud to have been a soldier in the Giv'ati Brigade in 1948, the only one of the brigades in the War of Independence in whose sector not a single Arab remained, without having expelled people from their homes."
First he tells us that shots were fired and they ordered the Palestinians to turn over their weapons, and then he claims they left voluntarily.
And then he continues, and asks us: "The offices of Zochrot are located in the Zionist settlement of Tel Aviv, on the lands of Jaffa,
Sumeil, Jamassin and Sheikh Munis. Is that kosher?" It's not kosher, I answered, and invited him to come here today and
think about what could be done about it.
If Micha meets that teacher, perhaps he could teach her a thing or two about the Nakba and the ethnic cleansing that occurred in Palestine in 1948. Unless we know about it, how can we accept responsibility for it?
Whoever had to be reminded of how important it is to acknowledge the Nakba, was reminded by Tzipi Livni, Israel's Foreign Minister, who stated that peace will come only after the Palestinians remove the term "Nakba" from their vocabulary. From her point of view, she's absolutely correct. Acknowledging the Nakba, and preserving its memory, contradicts the Jewish state as it has existed so far.
The second leg on which the beginning of our discussion stands is the right of return, that is, the opportunity of each refugee, male and
female, to choose whether to return or receive compensation and be resettled elsewhere. The right of return also includes returning
property. When we know something about the Nakba, and understand the tremendous crime committed against inhabitants of the country, we also understand that the right of return is the "natural" moral and political response to it. It is also the basis for the discussion in this conference. International law, and in particular UN Resolution 194, adopted in December, 1948, calls for the return of the refugees to their homes in the near future. Israel was accepted as a member of the United Nations in May, 1949, only after it promised to fulfill this resolution, and the time has come to accept and act to implement it. In recent years there have been many important conferences in Israel and abroad devoted to this topic – the right of return. The most recent was held last weekend in Haifa,
and its scope was extremely impressive.
Now we come to the subject of today's conference, which is the third leg, and the title of our deliberations: the return of the Palestinian
refugees. Whenever we talk about the Nakba and the return of Palestinian refugees, we're asked, "Ok, so what do you propose? What
can we do now? Go back to the countries we came from? Swim away in the ocean?" All the fears of Israel Jews float to the surface. That, exactly, is what this conference is about. In fact, for the past two years and more we've been trying to develop answers to this question, the question of implementing the return of the refugees. We established a study group on the subject, and this conference is one of its products. The idea is to try to think about what might occur in the future when the refugees actually return. When we began to think this way we discovered, somewhat to our surprise, that almost no research, or developed ideas, exists on this issue. There's a great deal about the right of return and about the Nakba, as well as comparative research on refugee issues elsewhere in the world. But there are almost no serious attempts to propose how the return could actually come about, and what its implications would be for our lives here. It is important, in this connection, to mention what may be the only existing text, The Feasibility of the Right of Return, by Salman abu Sitte, which shows that most of the area of the Palestinian villages is still vacant today.
We want our discussion to peel away the layers of myth that have accumulated over the years. Here's a realistic example, from a
selction by Anton Shamas that appears in the third issue of Sedek. Shamas writes how it's impossible for A' to return to Palestine.
"Rahat Filistin, that is, going to Palestine. True, the territory didn't disappear in 1948. But their territory faded away – its name was changed, it was pulled out from under them, and so – it went. So there was no home to come back to. But A' wanted to go home to
Filistin." He goes on to cite the Lebanese author who once wrote, "It's impossible to return to Palestine; you must just go there. And if
that's also impossible a person must, perhaps, create a Palestine of his own." We simply want to begin going there, because if it's
really "impossible to return to Palestine" as it was, we should createsomething new that deals with what occurred here in 1948.
Discussion will begin with ideas about the actual return, and criticismof them. The second session will present projects prepared primarily by planning professionals. The third will deal with the situation after the return of the Palestinian refugees, and the final session will address what can be done now to bring about their return. Today's meetings will conclude with performances of song, some of them quite startling.
Before we begin, I would like to thank our speakers, who rose to a challenge that was by no means simple, given the topic. It should be
mentioned that, for a variety of reasons, it wasn't easy to find appropriate speakers.
Nor was it a simple matter to find a place to hold the conference. This setting, the home of the Zionist Organization of America, should
be seen not only as a cute joke, but precisely as an appropriate setting to begin a discussion of the decolonization of Palestine. Here, in the middle of the Hebrew city that is busy cleaning itself up for its centennial celebrations, 114 years after the appearance of Herzl's The Jewish State, and sixty years after his vision was realized, the time has come to think about a completely different reality. This is a necessary political act in the present circumstances, and we'll hear more about this during the day.
I would like to thank the coordinator of this conference, Rona Even, who landed in Zochrot in order to organize it – actually, it landed on
her – and who worked day and night under difficult circumstances to guarantee its success. Nor can I ignore the contribution of two partner organizations that are very important to us: the Committee of the Uprooted, and Badil. The Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Uprooted in Israel, whose representatives will address us today, has been a partner since the beginning of our work, and we are particularly pleased that Wakim Wakim is here with us. Badil, from Bethlehem, has encouraged us since we started. Unfortunately, Mohammad Jaradat did not receive permission from the authorities who are finalizing the occupation of Palestine since 1967, to be with us here. A few months ago, when we began discussing the conference with them in Bethlehem, he said that the very fact that it is being held already represents a success. Today I understand just how right he was.
The Iris O'Brian Fund provides financial support for the conference, and we are grateful to it.
Yesterday an exhibit opened in Zochrot's offices, curated by Ariella Azoulay, on the architecture of destruction, fear and subordination –
in other words, on the destruction of buildings and other forms of repression in the territories that were occupied in 1967.
The third issue of Sedek, published by Zochrot, has just appeared in conjunction with the conference, in cooperation with Parhessiya and Pardes Publishers, and most of it also deals with the return of the refugees. Some of the texts it contains will be improved during the conference discussions.
In addition, Erased from Space and Consciousness, by Noga Kadman, a member of Zochrot, has just been published by November Books Ltd. It deals with the repression of the memory and the physical presence of the Palestinian villages that were captured and mostly destroyed in the Nakba. It is an exact, detailed study, and required reading for anyone who wants to understand the country in which they live.
The conference continues tomorrow, and your program provides details for everyone who wishes to participate in the planned activities.
I'm happy to invite our associate, Nada Matta, who will chair the panel, to open the discussion.
*****End of text*****
5. A personal request: If anyone has a cell phone from Palestine/Israel that you're willing to lend for the last 2 weeks of October, please e-mail me. :)
Thanks for reading, friends!
Love
Hannah
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