Tag Archives: palestinian rights

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Doc Jazz: ‘The heart of our cause is the Right to Return’ – interview with Oh My Gaza

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The wonderfully active and comprehensive blog ‘Oh My Gaza‘ has done an interview with Doc Jazz about the Musical Intifada. Also discussed are Zionism in the Netherlands, and thoughts about global activism for Palestinian rights. It is republished here, but the original can be read at Oh My Gaza here.

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I am honored to introduce you to Doc Jazz, a proud Palestinian who is reshaping how to get awareness and solidarity out into the world in regard to the cause and struggle of Palestine.


What inspired you to become a surgeon?

I come from a family with a lot of medical doctors; my own mother is a general practitioner. I am sure that somehow she inspired me to pursue a medical career, although I knew from early on that I wanted to be in surgery more than in any other medical profession. And after having been a surgeon for over ten years now, I still have never regretted it one moment. This is what I feel best doing.

How did being born and raised in the Netherlands effect your view
of Palestine?

I think that since the Netherlands is a country with an extremely pro-’Israel’ population, growing up there has made me more determined to look for ways to promote the Palestinian cause. When I was a young child, there were barely any pro-Palestinian voices in the country. But I was raised to be proud of my Palestinian heritage, and stood my ground in defending who we are, and what our aspirations are.

 

When you are a migrant, there is that eternal question: “Where are you from?” Answering that you are Palestinian is never without direct consequences in the Netherlands. It affects your relationships with friends at school, with teachers at school and at university, and even your position in your working environment. In the Netherlands people like to believe that they are fair and open-minded, but when it comes to Palestinians – or even Muslims in general nowadays – this is nothing but a wishful fantasy that exists in their own thoughts.

As for my view of Palestine, maybe these experiences made me more determined to dig deeply into the history of our cause, and to make sure I know everything about it that I need to know. I even ended up being the media spokesperson for the board of the Palestinian Community in the Netherlands (PGN) for nearly 5 years. I guess I took the pro-Israeli brainwash of the majority of the Dutch people as a challenge.


What is Musical Intifada about?

When the struggle against Apartheid was coming close to reaching its climax in the eighties, the role of music in propagating that struggle for equal rights was tremendous. Even artists that barely had any political interests wanted to join in; it was ‘in’, it was ‘hip’, to have a song against racism.

 

In the end of the year 2000, I wrote my first truly political song, ‘Intifada’, and put it online. I set up a website and published it there, and shared it with the online community ‘Ramallah Online’, which still exists by the way (http://wwww.ramallahonline.com). It received such positive responses there, and also through my website, which I named the ‘Musical Intifada’, that I decided to focus on making songs for the struggle. And when I did that, I had a dream in my mind that some day, the world will sing for Palestine the way they did for South Africa.

Well, we still aren’t there. But perhaps it just takes more perseverance, more determination, more time. This is still where I want things to go, and nowadays I am far from the only one. You all know the tremendous successes of artists like Lowkey, OneWorld, Shadia Mansour, D.A.M. and many others. There is definitely something going on, and we should just go on and on until it happens. These efforts are the Musical Intifada.

 

 

How do you think your music impacts the cause for Palestine?

 

 

The straightforward most honest answer is: it doesn’t! Not yet, at least. If you ask me whether it has the potential to make difference however, then yes I believe it does. For that to happen though, I need a bigger audience, especially in the Western World. The vast majority of my lyrics are in English, so it’s really made to reach out to all corners of the globe. At the moment, about 65 – 70 % of my fans are Palestinian. This is of course a wonderful thing, but they are not the ones who need to be convinced of the justness of the Palestinian struggle.

I like to believe that the combination of my lyrics, rhythms and melodies has the potential to draw people in who have Western and other backgrounds. Only one week ago, my music received a ‘Music Blog Award’ from Clickitticket.com, a mainstream American website. I think this is a positive development. It shows that mainstream minds can be opened by my music.

How optimistic are you about freedom and justice for Palestine?

 

 

It depends on whether you mean in the long run, or in the short term. I think there are many things to worry about in the near future. The articles I wrote on my website give you an idea of where my thoughts are on those subjects. But in the long run, I believe the Zionist project they call ‘Israel’ is doomed to fail. The lunacy of racism will be its downfall. Not only do I believe that racism is evil, I also happen to believe that it is an unsustainable ideology. And since racism is at the very core of the foundations of the Zionist state, I believe they have planted the seed of self-destruction in its very heart when they founded it.

What steps do you think need to be taken in order for Palestine to
be free?

 

I believe that one of the most important things that we must do as Palestinians, is to hold on to our cause. Justice is our strongest weapon, and we have it entirely on our side. There is no case to be made for ‘Israel’ outside of the ‘logic’ of power. I will never recognize that colonialist state, because I believe racism deserves no recognition. What we need to do as Palestinians is to protect our cause, and the heart of our cause is our Right to Return. If we succeed in passing this determination on to the next generations, we have done the most important thing we can do for Palestine, and for the Palestinian cause.

We have to remain clear about this towards all the nations of the world, and we should never forget that the world already recognizes this Right of Return, even if the international community is failing to take the steps that are necessary to put it into practice. We must therefore continue our support for the calls of PACBI for a sustained economic, cultural and academic boycott of ‘Israel’.

As a part of this strategy, we must also put a lot of energy in working against normalization. Normalization has the dangerous potential to take all the energy out of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) activities. We must continue to call for the dismantlement of the Zionist state, and the resurrection of a one-state Palestine that is a nation for all of its people regardless of religion or ‘race’. These are the steps, and we must hang on to them with classical Palestinian determination.


Any final thoughts you would like to share with us today?

 

 

I would like to extend my hand in solidarity, gratitude and admiration to all those who are working for Palestinian rights worldwide. There are so many more who feel the same as they do, and who simply lack the courage to speak out. The ones who do have that courage can play an important role in activating these ‘silent sympathizers’. Imagine if all those would speak out loud – the noise of their rejection of Israeli Apartheid would be deafening. So give them a hand, pass them my songs to encourage them. That’s what I made them for!

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William James Martin UN initiative interview

UN 194-Ceremonies
UN 194-Ceremonies

UN 194-Ceremonies

William James Martin taught at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He contributed this article to RamallahOnline. Contact him at: wjm20@caa.columbia.edu.
He was interviewed by Iranian journalist Sohrab Bohan, and this interview will be published in Farsi at borhan.ir


President of the 65th Session of the UN General Assembly, Joseph Deiss, said Palestinians cannot not join UN ranks as a member state without confirmation by the Security Council, and the US is set to veto such an initiative. How do you think the Palestinians will proceed?

I think almost the entire world supports the Palestinian initiative for statehood in the UN, except the US and Israel and the few states which the US is able to coerce. But then there are also those individuals, analyst or historians mostly, Dr Pappe, for example, who have long supported the Palestinian cause who oppose the UN initiative and see it as inconsistent with the one democratic state solution. Like them, I also support the one state democratic egalitarian state solution, but have a stronger feeling for the urgency of the present situation and feel that the momentum of the constant daily dispossession of the Palestinians and the constant erosion of Palestinian rights must be halted, and sooner rather than later.

Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, within the last few days, even said that the recognition of statehood for Palestine by the world community is long overdue.

Mahmoud Abbas has now asserted pretty forthrightly and more than once that they are proceeding directly to the Security Council even in the face of a promised US veto by President Obama and the intense pressure being exerted by the US and by US Congressional threats to withhold funding for the PA and the threat to close the PA Observer’s offices in Washington, DC.

Mr Abbas is exercising some degree of courage that I find pleasantly surprising given the sobriety of his demeanor , the temperance of his words, and his determination over the course of this stewardship of the PA to cooperate closely with both Israel and the US. But I applaud him and also note that this effort will be the pinnacle endeavor of his entire political career.

If the Palestinian statehood is requested in the UN Annual General Assembly, what do you think the probable results will be? Why?

The Palestinians appear to have a majority of votes in General Assembly to obtain whatever they ask of that body within the powers of the General Assembly prescribed by the Charter and by the relevant precedents as derived from past actions of the Assembly. The UN General Assembly has the capacity to grant the PLO observer state status, again opposed by both Israel and the US, and that seems like a certainty that they will receive that if it is requested.

I have read an argument of an international lawyer, whose name escapes me at the moment, to the effect that the General Assembly may resolve the very same issues brought before the Security Council in the case where the Security Council is deadlocked or unable to reach agreement. That would include the matter of UN recognitions of statehood. The same person also indicated that this route would probably not be particularly easy as it would involve a majority agreement of the members of the Security Council to send the issue to the General Assembly. But neither is it impossible since it appears that the US is the only member of the Council opposing Palestinian statehood and the PLO may just have the votes for this course. Not being an international lawyer, I shall say no more about this possibility except that the situation is novel in some respects and anything may happen.

It seems like the most probably eventuation is that the PLO will achieve observer state status conferred by the UN General Assembly after having been denied statehood in the Security Council due to a US veto.

The United States has clearly stated that will Veto the Palestinian statehood bid. How do you evaluate the behavior and the reactions of USA?

The United States, at the moment, is in the pocket of Israel. The Congress is intimidated and Obama’s only concern is his reelection. For that he knows he needs the Jewish vote and Jewish contributions to his campaign. He has abandoned his liberal and left of center political base for the larger center, which is where most elections are won. But he has always impressed me as a novice in foreign policy with no particularly deep feeling about foreign policy issues. He has never shown any indication which I have been able to discern that he has any significant knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or its history.

But I have not forgotten that Obama, during the 2008 campaign, went before AIPAC and said that Jerusalem should always be Israel’s undivided capital.
I can’t believe the US government takes the Iranian nuclear weapons threat seriously. The inspections of Iranian nuclear sites by the IAEA may not be perfect, but they none the less have provided an overwhelming preponderance of evidence that Iran is not in pursuit of a nuclear weapons program. I think it was 3 years ago that the US National Intelligence Estimate, which is an amalgam of 16 intelligence related agencies within the US government concluded that Iran had abandoned any ambitions of a the nuclear weapons program which it may have had some years before when it apparently purchased some weapons technology from A K Khan – really, the Pakistani government under Pervez Musharraf.

I also suspect that Israel intelligence does not see the Iranian nuclear program as an urgent cause for alarm. Israel is more concerned that the demise of the Saddam Hussein government in Baghdad freed Iran to occupy the vacuum thus created and extend its influence in the region. Iranian money and technology backs up Hezbollah in Lebanon. This is Israel’s only real military adversary in the region. Anything that can be done to weaken Iran would probably also weakens Hezbollah. If Israel could engineer a US attack on Iran and maybe overthrow the government, as it did Iraq, then Hezbollah would most likely falter. Fortunately, Obama has not taken the bate, as did his predecessor.
But the Obama administration is afraid to exhibit an open disagreement with the Netanyahu government and offend the Jewish voters and the Jewish campaign contributors, and for that matter the Christian Zionists who are no small force in America.
In passing, you might not know that Christian Zionism preceded, by 400 years, Jewish Zionism, which crystalized in the late 19th century, as one can find writings of Christian clergymen from the 1500’s promoting Jewish migration into Palestine. Jewish migration was even advocated, though briefly, by Napoleon.


Do you think if the Palestinian petition were to be successful, the Palestinian state to emerge would be a real, independent, and able to execute the functions of a normal state?

As I mentioned, the most likely result is that the PLO will be granted observer state status by the General Assembly. Israel will resist this every way it can, including denying that anything at all happened. Israel will certainly not have a change of heart and withdraw the Jewish settlements. Quite the contrary, it may even annex them.

Probably nothing will change on the ground immediately. But the State of Palestine will now be able to exercise powers unavailable to it previously, for example, pursuing torts against Israel’s criminal behavior in the International Court of Justice whereas before it lacked the standing to bring matters before the court.

What is of considerable importance, as I see it, is that Netanyahu will no longer be able to argue that the occupied territories of the West Bank and E Jerusalem are disputed territories, rather than illegally occupied territories. Netanyahu, and his expansionist zealots whom he represents do not even recognize that these territories are under occupation. If the occupied territories are merely disputed, then Israel is not compelled to give up anything in negotiations.

Such a declaration of statehood makes the occupation and the settlements and the segregated for-Jews-only by pass roads illegal and the Jewish settlers violators of Palestine’s sovereignty under international law and in the eyes of the international community.

Mr Netanyahu as well as the hard core Jewish settlers, Gush Enumin, in particular, do not recognize the legitimacy of the UN, though the founders of Israel were happy to accept UN Security Council Resolution 181 of 1947 which Israel claims is the foundation of its international legitimacy and is incorporated into Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

The hard core settlers –Gush Emunim, those following Rabbi Kook, and Rabbi Kahana, only recognize Halacha, or Judaic law, and what they feel is God’s covenant and God’s commanded duty to settle the land.

Thus UN recognition of statehood, even observer state status creates a sharper and more conspicuous breach between the international community and Israel, and the US, for that matter.

It is by no means surprising that Israel will resist with all their available diplomatic force the Palestinian UN initiative for a range of reasons comprising several different layers of urgency.

I think it is a positive development that this initiative in the UN highlights to the world the degree that the US and Obama are under the control of Israel, even to the extent of alienating must of the Arab world and exhibiting the dissonance between US policy and the spirit of liberation from tyranny exhibited in the Arab Spring.

Now the Palestine is divided into two separate geographical areas, the Gaza Strip and West Bank.. How these two separate parts are considered in this bid?.

Hamas is sitting back, watching the show, for now. It, of course, believes Israel is not a legitimate state and that the colonization of Palestine by European Jews should be reversed, ideally at least. It has offered Israel a truce of 20 years or longer, so for now, it is not actively trying to reverse the colonization of Palestine or directly challenge Israel’s existence.

Israel does not seem to care very much about taking over the Gaza strip. The most vital farm land and aquifers are on and under the West Bank and that land was the setting for Biblical literature and Judaic mythology.

It does have an economic interest in the waters just off the coast of Gaza where apparently there are many tens of thousands of cubic meters of natural gas deposits. Israel had no intention of allowing Palestinian access to those reserves.

Turkey’s announced intention of having a naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean is most likely seen by Israel a threat that would deny Israel unchallenged access to those reserves.

UN Resolutions 181 and 242 are the most well-known resolutions regarding Palestine. Would you please elaborate on their relation or effect to the present bid?

UN General Assembly Resolution 181 is an interesting document. This is the so-called ‘partition resolution’ of November 1947 which divides the land of Palestine more or less equally between a Jewish and an Arab state with Jerusalem set aside as a separate body to be administered by the United Nations. It reads very much like it was intended to be a prescription for an overall solution to the conflict between Jews and Arabs that was ongoing at that time. It is optimistic in its tone, and I am sure the authors sincerely believed they had found the formula for the resolution of a conflict which, in fact, continues to trouble the world to this day.

It was obviously intended to be a compromise which would satisfy all parties. In fact, it satisfied none, as the members of the United Nations discerned hardly before the ink had dried.

It reads very much like a liberal document speaking of the protection of minorities, proscribing discrimination on the basis of race, religion or ethnicity, protection of holy places guaranteeing free access to all without discriminations, etc.

Absolutely nothing remains today, on the ground, of these liberal percepts.

The document attempted to do the impossible, combine a liberal enlightened philosophical prescription with illiberal Zionism which is based on racial exclusiveness and racial superiority within state boundaries.

Furthermore, the history of Zionism was ignored, as any discerning observer of the Zionist project should have well known that its intention was to take over all of Palestine and to institute a process of ‘transferring Arabs to neighboring states.

The Resolution unfairly gave half of Palestine to the Jews who, at that time, were only one third of the population and owned less than 6% of the land area of Palestine.

For the Palestinians, a body dominated by Europeans was giving half of their country to those whose roots were in eastern Europe and not in Palestine.

Half of Palestine was not at all what Ben Gurion and the founders of Israel wanted, but they were willing to accept 181 in order to legitimize the existence of a Jewish state in Palestine and then to take the remainder by force employing an army which they had been building for some years by the time of this resolution.

UN Security Council Resolution 242 was drafted and approved by the Security Council in the immediate aftermath of the ’67 War. It contains the significant phraseology, Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war … , and also, Affirms … Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict; … .

None of this means a thing to Israel. Israel did not go to war for nothing.

During last 60 years, has expanded it domination to all of Palestine. What is the significance of Israel complete domination of Palestine in regard to the present situation?

It is perfectly clear from the history of Zionism, from the history of the ruling Lukud party in Israel, and especially from the history of Prime Minister Netanyahu that neither Netanyahu nor Israel intends to grant to the Palestinian a single square centimeter of Palestine.

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Obama, eloquent hypocrisy

President Barack Obama May 1, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama May 1, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama May 1, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Sami Jamil Jadallah

At the UN President Obama chose to be candidate Obama and not the President of the United States, the leader of the free world and the statement. His message at the United Nation was worthy of delivery at AIPAC or Knesset but not at the United Nation, certainly not to the world.

Mr. Obama, you know, the American people know, the Palestinians know, the Arabs and Muslims know, the Jews know and the world knows but for AIPAC and the American Jewish leadership and community and its power and influence over American politics the Middle East conflict would have been solved long time ago. We would not have a September 11th, we would not have the War on Iraq, we would not have the War on Afghanistan, certainly we would not have the economic mess and meltdown we have now.

I was expecting President Obama to speak so eloquently of the Arab people desire for freedom and democracy in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Syria, in Yemen and in Libya. And I was expecting President Obama to speak and deny the rights of Palestinians to self determination, a right people around the world worthy of, and yes, I was expecting President Obama to scum to domestic political pressure and threatened the use of ‘veto” against the Palestinians quests for independent nation and I was expecting candidate Obama to grant Israel the “veto’ over the Palestinian rights of self determination and their absolute right to bring the Israeli and Jewish Occupation to and end.

He spoke of the people’s uprising against tyranny and corruption of regimes that killed human dignity, human spirit, imprisoned an entire nation and confiscated its free will and fleeced the national treasuries corrupting every thing and every thing.

He spoke of the rights of the people to take to the streets, even to carry arms and guns and fight tyranny of the regime and he supported the Libyan liberation movement with arms and weapons and squadrons of NATO jet fighters and bombers. He never called for the people of Tunisia, of Egypt, or Libya, of Yemen and of Syria to sit with these criminal regime and negotiate an end to the tyranny that lasted for too long thanks to America and its allies that kept these corrupt and criminal regimes going extending them the life line with arms, weapons, and funds, and overlooked all these years the human and civil rights abuses and lack of basics of democracy and human freedoms.

I could not believe what I was hearing when Obama spoke against what he termed “ short cuts” of the Palestinians quests for freedom and liberty as if 20 years of negotiations and “peace process” are not enough. He spoke of “short cuts” as if 45 years of continued military and settler’s occupations was not enough.

He spoke of the needs for negotiations with a party that was born and created with a mission to “exile” the people from their native land. He spoke of the needs for negotiations with a country and a regime that deployed its entire military, economic and political means to exiles, to confiscate the land, to destroy the infrastructures to destroy and wipe off the map entire towns and villages. He spoke of negotiating with a racist and criminal regimes that deemed killing of Palestinians, exile them and ethnically cleanse them from their homes s justified by the Torah.

While he spoke of the needs for Israeli security and the needs for the Israelis to feel safe at home and in the streets, he never once spoke of the same needs for the Palestinian’s needs for safety and security in their homes and in their streets from an ever present military and armed settlers occupation.

Obama spoke of the Israelis as victims of terror yet he never spoke of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who perished as a direct result of an Israeli terror totally funded and politically supported by a very generous United States that saw nothing wrong with sending one million cluster bombs to be dropped over civilian targets, saw nothing with targeting civilians in Gaza and saw nothing with the siege of more than 1.5 million people. He only saw the Israeli victims but chose not to see Palestinians victims.

He saw nothing wrong with Israel massive use of military force to kill over 1500 civilians in the War on Gaza and the deliberate destructions of entire neighborhood and the destructions of over 45,000 homes and the destructions of infrastructures and the use of Palestinian civilians as “human shields” by a well armed Israeli army.

Mr. Obama simply failed to open his eyes to the “facts on the grounds” facts created by deliberate theft and confiscations of the land to build Jewish settlements, Jewish Only Roads, and to build an Apartheid Wall that separated families from each other, that robbed the people from their lands and farms.  Mr. Obama simply saw nothing wrong with these “facts on the grounds” and he wanted the Palestinians to negotiate away their rights to the lands stolen and confiscated.

Mr. Obama only saw the death and dying of Jews from “terrorists” acts but he chose not see the blood of tens of thousands of Palestinians spelled sometimes for the fun of it by a well armed Jewish state.

President Obama simply failed to see and address the over 550 security checkpoints where Palestinian people young and old, rich and poor have to wait for hours sometimes for days to cross 5 km of road, sometimes dying at these checkpoints because a teen-ager manning these checkpoints was too busy chatting with his friends on the phone.  He simply ignored the daily suffering and humiliations that millions of Palestinians have to put with every day in and every day out for some 45 years.

Poor President Obama, he was over taken by emotion as he spoke of the Jewish sufferings but he shed no tears or showed any remorse to the suffering and exiles of some 6 million people who were driven from their homes by the United States special ally that saw nothing wrong with shooting and killing American sailors on the high seas.  He simply never saw the simple and basic justice missing here.

But for the United States policy and leadership the Middle East conflict could have been solved long long time ago, avoiding the many wars that the Middle East went through since 1948, and Mr. Obama failed to see the United States totally responsible for the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives on both sides, Israelis/Jewish and Palestinian/ Arabs that have been wasted by a blind and totally biased policy that deemed the Arab-Israeli conflict not as an international issue but totally domestic issue where money and voted are the only concern and interests.

Mr. Obama failed to see the US policies in the Middle East specially when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict driven by a bunch of committed loyal Jewish Zionists who has taken the lead since 1948, with US presidents having no say so.
To speed up the process of finding a peace settlement is for the United States simply to pull itself out of the entire conflict, since it was never and will never be a fair and honest broker and will never be capable to taking the difficult decisions needed to bring this long conflict to an end. The United States must pull itself out of this conflict since it is a party to and partner and will never be third party. The United States must stop using its “veto” power to provide political and criminal cover for Israel crimes in the Middle East.

Too bad the Palestinian leadership or for more accurate description regime does not have the courage to do the right thing and disband such a regime that has failed at every thing and did not deliver for the people freedom, end of occupation let alone right of return for over 45 years. This regime is simply unfit and unqualified to lead forward. It proved one more time its incompetency, lack of vision certainly lack of courage driven by self-interests as manager of the Jewish Occupation.

Perhaps it is time for the people, the Palestinian people to take the initiatives and get the US out of the equation and out of this shame called “ peace process” and bring the Jewish Occupation to its knees and its end.  And yes, time for the people to bring an end to this fraud and lie called “Palestinian leadership” the regime of the PLO/Fatah. The Third Intifada must be unlike the First and Second, and must be well organized and well planned and well executed making sure that Israel with all of its armed and weapons and its armed Jewish terrorists groups and with all of the military, political and financial support Israel gets will not succeed in keeping the Jewish Occupation one more year.

Mr. Obama you have failed your self, failed America and the hundreds of millions of fair decent American people who wants this conflict to end in a fair and just way. You failed the world, certainly you have failed both the Israelis and Palestinians with your hypocrisy and total ignorance of the ‘facts on the ground”.  You should send back your Nobel Peace Prize since you proved you are unworthy of it.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah is an international legal and business consultant and is the founder and director of Palestine Agency and Palestine Documentation Center www.palestineagency.com and founder and owner of several business in technology and services. Sami also runs an online website (Jefferson Corner). His articles are also featured on PalestineNote and Veterans Today.

Articles on RamallahOnline by Sami Jamil Jadallah

Born in the Palestinian city of El-Bireh ( presently under Israeli Military Occupation, Armed Jewish thugs and settlers). Immigrated to the US in 62. After graduating from high school in Gary, Indiana was drafted into the US Army ( 66-68) received the Leadership Award from the US 6th Army NCO Academy in Ft. Lewis, Washington. Five of us brothers where in US military service about the same time. Graduated from Indiana University with BA-72, Master of Public Affairs-74 and Juris Doctor-77, and in senior year at IU,was elected Chairman of the Indiana Student Association.

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“I shall not hate” and more

Mazin Qumsiyeh

Mazin Qumsiyeh, 20 March 2011

Israel apartheid week with events in over 100 cities around the world is
going great (see http://apartheidweek.org/).  I participated already in some
of the events and will join others (see my schedule at
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/upcomingevents/). Events are packed and the
opposition is not able to mobilize even among Zionist Jews in America.  The
few Zionists holdouts are getting smaller in number though they still try to
do some damage by attacking and insulting people.   Rabbi Michael Lerner of
Tikkun had his house attacked by extremist Zionists for the third time.  The
reason this time is the award Tikkun made to Richard Goldstone of South
Africa. But the geopolitical shift is happening and is unstoppable. People
around the world decried the shameful behavior of Hilary Clinton and the
Obama administration support of the Saudi invasion of Bahrain (intended to
save a murderous dictatorial regime)

The many workshops on Palestine at the Left Forum are filled with Jewish and
other voices speaking for human rights and against the apartheid system
(nearly 3000 are attending here in New York, see http://www.leftforum.org/).

In other good news, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated (inspired by Arab
uprisings elsewhere) demanding elections to the Palestinian national council
and real unity for Palestinian rights.  Both Hamas and Fatah tried
unsuccessfully to co-opt the message of the demonstrators (most not
affiliated with ANY Palestinian faction) who promised to up the pressure.
(see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12742761).

On the road, we met so many new people who are becoming involved in activism
for human rights and justice. But travel also gives us time to read and
reflect while on the many planes, trains etc. I finished reading the book ”I
shall not hate” by Dr. Izzeldine Abueleish on the trip from Cleveland to
Philadelphia.  It is a remarkable book about his life and about the murder
of his three daughtersand his niece, one of the few cases when such tragedy
appeared on Israeli television.

 

See this video about the tragedy of this family  

In one part of his book, Izzeldine writes ”We have to find the light that guides us to our
goal. I’m not talking about the light of religious faith here but light as a
symbol of truth.  The light that allows you to see, to clear away the fog-
to find wisdom.  To find the light of truth, you have to talk to, listen to,
and respect each other. Instead of wasting energy on hatred, use it to open
your eyes and see what is really going on.” When I finished the book and
arrived in Philadelphia, our hosts Mary and Roger Allen had a book laying
out titled “Peace Prayers: Meditations, Affirmations, invocations, poems,
and prayers for Peace”.  The first was remarkably this relevant poem by W.
H. Auden:

Defenseless under the night

Our world in stupor lies

Yet, dotted everywhere,

Ironic points of light

Flash out wherever the Just

Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them

Of Eros and of dust,

Beleaguered by the same

Negation and despair,

Show an affirming flame

Examples of other good actions by affirming flames from around the world

Monday is the beginning of Israel apartheid week in Connecticut (USA)

http://mecc.thestruggle.org/iaw2011

Join Birthright unplugged travel July 10-16 in Palestine

http://www.birthrightunplugged.org/unplugged/application

Join the events July 8-16 in Palestine

http://www.palestinejn.org

In Brussels a checkpoint was set up in the middle of town. The actors are
very convincing!

Belgian activists made a blockade to protest import of Israeli produce by
Agrexco!!

Roger Waters about his decision to respect the call for cultural boycott of
Israel :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/11/cultural-boycott-west-bank-wall

Statement by Jewish Activists and Organizations active in BDS against Israel

A Jewish response to the February 2011 Statement of Jewish Zionist
Organizations on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

http://www.ijsn.net/657/

Qatif, Sihat, Safwa and other towns in Saudi Arabia held demonstration to
denounce the US-supported Saudi intervention in Bahrain and concomitant
massacre of Bahraini citizens.  These demonstrations are not reported on in
the controlled western media

My last question is why did Obama choose to begin bombing Libya on 19 March
when his predecessor George Bush began bombing Iraq 19 March 2003 (three
days after Rachel Corrie was murdered)?  The US and western-supported
massacre of civilians continue in Bahrain, Yemen, and other Arab countries.
We are seeing the struggle intensify.  From Sykes-Picot agreements between
France and Britain in 1916 and the Balfour and Cambon declarations of  1917
to the hypocricy of the Obama administration, there is a very long record of
Western powers working against democracy in the Arab world (and prop-up a
racist apartheid regime implanted in the midst of this world).

La luta continua… keep the hope alive….

Silence is complicity.

 

 

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He serves as chairman of the board of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Sahour He is author of “Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle” and the forthcoming book Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of Hope and Empowerment.

A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home
http://www.qumsiyeh.org
http://www.pcr.ps

Articles by Dr. Qumsiyeh on RamallahOnline.com.

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A new Israeli colonial outpost and more

Mazin Qumsiyeh

Mazin Qumsiyeh, 5 Oct 2010

A new Israeli colonial outpost appeared near the colonies of Nokdim, Tekoa and Kfar El-David in the past few weeks.  The new outpost consists of several caravans and semi-permanent structures in a valley to the east of the El-David colonial settlement.  It sits on land belonging to people from Jib Atheib, Zaatara, and Dawahra.  We toured the site October 1, 2010 with locals Hassan Breijiya and Mubarak Zawahra and two international observers from EAPPI.  This video summarizes the situation in the area.

We will have olive picking in the area threatened by the settlers there.  To join us email me mazin@qumsiyeh.org

‘Early detection saves lives’. Patient’s Friends Society – Jerusalem announces major cancer awareness event. Location: Bethlehem University (in co-operation with the College of Nursing and Health Sciences). Saturday 9th October from 10:00 – 15:00 see www.pfsjerusalem.org and become a friend at our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Patients-Friends-Society-Jerusalem

Israeli (in)justice system needs to be challenged.
Ameer Makhoul’s day in Court by Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh
http://a-doctor-in-galilee.blogspot.com/2010/07/ameer-makhouls-day-in-court.html
A Nobel Peace Prize laureate in prison: If the court indeed deports Mairead Corrigan-Maguire we’ll know that our court system is also tainted to the teeth
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/a-nobel-peace-prize-laureate-in-prison-1.316807

Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in Beit Fajjar near Bethlehem.  This comes after a series of such attacks in which settler’s promised to respond to the government move to curb settlements or on any international support for Palestinian rights by a policy of exacting “price tags”.

Join us: World Economics Forum, Palestine
http://www.wef-palestine.org/node/93

Donate to UNRWA (UNRWA is facing an 80 million deficit this year). You can donate tax deductible in the US via friends of UNRWA. http://unrwa.blackbarn.net/about-us

CNN fired anchor Rick Sanchez for saying something about how many Jews are in position of power at CNN (thus proving the point).  I disagree with Sanchez on many things including his  conservative bias and the tenor of his statement but he has an absolute right of freedom of speech.  We must all cherish that and demand respect for it (the witch hunt is now on for anyone that opposes Zionist Jews but attacks on Muslims are allowed).
http://edition.cnn.com/feedback/

Israel has shown over the past 62 years that negotiations and giving in to its demands only emboldens its colonial appetite.  History shows that only pressure worked to curb its illegal activities.

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home
http://www.qumsiyeh.org
http://www.pcr.ps

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Security Disparities In East Jerusalem Make Conflict Inevitable

Israeli police and security guards looking down on the Al-Bustan neighbourhood of Silwan (East Jerusalem). Photo: Jillian Kestler - D’Amours

Palestine Monitor, 2 October 2010

“What’s happening in Silwan is not just these past two weeks, it’s been happening for months,” Zakaria Odeh, the Director of the Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, told me when I visited him in his office in East Jerusalem.

Israeli police and security guards looking down on the Al-Bustan neighbourhood of Silwan (East Jerusalem). Photo: Jillian Kestler - D’Amours

Israeli police and security guards looking down on the Al-Bustan neighbourhood of Silwan (East Jerusalem). Photo: Jillian Kestler - D’Amours

Last Wednesday, 22 September, Samer Sarhan was shot to death by a private security guard working for settlers in the East Jerusalem village of Silwan. Sarhan was 32-years-old and the father of five. Following his murder, violent clashes between the Palestinian villagers from Silwan and the Israeli police, guards, and settlers erupted.

The violent collisions lasted for days and Jerusalem police conducted raids into Palestinian homes, detaining residents. The Wadi Hilweh Information Centre reports that seven men aged 16 to 26 were detained on Wednesday, 29 September, and are now awaiting prosecution.

The fighting during the past week resulted in numerous injuries, including the death of a 14-month-old boy who was killed in his home due to suffocation from tear gas, and the hospitalization of Sarhan’s widow who suffered from asphyxiation after Israeli police shot a tear gas canister into her family’s home.

Media reports described the clashes as reminiscent of the second Intifada, as this past week Palestinians began throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, while the Israeli police and military shot tear gas canisters and rubber bullets into large crowds of residents.

According to Odeh, the recent escalation in tensions between settlers and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem is a result of the larger effort to dispossess Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem of their land: “They envision Jerusalem as the centre of Israel, everything they do—land confiscation, military incursions, checkpoints—is aimed at achieving this—an undivided, majority Jewish capital.”

There is a vast inequity in the security provided to settlers and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem. This iniquity is a significant factor in the tensions that manifested in last week’s clashes. Understanding the role of the Israeli government in creating this imbalance helps to situate the recent events in Silwan in the larger context of Israeli policy toward East Jerusalem.

Walking in the streets of East Jerusalem areas like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, the occupation is palpable, visible and tragic. I see Jewish settlers and Palestinians living side by side, sharing the sidewalks and passing each other in their cars. However, knowing that every settler in this neighbourhood has acquired his home at the cost of an evicted Palestinian family renders this initial impression of coexistence as illusory.

Every settler home is draped in or marked by an Israeli flag; and with the highly visible presence of security forces, these homes more closely resemble fortresses, heavily guarded by armed men in fatigues.

Settler home in Silwan. Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

Settler home in Silwan. Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

Status of East Jerusalem

In 1967, when control over East Jerusalem was seized by Israel after the Six Day War, Palestinian civilians living in the disputed capital city were given “permanent residency” status in Jerusalem.

Following the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, which divided the rest of the Palestinian Occupied Territories into varying levels of autonomy, East Jerusalem was exempted, as Israel argued the city should be reserved for “final status talks.” And so to this day, East Jerusalem and all its residents remain under the full jurisdiction of Israel. Despite repeated pronouncements by the international community that East Jerusalem is illegally occupied, the Palestinian Authority is barred from exercising any power within the city’s parameters.

The annexation of East Jerusalem has been accompanied by a systematic increase in Israeli settlements there; Palestinians are evicted in order to make room for these increases. According to a report by the Arab Studies Society, a total of 24,178 dunums (roughly 6,000 acres) of land had been confiscated from Palestinians in East Jerusalem for the use of Jewish settlements as of 2008.

The Gap in Security

The advance of settlers into East Jerusalem is accompanied by discrimination against Palestinians residing there. It is important to note that while Palestinians pay the same taxes as all residents of the city, the Jerusalem municipality spends only 11% on services for those areas in East Jerusalem.

A fact that is most significant in the light of recent events is the disproportionate allocation of security to Jewish settlers and Palestinians in East Jerusalem. The Israeli government allots separate funds to provide for the security of settlers who populate these same East Jerusalem areas.

Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing controls the security provided to settlers in Palestinian neighbourhoods. The Ministry contracts private security firms that train and supply armed guards throughout East Jerusalem areas. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), an Israeli non-profit organization, reported that the Ministry paid a total of NIS 54,540,000 (roughly 15 million US dollars) to private security firms in 2010.

In contrast, Palestinians must use the Jerusalem police who have a documented history of discriminatory practices towards Palestinians. ACRI conducted an in-depth investigation into how residents of East Jerusalem view the Jerusalem police, revealing that most residents have no trust in them.

ACRI reports, “What emerges from these testimonies is the biased handling of criminal investigations employing blatantly illegal tactics, such as intimidation of relatives with the threat of arrest, and disregard of available evidence. Such practices lead Palestinian residents to believe that police investigations are biased from the start and that they are not conducted with the intention of ascertaining the truth of the matter.”

Silwan resident, Said Abu Nasser states, “The Israeli police merely serve as the ‘hands’ of the operation, to carry out arrests and regular harassment of Palestinians, acting under the orders of the settlement guards.”

In other words, police are largely ineffective in providing security for and protective services to Palestinian residents.

For Odeh, the bigoted behavior of the Jerusalem police is clearly reflected in their response to the recent murder, pointing out that the man who killed Sarhan was released after only 3 hours, because he, like many others, can easily claim self-defense.

While reflecting on the disparity in protection, Odeh asks, “What’s going on in Silwan, it’s part of an escalation. How else could 400 people make life miserable for half a million?”

A sttler looking out on Silwan. Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

A sttler looking out on Silwan. Photo: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

Article written by Charlotte Silver,  Source.

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The extraordinary rendition of Palestine

Mazin Qumsiyeh

Mazin Qumsiyeh, 30 Sept 2010, In occupied Bethlehem, Palestine

It has been a rather bizarre week in the Middle East.  Let me just cite a few examples:

- The International Atomic Agency (IAEA) succumbed to pressure from the US and other Western Countries and thus failed to make any explicit or even implicit request of Israel to join the nonproliferation treaty.  One of the excuses given is that there is a delicate peace process going and we do not want to upset the situation (i.e. Upset Israel)

-With help from an emasculated Palestinian authority, the United Nations Human Rights Council succumbed to the “might makes right” philosophy and refused to actively pursue Israel for its blatant violation of International law when it attacked Gaza. One of the excuses given is that there is a delicate peace process going and we do not want to upset the situation (i.e. Upset Israel)

-The UN human rights council issued a report about its investigation of Israeli use of force including apparently executing passengers on the Gaza bound freedom flotilla.  Yet, the great powers claim there is a UN commission of inquiry (three people sympathetic to Israel including a known war criminal) who will look into the matter of the attack and issue recommendations but without interviewing survivors or the attackers and without demanding from Israel the tapes, cameras etc that it confiscated (i.e. without evidence).  And yes, the US and great powers claim that there is a delicate peace process going and we do not want to upset the situation (i.e. Upset Israel)

- Israel refuses to stop colonial settlement activities on the remaining shreds of Palestinian territory.  The US administration will offer Israel all sorts of incentives including promising to support Israeli demands that any Palestinian statelet is devoid of sovereignty (e.g. Israeli troops continue to be posted at borders) and that there will not be any demands to implement Palestinian rights (e.g. return of refugees). But, this is part of diplomatic maneuvering because we want the “peace” talks (now on for 18 years) to continue..

-News media parroted Israeli releases that the boarding of the latest boat to Gaza was done “without violence from those on board” or from the Israeli Navy.  Yet once those on board were released, we know that they told of horrific and degrading treatment done to them including being tasored. But hey, the Palestinian authority and Israel apartheid regime are in a peace process.  So who cares about what happens to an 80 year old holocaust survivor or a bunch of Jews with conscience.

-The powerful Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman gave a speech at the UN bragging about the power and claiming there will be no peace for a very long time only interim arrangements some may involve transfer of part of the Palestinian population from inside the Green line to get rid of those while Israel keeps the settlement.  To counter the diplomatic damage, Netanyahu did not dismiss the ideas but merely said that his office makes policy.  The US continues to insist Netanyahu is serious about “peace” when even imbeciles can see that this is the most fascist rightwing government in Israel’s history and that Netanyahu is a veteran liar (in private conversations he was recorded as dismissing all notions of peace).

-At the behest of the Zionist lobby, the EU and US governments are applying additional sanctions on Iran and Iranian officials on the pretext of suppressing human rights in Iran during recent unrest! Do they really think the world is blind, deaf, and mute? Do they not see that Iran’s behavior towards dissidents is child’s play compared to Israel’s relentless massacres and ethnic cleansing? And need we remind ourselves of the FBI search and seizure policy against human rights activists in the US? Would they at least demand that Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire be released immediately from detention at Ben Gurion airport (named after a war criminal and ethnic cleanser).  Oh, yes I forget, the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, Saeb Erekat et al are talking peace here so we should all shut up.

-President Barak Obama with a straight face stands in front of the UN to declare ” Those who long to see an independent Palestine must also stop trying to tear down Israel.  After thousands of years, Jews and Arabs are not strangers in a strange land.  After 60 years in the community of nations, Israel’s existence must not be a subject for debate. Israel is a sovereign state, and the historic homeland of the Jewish people.  It should be clear to all that efforts to chip away at Israel’s legitimacy will only be met by the unshakeable opposition of the United States.  And efforts to threaten or kill Israelis will do nothing to help the Palestinian people.” Imagine if he said the same thing about Apartheid South Africa. But then again there was no peace process other than between Chief Buthalesi Bantustan and the white regime.

-The Israeli occupation forces killed five Palestinians this week including a fisherman and a toddler and continued with its other policies of siege, building walls on Palestinian lands, arresting political activists etc as the talk about the talk of “peace” continues.

These are just few of the rather bizarre happenings this week in the Middle East but when I think about it, we have had 62 years of misery, mayhem and pain filled with bizarre and almost unbelievable events.  Who would have though it possible to gather members of a particular ideology into one spot on earth, displacing its native people and making them refugees and yet label the victims terrorists.  Who would have thought that this would be achieved with incredible brutality supported by Western powers, themselves riddled with racism and hatred of non-whites?

But we take heart in the fact that this whole rigged game is finally coming to an end.  Some claim that there is a trend that made the Palestinian cause a commodity traded for profit and positions and hence Palestine had been lost already in this game of world politics.  But I, writing these notes after a long day of work with Palestinians (weak and strong, young and old) can tell you that they underestimate us.   Like contrarian investing, I tell people to be careful in making gloomy predictions.  Things looked pretty gloomy in 1920, 1928, 1935, 1972, 1986, and 1999.  The year after in each of those things was not predicted or predictable by the majority of people.  But I will go out on a limb and say that based on history, the next intifada is likely to be global.  Individuals have one of three choices regardless of their background: support the oppressors, be apathetic (and hence support the status quo of oppression), or join the growing movement saying “enough is enough”.

For more on this subject see ” What if Peace Talks “Succeed?”

Many commentators expect the direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians to fail. But there is a much worse scenario: What if they “succeed?”

http://al-shabaka.org/policy-brief/politics/what-if-peace-talks-succeed

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He serves as chairman of the board of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Sahour He is author of “Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle” and the forthcoming book Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of Hope and Empowerment

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Bibi made the case for Israel; Abbas failed to make the case for Palestine.

Sami Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah, 2 Sept 2010

For years marauding criminal and armed Jewish settlers have been terrorizing Palestinians villagers in and around Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarem, Qalqillia among other places. These criminal gangs have engaged in cold blooded murder on almost daily basis, attacking and burning olive orchards, killing life stock and poisoning wells, yet not the Israeli leadership, certainly not the Palestinian leadership ever spoke up against this daily well organized and Israeli army protected campaign of terror.

Bibi Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister spoke very well for Israel, the ancestral and homeland of the “Jewish People”, demanding a secure and safe Israel, promoting the case for Israel throughout his life and speech, promoting and advocating Israeli settlements, promoting, advocating and sponsoring marauding Jewish thugs roaming the hills and narrow allies of Palestinians villages, promoting land theft and fraudulent land transaction that facilitate the transfer of Palestinian properties to Jewish owners. Netanyahu seized the moment in the White House at the opening ceremonies of the Direct Negotiations.  Mahmoud Abbas certainly missed the moment to make his case for Palestine let alone the people of Palestine.

Mahmoud Abbas as was expected not only extended his condolences to Bibi Netanyahu for the murder of these 4 Israeli criminal settlers, he condemned the murder as well. Mahmoud Abbas unlike Netanyahu failed to mention the Palestinian rights to their ancestral home land, failed to mention over 63 years of forced exile, failed to mention 43 years of military and settler’s occupation one of the longest and most cruel in modern times, failed to mention the ethnic cleansing of 83,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes in East Jerusalem, failed to mention the systematic and ever present house demolitions of Palestinian homes and the consistent denial of building permits for Palestinians, the destruction of farms, the confiscation of water resources, the Apartheid Wall and all the land, the farms and homes it destroyed and denied, the Jewish Only Roads that robbed the Palestinians of more additional lands to provide safe and speedy access to Israeli settlers and land thieves.

Bibi Netanyahu spoke much of the “Palestinian terror” that Israelis faced and are facing, while Mahmoud Abbas never once did he speak of the daily Jewish terror the Palestinian people have to face at more than 600 security checkpoints, have to face by the hundreds of Jewish settlements that dot the Palestinian country side, the daily targeted killings and kidnapping of Palestinians by settlers and the Israeli army.  While Netanyahu made his case for a “secure” Israel, Mahmoud Abbas simply was lost unable to focus on the real issues, the rights of his people in their land. Abbas simply overlooked the daily Jewish terror his people have to face every day for 43 years.  It seems the security and safety of his people was not an issue.

While Bibi Netanyahu spoke of Israel, of course Israel of “Judea and Samaria” as the “Jewish Home Land”, Mahmoud Abbas only satisfied himself of speaking of “freeze” on settlement building giving his approval for ALL existing Jewish settlements small and large built in the Occupied territories since 67.  Mahmoud Abbas like Arafat before him never spoke of the Palestinians historic rights in Palestine, rending the issue of one of “refugees” but not of national right of return similar to that advocated and demanded by Netanyahu for his “people”.

Both Bibi Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas skipped over the issue of the Occupation that took place in 67 as if this occupation does not exist.  Too bad Mahmoud Abbas did not seize the moment, a historic moment to make the case for a free and sovereign state of Palestine in all of the territories occupied in 67 with East Jerusalem as its capital. He only spoke of easing the restriction, freezing the settlements and otherwise spoke as a manager of the Jewish Occupation asking for easier condition under the Jewish Occupation but not the freedom from the Jewish Occupation.  Abbas statement spoke of extending the terms of contract negotiated in Oslo and signed in Washington. He simply handed Area C to Bibi Netanyahu on a golden plate, thus fulfilling the role and the game that started in Oslo.

I could never understand the silent of the Abbas and Salam Fayyad when Jewish settlers murder a Palestinian or when the Israeli army target killing a Palestinian, yet and within minutes both men condemn the murder of armed Jewish settlers who are nothing more than criminal trespassers. With hundreds of millions spent on the Palestinian Security Forces by Israel, the US and the EC, it seems the Palestinian Security Forces the Blackwater of the Israeli Occupation failed in its mission and failed to do the job assigned which is the protection of Israeli armed settlers and the safety and security of the Israeli army as they come to town to kill, murder, kidnap and destroy.

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Viva, Viva Negotiations!

Mazin Qumsiyeh

Mazin Qumsiyeh, 21 August 2010

Returning from the Friday demonstration in Al-Walaja in unbearable heat (new video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pftDUGV9RY) we note that the talks about the talks about the peace talks are to resume in Washington September 2nd.  The Obama administration decided not to spend any political capital challenging the Israeli lobby. In fact the US politicians want to blunt Republican criticism ahead of midterm elections by chalking out a diplomatic “success” in form if not in substance.  Direct talks will lead to more erosion of Palestinian rights especially when conducted in Israeli-occupied Washington between Abbas whose mandate as president of the Palestinian bantustan in the West Bank expired last January and Mr. Netanyahu, a known terrorist and war criminal leading the most extreme right-wing government in the history of the apartheid state of Israel.   I believe most Palestinians (Abbas included) are neither optimistic nor pleased about this development. But few of us believe it was necessary for Abbas to yield yet again.  Most (including large segments of Fatah) believe it is a huge mistake that just set back the real cause for peace. I challenge those who think otherwise to public debates on the issues.

An executive committee of the PLO representing various factions (who get paid through the same system) stamped its approval by a majority to the decision to go back to direct negotiations (and thus yield to the US pressure).  I would be curious to read any deliberations and hear from any dissenting voices who voted no (and not just say no to their cadre members).  The fig leaf that is used to save face for the officials going to fruitless negotiations is this statement from the Quartet:

“The Quartet reaffirms its full commitment to its previous statements, including in Trieste on 26 June 2009, in New York on 24 September 2009, and its statement in Moscow on 19 March 2010 which provides that direct, bilateral negotiations that resolve all final status issues should “lead to a settlement, negotiated between the parties, that ends the occupation which began in 1967 and results in the emergence of an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors.”

Israel already rejected the notion of ending the occupation but are thrilled with the notion of direct negotiations without interference or “preconditions” between the occupier and the occupied.  After all, it takes two to agree and Israel holds all the power and all the cards and it can dictate what it wants in “direct, bilateral negotiations”.  The simple question is how TO GET A MODICUM OF Palestinian rights since the quartet even backed down on the simple demand of “suspending settlement activities” while negotiations go on (itself a retreat from the road map which requires dismantling all that was built illegally since 2002)? If you can’t get the rapist to even suspend the rape for a time, why would your demand only direct negotiations with his rape victim in a closed room? If we accept the notion that Netanyahu is restricted by his political coalition from even this small gesture of a suspension of illegal colonial activities (see Geneva conventions), then why would we expect that he will be able to offer anything bigger (like dismantling settlements or sharing Jerusalem, or allowing refugees to reclaim their land)? If we believe the US and its quartet are now more serious, then how come nothing was achieved from the indirect negotiations under their tutelage?

The Zionist movement stole 78% of Palestine and does not believe there is an occupation of the remaining 22%.  They already annexed 10% of the West Bank and also annexed the Golan heights.  They already put 500,000 colonial settlers in the best and richest lands in the West Bank.  They already steal 80% of the water from the West Bank.  They make billions off of the occupation and billions more from direct US aid tax-deductible donations from Zionists around the world.  What is the incentive to Israel to bilaterally negotiate an “end to the occupation that began in 1967” let alone deal with the more relevant and more significant issue of the ethnic cleansing committed in 1948 and still continuing in places like the Galilee and the Negev?

Initially we heard that Abbas will never go to the negotiations unless Israel stops building in its colonial settlements in the 22% of Palestine that some are still dreaming will become a “state”.  In an interview with CNN after the US announcement of resumption of negotiations with no preconditions, Saeb Erekat said that he “hoped” that with the direct negotiations beginning, that Netanyahu will extend the “moratorium on building” in the settlements in the West Bank (supposedly set to expire in September).  Today there are nearly 500,000 colonial settlers living in the West Bank and there was no moratorium worth the hasbara/propaganda created about it. So I would like to ask why is he now begging for renewal of a “moratorium” that was no moratorium? This is the same Erekat who told us repeatedly that  the partial moratorium is a ruse.   Colonial settlement construction continued and still moves with speed as we speak. I would love the opportunity to take Mr. Erekat or anyone who has eyes to see around Palestinian villages and show them what is actually happening on the ground.  In my area in Har Gilo and Har Homa, colonial settlement building activity did not even take a breather.  Actually, there was an acceleration last month in buildings in Har Gilo (on top of Beit Jala) and in building the wall that will make Al-Walaja a concentration camp pending finally ethnically cleansing what remains of this village population.

Yes, I know all the arguments for going back to negotiations.  They go along these lines: we tried different forms of resistance, the balance of power is tipped completely to the Israeli side which is supported by the US (thanks to the Israel lobby), the European governments are not showing backbone, blah blah blah.  One high ranking Fatah official said we have nothing left but negotiations. I am sorry, but if the leaders in Vietnam or Algeria or South Africa made similar defeatist statements, these countries would never have achieved their freedoms. If our leaders have lost faith in their cause, they should step aside and let those who have a positive message lead.  If we are going to achieve an emasculated statelet by endless negotiations with such leaders reaping the rotten fruits falling down from the tree after 130 years of struggle, then we do not want such statelet.

Leaders should first of all accept responsibility for their mistakes and level with their own people.  The biggest mistake in the past 20 years has been this road of Oslo which ended the search for justice and reclamation of Palestinian rights to replace it with a road of “security for Israel” (the occupying power), positions and autonomy and an endless negotiations and “process”.  The process could/would somehow(if all Israeli conditions are met) lead to state that will be less than the state of Zululand.

I could be too harsh in my statements.  But should we not expect expert opinion on issues that are existential? Should we not at least expect consistency on the part of our supposed leaders who are really not experts in any area of international law or diplomacy?  For example, they told us repeatedly that the reason for asking for settlement freeze is because as we negotiate, Israel has made a Palestinian state impossible with continued eating away what is left of Palestine. Now Palestinians have access to 8.3% of the land of Historic Palestine and this is shrinking (the Bantustans in the Galilee, Negev, Gaza and WB).  Since Israel continued to build everywhere even after they announced a “partial settlement building moratorium”, why do you agree to go back to negotiations?  If Netanyahu and all his ministers say there is never going to be a compromise on Jerusalem (illegally annexed by Israel according to International law), how will you force his government to change its mind?  And how will you deal with the fact that Israeli politicians of all stripes say Palestinian refugees can’t return to their homes and lands and must instead be settled elsewhere (including the already over-crowded West Bank and Gaza of which half the population is refugees and displaced persons)?  Is compromise now defined as you can bring any issues to the table of bilateral negotiations to which the occupiers already said they will just say no?

Our “leaders” knows that not only they had to cave in to go back to the negotiations but that further concessions are required to continue to fund their Bantustan economy (and VIP status) from Western donors and Arab countries beholden to the West.  So why do they try to give out the notion that bilateral negotiations can succeed under such circumstances? If you can be threatened with a cut-off of aid to go back to fruitless negotiations, why do we believe that you can resist pressure to cut off aid unless you give up on Jerusalem or the refugees? Palestinian negotiators already are not allowed to raise the issue of treatment of Palestinians inside the state of Israel where Israel is demolishing whole villages.  So many further concessions are needed to maintain the privileges of running the autonomy areas with money from the West and compliant Arab states?  I believe at this stage, three more concessions were needed: a) to return to endless direct and public negotiations that prop-up the Israeli government (and could break the increasing isolation of this pariah state) , b) to retract the very mild measure of boycotting settlement products and refrain from supporting International investigations into Israeli war crimes or legal proceedings to hold it accountable, and c) to continue to suppress local resistance in all its forms.

Some might dispute this and claim that the PA supports popular resistance (and suppresses armed resistance).  But unfortunately the facts of the last year tell a different story. Could they please come to places like Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, and Jayyus and explain to the people what had happened to end the popular resistance in those and dozens of other places? Could they explain why popular resistance  in many places that used to be costly to the occupation is now ritualized media stunts.  Could they meet with people who engage in real popular resistance regularly and are volunteers and not paid employees of the PA and ask them what are the challenges they face? The answers would be scandalous.

I am making three challenges here to all those who will be negotiating with Israeli politicians. 1)  I challenge you to come and tie yourself to an Israeli bulldozer (or sit in front of one) in an act of civil disobedience, and 2) I challenge you to convene panels of independent experts (not those profiting) in every major Palestinian population center to discuss the direction of Oslo accords and what has transpired in the last 20 years, and 3) based on 1 and 2, speak truth to the people.  Much more sacrifices will be needed and are coming from our people with or without honest leadership. Would it not be more dignified and more likely to give us freedom if we have to do without the foreign aid for one or two years?

And sorry, past good deeds 20 years ago do not give ANYONE the right to give up on Palestinian rights.  In international law, even duly elected leaders of occupied people cannot give away their people’s rights.  Our lives are nothing compared to 5,000 years of our people’s history in this land.  And even the struggle against Zionism has already lasted 130 year including life times of many who “negotiated”.  Who now remembers Hassan Dajani who tried to accommodate with the British occupation because of a balance of power.  History will not be kind to those who give-up on their own people.  We the common people, must take matters into our own hands. ولا يغير الله ما بقوم حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم

Confucius added “To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.”

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Other relevant articles on this subject

Peace Talks in the Shadow of Demolitions

While President Barack Obama pressures Palestinians to re-engage in direct peace talks, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu loftily counsels President Mahmoud Abbas not to miss the opportunity, recent demolitions within the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel continue unabated and unaddressed. According to OCHA, July and August have marked the highest number of demolitions this year. As of the end of July, OCHA reports Israeli forces have destroyed over 230 structures effectively displacing and/or affecting over 1,100 Palestinians, including 400 children since the beginning of 2010.

http://www.badil.org/en/press-releases/135-2010/2555-press-eng-024

Analysis by Israeli Paper Haaretz: Netanyahu has won, for now

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/analysis-netanyahu-has-won-for-now-1.309294

Economic emptiness in Palestine and Israel  By Sam Bahour

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/115149-economic-emptiness-in-palestine-and-israel-

RAMADAN KAREEM  FROM THE NETANYAHU AND OBAMA ADMINISTRATIONS by Jeff Halper

http://www.icahd.org/?p=5994

Palestine: Occupied, Divided, Isolated, Oppressed and Unaided by Stephen Lendman

http://www.uruknet.de/?p=68971

And as always, come visit us in occupied Palestine…

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home

http://www.qumsiyeh.org

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Israel’s New Land Grab Master Plan

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman, 24 July 2010

The new plan updates older ones, going back to the first, what Israeli historian Ilan Pappe documented in his 2006 book, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” on David Ben-Gurion’s Plan D (Dalet in Hebrew), his final master plan following Plans A, B and C, what Palestinians call the Nakba, the catastrophe, commemorated annually to never forget.

By bombarding and besieging villages and population centers, destroying communities, and expelling or killing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, it planned an exclusive Jewish state, excluding Arabs by any means, including mass-murder, dispossession, and persecution, ongoing to this day, what Palestinians heroically resist.

It took six months to complete, expelling or slaughtering about 800,000 people, and destroying 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and other cities. It was barbarous ethnic cleansing, Palestinians shown no mercy, including women and children, yet it was just the beginning, much more yet to come, including new ethnic cleaning plans.

Old and New Master Plans

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) is an Israeli policy research organization, its president Dore Gold, a notorious right-wing extremist, hostile to democratic principles and Palestinian rights.

It’s recent report is titled “Demography, Geopolitics, and the Future of Israel’s Capital: Jerusalem’s Proposed Master Plan,” explaining that on October 7, 2008, the District Planning and Construction Commission for the Jerusalem region proposed one, approved by Mayor Nir Barkat, then revised “to create and preserve a stable Jewish majority in the unified capital,” assure the city always stays unified, and follows Ben-Gurion’s idea:

to “bring Jews to eastern Jerusalem at any cost. We must settle tens of thousands of Jews in a brief time. Jews will agree to settle in eastern Jerusalem even in shacks. We cannot await the construction of orderly neighborhoods. The essential thing is that Jews will be there.”

In large numbers they’re displacing Palestinians, destroying their homes, seizing their land, and fulfilling Ben-Gurion’s dream to make Israel exclusively Jewish, Jerusalem its capital.

The city’s 1968 Master Plan recommended accelerated Jewish population growth. In 1973, Prime Minister Golda Meir planned to increase it by 3.7% by 1982. Various other plans followed.

Master Plan 2000 aimed to preserve a Jewish majority, its planners apprehensive about Arab population growth. As a result, they proposed “intervention tools” to counter it by:

“a sufficient supply of housing by building new neighborhoods and reinforcing and increasing the density of veteran Jewish (ones), as well as adding places of employment and services on a quantitative and qualitative basis.”

The June 2009 Arbel Report proposed annexing part of Ramat Rahel, located on a hilltop halfway between Jerusalem’s Old City and Bethlehem, to accommodate a growing Jewish population.

A July 2009 Master Plan for Transportation in Jerusalem revealed 13,300 newly approved housing units and another 15,000 at other stages of planning, suggesting an urgency to complete them and add more based on population growth forecasts.

Planned land seizures weren’t mentioned. However, Jerusalem’s Master Plan 2000 said the following:

“The most severe problem in eastern Jerusalem is the absence of a system to resolve land ownership. This problem, in combination with a deliberate policy by both nationalist and criminal elements, has led to a huge volume of illegal construction (without required permits) on lands that were intended for public purposes and a takeover of privately owned lands….In order to solve the problem, a special judicial system should be established in the municipality to regulate the registration of land ownership” to assure Jews are preferentially treated.

Jerusalem Master Plan 2010

On June 28, Haaretz writers Akiva Eldar and Nir Hasson headlined, “Jerusalem master plan: Expansion of Jewish enclaves across the city,” saying it calls for expanding Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, “a move largely based on construction on privately owned Arab property,” meaning Palestinians will be removed to accommodate them.

On July 10, Haaretz writer Don Futterman headlined, “The Jerusalem Master Plan for destruction,” saying it plans “to relocate as many Arabs as possible to the margins of the municipal boundaries; to promote overcrowding (in their areas) in the hope (they) will leave the city of their own accord,” develop their own neighborhoods, encouraged by “accelerate(d) evictions and house demolitions.”

“The plan plays into both the settler-led campaign to (de-Arabize) the Old City, and the government’s efforts to make sure Jerusalem will never be the capital of a Palestinian state….” Will it work? Before he died, Edward Said said the following:

“There is no way for Israel to get rid of Palestinians. (They) shar(e) the land that has thrust (them) together (and must do it jointly) in a truly democratic way, with equal rights for (all) citizen(s),” Jews, Arabs, Christians, and others. No master plan will prevent it,

Yet Israel’s new one includes accelerated home demolitions and land seizures, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein telling the High Court that the government plans to apply the 1950 Absentees’ Property Law (ABL), authorizing the state to seize abandoned properties. At risk are thousands of acres worth billions of dollars, land legally held by Arabs.

Haaretz writer Akiva Eldar said:

“The state intends to assume control over properties of people who moved to ‘enemy states’ during the War of Independence (now refugees denied the right of return), as well as structures in East Jerusalem,” belonging to West Bank and Gaza residents.

They’ll be used for new Jewish developments besides others underway or planned, sparking protests met with attacks and arrests, a recent Silwan one assaulted with live fire, tear gas, and percussion grenades. One Palestinian lost an eye. A woman miscarriaged from tear gas, another also after her home was invaded.

Five Palestinians were arrested, including a 12-year old child. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General of al-Mubadara Palestinian National Initiative, accused Israel of attempting to Judaize East Jerusalem with “bulldozers, the expansion of the settlement units, (and) changing the demographic composition of the city to favor” Jews over Arabs, the final plan to make Jerusalem exclusively Jewish by any means.

Israel acts ruthlessly, does what it pleases with no regard for the law, internal or external pressure, or the rights and needs of indigenous Palestinians, being systematically removed for Jewish expansion, a Palestinian official saying it’s to “decapitate” East Jerusalem’s Arab identity by building thousands of Jewish-only apartments and homes on Arab-owned land.

They’re being squeezed into narrower spaces, currently confined to about 13% of the city, the rest seized since 1967 when East Jerusalem was occupied. Palestinian Authority (PA) official Ghassan Al-Khatib called it “more than a provocation. It is actually a decapitation of the peace process. (It won’t) withstand the reported plan to expand Jewish settlements in Jerusalem.” Others say it’s a prescription for resistance and violence. A recently released blueprint calling for expanding Jewish neighborhoods on privately owned Palestinian land assures it, especially if as widespread as envisioned to Judaize the entire city.

On July 20, the International Middle East Media Center’s Brian Ennis headlined, “Palestinians in East Jerusalem Feeling Abandoned,” given the “specter of more housing demolition and (Judaization) of East Jerusalem,” the international community doing nothing to prevent it, or help Israeli Arabs – Israel’s Blacks and Latinos, lawlessly persecuted, shamelessly denied their rights.

Targeting Israeli Arabs

On July 20, London Observer writer Harriet Sherwood headlined, “Jaffa’s Arab haven of coexistence resists influx of Israeli hardliners,” saying:

Its Ajami neighborhood, south of Tel-Aviv, has seen “every stone and blade of grass” bitterly contested, now “the centre of a struggle that touches on social, religious, nationalist, economic and legal questions and which – whatever the outcome – will inevitably result in further strife.”

Until recently, it was one of Israel’s few areas where Jews and Muslims coexisted for decades, though never easily. However, destabilization and strife threatens to erupt if a 20-apartment development is approved, an Israeli High Court ruling imminent, the result of a case brought by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), claiming it discriminates against Arabs and non-religious Jews in favor of Zionist extremists demanding it go ahead to create “a religious community free from non-Jewish and secular influences,” their own exclusive gated community.

Historian Sami Abu Shehadeh said if they succeed, “the (neighborhood) will be polarized. (People who) say Jaffa is a model of coexistence will be silenced.” Judaization will assure it and encourage more in Israel, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

He called the whole neighborhood “a construction site. We – the Arabs – are being forced out again, but we have nowhere else to go.” Building permits aren’t granted, and locals say 500 families have been issued eviction or demolition orders. Others got huge fines. The entire Arab population faces an uncertain future, like other Israeli Arabs, not wanted, denied their rights, and being systematically pressured to make way for Jews.

Another way is a proposed measure requiring they pledge loyalty to a “Jewish and Democratic state,” mainly Palestinian men and women who marry Israeli citizens (an estimated 25,000), then seek citizenship on the basis of family reunification, the latter already denied without Interior Ministry approval, for most impossible to get.

On July 19, Jerusalem Post writer Herb Keinon said the measure hadn’t yet passed, contrary to other accounts. He called it a way to “deter Palestinians from asking for citizenship.” The government said it’s only for “illegal residents,” not Israeli Arabs, but if extremist Yisrael Beitneinu party officials prevail, including David Rotem, Chairman of the Knesset Constitution and Avigdor Lieberman, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, all Israeli Arabs will have to pledge loyalty to a “Jewish, Zionist, and democratic State,” its emblems and values, and perform military or equivalent service as a condition for a national ID card signifying citizenship and right to stay in the country legally.

Final Comments

Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have reason to worry, Haaretz writer Amira Hass providing more evidence in her July 21 article headlined, “IDF destroys West Bank village after declaring it a military zone,” saying:

The army demolished an entire Jordan Valley village after declaring it within a closed military zone, 55 structures and 120 farmers, workers, and their families left without homes in Farasiya. Earlier the Civil Administration cut off their water, and before that the military destroyed a distribution pipe from a nearby stream, what residents built for irrigation.

Last year, they were prohibited from connecting to wells belonging to Mekorot, Israel’s National Water Company, forcing them to use saltwater for their livestock and buy expensive private water for themselves, what most can’t afford.

B’Tselem photographer Atef Abu, arriving hours after the demolition, said “mattresses, pipes and broken furniture were lying on the ground in the debris.”

On July 18, 10 Bardala village families (north of Farasiya) also got demolition orders, a farmer with 300 sheep “told to leave in 24 hours or his herd would be confiscated.”

In Israel and throughout the Territories, millions of Palestinians are endangered, their lives and livelihoods threatened by Israel’s longstanding plan to Judaize all “Eretz Yisrael,” no matter that indigenous Arabs lived there for centuries and have legal right to their homes and property.

No wonder Haaretz writer Gideon Levy sees Israel “sinking into a strident, nationalistic atmosphere and darkness is beginning to cover everything, (evidenced by) jingoism, ruthlessness and vengeance, (its extremist voices) now expressing its heart,” Palestinians feeling the affects, collectively punished for being Muslims under Jewish domination – racist, lawless and merciless, for Levy, a “sign of how we have lost our senses and humanity,” for historians, a prescription for self-destruction.

  • Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
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