Sam PF's Journal
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Sam PF" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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12:18 am
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60 Years
Today Israel starts a week of celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of their formation as a state, culminating in their Independence Day of May 14th.
Amidst the chorus of fawning congratulations from world leaders, artists and celebrities, it is fortunately (as the BBC article shows) becoming harder - at least outside the US - to ignore the other side of the events of 60 years ago, the Palestinian Nakba, or Catastrophe.
In the course of the Israeli 'War of Independence', around 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and land as the result of a campaign of massacres and ethnic cleansing by forces of the nascent Israeli state. Many were forcibly expelled, many others fled the fighting - all were subsequently denied the right to return to their homes, in defiance of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Over 530 Palestinian villages were destroyed. With the Absentee Property Act of 1950, Israel subsequently confiscated the land of the exiled Palestinians without compensation.
Israel's apologists have long tried to deny these facts, but such denials increasingly lack intellectual credibility given the wealth of documentation - including from Israeli sources - that substantiates them. This fact sheet from Jewish Voice for Peace presents one of the most compact but comprehensive accounts I've seen. If you only follow one link from this post, that's probably the one to go for.
The orchestrated nature of the campaign is amde clear by Plan Dalet, adopted by the Zionist leadership early in 1948: (from JVP factsheet)
These operations can be carried out in the following manner: either by destroying villages (by setting fire to them, by blowing them up, and by planting mines in their debris) and especially of those population centers which are difficult to control continuously; or by mounting combing and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the villages, conducting a search inside them. In case of resistance, the armed forces must be wiped out and the population expelled outside the borders of the state (Plan Dalet, 10 March,
1948)
The diaries of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - who signed the Oslo accords with Yasser Arafat - record his role as leader of the Israeli forces attacking Lydda in July 1947:
After attacking Lydda Ben-Gurion would repeat the question: What is to be done with the population?, waving his hand in a gesture which said: Drive them out!.' Driving out' is a term with a harsh ring, .... Psychologically, this was one of the most difficult actions we undertook.
Rabin signed the order that "The residents of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age" on July 12th 2008.
This is the reality behind the foundation of the state of Israel, this is what lies behind all the subsequent wars and conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians and the other states in the region. And until this fundamental wrong is acknowledged and given redress, Israel will never know peace.
( A digression on Zionism )
There is a demonstration in London on Saturday to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Nakba, calling for an end to the seige of Gaza, an end to the Occupation, and for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Ah, there is one in Stockholm on the 15th, that's good.
Tags: palestine
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11:59 pm
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Every problem a nail
Yet more craziness and slaughter in Iraq, as forces of Nouri al-Maliki's government continue their assault on the Mehdi army militia in Basra. This attack has been loudly praised by George Bush, and US and UK planes have chimed in with air attacks.
Things have been pretty horrendous in Basra, controlled by rival Shia militias (including the Badr brigade, which is the militia of al-Maliki's Dawa party.), and their rule has not been pretty, especially for women. But so this is the way to solve it? Start an all-out civil war (on top of the various other civil wars still raging in Iraq) in an attempt to destroy the official 'bad guys'?
Juan Cole is probably the best available regular commentary in English on what's going on in Iraq. He reckons (amongst others) that this move is linked to forthcoming provincial elections in Iraq in October, in which al-Maliki and the US are distinctly afraid that Muqtada al-Sadr's party, of which the Mehdi is the militia, will win in the Shia provinces. The Sadrists are strongly against the US presence in Iraq, and have at times been engaged in direct armed resistance against US and UK forces, though currently they are on ceasefire. (Not that the other Shiite parties are that thrilled about the occupation, and Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the spiritual leader of many Shia, including Maliki's party, has been a strong critic of the US presence. But US forces are what keep the government in power, so they go along.) So, destroy the militia, destroy the party may be the thinking. Whether it works is another matter, as the Sadrists are rather popular amongst the Shia, and the US - not so much.
So, Maliki, with the hand up his back moving his mouth barely hidden, vows to fight the Sadrists to the death. Attempts at negotiations are stifled. Basra - and now many other areas of southern Iraq - is turned into a warzone, the US and UK drop righteous bombs which only ever kill "militants" (except that Iraqi sources, including police and medical, have an annoying habit of revealing that actually they were civilians), and the humanitarian situation - never good, with the chronic failure of the 'rebuilding' project in Iraq to provide basic services - deteriorates further.
Thing is, it's not just Iraq. It's the same pattern in every conflict at the moment where the US see their interests as at stake. In Afghanistan, the heavy-handed military approach to dealing with the Taliban insurgency, where Coalition forces appear to be killing more civilians than the Taliban. President Hamid Karzai occasionally makes protests for form's sake, but he's not the one calling the shots. Talk to the Hand.
Then there's Somalia. Without a government since 1991, it was largely controlled by various warlords [1], although there was a theoretical Transitional Government that controlled only the town of Baidoa. In 2006, an Islamist group, the Union of Islamic Courts, captured a large chunk of territory, including the capital Mogadishu, temporarily ending the warlords' rule.
Now these were probably not an entirely nice bunch, but maybe that might have been an opportunity for, say, some sort of negotiations between the UIC and the Transitional Government? Maybe there'd have even been a vague chance of uniting the country? But noooo, the US decides (without any actual evidence) that the UIC are linked to Al-Qaida, and instead back an invasion by Ethiopia. The Ethiopians force the UIC out of Mogadishu in short order, but then comes the inevitable insurgency, plus the warlords return to Mogadishu, as always no-one is particularly keen on foreign occupation (and Somalia and Ethiopia have something of a history) and now aid agencies say that a humanitarian catastrophe is impending. Another triumph of US policy!
Then there's Palestine. Leaving aside the US's ongoing unconditional support for Israel, there's their role in the intra-Palestinian conflict between Fatah and Hamas. which has been, of course, to stoke it up as much as possible. Ever since Hamas unexpectedly won the 2006 elections, they have been doing their darndest to overturn that result, leading an international boycott of the PA, plunging the Palestinians into even deeper poverty, and opposing all attempts at dialogue between the parties, continuing to boycott the unity government that was set up early in 2007.
Then of course there was the Hamas coup in Gaza, since when that territory has been kept under siege. As I said at the time, there was a lot to suggest this was pretty much the inevitable outcome of US policy of playing the two sides against each other. But recently there's been evidence that their role was even more direct than this, with Vanity Fair claiming to have leaked documents showing that the US was arming Fatah forces under Mohammed Dahlan, their strongman in Gaza, and was seeking to orchestrate a coup against Hamas - a policy which of course went horribly wrong with Hamas winning the battle instead.
Every time, every situation, the US policy is the same. Pick an ally, decide who the bad guys are, and pursue a military solution to wipe the bad guys out, and never mind how many innocent people suffer in the process. Pretty much every case where the US's baleful influence is felt, the result is humanitarian catastrophe. You think they might have noticed by now that it doesn't work? Except at one level it does work. Doesn't solve the problem, but it does succeed in dividing and ruling, preventing any unity amongst the subject population that might oppose US interests.
One final case where things may be going a little bit differently - Pakistan. There, the US had President Musharraf as their friendly dictator, pursuing the usual strategy against Taliban insurgents in the North-West Frontier Province. Rather horribly ineffectually, and with the usual dire consequences. But in February, parliamentary elections led to the overwhelming defeat of Musharraf's allies, and a governing coalition that has left the President isolated. And now the new government, unbeholden to the US, wants to try a different approach, with more talk and less killing. No, not suddenly becoming pacifist, and yes the insurgents they're dealing with are an extremely unpleasant bunch, but now that the Pakistanis are free(r) to choose their own approach, they've decided that maybe there's a better way than fighting until every last enemy is dead, no matter the cost. Good luck to them.
I hope, hope to God that things might be a little different with a new Administration - not that evil began with Bush and every past US government was pure as the driven, but there does seem to be a strong current in US opinion that is heartily sick of perpetual war, which might just find a voice in a Democrat Whitehouse. McCain, who gets far too easy a ride in the British press, let alone the American, quite clearly represents more, even more of the same - if anything, "no more Mr. Nice Guy", and I shudder to think what the future holds if he wins.
[1]Except for the self-declared republic of Somaliland in the North, which I gather is fairly peaceful, although it is not recognised by the UN, and the region of Puntland which is likewise de-facto self-governing
Tags: iraq, palestine, peace, politics, us politics, war
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11:34 pm
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Jailbreak
For once, heartwarming scenes from Gaza.
The world's biggest jailbreak
According to Al Jazeera (above), as many as 350,000 Gazans - out of a population of 1.5m - crossed the border into Egypt today after Hamas fighters blew up two thirds of the wall guarding the border, buying vital supplies blocked by Israel, who tightened their siege still further on Friday.
See kids? Non-violent direct action does work. Even if you have to use explosives once in a while.
And good for Egypt for refusing to continue to act as Israel's co-jailer. Probably because they wouldn't dare face their people's anger if they did. I wonder if the behaviour of the Egyptian police in not trying to stop the Palestinians - as they did the day before, with teargas and gunfire - was the result or the cause of their government's decision.
Of course this is hardly a long-term solution for Gaza's problesms, but for now Israel's siege is broken, and maybe they'll have to think of a smarter way of dealing with Gaza and Hamas. And maybe Hamas'll realise that there's smarter things they can do than lobbing random rockets at Sderot, which achieve less than nothing and - while far less devastating in effect than Israel's actions - are based on exactly the same obnoxious principle of punishing an entire population for the crimes of their leaders.
Tags: palestine
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12:32 am
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Bush visit and health crisis in Gaza
Well, I'd certainly never have expected such language from that source - Bush tells Israel to end occupation. He also said that a Palestinian state would need to be contiguous and sovereign, and that a 'Swiss cheese' state wouldn't work. Mildly encouraging, but for other bits of his statement that the '67 borders would have to be revised to reflect 'current realities', i.e. Israeli settlements. A reasonable deal could be reached based on equitable exchanges of land, but if Israel were to insist on keeping the settlements that effectively cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, or Ariel which is so deep into Palestinian territory, overshadowing the surrounding Palestinian towns, then we would be back to Swiss cheese.
And of course his denial of the rights of Palestinian refugees - yes, it is likely that in any deal there would be compromises on that, Israel isn't going to be persuaded into accepting the full return of all refugees to Israel - but to say right from the start things like "The UN deal didn't work in the past", referring to unimplemented UN resolutions on settlements and refugees, so casually writing off international law and the basic human rights of individuals, is appalling.
Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, the health crisis caused by the Israeli siege, on which Bush said not a word, worsens. 64 patients have now died as a direct result either of being unable to leave Gaza for treatment, or running out of essential medicines. Amira Joah could easily become no. 69, a 15-year old girl facing an agonising death from a severe liver and spleen condition, unable to receive her regular treatment in Egypt that slows the disease and eases the pain, and who can no longer obtain a key prescription drug, Ursogall.
( possible actions )
Tags: palestine
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01:07 am
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While Israel talks peace...
Their inhuman siege of Gaza (fully supported by the US and the UK) persists and its dire humanitarian effects are intensifying. A couple of articles here:
An appeal for medical supplies for Gaza from the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights. In the face of the cutting off of many essential supplies by Israel, PHR are going to attempt to take through medical supplies themselves, although they say they'll probably have to fight through the courts to be allowed to do so.
This is an article by Stuart Littlewood, who accompanies a party of British priests who went on a solidarity visit to Gaza recently, to the small Christian community and their muslim neighbours. It describes many of the medical shortages in detail. He writes:
"The purpose of our visit was to bring moral support to elderly Fr. Manuel, who ministers to his flock, runs an excellent school (for Christians and Muslims) and is revered as a local hero. Should he ever leave Gaza, the Israeli authorities will not allow his return, so he has allowed himself to be incarcerated there for 9 years. He’d had no visitors since February and when he heard we were coming, said a colleague, he burst into tears."
Some highlights from the two articles:
- 44 Gazans have died since June due to denial of access to medical care outside Gaza, 13 in November alone. The monthly toll is continually rising.
- More on this - "...even requests on behalf of advanced cancer cases are invariably refused. So they die in agony. 20 year-old Nail Al Kurdi succumbed only a week ago... For five months PHR submitted request after request to let him through, and even petitioned the High Court of Justice, but each time he was refused "for security reasons". Two days later an 8 year-old boy also died waiting for medical treatment in Israel. I’m told he had the necessary permit but was repeatedly turned back at the border."
- According to WHO, 85 types of medicines defined as essential are out of stock, including medicines for cancer, heart conditions, kidney disease and psychiatric conditions.
- Cancer drugs, for example, are not allowed to cross the border into Gaza.
- Lack of spare parts is making it increasingly difficult to maintain equipment. Malfunctioning and missing equipment includes dialysis machines, laboratory equipment, cardiology equipment and test tubes.
- For example, 20 out of 69 Hemodialysis machines in Gaza malfunctioning due to lack of spares, which Israel does not deem to be a humanitarian supply. No spares can be shipped in for therapeutic and diagnostic equipment that breaks down.
- Shortage of other essential supplies (which Israel does not deem essential and so does not allow through) such as cleaning materials, parts for electric generators, parts for refrigerators, parts for washing machines, toilet paper, sheets, winter bedclothes and stationary.
- Severe shortages of medical disposables, lab materials and blood bank materials.
I'm running out of adjectives to describe this sort of thing. Actually, only one left that I think is necessary or sufficent. Evil. And verging on genocidal.
Tags: palestine
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11:50 pm
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The Annapolis process, and why it will almost certainly not succeed
I want to hope. A large part of me can't help thinking, maybe, just maybe, contrary to everything logic tells me, they really mean it this time, that the renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks initiated by yesterday's Annapolis meeting, will lead to a just - or at least liveable-with - peace, that they actually mean what they say about agreeing a deal for a viable Palestinian state by the end of 2008.
But hope, as Thucydides reminds us. is an expensive commodity, at any rate when it is not based on reasonable grounds. And my head tells me that this process is not going to achieve its stated goal, not simply because we've been here before, not just because there are so many difficult issues and obstacles, but because I don't believe there is any intention - certainly on the part of the Israelis - of it achieving its stated goal. I hope I'm wrong. People are always saying that, and there's a large part of me I'm not proud of that actually likes wearing the 'I told you so' T-shirt, but this time I really do hope I (and the great majority of commentators I've read on this) will be proven wrong.
The reason I think this is based on my analysis (not really mine, comes from people like Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, various of the speakers at the Economy and Economics of Palestine conference I went to in January, many others) of Israel's strategy in all this, and the way they are seeking to deal with their fundamental strategic conundrum.
( Cut for length )
So, from where I can see right now I am extremely pessimistic. Nonetheless, for all I said about hope being an expensive commodity, I am with Bishop Desmond Tutu on this when he talks about maintaing hope even when there seems to be no rational grounds for it, belief that the demand for freedom and justice cannot be forever denied. As he said, during the 1980s few in South Africa believed they would see the end of Apartheid. When I started campaigning on East Timor in 1995, I certainly never believed the Indonesian occupation would be over within five years. Things can change more quickly than anyone expects. (I might write further on what strategies the Palestinians and their supporter might adopt to try to make that more likely.) (Tutu is so one of my favourite people at the moment. OK, I lied, here's another link, to a Democracy Now transcript of a speech Bishop Tutu gave at the Old South Church in Boston recently.)
But, looking at how things stand now, no I don't believe that the Annapolis process is going to lead to anything good.
Tags: palestine
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12:25 pm
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A small victory
You remember the village of Bil'in in Palestine? The one where I was arrested two years ago on one of the regular non-violent demos against the Wall, that snaked through the village cutting off half their agricultural land.
They've been holding those protests there for two and a half years or so - Palestinians, Israelis and internationals - with little obvious effect other than getting repeatedly arrested, beaten, tear-gassed, shot with rubber-coated metal bullets, having their homes invaded in the night and so forth.
Now, the Israeli Supreme Court has ordered the route of the barrier to be changed around Bil'in, saying the route was 'highly prejudicial' to the villagers. This article on the ISM website gives some more details - the ruling means that the new route will have to leave all the Palestinian agricultural land in Bil'in on the Palestinian side. The ruling will prevent the planned expansion of the illegal Israeli settlement of Matityahu East.
This may be a court ruling, but Supreme Court decisions don't take place in a legal vacuum, and you can bet your last shekel that this would not have been achieved without the protests and all the publicity and embarrassment they've created. (Barely visible over here of course, but quite well-publicised in Israel, especially due to the involvement of Israelis in the protests).
I am loathe to be too celebratory over this, as overall the Occupation continues unabated and its impact on the Palestinians continues to worsen. But this is nonetheless a real victory for the brave and steadfast people of Bil'in, whose livelihoods will be safeguarded as a result, for the small band of Israeli activists who give up so much to maintain their untiring struggle against their state's oppression, and for the power of non-violent resistance.
And yeah, I am proud to have played my own small part in it.
Tags: palestine
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01:32 am
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Deepening crisis in Gaza
The United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA) today released a report on the Gaza strip, which has been held in almost total isolation since the Hamas takeover in June, with the Karni, Erez and Rafah crossings into Israel and Egypt kept almost permanently closed. The UN report says that 90% of Gaza industry has ceased functioning because they are unable to import and export, and that the territory could become entirely dependant on food aid within weeks.
This BBC article describes the Strip as a 'prison' (a commonplace amongst pro-Palestinian commentators, but unusually strong language for the BBC), and a 'place of hopelessness and destruction'.
The Israelis (fully supported by the US, Europe and others) are not actually allowing the Palestinians to starve to death, as they are letting in emergency food aid (and some - not enough - medicine). But in every other respect, in every way that would allow a society and economy to function, they are keeping the most densely populated strip of land (1.4m people in 140 square miles) under a state of siege.
Hospitals are running out of essential medical supplies, with the one in this article reduced to performing emergency operations only. Dozens of cancer and kidney patients are slowly dying from the siege.
Thousands of Palestinians have been stranded in the desert on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing (controlled by Israel, though it is the Gaza-Egypt border). A few days ago a seventeen year-old boy became the 32nd to die there. (I believe this particular aspect is on the way to some sort of resolution, with Israel finally allowing the stranded Gazans to re-enter the strip via the Erez crossing in the north.)
One individual story amongst many - Dr. Mona El-Farra, vice-president of the Gaza Red Crescent Society, was among those stranded at Gaza after a speaking tour of the US, where she was highlighting the plight of Gaza. While waiting at the Crescent she found out that her mother was desperately ill. The Israelis would still not let her (or anyone else for that matter) through, and her mother died before she could return.
It is hard to find words for the level of cruelty and barbarism that enables us - and yes I do mean us in the west generally, not just Israel, because our governments are fully behind this strategy - to inflict such a punishment on an entire population because we don't approve of the people ruling them. It is inhuman.
Tags: palestine
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10:14 pm
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Gaza
When I arrived at the Big Session on Friday, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) borusa asked me what my thoughts were on the events in Gaza. I said my immediate reaction could be summed up in three letters, namely 'WTF', and that a more detailed analysis would require beer. Plenty of this commodity was available, but not really much time between listening to excellent folk music. But anyway, more detailed analysis now.
So, to summarise the evnts. Last week, Hamas forces routing those of Fatah last week, and taking full control of the Gaza strip. 120 Palestinians were killed in the fighting. Previous rounds of fighting had been temporarily halted by February's Mecca agreement between the parties, which led to the creation of a unity government, in place of the Hamas-led government following their victory in the January 2006 elections. The Hamas victory led to an international boycott of the Palestinian authority, greatly exacerbating the already dire conditions in the West Bank & Gaza. This boycott was maintained despite the formation of the unity government.
There has been plenty of analysis of this, much of it bullshit, but also some very good stuff. I would recommend among others Karma Nabulsi, Uri Avnery, Ali Abunimah et al. and Juan Cole.
( My thoughts? )
Tags: palestine
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01:17 am
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40 years
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, following the 6-Day War. 40 years of occupation have meant 40 years of almost daily killings, arbitrary imprisonment, dispossession, denial of the most basic freedoms, humiliation and destruction of property for the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories, and 40 years of inaction and blaming the victims by the international community. For Israel it has meant 40 years of knowing neither peace nor security, and for the last third of those facing the horrors of suicide bombings.
The anniversary has been marked by demonstrations in Israel, Palestine and around the world this week. This included a demonstration of about 20,000 in London today, at which Palestinian information minister Mustapha Barghouti, and the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, Riah Abu el Assal amongst others spoke. In Bristol about 10 of us held a Boycott Israeli Goods protest outside Fresh & Wild (they sell quite a lot of Israeli stuff, including fruit and veg from Carmel which may well be produced in the Occupied territories.)
The London demo doesn't seem to have merited attention from the BBC, who have nonetheless recently run a very good series of features on both the current situation and the Six Day War that led to the Occupation. (Why yes, by "good" I do at least partly mean "more in line with what I think than usual", though also very in-depth and presenting both sides.)
( more, and various links )
Tags: palestine
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12:54 am
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Apartheid - what's in a name?
A commenter on my last post on this subject said:
I actually disagree that the Apartheid comparison is appropriate. Why? Because Palestine should be an independent, sovereign state, and any Israeli presence at all in the West Bank is an illegal occupation in the first place. Calling it Apartheid blurs that important point. It's not an issue of Palestinians being denied full citizenship and civil rights because of their race/religion; they shouldn't be subject to Israeli jurisdiction at all.
Well, I'm certainly not going to disagree that Palestine should be an independent, sovereign state, and that the Israeli presence in the West Bank is an illegal occupation. But I think there's a strong case for saying that 'Apartheid' is an accurate, meaningful and useful term for describing and analysing what's going on in Israel/Palestine, and it does actually seem to be beginning to be used by people with a chance of getting listened to, such as former US President Jimmy Carter and UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard.
First of all, what is meant by the term Apartheid? One definition that was used by someone at the Economics of Palestine conference I was at was something like "A system of seperation of ethnic/racial groups, and domination of one by the other." I think, and I refer you back to the list in my last post, that this is a very good description of what pertains in Israel/Palestine, especially in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza strip, but also (to a much lesser extent) in Israel proper. (In Gaza there aren't two groups since the settlers were evacuated in 2005, but they are separated off by a fence all round the Strip, and dominated by Israel who control their borders.)
Thing is, what is happening in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is an illegal occupation, but it's not just an illegal occupation. Almost ever since the territories were conquered in 1967, under Israeli governments of all colours, illegal settlements have been being built and expanded across the West Bank and E Jerusalem, and have become deeply entrenched, with a whole military and civilian infrastructure to protect them and connect them to Israel. We're not just talking about a few caravans on a hilltop (though this is what some settlements are), we're talking about cities. Which Israel has no intention of dismantling. Maybe international pressure can compel them to, but it's not in the game plan.
So you do now have two ethnic groups, the Jewish settlers, who are Israeli citizens, who are heavily subsidised, have the best land, water at cheap rates, roads which only they are allowed to use, the unconditional protection of the Israeli armed forces, even when they are engaged in harrassment of Palestinians, and so on; and the Palestinians, who are occupied, controlled, walled in, subject to arbitrary shooting, arrest, confiscation of property, who have settler sewage dumped in their land and water courses, etc. So to call this situation Apartheid seems to me to be descriptively accurate. Illegal Occupation is also true. They are different facets of what is going on.
But I think that the Apartheid designation is also helpful at an analytical level to explain what is going on - in particular, from Israel's point of view. That is, from the real point of view of successive Israeli governments, rather than the public face that everything they do is what they have to do for the sake of 'security'.
( This is where it gets long... )
Thus, to summarise a very long story, Apartheid is what has emerged as Israel's way of dealing with the fundamental existential contradiction at the heart of the Israeli State. I think potentially the term can be useful in highlighting what is going on, in making clear just how horrific and unacceptable it is, galvanizing opinion, and bringing this contradiction into sharp focus.
On the other hand, if it's not useful, if it does blur rather than clarify, if it raises only hackles rather than awareness, then don't use it. In some ways it's an empirical, tactical question, as to how use of the word moves on the debate. But, while a word is only a word, naming something carries power. In the end, for all the bleakness of the situation now, I don't believe a system of Apartheid can survive in the long run (just how long I don't know) - and naming it as such might just help speed its destruction.
Tags: palestine
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11:57 am
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Reposted: Palestine blog rec
OK, in connection with my timeline problems, my last post doesn't seem to be showing up on my friends' flists (though the Timeline post is). So I am reposting and deleting the previous.
Yesterday, in my otherwise frivolous post, I described the Israeli government as practicing a form of Apartheid more virulent than in South Africa.
If you think this might be going a bit far (or, come to that even if you don't), I would recommend you read the blog of Anna Baltzer, a Jewish American women working in Palestine with the International Women's Peace Service. There's some quite long entries there, but they really are well worth reading through.
For the record, I summarise a number of facts to justify the Apartheid designation below. I don't think I've actually listed them like this before. (Though I don't have time at the moment to chase down all the references) Most of these will probably be familiar to long-time readers of my blog, so really Anna Baltzer's is more interesting.
( list )
I could go on. The clear pattern is that, most grievously in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but to a significant extent in Israel proper, you are systematically treated differently according to your race. I think that's a pretty good definition of Apartheid.
Tags: palestine
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10:05 pm
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Introductions
Those who are interested in Palestine-related stuff might like to go say hello to witenagemot, who have just moved their journal over from blogspot. They are Alan and Mirian, a couple from Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who recently got back from three months in Palestine, where they were teaching in Nablus. (Entries from Palestine here.) They are also very nice people. So be friendly! :)
Tags: palestine
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12:56 am
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Rowan in Bethlehem
Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, along with British RC Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, Free Churches Moderator David Coffey and Armenian Patriarch of Great Britain Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian, visited Bethlehem today, passing through the illegal Israeli wall that has virtually surrounded the city, separating it from Jerusalem and strangling it economically, with unemployment soaring to 65%, and a growing exodus of especially its Christian population.
Rowan Williams described the wall as a "sign of all that is wrong with the human heart".
The visitors were all granted honorary citizenship of Bethlehem, an offer that is to be broadened out in 2007.
For more info, visit Open Bethlehem.
Another very good article on Palestine on the front page of tomorrow's Independent, on the plight of pregnant women in a land under occupation, seige and international boycott.
( full text of Rowan Williams' speech )
Tags: palestine, politics
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12:02 am
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Gaza
Gaza is dying.
ETA: More from the Independent: Gazans having to scavenge for food on rubbish dumps. Many people are reduced to one meal a day by the Israeli siege and Western boycott - eaten cold, because there is virtually no electricity.
Tags: palestine
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01:17 am
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Violence and non-Violence
It’s just over a year ago that I last came back from Palestine. As you may remember, the last thing I did when I was there was to take part in a demo in Bil’in against the wall, where I was arrested.
Things have got worse there. The wall is now built there, the villagers’ land is cut off; and the military’s brutality against the continuing demonstrations gets worse. Two weeks ago, an Israeli protestor was shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet, and a Danish protestor was beaten unconscious and suffered a fractured skull by being beaten with a baton. Two days ago, several demonstrators were badly beaten, with two internationals suffering concussion, and a Palestinian co-ordinator shot several times with rubber-coated steel bullets. It will not be long before someone is killed there. Of course several have been killed in other such demonstrations in Budrus and Biddu.
It does make me wonder what this non-violent resistance, which I have often exalted in this journal, can actually achieve, principled and courageous as it is. It doesn’t obstruct what the occupying forces want to do. (It’s different when they’re actually trying to control a people directly; but if they’re just trying to build walls round you and leave you to stew, not so much.) It doesn’t apparently change hearts and minds of the soldiers, or of the Israeli people generally. It doesn’t get media coverage. It does keep the spirit of those who participate in such resistance strong, it represents a refusal to lie down and accept oppression, and for that alone it is worth doing. But as for achieving political effects? At the moment, nada.
One left-wing evangelical Christian writer I read, it might have been Tony Campolo, talks about the civil rights movement in the USA in the 1960s, and this time when he was watching TV images of the demonstrators kneeling down to pray on this bridge, and being baton-charged by the police, and he thought to himself, "That’s it, they’ve won". And sure enough, or so the fairy-tale version of events goes, the dignity and humanity of the black protestors won people over and civil rights legislation was passed and, if they didn’t all live happily ever after, at least happier.
Seems though that dignity and humanity doesn’t really work on Israeli soldiers.
You know what does work really well on Israeli soldiers? Or so the past month or two have shown. Anti-tank missiles. Helped Hizbollah give the murderous might of the IDF an ass-kicking they richly deserved. Thrown the Israeli government into turmoil. Changed the mood of defeatism around the Arab world.
Not that it’s bringing peace any nearer. A recent poll in Israel shows that, while the government has massively lost popularity, the beneficiaries are the far-right Likud party, and the even further right Yisrael Beiteinu. The logical conclusion that is apparent to 90% of the rest of the world, that Israel can only hope to get security in the long-run by negotiating peace with its neighbours, does not yet seem to have sunk in for the majority of Israelis. (That’s probably what comes from lobbing Katyushas at people. Like the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon really made most Lebanese want to disarm Hizbollah. Amazing that politicians and military leaders still haven’t worked out this elementary point: bombing civilian populations pisses them off.)
But anyway, where was I? Soul-searching, about why I’m not in Palestine getting beaten and shot at with the rest of them, and about whether non-violence really works.
Ah, but what do you mean "works"? Surely the claim is not that by loving your enemies you will eventually defeat them; it is that in loving your enemies, you have already defeated them, defeated their hatred and their attempt to force you to submit to their will. Is that not the message of the Cross?
That might sound more convincing if I weren’t sat here typing at a computer while other people get bombed and beaten and shot.
Those looking for a conclusion to this post will be disappointed.
Tags: bil'in, palestine, peace, politics, war
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01:18 am
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Many funerals and a wedding
The horrific events in Lebanon and Israel are being fairly well covered at the moment, and to a lesser extent those in Gaza, with the continuing slaughter of innocents, mostly by Israel, but also by Hezbollah. Though it is still shocking that something like the incident described here, where Israeli missiles incinerated car-loads of civilians fleeing the town of Marwahin, having been ordered to evacuated by the Israelis, can pass without a single note of condemnation from western leaders. One of many such slaughters, but perhaps the most flagrant, without even the figleaf excuse of 'collateral damage'. Still, the most that is ever asked of Israel is to exercise 'restraint'; they'd rather Israel didn't kill over 150 civilians in two weeks, but all falls within Israel's right to 'self-defence'; while the onus remains on the Palestinians to stop resisting, lay down their arms, and then 'negotiate' with their occupiers.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, things are much less bloody, but the slow, silent strangulation of the Palestinians continues. The village of Marda, with which Bristol PSC has links and is trying to collect computers to send to them, is now totally enclosed between the wall and a fence around a settlers-only bypass road, with only one metal gate allowing access to the outside world, that frequently locked and/or subject to flying checkpoints. There are some photos here, although they don't give a very clear picture of the lie of things. (This report from Rowland of Bristol PSC, who has visited Marda and is organising the appeal for computers.)
A similar fate awaits the village of Anata, which is to be surrounded on three sides by the Wall, and on the fourth side by a fenced-off settlers-only road. Already, the Wall has cut right through the playground of the local secondary school.
There's a word for that sort of thing. The Venetians invented it.
On another front, in another small step in Israel's 'demographic' war, Palestinian Americans have been banned from entering the West Bank, even if they were born there, and even if they are married to someone with residency rights there. Get that. US Citizens can be banned from a region on the basis of their race, and the US Government (of course) utters not a word of complaint.
In recent years it has been fashionable in certain circles to compare the situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories to South Africa under Apartheid. It must now be admitted that such comparisons can no longer be considered appropriate. This is far worse than anything that happened under Apartheid. Not me saying that. It's people who lived under Apartheid who are saying that.
In some rather happier news, A friend of mine from Palestine got married on Friday. Mansour Mansour (so cool they named him twice) is one of the main ISM organisers, a boisterous, almost Tiggerish fellow with a huge broad grin and an extraordinary sense of optimism in spite of everything.
I guess it was par of this spirit of optimism and resistance that led him and his stunning bride Iman to hold their wedding as part of the weekly demonstration in front of the Wall in Bil'in, where Palestinians, Israelis and internationals have been maintaining regular protests for well over a year. s the report says, "a symbol that life and love must go on in the face of occupation."
(I cannot say how much it grieves me, by the way, to read that these demonstrations now take place "in front of the wall", not "where the wall is to be built".)
The wedding party tried to go through to the village's olive groves beyond the wall, but the soldiers stopped them at the gate and would not let them pass. It seems some of the local kids threw a few stones at some jeeps, whereupon the soldiers waded in with full force of batons, sound bombs, tear gas and rubber bullets, beating any demonstrators they came across - including the bride, who was hit across the face with a baton and then dragged away, before a group of demonstrators managed to surround the couple with their bodies.
Many demonstrators were injured, with several taken to hospital. One Israeli demonstrator, Yosi, was beaten unconscious, but had to wait an hour to be taken to hospital as the soldiers wouldn't let the ambulance through. I think that may be the same Yosi who translated for me and the Dude in court last year, and who accompanied me on my release, making sure I got back to Jerusalem safely in the middle of the night, shared some much necessary liquid refreshment with me, and pointed me to my bus to the airport.
I keep asking myself, what sort of people would beat a bride on her wedding day? What sort of people would do that? But the answer is all too obvious: occupying soldiers. Not Israeli soldiers, or American, or German, or Chinese, or any other nationality, but occupiers. Those who are given power over another people, whom they can treat as they will with impunity, who they are given to see as inferior. Why is anyone surprised at Abu Ghraib, at Haditha, at the rape by US soldiers of an Iraqi girl, and murder of her and her family? And how can anyone be naive enough to believe that this is just the actions of a few 'bad apples', or that British occupiers are so much more noble and decent (apart from a few more bad apples)? This is the normal currency of occupation, one of the best arrangements known to mankind for turning ordinary, decent human beings into monsters.
Tags: palestine, politics
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01:04 am
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Nessun Dorma
On a day when twenty two Palestinians, including numerous civilians, and one Israeli soldier, were killed in Israel's assault on the Gaza strip, perhaps it's a bit strange that the thing I found most shocking today was reading about a quote by Israeli PM Ehud Olmert on Monday. According to aides, he told his cabinet that he had given orders to the army to make sure no-one sleeps at night in Gaza.
Perhaps it is the sheer viciousness, the flagrant inhumanity of it, the quite open determination to punish an entire population, including the children, especially the children, for the capture of one soldier. Or perhaps what is most shocking is how easily it passed, almost unnoticed by our politicians and media.
Imagine if it were the other way round. A Hamas leader saying they were going to make sure no Israeli slept at night. Terrorism! Genocide! They want to drive the Jews into the sea! It is a line worthy of a Bin Laden, or of some mustachioed villain hiding out in some secret fortress. But from the leader of the 'only democracy in the Middle East', no problem.
Make sure no-one sleeps at night. The Israeli air force has been doing just that, generating continual sonic booms as they fly over Gaza. Doctors groups sought last year to have this tactic stopped, as it causes severe anxiety, fear and stress amongst children, and causes pregnant women to miscarry. Israeli human rights group B'tselem has made clear that these sonic booms are a deliberate tactic - or rather, Olmert himself made that clear - and thus a violation of international law.
Amongst other crimes against the people of Gaza, Israel has bombed the main Gaza power station, which provides 65% of the region's power (also threatening water supplies as it fuels the pumping stations), bridges, schools, a university and farmland, and they have detained large numbers of democratically elected Palestinian legislators.
The new UN Human Rights Council, the Swiss Government (as depository state of the Geneva Conventions) and Amnesty International have all condemned Israel's actions. But our government? Not quite silence. Expressions of 'concern'. Calls for 'restraint'. Code for permission to carry on with exactly what they're doing. The US government is of course even worse, maintaining above all Israel's right to 'self-defence'.
Self-defence against terrorist power plants, terrorist schools and universities, terrorist roads and bridges and fields, terrorist children, terrorist pregnant women and their terrorist foetuses. After all, if it's Palestinian, then it is by definition terrorist.
No-one, certainly in the western media and political classes, ever asks if there is a Palestinian right of self-defence. It's one of these concepts that simply cannot be framed in our political language. The latest Israeli assault was triggered by the killing of two Israeli soldiers and the capture of a third by Palestinian fighters. These are soldiers of an army that had been wreaking regular slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza for months. But while these killings may occasionally have been cause for 'concern', the Palestinian actions create a 'crisis' and bring down the condemnation of the Great and the Good.
The BBC has at least had the good sense not to use the word 'kidnap' for the capture of Corporal Shalit. But for years there has been far too little attention to the real kidnappings going on there, the thousands of Palestinians snatched from their homes in the middle of the night, or arbitrarily detained at checkpoints, of whom hundreds continue to rot in Administrative Detention, without charge, without contact with family, and facing regular beatings and ill-treatment. An Israeli reservist, who now refuses to serve in the Occupied Territories, describes one such kidnapping in which he participated here. (Hat-tip to sadie_sabot). Someone on an an email list I'm on, who is currently in Bethlehem, just sent an email today describing just such a snatching of two young women from their homes by Israeli soldiers.
Why even point out all this? What's the point of highlighting these double standards? Aren't they completely obvious to anyone with half a brain, who is not so ideologically blinkered that they'll never change their minds in any case? What's the point of writing to politicians who are immune from reasoned argument, hiding behind their inpenetrable walls of obfuscation and euphemism? Is there any point? (Campaigners in Britain, incidentally, are encouraging people to write to Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and to send her a tea-light to forward to the people of Gaza, to provide them with light in the absence of electricity. As the British government won't do anything more for them.)
You know, I think that the phrase "Double standards" doesn't really cover it. I think the term needed is "asymmetric morality". Like we have 'asymmetric warfare'. This, you see, is where we leftists go wrong - we insist on the ridiculous, impractical notion of symmetric morality in international affairs. (I may claim originality here for the phrase, but certainly not the concept. St. Augustine (scroll down to Chapter 4) pointed it out a long time ago, with the oft-quoted story of the pirate and Alexander the Great).
To finish, this song came to my mind in relation to my visit to Jenin last year. It seems all too appropriate now, it could have been written for the children of Gaza. Or many other places around the world.
( The Crow on the Cradle )
Download version by Show of Hands, good for seven days and limited number of downloads.
Tags: folk music, palestine
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02:11 am
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More on Hamas
The Guardian today (Tuesday 31st January) carries an article by the head of the Hamas political bureau calling on the international community to recognise the democratic voice of the Palestinian people and not cut funding to the PA; it also sets out Hamas's agenda for peace with Israel.
It strikes me as remarkably reasonable.
Tags: palestine
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05:25 pm
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Hamas victory
Well, I was as surprised as anyone about Hamas's victory in the Palestinian elections last week. And as clueless as to what it will mean. I'd expected them to fight Fatah close, but certainly not win a thumping overall majority - 76 of the 132 seats, plus 4 independents allied to them. (In an election that was generally recognised to be impeccable in its democratic credentials - in so far as it is possible to hold a democratic election under occupation.) What follows is a collection of speculations and rants.
As all the commentators are saying, they have won because of Fatah's corruption, and Hamas's record on the ground of providing social services, and not because the Palestinians have all suddenly become religious extremists. (Palestine has in fact strong traditions of secularism and tolerance.) I think another factor though that is not so often mentioned is the complete failure of the PA's strategy since the failure of Camp David and the start of the second Intifada in 2000 for achieving Palestinian statehood. Or rather, the complete lack of a strategy. Little more than sitting around and hoping that the "international community" would bring Israel to the negotiating table. Abbas procured a ceasefire from all the militant groups, including Hamas, but still Israel has refused to negotiate, making the impossible demand that the PA disarms all the armed resistance groups. You lay down all your arms, we'll keep ours, and then we'll have a think about whether we might let you have some sort of state on part of your lands. The PA has offered scant support even to non-violent resistance, such as the campaign against the Wall that I've written much about in this journal. So perhaps the Palestinians have voted not just against corruption, but for resistance.
( renouncing violence - a rant )
( what next? )
Edit the Second: Thanks to nhw for drawing my attention to this very interesting report on Hamas by the International Crisis Group. A number of things there strike me as particularly interesting, and quite a few of them (though not all) are fairly hopeful:
- Hamas leaders have made a lot of statements recently that make it clear that, whatever their charter says, they would be willing to negotiate with Israel and to accept a long-term truce with Israel on the basis of a Palestinian state on the West Bank (including E. Jerusalem) and Gaza, along with an acknowledgement of the right of return. Although they say they would not abandon their eventual aim of a single state on the whole of Palestine, that would be left indefinitely into the future. Perhaps most strikingly, one leader said that although the conflict would remain, the armed phase of it would be over.
- Hamas have recently won a large number of municipal elections in Palestine, and have been exercising local power in a generally very pragmatic fashion, without trying to impose Islamic law, and have been respecting minority rights. In Bethlehem, though they are a majority, they are in coalition with the PFLP and work with a Catholic mayor who is the local PFLP head.
- However, there are signs in some palces that they have been trying to impose their values, for example the cancelling of a music festival in Qalqilya that they decided was too "Westernised".
- Hamas have shown a great deal of discipline in maintaining their ceasefire through 2005. Although they have fired rockets into Israel from Gaza, these have always been in response to attacks on their members by Israel, and indeed they have allowed quite a number of such attacks to go unanswered.
- Hamas have also proved remarkably resilient to the continuing assassination and arrest of their leaders and members by Israel.
- The West's policy of not dealing with Hamas has tended to be honoured in the breach more than the observance.
- However, donors have to some extent pursued policies of withdrawing funds from Hamas-controlled municipalities. This has, entirely predictably, backfired and strengthened Hamas in these areas. People know when they're being blackmailed and don't like it.
- Hamas probably didn't actually want an outright win in these elections. They wanted to be working with Fatah, who would be better able to maintain links with the international community.
ICG propose (this was before the election results) that Israel and the international community should engage with Hamas, but conditionally. They urge Hamas to renew their ceasefire and end attacks on civilians, but they urge Israel to enter into a reciprocal ceasefire and to start meaningful prisoner releases. They argue that the way forward is for integration of Hamas into Palestinian political and security structures, with partial decomissioning, recognising that it is unrealistic to expect Hamas to completely disarm while the occupation continues.
As I comment below, I think what's missing is what's the stick to be applied to Israel to get them to play their part, and ultimately to agree to a solution based on the '67 borders that the Palestinians (including Hamas) could accept.
Tags: palestine
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