Accepting the other in Palestine
Ziad Asali, Daily Star 5/1/2007
Drums of war were beating in early June 1967 in the waning days of my internship at the American University of Beirut hospital. We were excited at the prospect of a just war that would liberate Palestine, allowing those of us who became refugees in 1948 to go back to our homes. We were also fully confident of victory against the small Israeli Army. I distinctly remember a conversation I had in the cafeteria with professor of surgery, Dr. Abdel-Latif Yashruti, an urbane, British-trained aristocrat. His sharp blue eyes fixed on mine, he asked, "What makes you think that we will win?" I began reciting the number of planes and tanks that Arab armies had in comparison to the puny numbers of the Israeli military. Calmly, he said "Look. I left Haifa once. I have lived in many places but I like it here. I don’t want to become a refugee again." My response - impolite, rash and most regrettable - questioned the patriotism and wisdom of my professor. In the ensuing years, I have come to recognize that the wars of 1948 and 1967 bracket, like bookends holding together a number of volumes on a shelf, the objective, realizable political realities in the conflict. They define the constraints that the existence and persistence of both Israelis and Palestinians place upon each other’s ambitions in the small area of geographic Palestine - as it is said, "between the river and the sea. more..
Carry on your struggle: Open letter to Azmi Bishara
Juliano Mer Khamis, Electronic Intifada 4/30/2007
Azmi, My Brother.
You had the good sense to see what was coming -- the security forces in cooperation with the judicial system of Israel decided to take steps against, what they call the "strategic threat", of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, and to do away with their leaders. They want to return us to the days of martial law -- to fear, to the permits, to the dark cells of the security forces, to the era in which only collaborators could claim at least some of their rights.
Inside the 1967 borders, Israel was not yet employing the methods it now uses in the occupied territories. It did not execute people without trial, condone mass arrests, cause starvation, or destroy infrastructures. Now, as "the only democracy in the Middle East", Israel claims to function according to just and lawful means.
But "the law" is the security forces and the police; the judicial advisers to the government and the judicial system are its full-time employees. Your sentence was passed even before the accusations against you were announced, and you have no way of establishing your innocence before these war criminals. They speak a language different from ours -- in their eyes, anyone who is against war and aspires to the peaceful coexistence of two nations is classified as a criminal, and persecuted. You cannot conduct a political struggle from the witness box. They will not allow you to insist that you are fighting for both nations. In the courts of the police state, they will tie a rope around your neck. more..
The Quartet’s aims, or US policy by another name
Chris Toensing, Daily Star 5/1/2007
The Palestinians have long sought, and Israel has long resisted, the internationalization of efforts to construct a process that would lead to a durable and comprehensive peace. Independent advocates for a just peace have echoed this call out of the realization that the near monopoly of Washington on stewardship of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy has hindered - and even obstructed - meaningful progress. Never has this fact been more glaring than during the two administrations of US President George W. Bush. The Bush administration’s default position is simply to ignore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bush has never sought the resumption of the Oslo process that became moribund at precisely its most promising juncture: the Taba meetings of January 2001. Nor has Bush seized the opportunities presented by successive iterations of the Saudi-drafted peace plan endorsed by the Arab League. Instead, Bush has ridden shotgun while Israeli Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert have driven events, first with refusal even to meet Palestinian leaders and then with unilateral measures like the August 2005 "disengagement" from Gaza and four far-flung West Bank settlements. As a result, the two-state solution, identified by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2006 as a "personal goal," has faded further and further from view, overshadowed by expanded settlements and the separation wall in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank. more..
ANALYSIS: If everyone is to blame for the war, then no one is
Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz 5/1/2007
The weak point of the Winograd Committee report, which is already being utilized by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as the starting point for his defense, is that if everyone is guilty, then no one is. As is to be expected from a panel that includes renowned strategist Prof. Yehezkel Dror, the committee did not only uncover the tactical failures of the Second Lebanon War, but also the strategic errors that were made. The committee, however, did not stop there. The report makes sure to place the blame on all the relevant officials from the political and military echelons. It does not exempt any ministers from responsibility for the failure, nor the National Security Council. The committee did not only diagnose the ailing ones currently in power, it did not miss the opportunity to identify the chronic diseases of past governments, offering not only an analgesic, but also a cure. Olmert’s aides took full advantage of this. Their first responses reveal the defense strategy of both the prime minister and defense minister, namely: "What do you want from us? The report states that great military experts also failed. Olmert will cling to Eliyahu Winograd’s claim that this report does not focus on the past, but on the future. He will promise to learn from past mistakes and say that no one is more suitable for rehabilitating the country. more..
Immediate resignation
Haaretz Editorial, Ha’aretz 5/1/2007
The members of the committee he appointed closed all the cracks and left no escape from responsibility - if not now, then in two months, when the final report is written. The hint was almost explicit: If the report’s principal subjects do not take personal responsibility, the committee will make clear recommendations in July. If the prime minister does not quit, he will be thrown out in a month or two. All this is virtually self-evident from the severity of the findings. If a war broke out tomorrow morning, the present leadership would not have a mandate to lead it. If the prime and defense ministers do not resign following the Winograd findings, their imperviousness will be additional proof that they were not worthy of their posts from the outset. Any attempt to share the failure with previous prime ministers will not succeed. Personal responsibility for failure - which, as the report states, was evident in every aspect of their duties, including planning, assessment, implementation, lack of forethought, responding rashly, setting unrealistic goals and not adopting actions to reality - has never been assigned by any other committee. Nothing the prime minister should have done before he went to war was done. The colossal failure that has already been identified in their functioning, even before the entire war has been analyzed, does not permit Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz to remain in their posts for even one more day. more..
Prelude to a third intifada?
Anna Baltzer writing from the West Bank, occupied Palestine, Electronic Intifada 4/30/2007
It’s been more than three weeks since I last wrote. The reason is simple: things have been awful on the ground here in Palestine, leaving little time for reflection. As usual, Passover --- the Jewish holiday celebrating freedom from oppression --- was accompanied by tightening restrictions on Palestinians. While Jewish Israelis were feasting nearby, travel within the West Bank became difficult if not impossible, except of course for settlers who would breeze by the hundreds of Palestinians waiting for hours at checkpoints on their way home, to work, to the hospital, or elsewhere. Calling the Army was no help since most offices and services were closed for the holidays. Palestinians urgently requiring permits to reach hospitals were forced to wait as well.
A quick look at the Palestinian Center for Human Rigts weekly reprt shows that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) --- among other activities --- killed nine Palestinians (including two children and four extrajudicial assassinations), injured 20, conducted 30 incursions into West Bank Palestinian communities, arrested 44 Palestinian civilians (including eight children), demolished eight houses rendering more than 48 people homeless, and continued to impose a total siege on the Occupied Territories ... all in the past week. This is about average. In the past few weeks, Israeli settlers have also moved back into an evacuated settlement in Nablus. Meanwhile, several hundred Jewish settlers took over a massive building in the heart of Hebron, and Israel immediately deployed soldiers to protect the new Jewish-only colony. The nearby Abu Haykal family, friends whom I visited last month in Tel Rumeida, had their car torched by Hebron settlers who want nothing more than for them to leave so that a new Jewish settlement can be set up next to the already existing ones. more..
What lessons?
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz 4/30/2007
The publication of the interim report of the Winograd Committee tomorrow is a marginal event. Except for the fate of several individuals, who at most will be replaced by similar ones, nothing will be different the day after. The generals and politicians who cheered for the war from its outset, in a frighteningly unified chorus, will again fill the television screens, this time in the role of admonishers, as pitiful Monday-morning quarterbacks. And we will forgive them their gleeful support for the war. Even if those who conducted the war are forced to step down in the wake of the report, none of their replacements will be someone who opposed the war from the start. Therefore, what was, shall be, even after the report, even in the next war. The Winograd Committee will not say a word about the writing that was on the wall from the first hour of the war. The committee will address only the brass tacks and the high brass: Because of its appointed scope as well as the characters of its members, the report will deal with the level of preparedness, the performance of the forces and their commanders, the supplies of field rations and what transpired at the supply units and at cabinet meetings. Not a word will be said about the questions that should be troubling us much more: the very fact of embarking on another futile war of choice, the idiotic thought that the war could have solved something, the use of disproportionate military force to restore the lost honor of the Israel Defense Forces, the moral aspects of the war and the intolerably heavy price paid on both sides of the border in the name of hopeless objectives. Even the hollow protest movement that arose after the war refrained from addressing these questions, so what can one expect from "the government examination committee regarding the campaign in the North?" Israel embarked on another unnecessary war, and the Winograd Committee will deal with the details of the battle at Maroun al-Ras. more..
Cutting through a misreading of the Arab peace plan
Henry Siegman, Daily Star 4/30/2007
The Arab peace initiative has been widely misunderstood, and occasionally even deliberately misconstrued. The initiative is not a road map providing a step-by-step approach to an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, nor does it demand of Israel prior acceptance of certain Arab or Palestinian conditions. It does not provide a framework for peace negotiations other than what is already specified in the Quartet "road map" that Israel claims it fully supports: Israel’s return to the pre-1967 armistice line as the basis for negotiations for alterations, if any, to that line; the location of a capital of a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem; and a resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem. Negotiations over these three principal permanent status issues are not a condition dreamed up by the Saudis or the Arab League. They are the universally accepted ground rules for peace negotiations that even President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have stated categorically Israel cannot alter on its own. Asked in February of 2006 by a reporter for her reaction to a statement by the then acting Israeli premier, Ehud Olmert, that Israel wanted to set its permanent borders unilaterally, Rice responded: "No one should try and unilaterally predetermine the outcome of a final status agreement. That’s to be done at final status." She added that Bush’s suggestion, made in an April 14, 2004, letter to Premier Ariel Sharon, that a permanent-status agreement recognize "new realities on the ground that have changed since 1967," could be acted upon unilaterally by Israel "in a pre-emptive and predetermined way, because these are issues for negotiation at final status. more..
Iranian-Saudi ties defy the caricature narrative
Afshin Molavi, Daily Star 4/30/2007
As Arab presidents, emirs and kings lined up alongside the United Nations secretary general and the Pakistani, Malaysian and Turkish heads of state in last month’s Arab League summit in Riyadh, one key player was missing at the highest level: Iran. Its nominal head of state, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was not invited to the summit. Instead the relatively weak foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, attended on behalf of the Islamic Republic. On the surface, this fits the caricature narrative that has emerged in policy and media circles on both sides of the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean: Saudi Arabia, the bulwark of Sunni Islam, is caught in a battle for regional hegemony tinged with sectarian hues against Iran, the bulwark of Shiite Islam. This analysis, however, fails to capture the growing and diverse range of diplomatic contacts between Riyadh and Tehran in the last few months, the insistent and loud anti-sectarian statements made by top leaders on both sides, and the evolving Saudi-Iranian relationship over the past decade. It also fails to capture the strategic philosophy of the Islamic Republic and the personal thinking of King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz. more..
Preventing the Third Lebanon War
Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz 4/29/2007
Late last week, following the publication of the State Comptroller’s report on the Israel Investments Center, Ehud Olmert declared that he had lost his confidence in retired judge Micha Lindenstrauss. The prime minister asked the public to ignore the findings of the comptroller regarding suspicions of corruption against him. What will the prime minister say today, following the publication of the interim report of the committee probing the failures of the Second Lebanon War? Will he say that he has lost his faith in retired judge, Dr. Eliyahu Winograd, and the professors and generals serving on the committee? Were Olmert not a petty politician, he would go home today and save us the protest rallies and the interviews with Motti Ashkenazi. Even if every Kadima MK sides with him, Olmert has to go. Even if Labor bites the bullet on the matter of the Winograd report, and along with Yisrael Beiteinu they decide to commit political suicide, Olmert must not remain in the Prime Minister’s Office. He has lost the trust of the public, without which no leader in a democracy can fulfill his role. This is even more true for a leader who has to make decisions concerning life-and-death issues. With a 3-percent approval rating even before the report was published, it is impossible to lead soldiers to war. With a party and a coalition that do not represent the wishes of their constituents, it is not possible to pull Israel out of the territories in return for peace with the members of the Arab League. more..
Amira Hass: What Cease-Fire?
Amira Hass, Palestine Chronicle 4/27/2007
On the Saturday and Sunday before the Palestinians "broke the cease-fire," Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed nine Palestinians. Among them was a 17-year-old girl, a 15-year-old boy and a policeman who was on the roof of his house and was not involved in any "battle.". Talking about making and breaking a cease-fire spares the Palestinians from having to admit the failure of their Qassam missile publicity stunts. Proposals to widen the cease-fire to the West Bank sidestep any need for an inter-Palestinian debate on the destructive uselessness of a suicide-based "armed struggle.". "Cease-fire" is yet another hollow term, showing that the Palestinian representatives - elected or not, Hamas or Fatah or Palestine Liberation Organization-Tunis, from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the last spokesman of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ "Brigades" - keep falling into the traps set for them by the politics of Israeli occupation. Talking for and against the cease-fire fits in with the distorted picture of reality that Israel has been constructing since September 2000, of two symmetric, fighting sides - in which the Palestinians are the aggressors and Israel, attacked, defends itself and retaliates. On the Saturday and Sunday before the Palestinians "broke the cease-fire," Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed nine Palestinians. Among them was a 17-year-old girl, a 15-year-old boy and a policeman who was on the roof of his house and was not involved in any "battle.". more..
Looking for alternatives to failure: An answer to Uri Avnery
Ilan Pappe, Electronic Intifada 4/26/2007
The following is Ilan Pappe’s response to Uri Avnery’s essay "Bed of Sodom", published by Hagada Hasmalit on 22 April 2007:
Uri Avnery accuses the supporters of the one-state solution of forcefully imposing the facts onto the "Bed of Sodom". He seems to regard these people at best as daydreamers who do not understand the political reality around them and are stuck in a perpetual state of wishful thinking. We are all veteran comrades in the Israeli Left and therefore it is quite possible that in our moments of despair we fall into the trap of hallucinating and even fantasizing while ignoring the unpleasant reality around us.
And therefore the metaphor of the Bed of Sodom may even be fitting for lashing out at those who are inspired by the South African model in their search for a solution in Palestine. But in this case it is a small cot of Sodom compared to the king-size bed onto which Gush Shalom and other similar members of the Zionist Left insist on squeezing their two-state solution. The South African model is young -- in fact hardly a year has passed since it was seriously considered -- while the formula of two states is sixty years old: an abortive and dangerous illusion that enabled Israel to continue its occupation without facing any significant criticism from the international community.
The South African model is good subject matter for a comparative study -- not as an object for a hollow emulation. Certain chapters in the history of the colonization in South Africa and the Zionization of Palestine are indeed nearly identical. The ruling methodology of the white settlers in South Africa resembles very closely that applied by the Zionist movement and later Israel against the indigenous population of Palestine since the end of the 19th century. Ever since 1948, the official Israeli policy against some of the Palestinians is more lenient than that of the Apartheid regime; against other Palestinians it is much worse.
But above all the South African model inspires those concerned with the Palestine cause in two crucial directions: by introducing the one democratic state, it offers a new orientation for a future solution instead of the two-state formula that failed, and it invigorates new thinking of how the Israeli occupation can be defeated -- through boycott, divestment, and sanctions (the BDS option. more..
One Unexploded Bomb Per Person
Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service 4/28/2007
SRIFA, Southern Lebanon, Apr 27(IPS) - Close to a million unexploded bombs are estimated to litter southern Lebanon, according to UN forces engaged in the hazardous task of removing them. The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created by the Security Council in 1978 to confirm an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and restore international peace and security. After the war last year it has a new job on its hands.
Following the July-August war between Israel and the Hezbollah in Lebanon, UNIFIL enhanced its force and took on new tasks such as monitoring the cessation of hostilities and removing untold numbers of unexploded missiles, mines and cluster bombs.
Most of these lie in southern Lebanon, which took the brunt of bombings from Israeli warplanes.
Lebanon has a population of four million, close to half of it in capital Beirut. Given the population distribution, there could be almost as many unexploded bombs as there are people in southern Lebanon.
"Between 10-40 percent of the cluster bombs do not explode on impact," a lieutenant who gave his name as Verbeke, with the Belgian contingent of UNIFIL, told IPS at the site of a 500kg unexploded bomb in Srifa, a little town near the border. "Sometimes they get stuck in trees or bushes, and there are Lebanese people being injured or killed by them nearly every single day.
Israeli warplanes roared overhead as he spoke, in clear violation of the ceasefire agreement brokered between Lebanon and Israel.
Verbeke pointed to one of his Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams in action. The fuse of the 500kg bomb was removed and detonated, leaving the weapon harmless. It was then loaded onto a UN truck, and carried to a detonation site, to be exploded there out of harm’s way.
Lebanese living nearby are grateful for such efforts.
"The UN is doing great work here," Wissam Mousawi, a construction worker who lives near the site of this unexploded bomb told IPS. "They are really fantastic."
But this was just one small success. According to the Belgians as many as 800,000 unexploded ordnance (UXO), and possibly more, still remain. Meanwhile, scores of Lebanese civilians have died from contacting cluster bombs. More than 200 have been wounded, most of them severely.
"We are clearing approximately 50 square metres of land per day," the chief of the Beligian engineers detachment who gave his name as Lt. Col. Watteeuw told IPS back at their base. "The UN Mine Action Coordination Centre manages 60 de-mining teams working throughout the south. Many are UNIFIL teams, but most are private contracting companies.
When asked if they had received any information to assist in locating the munitions from Israel, Watteeuw said, "That’s a good question, but you would have to go 20km south of here (into Israel) to obtain that information.
He estimates it would take "probably more than three to five years" to clear southern Lebanon of what he estimates to be 900 air and artillery strike areas. But that would still only be the flat areas, and not include hills and other areas where munitions have yet to be found.
Watteeuw said his teams are finding hundreds of thousands of unexploded cluster bombs, along with smaller numbers of grenades, artillery rounds, anti-personnel mines, anti-tank mines and bombs of all varieties.
Thus far, civilian contractor teams have cleared approximately 110,000 UXO, and UNIFIL teams like the Belgian teams the colonel oversees, approximately 25,000.
"In Belgium we’ve cleared 100 tonnes of UXO on average every year since World War I," he added. "So this could take a long time.
Teams from China, France, Italy, Finland, Ireland, Turkey and Spain are also engaged in clearing unexploded bombs.
Much of the population in the south relies on tobacco, vegetable and fruit farms to make their living. With UXO littering countless fields, many are unable to work.
Local people in affected areas continue to be anxious about further Israeli aggression against them, even as they re thankful to the UN.
"I think it’s a good thing for UNIFIL to help us get our land back," Mohammed Kundoulay, a 17-year-old secondary school student in the area told IPS. "We need this help now after the Israelis conducted terrorism against us.
Kundoulay hid with his family in their home during the first 10 days of the war before fleeing to Beirut.
Anther student, Jaffar Assaf, told IPS that the UN de-mining teams were doing a great job, but was angry at what he called double standards.
"We hope the UN maintain their criteria in helping us now and help to defend us from Israel," he said. "In reality, the UN should be in Israel to defend us from them, since they were the ones who invaded Lebanon, not vice versa.
UNIFIL maintains a presence in southern Lebanon, and not in Israel, although the forces carry out helicopter patrols over the tense border area. (END/2007. more..
Book Review: The Scar of David
Sanna Nimtz Towns and Joseph F. Towns, Electronic Intifada 4/27/2007
Susan Abulhawa’s first novel, The Scar of David, is an intricately woven tapestry of historical fiction chronicling the Palestinian Abulheja family over four generations. The novel begins in Ein Hod, the village where patriarch Yehya Abulheja, a peasant olive farmer, and his family, wife Basima and sons Hasan and Darweesh, live. This land of olive trees has been nurtured by Yehya’s relatives and ancestors for over forty generations.We witness the simple and charming life of these peasants when son Hasan, on errands for his father to the Old City in Jerusalem, meets with his best friend Ari Perlstein; both boys share their lives, families and dreams with each other.Many years later Hasan tells his daughter Amal about his boyhood: "’He was like a brother,’ Hasan said, closing a book that had been given to him by Ari in the autumn of their boyhood.
As Hasan and Darweesh grow up and marry, Hasan to the gypsy-like Bedoiun Dalia, the impending Zionist enterprise -- the creation of the Jewish state of Israel -- encroaches on their homeland.The initial realities and symbols of the Jewish state come to the Abulheja family in the form of Zionist bombs and soldiers. From the 1940s to 2002, the unrelenting Israeli soldier, who brings with him violence and terror, is the dominant figure of the story about the Abulheja family, oppressed by the Zionist state. In the midst of the 1947-1948 massacres and forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and land during the creation of the State of Israel there is the traumatic theft by an Israeli soldier of Dalia’s baby Ismael, who bears a deep scar on his cheek.That soldier, named Moshe, brings Dalia’s son home to his wife Jolanta, "who had suffered the sordid history of genocide ... whose body had been ravaged by Nazis," and who had been "left barren."Jolanta names him David.
Through the Abulheja family, we come to feel and relive the various meanings and stages of dispossession and displacement of the 21st century’s largest refugee population. For these refugees, to return is ultimately an unfulfilled dream.After patriarch Yehya’s audacious, rebellious, final "return," to his family and fellow refugees. more..
Damaging Congressional Silence on Israeli Violations in Lebanon
Michael F. Brown, Electronic Intifada 4/27/2007
In late January the State Department delivered a potentially explosive report to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The classified report asserts that Israel may have violated the Arms Export Control Act with its use of American-made cluster munitions this past summer in Lebanon.
Multiple contacts to both offices indicate neither Biden nor Pelosi has any intention of pursuing the matter.In contrast, a congressional investigation 25 years ago helped persuade President Ronald Reagan to suspend cluster munitions to Israel for six years. This Congress, however, will not call Israel to account for its actions.
Cluster munitions are a ghastly creation on two levels.First, these bombs blow apart into hundreds of smaller bomblets, thus spreading death over a wide radius. Second, a terrifying percentage of them fail to explode -- at least initially.These "duds" then sit on the ground like mines until the curious child or plowing farmer stumbles across them -- often with devastating results. more..
One, two, three, testing
Yossi Sarid, Ha’aretz 4/27/2007
I myself find it hard to believe: To this day, I have not succeeded in weaning myself from the dizziness diagnosed by the professionals as "ceremony fever" - the excitement that gives rise to gooseflesh. We sing the national anthem, we wave the flag, trumpets resound, male and female soldiers go from "at ease" to "attention" and shoulder and present their arms. I think about them, those young people in uniform - where will they be tomorrow? Am I feeling a dampness gathering in my eyes? This year, I am ashamed to admit, I was less emotional. Is the guilt solely mine? This whole day, Israel’s 59th Independence Day, was shrouded in a surreal haze, and it was hard to see the horizon through the haze. Someone there in Jerusalem decided to make the theme of Independence Day 2007 the unification of Jerusalem - 40 years since the city was joined together. Joined together? By whom? Jerusalem has never been so torn and divided. It has not been joined together, but rather wounded and bruised. Everyone already knows that Jerusalem will never hold on to this imaginary and forced unification, that the day is not far off when it will be divided into two capitals, and that only when it is divided will it finally be united at long last. Render unto the Jews what is the Jews’ in Jerusalem, and unto the Arabs what is the Arabs’ in Al-Quds, and every man shall live not only in his own faith, but in the very fact of his desire to live. more..
Endgame in Damascus and Gaza
Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz 4/27/2007
If the official in the Prime Minister’s Office is to be taken seriously, the Winograd Committee has already accomplished something. "Do you really believe that after all the troubles with the Second Lebanon War, [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert will take the chance that one day he will have to explain to another committee of inquiry what he did to prevent war with Syria?" the official asked. He suggested that the prime minister is being truthful when he says he is examining the sincerity of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s intentions regarding peace. A senior official in the security establishment has recently suggested treating Assad’s messages regarding peace quite seriously, because if we don’t, the alternative will not include a continuation of the status quo. The official’s comments are quoted in "Restarting Israeli-Syrian Negotiations," a detailed report released this month by the International Crisis Group, an independent, Brussels-based, nongovernmental organization. One of the founders of the group, which aims to prevent and resolve deadly conflict via field-based analysis and advocacy, is Thomas Pickering, formerly U.S. undersecretary of state and ambassador to Israel. more..
’Farewell to our house!’
Danny Rubinstein, Ha’aretz 4/27/2007
"Khalil al-Sakakini," translated to Hebrew and edited by Gideon Shilo, Tzivonim, 281 pages, NIS 84. Khalil al-Sakakini and his family were among the last families to leave the Katamon quarter of Jerusalem at 6 A.M., on April 30, 1948, a few hours before members of the Haganah and Palmach (pre-state forces that preceded the Israel Defense Forces) took over the neighborhood. Al-Sakakini, perhaps the most prominent of Palestine’s Arab intellectuals during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire and under the British Mandate, was then 70 years old. He packed up a few belongings in his bombarded home and went out to Hebron Road, and from there to Egypt. (Today Sakakini’s house, at 8 Yordey Hasira St., serves as a WIZO day-care center, and many Palestinians who admire his journals andwritings have made it a site of pilgrimage. In his journal he wrote: "We put a few clothes that we would need in the suitcases, and left the rest behind ... for our return. I wanted to take my notebooks and papers ... but I forgot them all. I wanted to take my hookah, which is my second brain, but I forgot. We left the house, the clothes, the furniture, the library, the food and the giant piano and the large electric refrigerator. Farewell to our house! Farewell to the gathering place where friends drink together, a magnet for visitors during the day and the night ... Farewell to my library; farewell, house of wisdom, hall of philosophers, institute of science, home of the literary committee. How many sleepless nights have I spent in you, reading and writing ... The anguish of my love is alleviated only by the fact that I have transferred my journals, which are numerous and cover thousands of pages, to a safe place. more..
Joharah Baker: Time will Never Heal this Wound
Joharah Baker, Palestine Chronicle 4/27/2007
If the right of return is not addressed properly by the leadership and the international community, no truncated peace agreement, settlement or solution will ever stand. For Israeli Jews, this week was all about celebrations, barbecues and oversized blue and white flags fluttering in the spring breeze as their country celebrated the 59th anniversary of its independence. For Palestinians, this was one more year enduring an open wound, one more year to remember the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people almost 60 years ago and the enormity of the problem it created. To Palestinians, Israel’s Independence Day is called Al Nakba, the "Catastrophe", which represents the displacement of some 800,000 Palestinians from their homes during the 1948 War, who were never to return and would soon comprise one of the Palestinian leadership’s most pressing and most complicated predicaments -- the refugee problem. According to the United Nations Works and Relief Agency, UNRWA, there are more than 4.3 million registered Palestinian refugees throughout the world, many of them still living in the squalid and sprawling refugee camps originally set up for them in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources put this number at 6.5 million, taking into consideration that a percentage of these refugees are not registered with UNRWA. more..
Issa Khalaf: A Futile Plea for a Two State Solution
Issa Khalaf, Palestine Chronicle 4/27/2007
Even if hundreds of thousands more Palestinians are expelled to the surrounding Arab states, the dilemma will not go away: because Palestinians are ethnically and culturally virtually the same as the adjacent Arab populations, Israel will remain as South Africa was, that is, a minority population surrounded by tens of millions of Arabs. At this juncture in history Israel has most probably managed to render irreversible its incorporation of most of the West Bank, precluding a viable Palestinian state, all the while insisting on its commitment to a two state solution.Given the massive annexations and the changing demographic trends in historic Palestine, the division of the two peoples along national lines may be unrealistic.Still, Zionism insists on the moral superiority of its claims and narratives and is on a pre-determined course to both annex the land and separate the two peoples.This, in fact, has been central to the self-created Zionist dilemma in Palestine-Israel.The Palestinians will not disappear, nor will they concede their rights and their homeland or the moral legitimacy that Zionism arrogates to itself. Such realities have led a growing number of people to call for a unitary democratic state as an alternative to the partition of the land.While the argument for a unitary state is morally sound and solves a number of enduring problems, including competing historical claims and legitimacies, borders, self-determination, Jerusalem, refugees, and settlements, Zionism is rapidly constructing an apartheid system in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), and thus keeping the door open to continuing violence that also precludes a peaceful evolution towards a unitary state. more..
We came, we built, we destroyed
Saviona Mane, Ha’aretz 4/25/2007
This year marked the 25th anniversary since the Sinai Peninsula and its ruins were returned to Egypt. The event did not merit particular mention. We have already become used to the quiet along our southern border, as if it were a given. The numerous shocks we have experienced in the past quarter century have distracted us from the dramatic turning point in our ties with Egypt: the Lebanon wars, the difficult intifadas, the assassination of a prime minister by a Jewish zealot, the waves of murderous terrorism. Who even remembers that this week marked the 25th anniversary of the return of the Sinai, apart from those like myself who are marking 25 years since the destruction of their homes, and have been asking ever since: why. "Looks like Hiroshima," one of the papers wrote then of the destruction Israel left behind. "Carthage" would have been more appropriate. We came, we built, we destroyed. And the longed-for peace with Egypt was welcomed with islands of ruins. Sand for sand. The only problem is that destruction cannot be the foundation for peace. The only thing that can be built on destruction is destruction. Like many of my friends in Moshav Sadot, which the government of Israel decided to raze along with the other communities in the Rafah salient, I too welcomed the peace agreement with Egypt. Like them, I too sent a congratulatory telegram to the prime minister, Menachem Begin, to congratulate him upon the signing of the Camp David Accords. But like them, I too can’t stop wondering why the destruction was necessary. Why couldn’t we hand over the houses to the Egyptians. And today when I see on television the ruins of Gush Katif or Homesh, I know the depth of the despair the residents of those communities experienced and will experience for their entire lives, people with whom I ideologically have nothing in common. I live in peace with the evacuation, but not with the destruction. I also know that the seeds of the recklessness and cynicism that have since crept into our lives were planted in the dunes covering my home in Moshav Sadot. more..
Israel’s choice: "Jewish only" or democratic?
Sonja Karkar, Electronic Intifada 4/25/2007
The time will have to come for Israel to declare its hand: is it "a state of the Jewish people throughout the world" as it defines itself, or a state of all its citizens, both Jewish and non-Jewish?So far Israel has managed to convince the Western world that it is the only democracy in the region, but neglects to add that this democracy works only for its Jewish citizens. This is the conundrum: Israel has been unable to reconcile what it says it is, with want it wants to be -- democratic and exclusively Jewish.
All of Israel’s one million plus Palestinian residents -- the survivors and descendants of the 1948 Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine -- have long felt discriminated against, despite Israel paying lip-service to their democratic rights.They also felt on the sidelines of what was being played out in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, that is until Azmi Bishara, the outspoken political leader of the National Democratic Assembly (NDA) or Balad in Israel and a Knesset member, began campaigning for the collective rights of Palestinians.His vision is not just for change inside Israel, but involves an all-inclusive civil rights struggle against political Zionism -- the racist and colonialist policies that have dispossessed, marginalised and oppressed all Palestinians for almost 60 years. This is what Israel is at pains to put down by any means.It cannot afford to have someone like Azmi Bishara rallying people to his way of thinking. Now, after many attempts to muzzle him, Israel has finally succeeded in getting him to resign from the Knesset and to stay out of the country. more..
You win some residents, you lose some residents
Shahar Ilan, Ha’aretz 4/25/2007
The Citizenship Law strictly limits family unification between Israelis and Palestinians. However, Interior Ministry data indicates that in practice, under the auspices of the law, in addition to Palestinians’ not receiving new residency permits for family unification, 561 families have lost the permits they had. This has a major significance: the lives of thousands of people are ruined. The government decision to freeze family unification with Palestinians, which later became the Citizenship Law, was made in May 2002. Interior Ministry data shows that from 2002 to 2006, the residency permits of an average 110 families were canceled annually. But this average is misleading: In practice, around 100 permits were canceled each year, and in 2006 there was a 50-percent surge, to 150 canceled permits. In August 2005, some easements were introduced to the Citizenship Law and it was determined that men over the age of 25 and women over 35 could qualify for family unification. At a Knesset Interior Committee meeting about a month ago, the Interior Ministry representative reported that the requests of 707 families have been accepted since the easements took effect. Now it turns out that in practice, there was hardly an increase at all. For nearly every family that received a permit, there was a family that lost its permit. The Interior Ministry said in response that the reasons for not extending a permit are an end to the relationship, involvement in criminal activity or security concerns. more..
The Unearthing of Secrets: Palestinian Art, 6+ and a Series of Transgressions
Maymanah Farhat, Electronic Intifada 4/25/2007
There is a significant movement brewing beneath the surface of the mainstream art world, one distinguished by interventionist action and the resolve to forge creative paths independent of the very establishments that attempt to monopolize (and corporatize) artistic agency. During the first half of the twentieth century, this translated into influential art movements and schools that sought to reshape the function of art in the face of political conflicts and instability. The Russian Constructivist, Dada and the Mexican Muralist were among a number of movements that transformed artistic conventions in reaction to contested or dramatically changing sociopolitical climates. These movements impacted the formulistic and conceptual aspects of art on such a profound scale that their influences are still shaping visual culture today.
The second half of the twentieth century was marked with a greater visibility of art movements among artists from politically marginalized and formally colonized peoples, many of which functioned outside the narrowly defined parameters of the mainstream art world. A stronger presence of female artists was also a noticeable development of this time. Making its way into the mainstream, albeit with much difficulty, this change has worked to reshape every aspect of the international art world, from the amount and type of exposure such artists are given to the formation of new art centers and markets. Yet the art world has been slow in erasing centuries of exclusion, with many artists still being shut out from the mainstream. more..
This Protest Won’t Go Away
Dahr Jamail, Electronic Intifada 4/25/2007
BEIRUT, Apr 25 (IPS) - Lebanon is caught in political gridlock in the face of sustained opposition to the U.S.-backed government.
The government is refusing to give in to opposition demands for more representation. The government says it is there to stay; so do the protestors.
Their opposition is very visible. Scores of tents, many with solar powered television sets, wooden walls and doors, and cooking facilities fill several huge parking lots at the foot of the heavily barricaded headquarters of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government.
The site is mostly quiet during the day, but in the evening thousands stream into the camps to listen to speeches, drink coffee and tea, smoke hubble-bubble pipes, and talk. And, in the Riad es-Solh Square, they watch the huge movie-sized screen of Al-Manar television news (Hezbollah’s TV station.
"We’re here demanding full participation of all different groups in the political decision-making of our country," a 27-year-old organiser at the site who gave his name only as Jirgus told IPS.
The protest is already bringing results, he said. "One of the advantages of this sit-in is that people from the north are meeting people from the south, and different religions are uniting.
Like everyone else IPS spoke with at the sit-in, Jirgus said he would continue with the protest as long as it took.
"As long as this government continues with their pro-U.S. and pro-Israel policies, and continues to choose not to allow all people fair representation, we are left with only this choice," he said. more..
Keeping it in the family
Meron Rapoport, Ha’aretz 4/25/2007
At the moment of truth, the hundreds of people jammed into the Arara High School playing field burst into thunderous applause. Some had tears in their eyes. "Join together," demanded the loudspeaker voice, and the two groups who had separately entered the field - in formation, like armies in civilian clothing - began to kiss and hug one another. The truce was final. Revenge was forgotten. The leaders of the two largest clans in the Arab village guaranteed the traditional sulha (reconciliation). No one dared to believe that they would renege on it. "Only 2 percent of sulha agreements in Israel have been violated until now," says Majid Washadi, a member of the National Sulha Committee that brokered the Arara reconciliation. It is difficult to ignore the power of the sulha ritual. Only a month and a half ago, members of the Yunis family killed Abd al-Wahid Marzuk, a 32-year-old local contractor, in an escalation of a conflict between the Yunis and Marzuk families regarding insurance compensation for a traffic accident. Two days later, members of the Marzuk clan killed Moufek Yunis, 25, who was - coincidentally - Abd al-Wahid Marzuk’s accountant. The white flag. Sheikh Iyad Yunis says that both were random victims: "They were murdered only because of their surnames," he maintains. Despite seething tempers and the fact that no one had forgotten the two members of the Marzuk family who were killed by members of the Yunis clan 30 years ago, and in spite of knowing that killers still roam free, the conflict came to an end. The white flag, a knot tied in it to signify mutual faith and peace, was passed between both sides, and the victims’ closest relatives embraced individuals who may have issued orders or even pulled the trigger that killed their loved ones. more..
The Legend of the Removed Checkpoints
Ran HaCohen, Electronic Intifada 4/24/2007
Last Monday’s paper gave us a small reason to be happy. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for the second time in just a few weeks. Reporting the meeting -- described by Palestinian sources as "fruitless.
"An IDF lieutenant-colonel also attended the meeting. The officer briefed the Palestinians on the plan to remove IDF roadblocks in the West Bank. According to the officer, the IDF has so far removed 44 roadblocks. He added that the IDF was planning to remove an additional 17 in the next stage of the plan. The sources said that the Palestinian delegation requested the removal of more roadblocks, and that Olmert expressed his willingness. Good News, Isn’t It.
Hear, hear: the IDF removed 44 roadblocks! This may not be much, given the rather extensive list of restrictions imposed on Palestinians, i.e. Standing prohibitions. Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are forbidden to stay in the West Bank. Palestinians are forbidden to enter East Jerusalem. West Bank Palestinians are forbidden to enter the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing. Palestinians are forbidden to enter the Jordan Valley... more..
On Islam and modernism: a talk with Sadiq al-Mahdi
Rami G. Khouri, Daily Star 4/25/2007
One of the prevalent trends that defines so much of what is both right and wrong about the Arab world today is the convergence between religion, nationalism, and politics. The three are used to practice unspeakably cruel violence against foes and innocent civilians alike, while simultaneously challenging unjust authority, resisting foreign military invasions and building more equitable societies. The combination of religion, politics, identity and nationalism is inescapable in the contemporary Arab world, which has been unable to thrive as either fully secular or explicitly theocratic. Those movements and leaders who use the combination of modern forces and traditional identities to offer a nation-building program that appeals to the best instincts and basic rights of a large number of their fellow citizens will emerge to define a better, more peaceful and prosperous Arab world. There are not many candidates for this mantle of enlightened Arab leadership on the horizon, but there are some. I had the pleasure of several long discussions with one of them earlier this week: former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. His views are worth pondering, given his country’s rich experiences and his own particular credibility. Now in his early 70s, but showing the physical and intellectual vigor of a person half that age, Mahdi enjoys a rare combination of assets: religious legitimacy, nationalist credibility, experience in power and in opposition, and several stints in jail. His great grandfather, Mohammad Ahmed al-Mahdi, fought against British colonial rule in Sudan in the late 19th century, and Sadiq al-Mahdi is the leader of the Ansar Sufi order and the Al-Ummah political party. more..
’Peace plan’ minus the Palestinians
Ben White, Palestine News Network 4/24/2007
Another Israel/Palestine ’peace plan’ has been added to the long list of diplomatic dances that have come and gone in recent years, and this time it is a reheated version of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. At an Arab League summit in Riyadh in March, the organisation’s members unanimously offered Israel peaceful, normalised relations, should the land occupied since 1967 be returned. Yet despite all the fanfare, and self-congratulatory talk of an "historic moment", this proposal shares the same flaw as those that have come before -- it is being offered on behalf of those at the root of the conflict, the Palestinians. The Palestinians, who, from the refugees exiled since 1948 to those living in the Occupied Territories, are still not ’permitted’ to speak for themselves. The will of the indigenous population of Palestine has been overlooked from the very beginning of the conflict, when external powers collaborated with Zionist efforts to create a Jewish-majority state against the desires of the majority Palestinian Arab inhabitants. Israel often cites the United Nations resolution that authorised the creation of a Jewish state, but even this ’legal’ process was carried out over the heads of the colonised. more..
Serious talks must start with a prisoner exchange
George Giacaman, Daily Star 4/24/2007
When it comes to a prisoner exchange between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, there are still difficult negotiations lying ahead. The internal dynamics on both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides will be a hindrance. Nevertheless, one should expect that, perhaps sooner rather than later, there will a deal to exchange Palestinian political prisoners for the Israeli soldier abducted near Gaza by Hamas, Gilad Shalit. On the Palestinian side the release of Palestinian political prisoners is a top priority among the general public. Over 10,000 prisoners languish in Israeli jails, and their families and friends form an influential lobby pressuring the Palestinian government. President Mahmoud Abbas’ inability to bring about the release of prisoners after his election in January 2005 undermined the perception of his effectiveness among a majority of Palestinians. From an Israeli perspective, there are several precedents for prisoner exchanges, whether involving Palestinian or Lebanese prisoners. Families of captive soldiers have also frequently worked as effective lobbies pressuring the government. For example the case of Ron Arad, the Israeli navigator shot down over Lebanon in the 1980s, has haunted successive Israeli governments. more..
Pragmatic Russia can help moderate Arabs and Israelis
Irina Zvyagelskaya, Daily Star 4/25/2007
For the last five years, Russia’s role in the international search for peace in the Middle East has been realized within the framework of the Quartet. Moscow made the decision to join the international mediators for several reasons. In 2002, Russia had no great ambitions in the region. The Middle East was not high on the list of priorities (post-Soviet states, for example, were of much greater importance), and Moscow’s ability to act independently was curbed at the time by economic and financial restraints. A third very important factor was 9/11. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center marked a new stage in Russia’s relations with the United States and the European Union, and Russian President Vladimir Putin extended Russia’s support to the American president in his war on terror. Both countries stressed their common interest in a long-term partnership. The Russian leadership hoped at the time that after 9/11, the US administration would show more understanding of the developments in Chechnya, where international terrorists were active. This new turn in international developments did not change the traditional bent of Russian foreign policy, in other words pragmatism dictated by national interests and available resources. Russia’s decision to support the US "road map" was thus made against the background of its search for strategic stability and its participation in the anti-terrorist coalition. It was also recognition of the special role the US assumed in the Middle East peace process. The Quartet provided the best possible framework for the resumption of active Russian mediation because as an international endeavor it ensured that a one-sided approach was rejected. more..
Israel’s latest onslaught can only retard the peace process yet again
Editorial, Daily Star 4/23/2007
Two deadly Israeli raids in the West Bank over the weekend have rattled a shaky truce and dealt a heavy blow to Arab efforts to revive the stagnant peace process. After the separate raids in Nablus and Ramallah - which killed nine Palestinians, including a teenage girl - we find ourselves once again on the brink of that all-too familiar abyss of tit-for-tat violence. Already, a Hamas spokesman has called for retaliatory attacks and Premier Ismail Haniyya has urged the Arab League to halt any political initiatives that would lead to "normalization with the Israeli occupation." Even the "moderate" Fatah party has publicly called on Arab heads of state, as well as its own leadership, to consider breaking off diplomatic contacts with Israel. In other words, Israel’s latest military actions have ensured that the Arab-led peace process is already stalling, long before it has had a chance to gain much momentum. An Israeli government spokesman defended the Jewish state’s actions on Sunday, asserting that Israel "reaches out for peace, while at the same time we will always consistently fight against terror." It is difficult to find words to adequately describe the absurdity of such a statement. After all, the Israelis themselves found it reprehensible when former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat warned during a speech to the United Nations that he came "bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun." Such a duplicitous message, they argued then, was hardly a convincing peace overture. The truth is that the Israeli leadership has not made a significant effort to "reach out for peace." On the contrary, they have reacted coolly to the Arab initiative, which is arguably a historic opportunity to secure a better future for the people of this region. They have dismissed the plan out of hand, calling on Arab leaders to show "more flexibility." And while steadfastly rejecting the Arab initiative, the Israelis have not been offering up any peace proposals of their own. Where is the "reaching out for peace" in this scenario. more..
Free peoples in their own lands
Yossi Sarid, Ha’aretz 4/21/2007
This evening we shall cheer as Israel celebrates its birthday; we shall raise the state on a chair 59 times - that is, those of us who still have the strength - and one more time for next year also. In May 1948, the empire lowered the Union Jack and the last of its soldiers left the shores of Palestine without looking back. Great Britain took leave without hesitation and without tears, and the sigh of relief - "thank God that we are rid of that" -could be heard from here as far as London. A month ago, Yedioth Ahronoth published classified MI5 documents that had recently been made public. They revealed that Teddy Kollek, later mayor of Jerusalem, had given the British security service information about the activities of the Etzel and Lehi underground movements. The newspaper published this and there was an outcry, as if by conditioned reflex. Since then, not only those involved, but also numerous infuriated talkback participants have had their say, and there were suggestions that Teddy’s name be removed from the Jerusalem stadium that bears it and replaced with that of Lehi leader Avraham ("Yair") Stern. Indeed, it is not nice to be a teller of tales and not fitting to pass such information to the British, and we all know what happens to an informant under Jewish religious law. But there are times when such behavior should not necessarily be criticized. more..
Will I hang the flag?
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz 4/21/2007
There is a flagholder installed in my garden. The previous residents used it to fly the flag of their favorite soccer team. Since they left, the holder has remained orphaned. During my childhood, there was no question about it: My parents would take the national flag out of the cupboard each year, proudly display it on the balcony, and it would drown in the street’s sea of blue and white. I would look with excitement at our decorated balcony: I was proud of the flag. That was a long time ago. During my first trip overseas, in a youth delegation to Europe, two years after the Six-Day War, we flew the state flag on the front of the bus in which we were traveling, between France and Italy. Back then they applauded us. How proud we were to be Israelis. In recent years, the flagpole at my house stands bare. I clearly remember when I stopped hanging the flag. It was after I saw the settlers dashing through Palestinian villages, fearsome flags waving from their cars to confront and provoke the residents of the land they had invaded. I said to myself that a flag intended for provocation and confrontation is not my flag. I later saw the flag as a land marker, establishing ownership that is not ours. In every settlement and outpost they hung the flag that was my flag as well to "establish facts on the ground." more..
Building Economic Independence in Palestine
By Sam Bahour, Electronic Intifada 4/20/2007 The following is a speech given by Sam Bahour at the Second Annual Conference on Non-Violent Popular Resistance in the Palestinian village of Bil’in, April 18 - 20th, 2007
"First, allow me to salute the people of Bil’in.Your steadfastness is being registered in the annals of history with every meter of Wall being built and every olive tree ripped from it roots by this deplorable occupation. I’ve been asked to speak briefly on Building Economic Independence.A complicated topic but let me start by posting a question
How do we integrate a future Palestinian economy into a U.S.-dominated globalized world today, while yet still under foreign military occupation -- an occupation operating in the full view of the international community?Yes, I speak of those third parties that are signatories to the Fourth Geneva Convention that, for the last year, and the majority through today, have opted to apply economic and political boycotts and sanctions against the occupied people, driving us to a nation of poverty, crime and lawlessness.How do we do all of this while our very own leadership drinks tea on a bimonthlybasis with that very same occupier that is removing, by daily actions on the ground, the option of a meaningful Palestinian independence more..
Film Review: "It’s Not a Gun"
By Maureen Clare Murphy, Electronic Intifada 4/20/2007
What role can music play in confronting the Israeli occupation?This is the question posed yet not definitively answered in Helena Cotinier and Pierre-Nicolas Durand’s documentary, It’s Not a Gun, which follows Palestinian musician Ramzi Aburedwan as he realizes his dream of establishing a music education school in Palestine as part of his al-Kamandjati (meaning "the violinist") project.
Ramzi, who grew up in Ramallah’s Al-Amari refugee camp, says, "I spent my whole childhood during the first intifada throwing stones.And then, by chance, I had the [opportunity] to play music." While Ramzi -- unlike some of the European musicians who join him for a musical tour of the occupied Palestinian territories each summer -- holds no illusions about the limits of artistic expression, he would at least like to afford Palestinian children the chance to experience the joy of music. more..
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Accepting the other in Palestine 
