Testimony: "You tell me why I am face-down on the ground"
By Ghassan Abu Ibaid, FromOccupiedPalestine.org 11/18/2003
Ghassan Abu Ibaid, 43, is a paramedic with the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Jenin. He has five children and a sixth on the way. In February, he will be moving with his family to California. We interviewed him in the sitting area of the PRCS building, while the television in the background relayed news of the Maxim Restaurant bombing in Haifa that had happened only minutes earlier.
Ghassan Abu Ibaid, PRCS Paramedic: I would like to relate to you stories that will show the kind of hatred and contempt that the Israeli army has for our people, the people of Palestine. I’ll tell you one of the stories that happened to me during the siege that was laid on the Camp in April of 2002. It happened on 8 April, four days after the incursion began when the army had finally allowed us to go in to the Camp so that we could clear some of the injured.
There were three injured people who the Israeli army had allowed us to go in for, so three ambulances went in. We started at 1:00 pm and we were finally out at 4:00 pm - it took us three hours and this distance is only about 100 meters. Before we could pick up the wounded, the Israeli army forced us to go to the soldiers and have our ambulances searched. After we had cleared out the wounded people, we had to go back to the occupation army to be searched again.
The Monotony of Chaos
By Laura Gordon, Electronic Intifada 11/17/2003
16 November 2003 -- The boys were the last to come back from climbing through the remainders of crumbled buildings while Melissa and I sat long silent minutes in different corners of the sand. Local men and young boys climbed back and forth between rubble and donkey carts, collecting the usable stones from the wreckage, to make a living, searching for something to do in an impossible landscape like Hagar carrying her infant Ishmael back and forth between the deserted dryness of the mountains Marwa and Safaa searching for water. The broken stones were gleaming monotonously in the sunlight, monotonous piles blending into sand, which tumbled down into the empty half-built neighborhood a dove's flight away.
Opposite the empty buildings, Netzarim settlement, a rolling expanse of red rooves and fat trees, surrounded in barbed wire and guarded by a sniper tower that twisted above the hill we were standing on to glare into the area. The scene was laid out like a game of monopoly, two sides scrambling to advance. Competing facts on the ground creeping towards each other. The mountains of defeated bricks on the Palestinian side stared back at us like a monument, a foreboding picture of who would win in this race. The Palestinian Authority had built the most luxurious of homes, spacious stone-built constructions, painted white, trees pushing out of the ground over the gates of gardens, only a rock's throw away from the site we had come to visit. The wealth of the area shined like polished counterfeit coins on a losing bet. You had to wonder who would want to live here now.
The Region And The Point Of No Return
By Ghassan Charbel, Al-Hayat 11/18/2003
The region has never been this agitated. Open wars and others implicit. Enduring and fresh conflicts. Crises likely to worsen. Bombs ready to blow up. The Middle East confronted the international changes brought about by the collapse of the Berlin wall. Its stability was not shaken with the USSR's disappearance. It thought it could weather the storm. It slept on the feathers of privacy and refused to change. But that was the past. Those who thought the 9/11 attacks were part of a remote war were wrong. With the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime, the Middle East turned into a field for all wars and fears. War on terror and war on the U.S. Missile arsenals and nuclear dreams. Security calculations and accounts of interests. Taking over land by force and changing regimes by force.
It is not easy for the Middle East to survive between George W. Bush's attack, Ariel Sharon's aggression and Osama bin Laden's bombs. Not to mention the lack of institutions, which could have been used for referral and participation. The lack of security valves amid the repression of feelings, economic failure, a widespread fear and the desire to kill even through suicide.
The trouble in Iraq needs no evidence. The region's countries were afraid that the American military establishment would succeed in implanting a democratic regime in Iraq. They were afraid of a great American success. But their reasons of their fear did not materialize. Today, they should be scared by the American failure there. Victory would only be partly to Iraq's benefit. The American failure would trigger a time of bombings and attempts to destabilize regimes.
Television and Middle East Children
By Daoud Kuttab, International Middle East Media Center 11/17/2003
I participated this week in an international press conference held in the EU capital of Brussels where a unique Middle Eastern version of the famous Sesame Street children's series was launched. My presence, in Belgium, was in my capacity as the Palestinian producer of Hikyat Simsim (Sesame Stories)which will begin broadcast in 10 local Palestinian stations with the start of Ramadan. Also Jordan TV will be airing this Ramadan a Jordanian version of this new Middle East coproduction.
Children in the Middle East represent the largest single age category. In Palestine, children under 12 represent a majority of the population. Yet what these children, most of who are trapped in their homes for long hours, watch on television gives little hope for a better future. Just by watching the news on television, where there is a set in almost every home, children get a heavy diet of violence and blood as a result of the daily Israeli oppression and Palestinian resistance.
I told the European Union officials who had generously supported this program that we produced this program despite harsh difficulties. For a while in 2002, I didn't imagine that I would be Brussels or anywhere else announcing the completion of 26 episodes of the Palestinian version of Hikyat Simsim. I told our European supporters how 18 months ago the engineering unit of the Israeli army, unprovoked by us, decided that the building where our offices and studios are located would make a good headquarters for them as the incursion of Ramallah took place. After 19 difficult days, that April in 2002, the Israeli army gave us back our offices. They were a big wreck, with broken equipment, missing cameras and lost valuable computer data.
Talks of Truce
Editorial, Miftah 11/18/2003
For Long the US and Israel have demanded the dismantlement of militant groups by the Palestinian leadership in order to move forward with the peace process. Yet this has been resisted by the Palestinians for fear it would trigger an internal conflict, possibly even a full blown civil war.
For long the Palestinians have demanded the dismantlement of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts, 56 of which have been established since Sharon came to power in March 2001 according to Peace Now, in order to ensure the viability of a two-state solution. Yet this has been resisted by the Israeli leadership under the guise that it would be a “reward for terrorism,” though the real reason is fear that such a move would trigger an internal conflict between the Israeli government and the Jewish extremist settlers.
For long the US seems to turn a deaf ear to Palestinian concerns while sympathizing with Israeli dilemmas, divulging an undeniable double standard that plagues the “road map” peace plan. Recent reports in the Israeli press that the US had "severely criticized" Israel's settlement activity including attempts to set up new outposts are welcomed at this critical juncture of renewed truce talks among Palestinian factions.
Praise the Geneva Accord, but accept its limitations
By Aaron David Miller, Daily Star 11/18/2003
The Geneva Accord once again hammers home the agonizing truth about Israeli-Palestinian negotiations: the main challenge is not the absence of clever diplomatic solutions by well-intentioned Israelis and Palestinians to the core problems of permanent status, but the absence of political leadership and public support required to make them work. Whatever the accomplishments of the Geneva negotiators (and there are many), the prospects and possibilities for implementation under current circumstances are bleak. Indeed, there is simply no way to negotiate the agreement, impose it from the outside, or appeal to publics to embrace it over the heads of politicians.
Until early 2001, Israeli, Palestinian and US negotiators ably demonstrated their ability to take a serious crack at breaking the genetic code of most if not all of the core issues. No agreements were achieved, yet creative and imaginative fixes emerged on borders, Jerusalem, settlements, refugees and security. At least on substance, these negotiations demonstrated that the keys to an Israeli-Palestinian agreement were not locked up in metaphysical mysteries of the East, but might be attained through logical, rational and creative diplomacy. Indeed, an array of broad parameters emerged based on the efforts of three major sets of negotiations: the July 2000 Camp David summit; the December 2000 Clinton parameters; and the January 2001 talks at Taba. Subsequently, two other initiatives joined the club: the one-page set of principles agreed between Sari Nusseibeh and Ami Ayalon, and the Geneva accord.
Share and share alike
By Shuli Dichter, Ha'aretz 11/18/2003
Diaspora Jews are here again, attending the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities of North America. This time around, it is imperative that the following item be raised: World Jewry can claim a large part in the building up the state; its fingerprints are to be found everywhere - well, not everywhere actually. The funds contributed by Diaspora Jewry to Keren Hayesod were poured into the foundations of buildings meant for the Jewish majority. The funds they contributed to Project Renewal helped the state to promote justice, but only among its Jewish citizens.
In most of the tours extended over the years to representatives of Diaspora Jewry, the map rolled out for them to see included only about 80 percent of the country's population. It made barely any reference to the remaining citizens - Israel's Arab minority.
Institutional discrimination has left a rift between Jews and Arabs in Israel. On the surface, it seems to be merely a social rift; but it is planted deep in the foundations of the state. The state budget is managed by the government; but the tradition of the matching budgets, in the framework of which the state and the Jewish Agency jointly investment in and finance various projects, gives the Diaspora Jews decisive influence on investment objectives, especially in the realm of settlement and society.
American, Israeli Hawks Worried Over Peace Moves
By Jim Lobe, Antiwar.com 11/18/2003
Middle East peace activists are seeing rays of hope for the first time since pro-Likud neo-conservatives grabbed control of US policy toward the region after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
The specific focus of those hopes lies with two "unofficial" peace plans put together by leading Israelis and Palestinians that have begun transforming the debate over US Mideast policy from demands that the Palestinian Authority (PA) "dismantle the terrorist infrastructure" in the occupied territories before further steps toward peace, to what should be the shape of a final settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.
The two most prominent promoters of the former approach, US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, have both seen their popularity plummet in recent months, according to polls.
And two key US officials, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, have already offered encouraging words for the new peace efforts, as has key Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has long taken an interest in the conflict.
Your Home Is My Castle
By Ran HaCohen, International Middle East Media Center 11/17/2003
The Apartheid Wall – the so-called "security fence" – presently being erected deep in occupied Palestinian land has already left about 12.000 Palestinian villagers outside it, trapped between the Wall and the Green Line. All this territory, between the Apartheid Wall and Israel proper, has been termed "the seam zone." The Israeli Army recently ! issued clear and detailed orders concerning this zone, as reported by Amira Hass of Ha'aretz (14.10.2003): "An individual will not enter the seam zone and will not stay there; An individual found in the seam zone will have to leave it immediately."
What about a Palestinian who lives in the seam zone? -Well, he "will be permitted to enter the seam zone and stay there, so long as he bears a permit in writing" issued by the Israeli Army.
So if you happened to have your house in the seam zone, and you are aged 12 or older, you have to persuade the Israeli Army to give you a permit to stay at home, or to go home. If you expect a visit, first make sure your guest fills one of the 12 relevant application forms – for an owner of a business in the seam zone; a merchant; an employee; a farmer; a teacher; a student; an employee of the Palestinian Authority; a visitor; an employee of an international organization; an employee of a local authority or infrastructure company; a member of a medical team; or for 'all other objectives' – the Israeli Army thinks of everything. Once your guest has filled out the form, and has been lucky enough to obtain the permit, he is most welcome to visit you.
Of Walls and Land Theft
By Juliana Fredman, CounterPunch 11/14/2003
They offered the family a blank check to leave their home to the bulldozers. Muneera and Hani refused and now all they can see is concrete. They tell us the story in a lovely living room, insisting on serving us sweet tea despite their own Ramadan fast. The children, just back from the school day smile shyly and stroke their mothers head. All are gracious, welcoming and friendly if weary from futile repetition of their tale.
The story made international news, although not necessarily front page, as it seemed to encapsulate the insidious nature of the wall that Israel is building inside the West Bank. The village is Ma'sha, well within the 1967 armistice (or green) line, already encroached upon for years by the cancerous growth of the Elqana settlement.
The original route that the wall was to take went along the existing fence of the settlement, between it and the Palestinian village. This would consolidate the land theft through which Elqana was established and add 5,500 out of 6,000 dunams of Ma'sha's farmland, greenhouses and olive groves to the `Israeli' side of the fence.
This was not enough for the colonial appetite and the settlers demanded the barrier be rerouted further away from their red roofed houses onto Muneera and Hani's land.
The animal shed next to the house was slated for demolition. In reality the entire house was in immediate danger as anything within 60 meters of the new wall is considered a military zone. The family would be isolated from the village and all services available to them, schools, hospital, mosques, shops, between the wall and the hostile neighbors to their back. Three times a day they along with their five children would theoretically be permitted to enter Mas'ha through one of the brightly colored glorified cattle gates that have become common fixtures throughout the West Bank.
Voiding the Palestinians: An Allegory
By M. Shahid Alam, Palestine Chronicle 11/18/2003
On October 29, 2003, a leading Israeli daily, Ha’aretz, reported a rape-murder that occurred more than fifty years ago at Nirim, an Israeli military outpost in the Negev. The victim was a Palestinian girl, in her early or mid-teens, or younger; the perpetrators of this crime were members of the Israeli Defense Force.[3] Six days later, The Guardian also reported this crime, but US papers did not think this was news that is fit for print.[4] In the United States, the media prefers to shield Israel from adverse notice.
What is the significance of a single rape-murder in the long and tortuous history of the dispossession of one people by another? No dispossession ever makes a pretty picture. Moreover, the dispossession of Palestinians is no ordinary dispossession. It is not ordinary because it involved the complete voiding of one people by another: Palestine had to be emptied of its ancient Palestinian population to make room for Jews. It is not ordinary because much of this emptying was telescoped within a few short months (in 1948) rather than over centuries or decades. It was not ordinary because the people doing the voiding had themselves been voided from their spaces in Europe, a people with brilliant accomplishments, voided from the spaces they had helped to enrich. It is not ordinary because the voiding, the violence it demanded, had been carefully planned, orchestrated, justified, explained, excused, and, after it’s success, celebrated and glorified in Israeli and Western media.
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