Participating in “Youth for the Right to Water and Sanitation” project (YRWS) has opened our eyes to a deeper and wider range of information regarding the water crisis that Palestinians have been suffering from, for years. Previously, we lacked awareness of such deadly facts. However, during the project, we are keen to better understand the key factors behind our water and sanitation crisis, and we have absorbed a lot of information concerning the daily frequent Israeli violations of international human rights law leaving water and sanitation on the edge of collapse.

In the light of thirsting for truth, as youth leaders, we feel responsible for raising up this cause internationally to speak on behalf of the unheard vulnerable Palestinians. So, after one of the project's meetings about the Israeli attacks, which are the origin of our current water crisis, we determined to reveal the bitter truth; therefore, we traced the road to Alsabra area located in the middle of Gaza City.

It was all in Alja’al’s house consisting of 16 members, including the 50-year householder, Ehmoud Alja’al who was a taxi driver but currently he is jobless due to healthy malaises he suffers from. His wife, Ateyat Alja’al, starts telling her tale aged 15 years!

“We are obliged to purchase gallons of clean water which cost US$18 a week instead of the salty and polluted water; we even use this clean water for bathing and washing. At the time we do not have enough money to purchase sufficient amounts of clean water, I am forced to cook and knead with the salty water which causes dermal diseases, vomiting, diarrhea and dysentery to my children”, said Ateyat.

In the last war in Gaza in 2008, Israel destroyed most of the facilities of water: 11 water wells, 4 water treatment plants as well as the sewage discharge plants.
It is also worth mentioning that Israeli restrictions on entry of fuel and electricity have resulted in 60-80 million liters of untreated or partially treated sewage flowing daily into the sea and contaminating the underground aquifer, which is the only available source of water to the 1.5 million people in Gaza, causing high levels of nitrates (330 mg/liter) which led to saltiness of water.

As Israel is a state party to Article 24, Child rights’ convention which declares that "the contracting countries must combat diseases and malnutrition by affording nutritive foods and pure water for children", it is obliged to implement what is stated by this convention; nevertheless, Ateyat's story proves the exact opposite!

“We only receive water 3 days a week at midnight; my eldest son has to stay awake till 12:00 am when water is available in the taps in order to store as much water as he can because we do not have a generator for pumping water”, she added.

Back to 2006, Israel bombed Gaza’s only power plant; consequently, water crisis is reaching alarming proportions because irregular supply of electricity leads to disorder of water distribution. “Electricity is another predicament; when water is available, electricity is not and vice versa!” Ateyat said. Noting that “Water must be healthy, sufficient, affordable and accessible”, Article 1, 11, Human rights’ accord

Israel, as an occupying power, has legal responsibilities to the under international humanitarian law as it is declared in the Fourth Geneva Convention, relative to the protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War “An occupying power is responsible for maintaining public health and hygiene in an occupied territory which necessitates the provision of clean drinking water and adequate sanitation.” Whereas the following states the contrast, "the salty water my neighbor receives once caused her sever digestive disease, so she always borrows clean water, which she can not afford, to avoid such diseases," she said.

SOS
“We complained about water problems to the concerned party but no response because the ones we complain to also suffer from the same problem, we really need help!" appealed she.

Take Action
To respond her appeal and many others', be part of the change by joining us on our global campaign ‘Thirsting for Justice’ and take part in  Facebook: Thirsting for Justice, and Twitter @thirsty4justice

As thirsty for justice and volunteers in (YRWS), we call upon international community to immediately intervene to advocate our rights of water as human beings and pressure Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and ensure that Palestinians in the OPT are enjoying their right to water.
Palestine is sorely appealing you for help and justice as its people have been bearing a lot under the Israeli’s violations of all water resources which are going to run out by 2015.

Remind your mind that Right to Water is Right to Life!

The Israel military court has extended administrative detention for two months in addition to three months already detained for civil rights lawyer Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, a lecturer at An-Najah National University and the Cultural Coordinator for the Tanweer Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment Forum, currently detained in Ofer Prison near Ramallah.

Yousef Abdul Haq was arrested November 7th, 2011 at his home at 2:00 AM, suffering from illness which requires constant dosage of medicine, forcing his transfer to a hospital immediately after his arrest in Ramla.

He was sentenced to two months in administrative detention immediately.

This arbitrary administrative detention is legally incompatible with the most basic international standards of human rights, because it is without any specific charge against the prisoner. These arbitrary detentions depend on the military file and “secret evidence” which cannot be seen by the detainee or defense lawyers. This file is prepared by Israel intelligence and is “collected” illegally.

This type of detention is internationally banned and is impacting lawmakers in the Palestinian Legislative Council, members of local councils, university students, political activists, academics, trade unionists and even women and children.

The imposition of administrative detention by Article 111 of the military state of emergency imposed by the British colonial authorities of Palestine September, 1945 is illegal on the grounds that Article 43 of the Hague international agreement of 1907 prohibits an occupying power to change the legislative reality of the country occupied.

Administrative detention is the endless suffering of the prisoners because they may de detained for a decade, physically and psychologically impacting the detainee and their family based on the expectation that the next decision will be an extension of detention.

The International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights received from the Israeli military court in Ofer, that the number of additional administrative detentions issued by the Israeli military governor reached a total of 5,971 since the beginning of 2004 until the end of 2010.

We in the Tanweer Enlightenment Forum, call for the release of our colleague Dr. Yousef immediately from behind bars, and we hold the Government responsible for the conditions of Israel’s occupation, in respect to his health. We demand the end of the administrative detentions which are contrary to international law..

On this occasion, we declare our solidarity with the prisoner hero Khader Adnan, who is continuing his hunger strike battle in his 55th day to end the administrative detentions. We also call on international institutions and the Arab and local media to expose the policy of administrative detention. We uphold the work of a united front for the release of Palestinian prisoners including lawyers, members of the Legislative Council, academics, students, children and women.

                 We call for the end of administrative detentions forever.

                                    Freedom for political prisoners.

                 Close the detention camps and prisons and abolish                                               administrative detention.

This article was originally published on February 9, 2012 for the Alternative Information Center.

In 2004, Israeli officials were up in arms about an impending Bedouin Intifada. But the Bedouin didn't rebel and now, despite plans to expel tens of thousands of Bedouin from their homes in the West Bank and the Negev, things remain relatively quiet. Why?

As Israel steps up its expansionist policies both inside and outside the Green Line, the Bedouin community has come under particularly intense pressure.

Inside of Israel, the state seeks to Judaize the Negev (Naqab) desert. This "development" includes last year’s Prawer plan which recommends that Israel relocate some 30,000-40,000 Bedouin citizens, ripping them from their villages and sticking them in impoverished townships, to clear the area for Jewish-only settlements.

After the Israeli cabinet passed the Prawer plan in September 2011, Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel likened it to "a declaration of war."

Al Arakib could be considered an opening battle. The state first demolished the unrecognized village in July 2010—destroying homes and tearing olive trees from the ground to make way for a forest to be planted by the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). After the Bedouin residents of Al Arakib rebuilt their village, Israeli forces returned and destroyed it again. Since then, Al Arakib has been demolished and rebuilt over 30 times.

Israel’s policies are just as inhumane on the other side of the Green Line, where the so-called "Civil Administration" seeks to remove 27,000 Bedouin from Area C in order to expand illegal Israeli settlements. The Civil Administration’s plans will be carried out over the next three to six years.

The United Nations reports that Israeli forces demolished 44 Palestinian-owned buildings in East Jerusalem and the West Bank last month, including 14 houses. 66 people were displaced, 40 of whom were Bedouin.

Recent years have seen Israel escalate its campaign to push Palestinians and Bedouin out of their homes. According to the UN, nearly 1100 Palestinians and Bedouins were displaced by Israeli house demolitions in 2011—approximately 80 percent more than 2010.

So where is the Bedouin Intifada?

In 2004, the Israeli daily Haaretz called a Bedouin uprising "practically inevitable." Lurching from one alarmist quote to the next, the article labeled the Bedouin a “ticking bomb,” a “keg of dynamite,” depicting them not as native inhabitants but as criminals who have taken over the Negev.

Amidst the hysteria came a fetishizing remark from Reuven Gal, then-Deputy National Security Advisor for Domestic Policy, who commented that, to the Bedouin, "honor is more precious than money."

The writer concluded, ominously, "every plan to develop the Negev is likely to face violent opposition because of the Bedouin who live in the area."

The article drips with racism and colonialism—Israeli plans to displace the Bedouin constitute "development." Not only are the Bedouin sure to oppose such "progress," they are likely to be "violent." And then there are the Orientalist depictions of the Bedouin as reactionary, volatile beings unable to control their impulses, especially when "honor" is at stake.

But it would be wrong to blame the writer and his interviewees alone.

In his book Good Arabs, Hillel Cohen describes an incident that took place in 1950, when the Israeli army’s chief of staff visited a Bedouin tribe, reporter in tow. The journalist recounted a "royal meal," eaten against the backdrop of "the echoes of gunshots" and "riders’ galloping." The evening climaxed with a ceremonial "presentation of the sword of the desert."

Cohen explains that the reporter’s depiction "fit well with that period’s common portrayal of the Bedouin as hospitable noble savages...." An Orientalist view of the Bedouin is deeply rooted and, as the 2004 Haaretz article suggests, persists. So feverish proclamations about a Bedouin Intifada should be taken with a camel-sized grain of salt.

We should also consider the motives behind such "warnings." As, Jaber Abu Kaf, a representative of the Regional Council for Unrecognized Bedouin Villages told Haaretz in 2004, claims of an imminent Bedouin Intifada "are baseless and are intended to promote a political agenda."

But, for argument’s sake, let’s say that the Bedouin would like to revolt, violently, against Israel’s discrimination.

Let’s set aside the quiet acts of resistance, the small, silent intifada, already taking place: rebuilding demolished homes; the day-long general strike held in December of 2011; the massive protest outside the Prime Minister’s office on the same December day.

And let’s set aside individual agency and pretend the Bedouin can only react, collectively, to Israeli policies.

So why hasn’t that "ticking bomb" exploded?

The answer lies, in part, in the state’s founding. Before Israel was established in 1948, some 91,000 Bedouin lived in the Negev. After the war, only twelve percent of the original population remained. Many of the Bedouin facing forced transfer from the West Bank today are refugees whose families fled or were driven from the Negev during the nakba.

Shattered and scattered, the Bedouin were subject to additional Israeli efforts to divide and rule. A number of those who had managed to hang on to their land in the Negev were pushed off of it. In some cases, the state appointed local mukhtars, pitting families against one another, and putting weak leaders, or those who would serve Israeli interests, at the head of villages.

Israeli authorities also sowed seeds of disunity by actively encouraging--and rewarding--collaboration. That some took the bait undermines the Orientalist assertion that the Bedouin value honor more than money.

Israel has also fomented poverty in the Bedouin community. In the 1970s, the state built seven townships for the Negev Bedouin that are home today to approximately 80,000 Bedouin. These ghettos have the country’s highest unemployment and school dropout rates as well as the social problems that accompany poverty and hopelessness, including rampant drug abuse.

Those that remained in the desert have not had it much easier. Despite the fact that many Bedouin live in villages that predate the state itself, Israel does not recognize most of these communities. Some 80,000 Bedouin live in the unrecognized villages that lack infrastructure and high schools. Rawia Aburabia, an attorney with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), calls the status of Bedouin education, "catastrophic," pointing out to a drop out rate that tops 40 percent.

There is also the contentious issue of military service. Some Bedouin tribes serve in the Israeli army; many do not. This creates tension within the community and serves as yet another obstacle to the unity needed for a successful uprising.

With Palestine’s Bedouin divided between Israel and the surrounding countries; split between those who serve in the Israeli army and those who don’t; struggling to survive; lacking leadership and a cohesive national strategy, an organized and sustainable uprising is unlikely. The international community, then, has a responsibility to stop the home demolitions and forced transfers that Palestinians and Bedouin face in the West Bank and inside Israel.

Advocating for outside intervention runs the risk of sounding patronizing, at best, colonial, at worst. That’s the beauty of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. The call for BDS comes from Palestinian civil society and is self-empowering.

While some Palestinians don’t consider the Bedouin to be Palestinian—and many Bedouin don’t consider themselves Palestinian, either—BDS is an appropriate response to Israel’s treatment of the Bedouin. They suffer from the same discriminatory policies that plague the Palestinians. And the two communities share common hopes for human and civil rights, to return to their homeland, and to live in freedom, justice, and dignity.

In one of the most amusingly delusional wishful thinking hasbara articles I have ever read Jonathan Tobin tries and fails to convince us nobody is really worried or even thinking about Palestinians anymore, and they are irrelevant. I kid you not. This is a must read in terms of setting a new tone of fanatical discourse. It's almost unbelievable, but then again, it is what we've come to expect from Commentary Magazine.

In the very same paragraph Tobin references the Hamas Fatah unity deal as "what can only be termed a momentous turn of events" the confirmation Palestinians are  'irrelevant' is supposedly due to the "lack of alarm or even much worry about the impact of Hamas on the peace process".

Someone should clue in Tobin the 'lack of alarm' doesn't signal the irrelevance of Palestinians, it rather confirms the general public is not freaking out by the prospect of dealing with Hamas and would rather see the show on the road. All that pro team fear mongering just isn't working. What it signifies (and everyone already knows) is there simply is no 'peace process' where Israel is concerned and hasn't been for long long time, if ever. It's been a delay hoax for long enough and nobody is chomping anymore, least of all Palestinians. Literally nobody, no one I can think of anyway.

Tobin claims "the world is gradually moving on". Uh huh/not. In fact there were, according to Google, over a 1507 related articles covering the recent signing, including Fox News, the Financial Times, the SF Chronicle and everyone in between. That doesn't sound like moving on to me, it sounds like 'in the news'. The most recent (7 minutes ago as I'm typing this) is from the editorial staff at Haaretz, Netanyahu is punishing Israel :

Netanyahu's ultimatum looks like a pretext for torpedoing talks on a final-status agreement based on the Quartet's outline and U.S. President Barack Obama's speech last May. But these negotiations were on the rocks even before Abbas signed the agreement with the head of Hamas' political bureau, Khaled Meshal, due to Israel's refusal to freeze construction in the settlements and present substantive positions on a permanent border.

The ongoing crisis in the diplomatic process is playing a key role in tilting the political balance in the territories toward the opponents of a compromise. These opponents already laud the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a victory for "the resistance," and burying the diplomatic process would open a path for them to take over leadership of both the PA and the PLO in the upcoming competition for the Palestinian electorate's backing.

Netanyahu must end his obsessive search for flaws in the internal Palestinian agreement and focus instead on an initiative for ending the conflict. For he has the ability to do so.

No one in the reality based community is pretending this is over or that Palestinians are 'irrelevant'. Things are just heating up. Palestinians did the polite thing. Once again they bent over backwards, delayed their UN bid and carried out the wishes of the Quartet (wishes Israel flipped the bird at and twisted around with all the best hasbara their think tanks could come up with). We're moving on from Commentary's overwraught bloviations ("Peace will have to wait until a sea change in Palestinian political culture that will make it possible for the PA to sign a deal that recognizes the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn."). People are accepting Hamas is here to stay and serious people should prepare to play ball. Maybe you should grow up and start reading the news. Here's Bloomberg : Making a Fatah and Hamas Partnership Work for U.S., Israel:

The news that the mainstream Palestinian group Fatah has agreed to form a unity government with the militantly Islamist Hamas may move some to dismay. Although there are ample reasons for that reaction, this development may also present an opportunity.

There is evidence, however, that the movement is re- evaluating its friends and options and that at least some of the leaders in this fractious organization are experimenting with a more pragmatic tone. Hamas’s agreement to share power with secular rival Fatah is itself something of a concession.

All of this leaves policy makers in the U.S. and Israel with two broad options: They can seize on these developments as a moment of weakness for Hamas and seek to reinforce its isolation, thereby preserving the status quo; or they can work with governments that have open communications with Hamas, such as Turkey, Qatar and Jordan, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, to encourage Hamas onto a more moderate path. At this particular moment, the latter seems a policy worth exploring.

Isolation has succeeded in keeping Hamas militarily weak, but on other counts the policy has failed. Notably, it ensured that Hamas remained in the willing arms of Iran, and an economic blockade failed to stir revolt inside Gaza. Hamas is unlikely to fold up and disappear any time soon.

Who's irrelevant? Commentary Magazine, that's who.

We published the sequel to this journey before the journey itself. This is an amazing first journey of one young Palestinian woman to the home of her father, who was expelled in '67. It's important, it's revealing and sometimes startling. It relates events of last year, but is as fresh as today. We hope to be hearing a lot more of her at this site in the future as her life journey unfolds.

Journey to Watunna, part I

As I prepare to write this, I feel a sense of unease. I am afraid that my words may upset some, and they will likely be misconstrued. But all I can do is write from my heart and offer these words for what they are: the reflections of an inexperienced but sincere young woman trying to learn how to balance compassion, justice, friendship, and righteous anger.

So, my roommates and I had planned to visit Palestine this past week, but as the date drew near it began to dawn on us what a unique and uniquely difficult weekend we had chosen for our trip. Not only has there been much international controversy over the recent plan for a “freedom flotilla” to Gaza, but our date of departure would coincide exactly with the beginning of a week of international activism in Tel Aviv and the Occupied Territories.

The week would commence with hundreds of activists taking commercial flights in to Tel Aviv, where they would announce their intention to visit PALESTINE—this symbolic gesture would signal their support of the Palestinian identity, which is repeatedly denied/obscured by Israeli policy and rhetoric.

Tensions were running high as the date drew near, and through the activist “grapevine” we began receiving disturbing news: passengers denied entry to their flights in Europe, arrests, detentions, and threats of deportment and banishment for anyone “failing to meet undisclosed criteria.”

My roommates, for different reasons, decided against trying to pass in to Palestine on our chosen date. It was understandable; the risk was high, and all of us had reason to believe we would be targeted at the border. Late on the evening before our planned departure, the majority of our group (very regretfully) voted to call the trip off.

I can’t describe the disgust, rage, and deep sadness that this cast upon me. To be prevented from going somewhere—the land of my father—simply because of the “stigma” of my Palestinian name… Knowing that choosing to “risk it” could cost me so much… and, what’s so much worse, knowing that these hysterical measures were being utilized to protect a regime so untenable that it found the slogan “Welcome to Palestine” so horrifically unacceptable…this represented much more than thwarted weekend plans. This was not merely an issue of tightened border security; I think that was the moment I truly inherited my identity as a Palestinian. Since 1967, when my six-year-old father was put in the back of a pick up truck and shuttled out of Gaza after his mother was forced to sign away their land, this story has been coming toward me.

I didn’t run. I braced as this cold truth broke over me, spilling out in hot tears of helpless frustration.

I called my father as I paced with burning eyes and heart, lips spilling my revelation—the terrible gravity and shock—that must have read like the back of his hand.

He answered, “I know, daughter. I know. This is the story of your grandmother, of your dad, your uncles…It’s not fair, habibti, and I know the hardest thing in the world for you is to see injustice. But listen to me. You cannot lose hope. Listen. You are my world now. I have given my life to make sure you and your brother and sisters have the best world possible…every family is like a little sun, my girl, and my hope is that if we continue to shine as bright as we can, and if many others do the same, eventually we can overwhelm the darkness. Don’t let this turn into hatred. We have to always remember, Jews have been through lots of injustice in history, too, and in the end we trust God to be the judge. We’re all people, even though we sometimes treat each other like we’re less than that. I’m glad you’re feeling this pain, but you can’t let it crush you.

"I want you to take this experience, and write.”

In the end, after a sleepless night in Amman, I decided to embark on my own, and the experiences and people I encountered this weekend were deeply powerful… but more about that later. For now, I thank God for the tears I cried, and for the father who helped me gather them into this pen.

I passed the few remaining hours of Thursday night in a state of deep, unsettled heartache. I lay down at about 3:30 am and stared into the darkness, weighing the worst-case scenarios of going to the border. I would be questioned, detained, searched; this I knew. I also realize that there was a very good chance my passport would get stamped, even though I’d request the Israeli officials to refrain from doing so. If they chose to ignore me, as they had done to many of my friends who made the same request, I’d be in big trouble—an Israeli stamp in an American passport is one of the worst things you can carry in this part of the world, and I’d legally be banned from several Arab countries right off the bat—including my second home, Saudi Arabia.

As I lay there, I knew I would face more serious risks than a simple stamp. Yet, with each passing hour, the sinking feeling in my stomach made me ever more certain that I needed to try to go—something inside me withered at the thought of letting such injustice halt me; indeed, something deep within me whispered that it was essential that I make this personal journey, facing real risks and humiliation, in order to complete this fiery baptism into my Palestinian identity.

Before dawn I had made peace with my decision. I would go. I rolled out of bed, washed my face and made a last-ditch effort to contact a classmate (a friend of a friend, actually) who I had heard would potentially be trying the border the same day.

I got a hold of her after a few tries and explained my situation: “Hi, my name is Sarah and I’m Livvy’s roommate…I’m heading to the border alone with no plan or place to stay, but what bus are you taking to the King Hussein Crossing and would you like to share a cab to Jerusalem?” We ended up sharing a service taxi together to the King Hussein Bridge Crossing and arrived before 10 in the morning.

The small immigration office on the Jordanian side was crammed with internationals, many of whom had been denied entrance to their flights in Europe due to their suspected intentions to protest the occupation. It was a little chaotic, but altogether the atmosphere was positive—we joked with the Jordanian officials and chatted in broken English with the pack of Greek activists ahead of us in line.
We were soon loaded into a bus but remained in the stalled, hot vehicle for nearly an hour before pulling out of the station. While waiting, I chatted with an elderly Jordanian lady, Sayeeda, whose smile and kind words were like a cool glass of water on that itchy, stuffy morning.



The ride to the Israeli border lasts less than ten minutes. As our bus was rolling through “no man’s land,” I received a final text from my Dad, “Love you so much. Proud of you. Contact me ASAP from the other side. If you’re not comfortable, just GO BACK.”



When we pulled into the parking lot in front of the Israeli office, everyone groaned in dismay: the front lot was swarming with people clamoring to get inside, and the scene promised a long, hot wait. We tumbled out of the bus and into the blazing, cloudless morning, trying to identify the end of the queue as machine-gun-toting officers began barking directions in Hebrew and broken Arabic. Babies whined,
sweaty children limped between suitcases, and it seemed that, somehow, the “line” was actually regressing.

Soldiers began randomly asking people for their passports, then disappearing—this made me nervous, so I moved to another part of the “line.” Soon I noticed that they had opened a separate queue for “foreigners” (i.e., non-Arabs) at the far end of the terminal, but by that point I was jammed deep within the crowd, separated from
my new American acquaintance and walled in by shabby luggage. Soon, however, the Palestinians and Jordanians around me began encouraging me to wriggle my way out of “their” line and into the “right” line for me, a privileged, blonde-haired bearer of a US passport. I wouldn’t have agreed, except I knew that the border was closing early and I’d be forced back to Jordan if I didn’t get inside in time.

With the help and encouragement of my shockingly cheerful Arab compatriots, I squeezed between luggage carts through the steamy sea of bodies until I made it to a barricade, blocking my way to the foreigners’ line. From behind, one young Palestinian mother squeezed my arm and told me “you can climb over this, yalla.” As she juggled her infant, she half-lifted me over the blockade and freed me from the gridlock. I turned back to thank her as she and several other witnesses cheered and laughed; how they managed to have such a beautiful attitude in that situation, I don’t know, but it was lovely.

I made my way over to the “white people’s” line, and in a few minutes I was handing over my passport to a young Israeli officer. He merely opened it to the first page, read my name, and asked me to pronounce it. I did so, as nonchalantly as possible, but I understood what he was getting at—my name is distinctively Palestinian, and he knew it. He asked me nothing else but, “Do you have any other
passports?” and then placed a fateful sticker bearing several circled Hebrew letters on the back of my passport. (He looked at no other pages—didn’t see my visas for Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Lebanon, or the others…my name was enough).“You have to wait.” “I’m sorry?” “Wait over there. Someone will come to you.”

I nodded and proceeded in the direction of his loose-wristed wave; I found a cluster of other detainees, all of whom looked utterly un-threatening to me. In the next several hours I learned their stories as I waited, stripped of my passport, for my name to be called.

Raya, a five-foot, sixty year old woman sitting near me, told me she was a Canadian citizen of Palestinian descent who had been waiting waiting for nearly 2 hours. “It’s just unfortunate,” she said in perfect English, “That even though I’m Canadian, I have a Palestinian identity card and I have to show it when I come here. They evaluate me based on that, not my Canadian citizenship or the fact that I’m a mother, a teacher, a pacifist, or anything.” “I’m in the same boat,” agreed the man to my left. A UK citizen, Sami also faced hours of delays and questioning at the border because of the slim, green Palestinian ID card he was forced to carry.

I was shocked. Such a precise and stigmatizing system, forcing people with certain blood or birth origins to be treated separately from everyone else, and to be put through such degrading and exhausting ordeals, sounded horribly reminiscent of so many genocidal regimes I’d read in history. Is this really how it’s done? I wondered, my naïveté giving way to anger.

The morning passed in agonizing slowness, and after several hours of waiting and multiple interrogations, I felt worn out, degraded, and nervous. After a three-on-one session, my passport was taken once more, and I was left again to wait. By now the border had officially closed, but there were many of us remaining in visa-limbo there, clustered in a corner swapping stories and wry looks. One Croatian teenager asked me if I’d ever experienced this before, and did I think he’d be able to make it to his grandparents in Jericho? A group of Canadian Muslim girls in their early twenties touched up their makeup as they awaited for another round of interrogation. In one corner sat a small, elderly man in a tattered kaffiyeh. His dark eyes were framed with delicate wrinkles and glazed over with melancholy
resignation. As I watched him, and the half-dozen olive-skinned children who milled dazedly about the waiting room, my eyes filled with tears of frustration; so many borders, so many barriers. The world owes these souls and apology, and so much more.

The most heart-wrenching moment of my first detention came as I witnessed the questioning of elderly man from the West Bank, who, after being called up for the third time for humiliating inquiries, began to shout at his teenage interrogator: “I told you everything! I am from Bethlehem! My sister is dead, I am going to bury her! I live in Panama, I have a job. I am from Bethlehem, but congratulations, I WILL NEVER COME BACK. Are you happy? You have your wish. You are making me hate my own homeland.”

The man’s words buzzed in my head, filling my heart with a fresh wave of disgust, and I glanced up to see the Israeli boy’s own face flush—perhaps the man’s words had pierced him, too. It can’t be easy, being the oppressor, when your victim makes you stare his humanity in the face, I thought, and I blinked back tears as the terrible gravity of the collective tragedy weighed on my spirit. This is all ludicrous. I’m sure they’ve all seen that, even only for an instant.

I was questioned a total of four times. I don’t want to go into a line-by-line description of the experience, mostly because it would be horribly repetitive.

It always came back to that P-word and the inevitable question of my family origins. When asked, “Does your father hold a Palestinian identity card?” I replied, “I don’t know,” because I had personally never seen it. My answer was incorrect, apparently, as my interrogator informed me in a chillingly triumphant tone. “We have records on every Palestinian. Even the ones from before 1948. So YES, he DOES have a Palestinian Identity Card, and he’s in our system.”

My cheeks flushed, but not with shame.

….more later.

The American Conservative is fabulous. It has a piece on Israel as a failed state, by Noah Millman. It is broaching a question that the New York Times and Washington Post will get around to in another five years, I guess. Millman observes that Palestinians have never reconciled themselves to the idea of a Jewish state-- and gosh, doesn't their opinion matter?

Millman is reviewing Gershom Gorenberg's important book, The Unmaking of Israel:

[Post '67] The Israeli state broke its own and international law, but more alarmingly from the perspective of the integrity of the state, it encouraged private parties to believe that they were acting patriotically when they broke the law and forced the state’s hand, all in an effort to establish “facts on the ground” that would (those responsible presumably thought) redound to Israel’s benefit—or, more properly, to the benefit of the “Jewish national movement,” since Gorenberg’s contention is that this activity in fact damaged Israel as a state and since it wouldn’t be correct to talk about this or that activity benefiting an entire ethnic or religious group like “the Jews.” Since 1967, Gorenberg relates, the settlement enterprise has undermined the Israeli state top to bottom. It has fostered secrecy and corruption in government...

Gorenberg is making the case that Israel has encouraged the reversion to a pre-state mode of being; it has revived a situation where Jews are locked in ethnic conflict with their neighbors rather than dominating an independent state with relations (whether conflicted or harmonious) with neighboring states. But why blame Israel for this? How do we know that the pre-state situation ever really ended? Did the Arab states make peace in 1949? No. Have the Palestinians reconciled themselves to the idea of a Jewish state? No. Have the Palestinian citizens of Israel at least reconciled themselves to it? No. So why should Israel effectively disarm themselves and say: we’ve got enough; we’re not going to fight for more—even though you will continue to fight so that we have less. Why should Israel be the sucker?

...Zionism’s goal was a sovereign, independent Jewish state in the historic land of Israel, as a means to the moral and spiritual rebirth of the Jewish nation. If the occupation is destroying Israel’s fundamental character, dismantling the state, and corrupting the people, as Gorenberg contends, then Zionists above all should want to end it, as swiftly and comprehensively as possible, and not try to hold out for the most favorable terms—to say nothing of holding out for the approval and acceptance of those for whom the Jewish state can at best be seen as an unfortunate fact of life.

After all, it was always absurd to think that anyone but the Jewish people would ever truly endorse the aims of Zionism, because Zionism was a specifically Jewish national project. That project is properly judged a success or failure by what kind of nation it built, and how. Which is how Gorenberg judges it. And, to his dismay but not despair, he finds it wanting.

The issue of Israel being "an unfortunate fact of life" for its Arab neighbors and even second-class Palestinian citizens seems to me the great imponderable of the Arab Peace Initiative. Israel was offered a chance to legitimize itself in the eyes of its neighbors and in the eyes of the Palestinians too with that 2002 overture--offered a chance to show accountability for the Nakba by allowing a return of the refugees. That is the answer to Millman's questions about the irreconcilability of the Jewish state  for its neighbors; no, they rejected it, for a long time, and then offered an opening to it. The delegitimization of Israel that we have seen since is one that Israel itself has assisted fully, by treating its neighbors and non-Jewish citizens, including those under occupation, with such contempt.

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for glomming this piece.

Tadamun: Israel detained student because of his graduate project
The international Tadamun society for human rights said the Israeli occupation forces detained about one month ago a university student from Tulkarem city because of his graduate research project.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

www.TheHeadlines.Org

A new era. Years ago, I used to feel what it means to have a big brother. Nowadays, I no longer feel it. My brother is dead. I don’t know how my younger brothers perceive me. Senseless: Life goes on.

I am not who I am. Someone else lives inside me, permanently, forcibly. All I do is wait. An internal voice is resonating: O, nature, why did you create me Gazan. I protest. No one cares. I waste time.

Electricity goes off 16 hours a day. Israel claimed the life of the main line supplying Gaza with electricity the moment it claimed the life of a police officer, who probably left his family behind and promised to return back again. The next day, electricity got back temporarily, but he didn’t. We, Palestinians, are used to this very word: temporality. We left homeland behind to get back within weeks, but have not made it back home since then.

We are in desperate need of a savoir. No, we are not. Physician heals thyself first! We have to bear the responsibility for being here, on our own land. Had we left it for them decades ago, they would have lived peacefully without having people reminding them of the fact that this piece of land belongs to another nation. The bride was already married.

Today, I am here. I know no place, but this. No love, but this. No flag, but this. No ID and tear, but ours. We are being sued for a crime that we have never committed. We heard about it in the news, just like others.

Do they live like us? Do they cry? Do they make love behind the walls just like us? Are pupils taught 1+2 equals 3? Do they use Capital Letters? Do they have names? Do they complain? Or is their life just fine?

Wrapped in white shrouds, draped with Palestine’s flags, the dead were buried peacefully. A new day begins in Gaza.

I don’t want to end it this way. Boring.

This does not make sense. I’ll go to do something else rather than writing.

(Cross posted on Yousef Aljamal's blog He who is brave is free)

Two days ago a brave and noble Palestinian man, pictured below-- we don't know his name-- was building a house in the occupied West Bank when Israeli soldiers told the Palestinians they could not build on their land. The village is al-Dirat near Hebron-- Area C, under Israeli control. 

The man refused to move. The Israeli army drove a tractor over his legs. The tractor belonged to the Palestinians. The Israeli army had seized it. The man was hospitalized. More information is here. The photos are by Hazam Bader of AFP.

Injured Palestinian construction worker screams in pain

Injured construction worker in occupied West Bank

Mark is also Deputy Chairman of the National Australia Bank Yachad Scholarship Fund, which enables Australian scholars of diverse backgrounds - including indigenous scholars - to study in Israel and to return with ideas and experiences of advantage to Australia. His 2006 essay 'Crossing the Wilderness: Jews and Reconciliation', published in New Under Sun - Jewish Australians on Religion, Politics & Culture, examined the parallels between the Jewish and Indigenous Australian experience and considered the importance of land to both cultures.

Mark is deeply involved in Jewish affairs, occupying senior leadership roles in several Australian and international Jewish bodies. In Australia, he holds the positions of National Chairman of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, Life Chairman of the United Israel Appeal of Australia and Governor of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce. He is also a Patron of the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Friends of Tel Aviv University. Mark served for ten years as President of the Zionist Federation of Australia and for six years as the President of the United Israel Appeal of Australia. Internationally, Mark recently completed his term as Chairman of the World Board of Trustees of Keren Hayesod - United Israel Appeal, serves on the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and holds office as a Governor of both Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa in Israel.

Leibler's bio also includes accolades he received from Australian government officials including former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (who once declared of himself, "support for Israel and the Jewish community is in my DNA"). Another former Prime Minister, John Howard, said this in tribute to Leibler: "I want to salute his contribution to Jewish causes within his own country and also around the world. Mark is a single-minded, committed, dedicated Jew, a man who in every way has demonstrated himself as being a wonderful Australian citizen."

Leibler's position on the Executive of the Jewish Agency is instructive. The Agency, formed in 1929 by the 16th Zionist Congress, was and is still tasked with increasing Jewish immigration to and the continued colonization of historic Palestine.

Keren Hayesod - United Israel Appeal (KH-UIA) is the leading fundraising agent for the Jewish Agency. According to the website for its Australian chapter, of which Leibler is Life Chairman, "[s]ince its inception in 1920, KH-UIA has assisted over three million Jews to make Aliyah and has helped them to find their way in Israeli society," and boasts, "KH-UIA is the main institution for financing the Zionist Organization's activities in Eretz Israel" which it deems the "ancestral homeland" of all Jews worldwide. The indigenous people of Palestine - Palestinians - are conspicuously absent from all Agency and UIA literature.

The following image containing three vintage UIA posters, one stating "Welcome Jabotinsky," is featured on the website of the United Israel Appeal of Australia:

(Incidentally, Vladmir Jabotinsky, in his 1923 Zionist manifesto, The Iron Wall, wrote, "Zionism is a colonization adventure and therefore it stands or it falls by the question of armed force. It is important to speak Hebrew but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot – or else I am through with playing at colonization," adding, "Zionist colonization, even the most restricted, must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the will of the native population.")

The indigenous rights of the Palestinian people are directly anathema to the mission of both of the Jewish Agency and the United Israel Appeal. One wonders what Leibler thinks of the 1937 letter Israeli founding father David Ben-Gurion wrote to the then-head of the Jewish Agency in Palestine, Moshe Sharett (later, the second Israeli Prime Minister after Ben-Gurion), in which he stated, "Were I an Arab...an Arab politically, nationally minded...I would rebel even more vigorously, bitterly, and desperately against the immigration that will one day turn Palestine and all its Arab residents over to Jewish rule."

The following year, Ben-Gurion told the Jewish Agency Executive, "I support compulsory transfer. I don't see in it anything immoral."

Moshe Sharett himself wrote in 1914, "We have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it, but we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it...if we cease to look upon our land, the Land of Israel, as ours alone and we allow a partner into our estate - all content and meaning will be lost to our enterprise."

Just today, during a speech at the Jerusalem Symposium in Memory of Avi Schaefer, Natan Sharansky, current head of the Jewish Agency, said, "The State of Israel is the realization of Herzl's vision of an answer to anti-Semitism."

After Herzl came Ben-Gurion, who viewed the Zionist project as the common mission of the Jewish people.Ben-Gurion's vision came to fruition through the Jewish Agency, and it has been a success."

So, what is to be made of Leibler's defense of indigenous rights at home in Australia while simultaneously working with groups that explicitly deny such rights to indigenous people in Leibler's beloved Israel? Are we to believe that Leibler considers Jewish Americans, Jewish Europeans, Jewish Ethiopians, Jewish Yemenis, and Jewish Australians to be the indigenous people of Palestine?

This post first appeared on Nima Shirazi's site, Wide Asleep in America.