This post introduces a new contributor, a young European Muslim who works in Israel/Palestine. She uses the Arabic pseudonym, Warda Yusuf, an homage to her grandfather, out of visa concerns.
There she stood in a Cambridge University debating chamber, her stutter not failing her as she cried “A ba-ba-ba-BI-national state. A democracy for ALL. A-a-a-a secular state, one founded on li-li-li-liberal values, pra-pra-pra-progressive values… and her name Mother of Exiles”. The last part almost came out as a whisper as the room of people stared at her, the reference to Emma Lazarus’s The New Colossus struck home. “Why can’t both Jews AND Palestinians have the right of return?” she whimpered. More stares. Grabbing for air, “Why can’t the Zionist project be dismantled, and instead the two groups share in each others’ diaspora poetry, the poetry of exiles, yearning a return to the motherland?”. The stares transformed into the suffocating humidity of Jaffa port on an August afternoon, and then the oppressive might of the Separation Wall.
A young idealist I was, calling for a One State solution based on equality for all citizens. The tension in that room irked me, why were people still committed to a Two State solution? It is racist and forged on a history of lies, and a refusal to recognise that before anything we are humans, yes before we are Palestinians, or Israelis, or Jews, or Christians, or Muslims, we are humans.
Yet when I arrived for the first time in the hallowed land just two months ago, it was nothing but despair that I felt and have felt every day I’ve been here since. Where was that powerful hope The New Colossus had, supposedly, etched on my spirit? The conviction with which I spoke in that debate back at university in the UK? Nowhere to be found in the Holy Land, that’s for sure.
If not actually Palestinian, being a hijab-wearing Muslim is enough to situate me in my appropriate camp before I even open my mouth here– appearance is what counts. If you tie your headscarf at the back of the neck, well done you, you get first class citizenship. If you pin it round the neck, what a shame, be prepared for some empty bus seats next to you. This ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality struck me right to the bone the moment I set foot in the country. Entering the tourist office in the Old City of Jerusalem to ask how to get to the German Colony, a suitably Israeli part of town, I was greeted with “why would YOU want to go THERE?”.
Um, how about because I thought this was a free country?
The subsequent stares on the bus and in the streets of the German Colony are enough to make me shiver at the thought of returning, for I live in East Jerusalem, where a kippah-wearing Jew is more likely to be stared at than any girl with a hijab.
This leads me onto my next point of despair regarding a One State solution. Whilst geographically speaking a Two State solution is arguably long dead, psychologically speaking the two separate worlds, if not states, are alive and well. In fact they are more than that, they are the bed rock of life here. One fateful walk from Sheikh Jarrah to the Mamilla shopping mall development took me from quiet Arab villas in Sheikh Jarrah, through the busy Arab souq of Salah ad-Din street past Damascus gate and into the heart of the Muslim quarter of the Old City. Passing the Via Dolorosa and heading into the Christian quarter, which, although still firmly Palestinian, is imbued with a Greek flavour. Coming up for air at Jaffa gate something smells odd, is it the remnants of what was an Ottoman mosque, now lovingly called the Tower of David? I’m not sure, but after a few steps (or galactic light years) I enter consumer heaven.
Ralph Lauren and Gap line the streets, Judaica boutiques are the cherry on top; classical music breathes out of the mall’s hidden mouths. Then it hits me, lo-behold a huge TopShop, a famous British fashionista outpost, stands before me, and I realise somewhere along the way I was transported from the streets of Damascus or Cairo, to what could be London or Paris. I suddenly found myself feeling very sick, what exactly had happened? What type of place is this? Jerusalem is decidedly two worlds in one space.
In fact it’s not just two sides of one city, it’s also one side seeping into, encroaching upon and smothering the other. The rapidly growing utra-right wing Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem represents a microcosm of this. Speaking to residents of the controversial settlements in Sheikh Jarrah, the Palestinians who do remain in the coveted area live in extreme fear for their livelihoods, watching large numbers being forced out of their homes in recent years. One local man stared at the sky, tears to his eyes, as he told me, almost begging me to help, that he had been to court for the third time that day, but that it was only a matter of time before they took his home, leaving him and his family with nowhere to go. Yet “they” feel rather differently about the situation. Two of the women reported that life in this area was beautiful, the best they could ask for. Within this checkerbox of a neighbourhood, the two groups, living side by side, really did inhabit separate worlds.
Was my idealism shot down? Well I certainly began to question if a One State solution is truly possible, even if politicians shook hands and “Palestrael” were created, would the residents be able to live together as equals? I’m not sure. Perhaps the establishment of a Palestinian state is a necessity, the Palestinians need to get away, move on, live in peace – by themselves. Israel as a Jewish state is here to stay, and there is no point in trying to challenge that, it will be easier and cause less hassle if the Palestinians quietly take their patch of the West Bank. Who wants to live with the Israeli Jews anyway?
Nevertheless I recall al-Ladhi yuwaswisu fee sudurin nas, the one who whispers evil in the breasts of men (Qur’an 114:5), and despite my despair I realise I cannot let myself fall into that way of thinking. That train of thought is not of one who believes every human has a soul in them, and every human wants to be heard and respected. Can I say I am a believer in humanity all whilst supporting the segregation and division of two peoples? Is this what mankind needs today? Have I not read Benedict Anderson’s “Imagined Communities” and seen the myth of nationalism for its true colours? Maybe it is unattainable but what would man be without his hope and integrity?
I would be forgoing both my hope and integrity were I to believe in a Two State solution. Despite the despair I find myself, the severity of this situation can only strengthen my conviction of the need for a One State solution.Humans are humans first and foremost; people can and must live together. Indeed a young idealist I was and will be.
