No Negotiations with Apartheid Israel - Let it Self-Destruct!

            Hamas has called upon the Palestinian Authority to boycott talks with Apartheid Israel. I agree.

            I consider myself a moderate, having called for the recognition of Israel as early as 1980 during my college days.  I gave the Apartheid State of Israel every consideration but peace came to the doorsteps but it has never entered the door.

            Apartheid Israel continues to delay any final status talks.  It never wants to discuss the status of Jerusalem, its borders and the right of return.  Why? Apartheid Israel delays peace because its internal politics does not allow it to accept peace.  Israel Is controlled by its minority, by the apartheid settler mentality, by the ultra-orthodox religious right wing fanatics.  The structure of Israel’s structure of government is that no one political party is capable of garnishing a clear majority in the Apartheid Knesset.  Therefore only coalition governments have governed Apartheid Israel, leaving each governing party to be at the mercy of the minority parties within the coalition.  

            With this governmental structure, Apartheid Israel is incapable of wanting peace!  Therefore, negotiations with Apartheid Israel are delusional.

            Apartheid Israel keeps demanding additional conditions upon the Palestinians that it knows the Palestinians will not accept.  After numerous demands upon the Palestinians, Apartheid Israel now wants the Palestinians to recognize it as a “Jewish State.”   Additionally, Apartheid Israel wants to restart negotiations without any preconditions.  It does not want to stop its illegal settlement building, does not want to negotiate the status of Jerusalem and does not want to discuss its borders.  It wants to leave these issues to final status talks that never materialize because it continues to put obstacles to those talks.

            With this mentality, Apartheid Israel is incapable of wanting peace! Therefore, negotiations with Apartheid Israel are delusional.

            Additionally, Apartheid Israel believes it can continue the status quo of its apartheid policies without any consequences.  Apartheid Israel rules two peoples with different discriminatory laws—apartheid.  Apartheid Israel builds by-pass roads for Jews only—apartheid.  Apartheid Israel builds a separation wall—apartheid.  Apartheid Israel has created Palestinian enclaves and ghettos and surrounded them with walls or electronic wired fences—apartheid.  Apartheid Israel cannot sustain these apartheid practices for long.

There are many indications that exposing the Apartheid State of Israel will be effective to change the status quo. The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is taking hold.  One good example is the bankruptcy of Agrexco, Apartheid Israel’s leading flower exporter, which was targeted for boycott by more than 20 organizations in Europe in 13 countries.  The Methodist Church had passed an “anti-Israel” motion demanding a boycott of goods from “illegal” settlements. Pension funds are divesting from companies that do business with Apartheid Israeli settlements. Cultural events are in Apartheid Israel are being boycotted.  Many musicians are boycotting Apartheid Israel. [1]

“The international campaign to boycott Ahava beauty products has recently won the support of a Dutch parliamentarian and an Israeli peace group. During the past few months, activists in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Israel, the United States and the Netherlands have campaigned against the sale of Ahava products because of the company’s complicity in the Israeli occupation.”[2]

With the growing BDS movement that will increase month by month, Apartheid Israel will not be able to sustain its apartheid practices.  Therefore, negotiations with Apartheid Israel are not necessary.  Israel will self-destruct.

There are other indications that Apartheid Israel will self-destruct.  The Apartheid Israeli has passed laws that allow Jewish communities to decide who they want to exclude from their community an obvious way to segregate Palestinians from Jews.  Public buses that transport ultra-Orthodox Jews make women sit in the back of the bus.  Apartheid Israel has passed laws that require loyalty oath to the “Jewish and democratic” state pitting the left and right political parties against each other. [3]

Therefore, when Hamas calls upon the Palestinian Authority to boycott negotiations with Apartheid Israel, there are many reasons why this advice should be accepted.   Negotiating with Apartheid Israel is a waste of time.  Let us let time bring Apartheid Israel to abandon the occupation.

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[1] IS BDS Working?  Giulio Meotti  August 31, 20111 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4115718,00.html

[2] Boycott of Ahava Dead Sea products makes an impact Adri Nieuwhof The Electronic Intifada 

2 December 2009  http://electronicintifada.net/content/boycott-ahava-dead-sea-products-makes-impact/8563

[3] Israel approves loyalty oath, October 10, 2010 http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010101013028364300.html

I cried, will you cry! بكيت، وسوف تبكي!

I cried, will you cry!   بكيت، وسوف تبكي!

Sadiq: “It is hard to live in fear”

            Just like me, Omar left Palestine after the Six Day War in 1967.  I went to America and he went to the United Arab Emerites (UAE).  He was 14 and I was 6.  But this story is not as much about him or me as it is about his son Sadiq—well maybe about them both.

     

           Omar was a hardworking Palestinian man who wanted the best for his children but also did not want them to lose who they really are—Palestinian. He kept Palestine in his heart and the hearts of his three sons. 

            Omar longed to go back to Palestine, just like most if not all Palestinians living in the diaspora. This opportunity came rather unfortunately.  In the UAE Omar was a foreman of a governmental agency in the municipality of Abu Dhabi.  When his agency was privatized, the new owners quickly turned its Palestinian labor force to Asian.  Why? Asians are a cheaper labor force.  The UAE had no more use for Palestinians.

            So Omar, aged 53 in 2005, tried to look for a job in the Arab Gulf states but he was unsuccessful. Sadiq describes this as “2rza2 inkat3t”—the luck was cut off.

Longing to go back to Palestine and wanting to keep Palestine alive in his sons’ hearts, he went back to his village, Qusra, Palestine, located southeast of Nablus, to build a home for his family.  And he did.  Omar wanted to spend the last years of his life in Palestine.

Two years ago in the early morning hour of 5 am as Omar was going to work, he suffered a heart attack due to the depression about the plight of his people and the financial worries of borrowing to build his home.  Lack of a medical infrastructure because of the occupation, I am sure, contributed to his early demise. At the very young age of 57, Omar became another victim of Apartheid Israel.  You see any Palestinian who dies before the creation of a Palestinian State is a victim of hope usurped by the lack of peace.

            Sadiq, Omar’s oldest son, is a 25 year old young man who is in his last year of studies at the University of Najah in Nablus studying   psychology.   Having lived the first 19 years of his life away from the occupation, adjusting to it now has been difficult.  He has a hard time understanding others and they have a hard time understanding him.  He says the conflict is within his self-being.

            He wants to become a respectable person, wants a life without dependence on others and no need to borrow money to live.  He wants to earn a respectable living and have enough money to take care of his family.  He wants a nice wife and a better life for the coming generation.  Now though, he believes that the days are dark—2yam Sooda.

I naturally ask whether he has any hope.   His answer is yes and then tells me that those who live outside of Palestine have it better than those who live in Palestine.   I try to relieve him by telling him the economic conditions are hurting many people but then I realize he may not be speaking about the economy but rather about the freedom inherent in the human spirit.  He tells me that for those who want to come back to Palestine it will be very difficult. Therefore he wants to leave.

While I believe the people of Palestine should continue to be steadfast and stay on the land of Palestine, I find it difficult to tell him to stay. 

His freedom of movement is limited.  Before Salem Fayyad became Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, the checkpoints from Qusra to Nablus dotted the roads forcing Omar and others to use the hill roads (tareq algbal ) to get to Nablus.  What usually took 15 minutes to get to Nablus from Qusra, took 5 hours--unimaginable for any American to comprehend and accept.

His spirit is controlled.  He wants to provide better living conditions for his future offspring but in Qusra life stays the same under the cruel occupation.

His only alternative for a meaningful job is in Apartheid Israel after he graduates next spring; but being 25 years old he will not be able to travel through the checkpoints for a job.  Apartheid Israel restricts the movement of Palestinians between the age of 16-49 from entering for work.  He will need to obtain forged Israeli identity documents.

Before that however, he needs to cross into Apartheid Israel through the back roads and yes sewers.  Paying 500 shekels, Sadiq will be able to sneak through sewers, bypass roads and tunnels to get to the other side of the Apartheid Wall.  He will be able to join his brother and work as an investigator, mentor teacher or with aid agencies.  This way he can support his mother and younger brother who is also attending college.

Sadiq next makes a profound statement that takes me aback.  He says “It is hard to live in fear.”  Fear of the apartheid soldiers coming knocking at your door at any time of day or night.  In the book Kafir Boy, a book about living as a Black boy/man in Apartheid South Africa, I thought I knew what living in fear was.  But to hear it from a person that I can more readily identify with, a Palestinian, that statement hit me like a ton of bricks.

Sadiq turns to the violence that the apartheid settlers are committing upon the people of Qusra and upon the agriculture around the town.  Apartheid soldiers aid the settlers in their terror escapades. 

He provides a website for an article dated September 24, 2011 about the death of Essam Aoudhi, a son of Qusra, who was shot by apartheid soldiers protecting apartheid settlers in their vicious burning assault on one of the olive groves around Qusra.  Essam was shot at very close range according to Dr. Sameh Abu Zaroh, a doctor at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus.  Others were also injured   Read the article and look at over 25 pictures from this incident. http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/essam-aoudhi-martyred-in-defense-of-qusra/.

Sadiq sends me another website which contains a slide show of pictures of what apartheid Israeli settlers are doing to the Palestinians in Qusra. It is a slide show of pictures about what the apartheid settler  are doing.  Although most of the pictures are heart ranching, one picture moved me to tears.   It is of a young woman whose one side of her face is burned while the other side is intact showing how beautiful her face really is.  I am told that apartheid Jewish settlers committed this horrific deed.  See the pictures at: http://www.google.ps/search?q=settlers+destroy+mosque+in+qusra+village&hl=ar&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=dSn7TpuOIojY8QPegb2vAQ&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=568&safe=active

As I peruse these pictures and see what the apartheid Israeli settlers are doing: destruction of  Qusra Village mosque; chopping of the olive groves; the offensive Hebrew writings on the buildings of Qusra; the agony on the faces of the villagers; the old lady hugging the olive tree (read my poem:  The Olive Tree Howls For Justice http://poetrybyfadizaanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/olive-tree-howls-for-justice.html) ; the pictures of martyrs; the gunfire of apartheid soldiers; the apartheid Jewish settlers being protected by apartheid soldiers; an apartheid settler throwing a liquid at a Palestinian lady as he passes her by on an otherwise empty street; and the bulldozers demolishing Palestinian homes, I reflect upon Sadiq’s statement, “It is hard to live in fear.” 

This is exactly what the apartheid Jewish settlers want the Palestinians to think.  I am writing this article in the comforts of the University of Chicago Hospital as I am accompanying my 47 year old brother for a medical test relating to his cancer.  My brother is getting the best of treatment.  It is easy for me to say from this venue that the people of Palestine should stay on the land.  It is easy for me to tell them Samood, Samood, Samood—Resistance, Resistance,Resistance.   However, this is the only answer that I can give and the only answer Sadiq’s father, Omar, knew, for he went back to Palestine for his children to keep Palestine in their hearts.  I wish I had Omar’s courage.

While I say Samood, I am doing everything I can to expose the Apartheid State of Israel so that one day soon Sadiq and all my Palestinian brothers and sisters can be free of fear.

( © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)

Romancing The Stone Option

Returning to the stone was one of the options I suggested in a recent article in which I explain how Palestinians should attain parity with Israelis. I stated that Israelis need to understand the consequences of the failure of the peace talks; that if Israel perceived failure was a return to the status quo, it would have no incentive to negotiate in good faith. Some of my readers told me that they totally agree with my parity argument but cannot agree with my advocacy of the stone option.

Let me try to explain my point by telling a story about this dog I had. I was  married to a woman who  had 4 year old spoiled dog.  In her eyes, this dog can do nothing wrong and had a free reign in the house.  The dog hated to take walks to do her business, especially if it is raining.   During these rebellious mornings I insisted that the dog go with me for a walk, however, the dog does the #1 but not the #2 business because she wants to hurry back home.   Consequently, the dog completes her business in the house later that morning.

After I scold the dog at the place she left her waste, I take the dog to her kennel and put her in “time out” for a period to emphasize that her behavior is not acceptable thus breaking the routine that my ex-wife established by cleaning up after the dog with no consequences.  I tried to teach the dog that this is unacceptable behavior and that such bad behavior has consequences.   

The point of this example is not to compare Israel’s behavior to that of a dog and I apologize if anyone perceives it as such.  My intent is to show that everyone must be responsible for their bad behavior.  Good and bad consequences are attached to all forms of behavior.   

Unfortunately, Israelis have had a free reign in their actions visa vie the Palestinians without any consequences to their bad behaviors.   It is as if Israel can do whatever it wants in the West Bank and Gaza without any retribution.   Although international law states that an occupier cannot seize occupied land, Israel has been doing so since 1967 and it seems nothing can stop them; not the United Nations, not European leaders and not even a sitting US President.  Israelis are acting like a spoiled child as Thomas Friedman of the NY Times has eloquently stated recently.

Like a child throwing a tantrum at a store, Israel now wants incentives from the US to do what it should have done.  Israel and the US are now negotiating an incentive package to be paid for by US taxpayers so as to sway the hard line members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition partners to accept a limited settlement freeze.  In other words, Israel is being rewarded for its bad behavior—building illegal settlements that the entire world, except Israel, says are an obstacle to peace. Like a bad parent, the US is going to cave in to the misbehaving Israel.  

In the realm of negotiations with the Palestinians, I have argued in other articles that Palestinians have acted like children by capitulating to Israeli demands while only receiving limited authority in limited areas, all the while, Israel is confiscating more and more Palestinian land from what limited land that Palestinians want to establish a State upon.   There has not been parity between Palestinians and Israelis in negotiations and consequently, Israel always and in all ways has unfairly interjected conditions, built an apartheid wall, restricted the movement of people and commerce through humiliating and excessive checkpoints, uprooted olive groves and demoralized Palestinians by imprisoning them in Gaza without an adequate supply of food, medicine and water—all this, without any accountability.

I have argued that Palestinians in order to achieve parity with Israelis must stop acting like children, must unify, must show Israelis the benefits of successful peace talks and must show them the consequences of the failure of peace talks.  

Keeping the stone option on the table against the Israelis is similar to the US keeping “all options open” visa vie its negotiations with Iran over its nuclear agenda.  Iran is being made to understand that the consequence of its attempt to acquire a nuclear weapon is a possible military strike. Even Israel is talking about striking Iran’s nuclear facilities if the US will not. 

While the global pressure of the boycott, disinvestment and sanctions (BDS) and the non-violent movements are exposing Israel for what it truly is, an apartheid government, the option of the stone will keep Israel in check and impress on the Israeli society on a daily basis that there are consequences to its government’s brutal and reprehensive occupation policy.  Opposing the occupation is an internationally recognized right of the occupied.

Palestinians cannot expect the Israeli government, which gives disproportionate amount of power to its minority parties who, in turn, control the mindset of the majority in Israel, to change.  As stated earlier, Israel is not persuaded by the UN, Europe or President Obama.  More needs to be done to pressure Israel. 

Israelis need to be motivated to change—if not with economic pressures then with the consequences of the stone.   

(  © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)