For Israels, seeing peace is seeing the end of the occupation

(This article first appeared in the Times of Israel on November 7, 2015)

In my last blog on this site, I made a profound statement. While I said that Israelis and Palestinians need to see the conflict from each other’s eyes, that is not the statement I am referring to. I said, believing that I would evoke some stark heartfelt emotions:

“Israel needs to have its first day  of peace.”

I was expecting a reality check from Israelis.  Seeing none amazes me.

No one said anything  to me or replied in a comment about this profound statement which I say again in a more humanistic way:

No Israeli citizen has ever seen a day peace.

No one has questioned me about this statement because in reality and fact, it is a true statement.

Since May 15, 1948, Israel has been in a perpetual state of war. It has not had one day of peace. In fact, in Israel, no day is free from the fear of war as even on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in 1973 Israel had to go to war, once again. For over 67 years, no Israeli citizen can say that he or she has lived through one day of peace.

This should be shocking to the conscious, at least I thought it should be to Israelis.  I do not know if most Israelis realize the stark reality of this statement.

The question that should be on every Israeli mind is, when will an Israeli child be born on a day of peace in the Holy Land?

By the same token, over 90% of Palestinians living in Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza), having been infants or born after the 1967 Six Day War, know nothing but the Israeli occupation of their land.   And if we can look at those who are older than 67 years old, having been born prior to 1948, I would venture to say that 99% or greater of the people that make up the Palestinian/Israeli conflict have no recollection of what peace resembles in the Holy Land.   Those who have migrated to Israel, having come from peaceful countries may believe that they are living in peace, but in all reality, the atmosphere is one of war–a war that can escalate at any moment and for any provocative reason.

This leaves only a very minute percentage of individuals in all of the Holy Land that have ever seen a day of peace or have not been ruled by occupation and those minute people are Palestinians who are 55 years old or older.

This also is a profound statement for Palestinians. I do know that Palestinians whether they live in Palestine or beyond realize the reality of this statement.

The constant question on Palestinian minds is when will the Israeli occupation end.

Having the first day of peace in Israel while Israel occupies Palestine is not a mutually exclusive reality.   Israel cannot have peace while it occupies Palestine. Peace comes with the end of occupation. It does not come while the occupation endures decade after decade.

Thus the only opportunity for an Israeli child to be born in a peaceful environment is for Israel to end the occupation of Palestine.  This is the reality that Israelis must face.

If Israel wants peace, it must end its occupation of Palestine.

As a Palestinian, I cannot express this reality in more clearer terms to Israelis.  In case I have not gotten my message across, allow me to try a different means of expressing the reality.

The status quo of no peace and continued occupation cannot endure endlessly.  Like water that reaches its boiling point, the occupation of Palestine has reached that point.

The reality is that the population growth of Palestinians is such that Israelis will be the minorities in the Holy Land by 2016. Currently, the population of Israelis and Palestinians in Israel and in Palestine is said to be about equal.  With the birth rates of Palestinians greater than Israelis, it takes no great mathematical genius to calculate that the population of Palestinians will, in the very near future, be greater than the Jewish population.

Thus, how can Israelis, a coming minority, rule over the Palestinians, an emerging majority.  While Israelis do not like to be compared to the White rule era of the country of South Africa, the stark reality is that the same concept of a minority suppressing the fundamental human rights of the majority is again being played out before our eyes.

Israelis can put on blinders and not accept the coming reality. Israelis may want the status quo to endure perpetually. However, the reality is that Israelis cannot have a day of peace without coming to terms with their occupation of Palestine.

If Israelis want to live in peace, they must end the occupation of Palestine.

Can Israelis and Palestinians See Each Other's Concerns?

This article first appeared in the Times of Israel website on November 4, 2015.

In a Times of Israel blog post, Aaron B. Cohen wrote about a Chicago mock mediation event that involved a small part of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and a dinner I had with him last week. In the article, he quoted what I wrote to him in an email as a prelude to the dinner. He challenged me, in the article, to post this statement on my Facebook page, which I accepted.

The statement which Aaron quoted was:

"Something went wrong along the way. Without putting blame on anyone — because each of us can point to atrocities committed by the other — we need to find common elements that bind us together. We can and should be able to find a solution to this mess but only if we leave our emotions at home or if we both understand each other’s emotions. What is missing is the human element. Each side is not seeing the tragic divide from the other side’s eyes.”

Saying that each side needs to see the conflict from the other’s eyes is not a hard statement to make.

If we are ever going to come to a peaceful resolution, we need to see the conflict from each other’s perspective. Rather, politicians on both sides are trying to appease their respective political base and thus statements which neither advance the peace nor calm the boiling tensions are made in the heat of passions and thus flame an already tenuous situation. This, of course, has tragic consequences.

The current crisis is a situation where the extremists on both sides of the conflict have, once again, ultimate control. The extremists on both sides continually destroy any hopes for peace, while the silent majority in the region composed of both Israelis and Palestinians in Israel and Palestine are standing idly by as mere spectators. This majority needs to recognize itself as the majority in Israel and Palestine and needs to join forces in order to isolate the extremists; and need to demand of their leaders to finally conclude a peace — not talk endlessly to no end.

Enough is enough!

I can say categorically that rockets launched at Israel are wrong. But can Israelis say that the siege of Gaza, Palestine is also wrong?

I can say categorically that when a Palestinian killed Israeli parents on October 1, 2015, it was wrong and I condemn it. But can Israelis say that the “price tag” attack by the settlers who burnt to death the infant, Ali Dawabsha and his father and mother in Durma, Palestine while sleeping in their home on the night of July 31, 2015, is also wrong and also to be condemned?

Can we not see that the “price tag” attacks by Israeli extremists settlers are terrorist acts just as the stabbing of Israelis on a bus by a Palestinian extremists?

Can we not see that the burning of Palestinian Christian churches is just as wrong as the burning of Joseph’s Tomb?

No one can deny that Israel needs security. But can Israelis deny that within the context of peace there is security?

Israelis need to have their first day of peace. Palestinians need an end to the decades old occupation and need their freedom.

Can both sides see the humanity in these statements?

Seeing the conflict from each other’s eyes is a must in order for peace to have any chance. The Palestinians know that the conflict was, is and will always be about the occupation of Palestine by Israel. The Israelis know that Israel needs to be a safe haven for Jews around the world after centuries of worldwide persecution.

The Palestinians have a fundamental right to acquire their freedom. Israelis need to understand this.

Israelis need to feel secure. Palestinians need to understand this.

Can both sides see the other’s concern?

For peace to have a chance, the Palestinian/Israeli majority needs to understand the conflict from each other’s perspective. They need to come together. American Palestinian and Jewish leaders need to join forces to bring the majorities in Israel and Palestine together. It is imperative that these two groups break their silence because the alternative is the continuation of the status quo — which is not a sustainable option, especially given the Palestinian population growth;
the continuation of more children on both sides being killed — which means more bloodshed; and the continuation of playing into the hands of the extremists — which means no peace.

The Palestinian and Jewish peace loving majority in the US and in the Holy Land must come together for peace.

Those who will undoubtedly criticize me for taking this stance, and perhaps Aaron as well, are thinking through a limited view, a periscope aimed at a dark tunnel, when they should open their eyes and see the panoramic landscape of the human dimensions involved.

Those who truly want peace need to stand up and be counted. I believe there is a majority of Palestinians and Israelis who want peace.

Alone they are each overwhelmed by the extremists on their respective sides.

Together, they can isolate the extremists on both sides.

Peace loving Palestinians and Israelis need to join forces.

The Beauty of Belladdi Under the Ugly Occupation

After a 20 year absence from my ancestral home, I am here in the heart of Ramallah, Palestine a few minutes walk from the Manara, the town center. Though I lived in America for 48 years, leaving Ramallah, Palestine at the age of 6, I  feel I am at home. Belladdi!  My land! Though I physically  left, my heart and mind stayed here in Ramallah where I grew up next to the old City Hall, the Baba coffee house and the old Dukan (store) Isheeni.

I returned (should I say visited?) to Palestine in 1995 as a member of the Palestinian American Congress Executive Committee delegation. We spent our 10 days in Palestine going to several meetings per day vising political, social, religious, educational and business leaders, so I  didn't have the opportunity to visit relatives or to get the flavor of Palestine in general and Ramallah in particular.  In retrospect,  I should have stayed longer.

I am here now and as I frequently and fervently write about the political aspects from abroad, I longed to feel for myself the richness of my culture in Palestine. While sitting in the Nile Restaurant on 87th Street in Bridgeview, Illinois one gets a very small sampling of our culture but one does not really taste or feel or see or touch or hear the beauty of the language or smells the falafel cooked every 20 feet by street vendors or smiles as one street vendor shouts "Kaaik (round shaped toasted bread with seseme seeds) for one shakel (Israeli currency)" or appreciates the succulent figs and the yellish-green plums that simply fills your tastebuds with our culture. That is what I want to see, feel, hear, touch and taste and smell.

I have been here in Ramallah for two days now. The falafel sandwich made for me by Mahmoud whose restaurant is just a few doors from the Manara Square evoked my tastebuds beyond any sensation I have ever experienced. Maybe it was the mental anticipation, maybe it was the atmospheric surroundings, maybe it was being among my people, maybe it was my eyes that ate before I took my first bite or maybe it was my heart that reveled in the moment that enhanced the flavors of the falafel sandwich. Whatever it  was, that sandwich was so good, I bought another and I devoured both.

Still I have not filled my stomach. There is so much more to see and taste. Palestine is  a rich country, not by wealth from oil fiends but by the beauty of its hills and valleys; by its traditions and its  culture; and by its people young and old. The olive groves are beauty to the eyes as the mind knows that our culture deeply appreciates the oil that comes from them. Yes the culture has been influenced by the political constraints imposed by the merciless Israeli occupation and indeed our music and our theatrical plays have that political element deeply embedded in them.

Rocks are also enmbedded in the landscape.  Rock fences are a pleny and rocks, the symbol of our strenght, are everywhere along the roads.  Roads are forever winding in Ramallah and its suburbs. Around every  curve is another breathtaking sight. One's eyes are filled by the beauty of the land and the people.

I am seeing  and describing a beautiful picture. I have yet to see, however,  the refugee camps, I  have yet to be stopped by a checkpoint.  I have not been confronted by an Israeli Occupation Force soldier and I have yet to see the Apartheid wall.

In Ramallah, one can lose sense of the occupation. Businesses are flurishing, construction abounds and people are generally happy. Israeli occupational forces are no where to be seen. Life seems to be normal.

I feel engulfed by the beauty around me yet I know deep  inside that that beauty is a camouflage as the human spirit is not free. The ugliness of the brutal Israeli occupation remains.

A cousin showed me his haweeya (ID pappers that every Palestian is required to carry) and then laamented that Israel allows him to go to Jerusalem only during holidays. The people, my people are in a prison.

Yet, the people are happy as they go about their daily lives. As I was walking around the Manara on Sunday, I  noticed a vibrant happy people, though I wondered whether the many young men standing around were working or not.

As the per capita of PHds among Palestinians is the highest in the world, I wonder whether the talents of these young men were being wasted under the ugly occupation.  How much more talent can Palestine give to the world under a free and democratic State of Palestine?

I wonder as I see and taste the beauty of Watanni (an Arabic word for nationalism not easily translatable)?

US/Israeli Interests Diverge as Palestinians seek UN agency membership

The implications of Palestine seeking membership in UN and international organizations are seismic for Israel, Palestine and the US.  The divergent interests of the US and Israel will come to a head in Congress as members will have to choose between US interests and the Israeli interests. For Palestine, it is now more at parity with Israel as the threat of seeking justice within these UN agencies makes Israelis shiver as the threats of international sanctions, economic boycott and international criminal trials for its current and former leaders loom in the horizon.

For the Palestinians, the decision to seek membership in UN agencies is a win-win move which was precipitated by Israel’s breach of its commitment to release the last of the 104 Palestinian prisoners it was holding before the Oslo Agreement.  Palestinians were enticed by Secretary of State John Kerry to restart peace talks with Israel in July, 2013 on condition that 104 Palestinians will be released and that final status discussions would be addressed. The Palestinians agreed not to seek membership in UN agencies.

When Israel breached its part of the agreement, the Palestinians, seeing no progress on the final status issues, applied to 15 UN agencies for membership.  Israel wanted Palestine to recommit to the talks beyond the April 29, 2014 deadline set out when the “talks” began but the Palestinians stated that the release of the prisoners was already agreed to and would not commit to extend the talks for the same agreement. The US then tried to sweeten the deal by considering releasing the notorious Navy spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for the release of 400 Palestinian women and children prisoners held by Israel. (The reader should note very clearly that this is an admission by Israel that it is imprisoning Palestinian children.)

Additionally, Secretary Kerry elicited a show of “restraint” by Israel in new housing starts that did not include settlements in East Jerusalem and did not include housing starts already announced. On Tuesday, April 1, 2014, Israel, in what it thought was a cunning move before an agreement could be reached, announced over 700 new housing starts. This was the last straw for the Palestinians and the Palestinian Liberation Organization Action Committee unanimously voted to seek UN agency membership.

The divergence of US and Israeli interests was evident when Palestine was granted membership in the UN agency UNESCO in 2012.  The US had to stop paying its membership dues in UNESCO as two US laws, over 20 years old, compel the US to de-fund any UN organizations which approves Palestine’s membership. The laws were intended to keep Palestine out of these organizations as a way to protect Israel. The law, however, was ill conceived for it has and will hurt the United States while protecting Israeli interests.  Congress attempted to influence member nations of these organizations to vote against the acceptance of Palestine for fear of losing significant US funding.  Members of UNESCO were not easily bribed.

For two years the Obama administration sought a waiver from Congress without success, and last November the U.S. lost its voting rights at UNESCO as a result of being two years in arrears.  US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Powers urged Congress on April 2, 2014 to repeal or waive the law in its application to Palestine stating that defunding UN agencies that admit Palestine is not in the interests of the US. She stated that defunding these agencies would be a “double win” for the Palestinians. With US influence in these agencies diminished through losing its voting rights, Russia, China and even Cuba would take the lead.

UNESCO’s purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the UN Charter.  Some UNESCO sponsored projects include literacy, technical, and teacher-training programs; international science programs; the promotion of independent media and freedom of the press; regional and cultural history projects; the promotion of cultural diversity; translations of world literature; international cooperation agreements to secure the world cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human rights, and attempts to bridge the worldwide digital divide. These are all within the interests of the US but with the loss of its voting rights, that influence has been negated—all because Congress has put Israel’s interests ahead of the interests of the US.

A pro-Israeli Congress would be reluctant to allow Congressional members to vote their conscience to grant a waiver or repeal these laws. The Israeli lobby, true to its history of championing Israeli interests over US interests, will not allow Israel interests to be hurt and therefore, its considerable power over Congress will restrain Congressional members from voting for US interests and against Israeli interests. The Israeli lobby has demonstrated on numerous occasions that it champions Israel’s interest over the US interests; most recently over President’s policy visa vie Syria and Iran. The lobby in both cases wanted the US to attack these countries over a reluctant American public’s weariness over two unfunded wars.

With the Israeli lobby ever threatening each member’s election over their loyalty to Israel, members of Congress will be in a quagmire trying to decide whether they should act in the best interest of the US or Israel—or more accurately whether they are willing to put their own re-election interests at the mercy of the Israeli lobby or whether they will do the very thing they were elected—protecting US interests.

Secretary of State John Kerry was perceptive in January, 2014 when he stated that if a peace agreement is not reached, Israel will be further isolated.  He must have foreseen that the US must now act in its own self-interest and cannot therefore base its international relations based on the interests of Israel.

The US cannot allow other nations’ political agenda to drive the US out of the UN and its agencies. The decision whether to fund these agencies must be based on the totality of US security, political, and economic interests served by the agencies. Congress will have to stand up for American interests and tell Israel that the divergence of US and Israeli interests is at hand. US foreign policy cannot be based on the interests of another nation.

U.S. diplomats have warned Israel that the United States cannot stop further Palestinian moves at the United Nations, especially if the current negotiations collapse—which they have despite the statement by Secretary Kerry to not write off the “talks”.

The move to seek membership in UN agencies is yet another step toward legitimacy for the Palestinian State after having won “non-member observer state” status in 2012 from the UN General Assembly.  Legitimacy for the Palestinian Authority is also achieved from the Palestinian people who have been exasperated by yet another round of “talks” with Israel that are endless and lead to no end. A great majority of Palestinians, most of which are moderate and who were supporters of the Oslo Accords, have become frustrated with an endless state of talks that never end, that are always conditioned upon an agreement to agree on something else in the future.  They were also frustrated that as the Palestinian Authority was conducting “talks” with Israel, Israel killed over 60 and wounded over 900 Palestinians; Israel kept building and building more Israeli settlement housing; and the illegal Israeli settlers were cutting down more and more Palestinian olive groves. Thus, taking the step to seek membership in UN agencies is very much favored by the Palestinian people in Palestine and around the globe.

Once Palestine is a member of UN agencies, it can seek to address the Israeli violations. For example, Article 2 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that signatories are bound by the convention both in war, armed conflicts where war has not been declared, and in an occupation of another country's territory. In addition, the United Nations Security Council, in 1993, adopted a report that concluded that the Geneva Conventions had passed into the body of customary international law, thus making them binding on non-signatories to the Conventions whenever they engage in armed conflicts. 

The Fourth Geneva Convention clearly states the illegality of an occupying power moving its people to occupied areas. The International Court of Justice has given an advisory statement regarding the Israeli wall built deep on Palestinian land. The advisory ruling in 2007 states clearly that as an occupying power, Israel is forbidden to settle in Arab areas captured during the 1967 war.  Thus the status of the Israeli colonization (settlements as the press calls them) will be legally challenged through legal means once Palestine is granted membership in the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Court of Justice.

Palestine will be in position not only to bring war crimes against Israeli officials but against countries and corporations who support or benefit from the occupation of Palestine. Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister during the War on Gaza in 2008-2009, was cautioned by legal experts not to leave Israel if the Palestinians resorted to the “nuclear option”, i.e. seeking membership in UN agencies. Corporations worldwide, like Caterpillar, can be sued for aiding in the Israeli practice of demolishing Palestinian homes, 27,000 since 1967. Legal precedents have been set by the case against former Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević and against Shell Oil--which had to make a hefty settlement to Nigerian farmers after being indicted for human rights violations in its efforts to extract oil. The tide is turning towards justice for the Palestinian people.

By applying for membership in UN agencies, the Palestinians are on the road to achieving parity with Israel. Parity is much needed. The latest action by the Palestinian Authority may be the action that achieves parity. Parity has been thwarted by the diplomatic shield that the US has been giving Israel for more than 6 decades. That shield is evaporating as Palestine’s admission into these agencies has caused a diversion of US and Israeli interests.

Movie Review: Twelve Years a Slave – Decades of Occupation

This weekend I viewed the movie Twelve Years A Slave.  As I sat throughout the movie and for five minutes afterwards I was numb, bewildered and astonished, unable to move from my seat. I just don't know how African-Americans endured such cruelty, such horror, such brutality, such a violation of every indignity known to man. Then I thought about what Israel has done and is currently doing to the Palestinians and while I cannot personally relate and while I do not want to belittle the dreadful era of American history known as slavery, I am perplexed to understand how man can commit such inhuman violations upon his fellow man.  Slavery and occupation are abhorrent attributes of the evil that man can inflict upon man.  Slavery has been constitutional banned in America.  Occupation is still in our midst in Palestine.

Twelve Years A Slave is a powerful movie which depicts the savagery of slavery like no other movie ever has. The arousal of our emotions is deliberate but you have to be spineless if you are not moved- by the brutality of the long hours of hard labor; by the whippings, even for the minuscule deviation from the white master’s rules; by the cramped and unsanitary living conditions; by the indignity of being constantly raped by the master; and by a constant dehumanization of a race. But there is something more in this movie to make you wonder beyond what you see on the screen.  

As I scrutinized the movie on the big screen, I wondered how man can be so malevolent towards another, so callous to the deprivation of another’s human rights and so righteously barbarous even when interpreting the words of the Prince of Peace.  The lure of cheap labor and the exploitation of another unlike “your image” for profitable gain based on a warped perception of superiority over another race are powerful persuasive monetary and narcissistic incentives that induce the worst trait of human behavior to dominate.  Hitler used this glorified perception of superiority to attempt to conquer Europe and the world and also to attempt to annihilate the Jews.  The Southern Whites in pre-civil war America needed a cheap labor force to pick the cotton fields and chop the sugar canes in order to keep their large multi-acre plantations and lavish lifestyle and they justified their actions within their own twisted and malignant minds by using the words of Jesus in support of their immoralities. The exploitation of the “uneducated” Africans presented the cheap labor force needed by Southern Whites to perpetuate their decadently self-centered existence. Besides Africans were different than Whites and identifiable in such a way as to be controlled.  

Thank God for the abolition of slavery in America.

Within the 150 years after the abolition of slavery, we find that the lessons of how not to treat our fellow man have not been learned.

·        The egocentric Nazis attempted to claim the German race superior to all other people and they galvanized the emotional charge of a defeated nation in World War I into another world war that saw a holocaust beyond imagination. 

·        At its height, the British Empire colonized over 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population at the time. The empire covered almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. Revolutions around the globe in America and India and elsewhere attest to the abomination of what Britain has done throughout the centuries to exploit other people.

White South Africans subjugated the native Black South Africans to apartheid in 1948 but the precursors to that system were embedded into that region over a century before. It was not until the release and election of Nelson Mandela (1990 and 1994 respectively) that the human spirit of the Black South Africans was set free.

Many countries in the world have not learned these lessons and therefore, much to the disappointment of those who champion human rights, we see repeated violations against humanity. Paradoxically, Israel, which should be the chief advocated of human rights given its citizen’s memory of the holocaust and their “never again” mantra, is the chief country which repeatedly violates the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the protection afforded to civilians in an occupied territory.  Israeli atrocities against Palestinians have been documented extensively in the past forty to fifty years.

The brutal military occupation of Palestine by Israel is not unlike slavery in America and as I sat in my theater seat squirming within my mind at the horrific scenes of Twelve Years A Slave, I could not help recall what I read about the recently arrested Palestinian Rasmiah Odeh in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

As local news accounts flashed about Rasmiah having allegedly not disclosed her imprisonment by Israel for “terrorist” acts she allegedly committed in Jerusalem in 1969, I quickly did a quick Google search of her. To my amazement, the first thing I read was the following about her torturous interrogation by Israeli Mosad agents:  

In February 1969, Rasmiah Odeh was arrested and brought to Moscobiya [prison]. Her father, Joseph and two sisters were detained for interrogation. Joseph Odeh was kept in one room while Rasmiah was beaten nearby. When they brought him to her she was lying on the floor in blood stained clothes. Her face was blue, her eye black. In his presence, they held her down and shoved a stick up her vagina. One of the interrogators ordered Joseph Odeh "to fuck" his daughter. When he refused, they began beating both him and Rasmiah. They again spread her legs and shoved the stick into her. She was bleeding from the mouth, face and vagina when Joseph Odeh fell unconscious.  http://www.palestine-encyclopedia.com/EPP/Chapter22_1of4.htm

In Twelve Years a Slave there is a scene in which the main character, Solomon Northup, is ordered to whip a female slave, Patsey, and when he hesitates, a gun is pointed at his head as the enraged “master” threatens to indiscriminately kill all the “Niggers.”  Reluctantly, Solomon beats Patsey mercilessly and when his conscience no longer allows him to continue the whipping, the master takes over, but only to appease his wife as she knows that her licentious husband favors Patsey whom he repeatedly rapes.

That horrific scene on the big movie screen bellowed out the screams of Patsey but in my mind’s eye I also heard the screams of Rasmiah. The penetrating pain of whip marks upon Patseys’ back horrified me as I recalled the descriptive brutality inflicted upon Rasmiah.

Like the White Southern, the Israeli military brutality subjects Palestinians into a submissive state of being in order to exploit the cheap labor that Palestinians are compelled to offer the Israeli middle and upper class. Prior to the Oslo Accords, the Israeli military occupation administration of the West Bank and Gaza would not issue building permits for Palestinians (in Area A) thus leaving Palestinians clustered into shanty homes that can never be improved or expanded. This is not different than the shacks that were loosely built to house ten or more slaves in a single room.

Deprivation of basic rights such as housing, education, speech, assembly and representation in government are all denied by the oppressor. Slaves could not read or write and when Solomon is exposed as to his writing ability, he must deny it to save his hide from the wrath of an insecure oppressor who fears education among the oppressed. Israel routinely closes Palestinian schools and in many cases turned the buildings into military bases for the occupation.

According to a 2009 Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education report:

“Since 2004 the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] shelled and invaded 13 colleges and universities, “shelled and broken into”, 288 schools, overtook and converted 43 schools into military barracks, and disrupted 1125 school”.

During the First Intifada (which literally translates as the shaking off the occupation) in 1987 through 1992, Palestinian education was effectively made illegal by the Israeli occupation. Palestinian universities, schools and even Kindergartens were closed down by Israeli issued military order for nearly five years. http://organizations.bloomu.edu/gasi/2009%20Proceedings%20PDFs/RahmanImpact%20of%20the%20Israeli%20Occupation%20on%20Palestinian%20Education%20for%20GSIA.pdf

All this has come after the Oslo Accords (Treaty between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel) first signed in 1993 at the White House Rose Garden.

In Twelve Years A Slave, Solomon was once a free man and living comfortably as a violinist in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.  He was separated from them when he went to Washington D.C. (a slave territory  at the time—about 1842) to perform when he was captured and covertly shipped to the deep South to be sold as a slave.  Other slaves never knew what being free meant as they were born into slavery. In Palestine, a great majority of Palestinians know nothing but the brutal Israeli military occupation. Generations are being born into a submissive state where a gun is pointed at their heads and while they are not slaves subjected to the cruelties of the White Southern as Africans, their human spirit is nevertheless imprisoned and they are not free.

In the end, Solomon was freed when a Canadian working with him on the plantation agreed to write a letter for him to his family. This started a chain of events (not in the film) which freed him back to his family. 

Who will write a letter of conscience to the world to set the Palestinian human spirits free?

(  © 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.)

IF THE "TALKS" COLLAPSE--WHAT THEN?

I have always been very optimistic that peace between the Palestinians and Israelis will one day be achieved.  Yet, I cannot be the optimist I once was about the new round of “peace talks” recently launched by Secretary of State John Kerry.  For the sake of peace, however, I, as well as the majority of Palestinians, hope that peace will finally be achieved although we are not holding our breaths. This is the last chance for peace. 

On the 20^th Anniversary of the Oslo Accords, which I witnessed on the White House Rose Garden, it is fitting to say that we have been talking endlessly to no real end. What many perceived as the final chapter of the long enduring conflict was only a mirage in the desert seen by Palestinians while the Israelis knew that the thirst for peace would not be fulfilled.  With each passing unattained deadline; with the quadrupling of colony activity by Israeli right wing fanatics; with each assault on Gaza; and with the building of the Apartheid Wall, as well as many other measures that deflated rather than elevated the prospects for peace, I, along with a great majority of Palestinians,  have become pessimistic.  Secretary of State Kerry’s attempt to broker a Middle East peace does not alleviate this changed attitude.

Ever since the Madrid Conference in 1991, we have been talking with the Israelis.  Except for a limited, very limited, autonomy in the form of an “authority” over only populous Palestinian cities called Area A, the “talks” have led to a massive confiscation of Palestinian land in the West Bank and an increased hawkish mentality within Israel that will not dismantle the occupation’s military apparatus but rather has fermented that hateful feeling that the insidious Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its decadent blockade of Gaza will last forever.  All the while, Israel tells the world that Palestinians in Gaza cannot oppose, in any form, the open-air prison that Israel imposes.   Palestinians cannot fire rockets into Israel; cannot seek United Nations statehood; and cannot attempt to go to the World Court to bring Israeli leaders before an international tribunal for international war crimes.   We cannot even have democratic elections unless the outcome of the elections is what Israel and the US will accept.

Agreements were made but not regarding final status maters—which kept getting put on the back burner that never gets lit.  The Oslo Accords called for final status negotiations to begin no later than May 1996. Fast forward seventeen years later on the 20^th Anniversary of Oslo. Palestinians and Israelis are now “talking” once more after a three year stall due to Israeli refusal to freeze its expansion of its colonies on Palestinian land and their insistence of no preconditions to talks, while the Palestinians did not want to talk for the sake of talking and wanted to finally discuss a final status agreement.  After a concession by Israel to release Palestinian political prisoners (prisoners who should not be prisoners in the first place), the pressure from the United States, a leading donor country, was too great for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to overcome and he finally relented to the “talks”.  So we are now talking, yet again.

So here we are 20 years later waiting for the final status talks to conclude. While these “talks” are clouded in secrecy, the general sentiment among Palestinians is that this should be the final “Oslo” approach to attaining peace. Talking for the sake of talking will no longer be acceptable if the outcome of the “talks” does not bring forth a comprehensive peace agreement.  The meaning of a comprehensive peace agreement does not mean that it is conditioned upon issues to be agreed upon in the future. It means a final agreement, an end to the conflict, a fully implemented peace treaty that covers all aspect, all issues and all-encompassing matters.

Comprehensive peace agreement also means that the following major issues will be resolved:

·         Jerusalem’s status

·         Palestinian refugee right to return or be compensated

·         Established secure borders of the two states 

·         Water rights and control

·         Removal of colonists in the West Bank or incorporating them into a Palestinian State

If the “talks” do not lead to a comprehensive peace agreement, a different Palestinian strategy needs to emerge.  A strategic discussion of that alternative path to be addressed now, less we continue to stagnate for years without any real direction.

I am no supporter of violence and strongly believe that the rockets launched from Gaza into Israel and the use of suicide bombers against civilian targets leads to a negative perception of the Palestinians. Yet, I also strongly believe that those under occupation have a fundamental right to resist that occupation. I equate the Palestinian right to resist to that of the American colonies right to declare independence against a King who amassed troops in the Colonies to control the population, who taxed them without representation and who imposed a series of intolerable acts upon Americans.  The grievances that Palestinians have against Israel are not less intolerable.   They include:

·         Taxation in the Palestinian territories is beholden to the whims of the Israeli government. Israel collects about two-thirds of the Palestinian Authority‘s self-generated revenue which, since the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, has been routinely withheld by Israel.  No self-respecting people would tolerate this. The Thirteen American colonies did not and neither should the Palestinians.

·         Israel has two sets of laws for two peoples—which clearly show that Israel is practicing apartheid:  

o   Israelis living illegally in the West Bank are allowed to carry Uzi submachine guns which they use to intimidate Palestinians. Palestinians, on the other hand, are not allowed to carry any form of arms, including rocks.

o   These gun-taunting Jews are never prosecuted for their criminal activities including the destruction of Palestinian olive groves.

o   License plates on the West Bank are color coded to inform the soldiers whether the occupants are Jews or Palestinians.

o   By-pass roads are for the exclusive use of Jews while Palestinians are subjected to dehumanizing military checkpoints.

o   Palestinians are brutally subjected to imprisonment under military administrative detention orders that are renewable every six months; no formal charges are ever presented in open court; and no trial is ever forthcoming. Many Palestinians linger in Israeli military jails without ever having been accused of any crime and without being tried in court. Their detention is summarily extended under the guise of the military detention used by the British Mandate law of 1945 entitled Law on Authority in States of Emergency. As many as 200 Palestinian children, some between the ages of 12 to 15, are currently detained in such fashion. In July, 2013, Israeli soldiers even detained a 5 year old child.

o   Palestinians are not free to move from one part of the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority to another and cannot go from the West Bank to Gaza or vice versa.  Abusive military checkpoints dot the landscape, many of which are mobile, leaving the Palestinian population to wonder how long a normal 10 minute trip between Ramallah and Beir Zeit will take—sometimes hours.

·         Israel has built an apartheid wall

o   That divides and encircles towns into conclaves with controlled military gates that subject the Palestinians to the whims of the Israeli soldiers. This has created many open-air ghetto/enclave prisons;

o   That divides landowners from their farms thus depriving the use of the land which benefits Israeli farmers;

o   That divide relatives from each other;

o   That inhibits the flow of commerce, thus imposing a stranglehold upon the Palestinian economy; and

o   That cuts into more than 8.5% of Palestinian land on the West Bank an area that is less than 22% of the original partition by the United Nations in 1948.

No people can tolerate living under such grievances. The human spirit, inherent in all peoples, will not tolerate a permanent status which subjugates their inalienable right to be free. If the current “talks” do not end the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, the Palestinian human spirit needs to find another path to freedom. Looking back at the endless path that the Oslo peace process has taken over the past 20+ years would beget Palestinians to search for a new path to the inevitable desire for the human spirit to be free.

The first Palestinian Intifada which began in December, 1987 paved the road to the Madrid Conference in 1991.  Talks ensued thereafter only to be usurped by secret talks in Oslo, Norway which lead to the Oslo Accords signed on September 13, 1993 at the White House Rose Garden.  The Palestinian Authority took root in the West Bank and Gaza; hopes for peace were so high that many Palestinians activists became complacent. Then the peace process was derailed when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist and by Palestinian suicide bombers, both bent on scuttling the peace process. Benjamin Netanyahu became the Israeli Prime Minister and changed the Madrid Conference formula from “land for peace” to “land for security” demonstrating that the Israeli use of the English language was superior to that of the Palestinians in that the former knew how to play on the sympathies of the American public. Netanyahu’s self-proclaimed efforts to kill the Oslo Accords, exposed in a 2001 video, were successful.

Nevertheless, the Oslo Accords timeline for final status talks came and went; new agreements were signed (Oslo II, Wye River and Sharm el-Sheik) and the Camp David and Taba Summits (2000-2001) proved that an impasse was evident. The September 11, 1991 attack by Al-Qada terrorists focused the world attention away from the Palestinian/Israeli conflict throughout President George W. Bush’s administration.  While President Bush stated that the downfall of Saddam Hussein will lead to the democratization of the Middle East, paradoxically he and, not so surprisingly the Israelis, rejected the outcome of the Palestinian elections in 2006.

President Barrack Obama, although sincere in his efforts to achieve Middle East peace, could not budge the Israelis to stop the building of colonies on the West Bank, although succeeding American administrations called them “obstacles to peace.”  Consumed with domestic economic woes brought about by the Great Recession, President Obama let the conflict in status quo doldrums.  Israelis, happy to keep the status quo, insisted on the Palestinians returning peace talks without any preconditions—interpretation: Israelis wanted to continuously talk without talking about final status talks.

In the middle of the two decades of talks, a second Intifada took root.  This time Israel crushed the uprising with its use of tanks and helicopter gunships; such military might was not seen in the First Intifada. The fact that the Palestinian police force was given guns through the Oslo Accords to maintain civil order gave the Israelis the perceived justification for its precipitous use of its full military force to put suppress the Second Intifada—youths throwing stones. Images of helicopter gunships attacking Ramallah in 2002 remain vivid memories. Israel also attacked Tulkarm,  Qalqilya, Bethlehem, Jenin and Nablus.  Goliath was attacking David, yet the true story was not exposed as Israel prevented the media from entering the West Bank.

The perception of David vs. Goliath needs to be retold. Palestinians are the new David.  But before Palestinians can take on the role of David, they need to reconcile amongst themselves. Fatah and Hamas need to reconcile at all costs. Read my article entitled “Demand Palestinian Reconcilation” on this subject at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2013/04/demand-palestinian-reconcilation.html.   Additionally, the Palestinians must not fall into the Israeli trap of a three state solution: Israel and Area C and most of Area B; Palestinian Authority controlling Area A and some parts of Area B; and Gaza controlled by Hamas. Read my article entitled Oppose the Israeli Three State Solution at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2013/03/oppose-israeli-three-state-solution.html.  

The new path the Palestinian Revolution needs to take needs to be unorthodox.  Palestinians should endorse the following actions:

• ·         Palestinian unification. Palestinians should demand that Fatah and Hamas reconcile.
• ·         The Palestinian police should be ordered to take their guns and give them to the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints. We need to be David using a rock against the military might of the Big Israeli Army.  We do not need the guns that are not effective against the Mighty Israel Army.  We should confront Israel with our stones from Mother Earth against the tanks and helicopter gunships.
• ·         The Palestinian Authority should no longer accept money from donor nations.  We cannot afford to be bribed into complacency and to accept the status quo of a continued brutal military occupation.
• ·         Palestinians should use their cameras, camcorders and cell phones to inundate Facebook, Twitter, blogs and all forms of social media with images of the atrocities of the Israeli army.
• ·         Support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel
• ·         Palestinians need to organize a coherent message of non-violence that needs to be shared by thousands on these social media outlets.  Throwing stones against the military occupier is within the international right of Palestinians to resist the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
• ·         Palestinian youth need to understand the power of the land and use it against the military occupation forces.  This is not a call to arms but a call to repel the occupation. 

I can hear the arguments stating that these actions will cause an increase of Palestinian suffering and that people will die. My answer: Palestinians are suffering and dying regardless, albeit these policies may increase the rate.  I believe that Palestinians would rather die with their dignity rather than live in disgrace. The Palestinian youth understand that by allowing the status quo to linger, as did their fathers and grandfathers before, will only lead to the continued suppression of their inherent right to be free. Thus, the choice to rebel is easy. Either allow the status quo to linger and forever be occupied or rebel and free your human spirit.

The Palestinian human spirit to be free is no different than the human spirit inherent in all human beings desiring to be free. It is no different than the human spirit that inspired the American Colonies to declare themselves independent from a brutal King; that ignited Black South Africans to break the chains of apartheid; that encouraged African-Americans to March on Washington for equal rights; and that empowered the people of India to break the bonds of colonization.   Read more about my thoughts on the human spirit to be free at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2012/01/human-spirit-will-overthrow-apartheid.html

What alternative do the Palestinians have should the “talks” collapse? Should they accept the status quo and continue to be subjugated to the brutal Israeli occupation with the inherent bribery and forced complacency all the while seeing their land usurped dunnem by dunnem? Should the Palestinians give up, as the Israelis would love for them to do?

The human spirit inherent in all poeople will guide the Palestinians to a new revolutionary path should the “talks” collapse. That path should be guided by the moral cause against occupation and with the vision that the oppressed, the weak, the underdog will triumph over oppression, over colonization, over a contemptuous military occupation of Palestine..

It is a new revolution of Rocks vs. Tanks.  Boy vs. Soldier. Right vs. Might.

It is the story of David vs. Goliath retold. 

Oppose The Israeli Three State Solution

I have written in previous articles that Israelis are excellent at using words to manipulate the thought patterns of world public opinion, especially in the United States. They have, through the use of the word “terrorist” against the Palestinians, been able to monopolize a negative opinion of Palestinians in the US, although the history of the creation of the State of Israel is not without horrendous terrorist acts against Palestinians.  I have countered that it is the Israeli soldier that is a terrorist because his/her primary job is to instill fear into the minds of Palestinians in order to get them to do what they would not ordinary do on their own, i.e. give up, leave their land.

Now the Israelis are trying to manipulate public opinion by redefining “checkpoints.” The Israeli soldier controls what Israel now calls “security crossings” to imbed into the minds of public opinion that the formerly called “checkpoints” is the border of the State of Israel.  United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that there were 522 roadblocks and checkpoints obstructing Palestinian movement in the West Bank in July, 2010.  This figure is up from 503.  There are other checkpoints called “flying checkpoints” that are unknown as to when and where they will pop up. On average per month in 2011, 495 of these random checkpoints sprung up, in addition to the 522 permanent roadblocks and checkpoints, to not only hamper, humiliate, harass but also to instill fear, frustration and fatigue into the lives of every Palestinian.

The use of the term “security crossings” and its manipulation and blackmailing of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is what leads me to believe that Israel does not want a Two State Solution (2SS) but rather wants a Three State Solution (3SS). Israel is in a frantic mode to impose this 3SS upon the Palestinians before the projected demographics make Israelis the minority in 2016 to prevent the inevitable solution: One State Solution (1SS). Israelis believe that if they continue its policy of fear, frustration and fatigue, the Palestinians will ultimately succumb to the 3SS that Israel sees as a counter to the inevitable 1SS. This policy will fail.

Israelis argue that the Palestinians have negotiated away Area C in the West Bank by agreeing to give up control of this area to Israel in the Oslo Accords. Nonsense! Israeli intransigence in not agreeing to the final status matters in the so called “peace talks” and it’s continued expansion of the illegal settlements have rendered the Oslo Accords null and void. Israel refuses to discuss the final status of Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of a Palestinian State. Israel refuses to discuss the right of return of Palestinian refugees. And Israel refuses to discuss the borders between Israel and Palestine. Calling the checkpoints “security crossings” is part of the Israeli attempts to impose a 3SS.

Another blatant attempt to impose a 3SS is Israel’s blackmail of withholding taxes that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority if the Palestinian politicians of the West Bank attempt to reconcile with the Palestinian politicians in Gaza. In essence, Israel does not want Fatah and Hamas to reconcile. It wants separate States for these two political rivals in the West Bank and Gaza. The stupidity of these factions in continuing the divisions between themselves is playing right into the Israeli plans to impose a 3SS.

I argue, in other articles, that this imposition will not be successful as the Palestinian human spirit to be free, innately a part of every human being, will overcome the Israeli aggression against them. However, Palestinians cannot rely on the burning desire inside themselves alone, they must have gumption; they must be shrewd; they must think outside the box.  

Palestinians need to understand what Israel is planning and they must counter the political manipulation of their land, their lives and livelihood. 

There are a variety of practical actions that Palestinians could advocate in their struggle to break the Israeli chains of oppression.

• ·     Palestinians need to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement . Mobilization and support for the BDS movement needs to part of the Palestinian agenda around the globe.  Supporting supporters of Palestinian Statehood is a must.
•  ·   Palestinians need to make the Israeli businessman suffer the consequences of the occupation. In my article, “Hitting Israel Where it Hurts—Economically”, I argue outside the box by advocating boycotting a single Israeli product imported into the West Bank and Gaza at a time. Read it at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/hitting-israel-where-it-hurts.html
•  ·    Palestinian youth need to throw their stones. I advocate keeping the option of the stone alive in the following articles: “Romancing the Stone” and “Keeping the David vs. Goliath Option Open.”  http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/romancing-stone-option.html and http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/keeping-david-vs-goliath-option-open.html
•       Palestinians need to reconcile their divisions and present a unified front against the Israelis. I have written numerously in various articles about the need for Hamas and Fatah to reconcile. See “Palestinians Must Establish Parity with Israelis” at http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2011/12/palestinians-must-establish-parity-with.html. Opposing Israeli attempts to place obstacles to the reconciliation of these Palestinian political factions needs to be the goal of every Palestinian. Palestinian unity is a must!
•       Palestinians need to take their fight to the International Criminal Court and bring to justice those Israeli leaders who ordered and Israeli soldiers who committed human rights violations against Palestinians.

While the impending demographics will impose a 1SS, Palestinians cannot sit idly back and let the hope of events control their destiny. Palestinians need to be continuously active to make the inevitable human spirit within them blossom sooner than later.