Palestinian Exasperation - Israeli Desperation

In July, 2013 United States Secretary of State John Kerry brought the Palestinian and Israeli parties to the negotiating table to discuss peace yet again. The deadline for those talks was set as April 29, 2014. To entice the parties to the table, certain agreements were made by both sides.  But the alluring factor for many Palestinians was that final status issues would also be discussed.  With less than a month before that deadline, we are entrenched in a dispute not over those core issues but about whether side issues will be met or whether the Palestinians will seek justice at international forums.  Another 9 months have been wasted and the status quo has gone from exasperation to desperation.

There was a great reluctance among the majority of Palestinians to begin yet another chapter of talks with the Israelis. Many Palestinians felt and continue to feel that they do not need to endlessly talk to no real end and that talking to Israel served Israel’s interest to perpetuate the decades old cruel military occupation of their land and their people and preventing the Palestinians from seeking justice through international forums.  Israel, instead of agreeing to stop all settlement building activities, agreed to release 104 pre-Oslo prisoners in four installments, the latest of which has been breached. The Palestinians agreed not to go to United Nations forums to seek international justice against the Israelis—and Palestinians have thus far kept their end of the bargain.

Now the talks are at a juncture which is not aimed at resolving the issues of the status of Jerusalem, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, the border issues or even water rights—a fundamental issue to any peace agreement but which has not been given much consideration by the parties and the media.  Instead the topic of discussion is whether the Israelis will release the last batch of Palestinian prisoners and who will decide which prisoners will be released but only for extending the talks.  

During the last 9 months of “talks” Palestinians have witnessed

•          over 60 Palestinians being killed and over 900 wounded by Israeli soldiers.
•          an increase in housing starts in the illegal settlements

o   August 12, 2013."Israel approves 900 additional homes in East Jerusalem". http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-approves-900-additional-homes-in-east-jerusalem/

o   On 10 January 2014. Israel approved plans for 1,400 settler homes. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/10/us-palestinians-israel-settlements-idUSBREA090KW20140110

o   January 21, 2014. Peace hopes fade as Israel plans 381 more settler homes http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140121/peace-hopes-fade-israel-plans-381-more-settler-homes-0

·         

•       reports of olive trees being cut down are rampant in the media. Here is but a sampling:

o   March 27, 2014 Settlers cut down 50 olive trees near Nablus http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=685271

o   October 5, 2013 Palestinian farmer: West Bank settlers destroyed 129 olive trees http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.550637

o   October 21, 2013 Israeli Settlers Chop down more Palestinian Olive Trees (having destroyed 800,000 since 1967) http://www.juancole.com/2013/10/settlers-palestinian-destroyed.html

o   October 19,  2013 ISRAELI SETTLERS ACCUSED OF DESTROYING PALESTINIAN OLIVE TREES http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/19/israeli-settlerschopdown100treesinwestbankvillage.html

o   March 3, 2014  Israeli settlers destroy olive trees in West Bank http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/03/03/352980/israelis-destroy-olive-trees-in-wb/

The results of the talks have been a step forward for Palestinians, not in terms of achieving a State anytime soon, but in terms of positioning in negotiations.  While it is the Palestinians who were and continue to be exasperated, it is the Israelis who are desperate. The Palestinians have been exasperated by 20+ years of endless talks that have led to no end. Palestinians are no closer to a State then in 1993 or the last 9 months. The Israelis are desperate to prevent the Palestinians from seeking justice at UN forums, especially at the Human Rights Commission and at the International Criminal Court. Additionally, Israelis are deathly afraid of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions Movement which is growing by leaps and bounds.  Secretary of State Kerry has warned Israel of a third Intifada and further isolation.

Continuing the “talks” without any real progress to date is an exercise in futility for Palestinians and will only serve Israel’s interests.  By agreeing to the continuation of the talks, Palestinians will allow Israel to buy additional time to continue building more settlements; continue building the apartheid wall; continue to murder, wound and imprison more Palestinians; and continue to uproot more and more Palestinian olive trees.  Additionally, the abusive Israeli military checkpoints will not be eased and Israeli dominance over Palestinian lives will go unabated.

Exasperated by another Israeli demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish State, Palestinians obtained the support of the Arab League in rejecting this demand.  This demand was not imposed upon the Jordanians or the Egyptians when Israel negotiated peace treaties with these countries. Additionally, this was not addressed in the Oslo Accords or any of its ancillary agreements. It is yet another demand creatively concocted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not for any altruistic purpose but for Israel’s selfish purpose—to kill the peace process. This is not Nethanyahu’s first attempt to redefine terms or impose new wordings in order to kill the peace process. In 1996 during his first stint as Prime Minister, he changed the Madrid Conference formula from “land for peace” to “land for security” which inevitably destroyed the Oslo movement towards a comprehensive peace.

Today, Netanyahu is concocting all sorts of schemes to maintain the status quo for as long as possible and to preventing the Palestinians from seeking justice at international forums. All the following proposals are aimed at eliciting a rejection so as to blame someone other than Israel for the failure of the “talks”:

·         Besides, the Jewish State recognition demand, Netayahu wants to maintain a military presence in the Jordanian valley thus eliminating a border between Palestine and Jordan.

·         March 2, 2014. Israel: Stop nuclear Iran and we’ll agree to Palestinian state http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Middle_East/article1381901.ece

·         March 23, 2014 Swap proposed over release of Palestinian prisoners and spy (Jonathan Pollard) http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/850216.shtml#.UzAZsPldWSo  Israel’s yet another attempt to have the notorious Israeli spy released from an American prison.

·         Netanyahu earlier tried to tie the Wye River Agreement to the release of Jonathan Pollard in October, 1998. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4461414.html

The one proposal that will win over hearts and minds for peace is not even suggested by Netanyahu—freezing settlement activity. While Netanyahu does not want peace, he wants the peace talks to endlessly go on to no real end. This duplicity in political posturing has caught up with him as the world understands his witty proposals are not aimed at furthering peace but at perpetuating the Israeli hegemony over the Palestinian people and land.

After nine months of “talks” there is a complete perpetuation of everything negative about the occupation. Palestinians are positioned at this time with a stronger negotiating power. They should use this power effectively.

The “talks” can go on for another 6 months but only if the Palestinians extract certain conditions from the Israelis. Palestinians should demand the following in exchange for not pursuing unilateral diplomatic actions in international forums, such as taking Israel to the International Criminal Court:

•         Demand that any further Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli soldiers be investigated by a trilateral Palestinian/Israeli/US tribunal.
•          Demand that all Israeli settlement building activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem be frozen, including but not limited to “natural growth.”
•          Release of additional Palestinian prisoners including Marwan Bargouti
•          Demand that a joint tribunal of Israelis and Palestinians will investigate and prosecute those responsible for destroying the Palestinian olive trees.
•          Demand that Israel arrests and tries Israeli settlers who commit crimes against Palestinians.

Should Israel not agree to these demands, Palestinians should walk away from the “talks”. There is no need to discuss anything with Israel while Palestinian rights, land and dignity are continually trampled upon.  

Should the Talks Collapse, Palestinians should then then employ the following (from my article Should the Talks Collapse—What Then?  http://fadizanayed.blogspot.com/2013/09/if-talks-collapse-what-then.html)  

•         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. 

Additionally, Palestinians should do what the Israelis fear most—go directly to the International Criminal Court and hold Israeli officials accountable for its human rights abuses toward Palestinians. 

هل الجنود الإسرائيليين إرهابيين ؟

قبل عدة أيام ، تم شاب فلسطيني 17 عاما ، و توفي في عيد ميلاده . أطلق جنود الاحتلال النار عليه و اردوه قتيلا بعدة طلقات على نقطة تفتيش في الخليل ، فلسطين. ثم انخرطوا بنشر دعاية بادعاء أن الشاب الفلسطيني كان يحمل مسدسا لعبة و وجهه إليهم. يا لها من قصة غير قابلة للتصديق من قبل المحتلين ؟

أولا ، أين هو هذا المسدس اللعبة ؟ ألن يظهره المحتلين مع القصة بنية جعل قضيتهم قابلة للتصديق ؟ ثانيا ، كيف يمكن لشاب فلسطيني ، ولد ونشأ مع الخوف في قلبه من جنود الاحتلال ، أن يكون بهذه السذاجة  ليلوح مسدس لعبة في وجه جندي الاحتلال ؟ وقد استحضرت جنود الاحتلال المسدس اللعبة عندما ذكرت انه حصل عليه أثناء عيد ميلاده. الآن، لو قال المحتلين انه لوح مسدس حقيقي ، القصة  تكون أكثر قبولا. سنوات من تراكم الإحباط ضد جنود الاحتلال قد يؤدي بشاب فلسطيني لمحاولة قتل المحتلين. أستطيع أن أصدق ذلك، ولكن ليقولوا انه كان يحمل مسدسا لعبة - هذا مجنون.

في مناقشات مع مختلف أنصار جنود الاحتلال، قمت باثارة نفاق عدم تسمية حادثة اطلاق النار في مركز تجاري في أوريغون مول الأخيرة عمل إرهابي ولكن كان يمكن أن يتم ذلك إذا وقع ذلك الفعل نفسه في مركز تجاري بتل أبيب . قام أنصار الاحتلال الإسرائيلي بتعريف الارهاب كالأتي: " يهدف إلى التسبب في الوفاة أو إلحاق إصابات جسمانية خطيرة في صفوف المدنيين أو غير المقاتلين بهدف ترويع مجموعة سكانية أو إرغام حكومة أو منظمة دولية على القيام أو الامتناع عن القيام بأي عمل " . وأظن أن هذا تم نسخه من مصدر موثوق .

باستخدام هذا التعريف ، قمت باثارة سؤال: هل يمكننا الاتفاق على أن الغرض من الجندي الإسرائيلي هو غرس الخوف في المدنيين الفلسطينيين ؟ ثم سألت ، في ضوء هذا التعريف ، هل يعتبر جندي الاحتلال الاسرائيلي الذي قتل شابا فلسطينيا في الخليل، فلسطين، "إرهابي ؟ "

ا شك في أن في 45 سنة من احتلال الضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة ( وأنا أعتبر غزة لا تزال تحت الاحتلال ) أن جنود الاحتلال الإسرائيلي ( عوزي و المستوطنين غير الشرعيين السخرية ) تسببت في "موت أو إلحاق إصابات جسمانية خطيرة في صفوف المدنيين أو غير المقاتلين ، " أي السكان الفلسطينيين . وأنا أتحدى أي شخص أن يجادل خلاف ذلك.

اذن ما هو الغرض من الجندي الإسرائيلي ؟

قبل أن أجيب على هذا السؤال، اسمحوا لي أن أقول أنه إذا كان من الممكن أن تضم إسرائيل الضفة الغربية لها معنويا، لفعلت بسن تشريعات تسمح لها بذلك منذ عقود. لم يفعلوا لعدم توفر لديهم أي صفة قانونية تمكنهم من القيام بذلك. يريدون ضم الضفة الغربية إلى إسرائيل و ذلك باستخدام سياسة ممنهجة غير قانونية لمصادرة الأراضي الفلسطينية ، بادعاء أن الأرض هي " متنازع عليها "، ولكن لا أحد يصدق هذه الحجة .

تكتيك آخر تستخدمه إسرائيل ، و هنا يأتي دور الجندي الإسرائيلي، هو تكتيك اجبار اكبر عدد ممكن من الفلسطينيين على مغادرة الضفة الغربية.

ما هو التكتيك الذي يستخدمه المحتل ؟

الخوف !

الغرض من جندي الاحتلال الإسرائيلي في الضفة الغربية هو غرس الخوف ، أي تخويف السكان أو " على سبيل المثال... على القيام أو الامتناع عن القيام بشيء ما . و القصد من ذلك هو غرس الخوف في الفلسطينيين للسيطرة عليهم و جعل حياتهم بائسة لدرجة تدفعهم بالقيام بفعل لا يقوموا به عادة، وهو ترك الأرض.

وبالتالي ، فمن المنطقي ، بالنظر إلى تعريف الإرهاب الذي قدموه لي أنصار الاحتلال الإسرائيلي،فان  جندي الاحتلال الإسرائيلي هو إرهابي . هو/هي هناك لفعل شيئا واحدا : للسيطرة على السكان الفلسطينيين ، لتخويفهم ، لجعل حياتهم بائسة.

كيف يتم تحقيق ذلك؟

تنتشر في الضفة الغربية  العديد من الحواجز العسكرية اللا إنسانية والمعيقة يحرسها جنود الاحتلال والتي تعرض الفلسطينيين عمدا لشتى أنواع الاهانات والمضايقات. بل وهي سياسة منهجية يومية تنفذ يوميا على مدار السنة. في أي وقت من الأوقات، حتى في منتصف الليل، يستطيع جنود الاحتلال هدم الباب أي بيت فلسطيني و البحث عن والاستيلاء على ما يريدون، و سحب أي فلسطيني إلى السجن بحجة الاعتقال الإداري . إذا لم يكن هذا خوفا ، وهو خوف مستمر كل ثانية من كل يوم في حياة كل فلسطيني ، فلا أعرف ما هو الخوف.

وبالتالي ، إذا كان الخوف هو الغرض من وجود الجندي الإسرائيلي في الضفة الغربية ، فانه يجب أن يكون إرهابيا .

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.