Palestine: where are we going?
so you've probably noticed (or perhaps you haven't) that i've been on somewhat of a blogging hiatus. ive been trying to step back in order to gain a better perspective on things. also been thinking strategically about what i'm trying to do here. on one hand i feel myself compelled to comment on current events and hot news items as they come and go: gaza, iraq, jerusalem, nilin, bilin, etc. but i've also noticed that i often feel compelled to discuss anniversaries (while being against the very idea of an 'anniversary' to begin with) as they appear on the palestinian calendar. And by anniversaries i'm referring to massacres and assassinations that occur year-round: winter, spring, fall and summer. Other anniversaries include declarations and agreements that weren't drafted by palestinians but were forced upon us by colonial powers: balfour, sykes-picot, etc. Then of course you have your non-anniversary events which are as constant as the occupation itself: land confiscation, house demolition, water theft, political imprisonment etc. Its actually quite endless. I mean if I were to write all this on say, your classroom blackboard, all you would be able to see a big blurb of indecipherable white chalk. if you think about it its actually quite reflective of the state of palestinian affairs- one big mess that can only to be added to the bigger regional mess that we call 'the arab world'.so in the midst of all that im unsure where i fit in- geographically removed from it all. i havent quite figured this out yet- until i do, i do have a few things to share with you:
1. a lot was said about the berlin wall in relation to our very own apartheid wall (if you havent seen the youtube video of how palestinians symbolically tore down parts of the wall click here. its a must-see) i was thinking about the wall between egypt and gaza back in 2008. it was really touching for a second to see the egyptian aljazeera correspondent meet up with his palestinian counterpart in gaza. gazans burst out of their prison, desperate for food and medical supplies. but then it all ended- almost as suddenly it began- and palestinians were rounded up and locked in once again. little did they know that a few months later their already dire situation would get a lot worse. and here we are a year later, fresh off the goldstone controversy . truth is goldstone is only a symptom. sure it was exciting to see palestinians (from all walks of life) rise up for second and reject abu mazen's move. but it was also equally disturbing to see other palestinians stand up and staunchly defend abbas. it all fell apart after that, as we quickly returned to fatamas (fateh-hamas) squabble. so essentially, we havent made any progress at all- gazans are still trapped in gaza, refugees are still refugees, etc. and fact is this will all happen again: israel will commit a massacre, the world will stop and watch, and when its all done, intl human rights grps will draw up reports lacking in any historical context- as if israel never committed any of these crimes before (lather, rinse, repeat!). nimer sultany discussed this de-contextualizing phenomenon in an article he wrote about goldstone:
Indeed, defenders of Israel having been using such de-contextualizing arguments to divert the discussion. Their argument maintains that had Palestinians not resorted to violence against the Israeli people and army, Israel would not have been forced to attack them, and consequently their lives would not be miserable. Such an argument, however, fails to recognize the possibility that occupation itself is already making Palestinians' lives so miserable that they are willing to sacrifice those lives to win back their homeland, freedom and dignity. This amounts to picking an arbitrary -- and indeed self-serving -- starting point to begin moral and political condemnation.
The natural tendency of those who are busy reporting human rights violations is to refrain from making moral or political judgments concerning the participants of violence and their pasts, so as to be able to claim neutrality. As a result, the parties to the conflict are seen as identically situated agents of violence.
This is a distortion of reality, particularly when coupled with the arbitrary de-contextualization that comes with specifying a limited and "exceptional" temporal and factual frame for investigation. Most conflicts involve parties with different means at their disposal and pursuing different ends. Even if it is always wrong to violate human rights, it is certainly the case that moral and political condemnation for such violations is not only a matter of quality, but also of degree. Surely the Palestinians can choose from a much more limited set of means to fight than the State of Israel. It follows that human rights violations by the latter should be seen as especially grave, given all of the circumstances.
Does this mean that we should do away with reports and leave the history of human rights violations untold? Obviously not -- that question involves a false choice. Rather, what human rights reports (and the mandates upon which they rely) should attempt to do is stretch beyond the confines of a period of extreme violence. Human rights violations have to be placed in a larger factual and moral context. Doing so may, of course, come at the cost of political controversy and the hostility of those who are content with half-truths. That, it seems to us, is a moderate price to pay when so much is at stake.
2. despite the mess described in item number one, abbas and company are pretending (or maybe they actually believe?) that everything's alright. take for example, this website- Rawabi. when i first came across it, i could smell usaid all over it. Rawabi is the name a new Palestinian town to be built by 'Palestinian real-estate' company Bayti. This is ironic on several levels- first, i've got to say the whole notion of a palestinian real-estate company is pretty hilarious. second, instead of coming to the assistance of palestinian villages that are experiencing actual realestate theft on behalf of israeli colonial settlers, the pa has decided to build a new town just outside of Ramallah.the fact is that this new town- praised by bayti as the first 'planned' palestinian town is part and parcecl of bibi's 'economic development' policy (which is essentially the israeli convergance plan) . it also very much in line with USAID's idea of 'economic zones'. Here's how Rawabi markets itself:
- A model of effective economic governance;
- A public-private partnership approach to business and entrepreneurial development; and
- A model for entrepreneurship and business development.
Supported by USAID, Tony Blair, and a Qatari investment company, Rawabi is nothing but an extension of Fayyad's economic policy (which is essentially bibi's economic policy) of building institutions and 'strengthening security'. Its just so ridiculous. Let me break it down for you. Imagine your house flooded with water. there's water everywhere- not just the basement- and the water is not letting up at all... it keeps entering your house. now here you are trying to figure out what to do when someone knocks on your door. its a salesman- and he's trying to sell you some type of product that combats termites. Of course your automatic response should be something along the lines of: "yea i hear you on the termite thing, but honestly, if i don't tackle this water problem now i'm not going to have a house at all. so now's really not a good time- feel free to come back later." and this is exactly what's going on in palestine. we're losing land every single day- jerusalemites are being kicked out their homes and settlers continue to confiscate land for their colonies and jewish only roads. in the midst of all this, fayyad turns his back on the palestinians and says- yes, lets build institutions.
Don't take my word for it though. Virginia Tilly had a great article a few weeks back- Here's an excerpt:
...But more importantly, the South African comparison helps illuminate why the ambitious projects of pacification, "institution building" and economic development that the Ramallah PA and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad have whole-heartedly embarked upon are not actually exercises in "state-building." Rather, they emulate with frightening closeness and consistency South Africa's policies and stages in building the Bantustan/Homelands. Indeed, Fayyad's project to achieve political stability through economic development is the same process that was openly formalized in the South African Homeland policy under the slogan "separate development." That under such vulnerable conditions no government can exercise real power and "separate development" must equate with permanent extreme dependency, vulnerability and dysfunctionality was the South African lesson that has, dangerously, not yet been learned in Palestine -- although all the signals are there, as Fayyad himself has occasionally admitted in growing frustration. But declaring independence will not solve the problem of Palestinian weakness; it will only concretize it.
thus, despite the daily israeli violations against the palestinian people, all the pa chooses to do is sit and watch. ok actually thats not entirely true- they do things like sell cement to the occupier, crack down on people that oppose the pa machine, etc etc. and these folks (the pa, and now the infamous ATFP) really think they represent us, when in fact, as saree makdisi points out, they only represent a fraction of the total palestinan population worldwide. that said, when are these cronies going to quit?
3. ok, ok- so i've already complained about how lousy the pa is on this blog. youll have to forgive me on this one, b/c they're just that bad.
4. i keep thinking of that edward said quote- that israel is simply a measure of our own shortcomings. damn do we got shortcomings. billions and billions of 'em.
5. pa corruption (a huge shortcoming in and of itself) is not new. but this time around we have something else to fall back on- BDS. All around the world, boycott campaigns, calling for economic and other sanctions against israel, are picking up steam. This is has not gone un-noticed by israel. the response? arrests of BDS activists. in typical israeli fashion, the state has decided to silence the voice of palestinian activists calling for resistance via non-violence (israel has a history of this- killing leading palestinian intellectuals such as naji al ali and ghassan kanafani). mohammad othman, arrested on his way into the west bank months ago, and now abdallah abu rahman, kidnapped by israel just recently, are two examples. But the fact is israel has regularly been conducting night raids and kidnapping bilin activists. despite all this, the weekly non-violent demonstrations in bilin and elsewhere have not stopped. i only wish that the rest of palestinian society (and indeed the world) would catch up with BDS movement. nonetheless, try as it may, israel will not be able to crush this movement. that said, i urge you to do your part and boycott these products.
6. BDS is a vehicle by which we can accomplish our goals: return of refugees, ending the occupation in the west bank and gaza, justice for the palestinians of '48, who face extreme injustice within the state of israel, and of course, holding israel accountable under international law. there are some palestinians however, who have given up on the right of return, citing its 'impracticality'. In response, i offer this:
the right of return is just that- a right. palestinians are still waiting to return- in the refugee camps of Gaza, in the rubble of naher el bared, in the no man's land that is the iraq/syrian border, in far-away cities and towns- they wait, hope, and dream."The yearning for the homeland is at the core of the Palestinian collective psyche,"Abu Sitta says. "Demographically, their return will cause only a minimum Israeli relocation, in striking contrast to Israel's plans," and he has published many studies showing the feasibility of return.
"The Palestinians are under no obligation, moral, legal or otherwise, to accept Israeli occupation of Palestine at their expense. By any standards, it is the Israelis who are under an obligation -- to rectify the colossal injustice they have committed," he says.
7. all this stuff (the pa mess, the right of return, bds, the continued expulsion from jerusalem, the countless massacres and their subsequent anniversaries, kidnappings, assassinations, empty declarations, settler violence, apartheid and colonial expansion) all of it brings us back to the beginning. the elephant in the room that israel wants forgotten. it all started with one word- nakba.
Posts
