where i've been...
so its been over a month since my last post. though school is out i've been as busy as ever. i still haven't managed to leave the library (where i am now) as i am still researching. there's been a lot going on in my personal life as well- nonetheless, as the days go by i keep thinking i need to blog about this or that. at this point i have a whole list of things in mind i would like to talk about.a lot has happened this past month. abbas said he was willing to talk to hamas, the folks over at Bush and Co. got pissed, and those talks were rendered once again as fruitless. Palestinians observed the Naksa in June, and are still observing 60 years of Nakba as villages such as Nil'in and Bi'lin continue in non-violent resistance. Israel has responded to these demonstrations with brute force. This of course, is not new. Every friday villages demonstrate peacefully against the wall only to be met with live ammunition, smoke bombs, and other violent tactics. Most recently, the IDF has placed a curfew on Ni'lin. And they have audacity to call us terrorists. I'm sorry, does curfew, land confiscation, house demolition, starvation, imprisonment, and bombardement not qualify? The fact is the non-violent movement is not a new one by any means. And yet Israel has the whole world believing that Palestinians do not believe in non-violence.On the contrary, it is Israel that does not believe non-violence (sorry for the double negative). Take the recent events in Jerusalem, for example. The man was not a terrorist. He was just a man working on a controversial project- bulldozing Palestinian neighborhoods to make way for a railway that would connect illegal settlements to Jerusalem. This railway is to be exclusively for Jews at the expense of the local Palestinian population (yet again). Perhaps the irony was too much for him t bear- the fact that he was destroying homes of his Palestinian brethren to make way for a Jewish-only railway. The point is, as a response, Israel has decided to demolish his home. Collective punishment- what a peaceful comeback!
And then of course you have Gaza, which has become increasingly isolated- not just physically, but sociologically as well. If you go through and read the press today they categorize Gaza as a separate entity. This isn't new of course but i feel that its increased. According to the Bush plan, the West Bank is supposed to be this wonderful place for Palestinians- countries are pouring billions of dollars in- don't think for one second the Palestinians will stand to benefit.
Then you have Palestinian-Israelis. No one ever talks about them- its ridiculous, really. Life is somewhat easier for them but the fact is there are over 20 laws which discriminate against them. For example, Israel just extended a law stating that Palestinian Israelis can't marry Palestinians from the west bank. Its like saying new yorkers can't marry people from Jersey. And now Israel can call anyone of its Palestinian citizens a 'terrorist' relquish them of their Israeli citizenship, and ship them out. This of course, driven by one single goal: the maximum amount of land, with the least possible amount of Palestinians.
What I want to say is that we need to look at all these scenarios as symptoms of the same disease: Palestinian dispossession in 1948.
Back to research- more later.
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