Interview with Ambassador Ibrahim Khreisheh - UN, Geneva:
From your experience as the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, how would you assess the UN interaction with the Palestinian problem, especially given the fact that we are not full members of the UN General Assembly?
I am a firm believer that it is extremely important that we continue to work and deal with a major body such as the UN because the moral value of the resolutions put forth by the international community is one of the most important weapons we have. When we refer to anything regarding Palestine, we always anchor it in resolutions of international legitimacy. (Late) President Yasser Arafat used to say, “I am not asking for the moon. I only ask for the implementation of international legitimacy.” These are well known to all: An (Israeli) withdrawal from lands occupied in 1967 including East Jerusalem and a just solution in accordance with UN SC Resolution 194 for the refugees. As such, this moral value is one of our most important weapons for sustainability and continuity in demanding our rights from the international community.
Sometimes, we think the world has dropped everything and is only concerned with the problem of Palestine. This is what it looks like today here in Geneva. But this is only because of Israel’s UPR (Universal Periodic Review) tomorrow (December 4). Otherwise, we are very much on the back burner. Our internal Palestinian situation today has only pushed us back even further into this corner. Therefore, adhering to international law and legitimacy is our main tool, which we must continue to uphold and defend.
Israel often downplays the importance of international legitimacy in terms of the Palestinian question. What do you think are the measures that must be taken to reassert the importance of this legitimacy?
For the Israelis, the most difficult thing for them is to talk about international legitimacy and to talk about a peace process, an agreement or negotiations. I have been part of the negotiations track for a long time. I was a director in Negotiations Affairs Department and as a student I participated in the first youth meeting with Israelis, which was in Stockholm in 1992, even before the Oslo Accords were signed. So I know that the most difficult thing for Israelis is talk logistically and rationally about international legitimacy. And the easiest thing for them is to talk about the Qassam rockets on Sderot. In short, what they want is for this status quo to continue, for the rockets to continue. Any ceasefire or calming of the situation is damaging to Israel. So now, they are fixated on this subject of the rockets. This last round of rockets that were fired on Sderot is being use as a winning card before the world. The problem is convincing those who actually fire the rockets to abandon this whole tactic. Unfortunately, they will not listen.
Tomorrow (at the UPR session) I am going to speak within a framework of logic and rationale. I am going to talk about international and humanitarian law, international conventions and agreements and international legitimacy all of which Israel violates. If someone (in the session) decides to go off with rhetoric about the “murderous Zionist entity” and so on this will make the Europeans side immediately with Israel. But if you come from a standpoint of logic, it makes it more difficult for them. This time, I want everyone in the Council to support us. But this method needs a tremendous amount of effort. However, we have already started this journey with some of our European colleagues and our dialogue now has a different tone. I say to the Europeans, you were the ones that introduced the concept of human rights, not us. That’s fine, we say. We agree, but if the standards of this concept have changed, shouldn’t we at least know about it? If we are talking about international law and international human rights, then as a people under occupation, this applies to us as well and they have all been violated by the (Israeli) occupation authorities.
I often give the example of the fact-finding mission into Beit Hanoun which was ratified in this Council and which commissioned Archbishop Desmund Tutu to go to Beit Hanoun (Gaza Strip). I talked to the Europeans in simple terms. I said you Europeans, through pressure from Israel, cannot acknowledge the fact that 19 people, who were asleep in their homes were liquidated just like that. As a Palestinian, I have always acknowledged the enormous tragedy that befell the Jews during the Holocaust in WWII. However, you cannot acknowledge the killing of these 19 civilians? Then I don’t think there is any chance for us to agree. First acknowledge this fact and then we can talk, because one human being is never of more or less value than any other human being. No one can counter this premise. These people were asleep in their beds and they were bombed and killed. At least admit that (Israel) killed them. Then we can talk.
Today, there really has been an improvement in terms of solidarity with the Palestinians, especially from the Europeans. There are new are conditions that need to be taken advantage of, for example, the change that took place in the United States, which was huge. In Israel as well, there is going to be another change. There is an economic crisis which no one knows the ramifications of. I personally think it is going to create a new world order. There will be new power centers. Even the Jewish financial lobby has been shaken. The Euro-Mediterranean Union is also something we can take advantage of. I believe almost the entire world is convinced that the Palestinian people must have their state. The question is how we can put this sentiment into action. There is an opportunity before the Israelis now but it will not be a very large window of opportunity in terms of time. That is, today there is a group of Palestinians represented in the current Palestinian leadership that is calling for dialogue and negotiations in order to reach a solution. After a while however, if this fails and a solution is not reached and you couple this with the continued frustration of Palestinians in the occupied territories, there will be other powers that will take over the reins of the battle with Israel. If they (Israelis) think this is to their benefit, then they must take the consequences. But we know that it is in Israel’s interest to acknowledge that their security is in realizing our security first. Their security lies in the establishment of our state first. If they reach this point of understanding, then we are more than ready to meet them there.
What do you expect tomorrow at the UPR session?
Of course the Israelis have prepared a report that in no way points to the major disaster called the occupation. How can they not mention they are also an occupying power, one that has an entire people oppressed? How is this not mentioned in the context of humanitarian laws, human rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention and their application to the Palestinian territories? I am going to speak about this - about Jerusalem, the (separation) wall, the settlements, the prisoners. As a Palestinian, I am going to point to all of these issues from the legal aspect.
Tomorrow, I am not going to talk politics. I am going to talk about human rights and human rights laws, the (Fourth) Geneva Convention, the Convention against Torture that Israel is a signatory to. I will speak of these, not politics. But because I live under occupation, my situation is somewhat different (than others) when I refer to all the above.
Do you think the issue of Palestinian human rights has been better represented with this new process?
What I think is that we cannot leave any stone unturned. We need to knock on every possible door and talk in every arena about the suffering of our people and about our rights. This report talks about human rights in Israel. If they see their country as a kind of heaven, that’s fine. But what Israel is doing to our people is a different story. I want to see this image relayed in its true and bitter reality not through a distorted image of Israel. There are enough examples to give if we want. If we do this properly, there is an opportunity here to sway public opinion into pressuring Israel. The main principle which I, and I believe all Palestinians begin with is an end to the occupation. The rest are details. If there were no occupation, there would be no settlements, no wall, no checkpoints. One mistake we as Palestinians have made is to create organizations to fight the wall, to combat the settlements etc. There is no five-star occupation in the world. Of course the occupation is going to take our land, cut down our trees, imprison our people and kill our children. Let our focus and our reference point always be the ending of the occupation. The violations are useful in order to show the world the brutality of this occupation, but most peoples have been under occupation at one point in time and know there is no such thing as a pretty occupation.
The people united will never be divided
Date posted: April 30, 2024
By Joharah Baker
I was born in the United States and lived there through early childhood, but since returning with my family to Palestine, I have never wanted to go back. The United States has always evoked mixed feelings in me. I have a certain nostalgia for the place of my birth but my overall sentiments always culminated in a sense of resentment for this so-called superpower that has systematically aided in my people’s oppression, occupation and dehumanization.
That is, until present day. The scenes of American university campuses breaming with students in kuffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags and resisting the brutality of the police and their own university administrations, has uplifted my spirit in ways I cannot fully articulate. In a word, what is happening on US campuses today is validation of our people, of Palestine and of our struggle. To those who live comfortable lives in free countries, this may sound like an exaggeration, but for my people, who have been denied their very right to exist, who have been demoralized, demonized and dehumanized, this is huge. We are seeing students of all races, creeds, backgrounds and religions, calling for an end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip and marching for a free Palestine and divestment from the Israeli occupation. We are hearing Jewish voices, debunking Zionist propaganda and its below-the-belt attempts to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. We are being validated for our struggle, for our resistance against oppression, occupation and settler-colonialism and we are finally being heard and seen.
Students have always been the litmus test for social and political justice. Rallies and demonstrations on university campuses have been the driving force against imperialist wars throughout the ages, the Vietnam War being the best example. However, what is so incredible about this movement is that American students are not directly involved in Palestine. Students are not being drafted into an army to fight on foreign soil, so the stakes are not as high for them at the personal level. What is happening today is the direct result of the intersectionality of struggles and the belief that no one is free until all of us are free. This is a force far more powerful than a genocidal regime will ever be.
The scenes from university campuses in the United States and now in Europe, juxtaposed against the crushing images from the Gaza Strip, are a balm for our wounded hearts. We feel a kinship with these incredible Gen Zs who have put their very lives on the line for Palestine. We send them love, energy and solidarity as we watch them being thrown to the ground, handcuffed and arrested and we burst with pride as we hear them chant ‘Free Palestine”.
This is a moment in time that must not be squandered. May these American university protests spread like wildfire throughout campuses across the world, putting to shame both Zionism and American imperialism, which has allowed this racist ideology to survive. The Palestinians have never wavered in their determination to liberate their land from Israeli occupation and oppression, whether they do it alone or with the help of friends. Today, thanks to the beautiful people all over the world who have championed our cause alongside of us, a free Palestine is not only an inevitability, it is just around the corner.
Who will hear their screams?
Date posted: April 01, 2024
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
When Israel claimed women were sexually assaulted on a mass scale on October 7, the world exploded. Almost the entirety of Israel’s genocidal war was based on these and other allegations, many unsubstantiated. We all remember the infamous’40 beheaded babies” story, do we not?
This article is not about Israeli allegations per se, neither will it only focus on violations against Palestinian women. This is about a world that is immediately up in arms when one side merely alleges atrocities while it turns a blind eye to actual documented violations against the “other”.
In Gaza, it is painfully clear that we indeed, are ‘the other’. How else can anyone explain the muted cries of women being stripped, raped, starved and murdered practically in real time, on our phone screens, documented in UN reports and described in horrific detail in eyewitness testimonies? There is no other explanation than that Palestinians are what Arundhati Roy calls “Children of a lesser God”. We are the victims of deep-rooted colonialism, one whose geographic demarcations may have vanished but whose insidious, dehumanizing mentality still prevails and manifests in the ugliest of manners.
For nearly six months, Palestinians have endured unspeakable atrocities at the hands of Israel’s occupying army. Today, the Gaza Strip has been reduced to an emaciated shell of what it once was. As Gaza is being systematically decimated and ethnically cleansed, the world, for the most part, looks on. Barring sympathetic supporters and a few well-intended but timid political actors, nothing has been done to stop the carnage. Palestinians once believed there was no way the world would allow Israel to erase Gaza off the map, no way it could see a live-streamed genocide and do nothing. But that is exactly what is happening.
Then, when we thought things could not get any worse, something unfathomable emerged from the deathtrap of Gaza. When this happened, we were certain it would be the turning point in this hellish nightmare. Well-documented reports, corroborated by the UN and eyewitnesses on the ground, told of harrowing stories of sexual assault against Palestinian women in Gaza.
We were paralysed with horror when we heard of women being raped by Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza, assaulted and stripped in front of their families. What’s worse, we all know that in times like these, the undocumented atrocities will far outnumber those documented. Who knows what horrors will unfold once the dust settles in Gaza; no doubt they will be so horrific, our entire nation will be traumatized for years to come.
The real question here is not how Israel’s soldiers perpetrated such gross violations. I think by now we can all agree that this depraved military establishment and its political echelon to boot, has dehumanized and vilified Palestinians so much and for so long, they will justify just about anything. No, the question is more about the moral compass of the rest of the world. While alliances and political interests are always part of the equation, even when the issue pertains to basic human rights, nothing can better explain the blatant hypocrisy, double standards and loss of collective humanity than the deafening silence today.
Our women have not only been killed, starved and displaced, they have been exposed to the very violations that sparked global outrage and a genocidal war against an entire population under occupation, unprecedented in modern history. This is not only unacceptable, it is an indelible stain on humanity. Sexual violence is a crime so heinous it is imperative to condemn and prevent, no matter the perpetrator or the victim. That must always be the baseline in any argument.
Palestinians will never get past this genocide; it is not something you can come back from. However, be assured, this is not only about the Palestinians. The world’s women, the majority of so-called feminists who have remained disgustingly silent, must know this: when you do not stand up for women, all women, no one will stand up for you in your time of need.
A new day will come
Date posted: February 14, 2024
By Joharah Baker
I once heard that anger is not a real emotion, but a cover for other feelings such as sadness, disappointment or fear. You need to peel back that outer layer to understand what is really going on inside.
Strange how this has lately resurfaced for me, but I think I know why. Lately, I and surely, millions of other Palestinians, have been filled with a blinding rage -- at Israel, at the United States, and at the world overall. This is a rage that is all-encompassing, the depth of which is palpable at the cellular level, permeating every molecule and every atom of our being. The genocide in the Gaza Strip has grated our emotions raw and we are left stinging and burning from our head to our toes.
Our anger is like a huge magnetosphere and we are all trapped inside, but its walls are translucent and we can see the source of our rage mocking us from beyond. We Palestinians are angry because we are so disappointed and we are angry because we are disillusioned and we are angry because we are drowning in sorrow.
Our disappointment lies in the fact that the world has failed us in the worst possible way and has allowed the unspeakable to be committed against us. Genocide is the ‘mother of all crimes’ and, contrary to the promises, the conventions and the historical lessons the world was supposed to learn, it has been committed over and over again. The Palestinian genocide, however, is unique in at least one way: it is live-streamed, which means no one can claim ignorance and everyone has a responsibility in stopping it. Hence, our disappointment is not limited to countries, Arab or otherwise, or to international and human rights organizations. It has spread to everyone in our orbit; acquaintances and people we thought were friends, but whose silence towards our slaughter is a deafening betrayal. Our sense of disappointment has discolored every relationship it touches because every relationship for us is a dichotomy: you are either with or against genocide and either support Palestine in word and deed, or not.
Our anger is a thin veil concealing our disillusion with the international community and its institutions, supposedly established to protect people in situations precisely like ours. We have confirmed what we knew all along, that these organizations were constructed for some and not all, for colonial powers and not those who suffer beneath them. Even when the highest court in the land rules in our favor, the Global North ensures that its ruling will not be implemented to save us, the oppressed, indigenous brown people whose lives apparently do not matter.
And finally, our anger is a survival mechanism to shield us from our own grief. Our sorrow over the murdered men, women and children, defenseless, homeless, starving and shivering in the cold, is so deep, so immense, we ourselves cannot fathom it. If we dare peek behind this anger and truly feel a fraction of the aching in our hearts, it will paralyze us for sure, because no people can endure the magnitude and scale of such suffering and not lose their minds.
We Palestinians know we cannot let go and that a new day is near. We know we must hold on just a little bit longer, because Palestine depends on it. We are no strangers to oppression, suffering and sacrifice and we know the price of our freedom has and continues to be painfully high. Still, we also know that a life without shackles and the yoke of oppression around our weary necks is the only life worth living.
