Sometimes the worst kind of prison is the one you have to wake up to everyday. The Israeli occupation forces are turning Palestinian towns and villages into virtual prisons. Innocent Palestinian civilians are being treated as criminals and 'terrorists' by the Israeli army and are having their fundamental rights stripped away from them. The Israelis seem to adopt a policy of 'guilty until proven innocent', with most of the time shooting to kill before even determining the supposed guilt of the Palestinian victims. While all these Israeli violations of international law continue, the US government seems to think it is the Palestinians who are causing terror and disrupting the lives of Israeli citizens. Recently, President Bush blamed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict solely on the Palestinians, while failing to mention any of the injustices the Israelis have committed against the Palestinian people.
On August 28, 2001, Israel occupied Beit Jala in the West Bank as Israeli troops with armored vehicles and bulldozers drove into Virgin Mary Street supported by helicopters and turned the town into a maximum-security prison. The Israeli occupation forces surrounded the area with barbed wire and erected military watchtowers. They then went on to seize ten buildings and rooftops, among them a compound, consisting of a five storey hostel and an orphanage, owned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Chile Girl's school, a community center and private homes such as Bashir Kharoufeh's house.
The Israeli army used these buildings as bases, where they set up heavy machine guns. In the Lutheran compound the Israeli army placed sandbags covered in camouflaged netting on the windows and took the keys to the church at gunpoint from Khaled Musalem, director of the orphanage. The 45 children, ages ranging from 6-17 years old, living in the orphanage were forced to spend most of their time in the basement laundry room. Khaled Musalem reported that the Israeli army used the children as human shields, since such an act would deter the Palestinians from shooting at them.
With regards to Bashir Kharoufeh's house it was completely toiled from inside out as 30 soldiers took it over. The Israeli soldiers camped out on the floor and used the family's beds and bathroom, leaving them in a disgusting state. Coffee was spilled all over the sitting room and the house was littered with army canteens, half-eaten tins of corn and olives and Hebrew newspapers. Kharoufeh's back door was wrecked as the soldiers smashed the glass panes to forcibly enter the house, potted plants were destroyed and dining chairs were ruined by Israeli soldiers who used them while looking out of the sandbagged windows. The soldiers pulled out the phones leaving the family isolated from the world, as their private property was no longer in their possession. They were imprisoned by the Israeli army in a single room in the house and allowed only the occasional visit to the bathroom or kitchen. This was how Bashir Kharoufeh, his Spanish wife and a neighbor, along with those in the exact situation, spent 50 hours. Others were forced to stay indoors as Israeli soldiers shot in the air and pounded on doors, ordering a round the clock curfew on the residents of Beit Jala.
The Israeli occupation forces then went to work as they razed eight houses using armored bulldozers. Ten tanks as well as other armored vehicles strolled through the streets of Beit Jala, driving over parked cars, as they destroyed the town's roads with the scratches left by the tanks. The Israeli troops pointed their guns threateningly at anyone who came close. Then they started breaking down doors, and snapping locks looking for Palestinian gunmen. They also cut the electricity, causing a blackout.
When they finally withdrew, as a result of intense pressure from the international community, Beit Jala was left in a state of rubble. Many buildings were torn down or severely damaged from shelling, parked cars were crushed and trees uprooted. To the Israeli occupation forces this was all in a couple of days work, as they looked forward to returning to their clean and safe houses after the withdrawal.
The incursion on Beit Jala was of particular significance as it was the longest, but such actions are common practice for the Israeli occupation forces that have reoccupied many Palestinian areas, which they had given up in the 1993 Oslo Accords. During these incursions the towns and villages are turned into prisons, with lights out at certain hours, no phone line so in effect no phone privileges, the residents are imprisoned in their houses, unless they are in a particularly strategic part, in which case, they are imprisoned in a single room (cell). Should any one dare to escape the prison, there are military watchtowers with Israeli soldiers ready to shoot and kill the escaping 'convicts', who have committed no crime other than wanting to survive and get on with their lives.
As Israel continues to use excessive force against Palestinian civilians and militia alike, assassinate Palestinian political activists, raze houses, cut off water and electricity, restrict Palestinian movement and humiliate Palestinian civilians at checkpoints under the defense of 'security' for Israel, the US continues to find the Palestinians responsible and the Israelis vindicated for carrying out these actions. The other Western countries seem to turn a blind eye most of the time to Israeli violations of the Palestinian people as well as international law. One can only hope that in the wake of the World Conference Against Racism and the new declaration by more than 3000 non-governmental agencies that Israel is an 'apartheid state', the US, which sent only a junior official to the conference, will realize that they are blaming the oppressed rather than the oppressor. Unfortunately, such a hope is wishful thinking and will sadly remain unrealized as America continues to be fully committed to its strong alliance with Israel.
Believing in Jerusalem
Date posted: May 27, 2013
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Last week, Israel barred a UNESCO fact-finding mission from entering the country, charging that the Palestinians had ‘politicized’ the mission before it had even arrived. The mission was tasked with looking into conditions of historical sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, something Israel apparently found to be very threatening.
Looking at the state of Jerusalem’s eastern sector today, it is understandable why Israel would not want UNESCO or anyone else walking around the Old City, especially the Palestinian-populated parts of it. Because anyone who does, will see the devastation that Israel and its settlers have wreaked on one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world.
Excavation works are being conducted in and around the Aqsa Mosque to make way for more Jewish construction at the place where Waqf authorities say Ottoman and Abbasid artifacts have long been tucked away. A Muslim graveyard is being dug up just outside the Old City’s Jaffa Gate, to build – ironically – a museum of tolerance. Today, two stores were forcefully taken over by Jewish settlers in Al Hakari, one of the neighborhoods in the Muslim quarter and every day, it seems that more and more homes are either being demolished by Israeli municipality authorities or being taken over by Jewish settlers.
The “Judiazation” of Jerusalem is a term many Palestinians and Arabs use for what Israel is doing in the city. In a nutshell, it is the long-term plan Israel is gradually carrying out to change the Arab Palestinian character of Jerusalem. This means demolishing old and historical structures, displacing Palestinians, handing over their homes to settlers and trying to erase the Palestinian or Arab history of the city.
The sad truth is that, on the surface, Israel has succeeded in this to a large extent. Pockets of Jewish settlers now live in the heart of Muslim quarters and aim to take over more and more. Sheikh Jarrah, one of the more affluent Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem, is now pierced with Jewish flags waving from homes that have been wrestled from their Palestinian owners, and Israel’s light rail train cuts right down through Palestinian neighborhoods outside of the city center. The train, of course, is not meant to service the Palestinian population but rather to connect Jewish neighborhoods and settlements in the city, but the area confiscated from Shufat and Beit Hanina for its construction simply fell into the plan.
What the UNESCO mission would not have seen even if they made it into the Old City is the overall humiliation that the Palestinian population of Jerusalem must endure on a daily basis because of Israel’s military occupation. Trips to the Israeli ministry of interior must be made just to prove that one lives in the city for fear that their residency rights may be revoked; young Palestinian men are stopped randomly by Israeli soldiers to check their ID cards or just to harass them, and settlers are always given the luxury of maximum security whenever they walk the streets. If settlers want to march through the city, the Palestinians are told to close their shops, are barred for hours from reaching their homes if they run along the path of the march and are always the ones blamed if any kind of confrontation between the two sides breaks out.
Jerusalem is being squeezed by these measures more and more each day. But there is always that glimmer of hope, that strength that shines through proving that all is not lost. On Shavuot, Israeli settlers and extremists poured into the Old City, singing loudly, banging on the shop doors and waving huge Israeli flags. The sight was disconcerting to say the least. However, the afternoon of that same day, at Damascus Gate, passersby were met with a completely different scene. Palestinian flags waved in determined Palestinian hands under the threatening eye of heavily armed Israeli police and soldiers. The youths were fearless, demanding freedom, with strong, unrelenting voices.
The sight of the Palestinian flag waving at the entrance to Damascus Gate was a breath of fresh air. All is not lost and never will be because hope is eternal and determination and strength come from a never-ending spring.
That day at Damascus Gate is what all Palestinians must keep in their minds’ eye in spite of the daily oppression of the occupation. No matter how many missions Israel bars from entering or how many houses it takes over, there will always be those brave souls who, despite the risks, will always raise Palestine’s flag.
Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
Let Mohammed rest in peace
Date posted: May 20, 2013
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
There is no point falling into the pit of countering the claims being made about the death of Mohammed Al Durra, the 12-year old boy from Gaza whose videotaped killing was seen around the world. The boy, crouching in fear behind is equally afraid father as bullets whizzed around them, was killed admittedly by the Israeli army. Later, the army recanted after investigating the tape, saying Durra was killed by Palestinian fire instead. Well now, Israel is changing its story altogether, saying he was not killed at all. In fact, he was probably not even wounded and the French channel that broadcast the footage and brought some pretty bad rap to Israel, had most likely filmed a charade.
The reason why I will not waste my time countering this claim is that even with the great lengths the Israeli government went to to prove that the boy was never killed, it could not provide any irrefutable proof that Mohammed Al Durra – who would be 25 now – is still alive. No pictures, no testimonies, no hospital or morgue officials giving statements to refute his death, have been provided. Only sketchy information about ‘poor quality footage’ and the fact that it seems as though the boy moved his arm after he had slumped over his father following the explosion.
My point is this: indeed, Mohammed Durra’s death was at least one of the catalysts that fueled the second Intifada, and thus, was an important event in the history of the Palestinians. However, more importantly – most importantly to me –is the fact that this is about a boy who died in sheer terror, with his distraught father futilely trying to shelter him from the barrage of bullets coming their way.
Mohammed Al Durra was a boy, with a life, a family and friends. He died a horrible death and now he is being made to die a second one. I did not know Mohammed or his family, but I can only imagine how awful it must be for them to read these claims now and feel the pain of losing their child all over again. If nothing else, this is disrespect for human life of the worst kind.
Some may postulate that the rehashing of the Durra case is a personal jab at the French cameraman who shot the footage, Charles Enderlin. Perhaps. But as a Palestinian who has seen the pain endured by numerous families who receive the horrible news that their sons or daughters have been killed by the Israeli army, my concern is for his family and for his memory. He should be left to rest in peace. If Israel has axes to grind with French journalists or with the international community for holding it accountable for its actions, then so be it. Israel is not lacking in the public relations department.
That being said, there is just one decent thing left to do. Leave Mohammed Al Durra and his memory alone.
Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
Recognition and justice is our demand
Date posted: May 13, 2013
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
This week Palestinians will commemorate Al Nakba, the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people when Israel was founded. Every year, Palestinians hang placards pointing to the right of return, they carry keys symbolizing the homes they were forced to leave and could not return to and remember the Palestine that was lost to them 65 years ago.
This year will be no different. Every May 15, Palestinian recall their catastrophe and demand justice. They demand that they are granted the right of return for those who were made refugees virtually overnight and were then relegate to a life they did not choose. But more than anything, they demand recognition of the tragedy that befell them rather than a denial that it ever happened, or worse, that it was of their own making.
It has been 65 years since Israel was established in 1948, which means those who were cast into exile are either very old or have long passed. Those who experienced the Nakba are now few and far between, clinging to those few precious memories of a small garden in front of their house in Jaffa or of the salty smell of the sea in their neighborhood in Haifa. The rest of us are either descendants of these refugees or ordinary Palestinians who feel their cause is our cause because we are one people.
But the Palestinians have made one thing clear. The refugee issue will not die with the last refugee. It is felt nationwide, the loss, the injustice and the fact that those who were forced from their homes have mostly passed, longing for their beloved homes.
We cannot turn back time. What was lost has been altered, destroyed, changed or taken over by Israel’s newcomers. What we can do is hold on to the right to be recognized, for the injustice to be rectified in word and deed and for Palestine to never be lost in our minds or hearts.
Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
