These are trying times indeed for the 75 year old Palestinian president, who, not so long ago, was so revered by his people that any criticism from any quarter smacked not only of ingratitude for all he had sacrificed for the cause, but amounted to a denigration of the cause itself. Things, however, have changed. As opinion polls show with what must seem to President Arafat disheartening consistency, Palestinians have tired of the rampant corruption and lawlessness in the Occupied Territories, which, while they are quick to blame primarily on the debilitating effects of Israeli occupation and US support for such, they also increasingly blame on what they perceive to be President Arafat’s unwillingness to reform.
As the tumultuous events leading up to the crisis this weekend in Gaza have shown, stringent criticism of Arafat within Palestinian civil society is no longer limited to a few lone activists and intellectuals, but has now been taken up not only by the common man on the street but also by Arafat’s loyalists, friends, allies, and subordinates.
Censure Heaped Upon Arafat by International Community As Well:
While Israel and the US have long stuck to their line about Arafat being an “unsuitable” and “unreliable” “partner for peace,” and while both these countries have opportunistically used their criticisms of Arafat as justification for continuing unilaterally with the many brutalities of occupation, the same criticisms are now being leveled against Arafat by certain members of the international community who remain, at least ostensibly, committed to the Palestinian cause.
The Quartet is Impatient:
Three weeks ago, the Quartet diplomats who arrived in Ramallah to talk with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei about their beleaguered road map expressed, off the record, extreme impatience with what they called “Arafat’s empty promises.” According to some sources, these diplomats, representing the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the United Nations, went so far as to threaten to cut off all aid till the desired reforms in the security apparatus were made as envisioned by the road map.
Egypt is Disillusioned:
These statements were followed soon after by the demands made by the head of Egyptian intelligence, Mr. Omar Suleiman, who arrived in Ramallah in June as the emissary of President Hosni Mubarak, to work out the details of a possible “security role” for Egypt pending the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Mr. Suleiman reportedly strongly pressured Mr. Qurei to consolidate the various PNA security agencies by September, and issued a stringent timetable for doing so, which the PNA has thus far done little to implement. According to an anonymous Egyptian diplomat quoted by Reuters, "Arafat has done nothing or very little... there is total disillusion with the Palestinian Authority." Talks between Egypt and the PNA have since stalled, with Egypt declaring it sees no future role for itself in the Gaza disengagement plan given both Israel’s and the PNA’s intransigence.
UN Joins the Gang:
The somewhat muted criticism from Arafat’s Egyptian allies was followed last week by a full-fledged indictment by the UN special envoy to the region, Mr. Terje Roed-Larsen, who is generally understood to be, if not a personal friend, at least a staunch sympathizer of the Palestinian president and people. Mr. Roed-Larsen infuriated the PNA when he said, during a briefing to the Security Council last week, that “in terms of the crucial area of security reform, the President of the Palestinian Authority has lent only nominal and partial support to the commendable Egyptian efforts aimed at reforming the ailing Palestinian security services, consistent with the Road Map. Those efforts had the full support of the Quartet and the international community and represented the best, and probably the last, chance to salvage whatever remained of Palestinian security capabilities.”
While Mr. Roed-Larsen was careful to criticize Israel in equally strong terms, he singled out President Arafat in particular for censure. “The Palestinian Authority is in deep distress, and is in real danger of collapse", he said. Despite the anger generated by his comments among Palestinians, UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan staunchly backed his special envoy, and refused, in the face of intense Palestinian pressure, to disassociate himself from his criticisms and conclusions.
Palestinians are Furious:
While many Palestinians were angered by Mr. Roed-Larsen’s comments, the events in Gaza this weekend show how closely his criticisms have hit home. As violent protests against corruption and nepotism engulfed Gaza these past few days, the masked Fatah gunmen who marched through the refugee camps calling on their leader to reform – and who kidnapped, in the process, Ghazi al-Jabali, Gaza’s police chief, and Colonel Khalid Abu Aloula, Director of Military Coordination in southern Gaza -- may well have been acting on the unspoken desires of the still very unpopular UN special envoy.
No Longer Above Suspicion:
While the latest events still lack a clear denouement – Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei handed in his resignation yesterday only to withdraw it today; Arafat’s nephew Musa Arafat was placed in charge of the supposedly united security forces only to be demoted, hours later, under popular pressure; and the PNA continues to hold inconclusive talks -- the one thing that has become clear, despite the confusion of the day, is that President Arafat is longer immune to criticism from allies, friends, foes, and the common people of Palestine.
Whether the much-demanded reforms will ever take place is, at the moment, subject of much conjecture and wishful thinking. But that President Arafat, unlike Caesar’s wife, is no longer above suspicion, is clear. The Palestinian people – in their various assorted ways – have seen to that.
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.
