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.

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.

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.

When Sana, who comes from the West Bank city of Hebron, married her Jerusalem-born husband Mohammed 13 years ago, she never imagined their union would lead to a life of fear and hiding.

At first, their different residency permits -- hers for the West Bank, his for Jerusalem -- weren't much of an issue. She could live with her husband in East Jerusalem with a temporary permit, and movement between the city and the West Bank was still fairly easy.

But, with the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, travel restrictions gradually tightened until in 2003, Israel effectively stopped issuing Jerusalem residency permits to Palestinians in what caught Sana and Mohammed in an impossible bind.

Without an Israeli permit, Sana can't live in Jerusalem with her husband and children. But if Mohammed moves to the West Bank, he risks losing his Jerusalem residency and all access to the city of his birth.

Palestinians say it has never been easy to get a residency permit to move from the West Bank to East Jerusalem.

But in 2003, as the intifada raged on, Israel passed an emergency measure which effectively ended the process of "family reunification", citing security concerns.

Around the same time, Israel was also building a vast barrier through the West Bank which has since cut off most of East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied territories, making access to the Holy City without a permit even harder.

In 2005, when Sana's permit ran out, she received an order expelling her from Jerusalem.

"Since then, I've been living illegally with my husband and children in Jerusalem," the 31-year-old told AFP.

"I left Jerusalem for a short period, but then I snuck back in and began living in hiding with my husband and children, who have permits," she said.

Her life, she says, has become a nightmare of constant fear. Turning the corner in a certain neighborhood could bring her face-to-face with a security official who could send her back to Hebron, separating her from her children.

"I barely leave the house," she told AFP. "I only go out to go to the doctor or to meet my children's teachers. When I'm near an area with police or soldiers, I feel terrified.

"I'm constantly worried -- afraid that the police will raid our neighborhood and find me in the house and arrest me, expel me and keep me from my children," she said.

Hassan Jabareen, the founder of Arab-Israeli rights group Adalah, says the situation for people in Sana's position has worsened dramatically since 2003.

"A law was passed that prevents Israeli citizens from living as a family if they marry Palestinians from the occupied territories or citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria or Lebanon," he explained.

'We live isolated'

"The situation now is much worse than in the past. We petitioned the Supreme Court years ago but have yet to receive a ruling."

The emergency legislation has never been repealed and this past week, Israel's cabinet extended it for a further six months at the request of Interior Minister Eli Yishai.

The legislation affects two groups: Arab-Israelis married to Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza, and Jerusalem residents who marry spouses without permission to live in the city.

In a 2006 report, Israeli rights group B'Tselem found that Israel had refused to process more than 120,000 requests for family reunification. The group accused Israel of using the policy "to prevent the further increase of the Arab population in Israel in order to preserve the Jewish character of the state."

For Sana, the policy has meant missing both happy and sad family moments, including when her mother became sick with the cancer that would eventually kill her.

"I didn't go to visit her when she was ill with liver cancer because I feared losing my children if I couldn't come back from Hebron. I only went when she died," she said.

"My brothers got married and I couldn't go to their weddings. And when my father was admitted to hospital a month ago, I also didn't go to visit. He died a week ago and I only went on the day of his death. It was devastating."

She snuck back into Jerusalem by taxi, using back roads that are regularly patrolled by Israeli troops.

"On the way back I was feeling two things -- sorrow over my father's death and fear at the thought the soldiers might shoot at us," she admitted.

For Bethlehem-born Huda, 33, the life described by Sana is a familiar one.

She married her husband in Jerusalem 16 years ago, and was initially issued a yearly residency permit that allowed her to stay in the city.

But 10 years later, her husband was convicted by an Israeli court for his activities with Fatah, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas, and sentenced to five years in jail prison.

"They stopped issuing my permit and instead issued an order expelling me," she said.

Since then, Huda has been living illegally in Jerusalem, and speaks of having to "smuggle" herself back home after rare trips to Bethlehem to see her family.

"One time I was with a group of women in the mountains and we ran into an army patrol. They forced us to go back to Bethlehem... and they mocked us as we walked back, making herding noises like we were sheep."

Like Sana, she has been forced to keep her distance from her West Bank hometown.

"I don't visit my family except in cases of serious illness or a death because I know what I will face on the road. It's tragic, my family lives 20 minutes away by car and I can't visit them," she said.

"We live isolated. Neither my brothers nor my sisters visit us, whether the occasion is happy or sad."

Palestinians prefer the Western-backed government of Salam Fayyad to the sacked cabinet of Hamas premier Ismail Haniya, according to a survey published on Thursday.

The poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre, the first it has conducted since Hamas seized power in Gaza in mid-June, also found that respondents blamed Hamas for the deadly internal fighting that preceded the takeover, and support early elections, as called for by president Mahmud Abbas.

The majority of Gazans, however, feel their security has improved since the Hamas rout.

Fighters from the Islamist Hamas overran security forces loyal to Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah party, on June 15. Afterwards, the president fired the Hamas-led unity cabinet and appointed Fayyad, a respected economist, to head a government of independents, a move not recognised by Hamas.

When asked to evaluate the performance of the Fayyad and Haniya cabinets, 46.5 percent said Fayyad's was better, compared with 24.4 percent who said it was worse and 22.8 percent who said they were similar.

When asked who was to blame for the deadly factional clashes in Gaza that preceded the Hamas takeover, 43.5 percent said Hamas, 28.4 percent chose Fatah and 17.5 said both. The breakdown for respondents in the Gaza Strip was little different from the territories as a whole with 40.7 percent, 30.9 percent and 17.7 percent respectively.

When asked to describe the situation in Gaza after the Hamas takeover, 46.7 percent said it was worse, compared with 27.1 percent who said it was better, and 21.1 percent who said it had not changed. In Gaza, the figures were 45.2 percent, 34.1 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Some 57.4 percent of Palestinians support the idea of early polls as favoured by Abbas, compared with 37.6 percent who are opposed. In Gaza, 56.6 percent support early elections and 40.9 percent are opposed.

But 43.6 percent of Gazans said that their feeling about security is better following the Hamas takeover, compared with 31.4 percent who say it has become worse and 25 percent who say it has not changed.

The pollsters questioned 1,199 people between August 16 and 20 in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and gave a three-percent margin of error.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Ehud Olmert's popularity has dropped further according to a poll in which more than three quarters of those questioned said they were dissatisfied with the Israeli premier.

Seventy seven percent expressed their discontent with Olmert in the poll published on Ynet, the website of the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, on Wednesday.

A November poll showed 70 percent dissatisfied, compared with 68 percent in September and 40 percent in August.

In the latest poll, 47 percent gave Olmert "a very bad mark" for how he handles affairs, while 22 percent gave him "a good mark" and one percent "a very good mark".

Meanwhile, 62 percent said the prime minister was unable to face up to pressure, against 37 percent who said he could.

Finally, 80 percent said Israel had not carefully considered the consequences before declaring war on Hezbollah in Lebanon last summer.

Olmert and his government came under intense criticism over the war, which saw more than 160 Israelis and more than 1,200 Lebanese killed but which fell short of its goals of stopping Hezbollah from firing rockets into Israel and securing the release of the two soldiers.

Corruption probes are also haunting Israel's leadership, with Olmert's personal secretary, Shula Zaken, placed under house arrest Tuesday in the latest development.

GENEVA - Huge discrimination against women in the Arab world is holding back overall economic prosperity and social development in the region, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

“An Arab renaissance cannot be accomplished without the rise of women in Arab countries,” the “Arab Human Development Report 2006” said.

“Directly and indirectly, it concerns the well-being of the entire Arab world.”

The UN Development Programme’s report, which was compiled by Arab experts and academics, said countries in the region must give women more access to the “tools” of development, such as education and health care, and consider positive discrimination.

In many nations, women’s exclusion is enshrined in laws that specifically restrict their activities, even though the constitutions of most Arab states would provide a basis to eliminate bias, according to the report.

“The business of writing the law, applying the law and interpreting the law is governed above all by a male-oriented culture,” the report entitled “Towards the rise of women in the Arab world” said.

However, an opinion poll carried out for the report in four countries -- Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco -- indicated that a huge majority aspire to much greater degree of equality between men and women.

“A complex web of cultural, social, economic and political factors, some ambiguous in nature, keeps Arab women in thrall,” the report said, pointing to “cultural hangovers” and the way societies are structured to deal with education and the family.

Women’s rates of participation in economic activity in the Arab world are lower than in any other part of the world, the report said. Female unemployment rates are between two and five times higher than those of men in most Arab nations.

Less than 80 percent of girls attend secondary schools in all but four of the Arab nations, with the highest rates of deprivation in the less economically developed countries. One half of women are illiterate, compared to one third of men.

However, the report also highlighted some of the stark differences that exist within the Arab world.

In Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, more girls are enrolled at school than boys. Mediterranean Arab nations were frequently cited as providing more rights for women.

Most Arab countries -- except Gulf states -- granted women the right to vote in the 1950s and 1960s, and more governments have been appointing women ministers in recent years.

However, the proportion of women parliamentarians in Arab nations remains the lowest in the world, just ten percent, and female ministerial posts are often “symbolic”, the report said.

Some of its authors argued that mainstream currents of Islam were not the key factor hampering women’s empowerment, despite Western perceptions.

But the report called for a reopening of some Islamic jurisprudence to reflect the different dynamics of modern Arab societies and “fundamental Koranic verses that recognise equality and honour human beings”.

Conflicts, foreign occupations, terrorism and the dominance of ”conservative and inflexible political forces” protecting “masculine culture and values” were the biggest obstacles, it added.

Maternal mortality rates are “unacceptably high” in Arab nations, averaging 270 deaths per 100,000 and ranging from just seven per 100,000 in oil-rich Qatar to over 1,000 in impoverished Somalia and Mauritania, the report said.

In addition, women lose a larger number of years to disease compared to men in manner that is unconnected to wealth, risk factors, pregnancy or childbirth, indicating “general lifestyles that discriminate against women”.

Nonethless, World Bank data cited in the report showed that women were taking on growing economic importance in Arab nations. The female workforce has expanded by 5.0 percent over the past five years, compared to just 3.5 percent overall.