On April 20, the Cable Network News International (CNNI) ran a heart-warming story about a Jewish settler in the Gaza Strip. Avi Farhan is a religious Jewish settler who is about to be forced by the state of Israel to move a second time. In 1982 he was forced out of a settlement in Sinai after Israel had agreed to return the peninsula to Egypt in exchange for a peace agreement. Now, he is about to be forced away from his new home of 23 years due to Israel’s unilateral Gaza ‘disengagement’ plan. But Farhan likes his home and his restaurant so much that he is considering giving up his Israeli citizenship – though not his Jewish faith - and applying for Palestinian citizenship, in order to remain after the pullout from the illegally occupied territory, scheduled for July. The Palestinian National Authority has announced its willingness to let him stay and apply for citizenship.
The story – a segment of ‘Insight’ with Jonathan Mann, with John Vause reporting from Gaza – shows an enormous potential for peace, tolerance, and co-existence, beyond religious, national, political, and ethnic boundaries. Farhan, 58, says he has many Palestinian friends, as does his 25-year-old son, who is also willing to stay. But they both curse the violence of the last four-and-a-half years that has separated them not only from their Palestinian friends but also from business. The restaurant is not operating; there are no visitors from Israel, nor fish deliveries from the Palestinian fishermen.
Farhan emphasizes that he will not take up Palestinian citizenship at any price. He expects to be able to vote for political representation of his choice and that he will also be able to run for office himself. This winter, though, Palestinians proved to the world, for the second time since 1996, that these preconditions are already in place.
There are, moreover, already as many as a couple of thousand Palestinian Jews, both secular and religious, some old-timers and some new arrivals. There is even Rabbi Moshe Hirsh, who is a member of the Palestinian National Council and the unofficial Palestinian ‘Minister for Jewish Affairs.’ And conversely, there are 1.4 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, without whom, among many other things, Israel would no longer be in the running for qualification for the soccer world championships next year.
But how important are the Palestinian Jews? Aside from the fact that Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are discriminated against in numerous ways by the self-styled ‘Jewish State,’ there is a moral high ground occupied by the PNA, which has never defined itself as anything but a secular body. Moreover, the Palestinian National Council and the Palestinian Liberation Organization have never expressed any desire for national independence other than with a secular state. Like the African National Congress, the umbrella anti-apartheid organization in the former South Africa, there is no reverse racism in the liberation policy. These are facts that Israel is unwilling to admit or acknowledge, and they are also reasons why Israel is preposterously postponing the establishment of a Palestinian state. This asymmetry will shame Israel.
But there is another asymmetry that must not be forgotten in this context. Farhan is of course a very untypical, though not entirely unique, settler. This is how Nehemia Strasler of the Israeli daily Ha’aretz referred to the Gaza settler community Friday, in general terms:
“A group of 7,500 people turned the life of the 1.3 million Arabs into a hell. They appropriated a large percentage of the land and the water and cut off the residents of Khan Yunis from the sea. The roads are for Israelis only; the local residents travel on twisting dirt roads strewn with roadblocks. The occupation has caused an employment rate of 60 percent! One factory in the settlement of Kfar Darom (an enclave inside the Dir al-Balah refugee camp) uses more water to wash bugs out of lettuce than all the drinking water allotted for the residents of the refugee camp. Apartheid at its most shameful. The farmers of Gush Katif are demanding an increase to the compensation offered them. They have forgotten the generous government assistance they received when they came to the Gush: Grants, loans and free land. Nor are they talking about what pains them the most: The cost of labor. At present, they pay residents of Khan Yunis who work in their hothouses NIS 40 for a long and hard day's work: Shameful exploitation in conditions of slavery. When they move northward they will be forced to pay the minimum wage.”
It is important to keep both the big picture and the counterexample of Farhan in mind simultaneously. CNNI dismally failed to make this clear in its cute story. Is Farhan ready to pay rent for the land he occupies, and has occupied for 23 years? These questions are ignored by CNNI. In the Gaza settler community, there is much greed, but also a little generosity. There is much injustice – past and present – emanating from this community, but also a reason or two for hope.
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.
