A new era has supposedly begun in the Middle East. The quest for finally striking a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, at least at face value, looks better than at any point in history. However, the quest of peacemaking must be accompanied by tangible, constructive actions from both parties. Since the death of President Arafat on 11 November, there has been a positive buzz permeating the international media. Shuttle diplomacy has been revived between the concerned parties and the Mideast Quartet, with numerous government officials coming and going, the ‘road map’ to peace has been inflated into a boulevard map.

Scores of government and international officials have been most pleased and thrilled by the conduct of the Palestinian National Authority. The PNA was presented with the equivalent of three entrance exams, so as to rejoin the peace-building arena. The three tests were:

1. Transitional period following the death of President Arafat
2. Palestinian elections (presidential, parliamentary and municipal)
3. Striking a ceasefire deal that incorporates all Palestinian factions

To begin with, the mysterious death of President Arafat came as a genuine shock to the Palestinian people and its political establishment and to many others in the world. Despite the predictable degree of uncertainty and apprehension that accompanies any structural transition, the post-Arafat era exhibited very positive indicators in both the spheres of nation-building and peacemaking. For example, there were many who thought that, with the vacuum of power and authority that Arafat left, Palestine was heading towards a state of anarchy or, even more so, to a dreaded and utterly useless civil war. However, the Palestinians and in particular the PNA proved and responded very maturely, perhaps even far ahead of their time.

The second test for the Palestinians came in the form of staging much needed and comprehensive elections. Two of three stages of elections have commenced, and up until now the democratic process has been hailed by the international media as a milestone in the modern history of the Arab world. Even though the elections were not entirely free (due mainly to the Israeli occupation), nor with a high voter turnout, the essence of the argument is that despite all obstacles the elections were carried out successfully. In terms of the democratic values and process, the elections were monitored by numerous governmental and non-governmental special envoys to the region who had only positive remarks/comments to make about the elections.

The third and seemingly most difficult test that the Palestinian political establishment has had to face was and is the search for a genuine truce encompassing all the Palestinian factions without alienating any one group. Added to this is the difficulty involved in undertaking the endeavor of striking a ceasefire deal under the current state of military occupation. A paradoxical aspect of this is that while people living under occupation have the inherent international legal right to resist occupation with all means at their disposal, (according to UN General Assembly resolution 3103, article 51 of the UN Charter, and the rights and duties of people living under occupation as stipulated in the Fourth Geneva Conventions), members of the international community along with Israel pressured the Palestinians into accepting a "cessation of violence" as the prerequisite for negotiations that would eventually lead to the independence of the State of Palestine. At the same the Palestinians were vainly trying to pressure the international community along with Israel to bring about a cessation of Israeli violence against Palestinians. The prerequisite for the peace process, it seems, is a suspension of international law, solely in favour of Israel. As on many previous occasions Israel is acting above international law.

It takes two to tango! With the Palestinians side fulfilling its international responsibility and obligations, taking the genuine initiative of confidence-building measures so as to prove its intent and good will, the PNA until this moment has been left to tango without a partner. At face value, Israel has reciprocated the Palestinian initiative. For the past three weeks many goodwill gestures and pledges have been proposed from the Israeli side, however, sadly enough, with absolutely nothing whatsoever changing on the ground for the average Palestinian living under this gruesome, unjust, and prolonged occupation.

In terms of peacemaking, Israel's record is quite shameful for a state that considers itself the only democracy in the Middle East. There has been no easing of restrictions on movement between Palestinian towns: curfews still remain, dehumanization at checkpoints is still a daily routine experience for Palestinians, the daily killing of Palestinians with impunity continues, the resumption of the construction of the illegal ‘Apartheid Wall’ with blessings from Israel’s supreme court, the threat of the continued existence of the highly racist “Absentee Property Law’, the prohibition of West Bank residents entering occupied east Jerusalem, the proposed and partly already enforced law of only allowing Jerusalem ID holders entrance to the West Bank with an Israeli permit grant, and finally the continued and horrific onslaught that has now plagued Gaza for just over four years.

It takes two to tango! If the time is ripe, as the international media are trying to stress, it is high time for Israel to take concrete steps of firstly building confidence, and secondly reciprocating the PNA’s enthusiastic preliminary moves, and finally sitting down and negotiating with its Palestinian counterparts in order to bring to an end to the pain and suffering this conflict has brought to millions (both Palestinians and Israelis). The road ahead is no easy path, but surely an endeavor worth embarking on for both sides, as well as for the world at large.

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.