(Hanan Ashrawi’s daughter telling her story)

I am Palestinian - born and raised - and my Palestinian roots go back centuries. No one can change that even if they tell me that Jerusalem , my birth place, is not Palestine , even if they tell me that Palestine doesn't exist, even if they take away all my papers and deny me entry to my own home, even if they humiliate me and take away my rights. I AM PALESTINIAN.

Name: Zeina Emile Sam'an Ashrawi; Date of Birth: July 30, 1981; Ethnicity: Arab. This is what was written on my Jerusalem ID card. An ID card to a Palestinian is much more than just a piece of paper; it is my only legal documented relationship to Palestine . Born in Jerusalem , I was given a Jerusalem ID card (the blue ID), an Israeli Travel Document and a Jordanian Passport stamped Palestinian (I have no legal rights in Jordan ). I do not have an Israeli Passport, a Palestinian Passport or an American Passport.

Here is my story:

I came to the United States as a 17 year old to finish high school in Pennsylvania and went on to college and graduate school and subsequently got married and we are currently living in Northern Virginia. I have gone home every year at least once to see my parents, my family and my friends and to renew my Travel Document as I was only able to extend its validity once a year from Washington DC . My father and I would stand in line at the Israeli Ministry of Interior in Jerusalem , along with many other Palestinians, from 4:30 in the morning to try our luck at making it through the revolving metal doors of the Ministry before noon – when the Ministry closed its doors - to try and renew the Travel Document. We did that year after year. As a people living under an occupation, being faced with constant humiliation by an occupier was the norm but we did what we had to do to insure our identity was not stolen from us.

In August of 2007 I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC to try and extend my travel document and get the usual "Returning Resident" VISA that the Israelis issue to Palestinians holding an Israeli Travel Document. After watching a few Americans and others being told that their visas would be ready in a couple of weeks my turn came. I walked up to the bulletproof glass window shielding the lady working behind it and under a massive picture of the Dome of the Rock and the Walls of Jerusalem that hangs on the wall in the Israeli consulate, I handed her my papers through a little slot at the bottom of the window.

"Shalom" she said with a smile. "Hi" I responded, apprehensive and scared. As soon as she saw my Travel Document her demeanor immediately changed. The smile was no longer there and there was very little small talk between us, as usual. After sifting through the paperwork I gave her she said: "where is your American Passport?" I explained to her that I did not have one and that my only Travel Document is the one she has in her hands. She was quiet for a few seconds and then said: "you don't have an American Passport?" suspicious that I was hiding information from her. "No!" I said. She was quiet for a little longer and then said: "Well, I am not sure we'll be able to extend your Travel Document." I felt the blood rushing to my head as this is my only means to get home! I asked her what she meant by that and she went on to tell me that since I had been living in the US and because I had a Green Card they would not extend my Travel Document.

After taking a deep breath to try and control my temper I explained to her that a Green Card is not a Passport and I cannot use it to travel outside the US. My voice was shaky and I was getting more and more upset (and a mini shouting match ensued) so I asked her to explain to me what I needed to do. She told me to leave my paperwork and we would see what happens.

A couple of weeks later I received a phone call from the lady telling me that she was able to extended my Travel Document but I would no longer be getting the "Returning Resident" VISA. Instead, I was given a 3 month tourist VISA. Initially I was happy to hear that the Travel Document was extended but then I realized that she said "tourist VISA". Why am I getting a tourist VISA to go home? Not wanting to argue with her about the 3 month VISA at the time so as not to jeopardize the extension of my Travel Document, I simply put that bit of information on the back burner and went on to explain to her that I wasn't going home in the next 3 months. She instructed me to come back and apply for another VISA when I did intend on going. She didn't add much and just told me that it was ready for pick-up. So I went to the Embassy and got my Travel Document and the tourist VISA that was stamped in it.

My husband, my son and I were planning on going home to Palestine this summer. So a month before we were set to leave (July 8, 2008) I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC, papers in hand, to ask 2 for a VISA to go home. I, again, stood in line and watched others get VISAs to go to my home. When my turn came I walked up to the window; "Shalom" she said with a smile on her face, "Hi" I replied. I slipped the paperwork in the little slot under the bulletproof glass and waited for the usual reaction. I told her that I needed a returning resident VISA to go home. She took the paperwork and I gave her a check for the amount she requested and left the Embassy without incident.

A few days ago I got a phone call from Dina at the Israeli Embassy telling me that she needed the expiration date of my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card. I had given them all the paperwork they needed time and time again and I thought it was a good way on their part to waste time so that I didn't get my VISA in time. Regardless, I called over and over again only to get their voice mail. I left a message with the information they needed but kept called every 10 minutes hoping to speak to someone to make sure that they received the information in an effort to expedite the tedious process. I finally got a hold of someone. I told her that I wanted to make sure they received the information I left on their voice mail and that I wanted to make sure that my paperwork was in order. She said, after consulting with someone in the background (I assume it was Dina), that I needed to fax copies of both my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card and that giving them the information over the phone wasn't acceptable. So I immediately made copies and faxed them to Dina. A few hours later my cell phone rang. "Zeina?" she said. "Yes" I replied, knowing exactly who it was and immediately asked her if she received the fax I sent. She said: "ehhh, I was not looking at your file when you called earlier but your Visa was denied and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid." "Excuse me?" I said in disbelief. "Sorry, I cannot give you a visa and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid. This decision came from Israel not from me."

I cannot describe the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach. "Why?" I asked and Dina went on to tell me that it was because I had a Green Card. I tried to reason with Dina and to explain to her that they could not do that as this is my only means of travel home and that I wanted to see my parents, but to no avail. Dina held her ground and told me that I wouldn't be given the VISA and then said: "Let the Americans give you a Travel Document".

I have always been a strong person and not one to show weakness but at that moment I lost all control and started crying while Dina was on the other end of the line holding my only legal documents linking me to my home. I began to plead with her to try and get the VISA and not revoke my documents; "put yourself in my shoes, what would you do? You want to go see your family and someone is telling you that you can't! What would you do? Forget that you're Israeli and that I'm Palestinian and think about this for a minute!" "Sorry" she said," I know but I can't do anything, the decision came from Israel ". I tried to explain to her over and over again that I could not travel without my Travel Document and that they could not do that - knowing that they could, and they had!

This has been happening to many Palestinians who have a Jerusalem ID card. The Israeli government has been practicing and perfecting the art of ethnic cleansing since 1948 right under the nose of the world and no one has the power or the guts to do anything about it. Where else in the world does one have to beg to go to one's own home? Where else in the world does one have to give up their identity for the sole reason of living somewhere else for a period of time? Imagine if an American living in Spain for a few years wanted to go home only to be told by the American government that their American Passport was revoked and that they wouldn't be able to come back!

If I were a Jew living anywhere around the world and had no ties to the area and had never set foot there, I would have the right to go any time I wanted and get an Israeli Passport. In fact, the Israelis encourage that. I however, am not Jewish but I was born and raised there, my parents, family and friends still live there and I cannot go back! I am neither a criminal nor a threat to one of the most powerful countries in the world, yet I am alienated and expelled from my own home.

As it stands right now, I will be unable to go home - I am one of many.

So today is the third day of Eid Al Fitr that all Muslims worldwide celebrate right after the culmination of the month of Ramadan. Not sure if it’s only me, but Ramadan seems to have lost its glory. Years ago when I was a child, people’s attitudes towards both Ramadan and Eid (festival) were way different than now. Maybe I have grown up to the extent that I see in them nothing but the mere fact that few arrogant relatives come for a visit for a couple of minutes, and everyone just sucks them up.

It has been a gloomy day in deed. Being self-centered often times, I thought that my own family never enjoyed the Ramadan that other people celebrate. But the night prior to the Eid, I went for a drive to Ramallah with my uncle and three sisters, we toured around Al Manara and the mall a bit, and felt the legendary atmosphere. People were happy. That hit me; I am not accustomed to seeing them vividly preoccupied with the preparation for the big “day.”

So I came back home and wrote to all my contacts wishing them a Happy Eid and expressed my astonishment and satisfaction to see promising smiles in the crowded streets of Ramallah. But the sad part was that I knew it was merely fleeting moments and that those smiles would be wiped off soon. Not only have my fears become true, but I was blind. Yes, blind. Or may be I just chose not to see it. May be I wanted to believe that we are actually happy.

Would I miss Ramadan? NO. Not really. It has been made hell this year.

While Ramadan is believed to be the holy month during which people get closer to Allah by fasting from food and drink all day long and focus on their faith instead, I am not pretty sure this was the case with us Palestinians. It was only a drug. Ramadan numbed our pain. We could handle both the Israeli and Palestinian political, economic, and security pressure knowing that the day of salvation was approaching; the Eid. But after the three days elapsed, then what?

Now thousands of Palestinians are waiting for the next phase. It has been seven months now. Seven months, and thousands of the PA employees have not received their salaries. And two months elapsed with millions of students deprived form their right of education. I have three sisters and two brothers who do nothing but stay at home. They have not attended school from the very beginning of this term. It is both sad and frustrating that they have to “do the time” and pay a high price.

Reading the news headlines on the first days of Eid is not healthy at all. It lessens the effect of the drug, and one starts to get sober. Sounds funny in deed, but that was the case.

Few minutes ago, I surfed some of the blogs and came across few Iraqi bloggers writing on both Ramadan and Eid. If the titles did not mention “in Iraq,” I swear I could never tell the difference between Iraq and Palestine. The hunger, misery, constant killing, and lack of security are all Palestinian symptoms.

I am speechless now; I can hardly verbalize the so many conflicting thoughts. Heaven knows how things would be like next Ramadan, but I would not speculate it already. It is not time to worry about it now, other issues are on stake; food, money, and education. Until then, there are a lot of things to sort out.

Yesterday, I realized that I believe in love at first sight. Not the romantic kind, rather the sense of connecting with another human being without ever having to say a word. Indeed, the person I was so enthralled with last night was a five-month-old girl, who smiled at me and then hid her face in shyness. Those few moments of interacting with this baby lifted my spirits, but it also made me reflect in sadness about the fact that many children in this current conflict are robbed of their joy and their childhood.

I often contemplate how mature Palestinian children seem. Sure, they play the childhood games that we all played in our day, but there is wisdom in their words that is eerily sobering. Their age defines them as children, but if you have a conversation with a Palestinian child, you will realize how much awareness she has of the world around her, of suffering in the next village, in Gaza, in Lebanon. She is a child that has empathy and understands that life, by nature, is wrought with all sorts of difficulties.

A Palestinian child knows better; life is not as it is depicted in cartoons, where those who die are miraculously resurrected not once, but several times, where injuries are healed instantaneously, where death is a joke and life is a series of slapstick moments. A Palestinian child escapes into imagination, but she is never far removed from the reality of children and adults alike being indiscriminately shot outside her window, in her classroom, at the local bakery.

Who would have thought that normal things, simply walking down the street to grab a falafel sandwich, could result in your untimely death? Perhaps the Israeli army mistook the falafel stand for a bomb-making factory, or an ammunition shop? Make no mistake about it; the Israeli military have made too many “mistakes” that there is obviously a pattern there, wouldn’t you think?

A child that is robbed of the sense of security, therefore, is a child that is mature beyond her years. She knows that the bullets and the tank shells do not discriminate. Her father can shield her from the neighbor’s vicious dog, from the crazy drivers, he will hold her hand to cross the street, but he will not be able to capture a bullet in his hand like the mythological superheroes in blockbuster movies out this summer in theatres near you. He might be able to take the bullet for her though. But once gone, who will be her protective shield against the harsh reality of life that goes on in what seems the periphery of the conflict? And who will be there to share some of her joyous milestones; graduation, marriage, the birth of a child? Hers is a joy that is always overshadowed by a greater sorrow.

Is it fair that 31 Palestinian children have died in a 31-day period? A child-a-day; is that the new Israeli army mantra? Khaled was just a one-year-old, Aya was seven, Sabreen was only three. What lost potential, what lost promise – who knows what Khaled would have grown up to be? An astronaut? A veterinarian? A philosopher? What about Aya; she could have become a fashion designer, a teacher, a mother. By what right has this promise been so violently plucked and trampled upon cruelly and without a moment’s hesitation on the part of the Israeli soldier, who heartlessly unleashed a fiery rain of bullets and shells on a neighborhood as if he is in a simulated video game and those who die are fictitious and unreal? Perhaps that is what he is made to believe, otherwise, who in clear consciousness is so willing to pull the trigger and with one spray of bullets destroy life, potential and rob joy?

If you can see the smiling face of your own child, then how do you go out and unquestioningly take the life of others? If you value life, then how do you live with the burden of knowing that you have taken it so unjustifiably? Perhaps that is your perpetual punishment; the judgment of a child scorned is the harshest of them all.

Upon the initiative of the Egyptian President Husni Mubarak, leaders from Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority will hold a summit meeting in the Egyptian Sharm Al-Sheikh resort on Tuesday.

It is not clear whether the Tuesday summit is planned as a continuity or as a replacement of the planned for Monday Palestinian-Israeli summit.

The quartet summit, announced by Egyptian security Chief Omar Suleiman on Wednesday, follows the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli security cooperation.

The Egyptian Role:

While both Palestinians and Israelis has praised Egypt for its efforts to shore up a cease-fire agreement, the new Palestinian leadership worked to ensure that Egypt only play a protocol role in the shaping of the internal Palestinian truce agreement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted on finalizing the security understandings with main Palestinian resistance groups prior to departing for Egypt, signaling that Egypt, the big Arab brother, is welcomed to help, but that Palestinian internal affairs are limited to Palestinians.

Israel is forced to sollow an increasing in importance Egyptian role against its long standing desire to limit security issues to bilateral Israeli-Palestinian discussions.

In general Israel systematically attempted to escape allowing any serious level of involvement in political or security negotiations to any "third" party, with the exception of the involvement of its main ally the United states.

Yet, the crucially needed Egyptian role at the Egyptian-Gaza borders and the reported promise to return the Egyptian Ambassador to Tel Aviv were enough incentives for Sharon to accept joining a regional summit.

Why Jordan?

 Different from the "cold" peace with Egypt, Israel presents its peace treaty with Jordan as the example to be followed. Jordan and Israel went steps further in normalizing relations with no links to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is also very likely that Jordan will declare returning its Ambassador to Tel Aviv during the scheduled for Tuesday summit.

The Truce:

Most commentators believe that the planned summit would witness the declaration of a mutual truce, a step that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refrained from taking.

If declared, it will meet the main Palestinian resistance groups demand to turn the relative calm period into a comprehensive cease-fire.

The package of Israeli goodwill gestures to be presented in return to Palestinian steps implemented in the past few weeks to control the security situation are likely to be the most disappointing.

So far, Israel has approved the immediate release of 500 prisoners, almost matches the number of Palestinians arrested each month, with intentions to release 400 more in the coming 3 months. Yet, no prisoners "with blood on hand" will be released.

Fears that Abbas would face similar Israeli attitudes to the ones he faced when acting as the Palestinian prime minister are still residing within PA senior officials, especially as Abbas desperately need bold steps, which has a direct impact on life in the Palestinian territories, to combat the growing popularity of the Islamic opposition.

Israel has also approved the handover of some Palestinian West bank cities to PA security. Yet, removing mobility obstacles are still in the stage of talking and promising, nothing substantial has changed on ground.

The Absence of the U.S:

No indications were made by either side on whether the new U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who will be visiting the region very soon, would join the summit meeting.

The U.S. likely absence from such an important Middle east event could point to the fact that the U.S. is still wavering on the extent of its direct involvement in the current course of events.

What for:

As Palestinians and Israeli have almost concluded preparations for Sharon-Abbas summit, it is not fully clear whether the regional quartet summit is needed to hammer down few of the remaining unsettled points or a mere ceremonial one that all participants need to help promote moves taken, which are unpopular among their constituencies.

"Abbas stands in a difficult position: he needs to deal with an Israeli Prime Minister (Sharon) who doesn't hesitate to demand the impossible; respond to a U.S. president whose fantasies of a 'war on terrorism' are costing the Palestinian people heavily; and live with a domestic Islamic movement that is steadily growing in popularity and influence."

Beyond any doubt Hamas won big in the local elections for ten municipal councils in the Gaza Strip. The Islamist group won majority in seven of the councils, harvesting 77 seats out of 118, almost triple the number of seats Fatah, the so far described as the largest Palestinian group, gained.

The ten Gaza councils together with the 26 West bank councils were selected for the first round of local elections. Many, including few committee members believe that the selection of councils also considered Fatah’s influence.

Hamas celebrated its outstanding triumph, claiming that its participation drew an unprecedented turnout, close to 90%, hinting that its decision to boycott the presidential elections resulted in an extremely law turnout.

Indicators on Hamas’s growing popularity are extremely important for the Islamic movement.

Hamas is still debating participation in the slated for July legislative elections, but is already decided on joining the PLO institutions.

As the Palestinian legislative council is one of the Palestinian Authority institutions, which was established on the bases of the Oslo accords that Hamas in principle rejects, it is easier for the Islamist movement to join Palestinian decision making platforms through the doors of the PLO.

The new Palestinian leadership is working to also reform the PLO institutions. Being an organization that represents Palestinians across the globe, it is very likely that restructuring the PLO will happen on the assigned quota bases.

Hamas’s extraordinary triumph in local elections would strengthen its claims of being the largest Palestinian political movement, therefore is entitled to the largest quota of representation in all PLO institutions.

Also, it is very likely that the recent triumph would strengthen the “moderates” inside Hamas who are calling the movement to take part in the legislative elections.

Since established in the late eighties, Hamas managed to develop into a widely supported resistance movement with a strong social welfare program. Joining the national struggle and working to elevate the suffering of the densely crowded and poor Palestinian communities, gave a boost to the movement’s popularity, especially among the residents of refugee camps and poor cities neighborhoods; more in Gaza than the West bank.

Also, the drastic failure of the PA political and national program in the past ten years, combined with wide scale corruption and malfunctioning, helped Hamas to present itself as an alternative. Hamas’s triumph presents a serious challenge to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It sheds doubts over his ability to run his political and reforms programs. It shows that his political backbone, Fatah has lost much of its popularity and influence to the Islamist.

Abbas will not be able to ignore the election results; therefore, it is likely that he would refrain from rushing into moves which, however unpopular among Palestinians, are demanded by the Israeli government.

Abbas stands in a difficult position: he needs to deal with an Israeli Prime Minister (Sharon) who doesn't hesitate to demand the impossible; respond to a U.S. president whose fantasies of a 'war on terrorism' are costing the Palestinian people heavily; and live with a domestic Islamic movement that is steadily growing in popularity and influence

Most Palestinians were not eligible to vote in the recent Palestinian elections, because they are absentees, in a wide sense of that word. In the end, less than one million Palestinians cast their ballots. Outside Iraq, on the other hand, a small minority of absentees are vigorously encouraged to vote. In this way, and in others, Palestinians are – unwittingly or not – portrayed as a negligible quantity. However, there are in fact nearly eight million Palestinians, including refugees according to the UN definition of that term. They are still a vast majority in and outside Historic Palestine compared to the five million Israeli Jews. But they remain, in the foreseeable future, a fragmented nation.

The Bush administration seems to have forgotten why it went to war in Iraq. Let us remind the reader: in order to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction, and to pre-empt the use of these weapons by the former Iraqi regime. However, it did not find any, and after over one and a half years of vain searching (following over a decade of UN-led searches) – as well as other ‘mistakes’, including a very high civilian death toll and torture scandals – the US government has now come up with a mainly ‘retroactive’ reason for going there: to bring democracy and freedom to Iraq. As Seymour Hersh recently pointed out (The Coming Wars: What the Pentagon Can Now Do in Secret, New Yorker, January 19, 2005), the members of the new Bush administration have been picked to a large extent because of two publicly stated main government policy objectives: to win the war on terrorism and to bring democracy to the Middle East, objectives that were not on the official agenda when the first Bush administration was formed.

Is the democracy pledge a desperate Plan B, or just an exit strategy for the US in Iraq? Time will tell. What can be said now with a fair degree of certainty is that the upcoming Iraqi election will continue being used to justify the war.

As the USA and its coalition partners will claim credit for enabling these elections, whatever the outcome, there will no doubt also be many associations and comparisons made with the Palestinian presidential elections of two weeks ago. The latter have been styled by the west as the first-ever democratic elections in the Arab World. During the next few weeks we are thus likely to hear the following mantras in US government circles and media, and not only there: “We now know that Arabs can hold democratic elections”; “Democracy is spreading in the Middle East”; “We are on the right track: Israel, Palestinian Authority, Iraq, who’s next?”

It would perhaps be both prudent and instructive to reflect on the ideological importance of the Palestinian elections before they are used or abused for such purposes. The question that first comes to mind is: what do the Palestinian and Iraqi elections have in common? Obviously a great deal. Perhaps it is wiser to concentrate on how they differ.

Formally, the Palestinian Authority does not (yet) rule a state, as opposed to the Iraqi interim government. The main reason is that Israel militarily occupies the territory granted the Palestinians by the international community in 1947 and 1967, respectively. But Iraq is also under military occupation, also by powers with overwhelming military strength, so this difference, though formally important, appears to be less than essential. And the occupation troops are not going to be leaving Iraq on January 31. That is for sure. The Iraqi and Palestinian elections are thus both held under conditions of military occupation which severely limit their governments’ sovereignty and independence, and hamper a true democratic process.

The war in Iraq is a high-intensity war with hundreds of thousands of casualties so far. Last Thursday alone saw no less than four suicide attacks and at least 25 deaths. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on the other hand, is often referred to as a low-intensity war. But, obviously, this is a mere matter of degree. Tens of deaths have happened in a day here as well. The Israeli army’s ‘Days of Penitence’ operation in Gaza last year is not fundamentally different from the US assault on Falluja this winter. In sum, there have been hundreds of thousands of casualties here too. The ongoing US-led war in Iraq can be extended backwards in time to 1991, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to 1948. With hindsight, it is hard to say which one is the bloodier conflict.

The main difference between these elections does not seem so dramatic at first glance. Absentee votes did not take place in the Palestinian National Authority presidential elections. In just about every country with elections (whether democratic or not), absentee votes are extended to a minority group of people that remain citizens but are not present in the country during the general elections. With regard to Palestine, however, the majority of people, nearly five million people, are absentees. Many of them have acquired citizenship in other countries, a million in Israel alone. But many are denied citizenship altogether, for instance most of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. It would have made democratic and moral sense to let, at least, these stateless people vote in Palestinian elections, especially since Palestine is not yet a state, and also because they belong to no other state. Instead, there was no absentee voting at all in the PNA elections, not even the 8,000 Palestinians held by Israel as prisoners were allowed to vote. The inhabitants of east Jerusalem, however, were given the opportunity to vote with obstacles: Only 6,000 were allowed to vote in their home city, the rest of 125,000 east Jerusalem Palestinians eligible were forced to leave the city to vote. Moreover, the Israelis created “the appearance of an absentee ballot being cast in Jerusalem for sending to a Palestinian state that was ‘somewhere else’. Therefore, voting was carried out only in post offices…” (Gila Svirsky: A Tale of Two Elections, Miftah, January 11, 2005). Little by little, Israel is carrying out a blatant annexation of east Jerusalem in clear contradiction to international law. The voting and campaigning restrictions in east Jerusalem are an ideological and political part of this ongoing and illegal land grab.

The problem of absentee voting has wide connotations. One possibility of interpreting and justifying this peculiarity in Palestinian voting procedure starts from the fact that the vast majority of these refugees have never lived in the West Bank or Gaza. They were born in exile, and so they have no direct knowledge of the political situation. Nevertheless, they are directly affected by the policies and decisions of the new PNA president, and in return they influence PNA policy profoundly. Only yesterday, a senior Israeli official said that only an interim peace deal would be possible with the new PNA president, Mahmoud Abbas, since he holds final status issues such as the right of return of Palestinian refugees too sacrosanct.

On the other side of the ‘fence’, Israelis treat Palestinian refugees as non-existent, their rights as well. As Uri Davis pointed out in his book, ‘Apartheid Israel’ (London: Zed Books, 2003), “[U]nder Israeli law, any Jew throughout the world has the right of immediate immigration to, settlement in and citizenship of the State of Israel after an alleged forced absence of 2,000 years, but the displaced Palestinian Arab refugees of 1948 and their descendants – some four million people today – are denied the same right, in violation of international law and United Nations resolutions, although their [undeniably] forced absence is less than 60 years. The Israeli legislator does not recognize the term ‘refugee’ as far as the Palestinian Arab is concerned.” (pg. 100) Instead, Palestinians are divided into two classes by Israeli law, ‘present’ and ‘absent’. Those who are absent, moreover, have no right to their own property, otherwise a universal and basic human right, which in Israel has been confiscated by the so-called ‘Custodian of Absentees’ Property’, and has been and still is handed out to immigrant Jews instead. According to Davis, absentees are people who do not exist in the eyes of Israeli law.

The class of ‘absentees’ even includes 250,000 Palestinians, a quarter of all Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who live in the state of Israel, so-called ‘present absentees’ (if this expression does not baffle you, look up ‘oxymoron’ in the dictionary), who also lack the right to their own property under Israeli law. These are people who were internally displaced during the 1948-49 war, the vast majority of them non-combatants, and their descendants. Similarly, Palestinians in Lebanon are not only denied Lebanese citizenship, but work permits and a host of other rights extended to other foreigners.

Although many Palestinians who were not eligible in the PNA elections do have the vote in other countries, they are being discriminated against in many of those other countries, and therefore a dual citizenship option with the possibility of voting in future Palestinian Authority elections would perhaps not be a bad idea. An even better idea would be to implement the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, as international law demands, but Israel refuses to let this happen.

With regard to the title of Uri Davis’ book: The present stage of Palestinian democracy is much more developed than any semblance of democracy that the South African Bantustans ever achieved, but the PNA areas are otherwise Bantustans. The Israelis have been practicing apartheid (oppressive separation) against Palestinians from the very start, from 1948, but the parallels with the crime against humanity perpetrated against a black indigenous majority in South Africa are becoming even more obvious than before in Historic Palestine. According to Yossi Alpher (‘Demography Tops Territory in New Strategic Calculus’, Forward, January 8, 2005), most Israelis now believe that territory does not necessarily provide security (for them), “especially when it [the territory] comes with millions of Palestinians”, and so Israelis now prefer to implement and enforce an oppressive separation (e.g. by means of an illegal wall) that already far exceeds most aspects of South African apartheid in intensity.

It therefore comes closer to ethnic cleansing than South African apartheid ever did, except during the 17th-18th century genocide of Khoikhoi people in the Cape. A new Israeli demographic study, carried out with a far-right agenda, and presently being circulated among US lawmakers and other influential people, states that there as many as 1.5 million Palestinians ‘missing’ from the occupied territories. The Palestinian Authority’s own figure is 3.8 million, but the new ‘study’ claims there are only 2.4. The strategy here is to discourage the creation of a Palestinian state, since Palestinians are allegedly already doomed to minorityhood in Historic Palestine. This strategy implies further conquest, division, expulsion, and killings.

The comparison with Iraq is of no use here. The war there resembles a colonial war of conquest. If present trends continue, Iraq is likely to end up, though, as a neocolonial dependency. In any event, Iraq is not being settled aggressively by invaders from afar who claim it is their home.

In the end, the bewildering situation in which Palestinians now find themselves is in the aftermath of an election in Palestine where only 45 per cent of eligible voters voted under foreign military occupation for a president of a country without sovereignty, and where the vast majority of nationals were not even eligible – an election which is nevertheless hailed in western countries and elsewhere as being the first democratic elections in an Arab country, ever. Paradoxically, they were essentially democratic, thanks to Palestinian and EU and UN efforts, but they were also essentially undemocratic, especially thanks to Israeli efforts.

Participation:

Around 41% of all eligible Palestinian voters voted in the presidential elections, yet they constitute 71% of registered voters.

In practice, the Palestinian legislative council decision to allow the ones who did not register to vote according to the civil registration data base in 72 opened voting stations, and the decision of the central election committee to extend voting for two hours, allowing voters to use their Identity Cards as the only identification check, did not help to raise the voters’ percentage, but only help arose doubts of possible frauds.

Hamas call for boycotting elections played no role in the low turnout rate. In reality, being interested in at least local councils elections, Hamas urged all of its members and supporters to register, yet only 61% of eligible voters registered.

As a high percentage among registered voters, around 71%, voted, then Hamas can’t claim that people did not arrive at ballot stations because of Hamas’s call.

In fact, the main reason for the low turnout in registration was due to the fact that when registration centers were opened, people did not trust that there will be any elections. As well, the continued Israeli incursions in certain areas, such as Nablus and Rafah, did not allow for registration centers to be open long enough to register voters. Finally, the Israeli objection to opening registration centers for the 120,000 Jerusalemite eligible voters contributed significantly to the low turnout.

As it appears to be, the civil registration data base, which was handed to the PA by Israel was extremely problematic. According to the Palestinian central election committee, names were translated from Hebrew, therefore did not match the real Arabic names of persons, the issue that created a stall in most of the 72 voting stations allocated for non-registered voters.

Palestinians explained that as the data base is shared between the PA and Israel, Israel refused to allow the PA interior ministry to update the data base, therefore, around 300,000 names were handed last minute to PA, translated from Hebrew and disorganized.

Hundreds of Palestinians who arrived at such ballot stations could not find their names in the passed data base, therefore, election committee decided to allow voting based on Identity Cards only.

No doubt that the expected extremely low turnout in Jerusalem came due to “intentional disruptions” that even former U.S. President Jimmy Carter protested against.

PLO Head Mahmoud Abbas did win the race with 62% of the registered voters, yet his opponents can claim that he won the vote of less than 40% of all eligible voters. As the West bank and Gaza Strip Palestinians are less than 50% of the total Palestinian population, they can also claim that he still lacks the popular backing needed to make concessions in the name of Palestinians.

Nevertheless, according to international standards, Abbas has been elected as the new PA chairperson in open, fairly transparent, and democratic elections.

Democratic Election:

Even when the legislative council decision to approve the usage of the controversial civil registration data base created a certain level of confusion and arose doubts over possible frauds, in general Palestinian elections were run to the standard held in advanced countries with a long democratic histories.

Palestinians are rightly proud of their ability to run free and democratic elections even while living under occupation, but should be more proud that the environment in which elections were held was almost free from any tension or violence.

According to most international observers, not only third world countries have much to learn from the Palestinian experience, but also western democracies.

An Egyptian observer commented on Palestinian elections by saying that all Arab countries need to learn from the Palestinian experience. “What we have in most Arab countries is a joke compared to the Palestinian experience” he said.

Lessons Learned: Most important lesson to be learned is the fact that Palestinians are calling their political factions to modernize and implement reforms.

The phenomenon of Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi is worth of careful examination. 20% of registered voters voted for him as compared to around 3% only voting for representatives of well established political PLO factions such as DFLP and PP.

In reality, the candidacy of Dr. Barghouthi brought back to the Palestinian political map the progressive movement, which was for long marginalized due to internal fragmentations, the recent conservative wave that swept the Palestinian society, and being seen as a shaky shadow for the PA affiliated Fatah movement.

Barghouthi managed to make a fairly strong comeback for progressive secular Palestinians. Right now, it could be claimed that the Palestinian society is politically and socially divided into three main powers; an authority party (Fatah), the Islamic movement, and the progressive movement.

Around 25% Palestinian registered voters voted for representatives of progressive secular movements.