Your Excellency Secretary General
Mr, Antonio Guterres,

On the 22nd anniversary of UNSC Resolution 1325 and the annual open discussion at the Security Council for the advancement of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, the Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition for the Implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 would like to bring your attention to the fact that the suffering of Palestinian women living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has unprecedentedly escalated since this resolution was passed, due to the Israeli occupation’s ongoing, hostile policies, systematic violations of human rights and grave breaches of international humanitarian law that are disproportionally impacting women and girls in the OPT. These violations include extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, restriction on movement, military blockades, house demolitions, land confiscation and illegal de-facto and de-juri annexation, in addition to the ongoing isolation of areas of the OPT from one another. This has had both individual and collective impact on the lives of women, impeding their access to resources, compounded by the deteriorating economic situation due to the occupation’s control and dominance over land and resources. Added to this is the rise in poverty levels due to unemployment, military blockade on the Gaza Strip for over 15 years and the occupation’s exercise of systematic long-term violence against the Palestinian protected population in the OPT, settlement expansion combined with settlers’ violence and vandalism

The Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition strongly believes that 22 years since the passage of UNSC Resolution 1325 has not resulted in concrete measures for the advancement of the women, peace and security agenda to Palestinian women living under Israeli prolonged military occupation. A lot still need yet to be made by the Security Council to maintain peace and security for Palestinian women living under military occupation. To the contrary, complications and challenges to Palestinian women have increased in terms of implementing the WPS agenda, due to Israeli impediments to its implementation. Israel, the occupying power, has also placed enormous obstacles before Palestinian women who seek to implement this resolution, given its continued occupation of the OPT and the absence of a just and durable solution to end this prolonged belligerent occupation. No concrete measures were taken by the international community to implement UN resolutions related to the question of Palestine, namely UN Resolutions 242, 338, 194 and 2334. Instead, Israel is intent on confiscating and annexing more land to build settlements, which has severed any path to the establishment of an independent and contiguous Palestinian state. Instead, OPT has been transformed into isolated islands more like the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa, as indicated in the most recent evidence based-report by Amnesty International, describing Israel as an apartheid regime, where one racial group is discriminating against other racial groups.

The Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition, would also like to point out to the remarkable conclusions of a UN independent Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in its recent to the UN General Assembly in New York on 20/10/2022, which considered the Israeli occupation as unlawful according to international law. The report called on the UN General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice for an urgent advisory opinion on the illegality of this prolonged military occupation, and the impacts of the Israeli illegal measures and violations against the Palestinian civilian population in the 1967 OPT.

Your Excellency UN Secretary General,

As the UNSC is meeting to discuss the advancement of the WPS agenda, we would like to draw to their attention the double standards employed by the United Nations in dealing with its own resolutions, especially when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the practices of Israel, the occupying power against Palestinian civilian population. Israeli illegal policies in the OPT , has not only curtailed Resolution 1325 from guaranteeing protection for women and involving her in security and peacemaking, it has also thwarted all international tools and mechanisms for the protection of civilians in times of war and under occupation. This is due to the failure of the international human rights and humanitarian law especially the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protections of Civilians at time of War and under occupation. The reason for this is that the UN itself is discriminatory and has double standards in its handling conflicts, and peoples’ causes due to the huge imbalance in justice and the policy of impunity, which Israeli, the occupying power enjoys. These policies have allowed Israel to escape from accountability or any punitive measures in accordance to UN Charter and more specifically Article 11 of UNSC Resolution 1325, which demands that perpetrators of crimes and violations during war are not afforded impunity. The fact that Israel is treated as a country above the law, and the absence of any form of accountability has only encouraged it to commit more crimes and violations. A case in point is the recent murdering of Palestinian Journalist Shirine Abu Akleh, where no one has been held accountable thus far, although the incident was caught on tape and there is hard evidence proving that her death was the result of premeditated and extrajudicial killing by the Israeli army.

During its evaluation and review of its action plan, the Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition noted that Resolution 1325 and the nine subsequent resolutions, pinpointed the reasons for the outbreak and development of conflicts in various regions of the world to racial, religious and ethnic disputes. However, it excluded women under racist, colonialist occupation, which is the case of Palestinian women under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including occupied East Jerusalem. Thus, it has disregarded all international resolutions pertaining to the rights of the Palestinian people, over and above Israel’s disregard for its responsibilities as an occupying power. This necessitates a special resolution addressing the status of Palestinian women under racist, colonialist occupation, and addressing the root causes of the suffering of Palestinian women and the major obstacle they face in meaningful political participation, and in moving forward in the advancement of the women, peace and security agenda.

Mr. Secretary General,

Finally, we in the Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition for the implementation of Resolution 1325, thank your Excellency for your understanding, and for conveying our concerns to all nation states during the open debate on WPS in the Security Council this year. We call on you to dedicate ample attention to the status of Palestinian women during the 22nd Security Council meeting on Resolution 1325, with the objective to develop and push forth the WPS agenda and put into action the role of international tools of accountability. We ask you to provide the necessary protection for Palestinian women under occupation, by closely overseeing the implementation of this resolution and the party responsible for impeding its application on the ground, namely, the Israeli occupying power that has exacerbated the suffering of Palestinian women at all levels and increased discriminatory measures against them.

With our sincere thanks and appreciation,
The Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition for the Implementation of UNSCR1325

Mr. President, Esteemed Members of the Security Council,

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to address you today, especially thankful to H.E. Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary and the Republic of Kenya for the kind invitation.

For over 70 years, the UN and its various bodies have been seized of the Palestine question; repeatedly reviewing conditions, adopting resolutions, and dispatching fact-finding missions, to no avail. Sadly, this Council has been unable to assert authority, allowing this injustice to become a perpetual tragic human, moral, political and legal travesty.

So it would be disingenuous of me to come before you assuming I could inform you of something you do not already know. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the opportunity to communicate in a candid manner, not to recite endless statistics, nor to reiterate the ongoing pain of a people, deprived of their basic rights, including even the right to speak out, admonished not to “whine” or “complain,” as a means of silencing the victim.

The tragedy is that you know all of this; yet, it has had a minimal impact, if any, on the horrific conditions in Occupied Palestine.

I imagine it must be disheartening and frustrating for this distinguished organization and its members to find themselves trapped in this cycle of deliberate disdain and futility.

It is therefore imperative that this Council consider where it has gone wrong and what it can do to correct course and serve the cause of justice and peace.

Undoubtedly, the absence of accountability for Israel and of protection for the Palestinian people has enabled Israeli impunity to ride roughshod over the rights of an entire nation, allowing for perpetuation of a permanent settler-colonial occupation.

Mr. President,

Much of the prevailing political discourse overlooks reality and is diverted and subsumed by chimeras and distractions proffered by Israel and its allies under such banners as “economic peace,” “improving the quality of life,” “normalization,” “managing the conflict,” “containing the conflict,” or “shrinking the conflict.”

These fallacies must be dismantled. Volatile situations of injustice and oppression do not shrink. They expand and explode, with disastrous consequences. Similarly, the delusion of “imposing calm” under siege and systemic aggression, particularly as in Gaza, is an oxymoron, for calm or security on the one hand and occupation or captivity on the other are antithetical and irreconcilable.

Likewise, the fallacy of “confidence-building measures” is misguided since occupation breeds only contempt, distrust, resentment, and resistance. The oppressed cannot be brought to trust or accept handouts from their oppressor as an alternative to their right to freedom and justice.

The misleading and flawed “both sides” argument calling for “balance” in a flagrantly unbalanced situation is another attempt at obfuscation and generating misconceptions.

Israel’s impunity is further enhanced using such excuses as being the so-called “only democracy in the Middle East” or a “strategic ally,” or having “shared values,” or even for the sake of protecting its “fragile coalition.”

There has also been tacit and, at times overt, acceptance of Israel’s ideological, absolutist arguments, including the invocation of religious texts as a means to dismiss and supplant contemporary political and legal discourse and action. Hence, the so-called “Jewish State Law,” which allocates the right to self-determination exclusively to Jews in all of historic Palestine, is endorsed and normalized.

In the meantime, a massive disinformation machine persists in its racist maligning and demonizing of the Palestinian people, going so far as to label them “terrorists,” or a “demographic threat,” a dehumanizing formula exploited as a way to deny the right of millions of Palestine refugees to return.

Such slander has warped political focus and discourse globally. Some states have gone off on a tangent pursuing Palestinian textbooks for so-called “incitement,” or adopting the IHRA definition that conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, or criminalizing BDS, or intimidating and censoring academics and solidarity activists who stand up for Palestinian rights.

These distortions ignore the unequal and unjust laws designed to persecute Palestinians, individually and collectively. It is evidenced in the defamation of our political prisoners and the targeting of their families’ livelihoods, as though Israeli military courts or prison systems have anything to do with justice or legality.

The mindless refrain that Israel has the “right to defend itself,” while the Palestinian people are denied such a right, is perverse in that the occupier’s violence is justified as “self-defense” while the occupied are stigmatized as “terrorists.”

We cannot afford to disregard the context of occupation and its systemic aggression as the framing device for all critical assessments and action.

Excellencies,

Occupied Palestine, including Jerusalem, is the target of a comprehensive and pervasive policy of colonization and erasure, of displacement and replacement, in which Israel is appropriating everything Palestinian; our land and resources; our cultural and human heritage; our archeological sites, which we have safeguarded for centuries; our history; our cuisine; the names of our streets; and most egregiously the identity of Jerusalem, as we witness in the ethnic cleansing of the Old City, Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan among others. Even our cemeteries have been desecrated such as the building of a so-called “museum of tolerance” on top of human remains in Maman’ Allah cemetery. And, Israel continues to stoke the flames of a “holy war,” with repeated assaults on our holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Jerusalem is being targeted in a deliberate campaign of annexation and distortion. Israel now brazenly declares its intent to complete the settlement siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the territorial contiguity of the West Bank, with its outrageous plans for E-1, Qalandiya airport (Atarot), “Pisgat Ze’ev” and “Giv’at HaMatos.”

We cannot be distracted by symbolic gestures that create a false impression of progress. Claims that the “time is not right,” or that it is “difficult now” to work for a peaceful solution, give license to Israel to persist in its perilous policies. Likewise, repeating a verbal commitment to the two-State solution, while one state is allowed to deliberately destroy the other, rings hollow.

Mr. President,

All of this does not preclude our recognition of our own shortcomings. We do not shirk our responsibility to speak out against internal violence, human rights abuses, corruption, or other such practices that are rejected and resented by our own people. It is our responsibility to carry out democratic reform and revitalize our body politic while ending our internal divisions. This is a Palestinian imperative.

But we must caution others against exploiting our shortcomings to justify Israeli crimes or international inaction, or to condition any positive engagement on the creation of an ideal system of governance in Palestine while we languish under a lawless system of Israeli control.

We ask that you, trustees of the rules-based order, uphold your responsibilities: provide us with protection from aggression and empower our people to amplify their voice, both in governance and liberation.

Esteemed Members of the Council,

Peace is not achieved by “normalizing the occupation,” sidelining the Palestine Question, or rewarding Israel by repositioning it as a regional superpower. Such an approach maintains the causes of regional instability and insecurity, while enabling Israel as a colonial apartheid State to superimpose “Greater Israel” on all of historic Palestine.

Generation after generation, the people of Palestine have remained committed to the justice of their cause, the integrity of their narrative, the authenticity of their history and culture, and their inviolable right to live in freedom, and dignity, as an equal among nations and in the fullness of our humanity.

It is time to reclaim the narrative of justice and invoke our collective will to activate the UN Charter and affirm the relevance of international law.

The time has come for courageous and determined action, not just to undo the injustice of the past but to chart a clear and binding course for a peaceful future of hope and redemption.

I thank you.

To view the full Speech as PDF

We, the undersigned global coalition of leaders –from civil society to academia, art, media, business, politics, indigenous and faith communities, and people of conscience around the world– call upon the States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to act decisively to put an end to Israel’s notorious use of arms and military equipment for the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights against Palestinian civilians by immediately imposing a comprehensive two-way arms embargo on Israel.

In the spring of 2021, the world once again watched in horror as Israeli occupying forces attacked defenceless Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and inside Israel. Palestinian civilians peacefully protesting against colonisation of their land were assaulted with live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets, sound bombs, tear gas and skunk water. Israel’s deadly military aggression against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip was the fourth in a decade. Over 11 days, 248 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children. Thousands were wounded, and the reverberating effects of the use of explosive weapons on hospitals, schools, food security, water, electricity and shelter continue to affect millions.

This systematic brutality, perpetrated throughout the past seven decades of Israel’s colonialism, apartheid, pro-longed illegal belligerent occupation, persecution, and closure, is only possible because of the complicity of some governments and corporations around the world.

Symbolic statements of condemnation alone will not put an end to this suffering. In accordance with the relevant rules of the ATT, States Parties have legal obligations to put an end to irresponsible and often complicit trade of conventional arms that undermines international peace and security, facilitates commission of egregious crimes, and threatens the international legal order.

Under Article 6(3) of the ATT, States Parties undertook not to authorise any transfer of conventional arms if they have knowledge at the time of authorisation that arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which they are a Party.

Under Articles 7 and 11, they undertook not to authorise any export of conventional arms, munitions, parts and components that would, inter alia, undermine peace and security or be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

It is clear that arms exports to Israel are inconsistent with these obligations. Invariably, Israel has shown that it uses arms to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, as documented by countless United Nations bodies and civil society organisations worldwide. Military exports to Israel also clearly enabled, facilitated and maintained Israel’s decades-long settler-colonial and apartheid regime imposed over the Palestinian people as a whole.

Similarly, arms imports from Israel are wholly inconsistent with obligations under the ATT. Israeli military and industry sources openly boast that their weapons and technologies are “combat proven” – in other words, field-tested on Palestinian civilians “human test subjects”. When States import Israeli arms, they are encouraging it to keep bombing Palestinian civilians and persist in its unlawful practices. No one –neither Israel, nor arms manufacturers in ATT States parties– should be allowed to profit from the killing or maiming of Palestinian civilians.

It is thus abundantly clear that imposing a two-way arms embargo on Israel is both a legal and a moral obligation. ATT States Parties must immediately terminate any current, and prohibit any future transfers of conventional arms, munitions, parts and components referred to in Article 2(1), Article 3 or Article 4 of the ATT to Israel, until it ends its illegal belligerent occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory and complies fully with its obligations under international law. Pending such an embargo, all States must immediately suspend all transfers of military equipment, assistance and munitions to Israel.

A failure to take these actions entails a heavy responsibility for the grave suffering of civilians – more deaths, more suffering, as thousands of Palestinian men, women and children continue to bear the brutality of a colonial belligerent occupying force– which would result in discrediting the ATT itself. It also renders States parties complicit in internationally wrongful acts through the aiding or abetting of international crimes.  A failure in taking action could also result in invoking the individual criminal responsibility of individuals of these States for aiding and abetting the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in accordance with Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Justice will remain elusive so long as Israel’s unlawful occupation, settler-colonialism, apartheid regime, and persecution and institutionalised oppression of the Palestinian people are allowed to continue, and so long as States continue to be complicit in the occupying Power’s crimes by trading weapons with it.

In conclusion, we believe that the ATT can make a difference in the Palestinian civilians’ lives. It has the potential, if implemented in good faith, to spare countless protected persons from suffering. If our call to stop leaving the Palestinian people behind when it comes to implementation of the ATT is ignored, the raison d'être of the ATT will be shattered.

Joining organisations:

1. Action Sécurité Ethique Républicaines
2. Adalah Justice Project
3. Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
4. AFPS 63
5. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
6. Aldameer Association for Human Rights
7. Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man
8. Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society
9. American Muslims for Palestine
10. Anglican Pacifist Fellowship
11. Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ)
12. Arab Canadian Lawyers Association
13. Arab Organization for Human Rights
14. Argenteuil Solidarité Palestine
15. Asociación Americana de Juristas
16. Association Belgo-Palestinienne WB
17. Association femmes plurielles
18. Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)
19. AssoPacePalestina
20. Australia Palestine Advocacy Network
21. Australian Centre for International Justice
22. Australians For Palestine
23. Badayl
24. BDS Australia
25. Begian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
26. Campagne BDS France
27. Canadian BDS Coalition
28. Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
29. Center for Constitutional Rights
30. Center for International Policy
31. Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios Estratégicos para la Seguridad y el Desarrollo Social CIESED A.C.
32. CNAPD - Coordination Nationale d'Action pour la Paix et la Démocratie
33. Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine
34. Collectif 69 de Soutien au Peuple Palestinien
35. Collectif BDS 57
36. Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
37. Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines
38. Columban missionaries Britain
39. Columbia Law Students for Palestine
40. Combatants for Peace
41. Comitato BDS Campania
42. Comité de Solidaridad con la Causa Árabe
43. Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient asbl
44. Community Action Center - Al-Quds University
45. Confederación Intersindical Gallega (CIG)
46. Cultura è Libertà, una campagna per la Palestina
47. Dagropass
48. De Palestijnse gemeenschap in Nederland
49. Defense for Children -Palestine (DCI-Palestine)
50. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
51. docP - BDS Netherlands
52. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
53. European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP)
54. European Legal Support Center
55. Femmes Unies pour la Paix dans la région des Grands Lacs
56. FILEF Sydney Federation of Italian Migrant Workers
57. Finnish-Arab Friendship Society
58. Friends of Palestine Tasmania Inc
59. Gaza Action Ireland
60. Gesellschaft Schweiz Palästina GSP/ASP
61. Global Kairos Asia Pacific Solidarity For Palestine (GKAPS)
62. Good Shepherd Collective
63. Housing and Land Rights Network
64. Human Rights and Democratic Participation Center “SHAMS”
65. Human Rights Network Nigeria
66. ICAHD Finland
67. ICAHD UK
68. Independent Jewish Voices Canada
69. Indian Writers Forum
70. Indo Palestine Solidarity Forum
71. International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD)
72. International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific
73. Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
74. Jewish Voice For Peace
75. Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
76. Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
77. Karapatan
78. Kenya Human Rights Commission
79. Labor for Palestine
80. Manushya Foundation
81. National Association of Democratic Lawyers (South Africa)
82. National Justice & Peace Network (NJPN)
83. National Lawyers Guild, Palestine Subcommittee
84. Nederlands Palestina Komitee
85. Newweapons research group
86. Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
87. North Notts Unite Community
88. NOVACT
89. Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
90. Palestine Solidarity Network - Edmonton
91. Palestinian and Jewish Unity
92. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
93. Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall)
94. Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO)
95. Pax Christi International
96. Pax Christi, England and Wales
97. Paz con Dignidad
98. Platform of French NGOs for Palestine
99. Salaam ragazzi dell'Olivo, comitato di Trieste
100. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
101. SODePAZ
102. Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative
103. The Civic Coalition for Palestinians Right in Jérusalem
104. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
105. The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)
106. The National Association of Human Rights Defenders
107. The Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
108. The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC)
109. The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy-MIFTAH
110. UJFP French Jewish union for peace
111. Union syndicale Solidaires
112. US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
113. US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
114. Visualizing Palestine
115. Vrede vzw
116. Vredesactie
117. War on Want
118. Women for Palestine
119. Women in Black Vienna
120. Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling

Joining individuals:

121. Ahmed Ben
122. Ahmed Reda Tolba
123. Alaa Shalaby
124. Alaaeddine Tatak
125. Aline Shaban
126. Amin Abbas
127. Andrea Balduzzi
128. Angie Mindel
129. Ann McNicholas
130. Anne Peacey
131. Ashley Tellis
132. Atamjit Singh
133. Audrey J Bomse
134. Badee M.T. Aldwaik
135. Baruti Likoyi
136. Bernadette McPhe
137. Chirag Shah
138. Claudia Karas
139. Claudia Schiavelli
140. Denise Peillon
141. Denotter JJ
142. Devaki Khanna
143. Dr. Ibrahim Lada’a
144. Dr. Nerina Cecchin
145. Egbert Harmsen
146. Marc Fayard
147. Firoz Ahmad
148. Flavia Lepre
149. Françoise Abadie
150. Frstot Marie-Paule
151. Gabriel Mondragón Toledo
152. Geeta Kapur
153. Geeta Kapur
154. Georges Franco
155. Gillard Francois
156. Gina Cardosi
157. Githa Hariharan
158. Gregory Kotoy
159. Gyan Prakash
160. Haidi Ali Muhammad Eltayeb
161. Hélène Le Cacheux
162. Herman De Ley
163. Huwaida Arraf
164. Ian Ampleford
165. Ian Mc Cabe
166. Indu Chandrasekhar
167. Jake Javanshir
168. James Dickins
169. James Lafferty
170. John King
171. Joop Hoekstra
172. Julia Auf Dem Brinke
173. Julie Hart
174. Kalyani Chaudhuri
175. Karel Arnaut
176. Karin Brothers
177. Karin Verelst
178. Kathryn Kelly
179. Kellie Tranter
180. Lauren Speiser
181. Laurent De Wangen
182. Lee Rhiannon
183. Luisa Morgantini
184. M.N. Harakeh
185. Madeline Lutjeharms
186. Maha Abdallah
187. Maha Alami
188. Malini Bhattacharya
189. Mani Shankar Aiyar
190. Marcy Newman
191. Maria Bartolacci
192. Marjorie Cohn
193. Martin Mavenjina
194. Massimiliano Masini
195. Maxime Florentin
196. Maya Devi
197. Michael Letwin
198. Michel Gevers
199. Mohamad Arouki
200. Mohamed Aboelazm
201. Mohammad Al Nabulsi
202. Mohan Rao
203. Monique Vincent
204. Muralidharan K
205. Nalini Nayak
206. Nandini Sundar
207. Naresh Dadhich
208. Nasir Tyabji
209. Navdeep Mathur
210. Nick Deane
211. Nozomi Takahashi
212. Oishik Sircar
213. P A Azeez
214. Pamela Blakelock
215. Pamela Philipose
216. Paola Manduca
217. Patrick Lechopier
218. Persis Ginwalla
219. Pierre Bordone
220. Pushpa Achanta
221. Pushpamala N
222. Raffaele Spiga
223. Rajni Palriwala
224. Rev Joseph Ryan
225. Rey Asis
226. Rudolf Knutti
227. S. Raghunandana
228. Salim Yusufji
229. Sellin Jean-Christophe
230. Shafey Kidwai
231. Sharib Aqleem Ali
232. Sigour Brigitte
233. Sonia Fayman
234. Stephen Flaherty
235. Sue Ingham
236. Sumanta Banerjee
237. Terri Ginsberg
238. Valter Mutt
239. Vinay Bharadwaj
240. Vincent Basabé
241. Winfried Belz
242. Yousuf Saeed
243. YVes Goaer
244. Yves Jardin

To View the Letter as PDF

Two Palestinian children were murdered yesterday, the first day of Eid Al Adha. They were shot dead by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) while walking on the street near their homes. Sallah a-din Muhsin aged 13 was murdered on the street in his home village of Tayseer near Jenin, while Salah Abu Eish, aged 12 was shot dead near his home in Raffah camp. They were killed without any reason. Two children aged 13 and 12 are no more. Salah and Salah are no longer with us. They will never again hug their parents and siblings, nor will they ever play in the street, they will not go to school and will nurture no more dreams and expectations – because they are no more – their young lives are wasted. End.

The life of a Palestinian child is cheap, terribly cheap. Unbearably cheap. It's enough for a Palestinian child, on the occasion of his Holiday, to dress up and wear a costume of a soldier and hold a toy gun in his little hands in order to render him easy prey. Every soldier in the army of Occupation, who happens to intrude on his village as an uninvited bird of prey, can feel free to point at him a real gun and shoot him dead. And then the barrage of hollow excuses starts: The child with the imitation gun endangered the lives of soldiers…that's how the soldiers felt – really…the homemade toy gun carried by the boy resembled an M16. The child stepped out from a crowd of youths who surrounded the soldiers and some of whom threw stones at the soldiers…so the child carrying the toy gun looked very ominous …so they first shoot at him and afterwards they check on him – if at all. But by then it’s too late because the child who had gone out to celebrate his holiday is by now dead. Dead, finished. They promise to investigate.

Nobody asks "What the hell were those soldiers in the shielded jeeps, armored to their teeth doing on the first day of the High Moslem Holiday, one of the two most important Holidays for Islam, in the middle of the crowded streets of the small Palestinian village deep in the hills of Jenin or in the back-street of Raffah.? What were those heavily armed soldiers doing there on this specific day on the crowded street of that small village?" A day, when according to tradition people naturally crowd the streets, accompanied by their children, lots of children. There are many small Palestinian children who are most of the time locked up in their houses and school classes so they are naturally eager to take advantage of the holiday and take to the streets, just to go out for a walk and to have fun and sometimes to wear fancy dress as well. It is well known that many Palestinian children adopted the custom of dressing up on this specific day although this is not a religious custom. Children are children everywhere and they want to have fun and costumes are made for fun. Our soldiers and their commanders have spent enough days of Eid in the Occupied Palestinian cities and villages to be pretty well acquainted with the local customs, the traditional as well as the new ones, so that they could have easily known that children tend to dress up on this occasion. As the central and most influential experience in the life of these children who have been born into the occupation, and whose parents have also been born into the occupation, is the occupation and therefore the most thrilling challenge for them is confronting the occupation… Therefore they tend to dress up as soldiers and in their experience soldiers carry guns – so they carry guns too. So it could not have come as a surprise that people were crowding the streets, that there were many children and some were dressed up as soldiers. Could these facts not have been foreseen? Of course they could, but it seems that nobody on our side really cared about the outcome of that bizarre armed expedition into the heart of that village, as long as the losses and casualties were not "ours".

We are counting only our dead, as only our children count. "Their" children don't count. Four children were killed recently in Sderot by the qassam. Four children. Ayala-Haya Abeqassis aged 17, who was recently wounded by a qassam, died today. It breaks my heart that those children are no longer with us, that they have fallen victims to the inanity and senselessness of an occupation of almost 40 years. However, when we're moaning and lamenting our beloved, the four dead children from Sderot and other children who were murdered in suicide attacks against innocent civilians in our cities, we cannot forget the hundreds of Palestinian children who were shot dead, who were murdered by our soldiers. Israeli Occupation Army soldiers…

Who knows and who remembers the number of the dead Palestinian children in Beit Lahiyya and Beit Hanun? I don't know their exact number either, but I know for sure that there are dozens of dead children in Beit Hanun and in Beit Lahiyya, and hundreds of dead children in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank. And there are thousands of wounded Palestinian children, many of them severely wounded, heavily crippled, with no legs and arms and sorely lacking not only adequate rehabilitation facilities but any at all. And there are also hundreds of Israeli wounded children and the pain and suffering of all those children – all of them – Palestinians and Israelis is unbearable. And no one should ever know the pain and the sorrow of the bereaved parents and the bereaved siblings who lost their most precious ones and will never ever hug them again.

We must put an end to this continual horror that has been going on for too long. It is in our hands and we can do it. This state of horror and nightmare will end at once, within an eye blink, the moment we truly understand that there is no difference whatsoever between a Jewish child and a Palestinian child, and that the pain and the sorrow stemming from losing ones beloved is exactly the same on both sides.

Sharon and Mofaz, Haim Ramon and Prof. Yuli Tamir and all those who sing the praises of the "disengagement", while their eyes go out and their hands are stretched greedily to grab more Palestinian lands in the west of the West Bank, west of the monstrous Separation Wall they have erected and the rest of it that they still plan to complete. Some more and some less. They make cynical use of the international and local "disengagement festival" in order to score points of favor in international and local public opinion. They are preparing the day when the "no partner" will be declared again, and when the opportunity will present itself to initiate more unilateral steps to clinch the Israeli grip over large chunks of the occupied Palestinian lands, thus dispossessing more Palestinians and pushing more of them off their land. But in the meantime they can use the smoke screen created by the 'disengagement' hustle to inflict more blows on the Palestinian society, to kill and destroy, to uproot and demolish thousands of residential houses businesses and other infrastructure, to destroy the livelihood of masses of people, to harm the nature and destroy the agriculture.

At the end of the day they must remember that those who want security for the children of Sderot must assure exactly the same security to the children of Beit Lahiyya and Beit Hanun, Jibaliyya and Hay Zeitoun, Han Yunis and Raffah, Nablus and Jenin. It's better if they begin to understand that the blood of all the children is equally red and equally precious.

After all, mutuality is the name of the game, stupid.

While struggling for truth and equality, true partnership and reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians, we need to address the wrongs inflicted by Zionism not only on Palestinians but on Arab Jews as well. While doing so we're not damaging or diluting the struggle for truth and equality between Jews and Palestinians but on the contrary, strengthening it, making it more powerful by giving it another dimension which can also help us to mobilize wider groups in Israeli society to support our cause.

One must state clearly that one cannot compare the discrimination and oppression of the Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories with that of the oriental or Arab Jews. Nor should one overlook the major national component of the Jewish-Palestinian struggle and the immense present day suffering of the Palestinians at Israel's hands. One should not forget that Zionism constitutes first and foremost an assault against Palestinian Arabs. While Arabs and Jews can never become equal within its premises, while an Arab Palestinian can never become the prime minister of Israel, Jews of all origins have at least in theory the potential of becoming equal one day. Indeed, in recent years we see more and more Jews of oriental or "Arab" origins in high offices, especially in politics and the military. This notwithstanding, one can delineate some important points of relevance which indicate why one cannot and should not separate the struggles against both oppressions, especially not while criticizing Zionism and its vices regarding the Palestinians and while trying to formulate an alternative vision based on truth and equality for all.

Several, not all, expressions of the discrimination and oppression of both groups came from the same psycho-political "source", even if not from the same root, and begot the same practical attitude towards them. First, the European- colonialist attitude of the Zionists, looking down on the "natives" and regarding them as second class and inferior in being "oriental", "Arab" and culturally "underdeveloped". Second, the cold, calculated and instrumental attitude towards both groups: oriental Arab Jews were treated by the Zionist movement like objects not subjects, and their fate and well being did not count in face of the "big national ideals" and achievements sought by the Jewish nationalist movement which was, after all, completely Ashkenazi, both in origins and in essence. Therefore, the Zionists could oust the majority of the Palestinian community and oppress and discriminate against the remaining ones; bring in oriental Arab Jews almost like imported cattle and practically "throw them off" vehicles and thrust them in the new developmental cities in the desert and in other remote agricultural settlements, doing so "for the benefit of the State" and the Zionist cause. There was no consideration whatsoever of the welfare of those people. There are many well-documented instances in the historical record indicating this instrumental attitude.

Third, the deep cultural disdain and contempt that survives to this very day. The culture of oriental Arab Jews was Arab, the culture of the "enemy", which has been and is still looked down upon, de-legitimized, disdained and seen as inferior. Their Judaism was one of a traditional mode, in sharp juxtaposition to the secular aspirations of the Ashkenazi Zionists. Therefore, in order to be accepted by and belong to the hegemonic Jewish collective -- that is the Ashkenazi one -- the oriental Arab Jew had to distance him or herself from Arab culture and Arab-Jewish identity, which was a mild, traditional school of Judaism, and assimilate into the Israeli nationalist Ashkenazi secular culture. This same attitude remains prevalent among Ashkenazi elites, who find the emergence of traditional Jewish Sephardic protest movements like Shass not only utterly incomprehensible, unacceptable and even repulsive, but also a "cultural threat". The mainstream and hegemonic Jewish-Israeli cultural orientation is completely Western in aspiration -- if not in real practice and content. It has shifted from the traditional Euro-centric orientation to be predominantly Americanised. To this very day, Jewish-Israeli "oriental" culture is not considered mainstream nor equal, but rather fringe and inferior. This is the case despite the adoption and integration of folkloric elements from the Orient, mainly in the gastronomic and popular music realms.

Since the foundation of the State of Israel there has existed long-standing and clearly institutionalized discrimination against oriental Arab Jews and Israeli Palestinians in the allocation of funds for education, job opportunities, land ownership, etc. It's true that Israeli Palestinians are more severely discriminated against, are even lower down the ladder, but the roots of this discrimination and its socio-economic outcomes are pretty much the same, let alone the national component. The outcome of the Ashkenazi attitude towards oriental Jews, their Arab culture and traditions, including their specific stream of Judaism and Jewish identity, has had a strong negative political significance.

These are the phases I see Arab Jews as having gone through: First, coming to Israel, being discriminated against, looked down upon and humiliated because they were "Arab Jews" -- ie belonging to Arab culture and yet practicing Jews; trying their best to integrate in many ways, among others by "forgetting" and repressing and denying their Arab cultural roots, sometimes even turning against them by adopting "Ashkenazi" (quasi-Western and secular) ways of life and strong anti-Arab positions in order to differentiate themselves from the despised and feared "enemy". At the same time, "those 'bloody' WASPs (White Ashkenazi Sons of Pioneers)", who never really accepted oriental Jews as their social equals nor gave them the feeling of really belonging to the collective, all of a sudden have started a "romance" or even a political "love affair" with their former enemies, the Palestinian Arabs. All of a sudden they sympathise with the Palestinian cause and its suffering, speak out and demonstrate in their favor and even socialise with them. They were never as sympathetic to the pains and suffering and sense of oppression and discrimination of oriental Jews -- sentiments that were demonstrated in the 1960s and 1970s in the Wadi Salib uprising and by the Black Panther movement. It seemed to them that the leftist Ashkenazi elites and their rank and file regarded and treated Palestinians and Arabs much better than themselves. When I heard the recurring curse of "Arab lovers" shouted by oriental Jews at leftist demonstrators, I understood it as coming from the very painful experience of the "rejected child" who feels rejected in favour of a hated rival and who is crying out for equal recognition, love, care and acceptance.

Second, the Ashkenazi elites and the hegemonic Ashkenazi society never really accepted Arab Jews socially. The major circles of the Israeli Zionist left were, and still are, almost purely WASP.

Third, even nowadays, the majority of these WASPs in the Israeli left deny the claims of systematic and institutionalised discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation, experienced and asserted by oriental Jews and their descendants and their consequent pain, sense of humiliation and overall lower social and economic status. They blame them for being unfairly and endlessly discontent, intentionally misinterpreting the difficulties of the immigration absorption years, and attributing to them imaginary and baseless intentional racist discrimination on behalf of the establishment. They blame them for eternally "wailing" and complaining instead of "taking their fate into their hands", assuming responsibility and working hard to improve their situation. To make their point they always bring up a minority of successful and well-integrated Arab Jews who have "made it".

The above process lead to antagonising the majority of Arab Jews against the predominantly Ashkenazi left and equally so against Palestinians and Arabs and their just cause, in support of which the left is united. It gradually pushed them into the arms of the political right and to "Arab-hating" positions. One can easily see that their hatred of the "Ashkenazi" left, conceived by many oriental Arab Jews as "Arab-lover", is a direct result of the above-described attitude of the Ashkenazi elites towards them. The former's refusal to acknowledge the discrimination and humiliation of Arab Jews -- just like the denial of the Nakba -- and the refusal to assume any responsibility for the events of the 1950s and 1960s and up until today, only aggravate and deepen these sentiments of anger and frustration and anti-left and anti-Arab sentiments and political positions.

While criticising Zionism and the wrongs inflicted by it on Palestinians, we must at the same time acknowledge and criticise sincerely and with real empathy -- not just as lip service -- the wrongs it inflicted on oriental Arab Jews. We must commit ourselves to redress all these wrongs; otherwise we will not speak truth nor achieve equality for all, and will never win Arab Jews over to our cause. Moreover, we must seriously revise Israel's Jewish community's conscious choice opting for a complete and exclusive Western cultural orientation. We must strive to widen the scope of our cultural orientation by recognising Arab culture not as a rival but as a complimentary, equal and legitimate cultural option, source of inspiration and enrichment. Such a strategy may not only widen our horizons and enrich us, but also open the door for normalising our existence in the Arab Middle East.

This is one of the main accusations thrown in the face of anybody who dares to criticize Israeli policies. Not the worst of them though: one may hear much worse stuff like "you are antisemitic"...or " you are a self hating Jew" or even 'worse': "you are an Arab Lover" brrrrr... However, the above mentioned allegation is the one used by the more respectful and so called "objective people". So, I'd like to try to say something very briefly concerning the "blaming one side and not mentioning the wrongs of the other side". This position sounds very logical and moral indeed, and and this principle should be normally made the rule. However, the problem is that we are not in a normal situation and once one starts to be so balanced and objective - one loses the main point which is that there is a 35 years old brutal Israeli Military Occupation to be ended unconditionally and without any further delay; that we are the occupiers and the strong party and that we have put ourselves in this impossible situation of occupiers to begin with and made it worse by the intensive colonization of the occupied territories, the blatant abuse of human rights and the war crimes committed by our forces against the Occupied people. We don't really show any serious intent to put an end to this occupation, for sure not now, under the present Sharonian regime. We were not so different in the past either. We were less seemingly brutal but at the same time we were engaged in a most straightforward and highly sophisticated effort to colonize these territories by "creating irriversible facts on the ground", and by doing so rendering any political compromise based on the "Two State Solution" practically impossible. On the other hand we have not offered the Palestinians the other possibility: to keep the land unified and live together in full equality in one Democratic State for all, like any other normal Democratic Modern Nation State. I must say straightforward that I prefer this solution as the best of the two.

Coming back to the main issue which concerns the kind of discourse we use. One can find "the more balanced discourse" - putting the blame on both sides - in that of the Zionist Left. The traditional position, or rather deliberate strategy of the Zionist Left - Meretz and Peace Now has always been to be very careful and always use a carefully balanced discourse. They were always so careful to talk to the "two sides", to stress that "the two sides are equally responsible" for everything. They always appeal to the two sides to stop the violence etc...They were so careful in this respect that their own constituency forgot who is the Occupier and who is the occupied, who is the mighty military power in the region and who is a powerless and stateless people, and WHY did all this mess start to begin with.... This specific discourse veiled the facts and distorted the reality and the chain of events before and after Oslo and in the aftermath of the outburst of the present Intifada. Consequently people here didn't pay attention that there has been no real peace process almost since the beginning of Oslo in 1993. The colonization process has never stopped, not for one moment - not under Rabin who started the so called "By Pass" roads and strengthened the "strategic settlements" in East Jerusalem and elsewhere, not under Netanyahu who intensified the settlement activity all over and not under Barak either. One must know that during Barak's term the actual number of settlers who entered the West Bank and Gaza was bigger than in the equivalent time of Netanyahu's term...There was a steady growth if 12% in the number of settlers during his short term. And this was Barak the "Peace maker" who "overturned every stone in the quest for Peace and who bravely sacrificed his political career in this course..." Isn't this what one can hear all the time?

Getting back once again to "the balanced discourse". The Zionist left always calls "to stop the Violence on both sides" and pays such careful attention to address both sides as if they were equal in their respective positions, in power, in responsibility, in accountability and culpability. By doing so the Zionist Left creates a corrupt and incorrect equation between two kinds of violence: the Violence of the colonization and occupation which are in contravention to International law and legitimacy, and the violence generated by this occupation and the legitimate decolonization struggle, a struggle that is a reaction to a result of 35 years of military occupation and ongoing and ever increasing and intensifying colonization process. I know pretty well that legitimate liberation struggles have their red lines and I do not condone suicide bombings. On the contrary - I believe that these acts are both immoral by definition and both counterproductive for the Palestinian Liberation struggle. But we as political people are not engaged in moral teachings but rather in politics and political statements. We must remember that while the Palestinians were very nice and subservient - not at all "violent", before the first Intifada ( before 1987 ) they didn't get anything at all. Nobody recognized their rights and even the Zionist Left didn't recognize the PLO ... and nobody was talking to them about Ending the Occupation. Their economy became subject to the needs of the Israeli economy, they became the cheap rightless and used foreign labour of the Israeli industry and their market became a most convenient market for our products. The Palestinian colleges were not allowed to develop freely, there was no freedom for political organization nor freedom of the press. ( BTW - it is little wonder indeed why the Palestinian Society does not have a rich democratic experience...) Furthermore - there was a quiet transfer going on ever since 1967 and tens of thousands of Palestinians went abroad as a result of the systematic strangulation of the Palestinian economy and their consequent need to go abroad in search for a living and for higher education. Many of these people were not allowed to come back by all kinds of administrative regulations. ( Anybody who went out and didn't come back for 3 years was automatically denied from his residence rights!!! ) These became the so called "displaced persons" who make up more than 300.000 people after 67!!! Moreover, after Oslo the colonization and Bantustanization of the Palestinian Occupied territories intensified with cutting their land into bits and pieces by the so called "by pass roads" and the proliferation of settlement all over the country in addition to the enlargement of the settlement blocks.

And then came Barak's "most generous offers" - the ones intended to legitimize the above mentioned reality on 88% of the remainder of their land...( Only 22% of their historical Homeland) Only in Clintons offers were there some more realistic offers made but Barak himself officially NEVER offered more than 88%...+ all the restrictions that would not allow for a viable and really sovereign Palestinian state to come into existence. This was the reason for the outbreak of the last Intifada - the growing frustration and despair and the realization on behalf of the Palestinian grassroots and the civil society, that the negotiations lead nowhere, but serve as a cover for the ongoing colonization and the skilful and cunning creation of more "facts on the ground" that would later be used by Israel as a pretext for demanding more Palestinian concessions arguing that "there are facts on the ground that cannot be changed and that past wrongs cannot be addressed by new wrongs" - I.e. uprooting settlers and their children who have already been born on the formerly and more recently stolen Palestinian Land...

These kinds of arguments - among other things - made by the Israeli Left made me quit their circles and convinced me of the necessity to change my discourse and adopt one that is both sincere and honest and also accurate.

I came to the belated conclusion that being vague and elusive about the real facts on the ground and using an indirect and "beautified" discourse of "elusions" just in order to be "Politically Correct" in my circles - create a false consciousness that can lead us nowhere. As I have described it - this discourse lead to the collapse of the Israeli Peace camp because people didn't understand "What got into the Palestinians and why did they resort to violence and terrorism" and not continue with the cosy peace talks in all those beautiful hotels and resorts all over the world...

Therefore I am finished with the "two sides" discourse. I do everything in my capacity to make my audience understand that in principle one cannot equate between victims and victimizers, nor among the above mentioned violences or evils: the violence of the illegitimate occupation and the legitimate resistance against it that unfortunately cannot be completely "violence free". At least I do not know such a historical precedence, and dlon't tell me about the Mahatma Gandi because he was shot dead.

Just one short glimpse into another reality, a reality of the Israeli Occupation of Ramallah, the most central city of Palestine. October 2002. Why should an Israeli just "visit" Ramallah these days? For sure it is not the most pleasant place in the world to "visit" and there is a big question mark over the legitimacy of such a visit by an Israeli these days. Despite of various possible reservations, I think it was an important visit for me. One has to see and feel what Occupation really looks and feels and smells like. It is one thing to hear about the Occupation and another thing to be there, to see and hear and feel and sense and smell and touch it, even if for a short time.

It was a difficult visit - just to see all the devastation - to realize to what extent have we reduced the lives of the Palestinian People into shambles, for every practical purpose. It was difficult for me to look into the eyes of people I know and I respect, people I know that they have no real life any more. And why shouldn't they? What gives us the right to impose on them such a cruel and impossible reality and deny them that rightful and legitimate space of normalcy that they deserve as human beings? The most difficult thing people report about is the fact that they are denied from controlling their lives and their schedules. They cannot plan anything because they don't know what the next day will look like "curfew wise", what arbitrary regulations will be imposed on them, viciously penetrating into the very privacy of their every day routine, violating their liberties. So they have no fix schedules and they are all the time preoccupied with finding out what the schedule will be the next day and how to get organized with their kids and their other duties. People can't concentrate, they can't create and they simply can't live a normal life. We are robbing them their freedom in every possible sense. There is no life under Occupation. All the precious vital energies are sucked up, consumed and eaten up by the Monster called the Israeli Military Occupation and its various daily practices. And this reality is not pre-ordained – it is man made - it is our doing.

The once beautiful streets look awful - all the sidewalks and street lamps are destroyed. Many nice plants and trees, some old and some newly planted in the centre of the city and along the streets and between the driveways are all smashed and uprooted. The municipality does not function and there is garbage all over. That beautiful and once graceful city looks like a dirty and neglected village in a third world country. And this reality is not pre-ordained – it is man made - it is our doing.

There is still curfew from 6 pm in the evening till 6 am in the morning and people don't dare to stick their noses out after 6 pm. On Fridays - people's day off - there is curfew during the day too - around the clock. The once lively city, bustling with commercial activities and a vivid night life, cafes and restaurants and a wide variety of rich cultural activities is completely dead. Some people do dare to disobey the orders and go to friends houses in the evenings but is only a small minority. When the army catches people driving during curfew they take their car keys and fine them with 3000 NIS. People of course have spare keys and never go to pay the fine but still - most people are afraid. I did go to see some people at night and it was a nice surprise. My host took me to the house of Jewish couple from England who came to Ramallah as an act of solidarity. They have been there since the first incursion. She is a Psychologist writing a book about the effect of the Intifada on Palestinian children. He is an architect working on documenting the destruction and devastation perpetrated by the "most humane and enlightened army in the Middle East".

Friday morning - Curfew as usual. I heard with my own ears how they went around in a Jeep calling some threatening orders in their loudspeakers. I couldn't hear exactly what they said but I was told that sometimes they say the following: "Ya Sha'abul Jabarin - stay at home or you will be shot like dogs" . ( Sha'bul Jabarin ' means "people of the heroes" - words used by Arafat when he makes a speech to the people). I went to see the Muqat'aa. It's one thing to see the destruction and the bulldozing of the buildings on TV and another thing to see it with your own eyes. The formerly majestic complex - all fenced with a big paved courtyard and many buildings inside - all destroyed and rendered into rubbles. A huge and monstrous "field" of smashed concrete and rubble...And this reality is not pre-ordained – it is man made – it is our doing.

Sticking out from the rubble one could see some smashed barrels still carrying slogans from some better days in Hebrew and Arabic: "We have partners to talk with" and "There is what to talk about". One couldn't stop wandering where are the Israeli Partners, where have they been when all this devastation took place? Had I been a Palestinian I could not have stopped myself from thinking what is there to talk about with people who allow their leaders to commit such acts of sheer barbarism, stemming from blind hatred and madness. And this reality is not pre-ordained – it is man made – it is our doing.

Then I went to see the former new main street - a new boulevard connecting the centre of the city to the road to Bir Zeit - Share'a Irsa'l. It used to be a very nice boulevard - with new and modern buildings on both sides - residential condos, Banks, high-tech companies etc. It used to be such a busy street - now everything looked deserted and the street itself ruined. The new asphalt was dug up in many places just in the middle of the road, the sidewalks broken, the trees and flowers planted in the middle all uprooted and ruined. Here and there one could still have a glimpse of a heap of deliberately smashed private cars being used as building blocks for an occasional road block. People told me that they started to be very particular about where they parked their cars so as not to allow for them to become easy prey for an "occasionally needed" road block... And this reality is not pre-ordained – it is man made – it is our doing.

I also went to see the different roads leading in and out of the city - all of them were blocked. One cannot get in and out of Ramallah except for through Qalandia or Surda checkpoints with all the harassments included...The city has practically become one big prison -one big concentration camp. And this reality is not pre-ordained - it is man made - it is our doing.

I met people who are really afraid from a possible Transfer. I met a woman, who experienced the transfer out of Beirut in 82' and she is absolutely terrified from another possible transfer. She told me that she has already packed her most precious belongings and papers so that she does not forget anything in case "they come and tell me to go" I saw the fear in her eyes. This home of hers in Ramallah is her first decent home that she has ever had in her life since Beirut, a place that she can once again regard as Home, where she has hanged curtains over the windows...

I found out that the wives of PLO people who came back within the so called "Oslo Returnees pact" were not granted a permanent residence permit. I know personally two such people whose wives are "foreigners" . These men came back within the above mentioned agreements and got permanent resident permits and passports but not their wives. These women have to go out of the territories every 3 months and come back in order to renew their "tourist" visas. Otherwise, if they don't - they become illegal and can be transferred out any time. Now they are afraid that any time they go out and want to come back they will be denied the entry visa. An what then??? Some of these women are considered privileged because they have Western passports and connections but there are many ordinary Palestinian Women, formerly refugees in Jordan or other places, married to Palestinian men, with the same "stateless" status. These women have to go out to Jordan and come back etc, but now the Jordanians are making difficulties, it's also difficult to get to Alenby because of the curfew and the siege and the closures. It is also very expensive - you have to pay 200$ for being taken by a so called "VIP" taxi hacker who will carry your luggage in case you have to walk, and take you to the bridge on roundabout dirt roads and occasionally walk with you across the mountains, as all the roads are blocked... So many of these women gave up - they simply can't take the stress and the hazards of such journeys, nor can they afford the luxury of getting to the bridge and crossing to Jordan. So they stay at home, become "illegal" in their own homes and therefore are afraid to go out because they fear to be picked up by the army in a checkpoint, found to be illegal and consequently risk immediate deportation. So they sit at home, fearing the moment when they might be visited at night by the Israeli army - being picked up and thrown out of their homes to Jordan - never to be allowed to come back. And this reality is not pre-ordained - it is man made - it is our doing.

Can one believe all this??? It is true, so how can we live with this reality?? And this is just one tiny human aspect of the Occupation. And one should see Qalandia checkpoint - how dirty and neglected it is... It looks so awful. You are coming from Jerusalem - all nice and green and clean and orderly and all of a sudden you are in a different world - a world of neglect, of dirt, of sewage running free on the "road" where people have to queue up and walk between barbed wire fences, in the midst of all the dirt that seems to be building up in a very quick pace. As if we are telling those people - "you are dirt - you are garbage - therefore thou shall live in the dirt - that's what you deserve". And then one "crosses" back to the "other world" - in a couple of moments one is in a totally different world, back in the so called Civilization, in the world of the Lords...

I came home absolutely devastated - exhausted - emotionally drain and decimated by the pressure of what I have taken in. I was so ashamed - I cannot express the shame and the guilt. I came home and went to sleep from 14:30 till 19:30, woke up made some dinner and went back to sleep till the next morning as if I was moonstricken...