What Better Way to Atone For My Sins Than Stoning You?

I was forewarned before Yom Kippur that if you drive anywhere in Israel on the Day of Atonement, people will throw rocks at your car.

Apparently driving on Yom Kippur is also a good way to get yourself nearly killed in Akka.

I am of the mind that this type of social behavior, the kind that forces your religious observations onto other people through violence, shows just how much Israel has in common with some other states in the region. (cough*IRAN*cough)

Additionally - and this is curiously enough not on the English site of Al Jazeera - a large group of Israeli settlers, and the soldiers protecting them, entered the Haram Al-Sharif today. If you'll recall, the last time something like this happened, the second intifada broke out.

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In-Depth Follow up on "A Nightmare Called Ramadan"

Hlehel: “I was pushed to resign”

The article written two weeks ago by colleague Alaa Hlehel in Fasl al-Maqal provoked a sharp debate within the Balad party and extended further, to the point that the Islamic Movement demanded his resignation. How did the affair begin? How was the decision to put a “clarification” [to the article] taken by the Political Bureau? How did Hlehel decide to resign from his post after this “clarification” was imposed on him? What was he accused of in Friday sermons? Who is behind this whole affair? Al-Madina Newspaper documents the story in detail and interviews Hlehel about what happened.

Reportage: Majd Kayyal, Al-Madina, Haifa
September 12, 2008

“The Hlehel Case”. That’s how it was named by one of the dozens of bloggers who fiercely debated, from both of the “conflicting” sides, the article titled “A Nightmare Called Ramadan” (August 22, 2008), written by Alaa Hlehel, the (then) editor of Fasl al-Maqal. The discussion went on to far surpass the effect of a normal article.

The first week after the publishing of the article was “relatively calm”, with only somewhat angry responses from the newspaper’s readers, who considered it “provocative”. On the second day after its publishing (Sat. August 24), a party meeting was convened in Nazareth, in which Tamim Mansour, member of Balad’s Political Bureau, opened fire on Hlehel by accusing him of being an “atheist, infidel, apostate and ignorant [jahil]”, detailing that his article was “impudent and insulting to Muslims.” But the affair was blown wide open as an issue a week after this, when Mansour published an article in Hadith al-Nas, where he launched a sweeping attack on Hlehel, both personally and for his article.

In this situation, Balad saw it fit to publish a “clarification” to the readers underneath the article. But this clarification reached the newspaper on Thursday afternoon, without the knowledge of the editor-in-chief and without him being consulted in this decision. The clarification stated that the expressions in this article “do not represent the position of the Balad party and the management of Fasl al-Maqal, and that its printing in the newspaper was a mistake.” Hlehel rejected this, refusing the imposition of this clarification on him without consultation and eventually decided to resign from his post. He indicated that this (or any other) kind of “clarification” has to be agreed upon by the editor-in-chief, at least in terms of its content, stressing his refusal on principle of any kind of “clarification”.

Three days after the happening, things took a sharper turn, when Zahi Njaydat, the Islamic Movement’s official spokesperson, presented a letter to the leader of Balad’s parliamentary bloc in the Knesset, MK Jamal Zahalka, that decried the article as “a disdainful and mocking insult of one of the five Pillars of Islam” and a series of ill-informed, ungrounded attacks on the holy month, thus an offense to the sentiments of every Muslim. And in an unprecedented step for the Arab parties [of Israel/Historic Palestine], the Islamic Movement demanded Hlehel’s removal from his post as editor-in-chief.

The letter reached all the major Arab online portals and garnered a lot of attention. `Awad `Abd al-Fattah, Balad’s General Secretary, issued a reply to the Islamic Movement’s letter, saying that Hlehel had tendered his own resignation after the imposition of the above-mentioned clarification. But things did not calm down, since readers had begun to get interested and there were far more comments than the average. There was a clearly sharp tone against Hlehel and his article to point of losing control against him, though there were also some commentators who considered his article as falling within the freedom of one’s expression and that it was the author’s right to use a sarcastic tone.

The discussion extended to the issue in question and did surpassed the bounds of the internet, as al-Madina learnt that it was brought up in Friday sermons of some of the mosques in Arab [Palestinian-Israeli] villages, in which a sweeping attack was launched on Hlehel. Some of the accusations against him reached the point of describing him as an “infidel” and “apostate”. “This kind of an attack,” said Hlehel, “cannot be taken lightly. I don’t know what it holds for the future.”

“I have not changed”

al-Madina asked Hlehel some of the questions posed by observers on the contradiction between the freedom of expression and the interests of one’s party. “Until the crisis arose, I saw no contradiction between the two,” says Hlehel, “as I am in a secular, liberal party that calls for the democratizating of the Arabs, and who’s chair [Azmi Bishara] teaches the rest of the Arab world what it means to be democratic. Its manifesto and literature indicate that clearly. The contradiction arises from changes within the party itself, not in its principles. I see no contradiction between editing the newspaper and my individual belief in a party that represents my thoughts and principles.”

He adds: “The painful part is that the first shot in this war came from a member of the party’s Political Bureau and not from outside the party. That member published an article attacking me and accusing me eleven times of being ignorant, an infidel and unbeliever, demanding I be countered. This gave the Islamic Movement the green light to go ahead…but at least they do not claim to be liberal or democratic, they viciously defend everything sacred and spiritual, so we shouldn’t find it strange coming from them. They haven’t suddenly become hard-liners after talking about secularism or the Enlightenment, there hasn’t been any shift here. We are the ones who’ve shifted. And I also tie in the way the party has dealt with these things to getting ready for elections and to opportunistic calculations that are unacceptable.”

He goes on: “Whoever attacked me did so from a personal standpoint, merely because I requested him to lighten up the tone of writing to so as to make space for other writers in the paper. Suddenly, this person transformed into a ferocious defender of Ramadan, while six months earlier he had been demanding that veiled women be barred from entering universities, and was one of the symbols of radical secularism!”

Some have criticized Hlehel for resigning from Fasl al-Maqal and for “quitting the battle”, even as he revealed that he was pushed to resign: “Even though I’m a person that tends to be rebellious and tries to cross boundaries, in the end I believe in personal responsibility and administrative and professional hierarchy. When the chair of the board of directors wants me to resign, I cannot stay on by force. I was clearly pushed to resign, after they imposed the publication of the ‘clarification’ on me. It is sad and insulting to me and Balad that some of the front-line leadership in the party who spoke tried to absorb the Islamic Movement’s anger by saying I resigned, instead of countering attempts to forcibly intervene, demanding the Islamic Movement withdraw its request, and defending the party and its establishments, instead of going on the attack as any body with prestige and dignity would do. But the party did not act as a frontline alternative for secularism and enlightenment. I am amazed that a party that follows an enlightened leader that teaches open-mindedness and rationality to the rest of the Arab world, cannot even achieve this in its own newspaper.

“I see that there is an essential misunderstanding about the place of an editor-in-chief. His job is not to review the paper’s headlines, or correct grammatical errors, even though that’s one of his duties. His job is to put together the newspaper’s agenda and it’s intellectual, political and social trajectory. The newspaper’s (and its editor) job is to expose corruption, to ignite debates and wars. They ask why the editor-in-chief is provoking trouble? His job is to be fearless in front of these ‘problems’ to prove the power of the fourth estate. This defines the integrity of the journalist and the newspaper. My basic intellectual agenda is in part taken from the party literature and from Azmi Bishara, and my work is to put in place on a weekly basis the thought of Balad according to what was in the National Democratic Delegation, the party program and Bishara’s writings. Whoever has issues with this can re-read the party’s literature.”

He concludes: “I was representing a current, the free, liberal and enlightened current. We as a current oppose an alliance at any cost with the Islamic Movement. It is unfortunate however that those I relied upon, those that filled our ears with talk about enlightenment, women’s liberation, secularism and freedom of expression have suddenly vanished. Where are you? There is incitement against me in all the mosques and no one writes a word. Not even a letter. Why this spinelessness? Except for three articles supporting the freedom of speech, by Nawaf `Othamina, Marzuq Halabi and Haneen Zu`bi,[a couple of others added their support a few days later] no one, whether groups or parties, has spoken a word.”

Abdel Fattah: “We respect Hlehel while differing with some of what was in the article”

In response to what Hlehel said, the General Secretary of Balad, `Awad abdel Fattah, said to al-Madina: “First and foremost, we take pride in the writer and intellectual `Alaa Hlehel, just as every society and vanguard party should. There were some sentences and expressions in the article written by Hlehel that were considered offensive by a portion of the readers. Publishing it in a newspaper tied to the Balad party was thus a mistake.

“We agree with some of what was written,” he added, “and stress on rejecting some of the negative social customs in this month, such as over-extravagance and the enslavement of women, that is imprisoning women in the kitchen for the whole month. But the writer presented the subject in a style that contributes to the social changes we believe in as a party, and that he too believes in. We call for a serious and civilized dialogue on all issues, sensitive or not, in our society.

“From another angle, we refuse the meddling of any political groups in the administration of our newspaper as moral guardians,” he concluded, “and we decry the use of this topic for political goals, as this was not an offense to any political party or movement, but an offense to one of the pillars of Islam. And we reject offending any pillar of any religion.”


Press Release from the `Ilaam center and the Arab Journalists’ Forum

In light of the article by the journalist `Alaa Hlehel, editor-in-chief of Fasl al-Maqal, and the responses and actions that followed it, we confirm the following:
• Respect of the freedom of expression as a basic human value that applies to everyone, meaning the right to write an article and consequently, the right to respond to it.
• We reject dealing with the practicing of one’s freedom of expression in a punitive or provocatory fashion, just as we reject intellectual policing. Based on this, we call on those concerned to reinstate our colleague `Alaa Hlehel to his position as editor-in-chief of Fasl al-Maqal, if he had actually been dismissed based on this, just as we reject incitement against him based on this.
• We demand all the concerned parties to not inflate the matter and raise it to a degree that it does not actually deserve, and to not employ it in intra and inter-party conflicts.
• We turn to all our journalists and writers to deliver the idea [of his article] in a form that heeds human and religious sentiments, by relying on our great Arab-Islamic culture, which encompassed and co-existed with different religious interpretations and political and intellectual movements, without its history witnessing inquisitions.

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Alaa Hlehel: A Nightmare Called Ramadan

Alaa Hlehel is one of the up and coming young Palestinian writers from inside Israel/Occupied Palestine, whom I had the opportunity to meet in Cairo this past May. He is also a journalist, founder-administrator of the Arabs48 website and until recently, the editor-in-chief of Fasl al-Maqal, the newspaper of (Azmi Bishara's) Balad party, which calls itself a liberal secular-democratic party. "Until recently" because he wrote the article which I have translated below, in which he somewhat honestly explains why he thinks Ramadan should be canceled.

While I don't want to insult anyone fasting, I do agree (especially while sitting in the Arab world currently) with pretty much everything he says. As a result, he was forced to resign, being declared a kafir in Friday sermons that followed the article. This was even before the Islamic Movement of Israel, which has nothing better to do than be unhealthily obsessed with one mosque and stopping gay girls from meeting, kicked up a brouhaha about it.

There was an article published in the Haifa newspaper al-Madina about the affair that I will post next, after I translate it. Enjoy.

A nightmare called Ramadan

It seems to me sometimes that the Islamic ummah has been living in a state of total contradiction for a long time now: it fasts for eleven months of the year so as to pounce upon food and goodies during Ramadan (in which one is supposed to eat less the rest of the year), when the month of asceticism, abstinence and breaking one’s fast with a single date turns into a month of dishes, cleaning, pot-bellies and pot-roast.

Thus, Ramadan is the month of flattery, hypocrisy, lying and fooling the bearded men; it is the month of excessiveness, over-spending and lasciviousness; in its current form and appearance, it is a corrupt month. In my view, canceling it needs to become a mass demand so as to rescue whatever health is left in this ummah.

Before you tear up this page and curse the writer and his party, let us stop at the following facts:

• Ramadan is a month of slavery for women, when they move from residing in living rooms and cleaning bathrooms to the kitchen, so you see your wife/mother before she goes into the kitchen on the first night of suhoor, and see her next after the end of the fourth day of the eid, when she emerges from the kitchen, asking in bewilderment: “how much time has passed?”

• Ramadan in its current form is a huge burden on the heads of families (male and female). The Sheikh of al-Azhar should issue urgent fatwas that proscribe the punishment of every mother and father that offer more than one plate of food for iftaar, so as to save this ummah from itself and its bellies.

• It seems that the shock of putting in four kilograms of various foods into one’s stomach in five minutes has its effect on people, so you see them popping their firecrackers and cavorting around in their cars through the “beautiful” Ramadan nights, all night long. Some of them play music on their tape players, while others play cards until suhoor. What happens to a billion people who spend their nights shelling nuts and sweets until it’s time for suhoor? What kind of a productive and fighting ummah is this?

• I remember that our religion teacher in elementary school once firmly told us that the idea of fasting in Ramadan can be summarized by the torture of hunger felt by the faster, the cleansing of his body and for him to develop a spirit of social solidarity/responsibility. Have you gotten the joke already?

• Every mother that is overly lavish in her cooking should know that she disobeys God and violates his teachings. She is going to hell without a doubt. What kind of heaven is this, one walked in by a mother who raises her children on luxury, pampering and the love of foods and material objects? What’s wrong with lentil soup and meat with potatoes? Are we insulting these perfectly acceptable dishes?

• More than 90% of fasters (and I bear responsibility for this statistic) do not pray nor carry out God’s teachings, and most likely insult him left and right throughout the rest of the year. Some of them disobey him by drinking, fornicating, hypocrisy, gossip and backbiting (according to the teachings and concepts of Islam), but in Ramadan they turn into Gabriel’s children and first cousins of the Prophet. Worse, and even uglier are those Muslims who start drinking alcohol on the night of the Eid: Ramadan has finished and so it’s ok for us to celebrate; didn’t we fast the whole month?

• It doesn’t stop here, those who do not fast are swept by the Crescent Campaigns or Crescades (a la the Crusades): “What?! you’re not fasting? God damn you!” “O you who eats during Ramadan, mocker of your religion! May the dogs ravage your guts!” And the campaign fires up and intensifies if I dare to light up a cigarette or order a sandwich in a public place. The eyes of fasting believers, who wish they could kill you on the spot, glare at you in envy and malice at once. Why? Because they are doing their God a favor. They’re fasting. So goes the incomprehensible impunity of fasting. If you, my fasting brothers and sisters, are truly looking to be rewarded by God for your fast and torture and power of perseverance, then you must look for someone not fasting and sit in front of them while they eat and drink to test yourself and your belief. And to be completely honest, I will tell you that I do not feel any guilt or fear when I eat with great appetite in front of a faster or blow smoke in his face. I am not forced to pay attention to the feelings of any faster who has chosen to earn the rewards of heaven with their perseverance and forebearance. How will he gain it if he does not persevere? And why do those fasting not pay attention to my feelings as they breathe in my face while talking to me? Our religion teacher did tell us that brushing one’s teeth in the morning does not break the fast!

• I say all this, as I seek God’s forgiveness for you and myself, that I am a thousand times more sincere than you with any Divine Being that may (or may not) appear to us in the future. For I am not trying to fool or cheat on anyone. And when you see someone like me not fasting during Ramadan, you must bow humbly to them for their straightforwardness with themselves and others.

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Jalame is Open, but with Restrictions

Israel has opened Jalame crossing to Palestinian citizens of Israel for the first time since 2000. Jalame is located in the far northern tip of the West Bank. Since the wall has been completed in this area, the residents of West Bank villages, as well as of the Arab villages inside of Israel who are often the relatives of people on the other side, have been prohibited from crossing here to see each other.

In 2005, the Israelis built a huge terminal, like the one at Qalandia but three or four times the size. I walked through it once into the West Bank when they had just completed construction, and there were as many as eight of those tall, narrow metal turnstyles, and a maze of pathways lined with chain link, not unlike a place where you keep cattle before slaughter.

The second time I had an experience with Jalame, it involved sitting for five and a half hours on the Jenin side. The soldiers manning the crossing told me and my friend, two US passport holders, to wait just one more hour and they would open the terminal. After an hour passed, they said wait one more, and on and on. In the end, we were told that this crossing is for Palestinians with passes only, and we have to go down south to Qalandia to enter Israel. I am relating this story not to show that we got a little bit of the Palestine treatment simply because of which side of the electric fence we were on (while it's interesting also how people, animals, you name it, become ethnicized simply by being on the wrong side), but to show how we then saw what no news agency has yet gone to film: the throngs of workers returning home at nightfall from Israel, faces lined and tired spilling one after the other through the metal gates, trying to fit three bodies through a space for one racing each other for taxis so they can arrive home, sleep, and leave again at 3 am.

This is what Jalame terminal was built for: to allow an entry for cheap labor from Jenin, to render that labor invisible, and to effectively choke the city's economy into submission. The labor is in fact invisible. These people, mainly Palestinian men and some women, go to work in Jewish areas throughout the north of Israel at 3 am, and return to their homes at 5 or 6 pm. No one will ever see the state of those homes. No Israeli passes the opposite way. Unless it is to take part in the Occupation- in that sense, MOST Israelis have seen at one point or another what has been rendered invisible to them in their everyday lives.

The opening of the terminal to Arabs on the Israeli side is a positive move, but comes only after the wall and restrictions on movement have served to make Jenin completely invisible to those who live only ten minutes away. In Shefa Amr, where I am living now and incidentally the second largest Palestinian locality in Israel, peoples' eyes practically bug out of their heads if I tell them I went to Jenin. You went to JENIN? People will tell you that they used to go, the market was cheap, we had friends there. This rug is from Jenin, or these glasses. But this was before the Intifada. Now, the only people who go are those who have family, or another pressing personal reason to take advantage of the movement privileges that come with an Israeli passport. Why else would you travel two hours to the nearest crossing in the Wall, and subject yourself to the checkpoints and treatment you will certainly receive from the Israeli soldiers along the way?

Until now, the nearest way for someone on the Israeli side of the Wall in the north to get to family just on the opposite side has been to drive south as far as Tul Karm and then backtrack parallel to the road you just took, heading north inside the West Bank. (In fact my description is simplified- since the main highway to Jenin has been made off-limits to Palestinian use, a windy and convoluted road through the mountains suffices.)

Palestinian citizens of Israel have been the drivers and primary occupants of the public transportation that I have taken to visit Jenin over the past two years. It's the proximity that gets me every time. You can see Nazareth and Afula from roads just outside Jenin, not to mention all of the villages along the Wall. If you begin driving from one point in a southern direction, cross into Israel, and then continue back north, you end up looking down on where you were two and a half hours previous.

It remains to be seen how long it will take for people to actually begin crossing from Jalame to visit Jenin. The restrictions reported are as such:

Under the new rules, the IDF barred those younger than 18 from entering Jenin and said all the travelers must return to the terminal before nightfall, where they will be subjected to security questioning, according to a flier given to those who crossed.

The crossing will be open to an estimated 100 Israeli Arabs per day, Sunday to Thursday, Palestinian officials said. A Defense Ministry official said the plan was to increase the number and over time to allow more travelers to enter.

Return before nightfall for questioning? If I go with a friend from inside, we'll just as well make the 3+ hour trip down to Tul Karm and back, thank you very much.

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Young Palestinian Writers in Cairoٌ

I just attended a really cool talk the other day as part of the Spring Festival that gathered three young writers from Palestine, two of them Israeli Palestinians and one from Ramallah. They read short pieces from their poetry/short stories and then had a an articulate and charged discussion on the current generation of Palestinian writers and on their relationship with the "other" (Israelis as individuals vs. Israelis as citizens of the Zionist state). I felt sad that that the views of the authors on interacting fell predictably in line with where they live. But I was also really happy that they all stressed on writing first as individuals and refusing to just be mouthpieces for repetitive and empty slogans. I dont know enough about al-Mawred al-Thaqafy but I was really glad they brought these three writers here.
The three writers were: `Alaa Hlehel from Akka, Asmaa al-`Azaizeh from Haifa and Hala Shrouf from Ramallah. Both Asmaa' and Hala have just published their first collections of poetry and read two poems each that were quiet yet powerful. Asmaa' is a TV presenter for al-Arz productions while Hala teaches English sign language to the deaf and mute at Birzeit. It turned out she knew one of my Arabic teachers at Birzeit, Dr. Abdel Karim Abu-Khashan very well which made me smile. `Alaa is a fiction writer and journalist (as well as one of the editors of the awesome site Arabs48) and he read a series of short vignettes, all of which were sharp and witty, that kept Palestine in sight while not reducing it to a one-dimensional slogan. Except for one piece...which was about an anonymous sexual experience - being guided to giving someone an orgasm! Quite daring, I must say, especially given that he was sharing the stage with two girls, one of them veiled. What impressed me about the piece when I later remembered it was that one couldn't specify the gender of the other person that he made "yablugh" ("reach" - ie, orgasm), which made genderqueer me smile.
It was also energizing to meet young writers who are actually young and not pushing/above 30. I suddenly felt connected to the ongoing Palestinian literary scene. And all three of them have met/know of Adania Shibli, the writer I translated for my senior project last year. Young, intelligent, articulate Palestinians who have no illusions about anything and are intent on asserting their humanity before anything else and will not have a pre-determined notion of liberation dictated at them.
It was a nice event to be at as I come close to finishing my stay in Egypt and going to Syria, given that I've felt deprived of a sustained intellectual atmosphere this whole year.
The next day there was a "reportback" talk given by famous Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif about her last trip to Palestine with the Palestine Literary Festival which was disappointingly long-winded and boring, but maybe an Egyptian audience needed to hear it. And it was followed by a stunning oud performance by Palestinian-Israeli oud player Nizar Rouhana. The number of "internal Palestinians" who have made stunning creative and artistic contributions to the Palestinian cause always amazes me.
Sidenote: It was sad to hear Alaa Hleihel, one of the writers, complain that some Egyptians he talked to did not know that there are one million Palestinians who are citizens of Israel and that if he had an Israeli passport he is a traitor! Yea sure, o Egypt, who does not let Gazan Palestinians come and even buy food in Sinai while your intelligence chief goes and hugs Olmert in Tel Aviv!

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Nakba Demonstration in Safuria Attacked

**Please click here for video from www.panet.co.il.
***What happened to the people of Safuria?

Thousands of people converged Thursday on the land of Safuria to mark the anniversary of the Nakba and to demonstrate for the right of return of the refugees. The crowd included mainly Palestinian citizens of Israel, and some Jewish citizens. Chants included "Long live Palestine," "Gaza is Palestinian and Golan is Syrian," and "We are all one people" invoking the West Bank, Gaza and Arab countries along with the people of the Galilee, and "The White House is the biggest terrorist." Some people released hundreds of black balloons into the sky to fly over the 60th Birthday of Israel celebrations and barbecues to remind them of those who were forced out 60 years ago.

Safuria was a town that was cleared of its residents and destroyed in 1948. It was larger than Nazareth at the time of its destruction. Many of the descendants of the former residents of Safuria now live in nearby Nazareth, while others fled to refugee camps in the West Bank and surrounding countries. The Jewish community that now lives on the land of Safuria is called Tsippuri. Each year for the last ten years, these Nakba commemoration demonstrations in the Galilee have been at the site of a different destroyed village.

When I left the demo, I saw riot police waiting across the street. However they seemed relaxed and simply there to make sure no confrontations took place with the Jewish people celebrating in the field on the other side. Then, the next morning, I saw this image of Member of Knesset Wasel Taha:

I learned that after a couple hours of the demonstration, the police moved in, some on horseback, and attacked people with tear gas and sound bombs, brilliantly setting the fields on fire. My coworker was there with her small girls still at the time the police and army came into the crowd.

My older daughter was so afraid. She never wants to go again, though I told her no, the police are just trying to make us afraid. There were people with blood, and smoke and bombs and gas. We are not used to this and we didn't expect anything like it. There had been no problem- the police and the army came in and made the problem.

Six youth were arrested, and more were injured at the close of what was an otherwise peaceful demonstration attended by whole families with small children:

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60 Years Later, Nakba Front Page News

Israel is today celebrating it's 60th anniversary. I was surprised and pleased to see this article on the front page of the International Herald Tribune yesterday: After 60 Years, Arabs in Israel Are Outsiders, complete with pictures and video.

Then I read the first paragraph. The author feels the needs to qualify from the start the Palestinian discontent inside of Israel:

As Israel toasts its 60th anniversary in the coming weeks, rejoicing in Jewish national rebirth and democratic values, the Arabs who make up 20 percent of its citizens will not be celebrating. Better off and better integrated than ever in their history, freer than a vast majority of other Arabs, Israel’s 1.3 million Arab citizens are still far less well off than Israeli Jews and feel increasingly unwanted.

Why? The first thing the author points out is to the effect of, 'You should thank your lucky stars that you're living here in a westernized civilized society, and not with those backwards barbarians we're surrounded by.' And does he really believe that they are freer than other Arabs? If he's talking about ability to get a visa to the US, ok. If he's talking about freedom from harassment by intelligence and police, freedom from state oppression, freedom from discrimination, the right to hold property without anyone taking it from you arbitrarily, or freedom of the press, he's got some research to do.

The article also curiously ignores the Bedouin, who have the worst living situation and rights abuses inside of Israel's self-chosen borders not including Jerusalem. The article ignores the situation of Jerusalem residents, who have lived under Israeli governance since 1967 yet who do not have Israeli citizenship and hence have a different, lesser set of rights. While I understand the purpose of focusing on Palestinian citizens of Israel, which does not include the Golan or Jerusalem, I find that simply mentioning their plight in the consideration of Israel's treatment of the native population within what it considers its borders demonstrates the nature of the colonial settlement and ethnic cleansing that has been ongoing for 60 years. It gives some context to the 'freedoms' the author cites, that these apparently civilized barbarians should be thankful that they've been enlightened with.

Despite my criticisms, however, the Nakba on the front page is a positive step.

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Photojournal: the Galilee

The hummos not yet appropriated by the white man.



Good Friday in Shefa Amr.


Plaque in Haifa's German Colony: "In the middle of a sparsely populated and largely barren land..."


Jabal Al-Sheikh on a clear day from Haifa. This peak is visible from Lebanon, Syria, and the Galilee. It is impossible for anyone actually from these countries, to see it from all three.


"Martyrs of Racism" poster showing the faces of Palestinian citizens of Israel killed in October 2000 and the Shefa Amr Massacre, among other events.


Road sign for Jenin. The sign was good a few years ago but is now obsolete. All roads lead to the Wall.

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LIVNI LA VIDA LOCA: Spitfire-side Chat

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, seen here raising a finger during her April visit to Qatar, may have used her visit to stick up for Shimon Peres' hurt feelings. (What kind of a weird flicking-off that is, and more significantly why the AFP posted this as their main closeup of Livni is beyond me.)


There are other possibilities though. Livni may also have been aiming the sentiment at Hamas, which is "controlling Gaza by weapons, training and money," apparently from Iran. (Of course not because they won the last election fair and square-- democracy anyone?) Or she was giving it to all the Gulf people who would rather excuse themselves to go barf than see formal ties, or worse, sit in a room with Israeli government officials.

The following is an internal discussion on the significance of the Qatari and Omani reception of Livni. As Chaim protested, "Why do you D-bags host these conversations on this listserv, take it to the blog!"

MHMD: Hey what do you guys make of this? Well, there really isn't much to make of it, I'm not surprised-but is there anything left to say about the Qataris and Omanis meeting so openly with Livni?

Emily: I had an argument with a friend recently. He's from Bahrain and was thinking of coming to Jordan, and I suggested that we meet there. I also said oh maybe I'll bring my friend along from Shefa Amr! She's never been to Jordan!

At which point he seriously took the conversation off the record and was like "wait... she's... israeli?" He didn't want to hang out with her in Jordan (a Muslim Arab Palestinian citizen of Israel) because of her Israeli passport. He was like, there's a boycott. I have to stick to my principles.

I think I spent a half an hour typing like a madwoman about all of the violations against Palestinians in Israel even though they are "Israeli." And furthermore pulled up the call for boycott and sanctions and sent him the actual text of it- 'institutional boycott' etc etc.

Anyway I'd like to post about this and the context of Livni's visit. I thought Qatar was like the rest of the Gulf states in that people with Israeli passports can't travel there? Or is it the one exception or something?

MHMD: Well, Qatar's always been the most openly friendly Gulf state with Israel-if I recall correctly they were the first to allow an Israeli Trade Office to open there. As far as I know, the ban on Israeli passport holders in the gulf is one bigass myth-Israelis travel freely to the UAE and Qatar, and I'm sure they do to Bahrain and Oman too. The Omani FM said one of the purposes of his meeting with Livni was to discuss the reopening of the Israeli Trade Office in Muscat.

Furthermore, I recently saw a news report on MBC quoting several Israeli and US studies that reveal there are up to 220 Israeli companies active in Iraq now. The Arab boycott is just one big joke.

Chaim: Why do you D-bags host these conversations on this listserv, take it to the blog! And use my title: LIVNI LAVIDA LOCA... I just wanna see it in print cause I'm so proud of it :) Or do a round-table burn... KABOBfest hasn't done one of those in a great long while.

Emily: Maybe it can be on what constitutes a violation of the boycott: Qatar and the gulf countries giving Israeli businessmen free reign when there's a boycott going on, or me working for a Palestinian org that is actually an Israeli org inside of Israel, or just talking to Palestinian citizens of Israel (as many regular gulfi people seem to think- I have more examples)

Is my working in Israel a violation of the boycott of Israel for all people of conscience?

Does the boycott include the exclusion of Palestinian people with Israeli passports otherwise known as Arab ISRAELIS?

I'm pretty sure we all agree that Qatar talking to Livni is hypocrisy... or do we?

MHMD: Livni accuses MP Tibi of trying to sabotage two-state solution That should be useful too.

Nimr: I strongly disagree, actually. I hate it when US pundits blast Obama for saying he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Hammas, Venezuela, N. Korea or whoever (well, I actually think there should be "high level" conversations first. Meeting the pres. should be the carrot for substantive talks). I feel I would be the hypocrite to criticize Qatar for talking with Livni.

I see no harm with welcoming and meeting with Livni. It's not like they are going to let Israel bury nuclear waste there (see: Mauritania). For the record, I think the academic boycott is dumb and counterproductive too. Heck, I think the travel restrictions in general are silly as well. If any Americans are going to boycott Israel, you better be ready to get your ass boycotted 300x over by the rest of the world too.

Also, let's be clear. As Mohammed pointed out, the rules about travel prohibitions are not universally followed. UAE "unofficially" lets all kinds of people who visit Israel and/or are Israeli citizens come there for business (lots of diamond, tech and finance). That might be open for criticism. Alternately, Yemen allows their own Jewish citizens to visit Israel for family and/or religious reasons, they just do it super on the DL. I applaud that. Syria might not have suffered the loss of its Jewish population if they could have come and gone as they pleased.

Lastly, to put the visit in context, Qatar is very much trying to position themselves as players on the international stage. This kinda thing is probably more about them posturing as players than caring so much about Israel, Palestine or the peace process.

The boycotts and restrictions ultimately do much more to hurt "us", financially, culturally, symbolically and politically than them.

My 2 cents

Emily: So are you against boycott, academic institutional etc? What about monetary divestment campaigns? I really don't think any boycott, academic or institutional, would cause much actual harm to the boycotting organization itself unless it depends on funds from Zionist orgs or people.

That's a really good point about Syria and Yemen. It's stupid to not let people travel. It's just dumb.

I think that boycott is in fact a decent tool to get Israeli organizations and institutions to take notice of what is happening. I'm here and I don't see people really having to notice much in their everyday lives. Life goes on as usual while 10 minutes away people are under occupation. I think that for many educated people who want to be part of the global community (Tel Aviv University, for example), if they got responses when they tried to make a conference saying people won't participate because of the occupation, it would make them have to notice. I've heard Pappe stand on a podium, spread his arms, and say "please! boycott me!"

But the way it happens, it is carried out all wrong. people are not allowed to travel. That is stupid. Businessmen instead make a ton of valuable connections over everyone else's heads, and don't feel a thing even though there's a 'boycott'.

Fadi: I think isolation will work. I think boycott, whether academic, cultural, or economic, advances such isolation. Whether doing away with a certain type of boycott (such as academic) will harm the mission of isolating Israel, I don't know. Maybe the academic boycott is not necessary. Maybe it is. I think the reward (saving Palestinian - and Israeli - lives) is worth the risk. I think isolation will work. I understand the arguments against its practicality, or that it harms civilian infrastructure. I'm fairly certain that refusing to publish papers by Israeli academics, or cutting off grants or joint research (much of it on military and arms research) is not going to starve Israelis to death. I think isolation will work, this has been empirically established (for example, South
Africa). Those willing to argue against boycott of Israel, I think, must also argue against the boycott of Apartheid South Africa. If you're not willing to do that, then there's a double standard being applied.

Nimr: I would be interested to see any empirical data on isolation working as a strategy. Most of the data I have seen shows, 1) isolating other countries rarely works and 2) the connection between isolating S. Africa and the end of apartheid is anecdotal, and most probably part of a matrix of many other factors (which may or may not exist in Palestine).

Andrew Mack and Asif Khan have analyzed UN sanctions and their conclusion is that results have been mixed at best. They point out that sanctions work well as a tool of policy, but not as a policy. Look at the disaster of isolating Iraq under sanctions, Cuba, Hammas, Burma, Iran etc. Attempts to isolate them failed, and tended to strengthen the targeted elements, not weaken them. Also, it is almost impossible to isolate any country, this didn't even work with S. Africa (otherwise DeBeers would not be facing anti-trust issues in the USA). Israel and others kept strong relations with apartheid S. Africa.

This is further complicated by the particular governmental structure of Israel where small fanatical parties have disproportionate influence (domestically and in the USA). Attempts to isolate Israel will only strengthen their power and influence, as it will prove their narrative. (which would lead to more death and land appropriation)

I think the more apt analogy for Israel is the United States, not S. Africa. Like I said if we expect people to start boycotting Israel, culturally, politically, economically and/or academically, we must be prepared to suffer the same treatment in spades. As an American, I feel that the actions of my gov't do not represent my values. In spite of that lots of people die directly and indirectly from my gov't's actions. The same could be said of countless Israelis.

It gets complicated really quickly too. The US allowed black S. Africans to come to the US to attend college for instance. Should we not allow Arab-Palestinians? If we do, should we not allow progressive Israelis? If we do....

I think the divestment campaign makes sense, but only so long as this is on an org by org, individual by individual basis and not gov't policy. I am all for not collaborating with Israel on any research that has military focus and/or biased scholarship (i.e. propaganda), but a sweeping boycott is counterproductive. Some of the best most critical scholarship of Israeli policy comes from Israel.

Specific targeted sanctions (high tech, weapons, etc) are vital parts of foreign policy, but isolating countries/groups seems to have a fairly dismal track record.

Will: I saw this research a long time ago... I think they also argued that if it does not work at the stage of threats, it won't work. Also, democracies are much more responsive to the threats of isolation, theoretically. Hard empirical analysis would be hard to do because the sample size is probably pretty damn small.

We can assume sanctions against Israel would work if the whole world stood behind them. So we should ask, how realistic is this, on what basis, and would do the prospects of good relations with the Arab world mean?

I would not say Qatar is hypocritical, since they have not exactly been touting anything but a soft position, anyways. I do not think the Arab boycott has truly existed since Egypt got off board in the late 1970s. So asking if it is legitimate is hypothetical. If it existed, it would be, though.

In principle, I am against normalizing Israel until it has clearly defined borders, a clear demarcation of its polity, and lives up to its obligations under international law -- in the context of a just and viable solution with the Palestinians. Until then, recognizing Israel without its recognition of the Palestinians is one-sided and
legitimizing criminality.

I do not see how accomodationism could bring about peace. Eretz Yisrael is a non-negotiable ideological strain, first, and the settlements are internalized in the Israeli public's worldview. Accommodation means accepting these fundamentals, which strike at the heart of Palestinian rights.

Emily: What about the fact that Palestinian civil society has called for boycott/divestment/sanctions? I for one think that we should be listening to what they are saying, and doing our best to implement where we can, for the mere fact that they are the ones calling for it. This probably does not translate to the govenrnmental level, at least not at this juncture. However there are many areas where resolutions can be passed and where choices not to participate/invite/invest can be made and publicized.

That said, I am working in Israel. Does this violate what I'm saying above?

Fadi: That's right, I think sanctioning dictatorships (eg. Iraq, Cuba) or populations that were never in a position of prosperity to revert to (HAMAS) is clearly different from boycotting governments that are accountable to a people that are benefactors of a system that oppresses others. The Apartheid regime in South Africa, like that in Israel, does have a population that it is accountable to. I'm not sure why you would bring up Iraq or Cuba, I think we can agree that their dictators don't care about their constituents and are not accountable to their constituents - so there's a good chance isolation will not work there. Despite your opposition to boycotting Apartheid South Africa, you can't dismiss the isolation of South Africa that led whites there to realize that "ok, we can no longer benefit from Apartheid, let's choose a new path." If we can agree on isolating Israel as a means to liberate Palestinians, then we can discuss the
details (such as travel restrictions on Palestinian citizens of Israel).

But i do think that Qatar and other Arab states are hypocritical. If there are no official policies on boycott in a certain Arab state, I do think these dictators do frequently evoke the Palestinian cause, and express support for Palestinians, to their people. They do not support the Palestinian people, they exploit the Palestinian people. The regimes care about filling their pockets and insulating themselves (e.g.., by strengthening themselves politically in the global arena);
engaging in economic deals with Israel is not something done out of necessity - or at least a morally pure necessity (maybe they think they need to do it in order to retain their authoritarian rule). I would not see them as hypocrites if they normalized relations with Israel while not pretending to be strong supporters of the Palestinian struggle.

Maybe some disagree, but I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. policy of sanctioning HAMAS and punishing the civilian population will lead to some shift in the next election, if there ever is one. That is, I wouldn't be surprised if that policy works. It's a disgusting policy, and it's a much different situation, and certainly isolating Israel will not lead to a humanitarian crisis such as that which exists in Gaza (and existed in Gaza before Hamas, before Fatah, before the PLO) or that which existed under Iraq's dictatorship during the sanctions.

CLICK HERE FOR:

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel

Palestine BDS Campaign

Divestment Support Committee

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In Commemoration of Land Day

Sunday is Yom al Ard, or Land Day, in Palestine and Israel. The activities held on the 30th of March each year mark the anniversary of protests in 1976 against the theft of Palestinian-owned land inside of Israel by the state. Six people were killed in the Galilee, and hundreds injured.

To my knowledge, not even the anniversary of the Nakba is recognized as popularly throughout the West Bank, Gaza and Israel as Land Day. The Nakba happened in 1948. Land Day is used to address the ongoing arbitrary confiscations of Palestinian property since that time, whether in Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza.

For Land Day, demonstrations are organized in cities, towns, villages, and refugee camps throughout all of historic Palestine. They are especially pertinent in areas where new confiscations are taking place. This year, the focus is on Jaffa, where 500 families have been issued eviction notices before the neighborhood is razed to make way for Jewish development. (Notice the grounds for eviction: that the residents "invaded the properties." Many Jaffa residents are internally displaced persons who have been deprived once of their property, and were forced to take up residence in the homes of Palestinians who fled before them.)

Check out this interview with Father Shehadeh Shehadeh, an organizer of the original Land Day protest in 1976.



Unrelated to Land Day, I would also like to bring your attention to this article on the assassination of the four men in Bethlehem a few weeks ago. I am sorry that I did not take a picture of their martyr poster when I had the chance. It shows the four, who are from different political factions, all standing together with weapons raised. I find it ironic, considering the way that they died: unarmed, sitting in a car waiting for their food order. As if the poster, like so many others, is an attempt to bestow some meaning on their deaths, which are no more than cold-blooded murders for which no investigation will ever take place and no justice will ever be served.

They did not even have the chance to move. Their bullet-ridden bodies were still sitting upright when passersby pulled them from the car.

It was the moral equivalent of a team of Palestinians, disguised as Israelis, driving an Israeli car into Tel Aviv and gunning down four off-duty Israeli soldiers.

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The Beginning of Legal Apartheid?

The New York Times today has an article on a new road in the West Bank for Israeli only use connecting the settlements to Jerusalem, while weaving around and above Palestinian communities who have no access, and furthermore live at the whim of a gate opened for them in the morning by the Israeli army.

The NYT mentioned the words "the beginning of legal Apartheid."

This is what the beginning looks like eh?

So then what is the term for the Birzeit University students who slept in the hills except to come to class for fear the soldiers would discover their Gaza ids and deport them to another part of their homeland?

What is the term for the 18,000 people in Dheishe refugee camp who lived throughout the 80s surrounded by a wall, with one revolving door going in and one going out, while the settlers near them lived with free access to Israel?

What is the term for the military rule placed only on the indigenous communities inside of Israel for decades? What is the term for the forbidding of travel for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship (or Israeli Arabs) to Jordan or Egypt, until the 90s?

What is the term for the requirement that students at some Israeli universities must have previous military service in order to live in the dormitories?

What is the term for people who live under occupation for over 40 years, and pay taxes to the occupying authority, and yet do not have any rights under that same authority?

What is the term for the home demolitions in East Jerusalem, when a family loses their home because they added a level for their children, and failed to obtain a permit that would cost more than the value of the house? What is the term for the Israeli settlers who build and confiscate around them with impunity?

What is the term for people being issued different color ids and license plates so as to determine whether they can enter another part of their own homeland?

What is the term for one customs building for Palestinians at Allenby Border Crossing, and a separate one for Israelis and all other foreigners?

What is the term for the denial of permits required from the Israeli authorities for a Palestinian to travel to Jordan, while an Israeli can simply go to the border and get a visa?

What is the term for women who give birth at checkpoints while occupying soldiers watch? What is the term for the Palestinian citizens of Israel who marry a Palestinian from the West Bank, and give birth at a checkpoint while waiting to enter Israel? What is the term for that child, who now must take a Palestinian id because their Israeli parent failed to give birth in Israel? What is the term for the Israeli settlers who live throughout historic Palestine and have full rights as Israeli citizens?

What is the term for these movement restrictions?

We would have to invent a new word.

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The Unrecognized

I mentioned this video (by Adalah) once before as an afterthought to this post. I am posting it again because I want to bring your attention to the awesome woman interviewed near the end of the film.

Please click here to stream the video from the Adalah site so you can actually read the subtitles.


After all of the lawyers and such who give their professional information about the situation of the Bedouin in the unrecognized villages in Israel, and all of whom speak with varying levels of proper, Modern Standard Arabic, we hear this woman. She is Amal ElSana AlH'jooj, the Director of AJEEC, The Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation. She speaks with passion that would blow all the rest out of the water, and in dialect, and comes across with simultaneous rawness and eloquence regarding the most fundamental problem driving just about the entire conflict here. She is speaking of the Palestinians inside of Israel, but the sentiment applies to the whole darn thing. She hits it right on the nose:

First of all, and this is a fundamental point, the state must start changing its attitude toward Palestinian citizens of Israel. This is a difficult issue. The state must stop seeing us as a security threat. The state today sees us as a security and demographic threat.

To this day, when an Arab woman gives birth, it frightens the Israeli Interior Minister and the Israeli Foreign Minister. This is the first thing that must change.

Secondly, the state cannot consider itself a 'democratic' state in the Middle East while 72,000 of its citizens are without drinking water.

Either the state decides to be democratic with equal rights for all, or it is not democratic. If it is not democratic, then we will know how to relate to it. But Israel can't have it both ways.

In completely unrelated news, I would also like to bring your attention to my new phrase of the day: 7elli 3an 6eaz aboui. Used to express 'leave me alone.' Translates to 'get off my dad's ass.'

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