Spending My Shekels on Palestine

Before setting off to Jerusalem, I sat down and thought very carefully about how I wanted to spend my money in the city.

A lot of people who support the Palestinian cause are careful to boycott Israeli products but a lot fewer have the chance to actively support the Palestinian economy. Visiting Jerusalem would be my chance to throw in my shekels for the Palestinian economy so I want to make sure I get it right. Basically I need to avoid propping up Israeli businesses while I am there and although I am not spending thousands, if you put together all the money tourist spend it really does start to add up.

According to the Word Travel Market Global Trends forecast, by 2011 the number of tourist visiting the Middle East will have increased to 55 million people a year. These visitors are estimated to bring in revenue worth $51 billion to the region. Now, that is a lot of money. Spent in the right way a tourist's money could really help Palestinians, especially in Jerusalem where the economy is built on local businesses related to tourism. Hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and stalls are where Palestinian Jerusalemites make their living and so when a Muslim like me visits, I have a real opportunity to positively contribute to its economy.

How do I support the Palestinian economy?

“It's really quite simple,” answers Mrs. Salhab from the Hashimi Hotel in Jerusalem. “Don't buy from the Jewish Quarter or stay in Israeli hotels and look for Palestinians wherever you are staying or eating. The Arab Hotel Association is really useful as it has a list of Palestinian hotels to stay in across the whole of Palestine.”

The Arab Hotel Association was established in Jerusalem in 1962, to represent Palestinian hotels and currently has 56 members with over 3,700 guest rooms. It also runs a center to train Palestinian tourism professionals to help them compete in an increasingly competitive industry. The Alternative Tourism Group of Bethlehem has also joined forces with other Palestinian organizations to come up with 'A Code of Conduct' which gives advice on how to support “a just and responsible tourism in Palestine.” It has some great suggestions such as using local guides, transportation and spending more time getting to know Palestinians and their way of life.

Another place to support the economy is the particularly vibrant Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City. You can buy almost anything from here, safe in the knowledge that you are supporting the Palestinian community.

Jerusalem's Economy after the Intifada

The tourism industry is now buoyed by streams of pilgrims and optimism about its future. As recently as 2000, the industry suffered a severe downfall as political turmoil erupted in the country and visitors kept away due to fears for their safety. In the wake of the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2000, the tourism industry fell by the unprecedented amount of 50% and four years later reports were stating that the volume of tourism was still some 45% lower than pre-intifada levels.

“After 2000 things were very bad, and not for a few months but for a very long time,” reaffirms Sarah who runs a Muslim-friendly hotel in the Muslim Quarter. “It took a long time for things to get better and in consideration of the economic situation worldwide and Gaza, things are remarkably strong.”

Even so, reports by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted that the Israeli security measures such as checkpoints, curfews and roadblocks fragmented the Palestinian economy and pushed it further into decline. A report by the World Bank this June 2009 also found that recent post-conflict economic recovery has been hampered by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement. As a result, Palestinians are becoming more rather than less dependent on foreign aid.

In these circumstances, it is more important than ever that Muslims are supporting the Palestinian economy sustainable by visiting the holy city and investing in its economy. As Sarah add, “Jerusalem sees so much of everyone but it would be great to see more Muslim visitor, especially from the UK and Europe, supporting the Palestinian economy.”

Link to the Article online

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In Palestine, Plant Your Resistance

Together with the support of locals, four environmentalists setup Bustan Qaraaqa or 'Tortoise Garden' in the summer of 2008.

Looking over the rugged landscape of the West Bank, it's hard to believe that even nature's resources are under Israeli control. Yet over the years of occupation, the fertile lands of the West Bank have been confiscated for illegal settlements. Palestinian water supplies have also been hijacked so that Israeli citizens enjoy four times as much water as Palestinians.

Israeli control of the West Bank's natural resources has led to stunted development in the region, with Palestinians increasingly dependent on Israel for their food and water. In response to this, a group of environmentalists in the West Bank have come with a unique and eco-friendly way to fight the Israeli occupation: they are growing their own food!

"More Independent, More Self-sufficient"

In the village of Beit Sahour on the outskirts of Bethlehem, UK environmentalists have decided that the best way to empower Palestinians is to teach them to grow their own food and utilize naturally available resources. Alice Gray, an environmental scientist who helped launch the project explained to IslamOnline.net, "All of these things, these dependences, are being used as weapons against the Palestinians. So our point is that the more independent, the more self-sufficient you are the less these things can be used as political tools."

Together with the support of locals, four environmentalists setup Bustan Qaraaqa or 'Tortoise Garden' in the summer of 2008. It is entirely independently run by these environmental activists who hope to pass it over to Palestinian management over the next five years. Since the project launched it has grown to include a guest house for volunteers and a 4-acre plot of land dedicated to experimentation with permaculture techniques.

Permaculture is a method of growing food using sustainable methods which advocate a close relationship between people and nature on ethical grounds. Gray, however, sees it in a very different light insisting that "Permaculture is a political act and the politics of it is in taking back control and moving away from dependence."

Whilst this new-found green concept may seem irrelevant for Palestinians struggling to put food on the plate, Gray also argues that it is these very people that the project is aimed at.

"In Palestine, [permaculture] is not just answering some ethical concept but also [fulfills] a dire need. We are always experimenting with lots of ways of growing vegetables and resource-use such as water conservation, but everything that we do we will do at low cost so that it is easily replicable for Palestinians."

Water Shortages

Water is one of the most contentious issues affecting Palestinians in the West Bank as it is inextricably linked to farming and food security.

In fact, the project has already gathered a wide base of support ranging from Palestinians in refugee camps to the Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor who reportedly said in The Jordan Times that such a project would be "very positive".

"Everyone we talk to, on all levels of society can relate to it as it's practical and needed," said Gray. "There is no Palestinian who has not experienced problems like water shortage, which we are trying to resolve."

Water is one of the most contentious issues affecting Palestinians in the West Bank as it is inextricably linked to farming and food security. A recent report by the World Bank found that Palestinians have the lowest access to fresh water in the region and 50% of households have reported quality problems in their drinking water supply. The World Bank also found that Israel has been over-extracting water from the West Bank's resources, reducing the amount left for Palestinians and increasing Palestinian dependency on Israeli water supplies.

The lack of water in the region also means that vast expanses of Palestinian West Bank farmland are currently drying out and unable to grow crops. The agricultural sector is already an important lifeline to the West Bank, which given better access to water could create more jobs, independent food security and even contribute to poverty reduction. The World Bank has estimated that the restrictions in agriculture and declining availability of agricultural water carry significant losses as high as 10 percent of GDP and 110,000 jobs (World Bank, April 2009, West Bank and Gaza: Assessment of Restrictions on Palestinian Water Sector Development).

Water shortages are also pushing up the price of water for Palestinian farmers who in some cases are paying 12 times more for the same amount of water in comparison with Israeli farmers. Bustan Qaraaqa has been trying to resolve the issue of water shortages by encouraging farmers to build underground cisterns which catch and store large amounts of rainwater as well as incorporating sewage systems which don't use any water. "To make sure that people have access to water although they are being denied water infrastructure, you have to store every drop so nothing is wasted," asserted Gray.

Bustan Qaraaqa also practices what it preaches and has recently built a rainwater system to support its flourishing orchards of olive trees, figs, pomegranate and apricot as well as wheat. "The tree nursery is my great love!" beams Gray. "We collected all of the seeds ourselves.We didn't buy it from anyone; we just walked around and took it from the trees we saw and so far we have collected around 200 species."

Reconnecting with their Land

As well as tackling the dependence of Palestinians on Israel for food and water, Bustan Qaraaqa is also aiming to resist the occupation by reconnecting Palestinians with their lands.

Before the Nakba of 1948, many Palestinian communities were traditionally centered around agricultural farms which fostered a strong bond between people and their land. With the invasion of Zionist militias, however, many fled or were forced from these small villages into highly urbanized areas which undermined the importance of land and agricultural farming.

Ever since, Palestinians have been losing their lands to 'security zones', the Apartheid Wall as well as to illegal Israeli settlements scattered across the West Bank. "A real concern for modern Palestine is that people are being severed from their land, even their consciousness of it is disappearing as they are being shut into ghettos behind 8 meter walls," Gray explains.

"Part of the strategy of dispossession of the Palestinians is to kick them off their land and so part of resisting it must be to reconnect them with it again."

Link to Article

West Bank water access mired in politics

Arwa Aburawa, The Electronic Intifada, 26 May 2009

Workers from the Israeli water authority backed by armed soldiers take water samples in the occupied West Bank town of Qalqiliya. (Khaleel Reash/MaanImages)

Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) is calling for the replacement of committees, which control the West Bank's water, for having "failed both sides" with "catastrophic" consequences.

"It is time to replace the failed mechanism of the Joint Water Committees established under Oslo [the peace accords of the mid-1990s], with an institution where Palestinians and Israelis are true partners in both water supply and management responsibilities," said Nader Khateeb, the Palestinian Director of FoEME. This denouncement follows a recently published World Bank report which also found that the Joint Water Committees (JWC) "fall short of the needs of the Palestinian people."

Established under the Oslo accords, the JWC was set up specifically to oversee management of shared aquifers and to ensure that the West Bank and Gaza Strip received extra water accorded to them under the agreement. Palestinians and Israelis were intended to be equal partners working towards integrated water management and infrastructure. In reality, however, the JWC simply entrenched Israeli influence over the West Bank's water resources and introduced a complex permit system that has severely limited water development projects ever since.

Alice Gray, a former water consultant in the West Bank, said that the most significant impact of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian environment has been the suspension of development. "My job at the time was basically to tell people all the reasons that they probably wouldn't be able to implement their project," she explained. "The reason that they [projects] are not built is because in order to build them under the Oslo accord, you need permission from the Joint Water Committees -- that's one big problem already."

Out of $121 million worth of Palestinian projects presented to JWC in 2001-2008, only half (or $60.4 million) were approved and only a third have been implemented or begun implementation. The World Bank also reported that 106 water projects and 12 large-scale waste-water projects are still awaiting JWC approval, some of them since 1999.

These startling statistics are all the more unsettling when compared with Israeli-proposed projects for development in the West Bank, where all but one have been swiftly approved by the JWC. Decisions made by the JWC are in theory based on consensual agreement between the two parties, yet the World Bank's report openly acknowledges that Israel alone has virtual veto power on all water issues.

In the West Bank, when plans are being drawn up for vital water infrastructure such as waste-water plants, the only space that is generally available is in Area C (which is 60 percent of the West Bank and is under total Israeli military control). So finding enough land that is at an "acceptable" distance from walls, checkpoints and even future Israeli settlements is another obstacle that projects need to overcome. Even when this condition is met, other complications with Israeli settlements arise.

Water consultant Alice Gray said, "When the Palestinians go to the Israeli authorities to ask for a permit to build a sewage treatment plant for their town, the Israelis say sure, but you also have to network and treat the sewage of the Israeli settlements."

She added, "The Palestinian position then generally would be no, they are not happy with that because if you build infrastructure for settlements then you are contributing to their entrenchment -- it's like admitting that they have a right to be there. So politically it's a nightmare."

Overcoming these constraints has proven so difficult that only one in seven proposed waste-water treatment plants is actually operational, and consequently only 31 percent of Palestinians are connected to a sewage network.

The underdevelopment of the West Bank's water infrastructure has a direct impact on the daily lives of Palestinians who face high costs and low quality water resources. Overall, Palestinians spend around eight percent of household expenditure on water, which is twice the globally-accepted standard. In addition, the poorest spend up to one-sixth of their household budget or more on providing clean water for their family.

By regional standards Palestinians have among the lowest access to fresh water, forcing Palestinian communities to engage in unlicensed drilling simply to obtain drinking water. The Israeli Water Authority has used its de facto role as regulator to prevent Palestinians drilling for water, despite growing demand from Palestinian consumers. Meanwhile, Israel has increased its own off-take from the aquifer above the agreed levels. This practice allows Israeli citizens, including settlers in the West Bank, to consume four times more fresh water per capita as Palestinians living in the West Bank.

The World Bank also found that although Palestinian agriculture accounts for a bigger share of economic output and overall employment in comparison to Israel, the Palestinian per capita water budget for agriculture is one-fifth of Israel's.

"You are dealing with a situation of vast inequality," Gray asserts. "In terms of the water situation, it is not experienced in the same way by Israelis and Palestinians ... and that creates a very different scenario for those Israeli farmers who have access to subsidized water and so never have to deal with the situation in the same way as Palestinian farmers."

As it stands, irrigated agriculture is an important economic sector in Palestine, contributing about 12 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employing 117,000 people, according to the World Bank. Improved water resources would enable agriculture to play a key economic, social and political role in rebuilding the Palestinian economy. The World Bank's report, "West Bank and Gaza: Assessment of Restrictions on Palestinian Water Sector Development," states that "the cost to the economy of foregone opportunity in irrigated agriculture is significant, with upper bound preliminary estimates that could be as high as 10 percent of GDP and 110,000 jobs."

Taken together, the implications caused by restrictions from the JWC are hard to ignore. Not only is it limiting the development of vital infrastructure within Palestine, it's reducing the Palestinians' quality of life and crippling economic growth. As Khateeb, the FoEME Palestinian Director, explained, "After 15 years of JWC failure ... It's urgent to free the water sector and water needs of both peoples from the conflict."

Arwa Aburawa (http://arwafreelance.wordpress.com/) is a freelance journalist based in the UK.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10547.shtml

What's behind the Israeli Separation Wall? Implications for Jerusalem

Click here to enlarge © Arwa Aburawa

Walking around the ancient streets and spice markets of Jerusalem, it is easy to forget that this city is under Israeli occupation. Daily life flows smoothly between shopping mothers, kids at schools and old men sitting outside shops drinking coffee. Nothing really seems out of place, until you look a little closer. Firstly, there are Israeli soldiers walking through the market and streets, on buses, queuing at the post office and eating falafel- they are everywhere. Another thing that makes you realize that something is very wrong is the Wall.

Building a 'Greater Jewish Jerusalem'

Known as the Separation or Apartheid Wall, it is a menacing symbol of hatred and fear. How could anyone think it is okay to build an 8-meter high concrete Wall running over 723kms long around an entire community? A Wall that is trapping them into what is effectively an open-air prison? According to the International Court of Justice the Wall is illegal and in violation of the Right to self-determination, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as well as various human rights and humanitarian laws.

Defenders of the Wall reply that Israeli is simply exercising its right to protect itself from Palestinian suicide bombers. Maybe. But why is Israel building the Wall deep within the West Bank annexing nearly 50% of Palestinian land in the region, pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem as well as incorporating illegal Israeli settlements into a 'Greater Jewish Jerusalem'?

Daoud Hamoudi of Stop the Wall, the anti-apartheid organization based in the West Bank, explains that as Jerusalem is the political, economic and spiritual center of the country, Israel realized that it would need to have control over it. “Because Jerusalem is such an important center, Israel began to isolate it from the beginning and annex it.”

“More recently in 2002,” he adds, “scientists reported to the Zionist movement that by 2025 the Palestinian population will become 60% in historical Palestine and the Jews will become a minority at 40%. So they took a decision that they needed to reduce the Palestinian population to 30%.”

Pushing Palestinians Out

Within Jerusalem specifically, the Palestinian population currently stands at around 33% and the Zionist movement decided that this would need to be reduced to 8% in the coming 25 years. The plan for a 'Greater Jewish Jerusalem' details the methods and policies that would bring such a reduction in the Palestinian population.

“The first policy they implemented is the Wall which annexes the settlement blocs into Jerusalem and isolates the Palestinian neighborhoods and you are taking about almost half of the population of Jerusalem, around 120,000” says Hamoudi. “They also manipulated natural growth of the cities so that Arab cities grow outside the center whilst Jewish neighborhoods grow towards Jerusalem.”

This means that Palestinian neighborhoods surrounding Jerusalem now have to cross the Wall to enter Jerusalem and so they begin to rely on major cities further out in the West Bank, totally severing their connection with Jerusalem. “The farmers would normally depend on Jerusalem to sell their produce but they now have to depend on places like Ramallah in the West Bank. They are isolating them into ghettos.”

Bringing Israeli Settlements In

The second implication of the Wall and securing a 'Greater Jewish Jerusalem' is that it is absorbs major illegal settlement blocs which sit around Jerusalem. This includes the largest Jewish Settlement, Ma'ale Adumim which has a population of around 35,000 and plans to grow to 50,000. In fact Hamoudi reported that the Zionist movement wants to bring another 1 million Jewish immigrants to live in these blocs, in an attempt to resolve the 'demographic issue' and secure Jewish dominance across Jerusalem.

Settler roads have also played a part in this demographic 're-balance.' “Maybe in the States or Europe roads and highway networks are something normal but here it is not,” states Hamdoudi. “These roads are not only confiscating lands they are also isolating people from their lands. For example in Silwan [a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem] they will destroy around 92 homes under the name of 'development' to build a park for settlers and a highway to make it easier for settlers from Bethlehem to reach the Wailing Wall.”

This re-drawing of Jerusalem is a political effort to dominate the Holy City with a Jewish majority at the expense of the Christian and Muslim Palestinians. “What was East Jerusalem will become 31% of the Greater Jewish Jerusalem” Hamoudi elaborates. “Also within this area, they have confiscated around 45-65% as Green land which cannot be built on and State lands for settlements. So that leaves them with only 10% of the Greater Jewish Jerusalem.” At only 10%, the Palestinians would become a very small minority at the mercy of the Israeli state which threatens the very future existence of this historic community in Jerusalem.

Formation of Palestinian Identity

Palestinians have been divided and systematically fragmented since the Nakba (disaster) of 1948 which tore them from their homes and dispersed them across the world. There are those living within Israel who are separated from those living in the West Bank, and both are cut off from those in Gaza; Palestinians living in refugee camps throughout the Arab world and those in the global Diaspora.

Currently, there is an estimated 9.3-10 million Palestinians worldwide and despite the geographical boundaries, Palestinian identity remains strong for the very same reason it was formed; to resist and unite against occupation.

The dynamics of Palestinian Identity

Palestinian identity has always been at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict not only because it inextricably links Palestinians with their homeland but because it is also a means of resistance. It is a constant reminder of what was taken away from the Palestinians and a symbol of the ongoing battle with Israel for their right of existence. While many people relate the Palestinian struggle to those living in the West Bank and Gaza, those living within Israel face an equally difficult battle for their Palestinian identity.

As Nadim Nashif, the director of Baladna (Our Homeland in Arabic) an organization which works to foster Palestinian identity in youth living in Israel, remarks: "Particularly for those living in Israel, expressing Palestinian identity is a form of resistance to the Israeli occupation. It is a way to say 'No' to the injustice and the discrimination that they face. When you feel threatened and are not treated as an equal but a second-class citizen, identity becomes something that you carry with you and try to protect."

Around the 19th century, Palestinian identity was being carefully articulated under the Ottoman Empire around religion, notions of Arabism and Palestine as a homeland. These loyalties were carefully balanced with a sense of allegiance to family as society was organized around small agricultural units as well as around a regional commitment to wider Arab nationalism. This unity was subsequently strengthened by the colonial occupation of the British Mandate from 1920-1948 as well as the powerful Zionist movement which began to displace the Palestinians through Jewish mass migration.

The formative stages of the Palestinian identity occurred under colonial rule and threat of occupation and were reflected in the need to unite the entire Palestinian nation against a common threat. As Nashif explains; "When you have a big conflict, the small issues suddenly don't seem important. I mean there are obviously natural tensions between Muslim and Christian Palestinians but as there is a national conflict, religious divisions are less significant."

'Arab Israeli' identity was to disconnect Palestinians from their Palestinian identity. © Arwa Aburawa

A Motivated Palestinian-Free Identity

This unity and strength of the Palestinian identity, however, seems to pose a risk to the Israeli state. You only have to look at the way with which the Israeli government suppressed the celebrations of Jerusalem as Capital of Arab Culture 2009. They see that the expression of Palestinian identity and pride as a direct threat.

Furthermore, Nashif points to the attempts by the Israeli government to weaken the Palestinian identity by issuing an alternative 'Arab Israeli' IDs. “Since the 1950's, Israel has tried to create the terminology of Arab Israelis which we think is incorrect mainly because we are Palestinians. The main idea behind forcing the 'Arab Israeli' identity was to disconnect Palestinians from their Palestinian identity and to say that these are just Arabs who are also Israelis.”

It was very clear from the beginning that the Israeli state wanted to proliferate this notion of Arab Israeli's, especially among the Palestinian youths living in Israel. Through the Israeli Ministry of Education they created a curriculum which did not mention Palestine or even the word Palestinians.

As Nashif states, “In the 1948 war there were at least two stories; there is the Zionist discourse and also the Palestinian discourse- basically we (Palestinians living in Israel) learnt the Zionist discourse. Anything related to Palestinian literature or poets such as Mahmoud Darwish is not allowed in the curriculum and any Arab history is from the Middle Ages.”

“On the other hand,” Nashif adds, “everything related to the Jewish people is obligatory in our schools, ranging from literature, religion, the Zionist movement. I think it’s good to learn about Jewish people, the problem starts when you only learn about the majority and you hardly learn anything about yourself.” Baladna, the youth organization, works to combat this bias by providing informal education about Palestinian history and providing an open environment to discuss issues of identity that these young Palestinians face in their daily lives.

Barriers of Occupation

Acknowledging Palestine or Palestinians is clearly problematic for the Israeli State. How could Israel refer to Palestine and claim to have formed the Israeli State in a 'land with no people for a people with no land?' at the same time. Nashif explains that the Israeli government simply reacted by suppressing the Palestinian identity of those who remained in the '48 territories: "The pressure is not to say that you are an Arab but to say that you are an Israeli Arab in way which is new and is disconnected from the Palestinian identity. All of us still define ourselves as Arabs, this is nothing controversial but the point of the Arab Israeli identity is to impose a newly created identity which is more politically convenient for the government."

Although the Israeli occupation has placed numerous barriers (sometimes in the shape of very solid walls) in the path of Palestinian unity, Rashid Khalidi the Palestinian historian states that "a strong sense of (Palestinian) identity developed in spite of, and in some cases because of, the obstacles it faced."

Everyday at a checkpoint, land border or airport a Palestinians are irrevocably reminded of their identity; not as Arabs, a Muslims or a Christians but as a Palestinian under Israeli occupation. "The occupation makes you stick with your identity" reiterates Nashif. "Even if you are a person who doesn't want to mess with politics or doesn't identify themselves as Palestinian and you want to feel Israeli; when you go to the airport you face the same discrimination and profiling, undressing and other humiliating scenes and then of course you think again."

It seems that the quintessential Palestinian experience of anxiety at modern barriers, where identities are checked and verified, consolidates that the Palestinians are in fact a united people. As Khalidi writes, "What happens to Palestinians at these crossing points brings home to them how much they share in common as people."

Sources:

Rashid Khalidi. Palestinian Identity; The construction of modern national consciousness. (New York, Columbia University Press, 1997).

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Lemon Trees and Security Walls: Life Under Conflict in Palestine

Lemon Tree movie poster.

Title: Lemon Tree
Year: 2008
Director: Eran Riklis
Leads: Hiam Abbass, Ali Suliman, Doran Tovery and Rona Lipaz-Michael
Language: Arabic and Hebrew
Length: 106 minutes

"Trees are like people, they have souls, they have feelings. They need to be talked to, need tender loving care." (Abu Hussam in Lemon Tree)

Set on the West Bank's Green line, Lemon Tree, is a poignant film of one Palestinian woman's fight to save her lemon grove from Israeli destruction. "It's based on a few true stories that I encountered," explains the film director Eran Riklis, "plus hundreds of thousands of stories that are similar, in sense of the Palestinian person trying to protect his house, his land, his trees."

While the story of Palestinian struggle is not new, what is unique here is the film's ability to portray tragedy without being melodramatic and to humanize the Palestinians without demonizing the Israelis. Rather, Lemon Tree highlights the ultimate brutalization of both the Palestinians and Israelis due to the tension and constant fear in which the two societies live.

The film follows the story of Salma Zidane (Hiam Abbass), a Palestinian widow who makes a meager living from a lemon grove inherited from her father. Salma's quiet and isolated existence is turned on its head when the Israeli Defense Minister and his wife move into the neighborhood.

The Minister's officious security team quickly set up a watch-tower over the area but their fears over “Arab terrorists” is lurking in Salma's lemon grove entailing its destruction which is soon ordered.

Salma avows to protect every remaining tree and with the help of local lawyer Ziad Daud (Ali Suliman), she takes her protest all the way to the Israeli High Court. Although Salma is determined to save her trees, which she continues to tend to even when forced out of the grove at gunpoint, her case looks hopeless, as one lawyer states, "Lemon trees and the Defense Minister, a lethal combination."

Hiam Abbas as Salma

Communities in isolation; Communities in conflict

A turning point comes when Miri, the Defense Minister's wife, publicly expresses sympathy for Salma's plight. The case subsequently becomes headline news, even reaching Europe, where campaigners decide to take up Salma's cause.

Despite the mounting tensions on either side, a mutual bond of respect and understanding develops between Miri and Salma. Their shared experience of isolation and growing detachment from friends and family, means that they are able to recognize each other's loneliness, and understand the pain of separation.

In fact, this sense of isolation and division which exists not only between people, but also across entire communities, is Lemon Tree’s central theme.

The most obvious example of this division is between the two neighbors, who seem to live in entirely separate worlds, though they live on the same street. Despite the huge impact they have on each other's life, the Defense Minister has threatened Salma's livelihood, and she has taken him to court. They never actually sit down and talk to each other.

Even Salma and Miri, who clearly have sympathy for each other, barely exchange a word. This is a clear metaphor for the growing segregation between the Israelis and Palestinians and the increasingly isolated communities in which they live.

The "Apartheid Wall" which now separates Israel from the West Bank, as well as the existence of over 500 checkpoints and roadblocks which indiscriminately affect the Palestinians, make a positive interaction between Palestinians and Israelis absolutely difficult.

There is also a simmering conflict between the Defense Minister and his wife, who complains that they barely spend time together, and voices her suspicion that he is being unfaithful. Miri's obvious sympathy for Salma, and the build-up of the media storm, places further strain on their relationship.

While Miri challenges the logic behind the destruction of Salma's lemon grove, the Minister states that he is unwilling to challenge the Secret Services' decision, which, he reminds her, has been made for their very safety.

This disagreement between the Israeli couple is a microcosm of the deep divisions within the Israeli society with regards to resolving the “Palestinian issue” and the future of the Israeli state.

It reflects the common dispute between certain Israelis who feel that everything must be done to keep Israel safe (even if that means that the Palestinians should suffer), and those who feel that the very notion that safety can be bought at the expense of others' freedom are suspects.

Surprisingly, the film does manage to throw in some humor; be it dry and gut-wrenchingly ironic. In one scene, the Defense Minister decides to host a house-warming party for his Israeli guests, with Arabic music and traditionally Arabic food- all Kosher, naturally.

The irony is not lost to the viewer, especially when the chef also realizes that he has forgotten to bring lemons, and all the eyes turn to Salma's orchard with bright fruit.

Palestinian Suffering and Hollywood Endings?

My only critique of Lemon Tree is that it fails to explore the systematic discrimination, and sometimes outright brutality, that Palestinians face on a daily basis. The recent war on Gaza, and the blockade which continues, illustrate the brutal force that Israel can launch against the Palestinian people.

The World Bank's overview of the Palestinian economy also asserts that nearly half of all Palestinian families now live below the poverty line. The reason for this dramatic deterioration, is the "multi-faceted system of restrictions on the movement of Palestinian people and goods, which the Government of Israel argues essential to protect Israelis." (World Bank, November 2004).

Palestinians also face an array of crippling bureaucratic regulations on everything, including planning applications for housing permits, citizenship, identity cards, and visas. These restrictions, whether subtle or spectacular, are simply not acknowledged in the film.

The recognition and media attention that Salma’s case receives also seems to be a little contrived and unrealistic in a country where house demolitions are widespread and serious human rights abuses occur without reprisal.

However, I still understand why Riklis - director of the critically acclaimed film, Syrian Bride, decided to use a story which was subtle and unspectacular. This means that there are no clear "good" and "bad" guys to simplify the story and we can not dismiss one person's concern at the expense of another’s.

To put it quite plainly, it is more representative of the real conflict and the more commonplace struggles that we just do not hear of in the news. Even the final decision by the Israeli High court seems ambiguous, it is not going to save all Salma's trees, but it is no happy ending. As we are reminded by Salma’s lawyer, happy endings are possible only in Hollywood.

Prison Walls and Finding Freedom

Although it might have been easier to portray this story as a battle of David and Goliath, the reality is that in the end they both sacrifice something dear to themselves. Salma loses some of her trees although she seems to gain more determination, confidence and even strength through her struggle. However, what the Defense Minister loses is much more significant; not only his wife who leaves him in the end, but also his freedom.

Israel may be building walls to keep the "Palestinian threat"out, but it has also built its very own prison, and thereby is holding its citizens captive. The ending illustrates this without any ambiguity.

In the closing sequence, the Defense Minister sits silently smoking; watching as the curtains are drawn away from his window, instead of Salma's lemon grove, all he sees is cold solid wall.

Lemon Tree, which won the Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival, is a beautifully made film, perfected by a formidable cast. Hiam Abbass, who plays Salma, brings an elegant dignity to her role, and helps this drama seamlessly combine the political with the personal.

Ali Suliman, who some may recognize from the Oscar-nominated Paradise Now, as well as Doran Tovery (Defense Minister) and Rona Lipaz-Michael (Miri), also gives strong performances which keep the story engaging.

That Riklis managed to create such a balanced and honest exploration of the conflict in Palestine/Israel, is a magnificent achievement, and on that note alone, Lemon Tree is a must see.

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Arwa Aburawa is a freelance journalist based in the UK, who specialises in local politics, Palestine, climate change, women's rights, and arts & culture. She can be contacted via her blog: http://voiceagainstempire.blogspot.com/ or website: http://arwafreelance.wordpress.com/

The Arab talks to.... Khalil Bendib

March 2009
The Arab Magazine

Born during the Algerian war of independence and raised as a refugee in Morocco, Khalil Bendib says he was born to be a political cartoonist. From early drawings of the banned Algerian flag as a three year-old to his current impassioned and intellectually-informed cartoons, his personal experience of conflict has compelled him to be a voice against injustice everywhere. Yet this has not stopped him from seeing the funny side of life; he is constantly poking fun at the world's hypocritical leaders and he even launched a spoof campaign to become the ‘Prez in the Fez’. Now living in Berkeley, California, Bendib talks to Arwa Aburawa about Obama, the recent war on Gaza, democracy in the Middle East and why some have labelled his cartoons anti-Semitic.

What impact does your Arab background have on your work?
It has everything to do with it. I was born during the golden age of Arab nationalism when Algeria was fighting for its independence, which cost the country a million lives. No Algerian family escaped that war unscathed. It was a genocide. So my first drawings, even as a three-year-old, already were political in nature. I remember obsessively drawing valorous Algerian soldiers saluting the banned flag of Algeria. In 1973, during the so-called Yom Kippur War, I was only 16 but I remember wanting to go volunteer to fight against Israel! That is how much the plight of Arabs and liberation has been central to my consciousness, and still is.

How do people react to your work?
Readers either love me or hate me, think I’m the coolest thing since sliced bread or despise everything about me. I have been censored, received repeated death threats from Israelis and assorted Zionists, but I have also received the most amazing feedback; the sweetest kudos and the warmest support from scores of sympathetic people, whether they be Palestinians, Muslims, African Americans or progressives of all stripes and walks of life, from the world over.

What is your response to allegations that your cartoons are anti-Semitic?
That old allegation has been by now so completely discredited, so completely emptied of any meaning for being too often used against everyone who dares to criticize Israel – including righteous Jews - that it has actually become a badge of honour. If you are fighting for justice in Palestine and they DO NOT call you an anti-Semite, then something is wrong. Let alone the fact that, as an Arab, I am more Semitic than most of my accusers…

What hopes do you have for Barack Obama's Presidency?
I had very mixed feelings about Obama; on the one hand, it makes me happy for all oppressed people of colour to have one of their own in the White House, which is symbolically quite beautiful and even hopeful. Perhaps a coloured person being in the White House might even have an encouraging effect on Arabs and Muslims. At the same time, I’m completely and utterly disgusted with Obama’s early capitulation to the status quo. I do not hold much hope that he will change once in office as he has already proven how beholden to all the wrong interest he truly is, not just the Zionists. The only way something positive will come out of his tenure in the Oval Office is if all the people who fought so hard to have him elected put tremendous and continual pressure on him to keep him to his elevated rhetoric and promises.

What motivations were behind your spoof campaign to become the 44th president of the USA?
The same motivations that drive the cartoons: to use humour as a tool to open minds that would otherwise stay shut. Also, having this tongue-in-cheek campaign might help bring out the real thing some day, just as Denzel Washington and other popular black artists and actors have made the notion of a black president imaginable and possible.

Your cartoons have been quite outspoken about the Palestine-Israel conflict, what is your opinion about the recent situation in Gaza?
Sadly and undeniably, what we are witnessing in Gaza is a form of genocide. Just because the Jews of Europe suffered from a horrible genocide themselves 65 years ago does not mean that some of them are therefore incapable of committing genocide themselves today. It is a sad fact that very often a victim can later turn into a victimizer. It is pretty sick to the point that increasingly more Jews are recoiling from this horror and disassociating themselves from it.

You have previously criticized the Middle East's version of ‘Daddy-Mocracy’. Do you think that there is a future for real democracy in the Arab world?
Yes, I am hopeful but it will take time and effort and we first need to become stronger and more independent as a people. Once countries like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have finally cut loose from their alliances with Imperialism and Zionism, the following generations inshallah will have a chance to correct their political systems in an authentic way that is not blindly aping the West, and become more modern and democratic.

How do you feel about 2009 and the future? Optimistic or are you too realistic?
I am quite optimistic for the long run, but I think things will get worse before they get better. Ironically, the silver lining is that the powerful are overreaching, making stupid mistakes and bringing on their own demise. Israel, by overtly trying to destroy the heroic Palestinians is actually making Arab resistance much stronger, determined and more resilient. Another source of hope is the much dreaded economic meltdown, which to me, is proof that greed in the long run destroys the greedy. Too much imbalance in the end brings back a saner, more balanced world, and I feel that we are on the cusp of a lot of positive change.

If you had to be remembered for one thing what would it be?
Er…That I was instrumental in bringing back Fez fashion?
I do not know. That I spoke truth to power, stuck to my guns and refused to cave in…

See Bendib's cartoons at www.bendib.com and www.studiobendib.com You can also catch his radio show Voices of the Middle East and North Africa at: www.kpfa.org

http://www.the-arab.com/Khalil_Bendib.htm

Fears for the children of Gaza

January 2009
Friends of Al-Aqsa Newspaper

by Arwa Aburawa
As the attack on the Gaza Strip continues, a Palestinian human rights organisation has warned of the immediate danger to children being targeted and killed by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights states in its latest report that, “If the Tahdiya (ceasefire/calming) is renounced by either side and the hostilities resume, then children living in the Gaza Strip will immediately be once more at risk of being targeted and killed by the IOF.”

Conflict first erupted in the Gaza Strip on November 4, when Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in a raid. Ongoing retaliatory attacks between the two sides raised concerns that the ceasefire agreement would either disintegrate ahead of its expiry or a new agreement would not be reached. The heightened blockade on Gaza, put in place at the beginning of the hostilities also attracted criticism from humanitarian organisation due to rapidly dwindling food, fuel and medical supplies. A report by the International Committee of the Red Cross revealed that the blockade had led to a steady rise in chronic malnutrition among the 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip.

Whilst the threat of malnutrition was noted, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) feared that the rise in hostilities would mark the return of a significant military threat to Palestinian children. According to the PCHR report, Blood On Their Hands, Israel has “consistently failed in its legal obligation to offer protection towards the children of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Since the Second Intifada in 2000, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have killed more than 860 children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, mainly within the Gaza Strip. Rather than respecting International Humanitarian Laws which grant children protection during armed conflict and occupation, the Israeli Occupation Force consistently use “excessive lethal force against Palestinian children.”

From June 2007 to June 2008 alone, 68 children were killed in the Gaza Strip. These lethal attacks on innocent children- some only one years old- are justified by the IOF as a response to militant groups firing missiles. However, PCHR investigations into such allegations have consistently refuted this, stating that the “IOF war on children in the Gaza Strip has increasingly involved IOF use of advanced military technology to pinpoint, and kill the intended targets.”

On 1 March 2008, twelve year old Safaa Abu-Saif from Jabalia of northern Gaza bled to death after being hit by a single bullet. Her only crime was to take the outdoor stairs up to visit her aunties during the large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip which was launched on February of the same year. She was struck down by IOF and when an ambulance was called, the family were told that they would be unable to make it as Palestinian ambulances were being targeted by Israeli tanks. Trapped inside their home, the family struggled to tend to Safaa who died three hours later.

Evidence suggests that IOF are using snipers to target children, further undermining claims that they are targeting legitimate military targets. PCHR investigations into 110 civilian deaths between February/March 2008 also 2008 confirmed "widespread use of excessive lethal force against civilians in the Gaza Strip, and the deliberate targeting of civilians, including children.”

Sadly, this is one of many widespread human rights violations against Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories which has resulted in the deaths of 3,724 unarmed civilians since 2000. PCHR’s report remarked that: “civilians were undoubtedly deliberately targeted, as the IOF bombarded, shot and shelled in and around densely populated civilian areas, where it was clearly impossible to distinguish between military and civilian targets.”

The recent attacks on Gaza deaths are clear indicators that the targeting young children and civilians is set to continue. Furthermore with ground troops now inside the Gaza Strip, new evidence indicates that Israel is openly targeting civilians. Such a blatant disregard for the lives of Palestinians and their young children cannot go unquestioned any longer.

Arwa Aburawa is a freelance Journalist

http://www.aqsa.org.uk/Portals/0/Newspapers/issue39_complete_4web.pdf

Keeping the cause alive: Is assimilation leading to annihilation of Palestinian identity?

The Arab: Issue 6 (Nov/Dec 2008)

Palestinian refugees are a major unifying facet of Palestinian identity and an important symbol of Palestinian history but also a major source of conflict in the peace process. Many feel that improvements in refugee camps alongside successful integration in host countries will dilute the intensity in the demand for a right for return. But is the cost of exclusion as a refugee, one worth paying for the Palestinian cause? Arwa Aburawa explores

Handala, the figure of a barefooted, ragged, young refugee is a timeless symbol of the Palestinian struggle. A creation of the cartoonist Naji Al-Ali who was assassinated in London, Handala is the eternal refugee; living a life in exile and refusing to forget his homeland Palestine. His image is scrawled across walls in refugees camps, waved on placards in protests and is a constant reminder that the experience of dispossession and exile are central to Palestinian identity. Indeed, according to the latest figures from UNRWA the total Palestinian refugee count is more than six million people.

Refugees and refugee camps have historically been at the centre of Palestinian resistance, fighting for their right of return which attracts a wide base of support. A report by the International Crisis Group adds that we shouldn't forget that “the right of return- not statehood- formed the original raison d'etre of the contemporary national movement, notably of the dominant Fatah movement and the PLO.” (Middle East Report No.22, Feb 2004). Now, these Palestinian organisations fear that significant improvements in the harsh living conditions of refugees camps coupled with resettlement plans, will lead to assimilation amongst refugees who will consequently abandon the Palestinian cause. As Azmi Bishara reiterates, “Palestinian national struggle began among the Palestinian refugees, whose lives are the ongoing reality of the Nakba. No national strategy for resistance is possible without them”.

With this is mind, it's obvious why many see the increased assimilation among young Palestinian refugees across the Arab states, as a real threat to the future of the Palestinian cause. Yet, from my time and experience with Palestinians living in Jordan, I'm not convinced that embracing Jordanian citizenship necessarily means abandoning Qadiyat Filistin.

Taking Jordan as an example, while the experience of Palestinian refugees may be considered unique, with 41.7% of all registered Palestinian refugees living in Jordan's boundaries they are somewhat representative. In contrast with refugees living in Lebanon who are classed by law as foreigners, Palestinian refugees in Jordan were confirmed as equal citizens with full civil rights by 1954. Even so, they continue to experience discrimination in education and employment, especially in the well-paid and prestigious public sector. Since 1948, various schemes have been put forward for resettling the refugees across the Arab world, yet many states have been unwilling to absorb the refugees. The only exception to this has been Jordan, which receives large amounts of development assistance from the international community to help resettle and integrate the refugees.

Baqa’a camp is the largest refugee camp still in existence in Jordan and is home to over 90,000 Palestinians whose tents have since 1969-71 been converted into prefabricated shelters and gradually into concrete blocks (UNRWA). The sprawling refugee camp is always bustling with life. Children play in narrow streets, whizz past on bikes, fly their kites and run into shops which are conveniently situated at the end of every street. It’s also hard to miss the elderly ladies who gather on front door steps to chat and hurl abuse at children who come close enough to be of a nuisance: “Ya Bush! You! God ruin you and your house! Look at this mess!”

Although assimilation was expected amongst the middle and upper classes who could afford to build new lives in the metropolitan centres, it was never anticipated within the refugee camps. Yet over the years there has been a distinct change in the attitudes of third generation, young refugees who are learning to embrace their Jordanian nationality. They have replaced the posters of Arafat on their walls for images of the smiling confident King Abduallah II.

To the earlier generations, admitting any pride in Jordan and claiming that you were Jordanian if you had Palestinian heritage was almost blasphemous. History was the way that they remembered who they were: Palestinians who never forget their beloved homeland. Not like the new generations, “they’re no good” they would retort. “All they care about is themselves and the latest mobiles. They have forgotten their forefathers’ struggles and their Palestinian identity. Wallah they have lost themselves and for what?!”

Ibtisaam, a young Palestinian refugee led me by the hand into her room to show me pictures of the King Abdullah of Jordan and tapes of Omar Al-Abdullat- a nationalistic Jordanian singer- hidden under her mattress. “I love Jordan” she whispered. When I asked Ibtisaam why she loved Jordan, she replied “the King hasn’t forgotten us in the refugee camps. Look how improved the markets are now; there's more space and asphalted roads, and in the winter, he gave us all coats and school bags. At least he's remembered us.” Even though many feel that 'admitting' allegiance to a country other than Palestine is an abandonment of their identity and support for Qadiyat Filistin, this isn't necessarily the case.

For those in refugee camps it's always hard to integrate into the host community as they are geographically apart from the rest of society and so their 'outsider' status is undeniable. But if young refugees like Ibtisaam feel that they are 'remembered' as part of the larger nation then its natural that they will move away from a single-minded Palestinian identification. Integration is likely given the length of exile that Palestinians have been objected to. 60 years is a long time, it's only natural that new identities and loyalties are formed when generation after generation is born and raised away from the homeland. And whilst many Palestinians are settled as part of Jordanian society, this does not in any way dilute their determination to have their right of return recognised.

As Jordanian blogger Fadi Zaghmout goes on to explain: “Palestine has always been in my heart because it was the place where my grandparents were born and lived, but it has never been my country and never would be.” Although he realises that moving back into their grandparents villages and towns may be difficult, Fadi maintains that this shouldn't be “an excuse for Israel to escape from compensation and the right for those people to go back.” Evidently, Palestinians who fully embrace their Jordanian identity continue to support refugees right of return and compensation for their families who suffered the effects of traumatic upheaval.

It is nonetheless apparent that they are seeing the conflict from a very different perspective to their grandparents. “The Palestinian cause for me is more about people rather than land.We all have Palestine in our hearts, and we all wants the best for our nation, but humans come first. We should concentrate on achieving peace and help raising the standard of living in the West Bank and Gaza.” Thus, the Palestinian cause is no longer framed as a strictly religious and national conflict against Zionism but is now informed by beliefs in human rights as outlined by international law. This new perspective is inferred by the characterisation of the conflict as one against apartheid, in which the Palestinian refugees are refused right of return whilst any person of Jewish descent from anywhere across the world can become an Israeli citizen.

The apartheid analysis is extremely powerful as it appeals to a much wider audience which has no interest in complex politics but supports equal rights for all human beings. It is also more inclusive as it is not relying on Palestinians to fight for their rights and homeland, appealing instead to humanity and its principles. This change in the character of the Palestinian cause, promoted by Palestinians across the world - no matter what nationality they hold- and by all those who value human life and equality, is helping to bolster the Palestinian cause. The are leaving behind any divides of nationality, religion or politics and focusing on protecting people who are being denied their basic human rights. And as Zaghmout put it so eloquently, human beings come first.

http://www.the-arab.com/the_arab_palestinian_identity_annihilation.htm

Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation. Book Review

Reviewed by Arwa Aburawa, Manchester

Saree Makdisi is no historian; he isn’t a political commentator, activist or even a semi-political writer. He’s a professor of English literature at UCLA, and whilst you may think that this disqualifies him from adding to the already crowded field of the Palestine/Israel conflict, his work is quite simply a breath of fresh air. His book, Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, isn’t about historical findings it doesn’t contain in-depth political analysis, rather it is a book about the daily struggle of ordinary Palestinians dealing with passes, permits, curfews, checkpoints and closures. The loss of control over their inner and outer lives and how the occupation has become as it were an everyday occupation. It explores how the Israeli state has isolated Palestinians from their land, livelihoods and each other and how they can regain their freedom through a single, secular and democratic state solution.

The introduction sadly ignores convention by failing to address the historiography of the conflict, to explain the chapter structures or aims of the book. This leaves the reader feeling a little bit lost as the layout of the chapters is quite unusual. The book goes headfirst into the personal story of Sam Bahour who received orders from the Israeli government to leave his home, family and livelihood in the West Bank and never to return. As Makdisi states these stories of personal struggle may not be spectacular “since they occur on an individual and intimately personal scale”, “silently and invisibly” but they are pushing the Palestinians to the edge of dissolution (p.5-6). “A politically charged vision, having assumed the neutral and technical language of administration procedures and bureaucratic regulations, is played out in government offices, at roadblocks and checkpoints, and in planning applications; housing permits; citizenship, identity and residency documents- and, of course visa stamps” (p.5). This political vision is of Israel as an entirely Jewish state, aiming to solve the ‘demographic problem’ of the Palestinian people by making their lives unbearable in the hope that they will simply leave.

The first chapter titled “Outsides” explores how the construction of the Wall has created clear boundaries around who belongs whilst pushing Palestinians ‘outside’ their lands and also ‘outside’ a normal, peaceful existence. It looks particularly at the ‘Seam Zone’- an area between the 1967 border and the wall- and how 60,500 Palestinians who now live in this area are denied access to their own land and emergency medical care (p.24). The extent of the devastation is illustrated by personal accounts of accidents turning into fatalities when Israeli soldiers refuse to grant access to hospitals without ‘relevant permits’ (p.23-8). Makdisi also explains how the Oslo agreement played a vital part in this ‘hyperregulation’ as it institutionalised the checkpoints, curfews, roadblocks which have “led to ever-greater immobilization and paralysis, political infighting, soaring unemployment, and economic collapse” (p.85).

“Insides”- the second chapter- considers the personal and intimate impact of the bureaucratic controls which dictate “who one is, where one can go, where one can live and work” (p.102). This is demonstrated through the demolition of homes, the separation of families without the correct permits and family unification papers. Hence “all the normal markers of inside, home life- the relationship of family members to each other, the legality of their existence as a family, the security of their most intimate domestic space- are undone” (p.119, emphasis added). Another aspect of this is the fact that illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are strategically implanted to fragment the pre-existing Palestinian communities. Even Jewish homes are specifically designed to encourage surveillance and inspection -and therefore control- of the surrounding Palestinian population (p.122-4).

Vulnerability of Palestinian inner space is portrayed by the personal story of Maryam al-Natsheh, whose home was intruded by armed Israeli settlers in Hebron. Her nine-year old son, Falah, was beaten up whilst her other son Ahmad was stabbed in the back; shockingly such attacks are common occurrences (p.139-40). These policies form part of an Israeli strategy to ‘encourage “voluntary” transfer’ and so displace yet another Palestinian family.

‘Outside In’ the third chapter looks at how certain Palestinian communities have become virtual open-air prisons. For example, Israel’s tight regulation of Gaza’s borders, imports and exports, agriculture, electricity has cut them off from the outside world and destroyed any hope for economic and social recovery (p.156). They are subject to frequent Israeli raids and bombardments, arbitrary curfews and closures which block the export of agricultural products and the flow of medicine and medical equipment. As a result, “more than half of the families in Gaza now eat only one meagre meal a day” (p.166-70). Such disproportionate military reactions to Palestinian resistance and the ‘collective punishment’ of entire populations have been condemned as war crimes by the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights John Dugard (p.176-7).

Inside Out, the fourth chapter highlights how Israeli settlers- under the protection of Israeli soldiers-are taking over entire cities such as Hebron and forcing Palestinians out as part of a permanent process of dispossessing Arabs. Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing is confirmed by the fact that “Palestinians are routinely denied building permits, and their homes are frequently demolished- but there are government incentives making it easier for Jewish individuals and families to buy or rent space in settlements built in the occupied territories” (p.12). Recent access to Israel’s military archives has also allowed academics to reconstruct the true extent of the Nakba and confirm the basic Palestinian account of 1948 as a war of expulsion. This has allowed shocking statistic to emerge which demonstrate the true extent of dispossession; for example 531 Palestinian towns and villages have been destroyed or depopulated since 1948 (p.233).

The personal accounts which illustrate the deeply individual impact of the occupation are central to the book’s theme. They are honestly touching, poignant, even haunting and their words will stay with you. For example Laila el-Haddad who waited at the Israeli controlled border with Egypt for hours on end, day-after day describes her experience:
“There is something you feel as you stand there for hours at a time, waiting to be let through the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing. It is something of your humanity slowly drifting away. It is gradual, but unmistakable. And you are never quite the same again” (p.158).

Moshe Nissim’s - an Israeli soldier who operates armoured bulldozers- horrifying, honest statement depicts the unnerving malice which simmers in the mind of the aggressor: “I got a real kick out of every house that was demolished because I knew that dying means nothing to them, while the loss of their house means more to them. You destroy a house and you destroy forty or fifty people for generations. If one thing bothers me about all this, it is that we didn’t wipe out the whole camp” (p.184).

Whilst the book does focus on personal stories, it is not at the expense of clarity as there is enough history and politics to ensure the novice readers can understand the conflict. Major historical events such as the Nakba, the 1967 war, the Intifada and Oslo are all covered throughout and the final chapter focuses on more recent events such as Annapolis, the electoral success of Hamas in 2006 and the subsequent siege of Gaza. The final installation also elaborates Makdisi’s conviction in a one-state solution which grants both the Palestinians and Israeli’s equal rights- including Palestinian refugee’s right of return- to help secure a just and lasting peace.

The only drawback is that the book is repetitive in places, especially in its effort to condemn Israel as breaking human rights as defined by international law. Makdisi constantly repeats U.N Security Council resolutions, alongside Geneva Conventions, International Law and the International Court of Justice as if Israel could be shamed into submission. Overall, however, this book is a vital shift from an academic audience to the general public who will require a readable and humanist portrayal of the on-going conflict. It is powerful, thought-provoking and deeply moving.

The harrowing accounts of oppression, personal attacks, deaths, control and crippling sieges which Palestinians face gives you real a sense of the suffocation of life occurring. Nonetheless the author maintains that there is room for hope as the struggle for equality within a single, secular state is a cleaner, more popular and ultimately more powerful struggle- which will succeed with a little compromise from either side (p.292). As he puts it so eloquently: Palestinians have to realise that they will never recuperate Palestine as it was before the arrival of Zionism, and Israelis will never realise a purely Jewish state- they must both put their two impossible ideals aside for the sake of a common future (p287).

Arwa Aburawa, Manchester

Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation
BY SAREE MAKDISI,
W.W. Norton & Company, 2008,
ISBN 978-0-393-06606-7,
pp.343,
£15.99

http://www.aqsa.org.uk/RESOURCES/BookReviews/tabid/83/ctl/Details/mid/377/ItemID/1551/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Palestinian, Jordanian, or both?

by Arwa Aburawa
23 September 2008

Manchester, England - “I love Jordan,” whispered a young refugee girl. “I love Jordan even though I’m Palestinian.”

Listening to Ibtisaam, a proud Palestinian who lives in the expansive refugee camps of Jordan, I could see that this was a hard confession to make. In light of her Palestinian pride it was hard to justify her love of Jordan since this was seen as a denial of her Palestinian self – a direct challenge to her Palestinian roots.

Why is this so? In a country where much of the population is of Palestinian-origin yet holds full Jordanian citizenship rights, why do many feel that they can’t be both Palestinian and Jordanian?

This is an ongoing debate between Jordanian nationalists and Jordanian pluralists. The nationalists have put forward an exclusive concept of identity, based on the notion that an individual can be loyal only to one country. They state that Palestinians can only become part of the Jordanian national community if they reject all aspects of their Palestinian identity.

Pluralists, on the other hand are in favour of an identity that embraces multiple loyalties, in which one can choose to be both Palestinian and Jordanian. Pluralists have also asserted the possibility for integration of Palestinian Jordanians without complete assimilation.

Nonetheless, a new generation of Palestinians is emerging which has no lived experience in Palestine, and while they have a strong sense of Palestine, they recognise that their long-term future is Jordan, not only because of the difficulties of returning but because they have made Jordan their home.

In building their lives in Jordan, many younger Palestinians have developed deep roots in the country in which they live. These young people are reinterpreting and reworking the social worlds they inherited. They are expressing these multiple identities and learning to move fluidly between elements of their identity – perhaps with some hesitation, but their confidence will grow.

In a sense, the Jordanian identity is already a hybrid of pre-state identities such as religion, Arab nationalism and a sense of tribalism. Early forms of Palestinian identity were also multi-faceted and allowed Palestinians to identify with the Ottoman Empire, religion, Arabism, and their homeland. It seems that both these identities – Jordanian and Palestinian – share a fluidity, a deep-rooted pluralism that lies at the heart of their national identity.

As a result, Jordanian identity needn’t be exclusive, it hasn’t been for a number of decades and its inclusivity towards diverse complementary identities can be illustrated throughout history. In other words, change towards a more inclusive national identity is possible.

According to Stefanie Nanes, assistant professor of political science at Hofstra University, for Jordan to become more inclusive of Palestinians isn’t a distant, extraordinary request; it would simply be a “continuation of a Jordanian practice of incorporation and inclusion.”

In Western communities where hybrid-identities are more widely accepted and acknowledged, Palestinians are already embracing their dual identity. Western citizens fully accept their Palestinian roots without having to reject the idea of being simultaneously British or American. Such a model may work well in Jordan where young Palestinians are no longer comfortable living on the margins of Jordanian society, as legal citizens but without a representative identity.

In our increasingly interconnected and multi-cultural world, where many people do not fit easily into one specific national identity – citizens whose identities are complex myriads of loyalties and communities – it is important that hyphenated plural identities become more widely accepted.

###

* Arwa Aburawa is pursuing a masters degree in international journalism at Liverpool John Moores University in England. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=24027&lan=en&sid=1&sp=0