The War on Education

A simply incredible article in yesterday’s International Herald Tribune was sent to me by a friend in the States. Yet another form of ‘collective punishment’ and perhaps in one its most sinister incarnations, the U.S. is now canceling Fullbright grants to Palestinians from Gaza.

The following is a quote from one of the Gazans who received this letter of announcement:

If we are talking about peace and mutual understanding, it means investing in people who will later contribute to Palestinian society,” he said. “I am against Hamas. Their acts and policies are wrong. Israel talks about a Palestinian state. But who will build that state if we can get no training?”

So not only is the present a dim reality for Gaza, but the future it seems is also being destroyed - one mind at a time.

Hypocrisy & Humanitarian Aid

It was pretty deflating to read this afternoon’s Ha’aretz Web site and learn that Israel has now sent its third relief team to aid victims of the Burmese cyclone disaster.

The blatant hypocrisy of sending medical personnel and training and logistics specialists to an area of humanitarian crisis - other than that occurring on their own doorstep - truly ‘buggers’ belief. As touched upon in a recent post, the situation in Gaza and the West Bank cannot be considered anything other than a ‘humanitarian crisis’ for which countries beyond Israel (and specifically the UN) not only feel compelled to act, but to continually and loudly condemn this ongoing siege and entrapment of the Palestinians on their own land.

Infuriatingly, Israel’s Foreign Ministry has also contributed over $100,000 in initial emergency food and medical supplies to the Burmese victims. There is no argument that this is needed, and that the victims of Burma deserve this support. However - in case you somehow may have missed the current situation in Gaza, bruised earth implores you to look closer and realize the hypocrisy behind these facts.

People are currently - TODAY - dying in Gaza for lack of medical supplies, proper food, and basic health management due to ongoing sewage and malnutrition issues. It is frightening to comprehend that the State is sending these badly needed medical supplies and food products to another country, keeping the trucks laden with these life-saving supplies frozen on the border to Gaza.

Sending this aid halfway across the world to assist in another humanitarian crisis - whilst continuing to exacerbate one of its own - is quite simply unforgivable.

Freedom for Palestine Rally: London

In keeping with bruised earth’s ongoing offering of original content - the following video ‘collage’ of sights and sounds shot during the recent Freedom for Palestine Rally in Central London on Saturday May 10, 2008 - hopefully provides a bit of background on this impressive day in the capital - seeing over 20,000 protestors commemorating the 60 years since the Nakba (The Catastrophe of the Palestinian People) and corresponding founding of Israel.

Featuring sections of speeches by British MP George Galloway and Professor Manuel Hassassian (UK Ambassador for Palestine), the following video attempts to capture (through photos, videos, and music) the spirit of the demonstration. Other speakers on the day included Dr Mustafa Barghouti (elected Palestinian Legislative Council member), Richard Burden MP (chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Palestine) and former MP, Tony Benn.

http://www.vimeo.com/vimeo.com/1069210

Creative Polymath of Palestine

A true renaissance man - embracing an extensive range of creative talents including writer, poet, translator, critic and accomplished painter - Jabra Ibrahim Jabra is not only responsible for demonstrating the fascinating range of the Palestinian artist, but also for his ground-breaking translations of Western literature - making the works of Beckett, Camus and Shakespeare accessible to the broader Arab and Palestinian community.

Born in Bethlehem in 1920, Jabra finished his high school education in Jerusalem before attending Cambridge University. After returning to Jerusalem, Jabra taught art at Al-Rashidiyyeh School and founded the Art Club of Jerusalem. Following the Nakba and forced migration of the Palestinian people in 1948, Jabra fled to Iraq where he died in 1994.

The recipient of numerous awards including a Harvard Fellowship in 1952 and the Taraga Europa prize for culture by Inter Art Forum in Rome among countless others, Jabra is not only well known as a painter - but as an accomplished critic, writer and translator - his publications include seven novels, an autobiography, three collections of poetry, and eight collections of essays.

As a translator, Jabra bestowed one of his greatest creative gifts to Palestine and the Arab world - creating the still definitive Arabic translations of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and works by Dylan Thomas and Albert Camus. Most famously, Jabra’s translations of Shakespeare’s works include accomplished versions of Hamlet, Coriolanus, Tempest, and Twelth Night. His overarching personal goal in his translations was to “to enlighten the Arab audience with the creative works of world known authors.”

As an encyclopedic polymath of vast range and abilities, it is perhaps not unfounded to link his diverse contributions to Palestinian art and culture to such towering figures as Albrecht Durer or even Goethe - men who defined the artistry and culture of their nations through every channel of their creativity.

Anti-Zionist Jews: Not In Their Name

I have received a lot of comments recently about bruised earth being either anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli, or both. Like many Palestinians and many Israelis I have met and discussed the occupation with, there is a fundamental and urgent point everyone should understand - there exists a profound difference between speaking out against the political tenets of Zionism and voicing racist, blatant antisemitism. There is also a profound difference between being anti-Israel Policy and anti-Israeli. The difference is governments and people.

It is crucial the difference is understood. We should all be intelligent enough to debate these issues - separating policies from population. If not, we will - like many of our politicians - quietly debate the issue of the occupation in our heads rather than with our voices - frozen in fear of being labeled antisemitic.

People must also wake to the reality that there is a large and vibrant community of Israeli Jews - both in Israel and across the world - who refuse to allow Zionism and the subsequent actions of the State of Israel to be performed in their name. In many ways, they are the bravest and most powerful of voices, refusing to remain silent and speaking out in the face of great opposition from their families and communities.

To that end, I would like to offer a few examples of two exceptional and brave men. Both Jewish - one Israeli, one American. The first is Professor Ilan Pappe, one of Israel’s acclaimed New Historians who debunked the idealized Zionist version of the Jewish State’s history and exposed that massacre, rape and dispossession of the native Palestinians that attended its birth.

Professor Pappe is an advocate for a single secular democratic state in historic Palestine with equal rights for Jews and Arabs. His outspoken views put him out of favour with the Israeli mainstream and recently, he has decided to leave Israel to teach at Exeter University. His most recent work, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is a striking and urgent review of Israel’s actions in 1948, and its ongoing policy of racially segregating Palestinians and Jews today.

An excellent portion of a lecture by Professor Pappe (I encourage everyone to spare the time) can be viewed here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2378048083114640496

The second Jewish profile is American-born Mike Marqusee, an exceptional writer, speaker and intellectual I have had the profound pleasure to meet and work with on a book event some years ago. His latest offering, If I Am Not for Myself: Confessions of an Anti-Zionist Jew is a “thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be Jewish in the twenty-first century”. It traces Marqusee’s upbringing in the 60’s in an Jewish-American family, his subsequent pro-Palestinian activism, and experiences as a Jew living among Muslims in Pakistan, Morocco, and Britain.

Like Professor Pappe, Marqusee has faced and experienced the effects of living as an anti-Zionist Jew, and has chosen to work toward breaking the mold of blindly accepting the actions of the State of Israel simply because of his Jewish heritage.

This post is therefore dedicated to Marqusee, Pappe, and the brave scores of Jewish men and women around the world who against substantial odds, are speaking out and forcing their communities to re-think and discern the crucial difference between Judaism and Zionism; anti-Israel and anti-Israeli; people and policies.

Bravo.

Gaza: Your Alarm Clock is Sounding

Offensive actions resumed in Gaza yesterday with more news of border shootings and Israeli Army incursions. An estimated 2,000 Palestinians were protesting yesterday afternoon at the Gaza border when Israeli troops opened fire into the crowd – killing one man and wounding 17 others. The grim totals continue to mount with early reports citing the wounding of at least three boys ages 12-15 (with one in critical condition). An interesting point about news reports to keep in mind - the wounded numbers are never re-visited in later reports, so death tolls should always be expected to mount.

For background, the Israeli siege of Gaza (now lasting over 8 months) has almost completely crippled the tiny patch of land with no goods being allowed in or out – and crucially, medical supplies are almost non-existent. While we are up in arms about the humanitarian crisis caused by natural disasters in places like Burma and China, we are guilty of neglecting the actions of the region’s richest and most advanced country – as it slowly chokes, starves, and decimates an encircled population.

The help you understand the true scale of what is happening in Gaza, pay close attention to these statistics:

• Israel prevents the import of a list of specific essential humanitarian goods requested by aid agencies, including some fuel supplies, spare parts, cement, technical assistance and cotton for hygiene items.
• Travel in and out of Gaza is all but impossible and supplies of food and water, as well as sewage treatment and basic healthcare can no longer be taken for granted.
• Supplies to Gaza, intended to be 250 trucks a day, are limited to 45 trucks a day.
• Most private businesses have shut down in the last six months and 95% of Gaza’s industrial operations are suspended.
• Israeli allows 2.2 million litres of EU-supplied industrial diesel per week, which is not enough to keep Gaza’s main power plant operating at full capacity.
• Hospitals experience power cuts for 8-12 hours a day and depend on generators to run basic facilities, although there is a shortage of diesel. Spare parts for generators are almost impossible to obtain.
• The UN appeal for humanitarian aid in 2008 is $462m, more than twice the 2006 appeal and the third largest UN request after Sudan and Congo.

Conditions on the ground in Gaza are simply disgusting – with the UN’s Humanitarian Chief recently quoted as saying “the eight-month closure of Gaza has created ‘grim and miserable’ conditions that deprive Palestinians of their basic dignity.”

This is not Burma. This is not China. There has been no natural disaster.

This is a siege that the West must act upon. And act now.

International Aid Organizations including the UN Humanitarian Division, Amnesty International, Save the Children, Care, the BBC, and Oxfam have drafted a report that everyone should read. For a quick 3-minute video overview on what is happening please view below:

The desperation of the 1.5 million Palestinians squeezed within the filthy conditions of Gaza is unacceptable by all International bodies and standards - and our silence in this ongoing methodical massacre of lives and livelihoods makes us shamefully complicit.

That’s your alarm bell ringing. Time to wake up.

Poetry of Palestine

Taking a break from the ongoing politics and drama of the occupation, we’re going to shift gears and focus a bit on Palestinian literature and the arts - an often overlooked aspect of a region and a people. Reflecting on the media portrayal of Palestinians, the usual image proferred is of a demeaned, angry, aggressive society. The extremes of this caricature is of course the suicide bomber - but the more subtle renderings depict a classless, lawless, cultureless population.

In an effort to re-paint this distorted image of Palestinian culture fueled by the media, over coming weeks bruised earth will profile intellectuals, artists, writers and communities that challenge the popular notions prevalent in the West.

The famous Zionist edict of “a land without a people for a people without a land” is being recycled day after day with the ongoing denial of Palestinian culture and the arts. After all, denying a people’s culture is the first step in dehumanizing and dispossessing a population. Occupation is far more than barriers and fences and walls.

With that, today’s bruised earth profile focuses on the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. Born in British Mandate Palestine in 1941, Darwish is perhaps the most celebrated Palestinian poet alive today - with over 30 volumes of poetry and 9 works of prose to his oeuvre. A one-time member of the PLO Executive Committee, Darwish resides in Ramallah (a town fluent with the modern Palestinian arts scene) and has lived in Beirut (during the Israelis invasion of 1982) and Cairo.

A voice of modern Palestine and one of the greatest Arab poets of the century, Darwish’s voice is urgent, engaging, and razor-sharp - having been best described by the poet Fiona Sampson as:

This most public of Palestinians is the master not of reductive polemic but of a profoundly lyric imagination, one that draws together the textures of daily life, physical beauty - whether of landscape or of women - longing, myth and history.

A few excerpts of his poetry can be found here. And to help get a sense for his range and his structure, a few special clips are reproduced below:

Whenever I search for myself I find the others
And when I search for them
I only find my alien self
So am I the individual- crowd?

-from Mural

Stripped of my name and identity?
On soil I nourished with my own hands?
Today Job cried out
Filling the sky:
Don’t make and example of me again!
Oh, gentlemen, Prophets,
Don’t ask the trees for their names
Don’t ask the valleys who their mother is
From my forehead bursts the sward of light
And from my hand springs the water of the river
All the hearts of the people are my identity
So take away my passport!

- from Passport

 

Media Spin: Failed Negotiations

The lead story in this morning’s Jerusalem Post deals with the ‘expected’ announcement by PA President Mahmoud Abbas that current peace negotiations have totally failed. There is no surprise in this conclusion - in fact, few informed followers of the negotiation process since Annapolis could have expected otherwise.

More succinctly, the totally PR driven “Bushism” of ‘Peace by the end of the year’ was complete fiction for anyone who bothered to look beyond his 90-second sound bites on the situation. The problem was (and is) about pressure; pressure by the U.S. on Israel to live up to its end of the bargain. Pressure to cease the building of settlements on PA Land. Pressure to loosen security barriers and roadblocks in the West Bank. Pressure to end the ongoing siege in Gaza.

As has always been the case in Israeli politics - words (and even condemnation) have little effect - even those coming from a U.S. President. They are simply ignored. Without firm diplomatic and political pressure from the West, no peace is possible.

What is interesting in this article, however - is the media ‘cover’ that is already being deployed in advance of Abbas’ speech (if in fact it does occur). Conservative sources like the Jerusalem Post are quick to point out the Palestinian President will ‘announce that negotiations had failed and blame Israel for the failure’. Thus the ‘damage control’ is already being spun.

Keep a close eye on the responses from Bush and Olmert the next few days. They will not easily allow the blame to fall on their shoulders - regardless of their ongoing failure.

And so the same sad media ‘game’ continues…

Obama: “Israel a Vibrant Democracy”

It has been difficult to avoid addressing some unfortunate comments made this week by the presumptive Democratic Nominee for U.S. President, Barack Obama.

Forced to bow to the influential and vindictive eye of America’s Israel Lobby (groups such as AIPAC and The Jewish National Fund), and to try and fend off any damage to suggestions his campaign is championed by Hamas, Obama sat down with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic - with a few disappointing comments including:

I think the idea of Israel and the reality of Israel is one that I find important to me personally. Because it speaks to my history of being uprooted, it speaks to the African-American story of exodus, it describes the history of overcoming great odds and a courage and a commitment to carving out a democracy and prosperity in the midst of hardscrabble land.

It’s striking that these comments paralleling life for African Americans over recent years - exodus, feelings of being uprooted, treated as a second-class citizens, afforded unequal rights, outright prejudice, and overcoming great odds - are linked with Israelis and not Palestinians. It is a stunning metaphor that completely avoids the obvious. Obama goes on to mention:

When I visited Ramallah, among a group of Palestinian students, one of the things that I said to those students was: “Look, I am sympathetic to you and the need for you guys to have a country that can function, but understand this: if you’re waiting for America to distance itself from Israel, you are delusional. Because my commitment, our commitment, to Israel’s security is non-negotiable.”

That is in fact, one of only two instances of the word ‘Palestinian’ being used in the entire interview. Finally, perhaps the most disturbing quote:

Israel is a vibrant democracy, the only one in the Middle East.

Vibrant? Let’s talk for a moment about Arab citizens living within the State of Israel. We’ll leave aside Palestinians in the occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza for the moment. A ‘democracy’ as defined by it’s Greek origin means “equal rights and power to all a state’s citizens”. Let’s hold onto that definition as we look at a few facts about Arab citizens of Israel living within the State. Simply by virtue of not being born Jewish, Israeli ‘citizens’ of Arab descent living in cities like Nazareth or Umm al-Fahm enjoy the following rights:

• 20% less State funded child allowance for Arab families vs. Jewish families - enacted to discourage the Arab birthrate in favour of the threatened Jewish birthrate.
• Since 1948, the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians expelled from their homes have been refused the right of return to Israel; whereas Israeli citizenship is automatically available to any Jew anywhere in the world.
• An Israeli Arab marrying a Palestinian from the West Bank or Gaza must endure a lengthy and improbable path to citizenship - and in most cases can never live together. Thousands of families have been similarly split by a 2003 ban on Palestinians in the West Bank from reuniting with their families inside Israel.
• Frightening disparities in education- Israel operates two distinct school systems: one for Jewish Israelis, one for Arab Israelis. In almost all cases, Arab children are forced to travel long distances (if school is even available), endure overcrowded class sizes, frequently lack basic learning facilities like libraries, computers, science labs, and recreation space - and conduct class in shoddy, unsafe buildings. This is discrimination at its most basic. Read this article from Human Rights Watch for more info.
• Less than 8 percent of the country’s civil service workforce is made up of Israeli Palestinians.
• A new law approved in 2007, included banning Arabs from buying land controlled by the Jewish National Fund, a quasi-governmental group that was founded before the state of Israel to buy and develop land in Palestine.
• Another bill makes eligibility for national insurance benefits dependent on completing military service. Arabs for the most part do not serve in Israel’s military (as it is only compulsory for Jewish citizens).
  
• Two rights groups documented the killing of 41 Arabs by Israeli police or in “racist attacks” by Jews and security guards since 2000. Of those, only one suspected killer has been indicted.

This is not the occupied territories - this is within the ‘green line’ of Israel itself!

Israel is not a democracy of ‘all its citizens’ but rather, a democracy of a group of citizens. Sounds a lot like America before civil rights, or South Africa during Apartheid. And Obama should know better. He is clearly America’s best chance come November by a wide margin, and he is much too intelligent to be cornered by the media and the Israeli Lobby into making such statements.

A “vibrant democracy”? Very disappointing indeed.

Saturday Facts - Separation Barrier

As part of an ongoing weekend feature here at bruised earth the following are a few essential facts on the occupation of Palestine. This week’s spotlight is on Israel’s Separation Barrier (facts and information are courtesy of passia.org):

• The separation barrier is a combination of an 8-m high concrete wall (mainly around East Jerusalem areas), trenches, fences, razor wire and military-only roads. There is also a 30-100-m wide “buffer zone” east of the Wall with electrified fences, trenches, sensors and military patrol roads and some sections have armed sniper towers. The barrier runs through some of the most fertile parts of the West Bank and has severely harmed agricultural activity, which is one of the main sources of income many villages.
• The separation barrier is expected to cost some NIS 10 billion in total (NIS 5 billion have been invested so far); its length had to be doubled in order to exclude or surround the settlements. (Ibid.)
• On 9 July 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s construction of the barrier was “contrary to international law” as it involves destruction/confiscation of Palestinian property and imposes severe restrictions on Palestinian movement, and that that Israel must “cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem”, return seized property and compensate Palestinian landowners whose interests have been damaged by its construction.
• The construction of the Barrier has led to the confiscation of more than 230 km2 of the West Bank’s most fertile land (approx. 15% of all West Bank agricultural land). (UNCTAD. Report on UNCTAD’s Assistance to the Palestinian People. July 2006).
• Israel has declared the land in between the route of the barrier itself and the Green Line – now referred to as the “seam zone” - a “closed area” for an indefinite period of time pursuant to occupation military orders. This “seam zone” accounts for roughly 8.5% of the West Bank territory.
• Upon completion of the barrier, some 50,000 Palestinians in 38 villages and towns will find themselves living in “the seam zone”, while another estimated 61,000 Palestinians (residents of East Jerusalem) will be separated from family, jobs and municipal services. (Ibid.)
• About half a million Palestinians live within 1 km of the barrier on its eastern side, and many of them have been negatively affected by a structure that even cuts through properties and neighborhoods. (Ibid.)
• The barrier’s route can be directly linked to Israeli settlements, having been influenced by perceived needs to protect settlers and to provide space for future expansion of settlements, as has been admitted by the Israeli Office of State Attorney. The Palestinian Negotiations Support Unit estimates that Including East Jerusalem settlements, the route of the barrier puts some 87% of the settler population into the “seam zone”.(Ibid.)
• In April 2007 the Israeli Defense Ministry approved an updated route for the Separation Barrier (see http://seamzone.mod.gov.il/Pages/ENG/map_eng.htm), which, upon completion, will effectively annex 12% of the West Bank (previously: 9.0%). About 80.0% of the revised route still lies on occupied Palestinian territory.

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