Lecture by Palestinian Refugee and Activist

“The desire [is that] we want to go back… and we are happy to live under any jurisdiction, Israeli, Palestinian, but the “just solution” for us is that we go back.”



A Palestinian Refugee and activist from Azza Camp in Bethlehem, talks about the history of internally displaced refugees, their aspirations, current activism and issues in the community. The talk was put on by the Alternative Information Center, a joint Palestinian and Israeli anti-Zionist organization based in Beit Sehour. The speaker requested to remain anonymous.

A few quotes from the talk:

“If you want to speak about ‘just resolution’ then you have to see and interact with the people on the ground. The grass root people are the ones who will decide in the end. Not the intellectual, not the elite, not the people who live in luxury in Palestine, but the people who live on the ground. The people who have been used for the past 65 years. The people who [have been marketed by other people], and they are not gaining anything, because millions of dollars were taken on behalf of the Palestinian refugees, and if you go visit any Palestinian refugee, it is almost the same situation.”

“We use nonviolent direct action… and our approach is non-violence as a way of life, so it is not just to say ‘down with the Israeli occupation’ but also we have campaigns to develop the situation within the Palestinian Authority. There is a main factor of violence [used by] the Israeli government. We call it 'structural violence.' This structural violence is very important. Why? because it is invisible. On my way to Bethlehem I will pass the checkpoint… if the soldiers are in a good mood... they will let me stay maybe just 45 seconds. But imagine there are 1000 Palestinians… each one has to wait 50 seconds. The last one will wait two hours. This thing creates stress… You will go to tired to your work, have a stressful day, go back to the checkpoint and have more stress then go to your house. Then you have the domestic violence… For example [the husband] will violate the wife, the wife will violate the children, the big brother will violate the smaller brother, so the last one will find no one and he will break a remote control or something. So this kind of structural violence is important for Palestinians to understand so that they can tackle it. Because if you notice, those checkpoints [usually] do nothing. It’s not out of security, they will not [even] check you. But their presence will give you the feeling, saying the Israeli occupation is here… and you are not even a human being... So we try to raise awareness to understand violence, and to understand the mentality of Israel because they do not do anything spontaneous, everything [is] deliberated. They want us to feel the Israeli occupation [in] every single aspect of our life.”

"If you loose hope, then you are dead and I will tell you one of the theories for the Israeli occupation. They try to equalize life and death in front of the Palestinian eyes. Once life and death [are] equal, then you don’t care if you live anymore… and if you perceive life and death in equal level, this will push people to die and to live the same. So the only way to get out of this trap is to be optimistic. Or, at least, to keep planting hope. To keep reviving yourself… Sometimes people ask, ‘what motivates you as a Palestinian to continue living in this hard situation’? Yes, it is true, sometimes, if I think logically, nothing would recharge my battery to be optimistic but the only thing is just the inner strength that you should have, otherwise you will be dead in your place. So the only option is to be full of hope. And the only option is to embrace your frustration and despair and have it, live with it. Next day try to change it. And be happy. And live your life. It is not enough to survive… No, you have to live. And since we are [not going anywhere] we need to find something to keep us here, to keep us alive. What will keep us alive? Life itself."

kids with guns

art on the separation barrier in Bethlehem

Driving down to Jericho a few weeks ago I couldn’t help but notice all the tables by the road with plastic guns for sale, and the young boys pointing little pistols at each other. 

Then, a few days later Muki and Brahim and I walked around Tibera, a touristy spot on the Sea of Galilee, where we saw a group of young Israelis in casual clothes who appeared to be shouldering large weapons.  We asked Brahim, “are they real?” He said yes.  But they are just teens, I though. We pulled aside two 19 year old girls with almost spotless English and curly hair.  They said the two of them are military commanders, and their group was on an ‘educational tour.' Being soldiers, they could not be caught unarmed. 

They asked where we were from and we asked in return.  One girl said she was from ‘just outside of Jerusalem.’ Brahim said, oh well I’m from Bethlehem, so where exactly are you from?  Somewhat uncomfortably, she named an illegal settlement that is close to Bethlehem (I think it was Gilo, but I don't quite remember). Without missing a beat Brahim said “oh yes, I know there. So we are almost like ‘neighbors.’”

His statement sank in the silence that followed, hitting a place that five strangers could not otherwise go in the short minutes of that conversation.  

The girls said they needed to catch up to the group.  Walking away, their weapons thu-bump-thu-bumped against narrow hips. And I thought of all the little plastic guns sold on the side of the road. 

art on the separation barrier in Bethlehem 

Military service is required of all young Israelis. Two years for females, three years for males.  And being a ‘contentious objector’ usually isn’t an option.  One Israeli man said he got out of the service by receiving proof of mental illness (which he may or may not have faked/exaggerated) from a psychiatrist.  Many others face years in prison for refusing to join the Israeli military.  I recently read a report about how a significant number of soldiers are forced to desert the army because their families need more financial support than they can provide.  The average Israeli soldier is paid less than minimum wage (I've found different numbers, so I don't want to give wrong information, but this report said it was like $100/month or $200 for combatants).  Of the 14,000 imprisoned soldiers, 70% were sentenced for desertion, the majority of which was motivated by economic reasons, the report said.

On June 9 of this year, tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews living in the US gathered in Manhattan to protest the Israeli regime.  Many of the speakers passionately spoke out against the military service requirement for young Orthodox Jews. Click here for additional information. 

Photographic Interlude

In Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem

Spring in Battir Village that has been used for thousands of years for agriculture

in Nativity Church, supposedly on the spot where Christ was born

in Aida Refugee Camp

There was a group of young men waiting to direct us into the house.  I waited for Jado to get a good b-roll of the street, and asked the taxi driver the name of the village we were in. He wrote it in Arabic on my paper—Asakrat. 

We headed down toward a low house with a proud Palestinian flag cemented into the corner of the roof.  A group of five men, a few in long robes a few in suit pants and button up shirts, greeted us, motioning us inside. We sat on the plastic chairs in an otherwise empty concrete room, and a man poured small plastic cups of dark, sugarless coffee.

Jado, the PNN film guy and an immediate friend to Muki & me, set up the camera and began interviewing a few of the men.  The taxi driver lounged and asked questions about the situation (in Arabic of course). I listened with every millimeter of my ears but felt absolutely useless.

We were there to speak to the bothers and sister of a man who was about to be released from an Israeli prison after 23 years.  He was one of the 26 men freed on Tuesday as part of the newly resumed peace talks- the first batch of 104 Palestinian prisoners who will go free over the 9 month period of negotiations.

Khaled Asqara was 18 when Israeli forces imprisoned him in 1991, and he is now 41. Like many of the prisoners being freed for the talks, Khaled was initially sentenced to life imprisonment.

One of Asakreh’s brothers, Nayef Asakreh told PNN that they felt overwhelmed with happiness because they have been dreaming of Khaled’s release for a long time, but he acknowledged that the situation is bittersweet. Nayef Asakreh said his brother’s happiness has a sour aftertaste because his colleagues and friends remain behind Israeli bars, and he won’t be content until all the prisoners are freed.

(The video is of the actual release of the prisoners- not the day when we visited the family.)

The siblings placed a picture of Khaled on the window bars, in front of a black and white kuffiya scarf as a background for the interviews. 

The release of the prisoners has caused controversy from many sides.  Many Palestinians are skeptical about how much attention is being put on the release of what is in reality a small fraction of the five to six thousand Palestinians still in Israeli prisons.  Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association said that the Israeli regime is using the prisoners’ release as trading material in the negotiations; thereby weakening the Palestinian officials’ ability to stick to the conditions they want (like boarders at the 1967 line, secession of settlement building, etc).  On the other hand, Israelis have been protesting the release of prisoners who they see as first intifada "terrorists."  

The thing about "terrorism" is that it a word has been racialized and reserved for a very specific type of body (Muslim, Arab, brown, young, and usually male), and most people have been taught to overlook the many forms of "terrorism" that occur on a daily basis: US drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, prisoners in the US kept in solitary confinement and enduring other forms of torture, Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers.... the list, obviously, goes on (and please excuse the lack of statistics or references- I figured these things are well known. If you want statistics and references please comment and I will amend.)  It's also important to think critically about how labeling certain humans "terrorists" completely undermines their opinions, as people who are resisting something (oppression, colonization, homogenization, etc).

All of the prisoners have been incarcerated since before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Some of them were due to be released in six months to two years. Many had life sentences. And I think it's safe to assume that all of them are passionate about their homeland and families, and the future generations of their families in their homeland. 

***

On my walk home that afternoon (Muki was sick & hadn’t gone to work… so it was the first time we’ve been apart for more than the length of a shower in about three weeks) I passed by a restaurant and looked in the window at the exact moment this small girl was taking a bite out of an oversized sandwich. We caught eyes just for that second, and I couldn’t help but smile the rest of the way home.

Water Politics, Swimming, and Sleeping on the Roof in Auja

We were greeted by a bony dog pissing its excitement on the stairs. The air was dryer and hotter than Beit Sehour, the landscape expansive and sandy.  A mountain range lay to the east, which I later learned was Jordan.  Muki and I followed Brahim and his German friend Hans into the Auja Eco Center where we met our host for the day, Hanna, a jovial fellow who was easy to like.

Brahim is related to our “host” family. We had met him when we arrived, and on Wednesday night he invited us to join him and Hans on a trip to Al Auja.  Thursday was the beginning of the 3-4 day celebration of Eid, at the end of Ramadan, so we had work off and decided to accept. 

Auja is just north of Jericho, in the Jordan Valley. It’s a small town that used to have an economy of bananas, watermelons and dates.  The Auja spring used to provide enough water for some 90% of the inhabitants to rely on agriculture as a source of income. That number has recently dropped to less than 5%.  The issue is water.  Well actually water is not really the issue—control of the wells and springs is the issue, as well as climate change.  Below the dry expanse, the Jordan valley is one of the water-richestplaces in the West Bank. This water belongs to the Palestinians, according to international law, with a small portion reserved for Israelis. However, when Israeli settlements began popping up all throughout the area, so did Israeli wells, pumps, and infrastructure to control the water flow. Now, Palestinians cannot get enough water to support their own agriculture, which has created an economic crisis leading many young Palestinians to work on Israeli settlers’ farms- where they have no insurance, benefits, labor rights, or protection.  (Another recent article) Palestinians cannot make wells without permits from the Israeli government, which, Hanna said, “of course they never get,” and they are dependent on buying water from the Israeli company Mekorot, at a high price.

Hanna works for the Auja Environmental Education Center (Eco Center), an NGO that provides workshops and trainings for students from all over the West Bank (and internationals) around water conservation, management, regular ol’ recycling, permaculture, etc.

That afternoon Hanna took us to the Auja spring. He said it dries and flows on and off throughout the year since the wells suck up the aquifer, and we were lucky it still had water. As we drove there, the valley opened before us to acres and acres of date palms- all owned by Israeli settlers.  At the spring we set up the hookah and sat in the fresh cold water.  Small fish nibbled on our feet. A group of local boys swam in a pool just downstream. Hans and I climbed the cliff. Looking down there was the spring, the boys, the rocky hills and a green trail of bamboo leading out of the valley. And a fenced-off area with blue pipes and Hebrew signs. A well or pump? Hanna said even though Palestinians appear to have many wells throughout the West Bank, most of them are very shallow or lead to salty water, whereas Israeli wells are fewer but deeper. He showed us short movie (below) about the water issues in Al Auja, and it had images of a lush Israeli settlement with swimming pools and greenhouses while the French reporter said, “for those that live [in the settlements] water is obviously not a problem.” (Read more, and more and more about water issues in the Jordan Valley.)

We sat in a bloated silence.  Just the heat, the view, the rocks on our skin, and the slope of the valley. A goat bleated a few hundred meters away.  The sand shifted beneath its hooves, perhaps a stone rolled loose.  Three boys walked down a road on the other side of the valley, like they were on a direct route from the empty blue.  Empty snail shells became dust beneath our feet. Little purple flowers climbed out from beneath the crumbling soil, defying the odds again.  The broken bones of a mammal lay sun bleached and forgotten outside a charcoal blackened cave.   A hot wind carried the sound of a clumsy bird scrambling into takeoff.  

That night we slept on Hanna’s roof, overlooking Auja and the twinkling outline of the Jordan mountains. The stars were bright, the smell of shisha was sweet and the temperature lulled us into dreams. 

Driving home the next day we passed one of the largest Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It sat unapologetically on the top of a hill, California suburban type houses overlooking the hazy horizon. I was reminded of a section of Eyal Weizman's Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation, in which the architecture of Israeli settlements were compared to a Foucault's Panopticon theories (Foucault didn't develop the Panopticon, but he used it extensively in Discipline and Punish)... but I suppose that's another blog post. Stay tuned. 

Supporting Palestinian Businesses in Jerusalem

"Buying from Israeli businesses supports the occupation"

After work on Tuesday, Muki and I hung around the office a little longer than usual connecting with an American who we had met briefly at the Prawer Plan protests (she used to work for PNN and had come by the office to help out with an article). 
Our boss came in saying the film crew was heading out to an awareness-raising campaign at the wall, and would we like to come. Muki looked at me, we shrugged and realized that in the first month of being somewhere new its important to say yes to (almost) everything. 

We drove to Aida Refugee Camp- somewhere we had been hoping to find- picked up some more people and headed to the checkpoint. When we arrived a woman handed out Palestinian flags, the PNN guys shouldered their cameras and I realized I wasn't quite sure what we were going to. Following along, waving my flag, I learned that the activists here were trying to raise awareness and encourage Palestinians visiting Jerusalem during Ramadan to support Palestinian businesses, not Israeli ones. 

The activists, part of a larger campaign called “Now I have a Permit, Where do I go?” handed out lists of Palestinian-owned stores in East Jerusalem and pasted the lists on the separation barrier, as Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) watched. Those who weren’t handing out papers waved Palestinian flags and held signs. 

Munther Amerah, an Activist in the Popular Committees to Resist Wall and Settlement said that those who obtained permits to enter Israel must support the Palestinians there, and foster communication between Palestinians living inside the Palestinian territories of 1948 and those living in the West Bank. He stressed the importance of supporting stores in East Jerusalem belonging to Palestinians over Israeli stores.

Amerah said, “We distributed flyers at the main entrance of Bethlehem checkpoint that had a list of names and maps of Palestinian stores and businesses within Israel.”This campaign was ignited because of the increased number of Palestinians in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Throughout Ramadan the Israeli government grants permits to almost all Palestinians (except men under age 40) to cross the boarder. Many Muslim Palestinians travel to Al-Quds (Jerusalem) to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque (near the Dome of the Rock) in the Old City. (Someone laughingly told us that you get 'extra points' for praying there. It is the third holiest site in Islam.... now think about why control over Jerusalem is such a contentious part of the conflict.)

However, the Israeli government’s motivations for handing out so many permits during this particular month have been questioned. 

In the words of Mohammed Hirbawi, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Hebron, the holy month of Ramadan “is known for its shopping sprees… Palestinian shop-owners feel that the permits' purpose at this time is to benefit the Israeli economy, which consequently adversely affects our own."

The activists were gathered in front of the main gate that facilitates the movement of equipment from one side of the wall to the other. As local media representatives interviewed the activists, IOF forces opened the gate three times to move military and industrial vehicles, causing the interviews to be disrupted. Activists, journalists and supporters were obliged to disperse and regroup three times. I couldn't help but wonder if the movement of the vehicles had been absolutely necessary at that particular moment... it seemed to be more of an intimidation-fragmentation-disruption technique.


The Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement has gained a lot of traction internationally. Two instances are that the European Union announced a ban on further financial support of Israeli institutions operating beyond the 1967 Green Line and Stephen Hawking refused to speak at a conference in Israel. The action we were at was not directly linked to BDS, but it was certainly in a similar vein, if coming from more of a pro-Palestinian economy, than an anti-Israeli occupation.

First Encounter with Israeli Military-Police Forces

The Arabic sign reads "No to Prawer- Racist Plan"

EAST JERUSALEM: On the night of August 1st Muki and I went to an anti-Prawer Plan demonstration outside Damascus Gate.  After a peaceful march Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested at least one person and threw grenades into the crowd, which included non-protesting bystanders.  This demonstration was only one in a string of anti-Prawer Plan actions that happened on the August 1st "Day of Anger" around the West Bank, and that have been happening for the past several weeks. 

Demonstrators carried Palestinian flags, chanted slogans like “from the Negev to the Galil (Galilee) the people will hold their ground” in Arabic and held signs including “No to Prawer- Racist Plan” in Arabic and “Israel, the World is Watching! International Solidarity Against Prawer” in English. There were a dozen or two internationals offering solidarity and capturing the event on many cameras.

The Prawer Plan, which was approved by the Israeli Knesset upon its first reading in June 2013, would displace between 30-40,000 Palestinian Bedouins and destroy dozens of villages in the Naqab (Negev) Desert. In the area cleared, Israeli cities would be erected. If carried out, the Prawer Plan would be a severe human rights violation. (Read more, and more, and more.)

As more protesters gathered, a peaceful march began, filling the streets and blocking traffic. More Palestinians joined, including people whose cars had been blocked by the throngs of demonstrators. Muki and I followed the crowd.

Reaching an intersection there was suddenly chaos- IOForces began running toward the protesters and I heard someone shout, “they got one, they got a little kid.” Everyone fled and somehow I managed to find Muki's hand in the fray. My adrenaline pumped hard. People stayed close, ducking in shops, and soon there were calls for the march to reunite and continue in peace.

Once a critical mass had regrouped the protest continued, and the crowd turned at the intersection blocked off by the IOF, back toward the Damascus Gate.  Demonstrators continued to shout, “From the Negev to Silwan, Palestinians will not be humiliated” and “Palestine is our country, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” in a call and response chant. One of the central callers was a young woman who is seeing impaired.

Back at the main roundabout the chanting continued. Israeli forces, on foot and on horseback, appeared at one side of the circle.  As their presence became more obvious the tension grew.  A few protestors threw small stones and empty paper cups in the direction of the police.  After some minutes of this, the IOF responded by running directly into the middle of the street and throwing flash grenades into the crowd. The grenades flashed sparks with earsplitting explosions, and caused clouds of smoke.

The IOF failed to distinguish between protesters and bystanders, including women, children and infants as they threw the grenades, and screams could be heard from all around.  Muki and I stood on a cement block to the side of the street, videoing the events. Within minutes the IOF had arrested one young man, shown in the footage above, and an I heard that at least one other person, also male, was arrested that night. We also heard that someone had been trampled by one of the IOF's massive horses. The flashing lights of an ambulance in the crowd was the only confirmation we could see. 

The scene calmed down once elderly Palestinian men came between the protestors and the IOF, shooing demonstrators away. One man pleaded with the crowd in Arabic, “young people, please disperse. We don’t want to loose our mothers, our wives, our daughters and our sisters,” probably referring to the bystanders who could be affected if there was further violence.