| Date posted: February 17, 2010 By Hajr Al-Ali for MIFTAH | |
| A drummers’ circle, Palestinian children holding flags, Avatar activists painted in blue with kuffiyehs around their waists, and just your everyday Israeli soldiers looking on, armed and ready. Another Friday afternoon; another demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah. Israeli and international activists gathered in the east Jerusalem neighborhood again this past Friday, February 12, to protest the house evictions of Palestinian families, which has been occurring ever frequently to make room for Jewish settlers. Organized by Israeli human rights organizations such as Peace Now, the demonstration brought out around 250 protestors who demanded justice from Israel's government. Unfamiliar with Hebrew, I asked one of the protestors what was being chanted. “(They’re saying) You can’t have democracy with walls,” she told me. An older woman with short grey hair told me her name was Irit and that she lived in a suburb of west Jerusalem. “What they’re doing (the house evictions) is illegal,” she told me. “(Also) they arrested my son for protesting and detained him for 36 hours. That’s unacceptable. The freedom of speech, to protest, is an important part of democracy.” Ronnie agreed, and showed his opposition against government policies in a creative way. A young Israeli man from Tel Aviv, Ronnie belongs to several groups such as “Anarchists Against the Wall”, the “Israeli Boycott Movement and “Boycotting from Within.” He explained to me that, “As a Jew, I can say, ‘This is not anti-Semitic, this is against the state.’” He was also one of the two “Avatars” present at the Sheikh Jarrah demonstration. They were both part of a larger group of activists who have gained widespread media attention for reenacting scenes from director James Cameron’s most recent blockbuster, “Avatar”; equating the struggle of occupied Palestine to its intergalactic counterpart portrayed in the film. There is something to be said for Irit and Ronnie’s presence at the demonstration that afternoon; the fact that they felt compelled to engage in their “fundamental right to protest” by speaking out against the unjust plight of their Palestinian neighbors. However, that’s where I get befuddled. Freedom? Justice? Democracy? Since when is it even plausible to associate any of those concepts with Israel? A (truly) democratic state is an entity which is founded upon principles concerning the human rights of its citizens relative to the government that works for them. It operates based on some form of a constitution of rights, and implements this constitution through legislations which ensure that all citizens are treated equally, whether through the distribution of resources or legal policies and procedures. Israel has no such constitution, though, despite over five decades of the international community’s call for it to create one. I suppose this means pittance to Palestinians anyway, who are neither citizens, nor have their own state. Rather, Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza, or east Jerusalem are subject to the ruthless military rule of Israel’s occupation, not its “democracy.” In order for a state to be democratic, it must recognize the equal citizenship of all residents within its borders, regardless of race, religion, political views or gender. We could stop right there. It’s facetious to expect Israel to adhere to principles of equality, let alone the “equal distribution of resources.” In east Jerusalem alone, 67% of Arab Palestinian families live below the poverty line compared to 21% of Jerusalem’s Jewish families; over half of Palestinian residents, approximately 160,000, have no connection to the water network; over 91,000 children in east Jerusalem live in a perpetual state of poverty; and by the end of 2007, 50,197 housing units for the Jewish population had been built on expropriated land while none had been built for the Palestinian population. If anything, these houses have been torn down. The condition of Palestinians living in east Jerusalem has been described as a continuing cycle of neglect, discrimination, poverty, and shortages, which has only been exacerbated by the huge wall eclipsing every aspect of their lives. It's important for Israelis such as those present at the protest to remember this vital part of the country’s history: the story of the evictions of Palestinians from their homes doesn’t date back to November when these demonstrations first began. It began in 1948 when the establishment of the state of Israel meant the forced removal of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, continuing past 1967 when Israel (illegally) annexed east Jerusalem, claiming the city as its capital. In case anyone’s forgotten, this was all in violation of international law, most notably Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states, "...The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population in the territory it occupies." The demonstration itself, although a good attempt by Israel’s left to bring attention to the situation of Palestinians in east Jerusalem, felt more like a carnival than a political protest. Although they connect activists and create a brouhaha, the demonstrations can be problematic if protestors don’t recognize the root of the problem they’re protesting against: the oppressive military occupation of Palestinians. I’m glad that the Israeli protestors I met were concerned enough to come out that day; that they felt a sense of purpose and responsibility to speak out against their government's practices. However, if protestors do not recognize that the democratic principles they may enjoy do not apply to those they are speaking out for, such rallies are ultimately ineffectual. Hajr Al-Ali is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org. | |
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