Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad (R) sees first hand a newly inaugurated road that was partially dug-up and destroyed by the Israeli army in Qarawat Bani Hassan on November 30. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)
Abu Rahmah has served twelve months imprisonment for incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations. He was cleared of two further charges of stone-throwing and arms possession. The ‘arms’ he had collected were spent tear-gas canisters and bullet casings used by the Israeli armed forces against him and his fellow demonstrators. The Elders have warned in the past that efforts to stifle peaceful protest will not serve the cause of peace, and that Abu Rahmah and his fellow activists deserve full support.
"Why I'm Building Palestine"
Soon, the only obstacle in our way will be the occupation itself.
By Salam Fayyad, Foreign Policy
When we launched our state-building plan for Palestine in August 2009, many dismissed it as an exercise in eggheadedness, extraordinary optimism, a dream. But here we are, feeling exceptionally, extremely validated by the scorecard so far: We have completed more than 1,500 projects, including the establishment of dozens of new schools, clinics, and housing projects and the construction of new roads throughout Palestine. Read More.
What prompted Haniyeh to make such a ridiculous and frankly, damaging statement is incomprehensible. For one, it is not diplomatic in the least, especially for a man who claims to be a high ranking official and who has shown a level of political pragmatism on more than one occasion. Second, it is not logical, because according to this rationale, every calamity that befalls the Palestinians is presumably a similar "divine strike" for what we have done.
Most of all, however, it is short-sighted in that Haniyeh seems to forget that the luscious green forests of Al Carmel were once Palestine and continue to remain so in the hearts of pretty much every Palestinian. A fire that scorches the earth, no matter where, is detrimental to all humankind, regardless of who inhabits the land at that particular moment. Over 40 lives were lost, tens of thousands of people (including Palestinians living inside Israel) were evacuated from their homes and 12,500 acres (50,000 dunams) of greenery were reduced to ashes. Even Turkey, which has been at loggerheads with Israel ever since the Mavi Marmara fiasco in which Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish citizens, offered its help in putting out the fire. Palestinian firefighters also joined the battle against the blaze, crossing the Green Line into Israel.
"We were received respectfully. After all, we're dealing with a humanitarian crisis which knows no borders," said Bethlehem's Civil Defense Chief Ibrahim Ayish, who said he and his team wanted to join forces with Israeli and international teams in order to "protect the environment and nature."
As a Palestinian, the fire in the Carmel mountain region of Haifa was devastating to watch, especially since it took place in such a cherished city. While it's true that Haifa was captured in the 1948 War and has been known to the world as an Israeli city ever since, this does not negate the fact that Haifa was once home to a Palestinian population, the overwhelming majority of who became refugees following their exile.
That was not so long ago. What is 62-plus years in the collective memory of a nation? Haifa and its green forests of Al Carmel are still vivid in the minds of those who once lived there and called the seaside city their home. The sight of its beautiful trees going up in flames and the earth beneath it scorched to black ashes is something that transcends all political realities. And this is why it is so difficult to understand why anyone would rejoice at such a large scale brushfire, regardless of the bitter political enmity between both sides. It is unsettling to hear any Palestinian, much less a prominent Hamas figure making such cutting statements. We have not learned to rise above, not by a long shot.
If this were an isolated incident in Palestinian politics, we could possibly brush it off as bad judgment. But we have all heard the instances of name calling between our leaders, Hamas and Fateh in particular. They have all failed to see the big picture – in the case of Hamas and Fateh, the picture being the overall goal of the Palestinians to liberate themselves from Israeli occupation. In the case of Haniyeh's so-called "divine intervention" he failed to see that any damage to our Mother Earth is a loss for all, especially when the patch in question is part of what was once our beloved Palestine.
Perhaps the biggest lesson for us Palestinians looking at the tragedy from afar is to see it for exactly that: a tragedy of colossal proportions. The Palestinian Authority seems to have embraced that concept despite the bad blood between it and Israel's government, not hesitating to send out reinforcements to extinguish the blaze. This is how we should all think. Anyone who thinks or says anything less is in no position to be a leader.
Joharah Baker 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.orgVISION
An independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, which grants Palestinians their basic rights, preserves their dignity, and enjoys international recognition and respect.
Palestinians dispatch reinforcements in fight against Israel blaze
Word of the exchange swiftly filtered through the village of Ittan Wali, in Sheikhupura district. The local mullah took to his mosque's loudspeakers, exhorting his followers to take action against Noreen. In a depressingly familiar pattern, her defense of her faith was twisted into an accusation of blasphemy, according to her family and legal observers familiar with the case. As a frenzied mob pursued her, the police intervened, taking her into custody. But far from protecting her, they arrested and charged Noreen with insulting Islam and its prophet. And on Nov. 8, after enduring 18 months in prison, she was sentenced to death by a district court, making her the first woman to suffer that fate. (See how WikiLeaks' disclosure fueled anti-U.S. anger in Pakistan.)
In the ensuing weeks, the case of Noreen, popularly known as Aasia Bibi, has sparked a national furor. Human rights campaigners and lawyers have denounced the sentence. Religious fundamentalist groups, usually at odds with one another, have suddenly coalesced around a campaign to defend the blasphemy law and attack its critics. One politician who called for Noreen to be pardoned now faces a fatwa for alleged apostasy. Another politician, who is trying to have the blasphemy laws amended, has been warned that she will be besieged. On television, religious scholars have disagreed among themselves over the law's merits. Divisions are also being seen within the government, with powerful figures taking opposing sides. And there has even been global outrage, with Pope Benedict XVI last week calling for Noreen's freedom.
Noreen's case has spurred the first genuine debate over some of Pakistans most controversial laws. The original blasphemy law was drawn up by the British, in the Indian Penal Code of 1860, aimed at keeping the peace among the subcontinent's sometimes fractious diversity of faiths. Not only did Pakistan inherit the laws after partition, but it added to them. In the 1980s, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's military dictatorship introduced a slew of elastically worded clauses, including a death sentence for those deemed to have defiled the sacred name of the Prophet.
Before Zia, there were only two reported cases of blasphemy. Since the death sentence was inserted in 1986, the number has soared to 962 - including 340 members of the Ahmadi Muslim sect, 119 Christians, and 14 Hindus. Close examination of the cases reveals the laws often being invoked to settle personal vendettas, or used by Islamist extremists as cover to persecute religious minorities. ....READ MORE
RE: I.H.T. Global Agenda 2011 Two States of Being By SERGE SCHMEMANN, SARI NUSSEIBEH and AMOS OZHis troubled connection to his homeland is a key theme in this uneven but thoughtful collection of the writings of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.
By Rayyan Al-Shawaf / December 2, 2010“What is homeland?” asks famed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in his Journal of an Ordinary Grief, an intriguing but uneven collection of ruminations and autobiographical fragments that first appeared in Arabic in 1973 and is now being published posthumously in English. He has several answers. The most powerful? “To hold on to your memory – that is homeland.”
Memory is a central theme of this book, which has been capably translated and helpfully annotated by Ibrahim Muhawi. Lamenting the plight of Palestinian refugees some two decades after Israel’s founding in 1948, Darwish indignantly addresses the double standard many Israelis apply to the Jewish and Palestinian affinity for the holy land: “He who allows himself a flood of tears for two thousand years cannot blame the one who has been crying for twenty years of having merely fallen prey to delusion.”
Darwish, who died in 2008 at age 67, was one of the Arab world’s most renowned poets. His poems were often about Palestine, and many were set to songs by famous Arab singers. Darwish’s story begins in the middle of the 20th century. In the war over Israel’s creation in 1948, 700,000 to 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from or fled their homeland. Darwish’s family, with the young Mahmoud in tow, chose to wait out the war in Lebanon. Prevented from returning to what became Israel, they sneaked back in. But that hardly ended their woes. “They called us ‘present-absentees’ so we would have no legal right to anything,” complains Darwish of the Israeli authorities. He left Israel in 1970 and later joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which prompted Israel to bar him from returning for decades.
There is much rage in this book. Darwish condemns Nazism as inexcusable, but proceeds to compare Israeli actions to those of Nazis. However, there are reasons for his fury. One particularly horrific incident that understandably raises his ire is the Kufr Qasem massacre of 1956, when 49 unarmed Israeli Arab civilians – including women and children – were murdered by Israeli border police for having violated a recently imposed curfew of which they were unaware.
The perpetrators were tried and convicted but pardoned shortly thereafter...READ MORE
According to Israeli Police, in 2010 more than 1,200 criminal cases have been opened against children from occupied East Jerusalem alleging involvement in stone-throwing incidents. The letter states that ‘children and teenagers related that they had been dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night or arrested in their neighbourhoods by undercover detectives and special security forces; taken in for questioning while handcuffed and unescorted by their parents; in certain cases, the families were not notified of the arrest in real time; minors were asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release; were threatened and humiliated by their interrogators; and some of them were even subject to physical violence while taken in for questioning and under interrogation.’ The authors of the letter urge the Prime Minister to ‘immediately take the necessary steps to ensure that all arrest, detention, and interrogation procedures employed against minors suspect of throwing stones in East Jerusalem … adhere to the letter and spirit of the law.’
The issues raised in the letter reflect concerns held by DCI-Palestine, which has documented 22 cases of children who report being mistreated by the arresting authorities since 8 October 2010. The age of the youngest child reporting mistreatment is seven years.
• Ten-year-old boy grabbed by three men in civilian clothes - Voices
• Twelve-year-old boy arrested on his way to school - Voices
These arrests are occurring against a backdrop of heightened tensions in occupied East Jerusalem due to the Municipality’s plans to demolish houses in Silwan, and the presence of around 380 settlers in the area. Under international law, East Jerusalem forms part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and ‘all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status … have no legal validity.’ (UN Security Council Resolution 465 of 1980)
Copyright © 2010 DCI/PS. All rights reserved.
