The Dark Facade Behind the Green Gardens by Julie Holm, for MIFTAH

Date posted: May 02, 2012
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On a beautiful sunny hike last Friday I realized how I constantly had my body, and my face, pointed in one direction only, making a subconscious effort not to see what was behind me. I enjoyed the silence and the stunning Palestinian nature. On the horizon I could see all the way from Jericho to Jerusalem, the busy cities looking like magical oases glistening in the sun. Focusing on the breathtaking scenery and enjoying the company, I was always, however, very aware that if I turned around and looked behind me I would see something that always makes me cringe and tenses up my entire body. Not much can make me quiet but this sight usually does the trick.

The Israeli settlements in the West Bank provoke me more than almost anything else. According to international law they are illegal, and yet, just last week, the Israeli Prime Minister formalized the status of three settlement outposts, thereby creating three new, illegal settlements.

Driving in the West Bank you cannot help but pass by a settlement. I always think they look fake. Usually located on top of a hill it is a cluster of identical houses, often with white walls and red roofs, lined up one after the other, surrounded by green gardens. If you didn’t know any better, you would think they were some kind of nice, quiet suburb, a wonderful place for kids to grow up. For those of us who do know better, they are anything but.

Once, I had a short drive through one of the largest settlements just outside of Jerusalem. Even from the inside it looked fake, as if the people who lived there were trying really hard to be something they are not. It was lush and green, had trees and flowers, perfect gardens and flawless, quiet roads. There were shopping centers and swimming pools, schools, playgrounds and women in pink training outfits, power walking on the sidewalk. Most of the residents of this exact settlement, Ma'ale Adumim are "economic settlers" finding the settlement a nice, cheap, area to live in just outside Jerusalem. This is the reason I even considered visiting this place, as most other settlements have residents who are far more ideological in their choice of neighborhood, and not that open to having guests.

The fact that many the residents of Ma’ale Adumim do not even really know that they live on Palestinian land, does not change much, however. They are still living there illegally, just like all the other 300,000 settlers in the West Bank. It is not only that they live there illegally, taking up more and more Palestinian land, that makes me depressed whenever I see a settlement. It is also the fact that the pristine houses and gardens are just a cover for what is really going on.

First of all, their green gardens and beautiful flowers, which are such a huge contrast to the surrounding, dry land, are only possible because the already scarce water recourses of the West Bank are diverted from Palestinian communities to the settlements. Furthermore, some of the olive trees adorning the settlements still have marks from heavy machinery and bulldozers. Once belonging to Palestinians, they were uprooted by settlers who replanted them in the settlements, a token of war perhaps. The pillage and destruction of nearby Palestinian villages by settlers happens almost weekly and although the violence they carry out is condemned again and again by human rights organizations, nothing happens. Just like nothing happens when new settlements keep popping up and the ones already built grow bigger and bigger even as the UN and governments all over the world condemn such illegal building on occupied territory. Not least of all, settlements are one of the biggest obstacles to renewing peace negotiations, as the Palestinians – rightfully so – do not want to negotiate with anyone who continuously steals their land and resources.

As we drove out of the parking lot after our hike, a car with four young Israeli settlers pulled in. They stepped out of the car and I noticed that they were armed with machine guns, an almost daily sight I should be used to by now. Yet I thought to myself, just like the settlements, the checkpoints and the wall cutting through the landscape, I will never get used to this sight for the simple reason that this just isn’t the way things should be.

Julie Holm 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.

Beyond 'Free Palestine' by Julie Holm for MIFTAH

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Beyond 'Free Palestine'

Date posted: 25/04/2012

By: Julie Holm for MIFTAH

Anyone walking in the streets of Ramallah, Bethlehem or Hebron lately might have noticed that some of the bare walls of the cities are no longer boring and grey. Last week one of the most famous Danish street artists HuskMitNavn (RememberMyName) visited Palestine and decorated its walls together with young Palestinian artists. I watched, from the cool shades on the other side of the street as one of HuskMitNavn’s pieces came into being. It started out as what looked mostly like a blue splash of paint but ended up being two people on rollerblades and skateboard, with a message to keep moving.

Palestinians are not unfamiliar with street art. The wall cutting through the West Bank carries appeals for freedom and messages of solidarity from around the world. Internationally renowned street artists like Banksy, Blu and many others have called for the freedom of Palestine through their art on the wall that is the very symbol of Israel’s apartheid regime.

The artists HuskMitNavn met in Palestine were young and still trying to find their language as graffiti artists. Something that made an impression on him was how absolutely every piece that prides the walls of Palestine has a political message. He hopes that he, in interacting with the young Palestinian artists could inspire them to develop this message through their art and plant the seeds to a wider use of the visual arts. In his own words he tried to give them more letters in the alphabet to work with.

Before HuskMitNavn travelled to the West Bank, he did not know a lot about the occupation and oppression going on here. His pieces portray many of the stereotypical roles we imagine Palestinians to have: In Hebron he painted a yellow flying carpet carrying a man with a large, black, mustache and a steering wheel in his hands – a taxi driver. A Palestinian artist HuskMitNavn worked with in Hebron wrote ‘iftah tariq’ – “open the road’ or ‘give way’ around the painting. Just like that, the taxi driver became a political symbol, calling to remove the checkpoints and open the Israeli-controlled roads for everyone to use.

In the still growing Palestinian street art culture a new generation is taking over. They try to push the messages further than just ‘Free Palestine’ because, as one of the artists in HuskMitNavn’s project says; “no one disagrees with that here”. They challenge the Palestinian society from within and take up taboos such as gender, religion and corruption. Further, they try to reach out and communicate directly with people in their everyday life, therefore they paint on the walls in the city and they stay away from the political figures that usually are the preferred motifs.

Street art has the potential of reaching everyone who passes it. Upon till now, the most popular message has been the one most important to every Palestinian; that of freedom, but there are many other aspects that need to be addressed for Palestine to be free. The social and political conditions inside Palestine needs to be put into question which could be achieved by the new generation of Palestinian street artists if they manage to go beyond the clichés. Lately Palestinian street art has transcended this message and takes on issues surrounding the call for a free Palestine. The pieces decorating the walls of Palestine now remind its people of the importance of their existence, to keep moving and not to give up.

Julie Holm 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. 

 

Commemorating Land Day [for Palestine] by MIFTAH's Julie Holm

Almost everything in the conflict that has lasted for over half a century is related to the land; Palestinians forced from their homes, unable to return, their houses demolished, fields of olive trees being destroyed by settlers, checkpoints and roadblocks keeping families apart and above all, the Israeli occupation of Palestine. 

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24627&CategoryId=13

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Thirty-six years ago, in March 1976, Israeli authorities announced that 5,500 acres of Palestinian-owned land would be confiscated from villages in the Galilee. The land was expropriated for ‘security and settlement purposes’, and declared a closed military zone. The decision to confiscate the land was followed by curfews on surrounding Palestinian villages, effective from 5 pm, March 29. Local Palestinian leaders responded by calling for general strikes and protests against the confiscation of the land, to be held the following day, March 30, 1976. This is the day that has been commemorated ever since, as Youm al-Ard; Land Day.

The events of the day were unprecedented. This was the first time, since 1948, that Palestinians, in what was now called Israel, stood together and collectively confronted Israeli authorities. The Israeli government declared all demonstrations illegal and yet, general strikes and peaceful marches took place throughout Palestinian towns in Israel, from the Galilee in the North to the Negev in the South. More than 400,000 people participated in the strikes. Simultaneously, solidarity strikes were held in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in refugee camps in Lebanon. The Israeli response was militant and violent, aimed at subduing any signs of nationalism and resistance, as Israeli troops, backed by tanks, entered Palestinian villages and reoccupied them. The clashes resulted in the death of six unarmed Palestinians, three men and three women. Four were shot dead by the Israeli military, two others by the Israeli police. About 100 Palestinians were wounded and a further 300 were arrested.

Now, after decade upon decade of struggling and facing life under occupation, March 30 is still a date commemorating the day Palestinians took a collective stand against Israeli attempts to steal their land. Land Day is marked as a day of remembrance for those who were killed, and a day of protests against Israel’s ongoing policy of land expropriation from the Palestinians.

Israel’s expansionist policies and theft of Palestinian land did not end that day, 36 years ago. The thousands of acres of land that were confiscated and declared military zones were later utilized for massive illegal settlement expansion. Today Palestinian land is continuously being eaten up by Israel, with the separation wall, buffer zones, settlements and bypass roads expanding and removing the Palestinians from what means the most to them – their land. Almost everything in the conflict that has lasted for over half a century is related to the land; Palestinians forced from their homes, unable to return, their houses demolished, fields of olive trees being destroyed by settlers, checkpoints and roadblocks keeping families apart and above all, the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

But Land Day is so much more than a day portraying Palestinians as victims of Israel’s colonialist policies. It is about Palestinians everywhere standing up against the expropriation of their land. Land Day is marked in Palestine and throughout the world, by Palestinians and those who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is a time to remember and protest the injustice against and systematic oppression of the Palestinian people. Commemorating the events of March 30, 1976 is not only about everything the Palestinians have lost, but also about the Palestinian people standing together against those who have taken it away.

Julie Holm 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. 

 

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy 

 

VISION: An independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, which grants Palestinians their basic rights, preserves their dignity, and enjoys international recognition and respect.
 

At Ben Gurion, Learn to Fight the Fear

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At Ben Gurion, Learn to Fight the Fear

Date posted: February 15, 2012

By Julie Holm for MIFTAH

So far I have spent six incredible months in Palestine, and I hope for many more. I consider Ramallah my home and the people here my family. Not everyone quite gets it when I say I love it there. Many Palestinians especially have a hard time understanding it. How can anyone love living under these conditions? The thing is, it is the people, not the circumstances under which they live, that I love.

It is only when I venture outside of my comfortable Ramallah bubble that I comprehend how living under occupation affects a person. I feel my body getting tenser while driving inside the West Bank, or taking the bus to Jerusalem, which often gives me a headache.

Nothing is as bad as the airport though. Already flying into Tel Aviv six months ago, I got a taste of Israeli fear tactics. They treated me as if I was a criminal and the young girl at passport control was obviously having a bad day and issued me a visa for a month only. I took up the fight with the Israeli bureaucratic system and won the first round and the much-wanted stamp in my passport.

With these experiences behind me I felt confident that I would be able to handle whatever they threw at me on my trip out of the country last week. First, the taxi was pulled over as I drove into the airport. I was told to step out and was asked a few questions, which I happily answered. “No problem,” I told myself, “I was prepared for this.” The security guards going through my luggage weren’t a problem either. Time consuming, yes, a little exaggerated, definitely, but nothing to get upset about.

It was not until I came to passport control that the real trouble started. I have talked a lot about this with friends who have done it many times before and know exactly what to say and what to do. The thing is, I don’t actually think it matters. If they want to harass you and make you uncomfortable, they will find a way. The two young girls at passport control were stamping passports, gossiping with each other and texting their boyfriends simultaneously. When it was my turn, both queues got held up for about 20 minutes. Why? Because I have been in Palestine for six months and gone in and out of Qalandia checkpoint countless times? Because I am a Palestine-activist? Because I write articles that are critical of Israel? No (or maybe it was, but that was not the reason they gave me). What bothered them most were the three days I spent in Jordan, where I was actually a tourist going to see Petra.

Apparently the visa Israel stamped on my passport crossing back over from the Allenby Bridge was illegal. They pointed at it and yelled, “This is not a visa”. Well, they could have fooled me, and every other Israeli solider that has looked at it for the past three months. The stamp even says that it is valid for three months. But this is exactly what I have learned from dealing with this system for some time now. They give you problems, make everything as difficult as possible, and don’t explain what they do or what you should do next. That way your problems only get bigger next time you want to renew your visa.

The people in line behind me started getting impatient, telling the girls to let me go. After five minutes of one girl frantically punching at her computer and the other girl making suggestions of what to write they smiled and said: “You will be lucky if you ever get into this country again”.

At the security check after passport control I was pulled aside, told to wait. People started reacting, especially the Danish tourists who were on the same flight as me. I told them it was okay, that this is what it was like here. I wanted to tell them that this is nothing compared to how Palestinians are treated, but thought that it might not be the time or the place for that.

I have always admired the ability many Palestinians seem to have in dealing with these kinds of situations by going around the restrictions put on them. Shortly before I left, a dear friend told me that I have been “Palestinianized”, that there is no way back for me now. And after this experience I agree. These tactics of trying to scare me from coming back are not going to work, and I too will find a way to get around them. I have fought Israeli bureaucracy before and I can do it again. If for nothing else, then at least so I can keep telling the world that the way they treated me at the airport is nothing compared to the way Israel treats Palestinians every day.

Julie Holm 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.

MIFTAH VISION: An independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, which grants Palestinians their basic rights, preserves their dignity, and enjoys international recognition and respect.

Greenwashing the Occupation By Julie Holm for MIFTAH

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Greenwashing the Occupation By Julie Holm for MIFTAH February 01, 2012

One of the things that have affected me greatly from all the horrors of the Israeli occupation is the uprooting of Palestinian olive trees. In Palestine, olive trees are valued for their historical presence, their beauty, symbolic connotations, and most importantly for their economic significance. Unfortunately it is not rare that we hear of Palestinian olive trees being uprooted or burned by the Israeli army or by settlers. Often, if the trees are not burned or destroyed by bulldozers they are brought to settlements and replanted as a kind of war token, a symbol of everything the Israelis rob from the Palestinians.

But it is not just the uprooting and stealing of trees that is used by Israel as a tool in the occupation. They actually plant trees on Palestinian land, covering up ethnic cleansing with environmental concerns. This is called ‘greenwashing’; using greenery to cover up evidence of violent displacement and destruction. After destroying villages, bulldozing agricultural land, uprooting olive trees and stealing land and vital water sources the State of Israel together with the Jewish National Fund (JNF) disguises the obliteration and claim the land by replanting it, under the pretense of environmentalism. It is not saving the environment that is the goal here, however; these actions have explicit colonial purposes. By banishing Palestinians from their land, Israel seizes the property held by Palestinians for thousands of years. Planting a forest of trees to cover up the destruction, the JNF turns one of the most life affirming symbols into a weapon of occupation and colonialism.

The JNF is most commonly known for its campaign to ‘plant a tree in Israel’ to ‘make the desert bloom’. The fund was created in 1901 to acquire land for a Jewish state in Palestine, and by 1948 around two-thirds of the Palestinian population had been forcibly removed from their homeland. On the ruins of hundreds of depopulated and destroyed Palestinian villages the JNF built forests and parks. This served two purposes: to hide the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and to prevent the Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes.

These practices are still ongoing today, especially in the Naqab desert in the south and in the Jordan Valley, where ‘development’ projects continue to forcibly displace Palestinians to make way for Jewish settlements and JNF parks and forests. This only gets worse by the fact that the Israeli state and the JNF hides behind the pretence of caring for the environment. The truth is that historically the JNF has not been concerned about the environment at all. Partnering with the state of Israel they destroy the natural habitat and way of life of Palestinians who have lived in the area for thousands of years. By using hazardous chemicals and planting trees that are not native to the land, the JNF has inflicted serious harm on the natural environment in Palestine. The extensive planting of pine trees has killed off much of the native habitat in addition to causing massive forest fires.

On Sunday, February 5, the JNF is having a ‘Green Sunday’, encouraging people to donate money to ‘plant trees in Israel’. The planting of trees has powerful symbolic value for the propaganda and fundraising purposes with the Jewish diaspora. The JNF continues to serve as a global fundraiser for Israeli ethnic cleansing and occupation. Each year they raise more than $60 million in the United States alone. Further the JNF and its affiliate organizations enjoy charitable status in over 50 countries. The JNF continues to promote its ‘environmental’ credentials at global summits and international conferences.

In relation to ‘Green Sunday’ the ‘Stop the JNF Campaign’ is asking the international community to take a stand against the greenwashing. The campaign is an international effort aimed at ending the JNFs role in the Israeli occupation. Palestinian civil society calls on international environmentalists to stop the JNF and expose them for what they really do; covering up ethnic cleansing with a fake concern for the environment.

Julie Holm 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.

MIFTAH VISION

An independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, which grants Palestinians their basic rights, preserves their dignity, and enjoys international recognition and respect.

Visit Palestine, it Makes a World of Difference By Julie Holm for MIFTAH

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24059&CategoryId=13

Visit Palestine, it Makes a World of Difference

Date posted: October 26, 2011
By Julie Holm for MIFTAH

Every year Palestine is visited by thousands of foreigners. Unlike conventional tourist spots, however, most of the foreigners coming here have an agenda that is more about work and politics than sunbathing and shopping. For the past couple of years, however, the number of people traveling to Palestine just to experience the country, the culture and the conflict up close has increased. Last week I got to experience what it is like to be a tourist in Palestine as I acted as a tour guide for my family who came to visit me.

Coming to Palestine on some sort of business is one thing, but coming here for “pleasure” especially takes a certain interest in the area. It is not a place you go just because you found a good deal online. Here for business or pleasure, foreigners have very different interests, backgrounds and reasons for coming. In Ramallah, I meet people who are here to work, find work, volunteer, visiting friends or family or just to experience living in Palestine for a while. They are here on work visas or tourist visas, traveling in and out every three months. Some stay for a week or a couple of months, some stay a year and others stay forever.

Whatever the reasons are for visiting Palestine, and whatever the visitors know from before, the fact that they come here to experience the situation and see the occupation with their own eyes, has great significance on how the occupation is perceived outside of Palestine and outside academic and organizational circles working with the issue. One thing is reading about the conflict in the newspaper or hearing about it on the news. Far too little news about Palestine and the occupation reaches western viewers. Only big events like Palestine going to the UN or the more recent prisoner swap reaches television screens and newspapers viewed by people in other places in the world; unfortunately, the burning of mosques, destruction of olive trees and settler violence most often does not.

Going through the check point coming from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, my family and I got caught in a long line of cars and buses trying to pass. In front of us, however, the line was held up by two men trying to pass the check point on a motorcycle. A group of four to five Israeli soldiers stopped them and asked them questions while they openly joked among themselves. They started yelling and kicking the motorcycle and finally, when the two men turned around to go back, one of the soldiers grabbed on to the man sitting on the back of the motorcycle and hit him several times before returning to his friends laughing. This was when, I think, my parents really understood the realities of the occupation. And even though I don’t wish for anyone to experience something like that, it makes all the difference in the world to see it with your own eyes.

I brought my family on a tour to Hebron, and the tour guide told us that he would show us the realities without trying to convince us to be “pro” one or the other. But the realities spoke for themselves. Even though facts can be manipulated, it is not hard to see who is the occupier and who is the occupied. Here we saw how old Palestinian women climb out of windows and down ladders at the back of their houses to avoid having to go through checkpoints; how Israeli settlers living above Hebron’s old city throw garbage and dirty water on Palestinians walking by underneath, their children playing with BB guns, aimed at these same Palestinians, while Israeli soldiers watched and just let it happen.

After this experience, and after talking to Palestinians and seeing what life is really like in the West Bank, my family will, as many others have before them, go home and tell people they meet about the situation. When you have experienced the situation first hand you get a very different and much stronger impression of what many Palestinians have to go through every day. That is why it is great to see that the number of tourists in Palestine is increasing.

It is easy to sit in the comfort of your home, watching the (often one-sided) news and make up your mind about this very complicated conflict. Experiencing the uncomfortable situation at checkpoints, visiting settlements and refugee camps and seeing the separation wall with your own eyes gives it a very different perspective altogether.

Julie Holm 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.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy