Land Day 2024 Palestine: In 1976 it was 6 unarmed farmers murdered by Israeli forces, this year it is more than 32,704 + Palestinian people murdered by Israeli forces, mostly women & children have been killed

"We have on this earth what makes life worth living"Mahmoud Darwish

 

Every year on March 30, Palestinians observe Land Day, or Yom al-Ard, recalling the events of March 30, 1976, when six unarmed Palestinians were killed and more than 100 injured by Israeli forces during protests against Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian land.

Israel has continued to seize large swaths of Palestinian land, designating them as military zones, state land and other labels.  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/30/land-day-what-happened-in-palestine-in-1976

Settlements – illegal under international law – are Jewish-only communities built on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

48 years on and we are witnessing the continuation of this with Israeli attempts at ethnically cleansing Gaza by genocide. #ceasefireNOW 

 

https://twitter.com/miftahpal

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 @PalMissionUK

Today we mark the 48th anniversary of #LandDay. 

 

Israel’s colonialism never abated and in the occupied West Bank, it has got only worse since 7 Oct 2023:  

 

27,000 acres of land seized  

 

There are 840 checkpoints and barriers aimed at disrupting the Palestinian right to movement  

 

25 Bedouin communities were displaced from their lands  

 

9,600 olive trees uprooted

 

Ahmed Masoud

@masoud_ahmed

Today is #LandDay in Palestine and I managed to get a text from my younger brother Tareq for the 1st time since the Israeli genocide started. His house got bombed in Jabalia and he is now in Rafah in a tent, still hoping to return to the North  #Gaza

 

BDS worldwide- for Palestine  @BDSmovement On the 48th anniversary of Land Day, let’s not just commemorate Israel’s past crimes, but also fight to end its ongoing #GazaGenocide as well as its ongoing Nakba, and, most importantly, to ultimately dismantle its underlying apartheid.

MIFTAH- Free Palestine https://twitter.com/miftahpal

 

Land Day is a day of commemoration of the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation's ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinian people.

 

Today marks the 48th anniversary of Land Day.

 

2024 "Of course, for the Palestinians, we did not need an international court to tell us that Israel is committing a genocide, but it was cathartic to hear this acknowledged on a global platform."

Killing the flowers will not delay spring

Date posted: February 01, 2024

By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

 

& SPEAKING OF HOSTAGES....

9000 Palestinians, including children, are currently held hostage by Israel  - jailed (& tortured) most with out charge or trial  LAND DAY 2024   #Genocide

Daoud Kuttab داود كُتّاب

@daoudkuttab

The number of Palestinians held in Israel jails has reached 9,000 as of March 30th which is celebrated in Palestine as Land Day according to Pa Prisoner club. Since October 7th 7,870 have been detained some were released , most have stayed in jail most without charge or trial 

 

Dear world, we see you By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH November 16, 2023

Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

Gaza has cracked the world wide open. The masks have fallen from just about everyone and when all this is said and done, the Palestinians will take inventory on both friend and foe.

This horrendous assault on the Gaza Strip has laid bare some very uncomfortable truths. For one, the grossly unbalanced world order has not changed, even as the bombs fall mercilessly on Gaza. While our guts already knew this, it was still shocking to witness how the slaughter peeled back the layers of falsehoods, concealing the ugly truth. The world is still a binary equation of colonizer and colonized, oppressor and oppressed and white vs black and brown, and there is no question under which category the Palestinians fall.

The colonialist past is playing out in real time today in Gaza and we, as Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” so succinctly described, are “the brutes”. We are the indigenous brown people, the sub-humans who are inherently violent and who are responsible for our own deaths... READ MORE 

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http://miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=26849&CategoryId=13 

Settlers and other Israelis have long complained that they do not like Palestinians traveling side by side with them on their buses...

"If there is any sort of just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict it will have to be more like a divorce settlement than a marriage. With this kind of racist mentality, which is unfortunately becoming the norm rather than the exception in Israel, Palestinians will certainly welcome their own bus lines and light rails – not en route to shabby Israeli jobs, but to locations in an independent Palestine." Joharah Baker for Miftah, The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy

Palestinian workers wait in line at an Israeli checkpoint... Maan News Report: Israel opens Palestinian-only bus lines in West Bank

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http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=25849&CategoryId=3

Israeli racism is getting out of hand

Date posted: March 04, 2013
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

 The culture of hate and the demonization of the ‘other’ on which Israel was established has taken on scary new levels recently. Back in 1948, the only way Jewish, and later Israeli troops and gangs could have committed massacres and driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes was if they deemed them less than human.

The trend has continued over the past 60-plus years and has, frighteningly enough, become part of the Israeli mainstream, government and public alike.

Yesterday, the Israel transportation authority introduced new bus routes for Palestinians. The official line is that this new measure would ease traffic and transportation pressures and ‘ease travel for Palestinian passengers” in Israel, mostly West Bank workers. We know better though.

Settlers and other Israelis have long complained that they do not like Palestinians traveling side by side with them on their buses. Mind you, settlers travelling in the West Bank are illegal squatters, even according to international law. There has been more than one instance in which Palestinians are asked to get off the bus and countless instances when they are harassed by Israeli passengers. Now, the government is solving the settlers’ problem for them, kowtowing once again, to the manic and racist extremism taking over Israeli society.

The transportation ministry insists that no Palestinian will be ‘asked’ to get off the bus, be we all know about persuasion and coercion. The Israelis want total separation and that is what their government is giving them. Israel’s government has learned a lot from colonialist and racist experiences throughout history. Apartheid aside, is this not reminiscent of a segregated United States when African-Americans had separate buses (or at least had to sit in the back), separate restaurants and separate bathrooms? At least white America called a spade a spade at the time. Israel does not even have the gumption to do that.

Still, the indoctrination of hatred is more than apparent in the mentality of its younger generation. Last week, a Jewish Israeli teenager physically assaulted a Palestinian woman at one of the light-rail stations in Jerusalem. Apparently, the Israeli walked up to the woman and asked her if she was ‘Arab’. When the woman, identified as Hana, responded in the positive, saying ‘you can tell by my clothes” [she was in traditional Muslim dress], the Israeli teen began punching, slapping and spitting at her. When other girls joined in, they tore off Hana’s headscarf, a Muslim woman’s symbol of modesty.

The policy of segregation and separation has become so ingrained among Israelis, it sometimes seems difficult to envision any coexistence between the two. East and west Jerusalem are two very different sides to the same city but, barring Palestinians in west Jerusalem shopping malls and Palestinian workers in Israeli shops and construction sites, the two peoples hardly mix. There is a distinct line between them, both literal and invisible. The seam line between east and west cuts, not only through geographic, but racial and social lines, revealing a stark difference between the residents of both sectors. When Palestinians and Israelis do meet – at bus stops or light rail stations, the mood is often tense, uncomfortable and foreign. And sometimes, the real feelings of the increasingly right-wing society in Israel rears its ugly face. Hate crimes against Palestinians are becoming all too common in Jerusalem in particular, with the perpetrators receiving a slap on the wrist, at best.

If there is any sort of just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict it will have to be more like a divorce settlement than a marriage. With this kind of racist mentality, which is unfortunately becoming the norm rather than the exception in Israel, Palestinians will certainly welcome their own bus lines and light rails – not en route to shabby Israeli jobs, but to locations in an independent Palestine.

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.org.

Keeping symbolism in perspective by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

January 14, 2013
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=25675&CategoryId=3

Last week President Mahmoud Abbas ordered all official documents to be signed and sealed with the emblem of the State of Palestine, replacing that of the Palestinian Authority. The move, of course, comes after the Palestinians scored the upgraded status of non-member state at the United Nations in November with the backing of 138 countries. This was a major morale boost for Palestinians, who have long struggled to gain international recognition of their right to statehood, freedom and independence. The UN upgrade is a small step towards that goal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, obviously irked by the UN upgrade of Palestine to a ‘state’, also chimed in on the president’s decree, claiming it was a ‘serious violation of signed agreements.’ Netanyahu added that Abbas’ decision was "devoid of any political meaning and creates no practical impact on the ground", saying that, "A Palestinian state will only be created as part of a peace agreement with Israel".

While Netanyahu may be right in terms of “practical impact on the ground” there is also a reason why he made the effort to respond. He understands that symbols of sovereignty begin as symbols but eventually turn into reality with the right will power and determination. That is also the reason why he so quickly and so viciously evicted the determined residents of the Bab Al Shams village, erected in the so-called E1 area, slated for massive Israeli settlement construction. Even Israel’s High Court said the tents could remain for a few days until a ‘solution’ was found. But Netanyahu is well aware of the danger of allowing Palestinian activists to remain and multiply on land that is rightfully their people’s, gaining momentum and solidarity with each hour that passes by. And so, he cracked his whip, calling on his thuggish army and police to drag them out.

The official documents and passports to soon be emblazoned with the ‘State of Palestine’ may be a sight for sore eyes for Palestinians who yearn for an independent homeland, but both Netanyahu and the Palestinians know it does not mean the actual state of Palestine is anywhere closer. While Netanyahu said a state could only be realized “through an agreement with Israel”, Palestinians are beginning to believe this will never happen, and thus have begun to devise more creative ways of reaching their dream. Moves such as the UN resolution – the price for which the Palestinians continue to pay – and popular resistance activities such as the Bab Al Shams initiative, are all alternative means the Palestinians have found to make their presence and their national rights known.

They are on the right track, for sure. All great ideas start with a single thought and people like Benjamin Netanyahu are more than privy to the fact that as thoughts hatch and grow, they snowball into action and determination after which nothing can stop them.

The trick is for the Palestinians to keep this act of symbolism -- the State of Palestine seal – in perspective. We Palestinians fell into the trap of believing more than what was real many years ago when the Oslo Accords were signed. This is not the space to point fingers at the parties to blame for this delusion (and they are more than a few), but rather to learn from our mistakes. The ‘State of Palestine’ emblem just may be the spark that ignites a much bigger process towards independence just like the Bab Al Shams village may have sparked the beginning of a wide-scale popular resistance movement. That is the hope at least. And obviously, from the way he and his government reacted, it is the Israeli Prime Minister’s biggest fear.

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.org.

Merry Christmas in spite of it all By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

[Please Note: From FY2008 to the present, annual U.S. bilateral assistance to the West Bank and Gaza Strip has averaged over $600 million, including annual averages of over $200 million in direct budgetary assistance and over $100 million in non-lethal security assistance for the PA in the West Bank. Additionally, the United States is the largest single-state donor to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)]

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=25626&CategoryId=3

Merry Christmas in spite of it all

Date posted: December 24, 2012
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

Everyone loves the Christmas season with its decorated trees, lights, family get-togethers and overall cheer. The Palestinians are no different, both Christians and Muslims alike. This year in Palestine, Christmas will be celebrated with a mixture of hope for the future and frustration over the present. Palestinian Christians who work for government institutions will unfortunately have to make do with half their salaries this month as the PA continues to try and hold its head above water. With the financial crisis eating away at the Palestinian economy and tens of thousands of pocketbooks, some Christians will have to cut down on the festivities this year for lack of funds.

This crisis is crushing from every aspect. While employees cannot be blamed for wanting their salaries and therefore taking protest measures to demand them, neither can the PA be fully blamed for not being able to deliver. Israel is withholding money that is rightfully ours and the Arabs have yet to make good on their promise of providing a financial safety net to the PA. While many may say the government has not managed the crisis very well, if anyone or anything is to blame, it is the system created by the Oslo Accords that allows such crises to happen in the first place. The fact that the Palestinians are almost completely dependent on Arab and foreign aid coupled with the uneasy fact that Israel can freeze the transfer of our tax revenues whenever it wants, means this is a faulty system from the get-go. The Palestinians can never have a stable and viable economy as long as this lopsided and discriminatory system is in place.

This brings us to the element of hope this Christmas. The Palestinian leadership, very aware of this faulty system, have started to turn things around. The recent status upgrade for Palestine at the UN to a non-member state is a quantum leap for the Palestinians. While the road is understandably still long and full of obstacles, the wheel has been put into motion. Palestine is now a state under occupation, a status recognized by the overwhelming majority of world countries. Israel is violating international law by its presence in this occupied state in the form of settlements and the Palestinians have now been empowered by the tool of international criminal courts to fight this. Things are changing, even if slowly.

So even though pockets may be almost empty this Christmas, Palestinians still count their blessings. Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, our own Palestinian-born prophet and his tremendous sacrifice for humanity. We know a thing or two about sacrifice and therefore never ever lose hope.

Merry Christmas to all from the occupied State of Palestine.

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.org.

Checkpoint Trouble By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

September 17, 2012

http://miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=25269&CategoryId=3

 
This week I had my share of checkpoints, even more than usual. But the events that transpired at the Qalandiya and Bethlehem checkpoint made me look further than my usual “hurry up, I need to get home attitude”. This was a far more daunting wake-up call.

After a wonderful, fun-filled wedding in Bethlehem, my husband and I began the drive home. A non-stop direct drive from Bethlehem to the village of Bir Nabala, northwest of Jerusalem should take no more than half an hour. That was in the days of yore, obviously when Israeli checkpoints did not plague our entire lives. That night, we left the wedding hall and arrived at the infamous “Rachel’s Tomb” checkpoint about 10 minutes later. Even though it was after midnight, there were still at least 15 cars waiting to cross. Twenty minutes later, it was our turn. I confidently handed my and my husband’s ID cards to the Israeli soldier and waited for the nonchalant flick of his wrist, indicating that we could pass. I am a veteran checkpoint goer obviously, so I figured I know the ropes.

“You can’t cross in the car. You must walk through the checkpoint,” the soldier informed me. After I ranted and raged for a while explaining that I cross Qalandiya all the time in the car he simply said, “The rules are different here and the rule here is that you must get down.” I pushed him further as to the rationale behind making me get down when I was in the car with my husband, in the middle of the night with a valid residency permit to Jerusalem. “I didn’t make the rules, I just enforce them,” he said calmly and turned away. So, without further ado, I climbed out, walked the winding, empty checkpoint until I reached the bored Israeli soldier in the booth, took off all my “metal” and passed through, green West Bank ID and Israeli permit in hand.

Cut to last night and I was in the car again, with my father this time at the Qalandiya checkpoint. I know this checkpoint like the back of my hand, bane of my existence that it might be. Anyway, as we approached the Israeli soldiers, my heart dropped. The female soldier on our lane had the look of a hard criminal – cold, stony, hateful. I knew we were in for a little wait. After my father handed her his US passport (with the word “Palestine” typed in the slot for “place of birth”) she began her interrogation of me. Where is your ID? Whose children are these? Where are their birth certificates? Open the trunk. Not once did she look me in the eye until she gave me the look of death when she realized she could do nothing more to stop me from passing. “Those are the rules” aren’t they? But when my father decided to give her a piece of his mind, asking her what kind of system would question a child, she glared at him and said one line. “If you don’t like it, don’t come to Israel.”

That’s the bottom line isn’t it? Israel’s system of checkpoints is not about the security of Israel as much as it is about solidifying its military occupation for one, and heightening the misery of the occupied people secondly. They are there to remind us, day in and day out that Israel’s occupation is alive, in control and wielding its ultimate power over our lives. If this were not the case, why then would a 10-year old child have to show her birth certificate just in order to get home? Why would men and women have to take off shoes, belts, watches, hairbands and anything else that “beeps” before going through a metal detector even when the soldiers know that these things are hardly threatening. “It’s your wedding band,” one soldier insisted when I beeped back and forth for the 10th time trying to get across Qalandiya. At first I tried to argue that gold does not “beep” but after her insistence I decided to go for the challenge. “So if it’s my wedding band, why did you make me take it off?” insinuating that this had nothing to do with Israel’s so-called security. “We have to do this, you know why,” she answered. When I played dumb, said no I didn’t actually understand these ridiculous measures she just replied, “Well, maybe you should go and find out.”

I don’t need to “find out.” Israel does not want Palestinians in Jerusalem, it is a plain as day. To that end, it cuts people out in one way or the other. We are the lucky ones, only slightly inconvenienced at checkpoints. Others have their IDs revoked, their homes demolished, their land confiscated and their sons and daughters imprisoned, all towards the same goal of emptying Jerusalem of its Palestinian residents. Making me (or others) get down and walk through a checkpoint is not about security, it is about making our lives that much more difficult so we might think twice about making Jerusalem our permanent home. And hopefully, according to the stone-faced soldier at Qalandiya, if we get fed up enough, we take her advice. “Don’t come back to Israel,” she told us. Little does she know that it will take more than that to deter us. We are not in Israel, I wanted to tell her. We are in Palestine; we are home.


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.org.

The World Should Start Asking 'Why'

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 http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=25068&CategoryId=3

 Date posted: 23/07/2012

By: Joharah Baker from MIFTAH

It seems a bit odd that so many countries consume Israel’s general discourse hook, line and sinker. But today, more than ever, it is about time the question to be asked is not what is happening to Israel but why? 

Last week a suicide bombing on a bus at the Burgas Airport in Bulgaria killed five Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian. Israel was quick to point accusatory fingers at Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hizbullah. The United States spared nothing in immediately following suit, saying the operation had “all the hallmarks” of Hizbullah. Never mind that the operation was not even remotely close to Hizbullah’s modus operandi, it was more important to pump up the already incendiary rhetoric against Israel’s “enemies”. 

For months now, Israel has busied the world with the “will it won’t it?” question as to whether it will attack Iran. Israel easily diverts the world’s attention away from its own oppressive measures against the Palestinians by posing an even bigger dilemma – that of a nuclear threat from the most dangerous prong of the ‘axis of evil.’ Instead of asking why Israel needs to create such an exaggerated threat, the world coddles it, reasserting its paranoia – and in the US’s case – partnering up with it in its incitement. 

The latest frenzy is Syria, of course. Yesterday, Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak beat the drums of war yet again, saying "the State of Israel cannot accept the transfer of advanced weapons systems from Syria to Lebanon," and added that Israel was facing "a worldwide campaign of increased terror," led by Hezbollah.

The advanced weapons system he is referring to is Syrian President Bashaar Al Assad’s purported stash of chemical weapons which Israel says it fears will be snatched up once Assad’s regime falls and transported to the evil hands of Hizbullah. From there, they say, it’s straight to the peaceful towns and cities of Israel. 

The question here is not whether Bashaar Al Assad has chemical weapons or not, or even if they would be used against Israel should they fall into someone else’s hands. The question is: why does Israel always either exaggerate an already existing situation or fabricate one out of nothing? The answer is simple. Because that is the only way to divert attention away from the real reason Israel is a pariah state in the eyes of many. 

It is no coincidence that horrific bombings such as the one in Burgas take place; or that arrest warrants are issued against Israeli officials for war crimes; or that Israel is boycotted by companies, churches and universities. There is rhyme and reason behind this hostility towards Israel and it has absolutely nothing to do with ‘anti-Semitism’ like Israel would love for the world to believe. It has nothing to do with the Holocaust either. What it is all about is the one thing Israel works so hard to conceal: its oppression and occupation of the Palestinians. Israel cannot afford to have the world see it unmasked and the brutality of a decades-long military occupation rise to the surface – an occupation that has bred oppression, injustice and violence since its inception. Proof of this is that when a tiny corner of Israel’s tightly sealed wrapper folds back and the ugly truth sees the light, it lashes out in an attempt to push back the cover before anyone has gotten a peek. 

The end result is that Iran – and by proxy – Hibzullah, has become the biggest so-called “threat” to the world since Communism. Save for the occasional inane ranting of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran does not seem to be a threat to anyone. Israel on the other hand, refuses to allow any international agency to examine its stockpile of nuclear weapons, which by the way it denies it even has. It bars UN committees from entering the occupied territories on a fact-finding mission on its illegal settlements in the West Bank and it continues to threaten, occupy and oppress a nation with diplomatic immunity unprecedented in world history. 

The only ray of hope is those who have pulled back that deceptive wrapper, even if only a little. The threats against Israel, whether real or contrived, are not random. If the world wants to know why Israel is seen in such an undesirable light, it’s going to have to start asking different questions. 

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.org.

“drought the people out”... the continuing plight of the Palestinians

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 MIFTAH VISION

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

 http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24972&CategoryId=3

 MIFTAH's Opinion & Editorials
Showering in America
June 25, 2012
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH 

One of my biggest indulgences when I make a trip to the United States is taking long hot showers. This may sound ridiculous to many, but to a Palestinian it is anything but. Standing under the hot pressurized water at the Hilton in Los Angeles, taking my sweet time, I could not help but contrast my present state of watery bliss to the bleak state of water resources in my real home, Palestine. Back in Bir Nabala, my parents’ village, Israeli authorities cut the water supply for up to four days a week, leaving the residents scrambling to fill their tanks and ration out water for the rest of the week. Baths are quick, washing is done on the ‘water saving’ cycle and windows are only washed on the two or three days the water is turned back on.

And this is a good area. In an interview this morning with Voice of Palestine, head of the Maleh Local Council in the Jordan Valley, Aref Daraghmeh lamented that Israeli authorities had taken over all but 20 percent of the land and all of the water sources including a local spring. Daraghmeh maintained that the plan was to “drought the people out”. The mostly Bedouin population depends on shepherding for a living in addition to farming, both which rely heavily on water. Once that is taken away, there is not much left to do but leave. So who is enjoying Al Maleh’s water? According to Daraghmeh, seven area settlements and six army posts all tap into the wells and springs that rightfully belong to Al Maleh residents.

This is the case throughout the West Bank. Palestinians only have access to roughly one-fifth of the West Bank water supply with the Israeli government controlling the rest. Illegal Israeli settlers have more control over water resources in the West Bank than the majority Palestinian population living on their own land. Hence the luxurious swimming pools in the settlements in stark contrast to empty wells in neighboring Palestinian villages.

Taking showers in the US was not the only jarring contrast that came to mind either. Living under an oppressive occupation for so many years takes a toll on your state of mind whether you are conscious of it or not. Crossing Israeli borders and checkpoints almost daily has created a sort of built-in tension for me (and I am sure for all Palestinians). Walking up to an Israeli soldier or border control officer, a sinking feeling always washes over me, as if I were guilty simply because of my identity. Approaching the American border policeman at Dulles Airport, I had to remind myself that this was not Israel and that I was a citizen of this country where I had full rights and equality. Strangely, this sense of entitlement, this sense of ‘freedom’ which has been denied to us Palestinians for so long, bore heavily down on me as I entered the place of my birth. Was the border officer really smiling at me, welcoming me “home?”

This simple incident reminded me of how criminal it is to deny an entire nation of their freedom. Granted, there are enough Americans living in poverty, who are struggling every day to keep their home and their jobs, but they are still free citizens of a sovereign country. In the UK, which I also visited, the same feeling applied. I did not have to produce my ID card every time I changed zones in London. I did not have to press my fingers into a machine that pulled up a police-like report on me to make sure I was not “wanted”. And I did not worry that if I took 15 minutes more in the shower, I may have denied someone else in the family of their own bath time.

This ‘indulgence’ was short-lived however. At Vienna’s international airport I was forced to part with my two children who were flying back to the country via Tel Aviv with my father. I had to sleep the night in Amman, Jordan before crossing the Allenby Bridge the next morning. That’s right, my children must enter and exit the country via the airport due to their Jerusalem status while I – the proud bearer of a Palestinian passport (alongside my US one) – must trek through the east bank of the River Jordan before I am allowed back into the country. Not only is this extremely discriminatory and a terrible inconvenience, it also means I had to take an unsatisfying, trickle-of-a-flow shower in Amman just to remind me that I was almost home.

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.org. 

     MIFTAH: The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy

Turning The 'Naksa' Around by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

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http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24908&CategoryId=13

 
The other day on my way home, I passed the three huge hotels just across the seam line between east and west Jerusalem, impinging menacingly on the Palestinian side of the city. The hotels – the Leonardo, Grand Court, and the Olive Tree – were reportedly built with funding from Jewish millionaires dedicated to settling in all of Jerusalem. The infamous Irving Moskowitz is said to be one, but even if he did not put his money into them, he would have rooted for their construction all the same. 

Moskowitz is mostly known for his plans to build Jewish settlements in Palestinian Jerusalem – in Ras Al Amoud, Silwan and in Sheikh Jarrah, on a plot of land that belonged to Jerusalem’s late Mufti, Haj Amin Al Husseini. But settlement construction is not the actual focal point of this article. It is rather about the hell-bent dedication behind it.

Yesterday was the 45th anniversary of the June, 1967 war when the remainder of Palestine fell to enemy hands. Palestinians and Arabs call it “Al Naksa” or “The Setback” but this is a gross understatement. Perhaps at the time, the Arabs thought it was just a tiny blip in their overall battle to regain Palestine, but 45 years later, I am sure they have realized it is much more than that. 

But back to the hotels and the determination that has made them possible; or more importantly the lack of this determination on the part of the Arabs and Palestinians. What kind of passion would urge an American Jew living in Miami Florida to work endlessly to plant Jewish settlements in the heart of what is clearly Palestinian territory? What drive pushes these people to believe in a cause so much they would sacrifice money, time, effort and legal obstacles to reach their goal of Jewish control over Jerusalem? It is a drive that has allowed the occupation which began in 1967 to continue, thrive and flourish. If it were not for this near-manic obsession with Israel as a Jewish state, (regardless of how faulty this premise is to the rest of the world) , the 1967 defeat may not have turned into the lifelong nightmare it is now. 

Contrastingly, we Palestinians have a divided leadership, indifferent Arabs who pay lip service to the cause and a people who try to resist but who have been so worn down by life under this brutal occupation that they fight just to break even.

This is not to say that the fight is over. Looking out of my window in Jerusalem’s Old City I can see Israeli flags hanging from an old Arab window just meters away, scraping at my soul. I know how dedicated Israel is to take our land and keep it. Forty-five years ago Israel managed to capture the remainder of Palestine. Thanks to those so dedicated to its cause, Israel has ensured that Palestine will remain in its grips for many years to come. Nonetheless, Palestinians have endless reservoirs of endurance, resolve and love for their country. They just need the right powers to open the floodgates. 

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.org.

Pants, Poems and Israel’s Problem With The Truth By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

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http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24666&CategoryId=3

Date posted: April 09, 2012
Thanks to my multi-zippered slacks, I had the ‘pleasure’ of being ordered into the small inspection room at the Qalandiya checkpoint. My nine-year old daughter was with me as I took off earrings, wristwatch and even shoes trying to make it through the metal detector without ‘buzzing’. She stood by patiently as I tried to convey though the bullet-proof (and apparently sound proof) glass, to the irate Israeli soldiers that there was nothing left I could possibly take off. “Go back,” they said, with a stern point of the finger and a look of contempt on each of their faces.

Finally, after at least five or six times of this, I started to lose my patience. “There’s nothing left on me!’ I yelled through the glass, showing them the wayward zippers that had clearly got me in this bind. Finally, a female soldier ordered me into the little room to inspect me and make sure I wasn’t carrying a bomb, a gun or a knife under my clothes. Just as I was about to give her a “piece of my mind” I looked over at my daughter who said very calmly in Arabic. “Mom, just don’t say anything so we can go.”

That obviously shut me up and we were eventually released after the soldiers were convinced that the zippers were the culprit. Later, I thought about her statement. It was not so much out of fear that she said it, but out of a knowledge way beyond her young years that with Israelis, if you say something they don’t like, you could be in pretty hot water.

She is right of course. And Gunter Grass is perfect evidence. The 84-year old Nobel Literature Laureate has been declared persona non grata in Israel and has been depicted by Israeli politicians and journalists as the devil incarnate. He just needs a pitchfork and horns to complete the picture. And why? One would think that this [regretful] former Nazi officer was still espousing Hitler’s philosophy, ranting against Jews and calling for their extermination. That is not the case though – the man already said he joined the SS at 17 “without having a say” and obviously is uncomfortable with what he calls a “painful lesson.” Actually, it is a poem which has made Grass one of the most hated men in Israel.

The poem, which is pretty famous by now because of all the negative press it has gotten in Israel basically does one thing: tells the truth. In “What Must be Said” Grass dubs Israel as a threat to world peace because of its secret nuclear program. Of course he says other things, but the fact that he called Israel out, charging that one strike on Iran could annihilate an entire nation, was more than enough for Israel. Of course now, Grass is anti-Semitic, he is a Nazi and he is an enemy of the Jewish state. And he is banned from entering the country.

My daughter was right. You cannot criticize Israel. Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk and Norman Finkelstein to name a few all know this well. They too have been denied entry. They are no former Nazis; in fact, they are Jewish. But Israel is not interested in which religion or to which nationality you belong. If you criticize Israel, not only will you be denied entry into the country, you will be branded anti-Semitic, you will be vilified and you will be shunned. That, obviously, is what Israeli ‘democracy’ is all about.

Lucky for me, I am Palestinian, so by default I am already “blacklisted”. That gives me some margin of freedom to criticize as I like and as Grass put it: “I will not remain silent.” But when it comes to crossing Qalandiya, I have learned two things: to keep my mouth shut, so I can actually get home; and never, ever wear those blasted pants again.

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.org.

Palestine’s Economy is in Trouble, But Why?

by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

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http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24585&CategoryId=3
Date posted: 19/03/2012

Israel is nothing if not audacious, but this last maneuver is even cheekier than most. On Wednesday, donor countries will meet in Brussels and the Israeli delegation will be armed with a 44-page paper penned by Israel’s foreign ministry, which basically says the Palestinians are just not ready for their own state.

Israel may be right. Palestinians are still heavily dependent on donor aid and have been subordinate to Israel’s economy since the latter’s occupation of the rest of Palestine in 1967. This part is true. We cannot stand economically on our own. Some of this may be our fault. Mismanagement, reports of corruption and the squander of public funds have resulted in holes in Palestinian budgetary management and have brought on the resentment and criticism of those in Palestine who monitor the ebbs and flows of the government’s coffers.

But mostly, the Palestinians are not the culprit for why Palestine’s economy has not yet been able to stand alone on its wobbly knees. And while donor aid has decreased given the international economic slump, the world is also not completely responsible for our dire financial state. Rather, it is Israel, now generously pointing out why we are so unready for statehood, which is holding us back from just that.

Israel’s goal for pointing this out is, of course, political. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will be there; so will Quartet envoy Tony Blair. Israel is looking to convince these bigwigs in the European donor and political community that the Palestinians must stop their pursuit of statehood at the United Nations because, as evidenced, they just can’t cut it.

"The fiscal crisis is especially acute because much of the West Bank economy still depends on the public sector and on construction projects, both still heavily financed by foreign aid. It also serves as an alarming warning sign for the stability of the Palestinian economy," the report says. "The current fiscal situation raises doubts about whether the PA will be able to reduce its dependency on foreign aid in the coming years," suggesting that this, coupled with the PA’s financial mismanagement pointed to their failure to “meet the requirements of a well-functioning state.”

What Israel failed to note is its determination to keep the Palestinians in its economic grips and the multitude of ways it has achieved this. Whether we are talking about the restrictions on the import and export of goods, the number of workers Israel employs in its own factories and businesses or the withholding of tax revenues owed to the PA, Israel has always ensured a way of keeping Palestinian economic independence at bay.

This is not to say that Palestinians have not tried their best to break free of this. Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad openly declared that he had devised a plan to build up Palestine’s institutions and infrastructure in preparation for the declaration of a Palestinian state. But even Fayyad realizes that without a political solution that addresses the core issues hindering this very state, no real independence can ever happen. Take the Gaza Strip. No matter who is in power, or how many reports come out about Gaza’s beleaguered state, Israel always maintains control over what is prevented or allowed in or out of the Strip, from cement to cilantro. Or take the tax revenues Israel withholds at whim. When Israel wants to punish the Palestinians, it knows where it will hurt the most. Withholding millions of shekels means public servants cannot be paid; teachers and government employees remain without salaries and the PA is hit with yet another financial crisis.

Today, the situation is dire from all aspects. The land, which Palestinians have traditionally depended on for livelihood, is being pulled from beneath their feet with each passing day. Israeli settlements, bypass roads and the separation wall continue to grow and grab more land, which has forced Palestinians into finding other means of survival. And because of the agreements signed between both sides, the Palestinian Authority can only survive with the helping hand of the donor community, which is to say the least, unfortunate.

In the end however, it is not a case of economics. This is only a major byproduct of the fundamental ill, which is Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its control over just about every facet of Palestinian life. We can all understand why Israel’s foreign ministry drafted the report; it is not out of concern for the Palestinians. It is part of Israel’s plan to convince the world that a Palestinian state is not a good idea. What it has not said is that Israel planned this all along, that it has not adhered even to the agreements it signed itself, including the Paris Protocol and that it was never interested in an independent Palestinian economy. It has never been interested in Palestinian independence at all.

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.org.

Setting Our Moral Compass Straight by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

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http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24401&CategoryId=3
Setting Our Moral Compass Straight

Date posted: February 06, 2012
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

Israel is zeroing in on so many levels. In Jerusalem, it can be seen with the naked eye – bulldozers tearing down homes, lands leveled for “Torah and Talmudic” gardens, children being arrested, and solidarity tents given 72 hours to dismantle before being demolished. In the West Bank, settlements are spreading like cancer cells while settlers are taking their cue from their government, which has mostly given them a free reign to run wild.

The point is, the Palestinians have so much going against them that they have every reason in the world to band together, not only politically but in various social aspects where, frankly, they aren’t.

Last week, the Israeli electric company sent a letter to the Palestinian Jerusalem Electric Company warning them that if they did not pay their back dues soon, Israel would simply start turning off the lights. According to Omar Kittaneh, head of the Palestinian energy authority, the Jerusalem Electric Company owes an accumulative bill of about $200 million. While he does attribute some of this crisis to the rising price of electricity and fuel and does acknowledge that the people are unhappy with the rise in electricity bills, he was sure to convey a crystal clear message: pay your bills.

This is something that is highly disturbing for any Palestinian looking into his/her own society. Kittaneh was saying that the average percentage of Palestinians who pay their electricity bills in cities is around 80%-85%. This does not seem like such a horrible rate, some might say. But considering that much of Palestinian society is rural and then hearing the statistics from villages and towns, the situation turns dire very quickly. Add to that the payment rates in refugee camps and the problem is almost overwhelming.

According to Kittaneh, only 40%-50% of subscribers pay their electricity bills in Palestinian villages. In refugee camps, he says the number is close to zero. Again, while he acknowledges the tough economic conditions many Palestinians live under, he says it is not the neediest who are necessarily the ones not paying their bills, or even worse, stealing electricity from their neighbors.

During his interview with Voice of Palestine, Kittaneh appealed to the people, saying such depraved behavior is “not part of our culture or heritage”. He also said that when they don’t pay, the burden falls unfairly on others.

What he didn’t say was such behavior ignores its own long term effects. The Palestinians need to focus on uniting at all levels, including embracing fairness and honesty among themselves, if they are ever going to win the much larger battle against Israel. The rift between Hamas and Fatah, which is hopefully on the mend as we speak, has been the most damaging ramification of what can only be called poor judgment among the people and the failure to see beyond the tip of one’s nose. Hamas and Fatah fought like cats and dogs over illusionary power and forgot that Israel was sitting back and enjoying the show. The recent arrest of PLC Speaker Aziz Dweik was the latest proof that their squabbling over power is nothing more than smokescreens and mirrors.

Likewise, those who think it is all right to dump their electricity expenses on others just to save a few shekels do not realize that this is what is being taught to an entire generation. How are we to lead a national struggle, which requires honesty and commitment and the transcendence of individual interests for the sake of the whole when we are cheating each other?

Let us hope that today’s signing of the “Doha Agreement” between President Abbas and Khaled Meshaal will be the beginning of a new era for the Palestinians. We can achieve national reconciliation – it has always been within our reach. But let us not forget that our social and moral compass is just as important as our political one. In fact, if we do not point it due north, what kind of country and society are we aspiring for?

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.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.

Resenting the Lights of Jerusalem By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

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.

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24379&CategoryId=3

Resenting the Lights of Jerusalem

Date posted: 30/01/2012

By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

The first time I came to Palestine I was nine years old. This was also the first time I saw what my parents simply called “the lights of Jerusalem” visible from the balcony of my grandparents’ house in the village of Bir Nabala. One clear summer night, my mother stood with me on the open balcony overlooking lush green hills covered in olive groves out between the mountains on the horizon. In the distance were the colored lights of a city. This, said my mother, is Jerusalem, before she proceeded into a lively recap of her childhood years trudging along those same mountains to her elementary school in Beit Hanina. While that was interesting, the lights, the beautiful lights were what caught my attention. They were so distant, yet so close and they were the lights of Jerusalem, the city we were weaned on as children, the name that cropped up in conversations and songs as we sat in our American living room and went to our American schools to always remind us that we were Palestinian.

That was many many years ago and the lights of Jerusalem do not hold that same warm nostalgia that they did before. Today, when I go out on that same balcony (now inhabited by my uncle’s family), the lights are noticeably closer, practically in Bir Nabala’s back yard. And now, knowing what I know and having seen the encroachment first hand, I resent the lights and what they stand for.

It is one thing to hear about Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and it is quite another to witness them first hand, even if from a distance. The “lights of Jerusalem” which meant so much to me as a child, are now a bitter reminder that more Palestinian land – the land my mother and uncles would walk through to get to school – is being stolen to ensure that Jerusalem remains under Israeli rule.

What makes this revelation even more bitter, is the sad state of our political reality. Palestinians bent over backwards to appease the United States, the Europeans and the Jordanians. They bit the bullet, they went to Amman, I’m sure against their better judgment and were shot down yet again. Even as Palestinians and Israelis sat across from each other, new settlement units were being built, or approved or planned. Even where new construction wasn’t going up, Palestinians homes were coming down, all for the sake of the settlements.

This is not about statistics, but about what an average person sees with the naked eye. And what all of us see, all of us who have lived in Palestine, who have lived in Jerusalem or are banned from even reaching it, is that Israel is not interested in any real solution. If only the likes of Mitt Romney, the ignorant and arrogant Republican presidential candidate who so self-righteously decided that it was the Palestinians who did not want peace could look out across my uncle’s balcony, he would see the difference that 30 years can make in the theft of a land.

Unfortunately, what we “see” is just the tip of the iceberg. While actual settlement buildup of structures may occupy just over one percent of the land, it is the infrastructure and the land allotted to the settlements which devours so much of the West Bank and Jerusalem. According to a Peace Now factsheet, “more than 40 percent of the West Bank is under the direct control of settlers or settlements and off-limits to Palestinians.” This is because, according to the organization, “10 percent of the West Bank is included in the "municipal area," or the jurisdictional borders of the settlements,” adding that, “These borders are so large that they allow settlements to expand many times over onto land that is completely off-limits to Palestinians.”

Furthermore, “34 percent of the West Bank has been placed under the jurisdiction of the settlements' "Regional Councils." That is, more than an additional one-third of the West Bank has been placed under the control of the settlers, off-limits to Palestinians.

The truth is, when the Palestinians, along with the Europeans and even the Americans say that settlements are an obstacle to peace, it is a gross understatement. With the network of settlements in the West Bank and especially in and around Jerusalem, there is zero chance for a viable, independent Palestinian state to ever come into being. That is hardly an obstacle; it is a train wreck.

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.org.