Two great pieces about the Gaza flotilla massacre:
http://samuelnichols.blogspot.com/2010/06/former-us-marine-was-on-mavi-marmara.html
A former US Marine was on the Mavi Marmara
Cross-posted from Paul Woodward's War in Context
“All I saw in Israel was cowards with guns.” These are the words of Ken O’Keefe, a former US Marine who was just deported from Israel after surviving the Mavi Marmara massacre.
In 2002, O’Keefe initiated what some would regard as a quixotic endeavor: an effort to prevent the war in Iraq by positioning Western volunteers as human shields at strategic sites in Iraq. TheTruth Justice Peace action failed, but O’Keefe’s passion to follow the dictates of his own conscience has continued unabated.
This is part of a statement O’Keefe made upon arriving in Istanbul on Friday after his expulsion from Israel:
I remember being asked during the TJP Human Shield Action to Iraq if I was a pacifist, I responded with a quote from Gandhi by saying I am not a passive anything. To the contrary I believe in action, and I also believe in self-defence, 100%, without reservation. I would be incapable of standing by while a tyrant murders my family, and the attack on the Mavi Marmara was like an attack on my Palestinian family. I am proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder with those who refused to let a rogue Israeli military exert their will without a fight. And yes, we fought.
When I was asked, in the event of an Israeli attack on the Mavi Mamara, would I use the camera, or would I defend the ship? I enthusiastically committed to defence of the ship. Although I am also a huge supporter of non-violence, in fact I believe non-violence must always be the first option. Nonetheless I joined the defence of the Mavi Mamara understanding that violence could be used against us and that we may very well be compelled to use violence in self-defence.
I said this straight to Israeli agents, probably of Mossad or Shin Bet, and I say it again now, on the morning of the attack I was directly involved in the disarming of two Israeli Commandos. This was a forcible, non-negotiable, separation of weapons from commandos who had already murdered two brothers that I had seen that day. One brother with a bullet entering dead center in his forehead, in what appeared to be an execution. I knew the commandos were murdering when I removed a 9mm pistol from one of them. I had that gun in my hands and as an ex-US Marine with training in the use of guns it was completely within my power to use that gun on the commando who may have been the murderer of one of my brothers. But that is not what I, nor any other defender of the ship did. I took that weapon away, removed the bullets, proper lead bullets, separated them from the weapon and hid the gun. I did this in the hopes that we would repel the attack and submit this weapon as evidence in a criminal trial against Israeli authorities for mass murder.
I also helped to physically separate one commando from his assault rifle, which another brother apparently threw into the sea. I and hundreds of others know the truth that makes a mockery of the brave and moral Israeli military. We had in our full possession, three completely disarmed and helpless commandos. These boys were at our mercy, they were out of reach of their fellow murderers, inside the ship and surrounded by 100 or more men. I looked into the eyes of all three of these boys and I can tell you they had the fear of God in them. They looked at us as if we were them, and I have no doubt they did not believe there was any way they would survive that day. They looked like frightened children in the face of an abusive father.
But they did not face an enemy as ruthless as they. Instead the woman provided basic first aid, and ultimately they were released, battered and bruised for sure, but alive. Able to live another day. Able to feel the sun over head and the embrace of loved ones. Unlike those they murdered. Despite mourning the loss of our brothers, feeling rage towards these boys, we let them go. The Israeli prostitutes of propaganda can spew all of their disgusting bile all they wish, the commandos are the murders, we are the defenders, and yet we fought. We fought not just for our lives, not just for our cargo, not just for the people of Palestine, we fought in the name of justice and humanity. We were right to do so, in every way.
While in Israeli custody I, along with everyone else was subjected to endless abuse and flagrant acts of disrespect. Women and elderly were physically and mentally assaulted. Access to food and water and toilets was denied. Dogs were used against us, we ourselves were treated like dogs. We were exposed to direct sun in stress positions while hand cuffed to the point of losing circulation of blood in our hands. We were lied to incessantly, in fact I am awed at the routineness and comfort in their ability to lie, it is remarkable really. We were abused in just about every way imaginable and I myself was beaten and choked to the point of blacking out… and I was beaten again while in my cell.
In all this what I saw more than anything else were cowards… and yet I also see my brothers. Because no matter how vile and wrong the Israeli agents and government are, they are still my brothers and sisters and for now I only have pity for them. Because they are relinquishing the most precious thing a human being has, their humanity.
In conclusion; I would like to challenge every endorser of Gandhi, every person who thinks they understand him, who acknowledges him as one of the great souls of our time (which is just about every western leader), I challenge you in the form of a question. Please explain how we, the defenders of the Mavi Marmara, are not the modern example of Gandhi’s essence? But first read the words of Gandhi himself.
“I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence…. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour.” – Gandhi
And lastly I have one more challenge. I challenge any critic of merit, publicly, to debate me on a large stage over our actions that day. I would especially love to debate with any Israeli leader who accuses us of wrongdoing, it would be my tremendous pleasure to face off with you. All I saw in Israel was cowards with guns, so I am ripe to see you in a new context. I want to debate with you on the largest stage possible. Take that as an open challenge and let us see just how brave Israeli leaders are.
I doubt that there is a single Israeli official who would have the guts to take up O’Keefe’s challenge. Instead, the IDF has issued a laughable claim:
Ken O’Keefe (Born 1969), an American and British citizen, is a radical anti-Israel activist and operative of the Hamas Terror organization. He attempted to enter the Gaza Strip in order to form and train a commando unit for the Palestinian terror organization.
The IDF spelled his name correctly and the year he was born — thereafter, the errors and deceptions follow. O’Keefe renounced his US citizenship in March 2001. He is now an Irish and Palestinian citizen, though describes himself as “in truth a world citizen.”
If the IDF had a shred of evidence that O’Keefe was heading to Gaza to train a commando unit for Hamas, I guarantee he would not now be in Istanbul. He would be in an Israeli jail awaiting trial. (In an interview with Al Jazeera appearing below, he does indeed dismiss Israel’s claims.)
But when O’Keefe says that all he saw in Israel was “cowards with guns” he points to a fundamental truth that reveals the character of the Jewish state.
As a nation that revels in its willingness to crush its opponents, Israel operates with the mindset of every bully: it only feels convinced of its strength when facing a weak opponent.
Lacking the courage to hold its own among equals, Israel operates in a world defined by dominance and oppression.
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http://mondoweiss.net/2010/06/protest-in-new-york-and-celebration.html
Protest in New York, and celebration
by PAMELA OLSON on JUNE 2, 2010 · 21 COMMENTS
On May 31, the day after Israel’s bloody and unconscionable raid against civilian aid volunteers in international waters, around 1,000 people gathered in Times Square to protest. The next day, June 1, the same number showed up to protest again, meeting at 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue and marching to Times Square.
The organizers had arranged for 200 feet of the street to be blocked off for the demonstration, and by the time the march began, it was overflowing. There were very few news cameras around, though, most of them from the independent and left-leaning press. A counter-protest was held a few blocks away by people who supported Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its attack against the flotilla. A friend and I went to check it out. He suggested I hide the kuffiyeh that was hanging around my neck, but I was in no mood to cater to anyone’s delicate sensibilities after what had happened. It was a symbol of solidarity and resistance to illegal brutality, and I wore it proudly.
The right-wing protest looked as packed as the pro-justice protest, and it was surrounded by journalists, most of them apparently mainstream. One of them, well-dressed and sharply-groomed, from a local Fox station, was asking a protester what he thought about the claim by activists that the boats were attacked in international waters, and that Israel’s assault was therefore illegal. I leaned in closer, very interested to listen to his answer.
Just then a large bald man, apparently an organizer who noticed my kuffiyeh, stepped between me and the interview and asked accusingly, “Where are you from?” I replied, “Oklahoma.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You can’t stand here. Not with that scarf. You know what it means, don’t you? It means support for terrorism.”
I laughed, because it was such an absurdist thing to say. The kind of thing you don’t expect real people to say right in front of you.
“You can’t stand here,” he repeated. “It’s a free country,” I reminded him.
He mumbled something and walked away. Soon I was confronted by a huge policeman with a thick Bronx accent. “You can’t stand here,” he said. “Join the protest or step aside. They got permits for this space, they can choose who they want to be in there, and they don’t want you in there, so step aside.”
“I’m not in there,” I said. “I’m standing on the sidewalk.”
“You can’t stand there.”
“I can’t stand here because he says so?”
“Ma’am, I will lock you up for refusing to obey a legal order.”
“You’ll lock me up because I’m standing on the sidewalk?”
“This is a crosswalk, ma’am. It’s illegal to stand here. Step aside or I will arrest you.”
I nodded now that he said something halfway sensible and stepped out of the trickle of pedestrian traffic, too far away to engage or listen to the protesters except for hearing a few intermittently chanting, “Stop the flotilla, Stop the Islamic terror!”
My friend, who is Jewish, was also rustled up and kicked off the sidewalk for trying to talk to one of the protesters, with no ready excuse that he was standing in a crosswalk, because he wasn’t. He argued in vain with the same police officer (“It’s illegal to have a conversation?”), then he joined me near the curb. With no more reason to be there, we headed back to the pro-justice protest.
And that’s when the illusion was broken. The pro-Israeli-government protest had reserved as much space as the pro-justice protest. But their protesters were all crammed into about one-sixth of the space at one end, where the cameras were surrounding them. There couldn’t have been more than 150 people. From the angle we saw as we were approaching it, it looked about as formidable as the pro-justice movement. But from the angle we saw as we were leaving it, it perfectly encapsulated the state of Israel’s government’s supporters today—surrounded by cameras, aided unquestioningly by the powers that be, with an increasingly sad, defensive, sputtering illusion of popular support.
Pamela Olson is working on a book called Fast Times in Palestine.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Packing it in...
So I've decided to move home...
The finality of my decision is really sinking in tonight and I feel really quite sad about it.
There were a lot of factors that went into why I decided to go back to Canada. Of course I made my huge list of pros and cons. It seems like the reasons for going back to Canada just seemed to make a lot more sense and carry more weight than the reasons for staying. But it's just so hard to say how I will feel four months from now. When I see the leaves start to drop off the trees in Saskatchewan, will I be craving fresh mangoes and peaches from the Ramallah fruit market? Undoubtedly. But then I think of all the whistles and stares and catcalls, day in and day out.
For some time now I had been pondering what the next step in my life would be. I wasn't sure if my work even wanted to employ me for another year. I suffered a series of frustrating experiences both in my personal and professional life that made me want to get out of here as soon as possible. I was convinced that moving back to Canada was the best option. And then after talking to some people and realizing I had some awesome friends here, I was super scared to leave it all behind.
But in the end I decided to do just that: leave it all behind...well, physically. I know I will carry Palestine and all my friends (Palestinian and otherwise) so close to my heart forever. I fell in love with this land and I know that I will return in the future - how could I not?
A wise friend of mine suggested that it's a good idea to leave something you love before the magic fades entirely. It's true that the magic of Palestine has certainly been fading for a while now and maybe it's for the best that I'm leaving before I get completely sick of this place. But wow, moving back across the world is a frightening thought.
And what am I going back for exactly?
These are the possibilities: orchestra audition; vocal accompanying; Violin/Viola teaching; instrumental accompanying; lessons and masterclasses; investigating possibilities for doing a Masters degree; practicing...
Everyone I talked with told me that the overwhelming feeling they had from me was that I wanted to return to Canada. So why am I feeling so blue? I mean, I can only imagine how hard it would be to leave this place after another year of getting attached!
I just have to take this decision and run with it. At times I'm overwhelmed with excitement at the idea of going back to Canada and starting new projects. And then in the next minute I'm completely astonished that I'm leaving this wonderful land that has captured my heart.
For better or for worse, I'll be on a plane, Canada-bound, in T-minus 3 weeks...
The finality of my decision is really sinking in tonight and I feel really quite sad about it.
There were a lot of factors that went into why I decided to go back to Canada. Of course I made my huge list of pros and cons. It seems like the reasons for going back to Canada just seemed to make a lot more sense and carry more weight than the reasons for staying. But it's just so hard to say how I will feel four months from now. When I see the leaves start to drop off the trees in Saskatchewan, will I be craving fresh mangoes and peaches from the Ramallah fruit market? Undoubtedly. But then I think of all the whistles and stares and catcalls, day in and day out.
For some time now I had been pondering what the next step in my life would be. I wasn't sure if my work even wanted to employ me for another year. I suffered a series of frustrating experiences both in my personal and professional life that made me want to get out of here as soon as possible. I was convinced that moving back to Canada was the best option. And then after talking to some people and realizing I had some awesome friends here, I was super scared to leave it all behind.
But in the end I decided to do just that: leave it all behind...well, physically. I know I will carry Palestine and all my friends (Palestinian and otherwise) so close to my heart forever. I fell in love with this land and I know that I will return in the future - how could I not?
A wise friend of mine suggested that it's a good idea to leave something you love before the magic fades entirely. It's true that the magic of Palestine has certainly been fading for a while now and maybe it's for the best that I'm leaving before I get completely sick of this place. But wow, moving back across the world is a frightening thought.
And what am I going back for exactly?
These are the possibilities: orchestra audition; vocal accompanying; Violin/Viola teaching; instrumental accompanying; lessons and masterclasses; investigating possibilities for doing a Masters degree; practicing...
Everyone I talked with told me that the overwhelming feeling they had from me was that I wanted to return to Canada. So why am I feeling so blue? I mean, I can only imagine how hard it would be to leave this place after another year of getting attached!
I just have to take this decision and run with it. At times I'm overwhelmed with excitement at the idea of going back to Canada and starting new projects. And then in the next minute I'm completely astonished that I'm leaving this wonderful land that has captured my heart.
For better or for worse, I'll be on a plane, Canada-bound, in T-minus 3 weeks...
Friday, May 7, 2010
Breaking the Trend...
Okay so these last posts have been completely politically-orientated...I think it's about time I wrote something that was about my life...my girly life.
I'm a strong woman. I like to think so, anyway. I've been messed with. I've been hurt. I've been thrown aside like I didn't matter. I've been looked at as though I was a piece of dirt (or worse). And still I believe in love. And still I believe in humanity.
I live in an occupied territory. I see people everyday who are messed with, hurt, thrown aside, treated like dirt and looked upon as less than worthless. And these people still believe in love and humanity.
That's what being a conquerer is about. You come back from a fight. You fall off the horse, and you get back on (although after being nailed in the face by a hockey stick at my street hockey game, I'm a little reluctant to full-on attack an offensive player...but don't worry, I'll get it back).
So even though I'm not actually talking about the Palestinian occupation right now, I'm shouting out to the world that I AM STRONG. I can be beaten down and pop back up (given some time and a little TLC).
Right now I'm nursing a few wounds. There have been a lot of people that have helped me through this latest little (big?) gash to my heart and ego. I thought that I was strong enough to not even allow this latest foray into...well, I'd like to call it a romance but it can hardly be considered such a thing...so I'll call it...stupidity haha. So I thought that I was strong enough to allow this latest foray into stupidity to leave me unaffected. Unfortunately for me it left a bigger mark than I had predicted.
(Side-note: Shout out to EP, B-wop, WAZ, DinDin, Roz, MO, EEEE-MAD, Brahmania, and all the other people who played a part in making me realize I am BETTER than this garbage; I am BETTER than what is going on; I AM BETTER THAN THIS. WAZ you are such a killer dude.)
But I'm bouncing back. And you better believe that I'll be strong (and hopefully smarter) than ever.
I'm a strong woman. I like to think so, anyway. I've been messed with. I've been hurt. I've been thrown aside like I didn't matter. I've been looked at as though I was a piece of dirt (or worse). And still I believe in love. And still I believe in humanity.
I live in an occupied territory. I see people everyday who are messed with, hurt, thrown aside, treated like dirt and looked upon as less than worthless. And these people still believe in love and humanity.
That's what being a conquerer is about. You come back from a fight. You fall off the horse, and you get back on (although after being nailed in the face by a hockey stick at my street hockey game, I'm a little reluctant to full-on attack an offensive player...but don't worry, I'll get it back).
So even though I'm not actually talking about the Palestinian occupation right now, I'm shouting out to the world that I AM STRONG. I can be beaten down and pop back up (given some time and a little TLC).
Right now I'm nursing a few wounds. There have been a lot of people that have helped me through this latest little (big?) gash to my heart and ego. I thought that I was strong enough to not even allow this latest foray into...well, I'd like to call it a romance but it can hardly be considered such a thing...so I'll call it...stupidity haha. So I thought that I was strong enough to allow this latest foray into stupidity to leave me unaffected. Unfortunately for me it left a bigger mark than I had predicted.
(Side-note: Shout out to EP, B-wop, WAZ, DinDin, Roz, MO, EEEE-MAD, Brahmania, and all the other people who played a part in making me realize I am BETTER than this garbage; I am BETTER than what is going on; I AM BETTER THAN THIS. WAZ you are such a killer dude.)
But I'm bouncing back. And you better believe that I'll be strong (and hopefully smarter) than ever.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Two Articles to Make You Think!
Here are two great commentaries from Christian Science Monitor that will hopefully make people think :)
"A one-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis"
If the aim of the peace process is to resolve the conflict properly, then only this approach tackles the root of the problem.
By Ghada Karmi / May 30, 2008
London
In 2005, I was invited to do something most Palestinians can only dream of: visit the house from which my family had been driven in 1948. Of all people, a New York Times correspondent discovered that his apartment was built over my old home.
When I met him there, the Jewish occupants who showed me around were almost apologetic, perhaps aware how that incident encapsulated the central story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the expulsion of Palestinians and their replacement by Jews. Yet when I asked the reporter how he could still write articles that betray this reality, he was evasive.
His evasion is part of an industry of denial called the Middle East "peace process." This industry feeds the current international consensus on the two-state solution as the only "comprehensive" settlement to the conflict. But there's a better solution, one that's slowly picking up steam among Palestinians and Israelis: a one-state model.
The two-state approach is flawed on two major counts. First, Israel's extensive colonization of the territories it seized in the 1967 war has made the creation of a Palestinian state there impossible. Israel was offering nothing more than "a mini-state of cantons," as Palestinian Authority negotiators recently complained. This leaves Israel in control of more than half of the West Bank and all of East Jerusalem. With the Israeli position largely unchallenged by the international community, the only route to a two-state settlement will be through pressure on the weaker Palestinian side.
This leads to the second flaw: The two-state solution reflects only Israeli interests. It proposes to partition historic Palestine – an area that includes present-day Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem – massively and inequitably in favor of Israel as a Jewish state. By definition, this rules out possibility of Palestinian return except to the tiny, segmented West Bank territory that Israeli colonization has created, and to an overcrowded Gaza, which cannot accommodate the returnees. Thus the "peace process" is really about making the Palestinians concede their basic rights to accommodate Israel's demands.
It also panders to Israel's paranoia over "demography," an ambiguous term that refers to the morally repugnant wish to preserve Israel's Jewish ethnic purity.
But the two-state solution's biggest flaw is that it ignores the main cause of the conflict: the Palestinian dispossession of 1948.
Today more than 5 million dispersed refugees and exiles long to return. It is fashionable to ignore this, as if Palestinians have less right to repatriation than the displaced Kosovars so ardently championed by NATO in 1999. As recognized by the Western powers then, the right to return was fundamental to peacemaking in the Bosnian crisis. It should be no less so in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Yet the present peace process aims to preserve a colonialist Israel and make Palestinian dispossession permanent. This is not only illegal and unjust, it is also short-sighted. As the early Zionist thinker Vladimir Jabotinsky warned in 1923, native resistance to dispossession is irrepressible and Zionism would only survive with constant force to quell it.
Israel has heeded the lesson well. With an oppressive military occupation ruling over the West Bank and Gaza, it has herded Palestinians into ghettoes and prisons, aiming to paralyze any resistance. The response to this brutality is misery, expressed by some in violence against Israelis, and continuing instability in the region. American collusion with Israel has led to growing anti-Americanism among Arabs and Muslims.
If the aim of the peace process is to resolve the conflict properly, then we must tackle the root of the problem: the creation of an exclusive state for one people in another people's territory. The strife this caused will end only when the Palestinian rights to repatriation and compensation are addressed. This cannot happen in a situation of Israeli hegemony.
A different approach that puts the principles of equity and sharing above dominance and oppression is needed: a one-state solution. In such a state, no Jewish settler would have to move and no Palestinian would be under occupation. Resources could be shared, rather than hoarded by Israel. Jerusalem could be a city for both. Above all, the dispossessed Palestinians could finally return home.
Indulging Israel is a dangerous folly that postpones solution. It harms Palestinians, the region, and long-term Western interests. It even harms Israelis, who are less secure in Israel than anywhere else. Palestinian and Arab support for the two-state proposal only reflects resignation to Israel's superior power and fear of US reprisal, not conviction. The two-state proposal is unstable and cannot replace a durable solution based on equity, justice, and dignity.
A decade ago, the unitary state idea was ridiculed. Today, as the two-state solution recedes, a one-state solution is the stuff of mainstream discussion. Now it must become mainstream policy, too.
Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2008/0530/p09s02-coop.html
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"Peace for Israelis and Palestinians? Not without America's tough love."
An Israeli student explains why the US should act on moral outrage over Israel’s discriminatory policies before it’s too late.
By Jonathan Ben-Artzi / April 1, 2010
Providence, R.I.
More than 20 years ago, many Americans decided they could no longer watch as racial segregation divided South Africa. Compelled by an injustice thousands of miles away, they demanded that their communities, their colleges, their municipalities, and their government take a stand.
Today, a similar discussion is taking place on campuses across the United States. Increasingly, students are questioning the morality of the ties US institutions have with the unjust practices being carried out in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories. Students are seeing that these practices are often more than merely “unjust.” They are racist. Humiliating. Inhumane. Savage.
Sometimes it takes a good friend to tell you when enough is enough. As they did with South Africa two decades ago, concerned citizens across the US can make a difference by encouraging Washington to get the message to Israel that this cannot continue.
A legitimate question is, Why should I care? Americans are heavily involved in the conflict: from funding (the US provides Israel with roughly $3 billion annually in military aid) to corporate investments (Microsoft has one of its major facilities in Israel) to diplomatic support (the US has vetoed 32 United Nations Security Council resolutions unsavory to Israel between 1982 and 2006).
Why do I care? I am an Israeli. Both my parents were born in Israel. Both my grandmothers were born in Palestine (when there was no “Israel” yet). In fact, I am a ninth-generation native of Palestine. My ancestors were among the founders of today’s modern Jerusalem.
Both my grandfathers fled the Nazis and came to Palestine. Both were subsequently injured in the 1948 Arab-Israli War. My mother’s only brother was a paratrooper killed in combat in 1968. All of my relatives served in the Israeli military for extensive periods of time, some of them in units most people don’t even know exist.
In Israel, military service for both men and women is compulsory. When my time to serve came, I refused, because I realized I was obliged to do something about these acts of segregation. I was denied conscientious objector status, like the majority of 18-year-old males who seek this status. Because I refused to serve, I spent a year and a half in military prison.
Some of the acts of segregation that I saw while growing up in Israel include towns for Jews only, immigration laws that allow Jews from around the world to immigrate but deny displaced indigenous Palestinians that same right, and national healthcare and school systems that receive significantly more funding in Jewish towns than in Arab towns.
As former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in 2008: “We have not yet overcome the barrier of discrimination, which is a deliberate discrimination and the gap is insufferable.... Governments have denied [Arab Israelis] their rights to improve their quality of life.”
The situation in the occupied territories is even worse. Nearly 4 million Palestinians have been living under Israeli occupation for over 40 years without the most basic human and civil rights.
One example is segregation on roads in the West Bank, where settlers travel on roads that are for Jews only, while Palestinians are stopped at checkpoints, and a 10-mile commute might take seven hours.
Another example is discrimination in water supply: Israel pumps drinking water from occupied territory (in violation of international law). Israelis use as much as four times more water than Palestinians, while Palestinians are not allowed to dig their own wells and must rely on Israeli supply.
Civil freedom is no better: In an effort to break the spirit of Palestinians, Israel conducts sporadic arrests and detentions with no judicial supervision. According to one prisoner support and human rights association, roughly 4 in 10 Palestinian males have spent some time in Israeli prisons. That’s 40 percent of all Palestinian males!
And finally, perhaps one of the greatest injustices takes place in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is collectively punishing more than 1.5 million Palestinians by sealing them off in the largest open-air prison on earth.
Because of the US’s relationship with Israel, it is important for all Americans to educate themselves about the realities of the conflict. When they do, they will realize that just as much as support for South Africa decades ago was mostly damaging for South Africa itself, contemporary blind support for Israel hurts us Israelis.
We must lift the ruthless siege of Gaza, which only breeds more anger and frustration among Gazans, who respond by hurling primitive, homemade rockets at Israeli towns.
We must remove travel restrictions from West Bank Palestinians. How can we live in peace with a population where most children cannot visit their grandparents living in the neighboring village, without being stopped and harassed at military checkpoints for hours?
Finally, we must give equal rights to all. Regardless of what the final resolution will be – the so-called “one state solution,” the “two state solution,” or any other form of governance.
Israel governs the lives of 5.5 million Israeli Jews, 1.5 million Israeli Palestinians, and 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. As long as Israel is responsible for all of these people, it must ensure that all have equal rights, the same access to resources, and the same opportunities in education and healthcare. Only through such a platform of basic human rights for all humans can a resolution come to the region.
If Americans truly are our friends, they should shake us up and take away the keys, because right now we are driving drunk, and without this wake-up call, we will soon find ourselves in the ditch of an undemocratic, doomed state.
(Jonathan Ben-Artzi was one of the spokespeople for the Hadash party in the Israeli general elections in 2006. His parents are professors in Israel, and his extended family includes uncle Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Ben-Artzi is a PhD student at Brown University in Providence, R.I.)
Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0401/Peace-for-Israelis-and-Palestinians-Not-without-America-s-tough-love
"A one-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis"
If the aim of the peace process is to resolve the conflict properly, then only this approach tackles the root of the problem.
By Ghada Karmi / May 30, 2008
London
In 2005, I was invited to do something most Palestinians can only dream of: visit the house from which my family had been driven in 1948. Of all people, a New York Times correspondent discovered that his apartment was built over my old home.
When I met him there, the Jewish occupants who showed me around were almost apologetic, perhaps aware how that incident encapsulated the central story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the expulsion of Palestinians and their replacement by Jews. Yet when I asked the reporter how he could still write articles that betray this reality, he was evasive.
His evasion is part of an industry of denial called the Middle East "peace process." This industry feeds the current international consensus on the two-state solution as the only "comprehensive" settlement to the conflict. But there's a better solution, one that's slowly picking up steam among Palestinians and Israelis: a one-state model.
The two-state approach is flawed on two major counts. First, Israel's extensive colonization of the territories it seized in the 1967 war has made the creation of a Palestinian state there impossible. Israel was offering nothing more than "a mini-state of cantons," as Palestinian Authority negotiators recently complained. This leaves Israel in control of more than half of the West Bank and all of East Jerusalem. With the Israeli position largely unchallenged by the international community, the only route to a two-state settlement will be through pressure on the weaker Palestinian side.
This leads to the second flaw: The two-state solution reflects only Israeli interests. It proposes to partition historic Palestine – an area that includes present-day Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem – massively and inequitably in favor of Israel as a Jewish state. By definition, this rules out possibility of Palestinian return except to the tiny, segmented West Bank territory that Israeli colonization has created, and to an overcrowded Gaza, which cannot accommodate the returnees. Thus the "peace process" is really about making the Palestinians concede their basic rights to accommodate Israel's demands.
It also panders to Israel's paranoia over "demography," an ambiguous term that refers to the morally repugnant wish to preserve Israel's Jewish ethnic purity.
But the two-state solution's biggest flaw is that it ignores the main cause of the conflict: the Palestinian dispossession of 1948.
Today more than 5 million dispersed refugees and exiles long to return. It is fashionable to ignore this, as if Palestinians have less right to repatriation than the displaced Kosovars so ardently championed by NATO in 1999. As recognized by the Western powers then, the right to return was fundamental to peacemaking in the Bosnian crisis. It should be no less so in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Yet the present peace process aims to preserve a colonialist Israel and make Palestinian dispossession permanent. This is not only illegal and unjust, it is also short-sighted. As the early Zionist thinker Vladimir Jabotinsky warned in 1923, native resistance to dispossession is irrepressible and Zionism would only survive with constant force to quell it.
Israel has heeded the lesson well. With an oppressive military occupation ruling over the West Bank and Gaza, it has herded Palestinians into ghettoes and prisons, aiming to paralyze any resistance. The response to this brutality is misery, expressed by some in violence against Israelis, and continuing instability in the region. American collusion with Israel has led to growing anti-Americanism among Arabs and Muslims.
If the aim of the peace process is to resolve the conflict properly, then we must tackle the root of the problem: the creation of an exclusive state for one people in another people's territory. The strife this caused will end only when the Palestinian rights to repatriation and compensation are addressed. This cannot happen in a situation of Israeli hegemony.
A different approach that puts the principles of equity and sharing above dominance and oppression is needed: a one-state solution. In such a state, no Jewish settler would have to move and no Palestinian would be under occupation. Resources could be shared, rather than hoarded by Israel. Jerusalem could be a city for both. Above all, the dispossessed Palestinians could finally return home.
Indulging Israel is a dangerous folly that postpones solution. It harms Palestinians, the region, and long-term Western interests. It even harms Israelis, who are less secure in Israel than anywhere else. Palestinian and Arab support for the two-state proposal only reflects resignation to Israel's superior power and fear of US reprisal, not conviction. The two-state proposal is unstable and cannot replace a durable solution based on equity, justice, and dignity.
A decade ago, the unitary state idea was ridiculed. Today, as the two-state solution recedes, a one-state solution is the stuff of mainstream discussion. Now it must become mainstream policy, too.
Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2008/0530/p09s02-coop.html
****************************************************
"Peace for Israelis and Palestinians? Not without America's tough love."
An Israeli student explains why the US should act on moral outrage over Israel’s discriminatory policies before it’s too late.
By Jonathan Ben-Artzi / April 1, 2010
Providence, R.I.
More than 20 years ago, many Americans decided they could no longer watch as racial segregation divided South Africa. Compelled by an injustice thousands of miles away, they demanded that their communities, their colleges, their municipalities, and their government take a stand.
Today, a similar discussion is taking place on campuses across the United States. Increasingly, students are questioning the morality of the ties US institutions have with the unjust practices being carried out in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories. Students are seeing that these practices are often more than merely “unjust.” They are racist. Humiliating. Inhumane. Savage.
Sometimes it takes a good friend to tell you when enough is enough. As they did with South Africa two decades ago, concerned citizens across the US can make a difference by encouraging Washington to get the message to Israel that this cannot continue.
A legitimate question is, Why should I care? Americans are heavily involved in the conflict: from funding (the US provides Israel with roughly $3 billion annually in military aid) to corporate investments (Microsoft has one of its major facilities in Israel) to diplomatic support (the US has vetoed 32 United Nations Security Council resolutions unsavory to Israel between 1982 and 2006).
Why do I care? I am an Israeli. Both my parents were born in Israel. Both my grandmothers were born in Palestine (when there was no “Israel” yet). In fact, I am a ninth-generation native of Palestine. My ancestors were among the founders of today’s modern Jerusalem.
Both my grandfathers fled the Nazis and came to Palestine. Both were subsequently injured in the 1948 Arab-Israli War. My mother’s only brother was a paratrooper killed in combat in 1968. All of my relatives served in the Israeli military for extensive periods of time, some of them in units most people don’t even know exist.
In Israel, military service for both men and women is compulsory. When my time to serve came, I refused, because I realized I was obliged to do something about these acts of segregation. I was denied conscientious objector status, like the majority of 18-year-old males who seek this status. Because I refused to serve, I spent a year and a half in military prison.
Some of the acts of segregation that I saw while growing up in Israel include towns for Jews only, immigration laws that allow Jews from around the world to immigrate but deny displaced indigenous Palestinians that same right, and national healthcare and school systems that receive significantly more funding in Jewish towns than in Arab towns.
As former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in 2008: “We have not yet overcome the barrier of discrimination, which is a deliberate discrimination and the gap is insufferable.... Governments have denied [Arab Israelis] their rights to improve their quality of life.”
The situation in the occupied territories is even worse. Nearly 4 million Palestinians have been living under Israeli occupation for over 40 years without the most basic human and civil rights.
One example is segregation on roads in the West Bank, where settlers travel on roads that are for Jews only, while Palestinians are stopped at checkpoints, and a 10-mile commute might take seven hours.
Another example is discrimination in water supply: Israel pumps drinking water from occupied territory (in violation of international law). Israelis use as much as four times more water than Palestinians, while Palestinians are not allowed to dig their own wells and must rely on Israeli supply.
Civil freedom is no better: In an effort to break the spirit of Palestinians, Israel conducts sporadic arrests and detentions with no judicial supervision. According to one prisoner support and human rights association, roughly 4 in 10 Palestinian males have spent some time in Israeli prisons. That’s 40 percent of all Palestinian males!
And finally, perhaps one of the greatest injustices takes place in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is collectively punishing more than 1.5 million Palestinians by sealing them off in the largest open-air prison on earth.
Because of the US’s relationship with Israel, it is important for all Americans to educate themselves about the realities of the conflict. When they do, they will realize that just as much as support for South Africa decades ago was mostly damaging for South Africa itself, contemporary blind support for Israel hurts us Israelis.
We must lift the ruthless siege of Gaza, which only breeds more anger and frustration among Gazans, who respond by hurling primitive, homemade rockets at Israeli towns.
We must remove travel restrictions from West Bank Palestinians. How can we live in peace with a population where most children cannot visit their grandparents living in the neighboring village, without being stopped and harassed at military checkpoints for hours?
Finally, we must give equal rights to all. Regardless of what the final resolution will be – the so-called “one state solution,” the “two state solution,” or any other form of governance.
Israel governs the lives of 5.5 million Israeli Jews, 1.5 million Israeli Palestinians, and 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. As long as Israel is responsible for all of these people, it must ensure that all have equal rights, the same access to resources, and the same opportunities in education and healthcare. Only through such a platform of basic human rights for all humans can a resolution come to the region.
If Americans truly are our friends, they should shake us up and take away the keys, because right now we are driving drunk, and without this wake-up call, we will soon find ourselves in the ditch of an undemocratic, doomed state.
(Jonathan Ben-Artzi was one of the spokespeople for the Hadash party in the Israeli general elections in 2006. His parents are professors in Israel, and his extended family includes uncle Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Ben-Artzi is a PhD student at Brown University in Providence, R.I.)
Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0401/Peace-for-Israelis-and-Palestinians-Not-without-America-s-tough-love
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Concerts, lockdowns, couchsurfing and more!
Wow I feel as though the last 3 months have been one long, rainy blur. I have never before in my life experienced the kind of rain that I’ve seen here. Because of all the hills, the water just flows down the streets in literal rivers. Kind of amazing, but not if you have to walk to work…
There are just so many things I feel like I could say about this part of the world at the moment. Well, to start with I suppose I should say that I am safe! Things were brewing and bubbling, that’s for sure, but we’ve gone back to a decent level of stability. But maybe I’ll get to all that later on…
The teaching has kept me busy. We’ve had a lot of concerts this past month: two concerts in mid-March, one in Bethlehem and the other in Ramallah. Our programme was the Schumann “Trout” Piano Quintet, and the Beethoven Second Piano Trio. One week later we traveled up to the Occupied Golan Heights and played another concert consisting of the Beethoven Trio, the first movement of the Beethoven “Kreutzer” Sonata (me on piano, my sister on violin), and two movements of the Brahms Piano Quintet. Finally, the following weekend we played a concert in Jerusalem (Beethoven Trio, Brahms Quintet) and then Ramallah (Beethoven Kreutzer, Brahms Quintet).
We were so badly hoping to play the Schumann again in Golan and Jerusalem, but since our bass player is Palestinian he requires special permission to travel through Israel. Due to the heightened tension here, all applications for permissions were postponed.
The trip to Golan was made with some other Conservatory colleagues to play a concert. Golan is incredibly beautiful! The Golan Heights used to belong to Syria before Israeli forces invaded and took over in 1967. As such, the Golan Heights contains many Israeli settlements with the purpose of securing land for Israel and boosting the Jewish civilian population in the area. Israel makes life hard for the Arabs who continue to live in the Golan by taxing them heavily on water: the Arabs have built water tanks to collect rain; the Israelis measure the rainfall and then tax the Arabs accordingly (can anyone say ridiculous?).
Golan is also full of land mines put in place during the 1967 war. These mines were generally placed surrounding the civilian populations and on agricultural land. In one instance, on a hill in the middle of the village of Majdal Shams, there is an Israeli military outpost surrounded by land mines. Heavy rains push these land mines down into the yards of the houses at the bottom of the hill. Despite Israel’s support and initiatives in cleaning up land mines in other countries, they are incredibly lackadaisical about removing mines in their own country (supposedly due to risk of injury to Israeli soldiers). Israel is not even prompt about erecting a fence to keep children or animals from wandering into dangerous areas – which is interesting, remarked one of my colleagues, considering how good Israel is at putting up fences!! Unfortunately, human rights organizations and the UN are both similarly uninvolved with this situation.
In these last three months I have been introduced to a really interesting concept: couchsurfing. There’s a website you can check out: www.couchsurfing.org and the idea is that you stay on people’s couches for free while you are traveling around! My roommate told me about the idea and asked how I felt about it. I figured, “Why not?!” So since January we’ve hosted almost 15 people from Sweden, Spain, Ireland, France, USA, Belgium, and the Netherlands! It’s really kind of neat to open up your home in this way. Nothing is expected of you as a host, and oftentimes your guests will cook you dinner or bring over a bottle of wine to be shared – always a plus! Anyway, if you like what you see after checking out the website, I urge you to open your doors and your hearts and experience something really cool.
At the end of February I attended the Idan Raichel concert in Jerusalem. Idan Raichel is an Israeli musician who I started listening to just before I moved to Palestine. I quite enjoy his music even though I don’t understand at all what he’s saying since it’s usually in Hebrew or Amharic (he’s heavily influenced by Ethiopian music). The concert was really entertaining, and I enjoyed myself despite being alone. Raichel is a self-proclaimed messenger of peace and tolerance and yet I wondered how many of the Israeli attendees that night, let alone Raichel himself, truly know what their government is doing to the Palestinian people! I hate to paint everyone with the same brush, but I wanted to share this thought that crossed my mind.
I had mentioned in my previous email a tour I took when I was with my parents. This was a tour through the area of Silwan. This small “village” is just outside Dung Gate of the Old City. Many Palestinians live there, or used to live there before they were forced out of their homes by Israelis. We met with one family whose home was slated for demolition. It was heartbreaking to think that these people are facing the possibility of losing everything they own.
(An excellent explanation of the evictions of Palestinians in neighbourhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and more can be found at: http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/expecting-a-third-intifada/ I strongly urge you to read this article. I will quote a brief paragraph to give you a taste of what is included:
“…government-backed Jewish organisations, mostly funded by wealthy Jews from the United States, have been creating a foothold in the Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah where Palestinian families have been forcibly evicted from their homes in coordination with the police apparatus. Settlers claim that some homes belonged to Jews prior to 1948 while others were purchased in secret deals. When aggrieved Palestinians go to Israeli courts for redress, the Israeli judge routinely sides with the settler squatters.
Settler lawyers often claim that homes in such towns as Hebron and Jerusalem belonged to Jews during the British Mandate era. The same lawyers overlook the fact that tens of thousands of homes in what is now Israel belonged to Palestinian families whose members were either massacred, as in Deir Yassin, or ethnically cleansed and forced into exile, as happened in Jerusalem’s neighbourhoods of Lifta, Ain Karm, Talbiyeh and Al-Malha, to name a few.
When this writer asked an Israeli lawyer involved in efforts to arrogate Arab real estate in East Jerusalem why it was legal for Jews to reclaim their presumed property in the West Bank while it was not for Palestinians relative to property in what is now Israel, the lawyer said, “because we are strong and you are weak”. ”)
Our tour guide (an young Israeli pacifist who spent time in prison for leaving the military and who is an advocate for Palestinians and peace) also showed us an “archaeological” dig that was happening just outside the Old City walls. The dig is sponsored by ElAd, a dodgy right-wing Jewish organization. Now, of course, there are no problems with archaeological projects. There are, of course, problems with archaeological projects that force people to leave their homes (home evictions and demolitions), their livelihoods (taking over an area where locals used to sell their wares to tourists), or endanger life (weakening the ground to the extent where homes and schools have actually caved in). As well, this archaeological project has a specific agenda: discover evidence that supports Jewish presence eons ago so that the Jews can lay claim to the village of Silwan and take it over, saying this used to be the city of King David.
A good informative article on this issue can be found here: http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/5453-archaeology-becomes-a-curse-for-jerusalems-palestinians-.html
Okay I think it’s time to include a funny story at this point…So I had just finished shopping at the fruit market one day and was headed home when I walked by a fairly bedraggled man sitting against the side of a building. He was holding a grapefruit and he offered it to me. The sight of this just made me laugh and I shook my head “no” and walked away. On my way home I stopped in at a grocery store and before I entered the store I looked behind me and saw that the grapefruit-man had followed me all this way. So I ducked into the store, bought some eggs, and contemplated asking the store owner to tell this guy to beat it, but since it was the middle of the day I wasn’t too worried. I exited the store and just down the street is a road that goes sharply uphill on the left. As I walked past the intersection I looked up to see the grapefruit-guy standing a ways up the hill. I turn away but then hear something and what do I see…a grapefruit rolling past my feet. This guy had sent the grapefruit rolling on down to me. I didn’t pick it up, just kept on going, and fortunately the grapefruit man took off in the opposite direction…Very strange.
My sister left just this morning after spending the last three weeks here. She loved her time in Palestine. Together we spent time in Nablus, Ramallah, Golan, Jerusalem (including seeing the Israel Philharmonic and meeting Itzhak Perlman), Tel Aviv, Haifa (Baha’i Gardens – utterly beautiful), Jericho/Wadi Qelt (a lovely 6-hour hike), and a brief trip to Greece to renew my visa.
As I mentioned at the outset of my email, things were bubbling here for a while. This was due to a “lockdown” on the West Bank. Israel was not letting people into Israel even if they had the proper papers to enter, screening people before allowing them to enter the Old City in Jerusalem and restricting access to Al-Aqsa to men under the age of 50. The lockdowns occurred after Israel let it slip while Joe Biden was visiting that the Netanyahu government plans to build 1600 more Jewish apartments in East Jerusalem – this news greatly upset Palestinians and incited protests against the plans for the new settlements. Israel also declared the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron as a Jewish Heritage Site, provoking huge riots from the Muslim world.
For more info see this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/opinion/16iht-edcohen.html
I do wish these emails were less political in nature. However, the situation here cannot be avoided in conversation or in my thoughts and feelings. It makes one feel angry, useless, and bewildered! You want to help but have no idea what you can do. So in my own way I hope that these small insights into the reality of life for Palestinians can cause one to start asking questions and looking for answers!
Other good times: watching the Superbowl in Tel Aviv at 1:00 a.m.; performing the Brahms Piano Quintet with four amazing ladies; knafeh with Dani in Nablus; patches of poppies among rocks and olive trees; freshly squeezed orange juice; wearing sandals in March; perfecting banana muffins.
It’s been a great six months and I’m so happy I have another three months to continue to explore this amazing place. At the same time, I miss Canada so much and am yearning to go home.
Much love to all,
Hillary
There are just so many things I feel like I could say about this part of the world at the moment. Well, to start with I suppose I should say that I am safe! Things were brewing and bubbling, that’s for sure, but we’ve gone back to a decent level of stability. But maybe I’ll get to all that later on…
The teaching has kept me busy. We’ve had a lot of concerts this past month: two concerts in mid-March, one in Bethlehem and the other in Ramallah. Our programme was the Schumann “Trout” Piano Quintet, and the Beethoven Second Piano Trio. One week later we traveled up to the Occupied Golan Heights and played another concert consisting of the Beethoven Trio, the first movement of the Beethoven “Kreutzer” Sonata (me on piano, my sister on violin), and two movements of the Brahms Piano Quintet. Finally, the following weekend we played a concert in Jerusalem (Beethoven Trio, Brahms Quintet) and then Ramallah (Beethoven Kreutzer, Brahms Quintet).
We were so badly hoping to play the Schumann again in Golan and Jerusalem, but since our bass player is Palestinian he requires special permission to travel through Israel. Due to the heightened tension here, all applications for permissions were postponed.
The trip to Golan was made with some other Conservatory colleagues to play a concert. Golan is incredibly beautiful! The Golan Heights used to belong to Syria before Israeli forces invaded and took over in 1967. As such, the Golan Heights contains many Israeli settlements with the purpose of securing land for Israel and boosting the Jewish civilian population in the area. Israel makes life hard for the Arabs who continue to live in the Golan by taxing them heavily on water: the Arabs have built water tanks to collect rain; the Israelis measure the rainfall and then tax the Arabs accordingly (can anyone say ridiculous?).
Golan is also full of land mines put in place during the 1967 war. These mines were generally placed surrounding the civilian populations and on agricultural land. In one instance, on a hill in the middle of the village of Majdal Shams, there is an Israeli military outpost surrounded by land mines. Heavy rains push these land mines down into the yards of the houses at the bottom of the hill. Despite Israel’s support and initiatives in cleaning up land mines in other countries, they are incredibly lackadaisical about removing mines in their own country (supposedly due to risk of injury to Israeli soldiers). Israel is not even prompt about erecting a fence to keep children or animals from wandering into dangerous areas – which is interesting, remarked one of my colleagues, considering how good Israel is at putting up fences!! Unfortunately, human rights organizations and the UN are both similarly uninvolved with this situation.
In these last three months I have been introduced to a really interesting concept: couchsurfing. There’s a website you can check out: www.couchsurfing.org and the idea is that you stay on people’s couches for free while you are traveling around! My roommate told me about the idea and asked how I felt about it. I figured, “Why not?!” So since January we’ve hosted almost 15 people from Sweden, Spain, Ireland, France, USA, Belgium, and the Netherlands! It’s really kind of neat to open up your home in this way. Nothing is expected of you as a host, and oftentimes your guests will cook you dinner or bring over a bottle of wine to be shared – always a plus! Anyway, if you like what you see after checking out the website, I urge you to open your doors and your hearts and experience something really cool.
At the end of February I attended the Idan Raichel concert in Jerusalem. Idan Raichel is an Israeli musician who I started listening to just before I moved to Palestine. I quite enjoy his music even though I don’t understand at all what he’s saying since it’s usually in Hebrew or Amharic (he’s heavily influenced by Ethiopian music). The concert was really entertaining, and I enjoyed myself despite being alone. Raichel is a self-proclaimed messenger of peace and tolerance and yet I wondered how many of the Israeli attendees that night, let alone Raichel himself, truly know what their government is doing to the Palestinian people! I hate to paint everyone with the same brush, but I wanted to share this thought that crossed my mind.
I had mentioned in my previous email a tour I took when I was with my parents. This was a tour through the area of Silwan. This small “village” is just outside Dung Gate of the Old City. Many Palestinians live there, or used to live there before they were forced out of their homes by Israelis. We met with one family whose home was slated for demolition. It was heartbreaking to think that these people are facing the possibility of losing everything they own.
(An excellent explanation of the evictions of Palestinians in neighbourhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and more can be found at: http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/expecting-a-third-intifada/ I strongly urge you to read this article. I will quote a brief paragraph to give you a taste of what is included:
“…government-backed Jewish organisations, mostly funded by wealthy Jews from the United States, have been creating a foothold in the Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah where Palestinian families have been forcibly evicted from their homes in coordination with the police apparatus. Settlers claim that some homes belonged to Jews prior to 1948 while others were purchased in secret deals. When aggrieved Palestinians go to Israeli courts for redress, the Israeli judge routinely sides with the settler squatters.
Settler lawyers often claim that homes in such towns as Hebron and Jerusalem belonged to Jews during the British Mandate era. The same lawyers overlook the fact that tens of thousands of homes in what is now Israel belonged to Palestinian families whose members were either massacred, as in Deir Yassin, or ethnically cleansed and forced into exile, as happened in Jerusalem’s neighbourhoods of Lifta, Ain Karm, Talbiyeh and Al-Malha, to name a few.
When this writer asked an Israeli lawyer involved in efforts to arrogate Arab real estate in East Jerusalem why it was legal for Jews to reclaim their presumed property in the West Bank while it was not for Palestinians relative to property in what is now Israel, the lawyer said, “because we are strong and you are weak”. ”)
Our tour guide (an young Israeli pacifist who spent time in prison for leaving the military and who is an advocate for Palestinians and peace) also showed us an “archaeological” dig that was happening just outside the Old City walls. The dig is sponsored by ElAd, a dodgy right-wing Jewish organization. Now, of course, there are no problems with archaeological projects. There are, of course, problems with archaeological projects that force people to leave their homes (home evictions and demolitions), their livelihoods (taking over an area where locals used to sell their wares to tourists), or endanger life (weakening the ground to the extent where homes and schools have actually caved in). As well, this archaeological project has a specific agenda: discover evidence that supports Jewish presence eons ago so that the Jews can lay claim to the village of Silwan and take it over, saying this used to be the city of King David.
A good informative article on this issue can be found here: http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/5453-archaeology-becomes-a-curse-for-jerusalems-palestinians-.html
Okay I think it’s time to include a funny story at this point…So I had just finished shopping at the fruit market one day and was headed home when I walked by a fairly bedraggled man sitting against the side of a building. He was holding a grapefruit and he offered it to me. The sight of this just made me laugh and I shook my head “no” and walked away. On my way home I stopped in at a grocery store and before I entered the store I looked behind me and saw that the grapefruit-man had followed me all this way. So I ducked into the store, bought some eggs, and contemplated asking the store owner to tell this guy to beat it, but since it was the middle of the day I wasn’t too worried. I exited the store and just down the street is a road that goes sharply uphill on the left. As I walked past the intersection I looked up to see the grapefruit-guy standing a ways up the hill. I turn away but then hear something and what do I see…a grapefruit rolling past my feet. This guy had sent the grapefruit rolling on down to me. I didn’t pick it up, just kept on going, and fortunately the grapefruit man took off in the opposite direction…Very strange.
My sister left just this morning after spending the last three weeks here. She loved her time in Palestine. Together we spent time in Nablus, Ramallah, Golan, Jerusalem (including seeing the Israel Philharmonic and meeting Itzhak Perlman), Tel Aviv, Haifa (Baha’i Gardens – utterly beautiful), Jericho/Wadi Qelt (a lovely 6-hour hike), and a brief trip to Greece to renew my visa.
As I mentioned at the outset of my email, things were bubbling here for a while. This was due to a “lockdown” on the West Bank. Israel was not letting people into Israel even if they had the proper papers to enter, screening people before allowing them to enter the Old City in Jerusalem and restricting access to Al-Aqsa to men under the age of 50. The lockdowns occurred after Israel let it slip while Joe Biden was visiting that the Netanyahu government plans to build 1600 more Jewish apartments in East Jerusalem – this news greatly upset Palestinians and incited protests against the plans for the new settlements. Israel also declared the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron as a Jewish Heritage Site, provoking huge riots from the Muslim world.
For more info see this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/opinion/16iht-edcohen.html
I do wish these emails were less political in nature. However, the situation here cannot be avoided in conversation or in my thoughts and feelings. It makes one feel angry, useless, and bewildered! You want to help but have no idea what you can do. So in my own way I hope that these small insights into the reality of life for Palestinians can cause one to start asking questions and looking for answers!
Other good times: watching the Superbowl in Tel Aviv at 1:00 a.m.; performing the Brahms Piano Quintet with four amazing ladies; knafeh with Dani in Nablus; patches of poppies among rocks and olive trees; freshly squeezed orange juice; wearing sandals in March; perfecting banana muffins.
It’s been a great six months and I’m so happy I have another three months to continue to explore this amazing place. At the same time, I miss Canada so much and am yearning to go home.
Much love to all,
Hillary
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Ramallah: 2010
Happy Holidays!! …belated greetings everyone. So it’s been a while since my last personal update – sorry for that. Things have been incredibly busy out here.
At the end of November was the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, or “Greater Eid” – a celebration of the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj). This meant a 5-day holiday for the teachers at the Conservatory! For the occasion, I traveled to Tel Aviv with a fellow colleague. This was my first time in Tel Aviv since landing at Ben Gurion so I was excited to see the city.
Tel Aviv is so different from both Ramallah and Jerusalem. It reminds me of Miami with a twist of Edmonton’s White Ave thrown in. There are fabulous little cafes and shops everywhere you go plus a giant shopping centre reminiscent of downtown Toronto. And of course there’s the beach! Fortunately the weather was beautifully warm all weekend and I took full advantage of this fact by going for a dip in the Mediterranean – idyllic!
Following the holidays we had student exams. And a few short weeks after that the teachers put on a concert at the Conservatory. It was my first public performance in quite some time so I was definitely nervous. I also wasn’t sure what kind of a crowd we would have since I didn’t know how keen people around here are towards Western Classical music. So it was a pleasant surprise that we packed the house and everyone absolutely loved the show.
And then it was time for my big holiday: two weeks off from work. Almost all of my friends here were leaving to go visit friends in Europe. And since it was too expensive for me to go home, home came to me – my parents came out for 2.5 weeks, and what an amazing 2.5 weeks it was!
Honestly there are so many stories to share that I hardly know where to start. Well I’ll begin by telling you the general outline we followed: Tel Aviv – Jerusalem – Ramallah – Hebron – Jerusalem – Jericho – Nablus – Jerusalem – Eilat – Petra – Eilat – Ramallah – Jerusalem – Tel Aviv.
The trip to Hebron was an incredible experience. For those who don’t know, Hebron (also known as Al-Khalil) has a Jewish settlement in the middle of the city. The 500 settlers in Hebron are “protected” by about 2000 Israeli soldiers. The settlers are known to walk around on the Sabbath to make their presence known. At this time they have been known to shout at Arabs and spit on people. The settlers are also free to carry weapons: I will never forget a picture that my roommate took when she went to Hebron - an Orthodox Jewish family, the man with sidelocks and a kippa, the woman with a long skirt and her hair covered, pushing a baby in a stroller. The man had a machine gun strapped around his back. Unreal.
In the Old City of Hebron, where the Arabs have their shops, the streets have a fence above your heads because the settlers throw their garbage down upon the Arabs. When you look up you see things like chairs, diapers, plastic bags and bottles, etc. The settlers have also been known to throw bags of urine onto people walking below – a friend of mine had the unfortunate experience of witnessing this firsthand.
In Hebron a family invited us up to their roof where several Palestinian children were playing. A solider was standing on an outpost approximately 20 metres away, guarding a settlement house. The destructive nature of the Hebron settlers was made evident by the water tanks on the roof of the Palestinian house: there were several bullet holes in each one at the base of the tanks, rendering them completely and utterly useless.
My friend, S, a Palestinian, traveled with me and my family to Hebron since he was from there. S is a clean-cut, well-dressed and articulate young man (and traveling with 3 Canadians), so it was a surprise when he was pulled aside at the checkpoint to enter the Ibrahimi Mosque. S was asked to present his papers. My family was told that we could proceed but we made it quite clear that we would be waiting with our friend. The soldier took S’s documents, stood aside, sipped a coffee for 20 minutes, spoke into his radio for about one minute, called S over, dismissed him, continued to drink his coffee, spoke into his radio again for a minute, called S over and told him he was free to enter the mosque.
While my family and I were waiting for S to be “cleared”, one Israeli soldier came up to me and said “You have really beautiful eyes, you know that.” I hardly knew what to say. Here I am waiting for my friend to finish being humiliated and this is what a soldier comes up to me and says?! It was seriously mind-boggling.
Later on in Hebron, after my family toured the Mosque and the Synagogue on the other side of the mosque (where the same Israeli officers pleasantly greeted us with a “Shabbat Shalom!”…) I witnessed something special: Two young Jewish men were seated with a Palestinian shopkeeper apparently discussing the situation at hand (S told me this since they were speaking in Arabic). It was an interesting and hopeful sign that people in this tense city were willing to enter into a civil conversation about things.
When my family went to Jericho, we also made a stop at the Dead Sea. We went to Kalia Beach which is surrounded by old decrepit army barracks of the Jordanian military. When we arrived we were told that we would have to wait about 20 minutes before going in the water because there was going to be an explosion on the beach. We were puzzled by this but stood around waiting like everyone else. As my family and I were talking to a very nice brother and sister from Australia we were cut off by a huge explosion across the water. You could feel this explosion in your chest and in the ground. Looking over the distance you saw a huge cloud of smoke rising from the earth. Not ten seconds later we saw another cloud begin to rise and we all covered our ears before we heard the second explosion. I’m not entirely sure what was being detonated but it’s possible that the army had discovered some dormant land mines. Some 20 minutes later, after everyone was back in the water, there was a third explosion!
I have to admit I was nervous to go to Nablus. On December 26th, the Israeli army invaded the city and killed three men ( http://palsolidarity.org/2009/12/10000 ). The men were apparently wanted in connection with the death of a settler. I urge you to read the article. If you do, you will see that the army did not attempt to question or detain the unarmed men – instead they shot them pointe blank after confirming their identity. The army also shot a pregnant woman in the foot. The houses of the families were completely destroyed by live ammunition and rockets. Each man left behind a wife and several children.
I had never really been afraid of the military presence before I read about this incident. It really rang home to me that the guns I see everyday actually get used. I sincerely hope I never have to witness it, though…
Despite this tragedy and a feeling of anxiety, my family and I visited Nablus. I teach in this city every week but this was my first chance to actually walk around. Nablus is an incredibly beautiful city. It is located in the valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal (for those familiar with the Biblical narrative). We drove up one mountain (not entirely sure which one…possibly Gerizim) and were given an amazing view of the valley. Then one of my students led us around the Old City. Nablus is famous for producing sweets and we were taken into a few shops that were making things like Turkish Delight and knafeh. We went to the oldest sweet shop and had truly amazing knafeh – the tradition in Nablus is to put the knafeh into a piece of pita bread and eat it that way, but that seemed like way too many calories at a time!
After Nablus we headed South for our trip to Petra! We spent one night in Eilat (where we saw the latest blockbuster, Avatar – quite a good movie, even if it did steal the core of its story). The next day we headed to the border and then on to Petra. It takes an hour and a half to drive to Petra from the Arava crossing, but it took us much longer since the climb up to Petra/Wadi Musa was so entrenched in a cloudy fog that we had to crawl along at about 20 km/hr for quite a while.
Highlights of Petra: our great taxi driver, Mohammed, who really took a shine to our family and accompanied us all through Little Petra (he said he usually doesn’t spend time with his customers because he doesn’t usually like them); Petra by Night, which involves walking from the entrance of Petra to the Treasury (about 2 km) on a path lit by candles, followed by a concert of traditional Bedouin music while being served sweet tea (truly a beautiful evening and made even more special because when the clouds cleared they revealed a full moon! Also, my dad stretched out on the mats and when he did, a friendly cat came and parked itself on my dad’s chest where it stayed for about 45 minutes); Big Petra - WOW! This place is truly amazing…there are so many caves and paths to explore and mountains to climb. I got myself into some very crazy places which definitely put my parents on edge, but fortunately I survived; riding a camel; enjoying the truly beautiful Bedouin men (dark skin, white teeth, long curly hair, and these amazing eyes that are dark and light at the same time); singing with my dad in a chamber with fantastic acoustics; and last but certainly not least, being invited to dinner by a lovely young girl (Sahar) who sold my mom some socks (and we did go to dinner and were served the traditional and amazingly delicious dish of Maklouba)!!
I was extremely nervous about crossing the border to get back into Israel. My heart was beating like crazy, but fortunately I kept my cool and my family and I were permitted to pass (although the guard seemed quite suspicious of me). The officer stamping my passport said she wasn’t supposed to give me another Visa because I should really go to the Ministry of the Interior if I want to get my tourist Visa extended (ya right). She said she would give me the Visa but since she wasn’t supposed to, I shouldn’t do it again (do what again? Leave your country and then come back!?) . Getting a Visa here is such a gong show because it seems there are really no clear-cut rules for renewing tourist visas (or at least each border crossing guard will tell you a different story!), and it’s really and truly all about who is sitting behind the desk and their mood that day.
Some more brief highlights over the last few weeks: going to see the Tel Aviv Philharmonic (brilliant); attending a reform synagogue on Shabbat, followed by Shabbat dinner at a new friend’s house; eating bagels and cream cheese with my mom in the Old City; a tour of Silwan with an Israeli pacifist (more on this next time, Inshallah); enjoying my growing Arabic vocabulary; riding a camel in Petra; having a fantastic holiday with my wonderful parents; and tea with mint, tea with mint, tea with mint!
Well, I do have more to say but I think this post has been sufficiently long enough!
Okay one more short story: So I wanted to find some new bags to put in my vacuum (“hoover”, as my French roommate calls it). I was walking around Ramallah and stopped in at a spice store and decided to ask the owner if he knew of a shop that sold vacuum bags. He said that his friend had some. He walked me down the street to a hole-in-the-wall-store that had remote controls in the window. He spoke to his friend in Arabic and the man reached underneath a shelving unit to pull out several different kinds of vacuum bags. Unfortunately they weren’t the ones I needed, but it’s just an example of the random assortment of things people sell in their shops!
I hope everyone is happy and healthy and enjoying Canadian winter. As one of my friends reminded me, you can always feel alive when you inhale a deep breathe in a winter on the prairies!
Things I miss: family and friends (always), driving a car, running/going to the gym, Indian food, my bed, and hoar frost in the morning.
Things I continue to enjoy: the muezzin’s call to prayer, warm weather, cheap fruit and vegetables, the endless challenge of teaching and creating music, and the mere fact that I am living in such a different world – I am always amazed at this when I think about it.
Salaam – Shalom
Hillary
At the end of November was the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, or “Greater Eid” – a celebration of the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj). This meant a 5-day holiday for the teachers at the Conservatory! For the occasion, I traveled to Tel Aviv with a fellow colleague. This was my first time in Tel Aviv since landing at Ben Gurion so I was excited to see the city.
Tel Aviv is so different from both Ramallah and Jerusalem. It reminds me of Miami with a twist of Edmonton’s White Ave thrown in. There are fabulous little cafes and shops everywhere you go plus a giant shopping centre reminiscent of downtown Toronto. And of course there’s the beach! Fortunately the weather was beautifully warm all weekend and I took full advantage of this fact by going for a dip in the Mediterranean – idyllic!
Following the holidays we had student exams. And a few short weeks after that the teachers put on a concert at the Conservatory. It was my first public performance in quite some time so I was definitely nervous. I also wasn’t sure what kind of a crowd we would have since I didn’t know how keen people around here are towards Western Classical music. So it was a pleasant surprise that we packed the house and everyone absolutely loved the show.
And then it was time for my big holiday: two weeks off from work. Almost all of my friends here were leaving to go visit friends in Europe. And since it was too expensive for me to go home, home came to me – my parents came out for 2.5 weeks, and what an amazing 2.5 weeks it was!
Honestly there are so many stories to share that I hardly know where to start. Well I’ll begin by telling you the general outline we followed: Tel Aviv – Jerusalem – Ramallah – Hebron – Jerusalem – Jericho – Nablus – Jerusalem – Eilat – Petra – Eilat – Ramallah – Jerusalem – Tel Aviv.
The trip to Hebron was an incredible experience. For those who don’t know, Hebron (also known as Al-Khalil) has a Jewish settlement in the middle of the city. The 500 settlers in Hebron are “protected” by about 2000 Israeli soldiers. The settlers are known to walk around on the Sabbath to make their presence known. At this time they have been known to shout at Arabs and spit on people. The settlers are also free to carry weapons: I will never forget a picture that my roommate took when she went to Hebron - an Orthodox Jewish family, the man with sidelocks and a kippa, the woman with a long skirt and her hair covered, pushing a baby in a stroller. The man had a machine gun strapped around his back. Unreal.
In the Old City of Hebron, where the Arabs have their shops, the streets have a fence above your heads because the settlers throw their garbage down upon the Arabs. When you look up you see things like chairs, diapers, plastic bags and bottles, etc. The settlers have also been known to throw bags of urine onto people walking below – a friend of mine had the unfortunate experience of witnessing this firsthand.
In Hebron a family invited us up to their roof where several Palestinian children were playing. A solider was standing on an outpost approximately 20 metres away, guarding a settlement house. The destructive nature of the Hebron settlers was made evident by the water tanks on the roof of the Palestinian house: there were several bullet holes in each one at the base of the tanks, rendering them completely and utterly useless.
My friend, S, a Palestinian, traveled with me and my family to Hebron since he was from there. S is a clean-cut, well-dressed and articulate young man (and traveling with 3 Canadians), so it was a surprise when he was pulled aside at the checkpoint to enter the Ibrahimi Mosque. S was asked to present his papers. My family was told that we could proceed but we made it quite clear that we would be waiting with our friend. The soldier took S’s documents, stood aside, sipped a coffee for 20 minutes, spoke into his radio for about one minute, called S over, dismissed him, continued to drink his coffee, spoke into his radio again for a minute, called S over and told him he was free to enter the mosque.
While my family and I were waiting for S to be “cleared”, one Israeli soldier came up to me and said “You have really beautiful eyes, you know that.” I hardly knew what to say. Here I am waiting for my friend to finish being humiliated and this is what a soldier comes up to me and says?! It was seriously mind-boggling.
Later on in Hebron, after my family toured the Mosque and the Synagogue on the other side of the mosque (where the same Israeli officers pleasantly greeted us with a “Shabbat Shalom!”…) I witnessed something special: Two young Jewish men were seated with a Palestinian shopkeeper apparently discussing the situation at hand (S told me this since they were speaking in Arabic). It was an interesting and hopeful sign that people in this tense city were willing to enter into a civil conversation about things.
When my family went to Jericho, we also made a stop at the Dead Sea. We went to Kalia Beach which is surrounded by old decrepit army barracks of the Jordanian military. When we arrived we were told that we would have to wait about 20 minutes before going in the water because there was going to be an explosion on the beach. We were puzzled by this but stood around waiting like everyone else. As my family and I were talking to a very nice brother and sister from Australia we were cut off by a huge explosion across the water. You could feel this explosion in your chest and in the ground. Looking over the distance you saw a huge cloud of smoke rising from the earth. Not ten seconds later we saw another cloud begin to rise and we all covered our ears before we heard the second explosion. I’m not entirely sure what was being detonated but it’s possible that the army had discovered some dormant land mines. Some 20 minutes later, after everyone was back in the water, there was a third explosion!
I have to admit I was nervous to go to Nablus. On December 26th, the Israeli army invaded the city and killed three men ( http://palsolidarity.org/2009/12/10000 ). The men were apparently wanted in connection with the death of a settler. I urge you to read the article. If you do, you will see that the army did not attempt to question or detain the unarmed men – instead they shot them pointe blank after confirming their identity. The army also shot a pregnant woman in the foot. The houses of the families were completely destroyed by live ammunition and rockets. Each man left behind a wife and several children.
I had never really been afraid of the military presence before I read about this incident. It really rang home to me that the guns I see everyday actually get used. I sincerely hope I never have to witness it, though…
Despite this tragedy and a feeling of anxiety, my family and I visited Nablus. I teach in this city every week but this was my first chance to actually walk around. Nablus is an incredibly beautiful city. It is located in the valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal (for those familiar with the Biblical narrative). We drove up one mountain (not entirely sure which one…possibly Gerizim) and were given an amazing view of the valley. Then one of my students led us around the Old City. Nablus is famous for producing sweets and we were taken into a few shops that were making things like Turkish Delight and knafeh. We went to the oldest sweet shop and had truly amazing knafeh – the tradition in Nablus is to put the knafeh into a piece of pita bread and eat it that way, but that seemed like way too many calories at a time!
After Nablus we headed South for our trip to Petra! We spent one night in Eilat (where we saw the latest blockbuster, Avatar – quite a good movie, even if it did steal the core of its story). The next day we headed to the border and then on to Petra. It takes an hour and a half to drive to Petra from the Arava crossing, but it took us much longer since the climb up to Petra/Wadi Musa was so entrenched in a cloudy fog that we had to crawl along at about 20 km/hr for quite a while.
Highlights of Petra: our great taxi driver, Mohammed, who really took a shine to our family and accompanied us all through Little Petra (he said he usually doesn’t spend time with his customers because he doesn’t usually like them); Petra by Night, which involves walking from the entrance of Petra to the Treasury (about 2 km) on a path lit by candles, followed by a concert of traditional Bedouin music while being served sweet tea (truly a beautiful evening and made even more special because when the clouds cleared they revealed a full moon! Also, my dad stretched out on the mats and when he did, a friendly cat came and parked itself on my dad’s chest where it stayed for about 45 minutes); Big Petra - WOW! This place is truly amazing…there are so many caves and paths to explore and mountains to climb. I got myself into some very crazy places which definitely put my parents on edge, but fortunately I survived; riding a camel; enjoying the truly beautiful Bedouin men (dark skin, white teeth, long curly hair, and these amazing eyes that are dark and light at the same time); singing with my dad in a chamber with fantastic acoustics; and last but certainly not least, being invited to dinner by a lovely young girl (Sahar) who sold my mom some socks (and we did go to dinner and were served the traditional and amazingly delicious dish of Maklouba)!!
I was extremely nervous about crossing the border to get back into Israel. My heart was beating like crazy, but fortunately I kept my cool and my family and I were permitted to pass (although the guard seemed quite suspicious of me). The officer stamping my passport said she wasn’t supposed to give me another Visa because I should really go to the Ministry of the Interior if I want to get my tourist Visa extended (ya right). She said she would give me the Visa but since she wasn’t supposed to, I shouldn’t do it again (do what again? Leave your country and then come back!?) . Getting a Visa here is such a gong show because it seems there are really no clear-cut rules for renewing tourist visas (or at least each border crossing guard will tell you a different story!), and it’s really and truly all about who is sitting behind the desk and their mood that day.
Some more brief highlights over the last few weeks: going to see the Tel Aviv Philharmonic (brilliant); attending a reform synagogue on Shabbat, followed by Shabbat dinner at a new friend’s house; eating bagels and cream cheese with my mom in the Old City; a tour of Silwan with an Israeli pacifist (more on this next time, Inshallah); enjoying my growing Arabic vocabulary; riding a camel in Petra; having a fantastic holiday with my wonderful parents; and tea with mint, tea with mint, tea with mint!
Well, I do have more to say but I think this post has been sufficiently long enough!
Okay one more short story: So I wanted to find some new bags to put in my vacuum (“hoover”, as my French roommate calls it). I was walking around Ramallah and stopped in at a spice store and decided to ask the owner if he knew of a shop that sold vacuum bags. He said that his friend had some. He walked me down the street to a hole-in-the-wall-store that had remote controls in the window. He spoke to his friend in Arabic and the man reached underneath a shelving unit to pull out several different kinds of vacuum bags. Unfortunately they weren’t the ones I needed, but it’s just an example of the random assortment of things people sell in their shops!
I hope everyone is happy and healthy and enjoying Canadian winter. As one of my friends reminded me, you can always feel alive when you inhale a deep breathe in a winter on the prairies!
Things I miss: family and friends (always), driving a car, running/going to the gym, Indian food, my bed, and hoar frost in the morning.
Things I continue to enjoy: the muezzin’s call to prayer, warm weather, cheap fruit and vegetables, the endless challenge of teaching and creating music, and the mere fact that I am living in such a different world – I am always amazed at this when I think about it.
Salaam – Shalom
Hillary
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Copenhagen's Failure
Retrieved January 10th: http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/
hey-
i guess this time of year is a time for serious reflection and i have been doing a lot of that since coming back from copenhagen.
you know what has stunned me coming back is the anger you can taste in the air about this, everybody i meet wants to talk about it.. everyone is angry and despairing and i have tried to remain positive when i talk to them about it.. it has perhaps awakened something in the back of the mind of sane people throughout the world who perhaps naively assumed that something positive would come of these talks.
with such a strong reaction i hope perhaps that people are starting to join the dots and our unquestioning worship of an unlimited gluttonous carbon based economy could unravel in just enough time.
sane people in government, in the media, and on the streets are being shaken reluctantly from a dream looking at the children around them and are getting angrier than they have ever been before.
but this energy needs a constructive channel.
i have been trying to write something about my impressions of being there etc, but then Ben Stewart from Greenpeace happened to send me something he wrote on the last night which is so much better than anything i've done so far so i'll leave it to him for now
and wish you a heartfelt joyful christmas.
"The most progressive U.S. President in a generation comes to the most important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on speakerphone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides argue in private that he had no choice, such is the opposition on Capitol Hill to any action that might challenge the dominance of fossil fuels in American life. And so the nation which put a man on the moon can’t summon the collective will to protect men and women back here on Earth from the consequences of an economic model and lifestyle choice that has taken on the mantel of a religion.
Then a Chinese Premier who is in the process of converting his Communist nation to that new faith (high-carbon consumer capitalism) takes such umbrage at Obama’s speech that he refuses to meet – refuses, in fact, to do much of anything beyond sulking in his hotel room, as if this were a teenager’s house party instead of a final effort to stave off the breakdown of our biosphere.
Late in the evening the two men meet and cobble together a collection of paragraphs which they call a ‘deal’, although in reality it has all the meaning and authority of a bus ticket, not that it stops them affixing their signatures to it with great solemnity. Obama’s team then briefs the travelling White House press pack – most of whom, it seems, understand about as much about global climate politics as our own lobby hacks know about baseball – and before we know it the New York Times and CNN are declaring the birth of a ‘meaningful’ accord.
Meanwhile a friend on an African delegation emails to say that he and many fellow members of the G77 block of developing countries are streaming into the corridors after a long discussion about the perilous state of the talks, only to see Obama on the television announcing that the world has a deal. It’s the first they’ve heard about it, and a few minutes later, as they examine the text, they realise very quickly that it effectively condemns their continent to a century of devastating temperature rises.
By now the European leaders – who know this thing is a farce but have to present it to their publics as progress – have their aides phoning the directors of civil society organisations spinning that the talks have been a success. A success? This deal crosses so many of the red lines laid out by Europe before this summit started that there are scarlet skid marks across the floor of the Bella Centre, and one honest European diplomat tells us this is a ‘shitty shitty deal.’
Quite.
This deal is beyond bad. It contains no legally binding targets and no indication of when or how they’ll come about. There isn’t even a declaration that the world will aim to keep global temperature rises below 2 degrees C – instead leaders merely ‘recognise the science’ behind that vital threshold, as if that were enough to prevent us crossing it. The only part of this deal anyone sane came close to welcoming was the $100bn global climate fund, but it’s now becoming apparent that even that’s largely made up of existing budgets, with no indication of how new money will be raised and distributed so poorer countries can go green and adapt to climate change.
Not all of our politicians deserve the opprobrium of a dismayed world. Our own Ed Miliband fought hard on no sleep for a better outcome, while President Lula of Brazil offered to financially assist other developing countries to cope with climate change and put a relatively bold carbon target on the table. But the EU didn’t move on its own commitment (one so weak we’d actually have to work hard not to meet it) while the United States offered nothing and China stood firm.
Before the talks began I was of the opinion that we would only know Copenhagen was a success when plans for new coal-fired power stations across the developed world were dropped. If the giant utilities saw in the outcome of Copenhagen an unmistakable sign that governments were now determined to act, and that coal plants this century would be too expensive to run under the regime agreed at this meeting, then this summit would have succeeded. Instead, as the details of the agreement emerged last night we received reports of Japanese opposition MPs popping champagne corks as they savoured the possible collapse of their new government’s carbon targets. It’s not just that we haven’t got to where we needed to be, we’ve actually ceded huge ground. There is nothing in this deal – nothing – that would persuade an energy utility that the era of dirty coal is over. And the implications for humanity of that simple fact are profound.
I know we greens are partial to hyperbole. We use language as a bludgeon to direct attention to the crisis we’re facing, and you’ll hear much more of it in the coming days and weeks. But really, it’s no exaggeration to describe the outcome of Copenhagen as an historic failure that will live in infamy. In a single day, in a single space, a spectacle was played out in front of a disbelieving audience of people who have read and understood the stark warnings of humanity’s greatest scientific minds - and what they witnessed was nothing less than the very worst instincts of our species articulated by the most powerful men who ever lived.
I will leave the last word to the late Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who would have given voice to the insanity of Copenhagen better than I ever could, and whose poem Requiem is perhaps appropriate at this moment: ‘When the last living thing, has died on account of us, how poetical it would be if Earth could say, in a voice floating up, perhaps from the floor of the Grand Canyon, “It is done. People did not like it here”.’
hey-
i guess this time of year is a time for serious reflection and i have been doing a lot of that since coming back from copenhagen.
you know what has stunned me coming back is the anger you can taste in the air about this, everybody i meet wants to talk about it.. everyone is angry and despairing and i have tried to remain positive when i talk to them about it.. it has perhaps awakened something in the back of the mind of sane people throughout the world who perhaps naively assumed that something positive would come of these talks.
with such a strong reaction i hope perhaps that people are starting to join the dots and our unquestioning worship of an unlimited gluttonous carbon based economy could unravel in just enough time.
sane people in government, in the media, and on the streets are being shaken reluctantly from a dream looking at the children around them and are getting angrier than they have ever been before.
but this energy needs a constructive channel.
i have been trying to write something about my impressions of being there etc, but then Ben Stewart from Greenpeace happened to send me something he wrote on the last night which is so much better than anything i've done so far so i'll leave it to him for now
and wish you a heartfelt joyful christmas.
"The most progressive U.S. President in a generation comes to the most important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on speakerphone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides argue in private that he had no choice, such is the opposition on Capitol Hill to any action that might challenge the dominance of fossil fuels in American life. And so the nation which put a man on the moon can’t summon the collective will to protect men and women back here on Earth from the consequences of an economic model and lifestyle choice that has taken on the mantel of a religion.
Then a Chinese Premier who is in the process of converting his Communist nation to that new faith (high-carbon consumer capitalism) takes such umbrage at Obama’s speech that he refuses to meet – refuses, in fact, to do much of anything beyond sulking in his hotel room, as if this were a teenager’s house party instead of a final effort to stave off the breakdown of our biosphere.
Late in the evening the two men meet and cobble together a collection of paragraphs which they call a ‘deal’, although in reality it has all the meaning and authority of a bus ticket, not that it stops them affixing their signatures to it with great solemnity. Obama’s team then briefs the travelling White House press pack – most of whom, it seems, understand about as much about global climate politics as our own lobby hacks know about baseball – and before we know it the New York Times and CNN are declaring the birth of a ‘meaningful’ accord.
Meanwhile a friend on an African delegation emails to say that he and many fellow members of the G77 block of developing countries are streaming into the corridors after a long discussion about the perilous state of the talks, only to see Obama on the television announcing that the world has a deal. It’s the first they’ve heard about it, and a few minutes later, as they examine the text, they realise very quickly that it effectively condemns their continent to a century of devastating temperature rises.
By now the European leaders – who know this thing is a farce but have to present it to their publics as progress – have their aides phoning the directors of civil society organisations spinning that the talks have been a success. A success? This deal crosses so many of the red lines laid out by Europe before this summit started that there are scarlet skid marks across the floor of the Bella Centre, and one honest European diplomat tells us this is a ‘shitty shitty deal.’
Quite.
This deal is beyond bad. It contains no legally binding targets and no indication of when or how they’ll come about. There isn’t even a declaration that the world will aim to keep global temperature rises below 2 degrees C – instead leaders merely ‘recognise the science’ behind that vital threshold, as if that were enough to prevent us crossing it. The only part of this deal anyone sane came close to welcoming was the $100bn global climate fund, but it’s now becoming apparent that even that’s largely made up of existing budgets, with no indication of how new money will be raised and distributed so poorer countries can go green and adapt to climate change.
Not all of our politicians deserve the opprobrium of a dismayed world. Our own Ed Miliband fought hard on no sleep for a better outcome, while President Lula of Brazil offered to financially assist other developing countries to cope with climate change and put a relatively bold carbon target on the table. But the EU didn’t move on its own commitment (one so weak we’d actually have to work hard not to meet it) while the United States offered nothing and China stood firm.
Before the talks began I was of the opinion that we would only know Copenhagen was a success when plans for new coal-fired power stations across the developed world were dropped. If the giant utilities saw in the outcome of Copenhagen an unmistakable sign that governments were now determined to act, and that coal plants this century would be too expensive to run under the regime agreed at this meeting, then this summit would have succeeded. Instead, as the details of the agreement emerged last night we received reports of Japanese opposition MPs popping champagne corks as they savoured the possible collapse of their new government’s carbon targets. It’s not just that we haven’t got to where we needed to be, we’ve actually ceded huge ground. There is nothing in this deal – nothing – that would persuade an energy utility that the era of dirty coal is over. And the implications for humanity of that simple fact are profound.
I know we greens are partial to hyperbole. We use language as a bludgeon to direct attention to the crisis we’re facing, and you’ll hear much more of it in the coming days and weeks. But really, it’s no exaggeration to describe the outcome of Copenhagen as an historic failure that will live in infamy. In a single day, in a single space, a spectacle was played out in front of a disbelieving audience of people who have read and understood the stark warnings of humanity’s greatest scientific minds - and what they witnessed was nothing less than the very worst instincts of our species articulated by the most powerful men who ever lived.
I will leave the last word to the late Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who would have given voice to the insanity of Copenhagen better than I ever could, and whose poem Requiem is perhaps appropriate at this moment: ‘When the last living thing, has died on account of us, how poetical it would be if Earth could say, in a voice floating up, perhaps from the floor of the Grand Canyon, “It is done. People did not like it here”.’
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