An Email to My Dad

Dear Dad,

I left Palestine five days ago, forced out of my chosen home because I am not Jewish and so do not merit a work visa, this according to Ministry of Interior from which I sought the visa. At my desk now with the computer in front of me and just beyond it the TV, I watch the same story over and over.

The Israeli military storms an activist boat full of humanitarian aid. No one knows how many dead--up to 19 it is thought. Dozens wounded. There's no information except what the Israelis offer. Ehud Barak and five other Israeli officials are played with different backdrops but the same lines: "We did all we could avoid this." "These were not activists but terrorists." "They attacked us. Blame the instigators." I stare at the screen in shock. I know these to be blatant lies. It doesn't take much intelligence to see the logical fallacies in the state line.

Then my shock is replaced by the growing nausea in my belly. It's been sitting in my gut for days but now as it shifts, I feel I might not be able to go down to dinner or leave this room. I look around at my daily life and I think how it seems and sometimes feels so normal because it is our reality: the Jewish settlement across the hill, one of hundreds that steal land illegally and yet continue to be built and expanded; the murders and imprisonments, deportations and beatings with rarely a name attached to the body. How is this normal?

Dad, I've put my heart and soul, my income and energy, my very life into this place, believing that one must not only speak about justice but must lead a life that contributes to a more just world. But I feel helpless and wholly hopeless.

They crushed Rachel Corrie and they left the blade down as they reversed over her broken and gasping body. They shot my friend's five-year-old nephew in the back from less than 5 feet away. They massacred 1,400 people last year in Gaza, "guarding" one family in a house with parents dead and children starving to death. I watched a boy bleed to death 6 years ago, shot and then blocked off by the soldiers who waited for his death. And I have seen nothing of the horrors Israelis have done over the last century.

Dad, do you believe in justice?

Violence and the Land

Yesterday I went to see my friend's family in a village I haven't been to in a year maybe. I know the way well. A few summers ago I went there often. Driving around the West Bank is really quite horrifying because not only do you see manifest racism and apartheid as you drive on the settler roads only to be forced off of them to potholed dirt roads where Palestinians drive but you feel the anger that such racism and apartheid create. Sadly this is nothing new nor even shocking anymore. What so disturbed me yesterday was that in getting to this village we were blocked at multiple turns. Roads that were used just yesterday were now inaccessible after the Israeli military pushed heaps of trash, dirt and rocks into the path.




Turn around and try another route. We literally went in a wide circle around the village to the north then the west before circling back to the east. It was the same leaving: a huge circuit around that was utterly unnecessary. Solely frustrating. And for what? How can you learn the land when such violence is imposed on it, daily violence against land. How can you live when you don't know which way to go? The path to your house is new today, and again tomorrow. The path you walked as a child and are forbidden now from using with its destroyed trees and broken soil. They are destroying the land.

And when we left, a military jeep had blocked a road and stopped us. In Hebrew and Arabic he gruffly demanded my id then said to wait. In a line of cars, more time, more gas, more humanity stolen.

Mohammad's Arrest

Monday night I called Mohammad. He had just landed in Jordan at the airport. We talked. We laughed, said we'd see each other soon. Next morning I called again. Phone was off. Uncommon, very uncommon. I called maybe 30 or even 50 times throughout the day; every time the same message in Arabic telling me the phone was off. And I felt it in my gut. I knew he was arrested. At 2:30 I received a text message from him saying he was arrested. Phone was back off again. Then we all went into action. We have mobilized thousands of people for him, and for the cause. Mohammad is being held in administrative detention. Administrative detention is ugly and violent.

"Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial and is often based on ‘secret evidence’. Israeli Military Order 1591 empowers military commanders to detain Palestinians, including children as young as 12, for up to six months if they have ‘reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention’. The initial six month period can be extended by additional six-month periods indefinitely. This procedure denies the detainee the right to a fair trial and the ability to adequately challenge the basis of his or her detention.

"There are currently at least 387 Palestinian men, women and children in administrative detention. For more information visit the DCI-Palestine website at Freedom Now."

http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=1247&CategoryId=1

Free Mohammad Othman Now!

Yesterday, October 22, Mohammad Othman was detained and arrested by soldiers on the Allenby Bridge Crossing, the border from Jordan to Palestine. He was returning from a trip to Norway.

Mohammad, 33 years old, has dedicated the last ten years of his life to the defense of Palestinian human rights. His village, Jayyous, has lost most of its land to the Wall and the settlements. He has worked constantly to let the world know about the Israeli crimes against his people and has developed relations of international solidarity.

It is not the first time, Palestinian human rights defenders are arrested after trips abroad. Muhammad Srour, an eye witness to the killing of Arafat Khawaje, 22, and 20-year-old Mohammed Khawaje, who were both shot on a Gaza solidarity demonstration in Ni’lin on 28th December. He testified in front of the UN Fact Finding Mission on Gaza and, in a clear act of reprisal, he was arrested on his way back. This strategy of arrests complements the overall policy of isolation of the Palestinian people behind checkpoints, walls and razor wire.

We call on international solidarity and human rights organizations to act immediately to bring attention to this case and advocate for the release of Mohammad Othman by:

Recommended Actions:



* Encourage others to join this campaign through petitions, demonstrations and / or letter writing / phone calling. Please provide them with contact information and details;
* Urge your representatives at consular offices in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem/Ramallah to demand the immediate release of Mohammad Othman. (For your consular contacts, see: http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-in/Israel#11725);
* Let the Israeli Embassy in your country know that you are campaigning for Mohammad’s release and for a just and lasting peace based on international law.
* Bring the case of Palestine’s first BDS prisoner of conscience to the attention of local and national media outlets;
* Follow the blog and facebook to free Mohammad Othman to see the latest updates and action alerts.

Blog: http://freemohammadothman.wordpress.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36429272741&ref=ts


Mohammad Othman, however, represents only one of the 11,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. More than 800 are being held in “administrative detention”, meaning that they are imprisoned (indefinitely) without charge. International solidarity has to hold Israel accountable and achieve an end to the large scale repression and mass imprisonment of Palestinians as part of their efforts to bring about an end to the occupation and the restoration of Palestinian rights.



Sample letter:

Dear x,



I am writing to you to express my deepest concern about the detainment of Mohammad Othman yesterday, September 22, at the border between Jordan and the West Bank. He was returning home after a visit in Norway.

I fear that the detainment of Mohammad Othman is a result of his peaceful criticism of violations of international law by Israeli authorities. The charges against him have not been made clear, but there is reason to believe that he is a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for his human rights work through legal organizations. I therefore urge for the immediate and unconditional release of Mohammad Othman.

In the meantime, I ask that Mohammad Othman is protected from any form of torture or ill-treatment, and that his rights as a detainee are fully respected for as long as he remains in custody.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this urgent matter.


The International Red Cross delegations are here :

Tel Aviv
ICRC delegation
185, Hayarkon Street
TEL AVIV 63453

Tel.: (+972) 35 24 52 86
Fax: (+972) 35 27 03 70
e-mail

Head of delegation: Mr WETTACH Pierre
Media contact persons: Ms SEGEV-EYTAN Yael
Mobile: (++972) 52 275 75 17
Languages spoken: Hebrew/English

Jerusalem
ICRC mission
Nabi Shu'eib st. 8
Sheikh Jarrah district
PO Box 20253
91202 JERUSALEM

Tel.: (+972 2) 59 17 900
Fax: (+972 2) 59 17 920
e-mail

Head of mission: Ms AMSTAD Barbara
Media contact person: Ms BONEFELD Anne Sophie
Mobile: (++972) 52 601 91 50
Languages spoken: Arabic/English

Gaza
ICRC office
Jalaa street 50 / 43 Rimal
PO Box 29

Tel.: (+ 972) 8 2828 874 or (+ 972) 8 2822 644/5
Fax.:(+972 ) 8 2828 884

Obama's Israel - Palestine Policy

How is it possible that none of us have really noticed Obama's policies on the Middle East? I myself only realized two days ago that there is a dark, blurry void--a silence. On one issue and one issue only Obama is vocal: settlements. Headlines in Israel's Haaretz, the BBC's Middle East edition, Al Jazeera English--they all repeat Obama's firm demands that Israel halt settlement construction. They also report Israel's unwillingness, Palestine's frustration, and, now, Obama's likely lenience on the issue. And while we are all so busy watching this re-run, we fail to notice how this is the ONLY thing Obama has even articulated a position on. While we are so busy praising Obama and then qualifying how, well, at least he's better than Bush if not actually praise-worthy in terms of Middle East policy (cough, everything? but you could only really get better after Bush), we have utterly failed to realize that our critique is empty because his policy is absent. I've been researching Obama's position on Israel and Palestine and this is what I've found:

On Settlements: (Taken from "From Obama's Prizes For Israel Are Not 'Pressure'" By Ali Abunimah on 16 July 2009 in The Electronic Intifada)

"For months the focus has been on Obama's demand that Israel agree to a complete cessation of settlement construction, including the subterfuge called "natural growth." It was during a similar "freeze" in the early 1990s that Israel built thousands of settler housing units on occupied land. Arab optimism and Israeli anxiety were amplified as Obama and his Middle East Envoy George Mitchell said repeatedly that this time they wanted a total halt.

"Yet the firmness shows signs of erosion. Israeli press reports spoke of a "compromise" taking shape in which Israel would be allowed to complete thousands of already planned housing units. Although those reports were denied by the United States, several participants in the White House meeting said Obama alluded to an unspecified compromise in the works.

"Anything short of a complete cessation of settlement construction will mark an achievement for Israel; what is important is not the number of units the United States may approve, but the principle that this administration, like its predecessors, will license Israel's illegal colonization. Once that principle is established, Israel may present more faits accomplis and build at will.
And even if Israel does agree to a verifiable cessation, the US has structured the matter as a quid pro quo in which Israel is not required to do anything without receiving a reward. The president has appealed to Arab states to normalize ties with Israel if it freezes settlements, including opening diplomatic missions and allowing overflights by El Al aircraft (recall that when en route to bomb Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, Israeli warplanes reportedly falsely identified themselves as commercial aviation)."


On Jerusalem: "The city is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths."
[According to Obama:] "any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state" and Jerusalem "must remain undividied" (AIPAC speech as democratic candidate). The next day, June 5, 2008, in a CNN interview Obama elaborated: "obviously, it's going to be up to he parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those genotiations...As a practical matter, it would be very difficult to execute [a division of the city]. And I think that it is smart for us to work through a system in which everybody has access tot eh extraordinary religious sites in Old Jerusalem but that Israel has a legitimate claim on that city." (Taken from Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2 (Winter 2009))

On the Wall: The wall is not YET an issue Obama has taken up. The focus is first on settlement activity, and also to a far lesser degree on Jerusalem. There is a void on the construction of a violent structure that is devastating people economically and certainly politically--both now and in terms of any possible future.

And finally, on the Right of Return: dozens of Israeli sources report Obama's complete rejection of the Palestinian right of return. Rather he emphatically supports Israel as a Jewish state and believes in a second, neighboring Palestinian state--thus, those millions of Palestinian refugees whom the UN has repeatedly asserted have a legal right to return to their homes and lands from which they were dispossessed are denied by Obama--champion of change--in support of a racist, exclusive state which relies on apartheid and a violent occupation to enforce its settler colonial existence.

Israeli Military Prohibits Literary Event

Tonight was the opening of the Palestine Festival of Literature, and while this is the second year that the Festival happens in Palestine, the ongoing celebrations for this year's "Jerusalem: The Cultural Capital of the Arab World" framed the Festival as part of a larger cultural movement. There was to be a reception from 6-6:30 followed by two groups of writers speaking to the audience. I went early for the reception as Michael Palin, all hail Monty Python, would be there and I am a long time fan. 10, maybe 15, minutes into the reception and something intense happened. I was outside of the foyer, just in the courtyard, making my way towards Michael Palin for my much anticipated introduction when four soldiers pushed into and passed me. I was a bit confused and annoyed and turned to see where they were going. It was just us in the theatre--a rather elite collection of Palestinians and ex pats all dressed up for the event and acting all literary--and thus I found myself a bit baffled by their rude entrance. All of a sudden people started pushing and saying "get inside now. go inside. hurry." We all pushed into the theatre, through the soldiers, and stood in confusion. Various individuals tried to speak to soldiers, including the boss military man, but none of them would speak to us. They just stood there. Five or six up the stairs. Outside in jeeps and vans. Three at the front door. Six at the entrance to the house of the theatre. Then I looked into the theatre and saw another several.

http://www.palfest.org
Everywhere I looked...more soldiers, standing and holding guns silently staring at us. No one knew where to go or what to do. So I turned to Michael Palin. How convenient that he was right next to me! "Hello Michael. My name is *******. I'm a teacher at *******. HUGE fan! Over a decade now, HUGE fan. We'll talk more later without the guns." He politely shook my hand and said, great. I suggested to the people around me that we just sit and get on with the event. More soldiers. Someone suggested the French Cultural Center--apparently the soldiers weren't allowed to enter there but then again they weren't supposed to enter Al Aqsa Mosque either and they did in 2001. So, we left through a back gate, passed a police van and the one hundred or so of us walked as a parade down the street five minutes to the French Cultural Center where everyone worked to through the food we'd carried into some sort of arrangement while others set up a sound system and stage. On the way a man asked in Arabic, "what happened?" I said in Arabic, "The military doesn't like literature. Pity." Still, it went off, a bit awkwardly, but nonetheless. Five minutes after the writers began reading their work to a frazzled but excited audience, one, then two, three, and four police vans pulled up in front of the Cultural Center. They stayed there with their lights flashing for a good ten minutes. After that, one stayed, just to remind us of the presence of the military and their might. They denied our presence at the first venue and challenged it at the second. Apparently the Israeli military has a security concern with literature. Who would have guessed? Actually, I did. This is the cultural occupation we hear less about but which is debilitating a people, their heritage, and the preservation of all that is dear to them.

Boycotting Israel

I am pleased to report the first US university to divest from Israel: http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1846.shtml I can only hope that this is a trend that offers an economic tool to pressure Israel into a more just situation than the current occupation and racism within its state offer.

I'm a vegetarian, and I love tofu. But the only tofu I can get in Palestine comes from East Jerusalem and is in a can, which is completely unappetizing to me. There are health food stores in West Jerusalem where I can find fresh tofu, but the problem is I boycott the Israeli economy in as much as is possible. Yesterday in Tel Aviv I was hanging out with an Israeli who lives in the city. He is vegan. And I told him how much I miss tofu, so he directed me to a store down the street where I can buy tofu. I told him I can't because I boycott Israeli products and stores. He reminded me of what I know all too well: it's impossible. Not simply because I was in Israel itself, but because there is a deeply entrenched occupation that controls the products on Palestinian shelves. In East Jerusalem--legally Palestine--one cannot find the most basic Palestinian products like water. In Ramallah I can but the majority of products are Israeli and those that aren't still have to go through Israel to get to us, which means ultimately that the Israeli economy benefits. Nonetheless I believe whole-heartedly that we who live in Palestine should do our best to support the Palestinian economy and not the Israeli one. It just doesn't make sense to fund the occupation. And while it is so challenging to boycott Israeli products here because they are sometimes the only option, outside of Palestine and Israel it is much much easier. I hope that people around the world join in the growing BDS movement and use their buying power to fight injustice and apartheid. Here's a list of companies who support Israel. I hope it helps you start daily demanding justice in this simple but vital way:

I'm Back

I’m not sure where to start. I’m back in Palestine. The first change I noticed was when I entered Israel, all of the Israeli soldiers, staff, and passport control especially, were so friendly to me. A lot of friends have asked me how I thought Gaza would affect my ability to enter Israel and return to Palestine (for those who don’t know, the occupation of Palestine means that anyone coming to Palestine enters through Israel and their passport control before crossing into Palestine, which has no air, land or sea control). I answered frankly that I didn’t know. I didn’t have any idea if entering would be more difficult or what. My experience says Israel is giving itself a makeover, embodied in that line repeated to me a good six times as I went through security and passport control: “Welcome to Israel.” My analysis is that the image of Israel is so poor after their massacring the people of Gaza that this is one of Israel’s attempts at rectifying the damage. The problem is, the damage is not just one of image. The damage is someone’s home that they built after 20 years of saving their salaries. The schools destroyed. The mosques decimated. The brothers, the daughters, and grandmothers dead. The father who lost his legs and the mother who lost her skin. The child who lost her eyes. The burned school books and pictures. The clothes and food supplies. Life. The health, safety, education, and future of an entire people. Maybe more than those futures are their presents. No shelter, no food or water, no mother or brother now. All dead, destroyed, massacred. Wouldn’t it be incredible if fixing the damage was an honest endeavor, not about branding Israel differently but of rebuilding lives and changing a decades long policy of ethnic cleansing. That sounds so simple that it rings of absurdity. And yet, how is it that halting violent ethnic cleansing could possibly sound absurd?

The Jewish State

If I called the US State Department to inquire about a work visa for a non US citizen whom I wish to employ and were asked if he was black, I would most certainly be shocked by the question and definitely challenge the racism so obvious in such a question. The race, religion, sexuality or gender of any individual who has the skills and experience to be employed are absolutely irrelevant, and moreover illegal to question.

But when an Israeli citizen recently called the Israeli Ministry of Interior to inquire about a work visa for me, he was given some information and then abruptly asked, “Is she Jewish?” My jaw dropped. This would surely be labeled racism were it asked here in the US, but in the Jewish state of Israel, it is practically natural that a Jew could be given a work visa without question yet a non Jew would experience a far more difficult process. How is it possible that now, in the 21st century, a state that privilege an entire race and religion over all others, including both the indigenous people and American citizens, whose money is the largest support Israel receives, is virtually accepted around the world? I think it’s been far long enough and we must stop and think about this exclusive state whose every structure is inherently racist.

As I sat in a Jerusalem bar last week, I struck up conversation with a French tourist. Much of his family had declared aliya (the law that allows any Jew in the world to gain citizenship almost immediately by declaring his “return” home) and lived in Israel. I asked if he planned to do the same. He said no, he was not really Jewish, at least, he clarified, in terms of religion. But he was racially Jewish. So, I asked what he thought of the Jewish State and he told me that it was necessary for Jews to have a safe place since they were unwelcomed throughout the world. Christians, he continued, could go anywhere, but not Jews. I challenged this claim and he responded that he had traveled extensively and never been threatened, and he was a Christian. I was confused. He said he was Jewish. A Christian Jew. But the question remained, how could he invok the Christian part of his identity and credit this with his safety? He said he was a white European and for this reason he was safe. But, I thought, most of the Jewish Israelis I saw were white Europeans, so which Jews were unsafe? Which Jews did Israel exist for? He was a bit confused by this point as well, but maintained that there was nothing racist about having a Jewish state. The US was a Christian state, he asserted. Okay, well, not really, but nonetheless, is Israel a religiously Jewish state or a racially Jewish state? A little of both, but here’s the crux, you don’t have to be a religious Jew to declare Aliya, you just have to prove to be racially Jewish. An Israeli citizen I know was asked if he is Israeli Israeli or Palestinian Israeli; apparently the former means pure Israeli, that is to say Jewish. Can you imagine if American American signified a “pure,” white American as opposed to a Black American? I can because it was not so long ago that “African” Americans were less than those imagined to be American Americans. We’ve come a long way in America, but not far enough. And since I can’t imagine the State Department questioning my race and using that to deny me a work visa, I don’t think we should so easily accept when any other state uses such categories to discriminate most and privilege some.

On Monday, the Israel Central Election Committee banned Arab political parties from running in the upcoming elections. Citizens of the state are no allowed to run for office because of their race. Imagine…but wait, in this country we can simply remember.

Visas

If you know anyone who tries to work or live in Palestine, you know that the most effective way for occupation to keep us out of Palestine and away from doing our work is to deny us visas. We try to come in on tourist visas, and we are forced to either leave and renew at borders, or to attempt a visa extension at the Israeli Ministry of Interior—a branch of the government that is infamous for is disorganization and refusals. I am, like most others, a victim of the visa. I was naïve enough to believe it would work itself out, but alas I have not only had my requested visa extension denied, but I was forced to buy a new plane ticket and sign a document swearing not to renew the visa. And so, I’m leaving. The crazy thing is, I had all my ducks in a row. I even had official government recommendations requesting my extension. And yet here I find myself refused. What can one do? It is nearly impossible to get a work visa for the occupied areas and that is where my life, work, and heart all reside. I know another guy, with no papers or plans, who went through the Ministry of Interior and found himself leaving with a six month extension. Why> Is there really any method to this madness? Maybe the point is to not create policies, to not have rules, to not have structure or organization. I don’t know. All I know is that it is utterly impossible to build infrastructure and institutions when we cannot keep employees here.

Strike

I remember a Palestinian friend one time saying that even were there no occupation, we would have a state that looked like every other Arab state—is that so much better. Sure it is, well, maybe not so much, but certainly better. As I sit here in a shared taxi waiting for the empty seats to fill up, even if only just one person would come so we can leave, I am thinking about that comment my friend make a year or more ago. We have had more strike days at this university than teaching days. And for what? Apparently the PA was given international aid for the express purpose of higher education. Something around 20 million dollars, not a penny of which any university in Palestine has seen yet. Hence the strike. A day here. A day there. But people are starting to get fed up, and now we are on two or three days a week of open strike. All universities in the West Bank are standing together to demand the PA share the wealth. Personally, I can understand the demand for higher pay. It’s basically peanuts and I don’t know how anyone can support a family on the income of a teacher here. Clearly we have been ineffective so far at holding the PA accountable. And I worry. I worry as I see the taxis lined up for another day without work. I worry as I see the empty cafeteria and dirty halls, workers home for another day without pay. How many thousands of people are being affected by this strike? How many millions by this occupation?

A Friend in Palestine

I have this friend here in Palestine. He's one of the most intelligent and capable people I have ever met in my life. He's an activist who organizes Palestinians and Internationals to work in solidarity against the occupation. Every time this friend travels around the West Bank, the shared taxi in which he rides is subject to being stopped at checkpoints, which are strategically located all over the West Bank. There are three main terminals--permanent structures that are located so that if closed, the West Bank is wholly divided into three areas with no access.

At checkpoints, this friend and the other Palestinians are told to take out their Hawiyya--the id card written in Hebrew and Arabic that states their personal information: full name, mother's name, religion, gender, place of birth and place of issue. It is held in a green plastic slip cover, which is, like the id, a requirement--for it means that he is a West Bank Palestinian. Such a distinction is necessary for the Israeli soldiers who control these checkpoints. The blue ids mean that the person is from Jerusalem, which is a special category similar to a resident alien. Blue id Palestinians live in illegally annexed Jerusalem and are denied Israeli citizenship. Thus, when we say 20% of Israel's population is Arab, these are the excluded ones because they have Jerusalem id rather than Israeli citizenship. In fact, 50% of the population is "Arab," but only 20% are "Arab Israeli" citizens.

That blue id allows a Palestinian access in Israel and Palestine; it is a coveted card. But my friend has a green id, which is really shit because he is limited as to where he can go. Even within the West Bank itself he does not have access everywhere--though he is Palestinian. Oh the intricacies of this occupation! Every time this friend travels around the West Bank, I hold my breath. Checkpoints are sites of harassment, humiliation, violence and arrests. And as a young Palestinian male, much less one who is politically active, his very life is in danger. I am waiting for his arrest to come. Why will he be arrested? He was born Palestinian. It's that simple.

Still Holding on to Hope

Some have noticed that I have not written for a while. I simply don't know what to say anymore. I don't know how Palestinians have survived this long. I don't know how people love, marry, bring new life into this world, celebrate, study, exist. I just don't know how they live in the face of daily violence and the constant attempts at destroying life here.

It is beyond my capacity for thinking to understand this occupation. It is intricate and it is brilliant. It is well funded and very well staffed. They erect walls and a Wall; they destroy houses and businesses; they "target" and assassinate, and not just those targeted; they watch with state of the art surveillance; they arrest and torture; they deny movement, education, and life; they erect checkpoints and decline permits to pass; they humiliate; they break spirits and bones. How do Palestinians exist after so many years of this? I swear I don't know the answer. I don't know how love can exist here. Even I can't keep my head up, and this is a new battle for me. I am fresh, strong and young. Yet I cannot endure against this omnipresent, omniscient and destructive force.

Today I saw a new comment on an old post. And it reminded me: I am not alone. They may have billions (US dollars) and an impossibly well trained, well armed military, but this is life we are talking about. And isn't the fight to exist stronger than that to destroy?

I hope so. I can only hope that this is true, and that we can hold on to what is humane here, that which this amazingly destructive project of Zionism attempts to decimate in Palestine.

Look But Don't Touch

From particular points on the campus of my university, one can catch a glimpse of the sea to the east. The street from the university to the city also reveals a few exceptional views of the sea in the distance. Every time I see the sun reflecting on the horizon my heart hurts, and I think wouldn’t it be better not to see it. Wouldn’t it be better not to have to look at that which should be within reach but is in fact forbidden. Once a student told me that she hasn’t been to the water is 6 years. Another said he hasn’t been allowed since 1996. Everything he writes returns to that sea. Look but don’t touch. See what you are denied, and keep on weeping.

20 Too Many

19 year old boy. A young body to be expected to handle 20 bullets. But 20 bullets he held courtesy of settlers...a too common tale these days.

The Other Side

I had to take a medium length bus ride in Israel last week across half the country. The Central Bus Station swarms with soldiers--off duty, lounging around with guns slung across shoulders, drinking coffee in line, waiting for the next bus to wherever. It's strange to be surrounded by soldiers who are non threatening (thought guns are never non threatening). They don't know me. Even if they passed me through a checkpoint last week or last year, no one recognizes me. But for them I am traitor. I know this because I felt this yesterday.

On the first part of my journey a friend from Hebron called me, and I had to take her call because I'd neglected her far too long. I removed one ear bud of music, leaving the other one in (this is important because it made me far less aware of my volume and the people around me). I was in the back corner of the bus and directly surrounded by 4 soldiers. I can't explain how surreal it is to have them sit next to you, on a bus, and smile and chat and bump into you and apologize. It feels so wrong to move from screaming soldiers behind bullet proof glass, humiliating and degrading people to this. Some may read this and think, yea, well, they are human too. No, they are trained to oppress. And I can't see a division between work and life here. Human lives can't only be snapped during work hours. Israel is a machine that trains life to work for occupation. I hear kids saying how they are not excited to serve in the army, but we must. We must protect our country. Brainwashed.

Anyway, to the phone call. It was mostly in Arabic, and I was so embarrassed. And ashamed of my embarrassment. I got off the phone and thought, "I've betrayed myself." But no one around me seemed to notice. Not the kid in front of me with his huge gun slung over his sleeveless t or the soldier next to me who seemed to be sitting too close on purpose.

But on the return trip, again, I was forced to speak Arabic on the phone. And this time people noticed. A soldier had come to talk to a friend near me and ended up sitting by me. When I hung up the phone, he looked me over. It was something between disgust and confusion, mostly disgust. You know, Arabic is a national language here. And I was embarrassed to speak it because I feared consequences. Real consequences. I didn't just think people would not like me. I really don't give a shit. I thought they would hear my name and connect the dots and...well, fear, unfounded or not is the petroleum of the occupying machine. Self censorship. Fear. Oppression. Passivity.

Education Under Occupation

How do I describe occupation? How do I convey to you the frustration and humiliation, the grief and stress of living under occupation? Even just to explain what occupation is...I don't know where to start. I don't know how to paint a picture for you that can possibly give you an idea.

Today I collected a one page descriptive writing assignment from my university students.

One girl described watching a little boy at a checkpoint who was trying to sell soldiers water. The soldiers knocked the boy's good to the ground and told him to pick them up. When the boy bent down, the soldier stepped on the child's back. When the boy succeeded in picking up all the bottles, one soldier grabbed the boy's shirt and demanded he use the water to wash. The boy said I will wash your face and then he spit on the soldier. They killed the boy. I don't know if this story is true, but a Palestinian student does not need a great imagination to write this story, even if it is not true.

One boy described the waves of the sea, and the sand, and the clouds and stars and the moon. And like many students who wrote happy descriptions, he closed by saying this was his dream. But his reality is that the sound of crashing waves, the sand between his toes, the water over his feet...it all remains a dream, and he knows that it will be a dream for years to come.

I left my class and walked through campus. Students, just getting out of class themselves, walked down the campus mall. Friends strolling along, laughing and chatting. Smiling faces, fashionable clothes, backpacks slung over shoulders. Normal students who are anything but normal. They are denied education, movement, health. They are denied their humanity. They are occupied in every sense of the word--these scary, threatening Arabs we all must fear. They violent Arabs against whom Israel must build a Wall and continue a violent occupation. They are my students and they write about another life, a life in which they are more human and free from the fear and pain of occupation.

The Privilege of Teaching

Being a teacher is really quite a privilege. To start, you have an entire hour or hour and a half to talk to a captive audience. They have to listen to you, and they can only disagree if you let them. Really, education could easily be called indoctrination, for sometimes it actually feels like brainwashing. And I think that it can be brainwashing. Students are trained to take their teachers' words as gold, and I think we have a responsibility to retrain them to not just ingest but to challenge. To challenge everything.

I always say that I don't understand why Israel won't give me a visa if I say I live in Palestine. I mean, I am NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG! I'm teaching writing for god's sake! I gave a lecture this week that woke me up to the reality that for Israel, I am doing something very dangerous. I am inciting my captive audience.

My students are learning about collective memory--that lived experience that is shared by many and articulated by individuals of that collective. Collective memory informs the historical record, and the historical record constitutes the accepted version of the past and the present. Well, as we know from Palestine and Israel, the historical record is a Zionist history, much of which is based on myths and all of which is used to facilitate a colonialist project. Collective memory is a powerful tool...but only if articulated, accessed, and embraced.

Let's think about 1948 in Palestine. Israel's "Independence" is celebrated extensively and globally. On this 60th anniversary, let us really think about Israeli independence. The small but determined army of Jews defended themselves against the overwhelming Arab armies. "Never again," they shouted--a clear reference to the Holocaust and exile. End of story. Israeli collective memory of 1948 paints a triumphant, nationalist picture of success against great odds. And the national imaginary and historical record are wholly based on this experience, but the less referenced historical record shows Ben Gurion, the Zionist leader at the time, knowing that they were neither outnumbered nor overpowered, and certainly not threatened existentially. Yet he and his power dogs claimed otherwise, and Jews fought on this basis. So it is their collective memory which has in turn written history.

Where is the story of the Nakba? Few hear that story of Palestinians in 1948, though this is beginning. Where is their collective memory? It has certainly not shaped the historical record in any significant way to date. What does that mean? What I told my students, and what Said articulates, is that the Palestinian failure to consolidate their collective memory of the Nabka and shape it into a coherent narrative that is accepted as historical record is absolutely detrimental to the cause of Palestine.

Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians. It is a 60 plus year campaign, one that morphs but whose goal is steadfast. The Zionist Project will succeed, and there will be no Palestinians.

The future of the Palestinian people depends on their ability to harness collective memory and demand a new narrative that includes them and their experiences. For as long as the world knows only the Zionist history, Israel's "security measures"--read occupation and ethnic cleansing--are wholly justified. NO! There is a history of occupation and oppression here and I must believe the world would not condone Israeli state terror and ethnic cleansing and apartheid if the world really understood. But how can it? The Palestinians are silent; they are silenced. It is terribly easy to cleanse the silent / silenced from the land. And so I say: assert the collective memory and claim it as part of a history that the world must learn. Gather it and insert it into the historical record, because it is valid. But do it now, before it's too late.

The Price of a Dollar Fare

I’m not sure that it was the extra one-dollar fare that he was able to make. My main reason for suspecting he had an alternative motive was the street lined with people hailing his shared taxi. Many of those waiting were alone, so the driver could easily have picked up an individual for the one free seat remaining in the minivan. Instead he picked up a single man with four girls, between 4 years old and 8 I would guess. We all had to rearrange ourselves in the van so they could squeeze in, taking two seats when only one was available, which meant a young teenager had to sit on a box, legs straddling the stick shift next to the driver. No one seemed annoyed. I’m sure I was immensely amused by it all, and my face showed it. When the little girl, sharing a seat with her sister, who was closest to the driver handed him the fare, I smiled again. Surely it wasn’t the dollar that was responsible for all the work we just did to fit this family inside the too tight taxi.

The mini van stopped at the university to let me out, and again, the chaos ensued…everyone in the row scooting to the next seat before stepping out of the taxi. Four girls on the side of the van, waiting as I slid out. I smiled and thanked them all. And I found I could not stop smiling as I walked through campus. Such an effort, and no complaint from anyone. This is life here. Help when you can, as much as you can. Only I seem at all entertained and inspired by this mundane, yet beautiful quality of life under occupation.

Boycotting Occupation

When I'm in the States, Europe, or anywhere else around the world, I proudly boycott Israel--a state which maintains a 40+ year brutal occupation of another people and which practices Apartheid. I boycott both Israeli products and those that are non Israeli but which support Israel. I believe in using my individual buying "power" to make a political statement, which could be, if enough others joined me, a forceful tool, hopefully akin to the South African model just as the state of Israel is akin to the South African state.

Two nights ago a friend came over for dinner. And I was so incredibly embarrassed as he went through the sparse products in my house. Handsoap--Israeli. Fresh mushrooms--Israeli. Milk--Israeli. Okay, I admit there are alternatives. A bar of Palestinian soap, but I love liquid handsoap. Canned mushrooms or no mushrooms, but I love fresh mushrooms. Arabic milk, but I heard it's not safe to drink. I wonder who told the woman who told me that the Arabic milk brand isn't safe? I never questioned that.

I don't get to have other things I love like breakfast burritos and tofu, so I am sure I can give up these products on the basis of moral responsibility. The point is this, it has always been easy for me to boycott Israel from afar. But here, under occupation, Israel is like a cancer and it's everywhere. Boycotting Israel doesn't mean choosing The Tea Leaf and Coffee Bean over Starbucks. That was a simple choice. There was a choice.

Boycotting Israel means not buying things that I see as essentials. Boycotting Israel means rethinking what is essential, and so I'm considering this question, and I think that life is essential, and so long as Israel disregards and robs that life (9 year old killed Friday), how can I invest in this Apartheid economy? So, I guess that means no more mushrooms or liquid handsoap for now, but when I put it in perspective, the sacrifice doesn't seem all that great.

I guess, in perspective also, is the weakness of my actions. So could you please send the same message to Israel and spread the word that Palestine has asked you to challenge occupation by boycotting Israel? Let's join the oppressed and since our governments won't do shit for them, let us use our precious individual choice to collectively fight injustice.