Gaza’s “fight to live” is its Hope

“Normalization” nonsense—Palestinians 
Nour Joudah, 
Nisreen Zaqout

Excerpt, editing, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

As it is with most pathetic, easy-way-out shortcuts, transparent, often desperate and patently ineffective doing-anything-to-get-grant-money gestures – it seems so with something called a “Normalization” program for Palestinians and Israelis. Sounds to me like programming, a mind-manipulating measure cloaked in do-good-ism.

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   xiled Palestinians Nour Joudah and Nisreen Zaqout

 

U.S. “‘Normalization’ programs attempt to build ‘harmony’ between Palestinians and Israeli Jews … without addressing underlying inequalities,” Nour Joudah writes.

This is a congenital malady in the USA, an epidemic condition among the “exceptional.” 

Americans wheedle themselves into key positions in which they pretend to be doing something constructive (“humanitarianism”) all the while deliberately or inadvertently making matters worse.

Nour Joudah quotes Gazan Nisreen Zaqout who was speaking to an audience in Washington, D.C., at the closing session of the 2014 “New Story Leadership” Normalization Program. Joudah writes --

Unlike the Israeli participants, Nisreen Zaqout’s ‘firsts’ were not meeting someone new or going sailing for the first time.

Nisreen Zaqout’s ‘firsts’ were: hearing ‘fear in her mother’s voice’; [hearing] ‘her brother cry over the death of a young friend’; [hearing] her grandfather say ‘no’ to evacuation --   ‘not again’ . 

The ethnic cleansing and dispossession Palestinians experienced in 1948 — the year of Israel’s establishment — was enough.

 

Turning “ ‘Normalization’s’ beloved rhetoric of hope” on its head,  Nour Joudah comments, Zaqout declares that “there is no hope to tout when we start talking about human lives in numbers and when we are so willing to focus only on the hundreds of women and children — as if every Palestinian man in Gaza were a legitimate target.”

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wo insightful young women speak boldly the truth of Palestine

Joudah interprets Zaqout, “Hope comes when the will of Palestinians is respected and when their rights are affirmed and granted.” Hope derives from “Gaza’s fight to live.”

Sources and notes

“Palestinian student ‘wanted to quit’ normalization group over Gaza ‘torture’,” submitted by Nour Joudah, August 20, 2014, http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nour-joudah/palestinian-student-wanted-quit-normalization-group-over-gaza-torture

Nisreen Zaqout, who participated in 2014’s New Story Leadership program giving voice to her home and family, is a 21-year-old Palestinian woman from Gaza who is studying at Illinois College in mid-state Jacksonville, Illinois (Pop. around 19,000).

A Master’s graduate in Arab Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Nour Joudah had returned to Palestine and was teaching high school and living in Ramallah before she was denied reentry and banned from traveling to Palestine. She has since been re-exiled and is living and working in Washington, D.C.  Joudah has worked as the Assistant Editor for the Journal of Palestine Studies, is currently a researcher for the Arab Studies Institute and the Institute for Palestine studies; and blogs at isdoud.wordpress.com. Nour Joudah’s blog

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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UN majority agrees Palestinians must live in freedom, dignity on their own land with sovereignty, self-determination rights

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi 

Urgency of the moment demands full engagement in “ending the cruel and illegal occupation”

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

The question the international community should ask, Hanan Ashrawi wrote this week at the Guardian, “is not who wants negotiations, but who wants solutions.

The answer is clear – one side wants to negotiate a permanent solution,  the other side wants permanent negotiations.

Who is Hanan Ashrawi?

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi is a Palestinian politician and peace negotiator “known for straight-talking diplomacy.” She is one of the most prominent speakers for the Palestinian people.

Born in 1946 in Ramallah (a town in the West Bank, administered as part of the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948) into a family that included parents, Daoud Mikhail, a founding member of the Palestine Liberation Organization; a devout Christian mother of Lebanese descent; and relatives of Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Baptist and Muslim affiliation, Hanan Ashrawi is among few who have as visibly represented the Palestinian people.

Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi was an important leader during the First Intifada. She has served as the official representative for the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace process, since 1996 elected repeatedly to the Palestinian Legislative Council, and until 1998 minister of higher education for the Palestinian Authority. Dr. Ashrawi is a member of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s Third Way Party and the first woman elected to the Palestinian National Council.

She serves on the Advisory Board of several international and local organizations including the World Bank Middle East and North Africa (MENA), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Human Rights Council.

Dr. Ashrawi took academic credentials in Medieval and Comparative Literature (doctorate at the University of Virginia-United States) and in English (undergraduate and graduate degrees at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon). 

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shrawi continued her Guardian article the day before the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for upgrading Palestinian status in the United Nations.

“We are farther today from having a serious peace partner than at any time since we began this [peace] ‘process,’” she said. 

[Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, at best, views negotiations in the context of photo opportunities and handshakes to improve his international image and keep public opinion quiet. At worst, he exploits the ‘process’ to continue settlement expansion, the annexation of Jerusalem, and the ‘enjoyment’ of an American-led legal cover to enable him to act with impunity. 

“This, in fact, represents a severe provocation to our people who have been on the receiving end of such an enormous injustice without responding violently or illegally. While we have met our commitments, Israel continues to renege on its obligations and to build on the 22 percent of the remaining Palestinian land designated for the free sovereign state of Palestine.

“… Rather than being perceived as a substitute for negotiations, our efforts are consistent with the international community’s objective of achieving a peaceful solution whereby Palestine and Israel can live side by side in peace and security.

“… [Countries choosing] not to vote with Palestine will find themselves on the wrong side of history ─ let alone morality, justice and international law.

“Israel is deliberately destroying the two-state solution, as well as the chances for peace and security in the region and beyond.

“It is high time that [wavering] countries recognize the urgency of the moment and become fully engaged in ─

ending the cruel and illegal occupation and 

enabling the Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination and sovereignty and to live in freedom and dignity on their own land. 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday to the 193-member UN General Assembly ─

The moment has arrived for the world to say clearly: enough of aggression, settlements and occupation.

Issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine.

The window of opportunity is narrowing and time is quickly running out.

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he United Nations General Assembly then voted overwhelmingly to accord Palestine ‘Non-Member Observer State’ status.

Vote on Status of Palestine at United Nations: The draft resolution on the Status of Palestine at the United Nations (document A/67/L.28) was adopted by a recorded vote of 138 in favor to 9 against, with 41 abstentions, as follows:

YES votes

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

NO votes

Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Palau, Panama, United States

ABSTENTIONS (tantamount to no)

Albania, Andorra, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Fiji, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Poland, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, United Kingdom, Vanuatu.

ABSENTEES (carelessly tantamount to no)

Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Liberia, Madagascar, Ukraine.

Sources and notes

This episode of One on One can be seen from Saturday, September 26, at the following times GMT: Saturday: 0130, 1630; Sunday: 0430; Monday: 0300, 1230.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/oneonone/2009/09/200992282911940941.html

Peace prize for Ashrawi─ Palestinian MP and human rights activist Hanan Ashrawi has won the prestigious Sydney Peace Prize. Last Modified: 08 Aug 2003 17:49 GMT

http://www.worldtrek.org/odyssey/mideast/ashrawi/ashrawibio.html

Wikipedia notes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanan_Ashrawi

Ramallah

Ramallah is a town in the West Bank, adjacent to the town of Al-Bīrah (east) and north of Jerusalem. Administered as part of the British mandate of Palestine (1920–48).

Ramallah was part of the West Bank territory taken by Arab forces in the first of the Arab-Israeli wars (1948–49) and subsequently annexed by Jordan. After the Six-Day War of 1967, Ramallah was under Israeli control as part of the occupied West Bank territory until coming under the administration of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the wake of the 1993 Oslo Accords.

It later became the centre of PA administration in the West Bank. As an ancient settlement, Ramallah has buildings incorporating masonry from the time of Herod the Great (reigned 37–4 BCE), but no complete structure antedates the Crusades of the 11th century. Britannica note

First Intifada

In December 1987, Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip killed an Arab youth engaged in a protest. Widespread unrest broke out in the Israeli-occupied territories, leading to 21 deaths in two weeks.

This was the start of the intifada (‘shaking’), a wave of Palestinian protests and Israeli reprisals that lent new urgency to Middle East diplomacy.

Israeli military rule of the West Bank then hardened and the Fatah faction of the PLO from bases in Lebanon stepped up actions. Britannica note

General Assembly Votes Overwhelmingly to Accord Palestine ‘Non-Member Observer State’ Status in United Nations

Objective to ‘Breathe New Life’ into Peace Process, Says Palestinian President

Israel’s Delegate Counters, Without Direct Negotiations, Peace Remains ‘Out of Reach’

General Assembly GA/11317, November 29, 2012, Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York, Sixty-seventh General Assembly

General Assembly Plenary 44th & 45th Meetings (PM & Night), http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/ga11317.doc.htm

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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War-on-terror impunity reflected in Alexandrowicz’s “The Law in these Parts”

Israeli warplane

Ironfisted breach of law abrogates justice under law: Israel’s conquest of Palestine is U.S. Global War on Terror

Edited by Carolyn Bennett

Geneva Conventions

Told in five chapters roughly corresponding to a few foundational legal opinions, “The Law in these Parts” is a documentary by Israeli director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz dealing with 45 years of the Israeli military legal system in the Occupied Territories on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. This is an edited excerpt from a review by Kevin Kearney which was published by the International Committee of the Fourth International at the World Socialist Web Site.

Israeli wall

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errorists and Criminals (Chapter 2 of “The Law in these Parts”)

Before introducing the 1969 case of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) v Omar Mohammad Al-Qassem and eight others in Ramallah (all Fatah members), Alexandrowicz explains ─

Today the distinction between soldier and terrorist is deeply rooted in our legal and political discourse.

But at the end of the 1960s it was necessary to cement this distinction in the law. 

Defendant Qassem tells the court he is certain this is his land but he left when the occupation began and returned with other fighters to liberate Palestine.

“Although the evidence showed that Qassem had only engaged soldiers in battle—and he asserts he was merely a soldier fighting soldiers—the court found that Qassem and his organization were terrorists with no legal protections under the international laws of war ─ specifically the Geneva Convention.”

International Criminal Court
The Hague

When inordinate power – to make and break, interpret, execute and enforce law − vests in those who routinely, cavalierly breach law  

“In his ruling Judge Abulafia concedes the Geneva Convention grants special status to lawful combatants and that even includes members of liberation organizations, but [the judge] holds that this status must first be earned by following the rules of war in battle.

“Abulafia finds that the entire Palestinian liberation movement does not follow the rules of war, citing civilian victims unrelated to the particular facts of Qassem’s case and declares [Qassem] the member of a terrorist organization, specifying that Palestinian liberation fighters like Qassem will never have any rights under international law.”

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United States attacks Iraq

lobal war on terror TERROR

“Here we encounter, Kevin Kearney writes, “the Global War on Terror’s pretense of legality in microcosm, growing organically out of the Israeli conquest of Palestine.

“This poisonous piece of legal fruit,” Kearney continues, “has been dusted off, revised and updated by the U.S. government, which arrogates to itself −

the authority to strip all rights of anyone it brands a terrorist

U.S. drone
War on Terror terror 

to subject them to indefinite detention and

even summary execution without trial

Kearney concludes in praise of the filmmaker. “The Law in These Parts” is a great success primarily because Alexandrowicz is a principled artist who is “earnest in his desire to make sense of his subject matter… seeking to understand a tragic reality and to prevent its recreation on a global scale.”

Sources and notes

Israeli warplane

“The Law in These Parts: Israeli military justice in the Occupied Territories” (Kevin Kearney, published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), wsws.org, November 21, 2012, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/lawi-n21.shtml

From Israeli director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, “The Law in These Parts,” has opened in New York City.

The Law in These Parts a film by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz

Film Forum Screenings New York City

209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014, between 6th Avenue and Varick (7th Avenue) to the venue's website

November 23, 2012, at 13:15, 15:15, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00

November 24, 2012, at 13:15, 15:15, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00

November 25, 2012, at 13:15, 15:15, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00

November 26, 2012, at 13:15, 15:15, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00

November 27, 2012, at 13:15, 15:15, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00

http://www.thelawfilm.com/eng#!/screenings

http://www.thelawfilm.com/eng#!/the-film

Britannica notes

FATAH

Fatah is a political and military organization of Arab Palestinians, founded in the late 1950s by Yāsir ʿArafāt and Khalīl al-Wazīr (Abū Jihād) with the aim of wresting Palestine from Israeli control by waging low-intensity guerrilla warfare.

Fatah (also spelled Fatḥ (Arabic: “Conquest” or “Opening”), inverted acronym of Ḥarakat al-Taḥrīr al-Waṭanī al-Filasṭīnī (“Palestine National Liberation Movement”)

Fatah timeline

1960s

Fatah obtains Syrian support and establishes base in Damascus.

Fatah develops commando-type organizational structure.

Carries out its first military operation (1964), blowing up an Israeli water-pump installation.

Headquartered in Jordan (1968), emerges as major Palestinian force and becomes (in March) primary target of Israeli attack on the Jordanian village of Karameh (150 guerrillas, 29 Israelis die) [Six-Day War had occurred in 1967]

Fatah becomes the largest, best-funded of all Palestinian organizations; takes over effective control of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

1970s

Jordan’s army, after that country’s civil war (September 1970), forces the PLO and Fatah fighters out of Jordan and into Lebanon

Jordanian authorities (July 1971) kill a respected Fatah leader, Abū ʿAlī ʿIyād.

Militant corps of Fatah, Black September (Aylūl Aswad), emerges (proclaimed in November 1971, notorious in September 1972).

1980s

Fatah is headquartered in southern Lebanon when Israel invades (1982) presenting further crisis.

Tunisia becomes Fatah’s next base of operations.

Rival battling factions develop within Fatah (1983), divisive leadership struggle develops.

1990s

Arafāt reclaims his leadership of Fatah, the largest constituent member of the PLO

Israel and Fatah-led PLO (1993) sign peace agreement (the Oslo Accords) opposed by Rival Islamic group, Hamas.

Palestinian Authority (PA) forms (1994) to govern emerging Palestinian autonomous regions; Gaza city becomes Fatah headquarters.

Elections are held in PA-administered areas (1996)

Arafat wins the presidency

Fatah captures a majority of seats within the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC); Hamas does not participate in the elections.

2000s

One of Fatah’s original members, Mahmoud Abbas, is elected PA president (2005). Yasir Arafat had died November 11, 2004 [the cause of his death was being questioned in 2012]

Elections are held (2006) for the PLC; Hamas wins majority of seats.

YASIR ARAFAT

Yasir Arafat: president (1996–2004) of the Palestinian Authority (PA), chairman (1969–2004) of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and leader of Fatah, the largest of the constituent PLO groups.

Arafat led the PLO to a peace agreement with the Israeli government in 1993; and in 1994 received jointly with Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres the Nobel Prize for Peace.

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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