The distance from Amman to my house in Beit Sahour is 45
miles (72 kilometers). In normal
situations, that should take 1-1.5 hours.
Sunday it took me some 13 hours (i.e. Ten times more) and I arrived at
my home at 3 AM. I won’t bore you with
details of misery and can just summarize the main reason: occupation. The illegal military occupation and
colonization of the West Bank by Israeli forces has now been in place for almost
47 years, one of the longest in history.
I see the worst of people and the best of people daily. I spent five days in Jordan working on
biodiversity issues with my friend Prof. Zuhair Amr. He and his family always
treat me so nice and their hospitality is unmatched. But most important for me was getting to
learn so many new things. We even got to
the Jordan river under the watchful eye and with permission from the Jordanian
military and collected some freshwater snails there (pictures were not allowed). This is highly unusual for a Palestinian (or a Jordanian) since Jordanian
military ensure a buffer zone with no one to get near the water border for the
shared parts of the Jordan river with the Israeli-Occupied West Bank. Of course from this side, Israeli occupation
prevents Palestinians from getting anywhere near the river while Israeli
settlers and soldiers are free to move around as they wish.
Prof. Zuhair in his lab
Snail from the Jordan river basin
Jordan, a constitutional monarchy where I did my bachelor
degree, is still a fascinating, beautiful and diverse place. Home to 3.5
million Palestinian refugees, some 600,000 Syrian refugees, and almost one
million Iraqis and Egyptians. The
original Jordanians thus constitute the ruling minority in a place surrounded by problems. But the country miraculously managed to
navigate through the instability affecting nearby countries and even profit
from such instability (getting significant subsidies from Western Countries and
gulf states). It is the only venue out
for Palestinians from the West Bank into the rest of the world. Our economies and people are intertwined and
not just because millions of Palestinians hold Jordanian citizenship. Palestine
to the West of Jordan is under a brutal colonial occupation with Palestinian
leadership and people in between uprisings and thus in a state of maximum
weakness. Syria to the North used to be even more self-sufficient than Jordan
but has now descended into mayhem. Egypt
to the southwest likewise is suffering significantly with a military run
country that could not and would not figure a peaceful way to deal with the “problematic”
Muslim Brotherhood so they decided to fight them and even designate them a
terrorist organization. The Palestinian authority President Abbas openly sided
with the military rulers (contradicting long standing Fatah policies of
non-interference in Arab affairs). Saudi Arabia to the south is Western
supported absolute monarchy (not like Jordan which has a parliament) and has
its own issues. Iraq to the East is.. well you know from the news what happened
after the US invasion (one million dead and more dying daily). These difficulties hopefully will not come to
Jordan and Jordan will continue to develop peacefully in this midst. What is most shameful is that Syrian refugees
were allowed into all neighboring countries except one: “Israel”. Israeli authorities are also persecuting the
few hundred African refugees that came.
Imagine if the Israeli government had at least allowed the Palestinian
refugees who fled their Syrian refugee camps (nearly 400,000 of them) to come
back to their homes and lands in the Galilee.
Imagine how much this would have helped change political dynamics.
Photo from RSCN website http://www.rscn.org.jo/
I do not want to paint too rosy a picture of Jordan even
though much has already been accomplished (for me the work of the Royal Society
for the Conservation of Nature is a brilliant example as is the levels of
healthcare and education). And certainly
it is not up to me. Most Jordanians (unlike
most Israelis) recognize there is a lot of work to be done on their own
government. While waiting for hours on the bus from Jordan as it was held up
with over 15 buses at the bridge to the Israeli border controls, we watched
shows including a Jordanian satirical political show that mocks the government
and the ministers. I think more shows
like that should be encouraged. A similar show in Palestinian TV that mocked
our authority was closed by the PA thought police (shamefully). A similar show
in Egypt (“Albarnamej”) was also shuttered more than once. But we also should not put all blame on
governments. Large part of the blame is
on us. I was dismayed for example to see
how some Palestinians cut through lines even in front of old ladies or toss
their garbage out of a moving vehicle or do not show sympathy for suffering
civilians (e.g. in Gaza, in Yarmouk Refugee camp, in Syrian Hama area). It is these attitudes that need to
change. While intellectually I can
understand that decades of colonization and dehumanization can “rub-off” on our
souls, we must teach our children to respect each other and the environment. This is a concept that I hope we will do with
starting to build educational museums (we are working on one in the Bethlehem
area now).
There is so much that each of us individually can do to
help. For example on the issue of Palestine, see http://qumsiyeh.org/whatyoucando/
This week in Palestine highlights innovation in the latest issue
In other good news, the virulent Zionist attack against the
American studies association and other organizations and churches seen to be
back-firing and there is a constant growth of these movement. Every day brings us good news. For example, according to Haaretz: “ABP, a Dutch
pension fund considered the world's third largest, Nordea Investment
Management, a Scandinavian firm, and DNB Asset Management, a Norwegian company,
want more information about the Israeli banks' involvement in Israeli
settlements. The three European firms combined manage nearly 500 billion
euros' worth of assets. The review by the three pension funds comes about
two weeks after PGGM, the largest Dutch pension fund, divested from Israel’s
five largest banks because they have branches in the West Bank and/or are
involved in financing construction in the settlements.”
The Palestinian Capitalists That Have Gone Too Far: While
most Palestinians living under Israeli occupation are struggling to survive, a
powerful group of Palestinian capitalists is thriving and growing in political,
economic and social influence.
