Presbyterian divest

Bad news first then good news

In the past 10 days, Israeli occupation soldiers murdered 7 Palestinians (including a 13 year old child), injured dozens, kidnapped nearly 400, demolished many houses, destroyed contents and broken doors on hundreds of homes invaded in the middle of the night, blocked travel to hundreds of thousands, and continues to imprison thousands many on hunger strike for being held without charge for months. One of the people they kidnapped is also Samer Aleisawi who is famous for having the longest hunger strike in history as a political prisoner. He was released only after human rights activists and human rights organizations exerted significant pressure on Israel He was now kidnapped using the excuse of three missing colonial settlers (which maybe a false flag operation to detract from the suffering of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners). In those 10 days, Apartheid Israel received nearly 100 million dollars from US taxpayers unaware of what their congress is doing with their money. And to add insult to injury the colonial apartheid state was given a vice president position in a UN agency that is supposed to fight colonialism. To say all of this is Orwellian would be the understatement of the year.

In those ten days other US supported regimes cracked down. Egyptian kangaroo courts passed death sentences and long prison terms on hundreds of their political opponents (including even journalists just doing their job). US supported "Saudi" regime puppets executed hundreds in Iraq.

But there are signs of resistance every where. Israeli parliament member Haneen Zoabi (a decent Palestinian leader in 1948 occupied areas) was brave to say the truth others did not dare say: resistance to occupation is legitimate, collaboration with occupiers against native people is treacherous. Demonstrations were held in Ramallah against the Palestinian authority (even throwing stones at a PA police station). This after  the PA police blocked several demonstrations some of them by family members of the Palestinian youth imprisoned by Israel.  There was resistance to the invading Israeli army in dozens of villages. Al-Aqsa martyrs brigade issues a statement from Balata refugee camp finally openly accusing Mahmoud Abbas of treason. But Abbas sent his wife to an Israeli hospital to give the Israelis a good media opportunities to vilify the Palestinians and beautify the occupiers.  But the most significant news of all: The Presbyterian church general assembly voted to divest from three American companies that aid the Israeli occupation: Motorola, Hewlett Packard, and Caterpillar. I wrote on my facebook page after the vote:

"Despite all the Zionist racist tactics that tried to intimidate, pressure, bully and trick commissioners, there was still enough of them principled enough to stand that and vote for what is right. Thank you to the Presbyterian church.. Presbyterians light the way for the rest of humanity.. kudos to all including our activists at Al-Rowwad who sent the message on the wall, the thousands of peace activists who wrote and acted and spoke out. Special mention to Jewish Voice for Peace. You all rock. We love you from Bethlehem"

Now our job is to resist to end this charade. We ,must approach other churches and we must engage in massive rebellion against the repression. Freedom is not freely given and it takes effort. Time to act is now.

Note: thousands of activists worked very hard

Message from Jewish Voice for Peace
http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/jewish-voice-for-peace-applauds-presbyterian-church-usa-s-vote-to-dive

Presbyterian Church Israel/Palestine mission network
http://www.israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/

Presbyterian Church resolution as passed
https://www.pc-biz.org/PC-Biz.WebApp_deploy/(S(puiwxn3rj5d1bb4b10clumvd))/Explorer.aspx?m=ro&id=4595

The number of registered Palestinian refugees 5.4 million (plus many unregistered) http://www.imemc.org/article/68172

It is time to imagine a future without the "Palestinian authority"
http://972mag.com/its-time-to-imagine-a-future-without-the-palestinian-authority/92420/

Justice versus violence

The most blatant and obvious manifestation showing western hypocrisy about violence and human rights remains in Palestine as millions remain refugees and massive land and resource theft continues supported by Western Governments who hypocritically still speak of human rights and international law (elsewhere of course).  I warned repeatedly over the past 20 years that unless human rights and international law are observed uniformly, the “Middle East” (Western Asia) and the whole world would be at risk of continuing down the path of mayhem and killings (“might makes right”). I repeatedly explained that we must choose the different path of justice and coexistence. This is not a new revelation as many have previously warned of the same choices as observed by Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King (we either live together as equal or perish together as fools), Desmond Tutu, Edward Said and many others.

In September 2011 at the 10^th anniversary of September 11, 2001, I wrote:

On this sad anniversary, there are a lot of “what if” scenarios being discussed and healthy reflections around the world.  For example, what if the US and Israel obeyed international law? What if we did not illegally invade and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan? What if Israel was forced to comply with UN resolutions on withdrawal from illegally occupied areas and forced to allow the ethnically-cleansed Palestinians to return to their homes and lands? In short what if we did not send the message that might makes right but rather that rights make things right? Would that not have been the most rational response to extremists whether they are wearing Turbans or wearing Kippas or wearing crosses?

The painful events happening throughout the area today (in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine etc.) are just a reminder of these missed opportunities. Some over the years knew the dangers we faced if we stayed down that path (e.g. see letter from George Salzman in 2008  http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/s/2008-12-15.htm

Today, we see mayhem in Iraq and Syria as militias funded by US proxies fight to create an Islamist state in the same way the US funded the Taliban. Today we suffer collective punishment to millions of Palestinians (already living under apartheid laws) because three army-enlisted Israeli colonial settlers went missing. Israel punished the whole population including blaming the Palestinian authority even though the settlers are in the area of the West Bank that has no Palestinian authority presence. Gaza was sealed further, over 120 Palestinians were kidnapped in the past 24 hours, and we Palestinians in the West Bank are prevented from freedom of movement. Those under 50 are denied the right to even leave the country. If these brain-washed settlers living on stolen Palestinian land were taken by Palestinian resistance, this could be in  response to the starving Palestinians in Israeli jails.  5000 kidnapped Palestinians are held in Israeli jails including hundreds of children. Many of those are held for months without trial (called “administrative detention” but is a war crime per international law), Many are on a hunger strike for the past 50 days. Some are near death. The US administration  calls for the release of three Israelis who are illegally squatting on our land but has not called for the release of thousands of Palestinian civilians held in inhumane conditions in Israeli jails.

International law is very clear on the rights of people under occupation including the right to resist. Most of our resistance was by hundreds of forms of non-armed resistance. See my book “Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of hope and empowerment”. Oslo was meant and succeeded in creating a local (subcontracted) “security force” to make this the most profitable occupation in history (at no cost to the occupying power).  But this would not work. It did not work before:  the Vichy regime in occupied France and Buthalesi regime in Apartheid South Africa. What will work is a known path untried since Zionism was founded and created mayhem throughout the Arab world.

Solutions are in our hands and they can only involve justice and coexistence. This certainly must not involve continuing the path of “might makes right”. It is time to think and act on rights as the path to our collective salvation. Tribalism, factionalism, sectarianism, Zionism must be ended and we must pursue humanism. There cannot be winners and losers only all losers or all winners. Let us all be winners by acting for peace and justice.

In my book “Sharing the Land of Canaan” published 10 years ago, I implored people to shed the notion that violence solves their problems. It only creates more violence. I ended the chapter on Violence and Terrorism by quoting Howard Zinn:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.  It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, (and) kindness.  What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.  If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.  If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.  And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future.  The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Crimean war

                                                    The Siege of Sevastopol 1855

It is sometimes instructive to learn a bit of history to reflect on current events because if we do not learn from history, we are bound to repeat the tragic history of useless wars.  This came to me as I read about the escalating situation in Ukraine, where the US and western countries invested heavily to dislodge the Ukraine (strategically located on the Black Sea) from Russian influence.  The coup that toppled the elected government in the capital and Russia’s strong influence in the mostly Russian Speaking Crimean peninsula of the Ukraine threatens to ignite another Crimean war (1854 prelude to many more European wars). 

The Crimean war 1854-1856 was a devastating and useless conflict that was started with a with an incident here in Palestine (then under Ottoman Rule). The British were in the midst of an industrial economic boom (at least for the elites, the workers were essentially enslaved). To fuel this industrial boom, Britain (and to a lesser degree France) were aiming to expand their empires.  The weak Ottoman empire seemed a target. Russia’s influence on the religious Holy Places was high. This was understandable considering that most Palestinian Christians at the time and even still today are Orthodox (especially around the holy sites of Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem). Russian intellectuals have gone through a period of Westernization before the 1850s then grew disillusioned with the west and its hypocrisy.  Those who considered themselves Patriotic Russians thus became increasingly oriented towards Czar Nicholas and the Orthodox Church and increasingly opposed to the Western Encroachments on the borders of Russia.  When France instigated a provocation by Catholic supporters challenging Orthodox long standing traditions at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, a fury of high level diplomatic lobbying ensued with threats and counter threats that escalated to the Crimean war.  Alyce Mange wrote that ‘The Crimean War (1854-1856) was a war fought ostensibly for the preservation of the Ottoman Empire but actually for the curtailment of Russian encroachment’!

The war was costly to all sides concerned even though the Russian empire lost to the alliance of the three empires (Britain, France, Ottomans).  But the origin of the problem remained here in Palestine where competing Russian, British, and French interests remained until the first draft of the Sykes-Picot agreement (which divided their influences).  Russia withdrew and so it remained for Britain and France to divide the spoils of WWI in the “Near East/Middle East” (I prefer the term Western Asia to these colonial terms).  In parallel, there was the growth of the world Zionist movement that got from France and Britain the infamous Jules Cambon and Arthur Balfour Declarations (1917) partially as quid pro quo for the Zionists lobbying the US to enter the war.

Fast forward from 1854 to 2014 and we see again beating of war drums for hegemony with triggers in Palestine. The circumstances differ but this could also degenerate into yet another useless devastating war (except some people do profit from wars). The Zionist movement was unhappy about the lack of progress in their efforts  to destroy the Iran-Syria-Lebanon axis using others as canon fodder. A big part of their failure to get more conflicts (as they did with Iraq) is due to the fact that Russia (and China) refuse to go along and realized that the end-game is total Western hegemony in Western Asia (with Israel assuming even more power over Western foreign policies). The Russians and Chinese also took lessons from the disastrous US attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan and NATO attacks on Libya which had terrible consequences (including spreading radicalism and terrorism around the area). The calculated they must draw a line. The Zionist movement became involved as they do frequently because their key members are in the US State Department and also heavily influential in France and Britain.

They thought that we must break Russia’s will to resist encroachment in Western Asia. Ukraine seemed like an ideal “soft belly” for Russia. It seems possible that such reports as this one on Israelis involved in the protests in Kiev (http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/02/16/350986/israel-exofficer-leads-ukraine-unrest/) may have some basis. However, most Israeli meddling is not done via Israelis but via their now obedient people working for the US government. Also in this case, the  Russian government has been very friendly to the Jewish establishment. But Zionists preferv conflicts that help arm sales (laboratory tested on Palestinians). It is not a coincidence that problems are fueled in various parts of teh world especially in countries taht are not 100% in line (e.g. Ukraine and Venezuela). I do not know what will happen, but suggest that all wars are useless and counterproductive (to all ides); the history of the 1854 Crimean war should give us pause. And we shoudl not allow wars by proxy (as in Iraq) or direct (e.g. Israel last two attacks on nearby areas of Lebanon and occupied Gaza). Enough suffering.

What I suggest is that the talk about democracy by Western leaders like Kerry, Obama, Hollande and company is wearing thin. European public identifies Israel and the US as the two most dangerous countries on earth. Most people recognize hypocrisy. Most people know that democracy is not achieved by Coups against elected governments (whether in Egypt or Ukraine) and certainly not done on behalf of countries who support dictatorships everywhere that are friendly to their interests (see Saudi Arabia as a glaring example). For the good people of Ukraine (both in the East and the West), do not let your country be used for power politics again.  But also I suggest that they remember who their neighbors for the next few hundred years will be (hint it is not Israel or the US or England). But even those countries will not remain immune from destabilization and change if they do not learn to share this planet earth and respect other people.  Remember might does not make right and even great empires fell before. This brings me back to the point I always emphasize: READ HISTORY (objectively and not tribally).

(See Andrei P. Tsygankov Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin: Honor in International Relations)

Another world is possible

A visit to the Galilee just emphasized to me that we are on the right track to one democratic state where we live together in equality, peace, and harmony.  Another world is coming.  As you will see below, there is no difference in colonial settlement activity inside 1948 or 1967 occupied areas but that is all temporary phenomenon. Since my trip was focused on environmental issues and science (biodiversity), I was more concerned about time passage that makes the environmental destruction in the Galilee irreversible.  

Haifa was the first planned Palestinian city built in 1761 by Daher Al-Omar (Zedani) who is credited by many as the first Palestinian ruler who managed to develop an independent modern government inclusive of all religions that covered much of what is now northern Palestine (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daher_el-Omar).  Most of the citizens of Haifa were removed in 1948 and the 3000 remaining were squeezed into Halsa and Wadi Nisnas against their will (now they number some 35,000 due to natural increase).  Today the highest Israeli court in the north is built on top of ruined buildings but also overlooks abandoned Arab homes and businesses.  It must be some sight from the windows of that glittery building looking down on to what is left of Arab Haifa.  The historic train station built in 1905 to take pilgrims to Macca through Jordan is slated for demolition.  Next to Al-Istiqlal mosque, there is a monument with a faded inscription: "Faisal (emir Faisal who dreamt of Arab Unity) said that no freedom is given but it is to be taken by struggle.."  More on Haifa http://www.palestineremembered.com/Haifa/Haifa/index.html

While I was in the north, a three story building in Akka collapsed killing 5 Palestinians including one child. There are various stories about the causes but it is clear that Israeli authorities prevent the remaining Palestinians from repairing or rebuilding their houses in the old city in an attempt to further impoverish them.  We cried for the victims but we were also impressed by the generous and resilient spirit of those remaining family members.

Sakhnin is 30,000 people reduced to use of only 9,700 dunums.  The 16,000 colonial settlers of Misgav which took the land of Sakhnin and other nearby Palestinian villages in the Galilee control 183,000 dunums (population access to land of 39 fold more given to new settlers from the land of the natives). The settlement of Karmiel is billed as a model of tolerance even though it was built to increase Jewish presence in the Galilee because Israel is not happy with natives who remain in a “Jewish state.” When we visited, we noted Bedouins who are going to be kicked out of the land now allocated to “Karmiel” even though those Palestinians have lived there since before the Zionist state was established.

The house we stayed in has a demolition order just like tens of thousands of houses throughout historic Palestine built on private Palestinian land that Israel covets and does not allow building on.  Palestinians in historic Palestine are now 6 million people living on 8.3% of our historic lands (these are also in disjointed enclaves in the Galilee, the Triangle, the WB, Naqab, and Gaza) while 91.7% of historic Palestine is off-limits to us and dedicated for the use of the 6 million Jewish Israelis (most of them immigrants from other countries).  Why not justice and equality where we all prosper together?

But let me move to environment.  If you want more on politics you can see my report and video from my 2010 trip to the Galilee here

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/april082010/galilee-trip-mq.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg1mCditmUU

This time I was studying biodiversity and the preliminary scientific observations I made were extremely worrying.  The Jewish National Fund recruited hundreds of millions of dollars from Jews around the world in the 1950's and 1960's to “plant trees in Eretz Yisrael.”  This was simply an attempt to hide the destroyed Palestinian villages via large scale planting of pine trees.  Even Israeli environmentalists recognized this as an environmental catastrophe.  The pine forests that now cover much of the Galilee destroyed the natural plant cover (primary oak and scrub forests and green fertile valleys) used for thousands of years by native Palestinians as rangeland as well as agricultural lands.  Conifer trees do not allow much to grow under or around them since their needles increase soil acidity and impoverish the soil.  So even species of snails I noted in the Galilee were so much fewer than I expected.  There are no good scientific studies to predict if such damage can be reversed when done on such a large scale.  There are pockets of natural habitats still existing and they could be used to reclaim the artificially forested areas.  But time is not on our side in this situation.  The problem is compounded with Israel building massive infrastructure like expanding roads, drying up more springs (to control the water and prevent Palestinian access), schemes like the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal and more to destroy this ancient land.

For a detail history of what transpired and continues to transpire in the Galilee and the rest of Palestine in terms of populations, see Ilan Pappe’s book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.”  If you are interested in environmental issues, write to me and I will send you material.  Politicians on all sides do not address these issues. 

But we have positive signs all around us: 1) more and more Israelis are joining the struggle for environmental and political justice, 2) more and more global civil societies are adopting the boycotts, divestment, and sanctions movement, 3) the Palestinian generation of Oslo is passing on and a new generation is coming up that is taking matters into their own hands.  Examples are many: from the bus freedom riders to successful challenge to the Prawer-Begin plan designed to finish ethnically cleansing the Naqab (Negev) to Kufr Qaddoum to Majd el Krooum to Sakhnin.  An example of resistance in the footsteps of Land Day of 1976 is the return to the two villages of Iqrit and Biram.  These were Christian villages which were ethnically cleansed and the houses destroyed leaving only the village churches.  This did not happen in war but by a process long after the ceasefire lines were declared in the relentless effort to “Judaicize” the Galilee.

We were gratified to visit some young people from Iqrit and Biram who returned to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.  Even Zionist leaders like Moshe Arens struggle to twist things to explain Israeli policy with respect to these two villages (see http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.545977).  While we were in Iqrit, a group of elderly Jews from Tel Aviv showed up with a guide.  They were “left Zionists” who get a distorted but still better version of history than that taught at Israeli schools and universities).  I saw the puzzled looks on their faces and lack of answers to basic questions that came as a challenge from the Palestinians around who technically hold Israeli citizenship but who are treated as unwanted non-citizens.  These 1.6 million represent 25% of population inside the Green Line.  They were everywhere we looked:  from the bus station in Jerusalem to the University in Haifa to the gas-station attendant at the road to “Karmiel.”  I wondered why I could see and interact with them everywhere as a visitor but most of those Jews who walk pass them daily either ignore them or do not know they exist (many “Palestinian-Israelis” speak Hebrew more fluently and without an accent).  Why couldn’t we all intermarry, live in one country without discrimination, with justice and human rights to all?  We saw a glimpse of that future in a demonstration of 150+ people of all faiths including many youths in front of Haifa municipality.  They were objecting to the deputy mayor who called the sound of the Muslim call to prayer as “squealing like the sound of a pig!”  We saw it in a young and kind Jewish waitress working in a Palestinian owned restaurant in Haifa.  We saw this future.  As Arundhati Roy said: "Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."

For tours in the Galilee including Palestinian villages present or ethnically cleansed, I recommend Galilee Today Alternative Tours www.galileetoday.com (galileetoday on facebook).

Note: Israeli policies forbid people like me to visit the Galilee even though my grandmother is from Nazareth and it is still our country; these restrictions apply to me and millions of Palestinians similar to the restrictions on blacks under apartheid in South Africa.

Haifa video from a refugee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymoHpAr9UQY

Jordan

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

http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com

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.

http://al-shabaka.org/policy-brief/economic-issues/palestinian-capitalists-have-gone-too-far

Palestinian rights

                                            Dancing with 92 year old Umm Atallah

We are in a new year and certainly I wish all humans (friends and foes) a happy new year that would bring justice which is the prerequisite for peace. In the first few field-trips in 2014, we saw beautiful budding lilies, many species of snails and insects, and birds and others signs of renewed life after the snow in Palestine.  Our water wells are full and Spring is coming. Life renews itself.  We remember fallen comrades but we look to the future with hope. I spoke to several groups of young students from around the world last two weeks and they also give us hope.The young and old Palestinians I interact with daily also give us hope. In a party, I talked to the oldest Qumsiyeh alive, a 92 year old woman who is phenomenal in her inspiration (picture above).

We must learn to appreciate and thank people more while they are alive.  I felt sad at hearing the news of the passing of Dr. Lamia Haddad Khairallah.  She was a great activist who loved Palestine (where she is from), Lebanon (where she grew up) and the US (her adopted home where I met her first in 1979 and she and her late husband sort of adopted me). Services will be January 24 at 2 PM, Storrs Congregational Church, 2 North Eagleville Rd., Storrs, Connecticut. We will miss her dearly. I wish I could be there.

New facebook page to like, join, and disseminate to protect Palestinian rights  “The original PLO charter called for right of return and self-determination. These remain the quintessential demands of the majority of Palestinians. We reject the planned structures to liquidate the Palestinian cause. International law states that all agreements that abrogate basic rights like the rights of refugees are null and void (even if signed by some “leaders”) . We believe and will join forces to achieve these goals including via Sumud (resilience) on our land, popular resistance, and the spread of boycotts, divestments and sanction against the Israeli apartheid system. Palestine (from the river to the sea) is our homeland and our priority. We will work to make it a country of all its citizens with all the returning refugees regardless of religious beliefs.”
http://www.facebook.com/7uqooq

Prof. Qumsiyeh: Conditions for the next uprising are there
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/politics/politico/7515-the-conditions-for-the-next-uprising-are-there

Professor Qumsiyeh on the American Studies Association and the growth of the Academic boycott http://qumsiyeh.org/americanstudiesassociation

Christmas 2013

Christmas in Bethlehem (Beit Laham, Aramaic for House of Laham, the Canaanitic God) is still a very special and meaningful time even under the brutal Israeli apartheid occupation.  We are not talking about the visual aspects and the unique religious services at the Church of Nativity (you can now follow these live stream for example on the link shown below).  It is special because reflection here is special.  Nowhere is there an exhibit of “Occupation Art” shown in a “Peace Center” in front of a large Christmas tree in front of one of the holiest places in Christianity. Nowhere on earth do people pray that the wall suffocating them is dismantled then watch and listen to Christmas carols from around the world after admiring such exhibits. Nowhere can we hear the same singers mix Christmas and patriotic songs in the Manger Square and the Shepherds’ Field. 

                                  Figure: teargas canisters shaped as a peace sign in Nativity Square. 

In my town of Beit Sahour, the Shepherds Field, we just concluded two nights of the three nights called “Shepherds’ Night”.  Yesterday Reem Al-Banna the famous Palestinian singer entertained hundreds.  Today a magician entertained children and hundreds of them (Muslim and Christian) received gifts from Santa Clause.  Later in the evening the crowds enjoyed the patriotic music of Thaer Barghouthi who gained fame as the musician and composer for the 1987-1991 uprising (of which Beit Sahour was then at the forefront). 

                                            Reem Al-Banna at Shepherds’ Night Festival

Tomorrow on Christmas day (Western calendar) starting at 4:30 PM we will have a candlelight march under the banner “Light a candle for Self Determination” in Beit Sahour (organized by Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and the Joint YMCA/YWCA Advocacy Initiative). We demand that Bethlehem is freed from the occupation and colonization that now limits us to develop only 13% of our district. We demand the right of return and self determination for all Palestinians.

The end of 2013 and beginning of 2014 is a time to reflect that some 2.5 billion human beings believe in a message that originated with a Palestinian child thought to be born in a manger over 2000 years ago.  The land was called Palestine at the time of Jesus’ birth and also for hundreds of years before he was born and it is still geographically Palestine today.  It is also a time to reflect on the real message of Jesus, sometimes distorted (like happened with the Crusaders and with the marginal misnamed “Christian Zionists”). It is still a message of hope, peace, joy, justice, love, and harmony.

It is the busiest time of the year for us. This is a time when we are asked to speak to a lot of visiting delegations, most of them Christian pilgrims.  We also get invited to all sorts of events and prayer vigils organized by many Palestinian groups (in the last few days alone YMCA/YWCA, Bethlehem University, Catholics, Evangelicals, and Presbyterians). We reflect with them on our mixed backgrounds and history and the future of our joint humanity.  They all pray for people in Syria, Gaza and elsewhere where there is suffering.

Gaza is 1.8 million Palestinians besieged in a semi-Arid strip. 1.1 million of them are refugees who can look across the "fence" built on their lands and see the rest of their lands and many of their original destroyed villages across this fake "border". Places like "Sderot" and "Ashqelon" after all were not empty lands before 1948 (see palestineremembered.com or Zochrot.org). 1.8 million people will soon start to starve in large scale. The UN said it is a humanitarian catastrophe and will be unlivable by 2020. Just today, on Christmas eve, Israeli forces also bombed Gaza killing at least two including a 3-year-old girl and injuring others in her family.   So many Palestinians in Bethlehem and in the churches directed our Christmas gifts to people of Gaza and people of Syria.  And most of us (me included) are barred from entering our city of Jerusalem which is methodically being stripped of its Palestinian population (Christians and Muslims) and isolated by walls (physical and psychological).  But with all this suffering why are we Palestinians filled with hope, peace, and joy?   

It is because we take a long view of history. Some 150,000 years ago, humans migrated from Africa using Palestine as the passage way to Western Asia and then the rest of the world.  15,000 years ago, this Western Asian area (dubbed by the European colonizers as “Middle East”) was the center of development of agriculture and we call it the Fertile Crescent.  This region was where we humans first domesticated animals (sheep, goats, donkeys) and plants (wheat, barley, chickpeas, lentils).  This move from hunter-gather societies to agricultural societies quickly spread around the world.  It was also a key transformation because it allowed people to have time to evolve what we now call “civilization”.  Hence the first writings (also in the Fertile Crescent) and the first thoughts of deities (Gods).  Here in the Eastern Mediterranean region our ancestors were called Canaanites (hence my 2004 book was titled “Sharing the Land of Canaan”).  They spoke a language we refer to now as proto-Aramaic.  From this language and its first alphabet came the Arabic, Syriac, and Hebrew languages and alphabets. The more advanced Aramaic was spoken by Jesus.  It is closest to Syriac Aramaic now spoken by few villages in the Fertile Crescent some of them threatened (like Maaloula in Syria that briefly was over-run by Salafists zealots just this year). But also the Canaanitic Phoenicians evolved the Aramaic alphabet and delivered it to Europe and it became the Latin alphabet which is now what I am typing with.  A is from Aramaic Alpha (turn upside down to be the symbol of the bull; b from beit (=house), turn to side to see a domed house, J is from Jamal (became Camel, letter hump shaped) and so on.  This human connect history needs to be taught in schools as a source of hope.

Evolution of the Aramaic alphabet

(Taken from Qumsiyeh, 2004, "Sharing the Land of Canaan")

For the 15,000 years of civilization, there were thankfully very few attempts to transform Palestine from a mixed society of various religions and backgrounds to make it monolithic (a Christian state, a Muslim state, a Jewish state...).   Thankfully, these attempts lasted a tiny percentage of our long history and all failed or are failing (Saccaries, one Islamic ruler, the Crusaders, and now the Zionists).  We are grateful that in this year 2013, there has been tremendous growth of actions by civil society around the world to push for human rights and justice in Palestine, the Holy Land.  This included some really significant actions for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions from Apartheid Israel.  This happened even with such prestigious American societies  like the American Studies Association (ASA) and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). This was the best Christmas gift they could give us. Together we can create a more just and humane society.

So we are happy this Christmas. I am especially blessed with a mixed family that can celebrate many holidays: my mother’s family is Lutheran (celebrate Christmas December 25) and my father’s side of the family is Greek Orthodox (celebrate it January 7), my wife is Chinese American whose family is leaning more Buddhist, my sister studied in Utah and is a committed Mormon, my son was born in Texas and lives in California, and that is just my immediate family! My extended family and my close friends cover the spectrum of all other major religions (and agnostics and atheists) and backgrounds.  

My grandparents were born in a world that did not have fax machines, phones, cars, airplanes, or emails (let alone Facebook!).  The world was disconnected and full of diseases with no cures.  Life expectancy was short.  Children here in Palestine were sometimes not named until they were 2 years old because most of them perished before then.   One of my grandparents lost his parents and siblings within a span of three years (1914-1917) and was an orphan.  Even though things are very difficult now in Palestine, the Holy Land, we have to remember that 12-15% of the native Palestinians perished in WWI and between 1936-1939 nearly 10% of the native Palestinians (Christian and Muslim) were killed or injured.  Today many people grumble a lot but we are more connected than ever and we hold in our (people) hand more power than we ever had before.  History teaches us that injustice cannot last long especially when so many people join the struggle. The thousands celebrating in Bethlehem tonight give us hope. Merry Christmas everyone (and we do mean every human being on earth).

“Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The Palestinian Jesus of Nazareth

Live stream of Christmas events in Bethlehem

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=659751

Videos/Images of Christmas 2013 in the birthplace of Jesus

Bethlehem Images and Arabic Christmas song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saQoSrioNr0

Message from Palestinian Christians http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bipIGTu6H2Q

Message from the PLO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9_QyL_5piI

Message from ARIJ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjbkqNO9Ep0