World demands - Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Spring 2012 palestine NEWS 1£2.00 / €2.00 ISSN 1477-5808Spring 2012World demandsjusticeINSIDE:Suffer the childrenGill Swainpage 4Dying to be freeJulia Richardspage 9Prawer PlanDr Yeela Raananpage 16Ashtar at GlobeHilary Wisepage 27Palestine Solidarity Campaign Box BM PSA London WC1N 3XX tel 020 7700 6192 email info@palestinecampaign.org web www.palestinecampaign.org

2 palestine NEWSContentsSpring 2012Cover image: Land Day InTimes Square, New YorkPhoto: BUD KOROTZER/DESERTPEACEISSN 1477 - 5808Also in this issue...Sheikh Raed exoneratedpage 10If you want to contact a memberof the Executive Committee orthe PSC office, here is a list ofthose with particular areas ofresponsibility. Contact via PSC.Chair – Hugh LanningDeputy Chair – Kamel HawwashGeneral Secretary – Ben SoffaHonorary president – BettyHunterTrade Unions – Fiona BowdenParliamentary Affairs –Nicolette PetersenPublications – Hilary WiseCampaigns – RuqayyahCollectorTrade Union Liaison –Nick Crook, Simon DubbinsStudents – Fiona Edwards,Khaled Al MudallalDirector of Campaigns –Sarah ColborneBranches, members –Martial KurtzAdministration – Steve SibleyCheck outour websitewww.palestinecampaign.org3 The ticking clockHilary Wise examines the increasing internal and external pressures on Israel4 Suffer the children...Gill Swain reports on the children abused and tortured in the Israeli court system6 Playgrounds and car parksKat Hobbs describes the destruction of the only playground in Silwan7 Healing traumatised childrenInterview with Nader Abu Amsha, director of a children’s counselling programme8 Students connectAmnah Rehman describes a PSC scheme linking students in London and Gaza9 Dying to be freeThe Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike has grown to include over 200011 Planting olives – keeping hope aliveHansa Shah recalls her life-affirming trip planting olive trees12 UN finds Israel guilty of apartheidDr Michael Kearney says academics and lawyers must now get to work14 Olympics security firm profits from occupationDiana Neslen reports on the Who Profits? investigation into G4S16 Total destruction of Bedouin way of lifeDr Yeela Raanan analyses the Prawer Plan18 €49 million of development projects destroyed by IsraelEuropean citizens’ money funds eco projects reduced to rubble19 More than just a treeManal Abdallah reports on her UK trip with olive farmer Abu Kamal20 Green Party condemns the JNFDeborah Fink reflects on the Green Party’s backing for “Stop the JNF”21 Fundraising – it’s absolutely vital!How you can help – go on the sponsored walk, join the 100 Club, leave a legacy,hold an Auction22 News from the branchesWomen from Palestine tour, Cambridge members sing, Bristolians dress as animals!24 In briefThe Freedom Bus plans tour, South African and Palestinian musicians collaborate,conscientious objector imprisoned, Israel severs contact with UN body, and more...26 Arts and ReviewsGaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians, by Noam Chomsky andIlan Pappé; Ashtar Theatre at Globe 2 Globe; Palestine Film Festival; The other side ofparadise – exhibition by Laila Shawa; Threat: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel,edited by Abeer Baker and Anat Matar; The Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History,Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory, by Nur Masalhapalestine NEWSA Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) publication.PSC does not necessarily agree with all opinionsexpressed in the magazine.E-mail: info@palestinecampaign.orgThe editorial teamEditor: Gill SwainDeputy editor: Hilary Wise, Betty Hunter,Victoria Brittain, Ben White, Diane LangfordDesign and layoutMulberry DesignIf you would like to contribute or respond to oneof the articles in this issue please write to:The Editor, Palestine News, Box BM PSA,London WC1N 3XXPalestine Solidarity Campaign• Campaigning against the oppression anddispossession suffered by the Palestinian people• Supporting the rights of the Palestinianpeople and their struggle to achieve theserights including the Right of Return in line withUN resolution 194• Promoting Palestinian civil society in theinterests of democratic rights and social justice• Opposing Israel’s occupation and itsaggression against neighbouring states• Opposing anti-semitism and racism, includingthe apartheid and Zionist nature of the Israelistate

Spring 2012 EDITORIALpalestine NEWS 3The ticking clock...By Hilary WiseDoes there come a point when naked aggression becomesjust too blatant to ignore? When governments are finallyembarrassed into some kind of action? We may soon findout.The strain of attempting to maintain the threadbare myth ofdemocracy while violating the whole panoply of international law isbeginning to show, both in Israeli society as a whole and within thepolitical elite. Former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni – no dove, as wesaw from her role in Operation Cast Lead – said, on her resignationfrom the Knesset: “Israel is on a volcano, the international clock isticking, and the existence of a Jewish, democratic state is in mortaldanger.”Presumably in an effort to salvage his own political career thecurrent head of Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, got into bed with primeminister Netanyahu to form a “unity government.” Only two monthsearlier he had called Netanyahu a “liar” and vowed never to make adeal with his “weak, incompetentand deaf government.”Top Israeli politicians, soldiersand spies have been queuing upto condemn the warmongeringof Netanyahu and his Minister ofDefence, Ehud Barak. The presentarmy chief of staff, Lt Gen BennyGantz, said he did not believe Iran was preparing for a nuclear war,as the Iranian leadership was composed of “very rational people,”while Meir Dagan, former chief of Mossad, called plans to bomb Iran“the stupidest thing I have ever heard,” warning that this would havea “devastating impact” on Israel.Former Shin Bet chief, Yuval Diskin, also accused thegovernment of misleading the public on Iran and said it threatenedto “lead us into an event on the scale of war with Iran or a regionalwar.” On Israeli society he added: “Over the past 10-15 years Israelhas become more and more racist... There is racism toward Arabsand toward foreigners, and we are also becoming a more belligerentsociety.”Like many others he is deeply disturbed by the rise of “extremistJews, not just in the territories but also inside the Green Line” –referring to groups that are implanting settlement-like communitiesin mixed towns and villages within Israel, to establish or maintainJewish majorities and to intimidate the indigenous Palestinianinhabitants.These same ultra-orthodox groups seek to impose not justsegregation between Jews and Palestinians, but between Jewsand Jews, and between Jewish men and Jewish women. Manynon-orthodox Israelis see them as a threat. Upper Nazareth councilmember, Samyon Baron, said: “Upper Nazareth is a secular cityin which, for instance, stores remain open on Shabbat... TheHaredim will change the character of this town; they will weaken“Sometimes, realpolitikand grassroots activismfind common cause”it, not strengthen it, and at some stage they will take over UpperNazareth.”Add the soaring cost of living and the yawning gap between richand poor to these political, religious and racial splits within Israeland one wonders whether the Zionist state will simply implode,irrespective of external pressures.As Livni is aware, attitudes around the world are indeedchanging, despite the power of the Zionist lobbies. Israel’s imageis irredeemably tarnished and attempts to bind the nation togetherby escalating levels of paranoia simply backfire. In a desperateeffort to portray Israel as the eternal victim, the Israeli authoritiesresponded to the current mass hunger strikes in Israeli jails bycalling them a form of ‘terrorism’ and punishing the strikers (seepage 9).This is typical of Israeli responses to any kind of protest orresistance: jail, shoot, bomb – and seize more land. Netanyahu’sdecision to “legalise” and enlarge Bruchin, Rechelim and Sansana,outposts of existing illegal settlements – in effect, creating threenew settlements in the West Bank – was greeted with shockand condemnation by westerngovernments. Foreign SecretaryWilliam Hague made his strongeststatement to date, saying:“By seeking to entrench illegalsettlements in the West Bank,as this decision does, the Israeligovernment risks sending themessage that it is not serious about its stated commitment to thegoal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, called upon the Israeligovernment to reverse their decision, saying: “Settlements areillegal under international law, an obstacle to peace and threaten theviability of a two-state solution,” while the Russian foreign ministryexpressed its “serious concern.”Even a US state department spokeswoman, referring toAmerican efforts to restart negotiations between Israel and thePalestinians, said: “We don't think this is helpful to the processand we don’t accept the legitimacy of continued settlementactivity.”In a recent, highly critical report, the UN stated that Israel’soccupation “exhibits features of colonialism and apartheid, aswell as transforming a de jure condition of occupation into acircumstance of de facto annexation” (see page 12).While Israel’s own intransigence is the root cause of this criticalbacklash, credit must be given to activist organisations around theworld for turning the tide of public opinion, through decades ofcampaigning.Israel still wields huge political influence and is undoubtedly aregional superpower, militarily; but if it is seen as threatening thestability of an already highly volatile region and the interests of itsfriends, even they will be forced to act. Sometimes, realpolitik andgrassroots activism find common cause.PSC PATRONS• Dr. Salman Abu Sitta • John Austin • Tony Benn • Rodney Bickerstaffe • Sir Geoffrey Bindman • VictoriaBrittain • Julie Christie • Caryl Churchill • Jeremy Corbyn MP • Bob Crow • William Dalrymple • PatGaffney • Rev Garth Hewitt • Bruce Kent • Ghada Karmi • Ken Loach • Lowkey • Kika Markham • Dr.Karma Nabulsi • Prof. Ilan Pappe • Prof. Hilary Rose • Prof. Steven Rose • Alexei Sayle • Keith Sonnet •Ahdaf Soueif • David Thompson • Baroness Tonge of Kew • Dr. Antoine Zahlan • Benjamin Zephaniah

4 palestine NEWS REPORTSSpring 2012Suffer the children...By Gill SwainIsrael’s 45-year long, increasingly brutaloccupation of the Palestinian Territorieshas had a severe impact on every aspectof Palestinian life. But perhaps theimpact has been most devastating on themost vulnerable – the children.Some carry their toys to school for fearthat their homes will be demolished whilethey are gone; hundreds a year are arrested– grabbed off the street or ripped from theirbeds in the middle of the night – and alladolescent boys fear it; thousands sufferfrom anxiety and post traumatic stressdisorder.In the past 11 years alone, around7,500 children, some as young as 12,are estimated to have been detained,interrogated and imprisoned within themilitary court system. This averages out atbetween 500-700 children per year, or nearlytwo children each and every day.Defence for Children International hasproduced a major new report: Bound,Blindfolded and Convicted: Childrenheld in military detention, which is theculmination of four years’ work in whichsworn testimonies were collected from 311children held in Israeli military detention.The testimonies reveal that the majorityof children are detained by the army in themiddle of the night in what are typicallydescribed as terrifying raids. Most childrenhave their hands painfully tied behindtheir backs and are blindfolded beforebeing taken to an unknown location forinterrogation.The arrest and transfer process isoften accompanied by verbal abuse andhumiliation, threats as well as physicalviolence. Hours later the children findthemselves in an interrogation room, alone,sleep deprived, bruised and scared. Theyare not accompanied by a parent and aregenerally interrogated without the benefit oflegal advice or being informed of their rightto silence.Most children undergo a coerciveinterrogation, mixing verbal abuse, threatsThe report includes 25 detailed casestudies of children. This is just one.Name: Ahmad F. Age: 15Date of Incident: 6 July 2011.Location: Iraq Burin village, near NablusAt around 2am, Ahmad was up latesocialising with family memberswho had just arrived from Jordan.“We were all sitting on the balconywhen we heard people climbing up thestairs. Suddenly, many soldiers stormedthe house. They started shouting at usand ordering us into the living room.”About an hour later, Ahmad wasinformed that he was “wanted forinterrogation.” “One of the soldiers tiedmy hands from the front with three setsof plastic cords. The ties were verytight and caused me much pain. Thenanother soldier grabbed me by the armand took me out of the house.”Ahmad’s brother asked where hewas being taken and was attacked by asoldier. “He started hitting him hard withthe barrel of his rifle in front of the family,including the children who became horrifiedand started crying.”Ahmad was blindfolded and reportsbeing led about 50 metres to some waitingvehicles which then transported him toHuwwara interrogation centre. He waspulled out of the vehicle and made to standbeside it. “They were chanting, laughing andshouting in my ears. They were making funof me.“One of them placed his mobile phonebeside my ear and played a police sirenso loud. Then one of them grabbed me bythe arm and placed my head against thecar engine, as another one kept steppingon the accelerator. My whole body startedshaking.”Ahmad reports that he was taken insidethe gates of the centre but left outside fromabout 5am until 3pm the following day. Hewas not brought any food. He reports beingverbally abused and told: “We want you todie out here.” Whenever he tried to sleep asoldier would start shouting and kicking himto keep him awake.At one point some soldiers brought a dogand Ahmad was pushed to the ground. “Imanaged to see the dog from under myblindfold. They brought the dog’s foodand put it on my head. I think it was apiece of bread, and the dog had to eat itoff my head.“His saliva started drooling all overmy head and that freaked me out. I wasso scared my body started shakingbecause I thought he was going to biteme. They saw me shaking and startedlaughing and making fun of me. Thenthey put another piece of bread on mytrousers near my genitals, so I tried tomove away but he started barking. I wasterrified.”Later that day Ahmad was taken tothe police station in Ari’el settlementand interrogated. “The interrogatorremoved my blindfold but kept me tied.He accused me of throwing stones, butI denied it.”The following day Ahmad wastransferred to Megiddo prison, insideIsrael. He was not provided with anyfood during the eight hour journey, andwas strip searched on arrival at theprison.”

Spring 2012 REPORTSpalestine NEWS 5“The waste of human life…”and physical violence, generally resultingin a confession. In 29 percent of cases,the children are either shown, or made tosign, documentation written in Hebrew, alanguage they do not understand.Within eight days of their arrest, thechildren are brought in chains to a militarycourt where, in most cases, they will see alawyer and their parents for the first time.Although many children maintain theirinnocence, in the end at least 90 per centwill plead guilty as this is the quickest wayout of a system that denies children bail in87 per cent of cases.Nearly two thirds of the childrenare transferred to prisons inside Israelin violation of Article 76 of the FourthGeneva Convention. In consequence manychildren receive either limited or no familyvisits.The report finds that a pattern ofsystematic ill-treatment emerges, muchof which amounts to cruel, inhuman ordegrading treatment or punishment asdefined in the UN Convention againstTorture, and in some cases, actual torture –both of which are absolutely prohibited.The testimonies reveal that mostchildren are arrested from villages locatedclose to friction points such as illegalsettlements and roads used by the IsraeliUnder 18s killed since September,2000: 129 Israeli, 1476 Palestinian.Remember These Children lists detailsof every one of the 1605 deaths ofchildren since the second Palestinianintifada broke out – the child’s name,hometown and how he or she waskilled. The information has been collatedfrom a wealth of sources including theIsraeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and thePalestinian State Information Service.The website says: “Thedocumentation, though painful, conveysthe personal reality of these terriblestatistics. The waste of human life – ofhope and future promise – is almost toogreat to contemplate.“Too many of these children died inthe course of what should have beennormal childhood pleasures – playingsoccer, eating pizza, shopping for candy,or going to or from school. Others werearmy or settlers. The report includes 10recommendations designed to reducethe level of ill-treatment, but it says: “Noone should be under any illusion that thetreatment documented in the report canbe eliminated so long as the friction pointsremain and Palestinian children are treatedas second-class individuals.”• For the full report see:www.dci-palestine.org# Common complaints andareas of concernat home, looking out their window, eatingdinner or playing in their front yard.”Child labour in the illegalsettlementsBetween 500 and 1,000 Palestinian children– some as young as 13 – work for Israelisettlers in the Jordan Valley, according toa report published by Maan. Starting workas early as 5.30am, they pick, clean andpackage fruit and vegetables and haveto work in the simmering summer heat of50°C and also when the temperature dropsto zero in winter.The report says most child labourersare informally employed and thereforereceive no benefits. They “earn” 50–60NIS (£8–10) per day. Their wages areless than the wages of Palestinian adultmales, who earn 60–100 NIS (£10–16) aday, about one third of the official Israeliminimum wage.Number of casesPercentage ofchildren1 Hand ties 296 95%2 Blindfolds 281 90%3 Physical violence 234 75%4 Detention inside Israel inviolation of Article 765 Arrested between midnightand 5:00am6 Confession duringinterrogation196 63%188 60%180 58%7 Threats 178 57%8 Verbal abuse and/orhumiliation169 54%9 Strip searched 102 33%PHOTO: ALA KHOURI10 Transferred on floor ofvehicle11 Signed/shown documentswritten in Hebrew98 32%91 29%12 Solitary confinement 38 12%

6 palestine NEWS REPORTSSpring 2012Playgrounds and car parksBy Kat HobbsThe bulldozers arrived before sunriseto demolish the only children’splayground in Silwan, East Jerusalem,and a cultural centre that was aprecious community facility for the people inthe area.After the machines, made by the iconicBritish firm JCB, had done their work inFebruary, Jawad Siyam, director of theMadaa Creative Centre which owned theplayground and demolished buildings,said: “This was the only place in the areato meet, to sit together. It was the onlyplace for children in Silwan. The childrenwere very upset to see their treasured placedestroyed.”The playground had been recentlyimproved with funding from internationalNGOs including the American MiddleEast Children’s Alliance, Playgrounds forPalestine and War Child International. Thecentre attempted to get a permit to build onthis piece of privately-owned land but theIsraeli-controlled Jerusalem municipalityrefused.Siyam said that Palestinians in Silwanhave received fewer than 40 permits forbuilding since East Jerusalem was occupiedand then illegally annexed by Israel in 1967,leaving them with no choice but to carry onconstruction projects without permits. TheJerusalem municipality and the NationalParks Authority carried out the demolitionwith Israeli police officers closing off thestreet.Silwan, situated just outside the Old Citywalls, was already under enormous pressurewith several of Israel’s most influentialsettlement organisations acquiring propertyin the area. It sits on the supposed siteof the biblical City of David and there areplans to turn it into a National Park andtourist hotspot – the children’s playground isearmarked for a car park.The Al-Bustan district faces totaldestruction as 88 homes are scheduledfor demolition, threatening over 1,000Children march through Silwan.people with homelessness. Children carrytheir favourite toys to school for fear theirhomes will be rubble by the time theyreturn.The children’s sports field at the Madaacentre was used for football, basketball andthe popular children’s “summer games”events. Madaa provides a range of activitiesfrom music, sports and dancing lessons tocookery and language classes.Last year the summer games, in theirfifth consecutive year, culminated in aclosing ceremony and a massive marchthrough Silwan under the banner of “I LoveYou Silwan.” Children called for the rightto live in dignity alongside all other youthand for freedom from Israeli persecutionand kidnapping and they released balloonsinscribed with their hopes and aspirations.The demolition of the Madaa Centre is aserious blow to the community. Like mostof East Jerusalem, Silwan suffers seriousovercrowding and high rates of poverty butit also faces particular problems; over half ofits residents are under 18, and, after yearsof chronic under-investment in the area,there are few schools and even fewer safeplaces for children to play.Most children have tobus out of the district toattend classes and theschool drop out rate is50%. With so many youngpeople and nowhere forthem to go, children areoften forced to play on thestreets. But with around350 settlers living in theheart of Silwan in heavilyguarded compounds, thestreets are a dangerousplace.As a result of thesettlers takeover, about aquarter of all of the publicareas are now closed to the local residentsand have been transformed into privatetourist sites. Entry into them now requires afee and a security check, so Palestinians areeffectively barred. Schools and communityspaces are constantly invaded by the Israeliarmy.The month following the playgrounddemolition was a difficult one for childrenin Silwan. The Israeli military frequentlyarrest minors and in the two weeks after thedemolition 16 children were arrested. Manywere held for several days and released onlywhen their parents paid hundreds of shekelsin bail.In addition to the arrests, school childrenin Silwan found themselves the target ofharassment by the Israeli Border Police. InMarch a mobile checkpoint was erectedby Border Police in Batn Al Hawa area andapproximately 20 children were stopped ontheir way home from school.Shari Kassahun from the Madaa Centresaid: “The children were asked to open theirschool bags which were searched and someof their notebooks were torn apart by theBorder Police before they were allowed tocontinue their way home.”And it isn’t just school children who faceintimidation. On 12 March, Israeli forcesentered a Silwan school and arrested theteacher, Mr Salah Mahaisen, in front ofthe children. A request by the school thatthe teacher be allowed to leave the schoolgrounds before being arrested to avoidcausing distress and alarm to the studentswas ignored. The incident is significant asit marks the first time that the Israeli armedforces have arrested a teacher inside aschool run by the Jerusalem municipality.• Kat Hobbs works for War on Want’s SaveSilwan campaign:http://tinyurl.com/c37sb72savesilwan@waronwant.org.

Spring 2012 REPORTSpalestine NEWS 7Healing traumatised childrenThousands of Palestinian children struggle with mental health problems and reintegration intosociety after they are detained by Israel, a new report on child detention says.According to the study released by Save the Children Sweden and YMCA-East Jerusalem, Impactof Child Detention: Occupied Palestinian Territory, 90.6 per cent of detained children suffer posttraumatic stress disorder after release.Around 700 children are detained every year. Released minors often are unable to return toschool, experience bed-wetting, anxiety attacks and nightmares, the report says. Families andcommunities suffer from stigmatisation and become increasingly conservative as fear grows offurther detentions.Nader Abu Amsha is the director of the Beit Sahour branch of the East Jerusalem YMCArehabilitation programme which provides counselling to Palestinian children released from Israelidetention facilities. He was interviewed for the DCI-Palestine report, Bound, Blindfolded andConvicted.carrot’ method to get information out ofthem.Many children often say the Israelis triedto recruit them, but they never say theyaccepted, although in some cases theymight have due to fear and the desire toend the ill-treatment and to get out of thesituation.It is very hard to deal with these cases,because they are related to many otherissues, such as the security of the child,community values, the fear it generates inthe child and the need for protection.Q. Can you tellme about theprogramme?Nader: It startedthree years ago.We are treatingon average 350children peryear through 11counselling teamsthat work all acrossthe West Bank, including East Jerusalem.Our work starts from the moment thechild is arrested. Our counsellors startworking with the family to help them copewith the situation and advise them on howto deal with the child when he or she isreleased from prison.The parents tend to think that when theirchild is released, that is the end of the story.We always tell them it is only the beginning.The family needs to understand that theexperience of arrest and imprisonmentmight have changed the child and affectedhis development.Q. In what ways does prison change achild?Nader: When children come out of prisonthey feel old and mature and they think theyknow it all. For the parents though, he isstill the same child who left three, four orfive months ago, so they tend to becomeover-protective. This causes problems anddisputes within the family. Through ourprogramme, we try to help both the child andthe family so that the home remains a placewhere the child feels comfortable and safe.The children want to talk about whathappened to them; they want to narrate thesequence of events from the moment ofarrest as if it was a movie. They do not talkmuch about their feelings.But when we start digging and askingspecific questions, the children start talkingabout their feelings. They get very emotionaland start sharing their frustration, theiranger, perhaps their desire for revenge etc.Q. What are some of the other things younotice?Nader: We have noticed that one of themost traumatising experiences for thechildren is being arrested in the middle ofthe night in big raids, finding the soldiers intheir rooms pointing their weapons at them,the shouting, and the breaking of things inmany cases.This makes the detention very traumaticfrom the first minute. Also, the handcuffing,the blindfolding, being transferred inthe floor of the military jeeps, beingbeaten, threatened and humiliated duringinterrogation. Being alone during all thisprocess is a terrifying experience for thechildren.The child feels that the whole Israelimilitary system is against him, and hehas no one to protect or accompany him.Then, being imprisoned for months far fromthe family, with people he doesn’t know,sometimes even with adults, not being ableto talk about his feelings and having todeal with the conflict between the differentpolitical affiliations of other prisoners, it’s alla very difficult experience for the child.Q. What are the methods you use to helpthe children?Nader: Our counsellors and social workersare trained to help the children discloseall their feelings, because once they starttalking, that’s when the therapy reallybegins. This is how the children release allthe stress and reduce their anxiety. Thetherapy helps them organise their thoughtsand channel their feelings in a positivedirection.Q. Does this always work?Nader: In some cases the children are tootraumatised by the experience, by the illtreatment, and they refuse to open up.Being tortured might lead the children not totrust anyone.Many times our counsellors have tomake a big effort to earn the child’s trust. Incases where despite all our efforts the childrefuses to open up, we still help him returnto school or with vocational rehabilitationand re-integration into the community.We have also noticed that one of themost difficult issues for the children to dealwith – and this is very sensitive – is Israel’sattempt to recruit them as informants orcollaborators, and the use of the ‘stick andQ. What are the biggest challenges youencounter?Nader: The issue of returning to schoolis one of the most difficult because thesechildren tend to look for all kinds of excusesnot to go back to school. Most of themcome from poor families, so they say theywant to start working to help the household.We challenge their arguments and makethem see the advantages of completingtheir education, as well as the difficulties infinding a good job without the necessaryqualifications. However, if the child decidesnot to go back to school, we have to respecthis decision so we help with vocationaltraining.We use a very effective system forvocational assessment, and have signedagreements with a number of companies,workshops etc. where the children canhave training in different areas, such ascarpentry, mechanics, etc. It is importantthat the children undergo this training withina system, because this is pivotal for thesuccess of the counselling process. Thesechildren should not be left alone.Q. How would you rate the success of theprogramme?Nader: In general the programme is verysuccessful. Most children recover fromthe trauma and re-integrate well into thecommunity, but of course they never forgetwhat happened to them. They will haveflashbacks all their lives, but they learnhow to cope with these memories. In somecases the children get re-arrested, and assoon as they are released they immediatelycome back to our programme.• For the full Save the Children/YMCAreport, see: http://tinyurl.com/d9mqu5t

8 palestine NEWS REPORTSStudents connectPSC is working with Al Fakhoora, an organisation dedicated topromoting access to education for Palestinians, on a new projectconnecting up students in the UK and Gaza.We are bringing the students together every week using Skypeto talk to each other about their lives, their studies and their hopesfor the future. The idea is to empower UK students with theknowledge to act as advocates in this country for their Palestiniancontemporaries while giving Gaza students the opportunity tomake friends beyond the borders of their besieged land.The UK students – from Westminster University and ImperialCollege, London – “met” with the students from the Islamic University,Gaza, for the first time just days after Israel's latest bombing of Gaza inwhich 27 Palestinians were killed in four days. The Gaza students toldhow their lives had been affected by this massive aerial bombardment.The Gaza students described their fear of the bombing, onesaid his newly-married friend, aged 24, had been killed, and theyLeft to right: Daniel Brooks, Azeem Sayani, Hanan Ak, SelinAvlak from Westminster University.Spring 2012spoke about how they were surviving on around six hours ofelectricity a day, with cooking gas running low and no fuel for cars.Here Amnah Rehman, of the University of Westminster,describes her experience of the project.Throughout my life I have heard many poignant stories aboutthe Palestinians and how their lives are completely ruinedunder the dangerous occupation. But never did I imagine that Iwould get a chance actually to hear their stories directly.My experience of talking to students from Gaza moved meimmensely for it was such an amazing opportunity to gain aninsight to their hardships and struggles. What mesmerised memost was the great optimism and positivity the students displayed,despite the dangers and fear which undoubtedly stay with themcontinuously.One week’s topic of conversation was the notion of families. Thestudents from Gaza explained how their bonds with their familiesgrow stronger whilst being in completely fearful circumstances.They feel that their families are the people who support them ineverything from education to work and much more.One of the students stated: “Strong family bonds help us copewith problems like no fuel, no water.” However, the students alsodescribed their biggest fears: one of them being losing their familymembers due to the bombing and airstrikes.This was such an emotional statement that it made me ponderhow lucky many of us are, for we don’t live with this fear of losingour families. After talking to the students from Gaza, it has given mean escalating feeling of sympathy for them.One profound statement from one of the Palestinian studentswhich I will never forget was: “One day the occupation will be over.Palestinians always have hope that things will be better. We arealways optimistic.” I truly admire their optimism!• Follow the students’ weekly conversations on Twitter @Chat2GazaHeritage in the needleThe gorgeous Palestinian embroideryproducts which are becomingincreasingly familiar in our craft shopsare generally produced by womenworking at home, often linked together ina co-operative which organises the sellingside.Now one of those organisations, theIdna Cooperative Association for Craftand Embroidery (also known as Women inHebron), is looking for people in the UK whoare willing to sell their lovely purses, bags,dresses, scarves and pillowcases.The Co-operative was founded in2005 by Nawal Slemiah who has a longbackground of working with local women.Around 30 women from the Hebron areavillage of Idna participated and they werelater joined by groups from other villages,enabling Nawal to open a shop in the OldCity of Hebron. Now around 120 womenfrom eight villages are in the group.The shop is the only one run by womenin the area and faces many challenges.One of these arose when they applied fora business licence to the local authority.They were told it is required to have a largeamount of money in a bank account – acriterion the small cooperative cannot meet.Nawal says the objectives of thecooperative are to:• Maintain and preserve the Palestiniancultural heritage and increase awarenessabroad• Raise living standards of Palestinianwomen through economic independence• Support women whose families cannotprovide for them• Encourage resident and commercesteadfastness in the Old City of Hebronin the face of the continuing suffering thatsettlers and the Israeli army are causing tothe community.The cooperative also educates women inhand embroidery processes, computer skillsand basics of English and advises them ontheir rights.In the ghost town that the Israelis havecreated in the Old City of Hebron to protectthe small band of fanatical settlers livingthere, the Co-operative’s shop strugglesfor custom. So now they are calling to theoutside world to support them.Ways to do this include buying theirproducts online, spreading the word, eg viatheir pages on Facebook and Flickr, andbecoming a retailer. Volunteers are verywelcome to come to stay with Co-operativemembers to help the women with theirEnglish and computer skills, or you couldcome for the day and be taken on a guidedtour.Nawal says: “Any support – financial aswell as moral – is most welcome! Being arelatively small and still young cooperative werely on help from friends all over the world.”• For more info see:www.womeninhebron.com• E-mail: nawal@womeninhebron.com oridnacooperative@gmail.com.Nawal in her shop with UK visitor,Megan Clay-Jones

Spring 2012 REPORTSpalestine NEWS 9Dying to be freeThe Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike has grown to includeover 2,000 prisoners, according to some reports – not thatyou would know that from the UK media, which has almostcompletely ignored the issue even though several prisonershave already come very close to death.Of the nearly 5000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, over300 are held in Administrative Detention – that is, without chargeor trial. This unjust and hated form of imprisonment means thatthe detainees have no means of defending themselves and noknowledge of their release date.Protests against Administrative Detention have been the mainfocus of the hunger strikes which have been multiplying in Israelijails over the last few months. The numbers and the determinationof the hunger strikers are significant developments in theincreasingly widespread non-violent civil resistance movement inthe West Bank.Khader Anan with his family. Photo: Oren Ziv, Activestills.org.PHOTO: RAQUEL RIVASDemo in Ramallah, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.Israel punishes hunger strikers often by condemning them tosolitary confinement and denying them contact with the outsideworld. This was applied to Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinianpolitical leader condemned to four consecutive life sentences,when he called for mass civil resistance to Israeli colonisation ofPalestinian territory.On 1 April Barghouti said in a statement from prison that “thelaunch of large-scale popular resistance at this stage servesthe cause of our people,” asserting that the idea of ending theoccupation and achieving a state through negotiations was anillusion.Worldwide campaignThe first of the hunger strikers to come close to death was 34year-old Khader Adnan, after 66 days – at that point the longesthunger strike in Palestinian history – in protest at being held inAdministrative Detention. Even when he was taken semi-consciousto the prison hospital, Khader’s arms and legs were kept shackledby the prison wardens. His plight and that of other prisoners wasonly noted by mainstream media after a worldwide campaign forhis release. Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign affairs chief, said thathis case was of “great concern,” adding: “Detainees have the rightto be informed about the charges underlying any detention and besubject to a fair trial.”Khader ended his hunger strike after the Israeli authorities agreedto release him on 17 April – a triumph for the pressure of publicopinion.Hana Shalabi, 30, whose brother Samir was killed by the Israeliarmy in 2005, endured over two years of Administrative Detentionfrom September 2009 to October 2011. For part of that time shewas incarcerated with Israeli criminal offenders who subjected herto constant threats and abuse.Hana was released as part of a prisoner exchange deal in 2011– but like others was re-arrested just three months later and againplaced under Administrative Detention. She immediately went onhunger strike, only ending it after 43 days on the promise of release.However, she was deported to Gaza for a period of three yearsinstead of being returned to her home in the West Bank.Amnesty International said: “Instead of deporting her to the GazaStrip, where access to specialised medical care is limited, due tothe Israeli blockade and the ongoing fuel crisis which threatenshospitals, she should be released along with other Palestinians heldin Administrative Detention, or promptly charged with a recognisablecriminal offence.”From her hospital bed Hana appealed for a worldwide campaignto free all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. She added: “I wouldlike to advise young Palestinian generations to keep up the struggleand never fear Israeli detention. Just be steadfast, just be steadfastand you will eventually win your freedom.”Hana Shalabi on her release from jail.At the time of going to press, other long-term hunger strikersrisk death, including Tha'er Halahleh, 33, and Bilal Diab, 27,both of whom have been denied access to independent lawyers(continued overleaf)

10 palestine NEWS REPORTSSpring 2012and doctors. Tha’er, who began his strike on 29 February, waskidnapped by the Israeli army in June 2010 at his home in the WestBank and has been held under repeatedly renewed AdministrativeDetention ever since.On 7 May, the 70th day of their hunger strike, the Israeli HighCourt rejected petitions regarding the Administrative Detentionorders of both men. In complete disregard of their critical medicalcondition, the Court stated that “hunger strikes are not relevant todecide on length of Administrative Detention as such.”The Court recommended in Tha’er’s case that, since he hasalready spent nearly two years in Administrative Detention, the IsraeliSecurity Service should investigate more in depth before extendinghis detention order to see if there are any possible alternatives. TheCourt further stated that if his detention order is extended, a morethorough interrogation should occur. The Court reiterated that theserecommendations were irrespective of his hunger strike.In Bilal’s case, the Court also suggested that if his AdministrativeDetention order is renewed, and his health permits extendeddetention, he should also be re-interrogated. The Courtrecommended that the Security Service shorten his order from sixmonths to three or four.Palestinian prisoners include 6 women, about 200 childrenand 27 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The waysin which Israel violates international law regarding the mannerof arrest, interrogation and detention of Palestinians, includingevidence of torture and degrading treatment, have been welldocumented by human rights organisations. See www.addameer.org, www.alhaq.org, www.btselem.org, www.hamoked.org andwww.phr.org.il.• Follow developments on #PalHunger.Sheikh Raed exonerated,Home Secretary discreditedSheikh Raed Salah, who cameto Britain in June 2011 on a10-day lecture tour, finallyreturned home on 16 April,after a gruelling struggle to resistdeportation and clear his name.The Sheikh is an Israeli citizenwho campaigns for Palestinianrights within Israel, opposing thediscrimination, house demolitionsand attempts at ethnic cleansingpractised by the Israeli authorities.He spoke in a public meeting inLondon before being arrested and detained on the orders of theHome Secretary, Theresa May, on the grounds that his presence inBritain was “not conducive to the public good.” There followed awell-orchestrated smear campaign in the media, in which the Sheikhwas represented as a dangerous anti-semite preaching hatred andviolence.It later transpired that the Home Secretary had been misinformedby the Community Security Trust, a registered charity whichmonitors anti-semitic attacks in Britain, who had sent her a reportaccusing the Sheikh of grossly anti-semitic statements. It seems shefailed to check on the claims of the CST, but acted immediately toexclude him.After months of wrangles through the courts and after hundredsof thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money had been spent,all charges against Sheikh Raed were thrown out by the UpperImmigration Tribunal on 5 April. In his ruling, Mr Justice Ockelton,the President of the Tribunal, said Ms May had been “misled” on thecase, noting that the CST had been the only source of informationused by the Home Office.Jeremy Corbyn MP, who hosted a meeting in Parliament thatSheikh Raed was supposed to attend, supported the Sheikhthroughout the legal proceedings. He called for a public inquiry intothe way the whole affair was handled: “Previous Home Secretarieshave been forced out of office for less than this. I think we need anopen, independent inquiry into the whole process.” At the sametime he renewed his invitation to the Sheikh to return to the UK tospeak in Parliament and to tell the British people about the plight ofPalestinian citizens of Israel.Jeremy has since been pursued and smeared by the CST, whohave accused him of anti-semitism and likened him to Nick Griffin ofthe BNP, for raising the question of how Theresa May came to banSheikh Raed.Before leaving the UK Sheikh Raed said: “Despite the Israelipolicy of ‘transfer’ – another term for ethnic cleansing – thePalestinians will not go away. The Israeli state can occupy our lands,demolish our homes, drill tunnels under the old city of Jerusalem –but we will not disappear.”Environmental crime – 2000olive trees to be uprootedPalestinian, Israeli and international peace activists arekeeping a vigil to try to prevent the Israeli army fromuprooting 2000 olive trees in the Wadi Qana area nearthe West Bank village of Deir Istiya.Notices ordering nine farmers in this major oliveproducing area to destroy 1400 of their trees were placedon retaining terraces, rocks and fences in April. They statedthat, if the orders were not carried out by 1 May, the farmerswould face punishment which could, according to Deir Istiyamayor, Nazmi Salman, include large fines and imprisonment.That shocking number was already 400 more trees thanthe total number uprooted in all of 2011. A few days later,another farmer found the same order for 600 trees to beuprooted, bringing the total number to 2000. By the time ofgoing to press, the orders had not been carried out but theIsraeli Occupation Forces could enforce it at any time.Taysir Arbasi, from Zaytoun in Palestine, said the treeswere between three and 15 years old and planted onprivately-owned Palestinian property. They produce around5,000 kg of olives a year.The Israeli government has unilaterally declaredthis Palestinian land as a “protected natural area” — adesignation it gives to land in order to expel Palestiniansfrom it. The real reason for turning productive land into a“nature reserve” is likely to be the proximity of eight largesettlements which have been built on, or adjacent to, 15,000dunums of Palestinian land.Wastewater from the outposts around these settlementsis illegally dumped into a natural spring used by the olivefarmers. Last autumn over 100 trees in Deir Istiya weredestroyed by flooded wastewater.Additionally, fanatical settlers harass the villagers andcommit acts of violence, including arson. Earlier this yearsettlers desecrated a mosque during a wave of “price tag”revenge actions sparked by the demolition of an Israeli outpost.

Spring 2012 REPORTSpalestine NEWS 11Planting olives – keeping hope aliveBy Hansa ShahThere is something so life-affirming and hope-inspiring aboutplanting trees. And hope is what the people of Palestine needat this time.Helping to keep hope alive is the Olive Planting Programmewhich started in February, 2008, and is organised by the JointAdvocacy Initiative (JAI) and the Alternative Tourism Group (ATG).Many people from around the world come together every year toassist Palestinian farmers who are hindered from planting their olivetrees because of restrictions imposed by the Israeli government ormilitary forces or harassment from Israeli settlers.Besides planting trees, the programme includes eye-openingvisits to Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Bethlehem in whichparticipants get to witness and learn about the ongoing injusticescommitted against the Palestinian people. Many internationalparticipants have described the experience as “life-changing.”I had some qualms about being up to performing hard physicalwork like digging but I found that I was able to meet the challengewith few aches and pains. Besides, working in pairs or in teams ofthree made it much easier.We worked only in the mornings and, at lunchtime, local farmersserved us with delicious homemade food, usually rice and chickenor stuffed vine leaves, yoghourt and salad. This year there wereabout 50 of us from ten countries and we planted nearly 2000 olivetrees over four days.We worked in four villages around Bethlehem located in area C.We worked in Al-Khader where St. George is believed to have beenimprisoned (he was from Syria Palaestina, not England!), Beit Umar,Beit Eskaria and Jaba’. The fields selected were either at risk ofconfiscation or vulnerable to Israeli settler violence.Our instructions were that, if soldiers from the Israeli DefenceForce or settlers were to appear, we were to carry on planting,leaving the local farmers or our organisers to do the talking. Soldiersdid appear on various occasions but made no attempt to disrupt ourplanting.Whilst working in Beit Eskaria, we were also warned of theappearance of Women in Green, a group of right-wing Israeli womenwho tend to descend on Palestinian fields claiming the right to planttrees on what they call “Israeli soil”. That morning it poured withrain, which perhaps deterred them, for they were nowhere in sight.In Jaba’ the fields where we worked were at risk of confiscationby Israeli authorities even though they had been in Ibtisam’s familyfor years. Any “uncultivated” land in area C, no matter how long ithas belonged to a Palestinian family, is open to such a risk, we weretold. Our olive planting, we hope, made a tangible difference.Hansa with a young friend. Photo: Kerstine Dahlberg.For me, the experience was enhanced by that of living with aPalestinian family in Beit Sahour. My hosts, a couple in their 70s,owned a restaurant. It was clear that they had seen better days.With the construction of the Wall, tourism had suffered, as had theirbusiness.I learnt that during the siege of Bethlehem in 2002, they had losta daughter who had developed complications during her pregnancy.By the time they obtained a permit to move her to the hospital inBethlehem, it was too late to save either mother or baby. I could nothelp but admire their spirit, for in spite of the day to day hardships oftheir lives, they could be so generous and steadfast in their faith.I would like to finish with the words of local people. Over andover again we heard this: “Thank you for coming to our country. Ithelps to keep up our spirit and carry on our non-violent resistance.Shukran.” As our guide, Karim, bade us good bye, he said: “Friends,your holy mission does not lie here. It lies back in your own country.Tell your people about our situation. Tell them what you have seen.”Can we do anything less?• For more information, see: www.jai- pal.org(Names of local people have been changed.)New travel guideBy Amena SaleemWhen I visitedGaza with anaid convoy twoyears ago, I wasstruck by what a beautifulholiday destination thiscould be if it wasn’t forIsrael’s occupation anddestruction. I could seeall the raw ingredients forthe potential tourist – theMediterranean coast,swaying palm trees, asweet sea breeze andfresh lemonade to sipwhile taking it all in.A new travel guideto Palestine delveseven deeper, looking at bothGaza and the West Bank from a traveller’s perspective – thehistorical, cultural and geographical sights and the potentialdelights of becoming acquainted with the Palestinian peopleand cuisine.Palestine: the Bradt travel guide is written by Sarah Irving,who is firmly rooted in the Palestinian cause and the writingis politically aware and quietly supportive. She introduces thereader to the remains of winter retreats for Umayyad sultans,Byzantine mosaic art, cliff-face monasteries, soap factoriesand village walks, alongside the better-known wonders ofJerusalem, Nablus and Jericho.Gaining entry to Gaza, as the book says, is nearimpossible but, for anyone wanting to visit the West Bank,this guide – “the first standalone Western guide to Palestine,”according to Bradt – is the one to take.• Published by Bradt Travel Guides, November 2011.www.bradtguides.com

12 palestine NEWS COMMENT & ANALYSISSpring 2012UN finds Israel guilty of Apartheid– time for lawyers to actIn March the UN Committee on the Elimination of RacialDiscrimination (CERD) – the body entrusted with monitoringstates’ compliance and implementation of the Convention onthe Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination – issued itsmost recent Concluding Observations on Israel’s compliancewith the Convention.Dr Michael Kearney, Fellow in Law at the London School ofEconomics, says that the Committee’s statement is significantin that it finds Israel’s policies and practices in the OccupiedPalestinian Territories to violate the Convention’s prohibition ofApartheid, and also because of the Committee’s distinctly harshwords for the Israeli government. Academics and lawyers mustnow get to work to enforce accountability.As a body whose modus operandiis to follow a firm, yet softly softlyapproach aimed at avoiding conflictwith states in order to ensurecontinued dialogue with governments, thenature of CERD’s critique of Israel’s policiesand practices, not just in the occupiedterritory of Palestine and Syria, but withinIsrael itself, is quite striking.That Israeli practices in occupied territoryconstitute Apartheid is a claim that hasbeen argued for many years. It has gainedparticular resonance and intensity since thedual administrations of the PA and Israelimilitary occupation developed during theOslo process. This formalised not justbureaucratic separateness, but also physicalseparateness, as seen in the prohibitionof Palestinians from using certain roadnetworks or accessing areas such as theJordan Valley that are reserved for Israelisonly.OPTs, there remained significant oppositionon the part of many apologists for Israel’soccupation policy to countenancing anysuggestion that the Apartheid label couldbe justifiably applied. Richard Goldstone’sNew York Times op-ed of October 2011,“Israel and the Apartheid Slander,” is a casein point. Prompted by the Russell Tribunal’ssession on Apartheid then underway inCape Town, Goldstone dismissed those whowould apply the Apartheid label to Israel aspeddlers of a “false and malicious” myth“calculated to retard” peace negotiations.The international legal framework canbe rightly criticised for favouring powerfulstates and interests and for consistentlyfailing to facilitate the Palestinians inachieving a modicum of justice. But thatis not to say that international law shouldbe systematically rejected. Following theconclusion of the Russell Tribunal sessionon Apartheid, its representatives, joined bycoalitions of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs,went to Geneva to present their argumentsin opposition (primarily) to those submittedby the Israeli government to the CERDCommittee.“Israel denies that itowes human rightsobligations to thePalestinian population”After hearing from both sides,the Committee used its ConcludingObservations wholeheartedly to criticiseracist Israeli practices and policies. TheCommittee began by criticising Israel forfailing even to report on its practices inthe occupied territory. Israel consistentlydenies that it owes human rightsobligations to the Palestinian population“The Committeeused its ConcludingObservationswholeheartedly tocriticise racist Israelipractices and policies”Even as political leaders such as EhudOlmert discussed in 2007 the likelihoodof Apartheid becoming entrenched in theHebron, March 2009. Photo: Mamoun Wazwaz, Maan Images.

Spring 2012 COMMENT & ANALYSISpalestine NEWS 13CARLOS LATUFFof the occupied territory, and thus ignoresthem when reporting on its human rightsrecord. This position has been rejectedcomprehensively by the International Courtof Justice.The Committee then turned to examplesof segregation within Israel itself, notingthe existence of two systems of education,“one in Hebrew and one in Arabic,” separatemunicipalities, discriminatory laws on landissues, discriminatory laws on work andsocial benefits.The Committee called for revocation ofthe Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law andthe withdrawal of the proposed Law for theRegulation of the Bedouin Settlement in theNegev, on the basis of their discriminatoryeffects. Having noted discrimination towardsminorities within Israel’s Jewish population,and against asylum-seekers and refugees,the Committee also criticised the increasein racist and xenophobic attacks againstPalestinians in Israel.While framing these divisions of Israelisociety into Jewish and non-Jewish sectorsas falling within Article 3 of the Convention,(see box) the Committee focused on theconcept of “racial segregation.” TurningDefining the crime ofapartheidThe International Convention forthe Elimination of All Forms ofRacial Discrimination (ICERD)was adopted in 1965. Article 3specifies the obligation of States Partiesto the Convention to oppose apartheid:States Parties particularly condemnracial segregation and apartheid andundertake to prevent, prohibit anderadicate all practices of this nature interritories under their jurisdiction.The International Convention on theSuppression and Punishment of theCrime of Apartheid (1973) confirmed thatnot only were states to be prohibitedfrom committing apartheid but thatto the situationin the OPTs,the Committeeagain drew onArticle 3 but thistime chose toemphasise Article3’s prohibition ofApartheid also.What distinguishesApartheid fromracial segregationis the intent behindthe practice, namelythat Apartheidconstitutes not justracial segregation,but also “inhumanacts committedfor the purposeof establishingand maintainingdomination by one racial group overany other racial group of persons andsystematically oppressing them.”The Committee’s analysis of thesituation in the OPTs led to its expressing“extreme concern” at the implementationby Israel of two entirely different legalsystems and sets of institutions for Jewishsettlers on one hand and Palestinianson the other. Urging Israel to prohibitand eradicate policies and practicesconstituting racial segregation andApartheid, the Committee declared itself tobe “particularly appalled” by the hermeticcharacter of the separation of two groups“who live on the same territory but donot enjoy either equal use of roads andinfrastructure or equal access to basicservices and water resources.”The Committee continued to note thatIsraeli planning and zoning policy in theWest Bank, including East Jerusalem,“seriously breaches a range of fundamentalrights under the Convention,” calledon Israel to eliminate any policy of“demographic balance” from its JerusalemMaster Plan and to rescind the blockadepolicy of Gaza, and urged an end to Israel’sindividuals responsible for such actionwere to be held liable as criminals.Additional Protocol I (1977) ofthe Geneva Conventions of 1949 isapplicable in times of internationalarmed conflict and recognised apartheidas a “grave breach” thus giving rise toindividual criminal responsibility. (art. 85,paragraph 4 (c)).The Rome Statute of the InternationalCriminal Court defines apartheid as acrime against humanity. Article 7.1.hof the Statute provides that, whencommitted as part of a widespread orsystematic attack directed against anycivilian population, with knowledgeof the attack, the crime of apartheidconstitutes a crime against humanity.121 states are signatories to the RomeStatute.practice of Administrative Detention “whichis discriminatory and constitutes arbitrarydetention under international human rightslaw.”While it is important that individualviolations of human rights are notedby the Committee, it is crucial that thesystemic nature of the racist regime hasbeen recognised as one of Apartheid.This assertion legitimises a descriptionthat has been considered highly emotivebecause of the link back to the racistregime in South Africa. Israel’s practiceof Apartheid is different from that seen inSouth Africa yet shares several of the samekey pillars, namely discriminatory legislation,segregation and fragmentation of populationand reliance on a repressive military and“security” policy to suppress dissent orcriticism.This development represents a strikingturn for a provision of international lawthat many had assumed to be an historicalartifact. Having first been reprieved byNGOs and legal activists, the findings ofthe Committee reinforces the fact thatprohibition of Apartheid in international lawremains relevant.At this stage it is necessary thatacademics and lawyers make the effort tobetter understand the nature of the crimeitself and to work towards developingfurther strategies for implementation andenforcement of accountability beforedomestic and international criminaltribunals. While enforcement in international(or national) courts is likely to be a long wayoff, the Committee’s statement providesa key tool for NGOs and activists withwhich to lobby and to use in advocacy andeducation.Apartheid is a concept that is universallyunderstood, recognised and reviled andit is a label that accurately assists indescribing the nature of the occupation.With support from respected bodies suchas the CERD Committee, there is muchgreater leverage in responding to Israel’sapologists and in working to convince thepublic and politicians to take a firm anddetermined stand to support the Palestinianright to self-determination, and to recognisethe necessity of moving beyond thesham process that the Quartet and theinternational community has been happy topeddle for too long.

14 palestine NEWS COMMENT & ANALYSISSpring 2012Olympic security firmprofits from OccupationBy Diana NeslenThe red, black and white logo of the giant multinationalcompany G4S is becoming ever more familiar, emblazonedas it is across the country’s secure facilities, local authoritytransport systems and even on our ambulances. The tunics ofparamedics advertise the company’s role as “working in partnershipwith the NHS.”Now it is set to become even more well-known as it is thecompany which will be running all the security and cash servicesoutlets for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.For Palestinians, however, G4S is one more in the catalogue ofcompanies which profit from the occupation of their land and arecomplicit in violations of international law.According to Who Profits? the Israeli investigative project runby the Coalition of Women for Peace, G4S began to profit from themisery of Palestinians living under occupation since it purchased theIsraeli security company, Hashmira, in 2002.G4S, a joint British-Danish company, is one of the world’s largestinternational security corporations and has taken over many ofthe functions of governments in numerous countries, particularlyin the field of welfare to work, immigration controls, prisons andtransportation.Who Profits? says that G4S involvement in Israel and theOccupied Territories can be summarised thus:1. G4S provides security equipment and services toincarceration facilities holding Palestinian political prisonersinside Israel and in the occupied West Bank.2. It offers security services to businesses in settlements.3. It has provided equipment and maintenance services toIsraeli military checkpoints in the West Bank. It declares thatit will withdraw from these contracts but Who Profits? has nocredible evidence that it is doing so.4. It continues to provide security systems for the Israelipolice headquarters in the West Bank.In response to increasing concerns raised about its activitieswithin the OPTs, G4S stated that it would terminate contracts toprovide services to the military checkpoints in the West Bank butwould continue to provide services to settlements. It also statedthat it would withdraw from some of the services it provides to theprisons. However Who Profits? discovered that it will only withdrawfrom one, thus far nameless, prison and that will only happen in2015.The second thing that G4S did was to obtain an opinion from aDanish professor of international law, Hjalte Rasmussen, who foundthat the company’s activities were compliant with internationallaw. However, that opinion has been contradicted by legal opinionobtained by British G4S campaigners and endorsed by ProfessorJohn Dugard, chair in public international law at Leiden University inthe Netherlands, who found that indeed G4S is complicit in Israel’sviolation of the Geneva Convention with respect to Palestinianprisoners.Under Article 76(1) prisoners from the OPTs should be detainedwithin that territory and not outside it. Most prisoners are detainedwithin Israel. By providing services to the prisons where theyG4S chief executive, Nick Bucklesare held, G4S is assisting in grave breaches of the 4th GenevaConvention.The issue of Palestinian prisoners has slowly risen up theagenda. Israel does not distinguish between political prisoners andthose it regards as guilty of crimes against the Israeli state but treatsall Palestinian prisoners as “security” prisoners.Once this label is attached to the prisoner, whatever thenature of their “crime”, they are treated with the same brutality.This encompasses vicious arrest, denial of legal advice, solitaryconfinement, torture, illegal interrogation methods and on occasion,Administrative Detention without trial or the ability to challenge thesecret evidence used against them.Walid Daka, a Palestinian citizen of Israel serving a life sentencefor alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of an Israelisoldier, talks in the book Threat, by Anat Matar and Abeer Baker, ofthe control systems operated by technologies of the kind suppliedby international corporations like G4S. These mean that camerasare everywhere, doors and locks are controlled electronically andone warden can control 120 prisoners, leaving them alone in a worldwithout human contact.G4S supplies services to Ofer prison in the Seam Zone whereterrified children are brought in shackles to the military court. Thesechildren are often kept in Al Jalame (Kisharon) prison where abuse iscommon place.Having lost the argument about illegality, G4S is now tryingdesperately to use the same defence as Veolia, namely that all thecompanies allied to it operate separately. However this is for publicrelations consumption only, as a cursory glance at their web siteshows exactly how interlinked all their operations are.This is how they present themselves: “G4S has the internationalreach and resources to meet the security needs of the global age.We operate in more than 125 countries and have more than 635,000employees worldwide. Whether you require a security solution inone location or across multiple continents, our global experience isalways on hand to bring you advantages.”We in the Group4campaign contend that they cannot have it bothways. We believe that the fact that they are trying to pull the woolover people’s eyes tells us that they are beginning to realise thatthey are in a hole. So we have everything to gain in bringing their

Spring 2012 COMMENT & ANALYSISpalestine NEWS 15behaviour to public attention and campaigning against awarding ofcontracts to them.While G4S may eventually stop supplying services to the Walland checkpoints and may limit its activities to providing securityservices to shopping facilities in the illegal settlements, as longas it maintains its commitments to the prison service in Israel it isguilty of complicity in gross violations of the Geneva Conventionand could, in theory, stand trial in countries that accept evidence ofcorporate complicity in violations of the Geneva convention.On 17 April, Palestine Prisoners’ Day, Palestinian civil societyand human rights organisations called for a campaign to targetcorporations profiting directly from the Israeli prison system, inparticular “for action to be taken to hold to account G4S... whichhelps to maintain and profit from Israel’s prison system, for itscomplicity with Israeli violations of international law.”On the same day it was announced that G4S had lost thecontract to supply security services to the European Community.Many organisations throughout Europe had lobbied against therenewal of this contract.It is beyond belief that in the UK this company is being garlandedwith praise for its contribution to the Olympics, embraced as apartner for our beleaguered Health Service and chosen as thepreferred partner in the privatisation of the prisons and criminaljustice system. In addition it has won contracts to providesocial housing across the country with its latest one coveringthe Midlands, East of England, North West and Yorkshire andHumberside, worth a staggering £203 million.Surely our public services should be more selective about thecompany they keep and we as a society should be campaigningagainst the granting of any contracts to G4S in light of their actionsin Israel and occupied Palestine.• Diana Neslen works with the Group4campaign. Email:Group4campaign@gmail.com. A blog for all the organisationsworking to target G4S is at: http://notog4s.blogspot.co.uk• For the full Who Profits? report on G4S, see www.whoprofits.org/g4s_reportSocial media has impactAn article analysing how social media brought global attentionto the Palestinian hunger strikers and to a new website calledLove Under Apartheid that examines the impact of Israelioccupation on Palestinian intimate and family relationshipswas posted in March on Electronic Intifada.Written by Abraham Greenhouse, a solidarity and BDS activistbased in New York, the article explores just why the campaignswere effective – a question that is vitally important for activistswho want to harness the global power of social media on behalf ofdemanding justice for the Palestinians.Activist Tanya Keilani organised Love Under Apartheid (http://loveunderapartheid.com) after learning of the occupation-relatedproblems a Palestinian friend was having in planning her wedding.“I was really upset that her future was so uncertain; love is hardenough to navigate without such policies,” she said.The website, launched on the eve of Valentine’s Day, includesmoving videos of lovers and married couples describing theirproblems under Israeli restrictions. Tanya looked at what socialmedia channels were best for the campaign. “Twitter andFacebook were obvious choices but it was really useful to releasea promotional video that was entertaining, well made, and easilyaccessible to multiple audiences, and to host the video on a sitenormally untouched by political campaigns (FunnyOrDie).”The campaign for the hunger strikers, beginning with KhaderAnan, was less centralised but also had clear goals. Firstly it wasto increase the visibility of the strike within the social media sphere,then to encourage mainstream media to report on the story. Readthe full article at http://tinyurl.com/bu666cv.Lana and Taiseer on Love Under Apartheid.• Palestinian Christians and the Israeli Ambassador tothe USThe Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, madethe absurd claim on the CBS programme, 60 minutes, on22 April that Palestinian Christians were leaving the WestBank due to Muslim extremism, not Israel’s occupation. TheInstitute for Middle East Understanding collected responsesfrom Palestinian Christians: http://tinyurl.com/d9aw7xv.• Truth told on Israeli “Big Brother”The truth about what Israelis doing to the Palestiniansfound a brilliantly eloquentand forceful champion inthe figure of 27-year-oldTel Aviv-based artist, SaarSzekely, in the unlikelyforum of the Israeli versionof Big Brother.Szekely debated withhis co-stars saying things like: “Israel doesn’t want peace.It wants land” and “Israel is on the brink of catastrophe andyour eyes are closed.” Such views are rarely aired in Israelbut the show had its highest ever ratings as 40% of IsraeliTVs were tuned in. http://tinyurl.com/br76nl7• Land Day DemosAt least one person was killed by the IDF and 130 injuredin big demonstrations marking Palestinian Land Day. Inaddition, people from 82 countries took part in actions infront of their embassies in the Global March to Jerusalem.There’s a good report on RT: http://tinyurl.com/cg2xa7n.• Life in a refugee campIn a new UNRWA documentary, Someone Like Me, a youngLebanese man visits Burj Barajneh Camp. The 24-minutefilm offers a rare glimpse of life inside a Palestinian refugeecamp in Lebanon. http://tinyurl.com/cyev96t• Excess baggage in the OPTsIf you missed the BBC Radio 4 travel programme, hosted byJohn McCarthy, on travelling in the OPTs, catch it again at:http://tinyurl.com/7pu72lg.

16 palestine NEWS COMMENT & ANALYSISSpring 2012The Prawer Plan:Total destruction ofBedouin way of lifeIn January the government of Israel published the memorandumof a bill named “Regulation of the Bedouin settlement in theNegev” – commonly known as the Prawer Plan – whichstates the steps to be implemented forcibly to removethe overwhelming majority of the residents of Israel’s“unrecognised” villages – around 30,000 people – and confiscateabout two thirds of the land remaining in their possession.Here Dr Yeela Raanan analyses the methods thegovernment is planning to use to defeat the widespreadresistance to its unjust plans.This bill is currently going through thelegislative process in the Knesset andsoon will become law. And this is whatthe Bedouin are now facing:• The bill’s main aim is to force theBedouin to give up the little land they arestill holding onto.• In order to do so, the bill spells out anintense, violent and destructive process,utilising family pressure, bulldozers andincarceration.• The bill is written in a confusingmanner, so that the majority of theBedouin community are incapable of evenunderstanding what the government isputting before them. Ironically, they areexpected to give their comments via theweb.• The government is spending a verylarge amount of money to send emissariesto “convince” the Bedouin that acceptingthis bill is to their benefit. At the sametime the media is cooperating with thegovernment and remaining silent regardingall protests and criticisms against thisdangerous bill. Thus, the two amazingdemonstrations of the Bedouin – of over10,000 in Beer Sheva and another 6,000 inJerusalem – were not covered at all by theHebrew media.Just a couple of items from the bill willshow you the monstrosity of it:are giving up their land claims too (againfor 50% in land compensation). However,if any of the siblings does not wish to playalong, then all other siblings will receiveless land in compensation but insteadreceive some insignificant monetarycompensation.What does this mean? It means thatthere will be strife in all the Bedouin families.As all Bedouin are people, they will notalways agree. Therefore one person willreceive far less land because his brotherwill refuse to sign his land away. From thispoint on, they will not speak to each otherfor generations... and to think that thegovernment is creating this kind of strifewithin families – is horrendous.2. According to the bill, when it is time to“clear” a piece of land of Bedouin this isthe process:• The prime minister signs that thisspecific area is now to be cleared.• The Bedouin have two weeks in whichto clear out everything: structures, animals,trees, people and movables.• The government may then demolishanything left in the area and incarcerate fortwo years anyone remaining.• The bill prevents the intervention of thecourts, as it states that there is no need fora court injunction to demolish the structuresand that the court may at the mostpostpone the “clearing” by one week.This process will be implemented uponthe entire area of the unrecognised villageswithin five years.Where will the people go to? It is notspecified. Does the government need toprovide those it is clearing out with anotherplace to go to? It is not specified. Do theresidents of the villages, as they are beingcleared off, have any say in where they willhave to move to? It is not specified.1. Cynically utilising family pressureMembers of the Bedouin community arenot interested in monetary compensationfor their lands; they want the land itself. Aperson can receive up to 50% of his landin “compensation” IF he convinces ALLhis siblings and cousins to sign that theyBedouin women protesting against the Prawer Plan. Photo: Silvia Baorini, Demotix.

Spring 2012 COMMENT & ANALYSISpalestine NEWS 17government of Israel feels it can do anythingit wishes to this community, and no one willcare. Let’s show them we care!A Bedouin family and their demolished home. Photo: Adalah.3. Start bombarding Israeli governmentofficials with your faxes, emails, phone calls.Here are the important figures:• Minister Binyamin Begin. He is theperson assigned to listen to the communityand make amendments to the bill accordingto their needs. (All he is doing is tryingto convince the Bedouin that this is thebest deal for them and they must join theprocess.) Email: bbegin@knesset.gov.il; Tel:02-6408022, 02-6703382; Fax: 02-6703386.• Yehuda Bahar, the one in chargeof implementing the plan, head of theAuthority for the Settlement of the Bedouin.Tel: 08-6268735; Fax: 08-6268729; Email:YehudaB@moch.gov.il.• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.Tel: 02-6705512; Fax: 02-5664838.• The Israeli Ambassador in your area.• Your Ambassador in Israel.Nowadays the Bedouin do not havesufficient land to live their lives in ease. Astark statistic is that each Bedouin in anagricultural community has an average ofhalf an acre of land to use. In comparison,every Jewish person living in an agriculturalcommunity in the Negev has over six acres.And it is important to rememberthat many more members of a Bedouinagricultural community actually make aliving from agriculture than of the Jewishcommunities. This bill, if it succeeds, willreduce the half-acre of agricultural lands to0.001 of an acre per person.EmpoweringBedouin womenBy Ann DaviesThe Sidreh project, a programmeof education and empowermentof Bedouin women, is becominga blueprint for the unrecognisedvillages in the Negev. Already the scheme,which teaches literacy and leads to furthereducation, operates in 15 of them andenables women to recognise their rightsand gives them a voice in the community.Sidreh has helped over 1400 womento read and write. The director of itseducation and community programme,Hanan Alsaneh, said she was optimisticfor the future when she spoke recentlyat Fair Trade events and to the ScottishWomen’s Convention at the ScottishParliament in Edinburgh.Mrs Alsaneh described how womenhave revived the Bedouin tradition ofweaving woollen rugs on home-madeground looms. The Lakiya NegevWeaving programme, set up in 1991,welcomes visitors to the centre andIt means that this is an end, a totaldestruction, of Bedouin traditional life andtheir ability to live off the land. Consideringthat about 20% of the Bedouin today livefrom agriculture, it is devastating.What can you do to help?1. Contact your representatives and askthem to ask Israel difficult questionsregarding its policies towards the Bedouin.2. Help spread this information. Since theBedouin are a weakened community, theorganises tours giving opportunities toobserve Bedouin life. It supports 70 families,being their only source of income.Economic success for Sidreh isaccompanied by growing political involvementwhich led to 700 women protesting inJerusalem against house demolitions and anew sense of empowerment. “As a result,women are not afraid to say in public whattheir rights are,” Mrs Alsaneh said.Sixty women have finished highschool and a special curriculum has beendeveloped. Twenty-two teachers have beentrained to work in the unrecognised villages.Because of the Bedouin tradition prohibitingwomen from travelling, 53% of women inthe recognised townships and nearly 90% inthe unrecognised villages over the age of 40could not read or write.Mrs Alsaneh, the only girl in a familyof nine sisters and two brothers to go touniversity, became angry over the plight ofwomen who felt helpless in the community,faced with violence, health and economicissues.“Before 1948 Bedouin women wereproducers: they worked in agriculture andwove the family tent, giving them status,”she said. “After 1948 they were reduced tobeing consumers. Their traditional role inthe family had vanished because of Israeligovernment policies forcing them off theWe call on the government of Israel totake measures concerning the integration ofthe Arab-Bedouin community of the Negevinto the region based on the principles ofpartnership, equality, human rights anda future of prosperity for all the Negevresidents.Dr. Yeela Raanan works with theRegional Council for the UnrecognizedVillages in the Negev (RCUV).http://rcuv.wordpress.comEmail: negevbedouin@gmail.comland. A hundred thousand Bedouinnow live in only 3% of Israel and thegovernment want to reduce it to 1%.”Asked how supporters in the UK couldhelp, Mrs Alsaneh said buying the rugsgave women income and increased theirself-empowerment. She urged people totell the Israeli government to stop theirpolicies against the Bedouin, particularlyregarding the land.Lakiya is in partnership with Palcrafts/Hadeel, the charity and Palestinian FairTrade crafts centre in Edinburgh wheresmall rugs are on sale.• See www.hadeel.org.Hanan Alsaneh, left, and Hadeelvolunteer, Kathleen Campbell

18 palestine NEWS REPORTSSpring 2012€49 million of development projectsdestroyed by IsraelIsrael has destroyed development projects in Palestine worth€49.2 million over the past decade, of which €29.4m werefunded by the European Union or its member states, accordingto the European Commission.The figures – the most detailed yet on damage by Israeli attacks –were provided in March by Štefan Füle, the European Commissionerfor Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, in response to aquestion from Chris Davies, a British Liberal MEP.Füle also provided a list of 82 projects damaged in Israeli attacksagainst the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, of which the largest isGaza airport, built with €9.5m in funding from Germany, Spain andSweden, and damaged in 2001–02. Also in 2001, the IDF destroyedcamps used by Palestine’s civil police in the Gaza strip, built with€4.6m in funding from by the Commission.Chris Davies said: “As fast as the EU pays out, the Israelis reduceour efforts to rubble, or so it sometimes seems.“We should be able to expect better from a close partner like Israelbut the EU refuses to apply any sanctions against Israel’s misbehaviourso we will continue to be treated with disregard and contempt.”In his response, Füle said: “Discreet démarches are often moreeffective than public announcements on such occasions.” Heconfirmed that the Commission had not received any compensationfrom Israel for the damage.For the full report: http://tinyurl.com/cnyhc5w.Renewable energy projects to bedemolishedSix EU-funded wind and solar energy projects worth over€200,000 which provide electricity for 600 West BankPalestinians were put on a “demolition list” by Israel inFebruary, allegedly in response to an EU heads of missionreport which called for laws to prevent the financing of settlements.West Bank project managers say the ‘stop work’ ordersserved against the projects are “a first step to almost automaticdemolition.” Elad Orian, the co-founder of Comet-ME, whichoversaw the projects, said that 400 people would be left completelywithout electricity if the demolition plan went ahead.“The people will be left without light or the ability to chargecellphones, which is the only means of communication there,”he said. “You will have no refrigerators, which are crucial for theeconomic sustainability of farming communities, and women will bereburdened with a lot of very gender-specific manual labour.”In all, the intiative backed by Comet-ME and the German group,Medico International, has built 15 solar plants and hybrid systemselectrifying villages with a combined population of some 1,500 people.Some EU diplomats – and many NGOs – see a link in the timingwith a confidential report by the EU’s top regional diplomats intosettlement building and house demolitions in Area C. It called onthe Commission to draft legislation “to prevent/discourage financialtransactions in support of settlement activity.”Less than two weeks after the report was leaked, notices wereserved on clean energy projects in Haribat al-Nabi, Shaab al-Butum,Qawawis and Wadi al-Shesh. “It is not just the Germans thatwere slapped in the face but the whole EU,” said Tsafrir Cohen, aspokesman for Medico International. “That was their answer to theArea C report.”EU delegates also produced a report into East Jerusalem whichfound that Israel was working to annex it – a policy the EU sees asillegal. It said that Israel’s policies since 2001 have encouraged theemigration of Christian residents and “have run counter to its statedcommitment to a sustainable peace with the Palestinians throughthe two-state solution.”The report recommended that EU officials should not meetIsraeli representatives in East Jerusalem and that they should shareinformation on violent settlers in order to assess whether to allowthem to enter EU member states.• EU Heads of Mission Report – Jerusalem 2011 http://scr.bi/ySUjGq• EU Report on Area C and Palestinian State Building, July 2011http://scr.bi/zuIhV0800 US nuclear triggerssmuggled to IsraelAn espionageringsmuggled800 krytonsto the IsraeliMinistry of Defencefor use in theclandestine Israelinuclear weaponsprogramme,according to FBIfiles declassified inMarch.A kryton is agas-filled tubewhich can be usedas a trigger fornuclear weapons.The files revealCalifornia-based MILCO International Inc shipped 15 orderstotalling 800 krytons through an intermediary to the IsraeliMinistry of Defence between 1979 and 1983.MILCO obtained the krytons from EG&G Inc. ArnonMilchan, an Israeli movie producer who became successful inHollywood for such movies as Brazil, JFK and Pretty Woman,brokered the transactions with MILCO through his Heli TradingCompany after the US government rejected several requestsfor kryton export licenses to Israel.MILCO President, Richard Kelly Smyth, was indicted on30 counts of smuggling and making false statements in May,1984. Smyth and his wife promptly fled to Israel but werecaptured in Spain in July 2001 and Smyth was extradited tothe US where he pleaded guilty to violating the Arms ExportControl Act. In November, 2001, he was sentenced to 40years in prison and fined $20,000 though he was freed withinfour years because of his advancing age. No charges werefiled against Milchan or those who secretly helped Smyth fleeor who covered his living expenses abroad.A 2011 biography, Confidential: The Life of Secret AgentTurned Hollywood Tycoon, Arnon Milchan, by Meir Doron andJoseph Gelman, claims that Milchan was recruited into Israel’sLAKAM economic espionage unit in his 20s. He is also theclose confidant of Shimon Peres and Binyamin Netanyahu.• See the FBI files at www.IRmep.org/ila/krytons

Spring 2012 REPORTSpalestine NEWS 19More than just a treeFor Fair Trade Fortnight, thePalestinian olive oil importer,Zaytoun, hosted Abu Kamal,an olive farmer from Al Ramehand part of the Palestine FairTrade Association, on a UKtour. The 15 members ofthe PFTA co-operative in AlRameh, near Jenin, producearound 10 tons of olive oil ayear. Here Manal Abdallah,of Canaan Fair Trade, whoaccompanied him, describeswhat the visit meant to them.Abu Kamal and Manal Abdallah with supporters in Dundee. Photo: Zaytoun.Fair Trade Fortnight for us was morethan just a way to promote ourproducts. It was a way for us to say:we are farmers from Palestine, a nationthat has a long history, rich with its cultureand heritage, that deserves to exist and tolive in dignity.It was a pride for us to carry thePalestinian olive oil bottle to every eventwe participated in. A bottle that says thisproduct is MADE IN PALESTINE. It doesn’tsay made in Area A, B, or C. It doesn’t sayMade in the West Bank, or the OPT. It isa bottle that acts as an ambassador forPalestinian farmers, carrying with it a tasteof their history, their attachment to the land,their homes and their olive trees.“It was a pride for usto carry the olive oilbottle to every event”It was a pleasure for us to meethundreds of people who listened to ourstory with full attention and completeinterest. During discussions, we felt howtouched the audiences were after hearingAbu Kamal talk about how Fair Tradechanged his life and the lives of 1700 otherfarmers like him.Abu Kamal talked about the importanceof the olive tree. “For us it is more thanjust a tree. It is a main source of incomefor the Palestinian families. It representsour culture, our heritage, our history, ourhumanity and presence. We inherited thistree from our ancestors who planted it sothat we can eat from it. It is our duty to takecare of it and protect it so our children andgrandchildren can eat from it.”Abu Kamal also talked about thechallenges farmers face because of theIsraeli occupation in terms of denial ofaccessing their properties and denialof accessing water resources, and thecontinuous settlers’ attacks. “Knowing howsacred and important this tree is for us,imagine what it feels like when someonecomes and takes it away from us! Whensomeone comes and simply uproots orburns our olive trees. When someone comesand builds a wall through our lands takingaway big portions of it, splitting it into piecesto which we are denied to access.“But regardless of all these challenges,we will endure and continue to exist,because this is our way of resistingoccupation and oppression.”Abu Kamal also talked about how FairTrade in Palestine was a way to includewomen to participate in bringing incomefor their families. In Palestine’s Fair TradeAssociation, we now have six women cooperativesengaged in producing organicproducts like za’atar, couscous, almonds,bulgur, sundried tomatoes and soap.Those products are now exported to 17countries.“This is our way ofresisting occupationand oppression”Fair Trade had a direct and visible impacton the Palestinian farmers’ lives. Because ofthe much higher income he now received,Abu Kamal was able to pay his son’suniversity tuition fees which he couldn’tafford before. Knowing there was a marketfor his products, Abu Kamal started to caremore about his lands, his trees and hiscrops. He even swapped from conventionalto organic farming, even if it cost him higher.“Now I don’t have to worry about howlong it would take me to sell my products.Because of Fair Trade, I can assure mywhole crop will be sold in the season,” hesaid.Through the Fair Trade premium,farmers are able to invest in social projectsbenefitting their communities and cooperatives.“With the premium, we wereable to bring new computers to schoolsin my village, a new fridge to store themedicine in the health care centre and newheating systems and air conditioners in thekindergarten,” Abu Kamal said.What impressed me the most, personally,is how much people care about Fair Trade inthe UK. Visiting all these Fair Trade schools,villages and supporters, gave us a pushto continue what we’re doing, to keep onplanting, enduring, resisting and investing inthe spirit of Fair Trade regardless of all thechallenges.Abu Kamal always ended his talk byinviting people to visit Palestine, to sharewith our farmers the joy of the olive harvestseason, to experience the generoushospitality of the Palestinian people,to celebrate with them the fruit of theiraccomplishments, and to taste delicaciesfrom the Land of Milk and Honey! We lookforward to really seeing you all at Canaanand in Palestine very soon!• www.canaanfairtrade.com• www.zaytoun.org

20 palestine NEWS BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONSSpring 2012Green Partycondemns the JNFGreen Party of England and Wales membersvoted overwhelmingly in February to supportan international call for action against JNFpractices in Israel and the OPTs and to revokeits charity status in the UK.In moving the motion, Deborah Fink alertedthe conference to “JNF greenwash” andsaid that “the JNF is a major impediment torealisation of Green Party policy on the MiddleEast, therefore the JNF should be condemned.As a charity, the JNF gets tax advantages so,through our taxes, we are subsidising injustice.”Here she explains why she feels so strongly.Ijoined the Green Party of England and Wales two years agobecause of its support for social and environmental justice,human and animal rights, and its position on Palestine – itsupports BDS.These are all reasons for the party to take a stand on theJNF; an organisation which masquerades as eco-Zionism andgreenwashes the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The JNF is knownfor establishing forests and parks over the remains of destroyedPalestinian villages. It occurred to me that support from GPEWwould be a potential boost to the “Stop the JNF” campaign and thatthis was something I could do.“The response of Green Partymembers was astounding”The response of Green Party members at the Spring Conferencewas astounding. There were no opposing speeches and only threepeople voted against the motion.This is the latest blow to the JNF. As well as the resolutionsagainst it, 68 MPs, including Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas,have signed EDM 1677 against the JNF. For the first time in thehistory of the JNF, our Prime Minister is not a patron and neither arethe leaders of the other main political parties.The level of support indicated at Conference for the campaignagainst the JNF should encourage all of us to move similar motionsat our trade union branches and with the organisations that we areinvolved in. In the UK, as in over 50 countries, the JNF is rewardedwith tax benefits for their direct role in ethnic cleansing. There ismuch more for us to do!Please join the Stop the JNF Campaign and seek affiliation fromyour branch. www.stopthejnf.org or email uk@stopthejnf.org.Deborah Fink is co-founder ofJews for Boycotting Israeli GoodsNew Centre forPalestine StudiesAn exciting new centre of teaching andresearch in London, the Centre forPalestine Studies, which will be part ofthe London Middle East Institute of theSchool of Oriental and African Studies, waslaunched in March.Professor Gilbert Achcar, Chair of theCentre (pictured), explained to a packedauditorium that SOAS already had 35 members of staff froma variety of disciplines with interests in this field: it madesense to formalise and exploit this wide-ranging expertiseby bringing them together into one institution to promote thestudy of all aspects of Palestinian history, politics, economicsand cultural life – and to bring these to the attention of a wider,non-academic public.One major project will be the development of aninterdisciplinary MA programme in Palestine Studies, andan active research programme will also be encouraged. Thevibrant programme of lectures, conferences and culturalactivities already hosted by SOAS will be further enhanced.Dr Karma Nabulsi, a member of the Centre’s AdvisoryCommittee, spoke about the development of PalestineStudies from very modest beginnings to the present day.Outside Palestine, the Centres in the universities of Exeterand Columbia in the US are flourishing; SOAS’ new Centrewill collaborate closely with them and with universities inPalestine.Professor Ilan Pappé spoke of the hegemony of the Israelinarrative up to the 1970s, with Palestine being seen merely inrelation to “the conflict.” He stressed the need to have inputinto the British public and political scene; for example, topicslike the boycott campaign should be part of that informeddebate. The ultimate aim of the Centre, he felt, should beovertly political: a free Palestine.For more information see www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cps.

Spring 2012 ACTIVISMpalestine NEWS 21Fundraising – it’sabsolutely vital!In any not-for-profit organisation, the need for fundraising isongoing. But in these straitened economic times, it is at thesame time more vital and more difficult.PSC has a solid core strength – the commitment of itsmembers, branches and affiliates. We continue to grow andexpand in influence, building the mass solidarity movementthat is so desperately needed and placing Palestine as the keyinternational solidarity issue of our time. But we cannot do thiswithout a generous and steady flow of funds to support therunning of the office, produce the literature and organise thecampaigns.So please do your best to raise whatever you can as anindividual, or as a branch. Here are a few ideas to inspire you!Join the PSC 100 ClubThe 100 Club is a group of PSC members and supporters whocommit to a regular donation of at least £100 a year through astanding order. Having a solid and predictable income is great forhelping us to plan ahead effectively and to remain in the forefront ofsolidarity work in the UK and Europe.Auction raises £10,500!!It took a lot of planning and hard work but when we in theRichmond and Kingston branch totted up the total and foundwe had raised an astonishing £10,500 from our Auction ofPromises, we feltit had all beenworthwhile.An Auctionof Promises is asimple idea thatcan be done onany scale – notevery communityhas the resourcesto donate as muchas ours did in awell-heeled andpolitically awareLondon suburb.On whatever scale,however, it can beGuests study the Promises brochures.both effective and an enjoyable occasion in which to spread theword about the work of PSC.The way it works is that you persuade people to donatePromises, then you organise an Auction in which people bid forthem – with the money going to PSC.For the Promises, we thought of anyone we knew whocould do anything. For example, one friend runs a websitedesign business and donated two hours of her time, another isa builder and donated half a day, one is a gardener and gavethree hours work, two are freelance cooks – one is doing a“food and wine matching” demonstration and the other teaching“how to cook dinner for eight in two hours.” There was dinner inthe House of Lords with Baroness Jenny Tonge and tea in theHouse of Commons with Jeremy Corbyn, MP.Three people who own holiday homes generously donateda week each. We got tickets for concerts and local theatresand vouchers from restaurants. Think creatively! Anyone witha passion or skill, for instance for fishing, embroidery, playingcards, pigeon fancying, whatever, could offer to give a couple ofhours of instruction.We ended up with 36 Promises – far too many to beauctioned in one go – which brings me to the second essentialelement for success: careful organisation. We decided fromthe start to focus on making it a fun night out so as to draw inpeople who are generally supportive but don’t usually attendPSC events.We hired a hall attached toa pub and organised food tobe supplied by the PalestinianMaramia Restaurant in London’sNotting Hill – it was delicious! Weinvited the fine oud player, FirasJabloun, who very generouslyplayed for nothing.For publicity we created“brochures” listing the Promises,attractively laid out with pictures,which we emailed to anyonewe thought might be interestedand invited people to come inexchange for a £15 donation toFiras Jabloun.cover our costs (better to avoid formally selling tickets so asnot to fall foul of ‘elf ‘n’ safety requirements).Then we added our star attraction – a very fine auctioneerin the person of former Labour MP, QC, author and wit, BobMarshall-Andrews. We were very lucky in that he lives locallyand had done it before and he proved to be magic on the night.The key is to find someone with the gift of the gab who can“talk up” the Promises to get the bidding going.One pitfall to be wary of is “Auction fatigue.” After eight orten Promises, the crowd’s attention inevitably flags. So wesplit our Promises into a Live Auction and a Silent Auction –where they are listed on a board and people place their bidsthroughout the evening.We split the 18 Promises remaining in the Live Auctioninto two halves, with a break in between for the food andentertainment. We created a Powerpoint of pictures to displaywhile Bob weaved jokes and anecdotes around the seriousbusiness of persuading people to part with their cash.A friend kindly decorated the tables with cloths and napkinsin the colours of the Palestinian flag and 120 people crowdedin. The atmosphere was great and afterwards many people saidwhat a good time they had had. We were pleased not only toraise the money but also that people went away with a positiveimage of the PSC and the Palestinian cause.More details of how to organise an Auction of Promises, andour brochures, will be on the website in due course.

22 palestine NEWSACTIVISMSpring 2012Leave a legacyRemembering the PSC in your will means you will continue to helpus to end injustice for Palestinians. Nearly three-quarters of us giveto causes in our lifetime – but less than five per cent leave anythingfor causes after their death. It's sensible to make a will. And whenyou do, please think of the PSC.30th anniversary sponsored walkThere will be the most stunning mountain scenery. There will becomfortable accommodation in a truly beautiful converted barn withgorgeous views. There will be exercise, fresh air, relaxation and greatcompany. This is the delicious recipe for the PSC’s 30th anniversarysponsored walk from 3 to 5 August – how can you resist!The walk marks a return to our first outing in 2007 in the BreconBeacons National Park. We have sole use of the Wern WatkinBunkhouse located high up on Mynnedd Llangattock and offeringdirect walking access to the mountainside, ancient woodland,caves, cliffs and industrial heritage of the area.Wern Watkin is a Visit Wales five star graded bunkhouse whichsleeps up to 30 people in seven fully en-suite bedrooms. Thereis a massive dining room/seating area and a wonderful outdoorspace opening out onto ancient woodlands. There is under-floorheating throughout, excellent drying facilities and ample hotwater.The weekend will start on the evening of Friday, 3 August, whenwe will meet up and socialise. On Saturday, 4 August, we will havetwo levels of walk, lasting about six hours. In the evening therewill be a social with a Welsh and a Palestinian flavour to whichlocal supporters will be invited to come and meet the walkers. OnSunday, 5 August, we will have two shorter walks of about threehours finishing at a local pub before people set off home.Comedian Mark Thomas, who created the enormously successfulshow, “Walking the Wall,” sent this message of support:“Palestine is the moral issue of our age; the military occupationand apartheid-style subjugation of Palestinians by the Israeli stateis unconscionable and abhorrent. In the struggle for human rightsand justice, the PSC has been a consistent critic of the Israeliregime and supporter of the Palestinian cause for freedom, so I amdelighted to support their work.“I hope anyone reading this will either join the fundraising walkin Brecon Beacons or sponsor someone doing it. In solidarity, MarkThomas.”For more details: email psc.admin@palestinecampaign.org, orphone 020 7700 6192.Gill SwainNews from the branches…together. The speakers exemplified that strand in Palestinian life:they are young but their experience gave them a poised analysis ofthe issues, coupled with a wealth of personal evidence and strikinganecdotes which made their testimony unforgettable.“The PSC branches wanted tocelebrate the centrality ofwomen in the Palestinian struggle”From left to right: Kholood Ersheid, Zayneb al Shalalfeh,Maha Rezq, Kholoud al Ajarma, Sameeha Elwan.The wonderful women of PalestineWomen from Gaza, the West Bank and Nazareth conductedan inspiring week-long speaking tour of the North ofEngland in March, coinciding with International Women’sDay. The women were welcome guests in Bradford, York,Halifax, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Rochdale and Manchester;one speaker also visited Durham and Newcastle, maximising theimpact of the tour.The PSC branches which organised the event wanted tocelebrate the centrality of women in the Palestinian struggle forjustice, a role which dates back to the Nakba when Palestiniansbegan to lose their lands and women had to hold the familyThe speakers were Kholoud al Ajarma, of Aida Refugee Camp,Bethlehem, a worker in a human rights organisation and volunteerin the Lajee Cultural Centre; Zayneb al Shalalfeh, from Hebron,who works for Life Source, an organisation focusing on the right towater; Sameeha Elwan, a teacher from Gaza, whose blog duringOperation Cast Lead was closely followed by many; KholoodErsheid, from Nazareth, who works with abused women and witha group trying to prevent house demolitions, and Maha Rezq, fromGaza, who worked for NGOs and now studies in London.The women’s life experiences were varied but their analysis of theproblem consistent. The refugee experience emerged as a themebecause, although only Kholoud al Ajarma lives in a refugee camp,the families of all the women had been refugees.Members reported there were many memorable moments, suchas: “Being invited to listen to the witness statements of womenwhose homes had been demolished: ‘a house is a memory, notjust about walls,’ and hearing of one traumatised child’s residualfear of yellow, the colour of the bulldozers which wrecked herhome.“Learning about a speaker’s mother who, when ill, was obligedto crawl through a tunnel to get medical treatment because the

Spring 2012 BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONSpalestine NEWS 23Co-op expands boycottIn a terrific BDS milestone, the Co-opdecided in April to expand its boycott ofgoods produced in Israeli settlements intoa complete boycott of all Israeli companiesthat source any goods in settlements.The Co-op, which is owned by its sixmillion members, is the UK’s fifth biggestfood retailer with 4,800 stores across theUK, more than 106,000 employees andan annual turnover of £13 billion. Thedecision made it the first major Europeansupermarket group to end trade withcompanies that export produce from theillegal settlements.The announcement came just before thecompany’s regional AGMs, many of whichwere due to discuss motions on the issue.Many Co-op members had spent monthsvoicing their concerns about trade withcomplicit companies through co-ordinatedletter-writing and discussions with localoffices.The move will have an immediate impacton four suppliers: Agrexco, Arava ExportGrowers, Adafresh and Mehadrin, Israel’slargest agricultural export company. Aspokesperson from the Palestinian Union ofAgricultural Work Committees said: “Tradewith such companies constitutes a majorform of support for Israel’s apartheid regimeover the Palestinian people, so we warmlywelcome this principled decision by the Co-Operative.”Cultural boycott and protestsThe Irish band Dervish, which performed atthe 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, pulledout of a series of Irish music concerts inIsrael in June, so as not to violate callsfor the cultural boycott. American rockmusician, Cat Power, also cancelled hershow in Tel Aviv.Meanwhile, the Batsheva DanceCompany, identified by the Israeli Ministryof Foreign Affairs as “the best knownglobal ambassador of Israeli culture,” facedprotests throughout its recent US tour.Churches heed the callThe General Conference of the UnitedMethodist Church in the US called for aboycott of all Israeli companies “operatingin the occupied Palestinian territories” –which means the great majority of Israelicorporations.Meeting in Tampa, Florida, theConference also gave overwhelming supportto the “Kairos Palestine” document and itscall “for an end to military occupation andhuman rights violations through nonviolentactions” which include BDS.Also in the US, the PresbyterianChurch’s full General Assembly MissionCouncil voted in February to approvea recommendation from its MissionResponsibility Through Investment (MRTI)committee to divest from its holdings inCaterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and MotorolaSolutions. All three sell equipment,technology and communication systems tothe Israeli military.Israeli soldiers would not let her pass. Winning books in a writingcompetition and having to wait two years to come to Britain toget them because the Israelis didn’t allow them into Gaza. Gazanstudents here in England speaking of the heaven of libraries andbookshops and receiving post through the letterbox - somethingnever experienced before.“Mothers using the same water over and over, to wash childrenand clothes and then finally to flush toilets. Showers timed tothe minute and the contrast with the water-indulgence in illegalsettlement flower beds. Blogging because the internet has noborders, no soldiers, no apartheid wall.”Singing protestProtesters fromCambridge held a“sing-in” outside achurch in March tourge choir membersto pull out of aconcert tour ofIsrael with the IsraelCamerata and theAcademy of EnglishVoices.To the tune of Bach’s “O sacred head now wounded,” the singersperformed the words:“Oh land so pained, insulted, by masters of ZionOh land of fruit, of olives and water now shornOh land of blood and partings, you soon will be restoredFor Palestine’s stolen soil will shed its crown of thorns.”Several branches, including Liverpool, marked PalestinianPrisoners Day by holding protests about the hunger strikers. InGlasgow members marched through the city centre and occupiedthe BBC Scotland Headquarters demanding media coverage of thehunger strike.Actions against council contracts being awarded to Veolia havebeen continuing all over the country, including in Bristol wheremembers dressed up as animals to protest against the company’ssponsorship of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. Otherbranches which keep beavering away include Faversham andWhitstable, Lambeth and Wandsworth, Leeds, West Midlands,Richmond and Kingston, Cambridge, Manchester, Aberystwyth,Brent and Harrow, West London and Merton.

24 palestine NEWS IN BRIEFSpring 2012In Brief•THE FREEDOM BUS – RIDE FORJUSTICEThe Freedom Theatre, based in Jenin refugee camp, is organisinga nine-day international solidarity ride through the West Bankin September, using Playback Theatre to listen to and enactaudiences’ own stories of life under occupation.Playback Theatre is a technique used in over 50 countries as atool for community building, public dialogue, trauma recovery, socialactivism and popular education. Audience members share thoughts,feelings, memories and autobiographical accounts, then watch as ateam of actors and musicians improvise theatre pieces using words,sound, movement, music and poetry.As part of the lead-up to the ride, the Freedom Bus troupe hasbeen holding Playback Theatre performances in towns, villages,refugee camps and Bedouin encampments since December 2011.The project will also use live video links to connect with Palestiniansin Gaza, Israel and in neighbouring countries.Endorsers of the Freedom Bus include Alice Walker, NoamChomsky, Angela Davis,Judith Butler, John Berger, Mairead Maguireand a range of prominent Palestinian artists, scholars and humanrights advocates.The ride will be from 23 September to 1 October. For moreinformation or to join in, see www.freedombus.ps.•THE NEW BLACKA first ever musical collaboration between a SouthAfrican band and a Palestinian oud player has created an incrediblypowerful music video called “The New Black,” referring to themusicians’ common struggle against racial intolerance.The New Black was written and composed by Jeremy Karodiaand Ayub Mayet as “a musical reaction to the horror of the GazaMassacre of 2008/2009 and then subsequently inspired by thebook ‘Mornings in Jenin’ by Susan Abulhawa,” according to notesaccompanying the video.It was recorded by the band, The Mavrix, in South Africa whileoud player, Mohammed Omar, recorded his part in Gaza. Therelease of the song and video was marked on 12 March with aSkype link up between the Soweto Palestine Solidarity Alliance andactivists in Palestine to launch Israeli Apartheid Week.Naazim Adam of South Africa’s Palestine Solidarity Alliance said:“This was a momentous moment as it not only signalled a growingimpatience with apartheid Israel but also asserted a common bondof struggle against oppression and for a just peace between SouthAfricans and Palestinians.“Despite being over 1000km apart, Palestinians and Sowetanswere able to feel the common brotherhood and sisterhood thatunites people against racial intolerance.”Watch the video on Youtube – then Facebook and Tweet it!http://tinyurl.com/dykszly.•CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORIMPRISONEDNoam Gur, an18 year old fromKiryat Motzkin nearHaifa, declared herrefusal to serve inthe Israeli Army asit is an occupyingforce when she wassupposed to beginher national servicein April and wassentenced to tendays in a militaryprison.She had tried toget conscientiousobjector status buthad been refusedso had to reportfor service. In herdeclaration shewrote: “I refuse to join an army that has, since it was established,been engaged in dominating another nation, in plundering andterrorising a civilian population that is under its control.”In an earlier letter to the army, she wrote: “For years I have beentold that the control over the Palestinian people is supposed toprotect me, but information about the suffering caused due to theterrorising of the Palestinian population was omitted from that story.The road to dismantling this apartheid and achieving true and justpeace is long, and hard, but as I see it, actions taken by the Israeliarmy only push it further away.“Over this past decade, the Palestinian people have beenincreasingly choosing the path of nonviolent resistance and I chooseto join this path and to turn to a popular, nonviolent struggle inPalestine, rather than to serve in the Israeli army and continue theviolence.”•ISRAEL CUTS CONTACT WITHHUMAN RIGHTS COUNCILWhen the United Nations Human Rights Council decided toestablish an international investigative committee on the West Banksettlements in March, Israel responded by cutting all contact andPHOTO: OREN ZIV, ACTIVESTILLS

Spring 2012 IN BRIEFpalestine NEWS 25ordering its envoy in Geneva to ignore any phone calls from theCouncil’s chief commissioner.An Israeli official said they would also bar the Council’s factfindingteam from entering Israel and the West Bank to investigatesettlement construction.The resolution establishing the investigation, which alsodemanded a reversal of the settlement policy, was adopted with 36votes in favour and ten abstentions. Only the United States votedagainst it.The head of the Council, Uruguayan ambassador Laura DupuyLasserre, said the decision to dispatch investigators “revealedwidespread cross-regional support.”“This shows the attention that the Human Rights Council paysto the expansion of Israeli settlements,” she said, adding that theCouncil “has always valued Israel’s participation.” Their decision tosever ties “would be most regrettable,” she added.•MARATHON PROTESTPoppy Hardee, a British woman living in Bethlehem,decided to run the Jerusalem marathon in protest on behalf of herPalestinian friends who were forbidden to access the city for theevent. She was abused by Israeli soldiers while she ran, with one ofthem snatching the Palestinian flag she was carrying and spittingon it.The race washeavily promotedworldwide andeveryone was invitedto participate –including, in theory,Palestinians. Inreality, however,most West Bankresidents could notget permission fromIsrael to go intoJerusalem for theevent.Hardee appliedfor the marathonand started trainingwith a Palestinianfriend, a residentof the West Bank,who also intendedto run. They weredismayed to find outhe was barred fromJerusalem for therace for “securityreasons.”“He doesn’t ever get permits, because of ‘security’ issues, so hecan’t go,” Hardee told Emily Lawrence for the Electronic Intifada. “Alot of my friends from the West Bank wanted to come and supportme on the day, but they couldn’t. It’s just not a normal race.”Another issue with the marathon was its misleading presentationof Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “I am proud that Israel’s capitalis part of the marathons held throughout the world,” read a letterfrom Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, in a booklet presented torunners. While Israel declared Jerusalem as its capital shortly afterits “declaration of independence” in 1948, most governments in theworld have never recognised it as such.Even the route of the marathon gave a one-sided view of thecity. It was described as a “run through history,” but it presentedan exclusively Israeli history while sidelining Palestinian history andpresence.Hardee, who recently also ran a half marathon organised by theUNWRA in Gaza, tried to get her $60 registration fee back when sherealised it went to the Jerusalem Municipality which discriminatesagainst Palestinians but was told it was not refundable. So shedecided to run as a form of protest wearing the Palestinian coloursof red, green, white and black, a sash which said “Palestine” andcarrying a flag.“I think it’s a good idea to boycott it, but boycotting is nota visible thing,” she said. “I think it’s better to highlight thedisadvantages than not do it at all.”On the day of the race, Hardee found most of her spectators andfellow runners to be surprisingly encouraging about her outfit butthings changed when she got amongst a group of Israeli soldiersrunning on behalf of “Standing Strong Against Terror.”“One of the soldiers pushed me over, took my flag and spat on it,and swore at me,” she said. “Another woman pushed me and toldme ‘This is Israel, Jewish land’ and told me to go back to Gaza.”•NO MORE CHEAP GAS FORISRAELThe decision by the Egyptian authorities to stop the export ofnatural gas at preferential rates to Israel came as a blow to Tel Avivand underlined both the tensions and the transformation in relationsbetween the two countries, Dr Daud Abdullah, director of MiddleEast Monitor, wrote recently.In 2005, the government of Egypt, where 50 per cent of the 85million population live below the poverty line, signed a 20 yearagreement to export natural gas to Israel for between 70 cents and$1.5 per million thermal units. The current price on the world marketis $5 per million thermal units.Many believed the former Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak,gave this mind-boggling concession to Israel to curry favour withthe Americans. Since Mubarak’s overthrow in February, 2011, thepipeline conveying the gas to Israel has been blown up 15 times inthe North Sinai region.Dr Abdullah wrote that the decision to end the supply of cheapgas “suggests that Egypt is emerging from its political coma andis now on a trajectory to resume its natural leadership role in theregion. Under Mubarak, the virtual giveaway of Egypt’s natural gasto Israel while besieged Gaza was kept in the cold and dark wasseen as patently unpatriotic and, indeed, treacherous.”Israel believes that exploitation of two major natural gasfields recently discovered off the country’s northern coast couldcompensate for the loss of Egyptian gas. It is moving to exploit thefields, signing a deal with Cyprus to mark out maritime borders, butit faces challenges from Lebanon which claims that the gas fields liein its territorial waters.A report on Al Jazeera said that, because of the attacks on thepipeline, Israel had to purchase gas supplies from countries as faraway as Mexico and the price of electricity had gone up 20 per cent.•LAPTOPS FOR TENT DWELLERSThe Villages Group, a Palestinian-Israeli group whichsupports villages in the southern part of Area C, delivered a laptopcomputer donated by Liat, a Tel Aviv school teacher, to Sara – astudent living in Susiya, a Palestinian village consisting of makeshiftcabins and tents in the South Hebron Hills.After they issued an appeal in Hebrew for a laptop, a further fivewere given to help the 20 students the group supports. Electricityfor the computers comes from wind and solar sources supplied bythe Israeli-Palestinian team of COMET-ME. However, the Israeli CivilAdministration has served demolition orders on many of them.Meanwhile residents of the Jewish settlement of Susiya havelately joined the far Right “Regavim” advocacy group and are actingwith it to urge the Civil Administration to destroy the homes ofSara's family andother families inPalestinian Susiya.A spokespersonfor the VillagesGroup said: “Nothingis easier thandemolishing thedwellings of Saraand her family.Sara’s aspirations forfreedom, knowledgeand brotherhood,however, are far more

26 palestine NEWS IN BRIEFSpring 2012steadfast in the face of harm and destruction and reinforced by allpeace and freedom lovers in Israel and abroad.”http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com•ISRAEL LOVES IRAN – AND VICEVERSAThe “Israel Loves Iran” Facebook campaign started by Israeligraphic artists Ronny Edry and his wife, Michal Tamir, has receivednumerous responses from Iranians who said they bore no ill-willtowards Israelis and only wanted peace.The campaign began with dozens of Israelis putting up picturesof themselves with the words, “Iranians, we will never bomb yourcountry, we [heart] you.”In response, many Iranian posts read: “My Israeli friends, I donot hate you; I do not want war. Love, Peace.” Most of the Iraniansposted their messages with their faces partially veiled, probably outof fear of the Iranian authorities.One message stated: “Dear Israeli Friends and World! Iranianslove peace and we hate hate!... and we don’t need any NuclearPower to show it!”In addition to Edry and Tamir’s initiative, a new Facebook grouptitled “Israelis against a War with Iran,” was begun. “The newspaperheadlines tell the tale: The prime minister is trying to legitimisean Israeli attack on Iran, which is expected soon,” a post on thegroup’s page reads.“Most of the Israeli public is opposed to an adventure of this sortthat may have catastrophic consequences. Many experts warn ofthe results an attack on Iran and a declaration of war of this sortmay bring.”•UK STUDENT LEADERS CONDEMNISRAELI STUDENT RACISMAt the time of going to press, over 130 UK student leaders hadsigned a letter condemning a decision by Zefat Academic CollegeStudents’ Union in Israel to limit the Union presidency to thosewho have served at least two years in the Israeli military, effectivelybarring the country’s Palestinian citizens – who constitute about60% of the student body – from standing.Palestinian citizens of Israel – 20% of the population – are notrequired to complete National Service and as a result are oftendisadvantaged in employment where many businesses and publicsector posts make it a condition.Student leaders in the UK were shocked by the racism of thepolicy, particularly when they learned this is the first year thatPalestinian students at the College have put up for election toseveral positions within the Student Union – including President.Palestinian students in Zefat are exposed to racism on a dailybasis. There is an ongoing campaign by dozens of municipal chiefRabbis to pressurise Jewish property owners not to rent flats toPalestinian students. Eli Zvieli, an 89 year old holocaust survivorwho rented out his spare rooms to three students, was threatenedwith having his house burned down and called a traitor to Israel.The UK students’ statement, publishedon the website “We Are All Hana Shalabi,”says the Zefat College policy “clearly targetsPalestinian citizens of Israel.” It goes on:“The implicit racism of this policy is deeplyconcerning as it raises the wider questionof the attitude towards Palestinian studentswho study alongside Israeli students atinstitutions such as Zefat College. Wecall for the policy to be revoked, and forPalestinian students to be granted the same opportunities torepresent, and be represented, as their fellow students.”For the statement and signatories, see http://tinyurl.com/clmd3q5.Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’sWar Against the PalestiniansBy Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, edited by FrankBaratPublished by Penguin BooksThis book is based on a number of interviewscombined with essays given to Frank Baratby Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, both ofwhom are respected academics who havewritten extensively on Palestine. Chomsky is aUS professor of linguistics and Pappé is an Israelihistorian.In his introduction Barat, a human rights activistand writer, explains that he didn’t want to publishanother book on the Palestine-Israel conflict merelyfor the sake of it as there are already hundreds ofbooks on the subject. So what would be different about this one? Toanswer this, Barat asked himself: “Why has this ‘conflict’ lasted forso long, who can stop it and how?”His initial conclusions were: ignorance, the people and popularresistance, adding, “I sincerely believe that what is happeningin Palestine would never have lasted this long if the public wereproperly informed about what had been really taking place in thispart of the Middle East.” Therefore the main function of the book isto give the reader an alternative narrative to that of the mainstreammedia, especially the Israeli/US version of events.Pappé explains that American public opinion was initially shapedby Christian missionaries whose message was often misinformedand distorted. For example he describes aTexas preacher, Cyrus Scofield, who produced afundamentalist version of the Bible which, Pappésays, was “the most explicit sketch of the threeprongs that form the basis of US policy today:the return of the Jews, the decline of Islam andthe rising fortunes of the United States as a worldpower.”In the chapter “Exterminate All The Brutes: 2009,”Chomsky described Operation Cast Lead as aplanned attack of state terrorism against the civilianpopulation that had its roots in the 2006 electionwhen Palestinians “voted the wrong way.” Howeverthe effect of the Israeli offensives in Gaza served onlyto infuriate the population and “arouse bitter hatred ofthe aggressors and their collaborators.”In the chapter “The Killing Fields of Gaza, 2004–2009,” Pappé describes the assaults on Gaza, suchas Operation Cast Lead, as a policy of genocide, as opposed tomerely war crimes.On the issue of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Pappésupports such action as it has the potential to develop from a grassroots level into actual policies. However, it will not be easy due tothe strategic and economic interests of the US in the Middle East.This book not only gives readers an insightful analysis of thecrisis in Gaza but also enables the reader to gain some historicalcontext to the situation. It is a concise and compelling read.Eugene Egan

Spring 2012 ARTS & REVIEWSpalestine NEWS 27Ashtar goes globalLondon’s Globe 2 Globe festival, inwhich all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays arebeing performed in 37 languages, gavePalestinian actors the chance to shine.A visiting company can rarely have beengiven such a rapturous reception – especiallyone presenting one of Shakespeare’s lesspopular plays, Richard II – in Arabic, withoutsurtitles. But the packed audience wasspellbound by the intensity and pace of theAshtar Theatre production and gave the casta standing ovation, calling them back fourtimes and throwing roses at their feet.Meeting some of the dynamic cast was areminder of the versatility characterising somany Palestinian actors and artists. Acting,producing, teaching, writing, promoting,Ashtar’s key players have been bringingtheatre to Palestine and to the wider worldfor more than thirty years. Husband-andwifeteam Edward Muallem and Iman Aoun(playing Northumberland and the Duchessof Gloucester) founded the Ashtar Theatre in1991, in Jerusalem.Now based in Ramallah, it is perhapsbest known outside Palestine for producingthe Gaza Monologues, the personalstories of children from Gaza followingthe massacres of Operation Cast Lead,during which 431 children were killed. Inan amazing feat of global cooperation theMonologues were performed simultaneouslyby over 1500 youngsters in 36 countries allover the world on17 October 2010. Todate, they have beentranslated into 14languages.At the GlobeTheatre on London’sSouth Bank, SamiMetwasi’s King Richard was a riveting tourde force, swinging from arrogant self-beliefto abject despair as his kingship slips fromhim to reveal a complex and vulnerablehuman being. Although firmly rooted inPalestine, Sami has worked all over theworld, composing as well as acting, writingand directing, in theatre and film; many inthe UK will remember him in the acclaimedPalestinian film Rana’s Wedding.Another face and voice familiar to us wasGeorge Ibrahim, founder and Director of theAl-Kasaba Theatre. He was playing bothYork and Gloucester, whose cold-bloodedmurder opened the play.Amer Khalil, who played Bagot, is yetanother multi-talented actor, singer, writerand producer and veteran of the Hakawatitheatre, who founded Jerusalem’s PocketTheatre in 1996. Playing in venues rangingfrom schools to people’s living rooms,the troupe meets with local communitiesto explore broad themes of identity andfreedom through workshops and improvisedperformance, with the aim, above all, ofThe death of Richard (Mohammed Eidand Sami Metwasi). Photo: Creationtheatre: Mohammad Haj Ahmad.“bringing communities together, to give avoice to people who have lived in enforcedisolation for so long.”Talking to PN about Ashtar, producerand artistic director Iman Aoun outlinedthe range of its activities: “We have“We explore all kinds of current issueswith local communities – often problematic,even painful subjects”intensive theatre training programmes foryoung people from 12 to 22, giving them achance to perform on stage but, even moreimportant, equipping them with skills that gobeyond acting: leadership, communicationand teamwork skills.“The training is fairly text-based. WeMark Rylance,the foundingartistic directorof the Globe,was one of 37 people tosign a letter expressing“dismay and regret” atthe Globe’s inclusionof the Habima theatre’sproduction of The Merchant of Venice aspart of the festival.They wrote: “By inviting Habima, theGlobe is associating itself with policiesof exclusion practised by the Israeli stateand endorsed by its national theatreintroduce our students to the establishedArabic repertoire – works from all around theArab world.“Since 2007 we’ve also been functioningas the Middle East regional centre for theTheatre of the Oppressed. This involvesexploring all kinds of current issues; oftenthey are problematic, even painful subjects– like honour killings, early marriage,collaboration with Israel, water and thesettlements... As you can imagine, theyprovoke fierce debate!” As many audiencesare unable to get to Ramallah, Ashtar takesthe theatre to them, despite the massivehassle of permits, checkpoints and detoursimposed by the Israeli army.The company puts on severalproductions every year in the OccupiedTerritories and abroad, often in cooperationwith internationally known actors anddirectors. These can range from classicalproductions like Richard II (performed inJericho and Ramallah before coming toLondon) to the experimental 48 Minutes forPalestine, in which two people tell the entirestory of Palestinian dispossession usingno words at all! Iman herself starred in thepremiere of ‘I am Jerusalem,’ in which awoman embodies the changing identity ofthe city over its 5000 years of history. Thisis available on DVD in Arabic, but not – asyet – in English.In the discussions surrounding the Globeproduction, peoplewere keen to raisepolitical questions,like the effect of theOccupation, andcooperation withIsraeli individualsand organisations.When I asked Sami Metwasi about thelatter, he laughed wryly: “During the Osloyears, many people were optimistic.But I soon discovered it was all aboutmoney: money was being thrown at joint(continued overleaf)company. We ask the Globe to withdrawthe invitation so that the festival is notcomplicit with human rights violationsand the illegal colonisation of occupiedland.”Other signatoriesincluded the directorsMike Leigh andJonathan Miller,playwrights CarylChurchill and TrevorGriffiths and the actorsEmma Thompson,David Calder, Harriet Walter and MiriamMargolyes.

28 palestine NEWS ARTS & REVIEWSSpring 2012projects supposedly promoting mutualunderstanding. I worked with Israeli actorswho initially sounded very moderate andliberal; but later I was shocked by theirreversion to extreme, even hostile attitudes.”Iman added: “Most of these projects areabout giving Israel a better image. Eventhose Israelis who quite genuinely wantto work with us, it would be better if theyworked with their own communities, to getthem to understand their government’spolicies. We understand them all too well!”What about the protests in the UK,demanding the Globe withdraw its invitationto the Israeli company, Habima? Sami said:“What matters is that these issues havebeen raised and brought to the attentionof the British public. If Habima hadn’t beeninvited, that would not have happened.Whether they perform or not is lessimportant.”Hilary WiseNot to be outdone, the LondonbasedAlzaytouna groupare currently rehearsing anadaptation of Shakespeare’sHenry V — with dabke. Whocould miss that! Keep an eye onwww.alzaytouna.org.The 2012 Palestine Film Festivalpresented an extraordinary range of works,from a century-old piece of documentaryfootage to feature-length contemporary drama.Here are just a few of the highlights.Honey Thaljieh.Pride of place at the opening night at London’s Barbican wentto Sameh Zoabi’s award-winning Man Without a Cell Phone, across-cultural, cross-generational dramatic comedy focusingon Jawdat, a young Palestinian Israeli who is a bit of a dropout.He can’t pass his Hebrew exams to get into university and he’sonly got dead-end jobs in view. He and his mates spend much oftheir time checking out girls on their mobile phones. They hopelearning a bit of Russian will help their chances of scoring (“Russiangirls aren’t afraid of Arabs – they teach you things” – “Oh yeah? Waittill they join the army!”)Problems arise when Jawdat’s conservative father starts tobelieve that his village is being poisoned and the olive harvestthreatened by the local mobile phone transmitter and gets up apetition to have it removed. The very real issues of inequality aresomehow subsumed under this ill-fated campaign, into whichJawdat is unwillingly drawn. To complicate matters, the Israeliauthorities get suspicious when Jawdat starts fishing for girlfriendsacross the green line in the West Bank. A gentle, humorous film witha serious subtext.The power of dreamsPassion permeates three short films about Palestinian athletesstriving to make their mark. Sawsan Qaoud’s Women in theStadium looks at the burgeoning world of women’s soccer inPalestine, with four pioneering players telling their personalstories. Nothing can stop these girls – not the lack of facilities, northe hours of waiting at checkpoints, nor the problems of findingtime for their studies and family obligations. They have won overfamilies to whom the idea of girls playing football – in shorts! – was,at first, shocking. But from small beginnings a national team hasemerged: Honey Thaljieh, the team’s first captain, goes out to smalltowns and villages in the West Bank to inspire and nurture newtalent and persuade parents to let their daughters play. She hasalso become something of an ambassador for Palestinian womenin sport: you can see an interview with her at the Bristol film festivalon http://vimeo.com/34560242. There she talks about the problemsof creating a truly national team, why she would not play against anIsraeli team, how she dreams of one day becoming Minister of Sport– and how she got Cristiano Rinaldo to wear a keffiyeh.Free Running in Gaza is full of painful irony; two young men,Mohammed and Abdullah, have trained fanatically for six years inthe sport of ‘parkour’ which requires a supreme level of physicalfitness and courage. We see them sprinting down the narrowalleys of the refugee camps of Khan Younis, somersaulting acrossrooftops, scaling three storey-high ruined buildings and backflippingecstatically down sand dunes and into the sea. This is theentire focus of their lives, both an obsession and an escape. In theevening they often go and watch the sun setting over Egypt andwonder what life is like out there, where people really can run free.Mohammed says: “This sport has given me the strength to facethe pressures of the occupation. Parkour has its own philosophy;it challenges the imagination.” They long to be able to share theirtalent with the world and part of their dream has been realised,thanks to Aljazeera, who have posted the film on youtube:http://tinyurl.com/3trmg5b.Inshallah Beijing is equally poignant: four athletes – twoswimmers and two runners – were chosen to represent Palestine inthe 2008 Olympics. Their training facilities were almost non-existent:

Spring 2012 ARTS & REVIEWSpalestine NEWS 29The other side of paradiseBetty Hunter talked tointernationally acclaimedPalestinian artist Laila Shawaabout her recent exhibition inLondon’s October Gallery.When Laila Shawa saw the Channel4 video of a captured youngwoman would-be suicide bomber,she immediately thought: “Whogave her the bomb? Why was she chosen?”That was in 2007 and since then the seedsof this exhibition have been germinating.Laila is angry. And her exhibition “TheOther Side of Paradise” is a roar of angerat the fate of women in her homeland. Thequestion of why the woman herself mightchoose to die in this way is not so difficult tounderstand when every family has sufferedloss and grief and sometimes whole familieshave been killed by the Israeli occupation.But accompanying this is the knowledge thatshe has been used. Finally, as she is madeto strip in a military cage, it is the occupierswho are the controllers as she rages withimpotence when the bomb fails to detonate.This incident has inspired work(“Trapped” series) which demands attentionwith bold, colourful images freeze-framingthe woman’s scream overwritten with Arabicscript and others recalling the celebrityrepeat images by Andy Warhol.In a range of works in different media,Laila shows women as prisoners of theirculture as well as of the Israeli occupation.Scream, image courtesy of the October Gallery.One of the effects of occupation is to drivewomen more into the home and, as moreyoung women wear the veil, she asks who iscontrolling their hidden bodies?Laila said: “I am concerned that thepressure from families for conformity, for thepreservation of ‘honour,’ is increasing andmay even be the motivation of some womenwho choose the desperate step of suicidebombing.”The “dressed” torso mannequins in her“Disposable Bodies” series challenge us toconsider the possible stories of young womendriven to extremes but affected individuallyby fashion and sensuality as well as socialmores, history and politics. The link betweencurrent western fashions and terrorism isfurther explored in the “Fashionista Terrorista”works featuring the ubiquitous keffiyeh.Gaza, now an open prison, is the“Paradise” of the title, once known for itsfertile cultivated plains. To many, Paradisesuggests hoped for immortality, often amotivation for martyrdom. Laila repeatedlyrefers to these motifs in the differentworks which often use photographs anddecorative eastern art to highlight the horrorof Cast Lead and other acts of aggressionagainst Gaza, where she was brought up,and its people.Summing up her pessimism aboutthe future of Palestine, Laila Shawa hasproduced an ironic statement aboutPalestine’s non existence with the work“Stamp for a Lost Country.” However thisamazing exhibition is a showcase of hervibrant and continuing work demandingthat the world wakes up to the situation ofPalestine.• See the works from the exhibition at:www.octobergallery.co.uk/artists/shawa/index.shtml.the swimmer from Jenin, which has no swimming pool, could notobtain a military permit to get to nearby Nazareth. Nader, the 28-year-old runner from Gaza had been training hard for 10 years butit took months for him to get a permit to travel to Jericho where thepre-Olympic training takes place. Even here, equipment consistssimply of old tyres put to a multitude of uses and it took weeks ofbureaucratic wrangling to get proper running shoes and some sortof uniform.But somehow they make it to Guangzhou for two months oftraining and acclimitisation before the games, adapting to a cityof 20 million people and food they find truly bizarre. None of themachieve a medal but the awed silence with which Nader’s familyin Gaza watch their son on TV, carrying the Palestinian flag at theopening ceremony, bears witness to a pride that goes way beyondsporting achievement.A clip of the film can be found on http://tinyurl.com/c6nk2kj.Bilel Yousef’s Back to One’s Roots looks at the dilemmafacing the Druze community in Israel by following theemotional struggle of Yaman, whose brothers and uncle losttheir lives serving in the IDF. Coopted by the Israeli state asa vulnerable and isolated community, the Druze have traditionallyfound employment in the army and police force, while remainingsuspect in the eyes of many Israelis. Used as “cannon fodder,” asone participant put it, their losses create antagonism towards theirPalestinian neighbours and tend to cement loyalty to the Israelistate. Yet the Druze have lost most of their land to Israel and feelthey inhabit a kind of social and political no-man’s-land.Yaman and his family mourn his brothers.Yaman became a warden in a jail holding Palestinian activists.He had been taught to view them as terrorists but he discoveredmany of them were highly educated and morally responsibleand learnt a lot about the Palestinian national struggle. Aftermuch heart-searching he changed the entire direction of hislife, studying law and then defending the prisoners he had beenguarding.• The Palestine Film Festival curates a huge library of films.See www.palestinefilm.org • Email:info@palestinefilm.org.

30 palestine NEWS ARTS & REVIEWSSpring 2012Threat: Palestinian Political Prisoners in IsraelEdited by Abeer Baker and Anat MatarPublished by Pluto PressMany voices havecontributed to thisrevealing and oftenshocking collectionof papers: men and women,Palestinians and Israelis, lawyers,academics and former prisonerstogether document an intricateand ingenious system clearlyaimed at demoralising anddehumanising the Palestinianpopulation as a whole.An extraordinarily highproportion of the male populationhas suffered incarceration: insome refugee camps nearly half the men in the 25–40 age range havespent time in an Israeli jail. The offence may be as trivial as throwinga stone at a tank of the occupying army, or even seeking to organisea peaceful demonstration. The most usual form of evidence adducedis a confession, extracted under pressure, since detainees are toldthey will get a heavier sentence if they do not sign. If a detainee isclassified as a “security prisoner,” he or she is deprived of rightsafforded to those judged to be merely criminal – and a person may beconsidered “a security risk” just on the basis of having “nationalisticmotives” or belonging to an “unauthorised” organisation.The infamous system of Administrative Detention, whereby aprisoner is held without charge or trial for an indefinite period oftime, is paid special attention. It is the aspect of the Israeli legalapparatus which has caused the greatest anger and anguish to bothprisoners and their families and has been the focus of most hungerstrikes, including that of Hana Shalabi (see page 9). The widespreadand continued use of torture, despite rulings by the Israeli HighCourt, is clearly documented. The obstacles that visiting relativesand legal representatives have to overcome are Kafkaesque in theircomplexity and ultimate insurmountability. In this they resembleother aspects of Israel’s laws applicable only to the Palestinianpopulation, such as the permit system which prevents farmers fromcultivating their land and then claims the land for Israel because ithas been neglected.The lawyers’ chapters set out very clearly how detainees aredeprived of their rights at every turn: from the manner of theirabduction to the interrogation process under military law, withoutadequate (or any) legal representation, to sentencing based onevidence withheld from the prisoner and his or her lawyer. Israel’sviolations of international legal norms are shown to be bothsystematic and extensive.In jail, attempts at recruiting informers, even children, usingphysical and psychological pressure, are widespread. (Childprisoners are one topic which is not treated in any depth here. Forthis, one should go to Cook, Hanieh and Kay’s harrowing StolenYouth, published in 2004 but still sadly relevant today.)Nothing gives the lie to Israel’s claims to be a democracy moreclearly than the dual judicial process within the Occupied Territories:a harsh and opaque system of military law for Palestinians, a muchmore transparent and humane process of civilian law for Israelis,including the illegal settlers, who are invariably treated with greatleniency even when they perpetrate violent crimes against the localpopulation.The descriptions of the social and psychological effects on theprisoners and their families are heart-rending. Indeed this wouldbe an unremittingly grim volume if it were not for the accounts ofthe prisoners’ own achievements in creating systems of mutualsupport and educational development in jail. Both men and womenreport on achieving a much deeper political understanding duringtheir incarceration, and on assuming positions of leadership in theircommunities on their release.Hilary Wise• For the PSC’s updated Fact Sheet on prisoners, see:http://tinyurl.com/d5h8jcgThe Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History,Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming MemoryBy Nur MasalhaPublished by Zed BooksThe word “Nakba” is hugelysignificant to Palestiniansbut remains largely unknownto much of the world. NurMasalha’s new book begins to redressthis and should be read by everyonewho wants to appreciate its multilayeredcharacter and to understandthe way in which the Israeli state, itsarmy and agencies like the JewishNational Fund worked and arecontinuing to work assiduously toerase any record of the Palestiniansfrom their homeland.As Masalha says, “ThePalestinians share commonexperiences with other indigenouspeoples who have their narrative denied, their material culturedestroyed and their histories erased or reinvented by Europeanwhite settlers and colonisers.”What might shock the reader is the systematic nature of thisprocess. The book details some of the massacres which tookplace, many after fighting had finished. One example is Lyddawhere between 250 and 400 men and women were gunned down,just one amongst a long list of “white flag” war crimes. Towns andvillages destroyed and their names changed, mosques turned intobars and restaurants, theme parks and nature reserves developedon Palestinian lands. The object was, quite literally, to wipe thePalestinians off the map.Many academics perpetuate the myth that there are noPalestinian archives. The truth is that many Palestinian records havebeen destroyed, books burnt and archives plundered. In an act ofwhat Masalha, and others, have called “memoricide”, the aim isto remove all evidence of the Palestinians’ presence in the land,substituting for it a synthetic history of Jewish continuity.That “history is written by the victor” is well known but Masalhaexplains the importance of oral history in recapturing the past. Herightly asserts the validity of this process as a way of regainingauthorship of Palestinian history. It is an important way for the victim– or subaltern – to regain their voice.There is much to commend in this book, not least Masalha’scritique of the “new historians” and his analysis of the differentapproaches adopted by Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappéin particular. Masalha points out that Morris and Shlaim write asthough everything began in 1967 and the events of 1948 belong toanother time.Their weakness he identifies as stemming from their inability, orrefusal, unlike Pappé, to accept the nature of the ethnic cleansingundertaken by the Zionist forces. Morris’s subsequent claim that theproblem was that the Zionists did not go far enough in 1948 has ledto his work being put under a more rigorous scrutiny.Shlaim’s work, however, has not been subject to a similarprocess of evaluation and, although far from the position of Morris,it suffers from the fact that it considers the contenders of 1948, theZionist terrorists and the Palestinians, as engaged in a symmetricalstruggle for liberation.Masalha’s work is a major contribution to redressing the gapsin our understanding of the Nakba and the way in which it ispresented in the west. Palestinian history didn’t begin with the“new historians”. Nur Masalha’s work and that of a large number ofPalestinians historians deserves to be much more widely read andappreciated. Begin by buying this book!Bernard Regan

Spring 2012 palestine NEWS 31Join us for Alternative Tours ofIsrael and PalestineAutumn 2012 tours include:• Specialist tour for Clinicians on health care in the OPT – 7 days• Tour with international law focus targeting those from a legalbackground – 7 days• Study tour visiting both sides of the divide on what a truly justand lasting peace would entail – 11 daysHalf day tours also availablewww.icahd.org • Email: tours@icahduk.orgQuestions Without Borders: Dual narrativestudy tour Israel and the West Bank27 December 2012–6 January 2013The Forum for Discussion of Israel andPalestine invites you to explore theland, the people, the narratives on our3rd amazing tour!For details:www.fodip.org/studytour.htmlTour leaders PashaShah and RabbiWarren ElfEcumenical Accompaniment Programme inPalestine & Israel (EAPPI) provides protection bypresence, monitors human rights abuses, supportsIsraeli and Palestinian peace activists and advocatesfor an end to the occupation.EcumenicalAccompaniersWorking as Human Rights Observers based inthe West Bank and Israel in 2013:18 vacancies for 3 months’ service2 vacancies for 4.5 months’ serviceliving allowance + benefitsDeadline for applications: 21st June 2012For more information and to download anapplication pack please check our website:www.quaker.org.uk/applyeappi(Please note that we will not be sending hardcopies of the application pack and we can onlyreceive electronic forms)Join thePalestineSolidarityCampaignJoin PSC / make a donationNameAddressPostcodeTelephoneE-mailIndividual £24.00 Unwaged £12.00Plus a donation (optional) ofI enclose a cheque of(payable to PSC)Affiliation fees for trade unions and otherorganisations are: £25 local; £50 regional;£100 national.To cover the additional costs of overseasmembership please pay the equivalent of US$35in your local currency.Standing orderPaying this way helps PSC plan ahead more effectivelyName of BankAddressPostcodeAccount numberSort codePlease pay £12 £24 Other £Monthly / Quarterly / Yearly (delete as applicable)To PSC Cooperative BankAccount No. 65147487 (sort code 08 92 99)From (date) / / until further noticeNameSignaturePlease return this form to:PSC Box BM PSA London WC1N 3XX

32 palestine NEWSSpring 2012Have a fabulousweekend – walkfor Palestine!Sponsored walk in Brecon Beacons National ParkAugust 3–5For more about the walk, see inside, P22Details from PSC:www.palestinecampaign.org020 7700 6192Support the politicalprisoners!Say No to AdministrativeDetention!Join the demos • contact your MP• protest to the Israeli embassy