Palestine Voice: Issue 1 Winter 2018/19

PALESTINE VOICE 

ISSUE 1 WINTER 2018/19 

IN THIS ISSUE: Projects - Reviews - News - Fun

INTRODUCTION 

DEAR READER, 

Growing up as a British Palestinian my 

upbringing and adaptation to British 

society was at one point easy but became 

more difficult as I matured. I often found 

myself torn between my identity and my 

environment and this internal conflict 

got worse as I became more exposed 

and aware as to what it means to be a 

Palestinian living in diaspora. 

Preserving a Palestinian identity was extremely 

important for my parents. My siblings and I 

attended Arabic school every Sunday, we had 

playdates with other Palestinian families, we 

travelled to the Gaza Strip every summer and 

attended summer camps and dabke workshops. 

When the situation in Gaza became worse and 

the borders closed, we travelled to the West Bank 

for the summer and attended a summer camp in 

Ramallah. My father taught me Palestinian poetry 

and had me recite these poems on stage and 

teach dabke to children raised in London. 

A few years ago, I planned to travel to Palestine’s 

West Bank in my final year of university. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to Palestine as I was 

detained and denied entry. Since then I have felt an 

emptiness that I will live with forever. It was at this 

point that I began to think of a need for a “home” 

for Palestinians in the UK since it is difficult for us 

to travel back home. I began to think of a need for 

a safe space for like-minded people, Palestinians 

and non-Palestinians alike. A need to educate 

future generations to come. A need to celebrate 

the culture of Palestine. A need for a community. A 

need to raise the voice of Palestine. 

We are extremely excited to announce the launch of 

the Palestine Community Foundation (PCF) through 

our first edition of Palestine Voice. 

RAZAN SHAMALLAKH 

Programme Director 

Palestine Community Foundation 

2 

PALESTINE VOICE Issue 1 Winter 2018/19

CONTENTS 

FIND IN THIS ISSUE 

4-5 

PCF Aims and Objectives 

PROJECTS 

6 

7 

8-9 

10 

11 

12-13 

14-15 

DARDASHA: VIRTUAL LANGUAGE CLASSES 

JUST CYCLE 

PHOTOGRAPHERS OF PALESTINE 

BETHLEHEM LINK 

TATREEZ 

STUDENT ADVOCATES FOR PALESTINE (SAP) 

UK-ISRAEL ARMS TRADE FACT SHEET (PULL OUT!) 

8-9 

PHOTOGRAPHERS 

OF PALESTINE 

NEWS, REVIEWS AND VIEWS FROM PALESTINE 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22-23 

FUN 

24 

25 

26 

27 

LEEDS BDS VICTORY by Omar Aziz 

GHOST HUNTING AT LONDON PALESTINE FILM FESTIVAL 

by Natasha Regan 

TALES OF ELIA: PALESTINE’S FIRST GRAPHIC NOVEL 

LETTERS FROM PALESTINE: NADIA WRITES 

CHRISTMAS IN PALESTINE 

A REVIEW OF LARISSA SANSOUR’S NATION ESTATE 

by Al John 

A WEAPONISATION OF TIME [LONG READ] by Omar Aziz 

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: PALESTINE EDITION 

CROSSWORD 

COLOURING IN. USED WITH THANKS FROM THE 

FRIENDS OF AL AQSA PALESTINE COLOURING BOOK 

GET INVOLVED 

11 

TATREEZ 

22-23 

A WEAPONISATION 

OF TIME 

PALESTINE VOICE Issue 1 Winter 2018/19 

3

Who are PCF and what are our aims? 

WE ARE PALESTINE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION (PCF), 

a not-for-profit organisation aiming to become the 

point of entry for everything relating to Palestine 

in the UK. We are a space for Palestinians and 

non-Palestinians alike to unite and build a sense 

of community, whilst discovering and sharing 

the cultural, political and social life of Palestine. 

We aim to stand out by first and foremost, building a community. We want to bring people in the UK from all 

walks of life together under the Palestinian flag. This is regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, culture 

or gender; whether you’re a well-versed activist or an individual just wishing to find out more. 

PCF hopes to become an information hub for people who wish to work together to promote the human 

rights of the Palestinian people. We will promote knowledge and awareness of Palestine, from information 

on human rights violations to the steps of traditional dabke dances. 

PCF Aims and Objectives: 

• Raising awareness of the Palestinian issue and 

highlighting human rights abuses 

• Acting as a point of contact and facilitator 

regarding all Palestinian related activities 

• Educating people on the Palestinian issue 

through lectures, workshops and publications 

• Promoting Palestinian culture through sharing 

music, art and food 

• Campaigning for the right of self-determination 

and right of return of the Palestinian People 

• Mobilising international condemnation of the 

Israeli occupation through BDS 

• Enhancing the Palestinian community in the UK 

and strengthening relationships among each 

other and those living in diaspora 

• Empowering and supporting livelihoods of 

Palestinians in Palestine and across the diaspora 

through our initiatives which highlight their skills 

such as photography, embroidery and Arabic 

• Effectively coordinating and collaborating with 

national and international organisations to 

achieve these aims and objectives 

4 


WHAT WILL WE DO? 

We have been extremely busy working on several exciting projects which you will 

learn more about throughout this magazine: 

DARDASHA 

Teaming up Arabic 

speakers with learners 

all over the world for 

Skype language lessons 

JUST CYCLE 

Promoting Palestine through 

the cycling community, through 

educational cycling visits around 

Palestine and advocacy days of 

action in Europe 

BEHIND THE LENS 

Promoting Palestinian 

photographers from all over 

the world by showcasing 

their work 

BETHLEHEM LINK 

A cultural exchange 

bringing talented teenage 

Dabke dancers from 

Bethlehem to the UK 

TATREEZ 

The PCF shop which promotes 

authentic embroidered products 

made by women in Palestine 

and across the diaspora 

STUDENT ADVOCATES 

FOR PALESTINE (SAP) 

Support for university 

societies promoting the 

Palestinian cause 

across the UK 

We also create fact sheets and resources, available on our website, and will hold several exciting 

events in 2019. If you’re interested in staying up to date, please sign up to our email mailing list from 

our website and keep an eye on our website and social media for announcements. 

0300 777 1 777 

palestinefoundation.org.uk 

facebook.com/palestinefoundationuk 

@PalCommunityUK 


5

Speak Arabic! Learn with Palestinians, 

Dardasha! (Arabic): Chat (English - noun) 

potential of their children in a rapidly changing 

and ever more competitive world. 

D espite the fragmented nature of the diaspora 

whereby Palestinians may be far removed from 

their loved ones and homeland due to forces beyond 

their individual control, they remain connected in 

their history, struggle and rich cultural heritage. 

Underpinning all of these is the Arabic language which 

unites the people to their culture and the individual to 

the collective. 

As with all languages, Arabic is shaped by its speakers 

as much as it creates the boundaries of individual 

expression. So, in order to engage with an individual, 

or truly understand their culture, engaging with the 

language is the first step towards achieving both. 

Despite being affected by huge barriers to accessing 

education, Palestinians in the occupied territories 

remain some of the most literate people in the world, 

partly due to UNRWA schools. Palestinian families are 

right to recognise the power of education which they 

traditionally nurture in their children, recognising its 

necessity to understand, articulate and overcome their 

own oppression. But also simply to unlock the full 

Not only is Arabic spoken by 1 billion people 

globally and is an official UN language, it also 

holds the secrets of two millennia’s worth of 

collective history, and learning it unlocks the door 

to the unimaginable wealth this may provide. 

From appreciating the true word of the Qur’an, to 

reading the original script, as intended, of poets, 

writers, philosophers and scientists responsible 

for shaping much of the modern world as we 

know it today, Arabic creates new opportunities 

for personal growth as well as granting access to 

a global community of speakers. 

Through Dardasha, a colloquial expression in 

Arabic for informal ‘chat’, we want to team up 

Arabic speakers to those seeking to learn, practice 

and enjoy speaking the language. Connecting 

safety checked and quality-controlled language 

teachers to avid learners, enabling you to take oneon-one 

language lessons over your screen at your 

convenience. Whether it’s a session on your phone 

during your lunch break or at home from the sofa 

on a Sunday evening, times can be tailored to suit 

the needs of both students and teachers. 

You may wish to begin by picking up everyday 

Arabic phrases or you may be looking to simply 

perfect your pronunciation, whatever personal 

aims you’ll also have the opportunity to build 

a friendly relationship and enjoy a cultural 

exchange across the screen. At the same time, 

know that in a challenging economy, you are 

enabling somebody to improve their livelihood 

in chime with the opportunities of today’s 

technological world. 

Sign up as a prospective teacher at: palestinefoundation.org.uk/project/dardasha/ 

6 


JUST CYCLE IN PALESTINE! 

CYCLE FOR JUSTICE - APRIL 2019 

AN EXCEPTIONAL OPPORTUNITY TO SEE THE SIGHTS, 

LEARN THE HISTORY, MEET THE PEOPLE, AND 

DISCOVER THE TRUTH ABOUT PALESTINE - – – 

• A unique 10-day cycling trip through some of the 

most spectacular places on earth - visit Nazareth, 

Haifa, Jenin, Al-Fara, Nablus, Ramallah, 

Bethlehem, Jericho, Al-Khalil and Jerusalem 

• Ride through towns and villages and meet with 

groups and communities to learn about the 

realities of life in Palestine 

• Show solidarity with the Palestinian people living 

under occupation and call for justice as the only 

path to peace. 

The ride really did make a difference to the 

people we met and to each other – 

I will never forget it! 

Just Cycle is open to any age or ability, all backgrounds 

and cultures, email for an information pack – 

info@palestinefoundation.org.uk or visit our website 

for more information www.palestinefoundation.org.uk 

ONE DAY FOR PALESTINE! 

EUROPEAN DAY OF ACTION - SEPTEMBER 2019 

WE INVITE PEOPLE FROM EVERY COUNTRY IN 

EUROPE TO COME TOGETHER AND JOIN A DAY OF 

ACTION CALLING FOR JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE - – 

• A cycle ride… through Brussels, ending at the European Parliament 

• A rally… outside the European Parliament, with voices from Palestine 

• A festival… to celebrate Palestinian culture, with music, dance, 

food & crafts 

CALLING FOR COUNTRY CO-ORDINATORS 

Can you help promote this event in your country or region 

and organise people to come to Brussels to take part? If 

you would like to join our team of co-ordinators please 

contact us at info@palestinefoundation.org.uk 

Date of event to be confirmed – full details will be on the 

PCF website soon - www.palestinefoundation.org.uk 


7

Photographers of Palestine 

IMAD HUSSEIN 

Imad Hussein is a medical doctor who works in 

Ramallah. He is interested in studying plants and the 

surrounding environment, looking at their medicinal 

properties and ethnobotanical side of them. 

MARIAM ABU DAGGA 

Mariam Riad Abu Daqqa 

is a press photographer 

from the Gaza Strip. 

HOW IT WORKS 

We create profiles of photographers showcasing their pictures on our 

website, along with their chosen contact information. 

This enables anybody interested in 

using the imagery to get in touch with the photographer directly, 

supporting Palestinian photographers who are doing the — often very 

dangerous — work on the ground of documenting life in Palestine. 

AHMED SHAMALLAKH 

is a dentist based in the Gaza strip. He picked up the camera a few 

years ago and revealed a hidden talent for photography. 

8 


Promoting talented photographers from 

Palestine and across the diaspora 

SANAD ABU LATIFA 

is a 22 year old freelance 

journalist from Gaza 

City. “My favourite 

photography is the 

depiction of human 

stories, human images 

and the portrayal of 

wars and hot events in 

Palestine. My wish is to 

travel outside Palestine 

to search for new 

humanitarian stories all 

over the world.” 

NAYEF HAMMOURI 

Nayef is a 

Palestinian from 

Hebron living in 

Ramallah. He 

works in Digital 

Marketing & Social 

Media, with skills 

in photography, 

graphic design and 

video production. 

RAED ABUQHAZALEH 

is a photographer from 

Ramallah, Palestine. 

His photographs are 

inspired by natural 

and urban elements 

of his environment. He 

currently resides with 

his family in Indiana, 

United States. 

Know a talented Palestinian photographer? Ask them to get in touch to be 

featured on our website and future magazines! info@palestinefoundation.org.uk 


9

Bethlehem Link 

Nina Beaven talks us through the history 

of Bethlehem Link, a project being revived 

by Palestine Community Foundation with 

an exchange visit planned for July 2019. 

It was with a great sense of gratitude and pride that 

I heard that Rajab Shamallakh wanted to resurrect 

Bethlehem Link, a cultural exchange programme 

between the Hakaya dancers in Bethlehem’s Ghirass 

Centre and schools in the UK, which closed when I 

became ill a few years ago. 

The charity was set up in 1997 following a trip to the 

West Bank. On my return I established a link between 

the centre and Saint Gregory’s Catholic College in Bath. 

I then heard that Hakaya had been invited to perform at 

Westminster Abbey. Knowing that many of the children 

were living in refugee camps with no hope of affording 

airfares to England, I decided to try to raise the money 

for them and, with the help of a friend, brought the first 

group over in 1998. 

In 2003 the charity was registered officially with the Charity 

Commission and Rajab Shamallakh became one of the 

patrons. With his valuable advice and support the profile 

of the charity was raised considerably over the years. 

The children always wanted a trip to London during 

their stay, and it was then that Palestinian hospitality as 

demonstrated by Rajab and his wife Manal, really came 

to the fore, when they would host the whole group in their 

house, with Manal preparing breakfast in the mornings 

for 30 people! I came to appreciate then the sincerity and 

generosity of our patron in his work for Palestinians. 

The dancers, backed by singers, perform dabke, the 

traditional Arab dance performed at weddings and 

celebrations. They perform to a very high standard, which 

presents a positive image of Palestine, undermining the 

negative stereotypes shown in the media. During one 

of the stays at Rajab’s house, the children were relaxing 

after one of the performances with a drumming session. 

It was so good that the drumming is now included with 

the main dance performance. 

Over the years, as well as in schools and local venues, 

Hakaya has performed at Westminster Abbey; The 

Rise Festival, London; Bloomsbury Theatre, London; 

The Millennium Dome, Cardiff; Wiltshire Music Centre, 

Bradford-on-Avon and The Curve Theatre, Leicester. 

Links were also made with twenty schools. 

As well as dance workshops at the schools, the visits 

were an opportunity to link through subjects such as art, 

literature, embroidery, science, film and relevant curricular 

subjects. To help us with fundraising, the Palestinian 

children produced artwork for Christmas cards (some on 

sale now) and calendars, and exhibitions of their work 

were held in London and the Guildhall in Bath. 

The organisation is non-political and has no religious 

affiliation. It merely provides the opportunity for young 

people to meet those from a different culture, to enable 

them to form their own opinions and explore their 

shared humanity. It presents a positive view of both 

our cultures, which have expected differences, but 

also surprising similarities. Some of the friendships 

established years ago are still maintained, and with the 

support of Rajab and his family, I hope that Bethlehem 

Link will succeed in establishing many more. 

Interested in hosting the Hakaya dancers 

at your school or home? Please email 

info@palestinefoundation.org.uk 

10 


PCF Shop - Tatreez 

Our shop is named after the Arabic 

word for embroidery, Tatreez, 

a craft woven deep into 

Palestinian culture. 

For centuries, Palestinian women have 

traditionally got together to embroider fabulous 

clothing and art using this technique passed 

down in succession from mother to daughter. 

The pieces have typically reflected the beauty of 

rural Palestinian lifestyle, with patterns inspired 

by ancient mythology and the natural landscape. 

Whilst the intricate patterns and designs are 

often complex works of art in themselves 

illuminating the culture from the millennia-old 

lands of Palestine, Palestinian women have 

also historically used this means of creative 

expression to display their individual abilities and 

document their own thoughts and feelings. Since 

1948 Palestinian women have communicated 

their personal protest to violence and foreign 

occupation through this medium, adding another 

dimension to the importance of the craft. 

Nowadays Tatreez is an important symbol of 

Palestinian culture, with its signature cross-stitch 

embroidered pieces found across the Palestinian 

diaspora, from the dresses and authentic costume 

found in many wardrobes, to lining the walls of 

family homes. 

Inspired by the tradition of Tatreez, through our 

shop of the same name, we seek to empower 

Palestinians, particularly women, by promoting their 

stories and works and encouraging our supporters 

to invest in their livelihoods and families. 

We are in talks with individual women in Palestine and across 

the diaspora who make beautiful embroidered products 

including pillowcases, purses, bookmarks and Christmas 

decorations which will all be available to order through our 

website. In buying these women’s labours of love, you can 

help them support their families and livelihoods. 

Please visit palestinefoundation.org.uk/project/tatreez 


11

STUDENT ADVOCATES FOR PALESTINE (SAP) 

CALLING ALL STUDENT GROUPS, WE ARE HERE TO HELP! 

The Palestinian cause has a long and proud history 

of international student solidarity, and often student 

groups push the boundaries for imaginative and creative 

campaigning. Student societies are a key pillar of 

the Palestinian community in the UK, working on the 

frontline confronting new challenges in the fight to defend 

Palestinians around the world and foster international 

solidarity. But for what they have in energy, enthusiasm 

and innovation, student groups often lack in resources, 

time and funding. This is where PCF can step in. 

We are here to offer societies support where they see 

fit. We have no interest in telling them how to operate 

or what to do, only to offer our resources and ideas 

to support theirs. Student Palestine groups across 

the UK vary substantially in size, resources and 

ambition, and so we want to tailor our help to what 

best suits each society. 

Are you an individual who wants support setting 

up a society? A member of a modest group which 

requires information resource packs and support 

setting up events? Or perhaps the chair of a wellestablished 

society who simply wants funding 

towards an upcoming event? It’s up to you and we 

are here to help. 

Head over to palestinefoundation.org.uk/project/student-advocates-palestine to find the application form for funding 

assistance, or contact our Programme Officer Omar Aziz omar@palestinefoundation.org.uk for an SAP starter pack. 

SAP ambitions 

and assistance 

There are currently active Palestine-focused societies across 49 UK universities. This is a 

wonderful figure but with just over 100 universities in the UK, we want to see one at every UK 

institution. Organisation and coordination are crucial attributes for any effective campaigning. 

We want to connect societies across the UK in person, online and in their endeavours. 

OUR ASSISTANCE WILL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: 

• z Tailored assistance to your society 

• z Funding for your events and campaigns 

• z Ideas for potential events and campaigns, 

as showcased by other societies in the UK 

and internationally 

• z Advice and contacts for speakers at your events 

• z Resources: leaflets, factsheets, posters, stickers, 

bookmarks etc. to assist your efforts 

• z Invitation to an online forum where student groups 

in the UK may collaborate by sharing ideas, 

coordinating efforts and overcoming obstacles 

• z A calendar of events and campaigns for everything 

Palestine related across the UK 

• z Assistance promoting your campaign stories and 

successes in local and national press 

• z SAP twinning – coupling up established societies 

with developing groups to facilitate learning, 

coordination and expansion 

12 


UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL LANCASHIRE 

FRIENDS OF PALESTINE SOCIETY 

Our first collaboration has been with UCLan’s Friends of Palestine Society (FPS). 

UCLan marked the UN’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 

with a powerful piece of political theatre at their campus, in association with PCF. 

On the 29th November 2018, UCLan FPS captivated students with an 

imaginative piece of dramatic protest inspired by Geneva University’s 

own display from May 2018. Paper aeroplanes rained down on 

students dressed in Palestinian costume as they marched towards 

freedom, symbolising the barrage of projectiles which have struck 

down Palestinians in Gaza this year. 

As the student line progressed in time to Palestinian music, adorned 

in keffiyeh, a crowd of students gathered to watch the performance 

unfold. Slowly, one by one, the students fell to the ground, dead, until 

none remained standing. 

Imitating the murder of Palestinians in the Great Return March 

which started on the 30th March 2018 where over 4000 Gazans have 

been struck by live ammunition, killing over 180 including 23 children, 

this act of creative symbolism emotively displayed the blatant 

injustice inflicted by Israeli forces on Gaza this year. However, 

it also illuminates the broader story of Israeli oppression of 

Palestinians more generally throughout the Occupied 

Territories; indiscriminate, inhumane and unjust. 

The Chair of UCLan Friends of Palestine Society, 

Sarah Ahmed, described the event as: 

A powerful symbolic gesture to the Palestinian 

people demonstrating our solidarity, made possible 

with the round-the-clock support and resources 

supplied from Palestine Community Foundation 

During the display leaflets were handed out to the intrigued audience, 

connecting the symbolism of the performance to the situation of 

Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied Territories, calling 

for ‘Apartheid Off Campus’. 

UCLan have proven the power of creative resistance, successfully 

drawing wide attention to the plight of Palestinians through their 

performance as well as the need for students to unite in ending their 

own universities’ complicity in the oppression of Palestinians. 

Well done UCLan Friends of Palestine Society! 

UNIVERSITIES 

WITH ACTIVE 

PALESTINE 

SOCIETIES 

Aston University 

University of Bristol 

Brunel University 

University of Cambridge 

City University London 

University of Central Lancashire 

Coventry University 

University of Dundee 

Durham University 

University of East Anglia 

Goldsmiths, University of London 

University of Essex 

Imperial College London 

University of Exeter 

Keele University 

University of Glasgow 

Kings College London 

University of Hull 

Lancaster University 

University of Kent 

London School of Economics 

University of Leeds 

Manchester Metropolitan University 

University of Leicester 

Newcastle University 

University of Manchester 

Northumbria University 

University of Nottingham 

Oxford Brookes University 

University of Oxford 

Queen Mary London 

University of Portsmouth 

Queen’s University Belfast 

University of Sheffield 

School of Oriental and African Studies 

University of Strathclyde 

Sheffield Hallam University 

University of Sussex 

St George’s University of London 

University of Warwick 

University College London 

University of West England, Bristol 

University of Aberdeen 

University of Westminster 

University of Birmingham 

University of Wolverhampton 

University of Brighton 

University of York 


13

14 



15

CONGRATULATIONS - 

University of Leeds 

Divestment Success! 

University of Leeds has confirmed its divestment 

from three companies complicit in the oppression 

of Palestinians through their manufacturing of 

military equipment sold to Israel. 

University of Leeds Palestine Solidarity Group (PSG) called for 

an immediate withdrawal of all funds in an open letter from 

companies which supply aeronautical equipment, jet engines 

and other military components to the State of Israel and the 

Israeli Defence Force, citing the University’s own Ethical 

Investment Policy. 

Whilst the open letter called for an immediate withdrawal of 

funds and had gathered 469 signatures by 1st November, a 

University spokesperson has since claimed it had withdrawn 

funding on the 15th October for reasons other than BDS. 

It is claimed the companies in question, Airbus, Keyence 

Corporation and United Technologies, all fall outside of the 

University’s new climate active strategy, and so were no 

longer viable sources for investment. 

Leeds PSG have responded to this claim stating their 

campaign has been active for over a year, that none of the 

three companies are targets in the Fossil Free Campaign 

and that the most recent University portfolio still contains 

investments of over £3.5m in Shell and BP. 

Leeds People and Planet Society have said, ‘The fact that the 

University is using our campaign to erase the efforts of Leeds 

PSG, whilst still investing millions in fossil fuel companies, is 

hypocritical and offensive’. 

HSBC holds over £800m in companies 

proven to contribute to Israel’s 

military assault on Palestinians 

The University of Leeds is yet to divest from HSBC in which 

it holds £1.3m of shares, but PSG have stated via their 

Facebook page they ‘will still campaign until the University 

divests from HSBC and adopts a screening policy to assure 

us that they will never invest in a complicit company again’. 

HSBC holds over £800m in companies proven to contribute to 

Israel’s military assault on Palestinians. This includes £3.6m 

worth of shares in Elbit Systems which produces drones like 

the ones used to bomb Gaza in 2014 when 2252 Palestinians 

were killed, including 551 children. 

Whilst Leeds’ BDS pressure has seen a commendable 

outcome, it also draws attention to the relationship between 

environmental and human rights activism and opens 

up potential avenues for further collaboration. It is not a 

coincidence that companies which consistently enable 

the violation of Palestinians’ basic human rights by Israeli 

military occupation and assault often also contribute 

disproportionately towards accelerating climate breakdown. 

Leeds’ success shows cooperation between human rights 

and environmental campaigning is a powerful alliance in 

the larger fight against corporate power and they need not 

be mutually exclusive endeavours. Where transnational 

corporations show disregard for their involvement in human 

rights abuses and their contribution to climate breakdown 

whilst pocketing lucrative profits, our resistance is strongest 

in solidarity. 

Where multinationals act with impunity, Leeds PSG have 

shown we can encourage our institutions to invest more 

responsibly with the power of collective action and drawing 

public attention. Whilst the official statement of Leeds 

University’s divestment announcement does not directly 

cite BDS for inspiring its actions, Leeds’ PSG have clearly 

been successful in scrutinising their University’s investment 

portfolio, drawing attention to it and demanding divestment. 

Congratulations to University of Leeds Palestine Solidarity 

Group, and good luck to other organisations challenging 

their own institution’s investment portfolios in the fight 

against enabling Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and for 

a just and sustainable future. 

OMAR AZIZ 

(Facebook 2018) 

Cooperation between human rights 

and environmental campaigning is a 

powerful alliance in the larger fight 

against corporate power 

16 


Palestinian prisoners re-enact trauma 

in FIlm Ghost Hunting 

After a two year break, the London Palestine Film Festival returned 

in November with a packed ten day programme across the city. 

The festival opened on Friday 16 

November at The Barbican with 

a screening of Ghost Hunting 

followed by a Q&A with the film’s 

critically acclaimed director Raed 

Andoni. The film picked up the 

main documentary prize at The 

Berlin International Film Festival 

and was Palestine’s entry for Best 

Foreign Language Oscar at the 

2018 Academy Awards. 

The real life stories carried 

more weight and emotion 

than fiction every could 

Ghost Hunting may well raise 

a few eyebrows for its ethically 

ambiguous premise. A group 

of former Palestinian prisoners 

reconstruct an Israeli interrogation 

and detention centre in a 

warehouse in Ramallah, primarily 

based upon Jerusalem’s notorious 

al-Moskobiya. 

The participants, who all willingly 

volunteered for the process, 

play out their experiences 

from prison, in turn playing 

interrogator and prisoner during 

scenes depicting verbal, physical 

and sexual abuse, all based on 

their actual experiences from 

time in Israeli jails. In fact, having 

originally scripted the film, 

Andoni scrapped this on the first 

day of filming, realising the real 

life stories carried more weight 

and emotion than fiction ever 

could. 

Andoni explained how during 

filming he would outline a scenario 

and then ask for volunteers to play 

it. When stepping into the role of 

interrogator, the men unleashed 

the pain and trauma that had once 

been inflicted on them back onto 

the prisoners, often using verbatim 

lines they recalled being said 

to them. The result is incredibly 

raw and powerful, with the men 

at once both captor and captive. 

Two psychologists were employed 

as part of the crew to ensure 

no further harm was caused to 

participants’ mental health and 

the men knew they could leave 

the process at any time. But even 

within the realms of this relatively 

safe and controlled environment, 

this is a highly disturbing and 

unsettling watch. 

As director, Andoni was as much a 

part of this process as the others, 

having too shared the experience 

of incarceration as a teenager. 

With one in four Palestinians 

having passed through Israeli 

detention centres, Andoni 

remarked how this is simply 

part of the collective Palestinian 

experience. He recalled 

sitting in the cell and weeping 

uncontrollably when making this 

film. He believes it is because 

he shares in this collective 

experience that the film works 

as well as it does and the men 

were able to reach the depths of 

emotion they do. The men trusted 

him, he said, and even allowed 

him to be violent with them. 

Andoni is not suggesting that 

in re-enacting their trauma, the 

former prisoners will somehow 

exorcise and be freed from their 

demons. “The only solution to 

trauma is to accept that your 

ghosts will follow you and 

become part of your life,” he said, 

sardonically referring to his own 

sat beside him on the stage. 

Your ghosts will follow you 

and become part of your life 

But the film suggests some 

catharsis is achieved by at least 

acknowledging the demons are 

there. It suggests some strength 

may be drawn in collectively 

expressing the things they have 

been through. Andoni shared 

how after the film’s screening 

in Ramallah, a large audience 

made up mostly of former 

prisoners stayed behind for over 

two hours sharing their prison 

stories with one another. There is 

often a glorification of prisoners 

in Palestine and Andoni spoke 

of clichéd language we have 

become used to using around the 

subject. One audience member 

expressed hope the film would 

serve as a springboard for talking 

about Palestinian prisoners’ 

mental health, and the mental 

health of Palestinians in general. 

Despite the fact that an 

estimated 10,000 Palestinian 

women have been arrested 

and/or detained over the 

last 50 years (Addameer), 

Ghost Hunting deals almost 

exclusively with the experience 

of the Palestinian male prisoner. 

Though the film fell short of 

much acknowledgement of the 

female prisoner’s experience, 

it was not a total erasure as 

towards the end a young woman 

visited the set and shared with 

the attentively listening group 

her own recollections from six 

months in an Israeli detention 

centre, in a cell she described 

as even smaller than any in this 

recreation. 

They’re damaged characters, 

but they’re not broken. 

Ghost Hunting does not serve 

as an informative documentary 

about Palestinian prisoners. It is a 

raw experiment: confrontational, 

upsetting and at times tittering on 

the edge of acceptability. 

The group went through different 

motions during the experiment, 

which Andoni described as 

revealing layers. By the end, they 

were sat together joyfully talking 

about their loved ones. “All the 

love came in the end. It became 

beautiful. I didn’t want the film to 

finish. I would have loved to stay 

another two months because it 

became an amazing place where 

we were sharing stories about 

fiancées, wives, their love stories, 

their kids,” described Andoni. 

Azza el-Hassan, who chaired the 

conversation, expressed perfectly, 

“You get the feeling that they’re 

damaged characters, but they’re 

not broken.” 

NATASHA REGAN 

Natasha works in Media and 

Communications for Palestine 

Community Foundation. She 

holds a Social Anthropology 

degree from The University of 

Manchester and joins us after 

living in Ramallah working as a 

reporter for Palestine Monitor. 


17

The Tales of Elia: 

SupportING Palestine’s FIrst comic novel! 

These tales happened somewhere under the Sun 

of Elia, the ancient soul and protector of the city of her 

namesake. They were written in the first language, 

the mother of all sounds and silence, at a time when 

people whispered to the wind, smiled to the sun, 

caressed the rain in gentle touch, and embraced the 

earth essence. This language has roots in all tongues 

that succeeded, so the meaning it conveys shall always 

reach the pure souls. Elia or Ilia was one of her many 

names, along with Salem, Jerusalem and Quds... 

Tales of Elia is Palestine’s first comic novel, created by team Comic Palestine and supported and sponsored by PCF. 

They are a group of four writers, designers and artists, aged 25 to 30, living in Ramallah and Jerusalem. The team 

grew up reading stories about heroes and now seek to use this cherished format to communicate Palestinian identity 

and ideals to a young generation across the world. They have been working passionately on Elia for four years. The 

world they’ve created is based on different myths from around the world, but draws deeply upon Palestinian culture. 

IN A PALESTINE VOICE EXCLUSIVE, WE SPOKE TO 

TEAM COMIC PALESTINE ABOUT THE PROJECT. 

WESAM ALQARAJA Founder, Writer 

SULTAN NABIL Designer 

BISAN SAMAMREH Co-Writer 

MUJAHED DAMIRI Comic Artist 

WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION FOR 

THE COMIC? 

We have been inspired by 

multiple stories and tales, from 

our childhood and the popular 

animation, manga, comic books, 

fantasy books, global and 

Palestinian myths and culture, 

history, literature. 

HOW DO YOU WANT YOUR READERS 

TO FEEL WHEN READING THE 

TALES OF ELIA? 

We want our readers to feel that 

imagination has no limits and 

neither do humans. 

WHY DOES PALESTINE LEND 

ITSELF TO A COMIC BOOK STORY/ 

FORMAT? 

The history and tales in this territory 

are incredibly extensive, full of 

adventures, beauty and sorrow, 

representing them in a comic book 

format is an engaging, pioneering 

initiative to portray with pictures, 

colours and a touch of fantasy. 

WHAT HAVE BEEN THE 

CHALLENGES? 

Being an unprecedented initiative 

in Palestine, the challenges have 

been several. Finding the right type 

of comic design to represent the 

story that readers can relate to was 

essential, thus we decided that mixing 

the Japanese manga style with 

western style was the best option. In 

addition, the complexity of the story 

fabric and balancing visuals with 

script was also a challenge we had to 

overcome. And finally, finding trusting 

publishing and distributing partners 

that will join us in this venture. 

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE 

THE COMIC GOING IN THE FUTURE? 

We would like for readers to immerse 

themselves in the story, being 

transported to Palestine and awake 

their curiosity about this land's history 

and people. Furthermore, we want to 

keep developing the project to have 

educational comics, and maybe in the 

future animated series or movies. 

18 


Letters from Palestine 

Nadia from the Ghirass Cultural Center 

DEAR READER, Hoping you are all fine? I am fine, 

but I need someone to listen to me and I need 

someone to share me my feelings. Will you? 

Sometimes I ask myself why am I a Palestinian girl… Why am I not English or American or Australian. The youth 

in that country do whatever they want, go wherever they want without thinking or being afraid from anyone to ask 

them about their identity card or permission to pass. They think about their future dreaming to study at the 

university and to become whatever they want without anything which forces them to do what they don’t want to do. 

Then I said, ‘Foolish Nadia!’ You are not like them. They live in independent countries. Their future and dreams 

are not limited. They can go to anywhere they want from city to city. If they want to travel anywhere they have 

airports and passport in which all the countries all around the world. They have water every day - they have 

chances. Moreover, they have governments and soldiers with weapons to protect them. They live in peace. That is 

peace, isn’t it?!! If you know, tell me... Please tell me if that is peace. I think your answer is ‘yes’. Am I 

right?! Yes, I am. Please tell me is anybody in England, whose age is the same as mine, afraid when they travel 

from Bath to London, or must they need permission to visit their country’s capital? 

Let me ask you another question. Does any English youth person suffer from water being cut off? Or do they suffer 

from being under bombardment by tanks and airplanes? Or do they suffer from losing their dad or friend when they 

are on their way to school, or their uncle because he is a patriot? Your answer is no! 

Again, to my thoughts... I hope that you are not bored with this letter. Okay, now let me tell you about a new 

type of peace. I think you know much about it. Moreover, the everyday suffering Palestinian fathers endure from 

having no jobs and no work means they can not bring food for their children and they must pay taxes and taxes for 

the Israelis. Furthermore, every day new pieces of land are taken by the settlers and new settlements are being 

built, from 1992 till now, nothing new, the same situation. Also many people, Palestinians, were killed like the 

man in Bethlehem near Rachel’s Tomb. The Israeli soldiers who were making a little camp to protect this tomb from 

us, they are afraid because of our stones when they have tanks and missiles. They killed that 

man when he was passing from that road, which is a Palestinian main road, while he put his hand in his pocket. 

They said that he was going to take out his gun to kill them. They are sitting in a tower and he is walking in 

the road. But really he was looking for his cigarettes. 

This is peace! Yes, don’t say it. This is real peace in which we must live for good. What nice peace! Sorry for 

saying this, but even a dog will not like to live under this situation. After all, what can I do! Must I love the 

Israelis? The whole world said after all this, Palestinian people are terrorists. Why?! They want from us to just 

watch! To see ourselves killed by our enemy and to say for them, thank you for killing my father, my brother, my 

friend. Thank you because you are putting my neighbour in prison. Thank you because you steal my land, for making 

me a refugee living in a camp, for not letting me go to Jerusalem and Jaffa, Haifa.... and more... 

The thing which makes me mad is that everything which the Israelis did and do and is doing to us, they are not 

blamed or judged by the whole world... But how come this happens? I am sorry to say that, please forgive me, 

world. How will Israelis be blamed or judged... all the rights are with them. They are the stronger and in this 

unfair life the strong has all the rights. They are America and America is them. Can anyone say no for America 

they are the strongest ... America means the U.N. if the other countries try to help us, just VETO from USA will 

stop everything. 

Believe me, we don’t want any help from the world. I want from them just to know the truth, only the truth. We 

do not need any help. Food - we can eat anything, we never mind - weapons we have our naked bodies to stand 

against our enemy. I want from them the whole world just to know who is the real terrorist, the Palestinians or 

the Israelis? But how they are strong and the whole world listens to them…and even the press in the whole world, 

Israel control it by giving the journalist whatever he wants. 

As you know, at our TV we get CNN, BBC and other channels and know what kind of news they put. Believe me, not all 

of it is true. They try to tell the whole world that the Palestinians are some people living in desert and travel 

on horse or donkey or camelback... they live in tents... Believe me, I met many people in France who ask me ‘From 

where are you?’ I said, ‘Palestine.’ They said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Holy Land’. They said, ‘Oh, yeah, Holland.’ I 

said ‘No, not Holland. My land is under the Israeli occupation.’ They said, ‘Yes, we know Israel!’ 

Another person from Sweden came to our school and while I was talking to him he told me, ‘I am going to tell you 

the truth. Before coming to Bethlehem, I called the Israeli Tourist Office to ask about a hotel in Bethlehem. 

They gave me many names in Tel Aviv and I ask about Bethlehem. They give me names in Jerusalem... So I called 

your school. They arrange for me to come here. But when I was at Ben Gurion airport and while speaking to a man 

he told me that people in Bethlehem and Palestinians are very bad and robbers and killers. I became afraid, but I 

came here. At first I was so afraid, but after two days I feel like I am at my house when I visit your school and 

was introduced to you. I love the way you live together here.’ 

He asked me, ‘I want to ask you a question. I heard that Muslims are bad people, and you, as a Christian girl, 

please tell me.’ I answered, ‘I’m not going to answer you. You can ask Samira, my friend. She is a Christian and 

can tell you better than a Muslim girl!!!He said, ‘You are a Muslim?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ He said, ‘I thought 

that Muslims were different’. But when I told him that Palestinians are Christians and Muslims living together 

peacefully and we are friends and no problems between them, he was very surprised.Israeli propaganda is very 

strong and that’s why I want to study journalism to work to tell the whole world the truth, just the truth. 

I think I must stop now, but I will not stop writing. Are you bored from me? I am talking, I mean writing much 

that is right. I know, don’t remind me. Believe me, I am very mad every day. Many people are killed. Many 

children are suffering. That makes me anxious. 

All my family here are fine. Please greet everybody for me. I love you all... 

With love 

NADIA 


19

Christmas in Palestine 

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? 

With the story of Jesus’ birth in the Bible and Qu’ran taking place in Palestine, we created and sent Christmas cards in 2018 using 

drawings designed by children from the little town of Bethlehem itself. Some of the children’s pictures reflected the traditional 

Nativity story, with shepherds and mangers, others were a painful reminder of the reality of being a child under occupation. 

As has been pointed out many times, in Banksy’s Christmas card or by Right to Movement’s #MaryCantMove campaign, a heavily 

pregnant Mary and Joseph would face many obstacles should they make their journey to Bethlehem today, with checkpoints and 

the Separation Wall. Perhaps Mary would have delivered baby Jesus at a checkpoint, 

like the 67 Palestinian mothers who did so between 2000 and 2005. 

Banksy 2004 Christmas Card 

Four Christmas card designs drawn by 

children at the Ghirass Centre in Bethlehem 

Abood Dayyah, a tour guide in Bethlehem, 

shines a light on what Christmas is like in his city. 

Bethlehem is a wonderful city. During 

Christmas time, thousands of tourists 

visit the Holy city of Bethlehem where 

Jesus was born over 2000 years ago. 

Every year we have about 3 million 

visitors and pilgrims. The come from 

Asia, Africa, Europe and America, 

from all over the world, to celebrate 

the great event and to remember the 

birth of Jesus. 

Jesus is love and peace. Both Muslims 

and Christians celebrate and share 

happiness in Christmas. 

For me, December is a happy month 

because I was born December 22, just 

two days before Christmas celebrations! 

A special thing in Bethlehem is we 

celebrate three times on three different 

dates. Why? We Palestinians celebrate 

the Catholic Christmas (Calendar) then 

in January the Orthodox Christians 

celebrate Armenian and Coptic, 

celebrated by Egyptian Christians as well. 

HOW WE CELEBRATE 

CHRISTMAS IN BETHLEHEM 

The celebrations are amazing in 

Bethlehem. We have a great wonderful 

Christmas tree and tons of Christmas 

lights and the Nativity scene also 

decorated with colourful lights. 

People visit each other and many 

Palestinian Muslims and Christians 

from Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus and 

Hebron come to celebrate with their 

brothers and Christian friends. 

Here in Palestine we are suffering 

because we are living under the military 

Israeli occupation. Life is not too easy but 

we always work to find our happiness and 

we have hope for a better future. We wish 

all people every Christmas and every New 

Year to bring more peace and to stop all 

wars in the world. 

Best regards from Bethlehem, Palestine. 

20 


Cultural Production in 

Larissa Sansour’s Sci-Fi Trilogy 

Palestinian visual artist 

Larissa Sansour’s 

otherworldly film 

‘Nation Estate’ (2013) 

screened 24 November 

as part of the London 

Palestine Film Festival. 

Al John reviews for PCF. 

L arissa Sansour’s Nation Estate might 

just as easily be an e-State. In the film, the 

state of Palestine has been displaced and 

located within a single high rise building; the 

skyscraper is organised by touch-screens and 

facial recognition systems, swift and seamless 

elevator shafts, keycards and marble floors. A 

place where the only voices are tannoyed and 

the governing is algorithmic. Where interaction 

is cold, clean and faceless, and citizens stare 

straight ahead in atomised proximity. 

Each Palestinian region is contained and 

segmented onto a different floor, connected 

only by elevator shaft. It’s a place where the 

appurtenances of the nation state are equally 

broken off, packaged and made to stand still— 

What happens to immaterial notions of identity, 

tradition, community when they are trapped and 

on display like subjects in a police line-up? The 

answer seems to be simple. Nothing. 

Frantz Fanon notes the tendency of culture, 

in the context of oppression, to fall into 

representationalism. Cultural products can 

often become ‘the inert already forsaken result 

of frequent, and not always very coherent, 

adaptations of a much more fundamental 

substance which is itself continually being 

renewed…mummified fragments which 

because they are static are in fact symbols of 

negation and outworn contrivances’. 

Nation Estate is saturated with mummified 

fragments, and it’s not surprising that the 

clinical, modernist efficiency of the high rise 

immediately draws comparisons with another 

locus of mummification—the museum. 

Nowhere else but for the museum do we 

see medieval architecture sequestered 

within cold marble. The protagonist, played 

by Sansour, exits the elevator shaft onto her 

floor—Jerusalem—which sits against a brutal 

white backdrop, as if it were a permanent 

museum exhibit. All that’s missing is a short 

descriptive paragraph pinned below the 

Dome of the Rock. In the following scene 

we see, in her apartment, a cupboard full 

of homogenous, tinned food, ready-made 

falafels and tabbouleh, literally preserved, 

destined to remain in a time-warp, forever 

the same everywhere but for in the collective 

imagination of the Estate’s residents. What 

is ready-made is unchangeable. Like the 

high-rise, the food is unable to grow but for 

‘upwards’. It can only ever expand via a kind 

of constant self-replication, ever-more mythic 

and ever-harder to see from the ground. 

The genre Sansour chooses to work in is 

always generous. Science fiction frees the 

artist from their contemporary restrictions by 

challenging them to invent new realities. Of 

course, new realities confront old ones, which 

lays bare the notion that the contemporary is 

always an ongoing process of invention, made 

up of a patchwork of political and economic 

narratives. It marks an engagement with 

what’s known as de-fetishisation; the process 

of making reality seem contingent and thus 

changeable provided you have the right tools. 

In another film, A Space Exodus, we see 

a new kind of political narrative in play. A 

reworking of The Moon Landing—one of the 

most symbolically charged ‘events’ pertaining 

to the mastery of capitalism—becomes ‘one 

small step for a Palestinian, one huge leap for 

mankind.’ Sansour riffs off Stanley Kubrick’s 

2001: Space Odyssey but with arabesque 

musical influences—a film which is not so 

much trying to construct new symbolism as it is 

about that process of symbol-making. Which is 

always a process, and is always associated with 

power. The film is playful and there’s a pleasure 

in being given the opportunity to think about 

this kind of reality. As in In The Future They Ate 

From The Finest Porcelain, where characters 

bury porcelain is deep into the ground to imply 

a different kind of past to future archaeologists, 

Sansour commits to the notion that narrative 

construction is itself a type of struggle. 

During a Q&A at the London Palestine Film 

Festival, Sansour, in response to a question 

about the role of the Palestinian artist, is quick 

to disavow her films from politics—or from 

pre-existing political narratives—because, she 

says, those have all been expressed already. 

The purpose of science fiction is to seek out 

the unsaid, the new and the strange. The result 

is that we might remember that everything 

was at some point new, and everything 

continues to be strange. 

Al John is a postgraduate student 

living in London. He has written for 

OpenDemocracy, 3:AM Magazine, 

Adbusters and elsewhere. 


21

The Weaponisation of Time 

Illuminating Invisible Violence Against Palestinians 

in the West Bank and East Jerusalem 

By Omar Aziz 

Omar is Programme Officer at Palestine Community Foundation, he 

recently completed an MA in International Relations (Middle East) 

and has written for OpenDemocracy, Middle East Monitor, Adbusters, 

Palestine Chronicle and elsewhere. 

‘Time is our worst enemy’ Palestinians often tell visitors to the 

West Bank. They explain how they wait at checkpoints daily and 

indefinitely. How they wait in ‘temporary’ refugee camps often 

lived in for generations. How they wait imprisoned for decades 

on charges of trivial offences or wait for their loved ones to return 

home from detention. How they wait in anticipation of soldiers to 

raid their homes during the night. How they wait in vain for building 

permits which never arrive to provide homes for their families. 

How they wait for the ‘temporary’ occupation to be lifted. How their 

time is stolen from them. How they know it and they feel it. 

For Palestinians in the occupied territories, time is not a 

transparent medium which can be traversed with ease to 

productively go about their daily lives, instead it is a thick 

and opaque substance, through which they must struggle 

to forge their lives, experiencing each minute, embodying 

each second. 

Under occupation Israel controls Palestinians in the 

occupied territories through the hyperregulation of the 

everyday life seen in the 5,000 military orders which 

govern everything from travel permits, work permits, 

building permits, digging for water, transporting goods 

and tending crops. But what we learn from listening 

to Palestinians is that it is not just their freedom of 

movement which is hyperregulated and controlled by 

checkpoints, travel permits and such like, but time itself. 

Time itself is wielded as a weapon, forcing Palestinians to 

live a temporality defined by waiting, slowness and stasis. 

But for Palestinians waiting is not a neutral period of 

stasis, or a welcomed rest from everyday life. Instead 

the waiting is often coloured by emotional states of 

fear, anxiety and suffocation produced by personal and 

collective histories of emotional and physical pain at the 

hands of the occupation. 

Whilst the bullet fired from a gun may subdue, 

immobilise and shorten the life of its victims, the 

weaponisation of time possesses, incapacitates 

and steals the life from them. It operates under a 

cruel silence, violence made invisible by Israel’s 

theatrical-duplicitous legal system and by a neoliberal 

media ignoring its victims; rendering them ultimately 

powerless yet fully conscious of their life being stolen 

from them, minute by minute, day after day. 

In the context of over 40 years of illegal ‘occupation’ of the 

occupied territories, with the US withdrawal of funding 

from the UNRWA and recognition of Jerusalem as the 

capital of Israel, the need for Palestinian voices to be 

heard in the silence between industrial-military assaults 

on Gaza, not just in response to them, has never been 

more urgent. 

But Palestinian voices are not transmitted through a 

neoliberal media which prioritises sensationalised news 

of bloodshed over the everyday suffering of Palestinians 

under occupation, so as not to risk challenging the 

narratives of their loyal audience. 

However, by listening to Palestinians and projecting 

their voices widely, we may be able to overcome the 

noise of empty empirical abstraction which informs the 

intransigent class of the global-political elite. And when 

we do choose to listen, we are met with eloquent stories 

rich with invaluable information from the people who 

matter most, those who endure suffering and try valiantly 

to survive it. 

Using Cate Malek and Matteo Hoke’s Palestine Speaks 

(2015) we can do just that. The autobiographical 

narratives they have compiled from Palestinians 

throughout the occupied territories deserve our 

attention, analysis and projection in a climate where 

Palestinian voices are rarely heard. They give life 

to empirical abstraction by projecting the voices of 

the oppressed, who so vividly illuminate for us the 

invisible forces of Israel’s colonial control. 

The term ‘weaponisation of time’ was coined by social 

theorist Nina Power in an openDemocracy article in 

2012. Her later (2014) article ‘Time does not always 

heal: state violence and psychic damage’ describes 

her partner’s experience after nearly being killed by a 

UK police officer and yet was charged himself with a 

public order offence: 

‘This stretching out of time is a central feature of what 

punishment is, from the slowness of bringing someone 

to trial, to the trial process itself, to prison, the purest 

manifestation of time used as a weapon.’ 

Here the deliberate and extrajudicial enforcement of a 

person to wait in precarious and painful circumstances, 

filling each moment with dread, anxiety and fear displays 

the effects of the weaponisation of time. 

But what is this sinister method of control and submission 

if there is no physical injury? How do we define it and how 

do we expose it? 

The concept of violence is central to Palestinian suffering 

in the occupied territories; only by understanding what 

violence is, its various forms and their relationship to 

each other can we begin to expose the prevalence of 

violence against Palestinians and how power operates 

through it as a means of colonial control. 

Johan Galtung (1969), widely considered the founding 

father of Peace Studies, has shown how peace ought 

to be considered the absence of violence. And how 

peace itself is present when individuals are reaching 

the full realisation of their somatic and mental potential 

achievable given the level of insight and resource. 

As such, violence is the cause that which reduces one’s 

potential, this violence may be direct, structural or cultural 

in origin, or a combination of all three. Direct violence has 

a clear subject-object relationship, structural violence is 

embedded in process and may lack a clear subject-object 

relationship and cultural violence is social legitimisation 

of direct or structural violence so as to render it socially 

acceptable or invisible. 

Like tuition fees prohibiting mostly black students 

from accessing education in post-apartheid South 

Africa, or austerity needlessly inflicted on the UK 

disproportionately affecting the poorest in society, or 

newly developed medicine unavailable to those in need, 

these examples of structural violence limit the potential 

realisations of their victims and operate under broader 

cultural violence which justifies their prevalence or 

makes alternatives seem ‘unrealistic’. In Palestine, 

we witness direct violence between IDF soldiers and 

Palestinian civilians, structural violence embedded into 

the system of occupation itself and cultural violence 

in Zionism attempting to justify the segregation of 

Palestinians from Israeli Jews and the colonisation 

of Palestinian land. Violence breeds violence and 

proliferates in the absence of peace, and only once 

exposed may we begin to overcome it. 

Through the concept of violence, the idea of 

‘weaponisation’ begins to take shape as a deliberate 

attempt to produce and target violence through a medium 

wielded against its intended victims. 

Listening to the stories of Ibtisam Ilzghayyer, 58 year 

old director of the Ghirass Cultural Center in Bethlehem, 

checkpoints are immediately illuminated as a violent tool 

through which time is weaponised. She recalls during 

the Second Intifada when checkpoints regularly closed 

altogether: 

‘the checkpoint was closed…[there were] children, 

old men, workers…hundreds of people! I waited [over 

three hours]. Surrounded by soldiers…nobody had any 

place to hide if they started shooting. I was so angry and 

depressed I started talking to myself. I said ‘God, are you 

there? And if you are there, are you seeing us? Finally, 

a little after seven p.m., I gave up and came back to 

Bethlehem and stayed at the Center.’ 

22 


ANOTHER TIME SHE RECALLS: 

‘I remember a little girl was crying. She needed to get 

to school to take exams, and the soldier wouldn’t let her. 

It’s not guaranteed that a child is able to go to school… 

Many parents have told us that their children have 

nightmares and achievement problems. Children look 

to us adults as people who can protect them, and 

when we can’t—in many situations, we’re scared!’ 

Whilst Ibtisam believes the repetition of everyday norms 

under colonial occupation, such as waiting at checkpoints, 

produces nightmares in Palestinian children, it has also 

resulted in them having a warped sense of time and 

space: 

‘The children I teach don’t have a good sense of 

distance because of the restrictions. They might say 

they live “far away,” and I’ll ask, “How far?” And it’s a 

ten-minute car ride away, if not for checkpoints. That’s 

far for them, because that fifteen minutes might 

actually be an hour or two most days.’ 

As of January 2017, there were 98 mapped checkpoints in 

the West Bank, 59 of which are permanent and a total of 

5,587 flying checkpoints were counted in 2016, affecting 

over 2.5 million Palestinians. 

Older and younger Palestinians alike are forced to confront 

armed soldiers often facing abuse and coming to physical 

harm. Ibtisam recalls being called ‘a prostitute’ after 

explaining her disability made it impossible for her to follow 

a soldier’s orders, other women recall being forced to divide 

themselves into lines of ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ women. 

However, the past is not dead, but alive in the present in 

wounds lived and relived each time a Palestinian is forced to 

wait at a checkpoint, not just of their personal experiences, 

but of stories from the collective trauma inflicted on the 

community. From 2000-2005 60 women gave birth at 

checkpoints, 36 babies and five women died as a result. 

IBTISAM STATES: 

‘usually I avoid going to the checkpoints, because it 

makes me sick — physically, emotionally, all kinds 

of sick. It usually takes time to come back to normal.’ 

Clearly the intensity of her emotion is not necessarily 

proportional to the immediate severity of the injury from 

an isolated experience. Instead, emotion is contingent 

on past memories and collective histories, whereby 

one can also feel intense pain when reminded of past 

encounters without any physical impression at all. So 

not only are Palestinians forced to wait at checkpoints, 

making it sometimes impossible to access education, 

healthcare, work or go about daily life but the conditions 

of this waiting can be loaded with fear, anxiety and pain 

from repetitive reliving of past experiences of trauma 

each time they wait at a checkpoint, serving to intensify its 

violent effects. 

Laith Al-Hlou, a 34 years old father, recalls the trauma 

of seeing his barn and house be demolished in Area C 

of the West Bank after the complex process he faced in 

trying to obtain a building permit which he exasperatingly 

navigated through yet was denied on all three attempts: 

‘They said a bulldozer was coming…We could see 

what was happening out the window, and we watched 

for an hour and a half while they drove the sheep out 

and knocked down the house. We cried. We had just built 

the barn the year before, all by hand. It had taken 

months of work and it was a big investment.’ 

Laith’s time has been wasted in processing the 

applications, in labour hours sold to purchase the marble 

and in the time endured unable to live in an adequate 

sized home. Laith describes how him, his wife and his 

five children are living, 

‘we have one room where we all sleep, and then we 

have the kitchen… We have electricity sometimes 

through our generator. But gas is expensive. We usually 

only turn it on around once a week to wash clothes in our 

washing machine. It’s hot now, and we have no electricity 

for fans. In the winter, we have no heat to keep us warm. 

When it gets cold, we stay in bed all day under the 

blankets to stay warm…The biggest problem for us is 

water. The pipes run through the settlement, and we’re 

the last in line in the village.’ 

The material effect of unfair planning policy is not isolated 

to simply less new builds on the horizon, the ramifications 

prove to be insidious and extensive on Palestinian lives; 

Palestinians are forced to choose between an impossible 

choice of waiting for the planning application which may 

never arise or waiting for the bulldozers to demolish their 

‘illegal’ construction. It also contributes to less jobs for 

Palestinians in the construction sector and more generally 

from lack of development. As such, Palestinians are locked 

in ‘extended transitions’, struggling to live independently 

as adults due to difficulty finding and accessing work 

because of checkpoints, permits and economic stagnation, 

contributing to a mode of temporality defined by slowness. 

LAITH OBSERVES HOW AT THE ADJACENT SETTLEMENTS: 

‘People living there don’t have tanks on their roofs 

or anything, they get enough from the pipes. The 

settlements look like heaven to us. They even have 

swimming pools there.’ 

Similarly, in the summer months, his access to clean 

water is cut off by the endeavours of a state widely 

considered to be the global leader in water irrigation 

and sanitation technology. This exposes not only a 

violent attempt to enforce life threatening conditions 

of waiting, but also a flagrant and deliberate abuse 

of human rights, where the right to clean water is 

fundamental. 

From 1967 to 2016 over 200 Israeli settlement were 

established in the West Bank, despite being in violation 

of international law, where the settler population 

exceeds 600,000. In addition, it is estimated that 

14,454 settlement units were approved by the Israeli 

government since January 2017. Not only does the rapid 

approval and construction of settlements expose the 

artificial delay in approving Palestinian applications, the 

swimming pools, pristine roads and high speed wi-fi 

connections expose how time is weaponised against 

Palestinians; Israeli Jews may access desired norms 

of comfort, hyper-speed and hyper-mobility under 

neoliberal capitalism in the settlements, whereas 

Palestinians are forcibly excluded from their reach. 

The extent of the violence through which time is 

weaponised via this process is evident in that from 2010 

to 2014, the Civil Administration (CA - branch of Israeli 

military responsible for civil matters in area C) approved 

merely 33 out of 2,020 Palestinian building permits, only 

1.5% of the total applications. Furthermore, given that 

the Palestinian population in the West Bank has nearly 

doubled since 1995 and areas A and B cannot facilitate 

more construction due to spatial limitations, the violent 

effects are increasingly felt by Palestinians within all 

areas of the West Bank. 

Laith describes how through the exertion of violence 

on him and other Palestinians, the colonial regime has 

been successful in creating unbearable conditions for 

Palestinians life, 

‘Many people in the village have gone elsewhere. 

Some of my uncle’s family members who used to live 

on the property have gone to live abroad. The Israelis, 

the settlers, it seems like they want us to go away. If 

we didn’t have this land, we’d go back to Bethlehem. 

It’s a better place—it’s easier to live there. But if we 

leave, we won’t be able to protect the land, which has 

been in our family for generations… I’d like to move, 

but I can’t leave my land here.’ 

The weaponisation of time against Palestinians forces 

them to make an impossible choice: either resist 

colonial violence by remaining on their land in the hope 

their suffering is temporary, or permanently abandon 

their material wealth and identity. Checkpoints and 

building permits are just two of many methods whereby 

Palestinian time is artificially manipulated under a 

regime of hyperregulated-colonial violence. It forces 

Palestinians into apparent ‘voluntary transfer’, where 

life was in fact unliveable. 

Palestinians valiantly resist this artificial imposition 

of slowness and waiting upon their lives by finding 

alternative routes for travel, circumnavigating the 

myriad of barriers on dilapidated roads, through 

celebration and festival, disrupting the temporal 

stagnation created by the weaponisation of time and 

even by encouraging children to play games queuing 

at checkpoints. But these efforts are the not answer. 

Only by lifting the illegal occupation may Palestinians 

rebuild their lives, free from the restrictions of 

checkpoints, permits, unjust incarceration and 

everyday suffering. Only by lifting the occupation can 

all forms of the direct, structural and cultural violence 

inflicted on Palestinians begin to be dismantled. 

By listening to the voices of the oppressed, we realise 

there is no peace found in the status quo in the occupied 

territories, only sustained and uninterrupted violence. 

Israel is right to value time as a precious and finite 

resource for its own citizens, and must do so for 

Palestinians by lifting this illegal and violent occupation. 


23

CHRISTMAS SONG 

On the first day 

of Christmas 

My true love 

sent to me... 

A 

sunbird 

in an 

olive tree 

and 

Two holy domes 

Three dabke dancers 

Four falafels frying 

Five kuf-fiy-yehs, Six mint and lemon 

Seven sheep a flocking, Eight fallahi ploughing 

Nine camels spitting, Ten thobes a flowing 

Eleven poets versing, Twelve stars are shining 

24 


CROSSWORD 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

ACROSS 

2 The name given to the events of 1948 

5 A Palestinian poet who spent much 

of his life in exile 

8 The setting of the Nativity story, where 

Jesus is said to have been born 

12 The name of the busy gate in the centre 

of the north wall of Jerusalem’s Old City 

13 Palestinian national dish, translates 

as “upside down” 

Find the answers to the crossword by 

heading to Resources on our website, 

palestinefoundation.org.uk 

DOWN 

1 This plant is a symbol of Palestinian resistance, it is used 

to designate borders in villages 

3 A term meaning “steadfastness”, expressing the 

Palestinian resistance ideology 

4 The name of the mosque on Manger Square in Bethlehem 

6 She gained worldwide attention this year after spending 

eight months in an Israeli prison 

7 The lowest place on Earth 

9 Popular herb mix made from thyme and sesame 

seeds, eaten on bread 

10 The Arabic name for Palestine’s most famous handicraft, 

especially seen on traditional women’s clothing 

11 This town is the birthplace of the dessert knaffeh 


25

COLOURING IN - 

THE DOME OF THE CHAIN 

Thanks to Friends of Al Aqsa for the colouring page, available in their Palestine Colouring Book 

26 


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MAY 

18 

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27

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Palestine Voice: Issue 1 Winter 2018/19

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