Bethlehem Checkpoint

Going through checkpoints in the West Bank is often described as similar to going through airport security before leaving on an international flight–with waits that are much more unpredictable, fussier metal detectors, and the added humiliating features like full-body turnstiles between caged passage ways that resemble cattle chutes.  Instead of encountering airline security officials who smile patiently at successive discoveries of forgotten back-pocket change, I’ve watched armed soldiers yell at Palestinians in Hebrew from a glass booth–or even from platforms above my head so that I could see straight up the barrels of their guns. Instead of presenting a passport, Palestinians with West Bank IDs trying to get to Jerusalem have to present electromagnetic ID cards (in addition to their West Bank IDs).  Instead of showing a plane ticket, they have to present a permit for entering Jerusalem.  Palestinians with West Bank IDs going to Jerusalem have to have their hands scanned as well.  Instead of spurring a widely reported debate in the media about the ethics of mandatory fingerprinting–as its use in US and UK airports has–precious few US media reports have even mentioned Israel’s use of biometrics at checkpoints, which is now widespread.

Thousands of Palestinians and tourists depend on Bethlehem checkpoint to enter East Jerusalem and Israel daily.  It is also called Gilo checkpoint, named after the nearby Gilo settlement.  When I first moved to Bethlehem I was confused about the name, originally assuming that “the Gilo checkpoint” would be a checkpoint that Gilo settlers would have to use.  Why would a checkpoint only for Palestinians be named for Jewish-only settlements, residents of which don’t ever have to use these kind of checkpoints?

But if you take a look at the full list of the 69 permanently staffed checkpoints in the West Bank as documented by UNOCHA in its November 2009 report, you’ll see a long list of Palestinian-only checkpoints named after the adjacent Israeli settlement (Shave Shomeron, Yitav, Beit Hadassa, etc).  These major obstacles to Palestinian movement are often named after the nearby settlement for which these Palestinians are ostensibly being obstructed.  Seems like a blatant admission that individual checkpoints for Palestinians are installed by Israel primarily to serve these illegal settlements–rather than the Israeli citizens living within Israel.  In fact, all of these checkpoints–along with over 600 other types of closures–are in the occupied West Bank, an area approximately the size of Delaware.

5 MIN-5 HRS: THE POLITICS BEHIND THE WAIT FOR 2,000 WORKERS A DAY

Perhaps the most mysterious difference between waiting in line at a checkpoint and every other line I have ever waited in is that I’ve rarely had any idea what precisely causes these checkpoint delays.  The soldiers are hidden from view until you get up to the very front of the checkpoint, so it’s often impossible to tell.  One time at Qalandia checkpoint I waited behind a turnstile while I watched female soldiers inside a glass booth take turns sitting on each others’ laps and gleefully snapping pictures of each other with their digital cameras.  (Perhaps they were all tagged in an “IDF on Duty” Facebook album later that day?)

I watched a soldier at Bethlehem checkpoint nod sleepily, with his eyes closed, apparently listening to his I-Pod.  Not until I yelled “Shalom” several times and rattled the full-body turnstile repeatedly did he open the first of a series of turnstiles at the checkpoint.  (I’d love to know how long he would have waited if I was a Palestinian, rather than a non-Arab looking Westerner waving a U.S. passport.)

Most lines I’ve waited on–whether at movie theaters, grocery stores, or even at airport security–operate with some sort of correlation between the number of people in line and the anticipated wait time.  At checkpoints such logical principles rarely apply.  The delays are often caused not from shuttling people through the metal detectors but rather from the soldiers failing to open the gates to the metal detectors at all.  Sometimes it has taken me 5 minutes to get through the checkpoint, often it takes two hours, and not infrequently for workers in the early morning hours, it takes 5 hours.

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) has a team that regularly monitors Gilo checkpoint.  According to Stefan Olsson from the EAPPI team, 2,000 workers line up at Gilo checkpoint by its 5 AM opening time to work in Israel and in Israeli settlements every work day.  These workers are among an ever dwindling number of Palestinians (45,000 with West Bank IDs) who have been given permission to do so after extensive security checks.  Even though the same number of workers pass through Gilo checkpoint daily, it can take between 2.5-5 hours to shuttle the workers through, depending on how many gates soldiers open and how often soldiers close those gates.

DAY LABORER: A POLITICAL PROGRAM TO “FORCE PEOPLE TO QUIT WORKING IN ISRAEL”

I met Khaled at the Gilo checkpoint on April 26th, a morning when it took four hours to get the workers through, causing hundreds of workers to lose a full day’s work.  Khaled works at the Gilo settlement less than 3 kilometers away from his house.  He granted me permission to use only his first name since he fears that Israel will revoke his permit for entry into Jerusalem for speaking out.  His anxiety was understandable.  In 2007 he spoke with a reporter about the difficulties at the checkpoint and within a week his permission to work in Israel was revoked for 4 months.  The Israeli authorities don’t explain the reasoning behind their decisions, simply stating that whenever permission is revoked it is for “security reasons”.

The Gilo checkpoint has three metal detectors, making three separate lines possible, while the army only opened one of the gates for most of that morning.  According to Olsson from EAPPI, they rarely ever open all three.  Usually workers have to start work at 7 AM.  By the time the soldiers allowed all of the workers inside of the checkpoint through at 9:10 AM, many had already left.  If workers don’t arrive at their jobs at 7 or 9 AM, their bosses won’t allow them to work at all that day.  If this happens often enough, they can lose their jobs altogether.

Khaled told me “this is a political program to inflict physical and psychological punishment to force people to quit working in Israel”. Rather than make an explicit policy to keep Palestinian workers out of Israel and possibly draw criticism from the international community, he explained that the longer and more arbitrary waits at the checkpoint would progressively discourage more and more workers from attempting to cross the checkpoint.  That way, Khaled reasoned, “Israel can say to the whole world that Palestinians don’t want to work–that it’s the Palestinians’ problem”.

“WAITING AT THE CHECKPOINT IS MORE WORK THAN MY JOB”

Men remove their belts at checkpoint

Some workers I talked to that morning arrived at 4 AM, while others had arrived even earlier.  According to the AP, workers can make up to $50 a day in Israel, which is four or five times what they could make in the West Bank, where unemployment hit 19% in 2008.

Khaled said “waiting at the checkpoint is more work than my job”.  He was sure that many if not most workers at the checkpoint felt the same way.  Most of these men work in construction or other jobs involving hard manual labor.  But having to go through the checkpoint is like having a second job–one which requires you to wake up in the middle of the night and wait for hours in holding pens behind metal bars until a series of 18 year old Israeli soldiers are authorized to press the right buttons allowing you passage.

AIRPORT-SECURITY TYPE CHECKPOINTS IN YOUR OWN LAND

When you finally pass through Gilo checkpoint, you have a wide open view of the Wall cutting Bethlehem off from the ever-expanding Gilo settlement.  Buses for the Old City in Jerusalem wait just outside, running not according to any schedule but the arbitrary speed of the checkpoint.  As I watch women put their earrings back on and men slip the belts through their belt loops after having to take them off for the metal detector, the airport metaphor seems quite appropriate.  The buses, just waiting on passengers to fill them up, remind me of shuttles at the airport driving passengers from one terminal to another across stretches of tarmac.

While international airport-security procedures are usually determined by internationally recognized borders between countries, a settlement in violation of international law determines the placement of this checkpoint.  Unlike an airport security line where every passenger is required to endure long lines and metal detectors, this checkpoint is only for Palestinians and tourists–not the settlers who have bypass roads connecting them directly to Jerusalem.

Comparing Gilo checkpoint to international airport-security understates the humiliation involved.  But it’s a valuable comparison in that it gives you some idea of what kind of message it must send to Palestinians when going to Jerusalem–even the far eastern stretches of Jerusalem, and even between cities deep within the West Bank–feels like going through an international border.

The day after Netanyahu declared the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of the Patriarchs holy site in Hebron as an “Israeli national heritage site”, Mustafa Barghouti visited the mosque. After his visit, I caught Dr. Barghouti on film explaining how this decision to incorporate two sites in Occupied Palestinian Territory – this site and Bilal Mosque or Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem – continued the Israeli process of “gradual annexation” of the West Bank.  I continued filming Dr. Barghouti as he exited through one of the checkpoints that Palestinians are required to pass through to visit the Ibrahimi Mosque.

While the New York Times and other major U.S. news outlets have highlighted competing religious claims to understand the tension arising from the “Israeli national heritage plan”, Barghouti compellingly articulates the political rationale of the Netanyahu announcement.  Barghouti called it a “clear cut provocation” and continuation of policy.

And what about the argument that this is simply “about renovating important historical and religious sites of the Jewish people,” as Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev has said, and affirming the importance of these sites to Jewish heritage?

The problem with this logic is that land in Hebron, Bethlehem, or anywhere else in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is not Israeli national territory.  Israel has no more right to unilaterally nationalize Jewish heritage sites in the West Bank than it does to unilaterally nationalize The Great Synagogue of Florence in Italy.  While no one would take seriously a unilateral Israeli decision to declare a synagogue in Europe as Israeli national property, such a declaration in Occupied Palestinian Territory inflames the conflict and jeopardizes the very notion of any prospects for future Palestinian sovereignty over Palestinian territory.

Barghouti points out that what is particularly provocative is the fact that this declaration comes after a series of Netanyahu’s claims of entitlement to annex Palestinian land:

Claim 1:

“Jerusalem is not for negotiations and it will remain unified as a Jewish city”

Claim 2:

“Settlement blocs will become part of Israel”

Claim 3:

“He would not allow a Palestinian state to have borders with anybody, that Israel would maintain airspace control over the whole West Bank, and it would maintain control of all water resources.”

After President Abbas warned that Israel’s nationalization of West Bank heritage sites could spark a new war, Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev dismissed ascribing such importance to this declaration, stating that “this is not in anyway changing the status quo”.

It remains to be seen whether Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of the Patriarch’s status as an “Israeli national heritage site” will affect Palestinian access to the fourth holiest Muslim site in the heart of one of the largest Palestinian cities.  Barghouti pointed out that the declaration was ominously made only four days before the 16th anniversary of the massacre committed by an Israeli settler who killed 29 Palestinians.  After the massacre the Israeli government divided the mosque, prohibiting Palestinians from using the part that is now used as a synagogue outside of specified holidays.

But even if the decision doesn’t affect access, the Israeli nationalist claim is certainly a step Netanyahu has taken to further entrench the status quo where Israel controls all Palestinian access to a holy site deep in Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Katya Reed is the nom-de-plume of a journalist based in Bethlehem, West Bank, Occupied Palestine.

On February 22, 2010, I interviewed Dr. Mustafa Barghouti as he left the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron.  He came to pray at the mosque the day after Netanyahu declared the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of the Patriachs holy site as an “Israeli national heritage site”, and I asked Barghouti about the significance of this decision.  Netanyahu included both the Hebron site and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem as “Israeli national heritage sites”.  On the morning of the 22cd, clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers and continued for several days.  The Israeli government’s claim of national ownership over two sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territories faced widespread condemnation from the international community, including the Obama administration, UN Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, and the European Union.  President Mahmoud Abbas warned that the Israeli nationalization of these West Bank heritage sites could spark a regional war.

Dr. Barghouti is a PLC member from the Palestinian National Initiative, or Mubadara, party.  He is president of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and a nominee for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.  His remarks on the significance of Netanyahu’s declaration are transcribed below.

VIDEO:

***
KR: I’m writing this article for the Palestine Note, based in Washington, D.C. and in the U.S. media how this event is often being reported is that Netanyahu is just making a declaration, that this place is important to the Jewish people and Jewish culture but of course you’re relaying something very different, that it’s actually an attempt to annex this area, so can you talk a little bit more about how it’s not just a declaration?

MB: Well you see, the whole idea of peace is based on a two-state solution.  It means Israel should end its occupation of the occupied territories – including Hebron.  When Netanyahu comes in and declares day after day that he’s annexing this part and that part – first he’s annexing east Jerusalem and then he’s annexing the Golan Heights and then he’s annexing now parts of Hebron and parts of Bethlehem – that means he’s killing the option and possibilities of a two-state solution.

And American people should know either they will allow us to have an independent state on this little tiny place and have freedom like everybody else, or we should say okay ‘let’s have one state with democratic rights for everybody’, with equal rights for everybody, and let it be one democratic state.

KR: And you’re saying that this declaration by itself is a precursor to annexation?

MB: (Nods) Its meant to be a provocation.  First of all to provoke Palestinians here, especially four days before the anniversary of the big massacre that happened here by a crazy settler Baruch Goldstein against 29 Palestinians.  But also it is meant to undermine, in my opinion, any possibility of peaceful negotiations.  He knows exactly what he’s doing.  He’s doing this to provoke a reaction to prevent any possibility for peaceful negotiations.

Last Thursday I joined Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists for the “Open Shuhada Street” demonstration to demand Palestinian access to one of the most important streets in Hebron. Hebron, along with East Jerusalem, is unique in having settlers and Israeli soldiers occupy the very heart of a large Palestinian urban area.

The protest was held on February 25th to mark the 16th anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, when Israeli-American settler Baruch Goldstein shot and killed 29 Palestinians praying at the mosque and injured 150 more. Since the massacre, the IDF has instituted ever tightening restrictions on Palestinian movement throughout Hebron, and particularly on Shuhada Street where six settlement blocks were established. Today even Palestinian residents of Shuhada Street have to walk on complicated make-shift pathways on rooftops and climb over roadblocks to reach their home since walking or driving on the street is prohibited. (Read more on the “Open Shuhada Street” website.)

Organizers estimate 300 protesters attended. Demonstrators arrived in the Abu Sneineh district and were met by Israeli soldiers and jeeps blocking their entry into Shuhada Street. Although some Palestinian boys watching the demonstration from the street threw stones, all of the protesters remained steadfastly committed to non-violence while the IDF repeatedly threw tear gas canisters and percussion grenades into the crowd. At least five protesters, including PLC member Mustafa Barghouti, were hospitalized for tear gas inhalation.

Hisham Sherabati, one of the organizers of the march with the Hebron-based group Youth Against Settlements, told me that there were participants from nearly every Palestinian political party along with Palestinian-Israelis, Jewish-Israelis, and internationals from around the world. The event, he said, had become not only an act of non-violent resistance to the closure of Shuhada Street to Palestinians on the anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, but also an expression of condemnation of the Netanyahu claim for the Cave of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque as an Israeli national heritage site, and part of the larger movement.  ”We are part of the Palestinian popular nonviolent resistance of the occupation,” Sherabati said.  He explained the necessity for this day of action:

“It’s crucial to unite our efforts to address the issue of apartheid in Hebron, where there is a systematic separation between Palestinians and illegal Israeli settlers, where very important streets have been given to extremist settlers.”

Before the protest began, I caught up with PLC member and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Mustafa Barghouti. He noted that the protest was important to raise awareness about the nature of segregated roads in the Occupied Palestinian Territories:

“Roads are segregated in what has become one of the worst apartheid systems in the world. Even in South Africa under apartheid and in the United States under segregation, the roads were never segregated.”

In 1995 Israel and the PLO signed the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, more commonly known as the Oslo II Agreement. This agreement stipulates that “measures and procedures for normalizing life in the Old City and on the roads of Hebron will be taken immediately after the signing of this Agreement” (Annex I, Article VII).

In fact, this agreement required Israel to remove obstacles to Palestinian movement specifically on the very site where the IDF clashed with protesters on Thursday. By signing Oslo II, Israel agreed to implement “removal of the barrier on the road leading from Abu Sneineh to Shuhada Road in order to facilitate the movement on these roads”. (See full text of Oslo II at the Israeli government website here.)

Over 25 cities world-wide, from Capetown to Prague to New York City, held protests, vigils, and other events to mark February 25th as the kickoff for the “Open Shuhada Street” campaign. The campaign itself began as a joint Palestinian-International campaign in a meeting in Hebron of activists from Youth Against Settlements and activists from South Africa. Sherabati explained that the day of action was the beginning of building a global and sustainable movement to open Shuhada Street as an important part of ending the occupation.

“We are very sure that sooner or later the street will be open and will be given back its identity. We erase the name King David Street, like the settlers call it. And we erase the name Chicago Street – that’s what the military calls it. We’re giving it back the name ‘Shuhada Street’.”

Katya Reed is a freelance journalist based in Bethlehem, West Bank, Occupied Palestine.

Last Thursday I joined Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists for the “Open Shuhada Street” demonstration to demand Palestinian access to one of the most important streets in Hebron. Hebron, along with East Jerusalem, is unique in having settlers and Israeli soldiers occupy the very heart of a large Palestinian urban area.

The protest was held on February 25th to mark the 16th anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, when Israeli-American settler Baruch Goldstein shot and killed 29 Palestinians praying at the mosque and injured 150 more. Since the massacre, the IDF has instituted ever tightening restrictions on Palestinian movement throughout Hebron, and particularly on Shuhada Street where six settlement blocks were established. Today even Palestinian residents of Shuhada Street have to walk on complicated make-shift pathways on rooftops and climb over roadblocks to reach their home since walking or driving on the street is prohibited. (Read more on the “Open Shuhada Street” website.)

Organizers estimate 300 protesters attended. Demonstrators arrived in the Abu Sneineh district and were met by Israeli soldiers and jeeps blocking their entry into Shuhada Street. Although some Palestinian boys watching the demonstration from the street threw stones, all of the protesters remained steadfastly committed to non-violence while the IDF repeatedly threw tear gas canisters and percussion grenades into the crowd. At least five protesters, including PLC member Mustafa Barghouti, were hospitalized for tear gas inhalation.

Hisham Sherabati, one of the organizers of the march with the Hebron-based group Youth Against Settlements, told me that there were participants from nearly every Palestinian political party along with Palestinian-Israelis, Jewish-Israelis, and internationals from around the world. The event, he said, had become not only an act of non-violent resistance to the closure of Shuhada Street to Palestinians on the anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, but also an expression of condemnation of the Netanyahu claim for the Cave of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque as an Israeli national heritage site, and part of the larger movement. ”We are part of the Palestinian popular nonviolent resistance of the occupation,” Sherabati said. He explained the necessity for this day of action:

“It’s crucial to unite our efforts to address the issue of apartheid in Hebron, where there is a systematic separation between Palestinians and illegal Israeli settlers, where very important streets have been given to extremist settlers.”

Before the protest began, I caught up with PLC member and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Mustafa Barghouti. He noted that the protest was important to raise awareness about the nature of segregated roads in the Occupied Palestinian Territories:

“Roads are segregated in what has become one of the worst apartheid systems in the world. Even in South Africa under apartheid and in the United States under segregation, the roads were never segregated.”

In 1995 Israel and the PLO signed the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, more commonly known as the Oslo II Agreement. This agreement stipulates that “measures and procedures for normalizing life in the Old City and on the roads of Hebron will be taken immediately after the signing of this Agreement” (Annex I, Article VII).

In fact, this agreement required Israel to remove obstacles to Palestinian movement specifically on the very site where the IDF clashed with protesters on Thursday. By signing Oslo II, Israel agreed to implement “removal of the barrier on the road leading from Abu Sneineh to Shuhada Road in order to facilitate the movement on these roads”. (See full text of Oslo II at the Israeli government website here.)

Over 25 cities world-wide, from Capetown to Prague to New York City, held protests, vigils, and other events to mark February 25th as the kickoff for the “Open Shuhada Street” campaign. The campaign itself began as a joint Palestinian-International campaign in a meeting in Hebron of activists from Youth Against Settlements and activists from South Africa. Sherabati explained that the day of action was the beginning of building a global and sustainable movement to open Shuhada Street as an important part of ending the occupation.

“We are very sure that sooner or later the street will be open and will be given back its identity. We erase the name King David Street, like the settlers call it. And we erase the name Chicago Street – that’s what the military calls it. We’re giving it back the name ‘Shuhada Street’.”

Katya Reed is a freelance journalist based in Bethlehem, West Bank, Occupied Palestine.

Photo courtesy of Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Hebron, Creative Commons License (http://cpt.org/gallery/hebron)

Yesterday I joined Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists for the “Open Shuhada Street” demonstration to demand Palestinian access to one of the most important streets in Hebron.  Hebron, along with East Jerusalem, is unique in having settlers and Israeli soldiers occupy the very heart of a large Palestinian urban area.

The protest was held on February 25th to mark the 16th anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, when Israeli-American settler Baruch Goldstein shot and killed 29 Palestinians praying at the mosque and injured 150 more.  Since the massacre, the IDF has instituted ever tightening restrictions on Palestinian movement throughout Hebron, and particularly on Shuhada Street where six settlement blocks were established.  Today even Palestinian residents of Shuhada Street have to walk on complicated make-shift pathways on rooftops and climb over roadblocks to reach their home since walking or driving on the street is prohibited.  (Read more on “Open Shuhada Street” website here.)

Organizers estimate 300 protesters attended.  Demonstrators arrived in the Abu Sneineh district and were met by Israeli soldiers and jeeps blocking their entry into Shuhada Street.  Although some Palestinian boys watching the demonstration from the street threw stones, all of the protesters remained steadfastly committed to non-violence while the IDF repeatedly threw tear gas canisters and percussion grenades into the crowd.  At least five protesters, including PLC member Mustafa Barghouti, were hospitalized for tear gas inhalation.

Hisham Sherabati, one of the organizers of the march with the Hebron-based group Youth Against Settlements, told me that there were participants from nearly every Palestinian political party along with Palestinian-Israelis, Jewish-Israelis, and internationals from around the world.  The event, he said, had become not only an act of non-violent resistance to the closure of Shuhada Street to Palestinians on the anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, but also an expression of condemnation of the Netanyahu claim for the Cave of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque as an Israeli national heritage site, and part of the larger movement.  ”We are part of the Palestinian popular nonviolent resistance of the occupation,” Sherabati said.  He explained the necessity for this day of action:

“It’s crucial to unite our efforts to address the issue of apartheid in Hebron, where there is a systematic separation between Palestinians and illegal Israeli settlers, where very important streets have been given to extremist settlers.”

Before the protest began, I caught up with PLC member and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Mustafa Barghouti.  He noted that the protest was important to raise awareness about the nature of segregated roads in the Occupied Palestinian Territories:

“Roads are segregated in what has become one of the worst apartheid systems in the world.  Even in South Africa under apartheid and in the United States under segregation, the roads were never segregated.”

SHUHADA STREET CLOSED TO PALESTINIANS IN VIOLATION OF OSLO II AGREEMENT

In 1995 Israel and the PLO signed the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, more commonly known as the Oslo II Agreement.  This agreement stipulates that “measures and procedures for normalizing life in the Old City and on the roads of Hebron will be taken immediately after the signing of this Agreement” (Annex I, Article VII).

In fact, this agreement required Israel to remove obstacles to Palestinian movement specifically on the very site where the IDF clashed with protesters on Thursday.  By signing Oslo II, Israel agreed to implement “removal of the barrier on the road leading from Abu Sneineh to Shuhada Road in order to facilitate the movement on these roads”.  (See full text of Oslo II at the Israeli government website here.)

GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR SHUHADA TO BE “GIVEN BACK ITS IDENTITY”

Signs from "Open Shuhada Street" demonstration

Over 25 cities world-wide, from Capetown to Prague to New York City, held protests, vigils, and other events to mark February 25th as the kickoff for the “Open Shuhada Street” campaign.  The campaign itself began as a joint Palestinian-International campaign in a meeting in Hebron of activists from Youth Against Settlements and activists from South Africa.  Sherabati explained that the day of action was the beginning of building a global and sustainable movement to open Shuhada Street as an important part of ending the occupation.

“We are very sure that sooner or later the street will be open and will be given back its identity.  We erase the name King David Street, like the settlers call it.  And we erase the name Chicago Street – that’s what the military calls it.  We’re giving it back the name ‘Shuhada Street’.”

“You can have development under an occupation but you can’t eradicate poverty.” That thought-provoking statement came from John Prideaux-Brune, Oxfam GB’s Country Director for Israel and the OPTs, during the interview I conducted with him January 12 in his office in East Jerusalem.

Prideaux-Brune explained that impoverishment is now widely recognized to be a condition where one is denied control over one’s life. Poverty is about being denied a voice. “You can be the richest person in the world but if you have no voice you are still in poverty,” he said.

Military rule anywhere, of course, denies a voice to citizens. But rule by an occupying foreign army does so even more, as is generally recognized in the special provisions international humanitarian law makes to try to protect the welfare of people living under foreign military occupation.

In the West Bank and Gaza, the 4.3 million civilian residents have now been living under foreign military occupation for nearly 43 years– and the mechanisms for sustaining that occupation have become extremely complex over time.  In the West Bank, the land mass has been sliced and diced into five different kinds of governance zones:

• East Jerusalem has been outright annexed by Israel.
• Israel has also, more quietly, extended its civil law system to the many large areas occupied or controlled by Israel’s illegal settlements, which thereby, in effect, annexes them.
• In other areas, not directly controlled by the settlement blocs, the Palestinian population comes under the undiluted control of the IDF’s ‘civil affairs’ branch. These expanses of land– which total around 60% of the West Bank’s entire terrain– were designated, under Oslo, as ‘Area C’.
• Other areas of land were designated ‘Area B’. In these patches, the (‘interim’) Palestinian Authority exercises control over civilian functions while the IDF retains control over security affairs.
• In the other small patches designated ‘Area A’, the PA is supposed to control both civilian functions and security– though in practice, the IDF still moves and operates quite freely within the cities and towns that are designated ‘Area A’.

In the interview with Prideaux-Brune, he expressed particular concern for the situation of Palestinians in Area C.  In those areas, he noted, the Israeli government continues to deny Oxfam GB and their local partners permission for water storage tanks during a drought and the rehabilitation of tin shacks for impoverished Bedouin communities.

He concluded wryly that in some portions of Area C,  “Pretty soon you’re going to have to have a permit to breathe”.

ISRAEL STOPS WORK VISAS FOR OXFAM & OTHER NGOS IN OPT

At around the time I conducted the interview, the Israeli authorities were introducing tight new restrictions on the ability of international humanitiarian-aid and development groups like Oxfam to operate in the OPTs. In early January the Interior Ministry announced that it would no longer grant work permits to Oxfam and other major international organizations working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).  Instead, Israel issues employees like Prideaux-Brune only ‘B-1′ tourist visas that don’t formally allow the holder the right to work, even though Israeli officials have assured these employees that Israel understands their work in the OPT will continue.

The new visa restrictions do not apply to those organizations working in Israel or the settlements throughout the West Bank, in which case NGOs are simply granted work visas for Israel.  What Prideaux-Brune and others are gravely concerned about is the “slippery slope” that such policies might portend.

While at this point the tourist visas may be granted to employees on a reliable basis, Prideaux-Brune voiced his grave concern about this pattern of further constrictions on international NGOs in the OPT.  Having no legal basis to work in the country you are based in increases the stress on staff and also makes recruitment much more difficult.

“YOU CAN’T ERADICATE POVERTY WHILST YOU HAVE AN OCCUPATION”

Prideaux-Brune began summarizing Oxfam GB’s work in the West Bank with a disclaimer.  He emphasized that while Oxfam GB does believe it can meaningfully support Palestinian development efforts, it is well aware that no matter how expansive development efforts are, poverty will persist as long as the occupation continues.

That was when he made the comment about poverty eradication being impossible under military occupation.

But Oxfam GB, like the other international NGOs working in the OPTs, does what it can.  In the West bank, it supports numerous agricultural development projects, including Palestinian efforts to export olive oil on a commercial scale.  Most of its work in the West Bank is concentrated in rural areas that lie in Area C.

In Areas A and B, the Palestinian Authority is allowed to issue building permits.  But in Area C, the majority of the West Bank, all planning and building matters are controlled by Israel.  (See B’tselem’s recent report on how “Civil Administration Chokes Palestinian Construction”.)

Prideaux-Brune clarified that the Israeli’s requirement for a permit for Palestinian building is not against international law.  In fact, the Fourth Geneva Convention requires that an occupying power has a responsibility ensure the welfare of the people it occupies, which may include the facilitation of building and planning matters in occupied territory. (Of course, no military occupation in the whole history of the Geneva Conventions has ever lasted as long as this one. Its very prolongation makes it look much more like a classical colonial venture than a military occupation.)

Prideaux-Brune told me,”We’re not against requiring a permit from the governing authority… But it’s how they are implementing it that is the problem.”

Israel claims that it is only implementing the same law Jordan used in the West Bank before 1967.  However, Prideaux-Brune pointed out that “the interpretation of the law changes fairly frequently.  No one knows what it says exactly.”

ISRAEL TO OXFAM: CEMENT FLOORS FOR TIN SHACKS ARE ILLEGAL

When Oxfam GB began working with an impoverished Bedouin village living in tin shacks, they understood that any new construction without a permit – which are nearly impossible to procure – would be prohibited.  Oxfam GB assumed, however, that minor rehabilitation of these families’ shelters would be permitted.

Oxfam GB therefore helped to lay down cement floors within these shacks in October 2008, and this shack rehabilitation project continued until March 2009.  ”They were still tin shacks – its just that now they were tin shacks with cement floors,” Prideaux-Brune said.

But then, a settler group named Regavim started distributing a video that alleged the cement floors built without a permit violated the Area C building restrictions.

To Oxfam GB’s dismay, the Israeli government adopted the same argument and last spring they ordered the  demolition of all of the tin shacks that were provided with cement floors.

To this day Oxfam GB has not received demolition orders.  As Prideaux-Brune points out, “they have such a backlog of things they want to destroy.”

Still, just the threat of such large scale demolition is enough to freeze development projects in Area C.  Donors are reluctant to fund any such development knowing that if a permit is sought the project will likely be denied.  Since Israeli interpretation of the Area C laws are so unpredictable, it can be paralyzing for relief organizations to fit their development efforts into projects that don’t require Israeli permits.

Then, if an organization does try to apply for a permit for a development project, it will likely take months or years to get a response, at which point funding for the project could run out.  In Area C, applications for building permits are usually denied after a lengthy waiting period.

Under the changing interpretation of the law, flattening the land or laying a pipe on the ground might also now require a permit.  Such restrictions have an immense chilling effect on development work since “no one wants to fund something that will be immediately destroyed”.

“Digging a one millimeter trench would probably require a permit at this point,” Prideaux-Brune speculated.

BUILDING WATER STORAGE TANKS DURING A DROUGHT DEEMED ILLEGAL

Prideaux-Brune relates the story of when Oxfam GB did apply for a permit for a modest development project in the West Bank: building water storage tanks.

Oxfam GB supports agricultural development efforts in Jiftlick, a Palestinian village in the Jordan Valley. Jiftlick receives most of its water from a pipe that is mostly turned off during the day, exacerbating the water shortage during the frequent periods of drought.  Oxfam GB hoped to build a 300 square meter concrete water tank underground so that Jiflick residents and farmers could have a reliable water source during the day.  Palestinian residents would not be able to take more water, rather, they would merely be able to more dependably retrieve their allotted share of water during daylight hours.

Oxfam GB applied for a permit to build these water storage tank in December 2007, and to this day has not heard back on the status of their application.

In spring of 2009 it became clear that the very low rainfall during the preceding winter would result in severe water shortages in the Jordan Valley, so Oxfam GB changed tactics.

Oxfam GB applied for Israeli permission to implement a temporary short-term fix to prevent worsening humanitarian conditions.  While officially development projects on humanitarian grounds are permitted without a permit, they still require the onerous process of getting Israeli permission.  Oxfam GB asked to connect smaller fiberglass water tanks to the water supply, and were told by the Israeli authorities they would receive an answer in a matter of weeks.

However, as Prideaux-Brune explains, the process was far more difficult than expected:

“In the end it took nine months for them to come back and say ‘no we could not proceed without a permit’. Therefore we have dropped that idea and are back trying to get a permit for the permanent solution we originally proposed.”

To recap, Oxfam GB applied for a permit to build a water storage tank in Jiftlick over two years ago.  Foreseeing drought conditions, Oxfam GB asked to implement a temporary fix on humanitarian grounds.  After the drought came and went, Israel denied permission for a temporary fix.  Over two years later, Oxfam GB has not received word on whether it can build a permanent water storage tank.

One more illustration of the fact that, as Prideaux-Brune so eloquently put it, “you can’t eradicate poverty whilst you have an occupation”.

“In all of Oxfam’s history, we’ve never seen, to my knowledge, a humanitarian crisis quite like this one in Gaza,” John Prideaux-Brune told me recently.  He emphasized that this crisis is “totally man-made… You have people sitting there, turning the buttons and dials, about what will be allowed in and what won’t.”

Prideaux-Brune, an experienced international aid manager who is currently Oxfam GB’s Country Director for the OPTs and Israel, voiced this evaluation in an interview in his East Jerusalem office, January 12.

In additon to sharing his  insights on why the man-made humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unique in Oxfam GB’s history, he also described Israel’s “no prosperity and no development” policy for Gaza, and the tragedy affecting Gaza’s growers of one of Gaza’s premier agricultural products–  “the best strawberries in the world.”

Prideaux-Brune noted that the challenges Oxfam GB faces in Gaza are distinctly different than those it faces in the West Bank, reflecting the tremendous schism that the political fact of the occupation has wrought among Palestinian communities.  The present blog post focuses on Oxfam GB’s struggles to provide relief in Gaza, and a second one will focus on their development efforts in the West Bank, especially in Area C.

GAZA, AND WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT FROM OTHER HUMANITARIAN CRISES

Oxfam GB works in over 60 countries around the world, everywhere from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.  Prideaux-Brune noted that of course there are many crises in the world where the humanitarian conditions are far worse.  There are also governments that entirely shut down humanitarian aid from reaching the most vulnerable populations.

He continued,

You have humanitarian crises where the government just doesn’t care at all about what the international community thinks–where they just turn the dials all the way off.  But to have a government actively managing a humanitarian crisis–it’s very weird.  I can’t imagine what the people who have these jobs are thinking.

Prideaux-Brune has encountered difficulties convincing some people that a humanitarian crisis exists in Gaza since it has not yet suffered the same mass casualties from starvation and other diseases that typically result from a humanitarian crisis.  When conditions are so dire as to cause, as in Gaza, 88% of its people to be dependent on aid, fatalities from impoverishment usually soar to epic proportions.

“Because people are getting food aid we’re not seeing starvation,” Prideaux-Brune noted.  “But if we stopped all the aid we would.”

ISRAELI RATIONALE: “NO PROSPERITY, NO DEVELOPMENT, BUT NO HUMANITARIAN CRISIS”

I asked Prideaux-Brune how Israeli officials respond when challenged by Oxfam GB and other international humanitarian organizations.

He said that while the official reason for any restrictions from the blockade was always simply ‘security’, in private Israeli officials had given Oxfam a fuller explanation of their government’s policy.

“Major Peter Lerner, from the Sr. Military Erez CLA Office had told us the policy is ‘no prosperity, no development, but no humanitarian crisis’.”

Major Lerner’s denial of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza is common among Israeli officials.  As Human Rights Watch reported last year, “The Israeli government has repeatedly denied that a humanitarian crisis exists.  Information from international humanitarian organizations, United Nations agencies, and Gaza’s residents themselves starkly refute that claim”.

In addition to denying the humanitarian crisis engulfing Gaza, Israel also denies that it is continuing to occupy Gaza since the ‘disengagement’ of Israeli soldiers and settlers in 2005.  Prideaux-Brune reasons that this point is important because in the world of international humanitarian law, “we’ve never really seen anything like this, where a territory is still being occupied without soldiers on the ground.”

In late December, Oxfam GB and 15 other humanitarian organizations published a report titled “Failing Gaza”, which explains that “under international law, Israel remains the Occupying Power despite its ‘disengagement’ from Gaza”, thus bearing the primarily responsibility to rebuild Gaza.  The reasoning articulated in the report (which is, also, importantly, shared by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the official depository for the Geneva Conventions) is as follows:

“This is because Israel still maintains effective control over entry and exit into Gaza, its air space and sea, as well as its population registry, telecommunications networks, and many other aspects of its daily life and infrastructure. Such control entails responsibility to safeguard the welfare of the civilian population.”

THE FUTURE OF GAZA’S TUNNELS

What about Egypt’s new subterranean wall designed to penetrate more than 20 meters deep?

“They [Hamas] will just dig 21 meters deep,” Prideaux-Brune speculates.  Even if they have some success in obstructing weapons smuggling in some way, “Hamas will bring the guns in first”.  If Israel and Egypt are able to diminish tunnel traffic, Prideaux-Brune predicts that only the passage of food and other civilian traffic would be significantly affected.

While the blockade is the primary obstacle to delivering humanitarian work, Priseaux-brune noted that the restrictions that the UK, other Western governments, and other aid donors maintain on having any contacts with Hamas also present a formidable challenge to Oxfam’s relief efforts in Gaza, since Hamas does exercise authority as the de-facto government within Gaza.

“As a UK organization, we can talk to Hamas but it has to be at the lowest possible level to deliver to the humanitarian needs,” Prideaux-Brune explained. [The restrictions on US aid organizations are notably even stricter than this.]

Prideaux-Brune noted that in Gaza, it’s nearly impossible to know whether any food item or other civilian good that turns up in the market-place was procured through the tunnels.  If one could prove an item bought from Gaza entered through the tunnels, one could accuse the buyer of indirectly supporting Hamas since Hamas is believed to charge license fees on the tunnels.  Though prosecution of any sort would be unlikely, “it only needs accusation [of supporting Hamas] to do damage”.  The chilling effect this has on humanitarian aid is further reinforced because “everyone has a different interpretation of the law” in the UK and in other Western countries, though they all have nearly identical legal formulas against contact with alleged terrorists.

Humanitarian groups have to make a choice, he said.

Most humanitarian groups focus on things you don’t need large amounts of procurement for, like psychosocial therapy.  However, for everything you do have to procure you have a stark choice do you buy in Gaza, risking some kind of association with the tunnels.  Or you import from Israel–but then there is a high risk that you’ll never get the aid into Gaza.

THE DIALS ON EXPORTS NEARLY ALWAYS TURNED ‘OFF’

“Usually when we think of the blockade, we think about what’s not allowed in,” Prideaux-Brune began.  ”But what’s actually killing the Gazan economy is that nothing is going out.”

Oxfam GB works with strawberry farmers in Gaza.  ”If you ever have a chance to try a Gazan strawberry do, because Gazan strawberries are the best,” Prideaux-Brune told me.  Gaza’s warm Mediterranean climate provides the ideal conditions for mass cultivation of the fruit.  However, the crop has become an economic failure because farmers are blocked from exporting them, and the local market is flooded with strawberries as a result.  The price in turn becomes too low for Gazan farmers to make a profit, yet it is still too high for the vast majority of Gazans.  The economic calculus follows:

COST OF STRAWBERRIES

For consumers to buy: 1 kilogram of strawberries = 2 NIS [New Israeli Shekles] (or approx. 0.54 USD)

For farmers to produce: 1 kilogram of strawberries = 5 NIS (or approx. 1.34 USD)

Accordingly, strawberries are too expensive for the vast majority of Gazans to buy but they are sold at prices that are still too cheap for Gaza’s farmers to even recoup its costs of production, let alone providing an opportunity for profit.  To put the cost of strawberries to Gaza’s consumers in perspective, the International Committee on the Red Cross found in a household survey from May 2008 showed that even then 70% of Gazans were living on a dollar a day.

While Israel has subjected Gaza to two decades of fluctuating restrictions on exports, the “Failing Gaza” report notes that under the last two and a half years of the blockade,

exports have been entirely banned with the exception of several small shipments, for example of carnations for the Dutch market.  In the period before the blockade, an average of 70 truckloads of exports left Gaza a day.

Until last week’s token shipment, Gaza has not been allowed to export a single strawberry since the Israeli assault of winter 2008-09.  (Highlighting both the severity of the blockade as well as the ingenuity of entrepreneurs in Gaza, there is a recent report of the startup of one of the few commercial export businesses capable of evading the blockade: one that exports cellphone ringtones.)

SECURITY FROM DESPERATE PEOPLE?

Prideaux-Brune expressed his profound puzzlement at Israel’s internal reasoning for its imposition of the blockade, arguing that Israel’s blockade on Gaza is blatantly undermining Israel’s future prospects for security.  Prideaux-Brune makes the point that,

no strategic country would want their neighboring territory to be a desperate, failed, hostile place.  You want security, you don’t want a neighbor that you’re continually impoverishing.

The “Failing Gaza” report from Oxfam GB and 15 other humanitarian organizations  acknowledges Israel’s security concerns and asserts that,

while Israel has a duty to protect its citizens, the measures it uses to do so must conform to international humanitarian and human rights law…

The policy of blockade, punishing the entire civilian population of Gaza for the acts of a few, is a collective punishment, which is unacceptable and violates international law. The blockade is also in breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1860, and of the Agreement on Movement and Access signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2005.

Prideaux-Brune told me, “I don’t see why Israel thinks that repressing other people is in their own best interest.” He said he found it hard to believe that Israel’s strategists were not thinking about their country’s longterm future.

I left the interview thinking about Prideaux-Brune’s vivid metaphor of the dials and control buttons the Israeli government is continually turning and adjusting.  If the dial for Gaza’s “prosperity” is turned entirely off, and the dial for Gaza’s “development” is also turned off, what is Israel’s plan for the dial on “tomorrow” for the future of the region?

Just last week CNN called Sheikh Jarrah “Jerusalem’s ground zero”.  On Friday I joined 300 Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals to protest the ongoing evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, and the takeover of this East Jerusalem neighborhood by Jewish settlers.

Sheikh Jarrah, which lies just outside the Old City, has attracted global outrage as settler organizations have made legal claims to the property allegedly owned by Jewish individuals or associations prior to 1948.  As noted by UN-OCHA in their damning fact sheet on the Sheikh Jarrah evictions, “Israeli courts have ruled in favor of such claims while failing to recognize the rights of Palestinian refugees to reclaim lost land and property.”  UN-OCHA estimates that the implementation of the Israeli government’s comprehensive settlement plans for Sheikh Jarrah will place “475 Palestinians at risk of forced eviction, dispossession, and displacement”.  Like all settlements in occupied territory, the Sheikh Jarrah settlement is a violation of international law.

The stand-off during Friday’s demonstration was electric in its intensity.  300 protesters were on one side of the street and on the other side, a dozen settlers and several dozen police and medical personnel fanned out across the entrance to the homes under eviction orders.  The Jerusalem magistrate court had dealt a blow to the police the day before, ruling that public demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah were legal so long as they didn’t disturb the public order or disrupt traffic.  Despite a vow from the police to squash protests despite the court order, this time no one was arrested.

The whole scene created an arresting visual effect peopled by the three clear categories of uniformly dressed settlers, police, and medical personnel on one side of the street, while the hundreds of protesters on the other side drew a stunningly diverse crowd.  Kippa-wearing men mingled among Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah residents while a young activists’ drumming circle led Hebrew University professors to join in protest chants.  Meretz MK Ilan Gilon showed up, while last week MK Mohammed Barakeh and former Knesset members Avraham Burg, Uri Avnery, and Yossi Sarid attended.  Bernard Avishai reported on his blog that Oslo negotiator and head of the Peres Center Dr. Ron Pundak joined the protest along with the highly acclaimed Israeli author David Grossman.

EVICTEE: “THEY WOULDN’T EVEN LET HIM TAKE HIS SHOES”

Nasser Gawi, also at the protest, was a member of one of the first families to be evicted from Sheikh Jarrah.  He now lives in a tent outside of his former home, which he fears could be destroyed at any moment by settlers or the police.  He told me the protests are very important to him because they showed that Israelis and people from all over the world supported him and his family and their neighbors.  “The protests are a first step in the 1,000 kilometers we have to go towards an Israeli state on one side and on the other a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

He described what happened on August 2, 2009 when he was evicted along with 52 other refugees – 20 of them children – from Sheikh Jarrah following a court ruling.  These families had been forced out of their homes in 1948 and given homes in Sheikh Jarrah by the UN and Jordan.

“They broke the windows and blew up our door.  They destroyed our furniture and they beat my children.”  Gawi explained the soldiers invaded their home at 5:30 A.M., and kicked his children in their beds and ordered them to leave.  ”One of my sons wanted to take his shoes before he left.  They wouldn’t even let him take his shoes.”

ISRAELI PROTESTER: “IT REMINDED ME OF STORIES OF JEWISH FAMILIES EVACUATED IN VIENNA”

I asked one Israeli protester, Eva Ferrero, why she came to the protests.  ”It makes it known what they are trying to do in silence,” Ferrero responded.  Ferrero comes regularly to the Sheikh Jarrah protests and visits the families who were evicted.

“The first time I was here I was shocked,” Ferrero explained.  ”When the daughter of one of the families who was evicted told me what happened, it reminded me of stories of Jewish families who were evacuated in Vienna and other places in Europe.  It goes really deep what they’re doing here.”

Israeli author David Grossman, who had lost his son in the final hours of the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon war, told the crowd what brought him to the protest:

“Sometimes, it’s not possible to sit and be silent. Settlers and the political right aided by the government, the legal system, and economic powers abuse the Palestinians in 1,001 different ways.”

“IT STARTS IN BIL’IN AND ENDS UP HERE”

I also spoke with Gershon Baskin, co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, at the protest.  He talked about how the Sheikh Jarrah protests had also become an expression of dissent against a series of court decisions that have failed to be implemented by the government.

“It starts in Bil’in and ends up here,” Baskin said, referring to the 2007 decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to move the path of the wall in the village of Bil’in.  Despite the court’s ruling to alter the wall’s path so that Bil’in would recoup up to half of the land annexed since 2004 , the decision has yet to be implemented.  He explained that this trend for Israeli authorities to ignore court decisions has continued in Sheikh Jarrah.  In Sheikh Jarrah, Baskin explained, the police have continued to use force to break up this demonstration while the court has continued to rule that the protests have been legal.

“The biggest threat to Israeli democracy today is when executive authorities no longer honor the decisions made by the court,” Baskin said.

“THEY TOLD ME TO GO TO SAUDI ARABIA, OR JORDAN”

“Despite their declared obligation to a process of political negotiations, in reality, the governments of Israel in the last decades, together with the settler organizations, have gained control over properties in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods, transforming them into settler enclaves that enjoy outrageous building rights and exist in the midst of ongoing confrontation with their environment and with the rule of law.

The report goes on to emphasize how the evictions obstruct any prospects for a future peace deal.

“Sheikh Jarrah is another link in the process that is transforming East Jerusalem to an arena where extremist organizations do as they please: taking control of properties indubious ways, administering private police with government funding, and engaging inendless confrontation with the Palestinian population.  All this is done with direct and indirect government support, while placing obstacles in the way of the prospects of achieving a resolution in Jerusalem and the region as a whole.”

You can join the world-wide letter writing campaign to stop the Sheikh Jarrah evictions and other efforts to push Palestinians out of East Jerusalem here.  You can also sign a petition here.

Nasser Gawi emphasized that the settlement plans for Sheikh Jarrah not only devastated the evicted families but also erased the Palestinian presence that linked the community to the Old City.

Even the Israeli police who forced Gawi out of his home made the broader context of the Sheikh Jarrah evictions quite clear.  When the police invaded, Gawi asked the police officers where he could possibly go now that his home was being taken for settlers.  ”They told me I should go to Saudi Arabia or Jordan, or another Arab country,” Gawi said.

Another evictee reported Israeli police barged in his home demanding, “get up, this is Israel here, not Palestine.”

The Israeli human rights organization Ir Amim’s latest report on “Why are they really demonstrating in Sheikh Jarrah?” presents a hard-hitting analysis of how the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah continue the long-standing Israeli settlement enterprise to relentlessly provoke further violence:

“Despite their declared obligation to a process of political negotiations, in reality, the governments of Israel in the last decades, together with the settler organizations, have gained control over properties in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods, transforming them into settler enclaves that enjoy outrageous building rights and exist in the midst of ongoing confrontation with their environment and with the rule of law.

The report goes on to emphasize how the evictions obstruct any prospects for a future peace deal.

“Sheikh Jarrah is another link in the process that is transforming East Jerusalem to an arena where extremist organizations do as they please: taking control of properties indubious ways, administering private police with government funding, and engaging inendless confrontation with the Palestinian population.  All this is done with direct and indirect government support, while placing obstacles in the way of the prospects of achieving a resolution in Jerusalem and the region as a whole.”

You can join the world-wide letter writing campaign to stop the Sheikh Jarrah evictions and other efforts to push Palestinians out of East Jerusalem here.  You can also sign a petition here.

Yesterday as I was walking home from Ramallah’s big produce market, I watched huge crowds pour into Manara Square waving Palestinian flags and placards with pictures of Palestinian prisoners.

AFP estimated that 500 people turned out for that rally, which was held to demand that the release of Palestinian prisoners be part of any peace deal with Israel.  Rallies were held throughout the West Bank on January 27,  which is newly recognized by PM Fayyad’s cabinet as the official day for solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners.  Many held signs of Marwan Barghouti and other prominent prisoners, while others held framed photos of imprisoned members of their family.

AFP reports on their interview at the rally with one of the organizers:

“This demonstration is part of a series of events organised to further the prisoners issue in any future political negotiations,” Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa Qaraqaa told AFP.

“The prisoners issue must be a main issue on the agenda of any negotiations.”

There are currently some 7,500 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, including 34 women and 310 minors, according to the Palestinian Authority.”

I happened to have my camera on me so I joined the square’s island of TV camera crews and reporters.  Without speaking Arabic, I was at an obvious disadvantage to engage with the protesters.

However, just by holding a camera, I attracted dozens of people pushing their way through the crowds to get my attention.  Entire families would come to me holding the framed picture of their loved one.  I pictured all the living room display cases that must be missing their loved one’s photo at this moment.  The intensity in the eyes of the family members said quite clearly “please show my sister/brother/mother/father now languishing in prison to the world”.

I was particularly struck by one picture that had clearly been taken in a portrait studio with a fake background of the Dome of the Rock – the Palestinian and in fact, global iconic image both of Jerusalem and Palestine.  No doubt most Palestinians would have preferred to have their picture taken in front of the real thing.  However, under the current regime of restrictions on Palestinian movement and travel, a portrait studio’s rendition of this deeply symbolic mosque is the closest most Palestinians ever come to Jerusalem.

According to a recent UN report, over 700,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned by Israel since 1967.  The Guardian reports that approximately one-fifth of Palestinians have been imprisoned at some point since 1967.  According to Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organization providing legal support for prisoners, 40% of Palestinian men have at one time been imprisoned.

Many of these people’s families are unable to visit their loved ones in prison.  Amnesty International, in its 2009 human rights report on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, emphasized this aspect of the detentions:

Almost all Palestinian detainees were held in prisons in Israel in violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits the removal of detainees to the territory of the occupying power. This made it difficult or impossible in practice for detainees to receive family visits.

In fact on Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem  are able to travel within Israel without a permit to visit their family members in Israeli jails. For all other West bankers, those permits are notoriously hard to attain.

As of last month, 278 Palestinians were being held without charge or trial under “administrative detention” orders issued by the Israeli military government.

B’tselem explains  in their fact sheet on administrative detention that while international law allows its restricted use in emergency cases, Israel’s routine recourse to this detention instrument is  a flagrant violation of international law:

Over the years, Israel has administratively detained thousands of Palestinian for prolonged periods of time, without prosecuting them, without informing them of the charges against them, and without allowing them or their attorneys to study the evidence, making a mockery of the protections specified in Israeli and international law to protect the right to liberty and due process, the right of defendants to state their case, and the presumption of innocence.

One woman at the protest who helped translate a bit of what was going on told me, “It’s just part of life for any Palestinian.”  She shrugged, and went on to say “It’s just part of life that someone you know, someone in your family, someone you love, is in an Israeli jail. “

The rally reminded me of what Daphna Golan, a co-founder of B’tselem and senior researcher at Minerva said at Al Haq’s 30th anniversary human rights conference in Ramallah last month.  She was discussing the failures of the human rights movement in Israel, and emphasized the tendency of Israeli activists and others to get caught up in the day-to-day abuses of the occupation rather than focusing on the larger picture of the occupation itself.

“We need to start thinking about what this does to a society, when almost half of its men have been imprisoned,” Golan said.

Golan wrote an inspired piece in Haaretzcalling on Israel to use a prisoner swap exchange as the beginning of a wider reconciliation process, just as had been accomplished in South Africa.

She illuminates how listening to the stories of Palestinians would not only help secure the release of the one Israeli held in Palestinian control (captured soldier Gilad Shalit), but also how the release of the stories themselves could pave the way for a just and secure future for both peoples living “together and separately, Jews and Arabs, in reconciliation”:

“Is it possible that Gilad Shalit is still in captivity and the Qassam fire is continuing not because there is no one to talk to, but because we don’t want to hear what the Palestinian leaders have to say? We must speak out loudly and openly with everyone – about the past, present and future, about a life of fair, decent neighborly relations. Without red and green lines and with no prior conditions. Only about how we will live here together and separately, Jews and Arabs, in reconciliation.”

Click here for Golan’s piece ”From Darkness into Light” and here for more photos of  the pictures that hundreds of Palestinians demonstrating in Manara Square wanted you to see, of their loved ones who are inside Israeli prisons.