Palestine: Nakba – Catastrophe versus Independence

The 15^th May was Nakba Day in Palestine, a commemoration that has several different names. By the Palestinian people it is known as the ‘catastrophe’. By Israel, on the other hand, it is known as Independence Day.

So. Time for a history lesson. Waaaaay back in 1948, while the British were occupying Palestine (and once again my sincerest apologies for my country's complicity in this), it was decided that 'Palestine' should be declared 'Israel' – ignoring the slight problem of the people who actually lived there. So, to solve that problem, the Palestinian people were driven from their homes, their villages and their country (catastrophic!), in order to make place for this new country - Israel (independent!).

Most of these people thought that they were leaving for a couple of weeks. They didn't understand that this was for real - they thought that their homes and lives would be protected by their neighbouring countries, who would intervene to stop the invasion. That didn't work.

It is now 65 years later and the Palestinian people have not returned to their homes. 85% of the Palestinian population became refugees in 1948 – fleeing to the West Bank, to Gaza and to neighbouring countries like Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Few remained. The catastrophe became known as such. 

People kept the key to their homes when they left, anticipating their swift return – these keys are now treasured possessions – holding memories and a heavy symbolism of the right of return.

So, Nakba Day commemorates the catastrophe and unites the Palestinian people, wherever they are. The right of the refugees to return is absolutely key to there being peace in Palestine. Until now, the they remain displaced or in the diaspora. They are not welcomed by Israel, who terribly conveniently, control all of the borders of Palestine.

Ooh, and there's another thing. If you happen to be Jewish, rather than Palestinian, you are immediately welcome in Israel – whether you are from the USA, Russia the UK or anywhere else, if you are Jewish, you can live here. There is a program for young Jewish people called Birthright tours – a trip to Israel paid for by the Israeli government, including flights, accommodation, food and transport – it’s aimed at strengthening links between Israel and the outside Jewish communities and at encouraging people to live in Israel. This open, warm invitation to Jewish people is in harsh juxtaposition to the complete lack of rights for Palestinian refugees.

Besides their continued treatment of the Palestinian people, the state of Israel also discriminates against many other groups – Tel Aviv is infamous for racism and discrimination against refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants (see pictures by activestills of anti-refugee demonstrations here – scroll through to see more). On a personal level, having recently been to the Israeli Ministry of Interior to ask them to extend my tourist visa, I was asked immediately if I was Jewish. When I said no I was told - before the woman had even looked at my passport – that tourists don't get visa extensions, unless they have a real good reason, like being Jewish. 

In summary, the Israeli government honour the right of people who have never stepped foot in the country before, to come and live in Israel, whilst completely denying the rights of the Palestinians that they expelled.

Ethnic cleansing, pure and simple. But the Palestinian people will take their rights back, whether Israel is willing to give them or not. The Catastrophe one day will transform into Independence.

Palestine: The Kids Aren't Alright - Part II

The past months I’ve spent in Palestine have been dominated by one issue – the arrest of children. Nearly every day I’ve spent in Hebron I’ve seen harassment of children, if not their detention or arrest by the Israeli military.

13 year old being arrested

I’m writing this now, knowing that my ISM comrades are waiting outside a school where a month ago 27 children were arrested, grabbed at random on their way to school. This morning some kids threw stones at the checkpoint; two army jeeps have been parked outside since that, taking photos of the children, looking like they’re preparing to make more arrests. (Ultimately they didn’t arrest anyone – they hassled several children, taking pictures and seemingly checking their hands for traces of stone dirt…?)

I don’t feel the need to defend the children’s actions as they throw stones at the checkpoint. I support the Palestinian right to resist a military occupation in whatever form they decide. But for anyone thinking that kids who threw stones at checkpoints should be arrested, you really need more context. These kids and their parents are harassed by the soldiers every day. They or their friends or their brothers or parents are arrested, detained, blindfolded, beaten.

The occupation is in their faces every minute of every day, their skyline dominated by watchtowers, their streets by checkpoints, the roofs of their homes with cameras, swivelling to watch them all the time. Soldiers and settlers swarm like ants through Hebron. So I agree with Israeli journalist Amira Hass who recently said “throwing stones is the birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule. Throwing stones is an action as well as a metaphor of resistance.”

Add to this legitimate resistance the fact that the Israeli military don’t give a shit who they actually arrest. As long as someone’s in the jeep at the end of the day they’ll fabricate the charges as much as they like – something I know first hand, having been accused of throwing stones, throwing burning tyres and assaulting a soldier (hint, I didn’t do those things, rather I was beaten, gassed and shot at by the soldiers. Pretty sure they didn’t get punished for any of that.)

This is not punishment for a crime, this is to scare small children into being traumatised. I spoke recently with someone from Defence for Children International, who said that the soldiers are now really focused on majorly fucking up the children psychologically, in an attempt to cripple the next generation of resistance. (Okay, so he didn’t say “majorly fucking up” but that’s what he meant.)

So children are arrested regularly. I’ve just compiled the statistics from ISM, EAPPI and CPT (the three international human rights groups in Hebron) of child arrests – there were 66 arrests and detentions of children, aged 7 to 16, between 15^th February and 1^st May. And this is just those that we witnessed, sometimes coming across them at random – who knows how many more there have been.

12 year old being protected by his headteacher as soldiers tried to arrest him

On a related note, my friend Gustav is currently in Givon immigration detention, waiting to be deported – his crime? Well, according to the Israeli military and media he assaulted a soldier and tried to grab his gun. According to EVERYONE else, all he did was object to the arrest of two children, aged 11 and 12 (very restrainedly in my opinion…) Surely what anyone of conscience would do when they saw children being grabbed and manhandled by heavily armed soldiers?

                                         

So what really happened? Settler kids threw sticks at the Palestinian kids who were walking home from school. When the Palestinian kids shouted back, the settlers ran for the army – natch, they immediately came running to the defence of the settlers, grabbing the kids and chucking them against a wall. A crowd gathered, protesting against the arrest of the kids. The headteacher of the school was amazing – she managed to get one of the kids out of the army jeep, although he then got arrested again afterwards. Ultimately Gustav and the two kids were taken away.  

The video tells the story much better than I can. 

After they were arrested, Gustav was taken to a military base with the two kids. Although he was blindfolded, he knew the kids were nearby because he could hear them crying, screaming, begging to be let go.

Gustav’s now in prison and is planning to resist deportation - in protest that he has not been given any chance to defend himself (he wasn’t taken to court, he was taken directly for deportation, despite it being entirely evident that he did not commit any of the crimes he has been accused of) and in protest against the child arrests.

The kids were released later that day. They are our next-door neighbours…yesterday I watched them from the window – they were playing and laughing. I wonder if they are so calm at night-time when they’re alone, I wonder if they will ever be the same. I never thought about being arrested when I was 10, 11, 12. In fact, I can’t remember really thinking about anything particularly important at all.

During one of the last child arrest that I witnessed, we were attacked by settlers when we tried to intervene. The boy was 13 and was blindfolded and moved between several small checkpoint boxes. The settlers were concerned only that we, international activists, were present on “their” street – they didn’t spare a thought for the children.

We have a new brigade of soldiers in Hebron and I can only hope that they will not love arresting children as much as the last lot. I could write much more about this, but I find myself unable to think about it any more – it’s too much. And this is from someone who doesn’t even LIKE children particularly.