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50 years of occupation will not kill hope for a free Palestine
opendemocracy.net
On its 40th day, the mass hunger strike by
Palestinian political prisoners was suspended after an agreement was
reached to allow two visits per month.
The strike was hailed as a small victory and
highlights the dire conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
prisons. The demands throughout the strike have been within
the minimum rights of political prisoners in accordance with the
Geneva Conventions: Regular visits from their families, access to
telephones to call home, access to media in Arabic, as well as better
food and better health care. Unfortunately the Israeli authorities
have long ignored those requests and these basic demands, failing to
respond to the humanitarian crisis.
I am just wondering what was it that moved Israel
to respond to their demands, especially that the international
community did not take any action.
Before the strike was suspended, Mahmoud Abbas
seized the opportunity of his meeting with Donald Trump in Bethlehem
to highlight the issue of those prisoners. Unfortunately there was
no reaction from Mr. Trump, or as much as a promise to consider the
request. In fact Mr. Trump gave Mr. Abbas a lecture on the need to
fight terrorism, and to cut the regular stipend for the families of
the prisoners. It is worth noting that Mr. Trump also avoided
visiting the Church of Nativity because the mothers of those
prisoners were holding a sit-in in that area. Perhaps he did not want
to face those mothers and look straight into their eyes lest he feel
some compassion towards them? However, from the way he goes about his
business, I doubt that compassion is one of his strong suits.
Terrorism was highlighted in his visit in Saudi
Arabia as well. For those who were not born during the days of the
British Mandate in Palestine, it is worth remembering that it was in
that era that the Jewish underground were the first perpetrators of
terrorism in our region. The late Israeli Prime Minister Menahem
Begin was on the wanted list of the British Mandate Government, for
the terrorist act of blowing up the British Government Secretariat
wing in the King David Hotel in July 1946, and other places like the
Samiramis Hotel. However when he became Prime Minister of Israel, he
was received officially at Buckingham Palace in London.
The memory of the victorious is very short, but
that does not mean that the victims forget. Yes they might forgive,
but that does not change facts on the ground, and the grief for the
loss of dear ones lingers on.
Invading Iraq, Libya, and Syria by western powers,
under the guise of spreading democracy, has brought about havoc to
the region. Therefore, it is not surprising that terrorism ended up
as a normal reaction to those unjustified wars of terror that
devastated those countries. And it is indeed very sad that it is the
innocent people in the region and in the west that are paying the
price.
In the meantime the Palestinians are commemorating
fifty years of a brutal military occupation. With the Oslo agreement
in 1993 we were all made to believe that the occupation will soon be
over and that peace was around the corner. But after more than twenty
years of futile negotiations we realised that this is not a normal
occupation that was going to end by a UN resolution. It is in reality
a settler colonial regime with an ongoing process of dispossession.
East Jerusalem which Israel unilaterally and illegally annexed to
West Jerusalem was no more accessible to the Palestinians living in
the West Bank except with special permits. Although the international
community has considered the annexation of occupied East Jerusalem as
illegal, the Israeli Prime Minister makes it a point to stress the
fact that his guests are welcome in “the united and eternal capital
of Israel.” In fact he was hoping that during his visit, Mr. Trump
will announce the moving of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem. Assuring both parties that he wants to forge peace
between the Israelis and Palestinians, he was wise enough to avoid a
controversial action that will label him one-sided. But then again,
when was the USA ever a neutral or honest broker for peace in our
region? Without its financial as well as moral support, Israel could
never have survived or maintained the illegal occupation or the
settlements that mushroomed in the Palestinian occupied territories.
After 50 years, it is not easy to maintain hope
and not to despair especially when we watch new realities on the
ground as Israel continues to defy international law and UN
resolutions. The institutions of East Jerusalem continue to suffer
because of a variety of discriminatory laws as well as financial
restrictions. But when I visit Rawdat El-Zuhur, the school which I
served for many years and look at the bright shining eyes of the
children, or when I hear my young grandson practicing his trumpet in
the late afternoon I am determined that we cannot lose hope for the
sake of those children. And of course when justice is on our side,
how can we lose hope. So we continue to dream of a better future with
dignity and liberation. As John Lennon sings: “A dream you dream
alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is a reality.”
To start with, we as Palestinians need to unite so we can dream
together. And we certainly hope and expect the international
community to dream with us and work for justice, because as Edmund
Burke says,‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for
good men to do nothing.”
We continue to hope and
pray for some wisdom and compassion towards those prisoners who are
incarcerated for no other reason than for their legitimate
right to resist an illegal occupation.
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