The Palestine Center Blog

BOOK REVIEW: Mornings in Jenin

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:46:33 PST

Each month, we will be conducting a review of a recent book that deals with issues relating to Palestine and/or the Israel/Palestine conflict. Books that are chosen for review can be academic or non-academic, historical or fictional. Next month we will be reviewing Palestinian Politics After Arafat: A Failed National Movement by As'ad Ghanem. If you would like to suggest a book for review, please contact the Palestine Center.

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
Paperback: 352 pages, Bloomsbury USA (February 2, 2010)

Palestine Center Book Review No. 3 (10 March 2010)

By Yousef Munayyer

Mornings in Jenin, by Susan Abulhawa, is the story of one Palestinian family over four generations. It can be argued, however, that it is also a story about any and every Palestinian family. The novel begins in the picturesque village of Ein Hod in the north of Palestine. The Abulheja family leads the simple life that most Palestinian farmers led before their tragic dispossession in 1948. Love was plentiful in Ein Hod. Love for life, for family, for God, and for the land. This was the essence of a farming society for generation upon generation.

The Abulhejas and their countrymen are forced out of their villages and homes only to find refuge in foreign towns and lands. They find themselves in a refugee camp in Jenin, their lives totally turned upside-down after losing everything they knew in their simple but beautiful, Palestinian village.

As they struggle in the refugee camp, in the early period after their exile, olive harvest season approaches. Haj Yehya, the family's patriarch, sneaks across the armistice line to tend to his olive groves despite the threat of death from an Israeli bullet. When he returns to the camp in Jenin where his family anxiously waits, he brings them the fruits of his labor, and the labor of generations before him, plucked from their trees in their village. Nothing could stop this old man from returning to his village, but on his next trip, he never made it back to Jenin.

That was the last time any Abulheja attempted to return, but the dreams of return only grew stronger. Amal, with a long vowel (a name meaning "hopes" in Arabic), was born in the refugee camp of Jenin to Haj Yehya's son Hasan. Her older brother, Yousef, spent his early years in Ein Hod before the Nakba. Another older brother, Ismael, was taken from his mother's arms during the exodus from Ein Hod. It would be through Amal's eyes, however, that the family's story is told.

Susan Abulhawa's masterful writing is delightful to read. She writes with an element of metaphor, undoubtedly owing its origins to the Arabic language, which brings color and feeling to every page of this novel. The characters are well-developed and one cannot help but grow attached to them. After each tragedy, be it 1948, 1967, and 1982, a new generation of the family is born, providing hope not only for the characters, but also for the reader who will inevitably experience a sense of depression in parts of the book.

Amal is born into refugee life. She grows up in the shadow of a mother that was devastated by the loss of a child. In 1967, Amal experiences 6 days of horror in a hole in the ground that will forever change her family's life. The father that read poetry to her in the early hours of the morning, the scenes that lend the book its title, is never seen again. Her mother slips into dementia, and her brother Yousef will soon leave to join the resistance.

She grows up away from Jenin, and seeks an education in the United States. Her father's wish was that she be educated and a scholarship makes this possible. In her ghorba (life away from home) Amal experiences western life and the contradictions it poses for Palestinians like herself. She will eventually travel to a refugee camp in Lebanon to reconnect with her brother. In Lebanon, she remembers her past, her love for the land and her family, and starts a family of her own. And just as stability seems to be coming back to her life, anchored by the cornerstone of family, tragedy strikes again. The massacres at Sabra and Shatila will devastate the Abulhejas in 1982, just as 1967 devastated them in Jenin, just as 1948 devastated them in Ein Hod.

Amal raises her daughter, Sara, as a single mother. She wants her to have nothing to do with Palestine, politics, and the wars that scared Amal literally and figuratively for decades. But a twist of fate, which brings Amal's long-lost brother back into her life, sparks an interest in Sara who is now old enough to start hearing about the secrets of her mother's past.

Ultimately it will be Sara, and her generation, which will carry the hopes of Palestine and Palestinians after Amal is gone.

Mornings in Jenin is a must read. It is sure to be an eye opening experience for those who know little about Palestine and an eye-watering experience for those who do. Abulhawa's style is magnificent, descriptive and passionate. While the story is fictional, it is built on entirely plausible circumstances and entirely factual events and places.

Many have waited for a literary contribution capable of explaining the Palestinian experience to the West. The wait is over, Mornings in Jenin is it.

Yousef Munayyer is Executive Director of the Palestine Center. This book review may be used without permission but with proper attribution to the Center.

The views in this review are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund.

Worth Reading... Palestine-Related Articles

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:17:38 PST

Rory McCarthy: Quiet revolution that is freezing Palestinians out of Jerusalem (Guardian)

Jerusalem is not any city: it is at the heart of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and planning projects like this are political and potentially volatile. The area under the spotlight is Bustan, part of Silwan in east Jerusalem, home to Palestinians and, increasingly, to well-funded, heavily guarded Jewish settlers. >

Separation wall to isolate Bethlehem village from Beit Jala (Maan)

Israeli authorities confiscated 300 dunums of Palestinian land in Beit Jala, Bethlehem to complete the separation wall's construction, the head of the Bethlehem anti-wall committee said on Sunday. >

Rory McCarthy: Joe Biden and George Mitchell arrive to kick-start Israeli-Palestinian talks (Guardian)

The US vice-president, Joe Biden, is due in Israel tomorrow for an American diplomatic initiative to start indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. >

Hamas calls for boycotting municipal elections (Xinhua)

Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday urged Palestinians to boycott municipal elections which the Palestinian government decided to hold in July. >

Khaled Amayreh: Policy of provocation (Al-Ahram Weekly)

Israeli provocations, including annexing Islamic sites to an alleged heritage list, are creating a powder keg in the occupied territories. >

Micheál Martin: Gaza a Year Later (New York Times)

Israeli provocations, including annexing Islamic sites to an alleged heritage list, are creating a powder keg in the occupied territories. >

From time to time, the Palestine Center distributes articles it believes will enhance understanding of the Palestinian political reality. The following recently published articles are worth reading.

Book Discussion with Victor Kattan

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:04:58 PST

Victor Kattan stopped by the Palestine Center to discuss his latest book titled From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949 with Yousef Munayyer, the Executive Director of the Jerusalem Fund.

Victor Kattan is a Teaching Fellow at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

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Indirect Talks Find Support

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:47:26 PST

Although the Palestinian Authority is yet to formally agree, the Arab League foreign ministers backed a U.S. plan to mediate indirect peace talks between Palestinians and Israel.

For some, this offers the most hopeful opening yet for the resumption of official talks between the two sides since they broke down more than a year ago. Reports indicate that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has agreed. For others, this is a "conflict management" strategy that offers little chance of ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The Arab League stressed that the Palestinians would not enter direct negotiations before Israel completely halts Jewish construction activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and has put a four-month window on the indirect talks.

This would be the first move towards a return to "process" since U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office early last year.

Palestinian officials said they want the U.S.-mediated talks to focus initially on defining the borders of a state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that charting the borders of a future Palestinian state, within the four-month negotiating window set by the Arab League, was of paramount importance.

He told reporters there was no point in discussing any other issue without Israeli government acknowledgment of the "principle of two states" along the pre-1967 war borders, "with an agreed land swap."

Asked about Erakat's comments, Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu, said: "The Palestinians can bring to the negotiation all of their concerns, and we will bring ours -- first and foremost Palestinian recognition of Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish state, and demilitarization."

The shuttle talks may commence during American Vice-President Joe Biden's visit. If all goes to plan, he would deliver the official Palestinian notification to Israel stating its willingness to enter indirect talks.

Despite American optimism for the prospects of these talks, many remain skeptical.

George Giacaman, an analyst at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said, "The main issue is conflict management." This political process is meant to fill a void in which further conflict could arise.

"Hardly anyone expects that they will lead to a breakthrough. The experience of 18 years of negotiations is a case in point," he said.

How much such talks could achieve without Palestinian unity is another question.

Op-Ed: Gaza's Youth Not 'Superfluous' by Yousef Munayyer

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:36:08 PST

Palestine Center Brief No. 192 (3 March 2010)

The article below was originally publish in The Boston Globe today.

To write a letter to the editor at The Boston Globe click here.

By Yousef Munayyer

"To cut down on gang-related crimes, policies could be put in place to curb the African-American population growth in places like Harlem and Compton. The government could consider cutting off welfare benefits for families in these urban areas to discourage births of blacks and cut down the supply of ‘superfluous young men’ who have nothing else to do in their lives but be preyed on by criminal gang leaders who give them a sense of belonging. Ultimately these policies are an effective way to limit gang related crimes."

The absurdity and lack of logic in the above fictitious paragraph is overshadowed only by its offensive nature. Few would welcome such a view in 2010, but this kind of argument was made recently to an audience that received it with applause instead of disgust.

Martin Kramer, a fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, made this argument at a conference in Israel last month. The only difference was that the population he sought to limit was Palestinians in Gaza to prevent “economically superfluous young men’’ from joining radical groups. He said that “if society cannot offer dignified pursuits for the fourth and fifth and sixth sons, then someone else will.’’

He also supported lowering the fertility rate for Palestinians in Gaza and argued that this “will happen faster if the West stops providing pro-natal subsidies for Palestinians with refugee status.’’

Society? In Kramer’s version of reality, it is Palestinian society that cannot offer dignified pursuits for their children. He seems to think Gaza exists in a vacuum. He seems to be ignorant of the events and actors that have created the current situation.

The children of Gaza are not “economically superfluous’’ because they were born into large families. Their inability to be productive members of society is not the fault of society itself, but the fault of the occupying and devastating force of the state of Israel. The occupation of Gaza and the subsequent siege and attacks by Israel have destroyed lives, industry and infrastructure. With the percentage of the population relying directly on food aid increasing from 60 percent to 80 percent in the past three years and unemployment at an all-time high, it is obvious that the children of Gaza are “superfluous’’ not simply because they are born, but because of what they are born into: a hell in a prison controlled from the outside by Israel.

Yet Kramer knows full well that Israel is laying siege to Gaza. In fact, he goes on to support it. The siege, he argued in his speech, can “break Gaza’s runaway population growth - and there is some evidence that they have - that may begin to crack the culture of martyrdom which demands a constant supply of superfluous young men.’’

The fact that Kramer fails to make the connection between Israeli policies and the conditions that lead to economic “superfluousness’’ undergirds his logical and analytical ineptitude. This, coupled with the racist and offensive nature of his comments, should push decision makers at Harvard University to reconsider whether it should be affiliated with such individuals.

Had Kramer’s comments been about any other group, as described in the opening paragraph, Harvard might have already terminated his fellowship.

Yousef Munayyer is Executive Director of the Palestine Center. This policy brief may be used without permission but with proper attribution to the Center.

The views in this brief are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund.

Worth Reading... Palestine Related Articles & Reports

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:38:22 PST

ME anger at Israeli 'escalations' (BBC)

Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters over the issue of holy sites have provoked a wave of condemnation in the Arab press for Israel's behavior. >

Daniel Flitton: Israel has lost friends (Sydney Morning Herald)

This vote is clearly an act of retaliation by Australia - and by Britain, France and Germany. Israel has lost friends thanks to the sordid affair in Dubai concerning fake passports and murder, and the stink will hang in the air a good while yet. >

Josh Ruebner: U.S. Can't Afford Military Aid to Israel (Huffington Post)

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to "go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that we can't afford and don't work." One week later, he sent his FY2011 budget request to Congress, which included a record-breaking $3 billion in military aid to Israel. >

Report: Palestinian Women and Security: Why Palestinian Women and Girls Do Not Feel Secure (English/Arabic) (DCAF)

This report presents the perspectives of Palestinian women and girls on issues related to security as well as their assessment of the services provided by local authorities and/ or the international community to address their security needs. It concludes with a series of recommendations made by Palestinian women and girls for improving these services. >

Paul Daley: With friends like Israel (Sydney Morning Herald)

"What Mossad is doing is endangering every single Australian," said Kazak, who has previously warned Canberra that the Israeli spy agency was using forged Australian passports.

He is right. Australians traveling in parts of the Middle East would do well to be very wary. >

Rory McCarthy: Clashes as Israel puts West Bank religious sites on heritage list (Guardian)

Israeli troops and Palestinians clashed for the fifth successive day in Hebron today, the latest fallout from an Israeli government decision to include two sites on the occupied West Bank in a new "national heritage" list. >

Israeli authorities back 600 new East Jerusalem homes. (BBC)

The move comes as the Palestinians are refusing to restart peace talks unless Israel stops all building in the area, where they want their future capital. >

UN Gives Gaza Investigations 5 Extra Months (AP/NY Times)

The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to give Israel and the Palestinians an additional five months to conduct independent investigations of alleged war crimes during last year's conflict in Gaza and warned of possible "further action" by U.N. bodies, including the Security Council, if they don't. >

Fundraisers for the Palestinian Diabetes Institute in the Gulf this Week

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:43:13 PST

Please help us fight this Diabetes epidemic in Palestine. Attend these fundraisers if you live in the Gulf, or donate online.

The Masquer-AID For Palestine 2 March 2010 (POSTPONED TO 12 MARCH DUE TO WEATHER), 8:00-11:00 p.m. Dubai, UAE
View the invitation

Hats Off to Palestine 3 March 2010, 7:00-10:00 p.m. Abu Dhabi, UAE
View the invitation

The Masquer-AID For Palestine 4 March 2010, 8:00-10:30 p.m. Qatar
View the invitation

These events are to raise funds for the new Palestine Diabetes Institute.

The Jerusalem Fund Dedicates Palestine Diabetes Institute in Al-Bireh, Palestine

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:43:57 PST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Yousef Munayyer
ymunayyer@thejerusalemfund.org
(202) 338-1958

WASHINGTON, D.C. (26 February 2010) - Today, The Jerusalem Fund and its partners, the National Arab American Medical Association (NAAMA) Foundation and Physicians for Peace, officially dedicated the Palestine Diabetes Institute in Al-Bireh, Palestine [pictured right]. Moving from rented space in Ramallah, the Institute now occupies two floors (800 square meters) in an office building donated by Haj Mahmoud Ateya Mansour and his son Nasser Mahmoud Ateya Mansour and has hired two staff endocrinologists, lab technicians, a nurse and an assistant.

The Palestine Diabetes Institute is a Jerusalem Fund initiative that has been four years in the making with major participation from the NAAMA Foundation and Physicians for Peace. The Institute addresses the growing diabetes epidemic in Palestine through education and treatment.

Dr. Eid Mustafa, Jerusalem Fund Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, said, "The people of Palestine suffer greatly from the chronic disease of diabetes and the Palestine Diabetes Institute is the first such facility in the country. With the current political and military situation in Palestine, it is very difficult to get medical equipment and medicine to the sick and injured, people who are exposed to unsanitary and unsafe conditions as the result of blockades and military attacks and lack of financial resources to provide for themselves."

The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that maintains three programs. The Palestine Center hosts educational briefings and publishes analysis of the Palestinian experience and U.S. policy in the region. The Humanitarian Link provides short-term grants on a quarterly basis to humanitarian organizations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and surrounding refugee camps. The Jerusalem Fund Gallery hosts art exhibits, workshops, film screenings, concerts and more that showcase the rich artistic heritage of the region.

For more information, call 202-338-1958 or visit www.thejerusalemfund.org.

###

The Jerusalem Fund

The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that maintains three programs. The Palestine Center hosts educational briefings and publishes analysis of the Palestinian experience and U.S. policy in the region. The Humanitarian Link provides short-term grants on a quarterly basis to humanitarian organizations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and surrounding refugee camps. The Jerusalem Fund Gallery hosts art exhibits, workshops, film screenings, concerts and more that showcase the rich artistic heritage of the region.

Worth Reading... Palestine-Related Articles

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:38:07 PST

Tony Karon: Israel Gets More Comfortable with Status Quo (Time)

"If, and as long as between the Jordan (River) and the [Mediterranean] Sea there is only one political entity, named Israel, it will end up being either non-Jewish or nondemocratic," warned Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week. "If the Palestinians vote in elections it is a binational state, and if they don't vote it is an apartheid state."

Former President Jimmy Carter suffered a verbal pummeling three years ago for comparing the standoff between Israel and the Palestinians to apartheid... >

Jerome Slater: The New York Times and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Bronner Affair (Huff Post)

The central issue in this dispute is less that of Ethan Bronner than it is of the New York Times itself. Close observers of Times' news coverage and commentary about Israel have long known that it is typically slanted in a "pro-Israeli" direction... >

Bill Fletcher Jr: Don't deny peaceful protests in West Bank (CNN)

When we celebrate the courage and vision of freedom fighters such as King or Fannie Lou Hamer and the countless others who are remembered during Black History Month, we should think of those Palestinian Kings and Fannie Lou Hamers whose nonviolent struggle for freedom, justice and equality continues. >

1000 Demonstrators Mark 5 Years of Protest in Bil'in by Dismantling Wall. (AIC)

One week after work to reroute the path of the Wall in Bil'in had began, more than a thousand demonstrators celebrated five years of struggle by dismantling a section of the Wall and taking over a military post. >

VIDEO: UNRWA Commissioner: No peace without Palestinian refugees solution in line with UN resolutions (Palestine Video)

Finding a solution to the plight of millions of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East is key to peace in the region, says the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees... >

James Carroll: Untie knot of Palestinian evictions (Boston Globe)

Today, as on every Friday for months now, several hundred Israelis gather here in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in Arab East Jerusalem, to stand in vigil as a protest against the eviction of Palestinian families from homes they have lived in for decades. >

Patrick Seale: What Does Netanyahu Want? (Middle East Online)

A new report finds that Israel committed "theft" by deducting billions from Palestinian worker's salaries over the past four decades. >

Ami Kaufman: Everyone (Except Obama) Knows Netanyahu is Weak (Huff Post)

The U.S. administration has played it all wrong with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. >

In pictures: Life in the shadow of Israeli settlements (BBC)

Did Netanyahu authorize killing of Hamas commander in Dubai? (Christian Science Monitor)

During a meeting with Mossad chief Meir Dagan and members of the alleged hit squad, Mr. Netanyahu approved last month's assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai, reports the Sunday Times. >

Israeli agents go on PR offensive (Independent, UK)

Israel is sending more agents abroad, this time on an even more difficult mission: to project a peaceful and positive image of the Jewish state. >

A Mossad hit backfires on Netanyahu … again. (Sydney Morning Herald)

That same old feeling for Benjamin Netanyahu must be excruciating. And it is probably cold comfort for the Israeli Prime Minister that his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, is likely to suffer along with him. >

More Reports and Commentaries...

Gaza One Year Later: Picking up the Pieces w/ Bill Corcoran, ANERA

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:54:52 PST

Mr. Bill Corcoran
President, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA)

A year after the bombs stopped falling on Gaza, full recovery remains elusive. Survival is a daily challenge. ANERA president Bill Corcoran has traveled to Gaza regularly during the past year to assess the damage and the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance. He will talk about current conditions and challenges for helping Gazans rebuild their lives.

Mr. Bill Corcoran has been president of ANERA since 2007. Before joining ANERA, he was Vice President of the Christian Children’s Fund, a $300 million nonprofit serving children and their families in 32 countries. During the 1990’s, Mr. Corcoran directed the Pontifical Mission for Palestine based in Jordan with projects there and in Iraq. He also supervised various projects in Lebanon and Syria.

18 February 2010

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TRANSCRIPTS

Worth Reading... Palestine-Related Articles

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:26:36 PST

Roger Cohen: Hard Mideast Truths (New York Times)

For over a century now, Zionism and Arab nationalism have failed to find an accommodation in the Holy Land. Both movements attempted to fill the space left by collapsed empire, and it has been left to the quasi-empire, the United States, to try to coax them to peaceful coexistence. The attempt has failed. >

Stephen Walt: I don't mean to say I told you so, but... (Foreign Policy Blog)

Probably the most controversial claim in my work with John Mearsheimer on the Israel lobby is our argument that it played a key role in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003... This week, yet another piece of evidence surfaced that suggests we were right all along. In his testimony to the Iraq war commission in the U.K., former Prime Minister Tony Blair reveals that concerns about Israel were part of the equation and that Israel officials were involved in those discussions. >

Robert Fisk: The uninvited ghosts that populate Israel's art history (Belfast Telegraph)

The Palestinians celebrate their lost land with poetry and art, but always it is a place of lost oranges and olive trees and snug village houses; of Arab men, leaning on ancient wells beside classical ruins, proving that Palestine was not, as the popular Zionist narrative would have us believe, a land without people. >

Amira Howeidy: Mum's the word on Gaza probe (Al Ahram)

Is the UN preparing to bury the damning findings of the Goldstone Report on Israel's Gaza assault of one year ago? >

Isabel Kershner: Museum Creates New Jerusalem Divide (New York Times)

In a dispute that reflects the religious and political divides in this contested city, representatives of long-established Palestinian families petitioned the United Nations on Wednesday for help in trying to stop Israel and the Simon Wiesenthal Center from constructing a museum on part of a centuries-old Muslim cemetery. >

Saree Makdisi: A Museum of Tolerance we don't need (Los Angeles Times)

The Simon Wiesenthal Center should abandon its plan to build a facility on the site of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. >

Jonathon Cook: Report: Israel stole $2 billion from Palestinian workers (Electronic Intifada)

A new report finds that Israel committed "theft" by deducting billions from Palestinian worker's salaries over the past four decades.>

BOOK REVIEW: "Footnotes in Gaza" by Joe Sacco

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:33:26 PST

Each month, we will be conducting a review of a recent book that deals with issues relating to Palestine and/or the Israel/Palestine conflict. Books that are chosen for review can be academic or non-academic, historical or fictional. Next month we will be reviewing Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. If you would like to suggest a book for review, please contact the Palestine Center.

"Footnotes in Gaza" written by Joe Sacco
Hardcover: 432 pages, Metropolitan Books (December 22, 2009)

Palestine Center Book Review No.2 (10 February 2010)

By Yousef Munayyer

In 2001, during the early part of the second Palestinian intifada, Joe Sacco accompanied Chris Hedges on a trip to Khan Younis to illustrate the story of one Palestinian town during the uprising for Harper's magazine. He recalled once hearing of a massacre that took place in Khan Younis and after further investigation, interviews and research, several paragraphs about the massacre that took place on 3 November 1956 were included in the article submitted to Harper's.

The editors at Harper's did not find the information about the massacre relevant and subsequently cut it from the published version.

To Sacco, however, the massacre at Khan Younis was too significant to ignore. He was not comfortable with leaving the "greatest massacre of Palestinians on Palestinian soil" as a mere footnote in the history of Palestine. It was this sense of injustice of historiography that drove him to look further, dig deeper and write Footnotes in Gaza.

The title itself refers passively to the outrageous obscurity of the massacres which took place in Gaza in 1956. The wonton killings described in both Rafah and Khan Younis in November 1956 are dealt with in great detail. Sacco decided that these events, these "footnotes", will no longer be subjected to the dismissive whims of editors who sanitize American literature. Footnotes in Gaza is a 432-page addendum to the Palestinian story which is now determinately etched into the annals of western writing.

Yet, throughout the book, as Sacco documents his interactions with Palestinians, even they question the relevance of a book on '56 when the transformative events of '67,'73, '88, '00, etc have dramatically reshaped their lives again and again since. His stubborn persistence prevails, however, and he manages, with the help of local guides, to find numerous individuals who testified as firsthand witnesses to the massacres of 1956.

What is unique about this book is its style of presentation. Footnotes in Gaza is a picture book, or a work of illustrative journalism to be more precise. Make no mistake, however, the content is not recommended for young readers. In fact, Sacco sketches the gruesome details of massacre in only the way images can describe, leaving an indelible mark on the memory of the reader that words alone could not accomplish.

It's not merely images of bloodied bodies strewn across the streets of Rafah or shot against a wall in Khan Younis that stick with the reader; It is also the pensive, sometimes horrified, look on the faces of those interviewed as they recall the massacres they saw unfold before their eyes so many years before. It's also the depiction of screaming widows who make the reader look for a volume knob only to realize they are in fact still reading a book.

Footnotes in Gaza is also more than a documentation of the testimonies of survivors of the massacres. It's the story of the documentation as well. Sacco takes us through the journey of navigating Khan Younis and Rafah, living in a refugee camp, the banality of journalism during the intifada and the daily horrors of Israeli occupation.

In an attempt to get to Rafah to interview a survivor, Sacco illustrates the long line at checkpoints, which routinely take hours to pass through; the Israeli watch towers, which send bullets over Sacco's head and the children waiting at the checkpoint to ride in under-occupied passengers cars for a shekel so that the cars meet the three-person capacity minimum to cross the Israeli checkpoint. He also documents the ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes along the Philladelphi crossing at Gaza's southern-most border. The author conducted much of his ethnographic research during the worst moments of the Palestinian intifada. The funerals of martyrs are drawn in the book, along with the destruction of houses, the shooting of activists and the protection of colonial Israeli settlements.

It was in fact these modern day realities which led Sacco to pen the following in the introduction to his book:

"Palestinians never seem to have the luxury of digesting on tragedy before the next one is upon them. When I was in Gaza, younger people often viewed my research into the events of 1956 with bemusement. What good would tending to history do them when they were under attack and their homes were being demolished now? But the past and the present cannot be so easily disentangled; they are part of a remorseless continuum, a historical blur. Perhaps it is worthwhile to freeze that churning forward movement and examine one or two events that were not only a disaster for the people who lived them but might also be instructive for those who want to understand why and how hatred was 'planted' in hearts."

As the famed Palestinian political cartoonist Naji Al-Ali once wrote:

"As soon as I was aware of what was going on, all the havoc in our region, I felt I had to do something, to contribute somehow My job I felt was to speak up for those people, my people who are in the camps, in Egypt, in Algeria, the simple Arabs all over the region who have very few outlets to express their points of view."

Where Ali often used faceless or nameless caricatures, or his signature 'Handala,' to convey the feelings of Palestinians, Sacco takes this many steps further by allowing real people to tell their stories in his book. The wives who buried their husbands, the boys who buried their fathers and the men who lay alive and bleeding at the bottom of a pile of terminated humanity, all get an opportunity to tell us their story.

What Sacco affords to Palestinians in this must read book is what Edward Said often claimed they had been denied: "permission to narrate."

Yousef Munayyer is Executive Director of the Palestine Center. This book review may be used without permission but with proper attribution to the Center.

Images from the Book FOOTNOTES IN GAZA by Joe Sacco. Copyright © 2009 by Joe Sacco. Reprinted by arrangement with Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company LLC.

See this video interview with Laura Flanders on GritTV.

The views in this review are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund.

Conflict of Interest at the New York Times?

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:37:18 PST

Acting on a tip, the Electronic Intifada contacted the New York Times to confirm that the son of its Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner joined the Israeli army.

This led to a debate in the Times about whether this journalist with three decades of reporting experience had a conflict of interest. Could he cover critically a government who his son serves in the military?

In a Times column by Bill Keller, the executive editor, he argued Bronner should stay as the paper’s correspondent in Israel. Bronner, he said, informed the paper and that there was no reason to doubt Bronner’s objectivity. Keller suggested the problem was that people claiming there is a conflict of interest are bringing in their own prejudices on the issues.

Clark Hoyt, the Times’s public editor disagreed. He lauded Bronner but said that even the appearance of a possible conflict of interest is cause for reassignment, at least for the duration of his son’s service in the Israeli military.

Others have pointed out that this situation is pretty clearly addressed by the Times' ethics guidelines, as Alison Weir points out:

This is considered so critical that the Times devotes considerable attention to “conflict of interest” (also called “conflict with impartiality”) problems, situations in which personal interest might cause a journalist to intentionally or unconsciously slant a story.

The Times notes that family affiliations may cause such a conflict; as an example, it explains that a daughter’s high position on Wall Street could be problematic for a business reporter.

As Richard Chesnoff argues back, he himself had a son serve in the Israeli military and it did not impact his journalistic integrity, so he believes.

Many are judging this issue on the basis of Bronner's credentials. Those who know him personally, base their views on what they know of him, but they cannot imagine what would happen in various scenarios. The fact is that if Israel invades Gaza or Lebanon again, and Bronner's covering it, his reporting will be called into question very easily. And there are no guarantees that concern for his son will color his reporting (be mindful that this could go for or against Israel since a father whose son is in war isn't always pro-war).

Secondly, assuming he speaks to his son, this will be an easy avenue of Israeli press relations. If the IDF wants to highlight something negative about the Palestinians, they can deploy his son with the knowledge word gets back; at the same time, they can shield him from their own nefarious practices.

The biggest problem with this is that Bronner's professionalism aside, his position, along with Chesnoff's, is fundamentally concerning. These correspondents who embed themselves in Israeli society, who live there and have children-citizens, will tend to see things through an Israeli lens -- not always -- but definitely more frequently than they will a Palestinian one. They may think facts are facts, but without living among the Palestinians as Amira Hass does, they reportage will always be constrained, no matter how much pro-Israel readers may complain (complaints received are no measure of objectivity -- pro-Israel readers expect complete bias in their direction; pro-Palestinian readers assume pro-Israel bias and often do not even bother complaining).

In the end, journalistic integrity demands he be assigned. This is not an argument made from a pro-Palestinian perspective. I think it likely his replacement would be even more pro-Israeli, since the newest correspondents tend to be so (with some exceptions).

Palestinian Authority Mulls U.S. 'Proximity Talks' Proposal

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:24:03 PST

Speaking in Japan, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed a U.S. proposal for indirect talks with Israel via George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, marking a shift in the PA's reluctance to any such contacts. However, these shuttle talks are conditioned on several unanswered questions.

"The gate is always open to envoy Mitchell’s proposal," Abbas told reporters in Tokyo, through a Japanese interpreter. "Israel should stop on-going settlement, then we can start peace talks toward the coexistence of two states."

On the issue of a settlement freeze, Abbas said earlier this month he won’t return to the negotiating table unless Israel agrees to halt all construction in the West Bank for a “certain period.” His chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said that period should be 90 days. This was a retreat from Abbas's previous demand of an unlimited freeze on building.

According to a senior European diplomat quoted in The Jerusalem Post, Abbas is under “intense” pressure by the international community to return to negotiations, with every European leader he meets telling him he must renew talks.

The American proposal for so-called proximity talks with Israel suggests the U.S. envoy shuttle between Palestinian and Israeli delegations residing in the same hotel or city. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped peace talks begin soon although did not pledge a settlement freeze beyond previous promises of partial moratorium. Abbas rejected the limited, 10-month construction freeze ordered by Israel in November as insufficient, particularly for excluding Jerusalem.

Before the PA stated their public position on these talks, an Israeli cabinet minister said last week that Israel and the Palestinians would begin proximity talks.

The PA is suggesting this consideration of proximity talks is a shift in their position. "Until now, we did not respond positively to this new proximity approach," Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki suggested. There have not been overt, public contacts since Israel invaded and bombarded Gaza more than one year ago.

He said the Palestinians want the discussions to focus on border issues and to last no more than four months. The Palestinian side also wants to know what the plan is should the talks fail and whether the “parameters” of the talks are based on the “Road Map,” a previously agreed framework for negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders.

Though these sound like tentative conditions that may determine whether these proposed communications lead anywhere, Abbas said the PA had no specific conditions determined yet. It is expected that within a week, the PA leadership will give a more detailed set of conditions.

Local Elections in July?

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:23:15 PST

The Palestinian Authority meanwhile said Monday announced it would hold local elections in the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on July 17. “The completion of this democratic process is one of the building blocks of the national authority’s program and the government’s plan to complete the building of the institutions of a state,” the government said in a statement. The last municipal elections were held in 2006 and saw Hamas win a majority in several large towns in both territories.

Hamas rejected the government’s decision. “The illegal government of Fayyad has no right to call for local municipal elections, said Gaza-based Hamas legislature Ismail Al-Ashqar in reference to the PA led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Munayyer: Development Out of Context

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:34:29 PST

Lavish, unrealistic plans for Palestinian development are a dangerous alternative to the struggle for independence.

By Yousef Munayyer
guardian.co.uk

Recently I received a very impressive full-colour booklet printed on expensive paper advertising a development project. The ambitious plan is to build a new Palestinian city, "Rawabi", in the West Bank.

The glossy images inside are not of the Palestine I know. The bulldozers are not demolishing homes, they are breaking ground to make room for the new city. Suited, Palestinian elites appear in lush boardrooms with international partners. The white, symmetrical buildings, typical of hilltop Israeli settlements, are instead part of the scale-model of the future development.

It's crafted for secular, western investors. Women pictured do not wear the traditional headscarf common among most Palestinian women, and the longest beard belongs to an Orthodox Christian priest. The booklet also portrays a Palestine sans occupation: independent and capable of securing investments.

The reality is radically different; Israel occupies the West Bank and blockades Gaza. Israel continues to control the West Bank through checkpoints and roadblocks that often arbitrarily close. Water is disproportionately dominated by a settler class that is privy to Jewish-only roads.

Rawabi may not even succeed. Its plot is surrounded by Israeli settlements and the roads which will connect it to other cities have not been approved by the ultimate authority over the territory: the Israeli government. Rawabi, itself, is not problematic. Rather the growing, fanciful discourse that it fits into, a discourse that emphasises development before independence, is the greater cause for alarm. This is evident in a new document by the Palestinian Authority (PA) entitled Palestine: Moving Forward about the vast institutions the PA seeks to develop to "establish the state of Palestine in two years."

But given the realities of occupation, the same realities ignored in the shiny Rawabi booklet, one has to ask: "Moving forward towards what, exactly?" With little change on the political front, exacerbated by expanding settlements, home demolitions in Arab East Jerusalem, and Israeli statements about retaining settlements deep inside the West Bank and controlling the Jordan Valley, it is hard to imagine these conditions foster a move forward at all. Instead, the development initiatives, in the actual political context, move Palestinians in three directions, and none of them are toward freedom from occupation:

1. Sedation – The development narrative temporarily assuages Palestinians who have long been living under occupation. Success stories about growth, increased wages, drops in unemployment and the sight of new buildings being put up in the centre of town eases people away from desperation. Israel facilitated this, to the extent that it suited their security, by permitting limited room for Palestinian development and growth in Palestinian cities in the West Bank. The measly economic success makes Palestinians hope for a brighter future despite the occupation. The masses were pulverised to the point that they have begun accepting the false choice between moderate quality of life and political freedom/self-determination.

2. Dependency – While most states wish they could escape the dependency curse, the institution-building initiatives outlined by the PA seem endanger the future economy of perpetual dependence. The economy in the West Bank is already highly dependent on Israel. Severed unnaturally from what was historically one economy, the West Bank will depend on Israel into the future. With no achievable state in sight to undergird the independence of a Palestinian economy through policy, Palestinian development is inevitably going to hit a glass ceiling structured by Israel interests.

Additionally, the document indicates that executing these plans requires exorbitant international investment. Only 25% of the costs are already funded, whereas 51% await international donor and investment money. International money comes with international strings. For a nation trying to achieve liberation, compromised economic independence will undoubtedly yield compromised political independence, making the struggle for a just resolution to the Palestinian question more difficult. Any state that accepts significant external support for domestic institution building should be concerned about its independence in the future – for stateless Palestine the concern should be even greater.

3. Division – The plan includes an important yet inconspicuous footnote regarding Gaza. Plans for Gaza's development will be implemented "after the Palestinian National Authority has the ability to do so". Until a political solution to Palestinian division is reached, development plans will go on in the West Bank and not in Gaza. Since such a deal seems remote, and the continuation of Palestinian division suits the interests of Israel, the dominating power, it is unlikely that change for Gaza is near. Therefore, the groundwork is laid for an increasing gap between the quality of life for Palestinians in Gaza and those in the West Bank, and also between a small, elite business class that stands to benefit from some projects and the majority of the Palestinian population that does not. The economic differences will permeate political and cultural dialogue as Palestinians in the West Bank will seek to live, while Palestinians in Gaza will seek to survive.

Development is not a bad thing. Every nation aspires to develop and build its political, economic and cultural institutions. However, a Palestinian national strategy of development that ignores the context of occupation and divorces itself from the struggle for independence is not only naive and irresponsible, but it may have dangerous implications for the future of Palestine and its people.

Yousef Munayyer is the executive director for the Jerusalem Fund and its educational program, the Palestine Center.

Views expressed on this post or on linked web pages do not represent the Palestine Center, the educational program of the Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development. All content is for educational purposes only.

BBC Panorama: Life in East Jerusalem

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 07:34:52 PST

Despite some problematic framing of the issues from the onset, this video is informative and interesting.

Part 1/3

Part 2/3

part 3/3

Worth Reading...

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:16:43 PST

Eyad Al-Sarraj: Gaza's Agony (Foreign Policy)

A year after the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are still waiting for President Obama's deeds to match his rhetoric in the Middle East.

Joe Stork: Obama and Human Rights in the Middle East: Suggestions for Act Two (Arab Reform Bulletin)

United States President Barack Obama has used all the right words to underscore his view that human rights concerns are a core element of his Middle East policy. The Obama administration’s promotion of human rights with abusive Middle Eastern governments, however, has been ambiguous and, in some cases, negligent, raising concern that the United States is still operating in a universe of double standards when it comes to confronting serious human rights violations by important allies.

Akiva Eldar: Only an idiot would say Israel has frozen settlement activity (Haaretz)

Two months after the government decision on November 26 to freeze construction in Jewish settlements for 10 months, you'd have to be blind, an idiot, or a member of the Yesha Council of settlements to use the term "freeze" to describe the real estate situation in Judea and Samaria.

Meron Benvenisti: The Inevitable Bi-national Regime (Israel Occupation Archive via ATFP)

[B]i-nationalism is not a political or ideological program so much as a de facto reality masquerading as a temporary state of affairs. It is a description of the current condition, not a prescription.

Juan Cole: Ignoring Gaza's humanitarian crisis (Salon)

When a relief plane for Doctors Without Borders isn't allowed to land by U.S. military authorities at the airport in Port-au-Prince, there is an outcry. But Israeli military authorities will not allow any relief planes at all to land in the Gaza Strip (the Israelis destroyed Gaza's airport in 2001).

Humanitarianism: Prolonging the Palestinian Political Plight? w/ Ilana Feldman, GWU

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:55:44 PST

Dr. Ilana Feldman
Assistant Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs,
George Washington University

Does humanitarianism delay a political solution to the question of Palestine? With the siege on Gaza and the occupation effecting the population in dramatic fashion and eliminating basic human needs for millions, there is a noticeable shift in the discourse on Palestine; that is a shift away from the struggle for freedom and toward a struggle for survival. If Palestinians are consumed with surviving for just another day they cannot focus on liberating their land. How does humanitarianism reinforce this situation and how can Palestinians avert suspended catastrophe?

27 January 2010

Download Video (mp4) [right click the link and select 'save link as']

Download Audio (mp3) [right click the link and select 'save link as']

TRANSCRIPTS

Palestinian Factions Disagree to Agree

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:48:14 PST

The latest disagreement between the leading Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fateh, is over whether the current parliament could continue even though its four-year mandate has expired.

The party's traded accusations, charging each other with undermining Palestinian democracy -- a phrase uttered less frequently these days as compared to four years ago. Their positions are rooted in competing legal claims. Hamas cited the Palestinian Basic Law, which they contend ends a parliament's mandate only when its new members are sworn-in. They asserted the current parliament, which has not convened fully since 2007, should stay in place until new elections are held.

Fateh argued that the Hamas-dominated chamber's four-year term had legally ended. Only President Mahmoud Abbas, Fateh's leader, can call for a parliamentary session, they argued.

To enforce its position, the Palestinian Authority's police forces arrested six Hamas-aligned staff members of the Palestinian Legislative Council's speaker Aziz Dweik, according to another PLC member. The alleged arrests followed a conference given by Dweik, who called on Mahmoud Abbas to support a meeting with all PLC members of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

It is clear the factions are as divided as they have been since Hamas won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections on January 25, 2006. They took 74 of the 132 seats, up-ending Fateh's historic dominance in Palestinian politics. A series of events and American and Israeli pressure, led to the current political rupture in which Hamas forcefully took control of Gaza and Fateh took over the West Bank.

Egyptian mediation has failed to reconcile the parties. They have been unable to agree on a date for new elections, with the latest date of June 28 on the table, giving way to this current disagreement.

The Palestinian Economy: Recent Experience and Prospects in 2010 w/ Oussama Kanaan, IMF

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:58:55 PST

Dr. Oussama Kanaan
IMF Chief of Mission and Resident Representative
West Bank and Gaza

Friday, 22 January 2010

Download Video (mp4) [right click the link and select 'save link as']

Download Audio (mp3) [right click the link and select 'save link as']

TRANSCRIPTS

Worth Reading...

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 07:53:35 PST

Suffocating: The Gaza Strip under Israeli Blockade - report (Amnesty International)

Obama's lost senate seat is a victory for Netanyahu (Haaretz)

Israel deports US journalist who worked for Palestinian news agency (The Canadian Press)

The case of Jared Malsin - expelled by Israel (Al-Jazeera, English)

World aid agencies appeal to Israel to unlock Gaza (Washington Post)

Palestinians in Gaza donate to Haiti (euronews)

Palestinian activists urge Hamas to probe own Gaza war crimes (Haaretz)

Subscribe to The Gaza Experience YouTube Channel (YouTube).

PHOTOS: 22 Hours in Sheikh Jarrah. Palestinian non-violent activism. (Palestine Monitor).

Israel tries to silence political protest: critics (Washington Post).

VIDEO: Amnesty International Urges End to Gaza Blockade

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:32:25 PST

A leading human rights group cited the suffocation of the 1.4 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip as reason for Israel to lift its two-and-a-half year embargo on the tiny coastal area.

Amnesty International's Francesca Burke explains in this video how Israel's blockade leaves Gaza residents struggling in poverty.

"The reality is that the blockade does not target armed groups, but rather, punishes Gaza's entire population by restricting the entry of food, medical supplies, educational equipment and building materials," said Malcom Smart, the group's Middle East and North Africa director.

BRIEF: The Perpetual Process for Impossible Peace

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:41:09 PST

Palestine Center Brief No. 190 (15 January 2010)

Policy Brief

By Yousef Munayyer

In 1988, on a trip to Yugoslavia, Yasser Arafat the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was asked by a reporter if he believed there would be a Palestinian state in five years. His response "If God is willing, it will be within two years".

Twenty-two years later, Arafat has been dead for five years, the oval office has seen four new presidents, the Israelis had seven new prime ministers, Yugoslavia disintegrated into six republics, Pluto is no longer a planet and yet, according to the Obama administration's Special Envoy George Mitchell, we are still but two years away from a Palestinian state.

The peace seems lost in the process. After the Oslo Accords, a timeline was set and never met. After the road map, a timeline was set and never met. On several occasions, leaders repeated a one, two, three or four year time-table as if it were part of the instructions on the back of a box of Insta-State mix. We heard this in 2002 in the Rose Garden, with the Road Map in 2003, after Arafat in 2004, after Annapolis in 2007 and after Fayyad's plan in mid-2009.

Please pardon the Arab world, the Israelis and everyone else on the face of the earth if they no longer take these initiatives seriously. As the U.S. continued to cry wolf, Israel only perpetuated its colonization of Palestinian land. Time-tables were reset, the oasis of a Palestinian state moved even further away and another generation is born into occupation.

What's missing is the use of real American leverage over Israel. Let's not forget that the United States is a superpower, and it is not unrealistic to think that it could use its leverage over Israel to make it comply with international law and end its occupation. If the United States was trying to leverage any comparable country to follow a certain path, it would not take two decades.

At the crux of the problem is the fact that the United States has been reluctant to pull the levers at its disposal to influence the Israelis to end the occupation. Recently, the Saudi foreign minister said that Israel is treated like a spoiled child. He is right, except I would add that this spoiled child is something like Chucky out of the movie Child's Play. Israel is a well-armed nuclear power, with no undeterred threats, maintaining an occupation over 4-5 million Palestinians. The United States has continued to provide allowance money for Israel to buy American weapons and build more settlements in defiance of declared American policy, in addition to an omnipresent veto against any attempts to restrain Israel's behavior in the international arena.

If anyone is to take the process seriously, there needs to be an immediate and abrupt change in the flow of this hypnotic process. Everyone is locked into a perpetual cycle of delayed time-lines and endless negotiations and setbacks. The U.S. has always had two options for getting the message across to the Israelis that it's been reluctant to take. The first is ending arms sales to Israel. The second is the threat to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders by a specific time regardless to what transpires before then.

The U.S's "special relationship" with Israel has always stood in the way of taking these necessary steps and that leaves Palestinians with only one conclusion; the peace process is a façade.

After 9/11 it became clear that resentment of American support for Israeli occupation motivated some in the Arab and Muslim world to radicalize and convinced some policy makers that Israeli-Palestinian peace is in the U.S.'s interest. But if Washington thinks that they can placate public opinion in the Arab and Muslim world by being semi-engaged in a never ending on-again off-again process, while providing the weapons to Israel that ultimately kill Palestinian civilians, they are tragically mistaken.

Very few people have faith left in this process and many never did. The Arab public has grown tired, not only of the United States' support for what they see as its deranged, spoiled off-spring, but they have also grown tired of their own leaders, many of whom are thought to be more loyal to their American backers than the people they govern.

I'm going to go out on a limb here. Based on recent history, I wouldn't be betting on a Palestinian state in 2012.

Yousef Munayyer is Executive Director of the Palestine Center. This policy brief may be used without permission but with proper attribution to the Center.

The views in this brief are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund.

Talk on Palestinian Economy, January 22.

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:25:04 PST

The Palestinian Economy: Recent Experience and Prospects in 2010

with

Dr. Oussama Kanaan
IMF Chief of Mission and Resident Representative
West Bank and Gaza

Friday, 22 January 2010
12:30 - 2:00 p.m.
The Palestine Center
Washington, DC

RSVP

This event will be webcast on this website, www.palestinecenterblog.org at 1 PM EST.

While economic conditions have improved in the West Bank, the conditions in Gaza continue to worsen after months of siege and devastating attacks and incursions. Largely, economic conditions in the Occupied Territories are greatly controlled by outside powers -- directly the Israeli occupation -- and the donor nations which contribute aid money. Economic growth, without independence, continues to be tied to a relaxation of restrictions and an influx of donor dollars. Join us for a discussion on the economic conditions in Palestine and their prospects for change in the coming year with Dr. Kanaan.

Dr. Oussama Kanaan is the IMF Chief of Mission and Resident Representative for the West Bank and Gaza. He has worked at the International Monetary Fund since 1993. He is the author of numerous publications which include articles in economics particularly applied to countries in the Middle East (including the West Bank and Gaza) and the peace process. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University.