The Palestine Center Blog

The West Bank and Gaza: Similar or Different Governance?

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:18:20 PDT

Dr. Yezid Sayigh
Professor of Middle East Studies, King's College London

19 March 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']

How have two distinct systems of government evolved in the West Bank and Gaza? What similarities and differences are there between the two? How have they made institutional improvements and has this effected the balance between security and liberty? How sustainable and vulnerable are these state-like systems given their significant dependence on external capital? Join us for a discussion on these questions and more.

Yezid Sayigh is Professor of Middle East Studies in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. He is currently on leave as a Visiting Scholar at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University. He was an adviser and negotiator in the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks in 1991-1994, and has provided consultancy assistance on Palestinian Authority reform and on the Palestinian-Israeli ‘permanent status’ negotiations since 1998. He is the author of Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993, and most recently of Fixing Broken Windows: Security Sector Reform in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen, Carnegie Paper, October 2009.

Can the Israeli Public Like Obama More than Bibi and Back Settlement-Building?

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:30:21 PDT

One of the three polls of Israeli public opinion released today suggest that Israelis are overall favorable towards U.S. President Barack Obama, despite the apparent tensions between the U.S. government and Israel over the issue of settlement construction in east Jerusalem.

The three polls released Friday suggest that Israelis have mixed feelings towards their leader, while they tend to support settlement construction.

According to ABC News:

Thirty-six percent of those questioned for one poll thought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was best suited to lead Israel, versus 26 percent for his closest challenger, opposition leader Tzipi Livni. But another poll showed Livni's Kadima Party would overtake Netanyahu's Likud by a wider margin if elections were held today.

Despite the apparent edge President Obama seems to have in the polls, they also found that a majority of Israelis supported continued construction in Jerusalem, the issue at the heart of the U.S.-Israeli disagreement. Support ranged from 48 percent in one poll to 70 percent in another.

If this is in fact true, one explanation is that Israelis who support settlement-building do not care so strongly that they evaluate leaders based solely on their positions towards it. Another explanation could be that they simply do not think President Obama is really so opposed to settlement construction; perhaps they just rationalize it as him giving a nod to the Palestinians and do not think he will actually do much to stop them.

Powerful Map: Israel Settlement Expansion Plans

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:27:37 PDT

Do Occupied Peoples Have the Right to Protest?

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:23:08 PDT

Israeli stun grenades during a demonstration
in the West Bank village of Beit Jala (photo: AP).

While Israeli analysts and government officials for years referred to the threat of terrorism as a justification for imposing a security regime on the Palestinian people, recent events show this line of thinking was not intended to encourage non-violent resistance.

Israel has been hitting unarmed Palestinian protesters with excessive force, arresting them, and is now closing down Palestinian villages that have been sites for weekly demonstrations.

Just after the fifth year anniversary of the commencement of weekly protests in the Palestinian West Bank villages of Bil'in and Na'alin against the apartheid wall and occupation, the Israeli military is declaring the villages "closed military zones on Fridays for the next six months."

This video was made to celebrate the 4th anniversary in 2009. It shows the nature of the protests and the repressive response:

The decision comes after the growing prominence of these weekly protests, which have attracted international figures and media. In December, The Elders members Desmond Tutu, Ela Bhatt, Gro Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson visited Bil’in.

Evidence of Israel's use of harsh force against protesters is in the numbers. In the two villages, Israeli forces killed 23 demonstrators, half of them minors; no Israeli soldiers have been killed. Several had been severely injured and killed by high velocity tear gas canisters.

Not all Israelis agree with the measures against the West Bank villages. Haaretz opined today that these measures are "a serious anti-democratic move. The order issued by the GOC Central Command implementing this restriction is an act against the freedom to demonstrate."

Riots have flared in Jerusalem's protests over Israel's colonization efforts and anti-Palestinian dispossession there. While arrests are made on the pretense of rioting, the protesters report that state forces, as with Bil'in and Na'alin, initiate the use of violence.

On Tuesday's "day of rage" in east Jerusalem, more than 100 people were injured and 70 others were arrested. One Israeli officer was injured after being shot in the hand. Palestinians in Jaffa also protested in solidarity.

Now there are unconfirmed reports from Jerusalem that a Police Special Patrol Unit began rounding up the organizers of the protests in Jerusalem last night at 3:30 AM. According to one account,

masked Israeli forces entered the neighborhood of Ras Al-Amud and kidnapped 3 residents. The forces then told the families that 'they (the forces) will take all the men involved in the protests.'

If more information follows, we will update this post.

Given the inability of the powers of the world to bring any sense to Israeli policy, it can only be hoped that people power have such effects.

The US-Israel Tiff in Cartoons

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:08:34 PDT

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.

Rachel Corrie: In Memoriam

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:29:21 PDT

Rachel Aliene Corrie
(April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003)

Today is the seventh year anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death. The young American student was working with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group committed to non-violent solidarity activism.

On this day in 2003 she was killed while attempting to stop the demolition of the home of Palestinian pharmacist Samir Nasrallah near Rafah in Gaza. She put her body between Nasrallah's house and an Israeli army bulldozer. Corrie and others were acting as "human shields." Since her death, Corrie has been rightfully hailed as a martyr.

Al-Jazeera, English's Inside Story discussed Rachel Corrie's story and her family's pending lawsuit against Israel. Presenter Shiulie Ghosh was joined by Huwaida Arraf, one of the founders of the International Solidarity Movement, Dan Izerman, the legal affairs correspondent at the Jerusalem Post, and Ian Black, the Middle East editor at the British Newspaper The Guardian.

Worth Reading... Palestine-Related Articles

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:57:31 PDT

Mark Perry: The Petraeus briefing: Biden's embarrassment is not the whole story (Foreign Policy)

On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus to underline his growing worries at the lack of progress in resolving the issue. >

Amjad Atallah: Middle East peace efforts: lessons from healthcare reform (LA Times)

It took a year of trying for President Obama to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to enter into "proximity talks" to resolve issues standing in the way of a final peace plan. But as we learned from the stunning announcement this week -- during Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region -- that Israel had approved 112 new settlement units in the West Bank and 1,600 new settlement units in East Jerusalem, there is a lot that can go wrong. >

Johann Hari: Palestinians should now declare their independence (Independence)

Could the Israeli government make it any more obvious they have no intention of sharing the Over-Promised Land with its other inhabitants? >

Ahmad Tibi: Israeli extremism exposed (The Washington Times)

Recently, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon refused to meet with members of the U.S. Congress, whose institution provides Israel with the economic wherewithal to occupy the West Bank. Through astonishing ineptness, rather than principled policy, Israel is risking the anger of its bankroller. >

Rory McCarthy: Israel plans more East Jerusalem homes as talks collapse (Guardian)

Israeli authorities are considering plans for at least another 8,000 homes in settlements in East Jerusalem, it emerged today, despite the latest collapse in proposed peace talks with the Palestinians. >

Abe Hayeem: Israel's unfair 'law of return' (Guardian)

The yearly drive to encourage British Jews to emigrate to Israel culminated last weekend in the Israel Property Exhibition in a north London synagogue. "Make your dream come true with your own home or investment in Israel," it urged. Although most of the property for sale is in Israel itself, some is in the occupied Palestinian territories. >

US and Israel dodge settlement confrontation (BBC)

It took a year of trying for President Obama to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to enter into "proximity talks" to resolve issues standing in the way of a final peace plan. But as we learned from the stunning announcement this week -- during Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region -- that Israel had approved 112 new settlement units in the West Bank and 1,600 new settlement units in East Jerusalem, there is a lot that can go wrong. >

'50% against equal rights for Arabs' (Jerusalem Post)

Fifty percent of Jewish Israeli high-schoolers believe that Arab Israelis should not be granted the same rights as their Jewish counterparts, according to a new Ma'agar Mohot poll of 536 15-to-18-year-olds. >

Jamal Juma: Why Israel jailed me for 'talking too much' (IMEU)

The Palestinian elected leadership is weak. And even with Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this week, the renewed Middle East peace process appears to be little more than a charade. Israel has taken this opportunity to crack down on Palestinians who advocate nonviolent protests against the Israeli West Bank segregation barrier and charged them based on questionable or false evidence. >

European Parliament backs UN report on Gaza war (Washington Post)

In a move likely to worsen EU ties with Israel, the European Parliament urged its 27-member states Wednesday to monitor the Israeli and Palestinian probes into alleged war crimes in Gaza. >

A city that should be shared (Economist)

Even as the Americans strive to jump-start fresh talks between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli government has been using the hiatus to intensify the refashioning of East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as their future capital. >

From time to time, the Palestine Center distributes articles it believes will enhance understanding of the Palestinian political reality.

The Post Gets it Wrong... Very Wrong.

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:32:49 PDT

By Yousef Munayyer

The Washington Post’s pro-Israel bias is on full display this morning.

An unsigned editorial and a column are so out of touch with reality that they explain exactly why the Post’s readership has dropped significantly over recent years. Surely, technological advances and the availability of other news sources grab the eyes of readers, but is it simply competition that has sunk the Post’s numbers, or the newly available ability of readers to realize just how slanted the Post’s coverage is?

Today’s Editorial and Opinion page put that question to rest. A Post editorial argues that the Obama administration is to blame for the spat with Israel. Here are a couple gems from the editorial that was so treacherous it should make most American’s cringe:

Mr. Obama and his advisers appear determined to prove that they will not be pushed around by Israel. The public scoldings also send a message to Palestinian and Arab leaders who have been demanding assurances that the United States will use its leverage in the new peace negotiations.

Can you imagine? How dare America not want to be pushed around by Israel? Oh the gall of these Americans. How dare they demand their requests be respected by a much smaller nation that they have supported blindly for decades? And those “demanding” Arabs, they think the US should use its leverage when Israel doesn’t meet its obligations, what do they think America is, a free country? An even-handed mediator?

And then:

A larger question concerns Mr. Obama's quickness to bludgeon the Israeli government. He is not the first president to do so; in fact, he is not even the first to be hard on Mr. Netanyahu. But tough tactics don't always work: Last year Israelis rallied behind Mr. Netanyahu, while Mr. Obama's poll ratings in Israel plunged to the single digits.

There’s Barack Hussein Obama coming after the Israelis again, you should be concerned. If tough tactics don’t work, what have kid gloves accomplished over the past 20 years of “peace process”? During this time, Israel continued its colonization of the West Bank and the number of Israeli settlers in Palestinian territory has only doubled. But, wait, the poll numbers... Well it is pretty clear that Barack Obama will not win an election in Israel, he will just have to console himself with being President of the United States of America. If the Israelis don’t like an American President because he refused (slightly) to pander to their demands then they should find another ally.
I am also starting to wonder if Richard Cohen is on hiatus or has secretly disappeared and some 5th grader has assumed writing his columns. Cohen is irked by the naming of Dalal Mughrabi Square. Mughrabi was responsible for an operation that ended in a shootout and nearly 40 people dead. This he equates with Israel’s settlement expansion saying that it to shatters confidence in the process. But does Israel not name places for Jewish terrorists who murdered countless Arabs? Cohen disagrees:

I am aware that terrorism is the warfare of the weak, and I am aware also that Jews used terrorism against the British before Israel became a nation in 1948. But even those rare instances of terrorism were directed against the military and when they were not -- the massacre of Arabs at the village of Deir Yassin -- they were condemned by the Zionist leadership. To my knowledge, there is no square in Israel named for the mass murderers of civilians. Palestinian society, in contrast, honors all sorts of terrorists.

It’s amazing that Cohen, or his 5th grade ghostwriter, is able to get so much wrong in such little space. Jewish terrorism was not solely directed against military targets; in fact the majority of Jewish terrorism targets in pre-state Israel were directed against Arab civilians. Bus bombs and bombs thrown in Palestinian markets left hundreds of Arabs dead long before the Jewish terrorists turned against the British. And Deir Yassin? The Haganah, under the Zionist leadership, facilitated the massacre and did not prevent it.

Finally, I think I know where Richard Cohen must be. He is probably sitting at a café on Jabotinsky St. in Tel Aviv, sipping cappuccino on the roadway named for the founder of the Irgun – a Jewish terror organization that killed scores of Palestinian civilians. Perhaps he is even reading the Jerusalem Post, where this column, and the above mentioned editorial, should have been published.

Crisis in U.S.-Israel Relations?

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:22:04 PDT

From 'The Arena' on Politico.

Yousef Munayyer - Exec. Dir., The Jerusalem Fund:

Both Israel and the United States share blame for the current crisis. The United States erred in raising expectations on rhetoric alone during Obama’s speech in Cairo. By neglecting to apply any pressure on Israel, the United States set themselves up for failure when they demanded a settlement freeze from an Israeli government addicted to colonizing Palestinian territory. Doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results is insanity.

It is unclear why then, that that United States thought Israel would deviate from its decades-old policy of colonizing the West Bank without giving them any significant reason to do so. The U.S. can choose from a number of options including cutting military aid and/or loan guarantees to Israel, abstaining from UN Security council votes pertaining to Israel, shutting down 501( c ) 3s that send tax-deductible contributions to Israeli settlements, and rejecting visa’s for Israelis living in settlements.

The government of Israel, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, is also to blame for the current crisis. The announcement of 1,600 additional homes in an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem torpedoed months of Special Envoy Mitchell’s efforts and humiliated Vice President Biden before the entire world. It is hard to believe that this announcement was not intentional. It comes as part of a series of provocative Israeli measures that included tight restrictions on worshipers at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the declaration of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron (deep inside Occupied Palestinian Territory) as an Israeli heritage site and the continued and consistent ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem through home eviction and demolition.

The clash between the Obama Administration and Netanyahu’s right-wing government were evident from the start. Perhaps now the Obama Administration will realize the need to take action to change Israel’s behavior in Palestinian territory. Words alone however are not enough. The U.S. government must make it clear to Israel that they either have to chose between an alliance with the United States or the Occupation of Palestinian territory. They simply cannot have both.

Over 20 years ago, then-Secretary of State James Baker said “Every time I have gone to Israel in connection with the peace process on each of my trips I have been met with the announcement of new settlement activity. This does violate United States policy.” Yet, we are still shocked, shocked when the Israelis pull this with Biden. If this isn’t an indication that the policy toward Israel needs an abrupt change, I don’t know what is.

Welcome to Israel, Joe

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:48:27 PST

Palestine Center Brief No. 193 (11 March 2010)

Policy Brief

By Yousef Munayyer

When he visited the Middle East, then Senator Barack Obama had a rude awakening. He was on the ritual visit for American presidential candidates to Israel, which usually consist of touring sites of significance to Jews and declaring support for the state of Israel. This is important for American politicians who pay homage to an influential pro-Israel lobby, and it was even more important for President Obama. His background, his middle name, his father's religion and his associations with Arabs and Muslims made him a target of critics who claimed he would be soft on security.

So, with a yarmulke upon his head, Barack Hussein Obama recited prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. But before his prayers could transcend the clouds and make it up to heaven, Obama was reminded just what he was getting into. In the crowd of onlookers and media that had formed around him, a heckler yelled out, "Jerusalem is ours, Obama. Jerusalem is not for sale, Obama."

Though it is doubtful that the unidentified heckler was Binyamin Netanyahu, the current Israeli prime minister, the same message was sent to the Obama administration this week from the Israeli government. After months of disagreement with the Israelis over their settlement policy, Vice President Joe Biden became the highest ranking Obama administration official to visit Israel and he was greeted by the announcement of 1,600 new settlement homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

Welcome to Israel, Joe.

Whether from hecklers or through government declarations the message from Israel to Washington is clear: we'll take what we want and you cannot stop us.

The problem is the message from Washington to Israel has been far too ambiguous. The Israeli government, addicted to gobbling up Palestinian land, is taking every opportunity to exploit this ambiguity and embarrass American and Palestinian officials while they are at it.

Some argue that the Obama administration made a strategic mistake by raising expectations before guaranteeing full Israeli compliance with a settlement freeze. They are only partially right. The Obama administration was, in fact, right to raise expectations and capitalize on a wave of good faith resulting from a historic election welcomed around the world and in the Middle East in particular. The strategic mistake, and a big one at that, was the failure to apply the necessary pressure on Israel to force compliance with a full settlement freeze.

It has been said that to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results is insanity. Why then should the United States expect anything other than continued Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and in Jerusalem without applying the necessary sanctions to modify Israeli behavior? It is very clear, given the insulting announcement that the Israelis greeted Vice President Biden with, that asking them politely is simply not working.

For two decades of "peace process" the United States has failed to pressure Israel and, low and behold during this time period, settlements have only grown in size and population. In the last 20 years, the number of settlers on occupied Palestinian land has doubled and walls have been built around these Israeli colonies creating a near inextricable reality.

If this doesn't change, nothing will stop Israel from completing its colonial project and the world will continue to live with an apartheid state in its midst.

The tools for change have always been in Washington but domestic politics have always made selecting to use these tools unpopular choices. The U.S. Congress is staunchly pro-Israel and looks at the Middle East blindly following the whims of influential pro-Israel lobbies.

Therefore, the Executive Branch will have to take unilateral steps to change the tone. The president has multiple tools at his disposal through the State Department, like the American vote in the Security Council, for example, which has been the single veto on nearly 40 occasions to save Israel from condemnation.

Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled to be visiting DC at the end of this month; interestingly President Obama is conveniently scheduled to be traveling at the same time. Wouldn't it be fitting for the White House to take a page from Israel's book and announce a halt to U.S. support while the Israeli prime minister is in Washington?

Maybe, just maybe, if we communicated with the Israelis through a method they are familiar with they will finally get the message.

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.

2010 Summer Internship Program

wyoumans@thejerusalemfund.org (Palestine Center) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:57:31 PST

The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development offers summer internship positions with its educational program, the Palestine Center, for undergraduate students. The internship program provides students with an opportunity to conduct primary-source research, develop writing and organizational skills, build valuable D.C. contacts, gain hands-on experience and observe the extensive political and policy-related happenings in the metropolitan D.C. area. As important members of our team, interns gain valuable exposure to the functions of a highly productive non-profit organization working on issues of national and international significance.

Summer interns coordinate a summer lecture series, write an in-depth information brief on a topic related to the Palestine issue and assist with Palestine Center briefings,film screenings and symposia. All interns are encouraged to attend relevant events in the area during their internship and to pursue avenues of research that are of personal interest to them, provided the research relates to the work of the Center. The Palestine Center staff provides guidance on research and logistics, helps to educate interns on the Palestinian issue and advises them as needed on career development.

Deadline to apply for 2010 Summer Internship: Friday, 16 April 2010

For more information about the internship program or how to apply, please visit www.thejerusalemfund.org/internships.

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.

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

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

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

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... 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.