Getting poetic about Palestinian eroticism

مشكلة عرب اسرائيل وثماره – كابوس، فتعداد العربي في إسرائيل قد تخطى المليون وهو ينمو بسرعة
انظر إليهم – تسودّ الدنيا في عينيك! سأقولها من دون أجرح اليهود: العرب في الليل يحرثون ليعظموا جنسهم
ما هذا – خسوف ضوء القمر، نفحة ملاك الموت، علامة الشغب؟ فأنثى الأرنب، القطة، الجرادة لا تعرف مثل هذا الشَّبَق!"


· The problem of the Arab-Israelis and their produce – a nightmare; the number of Arabs in Israel is over 1 million and increasing.
· Look at them - Life blackens in front of your eyes! I will tell it without taking anything from the Jews – the Arabs are working hard at night in order to make great their race!
· What is this – is it a lunar eclipse, the breath of the angel of death, a signal of riot? Even the female rabbit, the cat, and the locust do not know such eroticism.


The above is a poem written by Gershon Ben-Ya'acov, and posted in the Russian-Israeli newspaper, Vesti (August 25, 2005). Needless to say, they're being sued for incitement of racism. And possibly also on aesthetic grounds.

It's been raining in Nasereh

It's been raining in Nasereh.
We've been blessed with grey skies and temperatures of 14 degrees.

So this afternoon I stole the opportunity to indulge in the company of coffee, and in that of a beautiful Nazarene by the name of K.

For some reason, on this wet afternoon in Nasereh, the coffee finally tasted like it should.

Disenfranchised Bedouin youth

The Center for Information and Higher Education in the Naqab (Negev) presented troubling information as regards education among the Arab Bedouin of the Naqab. Only 2,000 Arab Bedouin graduate from high-school every year, and less than 10% thereafter enter institutions of higher education. In addition, approximately two-thirds of students change their program of study when at university/college, while a quarter of female Bedouin do not complete their bachelors.

Approximately two-thirds of Bedouin that do enter institutions of higher education do not succeed in English. Furthermore, on average a Bedouin student stays a year longer at an institution of higher education than his Jewish counterpart. (www.arabs48.com, November 23, 2005).

You need only to see the living conditions for Bedouin in the unrecognised villages of the Naqab to understand why the above is happening.

It's very shocking, and such a shame that youth are being deprived of a future. They have no present, and the only way to make a future would be through education - and they don't even have that made available to them.

Unreal.

جدارية في بيت لحم

On Sunday, the Arab HRA's 'Human Rights Education and Community Outreach' Department took around 30 youth to Bethlehem, in the West Bank, to throw a Diego Rivera on the Wall.

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As there are always aguafiestas looking to rain on the parade, this occasion was no different. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were quick to disperse the muralists in action.

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In any event, I'm of the opinion that these young artists well deserve a round of applause.

Chilling in al-Quds with Loay Qudsi

I spent the 26th and the 27th of November in al-Quds/Jerusalem with sa7iby, Loay Qudsi.

In case you were wondering, his last name has no connection with al-Quds because he's originally from Nabulus.

In any event, we dabbled in some nightlife on the 26th, and the next day, which also happened to be my birthday, we spent in the Old City, at Hebrew University and at Fort David (Gila3t Dawood). The suug in the old city was something else, and let me tell you about the hummus!

Al-Quds also houses a piazza, and together with its cafés and live music, it felt at times European. I liked it.

Yes, I liked it. But not everyone would agree - others feel there's just too much tension in the air. The population roughly breaks down like this - 30% religious Jews, 30% secular and 30% Arab. Since East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel, it has become a city that breathes tension. The annexed East Jerusalemites refused to take on Israeli citizenship, and the majority to date identify as Palestinian.

For information on Israel's current policy in East Jerusalem, and how the population is daily being strangled, see this leaked report from the European Union's Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

I'll post the following pictures to relay the rest of the story.

On the way to the Old City

Qudsi sizing up the entrance to the Old City

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Al Aqsa in the distance

EMHRN meeting in Vienna, November 12-13, 2005

I was in Vienna last weekend at a network meeting; the network is called the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN). The Arab HRA, the organisation I represent, sits on the Steering Committee of the network's Working Group, called the Working Group on Palestine/Israel.

We finalised European advocacy strategies in London and Brussels for December 2005, and spoke of future possibilities for late 2006.

Although the meeting schedule didn't allow for a visit into Vienna, we did manage to sample great chocolate, rich ice wine and some warm hospitality from a Croatian-minority couple living near the city of Neusiedl am See.

Room Keys at the Hotel

Guess who... found an iron that morning

Caffeine Advocacy

Why Gaza is still Occupied Territory

Gaza is still occupied. We heard it from a Gazawi (Gazan), the Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Raji Sourani. He was supposed to meet with us in Austria as part of the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network's 'Working group on Palestine/Israel', but because no Gazawi can currently leave Gaza, we had to settle for a teleconference with him.

This is what Raji had to say:

The Occupation remains and Gaza is completely disconnected from the West Bank and Al-Quds (Jerusalem). Israel maintains complete air and land control (in spite of the fact that there is no physical army presence on the ground).

Mainstream media talks about Gazawis now having the chance to step up to the plate and prove themselves. But here is the de facto situation on Gazawi ground:
- Lives of Gaza's inhabitants still completely controlled.
- Israeli navy presence just 10 metres from Gaza's shores.
- 3-5 kms from border, Israel fires sonic bombs as a method of intimidation.
- Political assassinations commonplace by Israeli apaches. Since the disengagement and until November 13, 2005 - 17 such killings.
- The Rafah border crossing is totally sealed.
- Unemployment in Gaza used to stand at 66% - today it is more. 81% people under poverty line – facing real economic, social, political strangulation.
- Israel decides what Gazawis drink, eat and wear. Very frightening.
- Buffer zones exist in the north and west; the army will shoot and kill any movement in that area.
- Gazawi fisherman can’t even go to the sea.
- There are 985 kilo bombs parked 360° around Gaza.
- Israel has been able to achieve this ‘withdrawal mirage’.
- However, the reality is very different and is not promising on any level.
- 1.4 million people are caged in. And nobody seems to see that.

He added:

- 7,000 settlers evacuated – which is great. But it’s business as usual. Remember, the withdrawal wasn't about the Palestinians; it was about a military presence that was working out too costly for them.
- Israel has marketed the Disengagement smartly; so much so that they can reasonably convince the Europeans to work with them on Israeli security.
- Israel is manufacturing another Bin Laden in Gaza by continuing their present practice in the region.

Advocating for Palestinians

To make inroads into seeing true Palestinian representation within Israel (and even in the Occupied Territories; yes Gaza is still occupied), the struggle can assume two forms:

- An internal struggle, and
- A struggle that employs external advocacy measures

True, empowerment of the population is vital to seeing representation... as are other internal strategies - like working with the Israeli public to make them aware of real Palestinian issues, political participation, and even (running contrary to the previous) economic and political boycotts. However, part of the struggle is applying external pressure on the Israeli government; international advocacy helps us get there.

I will be in Vienna, Austria tomorrow, and for the following 3 days, to work on just that. The Euro Med Human Rights Network's 'Working Group on Palestine/Israel', on whose Steering Committee the Arab HRA sits, will be meeting to talk about the European Neighbourhood Policy, the Barcelona Process and general advocacy strategies for Occupied Palestine and Israel.

Look, if they don't listen to us, maybe they'll listen to those that can prospectively make them richer. Maybe they'll listen to those that they aspire to be, the Europeans.

Anyway, details on the meeting to follow.
Must get to packing.
Leaving shortly.
Very.
Short.
Notice.

And in the words of Lascelles, my Jamaican/ Torontonian/ photographingmanofwisdomwithmanywordsofintellect, Keep the faith, the beat goes on...

Quotes from the West Bank

Two weeks ago I was in Bethlehem. In the West Bank.

There are stories of border crossings, the current status of Palestinian civil society, and why the Palestinian women I've met are not what I expected (not a bad thing). But I'll postpone those stories for tomorrow.

Today I'll leave you with quotes. Quotes from the two conferences I attended. Also in attendance were European funders and advocacy groups, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs, and words spoken but till date not understood...

"If you dig a hole with a needle, you make a packet, then you take a spoon, then you take a shovel..."

He then adds, "They are from us who is doing it yknow, they are not from them."

This from the moderator, "It’s kind of like an active forum. It’s kind of like a weird animal."

"Mohammed, let’s go step by step. I’m really feeling like, yknow, a car turning round and round in a playground..."

"Mohammed, Laila... wait! Everything is missing… I’m not bullshitting myself, neither you guys here yknow… I explained yesterday, working on the Israelis and not with the Israelis… Mohammed you are really trying to put make-up on the face of the thing… This is the normalisation terms that we used and we ate shit!"

This is an open call to all translators; we're west-banking on you.

Lubna Azabal

This post goes out to young, talented female actors world-over; and is especially directed to Belgian artists of Moroccan origin.

Belgian artists of Moroccan origin that exhibit soul in their step and breathe character in their smile.

I had the pleasure of meeting, albeit briefly, Lubna Azabal of Paradise Now / Exils / Viva Laldjérie - fame. She's in Nasereh for the French Cultural Centre's 1ère édition du Festival du Film Français de Nazareth.

I'm not sure how much of her spirit you can feel through the inserted photos, but I'll throw them in anyway because they're easy on the eyes.

Veo aspectos de las actrices de mi vida personal - Brooke, Jimagua, Zuzia - en ella

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Today a world collectively impoverished in the failure of our governments to effectively aid the destitute

Today, October 17, is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. That this Day has been observed since 1993 is telling – it speaks of the urgency to combat poverty for those that live along society's margins - social, economic and political, and it emphasises the role that developed nations are obliged to play in this global struggle.

The Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) sees poverty as breeding an environment non-conducive to human rights. We believe that poverty constructs serious obstacles to the enjoyment of basic human rights, and leaves individuals within its grasp without basic human dignity; individuals living in poverty have only limited access to food, water and adequate housing.

The National Insurance Institute of Israel published a report last year which said that 54% of Arab children and 50% of Arab families live under the poverty line in Israel. This is the result of official policy that has brought about cuts to welfare benefits and other forms of social assistance, and only serves to further marginalise the poor – affecting most directly children and the elderly. These policies also exacerbate the divide between rich and poor; so much so that Israel, followed by the US, is currently the developed nation with the most number of people living under the poverty line.

The HRA feels that poverty warrants more urgency than, and should therefore be addressed before, sustainable development issues.

Currently, malnutrition seriously afflicts the Arab populations of Israel, in particular those that live in the Naqab (Negev) and in unrecognised villages. A direct result of malnutrition is the inability to enjoy the basic human rights of health, education and mental and physical growth. Left unresolved, the following generation stands to inherit the present generation's poverty and lack of basic human rights.

UNICEF declared that over 50% of children in the world currently live in poverty. Furthermore:

640 million lack adequate housing
400 million lack access to clean water
140 million children, for various reasons, are not in school

The HRA believes that all this is evidence of the failings of world governments. They have failed in implementing their international commitment to save the poor and children of the world and have failed to comply with their moral commitment to humanity.

This comes at a time when governments spend billions on weapons and hundreds of millions on wars that are immoral, and that to date have only exacerbated death, poverty, hatred, hunger and human rights violations in our world.

The above is a press release issued by the Arab HRA, jointly prepared by Mohammad Zeidan and me.

Palestine in Black and White. And Red and Green.

I scoured the Arab HRA archives for these photos - some from the Occupied Territories, others from Israel; unlike most photos posted on this website, I can't credit these to my name.

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Top-down: Photos 1-7

Protesting Sheikh Yassin's assassination in Israel - Photos 1, 2, 3, 4
Ramallah Checkpoint - Photo 5
Ramallah's Future - Photo 6
Kids at an Arab HRA summer camp - Photo 7

Between Kfar Manda and Sakhnin

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Naked stars wait for us between Kfar Manda and Sakhnin

So why are we still here?

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Instead we'll choose lonely highways where street lights don't live

Together we'll journey blind

And you in the embrace of restlessness, will slowly push me away

Hina Jilani's personal quest for really good falafel

The Special Representative to the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, Ms. Hina Jilani, was at our office on Monday. She was officially touring Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to look at the conditions and challenges faced by human rights defenders. Unofficially, however, she was on a personal quest for the best falafel. Doubtless she came across it in an Arab neighbourhood. ;)

'Human rights defenders' is a term used to describe people who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights.

In regard to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, she wrote this, 'conditions and an environment which place human rights defenders operating in these areas at grave risk and presents serious obstructions in every aspect of their functioning.' (UN OHCHR Press Release, October 11, 2005). Although Israel was comparatively 'freer', she acknowledged the difficulties defenders face here. From Monday's meeting, 2 points immediately spring to mind:

- NGO-ers have bags, computers and other material in their possession probed when travelling abroad.
- Lawyers and their clients are refused privacy to confer with one another in prison; to confer they must use a phone (which is open to the risk of being tapped) and be watched over by prison guards (whom, word has it, are endowed with hearing faculties little seen in this part of the world).

Bottom line?

For really good falafel: must travel to Arab town

Qatar sponsors Arab-Israeli soccer team, Sakhnin

Haaretz, September 11, 2005:

The president of the Qatar National Olympic Committee, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, met yesterday in the Qatari capital Doha with an Israeli delegation led by MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash-Ta'al) and Sakhnin mayor Mohammed Bashir to finalize the details of a $6 million donation to the Bnei Sakhnin soccer club.

Sakhnin is the only Arab Palestinian team in Israel's Premier Soccer League.
As recently as earlier this year, it was the only team without a home stadium.
Till today, it is the team that struggles most with finances.

But against all these odds, Sakhnin won last year's Premier League.

I only learnt about the team upon my arrival; but it hasn't taken me long to fall in love with them. Soccer is my game, and an Arab soccer team that makes it through with all the world's obstacles in place - wow. Respect. I look forward to watching a home-game in 10 days.

With regard to Qatari sponsorship of an Arab-Israeli team, I show support. There should be more support for Palestinian Arabs living within Israel. They're too often seen as 'collaborators' or 'Israeli' to warrant any help from Gulf nations. I appreciate Qatar's move and wish more GCC countries would see things in the same light. This community received Israeli citizenship by default (though some would disagree with the term) - either by not being forced off their lands by the Israeli forces or by not fleeing. Either way, the majority identify as Palestinian.

And no where did this show itself more publicly and collectively than in the October 2000 events. These events were a testament to how the struggles of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were the struggles of Palestinians living within Israel; their issues are not the same, and it cannot be expected that they be, but their collective identity is Palestinian.

For more on Sakhnin and the urgency to show it support, I'll leave you with excerpts from Jonathan Cook's article, Arab footballers make Israeli history:

The team, called Bnei Sakhnin, are carrying aloft the hopes of the Jewish state... Israeli media has been arguing that the victory reflects a new atmosphere of coexistence between the country's Jewish majority and its one million Arab citizens... In fact, relations between Jews and Arabs have rarely been worse... One of the disturbing trends noted by Mossawa are racist chants at football matches, particularly since Sakhnin and another Arab squad, Nazareth, qualified for the premier division last season... In June the first football fan was convicted of shouting "Death to the Arabs" at a match in Jerusalem.

Certainly, Sakhnin needs all the help they can get. The only major team without a stadium, Sakhnin have had to use a scrap of cleared land among olive groves for training. Their municipality, like most other Arab councils, is deep in the red after decades of underfunding from the central government... Today, overcrowded Sakhnin is surrounded on all sides by a military base, an industrial estate and a string of luxury hilltop Jewish communities, which have been given control of the town's lands...

...apparently worried by bad publicity, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stepped in to pledge $2 million for a stadium. The money is all very well, says Sakhnin engineer Kassem Abu Riya. "But where will Sakhnin find the land to build a stadium when we haven't the space for homes, let alone badly needed public facilities such as youth centres, recreation areas and proper schools?"

Pretty things need upkeep pretty often

Keeping the patio pretty isn't an easy task.

It calls for a broom, a dustpan and something called effort. I usually manage to bring them altogether on a Sunday.

Here's an indication of the mammoth task at hand every weekend

And here's why it's worth it

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Political views from Haifa

I spent yesterday in Haifa with work colleagues, Hamad and his wife; they had me over for futoor. On offer was an amazing spread of food and a television; I haven't had much of either since my arrival to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories last month, so I made sure to take multiple helpings of both.

Hamad was talking about how he interpreted being Palestinian Arab in Israel:
- Either you can go along with the crowd and voluntarily shed your Arab identity; this of course makes things easier for you in dealings with the police, the government and society in general.
- Or you can hold strong to your Arab identity and deal with its repercussions.

Hamad was about the latter, and for him that meant not voting in Knesset (the Israeli parliament) elections, even if Arab MKs (Members of the Knesset) were running. He felt it selling out; and a lot of people do... playing by Israel's rules is selling out to Israel.

Others, like 25 year old Yamen Al-Hijri, don't agree. Active in politics and an engineer by profession, he calls for his people to be smart. He stresses the importance of working with both options at hand - Arab and Israeli. He votes in the Knesset for Arab MKs and wishes that more would do the same. He also believes in an Arab Parliament being constructed within Israel so that issues tackling the Arab population are given focus.

He says that today Arab Palestinians make up 20% of the population so that they can't really afford not to play by the rules. However, once the dynamics change and the Palestinian population within Israel and the Territories is in the majority (2020 by some estimates), then the Palestinians will be in a better position to shape Israeli politics and see real change within their community.

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Political views from Hamad's balcony

(overlooking the Mediterranean)

Ramadhan Kareem

رمضان مبارك

a Nasereh side street at night

The events of October 2000

Courtesy www.arabs48.com /صورة من المسيرة المركزية على طريق كوكب ابو الهيجاء - سخنين

The events of October 2000 have etched themselves on the memories of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel as a time when those in charge could walk away with blind murder, literally.

October 2000 is marked by the killing of 12 innocent Palestinians living within Israel while they were protesting Israeli aggression in the Occupied Territories during the Intifada.

So on the 1st of October, as has happened over the last 5 years, a maseereh / march was organised to commemorate the deaths of the 13 (12 from Israel, 1 from the Territories). This year's march, which I attended, holds special significance because the authorities in charge of the investigation, the Mahash, recently published their conclusions. This final report found no one to be responsible in the deaths of the 13, and came after a state-sanctioned commission recommended criminal prosecution for specific officers.

Arab leaders point to institutionalised racism as being at the heart of the situation, as Arab Palestinians within Israel are increasingly being viewed as a demographic threat, and as Israel's fifth column.

Sunset in Nasereh

Sunset in Nasereh

Sunset on us

Too soon

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We've motioned the sun down

Before its time

But complacent

It tucks itself away

in non-communication

In our non-communication

We're left strangers in the dark

Unrecognised villages in the Nagab (Negev)

The state that claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East is not telling you the whole truth.

Nevermind Israeli policy in the Gaza and West Bank, discrimination on multiple fronts is being meted out among their own citizens, particularly ethnic Ethiopian Jews and Palestinian Arabs. The focus of this entry is on the latter.

The following is provided courtesy of the Association of 40 / لجنة الأربعين :

The plight of the Arab Unrecognised Villages first began in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel. Even though these Arab Villages existed hundreds of years ago, consecutive Israeli governments have ignored their existence, and their Bedouin inhabitants have been denied their rights as citizens of the country.

Since '48, these villages have not appeared on any map and there is still no plan for their development. As a result of this lack of recognition, the villages still lack basic infrastructure: Today, there are approximately 100,000 people who are dispossessed or denied any basic services such as running water, electricity, proper education, health services and access roads - constituting a gross violation of human rights and opposing the values of a modern and democratic state.

Waiting for the bus

I took the bus from Haifa to Nazareth this morning.

5 minutes before the bus could make a showing, someone in uniform did. He looked at me good, made note of the beard that I'd let grow for a week and a half now, and then began speaking Hebrew.

I don't speak Hebrew, but I knew why he was saying whatever it was he was saying.

Authorities here have special units that make directed stops at various bus stations throughout the state. These units greet those waiting for the bus, and based on the reply (and accent), conclude if you're a threat or not i.e. If you're Arab or not.

"I don't speak Hebrew".
"Oh, so you're a tourist. Okay then - have a good day".

Apple-picking in the Golan Heights

Saleem Durzi (above) from the Joolan took us to his family's apple plot to pick fruit from the earth. The Joolan is well known for its apples, and the locals can talk for hours about them - how they grow, how they're stored in mega-freezers, how they're pressed, and even how to eat them!

In this Garden of Eden were Elias, myself and Incognita (below).

في الجنة عدن

Landmines in the Golan Heights

There are landmines among currently inhabited homes that overlook the Syrian border.

Local people say that on occasion little kids cross the barbed wire, because caught in the moment, kids playing don't think of boundaries or barriers.

This is also the area where people from the Joolan come to speak with relatives on the Syrian side of the border. Reasons: its proximity to Syria, and the acoustics on offer.

Aloooo??

She looks to the Lebanese border and Majdl Shams

Last week was spent in the Joolan/Golan Heights.
It was beautiful, and as the picture relates, so was the company.

Saleem, a Druze like most people from the region, and resident of the Joolan, showed us around his neighbourhood and had us over for lunch at his mother's. The food was ladheedh killish i.e. real good. He spoke about identity of his people within Israel - that they don't consider themselves Israeli, but as Syrians under occupation.

It was a good Saturday, and the Joolan's September breeze had something to do with it.

Palestinian Arabs with Israeli citizenship

For those unclear about the situation,there are 2 groups of Palestinian Arabs by geographical location:

1 - Palestinian Arabs living within the Occupied Territories - Gaza and the West Bank.

2 - Palestinian Arabs that live within the Green Line i.e. within Israel, and carry Israeli citizenship. They were the Palestinians caught within Israel's 1948 borders, and include Druze and the Bedouin.

They are referred to mainly as 'Arab-Israelis' in the international media. However, the majority prefer to be referred to as Palestinian Arabs with Israeli citizenship/Palestinian Arabs living within Israel.


Most of nasrawi will focus on their struggle.

Nasrawi

Nasrawi is from Nasereh, Israel & the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

He's here because he believes he can make change, even if it can't be seen in the immediate. And he also believes life is about opening up and experiencing; even if it makes things seem smaller after. He's NGO-ing with a Palestinian Arab organisation, and hopes to speak of his experiences in the city of Nasereh, aka Nazareth, and the rest of this land.

Originally from the T-dot and Emarat.

Watch for photos and commentary, and no further references to self in the 3rd person.