WALLS AND WATER …. PALESTINIAN REALITIES
26-11-2009
Happy Eid AlAdha to all Muslim friends and Colleagues. May this holiday return to us with advance in justice and freedom and a retreat in the forces of darkness, hate, and violence in this world.

A trip to Jenin Monday turned into another detour on the way back. The trip already takes 2.5 hours and this is when the roads are open. Soon major sections will be closed to us as Israel closes off other roads and make them available only to settlers. But on the way back, military contingent closed the road (simple spite as there was clearly nothing to justify it), they simply asked us to turn around. Since it was the only way I knew back to Bethlehem, for a while I did not know what to do. We tried to ask locals but the ones we asked did not know or speculated on alternative routes. Finally we found someone in a car who was also turned back and we followed him to go in a round-about-way to connect to eth road on the other side. Wasting much time (and obviously indicating since it was doable that this had nothing to do with security but with making life as hard as possible). But we will persist despite everything. In bad news: we heard that the US decided not to sign the Land Mine Treaty signed by over 150 countries (Israel and the US want to continue to allow the killing of Children). And local authorities and human rights groups warned that Gaza is on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe. Most of its water is unfit for human consumption (and also below needed quantities). Israel refuses to deal with this man-made catastrophe. Ethnically cleansing the Palestinians and concentrating them in Gaza (70% refugees on a tiny desert strip) and now denying them even import of pipes and equipment to deliver water, to filter water, or to treat sewage is simply a crime against humanity.

Walls and water: ripple effects of the occupation (interview with me, information useful on our situation, picture not useful so just listen in the background if interested ;-)

Ripple Effect

12-10-2009
Loss of agriculture and restrictions on movement are closely connected to Palestine’s failing economy. Without land to cultivate and water to grow crops, many face a crisis of survival.
Qumsiyeh compares the Israeli occupation, wall and environmental impacts to South Africa’s apartheid — a forced racial segregation. Many Palestinians and others familiar with the situation call the wall the Apartheid Wall (apartheid means “separateness” in Afrikaans).

Qumsiyeh understands that both sides must reconcile for peace to exist. He suggests a peace resolution along the lines of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, in which victims and perpetrators of the apartheid were given a public forum to discuss their experiences. For Qumsiyeh, such a process in Palestine must include an acknowledgment of wrongs committed on both sides, and recognition of human rights and land rights for Palestinians.

“But it has to be based on truth — that’s why they call it truth and reconciliation,” he said. “The truth is that this is not a tribal conflict, but like in South Africa, it has to do with racism and the idea of ‘chosenness.’ Seven million of 10 million Palestinians are now refugees or displaced people. To live together, we must face this reality head on and truly develop equality.”


Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

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