from the mouth of the people, not the mouthpieces of the military

From Harsha Walla on the Mondoweiss blog.

As international outrage spreads at the Israeli elite commando attack on an unarmed humanitarian convey in the middle of the night on international waters, Israel is desperately trying to rebrand the incident as one of self-defence. It is nothing new for Israel, and other aggressing powers, to smear their victims as perpetrators. Afterall, unjustifiable murder is too jarring to stomach.

Yet, Amnesty International released a statement about Israel’s excessive use of force, further stating that Israel’s version of events begs credibility. Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu proclaimed the actions of Israel as “completely inexcusable”. According to Craig Murray, specialist on maritime law, “To attack a foreign flagged vessel in international waters is illegal.”

Deported activists tell a horrifying story of the use of electric shock, live ammunition, smoke bombs, gas canisters, beatings, and seizure of all evidence on cameras. Greek activist Michalis Grigoropoulos said, "They took us hostage, pointing guns at our heads…There was absolutely nothing we could do." A Turkish woman, with her 1 year old baby, recalls “The ship turned into a lake of blood.” Read more. (My emphasis).

Do read more. There is far more to know, and the Norman Goldmans, and New York Times of the world will not tell you. Go to Mondoweiss. Go to Jews for Peace. Go to the Israeli papers themselves. Go to Amnesty International. Go to United Nations. Go to Glenn Greenwald. Don't listen to Hilary and the left wing media whitewash it either with excuses or silence. The right wing will of course also just drown out any protests with hyperbole, but what chills me is that the left wing, the traditional school of thought which stands up for the underdog remains absolutely muzzled on this issue. Not everyone, of course, but many of the ones who could influence things a whole lot more remain eerily quiet on this issue. So, who gets informed? Nobody. There are many fine Palestinian sites, too, but go to whichever site or sites you are most comfortable with. There are any number in my blog roll.

The heading of the article from Mondoweiss is: Israel’s spin won’t work this time. But it will. At least in the U.S. and in Australia among the general public. Within America, the popular left-wing radio announcers, such as Norman Goldman are defending Israeli's actions in international waters. Yet the Somali pirates are dennounced for their acts of piracy. I don't know Mr. Goldman's position on the pirates. However, in this case, I don't see how you can defend commandos boarding an unarmed vessel in international waters under the cover of the night. An aid vessel. And shooting 9 people. Dead (an additional six missing).

Within Australia, the news is presenting and buying the same old line that "Israel has the right to defend itself", even when it is not being attacked. I trust Desmond Tutu over Murdoch. I know that the aid flotillas that approach Israeli waters, and which have been boarded in the past are not peopled with terrorists. I know that a former U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire were on one of the boats that the Israelis boarded intercepted last year, and I know she was also on another boat that was intercepted very close to, if not during, the outbreak of the war on Gaza (in international waters). I admire these people. I don't view them as liars. Why do they keep trying to break the siege on Gaza if everything is fine within this tiny occupied part of Palestine? And remember to ask yourself, occupied by whom? I wonder why the soldiers did not fire on the boat that the ex U.S. representative was on. Maybe this time, as the boat was Turkish, they felt that international opinion would be in their favour rather than against? Then again, the United States has never got terribly upset when its own people have been hurt by the Israelis as shown by its lack of action, or concern when any of the protesters who have gone to participate in the peaceful demonstrations against the apartheid wall in the West Bank is injured or killed.

Why are these actions called piracy when anyone else in the world does them? Murder, mayhem and so on. Yet, when the Israelis commit them it is all of a sudden self-defense. Hillary Clinton speaks of wanting the Israelis to probe themselves, and everyone knows where that always ends. Not with transparency. Even if the United Nations probed the event, findings would be ignored, and the writers would be vilified, such as happened to the United Nations report written by Richard Goldstone investigating the war on Gaza. He is Jewish, by the way. I think he is a humanist. I don't think he is anti-semitic. He has been branded as such, though.

Why is this group of people, this rogue state, allowed to flaunt the human rights of everyone? Allowed to put the world in a great and grave danger through ongoing aggression and such strong influence on American foreign policy? I am glad that Erdogan is sticking up to them. Of course, he probably will not last long, more is the pity. But the world must be questioning. The punter on the street. No matter how much our politicians whitewash it. No matter how much the media nullifies it. The thinking humanist must be pulling back and saying, "Now, hold on a minute."

For anyone more interested in working towards peace and alleviating suffering, the non-violent Global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement may be the movement for you. Endorsed by Naomi Klein. This is the form of protest that the Palestinians themselves have asked be adopted, and some film-makers, such as Ken Loach, have adhered to the call by pulling his movies out of some film festivals that have had Israeli governmental involvement. Others, such as Naomi Klein, the Church of England and various unions and colleges, have also risen to the occasion. It worked in South Africa. Hopefully it can ultimately work in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, because our governments, who support Israel, both diplomatically and with finance, will not do anything until they absolutely feel they have no other choice, as happened in South Africa. And you won't hear about the ongoing human rights abuses in the popular left-wing media, and definitely not in the right.

If you ever had an inkling that things were not quite right, well now might be the time to inform yourselves, because these are our people committing these atrocities, too. The Australians, the Americans who have immigrated to Israel. Why let another country of immigrants do precisely what we did to our own indigenous populations? Maybe because, everything remains exactly the same in the world, and any of the advances that seem to have been made since World War Two are obviously only advances applicable to people from the west, or sympathetic to the west. And even then, a country may be sympathetic to western ideas, or ideas we say we value such as democracy, but it is of no concern to us if it is not prudent to us to honour those ideals. When that happens, we usually support a siege or assassinate the leader and install a dictator. Anyway. We live a very good life, and many people do not, and something can be done about it. Do not believe that it can't.

sometimes it gets real-ish

JERUSALEM — The Israeli Navy attacked a flotilla carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists and thousands of tons of supplies for Gaza on Monday morning, news agencies reported, killing 10 people and wounding at least 30.

The warships first intercepted the aid flotilla shortly before midnight on Sunday, surprising the boats in international waters, according to activists on one vessel.

The New York Times breaks protocol and reports on some of the atrocities carried out by Israel against Palestine and those who feel that human rights should apply to all. No mention of who bankrolls the attacks, though. Maybe it is just a given that everyone understands what their tax dollars are being used for.

Your activist, my aid-worker, often one and the same. The title description shows that someone shares my point of view. The boats were in international waters. I wonder if Israel's actions are legal under international law. What do you think?

fisherman

Fisherman shot in the head by Israeli navy while fishing inside the permitted zone.

[ISM] talked to Mr Gora’ani’s brother Nafiz who was anxiously waiting in front of the ICU with a relative and another two fishermen for news about Hazem.

Nafiz was not present when the incident happened and he gave us an account by their brother who was fishing with Hazem and a third fisherman in a small hassaka boat this morning.

They were fishing well inside the Palestinian waters, less than three nautical miles away from the shore with another hassaka, when they were approached by the Israeli speed boat who attempted to kidnap them and take them to Ashkelon.

They panicked and tried to sail towards the coast. In response the Israeli soldiers opened a barrage of fire which critically injured Hazem. A collegue who was present in the hospital told us that there are a number of bullet holes in the hassaka.

A group of Gazan fisherman whom ISM talked with recently told us that Israeli soldiers fire at the fishermen so frequently that incidents are rarely reported if they did not result in serious injury. Only a few weeks ago two hassakas were kidnapped by the Israeli soldiers and destroyed after being taken to Ashkelon, whilst the fishermen were being interrogated and later released.

B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights watchdog group, details restrictions on fishing here. If you Google B'Tselem and fishing there are videos and other information available, also.

Many of us enjoy fishing, have fisher folk as friends, have lost people to the sea. Most of us know that those who like to fish, or who have to fish for a living are usually hardworking, often hard living, individuals, who do not really expect this. Except if you live in Gaza, of course.

Just in case you don't trust a story about kidnapping, B'Tselem, which, I repeat, is an Israeli Human Rights group, has written this at the bottom of their article on fishing rights:

To ensure these rights are not violated, the government of Israel must make public the open-fire regulations relating to the waters off the coast of Gaza, immediately cease the arbitrary detention and abuse of fishermen, and remove the harsh restrictions on fishing. My emphasis.

Any of your family ever have to follow a hobby or make a living under such conditions?

Christians with conscience

Donna Mulhearn
I really admire people who stick to the humanitarian beliefs of their religions, such as non-violence and love for their fellow people, enough to go out and try and defend them; both the beliefs and the people.

Naturally enough, I think humanism does not have to have a religious base, and there are enough agnostics and atheists out there who also follow the feelings of their general compassion.

Yet, I really admire those who go to Iraq as human shields, to Gaza as witnesses. There are Muslims, Christians and Jewish groups who are opposing injustice. Some of these might have the hope of converting souls, but more are there because they feel they should abide by the scriptures of their religions which promote peace, love, compassion and are against violence. I think the basis of all religions is actually love. I especially admire them in the face of religious zealotry, which to me, seems to be religion gone wrong or way off the track. If you see Buddha, kill him. Christ is within us. You are the Buddha. Saint Thomas, from what I know, preached belief from inside out rather than the other way around. From the surface understanding of Islam that I have, this seems to have a core principle, even if it might not be adhered to. Know thy own self and act accordingly within the confines of the society you belong to, the world you belong to, seems to me to be the message of religions that somehow gets aborted along the way. I do tend to think that people are more generous than dangerous and mean. I do believe in evolution, and though animals kill one another for survival, I see them live together in harmony when survival is not at stake. I do not think overriding human characteristics are to kill, steal, rape and deprive.

As from the evidence of the existence of Red Crescent and other groups, there are obviously Islamic groups which are also humanitarian in nature, Buddhist, Hindu and so on. Also, groups which are not linked to any religion. Medicin sans Frontieres, Physicians with Borders, Amnesty International to name a few.

Anyway, if you go to Indy-media on this link you can listen to Christian activist, Donna Mulhearn, who has gone to the continuing humanitarian disaster that is Gaza, who has been a human shield in Iraq, who has protested Pine Gap in Australia. She used to work for the Carr government in NSW. She was a political animal for the Australian Labour part at the time. The show is only half an hour, and Mulhearn appears probably in the last five minutes. The whole show is worth listening to, though.

I admire with all of my heart the people who feel that their conscience sends them out to the world to protect other people. I know that faith drives people to destroy other people, too, but I think this is a misinterpretation of faith, or at the least and the most, really, a misinterpretation of the best that human nature can offer and deserves.

Donna Mulhearn is at the Perth Writers' Festival. Good luck to you finding the exact dates! I am crap at navigating sites, but I have to say, a lot of them are not user friendly.

Through Autralian Eyes has this to add about human rights workers. Many of whom work for Christian groups such as Oxfam.

a year ago today

Read more.

Apparently, remembrance vigils are being held world-wide (according to Indi-media,and Jews san frontieres.), but food and aid convoys and so on are still being denied entry. The siege continues. The wall is still being built. Water supplies are destroyed and limited. The settlers still settle. Houses still get demolished. A mammoth amount of aid is still provided to Israel, and they are given carte blanche from Australian and American governments to do anything they want.

Also here from Mondoweiss.


Adam Horowitz has a great article on the injustice that injust keeps keeping on.

Photo by Oren Ziv, Active Stills

One such injustice, this is from the West Bank, comes via the site, Artists Against Apartheid.

Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was indicted in an Israeli military court yesterday. Abu Rahmah was slapped with an arms possession charge for collecting tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil’in by the army, in the creation of this sculpture (seen above).

The arrest is mentioned in this post from earlier this month.

B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights watch group, also has a report on the lack of accountability one year since the attacks.

pictures

The pictures we rarely get to see. Really lovely.

necessary wars

Two Palestinian children were injured on Tuesday evening when ordinance left behind by the Israeli army exploded in Al-Bureij Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medical sources identified the victims as ten-year-old Khamis Abu Arab and his brother, eight-year-old Muhammad. Khamis, according to the sources, was hospitalized at a specialist eye hospital while Muhammad received treatment for light wounds and was released.

our fearful leaders

More from Antony Loewenstein's blog from an article, surprisingly enough, from the Sydney Morning Herald; maybe the only mainstream media in Australia which runs the occasional honest story on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

This paragraph particularly drives home the fact that our politicians have sold out their scruples for safe seats or something similar. How could any politician worth their salt be ignorant of the situation in Palestine? Julia Gillard is our deputy Prime Minister, and there was not one word of protest from her in late December when Israel decided to unleash Operation Cast Lead on Gaza. She has recently returned from a junket to Israel (my emphasis):

Gillard's don't-mention-Gaza stance puts Australia further into Israel's camp than any other country, including the United States. Cynthia McKinney, the former US congresswoman who was on the ship, points out that President Barack Obama called the blockade "unjust" and urged its lifting, so she, as an American citizen, was attempting to carry out his wishes.

With such a small Jewish population in Australia, the driving force behind our politicians' actions must be either international pressure, and/or media ownership and influence. It seems to be an area in which on the surface we should be able to remove the blinkers and do what is right, but the politicians obviously put their careers ahead of humanity.

Whilst Gillard was in Israel, the Israeli authorities committed an act of piracy by boarding and kidnapping a ship full of human rights workers, including the above Cynthia McKinney, bound for Gaza. The ship was in international waters, so it is piracy. Israel has done this a number of times. At the start of the war on Gaza they rammed and boarded a ship that I think McKinney was also on. Noam Chomsky has also stated that it is piracy. An act that breaks international law. The article continues (including the above paragraph):

A study of the transcripts of Ms Gillard's speeches and interviews, from her recent trip to Israel and Ramallah, reveals that the word "Gaza" did not once pass her lips. Challenged by a reporter to say whether she believed Israel's treatment of the Palestinians was "fair and just", she avoided the question and retreated into platitudes: "We are concerned about the humanitarian situation of the Palestinian people".

This amounts to connivance with what the late Israeli political scientist Baruch Kimmerling called "politicide": Israel's desire to have the outside world forget Palestinian political aspirations to self-determination, and regard their struggle in purely humanitarian terms.

Gillard's don't-mention-Gaza stance puts Australia further into Israel's camp than any other country, including the United States. Cynthia McKinney, the former US congresswoman who was on the ship, points out that President Barack Obama called the blockade "unjust" and urged its lifting, so she, as an American citizen, was attempting to carry out his wishes.

The European Union responded to Cast Lead by shelving plans to upgrade its trading relations with Israel, and even ASEAN, through the Heads Statement of its 14th summit, identified Israel's attack as the cause of a humanitarian crisis, and called for an immediate ceasefire.

Gillard, standing in for the Prime Minister at New Year, characterised the onslaught as no more than Israel exercising its "right to defend itself" against Hamas. Hamas, she told her questioners in the Middle East, would first have to "renounce violence" if it wanted to qualify as a partner in any peace process sponsored by the "quartet" of the UN, EU, US and Russia.

The home-made rockets that Hamas militiamen fired into Israel were indiscriminate weapons, and the 20 or so deaths they caused over several years are war crimes, but all independent observers have pointed out the obvious - that pales into insignificance when compared with the impact of Israel's high-tech weaponry, which claimed 1300 lives, mostly civilians and including 400 children, and injured thousands. No stipulation from Australia, then, that Israel must also renounce violence as a precondition to have its views heard at the top table.

Israel is aware of acting within the scope allowed by international political opinion: it does what it believes it can get away with. The unexpected firmness of the White House on settlement-building had constrained its room for manoeuvre. Gillard paid lip service to a settlement freeze and a two-state solution - but her visit as the leader of a large delegation, her demeanour and above all her refusal to condemn Israeli lawlessness or call for it to cease, all conspired to send the opposite signal.

Thousands of people whose homes Israel destroyed are still without shelter, says the International Committee of the Red Cross, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel's disruption of medical supplies.

It is this situation that the passengers and crew of the illegally seized vessel were trying to remedy. They have vowed to send more boats. Israel should let them pass, and Australia should say so. Read more.

Ask your congressman what crime is being committed by giving the people in Gaza medicines, toys, and pencils?

From Chroniques de Palestine:

Kidnapped Passengers from the Spirit of Humanity include:

Khalad Abdelkader, Bahrain
Khalad is an engineer representing the Islamic Charitable Association of Bahrain.

Othman Abufalah, Jordan
Othman is a world-renowned journalist with al-Jazeera TV.

Khaled Al-Shenoo, Bahrain
Khaled is a lecturer with the University of Bahrain.

Mansour Al-Abi, Yemen
Mansour is a cameraman with Al-Jazeera TV.

Fatima Al-Attawi, Bahrain
Fatima is a relief worker and community activist from Bahrain.

Juhaina Alqaed, Bahrain
Juhaina is a journalist & human rights activist.

Huwaida Arraf, US
Huwaida is the Chair of the Free Gaza Movement and delegation co-coordinator for this voyage.

Ishmahil Blagrove, UK
Ishmahil is a Jamaican-born journalist, documentary film maker and founder of the Rice & Peas film production company. His documentaries focus on international struggles for social justice.

Kaltham Ghloom, Bahrain
Kaltham is a community activist.

Derek Graham, Ireland
Derek Graham is an electrician, Free Gaza organizer, and first mate aboard the Spirit of Humanity.

Alex Harrison, UK
Alex is a solidarity worker from Britain. She is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Denis Healey, UK
Denis is Captain of the Spirit of Humanity. This will be his fifth voyage to Gaza.

Fathi Jaouadi, UK
Fathi is a British journalist, Free Gaza organizer, and delegation co-coordinator for this voyage.

Mairead Maguire, Ireland
Mairead is a Nobel laureate and renowned peace activist.

Lubna Masarwa, Palestine/Israel
Lubna is a Palestinian human rights activist and Free Gaza organizer.

Theresa McDermott, Scotland
Theresa is a solidarity worker from Scotland. She is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Cynthia McKinney, US
Cynthia McKinney is an outspoken advocate for human rights and social justice issues, as well as a former U.S. congressperson and presidential candidate.

Adnan Mormesh, UK
Adnan is a solidarity worker from Britain. He is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Adam Qvist, Denmark
Adam is a solidarity worker from Denmark. He is traveling to Gaza to do human rights monitoring.

Adam Shapiro, US
Adam is an American documentary film maker and human rights activist.

Kathy Sheetz, US
Kathy is a nurse and film maker, traveling to Gaza to do human rights monitoring.
###

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home


The story can be found here, and here and here.

From the Jewish Voice for Peace:

We have just learned that a few hours ago, Israel illegally, in international waters, seized the 'Spirit of Humanity,' a boat carrying a cargo of humanitarian aid. The boat is being forcibly towed to an Israeli port.

Also seized with the boat are 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The boat holds medicine, toys, and other much needed humanitarian relief for the Palestinians living in Gaza under siege. Its cargo was searched and it received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before departure.

Call your Congressperson and your Senators today. Ask them to call the Israeli Embassy and to call the U.S. State Department demanding that the boat and its occupants be released, together with their humanitarian cargo, and that they be allowed to dock in Gaza.

Ask them what crime is being committed by giving the people in Gaza medicines, toys, and pencils?

Also, from the Free Gaza website via Australians for Palestine:

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Justice
tel: +972 2646 6666 or +972 2646 6340
fax: +972 2646 6357

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
tel: +972 2530 3111
fax: +972 2530 3367

CONTACT Mark Regev in the Prime Minister's office at:
tel: +972 5 0620 3264 or +972 2670 5354
mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il

CONTACT the International Committee of the Red Cross to ask for their
assistance in establishing the wellbeing of the kidnapped human rights
workers and help in securing their immediate release!

Red Cross Israel
tel: +972 3524 5286
fax: +972 3527 0370
tel_aviv.tel@icrc.org

Red Cross Switzerland:
tel: +41 22 730 3443
fax: +41 22 734 8280

Red Cross USA:
tel: +1 212 599 6021
fax: +1 212 599 6009

CONTACT AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT MINISTERS:

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard: Julia.Gillard.MP@aph.gov.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith: Stephen.Smith.MP@aph.gov.au
CONTACT the International Committee of the Red Cross to ask for their
assistance in establishing the wellbeing of the kidnapped human rights
workers and help in securing their immediate release!

tunnelling

I originally found the following article at Australians and Australian Women for Palestine. But it can also be found at the source, which is counterpunch online magazine Before I run with the story about the tunnels which are the mainstay for getting food and supplies, including baby milk formula and basic staples of life into Palestine, the Jewish Voice for Peace has sent an email saying that the New York Times has run a story on Ezra Nawai, a gay Israeli Jew from an Iraqi background who is fighting for Palestinian rights. He is to be sentenced for his efforts next month in Israel. He is referred to in this post. The surprising thing, of course, is that the New York Times ran the story at all. Things do seem to be shifting. Let's hope it's true.

Under Pressure in the Gaza Strip
by Emily Ratner

Today I went to the tunnels in Rafah. I climbed into a loop of rope attached to a wire on a pulley and was lowered 7 meters to the tunnel floor. When I stood up the man next to me signaled me to follow him into a narrow passage, maybe three times as thick as my torso. Soon I was walking, crouched, behind him. When I turned back I saw some of my friends beginning to follow. But the tunnel must have taken a bend a few meters later, because when I turned a second time I saw only the wire suspending small lights along the tunnel wall. My guide beckoned again, and again I followed, promising myself I would turn back at the next light. But when we got there I saw more lights ahead, and I thought maybe he was taking me to a room, or another chimney out of the tunnel, and I followed further.

We continued this way for I don’t know how many meters, and soon I couldn’t hear anyone behind me, only a murmur that might have been distant voices ahead. Each point of light held the promise of hot sun and desert air, but each time I arrived to find only more tunnel, and a hand imploring me to follow deeper.

Soon my legs were burning with wanting to stand. It became so dark in the long lapses between electric lights that my guide had to take my hand as we felt our way along. So many times I said “Khalas”—I have seen enough. But at each light he would signal that it was just a little further.

Finally, I was finished. I could not remember why I had followed, and why I had continued to follow. I’d lost track of how many lights we’d passed, and had no idea how far the journey back would be. My guide pointed to a light maybe 8 meters ahead, and this light was different. Brighter, and more yellow. I knew this time we’d almost reached our destination, perhaps the end of the tunnel and the relative freedom of Egyptian sun and sand, but I couldn’t continue. “Khalas,” I said, and this time he knew I meant it. I turned and began to feel my way back.

Soon I was tearing through the tunnel, tripping over the uneven floor and scratching my fingers on the packed dirt and sand of the walls. Craggy sections of the ceiling tore at my hijab but I would not slow. My guide grabbed my hips to steady me and force a more even pace, and so I dragged him with me. Finally he pulled me to my knees inside one of the occasional wooden box frames supporting the more than 20 feet of packed sand and dirt above us. He sat down next to me and pushed his open palms up through the air in front of his chest and then down, showing me how to breathe. “Shway,” he said, “slow.”

Nearly everyone I’ve talked to in Gaza has told me that the effects of the siege and the massacre have been worst for women and children and I believe them, but 7 meters below the rubble of Rafah and the rumbling of the tractors that push this endless sand away from the mouth of each new tunnel, my thoughts turn to Gaza’s men.

The guide kneeling beside me, and thousands like him, cheat death every day in these tunnels as they journey back and forth between Rafah, Egypt and Rafah, Gaza, one city divided by a border and a cruel siege. And nearly every day, at least one of these men loses his gamble and does not come home. The siege has kept out everything but a painfully short list of humanitarian items. Building materials, a wide variety of foodstuffs, ink and paper, and so many other necessities are not permitted to enter Gaza. If the people of Gaza are to have anything close to a life, to bathe and eat and rebuild and learn, they must purchase this contraband illegally, and someone must illegally import it.

The Israeli government claims that the tunnels must be bombed because they are used to smuggle weapons, but in reality the tunnels are almost always used for anything but. After the massacre the tunnels brought lions and tigers to replace the ones loosed by the attack on Gaza’s largest zoo (Can you imagine? Amid all the bombing and chaos, wild animals running through the streets of Gaza!) Many people have told me the next big project is to smuggle in cars, a necessity in a place where virtually every vehicle is subject to regular breakdowns.

The tunnels provide a necessary lifeline for the people of Gaza, but as my guide patiently awaited the end of my panic attack, I began to realize that they are born out of another necessity: The tunnels offer an opportunity for men to reclaim their place as protectors and providers in a society where occupation and siege make those roles virtually impossible.

A few days earlier, Palestinian psychiatrist Eyad Sarraj told me of a game he plays with his young nephew called “Arab and Jew.” In the game, his nephew would play a Palestinian, chasing Dr. Sarraj around the yard and pretending to throw rocks at him. Not long ago, they played the game again, but this time his nephew insisted on playing the Israeli. Shortly into the game the small boy leapt onto his uncle’s back and began to beat him as hard as he could. Once Dr. Sarraj was able to escape his nephew’s brutal attack, he immediately asked his sister about the change in her son’s behavior. She told him that the child had recently witnessed his father humiliated and severely beaten by Israeli soldiers. Dr. Sarraj tells this anecdote to illustrate a growing trend he’s seen in young Palestinians: As parents, especially fathers, are humiliated, beaten, arrested, and otherwise disempowered in front of their children by Israeli soldiers, they lose their status as protectors in their children’s eyes. Desperate for signs of strength in terrifyingly unstable and dangerous times, young Palestinians find a new role model: the Israeli soldier.

Dr. Sarraj finds the origin of this trend in the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, when Israelis began ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their land. Since 1948, the trauma of losing agency over one’s life and living conditions has become, in the words of Dr. Sarraj, “a part of the Palestinian psyche.” This trauma, which has grown with every violent incursion into Palestinian communities, strongly intensified with the first Intifada in 1987, when Israeli soldiers mercilessly beat children armed only with rocks, and also beat and arrested their parents. The psychiatrist notes that many of these children grew up to embrace more violent weapons in the second Intifada in 2000, a response to the brutal abuse and humiliation they’d witnessed. More than 45% of Palestinian children have watched Israeli soldiers beat and/or arrest their fathers, and the trend Dr. Sarraj describes has grown exponentially since the December/January massacre. Since the attacks, more than 75% of the youth of Gaza do not believe their parents can protect them from Israeli soldiers. Surrounded by the rubble of schools, hospitals, and whole neighborhoods, and with virtually no hope of employment upon graduation (the siege-induced unemployment rate is 80%), it is hard for the youth of Gaza to envision much of a future. And it is virtually impossible for their parents, highly educated but lacking agency and employment, to give them hope.

The trauma that is now part of the Palestinian psyche, that forces Palestinian youth to seek the new role model of the Israeli soldier, can be seen at its worst when these children grow up. Dr. Sarraj tells another story from a brief detention in a Palestinian prison. In the cell next to his, he heard a Palestinian guard interrogating a prisoner. The guard’s voice became louder and more frantic as his anger grew, until he began screaming at the prisoner in Hebrew. Dr. Sarraj later learned that the guard had been severely tortured in an Israeli prison. In this moment of uncontrollable anger, the guard became his tormentor.

Stories like these are all too frequent in Gaza, where weddings and graduations are celebrated with a soundtrack of constant Israeli bombing and shelling. My own such story came on a beautiful afternoon on the beach, while eating lunch with a large family. One of the older sons, maybe in his late teens, asked me to follow him to a small tent tucked behind the rows of family tents facing the Mediterranean. The son sat me down at a cheap metal table that had been transformed into a desk, decorated with a poster of young men murdered by Israelis, a couple of notebooks, and a mug holding some pens and a small Hamas flag. The man seated behind the desk and surrounded by young boys anxiously awaiting their next task made it clear that he would interrogate me, and sent one of the boys to find an interpreter on the beach. The son who had brought me beamed at my side, occasionally picking up the Coke my interrogator had presented me, encouraging me to drink more. After about ten minutes my interpreter arrived, another boy in his late teens. My interrogator spoke in a serious voice, but his questions were the same as those I’d received from students and families, curious about my country, a source of so much fascination and suffering for the people of Gaza. “What do Americans think of Palestinians? Who do Americans blame for the ‘war’ in December and January? What does American media say about the people of Gaza, and about Palestinians? What do Americans think of Bush? What will Obama do differently?” Throughout my “interrogation” I could not distract myself from the image of this authority figure, digging his toes into the sand, surrounded by a volunteer staff of young boys, protecting the beach by investigating a camera-toting foreigner from behind his make-shift desk and small Hamas flag.

This story is not representative of my experiences with Hamas. I do not know my interrogator’s official role within the government, if he actually has one, and I expect that the members of Hamas who were tasked with protecting and providing for our delegation would have been angered to learn of my unauthorized interrogation, an inconvenience they would have spared me. But this story stays with me because of the trauma Dr. Sarraj describes, which was palpable long before he described it to me. In detaining and interrogating a foreigner whose American passport can take her anywhere in the world and could have rescued her from the December/January massacre, this man momentarily seized his agency. In front of his young, eager audience, he claimed his place as their protector.

The phenomenon Dr. Sarraj illustrates is not only visible in individuals. One need only look at the devastated building of the Hamas-led Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to see the Israelis’ humiliation and abuse on a governmental scale. Of all of the destroyed buildings I’ve seen in Gaza, in some ways this one haunts me most. These walls housed a democratically elected government that has endured a vicious siege since 2006, fought off an attempted coup, and has struggled with great patience and flexibility to be seen as legitimate by the global community. All of these pressures combined are enough to destroy a government, but they are magnified exponentially by the horrific massacre that stole the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians and forced the PLC to meet in a tent behind their largely collapsed building. I think often of the meetings held in this vulnerable tent: I wonder if sometimes the pressures bearing down on these legislators simply become too much, and they are unable to breathe, to force their words out into the hot air of a Gaza parking lot.

Just as the task of protecting and providing for one’s children in Gaza is nearly impossible, the task of Hamas to fulfill the role of protector and provider for 1.5 million people is truly Herculean. Every day the leaders of this government wake up to regular attacks from one of the best-funded militaries in the world and a global misrepresentation as a terrorist organization that took power by force. Because of the horrific Israeli siege Hamas cannot provide rebuilding materials to the people of Gaza, or even feed the people who voted them into power based on the party’s history of providing necessary social services to the Gaza community. The vast majority of food aid that reaches Gaza comes from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), tasked with caring for Gaza’s refugees (80% of the population). While UNRWA supplies vital necessities to the slowly starving people of Gaza, their presence is a constant reminder of what Hamas cannot provide. It would be a lie to say that Hamas is loved by everyone in Gaza. But every action for which Hamas is condemned by western media must be understood in the context of the inhuman Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing, which have become so commonplace and expected we sometimes forget they exist. With the siege, their complicity in the attempted coup, and the December/January massacre, the Israeli government has stolen the agency of the government the people of Gaza chose.

While Dr. Sarraj’s explanation of the societal effects of trauma explains so much about my interactions in Gaza, about the youth who only want to be photographed pretending to shoot guns at my camera and the gaming centers whose violent advertisements are omnipresent on Gaza’s city streets, the brilliant professor and one-state activist Haidar Eid makes an important counterpoint to Dr. Sarraj’s theory. While Dr. Eid agrees with much of what the psychiatrist describes, he insists that by attributing every action Palestinians take to Israeli-induced trauma, one steals the last ounce of agency Palestinians have. When Palestinians take up arms against their occupiers, or smuggle food and tigers through tunnels, they resist the inhuman Israeli occupation and reclaim some of their agency. As a Palestinian soldier told a delegation member, “What else are we supposed to do? We cannot sit by when they come to kill our families. We have to protect them.”

It has been more than 12 hours since I left the tunnel, and I still can’t catch my breath. Dusty walls of packed earth occupy my eyelids, and whenever I near sleep the walls begin to crumble. When we finally neared the tunnel entrance and I could see real, natural light maybe 15 meters away, we heard a distant rumble. Bombs dropped from Israeli planes perhaps, or a partial tunnel collapse somewhere, or more mechanical digging. All of these things happen almost every day in Rafah, and then there are the near-daily silent threats, like the poisonous gas the Egyptian military releases into tunnel entrances before permanently sealing them. As I scrambled out of the narrow tunnel passage and into the loop of rope that would pull me up to the surface and back to a reality where my American passport and some patience guarantee my safe passage across the Rafah border, I watched my guide shrink below me, before ducking back into the bend of the tunnel and resuming his daily routine.

Emily Ratner is an organizer and mediamaker based in New Orleans. She is currently traveling in Gaza with a delegation of journalists, organizers and human rights workers from the US South.She can be reached at emily@nolahumanrights.org and www.patoisfilmfest.org

mud bricks mixed with straw and resilience

Photo by Eva Bartlett
Which century do we live in? Why is it that one of the most advanced nations in the world, in terms of education, health, gross national profit, military, the arts and a slew of other ways in which we measure our life is given the support to make sure that another group of people live in third world conditions? This is a deliberate policy. This poverty and lack of quality of life is not due to natural disaster or the misfortune of being born in an area devoid of fertile ground and fishing seas.

Israel is still not allowing concrete into Gaza. As Israel bombed and shelled Gaza during its war on the same, houses and infrastructure, including schools, universities, mosques, United Nations compounds, have been destroyed. The international community (people from everywhere) and the governments of countries pledged aid, delivered aid, but what is the good if the aid cannot be let in?

Well, the Palestinians are very resilient, and they are building their houses from water and mud. With our energy resources rapidly dwindling, maybe the last laugh will ultimately rest with them as they retain the skills needed to live in a world without modern conveniences. I really don't think we should be putting it to the test, though.

The story is here, from In Gaza. The picture is lifted from the blog, too, and there are many more wonderful pictures.

Jihad el-Shaar is pleased with his mud-brick house in the Moraj district of Gaza. The 80-square metre home is a basic one-storey, two-bedroom design, with a small kitchen, bathroom and sitting room, made mostly with mud and straw.

“My wife and our four daughters and I were living with family, but it was overcrowded, impossible. We knew we had to build a home of our own,” Shaar said. “We waited over two years for cement but because of the siege there is none available. What could we do, wait forever?”

So he decided to do it with mud.


Building earthen structures like bread ovens and small animal pens is a technique many Palestinians are familiar with, but extending the method to houses isn’t a notion that has taken hold in Gaza.

Jihad el-Shaar got the idea from his travels in Asia and the Middle East. “I travelled in Bangladesh, India, Yemen, Turkey…they all use some similar technique of building houses from earth. All you need is clay, sand and some straw.” These he mixed with water, and poured into brick moulds that were left in the sun to dry for three days. Good enough to build a fine house with.

While some Gaza residents speak of shame at the way life has ‘gone backwards’ with the siege – using cooking oil in cars, wood fires for cooking, and horse and donkey carts for transportation – Shaar is proud of his clay home.

“In the winter it is warm, and in the summer it will be cool. There’s no problem with leaking, and this type of house will last a lifetime,” he says. “And it was cheap to build. A house this size made of cement would cost around 16,000 dollars at least. This one, because it was made with simple, local materials cost just 3,000 dollars.”

Prior to Israel’s crippling siege on Gaza cement would have cost 20 shekels (about five dollars) a bag. Now, with cement among the many banned items, what does make it into Gaza through tunnels under the Egypt border costs ten times as much.Read more.

___________________________________________________________________
I keep posting the pictures of these non-violent protests in the West Bank. They are against the apartheid wall, and the settlements which keep encroaching on Palestinian land. They're very inventive and deserve far more attention. Even if the wider world may not know very much about this situation, I think it should pique the curiosity as to why so many Israelis and internationals join Palestinians in protest.

A group of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals build a shack on the lands of the Jabari family in protest of the illegal building of settlements, next to a shack that was put by the settlers a few weeks ago, close to the settlement of Kyriat Arba, in Hebron, on 8.05.2009. The settlers tried to destroy the shack and put it on fire but they did not manage. They also repeatedly attacked and provoked the group.The Israeli soldiers and police arrived at the scene and violently pushed the group away while the settlers were allowed to stay. 8 Israelis, 2 Palestinians were detained. Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org

A Palestinian throws away a torch that was sent by some settlers who attempted to set h[sic] [fire to] the protest Palestinian shack on fire during an action against the settlements in Hebron on 8.05.2009...The settlers tried to destroy the shack and put it on fire but they did not manage... Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org

An Israeli activist argues with an Israeli settler during an action against the settlements in Hebron on 8.05.2009... Photo by: Anne Paq/Activestills.org

farewell

A touching farewell post, April: Kids on wheels in Jabalia & other farewells with some beautiful photographs from the Tales to Tell blogger. The international volunteers who make their way into Palestine are extraordinary people. This one stayed throughout the war on Gaza, and if I remember correctly, is returning home to study midwifery. Also if I remember correctly, she is not even twenty-five yet, and she has definitely seen and done more than most of us do in a lifetime.


Interesting reports on Darfur, also. Muzzlewatch
An atrocity which needs no exaggeration (from 2007), also from Muzzlewatch, commenting on Jon Voight's speech at Durban II. Jesus wept. Or any other holy and compassionate person.

flying kites

From the active stills group.

An archive photo, taken on 25/7/2008, shows Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahme (ElFeel) during a protest against the wall in the village of Bilin.

Bassam was murdered by the Israeli army [17 April, 2009], during a protest against the apartheid wall in Bilin. He was shot with an extended range teargas projectile directly at him from a distance of 30 meters. Bassem was critically injured in the stomach and died not long after in a hospital in Ramallah.

That is a similar teargas projectile, and a similar way of targeting, that caused American, Tristan Anderson's, criticial condition.

*Note: I see that Israeli Uri Avnery at Gush Salom has commented on this. His post is short. It follows in full (my emphasis, apart from the title):

Bil'in demonstrator Bassam Abu Rahme killed – soldiers' trigger-happiness inspired from higher up
Already for four years, demonstrations are taking place at the village of Bil'in, to protest the "Separation Fence" which robs the villagers of much of their land, and whose route is in blatant violation of the Supreme Court ruling. Also before, the army used violence to disperse the Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators. But, until this morning no one got killed. The killing of Bassam Abu Rahme today, a Bil'in resident, follows upon the severe head wounding of American peace activist Tristan Anderson a month ago, and constitutes a grave escalation.

This escalation was not caused by the demonstrators' behavior, in which there had been no change, but to new instructions given to the military forces on the ground. Whether by explicit instructions or by a tacit nod and a new "spirit of the commander", the finger on the trigger was loosed and authorization given for the tear gas containers as lethal missiles.

This is the harsh heritage of the Gaza War and the mass killings which it entailed. To this is added the odious spirit of the new government, which confronts the entire world and places a racist provocateur in charge of its foreign affairs - not to speak of the new-old Defence Minster Ehud Barak, who is responsible for a lot of bloodshed.

I am lucky, why can't my luck be extended to all?

I am lucky, and I do not think I really have any idea of what many other people face day to day. It is so far out of my experience. Update from the Palestinian mother who was denied access, by Egypt, to return to her Gazan home. She is back in the U.S., and it seems that with this refusal, she is on her way to being made one of the worldwide number of refugees without a country or state.

water tanks

Read the story here, and if you want to learn more about the restrictions Palestinians face when trying to access and store water, read here

Also, the latest from Tales to Tell. The writer was assisting medics during the war on Gaza. She is talking about the lives of some of the people she worked with and knows.

We have very much enjoyed our course and our teachers, who have found time for us in amongst their long hours and low pay (if any, many medics are volunteers) and Red Crescent job cuts (it hardly seems the time, does it.) Two out of three of our teachers have been in Israeli prison, but then what Palestinian man hasn’t. One told us of coming back via Egypt, having gone outside with his wife to get medical treatment for his small son who has cerebral palsy, and being arrested as he entered Gaza, back when the border was more directly controlled by Israel and not ostensibly by Egypt.

He then spent 3 years in prison, a lot of it sharing a small room with ten people; their sentences 25 years, 99 years. While he was in there, his father died, and his fourth child was born.

“What were you in prison for?” I asked.
“I don’t know exactly,” he said. “I think it was because we picked up a dead fighter in the ambulance, and I locked his gun temporarily in my office because the only other option was to leave it lying where we found him, which would have been irresponsible. Somehow they turned that into the accusation that I was selling weapons.”

Another teacher, when he was a teenager, was doing very well in high school and planned to study medicine in Turkey, but then was picked up for throwing stones at soldiers (in David-and-Goliath tradition, except for stones thrown by lads other than David usually being completely ineffective, since soldiers wear body armour). He was imprisoned as punishment, and banned from leaving Gaza. So he never did become a doctor.

I went to visit the Jordanian Field Hospital yesterday, in my quest to find some help for two children C met during the war, who need kidney transplants. Everything was set up for them to travel to France, back in January, but Egypt wouldn’t let them out. Kidney transplants can’t be done in Gaza, and infuriatingly, neither can tissue typing, from what I’ve found out so far. That’s how you find out who your donors can be. Even if we get permission for the kids and their donors to go out for surgery, how do they know who to take with them to be the donors, without knowing who is medically compatible? Anyway, further communication with the Jordanian folks might allow us to make some progress. Read more.

internationals arrested

Keeping in mind the ongoing settler violence, over which the Israeli army rarely does anything except make sure that the settlers do not get injured,and the ongoing shooting at farmers trying to tend to their fields, or in fact the obstruction of them even getting there in the first place, there is this rather disturbing news release from ISM:

A German national and an Italian national were taken by Israeli forces while accompanying farmers at 11am. Both individuals have been taken to the police station at Kyrat Arba. Palestinian farmers in At-Tuwani rely on the presence of International and Israeli human rights workers to mitigate violence from settlers.

As soldiers in the area frequently ignore settler violence and rarely interfere to protect the farmers, international volunteers provide support for the Palestinians. The grazing action began around 8.30 am, and the German and Italian nationals were arrested at 11am.

At-Tuwani is a village of 300 Palestinians located in South Hebron Hills. Residents make their living through farming, primarily wheat, barley, olives and grazing sheep. At-Tuwani is also one of several villages under daily threat from extremist settlers living in the area. Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills are daily nonviolently resisting settlement expansion and violence at the hands of settlers and soldiers.

Internationals accompany Palestinians as they perform agricultural work on their land and in other nonviolent demonstrations. Internationals accompany Palestinians as they work their land, use video to document settlers, soldiers, and police, and intervene as Palestinians request.

Palestinians have always been vulnerable under the occupation, and the crimes committed against them are far greater in number, and usually, in viciousness, than those committed against internationals. However, considering reports about American volunteer Tristan Anderson, who was critically injured when a tear gas canister was fired into his forehead, state that he was deliberately targeted, it seems that it may be getting just as dangerous for all internationals. I think that after Gaza, and now that Lieberman is just another further extreme face to an already extreme government, and the world's democratic governments have no problem with what Israel is doing, and in fact, provide the aid and arms for them to continue, peace in our time will not be a possibility for either territory, I'm afraid, and maybe not for the whole world.

There have been horrendous crimes on both sides, one cannot deny it, however, the longer people are treated like animals and their plight, and the reasons for their plight, is ignored by the people who could make a difference, the worse the problem will grow. How can it possibly get any better?

Below are some images from some of the peaceful demonstrations that have been held. There are many peaceful demonstrations, but that does not mean that they are not dispersed with violence. It would be good if our media could show some of these images, too. Rocks and stones get thrown at the Israeli military, but I contend that rocks are not much of a match for the Israeli rubber bullets, sound bombs, tear gas, and live ammunition, which is often used.

Photographas are taken from the active stills flickr page, and information on them can be found here


and here.

honey, the cat

Alladin Sisalem and his cat honey
From Chroniques de Palestine

Leila Al Haddad a Palestinian citizen of Gaza, well known blogger and journalist, is currently being held with her two young children in the Cairo airport. Al Haddad arrived in Egypt from the United States intending to go to Gaza via the Raffa, Egypt border crossing.

Al Haddad holds both a Palestinian and an American passport. She is being told by the Egyptian port authorities that they have orders not to allow any Palestinians with residency abroad into Egypt and that her and her children will be sent back to the US.

Al Haddad’s husband is a Palestinian refugee, currently living in the U.S.; Because his right to return to Palestine is denied by Israel the couple have lived together on and off with Leila and the children living In Gaza for the rest of the time.

The Raffa border crossing is the only way Al Haddad can get into Gaza as Israel has blocked all sea and air access to Gaza as well as the land crossings under it’s control.

On Al Haddad’s blog, a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com, she describes “the trials of raising my children between spaces and identities; displacement and occupation; and everything that entails from potty training to border crossings. My husband is a Palestinian refugee denied his right of return to Palestine, and thus OUR right to family life. Together, we endure a lot, and the personal becomes political.”

I referred to a similar situation in this post. People want to leave, or have to leave, because living in Palestine under occupation is dire, especially in Gaza, which is still under economic siege and has just been destroyed by the Israeli onslaught. They want to leave or have to leave to get work, to educate themselves. They want to leave, they have to leave, because Article 13 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights says:

■(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

■(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

However, as mentioned before, if a Palestinian has not been residing in Palestine for six years, they are no longer consider residents of Palestine, by the Israeli forces, that is. If immigration of Egypt and Israel are refusing those who need to get into Palestine to retain and maintain their right to live their, then it directly contravenes both of the two points above. But what's new?

As I wrote before, the Israeli Law of Return,

[which was]...enacted in 1950, [and which]... gives Jews, those of Jewish ancestry, and their spouses the right to migrate to and settle in Israel and gain citizenship

Israel was established in 1948. Palestinians were on that land. As seen by cases in Australia's handling of refugees under the Howard government, Palestinians are a people without an official country or state. The woman above has dual passports, what of those who don't? Once they have left Palestine, or Israel has expelled them, where do they go? And if they go somewhere where the government will not accept them, then where are they returned to?(As has happened to asylum seekers in Australia*, even though the asylum seeker is in Australia because non-acceptance has happened in Kuwait, Egypt and many other places). The western world really seems responsible for a lot of this mess, especially for not upholding the rights of humans beings and for not insisting on the application of international law and principles to all people.

*Indefinite detention permitted by Australian law

Mr Al-Kateb was born in Kuwait to parents of Palestinian origin. He arrived in Australia by boat. After two years in immigration detention he decided he wanted to be removed from Australia. The Australian Government tried to send him to Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Syria as well as to the Palestinian Territories, but none of those countries would give him a passport. He was stuck in detention because the Australian Government couldn’t arrange for him to leave. When Mr Al-Kateb applied to the courts for his release, the Australian High Court found that Australian law permits the indefinite detention of asylum seekers. Mr Al-Kateb was eventually given a bridging visa and now lives in the Australian community.

However, this guy, who was denied asylum, and who returned to Gaza was not so lucky: Asylum seeker shot dead in Gaza in 2008.

A Palestinian asylum seeker who told Australian authorities he was frightened to return to the Middle East has been killed in the Gaza Strip, refugee advocates say.

The Federal Court in 2002 ordered Akram Al Masri be released from immigration detention, ruling the federal government did not have the right to detain him ahead of his deportation, despite his having been denied a temporary protection visa.

He left Australia a short time later.

At the time, Mr Al Masri said he feared for his life if forced to return to Israel but said he'd rather be returned home than go back to the detention centre.
...
"The previous Australian government is responsible for another terrible crime by forcing refugees to be sent back to Gaza when they knew the situation there," [Sydney-based Social Justice Network spokesman Jamal Daoud said].

"This guy had problems with Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He claimed to have been tortured and the previous government knew all that and still forced him out.

"It is a tragedy because we have lost another young person who could have been a good Australian citizen."

Other Palestinians have been granted asylum, and have stayed within Australia. There is a fascinating story that Arnold Zable, award winning author and president of the Melbourne chapter of PEN, tells of Alladin Sisalem, a poor guy stuck on one of our outpost processing islands, all by himself for ten months, except for the guards of course. We had the Pacific Solution, which was sending our asylum seekers kilometres of the shore, thousands of kilometres: to Nauru, Manus and Christmas Island. Christmas Island is still being used. Initially, under Howard, human rights workers, lawyers and reporters were not allowed to the islands. Additionally, it is incredibly expensive to go. Unbelievable.

Sisalem's story can be found in detail here. It is quite a story, and doesn't begin at Manus, but that is where the Australian government got involved, or tried not to get involved. For ten months he was the only person left in a detention camp that the Australian government had on Manus island, off the coast of Papua New Guinea. He was eighteen months in the camp in total, and he had also spent considerable amounts of time seeking asylum in other countries. In 2003, the Green Left Weekly ran a report including the following quotes:

The way the government has been able to wash its hands of Sisalem exemplifies the role that the offshore detention centres have played for the federal government. Asylum seekers there have been at the mercy of the immigration department, without access to Australia's courts or advice from lawyers.

The points made by Russell Skelton in the July 29 Australian apply as much to Manus Island as to the Nauru detention camp, which he said: "It suits the Howard government's callous purposes perfectly. The government has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent Australians putting faces to those locked up in Australian detention centres. It would not do for voters to think they were normal, if desperate, human beings. On Nauru this policy is easy to enforce. Quite apart from the isolation, lawyers, human rights advocates and journalists have been denied visas to Nauru."

Only one journalist was successful in reaching the Manus Island prison. In January 2002, the Sydney Morning Herald's Greg Roberts posed as a tourist to get access to the island, and was able to report a history of suicide attempts, breakouts and hunger strikes by asylum seekers, as well as widespread, potentially fatal diseases, including malaria, typhoid fever and tuberculosis.

Anyway, in May 2004, the government closed the centre (despite saying it already had closed it), issued Sisalem with a humanitarian visa, and the whole saga finally had a happy ending which Mr. Al-Masri's did not.

Apart from being an award winning author and president of the Melbourne chapter of PEN, Arnold Zable is also Jewish. His Polish parents fled Europe before the Nazi invasion. And he has explored these themes in his writing. He has also run workshops for migrants and refugees, and has . . . spent considerable time with refugees held in Australian detention centres. He gave a wonderful 2009 Basia Leinkram Lecture, podcast here on Radio National (podcasts are kept back to 2006). I think the he Basia Leinkram lecture is is sponsored by B'nai B'rith, Anti-Defamation Commission. Zable tells many extraordinary stories, including details of the Tampa scandal. At about the 29 minute mark, Zable tells of having dinner with Sisalem, once Sisalem has been allowed into Australia. Sisalem is cooking dinner for him. On Manus, Sisalem had a cat, his only companion apart from the guards, I guess. The cat's name was Honey. On the day that Zable meets Sisalem, the cat had just come out of quarantine, so Zable got to meet it.

Alladin Sisalem and his cat honey
The name of the lecture is The Humanising Power of Story. Zable tells how an SBS reporter eventually got to talk to Sisalem and promised to return the following day. Sisalem had a nightmare, and it was the worst nightmare he had ever had. He dreamt that the reporter would not return, and nobody would ever hear his story, would ever know who he was. Referring back to the quote above:

"The government has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent Australians putting faces to those locked up in Australian detention centres. It would not do for voters to think they were normal, if desperate, human beings,"

Sisalem's fears were not without merit. Hopefully, Australian has shifted into a more humanitarian policy in regards to asylum seekers. There are still faults, but nothing seems to be as draconian as it was under Howard. I could be wrong, of course.

Remember Honey the cat, and Leila Al Haddad, who is being denied permission to enter her homeland. The human face is what is missing in our assessment of what is happening in Palestine, and in fact, in most conflicts around the world, and in our own countries, where it is all too easy to blame problems on 'the other'. Zable explores that concept and others in his lecture, and I hope this post reflects that to a degree.
There is also a report of Sisalem in Australia from this Age article. It contains the photograph I have featured.

11 April Note: 9th April update from a mother from gaza. She was being deported, at the time of her writing, denied entry into her home.

some of my best friends are books

Many of my friends and I share a love of books. Though I don't think I realised it when I was younger, books really do open up more worlds, and more worlds, and more worlds. When I was a kid, I just read instead of playing softball, or netball, or volleyball, though I did that too in limited amounts (it was compulsory). Not only did I read, but I used to write. Both my sister and I did. We would sit on the tin roof of the shed after climbing the paperbark tree. We used to take the white bark of the tree, and pretend it was the breast meat from Kentucky Fried Chicken. We had small notebooks, and we wrote down stories, some that we made up, and others, like The Three Little Pigs, which had already been made up.

We also used to sit on the cement lid of the old septic tank (pipes had been laid a couple of years earlier) and we'd have our Enid Blyton books, all of which had pictures that could be coloured, not that I think you were meant to do that with them. Our game was to delve into a bag of textas we had and pull out whichever colour our hand landed upon, and to then colour whichever part of the picture we were focussing on that shade. It was a real bummer when you pulled out dark green followed by navy blue followed by cacky brown. Well, I never was much of an artist.


Another of our favourite ways to wile away the time was to scour through our nan's magazines for names. Both my sister and I had ring-bound diaries from the year before, which our parents had not got around to using. Each two pages was a letter of the alphabet. We would paste names for each letter. Only girls names, mind you. No boys allowed. There was a designer popular in those days, with pink hair, Zandra Ross. Pink hair was radical in the seventies. Thank God for her. Zoe was not a popular name in those days. I don't know what we did for Q or X. Maybe we cheated with Queen Elizabeth - she certainly featured enough in the Women's Day and the Women's Weekly. For X, obviously there are lovely names around such as Xanthe, but I wasn't to meet one of those until many years in the future. Maybe the page was left as blank as a slate, as the saying goes.


And so, that brings me to the gist and the grist of this post. Look at the faces of these kids:

The Tamer Institute for Community Education, which promotes reading and works in the West Bank and Gaza, won The 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. I referred to this briefly in a post, here.

The jury's reasons for awarding the world's richest literature prize are as follows (my emphasis):

With perseverance, courage and resourcefulness, the Tamer Institute has stimulated Palestinian children’s and young people’s love of reading and creativity for two decades. Under difficult circumstances, the Institute carries out reading promotion work of an unusual breadth and versatility. In the spirit of Astrid Lindgren, the Tamer Institute sees the power of words and the strength of books, stories and the imagination as important keys to the courage to face life, self-esteem and tolerance.

A description of the Tamer Institute is as follows (my emphasis):

Focusing principally, on the rights to education, identity, freedom of expression, and access to information, Tamer works across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, primarily targeting children and young people and developing alternatives and supplements to formal education. Our programs promote reading and writing on national and regional levels, development of children’s literature, and creative self-expression and youth empowerment through advocacy and community development initiatives. Our philosophy is centered on the idea that learning environments for children and young people can only be created among youth who are encouraged to read, write, and participate in dialogue while working in small groups united by a common dream and joint aspirations. In order to increase community learning, youth should also be involved in action at the community level, and come out with a tangible end product.

This is the seventh time the award has been given out. Previous winners have been Australia's Sonya Harnett (2008), Phillip Pullman (2005) and Maurice Sendak (2003). Other winners can be found here. This is the first time the award has been given to an organisation, though an organisation has always been able to qualify for the award, and Tamer has been nominated since 2004.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the world’s largest prize for children’s and young people’s literature. The prize totals SEK 5 million (equivalent to approx. USD 578,000, 445,000 EUR) and is awarded annually to a single recipient or to several. Authors, illustrators, storytellers and those active in reading promotion may be rewarded. The prize aims to strengthen and increase interest in children’s and young people’s literature globally. The award is designed to strengthen children’s rights at global level. An expert jury names prize-winners who are nominated by institutions and organisations worldwide. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is administered by the Swedish Arts Council.

Astrid Lindgren wrote Pippi Longstocking in 1944. Originally it was a story she told her sick daughter. She later wrote it down, when she, herself, was incapacitated (well, sprained ankle).

How could a girl from the village of Vimmerby in the Swedish countryside end up writing stories that touch people in such different cultures? Stories that comfort a girl in Poland, and make a boy in Thailand laugh? The answer is fairly simple: a good story is a good story anywhere. If it touches our humanity, makes us dream, makes us laugh so much it hurts, then it makes no difference if the comfortably chubby man in the best years of his life is called Kalli, Kljukec or Karlsson on the Roof.

Astrid once said that she always wrote for her inner child. By doing that, she reached out to the whole world.

Tamer particularly focuses on children as they are 60% of the Palestinian population, though children's (and adult's) rights to education, identity, freedom of expression, and access to information is something that shouldn't have to be fought for, and definitely something that should be encouraged.

In towns, villages and refugee camps:
A group of children are sitting round a table in the library in Ramallah. The librarian starts to tell a story: “Once upon a time, there was a fisherman who was no longer able to catch any fish.” A child continues: “He told his son that they had no money.” And so the story continues from child to child. When it is over, each child illustrates its sentence and the story becomes a book that is put on the shelf for other children to read.

At the same time, in Hebron, eleven librarians are studying classification, computer science and creative writing. And in a village nearby, thirty women are listening to a reading of Selma Lagerlöf’s The Changeling. A big discussion breaks out. Was the mother right or wrong to be nice to the young troll?

These are some examples of the activities carried out by the Tamer Institute for Community Education, an independent organisation working in the West Bank and Gaza. The organisation, which has received aid from sources including Unicef, Save the Children and the Anna Lindh Foundation, was founded in 1989 and is based in Ramallah.

There is a lot more information about its initiatives here, including the meaning behind its name.

I cannot get through to the Tamer Institute, though I did previously. I don't know if my computer is glitchy, or if it is the link, but this link is correct and there is a lot of information on their pages. I hope it works by the time you come to read this. Just in case, the address is www.tamerinst.org. or this might work better: http://www.tamerinst.org/index.php

Renad Qubbaj
General Director,
Tamer Institute for
Community EducationShe looks so happy. The award will be presented on the second of June by H.R.H Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. Let's hope that Israeli forces allow representatives of the Tamer Institute to collect it.

There are many stories and activities presented and talked about at the Tamer website, but perhaps, the most topical and recent are the stories of the children who survived the war on Gaza.

I cannot print it here, but there is a wonderful pdf available of the poster commemorating this prize. It has the children from that second photograph above (the smiling girls), and would be gorgeous to see in any library or classroom across the world.