Bethlehem, a special Christmas destination

A Christian worshipper lights a candle at the Church of the Nativity in the biblical West Bank city of Bethlehem. (AFP)

Bethlehem – Unlike 2015, when vio­lence and tension be­tween Palestinians and Israelis overshadowed Christmas celebra­tions, Bethlehem in the West Bank braced for a joyful holiday season celebrated by people of all faiths.

Being the birthplace of Jesus, as stated in the Bible, Bethlehem re­ceives tens of thousands of visitors and pilgrims, both Palestinians and foreigners.

Roman Catholics and Protes­tants celebrate Christmas on De­cember 25th while Greek, Coptic, Syrian and other Orthodox Chris­tians observe it on January 6th. For Armenian Christians, Christmas is on January 18th. That allows Beth­lehem a longer Christmas celebra­tion than other places.

Festivities traditionally kick off in early December when Bethle­hem municipality has its annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony next to the Church of the Nativ­ity, which was built over the site where Jesus is believed to have been born.

The lighting of the tree on De­cember 3rd is the second most cel­ebrated event after Christmas Eve. Thousands of people flock into Manger Square to witness the tree brightly illuminated as choirs sing Christmas carols.

“Like a cascading waterfall of stars, Bethlehem’s tree is magi­cal,” said Talal Abu Hija, a Palestin­ian from Ramallah who travelled to Bethlehem to take part in the event.

Although another tree was lit in Ramallah, which serves as the ad­ministrative capital of the Pales­tinian Authority, many described the tree lighting in Bethlehem as unrivalled.

Abu Hija said she made the trip to Bethlehem because it is the only city where she feels the Christmas spirit. “It took me two-and-a-half hours to reach Bethlehem from Ra­mallah, due to blocked roads and Israeli checkpoints, but the second I entered Bethlehem I felt trans­ported to another world,” she said.

Walking the streets and narrow alleys of the ancient city, visitors can enjoy local Arabic music and Christmas songs playing from loudspeakers and souvenir shops while sparkling ornaments care­fully dangled from surrounding trees and buildings.

The city is preparing to receive more than 10,000 tourists and pilgrims during the holiday sea­son this year, Palestinian Minis­ter of Tourism and Antiquity Rula Ma’ayaa said.

Tourism was lower than previ­ous years during the first quarter of 2016, due to political tensions, but the number of tourists increased significantly afterward. “The percentage of hotels’ occupancy reached 85% and is expected to reach 100% on December 23rd, 24th and 25th,” Ma’ayaa said in a news release.

The streets of Bethlehem exude hope and joy. With snowflake-shaped ornaments dangling above, street sellers encourage shoppers to buy Santa Claus-style hats, cre­ating sights and sounds that be­come an integral part of the city.

With temperatures dropping to around 5 degrees Celsius at night, restaurants and bars become fa­vourite refuges for those who are looking to enjoy a warm meal and a refreshing drink.

Although many Christian Pales­tinian families follow the Western tradition of serving roast turkey, there are no dishes that Palestinian Christians prepare specially to cel­ebrate Christmas, making dinner tables extremely diverse, colourful and certainly mouth-watering.

Alice Yousef, from Ramallah said her family usually opts for a perfectly stuffed lamb or qedra, a rice-based dish seasoned with nut­meg and allspices and topped with lamb chunks.

“There are, however, many sweets we only make during Christmas like ghraybeh (Middle Eastern shortbread cookies), rock cake, ginger cookies, Christmas cake and Buche de Noel.”

What is also special about the holiday season in Palestine is the first week of December, which is known as Bourbara, a celebration to commemorate Saint Barbara. Families prepare wheat porridge, which is topped with sugared fruit, chocolate and sweets, and is tradi­tionally distributed to the poor and needy.

In addition to elaborate dishes and sweets, visitors may indulge in offerings from the many food stalls on Manger Square and in the streets of Bethlehem, where they can grab a falafel sandwich and a hot cup of tea with mint leaves or sage.

On Christmas Eve, pilgrims who have no access to midnight mass in the Church of Nativity — only those with connections or who are able to get the limited tickets from Christian religious institutions can attend — often join the annual procession to Bethlehem or travel to nearby Jerusalem to visit other historical religious sites, such as the Church of Holy Sepulchre.

The Bethlehem municipal­ity chose Mercy as its Christmas theme for 2016, stressing that it is what the Palestinian people, who are struggling to have their own state and live in peace, need most.

Political disputes postpone Palestinian council elections

Palestinian high court judges in the courtroom in Ramallah on October 3rd, to announce that upcoming municipal elections will be held only in the West Bank and not in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. (Credit: Mohammed Farraj)

Ramallah – Palestinian municipal coun­cillors in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who had stepped down ahead of local elections sched­uled for early October returned to work after the government post­poned the vote for six months.

The Central Elections Commis­sion (CEC) advised Palestinian Pres­ident Mahmoud Abbas to delay the vote after the Palestinian high court ruled that the elections should go forward in the West Bank, con­trolled by Abbas’s Fatah party, but not in the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas.

The local elections, although less politically decisive than legislative and presidential elections, gener­ated regional interest when Hamas agreed to participate in the polls. It would have been the first time since 2006 the Palestinians had an election in which both Hamas and Fatah took part.

The cabinet decided that local councils should resume duties un­til elections are complete, a spokes­man said.

The decision came after months of preparations and deliberations between Palestinian factions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority and the CEC to facilitate elections last held four years ago. Hamas did not partici­pate in that vote.

Hamas said it would take part in this year’s elections to refute allega­tions that the movement sought to monopolise power in Gaza. Despite fears by many Palestinians that one faction would foil the elections, the participation and cooperation of Hamas was seen as a positive sign.

Fareed Taamallah, media coor­dinator at the CEC, said the com­mission met with all factions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and signed a code of conduct, signalling their approval of the committee’s decisions, including the implicit cooperation with Hamas in Gaza.

The CEC received 163 objections to the electoral lists in the West Bank and Gaza, he said. The com­mittee rejected 156 of the appeals and approved seven.

Fatah supporters accused Ha­mas of attempting to sabotage the elections with its objections and prevent Fatah from participating in Gaza.

After much legal wrangling, the Supreme Court on October 3rd an­nounced the elections could take place in the West Bank only and not the Gaza Strip. The date was to be within one month.

Many Fatah supporters were quick to laud the court’s decision, describing it as a victory. Some Fa­tah officials accused Hamas of try­ing to use the elections to maintain the division of power between Fa­tah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza, which has existed since the 2006 election and near civil war be­tween the two factions a year later.

“Hamas holds full responsibil­ity for crippling the democratic process by interfering in the elec­tions, submitting illegal objections and referring to illegal courts,” said Mohammad Shtayyeh, a member of the Fatah Central Committee.

Hamas said Fatah sought to avoid the elections out of fear of losing.

The CEC recommended postpon­ing the elections for six months as “such decision will further deepen the internal division between the West Bank and Gaza strip and harm the public interest and the demo­cratic process in Palestine.”

Taamallah said the CEC had two options: Have the elections in the West Bank only or to postpone the polls.

While Hamas and Fatah continue to blame each other, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza questioned the court’s decision and whether the two sides were really interested in reconciliation.

According to a poll conducted by Vision for Political Development, 67% of those surveyed said they opposed the decision to postpone the elections and 61% said Fatah supported it due to fear of internal division.

Meanwhile, 40% of respondents said Fatah made the decision to hinder the elections when Hamas announced it was participating.

Some political analysts weighed in saying the court’s ruling was politically motivated. Others sug­gested that Fatah might have feared losing the elections amid growing confusion and tension within the movement as well as its loss of sup­port on the national level.

West Bank political analyst Adel Samara said it was possible that Fatah decided to postpone the elec­tions until the Fatah conference is held to allow time to review inter­nal affairs and return stronger.

“I believe that local elections should be held by the people with­out any political interference, but I think if elections did take place, it could have resulted in more com­plications,” he said.

There is a shared belief among Palestinians that with the absence of peace on the national and social level, it is not the best time to have elections.

“How can elections be held in a fragmented country, where the legislation in Gaza is different from that in the West Bank?”, Samara asked. “While postponing the elec­tions might have contained the is­sue, it doesn’t solve it.”

Published article. 

Entrepreneurship offers hope to young Palestinians

Many young Palestinians are choosing entrepre­neurship because their education, often vocational, empowers them with the knowledge and skills to start a business, deal with a con­stricted labour market or achieve a personal goal (Credit: Malak Hasan)

Ramallah – A hashtag and a letter from the Palestinian territo­ries have been trending on social media but they did not call on the world to lift any siege, end a gruelling war or boycott Israeli settlements’ prod­ucts, as is often the case.

The hashtag #paypal4palestine demanded the world’s best-known online payment company extend its services to Palestinians in the occupied territories. Those Palestin­ians do not have access to the same service that Israeli settlers in illegal West Bank settlements use.

Along with a lengthy letter signed by more than 40 organisations and companies, including start-ups in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the hashtag drew attention to a new reality being shaped in a place of­ten seen only as a war zone and as probably one of the least healthy environments for aspiring entrepre­neurs.

The Palestinian territories con­tinue to suffer from many socio­economic, demographic, and geo­political obstacles and are plagued with an economy dependent on and controlled by Israel and donor coun­tries. Yet a growing number of Pal­estinians have been investing their money, effort and time in start-up companies.

Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-Amer­ican management consultant in Ra­mallah, said more Palestinian young people are investing money and ef­forts in start-ups because, although there is a higher risk, there is the chance for higher returns.

After the return of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the establishment of the interim Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1994, tens of thousands of Palestinians found the safety of public jobs too tempting, hindering opportunities to develop a system that favours the culture of entrepreneurship in the territories.

“People look for stability in times of crisis and, until now, although not an enabling environment or having decent salaries, the PA did provide steady income and job security,” Ba­hour said.

However, he said the drop in do­nor support to the Palestinian Au­thority, rising prices and changing lifestyles have encouraged more youth to look for better opportuni­ties, including entrepreneurship.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, unem­ployment rates reached 29.1% in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 2015. A bureau report said there were 337,000 Palestinians without jobs, with the highest unemploy­ment rate in the 20-24 age group.

Mahmoud Tafesh, chief operating officer of start-up 5Qhqh, an online platform and social media website that allows users to share humorous Arabic content from external sourc­es, said: “After I graduated from uni­versity, I realised that it is extremely hard to find a job. I wanted to be in­dependent and be my own boss.”

Tafesh said launching the compa­ny and leaving his regular job were scary moves at first. Having the support of Gaza Sky Geeks, the first start-up accelerator in Gaza, found­ed in 2011, made all the difference, he said, and 5Qhqh is playing a cru­cial role in the region’s development by creating new jobs.

The Ramallah-based Arab World for Research and Development (AW­RAD) firm noted that many young Palestinians are choosing entrepre­neurship because their education, often vocational, empowers them with the knowledge and skills to start a business, deal with a con­stricted labour market or achieve a personal goal.

Mohammed Kilany, a 34-year-old serial entrepreneur from Ramallah and founder of SnapGoal, an ap­plication that allows users to watch instant videos of football goals 20 seconds after play, said start-up cre­ation is the right career for him.

Kilany said he realised that mo­bile applications are a booming in­dustry. IT start-ups have proved to be a better alternative to traditional businesses because, aside from the physical obstacles found under oc­cupation, the cost of building an IT start-up is more affordable than in­vesting in a traditional company, he said.

Yet Kilany said that young Pal­estinians have a long way to go be­fore they can catch up with Arab countries that have become hubs for entrepreneurs. “As a developing country, entrepreneurship is a new concept. We have a disconnected ecosystem that does not encourage the shaping of a start-up commu­nity,” he explained.

Bahour said in addition to eco­nomic reasons, there seems to be a nationalistic drive behind entrepre­neurship in the Palestinian territo­ries, part of which is about resisting Israel’s occupation and sustaining livelihoods.

“Investing is one tool of non-vio­lent resistance which keeps Pales­tinians in Palestine. This is the ul­timate act of resistance, staying on the land,” he said.

Published article.

Russia unlikely to bring Abbas, Netanyahu together

A November 2015 file photo shows Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (L) talking with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN Climate Change Conference, in Le Bourget, outside Paris. (Source: TAW)

Ramallah – Although Palestinian- Israeli negotiations re­main stalled, Russia and other world powers are trying to get Palestinian and Israeli leaders to negotiate even before the United States’ traditional role as sponsor fizzles out with the approaching presidential elections.

After Israel flatly rejected an ini­tiative by French President François Hollande to restart Israeli-Pales­tinian talks, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu postponed a meeting with Palestinian Author­ity President Mahmoud Abbas that Russian President Vladimir Putin had planned to host in September.

An Israeli official said chances for the meeting to be held under Mos­cow’s auspices still exist.

“The most important thing is that Palestinians drop preconditions to the meeting,” the official told The Arab Weekly, insisting on anonym­ity, citing the sensitivity of the in­formation.

Abbas has said he was not inter­ested in another photo opportunity with the Israeli leader but wants to get to certain issues to make pro­gress towards a comprehensive peace settlement. Israel, however, insists on an open agenda for the meeting.

Despite the interpretations of Ne­tanyahu’s decision to postpone the meeting, Abbas affirmed his com­mitment to peace and readiness for any encounter with the Israeli leader.

The proposed meeting received attention because it was called for by Russia, which has gained a higher profile in the Middle East, fighting alongside forces allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad. It has also been trying to take over from where the United States left off as the main broker in Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.

The last time Abbas and Netan­yahu publicly met was in 2010. De­spite media reports of unpublicised correspondences or a handshake and greeting at international fo­rums, the two have reached a dead end with Netanyahu’s insistence on bilateral talks and Abbas’s precondi­tions.

While Abbas reiterated willing­ness to meet Netanyahu anywhere around the world, Palestinian offi­cials were quick to rebuke Netan­yahu.

Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Netanyahu “had once again shown a lack of serious­ness in searching for a just peace based on the two-state solution, es­pecially as settlement activities and Israeli violations continue against the Palestinian people”.

He said the decision to postpone the meeting with Abbas confirms Israel’s desire to evade any inter­national peace initiative to save the peace process.

Deputy-Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee Jibril Rajoub said Netanyahu wants to manage the conflict instead of end it.

Netanyahu accused Abbas, by in­sisting on preconditions, of having no desire to meet.

“Palestinian spokespeople clari­fied that they are prepared to meet but that they have conditions — the release of prisoners and they also want to know beforehand what will be the end result of the talks,” he said recently at a news conference in The Hague.

The Palestinian presidency re­iterated that moving the peace process requires Israel to meet its obligations, namely stop illegal set­tlement construction, release the fourth batch of prisoners and com­mit to international peace resolu­tions to establish a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, with East Je­rusalem as its capital.

However, the question that arises is the futility of efforts to have any direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis when both have made their positions clear.

Political analysts said the meet­ing will never take place because for Abbas to meet and shake hands with Netanyahu without achieving some of the demands will damage the Palestinian Authority’s image, which is suffering due to internal di­visions and growing criticism inside and out.

Analyst Abdul Satar Qasim said Abbas would “suffer a major loss if he meets Netanyahu without secur­ing some of the demands he insist­ed on for several years”.

On the other hand, Israel is ada­mant to keep the Palestinian cause away from the international arena because the roof of Arab and Pales­tinian demands is much lower than the international one. “This is why Israel rejected the French and Rus­sian initiatives but approved the Egyptian,” said Qasim.

There is a Palestinian understand­ing that there is an attempt to foil the French initiative by introducing a new one that would free Israel of its obligation in front of the inter­national community, especially af­ter rejecting the French initiative, which had received approval from many governments.

Analyst George Jaqaman said Egypt was doing Israel a favour by foiling the French initiative while Russia was aiming to become more involved in the peace talks due to a power vacuum since the US-led talks hit a standstill in April 2015.

While Abbas insisted that he would never relinquish his precon­ditions to negotiations, his state­ment that he was willing to meet anywhere opens questions on whether he would eventually agree to meet with no preconditions.

Jaqaman said he believed the meeting would never happen be­cause Abbas would damage his status internally and prove that the Palestinian Authority was acting for survival only, instead of doing what is best for the Palestinian people.

Netanyahu will not agree to Ab­bas’s preconditions and is more in­vested in creating a reality on the ground. Therefore, Palestinians should focus on their strategies and the expansion of the Zionist project in the Palestinian territories, espe­cially with the latest Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank, Jaqa­man explained.

Published Article.

Israel to relocate illegal settlers to private Palestinian land

Mariam Abdul Kareem won a lawsuit against an illegal settlement built on Silwad land, only to find out that the Israeli government plans to move the evacuated settlers to another plot of hers. (Photo credit: Malak Hasan)

Silwad – As the deadline set by the Israeli High Court of Justice to dismantle the largest illegal Jewish outpost in the central West Bank draws closer, the Pales­tinian landowners’ victory was in­terrupted when Israel announced a proposal to move the evacuated settlers into adjacent private Pales­tinian land.

On August 11th, months before the long-awaited evacuation of about 40 Israeli families who il­legally set up caravans on land that belongs to Palestinians from Silwad, Ein Yabrud and Taybeh in 1996, the Israeli Civil Administra­tion in the West Bank published a map in Al-Quds newspaper high­lighting in red 35 plots of what it said were “abandoned” lands.

The ad signed by Yusi Sigal, the Israeli custodian of state land and abandoned property in the West Bank, declared the land shown in the map as “abandoned” and de­manded those who claimed owner­ship to come forward with a writ­ten objection within 30 days.

The ad came a few days after a special Israeli committee recom­mended moving Amona’s settlers to nearby Palestinian land. Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandel­blit has yet to rule on the legality of the plan but he stated that work could move forward on the matter until he issues a ruling.

Israeli Minister of Defence Av­igdor Lieberman argued that the abandoned property law could be used to move settlers of Amona into land owned by Palestinians who left the West Bank decades ago.

While some of the landown­ers live in Jordan and the United States, dozens still reside in the West Bank but have been banned from their land for years, said Sil­wad Mayor Abdul Rahman Saleh.

The Israeli court gave the settlers of Amona until December 25th to evacuate the outpost and compen­sated each Palestinian landowner with about $16,000.

In 2008, the human rights or­ganisation Yesh Din petitioned the Israeli court on behalf of Palestin­ian landowners demanding the re­moval of the entire outpost.

Khairallah and Attallah Abdul Hafez are two of the eight Palestini­an landowners who won back their land. They said they are relieved to have retrieved their family’s 3.5 hectares.

Khairallah, who is unemployed but had worked in farming before his land was seized, said he was thrilled at having the chance to re­plant his land with grapes again. “We used to sell our entire harvest to the neighbouring and predomi­nantly Christian village, Taybeh,” he said. “They used the crop to make wine.”

Despite the ruling, Palestinian landowners said they are worried that the settlers might refuse to leave the land. Amona received demolition orders in 2000 and 2005 but the outpost was never evacuated, said Yesh Din.

Following the latest petition in 2008, Israel pledged to evacuate the outpost but failed to do so until the court instructed the removal of the outpost by the end of this year.

While Khairallah said he was op­timistic, new landowners, includ­ing Mariam Abdul Kareem, said they were living a nightmare. She was anxiously waiting to get back her land only to find out that the new proposal includes another plot that belongs to her husband.

“I have exhausted all words to describe how I feel Israel has no right to call our land abandoned. We’re too afraid to approach it be­cause armed Jewish settlers attack us when we do,”Abdul Kareem said.

Amona was erected in 1995 on private land next to the illegal settlement of Ofra. Since then, Pales­tinian landowners have dealt with settler violence targeting anyone who tried to access the surround­ing land.

Harbi Abdulqader, 68, said it has been 25 years since he last cultivat­ed his land, which is adjacent to a road that was paved specifically to connect Amona to Ofra.

“I have 8 dunums (0.8 hectares) of land that I tried to cultivate to no avail. I risked my life on several oc­casions and I am not ready to risk my children’s life,” he said.

He and other landowners remem­ber 50-year-old woman named Aziza who refused to leave her land when confronted by armed settlers and was killed.

Although the settlers were given the option to move to other settle­ments near Nablus, they rejected the offer and only agreed to move onto land near Amona.

Abu Saleh said the new plan was a scheme to override the court rul­ing and expand Amona.

The 35 plots are scattered across a vast area and Saleh said Israel will eventually take over all the land between the plots. “Although the plots in question are 35, Israel might eventually seize more than 150 plots,” he said.

The Palestine Liberation Organi­sation’s National Bureau to Defend Land warned against the “danger­ous” consequences of legalising il­legal outposts in the occupied West Bank, describing the actions taking place in Amona as an unprecedent­ed move aimed at swallowing more Palestinian land.

Peace Now, an Israeli non-gov­ernmental organisation, described the plan as a “crossing of a red line and a reversal of previous policies, including Likud government poli­cies, according to which private lands cannot be used for the pur­pose of settlement”.

The US State Department criti­cised the move, saying: “This is a continuation of a process that has seen some 32 outposts that are ille­gal under Israeli law being legalised in recent years.”

Published Article.

Israel lures East Jerusalem schools to abandon Palestinian syllabus

Palestinian school children walk to school in the Ras Khamis neighbourhood of east Jerusalem. TAW

Jerusalem – The Israeli Ministry of Edu­cation is offering millions of dollars to underfunded East Jerusalem schools to abandon the Palestinian Authority’s approved curriculum and switch to an Israeli syllabus.

The ministry in January said it would give more than $5 million to schools that teach the Is­raeli curriculum instead of the Pal­estinian Authority (PA) teaching plan. The extra funding will not be extended to schools using the PA curriculum, although the money is from a general budget meant to serve all East Jerusalem students regardless of what they study.

The Palestinian Authority de­scribed the plan, first reported by the Israeli daily Haaretz, as an outrage. Palestinian parents said it was a violation of students’ human rights and an attempt to create a future Palestinian generation with a “Zionist mind”.

“Israel wants to teach our chil­dren that there is no al-Aqsa mosque and that [former Israeli prime minister Ariel] Sharon is a hero. They want our children to recite verses from the Torah and memorise the Israeli national an­them,” said Ziad Shamali, chair­man of Jerusalem schools parents’ committee.

Palestinian critics said the plan was part of a long series of illegal and unjust measures that jeopard­ise the Palestinian presence in Je­rusalem.

Traditionally, Israel has been op­posed to references in Palestinian textbooks identifying Jews as ene­mies, with clerics teaching religion classes that the last showdown on Earth would pit Muslims against Jews who would hide or run for their lives but not be spared.

Since Israel seized East Jerusa­lem in the 1967 war on grounds the city was part of the indivisible and eternal capital of the Jewish state, attempts to rub out the identity and culture of its indigenous Arab population have increased.

Israel tried at the time to force Palestinian schools to teach the Is­raeli curriculum, which omits Pal­estinian history, but gave up after families staged months of strikes and protests.

Shamali said that “even now, the curriculum approved by the PA is censored by Israel. We are not al­lowed to print our books and by the time our children receive them, they are full with blacked out text” by Israeli censors.

Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have expressed concern about the amount of mon­ey and effort invested by Israel to complete what has been labelled an “Israelisation process”.

Rasim Ebidat, a Jerusalem-based journalist and political analyst, said: “It is evident that the Israeli Ministry of Education led by the extremist Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home far-right party, has put a comprehensive plan to control the educational system in Jerusalem.”

There are about 100,000 Pales­tinian students studying the Pales­tinian curriculum in Jerusalem and 1,500 studying the Israeli version, Shamali said.

According to Israeli statistics, eight out of 180 schools teach the Israeli syllabus and several schools have opened some classrooms to teach the Israeli curriculum.

Bennett said the main goal of the plan was to “bolster schools that already offer this curriculum and encourage additional schools to do so”. He said it aimed to “aid the process of Israelisation”.

Israeli commentators said the move allowed students to take the Israeli matriculation exam, easing acceptance into Israeli col­leges and universities. Shamali said those are groundless claims, because Israeli universities do not require students to study the Is­raeli curriculum to enroll at Israeli universities.

Palestinians said the plan was political and ideological rather than to benefit East Jerusalem’s students.

A mother of two children at a school run by the Jerusalem Mu­nicipality said the plan took advan­tage of Jerusalem’s need for extra classrooms because the funding is only for physical improvements, such as computer rooms and sports facilities.

“Israel doesn’t allow us to build new schools and renovate old ones. We need another 2,300 class­rooms to accommodate the grow­ing number of students. That is 100 schools,” Shamali said.

Israel gives permits to open pri­vate schools willing to teach the Israeli curriculum in exchange for financial support. Many Palestin­ians send their children to those schools because there is no other option.

Palestinian Education Minister Sabri Saidam said the plan was unfair and, along with several Arab Israeli Knesset members, in­structed East Jerusalem schools to be supplied with Palestinian text­books free of charge.

Hanna Issa, head of the Islamic- Christian committee, said Article 50 in the fourth Geneva Conven­tion says that the occupying power shall make arrangements for the maintenance and education, if possible by persons of the chil­dren’s own nationality, language group and religion, which means that Israel must not interfere in the curriculum.

Published Article.

Israel hinders world athletes’ entry to West Bank

Taekwondo fighters spar at the opening of an international com­petition in Ramallah, West Bank.

Ramallah – Palestinians celebrated hosting and doing ex­tremely well at the first Open International Taek­wondo G1 Tournament in spite of an Israeli attempt to foil the sports event by barring athletes from entering the West Bank.

The tournament, which took place in mid-July at Birzeit Univer­sity north of Ramallah, was the first international taekwondo competi­tion on Palestinian soil. Participat­ing athletes came from about two dozen countries, including South Korea, the United States, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Turkey, Iraq, Bah­rain, Kuwait, Qatar, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.

Palestinian participants claimed 60 medals — the most of any partic­ipating countries. Jordan was next with 58 medals while Morocco won seven, Turkey four and the United States one medal.

Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, said the tournament was a perfect opportunity for the Palestinian people to connect with the world through sport, which has become a common language that defies bor­ders.

Although this was not the first in­ternational competition that Pales­tine hosted, it was the first tourna­ment involving an individual sport.

More than 350 participants from 23 countries were expected to com­pete in the tournament but Israel barred dozens of athletes as well as entire teams from entering the West Bank. The Israeli action was viewed as an attempt to undermine an international event many Pales­tinians considered a symbol of in­dependence and sovereignty.

Head of the Palestinian Taek­wondo Union Omar Kabha said Is­rael undermined the event as well as the athletes’ right to practice sports freely.

“Israel is a member of the [In­ternational] Olympic Committee and yet it failed to comply with the Olympic fundamental principles, which state that ‘every individual must have the possibility of prac­ticing sport, without discrimina­tion of any kind and in the Olympic spirit’,” he said.

Kabha said Israel did not issue entry permits for Nigerian and Kyr­gyzstani team members in addition to a number of Jordanians.

“A Turkish and a Jordanian coach arrived at the borders but were forced to turn around and miss the championship,” he noted.

Moroccan athletes spent many hours at the Israeli crossing, which Kabha argued was an attempt to isolate Palestinians from the inter­national sports community.

Israel also prevented 35 team members and staff from the Gaza Strip from coming to the West Bank to participate.

Mohammad Hajaj, media coor­dinator at the Olympic committee, said: “Gaza’s athletes have prac­ticed day and night to compete at the tournament, with the young­est girl being only 9. She and many other kids dream about competing and winning.”

Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank cannot travel freely and have to apply for special Israeli travel and entry permits, a process that proves extremely difficult when criteria and procedures are not clear.

Gisha, the Legal Centre for Free­dom of Movement, said most Israe­li protocols and procedures are not made public, which is in violation of Israeli Freedom of Information Act 5758-1998.”

Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are not aware of the criteria according to which their applications are approved or denied. The same applies to for­eigners trying to enter the West Bank.

Kabha said that, while several athletes were able to apply for en­try visas through embassies abroad and others received a visa upon ar­rival at the borders, “we tried to get visas for 250 participants but only 170 were issued. No reason for the rejection was given to the Palestin­ian side.”

Mohammad Yousef, 30, who at­tended the tournament, said Israel partially succeeded in undermin­ing the tournament by barring Pal­estinian and international athletes from entering the West Bank, put­ting several obstacles in the way of those who were allowed entry and delaying teams for hours at bor­ders.

Published article.

 

Birzeit festival immortalises Palestinian heritage

A Palestinian woman dances while holding a tray of henna during a wedding march marking the beginning of Birzeit Heritage Week. (Photo credit: Mohammed Farraj)

Birzeit – As the sun sets over Birzeit, a small town north of Ramallah, hun­dreds of Palestinian families from across the West Bank flock into the historically Christian town to take part in Heritage Week.

Held annually since 2007 by the Rozana Association for the Devel­opment of Architectural Heritage, the festival observes Palestin­ian traditions, customs and historic professions struggling to withstand industrial evolution and the test of time.

The festival began with a huge traditional wedding of four cou­ples, some of whom were already married. Although the weddings were staged for the occasion, the emotions could not have been more genuine.

The brides wore Palestinian dresses, handcrafted, long-sleeved and colourfully embroidered cloth­ing, which traditionally reflected a woman’s economic and marital status and her town or district of origin.

Although less rich in colours and patterns, the bridegrooms wore white shirts, headwear, golden-lined black cloaks known as abaya, and sirwals, cotton trousers baggy from the waist down but tailored tight around the calves or ankles.

A dozen elderly women danced in a circle in front of the couples while carrying copper trays filled with wild flowers planted in home­made henna paste, a dye prepared to stain the brides’ and grooms’ hands.

Some accounts indicate that unique shapes were painted on a bride’s hands the night before the wedding, known as henna night, to avoid bride swaps. The majority de­scribe it as a practice to express joy and bring good luck to the couple.

The women sang traditional songs with lyrics that celebrate the beauty, chastity and good upbring­ing of the bride and the groom’s luck, courage and chivalry.

Hundreds of people followed the wedding procession, known as zaffa, which wound through the streets of Birzeit. Although such processions are a common part of Palestinian weddings, other as­pects, including the clothing, music and transport have been slowly re­placed by less traditional ones.

Aside from the festival’s signifi­cance as a window to the past, it also offered a chance for home-run businesses to display their prod­ucts, many of which have been sidelined by mass production.

In a tent between the town’s olive groves, Umm Raed kicked off worn-out leather slippers and kneeled in her black abaya over a primitive wool-weaving machine.

With strength unexpected from a small, aged body, she worked her fingers through the threads to weave a red and black carpet. Visi­tors, including foreigners, watched in fascination as she created an item usually seen only on television pro­grammes depicting Bedouin life.

For the woman with piercing green eyes that contrast with a much darker skin, this is simply her life. Umm Raed said: “I have been weaving wool since I was a very young girl. My mother learned it from her mother and I passed it along to my daughter, who is now in university.”

Umm Raed travelled from Samou’, about 50km from Birzeit, to display her work and teach new Palestinian generations and for­eigners about “the art of weaving wool”.

“An average-sized carpet takes roughly 20 days to complete,” she said. “This festival is a valuable opportunity for me to remind peo­ple to appreciate hand-made wool carpets and to revive our heritage that is struggling against time and Israel’s stealing attempts.”

On the other side of the old city, where dozens of kiosks were set up to allow business owners to show­case their products, Ayat Mardawi and Remah Abbas, two women from Jenin, 47km from Birzeit, sold homemade olive pickles, honey and olive oil.

They said they take part in the festival every year, relying on the word of mouth and personal con­nections to market their products.

While many Palestinian families continue to produce their own ol­ive oil and pickles, a large percent­age relies on less expensive factory products.

“The festival is a chance to meet new customers, dealers and make connections, which might help us expand our businesses,” said Ab­bas.

Other products at the festival in­cluded embroidered clothing, bags, accessories, plants, drinks, furni­ture, pottery, sweets, soap and ce­ramics. Several local, but non-tra­ditional businesses — such as beer, tattoos and piercings — promoted their products and services.

Rozana Association Chairman Raed Saadeh said the festival is an effort to encourage sustainable rural development and local busi­nesses and empower women and youth through existing and obtain­able resources.

“It presents a model of sustain­able rural development, based on available cultural resources, com­petencies and energies of Palestin­ian youth and women,” he said.

Published article

Erekat: Peace and democracy, a recipe to defeat ISIS

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat speaks to reporters at a conference room in his government office in Jericho. (Firas Adasi)

Jericho – Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said peace and democracy in the Arab world can defeat the cycle of violence sweeping across a region in turmoil, with Islamic State (ISIS) ruling parts of Syria and Iraq, which are suffering from a bloody civil war and sectarian violence.

Speaking to foreign journalists at his Jericho office, Erekat insisted that using war to end the region’s troubles may be futile.

“Some in the West have the impression that they can kill ideas with bullets. I do not think we can defeat ISIS with bullets,” Erekat said. “Bad ideas can be defeated by better ones, such as democracy in the Arab world and peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”

ISIS gained control over large areas of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and carried out high-profile attacks in other parts of the Arab world, Europe, North America and Asia.

The number of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria has more than doubled since 2014 to at least 27,000, according to a 2015 report by intelligence consultancy, the Soufan Group.

ISIS is an international threat, which has brought it into conflict with many governments, mili­tias and other armed groups but Erekat said the only way to defeat ISIS is by nurturing democracy in the Arab world and reaching a final solution to the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict, due to its significance to Arabs and Muslims.

The Arabs addressed the 1948 Israeli annexation of the British-mandate Palestine when Israel was proclaimed as a state and the takeover of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967 as a shared cause. The occupation of Palestine territories is increasingly driv­ing young people to lose hope in peace.

Erekat noted that more than half of the Arab population is under the age of 24 and many of the young people are losing hope in a better reality and a solution to the long­standing conflict.

“In the minds of Arabs and Muslims, the Palestinian cause is the number one issue. I cannot compete with Abu Bakr al-Bagh­dadi, who is promising desperate young Arabs 70 virgins and castles in heaven,” he said.

To reduce the extremist out­reach in the region, Arabs must invest in youth and offer them bet­ter educations and opportunities to prevent exploitation by extrem­ist groups.

“As unemployment rises and the youths’ trust in state institutions erodes, they will seek security in sectarianism and the promises of thugs and murderers,” Erekat said.

He cautioned European coun­tries that if the Palestinian-Israeli conflict becomes a religious one, other countries and world capitals would soon be under curfew.

“What happened in Brussels and France is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said, referring to the November terror attacks in Paris and the March attacks in Brussels.

As the French peace initiative moves slowly to restart negotia­tions, Erekat insisted that the solu­tion is already available.

“It is a two-state solution based on the 1967 line,” he said. “The state of Palestine to live side by side with the state of Israel in peace and security.”

He said: “We have recognised Israel’s right to exist on 78% of his­toric Palestine and accepted to es­tablish our state on the remaining 22% of the land. When we began negotiations, there were less than 200,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Today there are 600,000 settlers.”

Giving Israel more options, Erekat said: “Arabs have the Arab peace initiative of 2002 telling Israel once you withdraw from 1967 occupied Palestinian territo­ries, 57 Arab and Muslim countries will have relations with (Israel). So normalise and be in peace with them.”

The Palestinian Authority ex­pressed support for the Arab peace initiative, which Erekat described as “the most important since 1948”, but warned of attempts by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to reverse the initiative and secure normalisation first.

“He (Netanyahu) tells Arabs why won’t you normalise with me, then I withdraw. This will not happen,” Erekat said.

“Netanyahu is determined to undermine the two-state solution. In the upcoming months, I see more settlements, more dictations and I see him pushing Palestin­ians and Israelis towards a circle of bloodshed and violence, unless the international community in Paris can stop him.”

Erekat insisted that the world community must stop treating Israel as a country above the law.

“Is there a difference between a thug and a murderer who cuts the throats of Western journal­ists in Syria and Iraq in the name of ISIS and someone who burns an 18-month-old toddler named Ali Dawabsheh, his mother and father?” he asked.

Erekat was drawing similarities between jihadists and Israeli se­curity forces, who are said to have witnessed, condoned and even fa­cilitated torching the house of the toddler and his parents, who were asleep inside, in their village north of the West Bank in July 2015.

“I will not accept to be under the rule of an Islamic state or a Jewish state,” Erekat said.

Published Article.

Netanyahu’s vision of peace: Killing Palestinian statehood

 

An Israeli border police officer checks documents of a Palestinian woman, at the Qalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, on June 24th.

Ramallah – Not one, but two peace initiatives are being circu­lated in hopes of finding a negotiated settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

One is 14 years old and the other was proposed by France in 2015 to get the world involved in multilat­eral negotiations to facilitate the resumption of talks between Pales­tinians and Israelis.

The first proposal, the Arab Peace Initiative, offered Israel “full diplo­matic and normal relations” with 57 Arab and Muslim countries in exchange for a “comprehensive” Israeli peace agreement with the Palestinians. Iran was among coun­tries that endorsed the initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave reserved approv­al to the Arab initiative, saying it consists of the pillars of peace but must be “updated” to reflect more current times, specifically after the “Arab spring” revolutions.

The French initiative, which Ne­tanyahu rejected outright, aims at breaking the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock before the expected show­down at the UN General Assembly in September. It seeks to revive the talks based on the 1967 borders with agreed land swaps, negotiated security arrangements for Israel and a Palestinian state. Talks on thorny issues, such as the right of return of Palestinian refugees and the fate of the traditionally Arab sector of east Jerusalem, would be put off to a later date.

The two initiatives aim at facili­tating the creation of a state for the Palestinians to live side-by-side in peace and security with Israel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) expressed complete support for the Arab Peace Initiative, also known as the Saudi plan, describing it as “the most important since 1948”. It also endorsed the French plan, which calls for an international peace con­ference.

The EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, comprising the 28 foreign ministers of the EU members, also adopted a resolution backing the French peace effort and calling for an in­ternational peace conference before the end of the year.

Nevertheless, Israel took steps that left some analysts certain that Netanyahu is little interested in peace initiatives, whether European or Arab, and is using international ef­forts to buy time to create a reality that would render the two-state so­lution impossible.

Khaldoun Barghouti, a journal­ist and expert on Israeli political affairs, said Netanyahu is simply buying time and maintaining the same policies to reach a point where it is no longer possible to create a Palestinian state.

“Netanyahu is against a two-state solution and has made that clear on several occasions. He aims to take over Area C, which constitutes 60% of the West Bank and is under Israe­li control, to become part of Israel, rendering the idea of a Palestinian state simply unviable,” Barghouti said.

Only days after the Paris peace summit, Israeli authorities an­nounced plans to construct 82 units in the illegal settlement of Ramat Shlomo, north-east of Jerusalem, and the construction of an illegal settlement outpost of 15,000 units in the Qalandia Airport area, north of Jerusalem.

Palestine Liberation Organisa­tion (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said this is “Israel’s response to the summit as it continues to boycott the will of the world with its insistence on the illegal colonial settlement expansion in occupied Palestine”.

Barghouti said it was evident from Netanyahu’s actions that he was not interested in peace or a two-state solution, which became even clearer after appointing a far-right politician and Jewish settler, Avigdor Lieberman, as Defence minister.

However, some see Netanyahu’s reserved approval of the Arab peace initiative as merely a public rela­tions stunt to stifle international efforts, kill the French peace initia­tive and the international boycott, divestment and sanctions move­ment against Israel, which is in­creasingly receiving world support.

Barghouti says the Arab peace ini­tiative, like many before, is doomed to failure because Israel will not agree to its terms and Arabs do not have the capacity to offer any more concessions.

“Israel will not agree to return to the 1967 lines and Arabs will not normalise with Israel before achiev­ing a two-state solution,” he said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry Director- General Dore Gold told the Times of Israel that Netanyahu’s main goal is to normalise relations with the Arab and Islamic world before he solves the Palestinian issue.

“This is Netanyahu’s approach. Twenty, 30 years ago everyone said solve the Palestinian issue and you’ll have peace with the Arab world and, increasingly we are be­coming convinced it’s the exact op­posite. It’s a different order we have to create. And that’s what we’re go­ing to do,” Gore said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al- Jubeir rejected Netanyahu’s de­mand to have the Arab Peace Initia­tive “updated”.

“We and the rest of the world be­lieve that the Arab Peace Initiative is the best option to resolve the con­flict and we hope that this wisdom prevails in Israel too and that the Is­raelis would accept this initiative,” Jubeir said.

Published articles.