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.

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.

Dheisheh refugee camp youth archive life in colours on grey walls

In the heart of Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, Ayid Arafeh drew a mural to celebrate the life of Malik Shaheen, a young Palestinian who was killed by Israeli soldiers. (credit: Malak Hasan)

Bethlehem – Refugee camps worldwide serve as a stark reminder of loss and longing. They are usually grey, cramped and dismal. Palestinian refugee camps are no different.

Shabby, drab concrete buildings are separated by narrow alley­ways that lack basic infrastructure but are the main playgrounds for schoolchildren. The walls are gen­erally long and dull.

In Dheisheh, a refugee camp on the edge of Bethlehem — a Pales­tinian town south of Jerusalem — however, the grey walls have been turned into a splendid colourful ar­chive of life, a symbol of resistance and sacrifice.

Malik Shaheen, 19-year-old from Dheisheh, had his days split be­tween school, home and the sur­rounding streets. A rusted staircase was the favourite meeting place for Shaheen and his friends until De­cember 2015. Israeli military forces killed him during a street pro­test. Now, an adjacent wall bears Shaheen’s portrait to honour his memory.

The painting of Shaheen at­tracted thousands of visitors. His name was spray-painted on almost every wall in the camp to preserve the memory of a youth whose life ended with a bullet.

Since 1967, Palestinians have used street art — mostly graffiti and murals — to defy Israeli military rule. The Israeli occupation denied the population the rights of free­dom of expression and opinion.

Hafez Omar, a Palestinian re­searcher in art and politics, said refugee camps in general have been at the forefront in a long journey of struggle against the Israeli occupa­tion.

Following Israel’s seizure of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in 1967, Palestin­ians were banned from engaging in politics. “They used graffiti to an­nounce a general strike or spread an important message,” Omar said.

Israel censored newspapers and magazines and frequently sus­pended publications from being printed and distributed. However, Israel could not censor or destroy all the walls.

It was deemed as a patriotic and a courageous act when a masked Palestinian sprayed political mes­sages because, once caught, jail time could be four years under the pretext of inciting the population against local authorities.

Even after the Israeli military withdrew from Dheisheh, the tra­dition continued and the camp has turned into a colourful archive of Palestinians’ aspirations, dreams, losses and hopes for a brighter fu­ture.

Ayid Arafeh, 33, is an artist from Dheisheh and one of thousands of internally displaced Palestinians who grew up reading and learning Palestine’s history while playing in the streets of the shantytown.

“My first drawing was a tree and a bird,” he said. “My school­teacher asked my classmates and me to draw what we want and we all chose to paint nature maybe be­cause this is what we longed to see in the camp.”

Arafeh is one of the most fa­mous graffiti and mural artists in Dheisheh. Men, women and chil­dren rush to greet him in the camp. His name is clearly visible under some very remarkable murals in the camp.

“When Malik died, his friends ap­proached me to draw a portrait for him on the wall where they used to spend most nights,” Arafeh said. “The staircase was known to be his place and it will continue to be.”

The faces of martyrs, leaders, poets and writers make up the big­gest percentage of drawings on Dheisheh’s walls. To Palestinians in the camp, which is made up of displaced people from 46 Palestin­ian villages, the walls have become part of their collective memory.

Mohammad Salameh, 16, said the portraits, the messages and the memories on the camp’s walls are the way children came to know about the individuals who sacri­ficed their lives for the Palestinian cause.

“I lived in the streets and grew used to them. If I had lived in a home, I would have drawn on a pa­per but the street is where we grew up and the walls have become our paper,” he said.

When Salameh moved from Sau­di Arabia with his family, he hated how the camp looked. “At first, I was disgusted by all these ‘writ­ings’ but when I looked closer I came to know my country better,” he said.

Graffiti and murals in Dheisheh have evolved from being short po­litical messages and temporary slo­gans to become an extension of the past, an act of resistance and sur­vival and an affirmation that Pales­tinians have not lost hope.

Arafeh said: “I have written the names of our 46 villages and towns and I have drawn the faces of our martyrs. Despite how important this is, I aspire to see diversity and add more colours in the murals and graffiti.”

After he travelled abroad, Arafeh said he realised it is imperative to instil hope in the hearts of the camp’s children. He now tries to incorporate more colour into his murals and portraits. The change is evident. While martyrs were usu­ally drawn in black and white with serious faces, they now have wide smiles and lively stares.

“Our aim is not to make the refu­gee camp beautiful or a permanent place, because this is not our home but we must advocate for life and hope in a better future,” Arafeh said.

Published article.

68 years later, Palestinians bitterly remember

Abu Hafez holding the keys to his house, which he was forced to leave in 1948 when the the Jewish Haganah paramilitary annexed British-mandate Palestine, invading, depopulating and destroying hundreds of villages and towns. Credit: Baha Nasser

Ramallah – Mohammed Mansour, 93, fled his home in the village of Sal­bit when the Jewish Haganah paramili­tary annexed British-mandate Pal­estine and proclaimed an inde­pendent Israeli state in its place on May 14th, 1948.

Mansour’s memory is failing him as he tried to recognise faces and recall names but he is never wrong on details of the 50 hectares his family owned near what is now Ben Gurion International Airport. He was married and saw his grand­children get married but never al­lowed time to erase Salbit from his memory.

Mohammed’s eldest son Abdul­qader, 58, said his father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dis­ease, “forgot the names of most of my brothers and sisters due to ill­ness and age but he certainly did not forget Salbit”.

One day recently, Mohammed surprised the family when he col­lected his personal effects he said he wanted to “take home to Salbit”.

Sixty-eight years ago, about 750,000 Palestinians fled for their lives or were forced out of their homes in cities, villages and towns in areas now known as Israel.

To Palestinians, May 14th — the declaration of Israel’s independ­ence — is known as Nakba, Arabic for “the catastrophe”. It is one of the most jarring events in Palestin­ian history, which led to Israel cap­turing more Palestinian lands in the West Bank, including traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, sending millions more Palestinians into exile.

When Zionism advocated the creation of a Jewish state, Jews, facing growing discrimination and oppression in Europe, dreamed of having their own state. They even­tually inflicted the oppression on the Palestinians.

In 1917, Britain conquered Pales­tine from the Ottomans and British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour pledged British support for the cre­ation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Under British control, the num­ber of Jews migrating to Palestine increased significantly. In 25 years, the number of Jews in Palestine went from 11% to 31% of the popu­lation.

In the 1940s, the British decided to end their mandate of Palestine and exit the country, leaving the fate of the territory to be decided by the United Nations. It devised the UN Partition Plan for Palestine and advocated the creation of two states in what has historically been known as Palestine: one for Jews, known as Israel; and one for Pales­tinians, Palestine.

Palestinians rejected the plan be­cause it seized land that had been owned by their families for genera­tions. As tension grew, the British declared an end to their mandate and the Zionist movement, assisted by the Haganah, which became the core of the Israeli Defence Forces, declared the establishment of the state of Israel.

Driven by fear over purported Israeli massacres in Palestinian areas, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled to neighbouring countries, including Egypt, leaving their belongings, homes, planta­tions and livestock behind, think­ing they would soon return home.

Today, one-in-three refugees worldwide is Palestinian. UN re­cords indicate there are about 6.5 million Palestinian refugees world­wide, with the biggest concentra­tions in the West Bank, Gaza, Jor­dan, Syria and Lebanon. More than 3.8 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants are registered for humanitarian assistance with the United Nations.

Nakba is commemorated on May 15th in Palestinian areas with dem­onstrations, vigils and statements of condemnation in the face of Arab and international silence.

The right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland is a lin­gering point in stalled Palestinian- Israeli negotiations.

“Any peace deal that excludes a solution for Palestinian refugees to return to their homes is incomplete and unjust,” said Alaa Hamamra, a 25-year-old university graduate from the West Bank town of Jenin.

As years go by, many Palestinians say that the longer the conflict re­mains unsolved, the harder it will be to realise a Palestinian state and celebrate the return of those who were forced out decades ago. Des­peration and hopelessness seem to be the prevalent reaction.

Sari Hammouri, a 29-year-old from Jerusalem, said: “Sadly speak­ing, our families won’t be able to come back, because Israel has no respect for any law.”

Ramallah housewife Lubna Dar­wish said she feels hopeless. “The refugees who fled don’t seem to have a place to be allowed back to,” she said.

Young Palestinians share similar frustration and disappointment.

“The number 68 frightens me a lot,” said 26-year-old Ahmad Sabah from Nablus. “As the years pass, I feel more scared and desperate. When will the count end?”

In Gaza, Palestinians say they do not have the luxury to lament the past or think about those who dream about returning to Palestine. For many of Gaza’s youth, getting through the day is their priority.

Abeer A., 28, said she no longer commemorates Nakba because she is too busy worrying about elec­tricity schedules, closed border crossings and making a living. She argued that if crossings open on Nakba, Gaza will be preoccupied with the borders instead of mark­ing the anniversary of the event.

For Abdulqader, Mohammed’s son, hope for returning home re­mains alive.

“I may not live to see Palestinians return to their lands and homes but other generations will definitely see it,” he said.

Arson increases sense of Palestinian anxiety

Relatives and neighbors of Ibrahim and Yaqin Dawabsheh inspect the damage following what they believe is an Israeli arson attack that destroyed the house of the key witness in the July Duma arson-murder. (Credit: Mary Pelletier)

Nablus – Wrapped in a wool­len blanket in the corner of her in-laws’ living room, 21-year-old Yaqin Dawabsheh struggled to recall the details of the horrific night when she survived an arson attack that could have killed her and her hus­band, Ibrahim, 24, the key witness in last summer’s arson-murder in Duma.

“We are burning! Get up!” were the words Yaqin woke up to as Ibra­him tried to save her. The March 20th incident followed a July 31st, 2015, attack in which Jewish settlers sneaked into Duma and torched a house with a family of four sleeping inside.

In the first arson attack, 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was killed and his parents, Saad and Reham Dawabsheh, later died from burns that covered 80-90% of their bodies. Their eldest son, 5-year-old Ahmad, survived despite suffering serious burns.

The Dawabshehs attacked March 20th are relatives of the victims of the first fire and lived nearby. Some reports state that is was Ibrahim Dawabsheh who got Ahmad out of the burning house.

With just months between the attacks, anxiety and isolation have returned to the remote village in the northern West Bank. Duma is close to three illegal Jewish set­tlements whose inhabitants have tried to force Palestinians out of their homes, insulting and often beating them while Israeli police looked on.

The official investigation on the attack on the Dawabshehs has not been completed but some Duma residents point to Jewish set­tlers trying to intimidate Ibrahim Dawabsheh so he would not tes­tify in court that he saw two peo­ple draped in black setting his rela­tives’ house on fire last July. That hearing is set for April.

Israeli authorities arrested and indicted Jewish settler Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, along with a Jewish minor in the July Dawabsheh case. They and two others were also charged with membership in a ter­rorist organisation.

A statement by Israeli police and the Shin Bet secret service said “evidence found at the scene of the crime does not have the character­istics of a targeted arson by Jewish perpetrators”. The statement did not elaborate.

Ibrahim and Yasin Dawabsheh were sleeping in the bed room when the firebomb was hurled through the window, landing on the left bed side and starting fire in the room. (Credit: Mary Pelletier)

Adding to the troubles of Duma residents is a general sense of vul­nerability that they are alone with nobody to protect them.

Standing near the Dawabshehs’ house, which is tainted with soot and graffiti, Abed Salam Dawab­sheh, head of the village’s council and who is related to the victims, said Duma was in danger and he could not do much to protect its people.

“I feel pained, frustrated and up­set because as head of the village council, people trust and hold me responsible to protect them. But we can’t provide them with the protection and safety they want,” he said.

Yaqin Dawabsheh is staying in Ibrahim’s family house, horrified and wondering whether she will ever forget the arson attack.

“I’m terrified. I don’t know how to describe it,” she said. “I don’t know if I can go back to the same house with this horrible memory tied to it.”

After the first arson attack, Pales­tinians in Duma organised patrols to protect the village but they last­ed for only two months. Worried about future attacks and realis­ing official help was needed, Abed Salam Dawabsheh asked the Pal­estinian Authority (PA) for official patrols in the area. “We have been waiting since,” he said.

Locals said they also felt let down by the PA. Ibrahim Dawab­sheh, the only witness to his rela­tives’ murder, was left without pro­tection. Villagers and town officials also voiced suspicion that Jewish settlers would go after Ibrahim to silence him.

“I knew it was an attack by (Jew­ish) settlers. We saw it coming, especially Ibrahim,” Yaqin Dawab­sheh said.

Duma’s families believe the attack is caused by Israeli settlers because it has the same characteristics of the arson attack that targeted a Palestinian family’s house in July 2015, killing the parents and an 18-year-old toddler. (Credit: Mary Pelletier)

Ibrahim and Yaqin Dawabsheh said they had trouble sleeping be­fore the arson, reporting “strange and hushed noises around the house, people moving outside the house at night”.

Ibrahim Dawabsheh said there was no way to protect Duma as long as the Israeli occupation exists.

Even with night-time patrols and security guards with flashlights, as long as we’re living under oc­cupation, it is really hard to get ad­equate protection,” he said.

“I’m gearing up for the worst. I’m not scared because I believe in Al­lah but I know that something hor­rible is going to happen again.”

Published Article

Palestinian calligrapher captures sovereignty through Quran

Palestinian calligrapher Saher al-Kabi working on his handwritten Quran. (credit: Mary Pelletier)

Ramallah – When the United Na­tions voted the Pal­estinian territories to a non-member observer state sta­tus in 2012, Palestinians felt sover­eignty was attainable. The desire to capture the symbolic independ­ence dominated the thoughts of calligrapher Saher al-Kabi.

Born in the refugee camp of Bal­ata near the West Bank’s northern city of Nablus, one of Kabi’s early ambitions was to handwrite Is­lam’s holy scripture, the Quran.

“Initially, it was only about a masterpiece that will bear my name but it later became about Palestine and the need to preserve its name,” Kabi said.

For Palestinians, who are pre­dominantly Muslim, the Quran is the most sacred text. It is the primary source of every Muslim’s faith and deals with subjects such as wisdom, doctrine, worship, transactions, law and the relation­ship between God and humans.

From an artistic point of view, the Quran presents a great chal­lenge for calligraphers and artists as it is an opportunity to display fine talent through handwriting what is regarded as the most im­portant work in the Arabic lan­guage.

“To write a single page, I some­times work up to 14 hours and to apply tashkil, or Arabic diacritics, it takes more than 5 minutes per word. This is not an easy task and the text is extremely complex,” explained Kabi, who said he pro­posed his idea to Palestinian Presi­dent Mahmoud Abbas in 2014.

Abbas commissioned Kabi to work on the first Palestinian copy of the Quran, which will bear the name of the al-Aqsa mosque, Is­lam’s third holiest shrine, in Jeru­salem.

“I knew the president would sup­port me,” Kabi said, “but I didn’t imagine his extreme enthusiasm and immediate endorsement.”

The relatively unknown calligra­pher, who has a master’s degree in economics but taught calligraphy at a local university, said he real­ised the significance of the task, not only because his name would be tied to it but because would be an unprecedented Palestinian achievement.

After being commissioned for the job, Kabi needed eight months to prepare, including calculating the diameters of the final manu­script, the type of paper, the pens and the ink.

“The material used in the pro­duction of the manuscript was mainly imported from abroad, in­cluding the traditional Japanese ink, which has been produced the same way for 300 years, and the chemical-free German paper that is made of egg whites and corn­starch,” Kabi said.

The chosen style for manuscript is known as Naskh, a simple and clear writing used to guarantee readability and clarity.

Kabi said he expects to deliver a completed manuscript around the end of the year. The final product is to be put on display in the soon-to-be-inaugurated Palestinian Mu­seum.

Although the project is seen as a symbolic achievement for Pales­tinians, it is also a dream that Kabi is proud to have been able to bring to life.

“The art of calligraphy has fas­cinated me since I was a young boy,” he said. “I used to examine the work of a local calligrapher in hopes that I will grow to become a renowned calligrapher myself.”

Kabi studied calligraphy on his own as a teenager and then trav­elled to Iraq to master the art. Al­though the state of affairs in Iraq prevented him from enrolling at the University of Babylon, he joined the Iraqi Calligraphers’ As­sociation and practiced the craft with Iraqi experts, gaining the ex­perience and skill needed to carry out the Quran project.

The Palestinian Authority ob­tained official approval from Al- Azhar Al-Sharif, Egypt’s renowned Islamic institution that plays a key role in teaching Islam and preserv­ing Islamic culture and heritage, which will ultimately give the manuscript its credibility.

“We work hand in hand with Al- Azhar Al-Sharif. I finish five parts and send them to be proofread. While the experts do their part, I start working on the next five chapters,” Kabi said.

After being proofread by a spe­cial committee at Al-Azhar, the next phase will be adding a dis­tinctive style of illumination using liquid gold to complete the manu­script, which is expected to weigh 35 kilograms upon completion.

Mahmoud al-Habash, the presi­dent’s adviser for religious affairs and head of the committee super­vising the project, said the Pal­estinian Authority is planning to print about 1 million copies in vari­ous sizes to be distributed in Arab and Muslim countries.

“By doing so, we aim to make sure that everyone remembers al- Aqsa mosque and their responsi­bility towards the holy city when they hold al-Aqsa mosque printed manuscript to read,” he said.

Published article.