I've been meaning to write this diary for some time, but procastination has been the name of the game so far. But a developement today has goaded me into action, so here it is;
Historic return for NI Assembly
Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern saw devolution return
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Northern Ireland has a new power-sharing government in an historic day at Stormont.
DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness took office as first and deputy first ministers as five years of direct rule ended.
Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern witnessed the creation of the new executive.
Mr Blair said that the day's events offered the chance for Northern Ireland to "escape the heavy chains of history" and "make history anew".
It is particularly tragic that while Northern Ireland is taking impressive steps towards political and historical reconciliation, Israel and Palestine continue to spiral into destruction. When I was in Palestine, I stopped by the office of PASSIA, the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, Jerusalem which puts out a yearly datebook/journal that activists end up getting eithe when they arrive or before they leave. I looked through their catalog of books and found this one, Ireland and Palestine, Divided Countries United by History;
here's a bit from the introduction,
There are many differences between the conflicts in Ireland and Palestine, but there are also key similarities. For instance, both conflicts are characterized by a long history of struggle for independence and both have a deep-rooted religious aspect. Both peoples have witnessed uprisings, revolutions, wars and attempts to partition their land, and both have developed and maintained a strong identity. In both cases major documents were signed in 1993 aiming at an end to decades of confrontation (the PLO-Israel Declaration of Principles in September and the Anglo-Irish Joint Declaration on Peace in December), and there have been ongoing negotiations ever since. Both declarations did not really present any new ideas but provided the necessary political con ditions allowing the parties to start negotiations.
Furthermore, both sides experienced divisions between military and politically oriented leaderships; in both conflicts, the respective national movements - the IRA and the PLO - have engaged in a guerrilla military struggle, leading to diplomatic negotiations. And in both cases, to a great extent, the same leaders are in power who have been in power for decades.
Although it was not the goal to compare the Irish and Palestinian experiences, we believed that there are many lessons to be learned from the theoretical and practical implications of the Irish practice of conflict resolution and preventive diplomacy.
Of course, things have turned out differently for the two conflicts, and for many reasons. Although a diary such as this cannot do perfect justice to such a topic, I will put forward one main reason why things are the way they are. In Northern Ireland, the process of colonization by England in Ireland began in the 12th century,culminating in the 17th;
12th century First involvement by England in Irish affairs when the Earl of Pembroke, known as Strongbow, intervenes in a local dispute in Leinster in 1170 . King Henry II lands the following year.
English expansion continues and in 1177, Ulster is conquered by soldiers led by John de Courcy. 17th century Start of the 'Plantation of Ulster' - the systematic colonisation of Donegal, Tyrone, Derry, Armagh, Cavan and Fermanagh by settlers from England and Scotland.
After Parliament's victory in the English civil war, Oliver Cromwell conquered the whole of Ireland and set about opening the island up to colonisation.
1690 Protestant King William of Orange's troops defeated the Catholic army of King James at the Battle of the Boyne to confirm his claim to the English throne and with it Ireland.
By the end of the 17th century, Ulster in particular was heavily settled, mainly by Scottish Presbyterians.
In Palestine, the Zionist movement began in the late 1800's, first with the cultural Zionists such as Pinsker, Ahad Ha-am and others, and then the rise of political Zionists such as Herzl, who espoused settlement for the purpose of gaining politcal soveriegnty. Of course, there was a problem; there were already people there, and they had no intention of leaving. See the writings of said cultural Zionist Ahad Ha-am;
"We abroad are used to believe the Eretz Yisrael is now almost totally desolate, a desert that is not sowed ..... But in truth that is not the case. Throughout the country it is difficult to find fields that are not sowed. Only sand dunes and stony mountains .... are not cultivated." (Righteous Victims, p. 42)
"If a time comes when our people in Palestine develop so that, in small or great measure, they push out the native inhabitants, these will not give up their place easily." (Righteous Victims, p. 49)
" ....[the Zionist pioneers believed that] the only language the Arabs understand is that of force ..... [They] behave towards the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, trespass unjustly upon their boundaries, beat them shamefully without reason and even brag about it, and nobody stands to check this contemptible and dangerous tendency." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 7)
"[The Jewish settlers] treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, trespass unjustly, beat them shamelessly for no sufficient reason, and even take pride in doing so. The Jews were slaves in the land of their Exile, and suddenly they found themselves with unlimited freedom, wild freedom that only exists in a land like Turkey. This sudden change has produced in their hearts an inclination towards repressive tyranny, as always happens when slave rules... We are used to thinking of the Arabs as primitive men of the desert, as a donkey-like nation that neither sees nor understands what is going around it. But this is a great error. The Arab, like all sons of Sham, has sharp and crafty mind . . . Should time come when life of our people in Palestine imposes to a smaller or greater extent on the natives, they will not easily step aside." (One Palestine Complete, p. 104)
But, then and now, the colonization of Palestine continues, in fits and starts, with "facts on the ground" that continuously displace and dispossess the Palestinians.
And unlike Northern Ireland, this process of colonization is ongoing, thanks to uncritical support by the USA and massive tax-derived subsidization.
But to understand this colonization, one must see it, and look closer than just the houses and roads & violence;
here is the home of Iyad Morrar, the leader of the non-violent resistance in Budrus, a village close to the green line in the northern Ramallah region of the West Bank. Budrus was one of the few villages that saved most of its lands from being stolen by the Apartheid Wall, mainly through a year of non-violent resistance (which resulted in the death of one villager, numerous arrests, and many beatings by the IOF). Notice the distinctive terraced hills of Palestine, the towers of Tel Aviv in the background, and of course Iyad's very well cared for garden in the foreground. This is truly where the "frontier" meets the "original 13 colonies," in USA parlance, of course.
Here is another picture from Budrus,
Now, I want you to take a close look at the the terrain, because what you see in this picture is the physical expression of the two terms, Israel and Palestine, from the people to the trees, to the very earth and soil.
In the middle of the picture, you see the Apartheid Wall, which is this region is not the concrete wall, but a wide swath of fences, roads, electronic devices, ditches and other fortifications. When I was there, one jeep was sitting by the road, occaisonally shooting towards the kids hanging out by their school, doing nothing but living in their village. When I was there in 2003, on December 31st, I was present for one of the first of the handfull of non-violent demos, and I was lucky not to have been shot or arrested by the IOF at that time.
On one side of this new scar on the land, is Palestine; one can see the cactus, the Sabra, which still grows in Israel by the remains of former Palestinian villages, as its roots are difficult to eradicate. Then there are the stone terraces, which, along with the sabra, demarcate one plot of land from the next, both to demarcate who farms it and/or what is grown there. And finally, there are the olive trees, which provide income to so many families, as well as a connection to their past and history, as the trees in many cases are hundreds of years old. This is the Palestine which so confounds Zionism, because it is a direct contradiction to their exclusive claim to the land; the fact that there is another community in Palestine, that has a history, an identity, a connection to its past and a vision for its future in Palestine, is too much for Zionism either then or now to accept. Therefore, instead of acknowleging the other, Zionism seeks to deny and eradicate the other (there are some Zionists that would disagree, such as Erik Asherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, who work with and support Palestinian rights but consider themselves Zionists; suffice it to say, I disagree with them on these issues, but that is for another post).
Here's what Zionism would rather do;
Here are the destroyed trees and confiscated land of Bil'in, and the new Jewish-only settlements of Mattiayhu East, built on the stolen lands of Bil'in.
But let's go back to the previous view of Budrus, here's another view
You can see the IOF jeep in the middle which was randomly shooting at the time, at what I have no idea (those subversive trees!).
But now, let's look at the other side of the fence, at Israel. All we see in this area is a thick forest, of what are European trees, which could not be more in conflict with the Palestinian agriculture on the other side. In Palestine, the trees and earth provide food as well as a spiritual and historical connection to the land and the people, whereas on the Israeli side, it is a state forest, which provides mothing more than cover; cover for the crimes of Israel in 1948 and 1967, crimes which few talk of, that is if they are even aware of them.
Since Zionist colonization began, the Jewish National Fund has been the organization which has been in charge of acquiring land for Jewish settlement, and once the JNF (or Israel Lands Administration) owns it, it cannot be owned by non-jews. Here's some information on the JNF from the site Palestine Remembered;
The Jewish National Fund (JNF) is one of the most prominent Zionist colonization enterprises. At the Zionist conference held in Katowice in 1884, Professor Zvi Herman Shapira proposed the establishment of a body "that would redeem the land of Israel from foreigners in order to turn it into a national acquisition that would not be for sale but would rather be for leasehold only". At the Fifth Zionist Congress held in Basle in 1901 his proposal was passed and a declaration was made for the establishment of the "Jewish National Fund"1 . The JNF was established in April 1907 in England as an instrument of the World Zionist Organization (WZO)2 to acquire and colonize land. With the enactment of the Israeli JNF Law (1953), which states in clause 6 that it is permitted to set up an incorporated body in Israel for the continuation of the activities of the existing company that was founded and incorporated in Europe, JNF was registered as an Israeli company and the English company's assets were transferred to it. JNF is held by the state of Israel as a central tool of Judaization. 3
Today, JNF has offices worldwide (see Appendix 1). It collects donations from wealthy Jews and others, mostly tax-exempt, in various countries of domicile. The collected funds are used in Israel for 'development projects', largely on lands illegally expropriated from the Palestinian owners, who are now refugees or Israeli citizens. The funds are used in pursuit of long-standing policies which practice discrimination and Apartheid and are in violation of international law as judged by the UN and human rights NGOs.
The JNF was given extremely wide powers to develop the land but not to sell it. The Fund can lease the acquired lands to any Jew, body of Jews and to any company under Jewish control. The lessee or sub-lessee, their heirs, employees, as well as anyone to whom the lease is transferred or mortgaged must be a Jew. Arabs and non-Jews generally, are prohibited from living or working on JNF land. The JNF holds such lands on behalf of "the Jewish People in perpetuity".5
The fact is that JNF, in its operations in Israel, had expropriated illegally most of the land of 372 Palestinian villages which had been ethnically cleansed by Zionist forces in 1948. The owners of this land are over half the UN registered Palestinian refugees. JNF had actively participated in the physical destruction of many villages, in evacuating these villages of their inhabitants and in military operations to conquer these villages. Today JNF controls over 2500 sq. km of Palestinian land which it leases to Jews only. It also planted 100 parks on Palestinian land.
Parks... Israel systematically destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages in 1948, denied the Palestinians the right of return, and on top of the ruins of their homes, they built parks, or as they put it, "national forests," which have no mention of the previous inhabitants, many of which are now citizens of Israel, but are forbiden to return (internal refugees, or as Israel classifys them, "present absentees'). In the case of Budrus, the land now blanketed by JNF forests used to be the land of Budrus before 1948, land that used to be covered with olive trees, sabras, crops, terraces, all used by the people of Budrus; now Israelis can go there and have a picnic in total ignorance of the erasure of Palestine.
And the process continues; in 1967, the villages of Imwas, Yalu, and Bayt Nuba were destroyed immediately, and on their ruins was built "Canada park" by the JNF. Who knows when the village of Bil'in will just be another "national forest," and it's villagers refugees in camps outside Ramallah. And here is an example, one with with horrific and disgusting irony;
Israel to name Galilee forest after Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow
By The Associated Press
Israel will name a forest in northern Galilee after the late widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as the country replants thousands of trees destroyed during last year's war with Hezbollah.
The Coretta Scott King Forest will comprise at least 10,000 trees and be a living memorial to King's legacy of peace and justice, Israel's U.S. Ambassador Sallai Meridor said Thursday at a Washington ceremony launching the initiative.
Two members of the Congressional Black Caucus said the initiative, which includes a partnership with black churches in the United States, would strengthen ties between blacks and Jews dating back to the early Civil Rights Movement.
African-Americans joining with Zionist Israelis to engage in the continuing erasure of Palestine? A state where close to 90% of the land cannot be sold to non-Jews, among so many other racist legislated privileges for Jews at the expense of Palestinians, can be overlooked because according to Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Democrat from Florida, "Jews and blacks share a common historical bond of persecution and perseverance?"
When I saw this, I immediately emailed Professor Ilan Pappe as to what village lies under the Coretta Scott King forest, and here was his response;
Dear Jon
the forest is indeed the Birya forest covering several villages including Ayn Zaytun where a massacre took place in which is mentioned in Elias Khoury's Bab al-Shams. I write specifically on this forest in my book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
yours
ilan
Ok, a destroyed village, a massacre, and now it bears the name of Coretta Scott King? I truly lack the words to express my disgust.
Here is some info on the village of Ayn Zaytun and it's ethnic cleansing, an erasure which involves everything about the village, its people, and the very soil and trees on the ground. The very identity of the land itself, like so many other villages, has been uprooted, reconfigured, and reinvented for the recquisite exclusive claim of the Zionist movement and the state of Israel.
So while the colonization phase in Northern Ireland ended more or less in the 17th-18th century, in Palestine it began in the 1880's and has not stopped to this very day. This is one of the many reasons why we are seeing the possibility or reconciliation in N Ireland, and the continuing wars and violence in I/P. Until this engine of colonization is halted, and to some degree reversed, I don't see too much meaningful change possible. This does not mean that Jewish Israelis must leave or be "swept into the sea" as I'm sure some will accuse me of advocating (I don't), but it does mean that Jewish Israelis will have to at some point relinquish their power and privilege, and recognize the presence, both past, present, and future, of the Palestinians, instead of either actively removing them (settlers & IOF) and/or looking the other way and claiming not to know.
I'll end on a hopeful note, that there is a group of jewish Israelis willing to do just that, the groiup called Zochrot. Here's the info on them;
Zochrot ["Remembering"] is a group of Israeli citizens working to raise awareness of the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948.
The Zionist collective memory exists in both our cultural and physical landscape, yet the heavy price paid by the Palestinians -- in lives, in the destruction of hundreds of villages, and in the continuing plight of the Palestinian refugees -- receives little public recognition.
Zochrot works to make the history of the Nakba accessible to the Israeli public so as to engage Jews and Palestinians in an open recounting of our painful common history. We hope that by bringing the Nakba into Hebrew, the language spoken by the Jewish majority in Israel, we can make a qualitative change in the political discourse of this region. Acknowledging the past is the first step in taking responsibility for its consequences. This must include equal rights for all the peoples of this land, including the right of Palestinians to return to their homes.
In her book, The Other Side of Israel, Susan Nathan does a great chapter on Zochrot, I reccomend reading it. She interviews Eitan Bronstein, one of the founders of the group, here's some info on him;
The inspiration for Zochrot began when Bronstein was searching on the Internet and came across the history of Qaqun, a village in the Tulkaram region of historic Palestine. He found that Qaqun was located near Kibbutz Bahan where he grew up. Bronstein remembered exploring that area as a child, never realizing he was playing in the ruins of a destroyed Palestinian village. Learning this history connected Bronstein to a history that he thought had nothing to do with him. He created Zochrot to help Jewish Israelis face the history of al-Nakba, using educational forums, tours of destroyed Palestinians villages, oral histories, dialogue projects, and commemorations and protests.
One example of Zochrot’s work was the Canada Park campaign. The park was created by the Jewish National Fund with Canadian donations. The park was built on the ruins of three Palestinian villages - Yalu, Imwas and Beit Nuba – that Israel destroyed in the aftermath of the 1967 War to extend its control over the strategic corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. During a tour of the park, Bronstein was surprised to find no mention of the area’s recent history in the printed park guide or on the signs offering the history of the area. Zochrot began a campaign to add signs to the park that reflected the Arab communities who had lived there. After several years of effort – which ranged from posting homemade signs in the park to taking a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice – Zochrot was successful in getting the signs placed in the park.
Previous to founding Zochrot, Bronstein served three jail sentences for refusing to serve in the Israeli military during the first Lebanon War in the early 1980s and in the West Bank during the first intifada in the late 1980s
When I was there, I went on a Zochrot trip to the village of Ain Al-Mansi, I believe that I have mentioned it before, and I reccomend that anyone going there join Zochrot for their work, it is one of the true ways peace and justice will come to that land.
Zochrot sign on the ruins of Ain Al Mansi, which now is a forest, a highway and a gas station.