May 22, 1998 - VOL 4 NO 47
by: Joharah Baker
Reminiscent of the intifada, May 15 was a day of mass demonstrations, confrontations with Israeli forces and, unfortunately, a fresh list of martyrs. Last week's demonstrations, speeches and activities marked the 50th anniversary of al-Nakba, the catastrophe which befell the Palestinians in 1948. Organized by the National Committee for the Commemoration of al-Nakba, the One Million March was executed with full force in all major Palestinian cities and towns. The marches, which began at 10:00 a.m. were followed at noon by the sounding of a mourning siren while Palestinians stood for a moment of silence in honor of their martyrs. In anticipation that the day to commemorate al-Nakba might be a flashpoint for anger and frustration, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced a state of emergency in all hospitals and medical centers in the territories beginning from 8:00 am until further notice in anticipation of the clashes to come. The Public Security and the National Security Council also called a state of emergency in the national security forces and police force.
As scheduled, both Palestinian president and poet Mahmoud Darwish delivered their speeches from the Voice of Palestine through loudspeakers in major places of assembly in the territories. In his speech, Arafat called for "closing the chapter" of al-Nakba, and concentrating on building an independent Palestinian state on Palestinian land with Jerusalem as its capital. "We are not fighting for the sake of fighting," he explains. "We are fighting for the sake of peace." The president also made it clear that the Palestinians are not "just refugees asking for pity" but are a deeply-rooted people belonging to a deeply-rooted nation. Arafat went on to define homeland as: "more than a stone, a tree, a sea...it is sovereignty and freedom...".
Darwish's speech (see page 10) touched the emotions of all who listened. His opening line expressed the deep sense of belonging to the land felt by Palestinians despite 50 years of exile. "We, the people born on this land..."
Demonstrations took place in several major Palestinian cities including East Jerusalem. PLC member Hatem 'Abdel Qader, a Jerusalem citizen, was beaten by Israeli police during the clashes and one Israeli reporter was shot in the stomach by a rubber-coated metal bullet. Dozens of Palestinians were arrested and shops closed early after the riots subsided.
In Ramallah, approximately 70,000 Palestinians participated in the march which poured into the center circle. Many Palestinian figures were present, including Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, presidential secretary 'Tayib Abdel Rahim, Bishop ?? and Minister of Higher Education Hanan Ashrawi. Cameras flashed as Arafat gave his speech and people cheered Ashrawi when she said that the cardboard keys, replicas of the keys of houses abandoned in 1948, would be the new keys for the Palestinian state.
However, along with the nostalgic speeches came the harsh reality of the occupation. By the end of the day, the casualty list had reached five with more four unconfirmed and 400 reported injured. All the martyrs, with one exception, were from Gaza, where the clashes were the most intense. Director-General of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Imad Taraweh, confirmed that many of the injured were members of medical staffs including one martyr from Jabalia Refugee Camp Zamel al-Weheidi, a nurse who was assisting the wounded. Ismail Shehada, 24, from Qalandia Refugee Camp near Jerusalem was shot in the head and brain dead for 24 hours, after which he died. The Ministry of Health also announced that at least 80 others were in critical condition, adding that 50 percent of the injuries sustained by the wounded were a result of live ammunition.
In expectation of further confrontations, the Israeli army deployed armored tanks at the entrances of Gaza, bringing in large reinforcements of infantry and tanks. Israel had placed a ban prohibiting on all Israelis from entering Palestinian territories on May 15 and extended it another day after the intensity of the clashes the day before. PLO Executive Committee Secretary Mahmoud Abbas called for banning the use of live ammunition during a telephone call with Israeli Public Secretary Minister Avigdor Kahalani, who in turn, requested from Abbas that Palestinians work together with Israel to contain the situation. According to official Israeli sources, 11 Israeli policemen and two settlers were also lightly injured in the demonstrations.
The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, issued a statement on May 14 saying that they would not participate in the One Million March since the PA had rejected all requests to release its detained members. This was clear in Ramallah, where no Islamic flags were raised, unlike in Nablus, where, Hamas leader Sheikh Jamal Saleem later explained, the Islamists did participate, after which they held a two-day festival marking the anniversary.
Clashes continued in Hebron and Jerusalem on May 16 and 17. In Hebron, occupation troops closed down 100 stores in al-Shallaleh Street under Israeli control and several Palestinians were injured and arrested. Israel has announced that it is tracking down 500 Palestinians accused of participating in the Nakba confrontations and whose names are now on a list at every Israeli checkpoint.
While speaking to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah the following day, president Arafat stressed that the Palestinian strategy of peace cannot be considered a sign of weakness because the people have proven that "all options are open." On this note, he called on the international community to "act immediately" before matters get out of control.
As for developments on the political level, it is not only the Palestinians who are growing frustrated with Israel. King Hussein of Jordan described Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's statements as "contradicting and puzzling" and Egyptian foreign minister Amr Musa accused Israel of playing games with the peace process by transforming it into a "real estate transaction"" obviously referring to Israel's obstinacy over the redeployment issue. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak warned of a further eruption of violence if the deadlock in the peace process continues.
US president Bill Clinton also seems to be at his wits end. Last week he announced that if US officials fail to convince Israel to accept the 13.1 percent redeployment, in two weeks he will go ahead and announce the details of his initiative, and hold Israel fully responsible for its failure. On May 19 US State Department spokesperson James Rubin stated that the US may soon announce that it is "impossible" to revive the peace process.
As expected, Netanyahu's talks in Washington with US secretary of state Madeleine Albright did not achieve any breakthrough. Netanyahu announced upon his return, that Israel still rejects the US proposed percentage for redeployment. Arafat also met with Albright but in London on May 18 to discuss the current impasse in the peace process where no major progress was achieved. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair is frustrated. After the London meeting, his spokesperson declared that the British prime minister shares Arafat's depression over the lack of progress in the peace process.
by: Charmaine Seitz
Nablus " Six years ago, Muhammad Bakr defied the Muslim tradition of his Palestinian village, rejected the teachings of the Muslim prophet that he was named for, and converted to Christianity. As a result, Bakr was jailed by the Palestinian Authority for a year and tortured into confessing to false charges, claim Bakr and his pastor.
But human rights groups and PaChristians don't believe that Bakr was arrested for his faith. Instead, they say that Bakr's story was used by Israeli and pro-Israeli Christian groups to stir up international concern about the plight of Christians under the four-year-old Palestinian government.
The same American religious right that publicized Bakr's story is one of the strongest advocates for current legislation that would level sanctions against countries that harass or jail Christians because of their faith. The Freedom From Religious Persecution Act was passed by an overwhelming House majority on May 14th, and will soon be voted on by the United States Senate. While the PA is not named as an offending government in the Freedom From Religious Persecution Act, it would be subject to scrutiny if the bill were passed, particularly after reports of religious persecution that have been circulated by Bakr's pastor, David Ortiz, and the Israeli government.
"David Ortiz is very well-connected in the U. S., including several senators and within Christian right circles," says Jennifer Moorehead of LAW, a Jerusalem-based human rights organization. "The Christian right has in turn influenced several congresspeople who were already hostile to the Palestinians." The problem with that, says Moorehead, is that extensive investigations by both LAW and the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group have found that Ortiz's claims of systematic police arrest and harassment of Christians due to their faith are unfounded.
Palestinian Christian leaders have repeatedly denied that the PA has subjected them to "relentless persecution," as an Israeli report claimed. "I don't believe for a second that [Palestinian President] Yasser Arafat or anyone else said 'Go and attack the Christians'," says Issa Bajalia, an evangelical Palestinian pastor.
Christians point out that while they only make up 2.2 percent of the Palestinian population, they have many representatives in high posts of the Palestinian government. Instead, LAW says that the eight Christian converts from Islam that Ortiz claims have been persecuted were targeted by police for other reasons.
Ortiz is an American Pentecostal minister who moved to an Israeli West Bank settlement with the intention of converting Jews and Muslims to Christianity. He openly believes that, "God is bringing the Jews on this land and he has a plan for them." That isn't a popular opinion among the 2.5 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza and hope to establish a state there.
Moorehead thinks that Ortiz's beliefs, activities, and where he lives are the reasons why his small congregation has faced difficulties from Palestinian security forces. Frequent visits with Ortiz in the settlement, the attention Ortiz has drawn to the PA, as well as their own previous social and criminal problems, make Ortiz's converts targets for police hostility.
While there is no proof that these eight men have been arrested for their faith, the Israeli government has used their story in its own campaign against the Palestinian leadership. Not long after Bakr's arrest, an Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs report was leaked to the press. The report detailed several Palestinian religious conflicts, including Bakr's case, and quoted the dwindling numbers of Palestinian Christians in the West Bank and Gaza as proof that the PA was hostile to non-Muslims.
Uri Mor, the Israeli liaison between Christian groups and the Israeli government and the author of the report, says that there is no systematic campaign against Christians by the PA. He describes instances where social problems have taken on religious overtones, often involving Palestinian officials. Interestingly, Mor also says that the spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's office uses information about Palestinian religious conflicts as his "bread and butter against the PA."
That report, combined with the lobbying of David Ortiz, started a paper trail that leads directly to the door of the American right-wing Christian Coalition. The International Christian Embassy, a Jerusalem-based organization that supports Israel for the same religious reasons as Ortiz, immediately published the Israeli report in its newsletter. Christian Friends of Israel, also based in Jerusalem, asked those in its 22 world-wide offices to pray "for Muhammad and other believers suffering in [PA] prisons." Not long after, Ortiz traveled to the US, where he appeared on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" and spoke about the PA's alleged poor treatment of Christians.
"We must demand the State Department do something in relation to the Sudan, in relation to the PA, in relation to Saudi Arabia and these other countries that are persecuting Christians," Robertson told an October 1997 audience of the "700 Club." Robertson is the founder of the Christian Coalition which is a strong advocate of the religious persecution bill recently passed by the House. Soon, legislators connected with the Republican right in America were also talking about the PA's treatment of Christians. Representative J.C. Watts, a Republican from Oklahoma, wrote of a "rise in violent attacks against Christians" living under the Palestinian government in a December Washington Times article. He is now a vocal backer of the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act.
"Palestinians who have converted from Islam to Christianity have been arrested and have sustained heavy fines and abuse of various types," Republican Representative Jim Saxton of New Jersey told the Christian Broadcasting Network News in March this year. Saxton has proposed legislation in the past that would cut aid to the PA. Saxton has also expressed support for the current religious persecution legislation.
While the scope of the religious persecution bill is much larger than any attack on the PA, its strongest supporters share pro-Israeli feelings. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Senate sponsor of the religious persecution bill, has recently sponsored legislation to cut funding to the PA and move the American embassy to Jerusalem, a change that Palestinians say would preempt future agreements with Israel on the status of the holy city.
Lobbying by Ortiz of American lawmakers comes at a crucial time in the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. Israeli prime minister Netanyahu is under increasing pressure from the Clinton administration to concede more territory to Palestinians. In the past, he has used the support of the American Christian right to deflect this pressure.
"I think that David Ortiz's agenda is the same as Christian right religious groups in the US, which is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and the returning of the Jews to this land," says Moorehead. "And that is where their lobbying takes on political overtones."
by: Muna Hamzeh-Muhaisen
When Maha found out that her husband of six years was collaborating with the Israelis, she was devastated. Her immediate reaction was to ask for a divorce. But her mother, to the horror of the rest of the family, wouldn't let her. "I'd rather my daughter was married to a collaborator than be divorced," was the mother's reaction.
So Maha found herself back with her husband and soon she was pregnant with her second child. The marriage did not last. Her husband was not only physically abusive but he was apparently still an unrepentant collaborator. When the PA arrested him on suspicion of collaboration, Maha packed her clothes and moved in with her family. This time around, she insisted on the divorce.
From the money she had saved from her well-paid job at a hospital in Jerusalem, Maha built a small, two-room apartment in her family's spacious garden. The alternative of renting an apartment elsewhere was, of course, out of the question and socially unacceptable. Divorced women in Palestine simply cannot live alone or they would be exposing themselves to all sorts of gossip.
Having settled down in her new place, Maha began her fight for a divorce. Her husband's family insisted on waiting until he got out of jail and when he did, more than one year later, Maha asked him for a divorce. He refused and for monton end, he would take Maha's children to stay with him, keeping them for one month at a time. Maha became irritable and nervous and she began to lose weight. She wanted a divorce and custody of her children.
In April 1998, nearly two years after she moved into her new apartment, she got both. The price she had to pay was to give up her alimony and child support. She didn't care. She wanted to be free of the man, no matter what the cost.
With a more than full-time job, working and raising her children, Maha has gone back to university to finish her degree and is quite happy with her new life. She is also very happy to be financially independent from her family. "If I did not have a job it would have been the end of me," she says. "I would have had to be at the mercy of my family, waiting for them to feed and clothe me."
Though Maha is a strong-willed and independent woman, she is beginning to feel the effects of being a divorced woman in Palestine. "I feel as if I'm under constant scrutiny. I can't go out alone in the evenings unless it is with my parents or brothers," she explains. "It is as if people watch me to see if I make a mistake so they can criticize me."
Although only in her late twenties, Maha does not think about the prospects of getting married again. "Who wants to marry a divorced woman with two children?" she asks. Indeed, most Palestinian women who are divorced don't get many marriage offers. If they do, it is either from an old widower or a divorced man who wants someone to take care of him and his children.
"Being a divorced woman is socially unacceptable," says Salwa who was divorced nearly ten years ago and has one son. "If I didn't have a job, my life would have been completely different," she says. Indeed, it is their jobs that give these divorced women the financial independence they need. "My life would be terrible if I had to depend on my brothers for money. They would completely control me."
Like Maha, Salwa feels the social restrictions of being a divorced woman. "I cannot go out in the evening to visit friends. If I do, people would be suspicious," she explains. "If I put on too much make up, they would wonder who I am putting it on for? The difficulties are immense."
A similar problem exists for Palestinian women who have reached their thirties and forties without
getting married. Hala, 49, never married and neither did two of her three sisters. The "girls", as people call them, live with their mother and all three work.
But Hala is not happy with her life at home. "Our house is always full of people and I never seem to have any privacy after a long day at work. My nephews and nieces come over and we are always running around cleaning after them," she says.
Hala would love to live alone. She has many girlfriends and likes to have them over but feels she cannot. "If they come to visit me, they have to visit with my entire family." But living alone is out of the question, even for a woman Hala's age.
"My relatives would be horrified if I rented a place of my own and immediately they would doubt my motives," she says. "If you are not married, then you have to be careful about every move you make. If you speak with a man, you have to look over your shoulder. If you laugh at a joke a man tells you, you have to make sure you don't laugh too loud. It is disgusting."
Although Hala has a full social calendar, her sisters don't. "Majd and Riham go from the house to the office and back. They don't go out for meals, not even with their girlfriends," explains Hala. "Theirs is a dull and boring existence and I cannot imagine what they'll be like thirty years from now."
Until today, Hala's sisters, both in their late thirties, still get occasional marriage offers. One time it is from a 60-year-old widower who needs a "maid" to look after him, another from a man with two wives, a herd of children, and a desire to peeve both wives by marrying a third. This angers Hala.
"My sisters have many skills, from cooking, to embroidering, to gardening, you name it. Yet not a single man who is about their age ever proposes. Everyone is looking for younger women in their
late teens or early twenties and if my sisters do ever marry, it will be so that they can be slaves to a man who is basically looking for an old servant."
For these women, the future is unclear. They all work but none have any savings. They don't know what will happen to them when they reach an age when they can no longer earn a living. "Who will take care of us?" they ask. None have the answer.