Archive for April 26th, 2012
Discriminated against on all sides: When Rita and Taher fall in love in Palestine…Part 2
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 26, 2012
Discriminated against on all sides: When Rita and Taher fall in love in Palestine
In the previous post I stated: “How could you figure out this paradox: An Arab State (probably Qatar) invited two Jewish Israeli swimmers to participate in a sport event, and denied a Palestinian scholar to attend a scientific conference on the ground that his passport is Israeli?
In 1948, only about 150,000 Palestinians steadfastly remained and held on their land while Israel was pursuing its policy of ”transferring” all Palestinians from Palestine, by all means available, including genocide and erasing entire villages…
Those 150,000 Palestinians living within the State of Israel suffered all kinds of discrimination, humiliations and indignities and they are currently around 1.5 million or 20% of Israel total population”.
This posts describes the problems and detour of falling in love in Palestine.
Taher Al Musalmani (24) lives in Israel, in the town of Nazareth, and work with a Palestinian TV channel.
Rita (26) lives in Gaza and work as correspondent to a satellite chain. Their paths met as they tried to work out ways to do joint programs and the calls got frequent and friendship was established, long distance fashion.
Rita and Taher decided to meet at Cherm el Cheikh (the Sinai peninsula in Egypt) last June. Taher has an Israeli passport and made it fine to destination, but Rita could not pass the Rafah border check-point (Gaza side).
Taher refused to despair: He managed to link with a caravan of the Sinai bedouins that got him to Rafah in Gaza, then through one of the many underground tunnels that are frequently bombed by Israel to prevent livestock, oil, and arms from entering Gaza via Egypt…A trip that lasted 26 hours one way since he had no visa from Egypt…
Rita could not believe her eyes as Taher stepped into her house and recounted the trip hassles of his journey. Rita has divorced from a failed marriage and was not contemplating to remarry, not any time soon. The persistence of Taher changed her heart, mind and determination
Rita’s family needed three entire days of discussion and pondering before it agreed on the engagement ceremony. Taher has the engagement papers and he has to return to Nazareth. How?
Back to the tunnel and out to Taba (Egypt), then to Eilat (Israel on the Red Sea) and off to Tel Aviv. A strong police force was waiting for Taher on the airport of Tel Aviv and thrown into prison. Israel was searching for Taher on the premises that he might have links with the “enemy”.
Worse, Taher entered Gaza, a forbidden occupied territory.
Taher detention lengthened for weeks, with dozen of lie detector sessions, and then transferred to the “bird-cage” prison where Palestinians are formed to become spies to Israel. In case the Palestinian refuses to become an Israeli informant his name is disseminated so that other Palestinian factions assassinate him on the ground of a potential informer…
Three weeks later, Taher is set free to residential confinement for another 6 months.
Rita and Taher plan to marry in Egypt and settle in Ramallah (the Capital of the Palestinian Authority). Apparently, the Palestinian Authority is going to give this couple the hell of their life before they get together, if they do in Ramallah.
In any case, the world is vast and this couple intend to settle wherever they are accepted.
Note: The story is taken from a piece by Samia Al Zubaidi and published in the daily Al Hayat, London
“Palestinian Third Intifada is inevitable (civil disobedience)” : Akifa Eldar in Ha’aretz
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 26, 2012
“Palestinian Third Intifada is inevitable”: Akifa Eldar in Ha’aretz
The two incidents of the problems in Tel Olbanah (Beit Eeel) and how the commandant Shalom s behaved in front of foreigner supporters of the Palestinian (He smashed the face of a foreign supporter with the butt of his gun) demonstrated the weak points of the Israeli government.
Apparently, the Israeli mind failed to find a unified policy that would link occupation with democracy and basic human rights. The Israeli settlers know how to rob and occupy Palestinian properties, but they are helpless when inspectors such as Dror Atax and Hafit Afran divulge the atrocities and murder committed by the colons who are supported by the Israeli military…Israel judicial system was impotent in impose the State of Law and Democracy
Israel claims that its air force is trained to “surgically hit targets”, but the government goes hysteric and out of its mind facing peaceful foreign bikers strong with cameras…Israel internal secret service (Shabak) claims that he is a master in uncovering the location of “terrorists”, but is totally blind on how to confronting peaceful civil disobedience movement…
In the 1987 Palestinian civil disobedience (Intifada), a single Palestinian (Dr. Mubarak Awad) drove Israel government totally insane. Awad organized non-violent demonstrations, gathered people in discussion meetings, and planted trees on lands occupied by settlers…How Israel responded?
Issac Shamir PM, defense minister Issac Rabin and foreign minister Shimon Peres decided to transfer Dr. Mubarak Awad out of the State on the ground that he is an “agitator”. This decision upset the US and the dailies all over the world were critical of Israel decision.
During the peak of the Arab Spring upheaval, Dr. Mubarak Awad told me, sitting in his office in the American University at Washington DC, that “peaceful non-violent movements are the main activities that drive Israel to the wall and will force the Zionist State to start serious peaceful negotiations. The key for any peaceful resolution is in the hand of the oppressor.
Unfortunately, the Palestinian defunct Authority of Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas are busy accumulating wealth and luxury items, and assisting their progeny to succeed to their power…Abbas is traveling wearing suits and neckties and begging the world community to do what are his responsibilities.
President Barack Obama promise Abbas an independent Palestinian Homeland after his re-election, if the Palestinian Authority desist from submitting its request to the UN at his junction…
The Israelis are claiming that if the situation of the Palestinians in the occupied lands were that desperate they would have inevitably transformed the city of Ramallah into another “Reconquer Square” as in Egypt. The Oslo agreement of 1993 has transformed the Palestinian Organization into a an organ for defending Israel security and this diplomatic deal proved to be a total failure so far.
It is about time for the Palestinians to initiate their third intifada and descend to the streets. If the Jews in Israel had waited until the British mandated power to vacate Palestine in order to push forth their plans and programs they would have never gained the State of Israel…
Note: The current Palestinian strategy for civil disobedience is the hunger strike of over 1,300 Palestinian prisoners in order to unite all the Palestinian factions around a common target. This time around, it seems that the US and the UN communities have not, so far, publicly supported the Palestinian peaceful civil disobedience. And Israel is going ahead with building three more settlements around the northern Palestinian large city of Nablus.
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