From David Anthony Hohol…

Over the weekend the global news story was no doubt Palestine’s submission for statehood to the UN. Barack Obama conceded the critical nature of this issue way back in March 2009, when in Cairo he called for a halt on all settlement activity. In May of the same year, Obama asserted the borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, with some minor adjustments, should be the basis of a peace agreement.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu immediately and categorically rejected both proposals. Israel continued building settlements in the West Bank. Imagine someone coming into your country and building neighborhoods, roads and facilities that you were not allowed to use. Israel can only do this, by the way, because Palestine is not officially recognized as a country and that’s what all this is about. If it Palestine was legally recognized as a sovereign state, Israel would not be able to impose its will without it being categorized as an act of war.  Netanyahu also raised objectionable new demands for a permanent military presence in the Jordan River valley. Almost bizarrely, he also asked for recognition of Israel as solely a “Jewish State” even though about 25 percent of Israeli citizens are non-Jewish.

The United States has thus been exposed as being impotent in a way they never have been before. The result is that they have basically withdrawn from the peace process. Left with no alternative Palestine has now moved on to the UN for help.

The fact of the matter is that Israel has no intention of allowing a sovereign Palestinian state to exist and the signs have been there from the very beginning.  In 1948, immediate aggression was shown, when Israel took nearly 25% more land than was allotted to them by the UN. A steady stream of massacres and schemes played out through the 1950s. In the 1960s, defying international law, Israel continued swallowing up more land, taking over the remaining 22% of historic Palestine. The 1970s saw Israeli settlements built inside the West Bank, instant small cities, with roads and services Palestinians are not allowed to use; all of which exist to inhibit the development of even a single strip of Independent Palestinian territory. To make the position clear, in 1974, Israel, along with the United States, alone voted against a UN sponsored two-state solution. With the 1980s and 1990s came the massive expansion of road blocks, check points, walls, and guard towers, as Israel continued to reinterpret UN Security Council Resolutions to its own liking. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon and took hold of the Jordanian border in order to more easily annex the West Bank and in 1987, even funded Hamas in the first Intifada, so that the more secular-minded and diplomatic factions of Palestine would be undermined. What has unfolded since 1948 is clear; the slow but steady eradication of all things Palestinian.

Israel has repeatedly shown the world, again and again, it will never accept an independent Palestinian state.  The events that have unfolded in Palestine over the last six decades have little or nothing to do with Hamas; little or nothing to do with Iran or Syria, with Mahmood Abbas or Hassan Nassrallah, with terror or Hezbollah. The Israeli / Palestinian conflict, at its core, is about empire, greed, wealth, and egotism. In the end, when one takes away all the political cliché and sophisticated academic theory, all that’s left is an apartheid system of existence  set up within the walls of what is essentially an open-air prison for the Palestinian people, all of which is driven by the ideology of power and dominion over the weak.

With the United States threatening to veto anything the rewards Palestine with statehood, America has offically resigned from the position of negotiator. U.S. policy is now nakedly acquiescing on the occupation and is biased. Going to the UN for statehood is not impeding negotiation it is serving it.

Netanyahu stood before the general assembly of the United Nations and called the UN as being the theater of the absurd. In the end he is right, and both the United States and Israel are its star players.

Terrorism is the nightmare of our time and the ready made fuel for political melodramas of Hollywood and beyond.  The more we see of it, however, the less we know or understand. From the simplistic inclusion of the Arab bad guys in movies like “Iron Man,” to the textured character study of Pakistani culture in a film like “A Mighty Heart,” the answer to the question why is often left unanswered.  Take  suicide bombing; who embraces it? What can lead an individual to such an action? “Paradise Now” answers these kinds of questions, but in a way that the audience might not expect. A gripping, poignant, powerful drama, the film draws its greatest strength from its unremitting determination to explain rather than justify or condemn the act itself.  For those of you who haven’t,  please track down “Paradise Now” and watch it. This Academy Award winning film is an important piece of work made by the people closest to the matter at hand. It’s the kind of film that will change you, the kind of experience that stays with you long after it is finished and most importantly, it will allow you to understand in way you never have before.

From Gaza Correspondent Falastine M El-Ghezawi….

When RELATIVITY OnLine magazine editor David Anthony Hohol asked me to write about myself as a Palestinian living in Gaza, I was confused about what to say. “Others need to hear directly from you. Don’t worry… just write about you and your experiences,” he said, “The rest will take care of itself.”

I tried to direct my feelings and emotions inward and slowly, my memories took me back many years.

I thought back to when I was just a little girl and not even in school yet. I used to hide inside and feel confused about how the Israelis treated us. To me, they were the monsters. I remember running behind an Israeli Intelligence vehicle, after they arrested my mother and took her to Gaza Central Jail. This happened on the heels of my father being arrested, accused of bombing a Gaza branch of an Israeli Bank. He was also a member of the P.L.O (People’s Liberation Organization), a crime at the time of his arrest in 1979. The United States and Israel considered them to be a terrorist organization until 1991. I was in panic and alone with my grandmother, who did her best to calm me down. Partially paralyzed, I was already old enough to know my grandmother would not be able to care for me and my 9 month old sister.

This tragic fact doubled my fears as we anxiously waited to see what would happen to my mother. After she was interrogated for information, my mother was eventually released, but my father’s trial continued.  In the end, he was sentenced to life in jail.

I didn’t know the meaning of life in jail at my age, but nevertheless was soon told I would never see my father again. I loved my father very much, even more than my mother, but she never complained. She worked hard to raise my brother, my sister and me, with my baby brother being born shortly after my father was locked up.

Days passed heavily. The last Friday of the month was always the most special, because it was on that day we could visit my father. It was only once a month and only for thirty minutes, but it was all the Israelis would allow. Until this very day, there is a part of me that remains that lost child staring at the prison entrance, watching the Israeli soldier slide his big iron keys into the lock to open the jail gate, listening to the speakers, waiting for our name to be called so we could visit my beloved father. I used to run to him and kiss his fingers through the iron bars. He did the same to me.

After a while I came to understand that the Israelis were responsible for jailing my father. As I grew older I understood the Israelis were in fact the jailers of my people; the jailers of my identity. When my father was arrested in 1979, people were less political, more involved in their jobs and careers, and few followed the P.L.O. Less than ten years later, at the onset of the First Intifada in 1987, Palestinians rose up against their Israeli occupiers. Israel’s prejudiced and racist treatment of everyday people become too much to bear. They had been either killing or jailing people like my father for years, but my father had stood up to them long before others were there to stand by his side. People began referring to men like my father as a Fedayeen, and I never felt prouder.

One of the ways I felt I could fight back was to study hard. I learned how to read and write even before starting school. The main reason I was so motivated, was so that I could write my father letters and read his.  I always made sure to be the first in my class, so I could make my father proud.

No one imagined my father would be released alive again except my grandmother. She always said she would be able to see him before she died and much to everyone’s surprise and joy, that’s what exactly what happened six years later. A prisoner exchange between the P.L.O. and the Israelis in 1985 brought my father back to me. I was overcome with happiness. Finally he’d won his freedom.

For my family and I, it was a great victory and a step towards the freedom of my people and homeland. It was then I knew I would always have to fight what was mine.

American Vice President Joe Biden

Plans for a settlement of 1,600 new homes for Jews only in disputed east Jerusalem were announced this past Tuesday, while Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel attempting to restart peace talks between Palestine and Tel Aviv. The plans were unveiled just as Biden was concluding a series of meetings with Israeli leaders. In an immediate response, Biden issued the following statement Tuesday afternoon:

I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem. The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel. We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them. This announcement underscores the need to get negotiations under way that can resolve all the outstanding issues of the conflict. The United States recognizes that Jerusalem is a deeply important issue for Israelis and Palestinians and for Jews, Muslims and Christians. We believe that through good faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome that realizes the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem and safeguards its status for people around the world. Unilateral action taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations on permanent status issues. As George Mitchell said in announcing the proximity talks, “we encourage the parties and all concerned to refrain from any statements or actions which may inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of these talks.”

Relations between the Obama administration and Israel have been cold at best almost entirely because of the settlement issue. Biden’s comment may very well be an unprecedented American condemnation of Israeli actions in Palestine.

The United States and the International community as a whole believes Israeli settlements built on lands claimed by Palestinians drastically reduce any prospects of peace. Obama has been more outspoken on the settlement issue than any other President in American history.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored White House calls to stop all settlement activity. Saeb Erekat, Palestine’s chief negotiator, said the move was destroying chances of going forward at a meet set to take place under the mediation of U.S. envoy George Mitchell.

“With such an announcement, how can you build trust? This is destroying our efforts to work with Mr. Mitchell. It’s a really disastrous situation. I hope that this will be an eye-opener for all in the international community about the need to have the Israeli government stop such futile exercises,” Erekat said.

American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighed in on the issue this past Thursday.  She openly berated Israel when she declared,  ” The two state solution requires confidence in both sides. The announcement of these settlements the very day Vice President Biden was there (in Israel) was no less than insulting. It was a very difficult moment. I deeply regret this occurred.”

To make this announcement while the American Vice President is right in Israel shows the blatantly contemptuous nature of the Israeli government, humiliating Biden in the process. Once again, Israel is taking the eff the world approach to the settlement issue. Once again, it becomes clear Israel is not interested in peace and even less interested in Palestine ever having a state of its own. To the Israeli government, the Palestinians are worthy of little more than concentration camps, road blocks, and checkpoints, all under the absolute power of a dominating occupation that grants zero rights to those occupied.

Despite any statements from Tel Aviv to the contrary, this is Israel’s policy on Palestine – plain and simple.

From David Anthony Hohol…

AP Photo - Israeli wall running through the West Bank

Israel once again demonstrated its lack of concern and disinterest in international sentiment, when on November 17th they announced their plans to move ahead with additional settlement building in the West Bank. The area of Gilo, which has been occupied since 1967 and annexed to its Jerusalem municipality, has now been slotted for nearly 1000 new homes.

Shortly after Barack Obama was sworn in as President, he called for a halt to settlement building in the West Bank. Israels decision was harshly criticized by the White House. In a official statement, the Obama administration said it was ”dismayed” at their decision to move ahead with more settlements and accused Israel of sabotaging Obama’s efforts to restart peace talks with Palestinians, which have been on hold since December.

“At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also denounced Israels decision, saying he “believes that such actions undermine efforts for peace and cast doubt on the viability of the two-state solution” for Israelis and Palestinians.

The United Kingdom also condemned the Israeli move stating that ”this decision on Gilo is wrong and we oppose it.”

Riyad al-Malki, the Palestinian Foreign Minister, said Israel’s decision was a further step “intended to prevent the Palestinian state from happening.”

I know for many the concept of settlement building is confusing, so allow me to try to simplify things. Imagine you live in a neighborhood that you, your father, and grandfather were all raised in and suddenly, buildings are torn down, you are ordered to leave your homes, walls and fences go up, new buildings are built, and new roads are paved. Afterward, new people move in and you are not allowed to enter the area, nor are you even allowed to use the streets and roads that pass through it. Now, to cross to the other side of your neighborhood, you have to travel all the way around the barriers, sometimes traveling three and four times the distance, and in doing so you must pass through a number of check points and security checks - both there are back.

Is there anyone out there who would simply accept this?

Another question many might ask is why are these settlements being built. There is one purpose – to stymie any attempt at establishing a sense of Palestinian identity or independence, to denigrate, frustrate and humiliate the domestic populace and to remind all concerned they are indeed under occupation. In other words, settlements are established to create conflict and to tear down any attempt at a two state solution.

Israel is making a very clear statement. It will do what it wants to do when it wants to do it,  and what it wants to do is eliminate any chance of Palestine having a state of its own… no matter what the international community thinks.

From David Anthony Hohol…