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Dec. 29, 2013
Daily summary - Sunday, December 29, 2013
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Main News
Names of released prisoners in the third batch
Israel prison administration announced on its official website yesterday nightthe names of prisoners to be released on the third batch of prisoners before Oslo, names are as follows:
1. Adnan Yousif Shehadeh Al-Afandi
2. Ahmad SHehadeh Farid SHehadeh
3. Ramadan Odeh Muhammad Ya’coub
4. Muhammad Ahmad Mustafa Afaneh
5. Faisal Mahmoud Mudtyafa Abu Al-Rub
6. Ahmad Ali Awad Kamil
7. Bilal Mustafa Ibrahim Damrah
8. Jamal Ibrahim Khaled Abu Muhsen
9. Saed Muhammad Rashdi Tamimi
10. Osama Kamel Khaled Silawe
11. Mukhlis Adbulraziq Sudqi Sawwafi
12. Naser Mustafa Fawzi Barhoum
13. Nu’man Ahmad Yousif Al-Shalabi
14. Ayman Anis Muhammad Jaradat
15. Nae’m Muhammad Younis Shawamreh
16. Salman Muhammad Mahmoud
17. Jamal Ibrahim Ahmad Abu Jamal
18. Ibrahim Mahmoud Fayez Abu Ali
19. Rami Zaki Jaudat Barbakh
20. Ahmad Mustafa Juma’ Khalaf
21. Bilal Yousif Ahmad Abu Hussien
22. Yasin Muhammad Abu Khdier
23. Mahmoud Muhammad Nofal Da’ajneh
24. Ibrahim Ahmad Khalil Salah
25. Mahmoud Ata Mumammar
26. Ibrahim Hilmi Lutfi Taqtouq
Ofir Gendelman, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, said to Arab media the prisoners will be released after 48 hours of the publication of the list.(http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=660925)
Opening Karm Abu Salem crossing, and continuing to close Rafah
Occupation authorities decided to open Sunday morning the Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Sahlom) onlycrossing to the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian authorities continue to close the Rafah crossing for a second day.The occupation authorities closed Kerem Shalom crossing for four days.Raed Fatouh head of the goods entry committee, saidthat 330 trucks loaded with goods for trade and agricultural aid will enter the Strip, in addition to 2cement trucks and 46 trucks for international projects.(http://www.alquds.com/news/article/view/id/480365)
Nayef Hawatmeh demanded Haniyeh's resignation
Nayef Hawatmeh, Secretary General of the Democratic front for the liberation of Palestine, called on Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza to offer his Government's resignation on Saturday, “to open the road for implementation of the agreement and understandings and end the Division.” Hawatmeh called President Mahmoud Abbas in a press statement to form a Government of national consensus of independent figures, and summon the Supreme Committee of the PLO, and invite our people for legislative and presidential elections, and for the National Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization, stressing that this is the only way to reject the "framework agreement" and a return to international legitimacy and the International Conference for peace.(http://www.qudsn.ps/article/35498)
Aqel strongly denies a secret channel between Abbas and Netanyahu
Veteran Palestinian politician Basel Aqel denied strongly what was reported by Yediot Ahronot, that he manages a secret contacts channel with Israeli Government representing President Mahmud Abbas. Aqel told the London-based daily Al-Hayat on Sunday," I don't have any secret or public contacts, with any Israeli party,"strongly ؤcondemning the newspaper report without any documentations. Aqel stressed: "haven't seen Molkho and don't know Him," describing the newspaper’s report as a novel that is "false and fabricate… without any basis.” (http://safa.ps/details/news/119190/%D8%B9%D9%82%D9%84-%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D8%B4%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A5%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D9%87-%D9%82%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3-%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%88.html
Extreme member of Knesset: Kerry is the enemy of Israel and a supporter of the Palestinians
MK of Jewish Home Party Moti Yugiv said that Foreign Minister John Kerry is the enemy of Israel and a supporter of the Palestinians.According to Israel TV channel 7 Yugiv statements came following the Israeli Government's decision to release the third batch of prisoners planned for tomorrow, where he noted that "Kerry is seeking the release of Palestinian prisoners and not trying to release Israeli spy Pollard."(http://www.pnn.ps/index.php/israel/76923-%D8%B9%D8%B6%D9%88-%D9%83%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%B1%D9%81-%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%88-%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A4%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86)
Abu Marzouk warns of Oslo 2
Deputy Head of Hamas political Bureau Moussa Abu Marzouk warned from Oslo 2 under attempt of Secretary of State John Kerry to reach a "framework agreement" between the PA and Israel.Abu Marzouk said in a statement via his "Facebook" page yesterday, that if a framework agreement is agreed and signed, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will go to the Israeli Knesset, while "who will sing it on behalf of the Palestinian side and to whom will it be presented,” adding that the issues mentioned in the agreement affects all Palestinian (...). Abu Marzouk added: “will the National Council be summoned after its deep sleep, as the Palestine Liberation Organization is negotiating,while the negotiations were held without consent of the Executive Committee.” (http://paltimes.net/details/news/55765/%D8%A3%D8%A8%D9%88-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%B2%D9%88%D9%82-%D9%8A%D8%AD%D8%B0%D8%B1-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A3%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%88-2.html)
Kerry returns to the region next week with written proposals, and a Palestinian pessimism
A senior Palestinian official confirmed for "Al-Ayyam" that US Secretary of State John Kerry would arrive in the region, in a tenth round, next week, but ruled out that Kerry will provide concrete ideas on the framework agreement, which he seeks to finalize next month "because of the wide gap between the Palestinian and Israeli positions." The official said: "Kerry informed the Palestinian Authority that he is returning to the region in January, to discuss the peace process and negotiations with Israel," Adding that Kerry will stay in the region for several days. The source predicted that Kerry will present a written plan for the Palestinian and Israeli sides during the visit. Kerrycalled President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday, in preparation for his planned visit this weekend, but officials declined to disclose the content of the call.The source said that Kerry’s plan would include the outlines of an interim framework agreement.(Al-Ayyam)
The US State Department said yesterday that Kerry will visit the Middle East on the first of January, for talks on the peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jennifer Bosacki said "on the first of January, Foreign Minister John Kerry will visit Jerusalem to meet Prime Minister Netanyahu and to Ramallah to meet with President Abbas."Bosacki said "during the meetings, Kerry will discuss the ongoing negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians on final status issues," adding that the visit will last "for few days".(Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
EU Ambassador confirms: we will blame Israel for failure of negotiations
President Mahmoud Abbas received a phone call from Secretary of State John Kerryyesterday. The phone call discussedUS Palestinian efforts to move the peace process forward. At the same time, EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Anderson, said in an interview published on the Israeli news website “Walla” that he clarified to Israeli officials that the declaration of new building in the settlements will affect that negotiations very strongly, and that in this caseIsrael will be blamed for failure of negotiations and that other Ambassadors will have the same position.(Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
Israel threatens Hamas with "serious consequences" if quiet is not kept
Head of political and Security Department of the Israeli Defense Ministry Amos Gilad, threatened Hamas with "serious consequences" if not reining "extremist organizations", and maintain calm in the Gaza Strip.This came in a statement yesterday to Israeli radio in a response to the latest escalation in the Gaza Strip. Gilad said: "Hamas is responsible for what is happening in the Gaza Strip, and if it can't rein the most radical organizations and keep the calm the situation in Gaza, the consequences will be disastrous for the movement".Gilad added: “there are no indications of a planned wave of terrorist acts in the territories as it was during the second intifada. The Palestinian side does not have any interest in a third intifada.”(Al-Ayyam)
Israeli army: border with Gaza is quiet and no third intifada in the West Bank soon
Israel's channel 10 quoted Commander of the Israeli army's southern region as saying: “southern Israel was not quite as this year since 15 years.” Israeli Maj. Gen. Amos Cohen, Commander of the southern region in the army,said: “those who promote the possibility of a third intifada are hasty despite the recent events and processes, both in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank.” Cohen added that the past years were much harder than the last year, where the southern command spent nights watching and thinking about how to confront the enemy that launches rockets from the Gaza Strip, but this year after the signing of the truce agreement with Hamas things have changed, pointing out that Hamas is not interested in escalation which would affect the its regime in the Gaza Strip.(Al-Ayyam)
Occupation arrested a young Palestinian during clashes in Jerusalem and releases 3 boys
Occupation police arrested yesterday evening a young Jerusalemite after clashes in Al-Was Street in the old city. Eyewitnesses said clashes broke out between young Jerusalemites and the Israeli occupation forces in Al-Wad Street, and spread to the one of the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque, during which the forces threw sound bombs, as young Jerusalemite Moses Ghrouf was arrested after raiding his house.(Al-Ayyam)
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Headlines
** Cairo: the death of a student in clashes between police and Islamist students who set fire to the building of the Al-Azhar University (Al-Ayyam)
** President receives delegation from the occupied Syrian Golan (Al-Ayyam)
** Egyptian army seizes storage of explosives and 19 Takferi in North Sinai (Al-Ayyam)
** Syria: killing 25 people in an air raid on a market (Al-Ayyam)
** Report: 16 Palestinians died following air strikes on a the refugee camp Dera'a and 8 died of starvation in Yarmouk (Al-Ayyam)
** The President instruct to enter food toYarmouk camp immediately (Al-Ayyam)
** The State of Palestine contributes to the United Nations budget (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
** Thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated in Tel Aviv (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
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Front Page Photos
Al- Quds:---
Al-Ayyam:1) Cairo - building of the Commerce College at Al-Azhar University on fire, 2) Injured Syrian mother walking in the street with her child.
Al Hayat Al Jadida:1) President Abbas during his meeting with Golan delegation yesterday, 2) Engineer Jeries Abdallah.
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Voice of Palestine News
Q: What are the latest news from Jerusalem; news reports say that the occupation arrested a young Palestinian during Al-Issawi release event?
Yes, this is true, Al-Issaweyah hosted the “Victory festival” with the participation of thousands of citizens, this festival was offered by released prisoner Al-Issawe to the Palestinian people and its leadership, stressing in his speech on the importance of keeping the prisoners’ issue as a high priority issue with regards to their release. The festival hosted Palestinian members of Knesset; the president was represented by Adnan AL-Hussieni, Governor of Jerusalem, who stressed in his speech that the Palestinian leadership consider this issue as a high priority issue, and congratulated Al-Issawi for his release.
Big forces of the occupation army besieged the village during the festival, all those who entered and left Issaweyah were subjected to searches and after the festival, the forces arrested a young Palestinian, on the pretext of throwing stones of soldiers.
Clashes erupted also in the old city of Jerusalem, especially in the African community neighborhood, occupation forces raided the neighborhood and attacked its residents, and Israeli Eged busses were attacked with stones in Sultan Sulieman Street according to the Police spokeswoman. With regards to the third batch of released prisoners, we note that 8 of them are Jerusalemites.
Gaza:
Q: Is Karm Abu Salem crossing open today?
Yes, the only trade crossing in Gaza was opened half an hour ago, after closing it for four days by the occupation army, materials and fuel will be entered to Gaza through the crossing today.
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Voice of Palestine Interviews
** Issa Qaraqe’, Minister for Prisoners’ Affairs, on the release of the third batch of Prisoners.
Q: Israel announced the names of prisoners to be released, what are the preparations and are there any fears of Israeli manipulations?
Yes the list was announced yesterday night, and we know who will be the 26 poisoners to be released after midnight Monday; we will receive them with all the Palestinian leadership attending, with the support and celebrations of our people, we are very happy with their release after many attempts by Israel to postpone their release. They are being transferred today from the different prisons to Ofer prison in order to release them after midnight Monday. With regards to Israeli manipulation, Israel already tried to manipulate when trying ti postpone the release, so everything is anticipated when it comes to Israeli behavior in this regards, but I hope that nothing will postpone the release.
Q: regarding the remaining prisoners, are they from Jerusalem and 1948?
We expected that Israel will postpone the release of prisoners from Jerusalem to the last batch, but some of the release prisoners this time are Jerusalemites. We agreed on names including Jerusalem and 1948, and this shouldn’t be postponed for any reason. In all cases the remaining prisoners are mostly from Jerusalem and 1948, hoping that Israel will not pose any obstacles for their release. This batch included two sick prisoners, Naem Shawamrah, who suffer from a very serious situation, and Mahmoud Salman from Gaza who suffer from a heart disease.
** Adnan Dmiere, Spokesman of the security establishment, on Israeli allegations that a third Intifada might erupt.
Q: How do you see these allegations?
The occupation and its spokesmen and analysts issue this kind of rumors every year regarding the security situation in Palestine, in order to convey messages to the world that the situation is Palestine is not stable and that it might explode at any given moment. Sometimes they call it a third intifada, and sometimes they call it just violence etc… Israel seeks to escape negotiations and pay the price they should pay which is ending the occupation; they think that they can convince the world that the Palestinian situation is not stable so the occupation should stay to maintain security. They will keep doing so.
Q: What is your evaluation of the situation in the West Bank, with regards to security?
I think that the security situation in the West Bank is stable, there is a huge difference between chaos and criminal events that occurs every now and then, since Chaos definition is clear, it is the in ability of the authority to control the security situation, this is what we had between 2002 – 2005, this is not the situation today in Palestine.
** Hanna Amereh, member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, on Kerry’s upcoming visit.
Q: With regards to the settlement latest decision, and in light of calls from the PLO to withdraw the negotiations, there is a meeting soon to discuss the issue.
Israel is trying to set chaos, and instead of stopping settlements it issues building tenders, so now the issue of negotiations without settlement activities is being raised again. So now we have clear voices calling for a withdrawal of the negotiations if Israel will not refrain from such acts.
Q: Will there be a meeting soon to discuss the issue?
The leadership did not invite for any meeting so far, there are demands to hold such a meeting soon, and we hope this will happen.
Q: with regards to leaks about what is going on in the negotiations, how do you view this?
I think that other than the security arrangement in the Jordan Valley nothing was presented by the Americans, some talk about an interim agreement or a framework agreement, but regarding the American proposals nothing was presented other than security arrangements, that support the occupation, and were all rejected by the President through the letter he sent to Obama.
Q: Sources say Kerry will arrive of Wednesday to present an almost final proposal by the Americans regarding the solution, some say that this solution will not present anything serious, is this what you expect?
This is not expected at all, what is expected is that Kerry will come with clarifications on his previous security proposal that was rejected by the Palestinians, nothing else is expected.
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More Headlines
Fateh denies appointing Marwan Barghouthi Vice President
Jamal Muheisen, Member of the Central Committee of Fatah, denied that the movement agreed to appoint prisoner and Fateh leader, Marwan Barghouti, as Deputy to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Muheisen said in a statement: "what is published through the media on appointing Barghouti as deputy to Abbas is absolutely incorrect."Muheisen added: "until the moment the position of Deputy to Abbas was not formally presented, and prisoner Barghouti was not suggested to the position."(http://qudsnet.com/news/View/261365/%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%AD-%D8%AA%D9%86%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D8%AE%D8%AA%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%BA%D9%88%D8%AB%D9%8A-%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3/)
Ministers in the Cabinet: Abu Mazen will reject Kerry’s next proposal
Maariv reported today that Israeli Cabinet Ministers estimate that Palestinian leader would refuse to sign a framework agreement which will be provided by John Kerry, among these Ministers are Foreign Minister Lieberman and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Minister Moshe Yaalon, while Livni confirmed that Abbas would refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish State, as well as the security arrangements proposed by Kerry in Jordan Valley.(http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=660975)
Israeli sources expect Netanyahu to accept Kerry’s principles
Israeli official sources said that the declaration of principles expected to put forward by Kerry to the Palestinian and Israeli sides during his upcoming visit to the region will include direct reference to 1967 lines, and the idea of land swaps within the framework of a permanent settlement.The sources said to Israeli public radio that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will approve this document, to not accuse "Israel" to scuttle negotiations and to obtain the agreement of the Palestinians and the United States to extend the talks for another year.(http://safa.ps/details/news/119200/%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-%D9%82%D8%A8%D9%88%D9%84-%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%88-%D9%84%D9%80%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A6-%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%8A.html)
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Arab Press
I have just seen the new movie “Mandela,” and I am so full of impressions that I cannot abstain from writing them down.
It is a very good film, with very good actors. But that’s not the main point. It is a very accurate film, depicting what actually happened in South Africa, and one cannot help thinking about it again and again. What do I think?
If one had asked any South African, black or white, some 35 years ago how the conflict would end, the answer would most probably have been: “It will not end. There is no solution.” That is exactly the answer one receives today in Israel and Palestine.
There could be no solution. The vast majority of black South Africans wanted freedom and black rule. The great majority of the Whites, both Boer and British, knew that once the Africans assumed power, the Whites would be slaughtered or driven out. No side could possibly back down.
Yet the incredible, the unimaginable, happened! The blacks won. A black president assumed power. The Whites were neither slaughtered nor evicted. Some say that they are today in many ways more powerful than the Blacks.
We have got used to this so thoroughly that we are not conscious anymore what a miracle it is.
When Algeria was freed, after a long and brutal war of liberation, more than a million “colons” fled for their lives. The huge exodus was not imposed. President Charles de Gaulle just let it be known that the French army would leave at a certain date, and all the colons fled helter-skelter. An immense number of local collaborators were butchered.
That is the normal course of events when colonial rule comes to an end after a long period of brutal oppression. As Friedrich Schiller wrote at the beginning of the colonial era: “Fear the slave who breaks his chains!”
Are the South African Blacks a different kind of people? More humane? More gentle? Less vengeful? Not at all.
As the film clearly shows, they were thirsting for revenge. They had suffered unspeakable indignities for many decades. Not abstract ones. They had suffered daily humiliations in the street, in the parks, at the railway stations, everywhere. They had not been allowed to forget for a moment that they were black and inferior, indeed subhuman. Many had spent time in inhuman prisons.
So it was natural that on the day of liberation they would fall upon their torturers, burn, kill and destroy. Mandela’s own wife, Winnie, led the demand for revenge. She incited the masses.
And only one human being stood between an orgy of blood and the orderly transfer of power. The movie shows how Nelson Mandela, completely alone, threw himself against the rising wave. At the decisive moment, when everything hung in the balance, when history held its breath, he addressed the masses on TV, telling them bluntly: “If I am your leader, you will follow my course! Otherwise, look for another leader!”
His approach was rational. Violence would tear the country apart, perhaps beyond redemption, as had happened in some other African countries. The Blacks would live in fear, as the Whites had lived all through the apartheid era. And, incredibly, the people followed him.
Yet Mandela was not a superhuman being, He was a normal person, with normal instincts. He had been an honest-to-goodness terrorist, who had sent people to kill and be killed. He had suffered years of brutal treatment, both physical and mental, years of imprisonment in isolation, which could have driven him to insanity.
Still in prison, and against the will of his closest comrades, he started negotiation with the leaders of the apartheid regime. Could there have been a Mandela without a Frederik Willem de Klerk? A good question.
The film does not dwell on de Klerk’s personality. But here was a man who understood the situation, who agreed to what amounted to almost complete surrender to the despised “kaffirs,” and who did so without shedding a drop of blood. Like Mikhail Gorbachev, in different circumstances, he supervised a bloodless historic revolution. (Curiously enough, “kaffir” the White racist term for blacks, is derived from the Arabic and Hebrew term for infidels.)
Mandela and de Klerk were perfectly matched, though one could hardly imagine two more different individuals.
What caused the abomination of apartheid to collapse?
Throughout the world, including Israel, the received wisdom is that it was the global boycott imposed on the apartheid state, which broke its bones. In dozens of countries, decent people refused to touch South African goods or to take part in sports events with South African teams, thus turning South Africa into a pariah state.
All true and admirable. Everybody who took part in this worldwide upsurge of conscience deserves respect. But to believe that this was the decisive element of the struggle is itself a symptom of western condescension, a kind of moral colonialism.
The film devotes just a few seconds to these worldwide protests and boycott. Not more. It was the heroic struggle of the South African masses, mostly black, but also Indian (descendants of immigrants) and colored (mixed race) that achieved victory. The means were armed struggle (always called “terrorism” by the oppressor), non-violent mass action and mass strikes. Foreign support served mainly to raise morale.
Mandela was not only one of the main leaders of this struggle, but also an active participant, until he was sent to prison for life.
From the film one could gain the impression that there were two Mandelas – the leader of the armed struggle, who shed blood, and the maker of peace, who became a world symbol of tolerance and forgiveness.
Yet these two Mandelas are one and the same — the personality of a man who was ready to sacrifice his life for the freedom of his country, but who was also magnanimous and forgiving in victory.
He completely conformed to the ancient Jewish saying: “Who is a hero? He who turns his hater into his lover.”
An Israeli is compelled to ask himself the inevitable question: What does the film tell us about the similarities and dissimilarities between the South African and the Israel-Palestinian situations?
The first impression is that situations are almost totally different. The political and demographic backgrounds are poles apart. The similarities are mostly superficial.
But in particular, the most obvious differences are: There is no Palestinian Mandela in sight, and even less an Israeli de Klerk.
Mandela himself was a passionate supporter of the Palestinian cause. He saw in Yasser Arafat his soul mate. There is indeed a similarity: Like Mandela, Arafat started a violent revolutionary struggle of liberation (terrorism), and like Mandela he decided to make peace with his enemy (Oslo). If Arafat had been tall and handsome like Mandela, perhaps the world would have treated him differently.
In his anti-Zionist attitude, Mandela resembled Mahatma Gandhi, whose ideas were formed in the 21 years he spent in South Africa and suffered its racism (before apartheid was officially enacted). However, while Mandela’s creed of forgiveness did win, Gandhi’s non-violent creed failed. The liberation of India was accompanied by untold violence, with at least half a million Muslims and Hindus dead — including Gandhi himself.
The movie ends with Mandela’s election as president, hailed by both Blacks and Whites.(http://www.arabnews.com/news/499581)
When the revolution comes to Israel
By Jamil Khader
Do Israeli audiences see the parallels between 'The Hunger Games' Panem and the Palestinian struggle against apartheid?
Actor Donald Sutherland, who played President Snow in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games, believes that the franchise has the potential to spur a global millennial revolution.
He even reminisced in one interview about the "revolutionary" energy he felt as a young man, after watching a double-feature (Federico Fellini's La Strada and Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory) in Toronto in 1954. He was so outraged by the representation of social inequality in the double-bill that he felt compelled to throw gravels at the presumably empty street in protest against injustice.
While teaching at Bir Zeit University in Palestine this year, I could not suppress another image that is often played and replayed in the media: The image of young Palestinian children - some of whom could not be older than four or five years old - being arrested by the Israeli occupation army on a daily basis for throwing pebbles and stones on similarly empty streets.
Theatres for many of these children remain a luxury they cannot afford anyway, even if there were theatres in Ramallah. These children will also need special permits from the occupation authorities to exit the Occupied Territories to watch movies across the green line.
The Hunger Games franchise raises questions not only about the kind of revolution the franchise envisions and its ultimate goals, but more importantly, about the youth they have in mind and exactly where in the world they are. As I watched the second instalment of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in a state-of-the-art theatre in Haifa two weeks ago, I wondered whether the franchise can live up to its alleged revolutionary potential.
In Hollywood's ideological universe, as the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek points out, a film's romantic story line usually adds an 'ideological surplus-enjoyment' that diverts the spectators' attention from its underlying revolutionary theme, if it is there in the first place.
Two things caught my attention during the film: First, the presence of several young Israeli soldiers in uniform, in the row in front of me, among the many young Israeli movie-goers. And second, the two rounds of applause that interrupted the movie - a spontaneous, intense and prolonged round of applause in response to the kiss that the two contestants-lovers, Katniss and Peeta, shared; and a more localized and weak round after Katniss shot an electrified arrow into the center of the dome that short-circuited the hologram field, leading to its collapse and the rescue of the heroine.
The first round of applause that reverberated in the theatre foretold that any revolutionary content that might have presumably been encoded in the film has already been sapped and sacked. In Hollywood's ideological universe, as the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek points out, a film's romantic story line usually adds an "ideological surplus-enjoyment" that diverts the spectators' attention from its underlying revolutionary theme, if it is there in the first place.
Panem as Palestine
On the surface, there might be no apparent parallels between the fictional dystopian world of Panem and Israel's apartheid policies and Zionist settler-colonialism in Palestine, but the structural realities are not that much different.
But how did these young Israeli spectators, both civilian and military, decode the images on the screen - could they have related the fragmentation of Panem into districts to the excruciating realities of the Palestinian cantons, or the brutalization of the masses in the fictional and real world? On whom did they project these images as they witnessed these fictional realities?
Witnessing up close the escalating levels of youth racism and violence against Palestinians and African immigrants and other asylum seekers in Israel, I wondered how these spectators decode the images of oppression, injustice, and potential revolution, and relate to them. The romantic scene guarantees that these spectators reinvest their emotional and libidinal energies away from the revolutionary subtext, making it also possible for them to endure the boring details of the spectacle of mutual annihilation called the Quartet Quell.
The second round of applause, however weak it was, might indicate that some people do genuinely believe in the revolution and that such Hollywood franchises can, in fact, usher the global revolution to come. Not so fast. In this so-called post-ideological age, as Zizek surmises, people enjoy large doses of ideological cynicism, in that they know very well that in this case, the revolutionary messages and symbols that emerge out of Hollywood are mere ideological illusions. They know that these cultural commodities are nothing more than pop-culture escapist fantasies or "popcorn agitprops", but they still believe in them.
Re-enforcing myths
This ideological cynicism is carried out on two conditions: That people still feel free to do whatever they want and that they continue to believe - in these revolutionary messages - in so far as someone else, some Other, really believes for them. Belief, for Zizek, is always belief through the Other - for example, in Israel, debunking the founding Zionist mythologies, especially the ones that draw on unsubstantiated biblical myths, is very common among academics and the public, but people continue to believe in them because there is a huge number of Christian Zionists in the West that continues to believe in these myths for them.
That neoliberal global capitalism has absorbed and co-opted the major symbols and iconic figures of revolutionary theory and practice through Hollywood is nothing new.
Hollywood today is that stand-in for the symbolic other that believes for us, so that we avoid being involved and continue going about our lives doing whatever we like. Hollywood can thus go on believing for us in the social revolution, trivializing and mystifying it, while neoliberal global capitalism turns revolutionary theory and practice into profitable commodities and marketable brands in a culture that, not only defines citizenship and civic engagement by purchasing power and consumption practices, but also uses these same revolutionary ideas as a vehicle for legitimizing exploitation. Indeed, one might say that we are willing to pay increasingly exorbitant admission fees at the theatre not simply to be entertained, but to be relieved of the act of believing. In many ways, we hire an Other, Hollywood to be precise, to believe for us.
Revolution as commodity
That neoliberal global capitalism has absorbed and co-opted the major symbols and iconic figures of revolutionary theory and practice through Hollywood is nothing new. More importantly, it ends up not only rationalizing exploitation but also inadvertently erasing the name of the problem today, namely, capitalism itself. Indeed, the absence of any reasonable critique of capitalism in The Hunger Games franchise is not accidental; the choice of Francis Lawrence as a director for the second instalment of the film was thus deliberate. Like in his other films, especially I Am Legend, Lawrence naturalizes and normalizes capitalism and its social relations, by disavowing the need for recognizing the horrific dimension of the class struggle underpinning the fictional narrative world in both films.
When James Cameron's Avatar was released, Reuters circulated a photograph of Palestinian children, painted blue, brandishing arrows like the Navi tribe in that film, and wearing a keffiyeh around their waists, protesting the Israeli apartheid separation wall at Bilin. Many readers commented on the merits and faults of such images for the Palestinian liberation struggle, but one issue remained absent in this discussion: global capitalism itself, and how it delinks the commodification of such revolutionary images from the exploitation of the Palestinian struggle and identity, to conceal the logic of Israel's apartheid policies and Zionist settler-colonialism.(http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/12/when-revolution-comes-israel-2013121112851708923.html)
Tide of world opinion is turning firmly against Israel’s occupation
By Joseph Dana
It is hard to believe that 2013 didn’t see a war in Israel and Palestine. To be sure, there was a lot of fighting on the ground but there was no outbreak of war. Instead, violence materialized in subtle, more insidious ways.
The year will be remembered as the one where the status quo – Israel’s continuing military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, complete with a thin veneer of international legitimacy – fully entrenched itself. Just as Steve Jobs was renowned for his ability to “tinker” with products to ensure that the best version rises to the surface, so has Israel learnt how to tinker with its occupation to ensure that, despite all efforts, nothing fundamentally challenges Israeli control.
To protect and maintain the status quo, 2013 has been a year of diplomatic positioning, intellectual maneuvering and emotional manipulation when it comes to Israel and Palestine.
The Palestinian Authority emerged, rather unceremoniously, as a crucial custodian of the Israeli regime in the West Bank. From the arrest of critical members of the business community, to the swift containment of virtually all non-violent protests against the occupation, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been busy this year keeping a lid on dangerous political activity that could threaten the status quo. And not so long ago there was talk that the Arab revolutions would spark an equivalent movement in Palestine. Any traces of these grassroots movements were crushed this year.
Recent statements by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, against such grassroots calls to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel have led some to claim that the PA has embraced in deed and in spirit a collaborationist role in managing Israel’s continuing control over Palestinian life.
As this colonial situation unfolded in the West Bank, Israel moved forward with plans to completely separate Gaza from the West Bank. This long-held Israeli desire came closer to realization in 2013, and Gaza has been all but isolated. It is a small, overcrowded island floating listlessly in the Middle East.
Of course, the year didn’t begin this way. This time last year, Gaza’s leaders were enjoying a unique high point in their control over the coastal territory. They had emerged relatively victorious after Israel’s November 2012 campaign “Pillar of Defense”; foreign capital, primarily from Qatar and Turkey, was flowing into the strip; and Cairo’s Muslim Brotherhood leaders appeared to be sympathetic neighbors.
The speed with which this situation changed, however, was an important lesson in how the colonial foundations that Israel created in Gaza, with the tacit partnership of the Egyptian military, function in practice. Virtually overnight, the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt – lifelines to the outside world – were destroyed. Anti-Palestinian sentiment spread like wildfire in Egypt, as Palestinians became the perennial scapegoat for the country’s ills.
All the while, the Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank remained publicly silent, as if what was happening in Gaza was actually taking place in some faraway island.
Given the complexities of regional geopolitics, it is a safe assumption that 2014 will not see any concrete Palestinian reconciliation. With a Palestinian body politic fractured to its core, how could one dream of a peace accord between “the Palestinians” and Israel?
Seemingly out of nowhere, the new American secretary of state John Kerry made 2013 his year to broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. If you were to ask which Palestinians, you might trip on the fallacy of Mr. Kerry’s attempt. No serious commentator expects Mr. Kerry to broker a deal but the process is instructive to watch.
The Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, once famously noted that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians can’t be solved and therefore it was in Israel’s interest to “manage” it. The current round of talks reveal, in great detail, how the United States has adapted this position.
The waning months of 2013 have seen Mr. Kerry argue passionately for the creation of Palestinian state institutions that would require time to entrench themselves. A recently revealed peace plan shows that Israeli troops would remain in parts of the West Bank, like the lush Jordan Valley, for at least 10 years. In short, the deal that Mr. Kerry is pushing looks like a practical version of Mr. Lieberman’s statements about the resolution of the conflict: maintain Israeli control over the West Bank in perpetuity with the thin guise of international legitimacy through the use of the Palestinian Authority as an agent.
As this decidedly colonial saga unfolded, Israel’s economy continued to grow. Indeed, its economic future has rarely looked brighter. Natural gas from massive offshore fields in the Eastern Mediterranean has started to flow for Israeli usage. If estimates are correct, Israel will soon be a major gas exporter. Undoubtedly, the facts are in Israel’s favor and with the extra financial security that the gas profits promise, one would assume that Israel is looking forward to a comfortable and prosperous 2014. The opposite is true.
The death of Nelson Mandela revealed the depths of Israel’s fears that the international community is beginning to change its narrative on Israel’s behavior. The Israeli president, Shimon Peres, and the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, cancelled their appearances at Mandela’s memorial for flimsy reasons. They most likely did not want to draw unnecessary attention to Israel’s deep relationship with the white minority government of apartheid South Africa.
Just after Mandela’s passing, the American Studies Association (ASA) voted to boycott Israeli universities in line with the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign to isolate Israel. While boycotts like this have passed in Europe, the ASA boycott is a seminal event in the US, which has prompted an avalanche of articles about whether Israel is losing traditionally strong allies in America. Indeed, the global civil society is slowly but decidedly changing its tone on Israel, and 2014 will surely bring more boycotts to the center of the debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Above all else, Israelis are afraid that they are losing their ability to control their narrative. For more years than I can recall, Israeli-Palestinian discourse was typified by the security narrative, which ordered the conflict as two groups of people fighting about security and statehood. Rights never entered the debate. While this year was typified by the entrenchment of the status quo, it was also a year when a rights-based approach to understanding the conflict revealed itself. Never before have had Palestinian films about their struggle against Israeli occupation made it to the Oscars. Never before have had American newspapers had open debates about the merits of non-violent boycotts of Israeli institutions involved in occupation. The tide is turning.
For decades, the fear among Israeli policymakers was that the international community would turn on the country like it did with apartheid South Africa. Next year, I am confident, will see the beginning of that change. Ironically, it just might be the international community that saves both Israelis and Palestinians from themselves.(http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/tide-of-world-opinion-is-turning-firmly-against-israels-occupation#full)
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Opinions
Our people in Nazareth... Jerusalem call out to you and your people appeals to you
Al-Quds Editorial
We are a people struggling for its survival and future since decades, and our sons worked together and unitedly to face the challenges of a common destiny. Our landhasn’t known any sectarian or racist strife for many centuries despite some unpleasant aspects that were dealt with by our grandparents quickly, buried them and rose to work together and in concert with the various sects and their positions.
Ancient and modern history showed us how Christians and Muslimswere carrying the symbols of citizenship and worked under its flags, fighting side by side in the political, military, moral, cultural and social levels for achieve the common goals and destiny.
In these days on the occasion of Christmas, this spirit was reflected and we have seen how Christians and Muslimsstood together from the Presidency to the youngest citizen in this country, and share the same feelings and the same sense without distinction or discrimination, with only one slogan, the one people of one country and destiny.
Nowadays there are also those who trying to raise sectarian strife among Palestinian from Nazareth, the eternal city, the struggling city, and the city of tolerance, love and cooperation. Some negative aspects began floating on the surface in this context; these actions are unacceptable and reprehensible of all forces, institutions and our people in its locations places and political orientation.
We know that there are differences and disagreements, and we know some are trying to fish in troubled waters, but we definitely know that our people is much wiser and that any differences should be resolved by dialogue and logic, meetings and cooperation without any abuses and not offending anyone, whether in social networking websites or publications, etc., and without prejudice to property and persons, because such acts will have wide repercussions and will exacerbate differences instead of solving them.
Our people and leaders are required to move fast to extinguish the fire of sedition and accommodate its dimensions since if it continues -God forbid-it will be a blow to Palestinian inside 1948 and won't have any benefit except for the occupation and racist extremist forces within Israeli society, that are many and energetic, and are waiting for opportunities such as this to hit Palestinians and scatter their forces.
When we talk about the role of our people, we're definitely talking about Palestinians inside 1948, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the diaspora, all strong and influential forces should move in this direction, because our people has been and remains wiser than any sectarian strife and will, as always, pass such situations ...
Finally we say: our people of Nazareth, you were always the first in national action, and you were always pioneer in raising the citizenship flag, and face the occupation and its consequences, and we are confident that you stand for the expectations of your people, as you always have.
Our people in Nazareth, wounded Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque calls and appeals to you, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre calls on youto bury the strife and those who try to raise it, and that you be as you always been, a symbol for national unity, we are one people and have one destiny ...strife is asleep and God cursewhomever awakes it. We hope that your struggle, your history and your patriotism will be bigger than any strife, and bigger than all of those who try to raise it. (Al-Quds)
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