PALESTINE: Bombing Gaza, the consolation prize for Israel

17 Palestinians killed in Israeli shelling in Gaza and 6 Israelis injured, one seriously, by about 100 rockets that Gazan militants used to respond to the attack. It was easy to expect all this to happen, and for more than one reason. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from the United States empty-handed after trying in vain to convince an Obama who hates him to join an attack on Iran in the midst of his campaign for reelection. Netanyahu, very used to get exactly what he wants and to have United States bowed to him, to Israel and to his “right to defend itself”, he had to fly back to Israel with a huge tantrum and the need to keep the issue of Iran´s threat alive so nobody starts thinking about the creation of a Palestinian state or other topics that are not in his interest.

                And how to canalize the anger and to keep exploiting the fear of the terrorist threat? Using the usual scapegoat:  Gaza. Israel set on fire the border by carrying out two targeted killings on two militant leaders on Friday, knowing that the answer would come in the form of dozens of missiles aimed at Israeli civilians living near Gaza, in the middle of the Purim Holiday. So far, 17 Palestinians have been killed, including a 12 year old boy and a 52 year old man today. The reason to attack Gaza, the same as always: "These militants were planning terrorist attacks." What a coincidence that the terrorists decide to act just now.

Now that Israel needs to show its power. Now that it needs to keep alive the terrorist threat, and now that Hamas leadership in Gaza was approaching the PLO, expressing his intention to abandon violence and putting distance between it and Iran. In fact, it has been the Popular Resistance Committees and Islamic Jihad who have claimed responsibility for most of the rockets launched into Israel since Friday. "A peaceful Hamas? No thanks, lets provoke them to see if we can force them to become violent again, because they are very handy when it comes to continue using “our right to defend ourselves against terrorists" and to divert attention whenever we need it without anyone criticizing us, especially now that it has become clear that we cannot bomb Iran. "             

PALESTINE: A Palestinian state in the creativity borders

Z is a Palestinian Muslim young boy, 25 years old, who lives in Bethlehem. 3 fingers are missing from one of his hands because during the Second Intifada a hand grenade exploded in his hand. By then, Z and his friends were engaged in going out in the evenings to play football or anything else just to defy the curfew imposed by Israel. It was their way of saying: "You are not going to control our lives". A soldier must have felt upset about this idea and hided an explosive inside a tennis ball the kids had been playing with. When Z and a friend went to look for a ball they lost, they found the tennis ball. "Look how lucky we are, and you thought you had lost it!" His friend told him. Z took it, started to shake it and when he was still saying "this is not my ball, it weighs too much”, the explosion occurred.

Far from frightening him, the event made Z look forward to continue participating in the resistance against Israel. He joined demonstrations and confrontations with soldiers throwing stones, but he did it without his parents knowing it: they never stopped warning and even threatening him against any kind of activism, like any father, "for his good." Z kept swearing he was not involved in anything. Until one day, in the middle of the second intifada, Z to find his father throwing stones at tanks in the same demonstration. The two looked at each other, surprised, and the father, feeling guilty, said: "Well, enough, let's go home." An awkward silence accompanied the two to the door, broken only when his father told him: "Don´t say a word about this to your mother!"

The fact of having been wounded during the Second Intifada makes almost impossible for Z to get a permit to cross the wall and visit Jerusalem. Even when he had jobs that guaranteed a permit for the rest of his teammates, he was denied it. The official reason: "Z is a threat to the state of Israel."

However, Z does not care and he finds the means to do what he wants, and if he doesn´t get a permit, he does it without it. He recently spent three days "holidays" in Jaffa (in 1948 the largest Palestinian city, now an Arab neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv). He put on shorts, a modern hat, an earring and he went to the bush at night. Already in the morning, he reached a settlers road across the wall and started to hitchhike (not uncommon in Israel). A farmer picked him up and took him to Jerusalem. "I said I was a Canadian who grew up in Italy, and the guy went all the way instructing me on how terrorist the Palestinians are and how little they deserved to live in “their "land," he says. From there, he took a bus to Tel Aviv, and once there, he found accommodation in a friend's home in Jaffa. "I spent three great days on the beach," he says.

During Ramadan, Z wanted to go to Jerusalem to pray at the Al Aqsa compound, the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. He hid overnight in the bush, but this time it was more complicated. "There were many military jeeps around the area with lights and I had to hide under a pile of excrement to avoid police dogs tracking me." After a while, he decided to aim at the nearest settlement, Gilo, and when he was about to arrive, he found several boars. "It is not the natural place for these animals to live, someone must have put them there to protect the colony," he assumes. Once in Gilo, he picked up the Israeli line bus and got to the center of Jerusalem.

The Z imaginative forays have taken him to sneak in a kibbutz (Israeli commune) and get to sing and play guitar with the settlers, pretending to be Italian, or trying to cross to the Israeli side by swimming in the Dead Sea; the Police stopped him and he apologized by saying "I didn´t notice, it must have been the tide". His technique is polished: "When I'm on the Israeli side, I always carry maps and books with me, and if a cop looks at me and I see that he suspects, I approach him, I speak in English with a funny accent and unfold the map in his face. I tell him I'm lost and I ask him to show me the way. The cop quickly loses interest. "

Z does not cross the wall with the intention of harming anyone or "pose a threat to the state of Israel." Just as he says, "If you deny me my rights, I provide them to me myself."

Khader Adnan ends hunger strike protesting against his administrative detention. What is an administrative detention?

The hunger strike of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan from December 17 to denounce his detention without trial by Israel ended today with an agreement between the parties: Adnan left his hunger strike in exchange for his administrative detention not being renewed on April 17.

The media has not spread very much Khader Adnan´s case, but his action has brought back to the forefront (at least locally) the famous "administrative Israeli detentions". These arrests are based on secret evidence and can be extended an undefined number of times, skipping all international laws.

That's how they work:

One hundred soldiers arrive, usually at night, at the home of the suspect with dogs and throwing sound bombs. They force him out, handcuff and blindfold him and then push him into the military jeep. Neither he nor his family are informed about of what´s his crime or where they are taking him to. The suspect is transferred to an interrogation center where, through threats, verbal abuse and even torture, always without the presence of his lawyer, he is forced to confess about anything. According to Israeli military orders, a Palestinian can be held in detention without trial up to 90 days. Sometimes a written confession in Hebrew is given to the prisoner, which he usually is forced to sign, not knowing what he is signing because he doesn´t understand. Nevertheless, the document is used as the main evidence in the military court.

Otherwise, there´s the "administrative detention". That means holding a prisoner up to six months in jail based on "secret evidence". The lawyer, who founds himself looking for his client through all prisons and detention centers, does not know what he has to defend the detainee from, and often he cannot even talk to the detainee (as well as his family) because the prison is located on the Israeli side of the wall (in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits transferring detainees from the occupied territory to the occupier side.) Permits for lawyer or family to gain access to the prisoner are often dismissed for "security reasons".

After 6 months, the order may be renewed, and so on, indefinetly.

Khader Adnan has gone through 6 administrative detentions and he was remained in prison for a cumulative period of 5 years. This last time, he spent 3 weeks in an interrogation center before the official start of his administrative detention. Israel accuses him of being part of Islamic Jihad, violent and very unpopular in Israel, the West Bank and the West. However, they Israel hasn´t shown any clear evidence or charges against him so far and, as a Palestinian activist who once suffered 2 administrative detentions told me today: "If he did something wrong, nothing prevents him from having a trial as any other suspect and be condemned for it. What we don´t accept is people being imprisoned for no reason.”

Children. Under Israeli law, an Israeli adult is sombeody over 18 years old. According to military orders ruling the Palestinian occupied territory, a Palestinian adult is somebody over 16 years old. Until the army put into force a new military order in July 2009, children as young as 12 were judged in military courts and received the same punishment as adults. Regarding the rest (the treatment in prison, interrogation and administrative detentions) there are few changes.

When the boy finally comes to court, he´s judged according to the age he is when he gets his sentence, not the age he was when he committed the crime. That means that if a kid is 15 years old when he´s arrested but turns 16 during arrest, before trial, he´s tried as an adult.

Only a prison provides education to children, but it only teaches mathematics and arts; all other subjects are banned because of "security reasons".

Women. Let us add to all this sexual harassment during interrogations, indistinct treatment and lack of care for pregnant women, who sometimes give birth while chained to a bed "for security reasons" and we´ll get the treatment given to some of the women. Four of these cases occurred between 2004 and 2008.

There are currently 307 Palestinian prisoners in "administrative detention" and 280 Israeli Palestinian children in Israeli prisons (2012).

(Data from Addameer for Palestinian political prisoners and Defense Children International Palestine)

Some Israelis are happy that several nursery and primary school palestinian children died in a bus accident

On Thursday, February -16, a bus carrying Palestinian children from a primary school and a nursery from Shufat refugee camp (Jerusalem) hit an Israeli truck near the Qalandia checkpoint, at the entrance to Ramallah. As a result, 5 children and one teacher were killed and 40 others were injured, although at first it was believed that the number of victims had been higher.

Condolences ensued: embassies, organizations, governments and individuals, including many Israelis who sent solidarity messages in Palestinian news websites. Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed "sorrow" for what happened and said they would provide "the Palestinian Authority with any help required." But all these acts of good will were blurred by the comments that some Israelis posted on various websites. For example, on the Facebook page of the Israeli news website Walla News, these comments appeared:

And one can think, "Well, there are radicals everywhere, if it was the other way around, perhaps some radical Palestinian would have done the same." And it's true but, in my view, there is a difference: many of these comments, such as "Death to the Arabs, why do we help them?" "Can we send another truck?" Or "I would send a double trailer to get rid of all these shit" appeared on the Facebook page of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And his advisors (or himself) did not even bother to remove them. Now imagine the opposite case, with the page of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's full of comments against Israeli children killed in a traffic accident. Netanyahu would give a press conference to "show the world how terrorists the Palestinians are, who are allied with Iran and they want to provoke a new holocaust in Israel", and the whole world would condemn anti-Semitism.

And the difference is accepted as something normal. If the news on TV talk about a "Palestinian terrorist", nobody questions he WAS a terrorist (and maybe he was, but anyway we do not even doubt about it). But when a media outlet dares to step aside from the mainstream speech and accuses an Israeli soldier of being a terrorist, then we think, "Wait, wait, why do they call him a terrorist? What has he done exactly?”

I condemn anyone who uses terror and death to achieve his aims, here or in Honolulu, wherever he comes from. But precisely because of that, let's call things by their name, regardless of the background of the agresssor.

Recently, a journalism student asked me: "And how do you manage to interview terrorists?" And I decide to make a sociological experiment. I replied:

"You find the way, you swallow whatever he says so he speaks freely and then you can write it and show the public how he thinks.  Once I asked one if he believed that violence was necessary to achieve his purposes, and he said: "Yes, we need to use the language of weapons so that they can get the message clearly, that this is our land." I then asked: Is it necessary to kill children, women and innocent civilians? "And he said," Yes, they have to pay a high price to see that we are serious."

The student listened with disgust, and I said: "Appalling, isn´t it? A terrorist 100%." She nodded. Then I said, "Well, he was not a Hamas terrorist; he was an Israeli general in command of a tank division that participated in the 2006 Lebanon war and the masacre of Jenin Refugee Camp in 2002." She was then really surprised. Then I admited that some members of Hamas who I interviewed also expressed similar views (although I have to say that at least they tried to soften the message and give more arguments) But what matters is not who does it but what he does. And whoever does it, let's call things by their name and let's treat everyone the same way!

PALESTINE: A palestinian state in the salary borders

Sami is a friend of a friend, so we often meet at the same table in front of the same tea. He is  a Palestinian who lives in the city of Bethlehem. He and all his family are refugees from Malha (a village close to the Old city of Jerusalem) even if they no longer live in a camp. So when one day he told me that he was working as a supervisor in an Israeli company that builds Israeli settlements, I was very surprised. "I make 7000 shekels (1,400 dollars) a month. I could accept a lower wage in construction in Palestine as long as I could maintain my wife and my daughter, but I haven´t found that minimum”, he explained.

This job guaranties him a permanent permit to enter Israel and health insurance for him and his family. But it also has its drawbacks: Sami needs to be in his working place every day at 7 am. When he has to work in Jerusalem, he must get to the wall at 2 am to make sure he arrives on time. There, he waits on the line for hours along with hundreds of Palestinians with work permits that are waiting for the soldier to let them pass. "If we´re able to cross early to the other side, we light a fire and have something to eat to kill time until the company's van comes to pick us up," he says. By the time he arrives back home, it´s already 5 in the afternoon. He eats something with his family and goes to sleep.

Sami sees the sunrise as he waits to cross to the other side of the wall and get to his work

Palestinian workers with a permit to work in Israel kill time after crossing the wall

"I cannot stop thinking about work. When I'm crossing the wall back home I start thinking about how big the next day line will be, if I should come earlier, if I'll get through”. The israeli law for these Arab workers does not grant them holidays (except on Jewish holidays, when no one works in the company) or extra month´s salary. "It's like the life of a donkey, working and sleeping."

A year ago, when the Palestinian Authority decided to draft a law banning Palestinians from working in the settlements, I asked the Minister of Finance of the Authority about the alternatives for the 21,000 Palestinians that do this kind of work. "Half of them do not work in the settlements because they starve, but to make more money." The following question was obvious: "So what´s going to happen with the other half when the law comes into effect? Without hesitation, he replied: "It doesn´t matter what happens to them. During the second intifada, many lost their jobs as well. The most important thing is the national project ".

The "national project" sounds funny to Sami. In fact, his boss is an ultra-Orthodox Jewish inhabitant of a settlement and he considers him a true friend. Their families have made barbecues together and have even attended the funerals of their relatives. "Whoever is good with me is my friend, regardless of where he is coming from. We do not hate the Israelis; what we hate is their policies. At the end we will have to live together and I wouldn´t care if Jews would live here if we, the Palestinians, could go also anywhere and I would be able to return and live in Malha. "

Although the law was drafted almost a year and a half ago, the Palestinian Authority has not decided yet to put it in force. 

EGYPT: The revolutionaries who laugh together remain together

When I read in Al Jazeera, one year ago from today, that the Egyptians had taken to the streets to protest against the regime, I did not take it too seriously. I had lived in Cairo for 10 months and the the belief of Mubarak´s inmunity was rooted so deep in the Egyptian minds that they had managed to pass their apathy to me.

The date of January 25th was declared by Mubarak the National Police Day in 2009, in memory of the 50 policemen who were killed by the British army in 1952 after refusing to disarm and surrender at a police station in Ismailia. In 2009 and 2010 there were riots in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities of the Suez Canal when groups of young protesters took to the streets to protest against the Emergency Law and the brutal police repression. So, while I kept a curious eye on what was happening, I thought the events would not go beyond the typical clashes of January 25th.

It was on the 28th when I actually woke up and realised that something big was going on. It happened when I saw the image of hundreds of thousands of Egyptian demonstrators in the streets shouting at the top of their lungs that they wanted the falling of Mubarak, defying a powerful Interior Ministry whose police had killed almost one hundred protestors already.

I stopped everything I was doing in Jerusalem, I took a backpack and reached Cairo in 12 hours. Two intense weeks of work, almost living in Tahrir Square ... Today newspapers and agencies will surely make a compilation of everything that happened during those 18 days. In my particular tribute, what I want to remember is the indestructible sense of humor of the Egyptians, something I could not write too much about at the time but which remained intact before, during and after the revolution, something that, to me, is heroic enough by itself.

I arrived in Tahrir Square on the first day not knowing what I was going to find after a couple of hundred demonstrators killed. After answering (apparently correctly) to the question "Real Madrid or Barcelona?” done by one of the protesters who guarded the access to the square, and after a volunteer women searched me, I found before me a packed square that looked like a festival instead of a demonstration. Some were singing, some others were marching around the roundabout demanding the falling of the regime, some others were nailing tents to the floor and young people were playing guitars and djembes.... People had brought from home or nearby cafes bags of food and drinks and they were sharing them with the rest, and everyone respected the garbage dump points, which were the charred police vans recycled and turned into containers. In one corner of the square, a family had built a desk with several pieces of wood. On top of it, it was written: "Bedouin Embassy in Cairo." "As we, the Bedouins of Sinai, are ignored, we have opened our own office in Tahrir to begin diplomatic relations with the true state," the mother of the family said from the window, fully getting into the ambassador role.

From the beginning you could hear jokes here and there: "If the revolution succeeds in Egypt, we will meet Tunisia in the finals," some said. "Mubarak, you´re trying to dance well, but remember that I am the owner of the club" sang another. After several days, the jokes took over the posters and slogans. In front of a tent, one man´s panel said: "Mubarak, leave, I miss my wife”. "Mubarak, do it fast because after we will have to study it at school” said a girl´s poster. Another one simply claimed: "Mubarak, leave now, my arms are sore from holding the panel!” On top of one of the platforms of the square, a young man with a guitar was dedicating a song to the public entitled "The farewell of the donky."

People also began to post jokes on the social networks, that were after commented in the square. "An army officer tells Mubarak: it´s over, you have to write a farewell speech to the people." Mubarak replied: "Why? Where are they going? ". There were also references to media coverage of events. The day it rained, almost on the second week of protests, someone had posted: "Latest News. It´s raining in Tahrir. Al Baradei: "The regime is fully responsible for the rain in Tahrir." Muslim Brotherhood: "We will not talk with the regime until the rain ceases in Tahrir." Al Jazeera: "Our correspondent has informed us that thugs are responsible for the rain in Tahrir." The protesters, "We caught a few drops of rain and we have identified them as secret policemen." State television: "What traitors are saying is false: It´s not raining in Tahrir."

One warm day I decided to go to a tea stall that had been settled in the middle of the square since the first day I arrived. I do not think there was a single protester who had not drunk a glass of tea or Turkish coffee from that place by the end of the revolution. I asked him if he had bottles of water to sell. He said he didn´t, but offered himself to take me to the place where I could buy one. On the way, I took the opportunity to ask him for his opinion on the revolution and the demonstrators. The answer, as surprising as overwhelmingly honest: "I love Mubarak, I believe he´s a hero, but since I got here I sell a lot of tea!"

After several calm days in Tahrir, more street vendors decided to settle in the square. I started talking with one that was selling cheese sandwiches at 15 cents. "All these people here asking Mubarak to leave, and he´s so old that he may die any moment now anyway!” was his political analysis on the situation.

During my stay in Tahrir I met an Egyptian journalist who had been jailed several times by the regime because of his critical articles. He was demonstrating in Tahrir as any other protestor and he used to call me from time to time to let me know about the events. One day he called to tell me that the demonstrators had reached the Parliament building, located one hundred meters outside the square. "Are you planning to reach more places?" I asked. "Yes," he replied, "we will reach Tel Aviv. Since they choose our government, we´ll go and choose theirs."

State television, meanwhile, was telling its own version of events. The day that nearly one million and a half protesters gathered in the square, local channels reported that there were only 2,000 and, in a display of creativity, they said the Kentucky Fried Chicken located in Tahrir was feeding them. The following day I found several demonstrators in front of the closed gate of Kentucky handing out homemade cookies and cakes to the demonstrators, and they were shouting: "Kentucky food, Kentucky food!" Others encouraged the rest to schedule protests against the maths teachers from the public education system because “they didn´t teach us the numbers properly”.

When Omar Suleiman finally announced the resignation of Mubarak, the square burst into a party. In front of a tent, a group of protesters chanted, "Mubarak is gone from power, and we´re going to the shower!"

The next day, the crowd in Tahrir organized itself to repaint the square and clean it before leaving. Sweepers and painters were wearing a poster in their chests where one could read: "Sorry for the inconvenience, we are rebuilding Egypt." But the clear winner was the sign that a young man was holding in front of the place where protesters were taking away the fences that had clogged the entrances to the square: "Mubarak, you can return now, this has been a candid camera prank!"