Arab pride reborn through revolution

Electronic Intifada
Yasmeen El Khoudary writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 28 February 2011

The revolution in Egypt has inspired people around the Arab world. (Matthew Cassel)

We Arab youth have memorized countless poems and songs about Arab unity and Arab revolution, about freedom and liberty. We have been taught countless lessons about the magnificent history of the Arabs, and have memorized the names of the world's great Arab scientists, historians, mathematicians, philosophers, poets and writers. We have been memorizing for as long as we can remember, twenty years or more. But never did we get the chance to chant the songs or recite the poems, or see that the grandchildren of those great Arabs are living up to the legacy of their ancestors.

In university, we had innumerable debates about "Arab identity," which we -- almost collectively -- agreed was a dream that was buried with twentieth-century Egyptian leader of the pan-Arab movement Gamal Abdel Nasser. We spent so much effort and time in Model Arab League, where we would approve the best resolutions and make the toughest decisions. We played the role of Arab countries the way we thought and knew they should be. But deep inside, we knew it was only a role play, and that none of it was ever going to turn into reality.

In university, we also marched and protested. We chanted for Palestine and the Palestinian cause. We were convinced that the Palestinian cause is a matter of the Palestinians because Arabs lost interest ages ago. We weren't impressed when non-Palestinian Arabs stood with us, because we were told for as long as we could remember that the Arabs had sold out the Palestinian cause. And we had no reason to believe otherwise.

My good memories in Egypt were limited to the four years I had spent at the American University in Cairo. I felt bitter towards Egypt as a country because the now ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak and his government never failed to complicate my life as a Palestinian in Egypt. That country demanded of me an almost impossible-to-get visa, depriving me from crossing the border to visit my family by closing the Rafah border. The government also prompted the media into blaming the Palestinians for everything wrong that happens in Egypt.

And Egyptian pop star Tamer Hosny! How could the same country that gave birth to Umm Kulthum and Abdel Halim Hafez also give birth to Tamer Hosny and to people who enjoy his music? This was a serious indication of the country's deep cultural fallback, which was only evident after Hosni Mubarak's seize of power in 1981. The biggest proof of that is that Mubarak's government had Hosny tearfully defend Mubarak and his regime on state television, and it also sent Hosny to Tahrir Square to try and convince the protestors to "go home." However, Hosny was beaten up by the people who used to be his fans and he was sent home.

As my undergraduate studies came to an end on 12 February 2010, and as much as I love my Egyptian friends, American University in Cairo and university life, I was happy to graduate. I longed for feeling at home, where I could enjoy a deep sense of belonging without having to apply for a visa every few months (ironic, is it not, given that my home is in Gaza, Palestine).

Who would've guessed that exactly one year later, on 12 February 2011, I would become a student at the school of Egypt: the school of freedom, justice and free people's will? That I would lament my bad luck for not having graduated from American University of Cairo a year later and witnessing the rebirth of Egypt! That from Gaza, Palestine, I would call my friends in Egypt to make sure that they were safe, and teasingly offer them safe shelter in Gaza! That I would so genuinely wish that I could exchange a year of my life just to spend a day in Tahrir Square? Tahrir, that square which to me, and many others, was no more than a busy, high-traffic square that was best avoided on the road to the old American University in Cairo campus, but is now the square from which Egyptian heroes will be reborn?

Up until recently, I chose to skip all the revolutionary songs in my music library. I put "Arab" to the side when stating my identity. I lost faith in the Arabs, and in the Palestinian factions and politicians who have cut through the veins of our noble cause with their sickening selfishness, greed and hypocrisy. But when the revolution came, like a wave of hope, justice and freedom that swept through the entire region, it breathed life into the Arab within me.

The "Jasmine Revolution" in Tunis, "January 25 Revolution" in Egypt and the ongoing uprisings in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain are the true Arab awakening, for they are being led by the people and for the people.

Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, thank you for rejuvenating my Arab identity. Thank you for finally showing me what its like to be a proud Arab. Thank you for allowing me to raise my Arab head high. Thank you for making me entrust you with my noble cause. Thank you for making me brag about my Egyptian great-grandmother. Thank you for helping me understand the late Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish's poem "Identity Card: Record! I am an Arab!" Thank you for ridding the world of Tamer Hosny and preparing it for the rebirth of Umm Kulthum.

To everyone who taught us that the Palestinian cause is the responsibility of only the Palestinians: you belong to the old order, and if I were you, I would follow ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, Mubarak and soon, Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the rest of the Arab dictators.

To the US, Israel and whoever still doubts or questions the glory of the Arabs, today we all have reason to believe that there is absolutely no power in the universe that can stand in the face of Arab will and determination. Our revolution is only the beginning.

Yasmeen El Khoudary is a freelance writer and researcher based in Gaza City, Palestine. Her blog is yelkhoudary.blogspot.com and she can be followed on Facebook.

Source: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11832.shtml

Hebron demonstration signals a new intifada in the West Bank?

Hebron demonstration signals a new intifada in the West Bank?
+972 / Saturday, February 26 2011|Joseph Dana

Riding the wave of unrest in the Arab world, the PA called for a carefully controlled ‘day of rage’ throughout the West Bank against the United States for their recent veto of an internationally accepted resolution declaring (once again) that Israeli settlement activity is illegal. While in Ramallah the PA sponsored demonstration was weak with almost no one showing up, in Hebron one thousand people, including Israeli peace activists, took to the streets. Feburary 25th also happened to be the Open Shuhada Street Global Day of Action. Organized by the Palestinian NGO, Youth Against Settlements, protests were held in more than thirteen cities including New York, Cape Town, London and Rome. The demonstration was called for 25th February because it marks the anniversary of the Baruch Goldstein massacre and subsequent closing of Shuhada street to Palestinians. The Global Day of Action demands for the re-opening of Shuhada Street to Palestinians and an end to the Occupation. All of the factors for present for a peaceful demonstration to get out of hand. With the first salvo of tear gas, the demonstration quickly turned into a riot.
According to Open Shuhada Street, a South African based advocacy website,

Shuhada Street used to be the principal street for Palestinian residents, businesses and a very active market place in the Palestinian city of Hebron/ al Khaleel. Today, because Shuhada Street runs through the Jewish settlement of Hebron, the street is closed to Palestinian movement and looks like a virtual ghost street, which only Israelis and tourists are allowed to access. Hate graffiti has been sprayed across the closed Palestinian shops and Palestinians living on the street have to enter and exit their houses through their back doors or, even sometimes by climbing over neighbor’s roofs.We are focusing on Shuhada Street as a symbol of the settlement issue, the policy of separation in Hebron/al Khaleel and the entire West Bank, the lack of freedom of movement, and the Occupation at large.

Winding through the narrow ally ways of the ancient city of Hebron, one thousand demonstrators reached Shuhada street around 12h30 on Friday. A massive force of Israeli soldiers/border police were waiting for them and had formed an impenetrable line. Soldiers had stationed themselves on surrounding rooftops in order to have complete control and ability to repress the demonstration at any point. This is exactly what happen.
Soldiers began firing indiscriminately at protesters, using tear gas canisters as large bullets. A thousand people spread in every direction and chaos ensued. Palestinian youth began throwing rocks at the attacking soldiers. Due to the political climate in Hebron, a Palestinian Authority police force was deployed on the borderline between Palestinian H1 and Israeli H2 in order to stop Palestinians from joining the clashes. The scene was bizarre in its layout: the empty and deserted Shuhada street filled with Palestinian, International and Israeli demonstrators inspired by the tide of revolution spreading in the Arab world, caught between heavily armed Israeli border police guarding Jewish settlers on one side and armed (but not so heavily) Palestinian Authority police on the other trying to keep Palestinians from joining.
Clashes continued and intensfied. A number of Israeli demonstrators were detained by border police but released. Palestinians and Israelis were injured as the rampaging soldiers pushed closer to the PA controlled area of H1. More Israelis were detained and released. One reporter from Al Jazzera was arrested and charged with stone throwing. At the time of this writing, he remains in an Israeli jail. After two hours of cat and mouse clashes between Palestinian youth and Israeli soldiers, the demonstration was finished. The PA police, however, remained on the streets in order to ensure that another demonstration would not break out, this time against the PA itself.
From the vantage point of nonviolent demonstration, last Friday’s demonstration was not as much a success as it was an indicator of what is to come in the West Bank. The nature of the demonstration reinforced the notion that Palestinians are ready for a new wave of popular civilian resistance to the Israeli Occupation and its agents (the Palestinian Authority?). Israeli peace activists, who have courageously struggled for the past eight years against the separation wall and Occupation in many Palestinian border villages, will soon have difficult and important questions to ask themselves. Namely, if a third intifada breaks out and there is mass unarmed resistance in Palestinian cities, will the village model of ‘joint struggle’ survive and translate to the urban context? Direct action for Israelis supporting Palestinian nonviolence has been confined, by and large, to villages for the past years. Some activists associated with the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity movement have been forging relationships in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, where the last six months have seen serious urban clashes. Members of Anarchists Against the Wall routinely visit demonstrations when they happen in Qalandiya and Hebron. Yet, there has been an absence of large scale resistance to Israeli Occupation emanating from the cities in the past years and the villages such as Bil’in and Nabi Saleh have been centers of violent clashes.
Many Palestinians believe that another Intifada is inevitable and almost all argue that it is going to be in the spirit and style of the First Intifada. This means that massive unarmed civilian resistance will sweep through the West Bank in a similar way that it has throughout the Arab world from Egypt to Libya. It remains to be seen weather there will be large scale Israeli support in these demonstrations to bring about the end to Occupation and resistance to Israeli domination.

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Israel launches air raids on Gaza | TwoCircles.net

Israel launches air raids on Gaza | TwoCircles.net
Submitted by admin4 on 26 February 2011 - 12:41pm

* Muslim World News

By KUNA,

Gaza : Israeli warplanes launched overnight air strikes at several Palestinian targets of southern and central Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said on Saturday.

Israeli F16s launched four air raids on training camps of Islamic Jihad Movement in western Khan Yunis, south of Gaza Strip, the sourced told KUNA.

The Israeli air strikes caused serious material damage at the sites, but no casualties were reported, they said.

The Israeli military confirmed the strikes, saying they came in response to a recent Palestinian rocket attack on south Israel.

Palestinians protest US veto near Hebron

Palestinians protest US veto near Hebron
The Palestine Telegraph
Sunday, 27 February 2011 08:20 Samar Mohaisen

West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)- A number of Palestinians participated yesterday in the weekly anti-wall rally in the village of Bait Ummer protesting the United States veto of a UN resolution condemning Israeli’s expansion of illegal settlements on the Palestinian territories .

Local sources told that Palestinian residents of the West Bank believe that the US veto will allow Israeli authorities to expand their settlements by destroying more houses and farmlands belong to Palestinian citizens as well as obstacle the peace process in the region.

Protestors also confirmed their struggle against Israeli policy to seize more Palestinian lands, sources added.

Mohammed Awad, anti-wall committee spokesman, said that dozens of settlers attempted to prevent citizens and solidarity movements who involved in that non-violent rally access to the lands near Tsur settlement in Bait Ummer, northern Hebron.

Many Palestinian villages of the West Bank are subject to Israeli frequent attacks since most of them were demolished and vandalized by Israeli bulldozers and troops to serve their political purposes. Most of the brutal attacks carried by Jewish settlers.

It’s noteworthy that Israeli army regularly responded to such peaceful rallies by firing rubber bullets and gas bombs to disperse demonstrators who try to defend their legislative rights.

Palestinian house inside cage in Jewish settlement

By BEN HUBBARD

The Associated Press / The Washington Post
Wednesday, February 23, 2011; 12:58 AM

BEIT IJZA, West Bank -- The al-Ghirayib family lives in one of the stranger manifestations of Israel's 43-year occupation of the West Bank: a Palestinian house inside a metal cage inside an Israeli settlement.

The family's 10 members, four of them children, can only reach the house via a 40-yard (meter) passageway connecting them to the Arab village of Beit Ijza farther down a hill. The passageway passes over a road used by Israeli army jeeps and is lined on both sides with a 24-foot-high (8-meter) heavy-duty metal fence.

The same fence rings the simple one-story house, separating it from the surrounding settlement houses. Some of those dwellings are so close that the family can hear the insults shouted by a nearby Jewish neighbor.

While al-Ghirayibs' situation is unusual, Palestinians say it reflects the pressures put on their communities by Israel's more than 120 West Bank settlements.

The Palestinian Authority has refused to hold peace talks with Israel while settlement construction continues. The latest round of talks collapsed over the settlement issue in September, only three weeks after starting.

Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.

This week, the Palestinians directed their anger toward the United States after it vetoed a resolution before the U.N. Security Council condemning the settlements as "illegal."

The U.S. said it opposes settlements, but that peace talks are the only way to resolve such issues. The council's 14 other members voted for the measure.

"The Americans have chosen to be alone in disrupting the internationally backed Palestinian efforts," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said.

Ahead of the vote, Fayyad visited the home with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who commented: "This is an inhuman life they have."

Sadat al-Ghirayib, 30, said his father built the house in 1978 on about 27 acres of family land, where he planted fruit trees. The Israel army soon confiscated part of the land, he said.

The settlement of Givon HaHadasha was founded in the early 1980s. Al-Ghirayib said the army confiscated more land as the settlement spread. Today, it is home to some 1,100 Jewish settlers, some of their homes no more than two dozen steps from the al-Ghirayib home. Just a handful of trees remain.

In 2005, the army built a section of its West Bank separation barrier near the settlement. Israel says the barrier keeps out attackers. Palestinians say it steals land by cutting deep into the West Bank in some places.

The home was the only one in the village of about 700 people on the settlement side of the barrier.

Al-Ghirayib, who works in a local metal shop, said he and his family tried to stop the construction crews and the army detained them. When they were released, the cage was in place, he said. Security cameras at the heavy metal gate at the end of the passageway monitor all who come and go.

He said army officers have recently threatened to shut the gate, saying village children come in to throw stones at the settlement.

"They have cameras. If they see kids throwing stones, they can come shoot them," said his 74-year-old father, Sabri. "Am I supposed to guard the gate?"

The Israeli army did not comment on whether the land was confiscated, how the fence was built or if there are plans to close the gate.

In a statement, it said the Israeli Supreme Court was examining the issue of the family's land and that the army had "invested" tens of thousands of dollars to make sure the family can leave the home without coordinating with the army.

The neighbors are very close. On a recent afternoon, Gary Bar Dov, 15, who lives in a third-floor apartment overlooking the house, walked by while children on the inside gripped the fence and watched.

"It's very strange to live this way," he said. "It's strange, but you get used to it."