Qalandiya - Strangling East Jerusalem

Last week my wife and I endured our first Qalandiya experience.

Qualandiya is the infamous terminal style checkpont that Israel has constructed since 2003, separating Ramallah from East Jerusalem. This is where it is located :



It is important to understand that historically, Ramallah and Bethlehem are merely dormitory suburbs of East Jerusalem - the commute into the capital for work, shopping or family visits was until recently a routine daily. No more - it is now a 4 hour humiliation, clearly designed to sever the economic ties between Arab Jerusalem and its West Bank hinterland.

This is a typical saturday :



Below is the full slideshow of our ordeal - photos were taken despite the Palestinians pleading with us to hide the camera :

Qalandiya Slide Show

Hamas and Recognition

Check out Leila Mouammar's Blog http://blog.zmag.org/blog/20

I think the recognition issue has been handled badly, by both the PLO in 1988/1991, and by Hamas now. Both have played very badly in the west. The PLO's old position allowed western people to think that there was in fact no occupation. Hamas' position is now justifying Israeli unilateralism

I think we should neither rule out formal recognition nor give it for free at the beginning of the process. I think the best strategy for Palestine is to say something like :

- We are committed to a two state solution
- At the end of that process when two viable sovereign states are created there must be mutual recognition between them.
- But if Israel destroys the two state solution by settlements, land expropriation etc then Israel will become a de facto binational state, and we will seek equal rights (Israeli citizenship)
- there is a time limit on a two state solution - we are not going to wait forever and we are not going to allow it to be used as an empty slogan to perpetuate the occupation.

One other thought :

Palestine should say clearly that recognition means recognition of the fact of Israel's existence within a specified border. It does not mean approving or indemnifying every crime that Israel committed in the past.

ie When Nixon recognised the Peoples Republic of China he did not become a Communist, and when we recognise Israel we should not have to become Zionists

"We take the land first and the law comes after"

Teddy Kolleck,
Mayor of Jerusalem, 1965 to 1993

This is especially so in East Jerusalem. Israel has turned it into an art form - and now I am in the middle of it.

Now the London Guardian has spelt it out :

Bollens says about 40% of East Jerusalem is designated as a green zone, but that
this is really a mechanism for land transfer. "The government calls it a
green zone to stop Palestinians building homes there, and then when the
government wants to develop an area [as Jewish] it lifts that green zoning
miraculously and it becomes a development place."
"Worlds Apart",The Guardian, February 6, 2006

So the progression is :

Palestinian Land becomes "Green Zone"

=> Palestinians not allowed to build

=> Triggers Absentee Property Law

=> Formal Appropriation by Israel

=> "Development Plan" (for Jews Only)

=> "Facts on the Ground"

=> Hemmed in Bantustans

= APARTHEID

That is the only place this is leading - two separate, communities living in the same state, only one of which has citizenship and effective property rights.

Israel hates the comparison, but as the two state solution dies its slow sad death people are starting to notice :

Ronnie Kasrils on Israeli Apartheid

Yet let me declare without hyperbole that the violence of the apartheid regime,
as inhuman as it was, "was a picnic" (in the words of Archbishop Desmond
Tutu) in comparison with the utter brutality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

Ronnie Kasrils MP
(Jewish) Minister for Intelligence, Republic of South Africa

"They Are Treating People Here like Arabs"

An excellent article from Haaretz today summed up the Israeli settlement movement

For almost 40 years they have been enjoying an ongoing supply of political and economic support, military protection and legal backing. And then one fine day, without prior warning, someone decided to turn off the faucet.

But the settlement project is approaching a tipping point - they are starting to lose the support of the Israeli public.

Maybe a red line has been crossed at Amona, as the settlers fought in defiance of a Supreme Court Order. The settlers certainly absorb alot of government money considering that they only recognise the law when it suits them.

One Australian activist has noticed the change :

People have told me "only a few years ago settlers were still seen as
heroes" now it seems to be a selling point in the election who can be most
harsh to the settlers

LINK

You can tell that the settlers are worried - one leader complained that the gobvernment had

"They are treating people here like Arabs"

Israeli MP Arieh Eldad, Israeli Radio, February 2 2006

No they're not - if you were treated like Arabs you'd be dead.