SELECTIONS FROM THE PRESS

This section includes articles and news items, mainly from Israeli but also from international press sources, that provide insightful or illuminating perspectives on events, developments, or trends in Israel and the occupied territories not readily available in the mainstream U.S. media.

YOUSEF ABU SAFIEH, “THE RADICAL than . The contrast between TRANSFORMATION OF PALESTINE’S the indigenous Palestinian community ENVIRONMENT,” AL JAZEERA ENGLISH, 2 and the Israeli settler community is MAY 2012 even more extreme in the Val- ley. According to a recently released Nowhere is the relationship between study conducted by Ma’an Develop- environmental protection and social ment Centre, the Israeli government justice displayed more clearly than be- provides settler farms in the valley with tween Israel and the occupied Palestin- large quantities of water, while only 37 ian territories. The Israeli government percent of Palestinians report that suf- takes great care to guarantee that its cit- !cient water is even available to them. izens enjoy the bene!ts of a clean and The Ma’an report also found that Israeli comfortable environment. The opposite water companies have been charging is true in the occupied West Bank and Palestinians 11 times more for water Gaza, over which Israel has maintained than residents in neighboring Israeli ultimate control for almost 45 years. settlements. There, Israel has instituted an ex- ploitative regime that disregards the needs of the local population and ig- Water Wars nores the occupier’s responsibility as a The Israeli government also turns a custodian of the environment as stipu- blind eye towards the actions of the set- lated by the Geneva Conventions. This tlers. The UN’s Of!ce for the Coordina- is particularly evident in how Israel tion for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) distributes water, permits the environ- recently revealed that Israeli settlers mentally destructive behavior of Israeli have forcefully seized dozens of springs, settlers and prevents Palestinian devel- the single largest water source for irriga- opment on the land it directly controls. tion and a substantial source for water- A recent report issued by the French ing livestock for Palestinians, and have Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee turned them into tourist attractions and stated, “Some 450,000 Israeli settlers on swimming pools. Most of these springs the West Bank use more water than the are situated on private Palestinian land. 2.3 million Palestinians that live there. Israel not only exploits Palestine’s In times of drought, in contravention of resources, it also pollutes and destroys international law, the settlers get prior- them. According to a paper published ity for water.” by the Applied Research Institute–Jeru- According to B’Tselem, an Israeli salem (ARIJ) in the International Jour- nongovernmental organization, Israelis nal of Environmental Studies, “Israeli consume up to 242 liters of water per colonies are sited on hill tops and they person every day. Due to restrictions often allow the generated wastewater imposed by Israel, Palestinians consume to run untreated into nearby wadis [val- just 73 liters per day on average (and as leys] and Palestinian agricultural lands, little as 20 liters per day in some areas), which results in the pollution of these dramatically less than the 100 liters that lands.” the World Health Organization recom- Water in affected areas has become mends as the minimum quantity for ba- unsuitable for drinking, and Palestin- sic consumption. ian farmers are unable to cultivate their Israeli settler communities use even crops. Further, a report published in more water than their counterparts in the Palestine-Israel Journal explains Israel proper, consuming over !ve times that a number of polluting factories

Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. XLI, No. 4 (Summer 2012), pp. 93–105, ISSN: 0377-919X; electronic ISSN: 1533-8614. © 2012 by the Institute for Palestine Studies. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: jps.2012.XLI.4.93.

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were moved from Israel proper into the demolition orders against the installa- West Bank due to carcinogenic chemical tions, arguing that they were built with- emissions and protests from the Israeli out permits. According to data from public: OCHA, Israel denies building permits “A pesticide factory in Kfar Saba [Is- to Palestinians in Area C 94 percent of rael] which produces dangerous pollut- the time. ants has been moved to an area near The siege of Gaza has made the en- Tulkarem [West Bank]. . . . The Dixon vironmental situation there even more Gas industrial factory, which was lo- dire than in the West Bank. Israeli con- cated in Netanya, inside Israel, has also sumption from wells surrounding Gaza, been moved to the Tulkarem area. The and water scarcity enforced by Israel’s solid waste generated by the factory is blockade that has forced over-pumping burned in open air.” within Gaza, have begun to cause the Unlike Israeli citizens, Palestinians intrusion of seawater into the coastal have no effective political recourse aquifer on which Gazans rely. against the presence of industries that In addition, Israel’s assault on Gaza endanger their health. Palestinians are at the end of 2008 destroyed much of unable to stop Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s waste management capacity their environment because the occupa- and left the tiny costal strip with huge tion denies them the sovereignty critical mounts of toxic waste. The fact that Is- to maintaining a sustainable presence rael has prevented critical waste man- on the land. Sixty-two percent of the agement infrastructure from entering West Bank is designated as Area C, Gaza since 2007 has greatly exacerbated meaning that it is under direct Israeli this problem. Today, only 5 percent of military control. water available in Gaza is suitable for The ARIJ study cited above states drinking, according to B’Tselem. that “around 80 percent of the solid There is no point in denying it: Is- waste generated by the [Israeli] colonists rael’s occupation is the signi!cant cause is dumped at dumping sites located of the pollution and radical transforma- within the West Bank.” Furthermore, tion of the Palestinian environment. the Israeli chemical and military indus- The occupation and its policies are tries have both dumped hundreds of the antithesis of Earth Day, an occasion thousands of tons of hazardous waste that was celebrated by people around in the West Bank, a clear violation of the world this month. When Earth Day the Basel Convention, of which Israel arrives next year, Palestinians hope to is a signatory. The Palestinian leader- celebrate it as responsible custodians ship is powerless to prevent this, even of their own country. That will only though many of these dumping sites be possible if we !nally put an end to constitute severe health and safety haz- Israel’s occupation. ards to nearby Palestinian cities and communities. [Dr. Yousef Abu Sa!eh is chairman of the Environment Quality Authority of Environment in Crisis Palestine.] Israel also uses its domination of Palestinian land to prevent Palestin- YAEL LERER, “THE ANDALUS TEST: ians from building sustainable infra- REFLECTIONS ON THE ATTEMPT TO structure. A joint Palestinian-Israeli PUBLISH LITERATURE IN HEBREW,” NGO [nongovernmental organization] JADALIYYA, 16 MAY 2012 [EXCERPTS] recently partnered with a German aid agency to build small, reliable solar and Should a visitor from another planet wind generators for the impoverished happen to arrive here and look around Palestinian community in the Israeli- at the reality between the Jordan River controlled south Hebron hills (since the and the Mediterranean Sea without the Israeli government refuses to recognize usual lenses of distortion, she would this community, it has failed to provide see that in Israel/Palestine—the land it with electricity as per its obligations stretching from the river to the sea under the Geneva Conventions). The which has been under one rule for over Israeli government has recently issued forty years—almost half the population

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is Palestinian Arab and Arabic is their land’s people. Nor does she manage to mother tongue, as well as that of nearly get her to believe that Israel is not in half of the Israeli Jewish population. Europe. Should our guest distinguish—as does It was into this reality, and its repre- the Israeli Central Bureau of Statis- sentations, that Andalus Publishing was tics, as well as the Israeli academy and born. But when I launched a publishing media—between Israeli citizens and oc- house that would specialize in translat- cupied Palestinian subjects, she would ing Arabic literature into Hebrew, I had !nd that within the category of “Is- the impression that this reality was go- raeli citizens,” the majority is of Arabic- ing to change. It was in the late 1990s, speaking (and to a large extent reading on the eve of the second intifada, and and writing) origin. Our guest would despite my critique of the so-called likely notice that Israel is located in the “peace process,” I hadn’t altogether in- heart of the Arab world and that each ternalized my own criticism. and every one of its neighboring coun- Prominent Palestinian intellectuals, tries is Arab. including the late Edward Said and for- Out of a desire to familiarize herself mer Knesset Member (MK) Azmi Bis- with local culture, our guest might walk hara, now in exile, feared that the Oslo into a nearby bookshop, where she process would lead to the formation of would expect to !nd books in Hebrew Palestinian Bantustans and the consoli- and Arabic—the two of!cial languages dation of Israeli Apartheid. Although of the state of Israel. But alas, at the the Israeli policy of “closure” began in !rst store: Hebrew books only. At the the early 1990s (heralding the “disap- second store: some English books too. pearance” of Arabs from Tel Aviv), even The third store, she will !nd, is dedi- the liberal architects of “separation” cated to Russian literature. “There are never imagined the eight-meter high no Arabs here!” they would all inform concrete wall. Many of the Oslo critics, her. “This, my dear, is Tel Aviv.” The myself among them, imagined “closure” guest, who has been to Paris and Rome as a temporary setback in a framework and London and Moscow and Nairobi that nonetheless aimed at reaching his- and Johannesburg and Buenos Aires, torical compromise and “peace.” And might be a bit surprised: “A city with- even if the word peace was stripped of out Arabs? Without Arabic? Here? In the any meaning, like justice and equality, it center of the Middle East?” seemed the process still pointed toward Then our guest might meet up with a rapprochement, understanding, and life friend, also from another planet. Unlike together, rather than apart. our guest, the friend does not look at In the merry Oslo years, alongside reality but rather at its representations. the uninhibited construction of new set- She watches current affairs shows and tlements and the paving of bypass roads nightly news on TV; she reads news- for Jews only, there was proli!c joint papers, especially the “leading liberal Jewish-Arab activity, much of it under daily” Ha’Aretz; she goes to the the- the auspices of “people-to-people” type ater and the opera; she attends faculty programs aimed at fostering dialogue meetings at the university; and, like our and funded with European, American, guest, she browses bookshops. “Why and Japanese money. Concurrently, it are you so surprised?” she admonishes seemed as though the dominant Ash- our guest, “After all, this is a European kenazi-Zionist ideology that conceives country!” This is because by and large of Israel as a European “bastion of the friend only encounters middle-aged the West in the East” was starting to secular Ashkenazi men. They are prac- weaken: the public presence of two his- tically the only ones to be seen, heard, torically disempowered and marginal- and read: the shelves are over"owing ized groups—Palestinian citizens of with their books, as well as those of Israel and Israeli Jews of North African their American, French, German, and and Middle Eastern origin (Mizrahim)— Spanish counterparts. Our guest does could be felt loud and clear. not manage to convince her friend that Andalus’ “Declaration of Inten- middle-aged secular Ashkenazi men tions,” as written in 1999, read in part make up less than 10 percent of the as follows:

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Andalus is a new publishing house that special- . . . [who had] translated three of Dar- izes in the translation of Arabic literature and wish’s collections. prose into Hebrew. Andalus, the site of the When the Darwish “hysteria” broke “golden age” of Islamic and Jewish thought, was out in Israel, Ghanaem suggested that also an era during which Jewish and Arabic cul- tures fed and fertilized one another; an epoch we publish Why Did You Leave the known for its literary and intellectual output Horse Alone?, which he had already by some of the greatest Moslem and Jewish translated. So our !rst publication was philosophers, theologians, and poets. It was a not a novel, but a collection of poetry. period during which materials were translated The hysteria only strengthened our con- from Arabic to Hebrew and vice versa. viction that the Hebrew-reading public Despite Israel’s location in the heart of the needed to be exposed to Arabic lit- Arab world, Hebrew-reading Israelis remain, erature. Within weeks, the publishing for the most part, unexposed to Arabic culture house was named, a design plan was in general, and Arabic literature and thought in particular. The quantity and variety of existing conceived, and our !rst book hit the translations is insuf!cient, especially as com- shelves. pared with the wealth of works translated into Much to our surprise, when the book Hebrew from European languages—since the was published it received almost no at- 1930s less than forty Arabic language titles have tention. Apparently, people found it been translated into Hebrew. easier to talk about Darwish without a Our goal is to establish a successful inde- book in their hands. Despite the hyste- pendent publishing house that will produce a ria, Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? dozen translated titles each year, representing a did not sell as well as expected—and variety of styles: classical and modern literature, journalistic and academic research, poetry, plays, yet it remains one of our best and most satires, theory and criticism. steady sellers. Most of the poems in the collection deal with the 1948 Nakba and Our !rst move was to identify trans- the life that preceded it. It turns out that lators and editors. Palestinian artist these “materials” have a readership. One Sharif Waked, who has designed all of such reader was none other than former our books, also helped to choose the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In an inter- !rst titles for publication. Everyone and view with Ma’ariv in April 2005, he was anyone with expertise was consulted, quoted as follows: and our appeals for advice were met with enthusiastic and generous input. Have you !nished Fontanelle by Meir Shalev? Our !rst list of publications consisted of “I have a few more pages to go. At !rst, I had ten novels that would give the uniniti- a hard time with that book, but as I read on, I ated Hebrew reader a good “sampling” discovered that it’s an extraordinary book.” of contemporary Arabic literature. However, our plans changed when Meir Shalev is hardly a fan of yours. in March 2000, then-Minister of Edu- “So what? I also read Mahmoud Darwish’s book, cation Yossi Sarid announced that he and I have spoken about his poem, the one with would include two poems by the Pales- the horse that was left alone, and how much I tinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish envy his description of their connection to the in the high school curriculum. These land.” “poetical not political” poems, to quote Sarid, were to be included in a long list Mahmoud Darwish addressed the of poems that teachers could choose to motivation of his Israeli readers before assign to their students, but were not, the book was even published, repeat- God forbid, to be included in the man- ing the following sentiment on various datory reading list. This fact did not occasions: “I would like Israelis to read prevent Sarid’s decision from trigger- my poetry, not as a representative of ing pubic hysteria. Prime Minister Ehud the enemy, not so as to make peace.” In Barak declared: “Israeli society is not that spirit, Darwish granted us blanket ripe to study Darwish.” It was much ado rights to publish his books, refusing any about nothing, and still, not a single col- and all form of compensation: “By ask- lection of Darwish’s poems on the He- ing for permission you have surpassed brew bookshelf. your predecessors. When you start mak- The !rst translator I turned to was ing money from this venture, come the late Muhammad Hamza Ghanaem back with your offer for remuneration.”

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With the arrogance and hubris of a !rst- I guess Mahmoud Darwish was right. time cultural entrepreneur, I refused Most Israelis do not care about Ara- to accept what he was telling me. How bic literature, and the select few who wrong I was. do want only to “know the enemy” or . . . Since I founded Andalus, I have “make peace” with him. The two nov- recognized the dangers of creating a els we published by the Lebanese writer false sense of “peace-making” and “dia- Elias Khoury form an interesting excep- logue” by means of “normalization.” I tion. Gate of the Sun (Bab al-Shams) have always made my objection to nor- that deals with the Nakba, received a malization publicly known, but more few mentions in the Israeli press over importantly, I have searched for ways to the years, but upon publication in He- make the translation of Arabic literature brew it garnered relatively few reviews. into Hebrew a means of resisting the Nonetheless, we sold over 5,000 cop- occupation. . . . ies (a quarter of which were donated to We wanted to publish books on the Israeli public libraries, where they are basis of “purely” cultural considerations borrowed frequently). This is Andalus’ (if there is such a thing). We wanted bestseller, and the most popular Arabic to translate Arabic into Hebrew in ac- title ever translated into Hebrew. cordance with the norms and conven- In 2005, we published Khoury’s mas- tions of the intelligentsia (as opposed terpiece Yalo, which does not have to to the “intelligence” community—which do with the Palestinian narrative per se; produces most of the Arabic-Hebrew rather, like Gate of the Sun, it deals with translations in Israel) and, to the best the intersection of history and memory, of our ability, without paternalism and this time of a Lebanese prisoner who Orientalism. endures interrogation and torture. We The Egyptian authors we approached thought the book would surpass its pre- did not share our thinking. Rather, they decessor, especially since the stores preferred to ignore our declarations and showered it with attention, as did the refused to have their works translated press (sixteen rave reviews in the !rst on the grounds of “anti-normalization.” month). But alas, Yalo sold just 1,500 These writers belong to a milieu that copies—far more than most of the titles avoids any and all contact with Israel we have published, which have gener- as such, . . . since, according to them, ally sold !ve hundred copies or fewer, any contact with Israel, including apply- but nonetheless a disappointment. If ing for a visa . . . so as to enter the OPT this is what a bestseller makes, it seems [occupied Palestinian territories], con- we have lost the battle for the Hebrew stitutes “normalization.” After my initial reader’s heart and mind. Our dream of approach, Andalus came under vicious being a self-suf!cient, sustainable inde- attack by an Egyptian cultural weekly. pendent publishing house came to an This attack was followed by dozens of end. articles across the Arab world, both sup- And then, just as we were forced porting and opposing our enterprise. to freeze our activities, we had a short We were honored to !nd out that glimmer of hope. Award-winning Andalus is privileged to have so many Canadian author Naomi Klein—who, supporters in Arabic literary and intel- like us, resists the normalization of the lectual circles. Mahmoud Darwish, Elias occupation—asked to publish her latest Khoury, Edward Said, Mohammed Ber- bestseller The Shock Doctrine in Hebrew rada, Mohamed Choukri, and many oth- via Andalus. Alongside her pointed criti- ers launched a “counter-attack,” lauding cism of the State of Israel, dialogue with Andalus both in theory and in practice. Israelis is extremely important to her. So, Many of them granted us publication while like me she has called to support rights free of charge, as a way of ex- the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) pressing partnership and solidarity with movement, the idea was “not to boycott our effort. Unsurprisingly, this debate Israelis but rather to boycott the normal- had no echoes in Israel. Just as most ization of Israel and the con"ict.” She Jewish Israelis do not seem to care what thought that Andalus would be the per- Arabs write, they do not care what they fect address for this kind of resistance, think. and we thought salvation had come.

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When Klein generously donated all demand. Maybe it is not about us, con- her royalties toward future translations tinuous reexamination notwithstanding, of Arabic writing into Hebrew, we had but rather about the other publishing every reason to believe that following houses: in seven years we published the Hebrew publication of The Shock twenty-four titles, eighteen of them Ara- Doctrine, Andalus would be able to bic literature translated into Hebrew. We publish several more books—always our increased the numbers of such books by primary goal. Sadly, the increased read- over 50 percent, while the Arabic titles ership we hoped for never materialized: published by other Hebrew publishers it seems that Israelis cease to care about in the same period can be counted on a anti-globalization when it is linked to single hand. anti-normalization and calls the oc- And here we must remember our cupation into question. Our would-be alien guests. How strange it must seem Northern savior turned out to be a true that despite the fact that the majority of political friend, but no Santa Claus. the people of the land are Arabic speak- Klein’s book launch and book tour in ing or of Arabic-speaking origin, Arabic June 2009 were dedicated to BDS pro- is hidden away, and along with it the motion. We did not plan on there being possibility of al-Andalus—the site of an a brutal massacre in an already besieged Arabic-Jewish culture—and of Andalus and beleaguered Gaza just a few months Publishing. “Our Place in al-Andalus,” before. We could not have imagined that wrote Maimonides, yet the number of 95 percent of the Israeli-Jewish popula- Israeli Jews who know that Maimonides tion would support the brutal killing of wrote his !nest works in Arabic grows four hundred children. In our wildest smaller by the day. dreams, we never imagined the !rst-time At times it seems as though the (there is always a !rst time) phenomenon cultural divide, the mental walls, are of Israeli families making their Saturday deeper and taller than any physical bar- outing to the hills overlooking Gaza to rier underway. These walls do not just cheer at the shelling and bombing of one pass between “us and them” (or as for- and a half million civilians incarcerated mer Prime Minister Ehud Barak put it, in the world’s largest open-air prison. “We are here and they are there”). They We did not realize that the walls we have are erected within ourselves, between been trying to topple for so many years our past and our present, between would become hermetically sealed with metaphysical fantasy and physical real- self-censorship. ity, between us and the place where we The book launch and book tour for live. The Shock Doctrine were effectively cen- sored, and most of Klein’s Hebrew fol- NOAH BROWNING, “ARAB REVOLUTIONS lowers (from the bestselling No Logo), FAIL TO STIR DIVIDED PALESTINIANS,” refusing to hear any political criticism, REUTERS, 15 APRIL 2012 have boycotted the book. Hence, not only did publishing Naomi Klein not Popular uprisings have transformed enable us to translate more Arabic titles the Middle East and North Africa in the into Hebrew, it elucidated the fact that past year, unseating four veteran auto- the walls we are confronting are more crats and capturing the imagination of a forti!ed than ever, and that breaking generation of youths. them is a nearly impossible mission. But the protests have left Nevertheless, after all I have said, Palestinians—long at the center Andalus does what it can to prove me of the Arab world’s main political wrong, and I hope one day it will. I con"ict—unmoved. am continuously reexamining the ways Dejected by lingering political di- we worked, the choices we made, and visions and exhausted by decades of the tools we employ to get our books mostly fruitless rebellion against Israel, out there. As a cultural enterprise, it they appear to have lost their appetite has left its illustrious mark: rave re- to take their !ght for change up another views, die-hard fans, grateful happen- level. stance readers. As an economic venture, “There’s no revolution here because it is a complete failure: supply without the government is less oppressive than

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in Egypt or , and anyway it’s Israel he committed during the last intifada— that deserves our anger,” said Mahmoud has pointedly failed to galvanize many Bisher, 20, a student from the West Palestinians. Bank city of Hebron. “They (the intifadas) had limited “But we’re divided and there’s no co- political impact, and that’s why peo- ordination. This only serves the occu- ple haven’t repeated them,” said Rami pation’s interests,” he sighed, referring Khoury of the American University of to the schism between the Fatah- Beirut. dominated Palestine Liberation Organi- “The Palestinian leadership is di- zation in the West Bank and the Islamist rectionless and as the occupation con- group Hamas in Gaza. tinues, civil society and independent Small protests waged weekly in some groups have failed to provide much in- of the villages pressed up against Is- tellectual guidance to the people.” raeli settlements and a separation bar- Of!cially-sanctioned rallies for the rier in the West Bank are among the “Global March to ” last month few outlets for popular frustration, at- attracted only modest numbers in the tracting a regular group of dedicated West Bank; after hours of Palestin- demonstrators. ian stone-throwing and Israeli !ring of In Nabi Saleh, Fridays usually see a rubber bullets, life quickly returned to couple of dozen activists and children normal. surge towards Israeli military positions Unof!cial demonstrations in the waving banners and hurling stones, squares of Gaza City and Ramallah in only to be quickly scattered by the ad- the heady !rst days of the Arab upris- vancing soldiers’ rubber bullets and tear ings calling for the estranged Hamas gas. and Fatah factions to reconcile and “Resistance has been part of our unite also !zzled, in part due to tight strategy for more than 40 years,” village police surveillance and arrests. activist Faraj Tamimi said, "inching as Efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian a tear-gas canister sailed low, crashing con"ict through a negotiated peace deal and hissing near his feet. A companion’s are equally moribund. deft kick sent it back towards the Israe- President refuses to lis to a roar of cheers from his friends. resume direct talks unless there is a halt “But after such a long time being to all Jewish settlement building in the suppressed by the Israelis, we get tired occupied territories, a precondition that of confrontation all the time. The lead- Israel rejects. ers could support us more and we hope Palestinian leaders had hoped to pro- protests like these become wider and vide some kind of rejoinder to the Arab will have more popular support,” he Spring. But they failed to overcome in- added. ternal divisions or to achieve UN rec- There is no sign of that happening, ognition of their statehood after a however, even though the last intifadas, high-pro!le campaign stalled in the face or uprisings, remain fresh in people’s of U.S. opposition. memories. After any spring comes winter, and the scenes of death and destruction in Anniversary Syria may also have discouraged those The !rst intifada in the 1980s re- Palestinians eager to confront either sulted in the Oslo interim peace their own leadership or the Israelis. accords, but that was seen by many Pal- estinians as an appallingly bad deal. Rhetoric of Resistance The second intifada resulted in the Nervous about political discourse deaths of hundreds of Israelis and thou- taking place outside its control, the PLO sands of Palestinians between 2000 and in the West Bank has discouraged inde- 2005, and prompted Israel to erect a pendent protests while putting the rhet- barrier in the West Bank. oric of resistance to work on its own A call to rise up again, issued last faded image. month by Fatah strongman Marwan In Bilin, a "ash-point for commu- Bargouthi—who is serving !ve life nity-based protests against Israeli set- terms in an Israeli prison for murders tlements, a once-modest annual town

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meeting on popular resistance was rolled across the whole Arab world, one mobbed this week by ruling Fatah party as deep as those that had inundated the "ags and government VIPs. region after the defeats of 1948–1949 Foreign envoys and aging interna- and in June 1967. While the !rst two tional solidarity activists occupied the were centered on Palestine and its fu- front rows, listening to translations of ture, the current one seems to be fo- speeches on headphones, while uninter- cused on domestic problems. Some even ested-looking Palestinian youths mostly claim that the ongoing revolutions have chatted among themselves. nothing to do with Palestine. What is “Peaceful resistance goes side by side the real truth? with efforts to . . . found a state,” PA Before our eyes, a long period of [Palestinian Authority] Prime Minister stagnation and paralysis is coming to Salam Fayyad told the small gathering. an end. . . . Leaders who had governed “This is the twin track of the politi- their countries for decades have been cal struggle conducted by the PLO— overthrown. Granted, the movement is the single, legitimate representative for still in its early stages and it will prob- our people in all areas and forums,” he ably take a number of years to bring added. down the power structures that have Fayyad is an economist. He knows been in place since the 1960s, but for that the greatest challenge to his gov- the !rst time since that period, the Arab ernment’s institution-building drive may peoples have taken their history into yet be curbing public sector unrest if their own hands and the myth of their dwindling foreign aid !nally affects its passivity and their inability to handle ability to pay salaries. democracy has been shattered. The PA failed to pay civil servants Palestine has seemed to be relatively salaries in full and on time on several absent from these waves of change. occasions last year and is facing an even Certain Western commentators have more dif!cult !nancial environment in claimed that these revolutions are not 2012, with its budget de!cit projected to interested in the con"ict with Israel or exceed $1 billion. in Palestine, that they only have a do- “For 20 years after the peace accords, mestic political program, that they are the Palestinian Authority has gone from neither anti-American nor anti-Western. concern for the collective to concern for Without a doubt, these analyses are itself, to stay in existence by collecting false, as scores of events have proven— checks and paying salaries,” said Ibra- from the attack on the Israeli embassy him Shikaki a lecturer at al-Quds uni- in Cairo to the welcome the new Tu- versity and a youth organizer. nisian government extended Hamas During Friday’s modest demonstra- leader Ismail Haniyya. . . . [T]o answer tion in Bilin, resident Umm Samarra the question of Palestine’s place in the walked along a deserted path in her tra- Arab revolutions, however, . . . it is nec- ditional dress and headscarf towards essary to go back into the history of the the Modiin Illit settlement’s wall, as relationship between the Palestinian Israeli soldiers manning the ramparts question and the Arab world. with tear-gas guns looked on. Asked if she felt abandoned by the A Long History Palestinian leadership, she shrugged: [The analysis describes in some de- “We don’t know if the authorities sup- tail how the Palestine question was an port us or not, and we organize our- Arab question during the Mandate and selves. Me, I’ve protested here for six the wave of upheavals in the Arab world years and I’m as strong as any man.” provoked by the 1948 defeat.] During this period, which stretched from 1949 to 1967, a new generation ALAIN GRESH, “PALESTINE: FORGOTTEN BY of Palestinian leaders emerged. The THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS?” ARAB CENTER events in Egypt and Iraq had an im- FOR RESEARCH AND POLICY STUDIES, 11 mense resonance among Palestinians, APRIL 2012 [EXCERPTS] who enthusiastically rallied to the revo- December 2010: with the !rst dem- lutionary—that is, resolutely anti-impe- onstrations in Tunisia, a shock wave rialist and non-aligned—version of Arab

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nationalism, where one of the most im- is that you [the Arab regimes] take your portant representatives (though not the hands off Palestine.” The organization, only one) was to be found in [Gamal still little known at that time, was badly Abdel] Nasser. Henceforth, for them, the looked upon by most of the Arab capi- catchphrase would be: “The liberation tals and was often denounced as being of Palestine will come through Arab “regionalist.” After Fatah’s !rst mili- unity.” tary operations (the beginning of 1965), However, Palestine has remained it was even quali!ed as an agent of an object in the hands of Arab leaders CENTO (Central Treaty Organization, a and a card to play in their struggle for pact encompassing Pakistan, Iran, Tur- hegemony. It was Arab rivalries, nota- key, and Great Britain, under the leader- bly between Nasser and [Iraqi president ship of the United States). Abd al-Karim] Qasim, that triggered The 1967 war and the bitter defeat the process that ended in the creation of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan leveled a of the Palestine Liberation Organiza- terrible blow at revolutionary Arab na- tion (PLO). . . . At the !rst summit of tionalism and triggered a second wave Arab heads of state, which took place in of changes in the Arab world. Among Cairo at Nasser’s invitation from Janu- Palestinians, those who had banked on ary 13 to 17, 1964, Ahmad Shukeiri was the independence and decision-making put in charge of consultations in view autonomy of the Palestinian people saw of laying the foundations of a Palestin- their positions reinforced. The politi- ian entity (kiyan). From May 28 to June cal void created for several months by 2, 1964, the !rst Palestinian National the scope of the Arab collapse allowed Congress took place, which saw the cre- the groups of the Palestinian armed re- ation of the PLO. sistance, and above all Fatah, to come A charter was adopted at that time, to center stage in the region, and to get insisting on the de!nition of Palestine established in Jordan. as “an Arab area related by links of na- The PLO, too closely linked to the tionalism (qawmiya) to the other Arab Arab countries, thus entered into cri- lands which together form the Great sis. Negotiations were undertaken to Arab Nation” (Article 1). We do not !nd integrate the armed organizations into mention of the “Arab people of Pales- it. In July of 1968, the fourth National tine [who] have the legal right to their Palestinian Council met, dominated by homeland,” before Article 3, but this Fatah. The National Charter and the homeland “is an integral part of the PLO statutes were modi!ed to empha- Arab nation.” size armed struggle. Article 9 of the While most Palestinians adhered to amended Charter speci!es, “the Arab this view, at the end of 1959 a small people of Palestine [. . .] af!rm their group called Fatah began to publish a right to auto-determination and to sov- different point of view, claiming that ereignty over its country.” In Article 1, the liberation of Palestine is funda- Palestine is de!ned as “the homeland mentally a Palestinian affair and can- of the Palestinian Arab people,” whose not be handed over to the Arab states. role is repeatedly highlighted. This in- At best, the Arab regimes could provide sistence was translated into the very help and protection. These themes, de- de!nition of the PLO, “which represents fended in the newspaper Filastinuna the Palestinian revolutionary forces, and (Our Palestine), went against the grain is responsible for the Palestinian Arab of the surrounding “pan-Arabism.” They people’s resistance in their struggle to were reinforced by the [1961] failure of recover their homeland, to liberate it the Egyptian-Syrian unity (UAR) and by and to return to it in order to exercise the victory of the Algerian revolution in their right to auto-determination.” 1962, which served as a model for the The strategy of the fedayeen seems leaders of Fatah. . . . One of the editors to have been similar to that which was of Filastinuna wrote, “All we are ask- developing throughout the third world ing for is that you [the Arab regimes] at the same time, from Vietnam to Latin surround Palestine with a security buf- America to Eastern Africa—national fer and watch the battle between us and and social revolution, via the ri"e. Did the Zionists.” And again, “All we want that mean that the moment for an Arab

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revolution had come, spearheaded by "aws as all of the surrounding Arab Palestine? Not at all: “revolutionary” states from which it had been inspired, logic never motivated Fatah, and armed an absence of control over its leader- struggle was never theorized. There was ship and an incapacity for self-criticism, neither Palestinian strategic thinking as well as bureaucracy, patrimonialism, nor any theoretical military text. What personal power, etc. It feared any au- the Palestinian resistance sought above tonomous initiative in society and main- all was the construction of the absent tained a stubborn attitude of suspicion “state framework,” necessary for na- toward the movements in the West Bank tionalism to truly take off. It found this and Gaza, which it could not entirely in the PLO. A leader of the left wing of control. All the Palestinian organiza- Fatah, Naji Alloush, was right when he tions, including those on the Palestinian reproached the leadership for having left, accepted this statist and clientelist abandoned the revolution and for want- logic, negotiating the allocation of posi- ing to transform the PLO into a “state in tions and resources with . exile.” The PLO thus lost any role it might have “The generation that took control had as a revolutionary inspiration in the of the PLO in 1968–1969,” noted Yezid Arab world. It established itself in the Sayegh, “was strikingly similar to the Arab political game, playing one capi- ‘new elites’ who came into power in tal against another, without ever truly Egypt, Syria, Algeria, and Iraq between breaking with any of them. Having suc- 1952 and 1968.”[1] Fatah, the most pow- cessively clashed with the Jordanian, erful of the fedayeen groups, placed its Lebanese, and Syrian states, incapable cadres in many positions of leadership of developing a strategy of armed strug- and integrated some of its own organi- gle, it committed itself to the diplomatic zations (the Foundation of Martyrs, the path, which would culminate with the Red Crescent) into the PLO; in addition, signing of the Oslo accords. it created numerous structures to offer However, this “bureaucratization” of positions to its base (a form of clien- the PLO (a phenomenon which affected telism) or to other organizations. Thus, all its organizations, including on the it guaranteed itself the loyalty of tens of Left) did not diminish the importance thousands of functionaries. This “was that the Palestinian problem held for far from unusual” for young indepen- the Arab peoples; it was the symbol of dent states; the originality of this policy the former colonial order and blatantly in the Palestinian case was the fact that displayed the double standards of West- “it developed in the context of a libera- ern policies. During the second intifada, tion movement”[2] that didn’t even con- as after the Israeli invasion in Gaza in trol a part of its territory. The in"ux of December–January 2008–2009, Arabs !nancial aid from Gulf states and other powerfully expressed their solidarity Arab countries, a genuine political “rent with the Palestinians. income,” was a decisive element in the construction of this quasi-state and in The Arab Revolts facilitating a form of management based The third revolutionary wave to hit on clientelism. the Arab world, after those in the 1950s This “statist” choice determined both and 1960s, was not directly provoked by the power and the limits of the PLO. It Palestine, although one could imagine became, in the 1970s, the framework of that the spectacle relayed by satellite reference for all the Palestinian organi- television of the incessant oppression zations, and, more broadly, for Palestin- of the Palestinians contributed to the ians scattered throughout the world. It feeling of humiliation among the Arab could claim its role as the “sole repre- peoples and their will to recover their sentative of the Palestinian people,” but dignity (karama). in the sense that a state represents its This wave has also touched all “Pal- citizens. It lost its “revolutionary” char- estinian powers”; however, in both Ra- acter and accepted the Arab status quo mallah and Gaza, these powers, Fatah that resulted from the defeat of 1967. and Hamas, prohibited demonstrations On the other hand, despite a certain of solidarity with the Egyptian peo- pluralism, the PLO showed the same ple struggling against Hosni Mubarak.

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The two authorities then sharply sup- declared Jerusalem its capital, and pressed the March 15 movement, which bombed Iraq and Syria.”[4] intended to transpose the demands for Any government in Cairo will have dignity, the struggle against corruption, to take Egyptian opinion into account and the desire to end authoritarianism from now on, even if only partially, and to the Palestinian situation. Here we see henceforth no president will be able the !rst consequence of the Arab revo- to be as submissive to Israel and the lutions: calling into question the incom- United States as Mubarak was. More petent Palestinian leadership. The crisis importantly, democracy is creating the within the Palestinian leadership is due conditions for a more general thought not only to its authoritarianism, but process about the struggles in the Arab also to its inability to formulate strate- world, about their forms and their goals, gies. The strategy based on negotiations and about the relations between democ- pursued by Fatah with the Oslo accords racy and national liberation. Without has entirely failed, while that of Hamas, doubt, Palestine will be at the heart of founded on “armed struggle,” is even this questioning and the renewal of the less credible given that since January Arab world, just as it has come to be . . . 2009 the Islamist organization has done at the heart of worldwide movements its best to guarantee peace with Israel. against an unjust international order. Beyond these direct consequences, the Arab revolutions have changed a fundamental fact: for the !rst time since REFERENCES the 1970s, the geopolitics of the region cannot be analyzed without taking into [1] Yezid Sayegh, Armed Struggle and account, at least to some extent, the as- the Search for State: The Palestinian pirations of peoples and countries that National Movement, 1949–1993 have become masters of their own des- (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997). tiny again. [2] Sayegh, Armed Struggle and the For decades, the United States was Search for State. able to support Israel uncondition- [3] Testimony before the U.S. Senate, 16 ally without having to pay the price— March 2010. except for their unpopularity in the Arab [4] Steven A. Cook, “The U.S.-Egyptian streets, which they didn’t care about— Breakup,” Foreign Affairs, 2 February since the Arab leaders remained faithful 2011, http://www.foreignaffairs. allies. This period is coming to an end. com/articles/67347/steven-a-cook/ In March 2010, General David Petraeus, the-us-egyptian-breakup?page=show. then head of the U.S. military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), was heard say- MICHAEL BARBARO, “A FRIENDSHIP ing, “Arab anger over the Palestinian DATING TO 1976 RESONATES IN 2012,” question limits the strength and depth NEW YORK TIMES, 7 APRIL 2012 of U.S. partnerships with governments (EXCERPTS) and peoples in this region and weak- ens the legitimacy of moderate regimes . . . The relationship between Mr. in the Arab world.”[3] This can also be Netanyahu and Mr. Romney—nurtured seen in the Egyptian debate over the over meals in Boston, New York and Je- Camp David accords and the question rusalem, strengthened by a network of of Israeli-Palestinian peace. As Steven mutual friends and heightened by their A. Cook of the Council on Foreign Re- conservative ideologies—has resulted in lations (New York) wrote, “From the an unusually frank exchange of advice perspective of many Egyptians, this ar- and insights on topics like politics, eco- rangement hopelessly constrained Cai- nomics and the Middle East. ro’s power while freeing Israel and the When Mr. Romney was the governor United States to pursue their regional of Massachusetts, Mr. Netanyahu offered interests unencumbered. Without the him !rsthand pointers on how to shrink threat of war with Egypt, Israel poured the size of government. When Mr. Ne- hundreds of thousands of Israelis into tanyahu wanted to encourage pension settlements in the West Bank and the funds to divest from businesses tied Gaza Strip, invaded (twice), to Iran, Mr. Romney counseled him on

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which American of!cials to meet with. “To the extent that their personal And when Mr. Romney !rst ran for pres- relationship would give Netanyahu ident, Mr. Netanyahu presciently asked entree to the Romney White House him whether he thought Newt Gingrich in a way that he doesn’t now have to would ever jump into the race. the Obama White House,” Mr. Indyk Only a few weeks ago, on Super said, “the prime minister would cer- Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu delivered a per- tainly consider that to be a signi!cant sonal brie!ng by telephone to Mr. Rom- advantage.” ney about the situation in Iran. It was a quirk of history that the two “We can almost speak in shorthand,” men met at all. In the 1970s, both chose Mr. Romney said in an interview. “We to attend business school in Boston— share common experiences and have a Harvard for Mr. Romney, the Massa- perspective and underpinning which is chusetts Institute of Technology for Mr. similar.” . . . Netanyahu. After graduating near the The ties between Mr. Romney and top of their classes, they had their pick Mr. Netanyahu stand out because there of jobs at the nation’s biggest and most is little precedent for two politicians of prestigious consulting !rms. their stature to have such a history to- The Boston Consulting Group did gether that predates their entry into not yet qualify as either. Its founder, government. And that history could well Bruce D. Henderson, was considered in"uence decision-making at a time brilliant but idiosyncratic; his unortho- when the United States may face crucial dox theories—about measuring a com- questions about whether to attack Iran’s pany’s success by its market share, and nuclear facilities or support Israel in dividing businesses into categories like such an action. “cash cows” and “dogs”—were then re- Mr. Romney has suggested that he garded as outside the mainstream of would not make any signi!cant policy corporate consulting. . . . decisions about Israel without consult- . . . ing Mr. Netanyahu—a level of deference Mr. Romney worked at the com- that could raise eyebrows given Mr. Ne- pany from 1975 to 1977; Mr. Netanyahu tanyahu’s polarizing reputation, even as was involved from 1976 to 1978. But it appeals to the neoconservatives and a month after Mr. Netanyahu arrived, evangelical Christians who are !ercely he returned to Israel to start an anti- protective of Israel. terrorism foundation in memory of his In a telling exchange during a debate brother, an of!cer killed while leading in December, Mr. Romney criticized the hostage rescue force at Entebbe, Mr. Gingrich for making a disparaging Uganda. An aide said he sporadically re- remark about Palestinians, declaring: turned to the company over the rest of “Before I made a statement of that na- that two-year period. ture, I’d get on the phone to my friend Mr. Romney later decamped to Bain Bibi Netanyahu and say: ‘Would it help & Company, a rival of Boston Consult- if I say this? What would you like me to ing. They did, however, maintain a do?’” signi!cant link: at Bain, Mr. Romney Martin S. Indyk, a United States am- worked closely with Fleur Cates, Mr. bassador to Israel in the Clinton admin- Netanyahu’s second wife. (Ms. Cates istration, said that whether intentional and Mr. Netanyahu divorced in the mid- or not, Mr. Romney’s statement implied 1980s, but she remains in touch with that he would “subcontract Middle East Mr. Romney.) policy to Israel.” . . . The men reconnected shortly after Mr. Netanyahu insists that he is neu- 2003 when Mr. Romney became the tral in the presidential election, but governor of Massachusetts. Mr. Netan- he has at best a fraught relationship yahu paid him a visit, eager to swap with President Obama. For years, the tales of government life. prime minister has skillfully mobilized Mr. Netanyahu, who had recently many Jewish groups and Congressio- stepped down as Israel’s !nance min- nal Republicans to pressure the Obama ister, regaled Mr. Romney with stories administration into taking a more con- of how, in the tradition of Ronald Rea- frontational approach against Iran. gan and Margaret Thatcher, he had

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challenged unionized workers over con- Before he left Israel, Mr. Romney set trol of their pensions, reduced taxes up several meetings with government and privatized formerly government-run of!cials in the United States for his old industries, reducing the role of govern- colleague. “I immediately saw the wis- ment in private enterprise. dom of his thinking,” Mr. Romney said. He encouraged Mr. Romney to look Back in Massachusetts, Mr. Romney for ways to do the same. As Mr. Romney sent out letters to legislators requesting recalled, Mr. Netanyahu told him of a fa- that the public pension funds they con- vorite memory from basic training about trolled sell off investments from corpo- a soldier trying to race his comrades rations doing business with Iran. with a fat man atop his shoulders. Natu- Even as Mr. Netanyahu, a keen and rally, he loses. eager student of American politics, has “Government,” Mr. Romney re- tried to avoid any hint of favoritism in called him saying, “is the guy on your the presidential election, friends say he shoulders.” has paid especially close attention to As governor, Mr. Romney said, he Mr. Romney’s political fortunes in this frequently repeated the story to the campaign season. heads of various agencies, reminding And the prime minister keeps open them that their job as regulators was to lines of communication to the candi- “catch the bad guys, but also to encour- date. When it was Mr. Gingrich’s turn to age the good guys and to make busi- leap to the top of the polls, Mr. Netan- ness more successful in our state.” yahu was startled in January by an ar- A few years later, Mr. Romney had ticle exploring why Sheldon Adelson, a dinner with Mr. Netanyahu at a private billionaire casino executive and outspo- home in the Jewish quarter of the Old ken supporter of Israel, was devoting City, in central Jerusalem, where the millions of dollars to back Mr. Gingrich. two spent hours discussing the Ameri- It described Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. can and Israeli economies. When Mr. Adelson as close friends. Netanyahu informed Mr. Romney of a Mr. Netanyahu’s of!ce quickly re- personal campaign to persuade Ameri- layed a message to a senior Romney can pension funds to divest from busi- adviser, Dan Senor: the prime minister nesses tied to Iran, Mr. Romney offered had played no role in Mr. Adelson’s de- up his Rolodex. cision to bankroll a Romney rival.

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