Palestine and the occupiers

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Palestine and the occupiers

Linah Alsaafin talks about the frustrations of the young people of Palestine.

Salam Tamimi is young – only 6 – but he has already seen a lot. He is the youngest child of Nariman and Bassem Tamimi, who are leaders of the “popular resistance committee” in the village of Nabi Saleh, a village on the West Bank. In 2009, an Israeli settlement took control of the water here. Since then, the people of the village have held demonstrations every week. Now, the village of Nabi Saleh is famous for fighting against the occupation. They are now one of the places being attacked most by the Israeli military.

Salam has seen soldiers take his mother away and arrest her. He has seen his two older brothers hurt by teargas containers and rubber bullets. His father was in a military prison for over a year. Israeli soldiers often attack his house at midnight, and his house will probably be knocked down.

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Linah Alsaafin talks angrily with Israeli soldiers at Nabi Sameh. Anne Paq/Activestills.org

“I throw rocks at the soldiers and their trucks” says Salam. “Because they took our land and they always use teargas on us.” Salam has promised himself that he will throw rocks at the soldiers until they leave.

The people of Nabi Saleh are fighting the “visible occupation”. Outside the cities, we can see the Israeli occupation everywhere. Israelis moving into the area build illegally on their land and create problems. The Palestinians’ farms are taken away and the olive trees are burned. Soldiers fire at protesters who have no guns. Soldiers also attack them with a “skunk truck” – a horrible chemical liquid that smells on their clothes for weeks. Every week there are attacks, arrests and curfews (making them stay at home after a certain time).

But there is another fight in Palestine. Young activists now understand that they have to fight against the Palestine Authority (PA), Hamas and other groups of leaders in Palestine who do not represent all the people – I call these the “invisible occupation”. We have seen very often that the PA are out-of–date, corrupt and have no imagination. They also work with the occupation.

Palestinian politicians, working to help themselves, signed the Oslo Accords in 1993. They ended the first intifada (uprising) and started an almost Palestinian “state” under the 1967 borders, the West Bank and Gaza Strip – only 22 per cent of the Palestinian land. They chose this land, which was still occupied by Israel, instead of building a bigger resistance movement. The decision to do this led to the police state, which is becoming worse under the president of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas.

It is shocking that the PA is working with Israel to co-ordinate security, and this has influenced my political awareness. They shake hands with Israeli officials. They smile for the cameras of the world. But behind this, I have seen Palestinian prisoners kept in prison without trial in the West Bank. I have seen the PA fail badly in making their cause international. I have heard the PA put blame on Hamas for the siege in Gaza. I have seen the PA unable to stop more Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and all the demolitions of Palestinian buildings in the Jordan Valley. I read about journalists being arrested when they say things against the PA, or if they talk about corruption. There are many more things.

In Gaza, many people criticize Hamas. They are very hard on people who don’t agree with them, and people say that they benefit from the blockade restrictions on the Gaza strip.

No spring for Palestine

Both the PA and Hamas made sure that the uprisings in the Arab world would not happen in Palestine. When Egyptian crowds were removing Hosni Mubarak from power, the protesters who demonstrated in front of the Egyptian embassy in Ramallah were attacked by PA security.

But what happened in Tahrir Square was the inspiration for Palestine’s short March 15 movement. This was led by young people who wanted national agreement. It was a sign of a generation who speak their mind and know a great deal - the generation who were getting more and more angry at life under the PA and Hamas.

In return, the PA arrested people, beat people and attacked people in the cities of Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem. And in the Gaza Strip, Hamas burnt the tents of the protesters and ordered them to go home.

One year later, the young people, who have not given up, created a new network called Palestinians for Dignity (self respect) in Ramallah. The city is separated from the real world, and seems like a state. It is proud of the tall, new government buildings, new restaurants and bars, good new roads from USAid, and the central PA area of Al-Muqata’a.

But the young people can still see the invisible occupation. Palestinians for Dignity has grown as the discussions between the PA and Israel continue. Many people think these discussions only result in giving up even more land and rights. The Palestinians for Dignity network is still young and developing, including more people. But members have been interrogated and police have attacked them on marches.

Hunger strikes and anti-apartheid In other places, young Palestinians who are not members of political groups are developing their own movements. Mahmoud Sarsak, a 25-year-old national football player, went on a 93-day hunger strike. This got him out of prison in early July 2012. Other people are active in different ways.

Budour Hasan, a 23-year-old from Nazareth, who studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem says: “The Israeli occupation has had a different effect on me than on Palestinians who live in the West Bank or the Gaza strip. It is mainly a psychological effect. I saw a lot of racism in Israeli society on buses and at university. Many times I seriously thought about packing up my things and leaving the country, as people are so racist.”

Budour says she is an occupied Palestinian citizen of Israel, not an “Arab-Israeli”. She writes articles about the Israeli regulations that oppress Palestinians, to fight against the racism. She organises anti-apartheid meetings and protests. “I don’t think there is one best form of resistance,” she says. “What I would love to see in Palestine is a very big movement from the bottom up. And not only in the West Bank, but in all parts of historic Palestine.”

Omar Ghraieb, a 25-year-old who lives in the Gaza Strip, is doing similar work. “I fight by writing, talking about the truth and making people see the terrible things that are happening, “he says.

As this article has been simplified, the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed. For the original, please see: http://www.newint.org/features/2012/10/01/palestine-occupiers-alsaafin/