Saturday, August 11

My Day in Ramallah

Eileen Fleming


[Ramallah, July 24, 2007] Every time I come to Palestine I am amazed
at the patience, endurance and family values of the occupied people.
Last Saturday I traveled to Ramallah from Jerusalem; a trip that
once took less than fifteen minutes and less than 15 kilometers. It
took my driver an hour and a half to get me there...

Saturday the traffic was light, but it took an hour and a half and
over 25 km's to reach Ramallah. Numerous roadblocks of sand and
large stone boulders were scattered along the dusty unpaved
Palestinian streets and two checkpoints were closed. Traffic was
thus forced to turn around and search for the one way that was
opened.

By the time we arrived at the Kalandia checkpoint into Ramallah,
seven lines of cars and trucks were funneled into one and the cars
attempting to exit through the same narrow path merged onto the same
lane and patience and manners were on display.

I wondered if such a thing happened in the U.S.A. what explosions
would erupt from road rage.

I asked my driver why wasn't there any police directing traffic, and
with a wry smile he retorted, "This is area C; Palestinian land
under Israeli security and the Israeli's don't care about our
traffic problems and Palestinian police are not allowed here!
Palestinian police don't even have guns!"

On the way home, we exited through the VIP checkpoint, only open to
NGO's, media, politicians, and church cars, and my driver had one.
The road from the checkpoint was newly paved and smooth and brought
us to an apartheid byway that only NGO's, media, politicians, and
church cars cars, and settlers are allowed to use. As we drove on
the empty road, miles of rolled barbed wire fences and cameras on
the light posts belied the claim of 'holy land.'

Although the apartheid road added some extra miles to our journey,
it took half the time to return to Jerusalem.

I had returned to Ramallah for two reasons; to visit with a few
friends who endure there; Palestinian Christians who have been re-
labeled refugees and Arab Israeli's by the Israeli government but
who are denied equal human rights with Jewish Israelis.

And to hear American Palestinian and business man, Sam Bahour
address the youth attending Sabeel's 2nd International Conference:
40 Years in the Wilderness…40 Years of Occupation…

My friend J, is a 22 year old devoted son to his widowed mom and
hard working man who will spend the next few weeks of his life
volunteering his time and being of service to 45 children from 25
Jewish Israeli families and 25 Arab Israeli families who have agreed
to live in very close proximity in an Oasis of Peace: called Neve
Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, which is a cooperative village of Jews and
Palestinian Arabs of Israeli citizenship. Neve Shalom - Wahat al-
Salam's vision is of an egalitarian society and embraces pioneering
educational work at The School for Peace, Children's Educational
System and Pluralistic Spiritual Centre.
http://nswas.net/rubrique22.html

J also told me, "The Israeli government doesn't support Neve Shalom -
Wahat al-Salam's, in fact they are against it, they don't like the
Israeli and Palestinian people being friends...Two weeks ago I went
through the new checkpoint and it is worse than Kalindia. The
soldier made me get out of the car and tried to intimidate me with
arrest when I spoke up for my right to pass through without having
to get out of the car, for I have Israeli citizenship.

"My father fled from Jerusalem in '48 to Jordan and then returned to
Ramallah thinking he would soon be able to return home to Jerusalem.
My mother is from Ramleh and Israeli law is that the children belong
to the mother, so I have Israeli citizenship. According to Israeli
law, I am living illegally in Ramallah! I was born here and I live
here, but I have no ID. People in Jerusalem have ID cards only and
the army can confiscate ID cards at any time and then that person is
stuck right where they are."

Those without ID's in the 'Holy Land' become a non-person and I have
met many of these Palestinians who cannot move beyond the confines
of the refugee camps for they have no ID, and are stuck in a Catch
22; the bureaucratic illogic of occupation.

More on that topic from Sam Bahour:

"I was born in Ohio and have always been involved in Palestinian
affairs. In '88 when the first intifada erupted, I brought back
American Palestinian youth, community activists and officials. We
traveled from Rafah to the occupied Golan Heights; non-stop back
then.

"I got married here and my wife and I went back to America and with
the Oslo Peace Accords and Article 36, which stated the Israeli's
would transfer telecommunications-which is my field-to Palestine, I
tracked down investors to relocate and contribute.

"I also read the Oslo agreement first and while many thought the
occupation would end in five years that is not the case in what Oslo
said. What was the case was a rearrangement of the occupation to
another tier; a Palestinian occupation also.

"I developed PalTel, the 'Microsoft of Palestine' and the PA took
over all these huge computers without any knowledge as to what to do
with them.

"Telecommunications has always been a security tool. The Israelis
required we work with them; only those who did not resist the
occupation or accommodated them with eyes and ears [were allowed to
be hired.] There was a backlog of 120,000 Palestinians who had
requested phone lines and it took us only a year to close that
backlog and from '67-93, Palestinians were only allowed to put up
phone lines.

"I left Paltel and became a Project Manager for the Plaza Shopping
Center not far from Ramallah. The second intifada started just as we
broke ground and today it is like any other retail, supermarket and
children's play center in the U.S.A.

"We can't do anything 100% here because we don't have control of
water and borders, we also don't have control of the
telecommunications frequencies.

"Everything being done to us today is an accumulation of external
factors going on for decades…When Bush announced the $191 million
assistance, nobody here got excited as this was already money
allocated; it was not new money.

"The US State Department and the World Bank have been documenting
for years how the Palestinians are being battered. Those reports
should be used!

"After the 2006 Palestinian elections the U.S.A. and Israel
boycotted the Palestinian people to comply with [the self-appointed]
Quartet's demands.

"Gaza is mostly refugees who fled in '48 and they are being made out
to be a mini-super power led by Iran to rule the world! We had
democratic elections, but our growth is defined by Donor funds led
by America.

"I don't have a Palestinian ID; I have an Israeli issued ID card.
This is the first occupation in the world that defines who the
occupied are! My father was born five minutes from here and in '67
he was in the United States and the Occupation took place. The
Israelis did a house to house census and everyone here at the time
became an official Palestinian.

"I am here on a tourist visa and have to leave the country every 3
months. Why are Israeli's allowed to discriminate?"

My answer is the world is under a holocaust hangover and has allowed
the Jewish state to become an Apartheid regime because of the
unrepented guilt that has been allowed to fester because good people
did nothing for too very long and millions of innocent people were
gassed and fried.

We live in a world where the once oppressed, victimized and
traumatized have now become the oppressors, victimizers and
traumatizes of another generation of innocent Palestinian children;
because good people have done nothing for too very long.

The talk on the streets of the West Bank is that the Quartet's fall
peace conference won't change anything, but I am hopeful Tony Blair
is seeking redemption from Iraq and if he will open up and listen to
both sides, things that seem impossible to change; could actually
happen.

Only through a political and spiritual evolution can we begin the
world again, and bring into reality Tom Paine's vision:

"Soon after I had published the pamphlet "Common Sense" [on Feb. 14,
1776] in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution
in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the
system of religion... The world is my country, all mankind are my
brethren, and to do good is my religion."- Tom Paine

LEARN MORE: http://www.righttoenter.ps/

You may call me a dreamer, but I am not the only one.

IMAGINE all the people sharing all the world.-John Lennon

-###-

July 24, 2007 © Copyright Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor
http://www.wearewideawake.org/ AuthorKeep Hope Alive and Memoirs of
a Nice Irish American Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory,
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu " Permission is granted for reprint
in print, email, blog, or web media if this credit is attached and
the title remains unchanged. "Only in Solidarity do "we have it in
our power to begin the world again." -Tom Paine


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