Journalist, not an ally

The main story in Ramallahstan those days is what happened with Amira Hass in Beirzeit university few days ago.
Long story short, Amira Hass, was invited to talk in Beirzeit university. A group of student protested and kicked her out.

Some people came out in support of the students, while others choose to throw the “She is more Palestinian than Palestinians” line.

First, lets explain who is Amira Hass!?
Amira Hass is an Israeli journalist, lives in Ramallah, and write for the Zionist newspaper, Haaretz, no more no less.
She is not more Palestinian than Palestinians, nor she is a spy “Spy on what?“. She is a journalist who choose to live close to the main topic she covers, which is Palestine and the Palestinians.
Like Robert Fisk, the British journalist who choose to live in Lebanon to be close to the Middle East, the region/topic he covers, Does this make hime a supporter to the Arab cause?
PS: I mentioned what is relevant, for more info about her, click here

Second, Amira Hass is an Israeli by birth, she belong to the colonial oppressive system Palestinians have been suffering from for the last 60+ years, she also write for a Zionist newspaper, who sometimes sound progressive, yet still strongly serves the Zionist colonial project in Palestine.
Do I really need to explain why people who live under colonial regime tend to be hostile towered those who belong to the “Colonial Master” nation!? I thought this should be obvious by now.

Third, “She is more Palestinian than some Palestinians”.
1- Who the gave you the right to say whose Palestinian and whose not!?
2- If every journalist who cover Palestine fairly will become more Palestinian than Palestinian, I can think of a long list of names before Hass.
3- Did you answer the question in the first point? Regardless to your answer, No one have the right, to say whose Palestinian and whose not. No one have this right, not even Mahmoud Abbas himself, “He is after all the head of PLO and the PA, which suppose to represent all Palestinian everywhere”

Finally, It’s important to remember that Amira Hass is simply a journalist, who maybe take the ethics of journalism more seriously than the usual propaganda tools in other Israeli media outlets. She is not a pro-Palestine, solidarity activist nor she is here because she loves us!
I find it sad, that our experience with good and fair journalism is very limited, we consider whoever write a decent story, an allies to our struggle.

Also we can’t abandon the fact that Amira Hass, regardless to her impressive journalistic work belong to the other side, and this is something we can’t ignore or overcome, at least not now.
The Israelis can walk around and say “It’s not personal, it’s politic”. This is a privilege we don’t have, it’s personal for each and everyone of us.

I hope her commitment to fair journalism, not to Palestine is beyond what happened in Beirzeit.

#Names and ages of the 49 people killed in the Israeli air strikes on #Gaza

nature song

Transcribed from https://www.facebook.com/aelqedra/posts/715705818503069. (Link provided by Ⓐhmad ‏@ANimer )

The names of the martyrs since the beginning of the aggression on the Gaza Strip this weekend. Until the moment 49 were killed and more than 450 wounded.

1.    Muhammed Sha’ban, aged 24
2.    Ahmad Sha’ban, aged 30
3.    Khadr Al-Besheliqi (Abu Jabal), aged 45
4.    Rashad Yassin ,27, from Nusseirat camp
5.    Mohamed Ayman ‘Ashour, 15, Khan Younis
6.    Riaz Mohammad Kaware’, 50, Khan Younis
7.    Bakr Mohammed Joudeh, 22, Khan Younis
8.    Ammar Mohamed Joudeh, 26, Khan Younis
9.    Hussein Yousef Kaware’, 13, Khan Younis
10.  Mohamed Ibrahim Kaware’, 50, Khan Younis
11.  Mohamed Habib, 22 years, Gaza
12.  Mousa Habib, 16 years, Gaza
13.  Saqr Ayesh al-‘Ajjouri, 22, Jabalya
14.  Ahmed Na’el Mahdi, 16, Gaza
15.  Baasem Salem Kaware’, 10, Khan Younis
16.  Hafiz Mohammad Hamad, 30 years
17…

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When we forgot about the Nakba

A must have introduction;

4 days ago marked the the 66th anniversary of the 1948 Nakab, when over 750,000 Palestinian were expelled from their villages and towns by the Zionist militia, a process in which over 20,000 were killed “Different report, different numbers, no actual statistics were ever made”, committed by the Zionist militia to strike fear in the hearts of the local Arab population.

Regardless to the heroic resistance by many on the front line across historic Palestine, defending their homes, villages, or simply the land they lived upon for years. And regardless to the support Palestinian received from few thousand Arab volunteers and the Arab armies. The well equipped 100,000+ strong,  Zionist militias easily over ran the Palestinians and their poorly equipped Arab allies. “The numbers are based on Saad ElShazly testimony, Wikipedia provided close numbers”. For more information about the Nakba you can find many resources such as here and articles here.

Back to what I want to talk about;

I have avoided talking about the Nakba or participating in any of the Nakba commemoration ceremonies, as over the last few years commemoration ceremonies took a celebratory nature contradicting the real nature of the Nakab.

I don’t mean the small protest that end up with clashes with the Israeli colonial forces, which ended this year with the death of 2 teenagers, 17 year old Nadeem Noware and 15 year Mohammad Abu Thaher.

I mean the ruling faction’s sponsored “events” which usually don’t go beyond speeches, Dabka performance, a photo gallery and police suppressing any attempt to cross the “Security coordination” line. I almost forgot this year special, an old truck with a bunch of actors, to enact the Palestinian’s exodus in 1948.

During the years of the second intifada, Nakba commemoration was dropped from the people agenda. Overwhelmed with the rapid progress of the Massacre we calls ” second Intifada” the people had more recent “Nakbas” to remember. Nakba was pushed to the back of people minds. Beside comments here or there about how the people in Jenin camp are living a new Nakba, or how this poor family has to live through winter in a tent just like the refugees in 1951 winter “Many of the Nakba witnesses we interviewed in collage mentioned that particular winter“. It became a reference to the people daily life.

PS: Nakba is also an opportunity to remember the heroic Palestinian peasant resistance against the Zionist militia in 1936-1939 revolution and in 1948. Not just their exodus.  

You can claim people in the west bank or Gaza cares very little about the Nakba, as they weren’t directly affected by it, and they relate more to the Naksa “1967 war”. This assumption although tempting, ignore how damaging the expulsion of 750,000 out of 1٫6 millions Palestinian living in historical Palestine before 1948 to other parts within Palestine and beyond. Don’t you think the total destruction of the Palestinian society. and the formation of a new and different society with new classes, new rich and new poor. It’s much more traumatizing than the classical occupation of 1967.

In 2002 as I worked with some cousins in clearing ruins from rooms in my family compound, my dad who observed, volunteered to explain who lived in those, my cousin comment on who can live in what looked more like a dungeon than a room, made my dad explains even more about how many people lived in the compound after the Nakaba. “You see this yard, it was divided with sheet to host 10 families, each of those 2 big rooms hosted 4 families.(…) some stayed until 1956, but many moved to the refugee camps when they opened 2 years later in 1950.”

I don’t have any special feeling towered any town in 1948 Palestine, nor I have any appreciation or respect to some lines drawn by 2 white men by the end of WWI. But I do believe in heart and soul, a great injustice took place in 1948, by the creation of a “European” settler colonial state in Palestine, which is something never survive, specially if you failed to completely eliminate the natives. 

Arundhati Roy on NGOs

Development Industry

Arundhati Roy’s position on NGOs from here:

A SECOND hazard facing mass movements is the NGO-ization of resistance. It will be easy to twist what I’m about to say into an indictment of all NGOs. That would be a falsehood. In the murky waters of fake NGOs set up or to siphon off grant money or as tax dodges (in states like Bihar, they are given as dowry), of course, there are NGOs doing valuable work. But it’s important to consider the NGO phenomenon in a broader political context. In India, for instance, the funded NGO boom began in the late 1980s and 1990s. It coincided with the opening of India’s markets to neoliberalism.

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Palestine and the Syrian Revolution فلسطين والثورة السورية

Random Shelling قصف عشوائي

أدناه النصّ الأصلي والترجمة العربية وفيديو يوتيوب الكلمة التي ألقيتها يوم 17 تشرين الثاني 2013 أثناء ندوة عن الثورة السورية في نيويورك نظمتها شبكة تضامن الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا. شكراً للرفاق في المنشور وفي شبكة التحرير لنشرهما النصّ (: This is a transcript and a YouTube of my presentation on 17 November 2013 at a Teach in on Syria in New York organized by the MENA Solidarity Newtork US. Thanks to comrades in Tahrir-ICN and al-Manshour for publishing the texts.

ملاحظة: فيديو اليوتيوب فيه ترجمة عربية، اضغطي على CC في الأسفل إن لم تظهر

في نيسان عام 2011، قالت مدونة مصرية شهيرة أن على الثوار السوريين رفع علم فلسطين خلال مظاهرات يوم الجمعة وذلك لإثبات دعمهم للمقاومة الفلسطينية ولدحض حجة النظام بأنه يدعم القضية الفلسطينية.

اليوم أسأل نفسي، هل على السوريين القيام بذلك؟ هل على السوريين رفع العلم الفلسطيني لإثبات دعمهم لفلسطين؟ هل على السوريين تقديم أوراق اعتمادهم…

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Telling a Palestinian story

I am not a writing this review to the new Palestinian movie Omar, as a professional movie critic, I am writing it as a Palestinian who was very happy when he saw a Palestinian movie telling a realistic Palestinian story. A story similar to those we gossiped about while hanging out on friend’s rooftop in the old city of Nablus when we were teenagers. A story based on a real story as Hany Abo Asaad claimed.

The Movie tells the story of 3 friends, Amjad, Tariq and Omar, 3 young men plans to attack an Israeli base near Nablus, “Huwara” as we later learn, after the attack in which an Israeli soldier was killed, Israeli forces went after the 3 of them, arresting Omar in their first raid. In prison Omar face the usual Shabeh “A form of torture the Israeli uses” before he face his Shabak interrogator “Who look like Dr Bassem yousef!:)”. Omar manage to convince the Agent that he will help them capture Tariq, his comrade if they let him go. But soon enough he was brought back into prison in a failed ambush. Omar manage again to win the Shabak agent, that this time he will really helps them capture Tariq, Suspected of treason Omar tries to make his way back to the group.

In the middle of all of that, the movie tell the love story between Omar and Nadia, Tariq’s sister, their love interrupted with the continues arrest of Omar, mistrust, and the betrayal of a childhood friend ended with them going in separate ways. It was not a happy ending for the love birds.

The movie story is very simple, yet very complicated, if you didn’t pay attention you will end up with the wrong conclusion “As I did”. Although when a certain chain of events start you could predict how it’s going to end, but you will fail to predict how the next chain of events will look like “got it?”. which kept me anxious to see how it will end, specially around the last 15 minutes. Personally, I think this what make Hany Abu Assad, a creative director.

The movie was filmed between Nablus, Jerusalem, and Nazareth, but while watching the movie you can never tell which city the events are taking place at, as the scenes flips from one city to another through out the movie, but this a minor issue you can easily over come if you weren’t born and raised in any of the 3 cities ;). Beside that the filming was great, specially the framing, many of the frames would have made a great photographs if they were paused.

The movie is 100% Palestinian. Directed, filmed, acted and produced all by Palestinians, which I think it gave Hani Abu Assad the freedom to choose a real life Palestinian story from the second Palestinian Intifada. Unlike paradise now which I found a desperate attempt to explain what we “Palestinian” still don’t understand.

If you want to watch a movie about Palestine, telling a real Palestinian story, Omar is the one to watch! It’s a great movie for those who look to Palestine and Palestinian from the outside and for those who lived this and still living it! It’s good for all, Go Watch it!

One last point, “Inch’Allah“, and “Bethlehem“, 2 movies who suppose to tell stories from Palestine, although I am judging “at this point” from their trailers but I can comfortably says, both are crap. In “Incha’Allah” for example, I couldn’t ignore the disgusting neo-colonialist messages the movie hold, I felt sick by watching the trailer alone!
The movie message in short “Ohh, look to this nice white lady who live in Telavive, and goes to help the “primitive” Palestinian native in the west bank or whatever, then something happen, she get emotional and crying as she goes through a moral dilemma….and FUCK YOU, how about that?
Did you see the part where the white lady gives lipstick to the Palestinian Hijabi woman… filled my eyes with tears “That was Sarcasm”

A must say note; Regardless to the movie message, if you live in “Israel”, you can be the most hard core pro-Palestine activist EVER, yet you are still part of the colonial system who oppress the Palestinians, regardless of your original nationality “yaa, I mean you, white people spending the night in Telvive and saving during the day!“. Whatever, many white liberals will adore it!

The other movie, Bethlehem, is an Israeli movie talks about the strong friendship between the Shabak agent and the Palestinian collaborator he handles,…… COME ON! Do I even need to explain, why this shit is fucked up! But, whatever, many white right-wing with liberal masks will loves it!

Stop making movies about Palestine, let us do our own. Thank you..

Palestinian Anarchists in Conversation: Recalibrating anarchism in a colonized country

Institute for Anarchist Studies

By Joshua Stephens

“I’m honestly still trying to kick the nationalist habit,” jokes activist Ahmad Nimer, as we talk outside a Ramallah cafe. Our topic of conversation seems an unlikely one: living as an anarchist in Palestine. “In a colonized country, it’s quite difficult to convince people of non-authoritarian, non-state solutions. You encounter, pretty much, a strictly anticolonial – often narrowly nationalist – mentality,” laments Nimer. Indeed, anarchists in Palestine currently have a visibility problem. Despite high-profile international and Israeli anarchist activity, there doesn’t seem to be a matching awareness of anarchism among many Palestinians themselves.

“Contemporary discussion of anarchist themes shifts emphasis towards more of an approach to power: rejecting power over, in favor of power with. “When you talk about anarchism as a political concept, it is defined as rejecting the state,” explains Saed Abu-Hijleh, a human geography lecturer at An-Najah University in Nablus. “It talks about…

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حل التنظيم الذاتي

معظمُ المسيرات التي حصلت في فلسطين خلال العامين الماضيين، كانت في مُجملها مسيراتٍ و تحركاتٍ تحمل بطبيعتها سمةً “رد الفعل” العشوائية. قد تكون هذه التحركات منظمةً في إطار ضيق، و لكنها لا تتخطى رد الفعل المحدود بزمان محددٍ يبدأ و ينتهي بانتهاء السبب.

البداية كانت متمثلةً بالتظاهر دعما لمصر و تونس و مروراً بإضرابات الأسرى و انتهاءً بزيارة “موفاز” و “مخطط برافر”. و مع أن إضراب الأسرى استمر لفترة من الزمن، إلا أن التظاهر لدعم الأسرى قلَ لدرجة أن آخرَ مسيرةِ خرجت لدعم الأسرى دُعيَّ إليها، قليل من الناس شارك بها.

إن طبيعةَ العملِ الثوري الفلسطيني منذُ ثورةِ البُراق و ثورة عام 1936 و مروراً بالانتفاضتين الأولى و الثانية كان كلهُ أفعالٌ جاءت كردِ فعل لأحداثٍ معينةٍ حدثت على أرض الواقع. إلا أن هذه الثورات لم تحمل بداخلها طبيعة تنظيمية ذات “ايديلولوجية” محددة قادرةٍ على تحريك الجماهير. “ومع هذا فإنه جدير بالذكر أن بعض التحركات مثل ثورة الشيخ عز الدين القسام” كانت من الثورات الوحيدة في فلسطين التي تم التحضير و التعبئة لها بشكل سري. ولكن للأسف،أدى تُحرك غير محسوبٍ من أحد الثوار المتحمسين إلى

كشف الثورة وهي في تحضيراتها النهائية.

 وبالعودة إلى واقعنا الحالي، نجد أنه و منذ بداية ما يسمى “بالحراك الشبابي” في فلسطين بتحركٍ سُميَّ في حينه “15 آذار” -الذي طالب بإنهاء الانقسام- فشل الناشطون الشباب في فلسطين بحشد جماهير الشعب الفلسطيني من خلفهم و عليه فشلوا بإيصال الرسالة المنشودة.

لقد حاول منتمو هذا الحراك التظاهر و الاعتصام و الاشتباك مع قوات الاحتلال على مشارف معسكر “عوفر”. وحاولوا الوصول إلى مستوطنة “بيت ايل”، إلا أنهم فشلوا في كثير من هذه المحاولات التي تخللها فقط قليل من المحاولات الناجحة. إلا أن فشلهم الأكبر يتمحور حول فشلهم في إيصال رسالتهم إلى الشعب نفسه.

“يسقط عسكر دايتون” … “تسقط سلطة اوسلو (سلطة فتح و حماس)” … “أبناء الشعب الفلسطيني في الأراضي المحتلة عام 1948 يجب أن يقاطع الحكومة الإسرائيلية”. … “راحت سلطة أوسلو، طيب و بعدين”؟. وماذا لو قاطع “فلسطينيو ال48” الحكومة الإسرائيلية؟، كيف سيغدو وضع الصحة و التعليم و المواصلات… الخ. من سيعمل على تنظيم هذه القطاعات كلها؟.
الإسرائيليون ملزمون بتحمل مسؤولياتهم كقوة مستعمرة، لكن هل المُستَعمَرْ مُستعدٌ لأن يضع ثقتهُ بنظام تعليمي أو صحيٍ تابعٍ للمُستَعمِرْ؟. الشعارات جميلة و رنانة، لكن لا يوجد تحركٌ حقيقي ليترجم هذه الشعارات إلى واقعٍ حقيقيٍ ينظر إليه.

إن أفضل طريقة للقضاء على النظام المُستعمرْ أو الدكتاتوري –أياً كان- هي عن طريق عدم اعتماد الشعب على هذا النظام. بهذه الطريقة يصبح نظام الحكم الاستعماري نظاماً هامشي لا قيمة له وعليه يصبح الشعب قادراً على التخلي عنه.
إذا أردنا من فلسطيني ال 48 أن يقاطعوا نظام الحكومة الإسرائيلية و خدماتها فعلينا –على سبيل المثال لا الحصر- دعم المجتمعات المحلية لتنظيم انفسهم بطريقة تسمح لهم ببناء عيادات صحية مجانية توفر علاجاً عالي المستوى. وليس لهذه العيادات أن تقدم خدماتها للعرب الفلسطينيين فقط و إنما للمهاجرين الأفارقة أيضاً وإلى كل إنسان يحتاج إلى العلاج.

وأيضا على كل مجتمع أن يبني مدرسةً لخدمة أبناءه والآخرين. بعد مدة زمنية بسيطة من إتمام مثل هذه الإجراءات بشكل واسع سيتهاوى النظام على نفسه وينهار بالكامل.

وينطبق الحل نفسه على مواطني غزة و الضفة و مخيمات اللاجئين و مصر و سوريا و لبنان و الأردن و كل العالم. إن هذه المهمة لن تكون سهلة وبسيطة، فعندما يدرك النظام القائم خطورة هذه الأفعال سيوظف كل جهده للقضاء على أي تحرك يتسم بمثل هذا الفكر.

أفضل مثال هنا هو الفهود السود في أمريكا. مع أنهم كانوا يحملون السلاح، إلا أن مسئولي الشرطة الفيدرالية رأوا أن أكبر خطر على الحكومة الأمريكية هو برنامج الإفطار الصباحي لطلاب المدارس و مشاريع العيادات الصحية المزودة من قبل الحزب. و في المكسيك أيضاً -في وقتنا الحالي- تعتبر العيادات الصحية المدارة من قبل الحكومات المحلية التابعة للحركة “الزاباتية” أفضل بكثير من العيادات الصحية التابعة لحكومة المكسيك في “شياباس” في جنوب المكسيك. كما أنها مجانية!.
مثال أخر من حركة “الماويين” في الهند، حيث يقوم الثوار المسلحون بدعم المجتمعات القبلية المحلية لممارسة شكل رائع من الديمقراطية المباشرة التي ينتج منها خدمات للمجتمع من المجتمع نفسه تضاهي تلك الخدمات المزودة من الدولة.

إذا سألت أي من الثوريين في حركة الفهود السود في أمريكا، أو “الزاباتيستا” في المكسيك، أو “الماويين” في الهند، أو الثوريين الأسبان في “كتلونيا”، أو “بحارة كرونستاد” في روسيا، لاتفقوا جميعا على أن جوهر نجاح العمل الثوري هوة العمل المجتمعي.
وقد تتقارب هذه النظرية مع نظرية الحركات الإسلامية بشكل سطحي. إلا أن أسلوب الأحزاب الإسلامية مثل “الإخوان المسلمون” في كثير من الأحيان تتبع شكل العمل الخيري في عملها المجتمعي. وهذه بعيدُ عن جوهر حديثي. فأنا أتكلم عن دعم الناس للناس، بدون وجود رأس مال أو دعم مالي من أي رأس مال و إن كان يحمل طابع وطني او ديني محدد

في النهاية يجب المجتمع يخدم نفسه بنفسه حتى يصبح حراً. عزيزي القارئ: إذا كنت تشعر بما أشعر وتؤمن بما أؤمن به ، فأنا أدعوك بأن تنظم نفسك مع من يتفق معك أينما كنت. و أبدأ العمل اليوم قبل الغد من أجل أن نخلق عالماً مبنياً على عدالة حقيقية. كل إنسان يعطي قدرَ استطاعته و يأخذ قدر حاجته. عالم يتسع لعوالم مختلفة بأفكار و مبادئ مختلفة.

ملاحظة: الصورة ملطوشة من أحد الصفحات الاناركية العربية، بصراحة مش متذكر أي وحدة فيهم، أسف 

The colour brown: de-colonising anarchism and challenging white hegemony

Random Shelling قصف عشوائي

A French translation of this article here, thanks for Dyhia Tadmut

The appearance of the Egyptian Black Bloc in Cairo’s streets in January 2013 triggered gullible excitement in Western anarchist circles. Little thought was given to the Egyptian Black Bloc’s political vision – or lack thereof – tactics, or social and economic positions. For most Western anarchists, it was enough that they looked and dressed like anarchists to warrant uncritical admiration. Facebook pages of Israeli anarchists were swamped with pictures of Egyptian Black Bloc activists; skimming through the US anarchist blogosphere during that period would have given one the impression that the Black Bloc was Egypt’s first-ever encounter with anarchism and anti-authoritarianism. But as American writer Joshua Stephens notes, the jubilant reaction many Western anarchists have towards the Black Bloc raises unflattering questions concerning their obsession with form and representation, rather than content and actions. And in this regard…

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Palestinian women: Trapped between occupation and patriarchy

Random Shelling قصف عشوائي

Budour Hassan
Arabic, Italian, Spanish

On a warm and bright Sunday morning, three-year-old Saqer was cuddling with his mother when she was shot several times in the head and chest. Dishevelled, tremulous, and smirched with his mother’s blood, Saqer was spotted by a neighbour pleading for help, but was unable to give utterance to what had just befallen his household. Saqer’s mother, Mona Mahajneh, had just been murdered in cold blood in front of his own eyes; the only suspect so far is his maternal uncle, whose detention has been extended in order to allow the investigation of the murder to progress.

Mahajneh, a 30-year-old mother of three from Umm al-Fahm in the Northern Triangle, is the latest martyr of domestic violence against Palestinian women in the Palestinian territories occupied by Zionist militias in 1948 (hereinafter referred to as the Green Line, Israel’s internationally-recognised armistice border). She tried…

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