Palestinian reaction to events in Iran

I was recently approached by Foreign Policy magazine and asked to write an article about the reaction on the Palestinian street to the turmoil in Iran. While I initially expected to find some people who saw a link between the Iranian’s calls for freedom and the Palestinian fight for independence, the reality of this perspective was much less than one would think. I talked to many people from a broad slice of society and found some indifference, much support for Iran and Ahmadinejad because of the support of the Palestinian cause, and some intellectual analysis among the general population.

Ignoring the Green Revolution by Lubna Takruri

Ignoring the Green Revolution
With so much at stake, why don’t Palestinians care about Iran?

BY LUBNA TAKRURI | JUNE 29, 2009

Foreign Policy Magazine

Last Friday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where old men sat at sidewalk coffee shops with cards and hookahs, and the city’s upper crust sipped cappuccinos to trance music in upscale eateries, Palestinians spoke of the dollar’s fluctuations, Israel’s latest military activities, and even Michael Jackson’s passing. They touched on nearly everything – with one notable exception: the volcanic protests in Iran. Whereas the drama on the streets of Tehran has captivated the world, here, the news was hardly noticed. “We have bigger problems of our own,” was the collective reply from one cafe.

Palestinians are accustomed to their double curses of occupation and corruption, and they’re used to watching an unending routine of election protests elsewhere in the Middle East. This time, however, their indifference is harder to explain. Although Israelis see Iran as their greatest threat, Palestinians tend to view it as their best international protector. Power shifts in Tehran, whether through war or internal unrest, could have reverberations in Palestine. A weakened Iran, for example, might offer less support for Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, thereby tipping the balance of power in favor of its Western-backed rival faction, Fatah.

Memory of First Intifada – Hebron

I recently asked my uncle to dig up this old VHS tape from 1991 during the first Palestinian intifada. The uprising, from the late 1980s until the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, was a time of national unity against the Israeli military occupation in the West Bank. Many believe it led to the beginnings of progress towards peace (which never did end up materializing, at least not on a permenant basis).

In contrast, the second intifada, or the Al Aqsa intifada, from September 2000 until about 2005, brought the beginnings of the current day inter-factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas, more Israeli checkpoints, more illegal settlements in the West Bank, and a new level of despair that the world will ever see a Palestinian state.

Here, then, is the clip from 1991. A young man is caught and beaten by Israeli soldiers in Hebron. Watch as he looks left, looks right, and……

Settler group makes ironic statement…

As one of the more complicated world issues regularly in the news for the past several decades, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict offers countless varied topics to make headlines (ie, Gaza? Hamas? Palestinian Authority? Right-wing Israeli government? water issues, land confiscations, building permits, shootouts, on and on).

AFP photo of illegal West Bank settlers and burning Palestinian lands

The spotlight in the past few weeks has been on the issue of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, in light of US President Obama’s pressure on the Netanyahu government to stop all forms of settlement building. Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have made clear and forceful statements in the last week that include the demand to halt “natural growth,” this vague idea of expansion, which the Israeli government won’t give in on.

The international community widely considers these West Bank settlements to be illegal under international law, because they are within the 1967 borders of the West Bank, within which Israel is an occupying military power.

A detailed illustration of all this can be found in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’s West Bank Closure Map, which shows the separation wall, the illegal settlements (colonies is the right word), the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, checkpoints, etc, here:

UNOCHA West Bank Closure Map

And for some thoughtful analysis, here’s one of the better pieces that came out of the last week’s events:

From The Nation, Ali Abunima: Mr. Abbas Goes to Washington

But the more current news from the West Bank today comes from the Nablus area in the northern WB, home of such ultra-radical settlements as Yizhar. On Sunday night, according to this AFP story, mobs of settlers rampaged through Palestinian agricultural fields and roads, placing road blocks, attacking busloads of Palestinians, setting fire to olive groves, and opening fire on Palestinians and journalists. Apparently they’re “venting fury” at the idea that the Israeli government might give in to US demands to dismantle settlements/outposts.

To me, the craziest thing from this whole outrageous story was the following quote:

“It’s natural that people who face expulsion from their house do what they can to avoid being expelled.”

Why is that crazy? Because the person who said it, Gershon Messika, is the president of an Israeli settler umbrella group in the West Bank. (for the unfamiliar, it’s Palestinians who were expelled from their lands en masse when the State of Israel was created in 1948, and continue to be expelled from East Jerusalem, from areas seized for settlements, and from areas needed to build the behemoth separation wall).

Good luck figuring this one out, everybody.

Jewish settlers rampage in West Bank

By Imad Saada – 4 hours ago

NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) — Jewish settlers rampaged in the West Bank on Monday, wounding four Palestinians, as they vented fury that Israel may answer US calls and dismantle outposts in the territory, officials said.

Jewish extremists blocked roads, hurled rocks at drivers, burned fields, cut down olive trees and opened fire towards Palestinians who tried to chase the trespassers from their fields in the northern West Bank, witnesses said.

AFP article about rampage continues below….