Published (The Australian)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/real-nowhere-land/story-e6frg6ux-1111116328365
TOMORROW Palestinians - geographically displaced, politically divided and economically distressed - will be marking 60 years since al-Nakbah (the great catastrophe).
Their misfortune began in May 1948, on the same day Israel celebrates its 60th birthday. The yin-yang character of the day marks a new beginning for one people and the beginning of the end for the other. Most people think of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one between two warring countries and people. This is no fault of theirs.
The terminology describing the place is baffling. Occupied Territories, West Bank and Gaza Strip, 67 green-line borders, 242 borders, armistice borders, UN partition borders: the list goes on. As opposed to Israel, where does Palestine begin and end? Who are its inhabitants?
Israel, for one, is visible, recognised as a country, albeit with changing borders, and a flag. For Palestine, it depends on who and when you ask. Muddled definitions aside, it has to be somewhere between the river and the sea; and going by the maps of the pre-1948 period, it would be exactly that, from the river to the sea. For the past 60 years, however, Palestine has been a transitory compilation of land and territory that Israel had no interest in.
Speaking of the people, ambiguity changes hands. As opposed to the Palestinians, who are the Israeli people? The Jewish people of the state supplemented by those outside longing for aliyah, or the citizens of the state of Israel, including the Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bedouins and others. How are the modern Israelis related to the Yishuv, the Jewish community in pre-1948 Palestine?
Can a country for the Jewish people anywhere in the world be a home for all its other citizens? The rationale defining the Jewish people, whether Polish, Russian, German, Palestinian or any nationality, challenges the notion of sharing and belonging to a nation and a place.
The Palestinians' existence as a people with a native identity is not based on biblical history. A blend of predominantly Semites, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, that inhabited the area was a coherent society with national aspirations. Of the Middle East countries struggling to achieve independence from colonial rule in the first half of the 1900s, Palestine was more highly developed than many, earning it a Class A mandate from the League of Nations, putting it on a fast track to independence.
The British had other ideas. Influenced by Zionist pressure, the national rights of 90 per cent of Palestinians were ignored to accommodate the wishes of the 10 per cent Jewish minority.
Sixty years later, Palestinians no longer come in keffiyeh colours, white and black. They have seven distinct shades. The darkest goes to those in Gaza, where misery, lack of power and a mounting death toll keep black in fashion. The West Bank Palestinians are barely better off: the brutal occupation and the wall keep grey always in sight.
The third shade are those Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, subjected to daily intimidation and discriminatory regulations aimed at forcing them to leave. The fourth is in pre-1967 Israel, the so-called Israeli Arabs. These second-class citizens, cast always as a "demographic threat", are considered lucky to have democratic and legal rights but are subject to bias in 17 basic rights, one of which denies an internal refugee the right to live in their home village of 1948.
Farther north, the refugee camps of Lebanon hold the bleakest shade. This is where time stopped in 1948, where the sun does not visit the dense camps with windowless walls and narrow alleyways.
To the southeast, the refugee camps of Jordan are better off. The financially strained semi-citizens of Jordan have some rights. They are often reminded of their guest status when there is any political unrest, a predicament they share with Palestinians residing in Kuwait, Egypt, Libya and other Arab states. The minority of diaspora Palestinians finding opportunities for better lives are the exception. Every group is under a different set of restraints, spelling out what they can say or do.
West Bank Palestinians cannot visit Jerusalem or cross the wall; Israeli Arabs cannot go to Gaza or Arab countries; the refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria cannot go to Palestine and a host of other countries; and the people of Gaza cannot go anywhere at all. Palestinians are even barred from many jobs in Lebanon.
As we mark 60 years, we are left with two unfortunate realities: a state that doesn't know who its people are and a people who don't know where their state is. If we are serious about resolving this conundrum and accept that some realities supersede past injustice, three key principles should still hold: no territories can be made exclusive to people on the basis of race or faith; all people are equal, in rights and before the rule of law; and the wrong is acknowledged and individual rights are served and respected, including the fundamental right of the displaced to return to their homes.
At 60, Israel won't be retiring its status as the home for the Jewish people, and the strenuous labour for Palestine continues. But the tradition of the place has it that those who belong to a biological lineage will one day come into their legitimate inheritance.
Amin Abbas is a diaspora Palestinian.
14th May 2008
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