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A Wake-up Call: Irrepressible
Palestinian Children…
02 September 2012 By Stuart Littlewood
Irrepressible
Palestinian children… But smiles of happiness may turn
to tears of frustration when they grow up to find
their dreams dashed in a country ravaged by decades of
military occupation… where lands and resources have
been stolen, education curtailed, freedom cancelled
and travel made almost impossible.
How will they build a career or
raise a thriving family? Separated from friends and
relatives, amenities and opportunities by encroaching
barriers, roadblocks and checkpoints, excluded from
their Holy City, and stripped of heritage, economic
prosperity and even healthcare, they seem destined for
a life of despair in what Chomsky calls "the dungeons
that are left".
This is not an academic book.
It's a wake-up call, a snapshot of the situation in
Palestine through ordinary westerners' eyes. Our
reasons for writing it were fourfold…
This horror story needs to be
told. The British and American public seem to know
little about the Arab-Israeli conflict even though it
is central to world peace. Palestinians hope visitors
to their tortured land will speak to the outside world
on their behalf. And the trampling of human justice in
the Holy Land, of all places, is an affront to
civilised people.
Having begun, a fifth reason soon
made itself felt: the indifference of the West's
political élite and media. They avoid honest debate
and suppress the truth, even to the extent of burying
a critical Foreign Office report. Many seem to regard
Israel as exempt from normal standards of behaviour.
Worse, they turn the sanctions screw on an already
abused and impoverished Palestinian people, pushing
them to the edge of a humanitarian crisis and
collapsing their fragile economy.
There's no such thing as "Radio
Free Palestine", as far as we know, except on the
other side of the world in California.
But there ought to
be. Somewhere in the Middle East or Europe a "Free
Palestine" station
should be
broadcasting its heartrending message, its cry for
justice… loud and clear… to the so-called civilized
world.
Of course the Occupation – and
resistance to it – has to be seen in historical
context… how the real trouble started in 1897 when
Theodore Herzle organised the first Zionist Congress
with the express aim of establishing Eretz Israel, a
Jewish homeland, in Palestine. And how Zionist leaders
like Chaim Weizmann canvassed British politicians, who
were persuaded to the idea.
How, after World War One, Britain
the occupying power and the mandated government in
Palestine, made free with Arab lands and paved the way
for a Zionist takeover that has infuriated Arabs and
blighted East-West relations ever since.
And how, in 59
years, the Israelis have become past-masters in the
art of land theft, ethnic cleansing and subjugation,
perversely earning the approval of western leaders in
the process.
What I saw during my visits to
the West Bank in 2005 and 2006 made me angry. What has
happened back home is even more disturbing – US,
British and EU politicians ganging up to cut off aid
to the Palestinian Authority and collectively punish
the people, while still at pains to sidestep their
responsibility to call Israel to account.
And the contemptible spectacle of
Israel's high-tech military machine venting its fury
on the helpless citizens of the Gaza Strip, smashing
their infrastructure and reducing their lives to an
even deeper shade of hell… all because Israeli leaders
cannot accept that hardline Hamas is now the
Palestinians' chosen government.
We are accustomed to the White
House aiding and abetting Israel's unlawful
expansionism and shielding them from criticism. Now EU
ministers inexplicably reward Israel with trading
privileges while the Separation Wall steals another
10% of Palestinian territory, including the richest
agricultural land and nearly all the water.
In short, Britain has joined the
US and Israel in a conspiracy of injustice. No-one I
have met, knowing the situation on the ground, agrees
with the idea that "recognising" a brutal, armed
occupier is a right or proper precondition for
receiving aid. Israel exists; and one has to accept
the fact. But recognition must be earned, usually by
good conduct. And when has Israel ever "recognised"
Palestine? The question on most people's lips is, why
won't the civilised world put pressure on the Israeli
regime to comply with UN resolutions and international
court rulings and withdraw to its pre-1967 borders?
So far, the Israelis' definition
of the situation and their pretence that the
Occupation is for security reasons have been allowed
to prevail. Now, at last, there are calls for the
situation to be re-framed in terms that reflect the
truth.
Most people in the west, who
readily identify with Bethlehem, would have been
appalled to hear
the organisation
Open Bethlehem
reporting
that over 70% of its population now live below the
poverty line and unemployment has soared to more than
60%.
"Once a prosperous middle class
town, Bethlehem has been economically suffocated and
the post-election sanctions have brought the local
population to the brink of disaster."
And this chilling
warning from
The Economist
only added to the sense of foreboding:
"After millennia of violent
conquest and reconquest, Jerusalem, centre of
pilgrimage, crucible of history and the world's oldest
international melting-pot, is changing hands once
more, but with a slow and quiet finality."
A girl who worked
for the Palestinian National Authority in Ramallah
emailed me:
"Our daily life and work, believe
me, is getting worse. We haven't been paid for months…
Some of my colleagues can't come to work anymore
because simply they don't have money for the
transportation. On Thursday we made a protest in front
of the entrance of our ministry demanding the
international community to end up this isolation and
asking for our salaries. The mothers are bringing
their babies and kids to work everyday because they
can't pay for the kinder-yards or the baby sitters. I
don't have kids but both my parents work also in the
PNA…."
A few weeks later her emails
stopped. A knock-out blow, then, for this family and
heaven knows how many others. Her words, on top of all
the other distress calls, were the spur to finishing
the book as quickly as possible.
"In view of the unhappy state
of world affairs and the need for ordinary people
to be aware of the issues that threaten peace in the
Middle East and even our own comfy way of life, My
Catbird Seat (MCS) at http://mycatbirdseat.com/author/stuart/,
and Veterans News Now (VNN) at http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/author/littlewood/,
have decided to serialise the opening chapters of
"Radio Free Palestine". These include:
A Wake-up Call; A
Story of Betrayal; One Land, Two Peoples, Three
Religions"
Stuart Littlewood's articles
are published widely on the web. He is author of the
book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of
the Palestinians under occupation. For further
information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.org.uk
"Lawlessness must have painful consequences for the
lawless, not their victims." (Stuart Littlewood)
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