I've missed you, readers. Since I left my role as editor of the Education and Impact verticals of HuffPost last June, I've been working full-time with my nonprofit, The Tiziano Project. From January until May of this year, my team and I traveled to Ramallah, in the West Bank and to East Jerusalem, training Palestinian community members how to tell their stories through new media.
Since returning home, I've been asked over and over again, "Palestine? What was that like?"
Luckily, as journalists teaching multimedia, we've documented our trip pretty well. My colleague, David Freid, created a short documentary piece that I've featured here, that I believe well documents the mood we understood from Palestine at this time: gritty, determined, hopeful and harsh.
Video Portrait | The West Bank from The Tiziano Project on Vimeo.
However, what I've continued to think about since returning to Los Angeles is how the acts of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians were so predictable, and what that means to finding any ultimate resolutions.
I wanted to share one small slice of my experience with this.
The particular moment I wanted to share is about Land Day, a day that commemorates a protest in 1976 against the first Israeli settlements in Palestinian land in which six protesters were killed by IDF and police. Palestinians have commemorated it every year since then, mostly peacefully, in honor of the people who died and the land that is still lost.
The goal organized by activists this year was for the Palestinians to march through the barrier checkpoints from the West Bank to Jerusalem.
Predictably, the IDF preemptively shut down the crossings between Israel and the West Bank. They also shut down the country's borders, and one person died during protests trying to get in.
On Land Day morning, we decided to observe the Damascus Gate protest in Jerusalem. Protests happen all the time, mostly in the West Bank, but also in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians live.
When my colleagues and I arrived, it was a rather tame affair. In fact, we couldn't tell who the protesters were. There were a bunch of Red Cross people, a few from a Christian relief service, a ton of journalists, and then some young Palestinian men chilling with their friends. They, we supposed, were the protesters. Mixed among them were dozens of soldiers, on their phones, smoking cigarettes, riding horses around and eating falafel.
The guy who sells sneakers at Damascus Gate didn't even bother to pack up for the event. He and the falafel and schwarma guys were actually doing a brisk business. Behind all of us, toward the parking lot, more soldiers waited in riot gear, and leaned up against a Skunk Truck, an armored vehicle that sprays foul-smelling water out of a cannon on protestors if they get too rowdy.
We waited for a while to see if anything would happen. And in time, it did. A public bus, heading on a route that ended in an Israeli settlement, drove through the street, and the middle of the protest. The Palestinian guys I had seen earlier jumped into action, stamping out their cigarettes, cheering and running at the bus, which was empty, to tie a Palestinian flag to the front of it. You can imagine how the soldiers reacted. They ran after the guys with the flag, then everyone started running after the soldiers, and that's where it got messy.
It happened fast, and we pieced it together afterwards.
The IDF cornered the flag-bearer into a bus station, along with hordes of onlookers circling, and tried to cuff him. But from above the station, other Palestinians started throwing down homemade smoke bombs, and stoning the soldiers with debris.
The soldiers countered by shooting with stun grenades, which are grenades that make a loud noise with smoke. At the time, because everything happened so quickly, I wasn't sure if any of this was live ammunition, so I reasonably found a big wall to shield me if needed. But all around me, everyone was cheering and laughing and running around, like they had just won a soccer match.
I looked up to see one of my students, smiling, run by. He yelled as he passed, "Hi Miss Victoria! How are you?"
I couldn't help but laugh, then ran the other way as one of the smoke bombs landed next to me.
Things settled down quickly enough. I found my colleagues that I'd lost during the skirmish. They were fine, and equally surprised. The troublemaker was escorted to a line of other prisoners, by a soldier who had him in a headlock with a grenade in one hand and his other hand's fingers through the pin so he wouldn't try to run.
In the street, people were hanging out again, just as jovial as before, if not more. We watched the single injured person having their leg bandaged (with about 30 other press people). Then we bought three bottles of coke from a minimart owner who hadn't even bothered to close his metal gate during the scuffle.
"How are you today?" He asked me, as if I had just come back from touring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
He popped the tops off, gave us curly straws and asked if I wanted anything else. Then he wished me a nice day. I told him to stay safe and he smiled. Business as usual.
The whole encounter had shocked me first with the noise, and then with the routine. Everyone, post-fray, just seemed so blasé. The police, the protesters, the aid workers -- each knew their role and started packing up to go home once they knew their work was over.
We caught up to our student, who was happy to show off his protest pack. He unloaded it for us as another student of ours broke out a portable speaker and MP3 player, which he blasted pop music from as we walked.
The backpack was filled with things a Palestinian youth needs for a protest and had been refined with practice. Alcohol to spray on your keffiyeh to breathe in the skunk water. Pool goggles, for the teargas. Two extra Palestinian flags for flair and a sweatshirt, in case it got cold. The bag was embroidered with the word "TARGET" on the back of it. I asked if he knew what the word meant. He didn't.
When I asked what the goal of the protesters for the event was, he shrugged. "To be here. Maybe, to hurt the soldiers, because they hurt us."
Protests like these happen every week in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. And each one is stunningly formulaic.
The most notable one is in Nabi Salih, a Friday protest against Israel's land grab for a nearby settlement that has such a clear recipe that it's even articulated on the Wikipedia page about the town:
"During the protests, there are regular clashes with the Israeli Army who attempt to disperse crowds by using teargas and other dispersal methods while Palestinian youth respond by hurling stones."
Cut and paste that into any hotspot town within or along the West Bank borders and you have a current and major form of Palestinian activism and resistance against Israel.
Such resistance and its consequences shouldn't be taken lightly. As I mentioned before, someone died the day of the Land Protest, and others have died or been seriously injured in protests around the territories on a weekly basis. But from the point of view of an observer, it doesn't sit well with me. As the hackneyed phrase goes, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
So doesn't providing a schedule to resistance make it less effective?
I spoke to many Palestinian activists and community members about the regular protests in the West Bank, and the reasoning behind the routine. While answers varied about why each of them were personally invested in these weekly missions, the most consistent answer given to me was that the importance of showing up, week after week, rain or shine, come teargas or skunk water, was just that -- they were showing up.
The activists' message was that as long as someone recognized the problems that prompted these protests in the first place, they would not be forgotten, and the situation, in the most popular buzzword of the current Palestinian resistance, would not be "normalized".
But because these protests are so routine, they gain less traction with the press and the international community -- the breaking news element of these protests has run dry. That is, except in cases where people are seriously injured or die.
In the process, the message and meaning behind the protest can be lost among the mechanics of completing it, as in the case of my student.
Is that a fair tradeoff for consistent recognition of human rights abuses? Should we, as an international audience, find fault with the media that this tradeoff must be made? Or is it time for activists to try something new?
While I don't have an answer for that, I can say that the most inspiring form of protest I saw in Palestine was not done in a large organized crowd or painted on the walls of Qalandia checkpoint. It is another routine altogether. But it's still the act of showing up.
These are the people our students have shown us, by introducing us to their communities through their stories: The hairdresser and entrepreneur who said she considered the conflict a challenge rather than a barrier. The women's rights activist who changes her community's opinion of women one conversation at a time. The young man who works around the clock and attends school full-time to pursue the career he's always dreamed of.
They are some of the stories our students have chosen to share from their reporting for our new storytelling platform, StoriesFrom, scheduled to launch July 7.
These people who work daily in small ways to do better for themselves and their communities, rather than just doing the same thing over and over, this is a kind of resistance that touches me, as an observer, deeply, and it is something we can learn from, no matter what our political loyalties.
For the rest, I pose this question to you -- is it worth it?
Follow Victoria Fine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/vfine
The study showed that a vast number of Palestinians believe that they do not live in freedom and that their leaders and institutions are corrupt. They indicated that they believe that if they vocalize critique, they will be punished. They answered that there is no freedom of press.
72.9% of those asked answered that PA institutions under Abbas are corrupt. 61% answered that institutions under Hamas are corrupt.
Only 23% answered that they live in freedom in the West Bank. Only 15% answered that they live in freedom in Gaza.
This is a damning report especially because half of those asked answered that the solution to their economic problems should be to have talks with Israel and get foreign aid. The question was clearly asked as a ruse. The answer was: fool the world in order to get aid.
There is no doubt that the Palestinians are in very difficult circumstances. The only way for them to get on their feet is to become economically independent and to root out corruption.
Not surprisingly, it has nothing to do with Israel, it is all an internal Palestinian issue.
Quite apart from that the Israeli State has a long history of assassinating any Palestinian leadership and encouraged both schisms in the leadership and the formation of Hamas in the past.
Just about the last thing they can claim is that the failure or lack of Palestinian leadership is nothing to do with them.
There is absolutely nothing the Paletinians or their leadership have done to convince Israel that a peaceful solution to the conflict is on the horizen with the current Palestinian leadership.
when will a video be made on 'the children of sderot' to tell their story.
when will ms.fine tell the story of the yeshiva mass.a.cre….or the sbarroPizzeriia, or the eilatBakery.
how bout all those jerusalem busses packed full of innocent civilians….why not tell those stories.
surely, people would be interested in knowing *why* the pal*s are whre they are at…no?
To give one example you can name all those and can probably name some of the victims but can you even name the college which was attacked by grenade throwing and automatic weapon shooting settlers? There have been those on the Israeli State side of the argument on here who have denied it even happened despite some of the perpetrators being convicted of it in Israeli courts.
they are 'honored' and called 'heroes'….given with money and having streeets named after them.
&'if you haven't seen multiple tellings of those stories then you must be wearing very large blinders'…..
Yes, a bunch of Palestinians start running towards a bus. I can't imagine why the soldiers would react the way they did.
Oh wait...http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=213442
Just ask Walid Husayin.
Can't wait for u to join the majority and start to fight for these freedoms back, nice to have met u!
They fight because they hate Israel.
http://www.soundofegypt.com/Palestinian/adult/massacres.htm
I think that would be more unique than another profile about protests along the borders.
The lady has a great deal of integrity. Certainly more that those who constantly whine "antisemite" to cover their own filth.
better get attention for their vi.o.lent. response to everything…..
'integrity' ….when yu side with those who sakrifise their own children proudly, just to
slawwter isreali children….
that is 'integrity'
well thanx for clarifying.
“There is so much evidence to show that the Palestinian non-violent resistance is and has always been central to the Palestinian struggle. But if that was the case, then where is that 'Palestinian Gandhi?' The answer to that is simple: You are asking the wrong question.
“There is no shortage of Palestinian Gandhis in Israel’s jails, at checkpoints, and in refugee camps.
"There are even Gandhis as young as five years old walking to school holding on to their backpacks, to their pride, and to their dignity while they get stoned and showered with settler garbage." See:
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15969
“Palestinian nonviolent resistance is nothing new. While some have adopted an Israeli narrative that identifies nonviolent Palestinian dissent as something new, the reality is that Palestinians have consistently chosen nonviolent resistance before arms - from the general strikes of 1936, to the consistent appeals to international legal bodies, to the weekly demonstrations against the wall.
"It has been the continued dispossession at the hands of Israel, and the silence of the international community despite these nonviolent efforts, that has led some Palestinians to view violence as the only option…"
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/10758/pid/2254
Thank you for the excellent article.
There are over 150 UN Resolutions - one example can be viewed below, which is binding. The ruling of the International Court of Justice pertaining to the separation barrier has been ignored by Israel but was supported by the UN and all 25 European Member countries at the time including Britain, France, Spain and Italy.
UNESCO's recognition of Palestine last year was supported by Spain, France, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Cyprus and Serbia. It is unclear why Israel did not support this since Mr Netanyahu claims he supports a two-state solution (but not based on US President Obama's 1967 lines).
Palestine is recognised as of now by 130 nations that includes the most populous countries on the planet and those representing 80% of the world's population. These nations who recognise Palestine include Russia, China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia, Indonesia and more recently Iceland and Thailand.
Palestine and Israel are here to stay.
God bless
Resolution 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980
Security Council, recalling resolution 476 (1980); reaffirming the acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible; deeply concerned over the enactment of a "basic law" in the Israeli Knesset proclaiming a change in the character and status of Jerusalem; noting that Israel has not complied with resolution 476 (1980); Censures in the strongest terms the enactment by Israel of the "basic law" on Jerusalem and the refusal to comply with Security Council resolutions;
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/DDE590C6FF232007852560DF0065FDDB
http://www.mythsandfacts.org/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.pdf
Therefore, any act by either individual member states of the UN, the General Assembly of the UN or any agency affiliated with the UN, e.g. UNESCO, may pass resolutions contrary to the UN Charter, but those resolutions don't make them LEGAL.
All that such acts do is ensuring the conviction, held by the vast majority of the world population, that the UN has become one of the most cynical institution on earth that simply deserves no trust. Sadly, this is the case, and sadly, some are eager to ensure that this status of the UN in peoples eyes remain unfavorable.
The people who were not in Trans-Jordan were in Palestine, and were Palestinians.
No, the Jewish people doesn't need the PLO's recognition of Israel's nature as the independent nation-state of the Jewish people, a reality the Jewish people has voted for and the international community has accepted as the legal status of Israel. Yet, such a statement will bring with it a sea-change of attitude among the Jewish people, within and without its nation-state of Israel and will usher a new day of trust.
But, it appears, the PLO can't bring itself to make such a simple and appropriate statement that contradicts the very thrust of the PLO's very Charter (read it!!), which is obviously etched deeply in the minds and hearts of the PLO's leaders and its followers: The total demise of Israel from ANY parcel of land at which Israel may be located, and through all means necessary to bring this about...
JBI you have been asked many times to affirm that:
1) Palestinians have the universal right to self determination.
2) Palestinians have the right to live in peace and security along side their Israeli neighbor.
3) Palestinians have the *exact* same rights under international law (ie: human rights etc) as anyone else including Jews/Israelis.
Yet each time you utterly refuse to affirm these fundimental rights of the Palestinian People. Why is that....?
Right, Matty?
They did so.
The demand was almost immediately changed to a demand for a statement affirming the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish State.
Couple of questions. Did they just forget to include that bit for the years they were demanding the first statement and can you name any other instance of such a statement being asked for or made as a part of conflict resolution?
That said, I agree with your comment that "[t]here really is no legitimate reason that these two people cannot share this land."
Instead of proposing different manners of "resistance," why not try something truly different: negotiate for peace. It's the one thing guaranteed to work and the one thing they have not yet done.
In order to reach a lasting peace through negotiation, both sides would have to be willing to make the compromises necessary for such a peace to be just, because it will not last if it is unjust. Bibi is jumping through hoops to move 60 families from one illegal settlement to another illegal settlement, so to believe he would offer to remove hundreds of thousands of settlers is folly.
And before you critisize my use of "illegal," the Uplana settlement, and the military base to which the settlers are to be moved, are both illegal not just under international law, but also under Israeli law. The ISC has ruled that it is illegal to house settlers on military bases, which is the intended location for the settlers that have been ordered removed from private Palestinian land by the ISC.
When have the Palestinians EVER publicly indicated a willingness to compromise on ANY of their demands? And don't try to bring up the Palestine Papers as evidence of that willingness to compromise as both Abbas and Erekat deny ever having made any such offers. If they're not willing to make such offers formally and acknowledge them, they are worthless.
We all know what an equitable solution would be: land swaps of perhaps up to 6-7%, limited or symbolic ROR, and some manner of compensation. But when the PA can't even admit to considering such compromises (? for fear of their lives) and Hamas outright rejects ANY negotiated peace and continues to claim all of Israel for "Palestine," it's quite clear the Palestinian people themselves have not yet convinced themselves that it's time to make those compromises for peace. Unfortunately, they continue to deny reality: they have lost every war they've fought, the offers of land have gotten worse, not better, since 1947, and the ONLY way they'll get their state is by making those tough compromises.
yu can say that again!
palliwood…all over yutube, for the world to see.
this piece…clearly stating they 'train pal*s how to tell their *stories*'
their 'goals', to have pal*s break barriers @chekpoints.
they clearly state how idfSoldiers simply 'tried ot cuff' an instigator….
'from above…other pal*s started thrwng home made smoke bomms and *stoning soldiers
w/debris*…..the soldiers countered with 'stunt grinades…*which make a loud noise w/smoke*
ah…..the evel~idf…..using restraint against those bombarding them w/stones.
'The police, the protesters, the aid workers -- each knew their role and started packing up to go home once they knew their work was over.'
indeed, a new,beefed~up,improved p.a.l.l.y.w.o.o.d. designed for 'social media'.
Netanyahu also ruled out any return to talks as long as the unity deal between Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and rival political faction Hamas continues. Netanyahu again ruled out any return to the borders that existed before the 1967 war or dividing the city of Jerusalem. Palestinians demand East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
"Jerusalem must never again be divided. Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel," Netanyahu said.
He said the goal was to stop Israel from turning Jerusalem into a Jewish city.
Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, issued his 10th message to Egypt since taking over al-Qaida's leadership after founder Osama bin Laden was killed in an American raid in Pakistan last year.
His 47-minute audio recording was posted on jihadi websites.
"The continued crimes of the Zionists reveal the truth that these crimes could not have reached this level without taking Egypt out of the battlefield by the peace treaty signed by (late president Anwar) Sadat, the traitor," he said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120617/ml-al-qaida-egypt/