For many years I used to look forward to the arrival of the Jewish
Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. It was one of the few days of the
year when I would get a chance to imagine what it would be like to
live in a liberated area. The drive to my office in Jerusalem would
be relatively easy, and East Jerusalem would be quiet as no
Israelis were to be found anywhere.
This year when Yom Kippur rolled around, the situation was much
different. Two tiny events happened which made me feel I was
discriminated against for being a Palestinian. More than shootings
and economic strangulation, these events made me feel the
Occupation and Palestinian dependence on Israel.
To get to work in Jerusalem, I have to go through a checkpoint at
the Ram intersection. This has been a troublesome spot where at
least one Palestinian was killed. This checkpoint has been the
cause of much anger and frustration. After many complaints the
Israeli army and police have relaxed the restrictions, mainly by
creating four lanes so as to ease traffic jams. Most people think
that the Israeli army made the change because the delays were
causing Israeli settlers to be held up. So in a way, Palestinians
gained by the need of settlers to get to their work quickly.
Well, on Yom Kippur there were no settlers on the road, the traffic
was easier and the four lanes were suddenly reduced to one. What
would normally take five to ten minutes to get through, on this Yom
Kippur took more than half an hour. What was more upsetting was the
way Israeli soldiers were checking Palestinians. They were taking
their time, checking one or two cars and then resting for a while,
checking and waiting, and so on. There was absolutely no doubt in
my mind, or in the mind of all of us waiting, that our delay was
not for any security reason. We were delayed because the Israeli
soldiers didn't much care whether we Palestinians got our children
to school on time, or whether we were able to get to work on time.
The attitude represented not only the arrogance of the soldiers,
but the racism of a country that considers Palestinians a much
lower category of human beings.
Shutting Down a Symbol
The second event on Yom Kippur was just as telling. The Israelis
cut off the Voice of Palestine radio station. The new Palestine
station, which broadcasts out of a studio in Jericho, sends its
signals via a fiber-optic line to a transmitter in Ramallah. The
transmitter is inside a military base and, therefore, the
Palestinian station which was expected to be one of the symbols of
Palestinian independence is physically within the control of the
Israeli army. And since Yom Kippur is a holy Jewish day, and radio
and television are off the air in Israel, the Israeli army decided
that there was no reason for the Palestinian station to be
operating on this day, so the plug was simply pulled out from
sundown to sundown the following day in accordance with Jewish
tradition.
Gaza: Clean-up and Freedom
I visited Gaza at the end of September. I was impressed. The
streets of Gaza City are starting to be cleaned up; walls are being
whitewashed and the atmosphere is very relaxed. During a three-day
stay in Gaza, I spent every night at the beach till past midnight,
enjoying beautiful weather and a calm and restful ambience. Women
who would not dare walk around with their heads uncovered during
the Intifada were walking without head-cover and without fear or
concern.
However, the changes that are going on in Gaza so far are mainly
cosmetic. There is no sign yet of a campaign to educate the public
or to make laws that will ensure the permanence of the clean-up
effort once the cleaners' immediate work is done. The public has
yet to participate on a large scale in these clean-up activities.
It is also interesting that the clean-up has so far been
concentrated on the main roads in Gaza City as well as the
beachfront area. Again, no attempt has been made to reach out to
the camps and the rest of the Gaza Strip.
In general, what is worrisome in Gaza is the fact that little has
been done to create a proper legal structure. Prisoners are still
being held without charge, and it is still unclear under which laws
the arrests are being made. The incidents surrounding Wachsman's
kidnapping are a case in point. Hundreds were held as a result of
the political pressure that came from the Israelis. The entire
staff of Reuters News Agency in Gaza was jailed. The crime -
Reuters reporting and distributing the tape of the kidnapped
soldier. Taher Shreiteh, who received international awards for his
professionalism and bravery during the years of Israeli occupation,
found himself in jail held by Palestinian officers. Taher was held
without an arrest warrant and was freed without a release form. He
was kept in an office and had to sleep at a desk rather than in a
proper bed.
The clean-up of Gaza from the dirt that has built up over the years
of Israeli occupation is not enough. It is to be hoped that the
Palestinian authorities will come out clean on issues of principle
such as the freedom of the press and other personal freedoms and
rights. The clean-up campaign would be nothing more than a
superficial job without such clear guarantees for people's
freedoms.
