By Daoud Kuttab

There is an Arab saying about depriving people of options. It says: “Don’t break a full loaf of bread and don’t eat from a broken loaf but feel free to eat as much as you want.”

This is the international community’s response to Palestinian efforts to end the unjust 47-year-old Israeli occupation.

When Palestinians use armed resistance, which is legal by international law, they are called terrorists and asked to refrain from acts that endanger the lives of Israelis whose offensive actions against the people of Gaza are “legitimate” defense.

When Palestinians try popular national resistance, their actions are called provocative and their leaders are oppressed.

Israel deported (non-violent leader Mubarak Awad) and possibly caused the death of minister Ziad Abu Ein by using excessive force against demonstrators.

Palestinians tried negotiations despite a statement by the former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir that Israel will drag talks for 10 years without results. The talks have dragged for 20 years without results.

An attempt to use the Security Council route was opened and then quickly shut. The attempt to put an end date to the occupation was not acceptable by Western countries despite the overwhelming support of their populations.

France tried to water down the Palestinian version of proposal without providing assurances that the US will indeed support it. And in the end, the US bullied Nigeriato abstain from voting, and therefore did not even need to use its threats to veto the said resolution. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

One of the most exasperating problems facing Palestinian efforts to end the Israeli occupation has been conveying to the world the daily suffering that they endure under it. The difficulty of the effort continues, as the Palestinians struggle to find an effective strategy internally or through the world’s leading forum, the UN Security Council, to lift the occupation.

To bring this issue to light, there is a need to look at the micro picture, not just the big picture. A painstaking observance of daily events in the occupied territories gives a contextual picture of why ending the occupation is the No. 1 priority of Palestinians. Here is a list of news items from Dec. 28 as reported by the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA:

• Three injured as Israeli soldiers suppress peaceful protest in Beit Hanoun, north Gaza

• Israeli soldiers raid Hebron school in search of two students

• Israeli settler runs over 8-year-old near Hebron

• Israeli bulldozers raze wheat crops near Nablus

Continue Reading »