Mar
19
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
The killing of Raed Zeiter, a Palestinian-Jordanian judge, at the entry to the Israeli-controlled side of the King Hussein Bridge on March 10 has resulted in an explosion of anger in the Hashemite kingdom. Protests and marches took place late that night near the Israeli Embassy in Amman. The following day, a vigil at Amman’s Justice Palace saw thousands of lawyers and judges unite in denouncing the killing. Students also protested at various universities, but perhaps the strongest voices were raised at the March 11 afternoon session of the Jordanian parliament, where legislators demanded in unison that the government expel the Israeli ambassador and recall Jordan’s envoy to Tel Aviv. Many even went so far as to call for scrapping the Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement. Others sought clemency for Ahmad Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier who killed seven Israeli girls on the Jordan’s side of the northern crossing point in March 1997 and has served more than half of his 25-year sentence.
The killing took place just two weeks after Amnesty International produced a report detailing how “trigger-happy” Israeli soldiers often abuse their firepower. The shooting of Judge Zeiter very much fits the profile of the way well-armed Israeli soldiers conduct themselves, likely due to the impunity provided by the Israeli establishment. The study found that in most cases, Israeli soldiers are not held accountable for premeditated killings. Amnesty judged these premeditated wanton killings — in which the soldiers’ lives are not in danger — to be war crimes.
Continue Reading »
Mar
19
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
A Palestinian college in Bethlehem will host a weeklong conference aimed at weakening the traditional evangelical support to Israel, despite strong Israeli pressures.
The third Christ at the Checkpoint Conference at the Bethlehem Bible College is expected to host the “widest and most diverse†group of evangelical Christians, according to conference organizers. The conference scheduled to commence on March 10 will feature well-known evangelical speakers from around the world as well as Palestinian Christian theologians and activists. Speakers include Geoff Tunnicliffe, secretary-general of the World Evangelical Alliance, and Joseph Cumming, who previously served as the director of the Yale University Divinity School’s Reconciliation Program.
Messianic Jewish leaders Evan Thomas and Daniel Juster will be present, along with Holy Land Trust Director Sami Awad and Bethlehem Bible College President Jack Sara.
Participants will hear leading world evangelicals critique traditional pro-Israeli Christian theology, interact with fellow Palestinian Christians and take note of the suffering that Israel and its occupation is causing for Palestinians. Continue Reading »
Mar
13
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
For 46 years the bridge connecting the West Bank with Jordan has been a source of hardships, humiliations and extremely long and unnecessary delays, not to mention cumbersome and exaggerated body and baggage searches. This nightmare has to end.
What happened on Monday morning March 10th is a symptom of the occupation versus occupied paradigm that must come to an end. A 38-year-old Jordanian father of two and a sitting judge in Amman’s Court of First Instance, attempted to travel to Nablus like many Palestinians and Jordanians of Palestinian origin. His altercation with Israeli soldiers that ended with his death must be a warning flag that this injustice and humiliation cannot continue.
Anyone who crosses the King Hussein Bridge knows very well how the Israelis have for decades forged a shameful occupier-occupied relationship with the power of their guns. The Oscar-winning film Twelve Years a Slave, perfectly illustrates the way that the oppressed absorb all kinds of humiliation simply in order to survive as they wait for salvation.
Raed Zuaiter, the Jordanian judge, like any other human being, apparently walked into this mess without the added shield of years of humiliation and he couldn’t accept it. For their part, the Israeli soldiers, brainwashed to suspect every passenger as a potential “terrorist”, viewed the rebellion against accepting the occupier-occupied paradigm as enough proof that the rebellious person must be a terrorist. As they say, the rest is history.
The Israeli spin machine quickly went into action. The oft-repeated defense was that Zuaiter went for the soldier’s gun. Later it was adjusted that he went for his throat, attempting to strangle him. The “terrorist” label also required some audio. So again the spin machine fabricated that the judge yelled Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar before lunging for the soldier’s gun (or throat), thus confirming that he was a terrorist. Continue Reading »
Mar
09
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences met for the 86th Oscars, Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir hosted an all-night party in Amman, hoping Hany Abu-Assad’s “Omar” would win the trophy for best foreign film. “We are burning the midnight candle and crossing our fingers,†she told Al-Monitor before the results were known in the very early hours of March 3. Jacir’s late-night party echoed a similar party she held eight years ago in Ramallah when another Abu-Assad film, “Paradise Now,” was also up for an Oscar.
“Omar” did not win the award, which went to the Italian film “The Great Beauty.” Jacir, whose latest film “When I Saw You†has been well-received around the world, insists that “the fact that Hany made it this far and that Palestine was represented despite attempts to keep Palestinian voices out of the mainstream is a major achievement.â€
Saed Andoni of Dar Films wasn’t surprised that “Omar” did not win an Oscar. Speaking to Al-Monitor from his studio in Ramallah before the results were known, Andoni predicted that the Palestinian film would not make it. “These prizes are political,†he argued, stressing that being nominated is an “important win for Palestinian cinema that has been forcing itself on all festivals.†Andoni, who’s in the final phase of producing “The Wanted 18,” a co-production with France and Canada to be released in June, highlighted the economic side of the cinema business. “The importance of ‘Omar’ is that it was produced almost exclusively by private Palestinian funding.†Continue Reading »
Mar
04
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
The possibility that Palestine will soon have an access-to-information law is looking promising. Concrete steps by the Palestinian government and a public advocacy campaign are being taken to prepare for such a decision.
Despite the Palestinian Legislative Council being dormant for seven years due to the internal Palestinian split, Ramallah is poised to pass a much improved access-to-information law, a draft of which has recently been circulating in public forums.
The 41-article draft law has received a positive evaluation from the international nongovernmental organization Article 19. The NGO welcomed the draft law and said it has many “positive features,†while suggesting a few changes to bring it into full compliance with international standards and best practices.
Before the council’s suspension, a draft access-to-information law was made available for discussion. But political paralysis put the law on hold until it was recently revived by Palestinian media activists.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has taken upon itself the responsibility of fighting to improve the draft law and advocating for its approval. In 2012, MADA organized a public campaign that attempted to bring together civil society activists, parliamentarians, access-to-information experts, journalists and Palestinian government officials. Continue Reading »
Mar
02
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
The stage appears set, if the Palestinian leadership chooses, to reconcile the Gaza Strip with the West Bank and end the unjust siege that has fallen on Gaza for the past seven years.
Palestinian-Israeli peace talks scheduled over a period of nine months are due to end in April. Palestinians had agreed in late July 2013 to talks in return for Israel implementing a previous agreement to release 104 prisoners held in Israeli jails before the Oslo Accord. At the same time, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to postpone any movements to join international agencies, such as the International Criminal Court, during the period of negotiations.
Both Israel and the United States are keen to extend the talks that have yet to bear any fruit. US Secretary of State John Kerry made this US position crystal clear when he publicly called for an extension of the talks for another nine months. Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat immediately responded by refusing any extension of the talks.
Israel has been regularly leaking stories to the media indicating its desire for an extension of the talks. The Israelis and even Kerry are concerned that the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) would get a huge boost if the talks ended without result. US universities are in the midst of a week-long anti-Israeli campaign under the title Israel’s Apartheid Week. Continue Reading »
Feb
27
2014
Following appeared in the Jordan Times
By Daoud Kuttab
Community media received a major boost in Jordan this week with the launch of the third Aswatona conference at the Dead Sea.
More than 100 community radio activists gathered at the lowest spot on Earth to talk about the challenges of producing, broadcasting and sustaining community owned media, especially radio.
Community radio activists from areas not under the control of the Syrian regime were the stars of the event organised by a local Jordanian NGO, Community Media Network, and the UK-based Community Media Solutions in association with Jordan’s Audio Visual Commission and the World Association of Community Broadcasters.
Broadcasting radio in the Middle East and North Africa is a huge challenge. The post-colonial region witnessed many revolts and military coups that always included taking over national radio.
New powers were careful not to allow others to own radio stations so as not to have them do what they did when they took power. Continue Reading »
Feb
27
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
In a powerful and comprehensive report, the global human rights organization Amnesty International has sharply criticized Israeli soldiers for their reckless use of force in putting down nonthreatening Palestinian demonstrations. The report calls on Israel to stop using lethal force against Palestinian demonstrators and rescind military orders that reject Palestinian rights to freedom of expression and assembly. It also called on the Palestinian Authority and the PLO to “sign and ratify, without reservations, international human rights treaties including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.â€
Publishing a damning report on Israel at a time when the world is busy with Syria and Ukraine will no doubt help shift attention back to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It also adds a powerful element to the political discussion, namely the need for Western powers to stop selling weapons to Israel because of its flagrant violation of human rights and its war crimes that have been taking place undetected. The fact that a major international organization like Amnesty International is supporting the weapons boycott of Israel is a major political breakthrough.
The 87-page research report, citing UN figures, titled “Trigger-Happy, Israel’s Use of Excessive Force in the West Bank,” reveals the Israeli military’s disregard for Palestinian human life. It includes field investigations of 22 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank killed by Israeli soldiers in 2013. A further 261 Palestinians, among them 67 children, were injured by live ammunition in the period 2011-13. The number of killings and injuries in 2013 were a sharp increase of previous years. Most of the cases documented involved young people below the age of 25, and included four children. Continue Reading »
Feb
27
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
The current Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, planned to last nine months, have one month left to produce a peace treaty. Palestinian officials are on record as refusing to extend the talks, while the Israelis are sending clear messages that they want the talks to be extended. In a statement made to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, the presidential spokesman outlined two issues that the Palestinians have a problem with.
“We will not accept a Palestinian state without East Jerusalem as its capital. We will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” Nabil Abu Rdeineh, the official spokesperson of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted as saying.
While Abu Rdeineh highlighted these two hot button issues, a more serious discussion is going on behind the scenes about the issue of land swaps. Ever since the Camp David II summit, while Palestinians have consistently called for the 1967 borders to be the perimeter of their state, Abbas and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat both publicly and privately have accepted the idea of land swaps. Continue Reading »
Feb
24
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his team seem to have a very clear idea of what they want in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. But the general public seems lost trying to figure out exactly what he is after.
A close and thorough analysis of publicly available information, plus knowledge of the area and the political maneuverability of the main players, leads to a deceptively simple conclusion. Kerry and peace envoy Martin Indyk are clearly not after an agreement that will end the conflict once and for all. This was the goal demanded by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during the Clinton-led Camp David II effort, which ended in failure.
At the same time, it is clear that neither the Americans nor the Israelis want to repeat Israel’s unilateral military actions in South Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, moves that were rejected by the other side, lacked international backing and failed to provide peace or quiet. Instead, it appears that the US team is after something less than a contract to end the conflict: a set of actions that both sides privately agree to and will not derail.
The idea of a unilateral agreement sounds contradictory. But if one can be reached, it would ease points of tension in the occupied territories, lessen the space that Israel commits not to further settle and slowly prepare the public for a much later deal. Continue Reading »
