By Daoud Kuttab

The Palestinian town of Bethlehem found itself this week in the heart of high-powered Palestinian political discussions and debates. Residents of the city where Christianity began felt the change that included a five-day stay in town by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a visit of Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski (Nov. 5) and meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry (Nov. 6).

Security arrangements in Bethlehem were at their  highest level as Palestinian police forces were spread all over the city; certain sections of the city were completely out of reach for residents, and the Church of Nativity — where Christians believe Jesus was born — was a mix of regulating both the visit of ordinary tourists as well as political visitors.

Bethlehem has quickly jumped in terms of importance because of the rise in its tourism income. The city has built new hotels that offer rates much lower than those in nearby Jerusalem, thus attracting many tourists who are eating, shopping and for the first time staying overnight in the Palestinian town. Naturally, the bulk of tourism income is still clearly on the Israeli side, but the growth of the city’s hotel business is evident in the number of tourist buses that are seen crossing in and out of Bethlehem daily. Continue Reading »

Following appeared in Jordan Times

By Daoud Kuttab

Inhabitants of a Palestinian village were told in the late 1930s that the British High Commissioner for Palestine wanted to visit them.

As news of the cause for that request was made known, the Palestinian villagers found themselves divided. Some, mostly older people, were happy about the occasion; they felt that it would put their village on the political map and will most certainly result in improved services and, possibly, a few government jobs for people from the village.

Young people were opposed, saying that the commissioner was responsible for the open immigration policy that enabled Jewish Zionists to enter Palestine and, therefore, must be boycotted.

The division between young and old quickly morphed into a much deeper division that went beyond age. Different groups took one side or another for totally unrelated reasons. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

One of the problems of political negotiations without a clear reference point is that the parties, especially the stronger party, can change the rules of the game at will. And the absence of a neutral referee on the field allows such a strong party to get away with regularly moving the goal posts.

This is exactly what is happening in the Palestinian-Israeli talks. It began with the Israelis refusing to accept the principle of the 1967 borders and suspend settlement expansion as a reference point, and continued with Israeli negotiators banning US officials from entering the negotiation room.

Palestinians and Israelis have agreed to keep the talks going for nine months. For Israel, talks could go on for nine years as long as the talks masqueraded their continued occupation, but for Palestinians, this meant talking while Israel continued to take away Palestinian lands intended for the future Palestinian state.

The agreement by Israel to release pre-Oslo prisoners in four stages during the nine-month period sealed Israel’s assurance that Palestinian negotiators would not walk out of the talks for any reason whatsoever. Even though the prisoner release was a previous Israeli commitment in the 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Agreement, the Palestinian side also agreed not to pursue any further UN membership attempts during the nine-month negotiations period. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Throughout the ages, political leaders have used sports as a tool to unify a nation and to provide the people with a sense of nationalistic pride. The case of Palestine is no different.

Despite years of indifference by the Palestinian leadership, few Palestinians will disagree that sports received a huge boost when Jibril Rajoub took over as the head of the Palestinian football [soccer] federation and the Olympic committee. He has introduced and supported women’s sports and exposed Palestine to the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and Arab sports, as well as supervised the building of new stadiums. His efforts have succeeded in raising the profile of Palestinian athletics.

Rajoub was an honored guest on Oct. 31 at the 50th anniversary of the Beit Sahour Orthodox Club. His speech at the conclusion of the club’s festivities summarized his thinking, ideology and his practicality.

The Palestinian sports leader was elected along with jailed leader Marwan Barghouti and Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan at the sixth congress of Fatah to its highest body, the Central Committee. He mixed politics with sports to stress the importance of national athletics to the Palestinian resistance. He has repeated many times, including to the New York Times, that sports can achieve a lot for the Palestinian cause. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The possibility of the return of former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan to Palestine appears to have improved in recent months. Fatah sources told Al-Monitor that Palestinian Authority President and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has softened his stance toward the former member of Fatah’s Central Committee.

The sources, however, cautioned against early celebrations by Dahlan and his supporters, noting that Abbas will not automatically allow Dahlan to assume his former post. Fatah suspended Dahlan from the Central Committee in January 2010, severing all ties with him. He will only be allowed to return (and be guaranteed protection) as an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council from Gaza. He will still have to respond to official charges of corruption and murder in the West Bank before his status in Fatah is considered, the source told Al-Monitor. No time frame has been agreed upon, but it is related to ensuring that all details are accepted by both sides.

Dahlan responded to media reports about his reconciliation with Abbas with a 13-minute, high-quality video aimed generally at Palestinians and posted on YouTube on Oct. 28. It got more than 23,000 hits within the first two days. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

It seems like an old, scratchy record: Everyone seems to know what to do and what to say. It first started with disinformation followed by governmental maneuvering and ended with a government decision. Now all that everyone is waiting for is the expiration of the mandatory 48 hours.

The issue is the second group of Palestinian prisoners set to be released under an agreement reached on the eve of the Palestinian-Israeli talks. Palestinians agreed to suspend all attempts to join international organizations as a state in return for Israel releasing 104 prisoners held before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Just as in the previous round, the trouble began with a barrage of articles, protests and statements opposing the release of what Israeli media call “Palestinian terrorists.” The attacks were then followed by an attempt to suggest further Jewish settlement as a quid pro quo for the release of Palestinian prisoners. Furthermore, some Israeli radicals also suggested that released prisoners be deported rather than be allowed to go to their homes.

Palestinian leaders, who are aware that radical statements can quickly translate into policy, are trying to stop the problem in its infancy before some mainstream officials feel obliged by public pressure to respond. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The voter turnout rates tell the story. Israel held elections on Oct. 22 for all its cities and communities as well as for what Israel calls “united Jerusalem.” While the overall national voter turnout rate was 51%, the variation between Arab towns in Israel and Jerusalem were the largest. The largest Palestinian city in Israel, Nazareth, witnessed one of the highest percentages of participation, while east Jerusalem saw a near-total boycott.

Incumbent Nazareth Mayor Ramez Jariysi was re-elected with the thinnest of margins (a 500-vote difference), defeating his toughest challenger, Ali Salem. A third contender for the office of mayor, left-wing Knesset member Hanin Zoubi, was also unsuccessful. Participation was very high in Nazareth, topping 73% of qualified voters in the town where Jesus grew up.

Palestinians living in Israel have different views in their attitudes toward municipal elections versus Knesset parliamentary elections. Whereas some political purists refuse to participate in national elections because of their ideological opposition to Israel and its policies, almost all agree to participate in municipal elections because it is mostly local and service-oriented rather than political. Family and tribal issues and loyalties in addition to service-related topics often dominate local elections. Municipal elections in Israel often see a much higher voter turnout rate among Arab voters than Jewish Israelis. In the current elections, the average national participation rate was 51%, but the participation in Arab towns,  according to the arabs48 website, averaged 75%. In Nazareth, participation was 73%, in Shafamer 72%, in Sakhnin 87%, in Kufr Kanaa 83%, in Majdel Krum 82% and in Arabet al-Batouf 84%. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

It has been said that history is written by the victors. If that is the case, then the reporters guide to language use in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon to be released might reflect that there are no winners in this decades-old struggle. IPI will issue a press release on the booklet tomorrow, Oct. 23.

The reporters guide, Use with Care: A Reporter’s Glossary of Loaded Language in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, was produced by the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) and is the result of years of back-and-forth drafting by six unnamed Palestinian and Israeli journalists. The guidebook should be found in every newsroom in the world that deals with the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Some 150 terms are represented in the guide. Each term is listed in English, Arabic and Hebrew, along with a phonetic transcription of both the Hebrew and Arabic words in Latin characters. Alongside every term are two or three paragraphs explaning the meaning of the term, how it is used and why one side or the other might find it problematic. Finally, another column suggests alternative terms. Continue Reading »

This appeared in today’s Jordan Times.

Palestinians again boycott Jerusalem municipal polls

By Daoud Kuttab | Oct 23, 2013

Once again Palestinians living in Jerusalem have made a powerful political statement about the future of the holy city by staying away from the municipal polls. Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported that Palestinians avoided the elections of what Israelis call the united city of Jerusalem. “Less than 1 per cent of Palestinians in East Jerusalem voted in the Jerusalem municipal elections,” the daily said on its Ynet website.

The absence of participation in neighborhoods such as Sur Baher, Beit Hanina, Shufat, Issawia Abu Tur as well as the old city of Jerusalem is not new. Since the 1967 occupation of the city and its unilateral annexation, Palestinians have publicly opposed participation in the municipal elections, which combined West Jerusalem to that of East Jerusalem. Municipal elections in Israel include voting for both mayor and city council. Running for mayor were three Israeli right-wing, ultra-right-wing and religious candidates. City council elections include 31 seats and members are not elected by neighborhoods or location but based on political party slates. Usually one or two council members are elected from the left-wing Meretz Party, while the majority council is divided between Likud, Labor and religious parties. Usually no Arab parties or candidates run for the Jerusalem municipal elections. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The Mediterranean island of Malta has a colorful history in the region. Malta has been described as an open-air museum. Tourists visiting the island can retrace the footsteps of St. Paul or see where the Knights of St. John fought their most famous battles.

Many crusade missions to Palestine began on this island, and it has become famous for its Knights of Malta — the order calls itself the “Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem.” Today’s Jerusalem still has many traces of the Knights of Malta.

It was not surprising, then, to see Hanan Ashrawi visiting the island after the tragedy of the migrant boat that capsized near the island on Oct. 16, after being caught in high waves, and discovered by the US Navy. At least 128 migrants, including many Palestinians, were among those rescued. Malta’s prime minister stated that the Mediterranean Sea is quickly becoming a cemetery of migrants.

The choice of Ashrawi was no coincidence. Ashrawi, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee member, was chosen by the Palestinian leadership to visit Malta because of her connection to Jerusalem and her Christian faith. Continue Reading »