Amira and Sammeh:Saving History to Save Palestine

Amiral, whose name means , Princess was born in Palestine, in Al-Bireh, the twin city of Ramallah, in the house her parents built in 1950. She was politically active in high school, for which she was arrested and held in prinson several times. By the time she started college, Israel had banned her from traveling outside the country, but she attended Bir Ziet University, graduating in 1981 with a degree in economics. When the First Intifada broke out in 1987 she and her husband, Ahmad, were helping to coordinate the civil resistance. For this activism, her husband was deported in 1989 to Lebanon, and she was deported in 1990 to Jordan. It took a year and a half for them to reunite.
In 1994, after the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, Amal and Mohammed were among the first Palestinians to take advantage of the amnesty for deportees and return to their homeland. They knew that the Accords would not deliver peace and end the Israeli occupation, but they were hoping they could start an a-political life. But very shortly they could see that the situation was not Accordsgoing to improve. Already Gaza was isolated, Jerusalem was closed off, checkpoints were set up all over the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority was corrupt from the beginning, and was controlling the press. It felt like a big jail. They left for Australia in 1997, looking for freedom from restrictions for their children.
However, life in Australia was not satisfying, so the couple decided in 2001 to move to the U.S. where Amal had a sister. After a few years in the States, Amira began to make frequent trips back to Palestine because she really wants to live there. But her husband's application for a green card has been held up for 7 years because of accusations that he belongs to a terrorist organization - the very organization, Amira points out, that the U.S. is now negotiating peace with - the Palestine Liberation Organization. Currently, Amira is free to travel back and forth, speaking out for Palestine in both countries, while Ahmad must wait until his status is settled. Their three children are doing well, two in the States and one here. Her son is a computer engineer in California, one daughter is a podiatrist on the medical faculty at An-Najah University in Nablus, and one daughter is a senior at Ohio State Univesity, studying biology.
Because of her history as an activist, I wanted to hear Amira's opinions on various aspects of Palestinian politics. I asked about the popularity of the current regime in charge of Palestine. She explained that President Abbas' party, Fateh, employs 160,000 people which gives it a base of people who want to keep their jobs. However, many of them had been active in other political parties, and are not necessarily happy with Fatah's policies. A huge amount of money enters Palestine from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries through the so-called "Donors", but it does not reach the people. Development is practically non-existent. While the PA announced it is implementing an economic plan for the West Bank, it is mostly cosmetic: a movie theater opened in Nablus, some public places have been beautified, and there is a new Palestine Satelite Network to show to the business world.
As Amira sees it, this economic plan is designed to make people forget about the occupation. All the while, the education and health systems are deteriorating and public discontent is rising. People see President Abbas (Abu Mazin) collaborating with the Israelis, and it is not acceptable. She thinks a third Intifada is coming, first against the PA and then against the occupation, and it will not be pretty. "I can't imagine what a third intifada will look like." She sees no leadership on the national level that could bring order out of chaos. Will the popular committees play a role in the uprising? Yes, but it is not possible to know how strong they will be by then.
Meanwhile, it seems like Abu Mazin will not be long in power. Already his term in office has expired, and he has no power to strike a deal in the peace negotiations. When the talks fail, so will he, and Israel and the U.S. will need to prepare someone else to take over the puppetry. Could Marwan Bargouthi be released from Israeli prisons and become the next President, selling himself like Abu Mazin is now doing? (This assumes that Israel and the U.S. will have to approve of the next president of the PA and will chose someone whom they think will do their bidding.) Amira knows Marwan from their joint time in exile, and she does not think he can make a difference. Besides, there are several others vying for the job of President. For example Jibril Rjoupe, now head of the powerful Palestinian Soccer League and popular with the U.S. And Mohammed Dahlan, who was charged by Hamas with complicity in overthowing their newly elected government in 2006 and with collaborating with Israel for the attack on Gaza in 2008-09.
At present, Amira's energies are devoted to the foundation she just created, the Sheik Husan Foundation for Culture and Science. She has named it for Sheik Hasan Al-Labadi, a little known patriot who spent 44 years in solitary confinement in British and Israeli prisons after receiving a life sentence for killing a British officer in 1939. Before he was imprisoned, he was a respected imam and a teacher in several Palestinian villages. By honoring him, the Foundation fulfills part of its mission - "to preserve Palestine's cultural and historical heritage from theft and distortion by the Zionist colonial entity." The Foundation will promote sustainable development in Palestine by "intensive investment in education, health, and agricultural and industrial cooperatives."
Amiral is working on a Palestinian Memory Museum for which the Foundation will engage in extensive research into the displacement of Palestinians during the '48 war and before that under the British Mandate. She explains that in 1938 there were 50,000 Palestinian prisoners in administrative detention (without charges) in British prisons, 2,000 received life sentences and 148 were executed. What is the story behind this and Britain's collaboration with the Zionist terrorist groups that were fighting to take over British controlled Palestinian lands? The Foundation will explore this history with an eye toward prosecuting prior and current Zionist governmets for war crimes.
The Foundation will also strive to provide scholarships and support services to families of political prisoners and martyrs and create student exchange programs that will encourage Palestinian students to maintain their cultural identity and foreign students to increase their understanding of the Palestinian reality.
SAMMEH HAMMOUDEH
Doris and I had been invited to Sunday dinner with Sammeh and his wife, Nadia. When Sammeh learned we were staying with Amira, he invited her to come too, as they already knew each other through their common interests. For me and Doris this was our third annual visit with Sammeh and his family. Doris knew him when he was a co-defendant of Dr. Sami al-Arian of Florida, who has been unjustly held in the custody of the American judicial system for the last 7 years. That is a story in itself, but not the one for today.
Sammeh teaches political science at Bir Ziet University and has just finished writing his second book. He and his wife have six healthy children. His oldest, a daughter whom I met two years ago, is just starting a PhD. program in public health at Brown University in Rhode Island. His second daughter, on full scholarship, is getting her masters in human resources in London. Hanan, daughter number three is in her last year at American University in Lebanon, majoring in international relations. The younger three children were born in the United States while Sammeh was studying for his PhD at the University of Southern Florida. He was months away from getting his degree when he was arrested along with Dr.Al-Arian. The three citizen-children were deported by the U.S. government along with their parents, even though Sammeh was exonorated of all charges against him.
Sammeh's wife, Nadia, teaches elementary age children, in English, at a private school for Palestinian kids who were born abroad and whose parents want them educated in Palestine.
Our conversation turned to analyzing what is happening in today's Middle East. "Israel is doing anything it wants to do," said Sammeh, "because of the weakness of the Arab and international communities. Its supporters are embarrassed because they can't defend what Israel is doing. The Turks, on the other hand are smart; they have good relations with everyone in the area. The U.S. is not dominating the scene as before and is losing power because of the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and its economic policies at home. It has created enemies; other countries are boycotting American goods and currency."
Will there be another intifada? Sammeh doesn't think so. "We didn't get anything from the first two." Coming soon will be another war between Israel and Lebanon due to the rise of Hezbollah and Israel's inability to accept its defeat in previous conflicts with Lebanon. Neither Israel nor the U.S. will attack Iran because Iran's Shia population is allied with Iraq's Shia, and any attack on Iran would ignite extreme violence within Iraq.
Like Amira, Sammeh is interested in promoting the histories of Palestinians who have struggled to protect Palestine. The book he just finnished is about Daoud Houseni, born in 1903, and a leader who fought all his life against occupiers of Palestine. I asked Sammeh what drew him to write about this particular man. He answered that he has always been drawn to the history of Palestinians under the British Mandate (1921-1949), thought this man should be known, but research on this period is difficult because the only records are family papers. Britian did not keep statistics or records on the local population that they controlled. He heard about and contacted Houseni's daughter (who happens to be my new friend Dyala Dajani), and she handed him reams of detailed journals kept by her father, thus providing him with most of the documentation he needed for his research.
Amira and Sammeh are themselves invaluable resources for my understanding of what is happening in Palestine, in the whole Middle East, and in the world. On the one hand, the story is complex and puzzling. On the other hand, it is very simple. Israel is illegally occupying what is left of historic Palestine, and is oppressing the people who live there. A just peace must see the end to this occupation, however long that takes. People like Amira and Sammeh are part of the resistance, keeping Palestine alive by capturing and teaching the rich legacy of Palestinian culture and resistance.