Saturday, December 17, 2011

Wi'am Center for Palestinian Conflict Resolution


Wi'am's playground is in foreground.
 
Usama

     The name Wi'am means "harmony" or "agreement" and is what this NGO is all about, even while it embraces the struggle for Palestinian freedom from occupation. It has a lovely playgrund nestled beside the Apartheid Wall -- a scene which is a good metaphor for the work of the organization. Wi'am did not chose to put the playground and its offices next to the ugly wall , but Israel errected the wall and Wi'am did not budge. We were greeted by Usama Nicola, who gave us an hour of his time even though we did not have an appointment.  But first he offered us a tiny cup of Arabic coffee.
     The Wi'am brochure says, "The more cups (of coffee) we drink, the more conflicts we solve!" The Arabic traditiion is for both sides to share a cup of coffee once they have reached agreement through mediation.
     Like a lot of other NGOs, this one started in 1994 as soon as the Oslo Agreement was signed and almost everyone thought that peace was at hand and they should prepare themselves for running a democratic, independent country. Workshops and trainings sprang up all over Palestine to teach civic education, the value of elections, and sustainable development. At the same time as people needed training in non-violent means of solving problems, they had alot of basic needs from years of deprivation under Israeli occupation.  Wi'am tried to meet those needs in this Bethlehem community near two refugee camps, Aida and Azza.
      Programs are offered to help traumatized children, programs to empower women through income-producing activities, programs to address domestic violence, environmental degradation, youth delinquency and drug abuse. "Our society is living in a constant state of uncertainty with always a risk of potential violence," states the brochure. "We are living in a pressure cooker situation. It is in this context we provide our services."
     Training for trainers in many models of conflict resolution, mediation and non-violent resistance fills the rest of the center's agenda. It is a two year training for college graduates and includes mediation, conflict resolution, restorative justice and civil society education. The importance given to the training comes from a spiritual committment to the belief that every human is an image of God, and that one must use the tools of justice (nonviolence) to fight injustice.
     As we were talking, Usama got a phone call with the news that Israel had just confiscaated 150 dunams (about 40 acres) from two families in the greater Bethlehem area to give to the abutting Daniel settlement. His own grandfather had owned land in that area, but it was taken 10 years ago.
     Wi'am identifies itself as a Christian organization, yet serves a largely Muslim community. (I was interested to learn that it is a member of the International Fellowship of  Reconciliation.)  International volunteers help Wi'am, but if they tell the Israeli "passport control" officials in the airport that the reason for their visit is to help a Palestinian organization, they will either get deported or be given only a 10 day visa.
      So we ask Usama about the current situation and how people are coping? Usama says that his people are tired and can only focus on feeding themselves. Things keep happening that destroy their hope. For example, there was an opportunity for unity between the two main parties, Hamas and Fatah, in 2006, " but nothing happened." (The lack of unity within Palestine is a big disappointment to everyone I met.)
     Usama continued: Even Israel is divided, and needs a common enemy to keep it together. Thirty percent of settlers are ultra-religious and don't care about the state of Israel; they don't work, pay no taxes and don't serve in the army. Another bunch are apathetic "economic" settlers who have subsidized housing and services and do their shopping in West Bank stores that have cheaper prices than in Israel. Then there are the new immigrant settlers from India, Ethiopia, Russia, etc., many of whom are not even Jewish but say they are in order to benefit from jobs, free education and all the privileges that accrue from serving in the army. There is not much that unites the settlers to each other or to the rest of Israeli society except fear.
     I ask about the Arab Spring. Usama says it is an important change but won't help Palestine because all the Arab countries in revolt are wrapped up in their own situations and not paying attention to Palestine. And the Arab world is fragmented. He thinks the protestors won't win in the end because only 30% want change, while 70% are afraid of change. The Islamists will win. The next 10-15 years will be theirs, backed by the West. So Usama and many others here refer to the popular uprisings as the "Arab Winter."

     Wi'am makes a positive contribution to its immediate community and to Palestinian civil society which it guides in the direction of nonviolent resistance. In the shadow of the Bethlehem checkpoint and Aparthed Wall, it is yet another symbol of "sumud" - steadfastness.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Racism is in the Mind, Not in the Heart


     Sammeh Hammoudeh’s optimism is infections because he comes from his heart, and you can't argue with the heart. He says, in the context of our conversation about religions and how he reacts to what Israel is doing to Palestinians, "If you live from your heart, there is nothing between you and God, and then you have no anxieties or fear." His warm smile fills the room, and I believe that he walks his talk.
     Sammeh was encarcerated in a U.S. prison for two and a half years before being exhonerated of all charges of supporting terrorist organizations. Then, disregarding his innocence, the court ordered him deported. He was handed over to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and put in jail for the maximum time allowed for someone awaiting deportation. The good news was that he was returned to his native Palestine The bad news was that he was kept from finishing the last three months of his PHD. studies at the University of Southern Florida.
     He might have cause to be bitter. Instead, he puts his personal experience in the context of the ebb and flow of world events, adds a large dose of spirituality, and shares his wisdom with his wife, six children, his university students, and us. Sammeh now teaches Political Science at Beir Zeit University.
I was anxious to hear Sammeh's opinions and analysis of the Arab Spring and its effects here in Palestine. Here is what I gleaned from our conversation over a traditional Palestinian dinner, coffee and tea.
     "The Arab Spring is an introduction to change." Israel must now be more careful. It cannot do whatever it wants because its actions are bringing reactions in the Arab countries that surround it. The recent prisoner "swap" (one Israeli for 900 Palestinians) was a result of pressure from Egypt. Jordan is having weekly demonstrations outside the Israeli embassy in Amman. Syria is holding out, but is targeted by the West for its support of Hezbollah, Hamas and alliance with Iran. But the main thing is the people are learning that they can DO something. And the politicians are learning that they CANNOT do whatever they want. An additional bonus is that the Arab Spring has changed American attitudes towards Arabs. (I recalled the posters in Wisconsin saying "This is Our Tahir Square.")
     As for one state or two states, Israel made sure that two states would fail, because they didn't want an independent Palestinian state alongside it. Yet Israel's racism makes one state impossible also. Zionists have acted with a "kind of stupidity" by putting their state in the middle of the Arab world and simultaneously rejecting all things Arab. "They think that power can get them everything....But look what happened to Egypt." Israel is fighting a losing war with its Arab neighbors.
     The answer lies in Israel realizing that it will not have security as a racist state and must change its attitude to respecting and cooperating with Arabs. This change of heart will bring peace to the Middle East. In fact securiy never comes from military power, but only from accepting other cultures. Such openness will eventually eliminate racism. "Racism is not natural; it is in the mind, not in the heart."
     We asked about Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas has the position that Israel is not a legitimate state, and this land is Palestine and cannot be given to anyone. Thus, they would like to dismantle Israel, but not by killing the Jews. Their position wll not change and will not allow Hamas to "negotiate" with Israel. Sammeh sees Muslim Brotherhood through the lens of the charitable work they do on the ground, and notes that they are not as extremist as the Wahabi sect of Islam that won 20% of the elections in Egypt. He does not think the Brotherhood is allied with the U.S. in any way (which would ruin its reputation), whereas the PA and Israel are controlled by the U.S..
     Sammeh admits that he is an optimist: "Change will come to Palestine soon - in the next ten years." How does he think this? Well, he notes, changes have been happeninng in the whole world, from attitudes towards the rights of women to having global connections that can bring down dictators and strengthen the voice of the people. While I have my own doubts, I appreciate this voice from a well-informed Palestinian intellectual.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

SHEIK JARRAH, WHERE YOU CAN LOSE YOUR HOME OVERNIGHT

Qavi and others gather before the protest march
     Going back to Sheik Jarrah is always upsetting. Something about seeing with my own eyes that people are getting thrown out of their homes into the street while settlers move into the home, discard the furniture and personal belongings - everything from toys to photographs to beds and dishes - like so much garbage, put up Israeli flags and even a giant menorah on the Gowi home, and then come and go from the home as if it was really theirs -- it is unnerving. It has happened to three families so far, and at least two others have settlers living in parts of their houses or yards, while 23 more families are threated with a similar fate. Note that this threat can be carried out at any moment, starting with a knock on the door at 2:00 A.M.When I told him I had seen him back then, he informed me that since then he has been arrested 89 times for defending his right to live in his own home. 




 
Farhaat home -settler guard hut to the right
 
 
 Gowi home with menorah added by settlers
 I went with Doris to the weekly protest which is made up of many anti-occupation Israelis, some internationals, and a handful of stalwart Palestinians. We gathered across the intersection that leads into the Sheik Jarrah neighborood of middle class famllies. There I went over to a man holding a banner in English which said, "Repair the world, keep hope alive," and started a conversation. I thought he might be Palestinian and could tell me what the plan for today's demonstration was. Turned out he was an Englishman of Indian descent, born in New Delhi, and had come to Palestine several times but never to this particular demonstration. As the procession was about to begin, we continued talking as we walked.     
     Soon I was helping Qavi who was wrestling with the wind in his banner by carrying his folding cane/seat. I was able to explain which homes we passed were the ones settlers had occupied until we reached one I didn't know anything about. No one else I asked knew either. Finally I had a chance to ask the protest leader, who explained that this family's situation has not been as well publicized as it should be due to lack of coordination among supporters. It is the Farhaat family home of 30 people who still live, there though the outisde of the house is "decorated" with little Israeli flags, and adjoined by a sort of guard station with a settler inside it.


Nasser Gowi  addressing the crowd


     The protest leader is Nasser Gowi, head of the 37 member family that was thrown onto the streets back in August, 2009. I had seen him along with other adults and children of all ages camped out on the sidewalk across from his home in the Fall of 2009. When cold weather demanded it, they rented an apartment in another neighborhood but come back every week to haunt the setttlers

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Hebron --Reclaiming Itsef from the Inside Out


Walid with promotional poster
     Although I have talked about criticisms of NGOs that receive foreign funding and pay inflated salaries that lull people to sleep, there is an NGO in the Palestinian city of Hebron with a budget of $2 Million that is working miracles. It is the Hebron Rehabilitation Committe (HRC). Because its director of PR, Walid Abu-Alhalaweh, is a friend of George's, we got a last minute appointment with him two days ago. His office is in a beautiful old building, typical of the kind they are rennovating throughout Hebron's Old City.
     Though greater Hebron boasts 600,000 inhabitants, its Old City had been practically abandoned by its residents when violent settlers moved into it under the protection of Israel's army. To push back against this devasting loss, HRC has in the last 15 years of operation rennovated 900 apartments and brought back 5,000 Palestinians to re-inhabit them. They have been joined in this task by Architects Without Borders, the governments of Sweden, Spain and other EU countries, Saudia Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, and other Arab and Western funders.
     Walid had just come out of a staff meeting where they were developing plans for the next 2 years. They will turn their focus from homes to businesses. They will offer to rennovate any Old City business that agrees to keep its doors open, and combine this effort with a campaign to change the city's image to "A Beautiful Hebron," and work on bringing the tourists that will support the businesses.
     It would seem grandiiose were it not for this organization's track record and its absolute dedication to working WITH and serving the community. People are constantly streaming in and out of the Center's offices seeking technical, legal and social help. I think it is this concern for the well-being of the entire community that has made HRC so successful.
     Furthermore, this Center does not let foreign funding cloud the reality of the occupation, which starkly manifests in the presence of 600 fanatical Israeli settlers in the middle of the Old City. Over 500 Palesitinian shops have been closed by miitary order so that settlers may circulate freely in the area they have chosen as their own. As stated in HRC's brochure, one of their objectives is, "to contain and encircle Jewish settlements inside the Old City, by erecting rings of buldings around them in order to stop their horiontal expansion and prevent their urban interconnection by increasing the Palestinian population density between them."
      In past years I knew Hebron as the city were Israeli settler children were throwing stones at Palestinian children on their way to school, and every Palestinian home had elaborate screening and gates over their windows to protect against settlers' regular attempts to break them. According to Walid, there is less of that now -- less tension -- but instead a kind of staqnation, as Palestinians have grown used to settler presence. To brighten their lives and inject some new energy, HRC has painted many doors and window frames a shade of purple that seems to reflect the sun and offsets the red geraniums in people's flower pots. (Forgive the absence of a photo showing this!)
      Another innovation is that local families are encouraged to receive foreign guests for overnight stays, creating a network of B & B's. Walid was working on a list of vocabulary to help hosts and guests navigate the language gap: towel, toilet paper, water, salt, lights, etc. Other families receive significant financial support: free water and electricity, free health care and free rent. Schools and a health clinic haave been added to serve the growing population. The HRC brochure exsplains:

"Breathing life back into the Old City neighborhoods takes more than the mere restoration and preservation of old buildings: it requires caring for the people who dwell there by creating a host of facilities and public services inside the Old City, including a social guidance center and a project to revive the old 'souq' itself."

     Needless to say, the rennovation work and efforts to promote cultural heritage requires skilled labor and craftspeople, so HRC now has a training academy which empowers 17-25 year old men and women by preparing them for real jobs.

     Before I left Hebron, I stopped at one of the famous glass factories to buy some gifts. I hope some of my readers will consider coming to Hebron to spend a night in the Old City, to shop for crafts and to help the city fulfill its dreams.


Ibrahimi Mosque -HRC is renovating interior ancient caligraphy.

 Doris in front of HRC
 

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

PALESTINE AND THE ARAB SPRING


I have interviewed activists, intellecuals, students and middle class professionals about their assessment of the Arab Spring, and its effects on Palesine. Among them is Mazin Qumsiyeh - a university professor and activist who spent 29 years in the U.S., Mohammed, also a professor and community leader, and Amal, who once was a member of the leadership of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), became disillusioned, and is now an outspoken critic of Palestinian politicians and promoter of Palestinian self determination.
In Mazin's words, Israel is in a hole and doesn't know what to do. The Palestinian Authority (PA) doesn't know either.
But the Arab Spring inspired Tahir Square-type encampments last March in both Ramallah (for 3 weeks) and Nablus (for two weeks). Their demands were for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah (Gaza and the West Bank), and an end to corruption in the PA. Their effectiveness could be measured by the fact that Fatah and Hamas signed a unification agreement the following May in a fairly obvious move to defuse the protests. Indeed, the encampers packed up and left the city centers. And the agreement went on a shelf.
The reconciliation agreement was not implemented, because in fact both parties like things the way they are. B oth have total power in their respective areas, Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza, and are pocketing many thousands of dollars sent by foreign governments in various aid packages. Reconciliation would mean sharing power, or-- more threatening-- submitting to elections that either or both parties might lose.
Meanwhile, the unaffiliated youth are not well enough organized to carry out a significant rebellion against the entrenched PA, and are also wary of seeming to agree with Israeli criticism. Their priority now is to overthrow the Israeli occupation.
Along with questions about the Arab Spring, I ask everyone their opinion about Palestine's bid for statehood at the U.N. It turns out that these are related issues. First, the U.N. bid probably wouldn't have happened if not for the Arab Spring. Abbas needed to do something to assert his authority and divert attentiion from his critics. However, while everyone would like a state, the conditions do not exist on the ground, and the PA has done nothing to prepare for a real state.
To begin with, there was no public discussion or plebicite to ask the people if they were in favor of such a bid. Abbas is not a popular figure, so his initiative did not have popular support until it was clear that it rattled Israel and the U.S. The PA spent alot of money advertizing for statehood, but should have instead, accordng to Mohammed, put its energy into speaking out and strategizing against settlements, the apartheid wall, home demolitions, and evictions, and for freeing political prisoners and, returning refugees to their homes. But they did none of that. They failed to speak for the Palestinian people; they have failed to lead the fight against the occupation.
In addition, Fatah and Hamas had not reconciled, which was bad for Palestine's image on the world stage. And, most surprising to me, the PA had no plan for what to do when the U.S. vetoed statehood in the Security Council.
Firas, the 26 year old son of my friend Nadia, added another note to this discussion. While change is good and needed, the U.S. is in there somewhere, trying to turn events to its advantage. I think we Americans need to pay heed to this observation when we try to understand what is happening in the Middle East. For example, the Muslim Brotherhood is presented in Western media as a sort of boogey man, but is in fact supported by the US as a destabilizing presence. It is a right wing, self-aggrandizing, pro-imperialist movement. That it won the majority in the Tunisian elections is probably an indication of Western intervention.
Amal has co-founded the Arab Cultural Center in Ramallah in order to gather unaffiliated leftists for discussion, cultural heritage preservation and to support young activists. I attended one of their weekly meetings when the agenda was the Arab Spring, although they didn't use that term. They don't consider the uprisings to be true revolutions. They are mass mobilizations that have been infiltrated and undermined by foreign intervention. An example is Egypt the protesters have only managed to cut off the head of the oppressive system.
Libya was an instance of recolonization by Europe. "NATO does not liberate countries." Instead, it destroyed the infrastructure in order to reassert dominance. Syria is being targeted in a similar manner, in an effort to make it pro-West and pro-America. Currently Syria is allied with Iran, and supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza - two "anti-West" groups which the U.S. has labeled as terrorist. Syria represents secular pan- Arab nationalism, which is anathema to the U.S. because it reaches across borders to unite all Arabs .For example, Iraq, under U.S. control, now has 146 political parties, but not one is a nationalist party.
The U.S. has changed its tactics when it comes to Syria because it cannot afford another military intervention such as in Libya. The Arab League is doing the dirty work of cooperating with the U.S., and the media, including Al Jazeera, is lying about the number of protesters and casualties in the streets. There are legitimate grievances against the regime, and there are people protesting in the steets, but this group fears that the U.S. may be fomenting civil war.
One member of the Center said that he has seen democracy in the U.S. where he lived from 2006-2009), and he doesn't want to see that democcracy in the Arab world. In U.S occupied Iraq there are now 146 political parties, not one of them a nationalist party. He said, "I don't buy the story of democracy. It's a nice story. That's all."
The mobilizaations in the Arab world could push Hamas (also Muslim Brotherhood) more toward the Right, towards cooperating with Israel like the PA does. Their main concern is in maintaining power. As one proof of the Muslim Brotherhood's self-serving alliances, the Center members state that the Brotherhood was more actively protesting in the streets during Nasser's popular regime than it was under Mubarak's oppressive regime. I have heard from several sectors of independent thinkers in Palestine that Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood is anti-democratic and anti-populist with a narrow focus on conservative religious authoritarian ideology. They are useful to the U.S. as a pawn in the strategy of divide and conquer.
The changes occuring in the Middle East are complex, exciting and confusing, and here in Palestine they are both embraced and observed with caution.

WHICH SHALL THE WALL TAKE: AL-WALAJA VILLAGE OR CREMISAN WINERY?

A LESSON IN DIVIDE AND CONQUER.


Monastery home to Cremisan Winery

     Last year I went with Mazin to see what was happening in a small village near Bethlehem called Al-Walaja. Israel was in the process of building the apartheid wall all the way around the village in order to expropriate all of the agricultural land from which it lives, and to contain/imprison its inhabitants. The specific reason for taking the land is to give it to one of the surrounding settlements, Har Gilo; and the wall will further restrict the movements of Palesltinians who live so near to West Jerusalem. If you can imagine a small fertile valley full of oliv e and fruit trees and on the hill across the valley a big city - that would be the land that used to belong to Al-Walaja and the Jerusalem that Al-Walajans are not allowed to visit.
     This year Mazin took me and my co-hort Doris to update us on the progress of the wall. But first we went to Cremisan, on the outskirts of the small Christian city of Beit Jala. It is the only Palestinian winery, and is located on the premises of an active Catholic monastery. It includes a beautiful wooded park (the only one in the area) and 1500 acres of agricultural land studded with exquisite terraces, vineyards and olive trees. Israel has given notice that it will build the wall through the middle of the monastery's 1500 acres of land or spare it and build it instead around neighboring Al-Walaja, a clear example of "divide and conquer." The winery has petitioned Israel to build the wall so as to separate the business from Palestine and include it on the Israeli side of the wall -- better for its bottom line.
     The Christian residents of this area are furious with Cremisan for asking to become part of Israel and taking the park, vineyards and trees with them. They are organizing protests in the form of a Catholic mass just outside of the gates of Cremisan. Mazin, Doris and I joined them last Friday afternoon for their 4th weekly protest-mass. While it was a lovely ceremony, quite well attended by about 50 people (grown from 30 at the first protest), it was not effective except as an organizing tool. Mazin, the intrepid activist, intends to try to get them to be more militant, and to join forces with Al-Walaja, their Muslim neighbor less than a mile away.T
     When the mass was over, we drove that mile to Al-Walaja, passing the Cremisan terraces on the way. Our first stop was to view the dirt road that will be the wall's path coming down a hill towards us and a lone house whose owner has refused to sell to the Israelis. Maybe he has legal title that Israel could not easily challenge, so the wall will encircle the house, leaving only one gate from which to leave and enter the home. Thirty feet from the house itself a special tunnel is being built to go under the wall so this family can get to the Palestinian side of the wall to go to work and school, clinics and friends. I am wondering about this very expensive arrangement. Is it to accommodate the family, or to make them pay a high emotional price for their recalcitrance?

     We drove a litle farther up ovver the hill separating Cremsan from Al-Walaja. Here we could see the wall passing within ten feet of a two story house, and then coming to an abrupt halt. Regardless of such gaps in the unfinished project of enclosing the village, the way has already been marked by bulldozed land and an unpaved road. Thus we can easily see how much land Al-Walaja will lose. This sight had a physical effect on me and on Doris. When we got home, we had no appetite for dinner.

 Pritest Mass




Ancient terraces to be lost to the wall.



One family's tunnel under the wall


Mazin and Doris


Al-Walaja's prison wall in construction


Monday, December 5, 2011

Normalization Is Not O.K.




     Normalization sounds good but not here, in occupied Palestine where it implies accepting an oppressive status quo.
     In America we tend to think that if we bring people on two sides of a conflict together to get to know each other, we will be promoting peace. It is hard to be violent toward the enemy you know. But what happens AFTER the encounter is key. Will the participants go home to work against the causes of the conflict ?
     Here, normalization is a term applied to any activity that does not openly oppose the Israeli military occupation and its root cause – the colonization of Palestine. As one of my Palestinian friends says, “Any integration based on a false foundation (colonizer vs colonized),... is a call for both sides to neglect or overlook the genuine cause of the problem. It would be a call for the oppressed to accept the idea of living with oppression, humiliation and inequality. To accept to coexist with apartheid.” Normalization is giving the impression that life (i.e. under occupation) is normal, and there is no need to bring up the terms occupation, colonization, apartheid, etc. and not necessary to speak out against the occupation or the occupier.
     So, for example, normalization includes sports activities that involve children on both sides on the theory that by interacting on the playing field, they will break down some of the barriers between them and carry that experience into a future reconciliation.
Some of us have heard of the Seeds of Peace camp in Maine, which each summer brings Israeli and Palestinian kids together for three weeks to help them to see each other as ordinary people, and to understand the point of view of the other side of the conflict. It sounds like a great idea. But it seems that the Israeli kids return home and join the obligatory armed services, and go to the checkpoints inside the West Bank or otherwise participate in the military that is occupying Palestine.
     The Palestinian kids return to their enforced enclosure behind those same checkpoints and the apartheid wall that snakes through their territory and are not any better off for the camping experience. Even their connections with their new-found Israeli friends dissolves over time, unable to breach the barriers that separate them.
     It saddens me to reject the goals of Seeds of Peace. But I listen to my Palestinian friends, and I respect their perspective. They are the ones suffering from the occupation, and if normalization doesn't work for them, then it doesn't work for me. Yes, one needs to humanize "the enemy" and there are ways to act that do not normalize. For example, Berieved Families Forum is a group that brings together Palestinian and Israeli parents who have lost children to the conflict, with the purpose of renouncing vengeful retaliation or any kind of military solution. However, the burden is on the Israeli families to work not only for nonviolent solutions but to recognize and work against the cause of the violence, which is, in the words of my friend, “Zionist colonization.”
     Another "bilateral" group is the Combatants for Peace, Palestinians and Israelis who have laid down their arms to renounce violence as a tool. They go to schools on both sides to talk about the horrors of war, and they join Palestinian actions against the apartheid wall. And the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions brings international and Israeli volunteers to help Palestinian families rebuild homes demolished by Israeli bulldozers for lack of an un-obtainable permit. Rabbis for Human Rights, based in Israel, goes into Palestinian villages to protect farmers against settler attacks during the olive harvest and speaks out against the checkpoints, the wall, the daily humiliations of the occupying soldiers.
     A more hidden manifestation of normalization is in the form of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive the bulk of their funding from foreign governments. They not only fulfill some of the functions that the occupying power is by law obligated to provide, but they pay high salaries that tend to lull their employees into thinking that life isn't so bad. On the other hand, there are Palestinian NGOs that are funded by individuals or charitable organizations and not by governments, and they provide essential services to people in need. These organizations don't need to talk about the occupation; they suffer its consequences like the people they serve.
     Nine years ago, when I first came to Palestine, normalization was not an issue. For one thing, it was the height of the Second Intifada, which was open warfare, and no one even thought about socializing with the other side. Even if they had, there was no way to do it because of the border closings, curfews and severe restrictions on travel. But in the last few years, while the Israeli military has withdrawn from Palestinian cities and even opened some of the most onerous checkpoints, the occupation has become more insidious, undermining the entire economy so that Palestine hardly produces any of its own products, and creating corrupt systems of collaboration with Israel and cooptation at the governmental level. Many politicians are pocketing vasts amounts of international aid while they enter into endless negotiations that have resulted only in losing more land and resources to Israel.
We must also understand that pouring money into Palestine is not necessarily the answer. At present foreign aid goes mostly to construction of roads and public buildings (and NGos), not ever to building factories that could provide jobs, products and incomes that would free Palestine from dependence on Israel.
     My friend, Amal, explains that Palestinians under colonization and occupation are like US. Blacks under structures of on-going racism – not so overt as slavery, but often successful at dulling the opposition to those systems that oppress them by asking them to co-exist with those systems.
     Palestinian activists who have made ending the occupation their highest priority cannot tolerate efforts, however well-intentioned, that minimize or normalize a system of oppression born of Zionism's drive to possess all of historic Palestine, taking its land, livelihood and culture. When the occupation ends, my friends will be among the first to normalize relations with their equals on the other side.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Freedom Riders for the 21st Century - From Ramallah to Jerusalem


     Why copy the U.S. civil rights activists that got onto segregated buses to confront the systems of discrimination against Black Americans? Why especially if you are not American and not Black?
Six Palestinian activists risked their lives on November 15 just as the U.S. riders did in 1961, exactly 50 years ago. This time is was to defy Israel's apartheid bus system that forbids Palestinians from getting on buses that provide public transportation to and from Jewish settlements The buses travel on Jews-only roads through Palestinian land, taking settlers from their colonies in the West Bank to cities in Israel. There are a few stretches of such roads that Palestinians can use because there is not yet an alternative route designated for them. One of these stretches was chosen for this action. But the participants first gathered in the Palestinian city of Ramallah with the goal of getting to Jerusalem with the same ease as the Israeli Jews.
     My informant, Mazin, as one of the six riders, had expected to be beaten and jailed or worse. He has a record of many previous arrests for his anti-occupation activism which could be used against him, and he knew of the hatred and violence of some settlers and Israeli Border Police towards Palestinians. Thus it was with a sardonic smile that he told us how the secret band set out for the bus stop they had picked to board a settler bus.
     Mazin was in the lead car, and behind him were "about 30 cars of media and supporters." They came to a bus stop, but the organizer who had scoped it out ahead of time wasn't sure it was the right one. "Maybe we passed it." Mazin immediately did a U turn (not legal) and every car behind him did the same thing. It was quickly evident that they had not yet passed the chosen bus stop, so Mazin did another illegal U-turn, and so did all thirty cars! After this hazardous but comical ballet of cars, they arrived at the bus shelter and went and stood in line with other would-be-passengers -- all settlers.
     The first three buses passed them by, but the fourth bus driver didn't seem to know what to do and let them board and pay their fare. When they got to the next stop, the police were waiting. Meanwhile, there was better media coverage than Mazin had seen at any other demonstration for Palestinian rights.
The bravery of these six Palestinians, five men and one woman, cannot be overestimated. The outcome, however, was mercifully mild. Police carried limp protesters off the bus, did not beat anyone, and released them, plus two others who had been arrested at the same time, within a few hours. Since the reasoning behind this treatment, clearly decided on the highest level of the security aparatus, cannot be known, there is no way to predict how future actions will be handled. But the organizers of this Freedom Ride, mostly young people with no political party affiliations, are planning their next moves. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

It's Quiet in Palestine, or is it?

       I have spent yesterday and today with nothing to do but wander around this small city of Beit Sahour, do a little food and umbrella shopping, read my emails and study some Arabic vocabulary. It has been very peaceful. The excitement is all on Al Jazeera News, particularly about the new uprising in Tahir Square, Egypt. Except...
     I went to the website of IMEMC, which you can do too, (http://www.imemc.org/)  to read Palestinian news items from last week, because I knew that this little pocket of peace that I was enjoying was not the full picture of life in occupied Palestine.  But, like the families I had delicious midday meals with on Saturday and Sunday, I was experiencing a welcome bubble -- a respite not to be taken for granted.



Since mainstream media outside of Palestine does not tell about the daily human rights violations and abusive conduct of Israel's army and settlers in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, we get the impression that it is quiet here, so the occupation can't be all that bad. I'm going to pass on the news reports I just read online because they help to remind us of why we need to work together to end this occupation.
     The village of Amenzil in the south of the West Bank can't keep their new solar panels, paid for by a Spanish NGO, because it is an "unrecognized village". Neither the vlllage leaders nor the Spanish NGO could get the required Isreal-issued permit for the panels nor even for the buildings on which they are erected. There are many such villages which are denied electricity, water, schools and roads because Israel wants this land without its inhabitants, and uses every pretext to push the people out. The NGO applied for a permit but, getting no response, installed the panels to supply electricity to the village. Typically, Israel waited until the project was up and running before declaring it illegal.
     Al Khader, a community adjacent to Bethlehem, was the scene of a settler attack last week. When one farmer, his wife and sister went to work their land, they found settlers already there, cultivating the earth around the olive trees that did not belong to them. The settlers from nearby Etzion settlement then assaulted the Palestinians before they left.
Additional incidents for the two weeks from November 3 to 16 were recorded by the Palestine Center for Human Rights. Here are some of them:
     * In Gaza there were 8 Israeli missile attacks in which 4 Palestinians were killed, 14 wounded, a central Marine Police station destroyed and a greenhouse damaged. Two of those killed were bombed in the shelter where they had gone for safety. The Israeli army also fired at working farmers from observation towers along the border between Israel and Gaza.
     *In the West Bank there were 91 Israeli military incursions into Palestinian communities resulting in 14 detentions, which Palestinians call "kidnappings since they don't recognize Israel's right to take police action inside Palestinian territory. Among those detained were some of the men that Israel had just released in the prisoner exchange deal brokered by Egypt just a few weeks ago.
     *The Israeli army tore down and destroyed 3 utility poles connecting two Palestinian villages in the barren south because there was no permit for poles. It is impossible for Palestinians in their own villages, on their own land, in their own West Bank to get any kind of permit from Israel which exercises control over every minusha of civil life. I have seen these villages where the lack of electricity next to well-lit settlements is so shocking that even Tony Blair once admonished Israel for this practice.
     *The settlers from Yitzar settlement uprooted 25 productive olive trees in an effort to drive Palestinians from the land. While this is a common practice by right-wing settlers, Israel never punishes the settlers. To the contrary, the Israeli army's job is to protect settlers even when they are attacking Palestinians.
     *Settlers set fire to three Palestinian vehicles.
     *The Israeli army bulldozed land and uprooted trees near Qalqilia in the North to extend the boundaries of Oramit settlement. The army also bulldozed 4 private homes near Jericho in the East because they were winter homes for Palestinian families. That would be like bulldozing your house on Cape Cod because you only use it in the summer.
     *The Israeli military used teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse nonviolent demonstrators at seven different protests against on-going, increasing thefts of their land and freedom of movement.

     All of these things happened in two quiet weeks of military occupation.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Palestine - A State or a Bantustan?

Doris and I just had tea with Jeff Halper, the director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, excellent analyst of the Palestinian situation, activist and friend. Jeff helps me remember that not all Israli Jews are alike and some are my allies. Jeff is just back from a 6 week tour which ended in  South Africa where he was an expert witness at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, held
in Capetown.

It had started to rain, so we arrived at Jeff's new office dripping wet. He showed us around as he finished hanging some framed photos and posters on the wall. Then he suggested we go to a coffee shop to chat. We all ordered tea, and were soon disecting Jeff's trip, the meaning of apartheid, the Arab Spring and Palestine's bid for statehood.

The purpose of the two weeks of testimony at the Russell Tribunal was to see if the facts on the ground in Israel /Palestine meet the international legal definition of "apartheid." Jeff's testimony alone would seem to be enough to prove that they do. Israel's policy of demolishing homes in the rural areas (Area C under the Oslo Accords) in order to force Palestinians into the urban and village areas (Areas A and B) is the same as pushing them into bantustans as occurred in apartheid South Africa.

Israel denies that its policies are based on race and thus it cannot be accused of apartheid. But its policies are clearly based on religion, as Jews are not targeted in the same way as Palestinians. Jeff argues that such policies are aimed at separating the two peoples, to the advantage of Jews over Palestinians/Moslems. And, he adds, Israel does not use the word "apartheid" but does use the Hebrew translation of that word, which is "hafrada". The term “hafrada" came into use under former Prime Minister Ehud Barak as the definition of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.

Next, I wanted to hear Jeff’s take on l) the impact of the Arab Spring on Palestine and 2) the value of Palestine’s bid for a seat at the United Nations. Jeff agreed with me that last Fall when I was here, hope for peace was at an all time low. He thinks the Arab Spring has given people a new sense of hope and energy. Also, he doubts that Mahmoud Abbas would have tried for a seat at the U.N. if not for this boost from the Arab Spring

As for the actual bid for statehood, Jeff was critical of the nay-sayers among some Palestinian intellectuals and activists who waited until the last minute to raise objections such as Abbas not representing the PLO or the refugees outside of Palestine, and his still calling for a two-state solution when it seems o bvious that there is not enough land left for a separate Palestinian state. But more importantly, Jeff worries that Palestinians do not have a plan or stategy for where they are going. If they don’t get statehood, it is possible that Abbas will resign, leaving a vacuum into which Israel will have to move, most likely with renewed military occupation of the cities.

It is a probem that noone has articulated a one-state goal--given the fact of the settlements strewn throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem which makes a separate state hard to envision. Everyone who supports Palestinians wants the Israeli occupation to end. But then what?? Jeff plans to write another article about this dilemma. Meanwhile, he wonders if Palestinians might take a civil rights approach by demanding a vote within the system that controls them and has taken away so much of their land. If Israel denied them the vote, could it still claim to be a democracy and not an apartheid state?

As a footnote to the above, we had to ask why the U.S. insists on supporting Israel to the degree of seeming to be subservient to it. Jeff named three main reasons: l) the pro-Israel lobby, especially strong among Democrats, 2) the Republican Christian Zionists, and 2) the arms industry. Seventy percent of the huge aid package of $3 billion a year must be spent on U.S. military supplies.

These realities seem intractable , but hope springs eternal. Who could predict the Arab Spring would bring down two dictators - so far.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Occupy D.C., Occupy America


 I voted for Dick Gregory for President of the United States once.  It was 1968.  On October 6th I heard him speak at a rally in Washington, D.C., and he told the audience that he is about to turn 80.  That says something about how long he and I have been looking for change in America, and why we were both in Freedom Plaza  with the theme of “occupy D.C./occupy America.”
 There have been some changes in the last 40 years.  A Black man in the White House was a revolutionary change, but the revolution ended with the election.   Given the hopes aroused by Obama, it feels like we’ve been going  backwards ever since, but actually things have stayed pretty much the same as during the Bush years.
Being in Freedom Plaza gave me hope that  Americans – the 99% who aren’t rich – might wake up to the reality that our government is lying to us in order to maintain control over us and the rest of the world.  Our numbers weren’t staggering; maybe just a couple of thousand, but we were YOUNG, Hispanic and Black as well as old-timers and White.  And we were all committed to a NONVIOLENT protest.
We were more upbeat than angry, but none of us was fooled: too many were unemployed, in debt, foreclosed, or veterans of meaningless wars. (Vets for Peace initiated this D.C. uprising.)  We know the score. We know we are the vast majority, and we know we are fed up.
     I think  you know the things we’re fed up about : bailing out banks and not homeowners, wars and occupations, climate change, student debt, no jobs/corporate greed, foreign policies that exploit poor countries, etc..  I won’t try to name them all, nor do I want to delve into them.  But I want to give you a feel for the crowd and the color and the energy.
Julie was one of the first people I stopped to talk to.  She had on a pink top and was sitting in a chair holding a sign that read “Join the occupation. Take back our nation.”  At her feet was a spread a large blue tarp with some bundles around its periphery.  She said it was the spot chosen for overnight sleeping by a group from Texas and she was watching over their gear.  I asked if the group was going to risk arrest by sleeping in the Plaza, or was it going to be allowed.  She didn’t know.  She wasn’t from Texas.    We started to chat, and her story came spilling out. 
 Julie worked for 31 years in Washington. Then she developed a strange neurological ailment that affected her vision and made her arms and legs numb.  She had to stop work and apply for Social Security Disability.   There is a five month investigation period before one gets a yes or no to the application, during which creditors will wait.   After five months, she got a “no,” and a rental property she had was foreclosed on. It was supposed to be her nest egg.  She appealed the decision, this time with legal help.  She got a second “no” because, while her vision impairment was confirmed, there was no known cause.  Her legal advocate was so furious that she pulled strings and got the denial reversed.   By then Julie’s own residence was two days away from foreclosure.  In a flurry of  frantic paperwork, she saved her home.
Being a social worker, I had heard enough stories like Julie’s to know she was telling the truth. And that there were hundreds like her, all hidden from public view – having their own private nightmares.   Julie added that her loss was compounded by not being able to work, nor even read because of the vision impairment.  Julie is fed up.  I thanked her for telling her story, and I moved on, feeling that Julie’s experience is one example of how our systems don’t work to reward effort and to affirm life.
From 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. I roamed the Plaza to see the range of issues people had brought there, and I listened to speakers and musicians on the big stage  at one end of the Plaza. One woman artist from Salt Lake City gave a terrific speech, with no notes, that I don’t remember one word of.  But there she was young, articulate and all the way from Utah!
David Rovics sang his songs with lyrics that as usual reach into the heart and conscience. The Raging Grannies, hip hop artists, a hill- billy band, Emma’s Revolution, Chris Hedges, Ted Rall calling for real revolution, protesters from Wisconsin and Wall Street, and young Afghani peace activists, both on stage and skyped from the hills of Aghanistan, whose motto is “the blue sky covers us all.”
Young leaders skillfully facilitated a general assembly open to everyone there, where decisions about how to proceed during the night were decided by consensus.
An Ethiopian-born American woman held a sign that read, “I will believe corporations are people when Georgia executes one.”
These are just some of the events and people who moved me to believe that this could be the beginning of something new and indestructible – a real democracy.

Monday, May 30, 2011

HONDURAS, PART III: RESISTANCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

              Tom Loudon, center                                                        Marching with COFADEH


The National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP) has established its own True Commission to find out who was behind the military coup of June 28, 2009 and to document the over 2000 complaints of violence against civilians since then. The Commission is so named to differentiate it from the government’s Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, which has so far not produced any evidence that it is investigating a single case of politically motivated assassination, torture, disappearance or beatings. In fact, it has denied that any have occurred.

Our delegation met with Tom Loudon, the Executive Secretary of the True Commission (CDV in Spanish) who is a North American, living for the last 20 years in Nicaragua. The 9 members of the CDV are from Honduras, Ecuador, Canada, Argentina, Spain, El Salvador and Costa Rica and were chosen with the participation of all sectors of civil society, unlike those of the government Commission who were appointed by the President. As the members travel the country, interviewing hundreds of people to collect the necessary data, they put their lives in danger.

Examples of the abuses being investigated :
-83 assassinations, including eleven journalists, making Honduras the most dangerous country for journalists in the Hemisphere; the 11th journalist shot by three gunmen on May 11, 2011
- six members of the LGBT community, found beheaded, castrated or burned
- between March and October, 2010 26 campesinos killed from six settlements in Lower Aguan Valley -- areas claimed by wealthy, powerful landowner Facusse
- end of April, 2011 - two campesino leaders found beheaded
- May 18, 2011 - organizer with the rural cooperative MUCA, Sixto Ramos, 45, shot in his car, and organizer with the rural cooperative ANACH, Dennis Moises Lara Orellana, 37, shot in his car.

The True Commission is working closely with COFADEH, Committee of Families of the Disappeared and Detained of Honduras, whose members are also at risk. On May Day, our delegation marched in the Tegulcigalpa parade carrying COFADEH’s large banners with images of the disappeared and assassinated. It felt like an honor to be identified with the organization that has done the most to seek justice and to support the families of those who had lost their lives for standing up for freedom and dignity.
It was also an honor to be welcomed into the campesino cooperative settlement of Aurora in the Lower Aguan Valley in northern Honduras. There, under the tall African palm oil trees, we viewed the make-shift shelters in which everyone was living since last November- plastic tarps held up by pieces of wood. These campesinos have “squatted” here to defend their rights to the land that had been given to them under the Agrarian Reform Law. They live in constant fear that wealthy landowner, Miguel Facusee will send his armed goons in to evict them, since he says he bought this land from local authorities after the law was changed to allow sale of agrarian reform land.
One of Aurora’s leaders and a founder of a farming cooperative MUCA (Unified Movement of the Farmers of Aguan), Adolfo Castaneda, spoke to us with great passion about how Facusse’s guards and the army come regularly to surround and harass the community. He believes he will be killed sooner or later. As it is, he dares not leave the community for any reason. “The stress here can make you crazy. In one day I received 26 threatening phone calls on my cell phone. “We are poor, but we have rights, like the rest of the world. We want land. I will die, but with a conscience.”

Meanwhile, the community harvests the palm oil fruits, which we held in our hands, experiencing the extreme oily-ness of the golf-ball sized fruits that grow in big clusters. One of the men demonstrated how, with considerable effort, they cut down the clusters with a curved knife at the end of a long pole. Children gathered round, the boys serious, the girls giggling when I pointed my camera at them. We asked the children if they go to school, “Yes! they shouted in unison.” Would they show us their school? As twilight descended, the children led the way.

On one side of a board under a plastic tarp roof were the handmade benches and tables of grades one and two. On the other side were grades three through six. The children were delighted to show off their school. We asked if they have uniforms. “No,” said a small boy, “ but we can’t come in just our underwear.” That got everyone laughing. Just before we left, Lisa led the kids in a round of “Do the Hokey-pokey” As there is no electricity in the community, we could barely see to say goodbye.

This example of persistence and courage characterizes the Popular Resistance that has swept the country since President Manuel Zelaya was illegally removed from office in June of 2009. Why was he removed? The Honduran oligarchy - wealthy landowners and businessmen, the military and the official Catholic Church, along with the United States’ CIA, felt threatened by Zelaya’s tendency to act independently of their wishes. At his inaugural party in 2005, he was handed a sealed letter by the U.S. ambassador with the instructions to read it later when he was alone. The letter, it turned out, listed all the people he should appoint to his cabinet. He resisted.

A group of Honduran industrialists, in exchange for having contributed to Zelaya’s campaign, demanded control of the northern port city of Cortez and the privatization of the water supply. He questioned the terms, an act that would draw the attention of U.S. investors. The U.S. is Honduras’ main trading partner and accounts for 2/3's of foreign investment in the country. Dole and Chiquita control the majority of flat agricultural land. U.S. military aid makes Honduras the 10th largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world, while remittances from Hondurans living in the U.S. account for 28.2% of the GDP.

Zelaya signed a contract with Petrocaribe, the Venezuelan/Caribbean low-price consortium which is frowned upon by theU.S.. As well, Zelaya signed onto the socially oriented (rather than profit oriented) trade organization of Latin American countries called ALBA, which purposely does not include the United States. He proposed turning the U.S. Airforce base in Palmerola into a civilian airport in order to close the dangerously located Tegulcigalpa airport. Not a U.S. initiative. But the last straw, some say, was when he authorized a 60% increase in the minimum wage, which brought the monthly amount up to $290.00. This affected the profits of U.S. multinationals.

But Zelaya’s action that gave the propagantistic media the fuel it needed to attack Zelaya was his proposal that there be a national referundum to see if the people would like a Constitutional assembly to democratize the constitution. The right wing exclaimed, “He wants to be a dictator,” which evidently convinced a lot of powerful people that they had to act immediately to remove him.

As I wrap up this article, ex-President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya is returning to Honduras under an agreement between him, the Lobo administration and the Presidents of Venezuela and Colombia, with the blessing of the United States. His return is a double edged sword. It is a strategic move by the powerful to win re-admission into the diplomatic/economic fold of the Organization of American States that had kicked the country out for having overthrown a democratic government. And it is a victory for the Popular Resistance that demanded his return and considers him its titular head. Who will he end up serving? And how will the United States and the CIA try to manipulate events and the media to maintain their control in Honduras?

We have learned from the Arab Spring that the future cannot always be predicted based on the past. And so it is with Honduras. The Popular Resistance is courageous and determined and feels its own strength, but it has powerful enemies that hold the economic purse strings in greedy hands. We in North America have to demonstrate that we are watching. Eighty-six U.S. congresspersons just sent a letter to Secretary of State Clinton calling for an end to U.S. aid to Honduras as long as human rights violators are met with impunity. Find out where your congressperson stands. Raise your voice.

PHOTOS BELOW










Adolfo Castaneda, Aurora Cooperative Settlement


Palm oil fruits

The boys - serious

Aurora school                               

 Kids. Why else?

Thursday, May 26, 2011

HONDURAS, PART II: THE POPULAR RESISTANCE

We met in the conference room of the largest labor union in Honduras, STIBYS, workers in the beverage industry, because this has become the headquarters of the popular resistance to the government of President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo. The leadership of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular ( FNRP) wanted to tell their stories to our delegation of ten North American human rights activists.

Our meeting was chaired by the FNRP coordinator for the state of Morazan where the capitol Tegulcigalpa is located. Coincidentally, his name is also Porfirio, Porfirio Ponce.  I was impressed by how many of the leaders were present, maybe 15, including the “grandmother” of the movement, 82 year old Yolanda Chevaria. Porfirio gave some background to the current state of the resistance. As we had heard, this is the first time in the long history of repressive governments of Honduras that there has been a national, organized, political movement against a state run by and in the service of the wealthy. However, they didn’t start from scratch.

Since 2000 there had been a nation-wide coalition called the “Bloque Popular” of social activist organizations, and it became stronger after the election in 2005 of President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya. When Zelaya began to confront strong right-wing opposition to his leadership, he sought the support of the Bloque and took some positions that favored the workers and poor, such as raising the minimum wage by 60% to $290 a month. (Later I will discuss other measures which won Zelaya the disfavor of the oligarchy and the CIA.) As a result, when he was overthrown by the military on June 28, 2009 - taken from his house in the middle of the night in his pajamas and flown to Costa Rica - the people streamed into the streets in a fury. The first few days of massive, spontaneous demonstrations were followed by months of intermitent, organized protests demanding that Zelaya be allowed to return.

Porfirio explained that at first the resistance was not coordinated. If they had been organized as they are today, they would have succeeded in reversing the coup. As it is, the FNRP had its first national assembly last February, electing 41 leaders and naming Zelaya as their General Coordinator. They set their tasks as organizing on the local level, training, and mobilizing. Their goal - to achieve a national constitutional assembly to rewrite the constitution to guarantee democratic participation and loosen the grip of the wealthy and the military on the country. Zelaya had proposed a national referendum to see if people wanted a Constituent Assembly, and this was used by his opponents as proof that he was trying to become a dictator.

The FNRP’s demands are l) Zelaya’s return, 2) a Constituent Assembly, 3) respect for human rights, an end to impunity, and dismantling of the military and political apparatus, and 4) recognition of the FNRP. As one member said, “We are a new people with a new conscience.”

One woman, the head of the Human Rights Division of the FNRP and also a nurse, told how she sees the results of government oppression arrive at the hospital every day in the form of corpses and malnourished children. “They violate the right to live!” she exclaimed. Later this same woman told me that they all know that within half an hour of leaving this building, any one of them could be shot dead by a sniper just for being active in the resistance. It is hard for me to imagine what that must feel like.

We asked the Hondurans what they want us to do. “Talk about the conditions here and ask why.” Several of them voiced the “why” as they see it: U.S. interference and government control of the media.

Some statistics from the Honduran newspaper, “La Tribuna” on May 8, 2011 help explain “the conditions” that fuel the popular resistance and give it the courage to face death rather than give in to fear and intimidation. The article was reporting on the Fourth United Nations Forum of Ministers of Development in Latin America. Honduras has 8 million inhabitants. 59.2% live below poverty. 36.2% live below extreme poverty, making this the 2nd or 3rd poorest country in the hemisphere. In rural areas unemployment is at 45.9%. Ten percent of the population receives 42.2% of the total income, while the poorest 10% receives 0.9% of the total income. Child mortality is 30% for children under 5 years old.

We got a glimpse of Honduran poverty when we visited Zacate Grande on the Pacific Coast. The purpose of our visit, manageable only by four-wheel drive pick-ups on a terrible road, was to lend support to a fledgling independent radio station located there. Zacate Grande is actually an island, but since its purchase by tycoon Facusse 35 years ago there is a paved causeway connecting it to the mainland. The island’s perimeter of 76 beaches has become the play land of the wealthy, while its interior agricultural land is claimed by Facusse in spite of the fact that it has been farmed for generations by the people who originated there. The schools in Zacate Grande have no books. There are three teachers for 63 children in grades 1-6. There is no clinic and no pharmacy. Four days a week someone comes from the mainland to provide health care. In contrast to the evident poverty, Facusee is claiming international carbon credits for having a forested mountain on the island, because trees produce oxygen.

The tiny radio station, a gift from Italian donors, is used not just to provide news and entertainment, but to mobilize the dispossessed and to educate those who work as maids and gardeners for the rich and want to protect their meager incomes. As it stands now about 60% of the residents are with the Popular Resistance and 30% are opposed to the resistance and to the radio station. As the station is a thorn in the side of Facusse and his cronies, its supporters are in danger. Three weeks before we arrived one of the leaders was shot in the leg by a Facusse guard, part of his private militia

Thanks to the radio, there was a successful protest after 40 campesinos were arrested out of their homes at 4 a.m.for “stealing” their land. Demanding release of their neighbors, people blocked the causeway, and 24 hours later the men were freed. But the situation remains volatile, as Facusee is putting up fences around the land that the campesinos are farming. Maybe it goes without saying, but a campesino without land, is a man without life - with nowhere to use his skills and no means to feed his family. I think this is why they stand up to Facusse and his thugs who operate with total impunity.





Porfiriio Ponce

Zacate Grande Radio Station

Broadcast Room

  Living conditions