Nora Lester Murad - The View From My Window in Palestine

Things I Hate about Jerusalem #1

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I hate this trash container:

Trash container fills sidewalk in East Jerusalem

This trash container sits on the block where my youngest daughter goes to school. Can you see the school just beyond the trees on the left? It’s a big school: thirteen grades with 3-5 over-enrolled classes per grade. Hundreds of children have to get to and from the school every day, their parents negotiating the narrow street made even more narrow by the volume of traffic, and the fact that there only about 15 parking spaces so parents park on the sidewalk and double park on the street during drop off and pick up times.

The school is in East Jerusalem – the part of Jerusalem that Israel annexed illegally and has cut off from the rest of the West Bank with an 8-meter high concrete separation wall, checkpoints, and Jewish settlements. Palestinian Jerusalemites pay taxes to the Jerusalem Municipality, part of the Israeli governmental system, but the services we get are inferior. This trash container symbolizes, for me, that Palestinians in Jerusalem are, at best, neglected.

Notice that the trash container, like many others, fills the entire sidewalk. That means that pedestrians who need to pass by the trash container have to step into the street. Watch a few seconds of this video (by clicking on the image below) to see the result: Children step into the street; cars come from behind them at very close proximity and often too fast.

Less than 1 minute video

Accidents do happen, and I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. So yesterday I took myself down to the Jerusalem Municipality to ask the sanitation folks to move the trash container to a safer location.

I entered the parking structure and leaned out my window to ask the guard if I was in the right place. He shouted (I think), “Pay when you leave!” so I drove down 5 levels and parked. All the signs were in Hebrew – no English (okay) and no Arabic (despite that it is also an official language of Israel). I made my way through the beautiful open square all the while thinking “we don’t have such nice landscaping on our side of town.”

Several different, friendly Israelis directed me to the sanitation department.

But none of the professional staff spoke Arabic or English. I attracted a small crowd of employees who chattered loudly to one another and waved their hands not knowing what to do with me. Finally a janitor came forward to translate. I explained to him about the trash container. He explained it to them. They told me to call 106 and make a complaint, but that I needed the street name and address. Street name? We don’t use street names. Addresses? We call the buildings by the name of the owner. I told them it was near the school and that would have to do. When I doubted that the complaint line staff would speak Arabic, the woman picked up the phone on her desk and dialed. She pushed this and that and handed me the phone: “I selected Arabic,” she told me through my trusty janitor friend. I waited. There were many announcements in Hebrew and I was supposed to press something, but who knows what. The woman hung up and called again.

The woman got me into an Arabic queue, but the operator who answered didn’t speak Arabic. Luckily, she spoke English. I asked her to arrange to move the trash container to a location where it would not require children to walk in front of moving cars. “Get the record number!” the woman who was helping me said, but the operator on the phone didn’t want to give it to me, or maybe she didn’t know what I was talking about, or maybe I didn’t know what I was talking about. I handed the phone to the woman at the desk and she wrote down the number.

I retraced my steps (again noting the big, beautiful expanse of public open space) and got my car. Five levels up, I couldn’t get out of the lot. You have to pay 12 shekels at the machine on the first floor. Is that what he meant by “Pay when you go out”? I had to go re-park my car again! And of course the parking ticket machine on the first floor is in Hebrew and Russian. Luckily another nice Israeli came along. Not only did he work the machine for me, he also gave me change for the only bill I had, which was too large for the machine.

Wouldn’t you know it? The exit put me heading straight into the heart of busy West Jerusalem traffic, the opposite direction to where I live. It took 25 minutes to turn around. I am not exaggerating. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. I’d been gone for hours. I have a PhD but the whole experience made me feel as if I had regressed to first grade. It is no wonder that Palestinians do not like to engage with the Municipality or any official Israeli body. The system is not meant to serve anyone, but especially not Palestinians, and no one makes any effort to hide that fact.

My complaint number? It’s 16737.

Guest Post: Thirty-nine Pounds of Sorrow by Vicki Tamoush

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One of my close friends called today to say, “I know this is pretty bold of me, but I was wondering if you’re going to cure olives again this year.  I’ve been craving them so.  Could you give me two jars this time?”

Vicki's olives -- 39 pounds of them

My dear friend isn’t Arab–she’s just got a taste for olives.  She has no idea what goes through my mind while I’m picking and sorting through the bins of fresh olives at the Arabic market in my southern California neighborhood.  She couldn’t imagine what I think about while I’m hauling home 39 pounds of them, washing and cracking them on my kitchen counter, tossing away most of the leaves and twigs but keeping a few “because it’s good for them to stay together” as my grandmother used to say.

It’s olive harvest season in Palestine, but so many of the laden branches will go unpicked or be crushed under an Israeli bulldozer while farmers weep in the distance.  These trees, many of them quite ancient, stand in stately rows while their fruit develops over the course of months.  And when the moment is just right and the olives are still “hard, but not too hard, habibti,” it’s important to pick them to arrest the ripening process so that they will cure to a consistent flavor throughout the batch.

The practice of bulldozing olive groves or setting them on fire began some years ago as one of the many measures of collective punishment imposed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).  The first time I saw pictures of trees being crushed under military bulldozers, I wept out loud.  Knowing the decades of devoted attention given to those gnarled branches, it looked to me like a picture of babies being smashed to death.  I still feel sick whenever I hear that a grove was destroyed by soldiers on the night before harvest.  It’s so different than hearing that the trees were uprooted by a flood or succumbed to some soil-borne virus.  This is murder.

Olive trees are among a handful of sources from which Palestinians can earn a livelihood even under occupation.  If a family is lucky enough to still maintain control of their land (as opposed to simply holding title through a virtually worthless deed), they can raise crops or animals, but both require regular access to water which of course has been redirected away from Palestinian villages in many cases.  Olives, however, will grow robustly with only sun and the rain gifted by God.  Olive trees give rise not only to the olive industry but oil, soap, and, now, wood carvings lovingly fashioned from the wood of trees murdered in the night.  Praying hands, figurines of the magi, latticed stands for the Holy Qur’an reveal the knot holes from the fruit-bearing branches from which they were wrested.

These days, it’s fairly easy to find groups of Americans or Europeans traveling to Palestine to assist with the olive harvest.  Rather than exploring traditional tourist sites, these folks come prepared to work hard, sometimes even sleeping among the trees along with the farmers in order to guard the grove.

Not that they could fend off the soldiers.  Not that anyone could.

As has been proven year after agonizing year, nothing can fend off the soldiers. Or the settlers.

Vicki's olives being cured for gifts

So yes, I tell my dear friend: I can certainly promise you two jars of olives this year.  Maybe three.  It’s a painstaking, labor-intensive process that I happily undertake each autumn, distributing dozens of jars among my family and friends at Christmastime.  I do it because I can.  And I do it for the women who can’t; the women who, along with their families, watched their trees carefully to determine just to right time for harvest, but who woke in the night to the sound of thunder.  Or so they thought.

 

And here’s a bonus picture of me (Nora) picking olives in Palestine:

Murad family trees in Kufr Manda, Galilee

Perhaps the most important work I’ve ever done…

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Over years of work in Palestine, I’ve spoken with hundreds of people about their experiences with international aid. I’ve written articles and delivered presentations and worked on committees, but I don’t see any real changes happening. Most recently, meetings and discussions with Palestinians led to this draft document — criteria for distinguishing aid that should be accepted from aid that should be rejected. It’s perhaps the most important work I’ve ever done. Why? Because it shifts our entire focus away from what we want “them” (donors) to do, which is not in our control, to a focus on what “we” (the Palestinian community) agree to participate in, which is something in our control. It is a draft document intended as a discussion starter. Please, read it carefully and share your thoughts.

INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE THAT ADVANCES PALESTINIAN SELF-DETERMINATION IS ACCEPTED

International assistance that advances Palestinian self-determination:

•     consistently and explicitly opposes occupation and colonization and puts into practice policies that challenge structural inequality;

•     complies with international law and prosecutes those who break it;

•     actively challenges Israeli impunity through sanctions and political pressure;

•     is actively committed to real democracy, including the right of all Palestinians to choose their own leaders, participate in political life, and receive benefits – regardless of political opinion or affiliation;

•     recognizes the unity of the Palestinian community as a whole and aligns policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank (including Jerusalem and Area C), Gaza, Israel, refugee camps, and the Diaspora toward the goal of self-determination;

•     respects Palestinians’ right to resist oppression including through means such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions;

•     leverages coherent political, economic and cultural policies to protect Palestinians, Palestinian rights and Palestinian resources;

•     conceptualizes “development” as a way of realizing rights, and respects the right and responsibility of Palestinians to lead the process;

•     implements Palestinians’ rights to allocate their own development resources including resources spent on their behalf; and

•     provides information about its activities, including budgets, and engages in mechanisms whereby it can be held accountable by local people.

 

Moreover, international assistance that advances Palestinian self-determination seeks to:

•     eliminate the diversion of Palestinian aid funds to international NGOs or international private sector vendors;

•     intervene only when local actors cannot, and avoid duplication of or competition with local actors;

•     stop the payment of any aid funds to Israeli governmental organizations or to Israeli private sector organizations when there is a Palestinian or international alternative;

•     prevent waste of resources on experts that do not add to local knowledge, are overpaid, and are not selected by locals; and

•     refrain from unethical practices including corruption, breaking commitments, paying beneficiaries for training, favoritism, double standards, stealing projects, etc.

 

INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE THAT UNDERMINES PALESTINIAN SELF-DETERMINATION IS REJECTED

International assistance that undermines Palestinian self-determination:

•     enables Israel to avoid paying costs for which it is responsible as occupier according to international law;

•     is not accompanied by active political support for Palestinian self-determination;

•     is palliative, “humanitarian,” short-term, or in the form of loans

•     demands that Palestinians police one another;

•     requires activities that benefit Israel or that decrease pressure on Israel to change its policies;

•     supports economic or cultural “solutions” that do not include political rights;

•     is based on priorities or strategies developed by non-Palestinians;

•     relies on foreign-chosen or installed Palestinians to speak on behalf of the community as a whole;

•     wastes funds on “capacity building” that isn’t requested and tied to self-determination;

•     requires Palestinians to use foreign languages, frameworks and waste money; and

•     disrespects local traditions and beliefs.

Should Palestinians Boycott International Aid?

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I’m proud to announce that two important articles of mine were published today:

“Should Palestinians Boycott International Aid?” is available on The Guardian. It’s a short piece that argues that international aid actors are not going to reform their policies; Palestinians need to refuse aid that is detrimental. It quickly generated over 100 comments, so they’ve already closed to new comments. Leave your comments here instead.

Also,

“Aid on Palestinian Terms: The Case for a Boycott” is available on the Palestine Studies Group. It’s a longer article that describes how I went from being an advocate of aid to a critic of aid to an activist for aid reform and now to a critic of aid reform.

These articles grew out of conversations with Palestinians in which we drafted criteria that could be used to distinguish between aid that should be accepted from aid that should be rejected.

The Guardian article was reprinted in Al-Quds Online in Arabic and in the print edition on October 19, 2012. There will be an Arabic version of the longer article published soon. Let me know if you’d like a notification.

Thanks for your interest and support.

 

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