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Palestine and Dysfunction

Locals and foreigners alike love to criticize Palestinians who they often see as less than perfect in many ways. They go on to say that if Palestinian society expects to flourish in this ever changing and complex global arena (religiously, socially and critically speaking) it has many issues to iron out. I am not a social scientist and certainly no expert on behavior and the reasons for dysfunction, and so I can not and will not begin to outline the complex issues, or their reasons for being. However, dysfunction is a good word to begin to describe the over-reaching, invasive political agendas that trickle down into the daily lives Palestinians.

Excuse the analogy but: everyday Israel feels to me more like the predator Uncle who molests the vulnerable children in the family. Yet, no matter how great are his problems, no one questions his wrong doing - perhaps because of his troubled past. The immediate family may see that he has problems but not know how to deal with
them. The extended family-removed from any real pain or suffering, is content enough to look the other way. Both not wanting to know the ugly reality; his behavior continues unhindered. The children are unable to speak about the abuse and begin to "act out" and everyone wonders what's wrong with them. Instead of giving the child the love and support needed to deal with their suffering, the powers that be, deal with their troubled behavior by inflicting more punishment. With no accountability, Israeli citizens and the West allow Israel to abuse their power while they rape the land, control, starve and humiliate the population. The extended family is like the `left' in Israel and the U.S. who may criticize from time to time especially bad behavior. Yet typically they are comfortable, removed and content enough - so they silently go about their day, which acts to uphold the system while creating an illusion of normalcy.

Meanwhile the children are locked down, chained up and starved in the basement
where no one can hear their screams. The ongoing molestation of Palestine is removing all innocence (from Palestinians and Israelis) as it pillages the land, while locking in the local inhabitants and lying to the rest of the world.

I am overwhelmed by great sadness as I read article after article written by those trying to explain as much as understand, what they can about the situation as it changes so quickly. Just this week's stories of desperate humanitarian disaster and shelling of Gaza has taken 19 Palestinian lives, including 3 children, and terrorized the entire community, the ongoing settlement expansionism and land theft and the border crossing terminal that was silently erected April 4 between Ramallah and Jerusalem - which has about two more concrete slabs to go before effectively locking out the West Bank from the rest of the world! The effect and repercussions of ongoing measures are often too much for our small brains to process.

Every day I watch as this great land becomes more and more like a ghettoized community of bulldozed wreckage. A holy land of whose people are surrounded, marginalized and, if Israel has its way, will eventually be rid of. The building and facilitation of this reality is happening at every level, and the facts on the ground are overwhelming. In this holy land, the native population is not allowed to see the beauty and harmony that could be, if they were only able to live in freedom. If next time one has any criticism for Palestinians, remember the child who has been caged in, starved and held down while the world stands by and watches. We must protect the children in our care and give them love - not more punishment and ultimatums. By breaking the silence, calling out the repression and intervening we can end the abuse.


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Amnesty International Calls for Halt to Gaza Attacks - 11 April 2006
http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGMDE150312006
Israel/Occupied Territories: Israel must halt attacks on Gaza
residential areas - children killed

Human Rights Watch: "UNRWA Director: 'Counting down to a crisis in
Gaza'" PDF Version of Press Release:
http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2006/hqg06-06.pdf

Qalandia Checkpoint becomes the "Atarot International Crossing"
Position Paper, 11 April 2006 Online document at:
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=9972&CategoryId=3

The last conquest of Jerusalem
Apr 12th 2006 | JERUSALEM
From The Economist print edition

CITIES with walls in their hearts are never happy places. Jerusalem
is again becoming one of these. From the war of 1948 till the war of
1967, the armistice line between Israel and Jordan ran through
Jerusalem, dividing the Jewish west from the Arab east. Israel's
plans for Jerusalem will create a large Jewish city but will have
harsh consequences for he Palestinians, on both sides of the
barrier...

If the barrier really is just for security, Israel could take
measures to reduce its economic impact. It could improve the
conditions for Palestinian Jerusalemites and it could stop the
incessant encroachment of Jewish neighbourhoods into Palestinian
areas. But so far its main concern seems to be to ensure that this
conquest of Jerusalem be the last one.

http://www.economist.com/printedition/