The Four (Groups of) Palestinians

I am sure by now that more or less everyone is aware of the 66 year old land dispute between the Jews in the then newly formed state of Israel and the native Arabs known as the Palestinians, which up to 700, 000 were forced to flee their homes to make way for the new Jewish settlers in this new state. The Arabs who lived in what was known as the British mandate of Palestine before 1948 (The birth of Israel) are those who have come to be known as the Palestinian People, but who are they? where are they now and what living conditions do they live in?

Israeli Arabs

These are the Palestinians who were not evicted from their houses or chose to stay in what then became the state of Israel, in general they are Arab citizens of the state of Israel and receive the majority of rights other Israeli citizens are granted, however there are some rights that they are not fully entitled to. Amongst the Arab citizens of Israel are the Druze, who are a religious sect separate from Islam. Male Druze Israelis are conscripted into the Israeli Army by law and are not given any exemptions. Many Druze see themselves as proud Israelis who are serving their country and often do not agree with the idea of them having a Palestinian identity, but often it could be the total opposite. There are also the Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel who themselves are of a different set of culture than other Palestinians and their daily lives are generally focused around their nomadic lifestyle, this means that at times these Bedouins do not associate themselves or feel alienated from their greater Palestinian identity, as a result there are a number of Bedouin conscripts into the Israeli army. The Bedouins themselves face many problems as a minority population within the state of Israel, they currently face the Prawer plan which is a plan to uproot all Bedouin out of their unregistered temporary villages into registered towns accounting to an unprecedented land loss as well as a destruction of the Bedouin lifestyle. Other Israeli Arabs are mainly of Muslim and Christian descent and are scattered across the north of Israel, although this demographic is not conscripted in the army by law , nevertheless they are at great disadvantage because they don’t have land purchasing rights or the right to settle anywhere else in Israel. Furthermore these Palestinian Arabs of Israeli citizenship cannot travel to most of the Arab and the Muslim world since their Israeli citizenship limits them as most of these countries do not recognise the Jewish State, in addition these Arabs fall outside the jurisdiction of a future Palestinian state if talks were to prove successful which is a huge blow to their national aspirations.

West bank Palestinians

These are the residents of the region which was annexed by Jordan in 1948 and then conquered by Israel in 1967, Although most of this population is under the Palestinian authority and account as citizens of a future Palestinian state; never the less they are at disadvantages in many counts. First of all they do not have the freedom of movement to travel in and out of what is now the state of Israel, in addition Palestinians moving between cities within the West bank have to face the hurdles of checkpoints between each major city. Palestinians in the west bank also have to live alongside Jewish settlers in the west bank who are bestowed a range of welfare as well as water security and a set of Settler only roads which Palestinians are forbidden to drive on or walk across. Many Palestinians in the West bank also do not live under the PA but Israeli military law where they are accustomed regular Israeli army raids and arrests.

Gazan Palestinians

This group probably has the biggest disadvantage than all other Palestinian groups, this group of 1.8 million, mainly children live in an incredibly crowded strip of land which accounts to 600km squared. First of all Gaza is blockaded by air land and sea by Israeli forces in addition the Narrow border with Egypt is also blocked by Egyptian forces. This means that Gazan live in the world’s largest open air prison, Gazans are unable to fend for themselves , they cannot fish in the Mediterranean because Israeli naval ships blockade it , there is a lack of water availability as well a lack of medical care, those who have great Injuries or in need of specialist medical assistance are often unable to due to the fact that Gazans cannot make it into Egypt due to the closed Rafah border crossing. If conditions couldn’t even become less humane the Gaza strip is prone to unprovoked Israeli aerial bombardment which the recent on going conflict resulting in more than a thousand Palestinian deaths is evidence of.

Palestinian Refugees outside of Palestine

These are often the forgotten ones , the 700,000 refugees that were forced to leave their homes to make way for the creation of Israel and their descendants. This population is scattered all over the world but the majority of them are straddling across Palestine’s immediate neighbours Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. While some of these still live in refugee camps in Jordan the majority of these are now citizens of the state , in fact the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is in fact more than 70% ethnically Palestinians, that having been said there are still many instances Palestinians fall as second class citizens in this state to Transjordanian Arabs. Nevertheless you could see how this is a world away from how Palestinian refugees suffer in Lebanon and Syria , in Lebanon three decades ago there was the infamous Sabra and Shatila massacre where extremist christian militants in Lebanon were aided by Israeli Army troops to desecrate an entire Refuge camps population. In fact this can be mirrored by the on-going conflict in Syria where the Palestinian refugee camp was blockaded by Syrian troops which resulted in the starvation of thousands of Palestinian refugees, in addition to this Palestinian refugees may never be granted the right of return if a Palestinian state was ever created in the future.

Fashionable activism?

Fashionable activism?

Sometimes it feels like whenever something kicks off people have the urgency to go all out and share whatever they can find on the Internet without verifying if its true or not.
Some would even argue this is causing harm (Haretz recently stated that Palestinians are spreading propaganda) and not doing anyone much favors. Personally, I feel that awareness among people, who have a sense of empathy and decency, know what is going on and lets be frank here if all of this was successful we would have seen change long time ago in regards to Palestine, Syria, Myanmar, Central African Republic etc. Another sad reality that this form of activism causes is that people from other affected places will start getting upset knowing that their cause or suffering isn’t ‘worthy’ enough which then makes people compare calamities across the globe and distances the gap between people.

We can’t change the world via sharing posts regarding an area every minute or protesting once or twice a year and doing nothing for the rest of the year. If we look at Palestine, for example, we usually hear and see people’s outcry during Israeli advances into Gaza which have recently occurred in 2009, 2012 and now in 2014. What about Syria? We usually see people’s outrage when the regime decides to employ chemical weapons against civilians. How many of you knew that more than 1000 people were killed during June alone? What about the ongoing crises in Burma or must we wait until the BBC decides to showcase a 1 minute segment?

I admire the people who dedicate their lives to causes that are benefitting to humanity as they try and ensure that we don’t forget about these sufferings in our life of luxury and safety but what annoys me is when people do these acts just to jump on a bandwagon and make themselves feel at ease. I understand this helps people overcome the feeling of helplessness but there is so much more we can do. We need to establish ourselves so we can lobby this government as the Zionists have done for years because years of protests have had very little impact.

(I am not directing this to anyone in particular as I myself have been guilty of this, just something to reflect on)

Syrian Freedom Chant

Ibrahim Qashoush was a fireman and amateur poet from Hama, Syria.

During the 2011 Syrian uprising, Qashoush was noted for singing and authoring songs mocking Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the ruling Ba’ath party.

On 4 July 2011, Qashoush was found dead in the Orontes River, his throat cut and his vocal cords ripped out. After his murder, fellow protesters hailed Qashoush as the “nightingale of the revolution”.

they may have removed his throat, but his voice is still heard and continues to inspire the world