An Anthropology of ‘Public’ Transportation in Beirut and its Surroundings: GETTING AROUND BEIRUT

Public transportation in Beirut and its Surroundings is actually quite good, but does require a little bit of getting used to.  The purpose of this post is to offer the newbie to Beirut some useful information on getting around Beirut and its northern suburbs.

How to get around Beirut?  You simply stand on the side of the road (the busier, the better), and look to make eye contact with drivers – usually they will have taxi signs visible, but many will not. DO NOT WAVE YOUR HAND, that will indicate to the driver you are an idiot.  JUST STAND, and make eye contact.   The driver will slow down …you should lower your head a bit and tell the driver where you want to go. Examples include: “Rawsha,” al-Malla, Sodeco, Downtown, Cemayza, Hamra Mustashfa Rum, Mar Mikhail, Zarif, Sanayeh, Saluumi, Sinn al-Fiil, al-Mathaf, Dawrah, al-Port, AUB,” and so on.  These are all ‘nodes’ in the Beirut sense.   They are more or less agreed-upon locations, that all drivers in the city will know about.  You are going to want to tell them the closest ‘node’ to where you want to go.   You do not say “biddi aruu7 3 Sinn al-Fiil”… You do not even say “a3 Sinn al-Fil”  (to Sinn al-Fiil)…. You just say “ Sinn al-Fil). 

Thus, whenever you go anywhere, always ask someone (what do I tell the driver to get to “X Y or Z”).  This goes for getting to restaurants, bars, archives, libraries, universities, and anything else you want to go to.  You need to know the ‘node.’  The actual name of place will only become relevant if he asks you his next question (which he usually will, “wenn biddak?”) where do you want to get off?  You could tell him something like “the Starbucks” or “bi-qalb Hamra” (in the center of Hamra).  Or he will frequently tell you he’s only going to drop you off at the Mafraq (intersection), and you have to walk the rest of the way. (This is common for destinations like Cemayza, where the drivers don’t like to enter to due traffic.

The driver then has a few options.  Sometimes he will drive away.   Sometimes he will say “itla3” or “tla3” that means the price is 2000 ($1.33), and you get in the car.  Sometime he will just nod his head, and pull over, which also means he’s willing to take you, and it also means the price is 2000.  There is no discussion over the price, it is a completely silent agreement.  For foreigners, this can be a very strange thing, who are always trained to “agree” upon a price before getting into a cab.   In Beirut, it’s exactly the opposite. If you ask qaddesh?, and try to “agree” upon a price, then you will almost certainly get ripped off.  Essentially what you are telling the driver is, “I’m an idiot, I have no idea how the system works, please take all my money.”   

Always pay the driver AT THE END OF THE RIDE.  ALWAYS.  This avoids confusion, insofar as sometimes, if you pay at the beginning, he’ll try to ask you for money AGAIN at the end of the ride and pretend as if you hadn’t paid him.  Remember, Beirut taxi drivers will always try to cheat you.  Always.

If the driver accepts your offer, this means he’s obligated to get you within a block or two or of the ‘node’ you mention.  But the driver is never on your team.  He will always try to pick people up all along the way.  Sometimes this can be frustrating for you, especially if he picks up a few people, then goes quite far out of the way before you get dropped off.  It’s fucking annoying.  But that’s a service.   

Or, the other thing that can happen, is that you get into a car with people already in the car, who might be going in an absurdly out of the way direction for you, but the driver still wants his next service ride (i.e., the standard 2000) after he drops off his current riders.  You get fucked over again, and miss your connection bus to Tripoli at 7:20.  This can also happen and it’s fucking annoying.

But remember one thing as well, the price for a standard ride is always elfayn (2000), which is called a “service”.  (1.33dolars).  IF THE DRIVER WANTS MORE THAN THAT, HE IS REQUIRED TO SPECIFY AT THE OUTSET.  If he tries to get more than 2000 from you at the end of your ride (not having specified the amount AT THE BEGINNING), punch the bastard in the face and stab his tires with you pocket knife and start cursing at him in Russian. 

Now, if the driver wants more than 2000, he can say ‘servicayn’ which means two services, which is 4000 (2.66dollars).  He can also say Taxi, which is a flat rate of 10,000 ($6.66).  But remember that the price is always negotiable, such that if you see he’s empty, he rejects you, and starts to drive away, you can always shout out “servicayn” or, if you are really in a rush, “taxi.”  Most drivers will always take a taxi, unless you have an absurd request like take me from Rawsha to Mar Mustashfa at 5pm.  If that is your case, then he might say something like qaddesh?  When the price is so high as to be beyond the normal scale (2,000-10,000) – the driver will ask YOU how much your willing to pay for that ride.  You can say 15dollars, you can say 15,000 (recall that there is a fixed rate between dollars and Lebanese money, 15thousand = 10 dollars.  And both are legal tender, always.)

You can always get extremely lucky, and be in Rawsha, trying to get to Ashrafiyya, and coincidentally stop a taxi already going although over there.  But that’s rare.  Often times you can walk for 10 minutes, get yourself in a good place, like at the bottom of Sanayeh – great place to stand!  Guys going everywhere from there.

Now, that is how the taxis work. 

You also have mini buses.  Mini buses take exact routes.  You don’t tell a mini bus where you want to go, you ask him where he’s going .  To be honest I didn’t take very many minibuses, because they are not particularly convenient, and usually require you to walk further distances, and they are crowded and uncomfortable, and, of course, they are half the price: for only 1000, you can go very far distances.  Even you need to get to dawrah, for instance, there are a great many services to go in that direction, such as from Sanayeh, or mafraq cemayza, and many other ‘mini buses’ that go in various directions to various places, such as one from Dawrah to the Airport.  You are thinking, Dawrah to the Airport?  That’s far.  But that’s a minibus, and that’s a lucratinve fucking business.  Those things will fill up instantly, one after the other, 9 people squished into a tiny mini van, departing every few minutes.  Mostly working class men going from North of Beirut, where they probably work, to where they live, in the Palestinian camps by the airport, an area popularly known as ‘dahyeh’

Getting Around NORTH OF BEIRUT

Go to the Northern Bus Stop of the Beurt, Charles Hilu [pronounced SHARL HILU, no S].  So there are two lanes of traffic, as you can see in the photo.  Each company will have there own slot at the bus station.  Note to all travelers, there are no venders within a 5-10 walk of the bus station.  They were al thrown out by the government, so remember to bring a bottle of water, because, if you’re going to the north, Tripoli, for instance, you’ll be without food or water for a few hours, depending on traffic. 

Each company has a guy who will sit on the cement railing that divides the two sides of the highway.  One lane is for local traffic, where fancy cars will roll up and drop off entire families (seemingly Syrians).   These guys who sit on the cement railing are paid, as I see it, to do three things.  First, they are to prevent riders from getting snagged up by the other companies.  I saw this happen once, and it’s not a pretty site.  A White Jeep with faint orange and yellow lettering will slow down as he passes Charles Hilu.  Obviously, he’s trying to snatch up someone heading to Sham [Damascus].  The cement-sitter is guarding to make sure this doesn’t happen.  If the White Jeep succeeds, the cement-sitters start cursing up a storm. 

This is why, also, whenever they see someone, male, youngish, carring a small duffle bag, with cheap or raggedy clothing, and some scruffy facial hair [me for instance]--- walking towards the bus station, the guys at Charles Hilu descend like a plague of locusts upon you: ‘3 Sham ‘3 Sham ‘3Sham??????  They are very persuasive businessmen, but somehow  I managed to resist.  So demand for ‘3Sham is extremely competitive, as the drop in demand must have certainly driven many drivers out of business.  I’m sure this used to be a thriving business before Syria descended into madness, but now it must be all but shattered.  For who is going to Sham these days?

Anyways, how to get to the north?  Best way is to go the Charles Hilu on a bus to Tripoli.  Air conditioning, and he doesn't stop every 5 seconds to pick up riders.  You can also go to Dawrah and get on a mini-bus, but these things stop every 5 seconds... and will wait like 5 minutes at every overpass and walking bridge and exit to try and pick up passengers, and drive will slowly... so take the Charles Hilu bus to Tripoli, and bus make sure you tell the driver where you want to get off.

INTIHA

Historicizing the Ten Plagues: Hail, Locusts, Darkness and Mass Death

 The locust swarms that attacked Egypt and Israel this past week have perked the ears of farmers, agronomists and a few Orthodox Yemenite Jews on the hunt for a crunchy kosher treat, but not many others.  Most of us don’t think much about locusts these days.  We have pesticides that do most of thinking—or rather killing—for us. 

But this wasn’t always the case.  Locusts have been at the heart and soul of the region’s history since time immemorial.  References to locusts are littered throughout the Bible, most infamously, in the story of the ten plagues:

“Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.”

Now, a little anecdote to share at your Passover Seder that may just turn some heads: what leads to locust plagues?  The locusts that attacked Egypt as recorded in the Bible—and again this past week—typically live a life of solitude in the mass desert expanse stretching from Morocco in the West to the Bay of Bengal in East.  Most of the time, the vast majority of their eggs—which can number in the many dozens—will die in the dry desert sand, an inhospitable environment for the yet unhatched ovular shaped pods.  But, with enough rain, the desert sand turns moist, and the pods turn into locusts.  That same rain will also give birth to scattered patches of desert vegetation, something the baby locusts will need for food and shelter to grow winged-bodies big and strong enough to carry them out of the desert and lay pillage to anything and everything green throughout the plains and fields of North, West and East Africa, the Levant, Asia Minor, the Arabian Peninsula and beyond.

Now, look back at plague number seven: hail.  Coincidence, I think not. 

Now, turn to plague number nine: darkness.   What could possibly lead to an extended period of darkness?  Locusts!  As Reuters reported on Wednesday last week, “locust clouds darkened [the] skies.”  Indeed, anyone familiar with the annals of the history of locusts—an admittedly small number of people—will agree that this is the single most common description in the historical record. 

Consider, for instance, the single worst locust attack recorded in modern Middle East history, a plague of cataclysmic proportions that befell Greater Syria during World War I.

The New Zealand staff corps stationed at the Suez Canal noted in mid-March 1915, almost exactly 98 years ago—that  “flying about two feet above the ground, and reaching to a height that could not be estimated, these insects came from the desert, making towards the cultivations … wherever one looked were locusts as far as the eye could see.  One was given the impression that a huge dark veil hung over the earth.”

Antun Yamin, a eye-witness from Lebanon, made much the same observation: “On the 9^th of April [1915] we could not see the sun that day. Gigantic locusts blocked out all vision, and light became darkness…for an entire week they blocked out all sunlight.” 

And my personal favorite, Wasif Jawhariyya, a Jerusalemite musician and Ottoman conscript who left us his voluminous memoirs, recalled gazing at the sky in Jerusalem and seeing nothing but locusts.  “We could not see the sun at all.  The evanescent locusts looked like dense clouds in the air.” 

Hail leads to locust plagues.  Locusts plagues leads to darkness.  How about the death of first-born?  Historians, I imagine, will struggle with this one. 

What is clear, however, is that locusts have always been an important cause of famine – and hence mass death – in the region.  This was certainly the case in 1915, remembered by survivors as ‘Am al-Jarad (the year of the locust, in Arabic). The locusts, with their insatiable appetites, devoured virtually all of the region’s foodstuffs, including olive groves, fruits, vegetables, fodder fields, almonds, barely and cereals.  By the end of World War I, some 500,000 people had perished throughout the Greater Syria region (1/7^th of the population)—in large measure, because the locusts ate all the bloody food. 

So perhaps what was later interpreted as the death of the first-born was simply a mass famine, something entirely plausible based on what we know about locust attacks.

So, if your in Israel/Palestine or Egypt and looking to spice up your Seder: snatch up a few locusts and surprise the little buggers who find afikoman with a treat that almost certainly bring history to life!  

Israeli Stand-up comedy and the Rise of Uri Hizkiya

So this post isn't directly related to East Jerusalem, but it fits the broader goal of introducing English-speaking audiences to important personalities in the city, and more broadly, Israel and Palestine.  Today's discussion will center around a rising star in the arena of Israeli Stand-up Comedy: Uri Hezkiya (אורי חזקיה.)

The first thing your going to do when you see the title of this post is wiki the guy.  The reason I know that is because that is precisely what I did when I sat down to write this post.  I wikied the bastard, except he didn't have an English language page, you have to find him under אורי חזקיה. So maybe someone can copy and paste some of this shit here into the wiki page. Only they'de be citing an unreliable "blog."  Fuck em.

Thanks to the Hebrew wiki page we can learn a great deal about his upbringing, his early childhood, his earliest gigs and his military service in the Air Force, all very typical a nice Jewish Ashkenazi boy from North Tel Aviv.

Today the guy has become an Israeli sensation, an Israeli Jerry Seinfeld.  As the kind Israeli wiki contributors have shared for us, he has won the "man of year" award by Israel's leading magazine for Youth, מעריב לנוער (Ma'ariv Le-Noar), an apparently popular Israeli weekly magazine.

Hizkiye's humor is every day humor.  What differentiates Uri from Jerry is that Uri's situations are Israeli every day situations situations: Tel Aviv parking, Aroma Coffee, going on a 2-year trip to India, leaving a plate of dirty humous in the sink, and so on.  I would call the humor reaching to as broad an Israeli audience as possibile.  No nitches.  You know, for instance, how you prepare a coffee for a friend.  You are in the kitchen.  You see those three bins: sugar, coffee and tea.  You open the tea, there's coffee, you open the coffee, there's tea, you open the sugar, there's laundry detergent.  Then, you reach for a spoon to mix the sugar.   Ohh, glorrrrriously, there's a clean spoon!!!  Glod Bless. No need to wash.  Now, all you can think about it which mug is mine as which is his.  Ani, ezkor, smol ze she-loooooo.  (the left  cup is his).... You start singing it to yourself.... smol ve shelooooooooo......smol ze she-loooooooo.....(that's Uri singing) You pick up your drinks, and half way to the living room until you realize, and ohhhh noooo...... Od Lo Irbavti (I forgot to stir!).

His own co-hosts clearly acknowledge his popularity.  Shalom Asiyag, the host of show, even asked him once in the free talk segment they do after someone does some stand-up what's it's like being a hot shot these days.  Getting invited to so many parties and shit.

But it is the everyday humor that Uri excels at.  The kind where you make fun of the little things in life.  You're at a party, and you girlfriend rings.  What's up?!? Who you with?? You start going through the names... of the people in the circle, Shmolik, Rivka, Uri....

(Meanwhile, everyone stops their conversations to listen in on the delightful pleasantries of another couples intamacy.( Ok, that was my addition).

Back to Hezkiya:  He's going through the names of everyone in the circle.  Out of the corner of his eye he spots someone who's name he is suppose to know, but has obviously forgotton.  Nu.... Ani Amur lizkor et kulam?  Am I going to start naming everyone here?!?  We've all been there.  It's Seinfeld humor (although one wonders how much Seinfeld Uri could have watched as a kid.  His Israeli accent in his English is pretty epic--for instance, when we breaks out into singing American pop music.

What makes Uri Hezkiya so good is that he knows how to stay on a topic long enough to keep the story going.  This a common problem for people just getting started in stand-up comedy.  A story should not swerve in different directions, jump from topic to topic or proceed at rapidly varyingpaces and pauses.  The audience must develop momentum, build-ups, references to prior jokes, a bigger story to tell.  Think Chris Rock and gun control.  Rrecall the 5 dollar bullets.  I'd pop a cap in your ass--if I could afford it.   Uri has all of that.  We get a good 6-7 minutes on a single topic.

Take, for instance, the whole process of asking for directions to a stranger while trying to find a friend's house party.  Mi ze tipus she-yodeah???  How can he 'look like' he's the right person to ask?  Once, did you ever see a guy with a cloud above his head that read: I know what da fuck is up!  Then he continues with his story about getting lost.  We've all gotten lost driving to a friend's house party.  Uri excels at the punchlines and the big themes.

Your walking up the staircase to your house (i.e. in a 5 story apartment building).  You smell some amazing Mizrakhi house wife preparing a feast for the wedding of a third cousin.  You smell the Russians baking some delicious pork chops... you walk into your house.  There's your dad, his ass on the floor reading a newspaper, mekapel cleminta (pealing a clementine).  Wassssuuupppp?  How was school?????  How's Shmulik doing?  (that's you laughing while he's saying wasssuuupppp???)  Youre dad, staring at you as you walk in dying for something yummy and getting a clementine in return (Jaffa is famous for its Oranges)/  Uri let's you ride out your laughter naturally.

Some of humor is really Israeli.  Tizenabi?  Where the fuck is Tizenabi?  Has anyone ever been to Tizenabi?  Mishehu ba-kahal yodeh eifo ze tizenabi?  I, of course, had never heard of Tizenabi--thank you expert linguist Dror Weil for his assistance.  I think the best translation to English is: where the fuck is But Fucking Egypt?  Has anyone ever been to But Fucking Egypt?  At least that's how B.F.E. was used in white suburban Detroit middle-school slang in the late 1990s.  

Khas ve-khalila... where the hell did it come from?  Who the fuck are khas and khalila?  So how about we just starting making shit up.  Katz ve-garjuba.  I suppose this is just one of those things you have to be a native speaker to find funny.  I really hope nothing bad happens to him on his trip to India, "katz ve-garjuba.

Whatever the case may be, for the past three years Uri has been the star of one of if not the most successful comedy shows in Israel, called צחוק מהעבודה (tzhok me-ha-avodah).  And there seems to be no doubt among the viewers that Uri is the funniest of the bunch.  The audiences laugh a lot more when Uri performs.  His stand-up blows away that of the other co-hosts ,ליטל שוורץ  קובי מימון, שחר חסון, ארז שלום.  Don't get me wrong, I think all of these guys are reasonably funny, and certainly have their strong spots.  So does the show's host, שלום אסייג (Shalom Asiyag), a more established figure in the annals of Israeli stand-up comedy--a household name approximating perhaps an Edie Murphy, Tom Hanks or Robin Williams.  Again, Asiyag has no English language wiki page either, neither do away of the other popular Israeli television personalities mentioned in this article.  Go watch some Uri and translate the bloddy wiki pages to English!

Qalandia

Check out my article published today in Jadaliyya: titled "Qalandia: The Potential to Transform Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance"

selected quotes: "In the event of a truly mass protest movement in Israel/Palestine—the kind we have seen in Tunisia, Syria and Egypt—Palestinians will need their own version of Tahrir Square, and Qalandia has that potential."


"Second, Qalandia has a unique geographically central location. It lies at the center of the massive urban landscape of North Jerusalem, which is easily accessible to Palestinians from ‘East Jerusalem’, as well as Ramallah, al-Bira, and al-Ram. Also a bit further away, although not prohibitively, are two major Palestinian urban centers in the West Bank: Bethlehem and Nablus. Many other locales that have become sites of mass protest offer less geo-significance. Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, for instance, is totally inaccessible to West Bank Palestinians. Additionally, places like Bil’in, Nil’in, and Nabi Saleh among others in the West Bank are further remote and harder for Palestinians and Israelis inside Israel to access. Just imagine, for instance, activists descending on Qalandia from all corners of Palestine to protest an end to the occupation."

On Israeli closures of Palestinian Institutions in East Jerusalem

In the past year or so Israel has shut down a dozen some institutions in East Jerusalem, including parks, NGOs, research centers and other facets of civil society.  The purported reason is that they accept money from Hamas.

The battle continues to keep these NGOs open, as the Meyzan Institute for Human Rights in Nazareth has just filed a petition to the high court in Israel to keep the "Institute for the Development of Jerusalem," which was closed down in October 2011.

I have to say, Israel is really shooting itself in the foot here by shutting down the apparati, the foundations, the skeleton, the basis of democratic and pluralistic society in East Jerusalem.  Shutting down these institutions means fewer young people will have opportunities to work in NGO work in the city. In feeds into anti-Israel propaganda, by providing groups like HAMAS with precisely the ammunition they need to convince youngsters that Israel seeks to push Arabs out of Jerusalem and control everything for themselves.  Indirectly, the Israeli injunction cuts more Arab East Jerusalemites off from important public services.  

Let's assume they are receiving Hamas money for the money.  The idea that Israel can somehow defeat Hamas by shutting down these NGO is so shockingly stupid that you have to wonder what Israel policy makers could possibly thinking.  To "defeat Hamas"?  Well, it is precisely BECAUSE of this NGO, and many others like it, that Palestinians in East Jerusalem have forums and institutions to advocate for human rights, reject of violence, demand the fair application of international law and promote an agenda that embraces non-violent resistance. 

In fact, if Israel ACTUALLY wanted to sideline Hamas, it would provide funding for dozens more NGOs in East Jerusalem, rather than shutting down the few that exist.  This would ultimately lay the foreground of a civil, democratic society, committed to peaceful, non-violent engagement with the Jerusalem municipality and Israel.  

Alas, Israelis fails to realize what is in their own best interest.  Perhaps Israeli politicians' real incentive here has nothing to do with Hamas and everything to do with pushing Palestinians out of East Jerusalem.  After all, Abbas just rejected meetings with Netanyahu recently because Jerusalem's status as eternally belonging to Israel was basically made a precondition for talks by Netanyahu.  This is one more tragic stone that Israel is building of its own grave.  

  

Palestinian Intellectuals Series (pt. 1): Faisal Hawrani

This will be the first post in a series of posts on Palestinians intellectuals, past and present, with a focus on bringing to light personalities that are less well known to Western audiences and discussing the landscape of Palestinian intellectual life.

Today's post will be about Faisal Hawrani, born in Masmiyya, a village in the north of the Gaza district. He was displaced by the 1948, making his way to Syria in 1948.  There he received his education and help found the Association of Palestinian Studies, becoming its President in 1964.  He subsequently worked as journalist, and then as the head of the research center of Palestine studies, associated with the PLO.

He has published a number of novels, including Muhasirun (Trapped), Bir al-Shum (A smell?) and others, as well as a number of works of non-fiction and history, including al-Judhur al-Rafd al-Filastini 1918-1948 (The Roots of Palestinian Rejection 1918-1948) and many others.

The following is a nice summary of his ideas on Palestinian 'rejection' before 1948.  He argues that the foundation of the Palestinian political lanscape before 1948 lied on these hinges: (1) the reliability of the broader Arab and Muslim worlds (and there exaggerated) unfulfilled hopes; (2) the contradiction on rejecting Zionism on the one hand, yet trying to reconciliate with the Mandatory authorities (who were facilitating the Zionist project); (3) the failure to consider Britain an enemy from the beginning; (4) the failure to realize the importance of the complete representation of the citizens, including the Jews; (5) a failure to forge significant alliances; (6) The Palestinians' exaggerated imagination on the Arab and Islamic world's support for Palestine. (7) A lack of willingness to use violence as a means to achieve their national demands; (8) the failure of the Palestinian leadership to look after the needs of the Palestinians; among other things.

He published a "Dialogue with Khaled al-Hassan," an early advisor to Yasar Arafat, in the July 1980 edition of Shu'un Filastiniyya, probably the most serious Arabic-language journal of Palestinian Studies that exists.

He is also a contributor to journals such as Kitab al-Sanawi, a new publication of the Yassar Arafat Foundation in Ramallah.         

"Avodah Aravit" or "Shughl Arab" or "Arab Labor"

The third season of "Avodah Aravit" (Arab Labor), perhaps the most popular TV series in Israel, launched yesterday.  The comedy show -- described by Haaretz as the single best TV series today in Israel, "the jewel in the crown of the rainbow," is a sitcom which focuses on an Arab family in Jerusalem, in particular on the life of Amjad, a Palestinian-Jerusalemite journalist.

The show pokes fun at cultural stereotypes; exposes the struggles of this Jerusalemite Palestinian man, who desperately wants to become Jewish Israeli in every way possible -- own a dog, learn how to swim, buy an "Israeli Jewish car," even moving to an all Jewish middle-upper class neighborhood (Rahvia) of Jerusalem.

Much like Israeli audiences raved about Ajami -- the Israeli film about violent Arab Palestinian life in Jaffa -- it seems that, precisely because the show deals with the red hot buttons of Israeli society -- chief among them Arab-Zionist/Jewish issues, the show has gained widespread success.  And, let's be completely honest here: this is by far the best Israeli TV show I've ever seen, far better than even other good shows like "Ramzor," the humor absolutely brilliant.

But it's more than just the humor.  I think there is a large segment of Israeli society that desperately wants to put these issues on the table -- is interested in Arabic, Palestinian culture, society and so on, a lot segment that wishes they had more "Arab friends" (just like White Americans love talking about their black friends, Israeli Jews love talking about their Arab friends).  In fact the show makes fun of this very stereotype all the time -- Amjad's Israeli neighbors are "liberal Israelis" and try to show him how "liberal" they are all the time -- hey, "we vote for Meretz!"

The show adeptly moves seamlessly between Arab and Jewish society in Israel.  In this sense language plays a profoundly important role in the show -- that, if one is merely reading the subtitles -- one will completely miss a great deal of fascinating social commentary (there are Hebrew subtitles whenever the characters are speaking Arabic, and Arabic (and Hebrew) subtitles whenever the characters are speaking Hebrew, although no Arabic subtitles when the characters are speaking Arabic).

Let's provide at least one example to illustrate the point.  The opening scene from one episode recalls Amjad begging his wife to have sex with him.  She clearly does not want to, frustrated by his failure to help around the home.  Finally she says, "alright, just do it," and angrily lies flat, awaiting his penetration.  He says something like "shway Heshek, eeehh?" a little "emotion" or "lust," (will you?).... Amjad asserts.  Amjad throws in the Hebrew word for "emotion"as a way of disguising his distaste for his wife's reaction. This is the first example that comes to mind, but the entire show is ridden with these kinds of examples.   More to come on this show in the future!

Testimony from Palestinian Women in East Jerusalem

We will now begin a featured series of testimonies from an excellent by the Women's Center for Legan Aid and Counseling in November 2010 titled Forced Evictions: Assessing the Impact on Palestinian Women in East Jerusalem.  These testimonies are all quotes from interviews conducted by members of the Women's Center with women from East Jerusalem.  These are the stories that often get lost in the press coverage of East Jerusalem, and it is important to acknowledge the voices of residents of East Jerusalem themselves:


We will begin with Maisa Al Kurd, who lives in Sheikh Jarrah, and is facing the threat of eviction from her home:  “On 24th November [2009]which was the night of Eid Al-Adha, a Muslim holiday, I was up late after my son Munjad came back after his late shift at  the hotel.  It was around 1am when I heard the sound of moving furniture in the extension and I went outside with my mobiles.   It was lit up outside from the lights from the settler house opposite and I could see that there were four settlers inside the house and one of them standing outside the house.  As I approached the settler stood outside, he pushed me away towards the wall in my chest. I could see him clearly, he had ginger hair.  My son M came out of the house and saw the settler push me and said: ‘what are you doing to my mother’ but then the settler put his hands around M’s neck.  I was frightened of what
was going to happen and phoned the police while I was still stood with my back against the wall.

On another day – December 1st [2009], I was attacked by a settler who hit me with a metal bar.  My sons tried to defend me but when the police arrived they arrested my sons because the settlers accused them of attacking them.  Always, they believe what the settlers say even though   it is them attacking us and them coming onto our property and trying to take it from us.  My sons were then ordered to stay away from the house and from Sheikh Jarrah for 47 days.   Once this expired, M was arrested again and banned for another two months meaning that he couldn’t work because the hotel he works in is in Sheikh Jarrah.  Even now the orders have expired, my sons are too scared to come back here in case they are arrested.”" [end of quote].

East Jerusalem Settlements and the Imminent Demise of the Two-State Solution

Terrestrial Jerusalem has just published a new report in January 2012 titled East Jerusalem Settlements and the Imminent Demise of the Two-State Solution

Here are some of the highlights:

"Under the 2003 Geneva Accords, the area of Har Homa is to fall under Palestinian sovereignty. But today, a settlement neighborhood that did not exist in 2000 is now home to 12,000 Israeli  residents."  It will be very difficult to convince Palestinians to accept that -- after Oslo, after it was long clear that Jerusalem needed to be shared by both sides -- they should forfeit this land to Israeli settlers.

"Following a quiet, de facto settlement freeze imposed by PM Netanyahu in March  2010, in November 2010 settlement activities in East  Jerusalem resumed and have since exceeded even  previously high levels by 50%-200%. East Jerusalem  has not witnessed settlement activities of such a pace and scope since the 1970s."

The report also discusses a "welding" process in East Jerusalem, whereby new settlement construction in East Jerusalem is strategic in order to create a buffer between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem (through additional construction in Givat Hamatos, announced in October 2011).  What is particularly interesting about this construction is that some 1800 of the 4000 new housing units will be built as a part of Beit Safafa.  On the one hand, this is great news for Beit Safafa residents and more generally Palestinian East Jerusalem.  On the other hand, one wonders if this isn't a ploy to justify the additional Jewish settlement construction -- some 2200 units, as well as to inter-link, or "weld," as Terrestrial Jerusalem puts it, the Arab neighborhoods of the city into the Jews ones.

What Do East Jerusalemites Want?

Evelyn Gordon, a regular blogger at Commentary Magazine, just published a piece titled "Consult Jerusalem's Palestinians Before Rushing to Divide the City."  The article sites some statistics that, depending on the poll taken -- and the immediate political context in which it was taken -- about 1/3 of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem would prefer remaining in Israeli if a two-state solution emerged.  She suspects, based on the number of "declined to answer" respondents, that as many as a half of the residents of East Jerusalem would prefer to stay on the Israel side.


Gordon almost seems glee about the whole thing, and you can bet that most right-of-center readers on Israel/Palestine polemics are going to smirk when they read this data.  "Ha, all this talk about dividing Jerusalem, and the Palestinians themselves want to stay in Israel."   OF COURSE Palestinians in East Jerusalem would prefer to stay in Israel: where, despite being second class citizens, they have access to jobs and health care that is far better than in the West Bank.


But Gordon misses the broader point -- which should be (but of course isn't) profoundly scary to her.  If the Palestinian community in East Jerusalem itself is so fundamentally split -- which the numbers suggest -- that makes it even more difficult to the divide the city, something that would already be a nightmare and half, given that large Jewish settlements tugging Arab neighborhoods on all sides, as well as the growing presence of Jewish settlements in the Arab neighborhoods themselves.  What this means is that, if it's impossible to divide Jerusalem -- than it's impossible for a Palestinian political leadership to accept the two-state solution.  This is the key point Gordon seems to miss out on. 


And if a great many Palestinians in East Jerusalem want to stay in Israel, it's not a stretch to imagine Palestinians in the West Bank starting to talk about staying in Israel. 


Of course, Israelis don't ever consider this, but if a mass movement inside the West Bank emerged to pressure Israel to just give them equal rights inside Israel -- rather than demand this bantu-stanized, Jerualem-less, chopped up West Bank, without control of borders, resources, and what have you, then Israel will find itself in a very precarious situation (that is if it wants to remain a Jewish-majority state).  

Home Demolitions Continue in East Jerusalem

Today, the Palestinian News and Info Agency reports that the Jerusalem Municipality demolished a residential caravan in Beitu Hanina and a room in a house near Shufat, the only refugee camp inside of Israel (although, coincidentally enough, lies on the West Bank side of the separation barrier.  That resulted in another 13 homeless Palestinians, who now wait for international charities to provide them with tents to sleep in.      

On Wednesday, Jan. 25th, I posted that Silwan the Municipality of Jerusalem sought to turn the only (cement) "soccer field" in Silwan into a parking lot, but the request was rejected by a judge, citing the wishes of the inhabitants of the neighborhood.


Well, it seems the municipality figured out another way of taking over the soccer field.  Today, the front page of Ha'aretz online reports that Israeli police have taken over the soccer field -- and some 12 other institutions in East Jerusalem.  The police says that the soccer field (small cement yard) has been taken over by Hamas, which uses the site as a cover for the organization's activities in East Jerusalem.


The logic of the Israeli police would be laughable if it weren't so scary.  Their argument is that Hamas is gaining a footing in East Jerusalem by helping fund things like this soccer field, and it needs to be stopped.  Right, so by closing down the soccer field, all the children of Silwan will realize that, instead of spending their free time playing soccer, they should be memorizing Zionist folk songs and practicing their gurgling "resh," so that when they mature into adolescents and adults, they can join the ranks of Shabak or work for the Jewish National Fund.   


What's going to drive kids in East Jerusalem to Hamas is not a soccer field, its shutting down the soccer field!  I mean, even if you support the mission of the Israeli police, the idea is completely moronic. 

A Bird's Eye of 2010 in East Jerusalem

The following data is taken from the following UN report Israel: Assistance to the Palestinian people (A/63/75-E/2008/52) Compiled on 29 Jan 2012

I have noted some of the data that is especially pertinent to East Jerusalem below:

Eleven children were killed and 360 were injured as a result of the clashes. In September and October 2010 alone, 26 Palestinian children were injured and one 15-month-old baby died after inhaling tear  gas in occupied East Jerusalem; most cases involved private armed guards hired by the Ministry of Construction and Housing of Israel to protect Israeli settlers in the neighbourhood of Silwan (page 7)

A Palestinian family stands on top of the rubble of their home in Beit Hanina after it was destroyed by Israeli authorities on 13 July 2010. (Anne Paq/ActiveStills)

In the first half of 2010, 46 residency permits for Palestinians in Jerusalem were revoked, adding to the 13,115 permits that had been revoked between 1967 and November 2009 (page 9)

At  least 431 Palestinian structures were demolished in occupied East Jerusalem and Area C9 in the West Bank, including 137 residential structures, displacing 594  people and affecting the livelihood of 14,136 others (page 8)

In 2010, settlers took over at least 10 Palestinian housing units in occupied East Jerusalem, leading to the eviction of at least 70 Palestinians (page 11)

Israeli settlers burned down a Palestinian church in occupied East Jerusalem  and three mosques in the West Bank. Six mosques were vandalized, set on fire or both by Israeli settlers during 2010, the fifth such occurrence that year (page 11)

More Home Demolition Orders issued in East Jerusalem

Dozens of Palestinian residents of Bir Ayyub and Hawsh al-A'war neighborhoods of Silwan, just South East of the Old City, were issued new orders today that their homes have been placed under a demolition order.  

Silwan is a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem just southeast of the old city.  It has increasingly become the target of Judaization efforts.  Today, the Municipality of Jerusalem sought to turn the only (cement) "soccer field" in Silwan into a parking lot, but the request was rejected by a judge, citing the wishes of the inhabitants of the neighborhood.

Israeli Government's Home Demolitions and Judaization of East Jerusalem are Destroying Israel

Israel is rapidly sowing the seeds of its own destruction. Land confiscation, house demolitions, destruction of Palestinian property, and the Judaization of East Jerusalem are proceeding at unprecedented levels in 2011 and 2012. 

What this means is that it may soon enough be physically impossible to share control of Jerusalem between Jews and Palestinians, and consequently, to solve the conflict by the estabilshment of an independent state of Palestine. Thus, the policies of terror and destruction adopted by the Israeli government and Jerusalem municipality may be scary for the Palestinians – but they should be even scarier for anyone who supports the idea of the Jewish state.     

Ruins of Destroyed ICAHD Peace Center, "Beit Arabiyya," in Anata, Jerusalem, on Tuesday, Jan. 24

Let’s take a look at some of the facts: The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)reported that 2011 constituted “a record year of displacement,” with some 622 Palestinian structures demolished by Israeli authorities, 36% (or 222) of which were family homes. This means that a Palestinian home was destroyed four days out of every week this past year, resulting in some 1,094 displaced persons, double that of 2010. 

And yet, the destruction does not seem to be enough for Israeli politicians, who held a special session of the Knesset last week on how to better enforce Israeli law in East Jerusalem -- basically how to ensure more 'illegal' Palestinian structures in the East Jerusalem get destroyed. 

Of course, through an intricate system of zoning laws in East Jerusalem, “densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods are encircled by 'green space' or 'unzoned land' where building is forbidden.” ICAHD explains as well that per-plot housing density is also restricted, and is far lower in Palestinian than in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In other words, the Jerusalem municipality makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to build 'legally.'  

The demolitions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank continue in 2012 unabated. Just this past week, the Jerusalem Municipality demolished the Shepard’s Hotel in the Palestinian neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah – a property built in the 1930s by Hajj Amin al-Husseini, former Ottoman soldier, graduate of al-Azhar University, leader of the dominant Husseini faction in Palestinian national politics during the British Mandate period, and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. (Of course, if you read the Western media, all you will learn is that he allied with the Nazis during World War II). The Jerusalem Municipality then sold the property to Irvin Moskovitz, who will build some 20 new housing units for Jewish settlers in the heart of Arab East Jerusalem.

The Shepard’s hotel destruction may have been the most high-profile, but the Israeli's policy of home demolitions is moving fast apace. On Monday night, January 23, the Israelis demolished for the fifth time the “Arabiyya house,” an ICAHD peace center, along with other structures in the East Anata Bedouin Compound.

Also this week, the Israeli authorities confiscated 76 dunams of agricultural land from the village of Khas, east of Bet Lehem, again under the pretext that it was "absentee property." The land will now be annexed to Jerusalem. One wonders why the people of Khas were "absent" from their agricultural land? The answer is that they were physically prevented from accessing their land since 2007 because Israel built a gigantic fence separating them from it.

The PLO also recently announced that, since the beginning of the year (i.e. some 3 weeks ago), 1,367 dunams of land have been taken over and 734 new housing units have been built.   

No Palestinian leader who wants to remain a Palestinian leader could possibly accept a Palestine without East Jerusalem as its capital (for better or worse). What this means, I think, is that the more Israel Judaizes East Jerusalem and the more Palestinian-owned land it confiscates – the more likely that the two-state solution becomes impossible. What’s left, for Palestinians, is equal rights inside Israel. That will be a scary day for people who hope Israel remains a Jewish state.

Unprecedented Settlement Growth Expected in 2012

A new report from the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center indicates that 2012 will likely be a year of unprecedented growth in the settlements.  The Netanyahu government has stepped up its efforts to build thousands of new housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Also this week, the Israeli authorities confiscated 76 dunams of agricultural land from the village of Khas, east of Bet Lehem, under the pretext that it was "absentee property," now to be annexed to Jerusalem.  Why is it that the people of Khas were "absent" from their agricultural land?  Well, they were prevented from accessing their land since 2007 because Israel built a gigantic fence separating them from it. 

Jerusalem Court freezes plans to construct a "national park" in al-Tur and al-Issawiya

The Jerusalem Central Court recently announced that it has frozen plans to construct a so-called "national park" in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhoods of at-Tur and al-Issawiya (on the eastern slopes of Mount Scopus).  The decision was prompted by a petition from The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, which argued that it is the right of those effected by the construction of the park to understand its significance, as well as the right to object to its construction.  The city has until the beginning of February to respond.


The land upon which the park would be built is owned by the residents of at-Tur and Issawiya.  The construction of the park, then, would in effect prevent the property owners from building on this land.  This is one of the many strategies adopted by the Jerusalem Municipality to prevent the Arab population of Jerusalem from expanding.  The other purpose of the constructing this "national park," as Terrestrial Jerusalem has pointed out, "is to be a link between the two concentric encirclements of Palestinian East Jerusalem: the inner encirclement of the Old City and its visual basin, as designated by the governmental Old City Basin Project, and the outer encirclement in Greater Jerusalem, as disclosed by the E-1 plan between Ma'ale Adumim and East Jerusalem.  The new national park will be a bridge, creating a geographical link between the Old City basin and E-1."