Joharah Baker

Two Jewish presidents: One for America and
the other for Israel...

We know for a fact that US President Barack Obama can utter extremely strong words. We know it because he heard him yesterday being as assertive and as firm as any leader can possibly be. Practically groveling for Jewish votes, Obama put on his “I heart Israel” face and let out all the stops.

“…when one-sided resolutions are brought up at the Human Rights Council, we oppose them. When there are efforts to boycott or divest from Israel, we will stand against them. And whenever an effort is made to delegitimize the state of Israel, my administration has opposed them. So there should not be a shred of doubt by now - when the chips are down, I have Israel’s back.” You sure do, Mr. Obama. Without a doubt.

So,anyone can understand why we Palestinians just don’t want to hear it when Obama or any of his mouthpieces in the government express their “deep concern” for Israel’s gross violations against the Palestinians. It is not even “concern” in most cases but a nonchalance at best. When in December 2011, 14 Security Council members including some of the United States’ closest allies issued a statement condemning Israel’s continued settlement construction and settler violence, the US bailed. "We declined to join that statement for all of the usual reasons. It doesn’t change the fact that our longstanding policy remains that we don’t recognize the legitimacy of the continued Israeli settlements, but we don’t think statements in the UNSC are the way to pursue the goal of getting these parties back to the table," State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.

And when 930 settlement units were approved for construction in the East Jerusalem settlement of HarHoma, the US said it was “deeply concerned” at the unilateral move. It did not however, put its concern into concrete steps to counter it.

While Europe is also in love with the term “concerned” when it comes to Israel and its measures against the Palestinians, its tone is not nearly as condescending as the Americans. Listening to Obama yesterday speaking before AIPAC, it was very hard not to turn the television (or computer) off.

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Joharah Baker
MIFTAH

Everyone is glued to their television sets. The scenes from Egypt's Tahreer [Liberation] Square, from Alexandria and from Suez are mesmerizing, especially for us nostalgic Palestinians who know what it feels like to revolt against an oppressive regime.

At least we used to. The relative silence of the Palestinian street towards the historic events in the Arab world is perplexing, even to the most unfazed among us. While there is no doubt whatsoever that hearts and minds are in the right place, the question is why we are also not out on the streets in solidarity. The answer will vary, of course, depending on the respondent.

For young and zealous protesters in the West Bank eager to wear their hearts on their sleeves and show their solidarity with their Arab brethren, the finger of blame is squarely on the Palestinian Authority and its security forces. It is not as though our people have not felt the call of their fellow Arabs in Tunisia and Egypt and the pull of their cause against the oppressive regimes of their leaders. On the contrary, after the first week of protests in Tunisia, when it was clear the Arab world as we know it would be turned upside down, the Palestinians took to the streets. It was not long, however, before they were told to go home by the police and security forces who, no doubt, were acting on orders from above.

Now that Egyptians have regained hope that they too can be the catalyst for change in their own country, they have taken over the streets. Again, Palestinians felt the urge to join hands (metaphorically) with their Egyptian brethren and again, they were turned back at the door of the relevant ministries after requesting a permit to congregate. What will the Egyptians think of us?

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Joharah Baker

Almost every subject can be argued two ways, especially when the subject at hand is as controversial as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. No matter how unjust the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip is, there will always be those biased souls that justify it with the “Hamas terrorists” argument and the hackneyed Israeli pretext of state security. However, one subject, which cannot possibly have a flip side to it, is the torture of children. Only a deranged and perverted mind could justify that. Oh, and of course, Israel’s security establishment.

On May 18, Defense for Children International released a press statement in which it said it had filed a complaint with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in which it documented the cases of 14 Palestinian children who were either sexually assaulted or threatened with sexual assault by Israeli interrogators, soldiers or police last year. Throughout 2009, DCI’s Palestine chapter reviewed over 100 affidavits from Palestinian minors between the ages of 12 to 16 who gave sworn testimonies of their torture and sexual assault at the hands of Israeli soldiers or interrogators.

To read some of these affidavits is shocking. Israeli interrogators bind boys as young as 13 to chairs, sometimes handcuffed, and squeeze their testicles until the child admits to throwing stones. In other sworn affidavits, all of which were taken immediately after the boys were released, the minors recount how Israeli soldiers or interrogators slap them, kick them, call their mothers whores and threaten to rape them. “He started beating me all over my body and once again he grabbed my testicles and started pressing hard. ‘I won’t let go of your testicles unless you confess,’ he said to me. I felt so much pain and kept shouting. I had no other choice but to confess to throwing stones,” said one 15-year old boy in his testimony to DCI.

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