Unite the Union - Palestine Delegation.pdf - josephmurphy.photo@gmail.com

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Unite the Union Delegation to Palestine Report by Joseph Murphy In collaboration with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Introduction Palestine, a very basic overview… Under the Ottoman Empire, Palestine existed in relative harmony, with Muslims, Jews and Christians all living and worshiping side by side. However, the growing interference of Western forces that started at the end of the 19th and continued into the 20th century, upset a delicate balance that had existed for almost 400 years. The British mandate that formally began in 1922 and ended in 1947 was calamitous, leaving behind a legacy of mistrust and division and a rise in nationalism on all sides. The United Nations’ attempt to allocate territory to both Palestinians and Jews was a shambolic exercise that only inflamed tensions further, the result being that war broke out between Arabs and Israelis in 1948. At the end of that war, Israel had gained a third more territory, Jordan ended up controlling East Jerusalem and the West Bank, whilst Egypt controlled Gaza. Nearly 800,000 Palestinians became refugees overnight as they were forcibly displaced from their homes, with a further 530 of their towns and villages completely destroyed. To Israel, this was the beginning of their nation state but to Palestinians this was the Nakba, the Catastrophe, as they became stateless. Over the next 18 years, nothing really changed territorially. However, the second Arab and Israeli conflict - The 6 Day War - saw Israel take control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. In 1967, the Unite Nations passed Resolution 242 that called for the Arab states to accept Israel’s right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force, but it also called for Israel to withdraw from the territories it had taken and occupied in that conflict. Apart from the Sinai Peninsula, those territories remain under Israeli control to this day. Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem has now lasted over 50 years. A fourth generation of Palestinians are now being born into this reality, the only reality that they and many others before them have ever known. This state of affairs is often confused as a religious conflict, when in fact the situation is better described as an unequal struggle of an occupied people and their legitimate and often desperate fight for their homes, their lands and for their basic human rights. According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Human Rights Organisation… “For more than half a century, Israel has kept up a reality of dispossession, oppression and human rights abuse in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel’s ongoing, prolonged control over millions of people, whose lives are subject to its wants and needs, is unjustifiable, inexcusable and unacceptable.” At the start of 2021, B’Tselem went further and published a comprehensive and detailed report declaring that by all legal definitions, Israel was in fact an apartheid regime. As stated, this introduction is a very basic overview of the current situation. It was this delegation’s role to observe, engage and listen to those who were actually living in this reality, in order to get a better understanding and bring their voices to a wider audience. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this report belong solely to the author, and not to Unite the Union or the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. All images and words copyright of Joseph Murphy. www.josephmurphyphotography.com josephmurphy.photo@gmail.com Arrival at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv If you are a not an Israeli, then passport control at the Ben Gurion airport at Tel Aviv tends to be a slow and lengthy process. The staff, all military, look orderly in appearance but also dour and thoroughly disinterested. Everyone is being asked the same standard questions - Why are you here? How long for? Where are you staying? My response to the final question, the National in East Jerusalem, causes the slight raising of an eyebrow in the young female conscript who is investigating the authenticity of my passport. However, the display of emotion is quickly corrected, my entry permit along with my documentation pushed back under the glass screen, and I pass under the ‘Welcome to Israel’ sign above me. Walking through the airport it was noticeable that the architecture was clean and contemporary but also large in scale, almost unnecessarily so, perhaps trying to impart a sense of power and authority. A large fountain, the central focus of the departures lounge, added to the not so subliminal message, a statement of life but of also being in control of that life. Our delegation gathered together and ventured outside into the late November sunshine to board our transport to East Jerusalem. Judged by British standards, the roads are open and quiet, the traffic light and quick and the gleaming skyscrapers and office blocks of Tel Aviv are soon distant shapes on the horizon behind us. The landscape east of the capital is soft and open, agricultural and fertile, with no sense of concern or disquiet. As we track further east, the motorway gradually begins to cut through rockier and drier terrain and the farmsteads are left behind. Little by little, urban settlements start to appear to the left and to the right and barbed wire fences contour the hills, twisting and contorting the topography. The closer to Jerusalem we get, the more unnatural it becomes – grey cylindrical watch towers, security cameras, concrete barriers, and manned military checkpoints. The feeling of relative calm and freedom that was conferred by the fields around Tel Aviv was incrementally being replaced by a sense of tension and restriction. As we head into the outskirts of Jerusalem, massive concrete walls begin to appear, at least 8 meters in height. They are oppressive, encircling whole communities, and in one instance what appears to be a single isolated school. Breaking and fracturing the landscape, the Separation Wall is a clear symbol of division and disharmony. A statement of occupation. A statement of power. A statement of subjugation. Even when you know of its existence, it is still a shock when you see it for the first time. We get caught in traffic; congestion being generated by Palestinians trying to get through a singular controlled access in the Separation Wall. It affords an opportunity to get a closer look at the new Israeli built settlements on either side of the motorway. High rise, high density and uniformly bland, the abundance of dark silhouetted cranes standing out against the pink and orange sky suggest construction at a pace. As we edge towards East Jerusalem, we pass through Palestinian districts and communities. Some of the properties display wealth and ambition, but on the whole housing here is at a very low density with few roads and little related infrastructure, a stark contrast of what was just witnessed before. There are no cranes or evidence of expansion to be seen at all. In such a small distance, we experienced an urban landscape of social and political division. The sun is setting as we arrive at the National Hotel, which was Jerusalem’s first, and has been a landmark in the city since the 1940s. Previous guests have included King Hussein of Jordan and former US president Jimmy Carter. Its faded glamour is beguiling. Stepping in, we find the entrance is packed with people either leaving or checking in, with countless suitcases standing together on the marble floors and steps. Its colourful and energetic and a wonderful way to arrive. A camera crew that is filming the bustling scene just adds to the sense of vibrancy. The Old City, Jerusalem After checking in we take the opportunity to briefly explore our neighbourhood. It is clearly historic, but not as busy as one would expect. The main source of local interest appears to be focused on some municipal workers who have dug up a road to repair a water pipe, with many men standing around either offering advice, socialising or just watching. The general atmosphere appears to be laid back and relaxed. We walk past an Israeli police checkpoint and venture through the magnificent Damascus Gate and into the Old City, navigating the organic street structures contained within. Most of the shops were in the process of packing up and shutting down after what was probably a busy day, but there was just enough to get a sense of the colour and energy that existed. We also get a sense of dislocation and tension caused by the heavily armed military presence that resides and patrols the ancient passageways of the Old City. Our first few hours had gently prepared us for what was to come. Day One The Dead Sea & Jericho Our time within Palestine was to be relatively short, and therefore every day started early with a packed agenda. For our first full day, we head east out of Jerusalem and towards the Dead Sea, negotiating checkpoints, barbed wire and sections of the Separation Wall as we progress out into the West Bank. Israeli settlements begin to flank us on either side, and the sheer scale of them causes the greatest initial impact, as these are urban conurbations designed to holds tens of thousands of people. The word ‘settlement’ is probably too friendly a way to describe them for these constructions are not just outposts, but ideological goliaths pushing their way illegally into Palestinian land. We drive pass nomadic Bedouin communities located on the eastern slopes of Jerusalem, ramshackle settlements surrounded by goats, donkeys and camels that are gradually being separated from the city by the expansion and consolidation of the Separation Wall. These communities have been continuously and systematically dislodged by the Israeli authorities since the early 1950’s, and now face a new threat of further displacement to Jericho and the Jordan Valley as the government seeks the realisation of the controversial E1 plan. Cameras, barbed wire and watchtowers are constant sights throughtout the West Bank The E1 plan (that was first formulated in 1995) aims at preventing any possible expansion of East Jerusalem by creating a physical link between the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem. It would effectively complete a continuous crescent of Israeli settlements around East Jerusalem dividing it from the rest of the West Bank and its Palestinian population centres and therefore deliberately jeopardizing the prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state. As we continue to travel eastwards along Route 1, the road begins to descend and the landscape and climate slowly begin to change, becoming more and more arid as we transition from a relatively fertile Mediterranean climate to a desert one. The desiccated slopes on either side of the road are rugged and dusty, and present a formidable challenge to human survival, let alone habitation, yet we continue to observe temporary Bedouin homes mostly made up of corrugated metal sheets and ragged canvases. Every bus and car going from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea passes the official Sea Level mark, a vantage point nestling in the mountains of the Judean desert that allows passing visitors to get out and have their photo taken with a small stone marker informing them they have now reached the normal level of the sea. If that isn’t enough excitement, there also exists the opportunity to have a photo taken with a camel and the ‘resident Bedouin’ to complete the experience. From there the road just keeps descending. Eventually, several ear- popping miles along and over 1,300 feet lower, the road finally levels off. In the near distance, the Dead Sea shimmers and sparkles and adjacent to it our next destination, the West Bank Salt Company. The Dead Sea and Salt Pans The West Bank Salt Company was established in 1960 and employs people exclusively from the local Palestinian community. We are warmly greeted by the Ali Idais, Mechanical Engineer and trade unionist. Abed Dari, Coordinator of Palestinian Workers for Kav LaOved, a non-profit union organization that aims to protect the rights of the most deprived workers in the Israeli economy and who has travelled with us from Jerusalem, acts as our translator as we are given a guided tour of the site. Portrait of Ali Idais, Mechanical Engineer and Trade Unionist - West Bank Salt Company - North Dead Sea, Palestine. The refinery that we are standing in is at the heart of the West Bank Salt Company, established 60 years ago by Othman Hallak, a chemical engineer who graduated from Ohio University. It is the only Palestinian company operating at the shores of the Dead Sea. In 1964, Hallak reached an agreement with the Jordanian government and assumed the ownership of what was then a small Jordanian/British Potash factory to reopen it as a salt extraction plant. Since then, the company has been producing traditional commercial table salt that is delivered to markets in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and beyond. The process is relatively simple - Dead Sea brine is pumped into 12 separate ponds and the saline left for eight months to evaporate. Once crystalized, the salt is milled in the factory and packaged in a separate facility in nearby Jericho. We then move inside and meet the General Manager, Hussam Hallak who gives a broad overview of the company and the restrictions it works under. Raised in Chicago, Hussam returned to be part of the family business and speaks with an American accent, but more importantly with Palestinian passion. “Salt is our life. It’s our livelihood. It’s what we do best. It’s resilience. It’s survival. It’s fighting for what you believe in. That’s what salt means to me.” Portrait of Hussam Hallak, General Manager - West Bank Salt Company - North Dead Sea, Palestine. Whilst the extraction of salt from the waters of the Dead Sea is straightforward, what is evidently much more complicated is running a successful Palestinian business in the West Bank, and Hussam details the challenges the company faces. “We work in a very challenging environment, politically and economically and we simply need to make the best of it. Laws made in the Knesset are designed to favour Israelis over Palestinians and are often obstacles to overcome. For example, permission to expand the refinery has been continually refused meaning that we have a packing house in Jericho. However, we do not want to sell on sympathy, we want to sell on quality.” His company is small and cannot compete with larger Israeli firms, but it can treat its workers fairly, especially in terms of salary, sickness benefits and general health and safety. Salt Works pays 3,600 Israeli Shekels per month for entry level positions (above the local minimum wage) and up to 6,000 for some of its more skilled and experienced employees. Hussam believes that it is people who build quality, not machines. Numbers fluctuate from a permanent 30 full-time employees to over 140 at the harvest and pickling season, many of whom are brought in by an external contractor. There are environmental complications to overcome as well. According to Hussam, the Dead Sea has retracted over a distance of 1.5 kilometres over the past 50 years, leaving behind the refinery which was once adjacent to the shore. Over 30 percent of the Dead Sea has evaporated in this time, he adds. These ecological concerns are supported by academics and even the regional governments, although arguments over who and what is responsible for the on-going catastrophe continue. One reason is that about 90 percent of the water volume of the Jordan River is extracted by the riparian states for drinking water and agricultural purposes before the river reaches the Dead Sea. Regional conflicts fought for control over the scarce water resources in the Jordan River Basin have led to unhindered and uncoordinated damming and diversion of the sea’s upstream source waters by Israel, Jordan, and Syria. However, environmentalists also cite research that claims 40 percent of the Dead Sea’s depletion can be traced to the region’s mining industry, which pumps out the water to extract minerals from it. These include potash, which is used as an agricultural fertiliser; magnesium, exported as metal for uses in the car industry; and bromide, which is often used in pesticides. Two private companies exploit the Dead Sea for its valuable minerals: the Arab Potash Company operates on the Jordanian side of the southern Dead Sea, and Dead Sea Works operates on the Israeli side. The companies pump water from southern end of the sea into evaporation pools to isolate the minerals. These operations are vast, with the surface area of the pools themselves equating to almost a third of the surface area of the Dead Sea where the water is taken from. To give a sense of scale, the West Bank Salt Company produces 24,000 tonnes of salt every year, whereas the Dead Sea Works extracts 3.3 million tonnes of potash a year on its own. Its clearly not sustainable and causes dismay and frustration to all those Palestinians living and working in the West Bank who see their precious resources being taken by others. The unfortunate grim truth about this wonder of the world is that it is slowly dying and there seems very little regional agreement on how to stop it from doing so. Before we leave, Hussam leaves us with his final thoughts on the current political situation facing both Palestinians and Israelis. “When you bring up history, everybody loses. You need to let bygones be bygones. Most people don’t want to fight any longer. But there has to be a willingness from both sides to forgive and move on. At the end of the day, this is about ethics and the Occupation and the stealing of resources is morally wrong. It’s bad not only for the Palestinian people but also for the Israelis. Bravery is needed from both sides to call this out. It is simply wrong. Enough is enough. The Occupation has to finish.” In some ways his words almost echo the sentiments of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime minister who was assassinated at a peace rally by Israeli right-wing extremists in Tel Aviv almost 25 years before. Date palm plantations at Tomer and Gilgal, Jordan Valley. We climb steadily away from the Dead Sea and up onto the road to Jericho. In the near distance the King Hussein river border crossing can be seen, set against a patchwork background of lush Jordanian fields and farms which stretch back up into the steep escarpments of the mountains of the Rift Valley which stretch out before us. As we continue north along the valley, we pass through a stark dichotomy of agricultural settings, from barren rocky enclosures with little vegetation through to extensive date plantations and gleaming blocks of industrial greenhouses. There is a reason for this and that reason is agricultural land annexation. Since the late 1960s, Israel has established military outposts along the Jordan Valley, which were later authorized as civilian settlements and were expanded at the expense of the Palestinian villages that the outposts were deliberately located next to. The spring that was the beating heart of the village of Al Auja was known as one of the most reliable in Palestine. 40 years ago, water was running abundantly all around the village, and Palestinians from all over the West Bank would come to swim and fish there. Al Auja was also famous for its bananas. Today, the spring has dried up and tourists come no more to enjoy the area because in 1982, occupational forces dug 2 huge water wells beside the source and began pumping out every single drop of water from the underground reservoirs leaving the village dry. Al Auja now looks like a desert, whilst the nearby Israeli settlements of Tomer, Gilgal, Niran and Nativ Hagdud appear as oases. Those wells belong, like all the wells within historical Palestine, to Mekorot the Israeli public water company that operates some 42 wells in the West Bank that now mostly supply the Israeli settlements. Palestinian villages within the Jordan Valley used to share an extensive irrigation system that is now all but completely dried up. Today, in their tractors and water tanks in tow, they have to drive dozens of kilometres away from their homes often having to negotiate numerous checkpoints in order to buy their irrigation and drinking water from Mekorot. To secure this water, they have to pay up to four times the price that Israeli settlers have to pay and to add further insult, settlers have free and unlimited access to water to irrigate their crops. Water is a precious and an Israeli State controlled commodity for almost all Palestinians Through the denial to freely access water and sanitation, it is argued that Mekorot collaborates with the state in the implementation of an institutionalized ‘water apartheid’, which is a central component of Israel’s policies of ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities throughout the Jordan Valley. There have been significant investments in resources in water treatment and irrigation infrastructure to serve settler agriculture in the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea area. As a result of land expropriation and the ongoing expansion of Israeli agricultural areas, the last 40 years have witnessed a decline of about one third of cultivated Palestinian agricultural land in the West Bank. As we continue towards Jericho, we pass Moshav Na'ama, yet another example of an Israeli agricultural settlement that was established on Palestinian land in 1982. The plantations and greenhouses are 300 feet below sea level, sitting in a desert climate where irrigation is essential. The site, already home to 92 families is currently in the process of expansion with marketing agencies seeking to attract an additional 150 young families to become part of the ‘next generation’ and set up home there. Almost immediately after passing Moshav Na’ama, we turn right and progress into Area A territory. As part of the Oslo Accords, which were signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel in 1993 and 1995, the occupied West Bank was divided into three areas which were simply designated Areas A, B and C. The Oslo Accords also led to the establishment of an interim Palestinian government, the Palestinian Authority, which was granted limited powers of governance in Areas A and B. The Accords were also meant to kick-start future peace talks that were to be brokered by the United States, with a two-state solution as the desired objective of negotiations, meaning the three categories would vanish. That did not happen, resulting in Israel being handed complete control of the Palestinian economy, as well as its civil and security matters in more than 60 percent of the West Bank. Area A signage, warning Israelis against entering Palestinian controlled territory. Despite granting the Palestinian Authority (PA) control over administrative and internal security matters in parts of the West Bank, Israel maintains total military control over the entire area. Efforts to strike a comprehensive peace deal over the past 30 years have sadly proven fruitless, leaving the Palestinians with a provisional self-governing authority that has been unable to prevent Israeli expansion. Today, Area A constitutes 18 percent of the West Bank and is made up of the major Palestinian cities such as Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus. The PA controls most affairs in this area, including internal security. In Area B, which consists of smaller Palestinian towns and some agricultural land and is about 21 percent of the West Bank, the PA controls education, health and the economy. However, in both areas, Israeli authorities have full external security control. This means that the Israeli military retains the right to enter these areas at any time, typically to raid homes or detain individuals, often under the pretext of security. About 2.8 million Palestinians live crowded and compacted into Areas A and B. Area C is the largest section of the West Bank, comprising about 60 percent of the Palestinian territory. It is also the location of the vast majority of the more than 200 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, strategically winding around and encircling Areas A and B and where more than 400,000 settlers now live. Although control of part of this area was meant to be transferred to the PA in 1999 as per the Oslo Accords, the handover did not materialise, leaving security, planning, construction and also matters of destruction in the hands of the Israeli state. The United Nations and human rights groups have condemned the settlement expansion project, declaring the settlements illegal under international law. The current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continually pledged to annex parts of Area C – especially the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea region and some 65,000 Palestinians who live in that region would be directly affected. The Jordan Valley is considered the most fertile land in the West Bank and has proven lucrative for Israeli companies that have long exploited the area’s land and resources. In a deliberate attempt to appeal to the far right and secure a coalition government, Netanyahu has consistently employed the threat and ambition of further annexation in the numerous elections that have taken place in Israel in the last two years. However, pressure both domestic and international has for the moment at least, prevented the Israeli state from acting on its election promises. Central Jericho. Jericho is one of the world’s oldest continually occupied cities, and rises up above the wide plain of the Jordan Valley, its height the result of layer upon layer of human habitation. The main road leading into Jericho starts as a substantial dusty dirt track which is quickly hemmed in by coffee shops, garages, burger bars, kebab stands, pharmacies and supermarkets. Every now and then you see schools and clinics that have been established with support from the United Nations and the European Union. For many years there has been a slow and gradual Palestinian exodus from East Jerusalem to Jericho and other areas of the West Bank. The property prices are cheaper, the taxes lower, and there is simply less aggravation and harassment from the Israeli state. As we move towards the centre, the city becomes cramped and dense, mosques and minarets more frequent, and a sense of history impossible to ignore. We park close to the main square, which is focused around a small park with palm trees with a fountain in the middle. The park itself is surrounded by falafel stands, balconied restaurants and shops displaying an abundance of fruit, most notably bananas, dates and citrus fruits, which are all produce of the region. Yellow taxis match the local bananas and provide an additional vibrancy as they move around the busy and relatively unkempt central hub. The reason we are here is to meet with representatives from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions and those from Kav LaOved. The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) was founded in 1965. It was a natural extension of the Palestine Arab Workers’ Society, established in 1925 to lead the labour and trade union movement in Palestine and was fundamental in the development of the Palestinian national labour movement. The PGFTU is considered to be the most important labour institution that acts to safeguard and promote the rights of Palestinian workers in line with their national aspirations and objectives. The PGFTU also leads the process of supporting the working class in their struggle for the ratification and implementation of modern and fair workers’ legislation. Work also continues in advocacy, participation in the drafting of social security legislation, in addition to social protection laws, minimum wages, unemployment laws, occupational health and safety, child labour and decent work laws. It has an estimated membership of 290,000, and is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation. Kav LaOved is an independent, non-profit, non- governmental organization committed to the defence of workers’ rights and the enforcement of Israeli labour law designed to protect every worker in Israel, irrespective of nationality, religion, gender, and legal status. Since its establishment in 1991, Kav LaOved has helped workers from all sectors realize and uphold their rights. Kav LaOved’s services target the most disadvantaged workers in Israel, including those employed by contracts and receiving low wages, Arab citizens of Israel, Palestinians, migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers, and new immigrants. On average, it helps over 60,000 individuals a year. Portrait of Wael Natheef - Secretary of the Jericho Branch of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions. We are addressed by Wael Natheef, the Secretary of the Jericho Branch of the PGFTU, who begins by outlining its mission which is based on its role as a democratic and independent trade union body that aims to organize male and female workers in sectoral trade unions in order to improve their working and socio-economic conditions. It also works to raise awareness of the Palestinian situation with representations at national and international levels and Wael describes the good relationships that exist with the UK, especially within the TUC, Unite and Unison. The PGFTU accepts delegations from across the globe in order to gather evidence and to act as independent witnesses and Wael reminds us that whilst we are here, we act as the eyes of the Palestinian people. Wael continues and details the deliberate fragmentation of Palestinian land within the Jordan Valley. Currently there are 38 Israeli settlements in the area, primarily agricultural and all illegal under international law. There are also two industrial zones and one tourist area as well as numerous army camps and restricted zones that are used exclusively for Israeli military operations. “The Israeli owned farms and factories provide essential livelihoods for many Palestinians and workers are drawn from all the major communities including East Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah and Nablus. The occupation forces Palestinians to work in the illegal settlements. Their traditional crops such as olives are continually burnt, destroyed or chopped down by Israeli settlers, often with no formal investigation and even less consequence.” In a 2018 report, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) declared that 82% of Palestinian workers stated that they would leave their jobs in the settlements, if there were another choice. The working conditions for everyone are poor, but especially so for those who are employed in the agricultural sector. The PGFTU has been documenting a steady increase in the number of work-related accidents and diseases, especially respiratory. Workers in the agricultural sector are often required to toil within the vast greenhouses for periods of up to 5 hours without any break. Humidity levels are high, there is no ventilation and the high dependency on pesticides and chemicals to raise productivity creates a toxic mix. Snake bites are not uncommon, especially in the date and palm plantations, as are incidents with mechanical cherry pickers, which are often faulty. “Those engaged in the processing of leather and glass are also at great risk as there is a high degree of chemical usage in both industries. There is no such thing as personal protective equipment, no gloves, no masks. Skin allergies and respiratory diseases are sharply on the increase. Whilst there are regular health checks in place for Israelis, there are no such employer obligations for Palestinians and therefore it is the unions who step in to organise health checks and screenings of exposed and vulnerable workers.” There is also a preference for women and children to be employed by Israelis in the West Bank, especially within the agricultural sector. Both are more productive than men (due to the size and dexterity of their hands) and the employment of children between the ages of 12 to 16, despite being illegal, often spikes during the periods of school holidays. The not-for-profit co-operative Corporate Watch, which provides critical information on the social and environmental impacts of corporations and capitalism, conducted over 70 interviews with Palestinians working on Israeli settlements, revealing that workers are consistently paid as little as half the minimum wage. Many of the interviewees also reported that children were employed on the settlements, that working conditions were unsafe, that they were not paid holiday or sick pay, that they had no health insurance and that they were banned from forming unions. Abed Dari, the Field Coordinator of Palestinian Workers for Kav LaOved takes the lead and begins by describing the problems encountered when trying to recruit individuals to the union. Organising in general is very difficult as Palestinian workers fear negative consequences from their Israeli employers for associating with union activities. Unemployment numbers are high, and there is a plentiful supply of workers meaning that sustained and meaningful employment is rare and fragile. Those who attend union meetings or health and safety workshops conducted by a union often find themselves unemployed the following day. Employers conducting polygraph tests on Palestinian employees have also been frequently reported, where workers are encouraged to reveal examples of theft, poor productivity or name those colleagues who are perceived to not be working or associating with a union. Another barrier to organising is the ephemeral state of employment. Middlemen are utilised on both sides in order to either source or provide employment and the permits handed out are transient. There are no rules or contracts contained within these informal agreements, which are known about or shared mostly by word of mouth. In many ways there is no real formal evidence they these workers actually work and that suits the employer. How can you have rights if you don’t exist? It comes as no surprise that those who stand in the middle of these transactions take a hefty cut for their services, despite being Palestinian themselves. For Palestinians employed in Israeli owned workplaces, accidents often go unreported and sometimes untreated. The normal state of affairs is that the injured are sent to hospital, the incident formally investigated and any treatment required paid for and Israelis have insurance to cover this. However, those Palestinians who are not just dumped at the nearest checkpoint, find themselves in hospital later discover that their bills are not paid and that their work permit is not renewed and this has led to a culture of gross under-reporting. Only the most critical are ever sent to hospital and the situation potentially investigated. In reality, there is little or no health and safety regulations protecting Palestinian workers and no legislation that allows Palestinian employees to sue their Israeli employer if there were an accident or malpractice in the workplace. Palestinian unions are often left to fight for workers’ rights through the courts, which in many ways is no different to the situation in the UK. However, the Israeli legal system is deliberately opaque; it costs 3,000 New Israeli Shekels per worker just to start legal proceedings; Palestinian lawyers are in desperately short supply; travel restrictions add an additional hurdle to actually being able to appear in court; and there also exists the danger of being added to an Israeli black-list of individuals who attempt to complain or stand up for their rights. Their family members are also added for good measure, meaning that any dissent has a far-reaching financial impact. Portrait of Abed Dari - Coordinator of Palestinian Workers for Kav LaOved. Kav LaOved also has serious concerns for those Palestinian women working in the domestic industry sector, mostly cleaning in private homes. Sexual abuse and physical attacks are frequently reported, but because of the isolated nature of the work, it is difficult to organise and therefore hard to protect those affected. Both Kav LaOved and the PGFTU are currently working with Palestinian Authority to strength rights and regulations in this area. The meeting concludes with both Abed and Wael summarising the extensive work they are doing in the construction and agricultural sectors, for Palestinian workers, for Arab workers, in some case Israeli workers, for those working in domestic environments such as cleaners and carers and for refugees and asylum seekers. The obstacles to their objectives of fairness and equality are political, religious, ideological as well as economic and social. As we head back to East Jerusalem, our eyes become more attuned to the physical environment surrounding Jericho. Whilst herds of goats and the odd camel give the arid landscape a touch of romanticism, a more concentrated observation reveals a darker side. Set against the setting sun are water valves surrounded by reinforced cages and topped with barbed wire. Remnants of charred or severed olive trees make unsettling and unwanted appearances as we continue to move through the West Bank. Security cameras and fortified watchtowers start to become normal, almost unnoticed additions to the topography. The day ends at the Mount of Olives, a mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jerusalem's Old City. Numerous religious events are said to have taken place here and because of this the location is a holy site for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Like the city of Jerusalem itself, churches, mosques and Jewish landmarks stand side by side, jostling for sacred space as pilgrims swarm over the hill. However, the most striking feature of the Mount of Olives is the gleaming dense array of over 150,000 gravestones that reside on its western slope. As the sun sets over the ancient Jewish cemetery and illuminates the golden Dome of the Rock in the Old City opposite, a gigantic Israeli flag ripples in the breeze. It’s a not-so- subtle reminder of who and what is the dominant force around here. Views from the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem Day Two East Jerusalem Both Palestinians and Israelis see Jerusalem as their capital city. At present, the Palestinian Authority is based in Ramallah to the north, but it hopes to one day move to East Jerusalem. However, the Israeli government views Jerusalem as its indivisible own and it has constructed a Separation Wall (on spurious security grounds) that effectively seals off the city from the Palestinian West Bank and has continued to expand its settlements in spite of wide and continued international condemnation. Approximately 300,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites reside within the East Jerusalem neighbourhood which includes the Old City, At Tur on the Mount of Olives, Silwan and Ras Al Mud near the southern edge of the Old City, and Sheikh Jarrah and Shuafat north of the Old City. The United Nations has consistently stated that the Israeli authorities pursue a policy of physical, political and economic segregation of East Jerusalem from the West Bank and that its residents face continued and increasing official impediments with regards to housing, education, employment, taxation and representation. The UN has also reported that East Jerusalem receives a disproportionately smaller share of municipal services such as water, sewerage, road maintenance, postal services, transport facilities and waste collection. The Old City, Jerusalem Our second morning is spent in the company of Amany Khalifa, Co-ordinator for Grassroots al Quds. Founded in 2011, Grassroots al-Quds is an evolving platform for Palestinian grassroots mobilization and networking with the goal of contributing to the creation and implementation of a Palestinian-led long-term strategy for Al-Quds (Jerusalem). It is clear from the very start that Amany is knowledgeable, politically astute and passionate in her beliefs. “We support community-led mobilization, challenging the displacement policies implemented against the Palestinians in al-Quds. We help grassroots initiatives and community organizations find the resources needed for mobilization regarding issues of immediate concern. At the same time, we support networking between the different al-Quds communities and organizations, building long-term strategies that defy the occupation. For Palestinians, it’s a hub to organise, develop financial independence, share resources, and strategically resist the occupation.” Portrait of Amany Khalifa, Mobilisation Co-ordinator for Grassroots al Quds holding a copy of ‘Wujood, The Grassroots Guide to Jerusalem’. She continues by detailing the historical context of Palestine and Jerusalem, back to the Balfour Declaration which many people believe laid the foundations for the current colonial situation and the polarising political problems that exist today. The Balfour Declaration was a public pledge made by Britain in 1917 declaring its aim to establish ‘a national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine. The statement came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then- foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community. It was made during the First World War and was included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The so-called mandate system set up by the Allied powers was, in all reality, a thinly veiled form of colonialism and occupation. The pledge itself is generally viewed as one of the main catalysts of the Nakba – the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 – and the conflict that ensued with the Zionist state of Israel and which continues to this day. Amany contends that if anything, the deliberate removal of Palestinians from Jerusalem and surrounding area has only accelerated in recent years. She details dozens of villages that have been raised and populations displaced and the continued process of targeted house demolitions, over 7,000 since 1967 in Jerusalem alone. Palestinians have been removed from all aspects of town and city planning, be it domestic dwellings through to hospitals and schools. The ‘illegal’ building and extension of homes is seen as an act of resistance by Palestinians, an outward display of courage and fortitude, all in the knowledge that demolition is inevitable. And that demolition is usually an act of DIY, conducted by the Palestinian homeowners themselves, as otherwise they have to pay the Israeli authorities to flatten their dwellings for them. The bulldozer is a machine for destroying and fragmenting Palestinian communities, for creating ‘vacant’ land for more Israeli settlements, and it is a machine that shows no sign of stopping. Education and schools are also affected as there is no land available to build upon and permission to expand and extend existing facilities denied. It is calculated that there is currently a lack of 2,000 classrooms, meaning that a shift system has had to be established in order to accommodate the growing numbers of school children. Education is an area where Grassroots al Quds are heavily involved, as the curriculum even within Palestinian controlled establishments is tightly controlled. In schools it is illegal to talk about the Nakbar and almost all aspects of politics are removed. Histories have been eradicated and corrupted, so in response Grassroots al Quds have created after school classes that challenge the Israeli narrative, to prevent their identity being cleansed. The classes impart the history of their own culture, about the legal right to return, about freedom and liberation and the right to move freely without the restriction of borders or barriers. There is the belief that if you lose your history, then you also lose your future. Israeli flags and soldiers in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, Jerusalem Grassroots al Quds view the city of Jerusalem as a coherent whole, as it existed prior to the 1948 partitioning plan, and do not acknowledge the Green Line which is the de facto border between Israel and what was left of historic Palestine. A focal point of the organisation’s activity is to collect and document stories from Jerusalem’s Palestinian communities and the impact Israeli policies have on those groups and individuals. Maps are central to this. Maps have an agenda. Maps can be and often are manipulated to present a false reality. Palestinian communities and street names have been erased from all Israeli cartography and it is almost impossible to find them on Google either. So, Grassroots al Quds have set out to create their own, of the real Jerusalem, incorporating cultural and historical narratives in order to keep their culture alive. “We research the history and current reality of the communities in the Jerusalem district, and document their stories. We map grassroots initiatives and community organizations active in these communities, and the resources available for them. Our mapping project aims at the preservation of the Palestinian identity of Jerusalem, as well as support grassroots mobilization.” With respect to domestic politics, Grassroots al Quds has no faith or belief in the Israeli political system and refuses to engage with it. In East Jerusalem, Palestinians are caught between a rock and a hard place. As permanent residents of Israel, they can vote in municipal elections but not for parliament. On the other hand, Israel makes it difficult for them to participate in PA elections. Palestinians are excluded, dispossessed and controlled by Israeli politics and by Israeli laws which are regarded as tools of domination. The stance on local politics is also applied to international level, which is seen to only reinforce the subjugation. Initially funded by the EU, Grassroots al Quds has gradually and deliberately shifted to being financed by private donations in an ambition to be totally dependent of any other agenda apart from its own. There exists the strong feeling that aid is an industry in its own right, often coming with political strings attached which benefits the Israeli government more than the Palestinian people themselves. Neither is there any confidence in the Palestinian Authority, which is viewed as divided, ineffectual and too close to the Israeli government to make any real difference. Amany concludes by saying that ultimately this is not about money, but about ethics, values and amplifying the Palestinian voice. “On the whole, this is not a humanitarian situation but a political one. The walls, fences and checkpoints imprison both sides, meaning no one is truly free.” Crosses and pilgrims in the Old City, Jerusalem The building holding the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian Occupied Territories (OCHA) is set within tranquil but secure gardens in East Jerusalem. There are many within the Israeli government who would prefer it if the United Nations were not here documenting the illegalities and continued breaches of international law. OCHA was established in 2002 with a mandate to support and coordinate international efforts to respond to the humanitarian situation in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian Occupied Territories The room in which we are sitting has clean neutral grey walls with a laminated wooden floor. A United Nations flag hangs in one corner, a projector fixed to another opposite. Three corporately dressed individuals enter the room, welcome us and commence with the presentation. The major causes of humanitarian vulnerability in the Palestinian Occupied Territories are the protracted occupation, the systematic denial of Palestinian human rights, and the continuing conflict, punctuated by frequent and sometimes sustained outbreaks of violence. In the West Bank, continuing settlement expansion and the lack of any viable solutions for ending the occupation are major sources of frustration and add to the conflict. In the Gaza Strip, years of blockade and recurrent outbreaks of hostilities have eroded the basic infrastructure and essential services, and economic livelihoods destroyed. The overall context is that of a protracted crisis driven by a lack of respect for international law, and a lack of accountability for a plethora of human rights violations. For the next two hours, 20 years of dedicated and at times clinical documentation of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict are imparted. We start with the situation in the Gaza Strip. Home to 1.9 million people, Gaza is 41km long and 10km wide, an enclave bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Egypt. It is under the control of the militant Islamist group Hamas, which won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 and ejected forces loyal to the then governing Palestinian Authority after a violent rift in 2007. Since then, Israel and Egypt have effectively blockaded the territory, restricting the movement of goods and people in and out in what they say are security measures against militants in Gaza. It faces a chronic humanitarian crisis, impacting the livelihoods and access to essential services by its two million residents, a crisis driven by the longstanding Israeli blockade and the internal Palestinian political divide, and exacerbated by recurrent escalations between Israel and Palestinian armed groups. Palestinians in Gaza are effectively ‘locked in’, denied free access to the other Occupied Palestinian Territories and the outside world. The list of social and economic impacts on the population is extensive. With respect to health, drugs are constantly in short supply, waiting lists for all aspects of medical care increasing and there is a critical shortage of doctors, nurses and beds. Israel controls all movements in and out of Gaza meaning that official permits are needed to exit for hospital appointments. Over a third are delayed or simply denied. The fresh water that is pumped in is in short supply and often not fit to drink. For cooking and drinking, people rely on desalinated water brought in from unregulated vendors. All waste water and pollution is discharged untreated directly into the sea. Food security is an issue as a quarter survive on food that is of ‘reduced quality’ and almost half the population depend on donations from friends or relatives. For the past decade, the Gaza Strip has suffered from a chronic electricity deficit, which has undermined already fragile living conditions. On average, electricity is only supplied for 13 hours a day. The ongoing power shortage has severely impacted the availability of essential services, particularly health, water and sanitation services, and undermined Gaza’s weak and vulnerable economy, particularly the manufacturing and agriculture sectors. The local GDP remains stuck at 1990 levels. Prior to the year 2000, there were 10,000 fishermen employed in Gaza. With 70% of their legal waters now in the hands of the Israeli authorities, that number has declined to just over 3,000. The unemployment rate for Gaza as a whole is 51% with the youth unemployment rate currently at 70% and female unemployment rate even higher at 80%. The effect on education has been dramatic. 54% of the population are under the age of 18 meaning that an additional 900 schools are required to cope with the increasing numbers. Those schools that do exist work in shifts. It is no wonder that Gaza is frequently described as the worlds’ largest open prison. The presentation moves on to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The occupied West Bank was divided into three areas – A, B and C – as part of the Oslo Accords, which were signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel in 1993 and 1995. Today, Area A constitutes 18 percent of the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority (PA) controls most affairs, including internal security. In Area B, which comprises about 21 percent of the West Bank, the PA controls education, health and the economy. In both areas, Israeli authorities have full external security control. Area C is the largest section of the West Bank, comprising about 60 percent of the Palestinian territory. Over 60 per cent of the West Bank is considered Area C, where Israel retains near exclusive control, including over law enforcement, planning and construction. Most of Area C has been allocated for the benefit of illegal Israeli settlements (more than 200) or the Israeli military, at the expense of Palestinian communities. This impedes the development of adequate housing, infrastructure and directly impacts on the livelihoods of Palestinian communities. Structures built without permits are regularly served with demolition orders, creating chronic uncertainty and threat, and encouraging people to leave. Where the orders are implemented, they have resulted in the displacement and disruption of communities, the entrenchment of poverty and increased aid dependency. Following the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem to its territory, in a clear and knowing contravention of international law. Palestinians living in Jerusalem were given the status of ‘permanent residents’ of Israel, which provides them with greater freedom of movement than Palestinians from other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and allows them to pay into the social services system, to receive health and social security coverage. However, this status can be revoked on various grounds, denying the affected residents their right to live in East Jerusalem which has happened to over 14,000 people since 1967. This can leave you stateless within your own country of origin. Other Israeli policies have negatively affected Palestinians’ ability to plan and develop their communities and enjoy the services they are entitled to, further undermining their presence in the city. In addition, Israeli measures have incrementally and increasingly cut off East Jerusalem, once the Palestinian focus of political, commercial, religious and cultural life, from the rest of the West Bank and from the Gaza Strip. Sun rising over the Palestinian district of Isawiyya in East Jerusalem and a section of the Separation Wall The Israeli State has achieved this in the most brutal and bluntest of ways. By building a big wall. In 2002, Israel started constructing the Separation Wall, slicing through Palestinian communities, agricultural fields, health and education facilities. The wall has been described by Israeli officials as a necessary security precaution against terrorism. However, about 85 percent of the wall falls within the West Bank rather than running along the internationally recognised 1967 boundary, known as the Green Line and Palestinians have rightly decried it as an Israeli mechanism to annex their lands. The United Nations International Court of Justice found that the Separation Wall violates international law and called for its dismantlement and that Israel should pay reparations for any damage caused. Yet, the building of the wall still continues and when completed will annex 9.4% of the West Bank from the West Bank and into Israel. The deliberate demolition of homes and businesses is another key way in which the Israeli State is forcibly removing Palestinian people from their lands and communities. In 2020, the Israeli authorities demolished 849 Palestinian owned structures in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, nearly a 31% increase from 2019. These targeted demolitions left a total 996 people, including 505 children homeless. Palestinians in East Jerusalem were particularly impacted, with 155 structures being demolished that displaced 391 Palestinians, including 87 children. In every case, the demolition was ordered due to a lack of building permits, with the majority taking place in the Silwan and Jabal Al-Mukaber neighbourhoods. The Palestinian Bedouin communities living in the northern Jordan Valley were also acutely impacted by demolitions in 2020. In November of that year, Israeli authorities employed 6 bulldozers to raze the village of Khirbet Humsa Al-Fouqa. The demolition displaced 11 families consisting of 75 people who were given mere minutes to evacuate. The military also confiscated all the agricultural equipment and machinery that the community owned. It has been described as the largest demolition in years and drew international condemnation. Since 2009, 7,280 Palestinian owned structures have been demolished, resulting in 10,976 people displaced and being made homeless. The demolitions are typically carried out due to lack of Israeli- issued permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain, but in some cases the circumstances are different, including punitive demolitions and demolitions carried out as part of military activities. The presentation ends with deaths. In the context of the occupation and of the result of confrontations between Palestinians and Israelis, 4,738 Palestinians have been killed since 2009, of which 904 have been under the age of 18. In order to give a direct comparison, the number of Israelis who have lost their lives is 220, of which 15 under the age of 18. Depressing statistics, whichever side of the political argument you are on. Many have challenged and continue to question the presence of the United Nations in Israel and Palestine. Decade after decade has seen a gradual erosion of the human rights of Palestinians, their lands confiscated, their communities broken up or destroyed. What is the point of the United Nations? Why are they here? What do they actually do? As an organisation, the United Nations is only as strong as the nations united behind it. It can only do what it is permitted to do, and in this case that is to provide humanitarian support and to document illegal actions and atrocities for future accountability. And it does that well. Black water tanks on a Palestinian home – the Israeli State restricts the supply to Palestinian communities. We head across the city to the district of Dahiat al'Barid and park outside a building with a small plaque on the wall declaring that this is the Arab Thought Forum. We enter in through a blue painted heavy metal door, up a tight stone staircase, passing artificial flowers and a large stuffed toy tiger as we progress to the 3rd floor. We are warmly greeted by Zakaria Odeh, Director of The Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ) who invites us inside. Zakaria heads up a non-governmental non-profit coalition of Palestinian institutions, societies, associations and individuals with the experience and collective mandate of working in East Jerusalem on human rights issues. The Coalition was established in 2005 and currently has a membership of 17 institutions. The internationally enshrined rights they are focused upon are those relating to children, to women, to Palestinian political prisoners and to those affected by the draconian urban planning system and the illegal demolition of homes. We are guided through what clearly is a domestic apartment that has been turned into a working office. There are books, maps and files everywhere, even in the shower and toilet. It all has a feeling of a clandestine underground resistance movement. As we take our seats, we are offered fresh coffee. Zakaria begins with a brief history lesson, of the 80,000 Palestinians who were forcibly expelled from East Jerusalem in 1948, of the 38 villages that were razed to the ground, and of the continued expansion of Israeli Jerusalem into the Palestinian West Bank, pushing the municipal border into confiscated land. Portrait of Zakaria Odeh, Director of The Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem. There is, and has been for some time, an undeclared governmental goal to establish a 20/80% Palestinian/Israeli demographic within Jerusalem. In order to achieve this ratio, there has been a deliberate strategy of building and extending settlements and a conscious fragmentation of Palestinian communities. This has been facilitated and enforced through calculated housing policies, forced demolitions of family homes, the continued building of illegal settlements, the construction of the Separation Wall and by pre- planned land seizures. It simply doesn’t stop. With a warm and open face, Zakaria is softly spoken, measured and calm as he educates us without any breaks or variation in his timbre. He is the opposite of what he describes and details, but it is clear that he has witnessed a great deal. He speaks through eyes that have witnessed years of suffering, injustice and needless aggression. The Separation Wall that snakes around and through Jerusalem is being promoted as the actual municipal boundary of the city and is being strategically aligned on the ground so that it places Palestinian communities on the outside of the wall. Over 140,000 Palestinians have been moved out of the city in this way. The Wall itself runs right up alongside Palestinian communities, leaving no room for expansion. The same approach is employed with new motorways and roads, which are used to contain and divide Palestinian communities and as a barrier to development. Clearly there exists the option to move outside of the Separation Wall, into better and cheaper housing, but to do so means that you lose your right of residency in Jerusalem. The severe restrictions placed on where a Palestinian is allowed to actually live has a number of consequences, both economic and social. For example, relationships between those with different residency permits are all but pointless, and marriage does not necessarily lead to joint residency. There are some extreme cases of parents having to live in different zones because of the restrictions the state imposes. Jobs is another example and many Palestinians are being displaced simply by economic necessity and losing their Jerusalem residency because of the basic need of being able to put food on the table. View of the Palestinian district of Anata in Jerusalem - The separation wall deliberately excludes it from the city – forcibly changing its geography by putting into the West Bank. At least 4 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza are prevented from accessing Jerusalem itself, due to the lengthy and bureaucratic hurdles that need to be overcome in order to obtain the relevant permit This places restrictions on health provision, especially at the specialist end, as the only cancer treatment facilities for Palestinians are in Jerusalem. People are dying for the lack of a relevant permit. Planning permission for Palestinians takes at least 5 years to be processed and costs the equivalent of over £40,000 just to action the papers before any construction even begins. There are of course, no guarantees that permission will even be granted meaning most Palestinians just build without it. An estimated 20,000 homes have been built in this manner with over 100,000 people presently living under the threat of the potential demolition of their home. In 2019 a total of 169 homes were demolished in East Jerusalem, 42 of which were taken down by the owners themselves. The fight is constant and the CCPRJ is heavily involved in mounting legal challenges, but sadly the end result is always the same. There is the feeling that by engaging with the legal process it grants it a legitimacy it doesn’t have, but it gives families extra time, sometimes two or three additional years. Zakaria details the deliberate targeting of education by the Israeli state, echoing the comments of Amany of Grassroots al Quds earlier in the day. In terms of actual finance, East Jerusalem receives 15% of the education budget but has over 40% of the overall population. This is having a detrimental impact on facilities, space, technology, materials and infrastructure and is also set against an ongoing 10-year battle over the national curriculum, which places restrictions on the teaching of Palestinian history, culture and identity. It is a deliberate suffocation of the education system, which is seeing a decrease in qualified teachers and a drop-out rate of 35% in Palestinian Authority run schools and closer to 45% for Palestinian children within Israeli run schools. And it continues into the further education system, as there is a necessity to be fluent in Hebrew in order to be able to apply, and those from the Occupied Territories being denied any right to attend any Israeli university. “Historically, land ownership was mostly collective and there was no formal land registration to consolidate ownership. The series of different powers that have been in control of the region, the Ottoman, the British, the Jordanian, and now the Israeli, has meant that the ability to formally lay claim to any historical property is almost impossible. There has been no real registration at all for the majority of the latter half of the twentieth century and it was only in 2018 that formal property legislation introduced. For Palestinians this legacy has caused enormous and heart-breaking difficulties, but for the Israeli state, countless opportunities.” The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 not only resulted in the expulsion of nearly 800,000 Palestinians from their homeland, it also displaced thousands of Palestinians within the new state, expelling them from their home villages and preventing them from returning after the war ended. Whilst many fled abroad, many more stayed and these people are called internally displaced persons or present absentees. The situation of present absentees cannot be considered simply a legal matter or an inevitable consequence of wartime, as their legal right to return has been continually denied by a succession of Israeli governments and it persists to this day. Being closely tied to issues of population and land control, it is one of the main features of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Ownership and control of land is key. The presentation is one of oppression, colonisation, occupation, separation, emotional intrusion and mental restriction. The CCPRJ’s mission is to mobilize the efforts, capacities and resources of Palestinian civil society in order to protect the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of Palestinians in Jerusalem as enshrined in international human rights and humanitarian law. Zakaria ends by saying that this is a political problem, not a humanitarian one, but Palestinians in East Jerusalem do not engage with the political system as they do not seek to endorse it and the international community seem unwilling to act collectively. This is ethnic cleansing, not apartheid, with a mosaic of many pieces joining up to achieve this. Pisgat Ze'ev and Neve Yaakov – Israeli Settlements in East Jerusalem We drive past the Separation Wall and into the nearby Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov. The difference is immediate. There are pristine parks and playgrounds, clinics, enticing shopping malls, wide pavements and well-maintained roads. The Israeli state describes the settlement like this… ‘Neve Yaakov is one of the most diverse areas of the city, combining an ultra-Orthodox population with secular Israelis, as well as Ethiopian and Russian immigrants. An hour from the city centre by bus, this neighbourhood is a many-flavoured cocktail that is vintage Jerusalem.’ However, there is an alternative narrative to the origins of this ‘vintage Jerusalem’. In August 1970 over 3,500 acres of privately owned and titled Palestinian land was confiscated by the Israeli state for ‘public purposes’. In Israel, all land is now owned by the state. People may own their flats and houses but not the land on which it sits. On this newly acquired site, 4,000 apartments were spread over four new residential colonies including Neve Yaakov. Pisgat Ze'ev – An Israeli Settlement in East Jerusalem Two years later, a new Jewish neighbourhood was constructed on the site of the original village, with a further 4,900 apartments contained in high-rise buildings. The new neighbourhood was swiftly populated by Jewish immigrants from Bukhara, Georgia, Latin America, North Africa, France and Iran. In the 1990s, when large waves of Russian and Ethiopian Jews came to Israel, many were settled in the ever- expanding Neve Yaakov, enticed by modern facilities and extensive tax breaks. Over 25,000 live there today. From Neve Yaakov we could view the sister settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev, the largest in Jerusalem with over 50,000 residents. Named after the early 20th century Zionist activist Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Pisgat Ze'ev was established in 1982 and was established to ‘create a link’ between the Jerusalem centre and Neve Yaakov, which was isolated at the time. Many of the central streets in Pisgat Ze'ev are named after Israeli army units that were involved in the 1948 and 1967 conflicts. As the sun rapidly sets, it is a sobering end to the day. Day Three Jaffa & Tel Aviv It is another early start as we are moving north out of Jerusalem heading for Jaffa and Tel Aviv. We pass the abandoned village of Lifta, a site without a parallel in the Eastern Mediterranean. A traditional Palestinian village, it is the only settlement that was not repopulated or destroyed after the eviction of its residents in 1948. Now it survives as a ghost on a steeply sloping site, narrow paths winding around ruined stone buildings, built on terraces that are now overgrown with almond, fig and olive trees. It is on a tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the World Monuments Fund organisation has put it on its list of sites under threat. Why is it under threat? Because for the past 20 years, the Israeli government has been pushing to destroy the remaining buildings to make room for new luxury homes, hotels, a shopping mall and a recreation park. Only petitions in the courts from both Palestinian and Israeli activists are holding back what many feel is inevitable. The main highway to the west starts as a mixture of tunnels that slice through the pink and yellow limestone plateau on which Jerusalem sits, and extensive bridges that span the olive groves below. The road continues to descend, passing numerous housing and settlement construction sites and the remnants of the ancient pine forests that once used to cover all of the Judaean Mountains. The landscape then flattens out and softens, the urban gradually making way for the agricultural before the office blocks of Tel Aviv appear in a haze on the horizon. View of Tel Aviv from Jaffa Tel Aviv’s character is frequently contrasted to that of Jerusalem and is promoted as the city ‘that never stops,’ a thriving, vibrant, modern, dynamic, and multicultural city, one that is tolerant, secular, and liberal, while also materialistic and hedonistic. Jerusalem, by contrast, is seen as holy, conservative, and an arena for major conflicts within Israeli society, including that between Israelis and Palestinians. What is immediately different to the neutral observer is presence of the Israeli military and the Israeli flag. Whilst in Jerusalem it is impossible to not encounter the security forces on every street corner and the Star of David flying from every strategic vantage point, both are conspicuously absent in Tel Aviv. Religious and political beliefs are not overtly displayed here, identity and division less apparent, and it gives the city a more confident and relaxed air. You could almost be in another country. Almost. For thousands of years, while Tel Aviv was nothing but sand, Jaffa, known as the Bride of the Sea, existed as one of the great ports of the Mediterranean. It is also mentioned in the Old Testament as the place from which Jonah, the recalcitrant prophet who unwisely ignored an instruction from The Almighty, embarked on a maritime escape, only to get caught in a divine storm, get thrown overboard by the crew and end up being swallowed whole by a giant fish. Needless to say, it is a very old city with a history going back not just centuries but millennia. At the start of the 20th Century, the city was a cultural infusion of Muslims, Christians and Jews, and although there were some disturbances, all three communities lived relatively harmoniously until the British took control in 1917. Portrait of Abed Abu Shehadeh, elected Tel Aviv/ Jaffa Council Member Whilst in East Jerusalem the resident Palestinians prefer to not engage with what is viewed as a heavily biased Israeli political system, the approach taken by the Arab minority population of roughly 20,000 Muslims and Christians living in Tel Aviv and Jaffa is somewhat different. In the municipal political realm, local issues clearly tend to dominate, but in mixed Jewish-Arab cities such as Tel Aviv and Jaffa, matters of national identity tend to rise in local debates, thus providing a granular view of the overall state of affairs between Jews and Arabs. The opinion of many Arab Israelis in Jaffa is that the so called ‘two state solution’ is drifting ever further out of reach, so much so that it is pointless pursuing it. Political activists here prefer the progressive vision of a one state reality that raises the possibility of a shared future in which Israelis and Palestinians govern together without casting aside their national identities. Made up of activists in their 30s and 40s, most with little to no previous political experience, The Jaffa List offers a glimpse of what that vision could look like. Palestinian-led with Jewish members, the Jaffa List eschews the current rhetoric about coexistence in favour of a real push for equal rights, justice, and multiculturalism. It is coexistence with a much stronger purpose, a potent response to the divisiveness currently dominating Israel’s political landscape. Number one on that list was Abed Abou Shehadeh, a local activist who is in his early thirties. Abed, who is Muslim, worked in a garage after high school but at the of age 24 he watched a friend die after a gang fight and decided to return to education, which saw him graduate in political philosophy at Tel Aviv University. We meet with Abed, recently elected a Municipal Council Member for Tel Aviv and Jaffa, who has generously given his time to give a personal overview of the local political environment. He starts by giving a brief history lesson… “Jaffa, like all other Palestinian cities, came under Israeli occupation after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, known among Palestinians as the Nakba, or the ‘catastrophe’. Nationally, more than 750,000 Palestinians either fled or were forcibly evicted from their homes by Jewish militias, including most of Jaffa’s 120,000 Palestinian residents. Many had their properties confiscated by the newly-formed Israeli state, and through the creation of the Absentee Property Law in 1950. Almost overnight, Jaffa, once a cosmopolitan capital of the Middle East, was relegated to an impoverished suburb of Tel Aviv.” The Absentee Property Law (APL) was enacted in 1950, ostensibly to address the management of property left by the 750,000 Palestinian refugees displaced from Israel during the 1948 war. In reality, the law provided not for management but for permanent expropriation. Its dual purposes were to expand Jewish control over land, and prevent the refugees from returning to their homes, considered necessary to ensure a substantial Jewish demographic majority in Israel. The broad wording of the APL meant that almost every Palestinian who left their home during the war became an ‘absentee’ under Israeli law. This included those who had remained within what became Israeli territory, creating the paradoxical legal status of ‘present absentee’. All property belonging to absentees became ‘absentee property’, and could be expropriated by the state without compensation. The minaret of a mosque in the Old Town of Jaffa It has been calculated that in total, the APL resulted in the expropriation of over 10,000 shops, 25,000 buildings, and almost 60% of the country’s fertile land. Most of the expropriated land was transferred to the Jewish National Fund, achieving the transfer of huge swathes of land privately owned by Palestinians into communal Jewish ownership. After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel annexed East Jerusalem, meaning the APL has since applied to land there. The broad terms of the law meant that any East Jerusalem property owned by residents of the West Bank or neighbouring Arab countries automatically became absentee property and could be expropriated by the state without compensation. If, as Netanyahu has promised, the Jordan Valley is annexed, much of the privately owned Palestinian land there is likely to be declared absentee property and expropriated as well. As we move away from the Ottoman clock tower at the centre of Jaffa, Abed continues as he leads us up into the Old City on the hilltop… “The Israeli authorities forced the city’s remaining 4,000 Palestinians into a single location surrounded by fences and barbed wire, with permits required for anyone who wanted to leave. In effect it was a ghetto within Tel Aviv. By the time they were released, the Absentee Property Law had been passed and their homes seized by the state. Once the majority, Palestinians became a minority in Jaffa, enduring military rule and eventually being engulfed by Tel Aviv. Today, Palestinians continue to face deliberate gentrification of their neighbourhoods and evictions in a sustained attempt to erase their identity.” The geography on which Jaffa proudly stands has always made it a strategic military site as well as a place of trade. Positioned on a prominent headland it overlooks very deep waters, making it a natural port which has been fought over by ancient and more recent powers for millennia. Walking around the old town, there are visible remnants of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. However, what is most noticeable is the quietness. There is no trade, no activity, no shops, no hustle, no bustle. It is the antithesis of the history, culture and identity of Jaffa itself. The reason for this sterility is that the area has been gentrified, becoming an exclusive artists’ village featuring galleries, antiques shops, crafts and jewellery. Only artists are allowed to reside here, but seeing that Muslim and Arab professional art qualifications are not recognised, that only leaves Jewish creatives being able to establish themselves here. Abed is clearly a proud Palestinian who nevertheless sees a place for himself inside Israeli institutions. The aim is to make Tel Aviv into a ‘city for all its citizens,’ which is an echo of the wider Palestinian demand for Israel to end Jewish privilege and transform into a ‘state for all its citizens.’ “There needs to be a diverse political discourse. Belief in the two-state solution is declining, and there are few here who really consider it anymore. The conversation has moved on to gender and equality concerns, addressing deep-rooted social problems, to tackling racism and in the ability to form a union and progress worker rights. We are only interested in solutions delivered by a civil state, not a religious one that results in further discriminations. This is a civil struggle, with a long-term vision of the future of a more just society that goes well beyond the simplistic two-state idea.” We stand in the ancient port which once welcomed merchants, pilgrims, travellers, conquerors and immigrants and where Jaffa oranges were once stored and exported all over the world. Now it had been regenerated and gentrified, predominantly focused on tourism, incorporating boardwalks and converted warehouses hosting bars, fish restaurants, galleries and cultural spaces. A scattering of fishermen still ply their trade in the port as they did 3,000 years ago. However, Abed ends our tour by requesting that we do not romanticise the Palestinians, as the reality of the situation is far more complicated. “This is a moral obligation for everyone. History and culture cannot be altered, but there is a choice when it comes to changing the future and by deciding not to be victims, by controlling your future, by solving your own problems. My father, grandfather and the generations before me were not victims and neither am I. The PLO were far too negative in their approach. You need to have a positive state of mind, to live in the now and not in the past. I am now in the political system. I contribute to the budget, the infrastructure, the planning. Political involvement has allowed me to directly improve my community. As an individual Israeli Arab I am allowed to study, to buy property, but there is no collective identity or community rights. Presently, you cannot Arabise communities. For decades Arab representation has been too scarce. This is the next big challenge and political strategy is the key.” Lunch is taken in the centre of Jaffa, which is behind the port area and away from the sea. It consists mostly of tight palm-lined streets and old atmospheric arched buildings under which reside bars, cafes, antiques, flea markets and shadowy half hidden bazars. Every now and then, men can be seen tapping away in darkened and smoky workshops. The daily hubbub and our partaking of falafels is suddenly pierced by a convoy of gleaming white BMW 4x4s, horns blaring and men in white suits standing up and shouting out of the sunroofs. It’s a wedding procession, which briefly causes everyone to stop and cheer, before the conversations and the tapping start up again. The second part of the day is spent in Tel Aviv, which in terms of architecture is a sharp contrast to Jaffa. We pass through White City, which is the world’s largest collection of Bauhaus style buildings and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. This central area of the city saw rapid development by German-Jewish architects who fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s and is seen as an outstanding example of large-scale innovative 20th century town-planning. Originally there were over 4,000 original structures, some of which have since been demolished, but over 1,500 have been preserved and hundreds more are currently being restored and repaired to their former pristine state. Remnants of offensive graffiti and the entrance door to the Coalition of Women for Peace Office We park outside a very un-Bauhausian looking tower block that is a mixture of residential and office use. Entering the building we pass what we are later told is offensive graffiti aimed at the women and the organisation we are about to visit, the Coalition of Woman for Peace. Coalition of Women for Peace T shirts – We are Against the Occupation & Gaza my Darling Founded in November 2000, the Coalition of Woman for Peace (CWP) is a left-of-centre, pro-Palestinian activism organization and is a leading voice in the Israeli peace movement, bringing together women from a wide variety of identities and groups. It was created out of a desire to protect ‘the feminist left space’ and resist Israel’s occupation of the disputed Gaza and West Bank regions. CWP is fundamentally committed to ending the occupation and creating a more just society, while enhancing women’s inclusion and participation in the wider public discourse. It initiates public campaigns and education and outreach programs, working to develop and integrate a feminist discourse into all levels of society. It also established ‘Who Profits’ which is an organisation that publishes a list of Israeli businesses active in the West Bank and Gaza that has been used as a tool in the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Portrait of Dana Yair - Senior Co-ordinator of the Coalition of Women for Peace in the Tel Aviv office. As we enter the apartment, we are greeted by Dana Yair, the Senior Co-ordinator for the CWP. After introductions, we settle down and she gives a broad overview of the organisation and its objectives. At the core, it is that women do not have a voice in the activist movement and that there is an integral need to widen the Israeli political discourse to include both feminist and Palestinian issues. Dana and her colleagues seek to bring together and combine the two. For Palestinian women to progress this ideology in the current climate, it would be brave. For Israeli women, it is extraordinary. The activism that the CWP enacts and engages with is widespread and diverse. Conferences are regularly convened to discuss how to best use the tools of protest in a feminist way; educational workshops have been established to advise female activists how to take care of yourself when you are arrested; collective hunger strikes have been organised to raise the profile of female political prisoners; sexual strikes promoted in order to bring national attention to sexual harassment within domestic and workplace environments; with Amnesty they target arms conventions to stop Israeli military equipment that has been tested in the West Bank and Gaza being exported to the world and it utilises theatre and the visual arts to campaign and convey messages. It is the only group that aggressively highlights and supports female political prisoners. The cases of Ahed Tamimi and her mother Nariman are a perfect example of this. Ahed Tamimi caught the world’s attention when a video showing her slapping the soldier went viral in December of 2017. The episode followed a day of heated protests in Nabi Saleh, a small village north of Ramallah, during which soldiers shot her cousin Mohammed at close range with a rubber bullet, severely wounding him. Mohammed had part of his skull removed following the incident whilst Israeli military officials falsely claimed that the boy injured himself when he ‘fell of his bike.’ Days after the slapping incident, which Ahed said in court was in response to the soldiers injuring her cousin, the military raided her home and arrested her. Shortly after, they arrested her mother and another cousin, Nour, also pictured in the video. In March 2018, Ahed, who turned 17 in prison, agreed to a plea bargain and an eight-month sentence while her mother was convicted of incitement for sharing the video, and also sentenced to eight months in prison. The CWP organised high-profile demonstrations outside their jails and in front of the Israeli Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv and helped bring the case to the attention of the international media. Portrait of Ahed Tamimi on a portion of the Separation Wall in Bethlehem Defending LGBT rights and is another core mission of the CWP. Tel Aviv is promoted as gay friendly and a safe environment for those who do not fit into the traditional heterosexual model, however the reality is very different and mirrors negative attitudes that are commonly found across the Middle East. In 2018, after the announcement that Eurovision would be held in Tel Aviv, the CWP organized a year of campaigns in an attempt to get artists and tourists to boycott Eurovision in opposition to the Israeli government, accusing the Israel of trying to ‘pink wash its crimes against the Palestinian people and the occupation’ by hosting the event. During the week of Eurovision, CWP organisers launched a series of protests on every day of the event, calling Israel an ‘apartheid regime’ in which ‘Palestinians live under a military regime and siege.’ The international influx of tourists never happened and spectators had to be bussed in to ensure the venue was full. Dana concludes by relaying the personal risks that all of the women involved encounter. By projecting themselves as women into the forefront of a male dominated political arena, by actively supporting LGBT issues and by openly campaigning for the rights of Palestinians, the result is continual abuse and harassment from the state and the general public. Under the Netanyahu years, hatred and division have increased as the right-wing agenda has deliberately stoked the extremist fires. But society is very slowly changing and new, younger generations on both sides are beginning to challenge the confrontational status quo. Their parents would be horrified if they knew of their activism, but the individuals at the Coalition of Women for Peace are part of a courageous and growing demographic who are desperate for change. It is a heartening thought to take back to East Jerusalem… Day 4 The Road to Ramallah Getting to Ramallah from East Jerusalem necessitates passing through Qalandia and its notorious Israeli military checkpoint, known for its reviled metal turnstiles and caged tunnels. It was originally constructed as a simple roadblock in 2001, but since that time has expanded at the expense of Palestinian homes to become the busiest checkpoint in the West Bank. For nearly two decades, thousands of Palestinian civilians have been forced to wait here, sometimes for hours, as they attempt to enter Israel for work, school, medical appointments or family visits. As this is the only entrance from the West Bank into Jerusalem, all roads effectively lead here, otherwise it is a 60-kilometre diversion if the checkpoint is closed, which it often is, causing massive congestion, as well as economic and social hardship. Because of the delays and restrictions, children have been born here and sadly new-born children have also died here. It has become a stark symbol of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and a constant source of humiliation for ordinary Palestinians. It also serves as a daily reminder of how deeply Israel controls their lives. A section of the Separation Wall at Qalandia As we are tourists armed with foreign passports, our passage through the fortified turnstiles is swift and painless, unlike those Palestinians sitting waiting in cars, lorries and busses or standing in large queues in the early morning heat and dust. As we move away from the checkpoint, we briefly glimpse the cramped and overcrowded Qalandia Refugee Camp, established in 1949 by the Red Cross. More than 10,000 Palestinians live within its boundaries, now surrounded by the Separation Wall which is physically as well as psychologically attempting to remove it from Jerusalem itself. The municipal border of Jerusalem actually extends 3 kilometres beyond the checkpoint and its watchtowers and it is estimated that over 30,000 Palestinian homes exist in an area that the Israeli state is in the process of gerrymandering into the West Bank. Before entering Ramallah, we pass the Al Am’ari Refugee Camp located just south east, again established in 1949 and with a population of over 10,000. Its inhabitants suffer a high rate of poverty and unemployment in an extremely dense and uncomfortable physical environment. Despite being in Area A, it is frequently exposed to Israeli military attacks and arrests leading to a great deal of tension between the Israeli and Palestinian soldiers in the area. Adding to the tautness is the Israeli settlement of Psagot, deliberately located just 1,000 metres away, which was visited at the end of 2020 by the then US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo who was invited to the Psagot Winery to honour a wine brand named after him. The winery is built on private Palestinian lands and owned by the Falic family of Florida, which has donated at least $5.6m to settler groups in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem over the past decade. Since 2000, they have also donated at least $1.7m to pro-Israel politicians in the US, both Democrats and Republicans, including Donald Trump. The winery is also a major focus of Israel’s efforts to promote tourism in the occupied territory and a potent symbol of its fight against campaigns to boycott or label products from its illegal settlements. An overview of Ramallah and its most famous citizen, Yasser Arafat Swiftly the density and scale of the buildings rises around us, whilst the roads and pavements become more broken and unkempt. We enter Ramallah, generally considered to be the most affluent and liberal of all the Palestinian cities. Ramallah has grown from a small town north of Jerusalem to a bustling cosmopolitan city. Home to the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, international NGOs and foreign representative offices, Ramallah experienced rapid development following the Oslo Accords that were concluded in the 1990s. Today it is the hub for Palestinian culture and the economy, featuring museums, cultural centres, art galleries, shops and restaurants. In many ways this has been the result of the Israeli policy to force Palestinian nightlife, cultural organisations and businesses out of Jerusalem in an attempt to strip the city of its Palestinian identity. Jerusalem’s loss has been Ramallah’s gain as it is now a vibrant, busy, colourful and somewhat chaotic city. The first meeting of the day is with Omar Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian human rights defender and co- founder of the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions movement. In 2005, Palestinian civil society organisations called for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel. The collective result was the creation of the BDS movement, which was launched by over 170 Palestinian unions, refugee networks, women’s organisations, professional associations, popular resistance committees and other Palestinian civil society bodies. Portrait of Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It builds on a tradition of non-violent resistance and draws on strategic approaches that were developed by the civil rights movements in America and South Africa and seeks to put pressure on Israel until it complies with international law by ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Separation Wall; recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194. “Palestinians are almost divided on everything but there is consensus on the ending of the Israeli occupation, recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens and respecting the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.” Omar continues by breaking down the tools of the BDS movement. Boycotts involve withdrawing support from Israel's apartheid regime, complicit Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions, and from all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights. The divestment campaigns urge banks, local councils, churches, pension funds and universities to withdraw investments from the State of Israel and all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid. The sanctions campaigns apply pressure to governments to fulfil their legal obligations to end the apartheid, not aid or assist its maintenance, by banning business with illegal Israeli settlements, ending military trade and free-trade agreements, as well as suspending Israel's membership in international forums such as UN bodies and FIFA. The Israeli state’s response to the BDS movement has been predictably aggressive. It made a former high ranking intelligence officer its director-general of Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, which it has openly admitted is an anti-BDS government department and has spent huge sums creating anti-BDS propaganda targeting news and social media both domestically and internationally. Those involved with BDS were initially called ‘terrorists in suits’ and promoted by the Israeli state as a strategic threat equal to Iran. The public facing narrative has since shifted to BDS being anti-Semitic, whilst behind the scenes websites have been hacked and taken down and funding sources severely restricted. This is the identical approach that has been taken with Al-Haq and Al Mezan, both independent NGOs campaigning for Palestinian human rights, which have also been subjected to sustained campaigns of defamation, harassment, sabotage and even death threats. Omar himself has for years been subjected to intense threats, intimidation and repression by various arms of the Israeli government, including the arrest and detention on tax evasion allegations that saw no formal charges. He brushes off such incidents as occupational hazards before addressing the allegations of anti-Semitism… “BDS is a non-violent human rights movement that seeks freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people. It is based on international law, anchored around the universal declaration of human rights and is morally consistent with those values. As such, BDS has consistently and categorically rejected all forms of discrimination and racism, including anti-Semitism as well as dozens of racist laws in Israel. Our non-violent struggle has never been against Jews or Israelis as Jews, but against an unjust regime that enslaves our people with occupation, apartheid and denial of the refugees’ UN-stipulated rights.” Omar highlights a number of recent BDS successes that have seen global organisations withdraw from the West Bank, Israeli companies lose overseas contracts, domestic sporting and cultural events shunned by international athletes and artists, divestment by governments, banks and investors and increased support from American and European academic institutions. However, there is a developing debate among Palestinians as to how the BDS movement should evolve. It has yet to achieve a critical global mass similar to the South African boycott and many regard a more targeted approach that focuses on Israeli settlement products and the companies that work there, rather than all of Israel, as the way forward. In many ways, it appears that may be the direction that the movement is heading. At the start of 2020, the United Nations released a long-awaited list of 112 companies that are complicit in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, a first concrete step towards holding to account Israeli and international corporations that enable Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian rights in the West Bank. The activities identified included supplying equipment and materials facilitating the construction and expansion of settlements and Israel's West Bank barrier; supplying equipment for the demolition of housing and property, and the destruction of farms, greenhouses, olive groves and crops; providing services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport; banking and financial operations helping to develop, expand or maintain settlements and their activities, including loans for housing and businesses. The report, which was 4 years in the making, now makes it very easy for individuals, companies and governments to identify those operations that are exploiting the Palestinian people who reside in the West Bank. A similar alignment is happening in Ireland which is in the final stages of passing ‘The Occupied Territories Bill’ that will prohibit the import of goods and services produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Bill itself will not send shockwaves through the Israeli economy as the value of imports from settlements is estimated to be a modest €1 million. It will, however, allow Ireland to lead by example and show its counterparts in Europe and beyond that rogue states should not be allowed to repeatedly ignore the law without consequence. Whilst most foreign governments appear reluctant to impose full sanctions on Israel as a whole, targeting Israeli exports that originate from the West Bank seems to be a more attractive and easily understood alternative. “There is a need to end the complicity. Doing nothing is not an option. The BDS movement is growing and building links with other global movements. Intersectionality with others who are fighting for their rights is so important and internationally, various human rights struggles are beginning to connect, be it women, LGBT, disabled, race or workers.” For Omar, UK unions are not raising awareness of the existence and the agenda of BDS to their grassroots members. “The UK was a global leader in the South African apartheid movement. It needs to be a leader again.” Calls to midday prayers from loudspeakers mounted on minarets fill the hills of Ramallah. They resonate in the background as we are graciously served strong aromatic Arabic coffee by men in brown trousers and brown V neck jumpers that almost, but don’t quite match. We are sat in a naturally lit room, shutters half way down on very large windows, in a small office block set high on a slope overlooking the city. This is the Democracy and Workers’ Rights Centre in Palestine (DWRC) a non-governmental, non-profit organization that was established in 1993 by a group of lawyers, academics, trade unionists and other prominent figures in the Palestinian society to defend Palestinian workers’ rights and promote principles of democracy and social justice in the Palestinian territories. Portrait of Carine Abu Hmeid, National Relations Coordinator at the Democracy and Workers Right Centre. Standing before us is Carine Abu Hmeid, a French national now resident in Ramallah who is the DWRC’s National Relations Coordinator. She begins by describing the core mission of the DWRC which is to establish a democratic trade union culture based around human rights in Palestine. The remit of the DWRC is wide. It defends both male and female worker rights, addresses gender inequality within the workplace, educates and campaigns on health and safety, and helps in the creation of unions themselves. There is a big focus on supporting women and youth workers who are the most marginalised groups in the labour market. There are over 130,000 Palestinian workers employed in Israel itself and within the illegal settlements. Only 72% actually hold an official permit which has to be paid for and can be withdrawn at any time, without reason. The vast majority do not receive any formal pay slips (70%) and have no annual leave entitlement (75%). Only 15% have any form of injury at work insurance whilst sick pay is virtually non-existent. Pensions are almost unheard of. It doesn’t end there. With respect to the minimum wage, which is less for Palestinians than it is for Israelis, 33% of men are paid below the official rate whilst for women the figure is higher at 37%. Over half of all workers have no form of any contract of employment and over half again are employed by intermediaries, normally Palestinian who keep part of their salary. Maybe the most painful statistic is that 11% of all Palestinian workers are employed in illegal settlements built on land confiscated from their own families. When one considers the Gaza Strip separately, then all the above figures are considerably worse. “There have been severe consequences on the Palestinian economy because of the Israeli settler colonialization of the West Bank. It is in effect a captive economy and market at the mercy of Israeli state, which has full control over all of the natural resources, most importantly water, as well as the movement of people and goods. It has led to both de-agriculturalisation and de-industrialisation on a catastrophic scale as, over a period of 40 years, gross domestic product has been halved in both sectors.” The unemployment average is 26% for all Palestinians, which rises to 38% for youths under the age of 29 and further again to 44% for women. For many, it is not uncommon to graduate from university and then struggle to find any meaningful employment. Women are pushed into traditional areas of ‘female work’ such as domestic services, health or education and there is a great deal of discrimination against women of child bearing age and no legislation to protect them. 57% have no maternity leave of any kind and sackings due to pregnancy are normal. “A major goal of the DWRC is reinforcing women’s role in the workplace, providing them with the legal assistance to enable them to achieve their right to justice, encouraging them to form representative bodies on a democratic basis, and providing them with information to enable an ability to influence the wider social environment.” Work conditions and employment rights within the public sector of the Palestinian Authority (PA) can at best be described as fragmented. The privatisation and subcontracting of services have eroded workers’ protections and decreased what little job security there was. There is no fair or consistent redundancy process, no fair or consistent dismissal procedure, no fair or consistent notice periods and a continued illegal transfer of many civil servants including teachers and health workers, into early retirement. Whilst it is understood that the PA is suffering from chronic budget deficits, to those unionists on the outside looking in, the apparent hostility of the Palestinian Authority to the trade union movement comes as something as an unwanted surprise. When Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, the headquarters of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) was seized by Hamas gunmen and the staff were told to attend a meeting to discuss how unions should operate under Hamas rule. To their great credit, they refused, but the violence and harassment of union officials by Hamas has never stopped and has gradually bled across into the PA and the West Bank. There are continued violations, in both the West Bank and Gaza, of the International Labour Organisation’s Conventions, especially with regards to the freedom of association and the right to organise. Palestinian Authority legislation as recent as 2017 severely limits or in certain sectors outlaws any right to withdraw labour and there is no collective bargaining and no arbitration or conciliation mechanisms in place to address workplace disputes. Dismissals for those engaged in union activities are commonplace. Those who have physical or mental health conditions or are suffering from any form of long-term illness suffer the same fate. It’s a strong deterrent to just joining a union, let alone being the figurehead and trying to organise within the workplace, especially so when 89% of business enterprises employ less than 5 workers. However, since its inception, the DWRC has provided more than 60 thousand legal consultations to Palestinian workers whose rights have been denied by their employers, both Israeli and Palestinian. Through a combination of negotiation with the employer and via lengthy litigation through the courts, over US$20 million has been paid back to workers and their families, the majority of this money from Israeli employers. There is no doubt that this work is challenging and arduous, but it ultimately garners results. Carine concludes the meeting by summarising the vision and goals of the DWRC. “Our vision is of a Palestinian society where peace, democracy, social justice and equality prevail, and of a Palestinian trade union movement with the representative and bargaining power to guarantee this. Our strategic goal is of a comprehensive social protection system that guarantees the rights and human dignity of all of our Palestinian male and female citizens.” Yasser Arafat Museum and Mausoleum In a towering mausoleum of Jerusalem limestone and glass, throngs of Arab men congregate around an ornate tomb decorated with calligraphy of verses from the Holy Quran. This is the current resting place of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The different groups wait their turns for photographs with the military guards that will provide evidence of their pilgrimage to their friends and family back home. Next to the tomb, across a reflection pool that symbolises life and continuity for the Palestinian people, is the museum that bears Arafat’s name and which no visitor to Ramallah should bypass. The museum’s narrative begins at the dawn of the 20th century and traces the rise of Palestinian nationalism, the Nakba, the struggles with Zionism and Israel, and Arafat’s role at critical points along the way. Divided into two parts, the first half traces Arafat's life alongside that of his Fatah movement and other associated Palestinian factions. Personal items on display include the Nobel Peace Prize medal Arafat received in 1994, an honour he shared with his Israeli partners, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for the Oslo Peace Accords, the pistol Arafat kept and his iconic keffiyeh scarf. For those visitors who may be less interested in Palestinian history and politics, a bridge links to the old part of the Muqata revealing the place where Arafat spent his final years under Israeli siege from 2001 to 2004, surrounded by tanks and rubble. The restored facility includes his bedroom, where khaki green uniforms still hang in the wardrobe and AK47s rest by the bed. Arafat’s story ends abruptly with his death in a French military hospital in 2004, which is still contested and documented here in some depth. The museum navigates an extremely fine line, honouring the Palestinian narrative while dealing dispassionately with some of the more awkward periods in the Palestine Liberation Organization’s history. Notorious acts of terrorism carried out by Palestinian factions, like the airplane hijackings and the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, as well as the suicide bombings that Fatah militants joined in