Mahmoud Sarsak – Palestinian soccer player

I wonder if the Palestinian football player, Mahmoud Sarsak, will be watching the game tonight in London where I believe he is touring.

Young people in Gaza produced this 3-minute video to commend Mahmoud Sarsak, the Palestine footballer, and ex-prisoner, for refusing to attend the October 2012 El Clásico match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid because Israeli soldier and ex-prisoner of war Gilad Shalit was to be present as a VIP guest.

Football diplomacy

Saturday night promises to be a very lively affair.  I’m told television sets in every city, in every country in Europe will be turned to the European Football Cup Championship. My friends and I have already staked out the bar where we will watch the game in the Sultanahmet District in the Old City of Istanbul.

Football has become an explosive issue in the Middle East thanks to Israel’s detention and incarceration of Mahmoud Sarsak, the Palestinian football star.

As he was leaving Gaza in July 2009 on his way to the West Bank to play football, Israeli officials arrested Sarsak and held him for the next THREE YEARS without formal charges being filed against him.  Israel claimed he was linked to the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, which Sarsak denied.  Perhaps Israel just wanted to side-line a promising athlete’s career.  That’s one way to beat the opposition.

Stadium in Gaza

Another way to beat them is to destroy the opposition’s stadium so they become demoralized and have no place to practice, as Israel did in November 2012 during their 8-day bombardment in Gaza.

Stadium in Gaza destroyed by Israel in Nov. 2012.

Stadium in Gaza destroyed by Israel in Nov. 2012.

Stadium in Gaza destroyed by Israel in Nov. 2012.

Sarsak was finally released in July 2012 after a three-month hunger strike during which he lost nearly 1/2 of his normal body weight. Check out this video of his release.

The Under-21 Football Tournament is scheduled to be held in Israel in early June 2013.  There is a growing chorus of opposition urging officials to move the tournament out of Israel.  Sarsak has added his voice to this campaign too.

So long as Israel can detain Palestinians without charge indefinitely, and not be held accountable, I think the world should boycott Israel.

And I think the Palestinians should buy some air time on the major networks Saturday night when all of those eyeballs are glued to their sets.

Mavi Marmara three years later

Istanbul has a very large waterfront, perhaps the city with the largest waterfront in the world.  (I don’t know, but I can’t think of another one.)

The city sits on both sides of the Bosphorus Strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

This waterfront is both a blessing and a curse.

Historically it opened up the city to foreign trade and commerce.  As a result, Istanbul is truly a bustling, cosmopolitan city today.  Prime Minister Erdogan and President Obama mentioned last week in the press conference at the White House that they want to increase trade between our two countries.

Istanbul waterfront

But this waterfront also left the city vulnerable. Many battles were waged to gain control over this strategic spot highlighting the city’s violent history.  The great forts and thick walls are still visible today.

A battle of another sort occurred three years ago (May 31, 2010) onboard a Turkish ship called the Mavi Marmara.  Along with 5 other ships, the passengers on the Mavi Marmara attempted to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

The Mavi Marmara

Nine Turkish citizens (one with dual US citizenship) were killed that night by Israeli commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmara in international waters to prevent the ship from reaching Gaza.  [Under any other circumstances, their actions would have been considered an act of piracy!]

“Midnight on the Mavi Marmara” edited by Moustafa Bayoumi, is a good resource for those interested in learning more.   And this video (one hour) is also a good resource.  The Israeli commandos board the ship about 35-40 minutes into the video.

Understandably, there was international outrage over Israel’s actions on the Mavi Marmara.  Turkey threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Israel and demanded an apology.

Three years later, after Secretary of State John Kerry expressed sympathy for the families of the victims of the Mavi Marmara, comparing the violence on the Mavi Marmara with the violence at the Boston Marathon, he was criticized by Israeli politicians.

Asked about the recent thawing of relations between Israel and Turkey, Kerry said of the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010, “I know it’s an emotional issue with some people. I particularly say to the families of people who were lost in the incident, we understand these tragedies completely and we sympathize with them. And nobody — I mean, I have just been through the week of Boston and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence and something happens and you lose people that are near and dear to you. It affects a community, it affects a country. We’re very sensitive to that.”

On May 17th, Kerry met with Ahmet Doğan, whose son Furkan Doğan was one of the Mavi Marmara victims.  Reportedly, he handed a note to Kerry for President Obama.

I have no idea what this father might have written but I hope he asked Obama to do everything in his power to hold Israel accountable for the death of his son. So long as the Israeli Occupation Forces can act with impunity, no one is safe.

Furkan Doğan, Turkish-American citizen, was the youngest victim on the Mavi Marmara (May 31, 2010)

The Nakba – Part VI

The Catastrophe — or Nakba — occurred in 1948 when the British left Palestine and David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israel’s “Independence.”  Most Americans don’t know about the Nakba.  See Part 1, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V.  I confess I am only beginning to understand the magnitude of the atrocities that occurred, and continue to occur, in Palestine.

The forcible expulsion of the Indigenous population and the appropriation of their lands and property would be a fascinating journey through the legal machinations employed by the Zionists (yesterday and today) if it was not so tragic for so many people.

Amjad Alqasis, a legal researcher at BADIL Resource Center, has written an excellent review of some of the laws that Israel has used to confiscate the property of Palestinians, available here.

Wall mural in Gaza

Although the Israeli government refuses to acknowledge the Nakba, recent polling suggests that Israeli citizens may be ahead of their leaders in this regard.  See this article.

Both sides will need to exorcise their demons regarding the other, not to gloss over the present but in order to unlock the door to the future. Here are the fundamental questions for the Israel side: first, can the Right’s frenzied efforts to stifle consciousness of the Nakba succeed? The results seem to say no. Activism recalling the Nakba has only heightened and the data here implies that the Israeli public is ahead of its leaders in acknowledging not only history, but the implications of history on conflict resolution.

Secondly, how can the large swath of the Israeli public that is prepared to reconcile with its past in the present be expanded and leveraged? How can this political maturity be brought to bear on future negotiation efforts or any other effort to resolve the situation? Surely, beating a guilt-fatigued population with more historic guilt will backfire (if it hasn’t already). Is there a less threatening way to address and redress history that does not undercut Jewish identity in this land? This is one of the vital challenges of the day, that the Nakba (and perhaps the “Jewish state” definition, for Palestinians) symbolizes for all parties in the conflict: can each side acknowledge the most sensitive and frightening aspects of the other party’s identity without losing its own, and then lashing out violently to protect it?

Now listen carefully . . . Secretary Kerry, President Obama, everyone . . . here’s the most important lesson from the Nakba that you mustn’t forget.

Wall mural in Gaza

If you begin negotiating with Netanyahu and Abbas with the assumption that the conflict began in 1967, you will fail.  You might as well save your breath and travel expenses.

The injustices occurred in 1948, and have continued every year since, and your negotiations must begin from the Nakba.

• Israel must acknowledge the Zionists’ responsibility for the trauma and loss of Palestinian lives and property as a result of Plan D and the Zionists’ project.
• Israel must pay reparations to the Palestinians, just as Germans are paying reparations to Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Germany’s postwar reparations program has become such a matter of fact that many Germans are not even aware that their country, after paying $89 billion in compensation mostly to Jewish victims of Nazi crimes over six decades, still meets regularly to revise and expand the guidelines for qualification. The aim is to reach as many of the tens of thousands of elderly survivors who have never received any form of support.

• Israel must acknowledge the Right of Return and make plans to allow Palestinians who wish to live peacefully with their neighbors, the right to return to pre-Israel lands, or pay compensation to those who decide they do not want to return.

I know the current leadership in Israel flatly rejects these points, but Israeli citizens deserve to live in peace — just as Palestinians deserve to live in peace — and neither side will achieve it until the Nakba is on the negotiating table and these points are addressed openly and honestly.

Wall mural in gaza

The Nakba – Part V

The facts about the Catastrophe of 1948 are clearly documented.  There is no denying this shameful history, although some try.  Part II here and Part III here and Part IV here.

Many American Jews send their children to Israel on free 10-day birthright tours to learn about their Jewish culture and the history of Israel.  They are steeped in the propaganda of national pride but I don’t believe they learn the history of the Nakba.

A Jewish friend once told me that I was asking her family to commit psychological suicide by confronting the facts of Israel’s birth, the Nakba, and the ongoing brutal Occupation of the Palestinian refugees.

A new documentary by Lia Tarachansky called The Seven Deadly Myths addresses this cognitive dissonance in Israeli society.

Maybe the Middle East needs more thoughtful, caring psychologists and fewer mediators and negotiators.

The Nakba – Part IV

The facts about the Catastrophe of 1948 are clearly documented.  There is no denying this shameful history, although some try.  Part II here and Part III here.

When an Israeli graduate student — Teddy Katz — interviewed Nakba survivors in 1999 for his MA dissertation and “discovered” the massacre at Tantura, Haifa University retroactively disqualified his dissertation and he was dragged into court on libel charges.

The Nakba – Part III

The history of the Nakba and the refugees today are joined by the children who are sick and tired of the Occupation.