Nyttårsaften er avlyst.

Å våkne opp etter første natt hjemme på lørdag til nyheter om krig i Gaza, og opp mot 200 drepte palestinere i de første angrepene, var ingen god følelse. Nå ville krigen fortsatt vært på god avstand fra meg, men de spontane reaksjonene i Ramallah på lørdag er noe jeg gjerne skulle ha vært en del av - holdt på å si heller det enn å bli dynket i tåregass bak slottsplassen fordi norsk politi endelig fant en unnskyldning til å få brukt noe av tåregassen sin.

Nå, 5 dager ut i Israels angrep - Israels massakre - på Gaza, er det internasjonale samfunnet fortsatt ikke i stand til å stanse det. Det er skammelig. Det er ofte slik at verden ikke klarer å stanse massakre og ugjernigheter. I områder som Burma, DRC, Nigeria, Zimbabwe og sikkert mange fler har verdenssamfunnet tydelig vist mangel på politisk vilje og makt, så hvorfor er massakren mot palestinere så veldig annerledes?

For det første fordi staten Israel eksisterer takket være sterk europeisk og vestlig støtte, og hva den staten gjør rundt seg bør være av interesse for de statene som har ansvaret for at den eksisterer. Videre er aggressatoren og okkupaten en av våre nærmeste allierte i Midtøsten. Israel, som Norge har stått ved siden av i tykt og tynt, er i dag ansvarlig for å massakrere palestinere, slik den var i Libanon i 1982. Da som passive tilskuere, denne gangen som aktive bødler.

For det andre, og det viktigste: I de andre tilfellene av massakre og ugjernigheter finner man sjeldent politiske ledere som ser ned og mumler fram sine protester, slik Aps fylkesordfører Tore O. Sandvik så korrekt kritiserer Norge for å gjøre i dette tilfelle! Vanligvis sier regjeringene i fra om hva de forventer at aggressatoren skal gjøre, og de tar i bruk alle midler de har til rådighet for å få det til.

Men ikke i tilfelle Israel. Noen stater er likere enn andre. Bare tanken på f.eks. et europeisk kultur- og idrettsboikott som Fredrik Mellem og mange andre snakker om er helt umulig, selv om man vet at det vil være den mest effektive måten å stanse apartheidstaten Israel på.

Det er trist å se hvordan det internasjonale samfunnet og også den norske regjeringen er i stand til å skylde på Hamas for denne krigen. Framfor å få Israel - okkupanten de siste 40 år - til å stanse bombingen og massakren, legger man all skyld på de kinaputtene Hamas skyter inn til Israel. Det var ikke annet å forvente fra USA, men jeg, og jeg antar de fleste palestinere, forventet noe annet av sin egen leder Mahmoud Abbas, som ser ut til å være mer opptatt av maktspill enn å kreve stans i bombingen.

Hamas brøt fredsavatalen hevdes det, og har mer eller mindre blitt en etablert sannhet. Glemt er det fengslet palestinerne har levd under de siste 18 månedene (inkl. de seks fredsavtalen eksisterte), med kontinuerlig forverring av situasjonen. Ordet forverret mistet sin verdi, da det ikke var mulig å beskrive hvordan en desperat humanitær situasjon blir når man i tillegg stenger all grenser og nekter innførsel av livsnødvendig humanitær utstyr og varer som bensin og mat. Glemt er de drapene Israels militæret utførte i Gaza i hele sommer og høst under fredsavtalen. Det var knapt noen raketter som ble skutt mot Israel i oktober inntil Hamas ikke lenger kunne sitte og se Israelske soldater angripe og drepe palestinere i tillegg til blokkaden. Et samfunn i en situasjon definert som desperat av alle humanitære organiasjosjoner, er etter alle vestlige regjeringers mening skyld i at de nå blir bombet sønder og sammen av englene i Israel.

Det er trist å se at det eneste norske regjeringen er i stand til å si og gjøre er å kreve stans i angrpene og at partene skal returnere tilbake til fredsavtalen. Hva for et liv er det Raymond Johansen ønsker at palestinerne i Gaza skal returnere til?

Palestinerne trenger ikke lovnader om milliarder i nødhjelp for å bygge opp igjen en infrastruktur Israel kan bombe sønder og sammen igjen om 5-10 års tid, men de trenger sikkerhet. Langt mer enn innbyggerne i Sderot og Ashkelon, som nå har blitt evakuert fra sine hjem i busser, er det borgerne i hele Gazastripen som trenger verdenssamfunnets beskyttelse. De fortjener et liv uten bomber, uten okkupasjon, med åpne grenser og med innførsel av varer og tjenester som er helt nødvendig for et normalt liv.

Kjære J. Støre og R. Johansen: Kall en spade for en spade. Krev stans i Israels bombing av Gaza og drap av uskyldige mennesker. Krev stans i den okkupasjonspolitikken Israel gjennomfører.

Godt nytt år!

What Palestinian state?!?

I came to Palestine four months ago with a clear idea of a two state solution as the best solution for the region. That will say a Palestinian state alongside with Israel. I thought that most Palestinians wanted that too, but I was pretty surprised when I discovered that that’s not the fact. Now, four months later, I’m having my own doubts about a two-state solution on the territory of historical Palestine.

I still believe that a two state solution is the most realistic, or achievable, but it will be an unfair solution.

First thing first; where exactly do the world community, the Quartet or anyone, see the contiguous state of Palestine, as Bush promised in January 2008, in between the Israeli security zones, settlements, settler roads and of course the apartheid wall that eats up most of the West Bank? There has been little to suggest that Israel plans to give up the territories we know as Jordan Valley (the entire east side of the West Bank, thus the border to Jordan, which Israel wants to keep for security reasons), leaving the West Bank with no other neighbouring (trading) country than Israel, the numerous settlements in the West Bank (128 illegal settlements), their roads, the apartheid wall and so on.

If Israel had a desire to negotiate on those areas, they, if not decreasing the numbers, at least hadn’t continued to build more as they have done. Only in the course of this year, the year when Palestinians and Israelis would, according to Bush, sign a final peace agreement, Israel has built more than 25,000 illegal units inside the West Bank. All while Annapolis agreement was still under function. Illegal settlements have since the beginning in the 70’is been a crucial part of the Zionist project to control and later take over territory, and ar still part of that masterplan. As reported in Haaretz today, the population growth among West Bank settlers was three times higher than that of the rest of Israel during the past 12 years. Settler population went from 130.000 in 2005 to 270.000 by the end of 2007. The Palestinian figures are much higher (around 400.000).

During the same year, the numbers of road blocks on the West Bank have increased with 3%, according to a UN report (September 08), and are currently as high as 630. After standing over 50 minutes in queue at Qalandia checkpoint yesterday, I could only wish that once, only once, the so-called friends of Israel would have to stand in that line, listen to a 18-year old soldier barking his orders from his cabin, as if they were sheep or worse, with no regard to their age or condition, in a language no one but him understood. This year 67 women have given birth at a checkpoint, half of them loosing their child and 2 women bleeding to death.

Secondly, a two state solution would be bloody unfair. It would be unfair to the more than 750.000 Palestinians who were expelled from their homes in 1948. Today they count about 5 million people and are spread throughout the world, but live mainly in neighbouring countries as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and even West Bank in refugee camps and under severe circumstances.

Ilan Pappe, one of the so-called new-historians in Israel, describes in his newly released book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, how the Jewish (Israel didn’t exist yet) military groups, or better to say, Zionist terrorist groups, as Hagana and the Irgun, under orders from the indisputable leader of Zionist movement, David Ben-Gurion, systematically expelled Palestinians from their homes and destroyed their villages. As part of the so-called Plan Dalet, village after village was attacked and Arabs thrown out of their homes, sometimes even massacred. The massacre in Deir Yassin is the most famous of them, when Menachim Begin (yupp, the later prime minister) led his Irgun group into Deir Yassin 9. April 1948, and killed 170 civilians. Another massacre in Ayn al-Zayton that formed the basis for the novel Bab al-Shams and later a movie, left 70 people were left dead. All this with one aim at sight: Intimidating the Palestinians and thereby judaise the land. “Had we never heard of the events in the former Yugoslavia but had been aware of only the case of Palestine, we would be forgiven for thinking that the US and UN definitions [of ethnic cleansing] were inspired by the Nakba, down to almost their last minute detail”, Pappe writes in his first chapter.

Half of the indigenous people living in Palestine were driven out with half of their villages and towns destroyed by the Jewish military force.

All this before May 15th, 1948, before the state of Israel was declared, and the Arab countries half heartedly entered Palestine to “defend” the Palestinians. By then over a quarter a million Palestinians had already been expelled, two hundred villages destroyed and scores of towns emptied. Villages as Khirbat al-Kasayir and Hawsha are just two examples of villages allcoated to Palestinian state by the UN partition resolution (181) occupied by Zionist troops before May 15th. All under the watch of British troops morally bound to protect the civilians, and the UN representatives who were on the ground supervising the implementation of the division plan, but basically turning there back to whole thing.

There will be no peace without these people getting their right to return, as the unanimous UN resolution 194 (1948, dot 11) states, and Israel taking the moral responsibility of making them refugees in 1948. Pushing them to Europe or other countries, which seems to be the Israeli plan, or not taking any responsibility is not the right stand.

In connection with Israel's UN membership in 1948, fulfilling this resolution was one of the requirements, but Israel holds the "hardly flattering world record of ignoring UN resolutions", as Snorre Lindquist and Lasse Wilhelmson writes in an article in Palestine Chronicle.

It can be written much about the war in 1948. All too often we hear about Jewish David facing an Arab Goliath. Attacked by 7 Arab countries, it fought bravely (and miraculously) won the war. Well, the war started, as just shown, long before May 15th, and the Goliath was at that time defenceless Palestinian villagers. The other reason for the “miraculous” victory is the Israeli superiority both militarily and numerically. Only Hagana had, when plan Dalet was put into effect (april 48), more than 50.000 troops at its disposal, half of which had been trained by the British army during the Second World War (Pappe). The Arab states, numbering at top 30-40.000, knew before entering the war, that the Palestinians had lost, and that they didn’t have any chance to win.

The biggest force, the Jordanian Legion (under the command of British General Chief of Staff, John Glubb Pasha) actually annexed the West Bank without firing one shot, due to a double game King Abdullah of Jordan played. Being the head of the military effort of the Arab countries on the one hand, and striving to reach an agreement with the Jewish state about annexation of the West Bank on the other. In other words, the Jordanian occupation of the West Bank at first came about thanks to a prior agreement with the Israelis, but it remained in Hashemite hands due to defensive efforts of the Jordanians and the Iraqi forces when the Israeli army tried to wrest parts of it back (Ilan Pappe 2007:121).

A two state solution would furthermore be unfair to all the Palestinians who have lived in Israel for the last 60 years.

Out of 970.000 Palestinians living in the 1948 Palestine, only 156.000 remained. 50.000 of these were internal refugees not living in their original villages, since those villages were demolished. Today there are about 1.2 million Palestinians (not including Arabs in East Jerusalem) in the state of Israel (app. 20%). 263.000 of them, or in other words, every 1 in 5 Palestinian/Arab in Israel is a refugee. These people would have a very uncertain future in case of the creation of a new state of Palestine next to Israel. The Foreign Minister and the newly head of the leading Kadima party Tzipi Livni is quoted in Haaretz last week questioning, the already B-citizens in Israel’s, national aspirations.

The “biggest democracy in the Middle East” as some falsely call the state of Israel, wants only to be a home state for the Jews, leaving no room for other nationalities or minorities. As in 1948, The Zionist wants the land, but without the Palestinian population.

There has never been a Palestine, the Ziontists claim, and they are right. All through history the people of Palestine have been under foreign rule, be it the Ottomans or the British Mandate. But this doesn't change the fact that there was an entity of land called Palestine or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' Article 21 (3) that states that the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government, and it definitely doesn't give the Zionist Colonialists the right to claim a state and rule on Palestinian land. If Israel righteously wants to claim the title of “biggest democracy in the Middle East”, there is only one, and the only fair, solution: A bi-national state for all the people of the historical Palestine, even the refugees.

Pakistan, Palestine and Mumbai

Being in Pakistan for the last two weeks has been an interesting experience. I arrived back to Palestine yesterday, and was in Lahore for 10 days to celebrate my younger cousin’s wedding. Given the tense situation in Pakistan, me not having a car, and thereby not much to do, I had plenty of time in front of the telly watching the news about everything going on in Pakistan, and especially the attacks in Mumbay. That is, during the hours the power were on. Four to five times a day the power was cut off for an hour at the time due to lack of power. And since I didn't have anything else to do, this blogpost has turned to be a long one.

During all my stays in Palestine I’ve always compared the prevailing conditions in West Bank with Pakistan. The history of Pakistan and the mandate of Palestine have similarities that make this comparison interesting. Both regions were under British authority at the end of the Second World War, but whereas the Muslims in India got their state after a two-state solution on the subcontinent of India in 1947, the Palestinians are still fighting for their state.

This year, while the Palestinians are in their 61st year under occupation, Pakistanis celebrate their 61 years of independence as a free nation. After hundred years of struggle Pakistan was drawn on the map, and the world witnessed one of the largest immigrations in modern times. Over a million people left their homes to the other side of the new boarder drawn on the map to the newborn Pakistan or India, including my father at the age of three. Unfortunately this immigration wasn’t as peaceful as described here, but under extremely tragic and violent conditions. Pakistan has been a united and independent state for 61 years now despite all the predictions of early collapse of Pakistan. There are talks about Pakistan as a failed state, recently at the beginning of this year when the West’s favourite Benazir Bhutto tragically was murdered under a terrorist attack and the political situation was a mess, but Pakistan has been Azad (Free) for 61 years.

This is something I've always had in mind. This freedom, that cost exceedingly and is the dearest that Pakistanis have, is what constitutes the decisive difference between Palestine and Pakistan today. Besides this difference it was depressing to notice that I just moved from one sad reality to another. Despite the independence and freedom, Pakistanis are just as occupied as the Palestinians. Not by soldiers or settlers at gun point, but by fear, corruption and in the chains of poverty.

The conditions are really poor in Pakistan these days. Not a day goes by without a terrorist attack in the country. I lost count over how many people died because of terrorist attacks of various kind, be it bomb explosions, suicide attacks, random shootings, U.S. missiles hitting Pakistan and leaving X people dead, or all at once, during the 10 days I was there. This has resulted in two things in particular; huge aggression against Americans and of course fear of terrorist attacks framing themselves.

This fear is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan, but anyone following the news recently can understand that this fear is greater now than it has been for a long time. Halat bohat kharab Hain (The conditions are very poor), you hear everywhere. Partially is this due to the global economic crisis that Pakistan too suffers from, but the remark has its root in the uncertainty created by all the terrorist attacks as well.

The latest terrorist attacks in Mumbai didn’t help in that matter; but reinforced the feeling of uncertainty in Pakistan. India was quick, some would say a little too quick, to point at Pakistan, and the situation was very tense for a while. For a couple of days the fear of war was greater than the fear of terrorist attacks. This was on our day of Barat (2. day of Pakistani weddings and the day when the grooms family brings the bride to their house) and Walima day (the last day of the wedding that contains a dinner by the grooms family), the military force of India and Pakistan were both on high alert, and was consequently one of the hottest discussion topics during wedding dinners. That in the face of the fact that there were an outburst of “arbitrary firings” and riots in different areas all over Karachi with over 40 people dead during the week after the attacks in Mumbai.

Remarkably enough those riots started the day after the attacks in Mumbai.

I've been asked to give a comment on the attacks in Mumbai, but I don’t think it’s possible for me to give a neutral or a more well thought comment than all the comments that have been given already. I suppose the question is more to give a report of the attacks as they were seen from Pakistan. The immediate reactions in Pakistan ranged from "this is deeply tragic incident" to "They took one hotel (Marriot in Islamabad for 3-4 months ago), we took 3 of theirs". The stronger the allegations against Pakistan got the more the people rallied around the flag and the sympathies drowned in the desire to fight. Now, almost two weeks later, the countries are fighting over whether the threat to Pakistan was a phoney call or a real threat, but back then, it seemd real enough. It was quite difficult for all to understand how Indian intelligence so categorically could blame foreign (Pakistani) elements only a few hours after the attacks were engaged. How could they know that the boat the terrorist used came from Pakistan, etc? And if they knew all this, why didn’t they stop the boat? Now, there is no reason to deny that the people were related to or were Pakistanis one way or another. I can even believe that they got their training and planned the attacks in Pakistan, but that alone is not a reason to bomb Islamabad. There were reports about British nationals among the terrorists without India having plans to bomb London. I agree with the Pakistani officials when they say that these terrorists are non-state actors attempting to destabilize the region and wanting a war. Let’s not give them want they want.

India points especially at a Pakistani based militant group called Lashkare Tayba. A militant group fighting against Indian occupation of Kashmir but the group was banned in Pakistan in 2002 and are responsible of many terrorist acts even within Pakistan. The terrorists themselves claimed to belong to something they called Deccan Mujahedin; an India based extremist group fighing for Kashmir. As far as what I heared that group was connected to Hyderabad area in India. I'm not sure of what else they're fighting for precisely, but it is a province in India that have had major problems between Hindus and Muslims for a long time, with hundreds (if not thousands) killed the last 10 years.

Some of the first reports (Friday or Saturday – 2 days after the attacks) were that Pakistan agreed on sending the director of ISI (The Pakistani intelligence agency) to India. This decision was reversed soon after. This U-turn was welcomed by the population. I asked some people why they supported this "non-cooperative line". In their opinion this had nothing to do with cooperation or not. Pakistan had offered to cooperate with any means to find the truth, by setting up a joint investigation team and so on, but the Indians refused to that, and demanded that the ISI director was sent to India for questioning. Sending the director of ISI as a “suspect” to India was – understandably – out of question. No country with some integrity and self respect would do that.

Was Pakistan or ISI involved? No one knows. Just like no one know whether India (or RAW, as their agency is known in Pakistan) were involved in the explosion at the Marriot hotel, the shootings in Karachi or the recent bomb blast in Peshawar. According to some friends, Pakistan had intelligence pointing at India after the attacks at Marriot, but Pakistan refrained from blaming India as strongly as India now blamed Pakistan . This said it is no secret that both countries have their interests in destabilizing each other for various reasons, and maniacs willing to carry out such actions exist everywhere.

India's accusations are completely without reason, was the general perception in Pakistan. Although, it is very symptomatic for both countries to blame each other, or a third actor than internal weaknesses, when anything like this happens. Usually India is more loud in its allegations than Pakistan (as seen in earlier incidents in 2001 and 2003), but this blame-game goes both ways. To blame foreign factors, or foreign conspiracies (often with reference to the neighbouring country (or CIA and Mossad for Pakistan’s case)) is one of the favourite hobbies here on this subcontinent, and shows in a way the mistrust that exists between these neighbouring states. Unfortunately, this goes for the ordinary people too. As mentioned, people talk about the obvious connection between the attacks in Mumbai and the attacks in Islamabad. A majority of the people are more than convinced that Indian intelligence is behind the attack on the Marriot hotel in a way or another, and I've also heard people saying : “it was about time. They have come a long way inside Pakistan (with reference to everything going on in Baluchistan and in the northwest areas) and it was time to show them that we exist,” about Mumbai. Although the immediate danger of war (if it ever existed, both countries being nuclear powers) is over, most people in Lahore are waiting for a reaction from their neighbouring country in the East, beyond all that was already happening in Karachi. The problems in Karachi was partly blamed on the political party of MQM and it’s leader in exile Altaf Hussein (of course in alliance with foreign (Indian) elements), but now they have the blast in Peshawar to talk about. I’m glad I’m out of the country before that time.

What I don't really understand is why any terroristattacks in Pakistan so easily is blamed on the sectarian problems within Pakistan, but not in India. As if India doesn't have it's fair share of sectarion or nationalist problems?

Back to Pakistan, my stay and my impressions from there.

The most striking to me has always been the enormous indifference/uncaring (likegyldighet) I see in this country. People – and particularly the sound middle class – tend to seem indifferent to everything, wanting to live their lives without any serious concerns about the conditions around them. Be it the tremendous poverty, the political chaos or the more sickening; combination of extreme poverty next to enormous private wealth.

You find poverty in the West Bank too (since I still haven’t been to Gaza, it’s difficult for me to comment about the conditions there) but it is not even close to being as visible and prominent as in Pakistan. Partly, it has to do with the huge population difference between Palestine and Pakistan. With over 172 million inhabitants, Pakistan is hard to manage and to develop. Any economical growth, if any, is eaten up by the population growth.

Historically, Pakistan and Palestine are both feudal societies not really able to shake that off from their systems. At the same time, Pakistan, in contrast to Palestine, has as mentioned enormous population and just as high illiteracy level. The official figures are 49 % of literacy in Pakistan. Palestinians, for their part, have one of the highest literacy levels in the entire (Arab) Middle East. Feudal societies with huge population (labour) and low or no education is an ideal combination for feudalism. When you add the historical luggage of a hierarchical caste system, paternalism and a good portion of religion, you have the perfect recipe for everlasting feudalism.

The biggest enemy for those empowered by the feudal system is education of the masses. It is only through education that the heads, or minds “open up”, as a friend said to me in the car on the way home one evening, and you'll easier be able to know your rights – as a worker or as a citizen.

Those governing Pakistan today and who have done so since the beginning of time for Pakistan are the same landlords who've always benefited from this system of feudalism. Take the leaderships of the Pakistan People Party (B. Bhutto’s party) or Muslim League (N) (Former Prime Minister and now opposition leader Nawaz Sharif’s party) as examples. They are both families we call landlords, owning huge amount of land in Pakistan, and even though they pretend running for elections on slogans as Roti, Kapra or Makaan (food, clothe and housing), it is all too clear that they do not want to relinquish their power and the benefits this old system gives them. PPP is even a member of the Socialist International and from that Norwegian Labour’s (my party’s) counterpart in Pakistan.

While it is and should be a public affair to provide its population with education, at least at a minimum level, it is remarkable that none of the governments the past 60 years have managed to raise the literacy level worth noticing. Conspiratorial enough I’d say that it is not a coincidence. With as little as 4% of the GNP used on education, the educational sector is left for private interests or non-governmental actors to fill. Education, and even primary education, is today a huge industry in Pakistan with private schools on “every street corner”.

To put it very simple and brief, it is the middle class’ duty and responsibility to end the negative impacts of feudalism and to inflame the necessary change. This middle class with education, knowledge of both rights and duties and with the ability to do something exists today in Pakistan without the required change coming.

That nothing (little is more just to say) happens, has a simple explanation, and does not include selfishness or uncaring that is so striking as I pointed out. It has to do with another ingredient that makes a natural and positive development of a society impossible – corruption.

Corruption is so widespread that for a large majority of people in Pakistan there exist no laws or regulations. Anything and everyone are for sale. It goes through all layers of society and numbs any positive development. When corruption is so common and widespread, people end up with no confidence to the institutions of society. To put it more scientifically; Neither the Judiciary, executive or legislative power has the people's confidence in Pakistan today. It's every man for himself, and the survival of the fittest that applies.

Not so strange, when a former criminal is country's president today. I have never held back that the deceased Benazir Bhutto and particularly her husband, the so-called mr. 10%, and current president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, are not among my favourites. But his impressive game that has taken him from the jail cell only four years back  to the top of the political hierarchy today is "admirable". It is incredible that a man, who, according to everyone, filled his pockets and accounts with state revenues during his wife's governments during the 90s, now is head of state with direct (to say it popular) access to the same revenues.

With a corrupt judiciary, there is no equality of the law, and no one can guarantee the consequences you will face if you claim your legitimate rights. So it is not a mystery why the middle class is so paralyzed.

Over time, everyday life is far more important for people than to produce a political change. Especially when any serious attempt could result in unknown consequences, and no average person wants, either for himself or his children, to be a victim of that. This fear, according to my friend, is what keeps the middle class back. Moreover, the educated middle class is numerically a minority in Pakistan, and when considerable bulks of these are equal partners in the corrupted system, there is little Hasan and Sadia can do. Hasan sees how the community fly off in the wrong direction and it doesn’t help how much he cries for justice, he’s only left behind, so finally he flies along. Or as my buddy said: Agar woh kutte ke bachen hain, to main bhi kutte ka bacha hon (if they’re sons of bitches, I’m a son of bitch too). To put it in a more attractive language: If you can not claim your right, you fight for it.

It is an evil circle not easy to get out of.

Besides poverty in Pakistan, you’re struck by the class divisions in the society. The huge population is easy to blame in this context too, but in my opinion it has also to do with the old hierarchical caste system that unfortunately still exists today. Pakistanis are obsessed by casts or bradri (families/brotherhoods) as they call them. These bradris go back to old times, and indicates your family’s background; landlords, salesmen, kings, servants and so on. Combined with the new casts made out of the power of money and education the country is divided into many layers. Sheikh, Choudry, Jatt, Raja, Mughal or Rana are all names used to show what bradri you belong. I don’t want to exaggerate the role of Bradri, but am sad to state that there are still families not wanting to marry their children outside their own bradri and so on…

Most of the homes (middleclass and up) today have their mulazim (workers/servants), and some families make a huge point out of how many mulazims they have. These are people the families cannot function without, but whom they never really trust, even though the mulazims may have served them their entire lives, and even lived in the same house (of course in a different section). This is not the worst. The worst part is the clear distinction that’s made between people by everyone. Small children are raised up in an environment where they’re indirectly taught that not everyone are alike. Watching small children bossing around grownups is sometimes hard to watch. What’s interesting is how everyone has found a class / person beneath them. Even the barber I went to had a person underneath him, to find scissors and comb for him, who had one underneath him who had one under him and so on. This hierarchy is often based on age and seniority, and instead of uniting, people find someone below them to kick and thus get out their own frustration. Actually, it can be quite amusing to watch the chain of yelling as it follows age and hierarchy in a matter of five minutes. An order at a shop may sound something like this:

Customer: "A glass of orange juice. Quickly!"
Salesman: "Yes, of course sir."Then the salesman turns to the guy next to him:
"Oe, a glass of juice ASAP!"
The guys nods, and yells to the kid next to the squeezing machine:
"Come on kid, a glass of juice to the gentleman now. Chal, jaldi kar!"And so on.

If anything is wrong with the purchased item, the whole chain of command repeats it self.

Walking around in the relatively well-off neighbourhood in Lahore I lived in (a housing society like many others made up behind walls and 24 hours guarded gates, giving the residents a sense of security, and me a sense of Palestine), the only ones walking or riding a bike on the streets on any given day you see are the so-called Mulazims – or the poor people, while the residents (rich) remains indoors, in cars or all other locations than on the streets. Surely there are tense times these days, but the main reason is clearly the class society I just described, and the despise each stratum has for the stratum beneath them. People choose to remain indoors or in cars, not in fear of a possible terrorist attack, but because they don’t want to degrade themselves by walking in the streets or standing in lines outside a restaurant as a mulazim.

Well, I had to ask my friend about not standing in line and order food when we stayed in the car when we stopped at a burgers shop (same friend and same ride as mentioned a couple of times). He had a different – I may call it a more capitalist – approach to this phenomenon. "By sitting in the car, I will first of all have the privacy I want, and secondly, the man who came to the car, took my order and will bring us our food will earn 10-15 Rupee. I do not have to do anything, because there are others who will and wants to do it for me. Good for me, good for them.”

I'm not sure of what I feel about the logic. There was something in me that wanted to protest, but I could not deny the fact that by staying in the car, I “created” jobs. In a country with huge population, enormous poverty and not that many jobs, this is an easy way of “creating” jobs.

To sum up; Pakistan has a great potential and have always had it. No doubt about that. Rich on natural recourses as gas, petrol, coil and so on, this country will (Inshallah) rise up to its potential. But, political instability, huge population and corruption are all obstructions in the way of triggering that potential. This far, the biggest achievement for Pakistan after 61 years of freedom, is not the creation of the best health system, educational system or something like that, but the achievement of becoming a nuclear power (which is quite huge actually). And honestly said, that is the only reason why anyone talks to Pakistan in international affairs, and why India has abstained from attacking the country the last decade.

But before the country can start moving in a more positive direction, the country needs to solve out its problems with its neighbour, but more important it needs a generational revolution especially among its politicians. Besides the exception of 8 years with general/president Musharraf, the same politicians who led the country while I lived here in the early 90s, and was 11 years old, are controlling the country, and that’s not a healthy sign. Political assassinations are not a way of achieving that change.

Besides the change among its politicians, the country must somehow get rid of the corruption, and bring back peoples trust in the institutions developed to serve the people. This seems like the most difficult task, but the generational revolution among policymakers and fight against corruption is kind of interconnected. The fight against corruption must start from the top, meaning that the leadership has to change, either physically or if they are able to, at least in mind. But perhaps the most crucial factor is the task of educating the people, and states lack of focus on that matter. Education alone will, in my opinion, solve many of Pakistan’s problems as poverty, uncontrolled population growth and even corruption and the class society.

The moral is; my cousin is happily married, I’ve left the country of my origin and am still unmarried. Pakistan is nice, but sitting in BirZeit, I’m glad to be back in Arab culture and land.

Turtles and Palestine

I have been living under the Israeli occupation for three months. I have been with people who have lived their entire lives, longer than my nearly 30 years of age, under the same occupation. An occupation that they know is visible and well known throughout the world, but which still doesn’t show any signs of ending. For three months I have lived behind the Wall that stretches from south of the West Bank to the far north.

How do the Israeli policies against Palestinians differ from the Nazi policies against the Jews, one participant at a private speach by Herbert Pundak (the father of one of the architects of the Oslo Agreement and a Danish citizen) wondered. She shouldn’t have done that, for it led more or less to the man "clicking in angle" as we say in Norwegian. He got really mad, to put it briefly. Most recently, our (Norwegian) Foreign Minister met the same reaction from the Israeli embassy because he wrote in his newly published book that the situation in Hebron commemorate the events we know from other places from other times. It is not easy for the Palestinians, nor me, to see the clear difference, but I understand why it is so vulnerable to Israel. Nazis are not primarily known for it's discrimination against Jews, but for their attempt to exterminate the Jews (Israel is only attempting to expel Palestinians), but there is no doubt that there are many symptom similarities.

A more fruitful question (for the discussion that night) would be what separate Israel's policies against the Palestinians from South Africa's apartheid policies against the blacks?

No, there is not much. Some would say there is none.

The apartheid regime in South Africa was condemned by the entire world except from the “democratic” state of Israel. A set of policies put out to clearly discriminate between whites and blacks in South Africa. One of the policies was to build various townships well insulated from the white areas, without any form of employment other than low-paid work in the white areas. Not surprisingly, it was after a visit to South Africa in 2000/01 that Ariel Sharon “found the solution” to the Palestinian issue. The result of his solution is clear for everyone today: A massive wall across the entire West Bank.

We Europeans, the children of the Cold War - or whatever we’re called - remember the word Wall only as the Berlin Wall. Every now and then we hear historical speaches held in this city (most recently from our newly elected president Obama) about how we must tear down all the walls in the world. But bad enough as that wall was, it only separated one city. Wall in the West Bank doesn’t only separate one or two cities, or just the West Bank from Israel, it separates and isolates the various Palestinian villages / towns from each other as well. Only exceptionally moving along the green line (the borders between Israel and the West Bank before 1967) it’s largely built deep inside the Palestinian territories. The apartheid wall in Palestine works primarily as a protection for the illegal settlements built deep inside Palestine and secondly to close the Palestinian cities / regions in ghettoes.

Palestinian cities / regions are well enclosed in small enclaves separated from each other, surrounded by the wall, illegal settlements and the so-called settler roads as their new borders. On the map of historical Palestine, the Palestinian areas are reduced to "spots on a leopard" as Karsten O. Tveit, a Norwegian reporter, so nicely formulates it in his book about Norwegian policies towards Israel (1978-96), while Israel controls the rest. 13% of South Africa was for the blacks during apartheid regime; today only 12% of historic Palestine is accessible for the Palestinians.

With huge unemployment, agricultural areas destroyed by the Wall, the only opportunity is to be cheap labour for the Israelis. Very few, if any, are let into Israel for work, but fortunately there are plans for joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial zones in Palestine. Imposed by the World Bank and financed by the EU (which is the milking cow for Israel's occupation) and others, there are plans to construct industrial zones close to Palestinian cities. Work will be created for poor Palestinians, and they’ll work for Israeli companies for far below the Israeli minimum wage. Actually, the Israeli business community is after many years finally talking about being able to compete in the international market, thanks to the cheap labour Palestinians will be for them. To put it even more clear; These industrial zones are nothing more than legitimizing Israeli occupation and maintaining Israeli control over Palestinian development, financed by European and other states.

During the last months, I’ve been walking next to the apartheid wall. Especially in Qalqilia (northwest of Palestine) and Jayyous area (village east of Qalqilia). It can be, and is, written several dissertations about the damage this wall has caused in Palestine. Only in Jayyous, a village of 4,500 people, the wall has confiscated 78% of the village's land. 2,000 olive trees have been completely destroyed (4,000 injured). 100 farmers have lost all their land. 1,000 workers have lost their work and around 300 families have been cut off from their main source of income. To cross the wall (or the security fence) to get to their own land on the other side, people in Jayyous must now cross two of the gates built, the south gate and north gate, which opens twice a day and have a complicated permit system. The occupying forces refuses to allow many from the same family to cross the fence. Only some (usually the oldest) from one family can cross the fence to harvest olives from their own trees on the other side. The land on the “Israeli side” is usually either confiscated by the nearby settlement, or access to it so reduced that it becomes meaningless to own the land and trees on the other side. This story repeats itself across the West Bank. Nearly 72,000 houses have been demolished since 2000 and around 300,000 olive trees are uprooted because of this wall. It is disastrous when the olive trees are the most important income source for 70% of the Palestinians.

Back in Jayyous, after a High Court decision to change the route of the Apartheid Wall, Occupation forces began uprooting trees and destroying farmland to make room for the rerouting of the Wall, resulting in even more loss for the Palestinians in Jayyous. People in Jayyous are fighting for there land these days even after all the losses they've had and the occupation forces keep crushing the demonstrations.

As we (we were a group) walked along the wall that parts Palestine, a friend of mine noticed that we had been trampled through a landscape where one might expect to find many snakes, but we didn't seen any. Only some turtles, holding on to their shells/houses, hastening away, in order to protect themselves from our tramp. The only snake in the area slithering through Palestinian land is today 450 km. long, still growing, and is 7-8 m. tall, while the Palestinians are holding on to their homes and land the best they can.

I didn't mention; The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Hague, despite intense pressure from Israel, the US and EU Governments, confirmed (July 2005) what Palestinians and the world knew since the beginning of its planning and construction – The Wall is illegal.

For three months I have lived under this occupation, and I understand less for every day. News of the inhuman situation in Gaza, acts of violence in Hebron or poverty in Jenin fill our TV screens every day, and has done so for over 60 years, but still nothing happens. No sincere action is been taken against Israel. It’s all accepted. Israel's security is holy. So holy that no one cares about at what price, or the more significant: what about the Palestinians' security?

Since September, 3 people have been shot and killed by the occupying force in areas around Ramallah (left out are all the killings in the Gaza strip). 2 of them in Jalazone refugee camp, that is close to BirZeit and mentioned in my previous writings. Eyewitnesses say that they came too close to the security fence between the settlement Beit Il, and the camp, while Israeli forces, for their part, claim that they were ready to throw fire bombs against the settlement. What ever reason, it is difficult to understand why the soldiers had to shoot to kill. Why not a shot in the leg, arm or elsewhere to defuse the person, as this article in Haaretz questions? Why did the snipers from the occupation forces use the so-called "butterfly" or "dummy" bullets, which at hit spins around in the body and is synonymous with certain death? A type of bullet that is banned in most civilized countries, but the "largest democracy in the Middle East" doesn’t hesitate using against the Palestinians.

Since September the settlers in Palestine has killed a 14-year-old shepherd in the village Aser al Qablayh, and a 60-year-old shepherd in the Jenin district, and stolen their sheep without the occupation forces being able to do anything about it. Let alone all the difficulties the settlers have made during the harvest season in Hebron, in Kufar Qadum and so on the whole last month, and which the whole world witnessed. On Sunday, we met a 74-year-old man in Salfit, the nearest neighbour to the Ariel settlement, the largest in the West Bank with its own university, who was stripped of his 23 sheep (some of them even pregnant) by the settlers and thus lost his only source of income. The Palestinian Authorities are powerless, and the world is screaming for Israel’s security?

For three months I have lived under this occupation, but still I will never be able to understand what it is like to live under the occupation. With my magical passport, I will never be able to understand how it is to cross the numerous checkpoints as a Palestinian. I may have to stand in line for a few minutes and might even give them the evil eye, but I'll never understand what it is to be harassed by 18 years old soldiers, being stripped or whatever they please. The occupation exists in our heads, a friend of mine said to me the other day, they control everything. They tell us when we can drink, what we can drink. Even the air we breathe they control. 60 years of occupation is enough.

But for the West 60 years are not enough.

The West believes that the occupational force, Israel, can continue its abuse of force. Continue, until the Palestinians are able to guarantee Israel's security. One of the world's top 5 strongest military needs the Palestinians to guarantee their security… While the world's 5th strongest military can shoot their advanced bombs with their advanced aircrafts and helicopters and kill who ever they want, the world community demands that the Palestinians put their hands in the air, let them be shot at, see their country getting confiscated by the illegal settlements day by day and refuse to resist and even guarantee security for Israel.

That's the Oslo-agreement and the recent agreements in brief for you.

So the young Palestinians, not agreeing on giving up their land to the Zionist colonialists without resistance, that being peaceful or armed, will continue to go in and out of Israeli prisons, as over 75 % of Palestinian youth already have, and Israel will not have peace. Until someone gets the guts to make Israel stop the arbitrary arrests, use of force in Palestinian land and increasing the settlements/settlers in Palestine.

Israeli security doesn’t rely on building more checkpoints or higher walls; it relies on ending the problem: The occupation.

Happy boy, living a Happy life

I went to Beer Sheva, a city in southern Israel, on Friday. I had met a Norwegian / Israeli girl on my way from Prague to Tel Aviv, and I more or less invited myself to visit her town of Beer Sheva. We got to know each other when the passport guy in Prague wondered whether we were travelling together since she showed her Norwegian passport right after me, but unlike me she also held an Israeli passport, which was used by landing in Tel Aviv, and she was not on holidays or for studies in Israel, but to do her military service in Israel ..

We did not talk that much on our way to Tel Aviv, as we didn't sit next to each other, and although I was curious about her military service, I felt I couldn’t ask her too much about it. I got to know that she was stationed in Haifa and not on the West Bank, and she didn't object what so ever to the fact that I was going to the West Bank for studies. By landing in Tel Aviv I tried to keep as close to her as possible, so I'd stay out of trouble, but she disappeared in separate passport queue and was, understandably, much faster through than I was, but I had her phone number and now I wanted to visit her town and hoped to have a serious conversation about her, the military service and Israel.

I remember I thought much of this on the plane. How would a political Party in Norway, say (out of the blue) the Progress Party (Norwegian right wing party) react if I, as a Norwegian Pakistani had done my military service in Pakistan? What horror scenarios had not been drawn about me and my loyalty to Norway? Now, for my part, it would be quite unthinkable doing my military service in Pakistan, but where are the objections about loyalty when it comes to Israel and military service in Israel as a Norwegian citizen?

I tried to reflect over what makes a Norwegian citizen to do the military service in Israel? I know that this question may be biased, because I realize that not everyone sees the current conflict in the same way as I do, but how can anyone do their military service for an occupying force? And especially as a Norwegian citizen?

The original plan was to sleep at her grand parents place, but her grandmother said no to that, so I found me a cheap hotel when I arrived there around 10 pm. after a short trip to Tel Aviv, the only way to get from Jerusalem to Beer Sheva at that moment because of the Sabbath. I must admit my heart skipped a beat when the first question I was faced with, while asking some kids sitting by the main busstation for light, was whether I was a Muslim. I was quite shaken of it, but I had no choice than to confirm the fact. Obviously they had got an eye on my Mashallah necklace I bear, and in pure desperation and anxiety I quickly found my key of life (Ankh) necklace I also bear. "See, I have a cross too." They seemed a bit surprised by that, but I got away without any more problems or questions, other than the usual routine of where I was from. Well, actually, I don’t think I had anything to fear, but what do I know how they react to Muslims in Israel. I just know that I hadn't mentioned me being a Jew if I were a Jew in the West Bank.

Well, my big plan to ask all the questions didn't come out well. My friend asked me if I wanted to join her and her friends to a disco, which I did, and suddenly I found my self at a giant outside disco with several hundred youths enjoying their time. It was all pretty surreal. Not because I've never been in such a place before, but because we, the international students, had a party in Ramallah the night before. Of course, there were some Palestinians present too, and at the end of that party one Palestinian after the other (okay, there were only two of them who) collapsed into tears due to the impossible situation they find themselves in. "You do not know anything about me," said the one. "I carry this (as he slapped his green id-card on the table) with me. This makes me Palestinian, and not a human being. They take my dignity whenever they want. Every time I meet a soldier I'm degraded, humiliated and am no longer a human being. I'm even separated from my wife ..." was his last words, as he stormed out of the room with tears running from his eyes. I must add that at that moment he had consumed a qualified quantity of alcohol, and were quite sentimental.

But from this to now be on this gigantic party was a transition. Try to get me right, it was fun, and I have nothing against them living and enjoying life, but when the same lifestyle they want for themselves and their children is taken away from the Palestinians some small km. away, it all gets obnoxious. When the same kids at that party, including my friend, are part of the military force that steals the freedom from a regular Palestinian to even move freely through their own country, I get troubled enjoying my time. The peak was reached with the remix of "I'm a happy boy, living a happy life".

People ask me if I get some input from "the other side", and this trip was supposed to be an attempt of that, something I failed to take advantage of, but I'm pretty honest on this: There are, for me, not many "sides" on the situation here in the West Bank (or Gaza). To split the country in small parts through apartheid walls (450 km so far), numerous checkpoints and road blocks and over hundred illegal settlements with around 400.000 settlers has no excuse.

Chapter One: Preloge

I had a crazy day yesterday. Full of contrasts, contradictions and strong impressions, it was difficult to digest - and now to express. Many of the experiences I had are nearly indescribable and to truly grasp requires one to live them, but the hardest part is first and foremost to agree with yourself on what should be rendered and what should be left out. Each single impression in itself was not so unique or complex, but in a time frame of 7-8 hours, I can’t sum up the day as anything other than crazy. Therefore, this blog is in chapters.

It was Friday, and I had scheduled to travel to Jerusalem for Friday prayers – The Jumm’a. It’s Ramadan, and I hadn’t yet been in Jerusalem to al-Aqsa mosque for Jumm’a, so I was determined to get there. Another significant reason to go there on a Friday was to experience what happens at Qalandia checkpoint on Fridays. Qalandia, as told previously, is the checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem. After the apartheid wall (or security fence as some call it) became reality 4-5 years ago, this checkpoint has been very notorious because all travel through Ramallah to Jerusalem passes through it, causing serious delays in everyday life. A journey that normally should take 20-30 minutes now takes at least 45 minutes.

I knew through stories from my fellow students that Israelis close this checkpoint on Fridays and people are queuing for hours in order to travel to the al-Aqsa mosque. Me, Dave and Debbie (my two American friends) arrived at Qalandia at around 10:45 AM with a taxi that normally would drive us all the way to Jerusalem. We were greeted by a large number of parked buses and taxis that were stopped on the Ramallah side of Qalandia, and we all had to walk on foot to the checkpoint to cross it. So we did. Approaching the checkpoint, we were soon among hundreds of people, young and old, men and women. All with the hope of crossing over to the Jerusalem side. The UN was represented by a couple of representatives who tried to facilitate and organize the people the best they could, Clustered among all the civilians were Israeli soldiers walking around with their fingers located on the trigger guards of their M16s, and looked pretty scary. Right in front of us, this young boy, in his late teens was pulled out of the crowd and zip tied his hands behind his back – to us for unknown reasons. No real drama in itself, but when three well-armed soldiers apprehend and drag a young boy for about 100-150 m. past the rest of the crowd. To me the scene suddenly became very dramatic - at least for a tender soul as mine.

Odds are most of the people present were probably on their way to al-Aqsa mosque. Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest place on earth for the Muslims, known to be the place where Mohammed ascended to heaven, and among the places all Muslims are encouraged to go visit. Of course, there are many other mosques in Ramallah and other nearby areas that can be used for Friday prayers. And many do use them, because then people don’t have to be lined up, humiliated and degraded in this way every Friday, but to put it differently, not all mosques are alike. There is a distinction between Masjid (small mosque) and al-Jami'a (large mosque as al-Aqsa) in Arabic.

The Masjid being the local mosques in every neighbourhood where people do their daily prayers, and al-Jami'a (from the root Jam'a – meaning many people/ or to gather) used for Friday prayers. Friday is called Jumm'a (from the same root as the last) in Arabic and is a day where Muslims gather. This said, these translations are not totally accurate, but that’s the essence. So, on Fridays people are urged to use a Jami’a for their Friday prayers, and not the local masjids. With regard to the al-Aqsa mosque’s religious significance, it is perhaps somewhat more understandable why such a large majority of people in the villages/towns around Jerusalem are using their holiday/ day off to travel to Jerusalem for Friday prayers, despite the humiliations it may cost. The holy month of Ramadan magnifies it even further, both the urge to get there and the humiliations sufferied in the process.

But now, we were soon to to start our journy across the Qalandia checkpoint.

Chapter Two: Qalandia Checkpoint.

We were soon going to experience the humiliations people go through.

Israel, not so fond of the huge wave of people coming to Jerusalem described in the preloge, and do their best to put obstacles for the peoples wanting to exercise their religious belief, in the form of closed checkpoints, a huge number of soldiers in front of the entrances and a literally random separation of those allowed through and those who are turned back. The general rule is no access for people under and over a certain age. When we asked one soldier he said no one under 50, but when we finally started flashing our passports, two of them even being American, we were let through the first stage almost immediately. But we still aren’t even there in the story. First we had to go from one roadblock which was closed to another around 50 meters further down the street.

To my great disappointment my camera was out of batteries so I can not illustrate this visually, so all I can give is a more detailed description. Thus, it is one way through the apartheid wall, known as the Qalandia checkpoint (next to the Qalandia refugee camp by the way). The actual checkpoint is an armoured watch tower, and a small "terminal", where all the control occurs. On a normal day, all (except foreigners and others holding blue id-cards) have to get off their taxis/buses on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint and enter the terminal for inspection, before they come out the Israeli controlled side and "retrieve" their buses on the other side to continue the travel. The road itself is blocked off with a normal barrier where soldiers check any private cars and the remaining passengers on buses. But today the entire area in front of Qalandia checkpoint was blocked off, on the Palestinian side, and two roadblocks 100 m. away from the checkpoint with a distance of 50 m. between them were set up as a pre-check to keep out the majority of the people.

Now, for some reason one of the occasional roadblocks was closed, and we had to move to the other, as did hundreds of others. When we got there we were shocked by the whole situation, and for the first few minutes we just stood there behind the other civilians and tried to grasp the logic. The soldiers were pushing people further and further behind, away from the pre-checkpoint, making a new point of gathering some meters away, as people desperately tried to show the soldiers their id-cards and their permissions to them. To get to Jerusalem, as a Palestinian, you need to hold a blue id-card in the first place. Some years ago Israel made a decision of not letting any random person in to Jerusalem and issued the blue id-cards. They were given to those who were in Jerusalem at that actual time. Those who were outside, for example, in connection with their studies or anything else, were not. For example students that are actually from Jerusalem, but were living outside Jerusalem at that particular time, when the blue cards were issued, still hold green cards, and no longer have the permission to travel to Jerusalem, their actual homes and families. It is possible to apply for explicit permission to travel to Jerusalem, but it is a long process, and seldom issued for any lengthy period of time.

So, there they were. Old people and young, presenting their id-cards in vain to the soldiers who just kept pushing them further and further back. Even I was pushed, but that’s just a digression. There were blue id-cards, green id-cards with special permission, and it was the id-card (magnetized cards) that shows that you have a working permit in Israel and there were even orange id-cards. The orange ones are unknown to me, but supposedly they are of old date. Once in a while the soldiers let some through, so we paved our way to the soldiers who did let people through. Keep in mind, through to the pre-checkpoint in front of the checkpoint.

Where are you going? The soldier asked us. The answer was pretty obvious. No, it is not possible. Not even for tourists? No, no one under 50, was the answer but since we were tourists we were told to wait a bit. Another soldier who continued to monitor us wondered why we didn’t take the usual route to Jerusalem. We wondered what (the hell) that was. Well, the road, from Tel Aviv. It is difficult to say anything back when you’re looking at the business end of an M16 assault rifle, plus Qalandia is a significant number of km. away from Tel Aviv, on the opposite side of Jerusalem. Anyway, the end of this was that my American friends got the permission to continue, and eventually even me, when I managed to point out that I was with them and was Norwegian. Norg? Cool. Well, up to the roadblock, Passport control, and so on through the open area that is quarantined and emptied behind the sporadic roadblock and moved on to Qalandia. At this emptied area, there were gathered a large amount of soldiers, and it was amazing to see this huge amount of firepower gathered. They were just sitting there, waiting for an eventuality that hopefully never occurred. A funny story was when some soldiers made a deal trading his tear gas cans for a pack of cigarettes, but we were asked to hurry up to the “terminal”.

Qalandia checkpoint is like any other checkpoint around the West Bank, sad, cold and difficult to describe with words. Israel wants to call it "terminals” to give it a better sound, but in reality it is prison-like corridors with blocks and fences. Here, briefly explained, people stay in queues in a, for lack of a better word, cattle shoot with fences on both sides for quite some while, before coming to a metal spin-doors, which you pass one by one, before finally coming to the metal detector and all that goes with that. A soldier in a cabin (one’s imagination plays games with you as you see a cabin reinforced with inches of ballistic glass reinforced with inch and a half industrial bolts, and think that they literally expect someone to blow themselves up which while in the narrow steal barred corridors of the shoot makes you wonder if you will survive) making people walk back and forth through the metal detector because it keeps beeping, and so on. But before you get that far, you’ve been in a queue and fought your way into the cattle shoot that leads you to the metal spin-doors. As previously told, people have been around for several hours (we heard people talking about 2 and even three hours among them). First just to get into the “terminal”, then to get into the cattle shoot, so obviously there is a lot of frustration, anger and despair in the air. People are shouting, yelling and pushing in order to move the line. Many unfortunate people, come through the spin-door, and just before the metal detector are asked to go back outside. It happened to a group ahead of us, but again of unknown causes. We are all well monitored by police and soldiers and waved us further all the time… And not surprisingly there were no others the same age as us around.

The roadblocks and the checkpoint can hardly be called an obstacle for us internationals by the people still waiting outside, it still took us over one hour to get across the checkpoint. But I was on my way to the holy al-Aqsa, and hundreds were still waiting at Qalandia.

Chapter Three: Jumma and Sabbath!

Finally on the other side of the checkpoint, and on board the mini bus that was going to drive us to Jerusalem, we discovered that it was now 10-15 minutes left before Friday prayers allegedly would start, and there were many high strung people in the bus that drove as fast it could. It took about fifteen minutes, due to traffic and some small roadblocks that were set up on the way to the bus station in East Jerusalem.

The bus stopped around one hundred meters away from the bus stop and then we (me and the rest of the Muslim passengers) started the race to the Mosque, young people running, elderly jogging and the even older walking as fast as they could, finally entering the old city of Jerusalem through the Damascus Gate, and moved on to al-Aqsa, a touristified old town where people were sprinting through the narrow streets to get to the mosque as fast as they could.

As many may know the old city in Jerusalem is crowded with small alleys and streets. Overfilled with street vendors of various kinds, and it is these alleyways that lead you to the entrance to the al-Aqsa compound. I took the first road leading to the mosque and from the beginning of this alley to the entrance of the compound/mosque there is perhaps 150 m. Already 50 m. into the alley I saw people were standing facing Mecca ready for prayer - outside the mosque compound! The people created two rows (saff), with a small passage left open for people to move towards the mosque. After a quick round of are-you-Muslim-what’s-your-name I was pushed on, and I finally entered the mosque from its back right corner. It was packed in there. People were, as I said, standing in the alleyways outside the mosque, and inside the compound there were people everywhere. On the stairs, on the grass, under the trees, on stones, in short, every inch was used to be able to stand and pray. People stood there, with shoes on, almost side by side with women and the only thing that mattered was to get a place to stand. It was packed full, and people had begun to stand up to get ready for prayer when I got in. I tried to get further ahead, basically because I was in the women's area (or there were mostly women there), and because I was totally in the back. When I eventually had to find a saff and get ready for pray, even the famous golden dome that itself is placed a few hundred meters behind the al-Aqsa mosque was ahead of me.

I have previously described Friday prayers in al-Aqsa as great, and recommended all my Muslim friends to experience this. The experience was enhanced further by having to "struggle" and jog with the Palestinians to get there giving it sense of greater accomplishment. Additionally, when you are out in the sun, with people everywhere and put your head on the ground in Sajjda (when people get down on the floor) and you feel the hard rock against your forehead, that alone is enough to make even the devil religious. How many actually were there is absolutely impossible to say. In some of my texts to friends, I said at least 15-20.000, and later increased it to about 50,000. In a report on Friday prayers during Ramadan from last year the journalist talked about estimates of 120,000. In today's newspapers the figure is 200,000! Big enough, at least.

By the way, In the al-Quds (albeit in Arabic that I understand only occasionally) it reported common Friday Prayers just outside the Qalandia checkpoint among those who couldn’t cross it. After the prayer, people got up and stormed toward the exits. I used the opportunity to get closer to mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Then, a second round of Friday Prayers were announced. I joined again, but this time it was a shorter version without the “reading” of the Qur’an. After that I walked around the Dome of the Rock, in other words, the world-famous golden dome that contains the stone Mohammed stood on when he ascended to heaven.

I took my time, perhaps half an hour before I started moving towards the exits. The time was 13.45 local time, and I was supposed to meet my American friends at the Damascus gate at 14.30 ... After standing in a queue for a ten minutes time I realized that the line was for the bathrooms (I apparently missed the W.C. sign) I finally got out of the mosque 13.55 through the so-called cotton market door. A normal walk from there to Damascus Gate usually takes 10 minutes, but not this time. It took me 45 minutes. Perhaps not so strange when 50.000-100.000 people storm into the narrow alleyways middle of the afternoon rush, with its many shops and business was as usual, all heading the same way. It went slowly. Very slowly. The walk to the Metro after a football match is nothing compared to this. On the way people shopped, argued and pushed. A lot of pushing, and the old ladies are the worst pushers. But there is nothing more that you can do, than to be patient and keep walking. Dave and Debbie had found the way into the old town, and I spotted them a few meters in front of me stuck in the same mass of people. Considering that it was around 30 degrees, and that people were fasting, this was a powerful effort of dimensions. I, not fasting, was completely exhausted when I came out at Damascus Gate.

My throat and body completely totally dehydrated, but we managed to wander the few hundred meters from Damascus gate to West Jerusalem, and suddenly we were in any Western European city with it’s cafe life, half empty streets and musicians on corners. It was surreal. After Qalandia and being squeezed among thousands of people to this street life, where there were hardly any people. There were a few hours to the Sabbath, and the shops had begun to close. Not only did the surroundings, like buildings and roads change, but you could see a different kind of people… The wealth was so obvious, and made us sick in the beginning, before we enjoyed the fruits of wealth in the form of a lot of water and a huge lunch. Then, we relaxed for a couple of hours listening to jazz music, before we started to move towards the Wailing Wall to witness the celebration of the Sabbath.

We found ourselves a place that was a reasonable distance from the wall, and just watched different groups doing there prayers in different forms; there was singing, dancing, regular praying in front of the wall and other “stuff”. It was a lot of joy, happiness and celebration in the words real meaning. People were dressed up for celebration. But, by that time, we were so overwhelmed with all the impressions we had had during the day, so we didn’t stay for long. The most odd thing, for me, was to see all the M16s in the crowd, carried by mostly soldiers but also some people in civilian clothes, while celebrating Sabbath. But I have to say, the day, with all its implications hadn’t left me in a good mood, and watching a huge platoon of soldiers, getting ready and marching in to the old city on their way to the Muslim Quarters as the crowd around them got ready for Sabbath, praying, and Muslims on the other side of the Wall for their Iftar didn’t get me in any better mood.

On our way back to Qalandia (it was still closed) I couldn’t think of anything else than how severely important it is for this Holy country to uphold their fundings from the Western world, cause they seriously need to upgrade their security systems. Some of the installations are starting to get old - at least a new paint job.

Jalazone refugee camp.

Heard in class, while talking about what we've heard, read or seen on the news lately:

Student A: Israeli soldiers shot and killed a palestinian man in the town of Nablus.
Teacher: Yes, that is true.
Student A: Apparantely, he was one of the 198 prisoners released by Israel last month.
Teacher: That is true too.
Student B: Why was he killed?
Teacher: No reason.
Student B: There has to be a reason?
Teacher: No reason at all.
Student B: But, then why was he killed?
Teacher: Israel is occupying our country. This is their way of achieving peace.
Student B: There must have been a reason?
Teacher: It's occupation. Israel has occupied Palestine.

Later the same day, in my english class. That is, the class (kids between 13-17, and one over 20) I'm teaching english.

Me: I'll ask you questions and I want you to answer in full sentences, ok?
Class: Yes!
Me: Mohannad, where do you live?
Mohannad: Ramallah.
Me: Yes, but try to say 'I live in Ramallah'.
Mohannad: Ok
Me: Where do you live?
Mohannad: Ramallah.

Seeing him having trouble understanding me: Have you learned any english before?
Mohannad: (answers in arabic)...
Class: No, this is his second time here.
Me: But haven't you learned english at school?
Mohannad: (answers in arabic) ...
Class: He was in prison for the last three years.
Me: Oh... Ok. (a bit stressed) What prison?
Mohannad: Sijan israeli... (Israeli prison).
Me: Why?
Mohannad: Because I love Palestine.
Me: Now that's a full senctence.

Mohannad is 16.

On Friday we visited Jalazone refugee camp close to BirZeit town. We were at a cultural center looking for possibilities of voluteer work. Visiting refugee camps is always depressing. Built by UN in 1948, it built one room each to every family, with no regard to the size of the family. With refugees from all over Israel, it's now home for over 14.000 palestinians. The one-room appartments developed into two and three floors appartments, on land owned by the neighbouring villages (Jifna). UNRWA and Jifna has a renting agreement for 99 years. 61 years has passed with no solution, and what would happen after 99 years is not good to know.

It's nearest neighbour is Beit Il (house of god), one of the biggest settlements in the West Bank (built in 1981/1982). Today 50 % of the inhabitants of Jalazone are under 16 years old, with unemployment rate around 60 % (out of the 50 % labour force). The refugee camp has one doctor for its population, one tiny playground (built by the French) and one UNRWA school up to ninth grade. The school is situated at the end of the refugee camp and is closest neighbour of the settlement just mentioned. This causing huge problems since the two, Jalazone refugee camp and Beit Il settlement, have had a number of clashes during the years, especially during the second intifada. This has stopped now, when Israel built a bypass road for the settlement, so the road seperating the camp and the settlement is no more a battlefield. But still, you cannot go too close to the separation fence, for if you do you're at risk of being shot.

By the way. Next time you land at Ben Gurion International Airport you should know that the owner of that land is in Jalazone refugee camp, heading the cultural center for youth owning no land of his own..

Rocks and Walls!

Alright. Since people have been all over me and wants me to write in english, ill give it a try, and we'll see how it goes.

Day 10 in Ramallah/BirZeit and still everything is under control. My arabic hasn't improved that much yet, mostly because I'm a bit confused by the different rules in Arabic Fussha (standard arabic) and Arabic Aamia (palestinan dialect). Like last night, i sat up really too late, doing homework, trying to learn present and past tense in standard arabic, but today, in Colloquial (as Aamia is called in English) class there were completely different words for the same thing. But, I must confess, I've strayed into the international student bubble as well, and have not been talking enough Arabic. It's hard to resist, but at least my English has improved.

Today I actually had my first English teaching job. I'm hopefully going to teach English to a group of Palestinian girls. That was pretty fun, and it also kind of helped me with my Arabic cause they would give me the Arabic translation for the English words that I wanted to explain to them. But, still, it has just been one week, and most likely my Arabic will improve, and hopefully I'll get a conversation partner, and the people studying with me will know more Arabic so we'll talk more Arabic to each other too.

Well, Since last time I've seen a bit more of the occupation and joined one of the weekly demonstrations at Bil'een village (north west of Ramallah). It wasn't that easy of a decision to make, whether to join the demonstration or not. You hear all the crazy stuff the Israelis do and might do, and little of what you hear is what you want to experience. Our "guide" to Bil'een, a BirZeit local, refused to take us to a place called Nil'een, where the Israelis assumably shoot with real bullets, and not only rubber bullets. But a small group decided to head off to Bil'een, a half hour drive from Ramallah.

Because of Ramadan it wasn't that huge of a demonstration but I had my first experience with tear gas. I mostly stood in the back but still some of the tear gas shells reached me, and I don't recommend anyone to stand in the middle of it. Basically it becomes very painful and difficult to breath as your throat constricts and your eyes burn and tear up often so much that it is near impossible to see. The effects last for several painful minutes the only relief available being the smell of onions handed out by more experienced demonstators. The demonstration wasn't, as i said, that big, and that was okay with me.

Even though we knew the Israeli soldiers at the other side could shoot with rubber bullets, they never did, but you are alarmed and frightened every time you hear the sound of a shot. The problem was that the Israelis weren't just in front of us, but also around us. So they could, and they did, attack us both from the front and from the flanks. Imagine hearing a bang sound, and all you see above you is a teargas shells flying at you, and you don't know where they'll land. One of my friends actually got hit by a teargas grenade, causing severe bruising and four days later still painful.

The "funniest" part with the whole demonstration was this huge truck the Israelis had. From time to time, when the soldiers didn't throw or shoot tear gas grenades at us, this truck came towards us and sprayed toilet water (!) on the demonstrators (pic. to the right). The ones getting wet by it, including a Scottish friend of mine, had their clothes colored blue and scented like shit the rest of the day. During the whole demonstration, as we've often seen on the television, the Palestinians shouted their anger at the Israelis and attacked armored Israelis trucks and soldiers with rocks.

You may say the reaction from the Israelis wasn't that bad, but think about it. For me it was an exotic tourist attraction, but for the people living there, it's hard facts. Israeli occupation forces put up their fences (and, of course, walls) wherever it suits them, call it their land, and there is nothing people actually living there can do about it. Well, except protesting, shouting, throwing rocks and hoping for more internationals to see their fight, and hopefully support them. Sadly, they dont. People like me come to Palestine, see their situation, blog about it, but the countries we're from don't bother making Israel obey their international obligations. On the contrary, they blame the Palestinians for putting up a resistance. Terrorism, is the magical word. We don't respect their fair elections, block their economy and as we all know put the Palestinian territories under further troubles. While, at the same time, we invite Israel into whatever is going on in Europe, be it EuroVision, European championship in Football and so on. That's the way we protest and punish Israel. Hmm. Go figure!

Well. That's it for this time. Other than this, I've been enjoying my days here in BirZeit with a huge birthday party at a local restaurant. So it's not just occupation and resistance. Life goes on, for me, and the Palestinians as well. To end this blog with something nice; Here's a nice picture of the birthday cake the restaurant made for me:

Rush hour in Ramallah

Så har jeg vært i Ramallah i snart 4 dager, og det var på tide med et livstegn. For de uinnvidde har jeg altså reist til Ramallah (Palestina) og begynt på arabisk og skal etter planen være her fram til jul. Lett humoristisk tituleres denne posten Rush hour in Ramallah - ikke fordi jeg har opplevd så mange av de, for selv bor jeg i BirZeit - en by 15 min. unna Ramallah, men fordi det er navnet på bandet som noen av mine med studenter skal starte... Nok om det.

Kan vel begynne med at det var unødvendig for meg å ha mageknipe og X antall søvnløse netter i en måned i frykt for ikke å slippe inn i Israel/Palestina før turen. Det var lite problematisk. Riktignok måtte jeg gjennom tre avhør, og vente i 3 timer, men de spørsmålene jeg ble møtt med ville jeg definert som "standard spørsmål". Jeg tror jeg gjorde lurt i å kjøre en ærlig linje, og ikke legge skjul på mine studieplaner på BirZeit universitet. Det var aldri noen "kritiske" spørsmål rundt det, og jeg hadde all papirarbeidet i orden. Den eneste gangen jeg følte jeg var på tynn is var når jeg på det tredje intervjuet måtte forklare at selv om jeg var på Arafats grav sist gang jeg var i Ramallah så betydde det ikke at jeg hadde et nært forhold verken til han eller hans sak, men at det var en "må-ting" når man først var i Ramallah. Den andre gangen var når jeg plutselig nevnte Palestina framfor Israel eller Ramallah, og hun (intervjueren) spurte hva mine planer var ved siden av studiene. Jeg bedyret at jeg ikke hadde tenkt å reise rundt fordi det var undervisning hver dag. Men det var aldri noe stress, og ikke i nærheten av så ille som jeg fryktet. Jeg fikk et stempel på tre måneder, med lett formaning om å møte hos innenriksministeriet for å forlenge visumet med én måned for mitt fly som går hjem i slutten av desember. Regelen er, i følge både ambassaden og de på grensen at man kun har lov til å oppholde seg i Israel i tre måneder i løpet av et kalenderår, men har allerede møtt mange som har fått flere tre måneders stempler i løpet av dette året etter et lite opphold i utlandet. Tror også det vil løse seg fint.

En litt "morsom" hendelse på venterommet før sikkerhetskontrollen var da en gammel mann, som hadde sittet i samme venterom som meg, fikk beskjed om bare å gå ut via vanlig passkø likevel, og han glemte sin pose i venterommet. Jeg forsøkte da å fortelle sikkerhetsvakten at den posen tilhørte den mannen, men møtte lite respons. Noe senere kom en annen sikkerhetsvakt, så på posen, stoppet litt, og fortsatte. kvarteret senere kom det en mann med propp i øret og kikket oppi alle søppelkassene, stusset over den posen (på det tidspunktet var det bare meg på den ene rekken av stolene, og den posen på den andre), spurte sikkerhetsvakten som skulle "passe på" venterommet om den, og han bare trakk på skuldrene, og mannen med proppen i øret bare fortsatte. Det tror jeg ikke hadde skjedd på Oslo S en gang.

Vel, jeg har nå vært her i 4 dager, og hadde min første undervisnings dag i dag. Skal ta tre kurs. Ett i standard arabisk, muntlig palestinsk dialekt og et kurs som heter "Palestinian Question". Timeplanen tilsier at det blir et pumaløp, med faktisk undervisning hver dag, mid-exams og oppgaveinnleveringer. Det eneste er at jeg føler meg for gammel for hjemmelekser, men skal man klare å lære seg et språk godt nok, må man vel gjennom det. Må si jeg er veldig stolt av å henge godt med på nivå 2 både skriftlig og muntlig.

Kurset i Palestinian Question holdes av en noe fargerik person. Sa’d Nimr, politiker i mange år og leder av "Fri Marwan Barghouti" kampanjen, skal være vår foreleser. Fargerik fordi han var tydelig på at det ikke vil være en objektiv fremstilling av problemstillingen, men palestinernes synspunkt på situasjonen. I dag ga han bare en kjapp innføring i hva kurset kommer til å handle om, og det manglet ikke på kontroverser. F.eks. kunne han meddele at det var en misforståelse eller miskommunikasjon at FNs resolusjon 181 om deling av Palestina ble godkjent av israelerne. Den ble - i følge han (foreløpig, da jeg ikke har begynt å lese pensum enda) - forkastet av araberne (palestinere) fordi de ikke kunne fatte logikken i at 33 % av befolkningen (jødiske) skulle få 56 % av landområde, og 66 % av befolkningen (arabisk - både muslimer og kristne) skulle få 42 %. Resterende var Jerusalem som skulle være under FN-kontroll. Resolusjonen ble altså også forkastet av israelerne, rett og slett fordi de ønsket mer, deriblant deler av Jordan.

En annen kontrovers var da han påstod (denne gangen som politiker) at Israel ikke ønsker å løse problemet. De håndterer (manage) problemet, men ønsker ikke en løsning. Han tegnet en tidslinje fra 1967 med fire punkter. 1967, 1993, 2000 og november 2007 fram til i dag. Han mente at dersom Israel virkelig ønsket å løse problemet, hvordan kunne det ha seg da
at det mellom 1993-2000 (under Osloprosessen, og før den andre intifadaen) var blitt bygget dobbelt så mange bosettinger som mellom 1967-1993, og hvis Annapolis runden var et ønske om fred, hvorfor hadde det da siden november 2007 fram til i dag blitt bygget 25.150 bosettingsenheter på okkupert territorium? Vel, foreløpig står alt det for hans regning, men det tyder på at det vil være en interessant forelesningsrekke å følge.

Når det kommer til den politiske situasjonen i dag er det foreløpig lite å melde. Tror den søndagen jeg ankom Tel Aviv var første dag etter sommerferie for militærrekruttene i Israel, og det var svært uvant for meg å se de fleste tog stasjonene mellom Tel Aviv og Jerusalem fylt opp med 18-22 åringer med sine M16 over skulderen (ikke alle, men mange). Et syn jeg aldri vil bli vant til, og en verden jeg håper jeg aldri må leve mitt liv i.

Utover turen innover mot Ramallah har jeg kun oppholdt meg i Ramallah (og BirZeit), og av det jeg har sett foreløpig er det vanskelig å komme med noen sterke innspill for eller mot noe. Livet her er ganske rolig, og bortsett fra Qalandia kontrollpost (beksrevet i linken) på vei til Jerusalem går livet sin vante gang. Derimot tviler jeg på at livet i Ramallah omegn er representativ for livet andre steder i Palestina. Livet i Nablus, Jenin, Qalqilia, Hebron og selv i Betlehem er en helt annen enn i Ramallah, men antar at jeg vil få rikelig med informasjon, og forhåpentligvis førstehåndserfaring med det etter hvert. Særlig Qalqilia står høyt blant mine reisemål, så får vi se når jeg får tid til det.

Det som har vært interessant er måten spørsmål rundt konflikten mellom Fatah og Hamas har blitt besvart. Public Relations mannen på universitetet svarte svært rundt og ullent på mitt spørsmål om hvordan den konflikten påvirker/hadde påvirket universitetet. "Vi har alle partier her, og eventuelle konflikter løses internt i løpet av 24 timer", var hans svar. Folk jeg har møtt har bare trukket på skulderen og med et oppgitt uttrykk i ansiktet ikke gitt noe gode svar, og foreleseren i Palestinian Question bagataliserte det hele med at det bare var et et forbigående fenomen. Palestinerne kunne ikke la dette fortsette, og at det i samtalene rett etter Ramadan (dvs. neste måned) i regi av egypterne ville løse seg. Jeg tror det ligger noe i det han sa at det hele var pinlig for palestinerne og jeg antar at de ønsker å skyve det under teppet og fokusere på det virkelige problemet - okkupasjonen - mens utelndinger som meg stadig maser om den konflikten.

Et av mine mål her på turen er å grave mer i den konflikten - uten å bli ufin, og tror ikke noen samtaler i Egypt (eller hvor de er) vil fjerne det hatet som har blitt bygget opp mellom partene de to siste årene. For å bruke samme logikk som Sa'd Nimr; dersom Hamas/Fatah er en forbigående problemstilling og hvis palestinerne ønsker å komme videre, hvorfor fengsles stadig Hamas tilhengere på Vestbredden, og motsatt på Gazastripen?

Vel, det får holde for denne gangen. Ila'l liqa.