hamas to the izzo

in december 2003 (over 2 years ago), I wrote a paper about the multifaceted allure of hamas for a class, ‘islam and politics in the modern world.’ the following is my conclusion:

“The Structural Power of Hamas and its Implications

Because militant Islamist groups develop due to the weakness of the ruling government, there isn’t a force strong enough to subjugate them when they reach an extremely powerful position, such as Hamas has. But as of the mid 1990s “the PNA had not yet forwarded any sort of program for national reconstruction and development”¹ and since then it does not appear that they have made any significant progress. The void left by the Palestinian National Authority’s lack of action is almost inevitably going to be filled by Hamas or other radical groups. However, Hamas cannot be written off as a purely radical terrorist organization because “radical Islamist groups tend not to have a clear program of what they want to achieve.”² Hamas has clearly stated what it wants; a Palestinian state in all the waqf lands of Palestine, which are inherently Islamic property and cannot be surrendered, and therefore, this necessitates the destruction of Israel. Additionally, Hamas has proven that it can provide education and other services necessary to run a state, which strengthens its agenda even more. It is the fact that Hamas adeptly combines extremist actions with more moderate tendencies that make it such a dangerous organization. While “radical Islamists pose a security threat to the state,” a potentially larger menace comes from “moderate Islamists, who have begun to negotiate a space for themselves in the political process, pose the threat of an eventual transfer of power, of major change in the established order.”³ Hamas encompasses both of these dangers as it simultaneously acts out in violent terrorism against Israel and at the same time destabilizes the already fragile Palestinian Authority. To counter the strength of Hamas, a powerful government must be in place that can finance institutions and education, provide services, such as healthcare and offer a hopeful outlook for the future of the Palestinian people.”

hamas has now accomplished (pretty much peacefully and democratically) the transfer of power in the PA. no one else appeared as an alternative so hamas became the powerful government. now, the world is split on whether to forgive them for their terrorist history in hopes of finding a partner for peace or to cut them off from aid and international politics if they refuse to change their charter and practices.

i don’t know whats going to happen, i don’t think anyone knows. i do know that change is long overdue (on both the israeli and palestinian sides) and I can only hope that this development jump starts something. and I hope that the something is not more violence, a retaliatory right-wing israeli government after the march elections and/or an increasingly hopeless outlook for the future of the palestinian people.

¹ Connell, Dan. “Palestine on the Edge: Crisis in the National Movement.” Middle East Report, No.194/195, Odds against Peace (May-Aug., 1995): 6-9.

² Ghadbian, Najib. Democratization and the Islamist Challenge in the Arab World. Colorado: Westview Press, 1997.

³ Ghadbian, Najib.

move to east jerusalem, vote for pedro?

when i first met samar and her two daughters almost 4 years ago, they were living in haifa. it was nearly two years into the intifada, despite illness and many other setbacks, my grandparents were still focusing all of their energy on getting their dream to build a camp for middle eastern kids (israeli, palestinian, jordanian, etc) with life-threatening diseases (a la paul newman's "hole in the wall gang"camp) off the ground. through these efforts they had met samar, a palestinian israeli woman, and recruited her to be both a member of their board and their new friend. in my grandmother’s personal quest for peace and coexistence, she suggested i go spend the weekend with them since her daughters are about my age. my grandmother is hard to disagree with so off i went.

samar has since remarried and relocated to bir nabala, a neighborhood in east jerusalem. her husband, a native east jerusalemite, grew up under jordanian control. in may 1967 he left his jordanian controlled city to attend university in beirut. in june 1967 the israelis gained control of the west bank and east jerusalem. it was over 25 years before he was able to return to his hometown. in the post-oslo era, as an educated and successful economist, he was allowed back to help build palestinian infrastructure. despite the necessity of such brain power in palestinian society, the israeli authorities gave him "temporary resident" status in the city of his birth, pretty much one step above my tourist visa. every six months he hopes someone will be kind enough to renew it.

i was set to have lunch at their home on a saturday afternoon- take a taxi to the checkpoint, cross by foot and then another taxi to their house. through a mix up with keys, saturday morning I found myself locked into my mom’s temporary apartment (“the president’s residence” at hebrew union college). stocked with plenty of food and drink, new yorker magazines and a rooftop view of the old city walls, its far from the worst place to be locked in. still, I called to say I might be late for lunch. forty minutes later, I called again to let them know I got out and was on way and samar joked, “now you can better appreciate your freedom.”

samar has learned to appreciate her freedom. living in haifa with israeli citizenship, travel was relatively easy. now on the outskirts of east jerusalem, freedom of movement is increasingly limited. no matter which direction you go (into israel proper or the occupied territories) you have to cross a checkpoint. when she first moved to bir nabala, her office was in nearby ramallah. but since the separation wall went up, the commute became too difficult.

a year had passed since my last visit to their home and I struck by the new walls that had popped up around the neighborhood (not just the separation barrier). one of samar’s daughters, who had showed me around haifa over 4 years ago, is now a student at hebrew university’s mt scopus campus, less than 10km (which is even less in miles if I knew how to do the conversion) from their home. door to door, her commute to class takes an hour.

at lunch (as with many lunches in this region), the conversation turned to politics. next wednesday much of the palestinian population, including many east jerusalem residents, will go to the polls to vote in parliamentary elections. hamas has made a historic decision to take part in these elections and is expected to win a significant number of seats.

then in a couple months, israelis will go to the polls. as a temporary resident, samar’s husband certainly won’t be voting, but he claims it doesn’t bother him since he believes there are no potential leaders ready to talk about genuine peace. he isn’t the only one. a lot of people i know who are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections don’t know who to vote for (not that they knew before sharon’s stroke either). and speaking of sharon, he has all but faded from the news. i think the public started to realize that there are more important events going on in the world after this report appeared in haaretz.com last week:

“Among the ways in which physicians hoped to stimulate Sharon's senses Tuesday is to place a plate of shawarma, the sliced meat dish said to be the prime minister's favorite, close enough for him to smell it.”

2006 check in.

the past couple weeks have been full of visitors as the north american/christian world takes vacation. not the case here, I found myself at work as usual in the bomb shelter office on sunday morning, christmas day. however since the barrage of visitors began, I have taken a good number of vacation days in order to accompany friends to the flea market, junk market, art market, food market and humus market. ok, there isn’t a humus market, but if there was we would be there and since there isn’t, we traveled to akko (2 hours up the coast by train), supposedly the only city that can rival yafo with its humus. the humus was pure goodness but I was even more enamored by the charm of akko’s living, breathing, old walled city which is neither like disneyland-esque old jerusalem nor the yupi artisan colony of yafo’s oldest quarters. thinking about moving north? check.

new years here is called sylvester. my roommate and I threw a rocking party on saturday night complete with campus-dance worthy christmas lights and beirut on our rooftop (yes, the weather was kind enough to permit an outdoor new years party). they don’t sell red solo cups in Israel, but I was able to strike a deal with some guys who run a juice stand which had similar-sized, durable, neon yellow plastic cups. lebanese-israeli cultural exchange? check.

after months of being the only girl playing ultimate with the holylanders, I brought charlotte and talya to practice. the boys might have been just as excited as I was to have some more ponytails on the field. sadly, practice was cut short when a face-to-elbow collision broke one guy’s nose. (remember when I broke charlotte’s hand?) regardless, disco inferno meets holylanders? check.

after 3 more trips to the bank, i received one of the two check books that i ordered. does it matter that my name is written as ana weitzer? not according to the ever helpful bank workers. checks? check.