Palestinians with a plate of grass

by Andrés Alsina

Rome.- He is a statesman without a state, and lately this is what has been concerning him most. To take a plane to Rome, he had to request a visa four times, and three times it was refused. Finally, he was lucky that the plane left on time, as these visas expire in four hours. So he is there, Izzat Abdul Hadi, born in Nablus in 1957 but now living in Ramallah, sitting in an armchair in a Roman convent, in front of a tape recorder, at a Assembly of Social Watch, a network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) monitoring the governments’ fulfillment of their UN commitments on social policies.

The reporter is luckier than Izzat’s mother, who lives in his native town 50 km from Nablus, 45 minutes away by road, if it were not blocked. He could have said goodbye to his mother, but only if he had taken lanes that the Israeli army has decided not to block, but he chose not to drive seven hours to get there and back, risking being shot at from the Israeli settlements through which the lane inevitably passes.

The personal inconveniences of Izzat since the resurgence of violence and the renewal of the intifada in Gaza and the West Bank are a minor problem. The closing of frontiers by the Israelis left the 120,000 Palestinians who worked every day in Israel, and who formed a fifth of the total labor force of 600,000, unemployed. Additionally, there are a further 250,000 who are unemployed owing to the lack of capacity of Palestinian industry, a direct effect of the war, because production is good and could be exported to Israel, the Arab countries and Europe, where it is already being sold, if only it could be transported. Unemployment in the West Bank is 32% and in Gaza 45%, although the general average, including the villages, is much higher at 61% . Those who do not go to work in Israel lose a daily income of 3,400.000 dollars, and Izzat Abdul Hadi estimates the overall loss to the Palestinian economy caused by this new state of affairs is estimated at 900 million dollars

The worst has yet to come: because fuel is beginning to become scarce, other industries will join the ranks of those that have closed down. Other products are also scarce because Israel will only let them be imported from Israel, at Israeli prices. Annual per capita income in Israel is 18,000 dollars and in Palestine 1,440 dollars, so not much can be purchased.

According to Izzat Abdul Hadi, “This economic strangulation is one of the most important Israeli policies to force the Palestinians back to peace negotiations, this time with more conditions. They have an overall concept of war that includes not only confrontation, but also economics.”

And isolation is part of this. “There are settlements between all the Palestine cities, that is the problem. It is really a system of apartheid, and from this standpoint it is ideal, since it segregates all the little villages. Outside the village there is a settlement and the roads can easily be blocked, as they are at present.”

Instead of requesting visas four times for Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Izzat could have taken a plane from the other possible airport, in Gaza. But the Gaza Strip is totally isolated since the Israelis blocked the frontier crossing with Egypt and placed a military blockade to the north of the city of Gaza, hindering internal movement in the zone. In any case, he could not have reached Gaza, because the roads between North and South go through Jerusalem, claimed by the Israelis not only as their capital, but also as Israeli territory. So one has to have a visa to go through it. It has been five years since Izzat visited his sacred city, Al Quds, as they call it. It was the only time during the interview that his voice showed that he can still be amazed, or even incredulous, over Israeli measures. Everything else was recounted in the neutral tone of something to be expected.

He was quick to say that the situation in the scattered villages is even worse. Young people are unable to get to schools or to university. There are five universities between Gaza and the West Bank and, as he says with pride, the result is one of the highest rates of higher education. “We Palestinians are a cultured people; education has been our only tool for survival. Given our cultural level, we have been one of the builders of the Arab world. In fact, we have very, very powerful businessmen who do not live in the West Bank, but who do business throughout the Arab world.”

They provide help, together with the Arab states and Europe, but in this new situation it is not enough. Palestinians are now living in what they call “a resistance economy,” trying to save on everything. They say that they will have to bear this intolerable situation, which they expect the Israelis will make even worse as time goes on “and it will not be for a mere two or three months. Even if we return to negotiations, which is possible, it will be in the long term because the issues are very complicated and the Israelis do not want to compromise on anything, as they made clear at Camp David II in 1999. The consequence of this lack of agreement is the intifada.”

In his vision of events, in the 1993 Oslo agreement they accepted Israel’s occupation of 78% of their territory and their being left with only 22%. “Now they take away Jerusalem and want us to negotiate the territory that we agreed to keep. We will not jeopardize anything else. It may seem romantic to say that we are willing to eat grass, but this is the case. The slogan at demonstrations is: this is the last time, Hadi al Mara Arher Mara.”

In any case, they will not only be eating grass. They have a long-term plan to organize their community, involving other segments of Palestinian society such as women, senior citizens, business people, professionals and unions. And to provide education and health services, economic advice, care services for old people and children, participation in community organization, bringing in underprivileged sectors and developing plans for resistance in daily life. They also want to launch debates in underprivileged areas of society to promote participation, but also to understand people’s aspirations, thus creating greater representation. “Thus we will be able to apply a real plan to boycott Israeli products from the settlements, which is what we are suggesting now.”

They also want Europe massively to boycott Israeli products. In the discussion on this matter, they insist on differentiating between the boycott and anti-Semitic attitudes and they demand that the terms of the trade agreement between Europe and Israel relating to human rights be fulfilled, “something Israel is not doing.” The example of South Africa under apartheid and the devastating effect a similar boycott had on its economy acts as a beacon.

Continuation of the intifada “does not necessarily have to be through actions of violence; we see them as being non violent. Like what? Like peaceful demonstrations, aid to projects which support households and self-employment projects, small enterprises adapted to the situation and projects supporting families and children, whereby rich or middle class families co-operate with families with few resources, enabling processes for the adoption of a family by another in another Arab state or in Europe.”

Izzat Abdul Hadi went to the Social Watch Rome assembly representing the network of Palestinian non-governmental organizations (that is, an organized part of civil society) and it is through this network and its leadership role that he aims to change the situation. Although political theory differentiates between the state and civil society, he wants to form part of the state without this implying his becoming part of the government.

“All of this implies approving our constitution, setting out the bases for our institutions through a transparent process for the establishment and action of government, and the preparation and application of policies in different areas. It is very important for all our institutions to become established and operate transparently. For example, we must achieve our own educational program, reflecting our history and our independence. Today this is forbidden by the Israelis and we have to use the Jordanian program which talks about Jordan. Today we cannot teach or talk about Palestine, about our flag or our national anthem.”

“We must learn to influence public opinion and decision makers in Europe and the United States, where we only have solidarity groups.” To achieve this, they must wipe out the stigma of terrorism with which they have often been labelled. They must make progress with their institutions. They are not going to declare the existence of the Palestinian state, says Izzat, as this was already done by their own parliament on 15 November 1988 in Algeria.

“The problem now is not the declaration of existence of a state, but making it a reality. We have to organize our society from the bottom up, establishing links and a feeling of unity, providing services to people and becoming a point of reference for our own problems as a people. For example, we want it to be possible for our women who lost their loved ones to be able to come to see the Pope; that is part of our struggle. And we can have daily demonstrations with thousands of people, although it is tiring and exhausting; if we can do one, we can do the other. Even though the Israelis kill us at these demonstrations. But we have no other option. Armed conflict is particularly dangerous at present, as we are not in the same position as the Israelis with their great fire power and sophisticated weapons. Our strength is built on our own weaknesses,” he says laughing.