عنونت الصحف العربية والعالمية صبيحة اول من أمس، أنه تم الاتفاق بين حركة المقاومة الاسلامية “حماس” وحكومة العدو الاسرائيلي على صفقة تبادل الأسرى، 1027 اسيراً واسيرة فلسطينيين مقابل الجندي الاسرائيلي المأسور جلعاد شاليط.
هاج العشب العربي وماج على أثر المرور فوق هذا المطب العاطفي، وبدأت عمليات التهنئة والمباركة والزغردات. حسناً، الخبر للوهلة الأولى مفرح ويعدّ نوعاً من انواع الانتصارات، ولكن، وعلى الاقل في نظري ورأيي المتواضع، إن صفقات تبادل الأسرى في القضية الفلسطينية نظرية خاسرة.
لماذا خاسرة ؟
فلنناقش موضوع تبادل الأسرى ولنقارن مناطقياً وليس سياسياً. عام 2006 أنجز “حزب الله” صفقة تبادل أسرى بينه وبين العدو الاسرائيلي وخرج على خلفيتها الآلاف من اللبنانيين والفلسطينيين من السجون الاسر
ائيلية مقابل رفات الجنديين الاسرائيليين اللذين أسرا على الاراضي اللبنانية في عملية الرضوان التي خطط ونفّذها الحزب، وهذه الصفقة كانت ناجحة لأسباب مناطقية سنذكرها تباعاً.
في القضية الفلسطينية، الاحتلال الاسرائيلي موجود على الاراضي الفلسطينية على عكس صفقة “حزب الله” وغياب الاحتلال الاسرائيلي عن الاراضي اللبنانية منذ العام 2000، وهنا تكمن القضية، اسرائيل افرجت عن 1027 اسيراً واسيرة، من المتوقع انها ستعاود اعتقال اعداد مماثلة او اكثر ربما، في ما بعد على الحواجز أو إثر عمليات اقتحام المنازل. في حين ان الاسرى اللبنانيين الذين خرجوا في العام 2006 عادوا إلى بيوتهم ولن تستطيع اسرائيل الوصول اليهم والى غيرهم لعدم وجودها على الارض التي خرجت منها مكسورة مهزومة.
يعني باختصار ان تحصل اسرائيل على جندي اسرائيلي فهذه ورقة رابحة في يد حكومة “نتنياهو” ونقطة سلبية في حق حكومة “اولمارت” وجرعة مخدر للشارع الاسرائيلي. وعلى الضفة الأخرى فهي نقطة ايجابية ناصعة البياض تضاف إلى ملف “العفّة” لحركة “حماس” التي تحاول اكتساب ثقة الغزاويين واستعطافهم من خلال هذه الصفقة وابعاد شبح “فتح” من على الاراضي الفلسطينية واقله عن الطاولة السياسية.
لو كانت “حماس” تهتم اكثر للقضية الفلسطينية ولا تبغي المساومة على الكثير من المسلّمات في الايام المقبلة، لساومت على حياة شاليط وكسبت المعركة واعلنتها شرارة لانطلاق الانتفاضة الجديدة. فالاحداث الاخيرة في فلسطين مؤاتية، لا سيما من الناحية الفلسطينية والثورة التي اطلقها السجناء منذ اسابيع في معركة الامعاء الخاوية. ففي هذه الخطوى كان الأسرى يسعون الى اطلاق الشرارة الاولى للانتفاضة إلا أن “حماس” اجهضتها اليوم. فلو انها اججت الشارع الاسرائيلي بعدم اتمام الصفقة والمراوغة السياسية لكانت حركة الشارعين الفلسطيني والاسرائيلي، الاسرائيلي عبر استنكار المستوطنين واهالي شاليط لهذا التصرف وتحميل الحكومة الاسرائيلية فشل المفاوضات وعدم الوصول الى حلول، وكانت ستنطلق المواجهات في الشارع بين الحكومة ومستوطنيها لا سيما وأن الكثير من التظاهرات المطلبية قد انطلقت في الآونة الأخيرة في تل ابيب، ولكانت هذه الخطوة هي الخطوى الثانية الداعمة لمعركة الامعاء الخاوية، عندها اسرائيل كانت ستواجه نارين، نار مستوطنيها ونار الشعب المنتفض في فلسطين، عندها كانت “حماس” ستحصد ثمرة هذه الخطوة بشكل ايجابي اكثر، وتساوم على مسلّمات اكبر من مجرد تبادل أسرى، مع انهم يستحقون كل التعب والجهد لإطلاقهم اليوم قبل الغد، من سجون الغطرسة الاسرائيلية، ومن خلال أسر جنود ومستوطنين وصهاينة ليس فقط في اراضينا المقدسة المحتلة، بل فلتكن معركة مفتوحة مع الغاصبين في كل اصقاع الدنيا، يكون شعارها العمل الجماعي والكفاح الاممي من اجل تحرير الارض المقدسة، والحرية للاسرى وللشعب الفلسطيني المقهور الذي أضحى كله، ومنذ زمن، اسير الغطرسة الاسرائيلية، ولا سيما في السجن الكبير في غزة، من الداخل والخارج على حد سواء.
December 17th 2010, an unpredicted social movement broke out from the ashes in the most ignored cities of Tunisia. Almost one month later, on January 14th 2011, Tunisia’s 23 years dictator term was ousted and what so called Arab Spring got spread all over the MENA region.
Tunisia, a country whose people are rewriting the history and re-enforcing freedoms is hosting the 3rd Arab bloggers meeting from 3 to 6 October 2011. It’s needless to emphasize on the importance of the pseudo-healthy atmosphere in Tunisia in post revolution; we’re witnessing a baby democracy crawling up – a democracy that was partly brought up with cyber activism through the use of social networks and blogs.
My disappointment in current decision makers in the interim government isn’t new since aspects of the old regime are still faced every day, though my disappointment is coupled now with anger and shortage in breath of the hypocrisy we live; the other day, a huge debate was carried regarding Tunisia’s position concerning the Palestinian case and the form of the relationship between Tunisia and the States and today we deny Palestinian bloggers from entering the country.
The situation is hard to digest especially that this have never been an issue before and on top of that Jews and Israelis easily access Tunisia to visit Djerba for their religious rituals.
I can’t think of any logical reason why Palestinian bloggers would be denied entry to my country – I’m convinced it has nothing to do with missing papers and it shouldn’t also have to do with the hosting organization – nawaat- a long banned NGO in Tunisia, otherwise, none of the 100 Arab bloggers should’ve made it to the conference.
The Palestinian bloggers are so missed in this conference, they had a lot to contribute and a lot to learn and take away from such a unique gathering.
I personally know 2 of the 12 Palestinian bloggers that were supposed to attend the 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting and these 2 are extraordinarily active with a strong sense of civic engagement and lots of experience and ideas to share.
I was deeply touched by the words of my friend Saleh Dawabsheh who’s one of the Palestinian bloggers denied entry: “Tunisia, where Freedom was born; where My Freedom was denied”; “It’s a very sad feeling when you dream of visiting the country of freedom and then this country takes away your freedom of visiting it”.
The issue of denying entry to the Palestinian Bloggers to attend the meeting is absolutely insulting and is a non tolerated racist approach, that shouldn’t pass without a meaningful explanation. Here is a petition that few bloggers have developed demanding the Tunisian Authorities to issue an explanation toward this situation. Click here.
Saed Karzoun, the only Palestinian Blogger who made it to the meeting mentioned to me: “I’m very said for what happened. I was the first to apply for the visa and my application was processed directly. A few days later Heinrich Boll Stiftung, one of the organizing organizations has sent in the visa applications of all the participating bloggers and that could be the reason why they were rejected, but Saleh had also applied independently and was denied the visa”.
Few bloggers called for boycotting the meeting for the non-representation of Palestine and I personally think that’s not a good idea. First thing first, we’re lucky enough to have at least one person there representing Palestine and speaking of the issue. Bloggers and cyber activists have started a campaign to urge the Tunisian Authorities to give an explanation.
Second, it would be like Arab Bloggers boycotting their own meeting which doesn’t make much sense since this gathering is a quite important giving the state of the Arab world these days!
Few accusations have risen yesterday for the non-existence of any Bloggers from Yemen, and that also is due to an unjustified racist treatment even though Yemen had witnessed a revolution. But the reason came as no Yemeni bloggers managed to attend the meeting and many haven’t responded to the invitation as declared by Sami Ben Gharbia, one of the founders of Nawaat and organizers of the meeting.
Maxi Jazz, Dave Randall, LSK, the Durban Gospel Choir, Jamie Catto, Andrea Britton, Harry Collier, Sudha Kheterpal, Andy Treacy, Attab Haddad, Joelle Barker and Tony Reed are singers featured in a campaign song calling for freedom for Palestine.
Although, it’s expected to be released during early July yet it’s getting a good head start especially with some hot controversial comments heating up already.
Freedom for Palestine is the song’s name. The lyrics speak of the dramatic situation, the extreme violation of human rights, the refugees, the prison camps, children and justice.
The clip features the division wall (or as American and Israelis calls it the security barrier), footages from Gaza and also the signers in the recording studio along with a female Break Dancer.
Although the great success and positive feedback the campaign is getting, yet it’s quite shocking that negative responses go into calling the campaign as “evil” and “amazing piece of propaganda” as Glenn Beck a US media host did on his Fox News show.
Referring to the song’s lyrics, he questioned if these people referring to the campaigner know what they are doing or if they know what it means to destroy Israel. He goes sarcastic and asks if they done their work on history… then he said “Before you know it, ‘Israeli occupation’ will be standard fare. Everyone will just see it as they’re just occupying that land. That is a lie.”
As a chart featuring the freedom flotilla to Gaza displays behind him, he goes saying that these sorts of campaigns are packaged in a form that everyone would embrace and that is evil.
The guardian says: “If the song makes it into the UK charts, it is likely to cause a dilemma for the BBC. The corporation ran into controversy last month for masking out the words “free Palestine” from a number recorded by Mic Righteous. It did it in order “to ensure impartiality was maintained”, it said. On another recent occasion, the word “Palestine” was excised from a BBC script.”
On March 5th, Coldplay posted a link to the “Freedom for Palestine” video which features lyrics like ‘it could be you and your family/forced from your home and your history,’ and images of Israeli army checkpoints and the security fence, angering a large number of its Jewish and pro-Israel fan base.
According to the Washington post, there were 12,000 comments on their post, including promises to boycott the band and a Facebook group that demanded an apology to Israel within less than a day.
Anti-Israeli fans also posted comments to support Palestine, such as “Zionism is racism” and “Israel is an apartheid state.
After some facebook users reported the URL to the song as “abusive,” the link was blocked by facebook. But OneWorld quickly created a new site here.
No one can predict if this campaign can achieve some success with all the hate reactions around it, yet the controversy building around it even before release is an indication of what could be yet to come.
Dear friends and readers,
With everything happening in Tunisia and the world, I decided to take to the time to share with you the story of a remarkable young man who just made his mission to bring positive change in the lives of his community and beyond.
Funny how this article seems so relevant to me after spending a whole afternoon listening to a politician lecturing me about how young people lack effectiveness, creativity and are more likely considered as a burden instead of solution holders!
Well, Saed Karzoun, 26, a young Palestinian person who invested in his musical, photography and social media skills to spread his ideas and visions in a creative way.
Studied journalism and media in Birzeit University, he now spends his busy days making short movies and documentaries. Saed also hosts a weekly radio show on Raya FM called “Palestine Al-Shabab” or “Palestine of Youth”. He can also be found teaching young kids how to play musical instruments or volunteer somewhere at a youth led organization.
His latest project is training young people on blogging and using social media to promote positive social change.
Saed Karzoun
However, “Beautiful Palestine” is a particular initiative that I want to drag under the spot light.
“Beautiful Palestine” a project initiated by Saed through which he hopes to spread impactful messages around Palestine that would bypass the borders around on the place where he lives to echo in Europe and the USA.
Let me tell you, I have a syndrome that pushes me away from people who get too much attention or if you wish to call them super stars. I’d rather be with and speak about “invisible” people or those representing minorities and that’s what attracted me to write about Saed Karzoun.
He mentioned “I desire to be known as Saed, a simple human being who is not separated from the ordinary people, I want to be identified as the regular Saed who works and volunteers with people who act all together as a one hand”.
At Raya FM Radio- "Palestine of Youth Program"
Saed had a funny start with music, being a bad student at school, his father –a music professor and song writer- decided to teach his son how to play the Oud at the age of 10.
“The school of Music was very different to me, I was seeing and interacting with new and different people. The study of music was different itself, I had to pay extra attention to the musical notes and how to play them” says Saed Karzoun.
He also shared his attraction to this one girl at the music school and how he worked his ass off to learn how to play just to impress her. At the end, results came disappointing as the girl turned out to be older than him yet looking at the filled part of the cup Saed did learn something at the end.
Saed Karzound and Saleh Dawabsheh -best friends and extraordinary change makers
At a later stage Saed thought that music alone isn’t enough to promote his ideas and that’s how he turned to writing articles in his unique style by making a combination between the sensitive musical universe and the reality that is made up of the people miseries but also happy stories.
It’s on September 2010 when a number of his articles started being published on local Palestinian newspapers. He says he likes to reflect reality through his writings in an innovative vibrant way, cutting down with the classic and desperate type of articles.
Usually young people are not taken seriously, even newly graduate students when they show up with project ideas they get ignored and considered as nobody. There is no reason that makes corporate listen to them as they lack experience or mostly in our world, they have no connections!
Saed Karzoun says that he been always aware of that point and sends out and advice to young people telling that a person should work on building a strong profile and that can happen through volunteering in an NGO or starting own initiative…those are excellent ways to gain experience, skills, self confidence and connections . But furthermore, a person will be adding to your country and benefiting your community on the way!
Samer Jradat, one of Saed’s friends says “Saed is an ambitious person and that’s what I like about him. When I sit with him -even during early school days-, he fills me with positive energy; he always has some ideas and new stuff. I certainly like meeting him when I’m stressed or tired; he gives me power to carry on”.
Saed Says “Beautiful Palestine project is not something for the elite. When I first started it, it was a gallery of photos and articles done in Europe and Palestine. I made sure that the people working with me would be newbie’s and of mixed cultured and backgrounds and such diversity was really beneficial. I had the French Cultural Center impressed.”
Beautiful Palestine Project is both executed offline through a series of gatherings, galleries and festivals and online by a campaign promoting the image of Palestine defeating the thought that it’s a hostel place where only bombing happens.
Planting trees
To finish, I would add that one of things that touch me in all this is the very poor cultural and artistic life that we have in Tunisia. I believe we have so much to learn from Saed and Palestinian artists and change makers.
Thank you Saed.
Check out this TV package about Saed Karzoun (in Arabic):
Apologies in advance for American friends and readers, this post might make you feel offended but bear in mind it’s a reaction against the US government.
(Just for the record many American friends I know personally disagree with their goverment on numerous levels as well, so you shouldn’t be offended, really).
The visit of Hillary Clinton -the American Foreign Minister- to both Egypt and Tunisia got viral on some news channels worldwide and also Tunisians, how not and H. Clinton is the first extra VIP person to come to Tunisia since January 14th (The date Ben Ali flee the country).
Not just the visit and its unknown purpose but also a media blackout on the exact day of her visit were all enough reasons to push young Tunisians to step down to the street and demonstrate in Hbib Bourghiba Avenue (main street in the capital), Next to the American Embassy in Tunis and at Tunis Carthage airport. Demonstrations were held during these past 3 days (15-16 and 17th of March).
Well, what started as peaceful manifestations ended with violent attack by the police! It was reported that the police attacked and arrested couple of protesters, it was also reported that dogs were used to frighten the protesters and signs lifted by about 30 demonstrators were destroyed by the police.
What happened to freedom of peaceful protests and associations?
On her arrival at the airport Wednesday 16th, H. Clinton refused to answer journalist’s questions claiming that she’s keeping all the answers for the exclusive Talk Show with Nessma TV!
The next day at 1pm, a press conference was held at the Foreign Affairs Minister, 100 journalists attended and waited for about 3 hours and a half and guess what, the press conference got cancelled and her highest Mrs. Clinton had to attend a private/closed meeting with some government officials.
Let’s now come to the exclusive talk show at Nessma TV that wasn’t even live:
Simply it wasn’t far away from what it was expected to look like. Let me just highlight that the news that came right after the talk show didn’t mention at all the protests against H. Clinton’s visit; on the opposite they acknowledged the importance of her visit and even gave a preview of the set where the show will happen full with audience.
The questions that were asked were already prepared (and so the answers I believe), so much of the exclusivity and transparency!
I was dump enough to get excited that they took a question from the facebook community (it was about the opportunity of having more scholarships to study abroad)… really! Shoot Me Please.
Throughout the one hour talk show, you could only notice the fake diplomatic big smiles of H. Clinton when speaking the words that she knows that we like to hear besides giving promises and asking to hear our demands so she could revise them and see what her government could give.
She also talked on America being the oldest democratic country in the world and how she wants to share their experience to help our new born Democratic Tunisia…Excuse me but who cares about what Washington thinks or wants. What part of the word we’re F.R.E.E they don’t get? She even quoted Martin Luther King when saying “I have a dream” and started preaching us on how we should start and keep working hard about building the nation we dreamed of!
Questions that came after were just safe mainly about business partnerships, grants and the situation in the neighboring Libya.
It was also surprising how the audience spoke fluent English although coming from the Frenchy Tunisia; I’m not stereotyping but trying to get to the point where Nessma TV played another shameful role _ the role of a censor by not allowing certain people to attend the Talk Show!
For those who followed the updates on twitter and facebook, you might’ve noticed that it was supposed that Clinton would speak to some Tunisian bloggers. Apparently the US embassy and Microsoft recommended to Nessma a list of bloggers that they know; also Nessma TV had already its favorite bloggers list.
What’s surprising is that people like Sofien Chourabi blogger and journalist, Emna Ben Jemaa blogger and journalist and Ali boulila blogger and co-founder of Twestivel Tunisia were denied to come to the show even after being proposed by the American embassy. Also didn’t notice that Nawaat were even invited.
I have a question: Did she come to talk to bloggers and people from civil society or just people picked up by Nessma TV_ Emna Ben Jemaa raised a question?!
I also received the news that Liliopatra , mira404 Fatma Arabica zinga_ had refused to attend the talk show, may be in support to the 3 days long protests or may be in support of “friends” that got denied invitation probably because of their opinion or may be for certain personal reasons such being busy or hate towards the American government… which I hope all those audience acted upon and boycott that silly meeting with Clinton.
Did they have to be strict in selecting people that they keep under control what questions to be asked? Some of the questions maybe like:
- How could Clinton explain the tear gas bombs and weapons and the live ammunition that were used against Tunisians and Egyptians AND were made in USA and Israel?
- How the American government is so hypocrite when supporting dictators and then talking about exporting their democracy?
Or maybe what her response would be when it comes to the over use of the Vito against decisions that serves Palestinians first interest.
Could spending about 15 minutes during the show speaking about how Clinton manages among being a mother, a politician and have sometime for personal life? Or speaking about her supportive husband Bill and the fact that he plays saxophone and her married daughter Chelsey! Be more important than the few questions I wrote. Do we seem like we give a damn about her personal life and her husband’s saxophone?!
I won’t elaborate more on this part because it summed up in a nice way in one of the American Congress members Ron Paul here:
If there is something good she mentioned during the entire show, then it would be according to me: raising the question: how could we build democracy by neglecting the voices of half of the population (meaning women).
And maybe the other good thing when ending the show, the presenters invited her to spend a vacation in Tunisia and she said that she’ll try (another promise) or like she’s ever welcome to come again but she directed an appeal to come visit Tunisia to boost her economy through tourism.
This post was originally written by my friend Saleh Dawabsheh
As you know Palestine had been the first Arab country that experienced revolutions and demonstrations, this was called “Intifada”, and there was a first Intifada that took place between 1987-1992 and a second Intifada happened between 2000-2004.
After 2005 Palestinians have been silent, and there were no resistance except in some places here and there.
Gaza is a different case, the situation there is not peaceful like in the West bank; Israeli attacks continued, and the war on Gaza that all of you know about was very bad.
Anyway as a result of the second Intifada, the relative peace after it, the Palestinian elections and the winning of Hamas, all of that led Palestine to being divided into two states: Gaza and West bank (bear in mind that I mean by Palestine the part that was not occupied on 1948), two opposite parties, Hamas (the government in Hamas) and Fateh/the Palestinian authority (the government in West Bank).
Now after the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia some Palestinians wanted to do the same, some groups and pages on Facebook are calling for resisting the occupation in a peaceful way, other are calling for resisting using weapons and guns, other are saying that we should first unite, and become one people and to forget that we belong either to Hamas or to Fateh.
This is nice, but the shit in this is that these groups are fighting each other; people are accusing each other that they are not honest, and they’re not doing this for the benefit of Palestine, they’re doing this to establish organizations to get fund from donors from outside.
Those who want to resist the occupation are saying once we defeat occupation we will be united, the others are replying that we can not defeat the occupation if we’re not united, and all are fighting each other.
so will there be any positive change? To be honest I do not know, but I still expect things to get worse than before if these revolutions took the wrong pathes, and if Palestinian people keep on accusing and fighting each other.
Palestine is messed up, there is no leader, no clear goals, no strategic planning for the Palestinian state, negotiation failed, more than 11,000 are in jail, and millions are refugees out of Palestine.
Palestine seems to be a hopeless case as long as Palestinians do not change the way they think.
Saleh is a Palestinian blogger and activist; connect with him here
Please share this if you agree with me and thanks!!
Since YouTube like many other blogs and websites is banned in Tunisia and to avoid the painful use of proxies here I bring you news that most probably you haven’t heard of yet:
Saeb Ariqat Chief Palestinian negotiator that been in his precious chair for a long time admits on behalf of the Palestinians to the lovely Israelis that we disappointed them and we couldn’t make it to solve the conflict and make peace with them.
The lovely, friendly Israelis that (without digging too much in the past) one of their priests been praying to eradicate Palestinians and Muslims; one of their soldiers admits that she hates Palestinians and Arabs and she would be happy to kill and even slaughter them all.
The Israelis that got on Board of a boat (the freedom flotilla) in international waters, killed nine unarmed civilians in cold blood and then kidnapped hundreds of humanitarians and peace activists on board the ships and took them against their will to Israel where they were physically and mentally abused.
Israel who is busy Claiming the blockade on Gaza being for security reasons, of course they are the victim here recalling the loss of 1,000 citizens to “terrorism” in the intifada which equates the value of 10,000 citizen; but what about the death of around 6,000 Palestinians were killed during that same period??
And if you still like to play with the numbers, then why not acknowledging the loss of more than 1,400 Palestinians in just 22 days compared to 3 Israeli civilians killed by rockets and 6 Israel soldiers who were killed in the assault, 3 of them by Israeli friendly fire?
Saeb Ariqat and many similar leaders in our Arab world that grew grey on chairs that they don’t deserve or even made use of them to serve the people they pretend representing.
Such leaders we got only worry about fulfilling what’s best for them and apply latterly what the enemy tells them of course, or they’ll be thrown away and someone else will take over the decision chair!
Does the shadow of such news puts us -Arab Muslims- in our case and tells us what’s really is our value , how much we worth and the status of our dignity?
I certainly refuse this truth; I refuse this ban from dealing with dramatic dictator actions taken from people made themselves responsible for messing with our rights, thoughts and actions; I refuse to be manipulated and to violate my freedoms and rights.
I refuse this chicken atmosphere where we fear the greater power and we feel obliged to keep what we stand for a secret as it doesn’t serve the greater power’s interests.
If Saeb Ariqat tells the Israelis that he is sorry, then there he only represents himself because we are not sorry!
a pen... a pen is sometimes what is needed to let your voice be heard, the pen could be our tongue and our best true listener friend!
We often have the need to express our feelings and we get this passion to just let go of words...
words that would tell about us, people we care about or simply tell what's going on around us...
Certainly this passion varies just like the pen’s ink or like our heart beats!
Here is my notebook a place where my pen let’s go of my passion… thanks for passing by!
Arab Spring
Boycott Israeli Goods (729 is the prefix for Israel)
SocialVibe