UN-Truth

It’s Friday, and Palestinian TV is showing the Friday prayers at the El-Bireh mosque, right next to downtown Ramallah.

(Ramallah and El-Bireh are two separate cities that have grown conjoined — they have separate institutions but are one urban area.)

Last Friday, Palestinian TV was here as well, because this mosque is right next door to the hall where the Palestinian Journalists Union was holding a General Assembly and preparing for the first elections in some 20 years, so the live coverage simply moved next door…

On Monday, the wife of the Mayor of El-Bireh was arrested by invading Israeli forces — she was suspected of doing something in support of Hamas. She may still be in Israeli detention. The Mayor, her husband, is a Hamas supporter, if not member. This week, the Friday sermon is overtly political. And, there are more men in Islamic dress (like the Tahrir crowd, or some supporters of Hamas though they are usually more conservative). It seems to be an effort to reconcile, rather than divide.

The sermon it is about this land, this country, about Jerusalem, about faith. Israel — yes, “Israel” — is mentioned two or three times. One people, one authority, and so forth. Quds, and Palestine. And the community of believers around the world (the Muslim Ummah).

The expressions on the faces of the men present are amazing — rapt attention, much more involved and reactive than the previous Friday sermons I’ve watched recently. The eyes are engaged, many mouths curved in small not-quite-smiles.

At the end of the sermon, prayers — not unlike those I’ve seen in St. George’s Episcopal Anglican Cathedral in East Jerusalem — for those who have died, for the elimination of checkpoints and closures, for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and more.

Then the collective Friday prayer is performed. (There is a brief pause to arrange a sound difficulty, while everybody is patient. Then the recitation of the Fatiha begins solemnly, and all present intone “Amin” at the end.)

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UPDATED: It’s Friday – Part Two: Palestinian Television is now showing the weekly demonstration against The Wall in Bil’in – a rural area west of of Ramallah. Because it’s rural, The Wall is in the form of a double wired fence with barbed wire rolls, and a dirt road in between for Israeli patrol cars.

It looks like a countryside festival, at first — a slow procession of people walking on foot up a rural road in the sunshine with green all arouns and almond or fruit trees in blossom. Then, a cloud of white tear gas appears in the middle of the procession. There is a liesurly retreat. The Israeli soldiers are relaxed. A few are already positioned in the dirt track in the middle of the The Wall/fencing. Others, with vehicles, and camoflague netting, are waiting just behind, on a small hill top.

It’s just the beginning.

Demonstrators (a handful) are near the gate. Some sit down. There is a group of photographers. Suddenly, a big volley of tear gas, directed at the gate, but some shots are flaring — curving clouds of white in a fine trail before hitting and releasing a big cloud — much further up the road where the demonstrators are retreating.

There is a man in a wheelchair in the front lines — he seems to be a Palestinian, maybe early middle-aged.

There are also a group of blue people, with theatrical blue face paint and clothes, and paper ears. One of them carried a Palestinian flag, and was later affected by tear gas. I realize from the Palestinian TV evening news that these demonstrators are making reference to the new film Avatar, where the blue (Nav’i) people of Pandora successfully resist a far more advanced and powerful colonizing people.

Then, I found a photo on the Mondoweiss blog, apparently originally from the Daily Telegraph:

The worst action usually comes later in the day, when younger boys begin throwing stones, and the soldiers’ lose their temper.

This Friday is the first, following an IDF announcement in mid-week that it was beginning work to re-route The Wall — fence, here — following a Supreme Court decision two-and-a-half years ago. According to a press release from the Popular Struggle Committee, headed by Mohammed Khatib, “preliminary infrastructure work to reroute the barrier in accordance with the ruling has finally began. Since the ruling, the state has twice been found in contempt of the court, for not implementing the decision”.

As a result of the Supreme Court decision, about half of the Bil’in village lands that were confiscated by the Israeli military as a buffer zone to protect nearby expanding Jewish settlements were not needed for that purpose, and were ordered returned to Bili’n. So far, despite the start of something this week, that has not happened.

Khatib himself said, in a statement in the press release, that this new development would not stop the demonstrations: “The Supreme Court had already ruled this should happen almost three years ago and it should not have taken so long. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the only reason that this is finally happening now are the five years of persistent struggle and the scarifies the people of my village have made. While we are happy for the lands that do return, we do not forget the lands and crops that remain isolated behind the Wall. Our struggle will continue until all of our lands are returned and the Occupation is over.”

UPDATE: The IDF is now reporting that “riots are taking place there” — and it’s only 2:00 pm.

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Coming up: the Sheikh Jarrah gathering — at about 2:30 this afternoon, Jerusalem time … UPDATE: It seems to have passed well. The group of largely Israeli demonstrators was shown on the Palestinian TV news Friday night…

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UPDATE: According to Ma’an News Agency, “The Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli citizen and anti-wall movement organizer, was detained in the Ramallah-area village of Dir Nezam during a protest there. He was reportedly being held on the pretext that he violated an army order and entered Area A, a West Bank designation off-limits to Israeli citizens. Residents of Dir Nezam are joined by international peace activists each week”. This report is posted here.

Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians