Discovering MENA and other thoughts

"You have to be careful when choosing your enemies because sooner or later you will end up resembling them," Jorge Luis Borges said once. When your main enemy is your team-mate and is deeply embedded with your very raison d'être, it's no wonder how difficult it may be for you to move forward and fight any external threat whatsoever. This is exactly the case with the Palestinian cause, that does not seem to have enough with crashing time and again against the wall of Israeli intolerance and sees itself continually eroded by brotherly differences and struggles within the Palestinian elite itself. The most significant example of this is the war - not coincidentally called "war between brothers" - between Hamas and Fatah that broke out when the former were proclaimed winners of the elections the January 2006 Gaza Strip.

Tamarrud (rebel yourself in Arabic), Egypt's most famous protest movement , the one that sparked the 30 June huge demonstrations that ultimately ousted Mohammed Morsi, has inspired several copycats in brethren countries. Which ones? The ones who already went through their (successful or not) "Arab Springs".

One of the major obstacles that stand in the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis is the issue of Israeli settlements, colonies built in a territory that, according to Resolution 181 adopted in 1947 by the UN General Assembly and subsequent texts belongs to a (painfully still inexistent) Palestinian state. According to estimates, today about half a million Jews live as settlers in the more than 140 illegal settlements (so declared by the International Court of Justice) set up by Israel in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

You know I believe Palestinian reconciliation is vital if Palestinian politicians really want to create momentum for the Palestinian cause. Every once in a while, if we are attentive enough to the Arab media, we may read news about a new deal between Fatah and Hamas brokered by Cairo, thanks to improved relations between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood (although many believe the bulk of the Peace Process and everything related to it still remains in the realms of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service/Mukhabarat ). The latest news broke out on 15 May, whereby Fatah and Hamas had set a three-month timetable to form a unity government and organize elections to choose the members of the Parliament in exile of the Palestinian People, the Palestinian National Council (PNC), a key step in order to grant all decisions regarding the Palestinian struggle legitimacy.

Here are the more common questions about the Nakba (taken from here ) 1. What is the Nakba? Nakba means "Catastrophe" in Arabic. It refers to the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948 when approximately 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced into exile by Israeli troops. Because the Palestinians were not Jewish, their presence and predominant ownership of the land were obstacles to the creation of a Jewish state. Their exodus, or Nakba, was already nearly half-complete by May 1948, when Israel declared its independence and the Arab states entered the fray. Many Zionist leaders in Palestine openly favored "transfer" of the indigenous Palestinian population. Zionist forces used clashes that erupted as the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end in 1947-48 to rid as much of the land of its Palestinian inhabitants as possible. By the end of 1948, approximately 750,000 Palestinians - three-quarters of the Palestinian population - fled in panic

 Nearly no one liked him at home. He was hailed as a great political figure abroad, though. He spent all his life looking forward to becoming a prophet in his own country, but Palestinian hearts and minds are not that easy to win over. Last week and after months of political bickering and governmental stalemate, former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, handed in his resignation (although he has accepted to remain as caretaker PM) to a relieved Mahmoud Abbas. Indeed, everybody in Palestine and elsewhere was aware of the growing hatred each figure felt towards the other. They have publicly clashed many times, particularly over their respective powers or economic policies. The face-off reached unprecedented heights in recent weeks, coming to a head with the resignation of the Finance Minister Nabil Qassis, which was accepted by the Prime Minister (who coincidentally was previously in charge of the portfolio) but rejected by the President. Fayyad, a US-educated seasoned eco

Do you know where a product you usually consume has been produced? Within the EU borders, you usually do. According to European legislation, the origin of many products has to be specified.  But... what about the products with the label "Made in Israel"? That is a much more complicated issue, for these may have been manufactured in Tel Aviv, in Hebron, or in the Israeli Settlement of   Ariel .  European regulation lay down for which products it is required (notably fresh fruit and vegetables and a few other food products such as honey, olive oil and wine, as well as cosmetics) and for which it is not. Moreover, labelling is the responsibility of the merchant and not the producer. And merchants are often unaware of the issue of the settlements, as a result of which they fail to label these products correctly. This is going to change. After months of procrastination, several EU Foreign Ministers have asked the HR Catherine Ashton to move forward with plans whereby consum

Eliaz Cohen is a resident of the nearby settlement of Kfar Etzion, located between Jerusalem and Hebron in the southern West Bank . He is well-known thanks to its verses and several media outlets have dubbed him " the settler poet ". He is a bearded yarmulke-clad faithful Jewish who cannot imagine a life outside its settlement and thus ran for a post in the Yesha Council ( political arm of the Jewish residents of Yesha/West Bank ) but who has, at the same time, helped many Palestinians to get Israeli permits to build new houses in scattered towns throughout the West Bank.    It all started when he learnt about the inadequate living conditions in the neighbouring village of Hirbat Zachariah, where overpopulation stifles growth and survival, and where the majority of teenagers have to emigrate from . He is not a staunch supporter of the one "state solution", but believes peace requires mutual recognition of everybody's right to the same land: "it i

A worrying, although too familiar, bout of violence has erupted in the West Bank, over the death of a Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody. Although Israel denies any kind of wrongdoing in the face of accusations of torture by the victim-s interrogators, Palestinian authorities have called for an international objective inquiry into this death.

I had saved this article because the headline had very much caught my attention. Apparently, in a controversial recent meeting between Netanyahu and the King of Jordan, both leaders mentioned the possibility of building a confederation between the West Bank and Jordan, that would find its origins in the British-dominated protectorate of Transjordan created in 1921, after WWI. That would be one of the main talking points in future peace negotiations and "would leave the core disputes on permanent borders, Jerusalem, the Palestinian refugees and the future of Israel’s settlements in Judea and Samaria to a later round of negotiations at some unspecified time in the future" (evidently!). This way, Israel won't feel obliged to recognise the existence of a Palestinian state (even though the Palestinian Authority already vowed to recognise the Jewish state) and Hamas won't have to recognise the state of Israel. According to the article, "in early December, the Palest

You can find part one here . I read an article in El Pais that's too familiar and devastating at the same time. The Israeli army killed a 17 year old Palestinian teenager in the West Bank, adding to the at least two deaths that have occurred in similar circumstances in recent days. Samir Awad died after he and other students began throwing stones at soldiers, who responded with gunfire. There's no need to add any comments. Photo ATEF SAFADI (EFE)

An article in El Pais recently attracted my full attention. Similar articles can be read every other day, but that´s precisely what disturbs me the most. People may not die, but individuals are deprived from their basic rights, and that´s also a kind of war for me: ongoing instability and fear haunting the legitimate inhabitants of a territory. And the situation is getting worse: clashes between Palestinians and settlers have increased in the West Bank in recent months, with a radical fringe of Israelis (settlers armed with guns and other kind of weapons!) attacking Palestinian property, including olive trees ( according to OCHA, approximately 100,000 Palestinians are economically dependent on these trees olive ) and cars. Couldn't that also be considered by the ICC as a war crime? Food for thought...

When Hamas celebrated its 25th anniversary in Gaza back in December, several rallies were also authorized and held for the first time in years in the West Bank , sparking (again) rumours about an eventual badly needed Palestinian reconciliation . This type of comments are again all over the media on the occasion of the (first-time since Hamas came to power) holding of another rally, this time a Fatah rally in Gaza, marking the 48th anniversary of the founding of the rival political movement by Arafat, celebrated with a sea of yellow banners, T-shirts and flags (some of them shyly hung on Gazan windows over the last years).  The event featured participating members of Hamas, but it was the delegation having crossed the Rafah border crossing that attracted all the attention, mainly composed of Abu Ali (nom de guerre Abdul Aziz Shahen) historical founder of Fatah, Jibril Rajub, member of the Central Committee of the party and Osama Al Kuasmi, spokesman in the West Bank. The motto of t

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, announced on 12 November during a LAS meeting that the request whereby the UN General Assembly would grant Palestine enhanced observer status would be formalized (and the vote would thus take place) today (29 November 2012, 65th anniversary of the UN partition resolution, "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People"). "The required simple majority is already guaranteed", an ecstatic Abbas told reporters in Cairo. Palestinian officials reckon the Resolution has nearly 60 co-sponsors and estimate at least 130 countries will vote for the proposal. EU member states will unsurprisingly find themselves, once again, divided, and their votes will surely follow the same direction as in the "UNESCO case" last year: 11 supported the entry of Palestine as a state, 5 opposed, and the remaining 11 abstained. One thing is for sure, and makes me really happy: Spain and France will vote

   Only time (hours? days? weeks? months? hopefully years!) will tell... Apparently, one Palestinian has already been killed . Maybe it was just a matter of hours... Meanwhile, there go several links which may help us building a more comprehensive analysis (Plus the ones I posted before the ceasefire ) Lluis Basset's assesses the agreement's regional consequences (El Pais - in Spanish) NYT 's main article (and its Editorial ) How Hamas won the war  (FP) also here (Haaretz)  Or not? (Al Ayyam) also here  (Foreign Affairs) Half victory, half defeat  (Al Ayyam) Israel's gamble (Foreign Affairs) More on the winners and losers of the conflict (Le Monde - in French) The Economist's forecast Al Jazeera's coverage Has Israel been talking to all the region?  (Al Monitor) Same text, different result?  (Haaretz) The day after  (Haaretz) Insightful background of the negotiations (Al Hayat) Bibi's wrong calculations

A delegation of Palestinian representatives has been visiting Egypt. Apparently, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met this week with Hisham Qandil, Egypt's Prime Minister, in Cairo. They discussed various possibilities to lift the siege of the Gaza Strip, one of the electoral promises of the Muslim Brotherhood, and even addressed plans are to develop a free-trade zone between both territories. They surely debated on the tunnels' issue,  used for smuggling goods and people across the border, a huge source of problems (amongst many) between Egypt and Israel. Palestinian leaders in the Strip estimate the value of trade to be $2 million a day (of which Hamas takes 7% in taxes) and therefore consistently oppose this possibility: "not even under ousted president Hosni Mubarak did Egypt think of crippling all the tunnels without providing an alternative", senior Hamas official Mahmoud El-Zahar told the Egyptian newspaper  Al Ahram .  Khaled Meshaal,  head of Hamas