<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[AN AMERICAN ACTIVIST FINDS LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS OF&nbsp;PALESTINE]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p class="byline"> Posted  			by desertpeace			on Friday, 			January 21, 			2011 			at 11:37 am. </p>
<div><em><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Despair  and heartbreak are commonplace among  the Palestinians I met. And yet,  in the words and actions of Palestinians like  Omar Barghouti, a leader  in the Palestin­ian-led boycott, divestment and  sanctions movement,  there is reason for hope. It’s a sentiment echoed by Allam  Jarrar,  director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society who said, “in every   dark situation there is a tiny light.”</span></em></div>
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<h2><span style="color:#808000;font-family:Verdana;">Finding Light in  Dark Times</span></h2>
<div><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-size:medium;">Posted by Alex  Kane</span></span></div>
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<div id="attachment_570"><strong><strong><a href="http://alexbkane.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/soubhiyaindy.jpg"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"><img title="SoubhiyaIndy" src="https://alexbkane.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/soubhiyaindy.jpg?w=350&#038;h=262" alt="" width="350" height="262" /></span></a></strong></strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:x-small;"><strong>REFUSING  TO BE  SILENT: Soubhiya Abu Rahmah stands outside her home next to  posters  commemorating the deaths of her son and daughter. Bassem and  Jawaher Abu Rahmah  were both killed by the Israeli military while  demonstrating against the  separation barrier that illegally confiscates  land in their village. PHOTO: Alex  Kane</strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">BIL’IN, West  Bank — Tear gas burned my eyes and  throat, and I ran for cov­er.  Moments before, more than 15 of us from a  solidarity delegation  organized by American Jews for a Just Peace had been  protesting  Israel’s illegal separation bar­rier that confiscates Palestinian  land.  It was Jan. 7, a week after </span><a href="http://www.indypendent.org/2011/01/03/palestinians-protest-death-of-bil%E2%80%99in-activist/"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">U.S.-made tear gas had killed Jawaher Abu  Rahmah</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">,  a 36-year-old woman from the same  village. Not to be deterred by  Israeli military checkpoints and roadblocks  around Bil’in, more than  100 Israelis, Palestinians and internationals  par­ticipated in the  demonstration against the barrier. Jawaher was on  everyone’s minds, and  demonstrators held up posters with the words “gas won’t  tear us apart”  written above photos of her face.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">DIFFERENT WORLDS</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Just an hour  before, I had been sitting in my hotel  room in Ramallah. The landscape  of Israel/Palestine, profoundly compact,  bog­gles the mind. Different  universes, ranging from siege and hardship to a  bubble of nor­malcy and  hope, exist simultaneously.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Ramallah, the  effective capital of the West Bank,  continues to be the exception to  the Palestinian experience with its flourishing  cafes and bars that  cater to foreign business­men and aid workers — and the  Palestinians  who benefit from these travelers.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">It also  currently serves as the administrative  capital for the Western-backed  Palestinian Au­thority, which has grown into an  increasingly repressive  governing apparatus. Reminders of Palestinian resistance  are confined  to posters of the late leader Yasser Arafat.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Tel Aviv is  another story. Far from Israel’s border  towns near Gaza, where people  are often reminded that Palestinians exist in the  form of crude  homemade rockets that do little damage, Israel’s capital is   artificially idyllic. Israelis go about their daily lives, seemingly  oblivious  to the Palestinians liv­ing under the grinding boot of  apartheid.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">HARDSHIP AND HOPE</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Then there’s  Hebron, located in the southern West  Bank, where more than 163,000  Pales­tinians are held hostage by 500 IDF-backed  Israeli settlers. I  stayed with a large Palestin­ian family there and witnessed  what is  often considered the flashpoint of the most intense of   Israeli-Palestinian relations. Surrounded by extremist settlers, the  family was  forced to build a wall around their house to protect  themselves from almost  weekly attacks. One of my hosts, a woman in her  20s, told me that a few years  ago a group of settlers hit her in the  head with a rock, knocking her  unconscious. Israeli checkpoints  prevented the Palestinian ambulance from  reaching her for two and a  half hours. Her vision was impaired for months after  the incident.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">The Hebron  settlers are mostly followers of the  assassinated anti-Arab leader  Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the expulsion of  the Palestinians.  While they are by far the most extreme (and perhaps the  smallest)  fac­tion of settlers, they have a disproportionate amount of Israel’s   support, despite the pro­testation of many left-wing Israeli activists  who  consider them fascists.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Israel’s  foreign minister, Avigdor Lieber­man, is  an illegal settler who openly  calls for Palestinian citizens to be transferred  out of Israel. </span><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/knesset-votes-to-probe-israeli-groups-accused-of-delegitimizing-idf-1.335390"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Earlier this month</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">,  the  Israeli Knesset passed a McCarthyist initiative to inves­tigate  leftist Israeli  groups. And the docu­mented massacre of more than 1,300  Pales­tinian civilians  during Israel’s 2008-09 siege has done little  to deter talk of a renewed  as­sault on Gaza.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Despair and  heartbreak are commonplace among the  Palestinians I met. And yet, in  the words and actions of Palestinians like Omar  Barghouti, a leader in  the Palestin­ian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions  movement, there  is reason for hope. It’s a sentiment echoed by Allam Jarrar,  director  of the </span><a href="http://www.pmrs.ps/"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Palestinian Medical Relief Society</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> who said, “in every dark situation there is a tiny light.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Two weeks  after Jawaher’s death, I had the chance  to interview her mother,  Soubhi­ya. She recalled the nearly identical death of  her son, Bassem,  an integral part of Bil’in’s resistance to the apartheid wall.  In April  2009 the IDF shot a high velocity tear-gas canister directly at   Bassem’s chest.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">I asked her  whether she still thought it was worth  protesting after two of her  chil­dren died as a result. “Yes, for sure,” she  answered. “When the  army keeps doing this stuff, and the Israeli government  steals more  land, yes, for sure I support this and everybody has to do  some­thing  against them. We have never stopped. We will not be silent about  this.”</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Posted <a href="http://alexbkane.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/finding-light-in-dark-times/">AT</a></span></p>
<p><a href="http://ps.hadnews.com/an-american-activist-finds-light-in-the-darkness-of-palestine.htm">AN AMERICAN ACTIVIST FINDS LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS OF PALESTINE at PS.HADNEWS.COM</a>.</p>
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