Necessity is the Mother of Inventive Nonviolent Resistance Rami Almeghari writing from Gaza, occupied Palestine, Live from Palestine, 21 November 2006

Long ago, Thomas Edison invented the electric light at a time when there was a need for light. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone at a time when there was a need for telecommunications. Now, the Palestinians in Gaza have invented a new weapon of nonviolent resistance at a time when they desperately need such a weapon to defend their homes from the ongoing Israeli airstrikes that destroy Palestinian homes on a nearly-daily basis. The new Palestinian weapon is very simple, all you need is to call on your neighbors, friends and beloved ones to gather around your home or on its balconies or on its rooftop, to try to get the attention of the Israeli pilot before he drops the bomb, and hopefully turn him away.A creative nonviolent weapon, made up of human beings, including scores of women and children, neighbors and friends, yesterday night prevented an Israeli air force 'demolition by missile' of the home of Palestinian resistance fighter Mohammad Baroud, from the popular resistance committees, in Beit Lahia town, in northern Gaza.Mohammad Baroud, whose home was targeted by the Israeli army, was ordered by the Israeli military by phone to evacuate his home within ten minutes, as the Israeli air force was about to destroy it. This is the way Israeli military has destroyed dozens of Palestinian-owned homes in the Gaza Strip, over the past five months. It was about an hour before midnight on Saturday when Baroud received the call. Within minutes, crowds of people gathered around, on balconies and rooftop of Baroud's house, as the loudspeakers of the local mosque called on the residents to take to the streets to protect the house from the Israeli air strike. "Death to Israel, Death to America", the crowd chanted angrily, with fingers pointing to the sky as the Israeli plane approached. They hoped, without knowing whether their tactic would work, that their presence would dissuade the pilot from bombing the home. They were successful, and the plane turned back.On Sunday afternoon, more crowds gathered around the house, saying they would split into shifts to protect the house around the clock.Unarmed civilians, with only their bodies, defying Israeli jetfighters. Now, the question is, how will the Israeli military, the fourth largest in the world, respond to this latest nonviolent tactic by the Palestinian people to stand up for their right to resist the Israeli occupation, by any means possible.

When Birds are No Longer Birds: An Allegory

8 January 2007

"Bird Nicer was killed by unknown birds in the central countryside, while preaching that killing is prohibited in the Birds' Shari'a (Law)".

In an imagined (but somehow very real) countryside there live various kinds of birds, living in peace and enjoying their life among trees, waterfalls and gardens.

Once, the birds had an idea that they should elect a chair-bird with a board, all the birds responded positively to the idea, so they set a date for such an election process. They day they set was a winter day, while they are all hibernating.

All the birds were involved actively in the electoral process, although the rains were falling heavily overhead, but they appeared very happy for such a remarkable day, unlike any they had ever experienced before.

Prior to the Election Day, the birds were sharing everything in the countryside equally; food, drink, flowers and waterfalls. They all used to live happily without any quarrels, although there was a group of blackbirds who used to maintain some kind of control over the white doves, simply because they were stronger and able to do so.

On the Election Day, the doves attempted to take hold of this newly-born democracy, in order to try to use a power that they had been deprived of throughout their life.

Therefore, they mobilized a great deal of support from the other colorful, beautiful, weaker and smaller birds. Surprisingly, the white birds, the doves, because of their lovely color, which means peace and serenity, won the elections overwhelmingly on that day.

Right after the elections on that winter day, the white birds appeared cheerful and victorious, flying everywhere in the countryside and in neighboring villages, announcing their victory.

In the meantime, the black crows, which used to enjoy some hegemony over the other birds, seemed frustrated and did not drink or eat that day. On the second day, the white birds started to use their new power by first preventing the black birds from reaching some of the richest sources of water, making them drink from further places.

They also prevented them from landing on fruit trees, allowing them only to pick green leaves. The white birds did not only act that way, but they also formed a set of white birds and some other colorful ones to act as guards for the flowers, fruitful trees and water falls.

With the installation of that set of birds, the black birds got very angry, then quarrels and disputes started to prevail between the two sides of the birds; the black and the white. To protect their basic resources from the black birds, the guarding birds had to fight, a thing which was unprecedented in their peaceful countryside.

The black birds also had to fight back, then all the birds in this quiet place engaged in severe fighting that led to the deaths of many birds of all colors, white, black, colorful and even helpless small birds while sleeping in their nests.

News of this fighting was heard by other neighbor birds, who rushed quickly to help their neighbors quell the fighting and restore things to normal. Such goodwill efforts by neighboring birds did manage to put a damper on the fighting and a sort of calm was restored for a while.

However, the fighting has resumed again, claiming lives of many birds from both sides. It seems that the birds are not fighting for control of the water, fruits and flowers, because since the Election Day, the countryside has been and is still going through a famine.

It seems that both are just fighting for control, a control that the blackbirds used to enjoy before the white birds took over power. And the latest example of this is the killing of Nicer, a non-biased respectable bird, when he was preaching in the central countryside, telling other helpless birds that killing is totally prohibited in the birds Shar'ia (Law).So it seems that even birds, irrespective of their colors, have turned out to no longer be just birds.

Imaginary Hugs In Palestine

December18, 2006

I am writing this piece with tears falling from my eyes. You know I am a Palestinian, you must know my friends from the West Bank are Palestinians as well.

But you also must know, we have never seen each other. You know we are from the same country, but we have not met. And you know we have just talked over the phone. I hope you know that we have gotten to know each other and become friends over the last couple of years, and you know we have contributed many articles to IMEMC.org.

You know that we have smiled, cried and sighed together. But today I am crying alone. My friends Saed from Beit Sahour and Jenka (a very good American woman) are leaving for the States, where Jenka is living. The young couple have decided to leave Palestine, seeking a new life with no military occupation, no Apartheid Wall, no checkpoints, no bypass routes, no restrictions on roads.

Saed, Jenka and myself have never seen or met each other in person since we began working together for the past couple of years, even though we all live in the same country, Palestine. But unfortunately for our friendship, the young couple is based in the West Bank and I am in the Gaza Strip.

You might ask us, why have you never met? Surely, you could have traveled by car, by bus or by train or even by airplane, so you could have met -- the distance between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is really not far at all.

I would answer very simply, no; neither my friends or I could have done so. Not because we are living in a desert -- Palestine is a beautiful place, with a beautiful landscape, a beautiful beach and beautiful mountains with snow.

It might come to your mind that perhaps we could not afford tickets for travel, I would answer simply, no, that too is not the case. Then what?s the problem with you, you ask. I answer again very simply, the problem is that the Israeli occupation that has disengaged from the Gaza Strip unilaterally and remained omnipresent at all border crossings, controlling the movement of any single object, even that of a cat.

I am stuck in the world?s biggest jail, while my friends are enclaved by an Apartheid Wall that is equipped with surveillance cameras, so they cannot travel even to nearby West Bank towns unless they take hours to pass through Israeli military checkpoints.

For me as a Gazan, my movement to the other part of the occupied territories (the West Bank) is extremely restricted under the Israeli authorities? military regulations and security measures. The only outlet that I could possibly use to travel to Beit Sahour in the West Bank would be the Erez checkpoint, which would take me through Israel -- something few Gazans ever get permission from Israel to do.

Erez, which used to be a busy commercial and passenger crossing, has this year become a passage only for emergency medical cases from the Gaza Strip into Israeli hospitals (and even those cases are severely restricted).

I am living in a big jail ? and not only myself, but the rest of the population of Gaza as well, which numbers 1.4 million people. Tonight, I had to use the phone to say farewell to my good friends in the West Bank, and I don?t even know whether the phone is also controlled by the Israeli occupation authorities. But don't worry, please don't worry. Saed and I imagined we were shaking hands and hugging. You can ask Saed.