[NYTr] Annapolis, as seen from Gaza

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

electronic Intifada - Nov 23, 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9120.shtml


Annapolis, as seen from Gaza

by Laila El-Haddad

Even in the worst of times, there's one thing we're never short of in
our troubled part of the world: another conference, meeting,
declaration, summit, agreement. Something to save the day, to "steer"
us back to whatever predetermined path it is we are or were meant to be
on. And to help us navigate that path.

Never mind the arguable shortcomings of this path, or the discontent it
may have generated, for we all know what happens to people who question
that; the important thing is to move forward, full steam ahead.

Enter Annapolis. I've been there a couple of times. Beautiful port
city, great crabs, quaint antique shops. And of course, the US Navy.

So what exactly is different this time around? Well, if you believe
some of the newspaper headlines, lots. Like the fact that Ehud Olmert
has promised not to build new settlements or expropriate land.

And yet, as recently as September, Israel expropriated 1,100 dunams
(272 acres) of Palestinian land in the West Bank to facilitate the
development of E-1, a five-square-mile area in the West Bank, east of
Jerusalem where Israel plans to build 3,500 houses, a hotel and an
industrial park, completing the encirclement of Jerusalem with Jewish
colonies, and cutting it off from the rest of the West Bank.

The conference simply generates new and ever-more superfluous and
intricate promises which Israeli leaders can commit to and yet somehow
evade. An exercise in legal obfuscation at its best: we won't build new
settlements, we'll just expropriate more land and expand to account for
their "natural growth," until they resemble towns, not colonies, and
have them legitimized by a US administration looking for some way to
save face. And then we'll promise to raze outposts.

Each step in the evolution of Israel's occupation -- together with the
efforts to sustain it and the language to describe it -- has become
ever more sophisticated, strategic and euphemistic.

Israel has also promised the release of 450 Palestinian prisoners (who
have, by Israel's own admission, nearly completed their sentences) on
Sunday ahead of the conference, while dozens of others are detained and
thousands of others remain in custody without charges or trial --
making theirs the highest rate of incarceration in the world.

Still, Annapolis is being hailed as the most serious attempt in eight
years at getting "back on track." According to the US State
Department's spokesperson, the conference "will signal broad
international support for the Israeli and Palestinian leaders'
courageous efforts, and will be a launching point for negotiations
leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization
of Israeli-Palestinian peace."

Support, I gather, that will also entail arms and money to help Abbas
rid Gaza of Hamas once and for all.

So then what are people's expectations in Gaza from all of this?

In short, not much. But then, if history has taught them anything, it's
that they never have much of a say in anything that involves their
destiny, be it Madrid or Oslo or the Road Map. And the moment they do
attempt to take control, the repercussions are to "teach" them never to
attempt to do so again.

To quote Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish, "The siege will
last in order to convince us we must choose an enslavement that does no
harm, in fullest liberty!"

The stage has been set, the roles are the same, but the actors have
been switched. That is the feeling of many in Gaza.

"The Annapolis meeting will not bring anything new for the
Palestinians; it is a repetition of many other conferences which sought
to reinforce the principle of making concession on the Palestinian
national rights," says Yousef Diab, a 35-year-old government employee.

For Fares Akram, a young Gaza-based journalist, the conference will
result in little more than token concessions aimed at further isolating
Hamas-run Gaza, and bolstering support for Abbas: "The Israeli
government is weak in this time. President Abbas may get some support
in the conference but the support will be for his struggle against
Hamas. Gaza will remain forgotten and the improvements that may come
out from the meeting will only apply to the West Bank while nothing
will be done here in Gaza."

Fida Qishta, a videographer and community activist in Gaza's troubled
town of Rafah, can't even be bothered with thinking of things as
abstract and distant and -- ultimately -- irrelevant as Annpolis when
life in Gaza as she sees it has all but come to a standstill.

"I wish you were here to see how life is, it is really like a body that
died. I still can't imagine we are living through this and I try not to
think about it a lot."

Aliya Moor, a mother of eight, adds: "We're already dead, the only
thing we need is to be buried, to be pushed into the grave and buried.
It's already been dug up for us."

We are prisoners, others have told me, constantly waiting and
helplessly hoping for decisions to be made that determine whether they
live or die -- both figuratively and literally.

Except prisoners are guaranteed certain things, like food and water and
access to medical care. Gazans are guaranteed none of these things.
Instead, they are setting the bar as the first occupied people in
history to be embargoed and declared hostile.

"People just want out," explained another friend. It doesn't matter
whether it's Fatah or Hamas anymore. It just doesn't matter."

We have become a people, to quote Darwish, constantly preparing for
dawn, in the darkness of cellars lit by our enemies.


[Laila El-Haddad is a Palestinian freelance journalist and mother, and
frequent contributor to the Guardian's News Blog, where this article
was originally published. She is based between the Gaza Strip and the
United States, where her husband -- a Palestinian refugee -- is a
physician in training. When not honing her speed-nappy-changing skills
or experimenting with the use of extra virgin olive oil as an infant
laxative, Laila writes for Aljazeera's English website and reports for
Pacifica's Free Speech Radio News. Her work has also appeared in the
New Statesman, The Washington Post, and numerous online publications.
Laila's blog, Raising Yousuf (www.a-mother-from-Gaza.blogspot.com), is
named after her two-year-old son.]