Last night I went to Ramallah with my friends Jack and Robert (I changed their names to protect their confidentiality), two friends that Brigitte, Margaret and I met when we were here in April. It was so good to see them again - they are truly good people. I can see it in their eyes. We always tell each other, you don't find good friends like this everyday. It's our way of appreciating each other.
Our conversations ranged from IS to Islam to DragonBall Z to Gaza. I learned many things about their beliefs that would have surprised me in April, but that I have learned are not uncommon views since re-arriving.
The first is that they feel the Palestinian Authority are traitors, mere puppets of the Israeli government. This view is more popularly held than I realized as I have heard nothing questioning the legitimacy or popular support of the PA in the media. The reasons that the PA are generally distrusted, if not disgusted, is that they frequently carry out arrests of Palestinian "resistance" fighters and either exact punishment on them for the Israelis, or deliver them to the Israeli government. Secondly, the peace process is now largely believed to be a hollow process, acting as a delay tactic while Israel continues to build settlements on occupied Palestinian territory. That the PA actively supports and participates in this process has tarnished their legitimacy with most Palestinian people I have met. On top of these, the PA government pays its employees strikingly larger incomes than the average Palestinian, and has many other examples of corruption against its own people.
What this does, in effect, is forces Palestinians like Jack and Robert who want to end the occupation to support the only group that is actively resisting it - Hamas. In different circumstances, I do not believe that Jack or Robert would support violence of any kind, yet the only act of resistance that they can see and cling to is Hamas shooting rockets at Israel. They are patriotic about Hamas' armed resistance against Israel and told me many "victory" stories of moments when the resistance fighters killed Israeli soldiers or successfully intimidated Israeli forces. They knew all about the history of the armed resistance in Gaza, including the chronological development of increasingly sophisticated rockets and their firing power/distance.
This perspective was articulated most clearly when Jack said, as an explanation of why he supports the resistance, "I'll be living this life of a prisoner whether there is a resistance or not." It is, I believe, a perspective driven by desperation. The occupation effects every aspect of a Palestinian's life. Palestinians are proud. Living idly day-to-day under a humiliating occupation, while a government they do not see as legitimate participates in decade-old peace negotiations that are also seen as illegitimate, cannot retain their dignity. I learned that support of Hamas is seen, in Jack and Robert's eyes, as taking an active stance against the occupation, defending Palestinian human rights and their right to self-determination.
I'm not supportive of Hamas' approach, as I believe in non-violent approaches to social change, but Jack and Robert's perspective did help me understand what drives support for Hamas. People need to have something the believe in. For a Palestinian in occupied territories, where else can they look to for hope?
Caught up with your blog this weekend. Thanks for posting these stories Josh. Your writing is strong. I really get a feel for the people you are meeting and a sense of how you are absorbing different thoughts, feelings and opinions as you acclimatize.
ReplyDeleteThis is my favourite post so far as it brings to light voices of young Palestinians and their feelings about the occupation.
The Israeli govt has not been an honest negotiator. They and the U.S. have insisted the PA carry out the arrests and raids to "prove" their commitment to peace but offer little in return, undermining their legitimacy and forcing dissatisfied Palestinians to support Hamas.
Contrast this with Northern Ireland. Years of deep-seated hatred and fighting finally brought to a close through negotiation. There was a lot of distrust by paramilitary fighters on both sides and this would not have been possible if the Unionists and UK govt had insisted on the IRA disarming and turning away from violence yet made them wait 10-20 yrs for any hint of meaningful progress...
"A riot is the language of the unheard." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.