The news

I enjoy reading the newspaper here. I usually buy The National as it has interesting local news as well as international. It's good to read the news from another perspective, that is from the Middle Eastern perspective rather than the western one. In NZ we tend to get news dominated by the American perspective. That news only tells one side of a very complex story.

In yesterday's paper there was an article on the closure of the West Bank border by the Israelis. Usually during Easter, Christian Palestinians are allowed a permit so they can go and celebrate this important holiday in Jerusalem. This year they have been denied this basic right. The stated rationale for the border closure is that Easter clashes with Passover, the Jewish celebration of their delivery from slavery in Egypt.

Omar Karmi believes there is another reason, a more fundamental reason for the closures. He writes that Christian Palestinians are granted passes where Muslims are not and that this "disciminating system of permits is a tried and tested control mechanism, one that has been used by colonial regimes across the world."

The same article shares the views of Ray Hacohen, an Israeli academic. He believes that, "the coloniser's gains are clear. Divide and rule; destroying national coherence in favour of separate, conflicting local interests; making the colonised too busy with survival to oppose their oppression."

Perhaps the closures over Easter might do the opposite and unite the Palestinian Christians and Muslims, as 23 year old Jumana Dabis states, the "Palestinians are aware therefore able to be vigilant at attempts to create rifts among them".

I am in awe of the resilience of the Palestinian people.

While I was writing this entry, I got an email from Annie. Here's an extract, thanks Annie.

"A paragraph in today's newspaper made me think of you. It’s about a British pacifist named Emma Sky who loves Iraq and speaks Hebrew and Arabic, and has ended up as an important adviser to the commander of US troops in Iraq. She tells him things that no-one else dares tell him and puts a human face to “the enemy”. Anyway, the bit that really caught my attention was what she said of Iraq:

“It is a fascinating society. They have got things here that we have totally lost in the West: the appreciation of each other, whether it is the family, the clan or the tribe; values that aren’t capitalist.”

Yes, that's just what I noticed on my first visit and continue to see now. I hope the new malls opening and the invasion of fast food outlets don't ruin this for the people here. Although when I see people at the malls, they are usually in family groups enjoying each others company. Long may that last.