I Sent the Invitation but I Could Not Attend!
By Tahseen Elayyan *
Arabic Media Internet Network
June 18, 2005
It looks paradoxical to call for a meeting when you know that you can not attend it. This time my reason for not attending was not because I was busy or sick. It was because the meeting was in Jerusalem, and I need a permit to enter this occupied city. This is the case with all Palestinians living in cities in the West Bank other than Jerusalem.
The meeting, organized by Al-Haq, Adalah and Ad-Dameer, human rights organizations was important as it hosted Felicia Langer, the well-known Israeli advocate and human rights activist who defended the rights of Palestinians and decided to leave the country to express her “despair and disgust with the [Israeli] system” as she once told the Washington Post. During our meeting Felicia wanted to speak about her experience with the Israeli occupation before she had left the country.
To most Palestinians, such a permit is a nightmare because they need a miracle to get it even if they need it to go to a hospital in Jerusalem. “I was almost dead in front of the soldiers at one of the checkpoints that surround Jerusalem before they allowed me to enter” said my 70- years -old sick mother who was in an urgent need of eye surgery one month ago.
Initially, arrangements were made to hold the meeting in Ramallah. But Israeli officials denied Felicia the right to enter Ramallah. Therefore, we decided to host it in Jerusalem. Felicia was only allowed to enter Ramallah at the last minute and she insisted on seeing the city and some of the former Palestinian political prisoners whom she defended long ago. Despite the last minute preparations, we made it. A small meeting took place in Ramallah and she met with some of those people. Surprisingly, she could remember those people by name. She remembered Bashir, ‘Azmi and an old lady whom she called Hajja. All of them were former political prisoners in Israeli jails. The meeting was full of sentiment and hugs.
What makes a lawyer remember her/his clients whom she/he defended dozens of years ago? Is it the harshness and brutality of prisoners’ experience with occupation that makes them evident in the minds of people they meet?
Those people met with her in Ramallah because they cannot enter Jerusalem either. They were keen to listen to her presentation in Jerusalem but unfortunately they could not because they need a permit which is generally not given of the pretexts of security.
Felicia sat at the table, the Hajja was on her left and another young Felicia was on her right. The younger Felicia was named after the older Felicia by her uncle in recognition of the gratitude of Felicia Langer who defended him before Israeli courts decades ago. “I have been waiting for 25 years to see you”, said young Felicia. People welcomed Felicia and confirmed their right to resist the Israeli occupation. She listened to what they said carefully and responded. “How many times should the Palestinians recognize Israel’s right to exist in order to get their rights. They have done it many times”, she remarked.
The other meeting took place in Jerusalem. Many people including internationals and Palestinians from Jerusalem and Israelis attended, I was told. But Palestinians from other West Bank cities could not come. I received apologies from people who wanted to attend but they could not make it because they needed that nightmarish permit. Palestinians need a permit to move within their own country.
In her presentation in Jerusalem Felicia talked about discrimination and oppression practiced against Palestinians living in Israel by the State of Israel. “The peak of this [discrimination] was the willful killing of 13 Palestinians, Israeli citizens, in October 2000”, she said. Most of her presentation was focused on Palestinian political prisoners in Israel. She gave personal accounts of prisoners she defended in Israeli jails. Detention has been widely resorted to by the State of Israel. Over 600,000 Palestinians have passed through prison experience in Israeli jails to pressure them to give up their rights. Yet these prisoners are still “the beloved representatives of the Palestinian society”.
Restrictions over Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory are getting tighter. Checkpoints are still posted at the entrances of the city. Palestinians undergo different shapes of humiliation at these checkpoints. Even those who hold a Jerusalem ID card have to wait there while Israeli soldiers practice their hobbies of humiliation. The Wall is strangulating the city and is making the lives of Jerusalemites hell. All meetings between Palestinians and Israelis to speak about “peace” have lead to nothing except more restriction and more humiliation. This shows “how false and deceptive their talks about peace were, and still are”, said Felicia answering a question by a former prisoner who was exposed to higher degree of torture when he spoke to his jailers about peace and possibilities of co-existence.
* The Media Coordinator of the Ramallah based human rights organization Al-Haq.