Khaled Amayreh in Dura in the West Bank

While an unprecedented economic crisis grips the occupied Palestinian territories, Palestinians can still rely on the bonds of social solidarity.

Mohamed is a middle-aged taxi driver from the small town of Dura in the southern part of the West Bank. With a large family of 10, Abu Yasser (as he is called by other cabbies in town) is struggling to make ends meet. He recently sent one of his sons to college in Jordan and is quite worried he won't be able to meet his mounting financial obligations.

In the past few years, Mohamed was better prepared for the Eid Al-Adha holiday, the most festive date in the Muslim calendar, showing more optimism as he managed to make more or less a good honest buck at the end of the day. However, due to the sharp economic crisis in the occupied territories, he says he doesn't remember worse days.

Mohamed is now praying for a miracle that would deliver him from his financial troubles.

Emad, 62, is a retired Arabic teacher. He, too, has a son studying at university. His meagre and irregularly paid salary can't even cover his family's basic consumer needs let alone fund the costly education of a medical student. Very often Emad borrows from friends and neighbours in order to "save the situation". But borrowing is a temporary solution and there will come a time when his lenders will say "Sorry, I cannot."

He, too, prays for a miracle.

Mohamed and Emad are representative of Palestinians reeling under the harshest economic crisis to haunt the occupied territories since the onset of the Israeli occupation in 1967. And there is no end in sight, compounding the misery and destitution.

The reasons for the bleak outlook are rooted in the Israeli military occupation and the nearly total subservience of the Palestinian economy to Israeli whims and interests. The Palestinians are bereft of the most elementary freedoms in conducting economic activities as the Israeli occupation authorities retain a final say with regard to every conceivable process, including import, export and freedom of movement. Moreover, Palestinians have no currency of their own.

In the final analysis, there can be no prosperous economy under foreign occupation. After all, Israel controls everything: border crossings, roads, electricity, water, etc. The Palestinian authorities can only beg Israel to honour its commitments and signed agreements. When Israel reneges for one reason or the other, the demoralised Palestinian authorities appeal to the Americans and Europeans who may or may not succeed in getting Israel to show a modicum of flexibility.

AL-INKESAM: Like previous Eid holidays since 2007, when Hamas fighters seized the Gaza Strip from the Palestine Liberation Organisation following an Islamist election victory the previous year, most Palestinians are resigned to the rift between Fatah of Hamas as a fact of life they have to live with.

"Everyone is against Al-Inkesam [the Palestinian word for the five-year-old rift between Gaza and the West Bank]. I think Israel will not allow us to reunite because Palestinian unity is against Israeli interests," says Walid Suleiman, editor-in-chief of Akhbar Al-Khalil, a local tabloid covering the Hebron district.

Suleiman doesn't believe that Palestinian unity is an entirely Palestinian affair.

"You see; the Palestinian Authority (PA) has security coordination commitments with Israel. This security pact is aimed first and foremost against Hamas. So how could Hamas reunite with the PA when the latter continues to coordinate against it with Israel?

"On the other hand, the PA can not really disengage from this security coordination as such a measure would make the PA lose its raison d'être as far as Israel is concerned," Suleiman said.

Hamas is also worried that Fatah is waiting for the opportune time to gang up on Hamas and avenge the "loss of Gaza" in 2007.

OLIVE HARVEST: Eid Al-Adha coincides this year with the olive harvest season. Like every year, Palestinian farmers brace themselves for attacks and acts of vandalism and theft by Talmudic-minded Jewish settlers who obtain religious edicts condoning their terrorism from settlement rabbis, permitting them to attack Palestinians, steal their olive crops and damage their orchards, often using gas-powered chain saws.

The settlers often receive a green or at least amber light from the Israeli army, which adopts a slack and lenient approach towards them. The settlers have political parties backing them in the Israeli government and Knesset.

The settlers' ultimate goal is to grab as much Palestinian land as possible in order to expand their settlements, most of which are built on private Arab farmers' lands seized by the occupation authorities.

But the Palestinians, reputed for their steadfastness and stubbornness, refuse to give up, no matter what the consequences are. One olive farmer from Salfit, northwest of Ramallah, said that Palestinians will never allow themselves to repeat the mistake of 1948, when more than 700,000 Palestinians were terrorised and massacred into leaving the country by Jewish immigrant militias from Easter Europe.

"We have nowhere to go. We will stay here no matter what these thugs do."

What also helps Palestinian society remain resilient is the social solidarity binding its members, especially during the Eid holidays.

This week, the mufti of Palestine, Sheikh Mohamed Hussein, urged every Muslim man and woman not to forget the poor. He didn't need to press the message as virtually every economically able Palestinian family is conscious of their duty in the holy Eid holiday.

Traditionally, a sacrificed animal is divided into three equal parts: one part goes to one's family, the second part goes to close relatives, and the third part goes to the poor.

Many rich Arabs from Israel donate lambs, calves and even camels to the poor in the West Bank and Gaza.

Moreover, Islamic charities, supported by donations from rich Muslims around the world, make sure that no poor family is left without meat in the four-day festive holiday.

-###-

Source: Ahram Weekly
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1120/re113.htm

Khalid Amayreh
Occupied Palestine
amayreh2050@yahoo.com
solomonalfred@gmail.com