The flames at our doorstep

One cannot understand the recent incidents in which Palestinian Jerusalemites attacked and killed Jewish Israelis without taking into account the current and historical political contexts. Nor will simply judging and punishing these acts prevent their future occurrence.

Israeli officials were quick to place the blame on all Palestinian parties, as well as on our religion, our educational system, our media, even our innocent President Mahmoud Abbas, not to mention the Islamic movement in 1948 Palestine and the international community. But there was no mention of the role the Israeli occupation and its oppressive policies play in provoking such acts.

Despite the profound inequalities between East and West Jerusalem – denying Palestinians citizenship, engineering laws to push them out of their own city, and imposing daily humiliations on them in almost every aspect of life – there were no confrontations in Jerusalem until the kidnapping and burning alive of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir from East Jerusalem’s Shuafat neighborhood.

The resulting clashes that were provoked by this incident were met by official brutality and more crimes by settlers. Young Palestinians who took part in the clashes were arrested and tortured, and prohibitive fines were imposed on their families – one mother whose three sons were arrested told me she had been ordered to pay 3 million NIS. Not only are families punished for the behavior of their sons, but since those clashes erupted our neighborhood has been plunged into darkness and traffic lights still are not working.

Additional border police have been put at the disposal of Jerusalem police and security forces. Now in Shuafat, as in many Jerusalem neighborhoods, wherever one looks there are soldiers carrying large rifles. Ostensibly they are there to protect the passengers on the Jerusalem light rail line – a project built in defiance of international law – but they also provoke the Arab residents, stopping youths and making them stand for hours with their faces against walls and arms raised; urinating on the walls of our shops and homes; throwing children’s schoolbooks in the muddy streets; and issuing arbitrary traffic tickets to everyone they can – my two cousins and brother all received tickets in a single day. When they can’t find another excuse, they will tell drivers that their back window is dirty or the light for the oil tank is on empty, and fine them for that! Surveillance cameras are everywhere, and children get arrested at night by masked men who speak a language they don’t understand.

Meanwhile Jewish settler attacks on Palestinians go uninvestigated and unpunished, and Israeli soldiers rush to kill and demolish the homes of anyone suspected of attacking Jewish Israelis.

Even though there have been many reports of attacks on Palestinian pedestrians late at night or in the early morning, and of aggressive acts against bus drivers and gas station workers, no measures were taken to protect them. When the bus driver Yousef Rammouni was found hanged in his bus, Palestinian Jerusalemites rejected the Israeli conclusion that he had committed suicide. After all, earlier Israeli reports had maintained that Abu Khdeir was killed in an act of familial revenge because he was homosexual – until Palestinian-owned cameras identified his Jewish kidnappers and murderers.

We Are All Murabitoun

In Jerusalem we have all kinds of people: it is true that we have a growing drug problem among our youth, and a few traitors who collaborate with Israel and sell land and properties to Zionist organisations. But we have freedom fighters willing to die in resistance to the occupation, and we have Al Murabitatand AlMurabitoun: female and male volunteers who guard the Haram Al Sharif from extremist right-wing Jewish groups who invade the Haram and call for the destruction of al-Aqsa in order to build the Third Temple in its place. The word Ribat, or steadfastness, is believed to come from Hadith Al Ribat: it is reported that the Prophet said, “A group of my Ummah will remain fighting for justice, they will vanquish their enemy and they will never submit to those who harm them until the end of the Hour.” “Where are these people?” the Companions asked. The Prophet said, “In and around Byt Al Maqdes [Jerusalem].”

To attribute all the tension in Jerusalem to religious difference is misleading at best. When people were paralysed staring at their TV screens watching the killing in Gaza, enraged at the impotence of their leaders and the empty words of the outside world, some were radicalised and decided to take the law into their own hands. What is notable about the latest attacks on Israelis is that there is no organisation, no planning, and no political party behind them. The only thread linking the various attacks is outrage at Israeli policies.

He Who Lit the Fire Should Extinguish It.

Israeli officials complimented the Palestinians security forces for their role in not allowing the flames of Gaza and then Jerusalem to spread to the West Bank. But in their efforts to calm their Jewish citizens, Israeli officials are adding more fuel to the fire: Ashkelon Mayor ItamarShimoni decided to bar Arab construction workers from kindergartens in the city; an amendment to the criminal law increasing the punishment for stone throwing to up to 20 years in prison has been supported by the Cabinet;and an “anti-terror law” which includes the revoking of citizenship or residency of family members of those who attack Jewish Israelis, in addition to destroying their families’ homes, has been proposed. The proposed bill gives Israel the rightto define “terrorism,” and also recommends that carrying the Palestinian flag be considered a terrorist act punishable by law! (We should remember that Israeli soldiers used to shoot and kill young Palestinians for carrying or displaying their flag.) As evidenced by the proposed law declaring Israel “the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Israel has no intention of resuming negotiations toward a two-state solution – not in good faith, at least. Instead it intends to expand its one state for Jews only and pre-emptively legalise discrimination and inequalities based on religion.

The  flames in the body of Mohammed Abu Khdeir; the fire in the hearts of those most oppressed by Israel’s occupation; and the fuel relentlessly added by that occupation all could go out of control. If that happens, even more Israeli as well as more Palestinian lives will be consumed like kindling feeding this nihilistic fire.

Samah Jabr is a Jerusalemite psychiatrist and psychotherapist who cares about the wellbeing of her community – beyond issues of mental illness. This article was first published by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and has been reprinted here with the author’s permission.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.