o Jerusalem! (part two): Our Guide Mahmood and His Moving Story of His Committment to Jerusalem

O, Jerusalem! (part two)

Palestinian homes inside East Jerusalem have been regularly demolished and evacuated by the Israeli Defense Forces  if their inhabitant have not lived there for three months, or if they do renovations or repair without permits. This Sheikh Jarrar neighborhoodis part of a contested area of East Jerusalem where Israeli settlers are attempting to take over; they are protected by the IDF. Palestinian families were forced out by the Israelis and weekly demonstrations occur near here to protest the active policy of Palestinian home demolition and Israeli settlements. 

It is difficult to say everything I need to say. With each day here all of us are coming to understand why people like  Jimmy Carter, John Mersheimer, and someone as mainstream as NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman have used  has used the term "apartheid" to describe what is happening here in Israel with respect to the Palestinian population. You would not believe many of the things I have seen and heard here. I find it difficult to sleep at night.

Israeli Police question a young man and ask to see his East Jerusalem permit.
This is similar to the "pass" that was used in Apartheid South Africa.
East Jerusalemite Palestinians (even if born in Jerusalem) must carry this permit
at all times. If they are caught without it, or if it is expired, they will be fined,
denied future permits, or forced to leave Jerusalem. 

I am trying to write as much as I can down so that I can shareq my experiences and impressions with you, but the sheer magnitude of what I've encountered here is  for Palestinians like living in an Orwellian nightmare. I wanted to write more about what I've learned about the special and troubled relationship that Jerusalem has for Palestinians. In my last blog post, I wrote about our Palestinian tour guide Mahmood. he gave us a wonderful tour of the old city of Jerusalem, but I didn't get a chance to write much about him. Other than telling us how much he loved Jerusalem and believed  it was the best model for human coexistence and peace, he didn't tell us anything about himself until I asked. he was born in 1948 to an immigrant African father and a Palestinian mother. He was raised in Jerusalem, and was in his words, a "son Of Jerusalem". Like many other Palestinians, his family was deeply affected by the Nakba (the catastrophe) of 1948 that caused more than  600,000 Palestinians to be forced out, and displaced from their homes, and made into refugees in refugee camps within  Palestine, Lebanon, Syria,  and Jordan. Unlike many of his neighbors, Mahmood's family managed to stay in east Jerusalem after the establishment of Israel. Although Mahmood is a resident of Jerusalem, he has no passport. Like most Palestinians who are from Jerusalem, Mahmood is not allowed to become a citizen of Israel. He is a resident of this city, and although born and raised here, he like thousands of others must apply for a permit to continue to live here. many of the Palestinian Jerusalemites I have met, have sought citizenship in places like Jordan, Canada, US, simply because they have no official status as Israelis,a d because their country, Palestine, continues to be under Israeli occupation. Let me reiterate that there is a Palestine, but it is still under Iswraeli military occupation and the Israelis have never implemented the 1993 Oslo accords. Rent the new movie "Miral" and you will have a better idea of this history.

View of the Dome of the Rock from the Armenian Quarter. This is the second holiest place to Muslims but only Muslims living inside the city can regularly pray here. Palestinians living in the West Bank must seek a permit to come to Jerusalem to pray here, and they are usually denied these permits. A person living in Ramallah, Bethlehem lives only several kilometers away, but may have never been to the holiest place for their faith. 

This might seem remarkable to an American, but for the nearly 20 Jerusalemite Palestinians I have met, Jerusalem is a city they love, but with which they have an extremely complicated relationship. Mahmood told us over lunch that he came of age in Jerusalem and in 1967 he saw the Israeli army roll into his neighborhood in tanks and occupy his city. It was during this occupation, helping injured students that he was arrested. Although like many Palestinian youth of his generation he was affected by Arab nationalism and the movement for Palestinian nationalism, he was jailed for his affiliation with those political organizations that sought to free Palestine from Israeli occupation. His crime was resisting Israeli occupation; he has never used violence nor has he  advocated violence. He is by far the most gentle, peaceful person I have met here--and among Palestinians there are so many.  Like thousands of other Palestinians, he was a political prisoner. For his crime of belonging to an organization outlawed inside israel he served 17 years in an Israeli jail. He told us that he was in prison with hundreds of other Palestinian men, and it was there that he became educated, and in his words, "I am a better human being as a result of being in jail." Overthe decade and a half where he served out his jail term, Mahmoud was regukarly beaten and tortured. He told us that prison taught him how to have hope and also how to retain his humanity, and iT was there that he learned to think critically about the situation of Jerusalem and how to organize with his fellow prison mates to improve their conditions in the prison. He told us that half way through his jail term he was beaten very badly and then the next day was allowed to shower and was given clean clothes and was then sent to a room where he was sat down and presented to a representative of the French consulate. Because his father had originally been from Chad, they offered him an early release from jail in the condition that he agree to be deported and take up citizenship in another country. The representative offered him papers to go to France, Africa, or even the US. He refused, however, and thus stayed in jail for another decade. Finally, in his 16th year of his jail term, the Israelis offered to release him a year early, on the condition that he give up his residence inJerusalem. He refused, once again saying, " I am a Jerusalemite above all, and I will never leave this city." We all just about started crying, when he told us this, and he followed by telling us how proud he is of his two children one of whom was graduating from Bir Zeit university thus year. He was never able to attend university because of his imprisonment, and for him the fact that he spent a decade and a half in prison, was able to marry, have children and continue his life in his beloved Jerusalem. When I can I'll put up photos, but for now let me tell you that Mahmood is a radiant and beautiful man. Everywhere we went inJerusalem knew him and greeted him warmly. He is of course tall and has many African features which make it hard to miss him, but more than that, he is known all Jerusalem for his work in trying to fight for the rights of Jerusalemite Palestinians who have increasingly had their rights eroded.

Palestinian merchants sell their wares in the Old City. They pay taxes, but are not allowed  representation on the Jerusalem City Council. 

Although Mahmood can pray at the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest Muslim sites in the world (second only to Mecca itself), no Palestinians from outside Jerusalem (or not a citizen of Israel) can come to Jerusalem to pray at the two most important religious locations (the Al Aqsa Mosque) Without a permit from the Israeli authorities. This permit process can take forever and for many Palestinians is one of the most humiliating aspects for them. The same permit process is required of Palestinians who are Christian and live outside Jerusalem. I met quite a few Palestinian Christians (another piece of information that many Americans don't know--that a significant population of Palestine's pre-1948 inhabitants were Christian. Many of them were made refugees in 1948, and many of them were able to flee to the west through the aid of Christian networks in the west, and in the US particular. San Francisco has a sizable Palestinian community from Ramallah which has settled there as a result of the Nakba (the 1948 catastrophe that dispossessed Palestinians of tHeir land as a result of Zionism and the declaration of Israeli state); the second wave of major Christian dispersal to the west occurred when the Israelis occupied the west bank of Palestine, which it continues today.