Loading ...Hishmeh: A small change in attitude towards Palestine?
George S. Hishmeh, Special to Gulf News
Published: 18:22 April 6, 2016
There is no doubt that the eight-column headline at the top of the sports page in ‘The Washington Post’ last Sunday was remarkable and unprecedented: “In Palestine, moving for a movement.”
Never before has the American media, certainly the country’s leading newspapers, referred to the Occupied Palestinian Territories as Palestine, indicating a promising change in attitude or policy which is welcome.
Writing in the Post last Sunday, a leading American newspaper, Jacqueline Kantor, noted that at the fourth annual Palestine Marathon in Bethlehem, “running, politics and community intersected, resulting in a mishmash of intention and intensity.”
She added that “serious marathoners mingled with local kids in jeans and T-shirts while Europeans in spandex jogged past Palestinian women in long pants and bright headscarves.”
The race was sponsored by Right to Movement, a non-profit community, dedicated to “telling a different story of Palestine” and in a region that “has become sick of the traditional ways,” according to Ramez Qonqor, a 23-yer-old aspiring sculptor whose 26.2 mile (42.16km) run through his hometown of Bethlehem marked his second finished marathon. He ran his first in Northern Ireland.
“Participation in the race is a non-violent demonstration, and a way to show ‘we are here, and this is our land and we have the right to move’,” said 47-year-old Ashraf Hamouda.
“And this is a good way to show that because it is peaceful,” added his daughter, Noor, 14.
The year’s participants reportedly totalled 4,371, compared to less than 700 at the inaugural event four years ago.
Israel refused to allow any participants from nearby Gaza, which is less than two hours away, while others came from France, Northern Ireland and the United States.
The winner of the race was a South African, Mervin Steenkamp, who ran as part of Team Palestine.
Stefan Wagler, a German runner who lives and works in Bethlehem, told Kantor that the race is a perfect illustration of the cause.
She explained: “There is not enough Palestinian land to construct a continuous viable course without retreading territory, making this perhaps the only race in the world with a course that is a political statement in itself. The marathon route looped through Bethlehem four times.”
In recent days, Israel’s support in the West, particularly in the United States, has been diminishing progressively.
In a just released text of an interview with an American newspaper, Bernie Sanders, the Democratic nominee in the upcoming primaries was quoted as saying that if Israel wanted “positive” ties with the US, then the government was “going to have to improve their relationship with the Palestinians.”
He also explained his position to demand that the Israeli government halt construction in West Bank colonies, and maybe even withdraw from them before a peace settlement is reached.
“If the expansion was illegal, moving into territory that was not their territory, I think withdrawal from those territories is appropriate,” he said.
On the other hand, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas maintained in a recent press interview on Israel’s Channel 2 that the anti-Israel violence in the Palestinian territories stems from the “lack of hope, lack of trust” in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution. He argued that if peace talks resume, it would “give my people hope and nobody would dare go and stab or shoot.”
The Palestinians, meanwhile, have been determined to penalise Israel by — as Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation revealed — taking that each and every crime Israel commits in violation of Palestinian rights will be reported to the relevant international bodies, including the International Criminal Court.
In fact, several Palestinian homes in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, Surif, Qabatia and Duma have been destroyed by the Israeli forces. Israelis have demolished 157 houses since September 2015.
But considering that the US is nowadays in the midst of an ugly election campaign, the chances of any serious movement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are disappointingly remote.
The best that the Palestinians can do in the next few months is to improve their support among westerners through advertising and serious media relations, as has been evident within the Washington Post.
George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com
Source: gulfnews.com