It is called “The Cedar and the Olive Tree”.

Palestinian journalist Maher ash-Shalabi, who all winter wore a suit and a tie and held hour-long interviews with Palestinian political and “intellectual” types (a while ago, he worked for MBC), is now roaming the narrow streets of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in a short-sleeved shirt and khaki chino trousers, holding a microphone with a clean new cover embellished with the new Palestinian TV logo (one letter is graphically transformed into the shape of Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock, with a crescent moon on top). He walks up to men sitting on plastic chairs in alleyways, or to middle-aged women walking with with headscarves and long coats in the dusty streets (younger women, also wearing headscarves and long coats, answer the doors of their family apartments).

The journalist, an apparition from Ramallah, de facto capital city of the occupied West Bank and seat of government for the Palestinian Authority (though word must have gotten around fairly quickly that he was around), always starts by asking his interlocutors where they are from.

Most of those asked reply immediately with the names of small villages near cities like Acca or Ramla, or even from places in the West Bank. Some few are of Lebanese origin.

He then asks: “How many people are at home”? The replies indicate large families — and suggest suffering. (“There are nine people at home, nine now, but there were eleven before. [Two -- the lady's husband, and one of her sons, for example -- are "martyrs", meaning were killed in conflict.]

Does anyone in the household work? “No”, is often the reply.

Then, he asks them questions like: “Can you name five cities in Palestine?” (Just over 50% of those asked can manage to do this by themselves.) In every episode, he also asks, several times: “What is the capital of Palestine”? (The correct answer is: Al-Quds, sometimes pronounced Al-Kudus, meaning Jerusalem.)

If those being questioned manage to answer correctly, the journalist then hands over a crisp $100 (one hundred dollar) bill! $100! Sometimes, apparently just when he feels like it, or when the story he has just been told is particularly moving, he hands over two of these bills!

His attitude is patently patronizing — he is distributing largess from the donor-supported Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, to the poor Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. [They are definitely poor -- a bill was passed in the Lebanese Parliament only last week, that finally allowed Palestinian refugees who have in Lebanon for over 30 years or more to be able to seek work, although they have no residency status and no official papers.]

The money comes from the Palestine Investment Fund [!].

Tonight’s episode was filmed in Beddawi refugee camp. One lady said she was from “Bared” — and the journalist quickly asks her if she was from Nahr al-Bared, which was in part destroyed during a Lebanese Army assault several years ago on militants who were said to be part of a group called “Fatah al-Islam”, which the Palestinian representative in Lebanon quickly denounced. That lady said that she and her large family were still being sheltered in a garage. “What can we do?”, she asked plaintively.

She was the only one who told the journalist that she didn’t want the money he was distributing. She just wanted Palestine said, in an even tone. [But, exhibiting a practical streak nonetheless, she kept the $100 bill she had been handed...]

In the unsuccessful Camp David negotiations hosted by the U.S. then-President Bill Clinton in July 2000, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reportedly asked Israel’s then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak to agree that the Palestinian refugees living without papers in poor conditions in Lebanon (about 175,000 of them, it was estimated) should be the ones whose situation would be addressed first.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon were always vulnerable, but their situation became extraordinarily delicate in the late summer of 1982, after Israel’s then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon pushed quickly up through the south of the country and then surrounded and laid siege to the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in what he said was an effort to kill — or to expel — the Palestine Liberation Organization leadership that had regrouped there, and formed what was called a “state within a state”, following their flight from Jordan in 1970 during clashes with the Jordanian Army over raids to “liberate” Palestine by armed struggle.

Once thousands of PLO fighters were shipped out of Beirut “under a UN umbrella” into a 12-year long exile, mainly in remote desert location around the Arab world, Lebanese Christian militiamen carried out a horrific massacre of unprotected Palestinian refugees left behind, in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp in southern Beirut, while Ariel Sharon’s troops were very nearby.

None of those being interviewed on this special Palestinian TV program seem to have any words to say about those days, or about those responsible…

Nor do they complain about the lese-majeste with which they are handed $100 dollar bills by an employee of the Palestinian Authority’s official Palestinian Television, funded by an organization of elite businessmen (hand-picked by the leadership) who have little or no accountability either to the Palestinian Authority itself, or to the public, for what they decide to do with the money generated by some of the holdings that late Palestinian leader, and his then-economic adviser, were obliged to set up to comply with donor requirements for greater financial transparency and accountability…

It must be mentioned that a certain number of this program’s viewers are staunch defenders — they say they get so little information otherwise about the Palestinians in diaspora in Arab countries…and besides, they say, the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon need the money…

Today, the journalist mentioned — twice, as if it were a promotional commercial — that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has just recently decreed that any Palestinian refugee in Lebanon who has just completed secondary school may apply to the Presidency for funding for university studies, either in Lebanon, or abroad…

The journalist also instructed his cameraman to linger on the tangle of electrical wires running along the narrow alleyways of Beddawi and branching off into individual homes along the way — to illustrate the difficulty of life for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, as if the same difficulties don’t exist in refugee camps in the West Bank, or even in neighborhoods of Ramallah, or in East Jerusalem…

Article from UN-Truth read more here

(Ramallah and El-Bireh are two separate cities that have grown conjoined — they have separate institutions but are one urban area.)

Last Friday, Palestinian TV was here as well, because this mosque is right next door to the hall where the Palestinian Journalists Union was holding a General Assembly and preparing for the first elections in some 20 years, so the live coverage simply moved next door…

On Monday, the wife of the Mayor of El-Bireh was arrested by invading Israeli forces — she was suspected of doing something in support of Hamas. She may still be in Israeli detention. The Mayor, her husband, is a Hamas supporter, if not member. This week, the Friday sermon is overtly political. And, there are more men in Islamic dress (like the Tahrir crowd, or some supporters of Hamas though they are usually more conservative). It seems to be an effort to reconcile, rather than divide.

The sermon it is about this land, this country, about Jerusalem, about faith. Israel — yes, “Israel” — is mentioned two or three times. One people, one authority, and so forth. Quds, and Palestine. And the community of believers around the world (the Muslim Ummah).

The expressions on the faces of the men present are amazing — rapt attention, much more involved and reactive than the previous Friday sermons I’ve watched recently. The eyes are engaged, many mouths curved in small not-quite-smiles.

At the end of the sermon, prayers — not unlike those I’ve seen in St. George’s Episcopal Anglican Cathedral in East Jerusalem — for those who have died, for the elimination of checkpoints and closures, for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and more.

Then the collective Friday prayer is performed. (There is a brief pause to arrange a sound difficulty, while everybody is patient. Then the recitation of the Fatiha begins solemnly, and all present intone “Amin” at the end.)

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UPDATED: It’s Friday – Part Two: Palestinian Television is now showing the weekly demonstration against The Wall in Bil’in – a rural area west of of Ramallah. Because it’s rural, The Wall is in the form of a double wired fence with barbed wire rolls, and a dirt road in between for Israeli patrol cars.

It looks like a countryside festival, at first — a slow procession of people walking on foot up a rural road in the sunshine with green all arouns and almond or fruit trees in blossom. Then, a cloud of white tear gas appears in the middle of the procession. There is a liesurly retreat. The Israeli soldiers are relaxed. A few are already positioned in the dirt track in the middle of the The Wall/fencing. Others, with vehicles, and camoflague netting, are waiting just behind, on a small hill top.

It’s just the beginning.

Demonstrators (a handful) are near the gate. Some sit down. There is a group of photographers. Suddenly, a big volley of tear gas, directed at the gate, but some shots are flaring — curving clouds of white in a fine trail before hitting and releasing a big cloud — much further up the road where the demonstrators are retreating.

There is a man in a wheelchair in the front lines — he seems to be a Palestinian, maybe early middle-aged.

There are also a group of blue people, with theatrical blue face paint and clothes, and paper ears. One of them carried a Palestinian flag, and was later affected by tear gas. I realize from the Palestinian TV evening news that these demonstrators are making reference to the new film Avatar, where the blue (Nav’i) people of Pandora successfully resist a far more advanced and powerful colonizing people.

Then, I found a photo on the Mondoweiss blog, apparently originally from the Daily Telegraph:

The worst action usually comes later in the day, when younger boys begin throwing stones, and the soldiers’ lose their temper.

This Friday is the first, following an IDF announcement in mid-week that it was beginning work to re-route The Wall — fence, here — following a Supreme Court decision two-and-a-half years ago. According to a press release from the Popular Struggle Committee, headed by Mohammed Khatib, “preliminary infrastructure work to reroute the barrier in accordance with the ruling has finally began. Since the ruling, the state has twice been found in contempt of the court, for not implementing the decision”.

As a result of the Supreme Court decision, about half of the Bil’in village lands that were confiscated by the Israeli military as a buffer zone to protect nearby expanding Jewish settlements were not needed for that purpose, and were ordered returned to Bili’n. So far, despite the start of something this week, that has not happened.

Khatib himself said, in a statement in the press release, that this new development would not stop the demonstrations: “The Supreme Court had already ruled this should happen almost three years ago and it should not have taken so long. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the only reason that this is finally happening now are the five years of persistent struggle and the scarifies the people of my village have made. While we are happy for the lands that do return, we do not forget the lands and crops that remain isolated behind the Wall. Our struggle will continue until all of our lands are returned and the Occupation is over.”

UPDATE: The IDF is now reporting that “riots are taking place there” — and it’s only 2:00 pm.

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Coming up: the Sheikh Jarrah gathering — at about 2:30 this afternoon, Jerusalem time … UPDATE: It seems to have passed well. The group of largely Israeli demonstrators was shown on the Palestinian TV news Friday night…

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UPDATE: According to Ma’an News Agency, “The Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli citizen and anti-wall movement organizer, was detained in the Ramallah-area village of Dir Nezam during a protest there. He was reportedly being held on the pretext that he violated an army order and entered Area A, a West Bank designation off-limits to Israeli citizens. Residents of Dir Nezam are joined by international peace activists each week”. This report is posted here.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

Previously, Palestinians were getting their local news from Al-Jazeera. Could Al-Jazeera really give enough local coverage to satisfy the Palestinians here, I used to ask? It is all there is, I was told, in my own random samplings of the viewing audience in East Jerusalem and around the West Bank.

Now, Palestinian TV has been making an effort to improve its news coverage, and these efforts have been recognized and appreciated.

Still, despite this vote of confidence, tonight’s Palestinian TV news had no mention of a shocking and serious incident at Qalandia checkpoint late this afternoon or early this evening: an Israeli (Arab) truck driver taking a full fuel tank across the checkpoint to make a delivery to a point just after the checkpoint (perhaps to an area which is still part of the Greater Jerusalem municipality, despite being behind The Wall) was somehow panicked or distracted or injured, apparently by rock-throwing, and lost control of his vehicle. He reportedly ran into other vehicles at the checkpoint — which is frequently a clogged and intensely stressful traffic nightmare — and where there is NO traffic control.

The immediate Israeli assumption is always, but always, that things like this are “terror” attacks.

Israeli soldiers or Border Police thought that the truck driver was making an intentional attack on the checkpoint, and they shot. The driver was badly injured, and evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital all the way across Jerusalem, west of Bethlehem. There were reportedly other injuries as well — either by the shooting, or by the vehicle crashing, or both.

There were at least a couple of hours for Palestinian TV to try to get any footage that might be available, or to send a reporter and a camera crew to the scene to do a live report — or even to see if they could get anything from the hospital, or from Israeli TV or other Arab TV networks working in Jerusalem, or from other journalistic sources.

Palestinian TV news tonight made not one mention of this serious incident, which illustrates just how normal civilian life is at real risk under the military protocols that operate in the West Bank — particularly at the checkpoints and the zones around them.

Palestinian TV should at least ask: Why is there no traffic control at this massive checkpoint, where tens of thousands of people pass every day? Human lives are at risk.

Why are children (controlled by adults) allowed to hassle and harass cars waiting in line to be inspected so they can pass through the checkpoint into Jerusalem? This harassment is so bad that there are many people who categorically refuse to ever go back to Jerusalem via this checkpoint — even diplomats, who can pass through without inspection. But these are people with Jerusalem IDs, or internationals, who have the option of going another way. Palestinians with permits — even VIPs — are obliged to go through Qalandia.

Asked about this, Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint say that this is not their area responsibility. No? A situation has been created by the checkpoint itself, and Israeli authorities have no responsibility to order their personnel to deal with it?

On the other side of the checkpoint, coming from Jerusalem to Ramallah, is within Israeli control. There are often very bad traffic jams here, usually created by rapacious and aggressive drivers who think they don’t have to stay in line, who pass and overtake the normal people taking their turn, creating traffic jams — why is there no Israeli traffic control here, in an area delineated by Israel as Israeli? Why are there no Israeli traffic police here? Again, human life is at stake. It is just pure luck that there has not been a catastrophe so far.

Ma’an News Agency updated its earlier news flashes with a report just after 8 pm (an hour before the Palestinian TV news), saying that “The truck, a fuel tanker, ran over several cars during the incident. He was fleeing Palestinians who threw stones at the vehicle, according to our correspondent, who was reporting from the scene. A spokesman for Israel’s Border Guard paramilitary police unit told Ma’an that the injured man was driving a tanker to a refugee camp near Qalandiya when Palestinians threw stones at the vehicle.
‘He was trying to escape, and drove close to the checkpoint. He ran over three to four cars, but nobody else was injured’, the spokesman said. ‘Security told him to stop. He didn’t stop, so they shot him’.” This Ma’an report is posted here.

The Jerusalem Post’s well-connected Defense Correspondent Yaakov Katz filed a report published 6:19 pm, saying that “Guards at the Kalandiya security checkpoint north of Jerusalem opened fire on an Israeli truck driver after they mistakenly thought he was going to ram the checkpoint on Sunday afternoon. The truck driver had been stoned minutes earlier and was fleeing back to Israel and accidentally hit several cars at the checkpoint, raising the guards’ suspicions”. This report can be viewed here.

But at 9 pm, Palestinian TV had nothing…

Article from UN-Truth read more here