New J Halper article, Rifka Al-Amya interviewed, Oct webinar

September 2021 Newsletter * Jeff Halper writes about the Middle East and Afghanistan * ICAHD UK’s interview with Rifka Al-Amya from Gaza * Announcing October’s webinar on climate justice * Dates for your diary

New Opportunities for Progressives in an Evolving Middle East

He believes that a fundamental problem faced by progressives in his region is that the authoritarian regimes that rule it inflame and exploit internal and external national, ethnic and religious divisions in order to trap the people within their self-serving ideologies and narratives. They are divided from one another, making it difficult to come together in joint struggle. But as the US, the region’s chief external enforcer, withdraws from direct involvement, a space is being created for local and regional forces. So far that space is being occupied by Islamic fundamentalism, which enjoys the state sponsorship of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Iran and others, but it also offers an opportunity for the besieged and weakened forces of progressives.

Read Jeff Halper’s article here . ICAHD UK's Interview with Rifka Al-Amya A BDS activist from Gaza and writer on women's liberation 1. Rifka, did you grow up in a refugee family? Tell us about your family background.

Yes, my father is from a forcibly displaced family from the village of Zarnouqa, located in the Ramleh district, and my mother is also from another forcibly displaced family from the village of Qatra, also located in the Ramleh district. Both of my parents were born refugees in the Nusairat refugee camp, in the middle of the Gaza Strip and I live now in Gaza City. I am a mother of two girls who do not know yet that we live in the largest open-air prison on earth. And I work voluntarily with The Gaza Voice team, which is a team of BDS activists who believe in boycotting apartheid Israel as a method of struggle, and most of us support the one-state solution as a final and just solution to the Palestinian cause.

2. Who were your role models while you were growing up?

Since my teenage years, I have felt that I tend to be a follower of critical thinking as opposed to the conservative and traditional way of life, which I see as negative on all levels, including the political and social.I admired all the revolutionary personalities who fought for justice and freedom: Nelson Mandela, Che Guevara, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Hoda Shaarawy and Nawal El Saadawi—to mention but a few.

3. What happened in your life to inspire you to speak out on women’s issues? Was it through music or books or voices of other Palestinian women?

Books are what affected my awareness most and made me more open to issues of freedom and justice, not only for women, but for all subaltern groups. I also did not feel comfortable when I saw commercial advertisements on television that confine women to specific forms of beauty, and how this affects women's vision of themselves, their choices and their destinies, such as marriage, for example.

More precisely, as a Palestinian woman and Arab woman, I felt that women’s issues, which are still pending without a radical solution, are intricately intertwined with issues of class, racism and colonialism. I still believe that dismantling these problems must be simultaneous and immediate to solve the women’s question since, as Angela Davis pits it, justice is indivisible.

So I cannot imagine that I would struggle as a Palestinian for my right to return to my ethnically cleansed village, the right of my people to self-determination, my right to freedom of movement and travel, and my right to end this unjust siege, my right to communicate with the Palestinians anywhere on the land of historic Palestine and outside it, and my right to clean water and medicine for my children, all of this and I am still oppressed as a woman by capitalist patriarchy like all the women in the world. And if Palestine suffers from this more than other countries, it is because of the policies of colonialism and racism, which I do not separate from the analysis of the situation of women in marginalized and colonial areas.

In other words, how can I demand the liberation of women in a region where all human beings are oppressed and at the same time how can I, as a Palestinian, demand liberation from colonialism when I am still a victim of the patriarchal and capitalist system?

Read the full interview here. Announcing the October ICAHD UK Webinar: ICAHD UK Webinar Wednesday, 20^th October, 5 – 6.15 pm (UK time) With Manal Shqair and Eurig Scandrett On the run-up to COP26, ICAHD turns its attention to supporting the call for Climate Justice not Ethnic Cleansing.

Israel’s settler colonial policy forcibly displaces the Palestinian indigenous population to then move in a Jewish population from other countries and for 120 years, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) has been the Zionist agency that plays a key role in this ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

Israel has developed an extensive network of illegal settlements across Palestine, superimposing western communities and their complex infrastructure and industries, on the ancient landscape. This has devastated the natural environment and the communities of the indigenous people, destroying their sources of livelihood, which have evolved over millennia in tune with the natural environment, by uprooting over a million olive and fruit trees and destroying ancient terraces. In addition to Israeli authorities demolishing Palestinian homes, it also destroys water cisterns, irrigation systems and solar panels.

Palestinians residing in both the Occupied Palestine Territory and within the state of Israel are denied control over their land, water, and energy sources and many know first-hand what climate crisis means. However, the JNF now seeks to greenwash its crimes as a participant in the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

During this webinar learn more about climate apartheid in Palestine and the reason for the call to keep the JNF out of COP26. Discover how you can play a part to support the Palestine bloc at COP26.

Manal Shqair is campaigns coordinator for Stop the Wall and international outreach coordinator of the Palestine Land Defences Coalition.

Dr Eurig Scandrett is a lecturer in Sociology and coordinator of postgraduate programmes in Social Justice at Queen Margaret University, Scotland. He is the former head of community action at Friends of the Earth, Scotland, Chair of Scottish PSC, and he is on the steering committee of Stop the JNF.