[News] Culture of Hope: 2022 and the Margins of Victory in Palestine

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palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/culture-of-hope-2022-and-the-margins-of-victory-in-palestine/>
Culture of Hope: 2022 and the Margins of Victory in PalestineRamzy Baroud -
January 1, 2023
------------------------------
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine celebrates its 55th
anniversary with a large parade in Gaza. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The
Palestine Chronicle)

*By Ramzy Baroud <https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud>*

Another critical year for Palestine has folded. While 2022 has wrought much
of the same in terms of Israeli military occupation and increasing
violence, it also introduced new variables to the Palestinian struggle –
nationally, regionally and internationally.
*Palestine, the War and the Arabs*

The Russia-Ukraine war starting
<https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-24-22-intl/index.html>
in February pressured many political entities, including Palestinians, to
take sides or, at least, to declare a position. Though the Palestinian
Authority (PA) and various Palestinian political parties insisted on their
neutrality, Russia’s deviation from the US-led political paradigm in the
Middle East opened up new margins for Palestinians to explore.

On May 4, a delegation of Hamas leaders met
<https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/palestinian-territories/1651666118-report-hamas-leaders-meet-russian-officials-in-moscow>
Russian officials in Moscow, and, a few months later, PA leader Mahmoud
Abbas defied Washington by holding
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/13/putin-meets-palestinian-leader-abbas-in-astana>
a meeting with Russian President Vladmir Putin in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Despite US anger
<https://www.axios.com/2022/10/15/white-house-palestinian-presidents-remarks-putin>
at Abbas, Washington could do little to retaliate against the Palestinian
leadership, considering the delicate geopolitical balances in the Middle
East and around the world.

The new political spaces created by global conflict also brought greater
cohesion to the Arab position on Palestine, as articulated in a statement
<https://dailynewsegypt.com/2022/11/29/arab-league-chief-calls-for-supporting-palestine-to-earn-full-un-membership/>
by the pan-Arab organization, the Arab League, in Cairo on November 29.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit insisted on the Arab quest for a just peace and praised
the ‘Algiers Declaration’ of the previous month. On October 12, 14
Palestinian political groups met in Algeria, signed
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221013-palestinian-factions-agree-to-end-division-through-elections/>
a reconciliation agreement based on ending division through presidential
and parliamentary elections.

This was part of a year-long momentum where Arab governments revitalized
their position in support of the Palestinians, both financially
<https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/kingdom-saudi-arabia-supports-palestine-refugees-27-million-us-unrwa-enar>
and politically through funding the Palestinian refugees agency, UNRWA, or
supporting Palestine at the United Nations.

On October 3, Arab representatives at the UN introduced
<https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N22/611/59/PDF/N2261159.pdf?OpenElement>
Resolution A/C 1/77 L.2,  urging Israel to get rid of its nuclear weapons
and to put “all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive International
Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.” The Resolution was overwhelmingly approved
<https://mronline.org/2022/11/03/un-votes-152-to-5-telling-israel-to-get-rid-of-its-nuclear-weapons/>
by the United Nations General Assembly on October 28.
*UN: ‘Deadliest Year’ *

Though no real action was taken by the UN to punish Israel for its ongoing
military occupation and violations of Palestinian rights, several UN
initiatives and resolutions continued to demonstrate the centrality of
Palestine to the international agenda.

Last August, the ‘UN Experts’ condemned
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/08/un-experts-condemn-israeli-suppression-palestinian-human-rights>
“Israel’s escalating attacks against Palestinian civil society in the
occupied West Bank”, stating that these actions mount to severe suppression
of human rights defenders and are illegal and unacceptable”.

In October, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation
of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, submitted
a report
<https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/A.77.356_210922.pdf>
to the UNGA, where she concluded that the realization of the inalienable
right of the Palestinian people to self-determination requires dismantling
the Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid regime.

On November 30, the UNGA also adopted a resolution to mark Nakba Day, which
commemorates the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
from their lands in 1948.

Alas, none of these statements altered the violent nature of Israel’s
attitude towards Palestinians. On October 29, the UN Mideast envoy, Tor
Wennesland, said
<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-west-bank-palestinians-deadliest-year-united-nations-report-rcna54643>
that 2022 is on course to be the ‘deadliest year’ for Palestinians in the
occupied West Bank since the UN started tracking fatalities in 2005.
*Israeli Violence and the Lions’ Den *

Israel has killed
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/29/west-bank-two-brothers-among-three-palestinians-killed-by-israel>
over 200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza since the start of
2022, including 47 children. Only a few of them made headlines in
mainstream media. However, the world still showed outrage following the
cold blood murder of famed Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu
Akleh on May 11, while she was covering the tragic events in Jenin.
Widespread calls for an impartial investigation finally convinced the FBI
to open a criminal probe into Abu Akleh’s killing.

The Israeli killing spree was motivated by two reasons: first, the rise of
armed resistance in the northern West Bank, and second, Israel’s chaotic
political scene.

Continued Israeli attacks on Jenin, Nablus and other West Bank towns and
refugee camps resulted in the formation of a new Palestinian armed group
known as the Lions’ Den. Unlike other groups, the Nablus-based movement was
non-factional, which created new spaces for national unity among all
Palestinians, regardless of their political or ideological backgrounds.

The Israeli government quickly retaliated against the Lions’ Den. Israeli
Defense Minister Benny Gantz belittled the group’s appeal on October 13,
announcing <https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-719683> “Eventually,
we will lay our hands on the terrorists”, estimating their number to be 30
fighters. “We will work out how to reach them and we will eliminate them,”
Gantz said. The Israeli assessment has proven untrue as the brigade
continued to grow, morphing into other brigades in Jenin, Al-Khalil
(Hebron) and other West Bank regions.

The killing
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-shuafat-shooter-udai-tamimi-killed>
of Palestinian fighter Oday Tamimi in a clash near the illegal Jewish
settlement of Maale Adumim on October 19 further accentuated the boldness
of the new Palestinian generation of resisters. Moreover, the televised
execution
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/watch-israeli-forces-kill-young-palestinian-man-near-nablus/>
of Ammar Mufleh in the town of Huwara on December 2 also illustrated
Israel’s willingness to flout international law to end the ongoing armed
rebellion in occupied Palestine.

The Israeli violence is also directly linked to Tel Aviv’s own political
crisis. Though Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted through an unlikely alliance
among various Israeli political forces, which was led by former Prime
Minister Naftali Bennett in June 2021, Israel’s longest-serving prime
minister is slated for a comeback.

Bennett resigned
<https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1106282784/israel-coalition-collapse-bennett-netanyahu>
from his post on June 20, leaving the leadership to his coalition partner,
Yair Lapid. New elections, the fifth in three years, were held on November
1. This time around, Netanyahu’s rightwing coalition won by a comfortable
margin, introducing to Israel’s already extremist government such notorious
personalities as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, known for their violent
action
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/extremist-mk-ben-gvir-pulls-out-gun-during-sheikh-jarrah-clashes/>
and rhetoric
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/lawmaker-backs-segregated-jewish-arab-maternity-wards/>
against Palestinians.

Though Washington had indicated
<https://www.axios.com/2022/11/02/israel-elections-ben-gvir-netanyahu-biden-administration>
on November 2, that it will not be working directly with Ben-Gvir, the US
Ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, seemed to reverse that position by
declaring
<https://jewishinsider.com/2022/11/tom-nides-israel-government-netanyahu-ben-gvir/>
that “no one hurts the unbreakable ties between Israel and the United
States.”

Keeping in mind that the increased violence in the West Bank was a direct
result of the militant nature of the Bennet-Lapid government as it labored
to demonstrate its toughness against Palestinian Resistance, the new
government is expected to be even more violent, setting the stage for a
wider confrontation in both the West Bank and Gaza.

The brief but deadly Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip on August 5
resulted in the killing <https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/08/1124212> of
at least 46 Palestinians and the injuring of at least 360, according to UN
estimates. Despite the devastation resulting from the war, it could have
been much worse, as not all Palestinian groups took part in the fighting
and Israel seemed keen on ending its hostilities before a prolonged
conflict resulted in a heavy political price. Netanyahu, too, is likely to
resort to war on Gaza, should he need to create a distraction from future
political difficulties or to keep his rightwing partners in line.
*Culture of Hope*

Despite the violence of the Israeli occupation and the hardship of
isolation and siege, Palestinian culture continued to flourish with
Palestinian artists
<https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/art/2022/03/02/exhibition-dedicated-to-palestinian-art-to-be-part-of-venice-biennale-2022/>,
filmmakers
<https://www.mime.news/posts/palestinian-film-wins-top-honors-in-cairo-along-with-nile-doc-polish-first-feature>,
athletes
<https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/cultural-warriors-why-palestines-sports-victories-are-acts-of-resistance/>,
intellectuals and teachers continuing to leave their mark on the cultural
scene in Palestine, in the Middle East and worldwide.

In May, Mohammed Hamada, a 20-year-old weightlifter from the Gaza Strip,
became
<https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/05/palestinian-wins-world-weightlifting-championship-greece>
the first Palestinian athlete to win gold and bronze medals at the
weightlifting world championships held in Heraklion, Greece.

In September, Palestinian-American systems engineer Nujoud Fahoum Merancy
was appointed as one of the leaders of the Artemis missions, a program by
NASA that aims to fly astronauts to the Moon.

Palestinian Resistance and cultural achievements are constantly boosted by
growing international solidarity with Palestine. Thanks to the American
Friends Service Committee (AFSC), multinational company General Mills
announced
<https://www.afsc.org/newsroom/general-mills-divests-israel-following-campaign-led-quaker-organization>
in June that it is divesting entirely from Israel. This was one of many
other achievements credited to the Palestine-led boycott movement, which
included other companies, universities and churches.

However, nothing compares to the endless stream of solidarity exhibited by
Arab and international football fans in the Qatar World Cup 2022, which
started on November 30. Although the Palestine national football team has
not qualified for the world’s most important sports event, the flag of
Palestine was the most visible among all other international flags. The
iconic Palestinian Kufiyeh was also adorned by thousands of fans
including world
leaders <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IKF_mBisJU>, dignitaries, and
celebrities.

2022 was another year of tragedy and hope for the Palestinians. It is this
hope, buoyed by numerous little victories, that makes the struggle for
Palestinian freedom possible. One wishes that 2023 will be a better year.

*- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.
He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé,
is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and
Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research
Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is*
*www.ramzybaroud.net* <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>
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