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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220101-2021-in-palestine-a-new-generation-has-finally-risen/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">2021 in Palestine: A new generation has finally risen</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Dr Ramzy Baroud - January 1, 2022</div></div>
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<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div id="gmail-post-content"> <p>At
the onset, 2021 appeared to be another ordinary year, one of
unrelenting Israeli occupation and continued Palestinian misery. While
much of that remained true, the dynamics of the Israeli occupation of
Palestine were challenged by an unprecedented sense of popular unity
among Palestinians, not only in the occupied East Jerusalem, the West
Bank and Gaza, but among Palestinian communities in historic Palestine
as well.</p> <p>A prevailing sense of cautious hope has finally replaced
the prevalent sense of despair felt in previous years. With that, a
feeling of renewal and willingness to embrace new political ideas has
been registered throughout Palestine. For example, according to a <a href="http://www.jmcc.org/documentsandmaps.aspx?id=893&fbclid=IwAR1cWxLWzfuAWd0bdi6EJPeOGh2N0JOIL3jzU0jzs6nFo1wM3wPWVL7LBc0" target="_blank">poll</a>
conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre (JMCC) and
published on 22 November, there are more West Bank Palestinians who
support the one-state solution than those who still support the
practically defunct two-state solution, which dominated Palestinian
thinking for decades.</p> <h2>Pandemic Takes a Toll</h2> <p>The year,
however, began with a focus on something else entirely: the Covid-19
pandemic. Aside from ravaging besieged and occupied Palestinians,
especially in the Gaza Strip, the pandemic began <a href="https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2718836/25-cases-covid-19-among-palestinian-detainees-israeli-prison" target="_blank">spreading</a> among Palestinian prisoners.</p> <p>In February, the Palestinian Authority, along with international human rights groups and organisations, <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/health/palestine-condemns-israel-s-blocking-of-vaccine-to-gaza/2146970" target="_blank">criticised</a>
Israel for blocking access to Covid-19 vaccines to the besieged Gaza
Strip. The Sputnik 5 vaccines were donated by Russia, the first country
to contribute to fighting the pandemic in Palestine. Eventually,
Palestinian communities slowly accessed vaccines <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/17/first-batch-of-covax-supplied-vaccined-arrives-for-palestinians" target="_blank">arriving</a>
from the COVAX program. However, the pandemic continued to ravage
occupied Palestine, especially as the Israeli occupation authorities <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-demolishes-quarantine-center-in-hebron/1917518" target="_blank">continued</a> to block Palestinian preventative measures and to dismantle makeshift Covid-19 facilities in the occupied territories. <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/state-of-palestine/" target="_blank">According to</a>
the website Worldometer, 4,555 Palestinians died as a result of
Covid-19, while 432,602 were tested positive for the deadly pandemic.</p> <h2>Cancelled Elections</h2> <div id="gmail-attachment_371772" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/election--scaled.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" target="_blank"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/election--scaled.jpg?fit=933%2C579&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="Another attack on Gaza: Israel squeezing the life of Gaza - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="427" height="265">
</a></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Another attack on Gaza: Israel squeezing the life of Gaza – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]</p></div><p>As
happened in the previous year, Israel's political crisis quickly
dominated the headlines, as the power struggle between the then Israeli
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his rivals continued, leading to
Israel's fourth elections within two years. The <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-march-23-2021/" target="_blank">elections</a>
in March have finally changed the Israeli political landscape, thanks
to a strange government coalition cobbled up by Israel's new Prime
Minister, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/13/1005724415/netanyahu-is-out-naftali-bennett-will-be-installed-as-israels-new-prime-minister" target="_blank">Naftali Bennett</a>, on 13 June. The coalition <a href="https://time.com/6073019/mansour-abbas-arab-israel-coalition-government/" target="_blank">included</a> Arab politician, Mansour Abbas, whose political party proved instrumental in the forming of the government.</p> <p>While
Netanyahu and his Likud party quickly retreated to the opposition,
ending a reign spanning over 12 years, Palestinians anticipated their
own elections, which were <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/following-us-pressure-abbas-announces-first-elections-in-palestine-in-15-years/" target="_blank">announced</a> by PA President Mahmoud Abbas on 15 January.</p> <p>The PA parliamentary and presidential elections were <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20210115-abbas-announces-first-palestinian-elections-in-more-than-15-years" target="_blank">scheduled</a>
for 22 May and 31 July, respectively. The two rounds of voting were
meant to be followed by a political arrangement that would end
Palestinian political disunity by ensuring equal representation for all
Palestinian political groups, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, in a
revitalised Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).</p> <p>Unfortunately, none of this has transpired. Despite positive Palestinian <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/14/hamas-says-it-is-ready-to-resume-palestinian-unity-talks" target="_blank">unity talks</a> in Cairo over the course of several weeks<strong>,</strong> Abbas <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56929547" target="_blank">cancelled</a>
the scheduled elections, under the pretext that his decision was made
in protest of Israel's refusal to allow Palestinian voters in East
Jerusalem to participate.</p> <p>In exchange for blocking Palestinian
efforts at ensuring a semblance of democracy, even under Israeli
occupation, Abbas was allowed to return to Washington's list of allies.
Indeed, the US <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/middle-east_us-resumes-aid-palestinians-235-million/6204282.html" target="_blank">resumed</a> its financial aid to Palestinians in April, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-usa-idUSKBN29Y1FB" target="_blank">promising</a>
to re-open the PLO office in Washington, which was shut down by the
Trump Administration and also pledging to re-open its own consulate in
Jerusalem, which was also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-orders-closure-of-plo-office-in-washington/2018/09/10/7410fe6c-b50c-11e8-a2c5-3187f427e253_story.html" target="_blank">closed</a> by Trump in September 2018.</p> <p>Despite
these gestures, which served to validate the PA again, after four years
of complete marginalisation by the US, the new Biden Administration
offered neither a roadmap for a renewed peace process nor pressured
Israel to end its occupation or to slow down the pace of illegal
settlement expansion in occupied Palestine. In fact, the rate of
Israel's settlement construction has grown exponentially in 2021, with
the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/28/middleeast/israel-west-bank-settlements-condemned-intl/index.html" target="_blank">announcement</a> of Israel's plan to approve thousands of new Israeli housing units in the West Bank, in October.</p> <p><strong>Opinion: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211228-israeli-settler-violence-pushes-palestinians-to-the-point-of-no-return/">Israeli settler violence pushes Palestinians to the point of no return </a></strong></p> <h2>From Sheikh Jarrah to Gaza</h2> <p>Israel's
provocative actions would have gone unnoticed by the international
community if it were not for the Palestinian people who took a
collective stance, using all forms of resistance, from Sheikh Jarrah, in
East Jerusalem, to Gaza. The whole episode, which eventually led to an
Israeli war on Gaza in May, began with a routine Israeli attempt at <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/sheikh-jarrah-evictions-ethnic-cleansing-meshaal/2234482" target="_blank">ethnically cleansing</a>
Palestinians from several East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, including
Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan. Palestinian Jerusalemites, however, began
organising against an Israeli court order to evict them from their
homes, to be then taken over by Israeli Jewish settlers, as has been the
habit for many years.</p> <p>The popular resistance in Sheikh Jarrah
was met with extreme Israeli violence, involving armed settlers, Israeli
police and occupation forces, leading to the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/7/jerusalem-dozens-of-palestinians-hurt-in-al-aqsa-clashes" target="_blank">wounding</a>
of at least 178 Palestinian protesters on 7 May. Palestinians
throughout the occupied territories began mobilising in solidarity with
their brethren in Al-Quds, leading to another <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/world/middleeast/jerusalem-protests-aqsa-palestinians.html" target="_blank">devastating Israeli war</a> on the Gaza Strip on 10 May. The war <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-israel-militant-groups-gaza-strip-hamas-f1e2a12119da7b34c1553c3ca0821612" target="_blank">resulted</a> in the killing of over 250 Palestinians, thousands more wounded and mass-scale destruction.</p> <p>The
Israeli war was meant to distract from the events taking place in East
Jerusalem. The Israeli designs, however, completely failed as
Palestinians in Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Haifa and many other
Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/palestinians-protest-west-bank-jerusalem-israel/" target="_blank">marched</a>
in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza, articulating a political
discourse which, for the first time, was devoid of factional references.</p> <p>To quell the Palestinian rebellion, Israel <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/05/israel-opt-end-brutal-repression-of-palestinians-protesting-forced-displacement-in-occupied-east-jerusalem/" target="_blank">dispatched</a>
thousands of soldiers and police, along with armed Jewish settlers and
militias in the occupied territories and Israel itself. Many
Palestinians <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/05/israel-opt-end-brutal-repression-of-palestinians-protesting-forced-displacement-in-occupied-east-jerusalem/" target="_blank">were killed</a>
in resulting clashes and attacks. The May events, however, have
highlighted, not only the unity existing among Palestinians but also the
deep racism that has afflicted all sectors of Israeli society. The
notion that Palestinians of historic Palestine have assimilated with the
new reality and are no longer part of a larger Palestinian body
politic, proved completely false.</p> <p><strong>Opinion: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211230-the-un-war-crimes-probe-is-still-tarnished-by-decades-of-colonial-support-for-israel/">The UN war crimes probe is still tarnished by decades of colonial support for Israel</a></strong></p> <h2>Boycotts, Divestments and the ICC</h2> <p>The Palestinian resistance at home further mobilised civil society around the world. Rights organisations like <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution" target="_blank">Human Rights Watch </a>and Israel's own <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid" target="_blank">B'tselem</a> concluded that Israel is an apartheid state.</p> <p>The
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement received many boosts
throughout the year as companies, such as the ice cream giant, Ben &
Jerry's, decided to divest from the occupied territories and the
sport's multinational corporation, Nike, has decided to end its
operations in Israel entirely, though without rationalising its decision
on political grounds.</p> <p>Additionally, Norway's largest pension fund, KLP, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/norway-s-largest-pension-fund-divests-from-companies-linked-to-israeli-settlements-1.9971368" target="_blank">declared</a>
on 5 July that it would no longer invest in firms linked to Israeli
settlements. Later in the year, famous Irish novelist, Sally Rooney, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/12/sally-rooney-beautiful-world-where-are-you-israeli-publisher-hebrew" target="_blank">announced</a> her refusal to have her bestseller 'Beautiful World, Where Are You' published by an Israeli company.</p> <p>Meanwhile,
efforts at holding Israeli war criminals accountable at the
International Criminal Court (ICC) continued, unabated. In March, then
ICC Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=210303-prosecutor-statement-investigation-palestine" target="_blank">announced</a>
the opening of a formal investigation into alleged war crimes in the
occupied Palestinian territories. Although Bensouda is no longer at the
ICC, the Palestinian case remains active, with the hope that
international justice can finally prevail.</p> <p>Despite the numerous
difficulties, the spirit of all Palestinians was lifted, once more, when
the Palestinian Olympic delegation <a href="https://olympics.com/en/video/palestine-s-parade-during-beijing-2008-opening-ceremony" target="_blank">entered</a>
Tokyo's Olympic Stadium in July, carrying a Palestinian flag. The small
delegation included Palestinians from various regions, cementing
Palestinian unity in culture and sports as well.</p> <h2>Resisting Through Hunger</h2> <p>Meanwhile,
Palestinian hunger strikers continued their resistance inside Israeli
prisons, with prisoners like Kayed Fasfous and Meqdad Al-Qawasmi <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211122-palestinian-administrative-detainee-kayed-al-fasfous-wins-battle-for-freedom/">leading</a>
prolonged hunger strikes of 131 and 113 days, respectively, almost
resulting in their deaths. In a show of further defiance, six
Palestinian prisoners <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/6/six-palestinians-escape-from-high-security-prison-in-israel" target="_blank">had escaped</a> the Gilboa prison on 6 September. Though they were all caught and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/15/israeli-intelligence-torturing-palestinian-prisoners-lawyers" target="_blank">reportedly tortured</a>
following their re-arrest, the news captivated all Palestinians, who
felt empowered with what they perceived to be a heroic quest for
freedom.</p> <p>However, many Palestinian prisoners also suffered at the
hands of the PA itself, which continued its practice of unlawful
detention and torture of dissenting Palestinian activists. The <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/palestinian-authority-critic-nizar-banat-dies-after-arrest/a-58037947" target="_blank">death</a>
of Nizar Banat, at the hands of PA security forces on 24 June, led to
mass Palestinian protests where thousands of people demanded
accountability and justice for the PA critic who was beaten to death.</p> <p>2021
was a year of war, loss and destruction for Palestinians. Yet, it was
also a year of unity, cultural achievements and hope, as a new
generation is finally taking centre stage, asserting its identity and
its centrality to the future of its homeland.</p> <p><strong><br></strong></p> <p>The
views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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