14th Day: Comparing PA Bantustans to Tel Aviv Alone

Numbers are interesting.

Ever since I made yesterday's calculations, I've been taken by an obsession with comparing the PA Territories with Tel Aviv.

If  the future Palestinian state was to be compared to Tel Aviv urban area only, we can come up with some very interesting results. Below are columns comparing Tel Aviv to PA Territories as I prefer to call them, which exclude the Gaza Strip. The calculations assume PA Territories [was] a city in its own right. 

What do we learn?

The West Bank, Green is
the PA Country/ Bantustans

The PA Territories which will be included in the Bantustanized-State is almost 0.59% the size of historical Palestine's size. The PA officials have long claimed that they "gave up 78% percent of historical Palestine for peace. The truth is, they gave nearly 99.49% of it for profit.

The PA Territories where the future [bantustanized] state will have a sort of governmental control or more accurately: visual control (because actual control will be left for Israel) is appx. comparable to Tel Aviv's Metro area alone in terms of both size and population, only 10% smaller. 

The best scenario which the PA can experience would be a complete Israeli withdrawal from Areas B in which case the PA state would be comparable to Tel Aviv's Urban Area, only 10% smaller. 

So far, the Palestinian population under direct and "full" Palestinian control (those living within Area A) does not seem to have a reliable statistics. 

It is now obvious there is not one single reliable source that provides a complete census of the population of the Palestinians whether in the West bank, Israel, Gaza Strip, and in East Jerusalem, nor Jewish population in those areas (Major discrimination were found between various sources that ranged from few hundreds up to a million and more.). Nor does there seem to be a source that gave a single unified estimate for the Area covering historical Palestine without experiencing discrepancies between various data.

Population-wise: It is not clear if the US' claim back in 2005 that Palestinian Arabs have exceeded the number of Israeli Jews in the land of Historical Palestine is still valid. The Numbers seem to be inflated on both sides.

The information was acquired, or calculated, based on data found on wikipedia.org, CIA World Fact Book plus other sources, assuming they're the most up-to-date:

Tel Aviv Area	PA Territories Area, based on Oslo (Percentage from the West Bank excluding E. Jerusalem, total area 5,640 km2)
- City 51.4 km2 - Urban 176 km2 - Metro 1,516 km2 Appx. Population - City 404,400 - Urban 1,284,400 - Metro 3,325,700	- Area A (2.7%) 152.2 km2 - Area B (25.1%) 1415.6 km2 - Area C (72.2%) 4,072 km2 Appx. Population - West Bank (2010) Appx. 2,568,555 (not clear whether this number includes East Jerusalem Palestinians and according the CIA World Fact Book or if Israeli settlers were included, in which case this would bring the number down to 2,097,055 if Israeli settlers were excluded) or 1,714,845 (according to PCBS as of 2010) or 2,345,000 according to Jerusalem Post as of 2010)
Percentage of Tel Aviv Area based on Historic Palestine (total area of 26,920 km2)	Percentage of PA Territories based on Historic Palestine (total area of 26,920 km2)
- City (Area A) 0.2% - Urban (Area B) 0.65% - Metro (Area C) 5.6%	- Area A (City) 0.56% - Area B (Urban) 5.25% - Area C (Metro) 15.1%

15th Day: Facts the PA likes to deny (or) Palestinians control an area only 10% smaller than TLV

Orange is my country. Thanks Abbas! You done good. [map from here]

These are some of the actual De Facto percentages: 

Palestine's 1948 Areas (aka Israel): 77%-78% of Palestine (not including Jerusalem, 20,770 km2 of 26,920 km2) out of which Tel Aviv (TLV) metropolitan area alone is nearly 18% the size of the area; yet nearly 50% of Israel's 7.7 Million live! (close to 3.5 million residents!)

The size of the West Bank and Gaza is 22% (around 6,000 km2: WB= 5640 km2 + GS= 360 km2) the size of Historic Palestine. Palestinian Authority has control of only less than 2.7% of that (area A according to Oslo Accords), and a joint-control with Israel of nearly 25.1% (area B according to Oslo). The proposed state will not have access to nearly 97.3% of the remaining areas or most towns and villages plus all of the roads connecting any two Palestinian town and village plus all of the Jewish settlements.

The proposed state will be declared on 2,370 km2 of Historic Palestine's 26,920 km2. Slightly more than  in Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, 3.9 million Palestinian Arabs reside in these small dis-fragmented localities! Israel will control all of the (2,370 km2)'s entrances and exists, will grant or deny passes to residents, and will be the entity to receive Palestinian taxes and distribute back the tax refunds to the PA, like it would treat any other municipality. 

The PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY "MUNICIPALITY" is the largest disfragmented Metropolitan Area in Israel! Compare: Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area: 1,516 km2, the PA "Metropolitan Territories": 2370 km2. The areas the PA may have control over in the West Bank and Gaza (1,668 km2, or areas A & B) are only about 10 percent larger than Tel Aviv Metropolitan area with the around the exact same number of residents!

YET!, the PA will officially be like a chain of territories, or small countries that literary control only 162 km2 of all of the West Bank, or around 0.59% of Historic Palestine. The area is less than 10% smaller than TLV urban area! Shame on us. Shame on the PA. Shame on Yasser Arafat who delivered good on his promise to declare a state "even if only on one (1) inch of Historic Palestine".

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, is merely the counterpart of any Israeli Mayor.

Historic Palestine is still vast and nearly empty! The Palestinian Arab refugees do have a lot of space left to move back to, their villages and towns which were ethnically cleansed can easily be repopulated or amalgamated into other already established Israeli municipalities in order to preserve historic sites and farmlands used for agriculture. 

Palestinians are very peaceful, even today after having been subject to Israel's violence which they faced for nearly 63 years, they are still willing to live in peace with Israelis in one bi-national country and not 2 racist countries. Just check out how many Palestinians apply for/ and acquire passes to go to "Israel" on vacations and how many workers jump the wall for work and come back in peace. 

Factually, we live in a single state but we are simply denied equal rights. What the PA and PLO have been doing since the peace initiative was started in the early 1990s was white-washing occupation and denying us the right to demand our equal rights! The PA has endorsed the idea of Bantustans when they signed Oslo, I will go as far as accusing them of fully knowing the consequences and knowing exactly what they were getting into unless they were complete invalids in which case (both cases actually) we should revolt against them. Hopefully sooner than the proposed state's date.

17th Day: Hashtag Revolutions and the Patriotism of Rejecting Your Own "Statehood"

How patriotic would it be for a nation to overthrow their government within weeks, or even during the early years of statehood? Probably not patriotic at all. It would be recorded as an imminent failure to them and a mark that will forever stain their history of struggle and self-determination. I believe this could be a major drive behind the PA's insistence on gaining a seat in the UN as a State of Palestine after two weeks, which will suppress any opposition the PA may be facing with the wave of revolutions spreading across the Arab World. 

I remember back in high-school how I eagerly read about the Battle for Algiers and about the Algerian revolution. I remember how I watched the Arabic movie "Djamila Bouhired" with enthusiasm. I also remember how disappointing the Algerian history unraveled later on as Algeria was becoming a closed society and how terrorism and civil strife took the lives of tens of thousands if not more Algerians who were once viewed as a beacon of hope to all revolutionary nations. Yet, Algeria could not afford a second revolution. Typically it takes ages to forget about a revolution and start a new one. It comes once in a "modern" history. You either win it or you don't. Unless a second phase in your history comes that completely and fundamentally reshapes the country and that is when people forget about their first revolution and join a second with a new generation that rejects their parents decisions/ failures.

What I call the Hashtag revolutions (courtesy of Twitter's hashtags) are revolutions against all the mistakes committed by previous generations. The Hashtags have so far been widely used during post-modern revolutions, and were successful during a number of them: #Dec18 for Tunisia, #Jan25 for Egypt #Feb17 for Libya...etc. 

On the other end, Palestinians attempted so many of them, none were successful and none seem to be serving their purpose no matter how rightful their motivation sounds and how much justice it does serve. The reason? None of these Palestinian revolutions demand true justice which should be the rejection of the PA as an entity which does not serve the Palestinian national interests. 

There is a quite revolution going on, however, which has been extremely powerful and only growing in gaining international support. It is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or hashtag #BDS.

One of the many BDS campaigns is the Stop Funding Apartheid. Most of these campaigns are run from abroad successfully. The latest campaign shows a typical Palestinian woman who probably appeals to a Westernized eye. A woman who does not look European, yet modern and looks familiar enough to gain sympathy in a society that judges people based on their resemblance to it. Her face, if it only had a smile, would be a perfect face for a University campaign billboard on any US highway. So far, the campaign has gained numerous success. "I am not allowed on Israel's segregated roads". The sentence is down to the point and is strikingly clear about it: you are not allowed because Israel is an Apartheid. So what do I do to help this woman, and any one who is not allowed on Israel's roads? I'd have to stop funding Apartheid. This cannot get any simpler than that. Using the term segregation does not go as far away from the American mind-set as would the word Apartheid which brings back memories of the most recent Apartheid: South Africa. Segregation, however, brings back the American Blacks history of segregation and struggle for equality. Both words were used and the history of both nations is now presented to the readers telling them that "your history is repeating itself, don't allow it to happen again to us."

It is only a campaign such as this one that will be successful. This is a revolution. BDS hashtag is Palestine's post modern revolution which needs the entire World's support for it to be successful. It is also the only successful Palestinian movement that retains both our dignity, our rights and dismisses all claims for a two-state solution without being too straight-forward about it. Soon, the move should become more obvious about demanding equality and that is when their campaign should shift to Arabic and not only English. 

The only Arabic language attempt against a two state solution I've seen in Ramallah was quickly absorbed and was viciously attacked by everyone. It was in 2010 when a huge billboard that said: "Two state solution =  Failure. One State, Two people = Only Hope" was attacked with red paint and markers. A comment that was left on the billboard said "How dare you forget about the martyrs blood?". I could not help but assume it was a PA supporter who wrote the sentence blindly without giving a though to what the martyrs actually would have wanted and how much the PA served their memory. Still, I believe it was too early to present the new approach to Palestinians without previously preparing them to accept such a notice and building a strong ground to support it even amongst PA enthusiasts. 

The wording was horrible as well. The perfect time for a billboard like this woud have been September 13th, 2013, on the 20th anniversary of the failed Oslo Accords or more accurately termed Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements. The billboard should have only been presented after years of mobilization and exposing lies and corruption by the PA. Exposing how much Oslo has failed us as Palestinians. And on September 13th, a billboard in Arabic that reads "On September 13th, 1993, the PLO signed Oslo, 20 years later how better off are you?" or a more creative approach such as a familiar-looking Palestinian 20-year old who declares: "I was born when Oslo was signed. 20 years later the West Bank shrunk by 60 percent, my family became poorer, and my rights have diminished" etc.

The new generation has to be dramatically far more self-aware and far more conscious about their national politics. They should also look far more different than their own government: In 2011 Egypt, those demonstrating out on the street were waves upon waves of impovrished and "sarcastic" individuals who looked nothing like their ultra-rich and "stern-faced" government. In 1979, the Iranian revolution changed an open and Westernized society into a conservative one that simply wanted to end the old ways and corruption into a revolution they believed was their only hope; in 2009, the youth attempted a revolution that was crushed and accused of working for a foreign agenda. It'll take probably another 30 years before Young Iranians who were not shot or killed and have no memory of their parents failed revolution in 2009, to attempt to change the system.

In Palestine, a UN bid will serve the following purposes: It will put a seal on a long Palestinian nationalist struggle for independence, thus ending the unofficial struggle with Israel. It will be almost like a CPR to elongate a seemingly short-life for the current PA. The PA will change from being the Palestinian Authority, to the Government of Palestine. A different name that serves the same purposes of protecting Israel and providing means for the Palestinian population to grow within their Israeli-imposed borders while still negotiating for an ever diminishing possibility to acquire the entire 1967 territories.

On the morning of September 20th, me and hundreds of thousands of  Palestinians will still not be allowed to drive on segregated roads that were made for Israelis by Israelis. We will still be going through checkpoints and we will still be at the mercy of teenaged soldiers who can stop us for any reason whatsoever as we drive through their check points. They will ask us for Hawiya-National ID. We will be too afraid to say "Sorry, this is our land and you have no right to ask us for our National ID", and if one was brave enough to do, he'll be left out as most of those other passengers inside a run-down bus between any two places in the West Bank will have a wedding to attend, a husband who waits at home, a sick mother, or food to be prepared. He will be persecuted and found guilty at Israeli Army courts. He will serve time in Israeli prison, and his name will merely make it to the data-base of the PA's Ministry of Detainees' Affairs, but the MOD will have no power to force Israel's occupation forces from freeing anyone. When was the last time the PA was capable of anything that was in disagreement with Israel after all? 

So, how patriotic would it be for a Palestinian to quickly reject a Palestinian state? Probably not patriotic at all. He'll have to wait for another 30 years before it becomes less shameful to overcome your pride and have little memory of the blood that was strained in a strife for independence. The PA recognizes this, and 30 years does sound like a lot of money to be generated from the donor community, despite the fact that the Palestinian citizens of the state will live under the mercy of their factual occupier. 

27th Day: Libya Overcomes

Benghazi was the first liberated city in Libya and the
"cradle of revolt against" Gaddafi - [Malaysian Insider]

The Libyan Revolution won on the first hour of this day in an unanticipated advance that sent shocks across the World. 

Again, I was unable to go to sleep before I was sure the news were completely true and before I examined the euphoric chants of tens of thousands of residents of Benghazi (freed during the first phases of the revolution). Those were enough proof that the revolution has overcome months of fighting. Young Tripolitanian men stomped the portraits of the colonel, firing guns in the air in celebration, and news about residents welcoming the revolutionaries with open arms were spreading across the news. I am still amazed by how fast things have unfolded in the past 24 hours.

The revolution had officially started on February 17th (Twitter's Hashtag #Feb17) after Libyans called for marches against nearly 42 years of brutal dictatorship under Col. Muammar Gaddafi. During the first days of the revolution, Television stations brought clips of demonstrations literary growing as they marched on high-ways across Libya. 

Some said that a joke that dispersed quickly from Tunisia to Egypt had stirred the uprising. The joke goes as follow: "Tunisians, having won the revolution and got rid of their own tyrant, ask Libyans [whose country is situated half way between them and Egypt] to stoop a little so they can see the real men of Egypt". The joke quickly dispersed across the region, touching on the traditional and historic machismo of Libyan men. The joke may have brought few laughs here and there but it certainly was an insult to the man-hood of Libyan men who quickly wanted their leader out. 

Gaddafi Airplane and Iron-Fist Sculpture, symbol used
to crush US planes and the Libyan opposition- from [Wikipedia]

Certainly, the joke could not have toppled a regime, but people went out on the streets two days before the proposed date for the revolution in an act of rebellion on February 15th inspired by two successful revolutions in their Arab neighboring countries and in defiance of Gaddafi who was claiming that Libya cannot be as "stupid' as it's neighboring nations. Gaddafi who had praised Tunisia's Ben Ali after he was ousted and claimed Egyptian revolutionaries were hired US Agents with Agendas, was already way too overdue in the eyes of young Libyans who now wanted to be part of a changing region. Gaddafi first claimed that the uprising in Libya was being run by mislead kids who brought some of what remained of the alleged agendas from Tahrir Square (suggesting the agendas were actual documents!).  

The further the revolution ignited the more Gaddafi was finding creative terms to brand the revolutionaries. During his infamous cuckoo speech at his compound which was left in ruins for 25 years after it was bombed during a US assault on Tripoli in 1986, Gaddafi called the rebels "rats" "roaches" "stray dogs", and claimed they were victims to "hallucination pills" and other drugs, urging their parents to "take them inside their homes" before they would cause further damage. 

But the revolution continued, and soon, it was no longer being referred to as a revolution on various televisions and other media sources as terms describing the situation shifted from "civil unrest" to "civil war". Soon, I lost track of what was happening there since the news were similar everyday and I feared Libya will be divided into two countries: The Eastern Libya with Benghazi as it's capital city (historically known as Cyrenaica) and Western Libya with Tripoli as it's capital city (historically known as Tripolitania). 

The NATO intervension was making the picture even bleaker. With the little trust I and so many numerous Arabs had of it (regardless of the , it was hard to continue openly support all of the decisions taken by the revolution. Nonetheless, I could not disapprove of bringing in the NATO decision, as I was certainly not the one living under a maniac and an oppressive dictatorship. My discontent was the decisions taken by the NATO alliance especially with the war taking way longer than having anticipated which I feared will be paid for heavily by Libyans after the revolution.

Today, I felt quite jealous of Libyans. I do admit it, but I felt ecstatically proud as well. The Libyans have taken the route of diplomacy as well as armed resistance in order to achieve their goal towards freedom. Whereas we, the Palestinians, were still discussing the feasability of calling in the NATO forces, affirming our embracement of sterile Arabist nationalist polimics, and the futile support of losing non-armed martyrs with absolutely zero-gains and losses on all ends.

Today, so many Libyans expressed their joy via twitter. Some of the most disheartening tweets came from @ShababLibya (LibyanYouthMovement) who recalled his uncle “Sadig Al Shwehdi, one of the most famous victims of Gaddafii's crimes hanged on live TV in the 80s”. To recall every single crime committed by Gaddafi is a taint in the face of humanity, one that stood in silence watching decades of brutality go unaccountable for. 

Most Palestinians I know were happy that today marked the day Libya’s Gaddafi was gone. Many Palestinians recall Gaddafi with utmost abhorrence: On the one hand he was the one who kicked Palestinians out to the borders of Libya ordering them to go back home to liberate Palestine if they so wished to. His insults towards the Palestinians were not over even only last week as Gaddafi branded fleeing Tripolitanians and other Libyans as “Palestinians and Somali’s”, in an attempt to stigmatize these nations, and degrade Libyans taking refuge far from fighting. On the other end, few Arabs and Palestinians were quick to judge the revolution based on its decision to allow NATO forces. Via twitter, one of the most expressive tweets regarding the situation came from @Cyrenaican, a Libyan who wrote in admonition: “How dare you let NATO intervention trump ur sympathy or support for the Libyan ppl, who fought vs this brutal regime w/ everything they had […] We fought and died, with incredible bravery, sacrifice. How can you not be happy for us? Why should we not celebrate?” 

I felt an urge to respond to him, to tell him that we supported him and all other Libyans who were hungry for liberation and freedom. Palestinians have made numerous mistakes when it came to our POV regarding other’s decisions when it concerned freedom and liberation: We made the mistake in Iraq, in Kuwait, even in PLO’s official stance on Western Sahara which angered those who assumed they could find in a Palestinian supporter further reason for an international sympathy. The mistake could not have repeated itself in Libya. Why should we exemplify revolutionaries yet dare make so many numerous mistakes when it comes to the freedom and independence others seek? 

I showed my support of Libya from the beginning, and I still do. I know Cyrenaicans now know the true taste of freedom, and so are all Libyans who fought tirelessly until this day. 

On the 27th day prior to an alleged Palestinian Authority “Statehood”, I am not confident the PA has stood on the right side of the equation. Once again, we are frowned upon by those seeking freedom. The Palestinian Authority is too cautious to take strong sides, and to assert itself as a decisive decision maker in the region. What seems to matter to the PA is to keep a neutral stance as to keep the room open had things shifted in the future. The PA, once again, proves to be playing an endless political game in order to secure the most gains, even when it came to a revolution already won.

PS: By the time this article was written, Col. Muammar Gaddafi's whereabouts were unknown. Two of his sons were arrested and one of them already escaped with the help of some of the remaining Gaddafi forces.

Pre-State Statement: On the 30th Day Towards "Statehood", Gaza bleeds

... Saeb Erekat has spoken, and the nation rejoiced! For he has finally come out on the first pages of all Palestinian Authority-controlled media on August 18th warning the Zionist entity with a firm [verbal] response if they chose to attack Gaza, calling it an irresponsible action, following a deadly attack on a bus in the South of Israel. 

Affirming how the leaks were "slander", not expressive
enough of [a worst] reality.- [The guardian]

"Israel is the occupying power.” Declared Mr. Erekat, “Under international humanitarian law, it is responsible for the welfare and safety of the Palestinian population living under its occupation,". 

The former chief negotiator in the name of the Palestinians has supposedly stepped down back in January after Aljazeera news channel made public what came to be known as the Palestine Papers which exposed him as a lying sack of shit [of candies] in the way he has literary lived his life to negotiate (confirming the title for his Semi-Autobiography in Arabic “Life is Negotiations”), and after having under-gone a face-blushingly embarrassing near-death experience on live-television on Aljazeera where he foolishly agreed to appear to defend his back-door deals with Israel and the years he bamboozled the Palestinian people into an endless cycle of negotiations that they paid for with their own blood and economic well-fare. 

The former chief negotiator was back, now in full-fledged obnoxiousness, complete with the Palestinian Kaffiyeh and the infamous threatening finger that decorates the iconic portraits of all un-voted for traitors who happened to lead all Third World Countries [and semi-countries] around the World. 

Erekat the Savior, as portrayed on Palestinian Maan-News
complete with a Kaffiyeh and a Finger. The Halo on top of
his head partially visible - [Maan News Agency]

But I must admit that for months all Palestinian-controlled media had given small doses of Erekat to the public, typically a small unnoticed news excerpt where he just had to appear wearing his Kaffiyeh and making that same finger gesture of strength and dominance for months until the meat was ripe and he was ready to be served on a plate of empty promises. 

The funniest tweet I read on that day came from someone I cannot recall (darn it), but it went something like this: “Erekat is warning Israel against any irresponsible Action in Gaza, or else… he’ll go back to negotiations” (please tweet-mate, if you ever read this provide me with the right tweet!)

Erekat was back, the hero of the Palestine Papers, the same papers that exposed how the PA probably knew about the war on Gaza back in 2009, that same war which resulted with over 1500 deaths amongst civilians and few armed men, yet did nothing to stop it and continued to negotiate their way before and after, because that is what the Palestinian Authority does best: forever negotiating.

Erekat was back when now Israel was making it no secret that it intended to retaliate (collectively punish) the entire Gaza Strip for an attack that was not adopted by any Palestinian faction, much less to be specifically linked to Gaza. 

Was that Erekat's way to apologize to the Strip after having stood in negotiative silence when a war was being planned against it? I ain’t no Conspiracy Theorist, but with only 30 days left until September 20th, I am not sure Israel wanted to lose its favorite chief-negotiator of all time. The one who has given the longest time any Palestinian would have for Israel to expand settlements, practically annex 60 percent of what remained of the West Bank, and the one whose best interest lies in an Israeli-controlled Rafah border in Gaza. 

Israel attacked Gaza again earlier this morning, I followed the tweets of, mostly, cynical Palestinians from Gaza who have grown way too accustomed to living under daily attacks of Israel and F-16 noises breaking the sound barrier. By 5:00 AM, there were six confirmed deaths and over 23 injuries. By the end of the day, there were 15 deaths and over 40 injuries. Once again, praise shall be to the political corruption of men who know they cannot save lives nor stop the blood rollercoaster, yet are in need of making strong statements that help repair their shattered reputation and gain their former spot as… chief negotiators.

With only 30 days left towards "Statehood", Gaza bleeds. 

In order to spare myself the headache of having to explain the September 20th bid (or the so-called September Entitlement) on a bantustanized and much debated PA statehood, please visit Aljazeera for further details:

(or just use your collective-memory and imagination):

Abbas: Palestine to go to UN in September - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Abbas, too ready to run a "State"?- [Reuters]