Obama’s silence

All hopes were dashed last weekend when President Barrack Obama, who was in Paris at what has been described as one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in history to deal with the consequences of climate change, failed to highlight the nearly 50-year-old conflict between Palestinians and Israelis now in virtual control of the Holy Land.

Even his secretary of state, John Kerry, who went to the Middle East on his way to the Paris conference, could hardly start the ball rolling between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whose stance on a peace accord has been dismal.

It is clear that Obama, who raised much hope in the region when he visited the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Arab sector and Israel in his first days in the White House, has abandoned his peace mission.

All that was need was some arms twisting, despite the amazing influence of the pro-Israel lobby in the US, demonstrated when Netanyahu visited the US Congress to try to derail the nuclear settlement with Iran.

In a column in The Washington Post last Tuesday, titled “The president who lost his voice”, Richard Cohen observed that Obama’s problem is that “he often has nothing to say”, not that he lost his eloquence.

“It is on foreign policy particularly where he goes empty and cold,” he said, adding: “His policy, after all, is to avoid yet another Middle East quagmire. It entails the ringing call to do as little as possible.”

Cohen maintains that the president is now “out of words because he is out of ideas”, and suggests that “he ought to listen to others”.

There are countless Israeli decisions and actions that Obama — or his secretary of state — could nip in the bud.

One issue he could support is the European Union’s decision last month to set new guidelines requiring that the illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, where more than half a million Israelis now live exclusively, should clearly label export products as coming from occupied Palestinian territories.

In other words, the settlements may no longer use the “Made in Israel” label for European-bound goods.

The suggestion is that they should say the products come from a “settlement” in the occupied territories, and products made by Palestinian-owned enterprises or people from other occupied lands could be labelled “Product from the West Bank or the Golan Heights”.

A bipartisan letter signed by 36 US senators shockingly opposed the decision.

Adding to the shortsighted Israeli policies, Netanyahu revealed last week that his government will establish roads for Israeli settler drivers in certain areas of the West Bank and will revoke work permits for the relatives of the Palestinian attackers.

At present, the houses of Palestinian families whose children are involved in bloody conflict with Israeli settlers are, as a punishment, demolished. 

In another offensive anti-Palestinian measure, the US-based website Mondoweiss.org reported that the Israeli government threatened to close the Palestinian National Theatre, “Al Hakawati”, in Jerusalem.

Al Hakawati theatre is the only remaining Palestinian theatre, reported activist and writer Abir Kopty, and one of the few remaining cultural institutions in Jerusalem, after prolonged Israeli destruction of Palestinian cultural and political life in the city.

Founded in 1984, the theatre, located in the centre of Jerusalem, has been an important pillar and a centre for Palestinian culture and art. 

The theatre was never immune from the Israeli oppression machinery, Kopty reported.

According to the theatre management, Israel forbade Al Hakawati activities more than 35 times.

In 2008, the Israeli police deployed its forces at the theatre and barred it from holding a cultural festival called “Jerusalem, the Arab Cultural Capital for 2009”. 

In 2013, Israel again shut down a children’s puppet festival hosted by the theatre.

According to a statement from the theatre, director Amer Khalil revealed that the Israeli Enforcement Debt and Collection Authority, responsible for debt collection and law enforcement, had notified him of its intention to seize the theatre building in 48 hours.

Kopty said that the threat to the theatre “shows how poor political and [unconditional] financial support” is offered to Palestinian institutions in the West Bank.

This episode emerged as Palestinians were celebrating Solidarity Day worldwide.

Next to me on my desk is a newsletter from Jewish Voice for Peace where, on the front page, is the photo of a young woman carrying a placard which reads: “Because I’m Jewish I support freedom and equality for Palestinians.”

The writer is a Washington-based columnist.