Permission To Narrate

While it may be too dismissive to declare that the US presidential election does not impact the question of Palestine, it is quite reasonable to conclude that the identity of the occupant of that office is of little relevance when it comes to Palestine. No other foreign policy issue is characterized by the intransigent and bipartisan consistency that shapes the question of Palestine and the United States’ relationship to Israel.

Recently, Amnesty International USA sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking that he use the power of his office to address three key issues in international human rights abuses before he leaves the White House in January. Besides urging the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize to close Guantánamo and end indefinite detention, and to grant temporary protected status for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras noting that ‘Stark homicide rates, ineffective legal structures, and corrupt law enforcement officials have forced many people to flee their homes…to seek refuge in Mexico and the United States,’ the letter called on the US to end military aid to Israel with the exception of purely defensive weapons.

In 2006, Hillary Clinton sat down with the editorial board of the Jewish Press. Asked about the elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Clinton said that she was unhappy with the result because Hamas came out as the winner. “I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories,” she says in a tape recording released a few days ago. “I think that was a big mistake.” Clinton wanted Fatah, the more reliable partner, to win, not Hamas, whom the US considered a terrorist organization. The entire US establishment wanted Fatah to win, so there is nothing too surprising about Clinton’s views. But then she said something that should stop any democratically minded person: “And if we were going to push for an election,” she said, “then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.”

Bethlehem, occupied West Bank – The rocky terraces of the Cremisan Valley are mostly overgrown and wild these days, as local landowners say they have lost all hope of keeping control over the more than 300 hectares of olive trees and orchards along the sloping mount, confiscated by the Israeli government earlier this year.

“For the past 49 years – and counting – the injustice known as the occupation of Palestine, and Israeli control of Palestinian lives in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, has become part of the international order. The first half-century of this reality will soon be over. [I] implore you today to take action. Anything short of decisive international action will achieve nothing but ushering in the second half of the first century of the occupation.”

Palestinian foodies are tired of letting global awareness of the local cuisine be dominated by Israeli chefs. They are returning maqluba to the center of the table and don’t hesitate to dip into history and politics of the conflict when necessary.