Palestine at the UN

Well, I am now safely in Amman, staying with a friend in her cozy apartment. I'm planning on staying here for a little less than two weeks, and am looking forward to this time to debrief, sleep, catch up with friends from summer Arabic school, and do some intense Arabic tutoring! I didn't really have any issues crossing the border, except for the one hour when I thought they had lost my luggage... they always get mixed up when a foreigner travels the Palestinian way. Anyway, for awhile when I was right in between Israel and Jordan no one knew where my luggage was, except that they figured it was with the Palestinians' luggage... but we eventually found it, so all is good :)

I've heard from several of you that you'd like to hear what life in Palestine has actually been like during all of this activity pertaining to the UN statehood bid. Well, one of my main answers has consistently been that things haven't really been that different. Everyone keeps going to work, we keep coming home to our families and eating delicious food, we still watch our favorite Turkish soap operas dubbed in Arabic (oh yes, I am totally addicted). But this doesn't mean that Palestinians are unaware of what is going on. The UN bid has been the number one topic of discussion for the past couple of weeks, with everyone expressing their opinion on what will happen. Most of my friends and family agree that the U.S. will definitely veto the bid because "America is always behind Israel," but most are also encouraged by the fact that the world seems to be waking up to the fact that Palestine is still here, there still isn't peace, and gosh darn it, the occupation is still ongoing!! Abu Mazin, President Mahmoud Abbas' local name (his oldest son's name is Mazin, so calling a father "father of so-and-so" is a term of respect, therefore Abu=father of, Mazin) has become much more popular, and there are posters and billboards of him and Arafat together all over Palestine. This is a pretty big indicator of Abbas' rising popularity, since Arafat is revered as the great hero of the Palestinian cause.

Osama and I posing with a popular car decoration of Abu Mazin

There were several days last week when rallies in support of the Palestinian UN bid were held across Palestine, with the biggest ones in Ramallah, Hebron, and Bethlehem. I went to a rally on Wednesday in Manger Square in Bethlehem with a few of my co-workers from the HLT office. The atmosphere was filled with excitement and anticipation, as hundreds, if not thousands, of children from schools all around Bethlehem (schools were let out for the rally) chanted slogans in support of Abu Mazin and Palestine. I got choked up a few times seeing all of the Palestinian flags around the square and the beaming faces of all the people hoping, finally, for some kind of solution to the occupation they had endured for over forty years. 

On Friday night, I watched Abu Mazin's speech to the UN with my sister Rawan. The Palestinian president isn't known as the greatest speaker, but most people agree that he did a phenomenal job on Friday night. I think Abu Mazin's speech restored some of the pride that the Palestinian people have lost after being beaten down, forgotten, pushed aside, and de-humanized over the last century. Even staring right into the emotionless, disapproving faces of the U.S. ambassador and her team, Abu Mazin stood firm and declared Palestine's right to be a state, fully independent and sovereign. His hero's welcome back to Ramallah on Sunday night was well-deserved.

Unfortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu soon followed with a speech of his own, defaming the ideals of integrity and peace that the UN is supposed to stand for. I was literally in pain as I sat there and listened to Netanyahu use fear of Islam and the "Palestinian threat" to win support for Israel in the name of security. I felt ashamed watching the U.S. ambassador and her envoy beam with approval at Netanyahu's words, words that I know to be false. It was almost more painful watching it with my family and seeing how they hardly even reacted to his words about them, the Palestinians, and realizing how often they've listened to the international community speak about them this way. I guess the best thing I can hope for is that people who heard Netanyahu's speech recognized his strategies and his twisting of the truth, and continue to be willing to search for the true narrative of what is happening. 

Yes, the U.S. will probably veto the bid in the Security Council. Yes, this will be extremely damaging to the already-fragile U.S. reputation in the Middle East, and will drive the Palestinians further away from U.S.-led "peace talks" with Israel. But the Palestinian people are now more united than ever, and they're not going anywhere anytime soon. Stay tuned.