Israel is paranoid about pro-Palestinian activists. Randa Jarrar: Imagining Myself in Palestine. On a recent trip to Israel, Randa Jarrar gets detained, denied entry, and sent to 'the Arab Room.' Image from Flickr via Rusty Stewart By Randa Jarrar Trouble began weeks before I boarded my flight to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.
I had heard horror stories about a detention area there, dubbed The Arab Room, and in my anxious and neurotic style, I had emailed a dozen people—American academics and artists of Arab, Indian, Jewish, and European descent— and asked them what I was supposed to tell the immigration officers at Ben Gurion once I arrived. They all wanted to know if I was using my American passport, and I assured them that I was. I was so afraid of facing the guards at the airport that I had a difficult time imagining the rest of my trip. Growing up, my Palestinian identity was mostly tied to my father. When my sister got a job in Ramallah last year, teaching music to children, I knew I would want to visit her. I felt uneasy as soon as I arrived at the gate in Philadelphia.
The Israeli Military. Israel in World Politics. Iran / Israel relations... Israeli Politics. Debating the future of Israeli democracy... The political economy of Israeli Occupation. Video: Saar Szekely – Talking about the occupation. The Myth of Israel's Liberal Supreme Court Exposed. Little more than a decade ago, in a brief interlude of heady optimism about the prospects of regional peace, the Israeli Supreme Court issued two landmark rulings that, it was widely assumed, heralded the advent of a new, post-Zionist era for Israel.
But with two more watershed judgments handed down over the winter of 2011-2012 the same court has decisively reversed the tide. Palestinians, both in the Occupied Territories and inside Israel, will pay the biggest and most immediate costs of the new decisions. In one, the Supreme Court has created a new concept of “prolonged occupation” to justify further Israel’s denial of basic protections to the Palestinian population living under belligerent military rule. In the other, it has upheld the right of the Israeli state to strip the Palestinian minority inside Israel of one of its fundamental rights of citizenship. Activist Reputation “As If Annexed” The case should have been cut and dried. But there was an even graver implication. Human rights equated with national suicide. The Israeli government has repeatedly demanded that Palestinians recognise Israel as a "Jewish state".
Recent developments in the Knesset and High Court are exposing exactly what this means, and in doing so, throw the spotlight on the issue that the ‘peace process’ – and Western governments – refuse to tackle. On Wednesday, Israel’s High Court rejected a legal challenge to the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, by a six to five vote. The law, first passed as a ‘temporary’ measure in 2003 and renewed ever since, prevents Palestinians from the Occupied Territories (and those from ‘enemy states’) from living with their spouses in Israel.
For thousands of Palestinian families, Israel’s law means a choice between moving abroad, living apart, or living in Israel illegally. 'Baseless' concerns The Israeli government has argued that the law is on the grounds of ‘security’. Demographic 'threats'
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