Not only the right to worship is sacred

A VERY GOOD PIECE
By Amira Hass

"On Fridays of the month of Ramadan, the Palestinians once again proved the extent to which they are prepared to endanger themselves, collectively, for the sake of a shared aim they consider sublime: worship at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. They walked for hours in order to circumvent roadblocks, they climbed the separation wall in all kinds of daring ways and absorbed tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets.

Most of them did not make it to the prayer site sacred to Islam. But their collective action reminded the world and some Israelis that Israel restricts Palestinian Muslims' right to worship by limiting their freedom of movement.

The collective daring of the last few Fridays illustrates the characteristic lack evident in the Palestinian struggle for liberation today: a collective defiance of the Israeli policy on restrictions of movement.

This is not just a system: This is a policy no less destructive than the bombings and the bombardments, and it preceded the current intifada and developed under the aegis of the Oslo process. Every Palestinian is injured by this policy, and many Palestinians dare to look for individual ways to defy and challenge it.

The Hamas leadership is better at relying on the Koran when it makes its incendiary promises for a distant future in which Israel will not exist, and on the Palestinian ability to suffer and the potential for an explosion - than at seeking new and focused ways to act against the tactics of the occupation.

During the past two weeks, there has been fresh proof of the importance of collective struggle: The U.S. State Department has complained about the ethnic discrimination Israel practices at border crossings when it restricts the entry of American citizens of Palestinian and Arab origin into the occupied territories. It would not have been obtained had it not been for a stubborn fight being conducted for a few months already by an expanding group of Palestinians and non-Palestinians, among them those who hold various foreign citizenships, whom Israel wants to expel from their homes under the cover of "entry procedures into Israel and the granting of tourist visas." The group, which is called My Right to Entry, came into being at the initiative of one of the people who has been affected by the Israeli policy: Adel Samara, whose wife Enaya, a native of a village west of Ramallah, lost her residency rights in her homeland because she happened to be in the United States in June 1967.

Adel Samara published a notice in a newspaper in which he appealed to people who find themselves in a similar situation. They met and became a group that is continuing to develop modes of action - among the Palestinian public, vis-a-vis the PA leadership (which is not taking any initiative and is devoid of daring and caring), and among the international community (which finds it difficult to understand all the nuances of Israeli control policies).

But for the members of the My Right to Entry group, this is yet another reason to persist and continue a general, not just an individual or one-time, struggle. The sanctity of the right to freedom of movement should be recognized no less than the right to religious worship. "