Israeli Occupation and Jerusalem’s Palestinian Cabbies

Jerusalem’s Palestinian Cabbies

Al Jazeera (2019)

Film Review

This film provides an interesting glimpse into the working lives of Palestinian cab drivers in West Jerusalem. Divided into East and West Jerusalem since the founding of Israel in 1948, East Jerusalem has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 six-day war.

Although the Palestinian Authority theoretically controls West Jerusalem (under the 1993 Oslo Accords), Israeli presence is increasing. This relates, in part, to the illegal seizure of Palestinian homes for Israeli settler homes and schools.

Although West Jerusalem is legally part of Palestine, all the cabs are Israeli owned and licensed. The city’s Arab taxi drivers are required to accept Israeli passengers, despite the risk of being harassed by them. They are also expected to learn Hebrew.

The drivers talk freely about about losing prior (lucrative) careers due to Israeli security crackdowns. At the same time they feel extremely grateful to have any work at all in occupied Palestine. Several talk about the important role they play in educating foreign tourists about the plight of Palestine – many are totally unaware that Palestine or Palestinians exist.

In the most interesting part of the film, a Palestinian driver and his Israeli passenger have a  vehement argument (in Hebrew).

 

Teenagers in the First Intifada

(More from my research for A Rebel Comes of Age and the role of youth in sparking revolution)

Like the 1976 Soweto uprising, the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987 was instigated by teenagers experiencing a breakdown in family life and parental authority.

From 1967, when Israel first seized the Gaza strip from Egypt, until 1987, Gaza, which has always been much poorer than the West Bank, was little more than a cluster of refugee camps. This meant the only central authority Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers, who maintained order. According to a study by EuroMed Youth, this lack of central authority led to the breakdown of parental authority. With a breakdown in civil society, it was only among young people, who freely intermingled in schools, universities and the streets, that intellectual debate could occur. In 1987, Yasar Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization were still in exile.

The Breakdown of Parental Authority

Demographic factors played a major role in the empowerment of Palestinian youth in the late eighties. Approximately 65% of Palestinians were under 25 (with short life expectancy older age groups are underrepresented). In 1987, this group had a 37% unemployment rate.

As in Soweto, the breakdown of parental authority was a major factor. Although some Palestinian adults crossed into Israel to work, their wages were extremely low. Many children and teenagers worked as street vendors to contribute to family income. In some households, they were the sole source of support. Watching Israeli soldiers routinely humiliate their parents also tended to undermine their authority.

Children take on the Israel Defense Force

The first Palestinian Intifada started spontaneously when Palestinian children, teenagers and college students rioted in response to the IDF murder of six Palestinian students. Initially Palestinian youth were armed only with rocks, bottles and slingshots. The insurrection quickly spread to the West Bank and was joined by underground Palestinian resistance organizations, such as Fatah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. They taught the youths how to make Molotov cocktails and sophisticated tactics, such as burning tires or constructing barricades to protect themselves from retaliation.

The response by the IDF was massive brutality, with random killings, arbitrary detention and torture of Palestinian children and teenagers. By 1989, 13,000 Palestinian teenagers were in Israeli jails.

The Creation of the Palestinian Authority

The first Intifada ended in 1993. Under the Oslo agreement, Israel agreed to establish the Palestinian Authority, and Yasar Arafat and other PLO leaders returned from exile to run it.

photo credit: Robert Croma via photopin cc

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In A Rebel Comes of Age, seventeen-year-old Angela Jones and four other homeless teenagers occupy a vacant commercial building owned by Bank of America. The adventure turns deadly serious when the bank obtains a court order evicting them. Ange faces the most serious crisis of her life when the other residents decide to use firearms against the police SWAT team.

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