On a busy street..

The street was painted with the myriad hues of a typical Anand Nagar evening, stalls spilled on both sides as vehicles sped through the bustling street with little space left for shoppers, pedestrians and passers-by. The ice-candy seller doled out handfuls of crushed ice pressed on sticks, and poured coloured syrup before handing them to little, eager hands. Green-grocers shouted out names of fruits and vegetables and threw them into open baskets for customers to pick and they haggled endlessly. Dogs kept themselves busy eating whatever they found around; while lazy cattle chewed the cud and plonked in oblivion. Monkeys waited on tree-tops seeking something to grab and diving at the reachable. Children sat on Ferris wheels and their screams intermingled with the fading bars of the October sunlight. One navigated warily through the street as the entire city flocked to Anand Nagar, the street-shopper’s paradise.

WHERE ARE WE NOW? WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

The rule does not go away. Not too often. When we say it, they leer and jeer. They then go and break it.

The city is the way it is. And we do not say a word.

It is the way things work here. The bus man, the porter and auto man will tell you. The lady next door, who makes extra cake for you, will say. The guard, the bhaiyya, the bai, the dhobi, and the man in the lift; they are the city.

Was it like this before? No one knows. But this is how we are now.

This is how it will be for some more time. My city is tied to these million men. It does not know if it should march ahead.

It belongs to those in the high rise flat and to those in the slum. It will not be able to take more men.

It is in a race, a chase to be on top. It grows like a giant tree, with needy plants on its bark. It gives in to the men who come and go and stands what they do to it. It does not know where to go.

The Middle East Crisis: A way forward?

After the exchange of sparring words between Israel and Palestine at the United Nations Security Council, the Middle East peace process has reached a stalemate. In this last open debate on the Middle East before the opening of the next UN General Assembly, it was concluded that tensions were sure to escalate even more as September approached.

UN Special Coordinator Robert Serry said, “The Palestinian Authority has, in key areas, reached a level of institutional performance sufficient for a functioning state. The Palestinian Authority is ready to assume the responsibilities of statehood at any point in the near future,” referring to the recent security and economic gains in certain areas of Palestinian territory.

But Israel seems to have an anti-peace agenda with its continued building of settlements, attacks in Gaza and mistreatment of prisoners in what seems to be clear sabotage of the entire peace building process.

The West Bank killings of April 2011 sent shock waves across Israel. While some Palestinians still continue to believe in the non-violent approach, the Palestinian Authority (PA) President, Mahmoud Abbas, preaches nonviolence. PA security forces coordinate discreetly with Israeli authorities to suppress attacks. But Netanyahu found grounds to blame the Palestinian Authority, repeatedly calling on Abbas to cease "incitement" against Israel. Dmitry Dliani of the Fatah Revolutionary Council was quoted as calling the West Bank settlements "a massacre of the entire Palestinian nation" that "destroys the remaining hopes for peace."

The 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention regarding occupied territories to the case of the West Bank and Gaza Strip “is based on the assumption that there had been a sovereign who was ousted and that he had been a legitimate sovereign." In this case that would be the Jordanians who occupied the land through illegal warfare and subsequently relinquished all claims to the land. But there are no borders here. The land is still “in dispute” while we wait for the Armistice lines to be turned into “borders” through negotiations.

The endurance levels of Palestine have been high. Repeated Israeli occupation has resulted in Palestine habitants sans all civil rights. Their inability to live a life of fair and equal rights and justice in their own land has continued since the 1930s. Looking from behind a Palestinian’s back, almost the entire legion of Palestinian refugees has been excluded from the so-called negotiations. In the 44 years since, the geography has not changed but the threats have been rising.

Nevertheless, Palestine continues its attempts to restore peace with the normal characteristics of a state which according to it is the perfect set-up for the restoration of security. It cries for a border independent of Israeli occupation. The Oslo process that started off in 1993 has now deepened Israeli segregationist ideologies and policies. The strengthening of security amidst the Palestinian population as well as its geographical fragmentation are hence completely justified.

Binyamin Netanyahu of “Middle East's only democracy” uses the concept of "defensible borders" to justify Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine while staying adamant that a peace deal premised on returning to Israel’s pre-1967 borders poses substantial risk to its security. “Peace Negotiations” through the years, with the intervention of either the United States or the other European Union have always been rendered more or less null and void. The US has only contributed complication. A 2002 cartoon in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the Palestinian Authority official daily, showed blindfolded George Bush aiming missiles indiscriminately at a dartboard covered with the names of Arab states. It is only acceptable that the intervention of the United States is just one of their several moves that result in distortion and a painful low-intensity war. What constantly remains dubious is how Israel intends to carry its so-called resolutions forward if it is only prepared to look the American way.

The situation calls for some enlightened decision-making. The two-nation solution looks like the most plausible way in which a way out of this debacle of political failure can be found. Palestine should resolve its internal turmoil. Peace must be restored as all Palestinians living in Gaza, West Bank, those living in Israel and those in exile have a common future to look forward to.

Israel, Palestine and Jordan coming together for a peace deal would spell resolution. This would ensure security for the vulnerable Palestine-Israel borders, with a secure, Jewish state of Israel living side by side in peace and security with an independent, contiguous, and viable state of Palestine in this rapidly changing Middle East.