Notes from the Bahraini Field [Update 3]

New Article Submission

Thank you for your interest in Jadaliyya. We welcome all submissions. The most significant requirement is for Jadaliyya submissions to be analytically compelling and offer a perspective or argument that has not been covered at length either on Jadaliyya or elsewhere. Because of the volume of submissions, well-written pieces are prioritized. Length is flexible, 1000 to 2500 words is the average range. However, we will accept longer pieces. Once submitted, several members of the editorial committee will review your piece and one of them will inform you of the decision.
Author Details
Article Details
Select Countries
Select Keywords
Select Topics
Only RTF, Word, and Pages documents accepted.

Recommended image size: 762x800 px

Location of each image should be indicated in the text of the article via a square bracket caption that includes: (1) a description of the image; (2) the photographer/designer and source of the image. Please note we only use images you as the author have the right to use, which usually means those of your own creation or those published under Creative Commons. Alternatively, you need specific permission from the copyright holder.
Please read the Release Form and provide an electronic signature [your full name] below to confirm that you accept its terms
Required
Hyperlink words in your article if they refer to links on the internet. We encourage more, rather than less, links (try to avoid footnotes—embed them as hyperlinks if possible)

Article added successfully.

Pages Menu BETA
Mar 4, 2011 Bahrain
[Image from yfrog.com] [Image from yfrog.com]

Notes from the Bahraini Field [Update 3]

By : Jadaliyya Reports

[The following constitutes a series of email reports from Jadaliyya affiliates in Manama. They will be updated regularly to reflect the latest developments in Bahrain.]

Bahrain - Thursday March 3, 2011

A lot has been happening in a short space of time, and it is difficult to summarize the subtle shifts, dips and changes on the ground - for a nuanced view of events, please see this article on the “now-famous roundabout in the heart of Manama”.

Today six opposition societies (registered as such because political parties are illegal) in Bahrain presented their demands at a press conference, including calls for a 3-week period of dialogue to discuss:

- the abolition of the 2002 constitution;
- the formation of an interim government;
- the release of all political prisoners;
- an investigation into the killing of seven protesters since the beginning of the uprising on February 14.

The conference was fielded by representatives from: the National Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad), The National Islamic Accord Society (Al Wefaq), Progressive Democratic Tribune (Al Minbar), the National Democratic Assemblage (Al Tajammu’), the Islamic Action Society (Al Amal), the National Fraternity Society (Al Ekha), and the Nationalist Democratic Assembly Society.  

Later in the day, two participants from the conference Munira Fakhro (member of Wa’ad) and Mansour Al Jamri (editor-in-chief of Alwasat newspaper) spoke at the Pearl roundabout to protesters, many of whom are skeptical about beginning dialogue with the government before any concrete concessions have been made. Tweeters from the roundabout reported that Fakhro urged protesters to participate in talks with the government, saying:

“A hand of dialogue was extended to us, why not accept it and see the consequences… We don`t want to spill more blood, we need you on the ground not under it.”

Feedback from the ground is varied. Some youth groups accuse opposition ‘old guard’ political societies of dividing the movement; others see it as a pragmatic approach ostensibly to avoid further government violence against dissenters and gain real concessions from the current momentum. Opposition societies and protesters both agree, however, that protests should be allowed to continue without facing violence or repression. After a brief lull, demonstrators at Lulu appear to have been re-strategizing and galvanizing the movement with a series of rallies. Those include: a march to the infamous Interior Ministry ‘fort’ demanding the release of prisoners; a demonstration of students outside the Ministry of Education; and a sit-in outside the Parliament and Shura Council buildings and the Bahrain Financial Harbor. Students (some as young as primary school, to much uproar) joined strikes, and the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (with workers in aluminum, oil and transport industries) have issued a statement of support for the opposition, calling for an interim government to bring ‘real political change’.

At the beginning of the week, opposition leader Hassan Mushaima was allowed to re-enter Bahrain, some six months after the Bahraini government placed an Interpol request for his arrest on accusations of collaboration in a ‘terrorist plot’, a move that was received with much popular skepticism. Now, with the release of 23 terrorist suspects in the same high profile trial, it appears even more clearly to have been a politically motivated trial.

The government has also issued a decree to cut citizens` monthly housing costs by 25% and shuffled around a number of government ministers, on the premises of ‘reform’. It seems the widely criticized Minister of Health Faisal Al Hamer (who allegedly prevented ambulances from reaching citizens wounded in attacks by riot police) was replaced with the former Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Nezar Albaharna. The former Minister of Labor Majeed Al Alawi has been posted as Minister of Housing, replacing Sheikh Ebrahim bin Khalifa al-Khalifa.  Perhaps the most noticeable change has been the removal of Sheikh Ahmed bin Attiatullah al-Khalifa from his position as Minister of Cabinet Affairs, and his replacement with Kamal Ahmed, a ‘technocrat close to the crown prince’. The widely despised former CIO head was allegedly responsible for a $2.7 million programme to alter the sectarian demographic of Bahrain by rigging votes, providing social support to Bahraini families which ‘convert’ from Shiism to Sunni Islam, and running a media and media-monitoring team to maintain sectarian division, according to documents leaked in 2006. Unsurprisingly these moves seem to have carried little favor with the public, not least because two days after his ‘removal’ Ahmed bin Attiatullah was reportedly seen in pictures with the King on his visit to Kuwait to mark that country’s National Day celebrations.  

Pro-government supporters also held a rally outside the (Sunni) Al Fateh mosque on Wednesday with some local media counting the attendance as up to 450,000.  While calling for unity, the speaker and former opposition member Abdullatif Al Mahmoud stepped up the rhetoric against protesters at the Pearl roundabout, calling the movement “an attack on the security of a nation” and condemning teachers for participating in the strikes.  Al Mahmoud re-affirmed support for the ruling Al Khalifa family, and called for the country to “return to normal”.   Critics claim that while preaching unity and anti-sectarianism, Al Mahmoud remained silent as the crowd chanted “الشعب يريد إزالة الدوار؟” (the people- want- the removal of the roundabout).

Today ended with reports of clashes among youth in Hamad Town, where school fights have broken out in the past between ‘naturalized’ Bahrainis and other students. Riot police were deployed. Sources suggest that the clashes were connected to current events, but details are not clear and have not been confirmed. This report follows earlier ones that claimed fights had broken out at a public girls’ school, also related to current events.  

For a summary of international responses to the current uprising in Bahrain:

The deeply respected and acclaimed musician Marcel Khalife announced his withdrawal from Bahrain’s government sponsored ‘Spring of Culture’ programme of events, in a ‘humanitarian’ gesture of support for the Bahraini protesters.

According to Reuters, had Bahrain not withdrawn from hosting the Formula 1 opening race scheduled to begin on March 11, Williams and potentially other teams would likely ‘not have gone’.  

The US and GCC have stepped up their rhetoric bolstering the Bahraini regime, with US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman ‘re-iterating his country’s support for national dialogue in Bahrain’ after meetings with government officials including the Crown Prince and the GCC announcing  a ‘Marshall Aid Plan’ to assist Bahrain and Oman as they (by this, read the regimes) face instability.

Apparently, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal also supports national dialogue in Bahrain. And to summarize the most recent developments, Hilary Clinton is back – and she wants you to know, that along with your favorite sweater that is missing, most things that are bad in the world can (and should by all means) be blamed on Iran.

[To be updated . . . ]

[Also see our Notes From the Bahraini Field Update 1 and Update 2]
Tags

  • ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR

    • Harvard AAUP on Termination of CMES Leadership

      Harvard AAUP on Termination of CMES Leadership

      The Executive Committee of AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter condemns the abrupt termination of the leadership of Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES): Professor Cemal Kafadar as Director and Associate Professor Rosie Bsheer as Associate Director. Though both Kafadar and Bsheer will retain their regular faculty positions, this summary dismissal of two leading Middle East scholars from their administrative positions is a political infringement on academic freedom and the autonomy of professors to shape intellectual agendas in their areas of research, teaching, and programming expertise.

    • Long Form Podcast Episode 4: Why the U.S. Media & Democrats Won’t Save Anyone (3 April)

      Long Form Podcast Episode 4: Why the U.S. Media & Democrats Won’t Save Anyone (3 April)

      In this episode of Long Form Podcast, Laila Al-Arian, Assal Rad, and Sana Saeed address the role of corporate media and the Democratic party in enabling Israel’s Genocide and paving the way for many of Trump’s policies. Speakers also address the Democrats’ double standard on ethnic cleansing in Palestine.

    • Teaching Palestine Today: Liberal Arts Context

      Teaching Palestine Today: Liberal Arts Context

      Join our first session of “Teaching Palestine Today” series. This session addresses the “Liberal Arts Context,” with Lara Deeb, Heather Ferguson, Amanda Lagji, and Leila Mansouri, moderated by Bassam Haddad. Four faculty members at the Claremont Colleges, a liberal arts consortium, discuss their approaches to including material on Palestine and Palestinian perspectives into classes in anthropology, history, postcolonial and decolonial literature, and creative writing. Topics addressed include classroom approaches, syllabi scaffolding, and strategies for building support beyond the classroom.
Feb 16, 2011 Lebanon
Jadaliyya Reports By :
Jadaliyya Reports

Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 

[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412