The year-long cultural capital designation is an honor and prestige for Arab capitals. It rotates among Arab countries and it is usually a cause for celebration. But this year’s choice falls on a city that Israel says is its capital - Jerusalem.
Initially planned for early 2009, the celebration was postponed until the 21st of March, due to the recent Israeli aggression on Gaza that has left Palestinian mourning their brothers. The launching of the event occurred last week in Bethlehem, rather than Jerusalem, to bypass the Israel occupation on the holy city, as the government made everything possible for Jerusalem not to celebrate its Arab heritage.
Israeli police and special forces have been deployed in large number by Israel across occupied East Jerusalem in order to prevent any celebration and festivities were marked by arrests, intimidation acts and confiscation of flags and banners associated with the event.
Varsen Aghabkhian is the Executive Director for the event. She tells us what are the struggles and symbols behind.
Palestine Monitor: Jerusalem, Capital of the Arab culture, include ‘Capital’ in its title. That is a pretty ambition project. What are the roots of the idea?
Varsen Aghabkhian: The ministers of Arab culture of the Arab League decided in 2006 that Jerusalem will be the Capital representing the Arab culture for 2009, after Damascus in 2008. The celebration will host several activities throughout the years and starts with an opening that launches the entire event. After the opening, we expect many cultural activities to take place throughout Palestine, and that is the real challenge.
PM: Due to the context, Palestinians are scattered everywhere in the Arab world and across the region, without any physical unity, so about which territories are we talking about?
V.A: It will take place various places where Palestinians are living today. Of course, in East-Jerusalem, inside the walls of the old city, but also in the different Palestinian governorates in the West Bank as well as in Gaza. Several activities will also be organized inside the historic Palestine and the 1948 territories and we also set up links with cultural organizations working with the Palestinians from the diaspora, mainly Syria, Lebanon and Jordan where you can find the vast majority of the Palestinian refugees.
P.M: There is a huge symbolic and emotional value in the setting up of such an event…
V.A: Jerusalem singular, it is not like any other capital in the world. It has a special meaning, context, background and history; religious, human and political-wise. For us, celebrating Jerusalem as the cradle of our culture is a magnificent symbol, not only for the Palestinians but also for the Arabs around the globe. The holy city has a special meaning for the three main religions but the Israeli consider it as theirs, exclusively. Our capital is banned. Nowhere in the world, you will find a country with such a context, where citizens cannot visit their capital. Except in Jerusalem. If you live here, you will notice that children who had grown under occupation and are teenagers or young adults now, have never been there, they’ve never seen it. Even if they live five kilometers away. This is unbelievable. If you mention something like that to someone abroad, they won’t believe you. But this is a fact on the ground.
P.M: In such a context, can you make a difference between the cultural event and a political claim?
V.A: It is a cultural event, yes. But it is also inseparable from the political claim. The choice of Jerusalem aimed to reflect Jerusalem as a political entity, as a political and strong symbolic place for the Palestinians and the Arab world.
P.M: Did you face any problems with foreign countries to support the event, regarding the political dimension?
V.A: Not really. We didn’t have to cover anything up when presenting the project to foreign officials. The Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and Palestine is a fact. And it is illegal. This is endorsed and recognized by many United Nation resolutions, so there is nothing to hide. There is only the Israeli occupation that has to be fought, because they claim Jerusalem as a unified Jewish city and refuse to share it. I think the world understood the legitimacy under which we are working.
P.M. Initially, the event was set up earlier this year, but was postponed due to the attacks in Gaza in January…
V.A. Initially, the launching was scheduled on the 23rd of February, but when the aggression started on Gaza, we taught it was impossible to launch a celebration in that context. We conceived the event as a festivity; it was designed for the people to be happy and to really feel that this is their capital, despite the harsh context. So it was inappropriate to do so while our brothers are mourning in Gaza.
P.M. The organization is very much challenged by the Israeli occupation, how did you coped with that?
V.A. Initially, the launching was designed to occur simultaneously from five different sites, connecting them together. If it was anywhere in the world, it would be obvious that the launching would take place in the same site, that everybody would gather in the same place. That would be it. For us Palestinians, the meaning of having five sites was very important, because we want to include all the Palestinians wherever they are. We want to present and to address a unified Palestinian society, to challenge the facts and the dispersion on the ground.
The historic Palestine and the 1948 territories are extremely important, it represents the roots of our society and they have the right to celebrate Jerusalem too. We are also talking about the Palestinians in the diaspora – a vast percentage- who also have the right to celebrate. Along with Palestinians from Gaza who cannot reach Jerusalem or the ones from the West Bank who cannot enter the city. Finally, it is a celebration for the Jerusalemites themselves who Israel is trying to isolate in every possible ways.
P.M. The launching of the event took place last week in the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, a couple of kilometers away far from Jerusalem. Can you explain us why?
V.A. The Israeli authorities issued orders and deployed forces to prevent our event to take place in Jerusalem. This is the occupation. So we needed to bypass the ban. When you’re Palestinian, you need to be creative. We wanted to include those five sites, this is how the launching was conceived, simultaneously from 5 different places, connected together. Unfortunately, our initial idea to connect the five different sites with Jerusalem was impossible. But of course we knew that the Israeli would take measures to impede whatever we would be planning. So we set up a “B Plan”, especially for Jerusalem because we really wanted something to come out of the main city, even if we knew it would be banned.
As expected, they have attacked and shut the activities in Jerusalem. But as part of the B-plan, we recorded the entire launching from Jerusalem, two days before. So, when we launched the celebration in Bethlehem as a substitute, we aired what we prior recorded and Jerusalem was therefore part of the celebration.
It is sad in a way, but we knew. And now, we’ve showed the world what is it like to live under occupation.
P.M. What were the reactions of people who attended the launching event?
V.A. In Gaza, we were unable to air directly. But the airing in Lebanon was very emotional because, we could see each other simultaneously. Palestinians from Lebanon and Bethlehem were connected, able to see each other and listen to each other. When listening to the speech, I watched the emotions of the audience, and some were sometimes crying. It was very powerful.
P.M. Which ban and arrests did you face on the ground?
V.A. We faced several intimidation acts and bans. In Nazareth -the biggest Arab city inside Israel- Israeli also banned the celebration. (She shows the order from the Israeli Government in Hebrew.) They claimed that no event under the hospices of the Palestinian Authority could take place. But the Capital of Arab culture is operated under the PLO –Palestinian Liberation Organization, signatory of the Oslo Agreement as the official body to represents the Palestinians and the official partner for negotiations- and that is supposed to be legal.
In Jerusalem, we expected the worse. This is the implicit rule with Jerusalem: it is always the worse case scenario because the Eastern Arab part of the city is already under full Israeli control and militaries are everywhere.
P.M. What were your alternatives for Jerusalem?
V.A. As Palestinians, we have to move on. If we think that we should stay home because there will be troubles, nothing will be done in Jerusalem. So as we wanted activities in the Holy city, we planned alternative kind of events, nothing indoor, because we knew this would be banned. So we re-think the activities to make them take place in the morning streets, in the schools… wherever we could.
School kids gathered with balloons, clowns and dabka groups -the Palestinian traditional folklore dance- were showing in the street. Those popular activities were very important for us. We wanted to celebrate the people, their capital, their culture, and not emphasizing on politicians and VIP’s.
It was a reflection of the steadfastness and challenging of the occupation and for me, it is one of the most successful way to challenge occupation. We had no stones, no guns and no rockets. We had balloons and white flags. We stood up in front of the Israeli soldiers and their artillery. They were threatening the balloons and the clowns. It was very ridiculous, like if balloons were so scary. The world should know that: The retaliation is harsh, even when you’re only armed with balloons.
In the end, some members of our administrative council were arrested but they have been all released. The message has been said very clearly by the Israeli: This is not your city. If you wish to celebrate your culture, celebrate it elsewhere. But finally, we were not surprised; this is a rhetoric that we have been hearing for the past 40 years.
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