RAMALLAH DIARY

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This morning I met Khaled Daoudi, of the Ramallah Co-operative organisation. I wanted to discuss with him the twinning, with Oxford Co-ops. He explained to me that the Co-ops in the UK were mainly consumer based, whereas in Palestine they were on the produce side. In the Ramallah area the main part of the Co-op movement are the farmers. When, showing my ignorance, I asked if that meant that the farms were co-operatively owned, he laughed, and said that ownership of the land was a holy thing, and this was what the struggle in the region was all about.

In reality the farmers get together at the co-operative level in order to get cheaper seeds, pesticides, glass for greenhouses etc., in other words it is generally a purchasing co-operative. the co-operative also provides agronomists, training, and other such services. Only in one place do they have a processing co-operative, for olive oil, which is one of the best in the world, but quite expensive.

A major problem apart from the closures etc. is the fact that the Israeli Government subsidises their farmers, and they are able to flood the Palestinian market. Again he was very keen to relate to Oxford Co-ops, but their only real commodity would be Olive oil, and that would have to be sold on a solidarity basis. Khaled lives in Jerusalem, and I found out from him that apart from closures, the Qalandia checkpoint is only ever open between 6 in the morning, and 9 at night.

Israeli settlement overlooking Ramallah

Mohammet immediately said to me that the biggest help the British Trade unions could give would be to help in the training of the PGFTU members for democratic elections. They are hoping to hold elections in the next three months or so. He said no elections have taken place for 10 years, for obvious reasons of logistical difficulties, but also because some people don't want to lose their positions. He is part of the 'Democratic Workers Movement' in the PGFTU, and says he doesn't want to sit in an unelected position any longer. He would like sympathetic British trade unions to hold training sessions on elections because his members have never seen any. Obviously it would not be able to hold postal ballots, because the letters to the house system is non existent. As far as individual Trade Unions in Oxford twinning with their opposite number, then he would prefer to wait a short while until the elections, rather than give us a name of somebody who might not be there in three months.

Go for final ice cream at Rakubs, 'the finest in the hemisphere' according to my guidebook, and get my stuff and head for qalandia, and Jerusalem.

Day 6.5 supplementary

Date: 07 June 2003 17:30

Andy

As I set off for Qalandia people in the office said that it had just been closed. I still thought I would take a chance. The service taxis told me it was closed, so I got an ordinary taxi.

When I arrived there were about 200 people waiting, and the soldiers were letting them through slowly. Some young people said I should use my english passport to ask the soldiers to let me through, I said I felt embarassed, they said "so you are going to share our suffering". What a joke, me one day them every day. After a little over an hour I got through, in the humiliating crush that included young women, and small children, the remarks made by the people to me about the Israelis do not bear repeating. The young man next to me in the taxi going to Jerusalem had waited 2 hours.
I am reminded of what Mohammit Aruri had said to me. He, and the union Executive representatives from Jerusalem, had taken 6 hours getting through all the checkpoints, on the way to a meeting in Nablus, yet at the final one, Hawarra the Israelis had refused to let them through. So they had to go home, so much for democracy. To plan anything is almost impossible.

Tony Richardson