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Dubai: He has been called a self-hating Jew, a Jewish Taliban and had his New York family threatened, but the co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Adam Shapiro, has continued to fight for a just solution for the Palestinians.
After being jailed, deported and banned by Israel, Shapiro has been working with Palestinians from "the outside", and is now about to release a six-part documentary about Palestinian refugees, that took him to 18 countries, including the UAE. He interviewed several Palestinians living in Abu Dhabi for the film.
The ISM was launched and made famous during the Second Intifada, when foreign activists would go into the troubled areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to protest, assist Palestinians and even act as human shields.
Since then, however, after losing one activist to an Israeli bulldozer and continued Israeli intimidation, the ISM's foreign activity in Palestine has slowed.
Shapiro attributes this to the effectiveness of Israel in keeping foreign activists out, as well as recent kidnappings of Westerners considered by Palestinians to be "friendly", such as former BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston.
But he stresses that the ISM is a Palestinian organisation for which foreign activists are a resource, and not the other way round.
Activism is, however, very much alive, insists Shapiro, crediting the resettlement of more than 200 Palestinian refugees fleeing the violence in Iraq in both Chile and Brazil to efforts made by him and another Palestinian activist.
"We managed to close the Ruweished refugee camp [in Jordan]. It's the first time a camp has been closed, not because of violence or destruction but because people were actually moving to what I think is a better place, where they have rights, protection and opportunities, and can hopefully also contribute to the [Palestinian] cause," he says.
The relatively privileged status of Palestinian refugees under the Saddam Hussain regime made them a target of militias and anti-Ba'athist groups after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Many fled, becoming second- and even third-time refugees.
Shapiro explains that the situation of Palestinian refugees from Iraq is unique. While they are small in number compared to Iraqi refugees, their situation is grave and desolate in the camps.
"Many Palestinian refugee groups didn't even realise that there were Palestinian refugees in Iraq until after they had already endured a lot… The humanitarian organisations were reluctant to move them from the camps fearing objections from the PLO or [other] political problems," he says.
While acknowledging the controversy surrounding resettlements and naturalisation of Palestinian refugees in third countries, Shapiro nonetheless insists that a lot can be done for the refugee cause by Palestinians outside the region.
"Being in the region and on the land of Palestine has not brought the Palestinians any closer to being home," he argues. One of the major mistakes of the Palestinian national movement was placing itself under the "lock and key" of Israel by moving back to Palestine, he says.
For many refugees the dream of a better life in a third country is appealing but their refusal to be resettled signifies a form of resistance to Israel and its occupation of their land. Shapiro hopes that discussing the issues will help create a debate among Palestinians, Arabs and supporters of the Palestinian cause.
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