umkahlil

What Would Jesus Say (to a Zio-Christian)?

2009-09-10T00:07:00.005+02:00

Holy Family Catholic Church in Ramallah

Time to re-visit, as administrators like to say, the Christian Zionists. This is a response to the usual blather from one of the the Armageddon is nigh types:

You ask rhetorically, Who Are the Palestinians? just before you admonish them to take up residence in one of the twenty-two Arab countries so that European and American Jews may live in Palestine without Arabs.

What you don't seem to get, full of the usual canards that you are is that Palestinians are a diverse people, just like any people. We certainly are not all alike. I am a Christian Palestinian; twenty percent of the Palestinians are Christian. We are the original stones; that is, the original Christians descended from the apostles. My father was born in Ramallah, which before 1948, was a totally Christian village. I can asssure you that none of my relatives nor I wish to see Jews obliterated.

Most Palestinians would just like to return to their towns and villages from which they were expelled to make way for European and American Jews. I think that it is very sad that our grandmothers and grandfathers may not return to their villages to be buried, yet any Jew, from anywhere in the world may immigrate to Israel and become an instant citizen. I wonder how Christ would view this injustice.

Would Christ be happy that Zionist Jews shoot children in the head and the heart? Johnny Thalijieh was an altar boy at a Greek Orthodox Church; he was shot by an Israeli soldier while he was standing in front of his uncle's store. Do you know that the Christian villagers of Bir'im watched as the Israelis bombed their village in the 1950's? Even though the villagers wanted to live peacefully among the Israelis and didn't even want the part of the land back that European Jews had stolen from them, the Israelis wanted to assure that they would not return so they bombed their beloved village.

Would Christ condone land theft and house demolitions? Would Christ condone a Zionist Jewish settler in Hebron who screams "whore" at her Palestinian neighbor and directs her children to throw rocks at her in hopes that she'll leave her home?

I find it very arrogant to expect my relatives and countrymen to leave their homes and take up residence in any Arab country so that European and American Jews may continue to devastate and wreck havoc in what once was a Holy and peaceful land. We do not come from Syria; we do not come from Saudi Arabia; we do not come from Qatar or Dubai or Kuwait; our home is Palestine. This is a story that I wrote about Christian Zionists:

An Apology From a US Christian to Palestinians

This is my apology for Christians in the US to Muslims, the Arab World, and particularly Palestinians. Too many of my co-religionists have made a travesty of the Golden Rule which unequivocally compels us, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

For example Ed McAteer, founder of the Moral Majority, and a Christian Zionist who doesn't believe Israel should relinquish any of the illegally occupied territories, was asked by Bob Simon of CBS News: "What about the three million Palestinians who live on the West Bank and Gaza?"Simon said that McAteer suggested that " . . . the bulk of them could be cleansed . . . and moved to some Arab country."

Not to be outdone, Kay Arthur, of Precept Ministries, an organization that leads tours to Israel, told Simon that Yitzak Rabin's signing of the Oslo Accords was a mistake " . . . and I believe that God stopped it by the things that happened," a not so indirect reference to Rabin's death by assassination.

In March 2002, Ariel Sharon invaded the occupied territories again. George Bush unequivocally told him to get out. Jerry Falwell launched a campaign in which his minions, estimated at 20-26 million, phoned, e-mailed, and wrote letters to Bush and Congress. Bush didn't say another word as Sharon unleashed another vicious attack on the indigenous people of the occupied territories and Falwell boasted, "The Bible Belt is Israel's safety net in the US."

One incitement to hatred that I found particularly appalling from my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ is the following from the Fourth International Christian Congress on Biblical Zionism.

"We also urge the Church to recognize that local Christian Arabs have been living under unbearable circumstances due to abusive Islamic coercion and intimidation."

My father was a Palestinian Orthodox Christian. When he lay dying four years ago, the person who visited him most frequently, and who came a long way from Northern California to do so was the son of a prominent Jerusalem Muslim cleric. Indeed, my father and Sa'eb were friends for most of their adult lives. For US Christian Zionists to make a proclamation about supposed animosity between Muslim and Christian Palestinians is the height of audacity and ignorance.

Indeed, the fate of the Christian Palestinian is no different than that of the Muslim if these millions strong fanatical hatemongers hold sway. In fact, Palestinians are chastised for seeking solace in Christ for their suffering. To the Christian Zionists it is no more than "exploitation of His suffering and sacrifice for temporal and devious political purposes."

Christian Zionist websites still peddle misinformation that has been debunked not only by Palestinian historians, but also Israeli historians. "There simply is no distinct Palestinian entity," proclaims retired Brigadier General James Hutchens of the JerUSAlem Connection. Particularly galling is his pernicious use of the word "so-called" when putting "Palestinian" before people.

And then he proceeds to pontificate on what we are "in reality." People without a "distinct culture." People to whom he referred in "An Open Letter to President Bush," as "from God's viewpoint . . . the illegal occupants, not the Israelis."

Christian Zionist websites repeatedly bleat that Allah is not "our" God although as a Christian Palestinian I call upon God, "Ya Allah." As the daughter of a Christian Palestinian I am the descendent of the original stones, the first Christians, although the Christian Zionists consider my Palestinian brethren, both Muslim and Christian as "illegal" occupants of the land to which they're indigenous. It is particulary hateful for these Bible Belters to make the ignorant assumption that Palestinians lack a discernable "culture." Assuming that they did not have a distinct culture, does it give anyone a right to ethnically cleanse them? To the Christian Zionists, Palestinians are the children of a lesser God.

For their malice, for their perversion of Christianity, for their promulgation of lies regarding the Palestinian people and their history in Palestine, for their demonisation of the Palestinians, for their lack of regard for the dwindling numbers of their co-religionists in Palestine, for the lies that their leaders spew about God; i.e., "Those who promote a Palestinian state have placed themselves in alliance against God," for their incitement to hatred, for their advocating ethnic cleansing, for their role in promoting Israel's repressive measures in the occupied territories, for those who believe as does Gary Bauer, co-founder of Stand For Israel, that it is an "obscenity" to give up land for peace, and for their complete and total abdication of the Golden Rule, I apologize to the Palestinians on behalf of US Christians.

For those US Christians among us who are appalled at what our co-religionists are doing in our name, and who still consider "the least of their brethren," please look to those Palestinian Christians such as Reverend Naim Ateek, the founder of liberation theology, and an advocate of "spirituality based on justice, peace, nonviolence, and love." That's what I thought Christianity was all about. Let us not allow it to be hijacked by the fanatics.

Why Do We Embrace Zionists Like Uri Avnery?

2009-08-17T09:19:00.004+02:00

It never ceases to amaze me that Palestinians promote Zionist writers and thinkers. Case in point is Uri Avnery, a man who has never renounced Zionism; in fact, he is a proud Zionist. Helena Cobban in Counterpunch points out that Avnery seems to plead with Dov Yermiya, who recently renounced Zionism, to reconsider. Avnery, who obviously knows better or should know better if he could get beyond his tribal affinity, writes about a vision of Zionism that was in its incipient stages more "idealistic." One wonders what's idealistic about a state built upon the ruins of another culture and civilization; one wonders what's idealistic and laudable about a state which has refugees at its gates seeing Jews from all over the world reaping the benefits from ill gotten gains, yet Avnery rivals the best of the Zionist proselytizers:

“You, Dov, have invested in this state much too much to turn your back on it in a gesture of anger and despair. The most hackneyed and worn-out slogan in Israel is also true: ‘We don't have another state!’

“Other states in the world have sunk to the depths of depravity and committed unspeakable crimes, far beyond our worst sins, and still brought themselves back to the family of nations and redeemed their souls."

Would that Avnery was concerned for the Palestinian refugees he and his fellow European Jews have supplanted rather than bringing an ex-Zionist back into the fold.

Cobban's story

Why Don't You Go Back From Where You Came?

2009-08-13T23:20:00.006+02:00

Isn't She Lovely?

This woman from the US made "Aliyah" to Israel. Don't expect me to tell you she has the "right" to haul herself and her family to Palestine when many Palestinian refugees live within a stone's throw of their property and contrary to international law are not allowed to return.

Zionist propagandists never tire of repeating that Arabs have twenty-two countries, Jews have only one, but try telling a Zionist to go back from where he/she came, and be prepared for an all out assault.

My friend and mentor, Annie Annab, writes daily letters to the media in regard to the Palestinians’ universally recognized right of return. She often points out how many Jews enjoy rights and privileges in two countries, i.e., those who have dual American/Israeli citizenship, whereas the indigenous Palestinians have no rights anywhere.

The Zionists, after usurping and destroying our land, as well as anti-Zionists, have a propensity to own the conversation, here, there, and everywhere. My late father was correct when he told me that the world would know about what really happened in Palestine when the Jews wanted it to know. Now, I will be called an anti-Semite, but consider, when Palestinians speak, no one listens. Case in point is today when Amnesty International revealed that Palestinians carrying white flags during Israel’s Cast Lead horror were shot. Every Palestinian who subscribes to a list serve knew this months ago, but now it's made the news.

When we do speak honestly, we risk careers or we are vilified and marginalized. I used to write at Daily Kos, but I was banned. At the time I was banned, I was the last Palestinian standing. Recently, a couple of Palestinians have joined the ranks, but for a long while only so-called anti-Zionist Jews could present their version of the Palestinian story at Daily Kos. I say "so-called," because some of them did not advocate for right of return.

To elaborate on my point that we risk careers if we speak out, let me reveal what happened at a social justice presentation I recently attended. I can’t reveal the particulars or I will most assuredly not make the cut to be a social justice trainer for a very large US organization. But what is telling to me is that many Jews were comfortable speaking before the group in regard to how their worldview was shaped by the Holocaust, but I could not get up and ask the presenters how in the hell could they presume to talk about social justice and not even mention the Palestinians?

Many Jews, who are Palestinian sympathizers, actually serve the function of mitigating Israel's image as a pariah state, and most likely would prefer that we steer away from uncomfortable questions, and when we don’t; for example, when we ask someone like Rabbi Arik Aschermann of Rabbis for Human Rights, “Why don’t you go back to America,” we risk being called “radicals” and worse. We’re supposed to be so grateful that there are Jews who support us, even, as in the case of the highly touted “kinder and gentler” Zionist Martin Buber, who for all his humaneness, lived in the usurped house of Edward Said.

Some of the really nasty Zionists at Daily Kos kept harping on some blog post I’d written on my own blog in a distant past in which I used the term “Zionist occupied America,” and, as if to prove my point, they called upon me to repudiate this phrase (they also were ticked because I’d compared a little Palestinian girl to Anne Frank). But America is Zionist occupied. The fact that I may not get up and speak freely in a forum about social justice is all the evidence that I need that if I want this position that’s good for my career I need to STFU. And the fact that Zionists who claim to be Palestinian supporters stop the conversation when we question the legitimacy of Israel, proves the point, also.

Recently, a Palestinian friend of mine who spoke her mind in a Facebook comment section was told "no one likes you" by an American/Iranian/Israeli who gained a little attention when he didn’t shave and put on a "Free Palestine" tee-shirt to walk around Tel Aviv, then wrote about it. Her mistake was to speak candidly instead of humbling herself before his so-called anti-Zionist self. I wonder if he would have written the same sentiment to an African-American. He presumed to tell her how she differed from other Palestinians he’d encountered. As if all nine million of us are alike. Her mistake was not worshipping at the altar of the Palestinian sympathizer who doesn’t sympathize enough to hightail it back to Europe or America and leave Palestine to the Palestinians (and I know that some of them have no place to go; I'm not proposing to throw the Jews into the sea). Her mistake was adhering to the highly radical notion of letting Palestinians interpret themselves for themselves and perhaps her naivete was in believing that there are spaces for us in public forums to speak freely about our own experiences when in fact there are not if one wants approbation from our Zionist and even anti-Zionist friends.

David Letterman, Get A Clue

2009-08-01T11:08:00.004+02:00

I have a problem sending youtube videos to this blog so if you haven't seen this video in which Ayman Abu Aita, whom Sasha Baron Cohen called a "terrorist" on the Letterman show, exposes his blatant Zionist propaganda, go to this link. Ayman is sueing Cohen for his defamation; I hope he is successful, and I hope this disgusting portrayal of Palestinians comes to an end once and for all. People in Letterman's position should know better than to be part of an ethnophobic charade.

Also, check out the Guardian story: The non-profit worker from Bethlehem who was branded a terrorist by Bruno

Promoting the film recently on the David Letterman talkshow in the US,
Baron Cohen explained that finding a "terrorist" to interview for the movie took
several months and some help from a CIA contact. He described the secular
Martyrs Brigades, most of whom signed an amnesty deal with Israel in 2007, as "the number one suicide bombers out there".

Abu Aita said: "My file is clear with the Americans. I was in the states
twice and I travel all the time." He is a Christian Fatah representative – of
the movement's political wing, he stresses – for Bethlehem district. He is also
a member of the board of the Holy Land trust, a non-profit organisation that
works on Palestinian community-building. "I am a non-violent activist and I am
not ashamed of that," he says.

Henry Louis Gates Should Know Better

2009-08-01T10:55:00.003+02:00

One would think a leading professor in African-American studies might venture out of his field in regard to the oppression of other people. Evidently, this is not the case for Henry Louis Gates, Jr (thanks David and Mondoweiss):

"’The Case for Israel’ is indispensable reading for those of us who are deeply disturbed by the rise of anti-Semitism in American society, even on college campuses." -Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Chairman, Department of African and African-American Studies at Harvard

"On one of his many visits to Israel, Dershowitz analyzed the Israeli government's program of collective punishment against the Palestinians – demolishing the homes of innocent relatives of those involved in suicide bombing. It is a practice outlawed under international law," writes Bamford.

"Nevertheless, Dershowitz decided to recommend a more effective policy – leveling the buildings in entire villages. 'The next time the terrorists attack,' he said, 'the village's residents would be given twenty-four hours to leave, and then Israeli troops would bulldoze the houses.'"

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/capozzola1.html

Leonard Cohen is not playing in Ramallah

2009-07-14T22:45:00.000+02:00

PACBI Press Release

Occupied Ramallah, 12 July 2009

PACBI has been heartened by the untiring efforts of BDS activists in the US and UK in organizing demonstrations and pickets at Leonard Cohen’s performances in advance of his planned concert in Tel Aviv later this summer. The call, “don’t Play Israel !” has been heard loud and clear.

After exhausting all attempts to convince Cohen to apply his avowed humanistic principles in a morally consistent way by refusing to entertain Israeli apartheid and whitewash its crimes, we called on all supporters of a just peace in our region to shun Cohen's concerts and CDs and to protest his appearances everywhere. In an open letter to Cohen in May, we warned that we considered his performance in Israel a form of complicity in its grave violations of international law; we reminded him that by violating the Palestinian boycott against Israel he would bring back the ugly memory of artists who violated the boycott against apartheid South Africa and insisted to perform at Sun City, drawing condemnation and revulsion by people of conscience the world over [1].

We are now pleased to announce that we have received confirmation from the Palestinian Prisoners' Club Society that they will not be hosting Leonard Cohen in Ramallah. A strong consensus has emerged among all parties concerned that Cohen is not welcome in Ramallah as long as he insists on performing in Tel Aviv, even though it had been claimed that Cohen would dedicate his concert in Palestine to the cause of Palestinian prisoners. Ramallah will not receive Cohen as long as he is intent on whitewashing Israel‘s colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel.

PACBI has always rejected any attempt to "balance" concerts or other artistic events in Israel--conscious acts of complicity in Israel‘s violation of international law and human rights--with token events in the occupied Palestinian territory. Such attempts at "parity" not only immorally equate the oppressor with the oppressed, taking a neutral position on the oppression (thereby siding with the oppressor, as Desmond Tutu famously said); they also are an insult to the Palestinian people, as they assume that we are naive enough to accept such token shows of "solidarity" that are solely intended to cover up grave acts of collusion in whitewashing Israel‘s crimes. Those sincerely interested in defending Palestinian rights and taking a moral and courageous stance against the Israeli occupation and apartheid should not play Israel , period. That is the minimum form of solidarity Palestinian civil society has called for.

We feel that this is an occasion to reaffirm our position first articulated two years ago in relation to visits to the occupied Palestinian territory by artists, performers, and academics who wish to show solidarity with Palestinians while primarily coming to Israel to perform or participate in academic or artistic activities. As we noted then, Palestinians have always warmly welcomed solidarity visits by international visitors; however, most Palestinians firmly believe that such solidarity visits should not be used as an occasion to organize performances, film screenings or exhibits in mainstream Israeli venues or to give lectures at Israeli universities ; collaborate in any way with Israeli political, cultural or academic institutions; or participate in activities sponsored or supported -- directly or indirectly -- by the Israeli government or any of its agencies [2].

The Cohen team's motives may not be so innocent, however. We believe that the plan for Cohen to perform for Palestinians is an effort to defuse the bad publicity and animated demonstrations by BDS activists at performance venues in several cities. Cohen's managers probably felt that by adding a Ramallah gig at the last minute, they could deflate the growing protest and the PACBI call for boycott against the tour. While this is a reflection of the positive effect the boycott call has generated, it also shows that Tel Aviv is still on the tour agenda. More protests and more publicity about the boycott are needed, and this is why the demonstrations and pickets in London , Liverpool and elsewhere are so welcome.

www.PACBI.org
pacbi@pacbi.org

[1] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1006
[2] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=539

On the Occasion of World Refugee Day

2009-06-20T10:15:00.003+02:00

Displacement from Ramle, 1948.

http://www.badil.org/Publications/Press/2009/press508-09.htm

Statistics released by UN agencies on the occasion of the 2009 World Refugee Day testify to the fact that Palestinian refugees are the largest and longest standing refugee population world wide. They lack access to just solutions and reparations, including return, because Israel and western governments continue to deny or belittle the scope of the problem and make no effort to respect and implement relevant international law and best practice.

According to a forthcoming Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons for the years 2007-2008 produced by Badil, at least 7.6 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced since 1948 as a consequence of Israel's systematic policies and practices of colonization, occupation and apartheid. That figure represents 71 percent of the entire worldwide population of 10.6 million Palestinians. Only 28.7 percent of all Palestinians have never been displaced from their homes. (click here for information pdf)

The great majority of the displaced (6.2 million people - 81.5 percent) are Palestinian refugees of 1948 (the Nakba), who were ethnically cleansed in order to make space for the state of Israel and their descendants. This figure includes 4.7 million Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations (UNRWA) at the end of 2008. The second major group (940,000 – 12.5%) are Palestinian refugees of 1967, who were displaced during the 1967 Arab-Israel war and their descendants.

More attention and concern should be given to the phenomenon of forced displacement of Palestinians because it is ongoing.

Steadily growing populations of internally displaced Palestinians (IDPs) are the result of ongoing forced displacement in Israel (approximately 335,000 IDPs since 1948) and the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1967 (approximately 120,000 IDPs since 1967). Badil's Survey identifies a set of distinct, systematic and widespread Israeli policies and practices which induce ongoing forced displacement among the indigenous Palestinian population, including deportation and revocation of residency rights, house demolition, land confiscation, construction and expansion of Jewish-only settlements, closure and segregation, as well as threats to life and physical safety as a result of military operations and harassment by racist Jewish non-state actors. Israeli governments implement these policies and practices in order to change the demographic composition of certain areas (“Judaization”) and the entire country for the purpose of colonization.

Data about the scope of ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians is illustrative and indicative, because there is no singular institution or agency mandated and resourced to ensure systematic and sustained monitoring and documentation. The total number of persons displaced in 2007 – 2008 is unknown. UN agencies, however, confirm that 100,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in the occupied Gaza Strip at during Israel's military operation at the end of the year; that 198 communities in the OPT currently face forced displacement; and that 60,000 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem are at risk of having their home demolished by Israel.

The Palestinian refugee question has remained unresolved and forced displacement continues, because Western governments and international organizations have been complicit in Israel's illegal policy and practice of population transfer and have failed to protect the Palestinian people. Indicators of the severe gaps existing in the protection of Palestinian refugees and IDPs are seen in the recent crises in Iraq - where thousands of Palestinian refugees became stranded on the Jordanian/Syrian and Iraqi borders, Lebanon - where 27,000 Palestinians refugees of the Naher al-Bared camp are still waiting to return to their 2007 destroyed camp, and Gaza - where over 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 100,000 displaced, most of them 1948 refugees).

On this World Refugees Day, Badil calls upon all those concerned with justice, human rights and peace to:

Challenge Israel's racist notion of the “Jewish state” and immediately halt its practices of displacement, dispossession and colonization;

Strengthen the global Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) in order to ensure that Israel other states become accountable to international law and respect their obligations;

Improve the mechanism of international protection so that all Palestinians receive effective protection from, during and after forced displacement, including the right to return as part of durable solutions and reparation;

Ensure that the Palestinian refugee question is treated in accordance with international law and UN resolutions in future peace negotiations, including return and reparation.

More Comments

2009-06-05T22:43:00.002+02:00

In response to some idiotic Zionist diversionary post how partioning Palestine was any different than the partition of Pakistan and India

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/05/obama-israel-cairo-speech

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 1:26pm (about 8 hours ago)

I'd be more than happy too talk about the partition:

Partition was seen by the Palestinians as imposing unilateral and intolerable sacrifices on themselves . . . The area of the Jewish state according to the UN plan would actually be larger than that of the proposed Palestinian state (5,500 square miles as compared with 4,500 square miles) at a time when the Jews constituted no more than 35 percent of the population and owned less than 7 percent of the land. Within the proposed Jewish state, Jewish land ownership did not in fact exceed 600 square miles out of the total area of 5,500 square miles. Nearly all the citrus land (equally divided in ownership between Jews and Palestinians), 80 percent of the cereal land (entirely Palestinian-owned), and 40 percent of Palestinian industry would fall within the borders of the proposed Jewish state. Jaffa, the Palestinian state's major port on the Mediterranean, would be altogether cut off from its hinterland, and Gaza would lose its traditional links with the wheatlands of the Negev.

Hundreds of villages would be separated from communal fields and pastures. The Palestinian state would lose direct access both to the Red Sea and to Syria. The economic union between the two states, on which partition had been postulated, was know beforehand to be impracticable. The patchwork of subunits into which partition would divide the country bore little relationship to the human and social realities on the ground.

Khalidi, Walid. Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians 1876-1948.Washington DC: Institute For Palestine Studies, 1991.

In response to Berchmans
05 Jun 09, 3:07pm (about 7 hours ago)

umkahlil
.
## What effrontery. To insist that Palestinians recognize the "right" of of European and American Jews to dispossess them. Like these, who forgot to put their make-up on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxt9HwfPwPo ##
.
The link was horrific. Shocking...I hope this is not what young Israelis in general are like ..I hope they were completely drunk and not like that when they get back into uniform. They really think they are about to die. WTF? They seem to live in a parallel world...WTF is the news there like? No wonder so many Israelis come to CIF ! :)
B

The maker of the video writes:

As a resident of Jerusalem, I can say that the people represented in this video are not members of a fringe group or simply drunk college kids. These people reflect the sentiments shared by many people in this country and this city. These people and their families are the core of the opposition to meaningful peace between Israel and her neighbors. This is what Obama is up against.

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/06/max-blumenthal-feeling-the-hate-in-jerusalem-on-eve-of-obamas-cairo-address.html

But really, no more shocking than destroying more than five hundred villages and ethnically cleansing more than half of those who became refugees before any Arab army entered Palestine . . . no more shocking than Petra's pretty, polished propaganda. No more shocking than the hysterical rants of those here who divert from the issue, no more shocking than the majority of Israelis who sneer at Obama's very own words:

"Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail."

No more shocking than denying those people who were born in Palestine and their descendents from stepping foot in their homeland. No more shocking than demonising an entire group. Why do you think a tiny faction of Palestinians engage in violence? Because it is inherent in our nature? Or because of the massive injustice that has been perpetuated on Palestinians? I am not Hamas; I am not Fatah; I am the daughter of a man who had to leave Ramallah in 1951 because his economic prospects were next to nil after Palestine had been truncated in 1948. I would take a bullet before I would acknowledge the "right" of Israel to exist. I am not an extremist. I have the God given right to move freely in the land from which my father and ancestors came, and I will never renounce that right.

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 5:14pm (about 5 hours ago)

Another Palestinian protesting the theft of his land killed today:
The slain Palestinian was identified as Yousef Aqel Sadiq Srour, 36, who was shot in the chest with live fire, according to medics at the scene.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38333

And par for the course, the Israelis fired on an ambulance:
A Palestinian ambulance was also fired upon, injuring one of its medics, witnesses said.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38333

In response to Zionist diversion:

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 6:13pm (about 4 hours ago)

I did not say my father was a refugee, but he was a victim of the truncation of his land. Jaffa was a place where many people from Ramallah did business. Once again, the Palestinians are not responsible for what happened to the Jews in Iraq. Many reject the title "refugee," as they were "proud Zionists" who came of their own free will. This is documented in "Hitching A Ride on A Magic Carpet." There were also black ops on the part of the Zionists facilitating the exodus from Iraq. There is no moral equivalence here, but we know that marching orders of Zionists are to mention Jewish refugeees every time Palestine's refugeees are mentioned. This is a bill that came up in the US Congress. Zionism is the root cause of the problem. All else is diversion.

Further Zionists attempts to divert and dissemble and claim that the Palestinians opposed to partition were Nazis (I'm not including their comments):

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 6:44pm (about 3 hours ago)

Petra,

Your claim "and starting in the mid-1920s, the development of the land, exclusively due to Jewish immigrants' efforts (as all historical sources agree) attracted a lot of Arab immigrants" is disgraceful. Any fool can check out the photographs at Palestineremembered.com to disprove your disingenous and egregious denial of the Palestinian presence on the land. And anyone may leaf through the photos of numerous books including Before Their Diaspora by Walid Khalidi to see the Palestinian farmers, potters, businessmen, etc. who were thriving prior to the European Jewish immigration. We were not primitives, but had a well developed agrarian and cosmopolitan society.

The Mufti is another diversion; the term Nakba isn't employed because the truncation of Palestine was considered a picnic by Palestinians.

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 7:20pm (about 3 hours ago)
I never claimed that my father was a refugee; for the second time a Zionist says I claimed something I didn't say in order to discredit me. Then you make some claim about my father, whom you know nothing about.

And if the Zionists did so well with the land, why don't you read Raja Shehadeh's Palestinian Walks. He does a great job of claiming how the hills around Ramallah were decimated by the people who claim to love the land so much.

You continue to go out of your way to deny Palestinians rights on their own lands. It's really rich that a German immigrant calls me an extremist for insisting that Palestinians have the right to live on their own land. You are the extremist, Petra, bringing up other situations in order to justify Israel's continuing oppression of Palestinians.

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 7:34pm (about 2 hours ago)

Typical Zionist tactic, Petra, throwing up a lot of bs in order to mislead.

I said Palestine was an agrarian and cosmopolitan society; where do I mention the fellahin?
I didn't say anything about the Mufti other than throwing him up is another Zionist diversionary tactic, and I didn't say anything about Jews in Arab lands, which has nothing to do with Palestinians, other than some left of their own accord and some left because of Zionist black op operations.

And Petra, destroying hundreds of villages is wrong. And ethnically cleansing a civilian population is wrong. And trying to justify it is also wrong.

Let me quote Salman Abu Sitta's words to Gershon Baskin:

The Palestinians, and most of the world with them, are determined to pursue justice, eradicate racism and Apartheid. Just as South Africa did. They have no intention of disappearing.
Baskin, true friendship should go to the Israelis to help shake them off their collective amnesia about what they have done and are doing to the Palestinians and to advise them that their salvation lies in shedding racism fully and forever. They have to amend their ways, reverse ethnic cleansing and make reparations.

For it is clear that the history of Jews will ultimately be marked indelibly, and above all other historical events, by what they have done in Palestine.

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 8:13pm (about 2 hours ago)
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story420.html

It's hypocritical for Zionist apologists to hold Palestinians responsible for the actions of one man, considering the alliance made between the Stern Gang and Nazis.
And this really has nothing to do with the ongoing oppression of the Palestinians.

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 8:19pm (about 2 hours ago)

Dr. Abu Sitta has a very pragmatic approach.

The Right of Return is Feasible.

http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2005/06/dr-salman-abu-sitta-right-of-return-is.html

And no, Ehad, Palestinians did not immigrate to Palestine and steal the land and dispossess the people; we were there; Jewish immigrants from all over the world did this. And there are no excuses for what the Zionists did to Palestine and what they continue to do.
I

Comment

2009-06-05T13:54:00.004+02:00

Comment left on the Zionist's post on CIF

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 12:50pm (1 minute ago)

Palestinians are not responsible for Jews who either emigrated from Arab countries or were forced out. Zionism is.

What effrontery. To insist that Palestinians recognize the "right" of of European and American Jews to dispossess them. Like these, who forgot to put their make-up on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxt9HwfPwPo

umkahlil
05 Jun 09, 4:29pm (18 minutes ago)

The maker of the video writes:

As a resident of Jerusalem, I can say that the people represented in this video are not members of a fringe group or simply drunk college kids. These people reflect the sentiments shared by many people in this country and this city. These people and their families are the core of the opposition to meaningful peace between Israel and her neighbors. This is what Obama is up against.

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/06/max-blumenthal-feeling-the-hate-in-jerusalem-on-eve-of-obamas-cairo-address.html

But really, no more shocking than destroying more than five hundred villages and ethnically cleansing more than half of those who became refugees before any Arab army entered Palestine . . . no more shocking than Petra's pretty, polished propaganda. No more shocking than the hysterical rants of those here who divert from the issue, no more shocking than the majority of Israelis who sneer at Obama's very own words:

"Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail."

No more shocking than denying those people who were born in Palestine and their descendents from stepping foot in their homeland. No more shocking than demonising an entire group. Why do you think a tiny faction of Palestinians engage in violence? Because it is inherent in our nature? Or because of the massive injustice that has been perpetuated on Palestinians? I am not Hamas; I am not Fatah; I am the daughter of a man who had to leave Ramallah in 1951 because his economic prospects were next to nil after Palestine had been truncated in 1948. I would take a bullet before I would acknowledge the "right" of Israel to exist. I am not an extremist. I have the God given right to move freely in the land from which my father and ancestors came, and I will never renounce that right.

Palestine Festival Participants "Walk in the Ramallah Hills"

2009-05-25T08:45:00.004+02:00

Photos are from Palestine Festival of Literature's Day 2 "Walk in the Ramallah Hills"

From the Palestinian Festival of Literature's Festival Blog for Sunday, May 24

After the drama of yesterday we were well prepared for the potential tranquility of a walk in the Ramallah hills with Raja Shehadeh. We got on the bus and headed through the Wall and Qalandia checkpoint and north to Raja’s house. After a brief introductory talk we took the bus out to middle of a valley – to the start of a walk Raja had chosen that would keep us as out of of sight of the army and the settlements as possible.

The walk was slightly more challenging than people had been expecting – we dropped down into the valley then slowly scrambled up the other side, finally reaching a qasr: a solid16th century stone structure that used to house workers and crops during the summer agricultural months.
We moved back down and through the valley to reach the village where the bus was to pick us up. On reaching the outskirts, we fanned out on to the new tarmac in front of us. But we are quickly called back, behind a barn. An Israeli watchtower looms on the crest of a hill in the distance and we are advised to stay out of its sight.

We had a few problems checking in to the hotel, as seems to happen rather too frequently in Ramallah , but managed it eventually and people headed to the home of Dr. Saleh abd el-jawwad and Islah Jad for drinks in their garden before moving to the Sakakini Centre.

The night’s event was held in the garden of the centre, and though it was a windy at times, it is a wonderful setting. The night passed with an atmosphere of calm and ease that had been so missing in Jerusalem, and as with the combined comedic forces of Michael Palin, Suad Amiry and Carmen Callil it was a night that brought us back to feeling like a literature festival. This night didn’t insist on being dominated by Israel and by occupation. Though they are never far away, just having the choice of when to talk about them felt empowering. Which shows just how totally consuming, mentally, this occupation is.

Palestine Festival of Literature 23-28 May 2009

2009-05-24T15:33:00.000+02:00

Day 1-Palestine Festival: 'Confronting the Culture of Power with the Power of Culture'

2009-05-24T10:33:00.004+02:00

Participants in the Literature Festival are pictured in the new venue for opening night as they were kicked out of the Palestinian National Theater by soldiers carrying out their government's genocidal plan to rid Jerusalem of its Palestinian culture.

Unfortunately, I can't get this video from Day 1 of the 2009 Palestinian Festival embedded, but here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJU7-9r-pVA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epalfest%2Eorg%2Fvideo%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

And here is a video of Chinua Achebe reading his poem "Refugee Mother and Child" for the 2008 Palestinian Literature Festival. Achebe, the acclaimed author of Things Fall Apart is a patron of the Paletine Literature Festival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNk7S-RKsFU&feature=related

From writer Ahdaf Souief's blog for May 23 regarding the festival going on despite Israeli soldiers forcing the particpants and audience to move from the Palestine National Theater:

"Today, my friends, we saw the clearest example of our mission: to confront the culture of power with the power of culture."

Follow the festival, which takes place from May 23-28 here.

Children Mark Nakba

2009-05-16T07:18:00.002+02:00

Couldn't resist this little cutie.

Palestinian children wear traditional clothes as they reenact the 'nakba,' Arabic for catastrophe, in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, May 14, 2009. The children marked the 61st anniversary of the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who either fled or were driven out of their homes during the 1948 war over Israel's creation.(AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//090514/481/7ed3af974c404f1eb81ecdb6f2f27c9c/

Comment is Free Ignores Nakba!

2009-05-15T22:20:00.002+02:00

I was checking out the Guardian's "Comment Is Free" all day to see if anyone was going to write about the Nakba, but the Guardian's propensity is to have Israelis explain the Palestinian world view to us, so no story is better than having an Israeli write about the Nakba, I guess. They did post a story by that great ueber Zionist mensch, Benny Morris. I posted a comment on an editorial which just appeared encouraging Obama to persuade Netanyahu to agree to some two-state solution. No mention of Palestinian refugees anywhere in the generic editorial except here, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense:

[Regarding Netanyahu's starter that Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state] But the purpose of raising it [Netanyahu's crap that Palestinians must recognize Palestine as a Jewish state] before a final status solution is to deny negotiation on the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel, which Israel says threatens the in-built Jewish majority. Not even those Palestinians who recognise the state of Israel could accept this formula. It is a show-stopper.

Here's my first comment:

I was hoping for a story from a Palestinian; i.e., Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, or someone of his caliber, about the Nakba, which is today.

Maybe next year, since it's ongoing for sixty plus years.

And I was moved to write another comment, just because I am so ticked off that the Guardian didn't acknowledge the Nakba today:

Instead of an informative story on the Nakba, we get another story about Israeli politicians who are all the same. Livni [the editorial said she didn't find a Palestinian state "anathema"] advocated transferring the "Arab Israelis" (what a sickening term to erase the Palestinianness out of the Palestinian) to anywhere except where they are from. She is not the great hope for the Palestinians. And no one may "negotiate" my personal right to return to my home. [This in response to their stupid assertion: "But the purpose of raising it [recognizing Palestine as a Jewish state] before a final status solution is to deny negotiation on the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel, which Israel says threatens the in-built Jewish majority.] It's an inalienable right, no matter how some of the erudite Zionists try to spin it.

[BAPD] Al Nakba

2009-05-14T23:39:00.005+02:00

"It is our ancestors' legacy that we never leave our land that we never let go of 'Ayn Ghazzal, that we never forget that it is us and our families who are Palestine, and that ultimately we have to return to our beloved land, and that its love will return to us." Mohammad Mansara

In disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
Alone,

beweeping our outcast state
suffering a deaf heaven, heedless of our cries,
our truncated country,
our jacked up lives.

They pulled off a big armed robbery
In Jaffa, the Bride of the Sea,
One hundred sixteen thousand expelled
four thousand remaining
forced into Ajami.

Hot march away from Lydda
Audeh sees a baby suck

the breast

of its ummi
Dead under the Palestinian sun.

Another mother, jostled by throngs

Drops her baby, a metal cart wheel

runs over its neck

Farmers work for the land thieves
Who call them Israeli Arab
They work
To feed their children scorpions.

Notes:

ummi: mother in Arabic

Read further about the ethnic cleansing of Jaffa, how its residents who weren't expelled were forced to live in a slum in Ajami as they watched Jewish immigrants take over their houses and possessions, and how once proud landowners were reduced to working as laborers on their own land that was stolen by the Zionist immigrants in "Jaffa: From Eminence to Ethnic Cleansing."

Read Mohammad Mansara's "We Loved the Land and the Land Loved Us." in Al-Majdal's Nakba Special Issue, Winter 2007/Spring 2008 His life as a refugee in Iraq and now in Sweden has been both tragic and inspiring.

Read excerpts from Father Audeh Rantisi's Blessed Are the Peacemakers: The Story of a Palestinian Christian. Father Audeh, a refugee from Lydda, witnessed the baby sucking at its dead mother's breast and also the death of the baby from the metal wheel as he and his family were forced to walk in one hundred degree heat after expulsion from the town in which his family had lived for 1600 years.

Father Rantisi Remembers Al-Nakba

2009-05-14T00:32:00.002+02:00

Al-Nakba means 'catastrophe,' and it not only refers to the horrifying events of 1947-48, but also to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians and their way of life. It is commemorated May 15, but it is lived every day by Palestinians. Father Audeh Rantisi remembers (from Al-Nakba):

From "Blessed are the Peacemakers ...The History of a Palestinian Christian

In these extracts from his memoir, Father Audeh Rantisi remembers the horrific scenes that confronted him, aged 11, when his family were brutally deported from their home of many generations to make what life they could for themselves in the refugee camps of Ramallah.

Father Rantisi was born in Lyda, now the site of Ben Gurion Airport, in 1937. From 1955 to 1958 he attended the Bible College of Wales, moving in 1963 to continue his studies at Aurora College in the state of Illinois. He then served as a missionary in Sudan. In 1965 he opened the Evangelical Home for Boys in Ramallah, West Bank. In 1976 Father Rantisi was elected as Ramallah's deputy mayor and he is now the director of the orphanage of the Evangelical Home of Boys.

I cannot forget three horror-filled days in July of 1948. The pain sears my memory, and I cannot rid myself of it no matter how hard I try. First, Israeli soldiers forced thousands of Palestinians from their homes near the Mediterranean coast, even though some families had lived in the same houses for centuries. (My family had been in the town of Lydda in Palestine at least 1,600 years). Then, without water, we stumbled into the hills and continued for three deadly days. The Jewish soldiers followed, occasionally shooting over our heads to scare us and keep us moving. Terror filled my eleven-year-old mind as I wondered what would happen. I remembered overhearing my father and his friends express alarm about recent massacres by Jewish terrorists. Would they kill us, too?

We did not know what to do, except to follow orders and stumble blindly up the rocky hills. I walked hand in hand with my grandfather, who carried our only remaining possessions-a small tin of sugar and some milk for my aunt's two-year-old son, sick with typhoid.

The horror began when Zionist soldiers deceived us into leaving our homes, then would not let us go back, driving us through a small gate just outside Lydda. I remember the scene well: thousands of frightened people being herded like cattle through the narrow opening by armed soldiers firing overhead. In front of me a cart wobbled toward the gate. Alongside, a lady struggled, carrying her baby, pressed by the crowd. Suddenly, in the jostling of the throngs, the child fell. The mother shrieked in agony as the cart's metal-rimmed wheel ran over her baby's neck. That infant's death was the most awful sight I had ever seen.

Outside the gate the soldiers stopped us and ordered everyone to throw all valuables onto a blanket. One young man and his wife of six weeks, friends of our family, stood near me. He refused to give up his money. Almost casually, the soldier pulled up his rifle and shot the man. He fell, bleeding and dying while his bride screamed and cried. I felt nauseated and sick, my whole body numbed by shock waves. That night I cried, too, as I tried to sleep alongside thousands on the ground. Would I ever see my home again? Would the soldiers kill my loved ones, too?

Early the next morning we heard more shots and sprang up. A bullet just missed me and killed a donkey nearby. Everybody started running as a stampede. I was terror-stricken when I lost sight of my family, and I frantically searched all day as the crowd moved along.

That second night, after the soldiers let us stop, I wandered among the masses of people, desperately searching and calling. Suddenly in the darkness I heard my father's voice. I shouted out to him. What joy was in me! I had thought I would never see him again. As he and my mother held me close, I knew I could face whatever was necessary. The next day brought more dreadful experiences. Still branded on my memory is a small child beside the road, sucking the breast of its dead mother. Along the way I saw many stagger and fall. Others lay dead or dying in the scorching midsummer heat. Scores of pregnant women miscarried, and their babies died along the wayside. The wife of my father's cousin became very thirsty. After a long while she said she could not continue. Soon she slumped down and was dead. Since we could not carry her we wrapped her in cloth, and after praying, just left her beside a tree. I don't know what happened to her body.

We eventually found a well, but had no way to get water. Some of the men tied a rope around my father's cousin and lowered him down, then pulled him out, and gave us water squeezed from his clothing. The few drops helped, but thirst still tormented me as I marched along in the shadeless, one-hundred plus degree heat.

We trudged nearly twenty miles up rocky hills, then down into deep valleys, then up again, gradually higher and higher. Finally we found a main road, where some Arabs met us. They took some of us in trucks to Ramallah, ten miles north of Jerusalem. I lived in a refugee tent camp for the next three and one-half years. We later learned that two Jewish families had taken over our family home in Lydda.

Those wretched days and nights in mid-July of 1948 continue as a lifelong nightmare because Zionists took away our home of many centuries. For me and a million other Palestinian Arabs, tragedy had marred our lives forever. Throughout his life my father remembered and suffered. For thirty-one years before his death in 1979, he kept the large metal key to our house in Lydda.
After more than four decades I still bear the emotional scars of the Zionist invasion. Yet, as an adult, I see what I did not fully understand then: that the Jews are also human beings, themselves driven by fear, victims of history's worst outrages, rabidly, sometimes almost mindlessly searching for security. Lamentably, they have victimized my people.

Four years after our flight from Lydda I dedicated my life to the service of Jesus Christ. Like me and my fellow refugees, Jesus had lived in adverse circumstances, often with only a stone for a pillow. As with his fellow Jews two thousand years ago and the Palestinians today, an outside power controlled his homeland-my homeland. They tortured and killed him in Jerusalem, only ten miles from Ramallah, and my new home. He was the victim of terrible indignities. Nevertheless, Jesus prayed on behalf of those who engineered his death, "Father, forgive them..." Can I do less?

The key to the conflict

2009-05-13T06:46:00.004+02:00

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2009/05/10/t17.html

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Pope Benedict XVI will not be standing on the stage prepared for him by Palestinians inside the Aida Refugee Camp following Israel’s disapproval of the stage’s position. The Vatican gave in to Israel’s demands not to have the separation wall and a military watchtower behind him on Wednesday as he visits this camp hosting around 5,000 of the refugees forced out of their villages since 1948.

It will go down as an insignificant footnote in the history of this troubled region, if at all, but the people here are clearly furious. “It’s the occupation,” a Palestinian Authority (PA) official told said resignedly at a press briefing ahead of the pope’s visit last Wednesday. “The Vatican has agreed to Israel’s demands, but the wall will still be very visible behind him.”

Even though the modest stage prepared for the occasion lies on the Palestinian side of the wall, Israel declared the stage illegal last week in what appeared to be an attempt to conceal the uncomely signs of the occupation.

Just days ahead of the pontiff’s visit, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released a damning report about Israel’s measures that are stifling Bethlehem, the city where Jesus was born.

The OHCA said that out of 660 square kilometres, only 13% of Bethlehem’s land is available for Palestinian use, and much of it is fragmented. The wall cuts Bethlehem off completely from its historic, religious and economic connection to Jerusalem, denying villagers access to some of the most fertile farmland in the area.

However, the PA official said that despite Israel’s efforts to divert the wall from media attention, the pope’s route will still take him next to the wall and a gigantic icon that symbolises the plight of Palestinians denied their homeland for the last 40 years.

In fact, as he enters the camp on Wednesday, Benedict will pass through an arch shaped into a massive keyhole with an iron key (muftieħ) above it.Many refugees forced out of their homes in 1948 still hold the key to their old homes, in the decades-old hope of returning to the villages of origin.Incidentally, Palestinians commemorate their expulsion in 1948 the day after the pope’s visit to Bethlehem. 14 May is remembered as Nakba Day (the day of the catastrophe).

Mohammed Adrahman Azza, 75, from Beit Jibrin, is one of the oldest refugees at the camp.He vividly remembers the night his family was forced out by the Israeli military 60 years ago, when he was aged 14. The Azza family owned most of the land and properties in the village.“In the summer of 1948, my village was attacked by Israeli forces. They came with war planes launching an air attack that lasted from the evening till the next morning,” he says.

The local police station was guarded by Egyptian forces, which had entered Palestine to protect the locals for a short while, but these were quickly overpowered.“The Israelis came again to attack by land. They reached the police station, mined it and exploded it, killing two and injuring many others. Most of the people were fleeing the village and started living in caves.

“The Egyptians suffered deaths and injuries. Some Palestinians stayed with them to help in the fight, but it was an unequal war. Only few tens of Palestinians were left. The city was empty. When Israel occupied the village, we had to leave through the mountains towards Hebron, where we lived between 1948 and 1963.”

We will return

During his visit to the refugee camp, the pope may see the many murals along the separation wall. One of them says: “If the olive trees knew who planted them, their oil would become tears”. The most recurrent slogan is: “We will return”. That is what Azza dreams of everyday, holding on to his old iron key. “I lost my land, my home, my friends, everything,” he says. “But I dream of returning and I keep telling my children and grandchildren that our home is in Beit Jibrin... It’s always on my mind. We have many acres of land there. Why is it forbidden for me to go to my house? There is someone from Poland, Russia, or the US on my land, and it’s forbidden for me to even touch the land where I was born.”

Before the 2000 intifada – after which moving into Israel became totally forbidden – Azza often visited what was once his village. “Everything was demolished, schools, houses, mosques... nothing remains.”

Denied to this day, the Israelis’ “cleansing” operations 60 years ago wiped out hundreds of Palestinian villages and displaced thousands of families who are still living in the multitude of refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan. For Azza, the 1948 catastrophe wiped out his childhood.

“I was the oldest of four brothers and one sister, so I was the one most responsible for them,” he says. “Our father was old, so I left school to work. I had to do lots of jobs, from carrying heavy things for people to farming. In one summer I went to Jordan on foot with my father. It took us three days to get there, but after working there we managed to buy two sacks of wheat. That would feed us for most of the year.”

After working in Jordan, he could return to school, moving on to become an Arabic language and religion teacher, but his meagre salary could not sustain him and his family.

“In 1963 we moved to Aida camp. We couldn’t pay rent or buy a house, so the refugee camp gave us shelter. My uncle was the camp leader and he encouraged us to move here. We were some 150 families at that time.”

Even inside the refugee camp, things only got worse with time. Besides the expanding families that nowadays have no more space to build new houses within the camp’s confines, refugees and Bethlehem villagers have been cut off completely by the wall erected since 2002.

“The wall makes our life much worse; we can’t work in Israel as we used to. Our sheep and cows used to feed on the mountains, now they have all died because the mountains are closed to us. Our children used to play on the green hills, now they’re confined to a prison cage. Families are getting bigger but spaces for houses remain limited, in fact we can’t build anymore. Agricultural land of the villagers from here has been stolen.”

Israeli forces still come here, especially at night, arresting people and imposing curfews.

“For them anyone could be a fighter who should be arrested,” Azza said. “They enter freely arresting people, demolishing some houses, and leave. My grandson was arrested for two years ... they said he was a ‘Fatah fighter’ but he couldn’t defend himself in a military court.

“In 1983 they arrested my 14-year-old son. Released two years later, he must have been the youngest Palestinian in prison. He was a 14-year-old fighter... throwing stones. He was beaten, tortured, hanged upside down from his legs and pulled by ropes.”

Azza clutches his old key as he speaks. His mind is clearly in his faraway village of Beit Jibrin, as he dreams like every other refugee of the right of return – a right consistently denied to them for decades.

“You know, if I had to meet the person who is staying where our house was, I can’t fight with him,” he says. “I would explain to him that this was my father’s house; it was our family’s land for hundreds of years. I would tell him ‘You came here from nowhere and took it just like that. You’re a foreigner in my house.’ Israel always teaches foreigners that they just came over to live in empty lands, or in villages where people just left voluntarily. They never admit the truth that their country is built on stolen land.”

karl.schembri@ramattan.com
Karl Schembri is a correspondent for Ramattan news agency in the West Bank and Gaza

Seven Palestinian Children

2009-04-26T23:28:00.003+02:00

A response to Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children:

Tell her Bassem always smiled. Tell her that Bassem was killed because he wanted to live on and tend his own land in Bil’in. Tell her Bassem wasn’t involved in any ‘violent’ protest. Tell her he was telling the soldiers to stop throwing tear gas projectiles because a woman was wounded. Tell her when people ask ‘Where is the Palestinian Gandhi’ that Bassem is one of many Palestinian Gandhis. Tell them the morning that Bassem was killed he gave medicine to Hamis, whose skull was broken because he wanted to live on and tend his own land in Bil’in. Tell her that people from all of the surrounding villages came to Bassem’s funeral. Tell her that Bassem still walks with us.

Tell her that Ghassan was blown up in his car with his thirteen year old niece, Lamees,whom he loved very much. Tell her that Ghassan wrote a story for each of Lamees’ birthdays. Tell him that Annie, his wife, heard the explosion but “could not find Ghassan.” She could only find his left leg. Tell her that Ghassan’s son “started knocking his head against the wall.” Tell her that “little Lalya was crying: ‘Baba . . . Baba.’”

Tell her that he was killed for writing that Palestine was a land filled with people:

I saw the long line of the big cars enter Lebanon leaving faraway the land of oranges…I started weeping in a loud sharp way…your mother was still looking in silence to the
oranges…In your father’s eyes were the reflection of all the orange trees he had left
behind for the Israelis …all the clean orange trees he had planted one by one glittered
in his face. He failed to stop the tears that filled up his eyes, when facing the police
head officer. When we reached Saida, in the afternoon, we became refugees.

Tell her that Kamel Nasser was a beloved poet. Tell her that Ehud Barak, the Lithuanian-Pole, dressed up like a woman and shot him in the mouth and his right hand. Tell her that Kamel was babysitting for some friends who went to Jordan for a funeral when Ehud Barak burst into his bedroom and shot up the right hand which held a pen that wrote:

Shed no tears in sorrow for me
For in my homeland
Life is degradation and wounds
And in my eyes the call of danger rings.
Beloved, if word of my death reaches you
And the lovers cry out:
The loyal one has departed, his visage gone forever,
And fragrance has died within the bosom of the flower
Shed no tears...smile on life
And tell my only one, my loved one,
The dark recesses of your father's being
Have been touched by visions of his people.

Tell her that Dr. Salman Abu Sitta dedicates his life to recording the names of the villages which the genocidal Pole David Ben Gurion, whose real name is David Gruen, changed from Arabic. Tell her that Dr. Salman's atlas contains "40,000 names which were in use in Palestine in 1948 and prior." Tell her that this atlas "shows the locations and the names of 1300 towns and villages, 10,000 religious, cultural and historic landmarks and 20,000 place names." Tell her that these "names are the vocabulary of Palestinian life." Tell her that Dr. Salman's painstaking labors were in part so that "the young generation who have not seen their homes but heard about it, can navigate through it and find where their villages were and where their lands were, so they can reconstruct Palestine." Tell her that Dr. Salman warns the Jewish people,

“. . . the history of Jews will ultimately be marked indelibly, and above all other historical
events, by what they have done in Palestine.”

Tell her that you may as well forget saying you’re Palestinian if Jews are in the room. Tell her that if Jews are in the room the room fills up with their suffering, and there is no room for yours. Tell her that if you find yourself at a workshop about social oppression with African-American table mates and they tell you their hot button is that they don’t like it when people ask “What are you,” and you tell them, “I like it when people ask me what I am because my people are vilified and demonized as terrorists and I like to tell them what I am so they’ll see we aren’t all terrorists,” to forget getting up and speaking to the group even if your table mates force you because no sooner than you’re done speaking a Jew in the room will stand up and say “I am a Jew and we are hated all over the world so I don’t tell people that I’m Jewish because Jews get killed for being Jews.” No, don't tell her that because it's Anti-Semitic.

Tell her that you may commemorate the Holocaust every day, but may not teach about injustice in regard to Palestine. No don't tell her that. Tell her that one must sort of teach around injustice and Palestine. Tell her you may teach Cry, the Beloved Country, but don't talk about apartheid and Palestine. Tell her that we're the Jews' Jews and Hitler's final victims. Tell her that we're f*****d. No, don't tell her that. Tell her that we will "forget the bitter days." Tell her "we shall return." Tell her that one day we will not be forced to keep many things inside us.

Tell her that she has every right to live on her own land and to tend her own olives. Tell her she has every right to live from where her grandmother was forced into exile. Tell her that she has every right to live where her grandfather was gunned down when he tried to return to his home. Tell her she has every right to 'pick the fruits.' of her land. Tell her she has every right to remove their poison from our wells. Tell her to shun their peace process. Tell her it's a ruse. A ruse as they salivate anticipating the annihilation of our presence on our land . Tell her that their concern for demographics is racist and hateful. Tell her that there is no compromise with evil. Tell her that there is no compromise. And tell her not to be intimidated by those who call those of us who want to go to our homes extremists.

Tell her that our smiling Bassem loved her. Tell her that our gifted Ghassan loved her. Tell her that gentle Kamel loved her. Tell her that Dr. Salman labors with love for her. Tell her that Raja Shehadeh who writes with love for a landscape he walks, now desecrated by people who lied that they made the desert bloom, loves her. Tell her that we once lived peacefully with Jews. Tell her that we may "breathe," but we must also "eat." Tell her that we may "have our house," but we also need our "children." Tell her they can't kill us all. Tell her to remain resolute and to keep up her spirits.

Sources: http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2005/06/dr-salman-abu-sitta-right-of-return-is.html

http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/sad_orange.pdf

http://www.bilin-village.org/english/articles/different-look/His-name-was-Basem

http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-spielberg-left-out-said-reveals.html

http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2006/06/drsalman-abu-sitta-reversing-ethnic.html

His Name Was Basem

2009-04-21T21:39:00.003+02:00

From Bil'in, A Village of Palestine

His name was Basem, which means smile, and that is how he greeted everyone. But we all called him ‘Pheel’, which means elephant because he had the body the size of an elephant. But Basem had the heart of a child.

He loved everyone, and because of his sweetness and ability to make us laugh, everyone loved him. Basem was everyone’s friend: the children talk about how he would play with them, scare them and then make them laugh. He would tend the garden in the playground and bring toys and books to the kindergarten. The old ladies in the village talk about how he used to visit, to ask after them and see if they needed anything. In the village, he seemed to be everywhere at once. He would pop in to say hello, take one puff of the nargila, and be off to his next spot. The morning he was killed he went to the house of Hamis, whose skull had been broken at a previous demonstration three months ago by a tear gas canister projectile - the same weapon that would kill Basem.

Basem woke Hamis and gave him his medicine, then off he went to visit another friend in the village who is ill with cancer. Then a little girl from the village wanted a pineapple but couldn’t find any in the local stores. So Basem went to Ramallah to get a pineapple and was back before noon for the Friday prayers and the weekly demonstration against the theft of our land by the apartheid wall. Pheel never missed a demonstration; he participated in all the activities and creative actions in Bilin. He would always talk to the soldiers as human beings. Before he was hit he was calling for the soldiers to stop shooting because there were goats near the fence and he was worried for them. Then a woman in front of him was hit. He yelled to the commander to stop shooting because someone was wounded. He expected the soldiers to understand and stop shooting. Instead, they shot him too.

People came to his funeral from all the surrounding villages to show Basem that they loved him as much as he had loved them. But those of us from Bil’in kept looking around for him, expecting him to be walking with us.

Pheel, you were everyone’s friend. We always knew we loved you, but didn’t realize how much we would miss you until we lost you. As Bil’in has become the symbol of Palestine’s popular resistance, you are the symbol of Bil’in. Sweet Pheel, Rest in Peace, we will continue in your footsteps.

— Mohammad Khatib, member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

Gaza War Crimes Investigation

2009-03-23T22:01:00.002+01:00

Gaza War Crimes Investigation

Dear Friends I am writing to you from Guardian Films the documentary arm of the Guardian Newspaper to bring to your attention a series of films we have produced on alleged war crimes committed by Israel during the 23-day offensive against Gaza earlier this year.

The films focus on three separate cases of alleged war crimes;

(1) The use of Palestinian children as human shields.

(2) The systematic targeting of medics and hospitals by the Israeli Army.

(3) The use of state of the art precision weapons such as UAV aircraft to fire on groups of unarmed civilians.

Three documentaries produced by Guardian Films and Clancy Chassay made during a month-long investigation add weight to calls this week for a full inquiry into the events surrounding Operation Cast Lead, which was aimed at Hamas, but which left over 1400 Palestinians dead - around 300 known to be children.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW TO OUR GAZA WAR CRIMES PAGE:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/series/gaza-war-crimes-investigation

We are requesting from you all where possible to please embed a link to our 'Gaza War Crimes' page on your blog and web sites. Look forward to hearing from you soon

With Kindest Regards

Mustafa Khalili

Israel Does Not Target the Palestinian Civilians

2009-03-16T23:43:00.001+01:00

Excellent, informative, and heartbreaking video by Dr. Thameen
Darby.

Mahmoud Darwish:'It is the goal of my life to write poems that are claimed by children'

2009-03-12T20:31:00.005+01:00

A beautiful story, "Remembering Mahmoud Darwish," by Naomi Shihab Nye in Rethinking Schools. And a wonderful "Teaching Idea" from Linda Christensen for Darwish's "The Prison Cell."

Photo: Michael Nye

A Palestinian refugee and her poem

Naomi Shihab Nye put this picture on the cover of her collection of poetry, 19 Varieties of Gazelle — Poems of the Middle East. She was called by angry "scholars" who informed her that the poem was by Mahmud Darwish. When Nye met Darwish a week later she said to him: "'Please forgive our mistake. If this book ever gets reprinted, I promise we will give the proper credit for the verse. ' He stared closely at the picture. Tears ran down his cheeks. 'Don't correct it,' he said. 'It is the goal of my life to write poems that are claimed by children.'"

I think that it is important to thank publications that recognize Palestinians in such a positive way. My letter to the editor:

Dear Editor,

It is with profound gratitude that I thank you for publishing Naomi Shihab Nye's "Remembering Mahmoud Darwish" and Linda Christensen's "Teaching Ideas: The Prison Cell." How beautiful for Nye to document Darwish's words upon learning that the refugee child had claimed his poem as her own: "'Don't correct it,' he said. 'It is the goal of my life to write poems that are claimed by children.'" I intend to incorporate Christensen's ideas for teaching "The Prison Cell" in my AP Literature classroom.

Sincerely,

Nancy Harb Almendras

Alice Walker On Obama Re Palestine: 'Our Job is to help him see . . .'

2009-03-11T20:47:00.004+01:00

(AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x281810

AMY GOODMAN: Alice Walker, can you tell us why you chose to go to Gaza at this time?

ALICE WALKER: Well, because I really love people, and I wanted to be here with the women who have lost so much in their lives. They’ve lost their homes. They’ve lost their children. And they just seem to be people I wanted to spend International Women’s Day with, so I made sure to call up Medea and get on the—in the group.

AMY GOODMAN: And where are you now? What are your travel plans in these days?

ALICE WALKER: I think we will be going to visit more refugee camps. We were visiting one this morning. We also went around and saw a lot of the places that had been bombed. This was, of course, very disturbing, and very disturbing to see the look in some of the children’s eyes. I saw two little boys being held by an older brother. He seemed to be about eight years old, and they were like five and four. And they were—they seemed to me to be children who had lost their parents. And I feel that there are a lot of children in that situation, and this is especially difficult to bear.

Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Netanyahu, and Ms. Livni Search for Coalition

2009-02-22T10:11:00.000+01:00

It is regrettable . . .

2009-02-16T16:18:00.002+01:00

In the Guardian

Whose court is the ball in?

It's regrettable that Shahar Peer has been denied a visa to play tennis in Dubai. We need dialogue to move forward, not boycotts

My comment

It is also regrettable that all those born in Palestine and their descendents have been denied their right to enter their ancestral homeland.