Sunday, June 10, 2007
Going Home to Palestine
Some of my cousins returned to Ramallah for a visit this past Easter. Most were born there and are now US citizens, and some are the children of Ramallah immigrants.
Such a basic right, to return to one's home for a visit or even to live, if one has been dispossessed to make way for immigrants from all over the world. I plan to visit my mother in California this summer, specifically in the Central California town where I grew up. I take for granted going there every other summer.
Many Palestinians, however, are denied the basic right to return home, however, even though they live within a few kilometers of their villages and towns. This is so that Israel may maintain a Jewish majority in the land it stole from the Palestinians. Those of us who advocate for the implementation of Article 13, Section 2, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone may leave his country and return to his country" are marginalized by Zionists and those who would make peace with those who refuse to implement international law.
I like Saree Makdisi's take on these mean spirited people from whom he receives, surprise, surprise, hate mail:
I'm holding up to what I know objectively to be a humanist argument.
These guys see this and recognize--subconsciously because they can't really
process it--their own inhumanity in what they represent--So in their twisted
minds, they turn it around and project it onto me. They accuse me of talking
about hate, when I'm talking about peace and justice. They're the ones talking
about hate. It's like you press a button and hate comes out of it like a volcano.Assad Abdul Rahman notes that waiting for return "is part of the very nature of what it means to be Palestinian.
"We are not waiting for Godot. Return to Palestine is legal, it is practical, it is a sacred duty. It is something that will happen--one day."
Comments:
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Dear Nancy,
With the HORRIFIC news coming from Gaza, and just today UNWRA scaling back their operations there which so many depend on,
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72708
Would you join Desert Peace, Karin, Chet and myself and hopefully ALL, to pray together, in our shared value as children of the same blessed creator in sending from our deepest hearts, prayers for the fighting to stop.
4. THE MUSLIM PRAYER FOR PEACE:
In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful. Praise be to the Lord of the Universe who has created us and made us into tribes and nations, that we may know each other, not that we may despise each other. If the enemy incline towards peace, do thou also incline towards peace, and trust in God, for the Lord is the one that heareth and knoweth all things. And the servants of God, Most Gracious are those who walk on the Earth in humility, and when we address them, we say "PEACE."
12. THE CHRISTIAN PRAYER FOR PEACE:
Blessed are the PEACEMAKERS, for they shall be known as the Children of God. But I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To those who strike you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from those who take away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well. Give to everyone who begs from you, and of those who take away your goods, do not ask them again. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
11. THE JEWISH PRAYER FOR PEACE:
Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, that we may walk the paths of the Most High. And we shall beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation - neither shall they learn war any more. And none shall be afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.
Thank you dear Nancy, and blessings to you always.
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With the HORRIFIC news coming from Gaza, and just today UNWRA scaling back their operations there which so many depend on,
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72708
Would you join Desert Peace, Karin, Chet and myself and hopefully ALL, to pray together, in our shared value as children of the same blessed creator in sending from our deepest hearts, prayers for the fighting to stop.
4. THE MUSLIM PRAYER FOR PEACE:
In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful. Praise be to the Lord of the Universe who has created us and made us into tribes and nations, that we may know each other, not that we may despise each other. If the enemy incline towards peace, do thou also incline towards peace, and trust in God, for the Lord is the one that heareth and knoweth all things. And the servants of God, Most Gracious are those who walk on the Earth in humility, and when we address them, we say "PEACE."
12. THE CHRISTIAN PRAYER FOR PEACE:
Blessed are the PEACEMAKERS, for they shall be known as the Children of God. But I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To those who strike you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from those who take away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well. Give to everyone who begs from you, and of those who take away your goods, do not ask them again. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
11. THE JEWISH PRAYER FOR PEACE:
Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, that we may walk the paths of the Most High. And we shall beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation - neither shall they learn war any more. And none shall be afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.
Thank you dear Nancy, and blessings to you always.
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