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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

 

Hey, there, lonely girl

Vladek writes:
Please Umkahlil do explain why Palestinian voices are not represented on CiF. Is it that they do not have access to Internet? Or that they do not have sufficient fluency in English? Could you yourself become more active on CiF? Do you see any possible value in such an involvement? Could you stimulate some of your friends to take part in this forum? For example can you envisage that such a forum could stimulate Israelis like Seth Freedman who, I presume, would be willing to engage themselves in your struggle for free Palestine? Which immediately brings a related question: Do you envisage a just two state solution?
Dear Vladek,
I am just one among millions. All that I offer is mere conjecture. Why don't Palestinians write in forums like these? Some are scared, some are only interested in making money, some find it more lucrative to collaborate. Mostly we're ignored as Israelis seem to have the monopoly on explaining us for others. I certainly would be overjoyed if other Palestinians would join me here.
There are many Palestinians who are quite fluent in English, and who have access to the internet and many do write beautifully in English in various venues: Rima Merrimen, Joharah Baker, Laila El-Haddad, Khalid Amayreh, Ali Abunimeh, George Bisharat, Saree Makdisi, Omar Barghouti, Lisa Tarazi, Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, Mohammed Omar, Dr. Mona El-Farra, to name just a few, and there are many Palestinian bloggers; just check out http://www.palestineblogs.org/ for the full gamut ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. I feel sort of weird having to explain that Palestinians are just like you, but I've been doing this all my life.
One-state, two-state is of no importance to me; I devote my energies to advocating for the implementation of the right of return.
What really does bug me is the oft stated query: Why is there no Palestinian Seth Freedman?
Well, for one thing there is no moral equivalency between the two sides. Among Palestinians there is a lot of criticism about ourselves, but to ask why there is no Palestinian Seth Freedman is to castigate us for lack of humanity and is just another form of demonisation. To be really blunt, it's a way of glorifying Israeli heroes and just another way of paying homage to Israel at the expense of Palestinians.

 

No Accommodation for Criminal Behavior

Petra MB: "As you certainly remember, we actually debated the issue you raise with respect to the right of return once, and you never got around to responding to the questions I asked you then: you live in Germany, where millions of refugees, including, as I told you, my parents, had to give up any thoughts of a 'right of return' in order to make peace possible. Any thoughts on this now?"

My reply on CIF

I don't accommodate criminal behavior, nor am I so presumptuous to even debate about abnegating "right of return," which is an inalienable and individual right. No one may legislate this individual right away for millions of refugees. You are living on the ruins of 560 deliberately destroyed Palestinian villages. You underestimate the efforts of the whole of the Palestinians, not just those in the West Bank and Gaza, who are determined to return to their land. There is absolutely no basis to assume that peace will be achieved if some misguided or co-opted Palestinian politician assumes he may "give up" our individual right.

Although I work in Germany, I grew up in California among the giant Sequoia trees and its wild beaches. I take for granted that every holiday if I choose, I may roam around the places where I spent my childhood, and I relish every summer spent among the fig, orange and plum trees my father planted fifty years ago.

But evidently, Palestinian refugees are children of a lesser God than Petra from Germany, Susie from New Orleans, etc., those who have privileges and rights in two countries and seem to be living out some fantasay on someone else's land.

Monday, February 25, 2008

 

'Hand in Hand to Break the Siege'

"Gazans form human chain along Israeli
border in protest at blockade."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/feb/25/2?picture=332684524

 

'Hand in Hand to Break the Siege'

"Gazans form human chain along Israeli
border in protest at blockade."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/feb/25/2?picture=332684524

 

We are much, much more than your odious banality

Comment that I left on the Guardian's Comment is Free in response to this racist comment by the writer of the blog post:

Petra MB: "There was never any question what "resistance" meant -- killing as many Jewish Israelis as possible, and then celebrating it -- "

Resistance, too, is patiently enduring the sixty year demonisation of Palestinians exemplified so well in the above comment.

Resistance, too, is living with the bitter irony that Petra, a German, who is not from Palestine, may live there, but I, a Palestinian who lives in Germany, may not live there.

Resistance, too, is remembering Kamil Nasir, our beloved poet, who was assasinated by Ehud Barak, who I suppose is a moderate in Petra's warped world, and finding strength in the poet's words we teach to our children:

If my songs should reach you despite the narrow skies around me,
remember that I will return to life,
to the quest for liberty,
remember that my people may call on my soul
and feel it rising again from the folds of the earth.

http://www.pcsscalgary.org/book_review/anthology_of_modern_palestinian_literature.htm

There are many, many Palestinians like me, whose voices are not represented on CIF. We are much, much more than the banality expressed in the odious comment written by Ms. Marquardt-Bigman.

Friday, February 22, 2008

 

Appeal to -2's Bono: It's all About Justice; Don't Honor Israel!

Appeal to U-2's Bono: It's all About Justice
Don't Honor Israel!
22 February 2008

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel(PACBI) has learned that you have been invited by Israeli President Shimon Peres to take part in a conference designed to mark Israel's contributionsto medicine, science, and conservation. We urge you, as a prominent activist on issues of global inequality and a campaigner for basic human rights, to say no to Israel, especially since the invitation coincideswith celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state. With the creation of this state sixty years ago, “Palestine ceased to exist except in the hearts and mind of Palestinians,”[1] of whom three quarters of a million were dispossessed and uprooted from their homes and lands, condemned to a life of exile and destitution.

Israel at 60 is a state that is still denying Palestinian refugees their UN-sanctioned rights, simply because they are "non-Jews." It is still illegally occupying Palestinian and other Arab lands, in violation of numerous UN resolutions. In the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT),Israel is continuing the construction of its colonies and massive Wall in direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of July 2004. It is still persistently and grossly breaching international law and infringing fundamental human rights with impunity afforded to it through munificent US and European economic, diplomatic and political support. It is still treating its own Palestinian citizens with institutionalized discrimination.

We urge you to reject the invitation from a man who has nothing to do with the lofty ideals of progress in science, medicine and the environment. His decades-long political career includes war crimes committed against the Lebanese and Palestinian people.

In 1996, when Israel still occupied southern Lebanon, Shimon Peres as Prime Minister launched "Operation Grapes of Wrath," causing 400,000 Lebanese to flee their homes, with almost 800 of them fleeing to a UN base in Qana, South Lebanon. On April 18 the Israeli army shelled the UN shelter in Qana, killing 102 civilians, mainly women, children and the elderly. Many more were injured. Human Rights Watch, the UN and Amnesty International subsequently disproved the myth that the Israeli army did not deliberately intend to shell the UN base. Shimon Peres said at the time, "In my opinion, everything was done according to clear logic and in a responsible way. I am at peace."

Peres is on record for being responsible for other war crimes, from building colonies on occupied Arab land to endorsing a policy of extra-judicial killings, by which Palestinians and other Arabs are murdered without the benefit of a trial or, in fact, any evidence other than that provided by Israeli intelligence. Peres also supports the siege of Gaza and the elaborate system of checkpoints all across the West Bank.

He defends the demolition of Palestinian homes, and he justified the atrocities committed by the Israeli army in its recent war on Lebanon in 2006.

We, like all other Palestinians and international supporters of human rights and international law, expect you to uphold the highest standard of respect for the human rights of the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, which has been under a hermetic siege imposed by Israel for almost two years.

Poverty is rampant, and the lives of the ill, children, and the elderly are in danger. Difficult and brave decisions need to be taken in supportof Palestinians exactly like South Africa was supported long before it became fashionable to do so. Instead of legitimizing Israeli war criminals by accepting their invitations, people of conscience who respect international law and justice should shun them.

In 2005, inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa,Palestinian civil society called for boycott, divestment and sanctions(BDS) [2] against Israel until it fully complies with international law and recognizes the fundamental human rights of the people of Palestine.

A specific call for cultural boycott of Israel [3] was issued a year later, garnering wide support.

Among the many groups and institutions that have heeded the Palestinian boycott calls and started to consider or apply diverse forms of effective pressure on Israel are Aosdana, the Irish state-sponsored academy of artists; the British University and CollegeUnion (UCU); the two largest trade unions in the UK; the Church ofEngland; the Presbyterian Church (USA); prominent British architects; the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ); the Congress of South AfricanTrade Unions (COSATU); the South African Council of Churches; the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Ontario; celebrated authors, artists and intellectuals led by John Berger; and Palme d'Or winner director Ken Loach.

We strongly urge you to uphold the values of freedom, equality and just peace for all by rejecting the invitation to attend a conference in Israel celebrating that country's contribution to science and scholarship. Israel is not a member in good standing of the global community of scientists and scholars, and cannot be honored as such. After all, "it's not about charity, it's about justice."

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)

www.PACBI.org

info@BoycottIsrael.ps

[1] Arundhati Roy, "Come September," speech delivered in New Mexico, 2002.

http://nmazca.com/verba/roy.htm

[2] http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=66_0_1_10_M11

[3] http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=315_0_1_0_C

 

Appeal to -2's Bono: It's all About Justice; Don't Honor Israel!

Appeal to U-2's Bono: It's all About Justice
Don't Honor Israel!
22 February 2008

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel(PACBI) has learned that you have been invited by Israeli President Shimon Peres to take part in a conference designed to mark Israel's contributionsto medicine, science, and conservation. We urge you, as a prominent activist on issues of global inequality and a campaigner for basic human rights, to say no to Israel, especially since the invitation coincideswith celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state. With the creation of this state sixty years ago, “Palestine ceased to exist except in the hearts and mind of Palestinians,”[1] of whom three quarters of a million were dispossessed and uprooted from their homes and lands, condemned to a life of exile and destitution.

Israel at 60 is a state that is still denying Palestinian refugees their UN-sanctioned rights, simply because they are "non-Jews." It is still illegally occupying Palestinian and other Arab lands, in violation of numerous UN resolutions. In the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT),Israel is continuing the construction of its colonies and massive Wall in direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of July 2004. It is still persistently and grossly breaching international law and infringing fundamental human rights with impunity afforded to it through munificent US and European economic, diplomatic and political support. It is still treating its own Palestinian citizens with institutionalized discrimination.

We urge you to reject the invitation from a man who has nothing to do with the lofty ideals of progress in science, medicine and the environment. His decades-long political career includes war crimes committed against the Lebanese and Palestinian people.

In 1996, when Israel still occupied southern Lebanon, Shimon Peres as Prime Minister launched "Operation Grapes of Wrath," causing 400,000 Lebanese to flee their homes, with almost 800 of them fleeing to a UN base in Qana, South Lebanon. On April 18 the Israeli army shelled the UN shelter in Qana, killing 102 civilians, mainly women, children and the elderly. Many more were injured. Human Rights Watch, the UN and Amnesty International subsequently disproved the myth that the Israeli army did not deliberately intend to shell the UN base. Shimon Peres said at the time, "In my opinion, everything was done according to clear logic and in a responsible way. I am at peace."

Peres is on record for being responsible for other war crimes, from building colonies on occupied Arab land to endorsing a policy of extra-judicial killings, by which Palestinians and other Arabs are murdered without the benefit of a trial or, in fact, any evidence other than that provided by Israeli intelligence. Peres also supports the siege of Gaza and the elaborate system of checkpoints all across the West Bank.

He defends the demolition of Palestinian homes, and he justified the atrocities committed by the Israeli army in its recent war on Lebanon in 2006.

We, like all other Palestinians and international supporters of human rights and international law, expect you to uphold the highest standard of respect for the human rights of the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, which has been under a hermetic siege imposed by Israel for almost two years.

Poverty is rampant, and the lives of the ill, children, and the elderly are in danger. Difficult and brave decisions need to be taken in supportof Palestinians exactly like South Africa was supported long before it became fashionable to do so. Instead of legitimizing Israeli war criminals by accepting their invitations, people of conscience who respect international law and justice should shun them.

In 2005, inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa,Palestinian civil society called for boycott, divestment and sanctions(BDS) [2] against Israel until it fully complies with international law and recognizes the fundamental human rights of the people of Palestine.

A specific call for cultural boycott of Israel [3] was issued a year later, garnering wide support.

Among the many groups and institutions that have heeded the Palestinian boycott calls and started to consider or apply diverse forms of effective pressure on Israel are Aosdana, the Irish state-sponsored academy of artists; the British University and CollegeUnion (UCU); the two largest trade unions in the UK; the Church ofEngland; the Presbyterian Church (USA); prominent British architects; the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ); the Congress of South AfricanTrade Unions (COSATU); the South African Council of Churches; the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Ontario; celebrated authors, artists and intellectuals led by John Berger; and Palme d'Or winner director Ken Loach.

We strongly urge you to uphold the values of freedom, equality and just peace for all by rejecting the invitation to attend a conference in Israel celebrating that country's contribution to science and scholarship. Israel is not a member in good standing of the global community of scientists and scholars, and cannot be honored as such. After all, "it's not about charity, it's about justice."

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)

www.PACBI.org

info@BoycottIsrael.ps

[1] Arundhati Roy, "Come September," speech delivered in New Mexico, 2002.

http://nmazca.com/verba/roy.htm

[2] http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=66_0_1_10_M11

[3] http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=315_0_1_0_C

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

 

Untold Stories of the Nakba

Dear friends of the IMEU,

As the 60th anniversary of the Nakba approaches, the IMEU will feature the “Untold Stories” of those, like Darwish Addassi, who lived through this tragedy. Visit http://www.imeu.net/ to read more.

If you know of other Nakba survivors living in the U.S. who might be willing to share their stories, please email info@imeu.net.

Warm regards,
Scott, IMEU Editor
http://www.imeu.net/

******************************
http://imeu.net/news/article001250.shtml
Untold stories: Darwish Addassi
IMEU, Feb 20, 2008

Darwish Addassi on a walk near his home in Walnut Creek, CA.

Darwish Addassi wishes his fellow Americans could spend a day in his shoes.

Maybe then they would know what it feels like to be a refugee. The 74-year-old retired chemist still remembers the day he was expelled from his home 60 years ago and became a refugee. Addassi has not been back to Lydda, Palestine since.

On July 11, 1948, when Addasi was just 14 and in the eighth grade, an "informal" Israeli military unit entered Lydda after days of encircling the city.
"My brother came into the house and he said 'Lydda fell,'" Addassi said. "The Israelis came and announced that we have kicked you all out."
His family's farm of oranges, grapefruits and lemons, more than 4,000 years old, was gone. Making matters worse, Addassi, along with the other men of his family, were rounded up and detained by the newly formed Israeli government. They were deemed a threat because before falling, Lydda was one of the few Palestinian towns to resist the takeover and to refuse to sell its land to the future Israeli state.
"They took about 1,500 of us to a place called Jalil," he said, adding that each prisoner was interviewed, numbered and put in a pen. "It was like a prison or a concentration camp."

For two days Addassi and his fellow prisoners of war did not get any food and were even forced to dig their own latrines. Forty men were crammed into each tent. "So if you sleep on your back the other guy has to sleep on his side," Addassi said.

Addassi spent nine months in detention all the while having no communication with his mother and two sisters who had fled to Jordan.
"We were part of the lucky refugees because we knew people in Jordan, influential people," he said. "They came and they took the whole family to Amman and they gave them a small house."

Still, the horror stories that Addassi heard from his mother and sisters about their journey are difficult to share. Stories of Israelis stealing whatever the refugees had - from rings to watches - and of people being killed for the few possessions they were able to sneak along, since they were not allowed to take anything with them, not even water.

After working in Jordan and Kuwait to support his family, Addassi moved to Chicago in 1957, with $2,000 in his pocket, to go to school. Now retired and living with his wife in Walnut Creek, California, the father of two enjoys making wine and trying to recreate the beautiful gardens he remembers from Lydda in his backyard, all while waiting for his right to return home 60 years later.

"If the Jews gave themselves the right to go back after two thousand years I should have that right, too," he said. "What would you do? Put yourself in my shoes. What would you do if someone came and kicked you out of your house?"
The "Nakba" ("catastrophe" in Arabic) refers to the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948 and the exile of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes and homeland. It is estimated that more than 50 percent were driven out under direct military assault by Israeli troops. Others fled in panic as news spread of massacres in Palestinian villages like Deir Yassin and Tantura. Nearly half the Palestinian refugees had fled by May 14, 1948, when Israel declared its independence and the Arab states entered the fray.

Israel depopulated more than 450 Palestinian towns and villages, destroying most while resettling the remainder with new Jewish immigrants without regard to Palestinian rights and desires to return to their homes. Israel still refuses to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and to pay them compensation, as required by international law.

Today, there are more than 4 million registered Palestinian refugees worldwide.
The Nakba is a root cause of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel's denial of its expulsion of the Palestinians and seizure of their homes and properties for Jewish use continues to inflict pain and to generate resistance among Palestinians today.
Read more untold stories.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

 

Where is my G**Damn Prescription?

Where is my Goddamn prescription!?
By Sami Mashney
For The Independent Monitor

Angrily banging his engorged fist on the powerless pharmacy counter, the irate customer boisterously blurted: “Where is my Goddamn prescription?” Such was a recurringly-familiar scene that I often encountered in my years working as a pharmacist before I took matters in my own hand, enrolled in law school and became an attorney.

Little did this irate customer know that I neither knew who he was, nor did I have a prescription for him and that his doctor never called me to give me his frickin’ prescription. However, in his own little—for lack of a better term—brain, I was supposed to be a psychic who should have figured out his identity and telepathically received his doctor’s supposed transmittal of his prescription to me!

Needless to say, this was one of the main reasons why I decided that the count-and-pour pharmacy environment was not for me. This also led me to think that I needed to find a career where fighting back, debating and engaging in stimulating verbal brawls with others, pays me rather than leads me to the office of the drug store manager, where I have to uncomfortably answer familiar, silly and nauseating questions as to why was I allegedly “rude” to such an irate customer.

Obviously, if that operationally-sloppy customer would have made the effort, did his homework, and respectfully introduced himself and inquired as to whether or not his doctor phoned in his prescription, the whole unpleasant encounter could have been avoided. I would have cheerfully welcomed him, gladly phoned his doctor to receive his prescription and accurately filed it to his satisfaction.

I am not writing here about pharmacy or career change. My point is that if people make the right and intelligent effort, they will get the right and desired result. This is my point about us—Arab Americans!

We are irate that our flippant President is deep in the side pocket of the Israeli Lobby, that our eviscerated congress is in its back pocket, our politically-biased judiciary is sitting on its lap, while our sinister so-called “mainstream” media is wrapped around its little finger. We are angry and expect that our anger alone is sufficient to change this daunting picture. We are acting like the proverbial irate customer who is quick to complain but wouldn’t make the effort, do his homework, and then wait to reap the reward—the fruit of his effort.

Even a cursory study of how Zionists were able to reach their Zenith of power in the USA will show that they deservedly earned their immense economic and political power. They did so by tirelessly pursuing education and professional excellence to the highest levels, achieving economic success at the largest and most ambitious scales, participating in civic and political involvement on all levels and inside all political parties, pursuing elected and appointed positions in congress and the judiciary, taking media pursuit to tycoonian levels, engaging in structured, collective and cohesive communal work—all this while never losing sight of who they are, and what is their overall collective long-term and strategic objective.

If we contrast the mediocre quality of our efforts with the preceding impressive example, it would be accurate to say that we lag behind considerably, that we have disjointed Bantustans of economic success, individualistic cases of academic success, handful of people in congress, another handful of others in appointed positions who are beholden to their political bosses and not to our community, we hardly donate to or work for political campaigns, discriminate against each other on the basis of religion and country of origin, scantily support our political and civil rights organizations, meagerly support our emerging media (such as The Independent Monitor), we don’t think big enough to become the Costcos and Wal-Marts of economy, politics and the media, we don’t systematically and collectively pursue careers in the judiciary and other influential positions in society. With all this, we have the unbelievable and unrealistic audacity to be irate, bang our collective fist on the political counter and complain that the system is biased towards Israel, that we are persecuted, mistreated, discriminated against … and so on and so forth. To this, I say: duh and double duh!

Do we expect that the powers that be, out of the goodness of their heart, will come to us and hand us our rights on a silver platter? If anyone really believes that, then I can sell that person the Brooklyn Bridge at a great discount.

The USA—and the globalized World now—is becoming more and more like a giant multi-tentacled corporation composed of shareholders, board of directors and customers. The shareholders are the very wealthy and influential individuals. The board of directors is the government from the president to the chief of police. The customers are the ordinary unsuspecting people who have no choice but to buy from, pay to, and be subject to this corporation which does not have any competitors within its geographic boundaries—where we, The People, live.

Needless to say, if we want to be treated equally, be included in the hierarchy of power, be respected, have our concerns satisfactorily addressed, etc., we have to roll up our sleeves, make the effort, and patiently pursue success in all fields and at all levels—while never losing our soul or forget who we are or where we came from. We must support and love one another and realize that our path to victory is paved with tireless effort and collective sense of community, as Arab Americans, as Americans and as fellow humans.

Monday, February 18, 2008

 

Nakba Archive: Refugees Relate History in Oral Testimonies




Nafisa Sadek from Sheik Dawud
Place of birth: Sheikh Dawud
Date of birth: 1928
Present address: Naher al Bared camp
From Nakba Archive's Oral Testimonies
Excerpt:
"A man from our village went to America at that time, and there he met a Jewish man. The latter asked him, 'Do your people in Sheikh Dawoud eat with gold or wooden spoons?' The man from our village answered, 'wooden, of course.' The Jewish told him 'go to the mosque of your village and call Bilal, sit there as long as you can.' When the man came back, he did as the Jewish man told him. The guard of the gold answered, 'if you hadn't said what you did, I would have made you very rich.'
"The Jewish mayor called Mliekha came to our village and asked people not to fight the Jews, but our people refused. Then he advised them to take the stones of the houses with them to Lebanon if they could, to prepare for the bad consequences they would face. On the way, as we were leaving, they stopped us, and they killed my brother, 14 years, and my husband who was 18 at the time".

Sunday, February 17, 2008

 

Nakba Archive Documents Refugees' Oral Testimonies





Dahyeh Jaafar


Place of Birth: Huseiniya


Date of Birth: 1934


Present Address: Naher Al Bared Camp


From The Nakba Archive


Excerpt:


"I was 13 or 14 when we left.


"I still remember when the Jews started bombing the houses of the village. The houses collapsed on our heads; we started running - then they entered the houses and killed some people.


"I still remember how I and my brother held the intestines of my father when they shot him."


Saturday, February 16, 2008

 

The YMCA and Gaza

From an e-mail:

The YMCA and Gaza

Ever since I was a child (I am now 52 years old) I remember the YMCA in Gaza.
It is part of the city, it's citizens it's culture and local environment.

No one in Gaza ever thought that the YMCA was for Christians or Moslems. No body ever needed to think who it belonged to. It was for all.
Years latter my children started going to the YMCA. They went to the kindergarten there. The Summer camps, they never thought of who started this place. Everyone in Gaza knew Abu Isaa, and Issa. They are both key figures in Gaza City. All the children, teen ages and then adults knew them. They are known to all more than any political figures and the YMCA is know more that any political party.

Today when I went to the YMCA to see what has happened, I saw all the Gazans there, I did not see only Christians worried about the YMCA, I saw a population terrified about loosing a way life and a culture they loved and some people are trying to eliminate.

We all hope that this is a separate incident condemned by everyone, and will not be repeated.

All Gaza should have a stand against such an incidents and help rebuild and preserve the good relationship between all religions in Gaza.

Mohammad Naja

 

Call to Protect the Village of Suhmata from further Israeli expropriations

Suhmata in the early 1950s before destruction by Zionists.

More on Suhmata from Palestine Remembered

To sign the following petition go here:

Suhmata Petition


Call to Protect the Village of Suhmata from further Israeli expropriations

We, the undersigned, endorse the appeal launched by ABNAA' SUHMATA Association regarding the demolished Palestinian Arab village of Suhmata and reaffirm that the village's lands belong to its Palestinian residents who became refugees as a result of Israel's policy of ethnic cleansing and land confiscation.

a. We support ABNAA' SUHMATA Association's call for the restitution of Suhmata village confiscated lands;b. We reaffirm the right of return of all Palestinians to their homes and lands;c. We insist on the implementation of Palestinian rights as enshrined in the UN Resolution 194.

In 1948, residents of Suhmata were expelled and their lands were subsequently confiscated. Two Israeli settlements have since built on the village lands (Hosen and Tsuriel), and part of the town of Ma'alot and a recreational lake are also located on the former village's lands.

At the beginning of January 2008, the Israeli Northern District Planning and Building Committee announced new plans to construct yet another new neighborhood east of Ma'alot on Suhmata's confiscated lands. The neighborhood will consist of an estimated 3500 housing units, annexing what remains of Suhmata's lands.We, the people of Suhmata, as part of the Palestinian people, are still suffering from the results of the 1948 Nakba, 60 years after the Zionist conquest of our lands.

We still live in exile or displaced within our own homeland. Consecutive Israeli governments have stolen our property and homes, destroyed our village and confiscated our lands by means of ethnically discriminatory legislation and by consistently denying our right to return to our village. We insist on the implementation of Palestinian rights as enshrined in
international law and UN Resolution 194, primary among these being the right of return for all Palestinian refugees to their lands, homes, and possessions.

We call upon all honest people around the world to join ABNAA' SUHMATA's campaign to struggle for the right of return for all Palestinians and to protect Palestinian lands, including those of the Suhmata village, from further Israeli expropriations.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

 

Egypt's Aboutrika has sympathy for Gaza 05 Jan 08

"I wore the shirt because I have great sympathy for the children of Gaza who are under siege. I wore the shirt for Gaza's children who are suffering, who are starving, who are vulnerable, who fear for their safety, and have many worries."

Thanks to Climbing Walls
http://alajnabiya.blogspot.com/


 

Dr. Abu Sitta Outs Zionist Dissemblers

Please circulate.

The Associated Press, in its report quoted by the Herald Tribune and Haaretz on Feb 11, 2008, said that Qiryat Yam sued Google Earth " for slander" because its worldwide map service showed the town was built on the ruins of an Arab village, Arab al Ghawarina or Jidru, in an entry made by Thameen Darby.

Qiryat Yam official claimed that this is not true, no Palestinians were expelled from the site because there was none and the Jewish village was founded in 1945, before Israel was established.

This is not true. Sheet 15/25, 16/25 (Acre) of the Survey of Palestine (under the British Mandate) does not show Qiryat Yam. Instead, it shows Al Ghawarina - Jidru. The land from the edge of the Arab village site to the sea is marked on the map as "Government Forest Reserve No. 2). Aerial surveys taken by RAF in 1946 show no such Jewish village (photo available for inspecting).

As a further proof, sheet V of Palestine Exploration Fund survey, which started its work in 1871 and printed its maps a decade later, shows Jidru at the same location of the British Mandate maps. This confirms the existence of Jidru from old until 1948 when Qiryat Yam was built on its ruins.

Some of the expelled Ghawarina fled to Jisr al Zarqa, which is an Arab town in existence for many decades before Israel was established.

Al Ghawarina earn their living as farmers, ploughmen and cattle breeders, especially buffalos. The latter explains why most of them lived near Hula Lake before they were too expelled by Israel in 1948.

Professor Yossi Ben - Artzi of Haifa University told Yediot Ahronot that Google's entry is "simply complete nonsense" and that land was bought by Jews in 1939. He was probably referring to Kefar Masaryk which was founded in that year and served as a Haganah base to attack and depopulate Galilee, which took place later.

Qiryat Yam started building huts on Jidru site to accommodate Jewish Brigade soldiers of WWII who came to help in the occupation of Palestine. Its entity as town was confirmed only in 1976 when it received "municipality" status.

But the whole controversy fades against the total picture of al Nakba of 1948 when the Palestinian population of 655 towns and villages were depopulated, who now make 7 million refugees. Their confiscated land is 93% of Israel's area. Arguing about 1,2 or 10 sites will not alter the fact of the 1948 ethnic cleansing, which will remain the core of the conflict unless peace based on justice is achieved.

Dr. Salman Abu Sitta
Palestine Land Society, London
(dedicated to the documentatin of the land and people of Palestine)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

 

Zealous Zionists Fail to Zip Palestinian Lips

not that they're not trying . . .

Go West Young Man: The comments section has been hijacked by Zionist cyberterrorists, and Aboutreika's image in which he lifts his jersey to show a tee-shirt saying "Sympathy With Gaza," has been disappeared from Google and Yahoo search engines, but Scott MacLeod's story for Time Magazine Blog "The Arab Republic of Aboutreika" is a fine piece to expose western audiences to the Egyptian football superstar, who was essential to Egypt's winning the Africa Cup of Nations:

"The 29-year-old Aboutreika had a hand in every victory. But he captured the hearts of Egyptians and the rest of the Arab world with something more than fancy footwork. After he scored a goal in Egypt's 3-0 win over Sudan, he pulled up his No. 22 jersey to reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with the words, in Arabic and English, "Sympathize with Gaza." It was a declaration of political and humanitarian support for the Palestinians, who had just broken down the fence on the Egyptian border in defiance of an Israeli and Egyptian government blockade. Aboutreika was yellow-carded for unsportsmanlike conduct. Neither he nor Egyptian fans seemed to care."

Zionists Still Crazy After All These Years: Anne Selden Annab has written a letter to the Los Angeles Times regarding Zionist ideologues attempts to shut down an appearance of Sabeel, an organization of Palestinian Christians, at a local Episcopalean church.

Zip Your Lips: Alison Weir of "If Americans Knew," writes of a cancellation of her appearance at Greenwich Library

GROUP CHALLENGES GREENWICH LIBRARY CENSORSHIP
CONTACT: 202.631.4060

A group of local citizens is challenging the decision by some officials at the Greenwich Library to cancel two upcoming talks that had been in the works since January.

The presentations are entitled "Israel-Palestine: Beyond the Headlines," and were to be given by Alison Weir, a media critic and former journalist who has traveled throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew, a nonprofit organization that specializes in media analysis.

According to library officials, after an advertisement announcing the talks ran in local papers, the library received some phone calls and emails from people complaining. The library director, assistant director, and president of the board of trustees then decided to cancel it, determining that it would violate "public sensitivities." Officials refuse to say how many people contacted them, stating only "some were old friends."

"This is absolutely ridiculous," says event organizer John McGillion, of Hunting Ridge Road. "It is my right as a citizen of Greenwich to hold an event at the library. Allowing people to censor a program is outrageous and illegal. The whole point of a library is to promote open exchange of ideas."

McGillion states that "Ms. Weir has spoken all over the country – at Harvard Law School, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Stanford, Vassar, you name it. She's given two briefings on Capitol Hill and spoken to various think tanks and international conferences. We're lucky to have her."

McGillion considers the decision "unethical, hasty and illogical." He says, "First of all, censoring a program violates their own professional ethics. The American Library Association Bill of Rights is absolutely clear on this. It says: 'Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.'

"Furthermore, even if it were permissible to screen out certain content, which it's not, how in the world did library officials think they had any idea what the 'public sensitivities' of Greenwich citizens are? Think about it logically: 99 percent of the people are probably happy or neutral that the program is going to take place. Only the one percent who oppose it would bother to pick up the phone."

As word has gotten out about the cancellation, the library has begun receiving numerous calls in favor of the talk being held as scheduled.

McGillion says that since the decision to cancel was made quickly, without consulting library trustees or the public, he considers it "temporary."

"As far as I'm concerned," he says, "the program will go on. We will be at the library Thursday and Saturday and Ms Weir will give the talk she was invited to Greenwich to give. Then the people of Fairfield County can evaluate the information for themselves, without a small number of partisans denying them this opportunity."

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/download/GreenwichAd.pdf

ADVERTISEMENT TEXT:

"Ms. Weir presents a powerful, well documented view of the Middle East today. She is intelligent, careful, and critical. American policy makers would benefit greatly from hearing her first-hand observations and attempting to answer the questions she poses. This is an intellectual, thought-provoking, and worthwhile presentation."

- Thomas Campbell, Former

Sunday, February 10, 2008

 

Aboutreika's Goal Wins Africa Cup of Nations For Egypt


Mohamed Aboutreika, who garnered a yellow card earlier in the Africa Cup of Nations tournament for lifting his jersey to reveal a tee-shirt saying "Sympathy With Gaza," has spurred Egypt's Pharaohs to victory over Cameroun 1-0 in Accra, Ghana. His goal came in the seventy-sixth minute of play, according to the Eurosport Clock, but BBC reports it came in the seventy-seventh minute. Egypt has won the Africa Cup of Nations Cup two years in a row, with six a record six titles in all.
Aboutreika, a superstar and humanitarian, has been compared to the great Muhammad Ali.
Read the BBC's account of the game here.

 

Boycott Leviev.Stop Israel building settlement in Palestine.


Saturday, February 09, 2008

 

Aib Ya Abu al Ghait

Aib Ya Abu al Ghait


By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
9 February, 2008

Instead of taking a firm stand against Israel’s Nazi-like criminality in Gaza and other Zionist covert efforts to destabilize and weaken Egypt, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al Ghait reportedly lashed out at the Palestinians recently, vowing that Egypt would “break the legs of those who would cross the borders again.”

These harsh remarks, to say the very least, are unacceptable and shouldn’t have been uttered by the foreign minister of the largest and most powerful Arab country. We simply shouldn’t be talking to each other or about each other in this way. Have we gone mad?

Moreover, the timing of these remarks which are music to Zionist ears, makes them utterly detestable and injurious to the feelings of millions of Arabs and Muslim and their friends around the world who don’t want to see Israeli-Arab contradictions morphed into inter-Arab contradictions.

To begin with, it is an established fact that the thoroughly-tormented and thoroughly-starved 1.5 million Gazans don’t and won’t pose any conceivable threat to the territorial integrity of Egypt, with its 75 million people, nor to Egyptian national security. The real threat comes from Israel, and Israel alone, whose leaders don’t stop threatening Egypt.

Gazans, like all Palestinians, love the Egyptian people. We are one people sharing the same past, present and future. Our pain is one, our hope is one, and our destiny is one. And Egypt’s security is our security, and Palestinian freedom and wellbeing should always be an utmost Egyptian national interest. Indeed, the presence of 1.5 million Arabs at Sinai’s eastern tip is an important strategic asset for Egypt, which ought to be constantly enhanced.

These are axiomatic facts that many Arabs (who don’t live in the American era) still take for granted.

However, the ill-conceived statements by the foreign minister of Egypt, which coincided with a virulent anti-Palestinian campaign in some quarters of the Egyptian media, are making us doubt what we always thought were unquestionable truisms pertaining to the Arab and Muslim umma (nation).

Egypt is not a banana republic and it should never ever accept the status of an American-Israeli puppet state.

Hence, the words and acts of Egyptian officials must never be designed to please and appease the strategic enemies of Egypt and the Arab-Muslim world. True, Egypt does receive around $2 billion dollars from the United States per year. But this is very much at the expense of vital Egyptian national interests.

Indeed, through this annual aid, the Israeli-controlled American government has been holding Egypt by the throat, robbing the biggest Arab country of its free will to develop its industry and economy.

In fact, one wouldn’t cross into the realm of the unknown by arguing that had it not been for this scandalous American blackmail, Egypt would have become the South Korea of the Arab world. Well, if Iran could do it, why can’t Egypt?

The poisonous bribe has actually seriously debilitated Egypt’s ability to survive as a viable country. It has also undermined Egypt’s national security by preventing the country from developing a strategic deterrent against a relentlessly bellicose Israel that is drifting menacingly toward a nationalistic-religious fascism that bears all the hallmarks of 1938-Germany.

It is lamentable that Egypt is willingly accepting to castrate itself for the sake of an annual handout of $2 billion which Egypt effectively pays off in terms of its national dignity, sovereignty and independence.

Egypt is not poor. Egypt has a huge inventory of brainpower which if utilized properly can make wonders. But in order to do that, Egypt needs democracy, an indispensable prerequisite that can transform Egypt’s huge potentials into tangible economic achievements..

I know that Egyptians resent any Arab interference in their internal affairs. And I really respect this natural concern.

But we are brothers, and we love Egypt, we love it so much that we can’t keep silent when Egypt is made to (or duped to) walk on a track that is detrimental to its interests and wellbeing.

“Aib Ya Abu al-Ghait”!!! Shame on you! don’t you utter these words again, because the people whose legs you would break are your brothers, sisters, sons and daughters . Do good people treat their family in such a manner? Does the big brother break the legs of his younger brothers? Besides, you know who the real bone-broker is.!!

I am saying this because your words were so hurtful, so painful and so sad. Didn’t the Arab poet say “The oppression of relatives is more painful than the blow of a sharp sword!”

We Palestinians are not going to relate to your unfortunate remarks with vindictiveness and malice. Because your wound is our wound and your sorrow is our sorrow. And we both know quite well that Israel is the only beneficiary from an Egyptian-Palestinian misunderstanding.

But, my most dear brother, we must never forget who the real enemy is. It is Israel, our existential enemy, not these impoverished and penned-in Gazans who were forced to break into Egypt to buy flour and food to keep their children alive as President Mubarak himself testified.

Is this too difficult or too complicated for you to understand?

 

Speaking of Heros . . . Alaa




I have posted frequently about the Egyptian superstar football player, Mohamed Aboutreika. Now, I want to post about a less celebrated, but no less a hero than the superstar humanitarian Aboutreika, Alaa Sabagh, but while researching, I see that Lawrence of Cyberia has already posted excellently about Alaa and all of Arna's children. Arna's children are the children of Jenin who were part of Arna Mer Khamis' children's theater in Jenin. Out of the six children featured in the moving film, five of them have been killed by the Zionists; the mother of the surviving child, Zubeida Zakariya, was killed by the Zionists. She donated her house for Arna's theater.

Alaa's picture when he was 12 is always depicted on my blog, as well as his picture when he was a young man. He grew into a handsome young man, but was killed in his prime, like so many Palestinian men, by brutal, racist Zionist forces. In his young picture, he sits amid the ruins of his demolished house; the family was collectively punished because his older brother killed an Israeli occupation soldier.

Alaa went on to become a leader of Al Aqsa Brigades; he defended the town, Jenin, the home of ethnically cleansed Palestinian refugees against Israel's occupation army, which for sixty plus years has invaded, demolished, murdered, maimed, plundered, emptied, and terrorized Palestinians in their own neighborhoods.
According to Lawrence of Cyberia, "At about 11:20 p.m. on 26 November 2002, Israeli aircraft fired a missile into a house on the southwestern side of the Jenin refugee camp, where Ala'a Sabagh was in hiding with Immad Nasharti, the local leader of Islamic Jihad."

This is your Zionism, the ideology that makes whores of my country's representatives. This is the ideology that condones maiming children, demolishing villages, moving in immigrants to enjoy the stolen furniture, houses, orchards, pictures, silverware of the people who have been put on trucks, shot on the roadside if they dare protest. This is your Zionism that expells and deports. This is your Zionism, that shows up on comments boards in all of its shrill and shrieking obscenity, drowning out the voices of reason and justice. This is your light unto the nations; this is your democracy; this is the ideology that turns decent men into liars and panderers. This is your Zionism that imprisons the people who share my blood; this is your Zionism that impells women to give birth in the streets; this is your Zionism that dissembles and obfuscates; this is your Zionism that abuses kids, including the fifty percent of the population of Gaza that is under fourteen; this is the god of US politicians, scared to death lest they lose an election if they don't spew the words the Zionists write for them.

Do you see Alaa, the twelve year old, dazed amid the ruins of his demolished house? Do you see Alaa, the young man with the beautiful smile, Barack Obama? Did you see him eliminated by the fascist invaders? And you have nothing but praise for the country that kills a young man in his prime defending his home? And you have nothing but scorn for the youthful defenders of their parents and their younger siblings? How shameful and how sad to see my country's youthful leaders so compromised and prostituted that they dare not speak up for Alaa, the little boy bewildered when his house was demolished, and the hero who defended the elders and the children of his town against those who want to ensure that the stolen land will be secure for privileged immigrants.

 

Google, Yahoo Disappear World's Most Popular Football Star and Hero, Aboutreika

Update: David provided the following. On Google Image search for Mohamed Aboutreika Gaza.
The following link does provide the "Sympathize With Gaza" image: http://www.tercera.cl/medio/articulo/0,0,3308_5804_330127755,00.html
**************************************************************************************

"Every athlete has a humanitarian role in society. He doesn't live solely for himself, but for others too. I like to participate in charity work and try my best to help the poor and penniless. I'm also seeking to use soccer in humanitarian work." Mohamed Aboutreika




Search for an image of "Mohamed Aboutreika Sympathy With Gaza," and one won't find anything on google and yahoo search engines. Urukunet has already drawn attention to the fact that directions to the image of Egypt's superstar midfielder, who along with his Pharaohs will compete with Cameroon tomorrow, Sunday, February 10, in the finals of the Cup of Nations, are not to be found on the aforementioned search engine, and attribute it to Israeli pressure.

It is indeed highly suspect that the image of the "magician" as he is known to Egyptians, and the "smiling assassin," as he's pegged by the foreign sports press, the well-mannered, humanitarian married father of twins, who won International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), Most Popular Football Player Award, with an astounding 1,017, 786 votes out of 2,727, 458 cast, outpolling Brazil's Ronaldo and David Beckham, has been disappeared by the giant search engines. What if Tom Brady had flashed a tee-shirt at the Super Bowl? Would one be hard pressed to find his image via a popular search engine.

We're talking about a man who won over one million votes in a global poll, a man considered perhaps the best football player in Africa. According to IFFHS on Aboutreika's "Most Popular Player" victory: "The easy winner was 29 year-old Mohamed Aboutreika of Egypt, playmaker and goal getter of Al-Ahly (Cairo). He is the great idol of Egyptian football, one of the finest players in all of Africa."

It is not hard to understand why Aboutreika was voted "most popular" by over over one million fans. He's possesses an inate sense of justice as evidenced by his lifting his jersey after scoring a goal against Ghana during Africa Cup of Nations play, to reveal "Sympathy With Gaza."

He is no newcomer to just causes. According to the New York Times, "He’s been very visible in charity work, playing in international benefit matches and appearing in TV public service announcements for cancer treatment, blood donation drives, and this one for the World Food Programme, which urges that the effort to stop hunger, as Aboutreika says, 'is a game we have to win'. "

And how many western sports superstars could match this? " . . . When the chairman of Tersana club wanted Aboutreika and a team-mate defender to sign their new contracts, he put a very high salary for Aboutreika compared to that of his team-mate, but Aboutreika refused to sign, and insisted to take the same salary as his team-mate although it was much lower. El-Shazli's attempts failed to persuade Aboutreika that his role for the club is much greater than this defender, and finally, Aboutreika insisted on equality and signed his contract as lower as his team-mate."

Aboutreika was warned by the Confederation of African Football. In an interview with El Khabar, he remarks, " . . . a warning that I'm proud of."

He continues: "I think it’s normal, I’ve expressed a feeling; a natural feeling of any Arab…and if you ask any Arab about what is happening to Palestinians and Gaza population he would tell you the same…

"What I did is a simple duty and has nothing to do with politics or other things…I showed my sympathy with Gaza population that’s all…"

Aboutreika most likely was spared suspension due to an outpouring of e-mails to FIFA like the one from journalist Ahmed Gamal, "He is a good player and he belongs to all Arab and Muslim nations, and he reflected what is in our hearts. We are asking you, in the name of human rights, to cooperate with us and support him. Please do not even think about any suspension for him, because your tournament will be fake and the whole Muslim world is supporting him. Please don't make that mistake. We are all sympathizing with Gaza."
Indeed, "We are all sympathizing with Gaza." When I taught younger kids, I'd teach a unit on heros. To my chagrin, most of the kids would choose highly paid movie stars or sports figures with little to distinguish them as heros other than their talent. Today I'd be proud if one of my students chose the humble superstar Mohamed Aboutreika as their hero, and I'd be even prouder if the people who man the major search engines would recognize Mohamed Aboutreika a courageous hero as much of the world has done.

Photos: Aboutreika after scoring in the semi-finals against the Ivory Coast.











 

Open Letter to the Beatles: 'Time to Give Peace A Chance, Not to Celebrate Oppression'

Open Letter to the Beatles

To Paul, Ringo and the families of John and George

Dear all

We are writing to you to ask you to decline the invitation to join the celebrations marking the birth of the state of Israel in 1948.

What happened was not the peaceful creation of a safe haven for Jews escaping from Europe; it was the brutal ethnic cleansing and massacre of the Palestinians and the theft of their land. The United Nations decision in 1947 to partition Palestine allocated 55% of the Palestinian land for a Jewish state and 45 % for a Palestinian state. But even that gross settlement was not good enough for the Zionists who had targeted the whole of Palestine for the creation of a Jewish State - long before the Nazi atrocities. So, the Zionists took 78% of the land, brutally exiled or killed over 750,000 Arab Palestinians and destroyed over 400 of their villages in an ethnic cleansing operation that was driven by brutal terrorism. Palestine/Israel is about the size of Wales. Can you imagine what the Welsh would have felt and done if the UN had decided to partition Wales and incomers had ethnically cleansed and massacred Welsh villages? It is not only the Palestinians who remember these days of horror as the Nakba; Israeli historians themselves have documented these events in all their bloody detail. And little has changed since in 1967 Israel seized the remaining Palestinian territory (the West Bank and Gaza) and the brutal occupation continues. The Beatles sang “All you need is love” but Israel believes that all it needs is racism and an army. Is this a policy that would have commanded their support when they were singing together? We don’t think so. The prospect of the surviving Beatles celebrating the Zionist theft of Palestinian land in 1948 is obscene, both for the suffering Palestinian people and for the growing number of British people who support their call for justice. As John put it, it is time to give peace a chance, not to celebrate oppression.

Signed by:
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Ittijah - Union of Arab Community Based Associations
The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
Alternative Information Center - Palestine/Israel
Rima AWAD – Arab Counseling Centre for Education – Palestine
Yehya Hijazi – Al Mirsat Organization –– Palestine
Sana Shehadeh – Palestinian Counseling Centre – Palestine
Caritas Jerusalem
Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK (PSC)
British Committee for Universities of Palestine (BRICUP)
British Muslim Initiative (BMI)
Friends of Al-Aqsa UK
The Peace Cycle
Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine
Raymond Deane -Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Comité de Soutien au Peuple Palestinien - Belgique
Association Belgo-Palestinienne - Belgique
Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche Orient – Luxembourg
Sonja Zimmermann- Netherlands Palestine Committee NPK
Aktionsbuendnis fuer einen gerechten Frieden in Palaestina, Germany
Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost - Austria
Fritz Edlinger, Secretary General - Society for Austro-Arab Relations SAAR
Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)
Women in Black – Strasbourg,
Collectif Judeo-Arabe et Citoyen pour la Paix Strasbourg – France
Handicap Solidarité - FranceAssociation Farrah-France
Association Internationale de Préservation du Patrimoine Palestinien AIPPP
Civimed Initiatives - France
Amis du Monde Diplomatique 67
Magda Zenon – Hands Across the Divide (Cyprus)
CADTM - Commité pour l'Annulation de la Dette du Tiers Monde
Solidaridad para el Desarrollo y la Paz – SODEPAZ Spain
Palestine Solidarity Committee of South Africa
Women in Solidarity with Palestine, Toronto
NION (Not In Our Name) Toronto
Creative Response, Toronto
New York City Labor Against the War – USA
Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights
Women in Black Los Angeles
Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights – USA

Friday, February 08, 2008

 

A Palestinian Odyssey



http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/02/07/a_palestinian_odyssey/6977/

A Palestinian Odyssey
YIOTA KAMARATOS
Published: February 07, 2008

It seems that the Palestinian odyssey is never-ending. In Homer's Iliad, Odysseus managed to return home to Ithaca. Will the Palestinians have the same fortune?
"'I long for home, long for the sight of home.
If any god has marked me out again for shipwreck,
my tough heart can undergo it.
What hardship have I not long since endured
at sea, in battle! Let the trial come.'"
The Odyssey, Homer. Book 5, lines 229-33
Home is Palestine, not Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon or Cyprus. In the past few months, there has been a wave of Palestinian asylum-seekers entering irregularly into Cyprus, facilitated by what seems to be a well-organized network of Turks in Turkey and Turkish-Cypriots in the northern part of the island. Palestinians are fleeing Iraq due to attacks and threats by groups of Iraqis, due to sectarian and ethnic divisions.
In 1948, as a result of the creation of the State of Israel, thousands of the indigenous Palestinian population became refugees either in their own homeland or in foreign lands around the world.
The Palestinian 'seekers' arriving in Cyprus are second and third generation Palestinians born in Iraq. The preface to their odyssey was written before they were even born, when their grandparents fled Palestine nearly 60 years ago, and found refuge in Iraq.
As in most other Arab countries, the Palestinians born in Iraq are not granted citizenship by the authorities. The reasoning behind this policy is that if the refugees are given citizenship, their right of return to their homeland in Palestine would be denied by Israel, as they would be considered Iraqi, not Palestinian. Palestinians living in Iraq are entitled to a special 'Iraqi-Palestinian travel document.' Health care and education is free for all in Iraq. However, upon completion of university studies, a Palestinian looking for a job, finds many government vacancies available, "only for Iraqi" applicants. Palestinians are not entitled to buy land or a house since they are not recognized citizens of Iraq. To do so, they turn to their Iraqi friends to use their names for the official documents in order to make such purchases.
The decision to flee Iraq was fear for their own lives, due to persecution of Palestinians. Most of the interviewees for this article had the financial means, and thus were able to go through the necessary procedures of paying the right people in order to reach a safe-haven. They sold most of their homes, businesses and cars at whatever prices they could, knowing that they desperately needed the money to embark on their new journey.
Two of the families, now living in Cyprus, unraveled their story, beginning with the event that triggered their departure from Iraq: one of their family members was murdered. The head of the first family is a lawyer. His wife is an accountant, and they have two children. The second was a regional manager for a telecommunications company in Baghdad. He and his wife also have two young children. Both couples recalled that in the previous years, they used to come to Cyprus as tourists, using the Iraqi-Palestinian travel document and obtaining a tourist visa upon arrival at the Larnaca International Airport. They never imagined that they would return to Cyprus illegally, and as refugees.
According to the families interviewed, the Iraqi-Palestinian travel document is no longer accepted by the neighboring Arab countries. In other words, they are not welcomed by those countries. Therefore, Palestinians resort to paying large sums of money, either to individuals working in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior or to people whose 'job' it is to forge Iraqi passports. In the case of the two families, the price of each passport was $800.
Thus, the odyssey of these two families, with four children, under the age of eight years, begins.
THE ITINERARY
1. Baghdad, Iraq to Damascus, Syria - By car 751 km (467 miles)
2. Damascus, Syria to Amman, Jordan - By plane 177 km (110 miles)
3. Amman, Jordan to Istanbul, Turkey - By plane 1,185 km (736 miles)
4. Istanbul, Turkey to Occupied part of Cyprus - By plane 765 km (475 miles)
* Denied entry with Iraqi passports.
5. Occupied Cyprus to Istanbul, Turkey - By plane 765 km (475 miles)
6. Istanbul, Turkey to Outskirts of Antakya, Turkey - By car 824 km (512 miles)
7. Outskirts of Antakya, Turkey to Antakya port - On foot 2.5 hours
* Walked through valleys and mountainous area during the night to avoid being caught. As a result of the exhaustion, during the difficult journey, the travelers abandoned all their packed belongings, such as clothes, shoes, food, personal items of sentimental value, i.e. family and wedding photos.
8. Antakya, Turkey to Open seas, northern Cyprus - By boat 4 hours
* Intercepted by Turkish Coast Guard at 02.00. Escorted to Iskenderun, Turkey, where they were tried in court in a military zone, and released two days later.
9. Iskenderun, Turkey to Antakya, Turkey - by car 42 km (26 miles)
10. Antakya, Turkey to Adana, Turkey - by car 116 km (72 miles)
11. Adana, Turkey to Occupied area of northern Cyprus - by plane 270 km (168 miles)
12. Northern part of Cyprus to Larnaca, Cyprus - by car 34 km (21 miles)
Total distance between Baghdad and Larnaca: 1,005 km (624 miles)
Traveled distance from Baghdad to Larnaca: approximately 4,900 km (3,044 miles)
At the Adana airport, the distressed families were approached by a Turkish man, who did not appear to be a passenger. He ensured their entry into the northern part of Cyprus. The up-front service fee for the Turkish facilitator/human smuggler cost each family $11,000 ($3,500 per adult, and $2,000 per child). The Palestinians were instructed to follow another man, and were told not to speak to him under any circumstances. The second man led them all the way through the Adana airport passport control onto the airplane, without any questions asked by any officials.
Having arrived on the island, the two men of the families were told that they must hide in the boot of the car during the night ride to the Green Line, where the families were dropped off in no-man's land. The two families found their way to the Immigration Office in Larnaca to declare themselves as asylum-seekers. Fear and humiliation were still visible in their eyes, as they retold their experiences.
Others have had easier journeys to Cyprus, either through Turkey or by boat from Lattakia, Syria. According to the Cyprus Minister of Justice, Sophocles Sophocleous, 90 percent of the time, those entering Cyprus, have done so illegally through Turkey and the occupied northern part of the Cyprus. In most cases, after being smuggled from one side to the other, the refugees are found wandering the streets, and are then picked up by the Cypriot police.
LIFE IN CYPRUS
The families interviewed have been living in Larnaca for the past year with a temporary residence permit waiting for their cases to be reviewed by the government authorities. This process may take anywhere from a few months up to a few years. A family with four members receives approximately 1,161 euros per month from the government of Cyprus in order to cover its rent and other expenses.
The Palestinian children are enrolled in Cypriot schools. They are given extra attention to help them learn the Greek language, thus encouraging their assimilation into the school and local environment. The Cyprus government is offering free language lessons for all interested Palestinian adults in order to facilitate their integration into the community.
The interviewees all expressed their gratitude to the Cyprus government and to the Cypriot people for welcoming them into their society. Cypriots understand what it means to become refugees, fleeing their homeland and starting a new life in a foreign country. The Palestinians noted their disappointment that the neighboring Arab states have not accepted them into their countries, which makes their odyssey even more difficult, knowing that they are not welcomed, even by their Arab brothers.
CONCERNS
The biggest worry facing the Palestinians who have come to Cyprus for refuge is the unknown regarding their future. Will they be permitted to live in Cyprus or will they be resettled in another country?
Another concern is that they do not wish to stigmatize their children with the "refugee status," as they themselves have inherited it from their parents and grandparents.
Finally, when asked if it were possible to return to their homeland in Palestine, they enthusiastically replied, "Yes!" As Odysseus, they have been through many unfamiliar and dangerous encounters before reaching Cyprus. Their dignity, humbleness and strength rise above the agony they have endured since 1948. They long for home, long for the sight of Palestine.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

 

Egypt Beats Ivory Coast in Semis; Abutreika World's Most Popular Player


Egypt beat the Ivory Coast, 1-4 in the Africa Cup of Nations semifinal; they'll be defending their title against Cameroon, whom they beat previously in the tournament, in the final in Ghana on Sunday.


And their "smiling assassin" Mohamed Abutreika, who was yellow-carded for lifting up his jersey in an earlier game to reveal a tee expressing "sympathy with Gaza," will be feted in Egypt for winning the "World's Most Popular" award.


According to AhlyNews.com "Abutreika won this award presented by the IFFHS last Monday after receiving more than a million votes from a total of two million votes."

According to Ahly coach Hossan Elbadry, “Abutreika deserves this award, it is enough how much love all Arab people have towards him and how much backup he received after showing his message for sympathy towards Gaza.”

Sunday, February 03, 2008

 

'Darling, I am not Israeli'

Comment that I left on CIF story written by UK immigrant, in which he rather annoyingly refers to Palestinians who weren't ethnically cleansed from their homes in 1948 Palestine as "Israeli Arabs," and in which he concludes, with audacity and condescension typical of clueless racist immigrants in sheep's clothing: "And the picture any passing Israeli saw in Akko was one of a group of Israeli citizens flying the flag of Israel's opponents, screaming slogans in Arabic and in doing so playing up to the stereotype used by racist politicians like Avigdor Liebermann who (falsely) portrays Israeli Arabs as the 'enemy within.' Unfortunate though it is, when tensions are as high as they are at the moment, keeping out of the melee might actually be to the benefit of the Israeli Arabs, rather than giving their enemies more rope with which to hang them."

My comment:

An overwhelming majority of Palestinians throughout the world consider the sixtieth anniversary of the imposition of Zionism on Palestine not as something with which to reconcile; from an Open Letter to the Beatles: "Beatles, don't let it be! Palestinian Dispossession and Israeli Apartheid are no Cause for Celebration":

"There is no reason to celebrate! Israel at 60 is a state that is still denying Palestinian refugees their UN-sanctioned rights, simply because they are 'non-Jews.' It is still illegally occupying Palestinian and other Arab lands, in violation of numerous UN resolutions. It is still persistently and grossly breaching international law and infringing fundamental human rights with impunity afforded to it through munificent US and European economic, diplomatic and political support. It is still treating its own Palestinian citizens with institutionalized discrimination."
http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=655_0_1_0_C

Dr. George Habash, one of 750,000 refugees from 1947-48:

"... Jewish fighters stormed the house, screaming "Out! Out! Get out!" My mother and my sister's children - including a small child we had to carry - ran out, as did other relatives and neighbours. We had no idea where to go, but the Jewish soldiers ordered us to get moving. So we walked. It was a hot day in Ramadan. Some people around us were saying it was the Day of Judgement, others that we were already in Hell. When we reached the outskirts of town, we found a Jewish checkpoint where those leaving were being searched. We had no weapons. But our neighbour's son, Amin Hanhan, apparently had some money concealed on him and wouldn't let them search him. A Zionist soldier shot him dead right in front of our eyes. His mother and sister rushed to him, wailing. His brother, Bishara, had been in elementary school with me and we were friends. We used to study and play together ... You wonder why I have chosen this road, why I became an Arab nationalist. This is what Zionism is about. After all this, they talk about peace. This is the Zionism that I knew, that I saw with my own eyes." George Habash
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/lenin/8108367474201115799/

Habash interview in 1997, published in the Journal of Palestine Studies , (1998) vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 86-101http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0377-919X(199823)28%3A1%3C86%3ATSAIWG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M (

And Palestinian director Hani Abu Assad on so-called "Israeli" Arabs:
"I remind him[journalist to Abu Assad] he may become the first Israeli director to win an Oscar. He, in return, chuckles.

"'Darling,' he says with slight cynicism and contempt, 'I am not Israeli.'"
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3223216,00.html[Offensive

Saturday, February 02, 2008

 

Beatles, Don't Let it Be

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080108/ids_photos_wl/r2066015079.jpg/

'Palestinians carry empty coffins to symbolise the coffins of 60 patients who have died since June from Israeli sanctions that denied them access to treatment outside Gaza . . . .'

http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=655_0_1_0_C





Beatles, don't let it be!


Palestinian Dispossession and Israeli Apartheid are no Cause for Celebration


2 February 2008


Open Letter to the Beatles





Forty-three years ago, the government of Israel banned your performance in the country for fear you would corrupt the minds of Israeli youth. Now, Israel is extending an apology and an invitation to you, hoping you will forget the past and agree to help celebrate its 60th "birthday." ThePalestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel(PACBI) urges you to say no to Israel, particularly since the creation of this state 60 years ago dispossessed and uprooted hundreds of thousands ofPalestinians from their homes and lands, condemning them to a life of exile and destitution.





There is no reason to celebrate! Israel at 60 is a state that is still denying Palestinian refugees their UN-sanctioned rights, simply becausethey are "non-Jews." It is still illegally occupying Palestinian and other Arab lands, in violation of numerous UN resolutions. It is still persistently and grossly breaching international law and infringing fundamental human rights with impunity afforded to it through munificent US and European economic, diplomatic and political support. It is still treating its own Palestinian citizens with institutionalized discrimination.





Now, more than ever, Israel is committing horrific war crimes, especiallyin the occupied Gaza Strip, where its illegal and immoral policy of collective punishment -- through a hermetic military siege and an almost complete blockage of fuel, electric power, and even food and medicine --is pushing 1.5 million Palestinian civilians to the brink of starvation. Without electricity, incubators are shutting down; hospitals are fastcoming to a standstill; water is not being properly purified nor separated from raw sewage; whatever is left from the local economy is undergoing a meltdown; and the most vulnerable sectors of the population, the children,the elderly, and the acutely ill, are languishing under unspeakablehardships. Do you see any reason to celebrate?





Israel's military occupation -- the longest in modern history -- is not anabstract notion to us. It manifests itself in wilful killings of civilians, particularly children; wanton demolition of homes and property; uprooting of more than a million fruitful trees; incessant theft of land and water resources; denial of freedom of movement to millions; and cutting up the occupied Palestinian territory into Bantustans, someentirely caged by walls, fences and hundreds of roadblocks.





In light of the above, performing in Israel at this time is morally equivalent to performing in South Africa at the height of the apartheid era. Indeed, Israel has created a worse system of apartheid than anythingthat ever existed in South Africa, according to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights Prof. John Dugard, and South African government minister Ronnie Kasrils, among others.





In 2005, inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, Palestinian civil society called for boycott, divestment and sanctions(BDS) [1] against Israel until it fully complies with international law and recognizes the fundamental human rights of the people of Palestine. A specific call for cultural boycott of Israel [2] was issued a year later, garnering wide support. Among the many groups and institutions that have heeded the Palestinian boycott calls and started to consider or apply diverse forms of effective pressure on Israel are the British University and College Union (UCU); the two largest trade unions in the UK; theChurch of England; the Presbyterian Church (USA); prominent British architects; the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ); the Congressof South African Trade Unions (COSATU); the South African Council ofChurches; the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Ontario; Aosdana, the Irish state-sponsored academy of artists; celebrated authors, artists and intellectuals led by John Berger; and Palme d'Or winner, director Ken Loach.We strongly urge you to uphold the values of freedom, equality and just peace for all by joining this growing boycott against Israeli apartheid. Nothing less would do justice to the legendary legacy of the Beatles.





PACBIwww.PACBI.org


[1] http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=66_0_1_10_M11


[2] http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=315_0_1_0_C

Friday, February 01, 2008

 

Abu Treika's Pharoahs Qualify for Quarter-Finals


The news is so terrible.


So for a little break, Egypt's Pharoahs, "qualified for the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations as Group C winners despite drawing against Zambia in Kumasi." Pictured is Mohamed Abu Treika, Egypt's midfielder, who expressed sympathy with Gaza after scoring against Sudan.

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