umkahlil

Comment left on Seth Freedman's "Self-Help for Self-Haters," at Comment is Free:

There are some very moving stories by articulate Palestinian refugees in Al-Majdal's Special Nakba Issue. The link for the ninety-two page issue:

http://www.badil.org/Publications/Press/2008/press456-08.htm

What unifies these stories is the common theme that the right of return is central to any resolution of the conflict.

Some brief excerpts:

"When ordinary people in Scotland discuss with me and ask what is the solution, 'surely there ought to be a compromise?' I tell them that it is as if someone took your house, the garden and garage, your passport and your job, leaving you the small shed at the back of your garden (with no water either), and then asks you to compromise. And they do understand" (p 55). Hala George, Edinburgh, Scotland, refugee from Haifa

"My name is Mary Rayya. I am from Al-Bassa village in Akka District in northern Palestine. My village was totally demolished and destroyed and renamed Shelomi settlement. The whole population of my village, Christians and Muslims, was expelled in 1948" (p 57).

"I dream of returning to my house in Jerusalem--Palestine--to live in safety, dignity and freedom like other peoples of the world and to sleep in our land, under the shade of an almond tree. This is the best gift life could give me. I dream of a free and sovereign Palestine where our people can live in harmony, tolerance, respect and true democracy" (p 60). Abu Rafik Masad, Santiago, Chile