November 11 2005

Palestine Mourns Victims of Jordan Blasts

Palestinian Authority declared three days of national mourning starting yesterday for the souls of the innocent who were brutally killed in the Amman blasts November 9th.

More: Arabic, English.

September 26 2005

Palestinians Continue To Suffer

I’m so angry and upset!

I’m fed up with Palestinians being portrayed as terrorists! I’m fed up with media filling the world’s heads with lies! I can’t stand listening to biased reports or misleading messages!
This is really disgusting!

It seems no news channel has the courage to show EVERYTHING! They only show one side of the story: Israel’s attacks are in response to Hamas’ attack, FULL STOP!
Why did Hamas attack in the first place? Nothing to be told about that so that the Palestinians will always look bad, aggressive… so that they’ll always look as terrorists.

Regardless of what the whole world thinks, there is nothing on earth that justifies killing innocent civilians! Nothing justifies bombing schools full of children, nothing at all.

All of the bloodshed and still I hear channels speak of the historical withdrawal from Gaza!! What rights have the Palestinians been given? NOTHING BUT THE RIGHT TO DIE!

Wake Up People and smell the damn coffee!

Related:

  • New Israeli Massacre in Jabalya Refugee Camp
  • Jabalya Massacre in Photos
  • Crushing Palestinians
  • September 16 2005

    “Follow The Women”… pedalling for peace!

    About 300 women from 25 countries will be riding bicycles to pedal for peace. The around 300-km ride, starts in Beirut today and goes through Syria and Jordan ending in Ramallah-Palestine.
    This bike ride is called “Follow the Women” and is meant to send a message to world leaders to stop the suffering caused by the conflict in the Middle East.

    The event is organized by Detta Regan, a well known international youth work advisor. She says: “Women do not traditionally cycle in the Middle East, so the sight of a large female-only group will attract huge interest.”

    One bicycle will sport the flag of Saudi Arabia, and it will be ridden by one of the Kingdom’s most remarkable women: Dr. Hayat Sindi, a leading Saudi medical researcher who graduated from Cambridge University with a doctorate degree in biotechnology.
    “The ride is aimed at raising awareness of how the spiral of violence in the Middle East is blighting the lives of women and children who often suffer the worst consequences of the painfully slow pace of the peace process,” Dr. Sindi said.

    “Follow The Women” members were welcomed in every Arabic country they entered last year. They were also warmly welcomed in Jordan last year, and I’m sure they will be encouraged this year as well, since FOLLOW THE WOMEN 2005 now has the patronage of Queen Rania of Jordan.

    I’m so happy that women are participating in such important issues, and I’m so pleased that Arab women are playing a role too, whether by encouragement & support, or by personal participation.

    Way to go Dr. Sindi, we’re proud of you! Here is more about Dr. Sindi’s struggle to reach her dreams and her accomplishments.

    For detailed information about the event, Click Here!

    August 28 2005

    A Dream Come True In Ramallah


    [AFP/JAMAL ARURI. Le Monde]

    “I am Avi the cellist
    I am Yossi the flutist
    I am Nurit the violinist
    I am Moshe the trumpest
    We could not believe that we were in Ramallah. And we were sure it was not easy for the audience to envisage Israelis without their army uniforms, and not on special duty raiding homes and terrorizing the people. We were formally dressed for a concert at the Cultural Palace. Along with other young Israelis and Arabs from Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Palestine we were performing with the West- Eastern Divan orchestra conducted by Maestro Daniel Barenboim”.

    These were the words, with which the Israeli musicians expressed their unique experience as they performed with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Ramallah.
    The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was conducted by the Argentinean-Israeli pianist Daniel Barenboim and was founded by him and the late Edward Said, comprising around 100 young musicians, Arabs and Israelis as a means of fostering friendship between Palestinians and Israelis.

    Edward Said, the Palestinian writer, historian, intellectual, musician, literature and music critic.
    One of Edward Said’s dreams was having the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra perform in Ramallah. Sadly, he didn’t live to this day, but the concert was held in his memory, as as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people in their quest for peace, justice, and freedom.
    Having this day come is as important as witnessing it… it’s a dream come true.
    Samia Khoury wrote a great article about the event few days ago, reading along one can’t but taste the success of this event and experience the feelings of the Orchestra members while performing, with the occupied and oppressed Palestinians as their cheering audience… Here you go:

    “What a joy it was to be in that beautiful place hearing the cheering crowd, the endless applause by people, who in spite of what we have done to their lives, during 38 years of occupation, came out to hear us and welcome us warmly. Of course we realized that had it not been for the special relationship between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, this project would not have materialized, and we would not have been performing in Palestine and believing that music transcends all misunderstanding and hatred.

    However, nobody should expect people living under occupation to welcome their occupiers in their midst before they atone for their crimes and end the occupation. We, out of all people should know how it feels. Up till now we refuse to perform Wagner in Israel because his music reminded us of the hated Nazi regime. So deep down in our hearts we really thought that those people coming out to listen to us cannot be the “terrorists” that our government has made us believe they were. They were human beings yearning for freedom, the slogan under which the concert was performed in memory of the late Edward Said.
    Yet we could understand why many others could not feel comfortable watching us perform, as we realized that we were a reminder of the brutality of the Israeli soldiers during “operation defensive shield” in 2002. And some might be wondering if we were part of that operation. We had heard so many ugly stories, and they could have very well been experienced by some of the people listening to us tonight. The lady whose home was searched three times and was deprived of her torch- light, when it was the only source of light she had with the electric current being cut off. The one thousand dollars which were looted from a home whose owner must have left in a hurry fearing for her life. And the so many homes which were used by soldiers and left like a pig sty, while so many young men and students were picked up from the streets for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
    The irony of it all is that the whole concert was under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, that building in which the soldiers during that operation really went amok. What was done there was despicable. So we were wondering whether the audience was seeing images of soldiers as we were performing or did the beautiful music of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante (K.297b) and Beethoven’s powerful Symphony No. 5 have a healing effect?

    Deep down in our hearts we felt we owed those people much more than a cosmetic concert. Maestro Barenboim said he was not a political person. But in this troubled land nothing said or done can be non-political. So we cannot take it for granted that this concert could happen again under the same circumstances and that it will be a start for a process of normalization. We appreciate the Maestro’s vision that performing together or getting to know each other as human beings will remind us that we are destined to live together on this land. But to be able to realize this vision we have to recognize that there are International laws and UN resolutions that we need to abide by as a country created by the International Community. We cannot continue to occupy a whole nation, and deprive them of their inalienable rights, and at the same time accept them to acquiesce. In fact we heard it very clearly at the concert, that our security is dependent on the freedom of the Palestinians. How true that is. So maybe it is we before anybody else, who have a special responsibility. Should we not be the ones to start the campaign for ending the occupation and pulling down the walls and check points? Only then can the two peoples really enjoy the fruits of a just peace, which will bring about the freedom, equality, and fraternity that Maestro Barenboim feels strongly about. Our only hope for another concert would be along the WALL so that with horns and cymbals we will help pull it down.”
    [Source: Scoop]

  • More: Electronic Intifada, and La Libre(FR).
  • UPDATE:
    It turns out the audience were selected. Only those with invitations (i.e. those with connections) were allowed to enter, average Palestinian people were not allowed in. More
    I still believe it’s a great event, but I hope next time it will be a real peace gesture, a real encounter between the Palestinian public and Israelis for peace with no such limitations!

    August 22 2005

    Crocodile Tears…

    Wherever you look you find headlines of the “Historical Moment” of Gaza Settlers evacuating their fancy homes…
    Pics of sad faces, angry features, falling tears, prayers, fights… etc.
    The “withdrawal”, the “disengagement”, the “forced evacuation”, the “compulsory deserting”… wait there is more: flashbacks of memories, bitterness, dislocation, what else? I guess any sympathetic word would fit as long as it serves the Israeli “disengagement plan” that is a step towards the claimed “freedom”…
    All talk about poor settlers; all speak of the Israeli “sacrifice”; all see nothing but the cooperative spirit of Israel in doing everything it can to have “peace”.

    Does anyone speak of the compensation each family’s getting? No. Does anyone doubt this 100% pro-Israeli media coverage? NO. Does anyone at all speak of the negative consequences of this so called “withdrawal”? Hell NO!
    Does anyone bring up the fact that these settlers are actually occupiers who illegally took the place they call home? No. Does anyone speak of the exodus of Palestinians in 1948 & 1967 when they were FORCED to leave not only their homes, not only their neighborhoods, not only their cities, but their whole country while the WHOLE WORLD IS SIMPLY WATCHING! No.

    How do Israeli Settlers look? Great! Everyone seems to sympathize with their tears, which media by the way spared no effort in showing: drop by drop.
    How does the Israeli government look? Never better, they have shown their just and fair actions that they even used forced to evacuate their brothers & sisters the settlers who didn’t want to withdraw voluntary!
    How do Palestinians look? Still terrorists, not only do they “kill Israelis”, and “destroy Israel”, but they are also the reason why those sensitive poor settlers are going away from their homes….
    In short: Israel= peace initiative, Israelis= victims, Palestinians= victimizers!

    I usually support peace in every way, but only when peace is the means, and peace is the goal. I’m not against this withdrawal, but I’d believe in it only if it really serves justice and peace, but the sad fact is that this withdrawal is nothing but a play to me, Israel got more attention and more sympathy, while it’s cutting its way to more control, more Palestinian land, more power and more isolating of Palestinian territories.
    Unemployment will rise, poverty will increase, Palestinians will still have no control on their own sources neither access to their own land. This whole withdrawal is –in my personal opinion- nothing but a trap, a win-win situation for Israel…

    Nothing pleases me more than a just independent and courageous voice speaking the truth and standing up for the real victims. Thanks to “Refugee” a loyal reader of my blog, I was able to read an extremely amazing and unbiased article by Jennifer Loewenstein, believe me, you don’t want to miss this article!

    August 11 2005

    Mahmoud Darwish In Tunisia

    The great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish arrived to Tunis yesterday and met the Minister of Education as well as the Palestinian Ambassador in Tunis.
    Mahmoud Darwish will be participating in the Carthage Festival by reading some of his amazing poems tonight. [Source:Assahafa (AR)].

    I’ve always been a fan of Mahmoud Darwish, and I’ve always admired him as a person and as a poet. He speaks for Palestinians and contributes a great deal in straightening the wrong picture most of the world have about Palestine and its people. I find it really impressive that he participates in international activities, festivals and conferences… he’s such a great man!
    To know more about Darwish’s life, work and activities, Click Here!
    And now I leave you with one of his famous poems: I Am From There

    I come from there and remember,
    I was born like everyone is borne, I have a mother
    and a house with many windows,
    I have brothers, friends and a prison.
    I have a wave that sea-gulls snatched away.
    I have a view of my own and an extra blade of grass.
    I have a moon past the peak of words.
    I have the godsent food of birds and olive tree beyond the ken of time.
    I have traversed the land before swords turned bodies into banquets.
    I come from there. I return the sky to its mother when for its mother the
    sky cries, and I weep for a returning cloud to know me.
    I have learned the words of blood-stained courts in order to break the rules.
    I have learned and dismantled all the words to construct a single one:
    Home

    August 1 2005

    In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story…


    Last week I’ve finished reading this stunning memoir of Dr. Ghada Karmi. Every time I try to write about it, I find myself speechless. I have no words good enough to express my feelings towards this book and its great writer: Dr. Ghada Karmi. A person you can’t but admire for the unusual honesty and outstanding style of narrative writing.

    “In Search Of Fatima”, this amazing book is not only the story of the Karmi’s during the exodus of 1948, it’s not only an account of personal emotions and experiences, but also a historical record, a political register and a social reference.
    This book is the kind that makes you wish it’ll never have a last page; the kind that draws your attention from the very first pages, if not from the cover itself, just like what happened in my case.
    In the last few days of my visit to Jordan, I found that book on one of the shelves of a bookstore in Amman, the title “In Search Of Fatima: A Palestinian Story” was enough to attract me and I was tempted to buy it right away…something I could never ever regret, in fact this book is the best I’ve ever read so far!
    Many would think I loved that book because it’s written by a Palestinian. I must admit that being written by a Palestinian was the magnet that drew me to it, because it’s not usual to find books written by Palestinians in comparison to the many Israeli books available, but why I loved it is a whole different story.
    I loved it, because of the honesty of the Palestinian who wrote it, and because of all what that book stands for.
    Reading through the pages I was overwhelmed by the fact that finally someone is writing about Palestine: the land, the people, the traditions, the food, the social activities…
    I fell in love with Palestine all over again. Every page revived the few memories I have collected over the few visits I was able to make to my homeland and from what I’ve been told by my parents.
    I was captured by the honesty of the writer sharing us her most secretive experiences and the details of her personal life and adventures.
    I felt the pain of the dislocation and refuge every single Palestinian felt and is still feeling, the sense of belonging to wherever they are and where they come from, but not fitting into either,i.e. the lost identity…
    I felt the bitterness of the never-ending accusations and claims that Palestine was never meant for us, and that Palestinians are nothing but evil terrorists who have no right in their own country…
    I loved how Dr. Karmi explained that Palestinians don’t hate Jews, and wrote how they lived together in peace before the announcement of Israeli State, upon which Palestinians were expelled from their own homes and country to seek refuge in the neighbouring countries…
    I loved how she criticized Arabs and the west, I loved everything about that book.
    It must be said, that any Palestinian will find it extremely easy to relate to this book and the story it tells.

    It’s a book that must be there in every Palestinian home, a book to be read by every Arab and every non-Arab to get a non-biased picture of what really happened in Palestine and understand what the Palestinian cause is all about.

    Actually I think I became really attached to the writer that I was really angry when the book came to an end at a certain point in her life without being able to know what happened next. That proves only how good a writer she actually is…

    Thank you Dr. Ghada Karmi, you can’t imagine how much this book meant to me, it’s a treasure to keep!

    For reviews of the book and to order it online Click Here!

    July 26 2005

    Palestinian-Israeli Unity Project

    Ten teenagers, five Jewish and five Arab, chosen from schools in Haifa, will embark on a 15 day wildlife expedition together in August through the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina.

    Afterwards they will share insights on what they discovered about life, compassion and each other while traveling, working and playing together during their wilderness expedition.

    This is the new Palestinian-Israeli Unity Project, which is a partnership between Outward Bound and Breaking the Ice, that strives to create positive relationships between the two conflicting peoples through a common, rigorous outdoor experience.

    The Palestinian-Israeli Unity Project is designed to build understanding and unity among cultures in conflict.
    In last year’s Breaking The Ice program, four Palestinians and four Israelis embarked on a 30-day expedition from Chile to Antarctica. The Unity Project aims to set up a similar experience for the Israeli teenagers, including a visit to Atlanta on Aug 25.

    Organizers hope the participants will return home with a new crosscultural acceptance and emphasis on peace that they can spread to Haifa and the Middle East overall.

    They will continue to meet twice a month to work on service projects, outdoor activities with other students, and discuss peaceful resolutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

    [Related: Outward Bound, Breaking the Ice]

    July 26 2005

    Caravan Update

    This is a quick update concerning Caravan for Palestine.

    Israeli soldiers forcefully deported 120 supporters of the Caravan from the Allenby Bridge and forced them to return back to Jordan. Soldiers beat, dragged, and pushed many of the Caravaners and confiscated one of their cameras as they were forcing them onto the busses. Israel brought extra security forces onto the scene to carry out the forced evacuation.

    Israeli soldiers have also stamped their passports with a mark that will prohibit them from entering Israel or the Palestinian Territories for the rest of their lives.

    Here are all news updates concerning the Caravan and the Caravaners.

    The caravan is a peaceful movement that aims at upholding human rights of Palestinians and supporting their struggle for freedom, as well as drawing international attention to the human rights violations and atrocities being perpetrated by the Israeli forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

    What’s the point in treating the caravaners this awful way? Why prohibit them from enetring neither Israel nor Occupies Palestinian Territories?

    The seek no harm, they want no violence, they just want to make a difference in the most peaceful and cooperative way, WHY DO THIS TO THEM?!

    July 4 2005

    Caravan for Palestine

    “Caravan For Palestine” is a project planned and organized in France: a caravan for international rights will leave Strasburg today, it will cross Europe and the Middle East till it reaches Jerusalem. The purpose of this caravan is to demand the respect and application of international right.
    The caravan is constituted by more than 100 vehicles will leave Strasbourg (seat of the European Parliament) on July 4, 2005 and will reach Jerusalem on July 19.
    75 persons (about 20 vehicles) are already registered for the journey, whose route passes through great cities like: Geneva, Bologna, Ancona, Patras, Athens, Thessalonica, Istanbul, Ankara, Damas and Amman…

    Planned schedule
    Day 1 : Strasbourg – Geneva (July 5)
    Day 2 : Geneva – Milano (6)
    Day 3 : Milano – Trieste (7)
    Day 4 : Trieste – Lubliana – Zagreb (8)
    Day 5 : Zagreb – Belgrad (9)
    Day 6 : Belgrad – Sofia (10)
    Day 7 : Sofia – Istanbul (11)
    Day 8 : Istanbul (12)
    Day 9 : Istanbul – Ankara (13)
    Day 10 : Ankara – Cappadocia (14)
    Day 11 : Cappadocia – Alep (15)
    Day 12 : Alep – Damas (16)
    Day 13 : Damas – Amman (17)
    Day 14 : Amman (18)
    Day 15 : Amman – Allenby bridge – Jerusalem (19)

    Total = 3742 km
    Then one week in Palestine

    For more information you can visit the official website, which is available in French, English, German and other languages.

    This is a very impressive project which shows that there are people who really care and who still believe in making a positive change in the world the peaceful way!
    Way to go!