Under the Strawberry Tree by Ismail Shammout

[AL-AWDA] 'Right of Return' Debate

[AL-AWDA] 'Right of Return' Debate
from Sami Joseph

http://www.plands.org/debates/1.htm Debates

Debate Between Salman Abu Sitta and Michael Lerner of Tikkun on The Right of Return

The Right of Return by Dr Salman Abu Sitta 1. Michael Lerner wrote: Would you be interested in participating in a roundtable discussion on the telephone or writing a piece for us on "the right of return"? Please let me know if and when you'd want to write something or when in the next week you'd be available for a phone call (give me your phone number, please). 2. Abu Sitta wrote: Because of time difference and different weekends, I think writing a piece will be better. Since my piece would be published in a pro-Israel or pro-Zionism environment, and the idea, I presume, would be to hear the 'other side' point of view, I appreciate some input about: Who will be invited to participate? What are their reasons for denying the Right of Return or their views of it? What length you allow for my piece? How much time do I have? 3. Michael Lerner wrote: If we do it your way, with writers writing, I will probably have your piece read and commented on by some others. But you will not be the only pro-return piece-I've asked Adi Ophir and Benny Morris also (though I never know who will actually write, because I always find people saying they will do x and then not doing it). But you can have 1600 words to make the point. 4. Abu Sitta wrote: This is my contribution. It is more than the 1600 words limit. I could not cover the subject, even in an outline, in less words. Our voice has not been heard for years and there is so much to cover. If you decide to edit (shorten) it, please consult with me. You have at least one writer who said he would write and did. Quote Contribution to Tikkun on the Right of Return At the age of ten, I became a refugee. About a million people met that same fate in 1948. Their life has suddenly been transformed from a state of tranquillity to a state of utter destitution: families expelled at gunpoint in the middle of night or in the heat of a summer day, screams of help, cries of pain, children lost, mothers clutching pillows instead of their children, thirsty old men shot in the head if they stopped for water in the forced march, a whole family dismembered to pieces by a bomb dropped from a plane while having supper, survivors of (35 reported) massacres walking about in a daze. The scenes of devastation filled the landscape: the sea of wretched humanity trailing along the sea coast in Gaza or in the ravines of the West Bank, resting under a tree, in a mosque or a school, counting their number; the distraught father or mother rushing back aimlessly looking for a missing loved one; houses deserted with a bed undone, a hot food in the kitchen; a dog looking for its owner; plants remain unwatered; cattle and sheep wandering about out of their open sheds. Screams of Yahud, Yahud (Jews, Jews) are heard and the tired crowd disperses frantically in crevices and behind rocks. A jeep with mounted machine guns sprays all moving objects. A plane hovers gently, almost soundlessly, then drops barrels of destruction on concentrated masses, limbs flying in the air, hanging on a branch. All this and more is indelible in my mind, and my children's. Yet my biggest trauma is not all this. My experience during my expulsion is relatively mild when compared to thousands who went through all these horrors. My biggest trauma was that my child's mind could not comprehend that there was such a cruel, hateful, vengeful enemy who was determined to destroy my life. Why? What for? What have I, we, done to him? I could not put a face, certainly not a human face, to him. You see I have never seen a Jew before, not for many many years after. The enemy was faceless. I heard all kind of stories: the enemy landed on our shores, the enemy speaks a bable of languages, has many faces, dialects, but is united in ruthless destruction of my people. It took me many years of diligent work to put a face to this enemy. All the years of my adult life, I carried with me my history, intact and alive, while my geography was severed from my physical existence, but remained ensconced in my psyche. I longed for the day of return, when my history and geography are united again. You see, I am Palestinian, a typical refugee. Only with the Right of Return exercised, only with my history and geography united again, then, only then, I, my children and grandchildren, can shed the title of 'refugee'. Not a day before. * * * To the Palestinians, the Right of Return is sacred, legal and possible. It is sacred because it is embedded in their psyche. Although they have been dispersed, their family structure is strong. They still marry, across geographical divides, from the same family had they not been expelled. According to UNRWA records, fully 72% of villages moved to only one area of the five UNRWA fields of operation, 20% to two areas and only 8% to three. It is legal because it is enshrined in international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is protected by the sanctity of private ownership which cannot be extinguished by occupation, sovereignty or passage of time. No amount of legal sophistry will undermine this right. Now I advance the thesis that the return is possible. If the reverse is true, that will not of course nullify or diminish the right of return. Land robbery does not confer ownership rights. This thesis is aimed at those well-meaning people who accept the validity of the Palestinian right of return, but fear this may trigger off another Nakba, a Jewish one this time. They do not want the horror of Nakba to be experienced again, even by the perpetrators of the original Nakba. Others claim that the return means the dilution of the Jewish character of Israel, or as Begin often claimed, the destruction of Israel. This futile effort is intended only to legitimize material and political gains made by military conquests. Let us examine these contentions one by one. * * * Can the refugees return to their homes without causing a reverse exodus? Is there room for them? We examined the 46 natural regions of Israel and determined for each region the number of urban and rural Jews, the present Palestinians in Israel and the refugees whose homes were in this region. We then grouped them in three groups: A, B, C a la West Bank. Group A has an area of 1,628 sq. km and has a population of over 3 million Jews, or about 70% of the Jews. This is the same area and largely in the same location as the land which the Jews purchased or acquired under British protection in 1948. Its area is 8% of Israel. This is the total extent of Jewish ownership in Israel. Here is the heaviest Jewish concentration. Area B has a mixed population. Its area is 6% of Israel and is just less than the land of Palestinians who remained in Israel. A further 10% of the Jews live there. Thus, in a nutshell, 78% of the Jews live in 14% of Israel. That leaves Area C, which is 86% of Israel. This is largely the land and the home of the Palestinian refugees. Who lives there today? Apart from the remaining Palestinians, the majority of the Jews there live in originally Palestinian, now mixed, cities and a few new towns. The average size of a new town in Area C is comparable to the size of a refugee camp. If Jabaliya camp were a town in Israel, its rank in terms of size would be in the top 8% of Israeli urban centers. Who then controls the vast Palestinian land in area C? Only 160,000 rural Jews exploit the land and heritage of over 5 million refugees packed in refugee camps and denied the right to return. The refugees in Gaza are crammed at a density of 4,200 persons per sq. km. If you were one of those refugees, and you look across the barbed wire to your land in Israel, and you see it almost empty, at 5 persons/sq. km, (almost one thousand times less density than Gaza!) what would you feel? Peaceful? Content? This striking contrast is the root of all the suffering. It can only be eliminated with the return of the refugees. What do those rural Jews do? We are told they cultivate the (Palestinian) land and produce wonderful agriculture. We are not told that three quarters of the Kibbutz are economically bankrupt and that only 26% of them produce most of the agriculture. We are not told that the Kibbutz is ideologically bankrupt; there is constant desertion, and very few new recruits. Irrigation takes up about 60-80% of the water in Israel, 2/3 of it is Arab water. Agriculture in the southern district alone uses 500 million cubic meters of water per year. This is equal to the entire water resources of the West Bank now confiscated by Israel. This is equal to the entire resources of upper Jordan including lake Tiberias for which Israel is obstructing peace with Syria. Total irrigation water, a very likely cause of war, produces agricultural products worth only 1.8% of Israel's GDP. Such waste, such extravagance, such disregard for the suffering of the refugees, and such denial of their rights is exercised by 8,600 Kibbutzniks who depend on agriculture for their livelihood. When the refugees return to their land, they can pursue their traditional agricultural pursuits, and no doubt this will take up the slack in GDP. More importantly, peace will be a real possibility. Let us consider two scenarios, which if applied are likely to diffuse much of the tension in the Middle East. Let us imagine that the registered refugees in Lebanon (362,000) are allowed to return to their homes in Galilee. Even today, Galilee is still largely Arab. Palestinians there outnumber the Jews one and a half times. If the Lebanon refugees return, the Jewish concentration in Area A will hardly feel the difference, and the Jews will remain a majority in all areas, even when they are least in number, like area C. Furthermore, if the 760,000 registered refugees in Gaza are allowed to return to their homes in the south, now largely empty, they can return to their same original villages, while the percentage of the Jewish majority in the centre (area A) will drop by only 6%. The number of these rural Jews who may be affected by the return of Gaza refugees to their homes in the south does not exceed 78,000 or the size of a single refugee camp. This is a glaring example of the miscarriage of justice Another striking fact is that the number of Russian immigrants, claiming to be Jews, is almost the same as that of Lebanon and Gaza refugees combined. Those refugees are denied the right to return home while the Russian immigrants are taking their place, their homes and their land. So much for the claim of the physical "impossibility" of the return. The vacancy of Palestinian land is so problematic to Israel that it is trying to find people to live on this land. None other than Sharon and Eitan started a scheme in 1997 to sell the refugees' land to builders to build apartments so that an American or Australian Jew can buy an apartment without being an Israeli. Kibbutz farmers who rented this land from the Custodian of Absentee (i.e. refugee) Property received a "compensation" up to 25% of its sale value. This illegal activity, selling a land in custody, prompted the UN to issue resolutions affirming the entitlement of the refugees to receive any income of their property for the last 50 years and calling on all states to present all documents and information they may have on the refugees' property. Now it is often said that Israelis oppose the return of the refugees for fear that this will change the Jewish character of the state. What do they mean by the phrase "Jewish character"? Do they mean legal, social, demographic or religious character? Let us examine these one by one. First, what is the legal meaning of the Jewish character? In the words of a noted Jurist, (Mallison): "The Jewish character is really a euphemism for the Zionist discriminatory statutes of the State of Israel which violate the human rights provisions The UN is under no more of legal obligation to maintain Zionism in Israel than it is to maintain apartheid in the Republic of South Africa." In March 2000, the reports of UN Treaty-Based Committees, such as Human Rights Committee, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Committee against Torture, have all condemned Israeli practices and characterized, for the first time so clearly, the exclusive structure of the Israeli law as the root cause of all those violations of international law. How, then, can the international community accept the premise of a "Jewish character" as a basis for the denial of the right to return home? If they mean a social Jewish character, this idea is clearly a misnomer. There is not much in common between a Brooklyn Jew and an Ethiopian Jew, or between a Russian claiming to be a Jew and a Moroccan Jew. The gulf between the Ashkenazi and the Haredim can never be bridged. The Sephardim (Mizrahim) are allocated the lower rings of the social ladder. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are being polarised on sectarian lines. Israel has long given up on the idea of a melting pot. There are 32 languages spoken in Israel. Prof. Etzioni Halevi of Bar Ilan University and a specialist on the Jewish national identity says, "we are not a single people, language is different, attire is different, behaviour and attitude are different, even the sense of identity is different." How can then the Palestinians, the inhabitants of 530 depopulated towns and villages be the odd element in this mosaic? If they mean by the Jewish character the numerical superiority of Jews, they have to think again. The Palestinians who remained in their homes now represent 26% of all Jews. How could Israel ignore their presence? Will Israel plan another massive ethnic cleansing operation? Very unlikely. They are there to stay and increase. In the year 2010, Palestinians in Israel will be 35% of Jews and they will be equal to the number of Jews in 2050 or much earlier when immigration dries up. So what is the value of chasing an elusive target while innocent people wait in the refugee camps? If they mean the religious Jewish character, who says this is in danger? For one thousand years, the Jews did not find a haven anywhere for their religious practice better than the Arab world. One must conclude therefore that the cliché "Jewish character" is only meant to justify keeping the land and expelling its people. In practical terms, it is entirely feasible to plan the return in such a way and in such phases that the Je-wish residents will not feel any effect, except the pleasant feeling that a true peace is a reality at last But the Israelis must come to terms with al Nakba, the Palestinian holocaust, and its consequences. They must shed their collective amnesia about the Palestinians, the notion that they landed in an empty country, conquered 530 empty towns and villages, cultivated a land where oranges, olives and wheat grew by divine intervention, and found urban and rural landscape carved by genies. They must learn to live with the Palestinians, not instead of them. They must believe that: no return means no peace. Unquote 5. Michael Lerner wrote: I am unclear whose article this is. Can you send me a one line biography with the article? I'm not sure whether or not to publish it. It is very harsh, and doesn't recognize that Jews came to Israel as refugees and that when they were homeless and there was enough land to share the Palestinian people tried to keep them out and would not share the land. Without that recognition, the article seems to strengthen the hands of the Israeli right-wing, because it seems so unwilling to acknowledge anything legitimate in Jewish claims. Of course, that may be an accurate description of how many Palestinians perceive the situation, but it doesn't really help move things toward resolution. So, I'm not sure what to do. But in any event, please put a name and a one sentence description of who the person is who wrote it. 6. Abu Sitta wrote: To: Rabbi Michael Lerner From: Dr. Salman Abu-Sitta Short Bio. Normally my letters are addressed and signed. But I followed your example of responding to the contents only. Hence, a possible confusion. My short biography: Long-time researcher on Palestinian refugees (over 50 papers and other publications). Former Member of Palestine National Council (for 20 years). President, Palestine Land Society. It is "harsh". I am not clear what you mean by this description. If you mean the description I gave to the treatment meted out to the Palestinians, this is a correct description. Every word in my piece (p. 1) can be corroborated by dozens of refugees. If you refer to my research about demography, Jewish character etc., I have not heard any one yet challenging the facts, although this study was read at the Israeli Anthropological Annual Conference in Jerusalem in May 2000 and published by Ha'aretz on 23 July 2000 (Hebrew edition only). Jews are refugees too. Palestinians refused to share the land. This is your long-held view (Tikkun, p. 46, Vol. 4, No. 5). You add that "the collision of two nationalisms led directly to the creation of the Arab refugee problem". The overwhelming evidence of thousands of testimonies of refugees, now supported by evidence in the declassified Israeli, British and American files, give a different and more graphic picture. It clearly shows a pattern of a determined, well-planned and sustained campaign (till today) of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians. Zionists wanted Palestine Arabrein. If Zionists wanted to 'share' land, the Palestinians would have welcomed them as they did German Templars, Circassians, Bosnians, Armenians and others. In fact that is what they did until the infamous Balfour declaration. To publish or not. I cannot argue with an editor, can I? If you would not, others would. But I thought the idea was to inform US Jews particularly. My guess is that they have a distorted idea of the Palestinians. They would do themselves a favour (at least in the long run) to learn more facts about the Palestinians before events rush them and then they complain about the "irrational" Middle East. Just before I read your email, I listened over the phone to a conference, held in Gaza, attended by PA ministers, political leaders of all types and by over a thousand refugees. They together recited the Oath of Return, they will not relinquish the Right of Return nor recognize any agreement which does. To strengthen the Right Wing Israelis. Who are they? The war criminal Sharon? The fanatic settlers from Brooklyn? The "Kill the Arabs" terrorists? Those who want to blow up Al Aqsa Mosque and incur the wrath of over one billion Muslims? Those who committed the massacres of Deir Yassin Tantoura and 33 others in 1948 alone? The place to deal with those is the Truth and Conciliation Commission or the International Criminal Court. The right wing Israelis aim to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, by continued exile, or by resettlement anywhere in the world except their homes. The Palestinians are determined to defend themselves against this Nakba. History tells us that determined defenders win. In conclusion, if you find any merit in informing your readers of the general Palestinian position, I am prepared to reduce the length closer to your limit of 1600 words. I understand your concerns but I hope they can be met without sacrificing the truth. 7. Michael Lerner wrote: Dear Salman Abu Sitta: I have trouble understanding the underlying strategic vision of people who hold your position. My view is that the Palestinian people should build a movement fully committed to non-violence, and with realizable goals (a Palestinian state on almost all the West Bank and Gaza, with dismantling of the settlements and no Israeli military presence). That is realizable, and should include massive aid to resettle Palestinians in the West Bank, so that millions could return to that Palestinian state. In that context, I believe that the world and a significant section of the Israeli public and world Jewry could become your active allies. I have watched other oppressive states like England in India, South Africa, and the American southern racist states melt under the moral pressure mobilized by that kind of nonviolent movement led by people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. I cannot see how anyone can imagine that the Palestinian people will ever win anything unless they adopt this kind of movement that creates a moral split in the Jewish people between those who care for human rights and those who do not. So, taking the stance that rejects both non-violence and achievable goals of the sort I mentioned, and clinging to violent struggle plus maximalist demands (right of return) is simply a choice to perpetuate the Occupation. Now, I can't see how that is in the best interests of the Palestinian people, so I don't understand the choice. Is it the belief on the part of some significant section of the Palestinians who took the oath you mentioned that they can militarily defeat Israel? If so, how? If not, then aren't you choosing to perpetuate decades of Occupation? I really don't understand-and hope you would take a minute to explain the strategic vision underlying this approach. As to the article, I've missed the March deadline, so now I'd like to turn to the next issue of the magazine. I think what I would like to do is this: create a roundtable discussion (on the telephone) with some Palestinians and some peace-oriented Jews to have this discussion. There would be maybe 6 people, and we would tape the discussion. . Would you be willing to be part of such a discussion which would then be edited and used in the magazine? And is there someone else you highly recommend to be part of it? I want your perspective to be heard. But knowing how many Jews in America today see me as a crazy self-hating Jew who is really a Palestinian apologist, and then recognizing that even I can't understand the perspective that insists on return to Israel except by people who have given up on anything real and so must retain fantasies of destroying the Jewish state altogether, I can only imagine how others who think I am extreme would react. Still, my goal is to present an honest and accurate picture, and that's why I think a roundtable might work. What do you think? Warm regards, Rabbi Michael Lerner 8. Abu Sitta wrote: Rabbi Lerner, This is turning into some sort of debate. I hope it will help. You have trouble in understanding my/our strategic vision. You advise that our strategy to recover our rights should have two qualities: (a) non-violent (b) realizable. I think you better direct this advise to the Zionist movement. This is why. (a) Non-violence The first military militia was organized by Trempledor in the twenties, followed by the Haganah, Irgun and Stern gangs. Just before the end of the British Mandate, Ben Gurion went through his fourth version (Plan Dalet) of the plan for the destruction of Palestine; yes, it said plainly: destruct, expel, occupy, clear ...etc. You must know, by now, that before the British departure, Ben Gurion amassed 65,000 trained soldiers, many of them were veterans of World War II, to conquer about 650 Palestinian towns and villages, which were defended by dozens of poorly-armed peasants in each village, totalling no more than 2,500. You must know that, with this force, Ben Gurion managed to expel half of the refugees before an Arab soldier set foot on Palestine soil. You must know that half of the 17 reported massacres took place before the British departure and Israel's creation. Arab forces tried to rescue the remainder of Palestine, but they obviously failed. Ultimately Ben Gurion expelled the inhabitants of 530 towns and villages and confiscated their land and property. So, who is to be advised to be non-violent? Who today possesses the most lethal weapons of mass destruction? Who is responsible for the longest trail of blood, the largest volume of destruction and the highest record of world condemnation? Does it surprise you to know that the Zionists/Israelis have not ever experienced the ravages of war domestically? never had whole villages destroyed as in Palestine, never had whole town quarters destroyed as in Beirut and Suez, never had water and electricity cut or railway lines ripped off as in many parts of Palestine, never had hundreds of victims lying dead as in Sabra, Shatila or Cana, or children heads smashed by hammers as in Dawayima, pregnant women stomachs ripped open as in Deir Yassin, or old men and women burnt alive as in Lajjun. Yes, there were feeble attempts at dropping stray bombs on Tel Aviv (by Egypt in 1948 and Saddam in 1991). Yes, there is fear gripping the Israelis. But that is a chronic Jewish ailment. Israel's actions are like the one who commits an actual murder on the pretext that the victim may think one day of harming him. No, Rabbi. You are preaching at the wrong synagogue, so to speak. Please deliver this sermon to those who need it. (By the way, I did not advocate violence. Where did you get this idea? I think that the moral power, especially in the current surge in human rights advocacy and high-tech communications, is the biggest support for Palestinians today.) (b) Realizable aims If Herzl heard you, he will laugh. Imagine Jews meeting in a Basle hotel room in 1897, and planning to expel millions of people and occupy five countries. Is that realizable? Imagine Ben Gurion pleading with Peel Commission in 1937 asking for a Tel Aviv area to cede from Palestine, while in his mind he wants to conquer all of Palestine, as he told Baltimore Conference in 1942! Is this realizable? Yes he did it and more. Now, the Palestinians' aims are more modest. They do not want to attack any body. They simply want to return home. This return has nothing to do with politics, sovereignty, occupation or even apartheid. They lived in their homes under Memlukes, Ottomans, British and some under Israelis. You see they do not have 'aims'; they have rights. Because these rights are Inalienable, they represent the bottom red line beyond which no concession is possible. Because doing so will destroy their life. That they will not permit. You say: can they militarily defeat Israel? I do not know. I do not think this is the main issue. Let us remember that Israel did not win, the Arab lost. This is not just playing with words. Tell me of one 'real' war (except in 1973) in the last 50 years. But if we are talking 'realism', let us consider the following: In spite of many attempts at their destruction, Palestinians did not vanish. They (88% of the refugees) are in and around Israel. Depth behind them is limitless. If 99% admit they have no rights whatsoever, the 1% means 10,000 angry people in each of the five UNRWA area. With local support, they can seriously influence events. So the motto: no return = no peace is not without foundation. No human being will accept less than his fundamental human rights, which include the return to one's home. You can bargain on secondary levels of rights, political, economic or cultural, but not something that basic. How do you expect the refugees to accept their fate and remain in exile when they see a million Russians (with little or no links to the land) living in their homes and in their land? How could any self-respecting Israeli to live in a house or on a land robbed from its owner? Refugees consider every Israeli, who lives, willingly, in their homes and on their land and deny them the right to return, to be their adversary, until he ceases to do so. So, the Israelis should be advised to abandon violence and seek realizable aims. That is, they cannot continue to destroy the Palestinians and deny their human rights. Jabotinsky's 'iron wall' brought blood and fire but will never bring permanent peace. Jews have no moral right to preach the west for what was done to them in the tragic years of World War II when they continue to inflict destruction on the Palestinians for all the years since then. They should shed their collective amnesia. If they want to live within the family of nations, they should first learn to live in Palestine with (not instead of) its people. The Article in March issue. I am sorry you missed the deadline for publishing my article. I did my best to respond to your request by writing within 6 days of request. Now, I think there are two approaches: 1) Either you publish my piece and other contributions. Then I could have the opportunity to comment on them or 2) you organize a small (or big if you can) conference on the Right of Return in which Palestinians, Israelis and neutral participants would attend. This way various aspects of the issue will be examined in a productive manner. Hopefully some useful conclusions may be drawn from it. I appreciate your continuing to explore the 'other' view. Salman Abu Sitta 9. Michael Lerner wrote: Perhaps we should turn it into a debate and put it on the TIKKUN website? If so, maybe you'd like to try your hand at editing what we've both said so far in some kind of logical and readable order? then I'll to respond to your latest communication. Michael Thank you. * This was the text of the Debate Between Salman Abu Sitta and Michael Lerner of Tikkun on The Right of Return.

This Week in Palestine: Badrans: Artist of the Month - A Century of Tradition and Innovation

Message From the Editor

It is not that the previous Ramadans during the past 40 years of occupation have been happier occasions, but there is a particularly melancholic feeling surrounding this year’s holy month of fasting and atonement. The situation in the Gaza Strip is a main cause of distress. It was bad enough that the whole Strip was one big prison (not so big, when one considers the population density of the area), with only one controlled outlet to the outside world. That outlet has been firmly shut for the last hundred days or so, leaving the Strip much like a concentration camp.

The fact that the Palestinian Territory is now divided into two separate entities is equally distressing. It was alarming to hear talk recently of declaring a Palestinian state in the West Bank and dealing with the situation in the Gaza Strip at a later stage. Palestine is one and should always be dealt with as such.

This issue is primarily dedicated to Riwaq’s Second Biennale that will be held in Ramallah during the second half of this month. This is an important event that will see delegations and important researchers in the field of archaeology, in addition to artists, conservationists, curators, and theorists, flock to Ramallah from various parts of the world. The event comes immediately after the publication of Riwaq’s Registry of Historic Buildings in Palestine a few months back, an important milestone in the preservation of Palestine’s architectural and historic patrimony. Look out for the various events organised during this important happening and read the many interesting articles on the subject in this issue.

Despite Israel’s claim that the freedom of religious practice is guaranteed to all worshipers, most Palestinians - especially those coming from the West Bank - faced tremendous difficulties or were barred from reaching Al-Haram Al-Sharif for the all-important Friday prayer during the month of Ramadan.

We wish our readers a happy Eid Al-Fitr, in the hope that the next one will be celebrated during better times.

Tony A. Khoury
Editor-in-chief

http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=2281&ed=146&edid=146

Artist of the Month

Artist Jamal Badran "Working with plaster" (works by Islamic calligrapher and artist: Jamal Badran) Works by Architect Rasem J Badran "Impressions of Jerusalem", Jerusalem 1972 Works by Architect Jamal R Badran, Oasis Lab – Dubai (UAE) 2004 Badrans: A Century of Tradition and Innovation By Salwa Mikdadi In the early 1900s one could name several Palestinian families known for their artistic skills. Among the families whose names were coupled with traditional Palestinian art forms were the Bishara family (mother of pearl), the Qazaz family (glassblowers), and the Nustas family (sculptors). The Badran family’s unique legacy lies in its passion to preserve traditions and advance Arab, Palestinian, and Islamic arts. Their contributions span a century of artistic production. The Badrans Exhibition1, scheduled to open in Jerusalem at the Palestinian Art Court - Al Hoash on October 25, will highlight the work of the three generations of this talented family. On view are examples of work by Jamal Badran, artist and expert in Islamic decorative arts and crafts; his son, the architect and artist, Rasem Badran; his daughter, the visual artist, Samira Badran; his grandson, architect Jamal Rasem Badran; and his granddaughter, the costume and set designer, Ola Badran. Jamal Badran was born in Haifa (1909-1999) into a family of pioneers who dedicated their talents to further art education and Arab Islamic decorative arts in Palestine and other Arab countries. In addition to his uncle, Abdel Rahman Badran - who worked in Egypt in illuminating and transcribing manuscripts - the family was blessed with three artists; each excelled in one or two forms of decorative art. A family friend introduced Jamal Badran to painting on canvas and encouraged him to study art; eager to start, he travelled alone to Cairo at the young age of thirteen to study at the School of Applied Arts and Crafts where he specialized in the art of leather work, design, and surface decoration on a variety of media. His brother, Abdel Razak, studied in Egypt and specialized in the art of glass decorations. A second brother, Kheiry, also studied applied arts in Egypt and did further studies in England, specializing in weaving, painting, and printing. In the early 1930s, Kheiry was the first Palestinian with formal training to teach textile weaving and design in Majdal, which was a famous centre for weaving. After graduating from Egypt in 1927, Jamal started working on the first twentieth-century restoration of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. In 1934 he was awarded a scholarship to study applied arts in England where he specialized in book binding and leatherwork, textile painting, pottery, sculpture, and design, graduating in 1937 from London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. He returned to teach at the Arab College and Rashidyeh School in Jerusalem and established the foundation for art education in Palestine. He inspired his students to appreciate art, encouraged them to draw freely from nature, and nurtured in them a keen understanding of Arab-Islamic abstraction. One of his students at Rashidyeh was the prominent artist, poet, and art critic, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, who described Jamal as “… my favourite teacher who taught me the principles of perspective and light and shadow in painting which guided me in my work as an artist; he also taught me the appreciation of Islamic decorative art.2” In the late thirties the Badran brothers opened “Studio Badran for the Arts” on St. Paul’s Road in Jerusalem to advance local craftsmanship while maintaining the highest standards in their respective work. Their goal was to establish a national art that combined recent advances in technology with authentic Islamic artistic traditions.3 After losing their studio in 1948, Jamal returned to teaching, first in Syria and later as a UNESCO expert of ornamental arts and crafts to teach at the higher teachers’ training colleges in Libya. In 1962, Jamal opened his own studio in Ramallah where he worked on several major commissions, including the second restoration of Al-Aqsa Mosque mosaic, producing twenty-three drawings, each 100cm by 50cm, of the original Suret al Isara (Quranic verse) in the old Kufic script embellished with vegetal decorations. These full-size colour drawings reached 23 meters long. He also designed and supervised the construction of the decoration of Jordan University Mosque. However, his crowning achievement was the restoration of the original designs for Minbar Salah al Din in Al Aqsa Mosque. The 12th century minbar was burned down in 1969 by an extremist intent on demolishing the mosque to make room for building the Third Temple. It took Jamal Badran four years, logging in 2,250 hours, to recreate the original decorations on thirty-three drawings in 1:1 scale, drawing directly on paper without tracing the patterns. He used photographs from archival sources and the remains of charred pieces from the original minbar to reproduce the original designs. Although Jamal completed the project in 1976, it was not until February 2007 that the new minbar was finally restored and installed in Al Aqsa Mosque. The construction of the new minbar could not have been achieved without Jamal Badran’s drawings of the original designs; unfortunately he was not duly recognized for his contribution to the minbar’s restoration. We hope that this exhibition will be the first of many initiatives to rectify this injustice and give credit to his contributions. Throughout his career, Jamal Badran’s skill remained true to the principles of Islamic surface decoration that applies to all types of mediums. He displayed mastery in the design of Arab-Islamic decorative patterns and in the art of calligraphy on a range of surfaces including leather, parchment, fabric, canvas, marble, stone, tiles, Hebron glass, mosaic, plaster, and wood. Badran’s art works on exhibit are a testament to his skills; their surface decorations are set with harmony and symmetry, which are the hallmark of his designs. His calligraphy is interlaced with geometric and intricate vegetal motifs as well as figural drawings. Jamal Badran’s son, Rasem (b. Jerusalem 1945), started drawing at the age of five and won his first award in painting at the age of twelve in India. He learned painting and decorative arts from his father, assisting him in his studios in Jerusalem and Ramallah. Soon after graduating with a degree in architecture from the Technical University of Darmstadt, he established his own firm - Dar Al Omran in Amman - now recognized as one of the most innovative international architectural firms. Rasem’s buildings range from low-cost housing, realized in 1972 in Bonn, Germany, to single-family homes (Villa Handal, Amman), grand mosques (State Mosque, Baghdad), museums (National Museum, Riyadh, and Qatar Islamic Arts Museum), a library (Damascus University Library), and heritage centres (Qasr Al-Hokm, Riyadh). His designs combined traditional Arab Islamic architectural materials and styles with modernism, reinterpreting the past to serve the future. In designing buildings, Rasem follows his father’s principle of working from within the local environment and tradition to create spaces sensitive to modern social and ecological demands. Rasem defines his architecture as a continuous dialogue between contemporary needs and inherited traditional values. He received numerous awards including the 1995 Aga Khan Award for Qasr Al-Hokm in Riyadh, which was praised for Rasem’s “reinterpretation” of traditional Najdi architecture and for “a deep understanding of the culture of the area.4” Selections for this exhibition were made from several working periods to include drafts and drawings that display examples of his diverse skills. Rasem’s sister, Samira (b. Libya, 1954), attributes her success to her father Jamal who introduced her to the art of drawing and painting and encouraged her to pursue higher education in the arts. She graduated in 1976 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cairo and studied photography and painting at the Academia Delle Belle Arti in Florence from 1978-1982. Although living in Spain for over twenty years, Samira did not distance herself from Palestine. She frequently returns to her home in Ramallah carrying her trusted camera and taking thousands of photographs on each visit. These photographs form the basis for future composition. Samira’s photo images are disfigured and manipulated then appropriated in her new work. Symbolic destruction of these images and the birth of new work are central to her oeuvre of destruction and resurrection. In contrast to her father’s drawings, which are grounded in symmetry and harmony, Samira’s images are at first glance jarring and disconcerting, full of contrasting bold colours that reflect anger and turbulence - a reflection on the psychological state of Palestinians under occupation. In her piece almost five meters long, The New Walk, meandering images of artificial limbs reflect on the universal conditions of oppression in face of the onslaught of man-made tools and barricades, which result in all forms of incarceration. In this work the prosthesis is a metaphor for the indomitable spirit of the Palestinians who seem always to find alternate routes to crossing barriers. The congested artificial limbs - some broken, others bandaged - do not beg for sympathy, instead their seemingly frenzied march portrays boundless determination and resilience, a tribute to the Palestinians’ steadfastness in the face of military and political domination, and that despite all constraints, they continue to cross artificial boundaries and barricades. The third generation of the Badran family, Rasem Badran’s children, Jamal and Ola, continue the family tradition. Jamal Rasem Badran studied architecture at London’s Bartlett School of Architecture and joined his father’s firm in 2004. In a short span of time he realized several projects in the Arab World, including the court house in Abu Dhabi, Al Waha Project and Mohammad Bin Rashid University in Dubai, and several housing projects. The exhibition presents these and other projects in a video installation. Ola, an accomplished painter, received the K. Talhouni Award for Islamic Art for her installation of Molten Element (2002). Her talent in realizing three-dimensional arts led her to the field of costume and set design. She graduated in 2007 from London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with a degree in theatre design for performance. The exhibition presents a speculative project for costume and set designs including a 3-D model for a stage set. It is clear from this exhibition that Jamal Badran encouraged free expression in the visual arts; irrespective of his own preferences he did not discourage his children’s pursuit of other forms art. In Palestine of the early 1900s, art was not yet classified as high or low art. Whether painting icons, portraits, or decorating glass, the artists were valued for their creations of beautiful objects. Jamal Badran practiced his art free from such hierarchies. He was adept in paintings and drawing on all surfaces whether on canvas or on glass; it was all art. He believed that the younger generations of Palestinian artists were limiting their options to only Western sources of art and neglecting their cultural heritage - particularly the Arab-Islamic decorative arts. He advocated the revival of Arab-Islamic arts not through static replication but through innovations inspired by Palestine’s artistic patrimony and by pursuing the highest standards of art practice. His principles are still of great significance today for Palestinian artists who can benefit from searching for meaning in their own cultural heritage. For a true artist finds inspiration from all sources without favouring one over the other. Salwa D. Mikdadi is an art curator and museum consultant based in Berkeley, CA, USA. She can be reached at smikdadi@yahoo.com. 1 The exhibition was assembled from several sources, primarily the Badran family and a local Palestinian collector. We are grateful for their support and the fiscal sponsorship of the Consulate General of Spain and Spanish Cooperation Office in Jerusalem, which made this exhibition possible. The exhibition runs through December 14 at al Hoash; it will travel to Birzeit University’s Ethnographic and Art Museum, opening on January 8 and ending on February 9, 2008. 2 Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, al-bi’er al awal: fusool min sirah zateyah (Beirut; al Muassasah al Arabiyah lil dirasat wa al nasher, 2nd ed., 2001), 189. 3 Kamal Bullata, “Jamal Badran in al fan al tashkeely al filastini.” Majaler Mawaqef, special issue no. 22•23, Haifa: al Muakeb Institute, 2002. 4 Peter Davey, “Aga Khan Awards,” The Architectural Review. Nov. 1, 1995.

from Desert Peace : AMERICAN JEWISH GROUPS RECEIVE 'SPECIAL STATUS'.... AND LOTS OF BUCK$

DesertPeace

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

Homeland Security is the latest victim of the Lobby's scam of creating anti Semitism where it doesn't exist. Twenty four million tax dollars collected from the American people will be used as grants to non-profit Jewish organisations because the federal government considers them to be at high risk of terror attacks.

I assume this is easier than actually 'finding' the potential threat..... or might that be like looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

All I can say is Kudos to the 'Kosher Nostra' for 'pulling off this scam... and shame on Homeland Security for falling for it.

The following Associated Press report deals with the situation...

Bulk of US anti-terror grants go to Jewish organizations

Homeland Security Department hands out $24 million in grants to Jewish nonprofit organizations in major US cities...[more]

Recognizing Israel’s Jewish identity” amounts to recognizing that Israel has the right to effect ethnic cleansing of its Palestinian citizens

"...Does he understand now that “recognizing Israel’s Jewish identity” amounts to recognizing that Israel has the right to effect ethnic cleansing of its Palestinian citizens? That it has the right to be racist and discriminatory against non-Jews in general and Palestinian who are Israeli citizens in particular?

Furthermore, the reported promise by Abbas to recognize Israel as “a country of and for the Jews” (all Jews in the world) carries with it another serious implication, namely that Israel, in order to retain its Jewish identity, has an inalienable right to permanently deny repatriation for millions of Palestinian refugees uprooted from their homes following waves of genocidal ethnic cleansing in 1948-49.

In other words, the purported recognition by Abbas of Israel as a Jewish state effectively means decapitation and burial of the right of return for Palestinians exiled in the Diaspora.
This right, for those who still don’t know, is the heart of the Palestinian issue and ignoring it would simply make any possible resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict fragile and lacking in credibility and durability.

This right (the right of return) is fundamental, authentic, and inalienable and nobody under the sun, including Mahmoud Abbas and his aides and hangers-on, has the right to compromise or belittle let alone sacrifice under the rubric of reaching peace with Israel...."

Abbas: Don't Cross the Red Lines

by Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

PCHR Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory 20 - 26 September 2007

Israeli Occupation Forces continue to demolish houses.

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

• 13 Palestinians, including a child, were killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip.

• 5 of the victims were extra-judicially executed by IOF.

• 47 Palestinians, including 12 children and a journalist, were wounded by IOF.

• 30 of these Palestinians, including 6 children, were wounded by IOF in Beit Hanoun.

• IOF shelled space areas and agricultural lands in the Gaza Strip.

• IOF conducted 33 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and 4 ones into the Gaza Strip.

• IOF arrested 85 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and 4 ones in the Gaza Strip.

• IOF razed 258 donums[1] of agricultural land and demolished 23 houses in the Gaza Strip.

• IOF destroyed 2 apartment buildings in Nablus and the neighboring ‘Ein Beit al-Maa’ refugee camp.

• IOF used a Palestinian civilian as a human shield in ‘‘Ein Beit al-Maa’ refugee camp.

• IOF transformed 3 houses in the West Bank into military sites.

• IOF have closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron during the holy Ramadan Month for 3 sporadic days.

• IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT.

• IOF have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world and a humanitarian crisis has emerged.

• Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been denied access to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

• IOF troops arrested 5 Palestinian civilians at checkpoints in the West Bank.

• IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attacks Palestinian civilians and property.

• Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian child in Hebron and 2 paramedics in Bethlehem.

• An Israeli settler stabbed a Palestinian civilian in Jerusalem.

MORE

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070929/wl_nm/syria_israel_shara_dc_2;_ylt=Ara4faGlFkbkWJasNeLJQ.0UvioA

Syria says Israel wants to make excuses for war

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis 1 hour, 48 minutes ago

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria accused Israel on Saturday of making excuses for war by spreading what it described as false reports that an Israeli air raid targeted a site linked to weapons of mass destruction.

Syrian Deputy President Farouq al-Shara said his country did not want war "in the distant or near future."

"They (Israel) are making up things to justify an aggression in the future. They are playing on public opinion to mislead it," he said, describing the reports as fabrications.

"Everything reported about this raid is wrong and is part of a psychological warfare that will not fool Syria," Shara told reporters after meeting his Iraqi counterpart Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

Damascus says Israel launched the air raid on September 6, bombing an empty area after air defense systems confronted the aircraft. Some U.S. officials have linked the raid to apparent Israeli suspicions of secret nuclear cooperation between Damascus and North Korea.

Diplomats in Damascus say at least four Israeli warplanes crossed deep into Syria in this month's operation. They suggest the intended target may have involved missiles supplied by North Korea but played down reports of a nuclear link.

Israel has said nothing about the raid, which Shara said caused no casualties. Damascus and North Korea have denied any nuclear cooperation.

Shara said the raid also was aimed at boosting the morale of the Israeli military, which failed to crush the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, an ally of Syria, in last year's war.

"They want to rehabilitate the Israeli army after the Lebanese resistance broke it. But what Israel needs is to rehabilitate the Israeli mind, only then will a real opportunity for genuine peace be created," he said.

Syria and Israel are formally at war. Peace talks between them collapsed in 2000 over the scope of an Israeli pullout from the Golan Heights, a plateau which the Jewish state captured from Syria in 1967.

The United States, Israel's chief ally, has said it would invite Syria to an international conference in November to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

Shara said the meeting would not succeed without pressure on Israel to withdraw from all the Arab land it occupied in 1967 in exchange for peace, including the Golan.

"Anything else and the meeting will be worthless," he said. "We don't need more photo opportunities."

letters

RE: 10 Questions for Jimmy Carter
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1665544,00.html

Dear Editor,

Loved seeing the (interview) 10 Questions for Jimmy Carter, although his answer on the Middle East situation "Since President Clinton left office, there hasn't been a single day of good-faith peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians orchestrated or supported by Washington" was sadly limited by a partisan perspective: The tragic truth is that Palestine has been misunderstood and sincerely harmed by ALL who empower and try to make peace with the institutionalized bigotry and blatant injustice of political Zionism.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

*******************************************

RE: Gaza’s Young, and Israel’s letter
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/opinion/l29gaza.html?ref=opinion

Dear Editor,

Surely you received more letters in response to For Gaza’s Young at Play, Fields Can Be Deadly (September 26, 2007) than the stupid letter by the happy Zionist who looked at the horrific suffering in open air prison called Gaza and used it as an opportunity to encourage even more hostility and brutality towards the people of Palestine.

I seem to recall I sent you a letter myself that concluded... The Palestinians have been punished and imprisoned in more ways than one for keeping the idea of Palestine alive. They have been punished and imprisoned and tortured for daring to dream of home and a precious heritage. They have been persecuted and vilified and impoverished for daring to believe in full and equal rights in the land of their birth. And they have been harassed and insulted for savoring and understanding real justice and the ideas contained within the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948- including but not limited to the refugees legal and natural right to return to original homes and lands.

How much more monstrous does political Zionism have to become before all the world has the courage and the strength of character to just say NO Israel.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

*******************************************

RE: Our disgraceful refugee score card
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-husarska29sep29,0,7159683.story?coll=la-opinion-center

Dear Editor,

Our disgraceful scorecard on helping the Iraqi refugees is tightly tied to our disgraceful scorecard on Palestine, as Zionist hate mongers and terrorists are eager to teach America to scorn Arabs and Muslims so that the people of Palestine can be more easily destroyed and silenced here there and everywhere:

“Palestinians are currently one of the most vulnerable groups in Iraq. They are being hunted down, abducted, tortured and, in some cases, killed without any effective steps being taken to protect them,” said Malcolm Smart, Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International. "They also face great obstacles in seeking refuge as the authorities in both Syria and Jordan, the main countries hosting Iraqi refugees, remain extremely reluctant to allow Palestinian refugees to enter their territory, and there is now a pressing need for other countries to resettle those most at risk." Iraq: Palestinian refugees caught in the crossfire http://www.imemc.org/article/50682

That information should be front page headlined news in all our newspapers- and so should the fact that international law clearly spells out the Palestinian refugees' inalienable legal and natural right to return to original homes and lands in the spirit of.... "it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine " The Balfour Declaration of 1917

FYI- Palestinian refugees represent the longest suffering and largest refugee population in the world today.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

*******************************************

RE: Marching Against the War (letter)
http://antiwar.com/letters/?articleid=11684

Dear Antiwar.com,

In my opinion, no matter what the nay sayers want everyone else to believe- always remember that there is no fixation on crowd count for how many were there to listen to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, nor is there a tally for how many other presidential speeches simply aren't worth remembering while his inspiring words "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."... are echoed to this day.

In other words, seems to me that the speeches and the ideas expressed- and recorded- are much more important than this obsession with the actual size of the crowd- a large crowd - a very large crowd.... AND why is no one factoring in how many more watched ANSWER's Antiwar rally broadcast on c-span as well as captured by many an video clip, and discussed on many a blog and list.

How many millions impossible to trace, listen still to the riveting speeches because they want to hear the ideas shaping the march and the antiwar movement. And in listening, and reading the signs and slogans and hearing the catchy chants, we learn even more reasons why we should do what we can to stop all this awful war... We live in an electronic world. The outreach achieved by the internet magnifies that Answer antiwar march by millions- if not billions, as little bits scatter like seeds sowing a growing garden of mainstreamed rational, reasonable dissent.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

notes:
http://annies-letters.blogspot.com/2007/09/dr-zahi-damunis-speech-on-25th.html
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=201011-1&tID=5

& MORE NOTES:

"... To the exiled and the occupied, we say: You shall return and you shall remain and we will prevail, for our cause is just. We will put on our embroidered robes and kafiyyas and, in the sight of the world, celebrate together on the day of liberation." Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi, The Madrid Conference Opening SpeechesOctober 30-31, 1991

In 1948 85% of the Palestinians were displaced, 675 towns and villages were depopulated while their lands and properties were confiscated. Palestinians refer to this experience as the Nakba (‘catastrophe’). Today some two-thirds of the Palestinian people are refugees, displaced and dispossessed. Book Review on ‘‘The Return Journey:A Guide to the Depopulated and Present Palestinian Towns and Villages and Holy Sites, in English, Arabic and Hebrew" by Salman H. Abu Sitta

"The people who were butchered - twenty seven hundred or more - were butchered because of who they were, because they were Palestinians. They were refugees. They were denied their fundamental inalienable right to return to their homes in Palestine. A right that is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in international law, a fundamental, inalienable, and natural right..." Dr. Zahi Damuni, Co-founder of Al-Awda The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, speaking at the massive ANSWER antiwar rally in Washington DC on the 25th anniversary of Sabra and Shatila Massacre, September 15, 2007 (on cspan 11.44 minutes into the tape)

• Playing loose with the law by Saleh Al-Naami..& more from IMEU
• UN refugee agency urges Israel to lift Gaza closures
• Palestinians prepare return to devastated refugee camp
• [AL-AWDA] Discrimination in San Diego Will Not Stop Arab Oud Master's Extensive North American Fall Tour
• Iraq: Palestinian refugees caught in the crossfire
• If you live in the Greater Puget Sound Area- go hear MARCEL KHALIFE AND MAYADINE ENSEMBLE, Oct 7, 2007
• Children imprisoned by Israel in Telmond appeal Abbas to intervene for their release
• Bedouin struggle for land in Israel desert
• One Palestinian Village Struggles Against Israel's Ever-Expanding "Settlements"
• See No Evil- The Teflon Alliance with Israel By Kathleen and Bill Christison
• Academic shock and awe by Sharif Elmusa...
• The forgotten faithful by Timothy Seidel
• U.S. expert condemns Simon Wiesenthal Center's Nazi loot claims
• Ex Israeli chief rabbi dies
• Adalah...
• For American Jews, Dissent Against Israel Has Become Mainstream... a must read
  
• Hasan Afif El-Hasan: Open Letter to Secretary Rice
• [AL-AWDA] URGENT APPEAL: Right of Return Action (Father Faris Khaleifat)
• Abbas: Don’t cross the red-lines- Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem
• Palestinian experts hold Israel responsible for water shortage in the Palestinian territories
• Gaza Strip families denied reunion by Israeli authorities
• Palestinian Detainee facing deportation along with his family
• Chile accepts 100 Palestinian refugees displaced from Iraq
• The Carlyle Fund will not invest in Israel
• Israel excludes priests, nuns
• Deserving of honour and respect... Haidar Abdel Shafi
• Al-Haj Ahmad al-Hamed continues to fight for his land
• David and Goliath: Palestinian Artist Spreads Hope by Ramzy Baroud
• Columbia "Unbecoming"- A European Student's Experience at Columbia by Marc Robert
• In Iran, anger and dismay over Ahmadinejad's reception at Columbia
• Open Letter: Pluto Press Under Attack by Israel Lobby
• Palestinian cave dwellers defy creeping occupation...
• Settlers planning 5 new outposts
• Opinion: The content of character: Debate is critical to democracy by Amy Henderson
• NYTimes-For Gaza’s Young at Play, Fields Can Be Deadly
• USA Today: One family's nightmare, A Palestinian couple's application for asylum- filed a decade ago- is denied. The wife faces deportation, and no country will accept the entire family...
• They punish the village by stealing our children
• Moving beyond the news stories: Boston Palestine Film Festival premieres
• Raising Yousuf, Unplugged: diary of a Palestinian mother: You are now entering Hostile Territory
• A Rights Based Solution
• House Demolitions
• END THE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict FACT SHEET
• Sherri Muzher: My Unsung Palestinian Hero
• Dehumanizing the Palestinians by Ali Abunimah
• Ramzy Baroud: Convenient racism
• The war on Gaza's children by By Saree Makdisi
• "Under no circumstances can Israel view it as an 'enemy entity'. Gaza is not an independent state, Gaza is under occupation
• Dr. Zahi Damuni's Speech on The 25th anniversary of Sabra and Shatile Massacre- delivered at the massive ANSWER antiwar rally in Washington DC, September 15, 2007
• Israel's Agenda For Ethnic Cleansing and Transfer ...
• Palestinians left helpless by Israelis, World Bank...
• 14 years after the Oslo Accord, it's time to draw...
• ZIONISM: A PRETEXT FOR GENOCIDE by Hala Dimechkie ...
• The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J...
• Israel and Censorship at Harvard
• Franklin Lamb : Sabra-Shatilla, 25 Years Later
• Despite Backlash, Many Jews Are Questioning Israel...

PALESTINE: PEACE NOT APARTHEID

"One day when the world wakes up to the fact that a rights based solution is the only solution for Middle East peace, the Palestinian refugees will go home to live in peace and dignity on their own land and will no longer be subject to massacres." umkahlil No More Massacres: Peace and Dignity in their Own Land for Palestine's Refugees

FACTSHEET The Right To Return, a Basic Right Still Denied

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

"The humanitarian aid and assistance that UNRWA provides to the Palestine refugees can never be enough. But it will be required as long as the issues of statelessness, prolonged military occupation, economic marginalization and vulnerability characteristic of the Palestinian refugee crisis are not addressed." http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.htm?tbl=PUBL&id=4444d3c92f

Al Nakba 1948
The largest planned ethnic cleansing operation in modern history	530 depopulated towns and villages 85% of the Palestinians in the land that became Israel are refugees today Their land is 92% of Israel’s area

http://www.plands.org/power/1.htm

http://www.resistanceart.com/Posters.htm

The State of the World's Refugees 2006 - Chapter 5 Protracted refugee situations: Box 5.1 Palestinian refugees .....

By far the most protracted and largest of all refugee problems in the world today is that of the Palestine refugees, whose plight dates back 57 years.
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.htm?tbl=PUBL&id=4444d3c92f

& Forced Migration Review's (FMR) recent edition on Palestinian refugees
http://www.forcedmigration.org/

& more on the Palestinian Refugees....

IIn In a Refugees camp by Tamam Al-Akhal

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/israel/return/
http://www.badil.org/index.html
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/index.html
http://imeu.net/news/background-briefings.shtml
http://www.rorcongress.com/
http://www.al-awda.org/facts.html
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Right-Of-Return/
http://www.p4pd.org/refugees.html
http://www.plomission.us/links.php
http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/115746336017.htm
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/refugees.shtml
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_mamboezine&Itemid=182
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=10241&CategoryId=4
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/israel-palestine/returnindex.htm
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/israel-palestine/return/2004/0927necessary.htm
http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/MEPP/PRRN/papers/abusitta.html
http://www.world-crisis.com/analysis_comments/A147_0_15_0_C
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/687/region_ror.htm
http://www.al-awda.org/abusitta.html
http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0102/010220a.htm
http://www.fmreview.org/palestine.htm
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/