A Week in April

You may not have heard about these things that happened in Israel and Palestine during the week of April 21. These are a few of the news items I found:

• Israel demolished 22 structures in 8 locations across the West Bank including East Jerusalem, displacing 28 people, including 18 children, and affecting 120 others, including 57 children - on April 23 and 24

• Israeli forces uprooted over 700 olive trees near Arraba village in the northern West Bank on April 25. The trees belonged to Palestinians in Arraba, south of Jenin, close to the Israeli settlement Mevo Dotan

• Israeli forces destroyed over 1,300 olive trees in the south Hebron hills of the southern West Bank on April 23.

• The Palestinian Authority secured the release of three children, ages 11-13, who were in Israeli custody, arrested for allegedly throwing stones. Under Israeli military orders, a Palestinian child can be held for up to 188 days before being charged with an offense and for up to two years between being charged and tried. Most Palestinian children are held for throwing stones, which holds a maximum sentence of 20 years.

• 4,800 Palestinian political prisoners are being held in Israeli jails, including 236 children and 164 “administrative detainees” who are jailed without charge or trial.

• A bill introduced in the US Senate by Sen.Barbara Boxer would sanction Israel’s discrimination against American citizens traveling through Ben Gurion airport—exempting Israel from reciprocity, allowing Israel to use racial profiling to detain and interrogate Americans with Arab names.

• A Catholic monastery and convent in a secluded valley outside Bethlehem lost a seven-year legal battle against the building of Israel's separation wall on its land on April 26. The wall will surround the convent on three sides and cut it off from the monastery and from most of its land, the lush vineyards and olive trees on terraced hillsides below the Israeli settlements. A convent school teaches 400 local children

Bethlehem "Right to Movement" Marathon, 2013

• The US State Department issued a report that Israel practices “institutional and societal discrimination” against its Palestinian citizens—in education, demolition and confiscation of property, lack of infrastructure (electricity, water, municipal services), use of excessive force against civilians, prohibiting family reunification, severe restriction of movement

• Bethlehem hosted more than 650 runners in the “Right to Movement” marathon, including runners from the United States, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The winner of the men's marathon was a Palestinian runner from Jericho, Abdel Nasser Awajna, who was flanked by Palestinian youth as he crossed the finish line with a time of 3:09.

The week of remembrance

This week, as we remember the holocaust, Palestinians would also have us remember another catastrophe, their Nakba. With her grandmother, Dina Elmuti remembers Deir Yassin, 55 years ago yesterday, on April 9, 1948. May we also learn from this remembrance and vow "never again." To read this posting on the Electric Intifada, see: http://electronicintifada.net/content/we-must-never-forget-massacre-deir-yassin/12341  

"Transcribing the vivid details of the account engraved into the fabric of her memory, I am transfixed by all that she’s held onto for 65 years. From paper to pulse, I write the story buried deep in her consciousness to affirm her truth. Without her, it never would be written at all.

I study the lines on my grandmother’s face knowing behind every one there is a timeless story of unmitigated pain, survival and hope. This story, where the continued dispossession, suffering and oppression of the Palestinian people began, is one that refuses to be silenced or forgotten. It is the story of Deir Yassin.

Remember the date: Friday, 9 April 1948, a day of infamy in Palestinian history. My grandmother was nine years old at the time of the Deir Yassin massacre and every day since she has lived with a steadfast commitment to never forget.

Premonition

Thursday, 8 April, ended like any other in the small, quiet village. My grandmother and her younger sister returned home from school to complete their composition assignment entitled Asri’ (meaning “to hurry” in Arabic). She recounts that detail animatedly. Like other children their age, she wanted to complete the assignment in order to enjoy the next day off.

The excitement, however, was short-lived. I can’t help but think of the irony in the assignment’s title. Asri’ — it’s almost as though it were a premonition of sorts.

The following day, entire families ran hurriedly in sheer terror, fleeing the only homes they had ever known to escape a bloodbath. By dawn on that Friday morning, life as they had known it would never be the same again. Deir Yassin would never be the same again.

Fathers, grandfathers, brothers and sons were lined up against a wall and sprayed with bullets, execution style. Beloved teachers were savagely mutilated with knives. Mothers and sisters were taken hostage and those who survived returned to find pools of blood filling the streets of the village and children stripped of their childhoods overnight.

The walls of homes, which once stood witness to warmth, laughter and joy, were splattered with the blood and imprints of traumatic memories. My grandmother lost 37 members of her family that day. These are not stories you will read about in most history books.

Bitter symbol

The Deir Yassin massacre was not the largest-scale massacre, nor was it the most gruesome. The atrocities committed, the scale of violence and the complexity of the methods and insidious weaponry used by Israel against civilians in the recent decade have been far more sadistic and pernicious. But Deir Yassin marks one of the most critical turning points in Palestinian history.

The author's great-uncle, Muhammad Radwan, outside of the family home in Deir Yassin

A bitter symbol carved in the fiber of the Palestinian being and narrative, it resonates sharply as the event that catalyzed our ongoing Nakba (catastrophe), marked by the forced exile of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, creating the largest refugee population worldwide with more than half living in the diaspora.

Deir Yassin is a caustic reminder of the ongoing suffering, struggle and systematic genocide of the Palestinian people, 65 years and counting. When the village was terrorized into fleeing, tumultuous shockwaves of terror ran through Palestine, laying the blueprint for the architecture of today’s apartheid Israel.

Sacred Ground

I have been fortunate enough to see Deir Yassin and step foot on its sacred ground. Deir Yassin remains a permanently cemented and rigorous reminder of the spirit that has never permitted defeat. Despite the illegal settlements, pillaging, plundering and human suffering that took place, my grandmother’s home stands with resolve just as she does today...."

See photos of her grandmother and read the rest of her remembrance....

In the US, it's easy to assume that Israelis support their government—the settlemet-building, checkpoints, denial of building permits. This is not the whole story. Read what Americans for Peace Now reports about the work of their sister organization in Israel - Peace Now. 

When President Obama flew into Israel Wednesday, he could see from Airforce One this huge sign that Peace Now activists lay down to welcome his message of peace. The sign, 180 feet long and 50 feet wide, is located in the fields of Kibbutz Nahshon, half-way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, on the route that large incoming jets use when they land at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.

Learn more about Peace Now and it's American counterpart, Americans for Peace Now (APN);
http://peacenow.org/israel/ 

http://peacenow.org 

Remembering Rachel Corrie--Continuing her Work

Today is the tenth anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death in Gaza. Rachel was trying to prevent Israel's destruction of Palestinian homes in Gaza when a bulldozer ran over her and killed her. Despite court cases, her parents, Cindy and Craig, have not seen justice done.

They have, however, continued the work Rachel gave her life for. Watch them in a short (5 min) video, remembering their daughter and continuing her work:




The Corries talk about pressuring President Obama to make sure that the money we give to Israel in foreign aid is not used for demolition of Palestinian homes, and other human rights violations. Their words echo the letter of fifteen US church leaders to members of congress last October - US aid to Israel must be examined to make sure these monies are not used in violation of human rights and international law. They said, in part:

"As Christian leaders in the United States, it is our moral responsibility to question the continuation of unconditional U.S. financial assistance to the government of Israel. Realizing a just and lasting peace will require this accountability, as continued U.S. military assistance to Israel — offered without conditions or accountability — will only serve to sustain the status quo and Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territories.

We request, therefore, that Congress hold Israel accountable to these standards by making the disbursement of U.S. military assistance to Israel contingent on the Israeli government’s compliance with applicable U.S. laws and policies."

Read the letter.....

Take action today - sign on to a letter organized by JStreet, urging the president, on the eve of his trip to Israel and Palestine, to act to bring about peace—Just ahead of President Obama’s trip to Israel next week, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has authored a ‘dear colleague’ letter circulating on Capitol Hill urging the President to reaffirm that a pathway to peace remains a priority for his administration: Click here to ask Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet to sign onto Senator Feinstein’s letter and affirm their commitment to making US leadership to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a top priority.

Love in the Time of Apartheid - a Wedding at the Wall

Today, as we in Colorado are celebrating the passage of the civil unions bill, allowing for gay couples to express their love by forming families that will be recognized by the state, Palestinians are still fighting for the right to marry.

If a Palestinian who is a citizen of Israel (living in Israel) wants to marry a Palestinian who lives in the West Bank, the marriage is prohibited under current Israeli policy. In May, 2002, Israel’s cabinet suspended the family reunification law, which provided a process for Palestinians to apply for marriage if the couple were not both citizens of the same jurisdiction.

Last Saturday, a new campaign was launched to draw the world’s attention to this discrimination— “Love in the Time of Apartheid.” Protesters gathered at the Hizma checkpoint for a wedding—one which could never take place.

The story was reported in PNN, the Palestine News Network—

“The bride [see photo], a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, the groom, a Palestinian from the West Bank, accompanied by tens of activists approached Hizma checkpoint from its two sides and demanded their right to love and live without racist and separation policies.

Using tear-gas and sound bombs, Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint prevented the bride and the groom from meeting and completing the wedding ceremony, which highlights Israel’s apartheid policies, separating between Palestinians from two sides of 67 borders.

Basil Mansour, 36, a member of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and settlements in Bil'in and the head of Bil'in local council, was arrested while participating in the wedding, along with dozens of Palestinian and international peace activists.” Read more.....

Watch a video of the demonstration at the Hizma checkpoint

The campaign calls upon the international community and people of conscience around the world, to meet their international legal obligations and hold Israel accountable to its policies, in all regional and international forums in order, to:

·         force Israel to revoke the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order),

·         end all policies preventing Palestinian family reunifications

·         adhere to international human rights laws

·         put an end to all forms of racial discrimination towards Palestinians

Read more about the law preventing family reunifications: http://www.adalah.org/eng/pressreleases/12_1_12.html

Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian Christian and non-violent peace activist, who lives in Beit Sahour, writes, “My wife and I applied for Family reunification over 5 years ago and the Israeli authorities still did not answer to this day.” Read his blog...

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zFKo-OVeRc