باللغة السويدية للروائية الفلسطينية- الأمريكية سوزان أبو الهوى
اراب نيهيتر-ستوكهولم
15-2-2011
للمرة الأولى تطل على القارئ السويدي رواية مفعمة بالأحاسيس الإنسانية والسياسة لما مر به الشعب الفلسطيني منذ تشريده من بلاده عام 1948 وحتى اليوم، مرورا بحرب 1967, ومعركة الكرامة وحرب أكتوبر والإنتفاضة الأولى والثانية. قصة " صباح في جنين" الرواية الأولى للكاتبة الفلسطينية – الأمريكية سوزان أبو الهوى تحكي قصة عائلة، من قرية عين حوض، تمتد لأربعة أجيال تذكرنا بقليل أو كثير برواية الشهيد غسان كنفاني "عائد إلى حيفا"، والمسلسل التلفزيوني " التغريبة الفلسطينية" للدكتور وليد سيف.
تبدأ الحكاية بعائلة يحيى أبو الهيجا، صاحبة كروم الزيتون في قرية عين حوض منذ عام 1940 التي تعيش بأمان وسلام وهناء , إلى أن أتت حرب 1948 فتحطم السلام وعلى المدى الطويل، وهُجّر أهل القرية وقرى ومدن كثيرة، ولجأ يحيى وأبنائه، حسن ودرويش إلى مخيم جنين. خلال تلك الحرب وتحت زخات الرصاص والقتل قام جندي إسرائيلي بسرقة الحفيد إسماعيل من حضن أمه داليا زوجة حسن، وهكذا تخسر داليا وطنها وابنها الرضيع.
أخذ موشي أفرام الطفل ليقدمه هدية غالية لزوجته التي فقدت والديها واعتدي عليها من قبل جنود النازية ونجت منهم، بعد أن فقدت القدرة على الانجاب.
أراد موشي تعويض ضعف زوجته بطفل فلسطيني تتبناه، وبذلك ينشأ إسماعيل، تحت إسم دافيد آفرام، الذي يخدم فيما بعد كجندي إسرائيلي في جنين منكلا بعائلته الأصلية, فيضرب ويعذب أخيه المقاوم يوسف عند أحد الحواجز. يوسف الذي قدر بأن معذبه هو أخيه إسماعيل الذي أصيب وهو رضيع بجرح ترك ندبة على وجهه الذي يشبه وجه يوسف.
ترزق داليا بفتاة تسميها آمال، الشخصية التي تنقل الأحداث في الأبواب ال 48 من الكتاب المؤلف من 380 صفحة. تصاب أمال في حرب عام 1967 بطلقة في بطنها وهي مختبئة في حفرة في مطبخ المنزل، ويختفي أبوها حسن،ربما استشهد، الأمر الذي يفقد داليا زوجها وعقلها، ومن ثم تصارع المرض لتتوفى في عام 1969.
بينما تتابع آمال حياتها بعيدة عما تبقى من أهلها في مدرسة داخلية، دار الطفل العربي" في القدس، حيث تحصل على بعثة دراسية في أمريكا. و يتزوج يوسف من فاطمة التي أحبها وينتقل مع المقاومة الفلسطينية إلى الأردن وبعدها إلى بيروت ويرزق بطفلة يسميها فلسطين.
يتصل يوسف عام 1981 من بيروت هاتفيا بأخته آمال التي تهرع لتسافر إليه وتقابله في مخيم شاتيلا. وهناك تقع آمال في حب الطبيب ماجد، صديق عائلة يوسف، وتتزوجه وتحمل منه، وتعود إلى أمريكا لمتابعة إجراءات السفر لماجد ويوسف مع عائلته.
أثناء ذلك تغزو إسرائيل لبنان، عام 1982، فيخرج رجال منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية من بيروت بوعود أمريكية لحماية من تبقى من الفلسطينيين هناك. في تلك الحرب تخسر آمال زوجها الذي أحبت بقصف على بيته، وتقتل فاطمة ببقر بطنها وإخراج جنينها, وتذبح ابنتها فلسطين في حضنها. أما يوسف المفجوع فيقوم بتفجير نفسه بالمقر العسكري الأمريكي في بيروت فيقتل ويجرح عشرات الجنود، ويتهم بالإعلام الأمريكي بالإرهاب. ويتم على إثرها ملاحقة آمال في أمريكا مخابراتيا من جراء فعلة أخيها يوسف .
تتابع آمال حياتها مع ابنتها سارة في أمريكا جسديا بينما روحها وقلبها وعقلها و جذورها في وطنها فلسطين، الأمر الذي انتقل إلى الإبنة سارة، التي أرادت العودة للوطن والتعرف عليه وعلى من تبقى من أفراد العائلة. في هذه الأثناء يشارف موشي على الموت ويبوح بالسر لإبنه دافيد " إسماعيل"، الذي يبدأ التفتيش عن عائلته ليصل إلى آمال، طرف الخيط في أمريكا.
تعود آمال وسارة إلى مخيم جنين ويلتقيا بإسماعيل، الذي طلقته زوجته بعد معرفتها بأنه عربي، ولحق بها أحد أبنائها وتركها الآخر ليعيش مع أبيه ،دافيد. يهاجم الجيش الإسرائيلي مخيم جنين عام 2002 ، ويرتكب المجازر هناك، أثنائها كانت آمال وسارة في زيارة إحدى صديقات الطفولة في المخيم. وجه أحد الجنود الإسرائيليين بندقيته إلى سارة ليقتلها فسارعت الأم بحماية ابنتها فتلقت الرصاصة التي أسقطتها على الأرض التي أحبتها. قام اسماعيل بدفن أخته آمال. في ظل تلك الأحداث تظهر شخصية البروفسوراليهودي آري، الذي كان صديق الطفولة للجد حسن.حيث كان حسن قد أنقذ حياته في حرب 1948، ليصطحب أري سارة إلى عين حوض ويدلها على بيت عائلتها هناك , يطرق الباب على العائلة اليهودية التي أتت من بقاع الأرض، مستعمرة لتسكنه، ويتم طردهم من هناك.
يبدو أن هذه الرواية، التي ستترجم إلى 19 لغة، وهي رواية تتصدر الأدب المهجري المقاوم، وحسب تقييم نقاد وأدباء سويديين، ستكون من روايات الأدب العالمي، رغم أنها التجربة الأولى لسوزان أبو الهوى، الباحثة في علم الادوية والكيمياء الحيوية .
يقول فيها الروائي السويدي الكبير هينينج مانكل: لم أقرأ في حياتي رواية جذبتني عن فلسطين كهذه. لقد زودتني بالإدراك وهيجت أحاسيسي وعواطفي، كما يمكن للروايات العظمى أن تفعل.
وكقارئ فلسطيني للرواية فقد رأيت نفسي في عدد من المشاهد التي صورتها لنا أبو الهوى.
وأكثر ماتطابق في الرواية مع سلسلة حياتي هو
أولا: صورة الغلاف التي تظهر سيدة بثوب فلسطيني تحمل على كتفها طفل بعمر سنتين تدير وجهها مغادرة موقع تنتمي إليه. صورة تتطابق مع حمل والدتي لي على كتفيها وكان عمري سنتين، وكانت تحمل في رحمها إبنها الثالث، وجائها المخاض أثناء مسيرها على الطريق من صفد إلى لبنان ليتم نقلها إلى مشفى في حلب لتضع طفلها الثالث.
وثانيا مسيرتي في العمل الفلسطيني في المخيمات وفي الشتات.
وثالثا زيارتي التي قمت بها إلى صفد، عام 1989، حيث وقفت أمام بيتنا ومنعت من الدخول إليه من قبل العائلة اليهودية التي جاءت من أصقاع الأرض واستولت عليه.
ورابعا إصرار الفلسطينيين جيلا بعد جيل على حمل القضية في قلوبهم وعقولهم ونقلها إلى الرأي العام الدولي لمتابعة النضال، وكاتبة الرواية السيدة سوزان المولودة في الكويت عام 1970 خير برهان على الأجيال التي ولدت بعد النكبة بعقود,
لكنها تفهم القضية كما هي بتفاصيلها الإنسانية الدقيقة.
قراءة وتعليق رشيد الحجة
صحافي فلسطيني مقيم في أوبسالا - السويد
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
We Are All Egypt!
In the Huffington Post, February 4, 2011
Rightly proud of their history, Egyptians like to announce, especially to other Arabs, that Egypt is the world's mother. The Arabic version is far more tender and poetic "Misr Um el Dounia"! Lighthearted banter will often ensue between Egyptian and non-Egyptian friends when that statement is brought into the conversation.
Today, I think every Arab will concede that, indeed, Misr Um el Dounia!
The culture that is a pillar of history itself is, once again, unfurling a new era and, as one revolutionary protestor said, "the world before January 25th is not the same after January 25th." With such spectacular passion, courage, endurance, and undaunted will, the people of Egypt are ushering in a new world order in the Middle East. Everyone, apparently except Hosni Mubarak, knows that Hosni Mubarak is finished. But his ousting is not merely the end of one Arab tyrant. The awe-inspiring unity of voice and purpose of Egyptians is the realization of an old Arab dream, one for which songs, poems and anthems have been written and sung in every Arab home for generations. It is the dream of liberty, an end to colonialism and its aftertaste that lingers throughout these ancient lands. It is the dream of self-rule and unity among peoples of the Middle East who share a common destiny.
The people have always been fundamentally united. This is evident by the demonstrations in other parts of the Middle East in solidarity with Egyptians. It is evident by past demonstrations throughout Arab streets in opposition to attacks upon Palestinians and Lebanese Arabs. The revolutionaries packed into Tahrir Square are many of the same who have in the past carried placards reading "We are all Palestine." As a Palestinian, I now march the streets with a placard that reads "We are all Egypt."
Incredibly, now we are seeing footage of confessions from the so called "pro-Mubarak" crowd who admit to having been paid to create chaos and violence in what had been an orderly and peaceful assembly of millions of human beings. We already knew that many of those who came on camels and horses wielding whips, knives and swords, were part of Mubarak's central police. It is clear now that others were prisoners who were released with small amounts of money on the condition that they join the forces of disruption.
El Abtal, the revolutionaries, did not budge and their nonviolent demonstrations have resumed with the same awesome unity and order. Even some of those individuals who were paid to rally for Mubarak have changed sides to join their countrymen in Tahrir square. Millions without work or school, of all faiths, of all economic backgrounds, are standing shoulder to shoulder, sharing food, water, praying together, listening to Egyptian songs between calls of the Adan, chanting, and restoring their dignity as a free people.
There's another saying in Arabic that doesn't quite translate into English. But I'll give it a try: The people of Egypt have raised the collective Arab head. "Awlad Misr byirfa3o ras el Arab kolohom!" In other words, Egyptians inspire us all and fill our hearts with pride and love and hope.
Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin and founder of Playgrounds for Palestine.
Mubarak: Destroying Egypt to Stay in Power
In the Huffington Post, February 2, 2011
In the face of a spectacular and inspiring people's revolution, Hosni Mubarak's first tactic to hold onto his despotic post was to send his police thugs into the streets as looters and rioters to provide him with an excuse to do what he does best: clamp down and terrorize Egypt's citizens. But thanks to the incredible solidarity of the people, this subversion was unsuccessful. Neighborhood watch groups repelled and 'arrested' those looters and turned them over to the army.
When demands for Mubarak's departure grew louder from from an even bigger crowd, he dug his nails in deeper, staking his claim to the few remaining months in his tenure of torture and intimidation of the Egyptian people.
As his intransigence stretched out, so did the protests and the risk of chaos grew. It was easy to predict, as I did in a Twitter post, that Mubarak was waiting for mayhem to ensue naturally, due to the inevitable food and fuel shortages, so he could step in to "restore order".
But the people's resolve for freedom, civil liberties, and government transparency could not be conquered by exhaustion or hunger.
Now we see that Mubarak's latest tactic is to send in armed gangs, mostly from his notorious police force, to ignite riots.
Mubarak is intentionally trying to provoke a bloodbath in Egypt, his own country!
Why?
In a pathetic speech to his people, he claimed to hold onto power for the sake of maintaining security and order. In fact, the protests, involving millions of people were entirely peaceful and miraculously orderly. It was Mubarak who actively changed that and any bloodshed from this moment forward will rest entirely on his shoulders. He should be tried and punished for the violent consequences of his maniacal ego that will not accept the clear, definitive, passionate, and unified voice of the people to rid Egypt of his tyranny.
There is little doubt that some in the US and Israel are quietly pushing for Mubarak to maintain power. We have heard and read statements that confirm this in one way or another. Nearly every American network has counted Mubarak's contributions to Israel's interests as his crowning achievement, as if Israel should be the priority of every Egyptian.
What arrogance! What hypocrisy for the West not to stand, unequivocally, behind a people's undaunted cry for freedom!
In truth, few in the West want Arabs to have such freedom or democracy. People who hold the reins of their own destiny are more difficult to deal with because they tend to demand fair play, justice, and respect for themselves. They also might not sit silently, for example, the next time Israel decides to rain the death of bombs, missiles, and white phosphorous onto the already battered, hungry, and besieged people of Gaza.
May God give the Egyptian people the strength to hold their ground and may their revolution for democracy and freedom spread like a brushfire through the Arab world.
Make no mistake, it is only a matter of time, and especially if Mubarak employs more terror against his own people in order to stay in power.
A Defining Moment for President Obama's Leadership
In the Huffington Post, January 23, 2011
A UN resolution is being circulated among the fifteen members of the Security Council and it is likely that all but the United States will accept it. The language of the resolution affirms what previous UN resolutions and international law have already established: That Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, namely all territory beyond the 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem, are illegal.
Although President Obama has made it clear that he opposes these settlements and considers them an impediment to peace, it is expected that the Obama administration will, nonetheless, follow previous administrations in being the only dissenting voice on the Security Council when it comes to resolutions that hold Israel accountable to internationally accepted standards. And by "dissent," I mean veto.
On one hand, a veto by the US can be regarded as nothing new. The US consistently provides this kind of political cover for Israel's crimes. Sometimes an international uproar follows but it dies out without discernible repercussion. But there are reasons to think that a veto of this resolution might not pass so easily. Consequences might be apparent on both the national and international front for the US.
For starters, Obama has been publicly humiliated by Prime Minister Netanyahu's rebuff of an unprecedented American bribe in return for a pittance and temporary adherence to international law to stop settlement construction on confiscated Palestinian land -- partially and for only 90 days. This public rebuke of the President of the United States came not long after other slights, including the announcement of new illegal settlement construction on the eve of Vice President Joe Biden's arrival in Tel Aviv last year.
Israel's public belittling and disregard for its only ally and chief benefactor amounts to biting the hand that feeds it. For Obama to now step in and give sanction for something he openly and repeatedly opposed will further expose his weakness and inability to stand up to a tiny country that arguably owes its survival to the US. A veto will also further increase the isolation of the US from the consensus of the rest of the world, which is increasingly less tolerant of Israel's unrelenting crimes and its lack of accountability.
While the US could withstand such isolation in previous times, there are several reasons why this may not hold true now. For starters, the US is embroiled in two losing wars in the Middle East that make the ire of the "Arab street" (which is sure to be spurred by yet another veto) more relevant. The repressive Arab dictators, who routinely suppress displays of mass political dissent and unrest, might be more apt to hear popular anger at a US veto and press matters more vigorously with the UN given the sweeping popular revolution we are witnessing now in Tunis. Furthermore, Israel's harm to US interests was underscored last year by unprecedented political commentary from the highest echelons of the US military, when Commander General David Petraeus made it clear to the White House that Israel's intransigence was jeopardizing American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The proposed UN resolution merely affirms previous UN resolutions (some of which were even authored by the US), basic tenets of international law, and the already articulated position of the Obama administration regarding Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. It is a minimal recognition of the right of the indigenous population of Historic Palestine to exist as a free people in their own homeland. For Obama to veto this resolution now would surely corroborate the perception of him as a cowering and ineffectual president who cannot withstand the political pressure that Israel exerts domestically in the US. The risk of igniting more popular movements in the Arab world that could overthrow US clients in the region is more real now than ever, given the inspiration from Tunisians. Finally, Obama would risk further harm to American troops in two already damaging and draining wars. Republicans would surely exploit all of the above, which, given the current economy, could easily translate into a one-term presidency.
But what if he allows the resolution to pass?
It is well known that standing up to Israel carries great political risk, including a one-term presidency, as in the case of Jimmy Carter and George Bush Senior, both of whom merely threatened or tried to withhold American tax dollars and loan guarantees for Israel to curtail its flouting of international law. However, rewind a few presidencies to Dwight Eisenhower, the first American president who stood on principle against Israel despite enormous domestic pressure, withheld US tax dollars and even threatened UN sanctions if Israel continued to occupy the Gaza Strip and the Gulf of Aqaba it had invaded and captured in 1956.
On top of that, this all occurred during the home stretch for reelection, a risky time to incur Israel's ire, and Eisenhower's advisors were begging him to back down lest he lose the election. But President Eisenhower had had enough of Israel's trickery and flouting of the law and his resolve was echoed by his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, who said: "I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy not approved by [the Israelis]...but I am going to have one. That does not mean I am anti-Jewish, but I believe in what George Washington said in his Farewell Address that an emotional attachment to another country should not interfere."
The rest is history. Ben-Gurion, Israel's Prime Minister, was forced to turn and leave Gaza. Eisenhower, of course, was reelected. There are many differences that can be cited between the circumstances of Eisenhower's stand and that of Carter's and later Bush, Sr. Eisenhower took his case directly to the American people. On a radio address to the nation, he said:
We are now faced with a fateful moment as a result of the failure of Israel to withdraw its forces behind the Armistice lines, as contemplated by the United Nations Resolutions on this subject.
I would, I feel, be untrue to the standards of the high office to which you have chosen me, if I were to lend the influence of the United States to the proposition that a nation which invades another should be permitted to exact conditions for withdrawal... We cannot -- in the world, any more than in our own nation -- subscribe to one law for the weak, another for the strong .... There can only be one law -- or there will be no peace.
Such is the language of leaders. Rather than back down from a politically inconvenient principled stand, Eisenhower appealed to, and trusted, his people's basic sense of justice and fair play, by revealing the moral clarity of his position. No president since has displayed that kind of leadership vis-à-vis Israel, and our nation continues to pay a heavy price a result. It is for this reason that the US position on this UN resolution may well be a defining moment for President Obama's leadership.
Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin and founder of Playgrounds for Palestine
Susan on Al Jazeera's Listening Post about "Breaking the Silence" group in Israel
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Susan on Blogtalk Radio with Barbara Howard
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The AntiSemitism to Come? Hardly
(In addition to the Huffington Post, this essay was also published in el Pais in Spanish and Aftenposten in Norwegian)
Bernard-Henri Levy, the French pop star of philosophy and intellectual elitism, authored an essay that featured my novel, Mornings in Jenin, as one of three distressing developments that led him to ask "is there no end to the demonization of Israel?" It was titled: "The Antisemitism to Come." The other two happenings that concern him, he says, are the growing boycott of Israel and an acclaimed documentary film called Tears of Gaza.
First, a look at Mr Levy's targets:
1) Mornings in Jenin is a work of historic fiction, where fictional characters live through real history; and I encourage anyone to do their own research to verify the accuracy of the historic events that form the backdrop for the novel. 2) Tears of Gaza is a documentary film by Vibeke Lokkeberg, in which she reveals the horrific impact of Israel's bombing of Gaza in 2008 to 2009, especially on children and women. 3) The activists participating in and encouraging an economic boycott of Israel are ordinary citizens all over the world who are heeding the call of their conscience to take a moral stand against a grave injustice that has gone on far too long against the indigenous population of Israel and Palestine; namely, the Palestinian people.
Rather than offer an intelligent analysis of any one of these three things that trouble him, Levy essentially resorts to name-calling. He simply slaps on the word "antisemitism" to discredit any negative portrayal of Israel. This word -- with its profound gravity of marginalization, humiliation, dispossession, oppression, and ultimately, genocide of human beings for no other reason but their religion -- is so irresponsibly used by the likes of Levy that it truly besmirches the memory of those who were murdered in death camps solely for being Jewish. And I thank Kurt Brainin, a Holocaust survivor who wrote a touching letter expressing exactly that in response to Levy.
Nowhere in Levy's essay does he identify anything truly antisemitic in any of the three elements to which he refers. Because he cannot. If he could, I think he would. In fact, the people who today are being marginalized, humiliated, dispossessed, and oppressed for the sole reason of their religion are Palestinian Christians and Muslims. That is the real antisemitism of today.
Israel has been wiping Palestine off the map, expelling us and stealing everything we have. All that remains to us is less than 11 percent of our historic homeland, now in the form of isolated Bantustans, surrounded by menacing walls, snipers, checkpoints, settler-only roads and the ever-expanding Jewish-only settlements built on confiscated Palestinian property. We have no control over our own natural resources. The amount of water one receives is based on one's religion, such that Palestinians must share bathing water, while their Jewish neighbors water their lawns and enjoy private swimming pools. According to Defence for Children International, in Jerusalem alone, Israel has imprisoned 1,200 Palestinian children this year, who are routinely abused and forced to sign confessions in Hebrew, which they do not understand. Israel routinely targets Palestinian schools and has created a full generation of lost souls in Gaza, who are growing up knowing only fear, insecurity, and hunger. Documents pertaining to Israel's brutal siege of Gaza and its merciless attacks on that civilian population show the cold mathematical formulas designed intentionally to produce food shortages and hunger in Gaza. Christian Palestinians have all but been wholly removed from the place of Jesus' birth. And on goes the inhumanity -- the constant expulsions, home demolitions, systematic theft, destruction of livelihoods, uprooting of trees -- especially olive trees which are so precious to Palestinian culture -- curfews, closures, institutional discrimination, and on and on.
Instead of upholding the best of Jewish ideals that champion justice and the uplifting of the oppressed, Mr. Levy rushes to Israel's defense, repeating the tired mantra of "the only democracy in the Middle East." Apartheid South Africa, too, called itself a democracy, while it mowed down little boys in Soweto (with arms, incidentally, supplied by Israel). So did the United States, during a time when at least 20 percent of its population lived as slaves, bought and sold like cattle.
Equally outrageous is Mr. Levy's wholesale labeling of anyone who criticizes Israel as "antisemitic". For exposing Israel's extensive crimes, we must face the defamation that we are immoral, racist, and hateful. In the case of Vibeke Lokkeberg, Levy makes it a point to inform the reader that she is a former model, ignoring her accomplishments as an experienced filmmaker and author. Apparently, in addition to suggesting she is racist, he perhaps wants readers to think she is also not intellectually qualified to create anything of merit. This tactic of attacking and trying to discredit the messenger rather than address the actual message is an age-old propaganda method.
Mr. Levy accuses us of "demonizing Israel", when in fact, all we do is pull back the curtain, however slightly, to show a dark truth he wishes to keep hidden. I suspect that Mr Levy feels, as most Jewish supporters of Israel do, that he is more entitled to my grandfather's farms than I am. After all, that is really the foundation of Israel, isn't it? The question that should be asked is "why?" and "how?" Why should Jews from all over the world be entitled to enjoy dual citizenship, both in their own homeland and in mine, while we, the natives of Palestine, languish in refugee camps, a diaspora, or patrolled ghettos and bantustans? How is it that a country with one of the most powerful militaries in the world, that has been committing well-documented war crimes against a principally unarmed civilian native population for six decades now, is depicted as the victim? And worse, the real victims, who are trying to resist their own extinction, are depicted as the aggressors?
Nelson Mandela once said: "We know all too well, that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians." Now, in addition to such notable personalities speaking out, people all over the world are slowly joining the struggle for justice and freedom for Palestinians; and it seems inevitable that Israel's systematic ethnic cleansing will at last be opposed by a critical mass of people that will compel Israel to abandon its institutional racism, such that the native non-Jewish population might at last live with the same legal and human rights as Jews in the Holy Land. This is clearly what really worries Mr. Levy.
Bernard-Henri Levy, the French pop star of philosophy and intellectual elitism, authored an essay that featured my novel, Mornings in Jenin, as one of three distressing developments that led him to ask "is there no end to the demonization of Israel?" It was titled: "The Antisemitism to Come." The other two happenings that concern him, he says, are the growing boycott of Israel and an acclaimed documentary film called Tears of Gaza.
First, a look at Mr Levy's targets:
1) Mornings in Jenin is a work of historic fiction, where fictional characters live through real history; and I encourage anyone to do their own research to verify the accuracy of the historic events that form the backdrop for the novel. 2) Tears of Gaza is a documentary film by Vibeke Lokkeberg, in which she reveals the horrific impact of Israel's bombing of Gaza in 2008 to 2009, especially on children and women. 3) The activists participating in and encouraging an economic boycott of Israel are ordinary citizens all over the world who are heeding the call of their conscience to take a moral stand against a grave injustice that has gone on far too long against the indigenous population of Israel and Palestine; namely, the Palestinian people.
Rather than offer an intelligent analysis of any one of these three things that trouble him, Levy essentially resorts to name-calling. He simply slaps on the word "antisemitism" to discredit any negative portrayal of Israel. This word -- with its profound gravity of marginalization, humiliation, dispossession, oppression, and ultimately, genocide of human beings for no other reason but their religion -- is so irresponsibly used by the likes of Levy that it truly besmirches the memory of those who were murdered in death camps solely for being Jewish. And I thank Kurt Brainin, a Holocaust survivor who wrote a touching letter expressing exactly that in response to Levy.
Nowhere in Levy's essay does he identify anything truly antisemitic in any of the three elements to which he refers. Because he cannot. If he could, I think he would. In fact, the people who today are being marginalized, humiliated, dispossessed, and oppressed for the sole reason of their religion are Palestinian Christians and Muslims. That is the real antisemitism of today.
Israel has been wiping Palestine off the map, expelling us and stealing everything we have. All that remains to us is less than 11 percent of our historic homeland, now in the form of isolated Bantustans, surrounded by menacing walls, snipers, checkpoints, settler-only roads and the ever-expanding Jewish-only settlements built on confiscated Palestinian property. We have no control over our own natural resources. The amount of water one receives is based on one's religion, such that Palestinians must share bathing water, while their Jewish neighbors water their lawns and enjoy private swimming pools. According to Defence for Children International, in Jerusalem alone, Israel has imprisoned 1,200 Palestinian children this year, who are routinely abused and forced to sign confessions in Hebrew, which they do not understand. Israel routinely targets Palestinian schools and has created a full generation of lost souls in Gaza, who are growing up knowing only fear, insecurity, and hunger. Documents pertaining to Israel's brutal siege of Gaza and its merciless attacks on that civilian population show the cold mathematical formulas designed intentionally to produce food shortages and hunger in Gaza. Christian Palestinians have all but been wholly removed from the place of Jesus' birth. And on goes the inhumanity -- the constant expulsions, home demolitions, systematic theft, destruction of livelihoods, uprooting of trees -- especially olive trees which are so precious to Palestinian culture -- curfews, closures, institutional discrimination, and on and on.
Instead of upholding the best of Jewish ideals that champion justice and the uplifting of the oppressed, Mr. Levy rushes to Israel's defense, repeating the tired mantra of "the only democracy in the Middle East." Apartheid South Africa, too, called itself a democracy, while it mowed down little boys in Soweto (with arms, incidentally, supplied by Israel). So did the United States, during a time when at least 20 percent of its population lived as slaves, bought and sold like cattle.
Equally outrageous is Mr. Levy's wholesale labeling of anyone who criticizes Israel as "antisemitic". For exposing Israel's extensive crimes, we must face the defamation that we are immoral, racist, and hateful. In the case of Vibeke Lokkeberg, Levy makes it a point to inform the reader that she is a former model, ignoring her accomplishments as an experienced filmmaker and author. Apparently, in addition to suggesting she is racist, he perhaps wants readers to think she is also not intellectually qualified to create anything of merit. This tactic of attacking and trying to discredit the messenger rather than address the actual message is an age-old propaganda method.
Mr. Levy accuses us of "demonizing Israel", when in fact, all we do is pull back the curtain, however slightly, to show a dark truth he wishes to keep hidden. I suspect that Mr Levy feels, as most Jewish supporters of Israel do, that he is more entitled to my grandfather's farms than I am. After all, that is really the foundation of Israel, isn't it? The question that should be asked is "why?" and "how?" Why should Jews from all over the world be entitled to enjoy dual citizenship, both in their own homeland and in mine, while we, the natives of Palestine, languish in refugee camps, a diaspora, or patrolled ghettos and bantustans? How is it that a country with one of the most powerful militaries in the world, that has been committing well-documented war crimes against a principally unarmed civilian native population for six decades now, is depicted as the victim? And worse, the real victims, who are trying to resist their own extinction, are depicted as the aggressors?
Nelson Mandela once said: "We know all too well, that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians." Now, in addition to such notable personalities speaking out, people all over the world are slowly joining the struggle for justice and freedom for Palestinians; and it seems inevitable that Israel's systematic ethnic cleansing will at last be opposed by a critical mass of people that will compel Israel to abandon its institutional racism, such that the native non-Jewish population might at last live with the same legal and human rights as Jews in the Holy Land. This is clearly what really worries Mr. Levy.
Monday, November 1, 2010
My Encounter with a Zionist in Crisis with her Beliefs
By Susan Abulhawa
I received a lovely letter from a reader who identified herself as a Jewish American. To preserve her anonymity, I’ll call her 'Sally'. She wrote that she loved Mornings in Jenin, even though the historic backdrop of the narrative did not reconcile with what she learned about Israel growing up. It seemed a heartfelt letter and thus worthy of a similar response. I did not see Sally as a Zionist or even as a Jew. I saw her as a woman, a mother, and a fellow writer. So, I was delighted when she came to my panel debate with Alan Dershowitz at the Boston Book Festival, and when she asked if we could talk more after the event, I was happy to invite her to lunch with a group of friends. She was soft spoken, with a gentle demeanor and through the course of the table conversation, I realized that we also shared similar beliefs regarding some matters of spirituality.
Sally and I continued to correspond occasionally, both privately and with a group of people who were at lunch that day. Soon, she let me know that one of her friends was now questioning her own Zionist beliefs because of something she heard at her Temple. As a result, Sally’s friend had chosen a list of documentaries to watch. Naturally, I asked what those documentaries were and she sent a list of about 12 or so films that were made 1) to show how awful Arabs are, 2) to present rosy pictures of normalization of Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, 3) to show what Israel’s aggression against Lebanon was like from an Israeli paratrooper’s perspective!, or 4) to depict mixed Arab and Israeli towns as a paradise where everyone is equal.
I find that when people are truly searching to understand, they can find the right sources, especially in this information age. Likewise, when people are confronted with an uncomfortable reality that jars an existing belief, they can turn around and find what they need to prove that they were right all along. Reading the list that Sally sent to me, it was easy to see what category she fit into. Here is the response that I sent to Sally:
If I were trying to get a better view of something, i'd at least look for ones made by third party sources who don't have their own personal beef in the situation. Although with this list, she'll be able to put her head back in the sand and say she did her research and it all proved she was right before.
Sally’s response was immediate and indignant. I’ll spare you the full email, but suffice it to say that she was offended that I had “insulted” her dear friend, and she closed with this:
I know you are much, much more invested in all of this than I and therefore more passionate than I, but please give me the benefit of the doubt before writing words that insult my friend. You may not realize it, but we are two people who will spread our knowledge with others and that can only help you. I am also getting ideas for my next book that can include this message as well.
Let me start here: I know you are much, much more invested in all of this than I and therefore more passionate than I.
It is true that I am “much, much more invested” in “all of this” than she is. How much more? I’d say at least a few centuries more, several generations of grandparents more, many acres of family property more, and one shattered and dispossessed family more. And what is “all of this”? That would be my country. My history. My family. My countrymen. My only heritage and only inheritance. The place where I belong. The place to which I am not allowed to return because of my religion. “All of this” is a collection of refugee camps where people have lived their entire lives in destitution – honorable people, of nobility and peasantry alike, who have been stripped of everything for the sole crime of being born into their own skin.
Now: but please give me the benefit of the doubt before writing words that insult my friend.
As if it is not insulting to me that an American woman, with absolutely no ancestral, historic, cultural, or biological ties to the land, should announce to me that she needs to do more research to determine whether or not I indeed have a right to inherit my grandfather’s farm, reserving, of course, her own right to my grandfather’s farm.
But the most egregious insult is this: You may not realize it, but we are two people who will spread our knowledge with others and that can only help you. I am also getting ideas for my next book that can include this message as well.
I suppose she misunderstood my intentions in corresponding with her in the first place. Perhaps she thought I was trying to win her over, to “help [me]” spread the word. So let me make one thing very clear, to her and to anyone who isn’t sure if they should maintain that they are entitled to keep Palestine as their summer home away from their own home. You are standing on the wrong side of history. That’s why the ground feels shaky beneath your support of Israel. You are standing on the side of a military occupation that daily strips people of their belongings, of their livelihoods, of their dignity and cuts off the very food they eat, the water they drink. You are on the other side of Nelson Mandela’s legacy. The other side of every native people’s struggle for self-determination, for human rights and for basic human dignity. It is not for me that you educate yourself. It is for your own soul. For your own conscience. I am comfortable on solid ground. It is physically defenseless, but morally impenetrable ground. Whatever research you chose to do and what you choose to learn is for you and only for you. My correspondence was with you, as a woman I thought I could be friends with. I was not asking for your help. But one day you will be asked for something else. Perhaps your children or grandchildren will want you to explain what you did when Palestinians were being wiped off the map so you and every Jew around the world could have dual citizenship, a summer home, if you will, on top of my grandparent’s graves.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Humanizing a Shrinking Nation
Writer Susan Abulhawa discusses Palestine and the power of the novel
22.7.2010
by Rebecca Louder
On the morning of May 31st, mere hours after the Israeli flotilla attack, the Grapevine met with Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa at her hotel. Susan was in Reykjavík on her way back from the Lillehammer Literature Festival in Norway. She held a small event at The Culture House to promote her latest book, Mornings In Jenin, a newly edited version of her first publication The Scar of David. The book follows the story of several generations of Palestinian characters and their personal struggles with location, identity, family and human rights. In America, her book has caused a controversial response for its pro-Palestinian stance, but she has continued to be outspoken on the topic despite the backlash. The writer seemed distraught as the charged events of the morning loomed over our interview.
How do you think fictional works can impact the global discourse on Palestinian-Israeli relations?
I think that writers, artists, musicians, poets and filmmakers in any society of conflict have a unique role to play in bringing the issues in the headlines to a human level. That’s the power of art and literature, in general—to remind us of our common humanity and that there are human beings who live the headlines and experience them in ways that are not abstract, in ways that a reader would experience them. You can take an individual through history through the lives of characters that they can get to know, that they can love or hate or what have you. Regardless, they get to know them and they can see conflict and the politics or the history through their eyes. That’s the beauty of a novel, as opposed to non-fiction or history textbooks that have more of a sterile, distant prose.
What is your personal experience in all of this?
My parents were refugees of the 1967 Six Day War. Neither of them can really return to their place of birth nor live in the homes where they were born, or even visit their parents’ graves. I lived in Jerusalem when I was a little girl. Actually there’s a chapter in the book based on that, it’s called ‘The Orphanage.’ That’s really the only part of the book that is autobiographical. The entire historic background is non-fictional. It was real important to me that the historic background and the historic characters, the locations, the seasons, the fruits, etcetera, that all be real. The characters are fictionalised.
Your work has been quite controversial in the past. Why do you think that is?
I think anything that humanises Palestinians or criticises what Israel is doing creates a fury, basically. People try to shut you up. It’s not just me; it’s anybody, whether it’s academics, intellectuals, artists, what have you. That’s kind of a trend. There’s always a campaign of character assassination in trying to marginalise people.
Pro-Palestine sentiments are often deemed as being terrorist-sympathetic or anti-Semitic. Have you had these accusations launched at you?
Precisely. I think everybody who expresses this has. I don’t accept it. I’m neither a terrorist nor an anti-Semite. There’s nothing in anything I do or say that would indicate that. I think readers are smarter than that. I think they’ll see that when they read the book.
How has the book been received?
In Norway, and other European countries it’s gotten really good reviews. In America it has gotten limited reviews, but what it has gotten has been very good. Most journalists and reviewers in the United States just don’t want to touch it.
It’s not the first time. There was this wonderful play called My Name Is Rachel, it was based on the life of Rachel Corrie [American activist with the International Solidarity Movement who was crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer in 2003]. They managed to shut that down. There’s all this art by Palestinians, beautiful stuff that just reflects what’s inside of them, what they see, what their lives are about. It gets shut down. There have been several instances in the United States where that has happened. It’s because there are very powerful forces in the United States that don’t want Palestinians to appear human, because then it becomes harder to justify killing them. It becomes hard to justify raining death on this civilian population that really has nowhere to go and nowhere to run.
What is your hope for the region?
Of course there is hope. To me the solution is, and always has been, very clear. It’s the simple application of international law and the application of the universality of human rights. The declaration that Palestinians are human beings who are worthy of human rights. We are the native people of that land. We’ve been there for centuries, if not millennia, and everything has been taken from us. When the international community has the will to give more than just words and say that yes, we deserve the same rights that are accorded to the rest of humanity. That’s where the solution lies.
The West claims to value certain principles of human decency and equality, that they apply in their own countries yet support something entirely different in Israel. For example, nowhere in the West would any country allow the construction of neighbourhoods and settlements where only a certain group of people were allowed to live. No one would accept a housing unit for whites-only or having a road where only whites could travel, and yet that’s what Israel does. It’s a situation where human worth is measured on ones religion.
Palestine had always been a place where people of various religions lived. It had been a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic place and that’s the ideal, isn’t it? It should not be a place of exclusivity. It’s important that my words not be interpreted that Israelis should be kicked out or anything like that, because I don’t advocate that. That’s their country now. People were born there and live there. That’s where they’re from.
Why do you think the international community allows these human rights violations?
You’ll have to ask them. I don’t know. It’s hypocritical, it’s outrageous, actually. Luckily, the people of these nations are not necessarily on board and people of various countries are taking matters into their own hands. They are boycotting Israel and Israeli goods, and this flotilla, the Free Gaza movement, these boats have been travelling to Gaza from Cyprus carrying people from all over the world. These are ordinary citizens who have made history because they refuse to be silent in the face of what’s happening in Gaza.
People are literally and intentionally being starved to death in Gaza. Food is not allowed in or out, the economy has completely collapsed, the education system has completely collapsed. Eighty percent of Gazan children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, a crippling psychological disease and entire generations are being lost. The international community is doing nothing about it. Ordinary citizens are taking matters into their own hands and delivering boatloads of aid. Then today we find out that Israel in fact boarded that flotilla and killed a few people. So it remains to be seen whether the international community will yet again be silent.
Do you have any hope that they won’t be?
Well, they’re already condemning it, but they always do. They give lip service to it and then they do nothing. So I don’t place any hope or faith in any of these leaders or the so-called official international community, but I do place a lot of hope and faith in the international community that’s made up of world citizens and people of conscience to speak up and not to let this continue. People can’t really say “I didn’t know”. It’s everywhere. Israel has been held above the law. They have committed war crimes for over six decades and have done so with impunity.
This is where literature comes in, in my opinion. In the West when you say ‘Palestinian,’ people automatically conjure these really negative images and that is in large part due to this propaganda campaign over the years to paint Israel as this poor, vulnerable nation that’s just trying to defend itself when in fact it is the aggressor. Israel manages to paint Palestinians as these crazy, irrational aggressors, and that it’s just defending itself against this principally unarmed civilian population. Palestinians have nowhere to run. It has no navy, no army, no air force.
But when I think of Palestine, I think of a beautiful people. I think of a long suffering and enduring nation that despite everything gets up every morning and goes to those damn checkpoints, tries to get to work, tries to get to school and go about their daily lives. I think of a rich culture and good music and good food and stupid jokes and proverbs. I think of human beings, and that’s what I hope this book shows.
22.7.2010
by Rebecca Louder
On the morning of May 31st, mere hours after the Israeli flotilla attack, the Grapevine met with Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa at her hotel. Susan was in Reykjavík on her way back from the Lillehammer Literature Festival in Norway. She held a small event at The Culture House to promote her latest book, Mornings In Jenin, a newly edited version of her first publication The Scar of David. The book follows the story of several generations of Palestinian characters and their personal struggles with location, identity, family and human rights. In America, her book has caused a controversial response for its pro-Palestinian stance, but she has continued to be outspoken on the topic despite the backlash. The writer seemed distraught as the charged events of the morning loomed over our interview.
How do you think fictional works can impact the global discourse on Palestinian-Israeli relations?
I think that writers, artists, musicians, poets and filmmakers in any society of conflict have a unique role to play in bringing the issues in the headlines to a human level. That’s the power of art and literature, in general—to remind us of our common humanity and that there are human beings who live the headlines and experience them in ways that are not abstract, in ways that a reader would experience them. You can take an individual through history through the lives of characters that they can get to know, that they can love or hate or what have you. Regardless, they get to know them and they can see conflict and the politics or the history through their eyes. That’s the beauty of a novel, as opposed to non-fiction or history textbooks that have more of a sterile, distant prose.
What is your personal experience in all of this?
My parents were refugees of the 1967 Six Day War. Neither of them can really return to their place of birth nor live in the homes where they were born, or even visit their parents’ graves. I lived in Jerusalem when I was a little girl. Actually there’s a chapter in the book based on that, it’s called ‘The Orphanage.’ That’s really the only part of the book that is autobiographical. The entire historic background is non-fictional. It was real important to me that the historic background and the historic characters, the locations, the seasons, the fruits, etcetera, that all be real. The characters are fictionalised.
Your work has been quite controversial in the past. Why do you think that is?
I think anything that humanises Palestinians or criticises what Israel is doing creates a fury, basically. People try to shut you up. It’s not just me; it’s anybody, whether it’s academics, intellectuals, artists, what have you. That’s kind of a trend. There’s always a campaign of character assassination in trying to marginalise people.
Pro-Palestine sentiments are often deemed as being terrorist-sympathetic or anti-Semitic. Have you had these accusations launched at you?
Precisely. I think everybody who expresses this has. I don’t accept it. I’m neither a terrorist nor an anti-Semite. There’s nothing in anything I do or say that would indicate that. I think readers are smarter than that. I think they’ll see that when they read the book.
How has the book been received?
In Norway, and other European countries it’s gotten really good reviews. In America it has gotten limited reviews, but what it has gotten has been very good. Most journalists and reviewers in the United States just don’t want to touch it.
It’s not the first time. There was this wonderful play called My Name Is Rachel, it was based on the life of Rachel Corrie [American activist with the International Solidarity Movement who was crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer in 2003]. They managed to shut that down. There’s all this art by Palestinians, beautiful stuff that just reflects what’s inside of them, what they see, what their lives are about. It gets shut down. There have been several instances in the United States where that has happened. It’s because there are very powerful forces in the United States that don’t want Palestinians to appear human, because then it becomes harder to justify killing them. It becomes hard to justify raining death on this civilian population that really has nowhere to go and nowhere to run.
What is your hope for the region?
Of course there is hope. To me the solution is, and always has been, very clear. It’s the simple application of international law and the application of the universality of human rights. The declaration that Palestinians are human beings who are worthy of human rights. We are the native people of that land. We’ve been there for centuries, if not millennia, and everything has been taken from us. When the international community has the will to give more than just words and say that yes, we deserve the same rights that are accorded to the rest of humanity. That’s where the solution lies.
The West claims to value certain principles of human decency and equality, that they apply in their own countries yet support something entirely different in Israel. For example, nowhere in the West would any country allow the construction of neighbourhoods and settlements where only a certain group of people were allowed to live. No one would accept a housing unit for whites-only or having a road where only whites could travel, and yet that’s what Israel does. It’s a situation where human worth is measured on ones religion.
Palestine had always been a place where people of various religions lived. It had been a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic place and that’s the ideal, isn’t it? It should not be a place of exclusivity. It’s important that my words not be interpreted that Israelis should be kicked out or anything like that, because I don’t advocate that. That’s their country now. People were born there and live there. That’s where they’re from.
Why do you think the international community allows these human rights violations?
You’ll have to ask them. I don’t know. It’s hypocritical, it’s outrageous, actually. Luckily, the people of these nations are not necessarily on board and people of various countries are taking matters into their own hands. They are boycotting Israel and Israeli goods, and this flotilla, the Free Gaza movement, these boats have been travelling to Gaza from Cyprus carrying people from all over the world. These are ordinary citizens who have made history because they refuse to be silent in the face of what’s happening in Gaza.
People are literally and intentionally being starved to death in Gaza. Food is not allowed in or out, the economy has completely collapsed, the education system has completely collapsed. Eighty percent of Gazan children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, a crippling psychological disease and entire generations are being lost. The international community is doing nothing about it. Ordinary citizens are taking matters into their own hands and delivering boatloads of aid. Then today we find out that Israel in fact boarded that flotilla and killed a few people. So it remains to be seen whether the international community will yet again be silent.
Do you have any hope that they won’t be?
Well, they’re already condemning it, but they always do. They give lip service to it and then they do nothing. So I don’t place any hope or faith in any of these leaders or the so-called official international community, but I do place a lot of hope and faith in the international community that’s made up of world citizens and people of conscience to speak up and not to let this continue. People can’t really say “I didn’t know”. It’s everywhere. Israel has been held above the law. They have committed war crimes for over six decades and have done so with impunity.
This is where literature comes in, in my opinion. In the West when you say ‘Palestinian,’ people automatically conjure these really negative images and that is in large part due to this propaganda campaign over the years to paint Israel as this poor, vulnerable nation that’s just trying to defend itself when in fact it is the aggressor. Israel manages to paint Palestinians as these crazy, irrational aggressors, and that it’s just defending itself against this principally unarmed civilian population. Palestinians have nowhere to run. It has no navy, no army, no air force.
But when I think of Palestine, I think of a beautiful people. I think of a long suffering and enduring nation that despite everything gets up every morning and goes to those damn checkpoints, tries to get to work, tries to get to school and go about their daily lives. I think of a rich culture and good music and good food and stupid jokes and proverbs. I think of human beings, and that’s what I hope this book shows.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Reclaiming the Palestinian Story
To see oppression up close is different from reading about it. As a group of writers, artists, filmmakers and actors from various countries discovered recently at PalFest, the Palestinian Literature Festival
In the USA, the ‘Palestine-Israel conflict’ is principally told as a single story thread of a beleaguered Jewish state amidst irrational enemies. Palestinians are too often depicted as the aggressors or, when mentioning their suffering is unavoidable, they are described in the sterile prose of numbers and statistics. It is stunning how few Americans realize that for the past 60+ years, Israel has been systematically wiping Palestine off the map:
But perhaps that is changing.
I recently returned from PalFest, the Palestinian Literature Festival, where I had the privilege of seeing my country through the eyes of notable individuals who had never been there before. PalFest was to take place in the West Bank, an area significantly smaller than Connecticut; however, because Palestinians are not free to move about from one West Bank town to another, a centralized festival is untenable. So, PalFest travels to the audiences in each town instead.
For seven days and six nights, I was off an on a tour bus throughout Occupied Palestine with some 30 other writers, artists, filmmakers, and actors from the US, UK, Sweden, South Africa, Norway, Italy, and Spain. Although these were all well-read sophisticates, it seems none was prepared for the reality on the ground. Without exception, each participant was shocked by the system of apartheid that he or she witnessed. To see oppression up close is different from reading about it.
On our last bus ride, one PalFest participant asked me, “What was the moment for you?”
The first thing to mind was the most recent: a conference with Gazan teachers and students from three universities. It was a video-conference because we were denied entry into Gaza and Gazans surely are not allowed to leave their tiny sliver of land. They spoke to us about the inhuman siege since 2006, the barbaric month-long bombardment that one Israeli soldier described as putting “a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them,” their polluted water, deteriorating general health, the unravelling of families, the tunnels that have been Gaza’s only lifeline for food and now the Egyptian underground wall that will seal off these tunnels. One young woman said she could live with the shortage of food, water and medicine, “but the intellectual siege” is intolerable, she said. For years, she hasn’t been able to get books to read, save what few can be smuggled in from tunnels.
Yet this was not the worse of what we heard or saw. There was the ghost town of Hebron, emptied of its native inhabitants, who have been terrorized by settlers into fleeing. The bypass, Jewish-only roads; the Jewish-only settlements on confiscated Palestinian property; the wall and system of checkpoints that surround, separate, and suffocate Palestinian towns; the tents housing families near the rubble remains of their demolished homes in Jerusalem; and the armed settlers and soldiers.
What seemed to surprise most, however, was that Palestinian society still teems with will and life and resolve and intellectual curiosity – that despite all the odds, they are not a broken people.
If I had to identify the moment now, it would be a comment made by my friend Dr. Rev. Mitri Raheb who took us on a tour of the place now best described as “The Little Ghetto of Bethlehem”. He articulated something I already knew but have never quite put into words. “They didn’t just steal our country, our homes and properties. They stole our story. We are the people of the Bible. The Bible is our story, but they have taken even that,” he said.
I have always understood that we are the descendants of the original inhabitants (including the Hebrew tribes) who converted between religions. But I’m not religious and our story springs from the native human narratives of the land. And now, as the first and second generations in the Diaspora can communicate in the languages of the West, our voice can be understood in ways it was not previously.
The world is at last listening, reading, watching, and sometimes taking action as we struggle to reclaim the things stolen from us. Through our own literature, art, poetry, activism, music, film, photography, and culture; through our humanity, we are reclaiming our home, our heritage, basic human rights, our dignity, and our story.
Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury 2010) and founder of Playgrounds for Palestine
To see oppression up close is different from reading about it. As a group of writers, artists, filmmakers and actors from various countries discovered recently at PalFest, the Palestinian Literature Festival
In the USA, the ‘Palestine-Israel conflict’ is principally told as a single story thread of a beleaguered Jewish state amidst irrational enemies. Palestinians are too often depicted as the aggressors or, when mentioning their suffering is unavoidable, they are described in the sterile prose of numbers and statistics. It is stunning how few Americans realize that for the past 60+ years, Israel has been systematically wiping Palestine off the map:
But perhaps that is changing.
I recently returned from PalFest, the Palestinian Literature Festival, where I had the privilege of seeing my country through the eyes of notable individuals who had never been there before. PalFest was to take place in the West Bank, an area significantly smaller than Connecticut; however, because Palestinians are not free to move about from one West Bank town to another, a centralized festival is untenable. So, PalFest travels to the audiences in each town instead.
For seven days and six nights, I was off an on a tour bus throughout Occupied Palestine with some 30 other writers, artists, filmmakers, and actors from the US, UK, Sweden, South Africa, Norway, Italy, and Spain. Although these were all well-read sophisticates, it seems none was prepared for the reality on the ground. Without exception, each participant was shocked by the system of apartheid that he or she witnessed. To see oppression up close is different from reading about it.
On our last bus ride, one PalFest participant asked me, “What was the moment for you?”
The first thing to mind was the most recent: a conference with Gazan teachers and students from three universities. It was a video-conference because we were denied entry into Gaza and Gazans surely are not allowed to leave their tiny sliver of land. They spoke to us about the inhuman siege since 2006, the barbaric month-long bombardment that one Israeli soldier described as putting “a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them,” their polluted water, deteriorating general health, the unravelling of families, the tunnels that have been Gaza’s only lifeline for food and now the Egyptian underground wall that will seal off these tunnels. One young woman said she could live with the shortage of food, water and medicine, “but the intellectual siege” is intolerable, she said. For years, she hasn’t been able to get books to read, save what few can be smuggled in from tunnels.
Yet this was not the worse of what we heard or saw. There was the ghost town of Hebron, emptied of its native inhabitants, who have been terrorized by settlers into fleeing. The bypass, Jewish-only roads; the Jewish-only settlements on confiscated Palestinian property; the wall and system of checkpoints that surround, separate, and suffocate Palestinian towns; the tents housing families near the rubble remains of their demolished homes in Jerusalem; and the armed settlers and soldiers.
What seemed to surprise most, however, was that Palestinian society still teems with will and life and resolve and intellectual curiosity – that despite all the odds, they are not a broken people.
If I had to identify the moment now, it would be a comment made by my friend Dr. Rev. Mitri Raheb who took us on a tour of the place now best described as “The Little Ghetto of Bethlehem”. He articulated something I already knew but have never quite put into words. “They didn’t just steal our country, our homes and properties. They stole our story. We are the people of the Bible. The Bible is our story, but they have taken even that,” he said.
I have always understood that we are the descendants of the original inhabitants (including the Hebrew tribes) who converted between religions. But I’m not religious and our story springs from the native human narratives of the land. And now, as the first and second generations in the Diaspora can communicate in the languages of the West, our voice can be understood in ways it was not previously.
The world is at last listening, reading, watching, and sometimes taking action as we struggle to reclaim the things stolen from us. Through our own literature, art, poetry, activism, music, film, photography, and culture; through our humanity, we are reclaiming our home, our heritage, basic human rights, our dignity, and our story.
Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury 2010) and founder of Playgrounds for Palestine
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Interview in Frettabladid (Iceland)
http://vefblod.visir.is/index.php?s=4110&p=94235
Vonin er allt sem við eigum
Þeir sem eru löngu búnir að missa þráðinn í því sem kallast ástandið fyrir botni Miðjarðarhafs ættu að fá sér friðsæla göngu út í bókabúð og ná sér í skáldsöguna Morgnar í Jenín. Hún er þörf áminning um hryllinginn sem Palestínumenn hafa búið við, kynslóð fram af kynslóð. Hólmfríður Helga Sigurðardóttir hitti höfund bókarinnar, baráttukonuna Susan Abulhawa, í vikunni.
Bókmenntir eru mikilvægur hluti andstöðunnar við ríkjandi hugmyndir. Palestínumönnum er svo ranglega lýst í vestrænum fjölmiðlum að fólk er hætt að líta á þá sem manneskjur.
Bókmenntir eru mikilvægur hluti andstöðunnar við ríkjandi hugmyndir. Palestínumönnum er svo ranglega lýst í vestrænum fjölmiðlum að fólk er hætt að líta á þá sem manneskjur. Ímynd fólks af Palestínumönnum er að þeir séu brjálaðir og ofstækisfullir. Bókmenntir búa yfir þeim töfrum að geta dregið hið mannlega fram í fólki. Með þeim er hægt að sýna fegurð fólks og menningar þess. Það er vegna þessa að bókmenntir eru öflugt mótstöðuafl. Það er erfiðara fyrir fólk að láta sér standa á sama um þig ef það skilur að þú ert manneskja." Þannig lýsir hin palestínska Susan Abulhawa, höfundur bókarinnar Morgnar í Jenín sem nýverið kom út í íslenskri þýðingu, ástæðu þess að hún hefur pennann að vopni.
Í Morgnum í Jenín rekur hver tragedían aðra. Atburðirnir sem lýst er í bókinni hafa allir átt sér stað og fjöldi fjölskyldna hefur mætt sömu skelfilegu örlögunum og sögupersónur hennar. Við lesturinn er erfitt að ímynda sér að Palestínumenn geti enn þá borið von í brjósti um betra líf. "Þetta er bara raunveruleikinn sem þetta fólk býr við. En bókin er líka full af ást og að lokum er það ástin sem bjargar aðalpersónum hennar. Ástin og vonin er það sem hefur hjálpað þeim að þola við. Vonin er eina leiðin til að halda lífi við svona aðstæður. Ef fólk missir vonina veslast það upp og deyr."
Berst fyrir betra lífi
Undanfarin ár hefur Susan helgað lífi sínu baráttunni fyrir Palestínu. Hún er meðal annars ein af upphafsmönnum verkefnisins Play-grounds for Palestine, sem byggir leikvelli fyrir börn á Vesturbakkanum, á Gasa og í flóttamannabúðum. Hún fer reglulega til Palestínu og þekkir vel þær aðstæður sem fólkið býr við. "Ég get ekki nægilega vel lýst því hvað aðstæður þarna eru hryllilegar. Enginn ætti að þurfa að lifa svona. Fólk þarf að fara í gegnum eftirlitsstöðvar oft á dag til að komast ferða sinna og er fullkomlega upp á náð og miskunn átján ára hermanns komið, sem er ef til vill ekki í góðu skapi. Ég mun aldrei skilja viðbrögð alþjóðasamfélagsins og leiðtoga sem enn eru að rökræða þessi mál fram og aftur. Þetta er svo sáraeinfalt. Ísrael hefur engan rétt á að neita fólki um mat, að ganga í skóla, byggja spítala eða veiða í hafinu. Eini tilgangur Ísraelsmanna með þessu er að tortíma palestínsku samfélagi."
Byggt á eigin lífi
Morgnar í Jenín er skáldsaga en vissir hlutar hennar vísa í líf Susan sjálfrar. Sem barn dvaldi hún á munaðarleysingjaheimili í Jerúsalem, alveg eins og ein af aðalsöguhetjum bókarinnar. Foreldrar hennar voru flóttamenn frá því í stríðinu árið 1967 en hún fæddist í fátækt í Kúveit. Hún bjó ekki hjá foreldrum sínum sem barn, vegna erfiðra aðstæðna hjá þeim, heldur hjá fjölskyldumeðlimum. Þegar hún var þrettán ára flutti hún til Bandaríkjanna en þangað var faðir hennar kominn. Faðir hennar staldraði ekki lengi við í Bandaríkjunum og frændi hennar, eini ættingi hennar þar, féll frá skömmu síðar. Hún var því alein í Bandaríkjunum strax á unglingsárum og var í fóstri þar til hún var nógu gömul til að sjá um sig sjálf.
Jenín breytti lífinu
Susan lærði líffærði og var við störf hjá lyfjafyrirtæki í Bandaríkjunum þegar fréttir bárust af fjöldamorðum í Jenín árið 2002. Þá fann hún sig knúna til að fara til Palestínu. "Það sem ég varð vitni að þar breytti lífi mínu. Þegar ég sneri aftur í lyfjafyrirtækið, eftir að hafa verið að grafa lík upp úr rústum, sló það mig svo sterkt að aðaláhyggjuefni hálaunaðra samstarfsmanna minna var að það stæði til að minnka við þá bónusgreiðslurnar. Þá sá ég að ég gat ekki verið þarna lengur. Guð var mér góður því stuttu seinna missti ég vinnuna," rifjar Susan upp og hlær. "Það var gott fyrir mig því ég var einstæð móðir og hefði ekki haft hugrekki til að hætta sjálf í vinnunni. Næsta dag lá ég í rúminu, grét allan daginn, og byrjaði að skrifa fyrsta kaflann í bókinni."
Það gekk ekki þrautalaust fyrir sig að fá útgefanda að bókinni. Susan var óþekktur höfundur og ekki hjálpaði þjóðernið eða umfjöllunarefnið til. Að lokum fann hún lítið útgáfufélag en vissi ekki að það var í fjárhagserfiðleikum. Þegar tíminn var kominn til að gefa bókina út var fyrirtækið farið á hausinn. Í millitíðinni hafði bókin hins vegar verið gefin út á frönsku. Í gegnum útgáfufélagið þar komst Susan á mála hjá breska útgáfufélaginu Bloomsbury og bókin var í kjölfarið gefin út á tuttugu tungumálum, þar á meðal íslensku. Í gegnum Bloomsbury í Bretlandi var bókin svo gefin út hjá Bloomsbury í Bandaríkjunum.
Ópólitísk í fyrstu
Á fyrstu fullorðinsárum sínum lét Susan sig pólitík lítið varða og féll ágætlega að bandarísku samfélagi. Það var ekki fyrr en hún fór að skrifa pólitískar greinar í blöð, komin á fertugsaldur, að hún fór að finna fyrir því að sumir litu hana tortryggnisaugum. "Þegar ég varð pólitískari og fór að láta í mér heyra fóru margir að líta mig hornauga. Og eftir 11. september hættu margir að tala við mig - það varð til bylgja af hatri á öllu arabísku. En það voru líka mótviðbrögð við þessu frá öðrum Bandaríkjamönnum. Yfirleitt eru Bandaríkjamenn góðar manneskjur, en þeir eru mjög barnalegir og hafa lítinn skilning á umheiminum. Í Evrópu finnst mér meiri skilningur - að minnsta kosti skilningur á því að Evrópa sé ekki endilega miðpunktur alheimsins."
Von um frið
Susan ber þá von í brjósti að einhvern tímann muni ríkja friður á milli Ísraelsmanna og Palestínumanna. "Hvort sem útkoman verður eitt, tvö eða tíu aðskilin ríki er mikilvægt að undir engum kringumstæðum verði mannslífið mælt eftir húðlit eða þjóðerni. Palestínumenn eiga að búa við grundvallarmannréttindi. Heimurinn þarf á að horfast í augu við það óréttlæti sem hefur verið látið ganga yfir Palestínumenn og biðjast afsökunar á því."
En hefur hún raunverulega trú á að Ísraelsmenn og Palestínumenn geti lifað friðsamlega á sama landi? "Sögulega er Palestína land margra þjóðerna og trúarbragða. Þannig á það að vera. Sagan sýnir að það er hægt að koma réttlæti á, án þess að þeir kúguðu snúi sér strax við og reyni að útrýma fyrrum kúgurum sínum, eins og margir virðast óttast. Sjáðu bara Suður-Afríku og réttindabarátta svartra í Bandaríkjunum. Það er engin ástæða til að ætla að þetta verði öðruvísi í Palestínu. Það var ekki byggt á neinu jafnræði, þegar fólkið sem lifði af helförina sneri sér við og fór sjálft fremja hræðilega glæpi á fólkinu sem fyrir var. Með því að veita Palestínumönnum sömu réttindi og Ísraelsmönnum er ekki verið að veita þeim nein völd yfir þeim. Palestínumenn vilja ekki lifa í hefnd eða við stöðugt ofbeldi. Þeir eru bara fólk sem vill fá að lifa sínu lífi með reisn."
Friday, June 4, 2010
A call to conscience, in the name of humanity
I was on my way back from Norway and Iceland in the immediate aftermath of yet another of Israel’s “operations” against unarmed civilians. Its navy went at least 50 miles into international waters and boarded a global humanitarian flotilla from the Free Gaza Movement, which was carrying food, medicine, school supplies, and building material to the besieged and hungry people of Gaza. The boat had been inspected in Turkey by an independent sources as well as the Turkish authorities. Israel knew this. The human toll thus far is 9 unarmed civilians, murdered. Israel has refused to release their names and over 680 have been taken to unknown locations. By holding the only witnesses to this crime, Israel is stealing precious time to disseminate its propaganda and spin the story to its advantage.
Before anyone had a chance to react, Israeli PR and spokespeople were busy feeding stories and giving interviews. Their claim amounts to this: “Rioters” from all over the world left their lives to gather on a boat to lure Israeli commandos into international waters and proceeded to attack them with sticks and kitchen knives. These highly trained Israeli special unit soldiers with the most advanced and technological weapons known to man had no choice but to kill unarmed civilians on this boat. Thus, Israel acted in “self defense” against “terrorists” and organizations with “links to Hamas and Al Qaeda” – A mendacious mantra that has become tiresome.
The abuse of language does not stop there. Israel goes on to claim that its barbaric devastation of Gaza is an “embargo” and therefore legal – as if the intentional starvation and devastation of an entire people were legitimate!
The Free Gaza Movement was started by friends of mine – ordinary citizens of the world who refuse to hide behind “I didn’t know” or “What could I do?” as Israel has slowly turned Gaza into a death camp, where food and medicine are disallowed in sufficient quantities. The consequences are clear in reports from the World Health Organization – rampant malnutrition, with at least 10% of Gaza’s children having stunted growth for lack of food; where the education system has all but collapsed not least because Israel has bombed hundreds of Gaza’s schools and continues to prevent the import of books and school supplies; where Israel rains death from the sky onto this captive civilian population with no place to run or take refuge, leaving thousands dead and wounded and 80% of Gaza’s children suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, a crippling disorder that may well produce generations of lost children; where employment (not unemployment) hovers around 20%; where the sewage system cannot be repaired after Israel’s assault and clean water is a luxury few have; where fishermen are fired upon by the Israeli navy dare they try to catch a day’s food in their own waters; and where diabetics, asthmatics, dialysis and cancer patients must die because they lack the most basic medicines and cannot leave to get help in other countries.
So, as Gazans have been left by Israel and by the “international community” to trod in their own excrement, drink toxic water, beg for food, die of treatable diseases, wet their pants at night and quiver with fear in the arms of their equally bewildered parents, unable to work, to fish, or to get an education; unable to breath or to find hope in this tiny sliver of a prison land, world leaders meet to decipher the “competing narratives,” issue their impotent “statements” and summon their Israeli ambassadors for a slight smack on the hand.
Incidentally, these so called “rioters” and “terrorists” with international “terrorist links” include Hedy Epstein, an 85-year old Holocaust survivor, Mairead McGuire, an Irish Nobel Laureate, Henning Mankell, an renowned Swedish author, a baby whose name I do not know, a journalist for Al-Jazeera, and many other known and unknown extraordinary individuals from all walks of from a multitude of nations. They are my heroes. They are doing what leaders have failed to do, namely to stand up to extreme racism, tyranny and oppression. Not for one moment do I believe Israel’s lie that these individuals were carrying and firing guns.
What do you believe?
More importantly, what will you do?
My trip to Norway and to Iceland was my first in each country. I fell in love with both. The beauties of the lands were matched only by the warmth, humor and hospitality of their people. And so it is in the name of this first impression and new friendships, in the name of humanity, I call you to conscience – to ask yourselves what have Palestinians done to deserve such a fate? What have we done to deserve the world’s silence as Israel slowly and cruelly wipes us off the map and destroys our society, then kills those righteous individuals who try to show a minimal recognition of our humanity? And I call you to action – to take a principled stand, somehow, some way, even if your leaders don’t.
susan abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin and the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Palestine/Israel: A single state, with liberty and justice for all, regardless of religion
by susan abulhawa
and Ramzy Baroud
Prior to the establishment of Israel, Palestine had been multi-religious and multi-cultural. Christians, Muslims and Jews, Armenians, Greek Orthodox, to name a few, all had a place there; and all lived in relative harmony. Other nations fought wars and waged epic struggles to attain the kind of coexistence that was already a reality in Palestine.But while the world strives toward the noble truths that we are all created equal, Israel legislates the notion of a Chosen People with exclusive rights and privilege for Jews. Where countries have worked to integrate their citizens to create the richness of diversity, Israel is working in reverse, employing racist policies to "Judaize" the land whereby property and resources are confiscated from Christians and Muslims for the exclusive use of Jews. Where there is consensus that certain human rights are inalienable, Palestinians have lived subject to the whims of soldiers at checkpoints; of airplanes and helicopters raining death onto them with impunity; of curfews and restrictions and denials; and of violent armed settlers who fancy themselves disciples of God.
Living under Israeli occupation, in refugee camps or in exile, we Palestinians have endured having everything callously taken from us – our homes, our heritage, our history, our families, livelihoods, freedom, farms, olive groves, water, security, and freedom. In the 1990s, we supported the Oslo Accords two-state solution even though it would have returned to us only 22% of our historic homeland. But Israel repeatedly squandered our generosity, confiscating more Palestinian land to increase illegal Jewish-only colonies and Jewish-only roads. What remains to us now is less than 14% of Historic Palestine, all of it as isolated Bantustans, shrinking ghettos, walls, fences, checkpoints with surly soldiers,and the perpetual encroachment of expanding illegal Israeli colonies.
While the Palestine Authority has led us into a shrinking land mass, less water, more restrictions, ominous walls and merciless slaughter, notable individuals and popular movements have mobilized for Palestine as once happened for South Africa. Moral authorities like former President Jimmy Carter, Nobel Laureates Desmond Tutu and Mairead Maguire, and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson have condemned Israeli Apartheid. Organizations supporting the Divestment and Boycott Campaign against Israel include religious institutions such as the Presbyterian Church, The World Council of Churches, United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Anglican Church, the Federation of European Jews for a Just Peace, among many others. It includes civil and professional organizations such as the National Lawyers Guild, the Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union in Ireland, as well as labor unions in Canada, Britain, and other nations. An academic boycott of Israel has spread throughout the UK and other parts of Europe and taken root in US universities across the country. The International Solidarity Movement has seen thousands of individuals come to the Occupied Territories to protect Palestinians from the violence of settlers during the olive harvest; to protect children on their daring daily journeys to school; and to bear witness to the inhumanity of military occupation. The Free Gaza movement has transported by boat hundreds of people willing to risk their lives to bring greatly needed supplies to the besieged people of Gaza. This Christmas, internationals will march to the Egypt/Gaza border to break this siege. These are but a few examples of growing popular support for the Palestinian struggle.
When compared with the accomplishments of these grassroots movements, the futility of "negotiations" becomes painfully apparent. It is clear that we cannot look to our leaders (elected or imposed) to achieve justice. Just as only the masses could bring South Africa’s Apartheid to its knees, it will be the masses who will also bring Israel’s Apartheid crashing. The continued expansion of international action demanding the implementation of Palestinian basic human rights is inevitable.
The notion of religious-ethnocentric entitlement and exclusivity for one people at the expense of another has been rejected the world over. Palestinians reject it and we assert that we are human beings worthy of the same human rights accorded to the rest of humanity; that we are worthy of our homes and farms, our heritage, our churches and mosques, and our history; and that we should not be expected to negotiate with our oppressors for such basic dignities. The two-state solution was and remains an instrument to circumvent the basic human rights of Palestinians in order to accommodate Israel’s desire to be Jewish. Polls show that Palestinians refuse to be the enemies of our Jewish brothers and sisters anywhere, just as we refuse to be oppressed by them.
It is time for our shared land to be the inclusive and diverse country it had been. It is time for leaders to follow the people’s determined movement toward a single democratic state, with liberty and justice for all, regardless of religion.
Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury, 2010); and Ramzy Baroud is the author of My Father was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, 2009).
and Ramzy Baroud
Prior to the establishment of Israel, Palestine had been multi-religious and multi-cultural. Christians, Muslims and Jews, Armenians, Greek Orthodox, to name a few, all had a place there; and all lived in relative harmony. Other nations fought wars and waged epic struggles to attain the kind of coexistence that was already a reality in Palestine.But while the world strives toward the noble truths that we are all created equal, Israel legislates the notion of a Chosen People with exclusive rights and privilege for Jews. Where countries have worked to integrate their citizens to create the richness of diversity, Israel is working in reverse, employing racist policies to "Judaize" the land whereby property and resources are confiscated from Christians and Muslims for the exclusive use of Jews. Where there is consensus that certain human rights are inalienable, Palestinians have lived subject to the whims of soldiers at checkpoints; of airplanes and helicopters raining death onto them with impunity; of curfews and restrictions and denials; and of violent armed settlers who fancy themselves disciples of God.
Living under Israeli occupation, in refugee camps or in exile, we Palestinians have endured having everything callously taken from us – our homes, our heritage, our history, our families, livelihoods, freedom, farms, olive groves, water, security, and freedom. In the 1990s, we supported the Oslo Accords two-state solution even though it would have returned to us only 22% of our historic homeland. But Israel repeatedly squandered our generosity, confiscating more Palestinian land to increase illegal Jewish-only colonies and Jewish-only roads. What remains to us now is less than 14% of Historic Palestine, all of it as isolated Bantustans, shrinking ghettos, walls, fences, checkpoints with surly soldiers,and the perpetual encroachment of expanding illegal Israeli colonies.
While the Palestine Authority has led us into a shrinking land mass, less water, more restrictions, ominous walls and merciless slaughter, notable individuals and popular movements have mobilized for Palestine as once happened for South Africa. Moral authorities like former President Jimmy Carter, Nobel Laureates Desmond Tutu and Mairead Maguire, and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson have condemned Israeli Apartheid. Organizations supporting the Divestment and Boycott Campaign against Israel include religious institutions such as the Presbyterian Church, The World Council of Churches, United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Anglican Church, the Federation of European Jews for a Just Peace, among many others. It includes civil and professional organizations such as the National Lawyers Guild, the Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union in Ireland, as well as labor unions in Canada, Britain, and other nations. An academic boycott of Israel has spread throughout the UK and other parts of Europe and taken root in US universities across the country. The International Solidarity Movement has seen thousands of individuals come to the Occupied Territories to protect Palestinians from the violence of settlers during the olive harvest; to protect children on their daring daily journeys to school; and to bear witness to the inhumanity of military occupation. The Free Gaza movement has transported by boat hundreds of people willing to risk their lives to bring greatly needed supplies to the besieged people of Gaza. This Christmas, internationals will march to the Egypt/Gaza border to break this siege. These are but a few examples of growing popular support for the Palestinian struggle.
When compared with the accomplishments of these grassroots movements, the futility of "negotiations" becomes painfully apparent. It is clear that we cannot look to our leaders (elected or imposed) to achieve justice. Just as only the masses could bring South Africa’s Apartheid to its knees, it will be the masses who will also bring Israel’s Apartheid crashing. The continued expansion of international action demanding the implementation of Palestinian basic human rights is inevitable.
The notion of religious-ethnocentric entitlement and exclusivity for one people at the expense of another has been rejected the world over. Palestinians reject it and we assert that we are human beings worthy of the same human rights accorded to the rest of humanity; that we are worthy of our homes and farms, our heritage, our churches and mosques, and our history; and that we should not be expected to negotiate with our oppressors for such basic dignities. The two-state solution was and remains an instrument to circumvent the basic human rights of Palestinians in order to accommodate Israel’s desire to be Jewish. Polls show that Palestinians refuse to be the enemies of our Jewish brothers and sisters anywhere, just as we refuse to be oppressed by them.
It is time for our shared land to be the inclusive and diverse country it had been. It is time for leaders to follow the people’s determined movement toward a single democratic state, with liberty and justice for all, regardless of religion.
Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury, 2010); and Ramzy Baroud is the author of My Father was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, 2009).
Monday, October 26, 2009
Publishers' Weekly Review
Mornings in Jenin Susan Abulhawa. Bloomsbury, $15 (316p) ISBN 978-1-60819-046-1
In this richly detailed, beautiful and resonant novel examining the Palestinian and Jewish conflicts from the mid-20th century to 2002, (originally published as The Scar of David in 2006, and now republished after a new edit), Abulhawa gives the terrible conflict a human face. The tale opens with Amal staring down the barrel of a soldier's gun—and moves backward to present the history that preceded that moment. In 1941 Palestine, Amal's grandparents are living on an olive farm in the village of Ein Hod. Their oldest son, Hasan, is best friends with a refugee Jewish boy, Ari Perlstein as WWII rages elsewhere. But in May 1948, the Jewish state of Israel is proclaimed, and Ein Hod, founded in 1189 C.E., “was cleared of its Palestinian children...” and the residents moved to Jenin refugee camp, where Amal is born. Through her eyes we experience the indignities and sufferings of the Palestinian refugees and also friendship and love. Abulhawa makes a great effort to empathize with all sides and tells an affecting and important story that succeeds as both literature and social commentary. (Feb.)
In this richly detailed, beautiful and resonant novel examining the Palestinian and Jewish conflicts from the mid-20th century to 2002, (originally published as The Scar of David in 2006, and now republished after a new edit), Abulhawa gives the terrible conflict a human face. The tale opens with Amal staring down the barrel of a soldier's gun—and moves backward to present the history that preceded that moment. In 1941 Palestine, Amal's grandparents are living on an olive farm in the village of Ein Hod. Their oldest son, Hasan, is best friends with a refugee Jewish boy, Ari Perlstein as WWII rages elsewhere. But in May 1948, the Jewish state of Israel is proclaimed, and Ein Hod, founded in 1189 C.E., “was cleared of its Palestinian children...” and the residents moved to Jenin refugee camp, where Amal is born. Through her eyes we experience the indignities and sufferings of the Palestinian refugees and also friendship and love. Abulhawa makes a great effort to empathize with all sides and tells an affecting and important story that succeeds as both literature and social commentary. (Feb.)
Sunday, February 1, 2009
A CICATRIZ DE DAVID released in Brazil (23 January 2009)
A CICATRIZ DE DAVID
(The Scar of David)
Susan Abulhawa
Editora Record
448 páginas
Preço: R$ 39,00
Formato: 14 x 21 cm
ISBN: 978-85-01-07965-7
“De tempo em tempos uma obra literária transforma o modo como as pessoas pensam.” Library Journal
Com o surgimento do Estado de Israel em 1948, a família palestina de Dalia e Hasan, que vive ao ritmo da colheita da azeitona na terra dos seus antepassados, Ein Hod, vê seu destino mudar. O pequeno povoado torna-se importante peça do percurso sionista para estabelecer e expandir o recém-formado Estado. Durante a expulsão dos palestinos, o filho mais novo do casal, Ismael, marcado por uma cicatriz no rosto, é raptado pelo oficial israelense Moshe e entregue como presente a sua esposa Jolanta, que sonhava ser mãe.
Dali em diante, o menino passa a se chamar David, e é educado segundo os preceitos da religião judaica, ignorando suas origens e desprezando os árabes, enquanto os membros de sua família biológica são expulsos das terras e deslocados para um campo de refugiados em Jenin, administrado pela ONU. É lá que nasce Amal, caçula de Dalia e Hasan e narradora deste conto de um mundo dividido. Seu nome significa esperança, algo que Dalia perdeu depois de anos de guerra e opressão, esperando retornar à amada Palestina de seus ancestrais. Pelos olhos de Amal, os leitores conhecem a rotina de gerações de refugiados e as humilhações impostas aos palestinos pelo exército israelense. Testemunham também histórias de amor que ultrapassam as barreiras das batalhas e do ódio, nascimentos de crianças e jovens desenvolvendo uma apreciação pela poesia e os estudos. Aguardando um hipotético retorno à terra natal, Yousef e Amal, os filhos sobreviventes da família dizimada, terão de amadurecer e dar sentido a suas vidas.
Enquanto isso, Moshe, angustiado pelo remorso, ainda ouve os gritos da mãe da criança que seqüestrou. Sua inquietação é multiplicada pelo sonho de um lugar seguro para o povo judeu estar mergulhado em sangue. Dalia, sufocada pela demência, recebe a notícia de que o marido foi dado como morto após a guerra. Seu filho mais velho, Yousef, é constantemente espancado e torturado.
Vinte anos depois de seu rapto, o jovem David seguirá para o front durante a Guerra dos Seis Anos, onde se defrontará com o irmão Yousef, feroz combatente da causa palestina, que o reconhece por sua cicatriz. É o início de uma guerra fratricida entre o irmão mais velho, vencido pelo ódio, e Ismael-David, que se tornou inimigo do próprio povo, e de uma longa jornada em busca da verdadeira identidade de um homem partido ao meio.
Resta à narradora, Amal, que parte para os Estados Unidos para viver o “sonho americano”, preservar a memória da Palestina e dos entes próximos. Passado entre 1941 e 2002, A CICATRIZ DE DAVID é um romance pungente, que tenta entender uma das mais intricadas questões geopolíticas da humanidade.
Susan Abulhawa, filha de pais refugiados da Guerra dos Seis Dias, é uma escritora americana de origem palestina. Viveu em vários lugares do Oriente Médio antes de se estabelecer nos EUA, onde fez pós-graduação em ciências biológicas. Frustrada pelas notícias tendenciosas sobre a situação de seu povo, começou a escrever ensaios para jornais, como o New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Philadelphia Inquirer etc. Em 2002, ao testemunhar a barbárie que ocorreu em Jenin, resolveu contar a história do seu povo. Ao regressar da visita, fundou a Playgrounds for Palestine, para construir áreas de lazer para as crianças de territórios ocupados. Como escritora participou de duas antologias: Shattered Illusions e Searching Jenin.
(The Scar of David)
Susan Abulhawa
Editora Record
448 páginas
Preço: R$ 39,00
Formato: 14 x 21 cm
ISBN: 978-85-01-07965-7
“De tempo em tempos uma obra literária transforma o modo como as pessoas pensam.” Library Journal
Com o surgimento do Estado de Israel em 1948, a família palestina de Dalia e Hasan, que vive ao ritmo da colheita da azeitona na terra dos seus antepassados, Ein Hod, vê seu destino mudar. O pequeno povoado torna-se importante peça do percurso sionista para estabelecer e expandir o recém-formado Estado. Durante a expulsão dos palestinos, o filho mais novo do casal, Ismael, marcado por uma cicatriz no rosto, é raptado pelo oficial israelense Moshe e entregue como presente a sua esposa Jolanta, que sonhava ser mãe.
Dali em diante, o menino passa a se chamar David, e é educado segundo os preceitos da religião judaica, ignorando suas origens e desprezando os árabes, enquanto os membros de sua família biológica são expulsos das terras e deslocados para um campo de refugiados em Jenin, administrado pela ONU. É lá que nasce Amal, caçula de Dalia e Hasan e narradora deste conto de um mundo dividido. Seu nome significa esperança, algo que Dalia perdeu depois de anos de guerra e opressão, esperando retornar à amada Palestina de seus ancestrais. Pelos olhos de Amal, os leitores conhecem a rotina de gerações de refugiados e as humilhações impostas aos palestinos pelo exército israelense. Testemunham também histórias de amor que ultrapassam as barreiras das batalhas e do ódio, nascimentos de crianças e jovens desenvolvendo uma apreciação pela poesia e os estudos. Aguardando um hipotético retorno à terra natal, Yousef e Amal, os filhos sobreviventes da família dizimada, terão de amadurecer e dar sentido a suas vidas.
Enquanto isso, Moshe, angustiado pelo remorso, ainda ouve os gritos da mãe da criança que seqüestrou. Sua inquietação é multiplicada pelo sonho de um lugar seguro para o povo judeu estar mergulhado em sangue. Dalia, sufocada pela demência, recebe a notícia de que o marido foi dado como morto após a guerra. Seu filho mais velho, Yousef, é constantemente espancado e torturado.
Vinte anos depois de seu rapto, o jovem David seguirá para o front durante a Guerra dos Seis Anos, onde se defrontará com o irmão Yousef, feroz combatente da causa palestina, que o reconhece por sua cicatriz. É o início de uma guerra fratricida entre o irmão mais velho, vencido pelo ódio, e Ismael-David, que se tornou inimigo do próprio povo, e de uma longa jornada em busca da verdadeira identidade de um homem partido ao meio.
Resta à narradora, Amal, que parte para os Estados Unidos para viver o “sonho americano”, preservar a memória da Palestina e dos entes próximos. Passado entre 1941 e 2002, A CICATRIZ DE DAVID é um romance pungente, que tenta entender uma das mais intricadas questões geopolíticas da humanidade.
Susan Abulhawa, filha de pais refugiados da Guerra dos Seis Dias, é uma escritora americana de origem palestina. Viveu em vários lugares do Oriente Médio antes de se estabelecer nos EUA, onde fez pós-graduação em ciências biológicas. Frustrada pelas notícias tendenciosas sobre a situação de seu povo, começou a escrever ensaios para jornais, como o New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Philadelphia Inquirer etc. Em 2002, ao testemunhar a barbárie que ocorreu em Jenin, resolveu contar a história do seu povo. Ao regressar da visita, fundou a Playgrounds for Palestine, para construir áreas de lazer para as crianças de territórios ocupados. Como escritora participou de duas antologias: Shattered Illusions e Searching Jenin.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Susan Abulhawa Interviewed by VPRO Dutch Radio
Bureau Buitenland VPRO
Nieuws en achtergronden van de buitenlandredactie van Villa VPRO
Het litteken van David: roman over een Palestijnse familie
Omdat de Amerikaanse berichtgeving over het Palestijns-Israelisch conflict volgens Abulhawa te pro-Israelisch is, begon ze op internet essays en columns te publiceren. Dr. Hanan Ashrawi - stichter van het Palestijnse Initatief tot bevordering van Dialoog en Democratie, Palestijns parlementslid en voormalig vertrouweling van Yasser Arafat - las een paar essays van haar en moedigde Susan Abulhawa aan een roman over de Palestijnse geschiedenis te schrijven. “We hebben grote behoefte aan zulke vertellers” mailde Ashrawi haar.
Resultaat is ‘ Het litteken van David ‘ over twee broers, waarvan de een - gekidnapt - bij een Joods gezin opgroeit en de ander als Palestijn. De hoofdpersoon, en verteller van de familiegeschiedenis, is hun jongere zus Amaal. Het boek kreeg in 2007 de Best Book Award USA Book News. En afgelopen jaar verscheen het in vertaling bij uitgeverij De Geus.
Jacqueline Maris interviewt Susan Abulhawa over de situatie in Gaza, de toekomst van het Palestijnse volk en het belang van haar roman.
Bureau Buitenland (Villa VPRO) van maandag 12 januari 2009 van 15:30 tot 16:00 uur op radio.
Audio (vanaf een uur na uitzending): http://weblogs.vpro.nl/buitenland/2009/01/10/het-litteken-van-david-roman-over-een-palestijnse-familie/ (parts of this interview are in English)
Palestinians Will Never Forget by Susan Abulhawa
Susan Abulhawa's first essay of 2009 was published by several sources around the world, including Dissident Voice and Palestine Chronicle. Here it appears in ...
Palestinians Will Never Forget
By susan abulhawa
How can anyone watching Gaza burn escape the bitter realization that history repeats itself? Many have compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Apartheid South Africa. But not in their cruelest hour did the Apartheid regime wreak such wanton murder and destruction. Let us stop mincing words. What is happening to Palestinians now whispers of Warsaw and Lodz.
Schools, universities, mosques, police stations, homes, water treatment plants, factories, and anything that supports civil society, including the only mental health clinic in Gaza, have been blown to rubble from planes that rain death from clear skies without any resistance, because Palestinians have no opposing air force. Nor do they have an army or navy. No mechanized armor or heavy weaponry. Thanks to Israel, they haven’t even had continuous electricity or fuel for the past two years. Or food and medicine. Israel’s siege and blockade of Gaza has prevented the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, including the import of the most basic goods necessary for survival.
A recent study by the Red Cross showed that 46 percent of Gazan children suffer from anemia. Malnutrition affects 75 percent of Gaza’s population, half of whom are under the age of 17. There has been widespread deafness among children due to Israel’s intentional and frequent sonic booms from low overflights. An alarming number have stunted growth and serious mental disorders due lack of food. The only way they have been able to survive thus far has been due to the tunnels that smuggle food and goods from Egypt.
This is what Israel has done to Gaza over the past two years. They ghettoized Gaza and turned it into an open air prison – a concentration camp of civilians with no way to earn a living, no way to defend themselves and no place to run from the slaughter bombarding them from air, land, and sea.
But Gazans dared to try to resist with pathetic homemade rockets that, until Israel’s barbaric attack, generally landed in open desert. The rockets were mostly symbolic of resistance, very much like the fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. But who would have called on a ceasefire there, in 1943, for “both parties” to “cease the violence”? Who would have blamed the Ghetto fighters for their ultimate fate? Who would say they had no right to resist? No right to fight back?
What have Palestinians done to deserve such a fate? To be endlessly hunted like animals? To have their homes demolished, their ancient history and heritage cast into forgotten space? To languish in refugee camps and slums, while Jews from all corners of the earth flock to fill their confiscated homes and farms? To be tortured, imprisoned, and denied in every conceivable way?
Why? Because they elected Hamas? Hamas has held power for less than two years. Yet, Palestinians have suffered this kind of slaughter for 61 years. Whether now in Gaza, in 2002 in Jenin, in 1947 and 1948 in Deir Yasin, Balad el-Sha, Yehida, Tantura, and the list goes on. Or 1982 in Sabra and Shatila.
Israel, and the United States with its unconditional support, will only succeed in radicalizing a whole new generation of its victims. Of revving world hatred and resentment against this unholy duo.
Palestinians will not forget this, as they have not forgotten the past 60 years. But what will you remember a week or a year or a decade from now, when a Gazan, who stood before the long rows of corpses and vowed vengeance, creates your 9-11? When one of those few million children without a will to live straps on a belt that rips through your daily routine? Will you remember what we did to them?
Palestinians Will Never Forget
By susan abulhawa
How can anyone watching Gaza burn escape the bitter realization that history repeats itself? Many have compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Apartheid South Africa. But not in their cruelest hour did the Apartheid regime wreak such wanton murder and destruction. Let us stop mincing words. What is happening to Palestinians now whispers of Warsaw and Lodz.
Schools, universities, mosques, police stations, homes, water treatment plants, factories, and anything that supports civil society, including the only mental health clinic in Gaza, have been blown to rubble from planes that rain death from clear skies without any resistance, because Palestinians have no opposing air force. Nor do they have an army or navy. No mechanized armor or heavy weaponry. Thanks to Israel, they haven’t even had continuous electricity or fuel for the past two years. Or food and medicine. Israel’s siege and blockade of Gaza has prevented the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, including the import of the most basic goods necessary for survival.
A recent study by the Red Cross showed that 46 percent of Gazan children suffer from anemia. Malnutrition affects 75 percent of Gaza’s population, half of whom are under the age of 17. There has been widespread deafness among children due to Israel’s intentional and frequent sonic booms from low overflights. An alarming number have stunted growth and serious mental disorders due lack of food. The only way they have been able to survive thus far has been due to the tunnels that smuggle food and goods from Egypt.
Half of Gazan children under 12 have lost their “will to live.” Can anyone fathom the kind of oppression that leads small children en mass to lose their will to live?
This is what Israel has done to Gaza over the past two years. They ghettoized Gaza and turned it into an open air prison – a concentration camp of civilians with no way to earn a living, no way to defend themselves and no place to run from the slaughter bombarding them from air, land, and sea.
But Gazans dared to try to resist with pathetic homemade rockets that, until Israel’s barbaric attack, generally landed in open desert. The rockets were mostly symbolic of resistance, very much like the fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. But who would have called on a ceasefire there, in 1943, for “both parties” to “cease the violence”? Who would have blamed the Ghetto fighters for their ultimate fate? Who would say they had no right to resist? No right to fight back?
Just as Nazis gave Jews only the right to die silently, Israel starves and besieges Palestinians, giving them only that same right. Just as the Warsaw Ghetto was blown to rubble, Gaza is left to burn in an inferno, its hospitals bursting with the puss of death and unspeakable wounds. The entire population of Gaza is terrorized and traumatized. No one is spared the insecurity and fear. Imagine, please, that you are a Gazan.
What have Palestinians done to deserve such a fate? To be endlessly hunted like animals? To have their homes demolished, their ancient history and heritage cast into forgotten space? To languish in refugee camps and slums, while Jews from all corners of the earth flock to fill their confiscated homes and farms? To be tortured, imprisoned, and denied in every conceivable way?
What have we done that leaders will not speak against this massive and cold aggression against our people? With what logic do you call Palestinians terrorists when their streets flow with the blood of their own children? When they have been stripped naked of possessions, dignity and hope?
Why? Because they elected Hamas? Hamas has held power for less than two years. Yet, Palestinians have suffered this kind of slaughter for 61 years. Whether now in Gaza, in 2002 in Jenin, in 1947 and 1948 in Deir Yasin, Balad el-Sha, Yehida, Tantura, and the list goes on. Or 1982 in Sabra and Shatila.
Palestinians are killed as if insects not because of Hamas or Yasser Arafat before them. Not because of Qassasm rockets or hand thrown rocks. Palestinians burn and bleed because they are the non-Jewish natives of that land. There is no other reason. Just like Jews were killed for being Jewish. Palestinians are killed for being the Muslims and Christians who hold historic, legal and even genetic title to that land.
But unlike Jews of Europe, Palestinians are killed slowly over decades. Unlike Israel, Nazi Germany did not establish such an effective global propaganda machine that would demonize its victims and blame them for their own ghastly fate. But most importantly, like the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto, Palestinians do not march like mice to their death. In six decades of enduring unspeakable oppression, their will has not been broken. Now is no exception.
Israel, and the United States with its unconditional support, will only succeed in radicalizing a whole new generation of its victims. Of revving world hatred and resentment against this unholy duo.
Palestinians will not forget this, as they have not forgotten the past 60 years. But what will you remember a week or a year or a decade from now, when a Gazan, who stood before the long rows of corpses and vowed vengeance, creates your 9-11? When one of those few million children without a will to live straps on a belt that rips through your daily routine? Will you remember what we did to them?
Los Angeles conference calls for grassroots fightback
Los Angeles conference calls for grassroots fightback (Workers World - Jan 28, 2009) A special highlight of the conference was a presentation by Susan Abulhawa, author of “The Scar of David”
A special highlight of the conference was a presentation by Susan Abulhawa, author of “The Scar of David,” a novel that the Palestine Chronicle characterized as “a must read for those who wish to not only understand the catastrophe of the Palestinians with their minds but also with their hearts.” Abulhawa’s account of Israeli atrocities in Gaza with the full backing of the U.S. was followed by another presentation on the crimes of the apartheid settler state by Mazen Almoukdad representing Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Susan Abulhawa interviewed by Brazil's O Globo
O Globo is Brazil's largest newspaper. This areicle appeared on the back cover on the release of the Portuguese edition of The Scar of David (the fifth language in translation).
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Obama's VP pick right for Israel?
The following essay by Susan was published in the Washington Times on 18 September 08
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/18/obamas-vp-pick-right-for-israel/
McCain eclipsed the democratic convention buzz, gained women voters, simultaneously reassured middle to far right conservatives and may have positioned a female presidential candidate for the Republican ticket for future elections. It makes sense. On the other hand, the best explanations for Barack Obama's choice of Joseph Biden still don't jibe.
It's true that Mr. Biden brings some political experience to Mr. Obama's ticket, but so could many of Mr. Obama's other choices. Mr. Biden also narrows the race gap, which unfortunately still exists in America. But again, so could any of the other choices.
So, what then? Mr. Biden, the self-proclaimed Zionist, assuages Israeli and Jewish American fears that Mr. Obama might not be so accommodating to Israel.
I know it's hard for the average American to believe that Israeli interests could have such influence on a presidential election. Israeli propaganda does an outstandingly good job of diffusing any meaningful debate on the Middle East or Israel's role in shaping our foreign policies. Whether by defaming Jimmy Carter for daring to speak out or by censoring or ignoring important scholastic books such as "The Israel Lobby" by Professors Walt and Mearsheimer, Americans are kept ignorant of just how important it is to please Israel in order to have a real chance at occupying an elected post in Washington. Every politician, newsman, and pundit knows that you cannot be elected in Washington without the blessing of the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), known simply as "The Lobby" in Washington.
Under the Clinton administration, the head of AIPAC had to resign after someone leaked a tape of him discussing how AIPAC was negotiating with the president about whom he should select for Secretary of State. It is undeniably the most powerful foreign interest group in Washington, and arguably the most powerful lobby in general.
Henry Siegman, former head of the American Jewish Congress and a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations admitted that "When it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict, the terms of debate are so influenced by organized Jewish groups, like AIPAC, that to be critical of Israel is to deny oneself the ability to succeed in American politics." A noteworthy example of the great influence Israel wields on American foreign policy came in the summer of 2006, when Israel attacked Lebanon. As the world over condemned the attack, we stood alone in support of Israel. On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a resolution "condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel's exercise of its right to self-defense." After language was removed from the bill urging "all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure," the House version passed by a landslide, 410-to-8.
Thus, in response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers (which followed the killing of a Lebanese man inside Lebanon), Israel killed and maimed thousands of civilians, decimated civilian infrastructure, and littered Southern Lebanon with over 100,000 of the world-banned unexploded cluster bombs. Congress unequivocally approved and supported Israel's actions with this resolution, which AIPAC actually wrote! Even when a post-war analysis by the State Department was delivered to Nancy Pelosi and Mr. Biden, asserting that Israel may have violated the Arms Export Control Act with its use of American-made cluster munitions in Lebanon, bipartisan support of Israel remained unwavering.
This potentially explosive report detailing how Israel may have used American supplied weapons to commit war crimes was ignored by Mr. Biden and Mrs. Pelosi, both of whom have traveled to Israel repeatedly, along with scores of other politicians, genuflecting as they always do to extol the virtues of the Jewish State and profess undying and uncompromising support for a country that is currently in violation of at least 200 UN Resolutions and has been condemned in the harshest terms by human rights organizations worldwide. It is a country that has been repeatedly caught spying on America (most recently, two top AIPAC officials were indicted based on evidence that they accepted and passed on to Israel confidential national security secrets from a Defense Department analyst working with AIPAC) and which continues to defy U.S. demands to stop annexing and colonizing private Palestinian property with illegal Jewish-only settlements. One would think such behavior would at least draw some criticism from candidates. But rarely does any politician dare.
Mr. Biden has proved himself an acolyte of Israel. In an interview with Shalom TV, Mr. Biden proclaimed: "I am a Zionist." Ira Forman, the executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council said that "Biden is a great friend … with a solid pro-Israel record." Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Biden brings "The Lobby" to Mr. Obama's corner and that's why he was picked. Let us at least open up the discussion to include the influence of this foreign interest lobby. Americans deserve to understand the forces behind decisions that affect us all individually and collectively as a nation.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/18/obamas-vp-pick-right-for-israel/
McCain eclipsed the democratic convention buzz, gained women voters, simultaneously reassured middle to far right conservatives and may have positioned a female presidential candidate for the Republican ticket for future elections. It makes sense. On the other hand, the best explanations for Barack Obama's choice of Joseph Biden still don't jibe.
It's true that Mr. Biden brings some political experience to Mr. Obama's ticket, but so could many of Mr. Obama's other choices. Mr. Biden also narrows the race gap, which unfortunately still exists in America. But again, so could any of the other choices.
So, what then? Mr. Biden, the self-proclaimed Zionist, assuages Israeli and Jewish American fears that Mr. Obama might not be so accommodating to Israel.
I know it's hard for the average American to believe that Israeli interests could have such influence on a presidential election. Israeli propaganda does an outstandingly good job of diffusing any meaningful debate on the Middle East or Israel's role in shaping our foreign policies. Whether by defaming Jimmy Carter for daring to speak out or by censoring or ignoring important scholastic books such as "The Israel Lobby" by Professors Walt and Mearsheimer, Americans are kept ignorant of just how important it is to please Israel in order to have a real chance at occupying an elected post in Washington. Every politician, newsman, and pundit knows that you cannot be elected in Washington without the blessing of the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), known simply as "The Lobby" in Washington.
Under the Clinton administration, the head of AIPAC had to resign after someone leaked a tape of him discussing how AIPAC was negotiating with the president about whom he should select for Secretary of State. It is undeniably the most powerful foreign interest group in Washington, and arguably the most powerful lobby in general.
Henry Siegman, former head of the American Jewish Congress and a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations admitted that "When it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict, the terms of debate are so influenced by organized Jewish groups, like AIPAC, that to be critical of Israel is to deny oneself the ability to succeed in American politics." A noteworthy example of the great influence Israel wields on American foreign policy came in the summer of 2006, when Israel attacked Lebanon. As the world over condemned the attack, we stood alone in support of Israel. On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a resolution "condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel's exercise of its right to self-defense." After language was removed from the bill urging "all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure," the House version passed by a landslide, 410-to-8.
Thus, in response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers (which followed the killing of a Lebanese man inside Lebanon), Israel killed and maimed thousands of civilians, decimated civilian infrastructure, and littered Southern Lebanon with over 100,000 of the world-banned unexploded cluster bombs. Congress unequivocally approved and supported Israel's actions with this resolution, which AIPAC actually wrote! Even when a post-war analysis by the State Department was delivered to Nancy Pelosi and Mr. Biden, asserting that Israel may have violated the Arms Export Control Act with its use of American-made cluster munitions in Lebanon, bipartisan support of Israel remained unwavering.
This potentially explosive report detailing how Israel may have used American supplied weapons to commit war crimes was ignored by Mr. Biden and Mrs. Pelosi, both of whom have traveled to Israel repeatedly, along with scores of other politicians, genuflecting as they always do to extol the virtues of the Jewish State and profess undying and uncompromising support for a country that is currently in violation of at least 200 UN Resolutions and has been condemned in the harshest terms by human rights organizations worldwide. It is a country that has been repeatedly caught spying on America (most recently, two top AIPAC officials were indicted based on evidence that they accepted and passed on to Israel confidential national security secrets from a Defense Department analyst working with AIPAC) and which continues to defy U.S. demands to stop annexing and colonizing private Palestinian property with illegal Jewish-only settlements. One would think such behavior would at least draw some criticism from candidates. But rarely does any politician dare.
Mr. Biden has proved himself an acolyte of Israel. In an interview with Shalom TV, Mr. Biden proclaimed: "I am a Zionist." Ira Forman, the executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council said that "Biden is a great friend … with a solid pro-Israel record." Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Biden brings "The Lobby" to Mr. Obama's corner and that's why he was picked. Let us at least open up the discussion to include the influence of this foreign interest lobby. Americans deserve to understand the forces behind decisions that affect us all individually and collectively as a nation.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Zionists lash out at Susan and other Arab writers
An article by the Israel Hasbara Committee lashed out at Arab writers and their supporters for the boycott of the Salon du Livre. The article is here: http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=5/e/030420081; and the part pertaining to susan is below:
Outlandish claims that were once limited to far-out Islamist websites are now comfortably seated in the mainstream media. Susan Abulhawa is indignant because the Paris Book Fair honored Israel “a 60 year old country established in place of the ancient land of Palestine” (Lib?ration March 18). The Jews have turned a “once multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural land” into a place reserved for Jews only. "Jesus was Palestinian, some Palestinians are Canaanites, Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and turning Gaza into a concentration camp. Palestinians are forced to negotiate for their basic human rights." Abulhawa, invited by Fox News to comment on the Annapolis meeting politely, explained to a dimwitted reporter that the Palestinians should not be asked to negotiate with their oppressors. The prestigious Buchet-Chastel will publish the French translation of Albuhama’s novel Scar of David, in which a Palestinian child stolen by an Israeli soldier in 1948 becomes a soldier in turn and discovers his Palestinian brother Youssef...
Outlandish claims that were once limited to far-out Islamist websites are now comfortably seated in the mainstream media. Susan Abulhawa is indignant because the Paris Book Fair honored Israel “a 60 year old country established in place of the ancient land of Palestine” (Lib?ration March 18). The Jews have turned a “once multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural land” into a place reserved for Jews only. "Jesus was Palestinian, some Palestinians are Canaanites, Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and turning Gaza into a concentration camp. Palestinians are forced to negotiate for their basic human rights." Abulhawa, invited by Fox News to comment on the Annapolis meeting politely, explained to a dimwitted reporter that the Palestinians should not be asked to negotiate with their oppressors. The prestigious Buchet-Chastel will publish the French translation of Albuhama’s novel Scar of David, in which a Palestinian child stolen by an Israeli soldier in 1948 becomes a soldier in turn and discovers his Palestinian brother Youssef...
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Essay, published in THE CANADIAN, 15 May 08
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/05/14/02348.html
Sixty Years of Dispossession, Humiliation, and Oppression in the Middle East
We watch these celebrations with an ineffable collective loss and grief, and an equally deep vow never to give up our basic rights as the natives of Palestine.
I recently took part in a four-person panel discussion of solutions to the conflict that arose 60 years ago and still persists when Israel was established in Palestine, displacing more than half of the native Palestinian population. We were two Jews and two Palestinians and I was the only woman.
I listened carefully to each of my fellow panellists talk about the two-state solution and heard potential fixes for everything from the settlements and water, to regional balance of power and refugees. The other Palestinian on the panel still believed in the two-state solution even though it is neither "ideal nor just" but he was willing to compromise anyway. Just to live. To walk home without going through five checkpoints. I wasn't as willing. He lives there, I don't. I get it. But I'm Palestinian too. And the country they stole was also my inheritance, my history and heritage, my home where my family has lived for centuries.
Creating a disjointed Palestinian state completely surrounded by Israel on what is now less than 16% of historic Palestine is and always was unjust and immoral, as it overrides basic principles of justice and international law and precludes repatriation for over 5 million refugees. The other panellists felt that I essentially was unrealistic or naïve. I listened again to all the things that Israel would "never agree to" and a rehashing of the endless "peace initiatives" in all the glory of their persistent failures to do anything but increase Palestinian misery.
What Israel will or will not "agree to" ought to be moot because Israel has never been vague about its nefarious intentions to have all of Palestine without Palestinians. Everything they've said and everything they've done and continue to do speak to this fact. It is not about what Israel will or will not accept, but whether we and all of humanity, Jews and Gentiles alike, will accept that Palestinians should not have certain self-evident and inalienable rights accorded to the rest of humanity.
Each initiative to settle this conflict reflects some creative design to circumvent Palestinian basic human rights in order to accommodate Israel's desire for religious purity. The world is willing to leave five million Palestinian refugees out in the cold ("to be settled at a later date") because Israel insists on "Judaising" the homes, cemeteries, farms, and history they stole from them.
The international community raises no objection to Israel's eternal control of all Palestinian borders, economy, water, and air. Gaza's 1.6 million human beings languish in darkness, mass hunger and misery deliberately imposed by Israel, without so much a peep from the Security Council.
It is not clear to me what we have done to the world that we should be so excluded from humanity, but this persistent trampling of our human rights must end. Either nations have accepted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a document that applies equally to all human beings, or we do away with that document all together and join to Israel's law of the jungle. There can be no selective application of its principles - principles that guarantee the right of refugees to return to their homes; that promise us a right to our own history and heritage and freedom from foreign occupation and oppression.
We are not less human that we should be expected to continue to "negotiate" with our oppressors for basic human rights. For decades now we have extended our collective hand in willingness to accept the two-state solution, a desperate offer of great compromise on our part. And for that same length of time, Israel has continued to steal more and more of our land, to kill, maim, and dispossess more and more of us. The daily horrors inflicted on my countrymen have nothing to do with terrorism or our corrupt leadership. Our great crime is that we are not Jewish. We are oppressed, denied, humiliated daily, dispossessed and robbed because we are not Jewish.
The concepts of human equality, human dignity, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are not the exclusive privies of West. They are also ours and we are not powerless to demand them. Ours is the power of an indigenous people struggling against a colonial oppressor hell-bent on taking our place, even though there is space enough for both peoples.
History has already taught us that military might is no match for such a power. Increasingly, people of conscience, including our Jewish brothers and sisters, throughout the world are speaking up for our rights, often at great personal expense to themselves. Academics, labour unions, churches, and civic institutions around the globe are divesting from Israel. We should stop engaging in theoretical debates about a dead and bloated two-state solution, rummaging through the wreckage of countless peace initiatives, giving up more and more, hoping this merciless military occupation will have mercy on us.
Human worth cannot be measured by arbitrary standards, like skin color or religion. History will teach us this lesson yet again, and it will judge harshly all the 60th anniversary celebrations taking place around the world on this day when we grieve for the identity, land, and heritage taken from us because we are not Jewish. We watch these celebrations with an ineffable collective loss and grief, and an equally deep vow never to give up our basic rights as the natives of Palestine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
