This May, theNakba and the State of Israel turn 60. It has been six decades since Israel's establishment in Palestine, as a Jewish state at the cost of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, who were driven out by the military of the Zionist movement-turned state of Israel. Since then, waves of immigration for Jews under the law of return have been given preference over the still waiting millions of Palestinians, living in the diaspora in refugee camps or elsewhere have not been enough to extinguish the presence of Palestinians in Israel/Palestine, or their determination to return home.
Hajj Khalil of the village of Qawawis tending his sheep in Palestine
Despite all the volumes that have been written and the never ending controversies that have been raging, the issue and the need for justice at the center of it have been clear to those who wish to see it;
"No Settlement can be just and complete if recognition is not accorded to the right of the Arab refugee to return to the home from which he has been dislodged… It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and indeed, offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries." - U.N. Mediator for Palestine, Count Folk Bernadotte, September 16th, 1948 (later murdered by the Stern Gang, a crime which may have involved future Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Shamir)
"I will never accept a solution that is based on their return to Israel, any number… I will not agree to accept any kind of Israeli responsibility for the refugees. Full stop. It is a moral issue of the highest level. I don't think that we should accept any kind of responsibility for the creation of this problem." - Ehud Olmert, Israeli Prime Minister, March 30th, 2008
(quotes emailed to writer, originally paired here)
Remember, some time ago, what Olmert said about Israel, two states, equal rights and such?
"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Haaretz Wednesday, the day the Annapolis conference ended in an agreement to try to reach a Mideast peace settlement by the end of 2008.
"The Jewish organizations, which were our power base in America, will be the first to come out against us," Olmert said, "because they will say they cannot support a state that does not support democracy and equal voting rights for all its residents."
Well, Those Jewish organizations need a little pushing along, and that's just what some of us decided to do;
20 Jewish Activists Arrested, Disrupting Jewish Community & Relations Council’s (JCRC) 60th Anniversary of Israel Celebration; Jewish Activists Draw Attention to 60 years of Palestinian Forced
San Francisco—In response to Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations, 20 Jewish activists were arrested, demonstrating Jewish opposition to Israel’s 60-year-old policy of dispossession, and highlighting the often-silenced struggle of Palestinian refugees. For over two hours, 30 Jewish activists and supporters disrupted San Francisco’s anniversary event, bunkering against the main atrium of the Jewish Community Center (JCC). In conjunction, over thirty Jewish and Palestinian supporters held a rally outside the center to call attention to ongoing Israeli policy of apartheid against the Palestinian population. With banners reading, “Jews in Solidarity with 60+ years of Palestinian Resistance,” activists declared anniversary, “No Time to Celebrate.”
“As Jews of conscience, acting in solidarity with 60-plus years of Palestinian resistance, we’re here today to promote an “Independence” that does not depend on an ethnically or religiously exclusive state or on the displacement of indigenous people,” said Eric Romann, International Jewish Solidarity Network (IJSN) organizer. “We want is joint liberation, not isolation.”
The action in San Francisco, organized by the local IJSN, is part of “No Time to Celebrate,” a national Jewish campaign opposing Israel’s 60th Anniversary celebrations, while simultaneously amplifying the American Jewish community’s critique of Israeli policy. The Israeli Consulate and the Jewish Community and Relations Council (JCRC), who have attempted to silence any and all criticism of Israeli policy, were the sponsors of this event.
Here are some more pictures from the action;
but this is one I would like to point out specifically
see what the wall has written on it; a quote of Emma Lazarus, "Until we are all free, we are none of us free."
How can we, as Jews, in our name whom the state of Israel is killing and dispossessing Palestinians, as Americans, whose tax money and government makes it possible, but most importantly as human beings, read such a quote and not be in solidarity with the Palestinians struggle for justice and liberation?
Well, aside from the action, there was much to also take part in and enjoy about this last week;
The Local Nakba Committee and the Palestine Right to Return Coalition Present:
FREE PALESTINE PEACE AND SOLIDARITY FESTIVAL
JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL DAY OF RESISTANCE MUSIC, YOUTH & CULTURAL PROGRAMS, NAKBA TENTS & ART, LOCAL SOLIDARITY GROUPS, ARTISTS AND MORE!
JOIN US FOR THE OFFICIAL AFTER PARTY AT MEDJOOL from 7-10pm, $5 cover.
Who: The Local Nakba Committee (LNC) is made up of Palestinians and human rights advocates from the San Francisco/Bay Area. Our purpose for coming together is to raise awareness, unite, and mark 60 years since the ongoing Palestinian Nakba and struggle for self-determination.
What: We are currently planning a very special day-long FREE Palestine, Peace and Solidarity Festival - with an amazing program of Palestinian, and other musicians for peace and justice.
Where: The FREE outdoor festival will be and held at the Civic Center in downtown San Francisco - May 10th, 2008, which marks 60 years since the ongoing Nakba, of the Palestinian people.
The purpose: of the Solidarity Festival is to raise the voices of Palestinian and other artists who resist the domination of their communities, through music. Palestinians are the largest and longest displaced refugee communities in the world and IDP’s (internally displaced persons) as a result of Israel’s occupation, Apartheid wall and illegal settlements - with no hope for a just solution in the foreseeable future.
it was a great day, a stunning mix of both the pain of and suffering of Palestinians in the face of Zionism, along with the ever-present determination to live, to overcome the injustice, and to celebrate the continued stubborn existence of Palestine and the Palestinians.
Here's the pictures;
early in the day, the weather was great, and the crowd was ready to enjoy themselves
This tent had some amazing pictures of pre and post-nakba Palestine and the Palestinians, as well as other media and information
This tent was there to commemorate and remember the hundreds of destroyed Palestinian villages of the Nakba
Here is another youtube clip of the Israeli military attacking a non-violent protest in the Galilee.This is from the Israeli licensed and formally approved march of Palestinian men, women and children at the destroyed arab village of Safurye. Also in the video CNN's reporter Ben Welderman gets attacked. And remember, this is not the occupation per say; this is how Israel treats Palestinian citizens of Israel.
but back to san francisco,
A local Debka troupe
The ISM table
The Palestinian hip hop group DAM from Lyd (now known as Lod), whose most well known song is Meen Erhabe, "Who is a Terrorist?"
Here's some of the lyrics & the song itself, take a look, read & listen;
Who's a terrorist?
I'm a terrorist?!
How am I a terrorist when you've taken my land?
Who's a terrorist?
You're the terrorist!
You've taken everything I own while I'm living in my homeland
You're killing us like you've killed our ancestors
You want me to go to the law?
What for?
You're the Witness, the Lawyer, and the Judge!
If you are my Judge
I'll be sentenced to death
You want us to be the minority?
To end up the majority in the cemetery?
In your dreams!
Ill wrap this up with some article excerpts;
The Palestinian narrative is here to stay
RAMI G. KHOURI, THE DAILY STAR, MAY 14, 2008
or 60 years, many Israelis and their friends abroad have tried to disqualify the Palestinians from people-hood and statehood. They have used every trick in the book to make us disappear, without success. They called us communists, rejectionists, terrorists, a fabricated community, evil anti-Semites, Nazi sympathizers, lazy international parasites, and many other terrible things.
Yet the Palestinians never disappeared or were disqualified from achieving their national rights, because collectively they never embraced evil, but only hope, humanity and an end to exile.
Despite the troubles Palestinians have suffered, 60 years on the prevalent feelings among them are self-confidence and pride. You see it in the eyes of every Palestinian man, woman and child, even the dead ones, even the babies in little coffins lined up after an Israeli air attack on Gaza.
in this one, Jeff Halper of ICHAD reflects on "several fundamental developments have materialized which were not anticipated by the Zionist movement nor Israel's founding, but which must be squarely acknowledged and addressed."
Rethinking Israel after Sixty Years By Jeff Halper
First, the vast majority of Jews did not and will not come to Israel. Israeli Jews represent, if emigrants are factored in, less than a third of the world Jewish community. Only 1% of American Jews ever came, and most of them are religious, even ultra-orthodox Jews, or the elderly, who live there only part-time. The reservoir of potential Jewish immigrants has been exhausted.
Second, some 30% of Israel's population - almost 50% if we include the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories who, it seems, will stay permanently under Israeli rule - are not Jews. This is the Demographic Bomb, made even more threatening to a "Jewish state" by the fact that the Palestinians are a people whose national rights can no longer be denied. Israel/Palestine is a bi-national country which somehow must either be partitioned or shared. And finally, the greatest irony of all, it is Israel, by its own hand, through its massive settlement project, that has foreclosed partition and created a thoroughly bi-national entity which can only lead to a one state or apartheid.
These realities are irrefutable; they have been exhaustively documented and are plain to anyone with the eyes (and open mind) to just look. What remains for anyone sincerely looking for justice, peace, security, and the well-being of Israel (dare I say of both peoples?) is to unflinchingly face this political equation and rethink the viability and justice of Israel as a Jewish state. Only then will we find a way, based on reality and the best interests of these two inextricably linked peoples rather than on wishful ideological preferences, to reconcile the "facts on the ground" with the rights, claims, and needs of all the country's inhabitants. That is not an easy task; it requires a fundamental re-conceptualization of the two-state paradigm and, with it, the very possibility of preserving Israel as a Jewish state. This rethinking is, however, a prerequisite to formulating a political program that, given the events of the last sixty years, has a fighting chance of resolving this conflict. It is also essential to redeeming Israel, whether as a country or as a national entity within a wider bi-national state or regional confederation.
and, finally, we must wake up to the reality that Israeli colonization has forged for itself and Palestine;
Forget the two-state solution
Saree Makdisi, The Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2008
There is no longer a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Forget the endless arguments about who offered what and who spurned whom and whether the Oslo peace process died when Yasser Arafat walked away from the bargaining table or whether it was Ariel Sharon's stroll through the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem that did it in.
All that matters are the facts on the ground, of which the most important is that -- after four decades of intensive Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories it occupied during the 1967 war -- Israel has irreversibly cemented its grip on the land on which a Palestinian state might have been created.
Sixty years after Israel was created and Palestine was destroyed, then, we are back to where we started: two populations inhabiting one piece of land. And if the land cannot be divided, it must be shared. Equally.