Thursday, August 2

[The Palestinian Times] Why the Right of Return Matters to Palestinians



Posted by saifedean

I have started writing a column for the 3QuarksDaily website. It's a really great site and I'm real glad to be writing there. Make sure you check out the site and see the About Us section.

Here is my first article published yesterday, about the Right of Return means to me, with relevance to my grandfather's land that was usurped by Zionists in 1948; drawing a contrast between demanding that I give it up, and demanding that blacks give up the right to front seats in a bus.

Excerpt:

The way to end racial conflict in the American South was not for Rosa Parks and blacks to give up their rights to the front of the bus and 'let everyone live in peace', but by ending the system that denies someone the right to sit in a certain part of a bus depending on their skin color. Similarly, peace in Palestine will not come when Palestinians give up their right to own a piece of land because of the religion to which they were born; but rather, when we abolish the system that assigns plots of lands, houses and villages to people based on what version of god they believe in.

I will never consider there to be peace in Palestine so long as I can visit my grandfather's house in Atteel and look a few kilometers west to see my land that I can not visit, own, or sell. The day I can reclaim that land, I will visit it once, savor the feeling, and the very next day, I'll sell my share of it to the highest bidder regardless of their religion, race or ethnicity, and donate the money to an educational institute that will teach the children of Palestine, regardless of their religion, race or ethnicity about the importance of equality and justice, about Rosa Parks, and about how peace could never be achieved on the basis of racist exclusion, whether it be from the front of a bus or from an orange grove.

Read the rest of the article here and make sure to check out the comments section, which has a lively debate developing.

Posted By The Peoples Voice to The Palestinian Times 
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