Today we marked land day in Palestine and among
Palestinian communities around the world. Land day
events were started by Palestinians inside the "Green Line"
(Palestine 1948) in 1976 to mark the Palestinian attachment
to our land, a land that is methodically being taken over
by the Zionist project. A story from my visit with an old
gentleman from the village of Aljaroshiya
(Tulkarem district) illustrates the problem. This 75 year old
man and his large family owned over 100 acres of very
productive land. For generations the family planted olive
and almond trees and did extremely well even exporting
products to as far away as Syria. One day he found
"orders" hung on a tree that says the land is now taken
over for unspecified "security reasons"
(which is how most Palestinian land is confiscated).
The order ironically came from the �Custodian of
Absentee Property� (the agency charged with managing
ethnically-cleansed Palestinian homes and lands).
The apartheid wall was then built to separate his
house from the agricultural land. The wall was planned
shifted and twisted to include this rich land that used to
export 12 tons of olive oil and hundreds of kilos of almonds
(clearly a land theft with not a single shred of security
issues involved). Before they showed us the orders, the
family showed us the land which is now separated from
their house by the network of electrified fences.
The old man had a stroke after his land was taken over
and as a result is now incapacitated. As he teared, he
lamented that the loss of land is worse than the death
of a child because a child is buried but the land is dying
every day in front of him behind this monstrous fence and
he could not do anything about it and could not burry it
and move on.
This is just one of thousands of similar stories. 530
Palestinian villages and towns completely depopulated
between 1947-1950, More in 1967 and beyond. 6,000
homes demolished in the past 7 years, and on and on.
Palestinians no matter were they are remain connected
to the land (just look at their love of Zeit w Zaater,
artifacts they keep whether in a refugee shack or in a
million dollar home in the US..).
There is a review of the bigger picture tragic history of
ethnic cleansing in my 2004 book "Sharing the Land of
Canaan" including a map of shrinking land left for a
planned Palestinian bantustan/ghetto/reservation
(see map and sample chapters at
http://www.qumsiyeh.org
A more detailed history is found in Ilan Pappe's book
"The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine".
Below are a couple of good articles about Land Day:
What is Land Day
http://electronicintifada.net
FAQ's on Land Day
http://www.miftah.org/Display
cfm?DocId=3410&CategoryId=4
This land was theirs by Hannah Mermelstein
http://www.thejewishadvocate
_issue/opinions2
ACTION: Make noise, write letters to editor about
Palestine and the role of the Israel-first lobby in US
foreign policy, write letters to politicians and decision
makers etc. If you are Palestinian, consider participation
in Birthright Palestine. "Birthright Palestine is a unique
program by native Palestinians for Diaspora Palestinians
, so as to assimilate them back into their homeland via
cultural immersion. It is meant to gather first-generation,
western-born Palestinians (over the age of 18-years old)
in their ancestral homeland, so that they can reunite and
witness firsthand how their brethren are living under
illegal Israeli military occupation, while assimilating
them into Palestinian society.
for more see http://www.birthrightpalestine
If you are not Palestinian, consider going to Palestine
with the Palestine Summer Celebration program:
http://www.sirajcenter.org/
In other news
(Video)A great little film on being Muslim in America.
http://www.linktv.org/onenation
Readership of Akher Khabar is approaching 28000 in
the Arab-American community. Our professional editors
strive to provide an effective voice for this community.
http://www.akherkhabar.net
Archbisho Desomond Tutu supports the
anti-apartheid struggle
http://www.endtheoccupation
article.php?id=1612
U.N. Taps American Jewish Critic of Israel
as Rights Expert
http://www.forward.com/articles
"Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the
laughter of wisdom, if you listen" Carl Sandburg
http://www.intelligencer.ca
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