PRESENTING Karl Sabbagh

I met many people in my short visit to Europe (and I am really home
sick to Palestine). The most interesting was Lebanese Soha Beshara.
Soha gave a talk on Gaza in France. It was very moving. Soha spent 10years in the infamous Al-Khayyam prison in South Lebanon during theIsraeli occupation. She was tortured like many who spent time in thatprison. She, a Lebanese Christian, had shot Antoun Lahd (the criminalwho worked as a subcontractor for the Israeli occupation). Reading her book in its Arabic version on the way from Geneva to Oslo was
educational. I had read the English version a few years ago. The book
puts the era of the occupation in perspective and gives us lessons
about today’s world (e.g. about security coordination and
subcontracting management of local population to local collaborators).
It is really fascinating. I also learned so much from talking to
people - those we agree with and those we don’t. Now in Oslo for the
Arab Film Festival just met Nadine Salib from Egypt (film “Mother of
the Unborn”) and we will have many good films to screen and discuss
including the one about my village called “The Wanted 18”. For more on
this festival see www.filmfrasor.no

Much work accumulated for us in Palestine in our many areas (the
clinical laboratory, the museum administration, the research, the
student papers, the visitors who will come see us, the writing, the
conferences, etc). So it is hard to be away but the time here is
important to reflect and reset some priorities while encouraging me to
proceed in other areas even in stronger. And the contacts we made are
always good and some collaboration likely will produce fruits to serve
Palestinian youth. I also recruited some volunteers who will come work
at the Museum.

Invitation: Lectures at the Palestine Museum of Natural History, Mar
Andrea Campus of Bethlehem University

Thursday April 23rd, 4 PM

Karl Sabbagh: Why the World Needs a Museum of the History of Palestine.

Although Palestinians know their own history only too well, many
people in the west have only the vaguest of ideas about the history of
the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. If they
understood the history better they would have a much clearer idea of
the rots of the dispute between the Palestinians and the Jews. Karl
Sabbagh presents a proposal for a Museum of the History of Palestine,
to be built in a major western capital.

Bio: Karl Sabbagh is a British Palestinian, the son of Isa Khalil
Sabbagh from Safad. He is a documentary producer, a writer and a
publisher, based in the UK. Among his many works “Palestine: A
Personal History” and “Britain in Palestine”.

Mazin Qumsiyeh
Professor and Director
http://palestinenature.org