Blog for Palestine Day

Blogger za3tar has organized Blog About Palestine Day on May 15, the anniversary of the Nakba and Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations. Bloggers around the world were invited to blog for Palestine, as noted by Global Voices here. Many bloggers chose to participate in the event; here is a selection.

za3tar, the organizer of the event, blogged about being Palestinian, sharing a story of his family and concluding:

For us Palestinians, only two things remained true during the past 60 years; First, life for ordinary people only gets worst every year. Second, from the minute you are born in Palestine, you are immediately a suspect, and you are continuously treated so for as long as you live. No one in the world can condone mass punishment of civilians, but punishing suspects is not a big deal.

We must be suspects, otherwise what explains 60 years of Israel’s direct violation of numerous UN resolutions without any consequences. We must be suspects, otherwise what explains our denial of basic human rights. For me and my family, the only crime that we are suspect of, is simply existing!

These stories are not unusual for Palestinians. As a matter of fact, i come from a blissed family, my parents were able provide us with food and shelter, and none of my relatives was killed. Unfortunately however, the stories of average Palestinians are much grimmer still.

Rebellious Arab Girl, a Canadian resident, also blogged about being Palestinian:

What do I represent?
I represent my self, a Palestenian with hot blood through my veins and a voice to speak about my existence. I am Palestenian. I will always be one. I was born as one, and will die as one.

It has been 60 years since my home was taken away, isn’t that too much?

I may be one person. I am not a celebrity or someone who is famous and well known. However, I have the right to speak out when I say, “we had enough!”

Vivirlatino blogged about the Palestinian population in Chile:

Last month about 40 Palestinian families, refugees from Iraq, were welcomed into Chile.

“We hope that suffering will be a thing of the past, and Chile the source of your new happiness,” Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said as he welcomed the 16 adults and 23 children who had spent months stranded at a desert camp on the Iraqi-Syrian border.

The rest of about 117 refugees from this specific camp arrived in the Santiago neighborhoods of La Calera y San Felipe this week. They were welcomed with flags, dancing, and music.

While these homes in Chile, which come with the support of the Chilean government and all of it's resources (including a monthly stipend and counseling services), do not replace or erase the need of Palestinians to have a home in their homeland, the right to return, historically it makes sense. So many people left Chile after the 1973 U.S. backed military coup. So many lives lost and disappeared through state sanctioned violence. The links are there. The connection is there.

And Far Away blogged about the changing face of both Palestine and Israel, sharing fascinating photographs:

It’s been 60 years since the Palestinian Nakbeh. That means around four generations of Palestinians.

Of course, in these past 60 years, life for Palestinians for those still living in Palestine and the ones living in exodus have changed drastically. Thanks to ethnic cleansing, injustice, barricading, lack-of-educational means, poverty, bad health care, constant pressure, among other racist and unjustifiable actions, life has changed.

Life for “Israelis” has also changed.

The wheels have turned…

Bruised Earth wondered about the false hope being given to Palestinians…

So on this day of of the Nakba, the catastrophe, all this site can ask and ‘hope’ to encourage is the ongoing search for the truth. Hope more people can wade through the politics and media that filter what we all need to know; what we all must confront. Everyone must find that for themselves.

…and encouraged readers to seek the truth from outside sources:

Read other Web sites – beyond Fox, CNN, BBC, and Reuters. Forget about the 30 minute news updates – and instead piece together 30 minutes of real news from other sources every day.

Read the facts. Find more facts. Find more truth.

Syrian blogger Maysaloon discussed the Nakba:

In many ways, how we choose to commemorate May the 15th says a lot about us in the Arab world. Those of us who remember it as something from the past and, to put it biblically, with much “wailing and gnashing of teeth”, miss the point. The Nakba did not happen and end in 1948, it has continued to this present day. You can see the Nakba in Gaza, in the refugee camps and, dare I say it, it has expanded to Iraq. However, from the Nakba we also saw the birth of resistance. From the heroism and selflessness of al Husseini and the resistance in 1948, to the battle of Karameh in '68, Beirut in '82, Iraq today and the South of Lebanon in 2006. The struggle against occupation continues, as it does against those who collaborate. May 15th reminds us of the tragedy which befell a people, our people but also strengthens our resolve to resist and to push on. Am I the last person to talk about resistance from the comfort of my home, in a country which was Israel's midwife? Perhaps, but just as a first person is necessary in a set, so is the last, and it is belonging to the set and playing your role in anyway possible which is what counts. The only thing, the easiest thing, for us to do is to forget, to count ourselves defeated or irrelevant. Each of us has a moral duty to resist zionism, empire and neo-colonialism in all aspects of our lives and it will be a poor excuse to say, one day, that you were only being realistic. The enemies of Palestine know that every person they kill or bomb they drop only creates more determination to fight them, that their time is running out. Sixty years on, the dream of ending Israel is that little bit closer. Sixty years on, the struggle continues.

Finally, My Home Away From Home, who lives in Canada, shared her desire to go to Palestine, the country of her ancestors:

Palestine…it is my home that I have never set foot in, it is the land I love without boundaries.

My heart cries for Palestine, I want to touch its soil even once in my life. My heart and soul are always with Palestine, it is a part of my prayer ritual. I pray that one day we get our freedom we get our right to return. I pray for the gruesome murders and unfairness to stop, for children to start living like they are supposed to without fear, for mothers to be able to sleep the night without worrying that tomorrow or the day after she may lose some or all of her children. I pray for families to live together all in one place without a brother, a son an uncle in the isreali prisons for life. I pray that children can go to school or out to play and come back home safely. I pray that wives and husbands are not widowed too soon, and children are not orphaned when they are still young. I pray for people to live in peace and harmony and for all of us Palestinians born all over the world to reunite and meet in our homeland, a land who’s love was born in our heart…

12 comments

  • B. Smith Said:
    Most people want to live and love and raise their families and don’t want any trouble.

    Reply:
    I wish that were true – wouldn’t it be nice… But it isn’t. The fact remains that the “Palestinians” voted in Hamas, a group whose stated goal is the wholesale murder of all Jews and the taking over of ALL of Israel and turning it into a repressive, opressive, murderous, woman-hating wasteland, similar to Taliban controlled Afghanistan or Iran right after the Islamic Revolution.

    Furthermore, suicide bombing is supported my the majority of Gazans. The whole of Arabia looks positively at the cowardly tactics of Hezbollah & Hamas.

    On the Arab side it is NOT NOT NOT a few extremists but an issue of MAINSTREAM SUPPORT for those who PURPOSELY TARGET CIVILIANS.

    It is no accident that the children of Arab Palestinians can name suicide bombers as American teens name movie stars. It is no lie that the children of Nablus traded suicide bomber cards (I’ve seen them!). The indoctrination is on tv (see my blog for latest excerpt from Pal TV, wingless.aoriginality.com). It is in the mainstream, it is everywhere, from the schools to the homes to the television sets. The Cult of Death is NOT NOT NOT the realm of “extremists” but is part of the mainstream culture…


    B. Smith said:
    Let us say “no” to the men who make the rockets and the bombs, who smile and hand us the gun with orders to kill; let us say “yes” to our common bond, let us say “yes” to the common God who implores us to seek peace and justice, and to love our fellow brothers and sisters.
    ——

    I do NOT disagree with what you say in principle but it stops there, it’s *principle* and has NOTHING to do with the reality of an oft unprincipled world.

    The fact is that the Koran is hardly a text that, as you say: “implores us to seek peace and justice, and to love our fellow brothers and sisters.” – On the contrary, it is chock full of hatred, antagonism, and outright intolerance. It calls believers to slay, to kill, to maim, to DISMEMBER. Again, I am not talking of a few isolated passages but whole sections, much of the Quran / Koran reads like a manual for intolerance & hatred. This is very different from the Old (Torah) & New Testaments. These books do contain violence but the vast majority is that of man on man or G*d punishing man, you do not have passage after passage of ORDERS FROM G*D TO SLAY THE UNBELIEVERS IN GRAPHIC AND GROTESQUE WAYS in any book but the Koran.

    Sura 5:33: The just retribution for those who fight GOD and His messenger, and commit horrendous crimes, is to be killed, or crucified, or to have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or to be banished from the land. This is to humiliate them in this life, then they suffer a far worse retribution in the Hereafter.

    SURA 9:5: …slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush.

    SURA 2:39: But they who disbelieve, and deny Our revelations, such are rightful Peoples of the Fire. They will abide therein.

    (my note: Peoples of the Fire, aka burn them!)

    SURA 2:191: And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.

    SURA 2:194: And one who attacketh you, attack him in like manner as he attacked you. Observe your duty to Allah, and know that Allah is with those who ward off (evil).

    SURA 2:254: …The disbelievers, they are the wrong-doers

    SURA 4:89: They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them

    SURA 4:91: If they keep not aloof from you nor offer you peace nor hold their hands, then take them and kill them wherever ye find them. Against such We have given you clear warrant.

    http://wingless.aoriginality.com/?p=16#more-16

    —–
    B. Smith said:

    On the other hand, hate sells more bullets….
    ——

    Yes, but bullets are often the only way to fight deeply ingrained hatred, especially when the “hater” believes his feelings are justified, or absolutely ordained & commanded by G*d!

    That is exactly the enemy Israel is fighting, it is exactly the enemy Britain & the USA are fighting.

    There can be no negotiations with those whose stated aim is the total annihlation of you and yours. Besides the obvious perils of rewarding terrorist tactics with negotiations, there is the simple fact of practicality. Negotiating with a Pan-Islamist / Caliphate mindset is a waste of time. i.e.: What are you going to negotiate on?! Are you going to accept a compromise of them just killing 75% of your people?! Do you really believe you are going to convince them that they misheard or misinterpreted the word of the Almighty G*d? NO NO and NO… That is what the Obama Messiah crowd do not seem to understand… Common sense, history & current events are proof positive that one cannot negotiate with this type of mindset…

    Don’t get me wrong, I am all for peace but there are times when war is far more noble then burying ones head in the sand. The world was just and correct in fighting Hitler, I would challenge those in the anti-war crowd to challenge this.

    We have seen what the “hear no evil, see no evil” approach gets us, and it’s not pretty. Look at what happened in Rwanda, look at what is happening in the Congo (Darfur). Look at what happened with the Bill Clinton approach to Al-Qaeda: they attacked, then they attacked again, and again, gaining supporters, confidence & abilities which culminated on 9/11.

    Peace? YES! But Peace is a state of being. Peace is not found on a piece of paper (Arafat proved that, Israel had his signature, but it stopped there), nor is it found in wishful thinking.

    Peace means that you and yours are safe from attack. It means you are no longer targetted. Peace means nobody is plotting & planning attacks against you.
    Peace, can be achieved through, and often requires – war.

  • Israel shame on you. what are you doing with innocent People of Palestine. who even dont have guns to repaly you.

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