The following eleven voices from different countries show views on Palestine after the breakdown of Zionism, written in 2030, three years after the State of Israel had collapsed.

1. Shlomo Berge: "Three years ago, the last war in the region ended. We as Israelis never knew how real peace would feel like, because we were told that there will always be anti-Semites who want to exterminate us. In a way, the way things went was inevitable. We just saw no other solution and were backed by so many countries in our violent delusion. I remember from kindergarten and school how our army was glorified as was the defense against the enemies. Gaza 3 changed a lot of that. While in Gaza 1 and 2 some thousands of Palestinians were killed, Gaza 3 reduced the population by about 20 percent. Of course there had been many outcries, but Israel was used to face opposition and to preserve what was called 'self-defense'. Things then happened very quickly: riots and terror attacks from Palestinians inside Israel led to their expulsion by the army. When the settlements in the West Bank were attacked, the army went all the way and cleared the West Bank completely from the Arabs, claiming that the enemy wanted to make the region 'judenfrei', i.e. free from Jews. There was a huge celebration when Israel was finally freed, a little like back in 1967. As Israel had pre-emptively struck Iran with small nuclear bombs and also invaded Syria and Lebanon, there was no power left to immediately threaten us. The US had already weakened all other powers in the region. Only international rejection became really harsh and massive and Israel finally left the United Nations, stating that the anti-Jewish Nazi spirit in the UN countries was unacceptable and that nobody was to tell Israel what to do to save its existence. By that time, about four million people had been killed by Israel, while about 40.000 Zionist soldiers and some Jewish civilians were killed. Although the number of enemies had increased, nobody dared to attack the Zionist state, because Israel openly threatened to drop more nuclear weapons as it had done in Iran. But instead of having peace, Israel fell into a civil war. Some settlers tried to take over large portions of land declaring they represented the real Israel. Several Jewish groups launched terror attacks while Jews from many countries entered and claimed land and property. The army split up into several factions and soon we had no more government. There were hundreds of dead Jews every day and nobody could help us. Whoever tried to analyze the situation was called an anti-Semite, because allegedly Jews were seen as the perpetrators of all evil which is an old anti-Semitic cliché. People did not distinguish between Jews and Zionists. Many Jews were not perpetrators, but as non-Zionists they were not accepted as real Jews by the people in power. It was such a shame. The militias just had way too many weapons. It was chaos. Far more than a million Jews left the country in despair. In the end, the Palestinians just came back and founded the Democratic Republic of Palestine. They were the only ones left to run the country."

2. Lubna Younis: "I lost my whole family in the second Nakba, when the Zionists drove us out of Nablus to stop all resistance and terror attacks forever. I was just a child then, but I remember how the missiles flew and the tanks came in. The Zionists called it a 'transfer' and said it was to reach peace from the terrorists, but like in 1948 they killed many of the men in combat age. I played outside when a bomb destroyed our home. Everybody inside was dead. Such a typical Palestinian story ever since 1948. The neighbors took me with them to Jordan. Unlike 1948, the exile of the second Nakba only lasted for five years. The Zionists had no more targets and so they started killing each other. In the end, the whole country was devastated. You know, in the 5000 years of the history of this country it never faced such a destruction. Olive trees need decades and centuries to grow and so many thousands of them were pulled out of the ground. Pollution and the wall also helped in ruining the beautiful landscapes. Nothing like this had ever happed to this country before and never was the local population forced out like that. When the Zionists used up their weapons against themselves and when the government broke down in the Civil War, the United Nations sent troops to Dimona to make sure nobody uses nuclear weapons again. It was enough that some of them had been used against Iran. Then, when it was quiet, we just returned to our homes and villages. There were several waves of people returning, also from the refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and other places. Today, a majority of 70 percent Palestinians live in Palestine, Muslims, Christians, Jews and atheists. The rest are former Israelis, the survivors of the Civil War minus the emigrants. Many went back to where they or their parents originally came from, the USA, Russia and other places. More than a million Jews moved during the Civil War and many others after the establishment of Palestine. Of course we persecuted the war criminals among the remaining Jews, but in the end only three or four thousand were put into jail. Some incidents of lynch mobs are known, but the new authorities were strictly against that and cooperated with the UN. (By that time the UN headquarters had already moved to Europe.) We wanted to stop all extra-judicial killings, we just had enough of all that. We then rebuilt our cities and villages and kind of resumed our history in a way that we had been deprived of since the days of Lawrence of Arabia. Nobody talks about terrorism anymore, all the borders are open now, and soon all Arabs will have a shared currency. It is good now, no more killing, and yet we still mourn the millions of victims. At least, so we want to think, all these people did not die in vain. But sometimes it is hard to recall all this horror. Every year, we commemorate the dead of all sides including the European Holocaust in the Count Bernadotte Congregation Hall in Jerusalem."

3. Umm Midian: "I belong to the very few Israeli Jews who have always been in solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people. I lived in Israel then and I live much better in Palestine now. There was a huge fear that the Arabs would kill all Jews once the army would not defend them anymore. But it turned out that ironically the Jews in the country have never been as secure as they are now. Many Arabs felt honest sympathy when they saw how Jews killed Jews by the thousands, despite the fact that millions of Arabs and Muslims had been killed by the Zionists before. Racist Zionism was the original problem, there is no more doubt about that today, even in the US. Nobody seems to want to talk about Zionism anymore, as if the Zionists had come from outer space and then disappeared again like extra-terrestials. Of course the Zionist perpetrators were and are taken to account by their victims. This is normal and it is a matter of justice. But the fear of a heavy revenge proved to be unwarranted. Maybe deep in their hearts the Zionists thought: since we have been so brutal with them on a regular basis, they just have to hate us and give us exactly what we gave to them. But they forgot that those Arab and Muslim victims are no Zionists, they do not follow this logic."

4. Theodor Madden: "By the time Israel fell apart I worked in the US Foreign Office. They were difficult years ever since it came out that 9/11 was an inside job, orchestrated by parts of our own government. You remember the conspiracy theory according to which Islamic terrorists did the job. When the voices of architects and firemen got louder, asking how three buildings could collapse like that against all laws of physics, the pressure got really hard. Then there were many other unsolved questions, e.g. about the much too small hole in the Pentagon building, the lack of remains, the suspicious drills, strange facts about the so-called terrorists and so on. The government should just have provided answers. Instead, the Patriot Act was used against the critics. And we lost so many soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan and spent so many billions of dollars. Why? All this was originally linked to 9/11 without any logic. People started asking what we were trying to accomplish in the countries we attacked. So we were almost paralyzed when Israel targeted Iran unilaterally, when it expelled the Palestinians and when it started destroying itself physically. There was nothing at all the US could have done to prevent this. What should we have done? Send in troops into a civil war zone? To support whom? Our own country was about to collapse and this is actually still possible, although rather unlikely, because we brought all our troops back home now. The situation thus has deescalated for us. Moreover, we do not send weapons to what is now Palestine and do not pay the Egyptians and other regimes any more money, which saves billions of dollars. The whole arms industry is in decline and we do not really care after this nightmare. My personal opinion is that we should have arrived at this conclusion soon after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I personally never was an adherent of Zionism, but of course it was a shock to see our close ally Israel breaking down like a house of cards. The good thing is that there are many fewer weapons in the region now. We never thought that stability could be so cheap, financially speaking. We had to give up our hegemony of the oil fields and strategic places, but we are learning to appreciate the new possibilities that go with regional stability. We don't have the choice, anyway, I guess."

5. Agathe Mengel: "As a German politician it has always been clear to me that we had to stand by the side of Israel and there is nothing we have to be sorry for! The constant rocket-fire and anti-Semitism forced Israel to defend itself. The collapse of the State of Israel is a catastrophe, because it was a safe haven for all the Jews in the world. This is why we have recognized the new state only because the EU has made this decision and we could not have opposed it. It is beyond question that the German history has made the State of Israel necessary. Anti-Semitism is still very strong in the world and Israel was the only democracy in the Middle East. It may be true that there have not been any combat actions observed in the region for three years, but this can change any time. We certainly did not make a mistake here in Germany when we supported Israel, because we have a responsibility."

6. Yossi Feinsand: "I am one of the survivors of the Civil War and I admit that I used to be an ardent Zionist before this war. But in the end I recognized that we were the ones who made the biggest mistakes. I feel betrayed by my parents, schools, politicians, and media. They always told us we cannot be wrong and that it is an old anti-Semitic cliché that the Jews are the guilty ones. But it is we who were guilty in Palestine! Not because we were Jews, but because we were Zionists. It developed into a racist ideology not much better than Nazism, if at all. How many people did we kill? Millions. It started when we came from abroad, made our state without any agreements and at the same time expelled the indigenous population. We were told in our schools that we are special, the chosen people, eternal victims, and that we need a strong army to fight our vicious enemies. Today I live in Jerusalem among all these 'enemies' and they are much nicer than what we used to be. As Zionists, we actually projected all of our own faults onto the Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims. We accused them of hostility when we were hostile. We called them violent while being violent. We held Islam to be an evil religion, because we as Zionists acted in an evil way. We claimed they want to take our land and what we did was take their land. Why did our friends not stop us? I feel so ashamed and can only say how proud I am to be a Palestinian now. I tell my story to everyone and even learned Arabic to do so. Wherever I come I receive so much affection and friendship that it makes me cry. How generous my fellow countrymen are, how great also the Islamic religion. They do not torture me, they all forgave me and I have nothing to fear in my great country, in Palestine!"

7. Naser Ateeq: "Like every Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Human Rights advocate I am more than happy that the long Zionist nightmare finally has ended. And it is clear to the world now what the 'conflict' was all about. They had taken our land and expelled us, killing many, and most of the world had called our legitimate resistance 'terrorism' and turned us from victims to perpetrators, because the weakest always become the scapegoat. Why did they not learn from the German history? But in the end the world saw the real face of Zionism and now they are quiet at last and we got our land back. Now we must face our own demons, because we do not want to make the same mistakes and project our traumas onto others. One of the taboos of our Palestinian society is, for example, child abuse. It has always been normal for our fathers to beat the children. And society has covered it up. Parents used to be like gods, beyond justice. Even for driving a car you need a license, but children can be raised by every idiot. This must stop now! The problems of our society were not all produced by Israel. By beating our children we have destroyed ourselves and by oppressing our sisters, because they are women, we also did wrong. We have had a damned pasha society and some even derived this sinful behavior wrongly from the Qur'an or the Bible. Some groups have killed and threatened Jewish civilians and there is no excuse for that, not occupation, not anything. We have killed collaborators and showed that we can also be killers, just like them. And we witnessed lynch mobs, even if they were few, after the collapse of the Zionist state. All this must stop immediately and without condition. No more killing! No more oppression! No more beating of our beloved and helpless children! In many respects, we are completely retarded and backward. 'Takhalluf' is the Arabic word for that, in case you have forgotten. A lot of all that is claimed to be Islamic, but I don't believe that. Fortunately, we are a democratic society now. It did not astonish me that in our second free elections the Islamic parties have lost their majority. They have their place and they are important, but Palestine has always been open to all faiths and so it is only normal that the Democratic Party has won the last elections. In it we find all currents in the good manner of Bir Zeit campus society in its best days. There are even some people in it who used to be in the collaborator party of Fatah."

8. Muna el-Missiry: "Egypt profited so much from the new time. Not only because the borders to Palestine and ALL other Arab countries plus Iran are open now, but we also got rid of the unwanted regime, even without a military coup. Like in some other Arab countries the Islamists started with a big success after Gaza 3. They are the only popular currents that were able to gain a huge block of voters, because they represent our main religion and because they are not as corrupt as other trends, especially those affiliated with the West. But then, like in Palestine itself, the peoples recognized that a liberal society in the end works better and that it does not deny religion, anyway. We will not forget that it was the Islamists who opened all the borders, in their quest to restore Islamic unity and the 'umma', i.e. the universal Muslim community. Traveling educated us Egyptians, us Arabs and Muslims a lot and we had hungered for that. Of course, not all of our problems have ceased with the disappearance of the Zionist state, but a lot of them really have. The falcons in Arab countries cannot take Israel as a pretext for weapon-trade and sternness anymore, and indeed we do not feel threatened, especially since the US has completely withdrawn all its troops from the region. Today I can travel from Cairo to Jerusalem in only a few hours, without a visa! In fact, I went there only two weeks ago to help rebuild the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque which were heavily damaged in the last years of the Zionist Civil War."

9. Yousuf Sharif: "Since we threw our king out of the country, Jordan faces much more than a renewal. People call it a rebirth. Everything seems possible now. We have a free press and nobody has to fear anything when speaking out against injustice. Jordanian kings have a long history of collaboration with the Zionists and this chapter is closed now forever! Every Palestinian in Jordan – that is about 70 percent of the population – is free to return to Palestine. Most of them don't, because they found a home in Jordan and they can travel to Palestine whenever they want. Only the victims of the second Nakba returned with an overwhelming majority."

10. Gulamhusein: "I am now an old man of 102 years. I was born in Bombay. For most of my life there I lived in terror, what with ghastly Hindu-Muslim riots breaking out on a regular basis. To make matters worse we had the British occupying our land, our beloved India, and lording it over us. Under the leadership of Gandhi we mounted a movement to drive them out and we ultimately did. Even as we gained independence in India, Palestinians lost more than half of their land to an Israeli state imposed on them by the international community, many members of which had their arms twisted to vote for the UN partition resolution. There followed a massacre of Palestinians. I simply could not understand how the Jews, who had suffered so much under the Germans and others, could inflict so much death, destruction and misery on the Palestinians so as to be able to create a Jewish state of their own on the land the Palestinians had occupied for centuries. Nor could I understand how those living in Israel, and even more puzzlingly, those living in other countries, could believe the Israeli propaganda that the Palestinians were trying to take their land and drive them into the sea when the truth was that the Jews were taking Palestinian land and trying to drive the Palestinians, if not into the sea or the Jordan River, then out of what used to be their land. It took me some time to learn and understand that not all Jews were complicit. Many were, from the start, opposed to Zionism. It was only the Zionists who were to blame and, even most of the Zionists believed and acted as they did because the truth was hidden from them and they were fed lies from childhood. As time went on, more and more of these came forward and said so. The Nakba of 1947/48, the 1967 War, the 2009 Israeli invasion and destruction of Gaza, and the failure of the international community to come to the aid of the Palestinians, take suitable action against Israel for its violations of international law and end Israel's illegal and brutal occupation of West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights, left me shaken, and almost destroyed my faith in justice. I wondered if Palestinians would ever get justice. But history, as life, takes strange and unexpected turns. After the Civil War, the Palestinians, who had been driven out of their lands, started coming back from Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and even from far away countries. The Israelis feared that the Palestinians would do unto them as they had done unto the Palestinians. But the Palestinians, the majority of them Muslims, remembered their beginnings. Their Prophet and his followers (the Muslims), had been persecuted and tortured for years by the Meccans and had ultimately been driven out of Mecca. Years later, the Muslims marched triumphantly back into Mecca, led by Prophet Muhammad. At that moment, the Meccans hid, fearing that the Muslims would be vengeful and there would be a massacre. But Muhammad had ordered the returning Muslims that there was to be no looting or pillaging, no killing, no rape, no taking of slaves. And there was none. – In the three years that have elapsed since the collapse of Israel there has been a great change. There is, at last, peace in the region. The inhabitants of the Democratic Republic of Palestine — Jews, Muslims, Christians, no matter what their faith or ethnic origin – live in peace and harmony, as of old. The phony "war on terror" has ended. I never imagined this day would come. Nor did millions of others. But come it did, three years to this day. It is a miracle. As is my being alive at 102 years!"

11. Dana Azulai: "At the beginning of the Civil War my parents got killed in a bombing. I had just finished school by the time and did not know how to carry on. I was in despair. When my relatives in Canada invited me to come to them, I accepted their offer gratefully. They took care of all the formalities and, luckily, it all worked out rather quickly. Despite the fact that Israel had gained a very bad reputation in world, due to the 'transfer' of the Arabs, the attacks on Iran and the Civil War, I was well-received by most of the Canadians, and treated in a friendly way. I also found a job very soon. But despite all of that I never really felt well. The weather and the landscape are so much different and also the mentality of the people. When the Civil War was over I certainly thought about returning. But then the Palestinians founded their state and my dream to go back home, was soon over. Surely, the Palestinians would not allow the return of Jews. Besides, how could I voluntarily go to a land that was now governed by our enemies? But I still was in touch with some friends, who had stayed in Israel and who had survived. They, too, were afraid after the new state was built. But in the course of time they reported about the reconstruction work and about the peaceful coexistence. It was not so easy for me, but the country, that now called itself the Democratic Republic of Palestine, was my homeland. I missed my friends, the Mediterranean Sea, the sun, and everything. So half a year ago I returned. I was astonished about the fact that it was so easy. I just had to prove that I was born in the territory of what today is Palestine and immediately got my papers. It is not easy to be back. I am always confronted with what my people did to the Palestinians and to themselves. But I am happy that I ventured to do it."

# 10 written by Gulamhusein Abba (www.anis-online.de/1/rooms/gulamhusein/index.htm), # 11 written by Sabine Yacoub, www.sabine-yacoub.de, all other entries by Anis
http://www.anis-online.de/2/literatur/2030.htm

"Right and wrong are the same in Palestine as anywhere else. What is peculiar about the Palestine conflict is that the world has listened to the party that has committed the offence and has turned a deaf ear to the victims."
–Prof. Arnold Toynbee, Foreword to the Transformation of Palestine, 1971

"Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial."
–Ariel Sharon

"Well, it's a trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel then we bring up the holocaust. When in this country US) people are criticizing Israel then they are anti-Semitic. And the organization (Israel Lobby) is very strong and has lot of money. And the ties between Israel and American Jewish establishment are very strong – and they are strong in this country as you know. And they have power which is ok."
–Shulamit Aloni, Former Israeli Minister of Education, On Democracy Now, August 14, 2002

Honorable President of Harvard University Dr. Drew Faust
Honorable Members of the Board of Directors
Harvard Faculty Members
Harvard Student Organizations

Dear Madame President Faust;

I must strenuously and in the strongest terms possible protest the silence and inaction of Harvard University toward the outrageous, inhumane, offensive, even racist eugenic proposal that Dr. Martin Kramer, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard made during his speech at the Israeli Herzliya Conference on January 31, 2010.

In that speech Dr. Kramer implored the West to stop its Pro Natal services to the already besieged and starving Gaza Palestinian pregnant mothers and infants as a method of controlling the rapid birth rate in Gaza as a matter of political and social policy. To him such control will naturally lead to a decrease in the radicalization of Palestinian youth which he calls "superfluous men" as well as relieve the "demographic threat" to Israel's Jewish identity.

How racist is the term "superfluous men" to describe young Palestinian men who are constant fodder for Israeli soldier's bullets, missiles, and tank shells (as soldiers themselves have told "Break the Silence" group of former IDF Soldiers) as unnecessary and wasteful human beings.

Dr. Kramer's eugenic proposal not to provide Pro Natal care, which I take he means Pre and Post Natal care, is tantamount to genocide of fetuses and infants. Pregnant mothers would not receive the preventive care, regular OB exams, nutritional guidance (such as providing Folic Acid and Vitamins given their already malnourished state), appropriate vaccines or a healthy medically supervised delivery in hospitals, which all are damaged by Israel's assault on Gaza in 2008-2009. Infants would not receive the necessary medical care, or intensive care if necessary (difficult given the lack of electricity, oxygen, or antibiotics in Gaza), regular immunizations, nutritional guidance, or regular Pediatric checkups. Dr. Kramer shouldn't worry about a Palestinian population explosion; Israel's militarily with our tax dollars and weapons is determined not to leave any Palestinian child behind.

His proposal meets the accepted definition of eugenics, passive euthanasia, and genocide and no amount of spin cover up, rationalization, justification, taken out of context lies; nor the canard of Freedom of Speech that's available to Pro Israelite hate mongers to the exclusion of Pro Justice proponents for Palestinians and peace in the Holy Land.

In addition to Israel's three year physical devastating siege of Gaza, Dr. Kramer is proposing another physical and medical siege, this time of a Palestinian woman's womb that would ultimately result in a secondary ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that has continued unabated since 1947.

In Harvard as elsewhere, Academic Freedom and Free Speech means never having to say Israel is wrong, or that Israel defies all divine and human laws, or that Israel's occupation and theft of Palestinian land is illegal and immoral, and Israel's wars upon a captive population under its control is tantamount to "war crimes, nor that the Israel Lobby dominates the formulation of our foreign policy in the Middle East and the Islamic world. To them it's Baghdad, next stop is Iran.

No politician, academic institution, or American citizen dare have an honest public discourse on our self destructive relationship with Israel. Even the Pentagon's Defense Science Board confirmed that the Muslim world doesn't hate our freedoms but hates our blind policy of supporting Israel.

In describing freedom of speech the famous Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote:

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."

Contrary to Dr. Kramer's assertion and his defense by WCFIA controlling or preventing a population's birth right and rate meets the definition of Genocide according to the First Geneva Convention Against Genocide which states:

"This convention bans acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religion group…imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group".

Dr. Kramer need not worry that Gaza's children are growing up healthy, safe, able to go to school, eat right, receive medical care, play, or even visit family, given Israel's persistent military attacks, invasions, and total blockade of Gaza. During the unprovoked onslaught on Gaza a year ago Israel killed hundreds of infants and children. That is why the Goldstone report accusing Israel of committing war crimes never appeared in TV news or most of our print media. Neither will the media report on Dr. Kramer's speech or the angst of many Americans who find it abhorrent and offensive.

While Israel destroys the lives of current Palestinian children, Dr. Kramer seeks to ensure the end of future Palestinian children.

In fact Palestinian children are living breathing beings who often serve as fodder and target practice for Israel's soldiers. (Guardian, Nov. 24, 2004: "Israeli Officer: I was right to shoot 13 year old child")

Chris Hedges, the famed journalist, author, and war correspondent who was also a Neimen Fellow at Harvard and served for years as MidEast Bureau Chief for the New York Times horrifically captured the plight of Palestinian children in Gaza in a Harper Magazine article titled, "A Gaza Diary", October 2001.

"It was in Gaza, where I lived for weeks at a time during the seven years I spent in the Middle East, that I came to know the dark side of the Israeli Defense Force….Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered-death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo-but I have never before watched soldiers (IDF) entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport."

Madame President, imagine the outrage in Harvard and among worldwide Jewish groups if a Harvard Muslim Professor suggested that limiting Jewish births in the U.S. will lead to a dramatic decline in their political, financial, and media clout thereby ending their stranglehold on U.S. foreign policy and its blind support of the rogue state of Israel. How long before you, Madame President, the Board of Trustees, Deans, Faculty, the ADL, AIPAC, ZOA, JDL, JINSA, WINEP, and the mainstream media would be calling for his Anti-Semitic head not just to be fired, even with tenure.

Madame, you'd be the first to initiate the firing of such a person who'll be blacklisted never again to find academic employment in this country. Such is the power of Pro Israelite's wrath.

Again, I am under no illusion that you or Harvard's Board of Trustees would even consider the slightest reprimand against Dr. Kramer for his most offensive call to limit the freedom for Palestinians to procreate lest their population growth translates into future political violence, an argument used effectively for years by Apartheid South Africa.

Dr. Kramer enjoys the protection of rich philanthropic donors to Harvard, Jewish colleagues and superiors, Jewish organizations, and a supportive media.

But, in the larger scheme of education which is the foundation of any civilization is Harvard's mission and responsibility to its students, community, and the world; to teach the truth on any subject or at least present both sides of an argument, to stand up for the principles of freedom and equality for all, for justice, for world peace, constructive dialogue, respect for human life and human rights, respect for the law and due process; or is Harvard akin to all institutions in our capitalistic money corrupted society where special interest groups with money and power determine the content of our education and the extent of our freedoms.. If so, who will speak for and advocate for the voiceless, the invisible poor, the homeless and the oppressed?

This is the issue and challenge for our times. Will we lend an ear and voice for those who have no money to endow chairs, hold no high positions in the government, think tanks, banking and financial institutions, the media and the entertainment industry?

Have we all lost our souls for the expediency and reward of the moment at the expense of others and our future?

Given that our nation's future demographics will result in today's minorities becoming tomorrow's majorities, should we adopt Dr. Kramer's proposal and limit by any means necessary the procreation of our Hispanic, African American and Asian populations?

How will such a future majority impact our relationship with Israel and the power of the Israel Lobby upon our foreign policy?

If Harvard remains silent regarding Dr. Kramer's speech, as I expect it will, perhaps we should recall Elie Wiesel's hypocritical statement:

"Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

The famous Harvard graduate John Kennedy once said:

"The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest; but the myth, persistent, persuasive and realistic"

How tragic that in Harvard there is no longer a commitment to Veritas or Justice. Fear and the maintenance of the status quo have become the corruptive regressive tools of an outstanding institution denying its bright young minds the dream of a brighter, safer, and peaceful future for this fragile planet.

With all due respect to you, the Board of Trustees, Faculty and students of our beloved Harvard, I remain.

Note: Martin Kramer is Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, and President-Designate of Shalem College (in formation). He is also the Wexler-Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and National Security Security Studies Program Visiting Scholar at Harvard University.

Dr. Kramer was also former editor of the Middle East Quarterly a publication of the Middle East Forum founded by Daniel Pipes founder of campuswatch.org which "monitors" universities and scholars who teach Middle East Studies. lest they, God forbid, describe Israel in its true historical colors.

http://www.martinkramer.org/sandbox/2010/02/wcfia-at-harvard-accusations-are-baseless/
M. Kramer's blog which contains his speech and the defense of his speech by the Directors of WCFIA at Harvard where he is a Visiting Scholar.

http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) at Harvard where Dr. Kramer is described as Visiting Scholar, National Security Studies Program. Former Director, Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University.

From the Electronic Intafada website which brought the issue to the attention of WCFIA at Harvard:

"In her initial response to a query from the Electronic Intifada regarding Dr. Kramer's speech, Professor Beth Simmons, the director of WCFIA, wrote, "I agree with your assessment of the appalling nature of these [Kramer's] statements," but added, "the WCFIA does not have a policy of censoring or censuring our affiliates on the basis of their opinions." Simmons also stated, "I very much hope you bring these [Kramer's] words to the attention of others affiliated with the WCFIA, Harvard and the broader community, where I hope they will garner their just reaction." She encouraged individuals to make their concerns known to Professor Stephen Rosen, who is in charge of the National Security Studies Program of which Kramer is a fellow.

Naturally and as expected the Directors of WCFIA reversed their assessment from "appalling" to defending the "appalling" speech.

http://www.michaelheart.com/songforgaza.htm
PLEASE WATCH this Song by an American Humanitarian Songwriter on GAZA

http://vodpod.com/watch/122002-the-israel-lobby-the-influence-of-aipac-on-us-foreign-policy
Important Dutch Video on Influence of AIPAC on US Foreign Policy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H88gVDrIlPs
UK Channel 4 Video: Inside Britain's Israel Lobby

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=34545
BBC Panorama Video: THE WAR PARTY, the Neocons Behind Iraq War

http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/en/011001_hedges.html
Chris Hedges, "A Gaza Diary", Harper's Magazine, October 2001

* Mohamed Khodr M.D., M.P.H. is a political activist who frequently writes on the plight of Palestinians living under the brutal occupation of Israel, U.S. Foreign Policy, Islam, and Arab politics.

The struggle for Palestinian liberation has reached one of its most difficult phases so far. The current complex situation is showing positive changes as well as negative ones, which should all be weighed on their own merit. One thing, however, has not changed: the absence of a clear and unambiguous recognition for the Palestinian popular voice. Unfortunately this is not only the case at the level of governments, official media, and international politics – but seems to be a stubborn phenomenon that continues to affect all levels of involvement, from the grassroots up to the higher echelons.

On the positive side, we have seen an increased involvement in recent years of international supporters with the Palestinian issue. Ever since the genocidal wave of aggression that was poured over Gaza in the winter of 2008/2009 on top of an already suffocating siege, we have heard an increase in volume of the sounds of protest from the international community, most notably at non-governmental levels. International aid convoys such as Galloway's Viva Palestina and the Code Pink convoy made headlines in doing their best to provide humanitarian relief to the ravished Palestinians of Gaza. The global BDS movement has booked significant successes in the area of boycott and divestment against Israel, and continues to empower voices calling for sanctions against the zionist entity. On the political level, the Goldstone report dealt a serious blow to Israeli credibility and to its artificial image as a benevolent island of progress and democracy in the Middle East.

However, these positive changes are taking place within an environment that continues to promise less and less hopes for Palestinian self-determination. The Israeli occupation has not ended since the Oslo agreements, but has intensified. The Palestinian political scenery has not strengthened itself, but has fallen prey to unprecedented internal division. Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians in the form of assassination, imprisonment, home demolition and confiscation of farm land and property has not softened under pressure from the international community, but has grown ever more relentless. Support from Arab governments has decreased and has even been transformed in some instances into a tight-knit collaboration with the goals of the Israeli-American-European axis of colonization and domination.

Variety and diversity

In this increasingly confusing jungle of political entanglement, we are seeing a wide variety of responses from the Palestinian side. Some voices are calling for a complete abolition of the two-state-solution, and a radical return to the original ideal of the single unified state for all of its citizens, regardless of their religion or ethnicity. A good example of this is the direction that is propagated among others by Ali Abunimah, spearhead of the Electronic Intifada, who has no qualms about calling for a one-state solution as the only viable option to reach peace. On the political level, Hamas is increasingly finding itself physically and politically isolated within the Gazan territory, which is scoffingly called an 'emirate' by their adversaries. The 'two-staters', most visibly represented by the ilk of Mahmoud Abbas, are finding it increasingly difficult to make it clear to their followers how they will turn the romantic ideal of a two-state-solution into a reality – against all odds – and which level of Palestinian independence it would provide if it were to be realized at all.

On top of this most visible political division, there are several individual alternatives sprouting up in the field. A shocking example is the opinion expressed recently in an interview with Le Figaro on January 6th by Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds University, who answered the question 'what is the perspective for the Palestinian people?' with the following words: "My next proposal will be to ask Israel to annex us, accepting us as third class citizens. The Palestinians would enjoy basic rights, movement, work, health, education, but would have no political rights. We would not be citizens, only subjects."

It can safely be assumed that such an extremist statement, which violates even the most fundamental principles of the Palestinian struggle, is a lone voice that does not represent the opinions that exist among the Palestinian people. It baffles the mind how someone who is at the head of one of the largest educational institutes in the Palestinian civil community, would be prepared to offer such a complete capitulation of the Palestinian struggle to the zionist entity. The answer may be found in lack of principle, lack of vision, or simply in despair. It may very well be that such a destructive opinion would not have been voiced, if the arena was dominated by the sound of a collective Palestinian popular voice.

The diversity presented above illustrates how difficult it seems to have become to speak of a unified political Palestinian stance. Of course, exceptions such as Sari Nusseibeh should be simply brushed aside, but even then we are still left with a wide variety of Palestinian views and solutions. Unity, as always in times of trouble, is difficult to be found at the level of solutions, but is often still present at the level of common principles. Since none of those who propose a solution possess the actual tools for achieving them, it is there that unity should be sought, and found.

There are universal Palestinian principles that are connected to the physical and political history of the Palestinians, which are upheld by an overwhelming majority among them, across the entirety of the Palestinian spectrum. It is true that there are voices who aim to exclude the millions of Palestinian expats and refugees, in order to consolidate their own local or personal power and influence. Still, apart from this small number of agitators of Palestinian division and disunity, it is hard to find Palestinians who disagree that the most central issues of the Palestinian cause are the retreat of the zionists from all occupied territories including East Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, and the right of return of the refugees.

The voice of the people

It is in the interest of Israel to perplex both the Palestinians and the international community on these issues, which has been its sole objective for participating in the Oslo negations from their very beginning.  From the Israeli point of view, it was a shrewd 'pacification process', providing them with the time for creating facts on the ground, and trying to make these irreversible. It is in the demographic and political interest of the Israelis to exclude expatriate Palestinians from the equation, not only in their physical absence but also in their right of opinion and representation as an inalienable part of the Palestinian people.

Sadly, the zionist entity has proved to have been able to groom a handful of Palestinians into a willingness to support this divisive direction. However, this thin layer of aspiring 'leaders' can only be seen as representative of the collective Palestinian identity in the wishful thinking of some egotistic power-mongers, and of course in the fantasies of the zionists who aim to conquer and subdue the entirety of historical Palestine. The truth is that the majority of Palestinians are very well aware who they are and where they come from, through family ties and histories, and cannot simply be separated artificially to suit the personal goals of ambitious politicians.

So there definitely is a unified popular Palestinian voice, that transgresses all the boundaries of geographical and political separation – but are we hearing it?
 
In the political void that is left open by the lack of Palestinian political unity, and in the absence of a clear platform for the non-politicized Palestinian voice, we also see an increasing number of Jewish and Israeli speakers, who are willing to speak up for Palestinian rights. This phenomenon can be viewed in a variety of ways, and has positive as well as negative sides.

It can be advantageous to the Palestinian cause that certain political statements in favor of Palestinian rights and independence are made by Jews or Israelis, as they are perceived as being more credible to a Western audience, coming 'from the horse's mouth', so to speak. Another advantage is that it is inspiring to see that not all those who are born into the zionist entity are racist, and on a personal level, are representing a moral victory of true human values over bigoted hatred and greed. From a more pragmatic point of view, just like Palestinian political disunity serves the interests of the Israeli occupier, political disunity within Israel should be beneficial for the struggle for Palestinian independence.

However, unbridled enthusiasm makes it easy to overlook a quite crucial downside to these developments. First of all, it runs contrary to the goal of Palestinian independence to be in need of non-Palestinians to do the talking, let alone to achieve the envisaged endpoint of Palestinian liberation. An increased dependence on these conscientious Jews would result in creating the impression that Palestinians are a helpless, unqualified and immature people who are unable to run their own affairs and organize their own struggle, and are depending on the mercy of their occupier for any possible beneficial developments.

It is of the utmost importance to realize how little of the mainstream Israeli public view is represented by these admirable activists. There was rarely a time when the absence of a true Israeli peace movement was so evident, as during the 'Cast Lead' Israeli massacre on Gaza. However, unfortunate as it may sound, it would be very misleading to say that the presence of Israeli activists among anti-wall activists and in the Sheikh Jarrah protests represents a voice among Israelis that has a numerically significant body of support within their society. To make a bold comparison: for the overwhelming majority of Israelis, the position of these activists in Israeli society is considered as aberrant as the above-mentioned view of Sari Nusseibeh's is among Palestinians. It is dangerous to fool oneself with romanticized perceptions.

Regaining our voice

In view of the above, it should never be taken lightly when an Israeli is appointed as a spokesman in a Palestinian grassroots movement, or given another key role. Regardless of that person's qualifications and intentions, it is a strategic error of judgment on the part of such a movement to make that choice. It would be an example of genuine foolishness for the Palestinians to allow themselves to enter into a situation where Israelis are their occupiers, as well as their liberators.

A serious change of mentality is also required at the level of the international supporters of Palestinian rights. If they are genuine about their wish for Palestinian independence, they should support it on every level. This means that they should start doing their best to clear the stage for Palestinian popular voices, and to give a high priority to Palestinian speakers, writers, artists and activists. There is a strong tendency to fall into a romantic admiration of courageous Israelis who speak up against Israeli human rights violations, while giving little credit to Palestinians who express their views.

It is up to these international supporters to choose their Palestinian heroes, if they really mean business. If all the people they admire are Jewish or Israeli, it will be difficult to believe in the genuineness of their intentions. There are at least hundreds of Palestinian activist writers and journalists worldwide such as Ramzy Baroud, Mohammed Omer, Haitham Sabbah, Ali Abunimah and Khaled Amayreh (Google their names when you finish reading this) to mention only a tiny selection of those available. They are excellent speakers and writers in perfect English, who are able to present a balanced narrative of their cause, their aspirations, and the justness of their struggle.

If those who support Palestinians in the West find themselves always hanging only at the lips of Jewish and Israeli writers and speakers, they should seriously question their belief in the true Palestinian cause. Are they supporters of Palestinian liberation, or are they simply propagators of a 'more moral Israel'? In order to start helping to liberate Palestine, the most primary and crucial step that would make a difference would be to help remove the unnecessary muzzle, and let the Palestinian popular voice ring out loudly and clearly.

As all colonized people, the Palestinians have fallen prey to the old adage of 'divide and conquer'. In this sense, nothing is new. Therefore, the first step towards their liberation is to resolve this division, which is more important to the continuation of the existence of the Palestinian national identity than securing political guarantees from any superpower in the world. And since these political divisions are not easily conquered, because they are at least partly caused and maintained by outside influences, there is a primary move that is easy to make, and does not require anything except personal conviction and vision. I am talking about a simple move, that everyone is able to make.

This move is simply to reclaim the struggle as our own, by regaining our Palestinian popular voice, making sure it gets heard, and speaking up loudly and clearly for Palestinian unity and liberation. We also should always give priority to Palestinian speakers and writers, instead of rushing only to forward the articles of Amira Hass and Gideon Levy to our mailing lists, and barely giving any interest to the writings of our own people. Have you caught yourself doing this? Let us change it. We are not in a position to compete against each other – we should empower each other. Our own Palestinian voice is irreplaceable – if we let others speak in our name, we have already killed our independence before it is even born.

Tariq Shadid is a Palestinian surgeon living in the Middle East, and has written numerous essays about the Palestinian issue over the years. Most of these were published by the Palestine Chronicle http://www.palestinechronicle.com , and have been bundled in the book "Understanding Palestine", which is available through Amazon.com. He also runs a website of internationally oriented music dedicated to the Palestinian cause, which can be found at http://www.docjazz.com .

Mahmoud al-Ramahi, PLC member, Hamas member

Dear Sirs,

Commemorating the second anniversary of the death of Al-Hakim George Habash, we reprint three articles published in homage to this great man who remains an inspiration and a source for millions. The first briefly recounts the legacy of this great man, the second is an interview in which Dr. Habash in his own words describes the decisive moment of his life and the third is a tribute delivered in London by the Communist Party.

He is the quintessential intersection of Palestinian democratic nationalism, pan-Arabism, progressive internationalism and egalitarianism.

Yet, even such monumental attributes are but a small part of Al-Hakeem's legacy. It is his unparalleled principled character, humility, love for his comrades and people and unblemished history that coin him as the archetypical revolutionary leader. From the day he became a refugee in 1948, to founding the Arab Nationalist Movement and subsequently the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, to emerging as one of the most beloved Palestinian Arab revolutionaries in the seventies, to his final departure in Amman, Jordan, Abu Maysa's 83-year journey is that of Palestine itself. While many barter for mere crumbs the entirety of their once-existing principles, Abu Maysa gave up none – not an ounce.

As purported "leaders" construct palaces through thievery from which to command their gangs of fear, he died just as he lived, in modesty, humility and enormous dignity.

This is a leader who set the highest example by voluntarily vacating his top political seat while at the peak of his popularity.  Al-Hakeem transcended all organizations, political parties, nation-states and borders.

He spoke loudly for the deprived, fought for the needy and healed the wounds of the poor. He was Palestinian in heart, Arab in blood and egalitarian in his principles. He leaves a legacy of internationalism situating the Palestinian struggle within an anti-imperialist struggle that transcends the borders of any one state.

Al-Hakeem shunned chauvinists and embraced democratic nationalists who valued unity and home-grown socialism. He rejected the blind mechanical importation of political theory, and argued that it must evolve from our particular Arab conditions. He understood the colonial nature of Zionism as an agent of imperial dominance while also recognizing that it is served by functionaries and servants from within the Arab ranks.

He remained true to his belief, never oscillating from one political camp to the next in search of a seat of power. Abu Maysa lived and died never distinguishing along religious lines. He was deeply entrenched in the cumulative totality of our Arab history from the Gulf to the Ocean.

And while the wretched of our people searched for meager pieces of bread and drops of clean water throughout the Gaza Strip and the camps of exile, he did not reside in a palace, nor did he enjoy pay-offs of treason.

Ironically, the passing of this exemplary unifying pan-Arabist legend comes at a time when our people in Gaza are tearing down fences to join hands with the Egyptian Arab people across imposed colonial divides.

How sad it is to lose George Habash at a time when true leadership is scarce and despots are many. How painful it is to lose such a visionary at a time when our people appear to be led by local agents of Empire.

How devastating it is to lose an icon of integrity and pride, when Arab pride is trampled every day, particularly by its presumed custodians. And how untimely his loss is when the need to enhance the democratic pan-Arab nationalist alternative is an existential necessity in today's era of right wing ascendancy. With the loss of this refugee from the town of Lid, we are all painfully so much less, yet due to his life and legacy we are all so much more.

How easy it is to pretend to be a revolutionary during times of luxury, and how almost impossible it is to live and die as one during impossible times. Such is painstakingly achieved only by the select few, of whom El Hakeem is undoubtedly unmatched.

Farewell Abu Maysa!
The struggle continues…

About his uprooting during the 1948 battle of Al-Lid Palestine
Interview edited by: Adib S. Kawar, a chapter of his book "Testimonies of Uprooted Palestinians"

Al-Hakim George Habash was a born leader, the respect of whom was inevitable and willingly accepted by the people around him without demand on his part… generations of young and old Palestinians and other Arabs in complete devotion and dedication to the Arab cause in general and the Palestinian one in particular, which is in its core… Al-Hakim (doctor and wise man) George Habash, made irreplaceable and unforgettable favors to all those who accompanied and worked with the beginning of the Arab nationalist movement and Palestinian Arab struggle on the road of return to the stolen and occupied homeland, Palestine and its neighborhood, that is ours in the past, present and future.

Al-Hakim exhausted his youth and up till the last breath of his life in the struggle for the cause. He sacrificed his promising and lucrative profession as a medical doctor that he studied and worked hard to complete for long years, but he sacrificed the profession, wealth and his health without regret or request for gratitude.

He deserves all the gratitude, respect and admiration by all his people…

In the words of Dr. George Habash: Place and date of birth: Al-Lid Palestine 1927
I left Al-Lid twice, the first time to Yafa at age 13 after completing my elementary schooling. I had the patriotic feelings, simply general patriotic feelings, and I still remember demonstrations and resistance that were organized by Palestinian Arab citizens…

In Yafa I joined the secondary Orthodox school, and remained in it up till second secondary. I would like to mention here my Lebanese teacher of the Arabic language, Munah Khoury from the Lebanese south. He left in us a deep and strong impression. Arabic as a language was for him his complete, beloved and full world, he was reciting poetry as if being sung, and I admire him today. I still remember him well. I met him in Beirut when I joined the American University of Beirut, and I learned that he left later for the United States.

As Yafa's school was an incomplete secondary school, I had to move to Jerusalem to join the Terra Santa secondary school. Upon completing my secondary education I returned to Yafa where I taught for two years, and in 1944 I joined the American University. While in Yafa I used to frequently go the Orthodox Club to read newspapers and magazines that came from Egypt, in which I used to read literary and cultural topics.

At the American University I was a top student, paying full attention to my lessons. In my spare time I used to practice my hobbies, especially swimming and sometimes I used to sing. I had a good voice. Politics was out of my mind, and never occurred to me that I would get involved in it, and that it would become my whole life.

This condition of mine remained constant up till the beginning of my fourth year in the university, my second year in the school of medicine. When one day a friend in the university, Maatouk Al-Asmar, approached me and said that there was a professor in the university – meaning Dr. Constantine Zureik – who was conducting small closed cultural circles, talking to a limited number of students (20 – 30 students) about Arab nationalism, and about the Arab nation and how and why it should resurrect. He suggested to me the idea of attending these circles.

These were lectures the aim of which was enlightenment and stirring debate, and there were no organizational commitments. To be specific, Maatouk told me about a person called Ramez Shihadeh who at the time had already graduated from the university. "I want you to meet him to talk about Arab unity and the salvation of Palestine and how to achieve these goals," but as I was at the time planning to go back home, the meeting didn't materialize.

That was at the end of June/July 1948, when Zionists had been trying to complete the uprooting of Palestinians from their homes and land, which at the time had reached its peak. The year ended and the university closed its doors. I told myself that I should go to Palestine and to Al-Lid in particular. Zionist forces uprooted the people of Yafa to temporally settle in Al-Lid. But my parents asked me to stay in Beirut, and sent me money; my mother was always worrying about me a lot. My arrival surprised the family and my mother said, "What do you want to do son?" And my sister for her part asked: "What could you do?" I wondered whether I could fight. I had already started studying medicine and probably I could help in this field. There was in the hospital a doctor of the Zahlan family, and I started assisting him.

Al-Lid, like other Palestinian Arab cities and villages was in severe conditions of confusion and worry. Zionists airplanes were bombarding Palestinians and frightening them. Conditions were severe and horrible.

I was involved in my work when my mother's aunt came to the hospital and told me that my mother was worrying about me and asked me to return home. I refused and insisted on remaining in the hospital, but she insisted and I in my turn insisted on doing my duty. When I continued refusing then she told me that my elder sister whom I dearly loved had passed away. On my way back home I saw people in the streets in a severe condition of fright, and the injured, including some that I knew, lying unattended on the sidewalk.

We buried my sister near our house, as reaching the graveyard was impossible. Three hours later Zionist terrorists attacked our house shouting and ordering us to leave in Arabic, "Yala Barah, yala barah ukhrojo", go out, leave. My mother and I, along with my sister's children - including a baby whom we carried - walked with our relatives and neighbors. We didn't know where to go. The terrorists were ordering us to walk, and we walked. It was a very hot day, and it was Ramadan. Some of those around us were saying "this is resurrection day" and others said, "This is hell". Upon reaching the end of the town we saw a Zionist check point to search the people. We didn't have any arms or weapons. And it seemed that our neighbor's son, Amin Hanhan, was hiding money; fearing that they would steal it from him, he refused to be searched. The terrorists shot him dead right in front of us. His mother and his younger sister rushed to see him and started wailing. His younger brother, Bishara, was a friend and classmate of mine, and we used to study together.

You ask me why I chose this path, why did I become an Arab nationalist. This is Zionism and they speak about peace? This is the Zionism I know, saw and experienced.(*)

Al-Hakim referred us to details in the book: "Palestinian Struggle Experience. A full dialogue with George Habash". One of the founders of 'The Arab Nationalist Movement" and "The Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine", and their first secretary general.

Original sources: http://farewellhakeem.blogspot.com/2008/02/farewell-hakeem.html

http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2008/02/al-hakim-george-habash-testimony-of.html

George Habash, a revolutionary life

The following tribute was delivered to a meeting organised by the Communist Party (www.cpgb-ml.org) in Central London on Saturday 10 February 2008.

Issued by: CPGB-ML
Issued on: 10 February 2008

In his 1944 speech, Serve the People, Comrade Mao Zedong said these famous words:

“All men must die, but death can vary in its significance. The ancient Chinese writer Szuma Chien said: ‘Though death befalls all men alike, it may be weightier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather.’ To die for the people is weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather.”

Today, the heroic Palestinian people are continuing to resist, whether in the breaking of the barrier with Egypt to alleviate the genocidal siege of Gaza, or in the martyrdom operation at Dimona, the nuclear site where imperialism and its stooges do not demand inspections, to express a sense of grief at the loss of Al-Hakim, Dr George Habash, one of the greatest leaders of the Palestinian people, and, more importantly, to celebrate his glorious life and give real political vitality and clarity to the essential work of building solidarity with the Palestinian people in the British working class and in the anti-war and other progressive movements.

Comrade George Habash, who has passed away at the age of 82, gave more than six decades of his life to the revolution. He was born into a prosperous Greek Orthodox family in the Palestinian city of Lydda.

At that time, the Palestinian people were under the rule of the British colonial mandate, which was systematically preparing the way for the creation of a zionist settler colonial state, which, in the words of Sir Roland Storrs, the first British governor of Jerusalem in the 1920s, would form “for England a ‘little loyal Jewish Ulster’ in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism”.

In the summer of 1948, whilst studying medicine in Beirut, George went back home to help organise resistance to the zionist catastrophe that was sweeping over the Palestinian people, driving them from their ancestral homes and lands into exile and dispossession.

At this time, he and his whole family, along with 95 percent of the inhabitants of his native city, were forced out at gunpoint by the zionist terrorists and ethnic cleansers commanded by Yitzhak Rabin. Years later, Habash was to observe:

“It is a sight I shall never forget. Thousands of human beings expelled from their homes, running, crying, shouting in terror. After seeing such a thing, you cannot but become a revolutionary.”

During al-Nakba, the catastrophe, more than 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and lands, made stateless and refugees.

Graduating as the first in his class, Dr Habash eschewed the chance to pursue a lucrative career, opting instead to open a people’s clinic offering free treatment and a school for refugees in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Gaza one year after operation cast lead

Don’t tell us a year has passed…
We don’t measure our lives by this calendar
Time has stood still for us so long ago
Punctuated only by loss and grief
And the in between moments of quite reprieve
We don’t count on Christmas, nor Eid for cheer
We don’t fool ourselves with “happy new year”
No occasion is ever taken for granted,
When it comes to tomorrow, there are no certainties
Our yesterday is our today
Time is frozen here
And one calendar year
Will never contain our lives,
Our collective misery,
Our yearning for humanity
Don’t tell us a year has passed
Our clock stopped ticking when justice collapsed
Eclipsed by decades of repression
Hush… don’t speak of time
We have endured the absence of time
We don’t measure our lives by days like you
We measure our lives by the number of embraces
Our worth by a lover’s heartbeat
Our existence by our persistence
So, don’t tell us a year has passed….

Samah Sabawi is a  writer playwright and poet.   She was born in Gaza and is currently residing in Melbourne Australia.  

حيثما توقف الزمن عن الحراك…

غزة بعد عام من عملية الرصاص المصهور

نظم: سماخ سبعاوي

لا تقل لي أن عام قد ولى

فنحن لا نقيس حياتنا بالتقاويم ومرور الأيام

فالزمان توقف بالنسبة لنا منذ زمن بعيد

ثقب بالضياع والأسى

وما بينهما فترات من السكوت

قنحن لا نعتمد على عيد الميلاد، ولا المرح

ولا نخدع أنفسنا بالتمنيات ب"عام سعيد"ّ!

فلا مناسبه تأخذ اعتباطاً

وعندما نذهب للغد… فليس هناك من ثوابت

فأمسنا هو يومنا الذي لا زلنا نحياه

فقد تجمد الزمن هنا

وسنة تقويمية واجدة

لن تختوي على كل خياتنا

وعلى مآسينا كاملة

توقنا للانسانية

لا تقل لي أن عام قد ولى

ساعاتنا توقفت عن التكتكة عندما انهار العدل

انخسفت بعد عقود من الاضطهاد

صه… لا تتكلم عن الزمن

فنحن لا نقيس حياتنا مثلك بالأيام

نحن نقيس الزمن بعدد الحضنات

قيمتنا بعدد خفقات قلب الحبيب

وجودنا بقوة اصرارنا وثباتنا

لا تقل لي أن عام قد ولى

by Juan Kalvellido

WRITTEN BY ATENEA AVECEDO
Aminetu Haidar was arrested at the El Aaiun Airport (former capital of Western Sahara, a country under Moroccan military occupation since 1975) because in filling out the corresponding entry form she wrote "Western Sahara" as her country of origin instead of "Morocco". The Moroccan authorities confiscated her passport and forced her aboard another aircraft bound to Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain). The Spanish authorities refuse to let her fly back to El Aaiun, where her children are, because she does not have the necessary papers. What might seem a mere red tape issue reveals, on one hand, the toughening of Moroccan policies against Saharawi human rights activists -being Saharawi and refusing to assume one's nationality as Moroccan is considered high treason by the Moroccan regime- and, on the other, the complicity between the Spanish and the Moroccan States. Aminetu Haidar initiated a hunger strike on 15 November as a protest against her current status.  

Our senses, habituated to a never innocent violence – normalized through lingering media bombardment – only react when the scandalous aspect of news reaches the border between reality and fiction. Once in a while, almost always later than sooner, the violence that mercilessly strikes women appears in mass media headlines: women retained in Serbian rape camps, young working women slaughtered in Ciudad Juárez, women murdered by either romantic or sexual partners. Less frequently, a specific face repeats itself on the television screens and a name struggles to conquer a corner of our memory. Today such a face belongs to Saharawi activist Aminetu Haidar, a peaceful defender of human rights and international humanitarian rights whose case began to filter out through tiny snippets of information and now expands like a pool of uncontainable blood.

Aminetu – a former detainee in Moroccan secret jails, where she “disappeared” for years – has the willpower that we usually find in those who have lived and suffered enough to thoroughly know both the strength and fragility of the human spirit. The old and vile complicity between the governments of Spain and Morocco, a complicity that impedes Aminetu’s return to Western Sahara, her motherland – under military occupation since 1975 – and that has forced her to start a hunger strike against it, is the same that historically marks all perverse pacts signed to the detriment of people everywhere. Now it is the turn of the Saharawi people, affected for 34 years now by such complicity and surely even more as a former Spanish colony whose national identity was modified and resources exploited until the commercial alliances were consolidated that today define the inexcusable continuance of a shameful conflict.

Now, while Spanish government officials turn a deaf ear to a hunger strike in its second week, it’s useless to give an account of Spain’s violations of Aminetu’s demand to return to El Aaiun. Better to unmask the lie which is being repeated a thousand times to make it into a truth. But even more useful is to point out that what is happening in Aminetu’s case unveils the still concealed factual ins and outs of a political system that claims to be democratic and mistakenly acknowledges: 1) that democracy is simply dictatorship’s antonym, and 2) that societies are satisfied with periodic elections and spaces where they can shout their dissatisfaction even if nothing changes in the real world. Is this the harbor to which the globally celebrated “Spanish transition” has arrived after those very same 34 years? Or is it that the transition process is unfinished and one of its steps consists of a combination of handwashing and complicity with the current occupying power in its former colony?

A democratic government is based upon popular expression at the polls and assumes the commitment to represent the interests of majorities while listening to minorities, but it also acknowledges that democracy is a social construction process that involves the decision of not riding roughshod over the rights of other people beyond its borders. As well, it also consists on keeping a retrospective view motivated by the learning and amending of any errors in its own history. The Spanish government’s attitude in Western Sahara adds to so many other aspects of its foreign policy, that make evident an embarrassing desire to continue looking down on the South with contempt and neo-colonial thirst, both in Africa and Latin America.

In the face of such a devastating scene, people of Spanish descent who, coming from the most human solidarity transcend what they learned in their childhood textbooks full of omissions, set an example and remind us that people and government are not the same thing. In our countries, on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, it is disappointing to see rebellious societies with servile governments that don’t know how or don’t want to abandon their role as mental and economic colonizers.

This is Aminetu’s scene of resistance. Those who have experienced the horror of torture affirm that the only refuge against its cruelty is the mind, a place that people feel to be their own, a place where the repressor cannot enter, the haven that saves one from madness. On the other hand, in the black night of the prison without walls that is forced exile or life under military occupation, the body can become the last resource to call for justice. A woman appropriates her body and transforms it into a vehicle of transgression and denunciation. That gesture, both real and symbolic, not only means to appropriate her own life (we don’t get the accounts wrong: in these circumstances her latent death will continue being the responsibility of both the Spanish and Moroccan governments and of international indifference), but above all, to appropriate her own body, a body that has already been disappeared, forced, beaten and forcefully transformed into an instrument of terror at the hands of her torturer occupant.

Our world, still patriarchal, insists on seeing women as part of the collective property of men who are the holders of a people’s identity. For that reason, invaders vent their anger by raping women as an act to tarnish the masculine pride of a nation. Even the left has not been able to cast off the idea of women as either public property (“to protect our mujeres”) or private property, acquired through the sexual act (“I introduce you to my mujer”)*. Aminetu knows that in spite of everything, she only belongs to herself, as we all do, and from that conscience she has been partner, friend and fighter. Indefatigable survivor and owner of herself, she grabs what is within reach of all human beings demanding the observance of a right: the right to her mind, her body and her unredeemed heart.

I will never understand mankind’s ease in cyclically losing with complete indifference its most valuable and gifted people, the very same ones who could rescue it from its miseries. I hope it doesn't happen again this time.

*Spanish for women/woman.

English translation by Manuel Talens, edited by Machetera. Atenea Acevedo, Manuel Talens and Machetera are members of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, translator and editor are cited.

For more information on the Saharawi struggle and Aminetu Haidar's hunger strike, check out the show aired by Democracy Now on 1 December 2009.

source: http://www.tlaxcala.es/detail_artistes.asp?lg=es&reference=374

These sad and bankrupt organizations are always the first to condemn any tragedy that happens here or anywhere for that matter, when the perpetrator(s) are of the Muslim faith or are Arabs or of Arabic heritage.

Their actions are responsible for the continued discrimination against us. Instead of issuing condemnations of crimes that take place, and making it look as if being Arab or Muslim is the reason for committing the crime, they should have a backbone and either shut up or take the stand that will challenge the right wing and the system in the United States and make it clear to them that Islam and or Arabs are not reasons crimes take place.

No human being should condone the killing of people anywhere and that's why we should all be shocked to see crimes such as the one committed by Nidal Hasan take place.

Crimes always take place and they are carried out by people who for whatever reason(s) commit them, and we all should take a clear stand against these crimes, but the Muslim and Arab organizations in this country should not be waiting for crimes carried out by Muslims and or Arabs to take place so they can be the first to condemn them, but their job should be to combat racist acts and rhetoric that is taking place on daily basis, which goes without any challenge.

Since the first second that media outlets in the US learned that Hasan was a Muslim, they started attacking the religion and those who believe in it and the condemnations by Muslim and Arab groups did nothing but add fuel to these racist attacks on us.

This should be clear to those organizations, because this always happens. And even though some Jason Rodriguez went into his former work offices in Orlando Florida and started shooting and killing people there, media outlets said nothing about this guy's religion and its role in having him commit this outrageous crime, nor did Christian organizations issue any condemnations - even though no one group in the history of the world has committed more crimes than Christians.

So why do these Muslim and Arab organizations keep doing this?
Go figure.
Source: http://wewillreturn.blogspot.com/2009/11/muslim-and-arab-organizations-in-us.html
Yousef

Please visit
http://wewillreturn.blogspot.com

Zayta is my home village and remains the closest place to my heart. Despite the radical shifts in today's world, the early memories of life in Zayta continue to shape my identity and worldview. Villagers' metaphors provide clarity to digest complexities and guidance to navigate the ambiguities of today's complex world. Although I have been living in Canada for the last four years, thousands of miles from Zayta, I still maintain regular presence and engagement with my family, friends and village, thanks to the evolving revolution of information technology. In return, along with this romantic attachment to Zayta, I have been blessed with knowledge and innovative creativity. In this article, I am going to share a transnational vision to build better futures for Zayta and other underprivileged communities in Palestine.

During the last century, the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and later the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank in 1967, uprooted Zayta villagers from their lands and homes. In 1948, the majority of the village's agricultural land was seized by Israel. The Israeli towns of Maggal, Sde Yizhaq, and parts of Hadera are situated on Zayta's land (Raml Zayta). Israel completed its military occupation of the populated part of the village in 1967, after destroying around 70 houses. Due to land confiscation and home destruction many families from the village were forced to move eastwards and settled in Jordan, Syria, and the Gulf countries. For example, there is a whole neighbourhood in Irbid, Jordan, called Zaytawi due to the large number of families from Zayta who live there. 

Historically, villagers were fully dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. They were harvesting olives, almonds, citrus and rain-fed crops such as wheat, barley, and beans. After the Israeli military occupation, villagers' hardship continued. Villagers were used as unskilled labour in Israeli factories and on construction sites. As a result, farmers neglected their remaining farmlands and agricultural produce declined sharply. As in any other Palestinian locality, shops in the village were turned into marketing outlets for Israeli produce. Moreover, the Israeli military administration controlled all aspects of economic life in the village, including the release of building permits, driving licenses, travel permits and recruitment approval of public servants. All in all, livelihood in the village was designed to serve Israeli colonial interests.

Unfortunately, the living conditions in Zayta and many other villages in the northern part of the West Bank deteriorated further after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. According to the Oslo Accords, Israel was to remain in control of security in the rural areas of the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority handled civilian matters.

A few years later, the construction of the apartheid Wall by the Israeli government represented another drastic blow to the Zayta economy. According to the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees, the construction of the racist Wall has affected 820 dunums of land in Zayta. Four hundred dunums have been confiscated, levelled, and used in the construction of the Wall. The other 420 dunums are isolated behind the Wall. The construction of the Wall has also been responsible for uprooting 6,000 olive and almond trees and preventing workers from reaching their jobs inside Israel. Access to the Israeli job market has become extremely difficult for Palestinians. As a result, villages in the northern part of the West Bank, including Zayta, have experienced unprecedented poverty rates. Moreover, the unfortunate internal political crisis between Fatah and Hamas has deepened the social and political fragmentation within Palestinian communities. For example, incidents of social disengagement have grown considerably over the last few years and have led to a significant increase in migration flows. 

The combination of accelerated hardships of the Palestinian rural communities, including Zayta, and the failure of conventional development models to resolve Palestinian challenges call for an alternative Palestinian development worldview. In fact, resolving the challenges of deprived communities such as Zayta needs innovative development strategies to transform unhealthy patterns of social formation in these communities. According to social scientists, conventional development models that are focused on handling local and territorial patterns fail to address the evolutionary patterns of today's space-based world.  

The explosion of transnational information that flows through information technologies and social media outlets enhances the role of space in everyday lives worldwide. These space-based technologies are already reshaping organisations and economies. More precisely, they are changing the source of wealth creation, the organisation of firms, the nature of work and the boundaries of economic geography. Spatial literacy now serves as an important key for socio-economic development.  Economists, who have traditionally viewed the economy in territorial terms only, are now recognising the importance of space in economic transformation, technological innovation and global competitiveness.

In the age of open spaces, geographies are changing. Social technologies offer Palestinian communities and businesses a remarkable opportunity to reinvent themselves. For example, businesses have a great opportunity to rebrand their products and services within today's multicultural markets. Blogging offers business owners an easy way to brand and build connections with customers around the world. To take another example, this morning I bought a 3-litre bottle of olive oil produced in Nablus and a 2-kilogram can of pickled cucumbers produced in Jenin from an ethnic grocery store in Mississauga (a Canadian city near Toronto). Labels on these products only included Palestinian phone numbers as contact information. They didn't have electronic mail or website i.e., information. Building a virtual presence is critical for success in today's business world. Maybe  Palestinian businesses should develop their virtual content as a strategy to connect with global clients and partners. They should make information about their products and services accessible to everyone.

The shift from territorial to spatial economics offers Palestinian individuals, businesses, and communities remarkable opportunities to initiate innovative economic networks and create new social formation patterns in our communities inside Palestine. According to official statistics, more than five million Palestinians are living in transnational communities around the world. Building connections between the Palestinian diaspora and communities inside Palestine in today's interconnected world will foster innovation, knowledge transfer, market exploration, and business partnerships. In social terms, building Palestinian transnationalism will enhance community engagement, social change, and political empowerment. 

In the final analysis, it is about time to expand our horizons and facilitate new social interactions within our space-based society in order to build a new potential for Zayta and other Palestinian communities. 

Khaled Islaih is a community developer with a passion for societal transformation. He works with Muslim Community Services to provide language-training services for newcomers to Canada in Mississauga and Brampton. He can be reached at kislaih@yahoo. com.

Maybe it’s because I’m a numbers guy
Because if I had a dollar for every time an Iraqi died since 2003 
I’d be a millionaire

And don’t get me wrong
Sometimes I don’t know who I hate more
The governments in the West 
Or the politicians in the East
Who sell their souls quicker than the oil they export
Straw men who use Palestine as a tool to line their pockets
And don’t give a nickel to their people
Quisling governments
Who stitch mouths shut for a check from Washington and AIPAC
How can you be their prototypical anti-Semite
If you are signing peace accords to oppress your own people?

And then Orientalists and idiots talk about how 
We can’t have democracy in the Middle East 
Because of what happened in Gaza
A Hamas boogyman wrapped in democratic elections 
Rahm Emanuel wants to educate me and my people about democracy gone wrong
Why doesn’t he try implementing one in Israel first?
Instead of bowing down to terrorists like his father and the IDF
Lauding a third rate, racist, European society that’s imploding quicker
Than its moral standing in the world
Enlightened like 1950s Afrikaners and slave traders
Just because the house is beautiful
Doesn’t mean the bones you built it on have fully decomposed

The Israeli left is about as alive as Ariel Sharon
I’m sick and tired of asking for permission to resist
From antiquated leftists and progressives
Who care more about keeping it Kosher than moving things forward
I put down my pen and waving fist to resist with college kids and Palestinians
Boycott and divest!
Because who cares about preserving a living when governments are killing civilians
Complicity by silence and reserve units bombing Gaza
Your academics and scholars, theater groups and practitioners, are part of the problem

And if logic doesn’t fit into your long term plan of rejecting
My right to return, I’m sorry
Maybe one day you’ll return to reality
Where my people have babies quicker 
Than Zionists can concoct Jordanian options 

I don’t want your sympathy or introspective confessions
Won’t sit on my hands till they loose oxygen
Like the people of Balata and Rafah
Vote for Barack Obama
And pretend that his 22 day silence was golden
While emaciated children starved to death
Surrounded by their parent’s corpses

This can’t be America the Beautiful
A criminal with a few positive attributes
Doesn’t alleviate genocide
Bombing Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq
Into oblivion doesn’t make you historic
It makes you as blind and bloodthirsty 
As the white men that came before you
Apathetic hipsters now excited about a president
Who broke history, but not poverty, occupation, or corporate interests

I’d rather proudly walk through the graveyard of peace accords 
And failed dialogue sessions
Than see my people just as occupied or third class citizens
We are the gavel that will slam down like a verdict
We are not waiting for Israel or America or the Supreme Court to approve it
We’ll boycott Lev Leviev, Caterpillar and your apartheid companies
We’re taking back the right of return and the keys to a country 
Because we never asked you to go back to Europe or sit in open air prisons
I’m not asking for your advice, I’m explaining the decision
You can stay here, with us, but only as equals
It’s not that you’re Israeli, it’s that you’re wrong
That’s why I fight for my people!

(photo by Daniela Spano "Nelle Mani di Nonna")
I woke up yesterday morning to find an email from my father, who is on a business trip in Europe at the moment, informing us that my grandmother had a stroke Sunday and passed away.

The last time I heard Bibi's voice was August 8, my wedding day. She called to congratulate us as I walked out of a salon. If there was ever such a thing as "mixed feelings", it's feeling happy to hear from your grandmother on your wedding while cursing the distance and displacement created by your homeland's turmoil. I fought off tears to avoid smudging the bridal make-up I'd just had applied.

He truly loved the world and the simple gifts it gave
It gave him music and his family
More than enough

Never a moment without music, not if he could help it
Often wondered what a thought in his head sounded like

It’s been six years since his music left us
Stopped so abruptly
The sound of the interruption still burns in my ears

Before talking about Duraid, I should mention that the political Syrian drama and theatrical art finds itself in a predominant place in the Arab world. This position has been earned by the best script writers, actors, producers and researchers who took the acting mission seriously, especially when it comes to producing masterpieces about the history and the political struggle in the Middle East.

Duraid, well known by the nickname of one of his characters as Ghawar Al-Toushi is a Syrian actor who occupied every Arab heart through his satirical and sarcastic roles on TV and the stage of the theatre. And as much as he made us laugh he forced us many times to cry when he criticised corruption and identified with the poor, oppressed, and the vulnerable – especially the Palestinian symbols who were part of almost every role he played.

Duraid was the leading actor in many theatrical plays, one of which was titled Kasak Ya Watan which meant in Arabic  To drink the toast of one's homeland. In his genius roles he was the platform that represented everybody, but some would wonder, why did he call to drink a toast of his country? Duraid is a Shia Muslim born 1934 in Lebanon and lived all his life in Syria, but most of us never knew that because he was never the voice of one area or certain faith, he was any one of us, whoever we choose to be.

He knew the rules in our part of the world, the law will not punish him if he criticised the authorities or the government while he was drunk. In his extra special play Kasak Ya Watan he declares that he is about to burst with pain and disappointment, he was longing to say how he feels about corruption and defeat in a society governed by censorship, so he knew how to get out of such an awkward position by deciding to get drunk, so that he could express himself and escape the punishment at the same time, for the legislations dictate to ignore and pardon the drunken for he does not know what he says. By God, almost every Arab individual felt like getting drunk because every one of us, especially the intellectuals… have a great deal of things to complain about. But we are all cowards, frightened to breathe under imposed censorship.

But here he is, arriving in Gaza as the first leading Arab artist to show support for the city under siege, and after the Israeli attack. The comedian and icon of the Arab political theatre arrived upon an invitation by the theatrical women's team of Gaza who are playing Sabr Ayyoub which means the Patience of Jacob. This expression is used by Palestinians when describing reaching the limit of perseverance and patience. Of course the women of Gaza are as patient as the messenger of God and the prophet Jacob, who came in terms with losing everything including his children and health, but never lost faith or hope.

Duraid's visit to Gaza is a great gesture since he taught us politics in small doses while we were smiling. The people of Gaza needed him, especially the mothers who were the axis of most of his great works; the mother was a key figure in his plays. I can almost hear him sing from behind the prison bars to his mother  Yamoo ya set Alhabayeb Yammo the song that made every mother cry. …Yamoo is the slang word for mother in Syria.

As a Palestinian mother, I just could not hear about his visit and not cry of joy, for he is the son of every Palestinian mother. He played sometimes characters of a troublesome mischievous son, who always got himself in trouble, nobody could tame him, but when it comes to his mother's memories, he turns to show a fragile character of a boy wearing the skin of a grown up man, in desperate need to be hugged by his mother.

Supporting the theatre in Gaza is of great importance, for Palestinians need to vent their pain through art and literature to rise above the rubble and shake off their homes the ashes.

The play had its opening debut at the Rashad Shawa theatre in the Cultural Centre of Gaza City, the drama talked of a Palestinian woman searching for her children in the rubble of her house that was bombed by the Israeli air force.

Then comes the birth of Ayyoub, the leading actor in the play, played by the author and director Saeed Beetar. He emerges carried on the shoulders of Palestinian women in a basket made of straw, that resembles the baskets used during the harvest season.

The play portrays the struggle of Palestinian women detained in Israeli prisons through the character of Maryam the Palestinian young mother who was imprisoned by the Israeli system and had to give birth to her baby boy Mahmoud inside the prison. Somehow this story reminds me of the Palestinian prisoner Fatima Alziq who has given birth to her son Joseph inside an Israeli prison too, she is also from Gaza and she and her son are still prisoners.

One of the most important scenes of the play portrays the exceptionally strong relationship between Christians and Muslims in Palestine where a Christian nun offers refuge to Muslim women who fled from the Israeli bombing in the church, then sacrifices herself while trying to protect an injured woman.

The play demonstrates the agony of women suffering the siege, but also talks of the divisions in the Palestinian society, a subject Duraid dealt with over and over again on the stage. The play ended with the leading actor refusing to leave the basket when he found out that his society was divided.