Christmas 2019

Dear Family and Friends:  

Amidst all the turmoil that has been going on in this crazy world of ours, and despite all  its absurdities, hope for justice and peace for all,  keeps us going. Even the weather has been acting crazy.  Ever since we had two good showers in October in time for the Olive harvest, it has been completely dry until we were blessed with some rain during this last week end.  I hope it is an omen for a good season.  

The highlight  of the year for us as a family was the wedding of granddaughter Zeina, my son Suhail’s  oldest child who got married on September 1 to Faris Zabaneh, her classmate at the Friends School.  It was a blessing that I had recovered from a fractured pelvis after a fall in January,  and was able to join the wedding party on top of a few jigs on the dancing floor.  Having some cousins from across the river of Jordan and from Europe, was an extra bonus.  Haya Yasmeen, Dina’s daughter was maid of honor, and her brother Faris had graduated from the University of San Francisco in time to join us for that  lovely occasion. Omar,  our oldest grandson, and the designer,  was also back from London where he had spent the summer at the British Musem.  Rand, Zeina’s  sister and one of the four bride’s maids left home immediately  after the wedding to start her veterinary studies in Budapest.   We look forward to having her home for Christmas in a couple of weeks.  Suhail’s youngest two boys Yousef and Shadi are still in school in Jerusalem, and Shadi was very happy to be the ring boy at his sister’s wedding. 

Daughter Dina who had been in charge of infection control at the Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem for many years started a new post at the hospital in May as Chief of  Operations Officer (COO.) Since then she has travelled for meetings and conferences to the USA, Dublin, and Dubai.  Her husband, Yousef  Nasser continues to teach economics at Birzeit University but after all those long years of being denied entry to Jerusalem,  he now has a permit to be in Jerusalem which needs to  be renewed on a yearly basis.

Son Suhail and his wife Rania have been contributing to the cultural aspect in the Palestinian Territories.  Suhail, as general director of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, and Rania as director of Yabous cultural Centre in Jerusalem.  The Palestine Youth Orchestra had a successful tour in the Scandinavian countries this past summer shortly after they had finished performing the musical “the Little Lantern” based on the story by Ghassan Kanafani, which Suhail had composed.  It was performed for the first time in 2004 at the Cultural Palace in Ramallah and  accompanied at that time by a German Orchestra.  But this time it was performed at the Feisal Husseini Hall at Yabous Cultural Centre  in Jerusalem, and accompanied by the Palestine Youth Orchestra. It ran daily for a whole week, and the young cast were all from Jerusalem.    Rania came back recently from Morocco after being one of five international personalities honored during the opening of "Visa for Music"   International festival for Music and Art in Rabat, Morocco, for her contribution and commitment to the cultural landscape in Palestine. 

I feel blessed to have both of my children around, especially that I am completely retired now and spend most of my time at home reading and writing.  Occasionally I accompany some friends to Rawdat El-Zuhur which remains close to my heart, and those lovely children continue to be a source of hope for the future.  I was not even able to attend the Sabeel International Gathering recently.  But it was such a pleasure to have  some of the participants drop by for a visit;   Brian Grieves,  Rev. Ateek with my friend Cedar and a long-time colleague at Sabeel, who was also unable to attend the Sabeel gathering, as well  as Don and Linda Wagner. 

As usual my birthday,  86^th this past November,  was celebrated twice. Once in Jerusalem with the children.  and once in Birzeit with my siblings, Rima and Hanna and his lovely wife Tania.  This is due to some of the absurdities and check points that are part of our daily life.

Another highlight for the year was the election of Mira Rizek, the National Secretary of the YWCA of Palestine as president of the World YWCA during the recent meeting of the World YWCA council in November, held in Johannesburg, South Africa.  This meant a lot to us as a community, and to me personally because I had the privilege of being the first National President of the YWCA of Palestine when it was affiliated to the World YWCA in Stavengar in 1991.  On the 7^th of January,  the YWCA of Jerusalem had a pre Christmas breakfast for its membership and friends on the occasion of St. Barbara’s feast.  It was a lovely occasion to welcome Mira with a big applause and a nice bouquet of flowers.  Abla Nasir, another past National president provided us with lovely music on her guitar, and the whole atmosphere was joyful. 

  

My children, their spouses  and grandchildren join me in sending you our warmest greetings for a blessed Christmas and a peaceful New Year. And we would like to share with you the following link for a song composed by Suhail with lyrics by Fouad Srouji .  

Gideon Levy on Gaza

I just hope the following article by Gideon Levy is a wake up call to the Israeli army to start with, and to all those who support and feel very strongly that Israel has the right to defend itself.   This is not new to the most moral army in the only democratic state in the region.  Indeed, every country that has set borders and is not occupying other people’s land and dispossessing them daily has the right to defend itself.  Will Israel pass the test?

A few days ago, on November 26, a sick prisoner who was dying of cancer, Sami Abu Deyak passed away after spending  his dying days in the prison hospital chained to his bed.  He begged the authorities to let him die at home with his mother, but to no avail. And that was not the end of the brutality.  His body has been held by the Israeli authorities.  Why? I challenge any of you to give me a logical answer for this absolute inhumane  act.    How much more does this mother need to go through  after losing her son who had spent the last seventeen years in jail?   Don’t they have mothers?  Don’t they have children?  Don’t miss Levy’s article on those little children. 

Analysis

The Israeli Army's Excuses Won't Help. Only War Criminals Kill Nine Innocent Civilians in Their Sleep

Had the IDF wanted to, it could have known exactly who was inside the shack it targeted in Gaza. But it didn't care, and now a little girl is left alone in the world

Gideon Levy

Anyone who bombs houses from a fighter jet in the middle of the night without checking who is inside is a war criminal. Whoever claims they did not intend to kill the nine members of the Palestinian al-Sawarkah family is trying to mislead and wash their hands of it, but their hands are not clean. They are dripping with the blood of innocents.

Maybe they did not intend to murder nine people in their sleep – five of whom were children and among them two infants – but they certainly did not do everything in their power to not harm them. No excuse will serve to justify the actions of the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli intelligence and of course the Israel Air Force pilots.

The audacious statements by Southern Command head Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi are an outstanding example of apathy and the loss of humanity: “Such things can happen,” he said innocently. Maybe his statement was a reference to one made by former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, who said that “it's like a light bump to the wing of the plane” when he was asked what he felt when he dropped a bomb that killed innocent civilians.

Not a word of guilt, not a sentence expressing regret, no acceptance of responsibility, no apology. Of course there's no point in talking about compensation, because the army doesn't see those who died as important. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are terrorist organizations. And those who kill nine helpless civilians sleeping in their own beds in their own home – what should they be called?

What else needs to happen so that Israelis begin to understand that their so beloved and admired IDF is a brutal army that has lost all of its inhibitions and that Gaza is not a target bank. That an army that invented a wanted man who never existed in order to justify the killing of a family is a sick army. That it's impossible to strike Gaza with fighter jets without killing innocent people. That there's not a single place in the densely populated enclave without civilians who don't have any shelter for salvation, no rocket alerts sirens and no Iron Dome defense systems. That Gaza is not just a hornet’s nest and home to terrorist compounds, but first and foremost a horribly crowded home to miserable people subject to the Israeli occupation that has never ended in the Strip.

Fourth and fifth generation refugees, who Israel imprisoned 13 years ago in the largest cage in the world and expects them to sit quietly, surrender and throw rice at the planes bombing them and at the fence that imprisons them.

The revelations that keep one from sleeping reported by Haaretz's Yaniv Kubovich on Thursday join Kubovich's November 15 report, describing the chain of events in Deir el-Balah in their entirety: An unbelievable reality in which the army bombs targets without checking what, and more importantly who, is inside.

                                                     

An Open Letter to the Consul General of the United Kingdom

The following Headline appeared in Al-Quds, our local Arabic newspaper, on Friday, October 18. 2019: Britain joins the Palestinians in the olive picking season.   

It is quoting the Consul General of the United Kingdom in Jerusalem Mr. Philip Hall,  that for the sixth consecutive year  the UK has been supporting the Palestinians during the olive picking season. It is an opportunity for the staff of the consulate and other international volunteers to take part in this activity which is very vital for the Palestinian economy,  over and above its cultural and social significance.  He further emphasized the violence of the settlers in this season, and that fifteen diplomats from the Consulate and other international representatives were able to help the farmers in the Makhrour Valley where a Palestinian restaurant was recently demolished so that the settlers could start another building there.  

He further referred to the increasing violence of the settlers and that this activity is considered part of the humanitarian, and political support to the Palestinian towns, especially the marginalized ones in Area C.

I could not help but respond to the item by writing back to the paper an open letter to the Consul General which I will translate in the following lines:  

I am sure the farmers and the owners of those olive trees are very grateful to the Consul General of the UK for this support, especially that the olive picking season has become a nightmare for the Palestinians due to the raids of the Jewish settlers with the support of the Israeli army. 

As we express our gratitude to the representative of the government of the United Kingdom for this initiative, I would like to draw his  attention and the attention of  the government of the United Kingdom, that the Palestinians expect much more from the United Kingdomthan its support of the olive picking season.

To start with,  an apology for the infamous Balfour Declaration which facilitated the road for the Palestinian Nakba. Furthermore for the withdrawal of the British Mandate on May 15, 1948 without taking responsibility for the consequences of this withdrawal, over and above the consequences of the partition of Palestine.

After seventy one  years of  the Palestinian dispossession and fifty two years of a brutal Israeli military occupation of the remaining Palestinian territories, don’t you think it is high time for the government of the United Kingdom to take a Moral Stand and recognize a Free Palestinian State that has a right to self- determination?

Yom Kippur

October 9, 2019

Today is Yom Kippur in the Jewish calendar, and it has been  so quiet in the whole area, especially that there is a  Jewish settlement Neve Yacov built after 1967 adjacent to our neighborhood.  Of course Israel refers to it as a northern  neighborhood of Jerusalem.  And since I had not written for a long time,  I decided to reflect on that day.  To start with I looked up what the day stands for so that I am sure the information I already have was correct, and that is exactly what I found.  A day of fasting and atonement, and the holiest day in the Jewish Calendar. 

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Holiest Day

Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with an approximate 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services.

Observances: Fasting, prayer, abstaining from physical pleasures, refraining from work

Observed by: Jews, Samaritans

Significance: Atonement for personal and national sins, fate of each person is sealed for the upcoming year

I  could not help but wonder whether one day per year is enough for atonement for all the atrocities that have been carried out by Israel against our Palestinian people.  The young men and women languishing in Israeli jails, the children who have been harassed on their way to school and interrogated until they wet their pants, the young couples who are not allowed to live in Jerusalem together because one of them does not have a Jerusalem Identity Card, the Palestinians with foreign passports who are denied entry into their country,  the humiliation that people face at the check points on their daily journey to work. 

The people of Gaza alone need a whole year of atonement for what has been happening to them under those long years of siege, and for daring to protest,  so many lives have been lost.  The farmers,  who are losing access to their land, and its income,  especially during this season when they start picking olives. Over and above,  all those  people who have been evicted from their homes without mercy and have strangers occupy them  under their own eyes, just because they claim that they belonged to Jews before 1948.  How ironic that Palestinians have never been able to claim their homes of pre 1948, not even those Palestinians who stayed in Israel and became Israeli citizens, but were evicted from their homes to other areas in what became Israel.  Let alone all those homes that are being demolished every day not only in the Jerusalem area under the pretext of not having the proper license,  but also in Arab towns inside Israel as well as the West Bank, where those homes have a license from their own Palestinian  municipalities.  Indeed, a grave injustice that the whole world has turned a blind eye to.  No wonder Israel continues to get away with all these measures with impunity. 

As I reread the observances for that day I noticed that  abstaining from physical pleasures was on the list.   Some of  those trigger-happy young Israeli soldiers consider shooting, harassing and torturing our people as a physical pleasure.  So hopefully at least for one day per year our people are being  spared.  But honestly and truly,  is one day per year enough for atonement for  a people who are occupying another people and violating international law and all human rights accords?  By the end of the day the slate is clean and ready to get filled up as soon as the next day starts while the world is watching.