Christmas Greetings

Dear Family and Friends:

 This is a very special time for all of us as a family as we gather for Christmas and  give thanks for having Shadi with us during this festive season.  Not only do we want to wish you a Merry Christmas, but we  want to thank you specially for  all your support and solidarity during Shadi’s ordeal.  Although he was released for house arrest,  at least he is at home, and he was  able to study on-line before the Christmas break.  

He was also able to watch many of the World Cup games including the final one.  I am attaching a photo of both of us as he welcomes me to their home for the final game.  But the latest good news is ironic indeed, but  he was  granted  a  permit to go to church on Christmas Sunday,    after which all the family, my two children, their spouses and seven grandchildren will be  around for the Christmas lunch.   We have an extra addition this year, my first great- grand son,  Sary Zabaneh, son of Faris and Zeina,  Shadi’s oldest  sister.   So there is a lot to be grateful for, and we hope there is a lot for you as well  to be grateful for,  despite all the absurdities of the political scene all over the world, and especially in our area from where the first message of peace was proclaimed.

With love, and warm wishes for a blessed season, peace and good health throughout the year. 

The legacy of Colonialism

I have always enjoyed reading, but more so during these days  when I really need to take a break from the realities of every day. One of the most recent books I got engrossed in reading was “The Island of Missing Trees” by the British Turkish Novelist Elif Shafak. Although the latter part of the book takes place in England, most of the events take place basically in Cyprus where a fig tree standing in the courtyard of  a tavern  is often quoted in the book. One special quote  that hit a chord with me. “But on an island plagued by years of ethnic violence and brutal atrocities, humans were not the only ones that suffered.”   How very true, especially for us Palestinians when we say in Arabic that the occupation has hurt the humans, the trees and the stones.  In Arabic it rhymes  “Al Bashar wal Shajar  wal Hajar.” The number of young and old prisoners is in thousands.  We have seen so many olive trees being cut, or burnt depriving the owners of their only source of income for the whole year.  And then the number of stone houses that have been demolished is countless.

But then Cyprus is not the only victim of British Colonialism.  The policy of divide and rule prevailed, causing havoc wherever they were and whenever they left.  Palestine is still reaping the evil effects of the  original sin of the Balfour declaration in 1917, without even as much as an apology to  the generations who have been suffering due  to that declaration, and its effects since the Nakba of 1948.  An ongoing Nakba indeed, especially that  more recently, the number of our young men who are being 

Until when can this go on?  Will the United Nations and the  International  community continue to accept the justification that Israel has the right to defend itself, and that criticizing  Israel for its atrocities in the Palestinian Territories is considered  antisemitic?  Enough is enough, and let us call a spade a spade.