The Corona Lockdown

As the discussion continues on easing the Lockdown that has paralyzed the whole world, I could not but reflect on a quotation by one of the Palestinian refugees the day she arrived in Birzeit in 1948.  The Palestinians from Ramleh and Lydda were evicted by the Israeli army in the hot month of July 1948 and forced to walk for two days before they found refuge in Birzeit and Ramallah.  

Many books were written about this part of the Palestinian catastrophe,  and I alluded to it in my book -  Reflections from Palestine: A Journey of Hope.  Prof Reja-e Busailah  describes that walk  meticulously and so vividly in his book “In the Land of My Birth” when at the age of 19 he joined the people of Lydda in this exodus march.  

As we continued to listen to the various personal stories of a number of those exhausted refugees,  one lady was ever so grateful that she arrived alive, realizing the loss of life that took place on that journey and among those  who stayed behind.  Referring to what she had left behind, she said: “Property cannot bring back life, but life can bring back material belongings.  Yes indeed many of the Palestinians who survived that Nakba, in fact,  get credit for the development of many of the Arab countries as well as a number of institutions in different parts of the world.  

When the Corona Pandemic invaded the world, one of the earliest governments that took action on a lockdown was that of  Palestine.  It was a wise decision because, a country under occupation with limited resources and access to facilities, could not afford the luxury of procrastination.  Ironically the most developed countries like the US was late to react, and the statistics on the loss of life says a lot. 

However, after a two-month lockdown it is not surprising that  business people are starting to worry and the pressure to go back to normal life has already started.  We have watched people on the beaches, out in stores, but the apprehension is still there.  Will money be more dear than life, or could there be a compromise?  I could not help but think of that old lady from Ramleh “Property cannot bring back life, but life can bring back material belongings.”

Easter 2020 Message of Samia Khoury

 Zoom Holy Saturday prayer April 11

Al-Salaam Aleykum,  Peace Greetings to all of you from Jerusalem. 

While Easter is the most important season for Christians all over the world, it is specially meaningful for Palestinian Christians, and more so for those of us  living  in Jerusalem, supposedly the  city of peace, when in reality there is no peace. 

People travel from all over the world to walk the way of the Cross in commemoration of the crucifixion of our Lord and to rejoice at his Resurrection.  But this year with the Corona Virus Pandemic the streets of Jerusalem and its hotels are empty.  And the doors of  the churches are closed.  For a change the whole world is joining us in our via Dolorosa which we have been walking through under a harsh military occupation, not much different from the days of Christ under Roman occupation.

While all the country is locked down, we empathize with the people of Gaza who have been under siege for the last fourteen years.  And despite the need for  solidarity from everybody in the region to face the challenge of this monster of a virus, we continue to watch Palestinian homes being demolished and young people thrown into prison without charge or trial.  Farmers are losing more and more of their land to Israeli settlers.  As if that is not enough, the settlers have been flooding whatever land they have not yet confiscated with contaminated water and pesticides.  Even  when  Palestinian personnel in charge of the affairs of East Jerusalem  as well as young volunteers are caught helping people in this crisis,  they pay heavily for that aid.  As we say in Arabic لا برحمك ولا بخلي رحمة ربنا تنزل عليك  “neither am I merciful towards you, nor will I allow the mercy of God to fall upon you.”  Yet we know God is a merciful God and He will in His own way protect us.  And that is why we  hold onto hope;  the hope of the resurrection every time we watch our people  being denied their basic human rights,  and more so,  their right to live freely in their own city.  Without our faith and hope as well as our resilience “Sumud” we could not have survived all those long years under occupation.   

Thanks to technology, we have been attending services and have been connecting with our churches on line during this Holy Week,  just as we are now  sharing  with you our hope of the resurrection.  The whole world has been toppled upside down due to a small virus that found its way across the world, irrespective of borders or security walls; needing neither  visas, nor travel permits,  and challenging all the technology as well as the powers who reign in our times.

So we seize this opportunity on Holy Saturday to pray with all the people of the world,  and our special prayers at this time  are for the sick people, the doctors, nurses and all health workers who are on the front line. We also pray for the families who lost dear ones in this pandemic. And we pray for all the prisoners who are locked up in Israeli jails and other jails all over the world.   And when this nightmare is behind us we pray and hope that  we would have learned a good lesson to be more compassionate not only to our neighbors and world citizens, but to our environment that is already rebelling in its own way to our style of life. 

And last but not least, we pray that world leaders would  reset their priorities and silence the guns to spare humanity further suffering, so that the hope of the resurrection will supersede all the suffering caused by wars, sanctions and greed for power. 

As I send you greetings and hope for Justice and Peace from the Land of the resurrection, let me remind all of us of the words of the hymnal:“This is my Father’s world. O, let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet”. Amen

Here is the link for the Friends of Sabeel North America Service. I hope you enjoy it.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2854034748007057

Is not the Corona pandemic enough???

While the United Nations Secretary General is calling on all countries to silence the guns and focus on collectively saving humanity from this vicious pandemic that is ravaging societies around the globe, Israel finds it very timely to increase its oppression of the Palestinians under occupation.  

A few days ago Israeli  soldiers  raided Ramallah creating havoc in the middle of the night.  A week ago they continued demolishing homes in the suburbs of Jerusalem and  other parts of the West Bank. And on the second of April, the police  raided the house of  Fadi Hidmi, the Palestinian minister in charge of the affairs of  East Jerusalem,  blasting the gate to his garden and breaking into his  house, as well as confiscating the money he had at home..  

Not only does Israel seize the opportunity of this world crisis to further harass the Palestinians, they always choose the night hours for their raids.  Why I wonder?  It seems to me that thieves are the only people that need to be protected by the dark  hours of the night  to do their illegal actions.  The Police in Jerusalem know very well that the Palestinians in East Jerusalem are practically under curfew and they have complied by staying at home.  So they could have easily picked up Mr. Hidmi during the day time without scaring the family and causing extra stress to the community that is already being deprived of its basic rights.  The only charge against Mr. Hidmi is that he is trying, with his colleagues,  to alleviate the suffering of so many people who have lost their daily bread due to the  current  crisis which has not spared either Palestinians or Israelis.  And that is why the police has also been  harassing all the young volunteers of the Old City of Jerusalem and confiscating the aid in kind that they are trying to deliver to needy families.  

Will the Corona Pandemic be a good enough lesson for all of the world leaders and citizens?  Actually, it is in time of crisis and the way  one reacts to fellow world citizens that one’s true character is revealed.

We are a People With a Name

On top of  all the generous gifts that the President of the USA, Mr. Donald Trump,  gave to Israel in his deal of the century, the USA is now referring to the Palestinians of  Jerusalem as non-Israelis.

Not much different from the letter  of November 2, 1917 which Lord Arthur  Balfour, Foreign Secretary of Great Britain at the time wrote to Mr. Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland assuring him that “His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

Ironic indeed that the indigenous  Palestinian  Arabs who were the majority of the population of Palestine  at that time,  would be  referred to as non-Jews.

It seems those big powers have a problem defining us by our proper name We are a distinct people, Palestinians, part of the Arab nation with civil, national and political rights.  We will stay put on our land fighting for our rights, all our rights  no matter what demonic schemes Israel and the US have for us.

Simply reflecting

As we entered 2020 the general political scene looked very grim  in all our region: Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Libya,  and Palestine, especially after the announcement of the details of the “Deal of the Century.”   For us Palestinians, both the president of the USA, Donald Trump, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who are  running the show that continues to deprive us of our rights,  are the calamities of the new year.  But then out of  the blue China “blessed” us and many parts of the world with the Corona virus 

Ironic indeed when you think you are in control and can do anything you please a tiny virus topples your life upside down.  Meetings, prayers, concerts, conferences and so many activities on the occasion of Women’s day have all been cancelled.  However, the elections in Israel took place before the panic started and the restrictions imposed on many areas and schools.  How a candidate indicted for corruption is allowed to even run for elections and get so many votes is beyond me. 

When will all those powers stop for a moment and think of what they are doing to the soul of the human being who has become  a victim and vulnerable to so many injustices imposed by big powers.  We are confident that those powers will not have the final word   and that forces of good and forces beyond them will prevail in the end.

The Announcement of the Deal of the Century

I hesitated a lot  before even attempting to reflect on the latest deal of the century, especially that renowned journalists, Israelis  like Gideon Levy and foreigners like Robert Fisk as well as Palestinians,  had written excellent articles on the issue.  I had also written something on the subject in May but it was before the plan along with  those distorted maps were  officially announced.  Yet it was clear what kind of a deal it was going to be due to the actions that were already taking place on the ground with the full support and blessing of the President of the USA.  But honestly I did not envisage that it could be that bad and that demonic, especially when Mr. Trump was promoting it as a “win win deal,” and good for the Palestinians as well.  If that is good for us, I dread to think how would a bad deal look like? 

That is why  I could not resist making the following analogy  since it was no deal at all.  It was simply an Israeli plan for further dispossession of the Palestinians and endorsed by the USA president.  I thought of it as a still birth to a love affair between Trump and Netanyahu with a novice of a midwife called Jared Kushner.  The way Trump was gloating over his presentation while admiring his partner in this affair clapping at every other sentence was disgusting.   

If by now the United Nations has not been able to set the records straight, and implement its own resolutions on the Palestinian issue, then I am afraid the law of the jungle will continue to  prevail.  The way Israel has been acting during those long years of its control of all the Palestinian land is but an example of such a law.  Over and above,  the US has been  shielding Israel as well as sanctioning anybody who dares challenge or criticize Israel.  The Palestinians have moved from armed struggle to civil disobedience to peaceful resistance , as well as to peaceful negotiations, but to no avail.  So nobody  should be surprised or dare  criticize them if  after 72 years should they resort to a new and innovative way of resistance.  Without Justice there can never be any peace in the whole region, neither for the Israelis nor for the Palestinians.

My TV Day

As the weather was so bad on Sunday,  I did not even contemplate going to church and opted to watch the weekly service from one of the Christian churches on Palestine TV.  January 19,  being the Armenian Christmas,  the service was from St. James’ Armenian Cathedral in the Old City of Jerusalem.  So as I was listening to the chanting and not understanding one word, my thoughts took me back to the day my mother passed away in the early hours of January 19,  thirty four years ago, when the funeral was on that afternoon. 

Like this past Sunday,  the weather was wet and stormy, and we had asked Bishop Kafity, the Bishop of the Anglican Church  at the time,  and who was officiating at the service, if we could have the funeral service  at the Catholic Church in Birzeit.  The Anglican church is so small that it would hardly have accommodated the family members,  whereas the Catholic church is very large and spacious.  Of course the Catholic priest was very cooperative, a request  we could not have even considered ten years earlier. 

I took a break from the TV after the Armenian service,  and after having a bite and a short rest I turned on the TV again.   What a coincidence that the Promise was on.  It is a 2016 movie which I am  sure many of you had seen.  I had heard about it, but never had a chance to watch it.  The  events take place  towards the end of the Turkish rule and the Armenian Genocide.  The brutality was endless and the Turks were ruthless.  The suffering was unbelievable and it was a miracle that some actually survived.   A few years ago I had read Towards Golgotha, the memoirs of Hagob Arsenian, the grandfather of  our friend Nora Arsenian Carmi,  and what he went through to  make it to Jerusalem eventually.  I had nightmares after reading it and could not imagine any human being would survive such brutal conditions.  Watching the film and seeing the cooperation and the determination of those Armenians of all ages to survive until they were able to reach a safe haven was amazing.  

Of course I could not but relate to 1948 and the various massacres of Palestinians as well as their forced eviction, by the Israeli forces.  The sight of the people of Ramleh and Lydda, as they arrived from the coastal area, to the hills  of Birzeit and Ramallah after walking for three days during the hot sun of July 1948,   is still etched in my memory. 

It was not my day for light movies or one of the musicals that I always enjoy watching, so the next movie was Viceroy’s House which was about the days towards the end of the British rule of India.  How easy it was  for the British to divide countries that are not theirs.  The colonial policy of “divide and rule.”  Up to this day the area suffers from the partition of the country and the creation of Pakistan.  In almost the similar manner the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel continue to cause so much suffering and unrest in the region.  

Both the Turks and the Israelis have a lot to atone for, and so do the British, the USA  and many other colonial countries, but I am not writing history, I am simply reflecting.