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Nothing gets in; nothing gets out without approval. Even the books allowed in schools must be approved by this superpower. Books which often teach adherence to Zionism and the faith superiority of Judaism, reminding a reader of the books given black school children in segregated America which taught the supremacy of a Caucasian constitution to that of a Negro.
For the Muslim and Christian citizens within
Israel, conditions are slightly improved, yet uncertainty hovers. Any day the government can decide a home or business must be acquired or destroyed for the sake of the Jewish state. Proof of ownership rarely matters. Once taken, the property becomes Jewish only. It is a crime to sell or lease Jewish property to a non-Jewish citizen, even if the non-Jewish citizen can produce the key. This is democracy, Israeli style. Ninety-three percent of Israel is off limits to non-Jewish citizens. A Palestinian
cannot own property, work or even walk down streets in most areas of his own country. To do so, he must be a tourist, foreign national or the right faith. The right faith in Israel being Jewish and only Jewish. Yet despite the oppression, theft, terror and uncertainty nearly sixty years in the making, the Christians and Muslims of Palestine persevere. They persevere, pray and wait. The world promised those of the Jewish faith a homeland in 1948. In return, those of the Jewish faith promised equal rights, citizenship and a shared existence with the people whose land they would settle. Those of the Jewish faith got their country. Those of the land they settled are still waiting for equality. The Christians and Muslims of Israel are still waiting for those of the Jewish faith to keep their promises. They are still waiting for
justice. They are still waiting, displaced and clinging to hope, in a land where independence for the Jewish faith is synonymous with catastrophe for all others. “They come into our house and tell us we don’t live there anymore.” Statement in the Oscar® Winning Film, Shindler’s List describing how the Nazis appropriated the homes of Jews without compensation, warning or compassion. An old man, his once thick black hair, thinning and peppered white sits quietly. Slumped over from years of disappointment, his back arched near permanence in the shape of a crescent, he speaks slowly, the weight of lament wheezing between each word. "We are getting old; time is running out,” he states. Though aging, his memory remains clear, transporting him back to a time he was young. “It seems only a few weeks or months ago we were kicked out from our homes in Yebna village. It seems, yet it has been 58 years since then". The old man looks up, spying his grandchildren running across the street. Within their
hands they clutch the wooden keys symbolizing the lost homes, businesses and life of a time since past. Each year these wooden keys serve as commemoration of the anniversary of Al Nakba. Beside him, with admiration of a newlywed bride, his Umm Zuheer (wife) sits silently, allowing her husband to speak. He stares as his grandchildren disappear further into the Rafah refugee camp, a tattered sigh escaping his lips.
Reluctantly his head sways side to side. "The people of our village (Yebna) realized too late the guests we allowed were in truth gangs of occupiers, armed with British guns and weapons. We had the tools of farmers, axes and scythe for harvesting as weapons. Yet we resisted, creating sand barriers and obstacles in attempts to protect our homes." he begins.
"In our village seven martyrs were killed by the Jewish gangs. Israel did not exist yet. Many were killed by the Jewish gangs throughout the area" he adds. "In our village, rather than attack us, they lay siege, surrounding our village on three sides with the fourth flank left open for the British tanks that showered our village with canon fire day and night. The power of the tanks, we were no match for this. We were kicked out from our homes beginning with Yebna, then Al Isdud, Al Majadal and here. Ultimately we ended up in Gaza. Here we live since 1948 in this refugee camp, supported by the donation of the United Nations.” Professor Ibrahim Abu Jaber, author of “The Future
of Palestine and Al-Aqsa Mosque " states, “The number of the Palestinian refugees around the world is seven million with 1.8 million living as refugees within the Palestinian territories. FACTS ON THE GROUND Jaffa based Israeli politician and secretary for the Israeli- Palestinian Committee Dialogue, Mr. Latif Dori
comments on Al Nakba. "It's a catastrophe to the Palestinians who were kicked out by force from their homes in 1948,” he acknowledges before quickly adding the obligatory deflection. ‘But don’t forget that it’s a catastrophe for the Jewish people. What I mean by that, it is a catastrophe for the Jewish people because of what was done to
them by the Nazis in World War II." In 1935 laws were passed in Germany that instituted a ten year persecution of persons of the Jewish faith along with Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, handicap, Catholics, Communists and Poles. This persecution, resulting in millions of deaths, hardships and loss, mercifully ended ten years later in 1945. This pogrom against the Jewish people and others deemed racial enemies to
National Socialism provided the final catalyst for the establishment of Israel. The Palestinians were not involved in this event. Asked to comment on the status of Israel and Palestine, Dori replies, "Israel has no right to be in this land,” he observes.
“But what should we do? More than fifty years have past since we began living here. For the Palestinians to return to their homes…this is not a practical solution. I know that without resolving the refugees right to return, there will be no peace in the whole region" he admits. Dori goes on to mention that within Jaffa city 40,000 Jews currently reside within the city. Of these,
fifty percent occupy houses originally owned and taken from Palestinians whose families often occupied these homes and land for centuries. In most cases, the homes were appropriated by force or flight (simply being absent for twenty-four hours was enough to declare the home ‘abandoned’). These homes were taken without consideration. Today their Jewish residents enjoy living in secure and well appointed homes, while the majority of the real owners have been removed and relegated to the hell of refugee
camps. Challenging his logic as a friend I asked, ‘If I Mohammed Omer, a Palestinian refugee, could prove the home you currently live in is the property of my grandparents, would you leave?’ Dori responds, “I would say welcome, and you can have it!” He offers enthusiastically before continuing with the inevitable ‘but’.
“Though from a humanitarian or emotional viewpoint this may sound right, it (relinquishing the home I live in to the real owners upon proof) would not be a practical solution. Emotions will not solve these problems. And unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to set the wheels of history in reverse.” Pausing for a moment he further
rationalizes, “I would imagine you would allow me to keep the house. After all, I have been living here for fifty years." Surviving rather than Living In the Swedish village section of the Rafah refugee camp, a few hundred
Palestinian families carve out a living atop the filth and waste of a long neglected sewage system, the smell of fecal matter, rotting food and a bacterial stew seeping through the ground. Parents watch as their children become instantly sick. The stench is constant, increasing in pungency with each escalating degree centigrade. It is a smell to which no one will become accustom. Amanh Abu Sulimah, now a seventy-five year
old woman and refugee most of her life remembers the day in 1948 when she was forced to leave her home on the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt in Al Jauura. "We were forced to leave,” she begins. “My family and I moved into a school and eventually into this refugee camp.” Her words still carry a jagged sense of disbelief. "As
you know,” she states pointing to the rickety home around her. “My sons and I are living in this tiny house, where my 25 grandchildren are sleeping all inside this one room" Justice’s key Nestled today in nearly a million Palestinian pockets, jingling between coins, papers and cash rests a key. A
key representing the love of a land, a society, a culture still present yet temporarily out of reach. For fifty eight years the Palestinians have waited to return home. The United Nations agreements with Israel prior to statehood provided for their care and dignity, to be treated as equals. To be given a home. To be protected from racism, prejudice and injustice. Still they wait, hope yet never despair, a simple key symbolizing their dream.
This key, a legacy held by an old man passes to the young, the representation of justice, a symbol of the inevitable ending. As the symbol transcends generations, the hopes and dreams it represents cradles within the young hands of the future. Ever protective of the fragile realities it represents, the old man softly closes tiny fingers around the cut metal and whispers, “Next year, in our home. Next year in Palestine, next year.” With keys held in hand, tucked safely in boxes or hidden from view, the Palestinians continue to demand. They continue to hope for the day when their precious keys of the catastrophe may once again unlock the doors to their homes and businesses allowing them to live as human beings and prosper in peace. They look to the day when independence no longer equates with catastrophe. They look to the day when their keys will again open the doors to their
homes.
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