Israeli soldiers in the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Good Friday
Today in Bethlehem, sunny and warmer than usual by 10
degrees (global warming?), is Easter Sunday. It is a Sunday where
Christians following the Western calendar celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. This
got me thinking about resurrection, salvation and what the real message of
Jesus, the prince of peace was during his short years walking in the hills that
now surround me. “What would Jesus do” is a question that hovers in
the background of this troubled land. Well, actually the land does
not have feelings to be troubled so let us say the troubled inhabitants of this
land. I am certainly troubled as most Palestinian Chritisans and
Muslims are. We are troubled because we cannot even get to our
Churches and mosques in Jerusalem. Palestinians who are already in
Jerusalem are being pushed out as Israel continues its relentless program to
make the city “Jewish” (whatever that means). On this Easter,
Israeli Jewish soldiers even defiled the Church of Sepulchre where tradition
holds that Jesus was crucified and also buried.
We are troubled because just yesterday we commemorated Land
Day and our commemorations were marred by Israeli violence. Even
trying to cling to memory of our lands stolen from us is a crime in the
Apartheid state of Israel. A law in the Knesset tried to stop
commemorations of the Nakba (the catastrophe of ethnic cleansing of 530
villages and towns between January 1948 and December 1949). But this
is just one of hundreds of racist, discriminatory laws that make Israel the
quinticential apartheid state.
Meanwhile the government of Mr. Abbas approved the
“Palestinian Authority” (PA) budget of $3.8 billion that Israeli papers said
shows continued dependence on Israel and the US. The PA in the
meantime have sentenced morepeople to jail for expressing dissatisfaction with
the status quo. In one case even sentencing a person for 6 months in
jail for clicking ‘like’ on a facebook post that critiqued the PA. There is
indeed a grave danger that we will have (if we do not have already) a police
state serving Israeli interests. Decent people in Fatah must take note of what
is being done in their name lest we have a “village league” scenario. But
back to our main bain and what brought to us the disastrous Oslo and all other
disasters: the Israeli occupation. Bethlehem, the Obama visited for
20 minutes, is still besieged and stripped of ist lands. It is still isolated
from its sister cities of Jerusalem and Nazareth. We still have a
“permit system” worse than the one practiced in Apartheid South Africa. We
still have Palestinian children being jailed and tortured. We still have
owerful occupation stripping us of natural rsources and impoverishing us. I
coud go on and on but then I think again what would Jesus do? He was
actually in a similar situation. The Roman occupation was actually milder than
the current Israeli occupation (and colonization).
Jesus was a Palestinian martyr; he was born in Palestine and
spoke the language of my ancestors Aramaic, the precursor of the Arabic
language. He believed in resistance like turning tables of
profiteers at the temple, challenging the “leaders” etc. And he worked
to help the poor and disenfranchised. “Comfort the afflicted and
make the comfortable a little less comfortable” as Dorothy Day once said. He did not spend any time congratulating the
rich and powerful or visiting their palaces. When he did encounter
the rich and powerful (e.g. Pharisees) he called them hypocrites. I
use it also to describe powerful today. For example they speak of
democracy and human rights while daily violating those. They speak
of love of God but they murder, steal, lie, and cheat to get money and
resources and land of others. So I think what Jesus would do if he was still
physically walking in these hills here is that he would join us in protests at
the apartheid wall and stand in front of bulldozers uprooting olive trees and
destroying Palestinian homes. He would also still be telling us to
be hopeful that the Son of Man will be brought to life again and that Palestine
will be free again. We Palestinians do
have some experience with resurrection J
Israel troops fire at Land Day commemorators/natives as they
challenge continued colonization activities
Manipulating the World to Destruction
The "exodus" story did not free the Jews. Just the
opposite, it has been used to keep Jews in perpetual bondage
to a false history and to promote an attitude of constant victimhood, while distracting them from
realizing they might also play a role in the injustices done to others.
to a false history and to promote an attitude of constant victimhood, while distracting them from
realizing they might also play a role in the injustices done to others.
For Palestinian Americans, home brings little freedom
Btselem: mass arrest of children in hebron
Ahfad Younis encampment attacked by Occupation forces last
week
Pictures: on.fb.me/YzUG3d
Israelis say to Obama: Thank you for supporting our apartheid
state
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, FABMG
http://qumsiyeh.org
I wanted to say something about false history and there you raise the issue in the linked article. I would call it anti-history. They don't replace a true history with a false history. They replace a true history with a few buzzwords and a lot of silence. They don't say that the UK, League of Nations, UN (thanks, Stalin--maybe he thought it was a good way get them out of Russia (to paraphrase an English woman on why the English government supported it), and US rubber-stamped the "creation" of Israel and then, when the UN and UK lost their nerve, Jewish settlers pushed through the partition of Palestine by force of arms. No account at all, but only some bogus terms. So some Zionists say Israel got "independence". From whom? Some say Israel was "created". Do they mean God created it?
ReplyDeleteBlasphemy is only possible if you believe in God? To borrow another current aphorism, God believes in you.
My thoughts and prayers are with you especially on this most sacred day in our calendar.
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy of Israel and Palestine is that the Zionists who have suffered immeasurably are now the cause of the suffering of the Palestinians. Whereas the US and many other nations came to the aid of the Jews in Germany the suffering of the Palestinians is mostly ignored. As one who spent over two months in the West Bank and witnessed first hand the building of the settlements, the effects of the wall and the closures, the destruction of Palestinian homes and land and crops I wish to commend the actions and writing of Mazin Qumsiyeh as the Palestinian I admire the most of the people I met. Whatever he writes or advocates or participates in I take note of, as he is extremely gifted in what he does, is fair and just and has the spirit of reconciliation. If only there were more leaders like him. Thank you Mazin for continuing your leadership and commitment to Palestine. Marty in Sydney
ReplyDeleteDear Marty: I generally agree though you have to modify a bit when you know the history of Zionists lobbying US and western countries not to open the doors for Jewish refugees from WWII or how the Zionists broke the boycott of Nazi Germany (the Transfer Agreement) and other historical issues now swept under the carpet as Zionists claim they represent Jews around the world.
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