Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year

I don't know what I can write about the year 2011 that hasn't been written about here on the blog. My articles started to get published, I graduated, I found work, I met the most amazing, passionate young people who are more than friends and which our shared experiences created an unbreakable special bond, I fell in love with a whole village and its inhabitants, I witnessed the murder of a young man by the Israeli occupation, I carried home with me the disgusting skunk smell, I've laughed and cried with strangers, and so on.

A new year doesn't mean much to me. It's just another day in the calendar, always on its cyclic move. I haven't been able to write beautiful posts about how this year personally affected me like how my dear friends have in this one or that. I can however say with full confidence, this is just the beginning. It's only the start. Our voices have reached out to so many. And we are such few in number. There is reason to be optimistic, reason to be hopeful, reason to believe my generation WILL make a change.

May 2012 usher in a stronger permanent wave of popular resistance, an actual representative Palestinian government, the irrelevance of Hamas and Fateh, more BDS successes, the elimination of normalization events, the release of all Palestinian prisoners, justice to Mustafa Tamimi's family and the thousands before him, the right of return for the millions of Palestinian refugees, and accountability that will bring Israel down to its knees. Happy New Year!




7 comments:

  1. What do you want for Israel and her 7.5 million inhabitants? Is your dream their nightmare? I ask with genuine interest, not to antagonize. Happy New Year

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  2. You are asking for basic human rights like many people in the region.
    What is happening is a test of humanity for every single person in the world. Every human should support you.

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  3. Sorry Linah - I am so confused by your answer. I asked what you wanted for Israel - not what you think of them is that is blatantly clear in your blog. What do you want to happen to the 7.5 million Israelis? Surely we need solutions, not emotive talk

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  4. e government must be tried and held accountable accordingly. the settlements, built on palestinian villages must be dismantled. for a bi-national state to be feasible, the extremist settlers are a huge obstacle to that. basically, the right of return must be implemented. the 6 million Palestinian refugees must be allowed back to their villages, towns, and cities, most if not all that have been Judaized under Hebrew names. the Palestinians are ready to live side by side with the Israelis, but the opposite is not true, driven by the hyperbole hasbara notion of "irrational terrorist arabs want to drive the jews to the sea." For co-existence to become a reality, Zionism must be abolished. With their present mindset, Israelis will not accept to live in Palestine where the majority of the population will be Palestinians.

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  5. Thank you Linah - I am a student of international relations and have come to this subject objectively. I am interested to know how both sides envisage their ideal future - the actual reality on the ground. Would the scenario you advocate mean the creation of millions of Israeli refugees and if so where do you suggest they go or do you think there should be new housing for the Palestinians or do you think the Jews should be kicked out of their houses? Also the Hamas charter explicitly talks of killing Jews so I do not believe the Israelis fear of such a scenario is unjustified. Also, which place names have been Judaized considering Judaism predates Islam? I give Zionists a hard time too in my quest to establish what the perfect solution is to this conflct. The Palestinians and the Jews have both sufffered such injustice in the world and both deserve to live in peace in my opinion.

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  6. Thank you for answering my questions.
    yes, I do mean that - is that what people are suggesting?
    I wanted to know what place names has been judaized since judaism was there first.I don't understand your comment about everyone in the Middle East speaking Arabic. I do not see the relevance - please explain.
    Shoule Jews fear Hamas? To me as an oustider it looks like they should.
    many thanks

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  7. As the Israelis continue to forciby expel Palestinians from their land for worldwide Jews to come and live on (do you object to this?)then Israelis are making it clear that a 2 state solution in Palestine is not what they want. So there can only be one state for all which the Israelis object to as well. So tell me what exactly do the Israelis want for Palestinians?

    Why shouldn't Israelis be made to hand back or pay the full value of land & property taken from Palestinians? They will have to eventually anyway. No state can survive indefinately through aggression. Jews made up about 6% of the population during the British mandate. You can google the hundreds of Palestinian places that were taken over and renamed. Or do you believe the Zionist lie about the land being empty? As if humans would leave any habitable land empty. Or the Zionist lie that Palestinians emigrated to Israel in the 1920s to take advantage of European Jewish economic activity. A lie! They cannot prove it because it never happened.

    Interesting that you are concerned about Hamas violence? Why don't you compare Hamas violence to Israeli violence over the decades. Don't forget to include the dead and wounded and traumatised Lebanese. Please give me the numbers for Hamas violence and let us compare the destruction of Hamas violence (near to nothing) and the tens of thousands of deaths of Palestinians, Lebanese. The buildings and infrastructure destroyed by Hamas compared to those destroyed by Israel and the orphans and limbless Palestinians and Lebanese. Can you give me these. That's why I don't worry about Hamas. The destruction of life and property by Israelis is so huge and horrific that it is like comparing mountain ranges to a single mole hill. If you are looking at this objectively then tell me what you think of Israeli violence? I am not objective at all. I know the Israelis are extremely cruel & racist towards the Palestinians and have been savagely assaulting them & Lebanon for decades.

    Thank you for reading.

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