Just Peace for Palestine Discussions - Peace for the Soul2024-03-28T22:56:23Zhttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/groups/group/forum?groupUrl=just-peace-for-palestine&id=5143044%3AGroup%3A1695&feed=yes&xn_auth=noOwen Jones said it a decade ago!...tag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2024-02-15:5143044:Topic:4648382024-02-15T20:35:10.922ZRosmarie Heusserhttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/RosmarieHeusser
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</p> Hello World! Greetings from Palestinetag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2020-08-14:5143044:Topic:2857292020-08-14T13:38:12.194ZNada Junghttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Nada
<p>We understand that you are afraid, that you feel that you have no control over your circumstances. this situation is scary and stressful. When in pain we tend to feel like we are suffering alone, But we want to tell you that you are not alone and that there’s always hope.</p>
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<p>Since we Palestinians are having a long and ongoing experience with surviving suffering and misfortune, and as the world is dealing with unprecedented circumstances and unexpected adversities caused by the…</p>
<p>We understand that you are afraid, that you feel that you have no control over your circumstances. this situation is scary and stressful. When in pain we tend to feel like we are suffering alone, But we want to tell you that you are not alone and that there’s always hope.</p>
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<p>Since we Palestinians are having a long and ongoing experience with surviving suffering and misfortune, and as the world is dealing with unprecedented circumstances and unexpected adversities caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. We decided that it's our moral duty to share tips and comfort with all of whom are suffering today.</p>
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<p>I think in those times of uncertainty, fear and depression the best message that someone can gives is a message of empowerment and courage.</p>
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<p>We must be assured that we humans can make it and we will! Only if we stand together in unity. Humanity can change its fate, can eliminate unnecessary suffering, and can build a better future for all, only if we just start to believe in ourselves more.</p>
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<p>Yes to Global Solidarity!</p>
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<p><span>My Appreciation to All People Who Appeared in the Video: Riham Isaac | Fida’ Khair | Motasem Eleiwi | Fares Hemaid | Maya Abu Alhayyat | Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh | Reina Handal | Sari Zeidan | Ivan Khair | Ramez Hannuneh | Ibrahem Khair | Sophia Yusef | Malik abu Salameh | Jeries AbuJaber | Faris Salsa | Aya Yassin | Nadia Salameh | Soud Hefawi | Worood Sharabati | Atheer Khair | Jawdat Sayeh | Shada Wazwaz | Lama Wazwaz | Nathalie abu Sada | Osama Awwad | Maram Qumsiyeh | Katy Jadallah | Salam Qumsiyeh |</span></p>
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<p><span>Thanks to Salam and Maram Qumsiyeh, Raphaela Fischer, Atheer Khair and Eitedal Ismail for helping in making this video.</span></p>
<p></p> A True Storytag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2020-06-11:5143044:Topic:2844702020-06-11T20:38:39.585ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p>A True Story<br></br> Faisal Al-Khteeb<br></br> <br></br> JERUSALEM - As a Palestinian Arab from Hizme, a village located between Jerusalem and Ramallah, my life growing up was very different to that of the Jewish children who lived nearby. Rather than playing on the streets, I was listening to stories about the homeland - Palestine - hearing reports of the actions committed by the Israeli army, and how it took away the rights of my people. We heard these stories in our homes, in coffee shops, on the…</p>
<p>A True Story<br/> Faisal Al-Khteeb<br/> <br/> JERUSALEM - As a Palestinian Arab from Hizme, a village located between Jerusalem and Ramallah, my life growing up was very different to that of the Jewish children who lived nearby. Rather than playing on the streets, I was listening to stories about the homeland - Palestine - hearing reports of the actions committed by the Israeli army, and how it took away the rights of my people. We heard these stories in our homes, in coffee shops, on the streets. Even our wedding songs were about resistance to the occupation.<br/> <br/> Of course, there are many ways to resist the occupation - the more problematic ones entail violence. During the first Intifada when I was 15, many of the youth around me took part in peaceful forms of resistance. I, however, decided to use force. At that time I believed that for my freedom, every Jewish person - soldier or civilian, man or woman, young or old - ought to be killed. One day I tried to take a person's life. I did not know him. I just knew that he was Jewish, and I saw every Jew as a target. At the time I was just a child and did not understand anything about politics, or about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I wasn't aware of the nuances of the conflict or the impact of violence on my own society.<br/> <br/> I was arrested for my violent crime in 1987 and sent to prison for 12 years. In those days it seemed like nobody spoke about peace. Both sides only spoke about violence and the need to perpetuate it - either through armed uprisings or by continuing the occupation.<br/> <br/> In prison, some of my fellow inmates suggested I go to the prison library. It was a big library. I began reading politics, literature, and poetry, and familiarised myself with stories from around the world. Interested in the occupation and ways of resistance, I read about Rajiv Gandhi and Martin Luther King - individuals who inspired me and gave me hope. I regretted not reading or hearing about them prior to my arrest because I learned from their experiences that violence only leads to more violence. I also used my time in prison to read about Judaism and Christianity, and of course about Islam. I learned about the religious history of the land, the significance of the legacy of Abraham and Isaac and the shared roots of Jews and Muslims. I realised that we both live in one of the holiest places and that our languages are similar.<br/> <br/> Ninety-ninety-one brought the Madrid peace conference and the dreams of Palestinians seemed close enough to touch - an independent state in which we might carve out our own destiny. For the first time an international process gave me hope that Palestinian life can be lived in peace and dignity. Almost 20 years have passed. With them have come disappointments small and large - but mainly a legacy of bitterness.<br/> <br/> Yet the solutions to the conflict and the attendant dangers should we not resolve it, have not changed. In my eyes, a continuation of the current status quo will only radicalise the Palestinian people and contribute to the demise of Israel as a Jewish and largely democratic state. Meanwhile the situation of Palestinians living within Israel appears to be deteriorating and with it Israel's stated values, corrupted and twisted by the occupation.<br/> <br/> Although mutual anger runs deep, and resentment is ever-present, the only possible outcome remains peace, creating a bright and dignified future for the two peoples. For the Palestinians, using violence will only delegitimise our cause, undermine the rule of law in Palestinian society and push away international support - necessary elements for achieving an independent state.<br/> <br/> As former UN Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories Terje Roed Larsen once said "either the two peoples will succeed together or will crash together. For better or for worse...you are right next to each other and there is no chance of a victory for one side at the expense of the other".<br/> <br/> We live on the same land. At the most basic level we drink the same water, be it in Ramallah or in Tel Aviv. We pray to the same God, be it in Netanya or Jenin. Our only hope will be to share this land - not necessarily as friends, as it is far too late for that, but no longer as enemies. Simply, as two states, side by side, providing a better future for our children.</p>
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<p>* Faisal Khteeb is married with four children: three daughters and a son, between the ages of 8 and 1. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).</p>
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<p>Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 27 May 2010,<br/> <a href="http://www.commongroundnews.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.commongroundnews.org</a><br/> Copyright permission is granted for publication.</p>
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<p>Published with Faisal Khateeb's permission.<br/> Thank you!</p>
<p></p> Today is Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) daytag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2020-05-16:5143044:Topic:2837472020-05-16T10:15:56.060ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p>"I want to believe (even if it's naïve) that one day, the 15th of May, will become one of the days that the people of this country will mark together, as part of our common history. And then we can declare to the world that we are a light to our region. Until then, the darkness will continue, fear and insecurity will prevail across the land.</p>
<p>I wish everyone a day of heartfelt, profound listening."</p>
<p>~ Jamal Daghash…</p>
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<p>"I want to believe (even if it's naïve) that one day, the 15th of May, will become one of the days that the people of this country will mark together, as part of our common history. And then we can declare to the world that we are a light to our region. Until then, the darkness will continue, fear and insecurity will prevail across the land.</p>
<p>I wish everyone a day of heartfelt, profound listening."</p>
<p>~ Jamal Daghash</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/5069053301?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/5069053301?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
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<p>Today is Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) day. I've translated a post from my friend Jamal Daghash, a home-hospice physician and social activist.</p>
<p>~ Yoav Peck</p>
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<p>May 15, Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) Day.</p>
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<p>As a cloudy Friday meets me, I wonder about the significance of this day in my personal life. I feel I'm touching on an explosive conversation, but I can't let it go, for it's like a white elephant in our lives. So what do you think, can we talk about this, without defensiveness, slamming of doors, or bringing up "reasons" why Jamal wants to talk about this?</p>
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<p>I want to speak of 1948, with as little interpretation as possible, about what occurred in 1948, though I was born ten years later. What happened is that the majority, the Palestinians who lived here before the founding of the State, in cities: Tzfat, Tiberias, Acco, Nazareth, Haifa, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Ramle, Lod, and many more villages, some 800 thousand people… resisted the creation of a Jewish entity/state, on our lands. The resistance took different forms, including armed resistance.</p>
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<p>The Palestinian resistance to the Jewish entity-in-formation failed, and at the end of the war in '48, the Palestinian majority became the minority (some 150 thousand) in its land. Many were torn from their homes, their land, and were driven or fled their villages. The Palestinian cities were emptied, and many of the people who remained became refugees, in neighboring villages. And the State that was born in '48 took most of the lands of the Palestinians and forbade most of the uprooted to return to their homes and their land. My father's side of the family lived in Dir Hanna, and were not driven from their land, though parts of our land were taken. The family of my mother, of blessed memory, fled Haifa to the village of Mrar, and later moved to Acco. To this day, we don't know where her house was, in Wadi Roshmia. That's the essence of what happened from my perspective, in 1948. On this day, we the Palestinians mark with sadness and pain the loss, the connection to the land where we were born, and longing for what was.</p>
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<p>However, the more I listen to the stories of what happened in '48, I understand that for each of us (the Palestinians and the Jews) there is a personal story about what happened in '48. And as long as we fail to listen to the personal story of the other, we will continue to argue about the righteousness of our own story as opposed to that of the other. And it seems that we will not really succeed in creating a space of peace…first of all a personal space within myself, before I offer peace to others….and we will continue going out to righteous wars.</p>
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<p>The significance of this day, from my perspective, is that the day is a test for all of us, testing our ability to embrace and respect the other's story, regardless of whether we agree or understand it. And challenging our ability to begin the first steps toward solving the conflict, and to bring peace to the land and to the region.</p>
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<p>I want to believe (even if it's naïve) that one day, the 15th of May, will become one of the days that the people of this country will mark together, as part of our common history. And then we can declare to the world that we are a light to our region. Until then, the darkness will continue, fear and insecurity will prevail across the land.<br/> <br/> I wish everyone a day of heartfelt, profound listening.</p>
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<p> Jamal Daghash</p>
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<p> Translated by his friend, Yoav Peck.</p>
<p></p> Turning waste to gold in Gazatag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2019-12-18:5143044:Topic:2792092019-12-18T16:22:52.819ZNada Junghttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Nada
<p>With few employment opportunities, three young men in Gaza have launched an innovative business of their own.</p>
<p><strong>by Walid Mahmoud & Muhammad Shehada</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3776045811?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3776045811?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a> Jift - a waste product from olive oil harvesting - can be used for heating and cooking</p>
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<p><strong>Gaza City - </strong>Few opportunities await Gaza's youth…</p>
<p>With few employment opportunities, three young men in Gaza have launched an innovative business of their own.</p>
<p><strong>by Walid Mahmoud & Muhammad Shehada</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3776045811?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3776045811?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a>Jift - a waste product from olive oil harvesting - can be used for heating and cooking</p>
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<p><strong>Gaza City - </strong>Few opportunities await Gaza's youth after they graduate from university. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/topics/subjects/unemployment.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unemployment</a> among university graduates aged 19-29 years old in the besieged coastal enclave was just shy of 80 percent last year, <a href="http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/Press_En_30-4-2019-labour-en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.</p>
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<p>But civil engineering graduates Tamer Abo Motlaq, 26, Usama Qudaih, 24, and Khaled Abo Motlaq, 24 were determined not to add to the grim statistic.</p>
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<p>Harnessing their degrees and their desire to create sustainable affordable energy alternatives for their cash-strapped fellow Palestinians in Gaza, the trio founded the Olive Jift Project - a startup that turns "jift", byproducts from olive oil pressing, into fuel pellets for home heating and cooking.</p>
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<p>To secure seed funding and valuable mentorship, the three graduates entered their startup idea in a contest run by Danish Church Aid.<br/> <br/> "Our project won a micro-funding of $5,000 and received technical assistance and coaching from [the local NGO] Ma'an Development Center," Tamer told Al Jazeera.</p>
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<p>Continue reading: <strong><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/turning-waste-gold-gaza-191205164106700.html?fbclid=IwAR1tBoej93c4KzN7z9BaD-dHupTGlJZAsu2PoM7pbf2tJSYkrdNDGXoxdyY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Turning waste to gold in Gaza</a></strong></p> Scars of the time: Jenin refugee camptag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2019-08-05:5143044:Topic:2756262019-08-05T08:55:05.169ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
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<p>Jenin’s refugee camp history might be similar to the history of any other camp in the West Bank, but during the Second Intifada, its history became intertwined with one of the Palestinian struggle’s darkest episodes.</p>
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<p>In 2002, during an intense siege that lasted for a month, known as the '…</p>
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<p>Jenin’s refugee camp history might be similar to the history of any other camp in the West Bank, but during the Second Intifada, its history became intertwined with one of the Palestinian struggle’s darkest episodes.</p>
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<p>In 2002, during an intense siege that lasted for a month, known as the ' <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/may/06/mondaymediasection5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Battle of Jenin</a>’, over 400 homes were destroyed, 56 Palestinians were <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/index.htm#TopOfPage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killed</a> and thousands arrested, also, 23 Israelis soldiers died which is an extremely high number compared to other confrontations in the West Bank.</p>
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<p>In the aftermath, thousands of residents saw their dreams completely shattered, and the consequences of those times are evident until today.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/west-bank/jenin-camp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to</a> the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), the camp was initially established in 1953 to accommodate around 8,450 Palestinians expelled after the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080030/israel-palestine-nakba" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nakba</a> from more than 50 villages. The last consensus made by UNRWA in 2015 <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/jenin_refugee_camp.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that close to 13,000 people were living in the camp; today, the number is believed to surpass 16,000.</p>
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<p>After the destruction and massacre of the Second Intifada, Jenin camp residents were left alone to put the pieces of their lives back together. </p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407858032?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407858032?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
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<p><b>Helping the helpless</b></p>
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<p>In April 2002, Farha Abu Alhaija took the initiative with other activists and founded the NGO, <a href="http://nottoforget.org/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NOT to Forget</a> .</p>
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<p>The current head of the administrative body, Abu Alhaija, told Palestine Monitor they started the organisation to help children and women by providing forms of subsistence and psychological support to cope with the stress of losing their homes and family members.</p>
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<p>“Many of the women had a difficult life after they lost their husbands and homes, as a refugee woman myself, I felt that I had to do something, to help empower them and to change the minds of the people to see how women can be a strong asset for our society,” Alhaija said.</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407862125?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407862125?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
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<p>The Not to Forget organisation offers programs together with the UNRWA schools present in the camp to keep the children focused and active. Recently, they were able to open another space in the camp for the children to gather, play and socialise.</p>
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<p>The importance of having this space becomes evident when journalist, co-founder of Ma’an News and of Not to Forget, Dr Fathi Said, describes the daily reality in the camp.</p>
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<p>“The children don’t feel safe in the street. Every night it’s the same program, Israeli forces come to the camp to arrest people, mostly children, then they don’t understand when they don’t see their friends at school or at the activities,” Said said.</p>
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<p>Additional to the Israeli raids, the Palestinian National Security Forces try to <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/jenin_refugee_camp.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">enforce</a> their authority in the camp with nightly raids and arrests using the argument that there are armed resistance groups operating within the camp.</p>
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<p>Before Abu Alhaija started Not to Forget, she was already engaged in youth education and cultural activities during the First Intifada when she met Arna Mer-Khamis.</p>
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<p>Born as the daughter of Lithuanian-Jewish scientists, Arna fought in the Palmach, an elite unit of the Haganah, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Later in her life, after being desolate by some of the things she saw, Arna became engaged in the lives and struggles of Palestinian refugees in Jenin.</p>
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<p>After winning the trust of the residents and with the help of her son, actor and filmmaker, Juliano Khamis, they were able to promote children's activities focused on drama and acting projects that eventually became the <a href="http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freedom Theatre</a>.</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407870347?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407870347?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
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<p>Arna passed away due to cancer in 1996, but her son Juliano went on to open the theatre in 2006. As a professional actor and screenwriter, Juliano introduced the children into the art of acting and theatre. His work found an abrupt end when he was assassinated in front of the theatre in 2011. The culprits of his assassination are today, still unknown. Arna and Juliano touched the hearts of thousands of people in the camp and around the globe, leaving a lifetime legacy of empowerment and resistance behind.</p>
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<p>When entering the theatre, there are photos hung all over the walls that shows them working together with the children that were part of the first project they developed, many of whom also met their tragic fates during the Second Intifada.</p>
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<p>Technical director of the theatre, Adnan Nghughia, who worked closely with Juliano since the opening of the Freedom Theatre, told Palestine Monitor that the project was meant to create hope and offer an escape to the children.</p>
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<p>“Juliano and Arna wanted to show the children that there can always be another life, no matter what situation you are in, that there are many ways to fight the occupation and they wanted to make the children choose the right one,” Nghughia explained.</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407874445?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407874445?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
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<p><b>Daily accounts of a resigning generation</b></p>
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<p>Leaving the theatre, Said takes us to Al Nabatat, one of the oldest cafés in Jenin, located right outside of the camp. The place is frequented by people from all layers of society, from refugee camp residents to doctors and lawyers, who go there to smoke shisha and drink Arabic coffee during their work break.</p>
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<p>Dr Ghasan Marai, currently 63 years old, studied medicine in Zagreb and worked in Croatia during the Yugoslav Wars, eventually coming back to Jenin where he continued to work in the only hospital in town.</p>
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<p>“The working conditions in the hospital are very bad. There is a lack of equipment and staff. For example, if I want to make an ultrasound test, I need to send the patient to a private doctor, which then will give me the results in a few days,” Dr Marai said.</p>
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<p>With only 123 beds, the Jenin Government <a href="https://www.anera.org/stories/a-jenin-hospital-before-and-after/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hospital</a> serves a large part of the northern West Bank. Despite new alleged <a href="https://www.anera.org/stories/a-jenin-hospital-before-and-after/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investments</a> and development projects for the hospital, Dr Marai stated that fundamental problems still exist.</p>
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<p>“There is a lack of staff. When I was working in the emergency room, we would get 100 to 200 patients a day, and I was the only doctor there,” Marai said.</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407881644?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407881644?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
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<p>Inside the camp, there is only one health centre with one doctor and a few nurses to provide basic and primary care, including some check-ups and treatment for the 16,000 residents.</p>
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<p>“The problem is not that there are no educated people, there are a lot, but there are no jobs and no money for the people.”</p>
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<p>Listening to Marai’s words, the coffee and shisha are served by exactly those young people who are suffering from what he is talking about.</p>
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<p>When asked, the coffee shop manager said that all of three servers had finished their degrees recently after studying four years in University. They were working there because they could not find jobs in their fields of study that ranged from financial accounting to sports educators and social science.</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407887486?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3407887486?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
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<p>Many residents previously depended on accessible jobs in Israel, which has been critically diminished since the building of the separation wall and the enforcement of the work permits policies. Now, if you have a permit, despite your lifetime situation, you are considered lucky.</p>
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<p>“Look at me. I have worked 30 years as a doctor, and with what I earned at that time, I cannot support my family,” Dr Marai said. “Soon, I will have to go to Israel to work as a chef in a fish restaurant.”</p>
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<p>“If you want to see the real Palestine, go to a checkpoint at 6 am. You will see qualified people who dedicated their entire lives working, going to Israel and try to make a living,” Dr Marai concluded. </p>
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<p>By <a href="http://www.palestinemonitor.org/list.php?author=3ws3gpa1541yzlhdsdw8l" class="tags" target="_blank" rel="noopener">F.F. Dawkins</a></p>
<p>This article was written and photographed in collaboration with F.T. Hupsel.</p>
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<p></p> Peace Heroes - Tareq Promotag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2019-07-13:5143044:Topic:2741432019-07-13T17:56:55.679ZEva Librehttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Eva
<p><strong>Listen to this young boy - inspiring!</strong></p>
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<p>We are so thrilled to be able to share with you a shortened version of Tareq’s meeting with his favorite peace hero, Ali Abu Awwad (which you can read about here:…</p>
<p><strong>Listen to this young boy - inspiring!</strong></p>
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<p>We are so thrilled to be able to share with you a shortened version of Tareq’s meeting with his favorite peace hero, Ali Abu Awwad (which you can read about here: <a href="https://globalpeaceheroes.org/for-those-who-doubt/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">globalpeaceheroes.org/for-those-who-doubt/</a>).</p>
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<p>Tareq is a student who has been through three years of the Peace Heroes program here in Jerusalem. Ali Abu Awwad is one of our local heroes (from the Hebron area) who is working tirelessly to promote nonviolent action and transformation within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.</p>
<p></p> Palestine's Nelson Mandelatag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2017-06-05:5143044:Topic:2459992017-06-05T22:19:01.958ZRosmarie Heusserhttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/RosmarieHeusser
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<p><span style="color: #000080;"><strong>Uri Avnery's Column</strong> April 22. 2017 </span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #800080;">I HAVE a confession to make: I like Marwan Barghouti.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">I have visited him at his modest Ramallah home several times. During our conversations, we discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace.…</span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #000080;"><strong>Uri Avnery's Column</strong> April 22. 2017 </span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #800080;">I HAVE a confession to make: I like Marwan Barghouti.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">I have visited him at his modest Ramallah home several times. During our conversations, we discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace. Our ideas were the same: to create the State of Palestine next to the State of Israel, and to establish peace between the two states, based on the 1967 lines (with minor adjustments), with open borders and cooperation.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">This was not a secret agreement: Barghouti has repeated this proposal many times, both in prison and outside.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">I also like his wife, Fadwa, who was educated as a lawyer but devotes her time to fight for the release of her husband. At the crowded funeral of Yasser Arafat, I happened to stand next to her and saw her tear-streaked face.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">This week, Barghouti, together with about a thousand other Palestinian prisoners in Israel, started an unlimited hunger strike. I have just signed a petition for his release.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">MARWAN BARGHOUTI is a born leader. In spite of his small physical stature, he stands out in any gathering. Within the Fatah movement he became the leader of the youth division. (The word "Fatah" is the initials of "Palestinian Liberation Movement, in reverse),</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">The Barghoutis are a widespread clan, dominating several villages near Ramallah. Marwan himself was born in 1959 in Kobar village. An ancestor, Abd-al-Jabir al-Barghouti, led an Arab revolt in 1834. I have met Mustafa Barghouti, an activist for democracy, in many demonstrations and shared the tear gas with him. Omar Barghouti is a leader of the international anti-Israel boycott movement.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">Perhaps my sympathy for Marwan is influenced by some similarities in our youth. He joined the Palestinian resistance movement at the age of 15, the same age as I was when I joined the Hebrew underground some 35 years earlier. My friends and I considered ourselves freedom fighters, but were branded by the British authorities as "terrorists". The same has now happened to Marwan – a freedom fighter in his own eyes and in the eyes of the vast majority of the Palestinian people, a "terrorist" in the eyes of the Israeli authorities.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">When he was put on trial in the Tel Aviv District Court, my friends and I, members of the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), tried to demonstrate our solidarity with him in the courtroom. We were expelled by armed guards. One of my friends lost a toenail in this glorious fight.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">YEARS AGO I called Barghouti the "Palestinian Mandela". Despite their difference in height and skin color, there was a basic similarity between the two: both were men of peace, but justified the use of violence against their oppressors. However, while the Apartheid regime was satisfied with one life term, Barghouti was sentenced to a ridiculous five life terms and another 40 years – for acts of violence executed by his Tanzim organization.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">(Gush Shalom published a statement this week suggesting that by the same logic, Menachem Begin should have been sentenced by the British to 91 life terms for the bombing of the King David hotel, in which 91 people – many of them Jews – lost their lives.)</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">There is another similarity between Mandela and Barghouti: when the apartheid regime was destroyed by a combination of "terrorism", violent strikes and a world-wide boycott, Mandela emerged as the natural leader of the new South Africa. Many people expect that when a Palestinian state is set up, Barghouti will become its president, after Mahmoud Abbas.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">There is something in his personality that inspires confidence, turning him into the natural arbiter of internal conflicts. Hamas people, who are the opponents of Fatah, are inclined to listen to Marwan. He is the ideal conciliator between the two movements.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">Some years ago, under the leadership of Marwan, a large number of prisoners belonging to the two organizations signed a joint appeal for national unity, setting out concrete terms. Nothing came of this.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">That, by the way, may be an additional reason for the Israeli government’s rejection of any suggestion of freeing Barghouti, even when a prisoner exchange provided a convenient opportunity. A free Barghouti could become a powerful agent for Palestinian unity, the last thing the Israeli overlords want.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">Divide et impera – "divide and rule" – since Roman times this has been a guiding principle of every regime that suppresses another people. In this the Israeli authorities have been incredibly successful. Political geography provided an ideal setting: The West Bank (of the Jordan river) is cut off from the Gaza Strip by some 50 km of Israeli territory.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">Hamas got hold of the Gaza Strip by elections and violence, and refuses to accept the leadership of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), a union of the more secular organizations which rules the West Bank.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">This is not an unusual situation in national liberation organizations. They often split into more and less extreme wings, to the great delight of the oppressor. The last thing the Israeli authorities are willing to do is release Barghouti and allow him to restore Palestinian national unity. God forbid.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">THE HUNGER strikers do not demand their own release, but demand better prison conditions. They demand, inter alia, more frequent and longer visits by wives and family, an end to torture, decent food, and such. They also remind us that under international law an "occupying power" is forbidden to move prisoners from an occupied territory to the home country of the occupier. Exactly this happens to almost all Palestinian "security prisoners".</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">Last week Barghouti set out these demands in an op-ed article published by the New York Times, an act that shows the newspaper's better side. The editorial note described the author as a Palestinian politician and Member of Parliament. It was a courageous act by the paper (which somewhat restored its standing in my eyes after it condemned Bashar al-Assad for using poison gas, without a sliver of evidence.)</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">But courage has its limits. The very next day the NYT published an editor's note stating that Barghouti was convicted for murder. It was an abject surrender to Zionist pressure.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">The man who claimed this victory was an individual I find particularly obnoxious. He calls himself Michael Oren and is now a deputy minister in Israel, but he was born in the USA and belongs to the subgroup of American Jews who are super-super-patriots of Israel. He adopted Israeli citizenship and an Israeli name in order to serve as Israel's ambassador to the USA. In this capacity he attracted attention by using particularly virulent anti-Arab rhetoric, so extreme as to make even Binyamin Netanyahu look moderate.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">I doubt that this person has ever sacrificed anything for his patriotism, indeed, he has made quite a career of it. Yet he speaks with contempt about Barghouti, who has spent much of his life in prison and exile. He describes Barghouti’s article in the New York Times as a "journalistic terror act". Look who's talking.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">A HUNGER STRIKE is a very courageous act. It is the last weapon of the least protected people on earth – the prisoners. The abominable Margaret Thatcher let the Irish hunger strikers starve to death.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">The Israeli authorities wanted to force-feed Palestinian hunger strikers. The Israeli Physicians Association, much to its credit, refused to cooperate, since such acts have led in the past to the deaths of the victims. That put an end to this kind of torture.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">Barghouti demands that Palestinian political prisoners be treated as prisoners-of-war. No chance of that.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">However, one should demand that prisoners of any kind be treated humanely. This means that deprivation of liberty is the only punishment imposed, and that within the prisons the maximum of decent conditions should be accorded.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">In some Israeli prisons, a kind of modus vivendi between the prison authorities and the Palestinian prisoners seems to have been established. Not so in others. One gets the impression that the prison service is the enemy of the prisoners, making their life as miserable as possible. This has worsened now, in response to the strike.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">This policy is cruel, illegal and counter-productive. There is no way to win against a hunger-strike. The prisoners are bound to win, especially when decent people all over the world are watching. Perhaps even the NYT.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #800080;">I am waiting for the day when I can visit Marwan again as a free man in his home in Ramallah. Even more so if Ramallah is, by that time, a town in the free State of Palestine. </span></p>
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<p>Fadwa Barghouti at a press conference in Ramallah </p>
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<p></p> SULEIMAN MANSOUR - Palestinian Artisttag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2015-04-25:5143044:Topic:2306982015-04-25T19:49:10.659ZNada Junghttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Nada
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<p>PALESTINE RESISTS THROUGH THE EYES OF ARTIST SULEIMAN MANSOUR. He is one of the leading Palestinian artists born in the Palestinian village of Birzeit in 1947. He studied Fine Arts at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. He is a co-founder of the Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem (Now director of the Center). He is also a member of the “New Vision” artist…</p>
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<p>PALESTINE RESISTS THROUGH THE EYES OF ARTIST SULEIMAN MANSOUR. He is one of the leading Palestinian artists born in the Palestinian village of Birzeit in 1947. He studied Fine Arts at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. He is a co-founder of the Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem (Now director of the Center). He is also a member of the “New Vision” artist group, which focuses on the use of local material in artwork. Mansour’s creativity and determination to revive Palestinian identity has led him through a diverse range of disciplines, including cartoon drawing and authoring two books on Palestinian folklore. He has had solo exhibitions in Ramallah, New York, Cairo, Gaza and Stavanger, Norway. In 1998 he won the ‘Nile award’ at the Cairo Biennial and the Palestine Prize for Visual arts. <br/> <br/> Mansour first came to prominence for his surrealist masterpiece, Camels of Hardship in 1973. The Dali-esque image @ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Jly9C0HJc&index=1&list=PLz-zHb-lSjEtlvLBuMK3Z9uF0iSUElfiA#">3:52</a> of a Palestinian peasant struggling under the literal weight of dispossession has become a classic of its kind, and became the launch pad for a career that would be defined by original approaches to representing the struggle for his homeland.<br/> <br/> Identified as a subversive by Israeli security forces, Mansour was plagued with harassment. In 1981 at Gallery79 (during the Intifada), an exhibition was closed after only six hours and he was arrested. “They told us we are not allowed to use red, green, black, and white in our works,” he recounted in a later interview. Such treatment was to be a recurring theme of a career that was regularly interrupted with jail time.</p>
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<p></p> This is Palestine - Suleiman Mansourtag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2015-04-25:5143044:Topic:2307082015-04-25T19:32:38.056ZNada Junghttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Nada
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<p>Suleiman Mansour is one of the pioneers of the Palestinian contemporary painting scene. The iconic Jamal Al-Mahamel (1973), his most famous piece, has become a symbol of Palestine and Palestinians. <br></br> <br></br> In his interview, he addresses the evolution and role of Palestinian visual arts over the years since a time when Palestinian existence and identity…</p>
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<p>Suleiman Mansour is one of the pioneers of the Palestinian contemporary painting scene. The iconic Jamal Al-Mahamel (1973), his most famous piece, has become a symbol of Palestine and Palestinians. <br/> <br/> In his interview, he addresses the evolution and role of Palestinian visual arts over the years since a time when Palestinian existence and identity was negated, through the Oslo years, and till today.<br/> <br/> Broadcast: 16th May 2014.</p>
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