Palestinian Nakba 101: The eBook

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Palestine ... The Diaspora Remembered

Last January the Palestinian Solidarity Group (PSG) in my university published this 2006 wall calendar with valuable information on the Palestinian Diaspora. I know it's quite late to be used as a calendar but I still thought I'll post it here so that people can make use of the information it contains. (Click on the image below to download a reading-quality PDF file of the calendar -- Be patient as the file size is 1.5 MB).

If we are to produce a similar calendar for 2007, what topic you think would be the best as a theme for that calendar? (e.g. the wall, education ... etc).

She Is 6 Today!

(Click on the image for the full-size poster)

Palestinian Students Under Occupation

"Dedicated to the young Palestinian heroes resisting occupation with their books and pencils"

ISRAEL DENIES THE PALESTINIANS RIGHT TO EDUCATION

The systematic obstruction and destruction of education in the West Bank and Gaza by the Israeli military occupation not only violates the human rights of individuals, it is an attack on the development of the Palestinian society.

CLOSURE OF PALESTINIAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS During the First Intifada, between 1987 and 1992, Palestinian education was effectively made illegal by the Israeli occupation and all Palestinian universities, schools and even kindergartens were closed down by military order for nearly five years. Since September 2000, tens of schools have been closed by the Israeli Army and turned into military barracks, while hundreds more have been forced to close periodically due to prolonged curfew and obstructed access. Hebron University and the Palestine Polytechnic University were closed down by military order for 8 months in 2003, denying over 6000 students their right to education.

ISRAEL'S APARTHEID WALL

• The Wall isolates and divides Palestinian population centers, cutting students off from their schools and universities and literally bulldozing through educational institutions in its path.

• The waiting time at checkpoints can vary from a couple of minutes to several hours and the checking of IDs in public transport makes it impossible to be sure of arriving at school on time.

• If the students are on time, the teacher might not be in the classroom yet because of problems related to crossing the wall's checkpoints.

CHECKPOINTS IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

• The Ministry of Education reports that many students are victims of beatings, insults, and cursing while crossing checkpoints. Students' fear has escalated so high that thousands have either dropped out of school or postponed their education.



• Grassroots partner, the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, states: ''It will be impossible to build a healthy society that participates in decision-making and contributes towards development without education. Furthermore, sound mental health cannot be attained with a combination of ignorance and occupation. The root of the problem is the occupation and it must be ended as a first step towards solving its consequences."

INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, l948

Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (Article 26)

Fourth Geneva Convention, 1949

The occupying power shall, with the cooperation of the national and local authorities, facilitate the proper working of all institutions devoted to the care and education of children. (Article 50)

United Nations Committee on Economic, Social Rights, General Comments on the Implementation of ICESCR Right to Education, 1999

The right to education can only be enjoyed if accompanied by the academic freedom of staff and students. (General comment 13, 38)

WE CALL UPON EVERYONE TO CONDEMN ISRAEL'S ILLEGAL OCCUPATION AND TO SUPPORT THE PALESTINIANS' RIGHT TO EDUCATION

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We Shall Return (Palestinian Refugees Factsheet)

Palestinian Refugees

We Shall Return ...The Sacred Right

Palestinians have experienced several periods of major displacement, beginning in 1947-48 war (during which Jewish terrorist groups committed 34 massacres, killed around 13,000 Palestinian, and over 750,000 were forced out of their homeland), followed by a second major displacement in the 1967 war. Additional displacement has resulted from Israeli government policies and practices inside Israel and in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, including land confiscation, house demolition, revocation of residency status, and deportation.

The Palestinian Refugees is the largest and one of the longest standing unresolved refugee cases in the world today. The state of Israel opposes the return of Palestinian refugees based on the desire to maintain Israel as a ''Jewish state'' characterised by a solid demographic Jewish majority and Jewish control of the land.

Palestinian facilities and private properties such as schools, hospitals, houses and lands confiscated by the Israeli government as "state property'' since 1948 have been allocated for Jewish use only. New settlements throughout Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories are built on the remains of the destroyed villages and on land previously owned by Palestinians.

Current Facts

Today there are over 5 million Palestinian refugees throughout the world. There are about 3.5 million Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). 33% live in 59 UNRWA refugee camps and 67% are scattered throughout various countries.

The "Right of Return''

• The right of return for Palestinian refugees has been continually upheld by a number of UN resolutions. UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) of December 1948 declares that, "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date."
• The refugee issue is one of the most important outstanding issues. So far, no progress has been made due to Israel's denial of its responsibility for the refugee situation.
• Israel opposes basing any negotiations on the principles of Resolution 194 and has said "No to the right of return'' since 1948.

Violation of International Law

International law demands that neither occupation nor sovereignty diminish the rights of ownership. Therefore, the land and property of Palestinian refugees remains their own and they are legally entitled to return to it.

• UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (1) states that refugees and their descendants have a right to compensation and repatriation to their original homes and land due to "loss of or damage to property, which, under principles of international law or in equity should be made good by the government or authorities responsible''
• The Principle of Self Determination, adopted by the UN in 1947, guarantees the right to ownership and domicile in one's own country. This principle was explicitly applied in 1969 and thereafter to the Palestinian people, including "the legality of the People's struggle for self determination and liberation.''
• The Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 49) prohibits "individual or mass forcible transfers...regardless of their motives'' and calls for evacuated persons to be "transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area of question have ceased."
• Article 13 (2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reaffirms the right of every individual to leave and return to his own country.
• The denial of the right of return for Palestinian Arabs is a breach of Article 2 and Article 5(d) of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
• Israel remains in violation of Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that "no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country."
• UN General Assembly Resolution 3236 (1974), subsection 2, upholds the rights of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property.
• UN General Assembly Resolution 52/62 (1997) reaffirms that Palestinian refugees are entitled to their property and the income derived from it.

We call upon everyone to pressure Israel to respect the right of return of all Palestinian refugees.

Click on the images below to get a printing-quality leaflet containing the above information. Alternatively, you can find a PDF file here

My friend and I prepared this material for your use. Feel free to print them or reblog the post and spread the message

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And finally, I'll take this chance to share with you my favourite

Oh My Brave Hearts (or "We Will Return") By Chris De Burgh Enjoy it!

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Please give it few minutes of your time.

Together we can make the difference

Zionism .. The Evil Element Exposed (1)

ZIONISM is a political movement advocating the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

• On November 2nd 1917, The British government issued the Balfour Declaration in the form of a letter to a British Zionist leader from the foreign secretary Arthur I. Balfour, satisfying the Zionist aspiration that called for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
• Large-scale Jewish settlement and extensive Zionist agricultural and industrial enterprises in Palestine began during the British mandatory period, which lasted until 1948.
• In 1939 The British government published a White Paper restricting Jewish immigration and offering independence for Palestine within ten years. This was rejected by the Zionists, who then organised terrorist groups and launched a bloody campaign against the British and the Palestinians.
• In 1947 Britain decided to leave Palestine and called on the UN to make recommendations. The UN adopted a plan calling for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as an International zone under UN jurisdiction.
• In 1948, the Arab-Israeli war irrupted, and over 750,000 Palestinians were made refugees (currently over 5 million). The Zionist state of Israel is not respecting their right of return, and has been committing crimes against the Palestinians ever since then, using all illegal means of missile attacks, house demolitions, torture, kidnaps, and continuous land grab.
• In 1975 The General Assembly of the UN condemned Zionism as 'a form of racism and racial discrimination'; among those voting against the resolution was the USA.
• On December 16th 1991, Israel made the revocation of the UN's 1975 resolution a condition of Israel's participation in the Madrid Peace Conference; thus under the pressure of the US administration, the UN cancelled its resolution (now considering Zionism as a non-racist ideology). The Israeli Zionists continue to commit crimes against Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Zionist Quotes

“We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimetre of Eretz Israel…. Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours… When we have settled the land all the Arabs will be able to do will be to scurry around like drugged roaches in a bottle.”

Israeli Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan (Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot 4/13/83, NYTimes 4/14/83)

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“The very point of Labour’s Zionist program is to have as much land as possible and as few Arabs as possible!”

Yitzhak Navon (“moderate” ex-Israeli president and a leading labour party politician.) Cited on p.179 of Nur Masalha’s ‘A Land without a People’ who cited Bernard Avishai’s ‘The Tragedy of Zionism’ 1985 p.340.

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“[Israel will] create in the course of the next 10 or 20 years conditions which would attract natural and voluntary migration of the refugees from the Gaza Strip and the west Bank to Jordan. To achieve this we have to come to agreement with King Hussein and not with Yasser Arafat.”

Yitzhak Rabin (a “Prince of Peace” by Clinton’s standards), explaining his method of ethnically cleansing the occupied land without stirring a world outcry. (Quoted by David Shipler in the New York Times, 04/04/1983 citing Meir Cohen’s remarks to the Kenesset’s foreign affairs and defence committee on March 16th.)

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Ha’aretz June 3rd, 1998 issue reported a revealing slip by Ehud Barak, Rabin’s Labour Party successor, sharing the frustration of the Palestinians:

“If I were Palestinian, I’d also join terror group.”

Later Barak apologised for this slip.

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“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … Politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country. … Behind the terrorism [by the Arabs] is a movement, which though primitive is not devoid of idealism and sacrifice.”

David Ben Gurion Quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky’s ‘Fateful Triangle’. Which appears in Simha Flapan’s ‘Zionism and the Palestinians’ pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.

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Since this is Zionism, and these are its crimes, then: Anti-Zionism is neither Anti-Semitism nor Anti-Judaism. Anti-Zionism is simply Anti-Racism

Click on the images below to get a printing-quality leaflet containing the above information. Alternatively, you can find a PDF file here

My fiend and I prepared this material for your use. Feel free to print them or replog the post and spread the message

(copyrights are NOT protected)

Please give it few minutes of your time.

Together we can make the difference