The Right of Return

6 Comments

• 

  Rami

  4 September 2006

  My grandmother carried a key like that for her house in Jafa, Palestine. She left the house during the 1948 war. The key is now with my mom and will probably be passed on to the next generation.
  My mom’s generation lived her whole life praying for the god’s wrath to consume “our cousines” and those who supported them…..AMEN
• 

  mahmood

  4 September 2006

  I was absolutely shocked when I read about Bahrainis having the very same problems that Palestinians have suffered from. It did not cross my mind at all that there could be over 100 people from a single family still awaiting the return to their land and their palms which have been appropriated from them 10 years or so before the Palestinians suffered their lands’ occupation.

  And then after I published, I heard from a friend that there are several more families, originally Bahraini, who are desperate to return but couldn’t because they are barred from doing so. Some families still live in Sweden, Australia and Iran as well as other places suffer about the same fate.

  I think that knowing more about these people will allow the Bahraini person to sympathise much more with the Palestinians than they already do.
• 

  jayjerome

  5 September 2006

  “My mom’s generation lived her whole life praying for the god’s wrath to consume “our cousines” and those who supported them…..AMEN”

  Rami:

  My mother’s generation prayed for food on the table, a good education for their children, and a long enough life to see their grandchildren grow as well… They weren’t praying for god’s wrath to fall on anyone else. And for the West, those ‘prayers’ were answered. But the revengeful prayers of your mother’s generation were not.

  That should tell you something. Although I personally don’t believe the one God of the Jews and Christians and Muslims exists, if that Supreme Entity does exist, and he answers just prayers, it should be obvious to Muslims by now he wants Israel to exist as a nation, right where it is. If that wasn’t true, he would have answered Muslim prayers back in 1948, or during any of the subsequent wars, and destroyed Israel. Since he hasn’t don’t that he must want them there, in the Holy Land, where he allegedly first made his covenant with them.

  Of course many of the fundamentalist religious Jews want all the Arabs out of Israel and pray for that to happen too (though if the poles are correct a majority of Israelis don’t feel that way). But those prayers haven’t been answered either. That must mean the God you believe in wants Arabs to live in the Holy Land as well as Jews, and Christians too, since they’re part of the Middle-East mix.

  Therefore Christians and Jews and Muslims should listen to the will of their Supreme Being and stop squabbling with each other, at least as far as the Holy Land is concerned. And your generation of Palestinians should stop praying for revenge, and instead pray for a map, and a passport. This is a big planet, with lots of beautiful places, where you can live in peace and watch your children and grandchildren grow – and with modern medicine dramatically increasing the life span each generation, maybe your great great grandchildren as well.
• 

  sillybahrainigirl

  7 September 2006

  Great idea JayJerome!

  The planet is indeed big enough and full of beautiful places! How about all the Palestinians setting shop in your neighbourhood, taking your home and country away from you and calling it their own? How about making you a refugee and making you wander the land with no home or identity?

  While I fully understand and appreciate your notion that one must break out of the vicious circle of hate and revenge, the Middle East issue isn’t that simple and cannot be explained in black and white. The root cause of our troubles in the region is as you rightly pointed: religious hatred and intolerance, which should be eliminated if we are to aspire to regain our humanness as people again.

  This is a noble call, which I salute you for and fully back, as extremism is demonising our existence and leaving a black mark on this chapter of human history, which sadly we are all penning today.

  What I don’t accept is the simplicity with which you accept usurping an entire nation and making its people refugees and trivialising their suffering as ‘God-sent’!

  There are two sides of every story and just as we have the vision to accept that dirty politics is having its toll on civilians on both sides of the religious divide, I would like you to take a closer look at the suffering of the Palestinians from a human perspective and ask your conscience whether it is acceptable.

  I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I think I already know the answer. Ouch! It hurts to think that humanity has sunk to this level.
• 

  manchester emma

  9 September 2006

  Rami :

  My grandmother carried a key like that for her house in Jafa, Palestine. She left the house during the 1948 war. The key is now with my mom and will probably be passed on to the next generation.

  Can you imagine the state of our world if EVERY person in history whose ancestors had been misplaced carried a similar key? Where do we start?
  The ancient Israelites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians just to name a few in ancient times…
  Then we have the Armenians, the Jews, the Palestinias, the Ethiopians, the Sudanese, the Bosnians..
  It is about time that we ask where do we stop dwelling on the past, throw those keys into the sea (I doubt they would fit any door anyway….) and do what jay Jerome’s grandmother used to do : start thinking about the future, her children’s and grandchildren’s future.

  Mahmood,
  I don’t think anyone underestimates or does not sympathize with the plight of the Palestinians. How can we not think about them everyday of our life when most wars or terror incidents anywhere in the world are almost always accompanied by the same mantra:”If there were no Palestinian refugee problem… this would not have happened…”
  So please, instead of perpetuating the problem in people’s minds (and hearten Rami’s prayer for God’s wrath upon his “cousins”), why don’t you use this blog to come up with some fresh ideas as to how to bring them together irather than further deepening the divide.
• 

  Brian

  9 September 2006

  Rami

  Prior to the 1948 war, Palestine operated under the rule of law, administered by the British, and before them the Turks. Land transactions were, of course, carried out under the rule of law, in other words, land was acquired by purchase, and given up by sale.

  But in war, terrible things happen. People are killed, cities are destroyed. And your grandmother ‘left the house during the 1948 war’.

  Rami, why don’t you blame the people that started the war? All the surrounding Arab countries that invaded Israel the day it was born?

  If they hadn’t invaded, your mother would not have left.