Now that we have a stamp...

.. all we need is the state.

This stamp for the State of Palestine is now available for travellers to the country. It is neither legal nor  official, but sure is legitimate. Khlaed Jarrar, the guy who made it, is stamping visitor's passports and sharing updates here.
My favorite update was a comment sent to Khaled by a traveller with a "State of Palestine" stamp on his passport after going through Ben Gurion Airport on his way to South Africa:

Just a short note to say thank you for you bold project of legitimising the Palestinian state. At Ben Gurion the only response I got from security was, “Oh, I have not seen this before” and when I arrived at immigration in Cape Town, the official said, “Oh, that is beautiful.” I kid you not, that’s the exact words!

I want one on my passport, hoping that a visit soon follows. Check him out stamping traveller's passports, and if you manage to catch him, make sure to honour your passport with one.
 

شارون وفلسطين الجديدة

عندما تنتهي حربنا هذه، وبعد بضع من سنين، حين نعود دولة واحدة، اسمها فلسطين، يعيش فيها الفلسطينيون العرب، واليهود ممن يرغب، جنباً الى جنب، ماذا سنفعل بشارون الذي ما زال في غيبوبته؟

السؤال ربما يبدو صعباً، ولكن دعوني اوضح ما أظنه من المسلمات:
١. سوف تنتهي الحرب على غزة، ربما بعد الكثير من الألم، وما زال في غزة مقاومة ومقاومين.
٢. بعد سنين ليست بالكثيرة، سوف تدرك حكومة اسرائيل، ان لا طائل من صراعها مع الفلسطينين (وربما خلال تلك السنين توقع المزيد من معاهدات السلام، او تشن حروباً جديدة، ولكنها ستبقى قلقة خائفة، ولن تنتصر).
٣. حين تُطرح خيارات الممكن، مع ما تبقى من تلك الحكومة الاسرائيلية، سندرك جميعاً ان لا خيار سوى بدولة واحدة، ديمقراطية تضمنا جميعنا؛ فلسطينيو الداخل والخارج واليهود الذين حملوا يوماً جنسية اسرائيلية، لأن الفلسطينيين بعد ان ظُلموا لسنين لن يعيدوا تكرار الظلم على المدنيين اليهود. الدولة تلك ستسمى فلسطين، اولا لأن الفلسطينين في تلك الدولة الديمقراطية يشكلون غالبية، وثانياً لأن الوعي الأخلاقي لدى اليهود الباقين، كما في العالم، لن يسمح لهم حتى بالرغبة في اعادة ما يسمى اسرائيل
٤. اما عن مجرمي الحرب، ولأننا جميعاً تعلمنا من تجربة جنوب افريقيا ومن تجربة لبنان (بحسناتهما وسيئاتهما)، سنحاكم المجرمين، لا رغبة في الإنتقام (ولذلك لن تصدر محاكم الحرب احكاماً بالاعدام او التعذيب) بل لإيضاح حقيقة ما حصل، وبناء ثقافة في بلادنا الجديدة لا تتسامح مع العنصرية والاستعمار، ولكن تتطلع الى مستقبل تتعايش فيه مع نفسها.

طبعاً هناك العديد من الأسئلة التي لم نجب عليها بعد؛ ما هو نظامنا الإقتصادي؟ كيف نعيد تنظيم ملكية الأراضي والمنازل بين العائدين من اللاجئين ومن ظنوا انهم ملكوها من الإسرائيليين؟ كيف نعيد ترتيب النظام التربوي خاصة فيما يتعلق بلغة التدريس وكتاب التاريخ؟ ماذ نفعل بالمستوطنات، او لنقل تلك المباني التي مثلت سلطة الاستعمار؟ والعديد العديد من الأسئلة..

لكن سؤالي الآن، ماذا سنفعل بشارون، الذي انهى عامه الثالث في الغيبوية منذ ايام، وربما يكون حينها مازال في تلك الغيبوبة؟ لأننا بلاد عادلة، لا يمكننا الحكم عليه، تسعينياً عجوزاً، دون اعطائه الحق في الدفاع عن نفسه. ولكننا ندرك انه مجرم حرب، فهل نوقف الأجهزه عنه؟ وان ابقينا على الأجهزه التي تضمن له الاستمرار بالحياة، من سيدفع مصاريف المستشفى، وهل نقتطعها من خزينة الدولة الجديدة؟ ربما تعرض علينا دولة غربية نقله اليها، فهل نرضى؟

او ربما يستفيق من غيبوبته حينها، فيصله خبر فلسطين الجديدة وتقتله سكتة قلبية

In Gaza as in South Lebanon

Those of us who have lived the 2006 summer Israeli war on Lebanon, claim that we would understand more that any others what the Gazans are going through today. We make that claim, but to tell you the truth, I really don't know. Like most others with a Lebanese passport, I have never been to Gaza, and the few Gazans I know told me very little.

Feryal and Salah, where are you and what are you doing right now? I can't even imagine. Are you taking or offering refuge with/for friends & family? Are you having heated political discussions through long bomb ridden insomniac nights? are you struggling for news of your loved ones and cursing the world and its leaders for allowing this to happen? Are you working on some sort of relief or media effort that might make things better? Are you safe and your houses still standing to start with?

I have nothing to share then guys. We are trying here to reach out and stop the attack you are under. We know it is way too difficult but we really are doing as much as we can, and soon enough, these efforts will produce something. Yet, if worth anything maybe I should share one recent revelation. I was rereading some of my posts on this blog from that dark summer, where I was asking what would ever restore the massive destruction in our spaces and spirits? I thought then, that I and my friends were no longer the enthusiastic spirited women of the "before the war times". When I reread it a few months back, I realized how strong our spirits really were; the Israeli attack didn't break us.. we have managed to put things together (though it did take us some time) and we still are as enthusiastic, as spirited and as resistant. I trust that you guys share an even stronger spirit, and will wait for your emails, at the end of this attack, when despite it all, you will be able to tell us in Lebanon and the world that you too have made it through.

One of my many discomforts with the state of affairs in Lebanon

How could my friends, after paying the Palestinian cause lip service , and admitting that maybe Palestinian civilians were caught in the cross fire, argue that more Lebanese have been killed (that is Lebanese army members) than Palestinian civilians, make the claim that the army hasn't jeopardized the lives of civilians? How could they say that this was an unavoidable mishap imposed by the nature of the battle? Did they accept it when the Israelis were bombing south Lebanon and civilians were getting killed?

It seems that we forgot (or were made to forget) never to equate the life of a civilian to that of combatant. I am sorry for the young men dying from the Lebanese army, but unfortunately that is part of their job; they are trained and equipped to minimise such a possibility, and they get the work indemnity and other benefits because of that probability. It is sad yes, but if you don't accept that as part of a soldier's job description then you don't agree to the idea of an army in general (that is actually were I stand to make my position clear). What I said earlier, is not a personal opnion, it is there in the Geneva conventions; The death of civilians is at a level all together different than the death of combatants (army personnel and militants alike). Below is one of many declarations from the ICRC made for that purpose:

"International humanitarian law strictly prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian objects and requires that a strict distinction be made between the civilian population and military objectives".

So why is the death of civilians (in this case that of Palestinian refugees) still accepted? For one, the Lebanese media is making a point of screening the funerals of some of the soldiers, along with images of their mourning families, but continues to fail to give a proper estimate of the number of civilians that died, let alone interview their families. The army is presented as the symbol of the "Lebanese national unity", and I doubt that we were ever as further away from that as we are today. We are all caught in a performance where the "heroic army" fights "the dark forces of evil Islamic militants", all orchestrated in Hollywood style, that seem to have learnt a lot from the United States "war on terror" experience. Some of my friends say they are scarred of Lebanon turning into "another Iraq"; it is with some of these same friends that I discussed the manufacturing of fear from terrorism by the US government as we read the security alerts in one of Washington DC's tube stations. If they accept to be consumers of that same product of fear, let them at least think of the moral ramifications of it (and I am not going to go through the many other consequences such as its impact on how we relate to the state and its institutions, let alone all the misgivings I have with portraying home grown militants as “terrorists” that “seem” to have descended upon us from outer space !).

As we present the militants as a threat to the "nation", where then are we positioning the Palestinian civilians? Would we have accepted the battles to be fought just the same if the civilians caught in the cross fire were Lebanese? Isn't there a deeper prejudice held against Palestinian refugees which allows us to blur the limits between the civilian Palestinians and the Islamic groups by accepting the way the battle is fought? Yesterday, a friend of mine, a handsome young Palestinian, after being asked for his identification card, was beaten and humiliated by a member of the security forces just for being Palestinian, and I am sorry to tell you that stories of that same kind are numerous and many are yet to come. Would that have happened had it not been for the way the events in the north were handled? Maybe, but the events will make them more numerous. Are we not contributing to that by not taking a moral stand against the performance being pushed down our throats in Al-Bared camp?

For information related to Nahr El-Bared:
Fosohat
Nahr El-Bared Information
Lebanon-Support
Samidoun
Tadamon!
Electronic Lebanon

كفوا عنا إعتذاراتكم

حضرات المعتذرين عما جنته أياديكم في الحرب اللبنانية،

أقرأ، أسمع، وأشاهد بين حين وآخر مراجعتكم لتاريخكم الشخصي، واعتذاركم عما اقترفتوه خلال الحرب اللبنانية ( و أعني بها الحرب التي دامت من عام ١٩٧٥ حتى ١٩٩٠)، وتعبيركم عن الندم أو على الأقل عن موقف حالي مغاير لما تبنيتموه خلال السنين تلك، ولذلك أكتب لكم راجية آن تكفوا عن الاعتذار، فبالنسبة لي لا قيمه له، بل العكس، وإن غفرت لكم أخطاء الحرب لن أغفر لكم إخلاء مسؤوليتكم من تلك الأخطاء عبر إعتذار سطحي ونحن نطرق باب حرب أهلية جديدة.

بداية، وللعلم، أنا من جيل ولد والحرب في بدايتها، فانتهت الحرب وهو على حافة المشاركة بها (كفاعل لا كمفعول به)، وحتى اليوم، لا قدرة لي على استحضار أيام الحرب دون الشعور بأني أستحضر أيام طفولتي،التي رغماً عني وعن حقيقة ما كانت، أستحضرها ببعض من الحنين. أحاول مقاومة هذا الحنين في حضور شهادتكم، فرغم أن حنيني لا عطش فيه للدماء، على عكس ما أستشعره في الأجيال التي سبقتني آو التي تلتني في هذه البلاد، بي رغبة جارفة لفهم حقيقة هذه المرحلة، رغبة أحياناً تفوق رغبتي في العيش بسلام، إذ ربما إن تصارعت مع ذلك الغول كبالغة لا كطفلة أعريه من غموضه وأفكك التباسه.

بما أنكم حضرتم جميعاً في تلك السنوات الأولى من حياتي، شباباً مسلحين علي مداخل بيوتنا وآخرين مجهولين يجبرون ليلنا على الإقامة في الملاجئ، وبعضكم حتى أعرفه اليوم صديقاً أو زميلاً، ما زلت أنتظر شهادتكم كطفلة علكم تعرون تلك السنين من غموضها وسطوتها علينا جميعاً.

لكني، حتى الآن، لم أسمع في شهادتكم ما يشرح لي ما قادكم إلى حمل السلاح، ما شجعكم من أسباب سامية، عقائدية، طائفية إو حتى "تشبيحية"، وما شجعكم على الاستمرار بها. لا أسمع منكم نقداً، بالأسماء، لشركائكم من "قادة" هذه الحرب، ومعظمهم ما زال يتربع أميراً على طائفته، وأعرف أن العديد منكم ما زال من رعية تلك الإمارات. لم أسمع من أي منكم خبراً يشفي ألم أي من عائلات آلاف المفقودين، فإن كنتم صادقين باعتذاركم، فليقم كل واحد منكم، قبل أن يريح ضميره باعتذار علني، بالإستقصاء من زملائه وقادته السابقين عن مصير مخطوف واحد علي الأقل (هذا على افتراض أنكم شخصياً لا علم لكم بمصيرهم). أعلم جيداً أن الاعتذار والغفران من ركائز المصالحة، لكن الحقيقة أهم ركائزها، ويبدو أن تلك تغيب باستمرار عن استعراضاتكم (وللعلم، باستعمالي كلمة حقيقة أتكلم عن مصير الآلاف اللذين خسرناهم في الحرب، وإزالة الغموض عن مسار ١٥ عام سرقت من حياتنا جميعاً، ولا علاقة لها بحقيقة أغتيال الرئيس الحريري).

أخيراً، وبالعودة إلى الحنين، ألامس في أصدقاء لي من الأجيال التي تصغرني إعجاب بكم، فأنتم للأسف أبطالاً عند العديد منهم. صور من قتل منكم زينت جدراننا لسنين طوال، وفي السلاح والدم إغراء يظنونه بسهولة أفلام هوليوود، وشهاداتكم حتى الآن لم تجرأ على تشويه ذلك بل تؤكده. هل تخشون خسارة صورة البطولة تلك؟ ألا تعلمون أنكم بكلامكم هذا تشجعونهم علي السير على نفس الخطى؟ إن كنتم فعلا نادمين، تحملوا مسؤوليتكم كاملة وفككوا عنكم صورة تلك البطولة بصدق. وإن لم تكونوا، أرجوكم، كفوا عنا إعتذاراتكم. و

Mohammed's Story

en español: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=791&lg=es

It is not me they should be worrying about, my friends from countries around the world who have been calling since Wednesday; after all I live in one of the safest areas of this country, next to embassies, and prime ministers. I have water and electricity, and above all internet. If they are to worry, they are to think of the tens of people I am calling everyday. People in the south of Lebanon who are under the shelling, and isolated from the rest of the country. If I am to share a diary I will not share mine, but that of my friend Mohammed and his family.

There are forty people in Mohammed’s two bedroom house since Thursday. Along with his wife and his twin boys, are his brothers and sisters, their children and their 70 year old mother. Their village has been attacked and is relatively unsafe. Unfortunately the place they are staying at now is not any safer. They are in Al-Hosh, a suburb of the city of Tyre. Yesterday night a gas station hundreds of meters away was bombed, and they have been hearing the shelling all day today. They have no electricity. The generators, already present in most regions, of the country are running out of fuel as the roads to the south are all destroyed now. Water which should reach the houses through electric pumps is now scarce due to the electricity pumps.

The family feels isolated, the road back to their village was already destroyed so are the roads to other regions of the country. “It is like we are living on the margins of life, things might happen here and nobody would know.” We talk about Naim, a kid we both knew from a Zibqine a lovely village south of Tyre. He died on Thursday along with 11 other members of his family when their family home was bombed. Some of the bodies might still be under the rubble. “Basseeta”, he says, literally meaning “it is simple” or “not a problem”, and I ask how can he say something like this, while his family is under siege and threat. He says it to continue, expecting that if anything happens to him and his family, the world, as with Naim, might also see it as too minimal of an incidence.

“We know the story too well, we lived it so many times” he says, “but this time I feel it differently”. “Yesterday, watching my children in their sleep, I was overwhelmed by the feeling of helplessness. How can I protect them? They are three and a half years old and I thought they were saved from the life we lived. I am scared of the possibility of running out of supplies, of gas, water and food for them. They are agitated, now trapped in the house with 38 other people for three days. What scares me too is that they are acquiring too early knowledge I wanted to shield them from. Yesterday, on the phone with their uncle in Germany, they asked for a tank, like the one the Israelis have, as a present on his next trip to Lebanon. It chokes me up. When I was kid I asked for plastic guns as a gift. We played “war” in the living room with cushions as our sandbags; this was a game they never played and I was hoping they would never learn. Yet, unfortunately, it seems I am not their only tutor.”