Taiseer Khatib: Raise Your Voice Against The Apartheid

The letter written below was written by Taiseer Khatib in response to Israel's racist court ruling, which leaves the Khatib family in fear of living apart.
 You can read about this racist new court ruling here, here and here.
Dear friends,
Those who are here and those who are spread all over the world, those in academic institutions, political parties, theatres, human rights organisations, students, workers, and everyone of You, please consider this email addressed to you personally.
Some of you might be aware of the latest racist Israeli supreme court decision from yesterday, that threatens to separate tens of thousands of Palestinian family members apart. This decision in addition to 25 laws and laws proposals are designed to segregate and discriminate against the Palestinian minority inside Israel. These racist laws have one goal: to bring to a situation where this state, should be only for a Pure race: Jewish!  The deportation can start with Palestinian spouses today who are married to Palestinians inside Israel, but tomorrow it will be the overwhelming majority of Palestinians in Israel, if not all !
Yes, i feel very pessimistic! Yes i feel that a deportation of my wife and its separation from me and from my children is real ! It is a black day in my life and the life of tens of thousands of people in my situation! Deportation had not only become real but legalized!
I am writing to ask you to act in the name of humanity and human rights, which the Israeli supreme court had legalized a war against them, as it declared the war against us, we the “other”, it gave the green light for all security services to act in the name of LAW! The supreme court was the last shelter for defending human rights in Israel, and now it had shut its doors to Rights, and kept the Humans (Palestinians) out without any protection.
Below you will find some articles explaining the current racist law and also some articles or interviews with me and my family, there is also the TV interview (in Hebrew).  Please contribute your part in fighting Israeli racism and spread the word, articles, and all what you find in regard of this law to ALL your friends in your Email, social networks, facebeook, twiter, and others, in order to raise the awareness mainly in Europe and in US to what is going on inside the so called “Democratic” state of Israel. Please do not let it stop by your email, spread and make the voice loud against this racist and discriminative actions!
To all of you who sent me emails, called, and express their solidarity with our case, i would like to say thank you, (especially my Israeli friends who denounced the law and told me, that the law doesn’t speak in their name, and that they feel ashamed of such a decision, for expressing solidarity with yourselves in the first level, and with me and my family on the second level, Racism against the Palestinians inside Israel, will not stop by them, it will continue further to the Jewish Israeli society, as it is becoming clear in the last period.
I will end my email with a citation from the great intellectual Said:
Remember  the solidarity shown to Palestine here and everywhere… and remember also that there is a cause to which many people have committed themselves, difficulties  and terrible obstacles notwithstanding. Why? Because it is a just cause, a notable ideal, a moral quest for equality and human rights.” 
Edward  Said 

I hope this just cause can get to as much as people as you can, as it is one of the last ways of fighting fascist decisions, raise your voice against the Apartheid!
Yours
Taiseer 

Please spread this letter far and wide. Let the world know about the racist apartheid and occupation of Palestine.

The Road to Liberty: Keep Smelling like Skunk, Keep Smelling like a Thawri

Call it superstition, call it chance, call it LUCK if you will but there was no denying that the skunk water was after us this Friday at Nabi Saleh. We were even planning from a week before to bring a change of clothes; we were sick of running whenever the skunk truck reared its dreaded aim at us.

So this morning in Nabi Saleh began with a “friend” of ours -whom we wished to avoid for…trustworthy reasons- requesting that he interviews us. We absolutely refuse but eventually decide to join as an unlucky friend was kind of forced to do the interview. Therefore we joined for “emotional support.”

Questions like “What do you wish to achieve from these demonstrations?” and “What is the purpose of these demonstrations, week after week?” are questions that cannot be answered comfortably in a filmed interview with a very untrustworthy human being as the interviewer. The reason for that is mainly because this certain human being was only looking for his own good advantage (as proved at the end of the interview as he tried to fabricate our words to make it seem as if teargas was an occasional thing at Palestinian popular resistance demonstrations, and that skunk water was merely…"water".)

We have no hopes that that interview will ever go just the way it was recorded; it is only logical to think that our words will probably be twisted and turned to suit that certain deceitful human being's..views.

But questions like that, from a pro-Israel normaliser, do nothing but disgust us. Read his views on what it means to be pro-Israel here and here. 

Obviously the ultimate reward, liberty from occupation, did not come that afternoon in Nabi Saleh. Nor will it come tomorrow, or the day after. Yet the fact that victims of the occupation are standing up, resisting, therefore existing, is a wonderful fact: The oppressed are not passive.

"When you don't oppose a system, your silence becomes approval, for it does nothing to interrupt the system." --Mumia Abu-Jamal

And then, one full of disbelief and doubt when it comes to matters of resistance may ask, “But what is the point? Did you free your land? Did you [in the case of Nabi Saleh] manage to get the spring back and halt the settlement? No. So what is the point?”

Whatever happened to having a voice? More importantly using that voice?

Whatever happened to waking from the dangerous lurks of silence and rising beyond the oppressor’s will?

To rise, to wake up, to prove one’s existence, to emphasize one’s complete and utter rejection to the vile oppressor’s loathsome tactics of degrading basic humanity is directly the road to liberation from the criminal occupation, which calls itself…a security measure.

No, it will not come in a day, or a week, or a year…but it will come.

As long as we stand firm on our existence, it will come.

And so when we were chanting at the IOF, the skunktruck proceeded to rear its ugly bulls-eye on us. Its menacing aim missed us, but barely a few times. It jeers at us, takes aim like a sniper, then releases an extremely foul acid, the epitome of the occupation itself.

And so later, when that same “friend” of ours asked us why we kept coming back to Nabi Saleh despite being hosed in such filth, inhaling and suffocating from teargas (and risking our lives as teargas canisters are aimed at head and abdomen level by the oh so moral IOF) keeping watch out for ammunition (whether they be rubber coated or live), we took his question more personally.

Why do we keep coming back, Aziz, despite risking our lives every time? The answer is simple. We have a voice, and we will not put it to waste. 

Mustafa: Pray We Won't Let You Down

“Isn’t that what Mustafa fought for? Didn’t he fight for his land, and this spring? And that’s what we’re going to do.”

Ibrahim’s eyes were flashing with a determination emerging from deep within. Emerging from years of being humiliated, stripped of his basic human rights, from witnessing colonization and the ethnic cleansing of his home village, Bil’in. Years of being harassed and attacked for wanting basic human rights, for wanting freedom. Gesticulating widely, he told us of today’s plan:

To head and reach al-Kaws spring. Not only will we attempt. We will.

Simple, right?

Wrong.

In any other country in the world, heading to a water spring would be as casual as a walk in the park. It is a natural phenomenon, after all, in which water from underground gushes to the land’s surface; clean natural water that can serve an entire village.

But we are in Palestine. Something as heading to a spring of water can be a life-threatening experience, with extremist illegal settlers living in Jewish only communities and Israeli “security” forces ready to attack (or as they believe, defend).

God’s chosen people.

When the illegal* settlement of Halamish was built right on the village of Nabi Saleh, al-Kaws spring, which was the village’s main water supply, was seized by fascist arms, adding that incident to a list of offenses carried out by the Zionist entity. Our attempts of rightfully drawing water from the spring, or going anywhere near it for that matter, are met with brutality and violence by IOF (Israeli Occupying Forces), whom make it their duty to guard and protect any thieved settler possession. Even if that means to attack, injure, and in the case of Mustafa Tamimi, kill anyone who attempts to defy such illegal actions.

“International! International! Ya jama3a!”

Ibrahim’s voice sounded above everyone else’s.

“All together now, all of us, down to the spring!”

A few eager demonstrators, Palestinian, Israeli and international, followed suit.

“Last time we were only 15! We need all of us to go now! All of us! 3annab3a, 3annab3a! To the spring!”

A few more activists joined. Many others stayed on the street. I honestly don’t know why. 

What is the point of demonstrating in Nabi Saleh? Is it just to get a few good pictures, gloat to friends of teargas and skunk water, and to say that you stood unarmed in front of a military jeep?

I thought of Ibrahim’s determined face the morning of the demonstration. “Isn’t that what Mustafa fought for? So we’re going to go down to the spring, and put his picture on it. That is what we’ll do today. That is our goal.”

I can only hope that a revolutionary change will come to Palestine, one confiscated village at a time. To do that, we must not run. We must not flee. We must not hesitate. This Friday was in honor of Mustafa, in honor of a hero, a Palestinian martyr that lost his life for a cause..a free Palestine, where heading to a spring is nothing more than a walk in the park. Where basic human rights exist, to everyone. Where Palestinians can live in peace and harmony without worrying where the Israeli soldiers will shoot next. Without worry of being arrested and treated as a criminal. Yes, the IOF inhumanely attack us with teargas canisters aimed at head level, but aren’t we all Mustafa? Aren’t we loyal to him? Won’t we show him that his death wasn’t in vain? 

We must be fearless. We must march forward. We must resist. We must become the revolution.

To all activists, Palestinian, Israeli, international, please make use of your time at Nabi Saleh. We must head toward our stolen spring, our dispossessed land, in hoards, in crowds of hundreds, thousands, millions.

I thought of those of us who managed to get closest to the spring before IOF began their usual brutal "Gas the Arabs! And all those who stand with them!" policy. We were a maximum of twenty. I thought of how together, we formed a human chain to resist physical attack from IOF. I thought of activists that actually reached the spring, and were arrested one by one. I thought of Jonathan Pollak’s last words as he was being dragged to an Israeli military jeep following his arrest..”revolution until victory!” I thought of sacrifices one has to make for the ultimate prize we so eagerly yearn for…freedom from oppression.

If Mustafa did it, why can’t we?

Dec.17.2011

*"International humanitarian law prohibits [an] occupying power [from transferring] citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory (Fourth Geneva Convention, article 49). The Hague Regulations prohibit the occupying power [from undertaking] permanent changes in the occupied area."

Mustafa: Truly Chosen

Mustafa Tamimi a martyr that will continue to live on.

Iremember just Friday morning, walking the streets of Nabi Saleh, all
activists and villagers alike gather to begin the weekly demonstration
against occupation. This Friday however was special, it was the Friday
commemorating 24 years since the first Intifada, as well as the second
year since demonstrations against the occupation, began in Nabi Saleh.
I remember walking alongside my friend and a few of the villagers as
we remarked on the foul smell of the "shit water" that Zionist Israeli
soldiers sprayed around the village a few days earlier. I remember
joking around with everyone. I remember looking into the eyes of
everyone there and seeing resistance and hope. I saw Palestine in the
shiny glimmer in their eyes. Every Friday that we go to Nabi Saleh we
have an expectation of what we will be subjected to as unarmed
demonstrators. No matter how peaceful we are, we know that we will be
teargassed excessively, adults and children alike. We expect to be
shot at with metal coated rubber bullets. We expect the "scream
machine" which has been recorded to cause people to faint. We even
expect to be injured, to have our bones broken, to be beaten up and
arrested. Yet never did we expect to die, or one of us to die.

However we stood corrected on Friday December 9th 2011. This Friday
that was supposed to commemorate the 24th year since the first
Intifada and the second year since the beginning of demonstrations in
Nabi Saleh, now also marks the day Mustafa Tamimi 28 years old was
shot in cold blood straight in the head with a high velocity tear gas
canister. Never did we expect this Friday to be the Friday that Nabi
Saleh has its first martyr fall. Never did we think we would witness
such horror.

I remember walking the streets of Nabi Saleh and the first sight that
would come to mind, was ruthless soldiers pointing and shooting at
unarmed demonstrators, that are asking for basic human rights. I
remember that the first smell that would come to mind was the smell of
tear gas and "shit water." I remember the first sound was the sound of
the "scream machine" and the pop pop pop from the guns used to aim and
injure us. I remember when I heard the word resistance the image of
youth holding the Palestinian flag high was the first image to come to
mind.

Now after December 9th, after Mustafa Tamimi has become a martyr. The
first sight that comes to mind when I walk the streets of Nabi Saleh
will be Mustafa in his white button up, and the pool of blood he lay
in. The first sight will be a pool of red, a pool of a heroes blood.
How he was carried away in a Ford and how his injured body was held up
by Israeli Zionists before he was taken to a hospital. I will remember
how his sister was denied to see him. How his mother had to get
permission from the very soldiers that shot him to go with her beloved
son to the hospital. How his father was denied entry to accompany his
son while he bleeds excessively. The first sound will not be the
"scream machine." It will be his sister Olla Tamimi yelling at the
soldiers that shot her brother in cold blood demanding to see him
"BIDEE ASHOOFO!" (I WANT TO SEE HIM!) The screams of Olla will be
engraved in my mind forever. The sounds of a young female fall apart
as her bleeding brother is but a few meters away and she isn't allowed
to see him. I will no longer remember how it rained teargas in Nabi
Saleh, I will remember how the eyes of the young shabab that face
their occupiers with such courage are now raining tears, how their
eyes cried blood from grief and sorrow.

Next time I walk the streets of Nabi Saleh I will remember how Mustafa
stood up with such courage to a group of armed soldiers, I will
remember his bravery and his voice which he used for a free Palestine.
Mustafa might be gone, but his voice will continue to live on, it will
live on in the streets of Nabi Saleh and within us. We will use our
voice to echo his.

Now, when someone speaks of resistance, I will not think of youth
holding the Palestinian flag high. I will think of that one
Palestinian flag that was held up so high, which was covered in
Mustafa's blood. That flag resembles Palestinian resistance.

To Mustafa I say, you will live on and we will continue to go to Nabi
Saleh and we will continue to embody your courage. We will not forget
nor will we forgive. May your beautiful beautiful soul rest in peace.

Palestinian flag drenched in our beloved martyr Mustafa Tamimi's blood

                                               * * * * * * *

The following was written before word of Mustafa Tamimi’s death was announced. Now that he is blessed with martyrdom, there are honestly no words to express the emotions we try to compress. There are only the memories we posses, memories of his sister Olla screaming to see her brother, memories of his mother with that gaunt look on her face, memories of the IOF saying, “Yes, I killed him, and I’m proud.”. May his soul be eternally blessed, and may his spirit continue to guide us in our struggle for human rights and liberty.

Restiam Umani.

Waiting.

                Waiting for the right words to fall into place..

“The trauma we face after Mustafa’s injury is……

“Is……..

There can’t possibly be a word.

It’s difficult to fall asleep.

                Will there be a funeral soon in Nabi Saleh?

Oh Lord, we have but you. Save him.

                      Save him, Lord.

My heart physically aches. There is a dagger wedged in my ribcage.

                “There is nothing wrong with him, “ IOF said.

“is3aaaf…is3aaaf” “ambulance! ambulance!”  was heard like thunder from the hill.

                Trauma is why many children in Gaza stare with empty eyes, souls aching. Trauma is why children who watched their friends die before their eyes feel no point in going back to school.

                It is a physical force, an energy that compresses the soul, squeezing life out of every morning, every sunrise and set.

It is Palestinian.

                How many martyrs died in your class? One used to sit next to me. Now there is a very empty chair.

It is childhood.

                Lord, bring Mustafa back to us a survivor.

                        Lord, we have but you…

                            Lord..

Free but Not Quite

Sumoud Karaja.

23, from Saffa, Occupied West Bank, Palestine. 3^rd year student in Al-Quds University studying social services.  Middle child of six siblings. Recently freed following the prisoner deal between Hamas and Zionist government, but not before she was silenced by being forced to sign a downward “treaty”, thereby sacrificing her “freedom of speech” for her “freedom”*.

Labeled “Terrorist”.

Sumoud Karraja was imprisoned in October of 2009 in AlDamun prison following an attack on an IOF officer at the Qalandiya checkpoint. While under interrogations, Sumoud repeatedly denied her accusation. Nonetheless she was given a life sentence, which with extreme lawyer efforts was reduced to a serving of 20 years.

Sumoud’s lifelong dream was to visit the off-bound city of Jerusalem. She got her wish, however along with the sweet came the sour-she was blindfolded and bled from the plastic handcuffs placed on her as she was being interrogated in AlMaskubiyeh Interrogation Facility in Jerusalem.

She repeatedly denied her accusations. Out of frustration, the Israeli “Justice” System attempted to pin on her many pathetic charges in order for her to serve her 20 years.

2 years in prison

She was placed in solitary confinement for a total of 25 days. She was then placed in a 3 meter by 3 meter room along with 7 other prisoners. In her 2 years, she learned Hebrew and hand crafts. Inmates prior to her coming learned from inmates prior to their coming many issues concerning politics and passed their teachings onto her.

Fridays in prison were, she describes sarcastically, “Eid” [holiday]. The Friday meal consisted of a piece of chicken thigh, topped with feathers. Many inmates had no choice but to remove bits of skin and feathers from their chicken thigh and eat it. Gilad Shalit was given a meal of stuffed chicken every Friday while captured.

In her 2 years served, Sumoud saw her family a total of 3 times. The first time her family visited her, after 6 months of her arrest, her family was allowed a visit, a rare opportunity given to families of prisoners. Her little sister Baghdad, who was 5 at the time, wanted to present her sister with red flowers she had picked from the Karmel mountains of Haifa. Zionist prisoner guards did not allow the flowers in, and forcefully took them from Baghdad, despite her tears. An everyday example of the attempts to suppress innocence and humanity. As Palestinians, we have come to the bitter realization of Zionists’ idea of psychological manipulation that is far greater than forcefully taking flowers from a 5 year old child. It goes to mock prisoners’ intelligence by denying them basics acts of innocence and beauty.

Sumoud, along with 3 other prisoners, Linan Abu Ghulma, Du’a Jayyousi, and Woroud Qasim all took part in the Palestinian Prisoners Hunger Strike. Sumoud was on hunger strike for 9 days before she found out she was to be released, all part of the prisoner exchange deal. She explains how she got the news.

“The prison warden was reading names off a list. Linan and Du’a’s names were stated, and then mine was. I thought there was a mistake. I thought they had intended to call out Woroud’s and got mixed up. I had only served 2 years; surely they had mistaken my name!”

Books

An oppressor’s duty is to keep the oppressed from becoming cultivated. We live in our minds, and minds are always free. Novels in prison are disguised as petty books like cooking books and hidden away from the random searches that take place within. After Sumoud was arrested, around 20 military jeeps raided her room and took many personal belongings. Books and diaries were the prime targets. Education is not granted in prison, following the Shalit Law passed by Knesset in May 23rd of 2010. These are all major attempts to stifle the power of thought, attempting to keep our minds locked in ignorance.

“My dreams have no limits”

Out of prison, Sumoud is haste to pick up where she left off. She intends to finish her university studies, all the way to obtaining a PhD. She plans to establish an organization for children all over Palestine, especially those with special needs. When asked if she would continue to resist the occupation, she replies, “To resist does not necessarily mean to brandish a weapon in the face of an IOF soldier. I plan to resist using my education.”

Childhood memories

Sumoud’s father was not able to be present on the birthday of his first daughter, since he was jailed by IOF on accusations of stone-throwing and taking part in demonstrations, keeping in mind Sumoud was born in 1988, a year after the first Intifada [uprising] began in Palestine. She recalls all her maternal and paternal uncles placed in jails for similar reasons. She remembers how they had absolutely no income, and her mother was forced to become the primary financial provider of the family, literally overnight. Her mother was forced to begin work as a seamstress in order to provide her children with the basic necessities of life. Sumoud recalls fondly of how villagers would provide her mother with red, black, green and white pieces of fabric in order to be sown together to form a Palestinian flag. This was done in secret, since any affiliation with resistance is viewed as a form of terrorism by the enemy.

Today, Sumoud, who was released from AlDamun prison days ago, still compares life in prison with life outside with every little action she performs. She is not allowed to move outside the West Bank without acquiring permission which has a less than zero chance of happening. If she does acquire permission, she faces the threat of being exiled.

No freedom of speech. No freedom of mobilization. No freedom of expression. No freedom of choice. And yet somehow Sumoud Karaja manages to find freedom in the four pillars of her home in the village of Saffa, on the borders of ’67 in the occupied West Bank in occupied Falasteen.

*Sumoud is not allowed to openly speak of the events that triggered her to attack an IOF soldier for fear of being placed back in jail and serve the remainder of her sentence. She is not allowed to openly speak about politics in general.