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Her Home, My Catastrophe
Bergen Record
July 16, 2007
Dear Editor:
Our
dream will bring us to another land
I wish I can
turn into piece of garment in Abby Leichman's luggage who is preparing to go
‘home’ to Israel. Even though I was born in Palestine and was nurtured by its
dry sun and arid soil, I am unable to join Abby in her journey simply because I
am not Jewish. Abby, who admits to not being "fluent
in the local language or culture", and was probably
born in New Jersey, will be welcomed with open arms by other foreign settlers.
While Abby will automatically receive Israeli citizenship, I will be denied that
privilege and, if not thrown back onto the next departing plane, I may be issued
a temporary tourist visa to my homeland. What a tragedy that so
painfully encapsulates but never honestly conveys the very essence of the
Palestinian people’s plight.
The supposedly heartwarming story may solicit compassion and ‘good wishes’ from
some readers. Yet it is the tragic destiny of the other unmentioned side, the
Palestinian Arabs who understandably will not throw the red carpet for Abby. I
wish Abby told the readers that her going home to Israel will mean Palestinians
will have lost more of their lands and groves. This is the area occupied by
Israel since 1967. As part of a final peaceful resolution between the
Palestinians and the Jews, this parcel of historic Palestine, the West Bank and
Gaza, is supposed to become the future Palestine state which our President has
envisioned since 2002.
I have no issue with Abby living in Tel Aviv or Beersheba. In fact, most
Palestinians have accepted the two- state solution by ceding 78% of historic
Palestine to Israel and asking for the remainder to be their future Palestine
state. I do, however, have a major issue with her joining the over 400,000 other
settlers who, because of ideological or monetary incentives, choose to live in
stolen lands belonging to the Palestinians. These lands, through
government-authorized confiscations and illegal and counterfeit purchases will
be where Abby will build her home. Abby did not share with us this little
secret. Abby's new home will mean that Palestinians will be squeezed even more
into their suffocating enclaves, surrounded by barbed wire, massive walls, and
hundreds of checkpoints. Abby may never experience being stopped by an Israeli
soldier at these checkpoints, deep into the occupied West Bank, because in fact
these structures primarily separate Palestinians from other Palestinians,
separate Palestinians from their fields, from their places of worship and their
schools.
Dear Abby, you tell us that
you are returning to your ancestral home to build a nation. But what about my
ancestral home in Palestine, and what about the thriving nation you will have
destroyed? What about my parents' little village of Allar which you have wiped
off the face of the earth in 1948, rendering its 450 inhabitants refugees for
over five decades? My parents still hold the key to their now non-existent
homestead but which remains vividly alive in their dreams and prayers.
It pains me, Abby that you make no mention of the Palestinian people on whose
corpses you will be stomping, and whose hundreds of villages which you have
destroyed and turned into Jewish-only towns and cities. These people deserve a
home too, Abby - don't they? What gives you more right to my home? Has God
turned into a real estate broker? Will you ask yourself about the fate of the
original owners of the land? Should they forget about their land, homes, and
dreams so that you may have guilt-free peace of mind and a conscience devoid of
doubts? Will you ask yourself how the Palestinians will feed their children
since you have uprooted thousands of their centuries-old olive trees? How will
they learn since you have destroyed their schools? How will they treat their
sick since you have demolished their hospitals?
Abby, the Palestinians will not share your worry about who will cut their hair
or whether milk will be sold in bottles or plastics bags. Their worries are more
basic than that: they worry about their next meal; they worry if they will
survive another 1000 lbs. bomb thrown at their apartment. They worry about such
things as being able to pass a checkpoint to make it in time to deliver a baby
or receive a blood transfusion or to farm their fields. I am sure all these
matters were left out from your glossy sales brochure as they somehow
metaphysically never existed and if they do, they should not matter to you.
Please, Abby
let the world know that your new home will be in an exclusive settlement built
only for the Jews, and Americans of different faiths may not live there. Please
tell the world that the roads you will travel to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv were
built for Jews only and no Arab cars are permitted on them. You will know an
Arab-owned car because your government issues color- coded licenses plates and
Arabs will have their 'unique' colors. Remember the fifties and early sixties in
America, when you will see a sign" "Whites only". We have long since overcome
such illegal and moral repugnant discriminatory policies. In Israel,
discrimination against Arabs is legal because your Supreme Court said so
recently and because your Prime Minister once described our people as crushable
grasshoppers.
Please tell
the world that the water with which you will quench your thirst and cleanse your
body will be stolen from Arab-owned lands
from which over 90% of the water is diverted to Israel. Arabs, you should
know, aren’t even being allowed to dig for water on their own property. Please
tell the world about the wild pigs your government lets loose into our felids to
destroy their crops and to insult their religious sentiments. Please tell the
world about the more than 13,000 Arab homes that since 1967 your Israeli
government destroyed-often with a moment's notice.
Abby, please tell the world
how and why your Israeli soldiers, armed with American-made weapons, shot dead
my unarmed eleven-year brother with an M-16 rifle's bullet which pierced through
his young head. How can you console and comfort my parents who were never
allowed to see their fallen son or even to bury his young shattered remains?
Will you endeavor to find the killers and bring them to justice? Will you help
my parents bring their great loss to a closure? As mother yourself, can you
possibly fathom the enormity of our loss and the needlessness of our suffering/
Abby, before you pack up
your belongings, I pray you will unpack your heart and let in your conscience.
Should you decide to stay here in America, I do hope our path will cross. I
suspect that our meeting will be most revealing because you will finally come
face to face with the other side of your dream-and my catastrophe.
Abby, please tell the world
the missing chapter of your saga: Palestinians will cease to dream of their own
home as you begin to celebrate your homecoming. Please tell the world - for
you may never have inner peace until you do.
Tell you
and I meet in OUR homeland,
Dr. Aref Assaf
Denville, NJ
Allari58@yahoo.com
Read my
expanded thought here
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