23 june 2019
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s economic vision as part of the proposal for “peace” between the Israeli regime and Palestinians, dubbed “the deal of the century,” describing it as a new version of the Balfour Declaration.
“This project does not talk about the economy of the Palestinian state and its components, but tries to whitewash the occupation and settlement,” the ministry said in a statement released on Sunday.
It added, “The Trump team is trying to restrict the Palestinian economy with the chains of occupation while depriving it of any opportunity to prosper and develop as an independent state economy. This [prosperity] cannot happen under occupation, settlements, the theft of the Palestinian land and the takeover of the Palestinian natural resources."
“Day after day, the reality of the American intentions and attitudes against the Palestinian people and their rights unfolds in what can be called the obnoxious Trump Declaration or the Balfour Declaration II, which denies the existence of the Palestinian people," the ministry underlined.
The Balfour Declaration, which resulted in a significant upheaval in the lives of Palestinians, was issued on November 2, 1917. It is regarded as one of the most controversial and contested documents in the modern history of the Arab world.
The declaration turned the Zionist aim of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine into a reality, when Britain publicly pledged to establish "a national home for the Jewish people" there.
The statement noted, “[America] is dealing with the Palestinian people as a population group that was found by accident in this place that has been given by Trump to the Israelis.”
“The Trump administration is reproducing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict using new templates and does not seek to solve it in any way. The problem of this type of thinking is its theoretical nature and its complete alienation from reality,” it concluded.
The $50 billion so-called "peace to prosperity" plan, set to be presented by Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner at a US-led workshop in Bahrain on June 25-26, envisions a global investment fund to purportedly lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab state economies.
According to Kushner, the 10-year plan "would create a million jobs in the West Bank and Gaza."
"It would take their unemployment rate from about 30 percent to the single digits," he said. "It would reduce their poverty rate by half, if it's implemented correctly."
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee, has strongly condemned Kushner's plan.
“First, lift the siege of Gaza, stop the Israeli theft of our land, resources and funds, give us our freedom of movement and control over our borders, airspace, territorial waters etc,” she said in a post on her Twitter page.
Ashrawi added, “Then, watch us build a vibrant prosperous economy as a free and sovereign people.”
Ismail Rudwan, a spokesman for Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement, also rejected Kushner's proposals.
“We reject the 'deal of the century' and all its dimensions, the economic, the political and the security dimensions," Rudwan told Reuters news agency.
"The issue of our Palestinian people is a nationalistic issue; it is the issue of a people who are seeking to be free from occupation. Palestine isn't for sale, and it is not an issue for bargaining. Palestine is a sacred land and there is no option for the occupation, except to leave,” he pointed out.
“This project does not talk about the economy of the Palestinian state and its components, but tries to whitewash the occupation and settlement,” the ministry said in a statement released on Sunday.
It added, “The Trump team is trying to restrict the Palestinian economy with the chains of occupation while depriving it of any opportunity to prosper and develop as an independent state economy. This [prosperity] cannot happen under occupation, settlements, the theft of the Palestinian land and the takeover of the Palestinian natural resources."
“Day after day, the reality of the American intentions and attitudes against the Palestinian people and their rights unfolds in what can be called the obnoxious Trump Declaration or the Balfour Declaration II, which denies the existence of the Palestinian people," the ministry underlined.
The Balfour Declaration, which resulted in a significant upheaval in the lives of Palestinians, was issued on November 2, 1917. It is regarded as one of the most controversial and contested documents in the modern history of the Arab world.
The declaration turned the Zionist aim of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine into a reality, when Britain publicly pledged to establish "a national home for the Jewish people" there.
The statement noted, “[America] is dealing with the Palestinian people as a population group that was found by accident in this place that has been given by Trump to the Israelis.”
“The Trump administration is reproducing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict using new templates and does not seek to solve it in any way. The problem of this type of thinking is its theoretical nature and its complete alienation from reality,” it concluded.
The $50 billion so-called "peace to prosperity" plan, set to be presented by Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner at a US-led workshop in Bahrain on June 25-26, envisions a global investment fund to purportedly lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab state economies.
According to Kushner, the 10-year plan "would create a million jobs in the West Bank and Gaza."
"It would take their unemployment rate from about 30 percent to the single digits," he said. "It would reduce their poverty rate by half, if it's implemented correctly."
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee, has strongly condemned Kushner's plan.
“First, lift the siege of Gaza, stop the Israeli theft of our land, resources and funds, give us our freedom of movement and control over our borders, airspace, territorial waters etc,” she said in a post on her Twitter page.
Ashrawi added, “Then, watch us build a vibrant prosperous economy as a free and sovereign people.”
Ismail Rudwan, a spokesman for Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement, also rejected Kushner's proposals.
“We reject the 'deal of the century' and all its dimensions, the economic, the political and the security dimensions," Rudwan told Reuters news agency.
"The issue of our Palestinian people is a nationalistic issue; it is the issue of a people who are seeking to be free from occupation. Palestine isn't for sale, and it is not an issue for bargaining. Palestine is a sacred land and there is no option for the occupation, except to leave,” he pointed out.
9 may 2019
On the 71st anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the Palestinian Forum of Britain calls on all Palestinians - within Palestine and in the diaspora, the Arab and Muslim nations and all those who believe in the sanctity of Freedom around the world, to stand in unity and solidarity against the present attempt to annihilate our cause.
For over a century, the Palestinian people have successfully confronted dozens of plots and campaigns to kill the Palestinian cause, and will succeed too in defeating this latest one.
71 years on from the Palestinian Nakba, it has become public knowledge that the US administration has finalized the details to end the Palestinian cause, in what is known as the ‘Deal of the Century’ which, according to numerous official US sources, will be announced after the month of Ramadan. Regardless of whether the plan will be announced in its final version, or whether it will represent a phase within a gradual plan, this constitutes a great threat to the Palestinian cause unless the world’s free people agree on a stand to confront and defeat it.
From the excerpts that have been leaked along with previous decisions related to Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, it is clear that the Palestinian people are being told to accept the legitimacy of Zionist occupation over all of Palestine, in what resembles a mere commercial transaction from which Palestinians get the right to live in exchange for relinquishing their rights, their lands and their holy sites.
Therefore, the Palestinian Forum of Britain calls on the all those who support the right of every Palestinian to return to their homes, who reject Trump’s plans and policies, and who empathized with the Palestinian babies killed by the latest Israeli missiles including Saba Abu Arrar, along with scores of innocent civilians, to attend the demonstration held in commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba. This demonstration which will be held on Saturday 11th of May will sound out an unequivocal condemnation of Trump’s policies and a resounding support for rights of the Palestinian people, regardless of the 71 years of a horrific Israeli occupation.
The PFB also renews its calls on the British government to issue an apology to the Palestinian people for its historic crime which manifested in the infamous Balfour Declaration, and to support its efforts to see Palestinians attain their freedom and right to return to their rightful homes and lands.
PFB prays for those who paid with their lives defending Palestine over a hundred years, salutes the countless detainees who spent their youth and best years locked up inside Israeli prison cells and declares its solidarity with all those who resist attempts and confront plots to eliminate the Palestinian cause.
For over a century, the Palestinian people have successfully confronted dozens of plots and campaigns to kill the Palestinian cause, and will succeed too in defeating this latest one.
71 years on from the Palestinian Nakba, it has become public knowledge that the US administration has finalized the details to end the Palestinian cause, in what is known as the ‘Deal of the Century’ which, according to numerous official US sources, will be announced after the month of Ramadan. Regardless of whether the plan will be announced in its final version, or whether it will represent a phase within a gradual plan, this constitutes a great threat to the Palestinian cause unless the world’s free people agree on a stand to confront and defeat it.
From the excerpts that have been leaked along with previous decisions related to Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, it is clear that the Palestinian people are being told to accept the legitimacy of Zionist occupation over all of Palestine, in what resembles a mere commercial transaction from which Palestinians get the right to live in exchange for relinquishing their rights, their lands and their holy sites.
Therefore, the Palestinian Forum of Britain calls on the all those who support the right of every Palestinian to return to their homes, who reject Trump’s plans and policies, and who empathized with the Palestinian babies killed by the latest Israeli missiles including Saba Abu Arrar, along with scores of innocent civilians, to attend the demonstration held in commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba. This demonstration which will be held on Saturday 11th of May will sound out an unequivocal condemnation of Trump’s policies and a resounding support for rights of the Palestinian people, regardless of the 71 years of a horrific Israeli occupation.
The PFB also renews its calls on the British government to issue an apology to the Palestinian people for its historic crime which manifested in the infamous Balfour Declaration, and to support its efforts to see Palestinians attain their freedom and right to return to their rightful homes and lands.
PFB prays for those who paid with their lives defending Palestine over a hundred years, salutes the countless detainees who spent their youth and best years locked up inside Israeli prison cells and declares its solidarity with all those who resist attempts and confront plots to eliminate the Palestinian cause.
6 dec 2018
The Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) has invited the Palestinians at home and abroad to participate in the signing of an online petition calling on Britain to apologize for the Balfour declaration and its catastrophic impacts on the Palestinian people and to shoulder its legal and moral responsibilities in this regard.
Majid Al-Zeer, deputy chairman of the Conference's General Assembly, stressed that the Palestinian people, in their struggle to restore their legitimate and inalienable rights, must adopt various means to achieve their aspirations and work in all arenas to break the chain of support provided for the Israeli occupation.
Zeer stressed the need to continue pressuring the British government to apologize for helping the Zionists establish their entity on the land of Palestine 100 years ago through issuing the Balfour Declaration.
According to PCPA, the petition is aimed to emphasize that the Palestinian file has not been closed and that the Palestinian people remain adherent to their rights, foremost of which is the right of return, despite of the British support for the Israeli occupation state militarily and politically.
Zeer called on the Palestinian people around the world to actively participate in the signing of this petition in order to reflect their collective will to restore their rights.
Visit the following link to sign the petition: https://www.palabroad.org/petition
Majid Al-Zeer, deputy chairman of the Conference's General Assembly, stressed that the Palestinian people, in their struggle to restore their legitimate and inalienable rights, must adopt various means to achieve their aspirations and work in all arenas to break the chain of support provided for the Israeli occupation.
Zeer stressed the need to continue pressuring the British government to apologize for helping the Zionists establish their entity on the land of Palestine 100 years ago through issuing the Balfour Declaration.
According to PCPA, the petition is aimed to emphasize that the Palestinian file has not been closed and that the Palestinian people remain adherent to their rights, foremost of which is the right of return, despite of the British support for the Israeli occupation state militarily and politically.
Zeer called on the Palestinian people around the world to actively participate in the signing of this petition in order to reflect their collective will to restore their rights.
Visit the following link to sign the petition: https://www.palabroad.org/petition
21 nov 2018
On Tuesday, thousands of Nigerian activists called on the international community to boycott Israel due to its illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
At a rally held in the Nigerian capital, Lagos, commemorating 100 years of the Balfour Declaration in which Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish state on Palestinian land, activists called on the United Nations and other global bodies to isolate the Israeli government for abandoning the two-state solution.
Organized by the Muslim Awareness International (MAI) group, the rally also celebrated Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
“The international community must prevail on the State of Israel to obey all UN resolutions concerning Palestine,” said Dele Ashiru, one of the speakers at the event.
“Israeli belligerence represents both present and future danger for lasting peace in the Middle East and globally. The United States must reverse the declaration and recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Ashiru added.
MAI chairperson, Abdul Waheed Atoyebi, stressed the importance of supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Tel Aviv. “The international community must consider it a duty to support and promote the BDS movement which is gaining ground around the world and checking the aggression of the Zionist state,” Atoyebi said.
Ateyobi’s call to boycott Israel comes just days after Nigeria’s representative at the UN, Ibrahim Umar, blasted the Israeli government’s construction of illegal settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) as an obstacle to the peace process.
“The spike in the expansion and consolidation of settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, among others, will have a negative impact on the Middle East peace process as they affect the contiguity and viability of a future sovereign Palestinian State,” Umar said.
Umar added that the demolition of Palestinian homes, forced evictions, and threat of violence from Israeli settlers infringes on the Palestinian right to life, liberty and the security of the Palestinian person. “Nigeria expresses concern that the settlements, which displace and restrict the movement of Palestinians, have negative consequences on their human rights and quality of life,” he said.
Nigeria called on Israel to halt and reverse all settlement development in the OPT. “We believe that the freezing of settlements by Israel is key to establishing peace between Israel and Palestine to co-exist side by side as two viable independent states,” he said.
The Nigerian delegation also called for an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and the restoration of movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza. “The situation in the Gaza Strip and the near collapse of its infrastructure being enforced by the Israeli blockade and military action should be of grave concern to the international community,” added Umar.
- Afro-Palestine Newswire Service
At a rally held in the Nigerian capital, Lagos, commemorating 100 years of the Balfour Declaration in which Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish state on Palestinian land, activists called on the United Nations and other global bodies to isolate the Israeli government for abandoning the two-state solution.
Organized by the Muslim Awareness International (MAI) group, the rally also celebrated Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
“The international community must prevail on the State of Israel to obey all UN resolutions concerning Palestine,” said Dele Ashiru, one of the speakers at the event.
“Israeli belligerence represents both present and future danger for lasting peace in the Middle East and globally. The United States must reverse the declaration and recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Ashiru added.
MAI chairperson, Abdul Waheed Atoyebi, stressed the importance of supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Tel Aviv. “The international community must consider it a duty to support and promote the BDS movement which is gaining ground around the world and checking the aggression of the Zionist state,” Atoyebi said.
Ateyobi’s call to boycott Israel comes just days after Nigeria’s representative at the UN, Ibrahim Umar, blasted the Israeli government’s construction of illegal settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) as an obstacle to the peace process.
“The spike in the expansion and consolidation of settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, among others, will have a negative impact on the Middle East peace process as they affect the contiguity and viability of a future sovereign Palestinian State,” Umar said.
Umar added that the demolition of Palestinian homes, forced evictions, and threat of violence from Israeli settlers infringes on the Palestinian right to life, liberty and the security of the Palestinian person. “Nigeria expresses concern that the settlements, which displace and restrict the movement of Palestinians, have negative consequences on their human rights and quality of life,” he said.
Nigeria called on Israel to halt and reverse all settlement development in the OPT. “We believe that the freezing of settlements by Israel is key to establishing peace between Israel and Palestine to co-exist side by side as two viable independent states,” he said.
The Nigerian delegation also called for an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and the restoration of movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza. “The situation in the Gaza Strip and the near collapse of its infrastructure being enforced by the Israeli blockade and military action should be of grave concern to the international community,” added Umar.
- Afro-Palestine Newswire Service
14 nov 2018
Every November, I sit down and contemplate the fate of Palestine. More than any other month, November has defined some of the most monumental events in the course of Palestine’s history.
November begins for me with personal blessings and remembrances that quickly sink into a collection of perplexing tragedies that have defined life in the Palestine Diaspora for millions of Palestinians like myself. The eleventh month of the secular calendar marks the date when my father was born, on 11 November, 1903, in Jerusalem, Palestine; it was a city that was open, free and nurturing to every person of every religion at the time.
November, however, also marks many major events of tragedy, injustice and, it must be said, glimmers of faint hope. In November 1917, for example, the then British Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, sent a letter to the leader of Britain’s Jewish community, Baron Lionel Rothschild, declaring that “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…”
The Balfour Declaration reinforced the abandonment of promises made by the British and French to the Arabs through the Sharif of Makkah in the McMahon-Hussein correspondence offering to recognise Arab independence in exchange for support during World War One against Germany’s ally, the Ottoman Empire. The broken promise was defined in secret meetings between the British and French beginning in November 1915 that culminated in the Sykes-Picot agreement, which nullified any promises to the Arabs.
The Balfour Declaration was delivered two weeks before British forces, on 17 November, 1917, launched the battle to capture Jerusalem, my father’s home. Throughout the following 30 years, violence by Jewish terrorist organisations and fanatics ripped Palestine apart; then the newly-created United Nations, under the heavy hand of the United States, made its own contribution to the destruction of our land by approving the “partition” of Palestine into two states — one Jewish and one “Arab” — in a resolution dated 29 November, 1947.
The use of the word “partition” to define Resolution 181 was misleading and ironic. Although it is defined as “dividing” something, the real meaning asserts a dissolution or breakdown of a whole body. The noun is described as “something that separates or divides” and, without doubt, the “UN Partition Plan” did just that, creating an incomprehensible checkerboard of six impossible areas of Palestine in which the “Jewish State” overlapped the “Arab State” at two points, with Jerusalem identified as an international zone in the centre of the latter.
The period after Israel’s “declaration of independence” in May 1948 was followed by one massacre of Palestinians after another. Two days before November 1956, Ariel Sharon, one of the most vicious of all the Israeli terrorists who went on to become the state’s prime minister, massacred 56 Palestinian civilian men, women and children at a little village called Kafr Qasim. The massacre was a continuation of the Israeli policy to expel non-Jews from the “Jewish State” of the kind which took place before and after 1948.
In 1967, Israel attacked and occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. It has been its conduct as an occupier ever since, violating all principles of international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and human decency, which has characterised the state’s human rights abuses.
On 22 November, 1967, the UN adopted the most important expression of international law and conduct of civilised nations by approving Resolution 242 which opened the door to compromise and defined the concept of “land for peace”. Many Novembers have passed without any consequent movement from Israel.
It was on 22 November, 1974, that I sat glued to my television set with Palestinian refugees who had settled in Jamaica, and watched with intense pride as Palestine Liberation Organisation Chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the UN and presented Israel with a choice: accept peace based on justice and fairness or continue with the violence that it had started. Days later, Palestinians were granted observer status at the UN and I was so moved as a young person who knew as much about Palestine, my father’s home in Jerusalem and my mother’s home in Bethlehem, as I did about the adopted land of my own personal diaspora, America, that I dedicated myself to activism for Palestinian justice.
In November 1975, I debated with Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, Israel’s most eloquent spokesperson, on national TV. I brushed aside his twisted aberrations of international law in which he argued that the “Benelux System” of partition could not work in Palestine. I looked directly into the TV camera and spoke directly to the American people, asking a question they had never been asked before: “How is it that this man, Abba Eban, whose real name is Aubrey Solomon and who was born in the Apartheid nation of South Africa, has more rights to live in Jerusalem than my father, George Hanania, who was born in Jerusalem and whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather and on and on were born in Jerusalem? How is that fair?”
Eban was shocked, and said that he would speak with the foreign ministry to allow me to move to Jerusalem. “But what about the 3 million other Ray Hananias?” I replied. After that interview, I entered professional journalism after recognising that strategic communications in America, not violence in the Middle East, could restore Palestinian rights.
In 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) declared Palestine independence in a historic document unveiled in Algiers. This defined the human rights and freedom struggle under the yoke of the brutal Israeli military occupation that aspired and eventually would achieve Apartheid infamy.
After sitting with resolute optimism and hope on the White House lawn in September 1993 and watching the impossible – Arafat shaking the hand of Palestine’s mortal enemy, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin – it all unravelled. On 4 November, 1995, a disciple of the wing of Zionism to which anti-peace firebrand Benjamin Netanyahu belongs walked right up to Rabin and killed him in cold blood as his startled bodyguards watched.
November hasn’t been good for Palestinians or for peace. In 2004, after watching the Israelis tear the peace process apart, Arafat died a martyr to freedom and human rights on 11 November 2004.
Although every month is filled with examples of atrocities committed by an Israel determined to prevent peace and lay claim to the entire land of Palestine, and even beyond, November has played host to some of the most important events in our history, of which I have noted just a few. Nevertheless, every November, I re-empower myself and make a commitment that I will not allow the past to define my future as a Palestinian. Hope is a powerful sword and dedication is the foundation of success.
- Ray Hanania is an award-winning Palestinian American syndicated columnist who covered Chicago City Hall and American for more than three decades. His article appeared in MEMO.
November begins for me with personal blessings and remembrances that quickly sink into a collection of perplexing tragedies that have defined life in the Palestine Diaspora for millions of Palestinians like myself. The eleventh month of the secular calendar marks the date when my father was born, on 11 November, 1903, in Jerusalem, Palestine; it was a city that was open, free and nurturing to every person of every religion at the time.
November, however, also marks many major events of tragedy, injustice and, it must be said, glimmers of faint hope. In November 1917, for example, the then British Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, sent a letter to the leader of Britain’s Jewish community, Baron Lionel Rothschild, declaring that “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…”
The Balfour Declaration reinforced the abandonment of promises made by the British and French to the Arabs through the Sharif of Makkah in the McMahon-Hussein correspondence offering to recognise Arab independence in exchange for support during World War One against Germany’s ally, the Ottoman Empire. The broken promise was defined in secret meetings between the British and French beginning in November 1915 that culminated in the Sykes-Picot agreement, which nullified any promises to the Arabs.
The Balfour Declaration was delivered two weeks before British forces, on 17 November, 1917, launched the battle to capture Jerusalem, my father’s home. Throughout the following 30 years, violence by Jewish terrorist organisations and fanatics ripped Palestine apart; then the newly-created United Nations, under the heavy hand of the United States, made its own contribution to the destruction of our land by approving the “partition” of Palestine into two states — one Jewish and one “Arab” — in a resolution dated 29 November, 1947.
The use of the word “partition” to define Resolution 181 was misleading and ironic. Although it is defined as “dividing” something, the real meaning asserts a dissolution or breakdown of a whole body. The noun is described as “something that separates or divides” and, without doubt, the “UN Partition Plan” did just that, creating an incomprehensible checkerboard of six impossible areas of Palestine in which the “Jewish State” overlapped the “Arab State” at two points, with Jerusalem identified as an international zone in the centre of the latter.
The period after Israel’s “declaration of independence” in May 1948 was followed by one massacre of Palestinians after another. Two days before November 1956, Ariel Sharon, one of the most vicious of all the Israeli terrorists who went on to become the state’s prime minister, massacred 56 Palestinian civilian men, women and children at a little village called Kafr Qasim. The massacre was a continuation of the Israeli policy to expel non-Jews from the “Jewish State” of the kind which took place before and after 1948.
In 1967, Israel attacked and occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. It has been its conduct as an occupier ever since, violating all principles of international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and human decency, which has characterised the state’s human rights abuses.
On 22 November, 1967, the UN adopted the most important expression of international law and conduct of civilised nations by approving Resolution 242 which opened the door to compromise and defined the concept of “land for peace”. Many Novembers have passed without any consequent movement from Israel.
It was on 22 November, 1974, that I sat glued to my television set with Palestinian refugees who had settled in Jamaica, and watched with intense pride as Palestine Liberation Organisation Chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the UN and presented Israel with a choice: accept peace based on justice and fairness or continue with the violence that it had started. Days later, Palestinians were granted observer status at the UN and I was so moved as a young person who knew as much about Palestine, my father’s home in Jerusalem and my mother’s home in Bethlehem, as I did about the adopted land of my own personal diaspora, America, that I dedicated myself to activism for Palestinian justice.
In November 1975, I debated with Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, Israel’s most eloquent spokesperson, on national TV. I brushed aside his twisted aberrations of international law in which he argued that the “Benelux System” of partition could not work in Palestine. I looked directly into the TV camera and spoke directly to the American people, asking a question they had never been asked before: “How is it that this man, Abba Eban, whose real name is Aubrey Solomon and who was born in the Apartheid nation of South Africa, has more rights to live in Jerusalem than my father, George Hanania, who was born in Jerusalem and whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather and on and on were born in Jerusalem? How is that fair?”
Eban was shocked, and said that he would speak with the foreign ministry to allow me to move to Jerusalem. “But what about the 3 million other Ray Hananias?” I replied. After that interview, I entered professional journalism after recognising that strategic communications in America, not violence in the Middle East, could restore Palestinian rights.
In 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) declared Palestine independence in a historic document unveiled in Algiers. This defined the human rights and freedom struggle under the yoke of the brutal Israeli military occupation that aspired and eventually would achieve Apartheid infamy.
After sitting with resolute optimism and hope on the White House lawn in September 1993 and watching the impossible – Arafat shaking the hand of Palestine’s mortal enemy, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin – it all unravelled. On 4 November, 1995, a disciple of the wing of Zionism to which anti-peace firebrand Benjamin Netanyahu belongs walked right up to Rabin and killed him in cold blood as his startled bodyguards watched.
November hasn’t been good for Palestinians or for peace. In 2004, after watching the Israelis tear the peace process apart, Arafat died a martyr to freedom and human rights on 11 November 2004.
Although every month is filled with examples of atrocities committed by an Israel determined to prevent peace and lay claim to the entire land of Palestine, and even beyond, November has played host to some of the most important events in our history, of which I have noted just a few. Nevertheless, every November, I re-empower myself and make a commitment that I will not allow the past to define my future as a Palestinian. Hope is a powerful sword and dedication is the foundation of success.
- Ray Hanania is an award-winning Palestinian American syndicated columnist who covered Chicago City Hall and American for more than three decades. His article appeared in MEMO.
