source: Mehr News (www.mehrnews.com…), licensed under a Creative Commons
So often I have heard people say, “if only the Palestinians would use non-violence as their form of protest, the world would listen.” Khader Adnan, a Palestinian baker, died due to his hunger strike – the same form of non-violent resistance used by Gandhi. Is anyone listening?
An excerpt from:
Khader Adnan, who yearned to live free, dies in Israeli prison
by Tamara Nassar
Palestinian writer Yousef Aljamal recalled speaking to Adnan by phone in 2021 while co-editing with Norma Hashim the book, A Shared Struggle—Stories of Palestinian & Irish Republican Hunger Strikers.
“I remember his voice was very weak and he was barely able to talk due to his illness and the damage his vocal cords suffered from past hunger strikes,” Aljamal wrote in a tribute to Adnan.
But if Israel broke and finally destroyed Adnan physically, it did not do so spiritually.
“Our freedom is the most precious thing we have,” Adnan explained in an essay published in the book.
“Being locked in a dark dungeon, where Israeli soldiers beat my chained body was deeply humiliating and oppressing,” Adnan said. “Their punches and their weapons have left permanent scars on my body. Their barbarism itself stood before me, literally.”
“Freedom beckoned me from the moment I was first imprisoned, it haunted me. My quest for liberty also drove me to bolster the morale of my friends and brothers.”
By waging his hunger strikes, Adnan said he was determined “to teach the occupiers a lesson in dignity and defiance.”
He also recalled how his captors moved his “weak, faint and emaciated body from one prison to another.”
“Their hatred, oppression and brutality still live with me,” he said. “They pretend to act humanely in front of the rest of the world, but they don’t.”
Adnan never lost sight of what motivated him: his devotion to his people, his land and his family.
“During my struggle I occupied my mind by recalling the sun on the distant green lands. I missed most of all the feel of grains of sand, the scent of the almond and lemon trees,” he said.
“I demanded to go home, to my family, to my daughters, who had spent long periods of their childhoods without me since I was jailed.”
read this article in full here.
Filed under Israel and Palestine, israel and palestine conflict by on May 9th, 2023. Comment. 
It’s the 75th anniversary of Al-Nakba this year, and things never appear to have been worse for the Palestinian people.
The On-Going Palestinian Nakba
By Jafar M Ramini
May 15th, is the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe). And counting. I say ‘and counting’ because the theft of our land, the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the disposition of our people, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and replacement of the Palestinian nation, with Jews, often of dual nationality, from around the world, continues more aggressively than ever. So does the building of illegal settlements to house those interlopers. They too are still going on apace with no end in sight.
Add to that toxic mix, the total indifference of western leaders and the conniving and betrayal of some Arab leaders, not to mention the shameful capitulation and collaboration of the Palestinian Authority and the picture is complete.
Try as I may to look for the infamous light at the end of the long, dark tunnel, I can’t find even the tiniest glimmer.
And I haven’t even got around to mentioning the Israeli prisons which are full of Palestinian men, women and children, tortured and held in disgusting conditions without charge or legal recourse. As if all of this was not enough to emphasise the cruelty and inhumanity of the occupation of our land, the longest in history, the Israeli Occupation Forces continue to raid, unhindered, cities, towns and villages all over Palestine. And what does the ‘free, democratic world’ do about it? This is but a small example of what they do.
The President of the European Commission, Madame Ursula Von der Leyen lauded Israel’s democracy and its ties to Europe.
“Today, we celebrate 75 years of vibrant democracy in the heart of the Middle East,” the German politician said. “We also celebrate 75 years of friendship between Israel and Europe,” pointing out that; “We have more in common than geography would suggest: our shared culture, our values and hundreds of thousands of dual European-Israeli citizens have created a deep connection between us.”
Really, Mme Von der Leyen? Shared values? Is the European Union proud to share with the Israeli Government the concentration camps and the ghettos Israel created for us Palestinians, in our own land? Is Israel’s ‘Administrative Detention policy’ which allows the imprisonment of Palestinians, men, women and children, indefinitely, without charge or legal representation, or even family visits, one that Europe might embrace? Is this what you might call a shared value?
read the rest of this article here
Filed under Israel and Palestine, israel and palestine articles by on May 24th, 2023. Comment.
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