Human Rights Newsletter
Sent: Sat, Oct 22, 2011 07:37 AM
Just two prisoner stories and the olive harvest
http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2011/10/just-two-prisoners.html
Western media try to make Palestinian political prisoners mere numbers while
personalizing one Israeli soldier. So let me just give you the names and
brief story of two of those released Palestinian political prisoners.
-Chris Bandak, a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem was just 21 when he
was abducted by the Israeli occupation forces. He was released after
spending the last 9 years in Israeli prisons for his resistance activities
to the colonial occupation. But the deal meant moving him to Gaza. In an
interview with Al-Quds, Bandak stated that he has no relatives in Gaza but
since he arrived there he felt all of Gaza people are his relatives. He
emphasized that the various resistance groups including Fatah (his group),
the left groups, and the Islamic groups all respect and treat Christians and
Muslim Palestinians the same as comrades. He also stated that the occupiers
treated natives with the same cruelty regardless of their religion. He
explained how painful it is to leave so many colleagues in Israeli prisons.
-Ibtisam Al-Eisawi, Palestinian Muslim woman from Jerusalem was kidnapped 10
years ago by the occupation forces. She has 6 children. The youngest was
only 6 months when her mother was jailed and she cried the most when she was
finally able to begin to get to know her mother. Ibtisam's oldest daughter
was married only one week before Ibtisam was released. The pain of missing
her daughter's wedding, missing seeing her children grow up. Her name
Ibtisam means "Smile" but this brave woman had seen few smiles in the last
10 years. Back now in her city of Jerusalem witnessing increased colonial
settlement activities and increased efforts to make Jerusalem "Jewish" by
ethnically cleansing its native people and importing Europeans and othesr to
replace them. She says that she is happy to be out with her family but sad
that so many people remain behind and thus the struggle will continue.
From personal experience I know how prison inmates become very close friends
and how hard it is to leave people behind. So we must all never forget those
his still await the day of freedom (or at least freedom from the small cage
to the big cage of the "people warehouses" or bantustans we live in under
Israeli apartheid and colonialism.
Action for prisoners (thousands remain in Apartheid prisons): See this
exemplary call to act from the UK based Palestine Solidarity Movement
http://palestinecampaign.org/index7b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=4&l2_id=24&Content_ID=
2203
New video on the attemps to Judaize Jerusalem: The story of Shaikh Jarrah
and other Jerusalem Onighborhoods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YQszhJ3acs
Just finished harvesting olive trees (my fourth olive gharvest season since
returning to Palestine from the US). Body is sore but spirit lifted. Here
is an article on the meaning and value of Palestinian olivesþ, the olive
harvest, and resistance. I wrote this for the 2009 harvest but it is the
same this year including the low yield since 2010 was a good year.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2009/10/20/palestinian-olives/
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7462
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
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