The Palestinian Diaries

After the 2 year-old Feras, child Yaser is waiting death

Inquiring about his condition out of curiosity, I asked him “How are you Yasser?” In a very tiny voice full of sadness he replied “I have no chance to live as I am bedridden since two years ago, and nothing changed”. His condition is severe, due to paralysis he’s unable to do anything without assistance. Moving closer to him, I can see his body keeps shaking. Yasser requires moment to moment care from his parents. The medical device which enables him to breath is powered by electricity. He ans his family live in constant fear of power cuts.

Yasser has not received any education since his accident, due to his bedridden status. “Yasser is my oldest son. He is so clever and he always keeps good reputation among his peers and the people around” said the father. “As all young children who witnessed the recent war in Gaza, Yasser struggled emotionally during the bombing and air strikes” his father added. During my visit, I noticed a completely destroyed home closely to Yasser’s.

When the neighboring home was destroyed, Yasser was left without power for an extended period, forced to rely on backup generators to survive. “We were so scared of his health condition deteriorating during the war” said his father. His father nformed us his medical operation is so sensitive, and the operations necessary for improvement very costly. “No one helping us to afford this operation, it costs $150 000; I keep searching for associations to help us find funding to improve Yassers health condition” said the father
source: http://www.paltelegraph.com/latest/833-waiting-on-fate

Yaser in the photo, waiting for a rescue

See the death of Feras here: http://www.paltelegraph.com/hot-topic/822-israeli-siege-kills-baby-aged-2

Those are British people, they are marching to show their sympathy and support to Palestinian people who were taken out from their land, Palestine, in 1948, and still insist to return. And to Palestinian people still living in Jerusalem, west bank, and Gaza, and struggling to have freedom and life.

What is really ironic is that no Arabic country – as far as i know – had such marches and that the British government is the one who handed Palestine for jews to renounce Israel !

And now, Only in britain  a march on the 61 anniversery for Palestine loss was launched !

Photo Translation: 61 Years since our land was taken from us. Our right to return will not fall with time, it lasts till we take it back.

In 1948, Britain ended its mandate over Palestine, and handed Palestine to Jews to declare Israel.

61 years have passed since we left our homes in Palestine, and we still insist our right to return.

61 years since the day we were forced to leave palestine.. Still insist on our right to return..

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 -20:45 38 JERUSALEM (AFP)

Fadia Zreneh kashanato (29 years), a palestinian christian from Jerusalem, risked her life on Wednesday when she crossed the Israeli security forces to throw a letter to Pope Benedict XVI upon his arrival to the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem. The letter explains her suffering caused by the withdrawal of the Israeli authorities to her identity in Jerusalem.

Fadia said to France Press Agency: “I took the risk and crossed the lines of Israeli security forces and threw the letter to the Pope to explain the suffering i live in.”

“I lost hope in everything, but I hope the Pope can help. I was born in Jerusalem,  and here is where I live. But now i’m walking around without identification, just like homeless people after Israelis withdrew my identity for security reasons, as they claim.”

Israel has occupied East Jerusalem in June 1967 and annexed it, and seized large swathes of its territory. They granted permission certificates for the people of the city. These certificates are withdrawn if people who hold it left the country for a period of three years, or lived in the West Bank.

Fadia, a young beautiful blonde with blue eyes, continued: ”This letter represents the situation of thousands of Palestinians like me” she said, adding, “We must deliver to the pope our suffering from the injustice, and what happens to us Christians in Jerusalem from the oppression and suffering. We only want justice and help from the Pope as we are members of his followers. “

She added, “I hope the Pope considers my letter, and give us assistance. But if he could not have an impact on Israel, I do not know who can.”

Fadia says, “I was returning from Brazil to the World Congress of the Federation of Churches, which called for peace and love, in March 2006, and upon my arrival to the Jordanian-Israeli border, Israeli withdrew my identity, and they told me to contact the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem.”

“In the beginning they told me I do not live in the city, but in the West Bank, and when I brought all the pieces of evidence which confirms housing in Jerusalem, they asked me to obtain the approval of security to live in my house and in my city.”

“The intelligence refused to give me a security approval and my case was followed to court. Now, I am walking around without identification papers.”

She wondered, “Is there anyone on earth who does not have a passport or an identity?”

Fadia said:  ”I live with my husband and daughter in the house of the Monastery of the Latin Christians in the lane in the Old City in East Jerusalem. My daughter and my husband have an identity, i don’t.”

Fadia is a Christian Orthodox married to a Latin Christian, explaning her suffering: “When I go to visit my family in the town of Beit Jala, the soldiers at the checkpoint stop me and take me in their car to the military police station in the Etzion settlement south of Bethlehem, to investigate the reason i walk around without an identity. I spend hours explaining to them my case. At the end they refuse to allow me to pass, and bring me back to the checkpoint. This is repeated whenever a police identity check stops me. “

She said she has a child who is seven months old and she hasn’t been able to present to her family in nearby Beit Jala.

On her work, she said: “I was a dancer in a traditional Palestinian dancing group (Dabkah). We walked around Europe to carry the name of Palestine to convey a beautiful picture of our country and not the picture that Israel wants, are these the security reasons to take away my identity?”.

She continues: “I often told israelis during investigations: If am a threat to the state of Israel, why don’t you press charges against me and arrest me?”.

In conclusion, Fadia says: “I am the daughter of Jerusalem, this is where I will stay, there is no other place I would go to. I do not ask charity from the Israelis, they bring Jews from all parts of the world and give them identities and nationality without limits or judgement”.

The pastor of the Church of the Latins in Jerusalem, Father Ibrahim Faltas, told France Press Agency: “We Christians in the city of Bethlehem addressed many letters to the Pope, and sent some of them with priests. All of these letters concern the issue of identity cards, residency in Jerusalem, and the subject of family reunification.”

A source in the protocol of  Palestine “There are about 43 letters at the palestinian protocol from the Palestinian Christians from East Jerusalem that will be delivered to the Protocol of the Pope.”

In an attempt for the triumph of Islam, Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him- who was for many times attacked by the West, the artist and calligrapher Yasser Abu Saima, son of the city of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, Made the first “manuscript” of the Gospel of Luke in Arabic, and presented it as  a gift to Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the city on 13th of may.

Saima said to Aljazeera.net that he has been for two months working on this manuscript, which is the first around the world and the Arabic countries. “Al-Bashir”, called it according to the Gospel of Luke, is written in Arabic ,  he was able to do it despite the lack of time.

Natural materials
The Saima (51 years) said that the manuscript consists of about sixty-five-page presentation of 55 cm width and 75 cm length. Each page contains an image and an explanation of it in Arabic language. It begins from Virgin Mary’s pregnancy of christ to the crucifixion issue.

He used cartonic paper processed by natural materials from egg whites and Shabbah to keep it as long as possible. He also used Arabic ink made manually out of pomegranate , salt, honey, and arabic gum.

The Message
Saima who embraces Islam, said: ”regardless of whether it says “clergy”, the purpose behind the submission of this manuscript was to bring the attention of the Pope and the Christian world in general that the person is not printing the attack and the attack on one of the “even those who differed with him ideologically.”

The other letter from the manuscript is a reply to the Danish cartoonist who attacked the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. “I want to show him how we, Muslims, deal with all prophets as equal, and the faith of the Muslim is not complete until he believes in all the divine prophets and their books” , Saima said.

Holy also
In addition to the manuscript, the Gospel, Saima made two manuscripts of the Holy Quran written in Arabic, and a manuscript of  “Rubaiyat Al khayyam” translated by Wadea al-Bustani published in 1932. He is preparing for a manuscript that contains the collections of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, to put it in his tomb.

Saima became professinal in Arabic writing since he was 17. He is a teacher of Arabic writing at the Faculty of Arts, University of Bethlehem. He used his talent in writing to support his family, who lived in Hittin refugee camp in Jordan. Then in 1997, they came to the Palestinian territories and he continued his creativity in Arabic writing.

Preparations to receive Pope Benedict XVI were nearly complete in Bethlehem’s Aida refugee camp, but a last-minute change of plan by the Vatican, under Israeli pressure, has triggered resentment.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh reports on the potential ramifications of the change in plan in the pope’s visit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pope calls for Palestinian homeland

Pope Benedict told Palestinians he believes they have a right to a sovereign Palestinian homeland [AFP] Pope Benedict XVI has told Palestinians in Bethlehem that he believes they have the right to a sovereign Palestinian homeland.

On his first trip to the occupied West Bank, the pope addressed a crowd in Manger Square alongside Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on Wednesday.

He held an open air mass in the square before visiting the Aida refugee camp.

 ”Mr President, the Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbours, within internationally recognised borders,” the pope said.

He called on the Palestinians to resist any temptation to resort to acts of violence in what is being seen as his strongest public support yet for Palestinian statehood.

“I make this appeal to the many young people throughout the Palestinian territories today,” he said.

“Do not allow the loss of life and the destruction that you have witnessed to arouse bitterness or resentment in your hearts.”

 Moral leadership

 However, Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reporting from Bethlehem, said that many Palestinians had hoped for a stronger statement from the pope.

 ”People were probably expecting something clearer, something stronger on the political aspirations of the Palestinians and their rights to keep their land and live in that land with free access to their holy sites and the ability to develop and prosper like other populations.”

 Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian leader of the political faction Hamas, had called on the pope to visit Gaza to see what he described as “the real holocaust against the Palestinian people”.

In 2008, Israel launched a three-week assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,300 people and destroying much of the impoverished area’s infrastructure.

Gaza is not on the itinerary for the pope’s week-long pilgrimage, which has already taken in holy sites in Jordan and Israel.

Separation wall

 As Abbas welcomed the pope to Bethlehem, he also condemned the Israeli occupation.

“In this holy land there are those who continue to build separation walls instead of bridges and see,k by the forces of the occupation, to compel Muslims and Christians to leave the country,” he said.

Abbas criticized Israel’s West Bank separation wall, which nearly encircles Bethlehem.

“Your holiness is fully aware of the situation in Jerusalem which is surrounded by an apartheid wall which forbids our people in the West Bank from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Al-Aqsa mosque,” Abbas said.

The pope was scheduled to visit an altar directly adjacent to the seperation wall that had been built in anticipation of his arrival. But the Vatican changed plans at the last minute to avoid controversy as Israel has asked that the altar be demolished.

Instead, the pope will visit a UN-run school opposite the wall. The pope passed through the wall on his way into Bethlehem.

Palestinian nuns gather for mass in Manger Square [Reuters] 

 ”He saw for himself firsthand what the wall means and what impact it can and does have for on the Palestinians in Jerusalem and Bethlehem,” Odeh reported.

 ”Many believe just that experience would lead the pope to have a very a strong statement on the wall, that it must be torn down as his predecessor John Paul II had advocated and as international law states.”

At an open-air mass, the pope appeared to refer to the wall when he called for “greater freedom of movement, especially with regard to contact between family members and access to holy places.”

 While the Christian population of Bethlehem and Palestinian territories in general have decreased significantly in recent years, some hope the pope’s visit will prevent Christians from leaving the Holy Land.

Earlier during his trip, while in the Josaphat Valley, the pope said it was a “tragic reality” that so many Christians had left. “In the Holy Land there is room for everyone,” he said.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

[11/05/2009 - 04:34 pm]

Gaza – Palestinian Information Center
The Pharmaceutical department of the Palestinian Health Ministry said in its monthly report that the number of classes of drugs that reached a zero balance, and ran out of ministry stores  rose this month to 65 items, after it was 61 items last month. While the shortage in medical equipment that reached the balance of  zero is 95 equipment after it was 69 last month.

The ministry said in a statement Monday (11-5) to the “Palestinian Information Center” : “We Strongly warn against the continued closure of Gaza borders, and the prevention of the occupation forces from admitting medicines and medical equipment to hospitals in the Gaza strip, especially as they are in dire need to save the lives of dozens of patients. “

They appeal to the whole world the need to immediate and urgent intervention in order to exert pressure on the Zionist occupation and stop the aggressive practices of the siege of one million and a half palestinians living in the Gaza Strip for about three years.