44th anniversary of Land Day

Today, 30th March, is Land Day in Palestine and is marked by Palestinians wherever they live. Land Day is held on the anniversary of March 30, 1978,when Palestinian villages and cities across the country witnessed mass demonstrations against the states plans to expropriate 2,000 hectares of land in and around the Arab villages of Araba and Sakhnin as a part of a plan to "Judaise the Galilee".Israel's Galilee region. In coordination with the military, some 4,000 police officers were  dispatched  to quell the unrest.As demonstrators blocked roads and shouted slogans such as "these villages belongs to us, not to Israel", they were met with live ammunition from the Israeli army killing six protesters - Khayr Muhammad Yasin, Raja Hussein Abu Riya, Khader And Khalila, Khadija Juhayna, Muhammad Yusuf Taha and Rafat Zuhairi, leaving over one hundred injured by state security forces,  after simply calling for equality and recognition, and  their right of return.
The Day of the land - or Land Day marked the first mass mobilization of Palestinians within Israel against internal colonialism and land theft. It also signalled the failure of Israel to subjugate Palestinians who remained in their towns and villages, after around 700,000 of them were either expelled or forced to flee battles or massacres committed by Zionist armed groups in 1948.It's commemoration is a reaffirmation that the Palestinians who remained in the area on which Israel was declared in 1948, are an inseperable part of the Palestinian people and their struggle.
This important day in Palestinian history commemorates the Palestinians sense of belonging to a people, to a cause and a country, to stand united against racial oppression and rules of apartheid,and the discriminatory practices of the Israeli government, giving continual potency to the Palestinians cause , its quest for justice and Palestinian rights, and its resistance to injustice,who never cease to fight for their land while holding passionately to their history and identity. It is the right of return, recognised in the United Nations Resolution 194, that drives Palestinians to continue with the commemoration of Land Day - regardless of their geographical location.
The day is commemorated  annually by Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and further afield in refugee camps and among the Palestinian diaspora worldwide, with demonstrations, marches and by planting olive and fruit trees. Land Day is typically met with violent Israeli repression.
Land Day continues to be poignantly relevant as Israel continues to confiscate land, expand their colonies, and continue to build their illegal settlements in flagrant violation of all international conventions, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law. There are currently more than 65 Israeli laws that discriminate against Palestinian Arab citizens in Israel, and Palestinian residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The recent approval of Israel’s Nation State Law came to cement this apartheid and the second-class status of Palestinians.
But 2020, for the first year since 1976, Palestinians will not be holding a Land Day commemorative march, due to the fear of further spreading the coronavirus COVID-19 in the crowded Palestinian Occupied Territories.
Every year, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and abroad, commemorate Land Day with marches and remembrance. Land Day 2020 coincides with the two year anniversary of the launch of the weekly Great March of Return demonstrations in Gaza.
Through these demonstrations, Palestinians have been demanding their right to return to the land that is now known as Israel, as well as an end to the 13 year blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt.
The Palestinian refugees in Gaza  hoped through the weekly non-violent protests to regain access to land, now in Israel, from which their ancestors were forced to flee during the country’s creation in 1948. Instead, the protesters were shot with live ammunition, killing hundreds and maiming tens of thousands. This went on weekly for nearly two years, with no repercussions for the Israeli soldiers who repeatedly shot non-violent Palestinian demonstrators.
According to Gaza medical officials, 215 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers firing from the other side of the border during the protests, with another 8,000 suffering gunshot wounds. In the past few months, the weekly protests have been smaller.
In 2019 U.N. Human Rights Council investigators said Israeli forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, with children and paramedics among the fatalities.
The total area of historical Palestine is 27, 000 square kilometres, 85% of which is under Israeli military control. Therefore only 15% of the ancestral land is available for indigenous Palestinians to cultivate their land. The Palestinian people continue to risk violence and even death in their struggle for freedom, justice and equality. The UK solidarity movement must do everything we can to amplify the Palestinian people's call for an end to the siege of Gaza and the implementation of the right of return, as enshrined in international law.
So far, nine out of the 97 coronavirus cases confirmed in the Palestinian territories have been confirmed in the Gaza Strip. Gaza’s hospitals, which were overwhelmed during the protests by gunshot wounds and amputations, are now gearing up for the challenge of containing the coronavirus in the coastal enclave of two million Palestinians, many living in refugee camps.
 Amid the pandemic, people around the world  are using social media to honour Land Day. With much of the world now in lockdown, for most Palestinian people this experience is nothing new. Before the coronavirus outbreak spread around the world, a UN report identified that “over two million Palestinians – around 40 per cent of the population” face:
"conflict and violence, displacement, and denial of access to livelihoods, among other threats; entrenched levels of food insecurity… [and] inadequate access to essential services for the most vulnerable households "
The UN estimated that around “three-quarters” of those people live in Gaza. Israel’s blockade of this area and violence against its inhabitants has already “devastated public infrastructure” and “disrupted and overwhelmed basic services”. On 23 March, B’Tselem warned:
"The spread of COVID-19 in the Gaza Strip will be a massive disaster, resulting entirely from the unique conditions created by more than a decade of Israeli blockade: a failing healthcare system, extreme poverty, dependence on humanitarian aid, dysfunctional infrastructure and harsh living conditions that compromise public health – even before exposure to the new virus – combine with overcrowding to form a nightmare scenario. " 

Coronavirus now affects us all. But in the midst of our personal chaos and confusion, the challenges we face seem easy in comparison to those facing people in Palestine. Not only has a US-based global tracker removed an entire country, but the horrific situation people in the occupied territories face trying to deal with the outbreak mean they need our solidarity now more than ever.  

This year, amidst the Covid-19 lockdown, for the first time ever Land Day will be  solemnly commemorated inside Palestinian homes. with gatherings everywhere in the world banned in order to combat the spread of coronavirus, the Palestinians decided that the best way to keep this memory alive is to raise the red, white, green and black Palestinian flag on rooftops and balconies of every Palestinian home. Palestinians are sadly used to lockdowns and curfews, which is perhaps why so many have taken it in their stride.  

Meanwhile, the Israeli regime is continuing to remove Palestinians from their land even exploiting the pandemic to do so. House demolitions in East Jerusalem continue, settlement building hasn't halted and there is even reported to be a spike in settler attacks on Palestinian properties in the West Bank. 
On this important day in the Palestinian struggle for liberation,their collective narrative - one that emphasises Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonisation and sumud (steadfastness), in solidarity I will continue to join other people of conscience in supporting the global led Boycott, Divestment and sanctions (BDS)  campaign, intensifying our collective efforts to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people in violation of international law. 
In particular, I call on the EU and member states to recognise a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and ban the importation of goods from illegal settlements, as well as warn European companies operating there to immediately cease their operations. Respecting today the Palestinians inside Israel, the Israeli-Occupied Territories of the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza, and those in exile, who mark Land Day and view it as an assertion of the Palestinians' right to return to their homeland. From the rivers  to the sea one day Palestine will be free. For now the struggle continues.

Here's Why Palestinians in Gaza have been marching for two years.

 To our Land - Mahmoud Darwish

To our land,
and it is the one near the word of god,
a ceiling of clouds
To our land,
and it is the one far from the adjectives of nouns,
the map of absence
To our land,
and it is the one tiny as a sesame seed,
a heavenly horizon ... and a hidden chasm
To our land
and it is the one poor as a grouses wings
holy books . . . and an identity wound
To our land,
and it is the one surrounded with torn hills,
the ambush of a new past
To our land, and it is a prize of war,
the freedom to die from longing and burning
and our land, in its bloodied night
is jewel that glimmers for the far upon the far
and illuminates whats outside it . . .
As for us , inside,
we suffocate more !

Translated by Fady Joudah

Walt Whitman (31/5/1819 -26/3/1892) - This is what you shall do.

Remembering Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, journalist who died  on this day in 1892, with his timeless advice on living a vibrant and rewarding life. It''s an excerpt from the preface of the 1855 edition  to his verse collection Leaves of Grass. 
We are currently living in unsettling times, so thought I'd share a beautiful quote , that  contains a truth that remains undiminished since it was originally written..

" This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."

Here's some earlier posts of mine on Walt :-

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/05/happy-birthday-walt-whitman-legendary.html


https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2016/05/walt-whitman-3151819-263-92-poets-to.html?spref=pi

Take Action for Gaza :End the Siege

Over the weekend we heard devastating  news of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Gaza,
According to Deputy Health Minister Youssef Abulreesh, the two cases are  Palestinian men who returned from Pakistan through Gaza's Rafah on Thursday, March 21 and were placed under quarantine. On Saturday, March 22 their tests were confirmed positive for COVID-19. The two are now in a field hospital in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. More than 1,210 people haven placed in quarantine in hospitals, hotels and schools. 
The Gaza strip is the largest open air prison in the world. It's Palestinian population, many of whom are refugees expelled from  their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948. Israel has carried out three major military assaults (in 2009-09. 2012 and 2014) against Gaza, unleashing the force  of the regions most powerful army and sole nuclear power, on one of the most densely populated and poorly defended refugee areas in the world. In the 2014 attack 2,251 Palestinians were killed, among them 1,462 civilians and 551 children.
Gaza's two million residents most with claims to return to their homes, supported by international law are being asked to practice social distancing. This is impossible and the virus would spread like wildfire. Hamas has shut down restaurants, reception halls and Friday prayers at mosques, and any Palestinian returning from abroad are either being quarantined or are self-isolating. Though people have been ordered to only leave their homes to buy food, there is high risk that the virus will spread very rapidly in the densely populated enclaves and refugee camps of Gaza. Israel have responded to the confirmed cases by closing its borders  with Palestine (including the West Bank) completely.
The blockade has caused grinding poverty resulting in more than two-thirds of Gazan families being dependent on aid. Due to fuel shortages and damaged electrical infrastructure, there are power shortages  for up to 16 hours per day in most areas of Gaza. 70 percent of households in Gaza receive running water for only 6 to 8 hours every two to four days. Over 90 percent of the water extracted  from the Gaza aquifer is unsafe for human consumption, while needed filtration equipment cannot be imported to Gaza.Nearly 90 million litres of untreated or partially treated sewage is dumped into the sea off Gaza every day, while equipment needed to build new or maintain existing treatment facilities are banned from entering Gaza. As a result of  the blockade the economy,  education, medical care, agricultural and fishing industries have worsened, in some cases in near collapse. 
Gaza's wealth is largely unreachable s a direct result of Israel's occupation and blockade. Most agricultural land is located in places declared closed military areas. Access to traditional   fishing grounds is restricted by the Israeli Navy. Development of their natural gas reserves is forbidden by the Israeli government. All of this while the movement of people into and out of Gaza is severely restricted and both the import of goods and the export of products from Gaza is strictly limited. 
Israel has supplied Gaza with only a few hundred COVID-19 tests for its almost 2 million people. Gaza only has 65 life-saving ventilators (19 of which are already in use) and most of the equipment used in hospitals is in very poor condition and there are not enough adequate quarantine facilities to deal with the virus. It's a catastrophe in the making. Health officials warn that containment and treatment under the Israeli blockade will be impossible. This is truly a nightmare situation. Israel will not be able to deflect the blame if this nightmare scenario turns into a reality , that it created and made no effort to prevent. In the shadow of the global pandemic, these conditions in Gaza are a recipe for a disaster. Yet they are not the result of some unfortunate accident, but are are a result from deliberate Israeli state policy, consciously designed and maintained to achieve Gaza's, oppression, isolation and disintegration.
It is difficult to identify a date when the siege on Gaza began. The population of Gaza swelled in the aftermath of the Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes in 1948 and ended up in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and beyond. In 1967, Israeli forces invaded the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula, marking the beginning of the military and civilian occupation of Gaza. Palestinians have been subject to military rule since 1967, while Israelis who settled there were provided the protections of civil law. Following the first Intifada in 1987 Israel tightened its external and internal control and by 1994 it had established a fortified external control zone around Gaza through fencing, walls and militarized zones and imposed strict limitations on entry and exit, thus beginning a policy of isolating Gaza.
This crisis has been building since Israel's life-threatening blockade began 13 years ago, after the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas fighters, but it is clear that the siege has been in effect for decades:. 
Gaza is a  segregated, debilitated and subjugated colony of Israel. The occupation writ large is reminiscent of apartheid South Africa, the medinas of French colonies, the indigenous reservations across North America and other colonial regimes. Gaza represents an extreme form of settler colonialism—the conversion of a Bantustan into an open-air prison. Israel manufactures humanitarian crisis through its siege to create permanent isolation and deprivation, which is supported by the international community through its political inaction and its supplying of humanitarian aid in spite of the Israeli government’s legal obligations.
Critics of Israeli policy have long expressed a concern that the occupation relies on collective punishment, which is prohibited by international law. De-development and the siege, however, represent a kind of collective torture, forcing Palestinians to cope and endure in conditions that, while met by resilience, no group should be forced to endure. This torture takes the form of a frontal attack on the physical and mental health of Palestinians, a denial of the basic requirements of medical care, sustenance, community and mental health through infrastructures of dispossession.
Due to the Israeli siege, the healthcare system in Gaza is totally unprepared to deal with this pandemic. Palestinians in Gaza are living in crisis even without the Coronavirus, and the almost inevitable outbreak of the virus is essentially another nail in the coffin from the Israeli state. It is absolutely crucial that the Israeli siege on Gaza comes to an immediate end, and the 2 million people trapped on the Gaza Strip are finally allowed access to reliable electricity and medical aid. As long as Israel maintains the siege Palestinians will remain prisoners in their own land.  Palestinians like all people in the  the world, want to live in freedom. The pandemic's arrival threatens to make Gaza even more unlivable under Israeli siege. 
In this most moment when people in more privileged countries can just slightly relate to a life in confinement, separated from loved ones, uncertain about basic needs and worrying about their collective future, it is imperative to think of the inhabitants of Gaza who have suffered much worse for decades, and are at the risk of a far more devastating blow now that this terrifying pandemic has reached their shores. Please take action by writing to the Foreign Office. It's imperative for the UK to use its diplomatic power to insist the inhumane siege in Gaza ends immediately, and for Palestinians to have access to the healthcare they need.

https://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/endthesiege

There is silence in the streets.

There is silence in the streets, long nights of uncertainty
There is power in music, collective threads of solidarity,
Vibrations non-conforming, searching for different realities
Where laborious thoughts keep on gathering,
There are joyful rivers  and  flowing streams
There is our shared humanity, among days of disbelief,
In Gaza  people daily facing unrelentless suffering
Waiting for the darkness to  be  overcome,
There is despair woven into the landscape of life
Where countries are scarred by war and division,
The lonely and forgotten ensnared by disease
There are so many things we fail to see,
In this world, there is pain so great and terrible
Paths laden  with discomfort and so much fear,
There are times when no reason arrives at all
Weary now, timid with all that we collectively face,
There are those that reach beyond this bleakness
Beyond the shattered hopes, gloomy hours in isolation,
There is still beauty, new dawns approaching
The continuing intermingling of minds persistence,
Where our love can heal, holding on to mutual beliefs
Where the affliction  of  existential life can cease.

Coronoavirus Global Solidarity

“We cannot forget migrants, we cannot forget undocumented workers, we cannot forget prisoners in prisons.” Dr Michael J Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme on why we mustn’t forget the vulnerable and excluded when tackling Coronavirus.

Doctors of the World is committed to helping these groups. That’s why they've launched their Coronoavirus Global Solidarity Fund. This emergency fund will help keep their  services for the most vulnerable running through, and beyond, the current crisis. Please, if you can, do give today .

We’re all worried and a little scared.

Coronavirus is making us all feel nervous, agitated and worried. It is an unprecedented time in our recent history and we need to come together to overcome this terrifying pandemic.

This is all putting a great strain on healthcare around the world. We know from experience that when this happens it is often the most vulnerable groups of people that are hit hardest.

 Doctors of the World, are working with their colleagues and partners to do all they  can to mitigate the impact of this global pandemic.

As you can imagine, this costs money. That’s why they are asking us to give to their Coronoavirus Global Solidarity Fund. They will use this money to continue to provide our services and help those most in need.

Some of this will help them continue our ‘business as usual’ work and some will be for new projects that arise from the emergency.

They  have already translated advice for patients in 20 languages. These were produced in partnership with the Red Cross, Migrant Help and Clear Voice at no charge to patients. As guidance changes, we will update these.

As Dr Ryan ends by saying:

‘We’re in this together, and I hope we can finish this together’

Please, if you can, give generously now. Together we can help those who need us most.

With confirmed cases crossing 200,000 and more than 8,000 people already dead, the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak seems to have launched a war against humanity.

The worst affected countries are mainland China, with 3,237 deaths, out of 80,894 cases, of whom 69,601 have been cured. Italy follows with 2,503 deaths, 31,506 cases, Iran 1,135 deaths, around 17,000 cases, Spain 558 deaths and 13,716 cases and France with 175 deaths and 7,730 cases. Turkey, Bangladesh, Moldova and Burkina Faso have all reported their first deaths.

The pandemic has resulted in countries imposing travel restrictions and shutting down major events, shops and schools. But this is not the time to panic.

History has proved that through sincere, firm and coordinated actions, the world community can surmount any challenge. The deadly virus can certainly be beaten back by solidarity within communities and within nations.

Robust, bold and effective containment and control measures initiated by most countries are already raising hopes that the tough times could be overcome.

Governments in Europe, Asia and North America have rolled out strong measures to put the brakes on the ferocious spread of the pandemic.

Now is the time for each one of us to respond to the worldwide coronavirus crisis by being in solidarity with others, across countries and continents  especially with those who are most vulnerable and most at risk  in order to fight COVID 19,

We live in an interwoven, interconnected world where an injury to one is truly an injury to all. We must confront the coronavirus with solidarity and fight for a society where the health of all is more important than profits for a few.

A pandemic  makes the slogan of solidarity literal: an injury to one is an injury to all. We become isolated, that makes us all vulnerable.

 We can protect ourselves and others by changing our behaviour, asking governments to act, and donating.

Now more than ever , we need one another.

We must build on the trust, relationships and power we have built  over years to support our communities at this time of unprecedented strain and stress.

While we may have to distance ourselves , we can increase our social solidarity, and our commitment to work together for the common  good, sharing the concept of mutual aid.

Also consider joining the online World against  racism rally  showing solidarity with the fight against racism. https://www.facebook.com/events/525590474784471/

These are scary times, I wish you and your loved ones well.

Please stay safe, stay strong, we will come through this.

Spring's Promise

A poem in celebration of the spring equinox

In the midst of  a frayed world
The hurried breaths of life,
Times of distrust and confusion
General malaise and  disruption,
The sap is rising, new life returns
As buds awaken from winter's sleep,
Spring embraces, weaves its great design
Like a shawl, that offers protection,
From darkness we greet the light
Blossoms emerge from slumber,
And eggs dyed red as the womb
Are offered as gifts.

We hail the green goddess
Salute nature's renewal,
The spring equinox we celebrate
Planting desires, scattering seeds,
Time of rebirth and days of hope
To refresh us with new beginnings,
Of spirit and wonder.
The earth stands afresh
Hares leap, Ostara walks,            *
Flowers bloom, the sun kisses
Moistens and refreshes,
As we praise the day
And bless the night,
Honor and express
Sustain one another. 

( Ostara or Eostre , was the Goddess of Dawn (Saxon) who was responsible for bringing spring each year.)    


Tom Waits - You Can Never Hold Back Spring

New World Disorder

Feet become restless
In chaos and confusion,
With minds plagued by avarice
Heedless of humanity.

As parliament pends closure
And maroons the barren land,
Immoral forces sweep the nation
As old and infirm suffer the sting.

In desperation and despair
When guidance is  pivotal,
A yellow 2 legged centipede
Crawls with frivolous complacency.

Social distancing becomes the new order
Songs of light arrive to comfort,
Beyond the vortex of feverous fire
the crying of the living, the solemnity of the dead.