افلت كلابك في الشوارع… واقفل زنازينك علينا... اسأل علينا في المواجع … وعرفنا مين سبب جراحنا ....

رامز العزة 14عام ونصف

الفتى الذي اعتدى عليه مجموعة من أجهزة السلطة الفلسطينية في بيت لحم يوم الجمعة 18/9/2015 في جمعة نصرة المسجد 

الأقصى وقد تم الاعتداء على أهالي مخيم العزة من نساء وأطفال ورجال وإغراق المخيم بقنابل الغاز الامريكي الصنع.

لم يعلم سكان المخيم في يوم الجمعة ان الغاز واصوات اطلاق النار قد كانت من قبل اجهزة السلطة "الوطنية" فكما العادة دال المخيم عندما يسمع صوت الرصاص يخرج سكان المخيم وبايديهم بعض البصل والمياه ويفتحون الابواب وذلك لمساعدة اطفال الحجارة الذين يتصدون لقوات الاحتلال دائما فقد تفتح باب منزلك في المخيم فتجد شبلا قد اصيب او رجلا اعماه الغاز فتنقذه وتساعده او حتى تدخله المنزل لتمنع الاحتلال من اعتقاله , هكذا برنامج العمل داخل مخيم العزة للاجئين الذي يقع على خط التماس مع الاحتلال ولا يبعد سوى امتار عن معسكر للجيش الاسرائيلي .

ولكن هذه المرة لم يكن المشهد متجانسا فقد خرج ابو قيس لينقذ زوجته المريضه من بين الهراوات التي تنهال عليها ولم يتمكن محمد من انقاذ ابنه الصغير من رصاصة في قدمه ولم يسعف ام محمود أي استغاثة حتى وهي تقول لهم انا اخت الشهيد البطل ولم يكترث حامل العصى والبندقية ان هذا الرجل الذي تسمر في مكانه هوا نفسه الذي ودع ابنه الوحيد شهيدا منذ فترة قريبه ...

خرجت ام انس لتلحق ابنها الصغير رامز الذي وقع بين عصي رجالات السلطة المدرعين ..لم يستمع لها احد وهي التي نادت على ابنها رامز بخالد وهو اسم اخيها الشهيد الذي ارتقى قبل اعوام ..فقد التبست عليها الامور فلم تميز صوت الجنود هل كان عربي ام عبري قالت انتظر لا فرق بين الرايتين ...

في المخيم نعيش بين رصاصتين كما قال غسان كنفاني ..كنا نعلم جهة الرصاصة الاولى ولكن الرصاصة الثانية كانت مؤلمة فقد ادت الى وقوع طفل في وسط المخيم يستنجد من ينقذه ولا يعلم من اين هي الرصاصة التي وصلته او انه يعلم تماما ان الرصاص دائما يصلنا من الاحتلال ولكن نحن نعلم ان الاحتلال عندما يدخل المخيم فهوا لن يخرج سالما .ولكن صوت هذا الرصاص مختلف ..لم يكن رامز الطفل يسمع صوت الاستغاثات فقد كانت العصي تنهال عليه من كل طرف لم يساعده جسمه النحيل من ان يهرب من بينهم فقد كانوا وحوشا لا تعرف الرحمة ويطبقون ما تعلموه

فقد تم سحب الطفل ليضعوه في سيارة الشرطة فوق رفيقه الفتى الاخر الذي كان قد فقد الوعي او دخل في لحظة الوعي واللاوعي من شدة الضرب . الفتى الاخر "حمامرة" لم يشفع له ان والده منذ زمن طويل يعمل في مركب الشرطة.. وبعد نقل كومة من الاشبال الى مركز الشرطة يخرج منهم اصوات الاهات ..نقلوا الى المستشفيات ليلا وقد اعتذر مدير الامن الى والد الفتى حمامرة على هذه التصرفات التي هي تجاوز وتصرفات فردية او جماعية بشكل فردي . ولكن لم يعتذر أي شخص لرامز الطفل ابن المخيم وذلك لان والد رامز غير موجود فقد توفي نتيجة قهر العيش في المخيم ولم يعلم ان وفاته وقبره سيكونوا خارج قريته التي هجر منها " بيت جبرين"

في المخيم الحياة مختلفة والقوانين مختلفة .. في المخيم عندما تنام المدن الكبيرة ينهض المخيم فهو الذي يقف في مواجهة قوات الاحتلال خلال الاقتحامات الليلية للمنطقة .. وان اهم قوانيين المخيم انه لا ضرر في ان تسقط اثناء المعركة ولن يلموك شخص.. ولكن الاهم هو ماذا ستفعل عندما تنهض من المعركة واقفا بعد السقوط .

فارس فارس

1948 - Al Nakba: a family's collective memory

"The old will die and the young will forget." This was the prediction of the first Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion. 63 years later, I still wonder what made him think so. Would the Jewish masses - or indeed any of the other groups of people - that suffered the Holocaust ever forget?

As far as I know, having lived in a refugee camp for most of my life, there has always been much space in the tiny alleys of the camp for the collective memory of Israeli massacres, systematic displacement and ethnic cleansing. These images have been printed in the minds of Palestinian refugees both young and old. 

I never forget that 2003 Spring when my grandmother and I “went back” to our destroyed village Beit Jibrin.  We managed to get there despite the checkpoints and high level of security. It isn’t easy although the actual distance that separates my refugee camp from the village is less than an hour’s drive. I’d been there a few times before but never with her. This was the first time. I walked behind her climbing up a hill in the village. She seemed much stronger and able to walk faster than I remembered. She knew where exactly we were going as if she was there yesterday.

Under a fig tree we sat and my grandmother smiled and remembered when she used to play with her friends, decades ago. She said, “It's the same tree, a little bit different now; it's been more than 50 years after all. Nonetheless, it is the same tree.”

My head was saturated with thoughts; she must have whispered some of her childhood secrets to the old tree. She didn't say much but the sadness in her eyes said it all. We smiled and kept seated, listening to birds singing and breathing as much of the village’s fresh air as possible as if we had never drawn breath before. This is, after all, the village I have been raised to understand is mine.

Her memories dated back to 1948. She was nearly 10 years old. Despite her young age, she remembered. She remembered her school, the lovely summer evenings she spent with her family in the village.  She remembered the harvest time and travelling to Haifa and Yafa with her dad to sell their produce. She also remembered the nights when the peaceful village was first attacked. “We never saw a fighter jet before”, she said. Maybe they had, I thought, but I’m sure it wasn’t the same sight as the one that was now spreading death and fear into people’s hearts in 1948. This was the same year that witnessed over 750,000 of the native Palestinian population expelled from their homes and villages.  So far, to this day, they have never been able to return.

63 years since, and in spite of the number of UN resolutions and world condemnations, Israel’s impunity still prevails. No justice has been achieved as Palestinian refugees are yet to see the implementation of the United Nation’s Resolution 242 that clearly affirms “a just settlement of the refugee problem” as well as Resolution 149 which states that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date”.

As much as these resolutions have been alive in my grandmother’s memory, they are also imprinted in refugees’ consciousness whether they are acquainted with international law or not. Every Palestinian refugee resolutely believes in the right to live in the town or village from where they originate, and indeed where they and their families have been uprooted from by force.

Photo taken by Makbula Nassar- Al Jazeera documentary 2009

My grandmother passed away last March 2010 in the refugee camp. However, her dream of returning to Beit Jibrin is still alive and I deeply believe that she is in a place where borders do not exist. Her soul is finally free of the shackles of ethnic division, and she is able to hover over Palestine and our beloved village, our home, Beit Jibrin. She might be whispering secrets to the fig and olive trees there right now. Her dreams of return are still alive. As I will never forget her nor will I forget her passion when talking abut the village, I will always make sure I pass her dreams and aspirations to the coming generations. This, I believe is a promise that each refugee has taken unintentionally until the return and the full realisation of rights.

We will never forget my village and all the ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages as the memory remains in the heart and soul of all Palestinians. For us, the old may well die, but the young will never forget.

Merna Alazzeh

15/05/2011

►	Bring some colour into your life learn about Palestine this March during  the  Brighton Palestine Week

In partnership with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Duke of York's Picture House, we are delighted to invite you to the Brighton Palestine Week to celebrate and support Palestine: 4^th - 13^th of March

This includes the first exhibition in the UK by the Palestinian artist Muhannad Alazzeh.

The event displays a large collection of paintings demonstrating the artist's three year ordeal as a political prisoner in Israeli prisons. The artist's collection “April the 15th” includes some abstract paintings representing life outside the jail as seen from the inside, “a cell’s window was the only hope left, through its bars you could glance the rays of life”, Alazzeh. 

The exhibition will be open from 4^th – 13^th March 2011

Old Co-op Building,

London Road
Brighton
BN1 4JF

Opening Times: 10 AM- 6 PM

Look forward to seeing you all

Please feel free to invite your friends and circulate 

In solidarity,

Merna Alazzeh

Muhannad is a Palestinian artist who resides in Alazzeh refugee camp in occupied Palestine. However, he originates from the southern Palestinian village of Biet Jibrin, which has been ethnically cleansed by the Israeli Zionist troops in 1948. 

“Don’t beautify the Apartheid wall”, a quote by Alazzeh for an interview on the role of Palestinian and international artists and his views on the segregation wall built around the West Bank. Al Azzeh was born in September of 1981 to Othman Alazzeh, an Arabic literature teacher and Amal Alazzeh.

Since he’s shown an interest in Art and painting at the age of 10, his parents got him to participate in ‘Alwan’ (meaning colours in Arabic) workshop in Jerusalem, where he learnt and developed his talent at a young age and then published some of his work at the workshop’s magazine.

Watch video of the artist addressing the importance of art in tackling social and political issues in Palestine http://www.metacafe.com/watch/bg-6003896/bomb_it_2_muhnned_alazzh_the_west_bank/

In year 2003 Muhannad started his studies at Abu Dis University in occupied Palestine doing a BA in fine Art. However, before completing his first year, Alazzeh was arrested from his home by Israeli Occupation Forces for allegations of in-campus ‘student activism’.  Although this period of his life remains a tough one, yet the experience has not put him down but enriched his artistic talent and made him more determent to express and utilise his ability for the benefit of the people of Palestine.

His most recent participation in an exhibition entitled “Not Politics” was about his 3-year time in Israeli jails. The work, which he referred to as “April the 15th” (the day he was arrested) included some abstract paintings representing life outside the jail as seen from the inside. “A cell’s window was the only hope left, through its bars you could glimpse the ray

In collaboration with Palestine Solidarity Campaign, A UK  exhibition is due on the 5th- 13th of March  (As part of the Israeli Apartheid Week activities) at the Duke of York's Picture House, Brighton.

You can contact Muhannad on: muhannad194@gmail.com