Visit Palestine!
Written by Haitham Sabbah on 29. November 2006, 0001hrs // Part of Haitham Sabbah's adventure in Israel, Palestine, Video, War Crimes, Zionism // Other posts by Haitham Sabbah
I can’t afford to pay millions to promote Western people to visit Palestine like Israel did with Arsenal to promote Israel as the oasis of the East. I don’t think that the whole Palestinian nation can afford a fraction of that figure. However, if you still can’t see Palestine through my eyes and hundreds of other Palestinian and pro-Palestine bloggers (a lot of registered bloggers here are non-Palestinian, pro-Palestine and peace bloggers), maybe you can see Palestine through the eyes of eyewitnesses like the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
The following documentary video makes you wonder: what prompts a young, well-educated Westerner to risk life and limb as a peace activist in the Middle East? With her striking red hair and bright lipstick, Caiomhe Butterly defies initial expectations of the ‘typical’ activist. Motivated by idealism, she blocks bullets with her body and ignores threats to her own safety to alleviate the suffering that surrounds. Her story provides a rare insight into the everyday lives of Palestinians, moving beyond usual depictions of one-dimensional heroes or victims. During a siege of Jenin, Caiomhe’s luck finally runs out and she is shot and wounded. With its harrowing frontline footage and intimate character portraits, this is surely one of the most powerful films to come out of Palestine in recent years.
To blog it, get code from here!
PS. Voice quality as received from source.
A BIG Salute to all ISM and pro-Palestine, pro-Peace activist.
Hat tip due to Robin for sharing the link to this video. She also quoted in her email, few words from Mother Teresa. After I read it, I could not but alter it to a Palestinian perspective, so here it is (Palestinian words in italic):
Mother Teresa wrote:
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. (If I stay alive tomorrow)
Life is beauty, admire it. (I’ll try to look through the tear gas)
Life is bliss, taste it. (Let me taste some bread and meat first)
Life is a dream, realize it. (If Israeli jets don’t visit our skies tonight)
Life is a challenge, meet it. (On continuous meeting since I was born)
Life is a duty, complete it. (Until last moment in my life, I will)
Life is a game, play it. (Say that again! If you mean fun, we are counting Israeli bullets)
Life is a promise, fulfill it. (I promise not to give up my rights)
Life is sorrow, overcome it. (Let me see… Israel kidnapped my father, killed my two brothers… OK, I will)
Life is a song, sing it. (Yeah.. I know this one.. Palestine national Anthem)
Life is a struggle, accept it. (You bet!)
Life is tragedy, confront it. (What does tragedy mean?)
Life is an adventure, dare it. (You dare half of what I dare ;-))
Life is luck, make it. (Luck?! Ingredients please?)
Life is too precious, do not destroy it. (Worthless if you are taken all your rights)
Life is life, fight for it. (Welcome to Palestine!)
Mother Teresa.
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November 29th, 2006 at 1:47 am
What I saw was a woman who has more courage than me. I repect her for that. What she gave me is an indepth view of what we don’t see in the west. I thank her for that.
As a male I feel humbled but very proud that a westener can and will do what she did.
She deserves the Nobel Peace Prize!
Don’t get me wrong because she is a westener. It is because she is doing something most westeners wouldn’t think of. We have been too isolated for too many years from the truth and she is showing it.
I am willing to bet that no US TV will show it!
November 29th, 2006 at 2:07 am
When I watched this video, tears were flowing that came from my own long ago memories of visiting Shatilla several times during the civil war in Lebanon in 1975. During the day then, most things were quiet as commerce went on. It was during the day that we went, my sister-in-law who was working on her degree in public health at AUB. The hospitality amid the humble and squalid surroundings overshadowed those surroundings as we were welcomed into different homes. Tea was made and sweets offered as my sister-in-law talked and assessed those in need of health services. But it was us who these refugees focused on, not themselves. We laughed and listened to music with them and went home. We visited several times and each time we were treated in exactly the same hospitable manner. We looked forward to going BECAUSE of how we were welcomed. But at night, when we were relatively safe in our own neighborhood, they were not. The camp was under attack at night and the resistance had to fight from inside to protect themselves. Years later the massacres at Sabra and
Shatilla occured and hundreds were killed by the Phalangists as Sharon guarded the gates for them to enter and kill. Ask yourselves, is it right in God’s eyes to think that another life is not as precious as your own or your loved one’s? Is it right to think that because someone else is different than what you are accustomed that they should not also have the right to be safe in their surroundings?
What I saw in this video was something everyone should see for themselves, how the ISM worker is not only welcomed, she is embraced because this IS the culture of the Palestinian people. It is very hard to write in words my own experience at Shatilla, and it is also very hard to write in words the experience of acceptance and love wherever I went, as an American, as just a human being who was embraced and welcomed and taken care of in the time I lived in the Mideast. If you were to go to help, if you were to only go to witness, you too would be treated in this fashion. These people who are on the other side of the globe from where I sit as an American are ABSOLUTELY no different in their desires for life than us. They do not want to harm first, they ONLY want to live in freedom and safety. They want the same things we have. Maybe their lives look different to some, maybe their customs are different, but that is something to LEARN from and appreciate and make it a part of your own life. If Americans could only see through the sensationalism of the news presented to us, and they were able to experience what this ISM worker did from the love of those around her EVEN IN a very dangerous environment, they would have an entirely different outlook on what they think is an understanding of this situation.
Mother Teresa took a vow of poverty to help the unwanteds in Calcutta. It is from Mother Teresa, the winner of the Noble Peace Prize and saint to all mankind that those of us who are fortunate need to take our own direction. But for the grace of God go I and for the grace of God, it is those who CAN help SHOULD help. There is ALWAYS something you can do, you can write letters, you can call your congressmen and senators who are continuing to support Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians by continuing to fund Israel, you can go to a local mosque and learn more about Islam (don’t forget that many Palestinians are Christian), you can reach out to meet others from the Mideast and learn their culture first hand, you can give to children’s charities, you can boycott Israeli goods, you can research Palestinian and Arab culture from their perspective, you can simply open yourself to hearing what the Palestinians themselves are saying, NOT what is being said ABOUT them. There are even several programs which you can volunteer for to go and help yourself if you can. And always, follow the guidance that our creator has given to love others as we do ourselves.
Life is an opportunity, where there is need, fulfill it.
Life is beauty, the strenghth of the Palestinian people is beautiful, admire
it
Life is bliss, it is not only for us to enjoy
Life is a dream, others have dreams also, help them to achieve them
Life is a challenge, never waver in your determination to help others
Life is a duty, God asks each one of us to do unto others as we would
have done unto ourselves.
Life is a game, meet your opponent head on, do what is morally right
Life is a promise, for ALL from our creator
Life is sorrow, alleviate other’s sorrows as well as your own
Life is a song, allow others to sing their’s
Life is tragedy, remember the Good Samaritan, help when help is needed
Life is an adventure, step out of your world and into another
Life is luck, spread your own luck to others so that they might share it
with you
Life is too precious, never ever be a party to destroying it
Life is life, for every single child of God to live in safety
November 29th, 2006 at 3:01 am
Robin,
As a nonbeliever I sit back and view both sides.
I don’t hate either side. I only see hate from both sides, and neither side cares about life. They only care about control of their people and about their truth!
What is the truth? I don’t know and the people who do know aren’t talking!
A single loss of life to me is devastating.
What is happening all over the world with people being killed is hurting more than you can know.
These killings are being executed in the name of (their) God and power over their people.
We have regressed back into the Middle Ages. All in the name of (place your god here) God.
November 29th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
Kimmy, don’t let yourself get fooled by claims of a religious war — it’s not about religion; it’s about racism — it’s about taking someone else’s land, and thinking one has a right to do so. this is a good backgrounder to the conflict: http://www.kibush.co.il/downloads/ProblemWithIsrael.pdf
I volunteered with ISM and it was a terrific experience, I highly recommend it.
November 29th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
what prompts a young, well-educated Westerner to risk life and limb as a peace activist in the Middle East?
A strong sense of justice and a deep feeling for humanity. See you in Palestine…..
November 30th, 2006 at 4:34 am
angus,
You might be right. It doesn’t matter any more.
Israel does what it want’s to do.
She is one of the few to stand up to Israel. I truly respect her.
November 30th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Kimmy,
As a “believer”, I sit back and view both sides.
As a student of history, I search for the root of the problem.
As a “believer” I do not believe that any people are “chosen” due to birth or religious preference, but rather all have free will to live life humanely and treat all others with the respect they demand for themselves.
Zionism does NOT practice in this manner.
Therefore, I conclude, Zionism is the root of the problem because it is the Zionists who are in the position of power and therefor “own the outcome” of their policy.
Zionism by defintion is “the movement to establish a homeland for the Jewish people”
Zionism in practice was a war on the indigenous population of what is now the state of Israel and later the occupied territories, to drive them out of a land where they had lived for generations, killing thousands and creating almost one million refugees in 1948, now some roughly six million world wide. Israel is in violation of international law by beligerantly occupying territory for 38 years, and Israel proper is a state based upon racist policies which subjugate the non-Jewish population to a far lesser status, denying non-Jews the same human rights the government grants to it’s Jewish citizens.
To say, I sit back and view both sides is a good start to understanding, but a “viewer” needs to “view” the totality of the situation, NOT only the violence which has ensued from the root problem while ignoring the root problem itself.
To say “both sides hate each other” one needs to ask where the source of the hate is. The source of the hate is Zionism itself which self-elevates Zionists to a position of superiority and then PRACTICES it for 60 years (and prior to 1948 in the many massacres)
December 1st, 2006 at 3:25 am
Robin and all reading this,
Please don’t get me wrong!
Hitler wanted to get rid of Zionists, not Jews! But he put both Zionists and Jews in the same package.
I lost Jewish relatives in Denmark during WWII before I was born.
Zionism and the Jewish faith were two different forms back then, but you couldn’t differencicate them back then.
What Hitler did was wrong!
What the Zionists are doing now is wrong. But they are playing with history to get more power using the Jewish faith!
This has come down to the argument of “my God tells me that I am right”, and atleast half of the time God should not have been involved in these arguments, but an understanding of the other persons views should have been!
I have learned to listen to other views and understand them.
As an example: I have a Jehovah Wittness customer who calls me for all service, even though he knows that I am a non-believer. Why? Because I tell him the truth. Because I can Quote the Bible as good as he can. Because I accept him for who he is and not what he is.
Our religious arguments were settled when my Bible quotes bettered his.
Haitham, that is why I am reading the Koran. To understand!
As I told my Jehovah Wittness customer when he asked me about my knowledge of the Bible, “know thine enemies”.
Funny part is that I have no enemies.
December 3rd, 2006 at 8:54 pm
this is an interview with rachel corrie in gaza: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3JI-axaRF4&mode=related&search=
December 19th, 2006 at 1:39 am
i didnt even watch the video coz i dont want to but i love palestine and i wanna serve the people of palestine and i wud love to die in palestine…………… someone temme the way to be there im from bangladesh>>>>>>>>>>>asaif_hossain@yahoo.com
January 7th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Anyone volunteered as peace observer in Palestine/Israel?
Western blood is more expensive and brings attention, as many volunteers like Caiomhe Butterly presence protects children’s lives from triggerhappy soldiers.
I hope to visit Palestine in the summer.
I’ve bookmarked this great blog. Keep up the good work!
August 15th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
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