This week the Palestinian community and those who stand in solidarity with them commemorate the Nakhba -- the Catastrophe -- when 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes in Palestine.

Edward Said spoke eloquently that the Palestinian community’s permission to narrate their own story had been taken from them.  This continues a series in which we hope to lift up Palestinian voices which are less frequently heard in US circles.

Samia Khoury, whom many of us know from her work with Sabeel in Jerusalem, recently circulated a letter from her sister-in-law Laura* written in response to a letter to the editor in the Time Magazine issue of 16 April 2012.  The letter writer (Jeremy Slomnicki), says Samia, “emphasize[d] the need for Israel to defend itself because of ‘Palestinian Terrorism.’”  Laura, Samia says, did not respond to Time because “she wanted to say more words than allowed, yet she is hoping that in one way or another her letter will reach [the original letter writer].”

 I am writing this to remind [those who perceive that Israel needs to defend itself against ‘Palestinian terrorism’] that the first perpetrators of “Terrorism” in our region were the Jewish underground in Palestine during the British Mandate.  Israel did not exist then, but Jewish terrorism started before 1948.  I do not know how old you are, Mr. Slomnicki, but if you are under 60 years you probably need to learn about the bombing of the King David Hotel Wing of the British Secretariat in July 1946 in which one hundred Palestinians were blown up. Ironically the man behind the bombing was Menachem Begin who later became prime minister.  King David  was just the beginning followed by many other terrorist acts, such as the Semiramis hotel when a whole Palestinian family perished and the Palestine Post Offices. The list is endless, but fortunately it has been recorded by many historians and ironically some Jewish ones of conscience who had the courage to expose the truth.  But surely you must have heard of the “calculated” massacre of Deir Yassin, a peaceful village near  Jerusalem when a defenseless population was massacred, mostly  women and children. A gruesome sight that triggered a scare that led to the fleeing of many Palestinians from their homes.  After 1967 ‘The Jerusalem Post’ quoted Mr. Menachem Begin regarding Deir Yassin: “It was a blessing in disguise because it helped create the State of Israel.”  Of course those who did not flee were driven out at gun point in other parts of Palestine. 

With regard to your letter that Israel has the right to defend itself, we are really tired of this cliché.  Surely Israel has the right to defend itself and so does every nation, but not when Israel is the aggressor, the occupier, the oppressor and the fifth  strongest army in the world loaded with a stockpile of nuclear weapons.  So from whom is Israel defending itself?  From a defenseless, dispossessed, and occupied population separated by walls and check points while their homes are demolished and their farms and olive trees are razed.  Are you comparing a resistance of an area under siege by the use of  crude home-made missiles that might have injured a few people but  hardly caused any damage to the Israeli air strikes of populated Gaza that killed hundreds?  The attack on the Jenin camp was another act of “terrorism” and not by underground militias, but by the regular and sophisticated Israeli army.  So it is ironic that you should really be so worried about “poor” Israel’s need to defend itself.  And so is the implanting of the settlers and settlements on Palestinian land an act of terrorism, especially that those settlers are there as colonizers with the sole aim of driving  away the Palestinians. They raid their homes, block them from reaching their farms and groves and  use every means to deprive them from living a peaceful life. 

Because we Palestinians live under Israeli occupation, because our territories have been surrounded by separation walls, separating us from our Palestinian families and communities, and because we cannot move further than 20 miles without having to go through an Israeli military check point it is we Palestinians who have the right to defend ourselves.

*Laura’s personal story: “My family had to leave our home because the Jewish militias were making it difficult for us to stay.  We moved to an area which was strictly Palestinian and one of the more posh areas in Jerusalem.  Then one day at dusk in January 1948, an armored car carrying Haganah Zionist terrorists was announcing that all Arabs in the area have to leave now, now, now.  We panicked of course and moved again to another quarter also densely populated by Palestinians, only to find ourselves terrorized again and shot at by the Jewish militias.  I for one escaped a bullet while walking home one evening, but for the Grace of God.  Eventually things got worse for all of us, especially after the Deir Yassin massacre and many other terrorist acts.  So my father, worrying about our safety decided to leave and we took refuge in Birzeit where the family of my mother’s sister lived. We then moved on to Gaza where my father’s sisters were.  And eventually went on to Beirut because my brother was already studying at the American University there.”