A Palestinian refugee's open letter to Obama
WRITTEN BY WWW.DAILY.PK
MONDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2008 14:11
Dear President-elect Barack Obama,
I would like to congratulate you on this victory, a victory that is
not only yours, as you said in your speech, but also for those who
believed in you, and who are full of hope for the change you promote
and the wish that it comes through you and your efforts to lead your
country and the world for a legacy and a heritage that is meaningful,
and plant hope in a time of despair.
I have been fortunate and blessed in my life. I received a scholarship
to continue my studies in France where I stayed nine years. I returned
to my occupied country with a PhD because I believed that I could make
a change and that I am a change-maker in breaking cultural
stereotypes, and could show another image of my people and their
beauty and humanity through nonviolent resistance against the ugliness
and violence of the Israeli occupation. This was my goal in creating
the Al-Rowwad Center with a group of friends, to allow our children to
use theatre and the arts for social change and nonviolent means of
self-expression to keep them alive, instead of becoming a number on a
list of martyrs, or handicapped for the rest of their lives, or perish
in prison.
I believe that everybody is a change-maker, and nobody has the right
to say, "I can't do anything" or stay neutral at a time when injustice
is committed every day. I believe, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
believed, that travel breaks cultural stereotypes, and if people have
the opportunity to meet with each other as human beings, they will
have no reason to go to war against each other. I believe in change,
exactly like you, and hope that change will come with all the efforts
we are doing. And because of this, I was rewarded as the first Ashoka
Fellow-Social Entrepreneur in Palestine.
When I first visited the United States, in 2004, the immigration
authorities asked me about my name, date of birth, place of birth,
etc. Because there is no Palestine listed as a country in their
computers, I was Jordanian -- because I was born in 1963 in
Jordanian-controlled Bethlehem. My father was Israeli, because he was
born in 1910 in his village of Beit Nateef under the Ottoman Empire,
even though it was called Palestine at that time, because this village
was occupied and destroyed and became part of present-day Israel,
which was created in 1948. What would be the feeling of anyone who
only exists as a "terrorist," but not as a "human being?"
I believe in human values and human rights. I believe in freedom,
justice, peace, democracy and equality. You mentioned opportunity. I
believe that occupied people have the right to defend their country
against the occupation, in a time when the occupied victim is
represented as the oppressor and the terrorist, and the occupier as
the victim who defends himself. I believe that people who fight for
justice and against oppression are heroes, like you. I believe that
you are a role model, and you will affect generations to come.
My name is Abdelfattah Abusrour. I was born in Aida Refugee camp, on
land rented for 99 years by UNRWA, the UN Agency for Palestine
refugees, from Palestinian landowners of Bethlehem. My family
originates from Beit Nateef, one of 534 destroyed Palestinian villages
in 1948 by the Zionist bandits.
I grew up in Aida refugee camp, as a refugee in my own country. I
remember the 1967 War which broke out when I was four years old. I
remember the sky full of planes, and all of the young children covered
by black blankets, and cherished by their mothers. I remember the
field around the camp, where we used to play, to perform our theatre
plays in the open fields. I remember the big holes in the ground, when
they were filled with water, they were our swimming pools.
A segregation fence was built in 2002 which was transformed into a
30-foot-tall apartheid wall in 2005, encircling the camp from the
east, the north and part of the west.
Like you, I was fed the love of my country. Like you, I remember my
past and present, and remember the rusty keys of my parents' home in
Beit Nateef, keys for doors that exist no more, but keys that have
their doors in our hearts and our imaginations. These rusty keys are
still with me. I remember that we were brought up with this eternal
belief that right is right, and nothing can justify ignoring it. I
remember that our right of return to our original villages and homes
is eternal, and nothing can change it, neither realities on the ground
nor political agreements, because it is a right which is also granted
in international law and UN resolutions.
Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after
year, we were living in lies and broken promises of change, and when
change comes; it is for the worse and not for the better. Nothing
improves with all the negotiations. No promise of independence for
Palestinians was fulfilled, even after 60 years.
I believe in peace and nonviolence, in hope and right and justice. I
believe in the values that make humanity what it is. I have never
hated anyone. My parents were full of love and peace. They never
taught me or my brothers anything other than respect of others and
endless love to give and help others. They taught us that when you
practice violence you lose part of your humanity. But at the same
time, they taught us to defend what is right and to stand against what
is unjust and wrong. Therefore, I do dare to say that you have great
challenges facing you, and you are fully aware of that. But what
remains after all is what you have said, the values you defend, and
the heritage you want to leave to your two daughters and the
generations to come. I do fear the day when my three sons and two
daughters, or any child in my occupied country or in any other country
comes to me tomorrow or in ten or twenty years from now, asks: "What
did you do to make a change in this world?" This is why I continue to
work to make a positive change and work for a better tomorrow at a
time when every day that comes is worse than the day before. This is
why I continue, so I may respond and say I did something to make a
change.
I don't know if you will read these words or not, but I do hope that
such words that come from my heart will reach yours, and you can find
the hope and strength our people still have in them. I do hope that
you will fulfill your promise of change, that your daughters will
remain proud of their father and his achievements. Right is right, and
justice is justice. All people are equal, and no race or color is
superior above the others.
I wish you strength and power to carry the big burden you inherited
from the previous government and the courage to keep hope and force
through the change you want to make, and the ability to keep inspiring
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