The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Dar Al Hayat newspaper is publishing episodes from The Ethic Cleansing of Palestine by the Israeli writer Ilan Pappé . They published four episodes so far, and another four are yet to come. Episode 1. Episode 2. Episode 3. Episode 4.

Professor Ilan Pappe is an Israeli revisionist historian and senior lecturer of Political Science at Haifa University, called by some as "the most hated Jew in Israel". He is the author of numerous books, including A History of Modern Palestine, The Modern Middle East, The Israel/Palestine Question and, most recently, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, published in 2006.

Ilan Pappe, while studying history, digged deep in the archives in Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom, learned more about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and found out that what they taught him in Israel was not the only truth. Learning the other side of the story, he came up with a conclusion that this side is the one who's more likely to be stating "facts".

This interview tells more about Ilam Pappe. and so does this one:

Untitled Scribble

In it, I read that my people, the Pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their hands, burned their homes, and sold their women. The book said part of the reason Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras was that Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi’a.
[….] The following week, after class, I showed the book to my teacher and pointed to the chapter on the Hazaras. He skimmed through a couple of pages, snickered, handed the book back. “That’s the one thing Shi’a people do well”, he said, picking up his papers, “passing themselves as martyrs.” He wrinkled his nose when he said the word Shi’a, like it was some kind of disease.

As this conflict is currently brought to the surface whether in Iraq or in Lebanon and with the rising Shia-Sunni tension in the Middle East in general, I was stunned to find out that this issue is chasing me even in the books I’m reading. The Kite Runner, seems to be a great book by the way, I’m enjoying it already. Actually Weddo was the one who first recommended it. Thanks Weddo!
I was just talking about this subject a couple of days ago with an Algerian friend who happens to be married to a Lebanese “Shiite”. The conversation touched me as she was expressing her immense anxiety and fear of the impact of what’s happening lately on the future of her kids. She told me that the school where her children study at called her informing her that her son pushed his friend saying: “don’t talk to me you filthy Sunni!” Her husband and she were shocked because they never talk about this Sunni Shia thingie in front of their kids at all.
“Where on earth did you get these ideas from?” The father yelled at the boy.
“but father, Sunnies are filthy. They hate us! We're not supposed to talk to them.” The boy’s reply was.
The parents couldn’t believe their ears. The father explained that this is not true, he wanted to get these poisoned ideas out of his son’s mind “How can you say that? Sunnis are not enemies! Do you know that your own mother is Sunni?”
The boy was taken aback; he did not know this fact.
His mother said: “What? Are you going to stop taking to me as well for being a filthy Sunni?”
The boy felt ashamed of himself and couldn’t answer. This incident left the mother in utter devastation. She was wondering, why can’t they just let us live in peace? Why do they have to impose hatred and violence in our lives, in our homes, on our children?

She was right. I’ve always hated these everlasting conflicts.. discriminations.. battles and wars..between east and west, black and white, Christians and Muslims, Sunnis and Shiites, left and right, atheists and believers, old and new, and and and and.. Can’t humans live in peace, for once? We are all humans after all.

I've always hated this everlasting tendency to kill, torture, burn, destroy. I can't understand how can humans be this evil. 1984 has obviously affected me and put me in a state of bewilderment.

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."

The Book Tag...

...that apparently swept the blogosphere. I've been tagged by Hala and Jood.
I'm supposed to be reading Love in the Time of Cholera these days, but I'm not really in the mood to read, I've read only about 25 pages during the past several weeks.
Yet, this book is not the closest one to me right now. Let me see...

Tag rules:
- Grab the closest book to you
- Open page 123
- Scroll down to the 5th sentence
- Post the next 3 sentences on your blog
- Name the book and author
- Tag 3 people

here you go:
حبك ترياق مكتوب عليه: ترياق الحزن
طريقة الاستعمال: ملعقة قبل الموت كل ليلة
معا أنصتنا لهذيان النجوم والأمواج على جسدينا
!ما يجمعه البحر والليل، لا يفرقه الناس
تلك الدروب التي مشيناها
لم تغادرها خطانا بعدما رحلنا بعيدا عنها

ok, I cheated, I typed six sentences :p


The book and the author:
رسائل الحنين إلى الياسمين - غادة السمّان

-I don't think that there's anyone I know left without being tagged, so I can't tag anyone, sorry!
I tag Rana, Amjad and Ola.

Ranoosh, talking about books, how do you find Memoirs of a Geisha so far? I loved the book!

Kamal Shair's Latest Book

Living away from Jordan all my life, I could hardly follow up with what goes on there or get to know the Jordanian artists, authors, and famous people in general. Well-known people you are acquainted with are completely unheard of to me and to the Lebanese people as well, I wonder why!! It was only a couple of years ago that I got to know that there exists a Jordanian singer called Makadi Nahhas, What a shame! It was only when Zahi Wehbi hosted her in his show "Khaleek bil Bait" that the Lebanese first heard about her at all! The same thing goes for most of the well-known Jordanian people, it's no surprise to me anymore to get to know about them only by chance.

So today, while flipping through Al Safir Newspaper, I came across this Jordanian writer for the first time. The news goes as follows:

أصدر كمال الشاعر كتاباً بعنوان: خارج حدود الشرق الأوسط: بروز رجال اعمال عرب على النطاق العالمي.
الكتاب، الذي نشرته دار <تاوريس> بالانكليزية في لندن ونيويورك سنة ,2006 يرصد قصة شاب ولد في مدينة السلط سنة ,1930 ويتعقب مسيرته نحو الثروة، حتى صار احد ابرز رجال الاعمال في الشرق الأوسط، ويروي ايضا حكاية <دار الهندسة> التي أسسها الشاعر في بيروت سنة 1956 برأسمال 3500 دولار فقط، والتي احتلت شقة صغيرة مع موظف واحد فقط. وبعد خمسين سنة ها هو رأسمال الشركة يصبح 500 مليون دولار، وفيها نحو 8000 مستخدم واعمالها تشمل 40 بلداً.
الكتاب ليس سيرة ذاتية للمؤلف فحسب، وإنما هو سيرة لمدينة السلط قاعدة الاردن التاريخية التي كانت المدينة الاولى في الاردن سنة .1930

This was encouraging enough to make me curious to know more about the writer and the book. So, I googled around looking for some information, and what I found was really interesting and worth sharing. Kamal Shair is certainly someone Jordanians must be proud of; while I heard about him just today.

Kamal A Shair, one of the most prominent business entrepreneurs of the Middle East, is Chairman of Dar Al-Handasah, the international engineering consultants and architects, which he has built in the last 50 years. Dr Shair was educated at the American University of Beirut, the University of Michigan and Yale University, where he received his PhD. He has been a close observer of the Middle East in the past half century. He served as a senator in Jordan’s Upper House of Parliament for 12 years and is currently a trustee of the American University of Beirut.

Book Description
Kamal Shair's book is a classic rags to riches story: the village boy, who with determination and education, achieves business success, wealth, more wealth, and then influence and power. What makes it unusual is that it emanates from the Arab world. Rarely among Arabs have individuals from thoroughly modest backgrounds, with no access to links, networks or connections become truly global commercial players. Shair was a small-town boy in what was then Transjordan who dragged himself through school (his mother was illiterate), moved to college in Beirut, then sailed off to America (Michigan and Yale) and returned to the Middle East to create a multinational corporate empire engaged in trade, construction and manufacturing. He did not follow the usual pattern of patronage and favours, but rather applied a fresh kind of ethic in an environment with an loosely-structured business ethic. In the process he lived through and witnessed at first hand and at close quarters some of the most dramatic events of the modern Arab world. This is quite an extraordinary tale and a very original prism through which to look at the turbulent post-World War II history of the Middle East. At the same time we see the growth, despite all the odds, of one of the world’s great engineering and business enterprises in a narrative of epic and inspirational proportions.

Quite interesting! The book will be on my shopping list as soon as it becomes available in bookstores.

Quoting أحلام مستغانمي

في الحروب، ليس الذين يموتون هم التعساء دائما
إن الأتعس هم أولائك الذين يتركونهم خلفهم ثكالى، يتامى، ومعطوبي أحلام
...

من كتاب: ذاكرة الجسد

...

Since the kids left, and there's nothing important to do at school other than chatting, discussing stupid domestic affairs in which I'm not in the least interested, I decided to kill time by reading.
I, while reading "The Zahir" - as u can see in the sidebar- got so indulged in the book that I no longer can hear their voices or follow up with their conversation.

Suddenly, a mate teacher asked: "What are you doing?"

I paused for a moment not believing that she's just asked a stupid question like that.

Me: "reading." obviously (DUH!!!).

She: "What for?"

Me: "HUH??"

She: "Is that an English book you're reading? Listen, why don't you just try to browse the dictionary everyday and learn a few new words instead of wasting your time reading books?"

She was so full of herself, proudly saying that "crap" thinking that she's just came up with the smartest idea ever, and I believe expecting me to give her thanks for this brilliant idea.


Me: "And who said that I'm reading this book to learn new vocabulary?!!!"

She: "Oh, really? What for then?"

I was shocked enough and too astonished to give her an answer. I wanted to say something rude, like : "your question is too stupid to be answered", but thank God, I was saved by another teacher who simply said:

"some people enjoy reading, it's an interest, a hobby, you can call it a habit. It's not necessarily to learn something new ".

"Oh, OK, I got it".

"Thank God u did!!"

what children teach us

While reading The Fifth Mountain, which- at last -I'm about to finish reading,the following sentence caught my attention:

" A child can always teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires."

Perhaps the reason that made me stop at this sentence in specific is that I deal with children on a daily basis. Obviously, I'm starting to get interested and attracted to anything that has to do with these creatures and with their special world.
I liked what Paulo Coelho wrote here, it's so true...

Veronika decides to die...

She believed herself to be completely normal. Two very simple reasons lay behind her decision to die, and she was sure that, were she to leave a note explaining, many people would agree with her.

The first reason: Everything in her life was the same and, once her youth was gone, it would be downhill all the way, with old age begining to leave irreversible marks, the onset of illness, the departure of friends. She would gain nothing by continuing to live; indeed, the likelihood of suffering would only increase.

The second reason was more philosophical: Veronika read the newspapers, watched TV, and she was aware of what was going on in the world. Everything was wrong, and she had no way of putting things right-that gave her a sense of complete powerlessness.

Does this ring a bell with you?

One Hundred Years of Solitude

"One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race....Mr. García Márquez has done nothing less than to create in the reader a sense of all that is profound, meaningful, and meaningless in life."

The story follows 100 years in the life of Macondo, a village founded by José Arcadio Buendía and occupied by descendants all sporting variations on their progenitor's name: his sons, José Arcadio and Aureliano, and grandsons, Aureliano José, Aureliano Segundo, and José Arcadio Segundo. Then there are the women--the two Úrsulas, a handful of Remedios, Fernanda, and Pilar--who struggle to remain grounded even as their menfolk build castles in the air. If it is possible for a novel to be highly comic and deeply tragic at the same time, then One Hundred Years of Solitude does the trick. Civil war rages throughout, hearts break, dreams shatter, and lives are lost, yet the effect is literary pentimento, with sorrow's outlines bleeding through the vibrant colors of García Márquez's magical realism. Consider, for example, the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar, whom José Arcadio Buendía has killed in a fight. So lonely is the man's shade that it haunts Buendía's house, searching anxiously for water with which to clean its wound. Buendía's wife, Úrsula, is so moved that "the next time she saw the dead man uncovering the pots on the stove she understood what he was looking for, and from then on she placed water jugs all about the house."
With One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez introduced Latin American literature to a world-wide readership. Translated into more than two dozen languages, his brilliant novel of love and loss in Macondo stands at the apex of 20th-century literature.