Abdelfattah Abusrour, PhD

حنظلة ودولة المؤسسات

2011-05-30T19:26:00.001+03:00

حنظلة ودولة المؤسسات

د. عبدالفتاح ابوسرور

نخزني حنظلة فقال بلا مقدمات

حدثني عن دويلة المؤسسات

التي تراكم الخبرات او التياسات

واعظم ما لدينا من انجازات

اطول ثوب، واكبر اطباق الاكلات

حدثني عن الاحزاب والسياسات

وعن وطن متخم بالانقسامات

وكل من فيه يتحدث عن وحدة وتحالفات

وكأن الانقسام خارج عن العادات

او لعنة حلت بنا من بين اللعنات

حدثني عن بلد مجهول الاتجاهات

واكثر ما فيه وزراء بلا وزارات

ومطبلون ومزمرون لكل المناسبات

يقاسمون الشعب حفنات من فتات

وما نستجدية بليل من صدقات

حدثني عن دولة أمن وأمان

يخدم المُحتلَّ فيها السجنُ والسجان

تنتشر عساكرنا في كل مكان

لتحمي الحواجز والجدران

وتبقى الثقافة بلا عنوان

حدثني عن اجندة وطنية واستراتيجيات

حدثني عن البنى التحتية، والمصانع والجامعات

حدثني عن دويلة من البانتوستانات

اما زلنا شعب جبارين نصنع المعجزات؟

حدثني عن اسرى منسيين واسيرات

وحدثني عن شهداء بلا قبور وشهيدات

وحدثني عن احلام شباب مقهور وشابات

وحدثني عما يحضر لنا من مفاجآت

ومن سيحصل في نهاية النهار على اعانات

حدثني ان كنت تحدثني بلا مراوغات

عم يتكلم الوزراء في اجتماع الوزارات

هل يناقشون هموم المواطن والأمنيات؟

أم ما سيقدمون مقابل الضرائب من خدمات؟

ام كيف سيبنون للدولة مصانع وجامعات

وبنى تحتية بدل دفع الايجارات؟

وكيف سيقلصون البطالة ويحاربون بناء المستوطنات؟

اتراهم يقيمون الحوافز لابقاء الكفاءات؟

وكيف يقيمون اداء الموظفين والموظفات؟

وكبف نبني مؤسسات بما نقدم من نشاطات

وليس كيف نجمل صورتنا ونبعثر النفقات ؟

يا وزراء يلبون كل الدعوات،

ويتواجدون في كل المناسبات،

لافتتاح بقالة او حفل تخريج في حضانات

ألا وقت لديكم للعمل وانجاز المعاملات؟

كراسيكم باردة ومكاتبكم خرابات

وجل الهم تدوين النفقات

وخدمة انفسكم وتزويق المؤسسات

كيف تبنى ثروة، في وطن مسروق الثروات؟

طأطأت رأسي امام حنظلة

فلست اعلى منه بمنزلة

وكلما نظرت حولي لم اجد

جوابا لسؤال او مساءلة

لكزني مرة اخرى وغنى يا سلام

بنادقنا، ضد العدى، ممنوع عليها الاستخدام

لاسرائيل منا السلام والانبطاح باستسلام

بلا تعنت، ولا عنف، ولا اساءة في الكلام

طأطات رأسي مرة اخرى، وانشقت من قلبي صرخات

فكرت في مستقبلي وكيف احقق كل الامنيات

فنحن امة تفني حياتها في الشكاوى والاستجداءات

وكل نظيف فينا صار ذكرى، ربما يذكر في احدى السهرات

نقبع تحت الديون ونتعود على الانتهاكات

وجل ما نتقنه مفاوضات ومفاوضات ومفاوضات

نقبل، نرفض، نشجب لكن لا بديل نقدمه في الأزمات

صرخ حنظلة في وجهي، الا خجل ولا حياء؟

اموات في صورة ظلال لأحياء

بساط احمر يبهجكم، ويوم استقلال

وتوزعون المناسبات فيما بينكم

يوم ارض، ويوم مرأة ويوم عرض

ويوم طول لثقافة وتراث واسير وطفل

وكل ما نلبس او نأكل وما نرى من لافتات

ليست منا وليست لنا وانما قروضات

يا من تجلس في الصف الاول وتصفق في كافة المناسبات

لقنصل او سفير او وزير، او مدع بفهم السياسات

قلي بربك ما بال القدس واين الاولويات

النا وطن من فتات وليست لنا للوطن اجندات؟

المواطن فينا سائح، وغيرنا يغلق او يفتح لنا البوابات

ندخل، او نخرج، او نضيع في المتاهات

لا فلسطين، في فلسطين المفاوضات

ولا نهايات نرى، ونُسّينا البدايات

وضِعنا بين أحضان امريكا واوروبا وعهر السياسات

وعندما نصحو من سكرتنا ننتفض بالادعاءات

بأن لا تنازل عن الحقوق، والخطوط الحمر، والمُسَلَّمات

وان ضاقت علينا وتشاءمنا، صلينا طلبا للمعجزات

فتجدنا شيوخا نفتي، ونمارس كل طقوس العبادات

ثم نصحو مرة اخرى فترانا كزبد البحر شتات

وترانا كلما اجتمعنا، نتفرق شرذمات

نظر حنظلة الى البحر، اطرق ثم قال

اهذا الارث الذي سنخلفه لمن سيأتي من اجيال؟

لا القدس قدس، ولا الارض ارض، ولا الرجال اشباه رجال

وحولنا، كل ما حولنا سرب من الببغاوات

يرتلون محفوظة: لا دولة، وانما دولتان

على حدود سبع وستون عام

ومفاتيح معلقة في متاحف الذكرى

فقبل السبع والستين لم يكن هناك فلسطين

وكل ما كان اسرائيل، وفلس وطين

يا قوم كبرت الحكاية وطال المقال

أتقعد وتنتظر غيرك يعمل وما انت بصانع افعال؟

وتحلم بوطن على ورقة، وتكتب اسماء لأبطال

على شرذمات من بقاع متناثرة في زمن بلا استقلال

وننسى ما ننسى من مفاتيح صدئة وحق عودة واثقال

لنكبة انبتت فينا شقائق نعمان، وصبار وشواطئ بحر ورمال

يا حنظلة، يا ضميرا ينير طريقا بني معوجا في العتمة

قف امامي وهز لي بجذع النخلة

ربما نحبل ونلد في عقم الازمنة

اطفالا وبناة يكونون الف ايقونة تحمينا من الكولسة

يا حنظلة، نحن ما نحن، لنا الارض والسماء

ولنا روح، تتأرجح بين حياة وقلب في جسد ودماء

ولنا ما لنا من هواء وزيتون وماء

وكلما سرنا قادتنا نجوم وعهود ووفاء

يا فلسطين، ما انت بعاقر

وكل محتل، او مختل لحتفه سائر

لي وطن بين بحر ونهر كالبركان ثائر

لا انساه، فأنا باق، ولست مغادر

مفاوضات

2010-08-28T15:18:00.003+02:00

ايها الفلسطيني توقف، وفاوض
اغتصبوا الارض، اغتصبوا الشعب، انحني وفاوض
كن متسولا، امسح الجوخ والعق الأحذية وفاوض
اعطي شرعية للمحتل، واشكره على اغتصابك بلا حياء، وفاوض
اخلع عنك ورقة التوت الأخيرة، وانحني لأغتصاب جديد وفاوض
كي تبيع الحق بلا عودة، قطعة ... قطعة
وكي تكرس الأحتلال على الارض، بقعة ... بقعة
وكي تروض الشعب ليقبل بالأمر الواقع، نتفة... نتفة
وكي نغسل كرامتنا بماء المجاري حتى تسيح امام دولارات الذل
وكي يخرج علينا من هب ودب يهز سبابته منتفضا بالرفض
ان استمرت اسرائيل بالاستيطان ان لا تفاوض
وتشمر اسرائيل عن عورتها وتخرج قذارتها في وجه الصارخ بلا حياء
ونلين سكارى من رائحة الذل والانبطاح ونمضي
حتى لا يخرج علينا من يطالبنا بمعاش اخر الشهر
فهنا ارض يُجبر الانسان فيها ان يعيش مرتزقا
ويبيع كرامته وروحه وانسانيته في سوق العبيد
ويفكر كيف يختلق طرقا للتسول، والتنازل، والبغاء ...
مع حفظ ماء الوجه... ان بقي في الوجه ماء او حياء

ايها الفلسطيني، اقعد، فلا مجال للوقوف بعد اليوم
اقعد، وتشدق امام شاشات التلفاز واستمتع بالنوم
وتذكر كيف تُرضي العالم وتحتفظ بالهوان
وكيف تتنازل عن الحق لتلتقط الفتات من على موائد اللئام
في بلادنا، كالاسفنج يلين الصوان،
لا هيكل بعد اليوم يسندنا
ولا مبدأ عاد يجمعنا
ولا حزب في هذا الوطن يمثلنا او يوحدنا
ككلاب مسعورة نتصارع على عظام وهمية
لا تسكت جوعا ولا تسترجع حقا، ولا تبقي كرامة
ونتغني بالخطوط الحمر التي تذوب حمرتها في بياض عارنا
و تضيع مبادؤنا في الفراغ صارخة
فاوض ... فاوض ... فاوض
فما نحن بأهل الأرض، وما القدس قدس لنا
ولا العودة حق لنا
ولا الأرض موطأ قدم لنا

وتلمع في الأفق ومضات ضوء يقترب
اراه ابني، كنعان
يحمل مفتاح باب بيت جده العتيق
رغم الصدأ المعمر من سنوات تجاوزت الستين
ما زال يبحث عن ثقب الباب، كي يحيي ذكراه
ويضربنا ويقرع خزان ذاكرتي
ان لا تفاوض على الذل، لا تنازل عن الحق
لا دموع تماسيح، ولا لقمة مغموسة بالذل والهوان
كيف يرضى شعب محتل ان يأكل من يد مغتصب،
ويبارك الطعام؟
كيف نمضي بلا حياء ونقبل بالذل مع خالص الشكر والاحترام؟
كيف نبارك للأحتلال ارضنا واغتصابنا وترويضنا كحيوانات السيرك في حفل الختام
وننحني انبطاحا ويصفق لنا الحضور على تحولنا مماسحا للأقدام
وجسورا يعبرون عليها الى ارض ميعاد بلا ميعاد؟
يا بني، يا كنعان
احمل مفتاح عودتك واصمد
فربما لسنا في زمان العائدين
ولا تستمع لخزعبلات الحكام والسلاطين
ولا وعود قادة مخصيين
ولا تنازلات فلاسفة الاحتلال ومرتزقة الملايين
فلا الحق حق يبقى ان غاب المطالب
ولا الباب يحيى بدون ذاكرة مفتاح، ولا غالب
ولا الأرض تحتفظ بذكرى العابرين كالغبار
نحن الباقون هنا، ويعبر "المارون بين الكلمات العابرة" بلا رجعة
نحن الباقون هنا كالزيتون والبرتقال والصبار

ايها الفسطيني، قف ولا تفاوض
كي تبيع، كي تتنازل، كي تضيع
لا تأتي الحرية وملعقة ذل ذهبية في الفم
لا الشعارات تحررنا ولا الاستسلام
ولا اليأس ولا التشدق بحلو الكلام
ولا التسول ولا محاولات تفسير الأحلام
ولا الوعود الممسوخة في اسفار عهر السياسة
انفض عنك الصمت، والسكون
واصرخ كما حنظلة، لا لكاتم الصوت
لا لبيع الحق، لا للتنازل، لا للتوطين
نحن روح الارض وملحها
اقدامنا لها جذور وذاكرة ومسار
تعرف طريقها في عمق الجغرافيا وقلب التاريخ
على هذه الارض ان مشينا لا نضيع
هنا نحن، وجع الارض الأول،
صرخة الميلاد الاولى
هنا تنشقنا اول هواء لنا، وشربنا اول ماء
هنا، داعبت ايدينا اول تراب
هنا نطقنا اول الحروف والكلمات
هنا تألقت في حبنا اولى النظرات
هنا رسمنا الكتابة الاولى واولى الذكريات
هنا ذاكرة التين والزيتون والبرتقال والصبار
هنا لا بسط حمراء، ولا حفلات نكراء
ولا احتفالات بعيد استقلال تحت احتلال
هنا لا اتفاقيات سلام للاستسلام
ولا بناء ممالك على اراض في الاوهام
ولا توزيع مناصب ومراكز في دولة سراب
هنا انت، وانا، وكل الحضارات
هنا ذريتي، والامل الموعود والحق الذي لا يموت
هنا فلسطين، وحنظلة ومفتاح عودتنا، ورائحة بيتنا القديم
هنا قبر امي وابي، وقبري المفتوح في الانتظار

Alrowwad Theatre an Dance US Tour and other video - photo links

2009-08-20T23:49:00.003+03:00

Alrowwad has perfromed it's theatre and dance shows with the "We are the Children of the camp" and "Blame the Wolf" plays in Cambridge, Boston, Brookline, Cape Cod at Payomet Theatre, Old Lyme-Connecticut, Glover-Vermont at "Bread and Puppets" and in the Atlantic Theatre in Manhattan - New York.

My interview at Grit's TV in New York
Alrowwad: Blame The Wolf, performed at the Atlantic Theatre in New York
By: GRITtv Friday August 14, 2009 9:00 am

Blame the Wolf, a provocative play performed by the Al Rowwad Palestinian youth theater group, revisits the story of Little Red Riding Hood. But this time there’s a twist. As the trial unfolds, is the wolf really the one to blame? Dr. Abdel Fattah Abu-Srour, founder and director of the Al Rowwad in the Aida Refugee Camp in the West Bank, says that theater is a way of exploring and challenging the world we live in, the stereotypes and prejudices that often shape the way we see others. He’s joined by Kathleen Chalfant, an Emmy award winning actor and supporter of the center. A few months ago, Chalfant read from Caryl Churchill’s new play Seven Jewish Children right here at GRITtv.

Alrowwad on Youtube:Theatre
1. Excerpts from the play “We are the children of the Camp” in France
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chm5qEmG_LU
2. Excerpts from the play : Blame the Wolf (Tour in France and Belgium in 2008) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCc5d3Hsnw
3. Excerpts from Alrowwad theatre play “Hanzala”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvTkIyvM0IQ
4. Alrowwad Performance for the Pope Benedict VI in Aida Camp - Palestine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmbNTIyIZNI

Video
5. Bethlehem Checkpoint at 4 a.m, Alrowwad production
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1FaWE1SIZk
6. Carried by the Wind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=008p-_LePrg
7. Opening ceremony of the Alrowwad Second Outdoor Film Festival http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60KCHvWU8K4&feature=related
8.Closing ceremony of Alrowwad Second Outdoor Film Festival http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En3d5Qtxupk
9. Beautiful Resistance : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR8izNtdI1Y

Photography
10. Excerpts from the photo exhibitions of Images for Life program (US) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmI_YMrQdgQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfWgFAEGVGU&feature=related

11. Final exhibition "Us" Images for Life/Alrowwad Center
http://picasaweb.google.com/imagesforlife/FinalExhibitionUsImagesForLifeAlRowwadCenter?authkey=Gv1sRgCKbSqvbZz-DS2QE&feat=directlink
12. http://picasaweb.google.com/imagesforlife/ASDIP?feat=directlink
13. "Us" photo exhibition life stories "
http://picasaweb.google.com/imagesforlife/UsPhotoExhibitionLifeStories?authkey=Gv1sRgCMuIrYXe_O3AIQ&feat=directlink
14.Look who we are (2008) http://picasaweb.google.com/imagesforlife/Images2008?authkey=Gv1sRgCMnd_5id9aThiQE&feat=directlink
15.Who am I? Palestine throw Palestinian eyes(2009)
http://picasaweb.google.com/imagesforlife/AlRowwadPhotoExhibition2009?feat=directlink

Other interviews:

16. Interviews on TV during Theatre tour in the US, July 18th, 2009: part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn-NxwNguvA
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B9KuMy_aRw&feature=related
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PhIwouS8nk&feature=related
17. Interview at Grit TV in New York, July 26th 2009 http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2009/08/14/al-rowwad-blame-the-wolf/
18. Choir songs during Alrowwad theatre and dance tour in France and Belgium in June-July, 2008: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x658lj_al-rowwad-001_creation
19. US theatre tour in 2005: Interview with founder Abdelfattah Abusrour: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3185079474247239155&ei=9L2NSr_qE6Wu2wLtqfG9DQ&q=rowwad
20. Folkdance of Alrowwad troupe during the tour in France and Belgium, summer 2008: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x659pv_al-rowwad-009_creation
21. Ishtar library-Paris – France:
1. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x89g0r_palestine-resistance-et-desinformat_news?from=rss
2. http://www.dailymotion.com/related/x89g0r/video/x8a6vo_palestine-resistance-et-desinformat_news

Summer Camp 2009

2009-06-27T17:57:00.003+03:00

Australian Prime Minister Deputy visit to Aida Camp

2009-06-27T07:44:00.002+03:00

قامت نائبة رئيس الوزراء الاسترالي بزيارة مخيم عايدة يوم 26 حزيران 2009، حيث بدأت الزيارة بمدرسة ذكور عايدة الاساسية بمرافقة المفوض العام لوكالة الغوث الدولية)الاونروا) كارين ابوزيد. وقد استقبلها وفد من اللجنة الشعبية في مخيم عايدة عدنان عجارمة وسمير عودة، ورئيس مركز الرواد د. عبدالفتاح ابوسرور
وقد زارت ايضا منزلا لعائلة ذات وضع مأساوي في المخيم

The Australian Prime Minister Deputy has visited Aida camp on June 26th, 2009. She started the visit in Aida boys basic school, accomapnied by the High UNRWA Commissioner in Palestine, madam Karin AbuZayd. She was also received in the camp by the Popular Committee Members Adnan Ajarma and Samir Odah, as well as by ALrowwad Culturla and Theatre SOciety, Dr. Abdelfattah Abusrour. The delegation has visited a social hardship case in the camp as well.

Aida Camp and Nogent Sur Oise- Sistership - Jumelage

2009-06-27T07:40:00.001+03:00

Alrowwad Theatre Tour in the USA

2009-06-27T07:04:00.002+03:00

AlRowwad Tour Schedule - Summer 2009

(Friday, July 3 - arrival Dr. Abusrour and 2 children Hala A. S. Ramadan and Kanan Abdel Fattah a. Abusrour
Sunday July 5- July 17 – Circus Smirkus Camp for 2 youth
Wednesday, July 8th – workshop led by Dr. AbusRour and evening talk at Lesley University)

Thursday, July 9-Saturday July 18th – Boston/Cambridge
Thursday, July 9– troupe and chaperone arrival Boston Air France from Jordan (1:45 AM #AF 587 –ARR 3:05 PM)
Gathering place with welcome from Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons )–
Pick up by host families in Cambridge, Brookline, Boston areas.
Friday – Orientation
Red Sox game?
Saturday night, July 11 – Dinner and Evening Performance - Palestine Cultural Center , Allston (Omar Baddar)
Sunday, July 12 – 11:30-12:30 First Church Harvard Square (Gay Harter)
Monday- Thursday July 13-16
Daily Workshop with Underground Railway Theater (URT) (1-6 each day)
Tuesday, July 14th –
AM – Duck tour or Charles River Tour – Marjorie Decker (or Monday)
6-8 PM – Dinner, short performance and discussion with Workmen’s Circle Shule – (Stan Habib)
Wednesday , July 15th –
9:30 AM – Cambridge City Council breakfast/reception- Marjorie Decker
7-9:30 –performance with youth groups in Boston area- Blackstone School - Critical Breakdown (Eric Wissa)
Thursday, July 16th – evening B-B-Q with host families ?
Additional meetings, venues, receptions
Friday 17th –
Museum of Natural History?
day preparation for performance
Area 4 Youth exchange
5:30 and 8 PM – Full Performances– Central Sq. Theater

REMINDER THAT FROM THE 17TH ON , THE GROUP WILL BE 16 PEOPLE PLUS ANY OF US .
Saturday, July 18th - Monday, July 20th – Canaan, Connecticut (driver Rick) 2 hours 3/4
Saturday, July 18th morning - leave Boston for Canaan , CT
Sunday, July 19th - afternoon performance in Lyme

Monday- Thursday 23rd – Wellfleet, Cape Cod
Monday, July 20th
-leave CT for Cape Cod (Catherine – driver) 4 ½ hours
4-6 PM Wellfleet Library – sponsored by library and WILPF
Tuesday 5 PM – full performance at Payomet Theater
Wednesday – possible evening pot-luck

Thursday – July 23rd –Sunday July 26th Bread and Puppet Theater, Glover, VT
Thursday AM –leave Cape and drive to Glover (driver Rick?) 5 ½ hours
Friday , July 24th – see Bread and Puppet performance
Saturday 25th – Evening performance by Al-Rowwad
Sunday 26th – early departure to Boston (driver- Rick) 3 ½ hours

Sunday July 26th –Wednesday 29th – NYC , New York
Sunday 26th afternoon to NYC public bus
Monday, July 27th – Evening performance at the Atlantic Theatre
exchanges and meetings with other theaters. Tony Kushner. Visit city
Wednesday July 29th morning return to Boston public bus
Fly out evening of July 29th – Air France to Jordan #321 10:50 PM)

Opening of Mobile Beautiful Resistance

2009-06-27T06:56:00.002+03:00

ندعوكم لأفتتاح فعاليات برنامجنا "المقاومة الجميلة الجوالة" بالشراكة مع مبادرة الشيخ جواهر بنت محمد القاسمي "سلام يا صغار"
آمل ان نراكم بيننا في مركز الفنيق - مخيم الدهيشة بتاريخ 30 حزيران 2009الساعة العاشرة صباحا

مع تحيات فريق المقاومة الجميلة.

We invite you to the opening of our program "Mobile Beautiful Resistance", in partnership with Shiekha Jawaher Bint Mohammad Alqasimi initiative "Salam Ya Seghar", at Alfeniq center in Dehiesha camp, on June 30th, 2009 at 10 a.m., under the patronage of The Governor of Bethlehem Mr. Abdelfattah Hamayel

How Palestine Became Israel - Deir Yassin Day 2006

2009-03-24T01:22:00.002+02:00

With but a wave of his hand…

How Palestine Became Israel - Deir Yassin Day 2006
Bloomsbury Theatre – Sunday April 9th /Monday April 10th
By Paul Eisen

How Palestine Became Israel, part of the Deir Yassin Day 2006 commemorations, was performed at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London’s West End on 9-10 April, and directed by British-Palestinian playwright/director Razanne Carmey and Dan Coleman.

Carmey traveled to Palestine to meet theatre groups from towns, cities and refugee camps, and to run a playwrights’ competition, the winner’s work to be showcased at DYD 2006.

How Palestine Became Israel was a compilation of four pieces: In Our Own Little World and Friday Morning by Carmey, The Water Urn by Issa Abu Srour, and Far Away from a Nearby Village by Abdel Fattah Abu Srour, who won the playwrights competition.

The production opened to a packed house with Ahmad Masoud and the al-Zaytouna Dabke Group but then, somewhat primed for a nostalgic evening of song and dance, we heard a little more than we had bargained for:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the members of the Al-Zaytouna Dance Group are from Brouj, Majdal, Deir Snaind and Jaffa but they have never been there. They were born and raised in refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. The reason for this is that their country no longer exists. This is what happened.”

With a call to prayer this story begins. So much of this piece takes place in that hour before dawn. In that hour, members of the family from the Palestinian village of Sindyana reflect on their lives and loves – the joys and sorrows of family life whilst at that same hour, on the other side of the stage the Zionist leadership plans and plots to steal the land. Zionists pore over maps of Palestine and, focussing on the Haifa district, they discuss the village of Sindyana – its past, present and its future and they fix on a name more suitable for that future. Sindyana, they discover, means ‘tall oak tree’ which in Hebrew is alon, so why not call the new village Alona?

Meanwhile, at the other end of the stage, Maleeha, a Palestinian mother writes to her son, oblivious of the tragedy about to overtake her. And not once does either side look at the other – not even a glance as the Jews, seemingly oblivious of the horror they are about to do and the Palestinians, equally oblivious of the horror about to be done, both go about their business. Thus was Palestine lost.

All this is given hard-edged backing as maps and plans on the one side (we see on the map that ominous transformation of the name Sandyana into Alona) and family snapshots and letters on the other are, by projected images, shared with the audience.

“Don’t talk to me about your father” writes Maleeha and soon her no-good, lute-playing husband appears played by Palestinian composer and lutist Nizar Issa who, with singer/songwriter Shadia Mansour charts this narrative with music and song woven intricately into the storyline. The songs are a treat: Assmar el Lone (For She is Dark and Comely) Rosana-(a love song), another song of the ubiquitous cactus of Palestine which, even when cut, will always return, the songs Jaffra and Dalouna, and finally the oft-repeated Wain A Ramallah. But it is with the entrance of David Ben-Gurion that this production first goes up a notch.

Immaculately played as an irascible and hyperactive trades union official who, having abandoned his Jewish god and now worshipping a new deity – a god of Socialism, collectivism and Zionism, Ben-Gurion is a man who ‘knows’. He ‘knows’ what is best for the workers of the world, he ‘knows’ what is best for the Jews of Europe and he certainly ‘knows’ what is best for the Palestinians of Palestine.

Nor need there be any moral obstacles to the Zionist takeover.

Zionism must and will not impinge upon one degree of legitimate Arab rights.

… We do not recognise absolute ownership of any country. The only right by which a people can claim to possess a land is the right conferred by willingness to work. Palestine is still undeveloped… Since the Jewish labourer is more intelligent and more diligent than the Arab, then the land is ours.

How convenient, because in this beautifully drawn character of Ben-Gurion we see the whole semi-conscious, self-delusional morality of the entire Zionist enterprise … and its inevitable moral collapse.

Act one closes and the darkness looms. A young wife bewails her miscarriages whilst Ben-Gurion and his comrades bemoan that, after nearly sixty years of building the Jewish state, the Jews are simply not coming.

Where are the Jews? Where are the Jews? Why don’t they come? We’re creating a Utopia here! Where are the Jews?

The hard truth is that in order to secure the necessary two-thirds Jewish majority they need to lose one million Palestinians, but how?

Don’t be coy. We all know what must be done… We need a few massacres – highly publicised, newspapers with stories of death, rape and burning. As soon as you shoot a few in the village square – that’s how you empty a village.

Perfect. And, best of all, no-one’s morality need be compromised.

No-one needs to give the order. When the soldiers are hot enough there is no need to give an order.

So now massacre is the order of the day. Friday Morning, scripted by Razanne was first performed five years ago at Deir Yassin Day 2001. Set in the village of Deir Yassin itself, a father is led outside his home to be shot whilst his wife and child sing Wain A Ramallah to drown out the sounds of his execution.

Shocked, we prepare for the climax: an animated image of the march of ethnic cleansing across the map of Palestine. As the map steadily turns pink, Arab Palestine transforms itself into Jewish Israel, accompanied all the time by flashing pinpoints of light – each of the seventy known massacres making its own special contribution to turning Palestine into Israel. And for a soundtrack, jazz musicians Gilad Atzmon and Yaron Stavi step onstage to improvise an agonised Wain A Ramallah – that happy-clappy song used first at a family party, then to drown out the sounds of an execution and finally now to accompany the Palestinian people in their long journey into exile.

Now all that is left are bedraggled refugees moving across stage recounting their tales of horror on their road to exile. A mother from Beit Natteef has lost her two sons, an old man takes a sprig of fig tree to remind him of the smell of home, and a young woman carries her dead baby girl in her arms insisting she’s still alive:

My daughter cannot die now to be buried on the road of exile. She cannot be put in a grave on a nameless road? How can I come and visit her tomorrow?
And, for the last time, Nizar and Shadia sing. I don’t know any Arabic but even I know what biladi means. I also know what Deir Yassin means and I know that I heard that name in the extra verse added to his composition by Nizar especially for the occasion.

That night I thought back on all that I had seen. One scene kept coming back to me - a dramatization of an incident from the memoirs of Yitzhak Rabin. Some Haganah commanders go to see Ben-Gurion in his office. They’ve captured some villages in the Galilee and they don’t know what to do next. “Prime Minister,” they ask, “What is to be done with these people?
Without a word Ben-Gurion stands and, with a sweep of his hand he gives them their answer and their orders.

Sitting in that audience and watching Ben-Gurion consign an entire people into exile reminded me of an old Jewish story: A man goes to his rabbi. “Rabbi, how can I believe in the Holy Books? After all, they tell us things like Moses raised his hand and the waters of a mighty sea parted. Who can believe such nonsense?” “Listen”, says the rabbi. “Just one week ago the Czar with his pen signed a decree clearing out the inhabitants of some Jewish villages to make way for a new railway. Perhaps in days to come people will say ‘With one drop of ink, the Russian Czar drowned a thousand villages.’”

So will Palestinians perhaps one day, when telling their children of the Nakba say how, with but a wave of his hand, a Jewish captain drove one million Palestinians from Palestine? Who knows? But one thing is for sure: the Jewish narrative has, for years, been used and abused in the service of Zionism and of Israel. It has long been the role of Deir Yassin Remembered, now joined by Deir Yassin Day, to piece together and tell a truthful and meaningful Palestinian narrative. Deir Yassin Day 2006 and the performance of this remarkable play How Palestine Became Israel did just that.

Paul Eisen is a director of Deir Yassin Remembered
http://altahrir.blogspot.com/2006/05/with-but-wave-of-his-hand.html

رابطة المسرحيين الفلسطينيين

2009-02-24T14:19:00.005+02:00

عقدت الهيئة الادارية المنتخبة لرابطة المسرحيين الفلسطينيين يوم أمس جلستها الأولى في مقر مسرح صندوق العجب برام الله وذلك بكامل هيئتها وناقشت مجموعة من المواضيع التي تهم الحركة المسرحية الفلسطينية وخطة عمل الرابطة لرفع وتطوير الحركة.

وقد أقرت الهيئة الادارية توزيع المناصب الادارية وذلك على النحو التالي:-

1. د.عبد الفتاح أبو سرور: رئيسا

2. عماد متولي : أمينا للسر

3. ايهاب زاهدة : أمينا للصندوق

4. أحمد أبو سلعوم : ناطقا رسميا وأمين الثقافة والاعلام

5. عامر خليل : دائرة العلاقات الدولية

6. فالنتينا أبو عقصة دائرة العلاقات الداخلية

7. نضال الخطيب دائرة العلاقات الاجتماعية

8. حسام ابو عيشة : دائرة العلاقات الفنية والمهرجانات

9. اسامة ملحس : دائرة المنشورات والثقافة

وأقرت الهيئة الادارية تشكيل لجنة مكتب تنفيذي من الفنانين: عبد الفتاح ابو سرور، أحمد أبو سلعوم، عماد متولي، نضال الخطيب، عامر خليل.

وثمنت الهيئة الادارية التزام اعضاء الهيئة العامة في جلسة الانتخابات وشكرت لهم الصورة الحضارية التي تمت بها الانتخابات ووعدت بالعمل الجاد لما فيه مصلحة المسرح الفلسطيني وفنانيه.

Gaza in the Sea - Gaza dans la Mer

2009-01-02T17:34:00.003+02:00

Gaza in the Sea

What would you like to see?Gaza sinking in the sea?

So you can jump, sing and dance
And for each hill and colony announce
What a triumph against terrorism?
We manage to kill a potential nuisance
And world close your eyes, dearest egoism
Don't dare to look, Watch but lose your sense
Those people are no humans, Let's debate!
They are not like us… they are full of hate
Their blood is blue like our noblesse
Their shit is white, like our faces
Their screams are melodies we play on holidays
How joyful to hear them crying loud, he says
They see like owls, and illuminate in the dark,
Cut out electricity, kill the trees in each park

They breath nothingness, so keep them in emptiness
Let's make their nights days in flame
And make their silence explode in joy
That keeps the world entertained and stays humane
And send messages of protest to every deaf and blind
On this planet earth and the lands of braves so kind
Let's stay hopeful that we remain insane

Let's send a shipment of food and milkWould they prefer fabric or silk?
Maybe chocolate on biscuit bars
French Chocolate or Belgian, or that's of Uncle Sam?
Let's feel pity because we can do nothing
Let's make a prayer and go and bring
A big new camera to film our tears
And say high and loud we have practiced our humanity
In feeling with the poor and the needy

But at the end of the story,What is happening with this tireless oppressor?
Who continues to violate every right, every law?
Every life, every hope, every dream and every faith
What a change would be hoped for if life is worthless
If right and wrong are continuously married in a vampire ceremony
And what make of the humanity what it is
Is nothing but pure heresy and old history?

Look my son, and feel the pain
This is wrong, this is inhumane
Continue to write, to speak to resist
Injustice, occupation whatever is the risk
Israel is the occupier and it commits war crimes
And this entire silent world is complicit

Don’t humiliate us with charity, or humanitarian aid
Be respectful and support justice, dignity and humanity
Do they think we care when we die
To have our stomach full or empty?

My tears are innocent to my eyes
They refuse to fall on my dry cheeks

------

Gaza dans la mer

Qu’aimeriez-vous voir ?
Gaza submergé dans la mer ?
Ainsi vous pouvez sauter, chanter et danser
et pour chaque colline et colonie annoncez :

Quel triomphe contre le terrorisme ?
Nous parvenons à tuer un ennui potentiel
et toi monde, ferme tes yeux, mon plus cher égoïsme
n'osez pas regarder, observe mais perdre votre sens

Ces gens là ne sont pas humains, qu’on en discute !
Ils ne sont pas comme nous… Ils sont pleins de la haine
Leur sang est bleu comme notre noblesse
Leur merde est blanche, comme nos visages
Leurs cris perçants sont des mélodies que nous jouons en vacances

Comme c’est joyeux les entendre pleurer fort, il dit
Ils voient comme des hiboux, et illuminent dans l'obscurité,
Coupez l'électricité, mettez à mort les arbres de forêts
Ils respirent le néant, gardez-les dans le vide
Faisons de leurs jours des nuits en flamme
Faisons que leur silence s’éclate de la joie,
Qui maintient le monde amusé et humanitaire

Et envoyons des messages de protestation à chaque aveugle et sourd
Sur la planète Terre et les terres de braves et gentils
Restons plein d'espoir que nous restons fous
Envoyons une expédition de nourriture et de lait

Préféreraient-ils le tissu ou la soie ?Peut-être le chocolat ou le biscuit
Du chocolat Français ou Belge, ou celui de l'oncle SAM ?
Qu’on ait pitié- parce que nous ne pouvons rien faire
Faisons une prière et aller apporter
Un nouveau grand caméra pour filmer nos larmes
Et dire haut et fort que nous avons pratiqué notre humanité
En sentant avec les indigents et le nécessiteux

Mais à la fin de l'histoire, Que se passe-t-il avec cet oppresseur inlassable ?'
Qui continue à violer chaque droite, chaque loi ?
Chaque vie, chaque espoir, chaque rêve et chaque foi
Quel changement serait espéré si la vie est sans valeur
Si le droit et le faux sont mariés sans interruption dans une cérémonie de vampires
Et Qu’est-ce qui fait de l'humanité ce qu’elle estn’est rien qu’hérésie pure et une histoire de passé ?

Regarde mon fils, et sens la douleurCeci est mal, ceci est inhumaine
Continue à écrire, à parler et à résister
Contre l'injustice, l’occupation quelque soit le risque
Israël est l'occupant et il commet des crimes de guerre
Et ce monde silencieux est complice

Ne nous humiliez pas avec la charité, et vos aides humanitaires
Soyeux respectueux et soutenez la justice, la dignité et l’humanité
Pensez-vous qu’on s’en fou lorsqu’on meurt
Si on a le ventre vide ou plein

Mes larmes sont innocentes à mes yeux
Ils refusent de tomber sur mes joues sèches
================
Abdelfattah Abusrour, PhDAshoka Fellow
Director of Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center
January 23, 2008

Alrowwad in Austria, Linz in April 2009

2009-01-01T04:21:00.003+02:00

Performances in Linz

http://www.linz09.at/en/projekt-2106333/zuendstoff.html

Theatre inflames, provokes, causes excitement. The spark leaps across, schools in the region and international youth groups catch it on the wind and fan it into flames.
Of all school projects, drama mobilises the most commitment and creates the greatest enthusiasm. Often it deals with today’s most relevant topics, truly explosive matter. This project, which has so far been confined exclusively to Upper Austrian school and youth drama groups, will look beyond our borders in Capital of Culture year. As a City of Peace, Linz will invite drama groups from regions that are marked by the harshness of their political, social or societal climate. Together with ten Upper Austrian troupes selected by an expert jury these children and teens will put on a varied and exciting programme over four days, which will be of interest not only to their peers but also to culturally inclined grown-ups. Workshops lasting for several days conducted by renowned international artists will supplement the festival’s programme and foster exchange between individual troupes. Two guest productions will make ZÜNDSTOFF a forum where young people from the most disparate backgrounds, cultures and traditions meet. For Linz this is an opportunity to make one more contribution to cultural and societal dialogue and to add to ist reputation as a City of Peace.

MARKET THEATRE: THURSDAY’S CHILD
Th ursday ’s Child is a play that deals with abuse, rape and prostitution. Maroleng has been abandoned by her mother. Left to her own devices she experiences all the horrors of life in the gutter. The production, with its student cast from Township Alexandra near Johannesburg, won the first prize out of more than forty entries at one of South Africa’s most important theatre festivals, the Zwakala.

CONCEPT / DIRECTOR //Ntshieng Mokgoro

ALROWWAD THEATRE AND DANCE GROUP:

1. WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE CAMP &

2. BLAME IT ON THE WOLF

Alrowwad Theatre and Dance group consists of 14 girls and boys aged between 10 and 18, with another four girls bringing up the chorus. The Palestinian youth theatre troupe will bring two productions to Linz.

WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE CAMP presents the Palestinian perspective on the historical background of their country’s occupation.

BLAME IT ON THE WOLF uses the material of classic fairy stories and deconstructs it to reveal a content that is radically different from the prima facie interpretation. What was considered as established fact suddenly turns out to have been false all along and other backdrops come into view. In other words, what is presented is an object lesson warning of the dangers of premature conclusions, which are liable to be misleading.
CONCEPT / DIRECTOR : Abdelfattah Abusrour
WHAT : School drama festival
WHEN : 15 – 18 April 09
WHERE : Hafenhalle09, Landestheater Linz, Theater des Kindes im Kuddelmuddel, Theater Phönix

Zündstoff, Linz 09, www.zuendstoff.at
In collaboration with Verein Zündstoff

Gaza ground zero 2009

2009-01-01T02:23:00.002+02:00

Gaza ground zero 2009

One, two, ten, one hundred…. The rain falls and the news are loud… no space is safe… no shade to hide… Hell is all around.
Two hundred thirty, three hundred, three hundred and ninety… the race is going on… numbers are counted… houses, schools, mosques, industries, and human beings…
The beggars are begging… the needy are crying… practice your humanity people… shed some tears… have pity… donate a little or much for such a humanitarian cause…. Demonstrate in the streets… rise your voice… protest… practice your humanity and don’t be a complicit with injust and war crimes….
The eloquent speakers speak. The great or little politicians are on the microphones. The camera films and the cameramen are posted everywhere the bombs sing and the victims dance and fall in blood baths or under the ruins of their houses or in prayers or even in the schools. The writers have found moving themes to write about. The singers are more emotional than ever. The artists are more inspired than ever. The generous people are donating, and humanitarian aid is on the way.
The ugliness is uglier than ever. The shame is greater than ever. Helplessness is enveloping what remains of our humanity. Shamelessness is the only menu on the table of the UN, International politics and agendas. Complicity is the daily bread of international community and defenders of so-called human rights and international law… and “Israel has the right to defend itself” is the only slogan in international and Israeli rhetoric.

Israel has the right to defend itself! What does this mean? Erase a whole nation? Palestinians have no right to defend themselves? Palestinians don’t have the right to live, as free human beings, and to practice this freedom and humanity on their “Occupied” land. Israel continues occupying a whole Palestine, close cities, to forbid free movement for people, to decide who can live where, to decide when one can get married or not, with whom one can fall in love, and when one can pass a checkpoint and get out of his/her home. Israeli “care” is killing us.

“They have the right to defend their civilians” great news for a state composed of an army, where every civilian is a trained soldier (except for few hundreds of brave young people who dare to refuse to serve in such army of occupation). This so-called only democratic state in the middle state, has no defined borders, no defined map, no constitution, no respect to international law or human rights or Forth Geneva Convention, and wins the sympathy by a programmed media war… Europe is compensating her by awarding her with discussing upgrading relations and the US with more funding and sophisticated weapons and protection against any international punishment. Gaza and the West Bank is the big animal laboratory for every trial of new weapons.

“Enough is Enough” declares a monster in the shape of a woman, who tries to exceed in her terrorism all those who preceded her and compete with her to lead Israel from illegality to illegality, destruction to destruction, crimes against humanity to crimes against the so-called human rights and international law. Name any Israeli prime minister who ruled Israel and have no history in terrorism. Name any prime Minister who in order to win elections or please the national opinion do not express themselves except by killing us? Please do….

“Enough is Enough” she says. What should we say after 60 years of occupation and humiliation and programmed killing, stealing and destruction of Palestinian people, properties and infrastructures? Don’t we have that right as well to say “Enough is Enough”? Don’t we have the right to hold Israel and the Great Britain for responsible of all the crimes committed against us under the British Mandate and Israeli occupation?

I am bitter and enraged. I have such anger in me, as I guess in everyone who still has a bit of humanity and justice and respect to human values. One remains stuck in front of TV screens and sees the level of degradation humans can reach, and carelessness and complicity with injustice and infraction of every value that make of us human beings.

Tears are ashamed to fall down… Our wounds are blood red of humiliation... Are we looked at only as numbers? Should all those who are massacred remain only as figures without a name or a face? Don’t they deserve to be known, and their story to be told, and the crime they committed to deserve to be killed in such way?

We are Palestinians, and I can say that we are losing our creativity in facing death and Israeli criminal arrogance. We are losing our inventive methods in dealing with international complicity with injustice and continuous policies of conditioning us to accept realities on the ground. We have no more alternative ways to find justification to accept international and Israeli dictation of a code of behavior that only erase our humanity and identity, and transform us into faceless slaves. We find no possibility to accept justifications presented by the Palestinian authority for its incapacity to protect us, with all these endless negotiations and agreements and promises. May the president of this authority resolve this authority, at least the whole world can see that we are still under Israeli occupation. Our Palestinian authority has no authority on anything, except maybe running behind some kids who try to throw stones at the tours of Israeli snipers in their 24 or 30 feet high wall tours.

Since years, I ask myself: Why do you Israelis hate yourself so much that you force everyone who has a sense of justice to hate you? We were not born and we were not raised to hate, to destroy and to kill. We do not want this hate. Spare us your lies and crimes and threats and your lessons of wisdom. Spare us your hatred, your terrorism, and your massacres. Take your hatred with you and leave. Take your terror with you and leave. Take your walls with you and leave.

Spare us your generosity in allowing some humanitarian aid to filter in Gaza. We do not want your pity and you charity. We do not want anyone’s pity or charity. We do not want you to have a justification to continue your crimes. Spare us your tears and your charity actions, and leave us to die in dignity… Do you think we care when you bombard us and while we are dying whether we die the stomach full or empty?

Gaza is burning. Gaza is in fire. The Israeli war is not against Palestinian people but against Hamas they say. The Israeli bombardments are surgical and precise they say. They are so precise that they kill school boys in UNRWA schools, and kill entire families and 4 months old babies… Spare us your precision please. Name please one international law that can give you this right of collective punishments and massacres?

People all over the world are filling the streets demonstrating with slogans of protest, and accusations to the international silence everywhere. They express their humanity and emotions of refusal to the degradation of human values. They express their solidarity with the tortured spirits. But for those who remain silent, those who do not care, I hope you will look tonight in the mirror, and look deep and ask yourself: If your child came to you tonight or tomorrow or in ten or twenty years and asked you: what did you do to make a change?
The year closes its doors, and the New Year opens new gate…. What will be our first steps?
May your tomorrow be better than our today… may your children and all those you care about find the peace they deserve as human beings… We remain despite the jungle we are forced to live in human beings who defend their humanity even in such conditions…
May you live in peace…. With a capital P, like Palestine….

Festival international du film sur les droits de l’homme en Gironde (à Pessac)

2008-12-30T02:27:00.003+02:00

Alrowwad founder and director Abdelfattah Abusrour
will participate in the International Festival on Human
Rights in the Gironde-France between January 12-18th, 2009

Jeudi 15/01/2009

Festival international du film sur les droits de

l’homme en Gironde (à Pessac)

à l’initiative du Secours Catholique

et en partenariat avec la Pastorale des Migrants et de

nombreuses associations : Amnesty international,

ATD Quart-Monde, Médecins du Monde, CCFD...

LE FESTIVAL à PESSAC
CINEMA Jean EUSTACHE
Place de la Ve République – 33600 PESSAC 05 56 46 00 96
Accès par le Tram ligne B arrêt Pessac Centre

EXPOSITION DE PHOTOS « IMAGES FOR LIFE »
Au Cinéma Jean Eustache pour la durée du festival, proposée par les Amis d’Al-Rowwad, elle présente les créations des jeunes du camp réfugiés d’Aïda à Bethléem, dans le cadre du programme « Images For Life » du Centre Culturel Al-Rowwad

JEUDI 15 JANVIER 2009

19 h Séance inaugurale du Festival au Cinéma Jean Eustache :

Présentation du Festival par Christian JARRY Délégué du Secours Catholique

Intervention de M Abdelfattah ABUSROUR Directeur du Centre AL-ROWWAD pour la Culture situé dans un camp de réfugiés palestiniens à Bethléem.

Conférence du Président de ce festival Maître Pierre LANDETE, Avocat à la Cour, ancien membre du Conseil de l’Ordre et ancien Président d’IDE (Institut Défense Etrangers) – Président de l’Association « Cotton Tree » France-Sierra Leone sur le thème :

« LES DROITS DE L’HOMME : PARTOUT ET MAINTENANT »

Et interventions de : Jean-Jacques Benoit Maire de Pessac, Alain Rousset, Député, Président du Conseil Régional d’Aquitaine

vers 20 h : Pot à l’Espace Jacques Ellul au dessus du Cinéma

21 h Film « LA MAISON AL HADAD » (Israël/Palestine) durée 55 mn

Débat animé par Christophe LUCET, Journaliste à Sud-Ouest Dimanche avec Abdelfattah ABUSROUR Directeur du Centre AL-ROWWAD pour la Culture situé dans un camp de réfugiés palestiniens à Bethléem

wishes 2009

2008-12-28T14:14:00.002+02:00

May every new year brings you Peace

The letters seem confused in front of me, while I am trying to wish all of you a happy new year, where unity is filling the hearts and homelands, where return is very close to refugees wherever they are, where the countries are full of cries of joy and happiness, where the laughs of children and the melodies of Oud present their adieu to all the past injustice and pain, and our brooms sweep away the remains of an unjust occupation and colonies that burned everything dry and green, and those artists paintings that embodied the sufferings of our people are put in the museums of memories…
What shall I wish you? While our worries grow bigger every day, and our differences come closer and our unity part away, and our Palestinian conscientious fades away to a bag of flour and a charity action, and a pity on an orphan or a widow in the umbrage of their demolished house, and the fire is still warming the remains of naked bodies in the miscreant cold.
What shall I wish to this people who is still singing for a past glory, and glorifying persons who have lost every ability to be creative and who still lead us from defeat into defeat?
What shall I wish you, professors of politics and changemakers in this country, and chiefs of political parties?
What Shall I wish to those who forget that Palestine is bigger than us all, and that Palestine is more important than a political party or political agenda? What shall I wish to those who mixed up our priorities that we are lost in negotiations and agreements that have no beginning or end… and we keep ruminating the past for dreams that are forgotten by even those who created them, and we are still kneeling for this and that, for those who have been hit with a shoe or those who walked on the red carpet.
What shall you wish you, you who reads or doesn’t read, you who listens and sees, you who cares and doesn’t care?
I still whish what I always wish… that we and our country are good and safe… that our dreams are bigger than our realities, that we are not used to the conditioning policy on the ground to accept these realities on the ground, and that we don’t volunteer to be the advocates of this illegal occupation because neither the realities on the ground will force us to forget our rights, nor the colonies or so called settlements, or checkpoints or so called barriers, nor the apartheid illegal wall so called fence, nor new constructions can force us to forget our homes, and villages and our rights of return, nor imaginary agreements or speeches that can force us to forget our dreams of freedom and the blood of our martyrs, nor announcements or conferences or funding can force on us an agenda of whoever…
I still wish for those who still have whatever power, from those who still have a true heritage and a national spirit that our dresses, food and drinks are fully Palestinian, made by the hands of our own workers who do not find a place to work in, and that we stop buying or dealing with those who are killing our people and destroy every seed of humanity that we have in us. I still wish that we preserve this humanity in us, and this beauty in us, in this “Palestinianity” that we have in us, and say to the child and the adult, to the responsible and those who are under the responsibility that we all share the responsibility of change making, and nobody has the right to remain silent and nobody has the luxury to despair.
I still wish that I live in a free country, as a free human being, son of free people, on a free land, in a free world, where all people are equal partners in changing the ugly present in a more beautiful future .
Maybe this is a dream, in a time where dreams became hallucinations… I don’t care, because dream makes of us human beings who love life, and want to keep this life and humanity alive, and makes of us “a people who forgot to die” in the West Bank and the slaughtered Gaza, and in the scattered parts of this country between an ocean and a gulf.May I wish you a dream, and that a dream and a right and a wish that come through, and a country that is free, and a human that makes his own unity, dignity, and realizes his wishes and dreams.

كل عام وانتم بسلام

تتداخل الأحرف أمامي وأنا أحاول أن أتمنى للجميع عاما جديدا سعيدا والوحدة تملؤ القلوب والأوطان، والعودة اقرب للاجئين من مرمى العصا، والوطن تملؤه زغاريد الفرح، وضحكات الأطفال وترانيم عود يودع ما مضى من ظلم واضطهاد، ومكانسنا تنظف بقايا آثار احتلال بغيض ومستوطنات سرقت الأخضر واليابس، ولوحات الرسامين التي جسدت معاناة هذا الشعب وضعت في متاحف الذاكرة....
ماذا أتمنى لكم، وهمنا ما زال يكبر يوما بعد يوم، وفرقتنا تقترب ذراعا ووحدتنا تبتعد اذرع، وهمنا الفلسطيني يضمحل الى كيس طحين وصدقة جارية وشفقة على يتيم وأرملة في ظل بيتهما المهدم، والنار ما زالت تدفئ بقايا هذه الأجساد العارية في برد لئيم

ماذا أتمنى لهذا الشعب الذي يغني لماضي ويمجد شخوصا فقدوا القدرة على الإبداع وما زالوا يقودنا من هزيمة الى هزيمة...
ماذا أتمنى يا أساتذة السياسة وصناع التغيير في هذا الوطن، ومسئولي الفصائل والأحزاب،
ماذا أتمنى لمن نسي أن فلسطين اكبر منا جميعا، وأحق بالتضحية من مصلحة حزب أو فصيل،
ماذا أتمنى لمن خربطوا أولوياتنا وأصبحنا نتوه في هذه المفاوضات والاتفاقيات التي ليس لها بداية أو نهاية... ونجتر الماضي لأحلام عفا عليها الزمن ونكرها من صاغها وما زلنا نحني قاماتنا لهذا وذاك، ومن ضرب بالحذاء ومن بسط له البساط الأحمر
ماذا اتمنى لكم، ولكل من يقرأ أو لا يقرأ، يبصر او يسمع، يهتم او لا يهتم
ما زلت اتمنى ما اتمنى، ان نكون والوطن بخير، وان تكون أحلامنا اكبر من واقعنا، وان لا نتعود على سياسة الترويض والقبول بالواقع عل الأرض، وان لا ننصب أنفسنا محامين لهذا الاحتلال، فلا حقائق على الأرض تنسينا حقوقنا، ولا مستوطنات أو حواجز او جدار فصل عنصري، أو أبنية تنسينا بيوتنا وقرانا وحقنا في العودة، ولا اتفاقيات وهمية أو خطابية تنسينا أحلامنا ودماء شهدائنا، والقابعين في سجون الاحتلال الاسرائيلي، ولا إعلانات او مؤتمرات او تمويلات تفرض علينا اجندة فلان ا وعلان....

ما زلت أتمنى ممن ما زالوا يصولون و يجولون، وممن ما زالوا يملكون ارثا حقيقيا وروحا وطنية ان يكون ملبسنا ومشربنا ومأكلنا فلسطينيا خالصا من صنع ابناء هذا الشعب الذي لا يجد مكانا للعمل، وان نكف عن الشراء والتعامل مع من يقتلنا ويذلنا ويدمر كل بذرة إنسانية فينا
ما زلت اتمنى ان نحافظ على هذه الإنسانية التي فينا، وهذا الجمال الذي فينا، وهذه الفلسطينية التي فينا، ونقول للكبير والصغير، للمسئول والرعية، بأننا جميعا نتحمل مسؤولية صنع التغيير لأن التغيير لا يأتي لوحده، وأننا ليس لنا حق السكوت عن الحق، ولا حق اليأس من واقعنا....
ما زلت اتمنى ان اعيش في وطن حر، كأنسان حر ابن شعب حر، على ارض حرة، في عالم حر، يتساوى فيه الناس شركاء في تغيير هذا الواقع لمستقبل اجمل
حلم ربما، في وقت أصبحت الأحلام فيه هلوسات، ولكن هذا ما يجعلنا منا بشرا يحب الحياة، ويحافظ على هذه الحياة والانسانية، ويجعلنا شعب "نسي ان يموت" في الضفة وفي غزة الذبيحة وفي أشلاء هذا الوطن المترامي بين محيط وخليج
كل عام ولكم حلم، ولكم حلم وحق يتحقق وامنية تتحقق ووطن يتحرر وانسان يصنع وحدته وكرامته ويحقق امنياته واحلامه

Les 21e Instants Vidéo Nomades

2008-11-27T06:40:00.000+02:00

MARSEILLE
le jeudi 27 novembre 2008
18 h 30 au CRDP, 31 bd d’Athènes, 13001 (en bas des escalier de la gare)
Entrée libre

TILT / RDV N°31 avec... Les 21e Instants Vidéo Nomades

L’art vidéo, les prisonniers et Lieux Fictifs

Programmation de l’Atelier du Spectateur du Centre Pénitentiaire des Baumettes

De mars à juillet, sur invitation de Lieux Fictifs, Marc Mercier (avec la complicité de Soline Delabar) a animé un atelier du spectateur au sein de la prison des Baumettes. Des œuvres issues de la vidéothèque des Instants Vidéo furent proposées à huit stagiaires. Ils ont fait des choix. Ce sont ces œuvres que nous présentons ce soir, ainsi qu’un film qu’ils ont eux-mêmes réalisé : Ce qui nous sépare, ce qui nous réunit. Le débat qui suivra ces projections sera enregistré et restitué aux détenus des Baumettes le 3 décembre prochain.

18h30  Ce qui nous sépare (guerre, mur, emprisonnement, répression…)

“L’axe du mal”, de Pascal Lièvre, France, 2003, 5’50
“Chic Point (Fashion for israeli checkpoints)” de Sharif Waked, Palestine, 2003, 7’
“Le temps confisqué (Kalandar)” Palestine, 3’
“Avant-Après” Liban, 2006, 3’
“La Nakba” (la catastrophe) d’Alrowwad Cultural and Theater Training, Palestine, 2005, 5’40
“Jean Genet in Chicago” de Frédéric Moffet, Canada, 2006, 26’

20h30 Interlude La parole des prisonniers

“Ce qui nous réunit, ce qui nous sépare” France, 2008, une vidéo réalisée par l’Atelier des spectateurs de la prison des Baumettes.

Ce qui nous réunit (art, résistance, espoir…)

“Theatre meets ritual” de l’Odin teatret, Danemark, 1976, 25’
“Jeune fille Sud Liban” Liban, 2006, 3’
“Abba-Mao” de Pascal Lièvre, France, 2001, 4’
“L’examen” de Abdelfattah Abusrour, Palestine, 2005, 15’

http://www.millebabords.org/spip.php?article9527

Eid Wishes September 2008

2008-09-29T14:22:00.004+02:00

Eid 2008-09-29

Once again, the holy month of Ramadan comes to end. Once more people are preparing for Al-Eid, the Feast of Breaking the fast. Once more, people think how they can celebrate this Eid.Once more, we ask the same questions: How many checkpoints and roads will be open so that Palestinians can be able to circulate freely from place to place to visit their family members, relatives and friends? How many will be able to enjoy a vacation time in a green space or on a sea shore, or outside the country? How many people will be able to fly over the illegal separation wall to visit the holy places in Alquds-Jerusalem, or their friends or relatives? How many will be able to imagine how their families are living on the other shattered side of Palestine, whether they are in the West Bank or imprisoned in Gaza? How many people will be able to celebrate this feast in their family? How many Palestinian prisoners will be in the Israeli prisons during these days? How many people will be able to go to visit their relatives with a gift in their hands?
How many people will be able to hold their daughters and sons in their arms, and to print a kiss on their front? How many mothers will be able to smile or laugh to their child? How many dreams and hopes will be fulfilled, and how many others will be shattered? How many people will be able to return to their homes and villages, stolen and violated from them by the Zionist bandits in 1947, 1948 or 1949 or later on? How many people will die while dreaming of this return?But despite all of these questions, despite all this agony and frustration, despite all this suffering, we keep up the hope that tomorrow will be better than today, and that the future generations will have something to struggle for and a humanity to defend against all the ugliness of this occupation and violations of human rights and international law. We keep up the hope that we still know our priorities and ignore those which are dictated to us by the occupation state or complicit international community. Our priority is still and remains that Israeli occupation ends. That our land, what is above and what is below, our air, and sea are free, and are ours, without any control from any occupier, or a dictation from whoever.
We keep up the hope that this eid will bring happiness in sad houses, and hope in broken wills, and strength in tortured spirits, and restore the values in the human world.
We keep up hope that our children and the generations to come will feel and live and practice their humanity on all levels and be equal partners for making a beautiful change in this world.
Enjoy as long as you have time to enjoy… and be the change… so that one day, close or far, when you are about to enter the second world, you may close your eyes and peace and feel happy that you were able to plant a seed and make it grow and flourish and that you were able to make a positive change in this world
May your days and moments be more beautiful and filled with happiness and joy. May you in these moments remember us, in this holy, tortured, punished, cursed, occupied land of Palestine…. May Gaza and West Bank and every city, village and refugee camp fuse in one, and become a land were dreams come through. May all this world be one, were every human is equal and partner to make this world a joy to live in.

AbdelFattah Abusrour, PhD
Ashoka Fellow
Director of Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center

April-August 2008 Activity Report

2008-09-20T13:13:00.004+02:00

Four months (April-August 2008) Activities report for Alrowwad activities.

Images for Life Unit (IFLU) Activities:

Video Training Course:

1. Mimi Nietula, a volunteer from Finland, started new video workshop at Alrowwad Center on July 1, 2008 that will continue until November 2008. Sixteen young participants are part of this training. The trainees are working through four groups who are supposed to produce their own documentary by the end of the training course that is covering both drama and fiction. The first part of the training dealt with theoretical aspects like basic concepts of documentary making and journalism, script writing, and interview techniques. Beside, they learnt basic video techniques, such as different shot sizes and angles. While the last part focused on editing techniques, especially the use of Adobe Premiere editing software. The participants are currently shooting, collecting information, editing and finalizing their documentaries. The titles of thymes of these movies are:
· How Palestinian youths spend their time.
· How worldwide inflation is hitting an already strained Palestinian economy.
· How a young Palestinian boy flies his hand-made kite over the separation wall when he himself cannot travel beyond its confines.
· How an elderly Palestinian joyously finds himself in his childhood home deep inside Israel, only to be shattered when he realizes it is only a dream.

2. Mobile Video Training: from seventh to 18th of July 2008, the World Film Collective delivered a ten-day workshop of how to use mobile phones in producing movies at Alrowwad Center to sixteen young Palestinians. By the end of the training, Participants produced two films about their hopes, ambitions and the obstacles they face in their daily lives. They used their own mobile phones to shoot different scenes. Participants received a DVD copy of their film, along with an Arabic handbook about Mobile Phone Filming.

3. Qattan Foundation Project “Midsummer Nights Film Festival”: This summer film festival is part of the classics of European cinema in Translation Project. Ten films were screened between August 18 - 26. The screenings took place at AlRowwad Center main hall. Some films were produced by Palestinians like “Little hands and the Cane” of Abdel Salam Shehadeh. While most of them were classical European films like “Modern Times” of Charlie Chaplin and “Letter from an Unknown Woman” of Max Ophuls. More then 30 people attended the opening night. While 15 – 20 people attended the remaining nights. An open discussion followed every screening.

4. Alrowwad Center has just finished Moving Movies project that was supported by Hoping Foundation. We screened different films in ten refugee camps around the West Bank. Films from the history of world cinema screened at either outdoor or indoor free of charge and open to everyone in the community. The project was a great opportunity to bring cinema to isolated population that has no access to movie shows. The project helped to raise awareness of the importance of filmmaking as a tool of communication and resistance. Varieties of movies screened to different audience, for children we screened cartoons, such as “The Lion King”, “Ice Age” and “Toy Story”, for the adults, movies like “I am Sam” and “Million Dollar Baby” were screened. An open discussion followed each screening in which the audience, both children and adults had the opportunity to talk about the movie. On July 21, about 450 people attended the screening of two movies at Alam'ari and Jalazon camps in Ramallah area. On the 22nd about 100 children attended the screening in Balata and Al Ein camps in Nablus area. At Aqabat Jabr camp in Jericho, an audience of 120 girls aged 13 to 17 watched the movie. Another team of Alrowwad was busy screening a movie at AlFara'a camp for 300 children in a place were once stood an Israeli prison. On July 26, two camps from Hebron area AlFawwar and AlArroub screened two movies to a group of 100 kids. The last show was in Aida camp where tens of kids watched and discussed the last screened movies.

5. “Breaking the Surface” documentary: Fran Tarr, a screenwriter and documentary filmmaker collaborated with IFLU to produce a documentary called “Breaking the Surface” during the first half of August. “Breaking the Surface” passionately, conveys the resilience of both Palestinian and American teenagers struggling with the adverse circumstances in their daily lives through their writing. It becomes clear these teenagers share a fear of failure, and an uncertain future overwhelmed by the call to revolutionize the environment in which they live. Through their writing, these teenagers demonstrate that they and their peers are not victims or predators but an integral, vulnerable part of the solution- dispelling misunderstandings and rectifying misconceptions. On an 18-day shoot, Fran guided ten AlRowwad students in the creation of an original collage play composed of their own writing, while exploring the identity of these teenagers separate to the tensions of their outside world. The high level of technical expertise and artistic vision of the Images for Life crew made “Breaking the Surface” a richer story. Once back in New York City Fran will begin filming the New York segment with students from Independence High School. “Breaking the Surface” will appear in film festivals around the world, HBO has expressed interest in viewing the final cut.

Art and Theatre Unit (ATU) Activities:

Theatre Trour in France and Belgium - June 19-August 1, 2008

Alrowwad Center has just finished its annual tour. This year the tour included France and Belgium. Twenty-one kids and three adults toured the two countries for 40 days where they performed in different towns and cities. The group consisted of actors and traditional Palestinian dancers. The theater group performed the play “Blame it on the Wolf” that was adopted and modified by Dr. Abdelfattah Abusour. The play tries to tackle stereotypes and the way they influence our behavior. While the dancing group amazed the audience every time, they took the stage by their beautiful performance. Trainings around the o'clock took place during weeks prior the tour to prepare the kids. Part of the work involved music composition and theatre décor. A new costume for the dancing group has been designed and prepared. The kids had more than 20 performances in several cities where thousands of people attended. It was a productive and meaningful tour in a sense of raising European about the daily life of Palestinians and showing them the true and beautiful image of them.

As part of our continuous support to other local organizations the clown group has performed to a group of 100 children in Bateer village that is located to the West of Bethlehem and surrounded by Israeli Settlements. The show took place during the month of august to support the work of a local organization there that help children with disabilities on the disabled international day.

Alrowwad Center hosted an Italian clown Mr. Biadro who came through Qattan Foundation and performed for a group of thirty kids from the camp. The idea of the show is to encourage kids to pursue their education and not to drop out of school. The show was highly interactive as the kids were included in the show.

Alrowwad Center hosted in August a will known actress from Jerusalem Mrs. Doreen who performed two solo performance for different groups in Aida camp to raise their awareness about children rights. In addition, two French artists who came through the French consulate entertained a group of 150 children in a wonderful puppets show.

The Italian Community Theatre visited Alrowwad Center and conducted a workshop in modern dance. The two trainers Mrs. Laura and Mr. Gigi trained six participants for three consecutive days of how to integrate the modern dance on our theatre and dabka shows.
A new project of drawing has just started to teach children of basic skills of drawing and the use of different colors. Two volunteers from Aida and Hebron Mr. Mahmoud Abusrour and Hanin Abukhsoum are going to start the lessons this coming week. The idea came after we hosted two French volunteers who conducted a workshop for fifteen young people from the camp. The drawings that children made are going to be shown in France as part of exhibition they are planning to do.
Because of the successful tour in France and the dedication and commitment of Mr. Osama Aljabri, the unit program manager tens of children are asking to join its activities. Currently the unit has 13 active groups; five theatre groups, two musical groups, three dancing groups, a newly formed hip-hop group, one drawing group, and one psychodrama group. Altogether, we have more than 70 kids involved on different activities. The center is very busy as we have trainings in daily bases to ensure the quality of our work.
Palestine TV has asked our Dabka and dancing group to be the only group that will perform every Thursday during the month of Ramadan for their Saharat Ramadania “Ramadan evenings” program.

Women Unit (WU) activities:

Mrs. Marwa Hamad had given birth to her second child two moths ago. Mother and baby are doing well now. Alrowwad Center congratulates Marwa and wishes her all the best. Because of Marwa’s delivery and the coming of Ramadan most of the activities of WU have been stopped. Usually this is a very busy month with little room for women to be involved in activities outside their houses.
Before the beginning of Ramadan, young girls and women continued their participation in fitness for beautiful change project. We have group of women and young girls who come on daily basis to join the project's activities. The young girls are part of ping-pong training, volleyball training, while women are part of the fitness training. The project will resume after the end of Ramadan.
The embroidery training has been concluding were six women finished a month long training of how to embroider Tahrira that is considered the most difficult style to master but at the same time one of the most beautiful. This training is part of continues effort to help our women to find job opportunities to generate income for their families.
The launching of sewing project that was partially funded by the Australian Representative in Palestine. The idea is to create a Palestinian clothing line and than to sell it through our international friends in their countries. So far, we finished the design and produced the first sample.

Free Medical Days: the WU organized in cooperation with other organizations and doctors several medical days during the past few months. On May 20, a two days event was organized with the Medical Relief Association a general medical day where about 33 people received checking and medicine. At the same day, another clinic for bones examination received 19 patients. On the last week of August, an eye-screening day offered checking for 30 persons where they received the needed medical care and advice about ways to take care of their eyes. This day was possible because of the presence of a French doctor Maya Brantzec who is currently volunteering in Palestine.
Three workshops organized by the unit, the first one was in cooperation with the Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association about “abortion and emergency contraception: is it permissible or forbidden in Islam?” We hosted the Mufti of Bethlehem Sheikh Abdul Majid Ammarna to speak about this important issue to group of 25 women from Aida camp. The second one was arranged with the UNRWA for 15 women form the camp to talk about Mother and Child health care.

Aida Educational Enhancement Center (AEEC):
The AEEC conducted 12 days workshop over a period of three months in cooperation with the Red Crescent Society. The workshop discussed many important issues like sexual harassment, domestic violence, and adolescence stage.
Ms. Linda Jariysa conducted first aid workshop over two weeks period. Twenty women attended it. This was followed by 5 days workshop about menopause that was attended by 15 women.
Ms. Amal Abusrour conducted a workshop about the Palestinian election law for a group of 20 persons in the camp.

Environmental Unit (EU)

1. The Health and Environmental Unit continued its great work through the commitment of our volunteers Sandra and Janelle. Three days a week kids from the camp and the surrounding area attend workshops and join learning visits to organizations that work on environmental issues. So far more than 200 children has joined our activities that deals with issues such as dental care and personal hygiene, planting, littering and the importance of keeping the environment clean. Beside we arranged with the UNDP and other organization a one-day trip to one of the surrounding villages. We take 35 kids every month to different location in Bethlehem were they receiving lectures and tours about the environmental situation in the designated villages and how it affects the life of people.

General Activities:

1. The Second Outdoor Film Festival: Alrowwad Cultural and Theater Training Centre in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture in Palestine organized the Second Outdoor Film Festival on August 21-28, 2008 in Aida Refugee Camp in memory of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish under the title “Across the Wall- Returnee”. The outdoor screening of selected Palestinian movies was on the apartheid wall. For eight consecutive nights, about 15 Palestinian produced movies screened at the wall that is surrounding Aida Refugee camp. At the beginning of each screening, Dr. Abdelfattah Abusrour recited one of Mahmoud Darwish poems at the beginning of every night of the festival. Alrowwad’s dabka and hip-hop groups performed before every screening. Well-known Palestinian filmmakers like Mohammed Bakri, the producer of “The Day you left”, Raed Andoni of “Improvisation” and Enas Muthaffar of “East to West” were invited. An open discussion with the producer followed each screening. At the closing ceremony, we screened “The Salt of this See” by Annemarie Jacir who was denied access to Palestine by the Israeli authority. Mr. Riad Di’as represented her in the discussion that followed the screening. It is worth to mention that this was a first screening in Bethlehem area for her movie. Hundreds of people from Bethlehem area and outside attended the festival.

2. Video Mapping Workshop: Till Roesken a French volunteer came to Alrowwad during the months of August and worked on producing his film “Palestine”. He asked people from Aida Camp, to draw maps of how they see what is around them. The drawing process as well as the stories related to the maps has been recorded on video alongside with representations of the camp's history and its surroundings. The focus is on stories about difficult ways; about the obstacles that make it almost impossible to reach certain places and how people try and sometimes manage to get there anyway. This could be the first step of a study about the resistance by going around.

3. International Exchange: From august 3 to 12 a group six participants came back from France after participating in 12 days activities in Bordeaux. In total 26 participants has been part of this great program. 22 of them are Palestinian refugees who came from different geographical areas. A group of six represented Alrowwad, another group came through Ajyal organization in Lebanon, another 5 came through Itijah organization in Palestine 48, and four through the General Union of Palestinian students (GUPS) senate in France. The main objective of this gathering is to enable Palestinian youths from different areas to talk about important issues as the Nakba and the Palestinian history so they will be better equipped to defend Palestinian refugees’ rights and work productively to get them. Several activities took place like Palestinian culture, ways of resistance, and the Zionist movement. During the gathering groups presented different shows that included traditional Palestinian dance – Dabka- and some theatre sketches.

4. Volunteers: During the last few months, Alrowwad Center welcomed more than 10 volunteers from different countries like France, Ireland, USA, and Belgium. They have been involved in several activities in different projects. We are expecting many others to come during the next few months.

5. Partnerships: Alrowwad has different partners for carrying out some projects and programs. We would like to thank:

a. Ashoka/Nike initiative and WomenWin for their support to our program "Sports for Social change for Women" Nov 2007-Nov 2008

b. French Consulate in East Jerusalem fo rtheir support in our proram "Images for Life" -Nov 2006-Nov 2008-

c. Islamic Relief-UK for their support of "Supportive Education Program for children with learning and socio-psychological difficulties"- Nov2006-June 2008-

d. ArtVenture for their support of our porgram "Beautiful Little hand-Beautiful Expressions" May 2007-May 2008

e. Hoping Foundation-UK, for their support of our program "Moving Movies"

f. Friends of Alrowwad in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway and the United States for their support through their different contribution

g. Alma'amal Foundation for contemporary Arts-East Jerusalem, Film directors especially Directors Raed Andoni, Mohammad Bakri, Annemarie Jacir, Ennas Elmuthaffar and all the others , Saleem Abu Jabal, for their help and contribution in our program "Annual outdoor Film Festival"

Lettre ouverte au Président Mahmoud Abbas

2008-09-20T12:36:00.002+02:00

Cher M. le Président de l’Autorité Palestinienne
Je m’appelle Abdelfattah Abdelkarim Hasan Ibrahim Mohamad Ahmad Mostafa Ibrahim Srour Abusrour. Je suis né au camp de réfugié d’Aida, sur un terrain loué pour 99 ans par l’UNRWA des propriétaires Palestiniens de la ville de Bethléem. Mes deux frères ainés, mon père ainsi que son père et tous ceux qui sont nés avant eux, sont nés dans le village de Beit Nateef, un des villages détruits le 21 Octobre 1948 par les bandits sionistes. Ma mère est née dans le village de Zakareyya, aussi détruit en 1948. Ce sont deux villages parmi les 534 villages détruits par les bandits Sionistes.
J’ai grandi dans le camp de réfugié d’Aida. Lorsque j’avais 4 ans, je me souviens que la plupart des habitants de camp se cachaient dans le cave derrière notre maison. Je me souviens des vieux parlant de la guerre. Je me rappelle que le ciel était incrusté d’avions, et que nous les enfants, nous étions couverts par des couvertures noires, dans les soins de nos mères.
Je me souviens le premier couvre-feu après l’occupation Israélienne dans le camp Aida en 1968. Je me souviens de premier soldat israélien, qui était un vieux Juif Irakien d’environ 60 ans, qui était positionné juste devant la porte de notre maison. Je me souviens de jour où mon deuxième frère était invité pour un entrevu chez l’administration de l’occupation militaire en 1972. Il n’est jamais revenu à la maison. Je me souviens de son exile après six mois en prison, sans confession et sans jugement.
Je me rappelle les premiers points collectifs de distribution d’eau dans le camp. Il y avait quatre points avec quatre robinets chacun pour toute la population de camp. Je me souviens aussi de premiers WC collectifs. Il y avait aussi quatre points, chaque point est composé d’un WC male et un femelle. Je me souviens de terrains autour de camp, où nous avions l’habitude de jouer, de présenter nos petits spectacle de théâtre dans la nature. Je me souviens des grands trous dans la terre ; lorsqu’ils se replissaient d’eau, ils devenaient nos piscines.
Je me souviens de la première colonie Israélienne autour de camp, la colonie Gilo… Les grues y travaillent toujours depuis les débuts des années 70.Je me souviens des religieux Juifs venant à la Mosquée de Bilal Ibn Rabah, qui était transformé en Synagogue après l’occupation de 1967, et rebaptisé le Tombeau de Rachel pour faire leurs prières. Nous nous étions plus permit de laver nos morts et faire une dernière prière sur eux avant de les enterrer, dans la cimetière juste à côté.
Je me souviens de premiers points de contrôle militaire israéliens entre Bethléem et Alquds-Jérusalem. Je me souviens des premiers permis exigés par les Israéliens, et toutes les routes alternatives et les chemins pour contourner les points militaires pour ceux qui n’avaient pas de permis.
Je me souviens de l’évolution de mur de séparation de l’état où il n’était qu’un amas de terre et d’énormes trous dans les routes et les rues, et puis en barbelé, et ensuite en block de ciment de 2 mètres, et 4 mètres et 8 à 12 mètres d’hauteur. Je me souviens de tous les temps où j’ai été capturé par les soldats Israéliens sur le chemin vers ma famille à Jérusalem- mon épouse est de Jérusalem Est. Je me souviens de 6 ans sans permis om j’ai pris tous les chemins connus ou inconnus de Bethléem à Alquds, que ce soit par l’Est ou par l’Ouest, par les routes principales, ou par les vallées ou les collines.
Je me souviens de cet espace qui s’est rétrécit dans le camp, et que cette population croissante d’environs 5000 habitants originaires de 41 villages détruits par les bandits sionistes, où 66 pourcent on moins de 18 ans, où la rue est le seul espace de jeu. Des murs ont été construits encerclant le camp de l’Est, du Nord et de l’Ouest.
Je me souviens de cet accord de Jéricho, où le check point à la sortie de Jéricho ne devrait être que symbolique, et où on passe des heures pour sortir de Jéricho parce que c’est la volonté de n’importe quel petit soldat d’une armée d’occupation Et nous négocions maintenant un passage vers la vielle ville de Jérusalem, sous contrôle de cette même armée d’occupation Israélienne.
Je me souviens qui nous étions nourri l’amour de ce pays occupé, parce qu’il est le nôtre. Je me souviens des clés rouillées des nos maisons dans notre village de Beit Nateef, des clés pour des portes qui n’existent plus, des clés qui ont leurs portes dans nos cœurs et dans notre imagination…. Des clés pour des portes qui étaient réelles et qui ont existées, pour des maisons réelles et qui avaient existées, où des vrais gens ont vécus et ont élevés leurs enfants. Ces clés rouillées sont encore avec moi. Je me souviens qui nous étions élevés avec cette croyance éternelle que le droit est le droit, et que rien ne justifie de l’ignorer. Je me souviens que notre droit au retour dans nos maisons et nos villages d’origine est un droit eternel, et rien ne puis le changer, ni ce qu’on appelle « les réalités sur le terrain », ni les accords politiques, parce que ce n’est pas seulement un droit collectif mais un droit individuel…. C’est de mon droit M. le Président, et le droit de mes enfants et mes grands enfants et tous ceux qui suivrons peu importe où ils seront nés.
Cher M. le Président
Je me rappelle le décès de ma mère, le 9 Septembre 2003. Elle avait 75 ans. Je me rappelle la mort de mon père le 26 Décembre 2006. Il avait 96 ans. Ma mère et mon père espéraient être enterrés dans leur village de Beit Nateef, là où ils se sont mariés, là où ils ont élevés quelques uns des leurs enfants, là où ils ont irrigués leur terre de sueur, de sangs et de larmes, là où ils ont rempli la terre de joie, de bonheur, de rires et de chuchotements.
Mes parents sont enterrés dans le cimetière du camp Aida. Le tombeau de ma mère est juste sous le tour de sniper militaire, entourés de barbelés. Le tombeau de ma mère ne m’est pas accessible. Je ne peux même pas la rendre visite un jour de fête ou un autre jours pour lui réciter un surate de Coran.
Cher M. le Président
J’ai été rempli d’espoir qu’après 60 ans d’occupation, qu’après 60 ans de résistance armée et non-armée, que nous pourrions réaliser quelque chose autre que les promesses futiles. J’ai été plein d’espoir que nous ne rendrons jamais nos droits, que nos droits sont reconnus par le monde entier, même si le monde entier reste complice avec l’injustice. J’ai été rempli d’espoir que rien ne justifie que nous renonçons à nos droits, malgré toutes « les réalités sur le terrain » comme ils le disent. Autrement, quel héritage nous laissons à nos enfants et les générations à venir. Faut-ils leur dire : Allez et laissez-vous emporter par le vent… Ne résistez jamais l’oppression, et ne levez vous pas devant l’injustice. L’importance de rester vivant, même si cette vie n’est qu’une vie d’humiliation et non reconnaissance d’appartenance à la race humaine.
Où est-ce que vous nous amener M. le Président ? A quel désert vous nous guidez ? A quelle catastrophe ? Comment osez-vous décider combien de réfugiés puissent ou ne puissent pas retourner chez eux ? Qui vous a donné la permission de parler en mon nom, et au nom de mes enfants ? Qui vous a demandé de déclarer les soldes sur nos droits ? Quel est le prix de telles soldes sur les droits de gens et leurs sacrifices pendant 60 ans ?
Là où les résolutions des Nations Unies parlent de DROIT AU RETOUR ET DROIT à la Compensation pour toutes les souffrances dans l’exile et dans les camps de refuge, pour toutes ces exploitations de nos terres et nos propriétés, pour toutes ces années d’humiliation et de torture qui s’empirent chaque jour, vous osez dire que pas tout le monde veut retourner dans leur village d’origine ? Même si c’était le cas, cela ne leur enlève aucunement leurs droits dans leurs maisons et leurs terres d’origines, qu’ils veulent retourner ou pas. S’ils veulent vendre aux autres, c’est leur choix, mais il n’est aucunement le droit de quiconque d’autre de décider qui veut et qui ne veut pas retourner. Ce n’est pas votre droit, et le droit de quiconque d’autre de dire « ceux qui ne veulent pas retourner, il faudrait les compenser ». Chaque refugié et fils de refugiés et grand fils ou fille de refugié a droit à la compensation pour ces 60 ans de Nakba, ceux qui ont quitté ou qui ont été forcé de quitter… ceux qui étaient propriétaires des terres, qui avaient leur champs d’orangeries et des arbres fruitiers. Oui, les oranges de Jaffa existaient avant Israël, et conduirons à exister après Israël, si Israël ne fini pas par les détruire aussi comme les oliviers millénaires qu’il a détruit.
Vous n’avez pas été élu M. le Président pour renoncer à nos droits … ou pour abandonner nos espoirs et nos rêves et les droits de notre people qui est encore dans les camps de refuge, vivant sur des terrains loués, des réfugiés dans notre propre pays ou ailleurs, et qui attendent toujours ce retour dans les maisons d’origine pour 60 déjà.
Jour après jour, semaine après semaine, mois après mois et année après année nous vivons dans le mensonge, et des promesses brisées d’un changement…. Mais le changement arrive mais pour le pire et non pas pour le mieux. Rien ne s’améliore avec toutes ces négociations M. le Président ? Faut-il que nous nous déshabillons et montrer notre nudité pour qu’Israël et ses leaders et ses forces d’occupation soient satisfaits que n’avons plus rien à cacher ?
Hier, des Israéliens ont distribué des papiers à Jérusalem Est utilisant le Coran Sacré et leur Torah disant qu’ils ne font qu’accomplir la promesse de Dieu pour peupler Israël et chasser tous ceux qui ne sont pas Juifs. Et il faudrait que nous comprenions ce qu’ils demandent et leurs aider, en quittant notre pays parce qu’il y a tellement d’autres pays arabes pour nous accueillir ? Après cela nous pouvons vivre en paix, et nos enfants peuvent être heureux avec leurs enfants, et tout sera merveilleux. Est-ce la prochaine étape M. le Président ? Est-ce parce que les colonies sur le terrain s’étendent tellement, et que nous ne pouvons pas forcer notre présence en Israël, alors il faut que nous soyons gentils pour que le monde entier nous soit sympathique, et faire ce qu’Israël veut que nous fassions ? Et ensuite, nous allons parlé des compromis terribles et des solutions difficiles, et donc c’est à nous d’être les plus gentils et offrir le plus de compromis, et pardonner, et oublier, et abandonner nos droits, et quitter le pays ou mourir, et comme cela tout sera résolu ?
M. le Président,
Je ne suis pas prêt pour quitter mon pays. Je ne le quitterai jamais de plein gré, même si c’était le seul moyen pour gagner ma vie. Je ne renoncerais jamais à mon droit de retour dans mon village d’origine, même si j’ai un forteresse au Royaume Unit, et un château en France, et un chalet à la mer rouge, et une propriété au Bahamas. Mon droit est le mien, et donc ni vous ni aucune autre personne n’a le droit d’effacer mon droit, de l’échanger ou de jouer avec.
Nous avions l’habitude d’entendre parler des lignes rouges qu’aucun négociateur ne franchira. Que reste-t-il de ces lignes rouges M. le Président ? Nous entendions parler de la ligne verte… qui est devenue la ligne grise du mur de séparation. Les lignes rouges sont devenues des lignes roses et sont tellement diluées dans le blanc qu’elles sont devenues invisibles. Est-ce ce qui nous reste de notre résistance historique, et de tout le sang des martyrs et des années d’emprisonnement ?
J’espère sincèrement que vous quittez de votre tour d’ignorance des besoins de votre peuple et que vous descendez un peu sur le terrain et regardez les yeux de ceux qui ont encore la passion pour ce pays malgré ces désastres dans lesquelles nous sommes plongées au milieu de ces négociations futiles et non productives, pendant que le sang Palestinien est versé tous les jours par ceux avec qui vous négociez. N’avons-nous plus de honte pour arrêter ce cirque de continuer ?
J’aurais beaucoup aimé M. le Président qu’une telle énergie de négocier avec les israéliens soit investie pour unir les Palestiniens qui sont encore en dispute, et à cause d’un tel entêtement de nos leaders politiques, ce n’est point vous les leaders qui souffrez, mais votre peuple. Sommes-nous tellement sans valeur que nous ne méritions point votre temps et votre énergie pour arrêter cette mascarade et unir votre peuple au lieu de chercher toujours ce qui divise ces âmes torturés ? Ne suffit-il pas que nous sommes considérés comme un cas humanitaire tout simplement, qui ne vaut pas plus qu’un sac de farine ou une bouteille d’huile ou un médicament périmé ? Ne suffit-il pas que toute une population soit transformé en mendiants et soit mise dans la pauvreté, dépendant de la charité au lie de l’aider à produire en gardant leur dignité intacte ? Ne suffit-il pas l’humiliation de l’occupation que nous soyons forcés à subir toutes ces humiliations à venir ?
Je suis entièrement croyant dans la paix et le non-violence. Je suis entièrement croyant dans l’espoir, le droit et la justice. Je suis entièrement croyant dans les valeurs qui font de l’humanité ce qu’elle est. Je n’ai jamais appris à haïr. Je n’ai jamais haï personne. Mes parents étaient une source d’amour et de paix. Ils ne m’ont jamais appris à moi et à mes frères quelque chose d’autre que le respect des autres et un amour infini à donner et à aider les autres. Ils nous ont appris que lorsqu’on pratique la violence, on perd un parti de son humanité. Mais en même temps, ils nous ont appris à défendre le droit et ce qui est juste et de s’élever contre tout ce qui injuste, faux et mal. Alors M. le Président, j’ose vous dire que vous n’avez aucun droit, même en étant le Président d’une autorité qui n’a aucune autorité sur quoi que ce soit- à l’exception probablement de nous- mais qui ne peut nous protéger ou même se protéger contre n’importe quel petit soldat ou soldate israélien, pour renoncer à nos droits, les droits de deux tiers de votre peuple pour retourner avec dignité dans leurs villages et terres et propriétés détruits, et qu’ils soient compensés pour toutes leurs souffrances et leur exile, et l’exploitation par les sionistes de leurs champs et terres, et le vol de leurs propriétés et comptes dans les banques anglaises ou autres.
M. le Président
Je ne sais pas si vous allez lire ces mots ou pas. Je ne sais pas si je vais rester en vie lorsque vous les lisez ou pas… Mais en tous les cas, j’espère que ces mots qui viennent de cœur vont dans votre cœur M. le Président, et que vous puissiez trouver l’espoir et la force que notre peuple garde encore en lui. Nous ne renonçons pas à nos droits. La paix peut être construite seulement avec la Justice. La paix réelle peut être bâtie avec une justice réelle…. Toute autre chose n’est qu’une plaisanterie dans la face de l’histoire.Je m’appelle Abdelfattah Abdelkarim Hasan Ibrahim Mohamad Ahmad Mostafa Ibrahim Srour Abusrour. Je suis encore refugié dans mon propre pays avec deux clés rouillé à la maison.

Open letter to President Mahmoud Abbas (English)

2008-09-20T12:33:00.001+02:00

Dear Mr. The President of the Palestinian Authority
My name is Abdelfattah Abdelkarim Hasan Ibrahim Mohamad Ahmad Mostafa Ibrahim Srour Abusrour. I was born in Aida Refugee camp, on a rented land for 99 years by UNRWA from Palestinian owners of Bethlehem. My two eldest brothers as well as my father and his father and all those who were born before them, originate from Beit Nateef, a destroyed village on 21 of October 1948. My mother was born in Zakareya village, destroyed as well in 1948 by the Zionist bandits. These were 2 of 534 villages destroyed by these Zionist bandits.
I grew up in Aida refugee camp. When I was 4 years old, I remember most of the people in the camp hiding in a cave behind our house. I remember the old people talking about the war. 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 first curfew after the Israeli occupation in Aida camp in 1968. I remember the first Israeli soldier, who was an old Iraqi Jew of about 60 years old who took position in front of the door of our house. I remember the day my second brother was invited for an interview by the military occupation administration in 1972, and never returned back to the house. I remember that he was exiled 6 months later, without any confession, without any judgment or court sentence.
I remember the first collective water distribution point in the camp. There were four points with four taps each for the whole population in the camp. I also remember the first collective WCs in the camp. There were 4 points. Each point was composed of one for males and one for females. I remember the field around the camp, where we used to play, to perform our plays in the open fields. I remember the big holes in the ground, when they were filled with water, they became our swimming pools.
I remember the first colony around us, the Gilo colony… the cranes are still working in it since the early seventies. I remember the Jewish worshippers coming to the Mosque Bilal ibn Rabah, which was transformed into Rachel Tomb Synagogue to pray their prayers. We were no more allowed to wash our deads and to make last prayers for burying them in the cemetery next to it.
I remember the first Israeli checkpoint between Bethlehem and Alquds-Jerusalem. I remember the first permits requested by Israelis, and all the alternative roads and all the passages to go around the military checkpoints that we have to take since we didn’t have permits.
I remember the evolution of the wall from the state of masses of dirt, to big holes in the roads and streets, to blocks of barbwires, or blocks of cement of 2 meters high, then 4 meters then 8 to 12 meters high. I remember all the times I was caught by Israeli soldiers on my way to my family in Alquds – my wife is from East Jerusalem-. I remember all those 6 years where I took every known and unknown road from Bethlehem to Alquds, by the East or by the West, on main roads or through valleys and hills.
I remember the space shrinking in the camp, and the population increasing to 5000 people now who originated from 41 different villages destroyed by the Zionists bandits, where 66% are under 18 years old, and the street their only space for play. Walls have been built, encircling the camp from the East, the North and part of the West.
I remember of this Jericho agreement, where the checkpoint at the entrance of Jericho should have been only symbolic because you accepted that it remains, and where we Palestinians are stopped for hours by any simple Israeli occupation soldier. And now, we discuss a passage to the old city of Jerusalem, under the control of this same Israeli occupation army.
I remember that we were fed the love of this occupied country, because it is ours. I remember the rusty keys of our houses in Beit Nateef, keys for doors that exist no more, but keys that have their doors in our hearts and our imagination… keys for doors that were real and have exited, for real houses that were built and have exited, in which real people lived in and brought up children. These rusty keys are still with me. I remember that we were brought up with this eternal belief that the right is the 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 agreement, because it is not only a collective right, but is as well an individual right… it is my right Mr. the president, and the right of my children and grand children and all those who come after wherever they are born.
Dear Mr. the President
I remember the death of my mother, on September 9th, 2003. She was 75 years old. I remember the death of my father on December 26th, 2006. He was 96 years old. My mother and my father were hoping to be buried in their village, where they got married, where they brought up their children, where they irrigated their land with their sweat, blood, and tears; where they filled their land with joy, happiness, laughs and whispers.
My parents are buried in the cemetery of Aida camp. My mother’s tomb is next to a military tower, and surrounded by Israeli barbwire. My mother’s tomb is not accessible… I can’t visit it in a day of feast to recite on her tomb Alfateha or a surat of the Holy Coran.
Dear Mr. the President
I was full of hope that after 60 years of occupation, after 60 years of armed and non-armed resistance we could achieve something other than shallow promises. I was full of hope that we will never give up our rights, these rights which are recognized by the whole world, even if the whole world remains complicit with injustice. I was full of hope that nothing can justify giving up such rights, with all the realities on the ground as they say…otherwise what heritage we are leaving to our children and the generations to come. Should we say to them: Go to where the wind takes you… never stand up and resist the oppression… the importance is to stay alive even if it is a life of humiliation and non recognition of belonging to a human race?

Where are you talking us Mr. the President? To what desert are you leading us? To what catastrophe? How dare you deciding how many refugees can or cannot return? Who gave you permission to speak in my name, and in my children name? Who asked you to make sales on our rights? What is the price for such sales on people’s rights and sacrifices for 60 years?

Where UN resolutions talk about Right of Return AND Right of Compensation for all this suffering in exile and refuge, for all this exploitation of lands and properties, for all this humiliation and torture that worsens every day, you dare to say that not everybody wants to return? Even if this is the case, they have their right to their homes and lands, whether they want to return or not. They can sell it to others if they want, but it is not you or anyone else besides them who decide who want or not to return. It is not your right or anyone else to say “those who don’t want to return should be compensated”. Every single refugee and son of a refugee and grand son or daughter of a refugee have to be compensated for these 60 years of Nakba, those who left or forced to leave; those who are owners of lands, those who had their fields and oranges and fruitful trees. Yes, the oranges of Jaffa were before Israel and they will stay after Israel, if they don’t end by destroying them, as they dead with the olive trees old of thousands of years.

You were not elected Mr. le President to give away our rights… to give away the hopes and dreams and rights of people who are still in refugee camps, living on rented lands, refugees in their own country or outside their own country, and who still wait to return to their original homes and lands for the past 60 years.

Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, we are living in lies… and broken promises of change… well, change comes but to the worse and not to the better. Nothing improves with all these negotiation Mr. the President? Should we undress ourselves and show our nudity so that Israeli leaders and occupation forces be satisfied that we have nothing to hide?

Yesterday, Israelis have distributed papers in East Jerusalem using the Holy Koran and their Bible to say that they are fulfilling the promise of God to populate Israel and chase away every other non-Jewish. And we should understand that and help them, by leaving the country because we have so many other Arab countries for us? And after that we can live in peace and our children will be happy with their children, and things will be great. Is this the next step Mr. the President? Is it because colonies on the ground are expanding, and that we can’t force our presence on Israel, and that we should be nice so that the whole world be sympathetic to us, that we do whatever Israel wants us to do? And then we talk about horrible compromises and difficult solutions, so we should be the nice ones who make the compromise, who forgive, who forget, who give up, who leave or die because that would solve it for all?

Mr. the President
I am not ready to leave. I will never leave, even if it is the only way to earn a living. I will never give up my right to return to my village, even if I have a castle in UK, and a chateau in France, and chalet at the red sea, and a property in Bahamas. My right is mine, and neither you nor anybody else have the right to erase it and exchange it or play with it.

We were hearing RED LINES that will never be crossed. What remains from these red lines Mr. the President? We heard about the green line… it became the gray line of the separation wall. Red lines became pink, and they were mixed with white till they became invisible. Is this what remains of our struggle history, and all the blood of martyrs and years of imprisonment?

I do hope that you leave your tower of ignorance to the needs of your people and descend a little bit on the ground and look in the eyes of those who still have a passion for this country despite the disasters that we sank in with such futile and fruitless negotiations, while the Palestinian blood is shed daily by those with whom you negotiate. Have we no more shame to stop such circus from going on?
I would have loved Mr. the President that such energy in negotiation with Israelis be invested among Palestinians who are still in dispute, and because of such stubbornness from our political leaders, it is not you leaders who suffer, but your people. Are we in such a way so worthless that we do not deserve your time and energy to stop this circus and unite your people instead of searching always what divides such tortured spirits? Is it not enough that we are considered only as a humanitarian case, that worth no more than a sack of flour or a bottle of oil or an expired medication? Is it not enough that a whole population is transformed into beggars and put in poverty, depending on charity rather than helping them to be producers and keep up their dignity? Isn’t the humiliation by the occupation enough that we are forced to have more humiliations to come?
I am full believer in peace and non-violence. I am a full believer in hope and right and justice. I am a full believer in the values that make of the humanity what it is. I never learned to hate. I never hated any one. 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 the others. They taught us that when you practice violence you lose part of your humanity. But in the same time, they taught us to defend what is right and to stand against what is unjust and wrong. Therefore, Mr. the President, I do dare to say that you have no right, even as president of an authority which has no authority on anything- except maybe on us- which cannot protect us or protect itself even in front of any male or female Israeli soldier, to give up our rights, the rights of two thirds of your people to return in dignity to their destroyed lands and properties and to be compensated for all this suffering and exile, and the use of their lands and fields and the stealing of their funds in British banks or other banks by the Zionists.
Mr. the President
I don’t know if you will read these words or not… If I will stay alive when you read them or not… but I do hope that such words which come from the heart, reach your heart Mr. the President, and you can find the hope and strength our people still have in him. We do not give up our rights. We will never give up our rights. Peace can be built with justice. Real peace can be built with real justice… anything else is just a joke in the face of history.
My name is Abdelfattah Abdelkarim Hasan Ibrahim Mohamad Ahmad Mostafa Ibrahim Srour Abusrour. I am still a refugee in my own country with 2 rusty keys in the house.

Beautiful Resistance, Revolting Memory

2006-04-15T03:38:00.001+03:00

Beautiful Resistance, Revolting Memory
By Abdelfattah Abusrour*

http://www.badil.org/al-majdal/2006/Spring/article02.htm

I was born Palestinian and I don’t want to do anything to change this.I was born in a refugee camp, in my own country, and there is nothing I can do about it. I was born under occupation, and I will do everything possible or impossible to change this.
The culture and history of nations is probably measured through what they show and what they are able to communicate to the rest of the world. Throughout history people have tried to communicate their life, culture and environment through oral tradition, writing, drawing or painting on stones, leather or paper, or by the creation of sculpture and monuments. In modern times, multimedia and the internet have changed the form of expression and the capacity of that expression to reach the maximum number of people with little delay.
Palestinians are no different from other people in their desire to share with the world their history and culture. They also are like many other people in that they intend through their expressions to counter the images constructed of themselves, their culture, and their history. Zionist propaganda has promulgated numerous fictions and stereotypes about Palestinians and their history, such as the famous Zionist slogan, “a land without people for a people without land.”
Poets have written poems, painters have painted, storytellers have told stories, fathers have narrated to their children and grand-children, novelists have written novels, playwrights have created plays, singers have stirred emotions with their songs, and film-makers have made films. The right of return of Palestinian refugees to their original villages from which they were uprooted in 1948 or after has been the blood and pulse of the nation, transmitted through the past 58 years, consistently, by all means and media, without giving up.

Art as a means of expression and resistance

Art, theater, and education are some of the most amazing tools to reach and influence people. They are also very powerful vehicles of self-expression for children and adults.
Starting from this concept, Alrowwad began its beautiful resistance against the ugly Israeli occupation and its devastating effects on the Palestinian population, especially its children. Art provided a “safe” medium of expression and a beautiful alternative to the images continuously disseminated by the media about Palestinians.
Through the use of art, Alrowwad theater in Aida refugee camp has created a space for children to express themselves in peaceful and nonviolent Beautiful Resistance through theater and art works which challenge the negative image of Palestinians propagated by the media. In an effort to provide the children with education and awareness of their own history, the focus of Alrowwad is to provide artistic tools for the children to express their national identity and share stories that their families narrated to them about their villages being attacked, populations massacred or chased away and forced to leave. Theater, art, film-making and story-telling are our tools to disseminate information and talk about the 58 years-old ongoing tragedy in occupied Palestine and about the generations of Palestinians born as refugees, sometimes even in their own country.
The biggest production is a play called “We are the children of the camp” which retraces the history of Palestine starting with the Balfour Declaration on 2 November 1917. The play includes the 1948 war, the exile of Palestinians into tents, the recollection of demolished villages and the new Hebrew names they were given, the refugee camps and their locations. The play also includes children's impressions of their lives in the camps, the intifada, the claims of the Palestinians, the claims of the media, accounts of the checkpoints and the experience of oppression. The play concludes with so-called “Peace negotiations”.
This play has been performed in Sweden, Denmark, Egypt, France, Belgium and the United States of America. The impact on the audience was great, and because of its educational and awareness-raising value, the play is requested again and again. Born under occupation, Palestinian children are involved at a very young age in the political debate, are eager to talk about their case and their cause and demonstrate a rejection of all forms of occupation. Art is one medium in which Palestinian children are able to do so. Art keeps the flame of memory and history alive. It shouts loud and clear: “We have rights that were violated… we do not forget, we will not forget, we will never forget. And guess what, we shall always remind you, so that you can never forget. This is our beautiful resistance to such a revolting memory.”

* Abdelfattah Abusrour is the director of Alrowwad Theater and the head of the board of Badil Resource Center.
-------------------------------

Beautiful Resistance, Revolting Memory

2006-03-24T01:33:00.001+02:00

Issue No. 29 (Spring 2006)
Beautiful Resistance, Revolting Memory
By Abdelfattah Abusrour*
I was born Palestinian and I don’t want to do anything to change this.
I was born in a refugee camp, in my own country, and there is nothing I can do about it.
I was born under occupation, and I will do everything possible or impossible to change this.
The culture and history of nations is probably measured through what they show and what they are able to communicate to the rest of the world. Throughout history people have tried to communicate their life, culture and environment through oral tradition, writing, drawing or painting on stones, leather or paper, or by the creation of sculpture and monuments. In modern times, multimedia and the internet have changed the form of expression and the capacity of that expression to reach the maximum number of people with little delay.
Palestinians are no different from other people in their desire to share with the world their history and culture. They also are like many other people in that they intend through their expressions to counter the images constructed of themselves, their culture, and their history. Zionist propaganda has promulgated numerous fictions and stereotypes about Palestinians and their history, such as the famous Zionist slogan, “a land without people for a people without land.”
Poets have written poems, painters have painted, storytellers have told stories, fathers have narrated to their children and grand-children, novelists have written novels, playwrights have created plays, singers have stirred emotions with their songs, and film-makers have made films. The right of return of Palestinian refugees to their original villages from which they were uprooted in 1948 or after has been the blood and pulse of the nation, transmitted through the past 58 years, consistently, by all means and media, without giving up.
Art as a means of expression and resistance
Art, theater, and education are some of the most amazing tools to reach and influencepeople.Theyare also very powerful vehicles of self-expression for children and adults.
Starting from this concept, Alrowwad began its beautiful resistance against the ugly Israeli occupation and its devastating effects on the Palestinian population, especially its children. Art provided a “safe” medium of expression and a beautiful alternative to the images continuously disseminated by the media about Palestinians.
Through the use of art, Alrowwad theater in Aida refugee camp has created a space for children to express themselves in peaceful and nonviolent Beautiful Resistance through theater and art works which challenge the negative image of Palestinians propagated by the media. In an effort to provide the children with education and awareness of their own history, the focus of Alrowwad is to provide artistic tools for the children to express their national identity and share stories that their families narrated to them about their villages being attacked, populations massacred or chased away and forced to leave. Theater, art, film-making and story-telling are our tools to disseminate information and talk about the 58 years-old ongoing tragedy in occupied Palestine and about the generations of Palestinians born as refugees, sometimes even in their own country.
The biggest production is a play called “We are the children of the camp” which retraces the history of Palestine starting with the Balfour Declaration on 2 November 1917. The play includes the 1948 war, the exile of Palestinians into tents, the recollection of demolished villages and the new Hebrew names they were given, the refugee camps and their locations. The play also includes children's impressions of their lives in the camps, the intifada, the claims of the Palestinians, the claims of the media, accounts of the checkpoints and the experience of oppression. The play concludes with so-called “Peace negotiations”.
This play has been performed in Sweden, Denmark, Egypt, France, Belgium and the United States of America. The impact on the audience was great, and because of its educational and awareness-raising value, the play is requested again and again. Born under occupation, Palestinian children are involved at a very young age in the political debate, are eager to talk about their case and their cause and demonstrate a rejection of all forms of occupation. Art is one medium in which Palestinian children are able to do so. Art keeps the flame of memory and history alive. It shouts loud and clear: “We have rights that were violated… we do not forget, we will not forget, we will never forget. And guess what, we shall always remind you, so that you can never forget. This is our beautiful resistance to such a revolting memory.”
* Abdelfattah Abusrour is the director of Alrowwad Theater and the head of the board of Badil Resource Center.
http://www.badil.org/al-majdal/2006/Spring/article02.htm

Interview

2005-07-06T03:49:00.000+03:00

Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Centre
In Their Own Words

http://www.inplaceofwar.net/pages/alrowwad_cultural_centre_their_words.html
'We want our children to be open minded, educated, with wide horizons, ready to exchange with anyone based on respect and codes of behaviour that are internationally recognised as normal.' Abdelfattah Abusrour, Alrowwad Director - Interview
'[In devising We Are the Children of the Camp] they wanted to speak about their rights, that they had the right to live a normal life, that they had the right to have ideal schools that they have the right to play, to study, to learn, to go to school, to do whatever they want, to live wherever they want, to have beautiful gardens and so on. And that way we started to talk about history and what do you have to say about your country, you own history and what are the main points that your parents or your grandparents talk about, and so on.' Abdelfattah Abusrour, Alrowwad Director - Interview
'One of the puppet shows as well was about a Genie who gives gifts to excellent students and one of the students wanted a gift but they said 'no, you cannot have a gift if you do not study hard and be the first of your class.' So he said, 'Yes I will study hard and so on' and, and he became one of the excellent students and when the genie wanted to give him a magical gift he said, 'No I don't want one of your magical gifts, I want to continue getting up in the morning, study not to get a gift but depend on myself and make better of myself.' Abdelfattah Abusrour, Alrowwad Director - Interview
'We were hosted in a centre called Urban Spirit in a Black American neighbourhood and this is one of the main points also that Alrowwad focuses on. On one side creating links of exchange between children, so they can know that the other is not the enemy or the stranger. Whether Muslim, Christian or Jew, Baptist, Buddhist or whatever religion or race is, we are all human beings. And it is a world that emphasises on this relation of partnership and knowledge of the others to build a better future for all the children of the world since they would be the future of their countries and it's them who will build the politics of tomorrow [...] And on the same time mostly when children, Palestinian children are asked what they want, some of their answers come like, 'We want to live like the other children of the world.' As if all the other children of the world live happily. And it was important for us to take them to some of the poor neighbourhoods and in some cases they said, 'They are poorer than us.' And this was also an opportunity for them to realise that people all over the world have their own fights as well.' Abdelfattah Abusrour, Alrowwad Director - Interview
'And on the note of hope as well, it was important for us that they know that, what they knew, this beautiful resistance that they are doing against the ugliness of the occupation that we live here, is that this kind of resistance is not in vain. That there are people who would be ready to listen to what they have to say.' Abdelfattah Abusrour, Alrowwad Director - Interview