In Search of Fatima - A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi

In Search of Fatima - A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi

 

Author Ghada Karmi is pictured left

 The right to speak about Israel’s racism

By Ghada Karmi

"I was born in what is now west Jerusalem. During the war to establish the state of Israel, my family and I were forced from our home, when I was a young child. To this day, I have been prevented from returning to my home, simply because I am a Palestinian Arab – whereas any Jewish person from anywhere in the world could and can automatically become a citizen of the state.

The establishment of the Israeli state, as the ethnically defined state of what was then a minority of the population of Palestine, was discriminatory and racist. And laws and practices that discriminate on the basis of race and religion – against my people, the Palestinians – have continued to this day.

This is not only the case in relation to the occupied Palestinian territories, the illegal settlements, and the violence and abuses against Palestinian people in Gaza, but also within Israel’s borders..."... READ MORE   https://prruk.org/a-palestinian-member-of-the-labour-party-demands-the-right-to-speak-about-israels-racism/

 

Ghada Karmi and Ellen Siegel, in 1973, 1992 and 2011. Photos by Francis Khoo (1, 2) and Jean-Pascal Deillon (3).

KARMI, GHADA (1939-)

"The right of Palestinian return is enshrined in international law and historical precedent, and affirmed repeatedly by the UN. Resolution 194 was passed by the UN general assembly in December 1948 and called on Israel to repatriate those "displaced by the recent conflict" with compensation for their losses. The 1948 universal declaration of human rights states that those who leave their homes for whatever reason have the absolute right to return to them. "  Ghada Karmi, writing in The Guardian in 2011: Only Palestinian refugees can give up their right of return

“Just as the ripples of a stone thrown into a pond will spread further and further away from the source, so the ripples of the disaster in 1948 hit my parents first and then spread to us and to our children long afterwards. Seeing only the ripples, it was easy to confuse the original cause with its effects.”

— Ghada Karmi

"Israel, from its inception in 1948, has been given the most wonderful opportunity to behave itself, and it clearly has not done so. It's flouted every single law, it's behaved outrageously, it's made a travesty of international and humanitarian law. On what basis should this state continue to be a member of the United Nations?"     Interview: Ghada Karmi, a voice from exile, Executive Intelligence Review, (reprinted by Middle East Policy, Spring 2010).(available online here). Also available here: Interview: Ghada Karmi, a voice from exile at Goliath.