John Hanna Asfour- a Christian Palestinian... a bit of historical context ... True story by Raymond Khoury

 

John Hanna Asfour wedding in Haifa, Palestine

True story by

Raymond Khoury

  · A bit of historical context:

 

This is my grandfather's house in Haifa, which he built in 1934. His name was John Hanna Asfour, a Christian Palestinian. Our family tree records there go back over two centuries. That's him at his wedding. 

 

A prominent, successful lawyer, he hired a Jewish architect, Moshe Gerstel, to design his home. Gerstel was an immigrant from Europe who had just arrived in Palestine, and my grandfather generously gave him his first job there. 

 

In 1948, after my grandfather's assistant was murdered and his dead body was dumped outside the house, he sent his wife and five children (including my mom, who was 13 at the time) to safety in Egypt. He had to follow them a few weeks later. 

 

They never returned. 

 

His house eventually became an officers' club of the Israeli army (sorry, "defence force"--such brilliant marketing). Today it is an architecturally preserved site. He and his family were never offered any restitution. They lost everything. 

 

They were among the lucky ones. 

 

They never had to live in refugee camps, eat scraps, have no travel documents, or suffer humiliation and brutality on a daily basis. 

 

A dehumanising narrative has been promoted since then that Palestine before 1948 was a barren desert, ripe for a miraculous upgrade. It wasn't. Its people were not bedouins or primitive savages. It was a thriving, well educated, sophisticated twentieth century society. But its people lost a battle for their land. And as we know, history is written by the victors. 

 

What happened two weeks ago was tragic, abhorrent, barbaric. But when an entire people is brutalised for decades under a vicious apartheid occupation that has no comparable in this 21st century, and the media and governments who could make things right like the US and UK don't just consistently turn a blind eye to that ongoing tragedy but support it with weapon supplies, perhaps it shouldn't come as such a shock that hopelessness can lead to extreme rage and, sadly, bloodshed... 

 

It never ceases to amaze me how the victims of a horrific genocide could so quickly and heartlessly turn around and bulldoze through another people, like the victims of child abuse who turn into abusers. And be totally oblivious to the parallel. 

 

Empathy is tragically selective. The world cheered the Sioux in Dances with Wolves, the Na'vi in Avatar, the rebels fighting the empire in Star Wars. Hell, we're now even cheering the AI robots in The Creator (see it). But in real life, the stormtroopers are winning. 

 

But I see a faint glimmer of hope, that if not the governments of the US and UK, but at least the people, a lot of people, are now waking up to this tragedy, seeing and starting to understand what's been happening for decades, thanks to social media and despite the odious censorship and more insidious shadow blocking being done.

 

This is my grandfather's house in Haifa, which he built in 1934. His name was John Hanna Asfour, he was a Christian Palestinian. Our family tree records there go back over two centuries.

Years of silence over Netanyahu’s inflammatory politics have brought Gaza to its current crisis by Diana Buttu

"The sound of Israelis chanting “Death to Arabs” while Israel flattens entire residential buildings in the Gaza Strip has made my home in Haifa a frightening place. Across the country, my friends are witnessing similar incidents, leaving many pundits to wonder about what broke the “calm,” even after the Thursday announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. But this question ignores the years of Israeli government decisions – specifically, by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – that led to this moment..." Diana Buttu 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/opinion/article-years-of-silence-over-benjamin-netanyahus-politics-have-brought-the/?fbclid=IwAR3bfKRhAmu4bLMk0yYinqAGUy5INynaoBuGBbK_0X6jp6PQcS6Z3_oXwys

As Always Please Go To The Original Link To Read The Article In Full

Thousands of Palestinians seek safe refuge at U.N. offices in Gaza

Palestinians flee their homes to take shelter at the United Nations school in Gaza City, Sunday, July 13, 2014. Israel briefly deployed ground troops inside the Gaza Strip for the first time early Sunday as its military warned northern residents to evacuate their homes, part of a widening campaign against militant rocket fire that's seen more than 160 Palestinians killed. Israel accuses Hamas of using Gaza's civilians as human shields by firing rockets from there. Critics say Israel's heavy bombardment of one of the most densely populated territories in the world is itself the main factor putting civilians at risk. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (AP2014)

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/07/13/thousands-palestinians-seek-safe-refuge-at-un-offices-in-gaza/

Some 4,000 Palestinians sought refuge Sunday at U.N. offices in Gaza after at least 45 people died and 131 were wounded over the past 24 hours in intense Israeli attacks on the densely populated coastal strip.

Some 166 people have died - among them 23 children - and more than 1,100 have been wounded in the six days so far of the third Israeli offensive against Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement assumed control in the zone in 2007, Chris Gunnes, the spokesman for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, said.

"The situation in Gaza continues to be devastating and unpredictable. Thousands of terrorized people are trying to flee from the attacks and find refuge at UNRWA installations. We've opened eight schools and just today about 4,000 people have sought refuge," Gunnes said.

"The number is growing as the day progresses. Six of those schools are in Gaza City," the U.N. spokesman said.

Gunnes once again urged all parties to put an end to the hostilities, protect civilians and respect international law.

Military spokesmen in Israel, meanwhile, said that a rocket fired by Palestinian militias from the Gaza Strip on Sunday hit the Israeli city of Haifa, 150 kilometers (93 miles) away for the first time.
The rocket was part of a salvo of three missiles fired at mid-afternoon, with the other two being launched at the Tel Aviv metro area but both of which were intercepted and destroyed by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

Haifa, located in northern Israel, is one of the country's two most important ports and along the bayshore there, north of Mt. Carmel, are many petrochemical plants and facilities, making the area a key target for Palestinian militias. EFE

Palestinian Journalist/Author/Poet/Activist Fouzi El-Asmar, R.I.P... El-Asmar was a doting husband, father, grandfather, a devoted friend, and a respected journalist who died this month at age 76, three weeks after the passing of his wife: He had asked to be buried in his native land.

Fouzi El-Asmar recalled how the inhabited land of mandate Palestine became the state of Israel and how the Arab Christian and Muslim natives were turned into second-class citizens... The experience initially recounted in Hebrew, which he mastered, and later in his native Arabic, was "To Be An Arab In Israel," a searing book published in 1975 and later translated into nine languages.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/magda-abufadil/palestinian-journalistaut_b_3975889.html 

Magda Abu-Fadil

Director of Media Unlimited in Lebanon

It's the details one often remembers.

Mine is the memory of Fouzi El-Asmar surrounded by piles of newspapers, documents, and books, at his Washington, D.C. office and Maryland home office.

The noted Palestinian journalist, author, poet and activist par excellence devoured words with relish and produced countless words of his own to fill volumes for over half a century.

The focus, the Holy Grail, was Palestine, the land of his birth and in which he was made to feel an outsider.

After the first recovery from the 1948 defeat, the Arabs of Israel were left in a void. They saw that a new situation had emerged....Arab lands were confiscated under many different laws, and many villagers were expelled and turned into refugees inside the country....READ MORE

 http://www.icmes.net/?page_id=332

Dr. Fouzi El-Asmar was a distinguished Palestinian writer, poet, academic and journalist. He was a publicly recognized authority on the political and social lives and conditions of the Palestinian citizens of Israel. He regularly published articles that are syndicated in the Arabic press throughout the Middle East and in Europe. He wrote numerous books, including Through the Hebrew Looking Glass and the renowned To Be an Arab in Israel. The latter has been published in seven languages, including English, Hebrew and Arabic. Dr. El-Asmar also wrote several collections of poetry, including Poems from an Israeli Prison and The Wind-driven Reed and Other Poems.

Born in Haifa, Palestine, Dr. El-Asmar grew up in a Palestinian area of Israel. In 1958, he became a member of the editorial board of the literary monthly, Al-Fajr, and in 1966 he became editor of the Arabic magazine, Hadha-al-Alam. He attended Central Connecticut State University (then Central Connecticut State College) and received his B.A. degree there with honors in 1975. He subsequently earned a Ph.D. from the University of Exeter in England.Then in 1979, he became the managing editor of the London-based international newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat.

Dr. El-Asmar lectured and taught at a number of universities, including St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and Bradford University in England, and the American University in Washington, D.C. He held dual Israeli and U.S. citizenship and resided in Bethesda, Maryland.

palestinianpoetry 

 

The Wandering Reed

Of what benefit is it, if man were to gain
the whole world

But lose the green almond in his father’s
orchard?

Of what benefit is it,

If man were to drink coffee in Paris

But none in his mother’s house?

Of what benefit is it, if man were to tour
the whole world

But lose the flowers on the hills of his
native land?

He gains nothing but deadly silence

Within the hearts of the living.



You look through the mirror of lands not
your own

And see your exiled face;

You recognize your face

Despite the deadly dust of travel

From Jaffa, to Lydda, to Haifa,

Through the Mediterranean to exile;

You recognize your face

And try to deny that face!

Your worship your own face

Even though exile has obliterated its
features;

The hangman of the twentieth century
assumes the countenance

Of the eternal face!

You close your eyes

To worship your face in the darkness of
this century.

You deny…Your worship,

You deny…Your worship,

And the God of truth cries to your face:

“He who denies his face

Is renounced by all the birds of paradise
in this universe,

And those whom silence has turned mute

Will never be heard by the roses of the
field

He who kills the nightingale of his dreams

Will be buried in the forgotten graveyard
of the living.”

You open your eyes

And see the face of your country in the
mirror of exile.



The deadly silence in the hearts of the
living

Strips away the skin of your face;

It cuts and dries your flesh,

Then hangs what remains on poles

Under the forgotten sun of the West.

Fouzi El –Asmar, The Wandering Reed...

 

 

 

 ***

 

 on twitter: 

IPS remembers Palestinian Journalist/Author/Poet/Activist, Fouzi El-Asmar via @HuffingtonPost: http://ow.ly/paiL0  #Palestine #Palstudies

Palestine Studies ‏ @PalStudies

The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) is devoted to documentation, research, analysis, & publication on Palestinian affairs.

 

Octavia Nasr: What the city of Haifa taught me

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2013/03/12/What-the-city-of-Haifa-taught-me.html

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

What the city of Haifa taught me

Tuesday, 12 March 2013

It has crossed my mind on several occasions during my lifetime that Haifa is the city I could one day live in. Diverse, lively and has a great beach.

After all, I grew up with countless stories about Haifa’s golden days pre-1948: The hustle and bustle of the Horse and Carriage Square (Sa7et El 7anatir) and the life of comfort Palestinians lived there before they became refugees. I’ve heard stories about restaurants, picnics, weddings, and graduations among others. Always happy memories of a life lived before it was harshly interrupted in 1948 by the establishment of the state of Israel. I don’t recall any sad or challenging stories prior to the Nakba (Calamity of 1948 as Arabs refer to it). It always seemed to me that life was perfect then and in the blink of an eye it just ceased to exist. I’ve seen actual keys to homes left behind and I’ve read documents of ownership for businesses, land and properties. I’ve seen identity cards with Palestine listed as a country before Palestinians were reduced to refugee numbers on UNRWA ration cards.

Then the awakening came at my first meeting with a current Haifa resident more than twenty years ago. My first impression was disbelief that an Arab, Christian-Maronite actually resides in Haifa after all the atrocities committed and the complete takeover of the land and displacement of its original people. “I know people from there,” I said. I listed all the locations that grew dear to my heart over the years: Saint Elias Church, Mount Carmel, College Des Freres school, Selizian School, Wadi al-Nasnas... To my surprise, they were all still there and flourishing with fresh new generations of Palestinians. I later met a Jewish family from Haifa and got to know a different side of the story of the majestic city. I learned about the Hadar area, Hertzel Street and Ben Gurion Boulevard. From the Druze of Haifa I learned about Isifya and Daliya village on Mount Carmel. Not to forget the Muslim community of Haifa which can be found everywhere in the Arab sections and the very prominent Baha’I faith with its majestic gardens and Abbas Dome, one of the most beautiful gardens and architectural structure in the world.

Common denominator

 

For some reason, Haifa was always a common denominator and it kept creeping up into my world, as the example of how integrated living between -- not just Arabs and Israelis would look like -- but also how the harmony among Christians, Sunnis, Shiites, Druze, Baha’is and Jews can be exemplified.

During a recent visit to this great city, I learned that indeed Haifa is a symbol of tolerance and co-existence. Palestinians, while treated as second-class citizens at many levels, have mastered ways to utilize the system to their advantage and participate effectively in all aspects of life towards the betterment of their Arab heritage and Palestinian identity. Haifa taught me that a rightful cause doesn’t die if people keep working hard at improving themselves and forging ahead in their life without succumbing to intimidation or bullying. In Haifa I learned that most people live their life just like any other place on earth. As Haifa blogger Abeer Khshiboon told me, “Here, we live together and we deal with each other on a daily basis. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not part of our daily conversation or woes.” Khshiboon and many other young Palestinians are very attached to their Palestinian identity and they project it well. Highly intellectual, she speaks both Arabic and Hebrew fluently, fully integrated in her society but knows very well the limits and challenges being a Palestinian woman come with and lives her life accordingly.

A lesson learned

 

People who still believe in the military struggle as the only way to Palestine should learn a lesson from Haifa. Peaceful Palestinians have found a way to protect the land and safeguard it despite all the pressures and abuses. By doing so, those Palestinians are growing demographically and doing well socially creating one of the biggest threats to the state of Israel. It is a threat that is much louder and much more difficult to crush than any military attack.

I know a little boy who was baptized in the Saint Elias Maronite Church in Carmel some seventy years ago. He might never see that church again, but it must be comforting for him to know that it is still standing and brings together Muslims, Christians, Jews and Druze for worship and for lessons in co-existence only Haifa can offer!

 ----------

 Multi-award-winning journalist Octavia Nasr served as CNN’s senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of the use of social media in traditional media. She moved to CNN in 1990, but was dismissed in 2010 after tweeting her sorrow at the death of Hezbollah’s Mohammed Fadlallah. Nasr now runs her own firm, Bridges Media Consulting, whose main aim is to help companies better leverage the use of social networks. Twitter: @OctaviaNasr

There is Nothing 'Divine' About Haifa's Fire By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

There is Nothing 'Divine' About Haifa's Fire

Date posted: December 06, 2010 By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=22885&CategoryId=3

It is always disappointing when politicians refuse to see further than the tips of their noses. Unfortunately, this is the case far too often here in Palestine. The effects of this tunnel vision are ridiculous in the best case scenario, extremely damaging in the worst. One such case of short-sightedness came from Hamas' deposed leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh on December 5. While he led a Muslim prayer for rain in a local mosque, Haniyeh decided to offer his take on the enormous brushfires, which have been raging through the Carmel forest in Haifa since December 2, quipping that they were "divine strikes from God for what Israel has done" [presumably to the Palestinians].

What prompted Haniyeh to make such a ridiculous and frankly, damaging statement is incomprehensible. For one, it is not diplomatic in the least, especially for a man who claims to be a high ranking official and who has shown a level of political pragmatism on more than one occasion. Second, it is not logical, because according to this rationale, every calamity that befalls the Palestinians is presumably a similar "divine strike" for what we have done.

Most of all, however, it is short-sighted in that Haniyeh seems to forget that the luscious green forests of Al Carmel were once Palestine and continue to remain so in the hearts of pretty much every Palestinian. A fire that scorches the earth, no matter where, is detrimental to all humankind, regardless of who inhabits the land at that particular moment. Over 40 lives were lost, tens of thousands of people (including Palestinians living inside Israel) were evacuated from their homes and 12,500 acres (50,000 dunams) of greenery were reduced to ashes. Even Turkey, which has been at loggerheads with Israel ever since the Mavi Marmara fiasco in which Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish citizens, offered its help in putting out the fire. Palestinian firefighters also joined the battle against the blaze, crossing the Green Line into Israel.

"We were received respectfully. After all, we're dealing with a humanitarian crisis which knows no borders," said Bethlehem's Civil Defense Chief Ibrahim Ayish, who said he and his team wanted to join forces with Israeli and international teams in order to "protect the environment and nature."

As a Palestinian, the fire in the Carmel mountain region of Haifa was devastating to watch, especially since it took place in such a cherished city. While it's true that Haifa was captured in the 1948 War and has been known to the world as an Israeli city ever since, this does not negate the fact that Haifa was once home to a Palestinian population, the overwhelming majority of who became refugees following their exile.

That was not so long ago. What is 62-plus years in the collective memory of a nation? Haifa and its green forests of Al Carmel are still vivid in the minds of those who once lived there and called the seaside city their home. The sight of its beautiful trees going up in flames and the earth beneath it scorched to black ashes is something that transcends all political realities. And this is why it is so difficult to understand why anyone would rejoice at such a large scale brushfire, regardless of the bitter political enmity between both sides. It is unsettling to hear any Palestinian, much less a prominent Hamas figure making such cutting statements. We have not learned to rise above, not by a long shot.

If this were an isolated incident in Palestinian politics, we could possibly brush it off as bad judgment. But we have all heard the instances of name calling between our leaders, Hamas and Fateh in particular. They have all failed to see the big picture – in the case of Hamas and Fateh, the picture being the overall goal of the Palestinians to liberate themselves from Israeli occupation. In the case of Haniyeh's so-called "divine intervention" he failed to see that any damage to our Mother Earth is a loss for all, especially when the patch in question is part of what was once our beloved Palestine.

Perhaps the biggest lesson for us Palestinians looking at the tragedy from afar is to see it for exactly that: a tragedy of colossal proportions. The Palestinian Authority seems to have embraced that concept despite the bad blood between it and Israel's government, not hesitating to send out reinforcements to extinguish the blaze. This is how we should all think. Anyone who thinks or says anything less is in no position to be a leader.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy

VISION

An independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, which grants Palestinians their basic rights, preserves their dignity, and enjoys international recognition and respect.