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SILENT TRANSFER
CONTINUES: LETTER FROM SAM BAHOUR
PLEASE READ AND CIRCULATE
Those of you not familiar
with Amira Hass' articles detailing this process should read them
(listed below). This is happening every day as Americans look on
silently - or simply refuse to see.
EXCERPT: Well, if you have been following my posts and reading Amria
Hass' articles on the topic*, you know it means I will need to bid
farewell to my wife and two girls, leave home, exit Israel and attempt
to reenter in order to get back to the Palestinian areas under
occupation by Israel. Sounds simple enough, given I've been dancing to
this routine for 13 years now. But, as you are all aware, Israel has
been denying entry to thousands like me, foreign nationals who do not
have a Palestinian I.D. card (I applied for family unification in 1994
but Israel refuses, to date, to issue me an I.D. card too). So telling
me, like the many before me ever since Hamas was elected into
government, to leave Palestine/Israel by not providing a serious visa
extension while I'm in the country, is an off-the-radar way of silently
transferring Palestinians living here out of Palestine.
Well friends,
The mighty State of Israel has spoken. Well, to be specific, the Israeli
soldiers maintaining Israel's 39-year military occupation and who are
fortified -- draconian style -- in an illegal settlement called Beit El
(which is built on confiscated Palestinian land, partly my family's)
located on a hilltop north east of my city, El-Bireh, have spoken.
Drum roll please....
The Occupying State of Israel has decided that I have been living with
my family and two daughters long enough. After being given a one month
tourist visa when I entered through the Israeli border to reach the
Palestinian areas (which is the only way to enter), the Israelis have
responded to my request for a 3 month extension by saying 1 more month
would be more than enough. Not only that, but they were kind enough to
relieve me from the humiliation and agony of requesting another
extension to remain with my family by hand writing, in Arabic, Hebrew
and English, LAST PERMIT, on the visa. See attached copy of visa (with
my passport number whitened out by me).
What does this mean? Well, if you have been following my posts and
reading Amria Hass' articles on the topic*, you know it means I will
need to bid farewell to my wife and two girls, leave home, exit Israel
and attempt to reenter in order to get back to the Palestinian areas
under occupation by Israel. Sounds simple enough, given I've been
dancing to this routine for 13 years now.
But, as you are all aware, Israel has been denying entry to thousands
like me, foreign nationals who do not have a Palestinian I.D. card (I
applied for family unification in 1994 but Israel refuses, to date, to
issue me an I.D. card too). So telling me, like the many before me ever
since Hamas was elected into government, to leave Palestine/Israel by
not providing a serious visa extension while I'm in the country, is an
off-the-radar way of silently transferring Palestinians living here out
of Palestine. Of course, Israel is betting that on every family it can
break this way, the remaining family members will voluntarily leave to
relocate in order to join their exiled loved one(s).
The final result of this transfer policy - A land with no people, for a
people with no land. Finally, the original myth that Israel was created
on can be made to come through. After creating scores of refugees by
numerous war, killing scores under occupation, deporting scores more,
detaining yet scores more, making life under occupation miserable for
scores more, and now by refusing to allow Palestinians that come from
around the world to contribute to a better future, Israel would have
finally succeeded in emptying the land from the majority of
Palestinians, opening the way for more illegal settlement, land grabs
and annexations.
I have much more to write about this, and will, as I wage the battle to
remain with my wife, with my girls, in my home, in my father's and
grandfather's homeland. I will soon write an essay to make my case and
that of all Palestinians prohibited from reaching their homes and
families.
If I only had the email of the multi-lingual occupation soldier that
wrote "last permit" on my visa, I would send him the attached pictures
of my two girls, Areen, 12, and Nadine, 6. I wonder if his/her children
look any different on the first day of school.
I thank all those who are assisting in this issue, especially the many
Israeli friends who understand that those being DENIED ENTRY are those
that have come to build bridges, not walls. We have come to invest and
create a new reality - a reality that ends this racist occupation and
brings a brighter future, a joint future, to both Palestinian and
Israeli children.
I end by passing to you the link to yesterday's bold article by Amria
Hass, that never-tiring Israeli journalist living in Ramallah who forces
us to always remember that peaceful coexistence is not a pipe dream, but
rather a historical inevitability.
Can you really not see? by Amira Hass - Haaretz
Steadfast (like never before),
Sam
(*) Amira's articles and more info:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/755375.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/755373.html
More media write-ups on the issue may be found at:
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/443.shtml
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