[Dear Jadaliyya Readers: this letter from Mazin in Palestine will be the first to be posted under a new page on Jadaliyya, titled "Reports, Stories, and Letters." It will be announced shortly]
-- Jadaliyya Editors
Dear friends:
We were devastated to hear the news of the first martyr in 2011 being none other than Jawaher, the sister of the martyr Bassem Abu Rahma from Bil`in. Jawaher fainted in yesterday`s demonstration but died apparently of this toxic tear gas (a much stronger version with unknown chemicals than used in the West). Here is a video of the demonstration where Jawaher was injured (she was martyred in hospital the next day) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FErDPdMzWjY
Here is a link to the video of the murder of her brother Bassem over a year ago [actual video below]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yM9U2y-op4
To keep up to date on developments in Bil`in, visit http://www.bilin-ffj.org/
Those of you in Bethlehem area and want to get together to collect our thoughts, share our feelings etc, are welcome to come to my house tonight (Saturday until midnight). I will still go ahead and post my reflection that I wrote last night on the ending year, for my thoughts are only deepened by this tragedy. You can also send condolence email to Dr. Rateb Abu Rahma saborahmeh42@yahoo.com
Many writers came up with ideas about 2010 and even occasionally predictions about 2011. Perhaps the most common theme among rational commentators is that this was the year were truth began to come out in such a large dose that it was hard to sustain mythology. And the most common hope for 2011 is to see peace and justice prevail (no more ethnic cleansing, no more killing etc). When we mention truth we are not talking here merely about wikileaks (what is released here still remains the tip of the iceberg). We are talking about a number of studies, reports, slips, and scandals that came out that shook those in power. Gideon Levy said in Haaretz that we may reflect on it as a year of truth for Israel, a year where the fog of mythologies cleared away and the world saw reality for what it is, that Israel is a society that does not desire peace but that is a racist society interested in more land grabs from native Palestinians. He concludes that "There is nothing like sunshine for disinfecting, so this was a relatively good year." Others brought out the Goldstone report about Israeli massacres in Gaza. Others mentioned the smuggling of a long tape (out of thousands of cameras, computers, photos, and documents) and the testimony of survivors that showed the true nature of the criminal Israeli attack on humanitarian ships in International waters (not the manufactured tapes of the Israeli military). Palestinians talked about the scandals in the Palestinian authority and now the beginning of eth fall of corruption like with the Husseini and Dahlan affairs (both of them trying to protect themselves by threatening to expose other corruption).