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Palestine
Out beyond fields of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. - Jelaluddin Rumi
I am half Palestinian, and have family living all over the Arab world,
including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank.
Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet, has written some very sad and
beautiful poems about Palestine, my favourites are:
The Lover,
Rita and the Rifle, and
The Earth is Closing on Us.
Here is what I understand would lead to a resolution of the
conflict:
This would be the same as a return to pre-1967 borders.
East Jerusalem is a critical issue for Palestinians. It is the Arab
half of Jerusalem, with a pre-dominantly Arab population.
There are currently almost four million Palestinian refugees registered
with UNRWA, and seven to
eight million Palestinians world-wide.
Palestine was partitioned, literally cut in half. Palestinians
had homes and lands, which their families had lived in and owned for
generations, which overnight, and without their consent, became part
of a new state called Israel.
The settlements are an attempt by Israel to segregate all areas of
Palestinian land in order to make an independent Palestinian state
impossible.
The settlements have had an oppressive and humiliating effect on the
day to day lives of Palestinians, and have created deep resentment
and anger.
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