Dear ANC I would like to congratulate you on your victory of recent elections, a victory that is not only yours, but also for those who believe in you, and who are full of hope for the changes you promote. I would like to take a few minutes of your time to address an issue close to my heart. There is no government better to address this than the ANC for it is the ANC that fought for freedom, it is the ANC that lived through the apartheid era. Im hoping that you will reflect after this. I am a change-maker in breaking cultural stereotypes, I am an Arab who married a zulu and have a child with him but I dont see it as something different as I was raised in Morocco in a country where colour doesnt matter, Im thankful that I dont see things in a way many others do. My letter to you is on behalf of Palestine, I believe in nonviolent resistance against the ugliness and violence of the Israeli occupation. However Israel has violated 65 UN resolutions, yet the world turns a blind eye. Recently I watched a video where children were being arrested on their way to school. Is it not the right thing to do by getting them educated? to allow the children to use theatre and the arts for social change and nonviolent means of self-expression to keep them alive, instead of becoming a number on a list of martyrs, or handicapped for the rest of their lives, or perish in prison. I believe that everybody is a change-maker, and nobody has the right to say, “I can’t do anything” or stay neutral at a time when injustice is committed every day. I believe in change, exactly like you, and pray that change will come soon with all of us uniting for the freedom of Palestine. I believe just like Nelson Mandela believed our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians. It saddens me that Palestine is not listed as a country. What would be the feeling of anyone who only exists as a “terrorist,” but not as a “human being?” to be a refugee in your own land? I believe in human values and human rights. I believe in freedom, justice, peace, democracy and equality. I believe that occupied people have the right to defend their country against the occupation, in a time when the occupied victim is represented as the oppressor and the terrorist, and the occupier as the victim who defends himself. I believe that people who fight for justice and against oppression are heroes, just like Nelson Mandela. A segregation fence was built in 2002 which was transformed into a 30-foot-tall apartheid wall in 2005, encircling the camp from the east, the north and part of the west and the world just watches such injustice. Young boys are being arrested and burnt alive, children are being butchered, women are being raped and mothers are taken away from their babies. It is now only a memory of Palestinians remembering the rusty keys of their parents’ home keys for doors that exist no more, but keys that have their doors in their hearts and imaginations. These rusty keys are still with them. They were brought up with the eternal belief that right is right, and nothing can justify ignoring it. They remember that their right of return to their original villages and homes is eternal, and nothing can change it, neither realities on the ground nor political agreements, because it is a right which is also granted in international law and UN resolutions. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, they watched how they were living in lies and broken promises of change, and when change comes; it is for the worse and not for the better. Nothing improves with all the negotiations. No promise of independence for Palestinians was fulfilled, even after 60 years. As a Mother of two girls, I believe in peace and nonviolence, in hope and right and justice. I believe in the values that make humanity what it is.i believe that when you practice violence you lose part of your humanity. At the same time i believe that i should defend what is right and to stand against what is unjust and wrong. Right is right, and justice is justice. All people are equal, and no race or color is superior above the other. Hope is alive as long as we are the change we want to see. And my hope is that our children can enjoy a peaceful, safe, clean and just world. I trust that you will do right by the Palestinians and help fulfill Nelson Mandelas wish for a free Palestine.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 13:09:09 +0000
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