Today, December 29, 2012, Israel declared a new national park.Interestingly enough, as with most of the
parks in Israel, this park is complete with “historical ruins,” including a
lovely old stone church.Where do they
get the land for national parks when Historical Palestine is about the size of
Massachusetts, and is home to two nations?The simple answer is, the land came from the same source as all of
the land in Israel—it is land that belongs to Palestinians.The land for this park once hosted a thriving
village, called Biram.The residents of
the village were forced out by the Israeli army in 1949 and were not allowed
back, in spite of a 1951 Supreme Court decision upholding their right to
return. (http://www.facebook.com/welcometopalestine)
Unfortunately, this is just the
latest of the national parks that Israel has established at the expense of
prior residents.Canada Park, a
centerpiece of the national park system, was established at the expense of three
Palestinian villages.
The Wikipedia entry for Canada
Park reads as follows:
Although Wikipedia says that the park is “mostly
in the West Bank,” it does not mention that before Israel captured that land
during the 1967 war, the land was the site of the Palestinian villages of
Imwas, Yalu, and Beit Nuba.The people who
lived on this land for generations are now refugees.
According to Eitan Bronstein, director of Zochrot
(Remembering), 86 Palestinian villages lie buried under Jewish National Fund parks.A further 400 destroyed villages had their lands passed on to exclusively Jewish communities. Zochrot is trying to educate people to the hidden history behind the establishment
of the national parks in Israel.http://electronicintifada.net/content/canada-park-and-israeli-memoricide/8126
This video shows rare footage of the villages
and interviews several people with first-hand knowledge of the destruction of the villages.
My first year in the Middle East (back when Christmas cards were carved on stone tablets),I was supremely secure in my ignorance.I ground my teeth in frustration as my students told me I couldn’t
schedule the exam on January 7 because it was Christmas.They knew that I had just come from the
United States, and I’m sure they understood that I had lived in a largely
Christian society my entire life.What
were they trying to pull?Christmas was
over—no more need to think about it until next year.
When I arrived at work the next day,
there was a note from the head of the department asking me to come to his
office as soon as possible.Needless to
say, I was ashamed and embarrassed to be told I had been culturally
insensitive, or words to that effect.The students were telling the truth.Some of them did celebrate Christmas on January 7, and some celebrated
on January 6.I delayed the exam.When I tried to reschedule for January 19, I
was told once more that it was Christmas.Surely the students were playing a joke on me.Well it wasn’t going to work.Unfortunately, some of us don’t learn from
our mistakes.
The Armenian Patriarchate of
Jerusalem celebrates Christmas on January 19.
I knew all about the Protestant
Reformation; I knew that Christian sects continue to proliferate.I also knew that calendars had changed
several time since the birth of Christ.How
could I have imagined that the birthplace of Christianity only gave birth to sects
that agreed on a single date for an event that happened over two thousand years
ago and stayed united through all the calendar changes that happened during
that time?
I like to believe it was because I never
asked about the differences between the many churches in Palestine.I focused instead on what they had in common—the
belief that man is worthy of salvation, and the eternal hope for peace on
earth.
Too bad it doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon.
