The other uprooting

[Violet_Crumble]

By Danny Rubinstein

The following story, which occurred last week, will testify to what is going on among the Palestinian refugees from 1948. Karine Abu Zeid, the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said in a newspaper interview that in her opinion most of the refugees realize that they will not return to their lost homes and property in Israeli territory and they do not think of the right of return as a practical possibility.

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It is important to note these figures because the experience of loss is still burning in these refugees' bones. And not just theirs. The Palestinian people as a whole is living the uprooting suffered by about half of its members. In every corner of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, paintings and sculptures in the shape of keys can be found. A statue of a woman carrying a large key in her hand stands, for example, in the center of the plaza near the entrance to the home of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in Ramallah.

In this context it was possible to see the outburst of anger among Palestinians who were asked whether they didn't have even a little bit of sympathy for the Jewish settlers in Gush Katif and northern Samaria (West Bank) who are losing their homes. No. They don't have any sympathy or any understanding. All of the requests for forgiveness from the settlers, like that of President Moshe Katsav, and all the sympathy with their terrible pain and their distress from Israeli politicians look to Palestinians like egotism and hypocrisy.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/612524.html