| Qumsiyeh - Mothers' Day |
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Before it was commercialized, Mother's day in the Anglo-Saxon world originated as a declaration by mothers against war and for peace.
Mother's day occurs on a different date in Western Asia and also
appropriately celebrates the coming of Spring- symbolisms or giving and
new births). Below is [a link to] the original PEACE declaration by
Julia Ward Howe 1819-1910) for the first Mother's Day in the West. When I was 10 year old during the 1967 Israeli invasion of what remained of Palestine, my memories are of her dissuading people from leaving. After retiring from serving 30 ears as school teacher and then principal of an elementary school, she decided retirement is too boring, went back to get a BS in English and then returned to teach for a few more years. She is still active in civic affairs and she was canvassing and volunteering in other ways in the last elections in the West Bank. Like all Palestinians under Israeli apartheid system, she cannot even travel to Jerusalem or to the Mediterranean or to the Dead Sea (were I have fond memories of shoppings and picnics). That is not unusual since dozens of Palestinian mothers lost their children and some their lives delivering babies at checkpoints and apartheid wall gates. It is not unusual since Palestinian mothers lost their lives simply standing in the balconies of their homes (see e.g. the killing of Shaden Abu Hijleh, mother, grandmother, peace activist, feminist http://www.remembershaden.org/). It is not unusual since the director of Military Intelligence, Major General Aharon Ze'evi (Farkash) once declared "Better Palestinian mothers should cry and not Jewish mothers" (see http://www.fromoccupiedpalestine.org/node/945 ). For more on the current life and thoughts of Palestinian mothers, check out this blog of a Palestinian mother: http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/ And our thoughts are with Iraqi and American mothers who suffered due to the endless wars (to serve special interests). This is a letter from an Iraqi mother to mothers of Americans killed in Fallujah: http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=4271 On this mothers day, indeed we should honor our mothers with a hearty thank you but we do far better by honoring all mothers and implementing their original Mother's day proclamation: MOTHER'S DAY PROCLAMATION by Julia Ward Howe Mazin Qumsiyeh http://qumsiyeh.org http://justicewheels.org http://endtheoccupation.org http://academicsforjustice.org http://pac-national.org |
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