Kharita is a collaborative initiative of Lebanese, Palestinian and other activists.
We produce and share advocacy maps on Middle East conflicts, particularly on Palestinian cause.

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March of return
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دليل العودة

يحتوي دليل العودة على معلومات عملية، تقنية، وتكتيكية مستنداً الى تجارب سابقة ضمن الحراك الفلسطيني في الشتات والأرض المحتلة. الى جانب نقل التجارب وتعميمها، يهدف الدليل الى توثيق لحظات، ينتج من بُعدها العام ادراكاً جماعياّ. فيأتي الربط بين المعلومة المفيدة والسياق التي خرجت منه ليروي قصة الحراك وليدفع نحو التراكم وبناء الاستمرارية في آن معاً. يُخبر الدليل ما حصل (ويحصل) في أمور معينة والى حد ما ينقل شكل التعاطي الذي برز عندها، كما يتأمل بالأمثل منها وهو يسرد التحديات، العقبات والمخاطر

تحكي رسوم الدليل القصة وتعيد بناء المشهد العام الذي يتعرف لخصائصة (وخصوصيته) كل من عايش اللحظة، ويدل التصميم الى الارشاد المستساغ من التجربة. لدليل العودة مداخل متعددة، ولكل مدخل تجارب مختلفة. هذه صفحة من صفحات الدليل، تحت مدخل «المسيرة الحدودية» التي تستند على تجربة مارون الراس (لبنان) في ذكرى الـ ٦٣ للنكبة. من مداخل الدليل الأخرى، لنذكر بعضها، هي الانتخابات، المطالب الحقوقية، الاعمار، التظاهر، الحواجز

هذا الدليل نتاج عمل جماعي ضمن نشاط الى فلسطين سبيلا

Refugees march to return – Photos

By Matthew Cassel on JustImage.org.

 

In Maroun al-Ras, the village where the protest was held, buses couldn’t reach the top so protesters, young and old, were forced to walk up the mountain to reach the protest site.

 

 

The body of Mohammed al-Fandi is carried up the mountain to Maroun al-Ras after he was killed by Israeli gunfire while protesting at the border fence in the valley below.

 

Palestinian refugees further up the mountain, look on as others protest at the border fence in the valley below.

 

 

>> See other images of March of Return.

اجعلوها بعوده

مساحة

   May 17, 2011

>> See the original web page

اليوم دمّعت ودرت وجهي عشان ماحدا يشوفني.. دمّعت لما سمعت الجولاني الأصيل بقول للفلسطيني الراجع “الله محييك” .. رجعت حضرت الفيديو كمان مره وحاولت أمسك حالي بس ما قدرت.. ورجعت كمان مره دمّعت!! آه دمّعت بس دمعه عن دمعه بتفرق.. هاي كانت دمعه أحلى من ألف ضُحكه! بعرف انو اللاجئين مش نايمين بصفد الليله وطالعين بكره على حيفا، بس رمزية اللي صار مش بسيطه، اللي صار خلانا نحس شو يعني الحق يرجع، اللي صار خرس كل واحد بقول فش عودة، اللي صار أسقط كل حل ما بشمل عودة كل لاجيء على قريته ومدينته.

اليوم سقط شهداء، بس اليوم كمان سقط الخوف وسقط الحد وسقط الواقع وسقط التفريط وسقط الخنوع وسقط التوطين وسقط بلفور،اليوم سقط قلبه لهرتزل، وسقط الحلم، حلمهم بأنا ننسى وحلمنا بأنا نرجع، إحنا بطلنا حالمين وبطّلنا نقبل بكلمة حلم! الرجعه مش حلم، إحنا اليوم نقلنا الحلم لأمل وصرنا نعرف شو العمل.. اليوم عرفنا لشو إحتفظنا بالمفاتيح مع إنو الباب إنخلع والبيت إنهد، هاي المفاتيح الحديد الكبيره خليناها معانا عشان نخلع السياج، عشان نفتح باب بالحدود، وعشان نتعكّز عليها وإحنا بنشعبط على تلال المجدل.

Palestinians in Lebanon, at the lonely end of the Arab uprisings

Never is a refugee’s right to return brought into question – except when that refugee is a Palestinian

The Guardian

by Matthew Cassel
May 16, 2011

>> See the original web page

Lebanese soldiers patrol next to Palestinian refugees during demonstrations to mark the 63rd anniversary of Nakba Day at the Lebanese-Israeli border in Maroun al-Ras, 15 May 2011. Photograph: Hassan Bahsoun/EPA

Climbing up the mountain to reach the Palestinian right-of-return protest in Maroun al-Ras in south Lebanon on Sunday felt a bit like being back in Tahrir Square.

The thousands of mostly Palestinian refugees were smiling as they joked about the strenuous climb, and helped each other up the mountain to reach the site where they were going to stage their demonstration. Some knew it could even be dangerous, but that didn’t matter as much as the rare opportunity to join together and call for their rights.

The small elevated Lebanese village just overlooking the border with Israel became a massive parking lot as buses carrying Palestinian refugees and Lebanese from across Lebanon converged for a protest commemorating what Israeli historian Ilan Pappé calls the “ethnic cleansing” by Zionist militias of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their lands and homes in 1948 – what Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba”, or catastrophe. Large buses had difficulties reaching the top of the mountain, and rather than wait, protesters chose to make the half-mile climb by foot.

Men and women, young and old, secular and religious, were all present. This was the first time in 63 years that Palestinian refugees would go to the border in their tens of thousands and call for their right to return home. For most, it was their first time even seeing the land that they’ve grown up hearing described in precise detail through the popular stories of elders old enough to remember life in what is today considered Israel.

Maroun El Rass on 15 May

t notes

May 17, 2011

>> See the original web page

I’ve been wearing a hanzala around my neck for about 8 years now. When asked about it, I like to end my explanation with: “It became the symbol of the right to return for Palestinian refugees.” Living in London and meeting people from all over the world, I got to explain my necklace so many times but I always find it weird when I have to explain it to a Lebanese. I become cynical and say something like: You know that there are Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, right?

On Sunday May 15, the day of the Nakba commemoration (some called it The Third Intifada), I really understood what it means to be a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon: to stand so close to home but never allowed an entry and to be shot at from inside and outside the border. The Palestinians are treated as second class citizen, they are considered a threat, a bunch of untrustworthy extremists, they are dehumanized because that’s the only way their oppressors can justify their acts.

5 june march of return Map

5 june march of return: people are heading south, informally.

The army,the government and the factions canceled the 5 june march of return.
But grassroots actions were prepared informally, and people are trying to go to the south presently.
Follow the events in this twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/ilaFalasteen

Dead where it doesn’t count

The Human Province

bySean

May 16, 2011

>> See the original web page

Yesterday, I spent the day at Maroun al-Ras on the Lebanese border with Israel. Before I get to some of the reactions I’ve read about the event and some of the questions raised by it, I’d like to discuss the event itself.

Yesterday, Palestinians around the world commemorated the Nakba, which is the catastrophe of the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians upon the creation of Israel. I left from the Mar Elias camp in Beirut in a bus that had been rented by a young Palestinian activist who teaches physical education in a Palestinian camp. The passengers were Palestinians with a mixture of Lebanese, Bahraini and European companions. Everyone pitched in for the bus, and despite some organizational troubles, we set off on Sunday morning for the border.

On Our Way to Palestine…

HUFFPOST WORLD

By Sharmine Narwani

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

>> See the original web page

“You know what scares Israel more than Arab armies or Iranian nukes? Palestinian refugees simply walking home.” – Seen on Twitter on Nakba Day

Sunday marked the Nakba — or day of “catastrophe” in Arabic — referring to the 1948 declaration of Israel when more than 700,000 Palestinian civilians were made homeless overnight.

In remembrance of the Nakba, last weekend thousands of Palestinians and their supporters marched from Syria (video), Gaza, Jordan, the West Bank, Egypt and Lebanon toward Israel’s borders, and were — in most cases — thwarted, sometimes violently, from reaching their destination by Arab security forces.