When Dorothy Thompson filmed her documentary on the situation of the Palestinian refugees in 1950, she named it "the Sands of Sorrow", it was the first documentary on the suffering of the people who, between 1947 and 1948, lost their homes and, in process, they lost their land, rights, and nation. The documentary was released in an attempt to mount enough solidarity and response to a dire situation and to end it soon. These sands of sorrow, and the roots of it, are still, six decades later, haunting the middle east.
All Arab and international attempted answers to the Palestinian question were delinquent. The international community, 10s or 100s of UN resolutions hit the wall of an arrogant and unaccountable ignorance. The Arabs, they tried in the late 40s up to the mid 60s to answer this question by force, and failed. Then they themselves (the Arabs neighboring Palestine) were subjected to, and suffer from occupation. And from the mid 70s up to date, they spared their efforts by abandoning the cause (except Syria for some extent). But they kept using the Palestinian sufferance for PR purposes.
This sufferance, that Dorothy Thompson tried to attract the world attention to, didn't even stayed within the refugee camps. In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians are subject to various types of suffering. Illegal settlements are biting off, on daily basis, the land "allegedly allocated for a Palestinian state". The "Apartheid" barrier, illegal too, separates villages and families. East Jerusalem is swallowed, and to add insult to injury, Islamic sanctities are systematically violated.
In Gaza strip, a line like (inhumane blockade and military actions) says it all.
"Palestinians within" are suffering from all types of discrimination, social and economic. Let alone that 3 days ago, a racial discrimination had been legitimized.
How is it possible, that in the 21st century, a people suffers that much, and for so long, under the focused attention of the entire world? And how impressive that they, the Palestinians, despite all their "bear a load", are still determined. Some are holding to their right of resistance, and some turn creative. Both seem right .. and both are needed.
Someone might wonder .. this article is talking about Palestinian sufferance, but it didn't even mention the suppressor! Who is inflicting this suffering on them? .. Well, you know .. it is that state which nobody dare to strongly condemn or criticize. It is that state which no one dare to held them accountable for neither defying 100s of UN resolutions, nor committing crimes of war and crimes against humanity. If you still don't know, then it makes no sense to mention it.
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