“Heart-rending”
–Denver Post
“ A moving…documentary”
–Globe and Mail
When a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in the West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli soldiers who mistook his toy gun for the real thing, it could have been just one more blip on the news: one more war, one more child, one more human tragedy that ripped the heart out of a family and a community, but rippled no further into the world’s consciousness.
But something extraordinary happened that turned Ahmed Khatib’s tragic 2005 death into a gift of hope for six Israelis whose lives were on the line: while overwhelmed with grief, Ahmed’s parents consented to donating their son’s organs. Suddenly, amid the violence and entrenched hatred surrounding an intractable conflict, a simple act of humanity rose above the clamor and captured worldwide attention.
Heart of Jenin tells the story of Ahmed’s tragic death and his father Ismael Khatib’s journey to visit three of the organ recipients two years later. One of Ahmed’s kidneys went to an Orthodox Jewish girl and his other kidney went to a Bedouin boy. While his parents hesitated to donate Ahmed’s heart, it now beats in the chest of a Druze girl.
“I see my son in these children,” Khatib says.
Crossing from northern Israel to the Negev desert and ending up in Jerusalem, Khatib encounters every complexity of the conflict: deep-seated animosity, hardened judgments, and heartfelt generosity. While laying bare the deep divisions between Israelis and Palestinians, Heart of Jenin offers a rare vision of common humanity and hope.
Irish War of Independence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commanders
Michael Collins
Richard Mulcahy
Cathal Brugha
“The Irish War of Independence (Irish: Cogadh na Saoirse, also known as the Anglo-Irish War or Tan War[4]) was a guerrilla war mounted against the British government in Ireland by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic’s declaration of independence, and ended with a truce in July 1921. The subsequent negotiations led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended British rule in most of Ireland and established the Irish Free State. However, six northern counties would remain under British rule.
The IRA that fought in this conflict is often referred to as the Old IRA to distinguish it from later organisations that used the same name.”
Since you are talking about Ireland, here’s the connection. What Israel has done, and continues to do to the Palestinians is the same as what the British did during the Plantations in the 16th and 17th centuries when Irish land was confiscated and given to English and Scottish settlers. You also claim that Jews have the right to a country like everyone else. Since when did religion become a nationality? Israel must be the only place in the world where every nationality acquires citizenship based on religion. I think I’ll head off tomorrow to the region and demand land since Jesus was born there. That’s how absurd your claim is.
First of all, Jews are a nation, named after Judah, one of the last surviving tribes of Israel. That the Jewish nation has an ancient tribal religion should come as no surprise, as every tribe had its own religion at one time. The Arabs had 300 idols that used to be erected in Mecca prior to the advent of Muhammad’s religion. Each Arab tribe had its own gods. In fact, there is no mention of the world “Judaism” in the Bible. The Hebrews did not impose their religion on others, except during the Hasmonean era, when there were some forced conversions of non-Jewish peoples. Herod was the grandson of Edomites forcibly converted to the religion of the Jews, and while he was a great builder, he was considered an illegitimate Roman puppet by the Jewish masses. He had no Davidic lineage. The Christian bible claims Jesus did.
As for the Jewish return to their homeland, and the return of public lands and wastelands to Jewish sovereignty, that was sanctioned under international law by the Council of the LEague of Nations as I continue to repeatedly reiterate. And if your mother was a Jew, you do have that right under our tribal laws, not to demand land, but to live on our tribal lands – provided you have not repudiated Jewish law by leaving the tribe. I personally support the Republican claim over northern Ireland as I do not believe Britain has any legal claim over any Irish soil. Just as I don’t accept any Arab legal claims over any Jewish soil.
Not that I am advocating forcible expulsion of non-Irish peoples from northern Ireland, but only that northern Ireland be returned to Irish sovereignty, just as Judah and Samaria should rightfully be returned to Jewish sovereignty, without necessarily expelling the non-Jewish populations there either.
Actually, for most of the history of the Jewish exile and diaspora, Jews were treated as an alien nation almost everywhere, and were not permitted to own land or have citizenship. It was only in 1859 in Britain that a non-Christians, i.e., Rothschild, a Jew, was finally permitted to be seated in the House of Commons despite having won 3 elections in his district. Karl Marx’s parents got baptized to be able to get jobs in the German civil service. So for most of history, in most countries, Jews were not citizens. In Muslim countries they were dhimmis, or second class citizens with restricted rights. It was only after Napoleonic wars that democratization began and Jews were allowed to leave the ghettos and join the general society to a limited extent. And that led to a new form of restriction -antisemitism- which based the later restrictions not on religious mumbo jumbo, but on alleged racial and ethnic grounds even when many Jews had undergone baptism, as was the case in Germany.
I believe the time limit for reclaiming land, under international law, is 50 years. Which means, of course, that the reclaiming of Israel was several centuries late.
Making up your own international law now, Mr. Donnellan?
But if you are right, then 2009 is 60 years after 1949, which means the Palestinian case is closed. They tried, many times, and lost. How many do-overs do you get?
If you are trying, jgarbuz, to say that there are similarities between the Irish struggle for independence and the Israeli claim, you are completely off track. Irish people have CONTINUOUSLY populated Ireland for thousands of years. And if you think that Irish people feel sympathetic toward Israel, you again are away off track. There is little support for occupied lands among most Irish people. It has always interested me how the loyalists in the north of Ireland have aligned themselves with regimes such as the apartheid system in South Africa and with Israel. And what’s this nonsense about AIPAC objecting to the former Irish president Mary Robinson receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom? The arrogance of this organization is amazing, but unfortunately they have a huge influence on American politics. On another issue, you say you want the West Bank to be returned to Jewish sovereignty “without necessarily expelling the non-Jewish populations there either.” Well, that’s exactly what has been happening to the non-Jewish population there ever since Israel occupied this part of Palestine.
Sorry, I meant Israel first denounced SA apartheid in 1958, not 1950. That was a typo. So tell me Liz, do welcome O’bama as a full blooded Irishman?
When are the Scots-Irish going to apologize for occupying northern Ireland, and then going on to exterminate American indians in America?
Just facts. The Arab population of Palestine in 1947: 1.4 million on both sides of the Jordan river. The number today: 5.5 million in Israel, West Bank and Gaza, and another 5.5 million in Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere. Total: 11 million Palestinians. What genocide? Fact: Number of Jews in ARab countries in 1947: 1 million. Number of Jews in Arab countries today: 8,000. Liars can figure, but figures don’t like. It was the Arabs, not the Jews, who conducted ethnic cleansing.
I meant, figures don’t lie. Anyhow, Irish are no moral position to criticize Israel or Jews. DO I need to go into details?
jgarbuz Says:
Making up your own international law now, Mr. Donnellan?
Jim Donnellan says:
Yep.
jgarbuz says:
It is JEWISH LAND not because of religion but because it’s Jewish land.
Jim Donnellan says:
I can’t agree with this statement; the Arabs certainly don’t agree with it. This is equivalent to saying the land is mine because I say it is mine.
Just for kicks, don’t you think you should provide some proof? Nothing you have offered so far demonstrates that your statement is true.
jgarbuz says:
And I do not agree that if the Arabs took over Ireland, that all Irish Americans will accept it quietly and shrug their shoulders and just drown it in drink.
Jim Donnellan says:
On this point we agree. I never mentioned anything about Arabs taking over Ireland – I referenced them vacating it.
On the other hand, now that you have suggested it, I quite agree that if the Arabs did try to take over Ireland, the Irish would resist. That is exactly what the Arabs did in Palestine. They saw what was happening and resisted. They have every right to do so. It has always been Israel’s intent to reclaim the biblical Israel – Natanyahu even included TransJorddan at one point. Nothing in its behavior has ever suggested otherwise
jgarbuz Says:
And I can’t understand the obsession of you and millions like yourself who question the right of the Jewish state to exist.
Jim Donnellan
The existence of a Jewish state is a fact; what I question is it’s morality. It is behaving badly. It’s intent was always to drive the Arabs out of the land; they are continuing on that path with all due speed. The world condemns the behavior of Israel – both through international organizations, ngo’s, etc. Israel is digging itself into a hole. As this plays out, even AIPAC won’t be able to save it as AIPAC has become morally and intellecually bankrupt and the world now knows it. Israel will lose financial support from the US if it continues to violate basic human rights.
It had a choice during the early days of the Zionists; from the behavior I see, it chose the political path, not the moral one. That was the opinion of Buber, Haam, Magnes et al; I see nothing that suggests otherwise. It has become its worst enemy. No one need say or do anything; it will self-destruct unless it changes course.
Jewish land or Arab land; League of Nations, UN, or whatever: it won’t matter.
Well, I’ve pretty much said all I can say without getting increasingly repetitious and boring myself to death. My deceased mother, a Holocaust survivor, who was saved by true Christians who were prepared to lay down their lives to save 4 Jews on their farm, pretty much said all there was to say. Antisemitism is in the blood. There’s no cure. The only good Christian is a true Christian. The rest are phonies. If Jesus were alive, he would say ISRAEL IS JEWISH LAND. Anyhow, please don’t bother to reply. I’m leaving this board, except to say in Hebrew “Ahm Yisrael Chai” – The Nation of Israel LIVES. That’s all that matters. Bye.
jgarbuz says:
If Jesus were alive, he would say ISRAEL IS JEWISH LAND.
Jim Donnellan says:
I think your mother got it wrong: Christ said, Render on to Ceasar what is Caesar’s. He never confused spirituality with land or possessions.
Whats even sadder is than the Israelis that took organs will grow to lord over and possibly kill Palestinian children in their own land.
I was appalled by te Levinsons’!!! If they felt that way why did they not take their daughter and go home until a Jew died for her kidney??? Mrs. Levinson is british by orgin, she had no gratitude to Mrs. Kaitab??? She could not have hugged the woman and said, Thank you for my daughter’s life. Kissed her hand! Held Mrs. Kaitab and wept with her over her son dying!!!!!! They should have taken their daughter home and let the next child on te list have the kidney!!!! Horrid Horrid People! Even two years later still ungratiful for the two years of health the Kaitab faily gave their child!!!! In one year I burried both my adult sons, I would have if some one cold have saved them, been on my knees Phasing these people to God and the World, for their Kindness!
I am going to go back and watch the story again and look at the children center in Jenin, aned write to Mr.Kaitab in care of the center in Jenin. To thank him to pass on a blessing from a greiving Mother, myself. And to apologize to him for the levinson ignorance. How could anyone from The USA Born and Raised or From England be so ignorant! It truly is embarassing!
Making up your own international law now, Mr. Donnellan?
But if you are right, then 2009 is 60 years after 1949, which means the Palestinian case is closed. They tried, many times, and lost. How many do-overs do you get?
I just saw this film in full on a European internet station (1:36). I was actually very worried about what it was about…and not certain if I could cope with images of the Jenin massacre. Maybe everyone here who thinks they have an idea of the reality of Palestinian refugees’ history – past and present – may understand better when photographs of Sabra massacre are seen.
It’s also important to read (and re-read) the second paragraph of “Background”. Ariel Sharon permitted the entrance of the SLA into the refugee camp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre
The history is tragic and complex. Massacring unarmed women, children, grandparents, fathers, etc. in a refugee camp has absolutely nothing to do with redefining, and re-inventing a religious state.
This was a good documentary. Yet, heart wrenching.