THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE DO HAVE RIGHTS, Reel 1

e [Music] you are asking me what it is to be a Palestinian well I think that uh in in very simple terms it's a question of lack of identity and unless you see this man finds a place an anchor he will will always always be the stateless uh the refugee uh The Man Without an identity and who is searching for this right and it is a human right to be a Palestinian is to accept the status quo of wherever you happen to be without the real sense of belonging because strictly speaking you are operating wherever you are at the goodwi and discretion of the country that is accepting you wherever he is they tend somehow to look at him as a suspect because he does not have an identity in the sense that he does not have a country a home he is stateless they have come from haa and Jaffa from Hebron and Jerusalem first in 1948 as their land was occupied they fled again in ' 67 and in 70 in 76 and in 78 each time new hostilities had forced them to seek new shelters some have been refugees for over 30 years some were born as refugees but no matter where they came from or where they now live these people think of themselves as Palestinians first and most have but one dream to return to their homes in Palestine [Music] since World War II the Middle East has been the scene of continuous violence in 1947 the United Nations endorsed the creation of one Arab and one Jewish State out of the British mandate in Palestine under a partition plan which provided also for the establishment of an international regime in in and around Jerusalem Israel was established in 1948 but the Palestinian Arab State never came into being since then there have been four full-scale Wars all threats to World Peace territorial limits kept moving back and forth and between and around during times referred to as no war no peace thousands of people from all sides who fell victims to endless attacks and counterattacks we could very well indeed find a way to coexist in Palestine with an Israel but you see we must get guarantees that this Israel will not expand because ever since the existence of Israel it has expanded onward and they have tried to erase our identity as Palestinians for instance I started out to be a Palestinian then in 1948 I was referred to as a refugee then I was referred to as a Jordanian an Egyptian a Lebanese a Syrian and on the way I heard from G that I do not exist and now they call me a terrorist eventually you see these people have expanded and they have tried to to erase my identity Palestine has always been the battleground of Empires as well as the meeting place for the exchange of cultures there have been waves of people that have come into it mostly from Arabia which is the cred land of all the Semitic peoples now these people have intermixed throughout history they were arabized the middle of the 7th century when the Arab Muslim invasion of Palestine took place and inhabited Palestine for the long course of history Arab nationalists do not deny the Jewish presence of Biblical times but they point out that this was also the land of the Canaanites and the Philistines Babylonians Persians and Greeks were there too at one period or another the region was under Roman occupation at the time of Christ The Exodus of the Israelites took place soon thereafter the fall of the Roman Empire cleared the way for Arab civilization to Blossom then the Muslim empire was succeeded by ottoman rule on the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean this rule was to last until World War I the 19th century witnessed tremendous upheavals Europe had its Industrial Revolution but the Middle East too was seeking a new identity after 500 years of Ottoman rule the idea of sovereignty had begun to revive and many Palestinians and other Arabs launched Independence movements since the Crusades three religions had coexisted Fairly peacefully in Palestine but by the 1890s new colonies of Jewish immigrants started to appear the prgrams the Jews had had to endure in Europe had fostered Zionism a Doctrine calling for regroupment of the Jews in a land to be called the land of [Music] Israel during World War I the British seeking assistance for their war effort in the Middle East wooed both the Arabs and the zionists to win the latter's support in 1917 they promulgated the balfor Declaration this declaration promised British support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people although it was careful to note that nothing shall be done which may Prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-jewish communities in Palestine and the population of Palestine was over 90% Arab at that time when the war ended rather than becoming independent most of the Middle East was placed under British and French administrations under the league of Nations mandate system the League's Covenant provided that such territories were heading for eventual self-determination and Independence for the Palestinian Arabs the struggle had become twofold they wanted termination of the Mandate and repeal of the balour Declaration since the establishment of a Jewish homeland meant increased immigration by Jews and appropriation by them of lands the Palestinians had owned inhabited and cultivated for Generations the period between the two World Wars witnessed a series of Palestinian demonstrations protests and rebellions if the International Community had looked at the Palestine question with Justice they would have recognized that here was a majority of Palestinians and there was a minority of Jews and that the majority of pal iians had rights if not equal at least greater than the minority of the Jews and that ultimately the best solution for this was one state in which both the Arabs and the Jews would live under one government but there was not to be such a state in 1947 Britain placed the question of Palestine before the United Nations on the 29th of November a vote was was taken to partition the area there was to be one Jewish and one Arab State for the Jews most of them scarred for life from years of Nazi atrocities in Europe This was cause for joyful celebration but to the Arabs any partition which granted 56% of the land to 32% of the population was unacceptable fighting and skirmishes continued on May 14th 1948 a Jewish state self- claimed itself under the name of Israel incidents such as that of the Jewish Massacre of Arabs in the village of darasin which had taken place in April had spurred an exodus of refugees neighboring Arab states sent troops into Palestine claiming they were acting for the sole purpose of restoring peace and security and establishing Law and Order in Palestine it became fullscale War numerous un efforts to negotiate a truce were fruitless in September 1948 the United Nations Chief mediator count folk bernadat was shot and killed in Jerusalem by a Jewish extremist group only in the spring of 1949 was an Armistice reached by that time more Arab land had been taken Israel had already begun to expand its borders the main effect on the population was to create a great deal of panic and fear the population for the most part was unarmed they were confronting a well organized and well-armed Invasion as a result when the events like the massacre of Daria in April of 1948 occurred Panic spread through the population a population which was in 1947 and then continuing into the spring of 1948 was not well organized and had no political Center to it as a result the principle and the main impulse of people was to run to get as far away from the fighting from the terror as possible by December 1948 half of the population of Palestine had fled the following year the United Nations established unra the UN relief and works Agency for Palestine refugees the agency's mandate to provide registered refugees wherever they may live with food rations and shelter health care and basic education enlisting the collaboration of host Nations it was to be and still is financed from voluntary contributions when work got underway an estimated 500,000 people were getting on Ra's help by 19 1978 the figure had increased to 1,760 th000 Palestinians registered to receive [Music] care in 48 the assembly had resolved that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date or be duly compensated this has been reaffirmed by the United Nations every year ever since but these resolutions fail to be implemented because repatriation in accordance with these resolutions was not permitted by Israel most of our population is a poor population and those who have to live in camps live in misery and squalor and Poverty of A Sort that really is intolerable uh nevertheless since the late 60s the lot of the camp dweller has been improved not only by the social medical and Educational Services provided in the camps but also for the first time in their lives they now have a sense that by struggling uh politically and militarily and even intellectually they are beginning to move out of the camps they are no longer simply forgotten people left to ro there indefinitely [Music] Beirut Lebanon in a still recent past a prosperous Metropolis since the mid-70s a city devastated by an intractable Civil War for years affluent people lived in Comfort here not the Palestinians though there are an estimated 400,000 of them here in Lebanon they are to be found crowded in areas which do not live up even to our usual concept of a refugee camp in urban ghettos which seem to get worse and worse as the years go by this is where the huishi family lives refugees from 1948 they had resettled on the West Bank the 67 War brought them first to Jordan then in 70 they were forced to move into South Lebanon now they are here in Beirut children were born along the way the older boys Pride themselves on being Fighters already the girls still go to one of the schools for Palestinian children that unra has maintained and run since 1950 [Music] [Music] the Palestinian people like any other people in the world had the right of having its own independent educational system that enables him to strengthen his National unity and to express his National Palestinian character yes we like to emphasize the role of the masses in the Palestinian struggles uh through the last uh 30 30 years and we like to emphasize the nature of our enemy and we like also to emphasize the difference between Judaism and Zionism as a political Movement we like to put in our pupil's mind the humanitarian nature of our struggle and uh the humanarian nature of our social and political aspirations [Applause] in the early 50s the first resistance group appeared Al Fat in 1964 the Palestine Liberation Organization was formed 10 years later at a summit meeting of Arab heads of state the rabbat conference of 1974 the PLO was recognized as sole representative of the Palestinian people that same year the general assembly of the United Nations accorded it similar recognition uh the PLO is the S representative of the Palestinian people uh we have uh this uh organization which has different establishments in many fields controlling all our different uh branches executive committee our uh military forces uh our Central Council we have our national confence uh which represent all our organizations political organizations and syndicates unions which represent our people inside our occupied territories and outside our occupied [Music] [Applause] territories be they Invaders tourists or refugees large bodies of foreigners are always resented by the local population and the Palestinians have proved to be no exception many refugee camps have become grudgingly accepted enclaves guarded by PLO [Music] soldiers now the question is that the Palestinian wherever he is he is at the mercy of others he is always always sought he is always observed he is always caught he is always mistreated and this is the tragedy of the Palestinian today he doesn't have a place to go to l we should not forget that war is part of politics and we struggle by all means at our disposal we struggle on all different fronts politically militarily diplomatically and socially training of the f the fighters begins at 18 but few of those who come here do not already have previous experience in weapons and weaponry the first operations of fat date back to 1965 to some they are terrorists to others they are Freedom Fighters and heroes willing to put their lives on the line for the liberation of their Homeland the songs and dances of the fat soldiers are also the songs and dances of the children in refugee camps here they are taught the additional subjects that they say unr's regular schools do not offer or gloss over too quickly they want to learn more about pal altine its folklore and its traditions and about the importance of having a homeland of One's Own here they acquire the discipline and toughening which they hope will enable them to qualify as Fighters someday Decades of Exile and life in camps make it difficult for Palestinians to become self- sustaining from the beginning many started small businesses lots of them still pedal cigarettes or run delivery services in and around the camps but a lucky few have turned small Enterprises into cottage industries which as they slowly integrate into the local economy offer employment in turn to other Camp dwellers but for the individual here more than anywhere else education is the key basam eldest son of H species goes to the university and also keeps a part-time job to contribute to the family's income scholarships help many Palestinians to go abroad for graduate study programs you know for a Palestinian it's all over the world the same thing whether it is in Kuwait Lebanon or anywhere else you are refused the to be in the community of course they do accept you as long as you live there with them but still you do not belong you do not have their citizenship you you do not have the same rights and automatically the same feeling would be whether you are in Lebanon or in Kuwait or in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else Edward S again Palestinians have the highest rate of University graduates and of any Arab Nation as Engineers as social scientists as economists the Palestinians are in fact now the intellectual and even the moral Elite of the Arab world unfortunately there are still too many unskilled and for them there is at best seasonal and temporary work picking fruit for a local land owner Lebanese or Jordanian at Harvest Time street cleaning or other menial jobs in the camps and for the women domestics in the home of the more fortunate although the is a Palestinian Workers Union to protect them from being exploited the life of these people remains meager and [Music] insecure to remedy this situation and better channel the energy and productiveness of the Palestinian people a series of workers cooperatives got launched in 1970 by fat it is called called SED in Arabic SED translates as steadfastness the idea of never giving up the Palestinians see the seds as the productive part of a people in Exile the basic idea is to provide some sort of vocational training to a generation which has known nothing more than Camp life and to equip as many as possible of them to become financially independent both now in their diaspora and also tomorrow when they will have returned to Palestine there are several fields of activity Industrial Development craft and cottage Enterprises and even an agricultural sector under which a few Palestinians provide technical assistance in several African countries so far 3,000 people are employed full-time in the SED workshop and that number is increasing steadily whether they sew cloth make embroidery for sale abroad or assemble Furniture to fill the needs of Camp dwellers or the requirements of Palestinian offices they are each one of them contributing to return to self-sufficiency a people who refuse to remain any longer the ward of the [Music] [Applause] world the PLO provides other services as well schools and hospitals research centers and so forth you see this hospital is one of the hospitals of the Palestine red Chan society which is one of the institutions of the PLO uh of course our services we go to all people who need these help our plans are divided into two plans for disaster time and for peace time this hospital here is a Specialized Hospital for the cardiovascular surgery and for the pediatric surgery and for the NEOS surgery and daily we have in this hospital at least two major operations [Music] [Music] we have big uh problems not only of the Wounded but also we take the responsibility of the refugees the people were under great stress especially the small kids children those people are homeless now and we Face many problem especially in the psychological situation of the small kids and of the grownup people they lost all what they have done since they were deported from Palestine in 1948 all what they have built members of their families they have lost everything here so you have to support them you have to stay beside [Music] them e