Nadim Bawalsa’s new book helps us rethink the right of return to encompass Palestinians who were prevented from returning to their homes by the British Mandate’s policies, well before the Nakba. In doing so, the book adds a new layer to our understanding of Palestinian dispossession, which began long before 1948.
Award-winning Palestinian-Chilean author Lina Meruane reflects on the place of Palestine in her writing
Chile’s new president, Gabriel Boric, supports BDS and has promised to take an aggressive stance in defense of Palestinian human rights. But will he be able to shift Chilean foreign policy?
Daniel Jadue is mayor of Recoleta, a municipality of Chile’s capital Santiago, and is running for President. Jadue also traces his roots to the West Bank town of Beit Jala, and has been active in the Palestinian cause since he was 11. “You cannot be for human rights outside Palestine and against human rights for the Palestinians,” Jadue tells Vijay Prashad.
“During one of my visits, as I stood reading the names engraved on the wall, I noticed the name of Maria Teresa El-Tit, one of Villa Grimaldi’s disappeared prisoners. I paused. It was a Palestinian family name, and I was in front of a different story – a story I had found resonance of in other conversations and settings. I wondered: had some members of her family arrived from Palestine in the early 1900s as other immigrants had? I thought of the Palestinian martyrs’ bodies which Israel refuses to hand over to their families, and thus denying them the act of saying goodbye to their loved ones and living with the pain. I thought of Palestinian martyrs, of prisoners, and of those who were, and continue to be, tortured and subjected to multitude forms of violence.”–Basil Farraj
Dr. Devin Atallah, a Palestinian-Chilean psychologist chronicles his participation in the ‘First Session of the Mapuche Constituent Assembly.’ The Mapuche are the largest first nation and most populous indigenous group in Chile. Atallah calls the gathering “one of the most powerful and meaningful collective manifestations of decolonization that I have witnessed.” It leads him to organize “Meals of Resistance” in Santiago with members of the Mapuche indigenous group, Chilean allies, and members of the Palestinian-Chilean community, who all come together to show solidarity, share freedom foods and stories of resistance and resilience.
The world’s largest Palestinian diaspora outside the Arab world is found in Chile. Siri Schwabe talks about her new PhD thesis on the Palestinian-Chilean community and how a particular diasporic form of being Palestinian has been created in the South American country.