Ali Hammuda – Message to Students of the Solidarity Camps

Ali Hammuda
AI: Summary ©
The speaker shares stories of his grandfather's horrors during the Haganah movement, including the selection of male and female visitors and the use of deadly drugs. The Haganah movement was forced to be executed by the British, and the Buffalo River was used as a bait. The speaker emphasizes the need for students to act with patience and time to achieve their goals, and to share stories of their experiences. The Haganah movement was a movement for change, and students need to address their own experiences and address the need for students to act with patience and time to achieve their goals.
AI: Transcript ©
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On one bright morning,

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on a July

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in 1948,

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my

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grandfather,

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Muhammad

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Ali Hamouda,

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found himself waking up to

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abrupt

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sounds

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of gunfire.

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Roused from his sleep,

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he made his way to see what was

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happening,

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and what came to unfold

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and what came to light was that it

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was now the time for his city

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to experience

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its share of ethnic cleansing,

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which would sweep through the whole of Palestine.

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Allow me, my brothers and sisters, on this

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afternoon to share with you the story

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of my grandfather,

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my father, and our family

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not to center the light on us as

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individuals,

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but to elaborate

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upon a Palestinian statement that we often share.

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The statement that says

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every

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Palestinian

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has a story of a Nakba, a catastrophe

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to share.

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My paternal side of the family

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come from a city known as Madinatulid

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or the city of Lod in Arabic in

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Palestine.

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And we hail from the specific area

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which is on the particular land

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occupied and established by the Ben Gurion Airport,

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which used to be known as the airport

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of Lyd before even that had its name

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changed.

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My grandfather grew up in the city of

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Lyd or Lod before

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making his way and traveling to the city

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of Yatha or Jaffa in English, again there

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in Palestine,

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much of the oranges that you buy from

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Sainsbury's and ASDA, check the label, of course,

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will be from that particular city known as

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the city of Yaffa.

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My grandfather

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carried out his initial education there in Yaffa,

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and it was through the

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his interactions with the marketplaces,

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the bustling marketplaces of Yaffa and the narrow

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alleys of the city of Yaffa

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that he met and fell in love with

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a woman

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who would, of course, be my grandmother.

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They lived in Yaffa not knowing that their

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lives were about to change upside down forever,

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separated from their land in Palestine

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because of events that they would not be

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able

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to pause or to halt.

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In 1937,

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the Peel

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Partition

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Committee was established in order to carve a

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path

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and to execute what we know today as

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the Balfour

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declaration,

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in spite of the indigenous Palestinians

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living there and at their expense, rendering them

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overnight

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as a minority of second class citizens.

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By around the mid forties, it became clear

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that the global powers were moving

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towards this direction, and nothing can be done

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to stop it, though Palestinians

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detry.

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And by this time, you had the formation

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of Zionist militias like the Haganah group

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and the Irgun

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and, of course, the Ilahi group. 1946,

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things became very violent

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with now the Zionist militias growing impatient, wanting

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to begin their mass, ethnic cleansing of the

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ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians

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and to tell the British, who were controlling

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Palestine via their mandate, to leave once and

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for all.

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1946

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was the bombing of the King David Hotel,

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and what was becoming clear now was that

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the Haganah

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and the other Zionist

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militias

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were carrying out executions,

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lynchings,

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booby trappings,

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assault,

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door to door looting,

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and the ethnic cleansing of communities.

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And by the time we reach now

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1948,

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specifically on 14th

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May of that year,

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the British mandate had come to an end.

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And now not just the British personnel who

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were the target, but the Palestinian civilians,

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it was now the time for my grandfather

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and my grandmother

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and their children to experience the full wrath

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of the Zionist entity.

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My grandfather would often tell us the details

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of what happened to them.

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Details so precise in nature, down to the

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very names of the areas, the alleys, the

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numbers,

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very similar to the information then shared by

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Ilham Pappe in his book, The Ethnic Cleansing

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of Palestine. Though my grandfather,

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he never read the book of Ilan Pappe.

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They came into the city of Yatha.

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My grandfather said they took

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every young man,

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every individual above the age of 22 years

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old, they rounded them up.

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And I was there with my dad,

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my great grandfather.

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And they took us they took us to

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the Dehmej Mosque in the city center,

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and they lined us up in our tens,

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in our dozens,

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and they began to execute them one after

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the other.

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He said I was spared

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because they I they assumed I was 22

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years old. I was in my

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early twenties still.

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And they had a cruel tradition of the

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Haganah back then that they would spare

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1 male figure from each family,

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not out of mercy or compassion, but so

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that he may

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shepherd

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the remainders of his family and take them

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out of Palestine.

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He told us about how they came into

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houses door after door,

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literally pulling out the women and the children

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and the men from their homes. In that

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Masjid,

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there were 176

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bodies that were recovered, including the body of

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my great grandfather.

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Of what?

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426 men and women and children who were

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executed on that day alone.

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By the end of it, in just a

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few days' time,

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50,000

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men, women, and children from my city of

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Lyd would begin their exodus to the West

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Bank.

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That was a a very dangerous journey in

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of itself,

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where people were traveling in one of the

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hottest months there in Palestine without water,

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without food, without sustenance.

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Many people

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who passed away because of starvation and thirst

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just along the way.

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Now my grandfather, as a young man in

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his early twenties, finds himself a shepherd of

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his newly widowed

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mother

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and his newly orphaned

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children or siblings,

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and now they are making their way on

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what they call the

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snake line

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towards the West Bank in Ramallah.

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At the time, Ramallah was under the administration

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of the Jordanians. Things were not settled.

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And in just a few years time, my

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grandfather, now having finding himself as a refugee

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in his own home,

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is uprooted again from the West Bank, him

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and his family, and they are forcibly displaced

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to Gaza in Al Burayj

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refugee camp. A

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refugee now

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and displaced

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for the second time since 1948

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within his own homeland.

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My grandfather was an educated man. He was

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a man of words. He was a linguist.

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He was a headteacher.

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He was a poet. He was a calligraphist.

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Interested in education, he played a key role

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in establishing the very first fully functional educational

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system there in Gaza and established the Islamic

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University

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of Gaza, which was bombed just a few

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months ago in 2023,

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leveled to the ground by the Zionists.

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There in Gaza, as he established himself, he

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was summoned

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by the Kuwaiti government

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who had just received its independence.

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It was a nascent young state that was

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now

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standing on its feet. They wanted educators. The

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Palestinians being educated people. He was summoned to

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make his way to Kuwait and to begin

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to teach

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and to establish the infrastructure of schools.

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He made his way to Kuwait. He became

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a head teacher.

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He became a mufetish, an inspector.

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After a few years, it was the

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instability of the Gulf War, and once again,

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he has displaced him and his family. And

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this is where I was born in Kuwait.

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We make our way to the UK as

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refugees now for the 3rd or 4th time

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in just a few years.

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Each time, however,

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the displacement

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pushing us farther and farther

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away from Palestine.

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Then in the UK, we were condemned to

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a fate of just observing what is happening

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there in Palestine with our hands

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raised to Allah, to God Almighty, praying that

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He gives what is best.

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His conversations were always about Palestine. His yearnings

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were about Palestine.

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His speech with the young and the old,

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his poetry called Tarikun Nasr,

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the book titled The Pathway to Victory, is

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about Palestine.

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Every time he speaks, his voice rivets with

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pain and is thickened with emotion, and every

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time his words are impunctuated with tears,

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the pain of being separated from Palestine never

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left him.

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Then in May

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2021,

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following another onslaught on Gaza,

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43 members of my grandmother's family now who

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were huddled in one building

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were hit by an Israeli bomb. Every one

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of them was killed.

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And my grandmother's family,

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Al Qawlaq family, officially was wiped away from

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the Palestinian

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registry. They no longer exist.

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On one particular day, I will never forget

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the 11th December

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2,011,

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we receive a phone call. Grandfather is not

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feeling well.

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He's been rushed to hospital,

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and so we make our way to see

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if what we can do for him, but

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they needed to operate immediately. He had suffered

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from aneurysm, the bursting of a major artery

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in his stomach. He was passing away. They

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needed to operate immediately.

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He said to them, let me see my

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son. Let me speak to my grandchildren. They

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said, you need to go under anesthetic right

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now.

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We arrived to the hospital

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and his soul had beaten us to Allah

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Subhanahu wa ta'ala and he passed away rahimahullah.

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We

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said to the surgeon,

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how was he before he passed away?

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What were his final words?

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The surgeon, an Indian, a fine man who

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operated on my grandfather, he said,

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your grandfather,

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as he was sleeping under the veil of

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anesthesia

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and as his voice was trailing into silence,

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he whispered and he said to me, doctor,

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take a seat next to me if you

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will.

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Let me tell you about Palestine.

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Moving back to what is more important,

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putting the lens now with this backdrop on

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you,

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after having elaborated upon the concept that says

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every Palestinian has a story like this to

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share, This was merely a demonstration for yourselves.

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Moving back to what is more important and

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that is yourselves, my brothers and sisters, as

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students, I am aware

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that you have exams.

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I am aware that at 1:30 this afternoon,

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you have an exam to attend.

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But I would like to tell you,

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there is yet another exam that you are

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enduring at this very second

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lawn in Cardiff University,

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an exam that you are passing,

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an exam that you have already passed.

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This is the examination of morality,

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the examination

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of justice,

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the examination of having a human

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conscience in a depraved world of ours today.

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For the course of 60 years or so,

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students have demonstrated

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how every exam that is imposed upon them

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by way of foreign policy

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put onto the public each and every time,

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they are passing every one of the examinations

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of morality

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presented to them.

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Whether we begin in the early sixties

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with the black civil rights era movement,

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It was the students who were mobilizing,

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the students who were raising their voices against

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segregation on the basis of color and ethnicity

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and race.

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It was through their sit ins,

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through their encampments,

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through their boycotting,

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through their calling for the freedom rides

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that eventually there was a turning point

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in the conscience of the country, and it

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was the end of institutional

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racism.

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It was a student

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led movement.

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Moving into the sixties

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mid seventies,

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during the cruel and unjust American war on

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Vietnam,

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once again, it was the students who mobilized,

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the students who behaved as teachers,

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the students who spoke,

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and they called for boycotts and sanctions, and

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they raised awareness.

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And the historians will point at a very

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specific event during that time as students protested

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the Vietnam War.

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In Ohio,

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Kent State University,

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May 1970,

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when 4 students were shot and killed and

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9 were injured.

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Historians

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pinpoint

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that event as being a turning

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point in the public opinion in favor of

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the anti war movement or anti war sentiment

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against Vietnam. It was student led.

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No one can belittle what you are doing

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this afternoon and throughout these next couple of

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days, weeks, and months.

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Fast forwarding

00:14:56 --> 00:14:57

to the late seventies

00:14:57 --> 00:14:58

eighties,

00:14:59 --> 00:15:02

when we speak about apartheid South Africa, who

00:15:02 --> 00:15:03

was the one mobilizing?

00:15:04 --> 00:15:05

Who was the one recruiting?

00:15:06 --> 00:15:07

Who were the ones,

00:15:08 --> 00:15:08

sacrificing?

00:15:09 --> 00:15:11

They were the students again

00:15:11 --> 00:15:14

calling for sanctions and calling for divestment,

00:15:14 --> 00:15:17

calling for boycotts against apartheid

00:15:17 --> 00:15:18

racist South Africa.

00:15:19 --> 00:15:21

And with patience and with time,

00:15:21 --> 00:15:22

we reached 1988,

00:15:23 --> 00:15:24

and 156

00:15:25 --> 00:15:28

universities by then had agreed to cut all

00:15:28 --> 00:15:29

ties with the racist

00:15:30 --> 00:15:32

regime of South Africa back then,

00:15:33 --> 00:15:35

which then toppled the entire regime.

00:15:37 --> 00:15:38

So this is your legacy,

00:15:39 --> 00:15:42

and we expect nothing less

00:15:42 --> 00:15:44

from men and women, truly educated

00:15:45 --> 00:15:46

men and women like yourselves.

00:15:47 --> 00:15:48

And fast forwarding

00:15:48 --> 00:15:51

to the 21st century, fast forwarding

00:15:51 --> 00:15:52

to 2023,

00:15:53 --> 00:15:53

2024,

00:15:54 --> 00:15:56

in the live genocide that you and I

00:15:56 --> 00:15:58

are witnessing there in Gaza, once again, it

00:15:58 --> 00:16:00

is the students who are taking the lead.

00:16:01 --> 00:16:03

What began as a humble movement there in

00:16:03 --> 00:16:06

Columbia University has now become a global conversation

00:16:08 --> 00:16:09

that has punctuated

00:16:09 --> 00:16:12

every talk at every level of the hierarchy

00:16:13 --> 00:16:16

with student encampments here in the UK, alhamdulillah,

00:16:16 --> 00:16:17

by the grace of God Almighty,

00:16:18 --> 00:16:20

up and down the country no less than

00:16:20 --> 00:16:22

30 of them doing what you are doing

00:16:22 --> 00:16:22

here today.

00:16:24 --> 00:16:25

And in America,

00:16:26 --> 00:16:29

every one of the states of America, save

00:16:29 --> 00:16:30

4,

00:16:31 --> 00:16:34

there are students in camping for the exact

00:16:34 --> 00:16:35

same cause

00:16:35 --> 00:16:36

as

00:16:36 --> 00:16:37

yours.

00:16:37 --> 00:16:40

And just as their voices were heard back

00:16:40 --> 00:16:40

then,

00:16:41 --> 00:16:43

your voices will be heard today.

00:16:44 --> 00:16:45

Policy change

00:16:46 --> 00:16:48

and social system transformation

00:16:49 --> 00:16:52

happens particularly here in the west usually in

00:16:52 --> 00:16:53

one of 2 ways.

00:16:55 --> 00:16:57

Usually, it is a top down approach

00:16:58 --> 00:17:00

or a bottom up approach.

00:17:01 --> 00:17:03

The top down approach is when you have

00:17:03 --> 00:17:05

the wealthy donors,

00:17:06 --> 00:17:07

the ruling elite,

00:17:08 --> 00:17:09

lobby groups,

00:17:10 --> 00:17:12

and other influential people

00:17:13 --> 00:17:14

who will give their recommendations

00:17:15 --> 00:17:16

and their demands

00:17:16 --> 00:17:17

to the policymakers

00:17:18 --> 00:17:18

beneath them

00:17:19 --> 00:17:22

through their institutions that they have.

00:17:23 --> 00:17:25

With the passage of time, this then becomes

00:17:25 --> 00:17:26

law,

00:17:27 --> 00:17:29

which is then executed by the executive branches

00:17:29 --> 00:17:30

of society

00:17:31 --> 00:17:33

and then passed down to the media who

00:17:33 --> 00:17:35

lap it up more often than not,

00:17:35 --> 00:17:37

and then they push it out to society

00:17:38 --> 00:17:39

being the mouthpieces

00:17:39 --> 00:17:40

of those above.

00:17:41 --> 00:17:44

This is the top down approach for change.

00:17:45 --> 00:17:48

As for the latter, the bottom up approach.

00:17:49 --> 00:17:50

This is when people like yourselves

00:17:51 --> 00:17:54

start from the grass, literally from the lawn,

00:17:55 --> 00:17:57

When they start from the meadows of their

00:17:57 --> 00:17:58

universities,

00:17:59 --> 00:18:00

from the ground,

00:18:00 --> 00:18:01

from the streets,

00:18:01 --> 00:18:02

from the protests,

00:18:03 --> 00:18:04

from their universities,

00:18:04 --> 00:18:06

from their online platforms.

00:18:06 --> 00:18:09

They start from the bottom and they work

00:18:09 --> 00:18:10

their way up,

00:18:10 --> 00:18:14

raising their voices against a cruel and unjust

00:18:14 --> 00:18:15

status quo,

00:18:16 --> 00:18:17

which creates

00:18:17 --> 00:18:20

a disturbance at the level of government

00:18:20 --> 00:18:22

and those who are in positions of power

00:18:22 --> 00:18:24

and certainly the deep state as well.

00:18:26 --> 00:18:29

Your movement as students is situated in this

00:18:29 --> 00:18:31

latter movement from the ground up,

00:18:32 --> 00:18:33

and, unfortunately,

00:18:33 --> 00:18:34

history tells us

00:18:35 --> 00:18:39

that bottom up up appraisals, bottom up change

00:18:39 --> 00:18:42

will usually be met by violent crackdowns that

00:18:42 --> 00:18:45

at times brutal as well. And we have

00:18:45 --> 00:18:46

seen this,

00:18:47 --> 00:18:49

but this should not dissuade you.

00:18:50 --> 00:18:53

And foolish is the one who argues

00:18:54 --> 00:18:57

that these encampments are not bearing fruit.

00:18:58 --> 00:19:00

It is only media outlets

00:19:01 --> 00:19:04

and sometimes people from our own brethren who

00:19:04 --> 00:19:05

lack the maturity

00:19:06 --> 00:19:07

and the experience

00:19:08 --> 00:19:09

and the integrity

00:19:09 --> 00:19:11

and reading into history

00:19:11 --> 00:19:12

to understand

00:19:12 --> 00:19:15

the significance of what it means when students

00:19:16 --> 00:19:16

mobilize.

00:19:17 --> 00:19:19

How can we say that these encampments are

00:19:19 --> 00:19:22

not bearing fruit? Look around you, east and

00:19:22 --> 00:19:25

west. Turn your eyes there to Spain, and

00:19:25 --> 00:19:28

you see the University of Barcelona because of

00:19:28 --> 00:19:30

the students cutting all ties with the Israeli

00:19:30 --> 00:19:31

entity.

00:19:33 --> 00:19:35

Or you turn your eyes to Belgium.

00:19:35 --> 00:19:38

Who would have thought the University of Gwent

00:19:40 --> 00:19:41

has cut all ties

00:19:42 --> 00:19:43

with several research

00:19:44 --> 00:19:45

institutions

00:19:45 --> 00:19:47

belonging to the Israeli

00:19:47 --> 00:19:48

entity.

00:19:49 --> 00:19:51

Or you turn your eyes to Ireland,

00:19:51 --> 00:19:52

closer to home,

00:19:53 --> 00:19:56

when you have Trinity College, Cambridge University's

00:19:56 --> 00:19:57

wealthiest college,

00:19:58 --> 00:19:59

and Ireland's most

00:20:00 --> 00:20:00

prestigious

00:20:01 --> 00:20:01

campus

00:20:03 --> 00:20:06

declaring that they will divest from all arms

00:20:06 --> 00:20:06

companies

00:20:07 --> 00:20:09

pertaining and related to the Israeli entity. Is

00:20:09 --> 00:20:12

this not success that is worthy of pause?

00:20:14 --> 00:20:17

Or you turn to the United States of

00:20:17 --> 00:20:18

America

00:20:19 --> 00:20:22

where you have Evergreen State University or College

00:20:23 --> 00:20:25

saying that it will divest from any of

00:20:25 --> 00:20:27

the holdings pertaining or connected to the Israeli

00:20:27 --> 00:20:28

entity,

00:20:29 --> 00:20:32

And at least 5 universities in the US

00:20:32 --> 00:20:33

that have voluntarily

00:20:34 --> 00:20:36

dismantled their incumbents because

00:20:36 --> 00:20:37

their demands

00:20:37 --> 00:20:40

have been met and heard by the university.

00:20:41 --> 00:20:42

Is this not a success?

00:20:42 --> 00:20:44

Is this not a fruit

00:20:44 --> 00:20:48

When professor Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish professor who

00:20:48 --> 00:20:48

you know,

00:20:49 --> 00:20:50

he says that

00:20:51 --> 00:20:51

genocide

00:20:52 --> 00:20:53

Joe Biden

00:20:54 --> 00:20:54

only

00:20:55 --> 00:20:57

suspended the arm sales to Israel

00:20:57 --> 00:20:59

because of pressure

00:21:00 --> 00:21:01

by the students.

00:21:01 --> 00:21:02

Yes. It may be symbolic.

00:21:03 --> 00:21:05

Yes. It may be temporary, but it is

00:21:05 --> 00:21:06

also unprecedented.

00:21:06 --> 00:21:08

He said this is because of the pressure

00:21:08 --> 00:21:11

applied by the students. The fruits have already

00:21:11 --> 00:21:13

presented themselves to us

00:21:14 --> 00:21:16

whether by way of what I have just

00:21:16 --> 00:21:17

shared with you

00:21:18 --> 00:21:20

or the endowments projects of universities

00:21:21 --> 00:21:22

that have always been a sleepy,

00:21:23 --> 00:21:24

shady, quiet aspect

00:21:25 --> 00:21:26

of university operation.

00:21:26 --> 00:21:28

Who is funding these endowments?

00:21:29 --> 00:21:31

And what are these endowments funding?

00:21:32 --> 00:21:35

Where is our money as students going?

00:21:36 --> 00:21:39

This has now taken center stage for the

00:21:39 --> 00:21:41

first time. People are asking the right questions,

00:21:41 --> 00:21:43

Bifat Lillah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

00:21:44 --> 00:21:46

Awareness has been raised

00:21:47 --> 00:21:47

in an unprecedented

00:21:48 --> 00:21:51

way. Now the young and old are talking.

00:21:51 --> 00:21:53

The word genocide has become mainstream,

00:21:54 --> 00:21:55

and the world is experiencing

00:21:56 --> 00:21:58

a shift. There is a brand new

00:21:58 --> 00:22:00

world order unfolding

00:22:01 --> 00:22:02

before your very eyes.

00:22:03 --> 00:22:05

And at the epicenter of that shift

00:22:06 --> 00:22:07

are the universities.

00:22:09 --> 00:22:11

And at the epicenter of the universities

00:22:11 --> 00:22:12

are yourselves

00:22:13 --> 00:22:14

as students.

00:22:15 --> 00:22:17

So no one should doubt the fruits that

00:22:17 --> 00:22:18

these incumbents

00:22:18 --> 00:22:19

are bearing.

00:22:20 --> 00:22:22

And we put our hands side by side

00:22:22 --> 00:22:24

with one another, and we stand in solidarity

00:22:25 --> 00:22:26

till we see the full course of this

00:22:26 --> 00:22:27

movement.

00:22:28 --> 00:22:29

Brothers and sisters,

00:22:30 --> 00:22:31

I conclude, and I share with you one

00:22:31 --> 00:22:33

final message, and that is

00:22:34 --> 00:22:36

it is very obvious that from time to

00:22:36 --> 00:22:37

time,

00:22:38 --> 00:22:40

there are the first and the last of

00:22:40 --> 00:22:43

people to arrive at a scene of brutality.

00:22:44 --> 00:22:46

There are always those who come first at

00:22:46 --> 00:22:47

the stances of justice

00:22:48 --> 00:22:50

and those who arrive last. History has told

00:22:50 --> 00:22:52

us that more often than not, the people

00:22:52 --> 00:22:54

of the ruling class, the ruling elite, the

00:22:54 --> 00:22:55

politicians,

00:22:55 --> 00:22:57

the media, the lobbies, they are usually the

00:22:57 --> 00:23:00

last to arrive at a stance of morality

00:23:00 --> 00:23:01

and justice.

00:23:03 --> 00:23:05

And nothing demonstrates this more, perhaps,

00:23:06 --> 00:23:09

than a Gallup poll that was that happened

00:23:09 --> 00:23:11

shortly after the killing of the students at

00:23:11 --> 00:23:13

Kent State University that I shared with you

00:23:13 --> 00:23:13

earlier.

00:23:14 --> 00:23:17

To see the sentiment of the American society,

00:23:17 --> 00:23:18

which found that 58%

00:23:19 --> 00:23:20

of those polled

00:23:21 --> 00:23:23

believed that those students who were killed brought

00:23:23 --> 00:23:26

death upon themselves. They deserved it. That's how

00:23:26 --> 00:23:27

they saw it.

00:23:28 --> 00:23:30

But now half a century onwards,

00:23:32 --> 00:23:33

we lament this situation.

00:23:34 --> 00:23:36

Society looks back at what happened

00:23:36 --> 00:23:39

against the anti war campaigners, and they are

00:23:39 --> 00:23:42

filled with regret about how they were mistreated.

00:23:43 --> 00:23:47

The Suffragettes Movement, who were sexually harassed, harmed,

00:23:47 --> 00:23:49

imprisoned, punished, called spinsters.

00:23:51 --> 00:23:53

Society looks back now with the eye of

00:23:53 --> 00:23:54

regret and say, why did we treat them

00:23:54 --> 00:23:56

so cruelly we stood on the wrong side

00:23:56 --> 00:23:57

of history?

00:23:58 --> 00:24:01

Some of you remember the protest against the

00:24:01 --> 00:24:04

Iraq war. You were there. We were laughed

00:24:04 --> 00:24:05

at, mocked, and certainly ignored.

00:24:06 --> 00:24:08

Now, they look back and they say,

00:24:08 --> 00:24:11

why did their calls fall on deaf ears?

00:24:11 --> 00:24:12

They were right and we were wrong. They

00:24:12 --> 00:24:14

are always the last to arrive at the

00:24:14 --> 00:24:17

stances of justice and morality.

00:24:18 --> 00:24:19

Now we fast forward to what is happening

00:24:19 --> 00:24:21

there in Gaza, and I guarantee, and mark

00:24:21 --> 00:24:22

my word,

00:24:23 --> 00:24:26

society will look back at what you are

00:24:26 --> 00:24:28

doing as students and they will lament the

00:24:28 --> 00:24:31

fact that they were not standing here supporting

00:24:31 --> 00:24:32

you. They will regret it.

00:24:33 --> 00:24:36

They will regret CNN's comparison of these student

00:24:36 --> 00:24:37

encampments

00:24:38 --> 00:24:40

to the persecution of Jews in Europe 1930.

00:24:41 --> 00:24:42

They will regret making that comparison.

00:24:43 --> 00:24:45

They will regret saying that every person who

00:24:45 --> 00:24:47

takes part in these encampments is an anti

00:24:47 --> 00:24:49

Jew or an anti Semite. They will regret

00:24:49 --> 00:24:51

saying that when they discover it was never

00:24:51 --> 00:24:52

true.

00:24:53 --> 00:24:54

They will regret

00:24:55 --> 00:24:57

putting the faces of students

00:24:58 --> 00:24:59

on the sides of buses

00:25:00 --> 00:25:02

and circling the encampa the campus

00:25:03 --> 00:25:05

to shame them and to ruin their careers

00:25:05 --> 00:25:08

and to label them as antisemites deceitfully and

00:25:08 --> 00:25:09

treacherous. They will regret that,

00:25:10 --> 00:25:12

And they will regret what they did at

00:25:12 --> 00:25:15

UCLA University in America when masked Zionists came

00:25:15 --> 00:25:17

onto the campus. You saw it with sticks

00:25:17 --> 00:25:20

and they they beat up the encampus black

00:25:20 --> 00:25:21

and blue,

00:25:22 --> 00:25:24

and they brought rats into their encampments,

00:25:24 --> 00:25:27

and they poured alcohol over the Muslims,

00:25:28 --> 00:25:31

and they fired fireworks at them, and they

00:25:31 --> 00:25:33

blasted the sounds of crying babies

00:25:34 --> 00:25:35

to taunt them,

00:25:35 --> 00:25:37

to remind them of what the IDF do

00:25:37 --> 00:25:39

in Gaza. When they blast the sounds of

00:25:39 --> 00:25:41

crying babies to lure the Palestinians

00:25:42 --> 00:25:43

and then kill them,

00:25:44 --> 00:25:45

They will regret

00:25:46 --> 00:25:49

allowing this to happen as the LAPD watched

00:25:49 --> 00:25:51

it idly doing nothing.

00:25:51 --> 00:25:54

They will regret allowing actual Nazis

00:25:55 --> 00:25:57

to march on a campus 7 years ago,

00:25:57 --> 00:25:59

if you remember. And they killed a woman,

00:25:59 --> 00:26:00

a protester,

00:26:01 --> 00:26:03

using more force on us

00:26:04 --> 00:26:06

than they did on those actual Nazis.

00:26:07 --> 00:26:09

They will regret this, but when it's too

00:26:09 --> 00:26:09

late,

00:26:10 --> 00:26:12

and at that time, the only ones whose

00:26:12 --> 00:26:14

conscience will be clear will be yours.

00:26:15 --> 00:26:17

When the dust settles and the tear gas

00:26:17 --> 00:26:18

disappears

00:26:20 --> 00:26:22

and the mockery subsides, they will sit puzzled

00:26:23 --> 00:26:25

in the filth of the crimes that were

00:26:25 --> 00:26:26

entirely avoidable,

00:26:27 --> 00:26:28

and they will

00:26:28 --> 00:26:30

regret not sitting here on this lawn with

00:26:30 --> 00:26:33

you, championing the causes of justice. So there

00:26:33 --> 00:26:35

are those who are the last

00:26:35 --> 00:26:38

the the the last to arrive, and there

00:26:38 --> 00:26:40

are those who are the first to arrive

00:26:40 --> 00:26:42

at the stances of justice and morality. And

00:26:42 --> 00:26:44

more often than not, it is the students

00:26:44 --> 00:26:45

who are the first to arrive.

00:26:48 --> 00:26:49

So remember this,

00:26:51 --> 00:26:53

that if the media and your university treat

00:26:53 --> 00:26:54

you harshly today,

00:26:56 --> 00:26:58

history will be kind to you tomorrow,

00:27:00 --> 00:27:02

And if they are calling you naive, inexperienced,

00:27:03 --> 00:27:05

passionate students today,

00:27:06 --> 00:27:08

they will call you teachers tomorrow.

00:27:09 --> 00:27:11

And if today you are made to be

00:27:11 --> 00:27:11

a victim

00:27:13 --> 00:27:15

before Allah Almighty on the plane of resurrection,

00:27:15 --> 00:27:17

you shall be made into a witness.

00:27:18 --> 00:27:21

Remember that our unique encampment is entirely unique

00:27:22 --> 00:27:25

because we're not memorializing something of the past

00:27:25 --> 00:27:26

of many generations.

00:27:27 --> 00:27:28

We are remembering

00:27:29 --> 00:27:30

and protesting

00:27:31 --> 00:27:33

a crime of the highest order

00:27:33 --> 00:27:35

that is unfolding before our very eyes at

00:27:35 --> 00:27:38

this hour, at this minute, at this second,

00:27:39 --> 00:27:41

And we will not stop our protest,

00:27:42 --> 00:27:43

nor will we dismantle

00:27:44 --> 00:27:44

our encampment.

00:27:45 --> 00:27:47

And we take inspiration from the Palestinians

00:27:48 --> 00:27:49

who say,

00:27:50 --> 00:27:52

we shall remain here, they sing.

00:27:52 --> 00:27:54

Just as firm as their camps are there

00:27:54 --> 00:27:56

in Rafah. And in all of Gaza, our

00:27:56 --> 00:27:58

camps will be just as firm. And as

00:27:58 --> 00:28:00

long as they remain, we will remain.

00:28:03 --> 00:28:05

And they are very afraid of these encampments

00:28:05 --> 00:28:07

be because they know that the liberation

00:28:07 --> 00:28:10

of the Palestinian people means the liberation of

00:28:10 --> 00:28:12

the entire of humanity. However,

00:28:13 --> 00:28:14

the sleeping giant has finally

00:28:15 --> 00:28:17

awakened and the giant has decided to never

00:28:17 --> 00:28:18

fall asleep again.

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