VOICES FROM THE SOUTH ewsletter -May 2015 E-N Founded in 1985, the The Karibu Foundation is Karibu Foundation is an an independent founda- independent foundation Acknowledging the Nakba and tion that supports voices that supports voices from from the Global South the Global South that that provide alternatives Struggling for Justice: provide alternatives to to the dominant para- the dominant paradigms Jewish South Africans travel to Lubya digms of power, distribu- of power, distribution, tion, and development. In June 2013, the documentary film “The Village Under the Forest” had its and development. world premiere in Cape Town, South Africa. The film, by Jewish South Africans Mark J. Kaplan and Heidi Grunebaum, presents an example of Visit our website to how a Jewish diaspora has been implicated in the erasure of the memory http://www.karibu.no sign-up for “Voices from of the mass depopulation of Palestinians. [email protected] the South,” our monthly Nearly two years later to the date, in May 2015, a group of Jewish South Afri- e-newsletter. cans (many of whom had been anti-apartheid activists) traveled to Palestine The Karibu Foundation and Israel, in particular to the destroyed Palestinian village of Lubya in the Kirkens Hus http://www.karibu.no Galilee. The aim of their trip was to visit this village under the forest that the Rådhusgt 1-3 documentary described, to stand in solidarity with the village’s Palestinian [email protected] descendants who are still displaced, and to take responsibility for the actions 0151 Oslo being done in their name. Norway This month’s “Voice from the South” features a reflection from Heidi Grune- The Karibu Foundation baum on the South Africans’ visit to Lubya. Their visit was covered by several Kirkens Hus international media outlets, including CNN International (the link is below). Rådhusgt 1-3 0151 Oslo By Heidi Grunebaum persists for many. Israel passed laws to University of the Western Cape prevent the return of the refugees whilst Norway the Jewish National Fund planted swathes On the 1st of May 2015 a group of thir- of pine forests across the depopulated teen South Africans of mainly Jewish land in the name of all Jewish people. background participated in a ceremony at the ruins of the Palestinian village, Lubya The JNF forest on the ruins of Lubya is in the Galilee, together with about 150 called the “South Africa Forest”, a name Palestinians and Jewish Israelis. Under that invokes our citizenship and South the trees at “South Africa Forest,” the cer- Africa’s legacy of mass forced removals. It emony offered us the opportunity to ex- is one of hundreds of forests which Jews press a symbolic gesture of solidarity on in the diaspora have helped to cultivate, behalf of 200 other Jewish South Africans. 86 of which are on the ruins of Nakba vil- lages. Learn more about the What is the connection between Jewish “Village Under the Forest” South Africans and Palestinians from Lu- Our trip to the region was organised and documentary film at: bya? Lubya, along with some 500 other hosted by Naif Hajjo from Lubya, a mem- Palestinian towns and villages, was de- ber of ADRID (Association for the Rights www.villageunderforest.com populated and destroyed in the 1948 War of the Internally Displaced) together with Photo: Sandit, sus. Agnate for Palestine – the Nakba, catastrophe. Zochrot, an Israeli organisation commit- nam si blaciis eos rem lac- ted to raising awareness of the Nakba. cusant fugitia dolo quatem Some Palestinians were displaced inside Our activities before the ceremony in- harum et excea dis et dolumet the new state’s boundaries but the major- cluded cleaning Lubya’s burial ground. fugiaSubscribe doluptam veratibusto ity made into refugees, a condition that The cleansing of its desecrated graves “VOICESalianimod FROM untur THE aliquis SOUTH” vo- at www.karibu.no Page 1 Photos: Ipsum quam consequia eatur arcimint volutempos et aut quiae pori omnis sitamusci untiandae a untiandae sitamusci pori omnis quiae et aut volutempos arcimint eatur consequia quam Ipsum Photos: Intifada Electronic Levy, Sarah credits: Photo as an act of showing care for Palestinian freedom prem- spatial and bureaucratically to the dead was profoundly ised on the actual return of engineered segregation. meaningful, a point made by refugees and displaced. delegation member, Shereen Face to face with the cur- Usdin. The possibilities for moral in- rent scale of catastrophe, we dignation to translate into a witnessed the reverberations The ceremony comprised two politics supporting the actual of the human disaster of the parts. The first was a walking return became clearer as we 1948 Nakba that continue to pilgrimage through the forest examined the timing of the be felt across the region. to different stops at ruins of ceremony. It took place dur- what had been Lubya’s pub- ing the continuing Nakba, in In the Jewish diaspora, it is ur- lic buildings and communal the midst of deepening state gently necessary that the Na- sites. At each station yellow repression and oppression kba and its effects on lives and signposts in Arabic, Hebrew inside the boundaries of Is- land are made known; that its and English were erected. The rael and in the West Bank and ethical, moral and political act of marking and naming Gaza. consequences as an ongoing the places at which the build- process are engaged; that “the ings had stood is one that con- The structural context for the sounds of the system cracking nected people from Lubya, joint action at Lubya became from within” be more widely their scattered descendants, visible over the days before we heard, as delegation member, our group and Jewish Israelis travelled to Nazareth to meet Stiaan van der Merwe wrote. to the materiality of history our hosts and descendants from Lubya. We commit to developing a and place which are the ruins longer term relationship with themselves. In Jerusalem and the West ADRID and engaging with After the walk of place- Bank we met with Palestin- Jewish activists from the di- marking, we handed over our ian and Jewish Israeli activ- aspora for Palestinian and Is- pledges signed by two hun- ists, daily experiencing the raeli freedom are indivisible. dred other Jewish South Af- sheer “tangibility of the apart- In supporting the indivisibil- ricans to representatives from heid Wall” as the delegation’s ity of this freedom struggle, Lubya. youngest member observed, the time for Jewish people to and the everyday impact of be present as partners in it has The pledge affirms signatories’ Israel’s form of settler colo- become abidingly urgent. ■ acknowledgement of the Na- nialism on Palestinian lives kba, recognition of the irrepa- (and on Israeli lives in differ- Heidi Grunebaum works at the rability and extent of Palestin- ent ways) through its current Centre for Humanities Re- ian loss, and an unconditional forms of military-industrial, search, University of the West- commitment to the struggle economic, infrastructural, ern Cape. She can be reached at [email protected] Learn more about the South African visit to Lubya, and the history of the JNF’s involvement in covering the remains of the village, from CNN International’s video coverage of the visit (May 15, 2015): http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/05/15/ pkg-lee-israel-trees-of-regret.cnn Page 2 Page 2.