DOCSLIB.ORG

General Assembly Official Records

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
General Assembly Official Records United Nations A/AC.183/PV.320 General Assembly Official Records Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People 320th meeting Monday, 30 November 2009, 10 a.m. New York Chairman: Mr. Badji........................................ (Senegal) The meeting was called to order at 10.40 a.m. those who have accepted the Committee’s invitation to participate in this solemn meeting. International Day of Solidarity with the Allow me at this point to make a statement on Palestinian People behalf of the Committee. The Chair (spoke in French): Today, the On behalf of the Committee on the Exercise of Committee is holding a special meeting to observe the the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian would like to express our appreciation to everyone here People, in accordance with the provisions of General for attending this special meeting in observance of the Assembly resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977. International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian It is my honour and pleasure to bid a warm People. Our appreciation and greetings also go to those welcome to His Excellency Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, joining us from all over the world through the United President of the General Assembly; His Excellency Nations webcast system. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United When the General Assembly decided on the Nations; His Excellency Mr. Thomas Mayr-Harting, annual observance of this day, in 1977, it was mindful President of the Security Council; His Excellency of the responsibility of the United Nations towards the Mr. Palitha T.B. Kohona, Chairman of the Special Palestinian people and of the need to promote a Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other of Palestine. Today’s gathering is a reaffirmation of the Arabs of the Occupied Territories; His Excellency ongoing commitment of the international community to Mr. Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine achieving that goal. to the United Nations and representing Palestine at this special meeting; and Mr. Haile Menkerios, Assistant Sixty-two years ago, on 29 November 1947, the Secretary-General for Political Affairs. General Assembly, in its resolution 181 (II), provided for the establishment of two States in Mandate I would particularly like to welcome the presence Palestine, one Jewish, one Arab. To date, only one at our meeting of Professor Walid Khalidi, renowned State has come into being. The hopes and aspirations of Palestinian historian and General Secretary of the the Palestinian people for living in their own home Institute for Palestine Studies in Washington, D.C., remain unfulfilled. Generations of Palestinians in the who will be our keynote speaker this morning. West Bank, in East Jerusalem and in Gaza have lived, I also wish to warmly welcome all of you — and continue to live, under the longest military representatives of Member States, intergovernmental occupation in modern history. Palestinian refugees in organizations and civil society organizations and all camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are still yearning This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room U-506. Corrections will be issued in a corrigendum. 09-62553 (E) *0962553* A/AC.183/PV.320 for the end of the plight. Despite these never-ending Developments on the ground clearly demonstrate how challenges, the Palestinian people continue to hope that the occupying Power has been consolidating its hold on one day the dream of living in a State of their own will the Palestinian land and its resources. Since 1967, be realized. Israel has gained control of all aspects of the lives of the Palestinians. The reality of the situation on the ground today is quite bleak. It gives us little reason to believe that the The Palestinian people deserves our solidarity occupation will be brought to an end any time soon. because it is still denied its inalienable national rights, The peace process is stalled. In the very land where a defined by the General Assembly as the right to self- future Palestinian State is supposed to be established, determination without external interference, the right illegal Israeli settlements continue to multiply. The to national independence and sovereignty and the right refusal of the occupying Power to bring a halt to of Palestine refugees to return to their homes and settlement expansion has become a major obstacle to property, from which they had been displaced and the resumption of peace negotiations. uprooted. In East Jerusalem, the construction of settlements The Palestinian people deserves our solidarity all has been accompanied by the demolition of houses, the more because its leadership, under President evictions of Palestinian residents and other Mahmoud Abbas, has vowed to achieve its national discriminatory measures. The situation around the holy goals through peaceful negotiations. And the Palestinian sites of the city, in particular at and around Al-Haram Authority has demonstrated, through concrete steps in Al-Sharif, remains tense. Any illegal or provocative the territory under its jurisdiction, that it is serious in action is prone to escalate into a wave of violence with building Palestinian public institutions in accordance far-reaching implications. with widely accepted norms of transparency and good governance. The construction of the separation wall on occupied Palestinian land continues, in spite of the Our Committee is encouraged by the fact that ruling by the International Court of Justice. Together international solidarity with the Palestinian people is with more than 500 checkpoints and obstacles to stronger than ever. It manifests itself in a multitude of movement throughout the West Bank, the wall stifles actions by Governments and intergovernmental and the daily life of the Palestinians. civil society organizations, as well as by individuals. Many Governments are actively involved in the pursuit The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Be it always been a source of special concern to our through the work of the Quartet, the Security Council, Committee. After being subjected for more than two the General Assembly or other bodies, they are seeking years to an almost total economic blockade, the to make a positive contribution to the two-State Palestinians of Gaza had to endure a three-week solution. military invasion accompanied by extraordinary violence. More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed When, in December 2008, the Israeli army during the Israeli offensive, more than 1,100 of whom invaded Gaza, the international community responded were non-combatants. Among the non-combatants immediately by calling for calm and demanding respect killed were more than 300 children and more than 100 for the lives of innocent civilians. The rocket attacks women. More than 5,000 Palestinians were injured; by Palestinian groups indiscriminately targeting Israeli many were maimed for life. The Israeli side reported civilians were also condemned. In their respective 14 deaths, including four civilians, and 182 injured. resolutions, the Security Council and the General Although the ceasefire has by and large been observed Assembly called for a permanent and durable ceasefire. since the end of the Israeli invasion, the economic The Secretary-General intervened and personally blockade continues, allowing only for some basic relief visited Gaza. in order to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. At this point, Mr. Secretary-General, I would like The Palestinian people needs and deserves our to express our Committee’s sincere thanks for your solidarity. Owing to the compelling imbalance of efforts and your commitment to peace between Israelis power between Israel and the Palestinians, that and Palestinians. The members of the Committee urge courageous people greatly needs our active solidarity. you to continue to see that the United Nations retains 2 09-62553 A/AC.183/PV.320 permanent responsibility for the question of Palestine a two-State solution is achieved, with Israel and until that issue is resolved in all its aspects, in Palestine living side by side in peace and security. accordance with international law and international I now have the honour to give the floor to His legitimacy. Excellency Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, President of the The international community’s solidarity with the General Assembly. Palestinian people was reaffirmed last March at the Mr. Treki (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya), President of donor conference held at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the General Assembly (spoke in Arabic): I would like where pledges of some $4.5 billion were made for to express our deep gratitude to the Committee on the Gaza’s reconstruction, although the bulk of the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian promised funds have still not reached the Palestinian People for its important work in promoting the cause of people in Gaza. We also see a demonstration of the Palestinian people. solidarity in the work of various fact-finding missions undertaken by the United Nations and other The International Day of Solidarity with the organizations in the wake of the war in Gaza. Palestinian people is a solemn occasion for renewing our commitment to a just and lasting solution to the I would like to take advantage of this opportunity question of Palestine and comprehensive peace in the to state here, unequivocally, that our solidarity with the Middle East, a goal that eluded us for far too long, with Palestinian people is not at Israel’s expense. It is disastrous consequences.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • By Celeste Gianni History of Libraries in the Islamic World: a Visual Guide
    History of Libraries in the Islamic World: A Visual Guide by Celeste Gianni History of Libraries in the Islamic World: A Visual Guide by Celeste Gianni Published by Gimiano Editore Via Giannone, 14, Fano (PU) 61032 ©Gimiano Editore, 2016 All rights reserved. Printed in Italy by T41 B, Pesaro (PU) First published in 2016 Publication Data Gianni, Celeste History of Libraries in the Islamic World: A Visual Guide ISBN 978 88 941111 1 8 CONTENTS Preface 7 Introduction 9 Map 1: The First Four Caliphs (10/632 - 40/661) & the Umayyad Caliphate (40/661 - 132/750) 18 Map 2: The ʿAbbasid Caliphate (132/750 - 656/1258) 20 Map 3: Islamic Spain & North African dynasties 24 Map 4: The Samanids (204/819 - 389/999), the Ghaznavids (366/977 - 558/1163) and the Safavids (906/1501 - 1148/1736) 28 Map 5: The Buyids (378/988 - 403/1012) 30 Map 6: The Seljuks (429/1037 - 590/1194) 32 Map 7: The Fatimids (296/909 - 566/1171) 36 Map 8: The Ayyubids (566/1171 - 658/1260) 38 Map 9: The Mamluks (470/1077 - 923/1517) 42 Map 10: After the Mongol Invasion 8th-9th/14th - 15th centuries 46 Map 11: The Mogul Empire (932/1526 - 1273/1857) 48 Map 12: The Ottoman Empire (698/1299 - 1341/1923) up to the 12th/18th century. 50 Map 13: The Ottoman Empire (698/1299 - 1341/1923) from 12th/18th to the 14th/20th century. 54 Bibliography 58 PREFACE This publication is very much a basic tool intended to help different types of libraries by date, each linked to a reference so that researchers working in the field of library studies, and in particular the it would be easier to get to the right source for more details on that history of library development in the Islamic world or in comparative library or institution.
    [Show full text]
  • Scholars, Chroniclers, and Jerusalem Archivists
    Palestine in the Nineteenth Century Library (no. 963 in the catalogue) sources, and its members may be written by a certain Muhammad put forth confidently as the direct Scholars, Chroniclers, ibn `Abd al-Rahman ibn `Abd ancestors of the modern family. al-`Aziz al-Khalidi who, as we can The series begins with Shams deduce from internal evidence, lived al-Din Muhammad ibn `Abdullah in the mid-eleventh century, and al-`Absi al-Dayri al-Maqdisi who and Jerusalem most probably before the Crusader was born in Jerusalem around 1343 occupation of the city in 1099. We and died there on November 2, know that this occupation caused 1424. His father was a merchant, a mass exodus from Jerusalem, originally from a Nablus district Archivists scattering its families in all called al-Dayr. Encouraged by directions. A family tradition has it his father, Muhammad studied in A History of the Khalidis that the Khalidis sought refuge in Jerusalem, Damascus, and Cairo the village of Dayr `Uthman, in the and then became a Hanafite mufti province of Nablus and returned to of Jerusalem and a distinguished Jerusalem after Saladin recaptured scholar and teacher. the city on October 2, 1187. When Two of Muhammad’s five sons they came back, they were known achieved the same renown as as Dayris or Dayri/Khalidis, but this their father: Sa`d al-Din Sa`d who remains a mere possibility because it was born in Jerusalem in 1367 is unattested in the sources. he history of families is a and died in Cairo in 1463 and notoriously difficult subject.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87598-1 - The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, Second Edition Edited by Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim Excerpt More information Introduction The Palestine War lasted less than twenty months, from the United Nations resolution recommending the partition of Palestine in November 1947 to the final armistice agreement signed between Israel and Syria in July 1949. Those twenty months transformed the political landscape of the Middle East forever. Indeed, 1948 may be taken as a defining moment for the region as a whole. Arab Palestine was destroyed and the new state of Israel established. Egypt, Syria and Lebanon suffered outright defeat, Iraq held its lines, and Transjordan won at best a pyrrhic victory. Arab public opinion, unprepared for defeat, let alone a defeat of this magnitude, lost faith in its politicians. Within three years of the end of the Palestine War, the prime ministers of Egypt and Lebanon and the king of Jordan had been assassinated, and the president of Syria and the king of Egypt over- thrown by military coups. No event has marked Arab politics in the second half of the twentieth century more profoundly. The Arab–Israeli wars, the Cold War in the Middle East, the rise of the Palestinian armed struggle, and the politics of peace-making in all of their complexity are a direct con- sequence of the Palestine War. The significance of the Palestine War also lies in the fact that it was the first challenge to face the newly independent states of the Middle East.
    [Show full text]
  • From the Editor by Rashid I. Khalidi Sixty Years Ago the Zionist
    Journal of Palestine Studies issue 147, published in Spring 2008 From the Editor by Rashid I. Khalidi Sixty years ago the Zionist movement launched an all-out military offensive to establish a Jewish state in a country with a two-thirds Arab majority. Victories followed in quick succession as the well-organized,well-armed Haganah battled poorly coordinated Arab irregulars and local militias. On 18 April 1948, after the prelude of the Dayr Yasin massacre and the conquest of Arab villages in the Jerusalem corridor, the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Tiberias was captured and its entire Arab population bused to Transjordan. The attack against the Arab quarters of Haifa, Palestine’s largest city, followed almost immediately; Haifa fell on 22 April. With the conquest of Arab Jaffa several weeks later, the fate of Palestine was sealed, and on 14 May 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed. This issue of JPS commemorates this first crucial phase of the 1948 war with two articles about those first key Zionist victories: Mustafa Abbasi’s “The End of Arab Tiberias” and a reissue of Walid Khalidi’s landmark 1959 article, “The Fall of Haifa,” with a new introduction and footnotes by the author. The two articles have different approaches, with Abbasi focusing especially on the background to the tragedy, tracing the deterioration of relations between Tiberias’s Jewish and Palestinian communities, and Khalidi concentrating more on the immediate military and diplomatic background of the attack on Haifa and the progress of the battle itself. Both articles, however, highlight the extraordinary collusion between the Haganah and Britain, which in each case virtually turned the cities over to the Zionists.
    [Show full text]
  • This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
    This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Sarah R. Irving Intellectual networks, language and knowledge under colonialism: the work of Stephan Stephan, Elias Haddad and Tawfiq Canaan in Palestine, 1909-1948 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures University of Edinburgh 2017 Declaration: This is to certify that that the work contained within has been composed by me and is entirely my own work. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Signed: 16th August 2017 2 Intellectual networks, language and knowledge under colonialism: the work of Stephan Stephan, Elias Haddad and Tawfiq Canaan in Palestine, 1909-1948 Table of Contents
    [Show full text]
  • A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights
    A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights © Copyright 2010, The Veritas Handbook. 1st Edition: July 2010. Online PDF, Cost: $0.00 Cover Photo: Ahmad Mesleh This document may be reproduced and redistributed, in part, or in full, for educational and non- profit purposes only and cannot be used for fundraising or any monetary purposes. We encourage you to distribute the material and print it, while keeping the environment in mind. Photos by Ahmad Mesleh, Jon Elmer, and Zoriah are copyrighted by the authors and used with permission. Please see www.jonelmer.ca, www.ahmadmesleh.wordpress.com and www.zoriah.com for detailed copyright information and more information on these photographers. Excerpts from Rashid Khalidi’s Palestinian Identity, Ben White’s Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide and Norman Finkelstein’s This Time We Went Too Far are also taken with permission of the author and/or publishers and can only be used for the purposes of this handbook. Articles from The Electronic Intifada and PULSE Media have been used with written permission. We claim no rights to the images included or content that has been cited from other online resources. Contact: [email protected] Web: www.veritashandbook.blogspot.com T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 2 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights To make this handbook possible, we would like to thank 1. The Hasbara Handbook and the Hasbara Fellowships 2. The Israel Project’s Global Language Dictionary Both of which served as great inspirations, convincing us of the necessity of this handbook in our plight to establish truth and justice.
    [Show full text]
  • 1948 Arab‒Israeli
    1948 Arab–Israeli War 1 1948 Arab–Israeli War מלחמת or מלחמת העצמאות :The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence (Hebrew ,מלחמת השחרור :, Milkhemet Ha'atzma'ut or Milkhemet HA'sikhror) or War of Liberation (Hebrewהשחרור Milkhemet Hashikhrur) – was the first in a series of wars fought between the State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict. The war commenced upon the termination of the British Mandate of Palestine and the Israeli declaration of independence on 15 May 1948, following a period of civil war in 1947–1948. The fighting took place mostly on the former territory of the British Mandate and for a short time also in the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon.[1] ., al-Nakba) occurred amidst this warﺍﻟﻨﻜﺒﺔ :Much of what Arabs refer to as The Catastrophe (Arabic The war concluded with the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Background Following World War II, on May 14, 1948, the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end. The surrounding Arab nations were also emerging from colonial rule. Transjordan, under the Hashemite ruler Abdullah I, gained independence from Britain in 1946 and was called Jordan, but it remained under heavy British influence. Egypt, while nominally independent, signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 that included provisions by which Britain would maintain a garrison of troops on the Suez Canal. From 1945 on, Egypt attempted to renegotiate the terms of this treaty, which was viewed as a humiliating vestige of colonialism. Lebanon became an independent state in 1943, but French troops would not withdraw until 1946, the same year that Syria won its independence from France.
    [Show full text]
  • United Nations Forum on the Question of Palestine
    UNITED NATIONS FORUM ON THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE 70 Years after 1948 – Lessons to Achieve a Sustainable Peace 17 and 18 May 2018 Trusteeship Council Chamber, United Nations Headquarters, New York KEYNOTE PRESENTATION HANAN ASHRAWI Member of PLO Executive Committee Hanan Ashrawi is a Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar. She is a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee. Dr. Ashrawi served as a member of the Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace process, beginning with the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991. She was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council representing Jerusalem in 1996. She then headed the Legislative Reform Committee between 2000 and 2005. In 2006, she was again elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council representing the list called The Third Way. In 2009, she was elected as member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, making history as the first woman to hold a seat in the highest executive body in Palestine. As a civil society activist, Dr. Ashrawi has founded and headed many organizations and institutions such as the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) and the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN). She has also won numerous prizes and medals, including the Sydney Peace Prize in 2003, the UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Medal in 2005, and the French Commandeur de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2016. She is the author of several books, articles, poems and short stories on Palestinian politics, culture and literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Inter-Religious Relations in a Sectarian Milieu: Fāṭimid Rulers in Relationship to Their Melkite Christian Subjects in Palestine and Egypt
    INTER-RELIGIOUS RELATIONS IN A SECTARIAN MILIEU: FĀṬIMID RULERS IN RELATIONSHIP TO THEIR MELKITE CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS IN PALESTINE AND EGYPT A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of a Doctor of Philosophy in Theological and Religious Studies By Steven Matthew Gertz, M.A. Washington, D.C. August 24, 2020 Copyright 2020 by Steven Matthew Gertz All Rights Reserved ii INTER-RELIGIOUS RELATIONS IN A SECTARIAN MILIEU: FĀṬIMID RULERS IN RELATIONSHIP TO THEIR MELKITE CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS IN PALESTINE AND EGYPT Steven Matthew Gertz, M.A. Thesis Advisor: Daniel Madigan, S.J. ABSTRACT This dissertation undertakes a historical study of the Fāṭimid caliphate in Palestine and Egypt during the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries in order to first, better understand how religious principles (ascertained through the study of law) and politics (ascertained through the study of history) interact in a sectarian milieu, and second, contribute to the study of Islamic religious identity formation as it concerns sectarianism within Islam and inter-religious relations with non- Muslims. It considers the juristic categorization (ḥukm) Fāṭimids employed regarding non-Muslims in the fiqh of the Fāṭimid jurist al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān, and it compares that with current research on Imāmī and Sunnī fiqh concerning non-Muslims. The study finds general agreement between Imāmīs and the Fāṭimids as to how Muslims should think about dhimmīs, with both groups placing dhimmīs in the category of mushrikūn. It also considers the relationship of Fāṭimid legal reasoning to caliphal policies during the reigns of al-ʿAzīz, al-Ḥākim, al-Ẓāhir, and al-Mustanṣir toward Christian dhimmīs, particularly those subjects living within range of Sunnī incursions and rebellions.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Did the Palestinians Leave Revisited
    WHY DID THE PALESTINIANS LEAVE,REVISITED WALID KHALIDI Themyth that the Palestinian exodus of 1948 was triggered by orders from the Arab leaders—a cornerstone of the official Israeli version of the 1948 war and intended to absolve it of responsibility for the refugee problem—dies hard. Thus, it continues to be deployed by apol- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jps/article-pdf/34/2/42/141663/jps_2005_34_2_042.pdf by guest on 02 June 2020 ogists for Israel as a means of blaming the Palestinians for their own fate. Even Benny Morris, one of whose major conclusions in his 1986 The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem wastodiscredit the Israeli claim, cannot seem to let go of it completely. Thus, the conclusion of the substantially revised update of the book, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (2004), states that although the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) and the local National Committees made efforts to block the exodus of army-aged males, “at the same time, they actively promoted the depopulation of villages and towns. Many thousands of Arabs—women, children, and old people ...left, well before battle was joined, as a result of advice and orders from local Arab commanders and officials.... Indeed, already months before the war the Arab states and the AHC had endorsed the removal of dependents from active and potential combat zones....There can be no exaggerating the impor- tance of these early, Arab-initiated evacuations in the demoralization, and eventual exodus, of the remaining rural and urban populations” (pp. 589–90). Given the endurance of this central plank of the Israeli doctrine of 1948, JPS has decided to reprint for the first time a difficult-to-obtain ar- ticle published in July 1959 by Walid Khalidi in a long-defunct periodi- cal of the American University of Beirut (AUB), Middle East Forum.
    [Show full text]
  • MELA Notes 71–72 (Fall 2000–Spring 2001)
    The Khˆalidiyya Library in Jerusalem 1900—2000 † AndreRaymond´ Aix-en-Provence erusalem’s Khˆalidiyya Library is a fascinating institution in two ways: J It is one of the foremost private libraries open to the public in the Arab world, and it is a remarkable example of an Arab cultural institution in Jerusalem as it asserts its Arab character in the face of encroaching assimilation of the city by Israeli occupiers. Thus it seems all the more appropriate to explore this institution and its history on the occasion of its centenary. The Khˆalidˆõ family. It is, needless to say, impossible to mention the Khˆalidiyya Library without recalling the famous Jerusalem family to whom the Library owes its existence. The family traces its ancestry back to the companion of the Prophet Khˆalid ibn al-Walˆõd. Whatever these ancient connections might be, the nisba “Khˆalidˆõ” has been known in Palestine since the seventh century of the Hijra. Family tradition has it that the Khˆalidˆõs left the city of Jerusalem just before it fell into the hands of the Crusaders, and that they sought refuge in Dayr !Uthmˆan in the Nablus region (where their nisba Dayrˆõ originated). The family did not return to Jerusalem until Saladin retook the city. There is copious information (thanks to the Mameluke historian Mujˆõral- Dˆõn) on Muh. ammad ibn !Abdallˆah Shams al-Dˆõn, who died in 1433 at the aged of 90: He was Qˆad.ˆõ ’l-Qud.ˆa! and Shaykh al-Islˆam, and his reputation was such that he was invited in 1416 to go to Cairo as Qˆadˆõ by the great Mameluke sultan Mu!ayyad Shaykh.
    [Show full text]
  • “A Young Man of Promise” Winner of the 2018 Ibrahim Dakkak Award for Outstanding Essay on Jerusalem Perspective
    Winner of the 2018 Ibrahim Dakkak Award for Outstanding Essay on Jerusalem “A Young Man of If one has heard of Stephan Hanna Stephan at all, it is probably in connection with his Promise” ethnographic writings, published in the Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society Finding a Place for (JPOS) in the 1920s and 1930s.1 Stephan was Stephan Hanna one of what Salim Tamari tentatively calls a “Canaan Circle,” the nativist anthropologists Stephan in the History of Mandate Palestine, among whom the best 2 of Mandate Palestine known is Tawfiq Canaan. Along with Elias Haddad, Omar Salih al-Barghuti, Khalil Sarah Irving Totah, and others, they described and analyzed rural Palestinian culture and customs, seeing themselves as recording a disappearing way of life which, in its diversity, reflected the influences of myriad civilizations.3 This body of work, revived by Palestinian nationalist folklorists in the 1970s, is regarded as key to demonstrating the depth and longevity of Palestinian culture and identity, thus earning Stephan and his companions a place in the nationalist pantheon. However, as the research presented here highlights, his life story embodies two main themes above and beyond his ethnographic work. The first of these is Stephan’s contribution to Palestinian intellectual production during the Mandate era, which was greater than he has been given credit for. The second is a foregrounding of the complexity of life under the Mandate, in which relations between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and members of the British administration overlapped on a daily basis, defying clear lines and easy ex post facto assumptions about personal and professional Ibrahim Dakkak Award for relations between the different communities.
    [Show full text]