Showing posts with label Palestine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palestine. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Remembering Bassem of Bil'in

Photomontage made on 13 April 2010

Click on image to enlarge

Bassem Abu Rahma of Bil'in (el Pheel)

19 December 1977 - 17 April 2009


People sometimes ask, "Where is Palestine's Gandhi?"

A little research soon shows that there have been many Palestinian Gandhis, extraordinary people who risked their lives to protect their families and their land without resorting to violence themselves.
Many Palestinian heroes have been murdered and there are countless more locked up in Israeli jails, arrested and detained without charge or trial.

Saturday 17 April marked the first anniversary of the death of Bassem Abu Rahma of Bil'in village on the West Bank in Palestine. He was
killed during a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid wall, by a gas cannister shot by an IDF soldier, which hit him in the chest.

Bassem, also known as "Pheel" was one of those special beings who lived among the people of Bil'in for just over 30 years, and will always be remembered by them as a symbol of joy, unity and peaceful resistence.

Watch this beautiful video that his friends made about his life.




His name was Bassem

His name was Basem, which means smile, and that is how he greeted everyone. But we all called him ‘Pheel’, which means elephant because he had the body the size of an elephant. But Basem had the heart of a child.

He loved everyone, and because of his sweetness and ability to make us laugh, everyone loved him. Basem was everyone’s friend: the children talk about how he would play with them, scare them and then make them laugh. He would tend the garden in the playground and bring toys and books to the kindergarten. The old ladies in the village talk about how he used to visit, to ask after them and see if they needed anything. In the village, he seemed to be everywhere at once. He would pop in to say hello, take one puff of the nargila, and be off to his next spot. The morning he was killed he went to the house of Hamis, whose skull had been broken at a previous demonstration three months ago by a tear gas canister projectile – the same weapon that would kill Basem.

Basem woke Hamis and gave him his medicine, then off he went to visit another friend in the village who is ill with cancer. Then a little girl from the village wanted a pineapple but couldn’t find any in the local stores. So Basem went to Ramallah to get a pineapple and was back before noon for the Friday prayers and the weekly demonstration against the theft of our land by the apartheid wall. Pheel never missed a demonstration; he participated in all the activities and creative actions in Bilin.

He would always talk to the soldiers as human beings. Before he was hit he was calling for the soldiers to stop shooting because there were goats near the fence and he was worried for them. Then a woman in front of him was hit. He yelled to the commander to stop shooting because someone was wounded. He expected the soldiers to understand and stop shooting. Instead, they shot him too.

People came to his funeral from all the surrounding villages to show Basem that they loved him as much as he had loved them. But those of us from Bil’in kept looking around for him, expecting him to be walking with us.

Pheel, you were everyone’s friend. We always knew we loved you, but didn’t realize how much we would miss you until we lost you. As Bil’in has become the symbol of Palestine’s popular resistance, you are the symbol of Bil’in. Sweet Pheel, Rest in Peace, we will continue in your footsteps.

— Mohammad Khatib, member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

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Monday, March 15, 2010

Remembering Rachel - I'm here because I care

Rachel Corrie
10 April 1979 - 16 March 2003

We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs.
We have got to understand that they are us. We are them.


Tomorrow, 16 March, will mark the day seven years ago that Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist, was brutally crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer while opposing the bulldozing of a Palestinian home in Rafah.

She was an extraordinary human being who realised her life task from a very early age. Her compassion and deep love for humanity remain an inspiration to us all.

An exerpt from Rachel's 5th grade speech at a Conference on World Hunger in 1990:



"I’m here for other children.
I’m here because I care.
I’m here because children everywhere are suffering and because forty thousand people die each day from hunger.
I’m here because those people are mostly children.
We have got to understand that the poor are all around us and we are ignoring them.
We have got to understand that these deaths are preventable.
We have got to understand that people in third world countries think and care and smile and cry just like us.
We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs.
We have got to understand that they are us. We are them.
My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000.
My dream is to give the poor a chance.
My dream is to save the 40,000 people who die each day.
My dream can and will come true if we all look into the future and see the light that shines there.
If we ignore hunger, that light will go out.
If we all help and work together, it will grow and burn free with the potential of tomorrow."

In an e-mail sent to her parents from Rafah, Palestine shortly before her death, she wrote about the suffering of the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation:

"This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don't think it's an extremist thing to do anymore. I really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my co-workers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not what they are asking for now. This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me."

Ramallah to name street after U.S. activist Rachel Corrie

Rachel Corrie Street sign in Ramallah, dedicated on March 16,  2010. (Photo: RCF)
Rachel Corrie Street sign in Ramallah, dedicated on March 16, 2010. (Photo: RCF)

The parents of American activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer in Gaza, took part in a ceremony in Ramallah on Tuesday, where a street is being named after Rachel.

The ceremony was attended by Palestinian anti-fence protesters as well as members of the International Solidarity Movement, the organization to which Rachel Corrie belonged...
Read in full here.

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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Feedback after the 9 February healing event focusing on Gaza

Unified consciousness in action - Flight of the Golden Rays
Photograph by Sandra Critelli

9 February 2009 - Full Moon/Partial Lunar Eclipse

On Feb 9, the Earth Heal Clinic facilitated a three-hour distant healing event for 220 participants around the world, with a special focus on Gaza.

The date chosen for the event coincided with the fourth event in a sequence of Maya Full Moon sacred site meditations that began on 13 November 2008 and will continue on all full moons leading to December 2012. More info at this link on the Earth Heal blog.

The event followed a month of intense healing work for seriously injured individuals and those still trapped in the rubble in Gaza, as well as with the combined energy field of the besieged and traumatised region, during and just after the recent blitzkrieg by the Israeli military.

The treatment process on 9 February was facilitated by Edna Spennato in Brazil, with the assistance of five surrogates on five different continents.

As a group of beings with a unified intention to assist in healing on a collective level, as well as physical bodies in which we dwell in the material world, those who take part of our group distant healing events provide crucial support to the non-physical beings of light who direct the treatment process for the highest good for all.

Our role as a group is to anchor and ground the incoming healing energy and to release through our bodies the disharmonic energies which are cleared on behalf of all the participants and the collective energy field (the morphic field) of the planet.

Many of the participants reported experiencing intense energies and sensations during and after the treatment, as well as noticeably intense detoxification processes in the days following the event.

Some of the feedback received after the event is shown below, and can be read in full at these links:

Feedback from the facilitator and surrogates after the 9 Feb 2009 event


Feedback from participants after the 9 Feb 2009 event


The energy field of the planet as a whole is always our focus during group work, but this time the collective energy field of Gaza was a particular focus, with some work also done for Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as other aspects of life on our planet.

More info about what came up during the treatment process for participants and on the planetary healing level will be posted at the Earth Heal blog soon, and in the meantime, you are invited to join us for our upcoming distant healing events on the Equinox 20 March, the Full Moon of 9 April and the Full Moon of 9 May.

Info about the Equinox event will be posted here in the next day or two.

Extracts from some of the feedback received after the event

Feedback from the facilitator

Sunday, Feb 15

(The feedback sent in after the event)
...gives an overall picture of lots of detoxing (for the participants), followed by feelings of well being.

Participants definitely felt the effects on quite a physical level this time, and I have a sense that as a group, we were able to really release some of the trauma from the collective consciousness of Gaza as well as other areas of our beloved planet....

(There were a total of six cats!) in the room for much of the treatment process... I had a very strong sense that they were tuning in on behalf of the more than one thousand animals shot at Gaza Zoo by IDF troops over a period of three days, because the zoo massacre was one of the core focuses chosen by the collective higher self and our unseen helpers for the work done on Feb 9.

The zoo was a scene of great trauma and horror, and what happened there can be viewed as a microcosm of the macrocosm, because just like the animals trapped in their cages being shot at for sport, the actual people of Gaza were also trapped behind that terrible separation wall, with nowhere to escape to, and were also deliberately targeted by sharp shooters, even those carrying white flags.

Like some of the participants, I experienced tiredness after the event... much yawning during and after the end of the treatment, a need for more hours of sleep for a few days, and a headache which developed about two days after the event (Wednesday), not too bad, just an ache really, and it went away after two days. This was followed by a major detox... feeling a little cranky thereafter... and have been feeling generally a bit pooped ...

Edna Spennato, Praia do Frances, Brazil.


Feedback from the surrogates

Tuesday, Feb 10

In the days before the treatment, I was feeling a bit queasy. Yet it was with a surprising sense of joy and excitement that I tuned into the treatment last night. The joy came from a sense that, as a group, we are able to contribute to healing in the Middle East. The Earth Heal goup energy is becoming more and more formidable. So much light came pouring in through the collective!

Paarl, South Africa


I was very aware of grounding the area, which included Ireland. Explicit images of the area being bathed in light anchored both below and above were presented.There was a feeling of strong resolve and that collectively we are made of sterner stuff than we imagine, to stand firm and hold heads high. Physically I felt a prodding sensation in my middle back. I had the obligatory pressure headache leading up to the treatment, which dissipated as we began and I went into meditation...

London, UK


Wed, Feb 11

Have celebrated every full moon since 1971, but this one seemed unusually special. We were traveling back via auto from Arizona desert and awoke in Kanab between Lake Powell and Bryce Canyon, the land of red rocks in Utah with just a scant covering of snow. BEAUTY everywhere, inside and out. Spent day in silence driving through such splendor. My attention was on wildfires of Australia and healing Gaza. Tears of both sorrow and JOY streamed down my cheeks. Was in tune with all that abounds.

Mitakuye Oyasin - We are all related............and so it is.

Arizona desert, Utah, USA


Feedback from participants

Tues, Feb 10

... I felt like speaking my truth and saying what I need. Maybe that relates to the people of Gaza. Then I dreamed I was crawling through a wrecked subway system. Still very tired today...craving Mediterranean food...

Johannesburg, South Africa

Wed, Feb 11

...Serious detox: emotional, physical, mental. A strong realisation that life is short and that we have to work with what is here, right now, in the present.... It was nice though to dive in a little deeper than usual, a bit raw, but good - made me feel alive!

Berlin, Germany

...very tired. I fell asleep on the couch. ...Yesterday my back and neck were stiff and aching, today I am feeling fit again.

Zurndorf, Austria

...I was pretty sick that day. Couldn't do a thing and was cranky. Sore all over, didn't exercise for the first time in weeks. Not even a stroll around the block. Now I feel good.

Vancouver, Canada

Thurs, Feb 12

....I am feeling very anxious and jittery - for no real reason....as my own situation is absolutely fine....

Klein Karoo, South Africa


...that evening and for the next day I was feeling really sick - not the migraine that I often get after treatments, but really nauseous, low energy, exhausted. I left work early to go home and sleep....

Tromso, Norway


Fri, Feb 13

I spent most of Monday feeling nauseous and exhausted, and then had a manic run home to make it to the bathroom to 'release'. Tuesday, both my husband and I felt as if we had been hit by a bus and couldn't figure out why. Again, I was detoxing and was very irritable and impatient. I even canceled a client, as I just couldn't face doing the treatment.

I woke up so much better on Wednesday!

It is interesting that (my husband) felt the same and yet he wasn't involved in the session, and I hadn't actually told him about it...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

... I was really tired that day and the next two as well, requiring naps in the afternoon.That night and those after I had very vivid and powerful dreams. Lots of detox going on on many levels....

New Jersey, USA

For 3 days after the event, I woke up with quite strong detox-type headaches, but today am fine again! As for the event, I felt really tired about half an hour or so before it started, and took myself to bed for a while...

Cardiff, Wales

Sat, Feb 14

...I had quite an amazing experience. On the day, I felt rather low in energy and restless. I went to bed early and tuned into the session. My body had all kinds of sensations, such as tingling in the feet, ankles and on my face. My upper back was sore and my arms felt really heavy. I drifted into sleep and slept well. All seemed fine until Thursday (yesterday). At about 1 pm, my body went into detox and I had diarrhea, headache and a raised temperature. I spent the afternoon on the couch ...

Today, Friday, I woke up with low energy and a headache and am not in the mood for much, so am taking it easy!...I am feeling more whole and not as fragmented as before... this focus seems to have helped...

Cape Town, South Africa

Sun, Feb 15

We both had slight detox, and thirst, and both feeling in a good mood.... Urge to order things...

Berlin, Germany

...Each event is so different and I Iearn something new each time, and I'm so happy to be a part of them. I feel like I'm getting back to my roots with each one. ... I don't mind the detox, I know I need it and others do as well. I know that there are things within me being lifted, barriers that have held me back for so long... The past couple of days I have begun to see myself more clearly, those things that have caused me pain and fear....

...I don't feel so alone as I did in the past. And I finally feel that all these things that I've experienced over the years and do now, are very very real....

New Jersey, USA

Related links

>> Feedback from the facilitator and surrogates after the 9 Feb 2009 event

>> Feedback from participants after the 9 Feb 2009 event

>> Maya Full Moon Sacred Site Attunements Leading to December 2012

>> The Great Ocean Migration of the Golden Rays

>> Join us for the 20 March Equinox event - all the links

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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Beloved Children of Gaza


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Photomontage by Edna Spennato, 10 Jan 2009.

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