Date: April 2016
Mariam cooking while on tour
The following letter is from 86-year- old Mariam Fathalla, a stateless Palestinian from a refugee camps in Lebanon. It is addressed to the eleven Congressional signers of the “Leahy letter”, asking secretary of State John Kerry to report on Israeli and Egyptian violations of human rights. Mariam personally took the letter
on April 26, 2016, to members of the US Congress and their staffers. In at least one case, this act brought tears to the eyes of a staffer.
April 25, 2016
Hon. [name]
Congressional address
Washington, DC
Dear [title] [name],
I hope you care whether US policy supports human rights violations. I want to tell you about such violations, because they happened to me.
On May 14, 1948, the “birthday” of “Israel”, my village of al-Zeeb in northern Palestine was invaded by heavily armed Zionist troops, and all of the inhabitants were expelled. I was 18 years old. After some of my unarmed neighbors were massacred by the invaders, I and my husband and our families fled to Lebanon along with the rest of the town. By the end of the year, our 4,000-year- old community had been leveled to the ground.
[title] [name], this is a gross human rights violation known as ethnic cleansing or genocide. More than half the Arab Palestinians in Palestine were killed or expelled and more than half of the cities, towns and villages of Palestine were made to disappear, a crime that we Palestinians call al-Nakba (the Catastrophe).
I have lived for the last 68 years in a refugee camp in south Lebanon called Ein el-Helweh, waiting to return to my home in al-Zeeb, as US and international law requires. During that time Israel has invaded south Lebanon multiple times and even bombed our crowded refugee camp, killing lots of unarmed civilians, including children. Al-Nakba did not end in 1948, and it continues today.
Some good American people invited me to come to the US to tell our story to the US and Canadian people. I have seen your beautiful country, and I have met many Palestinians who have made the US and Canada their second homes. Our situation in Lebanon is not as good. We are stateless and have few rights. But we are not seeking another country. We have a home and a country, and we want to return to it, and this is our right.
[title] [name], US support is enabling Israel to continue its violation of our rights. We want only to return to our homes in Palestine and to live there in freedom. I want to see my beloved town of al-Zeeb again and to watch my children and grandchildren continue our family there. What is the US policy about this? What can you do to help us?
Mariam Fathalla
Resident of Ein el-Helweh Refugee Camp
Sidon, Lebanon