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On the fourth day of Sabeel's 6th International Conference: The Forgotten Faithful, who are the Palestinian Christians, Dr. Khalil Nakhleh received one of the loudest and most prolonged thunders of applause from over 330 International ecumenical Christians for his passionate disertation. Dr. Nakhleh spoke to us in Ramallah and he is a Palestinian socio-economic anthropologist and Team Leader of Mu'assasat, which is devoted to strengthening human rights and good governance in the Occupied Territories. He is also a prolific writer and his latest work is "In Search of Palestinian Identity: A Personal Odyssey." "You are here because you believe injustice has been done and you want to do something. This is not a struggle between religions, it is a struggle to expose the colonial settler movement, namely Zionism which has been ethnically cleansing the indigenous population by coercive, illegal and military means. The native population has been re-grouped as disperse refugees, displaced people on our land, we are 2nd class citizens who have endured under prolonged military and economic occupation for the last 40 years. "This is not a religious struggle, it is a struggle against the structure that allows and condones occupation and oppression of others. This is a struggle against an insatiable ethnic cleansing to achieve a Jewish presence in Palestine. The struggle is against the colonial-settler movement-Zionism-which for nearly a century has combined military, economic, legal, psychological and environmental means to disperse and displace Palestinians from their land. "It is a grave and threatening challenge we face and I propose a People's Strategy-not merely to end the occupation but work against the very structure of the ideology of ethnic cleansing and transfer of non-Jews. The forceful transfer of the native population into groups of dispersed refugees outside of their land is our Internal struggle. "Palestinians have been relegated to a status of 2nd class citizens, they are unwelcome foreignors in their home land: the Palestinian communities in Israel, the West Bank of the Jordan River, East Jerusalem and Gaza. "There also is the External struggle we must fight-specifically in the USA but not only there. We urge you to coalesce with like minded Jews, secularists and people of all faiths in your countries to spear head the movement to dismantle occupation appetites. "This is a struggle against the structures that allows and condones the occupation and suppression of any other: a structure whose basis is a system of apartheid and an ideology of exclusion: a structure that is nurtured by an insatiable ideology and practice of ethnic cleansing and population transfer, in order to achieve "Jewish purity" in the land of Palestine. "What is needed is a united platform with the clear and unambiguous position to dismantle Israeli occupation. The International community has been usurped by the US under threat of sanctions. I propose a "coalition of the committed" that would discard the two state solution which has become inane, redundant, unrealizable, and totally undermined by internationally sanctioned Israeli apartheid policies. "I propose that the two-state solution be rejected because it is unjust, unresponsive to peoples need for freedom, independent living and their right to unfettered development, and because it legitimizes historical and the ongoing of stealing of the lands of the indigenous Palestinian communities. "All people should struggle to transform the land where all the people can live free and equal with all rights. Let the people decide what to call this domain. When we achieve this we will have also liberated our minds. The problem is colonization, the problem began in 1914 with Balfour and exacerbated in 1948." "When we liberate the mind and the land, we will know the essence of liberation theology!"-Khalil Nakhleh, Palestinian socio-economic anthropologist, Team Leader of Mu'assasat, which is devoted to sterngtheing human rights and good governance in the Occupied Territories, prolific writer, latest work In Search of Palestinian Identity: A Personal Odyssey. There is one piece of property that has been gerrymandered by concrete walls and electrified fences and it already extends over 200 miles with 99% of The Wall on legally owned Palestinian property. There are 480 Palestinian communities in the West Bank and each has one or more checkpoints. The indigenous people of the land must also get permits to exit which can be denied at any time without any reason by 21 year old soldiers. There is one piece of property that Palestinian Christians and Muslims and Jews all can share. The only way to peace and security is through justice and mercy. When International Law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is honored, the walls in mens minds will fall. The walls in mens minds must fall, before the walls men build with their hands ever can.
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