Catastrophe

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here.

Every Friday I receive in my email inbox a Shabbat reading list from Jewish Currents, "a magazine committed to the rich tradition of thought, activism, and culture of the Jewish left." Last Friday, the reading list consisted of articles and links about the crisis unfolding in Palestine/Israel. I found one recommended online event organized by The Middle East Institute and Project48 to be particularly informative.

For an instance, I had the misconception that the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland was a result of the wars between Israel and the Arab states. In the video, the historian Rashid Khalidi corrected that error. 300,000 Palestinains were expelled before the wars, and were followed by another 450,000 Palestinians after the wars began. The 9.1 million Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons is the largest in the world, and the displacement is still going on. The poet Mohammed El-Kurd, one of the panelists, explained that his late grandmother had been evicted violently from her home three times since 1948. He himself is fighting eviction from his home in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem.

Jewish Currents: "For a deep, yet concise, understanding of the Nakba and how it is an ongoing process of systematic displacement—most acutely seen now with the planned expulsions of families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah—I recommend this intergenerational web event featuring an all-Palestinian panel, with a stirring keynote from Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Hear Dr. Rashid Khalidi, Lubnah Shomali from the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Mohammed El-Kurd from Sheikh Jarrah (pre-order his book Rifqa), and Umar Al-Ghubari from Zochrot unpack the ongoing Nakba and offer practical ways of addressing this epic injustice, emphasizing the return of Palestinian refugees as necessary for achieving freedom and equity for Palestinians in their homeland, and a sustainable future for all people in Palestine/Israel."

Jewish Currents is not alone in Jewish opinion. Jewish American cartoonist Eli Valley, in his interview with Singaporean media scholar Cherian George, declares that “The Jewish tradition that I value is towards the liberation of communities. It’s anti-empire, anti-fascism. It’s the Passover story, the Exodus from tyranny....[T[here is the very strong modern Jewish tradition of applying our own particularist Jewish philosophy toward universalist human liberation movements.”

The situation and rights of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) is very much on the mind of the Singapore Unbound and Gaudy Boy team as we prepare for the Singapore and Malaysia launch of the novel The Sweetest Fruits by Vietnamese American author Monique Truong, who proudly identifies as a former refugee, and for the publication of a month-long series of writings on the theme of "Sharing Borders" on our blog. One of the book launch events is jointly organized with Advocates for Refugees-SG, a ground-up & volunteer-led movement based in Singapore, working for the cause of refugees. We hope the event, to be held on June 26, will amplify their work and the cause.

From tomorrow, May 21, SP Blog publishes a series of creative and critical writings highlighting the complex issues surrounding the idea of borders, starting with an in-depth interview with Monique Truong and culminating with a review of Aravind Adiga's new novel Amnesty, featuring in the month a story by Palestinian author Nayrouz Qarmout, an essay on fields by Singaporean author and artist Diana Rahim, and an essay on Sandra Cisneros by our own Fiction Reader Sharmini Aphrodite, among other works. June 20 is World Refugee Day, and we wish to play our part to support the rights of all refugees.

Jee Leong Koh
May 20, 2021

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