The Veritas Handbook
Last week The Veritas Handbook was published, an extensive resource guide for anyone interested in gaining a fuller understanding of the almost century-long Palestinian struggle for human rights. Sure to help in actively fighting the oppression we see in the occupied land today, it contains a plethora of resources in its appendix and is a must read for all those in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Below is a press release, while the full handbook can be downloaded for free here. We hope it will be a useful tool in the active preparation for the return of justice!
Today we find ourselves at a crossroad between two crucial events. In one week, the holy month of Ramadan will be commencing and just one week ago, we celebrated the birth of our Awaited Saviour (may Allah hasten his reappearance). Every year, the birthday of our Imam reminds us to assess whether or not, and to what degree, we are in the state of intezar al-Faraj, waiting for our Imam. This is an active rather than passive state as it comes with immense responsibilities, and it is for this reason Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) has said that the greatest deed during the occultation of the Imam is waiting for his reappearance.
One of the critical aspects of this responsibility is to not only recognize the oppressors of our time, but to express our unequivocal opposition to the tyranny and injustice they perpetrate. For if we are not willing to fight against oppression today, what makes us think we will have the strength to fight when our Imam returns? The two are intimately related. Imam Mahdi has said to us, “In my return is your return”. Rather than remaining complicit in our silence, by speaking out against injustice we are effectively paving the path for the return of our Imam, and as Imam Sadiq advises, we must prepare ourselves for the revolution of our Qa’im, even if it means to gather an arrow [for fighting God’s enemies]. (Bihar al-Anwar)
Imam Khomeini too has stressed our responsibility towards oppression in his book Hokumat-i-Islami, in which he says, “Prepare yourselves to be useful to Islam; act as the army for the Imam of the Age in order to be able to serve him in spreading the rule of justice”.
Keeping intezar al-Faraj in mind, the blessed month of Ramadan will soon commence, which means the Day of Quds is just around the corner. The plight of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank as they fight against apartheid is a struggle that speaks to every human being actively campaigning for justice. As such, Imam Khomeini has declared the last Friday of the month of Ramadan as a day of solidarity and awareness for occupied Palestine and its people.
Last week The Veritas Handbook was published, an extensive resource guide for anyone interested in gaining a fuller understanding of the almost century-long Palestinian struggle for human rights. Sure to help in actively fighting the oppression we see in the occupied land today, it contains a plethora of resources in its appendix and is a must read for all those in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Below is a press release, while the full handbook can be downloaded for free here. We hope it will be a useful tool in the active preparation for the return of justice!
July is historically an important month in the struggle for Palestinian human rights. It was in July when the British Empire officially established its control over Palestine through the League of Nations Mandate System (July 24, 1922); it was in July when the first major Zionist terrorist attack against Palestinian civilians occurred (July 26, 1938); it was in July when the International Court of Justice ruled the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank to be illegal in international law (July 9, 2004); and it was also in July when the Palestinian people issued their historic call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel (July 9, 2005), which has formed the basis for the global mobilization against Israeli apartheid in recent years.
These events may at first appear unrelated, but in fact they are significant historical watersheds marking significant junctures in the nearly century-long struggle for Palestinian human rights. The Veritas Handbook team places great emphasis on understanding the last twelve decades as a totality and viewing it as the necessary context for framing the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. As such, we have provided an essential historical background, in addition to extensive resources, which will provide readers with a fuller understanding of the development and progression of the Palestinian struggle for justice and equality.
The Handbook consists of five sections:
1. A Concise History of Palestine: Geared towards educating an uninformed audience while solidifying information that any regular activist may have, it has been designed such that it could be a course for activists with a one hour session, once a week, for ten weeks.
2. Commonly Asked Questions: Aimed towards providing activists with factual, comprehensive answers to commonly asked questions.
3. Perspectives and Debates: Contains scholarly and academic insight by some of the most significant thinkers in the field and seeks to inform activists about the important issues surrounding our work and the controversies that arise. These issues, including the interpretations of Israel’s “right to exist,” approaches to confronting the Israeli occupation regime, non-violent and violent resistance, and the varying proposals for a solution to the Zionist-Palestinian conflict, are all addressed from a variety of perspectives. We have not taken a stance on any of these issues, but instead hope to provide you with the resources to make your own decisions.
4. Appendices: Five appendices with a comprehensive resource guide with numerous sources for accurate information, solidarity organizations, links to printable posters and pamphlets, human rights reports, and primary resources. We strongly suggest referring back to the primary resources and human rights reports that llie at the heart of understanding the reality of the situation. We have also included significant information not easily accessed, such as details about the Palestinian villages destroyed and depopulated during the 1948 Nakba, a list of Palestinian prisoners (men, women, and children) currently held illegally in Israeli detention, and a list of the children murdered by Israel during Operation Cast Lead. This section is best used virtually as it contains links to many resources, and if you do choose to print the handbook, we suggest that you omit this section.
5. Extended Bibliography: Comprehensive bibliography that can be used as a reading list.
We have tried to make the handbook qualitative as opposed to quantitative. Sifting through thousands of resources and materials was an arduous task and although 350 pages may seem endearing, we can assure you that this was after a dire effort to contain the plethora of resources available, choosing the best.
Finally, we wish to emphasize once more that our basic premise for the project is to raise awareness about the struggle for Palestinian human rights. This stems from our uncompromising commitment to justice everywhere, and our strong opposition to all forms of racism, oppression, injustice and persecution. As such, by raising awareness about the situation in Palestine, we have aimed to make The Veritas Handbook an important contribution and resource not only beneficial to the struggle for Palestinian human rights, but also a demonstration that the global struggle for justice and equality requires education, action and effort, not merely words or emotions.
