This year at small park BIG RUN we are raising awareness of how Israeli state policies have been labelled by Amnesty International and Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem as apartheid.
Here we want to highlight how indigenous Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and apartheid, with no control over their land or natural resources, are highly vulnerable to the actions of settlers who defended by the Israeli army, regularly tear down trees that Palestinian farmers depend on for their livelihoods.
This year, we are really pleased to be welcoming Mahmoud Zwahre, an academic and grassroots activist at small park BIG RUN at 3pm on Saturday 17th June.
He will plant a tree, native to the UK, and talk to us about the daily fight that Palestinian farmers face to hold on to their trees their land and their livelihood.
Home is a place you can go back to at will where your history sits
Our beautiful park welcoming the spring, holding tight till midsummer’s weekend. It reminds us of the freedom we have to simply take a stroll. It is part of our home.
The wonderful poem below brings to the fore the torment of being forced from your home and the things we might miss.
So join us from small park BIG RUN this summer, midday June 17th to midday June 18th, to celebrate and show solidarity with Palestinian people forced from their homes still waiting to return.
More details coming soon.
I have left my history clothes in the cupboard plants in the garden who will eat the beans now? the litany of what I should have brought gets longer: a stick to walk with dried fruit matches better shoes door key but they could change the locks and now I think: scissors scissors of course if only I had scissors. What exact thing should I have brought to remind me of me?
We can’t look at once in all directions and can be seen for miles unless we lie flat and still in clothes the colour of ground all we have as defence is how we move and what we have on our backs if we are found we could be lost we must stay lost to find the way beetles ants we creep up the slope scan the hillside for men dogs we cannot rest too long those who pass us might forget us or take our place shouts in the distance thundering feet
I am ablaze with dry mouth sandpapered rough thickly sticky lips cracked tree bark throat closes over words unspoken I flash a dripping tap a bubbling spring a watering can a wave that never comes never crashes someone gives us bread sweetness spreads as I chew now I can wash my feet tension skimmed off but not poured out I reach out to feel the soil beneath me fall into desperate dark, someone drops a pan and I start up shaking how do I know it is safe?
Home is a place you can go back to at will where your history sits where the language spoken is your language days punctuated by those small routines kitchen cupboards with the spices you need to cook a pan big enough for the family the locked door the shuttered window rattle of army trucks roared into the village it’s not my home now people roam round it plan a future that doesn’t include me.
Last Saturday we were delighted to welcome Alexi Dimond , local councillor for Gleadless Valley ward, to open the run.
He spoke very movingly and powerfully about the importance of striving for justice for refugees in general and Palestinian people in particular . His full speech is here
Bit by bit the pieces are coming together – more runner registrations this week , a few more marshals (still not enough though: fancy it? And on top of this rather prosaic administrative jigsaw, is a little bit of magic as we start to see and hear all the art and love people bring to make small park BIG RUN such a wonderful event .
Here is a little taste of Body of Sound, who once again will sing at Turners Hill (hopefully not in the rain this year!), at 8pm on Saturday June 18th. You will have to be there to hear more.
A short programme of films in the walled garden, from Saturday midday till 4 and Sunday 11.30 till 1.30. See our programme
There are many films about Palestinians as refugees, so central has this issue been to the Palestinian experience since 1948 – and some would argue since 1917, when the British mandate started. This selection is inevitably biased: based on what we have easy access to, the available time to review their relevance and a suitable programme length for small park BIG RUN. But we hope it gives the essence and breadth of that experience as well as its contemporary relevance.
The films we are showing have all been made by Badil (badil.org), a refugee rights organisation in the West Bank. Badil make many films and we recommend you review them all! These particular films have been made over a period of time to convey information about the plight of Palestinians as refugees, the theme for small park BIG RUN in 2022.
We start with Nakba in numbers which is a fast paced run through of the numbers of people who were expelled or have been forcibly displaced during the Nakba.
As you will see in the next films, expulsion is an ongoing process and pressures brought to bare on Palestinians by Israel are designed to force them to leave. But their resistance is both courageous and long lived as shown in We Will Never Leave and Here We Will Remain.
For those that live outside of Palestine and Israel, in refugee camps in the Lebanon, life is harsh and the craving to leave to find a better life is the focus of the next two short films: No place to be and Stranded in Lebanon.
Shatila refugee camp
Last but one, we have a longer film (16 minutes), The Sun is Due to Rise. This film takes us through both the initial creation of refugees between 1947 and 1949 and subsequent policies enacted by Israel to force Palestinian people from their homes.
Handala, the iconic character created by Naji al-Ali, demanding the right of return
We finish with a determined cry for the right to return in Why we should return.
We hope these films are informative and inspire you to continue your support for Palestinian people to fight for justice.
The theme for small park BIG RUN this year is Palestinians as refugees. It is central to the Palestinian experience. No where is this better expressed than in our interviews with Kholoud and Sahar, who talk in such moving way about the right of return.
Entrance to Aida camp with the iconic key of return laid above
There are diasporas all over the world – the largest outside the middle east is in Chile. But overwhelming refugees are based either in Palestine – also known as Internally Displaced Persons – and surrounding countries
You can find out more about where Palestinian refugees live here and also from Badil, a refugee rights centre in the West Bank.
Throughout small park BIG RUN we will be showing a selection of films from Badil where you can find out more about life as a Palestinian refugee. See our programme
small park BIG RUN’s theme this year is Palestinians as refugees – and being a refugee is a chucking out and an exclusion – the very opposite of inclusivity.
But for us, inclusivity is at the heart of what the ‘run’ is about.
We want to make sure that anyone can take part in small park BIG RUN: you do not have to run – we have had walkers and hoppers and unicyclists too. And we have had people who need help to get round.
If you think this sort of event is not for you, please think again. We would love to hep you take part. We have an hour on the Saturday (4-5) and an hour on the Sunday (11-12) when we will make sure there will be someone to help.
So if you think you will need help getting round please email or enter here and tick the box ‘I will need support’ and we will get in touch.
