Comparing the Palestinian project to the Israeli one, Khaled al-Samara, the head of the flag project’s technical committee, pointed to the inequality in resources available in both projects. “We had just one designer, one person responsible for the technical committee and four tailors,” he said. “The Israelis had four designers and forty tailors working on their flag.” He added that the main challenge the Palestinian flag makers had faced had been the lack of manpower during late-night shifts when large, heavy sections of the flag had to be folded and stored away.
Funding for the project came partly from the Palestinian community in Syria, with thousands of individuals contributing small amounts. However, with the fabric alone costing more than SYP 1m, organisers sought further funding from private Syrian and Palestinian companies, who put up the bulk of the funds. Still, Bitari said that the thousands of small donations from individuals were very important. “It shows the world that the Palestinian people still care about the return to their homeland,” he said.16 May 2012
| June 2008 - Society |
| June 2008 |
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Raising a Banner of Hope 
Words Erik Mohns A group of Palestinian refugees in Syria broke world records this May when they unfolded the world’s largest flag in Damascus. The 232 x 116-metre Palestinian flag was displayed in an open space in New Zahira south of Damascus between May 23 and 25 and drew hundreds of Palestinian and Syrian visitors who came to admire the huge expanse of green, white, red and black cloth in the scorching summer heat. The flag’s story started in the West Bank town of Khalil, where a group of young Palestinians came up with the idea of sewing the world’s largest national flag in 2007. However, lack of funds meant they were unable to execute the project. At the same time, a Philippino business woman with strong ties to Israel financed the production a 200 x 100-metre Israeli flag which was registered as the world’s largest last November. Had it not been for the worldwide web and the determination of a group of Palestinian refugees in Syria, the story would have ended there. However, when the Palestinian Return League (PRL) in Damascus, a Syrian-Palestinian NGO, read about the Israeli-Palestinian “flag struggle” on the Internet, they decided to carry out the plan that had been developed in Khalil a year earlier. The PRL team set up shop on a small square behind the al-Waseem Mosque in Yarmouk Camp, using four sewing machines borrowed by a PRL supporter and working non-stop to put the large pieces of coloured cloth together. Every day for 27 days, PRL members, friends and volunteers worked from late afternoon until the early morning hours to complete the 26,912-square-metre flag. Organisers also worked with the Syrian Arab Popular League and a few Syrians, both to stress the pan-Arab dimension of the Palestinian issue and to facilitate administrative processes with the authorities. The PRL is now assessing the possibility of taking the flag to other Syrian cities, or even to Jordan and Lebanon, depending on transport costs.
National unity Abdallah Bitari, a PRL member and one of the project organisers, explained that the project had several objectives. “The size of the flag represents the size of historic Palestine,” he explained. “Every square metre of the flag represents a square kilometre of pre-1948 Palestine. “But it also stands for the unity of the Palestinian people and of the Palestinian homeland,” he added. “Our Palestinian homeland does not consist of a series of isolated parts, but of the whole of historic Palestine as a unified homeland.” Samara described the flag project as “crucial” for Palestinian unity and a strong statement against the political infighting currently dividing the Palestinian national movement in the occupied territories. “The 27,000 square metres of the flag stands for the whole Palestinian territory,” he said.
Participation from the private sector also allowed organisers to reject donations from the various Palestinian factions and keep the project independent, while at the same time emphasising its national dimension at a time when the strongest factions, Hamas and Fatah, are deeply divided. “Some PRL members are part of Palestinian factions, but they set their allegiances aside during the project and acted independently. We are all bound to Palestine and this is what unites us,” Bitari said. Project organisers have little faith in the ongoing negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. For them, all settlements that ignore the right of return are likely to be rejected by the Palestinian refugee community and will therefore fail to resolve the conflict. “These negotiations will not fulfil Palestinian demands as they give people just 1 percent of their rights,” Bitari said. “I think these negotiations won’t lead anywhere.” “For us, it is not about achieving a peace agreement,” Samara said. “Our problem will only be settled if we can return to our homeland. This is how we see the issue as Palestinians. This flag states our position. We want to achieve something for the whole Palestinian people and we don’t want to negotiate about it.” As this magazine went to print, project organisers said that they are working on providing Guinness World Records with photos and testimonies to register the flag as the world’s largest after the organisation questioned the validity of the entry. |
16 May 2012
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