Miko Peled
Israeli Jewish Scholar
Book Author, Writer, Speaker,
Human Rights Activist.
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Book(s):
- “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine”
(2016) - Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five”
(2017)
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Social Media:
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Talks by Miko Peled
Miko Peled Speech on “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine”
Organized by the MIT Center for International Studies Starr Forum (March 2013)
NOTABLE QUOTE
“… There’s one story my mother told me many times while I was growing up. She was born and raised in Jerusalem — she’s 86 now, still living there. She was 22 years old in 1948. The war was going on. My father — her husband — was on the front lines, fighting for the cause. She was already a mother, living in a small apartment with her mother and my older siblings in Jerusalem. Now, when I say ‘Jerusalem,’ I don’t mean the Old City. I mean the neighborhoods outside the Old City — what’s now considered West Jerusalem. That later became the Israeli side of Jerusalem. These were well-to-do Palestinian neighborhoods, with beautiful, distinct homes. If you’ve been to Jerusalem, you’ve probably seen them. When the Zionist forces came in, they took over those neighborhoods. They forced the Palestinian residents into exile, and those homes were made available for Israeli families. My mother was offered one of those homes. And I can’t remember when she first told me this story, but I heard it throughout my life.
When I was working on the book, we talked about it more. She always tells it with the same emotion. She says, ‘How could I possibly take the home of another family? How could I move into the home of another mother, who now has to raise her children in exile?’ Then she talks about the loot. How the Zionist forces filled trucks with furniture, rugs, rare manuscripts, and thousands of books. And she would say, “How were they not ashamed?” She always expresses this shame at seeing Israelis do this. She says when they came into these homes, the coffee was still warm on the table. In other words, the families had just fled or were just forced out …”
ABOUT MIKO PELED
Miko Peled is an Israeli peace activist. ‘Miko Peled is an author, writer, speaker, and human rights activist living in the United States. He is considered by many to be one of the clearest voices calling for justice in Palestine, support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and the creation of a single democracy with equal rights in all of historic Palestine. Miko is also a contributor to several online publications (Mint Press, The Electronic Intifada, Democracy Now, Mondoweiss), authors a blog ( mikopeled.com ), and produces The Miko Peled Podcast, all of which he dedicated to advocating for the creation of one democratic state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.
Miko’s first book, “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine”, is an autobiographical work taking the reader through the life of Peled’s family since his grandparents immigrated to Palestine in the early 20th century, describing their work and their life in detail while revealing his own journey towards a defender of Palestinian rights. Miko’s second book, “Injustice: The Story of The Holy Land Foundation Five”, describes the persecution and then the closure of what was America’s largest Muslim charity organization, The Holy Land Foundation, and the subsequent trials and convictions of five Palestinian Muslim-Americans.
He travels regularly to Palestine where he speaks and works with the popular resistance, the BDS movement, and other justice groups. As a result, he has been arrested several times by the Israeli authorities for his activism.”
(source: Amazon book biography)
