The key is a symbol of the Right of Return (Awda in Arabic) for Palestinian refugees – a right enshrined in International Law.
Edinburgh Action for Palestine hold a short period of Reflection at the Awda Key, Palmerston Place (beside St Mary’s Cathedral), Edinburgh, at 6:15 on the 24th of each month.
We are there in sunshine and rain!
Visitors to Edinburgh – Palestinian, Israeli and others – also visit the key, see our gallery below.
On Sunday, 30th October, Edinburgh Action for Palestine held a commemoration of the massacre of over 100 inhabitants of the Palestinian village of al-Dawayima on 29th October 1948. It was held meet by a memorial plaque for al-Dawayima which was laid by the the Lord Provost in 1998 on Melville Drive.
Earlier this year, a letter by one of the Israeli soldiers who had taken part in that massacre was published in full. It stated: “There was no battle and no resistance (and no Egyptians). The first conquerors killed from eighty to a hundred Arabs [including] women and children. The children were killed by smashing of their skulls with sticks. Is it possible to shout about Deir Yassin and be silent about something much worse?” See here for a Mondoweiss article with more details.
