Meet the Author: Dr Ang Swee Chai will be organized at Gerakbudaya, Petaling Jaya on 30th October 2016 (Sunday).

* For more information, please visit this website https://www.facebook.com/events/1702774446707697/

Meet the Author: Dr. Ang Swee Chai, the woman behind From Beirut to Jerusalem (Chinese version). This bilingual event will be held in English and Mandarin.

From Beirut to Jerusalem, what kind of a journey?

The land of Palestine became the state of Israel in 1948. The experience of invasion and occupation, expulsion from their homeland, massacre, death and destruction, became integral to the collective memory of millions of Palestinians who were (and are) forced into exile abroad, whilst their families remain in occupied Palestine.

These people are calling for a free and peaceful homeland of Palestine.

These people have a common belief that they never forget even in their dreams: they are going back from Beirut to Jerusalem one day.

From Beirut to Jerusalem, what the book is about:

Israel invaded Beirut in 1982. The Israeli military surrounded the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra-Shatila and blocked all of the entrances, three thousand of Palestinian in the camps were murdered during the massacre.

Dr Ang Swee Chai is a witness and survivor of the tragedy. In order to disclose the truth of the massacred to the world, she decided to take the long journey, from Beirut to Jerusalem, armed with her first hand information, to testify at the Kahan Commission of Inquiry.

Since then, she has traveled back and forth many times on the road. This journey has become a routine in her provision of treatment and healing to the injured Palestinian and others. She recorded these experiences and put them into words. Hence, now we have the book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, a book calling for fairness and justice, love and truth.

Dr Ang Swee Chai, who is she?

She is a Penang-born Singaporean.

She left Singapore in 1977, accompanying her politically persecuted husband who escaped to London, and lived in exile there. After years of exile, she, as one of the 12 major respondents in the documentary, To Singapore with Love, talked about her attachment to her homeland and her regret for not being able to return home.

In 2014, the Media Development Authority of Singapore prohibited public screening of the documentary in the name of national security.

In 2016, her fellow Singaporeans rejected the negative attitude of the authorities. In doing so they translated her book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, into Chinese. The book originally published twenty-seven years ago, aside from its other multi-lingual versions, finally has its Chinese translation published.

与洪瑞钗医生有约：《从贝鲁特到耶路撒冷》中文版发布会

从贝鲁特到耶路撒冷，是段怎样的旅程？

1948年，巴勒斯坦领土成为以色列。成千上万的巴勒斯坦人被迫流亡国外，或留在被以色列占领的巴勒斯坦。侵略、占领、流亡、屠杀、死亡、破坏等经验，已成为巴勒斯坦人的集体记忆。

他们要求一个自由、和平的巴勒斯坦。而流亡到黎巴嫩贝鲁特的巴勒斯坦难民有同样的信念：他们有一天将从贝鲁特回到耶路撒冷。

《从贝鲁特到耶路撒冷》这本书：

以色列在1982年入侵贝鲁特，以色列军队包围萨布拉（Sabra）和沙提拉（Shatila）这两个巴勒斯坦难民营，封堵所有出口，3000名巴勒斯坦难民惨遭屠杀。

洪瑞钗医生是这场悲剧的见证者和幸存者，为了向世人揭示屠杀真相，她决定从贝鲁特启程到耶路撒冷，在Kahan调查委员会上作证。

自此，她多次往返这条路线，治疗受伤的巴勒斯坦人。她以文字记载这些经验，遂成了这本《从贝鲁特到耶路撒冷》——一本要求公正、正义、爱和真相的书，并已被翻译成多种语言。

洪瑞钗医生是谁？

她是位在槟城出生的新加坡人。1977年，她陪同人权律师丈夫流亡到伦敦，寻求政治庇护。新加坡导演陈彬彬在2013年将12名新加坡政治流亡者的故事拍成《星国恋》纪录片，洪瑞钗也是受访者之一，在片中谈及自己和家乡的距离，以及她至今仍无法回乡的遗憾。

2014年，新加坡当局以“威胁国安”为由，禁止该片在新加坡上映。

2016年，在《从贝鲁特到耶路撒冷》出版将近27年、并翻译多国语言后，终于出版了中文译本。