My letters to the IHT & the LATimes RE When Arabs Tweet By Rami G. Khouri & U.S. filmmakers craft documentary on genocide survivors

RE: When Arabs Tweet By Rami G. Khouri
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/opinion/23iht-edkhouri.html?ref=global

Dear Sir,

Is Rami G. Khouri advising Western leaders to divest from the Middle East- to give up on Arab youth before Arabs even have a chance to figure out how to be heard locally- as well as globally? I hope not! Yes new information age technology can be used as a toy and a distraction- but one never knows what might happen next, or who might be able to figure out how to help disarm the hostility and ignorance that leads to war and terror and religious tyranny.

Somewhere a bright child is learning how to think clearly- how speak coherently and compassionately about things that matter... somewhere a poet dreams... somewhere a dancer is learning how to build a stage.... somewhere a future scientist is exploring neurones for the first time... Somewhere a serious professional is perfecting his craft... Somewhere is every where and any where potential might hide- in every human being.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

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RE: U.S. filmmakers craft documentary on genocide survivors, 'The Last Survivor' chronicles how four people — survivors of the Holocaust, Rwanda, Darfur or Congo — rebound from atrocities and find new meaning in their lives. It was recently shown in Israel.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-film-qa-20100723,0,5771836.story

Dear Editor,

Israel systemically persecutes , impoverishes and displaces the people of historic Palestine for six decades and counting... BUT Palestinians are edited out of a compelling documentary about genocide. Edited out.... echoing a pervasively cruel daily reality as sovereign Israel pushes indigenous non-Jews into forced exile and then refuses to respect their inalienable legal right to return to original homes and lands.

Israel has been obviously creating and exasperating the largest, longest running refugee crisis in the world today: How many more Palestinians have to be murdered, and how many more Palestinians homes and families will be destroyed, how many more Palestinians have to be pushed out into forced exile and demonized because they dare object before one is allowed to whisper the word "genocide" to describe this crime?

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

In 1948 United Nations (page 4 on the PDF file http://unispal.un.org/pdfs/AC1SR207.pdf ) Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte pointed out that "It would be an offence against the principles of justice if those innocent victims [Palestinian refugees] could not return to their homes while [Zionist] immigrants flowed into Palestine to take their place."

UN Resolution 194 from 1948 : The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible

"The United Nations had certainly not intended that the Jewish State should rid itself of its Arab citizens" 5 May 1949 Application of Israel for admission to membership in the United Nations http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/85255e950050831085255e95004fa9c/1db943e43c280a26052565fa004d8174?OpenDocument

Refugees and the Right of Return

"Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside. What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them." http://www.plomission.us/index.php?page=core-issues-3

THE Arab Peace Initiative

Refugees, Borders & Jerusalem...

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

Omar Baddar: "But, as I noted earlier, this incoherent attempt at legal and moral gymnastics is but a thin veil for the serious racism problem that exists in Israel. Today, some 50% of Israeli high schoolers oppose giving equal rights to Arabs, 68% say they would refuse to live in the same building as an Arab, and chants of "death to Arabs" are, according to the Israeli Supreme Court, "all too common," leading to concerns about public safety. That's the sort of environment in which discovering that the person one had sex with was an Arab can lead to rape charges and a conviction." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-baddar/rape-conviction-a-prepost_b_655705.html

"The Palestinian Revolution was not designed merely to lift one yoke from the neck of Palestinians. It was designed to lift all of the yokes of oppression, including those that come from within." Ray Hanania Palestinians should not be forced to chose between faith and freedom
http://palestinenote.com/cs/blogs/blogs/archive/2010/07/19/palestinians-should-not-be-forced-to-chose-between-faith-and-freedom.aspx

The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.