

Thank you for this honor. A South African activist named Steve Biko said something I think of often when I consider the role of Palestinian-American intellectuals and artists in our society. Biko said, “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”
I think, basically, what he is implying is that the worst thing that a person with more political, economic, or military might can do to you is make you lose faith in yourself or hope that you will ever have the chance of achieving justice.
There is one thing that unites Palestinian-Americans, which is made up of people who come from not only different religious backgrounds and classes, but also have differing political affiliations. The thing that unites us is the story we tell ourselves and our children about not only where we’ve come from, but also where we are going. We decide what the next chapter in the Palestinian-American story will be.
I was told all my life by Palestinians and others that I would never make it in American theatre if I wrote about Palestinian issues, that it would be impossible for me to have an impact or a voice. Whatever small success I have achieved has been in spite of the constant messages of defeatism that are rife within our community. Had I not had two wonderful and unique parents who believed in me and encouraged my dreams, I never would have had the courage to even try. So, as we continue to assimilate, I ask those of you who have children who want to pursue a non-traditional career path to think about giving them a message other than, “You’ll never make it in a field that requires creativity or innovation. Better be a doctor or lawyer. Better play it safe.”
What if we told our children instead, “There is no door that is closed to you. I know you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Be prepared to work hard. In fact, you might have to work twice as hard as anyone else. But, if there is anyone who is going to succeed, I know it will be you.” What if we imparted in our children the knowledge that there is a difference between making a good living and living a good life?
Arts are an essential part of the assimilation of every ethnic group in America. If we take the experience of the African-American movement as our model and it is a good one, we see you have an African-American president after you have the Cosby show. You get the Cosby show after African-American comics really make it in the comedy world. They are able to infiltrate that world only after African-American writers make inroads in literature, telling their stories in a language so strong that the human truth of their experiences cannot be denied.
Palestinian-American artists are excelling in many forms including theatre, film, visual arts, and comedy. We who are pioneering in those fields need your financial support, but we need more than money. We need your time. I encourage you to make it a priority to go and see the work of our artists. We are devoting our lives to telling our stories, because we know that if we do not, others will tell our stories for us. Soon enough (and perhaps sooner than we think), I believe an Arab-American can be not only Miss America, but also Mr. or Ms. President. He or she may be the grandchild of someone in this room tonight. Thank you.
1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.
2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:
I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.
II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.
III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
November 10, 2010 ![]() UPDATE: International Children's Conference ''Protective Environment - Active Participation'' ![]() | ![]() | |
![]() | Under the auspices of the Prime Minister, Dr. Salam Fayyad, Defence for Children International - Palestine Section, in cooperation with DCI International Executive Council and DCI - International Secretariat - Geneva, is conducting its international child conference:
Under the Motto Child participation is one of the four basic principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Planning in the field of child rights stems from the importance of treating children not as objects of interest, as a target for intervention in the area of welfare, or as a group in need of help, but rather as bearers of rights: thus, caregivers must abide by moral and legal obligations to ensure the realization of those rights.
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Jordanians, like the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims all over the world, reacted with shock and anger to the news about the unfolding wave of terror in Iraq.
The most shocking, heinous crime was committed last Sunday in a Baghdad church and resulted in dozens killed, including clergymen.
Jordan went beyond the expressions of condemnation. It extended a helping hand, offering to treat the injured in its hospitals.
Such monstrous attacks are not strange to Jordan. A few years ago, our country was targeted by the same brand of terrorists who claim to represent Islam and Muslims, when Muslims and the world at large would be a better place without them.
On November 9, 2005, such terrorists targeted three hotels in Amman, killing dozens, injuring many others and, for a short period of time, shattering the sense of peace and security that Jordanians used to enjoy. That faith was restored, but at a cost: now metal detectors, a very uncommon scene in Amman before, stand at the entrance of malls, hotels and other buildings.
Security authorities took the fight against terror to a new level, targeting terrorists wherever they are in collaboration with friendly countries of the world, including Iraq, the scene of the church attack and the stage of uncontrolled terror that regularly takes innocent lives.
This Tuesday, on November 9, as Jordanians mark the fifth anniversary of the Amman blasts, they will head to the polls to vote for a new Parliament. The fact that the elections and the anniversary fall on the same day should be a reminder that five years ago, some misguided individuals chose destruction over construction, death over life, in the process killing the very Islamic values they claim to defend.
The images of the carnage coming from Iraq are a grim reminder of the 2005 Amman attacks. But they should also serve as a reminder to Jordanians that on election day, they should vote for the country’s peace, security, stability and better future.
Palestinians have always prided themselves on being among the highest educated among all Arabs, but if this was true in the past, it is not true anymore, and it is certainly not true for Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Sure the illiteracy rate is very low. And it is true that Palestinians continue to seek basic and higher education, but in the last few decades, the level of Palestinian education has suffered, and local universities had to lower their standards in order to be able to accept the recent high school graduates.
Refocus on education has been a few years in the making. Many senior educators say that some of the problems they had to deal with were due to the repeated closures during the Intifadas, the lack of respect for authority, the occupiers, as well as some of the decisions made by the Hamas-led government in 2007.
Salam Fayyad, who took over as acting prime minister shortly after the split between the West Bank and Gaza, has worked hard at making education one of his government’s top priorities. The Fayyad administration made sure that resources were made available to reduce overcrowdedness, by taking on an ambitious construction programme. Tens of new schools and hundreds of new classrooms were built in a short period of time.
But the emphasis on education was not limited to construction. A concerted effort was made to revise the existing rote-based educational programme, the ministry introduced totally new programmes, new computer labs were added and serious efforts were exerted to digitise the entire educational system.
A five-year well-thought-out educational plan was designed and implemented. The plan looks at education with a more holistic approach, with serious thought given to the need to augment present programmes with preschool education, and the introduction of new methodologies that focus on critical thinking.
The Palestinian version of Sesame Street, funded by USAID, filled the screen of Palestine TV, radio stations will soon air a programme targeting parents and a website for parents, children and early education practitioners will be launched early next year.
While the priority given education is meant first and foremost to benefit the Palestinian people, it has finally put to rest attempts by Israel and its international promoters to paint Palestinians in an anti-educational stereotype. Efforts to label the Palestinian educational effort as promoting hatred and bigotry have become a joke to anyone following the tremendous push for moderation and wholesome learning by the Palestinian leadership.
Not only have Fayyad and his government succeeded in shaking off the falsehoods about what is happening in the Palestinian educational field, now the Israelis are guilty of exactly some of the accusations they were levelling at Palestinians. Israeli intolerance, for example, was crystal clear a month ago when it was revealed that Palestinians are willing to participate in an experiment in which the two historical narratives (the Palestinian and the Israeli) are presented in a straightforward and truthful m?nner. When the organisers of this experiment attempted to get the approval of the Israeli ministry of education, the idea was rejected, without the relevant Israeli officials even looking at the content that made up the parallel narratives.
This week, there was yet another example of Israeli intolerance and opposition to serious educational attempts by Palestinians. The Israeli authorities banned Fayyad from attending a ceremony celebrating the revamping of 15 Palestinian schools, some of which lie within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries. These schools, which have been neglected and abandoned for years by the Israel-run municipality and the Israeli ministry of education, were fixed with Palestinian money in record time.
A former Israeli Knesset member, Yossi Sarid, summed it up in a tongue and cheek article in Haaretz titled “Why is Salam Fayyad Israel’s public enemy number one”, in which he argued that the Palestinian prime minister is killing Israel with his moderation.
The state of Palestine will need a lot of hard work to become a reality. All successful modern states have given priority to education. If the present Palestinian attention to education continues, I am sure that the dream of an independent state will become a reality much sooner than many think.
http://www.americantaskforce.org/mr_ghassan_salameh_accepts_award_excellence_business
Task Force Board members
Ladies and gentlemen
I am very humbled to be part of this outstanding group of honorees, their achievements and contributions are unbelievable.
When Dr. Asali informed me of the award, I felt a range of emotions: pride, joy, excitement, and a touch of fear…
Yes a touch of fear.
Six years ago, after 32 years in this country and only after I made Sr. Partner, I finally got the courage to publicly admit that I am Palestinian American. The fear of being labeled of being stereotyped, the fear for my kids, and the fear for my job stopped me from coming out - and for years I was tormented by it.
I want to thank Ziad and the work he and many of you are doing to give people like me the courage to be unafraid, to be proud to be Palestinian American, to be able to openly speak about the suffering of Palestinians, and at the same time be a loyal U.S citizen who cares deeply about this great country.
A Japanese poet once wrote “The world grows stronger as each story is told". And my story is similar to that of many here tonight and other Palestinians in countries around the world who were uprooted and forced to find new homes.
My parents fled Palestine to Lebanon in 1948, my dad lost both his eyes in a tragic accident shortly thereafter. So my Mom suddenly had to become the head of our household, care for four boys, and my father, and take responsibility for our survival. And… Like many other Palestinian refugees, we relied on the United Nations for schooling, and a monthly allotment of food, clothing and other essentials. My Mom also worked as a seamstress doing piecemeal work, and my oldest brother had to quit school at 15 to work full time.
In 1972, and barely 20 I left home and came to the U.S to study. I put myself through college, helped my family immigrate and settle here. And after 38 years of hard work, my old family, and my new family are living the American dream. But the real dream we want to see is for all Palestinians to have a home of their own.
I feel very fortunate, privileged and honored to be receiving this award. I would not have been able to make it without the help and generosity of many people and institutions. As Secretary Clinton has said, it takes a village… it really does take a village. In my case it takes a whole country, this country, to make me who I am today.
I am so thankful and appreciative, and unbelievably proud to be a citizen of the United States of America. I am absolutely certain that there is no other place on earth where someone like me, the son of Palestinian refugees growing up below the poverty line, dependent on the United Nations for food, shelter, education and survival can make it to the top of one of the most prestigious companies in the world, and be honored by you tonight.
And for that I am very grateful.
Date posted: November 01, 2010 By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH | |
Ramallah is booming. With each new passing day another restaurant, another hotel or another high fashion boutique is opening up in this bustling West Bank city. Road works have plagued motorists and pedestrians alike for months now, with new roads opened while others have been rehabilitated and widened, saplings planted strategically along the islands between the lanes and freshly painted lines designating either side of the dark asphalt streets. There is no doubt, Ramallah is thriving, the urban expansion accelerated at an almost frantic speed. One blink and another building is rising towards the clouds.
This is all good and fancy if it weren't for the sinister implications behind it. All cities expand at the peripheries, spreading out to accommodate a growing population and its equally growing demands. But in Ramallah, the peripheries are all but locked down, with the expansion abnormally swelling in the center. This is because the size and shape of Palestinian cities was defined long ago with the swift stroke of a pen during the Oslo Accords. Areas A, B, and C have become the letters from hell for Palestinians who are now shackled to agreements that bind them in an ever consolidated occupation rather than bring them closer to freedom. So, instead of the urban development expanding horizontally as well as vertically, there is mostly vertical construction, high rise buildings swallowing up the already cramped space, leaving at times mere slivers of sunshine pushing through the shadows of uncharacteristically large edifices.
The expansion is unnatural, not only because of the forced urban planning that prohibits natural growth outwards but because the fear is that, as Ramallah grows and flourishes, it will take the place of Palestine's real capital, Jerusalem. For all practical purposes, this has begun to happen already.
Last month, the first luxury chain hotel opened up in the city, the prestigious Movenpick is huge, with bars, restaurants and a spacious swimming pool. The Swiss chain hotel hardly caters to the Palestinians but rather to the many diplomats, NGO and aid agency workers and businesspeople that have been increasingly flocking to Ramallah for meetings and donor pledges over the past several months. The phenomenal number of new restaurants in Ramallah is also mind boggling given the actual Palestinian population of the city and its suburbs of nearly 300,000. While there is a small sector of Ramallah-residents who do have the means to frequent the city's pricey restaurants, it is the expatriate population that the owners are really looking to.
Again, this is great in any growing economy, except in this case, it indirectly means the exclusion of Jerusalem. As Ramallah blooms, Palestinian east Jerusalem inversely declines and there is not much the Palestinians are or can do about it. It is no secret that Israel has, for years, been systematically isolating Jerusalem from its West Bank surroundings in an attempt to sever ties between what they deem as their united capital and Palestinian aspirations to make it their own. As a result, the city has been physically separated from Ramallah (and Bethlehem) by airtight checkpoints and the separation wall, which keeps West Bankers almost completely out. Then there is the economic exclusion, which entails the ban on most Palestinian goods entering Jerusalem, the high property taxes imposed on Jerusalemites that not only bar them from flourishing but basically keep them struggling just to keep their heads above water. Restrictions imposed on construction, travel, residency rights and businesses not to mention the inextricable dependency of the Palestinian economy on Israel in Jerusalem have made it all but impossible to create a strong, viable and independent economic system in the city. Even small gestures such as Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's efforts to rehabilitate two Palestinian schools in Jerusalem were met with angry opposition by Israel's right wing elements that reject any form of Palestinian Authority involvement in the city.
In an attempt to even further isolate Palestinians from Jerusalem, a bill proposed by a right wing Israeli minister is calling for a ban of Palestinian tour guides in the city, saying they present "anti-Israeli positions" to their tourist groups. If the bill goes through, this would mean official tourists groups would only have the option of state-approved Israeli tour guides churning out the Israeli version of Jerusalem's history. Palestinian history [both Muslim and Christian] would be minimized at best, completely disregarded at worst.
There are plenty more examples as to why Ramallah, as opposed to Jerusalem, is growing so quickly. The political implications are as calculated as they are insidious. The world is in agreement that the Palestinians should have their own state. Ramallah would definitely be a part of it. Jerusalem, on the other hand is the stickiest of sticky issues and Israel will hear nothing of any Palestinian involvement in there. Israel is doing its utmost to exclude Palestinians both physically and politically from the debate on Jerusalem by forcing its way into every nook and cranny of its eastern sector. With no real access to Jerusalem, Ramallah has been chosen, mostly by default, as the next best choice to build Palestine.
Still, the battle is not over. Down the line, Ramallah's growth can be just that – the growth of a major city, in spite of the hurdles it faces in urban expansion. The world, and Israel, can never be allowed to think, even for a moment that Palestinians will accept anything less than Jerusalem at their capital, no matter how much money flows into Ramallah. In these times, vigilance is required so that this is never an option.
Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.orgIsmail’s talent was quite apparent since childhood. In his Palestinian hometown, Lydda, he used to portray the beautiful landscape of Palestine and other subjects that attracted his attention. A year after the calamity that struck the Palestinian people in 1948, Ismail resumed painting while still living in a refugee camp. His topics at that early stage were emanating from the painful reality the Palestinian refugees were living in.
In 1950, Ismail left for Cairo, Egypt, where he commenced his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1954, moved to Rome to coninue his artistic studies at the Academy of Fine Arts.
The Palestinian issue, with its tragic images, was his main subject during the fifties of this century...READ MORE
UNRWA New York Director apologises and retracts "inappropriate and wrong" comments on the right of return and again underlines they don't represent the views of UNRWA
3 November 2010
Dear Mr. Gunness,
I am writing following my realisation – from media reports, statements and letters from individuals, organisations and governments – that part of the remarks I delivered at a conference in Washington hosted by the National Council on US – Arab Relations, on 22 October, 2010, were inappropriate and wrong. Those remarks did not represent UNRWA’s views.
I express my sincere regrets and apologies over any harm that my words may have done to the cause of the Palestine refugees and for any offence I may have caused. I have spent much of my long career working for the Palestinian people, and defending their rights, in different professional capacities. It is definitely not my belief that the refugees should give up on their basic rights, including the right of return.
I wish to put this letter on the public record out of concern that what I said in Washington could be interpreted in ways that negatively affect the reputation and work of UNRWA, an organisation I have been proud to serve since July 2002. The Agency is at liberty to use my statement in whatever ways it sees fit. There is no need for a reply.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Whitley
![]() | 24 October 2010![]() To mark United Nations Day UNRWA has launched a new multimedia micro-site that invites visitors into the lives of Palestine refugees. The site features a series of short films from UNRWA's five fields of operation. |