My letter to CSM RE Sandy Tolan's "For Arab and Jew, a new beginning... "

Spring in Palestine

by Ismail Shammout

RE: For Arab and Jew, a new beginning : After generations of strife, the holy land yearns for people with heart and vision to think in a different way, to heal in a new way, and to make real the vision for a just peace. By Sandy Tolan / April 21, 2011
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0421/For-Arab-and-Jew-a-new-beginning

RELATED: Top 5 issues on the table for Israeli-Palestinian talks

Dear Editor,

I very much appreciated Sandy Tolan's " For Arab and Jew, a new beginning : After generations of strife, the holy land yearns for people with heart and vision to think in a different way, to heal in a new way, and to make real the vision for a just peace."

A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict would most certainly help people worldwide head towards healing: I very much hope all who are reaching out to advocate a just and lasting peace in the holy land today realize the crucial importance of respecting The Golden Rule and universal basic human rights, including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees very real right to return to original homes and lands to live in peace.

I also very much hope that most Palestinian refugees (finally free to go where ever they want) elect to live, work and thrive as loyal citizens either where they are right now, or in the new Arab Palestine that is rising like a Phoenix reborn thanks to the Palestinian state building efforts currently under way. The free flow of culture and commerce guarantees that both Israel and Palestine can actually become a win-win situation- a side by side success and inspiring proof that fair and just laws tend to empower decency, dignity, diplomacy, peace and real progress.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab, American homemaker & poet

Notes

Growing Gardens for Palestine

Restraint on Majority Rule: "There is going to be a religious right. There is a religious right here. There is a religious right in Israel. There will be a religious right in all these emerging Arab and Islamic democracies and they have a role to play within the rule of law- but the rule of law with the understanding of the rights of minorities and the rights of the individual." Hussein Ibish of The American Task Force on Palestine

ATFP Resources on Palestinian State and Institution Building

ATFP's unique collection of online resources on Palestinian state and institution building, including hundreds of relevant documents

PA will get majority UN-recognition for Palestinian state

"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

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

The holy land yearns for people with heart and vision to think in a different way, to heal in a new way, and to make real the vision for a just peace.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0421/For-Arab-and-Jew-a-new-beginning

For Arab and Jew, a new beginning

After generations of strife, the holy land yearns for people with heart and vision to think in a different way, to heal in a new way, and to make real the vision for a just peace.

By Sandy Tolan / April 21, 2011 Los Angeles

With each child shot down with a stone in his hand, or on her way home from the bakery; with each cafe turned to carnage when a young man explodes himself upon the innocent; with each shot and countershot, crude rocket launch, or barrage of missiles sent in retribution – with each terrible burst of anger and pain, something beautiful is lost.

Life, of course; that's what's been sacrificed, more than 100,000 times by some estimates, since the tragedy unfolded six decades ago.

But more than human life has been lost in these tragic years. Also diminished are immeasurable quantities of creativity, curiosity, joy, openness, and possibility. Imagine the other paths that might have opened had so many lives not been cut short – and so many dreams not been smashed into shards across a broken landscape of Arab and Jew.

After generations of strife, the holy land yearns for people with heart and vision to think in a different way, to heal in a new way, and to make real the vision for a just peace.

The status quo is unacceptable

For now, the decisions of diplomacy are in the hands of the hardened, the unimaginative, the angry, the weak, the fearful, and the near-defeated. The truth, for the moment, is not encouraging.

For Palestinians, this June marks 44 years under occupation. Their hope of a state to call home has shriveled, along with the land base itself. It began with a vision of a single secular democratic state of Arabs and Jews on the area that now comprises Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. It became a historic compromise for a nation on 22 percent of that land. The reality is limited autonomy and movement on just 10 percent – a "state of leftovers" amid expanding housing projects and segregated roads.

RELATED: Top 5 issues on the table for Israeli-Palestinian talks

For Israelis, the dream of feeling truly safe and secure, accepted as a neighbor by historic enemies, is scarcely more real than it was in 1949, when the armistice was brokered after the first of many wars. Now a wall has arisen, and security guards no longer stand at sidewalk cafes. But a sense of genuine safety and acceptance remains a desert mirage.

For one people, an endless occupation upon their shrinking land base; for another, an illusory calm, as the winds of revolution blow in from the West and East. For both peoples, and for us on the outside, there is one thing to agree on: The status quo is unacceptable. Real change may seem impossible, but it must come. And if the recent past is a teacher, it may come more swiftly, and more unpredictably, than any self-styled leader or expert could say....READ MORE

Art, diplomatically deployed

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/04/tarek_al-ghoussein

Our words have a way of echoing out into either war or peace....

Our words have a way of echoing out into either war or peace.... Anne Selden Annab's letters & comments published March 2011- July 2009

UNWRA Photo galleries - A day in Aida refugee camp

Aida camp, near the West Bank town of Bethlehem was established in 1950 by refugees from the Jerusalem and Hebron areas. Today Aida hosts more than 4,700 people. The camp has not grown along with the refugee population, and is severely overcrowded. The Israeli settlement of Gilo (far left) sits on the other side of the Barrier, in close proximity to the Palestinian towns of Beit Jala and al Walaja. The settlement was built inside the West Bank, in contravention of international law. Photo credit: Alaa Ghosheh/UNRWA Image 14 of 15

Photo galleries - A day in Aida refugee camp

www.unrwa.org

Arabic version here: http://www.unrwa.org/atemplate.php?id=958

The Guardian: Israel and Palestine don't need more friends – but the peace process does

"...Gradually I became aware of the enormous gulf that separates those of us who view the conflict from afar – whether from our perch on liberal newspapers or in well-meaning thinktanks – from those who have actually to solve the problem. From this distance, the solution might seem painfully obvious: any cool-headed moderate can see where the midpoint between the two sides lies. But that is to reckon without the pressures on the negotiators within their own team, from a public opinion always ready to cry sell-out, and from the US. And that's even before you get to the demands of the other side.

Gill dreams of creating a "community of shadow negotiators" – people around the world who understand not the narrative of the other so much as the predicament of the peacemakers themselves. It is a noble aim, one that would serve as a corrective to the armies of outsiders whose current contribution is simply to fuel the anger of the two sides, rather than to find a way out – inflaming grievances rather than finding solutions. What's needed are people who understand the price that has to be paid and who are ready to support it.

Those apart from this conflict who claim to care about one or both peoples should take note. There is no shortage of friends of the Israelis or advocates of the Palestinians. What's missing are friends of peace itself." Jonathan Freedland

Israel and Palestine don't need more friends – but the peace process does

Roleplaying PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat made me see how easily one slips from problem-solving to point-scoring

NYTimes: Past Holds a Clue to Goldstone’s Shift on the Gaza War

"In trying to understand why he published an essay on April 1 in The Washington Post retracting his harshest accusation against Israel and toughening his stand toward Hamas and the United Nations — an essay that has been rejected by the fellow members of his investigation panel — the South African precedent is important. For Mr. Goldstone, it was the model of how the Gaza report would work. Instead, it helped drive Israeli politics farther to the right, gave fuel to Israel’s enemies and brought no notable censure on Hamas." Ethan Bronner and Jennifer Medina

Past Holds a Clue to Goldstone’s Shift on the Gaza War

USA Today: The case against an 'Arab Mandela'

"The second problem with the Arab Mandela logic advanced by Friedman, et al, is that it is too parsimonious. It is like saying that — barring a Nelson-Mandela-like figure, who only comes along maybe once every 100 years — democracy is doomed to fail. It assumes that for democratic institutions to work in divided societies, you need a Nobel Peace Prize winner in office. But how does one explain all the post-Soviet states that successfully transitioned to democracy without a Lech Walesa or Vaclav Havel at the helm? (Can anyone remember the name of Slovenia’s first democratic leader? Janez Drnovsek.) This line of reasoning is naive, to the point of being paternalistic and elitist. What the Arab region needs is not so much inspirational leaders but rather capable, competent and non-corrupt technocrats to build institutions and do the exceedingly mundane stuff that is real nation-building." Lionel Beehner

The case against an 'Arab Mandela'

The ‘Real’ Palestine By Harriet Straughen for MIFTAH

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=23377&CategoryId=13

The ‘Real’ Palestine

Date posted: April 20, 2011

By Harriet Straughen for MIFTAH

Over the last few weeks I have been repeatedly told that Ramallah is not the ‘real’ Palestine. For this, I was told, I must travel further afield, go north, go south, go into Nablus or Hebron. I was unsure of what people meant when they said the ‘real’ Palestine. Do they mean more conservative communities? Or towns where there is not the easy access to cocktails and continental cuisine such as that found in Ramallah? Do they mean the villages separated by the wall?

The other day, I finally experienced the ‘real’ Palestine. It was not in the tense streets of Hebron or amongst the active demonstration in Bil’in, but here in Ramallah, in Al Amary refugee camp.

As I walked around the quiet and cramped alleyways of the refugee camp, I struck up a conversation (with the help of someone who could translate) with two women sitting and talking outside one of their homes. I wanted to know where they were from originally and one woman explained that she had come from a small village which she had been forced to leave in 1948 - she was eight years old at the time.

After being invited into their homes to continue the conversation, what followed was a powerful introduction to what the ‘real’ Palestine is.

One of the women is named Amna but she prefers to be called Um Mohammed, meaning ‘the mother of Mohammed’, her eldest son. She was eager to talk about her past and tell her story.

Amna, 71, spoke of the village where she was born along with her brothers and sister. Beit Affa, near Ashkelon, was once home to many Palestinian families. She described how it had been a village of peasants who had planted their own vegetables, an idyllic spot surrounded by trees. When she was eight years old, however, this picture of rural tranquility was disrupted. Jewish forces began to attack the village. Most people took to hiding in their homes to avoid the snipers who would shoot those on the street. Amna’s memory is strong and she has little trouble in recalling both her own experience but also the military exercises that were taking place at the time, something which must have been explained to her later. She remembers the Egyptians flying over with their planes and promising the Palestinian people that they would reclaim any villages captured by the Jewish forces. However, the Egyptians were unable to stop the night raids taking place and the Palestinian people took to fleeing into the woods. From that point on, they were unable to return to their homes.

Amna recalled that, at the time, she didn’t fully understand the situation or why, as they ran from building to building, her brother kept forcing her head down (out of the line of bullets) – her overriding memory is of continually tripping over because of her brother’s actions to save her life. She laughed at her girlish naivety. Amna can still remember the names of most of the villages she moved around. She can remember that the Egyptians tried to reassure the fleeing Palestinians that any land that was taken by Jewish forces would be recaptured by the Egyptians that night – something that obviously didn’t happen. Amna recalls how, every morning, her family tried, unsuccessfully, to re-enter the village from which they had just fled.

Amna also talked of everything that they had left behind. Under the illusion that they were going to be able to return in a couple of days, most families left the majority of their belongings at home and simply hid the most precious. Amna and her family had wrapped and hidden any gold or money that they had within their house, believing they would be back to retrieve it once the fighting was over. They left chickens and cows in the village and only took one camel to carry their mattresses.

The family moved from village to village, eventually settling in Gaza. But this was not the end of Amna’s journey. Now married and with children, she was persuaded by her brothers to move to the West Bank in the 1960s for a better way of life. As she departed, she had been warned that she may not be able to return to Gaza.

Her and her young family initially moved to a house outside the camp but it had been too expensive for them so they took a place inside Al Amary which was half the price and that is where they have remained.

Through all this displacement, I ask her about how she feels for the village of Beit Affa. She tells me she longs for the village. Both her and her family dream of returning to the place they are from, despite her children never having visited it. But Beit Affa is no longer in existence. During the fighting of 1948, the village was completely obliterated.

In a moment of sad reflection, she laments all the people who were killed at the time she was forced to flee. The mix of pain and nostalgia when talking about her past are evident on her face. The event took place over 60 years ago and yet, as Amna herself asks, ‘Does anybody forget where they are from?’

Amna has not forgotten her Palestine. For her and so many others the ‘real’ Palestine is the home they remember and the life they used to live, not the modern day reality of the refugee camp. The ‘real’ Palestine surely has to be the people and their individual histories. Whether they live in an apartment block in Ramallah or a farm in the South Hebron hills, it is them and not their current situation that defines them.

Background – Over 400 Palestinian villages were destroyed in the run-up to the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948. 800,000 Palestinians were displaced, resulting in over 4.5 million registered Palestinian refugees around the world today.

Harriet Straughen 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.org.

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi of Palestine: "Uphold International Law"

"... On the latest plan by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to withdraw from some parts of the West Bank and Hand them over to the Palestinian Authority Dr Ashrawi said that:

“Deliberate Israeli leaks of the so-called “Netanyahu initiative” show it to be little more than a reinvention of Israel’s occupation as a system of annexation and control, rather than a genuine attempt to end the occupation and abide by international law and the requirements of peace.”

Dr Ashrawi continued to say,” Some of the features of this initiative include already agreed upon troop redeployments; Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem; full Israeli control over the Jordan valley, as well as Palestinian water and airspace; the negation of Palestinian refugee rights; a phased or gradual approach; and an insistence on Palestinian recognition of Israel as Jewish state. “

“These constitute a manipulation of public opinion, rather than actual compliance with the requirements of peace,” Dr Ashrawi concluded."

Dr. Ashrawi: "What we Need from the Quartet is for it to Uphold International Law"

My letter to the Guardian RE "A West Bank anachronism, The PLO goal of statehood has lost its glitter..."

RE: A West Bank anachronism, The PLO goal of statehood has lost its glitter as a new national mood transforms the Palestinian struggle
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/19/west-bank-anachronism-palestinian-statehood

Dear Sir,

Palestine right now has a real chance to become a real state with a real future and real security for the children of historic Palestine- or not.

A fully secular two state solution really is the best way forward for everyone's sake. The one state dream is an old dream, and it is a dream and delusion shared by Zionists who want to the land- but not the native non-Jewish people of that land.

Surrendering to a one state scenario means that Israel and religious extremism reign supreme, while the impoverished and oppressed people of Palestine learn to leave in order to have peace and security and a better life elsewhere.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab, American homemaker & poet

Growing Gardens for Palestine

Notes

Restraint on Majority Rule: "There is going to be a religious right. There is a religious right here. There is a religious right in Israel. There will be a religious right in all these emerging Arab and Islamic democracies and they have a role to play within the rule of law- but the rule of law with the understanding of the rights of minorities and the rights of the individual." Hussein Ibish of The American Task Force on Palestine

Thousands of Palestinians Leave West Bank for Jordan

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Thousands-of-Palestinians-Leave-West-Bank-for-Jordan--120125659.html


In the last few years, life under the Israeli occupation has prompted thousands of Palestinians to leave their homes in the West Bank and take up residence in neighboring Jordan. They go in search of a normal life, free of army checkpoints and conflicts with Israeli settlers.

Life in a luxurious suburb of Amman is much brighter than what Shahinda El Kilani left behind in her native West Bank town of Hebron.

"There is security. There is stability. There is no fear. My children can go out anytime, without my being worried about them," said Shahinda El Kilani.

El Kilani and her family are building a new house, and a new life in Jordan.

They are among the thousands of wealthy Palestinians holding Jordanian citizenship who have left the West Bank to make their homes in Amman.

Palestinians make up between 50 and 80 per cent of the population in Jordan, and hold government posts.

El Kilani, like other Palestinian residents, says that while she feels comfortable here, this will never be home.

"For sure, this is not our home," she said. "This is a temporary home until we return to our birthplace."

In Israel, some ultranationalists want the transfer of Palestinians to Jordan. An online petition is circulating that calls on King Abdullah to to declare Jordan a Palestinian state. Israel's government has distanced itself from the petition, and Palestinians reject it.

Mahdi Abdel-Hadi is a Palestinian political analyst:

"This is not accepted. This will not be done. Jordan cannot have it, will not have it, will not allow it and the Palestinians are against it all the way. There is no Palestinian under the sun wherever he is, will accept a substitute alternative homeland for Palestine," said Mahdi Abdel-Hadi.

Shahinda El Kilani is disappointed in the peace process and doubts the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will ever end. But for her, hope is not dead.

"We do not expect anything. At the same time, I still hope that something will come because there is the dream that something good will happen and we can return," she said.

In the meantime, she tries to leave behind the suffering and move toward building a better future for her children on this side of the Jordan River.

Cities of Palestine 1868 ... & Children of Palestine 2011

"Cities of Palestine" (1868): Cover

From the book "Cities of Palestine," published by T. Nelson and Sons, 1868.

Cities of Palestine" (1868): Nazareth

Cities of Palestine" (1868): Nablus

"Cities of Palestine" (1868): Sidon

"Cities of Palestine" (1868): Jaffa

Cities of Palestine" (1868): Hebron

Cities of Palestine" (1868): Bethlehem

Cities of Palestine" (1868): Jerusalem

PalFest 2011: Childrens Festival with the Lajee Center

On the opening day of PalFest 2011 the Lajee Center held a brilliant children's festival.

The Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) brings Palestinian and international artists together for audiences across Palestine. It initiates and organizes cultural festivals with international and local participation. It organises workshops with students in Palestinian academic institutions in co-operation with Palestinian academics.

"At a time when the spectacular push for freedom in the Arab world is capturing the world’s attention, it is particularly important for PalFest to continue to travel to its audiences, imprisoned behind checkpoints; to work with its bookseller, threatened with deportation, and to forge creative links between Palestine and the world." PalFest founder Ahdaf Soueif

Palestinian Christians

From Sherri Muzher's ESCAPE TO A WORLD OF PALESTINIAN SURPRISESPhoto Credit: Nayef Hashlamoun/Reuters

Palestinian Christians

Palestinian Christians are considered the “living stones” of Christianity because they are direct descendants of the Witnesses to Jesus Christ’s Resurrection.

Many fled the Holy Land or were forced into exile during the 1948 establishment of Israel. The Christian exodus continues today, in large part, due to the Occupation. On March 25, 2004, the late Republican Congressman Henry Hyde issued a letter to then-Secretary of State Powell stating that the Israeli security wall is "drastically undermining the mission of Christian institutions and the social fabric of their communities in the Holy Land.” He added that he was "concerned about the plight of the Christian narrative in the Holy Land" and the impact of the security wall and "growing illegal Israeli settlements and their infrastructure…on religious freedom."

There are two leading American organizations that have been dedicated to the plight of Palestinian Christians. They are Sabeel (http://sabeel.org/), which is an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians. And there is the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (http://hcef.org/), which aims to preserve the Mother Church and her living stones, the indigenous Christians of the Holy Land.

As Anglican bishop of Jerusalem Riah Abu El-Assal has pointed out, Palestinian Christians “are part and parcel of the Arab Palestinian nation. We have the same history, the same culture, the same habits and the same hopes."

For this reason, Palestinian Christians have historically joined with their Palestinian Muslim brethren in the Palestinian struggle for freedom. From the late George Habash to the late Kamal Nasser to Hanan Ashrawi, countless numbers of Christians had or have dedicated their lives to Palestine.

The initial screen for “Escape to a World of Palestinian Surprises” features different aspects of Palestine. From the olive and cypress trees to the red poppies to the hills in the background, welcome to the land of my parents and ancestors. Taking a walk are curious children inviting you to take a fun journey with them -- a journey to discover “surprises” about their unique heritage and people.

As you go through the “surprises,” please note that there are so many more people, places, and things that could be included.

Palestinian Surprises on facebook