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Saturday, July 30, 2011

"It's just basically a song that asks for freedom and dignity for any nation anywhere any time," Malek Jandali

"Jandali, who is a U.S. citizen, said he hoped his music would bridge the gap between nations by promoting harmony, peace and understanding. His most recent work, which has captured international attention, is "Watani Ana," which means [in Arabic], "I am my homeland."

"It's just basically a song that asks for freedom and dignity for any nation anywhere any time," he said. "It can apply to Cuba, Syria, Egypt, Palestine. I did that on purpose because I wanted my musical message to be universal in all mankind."" Malek Jandali

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/07/29/syria.homs.musician/

Gaza film-makers [Masho Matook (Short Film)] decry Hamas censorship



http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/28/us-palestinians-gaza-idUSTRE76R1LA20110728

Gaza film-makers decry Hamas censorship

GAZA | Thu Jul 28, 2011 11:36am EDT

(Reuters) - - "Cinema in Gaza is like writing on rocks with your fingers," says Palestinian writer-director Sweilem Al-Absi.

It's not just the dearth of funds, equipment and studio facilities that prompts such laments from film-makers in the Gaza Strip. Four years into Islamist Hamas rule, cultural censors are fraying the already threadbare local movie industry.

Locked in conflict with Israel and vying against secular Palestinian rivals in the occupied West Bank, Hamas has long invested in television- and Internet-based news, educational shows and even animated clips that advance its political views.

But independent artists say Gaza's Culture Ministry, where projects must be approved before public screening, is quick to crack down on content that does not conform to Hamas edicts.

Such was the case with "Masho Matook" ("Something Sweet"), a 2010 short film directed by Khalil al-Muzzayen, which depicts the interaction between Israeli troops and soccer-playing Palestinian children in once-occupied Gaza.

Though the video vignette was submitted to the Cannes Film Festival, Hamas banned its screening locally, citing a four-second scene where Israeli soldiers appreciatively eye a comely Palestinian woman who breezes past them, her hair uncovered.

Culture Ministry director Mustafa al-Sawaf described the images as "out of context."

"She was leaning and laughing, looking at the Israeli soldiers, and that was not appropriate. Palestinian women would not do that," said Sawaf, who described his ministry's intervention in film and television productions as minimal.

Much of the dispute stems from the fact that the film, set in the 1970s, shows a bare-headed woman -- now a rare sight in Gaza, where Islamist mores have taken root.

DENYING REALITY

While censorship is commonplace in conservative Arab and Muslim societies, some Palestinians see in Hamas's version an over-zealousness born of its efforts to impose order on the poor territory penned in between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.

"It was unjust to ban a movie just because of a scene showing a girl without a scarf. Why deny reality?" said 23-year-old filmmaker Ahmed Abu Naser, who, like his twin and artistic partner Mohammed, helped Muzzayen with Masho Matook....READ MORE

My letter to the Daily Star RE The ex-spy who stepped into the cold By Hussein Ibish & Michael Weiss


RE: The ex-spy who stepped into the cold By Hussein Ibish, Michael Weiss
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2011/Jul-29/The-ex-spy-who-stepped-into-the-cold.ashx#ixzz1TXgSR3dn
comment i posted online

tg The American Task Force For Palestine (ATFP) is not associated with the U.S. Government. ATFP is independent, funded by donations and from what I have seen of it their work is quite admirable as they take both America and Palestine seriously. It is basically a think tank of educated and concerned American citizens who are trying to influence American opinion (including America's Congress) regarding Palestine. Hussein Ibish is a brilliant analyst and writer who makes a point of thinking about and even occasionally interacting with all different types of people and groups. Read his recent "Debating an extremist Israeli settler" http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=294592 and you can see quite clearly that he does not coddle or idolize Israel.

I found the Ibish/Weiss story of Alastair Crooke's Conflicts Forum quite fascinating... and I have to wonder if Alastair Crooke really believes the propaganda he generates- or is he mainly trying to do what he can to goad Arabs and Muslims into becoming enslaved and crippled by religious tyranny.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Friday, July 29, 2011

UNRWA Reaching for the sky: Gaza children at UN Summer Games, snatch the world record for kite flying back from China






Kite-flying Guinness World Record, Gaza 2011

UNRWA Albums: On Thursday 28 July 2011, the children of Gaza set their last and biggest Guinness World Record for this year, for the largest number of kites flown simultaneously.

The event went ahead just hours after masked men vandalised the world record site. Like true champions, the children refused to be intimidated and broke the record of 10,465 kites set earlier this year in China.

The world record attempt was generously supported by the European Union, Finland, Australia and the United States.

World record success proves children’s potential

“It was nothing short of miraculous," said Gunness. “The tiny “David” of Gaza has overcome the mighty “Goliath” of China; even more astonishing that the children of Gaza achieved this under the punishing, illegal blockade. Three-quarters of a million children are being collectively punished and there must be transparency and accountability to end this affront to our humanity. The kites will provide another iconic reminder of the beauty and potential of these children, despite the injustices they face.”

The event marked the end of Summer Games 2011, during which the children of Gaza have smashed the world records for the largest number of people flying parachutes from the ground, the largest number of people dribbling footballs simultaneously and for producing the world’s largest-ever handprint painting.

The Games give 250,000 children across Gaza a much-needed respite from the difficulties of their daily lives – offering them a safe place to swim, play and make new friends.

Six weeks of fun and laughter

To see all the action from the last six weeks of Summer Games, join us on Facebook or visit our Summer Games section.

This world record was funded by the people of:

United States
European Union
Finland
Australia

Donate to UNRWA


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Palestinians fear for ancient West Bank water source

Palestinians fear for ancient West Bank water source

Bedouin Falah Hedawa herds sheep in the Rashayida area, in the desert between the West Bank town of Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, July 25, 2011. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

* Israel demolishes cisterns restored to harvest rainwater

* Old cisterns, many ancient, rehabilitated in recent years

* Israel West Bank authority says cisterns in firing zones

* Bedouin say Israel aims to drive them off land

By Tom Perry

RASHAYIDA, West Bank, July 28 (Reuters) - Hewn from rock, the cavernous cisterns which dot the desert beyond Bethlehem have for centuries harvested winter rain to provide shepherds and their flocks with water through summer.

Under a baking sun, an elderly Bedouin explains how cisterns he remembers from childhood, many of them restored to full working order in the last few years, are once again helping his goat-herding community to survive.

That, he concludes, is why the Israeli authorities who control the West Bank have demolished at least three in the area since November.

"Maybe they are doing this to make us leave. We will not leave," said Falah Hedawa, 64, sitting on cushions in his tent home pitched in the hills that slope down to the Dead Sea.

Out into the desert, a stagnant pool marked the spot where one of the cisterns, chiselled out of a hillside, had stood until its recent demolition. A mud trail on the otherwise dry ground indicated where the water inside had drained away towards a wadi, a valley which becomes a river when the rain falls.

Israel has demolished 20 rainwater collection cisterns in the West Bank in the first half of this year, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which monitors conditions in the Palestinian territories.

Their razing is part of a marked acceleration in demolitions of Palestinian structures...READ MORE

My letter to the NYTimes RE Before a Diplomatic Showdown, a Budget Crisis

RE: Before a Diplomatic Showdown, a Budget Crisis
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/world/middleeast/28palestinians.html?_r=1

Dear Editor,

A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict is a win-win situation for everyone's sake.... except religious freeloaders and charlatans who want to force tax payers here there and everywhere to fund their religious wars.

In my opinion friends don't goad friends into driving drunk: I think far too many people including many supposedly "pro-Palestine" pundits have been pushing Palestinians (and pro-Palestine supporters) into empowering and/or excusing Islamists in one way or another.

Hamas could and should volunteer to step down for Palestine's sake. Want to force Israel to seriously negotiate a just and lasting peace ASAP- then firmly and clearly denounce Islamists, militancy, terrorism, and anti-America rhetoric... for Palestine's sake.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

"The truth elided by both parties is that the Palestinian and Israeli identities are 20th-century phenomena that emerged in parallel and in contradiction to each other. One hundred years ago, the words “Israeli” and “Palestinian” were meaningless. This is not to say that Arabs and Jews don’t have deep histories, but both political identities are recent constructs, forged in the context of the ongoing conflict." Hussein Ibish: Two Narratives for Two Peoples

The Long Overdue State of Palestine

In Congress, Palestinian students call for state: "I want to be a Palestinian coming from an independent Palestinian state."

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

"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



Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The nightmare of love across the West Bank barrier

With the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, travel restrictions between the West Bank and Jerusalem gradually tightened until in 2003, Israel effectively stopped issuing Jerusalem residency permits to Palestinians

Related Article The nightmare of love across the West Bank barrier

When Sana, who comes from the West Bank city of Hebron, married her Jerusalem-born husband Mohammed 13 years ago, she never imagined their union would lead to a life of fear and hiding.

At first, their different residency permits -- hers for the West Bank, his for Jerusalem -- weren't much of an issue. She could live with her husband in Arab east Jerusalem with a temporary permit, and movement between the city and the West Bank was still fairly easy.

But, with the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, travel restrictions gradually tightened until in 2003, Israel effectively stopped issuing Jerusalem residency permits to Palestinians in what caught Sana and Mohammed in an impossible bind.

Without an Israeli permit, Sana can't live in Jerusalem with her husband and children. But if Mohammed moves to the West Bank, he risks losing his Jerusalem residency and all access to the city of his birth.

Palestinians say it has never been easy to get a residency permit to move from the West Bank to east Jerusalem....READ MORE

Holy Land clerics launch interfaith Earth forum

Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders in the Holy Land joined forces Monday to launch a multi-faith environmental campaign, citing religious injunctions to protect the Earth across their three faiths.

Among their plans are the convening of an international conference of religious leaders in New York ahead of the 2012 UN General Assembly, a North America public relations campaign and training future clerics on the importance of environmental issues, one of the organisers said...READ MORE

Defusing Palestinian Statehood Bid at the UN - The Atlantic

Palestinian leaders need a reason not to ask the United Nations for recognition in September, which would be risky for everyone involved

ISRAEL: Arabic radio station campaigns against killing of women

"Years of budgetary neglect and insufficient infrastructure have bred poverty and violence among Arab Israelis; half the population is poor, communities are desperate for housing and violence is spilling over. With tremendous amounts of weapons floating around, "Arab villages have become one huge weapons cache, and personal safety is at rock bottom," Karram said. Women are the first to pay the price..."

ISRAEL: Arabic radio station campaigns against killing of women

Where Politics Are Complex, Simple Joys at the Beach

"In a newspaper advertisement, the group of women declared: “We cannot assent to the legality of the Law of Entry into Israel, which allows every Israeli and every Jew to move freely in all regions between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River while depriving Palestinians of this same right. They are not permitted free movement within the occupied territories nor are they allowed into the towns and cities across the green line, where their families, their nation, and their traditions are deeply rooted."

Where Politics Are Complex, Simple Joys at the Beach

Khaled Al Sabawi - Keeping Palestine Cool: A Different Kind of Underground Movement

"What is za purpose of your visit to Izrael?" This is the welcoming question that is asked by Israeli border security to anyone that travels to the Palestinian territories. For this Palestinian, it is to bring green energy to Palestine. Recognizing Palestine's grave energy crisis, Khaled Al Sabawi takes you on his quest to "keep Palestine cool" using geothermal energy.

TEDxRamallah - Khaled Al Sabawi - Keeping Palestine Cool: A Different Kind of Underground Movement

Hussein Ibish: Debating an extremist Israeli settler

"My main point was that this was not so much a debate between an Arab and a Jew, as one between a modern mentality and a medieval one. Modern thinking, I explained, recognizes both the inherent rights of individuals as human beings and the rights of self-defined peoples to national self-determination. Medieval thinking, on the other hand, relies on holy texts and symbols, and conceives of people not as individuals and groups of individuals, but as fixed categories in a divinely ordained hierarchy. Though he was born in New York, Ha’ivri really believes that he possesses many rights in Palestine that Palestinians do not.

When the moderator, a friend of Ha’ivri, suggested there was deep significance in the fact that Jerusalem is frequently referred to in the Bible but not in the Koran, I dismissed this as irrelevant on two counts. First, historically this has not been, and it must not become, primarily a religious conflict that is by definition irresolvable. Second, ancient texts of whatever variety have nothing constructive to tell us about how to solve the real problems we face.

This modern, rational evaluation drew snickers from some of the audience. Most of them were clearly more comfortable with the religious absolutism Ha’ivri was offering, and deeply but erroneously and dangerously believe this is a religious struggle.

Many of them seemed more comfortable with the childish caricature he was offering of a morally pure Israel, relentlessly pursuing justice and friendship that is opposed only by degenerate Arab and Palestinian venality. The realistic evaluation I put forward, in which there were faults on all sides and no clean hands, has little appeal to absolutists. Nonetheless, I invited everyone present to join me in the modern world.

While I recognized the deep Jewish attachment to the land, neither Ha’ivri nor most others in the room showed any signs of acknowledging the deep Palestinian history, attachment and presence in it. His arguments, such as they were, boiled down to this: We have returned; we are not leaving; God is on our side. The organizers were distributing a pamphlet entitled “This Land is My Land,” which says it all.

Yes, I told him, you are there and you are a reality everyone must deal with rationally. But Palestinians are also there in equal and growing numbers, and they have the same rights you do, but you do not factor them into your thinking in any realistic manner. I noted neither he nor anyone in the audience would ever agree to be denied their basic rights, as he was suggesting Palestinians should, and that they would fight to restore them if they were taken away. To this, he offered no answer..." Hussein Ibish

Colonising with impunity


Colonising with impunity

There was hardly any international reaction, or an even Arab reaction for that matter, to the latest Israeli plan to build hundreds of housing units in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority did voice some concern but it was also muted.

It is as if the world has become numb when hearing news about Israeli plans to construct yet more and more houses or apartments on Palestinian land even when they are intended to be located in the heart of the Palestinian territory.

Israel no longer hides its intentions to colonise the north of the West Bank and areas south of Jerusalem, as these are the very areas targeted for building the hundreds of housing units.

Lest we forget, it was this very issue of Jewish settlements that derailed the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians more than a year ago.

Yet this pattern of defiance continues with impunity as far as one can see.

The sole weapon left in the hands of the Palestinians is to go to the UN General Assembly in September and seek recognition as an independent state within the 1967 borders. But even that is not guaranteed in the face of stiff opposition, not only from Israel itself but also from the US and a handful of other pro-Israel countries.

So where do the Palestinians go from here, with all doors to a peaceful resolution of their conflict remaining tightly shut for as far as they can see.

We see, and even smell, trouble taking place ahead as the Arab Spring may also spread to the West Bank sooner than the world thinks.

Maybe then, and only then, will the international community, including the US, turn its attention once again to the Palestinian plight and prevent an outbreak of yet another flare up that cannot be contained.

26 July 2011

In Congress, Palestinian students call for state: "I want to be a Palestinian coming from an independent Palestinian state."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=408301
In Congress, Palestinian students call for state

WASHINGTON (Ma'an) -- Two Palestinian students spoke Monday in the US Congress urging lawmakers to support the campaign for recognition of an independent state on the 1967 borders.

Journalism student Baha Milhim, 22, from Duheisha refugee camp near Bethlehem, and Samir Anabtawi, 21, a student of political science from Jenin, are interning in the US Capitol this summer.

Milhim spoke of refugees from his personal experience. Palestinians are suffering at checkpoints and crossings and Israel should concede that Palestinians have a right to independence, he said.

"I am speaking to you today from inside the US Congress to clarify to you all that it’s time for change, and I am foreseeing the opportunity for change coming this September," he added.

Anabtwi spoke of living through the second intifada when Israel invaded Jenin in 2002. He was shot at by an Israeli tank and when he was just nine years old he witnessed his doctor father failing to save a child's life.

He said: "I have the right to hate but I refuse to do so ... I am here to demand my rights and independence. I don’t want to stay 'nobody' and come from 'nowhere'.

"I want to be a Palestinian coming from an independent Palestinian state."

Milhim and Anabtwi are interning with two democrat congressmen, Donald Payne and Jared Polis. The two Palestinian students described the congressmen as pro-peace.

"A few managed to enter the walls of the US Congress," Milhim said.

"But we have more work to do in international forums to be closer to the decision-making to mobilize international political support for the Palestinian state in September."

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Anders Behring Breivik and the influence industry of rage

"One reason the world’s best and brightest still want to come here is that the Constitution protects freedom of worship. No matter what the prejudiced purveyors of anti-Islam vitriol might say, this guarantee covers Muslims just like everybody else."

How to react to Norway shootings

"Persuasion by words and by elections must remain the tools to alter a nation’s course. Using murder to change politics is inherently contradictory – there is no politics if anyone can decide to use murder." the Monitor's Editorial Board / July 25, 2011

How to react to Norway shootings

Friday's political massacre of Norway's youth could easily focus attention on Europe's immigration debate. But it should first lead to a renewal of basic civic values, such as reverence for life.

Monday, July 25, 2011

My letter to the WSJ RE BRUCE BAWER :Inside the Mind of the Oslo Murderer

RE: BRUCE BAWER :Inside the Mind of the Oslo Murderer
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576465801154130960.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Dear Editor,

First Bruce Bawer explains how his own manifesto "While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within" inspired the perpetrator of the monstrous terror attack in Oslo, and then Bruce Bawer goes on to reiterate his own anti-Muslim message which helped inspire that murderous attack in the first place!

Knowing that free speech and our fourth estate are crucial elements of American democracy the real question is not why is Bruce Bawer writing bigoted diatribes, but why is the Wall Street Journal publishing his hate mongering garbage. Both anti-Muslim bigots and Islamists thrive on this kind of nasty trash, each becoming more convinced that they are right- and each becoming more extreme in their rage and rhetoric.

Why not try to help spread some more helpful and civilized ideas... Surely you can find some writers who are eager and able to condemn bigotry of all types- and terrorism.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES:

My letter to the Boston Globe RE Who could confirm statehood on a people riven by internal conflict?

Jericho Located just north of the Dead Sea and near the Jordan River in the West Bank, Jericho (which means “City of the Moon” in Arabic) is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world

RE: Who could confirm statehood on a people riven by internal conflict?
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2011/07/25/who_could_confirm_statehood_on_a_people_riven_by_internal_conflict/

Dear Editor,

No one knows if a sovereign viable Palestinian state can emerge to live side by side in peace with Israel... but I do know for a fact that, no matter what, Israel must fully respect the Palestinians basic human rights including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees inalienable right to return to original homes and lands.

Israel is obviously not going anywhere. It has many loyal citizens and supporters who will continue to do all they can to make sure Israel survives no matter what. A secular two state solution gives Palestinian refugees the ability to opt out of being Israeli and paying taxes to help fund that state. However it has to be an individual choice for the refugees.

According to the General Delegation of the PLO to the United States "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://plodelegation.us/palestine/core-issues/

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab


NOTES

"The truth elided by both parties is that the Palestinian and Israeli identities are 20th-century phenomena that emerged in parallel and in contradiction to each other. One hundred years ago, the words “Israeli” and “Palestinian” were meaningless. This is not to say that Arabs and Jews don’t have deep histories, but both political identities are recent constructs, forged in the context of the ongoing conflict." Hussein Ibish: Two Narratives for Two Peoples

FB FYI ATFP's Hussein Ibish is honored and deeply humbled to be included in Foreign Policy's Twitterati 100: A who's who of the foreign-policy Twitterverse in 2011 - http://k7.3x.sl.pt/

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

Refugees, Borders & Jerusalem...

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

"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

Sunday, July 24, 2011

From Growing Gardens for Palestine... Little Golden Bell... a poem by Anne Selden Annab


Tiny 2,000-year-old golden bell found in Jerusalem: A tiny golden bell which was lost in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago during the Second Temple period has been found among ruins near the Old City, Israel's Antiquities Authority has said


Little Golden Bell

Little golden bell
lost
for 2000 years-
a precious treasure
and token
of times gone by

What stories did you hear
when you were first created
bought and sold
and then later- through the ages
as you hid in Palestine?

What songs and hymns stirred
your heart to beat
underground

Did footsteps echo
in your ear
coming and going

Shall we argue now
as to your religion
and rightful heirs...

Fondly remembering the freedom
and the beauty found
in my own American childhood
(and the silly seriousness of children)
I like to think
you belonged to a young girl
A girl with joy in her heart
and a brilliant mind...
even brighter than your gold polished
A girl able to balance on a beam

A girl whose own story
we will never know
She is free to simply be
no ID card- no passport
no prison- no politics
no accusations
no religion
no names

Just life
being lived

little golden bell

perhaps she meant
to drop you.



poem copyright ©2011 Anne Selden Annab