Saturday, November 5, 2011
'NEW Palestinian strategy'... set to begin 11-11-11
Fatah leader reveals 'new Palestinian strategy'
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – A member of the Fatah central committee says President Mahmoud Abbas has formed a committee to reconsider the strategy and future of relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.Muhammad Shtayyeh told Ma’an that "the new strategy will be the path after Nov. 11," when the UN Security Council is scheduled to meet to discuss Palestine's application for membership as a state.
Shtayyeh said the Palestinian leadership is set to break the status quo with Israel and reformulate relations.
The new committee, among its members the leaders of the PLO and Fatah, is discussing "where we are going now," Shtayyeh said without revealing the substance of the strategy.
But he said reconciliation with Hamas would formulate a basic part of it and noted Abbas planned to meet Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal after the holiday.
He says the PA and Israel cooperate in some areas, but all of them are strained.
On the political front, negotiations are blocked. Economically, Israel "exports whatever it wants to us, imports whatever it wants from us." Also, "Israel gives us electricity, while it steals our water and sells it to us."
In terms of security, "We are there to maintain the general security in order not to clash with Israel."
According to Shtayyeh, Israel in general is living in a stable security state.
He added that “we want to break the status quo in Israel, but we will take some measures that won’t hurt us but will reform the relationship [with Israel].”
He added that the PA has reached a point where Israel’s stubbornness and the inability of the international community to reign it in has stalled negotiations, so it went to the UN.
Shtayyeh says even if Palestine gets nine votes in the Security Council, the result would be the same because “we know the US will not allow our application to pass in the UN.
"But this is not the end of the world; we will apply again."
He also said that if the application did not pass, this would open the door to the new strategy which the leadership is planning and which will take effect after Nov. 11.
What's God got to do with it? If you want freedom and security, you need the following...
The House voted this week to reaffirm as the national motto the phrase "In God We Trust." (Treasury Department/AP Photo) "...If you want freedom and security, you need the following:
The rule of law; property rights; a secure and trustworthy banking and monetary system; economic stability; a reliable infrastructure and the freedom to move about the country; freedom of the press; freedom of association; education for the masses; protection of civil liberties; a clean and safe environment; a robust military for protection of our liberties from attacks by other states; a potent police force for protection of our freedoms from attacks by people within the state; a viable legislative system for establishing fair and just laws; and an effective judicial system for the equitable enforcement of those fair and just laws...."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-shermer-god-20111104,0,877363.story
Op-Ed
What's God got to do with it?
He may be invoked in the national motto, but God has nothing to do with why Americans are free and secure.
Friday, November 4, 2011
PLO *** PRESS RELEASE *** 4 November 2011 Statement on Israeli Withhold of PA Tax Revenues
*** PRESS RELEASE ***
4 November 2011
Statement on Israeli Withhold of PA Tax Revenues
The General Delegation of the PLO to the US strongly condemns the Israeli government’s decision to suspend the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority. This is not the first time Israel resorts to such illegal measures, and we are appalled by the international community’s tolerance for such acts of state piracy.
Under the Oslo Accords, Israel is obligated to collect customs and some taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. We would like to emphasize that these are PA revenues, not Israeli revenues, and Israel is obligated to relay them expeditiously. Withholding this money is a violation of signed agreements and a blatant act of piracy that should strongly be condemned.
Further, this action is in line with other measures Israel has undertaken in recent years that undermined the PA’s authority. Israel is slowly rendering the PA obsolete, a reality with serious implications on the ground not only for the Palestinians but for Israel and the region as a whole.
The General Delegation of the PLO to the US urges the US Administration and members of Congress to stand up against Israeli violations and impress upon the Israeli government to immediately desist from violating signed agreements, which undermine the prospects of a future peaceful settlement.
The UNESCO cuts: What’s next on the U.S. chopping block?
Thursday, November 3, 2011 My letter to CSM RE A message Palestinians see in Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange: Hamas - 1, Abbas - 0 by Dawoud Abu Lebdeh
RE: A message Palestinians see in Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange: Hamas - 1, Abbas - 0
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/1103/A-message-Palestinians-see-in-Israel-Hamas-prisoner-exchange-Hamas-1-Abbas-0
Dear Editor,
"The international community must show the Palestinian people that they support their quest for a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders and, by doing so, demonstrate that they support those who believe in diplomacy, not violence, as a way to solve the conflict and achieve peace." Dawoud Abu Lebdeh
Thank you for publishing Dawoud Abu Lebdeh's compelling column "A message Palestinians see in Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange: Hamas - 1, Abbas - 0 " ... The timing of the prisoner exchange deal certainly is suspicious. I believe Israel is totally in the wrong for persecuting, impoverishing and displacing the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land, but Islamists are equally wrong to also be arming religion with lethal weaponry- and Islamists were wrong to keep Gilad Shalit. Two wrongs do not make a right, and a never ending escalation of wrongs and religious extremism will not lead to peace or justice for any one.
A FULLY secular two state solution that FULLY respects international law and universal basic human rights to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict really is the best way forward.... for everyone's sake. Negotiations need to be a way to get there, not yet another way for Israel (or Islamists) to delay and destroy Palestine and peace.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab,
American homemaker & poet
Nations slam UNESCO-linked Israel settlements
AFP News: Israel medics complicit with abuse of prisoners
Weighing the Price of Resistance By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
David Hale: Hamas could be swept out of power if the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority is able to show "tangible" results from peace negotiations
Hamas Celebrates Prisoner Exchange: "Abbas had been riding a wave of popular support following his speech at the United Nations last month in which he called for Palestinian membership at the UN. But Ibish says the Palestinian president is the short-term loser here, and that was precisely the intention of both Hamas and the Israeli government in finally striking a deal."
The battle of Bet Shemesh Ultra-orthodox Haredi Jews gather at the gates of a local girls school, screaming abuse: " Since the state-funded religious-nationalist school of Orot Girls opened in new premises in September, groups of extreme Haredi men regularly gather at the gates, screaming "whore" and "slut" at the girls and their mothers."
"While there's no reason to think Islamists are in the process of consolidating absolute power anywhere, it's simply foolish not to recognize that they remain in every meaningful sense radical and retain their totalitarian impulses. That they would like to broadly and severely restrict the rights of individuals, women and minorities in the name of religion is obvious. It's hard to see them developing such unrestrained power, but there is also no use in kidding oneself about their evident intentions." Hussein Ibish- Jumping to conclusions on the Arab Spring
United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights: NGO News
Palestine's Salam Fayyad: "We have been trying to do the very best we can."
In Detroit, ambassador makes case for Palestinian nation
Don’t demolish my future! UNNWRA: Demolitions and the threat of displacement are ruining people’s lives in the West Bank.
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
Mahmoud Abbas speech at the UN - The full official text
Help Build A Golden Rule Peace for the Holy Land
Visit Palestine, it Makes a World of Difference By Julie Holm for MIFTAH
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine can promote peace, truth and reconciliation... We hope to aid that process
Children play outside a peace mural in the West Bank. Photograph: David LeveneThe Russell Tribunal on Palestine can promote peace, truth and reconciliation
The Israel-Palestine situation demands truth and reconciliation. We hope to aid that process
Desmond Tutu and Michael Mansfield
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 3 November 2011
Opportunities to break seemingly intractable and deadlocked situations are rare – especially on a scale which has rapidly developed this year from the beleaguered cries of citizenry across North Africa and the Middle East. There is a palpable consensus that the provenance of this movement is lodged firmly in the fundamental prerequisite for meaningful democracy: self-determination. All conventions on human rights have this tenet as a core rationale. Where it is repeatedly denied and suppressed there will never be peace or justice, let alone stability.
On Saturday the Russell Tribunal on Palestine will open its third session: after Barcelona and London, this session will take place in South Africa, the location of a seminal struggle for self-determination by a community oppressed by apartheid. Partly as a result of this courageous and persistent protest by thousands of ordinary people, who were regularly demonised as terrorists by political opponents within the South African regime (and by certain world leaders, including the UK's), there was a concerted international effort to bring international law to bear upon an entrenched position....READ MORE
Nations slam UNESCO-linked Israel settlements
A Palestinian labourer stands at a construction site in a Jewish settlement near Jerusalem known to Israelis as Har Homa and to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim on Wednesday (Reuters photo by Baz Ratner)WASHINGTON/RAMALLAH (Agencies) - Israel’s top ally Washington on Wednesday led international calls for the Israeli government to abandon its decision to speed up settlement building in occupied territory in retaliation for Palestinian admission to UNESCO, Agence France-Presse reported.
Meanwhile, the Palestinians said Israel’s tough responses to their bid to join the UN cultural organisation are unlikely to halt their quest for recognition as a state at the United Nations, Reuters reported.
“We are deeply disappointed by yesterday’s announcement about accelerated housing construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” said White House spokesperson Jay Carney.
“As we have said before, unilateral actions work against efforts to resume direction negotiations and they do not advance the goal of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties,” he said.
“So any action, as we have said all along, that either side takes that makes it harder rather than easier for the two parties to come together in direct negotiations is something that we oppose,” Carney added, according to AFP.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply concerned” by Israel’s decision and “worried at the trajectory of developments” between Israel and the Palestinians and called on both to “refrain from provocations”, said his spokesperson Martin Nesirky.
“The secretary general calls on the government of Israel to freeze all settlement activity and to continue to transfer VAT and customs revenues that belong to the Palestinian Authority and are essential to enable it to function, in line with Israel’s obligations,” the spokesperson said.
A senior Palestinian official said on Wednesday that Israel was trying to undermine the Palestinian Authority (PA) through a decision on Tuesday to freeze transfers of PA funds after it won membership of the UN cultural agency, Reuters reported.
“It is very serious. Israel wants to strive to destroy the role of the Palestinian National Authority,” Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation...READ MOREAFP News: Israel medics complicit with abuse of prisoners
Israeli medics are complicit in the ill-treatment and abuse of Palestinian prisoners, in breach of the Hippocratic oath, two Israeli rights groups said in a report published on Thursday.
The report focuses on medical professionals who have witnessed, participated in or been in contact with prisoners who have been interrogated by the Shin Bet internal security service, formally known in English as the Israel Security Agency, which it says often inflicts physical or psychological violence.
The 61-page study -- "Doctoring the Evidence, Abandoning the Victim" -- was put together by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), and the Israel chapter of Physicians For Human Rights.
The findings were based on testimonies and the files of over 100 alleged victims of torture and ill-treatment handled by PCATI since 2007, and shows that medical professionals "are frequently involved either actively or passively in torture or ill-treatment," it said.
PCATI spokesman Edan Ring told AFP that the alleged victims were all Palestinians, "under suspicion of being connected with security issues."
Whether through direct action or through their silence, medical professionals were complicit with what goes on in the interrogation rooms, the report said.
It added that evidence showed that medical professionals were doing this by systematically failing to properly document prisoners' injuries, by the failure to report abuse, and by sending detainees back to their interrogators even after seeing the injuries they had sustained.
In some cases, they also handed private medical data to interrogators, and frequently put the needs of the interrogation before the welfare of the patient, it said.
"This report reveals significant evidence arousing the suspicion that many doctors ignore the complaints of their patients; that they allow Israel Security Agency (ISA) interrogators to use torture," it said.
It added that medical staff, "approve the use of forbidden interrogation methods and the ill-treatment of helpless detainees; and conceal information, thereby allowing total impunity for the torturers."...READ MORE
My letter to the NYTimes 11-3-11 RE The Overblown Islamist Threat, by Marwan Muasher
RE: The Overblown Islamist Threat, by Marwan Muasher, the former foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Jordan, is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/opinion/the-overblown-islamist-threat.html?_r=2
Dear Editor,
I think Marwan Muasher, the former foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Jordan, & current vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace gives us much food for thought with his essay "The Overblown Islamist Threat"... and I very much appreciate being able to read his perspective in the New York Times. I totally agree with him that the Islamists threat is overblown, but I am not so sure it is wise to use that fact to in any way empower or endorse or apologize for Islamists, even moderate ones.
Laying a bet on the hope that Islamists will do the right thing is a bit like laying a bet on Wall Street doing the right thing. Might happen- but it is much more likely to happen if we the people clearly identify and voice our objections to white collar crimes.... "Human beings are flawed and we all fall short in many ways, but moral failure in high places is more shameful and deserves to be censured and punished much more severely than moral failings among the poor, the powerless and the obscure." Walter Russell Mead The Madoffs: Shamed, Isolated, Disgraced
Here in America we have a free press, and fair and just laws which give us the ability to make more real our democracy- and bring more justice (and jobs) to more people. There is no such safe guard in the Middle East. Empowering Islamists who can too easily abuse religion for nefarious purposes, just as Maddoff did in targeting his co-religionists, is playing with fire.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker & poet
In Newsweek Magazine: Moshe Dayan's Widow Ruth: Zionist Dream Has Run Its Course
Weighing the Price of Resistance By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights: NGO News
Palestine's Salam Fayyad: "We have been trying to do the very best we can."
In Detroit, ambassador makes case for Palestinian nation
David Hale: Hamas could be swept out of power if the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority is able to show "tangible" results from peace negotiations
Don’t demolish my future! UNNWRA: Demolitions and the threat of displacement are ruining people’s lives in the West Bank.
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
Mahmoud Abbas speech at the UN - The full official text
The Arab Peace Initiative requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well...
Help Build A Golden Rule Peace for the Holy Land
Visit Palestine, it Makes a World of Difference By Julie Holm for MIFTAH
My letter to the Washington Post 11-3-2011 RE The Mideast’s new game By David Ignatius
RE: The Mideast’s new game By David Ignatius
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-mideasts-new-game/2011/11/02/gIQAuESmgM_story.html
Dear Editor & Mr. Ignatius,
Why do you want to push Palestine into the arms of Islamists and extremism?! Why not step up to clearly ask that Hamas- and all Islamists- step down for Palestine's sake, for the people's sake, and for Islam... and for peace.
A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict is obviously the best way forward for every one's sake. The very real plight of the Palestinians began because Zionists violated and continue to violate the 1917 Balfour Declaration's dictate "it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine"
Government- and resistance- should protect freedom of religion and minority rights. Worship and religious identity should be a private matter, not a public mandate. Institutionalized bigotry and religious tyranny of every type needs to be renounced, not empowered!
So please Hamas, for Palestine's sake put down the guns, stop the rockets, stifle hate mongering, and focus in on providing real charity, good works and a more civilized, intelligent dialog: Non-violently battle to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt either that Israel is totally in the wrong and needs to be defunded, or that Israel is able to invest in a just and lasting peace based on international law and universal basic human rights.... including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees very real right to return to original homes and lands.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker & poet
In Newsweek Magazine: Moshe Dayan's Widow Ruth: Zionist Dream Has Run Its Course
Weighing the Price of Resistance By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights: NGO News
Palestine's Salam Fayyad: "We have been trying to do the very best we can."
In Detroit, ambassador makes case for Palestinian nation
David Hale: Hamas could be swept out of power if the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority is able to show "tangible" results from peace negotiations
Don’t demolish my future! UNNWRA: Demolitions and the threat of displacement are ruining people’s lives in the West Bank.
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
Mahmoud Abbas speech at the UN - The full official text
The Arab Peace Initiative requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well...
Help Build A Golden Rule Peace for the Holy Land
Visit Palestine, it Makes a World of Difference By Julie Holm for MIFTAH
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
A Palestinian woman collects olives during harvest in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, October 31, 2011. REUTERS/Mohamad TorokmanViewpoint: 'I am a Woman From Palestine' by Julie Holm for MIFTAH
By: Julie Holm for MIFTAH
I went to the last of six screenings at Birzeit University, and was impressed to see how many students had found their way to the auditorium. The three films on the program for that day – “.com”, “Portrait” and “Madleen” portrayed the diverse and various aspects of women’s lives in Gaza. The first film, “.com”, created by 21-year old Fatema Abu Odeh, shows how young women used social media to raise awareness and engage people to join the March 15 movement in Gaza. I found it especially interesting to see how some young women overcame the prohibition from their families to go out and join the movement by participating from home, using the Internet as their most valuable tool.
The second film portrays Rasha Abu Zayed, a young female artist and her relationship to her art. Created by 20-year-old Rana Mattar, “Portrait”, as the film is titled, deals with the issue of how the artist can overcome the siege of Gaza as a painter. She does this particularly though exploring the architecture of Gaza but also through painting women’s bodies and portraits of Palestinian women.
It was “Madleen” however, which moved me the most; it was also the one that created the most discussion in the Birzeit auditorium afterwards. The film illustrates a day in the life of Madleen Klab, the first female fisher-(wo)man in Gaza. By portraying the life of a woman doing a “man’s job”, 21-year old Reham Al-Ghazali challenges the gender stereotypes found in Palestine today. In the film, Madleen says that she feels like a man when she is at sea and that she goes back to being more “feminine” on land. This became the point of departure for a noisy and sometimes heated discussion after the films had been shown.
I found it very interesting to see that just as many men showed up for the screening as women, given that it is a women’s film festival being shown in a predominantly male-oriented society. That did not seem to put off the male students at Birzeit however, many of whom also took the opportunity to participate in the discussions about gender roles and gender divided labor. Irrespective of their attitudes on the subject, it was great to see the men’s engagement on such matters and the fact that they had no qualms about discussing whether women should do “men’s jobs” or not. That would never have happened where I come from. Still, no matter how loud and confrontational, the arguments from the men could not overshadow the strong willed women attending the screening. They delivered calm, hard-hitting counter arguments and were not afraid to tell the men to be quiet if they made too much noise during the films.
The films, as well as the discussions that followed confirmed the impression I have of young Palestinian women; they are strong, strong-willed and aware of how to go around the restrictions put on them as women and as Palestinians. I highly admire the determination and levels of ambition of my Palestinian girlfriends, something that is also expressed by the women who made the films for the festival as well as the women they portray.
As a collection of films of and about Palestinian women, “I am a Woman from Palestine” illustrates the realities of these women and the obstacles they face as women and as Palestinians. They embrace their roles as women and as Palestinians and use them in different ways to challenge the stereotypes they meet every day. And that, I find, is truly remarkable.
Diversity... a Thanksgiving poem by Anne Selden Annab
PHOTO CREDIT: CSM Photo of the day 11-01-11 Horses stand in the shadows of a gigantic wooden table and two chairs during mild autumnal weather at a meadow near Doellstaedt, central Germany. Jens Meyer/APAll of us
are imperfect-
every one
some more than others
but every one
is flawed
All of us
and in joining up
knowing what we know
and being what we are
we become more able
to create perfection
Like the architect
and engineer
inspired to build
Like the designer
and artist
driven to create
Like the poet
compelled to dream
Like the cook
pleased to feed a hungry family
We bring our best to the table.
My THANK YOU letter to the LATimes for clearly stating and publicizing the fact that anti-Palestine laws need to be repealed!!!!
RE: Editorial: Using the United Nations- The lopsided vote for Palestine's entry into UNESCO shows how isolated the U.S. and Israel are.http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-unesco-20111102,0,2129467.story
Dear Editor,
Because of Israel- specifically Israel's talented lobby which seeks to use American laws, courts and Congress to oppress and persecute Palestinians both here and there, America foolishly vetoed Palestine membership in UNESCO and next might pull out of the United Nations agency "that helps protect patents and copyrights and is of great importance to Hollywood and Silicon Valley...."
THANK YOU LA Times for clearly stating and publicizing the fact that anti-Palestine laws need to be repealed!!!!
Congress might not do the right thing- but they are certainly much more likely to do the right thing if we the people and our fourth estate help our Congress understand and support the right thing.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab, American homemaker & poet
Hussein Ibish: "Snap judgments don't explicate much about where we are, and illuminate even less about where we're going..."
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
The Arab Peace Initiative requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well...
Don’t demolish my future! UNNWRA: Demolitions and the threat of displacement are ruining people’s lives in the West Bank.
"The pursuit of peace, independence and reform is not a project for cowards..."
Palestine's Salam Fayyad: "We have been trying to do the very best we can."
Mahmoud Abbas speech at the UN - The full official text
In Detroit, ambassador makes case for Palestinian nation
David Hale: Hamas could be swept out of power if the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority is able to show "tangible" results from peace negotiations
My letter to The Guardian RE Israel rushes settlement growth after Unesco accepts Palestinians
New Jewish homes will be built in East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlements of Gush Etzion, pictured, and Ma’ale Adumim. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/APhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/01/israel-settlement-growth-unesco-vote-palestinians
Dear Editor,
Israel is rushing Jews-preferred settlement growth plus halting the transfer of tax revenues which it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority because Palestinians want to be members of a very civilized, dialogue centered, peace oriented cultural and educational organization.
I think it is obvious that Israel's intention at every turn has been to do what it can to enrage, radicalize and alienate Palestinians and Palestine supporters, in hopes of further disenfranchising and displacing the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land.... By pretending to want peace and a two state solution to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict, but consistently sabotaging Palestinian efforts to build a Palestinian state, Israel is buying time in hopes that hate mongers and religious extremists on both sides will make negotiations for a just and lasting peace either irrelevant or impossible.
A fully secular two state solution based on honoring and empowering The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the best way out of the crazy cruel fiasco that Israel has been seeking to create.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
Palestine's Salam Fayyad: "We have been trying to do the very best we can."
In Detroit, ambassador makes case for Palestinian nation
David Hale: Hamas could be swept out of power if the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority is able to show "tangible" results from peace negotiations
Yesterday's overwhelming vote by UNESCO to recognize Palestine as a full member was far more than a symbolic diplomatic defeat for the United States...
Don’t demolish my future! UNNWRA: Demolitions and the threat of displacement are ruining people’s lives in the West Bank.
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
Mahmoud Abbas speech at the UN - The full official text
The Arab Peace Initiative requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well...
Help Build A Golden Rule Peace for the Holy Land
Visit Palestine, it Makes a World of Difference By Julie Holm for MIFTAH
Palestinian PoppiesTuesday, November 1, 2011
My letter to the New York Times RE "Israel and the Apartheid Slander"
RE: Israel and the Apartheid Slanderhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/opinion/israel-and-the-apartheid-slander.html?_r=1&ref=global
Dear Editor,
Judge Goldstone objects to what he calls "Apartheid Slander"... so what exactly are we to call what Israel has been doing to the persecuted, impoverished and displaced people of historic Palestine as the largest, long running refugee crisis in the world today continues on unchecked with Israel freely demolishing Palestinian homes and usurping Palestinian land?
What exactly should we call Israel's willingness to generously subsidize Jewish "religious scholars" or Israel's extensive investments in Jews-preferred institutions, neighborhoods and policies ?
And how exactly should we refer to Israel's sovereign tendency to empower religious extremism on both sides of the conflict?
I am all for promoting peace and a more civilized dialog- I am all for stopping the hate mongering and the bigotry and the violence on every side. I am also all for a two state solution to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict.... but it has to be a fully secular two state solution. Citizens should not be forced to endure religious tyranny of any type.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
America homemaker & poet
In Newsweek Magazine: Moshe Dayan's Widow Ruth: Zionist Dream Has Run Its Course
Weighing the Price of Resistance By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights: NGO News
Palestine's Salam Fayyad: "We have been trying to do the very best we can."
In Detroit, ambassador makes case for Palestinian nation
David Hale: Hamas could be swept out of power if the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority is able to show "tangible" results from peace negotiations
Yesterday's overwhelming vote by UNESCO to recognize Palestine as a full member was far more than a symbolic diplomatic defeat for the United States...
Don’t demolish my future! UNNWRA: Demolitions and the threat of displacement are ruining people’s lives in the West Bank.
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
Mahmoud Abbas speech at the UN - The full official text
The Arab Peace Initiative requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well...
Help Build A Golden Rule Peace for the Holy Land
Visit Palestine, it Makes a World of Difference By Julie Holm for MIFTAH
Don’t demolish my future! UNWRA: Demolitions and the threat of displacement are ruining people’s lives in the West Bank.
Don’t demolish my future!
Demolitions and the threat of displacement are ruining people’s lives in the West Bank.
We want to put a stop to the devastating practice of demolition. We need your help!
The facts:
- Whole communities are living with the daily trauma and anxiety of losing their homes and livelihoods in Israeli-controlled East Jerusalem and Area C, which together make up more than 60 per cent of the West Bank.
- This year has seen a huge rise in the number of people displaced by demolitions. More than 800 people have been displaced in the first nine months alone, surpassing the entire number displaced in 2010 (594 people).
- In the rural West Bank, at least 3,000 outstanding demolition orders on homes and infrastructure affect tens of thousands of people.
- In East Jerusalem, at least 28 per cent of Palestinian homes are built without an Israeli permit, putting about 60,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem at risk of house demolitions.
- Under the Israeli zoning policy, Palestinians can build in just 13 per cent of East Jerusalem and in just 1 per cent of Area C. In both cases these areas are already heavily built-up, making obtaining a permit almost impossible.
- Demolitions devastate families and communities, increasing poverty and instability. This is compounded by the fact that demolitions often limit access to basic services, such as education, health care, water and sanitation, especially when infrastructure such as schools and water cisterns is targeted.
- The impact of home demolitions can be particularly devastating for children. Many show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. Their academic achievement often suffers.
- Many of the people affected by demolitions come from the most marginalised and vulnerable communities, and already live in poverty.
- In 2010, more than 10 per cent of people displaced by demolitions in East Jerusalem and Area C were refugees registered with UNRWA.
- Demolitions destroy more than bricks and mortar. Education, prosperity, health and security are all essential elements on which people build their lives and futures.
Join our campaign to support the demand of tens of thousands of Palestinians:
“Don’t demolish my future!”
Stop demolitions and displacement in the West Bank
To show your support:
1) Raise awareness
| On Facebook |
- Add a badge to your Facebook profile
Adding the badge is easy and will take you less than a minute. Just follow the instructions below:- Click on “Add to profile picture”
- Click on “Add to Facebook”
- You can move the badge around if you want to. When you happy with the way your profile picture looks with the badge click on “Publish to Facebook”
- Click on “Continue to Facebook”
- You can now crop your profile picture if you want to. Once you are happy with the way your profile picture is cropped click on “Finished cropping”
- Remember you can also add the badge to your Twitter account and invite your Facebook friends to add the badge to their Facebook profile.
- Share our demolition “fast fact” posts
On Twitter:
- Share our demolition “fast fact” tweets
- Spread the word with our #stopdemolitions Twitter tag
Get all the campaign updates by joining us on Facebook and Twitter.
2) Stay informed
- Find out more about demolitions in the West Bank and get the latest figures on our demolition watch section.
- Read all the latest media coverage at demolitions in the news.
- The OCHA report “Displacement and insecurity in Area C of the West Bank” (PDF) has detailed analysis of the current situation.
4) Support our demand that Israel meet its obligations under international law
- Immediately cease demolitions of Palestinian-owned homes, schools and infrastructure, which cause displacement and dispossession, until Palestinians have access to a fair and nondiscriminatory planning system. This should include community participation in all levels of the planning process.
- Families that have been forcibly displaced must be allowed to return to their homes in safety and dignity, and be given compensation for any harm they have suffered, including the destruction of land, homes and property.
Yesterday's overwhelming vote by UNESCO to recognize Palestine as a full member was far more than a symbolic diplomatic defeat for the United States..
"The UN culture and education agency was immediately defunded by the US, which was due to contribute $80 million to the organization this year, a little more than one-fifth of the UN body's budget. The Obama administration's decision was triggered by a 1994 US law that requires financial ties to be cut with any UN agency that accords the Palestinians full membership.
On its face, this may not seem a big deal for America. Ronald Reagan pulled the US out of UNESCO in 1984, and the country only rejoined in the fall of 2002 under George W. Bush, as his administration was courting UN support for military action against Iraq.
But the law that saw the US pull out of UNESCO would apply equally to any other UN agency – whether the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which plays a key role in monitoring nuclear proliferation in states like Iran, or the World Health Organization, where the US and other states intensively coordinate international efforts to deal with public health threats.
And under UN rules, membership into the World Intellectual Property Organization would be more or less automatic at this point if the Palestinians pursue it. The WIPO has been strongly supported by the US, seeking to curb piracy of US movies and software..."
Palestinian school girls walk past a graffiti on a wall depicting UN humanitarian aid supplies, in Gaza City, Monday. Palestine became a full member of the US cultural and educational agency Monday, in a highly divisive move that the United States and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace efforts. Adel Hana/APAfter UNESCO Palestine vote, could US defund nuclear watchdog IAEA, too?
The US withdrew funding after UNESCO's Palestine vote yesterday. There's no reason that Palestinians won't be able to muster the votes for recognition in other UN agencies like the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Israel forcing Palestinians out of east Jerusalem: NGO
"Housing demolitions, forced evictions and residency revocation are all leading to ethnic displacement in east Jerusalem," said Itay Epshtain, co-director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) which on Monday published a damning report on the issue...READ MORE
Hussein Ibish: "Snap judgments don't explicate much about where we are, and illuminate even less about where we're going..."
While there's no reason to think Islamists are in the process of consolidating absolute power anywhere, it's simply foolish not to recognize that they remain in every meaningful sense radical and retain their totalitarian impulses. That they would like to broadly and severely restrict the rights of individuals, women and minorities in the name of religion is obvious. It's hard to see them developing such unrestrained power, but there is also no use in kidding oneself about their evident intentions." Hussein Ibish- Jumping to conclusions on the Arab Spring
Excellent podcast interview with ATFP's Dr. Ziad Asali on empowerment and Palestine
Dr. Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine [the leading Palestinian advocacy organization in Washington D.C], discusses the challenges facing the creation of a Palestinian State.
His message is clear and precise- to push American Palestinians to put being an American first and to concentrate their energies on engaging the American system in a pro-active and positive way to make a difference, a difference Asali says can be made both in empowerment and also in getting the United States to support Palestinian Statehood.
Click here to view the ATFP Web Site.
How to help a Palestine refugee
How to help a Palestine refugee
1 November 2011
Would you like to help West Bank farmers whose trees have been uprooted by settlers?
How can I help a Palestine refugee (PDF) outlines how you can make a difference in the lives of Palestine refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.
In the last few years, UNRWA has been forced to cut back on its basic services, programmes and projects. Financial contributions have not increased sufficiently to keep pace with inflation and the growing refugee population.
Our average spending each year for each refugee has fallen from about $200 in 1975 to around $110 today.
Your contribution could fund school feeding for children in Gaza, provide health care for isolated refugee communities in the West Bank, or support university scholarships for some of the poorest refugees in Jordan.
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Monday, October 31, 2011
Israel's Ultra-orthodox Haredi Jews gather at the gates of a local girls school, screaming abuse
The battle of Bet Shemesh
guardian.co.uk, Monday 31 October 2011
At 8am, little girls carrying backpacks stuffed with books and lunchboxes greet each other with giggles and whispers as they wait for the security guard to unlock the school gates. All are dressed in compliance with the school's regulations: skirt to the knee or below; sleeves at least to the elbow.
The youngest are six, the oldest 12: the age of innocence. But this has not protected these children from becoming the focus of a cultural, religious and territorial struggle between Jews in the city of Bet Shemesh, which many say reflects a wider battle across the country as the ultra-orthodox, or Haredim, grow in number and influence.
Since the state-funded religious-nationalist school of Orot Girls opened in new premises in September, groups of extreme Haredi men regularly gather at the gates, screaming "whore" and "slut" at the girls and their mothers....READ MORE