Dear Editor,
I very much hope that diplomatic efforts to create a real Palestinian state gain traction, for everyone's sake. Israel has already had more than sixty years - a lifetime- of loyal citizens empowered and motivated to promote their state and its institutions and infrastructures and story lines, as well as the mainstream outreach necessary to sustain a state in a global economy.
Palestinians however have been disenfranchised in multiple ways, including voluntarily.
In the quicksand of information overload, with rage and angst and religious idiocy fueling many counterproductive echo chamber "conversations" and campaigns it is easy to overlook the basics- and the crucial importance of quite simply fully respecting international law and basic human rights
Reasonable, compassionate, compelling and enlightened voices are out there, and they remain focused in on saying what needs to be said: "We must work together to build a future in which both peoples can enjoy the rights, responsibilities and dignity of citizenship and self-determination. There is only one way to actually accomplish this: ending the occupation and creating a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel. Palestinians must recognize and accept Israel, which is a legitimate member state of the United Nations. The Palestinians must have one place on earth, the territories occupied in 1967, where they can live freely as first class citizens in their own independent state. There is no other way to end the cycle of bloodshed, pain and hatred that has lasted for so long." Ziad J Asali
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
"Since we established the American Task Force on Palestine in 2003, I have been criticised for being "too soft on Israel", mostly by those who seek to lecture me about the Nakba and trumpet their own Palestinian "patriotic credentials". In an insightful comment about my attendance at a recent Israeli Independence Day event, a distinguished Palestinian American friend of mine noted, “you weren't celebrating the exodus of 800,000 Palestinians, or the destruction of Palestine, or the Nakba, but keeping the face of Palestine alive, and keeping the door for negotiations and human contact open.” Ziad Asali: Learning from the Nakba
"It is in Israel's vital interest to come to a complete resolution of the conflict between it and the Palestinian people sooner rather than later, relieving the weight of this tragic conflict from both of our peoples' shoulders. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to the world." Maen Rashid Areikat: The Time for a Palestinian State Is Now
"In our debate, I continued to insist that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians is indeed still possible, mostly because a majority on both sides want it and because there is a huge body of international opinion and law that requires it." Hussein Ibish: Nothing is “inevitable”
INFOGRAPHIC: Israel's system of segregated roads in the occupied Palestinian territories
Palestinian village faces demolition by Israel
Palestinian refugees with dream of returning home after 64 years
Political upheavals or unrest have created tensions in or near all of UNRWA’s fields of operation.
Hold Israel accountable for the creation and continuation of the tragic refugee situation, and demand that Israel abide by international law which calls for the right of return and reparations...World Refugee Day 2012
Arab Voices
Alice Walker rejects Israeli request to publish ‘The Color Purple’ in Hebrew
Israel admits it revoked residency rights of a quarter million Palestinians
Clarifying why Arab and Muslim Americans should be smart rather than stupid
Learning from the Nakba "The only way to honour our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and a State of Palestine.
"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
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