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| Palestinian refugees Nahr al Barid, Lebanon, 1952 |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-israel-confronts-a-flood-of-african-refugees/2012/07/24/gJQA5ebZ7W_story.html
Dear Editor,
Demographics should be a research tool, not a national policy shaping institutionalized bigotry and injustice. Israel's obsession with being demographically Jewish perpetuates and exasperates a horrible conflict and a huge refugee crisis as the vast majority of native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine have been pushed into poverty, forced exile and despair.
It is an ongoing crisis and catastrophe: Just this week Israel decided to destroy eight West Bank Palestinian villages in the southern Hebron hills to make way for an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) training ground." Palestinian villages face demolition to create IDF training ground
How many more Palestinian homes will Israel destroy, how many more Palestinian families will Israel fragment, and how many more Palestinian refugees will Israel create in its demented quest to be demographically "Jewish"?
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
Notes
Refugees and the
Right of Return: "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."
The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/ ) Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:
- Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries
"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
"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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