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| Occupation Diaries by Raja Shehadeh – book review: Anger co-exists with a sense of beauty in a valuable journal of West Bank life..."These raw emotions are also linked to the death of his mother, just before these diaries open. She was exiled from her home city of Jaffa in 1948, and watched her family's wealth disintegrate. In remembering the turbulent 60 years that followed, in which she lost her family, friends and property, he finds himself "still angry at what she had to suffer" |
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20120805_The_Pulse__Is_culture_the_key_to_Israel_s_success_.html
Dear Editor,
Michael Smerconish asks an interesting question: "Would the Israeli economic miracle continue unabated if we swapped the populations of Israel and the United States? "... but a much more relevant question is "Would the Israeli economic miracle continue unabated if we swapped the laws and regulations of Israel and the United States?"
Dan Senor's book about "Israel's Economic Miracle" is Hasbara- promos & PR efforts for Zionists to convince both insiders and outsiders to believe in and invest in Israel. Hasbara tends to dismiss or ignore vitally important truths and facts, in particular about the very real plight of the Palestinians, in order to show Israel in the best possible light.
Hussein Ibish, Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine & author of What’s Wrong with the One-State Agenda? Why Ending the Occupation and Peace with Israel is Still the Palestinian National Goal, is fully aware that Arabs all through out the Middle East find Romney's clueless comments quite insulting. Ibish wisely points out in Lebanon Now that: "The bottom line is there is no cost whatsoever for doing your utmost to outbid any opponent on adoration of all things Israel and no benefit whatsoever to doing otherwise. So for a politician like Romney, going to Israel and making a series of fantastically one-sided, and in many cases indefensible, statements during a campaign is a no-brainer. This included a snide, uncalled-for insult against the Palestinian people that suggested they were culturally inferior to the Israelis because of their impoverishment, without recognizing the onerous restrictions of the occupation." http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=423856
Genetically and culturally, I think it is obvious that world wide we are all human beings with feelings and thoughts and dreams and memories, some shared some not- regardless of supposed race or religion. Millenniums of various migrations and marriages blend us, connect us, make us one people... Each one of us earthlings is a unique individual with the potential to be brighter and braver and more inspiring than the most admired heroes of past generations-regardless of supposed race or religion.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
Songs and Pictures from Palestine: Thyme & a poem
Tales from the West Bank: Palestinian Raja Shehadeh chronicles life during occupation
Palestinian villages face demolition to create IDF training ground
Violent attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property, mosques and farmland had increased by 150% over the past year.
Palestinian officials point out that US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is undermining peace... "What this man [Mitt Romney] is doing here is just promoting extremism, violence and hatred"
'Separate and Unequal' is Unacceptable to Palestinians
"If you have to modify it, it isn't really a democracy."
Romney Versus the World Bank
World Bank says Palestinian economy unsustainable noting that "Israeli restrictions remain the biggest impediment to investing, creating high uncertainty and risk"
Do you support as a solution to this conflict the emergence of a fully sovereign state of Palestine on the territory occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem? Yes or no?
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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
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."
"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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