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| A Palestinian boy looks from the rooftop of a destroyed house in Gaza City, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. A leading Islamic cleric in the Gaza Strip has ruled it a sin to violate |
RE Worldview: The forgotten man: Abbas
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20121125_Worldview__The_forgotten_man__Abbas.html
Dear Editor,
Rubin is right that Israel has been undermining secular and non-violent efforts for Palestine, but Rubin should have used the word Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, as shorthand for Israel's official voice. Jerusalem is not internationally recognized as Israel's capital. All embassies in Israel are in Tel Aviv.
Rubin should have also found a more compassionate and enlightened argument for why a two state solution matters- both for Israel and for Palestine: Arabs outnumbering Jews did not stop Zionism from taking root in historic Palestine, and demographics have not ever helped provide more jobs and more security or more respect for Palestinians over the past sixty years. Demographic research might be used to help create policies supposedly more in tune with majority populations, or to help protect minority rights- but demographics tallies and totals and calculations do not automatically ensure fair and just laws... or peace.
A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict will help stop injustice, religious rage, extremism, intransigence, terrorism and cruel policies created to demonize and destroy targeted demographic "threats". Religion should be a personal, private matter- not a state funded mandate.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
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RE: Two-State Solution on the Line By GRO HARLEM BRUNDTLAND and JIMMY CARTER
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/opinion/global/brundtland-carter-two-state-solution-on-the-line.html?ref=global
Dear Editor,
Does Jimmy Carter have the clout to help convince America not to punish Palestine for going to the United nations in hopes of granting “non-member observer state status” to Palestine... we can hope, but don't count on it. Bad tends to shift to worse when it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinian men, women and children bearing the brunt of the pain and suffering at every turn.
Palestinian refugees (1948-NOW) have been cruelly refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice. Day by day Israeli extremists and now Islamists have been turning the Israel-Palestine conflict into a religious war and an excuse for more and more bigotry and hate.
Israel's Jews-preferred settlements and anti-Palestinian checkpoints and that horrible land grabbing 'security" wall can and should be dismantled ASAP. Full respect for international law and basic human rights would go a long way towards building momentum for peace with a two state solution to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict- for everyone's sake.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
"...The
only way to honor 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 Palestine."
Clarifying why Arab and Muslim Americans should be smart rather than stupid
Clarifying why Arab and Muslim Americans should be smart rather than stupid
The Golden
Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
The Arab Peace Initiative
Palestinian
Refugees(1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and
their right to live in peace free
from religious bigotry and injustice.
"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
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 being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."
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