Saturday, February 18, 2012
A Palestinian boy waves a Palestinian flag during a rally calling on Egyptian authorities to end the power crisis, near Rafah crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip February 18, 2012. The Gaza Strip's only power station, which supplies the Palestinian enclave with up to two-thirds of its energy needs, was shut down last Tuesday because of a shortage of fuel smuggled in from neighbouring Egypt. REUTERS/ Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS)
An Egyptian woman walks by a mural at Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. The mural reads in Arabic: "We bring them their rights or we die like them". (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Friday, February 17, 2012
The New York Times's new Jerusalem correspondent has faced criticism for sending tweets to 'the wrong people'.`
"... Such tactics are meant to intimidate and paralyse, choke and divert the discussion over Israel's occupation and policies in the Middle East. But for every person silenced, there are growing numbers who, surveying the quality of the argument, will dismiss the pro-right Israel lobby solely on the basis of the bullying. It isn't just the nature of the bashing, but its compulsive frequency, especially when set against the paucity of actual arguments presented.
Photograph: Bernat Armangue/AP guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 February 2012
As more commentators are now saying: the trouble with this rightist campaign over Israel is in the content, which always trumps the delivery system. Incidentally, this is the theme of one of the articles that Rudoren was lambasted for tweeting, which quotes Beinart, from the book she wasn't supposed to like: "Israel does not have a public relations problem; it has a policy problem." "Rachel Shabi
Photograph: Bernat Armangue/APFalse accusations of antisemitism desensitise us to the real thing
Attacks on the New York Times's new Jerusalem correspondent undermine the credibility of Israel's rightwing defenders
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/17/antisemitism-new-york-times-jerusalem-correspondent
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My letter to my local paper The Patriot News RE There can be a path to true peace in the Middle East by Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal
RE: AS I SEE IT: There can be a path to true peace in the Middle East by Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talalhttp://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2012/02/there_can_be_a_path_to_true_pe.html
Dear Editor,
"So far, the Israelis’ emphasis has been on security for Israel and insecurity for others. It is about time it accepted that security through weapons cannot bring peace: Only peace based on justice can bring real security for us all. " Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal The Patriot News AS I SEE IT There can be a path to true peace in the Middle East February 17, 2012
Thank you so much for publishing Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal's inspiring op-ed: I was totally surprised and delighted to see that in our local newspaper!
I very much believe that working toward "turning the Middle East, Israel, the Indian subcontinent and indeed North Korea, into a WMD-free zone" is an excellent idea- for everyone's sake. Much better that limited funds and resources here, there and everywhere be put towards education and infrastructure and the ecological challenges ahead, rather than foolishly exasperating an arms race and escalating angry rhetoric.
Jordan has been at the forefront of intelligent and compassionate efforts to help Palestine and Palestinians for decades. Jordan made official peace with Israel years ago, but it is a very fragile peace due to the ongoing Israel/Palestine conflict. The current status quo is not sustainable for long. Right now there is still a chance and a golden opportunity to really believe in and build support for official negotiations to shape a fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict- for everyone's sake. But only if negotiations are firmly based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights... and we all must do our part to help calm down the conversation so that reasonable people can be heard- and understood.
The Golden Rule is an easy to remember reminder of the basic logic necessary for calming down the situation with compassion, diplomacy and an investment in real justice so that everyone (regardless of religion and/or nationality and/or gender) can have their fair share of creating and benefiting from the three baskets of the Helsinki process — economy, security and human dignity —.... and peace. Yes it is possible, and it really is the best way forward.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American Homemaker & Poet
NOTES
- Arab American Institute's Omar Baddar: In Defense of Hamza Kashgari
- Israel's +972's Noam Sheizaf: "Leaving a place doesn’t make someone a refugee. It’s forbidding him or her from coming back that does it."
- The Year of Reading Dangerously ...Charter for Compassion calls for stories
- Ibtisam Barakat's Valentine
- UNRWA film competition for young Palestinian refugees... This year’s theme is: My Spring is Coming.
- House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid
- Anthony Shadid Times Correspondent Dies: Ending One Of The Most Storied Careers
- Congressman Keith Ellison Discusses Defunding Palestinian Sesame Street
- At Ben Gurion, Learn to Fight the Fear
- Storm Over Hebron...
- Baltimore Sun letters: The Palestinian Catch-22
- Hamas & The Arab Spring
- Setting Our Moral Compass Straight by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
- Marshall Breger : Why Jews Can’t Criticize Sharia
- [Palestinian] Neighborhood pays price of being on wrong side of Israel's wall
- MOST RECENT POLL: A majority of Palestinian youth express their support for a two-state solution (Israel and Palestine within the 1967 boarders).
- The Middle East's "invisible refugees"
- Time Magazine: “The People Are Suffocating”: West Bank Economy Struggles Under Pressure From U.S. Congress
"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
Arab American Institute's Omar Baddar: In Defense of Hamza Kashgari
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Kashgari’s tweets caused a major uproar all over social media, with tens of thousands of people joining a Saudi Facebook group calling for Kashgari’s punishment, and many calling for his head. Kashgari deleted the tweets, apologized and repented, but the virtual mob was not satisfied. A widely-shared video online was that of a religious leader weeping over Kashgari’s offence before declaring his repentance futile and demanding his execution. In fear for his life, Kashgari fled his country and headed to New Zealand, but was caught by the Malaysian police on the way and was extradited back to Saudi Arabia where he will now face trial.
It's one thing for some mob of fanatics to be making threats, and it's something else entirely for there to be international police cooperation, potentially involving Interpol, to capture and assist in the punishment of an individual whose "crime" is exercising his right to free speech. To be a proponent of free speech is to respect people’s right to self-expression, no matter how distasteful or offensive their views may be. And Kashgari's case is notably mild, as his language, while lacking the veneration widely expected in his society, wasn't even extreme in any way that indicated he was deliberately seeking to infuriate. If there is to be international cooperation, it should be in defense of Kashgari's right to speak his mind without fear of death, not cooperation to assist in bringing him closer to that potential fate. The international community should not be silent in the face of international accommodation of mob-inspired "justice," it should be raising its voice in defense of elementary human rights.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." -- Article 19 of the UN Declaration for Human Rights****
The Arab American Institute (AAI) is a nonprofit organization committed to the civic and political empowerment of Americans of Arab descent. AAI represents the policy and community interests of Arab Americans throughout the U.S. through two primary focus areas: campaigns and elections, and policy formulation and research. The Arab American Institute Foundation (AAIF) was founded by the Arab American Institute in 1995. AAIF supports programs that promote greater awareness of Arab Americans in the U.S., demographic research and international outreach. AAIF serves as the primary national resource on the Arab American experience for the media, academia, government agencies and the private sector.
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Israel's +972's Noam Sheizaf: "Leaving a place doesn’t make someone a refugee. It’s forbidding him or her from coming back that does it."
"Sheizaf wrote about the Nakba (catastrophe), as Palestinians refer to the 1948 war, commonly called in Israel the War of Independence. “Even after the New Historians of the nineties made the term Nakba a part of modern Hebrew and proved that in many cases, Israel expelled Palestinians from territories it conquered in ‘48, we were engaged in the wrong kind of questions, such as the debate on whether more Palestinians were expelled or fled,” he wrote. “The important thing is that they weren’t allowed to come back, and that they had their property and land seized by Israel immediately after the war (as some Jews had by Jordan and Syria, but not in substantial numbers). Leaving a place doesn’t make someone a refugee. It’s forbidding him or her from coming back that does it.”" Israel's New Left Goes Online
http://www.thenation.com/article/166264/israels-new-left-goes-online
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The Year of Reading Dangerously ...Charter for Compassion calls for stories
Charter for Compassion: What are the keys to a successful Reading Group or Book Club? Has such a group had an impact on you or your community? Congrats to the Seattle Reading Group that finished "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life" by Karen Armstrong this week! They shared this short but intriguing homemade video with us. Please send your own stories to contact@charterforcompassion.org. Thanks!
The Year of Reading Dangerously from FiatLuxMedia on Vimeo.
A Seattle Reading Group meets once a month to explore the book "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life" by Karen Armstrong. This video offers a quick sneak peak into one meeting to hear the discussion, find out how the members take action, and learn how the experience has changed the participants.
Compassion is not a lightweight topic. It can feel a bit dangerous to share deep personal experiences and discuss important questions, such as "how do we talk with people who seem very different from us?"
The paperback version of "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life" is now available in the U.S. and Canada. The hard cover version is available around the world. You're welcome to download a free "Reading Group Guide" at charterforcompassion.org/learn/readinggroups.
This homemade video was created by a Seattle Reading Group member.
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Ibtisam Barakat's Valentine
Ibtisam Barakat is the author of Tasting The Sky, A Palestinian Childhood (Multi-Award Winning International Book)
UNRWA film competition for young Palestinian refugees... This year’s theme is: My Spring is Coming.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees announces third annual film competition
Searching for a relation between the Arab Spring and Palestinian refugees situation, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) announced theme for its 3rd annual short film competition "My Spring is Coming."
UNRWA accepts submissions from all young Palestinian refugees complying with the rules set by the competition organisers, which can be found here.
Submission deadline 18 May 2012
17 February 2012 Are you a young Palestinian refugee? Do you have an idea for a short film? We are now accepting submissions for our 3rd annual film competition. This year’s theme is: My Spring is Coming.
One year on, where has the “Arab Spring” left Palestine refugees?
Requirements
- 2 - 5 minute film
- Film must reflect on this year’s theme in an original and creative way
- Filmmaker must be younger than 25 years
- Closing date for submissions is 18 May 2012
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House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid
http://anthonyshadid.com/house-of-stone-a-memoir-of-home-family-and-a-lost-middle-east/[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
Last spring, when Anthony Shadid—one of four New York Times reporters captured in Libya as the region erupted—was freed, he went home. Not to Boston, Beirut, or Oklahoma where he was raised by his Lebanese-American family, but to an ancient estate built by his great-grandfather, a place filled with memories of a lost era when the Middle East was a world of grace, grandeur, and unexpected departures. For two years previous, Shadid had worked to reconstruct the house and restore his spirit after both had weathered war. Now the author of the award-winning Night Draws Near (National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize) tells the story of the house’s re-creation, revealing its mysteries and recovering the lives that have passed through it. Shadid juxtaposes past and present as he traces the house’s renewal along with his family’s flight from Lebanon and resettlement in America. House of Stone is an unforgettable memoir of the world’s most volatile landscape and the universal yearning for home.
Publication Date: March 27, 2012 [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]
“House of Stone takes the reader to the heart of the Middle East and all its conflicts: the core question of what gives people a sense of who they are and what they are. In this deeply personal but deeply relevant memoir, he looks at the way family, place, history and faith work their way into a people’s blood, determining not only how they look at their past, but how they go about trying to build a future.” – Christopher Dickey, Middle East Bureau Chief, Newsweek
***********************
“In rebuilding his family home in southern Lebanon, Shadid commits an extraordinarily generous act of restoration for his wounded land, and for us all.” — Annia Ciezadlo, author of Day of Honey
“In rebuilding his family home in southern Lebanon, Shadid commits an extraordinarily generous act of restoration for his wounded land, and for us all.” — Annia Ciezadlo, author of Day of Honey
AMAZON pro-order
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OR help support your local economy & your local book store- buy it locally
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or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
OR help support your local economy & your local book store- buy it locally
Anthony Shadid Times Correspondent Dies: Ending One Of The Most Storied Careers
“Some suffering cannot be covered in words,” he wrote. “This had become my daily fare as reporter in the Middle East documenting war, its survivors and fatalities, and the many who seem a little of both. In the Lebanese town of Qana, where Israeli bombs caught their victims in the midst of a morning’s work, we saw the dead standing, sitting, looking around. The village, its voices and stories, plates and bowls, letters and words, its history, had been obliterated in a few extended moments that splintered a quiet morning.”
Anthony Shadid
1968-2012
Anthony Shadid 1968-2012
Jill Abramson, the executive editor, informed the [New York Times] newspaper’s staff Thursday evening in an e-mail. “Anthony died as he lived — determined to bear witness to the transformation sweeping the Middle East and to testify to the suffering of people caught between government oppression and opposition forces,”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/world/middleeast/anthony-shadid-a-new-york-times-reporter-dies-in-syria.html?_r=1
Anthony Shadid, center, with residents of Cairo last February.At Work in Syria, Times Correspondent Dies
Anthony Shadid, a gifted foreign correspondent whose graceful dispatches for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Associated Press covered nearly two decades of Middle East conflict and turmoil, died, apparently of an asthma attack, on Thursday while on a reporting assignment in Syria. Tyler Hicks, a Times photographer who was with Mr. Shadid, carried his body across the border to Turkey.Mr. Shadid, 43, had been reporting inside Syria for a week, gathering information....READ MORE
Thursday, February 16, 2012
8 Palestinian children die in West Bank bus crash
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police say at least eight Palestinian schoolchildren died in a bus crash in the West Bank.
The children were killed when a truck careened into their schoolbus on Thursday morning. The bus overturned and caught fire.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the children were taken to Israeli and Palestinian hospitals and that at least eight died. Palestinian police say the death toll was 10.
There were no signs of foul play. The truck driver was said to be an Arab Israeli citizen who may have lost control in heavy rains and slick roads.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning and ordered flags flown at half staff. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also expressed sorrow.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
My letter to the Washington Post RE The Post’s View The U.S.-Israeli trust gap on Iran
RE: The Post’s View The U.S.-Israeli trust gap on Iran Dear Editor,
On twitter (and face book) this morning, sending out his daily round of highly relevant news and opinion regarding ending the Israel-Palestine conflict Hussein Ibish (Senior Research Fellow at The American Task Force on Palestine , a firm advocate of a fair and just negotiated settlement to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine) with his brilliant way of succinctly summing things up pointed out a fascinating and highly relevant article by tweeting "
Kudos to your Editorial Board for wisely pointing out that "military action against Iran, by Israel or the United States, is not yet necessary or wise".... However I think the only thing that needs to be spelled out is a call to ignore extremists and hate mongers in all camps who want to pull everyone into a wider war: “Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend” Margaret Thatcher
Congressman Keith Ellison Discusses Defunding Palestinian Sesame Street
This Congress approved funding for Sesame Street in Palestine last year. But one member is holding up the money. That means there's no Elmo...Only Farfour teaching extremism. Uploaded by RepKeithEllison on Jan 24, 2012
At Ben Gurion, Learn to Fight the Fear
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At Ben Gurion, Learn to Fight the FearBy Julie Holm for MIFTAH
So far I have spent six incredible months in Palestine, and I hope for many more. I consider Ramallah my home and the people here my family. Not everyone quite gets it when I say I love it there. Many Palestinians especially have a hard time understanding it. How can anyone love living under these conditions? The thing is, it is the people, not the circumstances under which they live, that I love.
So far I have spent six incredible months in Palestine, and I hope for many more. I consider Ramallah my home and the people here my family. Not everyone quite gets it when I say I love it there. Many Palestinians especially have a hard time understanding it. How can anyone love living under these conditions? The thing is, it is the people, not the circumstances under which they live, that I love.
It is only when I venture outside of my comfortable Ramallah bubble that I comprehend how living under occupation affects a person. I feel my body getting tenser while driving inside the West Bank, or taking the bus to Jerusalem, which often gives me a headache.
Nothing is as bad as the airport though. Already flying into Tel Aviv six months ago, I got a taste of Israeli fear tactics. They treated me as if I was a criminal and the young girl at passport control was obviously having a bad day and issued me a visa for a month only. I took up the fight with the Israeli bureaucratic system and won the first round and the much-wanted stamp in my passport.
With these experiences behind me I felt confident that I would be able to handle whatever they threw at me on my trip out of the country last week. First, the taxi was pulled over as I drove into the airport. I was told to step out and was asked a few questions, which I happily answered. “No problem,” I told myself, “I was prepared for this.” The security guards going through my luggage weren’t a problem either. Time consuming, yes, a little exaggerated, definitely, but nothing to get upset about.
It was not until I came to passport control that the real trouble started. I have talked a lot about this with friends who have done it many times before and know exactly what to say and what to do. The thing is, I don’t actually think it matters. If they want to harass you and make you uncomfortable, they will find a way. The two young girls at passport control were stamping passports, gossiping with each other and texting their boyfriends simultaneously. When it was my turn, both queues got held up for about 20 minutes. Why? Because I have been in Palestine for six months and gone in and out of Qalandia checkpoint countless times? Because I am a Palestine-activist? Because I write articles that are critical of Israel? No (or maybe it was, but that was not the reason they gave me). What bothered them most were the three days I spent in Jordan, where I was actually a tourist going to see Petra.
Apparently the visa Israel stamped on my passport crossing back over from the Allenby Bridge was illegal. They pointed at it and yelled, “This is not a visa”. Well, they could have fooled me, and every other Israeli solider that has looked at it for the past three months. The stamp even says that it is valid for three months. But this is exactly what I have learned from dealing with this system for some time now. They give you problems, make everything as difficult as possible, and don’t explain what they do or what you should do next. That way your problems only get bigger next time you want to renew your visa.
The people in line behind me started getting impatient, telling the girls to let me go. After five minutes of one girl frantically punching at her computer and the other girl making suggestions of what to write they smiled and said: “You will be lucky if you ever get into this country again”.
At the security check after passport control I was pulled aside, told to wait. People started reacting, especially the Danish tourists who were on the same flight as me. I told them it was okay, that this is what it was like here. I wanted to tell them that this is nothing compared to how Palestinians are treated, but thought that it might not be the time or the place for that.
I have always admired the ability many Palestinians seem to have in dealing with these kinds of situations by going around the restrictions put on them. Shortly before I left, a dear friend told me that I have been “Palestinianized”, that there is no way back for me now. And after this experience I agree. These tactics of trying to scare me from coming back are not going to work, and I too will find a way to get around them. I have fought Israeli bureaucracy before and I can do it again. If for nothing else, then at least so I can keep telling the world that the way they treated me at the airport is nothing compared to the way Israel treats Palestinians every day.
Julie Holm is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
MIFTAH VISION: An independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, which grants Palestinians their basic rights, preserves their dignity, and enjoys international recognition and respect.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Storm Over Hebron...
from my email sent by Tammie Danielsen of Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Austin TX
Subject: Re: Fw: [hbgmideast] Storm Over Hebron
As you all know, I have been living and working in Hebron/Al Khalil as an Ecumenical Accompanier for the past three months. I find this to be an interesting article and good analysis of the ancient religious history and applaud their efforts for acknowledging that the children on both sides need to learn about the other. However, I have to point out some discrepancies regarding the facts and information that is missing from this article.
1. Hebron (the English spelling) Hevron (Hebrew spelling) Al Khalil (Arabic spelling)
2. During the 1929 massacre of the Jewish community in Hebron 67 Jewish people were reportedly killed (not 59).
3. This article fails to mention that many Jewish community members were given protection and refuge by their Palestinian neighbors during the 1929 riots.
4. The article mentions that the settlers live under the protection of the military and that the "Arab" citizens have little to no rights. This is true, but what needs to be acknowledged is that there are approximately 1,500-2,000 soldiers stationed in Hebron to protect 500-800 settlers and there is at least one soldier per settler who is always on duty in the H2 (Israeli controlled) area of the city. The reason that settlers are protected by the soldiers and the Arabs have little to no rights is because the settlers are Israeli citizens and therefore live under civil law while the Palestinians (Arabs) live under military law, thus having no civil liberties. (It is the duty of the Israeli military to protect Israeli citizens.
5. There are 17 checkpoints in the H2 (Israeli controlled area of the city which Palestinians have to cross to get to work, school and to their homes while Settlers (Jewish citizens) can move about freely.
6. The reason the streets are free of Palestinians (referred to as Arabs in this article) is because there is a military order preventing Palestinians from driving on some parts of Shuhada street and preventing them from walking or standing on other parts of the street. There is also a section of this street near the Mosque/Synagogue this article speaks about that segregates the Jewish community from the Palestinan community (via a separation waist high barrier) by only allowing Palestinians to walk on one side of the street.
I must say I do agree with the idea that visitors should get a well rounded view of Hebron and all of its history and I do highly recommend visitors to join a Breaking the Silence tour which gives visitors a well rounded perspective of the history of Hebron.
I also have noticed during my time here the segregation of the Jewish children from the Palestinian children and how neither is learning about the "other" which I find very sad and believe that it perpetuates the struggles of the city.
I have to say that I do not believe that peaceful reconciliation between these two groups will be possible until both sides are equal and have equal rights under the law. A peaceful reconciliation cannot be obtained when one segment of the population lives under civil law with all the civil liberties that entails while another segment of the population lives under military law without any civil liberties. I also have to say that this article did not fully recognize the local Palesitian population and referred to this community simply as Arabs, not recognizing that the local community refers to themselves as Palestinians who have a unique history and culture that differs from neighboring Arab countries. I believe the first step to reconciliation is full recognition of all parties to self determination with the ability to live with full civil liberties without segregation. Only then can talks and hopes of peace and reconciliation begin.
Tammie Danielsen
Ecumenical Accompanier-Hebron
Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Austin TX
Weekend Edition February 10-12, 2012
Don't Know Much About History
Storm Over Hebron
by URI AVNERY
THERE SEEMS to be no limit to the troubles caused by the town of Hebron.
This time, the reason is as innocent as can be: the organized visits of schoolchildren to the Cave of Machpelah, where our patriarchs are supposed to be buried.
By rights, Hebron should be a symbol of brotherhood and conciliation. It is the town associated with the legendary figure of Abraham, the common ancestor of both Hebrews and Arabs. Indeed, the name itself connotes friendship: the Hebrew name Hebron stems from the same root as “haver”, friend, comrade, while the town’s Arab name – al-Halil – means “friend”. Both names refer to Abraham being the friend of God.
Abraham’s firstborn, Ishmael, was the son of the concubine Hagar, who was driven out into the desert to die there, when the legitimate son, Isaac, was born to Sarah. Ishmael, the patriarch of the Arabs, and Isaac, the patriarch of the Jews, were enemies, but when their father died, they came together to bury him: “Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years (175), and was gathered to his people. And his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave of Machpelah…” (Genesis, 25)
IN RECENT times, Hebron has acquired a very different reputation.
For centuries, a small Jewish community lived there in peace, in perfect harmony with the Muslim inhabitants. But in 1929, something awful happened. A group of Jewish fanatics staged an incident in Jerusalem, when they tried to change the delicate status quo at the Western Wall. Religious riots broke out throughout the country. In Hebron, Muslims massacred 59 Jews, men, women and children, an event that left an indelible mark on Jewish memory. (Less well known is the fact that 263 Jews were saved by their Arab neighbors.)
Shortly after the occupation of the West Bank in the Six-day War, a group of fanatical messianic Jews infiltrated Hebron by stealth and founded the first Jewish settlement. This grew into a veritable nest of extremism, including some out and out fascists. One of them was the mass-murderer Baruch Goldstein, who slaughtered 29 Muslims at prayer in the Cave of Machpelah – actually no cave at all, but a fortress-like building, perhaps built by King Herod.
Since then, there has been endless trouble between the 500 or so Jewish settlers in the city, who enjoy the protection of the army, and the 165,000 Arab inhabitants, who are completely at their mercy, devoid of any human or civil rights.
IF THE schoolchildren had been sent there to listen to both sides and learn something about the complexity of the conflict, that would be fine. But this was not the intention of the Minister of Education, Gideon Sa’ar.
Personally, Sa’ar (the name means “storm”) is a nice person. In fact, he started his career in my magazine, Haolam Hazeh. However, he is a fanatical right-winger, who believes that his job is to cleanse Israeli children of the rotten cosmopolitan liberalism that he imagines their teachers are steeped in, and to turn them into uniform, loyal patriots, ready to die for the fatherland. He is sending army officers to preach in the classrooms, demands that teachers instill “Jewish values” (i.e. nationalist religiosity) even in secular schools, and now wants to send them to Hebron and other “Jewish” places, so their “Jewish roots” grow more robust.
The children sent there see the “Jewish” Cave of Machpelah (which was for 13 centuries a mosque), the settlers, the streets that have become empty of Arabs, and listen to the indoctrination of patriotic guides. No contact with Arabs, no other side, no others at all.
When a rebellious school invited members of the peace-oriented ex-soldiers’ group “Breaking the Silence” to accompany them and show them the other side, police intervened and prevented them from visiting the town. Now some 200 teachers and principals have signed an official protest against the Education Minister’s project and demanded its cancellation.
Sa’ar is upset. With flaming eyes behind his glasses, he fervently denounced the teachers. How could such traitors be allowed to educate our precious children?
ALL THIS reminded me of my late wife, Rachel. I may have told the story before. If so, I must ask for indulgence. I just can’t help recounting it again.
Rachel was for many years a teacher of the first and second grade. She believed that after that, nothing further could be done to mould the character of a human being.
Like me, Rachel loved the Bible – not as a religious text or a book of history (which it most decidedly is not) but as a superb literary work, unequalled in its beauty.
The Bible tells how the mythological Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah to bury his wife, Sarah. It is a wonderful story, and, as was her wont, Rachel had the children play it in class. This not only brought the story to life, but also allowed her to push forward timid boys and girls who lacked self-confidence. When they were chosen for an important role in one of these improvised plays, they would gain self-respect and suddenly bloom. Some had their whole life changed (as they confided to me decades later).
The Bible (Genesis 23) has it that Abraham asked the people of Hebron for a plot to bury his wife, when she died at the ripe old age of 127. All the Hebronites offered their fields for free. But Abraham wanted to buy the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar, “for as much money as it is worth”.
Ephron, however, refused to accept any money and insisted on giving the honored guest the field as a gift. After much exchange of pleasantries, Ephron finally came to the point: “My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt you and me?”
The scene was duly enacted, with one 7-year old boy with a long beard playing Abraham and another playing Ephron, with the rest of the class as the people of Hebron, who were the witnesses to the transaction, as Abraham had requested.
Rachel explained to the children that this was an ancient way of conducting business, not coming straight to the crass matter of money, but first exchanging polite words and protestations, and then gradually working towards a compromise. She added that this civilized procedure is still followed in the Arab world, and especially among the Bedouins, even in Israel. For the children, who had probably never heard a good word about Arabs before, this was a revelation.
Afterwards, Rachel asked the teacher of the parallel class how she had told the same story. “What do you mean,” the woman replied, “I told them the truth, that Arabs always lie and cheat. If Ephron wanted 400 shekels, why didn’t he say so straight away, instead of pretending to be ready to give it as a gift?”
IF TEACHERS like Rachel could take their children to Hebron and show them around, letting them visit the Arab spice market and the workshops which for centuries have been producing the unique blue Hebron glass, it would be wonderful. If children could speak with Arabs and Jews, including even the fanatics of both sides, it could be highly educational. Visiting the tombs of the patriarchs (which, most serious archaeologists believe, are actually the graves of Muslim Sheiks) which are sacred to both Muslims and Jews, could convey a message. Jewish Israelis are quite unaware that Abraham also figures as a prophet in the Koran.
Before conquering Jerusalem and declaring it his capital, the mythological King David (also revered as a prophet in Islam) had his capital in Hebron. Indeed, the town, which is located 930 meters above sea level, enjoys wonderful air and agreeable temperatures in both summer and winter.
This whole episode brings me back to an old hobbyhorse of mine: the need for all Israeli schoolchildren, Jews and Arabs, to learn the history of the country.
This seems self-evident, but is not. Far from it. Arab children in Israel learn Arab history, starting with the birth of Islam in far-away Mecca. Jewish children learn Jewish history, which played no significant role in this country for almost 2000 years. Big chunks of the country’s history are unknown to one side or to both. Jewish pupils know nothing about the Mamluks and next to nothing about the Crusaders (except that they butchered the Jews in Germany on their way here), Arab pupils know very little about the Canaanites and the Maccabees.
Learning the history of the country in its entirety, including its Jewish and Muslim phases, would create a unified common view which would bring the two peoples much closer to each other, and make peace and reconciliation easier. But this prospect is as distant today as it was 40 years ago, when I raised it for the first time in the Knesset, earning the nickname “the Mamluk” from the then Education Minister, Zalman Aran of the Labor Party.
In a different atmosphere, Hebron would be seen as it should be: a fascinating town, sacred to both peoples, the second most holy city of Judaism (after Jerusalem) and one of the four sacred cities of Islam (with Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem). With mutual tolerance and without the fanatics of both sides, what a wonderful place that could be for children to visit!
URI AVNERY is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is a contributor to CounterPunch’s book The Politics of Anti-Semitism.
Baltimore Sun letters: The Palestinian Catch-22
The Palestinian Catch-22
Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians face a Catch-22. As the Sun's editorial, "Mr. Abbas' mission" (Feb. 13) points out, a unity government between Mr. Abbas' Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza is a necessary precondition to negotiate a two state solution. Unfortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserts that Mr. Abbas can have peace with Israel or unity with Hamas, but not both. The Catch-22 is that Israel used the split in territorial control between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas as an excuse to not negotiate. Now that this has resolved, the very resolution is a reason to not negotiate.We have seen this before. When the Oslo process threatened peace, Yitzhak Rabin was killed by an Israeli who was hailed as a hero by the Israeli right wing....READ MORE[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
Hamas & The Arab Spring
Hussein Ibish: "Whether the agreement with Abbas is implemented or not, Hamas will only go as far as it absolutely must to adjust to new realities. But relying on states like Qatar, Egypt and Jordan will necessitate very different behavior than being a client of Syria and Iran. And Hamas leaders counting on the Arab Spring turning into an “Islamic Awakening” that fulfills their ideological fantasies are spending more time reading coffee grounds than the emerging regional order." Hamas of contradictions
Hussein Ibish writes frequently about Middle Eastern affairs for numerous publications in the United States and the Arab world. He blogs at www.Ibishblog.com.
[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
Setting Our Moral Compass Straight by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24401&CategoryId=3
Setting Our Moral Compass Straight
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24401&CategoryId=3
Setting Our Moral Compass Straight Israel is zeroing in on so many levels. In Jerusalem, it can be seen with the naked eye – bulldozers tearing down homes, lands leveled for “Torah and Talmudic” gardens, children being arrested, and solidarity tents given 72 hours to dismantle before being demolished. In the West Bank, settlements are spreading like cancer cells while settlers are taking their cue from their government, which has mostly given them a free reign to run wild.
The point is, the Palestinians have so much going against them that they have every reason in the world to band together, not only politically but in various social aspects where, frankly, they aren’t.
Last week, the Israeli electric company sent a letter to the Palestinian Jerusalem Electric Company warning them that if they did not pay their back dues soon, Israel would simply start turning off the lights. According to Omar Kittaneh, head of the Palestinian energy authority, the Jerusalem Electric Company owes an accumulative bill of about $200 million. While he does attribute some of this crisis to the rising price of electricity and fuel and does acknowledge that the people are unhappy with the rise in electricity bills, he was sure to convey a crystal clear message: pay your bills.
This is something that is highly disturbing for any Palestinian looking into his/her own society. Kittaneh was saying that the average percentage of Palestinians who pay their electricity bills in cities is around 80%-85%. This does not seem like such a horrible rate, some might say. But considering that much of Palestinian society is rural and then hearing the statistics from villages and towns, the situation turns dire very quickly. Add to that the payment rates in refugee camps and the problem is almost overwhelming.
According to Kittaneh, only 40%-50% of subscribers pay their electricity bills in Palestinian villages. In refugee camps, he says the number is close to zero. Again, while he acknowledges the tough economic conditions many Palestinians live under, he says it is not the neediest who are necessarily the ones not paying their bills, or even worse, stealing electricity from their neighbors.
During his interview with Voice of Palestine, Kittaneh appealed to the people, saying such depraved behavior is “not part of our culture or heritage”. He also said that when they don’t pay, the burden falls unfairly on others.
What he didn’t say was such behavior ignores its own long term effects. The Palestinians need to focus on uniting at all levels, including embracing fairness and honesty among themselves, if they are ever going to win the much larger battle against Israel. The rift between Hamas and Fatah, which is hopefully on the mend as we speak, has been the most damaging ramification of what can only be called poor judgment among the people and the failure to see beyond the tip of one’s nose. Hamas and Fatah fought like cats and dogs over illusionary power and forgot that Israel was sitting back and enjoying the show. The recent arrest of PLC Speaker Aziz Dweik was the latest proof that their squabbling over power is nothing more than smokescreens and mirrors.
Likewise, those who think it is all right to dump their electricity expenses on others just to save a few shekels do not realize that this is what is being taught to an entire generation. How are we to lead a national struggle, which requires honesty and commitment and the transcendence of individual interests for the sake of the whole when we are cheating each other?
Let us hope that today’s signing of the “Doha Agreement” between President Abbas and Khaled Meshaal will be the beginning of a new era for the Palestinians. We can achieve national reconciliation – it has always been within our reach. But let us not forget that our social and moral compass is just as important as our political one. In fact, if we do not point it due north, what kind of country and society are we aspiring for?
Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
MIFTAH VISION: An independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, which grants Palestinians their basic rights, preserves their dignity, and enjoys international recognition and respect.
Marshall Breger : Why Jews Can’t Criticize Sharia Law
"While clearly some Muslims do view sharia as a hegemonic political force, the vast majority of Muslims, especially those living in the West, view sharia no differently from the way Jews view the halachic system: as an overarching guide to ordering one’s life. Muslim jurists have always drawn on sharia to mandate that fellow Muslims obey the laws of the land in matters that sharia does not prohibit. In numerous instances (see Koran 5:11), Muslims are told to “honor their contracts” and so to honor the “social contract” represented by the law of the land. The Fiqh Council of North America, the leading interpreter of Islamic law in the United States, ruled as recently as September 2011 that “there is no inherent conflict between the normative values of Islam and the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.” " Marshall Breger, a professor of law at Catholic University
My letter to the New York Times RE The Dilemmas of Jewish Power by Roger Cohen
RE: The Dilemmas of Jewish Power by Roger Cohenhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/opinion/cohen-the-dilemmas-of-jewish-power.html?_r=1&ref=global
Dear Editor,
I applaud and very much appreciate Cohen's willingness to notice the fact that " the manipulation of Jewish victimhood in the name of Israel’s domination of the Palestinians" is wrong and that "the real issue for Jews today is not the challenge of weakness but the demands of power."
However while his approach might appear helpful and compassionate, is it really helpful and compassionate to coerce us all into endorsing and empowering Zionism for Israel in order to grant Palestinians a glimpse of freedom and a temporary reprieve from harsh oppression.
Israel is a state, a modern nation state whereas Zionism is an ideology that happened to help propel that state into being strong. That does not make Zionism's trajectory sane or safe. The demographic argument might appear reasonable, and it certainly is very appealing to people who want to feel good about Israel, but it can not help but continue to lay the ground work for Islamists to convince the naive and the most vulnerable that large families and tribal loyalty are the best way to gain security and power. It also ensures that there will be Israelis who fervently believe that demographics trump justice and equality. Real democracy can't get very far when citizens are motivated to hire and promote their co-religionists rather than the best candidate for the job.
A fully secular two state solution ASAP to once and for all end the cruel insanities, the violence, the bigotry and the religious extremism created by the Israel-Palestine conflict really is the best way forward.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American Homemaker & Poet
NOTES
The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Preempting fragmentation by Walid M. Sadi
UNRWA to stop financial aid to impoverished families in Gaza
Israeli demolition 'displaces 120' [Palestinian men, women & children] in Hebron village
VOA News: Palestinian Hunger Striker Stirs Emotions
Taking Care of His Adopted Country, One Emergency at a Time
Springs - Arab and otherwise
A U.S. author's book, an Iranian translator's peril
NBC NEWS: Gazans break(dance)ing boundaries
[Palestinian] Neighborhood pays price of being on wrong side of Israel's wall
MOST RECENT POLL: A majority of Palestinian youth express their support for a two-state solution (Israel and Palestine within the 1967 boarders).
The Middle East's "invisible refugees"
Time Magazine: “The People Are Suffocating”: West Bank Economy Struggles Under Pressure From U.S. Congress
This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Women in Resistance
UNWRA NEWS: Refusal to grant travel documents traps family in Gaza for 10 years
"Religious conservatism invariably focuses on social and sexual control. Women are the most immediate targets and primary focus of the authoritarianism of the religious right, wherever they may be. As Islamists seem to be finally getting their chance at gaining a share of power in the Arab world, the greatest and most immediate danger they pose is to women’s rights. That is why it is up to everyone else, including both secularists and religious moderates, to insist on the introduction of inviolable constitutional principles protecting the rights of individuals, women and minorities." Hussein Ibish: Islamism and misogyny
"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
Executive director of Oxfam International Jeremy Hobbs: "The increasing rate of settlement expansion and house demolitions is pushing Palestinians to the brink, destroying their livelihoods and prospects for a just and durable peace," Record number of Palestinians displaced in 2011
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