interviewed by Lally Weymouth in the Washington Post June 22, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
"I don’t need another declaration of statehood — we already have one."
"I am for any initiative that brings us closer to the day when we are
able to live as free people in a country of our own. I was always
preoccupied with what the reality on the ground is going to be in
Palestine the day after the U.N. vote. Clearly, if there were not an
effort to end the Israeli occupation, then the reality on the ground
would be the same the day after. I don’t need another declaration of
statehood — we already have one." Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
My letter to the NYTimes RE The Third Intifada Is Inevitable By Nathan Thrall
 |
| Spring in Palestine by Ismail Shammout (1930-2006 |
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/opinion/sunday/the-third-intifada-is-inevitable.html?_r=1&ref=global
Dear Editor,
Regarding Thrall's "The Third Intifada Is Inevitable"... nothing is inevitable- although if Islamists, militants, one state pundits, tyrants, bullies and bigots on both sides push Palestine into a third intifada it really is highly likely that Israel will respond by becoming even more punitive and aggressive about usurping Palestinian land, rights, and resources. I'd rather not help that happen.
Fact is violence has never really done much for Palestine, except make matters worse. Fact is Palestine's poets and painters and citizen diplomats are the ones who actually convinced the world, as well as many Palestinians pushed into forced exile, that Palestine is worth believing in and supporting.
Palestine's freedom and future depend on continued diplomacy with as many people as possible believing in and working towards a fair and just negotiated end to the Israel-Palestine conflict that is firmly based on full respect for international law and basic human rights... including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees inalienable right to return to live in peace.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
"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
poem by Tawfiq Zayyad, poet, former Mayor of
Nazareth and Knesset member:
I never carried a
rifle
On my shoulder
Or pulled a trigger.
All I have
Is a lute’s memory
A brush to paint my dreams,
A bottle of ink.
All I have
Is unshakeable faith
And an infinite love
For my people in
pain.
I Belong There
by Mahmoud Darwishtranslated by Carolyn Forché and Munir Akash
I belong there. I have many memories. I was born as everyone is born.
I have a mother, a house with many windows, brothers, friends, and a prison cell
with a chilly window! I have a wave snatched by seagulls, a panorama of my own.
I have a saturated meadow. In the deep horizon of my word, I have a moon,
a bird's sustenance, and an immortal olive tree.
I have lived on the land long before swords turned man into prey.
I belong there. When heaven mourns for her mother, I return heaven to
her mother.
And I cry so that a returning cloud might carry my tears.
To break the rules, I have learned all the words needed for a trial by blood.
I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a
single word: Home.
Beloved poet and Palestinian patriot, Kamal Nasir, a Christian, assasinated by Ehud Barak in 1973, addresses exile and return in this excerpt from "Kamal Nasir's Last Poem,"
Tell my only one, for I love him,
That I have tasted the joy of giving
And my heart relishes the wounds of sacrifice.
There is nothing left for him
Save the sighs from my song...
Save the remnants of my lute
Lying piled and scattered in our house.
Tell my only one if he ever visits my grave
And yearns for my memory,
Tell him one day that I shall return
--to pick the fruits.
Hadeel's Song
by Hanan Ashrawi
- Some words are hard to pronounce—
- He-li-cop-ter is most vexing
- (A-pa-che or Co-bra is impossible)
- But how it can stand still in the sky
- I cannot understand—
- What holds it up
- What bears its weight
- (Not clouds, I know)
- It sends a flashing light—so smooth--
- It makes a deafening sound
- The house shakes
- (There are holes in the wall by my bed)
- Flash-boom-light-sound—
- And I have a hard time sleeping
- (I felt ashamed when I wet my bed, but no one scolded me).
-
- Plane—a word much easier to say—
- It flies, tayyara,
- My mother told me
- A word must have a meaning
- A name must have a meaning
- Like mine,
- (Hadeel, the cooing of the dove)
- Tanks, though, make a different sound
- They shudder when they shoot
- Dabbabeh is a heavy word
- As heavy as its meaning.
-
- Hadeel—the dove—she coos
- Tayyara—she flies
- Dabbabeh—she crawls
- My Mother—she cries
- And cries and cries
- My Brother—Rami—he lies
- DEAD
- And lies and lies, his eyes
- Closed.
- Hit by a bullet in the head
- (bullet is a female lead—rasasa—she kills,
- my pencil is a male lead—rasas—he writes)
- What’s the difference between a shell and a bullet?
- (What’s five-hundred-milli-meter-
- Or eight-hundred-milli-meter-shell?)
- Numbers are more vexing than words—
- I count to ten, then ten-and-one, ten-and-two
- But what happens after ten-and-ten,
- How should I know?
- Rami, my brother, was one
- Of hundreds killed—
- They say thousands are hurt,
- But which is more
- A hundred or a thousand (miyyeh or alf)
- I cannot tell—
- So big--so large--so huge—
- Too many, too much.
- Palestine—Falasteen—I’m used to,
- It’s not so hard to say,
- It means we’re here—to stay--
- Even though the place is hard
- On kids and mothers too
- For soldiers shoot
- And airplanes shell
- And tanks boom
- And tear gas makes you cry
- (Though I don’t think it’s tear gas that makes my mother cry)
- I’d better go and hug her
- Sit in her lap a while
- Touch her face (my fingers wet)
- Look in her eyes
- Until I see myself again
- A girl within her mother’s sight.
- If words have meaning, Mama,
- What is Is-ra-el?
- What does a word mean
- if it is mixed
- with another—
- If all soldiers, tanks, planes and guns are
- Is-ra-el-i
- What are they doing here
- In a place I know
- In a word I know—(Palestine)
- In a life that I no longer know?
Blood
by Naomi Shihab Nye"A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,"
my father would say. And he'd prove it,
cupping the buzzer instantly
while the host with the swatter stared.
In the spring our palms peeled like snakes.
True Arabs believed watermelon could heal fifty ways.
I changed these to fit the occasion.
Years before, a girl knocked,
wanted to see the Arab.
I said we didn't have one.
After that, my father told me who he was,
"Shihab"—"shooting star"—
a good name, borrowed from the sky.
Once I said, "When we die, we give it back?"
He said that's what a true Arab would say.
Today the headlines clot in my blood.
A little Palestinian dangles a toy truck on the front page.
Homeless fig, this tragedy with a terrible root
is too big for us. What flag can we wave?
I wave the flag of stone and seed,
table mat stitched in blue.
I call my father, we talk around the news.
It is too much for him,
neither of his two languages can reach it.
I drive into the country to find sheep, cows,
to plead with the air:
Who calls anyone civilized?
Where can the crying heart graze?
What does a true Arab do now?
Friday, June 22, 2012
My letter to the Washington Post RE: Obama administration keeps Israeli, Palestinian wheels spinning, hopes for traction on peace
RE: Obama administration keeps Israeli,
Palestinian wheels spinning, hopes for traction on peace
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-administration-keeps-israeli-palestinian-wheels-spinning-hopes-for-traction-on-peace/2012/06/20/gJQAZOqjqV_story.html
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.
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
Latitute- VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD... Checkpoint Jitters By RAJA SHEHADEH
 |
| Abir Sultan/European Pressphoto Agency |
Jabaa Checkpoint, West Bank — Every day, at hundreds of checkpoints throughout the West Bank, Palestinians are stopped and made to wait, often for a long while, before they are let through. Last week I was halted at the Jabaa checkpoint on my way from my home in Ramallah to dinner at a friend’s house in Bethlehem.
I was by myself, listening to a Beethoven string quartet, one of the most beautiful of his later works. The weather was good; the moon was out. I was in a meditative mood. I wanted to feel the beauty of the moment and not let it be determined, defined or in any way affected by the bored Israeli soldiers blocking my way...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]
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Palestinian village faces demolition by Israel
[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://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-village-faces-demolition-israel-224334826.html
By
Before
it does, Israel could encounter an international complication: Several
European countries, with traditional Israel ally Germany in the lead,
have funded solar panels, wind turbines and wells to make life in area villages more bearable. A diplomatic incident may loom.
"They are turning us into refugees on our own land," said resident Mohammed Nawaja, principal of a 35-student elementary school that consists of four tents slated for removal.
Susiya is one of more than a dozen "unrecognized" Palestinian herding communities in the southern West Bank, a desert-like area close to the Green Line, Israel's pre-1967 war frontier with the West Bank, when it was ruled by Jordan. Its 160-odd residents live in shacks, caves and tents with cement-reinforced walls.
Israeli authorities say the structures are unlicensed. Residents and their supporters say Israel refuses to grant permits as part of a plan to clear the area for future territorial claims...READ MORE
 |
In this Friday, June 15, 2012 photo, a Palestinian girls carries a Palestinian flag in the West Bank town of Susiya. Palestinian herders in this hamlet have clung to arid acres spread over several West Bank hills for decades, even as Israel forced them to live off the grid while providing water and electricity to nearby Jewish settlements and unauthorized outposts. But the end seems near for Susiya's 200 residents: Citing zoning violations, Israel is threatening to demolish the village, including German-funded solar panels. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) |
Palestinian village faces demolition by Israel
By
SUSIYA, West Bank (AP) — Palestinians in this hamlet have clung to their arid acres for decades, living without proper electricity or water while Israel provides both to Jewish settlers on nearby hills. But the end now seems near for Susiya: Demolition orders distributed last week by the Israelis aim to destroy virtually the entire village.
"They are turning us into refugees on our own land," said resident Mohammed Nawaja, principal of a 35-student elementary school that consists of four tents slated for removal.
Susiya is one of more than a dozen "unrecognized" Palestinian herding communities in the southern West Bank, a desert-like area close to the Green Line, Israel's pre-1967 war frontier with the West Bank, when it was ruled by Jordan. Its 160-odd residents live in shacks, caves and tents with cement-reinforced walls.
Israeli authorities say the structures are unlicensed. Residents and their supporters say Israel refuses to grant permits as part of a plan to clear the area for future territorial claims...READ MORE
Palestinian refugees with dream of returning home after 64 years
 |
| Palestinian Refugees |
[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://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-06/21/c_131666685.htm
|
| English.news.cn 2012-06-21 02:28:36 |
GAZA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian refugee Abdel Majid al-
Mabhouh, 81, does not understand the ongoing complexities in politics,
but only keeps in mind his right to return to his house and his village
that he was forced to leave during the 1948 Arab- Israeli war with his
family.
Al-Mabhouh, his parents and six brothers had been forced to leave their village Beit Tima, north of the Gaza Strip, during the war. They then lived temporarily under tough circumstances in a house of a relative in Gaza, and then they all moved to live in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.
Jabalia is one of dozens of refugee camps established by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNWA) in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The Palestinians marked on Wednesday the 12th anniversary of UNRWA's approval of the International Day of Refugees.
Al-Mabhouh feels pain on this day as he has been living for 64 years in a refugee camp in the impoverished Gaza Strip, away from his land and house. However, he gets relieved when he recalls memories in the village and speaks about his properties amid hope that he will soon return there.
"I never lost hope to make my dream true. I have this dream in my mind for 64 years, and I always have a strong feeling that this dream will come true," al-Mabhouh told Xinhua, adding "I will never give up struggling for my right although six and a half decades had passed."
Winkles were clear on al-Mabhouh's face, and every winkle tells a story about his tragedies. He always sits down at the entrance of a narrow alley that leads to his house in Jabalia refugee camp, where children surrounds him and he starts telling them stories about how life was beautiful in Beit Tima.
The Palestinians calls the day they became refugees "al-Nakba Day," or catastrophe. They marked the International Day of Refugees and used the anniversary as a way to review their tragedies, issues and problems, especially focusing on how they keep the world attracted to their just cause.
"64 years ago, I was 16 years old. I still remember everything as if everything happened yesterday, when we left our house in Beit Tima, east of al-Majdal, or as Israel call it Ashkelon. I remember how we left during the hard times of the war as Jewish guerillas threatened to kills all of us," said al-Mabhouh.
He went on saying that hundreds of people left everything and escaped to the Gaza Strip. "I still remember that in the beginning of the war, I wasn't able to visit my relatives and we believed that the issue of return for us was a matter of few days and we would go back home. But it took us 64 years."
The old man kept talking about the experience of leaving the village in the heat of the summer in 1948, adding that he still remembers women and children walking on the hot sands. "Some families escaped from their homes and forgot their babies sleeping in their beds."
"After we arrived in Gaza, I never expected that we would remain alive. Now I live in Jabalia refugee camp, which is not so far from Beit Tima, it is only 30 kilometers far from here and still can smell it," al-Mabhouh said, adding "It is ridiculous, I live not far from my village and I can't visit it."
The UN General Assembly approved the Palestinian refugees' right of return in resolution number 194, which said "Refugees who want to return can return and live in peace with their neighbors and this has to be done as soon as possible. Compensations should be paid for lost of properties or damages."
However, the question of refugees and right of return has become one of the permanent status issues in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinians believe that this issue, which is the most important part to achieve just peace in the Middle East, has to be resolved.
"We had left everything behind and the only thing we have now just documents as a proof that we own the land," said the old man who is married to two wives, Fatima, 70 year-old, and Sou'ad, 67. They all live in one house together with their children and grandchildren.
Ahmed 34, al-Mabhouh youngest son, said as he was sitting beside his father in the refugee camp "I never lived in the pain and (was not) suffering that my father had passed through, but I heard and read accurately about our tragedies and I understood that we own properties of lands. It is our right and we will get it."
Ahmed is always busy taking care of his small family; however, he keeps in mind that one day his family will return back to their village they came from. "If my father dies, I will keep struggling for our right of return and I will educate my children never give up demanding for our legitimate rights."
Zakareya, an 11-year-old grandson of al-Mabhouh, said "I heard in the news about the International Day of Refugees and I understood from my grandfather that our family owns a house and a land in the village of Beit Tima and that our land used to be cultivated with vegetables and fruits."
The Palestinian Central Statistics Bureau said in a report issued on refugees' day that the number of Palestinian refugees registered by UNRWA had reached 5.1 million, adding that 17.1 percent live in the West Bank, 23.8 percent in Gaza, 40 percent in Jordan, and the rest in Syria and Lebanon.
Al-Mabhouh, his parents and six brothers had been forced to leave their village Beit Tima, north of the Gaza Strip, during the war. They then lived temporarily under tough circumstances in a house of a relative in Gaza, and then they all moved to live in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.
Jabalia is one of dozens of refugee camps established by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNWA) in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The Palestinians marked on Wednesday the 12th anniversary of UNRWA's approval of the International Day of Refugees.
Al-Mabhouh feels pain on this day as he has been living for 64 years in a refugee camp in the impoverished Gaza Strip, away from his land and house. However, he gets relieved when he recalls memories in the village and speaks about his properties amid hope that he will soon return there.
"I never lost hope to make my dream true. I have this dream in my mind for 64 years, and I always have a strong feeling that this dream will come true," al-Mabhouh told Xinhua, adding "I will never give up struggling for my right although six and a half decades had passed."
Winkles were clear on al-Mabhouh's face, and every winkle tells a story about his tragedies. He always sits down at the entrance of a narrow alley that leads to his house in Jabalia refugee camp, where children surrounds him and he starts telling them stories about how life was beautiful in Beit Tima.
The Palestinians calls the day they became refugees "al-Nakba Day," or catastrophe. They marked the International Day of Refugees and used the anniversary as a way to review their tragedies, issues and problems, especially focusing on how they keep the world attracted to their just cause.
"64 years ago, I was 16 years old. I still remember everything as if everything happened yesterday, when we left our house in Beit Tima, east of al-Majdal, or as Israel call it Ashkelon. I remember how we left during the hard times of the war as Jewish guerillas threatened to kills all of us," said al-Mabhouh.
He went on saying that hundreds of people left everything and escaped to the Gaza Strip. "I still remember that in the beginning of the war, I wasn't able to visit my relatives and we believed that the issue of return for us was a matter of few days and we would go back home. But it took us 64 years."
The old man kept talking about the experience of leaving the village in the heat of the summer in 1948, adding that he still remembers women and children walking on the hot sands. "Some families escaped from their homes and forgot their babies sleeping in their beds."
"After we arrived in Gaza, I never expected that we would remain alive. Now I live in Jabalia refugee camp, which is not so far from Beit Tima, it is only 30 kilometers far from here and still can smell it," al-Mabhouh said, adding "It is ridiculous, I live not far from my village and I can't visit it."
The UN General Assembly approved the Palestinian refugees' right of return in resolution number 194, which said "Refugees who want to return can return and live in peace with their neighbors and this has to be done as soon as possible. Compensations should be paid for lost of properties or damages."
However, the question of refugees and right of return has become one of the permanent status issues in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinians believe that this issue, which is the most important part to achieve just peace in the Middle East, has to be resolved.
"We had left everything behind and the only thing we have now just documents as a proof that we own the land," said the old man who is married to two wives, Fatima, 70 year-old, and Sou'ad, 67. They all live in one house together with their children and grandchildren.
Ahmed 34, al-Mabhouh youngest son, said as he was sitting beside his father in the refugee camp "I never lived in the pain and (was not) suffering that my father had passed through, but I heard and read accurately about our tragedies and I understood that we own properties of lands. It is our right and we will get it."
Ahmed is always busy taking care of his small family; however, he keeps in mind that one day his family will return back to their village they came from. "If my father dies, I will keep struggling for our right of return and I will educate my children never give up demanding for our legitimate rights."
Zakareya, an 11-year-old grandson of al-Mabhouh, said "I heard in the news about the International Day of Refugees and I understood from my grandfather that our family owns a house and a land in the village of Beit Tima and that our land used to be cultivated with vegetables and fruits."
The Palestinian Central Statistics Bureau said in a report issued on refugees' day that the number of Palestinian refugees registered by UNRWA had reached 5.1 million, adding that 17.1 percent live in the West Bank, 23.8 percent in Gaza, 40 percent in Jordan, and the rest in Syria and Lebanon.
Editor:
yan
Political upheavals or unrest have created tensions in or near all of UNRWA’s fields of operation.
"... Sixty-four years into the exile of the Palestine refugees, UNRWA’s mandate is unchanged and remains clear: you and other United Nations Member States have asked and continue to ask UNRWA to assist the refugees until a just solution is found. We continue to do this in a political and economic climate that produces profound challenges.
The protraction of the refugee issue, however, like other “final status issues”, is trapped in a stagnating peace process, and this increases pressure around the refugee question in the public domain.
Efforts to dilute and to change definitions of refugees put great pressure on UNRWA, on host countries, and on donors supporting UNRWA. Even more importantly, they create huge anxiety in a population whose stability and security are essential to a region that continues to experience volatility — volatility which, in turn, contributes to the climate of uncertainty in which Palestine refugees live. Today, therefore, my first request to you — as our advisory body — is to reconfirm your support for UNRWA’s role and mandate. This support, today, is more important than ever.
The 45-year Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the continuing blockade of Gaza, the illegal but relentless settlement expansion, are destroying the ability of Palestinians to build a productive and peaceful future.
What has been called the “Arab Spring” has created space and opportunity for expressions of civil and political rights, but it has also confronted us with challenges and dangers.
Political upheavals or unrest have created tensions in or near all of UNRWA’s fields of operation.
Refugees, in addition to the heavy burden of protracted and unresolved exile, are facing the challenges of political, social and economic change.
If UNRWA were to reduce its humanitarian and human development support in this situation, it would have highly unpredictable consequences, and with uncertainty comes danger....READ MORE
Commissioner-General’s opening statement to UNRWA Advisory Commission, June 2012
18 June 2012
Dead Sea, Jordan
Delivered by Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi at the 2012 meeting of the UNRWA Advisory Commission.
[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]
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
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
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| Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi (MaanImages/File) |
Ashrawi urges world to address Palestinian refugee situation
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi on
Wednesday called on the international community to hold Israel to
account for the situation of Palestinian refugees."Our refugees' only hope of return is through international law and intervention to bring about a just solution," Ashrawi said in a statement marking World Refugee Day.
The lawmaker called on the Middle East Quartet and world powers to "hold Israel accountable for the creation and continuation of the tragic refugee situation, and to demand that Israel abide by international law which calls for the right of return and reparations."
She continued: "Close to six million Palestinians have individual stories to tell, one for each of our refugees. And their collective narrative forms the basis for any resolution based on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194."
Passed towards the end of the 1948 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Resolution 194 called for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes. Israel consented to the resolution, but has since rejected any proposals for the repatriation of Palestinian refugees in Israel.
Ashrawi singled out the United States in particular, where lawmakers in the Senate Appropriations Committee are attempting to redefine refugees in order to exclude descendants of those who were expelled in previous generations.
"This must be seen for what it is, a cynical and cruel manipulation of human suffering to relieve Israel of its moral and legal responsibility to the Palestinian people as outlined in the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees," the lawmaker said.
The 1951 Geneva Convention outlined the rights of refugees and their host countries’ responsibilities.
"Israel must not go unchallenged in its attempts to portray our people's loss as anything other than a violent mass expulsion," Ashrawi added.
World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations to raise awareness about the situation of refugees.
PLO Official says Israel is Accountable for Refugee Problem
RAMALLAH, June 20,
2012 (WAFA) - PLO Executive Committee member and lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi
Wednesday said Israel should be held accountable for creating and the
continuation of the Palestinian refugee problem.
She said in a
statement marking World Refugee Day that while the United Nations was
asking the world to honor and to support the millions of men, women and
children who have been driven from their homes and many from their
homelands by violence, Israel and its supporters in the United States
Congress are working to deny the Palestinian refugees their rights.
“Our refugees' only hope of return is through international law and intervention to bring about a just solution,” she said.
The international
community should “hold Israel accountable for the creation and
continuation of the tragic refugee situation, and to demand that Israel
abide by international law which calls for the right of return and
reparations,” said Ashrawi.
“Israel’s failure to
fulfill its obligations under the law is obstructing the prospects for
peace and the possibility of sustaining stability in the region and
beyond,” she stressed.
“Moreover, the
international community must stand against attempts to distort the
status of Palestinian refugees, as the US Senate Appropriations
Committee is trying to do by attempting to re-define refugees by
disputing the rights of descendants of those brutally expelled more than
60 years ago,” she said.
“This must be seen for
what it is, a cynical and cruel manipulation of human suffering to
relieve Israel of its moral and legal responsibility to the Palestinian
people as outlined in the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status
of Refugees,” said Ashrawi.
“Israel must not go
unchallenged in its attempts to portray our people's loss as anything
other than a violent mass expulsion. Whether under occupation or in
exile, the Palestinian people deserve their freedom, dignity,
self-determination, and a just conclusion of their plight,” concluded
Ashrawi.
Arab Voices
"...Hussein Ibish, named by Foreign Policy magazine this week to its Twitterati 100, recently wrote a column acknowledging his errors in predicting the course of the Egyptian revolution and the wider Arab Spring.
The senior research fellow for the American Task Force on Palestine said he had learned some valuable lessons.
“Resist trying to impose any grand narratives. Take every apparently emerging pattern as contingent and unstable. Be prepared for Arab states and publics alike to pleasantly surprise or disappoint without warning,” he wrote.
“Avoid predictions whenever possible. And acknowledge that we frequently don’t really ‘know’ what we think we ‘know,’ for political realities are always at least a dozen steps ahead of every analyst.”"
The senior research fellow for the American Task Force on Palestine said he had learned some valuable lessons.
“Resist trying to impose any grand narratives. Take every apparently emerging pattern as contingent and unstable. Be prepared for Arab states and publics alike to pleasantly surprise or disappoint without warning,” he wrote.
“Avoid predictions whenever possible. And acknowledge that we frequently don’t really ‘know’ what we think we ‘know,’ for political realities are always at least a dozen steps ahead of every analyst.”"
NYTimes blogs... Arab Voices: The Lessons of the Egyptian Spring So Far
Alice Walker rejects Israeli request to publish ‘The Color Purple’ in Hebrew
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| Novel by Alice Walker, published in 1982, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983 |
[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.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/alice-walker-rejects-israeli-request-to-publish-the-color-purple-in-hebrew/2012/06/20/gJQAvd6jpV_story.htmlWalker, an ardent pro-Palestinian activist, said in a letter to Yediot Books that Israel practices “apartheid” and must change its policies before her works can be published there.
“I would so like knowing my books are read by the people of your country, especially by the young and by the brave Israeli activists (Jewish and Palestinian) for justice and peace I have had the joy of working beside,” she wrote in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press. “I am hopeful that one day, maybe soon, this may happen. But now is not the time.”...READ MORE
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
7 poems by Anne Selden Annab
written years ago & posted on a webpage about to disappear
***************
*****************************************************
Treasure
Where once we searched
for cities of gold
El Dorado…
We now scratch in the dust
for pot shards.
digging gently
with small spades
and brushes
to bring forth the foundations
of ancient cities
to prove our own myths
and make sure our own
crumbling words,
(with accents twisting accents
eroding into forgotten dialects)
aren't as irrelevant
as they sometimes seem to be.
*****************************************************
Combat
The mine field
where words where ever
how ever who ever
detonate into perpetuity.
Words have no choice
but to etch themselves into
where ever they might land.
Liquid ink on the page;
the page itself deteriorates
before it's script can fade.
Chiseled chinks in stone;
the stone cracks and crumbles
yet the wedge remains in
air.
Always air.
Rock: Paper: Scissors:
Air
*****************************************************
Write Lightly
Write lightly
as the wildflowers do,
becoming
their own bouquets:
The land a lovely lady
so delicate,
step closely to the earth
ankles touched by bloom
and eyes downcast, delight
little blue bloom
cradles a star flicker.
Red poppies with
papery purpose
daze the heart
as they cluster
like congregations
to singe the air
with brilliant
fresh blood
flame red
soft petal.
I am in silk
inspired by
the small flowers
touched by
their gentle
tenaciousness,
tucked into rocks
everywhere
and flowing out
into fields.
They are of every hue
though the wild mustard
shouts and sways
and seems to push
all else aside
with it's flamboyance.
But the it's
the little bouquets
found everywhere
underfoot,
splays of delight,
that catch my eye.
Floral mosaics.
Everywhere
there is garden
herb and flower flourish-
a brief enchantment
in a desert land
that soon enough
will be all browns
brushed with bare earth.
*****************************************************
The Flute
Books read backwards.
Jaffar translated
Kahil Gibran's The Flute
(The Song).
The text I read in English
was pretty
But Jaffar's unrhymed
pure translation
is so much more moving
the pretty words replaced
with depth
the gasp... the last breath of life.
*****************************************************
Script
What the flowers write
in fragile form
spelled into shape-
stem stalk swim
in the Arabian breeze,
become
the odd squiggles
found woven
in formal rugs
and flow with symmetry
into the classical script
of scribes.
Calligraphy is arabesque
and the script itself shifts,
its characters embellished
and burgeoning
into geometric patterns,
strong rhythms
usurping words.
A Garden
is the echo of paradise,
emphasizing seclusion
introversion
The central fountain
like self
reflecting.
*****************************************************
En'Shallah
Shivering,
stand in wet snow
listening to thunder,
as sleet melts
into rainfall
The sun's glinting light
pulls forth a pretty posy
here and there
until barrages of bloom
rupture the earth.
Day after day of bloom bursting
And the deep indigo
of an oriental night
is beautifully fragrant
with jasmine.
By day the desert heat
comes back
to claim all color,
washing the hills
with brown stubble
which the goats will graze to aught.
Presume, as you stand on barren stone
that soon enough, next spring-
En'Shallah...
This rock ledge will once again
brim
with flowers
and a crumbling castle
will be a thousand urns
of growth.
*****************************************************
A Mother's Hand
Bless all those
who love
and linger in their love
A mother's hand
on a child's heart
gently, ever so gently,
reminding her child
of his sacred place
in the hearts of all.
Bless all those
who know and understand
and keep safe
every child
of any age
and race.
poem & photo copyright ©2012 Anne Selden Annab