 |
| Nelson Mandela Quote |
Friday, July 6, 2012
Jewish, Palestinian American groups ‘swap’ summer interns
When Waleed Issa walked into the
Americans for Peace Now (APN) Washington, DC office on the first day of
his summer internship in June, the 25-year-old Palestinian from the
Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem was startled by what he saw.
“I never saw so much blue and white in my
life,” he says. “Everywhere you look, there’s a Star of David and the
colors of the Israeli flag. As a Palestinian, I thought to myself, ‘This
is not good news. How am I going to work here for the next six weeks?’”
After stepping outside to catch his breath, Waleed decided to return to the office.
“When I came back, I met APN spokesperson Ori
Nir and he took me out to lunch. Immediately, I was impressed by his
level of knowledge about the conflict and the way he made me feel
extremely welcome.”
Nearly a month later, Waleed describes his internship with APN as “beyond interesting.”
“I never had the chance to get to know
Israelis and the American Jewish community from the inside,” he says.
“By sharing an office with them, I’ve been struck by how they’re trying
to do good things for the new generation in Israel and Palestine by
working toward a two-state solution.”
One of the biggest changes to Waleed’s daily
routine, he says, is his “addiction” to websites like the Jerusalem
Post, The Times of Israel, and Ha’aretz.
Another change is the addition of someone he
calls “a new lifelong friend,” Or Amir, a 25-year-old Israeli intern
with The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), a pro-Palestinian
American organization that advocates for a two-state solution.
Or and Waleed are among 10 young people – five
Israelis and five Palestinians – brought to Washington this summer by a
group called New Story Leadership which, according to its website,
“introduces a radically different approach to peace-building, one that
does not pretend to solve the historical controversies or mediate
between antagonists.”
Instead, the group offers what it calls a
“narrative-based program” that wants participants to focus on creating
new stories based on mutual interest and cooperation, rather than
“stories that endlessly recycle old grievances, inflate differences and
inflame passions.”
Or says she doesn’t pretend that she’ll be
able to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but believes
person-to-person programs like this are the only way to eventually reach
a solution.
“Smarter, wiser, and more accomplished people
than Waleed and I have tried to settle the conflict and failed,” she
says. “Politicians cannot do what Waleed and I have done – establish a
close friendship that humanizes the other side.”
Or is a second-year student from Rishon
Letzion studying political science and communications at Tel Aviv
University. Before that, she spent four and a half years as an officer
in the Israel Defense Force’s Medical Corps. Waleed says it would have
been nearly impossible for their friendship to have taken hold back in
their native lands.
“Before I came to the program, if you told me
an Israeli officer would be working closely with me, I would’ve been
like, ‘Holy moly! How am I going to deal with her?”
“As a Palestinian, I only saw Israelis on top
of tanks holding their guns over Bethlehem. I wondered, ‘What if she
served in Bethlehem? What if she was the one who made me sit at home for
40 days under curfew? What if she shot one of my friends?’”
“But when I started talking to Or and getting
to know her, she started telling me about her life and what army life is
like. At that point, I started seeing a different angle about the
Israeli army. I saw that she was a medic and helped a lot of people. She
probably helped treat some Palestinians.” [She did].
For Or, working with Palestinians at ATFP was less jarring, she says, because of her Sephardic heritage.
“My family is from Morocco, so the art, food, and culture feels very familiar to me,” she says.
On a typical day, Waleed and Or do what most
Washington, DC interns do – compile media clips, attend briefings, and
help keep the offices running. But the two have a more ambitious goal
than most summer interns. They are working on a joint social media
project, perhaps a Facebook group page at first, where Israeli and
Palestinian youth can meet to exchange views “in a safe place without
finger-pointing and name-calling.”
Having just earned a BA in Economics from St.
Cloud State University in Minnesota, Waleed plans to return to Bethlehem
and grow his project with Or into something bigger and, eventually,
more profitable. His dream is to launch a website or app where joint
Israeli-Palestinian innovations can be ‘crowd-funded.’
Although they’ve grown close over the past
month and pledge to stay in close touch, neither Or nor Waleed want to
be citizens of the same country. They are firm believers in a two-state
solution.
“I’m a Palestinian,” says Waleed. “I want to
live among my people in an environment that honors my history and
traditions. And Or’s grandfather in Morocco had a dream that his
children would live in a Jewish homeland. There is no reason these two
dreams should be incompatible.”
Help support the American Task Force on Palestine in its mission to create a viable Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in
Peace and Security
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Clinton holds 'productive' talks with Palestinian leader
 |
| US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas in Paris. Clinton traveled to Paris to meet with leaders and attend the "Friends of the Syrian People" meeting. (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski) |
"US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she had held "productive" talks in Paris with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas as all sides seek a way to kick start moribund Middle East peace talks.
During the "candid and productive meeting," Clinton said they "discussed how to build on his exchange of letters" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"I underscored that the United
States remains absolutely committed to the goal of a comprehensive peace
in the Middle East based on two states with two peoples based on peace
and security," Clinton told reporters." ...READ MORE
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2012 Presbyterian Church USA 220th General Assembly opts for ‘positive investment’ over divestment
July 6, 2012
Pittsburgh
After two hours of debate and presentations Thursday night (July 5), the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) said no to divestment as part of its position on peace in the Middle East.
The path to the final vote came through the Assembly’s adoption of a minority report presented by members of the Committee on Middle East and Peacemaking Issues.
“The action today doesn’t subtract or diminish in any way PC(USA)’s involvement in the Middle East,” said GA Moderator Neal D. Presa at the press conference following the Assembly’s vote. Presa had closed the evening by commending commissioners for the level of civility in the very difficult debate.
Committee moderator, the Rev. Jack Baca, said that the resolution, which passed by a vote of 369-290-8, “recognized the tragedy of the situation in Israel and calls for engagement at all levels of society for a solution (to the Israel-Palestine conflict).”...READ MORE
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But, of course, this wasn't just any ailing and frail 75-year-old man. It was Yasir Arafat...
Hussein Ibish: "As is
so often the case, human life ends not with a bang, but with a whimper.
But, of course, this wasn't just any ailing and frail 75-year-old man. It was Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, president of the Palestinian Authority, and national symbol of the Palestinian cause. This was the man who had overseen the revival of the Palestinian political and national identity, and who held a certain iconic status even for his most bitter Palestinian critics.
From the outset, there was a refusal to believe that such a "great man" could have died a squalid, mundane death. For many, his ending had to be heroic and romantic. He must have been assassinated. Anything less wouldn't do justice to his mythological, larger-than-life status. As early as November 2004, Palestinian journalist Maher Ibrahim wrote in the Dubai-based newspaper Al-Bayan, "Israeli Radiation Poisoning Killed President Yasser Arafat." A Palestinian grocer, Terry Atta, reflected public sentiment that has been widespread since Arafat's death when he recently told Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper, "We all knew it was poisoning."
As with the endless theories about "who killed JFK," the Arafat murder conspiracy theories reflect a natural human tendency to protect the mythic and the iconic from the prosaic: How could a giant like John F. Kennedy have simply been shot by a pathetic loser like Lee Harvey Oswald? Counterintuitively, narratives about grand conspiracies are reassuring, while random twists of fate can be deeply unsettling: Is reality really so terrifyingly arbitrary?"
But, of course, this wasn't just any ailing and frail 75-year-old man. It was Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, president of the Palestinian Authority, and national symbol of the Palestinian cause. This was the man who had overseen the revival of the Palestinian political and national identity, and who held a certain iconic status even for his most bitter Palestinian critics.
From the outset, there was a refusal to believe that such a "great man" could have died a squalid, mundane death. For many, his ending had to be heroic and romantic. He must have been assassinated. Anything less wouldn't do justice to his mythological, larger-than-life status. As early as November 2004, Palestinian journalist Maher Ibrahim wrote in the Dubai-based newspaper Al-Bayan, "Israeli Radiation Poisoning Killed President Yasser Arafat." A Palestinian grocer, Terry Atta, reflected public sentiment that has been widespread since Arafat's death when he recently told Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper, "We all knew it was poisoning."
As with the endless theories about "who killed JFK," the Arafat murder conspiracy theories reflect a natural human tendency to protect the mythic and the iconic from the prosaic: How could a giant like John F. Kennedy have simply been shot by a pathetic loser like Lee Harvey Oswald? Counterintuitively, narratives about grand conspiracies are reassuring, while random twists of fate can be deeply unsettling: Is reality really so terrifyingly arbitrary?"
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Al Jazeera's new investigation into the not-so-mysterious death of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat is little more than baseless speculation.
 |
A Palestinian youth walks next to a mural
depicting late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in the northern West
Bank village of Kabatyeh, Wednesday, July 4, 2012. Arabic text quotes a
famous idiom meaning "We are holding to our promise." (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)
|
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Our lives remain in peril....
"...Neither Hereini nor I nor any of the villagers anywhere in the West
Bank is an Israeli citizen. You’d think that as such we shouldn’t need
to concern ourselves with law and order in Israel. Except that we do:
as long as Israel refuses to abide by the principle of international
law that holds it responsible for our protection as inhabitants of the
territories it occupies, our lives remain in peril." RAJA SHEHADEH
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/the-folly-of-israels-settlement-policy/?ref=global
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/the-folly-of-israels-settlement-policy/?ref=global
The Folly of Israel’s Settlement Policy
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Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Divestment question before Presbyterians: Firms connected to West Bank dispute would not get funds
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http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/divestment-question-before-presbyterians-643251/#ixzz1zgOsqgQw In a closely watched vote that followed a day of intense deliberations, the Committee on Middle East and Peacemaking Issues of the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly approved a resolution Tuesday morning to divest from companies whose products are used by Israel to enforce occupation of the West Bank. The vote was 36 in favor, 11 opposed, and one abstention.
The resolution recommends that the church divest from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard after an eight-year corporate engagement process yielded no reforms.
The general church body will vote on the resolution this week.
According to Brian Ellison, chair of the Mission Responsibility Through Investment committee, Hewlett-Packard sells hardware used by Israel in its naval blockade of Gaza; Motorola Solutions supplies surveillance technology to Israeli settlements; and Caterpillar provides bulldozers that raze Palestinian homes.
Jim Dugan, a spokesman for Caterpillar, wrote in an email that Caterpillar does not sell machines directly to Israel, but rather through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program.
The vote came after a long day Monday during which committee members heard impassioned testimony from American Jews, Arab Christians and Presbyterians. Supporters of divestment said that Christian values compelled them not to invest in companies that profit from an unjust occupation....READ MORE
My letter to the IHT RE Thomas L. Friedman's "What Does Morsi Mean for Israel? "
 |
| 4th of July fireworks in Washington DC |
RE: What Does Morsi Mean for Israel?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/opinion/what-does-morsi-mean-for-israel.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=global&adxnnlx=1341396049-j77iUXHF6s+5dtbhoXmZiA
Dear Editor,
There are many different writers supplying a diverse marketplace of ideas and opinions available online that one can read and quote when exploring what anything might mean in the Middle East. Some are infinitely more helpful and wise and compassionate than others. I am delighted to see that Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times has discovered the indubitable Hussein Ibish, one of the best and most brilliant analysts (and a staunch supporter of Palestine- as in a two state solution to actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict) who points out the importance of creating a constitution that ensures “ironclad, inviolable protection for the rights of individuals, minorities and women.”
But the indubitable Ibish does not stop with that, Ibish also points out the crucial importance of developing "a positive narrative about the virtues, rights and responsibilities of citizenship."
As an American citizen, very much schooled in the importance of making a more real democracy with full and equal rights for all, as well as the idea of meritocracy, I have to seriously object to Friedman's claim that Israel is or should remain a "Jewish Democracy". Individual freedom, including freedom from religion and institutionalized bigotry as well as sectarian conflict is a key part of democracy and forging a just and lasting peace: People here and there should not be forced to pay taxes that arm and empower religious "scholars" and schemes.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
"...The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine."
The Folly of Israel's Settlement Policy by Raja Shehadeh
Fayyad: UNESCO decision a victory for rights, humanity
CSM: UNESCO designates Church of the Nativity as endangered site... "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads a self-rule government in charge of 38 percent of the West Bank, says negotiations with Israel remain his preferred choice, but wants global recognition to improve his leverage [for negotiations]."
Due Diligence: Questions for the One-Staters
MSNBC: Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us'
Israel subjecting Palestinian children to 'spiral of injustice': Foreign Office-backed delegation of UK lawyers says treatment may stem from belief every Palestinian child is potential terrorist
The perils of alienation over Palestine
“Drought the people out”... the continuing plight of the Palestinians
"I don’t need another declaration of statehood — we already have one."
"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
The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/ ) Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:
- Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries
"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
Sunday, July 1, 2012
My letter to the Washington Post RE David Ignatius: Bombing or the bomb? For Israel, military option is still on the table.
 |
| Palestinian Sunbird painting by Ismail Shammout |
RE Bombing or the bomb?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-for-israel-military-showdown-with-iran-remains-an-option/2012/06/29/gJQA0aePCW_story.html
Dear Editor,
Iran is the wrong priority and a distraction right now. Israel, a sovereign and well defended nation state needs to seriously focus in on empowering peace and Palestine- for everyone's sake:
A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict will create an entirely new paradigm for the entire region.
Support and invest in a just and lasting peace based on full respect for international law and basic human rights- end the very real plight of the Palestinians, and Iran will have no choice but to rethink its current trajectory and investments.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
"Finally, would it not be fair to ask one-state advocates if their talents, energies and time have been diverted from the fight to achieve freedom for Palestine? Haven't they fashioned, instead, yet another tool that will preserve the status quo and prolong the occupation? " Due Diligence: Questions for the One-Staters Ziad Asali of the American Task Force on Palestine
"Activists living in a self-imposed ghetto need to understand that the Palestinian issue is not about them or their intellectual and emotional comfort. It is about real people who endure losses every day the conflict continues." Ghaith Al-Omari The perils of alienation over Palestine
"Far too much discourse in the Arab world surrenders to Islamists the rhetoric, traditions, civilizational heritage and symbols of Islam. But the Islamists do not and cannot define Islam. And they certainly cannot define an enormously heterogeneous Arab world. A vision of citizenship, on the other hand, can and must." Hussein Ibish After Morsy's win, counter Islamists with citizenship
"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
Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace
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 |
| ATFP President, Ziad Asali |
To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace
I do not need anyone to teach me about the
Palestinian Nakba. It is the defining moment of my existence. During the
1948 war, my family had fled our home in Talpiot in southeast Jerusalem
and taken shelter in a monastery. We quickly gathered some possessions
and climbed down and up the mountain to Bethany, and then to Jericho. We
eventually resettled as refugees in East Jerusalem.Because I was a
graduating medical student at the American University of Beirut during
the war of 1967, I became a double-refugee. After finishing my residency
training in the United States, I returned to Jerusalem to practice
medicine, but Israeli military officials denied me permission to stay.
Thus it was that I became part of the first generation of my family in
over 600 years to build a life outside of Jerusalem. Mine is one of
three families studied by the Israeli historian Dror Ze’Evi in his book
about Jerusalem in the 1600s. It was years later, as an American
citizen, that I returned to visit the city of my birth.
I recount this not to bewail my fate or dwell on the past. The four generations of Palestinians who have lived and died in refugee camps are the real face of the Palestinian tragedy. It is fitting and proper to honor historical truths, but also to learn the lessons they teach us.
Israelis and Palestinians are two peoples with traumatic histories. We must never forget them. But we must not be held hostage by history either. We must care more about the future of our grandchildren than the past of our grandparents, or even ourselves.
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: by ending the occupation and creating a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel. Palestinians must recognize and accept Israel, a legitimate member state of the U.N. The Palestinians must have one place on earth, the territories occupied in 1967, where they can live freely as first-class citizens in an independent state. There is no other way to end the cycle of bloodshed, pain and hatred.
To accomplish this, half measures and partial acknowledgment are insufficient. Both peoples must fully recognize each other’s national rights and states.
Since we established the American Task Force on Palestine in 2003, I have been criticized 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.”
I understand the anger that the memory of the Nakba provokes, especially among young people. I remember what it felt like on the eve of war in 1967. We were excited at the prospect of the liberation of Palestine that would allow those of us who became refugees in 1948 to go back home. But this war in fact made me a refugee once again.
In the ensuing years, I have come to recognize that the wars of 1948 and 1967, like bookends holding together volumes on a shelf, form the practical margins for resolving the conflict. The Arabs were unable to prevent the Jewish people from establishing Israel in 1948. But Israel cannot incorporate the Palestinian territory and population conquered in 1967 without losing both its Jewish and its democratic character. That is why only a two-state agreement, recognizing the legitimacy and limitations of both national projects, offers a conflict-ending solution.
Our histories and narratives are precious. They must not become political bargaining chips, or the subject of negotiations. Palestinians and Israelis will not embrace each other’s narratives, nor should they abandon their own. They don’t need each other to confirm their own identities. What they need is a workable, ironclad, conflict-ending arrangement to allow them to live side-by-side in peace. Hearts as well as minds must change to make this possible.
The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine.
I recount this not to bewail my fate or dwell on the past. The four generations of Palestinians who have lived and died in refugee camps are the real face of the Palestinian tragedy. It is fitting and proper to honor historical truths, but also to learn the lessons they teach us.
Israelis and Palestinians are two peoples with traumatic histories. We must never forget them. But we must not be held hostage by history either. We must care more about the future of our grandchildren than the past of our grandparents, or even ourselves.
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: by ending the occupation and creating a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel. Palestinians must recognize and accept Israel, a legitimate member state of the U.N. The Palestinians must have one place on earth, the territories occupied in 1967, where they can live freely as first-class citizens in an independent state. There is no other way to end the cycle of bloodshed, pain and hatred.
To accomplish this, half measures and partial acknowledgment are insufficient. Both peoples must fully recognize each other’s national rights and states.
Since we established the American Task Force on Palestine in 2003, I have been criticized 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.”
I understand the anger that the memory of the Nakba provokes, especially among young people. I remember what it felt like on the eve of war in 1967. We were excited at the prospect of the liberation of Palestine that would allow those of us who became refugees in 1948 to go back home. But this war in fact made me a refugee once again.
In the ensuing years, I have come to recognize that the wars of 1948 and 1967, like bookends holding together volumes on a shelf, form the practical margins for resolving the conflict. The Arabs were unable to prevent the Jewish people from establishing Israel in 1948. But Israel cannot incorporate the Palestinian territory and population conquered in 1967 without losing both its Jewish and its democratic character. That is why only a two-state agreement, recognizing the legitimacy and limitations of both national projects, offers a conflict-ending solution.
Our histories and narratives are precious. They must not become political bargaining chips, or the subject of negotiations. Palestinians and Israelis will not embrace each other’s narratives, nor should they abandon their own. They don’t need each other to confirm their own identities. What they need is a workable, ironclad, conflict-ending arrangement to allow them to live side-by-side in peace. Hearts as well as minds must change to make this possible.
The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine.
Fayyad: UNESCO decision a victory for rights, humanity
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Salam Fayyad called the decision an affirmation of the international importance of the holy city of Bethlehem and said it gave hope to the Palestinian people of the inevitability a victory for their cause.
“It’s time for UN agencies to uphold its political, legal, cultural, and ethical responsibilities and put an end to what the Palestinian people are suffering, and (rescue) its cultural heritage from the Israeli occupation’s aggression.”
He added that “the international community should take serious responsibility to ensure ending the Israeli occupation on our land since 1967 and to enable the Palestinian people to achieve self-determination.”
Fayyad stressed that Bethlehem, Jerusalem and all Palestinian lands are symbols of coexistence and tolerance.
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