My letter to WSJ RE Life &Culture: When the Arab Jews Fled

Human rights organizations and the United Nations criticize Israel's ongoing demolitions of Palestinian homes as violating international law, and contend that Israeli governments actually use demolitions to collectively punish Palestinians and to seize property for the expansion of Israeli settlements.   Last year, 1,100 Palestinians — more than half of them children — were displaced, an 80 percent increase from the previous year. And demolitions this year continue at a high rate.

RE: Life &Culture: When the Arab Jews Fled
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443294904578048451218760728.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Dear Editor,

Israeli officials might think that they are turning the tables by hyping up the hardships faced by several hundred thousand exiled Arab Jews in response to the attention that the plight of displaced Palestinians has been getting, but there are no tables to turn... There is only a huge and escalating tragedy for countless innocent and increasingly vulnerable people whose lives and communities have been destroyed by cruel bigotry and injustice and war.

Palestine's Hanan Ashrawi is wise to point out that Palestinians "have nothing to do with the plight of the Jews or other minorities who left the Arab world."  Furthermore Dr. Ashrawi did not invent the proposal that Arab Jews should also have a "right of return" to the countries they left, she simply reiterates what has been the truth all along.

Please don't give Islamists through out the Middle East a green light to mimic Israel's bad habit of impoverishing and evicting people deemed to be the "wrong" religion.  What is bad now can easily become much much worse. 

Every refugee's right to return, no matter who and no matter where, is a universal inalienable basic human right clearly affirmed multiple times by international law.  A fully secular two state solution to actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict really is in everyone's best interest- for freedom, for justice, for progress, and for a just and lasting peace with positive ramifications for the entire region. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker& poet

NOTES
When a rose is not a rose is not a rose is not a rose.....

CNN video: Israel's concrete wall upsets Christians

ATFP's Hussein Ibish: Where Settler Terrorism Comes From

Israel's Jewish extremists used chain saws to cut down over 120 olive trees on private Palestinian land in Nablus on Tuesday

Songs and Pictures from Palestine: Najat El-Taji El-Khairy ... the wall

William Hague intervenes over West Bank barrier: Foreign secretary shares concern with Archbishop of Westminster in private letter about Israeli-built wall

''The Life of a Palestinian''

Muslims who would restrict speech to "protect Islam" have no greater allies than Jews who would do so to "protect Israel."

King Abdullah II of Jordan: The reason behind Tehran’s nuclear programme is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Palestine's Abbas: "Despite our feelings of disappointment and loss of hope, we continue to sincerely extend our hands to the Israeli people to make peace."   [Full text: Abbas address to UN General Assembly]

The Rule of Law  "The real rule of law is substantive and encompasses many human-rights requirements. It reflects the idea of equality in a substantive way: not just that no one is above the law, but that everyone is equal before and under the law, and is entitled to its equal protection and equal benefit..." Louise Arbour, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights & president of the International Crisis Group.

************

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

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Empowering Peace & Palestine

The Arab Peace Initiative

My letter to the Guardian RE Writers campaign for Israel-Palestine peace

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

RE: Writers campaign for Israel-Palestine peace
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/10/writers-campaign-israel-palestine-peace

Dear Sir,

There is nothing whatsoever new much less 'unbelievably brave' about Israelis using every forum and tool and collaborator they can to persuade the world, as well as themselves, that Palestinian refugees will never ever be allowed to return to their original homes and lands.

Various Israelis have been persistently insisting on exactly that for six decades, despite UN Resolution 194 from 1948 clearly calling on everyone to respect the refugees right to return.

Various Israelis have also been impoverishing and displacing more and more Palestinians, demolishing Palestinian homes, fragmenting Palestinian communities, and pushing more and more Palestinian men, women and children into forced exile and despair day after day after day.  Six decades and counting.

Israel-Palestine peace is indeed a worthy goal, but only if all parties fully respect international law and universal basic human rights, including but not limited to every refugee's inalienable legal, moral, ethical and natural right to return... A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the conflict really is the best way forward.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Notes
When a rose is not a rose is not a rose is not a rose.....

CNN video: Israel's concrete wall upsets Christians

ATFP's Hussein Ibish: Where Settler Terrorism Comes From

Israel's Jewish extremists used chain saws to cut down over 120 olive trees on private Palestinian land in Nablus on Tuesday

Songs and Pictures from Palestine: Najat El-Taji El-Khairy ... the wall

William Hague intervenes over West Bank barrier: Foreign secretary shares concern with Archbishop of Westminster in private letter about Israeli-built wall

Jordan, Palestine sign free trade agreement: Fayez Tarawneh, the prime minister said the Kingdom will continue to support the Palestinians politically and help them confront Israel’s attempts to Judaise Jerusalem.

Devout Israeli Jews moving to Arab-Jewish cities

''The Life of a Palestinian''

Muslims who would restrict speech to "protect Islam" have no greater allies than Jews who would do so to "protect Israel."

King Abdullah II of Jordan: The reason behind Tehran’s nuclear programme is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Palestine's Abbas: "Despite our feelings of disappointment and loss of hope, we continue to sincerely extend our hands to the Israeli people to make peace."   [Full text: Abbas address to UN General Assembly]

The Rule of Law  "The real rule of law is substantive and encompasses many human-rights requirements. It reflects the idea of equality in a substantive way: not just that no one is above the law, but that everyone is equal before and under the law, and is entitled to its equal protection and equal benefit..." Louise Arbour, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights & president of the International Crisis Group.

OBAMA: "It is time to marginalize those who, even when not resorting to violence, use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics," Obama said. "For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes an excuse, for those who resort to violence."  U.S. President Barack Obama challenged world leaders to tackle the recent violence rippling across the Muslim world, calling it “not simply an assault on America” but an attack “on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.”

Ambassadorship is no longer reserved for elites. In this era of digital interconnectedness, we are all called upon to use free speech to foster peace, not violence. To honor Ambassador Stevens, let us uphold that responsibility in our online – and offline – interactions.

************

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

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Empowering Peace & Palestine

The Arab Peace Initiative

CSM... It's a Beautiful World

A Palestinian rides a camel on the beach in Gaza City, Sept. 19, 2011. Mohammed Salem/Reuters

It's a Beautiful World

October 10, 2012

http://www.csmonitor.com/Photo-Galleries/In-Pictures/It-s-a-Beautiful-World/%28photo%29/569201

The Week in Pictures | October 8 – 14 2012: Palestine's Turmusaya Equestrian Club

Turmusaya, West Bank — Palestinian jockeys compete during a horse race in the West Bank. The competition is for pure Arabian horses organized by Turmusaya Equestrian Club. Seventy horses from various cities of the West Bank and Arabs from inside Israel participated in the competition. PHOTOGRAPH BY: ATEF SAFADI / EPA
The Week in Pictures | October 8 – 14 2012

My letter to USA Today RE Jewish refugees want 'justice' like Palestinians, some say it's a ploy

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?  Eleanor Roosevelt

RE: Jewish refugees want 'justice' like Palestinians, some say it's a ploy
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/10/11/jewish-refugees-from-war-of-independence-seek-justice/1621037/

Dear Editor,

Jewish refugees and survivors of the Nazi Holocaust aren't questioned on their right to return to original homes and lands- and the right to citizenship in European countries.  Many have been able to reclaim stolen property.  The precedent has been set... and wisely so.

Hanan Ashrawi is absolutely correct to accuse Israel of engaging in a "manipulative strategy" that is "part of a public relations campaign that is both cynical and hypocritical."

Imagine if post war Germany had decreed that no Jews could return or find justice because they were a demographic threat to Germany's "character"!!!

Fact is we really should be shocked and horrified by Israel's misguided and myopic refusal to respect international law and universal basic human rights.  

A fully secular two state solution to actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict won't be easy or perfect, but it really is the best option to help stop the rise of religious extremism and the very real plight of the Palestinians.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Notes
ATFP's Hussein Ibish: Where Settler Terrorism Comes From

Israel's Jewish extremists used chain saws to cut down over 120 olive trees on private Palestinian land in Nablus on Tuesday

Songs and Pictures from Palestine: Najat El-Taji El-Khairy ... the wall

William Hague intervenes over West Bank barrier: Foreign secretary shares concern with Archbishop of Westminster in private letter about Israeli-built wall

Jordan, Palestine sign free trade agreement: Fayez Tarawneh, the prime minister said the Kingdom will continue to support the Palestinians politically and help them confront Israel’s attempts to Judaise Jerusalem.

Devout Israeli Jews moving to Arab-Jewish cities

''The Life of a Palestinian''

Muslims who would restrict speech to "protect Islam" have no greater allies than Jews who would do so to "protect Israel."

King Abdullah II of Jordan: The reason behind Tehran’s nuclear programme is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Palestine's Abbas: "Despite our feelings of disappointment and loss of hope, we continue to sincerely extend our hands to the Israeli people to make peace."   [Full text: Abbas address to UN General Assembly]

The Rule of Law  "The real rule of law is substantive and encompasses many human-rights requirements. It reflects the idea of equality in a substantive way: not just that no one is above the law, but that everyone is equal before and under the law, and is entitled to its equal protection and equal benefit..." Louise Arbour, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights & president of the International Crisis Group.

OBAMA: "It is time to marginalize those who, even when not resorting to violence, use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics," Obama said. "For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes an excuse, for those who resort to violence."  U.S. President Barack Obama challenged world leaders to tackle the recent violence rippling across the Muslim world, calling it “not simply an assault on America” but an attack “on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.”

Ambassadorship is no longer reserved for elites. In this era of digital interconnectedness, we are all called upon to use free speech to foster peace, not violence. To honor Ambassador Stevens, let us uphold that responsibility in our online – and offline – interactions.

************

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

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Empowering Peace & Palestine

The Arab Peace Initiative

When a rose is not a rose is not a rose is not a rose.....

Amal Amireh  "Remember when the salafis of Egypt used a rose instead of their women's candidate photo in their election posters?  Well, now some Palestinian groups are doing the same. 
Do you know what is really sad and disturbing about this poster? It is not the salafis who are doing it; it is the secular leftists!!! This is not new: wedding invitations in some places don't even print the bride's name. And please don't tell me this is in a rural area where leftists had to respect "customs and traditions" or they lose credibility. These are all "new" customs and traditions that have been spreading unchallenged by either the feminists or male secularists. Happy now?"

Amal Amireh is an Associate Professor of postcolonial literature at George Mason University/Fairfax. She was born and raised in El Bireh, Palestine.

CNN video: Israel's concrete wall upsets Christians

Israel's concrete wall upsets Christians - CNN.com Video

Israel's plan to snake security barrier through 50 homes in West Bank upsets Christians. CNN's Sara Sidner reports.

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=imi_t5#/video/world/2012/10/08/sidner-christians-wall-israel.cnn

My letter to the NYTimes RE It’s Not Just About Us by Thomas Friedman

diversity

RE:  It’s Not Just About Us By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/opinion/friedman-what-romney-didnt-say.html?ref=global

Dear Editor,

We do indeed need to stick to our principles. Kudos to Friedman for pointing that out and carefully explaining some basic good advice to any country (and every individual) interested in nurturing peace and progress- and American support.

Dr. Ziad Asali, a Palestinian American with a better understanding of the situation than most, wrote earlier this year that  "The Arab world is heterogeneous, diverse, multiethnic and multi-religious. This often both is seen and serves as a source of division and tensions. This diversity can be turned into a source of political, cultural and economic strength if Arab societies empower and protect the rights and responsibilities of individual citizens, including ethnic and religious minorities and women." http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/in_print/2012/01/16/1326690000

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Notes
ATFP's Hussein Ibish: Where Settler Terrorism Comes From

Israel's Jewish extremists used chain saws to cut down over 120 olive trees on private Palestinian land in Nablus on Tuesday

Songs and Pictures from Palestine: Najat El-Taji El-Khairy ... the wall

William Hague intervenes over West Bank barrier: Foreign secretary shares concern with Archbishop of Westminster in private letter about Israeli-built wall

Jordan, Palestine sign free trade agreement: Fayez Tarawneh, the prime minister said the Kingdom will continue to support the Palestinians politically and help them confront Israel’s attempts to Judaise Jerusalem.

Ariel

Devout Israeli Jews moving to Arab-Jewish cities

''The Life of a Palestinian''

Muslims who would restrict speech to "protect Islam" have no greater allies than Jews who would do so to "protect Israel."

King Abdullah II of Jordan: The reason behind Tehran’s nuclear programme is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Palestine's Abbas: "Despite our feelings of disappointment and loss of hope, we continue to sincerely extend our hands to the Israeli people to make peace."   [Full text: Abbas address to UN General Assembly]

The Rule of Law  "The real rule of law is substantive and encompasses many human-rights requirements. It reflects the idea of equality in a substantive way: not just that no one is above the law, but that everyone is equal before and under the law, and is entitled to its equal protection and equal benefit..." Louise Arbour, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights & president of the International Crisis Group.

OBAMA: "It is time to marginalize those who, even when not resorting to violence, use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics," Obama said. "For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes an excuse, for those who resort to violence."  U.S. President Barack Obama challenged world leaders to tackle the recent violence rippling across the Muslim world, calling it “not simply an assault on America” but an attack “on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.”

Ambassadorship is no longer reserved for elites. In this era of digital interconnectedness, we are all called upon to use free speech to foster peace, not violence. To honor Ambassador Stevens, let us uphold that responsibility in our online – and offline – interactions.

************

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

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Empowering Peace & Palestine

The Arab Peace Initiative

Abdulateef Al-Mulhim: "The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people"

 [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.arabnews.com/arab-spring-and-israeli-enemy

Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy

Thirty-nine years ago, on Oct. 6, 1973, the third major war between the Arabs and Israel broke out. The war lasted only 20 days. The two sides were engaged in two other major wars, in 1948 and 1967.

The 1967 War lasted only six days. But, these three wars were not the only Arab-Israel confrontations. From the period of 1948 and to this day many confrontations have taken place. Some of them were small clashes and many of them were full-scale battles, but there were no major wars apart from the ones mentioned above. The Arab-Israeli conflict is the most complicated conflict the world ever experienced. On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars? But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people.

I decided to write this article after I saw photos and reports about a starving child in Yemen, a burned ancient Aleppo souk in Syria, the under developed Sinai in Egypt, car bombs in Iraq and the destroyed buildings in Libya. The photos and the reports were shown on the Al-Arabiya network, which is the most watched and respected news outlet in the Middle East.

The common thing among all what I saw is that the destruction and the atrocities are not done by an outside enemy. The starvation, the killings and the destruction in these Arab countries are done by the same hands that are supposed to protect and build the unity of these countries and safeguard the people of these countries. So, the question now is that who is the real enemy of the Arab world?

The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered is their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they never recognized. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people.

These dictators’ atrocities against their own people are far worse than all the full-scale Arab-Israeli wars....READ MORE

My letter to CSM RE Ibrahim Sharqieh's "Obama must stand up to Netanyahu on Israeli settler violence"

Songs and Stories from Palestine: Harvesting Olive
painting by Fathi Ghaben
a Palestinian artist

 

RE  Obama must stand up to Netanyahu on Israeli settler violence By Ibrahim Sharqieh http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/1009/Obama-must-stand-up-to-Netanyahu-on-Israeli-settler-violence

Dear Editor,

THANK YOU for publishing Ibrahim Sharqieh's clear and concise "Obama must stand up to Netanyahu on Israeli settler violence."

Religious extremism and terrorism really are a serious problem in the Middle East, and Israel exasperates both by funding its preferred religious "scholars" and schemes- and the ongoing destruction of Palestine and the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land.

A fully secular two state solution (firmly based on FULL respect for international law and basic human rights) to once and for ALL end the Israel-Palestine conflict is the only way to actually end the conflict. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Notes
ATFP's Hussein Ibish: Where Settler Terrorism Comes From

Israel's Jewish extremists used chain saws to cut down over 120 olive trees on private Palestinian land in Nablus on Tuesday

Songs and Pictures from Palestine: Najat El-Taji El-Khairy ... the wall

William Hague intervenes over West Bank barrier: Foreign secretary shares concern with Archbishop of Westminster in private letter about Israeli-built wall

Jordan, Palestine sign free trade agreement: Fayez Tarawneh, the prime minister said the Kingdom will continue to support the Palestinians politically and help them confront Israel’s attempts to Judaise Jerusalem.

Ariel

Devout Israeli Jews moving to Arab-Jewish cities

''The Life of a Palestinian''

Muslims who would restrict speech to "protect Islam" have no greater allies than Jews who would do so to "protect Israel."

King Abdullah II of Jordan: The reason behind Tehran’s nuclear programme is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Palestine's Abbas: "Despite our feelings of disappointment and loss of hope, we continue to sincerely extend our hands to the Israeli people to make peace."   [Full text: Abbas address to UN General Assembly]

The Rule of Law  "The real rule of law is substantive and encompasses many human-rights requirements. It reflects the idea of equality in a substantive way: not just that no one is above the law, but that everyone is equal before and under the law, and is entitled to its equal protection and equal benefit..." Louise Arbour, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights & president of the International Crisis Group.

OBAMA: "It is time to marginalize those who, even when not resorting to violence, use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics," Obama said. "For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes an excuse, for those who resort to violence."  U.S. President Barack Obama challenged world leaders to tackle the recent violence rippling across the Muslim world, calling it “not simply an assault on America” but an attack “on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.”

Ambassadorship is no longer reserved for elites. In this era of digital interconnectedness, we are all called upon to use free speech to foster peace, not violence. To honor Ambassador Stevens, let us uphold that responsibility in our online – and offline – interactions.

************

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

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Empowering Peace & Palestine

The Arab Peace Initiative

Obama must stand up to Netanyahu on Israeli settler violence

The US State Department recent called Israeli settler violence against Palestinians 'terrorist incidents.' Though a step in the right direction, the label fails to highlight the Israeli government's responsibility for these human rights violations. Washington must take a bold stand.

By Ibrahim Sharqieh / October 9, 2012 

 [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.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/1009/Obama-must-stand-up-to-Netanyahu-on-Israeli-settler-violence

A Muslim cleric stands at the entrance to a mosque in the northern West Bank village of Nabi Elias, after Jewish settlers sprayed a Star of David on the door Dec. 4, 2008. The US State Department recently labeled Israeli settler violence as 'terrorist incidents.' Op-ed contributor Ibrahim Sharqieh writes: 'Washington’s historic position on terrorism is well known for its zero tolerance....A failure to apply those standards in this case will beg the question across the region: Are all terrorists created equal?'    Nasser Ishtayeh/AP/file

My Palestinian driver had reason to worry as we passed near the Israeli settlement Yitzhar in the West Bank. The settlement is notorious for frequent attacks on nearby Palestinian citizens. Only a month earlier, my driver had himself been attacked by a group of settlers with a big rock that barely missed his car. Two miles farther up the road, he reported the attack to an Israeli Army patrol that was in the area. The patrol commander asked if anyone in the car had been injured. “No,” the driver had said. “Then you can go, no problem if no one was hurt,” the Army personnel replied.

While my driver was lucky to escape the attack unscathed, others have been less fortunate. Returning to their Bethlehem home in August, the Ghayatha family was attacked by settlers who hurled a firebomb at their taxi. Ayman Ghayatha, his wife, their three children, and the taxi driver were all severely injured. “The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms yesterday’s attack on a Palestinian taxi in the West Bank,” said State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland. Subsequently, violent attacks by Jewish settlers against “Palestinian residents, property and places of worship” were cited for the first time in the US State Department Country Report on Terrorism as “terrorist incidents.”

While such a designation marks a significant development in how the US treats the settlement issue, it threatens to remain a label on paper rather than a term that inspires action. Crucially, the designation “settler terrorism” fails to highlight that the Israeli government bears the major responsibility for this phenomenon through its own policy and the complicity of its response to this violence. Viewing this campaign simply as isolated settler terrorism is likely to limit understanding of the problem and obstruct an effective strategy for addressing it.

Settler terrorism has been rising sharply in recent years. The first half of 2012 alone witnessed 154 attacks. According to a report drafted by senior European officials in February this year, the number of attacks rose from 132 in 2009 to 411 in 2011. A UN report released in July 2012 said that settler terrorism targeting Palestinians in the West Bank had risen 150 percent since 2008. These attacks have not been restricted to violence against individuals. Places of worship (mostly mosques) have been torched, trees have been uprooted, and livestock have been slaughtered. Also in August, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that 14 sheep were killed in a settler attack against Palestinian shepherds near the West Bank village of Akraba.

There is increasing evidence to suggest that the Israeli government has been taking a passive and complicit role in dealing with settler terrorism....READ MORE

ATFP's Hussein Ibish: Where Settler Terrorism Comes From

 [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.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/09/where-settler-terrorism-comes-from.html

 

Following a series of violent incidents involving settler and pro-settler Jewish Israeli extremists, including the attempted lynching of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem, many Israelis expressed concern about the rise in violent hatred within their society and wondered where it was coming from. Several incidents over the weekend demonstrated that this trend is only intensifying and clearly pointed to why.

For the answer, Israelis need look no further than across the Green Line: settler terror is an inevitable consequence of the occupation and the myriad policies of the Israeli state that enable this extremism.

A Palestinian farmer inspects the remains of his olive trees after after they were uprooted overnight in an attack blamed on Jewish settlers. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP / GettyImages)

As they have for numerous years, extremist settlers are again violently disrupting the Palestinian olive-picking season, which is now underway. Settlers have been attacking Palestinians on their way to pick olives and destroying trees and orchards. Palestinians complain that the settlers are operating with impunity under the watchful eyes of Israeli authorities who do little to restrain—and even less to arrest or prosecute—them.

Increasingly, occupation forces are also coming under settler "price tag" attacks (retribution for government crackdowns on illegal activities), with three undercover Israeli police officers posing as Palestinians violently attacked by extremist settler youths near Hebron. The police say they did nothing to provoke the youths, who have been arrested because they made the mistake of assaulting occupation forces rather than Palestinians.

The recent violence comes in the wake of earlier attacks against Israeli forces by extremist settlers, and a constant barrage of assaults on Palestinians. Some of these attacks have been videotaped in a manner that suggests Israeli forces on the scene stood by impassively.
Attacks have also been spreading to target Christian sites including churches and monasteries.

"Price tag" violence has become part of a deep-seated culture of hatred and impunity on the part of Jewish Israeli extremists. Like the racist Ku Klux Klan in the American deep south during the civil rights era, violent settlers are encouraged by incitement from radical establishment figures and operate under a well-founded belief that the system will not act systematically or forcefully to restrain or punish them in most cases.

This atmosphere of impunity, and even encouragement, was dramatically illustrated by a celebratory sendoff at an Israeli settlement over the weekend for a man convicted of severely abusing a Palestinian teenager. The event honoring this thug was attended by local settler leaders and rabbis, and by a member of the Knesset.

One of these rabbis, the notorious extremist Dov Lior, encouraged the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and is noted for violent and racist statements against Arabs and other Gentiles. He serves as the head of the "Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria" (settler rhetoric for the occupied West Bank), and is employed by the Israeli government as the rabbi of the Kiryat Arba settlement. Among many other extreme statements, he endorsed a book by another radical settler rabbi that advocated the killing of Gentiles, including infants, “if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us.”

It is true that such extremism doesn't characterize all, or perhaps even most, Israeli settlers. But this mentality is part and parcel of the settlement movement and nothing effective is being done either by that movement or by the Israeli state to seriously counteract the continued growth of such hatred and extremism. The Israeli police on several occasions have announced the establishment of units to focus on such extremism, but this does not appear to have done anything so far to restrain or counteract the flourishing of the culture of violence, hate and impunity.

In his recent U.N. speech, which was basically a litany of familiar and mostly justified complaints, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas led with the issue of settler violence. But it's not clear was what, exactly, Abbas can do about it other than complain. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has also repeatedly stated that these attacks, along with Israeli government incursions into Palestinian ruled areas, constitute some of the most serious threats to the credibility of the Palestinian Authority.

These attacks are intended to send a message to Palestinians that they live under Israeli occupation and that there is little or nothing they can do to protect themselves from settler rampages. Given that the Israeli government typically offers little more than rhetorical condemnations of this violence, that message is being received loud and clear. It therefore constitutes one of the gravest threats to the promotion of a culture of peace, and stability on the ground, between Israel and the Palestinians, as it enacts the relationship of dominance and subordination inherent in the occupation on a daily basis.

Other Israelis need not wonder how or why such attacks take place. They are the inevitable byproducts of the occupation itself, the culture it promotes, and the rhetoric and mentality of the settler movement that is so generously subsidized and protected by the state itself. But because they are such a direct and grave threat to the rule of law, the cultural health of its society, and prospects for peace, settler terrorism is profoundly antithetical to Israel's real interests. And until the Israeli government finally decides to act decisively against the violence and the culture that informs it, rather than coddling and subsidizing them, the problem is only going to get worse.

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Hussein Ibish is a Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine. His most recent book is What’s Wrong with the One-State Agenda? Why Ending the Occupation and Peace with Israel is Still the Palestinian National Goal. He has a PhD in comparative literature from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Empowering Peace & Palestine

Israel's Jewish extremists used chain saws to cut down over 120 olive trees on private Palestinian land in Nablus on Tuesday

A farmer pictured on his land in Yatta.(MaanImages/Elenora Vio)

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=527314

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Jewish extremists cut down over 120 olive trees on private Palestinian land in Nablus on Tuesday, a Palestinian Authority official said.

The vandals were from the illegal settlement of Eli, Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an.

Eyewitnesses said the settlers used chainsaws to destroy the trees, which belonged to 12 farmers in the village of Qaryut.

The attack comes on the official start date for the olive harvest in restricted areas of Nablus.

The set date was to enable farmers and local committees to better organize against potential settler attacks, as many restricted access areas lie adjacent to settlements.

Settler attacks often increase around the time of the olive harvest season as settlers target olive trees and agricultural land.

The Nablus district experienced the majority of settler violence in 2011.

On Sunday, a group of settlers attacked Palestinian farmers in the Ramallah town of Beitillu, burning dozens of olive trees, while settlers uprooted around 40 olive trees in the nearby Ramallah village of Ras Karkar.

On Friday, settlers destroyed 100 newly-planted olive saplings and at least 60 vine trees on private Palestinian land in Al-Khader village near Bethlehem.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs reported that over 2,500 olive trees were destroyed in September 2011, and 7,500 throughout 2011.

Settler attacks on Palestinian communities and their property are systematic and rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

 [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]

My letter to the Washington Post RE "Missing in action: The U.S. can’t ignore the Middle East’s struggles" by Fred Hiatt

...With Palestine

RE No escape from the Middle East
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fred-hiatt-no-escape-from-the-middle-east/2012/10/07/35fc9204-0f1c-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story.html

Dear Editor,

Leading by example is the best way to move forward- and the best example America can give the rest of the world is exactly as Obama said: “It is time to focus on nation-building here at home.” 

There are as many ways to do exactly that as there are individuals able and willing to give of their time and talents to their families, to their communities and schools and businesses- and to their country... and to the global conversation about freedom, justice, democracy- and diplomacy.

Palestine empowered to be a real state for the people, of the people and by the people rather than a rally cry for radicals & Islamists worldwide can not be imposed on the people of Palestine. They too need to focus in on nation-building.

Firmly supporting a fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict for everyone's sake needs to be a foreign policy priority not only for American leadership, but for every citizen here and there, as well as every refugee who values the meaning as well as the memory of home.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Songs and Pictures from Palestine: Najat El-Taji El-Khairy ... the wall

William Hague intervenes over West Bank barrier: Foreign secretary shares concern with Archbishop of Westminster in private letter about Israeli-built wall

Jordan, Palestine sign free trade agreement: Fayez Tarawneh, the prime minister said the Kingdom will continue to support the Palestinians politically and help them confront Israel’s attempts to Judaise Jerusalem.

Ariel

Devout Israeli Jews moving to Arab-Jewish cities

''The Life of a Palestinian''

Empowering Peace & Palestine

Muslims who would restrict speech to "protect Islam" have no greater allies than Jews who would do so to "protect Israel."

King Abdullah II of Jordan: The reason behind Tehran’s nuclear programme is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Palestine's Abbas: "Despite our feelings of disappointment and loss of hope, we continue to sincerely extend our hands to the Israeli people to make peace."   [Full text: Abbas address to UN General Assembly]

The Rule of Law  "The real rule of law is substantive and encompasses many human-rights requirements. It reflects the idea of equality in a substantive way: not just that no one is above the law, but that everyone is equal before and under the law, and is entitled to its equal protection and equal benefit..." Louise Arbour, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights & president of the International Crisis Group.

OBAMA: "It is time to marginalize those who, even when not resorting to violence, use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics," Obama said. "For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes an excuse, for those who resort to violence."  U.S. President Barack Obama challenged world leaders to tackle the recent violence rippling across the Muslim world, calling it “not simply an assault on America” but an attack “on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.”

Ambassadorship is no longer reserved for elites. In this era of digital interconnectedness, we are all called upon to use free speech to foster peace, not violence. To honor Ambassador Stevens, let us uphold that responsibility in our online – and offline – interactions.

************

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

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you