My letter to CSM RE Israel overrides court, removes Palestinians

RE  Israel overrides court, removes Palestinian protest settlement, Palestinians set up the Bab Al-Shams village two days ago in the sensitive E1 area, pointedly mirroring a tactic used by some Israeli settlers to establish facts on the ground. 
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0113/Israel-overrides-court-removes-Palestinian-protest-settlement

Dear Editor,

World War II with all it many horrors inspired world leaders to carefully think about and endorse a carefully worded Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If newly founded Israel had used respect for basic human rights as its guidepost things would be very very different in the Middle East today, with positive ramifications for everyone- regardless of supposed race or religion. 

The very real plight and suffering of the persecuted, impoverished and displaced native non-Jewish Palestinians is a crisis that has been growing worse not for merely months or years, but for decades. And yet the besieged and oppressed Palestinians persist in believing in peace and justice....  Bravo to all the valiant and noble Palestinians who dreamed up the Bab Al-Shams village, and then set about creating a real village of tents on Palestinian land in hopes of stopping Israel from investing in and building yet another Jews-only housing project.

& Bravo to the American newspapers, including the CSM, who noticed and published some news of this telling incident. Even if the tents and Palestinian flags are torn down by Israeli forces the world has a plethora of photos and stories- just as the world has a plethora of photos as well as many facts and stories about the hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed by Israel through out the years. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Israelis Evict Palestinians

"We know the [Israeli] army follow us on Twitter and Facebook, so we made out we were holding a protest somewhere else."

State of Palestine

Financial Crisis in the West Bank

Bab al-Shams Village... We, the sons and daughters of Palestine

Palestinians Set Up Tents Where Israel Plans Homes

Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes- and peace

Israel uses the crisis in Syria to try to coerce Abbas into relinquishing Palestinian refugee rights

Snow covers the Dome of the Rock in the Old City

Walls and winter rains afflict Palestinian towns

Excellent letter in the Guardian by Keith Lichman RE Israel's drift

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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.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917

".... it being clearly understood that nothing
          shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
          rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."

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

"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

Empowering Peace & Palestine

"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 Arab Peace Initiative

Refugees and the Right of Return

Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside.  What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them.