My letter to NYReview of Books RE Palestine: How Bad, & Good, Was British Rule?

Israeli built wall photo: AP / Majdi Mohammed

RE: Palestine: How Bad, & Good, Was British Rule?
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/feb/07/palestine-how-bad-and-good-was-british-rule/

Dear Editor,

King David Hotel was not the only target of Zionist terror... never ever forget the Palestinian refugees driven from their homes and lands and pushed out into the largest longest running refugee crisis in the world today.

In 1948 United Nations Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte (who was assassinated that year by Zionists) pointed out that "It would be an offence against the principles of justice if those innocent victims [of Zionist terror] could not return to their while [Zionist] immigrants flowed into Palestine to take their place."11/22/1948 Palestine UN Mediator report - GA First Cttee debate, Arab Higher Committee statement - Summary record
Complete document in PDF format

This remains true today as Jews world wide are encouraged, and sometimes even bribed, to move to Israel to become citizens with subsidized housing while Palestinian Arabs are denied their inalienable legal, natural and moral right to return to original homes and lands. 

British rule did not have huge concrete apartheid walls plus machine guns that peek around corners- or sophisticated computer systems, checkpoints, and policies that target people by religion, displacing and then trapping native non-Jewish men women and children into impoverished refugee camps.

The Nakba continues as Palestinians continue to be pushed into poverty, forced exile and despair.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker & poet

NOTES
Palestine's Burin is squeezed between Israel's Bracha and Yitzhar settlements, and is the target of regular Israeli settler violence.

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ATFP to Co-Host Briefing on Israeli and Palestinian Schoolbooks

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BBC News: Israeli settlements in the occupied territories violate Palestinians' human rights in ways designed to drive them off the land, a UN report states.

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Looting books from Palestinian libraries: Dark stories

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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..."

UN Resolution 194 from 1948  : The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.

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

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In smal 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.