My letter to the NYTimes RE It’s Up to Obama By Mustafa Barghouti

Palestinian Shepherd outside Jerusalem

RE: It’s Up to Obama By Mustafa Barghouti
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/opinion/global/obama-can-end-israeli-intransigence.html?ref=global

Dear Editor,

Our Library of Congress has a treasure trove of photographs honoring and exploring American culture and history, as well as intriguing glimpses of faraway lands... like historic Palestine.  Reading Palestine's Mustafa Barghouti in today's New York Times, I can not help but think of the photographs I have seen- images available to view because for generations now Americans and American institutions have created, preserved, archived and freely shared them.

UNWRA has many more recent photos of Palestinians, documenting the Nakba of 1948 as well as 1967, but their full gallery of older photographs is no longer so easy to find online. I suspect one too many extremist misused the UNWRA photos to generate hate and more conflict rather than support efforts to actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict, or at least help raise funds to feed and educate the children under UNWRA's care.

There are many dishonest brokers making the Israel-Palestine conflict worse... Obama is not one of them.  Be that as it may however, whatever Obama does or says on this historic trip to Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, what really matters most is how people on all sides respond.  One can be a cynic and feed the negativity, add into the blame games and angry protest rallies and nay saying, or one can help find the strength and courage to call for peace and careful conscientious negotiations to actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on Palestine

"I come from there and I have memories... "

Octavia Nasr: What the city of Haifa taught me

Passports & Doorways... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

Barak Obama, Yes you are welcome in Bethlehem... Mr. President you are welcome in Bethlehem of the occupied Palestine, with open arms, in the hope that you are devoted to justice and a positive peace.

Amid the social and political transformations reshaping the Middle East, can King Abdullah II, the region's most pro-American Arab leader, liberalize Jordan, modernize its economy, and save his kingdom from capture by Islamist radicals?

Dear President Obama … I hope you won't remain silent: In an open letter, a Palestinian boy describes how life has changed since settlers took part of his family's home

U.N. officials in Washington to defend Palestinian refugee aid

Hussein Ibish: Muslim Brotherhood Attack on Women's Rights Just the Start

Facing Facts

Palestinian Maher Salamah: "We want borders, an airport; we want a state, we want freedom."

Palestinians buy land to protect future state and generations: A son of refugees has battled with the Palestinian Authority to create hundreds of plots with title deeds for Palestinians to own

Of Course Settlements Are Illegal... That's not an opinion. That's a legal and political fact.

Obama tells Arab-American leaders trip will show commitment to statehood

*******
"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." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

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..."

What is an Israeli settlement

"Legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Thomas Jefferson

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 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

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.

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 Arab Peace Initiative

Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties, the council:

1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.

2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:

I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following:

I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.

II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.

4. Assures the rejection of all forms of Palestinian patriation which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries.

5. Calls upon the government of Israel and all Israelis to accept this initiative in order to safeguard the prospects for peace and stop the further shedding of blood, enabling the Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighbourliness and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity.

6. Invites the international community and all countries and organisations to support this initiative.

7. Requests the chairman of the summit to form a special committee composed of some of its concerned member states and the secretary general of the League of Arab States to pursue the necessary contacts to gain support for this initiative at all levels, particularly from the United Nations, the Security Council, the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the Muslim states and the European Union.