My letter to the Washington Post RE Netanyahu cool to Arab land-swap initiative [Kerry this week praised the League for backing land swaps as part of Israeli-Palestinian peace process.]

Liberty Enlightening the World

The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy... The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law)

RE: Israel’s Netanyahu responds coolly to Arab League support for land swaps

Kerry this week praised the League for backing land swaps as part of Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/netanyahu-cool-to-arab-land-swap-initiative/2013/05/01/b695449c-b282-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html

Dear Editor,

The US State Department has clear goals and priorities- one of the most obvious is to "Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries" http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/  

Palestinians refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist is a very different thing than Palestinians refusing to recognize Israel as Jewish, or as Netanyahu phrases it to "recognize Israel as the national state of the Jewish people". 

Israel's Jewishness is none of our business. It is not America's job to define what is Jewish or who is Jewish or where Jewish people should live and who they should be allowed to marry.

Our efforts to help end the Israel-Palestine conflict need to be in line with our ideals.  America should not be advocating (or funding) official state religions. Nor should Palestinians be forced to endorse and empower the institutionalized bigotry that already exists in Israel.

A fully secular two state solution to once and for all actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict is the best way forward. Tax payers (here and there) should not be coerced into funding creeds and cults and religious tyranny of any type.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
'Quiet man' Kerry's strategy for Middle East peace

Vatican urged to act after nuns, landowners lose Israel wall challenge After a seven-year legal battle, a group of Palestinian landowners and Catholic nuns this week lost an appeal against Israel building its separation barrier on their land.

Youth voice hope for change in static Palestinian politics

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Israeli forces uproot 700 olive trees near Jenin

CNN online Dean Obeidallah: I'm Muslim, and I hate terrorism

Hussein Ibish: Fate of Christians will define the Arab future

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

*******

LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on 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." 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..."

"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.