RE High above Nazareth, an Israeli mayor wants to keep his city Jewish ‘now and forever’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/high-above-nazareth-an-israeli-mayor-wants-to-keep-his-city-jewish-now-and-forever/2013/09/19/1a3fd172-2157-11e3-ad1a-1a919f2ed890_story.html
Dear Editor,
Thank you for publishing a probing food for thought story on the Israeli quest to make Nazareth Jewish. I don't think tax payers here or there should be forced to fund and empower an official state religion, no matter what that religion might be.
Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security as two sovereign separate secular nation states is a starting point for a just and lasting peace: That peace will not be just, or lasting, if everyone is bullied into endorsing Israel's supposed Jewishness.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
************
RE Israel Should Annul the Oslo Accords By Danny Danon a member of the Knesset and the deputy defense minister of Israel
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/opinion/israel-should-annul-the-oslo-accords.html?ref=global&_r=0
Dear Editor,
Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace and prosperity is indeed a very worthy goal, but dismissing the Oslo Accords will not help make that happen. Reach back further- deeper into the conflict itself:
In 1948, at a time when segregation and institutionalized bigotry were common here in America, and Jim Crow laws ( enacted between 1876 and 1965) had yet to be dismantled, few knew to object to the specific word choice of "Jewish State" when Israel was founded... Rethinking existing paradigms, for everyone's sake Israel should annul its misguided quest to be formally defined as Jewish.
Tax payers here and there should not be forced to subsidize Israel's religious fantasies... nor should Islamist militants be sent the message that the international community approves of arming one favored religion with lethal weaponry plus sovereign powers. What is good for the goose- is good for the gander.
Negotiations for a just and lasting peace need to be based on firm respect for international law, universal basic human rights and a fully secular two state end to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
As Martin Luther King Jr wisely pointed out in 1967: "Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 1
- All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
The Promised Land: In Celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Peace Day...Ibrahim's Estate... a poem by Anne Selden Annab
Israel
and Palestine Vs. ‘Blood and Magic’ by Hussein Ibish, Saliba
Sarsar Sep 17, 2013 "The occupation is an emergency,
not a macro- or trans-historical problem, particularly for the
millions of Palestinians living under its oppressive rule. They,
especially—but we too—do not have the luxury of waiting to see
what the next hundred years of history will bring us, good or bad.
On the contrary, we must have the courage to act now, and with
urgency, within the existing realities, however difficult, to try
to create a working solution to a situation that is both
intolerably unjust and regionally (and to some extent even
globally) destabilizing."
20
years of Oslo: Maybe the best thing to happen to
Palestinians by Suhail Khalilieh ... "The
construction of settlements as it exists today is an inevitable
consequence of the occupation. In fact, it might have been
increased by much more if it was not for Oslo. Even the settler
population might have been the same or more, because movement
would have been easier and roads would have been better
facilitated for the settlers."
CSM: Bedouins slam Israel's desert development as 'Nakba in the Negev' ... An Israeli development plan for the Negev desert would evict 40,000 semi-nomadic Arab Bedouins, who compare it to the Palestinian expulsion after Israel's founding.
Israel displaces dozens of Palestinian families for military exercises
CSM: Bedouins slam Israel's desert development as 'Nakba in the Negev' ... An Israeli development plan for the Negev desert would evict 40,000 semi-nomadic Arab Bedouins, who compare it to the Palestinian expulsion after Israel's founding.
Israel displaces dozens of Palestinian families for military exercises
Farah Chamma- I Am No Palestinian
Twenty Years After Oslo, Trying it Again
CNN: World-renowned chef, best-selling author and Emmy-winning television personality Anthony Bourdain... 10 things to know before visiting Israel, the West Bank and Gaza
Anthony Bourdain, Will You Marry Me?
From handshake of peace to handcuffs of subjugation
U.S. Foreign Policy
NSA scandal: “Israel which discriminates continuously against US citizens of Arab and Muslim origins should not be rewarded with information that encourages and enhances its ability to discriminate against them leading to their deportations at Israeli airports, banning them from entry, and even jailing them,”
On Yom Kippur, Remember My Palestinian Mother: "The lesson, I think, is this: the Holy Land holds histories that, with time, can be taught to coexist. My mother’s is one of them. As she navigates her own, inner peace process, I hope that one day, in her lifetime, it leads home."
Palestine and Israel in the New Regional Context
Witnesses: Israeli forces bulldoze land south of Qalqiliya
Israelis uproot over 40 Palestinian olive trees in south Hebron hills late Sunday
The politicization of religion contributes to discrimination and persecution of religious minorities around the world.... “The politicization of religion and use of religion in politics has often added to polarization, social divides and conflicts in traditionally tolerant communities around the globe”
More Times Than I Can Remember ... a poem by Saliba Sarsar (born and raised in Jerusalem)
Palestine Festival of Literature 2013
Negotiations are a way to get our rights
point by point ...a poem
Live by the Golden Rule
Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.
Dear President Obama... Let Freedom Ring
194
Help Build A Golden Rule Peace for the Holy Land
Globalizing Martin Luther King, Jr.
*********
The Arab Peace Initiative
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.
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:
"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
Promote freedom of religion and
conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right
and as a source of stability for all countries
"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
Live
by the Golden Rule
Words to Honor: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1.
Words to Honor: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1.
-
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should
act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
".... it being clearly understood that nothing
shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine....
"In
1949, the international community accepted Israel's UN
membership upon two conditions: That they respect
resolutions 181 (two states) and 194 (refugee rights).
Neither has been honored. In fact, 65 years later, Israel
has not even acknowledged what it did in 1948." Saeb
Erekat
11
December 1948 UN Resolution
194:"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 Golden Rule...
Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you
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