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RE Binyamin Netanyahu: occupation is not cause of conflict- Hardline speech fuels suspicion PM is unwilling to agree to dismantle settlements and withdraw from West Bank
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/07/israel-binyamin-netanyahu-palestinians
Dear Editor,
Netanyahu's insistence that Israel be legally deemed officially "Jewish" by all its neighbors reminds me of a famous speech "Slavery a Positive Good" delivered in February 06, 1837 by American Senator John C. Calhoun who lead the pro-slavery faction in America's Senate during the 1830s and 1840s. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/slavery-a-positive-good/
Claiming to take 'higher ground' with his position, slave owner Calhoun was voicing what many Americans wanted to believe. That did not make it true- neither authoritative speeches, nor wishful thinking, nor quotes from religious texts or scientific papers ever made slavery a positive good, which in hindsight really is quite obvious.
But it was not so obvious then. In 1837 "Slavery a Positive Good was one speech of many by many stating "facts" that helped shape a future not only of eventual civil war but also the emergence of Jim Crow laws after that war.
The task at hand right now in today's more enlightened world vis-a-vis the Israel-Palestine conflict needs to be ending the conflict with a just and lasting peace: Israel's refusal to respect the Palestinian refugees right of return paves the way for a Jews-preferred Israel to continue to cruelly persecute, impoverish, displace and intentionally disenfranchise the native non-Jewish Palestinians with a plethora of polices aimed at keeping Israel "Jewish". Tax payers here and there are being forced to help fund Israel's religious scholars and schemes and the rampant institutionalized bigotry and injustice that is making life miserable for countless men women and children.
The Israel-Palestine conflict has many symptoms, and perhaps even many causes. It certainly has many negative ramifications that will only get worse with time. The task at hand needs to be ending the conflict with a just and lasting peace: Two fully secular, fully sovereign independent states living side by side in peace and security is the best way forward.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
Tel Aviv conference plans for Palestinian return: Israel is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians who were displaced from their villages in 1948 but remained inside the new state’s borders. Many of these communities ended up as refugees only mere miles from their original villages but were forbidden to return by the State of Israel.
A quest to preserve Palestinian heritage in the digital stacks: Sami Batrawi's struggle to open an online Palestinian Library of Congress is part of a broader effort to recover lost Palestinian intellectual heritage.
Pomegranates in season along the path!
VERY CATCHY Theme song for THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING! ... please help pass the word [The film now out on iTunes and Amazon for rental/purchase]
ATFP Galas: Palestine's Washington Showcase... "One of the most crucial aspects of ATFP's mission has been to change the image of Palestine and Palestinians in Washington, moving beyond the traditional binary stereotypes of menacing terrorists or wretched refugees. There is an all-American story to be told about Palestinian immigrants to the United States, and a need to celebrate their contributions to our country and to the world."
Grape festival begins in Hebron area
Peace & Israel... "It was the theft of that land that led to the continuing hostility of Arab and Muslim countries, a hostility that will only go away when the Palestinians receive justice." Guardian letter by Karl Sabbagh, author of Palestine: A Personal History
Jordan's King Abdullah II explains that extremism has "grown fat" off of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians
CSM: Israel increases rate of home demolitions as peace talks chug along- Human rights activists say home demolitions show that protection for Palestinian human rights is missing from the peace process.
Walking Palestine & The Abraham Path... a creative space for stories that highlight the unique culture, heritage and hospitality of the region
Remarks by Palestine's President Abbas at the United Nations General Assembly..."The hour of freedom for the Palestinian people has rung. The hour of the independence of Palestine has rung. The hour of peace has rung."
Obama urges world to take risks for Mideast peace... "All of us must recognize that peace will be a powerful tool to defeat extremists, and embolden those who are prepared to build a better future," he said.
"I sit in preventive detention... The reason, sir, is that I am an Arab." Fouzi al-Asmar (1937-2013)
Palestinian Journalist/Author/Poet/Activist Fouzi El-Asmar, R.I.P... El-Asmar was a doting husband, father, grandfather, a devoted friend, and a respected journalist who died this month at age 76, three weeks after the passing of his wife: He had asked to be buried in his native land.
UNHRC Discusses Human Rights Situation in Occupied Palestinian Territories
Arab Myths Distort Understanding Of American Policy
Palestine and Israel in the New Regional Context
"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."Hussein
Ibish & Saliba Sarsar of ATFP...
ATFP provides an independent voice for Palestinian-Americans and their supporters and advances human rights and peace. It categorically and unequivocally condemns all violence against civilians, no matter the cause and who the victims or perpetrators may be.
- 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.
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 Promised Land: Ibrahim's
Estate... a poem in Celebration of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights & Peace Day 2013
*********
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
".... 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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