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| Olive Harvest: Songs & Pictures from Palestine |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-foreign-policy-based-on-fantasy/2013/10/27/cfd74b06-3cc2-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html
Dear Editor,
Is it fantasy for Palestinians living under Israel's oppressive policies and punitive rule to wish for, as well as demand freedom and justice?
Rising to the challenge of pursuing a just and lasting peace for Israel and Palestine is a reality based endeavor, not a fantasy. It is immensely challenging and difficult- but not impossible: International law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the Arab Peace Initiative provide clear guidelines and references for those who are interested in actually helping end the Israel-Palestine conflict once and for all- for everyone sake.
Bolstering naysayers as well as Netanyau's intransigence perpetuates the conflict and self fulfilling prophecies of apocalyptic ruin for Israel, Palestine, and all their neighbors. Elliott Abrams & Jackson Diehl can fantasize all they want that their Israel-centric arguments will help steer more people away from supporting negotiations so that Israel can more easily continue on with its quest to take more and more Palestinian land while ruthlessly evicting the native non-Jewish population of that land- but that does not make Abrams, Diehl or Israel right.
I'd rather follow the lead of experts and analysts who understand the very real plight of the Palestinians and the dire need to forge a just and lasting peace for both Israel and for 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
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
Ancient stone villages in the occupied West Bank have become trapped in rural poverty, while investors and donors shy away from a zone of seemingly endless conflict... Israel's restrictions affect much of Palestinian economic life. It controls every access point, which enables it to oversee all imports and exports, creating bureaucratic hurdles that Palestinians say stifle or kill entrepreneurship.
The Israelis also impose strict limits on water supply, which affects industry and agriculture. Israel has not allowed Palestinians access to 3G mobile technology, citing security concerns, rendering many smartphone apps largely useless....READ MORE
As ATFP celebrates it’s 10th Anniversary Gala, John H. Sununu, former Governor of New Hampshire and White House Chief of Staff, recalls the story of ATFP’s inception and gives an insider assessment of its accomplishments
We Need to Talk... Ziad Asali has proven that Palestinian-Americans can work within the system as first-class American citizens and Washington has paid attention: The status quo is clear: occupation. Asali's mission is to change that status quo.
Why Muslims should love secularism: Though secularism is widely misunderstood as anti-religious and iconoclastic, all it means is the neutrality of the state on religious affairs ...
"Muslims must recognize
secularism as the only real path to religious freedom, rather
than confusing it with an attack against religion."Hussein
Ibish
Ashrawi Calls on the EU to Investigate Sunday Times Report
The paling mythologies of the “axis of evil” and “axis of resistance”
A new report says Israeli settlement construction on the Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank has increased by about 70 percent.
Hanan Ashrawi on Oslo, Academia, and Women in Politics
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.
What 20 years of the "Peace Process" has meant for Palestinians... September 1993- September 2013
Attack on Jerusalem graves unnerves Christians
Israel-as-a
Jerusalem life: 'Are you aware? Women should not be strolling outdoors'
"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
Thomas Paine: "Of
all of the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny of
religion is the worst."
"In every country and in every age, the priest [rabbi/imam/...etc...] has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own"
Thomas Jefferson
"In every country and in every age, the priest [rabbi/imam/...etc...] has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own"
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
- 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 Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you
Live
by the Golden Rule
Dear President Obama... Let Freedom Ring
194
Globalizing Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dear President Obama... Let Freedom Ring
194
Globalizing Martin Luther King, Jr.
"So let us put the narrative of injustice away and find the joy, if it’s the last thing we ever do. " Tala Abu Rahmeh, Palestinian poet and writer
This Week in Palestine Artist of the Month: Yazan Khalili
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!
New Video Previewing ATFP's 10th Anniversary Gala
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."
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.
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