Wednesday, November 6, 2013

My letter to CSM RE Nazi art cache revealed two years after discovery. Why the delay?

AP / Police Rotterdam
The 1919 painting "'Reading Girl in White and Yellow" by Henri Matisse. Other works by Matisse and other artists were among almost 1,500 discovered in a German apartment.
RE: Nazi art cache revealed two years after discovery. Why the delay?
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/1105/Nazi-art-cache-revealed-two-years-after-discovery.-Why-the-delay

Dear Editor,

I very much enjoyed reading the news about the newly discovered trove of art and the efforts to reunite original owners with their lost treasures which were stolen by the Nazis during WWII. I hope that in addition to originals being returned to rightful owners, photos of all the art are shared far and wide so that we all might savor and enjoy the art...  I also very much hope that someday soon Palestinian homes in Israel will be understood by every one to be every bit as precious and valuable as art on a canvas.  Palestinian homes and property seized by Israelis during the Nakba should be returned to the rightful Palestinian owners as soon as possible.

Furthermore since Israelis with American citizenship are easily able to go back and forth in addition to voting both in American and in Israeli elections, Palestinians originally from what is now officially Israel should have equal freedoms and rights as citizens in Israel as well as in the newly formed sovereign Palestinian state or wherever they might chose to resettle.

Legal precedents are everywhere, illuminating the best way forward for a just and lasting peace. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family By Edward Said's daughter Najla Said

This Week in Palestine: In Palestine we have no physical control over our borders, and therefore have no say in how anyone could be treated at any given moment in time. But what we do have control of is the Palestine we write about, describe, and photograph in the folds of this issue’s pages....

Support for Mideast peace ...

Dr Zogby: Focus on Palestinians’ Rights

NYTimes News October 30, 2013: 1,500 Units to Be Added in Settlement, Israel Says

At ATFP Gala, White House Reaffirms Commitment to Palestinian State, Opposition to Settlements and Settler Violence

ATFP Video: "I CAN SEE PALESTINE..."

Poet Naomi Shihab Nye is this year's recipient of the 2013 Neustadt Prize for Children's literature... keynote and poems by Ms. Nye, with music and a discussion of Palestinian culture

U.S. Mideast czar at ATFP Gala: Settlements, settler attacks not ‘conducive’ to peace

Why Are Israelis Tone Deaf to Incitement Against Palestinians?

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

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

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

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


"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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