The Land and Love by Palestinian artist Ismail Shammout (1930-2006) |
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/28/australia-is-right-to-challenge-the-uns-anti-israel-bias
Dear Editor,
"Australia is right to challenge the UN’s anti-Israel bias" brings up some interesting points, but it offers no insight on how to help end the Israel-Palestine conflict with all its many negative ramifications. I think ending the conflict should be a priority- for everyone's sake.
Seems to me diplomats at the UN are responding to the very real plight of the Palestinians and the dire need for a just and lasting peace.... but diplomatic efforts worldwide are being stymied and sabotaged by free lancing Israel obsessed activists actively generating hate campaigns and rage and despair and violence and chaos and cruelty.
Some of the most articulate free lancing Israel obsessed activists claim to be pro-Palestine, some claim to be pro-Israel. Many are bullies and bigots and hate mongers only making matters worse.
However there are many good and decent people worldwide (including many Israelis and many Palestinians) who refuse to give into the hate.... and who refuse to give up on Palestine.
Let 2014 be the year of and for Palestine, and a final chapter in the nefarious Israel-Palestine conflict that has tortured and displaced and destroyed countless people in many different ways: End the Israel-Palestine conflict with two fully sovereign, fully secular states- one called Israel and one called Palestine living side by side in peace and security.
A just and lasting peace in and for Israel and Palestine, based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights would set a good example, empowering Golden Rule thinking, The Arab Peace Initiative and a much more civilized, inclusive and compassionate conversation everywhere.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
A mural by Norwegian artist, Per Krohg, depicts a phoenix rising from ashes, symbolizing the resurgence of peace, equality and freedom. "...to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security..." In the Security Council Chamber Photo stories: United Nations Day - celebrating the UN Charter
International Emmys Award for Best Documentary to "5 Broken Cameras" in which a Palestinian farmer examines upheaval in a West Bank village.
Arab Idol Assaf in appeal for UN Palestinian agency
A Palestinian human rights group urges tougher EU measures on Israeli settler violence
ATFP Hopes Iran Deal Will Enhance Middle East Stability and Security 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.
Voicing solidarity with Palestinian cause, UN officials stress importance of resumed peace talks
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
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
Bible scholars: Zionists have 'weaponized' scripture: "One bad (theological) interpreter is worse than 100 terrorists..."
Israeli soldiers destroy 60 olive trees near Bethlehem... IT ADDS UP: Since 1967, 800,000 Palestinian olive trees have been uprooted by Israelis in the occupied West Bank
NGO: Israel okays 829 new settler homes in West Bank
Destruction and Appropriation of Palestinian Heritage .... Palestine & UNESCO Protecting heritage and reasserting sovereignty : The first installment of a two-part policy brief from Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon: JFK left indelible imprint on me
Israelis and Palestinians must refrain from undermining renewed talks... Settlement plans threaten renewed hopes for Israeli-Palestinian peace, UN envoy warns
It is widely accepted that under international law, the Jewish settlements in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 are illegal. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons... "The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies." BBC News
Poll: Oslo brought 'political normalization' but no benefits "83.3 percent of the respondents believe that settlement construction increased “unprecedentedly” in the Palestinian territory as a result of the Oslo Accord."
Palestinians cast first-ever vote in U.N. General Assembly "It's a symbolic (step)," he [ chief Palestinian U.N. observer, Ambassador Riyad Mansour] said. "But it is an important one because it reflects that the international community, particularly the General Assembly, is hungry and waiting for the state of Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations."
Israeli Settlers uproot 26 Palestinian olive trees in Nablus village... IT ADDS UP: Since 1967, 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, resulting in a loss of around $55 million to the Palestinian economy
Hollande: France urges 'full and complete halt to settlement'
Jewish mob attacks Palestinian man in Jerusalem
Israel's policy of erasure : A path to peace between Israelis and Palestinians requires not simply dealing with settlements but with the whole complex of displacement, suffocation and erasure.
"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
Welcome to Bethlehem, Secretary Kerry: A
call for humanity by Bethlehem Mayor Vera BabounUNITED NATIONS 2013: The nations of the world call on Israel to comply with its obligations under international law, the 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice concerning the apartheid wall and all UN resolutions.
2013: Palestine refugees’ properties and their revenues ...Recalling its resolutions 194 (III) of 11 December 1948 and 36/146 C of 16 December 1981 and all its subsequent resolutions on the question
"The direct threat to Israeli and Palestinian existence — and, in fact, to the existence of all peoples in the region — is the absence of peace in Palestine." Ahmad Y. Majdoubeh in The Jordan Times
Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.
Christians are being driven out of regions around the world where they are a minority
Palestinian villages subject to Israeli mock raids not told they are exercises: Israeli military rejects complaints by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din over 'training' arrests of Arabs and raids on homes
Washington Post 2013: Israeli hard-liners eye West Bank
Israeli Settler Violence Map
'It is where religious freedom is most dishonored or repressed that the forces of violent religious extremism are likely to thrive.' Katrina Lantos Swett, vice chairwoman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom: JFK's call for religious freedom can transform...
- 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.
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.
Dear President Obama... Let Freedom Ring
194
Globalizing Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
PBS Newshour: Poet Naomi Shihab Nye: 'Telling a story helped us figure out who we were'
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.
U.S. 'working tirelessly' to restore UNESCO funding... UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova: "This is not only about financing. This is about values. This is the 'smart power' that is in such need today, to lay the foundations for lasting peace and sustainable development,"
U.S., Israel lose voting rights at UNESCO over Palestine row
UNWRA ... a crucial lifeline for Palestinian refugees
Dr Zogby: Focus on Palestinians’ Rights
At ATFP Gala, White House Reaffirms Commitment to Palestinian State, Opposition to Settlements and Settler Violence
"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
Pomegranates in season along the path!
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.
Jordan's King Abdullah II explains that extremism has "grown fat" off of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Thomas Paine: "Of
all of the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny of
religion is the worst."
The Charter for Compassion
is a call to restore the Golden Rule
to the center of religious, moral and civic life. The
path to a just economy and a peaceful world requires
listening, understanding and treating all others as we
wish to be treated ourselves.
Freedom for Palestine - OneWorld
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.
Freedom for Palestine - OneWorld
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