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| Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice. |
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-makdisi-settlements-israel-palestinians-kerr-20131118,0,1866660.story#axzz2kzSHgw6U
Dear Editor,
It is hard to fathom how, in a modern world, with full knowledge of the evils of institutionalized bigotry, Israel can continue systemically persecuting, impoverishing and displacing the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land- sabotaging peace and Palestine, international law and universal basic human rights.
A fully secular two state solution ending the Israel-Palestine conflict ASAP would go a long way towards ending the very real plight of the Palestinians as well as the esoteric angst of Israelis: Religion should be a personal private choice, not a state funded farce aimed at jerry rigging demographics and citizenship rights.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
Notes
"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
IMF: Arab Spring economies hit by uncertainty Ahmed said that governments in the Arab world and the rest of the world need to find a way to "arrest this situation with its downside risks and try to find ways to boost jobs and growth in the short term and lay the foundation for a private sector-led recovery."
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
Israel 'plans 20,000 new settler homes in West Bank'
Washington Post 2013: Israeli hard-liners eye West Bank
Israeli Settler Violence Map
Israeli police seized computers and detained 25 Palestinians because of Facebook posts in East Jerusalem on Thursday
'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.
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
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.
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
"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
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!
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.
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
Jordan's King Abdullah II explains that extremism has "grown fat" off of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
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.
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
"Compassion is not religious business, it is human business. It is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival."~Dalai Lama
"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."~ Albert Schweitzer,1952 Nobel Peace Prize
"I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."~ Stephan Grellet, a prominent French-born American Quaker missionary
Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace: " Israelis and Palestinians are two peoples with traumatic histories. We must never forget them. But we must not be held hostage by history either. We must care more about the future of our grandchildren than the past of our grandparents, or even ourselves.
We must work together to build a future in which both peoples can enjoy the rights, responsibilities and dignity of citizenship and self-determination. There is only one way to actually accomplish this: by ending the occupation and creating a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel. Palestinians must recognize and accept Israel, a legitimate member state of the U.N. The Palestinians must have one place on earth, the territories occupied in 1967, where they can live freely as first-class citizens in an independent state. There is no other way to end the cycle of bloodshed, pain and hatred."
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
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