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Jerusalem Calling Endangered Jerusalem Photo by Tarek Bakri : This Week in Palestine |
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2013/0601/Breakthrough-in-Israeli-Palestinian-conflict?nav=87-frontpage-entryCommentary
Dear Editor,
Israel is facing boycott campaigns- and UNWRA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) is grappling with growing needs and shrinking funds.
Peace for the greater good of both Israel and Palestine: A business oriented "collective choice for hope and peace"... Sounds like a very sensible and timely initiative to me. Certainly is a better direction to go in than the current trajectory of escalating religious extremism, bigotry, ignorance and terrorism exasperating unemployment and personal loss.
Plenty of past peace projects throughout the years have proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that individual Israelis and Palestinians are able to move beyond the nay saying and negativity and tenacious insanities that tend to complicate as well as perpetuate the Israel-Palestine conflict.
This newest pro-negotiations initiative builds on all the work already done by numerous forward thinkers, compassionate visionaries and realists who understand that actually ending the conflict with a just and lasting peace creates a win-win situation.
Where there is a will- there is a way.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
Kerry: Palestinian economic plan looks to inject $4 billion ... "We need a new model for how we are going to bring order and open up the possibilities. We need to partner with the private sector because it's clear most governments don't have the money."
Jordan's King Abdullah II said Saturday extremism has "grown fat" off of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
From Palestinians' point of view, the law [Israel's Absentee Property Law] has always been controversial. The rights of refugees are a core issue in their conflict with Israel.
John Kerry makes unscheduled shawarma sandwich stop in West Bank ...Kerry is urging an economic package to boost the Palestinian economy. Perhaps as a signal of his commitment, he insisted on paying for his food.
Kairos Palestine condemns the kidnapping of two bishops in Syria - and calls for all conflicts and violence and proxy battles to be stopped.
In Israel, a modern wall is halted by ancient terraces
AP PHOTOS: Palestinians in Egypt village exhibit consequences of 65 years of mass displacement
Time Magazine Pictures of the Week: May 10 – May 17... Palestinian refugee children play in front of their family house in Jabaliya Refugee camp, in the Gaza Strip.
"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
Repercussions... a poem
Why Ending the Occupation and Peace with Israel is Still the Palestinian National Goal...
“Were you really shot in a fight over water?” He winces out his answer: “It wasn’t about politics. It wasn’t about the Muslim Brotherhood. It was about water.”
Former Palestinian fighter now battles for a middle path: Palestinian Mohammed Dajani, from a prominent Jerusalem family, has become a vocal advocate for pragmatism and peace.
Songs and Pictures from Palestine
Palestine now recognised by greater power than US or Israel – Google
Fayyad Steps Down, Not Out
This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."
"I come from there and I have memories... "
*******
The Balfour Declaration of 1917
The Balfour Declaration of 1917
".... it being clearly understood that nothing
shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."
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
Palestinian Refugees(1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.
The Golden Rule... Do
unto others as you would have them do unto you
Refugees and the Right of Return
Palestinian
refugees must be given the option to exercise their
right of return (as well as receive compensation for
their losses arising from their dispossession and
displacement) though refugees may prefer other options
such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii)
resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even
though they originate from that part of Palestine which
became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal
status in the host country where they currently reside.
What is important is that individual refugees decide for
themselves which option they prefer – a decision must
not be imposed upon them.
UN Resolution
194 from 1948 : The
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.
"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