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| Palestinian heritage Beautiful house in old Katamon Palestinian homes usurped in 1948 in Jerusalem بيت جميل في القطمون بيوت الفلسطنيين المغتصبة عام 1948 في القدس |
Dear Editor,
Israel gets no credit from Obama for a year of moderate settlement construction" left me speechless for a long while... I wonder how many others seeing that headline were stunned and flabbergasted. Some numbers are impossible to tally.
Trying to be generous, I will agree with Abrams and Sadot on one point, and one point alone and that is that in many cases numbers do indeed tell their own story. Every Palestinian refugee displaced from ancestral homes and lands has a story to tell- that adds up. It shows a dangerous trend.
We need to be asking how many more Palestinians homes will Israel demolish, how much more land will Israel usurp, how many more Palestinian families will Israel fragment, how many more Palestinians will Israel push into poverty and forced exile.
How many more years of illegal occupation, how many more decades of being cruelly persecuted, oppressed and harassed must Palestinians endure while Israelis measure everything except the vital importance of fully respecting international law and universal human rights.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
Outreach: American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) "Our Israeli and Palestinian partners in the Middle East as well as our partners in the U.S. believe as we do that a lasting peace must begin with a commitment to shared security for all."
Rachel Corrie 5th Grade Speech: I'm here because I care Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer on 16 March 2003, while undertaking nonviolent direct action to protect the home of a Palestinian family from demolition.
#LetUsThrough ... & KUDOS to The Guardian for a dignified glance at what is it really like to be on the frontline of humanitarian response
"The best and most effective way to reduce the tensions and tragedies such as the murder of the Jordanian judge, is to end the occupation and totally remove the unwanted Israeli occupiers from Palestinian territories." Daoud Kuttab Analysis: Allenby killing highlights need for serious change
Today (15/03/2014): The Israeli civil administration delivered a notice to a Palestinian village in the central West Bank declaring plans to confiscate parts of the village's land
Shards
Video of the Late Amb. Sam Lewis, a Friend of both Palestine and Israel
American Task Force on Palestine... A Decade of Achievement: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About ATFP
U.N. Denies Altering Image of Palestinian Refugees in Damascus By the NYTimes' Robert Mackey
Sam Jadallah: Netanyahu's Silicon Valley visit a lost opportunity
Visualizing Palestine: 20 Years of Talks Keeping Palestine Occupied
Arab League, Abbas reject recognizing Israel as 'Jewish state'
Palestine Refugees in Syria: An Andy Warner Comic
A UN Committee Expresses Concern over Recent Developments in Occupied Jerusalem... The committee said that Israel also continues to construct settlements in East Jerusalem, in violation of international law and in defiance of the international community's repeated calls for ending such illegal acts.
Israeli Settlers Brutally Assault Three Young Palestinians near Ramallah
Plea to the Pope... Ash Wednesday Letter To Pope Francis: Speak Out Against Targeting of Palestinian Children
Official: Israel refused to let Palestinian refugees in Syria return
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never tires of inventing new hoops through which he insists Palestinians jump. As he acknowledged a few weeks back, it's all part of a cynical game that he plays in an effort to kill the chances for peace....
The Palestinian national soccer team, a source of pride for many, has been under attack by the Israeli state.
Hanan Ashrawi: "Today, 20 years after Baruch Goldstein cut down so many innocent lives in a burst of hateful rage, the poisonous anti-Arab racism that turned him into a mass murderer is alive and well in Israel."
Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.
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
The Office of International Religious Freedom
( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/ )
Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries
The Office of International Religious Freedom
( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/ )
Refugees and the Right of Return
We call for a just solution to our refugee issue in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Our position on refugees is also included and supported in the Arab Peace Initiative (API), which calls for “a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.” A just solution to the refugee issue must address two aspects: the right of return and reparations.
Refugees, Borders & Jerusalem
"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
"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
More than sixty years ago, back in 1949, the Application of Israel for admission to membership in the United Nations (A/818) clearly pointed out that Israel was directly contravening "the previous recommendations of the United Nations in at least three important respects: in its attitude on the problem of Arab refugees, on the delimitation of its territorial boundaries, and on the question of Jerusalem." http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/85255e950050831085255e95004fa9c3/1db943e43c280a26052565fa004d8174?OpenDocument
Do
Palestinians have a right to return to the places
from which they or their ancestors were displaced?
UNHCR’s support for the right of return is based on the
idea that the right of return is a recognized customary norm
of International law which is included in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and
the Fourth Geneva Convention.
It’s important for people to know how far the Palestinians have come to put an end to the conflict with Israel.
The Palestinian Refugee's Right of Return: No issue is more emblematic of the 20th century Palestinian experience than the plight of the approximately seven million Palestinian refugees.
What message do we send?
Reflections By An ARAB JEW by Ella Habiba Shohat "When my grandmother first encountered Israeli society in the '50s, she was convinced that the people who looked, spoke and ate so differently--the European Jews--were actually European Christians. Jewishness for her generation was inextricably associated with Middle Easterness. My grandmother, who still lives in Israel and still communicates largely in Arabic, had to be taught to speak of "us" as Jews and "them" as Arabs. For Middle Easterners, the operating distinction had always been "Muslim," "Jew," and "Christian," not Arab versus Jew. The assumption was that "Arabness" referred to a common shared culture and language, albeit with religious differences."
UNITED NATIONS: Give Peace a Chance... The year 2014 has been proclaimed the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People... “The objective of the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is to promote solidarity with the Palestinian people as a central theme, contributing to international awareness of (a) core themes regarding the question of Palestine, as prioritized by the Committee, (b) obstacles to the ongoing peace process, particularly those requiring urgent action such as settlements, Jerusalem, the blockade of Gaza and the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and; (c) mobilization of global action towards the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting solution of the question of Palestine in accordance with international law and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.”
History
of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by
the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, was the result of
the experience of the Second World War. With the end of that
war, and the creation of the United Nations, the international
community vowed never again to allow atrocities like those of
that conflict happen again. World leaders decided to complement
the UN Charter with a road map to guarantee the rights of every
individual everywhere. The document they considered, and which
would later become the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
was taken up at the first session of the General Assembly in
1946. " http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/history.shtml
U.N. Resolution 194 from 1948 Resolves that 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;
Emanating from
the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to
the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the
parties, the council:
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.
- 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
Live by the Golden Rule
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