RE A dangerous turning point in Israel [Editorial] Our view: The conflict is turning increasingly personal as calls for revenge flourish
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-israel-20140707,0,1243020.story
Dear Editor,
Freedom of religion, as well as freedom from religion, is a crucial source of stability for all countries. Arming religion with lethal weaponry plus public funds is a very very bad idea.
The Israel-Palestine conflict has always been personal for the people who live there, and the momentum for making the Israel-Palestine conflict into a religious conflagration starts with the fact that Israel foolishly insists on being "Jewish"... Israel being "Jewish" translates into tax payers' money plus international aid generously funding Israel's Jews-preferred policies including but not limited to Israel's illegal occupation perpetuating Jews-only settlement projects built on land usurped from the native non-Jewish Arab Palestinians.
Israel's Jews-preferred policies have created and exasperated a huge refugee crisis with countless Palestinians pushed into poverty, forced exile and despair.
Islamists have risen up to make a bad situation worse in every possible way. Fact is many more people and governments world wide would have much more sympathy and compassion for the Palestinians but for the Islamists' reign of terror.
Advocating full respect for international law and universal basic human rights to shape a fully secular two state solution with two fully sovereign nations, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security is the only way out of the mess made by religious extremists and hate mongers on both sides.
There are good and decent people on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict who deserve a chance to live and raise their children in peace and dignity, where ever they might be. World wide the rule of fair and just laws is an ongoing process that requires engaged, educated, empowered and free equal citizens able and willing to see beyond their own personal suffering and sorrows.
The best revenge is living well.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
Time to look at Israeli incitement not just Palestinian
Abbas calls for UN committee on Israeli crimes against Palestinians
US condemns 'heinous murder' of Palestinian teen
The New Way of War: Killing the Kids
NYTimes: "How can a lasting political settlement be achieved if Israel continues refusing both the two-state and the one-state solutions?" Ali Jarbawi
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said the economy in the West Bank and Gaza is weakening and urged Israel to lift restrictions on the Palestinians.
BBC Video of American Task Force on Palestine's President Dr. Ziad Asali on the Violence in Palestine & Israel
Palestine's Saeb Erekat: Mideast peace impossible without international action: "As long as no action is taken on the economic, political, and diplomatic levels, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Lieberman, Housing Minister Ariel, and Economy Minister Bennett will continue along the same path, which is one of apartheid and colonization rather than one of justice, peace, and reconciliation."
UN officials deplore murder of Palestinian boy in Jerusalem ... “We call for strict compliance with international law by all relevant actors to avoid further loss of life, injuries and suffering.”
Statement by U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, on the Abduction and Murder of Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir... "The world has too often learned the hard way that violence only leads to more violence and at this tense and dangerous moment, all parties must do everything in their power to protect the innocent and act with reasonableness and restraint, not recrimination and retribution."
JORDAN TIMES: "It is the absence of peace between Israelis and Palestinians that breeds hatred and violence, and it is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land that deprives its citizens of security."
UNWRA asks: What makes Palestine refugees poor?
Click by Click Culpability ... a Growing Gardens for Palestine poem by Anne Selden Annab
The Echo Chamber & ISIS
Self-fulfilling prophecies are a danger to Iraq and Syria... Let’s not wish ourselves into cataclysm before it’s too late.
Why it's way too soon to give up on the Arab Spring
"A strong advocate for mutual understanding and respect between Americans and Arabs, Naomi Shihab Nye has created a cultural space in America for people to come together to celebrate their commonalities alongside their differences. Her artistic spirit has inspired millions..."
It's time for Palestinians and Israelis to share a just peace... It's time for freedom from occupation... It's time for equal rights.... It's time for the healing of wounded souls.
This Week in Palestine promotes the Palestinian cultural image as an expression of embodied experience, a mode of communication, and a form for understanding our society, history, ecology, and ultimately ourselves... Taking a very close look at Palestinian public diplomacy and promoting Palestine.
Abbas: Israel wants PA without authority: " “Israel’s acts in the West Bank are unjustified, their ways of searching the houses, assaulting locals and killing innocent people are rejected. Israel has taken away all authority from the Palestinian Authority..."
Bethlehem Arab Women's Union, a Sunbula partner, is among the oldest income generation projects in Palestine, starting in1949 as a first aid center for refugees from the Nakba. Visit their embroidery workshop at the heart of Bethlehem's Old City, near the Church of Nativity.
UNESCO supports Jordan, Palestine proposal on Jerusalem
UNESCO | Building peace in the minds of men and women... Emergency Nomination- Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir, inscribed on World Heritage List and on List of World Heritage in Danger
UNESCO grants Battir endangered heritage status
Elton Performs at Starry Starry Night Benefit for Palestinian refugee children
CNN: Presbyterian Church dumps companies it says help Israel suppress Palestinians
"I advocate a two-state solution, based upon the pre-1967 borders, that includes recognition of the plight of, and redress for, the refugees from 1948, and also guarantees equal rights under law for all citizens of the region, whatever their religion or ethnic background..." The Rolling Stones and Tel Aviv: EXCELLENT letter by Roger Waters (of Pink Flyod) in the NYTimes
"A multiplication of new crises, and at the same time old crises that seem never to die": More than 50 million displaced worldwide, half are children, many of them caught up in conflicts or persecution that world powers have been unable to prevent or end, UNHCR said in its annual Global Trends report.... Afghan, Syrian and Somali nationals accounted for 53 percent of the 11.7 million refugees under UNHCR's responsibility. Five million Palestinians are looked after by a sister agency UNRWA.
‘War’s Human Cost’: World's population of displaced tops 50 million, UN refugee agency reports... By the end of 2013, an estimated 51.2 million people worldwide were considered to be forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations
“one family torn apart by
war is too many”
CSPAN
to Cover Live ATFP's Iraq Crisis Panel, Monday, June 23,
2014 -National Press Club- Washington DC
"I have yet to meet a refugee who wanted to be a refugee and even less so, who wished to remain a refugee. Palestine refugees are no different. Their call for a just and lasting solution to their plight must be heard." UNWRA's Pierre Krähenbühl on World Refugee Day
A Palestinian Christian family that preaches non-violence from a farm in the West Bank is battling to hold on to land it has owned for 98 years. Now surrounded by Israeli settlements, the family is a living example of the idea of peaceful resistance.
"I have yet to meet a refugee who wanted to be a refugee and even less so, who wished to remain a refugee. Palestine refugees are no different. Their call for a just and lasting solution to their plight must be heard." UNWRA's Pierre Krähenbühl on World Refugee Day
A Palestinian Christian family that preaches non-violence from a farm in the West Bank is battling to hold on to land it has owned for 98 years. Now surrounded by Israeli settlements, the family is a living example of the idea of peaceful resistance.
Ziad J. Asali: Crisis in Iraq Risks Regional Conflagration
The saga of Prof. Dajani is a subset of a broader Arab struggle between the forces of intelligence and stupidity: "The whole Arab world is at a turning point. If it continues to allow the stupidity and ignorance lobby, in all its myriad forms, to insist on cultural insularity, chauvinism, and deafness to the outside world, it will remain utterly stuck and unable to successfully join and compete in a globalizing world. But if the intelligence and knowledge constituency, as embodied by Prof. Dajani and so many other important leading Arabs, succeed in turning their societies away from decades of enforced parochialism, they will be among the most important groups in building a better future for the Middle East." Hussein Ibish
Palestinians villagers fear encroaching Israeli settlement bloc... Palestinian villager Ismail Taha: "It's stealing, and we have no means to defend ourselves. While they have biased courts, police and an army, we have no money and no power. We're peaceful, but..."
Visual map of how the Israeli ID system is stratified to limit democratic access to home ownership, security, services & participation in the polical system which creates and sustains the Israeli ID system
STAY CONNECTED... 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
UNITED NATIONS: International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2014
Reasonable voices & helpful resources ...America for Palestine MAY 2014
The American
Task Force on Palestine supports Palestinian
institution-building, good governance, anti-corruption
measures, economic development, and improved living standards.
ATFP holds that these same values are relevant to the broader
Arab world, and that the question of Palestine is
inextricably linked to regional realities and developments.
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.
The Arab villages lost since Israel's war of independence - Guardian Interactive: ...Pre 1948 ...March 1948 ... May 1948 ...June 1948 ...Oct 1948 ...July 1949 ...Now
Remembering the Nakba: Israeli group puts 1948 Palestine back on the map Zochrot aims to educate Israeli Jews – through tours and a new phone app – about a history obscured by enmity and denial
Growing Gardens for Palestine: "And it's up to all of us together"... a Spring poem for Palestine & peace
Peace Building ... civic muscle
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
"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." American Task Force on Palestine's born in Jerusalem Dr. Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace
No comments:
Post a Comment