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| Bulbul One of the resident birds in Palestine that is mentioned in various folklore songs and cultural stories. Photo by: Anton Khalilieh This Week in Palestine: October 2014 Habitat in Palestine |
RE EDITORIAL A British Message to Israel
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/opinion/a-british-message-to-israel.html?ref=opinion
Dear Editor,
Israel's settlement project is institutionalized bigotry on steroids: Israel's Jews-only settlements in the illegally occupied territories are not merely shrinking the territory available for a Palestinian state. Israel's generously subsidized Jews-only settlements in the illegally occupied territories are connected to Israel proper by modern Israeli built highways enabling Israelis to blithely and easily violate international law at relatively high speeds. Furthermore these Israeli built modern highways are protected by Israeli checkpoints and punitive checkpoint polices which cut off traditional Palestinian roads and cripple Palestinian communities, cruelly impoverishing Palestinians in every way at every turn.
Israel's settlement expansion is harassment expansion: This week a large group of Israeli settlers "violently beat a young Palestinian woman while she was picking olives from trees in an orchard in the village of Yasuf in the Salfit district in the central West Bank"..."Attacks on the fall harvest are a key way that Palestinians are forced out of their homes and their lands confiscated for settlement construction, as the loss of a year's crop can signal destitution for farmers with no other way to support themselves." Settlers beat a Palestinian woman picking olives with her children near Salfit
Israel's settlement expansion is also an investment in religious extremism and religious war: Last night Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in the Nablus-area village of Aqraba.
Israeli occupation antics and anti-Palestine pranks send a clear message to Islamists worldwide that international law needs to be scorned, and human rights, as well as borders, and the rule of fair and just laws, are all antiquated and irrelevant notions.
Kudos to Britain's House of Commons for endorsing diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state, as well as Kudos to those who helped make that happen by shaping the conversation in mainstream ways, kudos to the media who cover as much as they can (including the NYTimes) and most importantly Kudos to all who are focused in on empowering negotiations to end the Israel-Palestine conflict with a just and lasting peace for everyone's sake.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
UK Parliament votes to recognize Palestinian state- a symbolic move intended to increase pressure for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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UNRWA photo and film archive for Palestine refugees
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Walking Palestine & The Abraham Path... a creative space for stories that highlight the unique culture, heritage and hospitality of the region
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1948
Time and time again I have watched the cycle of incitement and spin sabotage support for Palestine
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An Anne Frank Moment ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
America/Israel/Palestine 1776
America/Israel/Palestine 1948: 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
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