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Saturday, March 1, 2014

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."

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/199475-kahanes-legacy?utm_campaign=congressblog&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Kahane's legacy


Twenty years ago this week, a Brooklyn-born Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and opened fire with his army-issued assault rifle, killing 29 Palestinians and wounding 150 others. In the following days, Israeli soldiers shot and killed at least 20 more Palestinians and injured hundreds of others as protests erupted across the occupied territories. The Israeli government convened a commission of inquiry that found Goldstein had acted alone and deemed there was no deeper problem, despite repeated warning signs that he posed a serious danger prior to the massacre. A year later a Jewish extremist and admirer of Goldstein assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in an attempt to stop the peace process.

Goldstein and Rabin’s killer, Yigal Amir, were both followers of the notorious Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane, a fellow Brooklynite of Goldstein’s who advocated a Greater Israel and the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories, founded the Jewish Defense League in New York before immigrating to Israel in the early 1970s where he formed the Kach political party. At the time of Kahane’s assassination in 1990, Kach had been barred from Israeli politics for its overt racism and extremism...READ MORE

My letter to the NYTimes RE A Counterstrike Against Israel Boycotts, With a Glamorous Face

An ad campaign by the Israel Project celebrating the actress Scarlett Johansson, who appeared in a Super Bowl spot for an Israeli company that has a factory in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.  
New York Times Photo Credit The Israel Project
RE A Counterstrike Against Israel Boycotts, With a Glamorous Face
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/world/middleeast/a-counterstrike-against-israel-boycotts-with-a-glamorous-face.html?ref=middleeast

Dear Editor,

What Israel has been doing to the Palestinians is shockingly immoral and unjust- and wrong. Manipulative propagandists, persuasive lobbyists, religious pawns and pretty actresses can not obscure the facts forever. 

Scarlett Johansson is indeed deeply glamorous, but she is not a repudiation of the movement to boycott Israel: One pretty face selling fizzy drinks VS more than sixty well documented years of Palestinian men, women and children being oppressed, persecuted, impoverished and pushed off their land by a Jews-preferred Israel that wants the land, but not the native non-Jewish people of that land.

One sultry sexy voice in an immensely expensive TV commercial aimed at seducing beer drinking American football fans into cluttering their kitchen counters with a bubbly soda gizmo while thousands of Palestinian refugees, long refused their inalienable legal, moral, ethical and natural right to return to original homes and lands, are trapped in a refugee camp in Syria and slowly dying of starvation

Meanwhile, in the illegally occupied territories: Israeli Settlers destroy 700 olive tree saplings near Ramallah... Israel's army is often present during attacks and rarely intervenes to protect Palestinians from settler violence.

Israel wants investors, but Israel refuses to invest in fair and just laws and policies. As things are today, with Israel in long term violation of international law  and the Palestinians basic human rights, the Boycott Israel trend can not help but grow.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
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/ )

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

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 

Thousands of Palestinians trapped in Syria camp 'slowly dying'

United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor: 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

Luxembourg pension fund boycotts major Israeli banks

Amnesty International accuses Israeli armed forces of possible war crimes... Human rights group says soldiers have killed dozens of Palestinians with virtual impunity in West Bank

AIPAC Threatens to Sue CODEPINK Over Controversial Video Clip "AIPAC Policy Conference 2014"

"There is no meaning to prolonging the negotiation, even for one more additional hour, if Israel, represented by its current government, continues to disregard international law," PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP. "If there was a committed partner, we wouldn't even have needed nine hours..."

New identity law raises fears of Israeli effort to divide Christians

What message do we send?

U.N. rights envoy points to apartheid in Palestinian areas & calls for ban on imports of Israeli settlement produce

A World Not Ours: Filmed over more than 20 years by multiple generations of the same family, A World Not Ours is more than just a family portrait; it is an attempt to record what is being forgotten, and mark what should not be erased from collective memory.

A day at the Aida Camp Normal life can never be normal when it is lived under brutal military occupation, writes Kholoud Al-Ajarma from the Aida Refugee Camp in the Occupied West Bank

History writing that aims at damage control
Ralph M Coury: "...The fact is that the “heresy” of which Shavit speaks was a main current in Zionist speculations from the outset. The new settlers, Theodor Herzl (the founder of the Zionist movement) writes in his diary in 1895, should “gently” expropriate the natives’ property and “try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country. The property-owners will come over to our side. But the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly. Let the owners of immovable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back.” (The Complete Diaries, NY, 1960, vol 1, P88.) "

This Week in Palestine: Human Rights in Palestine

Palestinians will not sway on principles, Abbas tells Kerry

Israeli Settlers destroy 700 olive tree saplings near Ramallah... Israel's army is often present during attacks and rarely intervenes to protect Palestinians from settler violence.

It’s important for people to know how far the Palestinians have come to put an end to the conflict with Israel.

Palestinians seek UN heritage status for ancient village

"Since the beginning of our struggle for Cremisan, we have been determined to tell the world about the story of a small Palestinian community that, like many others, is threatened once again with dispossession and colonization..."

Israel confiscates Palestinian land near Nablus

BADIL: Six decades after their initial forced displacement from their homeland, Palestinian refugees and IDPs still lack access to voluntary durable solutions and reparations (which include return, restitution, compensation) based on international law, UN resolutions and best practice.

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.

The number of Palestinian structures (including many Palestinian homes) demolished by the Israeli authorities in the Jordan Valley in 2013 more than doubled, from 192 in 2012 to 393 in 2013

The Palestinian Authority has decided to remove the section detailing religious affiliation on Palestinian identity cards... ensures the equality of all Palestinians, regardless of their religion.

Excellent letter published in the Baltimore Sun: Academic freedom and Israel by Carole C. Burnett

ISRAELI DEMOLITIONS OF PALESTINIAN PROPERTY IN THE JORDAN VALLEY, 2013... UNITED NATIONS OCHA MAP


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


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


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.

Analysis: Why Palestinian leadership is right to engage in peace talks

Ziad Asali of ATFP: Why Palestinians are puzzled by the 'Jewish state' demand... Netanyahu's demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state bizarrely inserts Palestinians into the 'Who is a Jew' debate


  • 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

Friday, February 28, 2014

Thousands of Palestinians trapped in Syria camp 'slowly dying'

Residents of Syria's besieged Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, south
of Damascus, crowd on a destroyed street during food distribution, led
by UNRWA, on Jan. 31, 2014 (UNRWA/AFP/File)
BEIRUT (AFP) -- Gaunt, ragged figures fill the streets for as far as the eye can see in the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk outside Damascus, where some 40,000 are said to be slowly starving to death.

The United Nations distributed shocking images this week of thousands of people, their faces emaciated, desperately flocking to receive food aid that only a few were lucky enough to collect.

"We live in a big prison," said Rami al-Sayed, a Syrian activist living in Yarmouk, speaking via the Internet.

"But at least, in a prison, you have food. Here, there's nothing. We are slowly dying."

"Sometimes, crowds of children stop me on the streets, begging me: 'For the love of God, we want to eat, give us food.' But of course, I have no food to give them," Sayed said.

After months of shelling and fierce fighting in and around Yarmouk between rebels and President Bashar Assad's troops, the camp's population has shrunk from more than 150,000 to 40,000. Among them are 18,000 Palestinians.

Since last summer, the area has been under choking army siege, creating inhumane conditions for its inhabitants.

"We've been living off herbs, but these herbs are bitter. Even animals won't eat them," said Sayed.

"And if you go to the orchards to pick herbs from there, to use them to cook soup, you'll get sniped."

"The situation is really tragic. On the streets, all you see are emaciated people, their faces drained of any life. Sadness is everywhere," said Sayed.

Even the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians was overwhelmed by the drama.

Since January, the agency has only been able to carry out limited, intermittent food distribution in the camp.

'Let us out, or let us die'

"Gaunt, ragged figures of all ages fill the streets of the devastated camp for as far as the eye can see," UNRWA said, adding that such scenes were the agency's "daily reality."

"Humanitarian need has reached profound levels of desperation. Hunger and anxiety are etched on the faces of the waiting multitudes."

Since January, UNRWA has distributed only 7,500 food parcels in Yarmouk, describing that as "a drop in the ocean compared with the rising tide of need."

One parcel feeds a family of between five and eight for 10 days.

"Yesterday (Wednesday) only 10 percent of people here received assistance," said Sayed.

Ali Zoya, a Palestinian living in Yarmouk, said "the aid will only last a few days."

Much of the camp has been reduced to rubble by shelling, fighting and occasional aerial bombardment.

The distribution only began after rebels from outside the camp agreed to withdraw, following a deal reached with Palestinian factions.

The lack of food in Yarmouk is compounded by medical shortages.

"In the hospitals, there are wounded people who cannot be treated because there are no doctors or medicines," said Sayed.

"I saw a young man with a shrapnel wound to his leg. He won't get better until he is able to leave the camp," which is still under siege even though the rebels have withdrawn.

Since October, more than 100 people have died from food and medical shortages, says to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

After a visit on Tuesday, UNRWA chief Filippo Grandi described the "shocking" conditions of life he witnessed in Yarmouk. He compared the people flocking to the distribution point as "the appearance of ghosts."

Their despair echoes that of families who were trapped in rebel-held areas of the central city of Homs for more than 18 months, also under a tight army siege imposed to turn people against Syria's nearly three-year revolt.

"People here are completely exhausted," said Sayed. "They feel tortured. They say: 'Let us out, or let us die.'"

United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor: 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

Promoting freedom and democracy and protecting human rights around the world are central to U.S. foreign policy. 

The values captured in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other global and regional commitments are consistent with the values upon which the United States was founded centuries ago.
The United States supports those persons who long to live in freedom and under democratic governments that protect universally accepted human rights. 

The United States uses a wide range of tools to advance a freedom agenda, including bilateral diplomacy, multilateral engagement, foreign assistance, reporting and public outreach, and economic sanctions. 

The United States is committed to working with democratic partners, international and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, and engaged citizens to support those seeking freedom.

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor leads the U.S. efforts to promote democracy, protect human rights and international religious freedom, and advance labor rights globally.

2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

Secretary Kerry (Feb. 27): "This year's report, we think, is especially timely. It comes on the heels of one of the most momentous years in the struggle for greater rights and freedoms in modern history." Full Text» Briefing» Fact Sheet» Reports»

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm#wrapper

ISRAEL ...Each year an estimated 20,000 civil marriages, marriages of some non-Orthodox Jews, marriages in non-Orthodox ceremonies, marriages of a Jew to a non-Jew, or marriages of a Muslim woman to a non-Muslim must take place outside the country to be considered legal, as religious courts refuse to accept these marriages, and the country lacks a civil marriage law.

Many Jewish citizens objected to exclusive Orthodox control over aspects of their personal lives.

For example, the Orthodox Rabbinate does not consider Jewish approximately 322,000 citizens who consider themselves Jewish and who immigrated either as Jews or as family members of Jews; therefore, they cannot be married, divorced, or buried in Jewish cemeteries in the country.

The estimated 20,000 Messianic Jews, who believe Jesus is the Messiah and consider themselves to be Jews, also often experienced these infringements on their personal lives, since the Orthodox Rabbinate did not consider them Jewish.

Authorities did not fully implement a law requiring the government to establish civil cemeteries, although 34 civil burial locations civil burial plots within Jewish cemeteries – existed and 12 municipalities were authorized to conduct civil burials.

 The Law of Citizenship and Entry in Israel, renewed in April, prohibits Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza, including those who are spouses of Israeli residents or citizens, from obtaining resident status in East Jerusalem or Israel on security grounds. The law provides for exceptions in special cases.

NGOs argued that the government rarely granted exceptions and that the law prevented some families from living together unless the citizen or resident family member chose to relocate to the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

Authorities required East Jerusalem residents who relocated to forfeit their Jerusalem identification cards.

 NGOs accused the government of seizing private property owned by Palestinians in and around the city of Jerusalem without due process. The government asserted that the process leading to home demolitions provided due process and was necessary to enforce building regulations. In these cases the government did not provide restitution but rather charged the structures’ owners for costs incurred in the destruction of the structures. Many owners demolished the structures themselves rather than incur the expense of demolition.

Luxembourg pension fund boycots major Israeli banks

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Luxembourg's general pension fund has decided to boycott five major Israeli banks and a number of major Israeli investment companies over their involvement in supporting construction in illegal settlements in the West Bank, according to the Hebrew-language news site Walla.

In a report published Tuesday, Walla news highlighted that names of the Israeli banks and companies appeared on a list banned by the Fond De Compensation last updated on Nov. 15, 2013. The list, titled on the FDC website as "Exclusion List," included 60 international banks and companies which FDC decided to boycott over human rights violations.

The Israeli banks and companies on the list are the Africa Israel Investment group identified by FDC as Real Estate, Management and Development group, Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Elbit Systems, aerospace and defense group, Finmeccaneca, also aerospace and defense group, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank, Jerusalem Economy LTD, the Real Estate, Management and Development Group and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank LTD.

It was explained on the list that the Israeli banks and organizations appeared because they support and finance construction of "illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Territories of the State of Palestine" and some provide security systems for the "illegal separation barrier on Occupied Territories of the State of Palestine."

The Walla report highlighted that the direct impact of this boycott could be zero, but it is still worrying because it is a chain in an ongoing divestment process.

Amnesty International accuses Israeli armed forces of possible war crimes... Human rights group says soldiers have killed dozens of Palestinians with virtual impunity in West Bank


[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/amnesty-international-israeli-war-crimes-palestinians-west-bank
  • theguardian.com,
Israeli forces are using excessive, reckless violence in the occupied West Bank, killing dozens of Palestinians over the past three years in what might constitute a war crime, Amnesty International said.

In a report entitled Trigger Happy, the human rights group accused Israel of allowing its soldiers to act with virtual impunity and called for an independent review of the deaths.

The Israeli army dismissed the allegations, saying security forces had seen a "substantial increase" in Palestinian violence and Amnesty had revealed a "complete lack of understanding" about the difficulties soldiers faced.

According to UN data, 45 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between 2011 and 2013, including six children. Amnesty said it had documented the deaths of 25 civilians during this period, all but three of whom died last year.

"The report presents a body of evidence that shows a harrowing pattern of unlawful killings and unwarranted injuries of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in the West Bank," said Philip Luther, the charity's director of the Middle East and north Africa programme...READ MORE

***
27 February 2014

‘Trigger-happy’ Israeli army and police use reckless force in the West Bank

“The frequency and persistence of arbitrary and abusive force against peaceful protesters in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and police officers – and the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators – suggests that it is carried out as a matter of policy.”
 
Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.
Case study: A child killed for protesting

In the West Bank, the tragic consequences of Israel’s policy of supressing Palestinian protest have become a familiar story.

Samir Awad, a 16-year-old boy from Bodrus, near Ramallah, was shot dead near his school in January 2013 while attempting to stage a protest with friends against Israel’s 800km-long fence/wall, which cuts through their village. Three bullets struck him in the back of the head, the leg, and shoulder as he fled Israeli soldiers who ambushed his group. Witnesses said the boy was directly targeted as he ran away.

Malik Murar, 16, Samir’s friend who witnessed his killing, told Amnesty International:“They shot him first in the leg, yet he managed to run away… how far can an injured child run? They could have easily arrested him… instead they shot him in the back with live ammunition.”...READ MORE

Download:

AIPAC Threatens to Sue CODEPINK Over Controversial Video Clip "AIPAC Policy Conference 2014"

http://www.codepink4peace.org/article.php?id=6636

On February 25th, an AIPAC member called a CODEPINK staffer
threatening legal action in response to a controversial video clip that
he alleges was made by the peace group CODEPINK. The video is a
satirical version of an AIPAC policy conference promotional video


Thursday, February 27, 2014

"There is no meaning to prolonging the negotiation, even for one more additional hour, if Israel, represented by its current government, continues to disregard international law," PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP. "If there was a committed partner, we wouldn't even have needed nine hours..."

(MaanImages/file)
[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=677252

PLO negotiator rejects US moves to extend peace talks

 RAMALLAH (AFP) -- A senior Palestinian official on Thursday rejected US moves to extend an April deadline for nine months of talks with Israel to culminate in a framework peace deal.

"There is no meaning to prolonging the negotiation, even for one more additional hour, if Israel, represented by its current government, continues to disregard international law," PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP.

"If there was a committed partner, we wouldn't even have needed nine hours to reach that deal," he said.

He was responding to comments by US Secretary of State John Kerry who told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that more time would be needed and that he hoped first to agree a framework to guide further talks.

It was Kerry who coaxed the two sides back to the negotiating table in late July, after a three-year hiatus.

"Then we get into the final negotiations. I don't think anybody would worry if there's another nine months, or whatever it's going to be... But that's not defined yet," he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said last month that he expected the time-frame to be lengthened.

"We are now trying to reach a framework to continue negotiations for a period beyond the nine months some thought would suffice for reaching a permanent accord," he said.

New identity law raises fears of Israeli effort to divide Christians

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
Palestinian priest Father Shomali leads an open air mass on church lands
threatened with confiscation by Israeli authorities for the separation wall
on April 6, 2012 (AFP/Musa al Shaer)

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A new law to create a separate "Christian" nationality for Palestinian citizens of Israel successfully passed through the Knesset on Monday with more than three-quarters of votes in favor.

The bill, which creates a distinction from the existing "Arab" nationality, has raised fears among many Palestinians that a renewed push is underway by the state to divide their society along religious lines.

The law's supporters have made clear that the new measure is not merely a legal formality, but instead intends to de-emphasize the Arab identity of Christians by racializing and politicizing existing religious distinctions.

"It's a historic and important step that could balance the State of Israel and connect us to the Christians, and I am careful not to refer to them as Arabs, because they are not Arabs," sponsor Likud MK Yariv Levin said in January, adding that Christians are "our natural allies," unlike Muslims "who want to destroy the state from within."

On Wednesday, PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi condemned the law, calling it an effort to transform the occupation into "an outright religious confrontation," and stressing that Israel is adopting a "policy of the classification of its citizens based on religion or ethnicity" as part of a larger system of "apartheid."

A Knesset committee is even looking into instituting compulsory army service for Israel's 120,000 Palestinian Christians, a proposal which has raised ire among both Muslims and Christians citizens, who are currently exempted.

But Palestinian society is not taking these efforts lying down.

One member of the Knesset has even called upon the pope to intervene. Civil society groups on both sides of the Green Line, meanwhile, are mobilizing a campaign of local and global resistance to what they fear is a a larger campaign to tear their religiously diverse society apart.

'Divide and rule strategy'

"We will do everything in our power to stop this law," says Rifat Kassis, head of the Palestinian-Christian activist group Kairos.

"We are against it. All informed Christians are against it," he says, highlighting that the vast majority of Christians in Israel as well as the 50,000 Palestinian Christians in the West Bank -- where he is based -- oppose the measure.

"Christians are an integral part of the Palestinian community ... We are Palestinians just like any other."...READ MORE

What message do we send? ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

A Palestinian woman inspects olive trees that have been severely damaged by Israeli settlers near the West Bank city of Nablus (AP photo by Nasser Ishtayeh) Visualizing Palestine: Since 1967 Israeli authorities have uprooted more than 800,000 Palestinian olive trees... OXFAM: In the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), olive harvesting is a tradition that can be traced back for centuries. Passed down from generation to generation, olive trees provide Palestinians with an important connection to their history and their land.

   What message do we send?

Promoting, endorsing, empowering,
excusing
Israel as "Jewish"
and the ongoing
Israeli made Nakba daily devastating,
destroying Palestinian lives
and livelihoods....

What message do we send?

What message about education,
what message about democracy...

What message about compassion
what message about diversity
what message about diplomacy
what message about the rule
of fair and just laws.

What message about honor

What message about dignity...

What message do we send
to perpetrators and victims
 of institutionalized bigotry?

To refugees, to men, women,
and children...

what message do we send

to segregationists and sectarian fanatics-
to Islamists as they echo Israel's quest
to terrorize people into acquiescing:

What message
do we send?

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

U.N. rights envoy points to apartheid in Palestinian areas & calls for ban on imports of Israeli settlement produce

A demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag near tear gas fired by Israeli troops (not seen) during a protest against the controversial Israeli barrier in the West Bank village of Nilin near Ramallah November 13, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Darren Whiteside

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/24/palestinians-israel-un-falk-idUSL6N0LT2J620140224

* Richard Falk issues final report to UN rights forum
* Says Israeli practices may amount to apartheid
* Calls for ban on imports of settlement produce

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip appear to amount to apartheid due to its systematic oppression of the Palestinian people and de facto expropriation of their land, a United Nations investigator said in a report.

Richard Falk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said that Palestinian rights are being violated by Israel's prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory and "ethnic cleansing" of East Jerusalem.

Gaza, despite the disengagement of Israel in 2005, remains "occupied" under an unlawful Israeli blockade that controls borders, airspace and coastal waters, and especially hurts farmers and fishermen, he said. The humanitarian situation in the Hamas-ruled enclave is dire amid fuel shortages, he added.

U.N. member states should consider imposing a ban on imports of produce from Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Falk said in his final report to the U.N. Human Rights Council after serving six years in the independent post.

In a section entitled "acts potentially amounting to segregation and apartheid", he analysed Israeli policies, including "continuing excessive use of force by Israeli security forces" and unlawful killings that he said are "part of acts carried out in order to maintain dominance over Palestinians".

Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to military laws, while Jewish settlers face a civil law system, he said. Israel also violates their rights to work and education, freedoms of movement and residence, and of expression and assembly, he said.

Ten years ago the U.N.'s International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's separation wall inside the West Bank is illegal, he noted. Israel says it is a security barrier.

"It seems incontestable that Israeli measures do divide the population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory along racial lines, create separate reserves for Palestinians and expropriate their land," Falk wrote in his 22-page report.

"The combined effect of the measures designed to ensure security for Israeli citizens, to facilitate and expand settlements, and, it would appear, to annex land is hafrada (the Hebrew word for separation), discrimination and systematic oppression of, and domination over, the Palestinian people."

There was no immediate reaction from Israel, which boycotted the council it accuses of bias for 19 months, returning in October 2013. The Jewish state left after accusing the forum of bias when it set up a fact-finding mission on the settlements.

CONTROVERSY

Falk, an American law professor who is Jewish, has long been a controversial figure. After taking up the post in May 2008, he compared Israeli forces' actions in the Gaza Strip to those of the Nazis in wartime Europe.

Months later, he was detained at Ben Gurion airport and deported by Israeli authorities after being barred from crossing into Palestinian areas to carry out his investigation....READ MORE

My letter to Forbes RE "The Politics Of The Palestinian Right Of Return"

Growing Gardens for Palestine
RE: The Politics Of The Palestinian Right Of Return
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/02/24/the-politics-of-the-palestinian-right-of-return/

Dear Editor,

The Palestinian refugee right of return is a universal basic human right that Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust have benefited from for decades.  The right of return and return itself can not erase bad memories nor will it rebuild a way of life that no longer exists, but it is an important part of international law and civilization itself.  It is the first step in the right direction- and a prerequisite for a just and lasting peace.

Religious extremism and bigotry on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict is constantly being exasperated by the conflict and the many negative ramifications created by the conflict. As things are today, Israel's misguided Jewish citizens have spent the past six decades subsidized and motivated to harass, impoverish, oppress, demonize and displace the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land.

Choices being made right now set the precedent for what will be in the future and I'd rather we not condemn our children to living in a world where property rights, security, citizenship and job opportunities are determined by a person's religion... or their DNA.

Religion should be a personal preference and a family affair, not a state funded project: Tax payers should not be forced to subsidize religious scholars and schemes.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
A World Not Ours: Filmed over more than 20 years by multiple generations of the same family, A World Not Ours is more than just a family portrait; it is an attempt to record what is being forgotten, and mark what should not be erased from collective memory.

A day at the Aida Camp Normal life can never be normal when it is lived under brutal military occupation, writes Kholoud Al-Ajarma from the Aida Refugee Camp in the Occupied West Bank

History writing that aims at damage control
Ralph M Coury: "...The fact is that the “heresy” of which Shavit speaks was a main current in Zionist speculations from the outset. The new settlers, Theodor Herzl (the founder of the Zionist movement) writes in his diary in 1895, should “gently” expropriate the natives’ property and “try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country. The property-owners will come over to our side. But the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly. Let the owners of immovable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back.” (The Complete Diaries, NY, 1960, vol 1, P88.) "

This Week in Palestine: Human Rights in Palestine

Palestinians will not sway on principles, Abbas tells Kerry

This Week in Palestine: The Rights of Palestinian Children

Analysis: EU aid to Palestinians -- help or hindrance?

Israeli Settlers destroy 700 olive tree saplings near Ramallah... Israel's army is often present during attacks and rarely intervenes to protect Palestinians from settler violence.

It’s important for people to know how far the Palestinians have come to put an end to the conflict with Israel.

Palestinians seek UN heritage status for ancient village

"Since the beginning of our struggle for Cremisan, we have been determined to tell the world about the story of a small Palestinian community that, like many others, is threatened once again with dispossession and colonization..."

Israel confiscates Palestinian land near Nablus

BADIL: Six decades after their initial forced displacement from their homeland, Palestinian refugees and IDPs still lack access to voluntary durable solutions and reparations (which include return, restitution, compensation) based on international law, UN resolutions and best practice.

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.

The number of Palestinian structures (including many Palestinian homes) demolished by the Israeli authorities in the Jordan Valley in 2013 more than doubled, from 192 in 2012 to 393 in 2013

The Palestinian Authority has decided to remove the section detailing religious affiliation on Palestinian identity cards... ensures the equality of all Palestinians, regardless of their religion.

Excellent letter published in the Baltimore Sun: Academic freedom and Israel by Carole C. Burnett

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

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.
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

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 

Dr. Zogby: This Time Must Be Different


Jordan's King urges Arab, Islamic organisations to serve nation’s causes in US... peace efforts should lead to the two-state solution based on international resolutions and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which, he said, was a historical turning point.

Ziad Asali : The Road to the Arab Civil State

Children of the occupation: growing up in Palestine

ISRAELI DEMOLITIONS OF PALESTINIAN PROPERTY IN THE JORDAN VALLEY, 2013... UNITED NATIONS OCHA MAP


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/ )

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.

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


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.

John Kerry defends US foreign policy “The reason we’re so devoted to finding a solution is simple: Because the benefits of success and the dangers of failure are enormous for the United States, for the world, for the region and, most importantly of all, for the Israeli and Palestinian people,” US secretary of state John Kerry at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

EU warns Israel, Palestinians of the cost of peace failure

Analysis: Why Palestinian leadership is right to engage in peace talks

Ziad Asali of ATFP: Why Palestinians are puzzled by the 'Jewish state' demand... Netanyahu's demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state bizarrely inserts Palestinians into the 'Who is a Jew' debate


  • 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

***

"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...

American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) supports Palestinian institution-building, good governance, anti-corruption measures, economic development, and improved living standards. ATFP categorically and unequivocally condemns all violence against civilians, no matter the cause and who the victims or perpetrators may be. http://www.americantaskforce.org/

Sunday, February 23, 2014

A World Not Ours: Filmed over more than 20 years by multiple generations of the same family, A World Not Ours is more than just a family portrait; it is an attempt to record what is being forgotten, and mark what should not be erased from collective memory.


http://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/world-not-ours

★★★★ 'a fascinating window into a world often distorted and oversimplified, this is informative, stimulating and moving stuff' Total Film

'Heartbreaking and hilarious, personal and political, humble and yet huge' Little White Lies

A World Not Ours is an intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive, and illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family.

Filmed over more than 20 years by multiple generations of the same family, A World Not Ours is more than just a family portrait; it is an attempt to record what is being forgotten, and mark what should not be erased from collective memory.

A World Not Ours, dir Mahdi Fleifel, Lebanon/UK/Denmark 2012, 93 mins, cert N/A


Official Selection, Toronto International Film Festival 2012
 
A dazzling act of first-person filmmaking, Mahdi Fleifel's A World Not Ours immerses us in a strange and unique world: the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh ("Sweet Spring") in Lebanon, hastily built in 1948 and now housing 70,000 refugees in one square kilometre. Fleifel spent his formative years in the camp in the 1980s before his family settled in Denmark, and for years he has been returning and keeping a video diary, his conversations with the camp residents offering an unfiltered take on life in Ain el-Helweh and the inhabitants' grievances with Lebanon, Israel, and their own political leaders. At the heart of the film is Fleifel's relationship with his friend Abu Eyad, with whom he shares an obsession with World Cup football and Palestinian politics. But while Fleifel can visit the camp when he pleases, Abu Eyad must remain — an inequity that makes their friendship both extra precious and susceptible to tension. Humourous, touching and revelatory, A World Not Ours brilliantly captures the tumultuous six decades since Ain el-Helweh's construction through the lens of Fleifel's own personal journey.

An estimated 300,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon in appalling social and economic conditions. Despite a labour law amendment in 2010 that was supposed to ease access for Palestinians to the official labour market, a survey released by the International Labour Organization in 2012 found that only 2% of Palestinians have obtained work permits, that most earn less than the minimum wage, and that those who do find employment are paid 20% less than their Lebanese counterparts. Lebanese laws and decrees still bar Palestinians from working in at least twenty-five professions requiring syndicate membership, including law, medicine, and engineering, and Palestinians are also still subject to a discriminatory 2001 law that prevents them from registering property.