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Saturday, May 17, 2014

Hussein Ibish: ADL Anti-Semitism survey has the potential to mislead

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/anti-semitism-survey-has-the-potential-to-mislead#full

Anti-Semitism survey has the potential to mislead
 

Anti-Jewish rhetoric and the perception that Arabs are anti-Semitic is a blight on the contemporary Arab world, and poison for the Palestinian national movement. Palestinians must arrive at an agreement with Israel, and therefore have little hope of success if they are seen to proceed from an attitude of ­hatred.

That stipulated, the recent report on global anti-Semitism issued by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – an international Jewish non-government organisation – is simultaneously illuminating and potentially misleading. Its findings are hardly surprising: it says there are high levels of anti-Semitism globally, and particularly among Palestinians and, to a lesser extent, other Arabs.

The methodology is revealing. The ADL pollsters asked a series of questions regarding Jewish power, conduct, international influence, and loyalty to Israel. In most countries, that’s probably a reasonable barometer of anti-Jewish sentiment, because it may indicate irrational suspicion of Jews and fear or exaggeration of their supposed influence.

However, for Palestinians who have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967 with no end in sight, such questions can’t and don’t mean the same thing as they do to populations in which Jews are a minority.

It’s absurd to ask Palestinians in the occupied territories about Jewish power, loyalty to Israel, influence in the United States, or placing their own ethnic interests first. After all, few Palestinians can remember a time when Israel did not control virtually every aspect of their lives, entirely in the interests of the Israeli military and Jewish settlers. Jewish settlers are privileged by the Israeli state at the expense of Palestinians in a manner that has no present-day analogue.

What answers could one rationally expect? The ripple effects of the occupation naturally flow throughout the Arab world. There is an additional wrinkle: in the Arab world the word “Jew” connotes “Israeli”, which in turn connotes the Israeli military or government.

It’s unlikely that most Palestinians being asked these questions would imagine ordinary Jewish people and families going about their daily business.

This is not to suggest the numbers are wrong or that there isn’t a dreadful, central problem for the Palestinians and Arabs to overcome. Until they do, the Palestinian ability to achieve their national goals will be badly hamstrung.

The ADL survey is potentially misleading in at least two other ways.

It did not, of course, measure Jewish or Israeli attitudes towards Arabs and Muslims, which are likely to be similarly negative if the existing survey results are any guide. Further, in many countries anti-Semitism is part of a broader constellation of chauvinism and xenophobia. In the West in particular, Jews and Muslims tend to be hated by precisely the same people in precisely the same way.

In France, other European states, and even the United States, the correlation between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia is instantaneously obvious both in its manifest and latent rhetorical content and in the perpetration of hate crimes directed against both communities by the same gangs of racists. Hatred of Muslims by others globally is unlikely to be significantly less of a problem than anti-Semitism.

Nonetheless, as Islamists have increasingly adopted classic European anti-Semitic tropes, there’s no question that anti-Semitism has been spreading among Arabs and Muslims. Some Arab-left nationalists, too, spread this poison. While they don’t have much of a political constituency, they continue to define much of the political correctness in the Arab world, with Islamists often mimicking their fundamental worldview.

All data suggest that hatred of Arabs and Muslims is also growing among Jewish Israelis and their allies around the world. What we are looking at, then, is not a decontextualised problem or a cause of the conflict. It is undeniably a consequence of the conflict.

The Zionist movement was not formed because European Jews hated Palestinians or Arabs. The Palestinian and Arab resistance to Zionism was not based on anti-Semitism, but anticolonialism, and their reaction would’ve been the same had the colonists been from Japan or Bolivia.

The most dangerous confusion surrounding the hatred between Arabs and Jews that has arisen over the past century is that it is a cause of the conflict and not an effect. Indeed, supporters of Israel, especially when they want to try to rationalise or justify the occupation, invariably speak in terms of a “culture of hate” or “terrorism” among Palestinians and other Arabs, of a refusal to accept the very concept of a Jewish state merely because of deeply ingrained anti-Semitism.

This gesture, which is the substitution of an effect for a cause, is, in fact, a familiar technique of classical rhetoric, a narrative device familiar from an ancient Greek form of metonymy known as metalepsis.

During the second intifada, at a debate at Harvard Business School, law professor Alan Dershowitz raised the “culture of hate” canard, trying to explain why there was a conflict without acknowledging the central, defining reality of the occupation. I pointed out that he was cynically substituting what was manifestly a predictable and inevitable effect of such a bitter and prolonged conflict for one of its causes.

“I guess I’m a metalepsist, then,” he quipped. I assured him that he was actually just an ordinary sophist.

Because hatred between Jews and Arabs is a direct consequence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the occupation – and not anything deeply seated in Jewish or Arab culture or religious beliefs – the key to ending this hate is, of course, ending the occupation and the conflict.

Hussein Ibish is a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and blogs at www. ­ibishblog.com. On Twitter: @ibishblog.


Hussein Ibish, PhD
Senior Fellow
American Task Force on Palestine
http://www.americantaskforce.org/

Twitter: @ibishblog
Blog: http://www.ibishblog.com/

Religious Fact ... a poem in Growing Gardens for Palestine

Growing Gardens for Palestine

Religious Fact ... a poem

by Anne Selden Annab




            Religious Fact

Jewish- Christian- Muslim ALL
of the book ALL Abraham's
heirs... ALL of faith
somewhere on our
family tree.

A branch with branches
and twigs and seasons
bringing forth new leaves.

One branch on one tree
in a large orchard of life.

Some where some one
long long ago choose
to believe, to have faith
and to name that faith.

That human being
told true stories to
others. And others
helped spread the word.

Minds and hearts opened
communities grew
and yet
so did divisiveness as we are all
                            only human,

with many loving children
teaching each in turn
phrases to say
and habits to have
shaping human history.

Jewish- Christian- Muslim ALL
of an elaborate world where one by one,
each in our own exclusive way,
we are empowered to decide
who and what to notice
& who and what
to forget.

Friday, May 16, 2014

ATFP/UNRWA Briefing Monday, May 19 2014 The Future of Gaza: Trajectories, Trends, Challenges and Opportunities ... First Amendment Room, National Press Club Washington, DC

ATFP/UNRWA Briefing
WHAT:
ATFP/UNRWA Briefing
The Future of Gaza: Trajectories, Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

WHO:
Robert Turner, Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza
Mara Rudman, former Obama and Clinton administration national security official, Quorum Strategies, LLC

Ghaith Al-Omari, ATFP (moderator)

WHEN:
Monday, May 19
Event at 2:30-4:00 PM

WHERE:
First Amendment Room, National Press Club
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC 20045

With so many aspects of its future in play, what lies ahead for the Gaza Strip and its nearly 2 million Palestinian residents? This joint briefing by the American Task Force on Palestine (A TFP) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will examine the most pressing questions facing Gaza and its residents in both their immediate and medium-term contexts. The humanitarian and economic outlook seems grim, as indicated by the recent UN Country Team report “Gaza 2020.” The report predicts that, without changes in the current outlook, over the next 15 years, residents of Gaza will lose access to potable water, and access to food, shelter, and sanitary living conditions will be insufficient. What can be done to improve the humanitarian and economic forecast for Palestinians in Gaza? And what does the evolving political scene portend for the territory? Can the recent Hamas-Fatah agreement offer any prospects for improvement, or will it worsen the situation? What is Egypt's role in helping to shape Gaza's future? What are Israel’s obligations? Can any of these factors lead to a lifting or easing of the flow of goods, the freedom of movement, and the overall security and opportunity for all? This ATFP/UNRWA joint briefing will look at these questions and more in trying to assess what lies ahead.

Bios:
Robert Turner is the Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza and has over twenty years of experience in humanitarian and disaster response operations, including program management in conflict and immediate post-conflict environments around the globe. Having worked for the International Rescue Committee in Burundi, Kosovo and Macedonia, Mr. Turner has designed and managed multi-sectoral programs, including in shelter, water and sanitation, community development, health and camp management. Mr. Turner also has significant experience with the United Nations, specifically the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. In this capacity, he has been involved in planning and coordinating large-scale humanitarian and recovery operations, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Rwanda, as well as short-term missions in several other countries, including the tsunami response in Aceh. In Sudan, Mr. Turner was responsible for planning and coordinating operations related to the return and reintegration of some four million internally displaced persons. During his career with the UN, Mr. Turner also helped to establish the Joint Operation and Tasking Center to coordinate the use of military assets in response to the earthquake in Haiti. In past roles, he also undertook evaluations and research studies for the United Nations and the Australian Government; developed and implemented a training course for the International Federation of the Red Cross, and trained hundreds of international military officers in civil-military coordination.

Mara Rudman founded and runs Quorum Strategies, an international strategic consulting firm, based in Washington, D.C., providing services in operations and change management; issues, project and crisis management; and communications strategy.   She is also a Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow with the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.  She recently taught a national security seminar at Dartmouth College.  Previously, she served as Assistant Administrator for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).   Prior to this appointment by President Obama, Rudman was a deputy envoy and chief of staff for the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace at the State Department. She also served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Secretary to the National Security Council under President Obama from January through May 2009.   In President Clinton’s administration, Rudman served at the National Security Council as Deputy Assistant the President for National Security Affairs and Chief of Staff for the National Security Council, among other positions.  In addition, she has been a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, focusing on national security issues.  Rudman also has worked as a vice president and general counsel for The Cohen Group, a Washington-based consultancy founded by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen.   Earlier in her career, Ms. Rudman was chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, working for Chairman and then Ranking Member Lee Hamilton (D-IN).   She is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College. 

Ghaith Al-Omari is Executive Director at the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP). Prior to that, he served in various positions within the Palestinian Authority, including Director of the International Relations Department in the Office of the Palestinian President, and advisor to former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. In these capacities, he provided advice on foreign policy -- especially vis-à-vis the United States and Israel -- and security. He has extensive experience in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, having been an advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team throughout the permanent status negotiations (1999–2001). In that capacity, he participated in various negotiating rounds, most notably the Camp David summit and the Taba talks. After the breakdown of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, he was the lead Palestinian drafter of the Geneva Initiative, an unofficial model peace agreement negotiated between leading Palestinian and Israeli public figures. Mr. al-Omari is a lawyer by training and a graduate of Georgetown and Oxford universities. Prior to his involvement in the Middle East peace process, he taught international law in Jordan and was active in human rights advocacy.


May 19th, 2014 2:30 PM
The National Press Club
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
First Amendment Room
Washington, DC, DC 20045
United States
Phone: 202-887-0177
Email:


Please help sustain ATFP's work and independent decision-making by donating here.



"Laws are necessary but not sufficient for countering intolerance in individual attitudes. Intolerance is very often rooted in ignorance and fear: fear of the unknown, of the other, other cultures, nations, religions. Intolerance is also closely linked to an exaggerated sense of self-worth and pride, whether personal, national or religious. These notions are taught and learned at an early age. Therefore, greater emphasis needs to be placed on educating more and better. Greater efforts need to be made to teach children about tolerance and human rights, about other ways of life. Children should be encouraged at home and in school to be open-minded and curious."

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 

Building peace in the minds of men and women

UNESCO's aim is "to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information".

UNESCO is known as the "intellectual" agency of the United Nations. At a time when the world is looking for new ways to build peace and sustainable development, people must rely on the power of intelligence to innovate, expand their horizons and sustain the hope of a new humanism. UNESCO exists to bring this creative intelligence to life; for it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace and the conditions for sustainable development must be built. - See more at: http://en.unesco.org/about-us/introducing-unesco#sthash.pIZP5W00.dpuf

UNESCO

"Tolerance recognizes the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms of others. People are naturally diverse; only tolerance can ensure the survival of mixed communities in every region of the globe."

The Declaration of Principles on Tolerance "qualifies tolerance not only as a moral duty, but also as a political and legal requirement for individuals, groups and States."

How Can Intolerance Be Countered?

  1. Fighting intolerance requires law:
    Each Government is responsible for enforcing human rights laws, for banning and punishing hate crimes and discrimination against minorities, whether these are committed by State officials, private organizations or individuals. The State must also ensure equal access to courts, human rights commissioners or ombudsmen, so that people do not take justice into their own hands and resort to violence to settle their disputes.
  2. Fighting intolerance requires education:
    Laws are necessary but not sufficient for countering intolerance in individual attitudes. Intolerance is very often rooted in ignorance and fear: fear of the unknown, of the other, other cultures, nations, religions. Intolerance is also closely linked to an exaggerated sense of self-worth and pride, whether personal, national or religious. These notions are taught and learned at an early age. Therefore, greater emphasis needs to be placed on educating more and better. Greater efforts need to be made to teach children about tolerance and human rights, about other ways of life. Children should be encouraged at home and in school to be open-minded and curious.

    Education is a life-long experience and does not begin or end in school. Endeavours to build tolerance through education will not succeed unless they reach all age groups, and take place everywhere: at home, in schools, in the workplace, in law-enforcement and legal training, and not least in entertainment and on the information highways.
  3. Fighting intolerance requires access to information:
    Intolerance is most dangerous when it is exploited to fulfil the political and territorial ambitions of an individual or groups of individuals. Hatemongers often begin by identifying the public's tolerance threshold. They then develop fallacious arguments, lie with statistics and manipulate public opinion with misinformation and prejudice. The most efficient way to limit the influence of hatemongers is to develop policies that generate and promote press freedom and press pluralism, in order to allow the public to differentiate between facts and opinions.
  4. Fighting intolerance requires individual awareness:
    Intolerance in a society is the sum-total of the intolerance of its individual members. Bigotry, stereotyping, stigmatizing, insults and racial jokes are examples of individual expressions of intolerance to which some people are subjected daily. Intolerance breeds intolerance. It leaves its victims in pursuit of revenge. In order to fight intolerance individuals should become aware of the link between their behavior and the vicious cycle of mistrust and violence in society. Each one of us should begin by asking: am I a tolerant person? Do I stereotype people? Do I reject those who are different from me? Do I blame my problems on 'them'?
  5. Fighting intolerance requires local solutions:
    Many people know that tomorrow's problems will be increasingly global but few realize that solutions to global problems are mainly local, even individual. When confronted with an escalation of intolerance around us, we must not wait for governments and institutions to act alone. We are all part of the solution. We should not feel powerless for we actually posses an enormous capacity to wield power. Nonviolent action is a way of using that power-the power of people. The tools of nonviolent action-putting a group together to confront a problem, to organize a grassroots network, to demonstrate solidarity with victims of intolerance, to discredit hateful propaganda-are available to all those who want to put an end to intolerance, violence and hatred.

United Nation's Ban Ki-moon's most recent message on the importance of tolerance: 

We are living through a period of global transition.  New centres of power and economic dynamism are emerging.  Technology is connecting us ever more closely, and cross-cultural exchanges are deepening every day – but this does not mean there is more understanding.  Societies are more diverse but intolerance is on the rise in too many places.

Across the globe, nations and communities face profound and enduring economic, social and environmental challenges.  Poverty, hunger and disease remain at unacceptable levels.  Every region is experiencing the rising impact of climate change.  Natural disasters are a constant reminder of human vulnerability.  Conflicts and inter-community tensions persist across the globe.  Millions face the daily threat of violence and displacement.

There are no individual solutions to these multifaceted and inter-related challenges.  We can only advance as a community of nations and cultures, drawing on human solidarity and recognizing that we share a common destiny.  This is why tolerance is so important.

 Tolerance is not passive.  It demands an active choice to reach out on the basis of mutual understanding and respect, especially where disagreement exists.  Tolerance means recognizing that our diversity is a strength – a wellspring of creativity and renewal for all societies.

Tolerance can, and must, be learned.  We need to teach girls and boys not just how to live together but how to act together as global citizens.  We need to nurture tolerance by promoting cultural understanding and respect – from parliaments to the playground.  We need to tackle growing inequality and reject social exclusion based on gender, disabilities, sexual orientation, and ethnic or religious background. 

Tolerance is the strongest foundation for peace and reconciliation.  At this time of rapid and often bewildering change, it has never been so important.  On this International Day, I call on national and community leaders – and all those who wield influence through traditional and social media and among their peers – to embrace tolerance as the bond that will unite us on our common journey to a peaceful, sustainable future.

My letter to the Washington Post RE "Why the Mideast peace process is in tatters" By David Ignatius

I’d been reading up on comparative religion. The thing is that all major religions have the Golden Rule in Common. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Not always the same words but the same meaning.–Norman Rockwell, The Norman Rockwell Album
RE: Why the Mideast peace process is in tatters By David Ignatius
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-why-the-mideast-peace-process-is-in-tatters/2014/05/15/c8345e78-dc5b-11e3-8009-71de85b9c527_story.html

Dear Editor,

What exactly does it mean to "create viable Palestinian and Jewish states" ... What does it mean to the people involved and to religious fanatics worldwide who believe that religion should be armed with lethal weaponry plus tax papers money?

The word "Israel" pops up in Christian hymns and prayers that predate the industrial revolution, the Nazi Holocaust, the United Nations, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Martin Luther King Jr's inspiring call for a more real democracy: Let freedom ring! 

Ignatius calls for Israel to be a "healthy Jewish state".  Jewish is a religion, one of the three vibrantly alive Abrahamic faiths that cherish Jerusalem.  A healthy Jewish state is a spiritual state, a healthy Christian state is a spiritual state, and a healthy Muslim state is a spiritual state... Israel the nation state is not a spiritual state.  Israel the nation state is not a poem or a prayer or a history project. It is a modern nation state that has chosen to make Jewish demographics more important than the rule of fair and just laws.

Demographics are numbers on a page, easily compiled by computers and cataloged and interpreted by various experts for various reasons. Demographics are not human beings, although a new baby born can tip the demographics and end up cursed by people more interested in demographic tallies than in human character and compassion. 

Let freedom ring and decency rule, regardless of anyone's supposed race or religion.  A fully secular two state solution to end the Israel-Palestine conflict with full respect for international law and universal human rights is the best way forward.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker & poet

NOTES
Israel's Jewish Settlers destroy 58 trees in orchard near Bethlehem... this is not the first time that Israelis from the nearby Jewish-only settlement of Betar Illit have attacked Palestinian Raji Abd al-Aziz Sabateen's orchard.

In more violence in the region, Israeli border police shot dead two Palestinians on Thursday during a demonstration in the West Bank marking the 66th anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe" of Israel's creation in 1948 and the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians it entailed.

"It is, of course, naïve to expect total reconciliation. Some grievances are so deep that the people who suffered them will never be satisfied. But the point is not satisfaction — the point is that the present is superior to the past, and it has to be cultivated as such."  Colum McCann  author of the novel “TransAtlantic” and a co-founder of Narrative 4, a global story exchange project

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


The “No To Violence” organization, in cooperation with a number of civil activists, has launched a campaign to express its solidarity with NOW English Managing Editor Hanin Ghaddar. Pro-Hezbollah media have launched a campaign against Ghaddar over her participation in a symposium at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

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

American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) congratulates Arab America for the outstanding accomplishment in organizing a highly successful event that featured “Arab Idol” Mohammed Assaf and Lebanese vocalist Ziad Khoury on May 11 2014 ... in Growing Gardens for Palestine

850 Guests Attend Arab America "Ya Hal Arab" Event with Mohammed Assaf and Ziad Khoury  "Tonight we celebrate the unwavering Palestinian unity and determination to see a Palestinian homeland after more than 66 years of occupation!"

UN photo archive tells story of Palestinian exodus

Now Online: Before Their Diaspora is a visual journey into Palestine before 1948. Every important aspect of Palestinian society comes to life in the nearly 500 photographs, carefully selected from thousands available in private and public collections throughout the world.

"The unusual thing that Bassem was able to do was to be good and decent both in his politics as he conceptualized them, and in his dealings with those he disagreed with." Hussein Ibish

Price Tags

Washington Watch: The Choice We Face, the Debate We Must Have

Ashrawi: Jerusalem 'a symbol of peace, surrounded by checkpoints'

Christians in Israel and Palestine fear rise in violence ahead of pope's visit... Earlier this week vandals wrote "Death to Arabs and Christians" in Hebrew on the Vatican's Notre Dame centre in Jerusalem's Old City

Reasonable voices & helpful resources ...America for Palestine MAY 2014

"We Refuse to Be Enemies" a briefing call with Daoud Nassar, a Palestinian farmer

Israel should stop distractions, focus on peace

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

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

Palestine adopts UN human rights treaties, becoming a formal party to five global treaties banning torture and racial discrimination, and protecting the rights of women, children and the disabled

Dr. Saeb Erekat: With Status Quo On Its Side, Israel Happily Rejects Peace

Palestinian Identity

A few examples of the separate — and often unequal — rules and standards for Israeli settlers and Palestinian civilians

Weighing in... for Palestine (a poem)

Pro-Palestine, Pro-Peace, Pro-Israel.... productive, pragmatic and focused on what can actually help people

Sources ...a poem (for Palestine)

American Task Force on Palestine Springs Forward

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."

"Read and remember, take a minute to recall the smell of your grandmother’s za’atar and the taste of balady labaneh, and imagine what would happen if we were to lose it all…" This Week in Palestine

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 

Thursday, May 15, 2014

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


http://visualizingpalestine.org/

My letter to the Washington Post RE " Who’s to blame for the end of the ‘peace process’? " By Jennifer Rubin

ATFP/UNRWA Briefing
The Future of Gaza: Trajectories, Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

May 19 2014 National Press Club Washington, DC
RE  Who’s to blame for the end of the ‘peace process’?  By Jennifer Rubin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/05/14/whos-to-blame-for-the-end-of-the-peace-process/?wpisrc=nl_popns

Dear Editor,

Jennifer Rubin's most recent anti-Palestine rant is a very good example of echo chamber insanity.  Echo chamber insanity is shaped by titillating half truths compiled and promoted by groups of people who bond by creating enemies. 

Wiser more compassionate people know to sample and seriously think about a wide variety of news, information and opinion from multiple sources, making connections and sparking some very valuable insights. For instance: Omar Baddar "... bigotry puts entire communities under attack from the outside, thus distracting from their fight to advance and tackle problems within."

Some people obviously want to exasperate bigotry, and some people obviously do not want the Israel-Palestine conflict to end. On both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict echo chamber insanity convinces a narrow minded audience that one narrow worldview will "win"...  Wiser more compassionate people do want the Israel-Palestine conflict to end, and are highly motivated to help shape a just and lasting peace. 

Diplomacy for Palestine continues, and everyone weighing in is in fact part of the 'peace process' Rubin wants us to believe is over. 

A fully secular two state solution firmly rooted in full respect for international law and universal human rights to, once and for all, actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict for everyone's sake really is the best way forward. 

Today, marking the anniversary of what Arabs refer to as the Nakba, the catastrophe- the beginning of the very real plight of the Palestinians with the forced exile of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands, Saeb Erekat points out in a very informative essay ('Israel can't erase the Nakba from history' ) that "Palestine has recognized Israel's right to exist since 1988. We are not asking for Hebrew not to be an official language or Jewish holidays not to be official holidays. The character of Israel is not for us to define."

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
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

American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) congratulates Arab America for the outstanding accomplishment in organizing a highly successful event that featured “Arab Idol” Mohammed Assaf and Lebanese vocalist Ziad Khoury on May 11 2014 ... in Growing Gardens for Palestine

850 Guests Attend Arab America "Ya Hal Arab" Event with Mohammed Assaf and Ziad Khoury  "Tonight we celebrate the unwavering Palestinian unity and determination to see a Palestinian homeland after more than 66 years of occupation!"

UN photo archive tells story of Palestinian exodus

Now Online: Before Their Diaspora is a visual journey into Palestine before 1948. Every important aspect of Palestinian society comes to life in the nearly 500 photographs, carefully selected from thousands available in private and public collections throughout the world.

"The unusual thing that Bassem was able to do was to be good and decent both in his politics as he conceptualized them, and in his dealings with those he disagreed with." Hussein Ibish

Price Tags

Washington Watch: The Choice We Face, the Debate We Must Have

Ashrawi: Jerusalem 'a symbol of peace, surrounded by checkpoints'

Christians in Israel and Palestine fear rise in violence ahead of pope's visit... Earlier this week vandals wrote "Death to Arabs and Christians" in Hebrew on the Vatican's Notre Dame centre in Jerusalem's Old City

Reasonable voices & helpful resources ...America for Palestine MAY 2014

"We Refuse to Be Enemies" a briefing call with Daoud Nassar, a Palestinian farmer

Israel should stop distractions, focus on peace

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

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

Palestine adopts UN human rights treaties, becoming a formal party to five global treaties banning torture and racial discrimination, and protecting the rights of women, children and the disabled

Dr. Saeb Erekat: With Status Quo On Its Side, Israel Happily Rejects Peace

Palestinian Identity

A few examples of the separate — and often unequal — rules and standards for Israeli settlers and Palestinian civilians

Weighing in... for Palestine (a poem)

Pro-Palestine, Pro-Peace, Pro-Israel.... productive, pragmatic and focused on what can actually help people

Sources ...a poem (for Palestine)

American Task Force on Palestine Springs Forward


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."



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 

"Palestine has recognized Israel's right to exist since 1988. We are not asking for Hebrew not to be an official language or Jewish holidays not to be official holidays. The character of Israel is not for us to define." Saeb Erekat

 [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]


"We will not be complicit in the notion that any ethnic-religious group should have dominance over any other. We will not accept the denial of basic human rights to which all are entitled." Saeb Erakat

'Israel can't erase the Nakba from history'

Saeb Erekat is chief Palestinian negotiator for the PLO.
 
Today is the anniversary of what we Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, our catastrophe – although a single word cannot begin to explain it, and a single day cannot begin to commemorate it.

More than ever before, Israel needs come to terms with the horrors it has caused since 1948, by ending its subjugation of millions rather than intensifying its denial and trying to legitimize its persecution. Peace can only come through justice and reconciliation.

This day, in 1948, marks the forced exile of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands. Some were subjected to brutal massacres, many fled for fear of their lives. A few managed to stay in what would become Israel. All suffered. Sixty-six years later, all continue to suffer.

The Nakba is a story of fear and intimidation, of denial and persecution, a cruel, unending reality.

Today in occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian families are evicted from their homes due to claims that their property belonged to Jews before 1948, while being forbidden from returning to their pre-1948 homes in West Jerusalem.

In Gaza – one of the most densely populated areas in the world – 1.2 million refugees overlook the open areas of what is now southern Israel. In my own home town, Jericho, there are two refugee camps where thousands continue to live in miserable conditions. In 2014, Palestinian children died of starvation at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria.
 
 
Israel, which claims to be a democracy for all its citizens, continues to ban the villagers of Iqrit and Kufr Birem, two Christian villages in the Galilee, from returning to their lands, despite a ruling from the Israeli High Court of Justice on the matter.

This is not the only example of persecution within Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's promotion of the "nationality bill," determining Israel as the Jewish nation-state, is one more in a long line of discriminatory laws against a fifth of Israel’s own population, the original inhabitants of the land.

A list of laws which make it not only acceptable, but legally admissible, to discriminate against Israel's own citizens for belonging to a different ethnic-religious group.

Meanwhile, in the land which Israel has illegally occupied since 1967, settlers and soldiers use similar methods of intimidation and fear to force Palestinians from their homes.

The reality in the West Bank is no less than apartheid, and, in Gaza, out and out siege. Both within occupied Palestine and further afield, those who have been waiting 66 years, with their keys in hand, continue to wait.

Palestine has recognized Israel's right to exist since 1988. We are not asking for Hebrew not to be an official language or Jewish holidays not to be official holidays. The character of Israel is not for us to define.
 
 
But we will not allow any Palestinian to be portrayed as the immigrant or intruder in his or her own land. We were here in 1948: We were here for centuries before that – Muslims, Christians and Jews – all Palestinians. The concept of an exclusively Jewish state naturally entails the denial of the Nakba. It tells us: "This is our land. You were on it illegally, temporarily, by mistake." It is a way of asking us to deny the existence of our people and the horrors that befell them in 1948. No people should be asked to do that.

We will not be complicit in the notion that any ethnic-religious group should have dominance over any other. We will not accept the denial of basic human rights to which all are entitled.

Rather than accepting historical responsibility, rather than acknowledging a painful truth about the birth of Israel and addressing it, as a step toward peace, the Israeli government attempts to wipe the event from history.

In Israel, it is forbidden by law to even commemorate the Nakba. If you can erase the narrative, it is much easier to erase the people. This Israeli government, in particular, is taking extraordinary measures to achieve this. Is it any wonder that we have not managed to reach an agreement at this time?

Today, we remember those who have lost their lives, at the hands of their oppressors, in their quest for freedom and dignity. Despite this, we are ready to live side by side in peace with our Israeli neighbors. We hope Israelis, if not their current government, will move in that direction.

At this point we do not know what the future will look like in terms of a solution, or when it will come. What we know for certain is that we will remain.
 
 


Wednesday, May 14, 2014

American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) congratulates Arab America for the outstanding accomplishment in organizing a highly successful event that featured “Arab Idol” Mohammed Assaf and Lebanese vocalist Ziad Khoury on May 11 2014 ... in Growing Gardens for Palestine


Virginia concert حفلة فيرجينيا (42 photos)
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ATFP Congratulates Arab America
for the Success of Mohammed Assaf Concert


American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) congratulates Arab America for the outstanding accomplishment in organizing a highly successful event that featured “Arab Idol” Mohammed Assaf and Lebanese vocalist Ziad Khoury on May 11 in Washington, D.C. area. 
 
ATFP co-sponsored the event in support of the concert’s message of solidarity with the Palestinian people and their steadfastness and perseverance. 
 
Watch a video of the sponsorship acknowledgment read by Warren David, Arab America President, here.
 
The 800 attendees of the concert responded enthusiastically to the talents and message of Assaf and Khoury.
Dr. Ziad Asali, ATFP President, and "Arab Idol" Mohammed Assaf meeting after the concert
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Over 850 Guests Attend Arab America "Ya Hal Arab" Event with Mohammed Assaf and Ziad Khoury



"Ya Hal Arab: A Call for Unity," took place on Sunday, May 11, 2014 at the Waterford-Springfield Banquet Facility in Springfield, Virginia.

Over 850 guests attended the sold out event which featured the Arab Idol and Palestinian Super Star, Mohammed Assaf and the incomparable Lebanese vocalist and Arab Idol finalist, Ziad Khoury.

In addition to Washington, DC, Virginia, and Maryland, attendees from as far away as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina were present.

The evening began with introductions from Emcee Darik Kristofer, On-Air Host at CBS 94.7 Fresh FM. Kristofer who is originally of Palestinian heritage, spoke about his passion to connect with his heritage and there was no better place than the evening’s event. He also spoke of the importance of Arab America and its mission to portray an accurate image of Arab Americans in wake of the negative Arab images portrayed in the media.

He then introduced Arab America President Warren David who spoke of his vision to see Arab America as a place where all Arab Americans regardless of their ethnicity or religion could come together united under one identity. He added that Arab America not only serves Arab Americans but all peoples of diverse backgrounds in America.

David then went on to say, "Tonight we celebrate the unwavering Palestinian unity and determination to see a Palestinian homeland after more than 66 years of occupation!" he concluded, "We hope tonight’s event symbolized through our spirit of unity will bring peace and justice and human dignity to our Palestinian brothers and sisters.

Finally, he thanked the many sponsors and advertisers who helped to make this event possible.

Emcee Kristofer then introduced Dr. Amal David, director of community relations at Arab America. With the event falling on Mother's Day, Dr. David read a poem dedicated to mothers by the late renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Each Mother was presented a flower as a symbol of love and respect. She also thanked the 21 volunteers which comprised the host committee for the event.

Lebanese vocalist Ziad Khoury opened the program with renditions of popular music from Lebanon and the Levant.. His repertoire included several selections of Lebanese folkloric music featuring unparalleled "attabas" which were easily identifiable by the audience and reminiscent of music affecting the richness of Arab music.

Prior to his performance, the Arab Idol, Mohammed Assaf was escorted by a group of community members who jubilantly chanted "zeffi" (a celebration chant) accompanied by Arab drummers.

Assaf's program included a resounding selection of Arab and Palestinian musical selections. Known for his "mawals," the audience witnessed breath taking melismas for which he is famous.

The highlight of his performance was the vocalization of the newly released hit "Ya Halali Ya Mali," The song recently released as a video was filmed at the Bourj el-Barajneh refugee camp in Lebanon; it reflects Assaf's commitment to the Palestinian diaspora and his passion to salute Palestinian determination and unity through his music. His performance of the song was accompanied by the "Faris El Layl" dabke troupe coordinated by Mohammad Abou-Elhawa.

Prior to and after the concert, there were numerous exhibits of literature and cultural artifacts from many of the Arab American organizations in the Washington DC area--reaffirming a call for unity and cohesiveness in the Arab American community.

Arab America (www.arabamerica.com) is a national (for-profit) organization founded with the purpose of promoting an accurate image about the Arab American community and the Arab world through digital media, cultural and educational events.

View photos from the event.

Watch video from the event.

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As a "child of UNRWA," Mohammed Assaf is the ideal individual to be the first goodwill ambassador in the more than six decades of our history. A Palestine refugee himself, he grew up in the Khan Younis camp in Gaza. Not long ago, he was one of the over 220,000 students attending the Agency's 245 schools in Gaza. For him, the connection continued at home: His mother, too, was an UNRWA teacher. Throughout his childhood – at school, at the doctor's, at community centres – he saw firsthand the work that UNRWA does for Palestine refugees.

Since his appointment in June 2013, by Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi, as the Agency's Regional Youth Ambassador for Palestine Refugees, the 23-year-old Arab Idol winner has used his voice and his talent to help UNRWA give other young people the same support it gave him. With the universal language of his music, he carries the message of UNRWA and young Palestine refugees to new audiences, including in the region – to Dubai and Kuwait – and even further. In November 2013, he took that message to the United States, bringing the voice of Palestine refugee youth to the United Nations in New York City.

UNRWA is unique among UN agencies, both for its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees – the Palestine refugees - and for its direct provision of services including education, health care and relief to those refugees. But being unique doesn't mean that UNRWA can act alone: We have always depended on our partners, including our hosts and donors, to help us best serve Palestine refugees. Now, we are proud also to work with individuals who can add their voice to ours, spreading the word about Palestine refugees and reminding people who may be far away that they are not just a regional concern or a relic of the past.

UN photo archive tells story of Palestinian exodus

http://news.yahoo.com/un-photo-archive-tells-story-palestinian-exodus-165103327.html

RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP) — A 1975 photo shows Palestinian refugee Fathiyeh Sattari, her eyes wide with worry, as she presents her malnourished baby boy to a doctor at a clinic run by a U.N. aid agency.

The photo is one of 525,000 in the agency's archive being digitized to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or "catastrophe" — their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation.

As Palestinians mark the Nakba's 66th anniversary Thursday, the photos tell the story of the refugee crisis' transition from temporary to seemingly permanent. Tent camps of the 1950s have turned into urban slums with some alleys so narrow residents can only walk single file past drab multi-story buildings.

The mother and son of the 1975 photo are part of a family that is now in its fourth generation as refugees. Sattari's parents fled their home in what is now Israel in 1948. Fathiyeh was born in the Gaza Strip and raised her own family in the Rafah refugee camp. Her son Hassan — the baby with the gaunt face in the photo — is now a 40-year-old father of five, living in another camp ...READ MORE

 [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]

In this Tuesday, May 13, 2014 photo, Palestinian refugees Fathiyeh Sattari, 62, and her son Hassan, 40, look at their photograph that was taken at the Rafah U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, clinic in 1975, at their family home in Rafah Refugee Camp, the southern Gaza Strip. The UNWRA photo shows Sattari, her eyes wide with worry, as she presents her malnourished baby boy, Hassan, to a doctor. The picture is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
In this Monday, May 12, 2014 photo, Fadi Khalil, an employee in the photo archive of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), organizes negatives to be digitized at the UNRWA archive library in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip. UNWRA's vast photo archive is being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

In this Monday, May 12, 2014 photo, Fadi Khalil, an employee in the photo archive of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), organizes color slides to be digitized at the UNRWA archive library (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Fadi Khalil, an employee in the photo archive of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), checks frames of negative film to be digitized at the UNRWA archive library in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip. Some 525,000 images in the agency's archive are being digitized to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe” -- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
In this 1968 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, Palestinian refugees have just arrived in east Jordan in a continuing exodus of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. The distances on the partially obscured signboard read "Jericho 8 km, Jerslm (Jerusalem) 43 km." (AP Photo/G.Nehmeh, UNRWA Photo Archives)
In this 1948 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, a convey of trucks and cars led by white U.N. jeeps travels through the Gaza desert carrying Arab refugees and their belongings from Gaza to Hebron, Transjordan. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/UNRWA Photo Archives)
In this 1967 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, Palestine refugees flee across over the Jordan river on the damaged Allenby Bridge during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/UNRWA Photo Archives)
In this 1948 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, Palestinian refugees stand outside their tent in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/UNRWA Photo Archives)
In this undated photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, a steam roller over the "streets" of Janzur refugee camp near Jenin in the West Bank, which was organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/UNRWA Photo Archives)
In this 1971 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, Palestinian refugees pose for picture in the New Amman refugee camp in Eastern Jordan. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/G.Nehmeh, UNRWA Photo Archives)
In this 1952 photo from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, archive, refugees walk through Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon refugee camp, one of the first camps established as part of emergency measures to shelter Palestine refugees of the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948. The photo is part of UNWRA's vast photo archive being digitized in Gaza and Denmark to preserve a record of one of the world's most entrenched refugee problems, created in what the Palestinians call the "Nakba," or “catastrophe”-- their uprooting in the war over Israel's 1948 creation. (AP Photo/S.Madver, UNRWA Photo Archives)
A Palestinian vendor fries falafel in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip May 5, 2014. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
 
A Palestinian woman harvests barley on a farm near the border of southern Gaza Strip with Israel April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa