Tala Haikal: "It may not be possible to immediately free all the kidnapped girls and women due to the scope of the conflict with ISIS and the geographical dispersal of the captives in various locations. Some of these women and girls can be freed only once ISIS is destroyed."

Haikal is a Middle East analyst at the American Task Force on Palestine, a think tank in Washington, DC. She tweets @talamay.

"ISIS has kidnapped an estimated 4,000 Iraqi girls and women from Yazidi and other minority groups for the purpose of selling them to locals or donating them to loyal jihadists. Sadly this is not unique -- traces of sexual slavery are still evident in various parts of the world, despite legislation prohibiting it -- but these crimes are being committed on an extraordinary scale by ISIS. While these barbaric rapists are fulfilling their sexual perversions the world is silently watching. Instead, the international community must work to free the Iraqi women and bring accountability to the chronically neglected issue of the victimization of women in wars.

The kidnapped women and girls are generally separated into small groups. Their price varies between $25 and $1000. Some are as young as 12 years old.  ISIS has beheaded 17 of them. There have been at least 11 reported cases of suicide, according to an email response from the Human Rights Department at Iraq’s Foreign Ministry to this writer. As described by Liz Sly of the Washington Post, only a conversion to Islam can “upgrade” the status of these captives from prison inmates to “comfort wives.”"

[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/civil-rights/219595-isis-and-sexual-slavery

ISIS and sexual slavery

Vatican seeks Mideast Christians' right of return

[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://news.yahoo.com/vatican-seeks-mideast-christians-return-133603970.html

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is demanding that Christians and other religious minorities have the right to return to their homes in Iraq and Syria that have been emptied by Islamic militants.

Pope Francis summoned Vatican ambassadors from across the region for three days of meetings. At the conclusion Saturday, they reaffirmed that military force was justified to stop the Islamic State group and that Muslim and Christian religious leaders must denounce the "instrumentalization of religion to justify violence."

The ambassadors said the Iraqi and Syrian governments, backed by the international community, must eventually ensure that Christians and other minorities can return to their homelands in safety and freedom.

Noting the 2,000-year presence of Christians there, the ambassadors said: "One cannot resign oneself to conceiving the Middle East without Christians."

USA Today... Sweden PM says nation will recognize Palestinian state: "It doesn't change a thing on the ground," Ibish said. "It changes the number of countries that have recognized the Palestinian state. It changes the Western commitment to a two-state solution, (and) it does put more pressure on Israel to make concessions."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/10/03/sweden-to-recognize-palestinian-state/16642735/

[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]

 

Sweden to become first major European country to recognize state of Palestine

Sweden's new prime minister said Friday his country will be the first Western European nation to recognize a Palestinian state. The move provides diplomatic support but no practical impact on Palestinians' aspirations for statehood.

"The conflict between Israel can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said during his inaugural address to Parliament, according to Reuters.

"A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine," Lofven said....READ MORE

Salam Fayyad: How To Fix the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

"21 years after Palestinians granted it recognition of its right to exist in peace and security, Israel should reciprocate symmetrically by recognizing the Palestinians' right to a sovereign state on the territory it occupied in 1967 in its entirety. Second, Israel should be prepared to accept an internationally mandated date for ending its occupation and a mutually agreed path for getting there. Third, in the interim, Palestinians should not continue to be hamstrung in their effort to achieve national unity by an insistence, on the part of the international community, on a rigid application of “the Quartet principles.” As they require any Palestinian government to fully accept the Letters of Mutual Recognition, those conditions obviously derive their validity from a framework whose premises no longer are valid. Fourth, Palestinians need to see a cessation of all practices that undermine their right to live with dignity on their land, as they proceed to attain full national unity and persevere in their effort to build their state and prepare for statehood..." READ MORE

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142134/salam-fayyad/oslo-is-dead

A protester places a Palestinian flag over a section of an Israeli barrier. (Courtesy Reuters)

"...Thus, it is incumbent on Palestinians, and as a matter of conscious decision-making, to build a state that is founded on the basis of the universally shared progressive values of equality, tolerance, nondiscrimination, openness, and full sensitivity to the unabridged rights and privileges of citizenship. In any event, that, to me, is the only kind of state that would be worthy of the aspirations and great many sacrifices of the Palestinian people." Salam Fayyad

[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]    

Excellent letter in the Guardian by Chris Doyle: Trouble and shock in the 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/oct/03/trouoble-and-shock-west-bank

Trouble and shock in the West Bank

A signpost in Giv'at HaMatos, centre of controversy over an Israeli settler housing project. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

A year ago I went with four MPs to a spot of land south of Jerusalem. It lies on the lands of the neighbouring Palestinian village of Beit Safafa. Nearby is one of the mega-Israeli settlements, Gilo. To the south is Bethlehem, where the wall imprisons the city of the birthplace of Christ. To the east is Har Homa, one of the most recent of the Jerusalem-area settlements. It is a thicket of concrete, designed to separate Jerusalem from Bethlehem and indeed from the southern West Bank. But only months before, this plot of land had been designated for a new Israeli settlement, Givat HaMatos.

Lowering down the last concrete slabs would complete the concrete curtain. Memorably, the Israeli guide stated coolly: “If Netanyahu wants to stab the Palestinian state in the heart, he can do it here.”

Last week, just days before Netanyahu was to see President Obama at the White House, final approval was given to Givat HaMatos. As an editorial in the Israeli paper, Ha’aretz stated this week, “nobody can seriously believe any longer that Netanyahu wants to resolve the conflict” (Report, 3 October). It’s time that European leaders wake up to that reality and did more than just issue statements of concern. Only tough concerted action against these illegal settlements will have any effect.

Chris Doyle
Director, Caabu

The Guardian, Friday 3 October 2014

My Letter to the NYTimes RE Steven Salaita and the Quagmire of Academic Freedom

Academic Freedom... Illustration credit: Google Images revealing  line drawing by Tim E. Ogline who has "always sought to draw on the Right Brain for the Left Brain."

RE Steven Salaita and the Quagmire of Academic Freedom
http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/steven-salaita-and-the-quagmire-of-academic-freedom/?ref=opinion

Dear Editor,

Quite a quagmire indeed.  Your story Steven Salaita and the Quagmire of Academic Freedom brought up many very interesting points, but missed a few crucially important ones.

Starting with actual beginnings: All people here in America were at one time immigrants, with the earliest arrivals coming from Asia long before written records. Those earliest immigrants did not call this place America, that word is a much more recent arrival. Furthermore the phrase "Native American" takes the word "native" which specifically means born in a particular place, and uses that word to exclude a huge portion of native born American citizens. 

America's written records, combined with our constitution, our Bill of Rights, our free libraries and schools and many other factors give every one both the ability to explore many topics including many horrific tragedies, and the ability to weigh in with facts and opinions, ultimately shaping both domestic and foreign polices.

Times have changed. Today's world has jobless Palestinians braving death to migrate ... Today's world also has The New York Times headlining the editorial  The Fundamental Horror of ISIS , as well as the editorial Mr. Netanyahu’s Strange Course clearly articulating the fact that Americans are questioning Israel’s commitment to a peaceful negotiated settlement to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Native Americans/American Indians were uniformly granted U.S. citizenship in 1924, decades before Martin Luther King Jr helped make America a more real democracy, and a full 24 years before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and modern Israel's heavily armed sovereign quest to become demographically Jewish by disenfranchising native non-Jewish Palestinians. Most Palestinian men, women and children have been pushed into poverty and forced exile, creating the largest, longest running refugee crisis in the world today.

Some readers might judge Salaita based on his stance regarding the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, some on his scholarship- others might judge him based on the tone of his tweets, his rage/righteous indignation as well as his exact words and his obvious lack of diplomatic tact in a very public forum.  Various people will find various reasons to agree or to disagree, some will voice what they think, some won't but they'll "vote with their feet"... Here in America parents who are able to send their kids to college invest a huge amount of time and money in their kids, even before college. College itself tends to be punitively expensive.  In researching colleges to consider many resources are used: Parents, potential students, and donors can easily google various professors and read public tweets.   

Here in America good role models help our young people get and keep good jobs. Colleges need to keep that in mind, and so should any one seeking to convince Americans to care about Palestine. 

Sincerely
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
The New World (according to wikipedia) was dubbed "America,  a name derived by Martin Waldseemüller from Americus Vespucius, the Latinized version of Amerigo Vespucci, the name of the Italian merchant and cartographer who explored South America's east coast and the Caribbean Sea in the early 16th century."

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

US sharply criticizes new Israeli housing project

Non-violent resistance is Palestine’s most powerful weapon

Tala Haikal: Empathy Is Essential to Humanity

Normalizing Intelligent Conversations, Diplomatic Support, and Hope for Palestine... ATFP Panel Briefing: Israeli-Palestinian War in a New Regional Landscape.

ATFP... American Task Force on Palestine

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians

To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace : "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." Ziad Asali


International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2014

UNRWA photo and film archive for Palestine refugees

About UNWRA: ’The Long Journey of Palestine Refugee Women’ candidly portrays the lives and experiences of Palestine refugee women, this collection is a testament not only to their own strength and dignity, but also to the richness and resilience of their community.

Walking Palestine & The Abraham Path... a creative space for stories that highlight the unique culture, heritage and hospitality of the region

It's time for Palestinians and Israelis to share a just peace... It's time for freedom from occupation... It's time for equal rights.... It's time for the healing of wounded souls..... World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel: "Let my people go!"... 21 - 27 September 2014 An initiative of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) of the World Council of Churches

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

1948

Time and time again I have watched the cycle of incitement and spin sabotage support for Palestine

Clarifying why Arab and Muslim Americans should be smart rather than stupid

Live by the Golden Rule

• “Forgiving is not forgetting; it’s actually remembering - remembering and not using your right to hit back.”

An Anne Frank Moment ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?

America/Israel/Palestine 1776

America/Israel/Palestine 1948: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

UN report spotlights 'staggering' Islamic State atrocities in Iraq... "The group, which is fighting in Iraq and Syria, has carried out a wide range of atrocities, including mass executions, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence against women and children"

9,347 Iraqi civilians had died in the conflict. 

Another 17,386 had been injured. 

 As of last month, an estimated 1.8 million Iraqis have been displaced by the violence, according to the report.

"“The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by [Islamic State] and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

Paulo Barrozo, a professor at Boston College and expert on international criminal law, said that what sets IS apart from other terrorist organizations is its sprawling territorial ambitions. While the Taliban’s brutal reign in Afghanistan was limited to a single country, IS has torn up international borders in its attempt to create an Islamic caliphate.

“They add a dimension of chaos and brutality to a region that’s already volatile and that’s in the best interest of no one,” he says. “The population there is hostage to their brutality.” "

UN report spotlights 'staggering' Islamic State atrocities in Iraq

"As the Monitor’s Dan Murphy wrote of IS in July, “murder is their answer to anyone who doesn’t share their twisted vision of their faith.” "

"The group, which is fighting in Iraq and Syria, has carried out a wide
range of atrocities, including mass executions, abductions, rape and
other forms of sexual and physical violence against women and children"

US sharply criticizes new Israeli housing project

The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967, as the capital of a future state. While Israel considers east Jerusalem as part of its capital, the U.S. and most of the international community consider such construction projects to be illegal settlements.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-netanyahu-meet-iran-deadline-looms-065930011--politics.html

Al-shejaeiya Neighbourhood (---), 28/09/2014.- Palestinians sit around a fire next to their destroyed houses in Al-Shaejaeiya neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City, 28 September 2014. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed for New York on 28 September to respond to accusations by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel committed 'genocide' in Gaza. (Incendio) EFE/EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a striking public rebuke, the Obama administration warned Israel on Wednesday that plans for a controversial new housing project in east Jerusalem would distance Israel from "even its closest allies" and raise questions about its commitment to seeking peace with Palestinians.

The new 2,500 unit project that stoked U.S. anger is contentious because it would complete a band of Jewish areas that separate Jerusalem from nearby Bethlehem. The U.S. has repeatedly criticized Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, casting it as damaging to efforts to secure an elusive peace accord with the Palestinians.

The White House also condemned what it called the recent occupation of residential buildings in Silwan, an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem where several hundred hard-line Israeli settlers have moved in recent years. Earnest called the move was "provocative" and said it would "escalate tensions at a moment when those tensions have already been high."...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]   

My letter to the NYTimes RE Order vs. Disorder, Part 4 by Thomas L Friedman

Palestinian protest against planned land seizure by Israeli settlers in the village of Wadi Foukin, near Bethlehem, 26 September 2014. Photograph: Sipa USA/Rex Features

RE: Order vs. Disorder, Part 4 by Thomas L Friedman
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/opinion/thomas-l-friedman-order-vs-disorder-part-4-.html?ref=opinion

Dear Editor,

The Israel-Palestine conflict can not be contained, despite Thomas Friedman's best efforts: Continuing to imprison Palestinians in a stateless limbo plus crowded refugee camps while sovereign Jews-preferred Israel steals more and more Palestinian land, pushing more and more native non-Jewish Palestinians into poverty and forced exile is not a formula for containment.

HAMAS is reaction to Israel's anti-Palestine actions, and a useful tool for Israel on its current trajectory.  Opponents of peace negotiations and apologists for HAMAS help Israelis 'prove' to themselves and to the wider world that Palestinians reject peace, diplomacy, Israel and a fully secular two state end to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Fact is, right now Israeli tax payers fund Jewish religious "scholars" and settlement projects in the illegally occupied territories. IS/ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State/Da'esh (or whatever the heck you want to call it) has taken the same basic game plan and pushed it to its cruelest extreme.

FULL respect for international law and universal basic human rights (including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees inalienable right to return to original homes and lands) creating a fully sovereign fully secular Palestinian state living alongside a fully secular Israel in peace, security and dignity, would go a long way towards ending the very real plight of the Palestinians as well as convincing people, and governments, worldwide that the rule of fair and just laws is the best option, and that civilization really is worth preserving.

The Israel-Palestine conflict can not be contained- but it can [and should] be ended.

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

One state is a trap, and there will be no escape: One state is Israel, not Palestine, surviving the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

When the boring tasks of governance are not performed, infrastructures don't get built. Then, when epidemics strike, people die." David Brooks 2014

Palestinians Must Redefine Martyrdom for Nonviolent Resistance

Confronting ISIL: The Day and Decade After

Abbas' Conundrum is Also an American Problem

Jobless Palestinians brave death to migrate

President Barack Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly (transcript)

The Day After #PeaceDay 2014 ... Change the World ... GLOBAL #PeaceDay ... We all have a right to peace

Trust... A poem for peace in Growing Gardens for Palestine by Anne Selden Annab

Arab states can't afford to be tepid in response to ISIL

Jordan stands firm against radicalism, terrorism: "The unequivocal support for the coalition of regional and international countries willing to fight IS did not obliterate, however, an issue that is often said to be the reason for many Middle Eastern problems: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace : "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." Ziad Asali

Because We Know How to Make Dreams Come True! This Week in Palestine

For My Identity, I Sing! Al Mada

"The chaplets of coins are thought by some to have inspired the halo in sacred art."... Color photos of Palestine from the December 1926 issue of National Geographic magazine (Vol L, VI), "In the Birthplace of Christianity,"

For all its empty boasting, Hamas’s strategy of armed struggle has once again been exposed as not merely a dead-end for securing Palestinian rights, but a disaster.

US urges Israel to reverse appropriation of land for West Bank settlement: Israel has claimed almost 1,000 acres near Bethlehem, in a move Palestinians say will only increase tension

The Real Middle East Crisis Is Economic "While Western observers focus on political issues in the Middle East, people in the region are themselves preoccupied with economic matters"

RECRUIT ... a poem

Vatican Urges Muslim Leaders To Condemn The Islamic State Formerly Known As ISIS

NYTimes: Resisting Nazis, He Saw Need for Israel. Now He Is Its Critic.

Dean Obeidallah in The Daily Beast: Searching for a Palestinian Dr. King

There Are Clues

Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?

Zogby:  What we found was that there has been a continued erosion in the favorable ratings Americans have of both Arabs and Muslims, posing a threat to the civil rights and political inclusion of both Arab Americans and American Muslims.

"This is a time of national crisis, I will be honest with you, that does require commitment to non-violence of the kind that would give everyone the time needed to rebuild, to unify, but at the same time to agree with Israel and the world on a date certain for ending the occupation." Palestine's Salam Fayyad

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians

UPDATE: American Task Force on Palestine Advocacy Efforts During the Ongoing Tragic Hostilities : As tragic and appalling hostilities erupted again between Israelis and Palestinians, the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) engaged in intensive advocacy efforts to call for an immediate cease-fire to save lives and spare the innocent. On July 8th, ATFP issued a formal press release calling for de-escalation between Israel and the Palestinians...READ MORE

UNITED NATIONS: International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2014 

Normalizing Intelligent Conversations, Diplomatic Support, and Hope for Palestine: American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) Panel on Israeli-Palestinian War in a New Regional Landscape... & a firm call for an immediate ceasefire

In Growing Gardens for Palestine... A poem Dedicated to Abu Yusuf

THE Arab Peace Initiative

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.

Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine... "An eye-opening—and inspiring—new approach to thinking about one of the world’s most deeply entrenched conflicts"

"I have yet to meet a refugee who wanted to be a refugee and even less so, who wished to remain a refugee. Palestine refugees are no different. Their call for a just and lasting solution to their plight must be heard." UNWRA's Pierre Krähenbühl on World Refugee Day

America/Israel/Palestine 1776

America/Israel/Palestine 1948: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

My letter to the Guardian regarding Israeli cargo ship heads toward LA after Oakland protest blocks unloading & Pro-Palestine protesters again thwart Israeli cargo ship in Oakland

The Knotted Gun, United Nations, NY | Creative Sculptures and Statues from around the world

RE Israeli cargo ship heads toward LA after Oakland protest blocks unloading & Pro-Palestine protesters again thwart Israeli cargo ship in Oakland

Dear Editor,

We seriously cripple Palestine and Palestinians when we use the word "pro-Palestine" interchangeably with "anti-Israel". Look at the big picture: Pro-Israel is more than sixty sovereign years of Israeli diplomacy and hasbara and state building efforts aimed at providing jobs and security to Israeli citizens.

Many of the most articulate anti-Israel activists are Jewish individuals fixated on and enraged by Israel. Anti-Israel activists tend to promote a one state agenda alongside Boycott Israel efforts, convincing their friends and associates to scorn negotiations and Palestinian state building efforts. They should be free to do that, but in doing that they most certainly should not be called pro-Palestine. 

Pro-Palestine is about Palestine, not Israel. Effective and helpful and fully honest pro-Palestine advocacy empowers Palestinians as fully accountable state building citizens, engaged in a modern global world and a crucially important conversation concerning negotiations to end the Israel-Palestine conflict with a just and lasting peace based on international law and full respect for universal human rights. 

The words we choose to use to understand and define the conflict have the power to either exasperate or end the conflict.  For instance, Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine wisely points out in a recent op-ed Non-violent resistance is Palestine’s most powerful weapon that "Palestinians must redefine martyrdom".  Ibish mentions the fact that "The [Israeli] occupation is a system of discipline and control over a subjugated people by a powerful foreign army. Worse, one of the main tasks of those occupying troops is to facilitate and protect the settlement project, which basically means taking land from its [Palestinian] owners and illegally giving it to [Israeli] colonists." Ibish knows the facts, understands the very real plight of the Palestinians, but Ibish does not get distracted and he does not go galloping off into an anti-Israel rant. He keeps calm and he keeps our focus on empowering Palestinians with realistic options and good advice.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
One state is a trap, and there will be no escape: One state is Israel, not Palestine, surviving the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

When the boring tasks of governance are not performed, infrastructures don't get built. Then, when epidemics strike, people die." David Brooks 2014

Palestinians Must Redefine Martyrdom for Nonviolent Resistance

Confronting ISIL: The Day and Decade After

Abbas' Conundrum is Also an American Problem

Jobless Palestinians brave death to migrate

President Barack Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly (transcript)

The Day After #PeaceDay 2014 ... Change the World ... #PeaceDay ... PEACE DAY is GLOBAL #PeaceDay ... We all have a right to peace

Trust... A poem for peace in Growing Gardens for Palestine by Anne Selden Annab

  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

Arab states can't afford to be tepid in response to ISIL

Jordan stands firm against radicalism, terrorism: "The unequivocal support for the coalition of regional and international countries willing to fight IS did not obliterate, however, an issue that is often said to be the reason for many Middle Eastern problems: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace : "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." Ziad Asali

Because We Know How to Make Dreams Come True! This Week in Palestine

For My Identity, I Sing! Al Mada

"The chaplets of coins are thought by some to have inspired the halo in sacred art."... Color photos of Palestine from the December 1926 issue of National Geographic magazine (Vol L, VI), "In the Birthplace of Christianity,"

For all its empty boasting, Hamas’s strategy of armed struggle has once again been exposed as not merely a dead-end for securing Palestinian rights, but a disaster.

US urges Israel to reverse appropriation of land for West Bank settlement: Israel has claimed almost 1,000 acres near Bethlehem, in a move Palestinians say will only increase tension

The Real Middle East Crisis Is Economic "While Western observers focus on political issues in the Middle East, people in the region are themselves preoccupied with economic matters"

RECRUIT ... a poem

Vatican Urges Muslim Leaders To Condemn The Islamic State Formerly Known As ISIS

NYTimes: Resisting Nazis, He Saw Need for Israel. Now He Is Its Critic.

Dean Obeidallah in The Daily Beast: Searching for a Palestinian Dr. King

There Are Clues

Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?

Zogby:  What we found was that there has been a continued erosion in the favorable ratings Americans have of both Arabs and Muslims, posing a threat to the civil rights and political inclusion of both Arab Americans and American Muslims.

"This is a time of national crisis, I will be honest with you, that does require commitment to non-violence of the kind that would give everyone the time needed to rebuild, to unify, but at the same time to agree with Israel and the world on a date certain for ending the occupation." Palestine's Salam Fayyad

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians

UPDATE: American Task Force on Palestine Advocacy Efforts During the Ongoing Tragic Hostilities : As tragic and appalling hostilities erupted again between Israelis and Palestinians, the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) engaged in intensive advocacy efforts to call for an immediate cease-fire to save lives and spare the innocent. On July 8th, ATFP issued a formal press release calling for de-escalation between Israel and the Palestinians...READ MORE

UNITED NATIONS: International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2014 

Normalizing Intelligent Conversations, Diplomatic Support, and Hope for Palestine: American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) Panel on Israeli-Palestinian War in a New Regional Landscape... & a firm call for an immediate ceasefire

In Growing Gardens for Palestine... A poem Dedicated to Abu Yusuf

THE Arab Peace Initiative

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.

Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine... "An eye-opening—and inspiring—new approach to thinking about one of the world’s most deeply entrenched conflicts"

"I have yet to meet a refugee who wanted to be a refugee and even less so, who wished to remain a refugee. Palestine refugees are no different. Their call for a just and lasting solution to their plight must be heard." UNWRA's Pierre Krähenbühl on World Refugee Day

America/Israel/Palestine 1776

America/Israel/Palestine 1948: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

"When the boring tasks of governance are not performed, infrastructures don't get built. Then, when epidemics strike, people die." David Brooks 2014

"A few generations ago, people grew up in and were comfortable with big organizations - the army, corporations and agencies.

They organized huge construction projects in the 1930s, gigantic industrial mobilization during World War II, highway construction and corporate growth during the 1950s. Institutional stewardship, the care and reform of big organizations, was more prestigious.

Now nobody wants to be an Organization Man. We like startups, disrupters and rebels. Creativity is honored more than the administrative execution.

Post-Internet, many people assume that big problems can be solved by swarms of small, loosely networked nonprofits and social entrepreneurs. Big hierarchical organizations are dinosaurs.

The Ebola crisis is another example that shows that this is misguided.

The big, stolid agencies - the health ministries, the infrastructure builders, the procurement agencies - are the bulwarks of the civil and global order. Public and nonprofit management, the stuff that gets derided as "overhead," really matters. It's as important to attract talent to health ministries as it is to spend money on specific medicines...."

When the boring tasks of governance are not performed, infrastructures don't get built. Then, when epidemics strike, people die. 

My letter to the LA Times RE Jonathan Zimmerman's Practice of beheading not limited to Islamic State

Washington DC

RE: Jonathan Zimmerman's Practice of beheading not limited to Islamic State
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-zimmerman-beheading-history-20140929-story.html

Dear Editor,

Zimmerman's "A brief history of decapitation" is not so much an actual history starting with the first known beheadings, which would immediately show how universal primitive ways once were. Nope, he'd rather help arm ISIL propagandists with blame America soundbites.

I think Zimmerman is titillated and entertained by violent you-tube videos, but I am not. I am horrified and disgusted by ISIL and their various apologists.  ISIL criminals are murdering people, raping women and girls, intentionally destroying cultural treasures, and stealing everything they can profit from in order to fund their war on anyone who refuses to worship their way. 

There has never ever been anything as dangerous and demented as ISIL. Hitler only had immediate neighbors to conquer and subjugate. ISIL has modern technology to recruit world wide, convincing vulnerable young men and women to join their ranks.

Ziad Asali of the American Task Force on Palestine wisely points out in his recent Huffington Post op-ed Confronting ISIL: The Day and Decade After that it "is state failure, with its disastrous social and political consequences -- as exemplified today in not only Syria and Iraq, but Libya and potentially some other Arab countries as well -- that lies at the heart of the explosion of violent extremism."

America is not a failed state. We Americans have freedom and justice and job opportunities, to name only a few of the benefits we enjoy.  We  have libraries and museums and national parks and schools and the ability to become elected leaders, or part of the fourth estate, or poets or scientists or whatever we want to work towards. Our founding fathers were most certainly not perfect, but they did set into motion a more real democracy where peace and progress can flourish, benefiting countless people and all our children.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

My letter to the Washington Post RE An Israel equal for all, Jewish or not By Patricia Marks Greenfield

ATFP NEWS September 2014: At UN, Obama talks conflict and peace in the Middle East, reaffirms 2-state commitment

RE: An Israel equal for all, Jewish or not By Patricia Marks Greenfield
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-israel-equal-for-all-jewish-or-not/2014/09/26/83151758-3a05-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html

Dear Editor,

I totally agree that Israel should be fully secular and equal for all, and kudos to Patricia Marks Greenfield for researching and speaking out on this topic.

However, while Greenfield is very right about how wrong it is for Israel to discriminate against and oppress non-Jews, she is wrong to ask everyone to abandon efforts for a two state solution to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.

A fully secular two state solution is Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, with full respect for international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees [inalienable] right of return to original homes and lands. 
 
One state is Israel's Jewish-only settlement projects and religious extremists finding private funds and continued momentum, while disenfranchised Palestinians lose UNWRA.

One state is a trap, and there will be no escape: One state is Israel, not Palestine, surviving the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Jobless Palestinians brave death to migrate

President Barack Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly (transcript)

The Day After #PeaceDay 2014

Change the World ... #PeaceDay

PEACE DAY is GLOBAL #PeaceDay ... We all have a right to peace

Trust... A poem for peace in Growing Gardens for Palestine by Anne Selden Annab

  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

Arab states can't afford to be tepid in response to ISIL: "While there are many other American perceptions, the New York Times’ immediate response to the Jeddah Communique was a story with the headline: Arabs Give Tepid Support to US Fight Against ISIS." Hussein Ibish

Jordan stands firm against radicalism, terrorism: "The unequivocal support for the coalition of regional and international countries willing to fight IS did not obliterate, however, an issue that is often said to be the reason for many Middle Eastern problems: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace : "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." Ziad Asali

Because We Know How to Make Dreams Come True! This Week in Palestine

For My Identity, I Sing! Al Mada

"The chaplets of coins are thought by some to have inspired the halo in sacred art."... Color photos of Palestine from the December 1926 issue of National Geographic magazine (Vol L, VI), "In the Birthplace of Christianity,"

RECRUIT ... a poem

For all its empty boasting, Hamas’s strategy of armed struggle has once again been exposed as not merely a dead-end for securing Palestinian rights, but a disaster.

US urges Israel to reverse appropriation of land for West Bank settlement: Israel has claimed almost 1,000 acres near Bethlehem, in a move Palestinians say will only increase tension

The Real Middle East Crisis Is Economic "While Western observers focus on political issues in the Middle East, people in the region are themselves preoccupied with economic matters"

Vatican Urges Muslim Leaders To Condemn The Islamic State Formerly Known As ISIS

NYTimes: Resisting Nazis, He Saw Need for Israel. Now He Is Its Critic.

Dean Obeidallah in The Daily Beast: Searching for a Palestinian Dr. King

There Are Clues

Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?

Zogby:  What we found was that there has been a continued erosion in the favorable ratings Americans have of both Arabs and Muslims, posing a threat to the civil rights and political inclusion of both Arab Americans and American Muslims.

"This is a time of national crisis, I will be honest with you, that does require commitment to non-violence of the kind that would give everyone the time needed to rebuild, to unify, but at the same time to agree with Israel and the world on a date certain for ending the occupation." Palestine's Salam Fayyad

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians - See more at: http://www.americantaskforce.org/in_media/pr/2014/07/08/1404792000#sthash.591SYEYV.dpuf

ATFP Calls for De-Escalation between Israel and the Palestinians

UPDATE: American Task Force on Palestine Advocacy Efforts During the Ongoing Tragic Hostilities : As tragic and appalling hostilities erupted again between Israelis and Palestinians, the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) engaged in intensive advocacy efforts to call for an immediate cease-fire to save lives and spare the innocent. On July 8th, ATFP issued a formal press release calling for de-escalation between Israel and the Palestinians...READ MORE

UNITED NATIONS: International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2014 

Normalizing Intelligent Conversations, Diplomatic Support, and Hope for Palestine: American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) Panel on Israeli-Palestinian War in a New Regional Landscape... & a firm call for an immediate ceasefire

In Growing Gardens for Palestine... A poem Dedicated to Abu Yusuf

THE Arab Peace Initiative

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.

Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine... "An eye-opening—and inspiring—new approach to thinking about one of the world’s most deeply entrenched conflicts"

"I have yet to meet a refugee who wanted to be a refugee and even less so, who wished to remain a refugee. Palestine refugees are no different. Their call for a just and lasting solution to their plight must be heard." UNWRA's Pierre Krähenbühl on World Refugee Day

America/Israel/Palestine 1776

America/Israel/Palestine 1948: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you