 |
| ‘When I represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009
together with the Jewish-Israeli singer Noa, the pressure from my
Palestinian compatriots to withdraw was overwhelming.’ Mira Awad, right,
and Noa
Photograph: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images
|
RE Palestinian Israelis are often dismissed. Yet our voice is key to
peace
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/10/palestinian-israelis-dismissed-but-key-to-peace
[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 (& America ...etc...)]
Dear Sir,
I was delighted to read Mira Awad's enlightening and courageous
column "Palestinian Israelis are often dismissed. Yet our voice is
key to peace"... and it was wonderful to be able to hear her
exquisite award winning voice singing
Bahlawan. It is indeed time to recognize
and appreciate "the acrobats"... and the many magnificently talented
hard working people and good role models who practice and perfect
peace as they make the most of their gifts and opportunities.
Shibley
Telhami, a brilliant forward thinking scholar
born into an Arab family in Israel (who currently teaches at the
University of Maryland ) in a recent Washington Post column "
How
Israel’s Jewishness is overtaking its democracy"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/08/how-israels-jewishness-is-overtaking-its-democracy/?postshare=7211457441647491&tid=ss_tw
explains the importance of Arab-Jewish relations within Israel- and
the broader Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He points out that the
"loss
of hope for a two-state solution, and the rise of social media
that has displayed extremist attitudes that used to be limited to
private space. In the era of Facebook and Twitter, Arab and Jewish
citizens post attitudes that deeply offend the other: An Arab expresses
joy at death of Israeli soldiers killed by
Palestinians, while a Jew posts a sign reading “death
to Arabs.” Hardly the stuff of co-existence. Leave it
to opportunist politicians, extremists and incitement to do the
rest."
Echo chamber thinking empowered by the internet and the
entertainment driven nature of many news reports and forwards pushes
many misguided people away from seeing the big picture, and away
from understanding the importance of basics such true respect for
universal human rights and Golden Rule thinking.
Music might be, but ethics and the rule of fair and just laws are
not based on popularity polls: Ethics (and fair and just laws ) are
a consensus of what generations of humankind's best and brightest
have concluded is most likely right and what is most likely wrong.
The test of time is the only way to know what works and what doesn't
work. We know from the Nazi Holocaust that discrimination and
bigotry can quickly grow monstrously evil and cruel.
We also know from Monty Python's Flying Circus that "
No One
Expects The Spanish Inquisition!" It is easy to look back at
witch hunts and condemn the participants, but at the time things
weren't quite so clear.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you
