RE: JFK's call for religious freedom can transform places... by Katrina Lantos Swett, vice-chairwoman of the US Commission
on International Religious Freedom.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2013/1107/JFK-s-call-for-religious-freedom-can-transform-places-like-Pakistan
Dear Editor,
What an inspiring and uplifting op-ed! However I can not help but
wonder about the elephant in the living room:
True religious freedom would indeed curb sectarian strife and
extremism.... and yes American diplomats and forward thinkers should
be advocating such freedom worldwide. But how will any countries in
the Middle East be able to hear that message, much less understand
that message when so many American newspapers, politicians,
businessmen and religious leaders praise and protect Israel as "The
Jewish State"?
We can eloquently
call on people everywhere "to raise their sights, heal yesterday’s
wounds, right today’s wrongs, and aspire to greater things", but our
words will be sanctimonious hypocrisy as long as we are arming
Israel's "Jewishness" and forcing tax payers to fund Israel's
religious scholars and schemes.
Are our current efforts to help end the pernicious Israel-Palestine
conflict with a negotiated settlement generating regional respect
for real democracy and a fully secular end to that conflict in line
with international law and firmly respecting universal basic human
rights, or are our efforts being perceived as yet another way to
empower Israel's "Jewishness" and the ongoing persecution,
impoverishment and forced displacement of Palestinians?
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
*********
RE Keep the Iraqi Jews’ Legacy Safe — in America
by Cynthia Kaplan Shamash, a dentist in Flushing, Queens & a
member of the board of the World Organization of Jews From Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/opinion/keep-the-iraqi-jews-legacy-safe-in-america.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&ref=international
Dear Editor,
Regarding the trove of Hebrew material rescued from Saddam Hussein's
flooded basement in 2003, flown here to be saved... Cynthia Kaplan
Shamash's impassioned plea to
Keep
the Iraqi Jews’ Legacy Safe — in America wisely points out "To
suggest that they go to Israel, where many Iraqi Jews live now,
might invite venom from Iraq."
She is absolutely right about that. Israel in insisting on being
"Jewish" and in a misguided quest to make that a demographic reality,
has cruelly persecuted and displaced the native non-Jewish
Palestinians and played a large part in instigating and perpetuating
sectarian strife and religious extremism all through out the region.
A part- just a part, and that part's actual relevance shrinks as
time goes by:
The Buddhas
destroyed in 2001 by religious bigots in Afghanistan.... the
museums
in Egypt looted just last year... the historic mosques
destroyed in
Iraq and
Syria
and
Timbuktu
by Islamists... the
calls
by Zionist ideologues to destroy the Dome of the Rock in order
to build the third temple.... Obviously cultural treasures are easy
targets for religious tyrants and harbingers of hate who are
thriving on conflict and despair all through out the Middle East.
I very much hope for everyone's sake that negotiations for an actual
end to the Israel-Palestine conflict with a fully secular, fully
sovereign two state solution based on firm respect for universal
human rights takes hold soon, and helps steer everyone in the region
towards a more peaceful, compassionate, prosperous and productive
future.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
'
It
is where religious freedom is most dishonored or repressed that
the forces of violent religious extremism are likely to thrive.'
Katrina Lantos Swett, vice chairwoman of the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom: JFK's call for religious freedom
can transform places like Pakistan.
Palestinian
Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their
right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and
injustice.
Palestinians
northeast of the separation wall near Jerusalem face an
uncertain future after Israeli authorities issued demolition
orders last week which could displace thousands of people
Israel
levels Catholic Church property in E. Jerusalem amid ‘massive
demolition’ plan
Looking
for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family
By Edward Said's daughter Najla Said
This
Week in Palestine: In Palestine we have no physical control
over our borders, and therefore have no say in how anyone
could be treated at any given moment in time. But what we do
have control of is the Palestine we write about, describe, and
photograph in the folds of this issue’s pages.
Support
for Mideast peace ...
Dr
Zogby: Focus on Palestinians’ Rights
NYTimes
News October 30, 2013: 1,500 Units to Be Added in Settlement,
Israel Says
At
ATFP Gala, White House Reaffirms Commitment to Palestinian
State, Opposition to Settlements and Settler Violence
Why
Are Israelis Tone Deaf to Incitement Against Palestinians?
Ancient
stone villages in the occupied West Bank have become trapped
in rural poverty, while investors and donors shy away from a
zone of seemingly endless conflict... Israel's
restrictions affect much of Palestinian economic life. It
controls every access point, which enables it to oversee all
imports and exports, creating bureaucratic hurdles that
Palestinians say stifle or kill entrepreneurship.
The Israelis also impose strict limits on water
supply, which affects industry and agriculture. Israel has not
allowed Palestinians access to 3G mobile technology, citing
security concerns, rendering many smartphone apps largely
useless....
READ
MORE
***
"Where,
after all, do universal human rights begin? In
small places, close to home - so close and so
small that they cannot be seen on any maps of
the world. Yet they are the world of the
individual person; the neighborhood he lives
in; the school or college he attends; the
factory, farm, or office where he works. Such
are the places where every man, woman, and
child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity,
equal dignity without discrimination. Unless
these rights have meaning there, they have
little meaning anywhere. Without concerted
citizen action to uphold them close to home,
we shall look in vain for progress in the
larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt
Thomas Paine: "Of
all of the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny of
religion is the worst."
"In every country and in every age, the priest
[rabbi/imam/...etc...] has been hostile to liberty. He is
always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in
return for protection to his own"
Thomas Jefferson
The Office of International Religious
Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)
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
Why
Muslims should love secularism: Though secularism is widely
misunderstood as anti-religious and iconoclastic, all it means
is the neutrality of the state on religious affairs ...
"Muslims must recognize
secularism as the only real path to religious freedom, rather
than confusing it with an attack against religion." Hussein
Ibish
- 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
"So
let us put the narrative of injustice away and find the joy,
if it’s the last thing we ever do. " Tala Abu Rahmeh,
Palestinian poet and writer
This
Week in Palestine Artist of the Month: Yazan Khalili
A
quest to preserve Palestinian heritage in the digital stacks:
Sami Batrawi's struggle to open an online Palestinian Library of
Congress is part of a broader effort to recover lost Palestinian
intellectual heritage.
Pomegranates
in season along the path!
The
Arab Peace Initiative
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.
Jordan's
King Abdullah II explains that extremism has "grown fat" off
of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the
Palestinians.
