My letters to the NYTimes & WSJ RE Music for the Masses by Raja Shehadeh & Harris letter about Maen Rashid Areikat's "The Time for a Palestinian State Is Now"

A Palestinian girl practicing the flute at a school in a refugee camp near Ramallah, West Bank, in April 2009. The lessons were organized by the Al Kamandjati Association, which supports the education of Palestinian children (Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times)

RE:  Music for the Masses by Raja Shehadeh
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/classical-music-makes-a-comeback-in-palestine/?ref=global

Dear Editor,

Delighted to see another fascinating NYTimes blog post by Raja Shehadeh ! I very much hope that more reasonable, compassionate, creative and intelligent Palestinians like Shehadeh can continue to help lead Palestine (and its many various supporters) away from the dangerous influence of Islamists who seek not only the destruction of Israel, but also the destruction of secular freedom and justice for the people of Palestine: The Hamas government is quite clear that there will be "No peace with secularism". 

FYI Trudy Rubin currently reporting from Egypt points out that "the Muslim Brotherhood, which now dominates Parliament, is trying to eliminate women's right to divorce, lower the marriage age to 12, and rescind a law that bans female genital mutilation."  Egyptian women fighting for rights

Meanwhile (according to Haaretz, providing a highly relevant news report I know about only because of the American Task force on Palestine ):   Israel admits it revoked residency rights of a quarter million Palestinians- "Many of those prevented from returning were students or young professionals, working aboard to support their families"

The very real plight of the Palestinians is being exasperated and made worse by religious extremists and bigots and useful idiots on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict.  Bad will swiftly shift to worse without an officially negotiated agreement that provides for two sovereign states - Israel and Palestine - living side by side in peace and security.
 
Full respect for international law, basic human rights, real democracy and diplomacy can and should help create a viable and economically stable free Palestine (with real borders) that is democratic, pluralistic, non-militarized and neutral in armed conflicts. A fully secular two state solution really is the best way forward- for everyone's sake.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

************************

RE: Mr. Ariekat's Partial Remembrance letter by David Harris, Executive Director American Jewish Committee
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/letters.html

Dear Editor,

Clearly David Harris Executive Director American Jewish Committee does not want Americans to support a fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict. Rather than answering diplomatic outreach with diplomatic outreach Harris choses to misinterpret and scorn Maen Rashid Areikat's The Time for a Palestinian State Is Now.

But that does not change the fact that it really is time for a Palestinian state.  There are and will be people who vehemently object to ending the conflict, just as there were people who vehemently objected to the end of slavery- and Jim Crow laws.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Notes
"Since we established the American Task Force on Palestine in 2003, I have been criticised for being "too soft on Israel", mostly by those who seek to lecture me about the Nakba and trumpet their own Palestinian "patriotic credentials". In an insightful comment about my attendance at a recent Israeli Independence Day event, a distinguished Palestinian American friend of mine noted, “you weren't celebrating the exodus of 800,000 Palestinians, or the destruction of Palestine, or the Nakba, but keeping the face of Palestine alive, and keeping the door for negotiations and human contact open.”  Ziad Asali: Learning from the Nakba

"In our debate, I continued to insist that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians is indeed still possible, mostly because a majority on both sides want it and because there is a huge body of international opinion and law that requires it." Hussein Ibish: Nothing is “inevitable”

"It is in Israel's vital interest to come to a complete resolution of the conflict between it and the Palestinian people sooner rather than later, relieving the weight of this tragic conflict from both of our peoples' shoulders. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to the world." Maen Rashid Areikat: The Time for a Palestinian State Is Now

 The Golden Rule

Ask a Name

 A Palestine To Return To

A Spider Silk Cape... a series of three poems in Growing Gardens for Palestine

Israel admits it revoked residency rights of a quarter million Palestinians

 Many of those prevented from returning were students or young professionals, working aboard to support their families.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-admits-it-revoked-residency-rights-of-a-quarter-million-palestinians.premium-1.435778

Israel stripped more than 100,000 residents of Gaza and some 140,000 residents of the West Bank of their residency rights during the 27 years between its conquest of the territories in 1967 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.

As a result, close to 250,000 Palestinians who left the territories were barred from ever returning.

Given that Gaza's population has a natural growth rate of 3.3 percent a year, its population today would be more than 10 percent higher, had Israel not followed a policy of revoking residency rights from anyone who left the area for an extended period of time. The West Bank's population growth rate is 3 percent. Many of those prevented from returning were students or young professionals, working aboard to support their families.

The data on Gaza residency rights was released by the Defense Ministry's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories this week, in response to a freedom-of-information request filed by Hamoked - The Center for the Defense of the Individual. In its letter, COGAT said that 44,730 Gazans lost their residency rights because they were absent from the territory for seven years or more; 54,730 because they did not respond to the 1981 census; and 7,249 because they didn't respond to the 1988 census.

It added that 15,000 of those deprived of residency are now aged 90 or older.

In May 2011, Haaretz obtained the figures on West Bank residents who were stripped of their residency rights. The report noted that Israel had, for years, employed a secret procedure to do so. Palestinians who went abroad were required to leave their identity card at the border crossing. Unlike those from Gaza, who were allowed to leave for seven years, these Palestinians received a special permit valid for three years. The permit could be renewed three times, each time for one year. But any Palestinian who failed to return within six months after his permit expired would be stripped of his residency with no prior notice.

Former senior defense officials told Haaretz at the time of that report's publication that they were unaware of any such procedure.

Today, a similar procedure is applied to East Jerusalem residents: A Palestinian who lives abroad for seven years or more loses his right to return to the city....READ MORE

My letter to the WSJ RE The Time for a Palestinian State Is Now by Maen Areikat

RE: The Time for a Palestinian State Is Now by Maen Areikat
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303830204577448343969347360.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.americantaskforce.org/daily_news_article/2012/06/08/time_palestinian_state_now

Dear Editor,

I quite agree with Maen Areikat that The Time for a Palestinian State Is Now and I very much hope that any one involved in weighing in on the conflict, or funding and fueling it in any way, steps up to do what they can to help convince friends and family and colleagues to do whatever one can to contribute serious positive momentum towards the creation of a just and lasting peace for both Israel and for Palestine- for everyone's sake.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
 
 NOTES
"Palestinian options are significantly limited: Israel, as the occupying power, holds almost all the cards." Hussein Ibish

"After almost a half century of an occupation and settlement enterprise that shows no sign of ending – quite the opposite, settlements become more entrenched by the day – many would argue there already is an apartheid regime in place in the territories under Israeli control between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea." Hanan Ashrawi

"We're very clear that continued Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank undermines peace efforts and contradicts Israeli commitments and obligations."  State Department spokesperson, Mark Toner

"We must work together to build a future in which both peoples can enjoy the rights, responsibilities and dignity of citizenship and self-determination. There is only one way to actually accomplish this: ending the occupation and creating a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel. Palestinians must recognise and accept Israel, which is a legitimate member state of the United Nations. The Palestinians must have one place on earth, the territories occupied in 1967, where they can live freely as first class citizens in their own independent state. There is no other way to end the cycle of bloodshed, pain and hatred that has lasted for so long." Ziad J Asali


"The variety and distribution of plants and animals on Earth – and, for many species, prospects for survival – may be nearing an abrupt, fundamental change because of human activity, warns an international team of ecologists and biologists. Unless humanity deals with the underlying causes that could be pushing Earth's biosphere toward such a change, the results could lead to social and economic instability, write the researchers in a study unveiled Wednesday in the journal Nature. The underlying triggers that the researchers say could lead to a global ecological tipping point have a familiar ring: population growth and the resulting thirst for resources, with their effects on land use, climate, and habitats." Report: Humans near tipping point that could dramatically change Earth

The Arab Peace Initiative requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well

 

My letter to the New York Times RE Thomas L. Friedman's "Facebook Meets Brick-and-Mortar Politics "

RE:  Facebook Meets Brick-and-Mortar Politics
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/opinion/sunday/friedman-facebook-meets-brick-and-mortar-politics.html?_r=1&ref=global

Dear Editor,

Regarding Thomas L. Friedman's "Facebook Meets Brick-and-Mortar Politics "... It is not facebook but the internet in general with its echo chamber tendencies which has become "an addictive substitute for real action", as well as a source for manipulative misinformation and bad advice for many naive and gullible people.

And the effect is not limited to far away conflict zones and people living under authoritative regimes: One can be a graduate student of Public Policy at Harvard University and be every bit as out of touch and unable to influence any one beyond a small closed circle of  like minded  "activists".  Unhampered by reality checks and any sense of accountability internet bullies tend to be full of  "sound and fury, signifying nothing".

That is not to say the internet is useless or even counterproductive. Building civic muscle is a slow process, and a serious process best shaped by competent, intelligent, connected people who know there is much more to life, and to political power, than adolescent howls and echo chamber antics.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Hussein Ibish: Clarifying why Arab and Muslim Americans should be smart rather than stupid

Ziad Asali: Learning from the Nakba "The only way to honour 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 a State of Palestine.

... to be an authentic voice...

To Rise to the Challenge

To Build A State

A Tool Box

"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

My letters RE To placate settlers, Israel to build additional 850 apartments in West Bank & Miko Peled's Six days in Israel, 45 years ago -My Israeli general father knew the 1967 war was an opportunity...

UNWRA photo- Palestinian refugees 1949

RE: To placate settlers, Israel to build additional 850 apartments in West Bank
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/to-placate-settlers-israel-to-build-additional-850-apartments-in-west-bank/2012/06/07/gJQAZLVUKV_story.html

Dear Editor,

At least you headlined it- as Israel continues to generously subsidize and empower institutionalized bigorty and religious extremism and a continuation of the Israel-Palestine conflict with all its many negative ramifications.

Palestinian writer Joharah Baker asks in a recent op-ed: "What kind of passion would urge an American Jew living in Miami Florida to work endlessly to plant Jewish settlements in the heart of what is clearly Palestinian territory? What drive pushes these people to believe in a cause so much they would sacrifice money, time, effort and legal obstacles to reach their goal of Jewish control over Jerusalem? It is a drive that has allowed the occupation which began in 1967 to continue, thrive and flourish. If it were not for this near-manic obsession with Israel as a Jewish state, (regardless of how faulty this premise is to the rest of the world) , the 1967 defeat may not have turned into the lifelong nightmare it is now. " 

Israel's racist laws and walls are wrecking havoc everywhere they can reach... tragically for all that reach goes all the way to our Congress here in America where foolishly far too many of our elected leaders are as myopic as the religious leaders who once used the bible and every excuse they could find to justify slavery.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES

Palestinians: US refugee bill may delay peace

June 5, 2012 - 11:55am

Defining a Palestinian refugee a US complication

May 31, 2012 - 12:08pm

Why Unilateralism Won't Work

June 1, 2012 - 3:13pm

People Power for Peace

May 29, 2012 - 10:26am

Nothing is “inevitable”

May 23, 2012 - 4:13pm 
ATFP Expresses Alarm at Footage Showing Settlers Shooting at Palestinians in the Presence of Israeli Soldiers

May 22, 2012 - 9:57am

***********************

RE: Miko Peled's Six days in Israel, 45 years ago -My Israeli general father knew the 1967 war was an opportunity for peace.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-peled-israel-palestine--six-day-war-20120606,0,3821348.story

Dear Editor,

One state is what is now with Jewish immigrants, citizens, and settlement projects generously subsidized by the sovereign state (Israel) and its many fervent supporters and propagandists while individually and collectively Palestinians continue to be cruelly persecuted, impoverished, divided, displaced and disenfranchised.

Negotiations firmly based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights on both sides of every border are the best way forward: Two fully secular states living side by side in peace and security are the best transition away from the bigotry, corruption, injustice, militancy and religious extremism created by the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

A bright future depends on reality based decisions, honoring the Arab Peace Initiative and empowering Palestinians and Israelis to work together, and apart, towards a just and lasting peace for all the people, regardless of supposed race or religion.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES:
"In our debate, I continued to insist that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians is indeed still possible, mostly because a majority on both sides want it and because there is a huge body of international opinion and law that requires it. I've always unhappily accepted that a continuation of the status quo is more likely for the foreseeable future. In Aslan's dystopian vision of a future characterized by increasingly bloody conflicts, “apartheid and ethnic cleansing” is indeed a possibility. But I see no reason to conclude that it will “inevitably” either occur or, less still, yield the outcome he predicts with such astounding confidence—especially not if “ethnic cleansing” is a factor.

Apart from asserting that while a limited number of outcomes can be reasonably defined as “impossible” for the foreseeable future, I argued that almost nothing is "inevitable." Human beings are, in fact, not only able to decide their future, but that's exactly what they always have done and will do, barring unforeseeable natural disasters that are rare and usually manageable." Hussein Ibish  Nothing is “inevitable”

"We must work together to build a future in which both peoples can enjoy the rights, responsibilities and dignity of citizenship and self-determination. There is only one way to actually accomplish this: ending the occupation and creating a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel. Palestinians must recognize and accept Israel, which is a legitimate member state of the United Nations. The Palestinians must have one place on earth, the territories occupied in 1967, where they can live freely as first class citizens in their own independent state. There is no other way to end the cycle of bloodshed, pain and hatred has that lasted for so long." Ziad Asali  The Lessons of the Nakba

"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

Refugees and the Right of Return
Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside. What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer a decision must not be imposed upon them.

UN Resolution 194 Article 11: [The General Assembly]
Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest possible date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible; instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations.

The Arab Peace Initiative requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well...

Israeli Settlers burn down ancient tree in Hebron

A group of settlers burned down an ancient olive tree in central Hebron overnight, witnesses said. (MaanImages/File)

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

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=491441
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli settlers set fire to a 1,000-year-old olive tree in central Hebron overnight Friday, witnesses said.

Local activist Issa Amro said the group then hurled stones at a community center in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood on Saturday morning.

Settlers tried to remove the Palestinian flag from the 'steadfastness and challenge' center while Israeli soldiers looked on, he said.

Several days ago a group of settlers stole the building's flag, which activists had since replaced with a new one, Amro added.

Tel Rumeida lies in the Israeli-military controlled H2 zone of the southern West Bank city, after a 1997 agreement split Hebron into areas of Palestinian and Israeli control.

The zone includes the ancient Old City, home of the revered Ibrahimi Mosque -- also split into a synagogue referred to as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Around 800 Jewish settlers live in Hebron's Old City, among 30,000 Palestinians in the parts of the city that are under Israeli control.

Israel announces 851 new settler homes in West Bank

US says settlement building undermines peace efforts and contradicts Israeli commitments and obligations.

 

Settlers block Hebron farmers from land

Businessweek: Abbas Says Without Jerusalem, Palestinians Don’t Want State

Jonathan Ferziger, Alaa Shahine

Bloomberg
June 5, 2012 - 12:00am
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-05/abbas-says-without-jerusalem-palesti...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said his people don’t want to establish their own state unless they’re assured that Jerusalem will be its capital.

Abbas, speaking today at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Istanbul, blamed Israel for the standstill in peace efforts and called on the U.S. to help break the deadlock.

Palestinians want to create an independent state with east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which Israel captured in the 1967 war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he won’t give up any part of Jerusalem, which he calls the nation’s “undivided, everlasting” capital.

Abbas also told WEF delegates that the West Bank and Gaza Strip currently offer opportunities for investors, particularly in real estate and tourism. 

[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]

Turning The 'Naksa' Around by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

[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.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24908&CategoryId=13

 
The other day on my way home, I passed the three huge hotels just across the seam line between east and west Jerusalem, impinging menacingly on the Palestinian side of the city. The hotels – the Leonardo, Grand Court, and the Olive Tree – were reportedly built with funding from Jewish millionaires dedicated to settling in all of Jerusalem. The infamous Irving Moskowitz is said to be one, but even if he did not put his money into them, he would have rooted for their construction all the same. 

Moskowitz is mostly known for his plans to build Jewish settlements in Palestinian Jerusalem – in Ras Al Amoud, Silwan and in Sheikh Jarrah, on a plot of land that belonged to Jerusalem’s late Mufti, Haj Amin Al Husseini. But settlement construction is not the actual focal point of this article. It is rather about the hell-bent dedication behind it.

Yesterday was the 45th anniversary of the June, 1967 war when the remainder of Palestine fell to enemy hands. Palestinians and Arabs call it “Al Naksa” or “The Setback” but this is a gross understatement. Perhaps at the time, the Arabs thought it was just a tiny blip in their overall battle to regain Palestine, but 45 years later, I am sure they have realized it is much more than that. 

But back to the hotels and the determination that has made them possible; or more importantly the lack of this determination on the part of the Arabs and Palestinians. What kind of passion would urge an American Jew living in Miami Florida to work endlessly to plant Jewish settlements in the heart of what is clearly Palestinian territory? What drive pushes these people to believe in a cause so much they would sacrifice money, time, effort and legal obstacles to reach their goal of Jewish control over Jerusalem? It is a drive that has allowed the occupation which began in 1967 to continue, thrive and flourish. If it were not for this near-manic obsession with Israel as a Jewish state, (regardless of how faulty this premise is to the rest of the world) , the 1967 defeat may not have turned into the lifelong nightmare it is now. 

Contrastingly, we Palestinians have a divided leadership, indifferent Arabs who pay lip service to the cause and a people who try to resist but who have been so worn down by life under this brutal occupation that they fight just to break even.

This is not to say that the fight is over. Looking out of my window in Jerusalem’s Old City I can see Israeli flags hanging from an old Arab window just meters away, scraping at my soul. I know how dedicated Israel is to take our land and keep it. Forty-five years ago Israel managed to capture the remainder of Palestine. Thanks to those so dedicated to its cause, Israel has ensured that Palestine will remain in its grips for many years to come. Nonetheless, Palestinians have endless reservoirs of endurance, resolve and love for their country. They just need the right powers to open the floodgates. 

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.

My letter to the NYTimes RE Going Directly to Israelis and Palestinians

RE Going Directly to Israelis and Palestinians By SHLOMO BEN-AMI, THOMAS C. SCHELLING, JEROME M. SEGAL and JAVIER SOLANA
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/opinion/going-directly-to-israelis-and-palestinians.html?_r=1&ref=global

Dear Editor,

Why do SHLOMO BEN-AMI, THOMAS C. SCHELLING, JEROME M. SEGAL and JAVIER SOLANA want to reinvent the wheel?  Israel is a sovereign nation in long term and flagrant violation of international law and the Palestinians basic human rights.   There are already reams and reams of  resolutions and promises all broken so that Zionist ideologues and bigots can find more time and ways persecute, displace, discredit, and disenfranchise the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land.

In 1948 when Israel was founded Martin Luther King Jr had yet to help America understand the importance of becoming a more real democracy with full and equal rights for all.  But even so the United Nations made it quite clear that every refugee has a right to return to original homes and lands. Part and parcel of the two state solution was then, and remains now, the understanding that people should not be discriminated against because of their supposed race or religion.

A fully secular two state solution to once and for end the Israel-Palestine conflict really is the best way forward, and the ground work for that is already in place. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

An Anne Frank Moment

Disturbing rhetoric on race from Israeli government ministers.

There has been a big increase in the number of Palestinian homes in the West Bank which have been demolished by Israeli forces (BBC News video)

Tourism

Palestine 2012

People Power for Peace

AIPAC inspired H.R. 4133....passed by America's Congress on May 9 by a vote of 411–2 on a “suspension of the rules,” which is intended for non-controversial legislation requiring little debate and a quick vote.

The task before us is to make sure that no further nakbas, no more pogroms or unspeakable horrors, ever occur again

ATFP notes that, as the occupying power, Israel is responsible for protecting Palestinian civilians from attacks by settlers, which is an increasing and highly destabilizing phenomenon.

Open Zion....Hussein Ibish: Beware "Creative Alternatives"

Randa Jarrar: Imagining Myself in Palestine

Hanan Ashrawi: Recognizing Nakba, Reaching Peace

Haaretz Editorial: Nakba is part of Israel's history

Qalqiliya unveils 'train of return' to mark Nakba & Abbas applauds steadfastness on Nakba Day

The Key

Exodus 1948 التهجيرعام (19 photos)

The Arab Peace Initiative requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well...


"It's a simple dictum, but one that many still have trouble accepting: Israelis and Palestinians have to talk to each other if they're going to get anywhere." Hussein Ibish: We Need To Talk

Refugees and the Right of Return
Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside. What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer a decision must not be imposed upon them.

UN Resolution 194 Article 11: [The General Assembly]
Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest possible date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible; instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations.

Help Build A Golden Rule Peace for the Holy Land

...from Growing Gardens for Palestine: Freedom to me is ... (a poem)

Disturbing rhetoric on race from Israeli government ministers.

"This week, Yishai asked rhetorically: “So what, the State of Israel, as the Jewish state, in the name of democracy, in the name of honouring UN resolutions, (should accept) a recipe for suicide?” Likewise, when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the separation of Palestinian spouses, the majority opinion stated: “human rights are not a prescription for national suicide”. " 

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/world-affairs/2012/05/what-behind-israeli-mistreatment-african-migrants

 What is behind the Israeli mistreatment of African migrants?

By Ben White Published 28 May 2012 

The recent anti-African mob violence in Tel Aviv was, sadly, no surprise. Only a few days previously, Prime Minister Netanyahu warned “illegal infiltrators” could threaten the country’s existence “as a Jewish and democratic state”, with Interior Minister Eli Yishai saying that “the migrants are giving birth to hundreds of thousands, and the Zionist dream is dying”. 

 

Cabinet ministers talk in terms of “expulsion by consent or without consent” to “preserve the country's Jewish identity”, and of “taking steps to kick out” the “scourge” of “infiltrators”. A prominent Likud parliamentarian and chair of the “Knesset Caucus to Solve the Infiltrator Problem” urged for this “plague” to be removed “without delay and without mercy”.

 

A disturbing conference held in April in Ramle gives further insight into this mainstream racism, and points to an important connection between the anti-African incitement, and the institutionalised discrimination faced by Palestinians....READ MORE

There has been a big increase in the number of Palestinian homes in the West Bank which have been demolished by Israeli forces (BBC News video)

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18246322

29 May 2012 

There has been a big increase in the number of Palestinian homes in the West Bank which have been demolished by Israeli forces, according to figures released by the United Nations. Much of it takes place in what is called Area C, which covers more than 60% of the West Bank, and where Israel maintains complete control.  Jon Donnison reports from the West Bank.

Watch Video 'Increase' in West Bank demolitions

Tourism

Rare treasure trove of ancient jewelry found

Israeli archaeologists have discovered a rare trove of 3,000-year-old jewelry, including a ring and earrings, hidden in a ceramic jug near the ancient city of Megiddo, where the New Testament predicts the final battle of Armageddon, May 25.

Old gold
meets flesh again
gets polished

glints in eyes
dazzles
fashions stories
to entertain
modern times
and sensibilities

Molded ibexes,
or wild goats
sit like

like sphinxes
posed at rest

Canaanite
it is called,
and it looks to me
like a clasp
for a scroll

or a napkin ring


My own habits
and hopes
and table manners
forge meaning
for me at least

fingering memories
from afar
of kids
scampering
on ancient rock



                                                           poem copyright ©2012 Anne Selden Annab