ADC Commemorates al-Nakba: 62 Years of Palestinian Dispossession (1948 - 2010)

ADC Commemorates al-Nakba: 62 Years of Palestinian Dispossession (1948 - 2010)

On May 15, Palestinians across the world mourn al-Nakba, the destruction of historic Palestine and the massive displacement of Palestinians by Israeli forces in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Al-Nakba was not a singular event; displacement continues to this day affecting thousands of Palestinians throughout the Middle East. There are approximately seven million Palestinian refugees and 450,000 internally displaced persons, representing 70% of the entire Palestinian population worldwide (9.8 million).[i]

Internal displacement continues, unabated, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced as a result of the building of the wall, home demolition, and eviction orders. The threat of displacement hangs over those who remain.

Similar patterns of forced displacement are found in Israel, where urban development plans for the exclusive benefit of Jewish communities are displacing indigenous Palestinian communities in places like Naqab (Negev) and Galilee.

More recently on March 9, 2010, the Netanyahu government approved the development of 1,600 new housing units in occupied East Jerusalem, a policy condemned by the U.S. This development will forcibly displace several families from their land.

Palestinian refugees in host countries are also vulnerable to forced displacement. For instance, as a result of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, persecution has forced over half of the approximately 34,000 Palestinian refugees residing in Iraq to leave the country. Additionally, over 31,000 people were displaced from Nahr al-Bared camp in Lebanon in 2007, and most have not been able to return. Palestinians constitute the largest and most protracted refugee situation in the world.

Sixty three years after their initial forced displacement from their homeland, Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons still lack access to voluntary durable solutions and reparations -- which include return, restitution, and compensation -- based on international law and UN resolutions.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is mandated to provide assistance to 1948 Palestinian refugees, and on an emergency and temporary basis to1967 Palestinian refugees and to those displaced as a result of subsequent hostilities. UNRWA faces many difficulties in implementing its mandate due to funding shortages and armed conflicts in the region, in particular Israel's military occupation.

ADC is committed to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. Any peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict requires the following: The dismantlement of the Israeli Wall which is being constructed through the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands; the cessation and dismantlement of settlements; an end to the collective punishment imposed on the Palestinian population as a result of Israeli occupation policies; the creation of a viable and independent Palestinian state; and the upholding of the right of return of the Palestinian refugees under international law. ADC will continue to advocate the rights of the Palestinian people to freedom, equality and self-determination in an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

For more information visit www.badil.org and www.adc.org/organizing/2009-resolutions

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[i] Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights

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Contact: media@adc.org

202-244-2990

NOTE TO EDITORS: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), which is non-profit, non-sectarian and non-partisan, is the largest Arab-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was founded in 1980 by former Senator James Abourezk to protect the civil rights of people of Arab descent in the United States and to promote the cultural heritage of the Arabs. ADC has 38 chapters nationwide, including chapters in every major city in the country, and members in all 50 states.

The ADC Research Institute (ADC-RI), which was founded in 1981, is a Section 501(c)(3) educational organization that sponsors a wide range of programs on behalf of Arab Americans and of importance to all Americans. ADC-RI programs include research studies, seminars, conferences and publications that document and analyze the discrimination faced by Arab Americans in the workplace, schools, media, and governmental agencies and institutions. ADC-RI also celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the Arabs.

ADC Research Institute (ADC-RI) | www.adc.org
1732 Wisconsin Ave., NW | Washington, DC | 20007
Tel: 202-244-2990 | Fax: 202-333-3980 | E-mail: media@adc.org

Witness - Shooting Hope

Can Only a Catastrophe Unite Us? By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=22116&CategoryId=3

Can Only a Catastrophe Unite Us? Date posted: May 17, 2010 By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

Every year Palestinians commemorate this tragic event. And every year, the hope that the injustice caused by this event will be rectified becomes slimmer and slimmer. Al Nakba or the Catastrophe is a wound all Palestinians bear, refugee or otherwise. Sixty-two years ago, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or lost their homes in fear for their lives from attacking Jewish gangs. Some were massacred in their homes, some died the fighting, some were forced out of their villages and towns and some fled in order to stay alive, only to be denied reentry after Israel was created. Today, many of the original refugees have perished, those who carried a few precious belongings on their backs, their children at their sides and the keys to their homes securely tied around their necks. The younger refugees may still be around, aging Palestinians, some of whom have never seen Palestine but who can recount the events of 1948 like it was yesterday, who can tell you the name and location of their lost village and the house in which they never set foot. Perhaps it is the fact that this tragedy is so immense and so deep-cutting that Palestinians find themselves united in its commemoration. For whatever reason, Palestinians in the Diaspora, in refugee camps in Palestine and in neighboring countries, inside the Green Line in what is now Israel and here in Palestine have rallied around this painful memory as one voice and one force calling for one thing: the right of return. For us beleaguered Palestinians who have witnessed the bitter internecine fighting for years between the various factions, this has been, ironically, a breath of fresh air. Factions banded together in Gaza, the Hamas-controlled Strip to commemorate the loss of Palestine and the homes and villages of so many of its people. Reminiscent of the days of the first Intifada in particular, Al Nakba commemoration this year transcended all factional lines. The right of refugees to return has always been a Palestinian demand and is an inalienable right enshrined in international law. Today, that right is no less of a demand than it was in the early days of the Palestinian exile. The turnout at Nakba commemorations and the unity the Palestinians projected is clear evidence of this fact. However, what is most striking this year is not only the heart-wrenching pictures of refugees in exile but the heartwarming images of unified Palestinians. Such images also beg a very important question, which is, if the Palestinians are so resolved on an issue such as this, why can they not agree on other equally as important points? At the risk of coming across as simplistic, it seems that Palestinians have a bottomless reservoir of hope, determination and patience, which they tap into whenever they choose. Can they not dip into this eternal reserve and find the strength to overcome their political divisions? Nothing is impossible, especially this. It is about time, too. The situation as its stands is lethal. Hamas in Gaza accuses the Abbas-run government in the West Bank of rounding up its men, interrogating them under difficult circumstances and blocking jobs to them because of their affiliation. Fateh and the government, on the other hand, say Hamas is smuggling arms into the West Bank as a means of contesting the PA's authority and is persecuting the few remaining Fateh loyalists still in Gaza. Where rumor and truth coincide is hard to say but like the popular Arabic saying goes, "There is no smoke without fire." For one, the thirst for power has blinded Palestine's leaders to a point where the ultimate goal is often lost. Unfortunately, the power the sides are vying for is nothing but illusory given the fact that Palestinians are still very much under Israel's occupation. In any case, the liberation of Palestine is the slogan all factions continue to uphold but the fact of the matter remains that seats of 'false' power are the immediate goal. Take for example, the failure of Hamas and Fateh to reconcile. “The message today is a message of national unity in facing the Israeli occupation," said one Fateh leader in Gaza. "“National unity is the way to preserve the right of return," a Hamas leader insisted. They are right, of course, at least in paying lip service. In reality, a Palestinian reconciliation at the political level seems like a bleak possibility. Until, of course, one sees the Nakba commemorations. It is a shame the Palestinians have lost their way. Nothing pains us more than seeing our leaders so divided. We should take a leaf out of Israel's book when it comes to showing a united front. Irrespective of the governments in office, Israel's goal has always been unwavering: Expand Israeli territory including illegal settlements as fast as possible with as few Palestinians on the remaining areas. The status quo of Palestine today is witness to Israel's resolve. Internal Israeli politics are wracked with dissent, corruption, backstabbing and strange bedfellows, just like in any other political system. But this does not deflect from their national goal, which they have forwarded steadily ever since Israel's creation. Palestinians need to learn that valuable lesson and who better to learn it from than the root of the problem itself? We have the potential; the symbolic keys held up in unison in Gaza, the West Bank, the US, Europe and the Arab world all point to that bottomless reservoir of hope and promise. Let us take advantage of that so that legitimate Palestinian demands such as the right of return are not lost in the chaos of our egotistic hunger for power. 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.

http://arabnews.com/opinion/editorial/article54418.ece
Arab News Editorial

Driven to despair

Should anyone like to congratulate Israel for its creation, it would be equivalent to congratulating it on the success of its daylight robbery of Palestine and the systematic expulsion of the Palestinian people from their land and homes. As Palestinians mark yet another day remembering the Nakba, the catastrophe of Israel’s creation in 1948, any congratulations being extended should go to their evictor-turned-jailor of the world’s largest prison.

The Nakba are the days of infamy that created what has become the largest diaspora of refugees in the world. On May 14 the state of Israel was declared and the first Arab-Israeli war broke out in earnest the next day. The prospective state of Israel launched a massive military incursion into Palestinian territory, creating in its wake three quarters of a million Palestinian refugees, the destruction of hundreds of entire villages not only depopulated but obliterated, and houses blown up or bulldozed.

As a result, five million Palestinian refugees and their descendants are now scattered across the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. About one-third still live in UN-supported refugee camps.

Their plight is one of the most emotionally charged issues of the conflict. The Israeli side has not given an inch on its basic premise: The confiscated Palestinian land, which comprises 92 percent of Israel’s area, will not be returned to its rightful owners, and the inhabitants of villages and towns who were expelled by Israeli forces in 1948 will not be allowed to return home. The standard explanation is an influx of refugees would dilute Israel’s Jewish majority and threaten the existence of the state.

In this, Israel is backed by Washington which would like to see the Palestinians, displaced in 1948 and 1967, assimilated wherever they are now living or resettled in countries, Arab or otherwise, that are ready to receive them.

On the other hand, the five million Palestinian refugees who have endured 62 years of wars, destitution and exile, refuse to accept this diktat and insist on their right to return home. They have strong bases for that claim. The right of return is legal, pursuant to UN Resolution 194, which calls for both repatriation and indemnification.

There is no precedent in UN history for the universal, sustained and firm consensus accorded to the right of the refugees to return to their homes. It has been affirmed over 100 times by the UN. The right to return home has been affirmed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by similar European, American and African charters.

It might be suggested that as the indirect Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, which are scheduled to discuss the core issues of the conflict, begin this is not the time to talk about the right of return in the absence of not just a Palestinian state but substantive progress on other issues of the conflict. The Israelis are expanding the settlements on a daily basis, Judaizing what is left of Jerusalem, and narrowing Palestinian horizons in every conceivable manner. Under these circumstances, it is argued, the right of return should take a back seat in negotiations.

But there is a centrality to the right of return and any resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict not including the repatriation of millions of uprooted refugees to their original homes and villages in what is now called Israel would be strongly rejected by the Palestinian people, especially those forced out, seemingly never to be allowed in again.

My letters to Newsweek, The Washington Post, & AFSC regarding Palestine & Boycotts

‘Palestine: The Exodus and Odyssey’ by Ismail and Tamam Shammout.

RE: Boycott Blues, Palestinians can't wreck Israel's economy by boycotting goods made in the settlements. So why are Israelis so worked up?
http://www.newsweek.com/ID/237960

Dear Editor,

Good to see Newsweek noticing non-violent Palestinian efforts to protest Israel's continuing crimes against the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land... however you only touched the tip of a very big iceberg: How many more Palestinian homes will Israel wreck- how many more lives will Israel ruin, how many more careers will Israel and its lobby destroy, how many more children will be traumatized, and how many more negotiations will Israel [and its supporters] sabotage before both peace and Palestine have a chance to become more than merely a dream for the many people besieged and tormented by the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

******************************
RE: Palestinians turn to boycott in West Bank
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/15/AR2010051501492.html

Dear Editor,

Fascinating to read the details of the boycott efforts by Palestinians in the West Bank, as well as some of the economic realities propelling Israel's offensive settlement projects in the illegally occupied territories.

Obviously religion empowered by tax payer's money plus military arsenals tends to quickly become institutionalized bigotry: How many more (native non-Jewish) Palestinian men, women and children will lose homes and lands (and jobs) and be pushed into poverty and forced exile due to Israel's Jews-preferred policies and investments on all sides of that monstrous Israeli made 'security' wall?

I very much hope that more people become more aware of the importance of supporting Palestine and peace- and a negotiated SECULAR two state solution to end the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

******************************
American Friends Service Committee
http://afsc.org/office/palestine

Dear AFSC,

Looking over your recent reading list Israel-Palestine Recommended Reading List, I was sorry to see that you did not have Hussein Ibish's most recent book "What’s Wrong with the One-State Agenda? Why Ending the Occupation and Peace with Israel is Still the Palestinian National Goal"

Yes there are probably many other books you could have maybe included too- such as the poignant Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape by the Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh , but I point out Ibish's book as many concerned and well meaning but misguided people here in America have been convinced to invest in boycott efforts rather than doing what they can to fully support and advocate a nonviolent negotiated settlement in line with international law, relevant UN Resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative shaping a just and lasting peace for both Israel and Palestine.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
http://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/
http://growinggardensforpalestine.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

Unclench your fist... Live by the Golden Rule

Growing Gardens for Palestine

Refugees, Borders & Jerusalem

"....will return"
by Ismail Shammout

Still continuing... The Palestinian Nakba

Jordan Times Editorial
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=26569

Still continuing Yesterday marked the 62nd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. Some argue, reasonably, that the Nakba shouldn’t be commemorated because it is continuing, and marking down one day to remember it loses sight of this fact. But Nakba day serves a useful purpose: it is the day when the focus falls, as it too rarely does, on what the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is fundamentally about, namely the wholesale dispossession and exile of more than half the Palestinian population in 1948 to make way for Israel. That this new entity in the region wanted the land for itself, rather than to share, became obvious almost immediately when, in transgression of international law and common human decency, Israel refused to grant these Palestinian refugees the right to return to their lands and homes. This refusal became legalised theft in 1950 when the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the nascent state to take over the lands of the Palestinians who had fled or had been expelled. Until the Nakba, it is well to remember, there was never a Jewish majority in Palestine, nor did Jews own more than a fraction of the land. It is little wonder then that the greatest fear of Israelis is the Palestinian demand that their right to return be upheld, and that it be upheld for the children and the grandchildren of the original refugees. The right of return, even though it is prominent in international law, and a basic human right that Jews themselves have exercised to claim property and land in Germany and Europe that was stolen by the Nazis, is most fiercely opposed by Zionists, who do not wish to share the land with Palestinians. But these same Zionists must understand that peace is hollow without justice. There will be no real resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict until there is a just resolution to the refugee issue. There is only one meaningful way to do that: granting all Palestinian refugees and their descendants the choice to return and compensation for their losses. One suspects that Israelis, deep down, understand the price paid by others for the creation of their state, because like a guilty child that acts out whenever it is scolded, Israel bombards its neighbours whenever it finds itself in an impasse. And even though one-state solution advocates rank among the most forgiving in this conflict, with their insistence that Jews and Palestinians can and should live together in equality, nothing is guaranteed to annoy most Israelis more. But even under the two-state solution that the world appears to have thrown its weight behind, the right of return must not be sacrificed for some ill-thought out notion of utility. It would be a huge step back, indeed, for world order, legitimacy and morality to allow the limited 19th century Zionist mindset of ethno-religious state purity to win the day. 16 May 2010

Palestinians mark Nakba Day in East Jerusalem

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=284491

200 Palestinians mark Nakba Day in East J'lem

The sign reads
"Palestinian Refugees:
One Indivisible Struggle
for Return"

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Some 200 Palestinians led by Palestinian Knesset members marked Nakba Day in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood on Saturday, Israeli media reported.

Protesters arrived to the rally carrying signs reading "Judaization of Jerusalem – The new Nakba," the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Led by members of the Balad party within the Israeli parliament, a host of Palestinian dignitaries, including Fatah Jerusalem Affairs Chief Hatem Abdul Qader, rallied in the flashpoint neighborhood, the site of Palestinian evictions.

"There is an attempt to undertake a transfer of people. According to statistics, more than 60,000 people live under the threat of house demolition, and hundreds of houses face razing plans," Abdul Qader told the daily.

"Should Barkat, Aharonovitch and Netanyahu will try to implement the orders, it will be like tossing a match into a field," he warned. "If they try to implement the mad demolition plan there will be a third intifada," he said. "I'm calling for Palestinian unity on the defense of Jerusalem. This is every Palestinian's responsibility."

According to Balad MK Hanin Zuabi, Sheikh Jarrah symbolizes the injustice cause to Palestinians, the daily wrote.

"This is a political atrocity and human tragedy. People who were expelled from their original villages in 1948 came to Jerusalem and now Israel is persecuting them again. This is a second Nakba for them."

The MK also said that Palestinians are protesting against the plan to Judaize Jerusalem, "Which Netanyahu wishes to complete by the end of his term," Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

"We are the non-silent victim who doesn't agree with the Zionist project's core of a Jewish state," she said.

Earlier this week, Balad activist Omar Said was arrested on suspicion of espionage along with Amir Makhoul, both prominent leaders of Palestinians living in Israel.

In March, the Israeli Knesset passed what some termed a "softened Nakba Law," which forbids marking Israel's independence day and the founding of Israel with mourning ceremonies and vandalizing or acts of disdain toward the flag or state symbols, effectively criminalizing Nakba Day.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100515/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictnaqbajerusalem
Palestinian Diana Safieh, 69, shows old identity cards and photographs at her house in the mostly Arab east Jerusalem on May 14. Safieh was just seven years old when her family fled their west Jerusalem home on a spring night in 1948 in fear of bloody clashes between Jewish and Arab forces.(AFP/Marina Passos)

Palestinian woman remembers exodus 60 years ago

by Ines Bel Aiba Ines Bel Aiba – 5-15-2010

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Diana Safieh was just seven years old when her family fled their west Jerusalem home on a spring night in 1948 in fear of bloody clashes between Jewish and Arab forces.

Now at nearly 70, she wants to catch at least a glimpse of a fading memory.

"My father would say: 'We will never leave Jerusalem,'" the elegant and sprightly Palestinian woman from an upper middle-class Christian family tells AFP on an emotional journey of return.

On Saturday, the Palestinians were in mourning to mark the "Naqba," or catastrophe, of Israel's establishment 62 years ago in British-mandated Palestine and with it the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Arab inhabitants.

Safieh remembers that on the morning of May 13, 1948, she was picking flowers for the nuns of Saint Joseph convent.

"If we had known what was to befall us, we would have done something else," she says with a smile. By the end of the day, the house and its furniture as well as money and jewellery in the bank had all been lost.

Panic had been spreading in the neighbourhood for months, with people abandoning homes. "By May 13, it had become unbearable," says Safieh.

In the middle of the night, little Diana and her brother Jean were woken up by their father. The family was packed into the car and sped off to the convent where a relative was a nun.

On May 14, the state of Israel was declared and the first Arab-Israeli war broke out in earnest the next day.

The Safieh family stayed three months at the convent before deciding, like many others, to move to Beirut. Father Emile decided it was time to return nine months later to Jerusalem, where they settled in the Arab eastern sector.

More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number more than five million with their descendants -- were pushed into exile by the conflict or driven out of their homes.

"We were very lucky," admits Safieh, whose two brothers live abroad. "We did not end up in a refugee camp, and we had the means to travel and to have an education."

Today she lives in the Beit Hanuna district of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Safieh has only seen the old family house once since Israeli independence, and that was a painful experience back in 1967 with parents Emile and Odette, who had both since died.

"I don't know if I will remember it. In '67, there was a palm tree and the house next door had a tiled roof," she says ahead of the trip down memory lane to what it now the upper-class Jewish district of Baqaa....READ MORE

A Palestinian refugee boy walks in an alley near his family's house in the Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 14, 2010. Palestinians mark the 62nd anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel on Saturday May 15, 2010, calling it 'Nakba' or the 'day of the catastrophe', when in 1948 many thousands were forced from their lands and homes.(AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Nakba Palestinians ride their horses during a protest marking the anniversary of the 'Nakba', Arabic for catastrophe, inside the Balata refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, May 14, 2010. The 62nd anniversary for the Nakba will be marked by Palestinians on Saturday, May 15, when they commemorate the creation of Israel which forced Palestinians from their lands, and is called Nakba or the 'day of the catastrophe'.(AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Palestinian children gather before the funeral of Aysar Zaben, 16, in the West Bank town of Mazra'a al Sharqiya, near Ramallah, Friday, May 14, 2010. Zaben, was found dead from a gunshot wound near his village, and Palestinians said Friday he was likely shot by an Israeli settler while throwing stones at cars. The Israeli military, which exercises overall control in the West Bank, said its troops were not involved in the incident. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Nakba,Palestinians shout slogans as they mark the 62nd anniversary of the 'Nakba,' Arabic for catastrophe, during a rally organized by Hamas in the southern border village of Maroun el-Rass, Lebanon, Friday, May 14, 2010. Protesters commemorated on Friday the dispersal of Palestinians during the 1948 war over Israel's creation.(AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A Palestinian man looks through a pair of binoculars at the border with Israel during a sit-in to mark the 62nd anniversary of Nakba in the village of Maroun Al Ras, southern Lebanon, near the border between Lebanon and Israel, May 14, 2010. Palestinians will mark "Nakba" (Catastrophe) on May 15 as a day of mourning for the establishment of Israel in 1948 after which an Arab-Israeli war brought the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho (LEBANON - Tags: ANNIVERSARY CIVIL UNREST)

Palestinian children learn about Nakba to mark the 62nd anniversary of Nakba at Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp, southern Lebanon May 14, 2010. Palestinians will mark "Nakba" (Catastrophe) on May 15 as a day of mourning for the establishment of Israel in 1948 after which an Arab-Israeli war brought the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho (LEBANON - Tags: ANNIVERSARY EDUCATION)

Palestinian men speak as a Palestinian child looks on during a sit-in to mark the 62nd anniversary of Nakba in the village of Maroun Al Ras, southern Lebanon, near the border between Lebanon and Israel, May 14, 2010. Palestinians will mark "Nakba" (Catastrophe) on May 15 as a day of mourning for the establishment of Israel in 1948 after which an Arab-Israeli war brought the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho (LEBANON - Tags: ANNIVERSARY CIVIL UNREST)

Palestinian hold a symbolic key during a protest in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah May 14, 2010. Palestinians mark "Nakba" (catastrophe), a term is used by Palestinians to describe the founding of Israel in a 1948 war when some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes, on May 15. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK - Tags: ANNIVERSARY CIVIL UNREST)

A Palestinian protester dressed as Handallah, a Palestinian cartoon character, stands near tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers, not pictured, during a protest by Palestinians against Israel's separation barrier and marking the anniversary of the 'Nakba', Arabic for catastrophe, outside the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, Friday May 14, 2010. The 62nd anniversary for the Nakba will be marked by Palestinians on Saturday, May 15. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Palestinian protesters dressed as Handallah, a Palestinian cartoon character, stand in front of a large key, during a protest by Palestinians against Israel's separation barrier and marking the anniversary of the 'Nakba', Arabic for catastrophe, in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, Friday May 14, 2010. The 62nd anniversary for the Nakba will be marked by Palestinians on Saturday, May 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Palestinian men hold keys symbolizing the keys to houses left by Palestinians in 1948 during a rally marking the anniversary of the 'Nakba', Arabic for catastrophe, in the Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 14, 2010. The 62nd anniversary for the Nakba will be marked by Palestinians on Saturday, May 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Palestinian boy holds symbolic key REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

An elderly Palestinian carries a symbolic key during a sit-in marking the 62nd anniversary of the 'Nakba,' Arabic for catastrophe, organized by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in front of the United Nations House in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, May 14, 2010. Protesters commemorated on Friday the dispersal of Palestinians during the 1948 war over Israel's creation.(AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Nakba. A Palestinian boy carries a banner in Arabic that reads :' What about the children of Palestine,' during a sit-in marking the 62nd anniversary of the 'Nakba,' Arabic for catastrophe, in front of the United Nations House in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, May 14, 2010. Children commemorated on Friday the dispersal of Palestinians during the 1948 war over Israel's creation. The Arabic on their shirts read :' The birds of return.' (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Nakba, A Palestinian girl carries a banner with a writing in Arabic that reads:' I'm not staying as a refugee, I'm returning,' during a sit-in marking the 62nd anniversary of the 'Nakba,' Arabic for catastrophe in front of the United Nations House in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, May 14, 2010. Children commemorated on Friday the dispersal of Palestinians during the 1948 war over Israel's creation. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Nakba. Palestinian children carry balloons and pictures during a sit-in marking the 62nd anniversary of the 'Nakba,' Arabic for catastrophe in front of the United Nations House in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, May 14, 2010. Children commemorated on Friday the dispersal of Palestinians during the 1948 war over Israel's creation. The Arabic writing reads :' We're staying,' right, ' We're returning.' (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A boy holds up a Palestinian flag during a Nakba rally in Kafar Kana May 14, 2010. Palestinians will mark "Nakba" (Catastrophe) on May 15 to commemorate the time when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes in the war that led to the founding of Israel in 1948. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ANNIVERSARY)

People watch as big balloons attached to a giant keffiyeh, a traditional headscarf, are released during a rally celebrating Palestinian culture in the West Bank city of Ramallah May 13, 2010. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: SOCIETY)

Palestinian youths play with a ball during sunset at the beach of Gaza City May 13, 2010 REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: SOCIETY TRAVEL)



A Palestinian man rides a horse during sunset at the beach of Gaza City May 13, 2010 REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: SOCIETY ANIMALS TRAVEL)

Beyond negotiations: Palestinian strategies for advancing peace by Hussein Ibish

http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=27779&lan=en&sid=0&sp=0&isNew=1

Beyond negotiations: Palestinian strategies for advancing peace by Hussein Ibish 13 May 2010

WASHINGTON, DC - The Obama administration was successful in arranging for the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations through “proximity talks”, which began last week, but expectations in all quarters are correctly low for any near-term breakthrough. Consequently, Palestinians have been systematically developing a new set of peaceful strategies to achieve independence and advance a resolution to the conflict.

Since the UN General Assembly meeting in the fall, the whole thrust of American policy has been to try to get the parties back into negotiations, with the apparent hope that this would then create its own dynamic and open spaces for significant progress.

The idea of “proximity talks” in which Americans would speak alternately to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators who would not meet directly, came out of the administration’s efforts to find a way for the Palestinians to return to negotiations with Israel without a complete settlement freeze. This is, of course, an unfortunate throwback to the pre-Madrid era. An even worse throwback is the renewed Palestinian reliance on “approval” from the Arab League for what ought to be strictly Palestinian decisions regarding negotiations with Israel.

With expectations for the talks being what they are, all parties are wondering whether or not the Americans have a “Plan B”. Washington is currently embroiled in significant debates about the alternatives. One camp is urging the possible development of a broad-ranging and specific US peace plan. Another is cautioning against raising expectations and counselling that no significant progress is possible under the present circumstances. A third possibility is for the United States to internationalise the process by calling a peace summit at the end of the year in the event of a continued stalemate.

The Palestinian leadership is committed to negotiations but has no confidence they can achieve anything significant immediately given the present political climate and makeup of the Israeli cabinet. At the same time, they are resolutely opposed to armed struggle or another violent intifada. Because of this conundrum, they have been developing a series of creative alternative strategies designed to complement diplomacy and provide additional sources of momentum towards peace.

The most important of these is the state and institution building programme adopted in August 2009 by the PA cabinet, which includes creating a fully functioning bureaucracy and the institutional, economic and infrastructural basis for a successful, independent Palestinian state.

The idea is that as negotiations proceed slowly for the meanwhile, Palestinians can build the framework of their state, making independence not just a theoretical possibility but a potentially practical reality. It calls the bluff of all parties, challenging them to assess if they were ever serious about their stated commitment to a peace based on a Palestinian state.

In addition, the PA has been increasingly promoting nonviolent protests and civil disobedience in the West Bank targeted at the occupation. These protests, such as those at villages affected by the West Bank separation barrier, highlight abusive Israeli policies, and confront the occupation in a proactive but peaceful manner.

A third tactic in this emergent peaceful strategy to confront the occupation are various economic measures aimed at ridding the Palestinian economy of settlement goods, encouraging European and other states to boycott settlement products and preventing Palestinians from working in settlements. The economic aim here is to replace the settlement elements of the Palestinian economy with indigenous ones, providing alternatives to the Palestinians subsidising the settlements themselves and simultaneously expanding the Palestinian economy. All these measures are designed to emphasise the distinction between Israel itself and the occupation, and focus attention on the contradicting interests of most Israelis on the one hand, and extremist settlers on the other. Palestinians are saying to ordinary Israelis, “Our policy is not aimed at you or your country but at the extremist settlers whose activities, because they are antithetical to peace, are in the end are as damaging to you as they are to us.”

All this means that, while the Palestinian leadership is committed to a negotiated agreement, they are not relying solely on American leadership or Israeli sincerity and are developing parallel, complementary tracks that they can control and which bolster diplomacy.

All parties seriously committed to a two-state agreement, especially the international community, should welcome and support these new Palestinian initiatives, especially the state and institution building program.

###

* Hussein Ibish is a Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and blogs at www.ibishblog.com.

This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 13 May 2010,
www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Common Ground News Service

Palestine must be a secular state

by Hussein Ibish
In the fifth article in our series on religious freedom in the Israeli-Palestinian context, Hussein Ibbish from the American Task Force on Palestine contends that in a future Palestinian state, religious freedom will be possible only if the state structure is founded on secular values.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 28 January 2010)

Dear AP - The Edward Said question on this years AP test

Dear AP,

I suspect you will be getting many complaints about the Edward Said question on this years AP test as there are harassment campaigns being launched to punish you for daring to print the word Palestinian.

The transition from the Zionist rally cry of "There is no such thing as a Palestinian" into a more enlightened and compassionate era is bound to be difficult. I very much hope that your best students, regardless of supposed race or religion, were able to rise to the occasion- able to concentrate on writing a great essay.... it really was a perfect question.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker & poet

Honoring Edward Said... analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching

Edward Said and sister, Rosemarie 1940

from my dear friend Nancy:

Form A of the 2010 Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Test uses a prompt inspired by Edward Said

2010 Free-Response Questions (.pdf/182K)

(Suggested time 40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)

Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent, even enriching” experience.

Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or one of comparable literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot.

The American

Angle of Repose

Another Country

As You Like It

Brave New World

Crime and Punishment

Doctor Zhivago

Heart of Darkness

Invisible Man

Jane Eyre

Jasmine

Jude the Obscure

King Lear

The Little Foxes

Madame Bovary

The Mayor of Casterbridge

My Ántonia

Obasan

The Odyssey

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

The Other

Paradise Lost

The Poisonwood Bible

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

The Road

Robinson Crusoe

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Sister Carrie

Sister of My Heart

Snow Falling on Cedars

The Tempest

Things Fall Apart

The Women of Brewster Place

Wuthering Heights

Click on 2010 Free Response Questions

2010 Free-Response Questions (.pdf/182K)
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Piano Keys

Fayeq Oweis "The piano keys honor Edward Said’s artistic talent. They also honor his efforts in using music to bridge the Palestinian-Israeli divide (Riding 2006). Together with conductor Daniel Barenboim, he created the East-West Diwan Orchestra" Honoring Edward Said: Outline and Element Descriptions 9, featuring young Israeli and Palestinian musicians.