"Ibtisam Barakat acclaimed author of TASTING THE SKY: A Palestinian Childhood
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Ibtisam Barakat: Palestine Spring 2011
"Ibtisam Barakat acclaimed author of TASTING THE SKY: A Palestinian Childhood
My letters 5-21-2011 regarding Obama & Israel
RE: Editorial Board Opinion The blowup with Israel
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-blowup-with-israel/2011/05/20/AFwl827G_story.html
Dear Editor,
What matters most is creating a just and lasting peace with a two state solution to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict as soon as possible- for everyone's sake.
Does your own editorial help that process, or does it hinder efforts to understand important priorities... Obama did not fail- Israel failed to respect good advice.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
********************************
RE: Obama Draws the Line By Roger Cohen
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/opinion/21iht-edcohen21.html?ref=opinion
Dear Editor,
Yes long term, it really is totally indefensible for Israel to be colonizing another people... it is also totally indefensible to be pushing the native non-Jewish men, women and children of historic Palestine into forced exile: Thousands of Palestinians who left the West Bank to work or study between 1967 and 1994 had residency rights revoked by Israel
A two state solution will only work if it is based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights, including but not limited to full respect for the Palestinian refugees very real right to return to original homes and lands. Many Israelis have dual citizenship, enjoying full rights and freedoms and security both in their original country of birth as well as in Israel, whereas most Palestinians have no real rights or security anywhere. Palestinians need full and equal rights too, they need the security of a sovereign state as well as the option of dual citizenship where ever they might chose to live and invest their time and talents.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
"The ultimate goal of a two-state solution, however, must be not only two states for two peoples but also two states that will each embody an expression of their respective people’s national and historical narratives, two stories that will coexist without one needing to negate the other." Hussein Ibish: Two Narratives for Two Peoples
The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Growing Gardens for Palestine
Annie's New Letters (& notes)
Friday, May 20, 2011
Hussein Ibish: Two Narratives for Two Peoples
Hussein Ibish: Two Narratives for Two Peoples
Many Jewish Israelis and their supporters have reacted with outrage to a New York Times Op-Ed on May 17 by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, particularly its invocation of the Palestinian historical narrative. Most troubling to them was Abbas’s description of how his family was “forced” to flee their home in what became Israel in 1948 — a word choice they feel implies that Abbas and his family were evicted by Jewish troops.Abbas did not make any such claim, of course. Palestinians did, as the historical record suggests, quite reasonably feel “forced” to flee a war zone even when they were not physically compelled to do so. But the focus on that one verb was also a distraction from the main point of his narrative: the ongoing denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. This denial, which is unquestionably true, lies at the heart of the Palestinian refugee grievance. It is also a historical fact — confirmed even by Israeli leaders who personally participated in these actions like the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin — that many Palestinians were subjected to forced expulsions, even if Abbas’s family was not among them.
What this disingenuous uproar points to is the continued refusal by both Palestinians and Israelis to recognize each other’s narratives as legitimate and to insist that their version of history alone is truthful.
Both sides fundamentally regard each other as interlopers. Modern Jews, particularly Jewish Israelis, see themselves as the sole heirs of the biblical Hebrews, and tend to view that ancient history as a metaphysical deed to the entirety of the land. They also tend to see Palestinian history as beginning with the Muslim conquest of Palestine, and sometimes dismiss most Palestinians as recent arrivals drawn to the area by the benefits of Jewish immigration in the 20th century. Palestinians typically consider themselves to be the descendants of all of the ancient peoples of the land, including the biblical Hebrews, and often question the lineal descent of modern Jews from the biblical Hebrews. They sometimes cast Jewish Israelis simply as colonialists and question key aspects of the Jewish historical narrative.
Israeli leaders have a long history of denying not only Palestinian history, but also Palestinian identity, such as Golda Meir’s infamous comment that there was no such thing as a Palestinian people. Palestinians, of course, have consistently returned the favor, frequently implying that Jews are a religious community but not a coherent national or ethnic group with the right of self-determination.
The truth elided by both parties is that the Palestinian and Israeli identities are 20th-century phenomena that emerged in parallel and in contradiction to each other. One hundred years ago, the words “Israeli” and “Palestinian” were meaningless. This is not to say that Arabs and Jews don’t have deep histories, but both political identities are recent constructs, forged in the context of the ongoing conflict.
Palestinian and Israeli national narratives both contain elements of the truth but they are tendentious and dismiss crucial and undeniable, but inconvenient, historical facts that are crucial to the other party’s identity. It is impossible, in the foreseeable future, for these narratives to be reconciled. Jewish Israelis will not become Palestinian nationalists, and Palestinians will not become Zionists.
One of the reasons that the two-state solution is the only way out of the conflict is that it would allow the two national projects and narratives to coexist in separate states. Rather than trying to base a resolution on arriving at one mutually accepted understanding of history, a two-state solution would also be a tacit acceptance that there are two mutually exclusive narratives, but this should not prevent each side from achieving some compromised version of its national aspirations.
Ultimately, it will be necessary for Palestinians to acknowledge the deep Jewish attachment to the land and for Israelis to acknowledge that the Palestinians are indeed its indigenous people, with not only civil and religious rights, but national ones as well.
But Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as “the nation-state of the Jewish people” is implausible because it implies a permanent, metaphysical national right belonging to all Jews in the world, whether or not they are Israelis. However, language in which Palestinians recognize a Jewish right of self-determination in the State of Israel and Israelis recognize the Palestinian right of self-determination on what are now the occupied territories, is almost certainly a prerequisite for the conclusion of a viable peace agreement.
Such reciprocal recognition of self-determination in two states will probably have to come at the end of negotiations, rather than as a prerequisite for them. The core final status issues, like refugees and Jerusalem, cannot be bypassed or foreclosed first.
The ultimate goal of a two-state solution, however, must be not only two states for two peoples but also two states that will each embody an expression of their respective people’s national and historical narratives, two stories that will coexist without one needing to negate the other.
Netanyahu's outrage at Obama's Middle East speech is synthetic
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/20/netanyahu-outrage-obama-speech-synthetic
Netanyahu's outrage at Obama's Middle East speech is synthetic
US presidents from Clinton onwards have used Israel's 1967 borders as a basis for talks
Thursday, May 19, 2011
HUSSEIN IBISH: One Step Forward
By acknowledging that interests and values sometimes contradict, President Obama has cleared the path for progress in the Middle East.
BY HUSSEIN IBISH | MAY 19, 2011
Obama returned to the theme that characterized his last major Middle East policy speech, on the Libyan intervention: the intersection, and often tension, between American interests and values. He wisely chose not to proffer a facile panacea that would almost certainly have proven unworkable...READ MORE
James Zogby: Barack Obama's speech: no Cairo 2.0, For Americans, perhaps, this was stirring stuff. But for an Arab audience...
"Recognising the new realities in the Middle East is important. But recognising that Arabs see Palestinian rights as a central concern and have grown weary of what they feel is America's enabling of Israel's bad behaviour is important, too. The president got the new realities part right, but he missed a vital opportunity on Palestine." James Zogby
Barack Obama's speech: no Cairo 2.0 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/19/barack-obama-middle-east-speech
Barack Obama's speech: no Cairo 2.0For Americans, perhaps, this was stirring stuff. But for an Arab audience, hoping for more commitment on Palestine, it fell flat
Sherri Muzher's ESCAPE TO A WORLD OF PALESTINIAN SURPRISES: Artist Steve Sabella
Born in Jerusalem, Steve Sabella was named “An Artist to Watch,” by the ArtTactic Middle Eastern Report in 2010. The recipient of the Ellen Auerbach Award (2008) by the Akademie der Künste (Academy of the Arts) in Berlin, the gifted artist was commissioned for the inauguration of MATHAF: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha Qatar.
Now based between London and Berlin, Sabella’s artwork Till the End (2004 - photo emulsion on Jerusalem stone) entered the permanent British Museum collection in London. Sabella talks about this artwork: "So I ask myself today, whether the images on the stones were early visual prophecies about what was happening to Jerusalem and its transformation into an image (eventually disappearing) and how in many ways many of these images accompanied me from childhood."
To see this unique and creative artwork of stones, please visit: http://www.stevesabella.com/end.html
"At each place I visited, images started to emerge on surfaces of stones--it was as if they were revealing distant memories. I picked up a stone from every place, and at the same time I photographed an image of the place."
"I later on printed that image on the stone; in effect each place had its image on it I tried to preserve what was left, and if there was nothing left, I tried to imagine how the place looked in the past."
Now based between London and Berlin, Sabella’s artwork Till the End (2004 - photo emulsion on Jerusalem stone) entered the permanent British Museum collection in London. Sabella talks about this artwork: "So I ask myself today, whether the images on the stones were early visual prophecies about what was happening to Jerusalem and its transformation into an image (eventually disappearing) and how in many ways many of these images accompanied me from childhood."
To see this unique and creative artwork of stones, please visit: http://www.stevesabella.com/end.html
"At each place I visited, images started to emerge on surfaces of stones--it was as if they were revealing distant memories. I picked up a stone from every place, and at the same time I photographed an image of the place.""I later on printed that image on the stone; in effect each place had its image on it I tried to preserve what was left, and if there was nothing left, I tried to imagine how the place looked in the past."
My Letters 5-19-2011 RE The Middle East mess...etc.
LATimes Editorial: The Middle East mess, Though recent events don't bode well for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, we can't give up.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-mideast-20110519,0,1528080.story
Dear Editor,
Past events are what don't bode well for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: Specifically sovereign Israel's bigoted refusal to respect the basic human rights of the native non-Jewish population of historic Palestine... Palestinians protesting this past week are not simply protesting Israel's founding- they are protesting the cruel injustice of the ongoing Nakba as Zionists continue to usurp Palestinian land, rights, freedom and peace.
Strong leadership and a willingness to take chances would indeed help create a just and lasting peace- start by refusing to be bullied into endorsing institutionalized bigotry. Fact is a fully secular two state solution based on FULL respect for international law and universal basic human rights would go a long way towards ending the religious extremism and suffering created by the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
******************************
RE Mahmoud Abbas’s formula for war By Jackson Diehl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mahmoud-abbass-formula-for-war/2011/05/18/AFsdUl6G_story.html
Dear Editor,
Dismantling Jim Crow did not destroy America- respecting universal basic human rights, including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees inalienable right of return to original homes and lands will not destroy Israel: A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict really is the best way forward- for everyone's sake.
PLO Mission: 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. http://www.plomission.us/index.php?page=core-issues-3
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker & poet
"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
The remarkable bravery of refugees on Nakba day was the first act of a Palestinian summer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/19/nakba-day-palestinian-summer
Palestinians climb the border fence between Syria and the Golan. Photograph: Jalaa Marey/Reuters
Palestinians climb the border fence between Syria and the Golan. Photograph: Jalaa Marey/ReutersNakba day: we waited 63 years for this
The remarkable bravery of refugees on Nakba day was the first act of a Palestinian summer
It was the moment for which we had all been holding our breath for decades – for 63 years to be precise. Palestinians everywhere watched the unfolding scene transfixed and awed. The camera followed the movements of a small group of people advancing from the mass of protesters. They were carefully making their way down a hill towards the high fence that closed off the mined field separating Syria from its own occupied territory of the Golan that borders historic Palestine, now Israel.They were mostly young Palestinians, drawn from the 470,000-plus refugee community in Syria: from Yarmouk refugee camp inside Damascus, from Khan el-Sheikh camp outside it, from Deraa and Homs refugee camps in the south, from Palestinian gatherings all over the country.
Slowly, and in spite of the shouted warnings from the villagers from Majdal Shams about the lethal landmines installed by the Israeli military right up to the fence, these remarkable ordinary young people – Palestinian refugees – began to both climb and push at the fence. We were going home.
It was a profoundly revolutionary moment, for these hundreds of young people entering Majdal Shams last Sunday made public the private heart of every Palestinian citizen, who has lived each day since 1948 in the emergency crisis of a catastrophe. Waiting, and struggling, and organising for only two things: liberation and return.
What made this moment and others like it across the region so radical in gesture, democratic in purpose, and universal in intent? It brought the entire world suddenly face to face with the intimate and immediate in the very human struggle for freedom of each Palestinian, whether refugee or not. Sixty-three years ago the entire body politic of the people of Palestine was violently destroyed and dispersed. All Palestinians, whether refugee or not, share that terrible history – it is what unites us.
This is the shared experience we commemorate every year on Nakba Day: the year-long expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that began in 1947 and continued straight through 1948 into the terrible snowstorm winters of 1949, creating what is now the world's largest refugee population....READ MORE
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
CNN News: Palestinian refugees making high fashion..."They know where they came from and they think that's home. Their dream is to go back."
" Most of the women were born in the refugee camps and have never been to the Palestinian Territories, but still consider it to be home.
Inglessis said: "They are always thinking about Palestine, of their villages, their homes, their olive trees, or what's left of them -- even the ones who have never been there.
"They know where they came from and they think that's home. Their dream is to go back.
"When they are embroidering, they feel Palestine is with them. It's their roots. They are fighting with their needle." "
Palestinian refugees making high fashion
May 18, 2011 -- Updated 1030 GMT (1830 HKT(CNN) -- Women living in refugee camps are embroidering clothes and accessories sold in high-end department stores, through a business started by a 27-year-old Palestinian woman.
Zeina Abou Chaaban runs a social business called "Palestyle" selling embroidery made by Palestinian women in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon.
The designs, including clothing, bags, jewelry and belts, are sold through Bloomingdales in Dubai, and other stores in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and the UK.
Abou Chaaban, a Palestinian woman living in Dubai, said: "I wanted to spread the richness and wealth of Palestinian culture, but in a trendy way.....READ MORE
http://www.palestyle.com/#!about-us
Economist: Israel and Palestine Here comes your non-violent resistance
Here comes your non-violent resistance
May 17th 2011, 2:09 by M.S.
FOR many years now, we've heard American commentators bemoan the violence of the Palestinian national movement. If only Palestinians had learned the lessons of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, we hear, they'd have had their state long ago. Surely no Israeli government would have violently suppressed a non-violent Palestinian movement of national liberation seeking only the universally recognised right of self-determination.Palestinian commentators and organisers, including Fadi Elsalameen and Moustafa Barghouthi, have spent the last couple of years pointing out that these complaints resolutely ignore the actual and growing Palestinian non-violent resistance movement. For that matter, they elide the fact that the first intifada, which broke out in 1987, was initially as close to non-violent as could be reasonably expected. For the most part, it consisted of general strikes and protest marches. In addition, there was a fair amount of kids throwing rocks, as well as the continuing threat of low-level terrorism, mainly from organisations based abroad; the Israelis conflated the autochthonous protest movement with the terrorism and responded brutally, and the intifada quickly lost its non-violent character. That's not that different from what has happened over the past couple of months in Libya; it shows that it's very hard to keep a non-violent movement non-violent when the government you're demonstrating against subjects you to gunfire for a sustained period of time.
In any case, if you're among those who have made the argument that Israelis would give Palestinians a state if only the Palestinians would learn to employ Ghandhian tactics of non-violent protest, it appears your moment of truth has arrived....READ MORETuesday, May 17, 2011
Can Obama's Mideast speech fit the square peg of interests in the round role of values?
"For Obama to resolve the clear tension between American interests and values regarding demands for radical change in Washington’s relations with allied Arab states is an extraordinary challenge. Coming up with an actionable formula that can place the US on the side of the aspirations of the Arab people, which is essential, without further antagonizing and alarming its already skittish – and, in some important cases, alienated – allies will be the greatest foreign policy challenge this young president has yet faced." Hussein Ibish
Can Obama's Mideast speech fit the square peg of interests in the round role of values?
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