INFOGRAPHIC: Israel's system of segregated roads in the occupied Palestinian territories

image credit: Visualizing Palestine

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In this Friday, June 15, 2012 photo, a Palestinian girls carries a Palestinian flag in the West Bank town of Susiya. Palestinian herders in this hamlet have clung to arid acres spread over several West Bank hills for decades, even as Israel forced them to live off the grid while providing water and electricity to nearby Jewish settlements and unauthorized outposts. But the end seems near for Susiya's 200 residents: Citing zoning violations, Israel is threatening to demolish the village, including German-funded solar panels. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

 http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-village-faces-demolition-israel-224334826.html

Palestinian village faces demolition by Israel

By KARIN LAUB

SUSIYA, West Bank (AP) — Palestinians in this hamlet have clung to their arid acres for decades, living without proper electricity or water while Israel provides both to Jewish settlers on nearby hills. But the end now seems near for Susiya: Demolition orders distributed last week by the Israelis aim to destroy virtually the entire village.

Before it does, Israel could encounter an international complication: Several European countries, with traditional Israel ally Germany in the lead, have funded solar panels, wind turbines and wells to make life in area villages more bearable. A diplomatic incident may loom.

"They are turning us into refugees on our own land," said resident Mohammed Nawaja, principal of a 35-student elementary school that consists of four tents slated for removal.

Susiya is one of more than a dozen "unrecognized" Palestinian herding communities in the southern West Bank, a desert-like area close to the Green Line, Israel's pre-1967 war frontier with the West Bank, when it was ruled by Jordan. Its 160-odd residents live in shacks, caves and tents with cement-reinforced walls.

Israeli authorities say the structures are unlicensed. Residents and their supporters say Israel refuses to grant permits as part of a plan to clear the area for future territorial claims...READ MORE

Palestinian Refugees

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-06/21/c_131666685.htm

Palestinian refugees with dream of returning home after 64 years

English.news.cn   2012-06-21 02:28:36

GAZA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian refugee Abdel Majid al- Mabhouh, 81, does not understand the ongoing complexities in politics, but only keeps in mind his right to return to his house and his village that he was forced to leave during the 1948 Arab- Israeli war with his family.

Al-Mabhouh, his parents and six brothers had been forced to leave their village Beit Tima, north of the Gaza Strip, during the war. They then lived temporarily under tough circumstances in a house of a relative in Gaza, and then they all moved to live in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.

Jabalia is one of dozens of refugee camps established by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNWA) in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The Palestinians marked on Wednesday the 12th anniversary of UNRWA's approval of the International Day of Refugees.

Al-Mabhouh feels pain on this day as he has been living for 64 years in a refugee camp in the impoverished Gaza Strip, away from his land and house. However, he gets relieved when he recalls memories in the village and speaks about his properties amid hope that he will soon return there.

"I never lost hope to make my dream true. I have this dream in my mind for 64 years, and I always have a strong feeling that this dream will come true," al-Mabhouh told Xinhua, adding "I will never give up struggling for my right although six and a half decades had passed."

Winkles were clear on al-Mabhouh's face, and every winkle tells a story about his tragedies. He always sits down at the entrance of a narrow alley that leads to his house in Jabalia refugee camp, where children surrounds him and he starts telling them stories about how life was beautiful in Beit Tima.

The Palestinians calls the day they became refugees "al-Nakba Day," or catastrophe. They marked the International Day of Refugees and used the anniversary as a way to review their tragedies, issues and problems, especially focusing on how they keep the world attracted to their just cause.

"64 years ago, I was 16 years old. I still remember everything as if everything happened yesterday, when we left our house in Beit Tima, east of al-Majdal, or as Israel call it Ashkelon. I remember how we left during the hard times of the war as Jewish guerillas threatened to kills all of us," said al-Mabhouh.

He went on saying that hundreds of people left everything and escaped to the Gaza Strip. "I still remember that in the beginning of the war, I wasn't able to visit my relatives and we believed that the issue of return for us was a matter of few days and we would go back home. But it took us 64 years."

The old man kept talking about the experience of leaving the village in the heat of the summer in 1948, adding that he still remembers women and children walking on the hot sands. "Some families escaped from their homes and forgot their babies sleeping in their beds."

"After we arrived in Gaza, I never expected that we would remain alive. Now I live in Jabalia refugee camp, which is not so far from Beit Tima, it is only 30 kilometers far from here and still can smell it," al-Mabhouh said, adding "It is ridiculous, I live not far from my village and I can't visit it."

The UN General Assembly approved the Palestinian refugees' right of return in resolution number 194, which said "Refugees who want to return can return and live in peace with their neighbors and this has to be done as soon as possible. Compensations should be paid for lost of properties or damages."

However, the question of refugees and right of return has become one of the permanent status issues in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinians believe that this issue, which is the most important part to achieve just peace in the Middle East, has to be resolved.

"We had left everything behind and the only thing we have now just documents as a proof that we own the land," said the old man who is married to two wives, Fatima, 70 year-old, and Sou'ad, 67. They all live in one house together with their children and grandchildren.

Ahmed 34, al-Mabhouh youngest son, said as he was sitting beside his father in the refugee camp "I never lived in the pain and (was not) suffering that my father had passed through, but I heard and read accurately about our tragedies and I understood that we own properties of lands. It is our right and we will get it."

Ahmed is always busy taking care of his small family; however, he keeps in mind that one day his family will return back to their village they came from. "If my father dies, I will keep struggling for our right of return and I will educate my children never give up demanding for our legitimate rights."

Zakareya, an 11-year-old grandson of al-Mabhouh, said "I heard in the news about the International Day of Refugees and I understood from my grandfather that our family owns a house and a land in the village of Beit Tima and that our land used to be cultivated with vegetables and fruits."

The Palestinian Central Statistics Bureau said in a report issued on refugees' day that the number of Palestinian refugees registered by UNRWA had reached 5.1 million, adding that 17.1 percent live in the West Bank, 23.8 percent in Gaza, 40 percent in Jordan, and the rest in Syria and Lebanon.

Editor: yan

Political upheavals or unrest have created tensions in or near all of UNRWA’s fields of operation.

"... Sixty-four years into the exile of the Palestine refugees, UNRWA’s mandate is unchanged and remains clear: you and other United Nations Member States have asked and continue to ask UNRWA to assist the refugees until a just solution is found. We continue to do this in a political and economic climate that produces profound challenges.

The protraction of the refugee issue, however, like other “final status issues”, is trapped in a stagnating peace process, and this increases pressure around the refugee question in the public domain.

Efforts to dilute and to change definitions of refugees put great pressure on UNRWA, on host countries, and on donors supporting UNRWA. Even more importantly, they create huge anxiety in a population whose stability and security are essential to a region that continues to experience volatility — volatility which, in turn, contributes to the climate of uncertainty in which Palestine refugees live. Today, therefore, my first request to you — as our advisory body — is to reconfirm your support for UNRWA’s role and mandate. This support, today, is more important than ever.

The 45-year Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the continuing blockade of Gaza, the illegal but relentless settlement expansion, are destroying the ability of Palestinians to build a productive and peaceful future.

What has been called the “Arab Spring” has created space and opportunity for expressions of civil and political rights, but it has also confronted us with challenges and dangers.

Political upheavals or unrest have created tensions in or near all of UNRWA’s fields of operation.

Refugees, in addition to the heavy burden of protracted and unresolved exile, are facing the challenges of political, social and economic change.

If UNRWA were to reduce its humanitarian and human development support in this situation, it would have highly unpredictable consequences, and with uncertainty comes danger....READ MORE

http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=1376

Commissioner-General’s opening statement to UNRWA Advisory Commission, June 2012

18 June 2012
Dead Sea, Jordan

Delivered by Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi at the 2012 meeting of the UNRWA Advisory Commission.

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Hold Israel accountable for the creation and continuation of the tragic refugee situation, and demand that Israel abide by international law which calls for the right of return and reparations...World Refugee Day 2012

Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi (MaanImages/File)

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=497090

Ashrawi urges world to address Palestinian refugee situation

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi on Wednesday called on the international community to hold Israel to account for the situation of Palestinian refugees.

"Our refugees' only hope of return is through international law and intervention to bring about a just solution," Ashrawi said in a statement marking World Refugee Day.

The lawmaker called on the Middle East Quartet and world powers to "hold Israel accountable for the creation and continuation of the tragic refugee situation, and to demand that Israel abide by international law which calls for the right of return and reparations."

She continued: "Close to six million Palestinians have individual stories to tell, one for each of our refugees. And their collective narrative forms the basis for any resolution based on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194."

Passed towards the end of the 1948 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Resolution 194 called for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes. Israel consented to the resolution, but has since rejected any proposals for the repatriation of Palestinian refugees in Israel.

Ashrawi singled out the United States in particular, where lawmakers in the Senate Appropriations Committee are attempting to redefine refugees in order to exclude descendants of those who were expelled in previous generations.

"This must be seen for what it is, a cynical and cruel manipulation of human suffering to relieve Israel of its moral and legal responsibility to the Palestinian people as outlined in the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees," the lawmaker said.

The 1951 Geneva Convention outlined the rights of refugees and their host countries’ responsibilities.

"Israel must not go unchallenged in its attempts to portray our people's loss as anything other than a violent mass expulsion," Ashrawi added.

World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations to raise awareness about the situation of refugees.

 PLO Official says Israel is Accountable for Refugee Problem

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=20103

RAMALLAH, June 20, 2012 (WAFA) - PLO Executive Committee member and lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi Wednesday said Israel should be held accountable for creating and the continuation of the Palestinian refugee problem.

She said in a statement marking World Refugee Day that while the United Nations was asking the world to honor and to support the millions of men, women and children who have been driven from their homes and many from their homelands by violence, Israel and its supporters in the United States Congress are working to deny the Palestinian refugees their rights.

“Our refugees' only hope of return is through international law and intervention to bring about a just solution,” she said.

The international community should “hold Israel accountable for the creation and continuation of the tragic refugee situation, and to demand that Israel abide by international law which calls for the right of return and reparations,” said Ashrawi.

“Israel’s failure to fulfill its obligations under the law is obstructing the prospects for peace and the possibility of sustaining stability in the region and beyond,” she stressed.

“Moreover, the international community must stand against attempts to distort the status of Palestinian refugees, as the US Senate Appropriations Committee is trying to do by attempting to re-define refugees by disputing the rights of descendants of those brutally expelled more than 60 years ago,” she said.

“This must be seen for what it is, a cynical and cruel manipulation of human suffering to relieve Israel of its moral and legal responsibility to the Palestinian people as outlined in the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees,” said Ashrawi.

“Israel must not go unchallenged in its attempts to portray our people's loss as anything other than a violent mass expulsion. Whether under occupation or in exile, the Palestinian people deserve their freedom, dignity, self-determination, and a just conclusion of their plight,” concluded Ashrawi.

Arab Voices

"...Hussein Ibish, named by Foreign Policy magazine this week to its Twitterati 100, recently wrote a column acknowledging his errors in predicting the course of the Egyptian revolution and the wider Arab Spring.

The senior research fellow for the American Task Force on Palestine said he had learned some valuable lessons.

“Resist trying to impose any grand narratives. Take every apparently emerging pattern as contingent and unstable. Be prepared for Arab states and publics alike to pleasantly surprise or disappoint without warning,” he wrote.

“Avoid predictions whenever possible. And acknowledge that we frequently don’t really ‘know’ what we think we ‘know,’ for political realities are always at least a dozen steps ahead of every analyst.”"

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/arab-voices-the-lessons-of-the-egyptian-spring-so-far/

NYTimes blogs... Arab Voices: The Lessons of the Egyptian Spring So Far

Alice Walker rejects Israeli request to publish ‘The Color Purple’ in Hebrew

Novel by Alice Walker, published in 1982, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/alice-walker-rejects-israeli-request-to-publish-the-color-purple-in-hebrew/2012/06/20/gJQAvd6jpV_story.html

By Associated Press,

JERUSALEM — American writer Alice Walker won’t let an Israeli publisher release a new Hebrew edition of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Color Purple,” saying she objects to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people.

Walker, an ardent pro-Palestinian activist, said in a letter to Yediot Books that Israel practices “apartheid” and must change its policies before her works can be published there.

“I would so like knowing my books are read by the people of your country, especially by the young and by the brave Israeli activists (Jewish and Palestinian) for justice and peace I have had the joy of working beside,” she wrote in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press. “I am hopeful that one day, maybe soon, this may happen. But now is not the time.”...READ MORE

7 poems by Anne Selden Annab

written years ago & posted on a webpage about to disappear

http://home.comcast.net/~anneseldenannab/

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

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

    Treasure

Where once we searched
 for cities of gold
    El Dorado…
We now scratch in the dust
for pot shards.
digging gently
    with small spades
  and brushes
to bring forth the foundations
of ancient cities
to prove our own myths
   and make sure our own
    crumbling words,
(with accents twisting accents
eroding into forgotten dialects)

aren't as irrelevant
as they sometimes seem to be.


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

        Combat

The mine field
where words where ever
how ever who ever
detonate into perpetuity.

Words have no choice
but to etch themselves into
where ever they might land.

Liquid ink on the page;
the page itself deteriorates
before it's script can fade.

Chiseled chinks in stone;
the stone cracks and crumbles
yet the wedge remains in
                air.

Always air.

Rock: Paper: Scissors:
Air



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

             Write Lightly

        Write lightly
        as the wildflowers do,
        becoming
        their own bouquets:
        The land a lovely lady
        so delicate,
        step closely to the earth
        ankles touched by bloom
        and eyes downcast, delight
        little blue bloom
        cradles a star flicker.
       
        Red poppies with
        papery purpose
        daze the heart
        as they cluster
        like congregations
        to singe the air
        with brilliant
        fresh blood
        flame red
        soft petal.
       
        I am in silk
        inspired by
        the small flowers
        touched by
        their gentle
        tenaciousness,
        tucked into rocks
        everywhere
        and flowing out
        into fields.
       
        They are of every hue
        though the wild mustard
        shouts  and sways
        and seems to push
        all else aside
        with it's flamboyance.

        But the it's
        the little bouquets
        found everywhere
        underfoot,
        splays of delight,
        that catch my eye.
        Floral mosaics.

        Everywhere
        there is garden
        herb and flower flourish-
        a brief enchantment
        in a desert land
        that soon enough
        will be all browns
        brushed with bare earth.


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

            The Flute

        Books read backwards.

        Jaffar translated
        Kahil Gibran's The Flute
        (The Song).
        The text I read in English
        was pretty

            But Jaffar's unrhymed
              pure translation
              is so much more moving
        the pretty words replaced
            with depth
                the gasp... the last breath of life.


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

          

            Script

        What the flowers write
        in fragile form
        spelled into shape-
        stem stalk swim
        in the Arabian breeze,
        become
        the odd squiggles
        found woven
        in formal rugs
        and flow with symmetry
        into the classical script
        of scribes.

        Calligraphy is arabesque
        and the script itself shifts,
        its characters embellished
        and burgeoning
        into geometric patterns,
        strong rhythms
        usurping words.

        A Garden
        is the echo of paradise,
        emphasizing seclusion
            introversion
        The central fountain
        like self
       
        reflecting.


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

     En'Shallah

Shivering,
stand in wet snow
        listening to thunder,
        as sleet melts
        into rainfall
               
The sun's glinting light
        pulls forth a pretty posy
here and there
        until barrages of bloom
rupture the earth.
       
Day after day of bloom bursting
       
And the deep indigo
        of an oriental night
        is beautifully fragrant
with jasmine.
       
        By day the desert heat
        comes back
        to claim all color,
        washing the hills
with brown stubble
        which the goats will graze to aught.

                       Presume, as you stand on barren stone
        that soon enough, next spring-
       
        En'Shallah...

        This rock ledge will once again
        brim
        with flowers
        and a crumbling castle
        will be a thousand urns
        of growth.

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

    A Mother's Hand

Bless all those
  who love
and linger in their love

A mother's hand
         on a child's heart

gently, ever so gently,
     reminding her child
            of his sacred place

      in the hearts of all.

Bless all those
    who know and understand

and keep safe

every child

        of any age
                   
                      and race.

poem & photo copyright ©2012 Anne Selden Annab

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