United Nations News: Middle East Quartet calls on Israel, Palestinians to launch direct negotiations

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35675&Cr=Palestin&Cr1

Middle East Quartet calls on Israel, Palestinians to launch direct negotiations

20 August 2010 – The United Nations and its diplomatic partners in the Middle East Quartet today called on the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume direct talks starting next month with the aim of reaching a wide-ranging agreement within the next 12 months to end the region’s long-running conflict.

In a statement issued this morning, the Quartet members – the UN, the European Union, Russia and the United States – called on the two sides to launch direct negotiations on 2 September in Washington “to resolve all final status issues and fulfil the aspirations of both parties.”

Direct bilateral talks have not been held since late 2008, but indirect, or proximity, talks resumed in May this year, with the former United States senator George Mitchell shuttling between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Seven rounds of indirect talks have been held and earlier this week Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco told a Security Council meeting that the push to resume direct talks had reached a turning point.

Late last month, Arab League foreign ministers agreed to give their backing in principle to Mr. Abbas re-starting direct negotiations when he deems it appropriate.

Today’s statement noted that “the Quartet expresses its determination to support the parties throughout the negotiations, which can be completed within one year, and the implementation of an agreement.

“The Quartet again calls on both sides to observe calm and restraint, and to refrain from provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric.”

The statement stressed that direct negotiations will only be successful if there is “sustained regional and international support” for both the talks and the “parallel process of Palestinian State-building and the pursuit of a just, lasting and comprehensive regional peace as envisaged in the Madrid terms of reference, Security Council resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.”

Quartet members have consistently called on the two sides to adhere to their commitments under the Roadmap, the internationally approved plan for a two-State solution in which Israel and the Palestinians can live side by side in peace and security.

Israelis and Palestinians Must Show Courage, Flexibility, Persistence for Peace Talks to Succeed

Joint ATFP-JCPA Statement: Israelis and Palestinians Must Show Courage, Flexibility, Persistence for Peace Talks to Succeed

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Information: Hussein Ibish
August 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Joint ATFP-JCPA Statement: Israelis and Palestinians Must
Show Courage, Flexibility, Persistence for Peace Talks to Succeed

NEW YORK – Following today’s announcement that Israeli and Palestinian officials will resume direct negotiations, two leading Jewish and Palestinian American organizations, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), are stressing that “both parties must now show courage, flexibility and persistence in order to move towards a negotiated end of conflict agreement.”

Speaking on behalf of JCPA and ATFP, Dr. Conrad Giles and Rabbi Steve Gutow, chair and president, respectively, of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and Dr. Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine, today issued a joint statement welcoming the resumption of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians:

“The United States has a crucial role to play in facilitating negotiations that will result in a successful outcome. The achievement of a peace agreement allowing for a viable and independent Palestinian state to live side-by-side in peace with a secure Israel -- within internationally recognized borders and with normal relations across the Middle East -- is not only in the interest of Israelis and Palestinians. It is a vital American national interest as well.

We have no illusions about what will be an arduous and difficult process. The issues that must be resolved are profound, even existential.

Both sides must take concrete steps in the short term to instill greater mutual confidence in this process and to demonstrate resolve to stay at the negotiating table as long as it takes to achieve an agreement. Israelis and Palestinians have suffered for far too long. It is time to make peace.

As negotiations continue, American and international support for the Palestinian Authority's state and institution building program -- that is committed to fighting terrorism and incitement, and developing a sustainable economic infrastructure -- is an essential complement to diplomacy.

We congratulate the Obama administration on succeeding in getting direct negotiations back on track. Both parties must now show courage, flexibility and persistence in order to move towards a negotiated end of conflict agreement.”

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community, serves as the national coordinating and advisory body for the 14 national and 125 local agencies comprising the field of Jewish community relations.

American Task Force on Palestine is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Palestinian-American organization whose mission is to advocate that a negotiated agreement allowing for two states, Israel and Palestine, to live side-by-side in peace and security is in the American national interest.

The Palestinian State and Institution Building Program
Documents detailing the state and institution building program of the 13th Palestinian Government, including the overall plan and priority interventions for 2010.

Patience, perseverance, and determination.... for Palestine

"We are all well aware that there remains mistrust between the parties, a residue of hostility developed over many decades of conflict, many previous efforts that have been made to resolve the conflict that had not succeeded, all of which takes a very heavy toll on both societies and their leaders. In addition, we all know that, as with all societies, there are differences of opinion on both sides on how best to proceed, and as a result, this conflict has remained unresolved over many decades and through many efforts. We don’t expect all of those differences to disappear when talks begin. Indeed, we expect that they will be presented, debated, discussed, and that differences are not going to be resolved immediately.

But we do believe that peace in the Middle East, comprehensive peace, including, but not limited to, an end to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, is very much in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians, of all people in the region; it’s in the national security interests of the United States, and therefore, we are going to continue to pursue that objective with patience, perseverance, and determination. We know that will be difficult. We know, as the Secretary said, there will be obstacles. But we’re going to proceed, as I said, with patience, perseverance, and determination."

George Mitchell
Special Envoy for Middle East Peace

U.S. Department of State: Engaging the Community on Foreign Affairs

Briefing on Middle East Peace Process

www.state.gov

Secretary Clinton and Special Envoy Mitchell

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EGUA-88GSQQ?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR

OPT: Persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities: Report of the Secretary-General (A/65/283)

Source: United Nations General Assembly

Date: 11 Aug 2010

Full_Report (pdf* format - 41.4 Kbytes)

Sixty-fifth session
Item 51 of the provisional agenda*
United Nations Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

Summary

In its resolution 64/88, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report to it, after consulting with the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), on the progress made in the implementation of the resolution.

The present report refers to correspondence between the Secretary-General and the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations regarding actions taken by the Government of Israel in implementing the relevant provisions of the resolution. It also presents the information made available by the Commissioner- General of UNRWA to the Secretary-General on the return of refugees registered with the Agency to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic.

UNRWA Celebrates World Humanitarian Day

Jerusalem
19 August 2010

http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=778

Today, 19 August 2010, the United Nations celebrates World Humanitarian Day, an opportunity to pay tribute to humanitarian workers the world over.

In 2008, a special session of the UN General Assembly designated the day “to honor all humanitarian and the United Nations and associated personnel who have lost their lives in the cause of duty and those who have worked in the promotion of the humanitarian cause.” The day marks the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, which killed 22 people and injured more than 100.

The day seeks to increase public awareness about humanitarian work and the importance of international co-operation. It also commemorates humanitarian personnel who have lost their lives in delivering responses, and those who work to promote the humanitarian cause.

Today, the UN is marking the day by releasing a short film featuring United Nations staff worldwide. Shot in over 40 countries by humanitarian workers, with all time donated for free, the film aims to show the diversity of places, faces and endeavours of humanitarian aid workers in 2010.

My letter to Al-Ahram RE Franklin Lamb Disemboweling the right of return

RE: Franklin Lamb Disemboweling the right of return
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/1012/re8.htm

Dear Editor,

Today, 19 August 2010, the United Nations celebrates World Humanitarian Day, an opportunity to pay tribute to humanitarian workers the world over: According to UNWRA's web report UNRWA Celebrates World Humanitarian Day "The day seeks to increase public awareness about humanitarian work and the importance of international co-operation. It also commemorates humanitarian personnel who have lost their lives in delivering responses, and those who work to promote the humanitarian cause." http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=778

Please note the key phrase in that statement.. . "the importance of international co-operation."

The right of return is a reasonable right- and a universal basic human right clearly affirmed by international law. People world wide (regardless of race, religion, or nationality) should simply support this basic human right (regardless of race, religion, or nationality.)

Depicting Israel's refusal to respect this basic human right as a war between "US- Israel" and Arabs and Muslims, or however you want to help define the supposed "clash of civilizations" confuses the issue, and very much undermines potential sympathy for the very real plight of the Palestinians.

International co-operation is crucial in order to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict and the very real suffering of countless innocent and increasingly vulnerable people.

Palestinian refugees need as many options as possible. Palestinians should not be forced to remain in impoverished refugee camps. Palestinians need to be free to move on collectively and individually: Free to return to what is now Israel to become Israeli if that is what some want- or free to relocate to help build a sovereign Palestinian nation-state living in peace alongside Israel.... or free simply to live elsewhere.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Growing Gardens for Palestine

Palestinians turn to educational reform by Hussein Ibish

http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=28316&lan=en&sid=0&sp=0&isNew=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

On the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Palestinians turn to educational reform by Hussein Ibish 19 August 2010 WASHINGTON, DC - In an important new move, the Palestinian Authority has recently begun highlighting education as one of the main centrepieces in the next phase of the state and institution building programme. Under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas, the PA understands that an effective and progressive educational system is essential for economic and social development, building a functional state, and laying the groundwork for peace with Israel. On August 8, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad gave a speech emphasising the importance of improved education in combating fanaticism, promoting culture, and developing analytical capabilities in Palestinian society. He called educational improvement a “key priority” of the state and institution building programme and “one of the most important criteria for measuring its success.” In his speech, Fayyad singled out three essential aspects of education that need special attention. These were bold observations that are striking, not only in the Palestinian context, but in the Arab context at large. First is the crucial need to respond to the decline of language skills and competency, particularly in Arabic. What this rightly suggests is that while in the early decades after 1948 much of Palestinian society responded to their predicament and the creation of the refugee problem by turning to education, the level of education among Palestinians has been in a kind of freefall in the last couple of decades, especially in the Occupied Territories. The turning point was probably the outbreak of the first Intifada in which energies began to be channelled away from education in favour of political activism. Second, the PA believes there is an “urgent need” to promote analytical capabilities and critical thinking among Palestinian youths and students. Palestinian education, as with much of the rest of the Arab world, relies too much on the rote memorisation and the simple ingestion of raw data or received wisdom rather than the cultivation of critical thinking and analytical skills. The PA is clearly concerned about the need for the future Palestinian state to focus on its human capital as a key resource for development and prosperity. Without analytical and critical abilities promoted by an effective educational system, human capital is reduced simply to highly structured labour rather than a modern, creative, dynamic society that can thrive without major natural resources or luxurious arable lands for agriculture. In his third and closely related point, Fayyad spoke about the need to use education to combat the growing prevalence of narrow-minded rigidity, enforcement through spurious appeals to supposed religious or cultural traditions, in both Palestinian thinking and social conduct. As an example he cited the increasingly widespread practice of avoiding handshaking between men and women which he said was not related to any real religious doctrine or traditional mores but nonetheless was becoming “not only accepted but expected”. Obviously, this handshaking taboo is only one example of many manifestations of the kind of reactionary tendencies he wants Palestinian education to combat and is a symptom of the overall constriction in Palestinian culture and attitudes he rightly finds alarming. Hamas, the primary enforcer of such attitudes among Palestinians, was predictably enraged and said Fayyad is seeking to corrupt the youth of Palestine and destroy its culture. Obviously the education sector is of key strategic and political importance. It not only helps shape social attitudes, it's an essential function of government that must be carried out as effectively as possible. And, of course, it is precisely through providing education and health services over the years that extremist groups like Hamas in Gaza have won political support and spread its ideology among people who need those services. The Palestinian leadership seems well aware that it must urgently do more to provide these services themselves, and more importantly do it in the right way to create a Palestinian society that can thrive in the modern world. This new plan for intervention is exceptionally important to lay healthy foundations for a successful, viable Palestinian state that could live in peace with Israel. But more importantly, it is impressive and unusual in the Arab context to find a serving prime minister, with the support of the president, openly attacking what might be called the closing of the Arab mind, and to find a government proposing concrete plans to combat reactionary trends and promoting analytical skills and critical thinking. It's not just the Palestinians who need to learn such lessons, it’s the entire Arab world. ### * Hussein Ibish is a Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and blogs at www.ibishblog.com Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 19 August 2010, www.commongroundnews.org Copyright permission is granted for publication.

My comment to the Washington Post RE Skip the lecture on Israel's 'risks for peace' By George F. Will

Your Comments On...

Skip the lecture on Israel's 'risks for peace'

Israelis have no need for patronizing lessons on the risks and benefits of peace.
-

By George F. Will

Comments

http://arabnews.com/lifestyle/art_culture/article105803.ece

Lord of the flies: One young artist establishes his place in Amman’s art world through an unusual theme

By SOPHIA JONES, SOPHIAHJ@GWMAIL.GWU.EDU

Published: Aug 18, 2010 20:54 Updated: Aug 18, 2010 20:54

A young, bohemian artist sits at a café overlooking downtown. His arms folded on the table, a striking tattoo on his upper arm reveals itself: A swarm of flies. This is among the first things one notices about artist Ibraheem Ishaq Khorma and his paintings. As a child, Khorma attended several Palestinian refugee schools sponsored by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), where he remembers seeing flies everywhere. While the insect usually carries a negative connotation, the artist views flies in a different light. “They have strength,” he said. “They can survive anything.”

While the refugee schools were always filled with art books and supplies, there was no art teacher. “It’s important to teach the children art, especially refugees,” said Khorma. He describes his childhood in the camp, saying, “life was very hard and the children didn’t know anything about life outside the camp or the history of art, like Da Vinci, Picasso or Renoir.” When Khorma was older, he informed the head office in Amman about the situation in the camps and a certified art teacher was hired. He explains that the children should be given cultural material and be taken care of. “And maybe some day,” he continued, “one of them will become an artist.”

ARTIST TAKES HIS ART BACK TO REFUGEE CHILDREN

When Khorma was studying art at university, he visited different refugee camps in Jordan, giving free workshops to the children. “[They] have a lot of potential,” he noted, “they cannot express themselves by stories or talking. But they can express themselves by painting. Art is therapy. It makes humans more open and relaxed. It gives you another dimension of life, other than war. Without art, the world would be black and white. It would be a very scary world.”

Khorma recalls when he first wanted to be an artist. He was 12-year-old, walking down the street with his mother when he noticed an old Iraqi man making portraits. Intrigued by the man’s fine talent, he asked what he was doing. The man responded, simply saying, “this is how I live.” It was at this moment that Khorma realized he could make a living off his art.

“There is art in everything,” Khorma says. “If you really love art, you should do it. Your life is your life. You have an independent name and an independent body and an independent life. Don’t only think of how you can make money. There is art in everything.”

He has exhibited his work in Beirut, Cairo and galleries throughout Amman.

Khorma views flies as a symbol of freedom, explaining that, “they don’t care about who you are or what you were in the past.”

Questions of identity and self-purpose are still unanswered for the young artist, but in painting, he begins to slowly understand them.

In a way, Khorma has experienced his own metamorphosis. He has risen above the life that was given to him. He has created his own reality.

“This is part of my experience as a refugee,” he says.

An old proverb reads, “A fly may conquer a lion.”

Perhaps from within a small refugee camp in Irbid, Jordan, the next Picasso will emerge, or perhaps merely a bold message of perseverance.

“Flies are always moving,” Khorma stated, “they are enjoying the short life they live. I’m trying to use my life to the max, using every moment.”

— Sophia Jones is a freelance writer who has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Romar Traveler and the UN “Essays on the Ratification of the Rights of the Child.”

2010 Naomi Shihab Nye & the Art Institute of Chicago: Poetry Off the Shelf: Seeing Things Thursday, November 4, 6:00 pm

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/release_081810.html?id=186234

Thursday, November 4, 6:00 pm

Poetry Off the Shelf: Seeing Things
Naomi Shihab Nye
Fullerton Hall
Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Free admission

Naomi Shihab Nye has spent 35 years traveling the world leading workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. Her numerous books of poetry include You & Yours (a best-selling poetry book of 2006). Other works include seven prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers. A collection of poems for young adults, Honeybee, won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. Nye has held fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim Foundations as well as the Library of Congress. In January 2010 she was elected to the board of chancellors of the Academy of American Poets.

Co-sponsored with the Art Institute of Chicago

Bassam Aramin with a picture of his daughter Abir, killed by a rubber bullet that witnesses say was shot by Israeli border police

Bassam Aramin's search for justice

Donald Macintyre meets the man who won his fight to prove the Israeli army shot his daughter

Wednesday, 18 August 2010

On a hot August afternoon exactly three years ago Bassam Aramin was adamant that he did not want revenge for the death of his ten-year-old daughter, Abir, but justice. At the time, he added quietly: "I have to prove my daughter was killed: that is my problem."

Yesterday he had the satisfaction of knowing that his three-year fight to do just that had been vindicated by a judge's ruling that Abir Aramin had indeed been shot dead by a border policeman with a rubber bullet, that the killing was "totally unjustifiable" and that the state should pay her family compensation.

It had not been easy. Abir, described by teachers as a "lovely" model student, was fatally wounded in January 2007 as she walked down the street with her sister and two friends after buying sweets in a shop across the road from her school in the West Bank village of Anata at the end of a maths exam.

The dead girl's father spoke eight months later to The Independent after learning that police investigators had closed the file on his daughter's death without attributing blame for it.

He described how his wife, Salwa – who, like him, was always convinced she had been killed by a police rubber bullet – had broken down in tears when she heard that there was to be no prosecution, feeling "that they had killed her another time".

Then, when he and the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din contested the police decision in the High Court, it refused to re-open the case on the grounds that she could have been killed by a stone thrown by Palestinian rioters.

The family's subsequent civil suit succeeded this week when Jerusalem District Judge Orit Efal-Gabai declared unequivocally in open court: "Abir and her friends were walking down a street where there were no rock-throwers, therefore there was no reason to shoot in their direction.

"It is clear that Abir's death, caused by a rubber bullet shot by border guards, was due to negligence..."

Quietly spoken as ever, Mr Aramin said yesterday that his wife had cried again when she heard the news of Monday's ruling, but this time from relief that the truth had been established at last. He said that his court victory was "historic" and was "a really very important message: don't give up. If you believe in justice, even under the occupation, don't give up for one second".

Mr Aramin's determination to pursue every avenue, whatever the obstacles, in the Israeli legal system is at one with a personal philosophy forged by an unusual life story. A one-time Fatah militant who was gaoled for seven years for an attack on an Israeli Army jeep, Mr Aramin renounced violence and ....READ MORE

"Israel's problem is not the Palestinian or Arab refusal to recognize it as a Jewish state. It is, rather, the increasing difficulty of Jews familiar with Jewish values to recognize it as a Jewish state. Rather than demanding that Palestinians declaim on Israel's democratic and Jewish identity, or conjuring non-existent threats to Israel's existence, Netanyahu and his government would be better advised adjusting Israel's policies toward a people that has lived under its unforgiving military occupation in a way that honors their country's democratic and Jewish beginnings. That would contribute far more to its "legitimacy" and to its long-range security than its present undemocratic and very un-Jewish course." Henry Siegman

Is Israel's Legitimacy Under Challenge?