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Arab Voices Radio - | Last Show: |
| | | | Date: | Wednesday, May 17, 2006  | | Guest: | Dr. Zahi Damuni
Co-founder of Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, who currently serves on Al-Awda's national coordinating and executive committees, and is coordinator of the organization's chapter in San Diego, California. | | Topic: | The 58th anniversary of the dispossession of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel (Al-Nakba), and the current dire situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. | |
( Dr. Damuni's actual interview well worth listening to is about 20 minutes into the show) http://www.arabvoices.net/ ******************************************************************
As women deeply concerned over the future of our children and humanity in general, we have been warning of the disastrous consequences of perpetrating injustice in Palestine. If the festering wound of injustice is left unheeded and unhealed, it is bound to erupt with serious effects. We are not asking for charity, band aids or palliatives to tend our deep injuries. We are merely demanding our inalienable rights and our freedom. An Open Letter to the Quartet May 9, 2006 - from General Union of Palestinian Women http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/News/news.html ******************************************************************
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It is said that a "picture is worth a thousand words"... Most of these photos were taken by me, others are from various sources... http://www.hanini.org/pictures.html ************************************************************
Where is the justice when 2500 French and North American Jews will hop on a plane this summer to make aliya to Israel, while refugees, some within kilometers of their personal property, are denied their basic human right? Kashi is disingenuous if he thinks peace will come in the wake of such glaring injustice. http://www.umkahlil.blogspot.com/ ********************************************************************
MAY 2006 | FINAL STATEMENT OF THE FOURTH PALESTINIANS IN EUROPE CONFERENCE |
(please go to link for full text & much additional information - beautifully written inspiring text ) FIRST: the conference insisted that the Palestinian people wherever they are constituted a unified body that would resist every attempt to fragment and divide them...... http://www.prc.org.uk/data/aspx/d2/2822.aspx
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Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights (9 July 2005)
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194. http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=66_0_1_10_M11
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"The plain fact is there shall be no peace in the Middle East without the return of the refugees to their homes," writes
Dr. Salman Abu Sitta.
http://www.plands.org/articles/4.htm *************************************************************
The Israelis call it a war, but it is really a contemptible and cruel cat and mouse game, with the mouse firmly held under the cat’s paw or locked up in a cage to which the cat has free and easy access.
A cruel cat and mouse game by Rima Merriman http://jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion4.htm **********************************************************************
Recognising Israel as an ethnic entity illegally occupying Palestinian land is a Palestinian national suicide.
Hamas should follow the principle of mutual recognition. Hamas should not recognise Israel unless Israel recognises the rights of Palestinian national independence, including the ‘Rights of Return’. Hamas must insist on the end to Israel’s Occupation of Palestinian land and Israeli violence against the Palestinian people. Israel must Renounce Violence By Ghali Hassan, Axis of Logic May 16, 2006, 10:27 http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_21997.shtml
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Urgent Appeal May 18, 2006 By Palestinian Health NGOs
We, the Palestinian health providers in the non governmental sector express our deep concern and rage at the rapid deterioration of health conditions, as an outcome of the imposed political and economical sanctions against the fairly elected Palestinian government as many of the international donors decided to stop their financial aid to the PNA. This coincided with Israeli escalations practiced against Palestinian civilians by the non stop intensive artillery shelling, assassinations, massive detentions and strict closures. http://www.miftah.org/
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Gates of the Apartheid Wall - Securing Annexation and Imprisonment of the Palestinian people Latest News, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, May 19th, 2006 http://stopthewall.org/index.shtml *********************************************************************
11- 17 May 2006 PCHR Palestinian Centre for Human Rights: IOF conducted 43 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and 2 into the Gaza Strip.
9 Palestinians killed by IOF in the West Bank.
41 Palestinian civilians, including 13 children, were wounded by IOF gunfire.
77 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children and a woman, were arrested by IOF.
For the first time since their redeployment from the Gaza Strip, IOF razed 20 dunums[1] of agricultural land in al-Qarara village near Khan Yunis. IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF have continued to close border crossings of the Gaza Strip; the north of the West Bank has been separated from the south; and IOF arrested two Palestinian civilians at checkpoints in the West Bank.
http://www.pchrgaza.org ***********************************************************************
" ...And the return will never disappear " Kfar Bir'im was completely destructed in 1953. Only the church was left standing. The displaced people of Bir'im visit their village annually. View the moving and uplifting video,
Summer Camp in Bir'im http://www.umkahlil.blogspot.com/ ************************************************************************
"Save Jerusalem from the Apartheid Wall and Ethnic cleansing"
The new comprehensive factsheet on Jerusalem shows the dramatic process of Judaization that the city is undergoing. http://www.stopthewall.org/ ********************************************************************
Israel: Family Reunification Ruling Is Discriminatory (Jerusalem, May 19, 2006) – The Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a law barring Israeli citizens and their Palestinian spouses from the Occupied Palestinian Territories from living together in Israel constitutes unlawful discrimination that cannot be justified by the country’s security interests, Human Rights Watch said today. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/05/18/isrlpa13403.htm ********************************************************************
"It is in that moment that I choose between educating my students and saving my own hide. And it is in that moment that those who want to stifle debate on campus win. They don't need to get me fired to shut me up. I'm already doing it to myself." The New Blacklists By Leah Bowman http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2006/04/2006041001c/careers.html *********************************************************************
Such arguments are deterministic, a-historical, and profoundly disempowering. This thinking has led the Arab-American community to largely exclude itself from the political system, ensuring its own irrelevance in shaping political behavior, while also granting the pro-Israel lobby an open field without any substantial opposition. Is Arab-American irrelevance our goal? By Hussein Ibish 4-19-6 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=24553 **********************************************************************
" Israel’s admittance into the UN was conditional: it must recognize UN Resolution 194. Nevertheless, since the passing of UN Resolution 273—which admitted Israel into the UN on May 11, 1949— Israel has openly rejected this requirement. Commenting on Israel’s dismissal of the resolution,
Professor of Law Francis A. Boyle wrote in his book Palestine, Palestinians and International Law, “Insofar as Israel has violated its conditions for admission to UN membership, it must accordingly be suspended on a de facto basis from any participation throughout the entire United Nations system.”" Remi Kanazi: The Existing Question: One cannot expect the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel's "right to exist."
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from antiwar.com : Save Darfur?
by Joshua Frank
"Want to help bring peace to the Middle East? Why not pressure the U.S. government to halt all funding to Israel? That'd be a heck of a start." http://www.antiwar.com/frank/?articleid=8967 ***************************************************************************
The Palestine crisis is now more dramatic even than apartheid, but it is the victims who are punished
Israel should face sanctions By Ronnie Kasrils and Victoria Brittain The Guardian 19 May 2006 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1778549,00.html **************************************************************************
Real hunger is beginning to strike the Palestinians as the boycotting of Hamas continues and the elected movement in government stands firm. Managing cruelty By Khaled Amayreh Al-Ahram Weekly 18-24 May 2006 http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/795/re81.htm
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It is interesting to note that in a survey of failed states conducted by a US foundation and Foreign Policy magazine, Israel was placed in the second of four categories rated according to a dozen indicators, with Sudan at the top of the first category of most failed states.
Failed state perpetuating eternal 'teendom' By Michael Jansen The Jordan Times 18 May 2006
http://jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion2.htm *****************************************************************
What's more, the settlements that Olmert wants to dismantle include most of those deep in the West Bank, wedged between Palestinian towns, creating an artificial Bosnia of hostile ethnic entanglement. Removing them would alleviate some of the daily friction between occupier and occupied. For Israel, it would mean pulling one leg out of the quagmire. But it wouldn't resolve the conflict...
Israel's Half-Plan By Gershom Gorenberg The Washington Post 18 May 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051701879.html
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"...... Gaza is now a politically and economically non-viable region, almost completely isolated from the West Bank, Israel and the outside world.... " Israel's new plan: A land grab By Jimmy Carter
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-05-15-carter-israel-edit_x.htm **********************************************************************
Laila El Haddad writes about Yousef, her son, and fourth generation refugee: Like his father and grandparents before him, Yousuf, too, is a refugee. And like it or not-he, and the millions like him, will not "disappear"...... as the Palestinian Gazan poet Haroon Hashim Rasheed said.. "Filisteeni ana Filisteeni..naqashtu ismee ala kulil mayadeeni" ---------------------------------------- Joharah Baker addresses the continuing Nakba in "Til Israel Do Us Part" regarding Israel's High Court decision disallowing spouses in occupied Palestine to join their spouse in Israel: Israel has elevated its oppression of the Palestinians into an art form, constantly creating ingenious ways of fencing them off, kicking them around and eventually squeezing them out.----------------------------- Eman remembers: No matter how hard they’d try, Palestine is there, it has always been there, Palestinians are there, they’ll always be and nothing can change that.-------------------------------------- Noura Dabdoub, sophomore at Ohio State University writes in The Lantern: Palestinians have not forgotten. Palestine is in how we speak and in the way we dance. It is in the food we eat and the poetry we read. It is in the stories we tell and the futures we hope for...... Justice and peace will only be possible if the undeniable right of Palestinians to return to our homeland is recognized and realized. Bells of Return Speak 'Strongly' and 'Honestly' http://www.umkahlil.blogspot.com/ *****************************************************************************************
"- The forced migration and ethnic-cleansing of Palestinian civilians from their homes and property in 1948, referred to as the Nakba of Palestine, led to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to neighboring countries and various countries around the globe. The State of Israel was established on Palestinian towns and villages that had been cleansed of their original inhabitants. Palestinian civilians were scattered and Palestinian refugees came to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which were not occupied at the time, as well as to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Most of these refugees continue to live in refugee camps, including 8 camps in the Gaza Strip. These refugees lost their property, land, homes and livelihoods and were therefore subjected to a state of poverty, deprivation and exposure." Poverty in the Gaza Strip http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/Reports/English/provtry.htm **********************************************************************
Sam Bahour: Israel at 58, a Failing Experiment http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=4&id=3100 ************************************************************************
Crack of Israeli bullets ends activists' protest against barrier By Donald Macintyre in Bil'in
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article485025.ece ************************************************************************
On Nakba Day, Amir Peretz Brags of Killing 7 Palestinians Top Muslim, Christian Leaders Refuse Ceding Palestinian ‘Right of Return’ Palestine Media Center
http://www.palestine-pmc.com/ *************************************************************************
The Nakba: then and now IMEU May 15, 2006 On the 58th anniversary of the Nakba, or the "Catastrophe," prominent Palestinians share their thoughts on the day that more than 700,000 of their brethren became refugees. http://www.imeu.net/ **********************************************************************************************
Where is the global outcry at this continuing cruelty? Nearly 60 years after most Palestinians were first forced from our homes, the killings and blockades carry on with impunity Ghada Karmi
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1774765,00.html **********************************************************************************************
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=10239&CategoryId=4 ***************************************************************************
Out of Money but Not Resources With Aid Cut Off, Palestinians Turn to Each Other to Get By
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR2006051102089_pf.html *******************************************************************************
Along with more than 400 other Palestinian villages, Umm al-Zinat was entirely demolished by the Israeli army to prevent the refugees from ever returning. Children held aloft colored placards bearing the names of all the destroyed villages, while others waved Palestinian flags, an act of defiance that could potentially land them in jail. Jonathan Cook in Umm al-Zinat, near Haifa http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4682.shtml *******************************************************************************
Links on AL NAKBA and RETURN: Al Nakba 1948 The Aftermath Land and People Zionist Myths Return Plan http://www.plands.org/power/index.htm
Creation of Israel: an Imperialist-Zionist Joint Venture http://al-awda.org/zionists2.html The 1948 War: A Cover up for Ethnic Cleansing http://al-awda.org/zionists4.html
David Ben-Gurion believed that the Zionists had to exert pressure to force the British to act. But if necessary, he wrote in his diary, "We must ourselves prepare to carry out the removal of the Palestinians".http://www.al-awda.org/zionists01.html
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( Karma Nabulsi is a politics fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford University and a former PLO representative. She is also the author of the outstanding book "In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story," which narrates her family's displacement from Jerusalem in 1948. The book is available at http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/.)
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Study: AP Covers Palestinian Deaths at a Rate Vastly Lower Than Israeli Deaths
Full Report: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/ap-report.html *******************************************************************************
Diana Buttu: On Journalism and Media: Watching Western television or reading newspaper reports of Palestine always leaves me perplexed. If I did not live in Palestine and bear witness to Israel's military occupation, I would be left with the impression that Palestinians and Israelis are equals - with no occupation existing - and that this conflict simply requires "concessions" on both sides. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12966.htm
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Brandeis pulls artwork by Palestinian youths ''This was, for me, an opportunity to bring to Brandeis the Palestinian voice that is not spoken or heard through an Israeli or an American Jew, but directly delivered from Palestinians," Halperin said. ''Obviously, that was just too much for Brandeis."
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/05/03/brandeis_pulls_artwork_by_palestinian_youths/
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MAY , 2006 Five-year old boy detained by Israeli forces On around the fifth time of passing, the Hummer stopped and three soldiers got down and started walking towards Samer. Pointing at Motaz, the soldiers asked if the boy was Samer's son and said he'd been throwing stones at the jeep. As Samer started to protest, pointing out that his son was only five years old, other soldiers appeared from an olive grove beside the house. As they walked up to Samer and Motaz, one soldier told the others standing there “That boy was throwing stones”.
..... The soldiers then dragged Motaz from his father, shouting at the boy who started screaming and begging his father to help him. Samer tried to hold onto and protect Motaz, but his efforts only angered the soldiers further. They turned and beat Samer, separating him from Motaz whom they slapped and yelled at. The soldiers bound Samer's hands and blindfolded him before pushing him into the jeep, shoving Motaz in after him. http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=486&CategoryId=1
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April 30, 2006 Let us wake up the moral forces in Palestine By: Dr. Salim Nazzal*
We need to pay more attention to the spiritual position of Palestine in order to wake up the moral strength in the Palestinian society. We have no oil in Palestine, nor have we natural sources like other countries.
What we have is not only unique; it is the unique of the uniqueness. It is the particularity of a country which carries a great spiritual heritage. It is time to formulate a Palestinian project that can reach humanity.
Here exactly the strength of Palestine and the weakness of the Zionist project. The Zionist project is based on a narrow minded and racist ideology, the Palestinian project is a project opened to humanity. In this Palestine is not only a small piece of land, but, rather, a message of love and tolerance to all.
We need to remember that the area of states is not always the criteria for its importance. The Vatican influence is more important than many big countries. Of course there are differences between the Vatican and Palestine. Yet the real challenge remains how we can translate the uniqueness of our country into a great spiritual power.
We need to promote the culture of tolerance, human rights, equality and justice in Palestine.
Palestine can play a great role in the question of coexistence among cultures and nations, no body else is more qualified than Palestine to play this role.
By working to develop the human resources in Palestine we are in the right direction in defeating Zionism.
* Dr. Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian researcher. He has written extensively on social and political issues in the Middle East.
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR History Doubletalk
....... Best bet to get anything published in an English language periodical meant for Western eyes is to in some way or another re-affirm Israel's "right to exist" in some form or another ... guaranteeing a continued Aliyah whereby privileged Englishmen and Americans are free to speak as compassionate Israelis in multiple forums and political Zionism continues to be the charity of choice.
The Palestinian refugees ARE... and they have every right to return. And with racist Israel shaped and sustained by political Zionism still easily ignoring and/or demonizing Palestinians, easily wrecking Palestinian homes, easily creating and torturing political prisoners, easily pulling apart Palestinian families and communities, easily arresting and/or wounding and/or killing Palestinian children, easily usurping Palestinian land, easily making more refugees - and bombing Palestinian refugee camps - I think all the world has the right to stop, look, and listen and seriously question why we have to accept the idea of Israel. Anne Selden Annab http://palestinechronicle.com./story.php?sid=050406235227 **********************************************************************************
Feel good art exhibits, which include a handful of Palestinian artists, many of whom are not allowed entry to Tel Aviv, rubbing elbows with Alisa Olmert, serve merely to postpone justice, a term, like so many other terms and endeavors, co-opted and twisted by Zionists to obfuscate and mislead.
http://www.umkahlil.blogspot.com/ **********************************************************************************
What remains behind is the adamant refusal of George Bisharat to be erased. In Rite of Return to a Palestinian Home, none other than the biggest dissembler of them all, Golda Meir, of "there is no such thing as a Palestinian" fame, resided in his Jerusalem family house, which was usurped, lock, stock, and barrel, by the Zionist invaders. Twice, Bisharat, visited the house built by his grandfather, and twice he was told by the Jewish occupants, one an Eastern European, and another, an American, "The family never lived here." ***********************************************************************************
Oh, Jerusalem April 22, 2006 by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Irony is a powerful tool and one Israel exploits to a tee. Imagine, a cowboy from Texas, a rocket scientist from the Ukraine or a new Jewish immigrant from Ethiopia can all enter Jerusalem unfettered, walk the aged alleys of its Old City and even visit the Aqsa Mosque compound where the magnificent gold-domed Dome of the Rock is situated. Virtual strangers to the city and its people have full rights to visit here and frolic among the aromatic smells of spices and sweets that make Jerusalem so distinct, while the city is cruelly prohibited to most Palestinians, those people who hold it dearest to their hearts.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=10060&CategoryId=5 *******************************************************************************************
http://al-awda.org/facts.html
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Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
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Palestine Refugees on 56 years of UNRWA by: Adnan Abu Hasna
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/stories/56th_anniversary.html
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Al Awda : Al-Nakba: 58 Years of Dispossession SELECTED ARTICLES
http://www.al-awda.org/resources.html*****************************************************************
MY LAND Directed by: Tone Anderson Language: English..... Film Synopsis: My Land documents the threat that husband and wife Ali and Trees face from the Zionist occupation authority to destroy the home the family built on their own land in the town of Sakhnin (Galilee region, north Palestine). About 1.3 million Palestinians who were issued 'Israeli citizenship' are still struggling 57 years after the imposition of the Zionist state for their rights to their own property and land. The film shows one of those many struggles.http://www.al-awda.org/
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MADE IN PALESTINE, the first U.S. exhibition of contemporary Palestinian art, opens in New York City from March 14- May 27, 2006
! ....MADE IN PALESTINE is a groundbreaking show. It has been well-received by art critics nationally: “It’s hard to imagine peace if Palestinians can’t even be heard on their own terms.” The New York Times, November 21, 2004 http://www.aljisser.org/***********************************************************************************
Look into My EyesOutlandish Song based on
Words by Gihad Ali
Major hit in Danish charts in 2005
