Friday, December 08, 2006

Right of Return Ring of Blogs 12-8-2006

ilovepalestine
I Love Palestine ("Bahibbik ya Falasteen")


December 9

International Human Rights Day

Right of Return Ring of Blogs

12-08-2006

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

American-Palestinian New Generation

Friday, December 08, 2006

Protesting Clinton, Lieberman at Saban Center in D.C. today

Curiously absent from the Brookings Institute/Saban Center calendar is the visit of Israeli newly-elected minister Avigdor Lieberman. The event is apparently hushed due to the perceived criminality of bringing an uber-fascist to meet with former president Clinton and his unbearable wife and presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham. [I just added Kurt Nimmo's link on this as well]

This is the same Lieberman, who in 2003, publicly advocated placing Arabs on buses and driving them to the Dead Sea to be drowned. He publicly supports "ethnic cleansing" for which a not-too-distant colleague faced war crimes in the Hague. Yes, Avigdor is a mini-Milosovic, whose popularity among Russian immigrants and lower class Israelis is on the rise, much like Jean-Marie Le Pen in France. But in France its the Arabs who are the immigrants whereas in Palestine its the Jews who are the transplants...

I very much believe this meeting of criminal and Clintons will take place despite it not being advertised.

Here are the addresses and fax numbers of both the Brookings/Saban and HRClinton. Objecting to this visit and meeting is the RIGHT THING TO DO for all people of conscience.

The Brookings Institution,
1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 797-6462
Fax: 202-797-6004
communications@brookings.edu
Sabancenter@brookings.edu

Senator Hillary Clinton:

United States Senate
476 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4451
Fax: (202) 228-0282
email: clinton.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm

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

Peace For Palestine

Friday, December 08, 2006

Living With Israeli Occupation Towards Forced Immigration?

Would you live this way?


Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

We will break the siege to reach Schools.

30 Nov.- 06 Dec. 2006


*4 Palestinians civilians, including two children, were killed by IOF in the West Bank, and a child died from a previous wound in the Gaza Strip.

*13 Palestinian civilians, including 7 children, were wounded by IOF.


*IOF conducted 37 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.


*IOF arrested 117 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children and a woman.


*IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF arrested 8 Palestinian civilians, including a child, at checkpoints in the West Bank


*Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property in the OPT; a Palestinian child was seriously wounded in Hebron, and IOF destroyed 4 houses and 4 civilian establishments in Qalqilya and Bethlehem.

Summary

UN and partners launch largest ever appeal for emergency aid for Palestinians: call for $453 million

Palestinians are becoming more vulnerable (MaanImages)

December 8, 2006

Ma'an - UN - Twelve United Nations agencies, together with 14 non-governmental agencies launched on 7 December 2006 their largest ever appeal for emergency aid to the occupied Palestinian territory – more than $453 million – to help address a rapidly deteriorating situation after donors cut off funds to the Palestinian government when Hamas, which rejects the state of Israel’s right to exist, won the Palestinian legislative elections earlier this year.

This appeal is the largest emergency appeal ever launched in the occupied Palestinian territory, the UN says, and the third largest ever worldwide.

"We have been compelled to launch a larger Appeal in the face of the increased need among the Palestinian population", ... more

The Zombies



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

DesertPeace

Friday, December 08, 2006

JOHN LENNON...IN MEMORIAM~~1940-1980

Twenty six years ago today a Man of Peace was gunned down in New York. John Lennon, born in 1940.... murdered in 1980 at the age of 40.
May his memory be a blessing for all who are willing to 'GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!'
Below is a full page tribute in today's New York Times, submitted by his widow Yoko Ono. Click on it to enlarge...




ISRAEL 'OUTED' AS NUCLEAR POWER

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)
The West has been SCREAMING out loud that Iran is working on creating a nuclear arsenal... no one ever muttered a word to anyone that Israel already has one.. no one until yesterday when America's incoming Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, announced that in a speech.

These were his words on why Iran 'might' be working on one.... "They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf."... Sheds a different light on the situation, doesn't it?
Regardless... we should all be striving for a world without nuclear weapons... in fact, a world without any weapons at all... that would be the ideal scenario.
Below is a Reuters Report dealing with Gates' speech....

Israelis piqued by Gates nuclear "confirmation"

By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Robert Gates, the incoming U.S. secretary of defense, won plaudits in Washington this week for his candor on the Iraq war... more

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

Annie's letters


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

Today in Palestine!

www.TheHeadlines.Org

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

umkahlil

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Murderous Army

By Khalid Amayreh
Dec 4, 2006, 19:18
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_20773.shtml

There is no doubt that the Israeli occupation army is trying very hard to kill the de facto ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip. (The term ‘ceasefire’ is itself misleading to a large extent since it implies a false impression of parity between the Israeli occupiers and the Palestinian victims of occupation). And the chief means to do so is by continuing to murder Palestinian civilians, raid Palestinian homes, abduct Palestinian political activists and officials and terrorize ordinary people in the West Bank... more

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

peacepalestine

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Is Comment Free at the Guardian? Only if you are a Zionist running a smear campaign: the strange case of Gilad Atzmon

Palestinians are the Priority

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

Raising Yousuf, Unplugged

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

Sabbah's

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

karmalised

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

Body on the Line

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

al-falasteenyia

Oum Kalthoum and the Liberation of Palestine

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

RAFAH TODAY


Award-Winning Gazan Journalist Mohammed Omer
On First
U.S. Speaking Tour.
If you would like to attend Mohammed's testimony, please view the schedule
here
[and as Word document here]

WHAT: Gazan journalist Mohammed Omer’s 2006 U.S. Tour

WHO: Mohammed Omer, Gaza correspondent, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs


GAZA ON THE GROUND
By
Washington Report for Middle East Affairs, Gaza Correspondent
Mohammed Omer

Named as New American Media’s “Best Youth Voice of 2006”
Born and raised in Gaza, Mr Omer is not only the the Gaza Correspondent for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) but also makes frequent appearances on the BBC as well as stations in Norway, Australia, South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand. He writes regularly on life in Gaza for a Norwegian weekly, a German daily and WRMEA. An excellent photographer, his images are also featured in various news agencies.

12/08
San Diego, CA

12/09
Glendale, CA

12/10
Sacramento, CA

12/11
San Francisco, CA

12/12
Denver, CO

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

Screamer in the Matrix

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

Blue Fog

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

secularavatar

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

Cheer Up!! !!طــــوِل بـالَـــك

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

Saree Makdisi Archive

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


PalestineOnlineStore.com & PalestineCalendar.org proudly present...

The Exodus & The Odyssey calendar 2007

Holiday Shopping notice:
PalestineOnlineStore.com now carries more than 200 items from or about Palestine. We are currently working on completing the blank pages and aim to have them completed by midnight, December 7th. U.S. orders for the holiday season will reach in time for Christmas as long as they are ordered by December 18th.

STOP ETHNIC CLEANSING ...

STOP ETHNIC CLEANSING IN THE NAQAB
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

According to recent reports, Israeli interior minister, Roni Bar-On, declared that his ministry has planned the demolition of more than 42,000 Palestinian homes in the Naqab (Negev) region of Palestine, inside the borders of present-day Israel.

Reports this morning indicate that the village of Twail Abu-Jarwal has been demolished by the Zionist occupation.

This barbaric escalation against the Palestinians of the Naqab region is a continuation of the ongoing Zionist project to remove from Palestine its indigenous inhabitants, and that Israel has practiced since its inception since 1948.

The Palestinians in the Naqab region carry "Israeli citizenship". This latest act of destruction once again shows that, like their fellow Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the over six million exiled from their homeland and denied their right to return, Palestinians
inside Israel who carry "Israeli citizenship" remain less than second-class citizens, subject to the same policies of ethnic cleansing.

Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, calls on its members, supporters and all people of conscience to protest the ongoing home demolitions and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian civilians at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces by:

1. Organizing demonstrations in front of Israeli embassies and consulates.

2. Staging street theatre in major cities and towns dramatizing house
demolitions.

3. Organizing protests in front of the offices of the Caterpillar Corporation and demanding that Caterpillar immediately stop supplying Israel bulldozers it uses to demolish Palestinian homes. See
http://www.caterpillar.com/ for information on company locations throughout
North America.

4. Writing your Representatives and Senators to stop immediately all funding and military supplies and shipments to Israel. Remind them that ethnic cleansing is a war crime and constitutes a grave violation of international law. For contact information, go to
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/ .

5. Writing to the media. Go to http://newslink.org/ for contact information.

6. Making a donation to help the people whose homes have been demolished by
Israel in the Naqab. To do so please go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and simply follow the instructions. Please indicate that your donation is for Al-Awda's Naqab Emergency Fund.


iraq solidarity campaignbaqa'a camp discussion grouppalestine solidarity campaignzajel.orgpalestinian return centrepalestinian chroniclehome of historybalata refugee camppalestinian football association3rd parachute battalion palestine 1945-1948palestine monitorpalestinian heritage foundationplaygrounds for palestineamerican-palestinian new generationpalestine blogsarab leaguecentre for arab unity studiesbirzeit universityan najah universityassociation of arab universityal quds newspapermiddle east timespalestine red crescent societyfriends of al aqsaarab american roman catholici am palestinianpalestinian internationalistinterpal

100% in the spirit of resistance- Buy a T-shirt... or a card...

Invest in a just & lasting peace... and help spread the word

PALESTINE!





SHIRTS @ Palestine Online Store


FREE OUR PEOPLE SHIRTS

Palestine48 These Palestine48 shirts refer to 1948, the year of the "Nakba," or Palestinian catastrophe, when Palestinians were dispossessed and forced to flee their homes. While many people seem to think that the Israeli occupation began in 1967, the reality is that it began in 1948.


Hooded sweatshirt with two front pockets. Also available as a t-shirt.

Roots

Roots, black
Our best-selling shirt, featuring "Palestine" (and a small map) on the front, and an olive tree in the back, with the words "My Roots Lie In The Soil Of Palestine," written out in the colors of the flag.


Roots green

Roots, green
Features the words "Roots, Palestine," an image of an olive tree, a small image of Handala (the Palestinian refugee character symbol of Naji Al-Ali), and the words "Black, Red, White, and Green." On the bottom left side of the back is Free Our People's logo.


Baseball
FRONT

Baseball
BACK:

Free Palestine, baseball design

This baseball style design was created as a message of irony. The bold graphics make one look twice and think long... "Did I just see what I think I saw?" The answer would be, "Yes you did!" Wear it proud.

Note: The shirt has been updated to read "58 Years" instead of the displayed "56."

Struggle
THE
STRUGGLE
FOR PEACE
The Struggle for Peace
This innovative and unique design features the kuffiya tied around in the form of a solidarity ribbon, to express solidarity with the oppressed of the Middle East.

War


War

Until the Philosophy...
The shirt reads “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war, me say war." This was part of Haile Selassie's (the Emperor of Ethiopia) speech to the United Nations in 1968, which were later used by Bob Marley as the lyrics for his popular song "War" (actually, the last two words, "me say war" are Bob Marley's addition, and not part of Selassie's speech).


Wall

The Wall Must Fall
Designed by Israeli Anarchists Against The Wall, this shirt advocates for the dismantling of the racist Apartheid Wall that Israel is building on Palestinian land, which is causing much destruction to the lives and agriculture of the Palestinian people. Features a photo of one of the protests which are attended by Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights activists.

The print is on the front side of the grey t-shirt; the back is blank.

got human rights?
got human rights?
Palestinians don't.
got human rights?
This simple shirt makes the clear statement that Palestinians are deprived of their basic human rights.


ilovepalestine
I Love Palestine ("Bahibbik ya Falasteen")
This innovative and unique design features the kuffiya tied around in the form of a solidarity ribbon, to express solidarity with the oppressed of the Middle East.

reZistwear
reZistwear brand logo
reZistwear is a new brand of t-shirts, conceived, designed, produced, and printed in Palestine. The front reads "reZistwear / reZistwear.com / straight from Palestine!" The label reads "100% made in Palestine, 100% cotton, 100% in the spirit of resistance."



About Free Our People shirts
These shirts are designed by Marwan Salfiti, a Palestinian activist based in Northern California. A portion of the proceeds goes towards humanitarian aid to Palestine, arranged by Free Our People. The shirts are heavyweight cotton, pre-shrunk, and of a high-quality. The selection of Free Our People shirts includes: Palestine48 sweatshirt | Palestine48 t-shirt | Roots (black) | Roots (green) | Free Palestine (baseball design) | The Struggle for Peace | Until the Philosophy.. (black) | Until the Philosophy (red).

About reZistwear shirts...
This is Palestine Online Store's own brand! These shirts were designed, made, and printed in Palestine, and thus help support the economy there. They are 100% cotton, but of a lighter weight than the Free Our People shirts described above. The selection of reZistwear t-shirts includes: The Wall Must Fall | Got Human Rights? | I Love Palestine (in Arabic) | reZistwear brand logo.




Al Awda California Home
Home
About
Factsheet
Donate
Contact



AL-AWDA GREETING CARDS

Send greetings to your loved ones with images of Palestine through the eyes of our children!

Al-Awda's cards are provided in stacks of eight containing two copies of four different cards with envelopes.

The image at the front of each card shown below represents a reproduction of an original beautiful drawing by a child who took part in the youth workshop at Al-Awda's 2005 convention in Los Angeles.

Our greeting cards are blank on the inside to allow you to use them on any occasion including holidays, birthdays, etc. or simply to give them to friends and family as a gift.

To request a stack of original Al-Awda greeting cards electronically, click on the "Add to Cart" button below.

If you prefer, you may also send us your request with a check to:

Al-Awda, PRRC
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA

Hurry while supplies last!

The minimum donation is only $12.00 per stack of eight cards. Shipping and handling costs in the US is $2.00 per stack. For quantity donation discounts, please contact us at
info@al-awda.org.

If you would like us to ship the cards outside the US, please contact us at info@al-awda.org before submitting your order.

To view our other resources, please go to http://al-awda.org/shop.html

Thank you for supporting Al-Awda!




An EXCELLENT IDEA !!! INSIGHT... Baker wants Israel excluded from regional conference

INSIGHT

Issue Date: www.insightmag.com - Dec. 5-11, 2006, Posted On: 12/5/2006

Baker wants Israel excluded from regional conference

Former Secretary of State James Baker (left) of the Iraq Study Group speaks while his co-chair Lee Hamilton looks on in September 2006. (AFP/File/Mandel Ngan)


The White House has been examining a proposal by James Baker to launch a Middle East peace effort without Israel.

The peace effort would begin with a U.S.-organized conference, dubbed Madrid-2, and contain such U.S. adversaries as Iran and Syria. Officials said Madrid-2 would be promoted as a forum to discuss Iraq's future, but actually focus on Arab demands for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in the 1967 war. They said Israel would not be invited to the conference.... MORE :-)

The Banality of Suffering by Nathalie Khankan ... from EI

Live from Palestine
The Banality of Suffering
Nathalie Khankan writing from Ramallah, occupied Palestine, Live from Palestine, 7 December 2006

A Palestinian man mourns after his family was killed in Israeli shelling of a residential area in Beit Hanoun in the northern of Gaza Strip, 8 November 2006. (MaanImages/Wesam Saleh)

Is it looking at my own students at Birzeit University that reminds me of my old English teacher John S.? Every Tuesday and Thursday at 3:10 pm, and ten minutes before the end of class, they are all restless in their chairs, eager to continue their day without me. I do not take it personally. I feel their energy. But I do remember John fondly.

I recall his ability to last throughout the lesson and to end it with a virtual cliffhanger. Not all, but some of us would just be sitting there, nailed to our chairs, as the bell rang and other students began chatting, doors opening, noise everywhere. And, in the midst of clatter and laughter, John's last sentence would linger in the air. His cliffhanger.

One such cliffhanger I remember particularly well. We were discussing Brueghel's Fall of Icarus painting--the one that you can find in Musee des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. The myth of Icarus and his father Daedelus who made wings with wax to escape their Crete-prison. Flight. Youthful desire. Hubris. Icarus flying too close to the sun. Wings melting. The young Icarus falling into the sea and drowning. Tragedy.

In fact, not much of Icarus is showing in the painting. Only his white legs sticking up from the water in the bottom right-hand corner. But there are other people depicted, all going about their everyday lives. One man is ploughing. I do not remember the details, only the big panorama of a landscape with people in it, doing their things, like ploughing, undisturbed by the boy drowning. Icarus. The silent drama of a boy dying.

Did we talk about Auden's poem, as well? The one that speaks to Brueghel's painting:
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along ...
Maybe we did, or maybe I read the poem later. I do not remember. But I know the cliffhanger still hangs strong: Brueghel's painting as a depiction of the banality of great suffering. We just sat there, some of us, thinking on as the classroom emptied and John packed away his books. Not really knowing then what it means or could also mean. The banality of suffering ... its human position ...

Suffering ... its headline position. The headlines on the front pages of al-Quds and al-Ayyam that we read every day. Every day there is a number.

The number of casualties, Palestinians injured or killed or murdered under occupation. This month there have been headlines in white on black background, the colours themselves having their own language.

I wonder what you do when every day the headline contains a count and that count is about you? A relative newcomer to occupied-Palestine realities, I still cannot fully comprehend the idea, let alone fact, of years and decades of outrageous headlines that enumerate the deaths of my people. Like one long headline that forgot it had to change.

On this morning of November 8, Icarus comes from Bayt Hanoun. Eighteen people killed in their sleep. Most of them women and children. Not that men dying is less suffering. From the comfort zone of Ramallah, these numbers are strangely close-far.

The headline continues. And under it, a picture from Ma'an News that makes me want to plough on even harder. It is without sleeping-dead women and children. Three living men are in the picture. They are all in an alley, the ground muddy, stony. There is a pool of water on the ground. On the right-hand side. A pool of red water. In the middle of the picture, one man is down on his knees. Leaning on one knee actually. The other leg (there they are, the legs again!) shows a bare foot. His hands cover his face. His head is bent in grief. The other two men lean towards him, their arms under his. A Beit Hanoun snapshot. Really, it is just two men trying to make a third man stand. But no matter how hard I try, I cannot make it go away.


Nathalie Khankan is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. She writes on modern Palestinian poetry and can be reached at khankan@berkeley.edu. This article was originally published in This Week in Palestine and is republished with the author's permission.


Cover of a catalogue

(Arjan El Fassed - EI founder and photographer, has traveled in and outside Palestine and captured these visits on film)

medium_medium_mediumcoveroxford.2.2.jpg


  • 2005-2006 catalogue: INTERNATIONAL LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS: Oxford University Press

    The cover is an enlarged portion of a photo I made during a visit to Palestine in the summer of 2004. The picture was taken in Abu Dis. The photo shows the wall cutting through Palestinian neighborhoods, cutting villagers from their olive trees and livelihoods. On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice rendered its advisory opinion, stating that "the construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated régime, are contrary to international law”.

    Related Links
  • EI: BY TOPIC: Israel's apartheid wall


  • Israel's Apartheid Wall


    Israel's West Bank Barrier has become the most visible manifestation of the Israeli military occupation and most pressing issue for Palestinians. Often misleadingly called a "fence", the considerable structure snakes through the West Bank on Palestinian land, leaving Palestinians on the wrong side isolated from their land, extended families, and way of life.



    EDITOR'S PICKS
    A NEW BOOK FROM EI'S ALI ABUNIMAH

    A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse


    Palestine: Development: Iraq Study Group: No Military Solution to the Palestine Question ( 6 December 2006)

    Palestine: Human Rights: Legal paper calls for protection of Arab minority in future Israeli constitution ( 6 December 2006)

    Lebanon: Diaries: Live from Lebanon: Sowing the seeds of tomorrow's violence ( 7 December 2006)

    Lebanon: Diaries: Live from Lebanon: Historic Days in Beirut and a White Rose ( 6 December 2006)

    Palestine: Diaries: Live from Palestine: Why is Israel separating me from my wife? ( 6 December 2006)

    Palestine: Development: UN and partners launch their largest ever appeal for emergency aid for Palestinians ( 7 December 2006)

    Palestine: Development: UNRWA inaugurates 40 new shelters for Palestine refugees in Ein el-Tal Camp, Aleppo, Syria ( 7 December 2006)

    Palestine: Development: Open Letter to EU urges publication of report ( 6 December 2006)

    Palestine: Israel Lobby Watch: Twenty years later, still no charges in Alex Odeh assassination ( 6 December 2006)

    HUMAN RIGHTS
    Investigation to be launched into racist article in ultra-orthodox magazine


    7 December 2006

    In a letter received by Adalah on 23 November 2006, the State Prosecutor's Office in Israel announced that a criminal investigation for racial incitement into the publication of an article in Issue 160 of the ultra-orthodox Hassidic World magazine will be launched. Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker sent a complaint to the Attorney General on 23 August 2006, demanding the opening of an immediate investigation on the grounds that that the article, written by Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, contains racist statements and opinions which constitute incitement against Arabs in general and Muslims in particular. [MORE]

    letters 12-8-2006





    RE: Mideast peace talks & awarding Presidential Medal of Freedom- the nation's highest civilian honor - to Russian "Israeli" human rights activist Natan Sharansky and Abraham Foxman's "Don’t blame regional instability on impasse in Arab-Israeli conflict."

    Dear Editor,

    It is hard to take American talk about Mideast peace very seriously when Bush is about to
    award the Presidential Medal of Freedom- the nation's highest civilian honor - to Russian "Israeli" Natan Sharansky, the alleged human rights activist who, like Nobel prize wining Elie Wiesel, presents himself as a voice of compassion while actually scorning and ignoring the Palestinians' basic human rights, including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees inalienable, legal and moral right to return to their original homes and lands.

    Our official tax payer funded United States Holocaust Memorial Museum offers information for teachers including an important call for Genocide Awareness & Prevention , which include incentives for people to write op-eds about Darfur. Meanwhile writers who dare honestly speak out about the very real plight of the Palestinians are, like the Palestinians and peaceful protest, basically ignored... or demonized.

    Rather than expecting more empty words to inspire peace in the Middle East while Apartheid Israel continues to destroy Palestinian homes and lives, we should be devoting "tremendous energy" towards educating ourselves about the many ways that Zionist ideologues have been manipulating the conversation- and undermining truth and justice world wide.

    Sincerely,
    Anne Selden Annab

    http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20061208/a_blair08.art.htm
    http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2006/12/post_21.html#more
    http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20061208/a_capcol08.art.htm
    http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20061208/a_mideast08.art.htm
    http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20061208/a_arabview08.art.htm
    http://feedbackforms.usatoday.com/marketing/feedback/feedback-online.aspx?type=18


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

    RE: Scholar quits over statements on Israel in Carter book By Karen DeYoung
    http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/16190361.htm

    Dear Editor,

    Regarding Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid & the news that "A veteran Middle East scholar affiliated with the Carter Center in Atlanta resigned his position there Monday in an escalating controversy over former President Jimmy Carter's new book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

    May many more Zionists crash into the truth and resign, rearranging the political landscape so that people everywhere can be free to hear from real scholars, researchers, NGOs and regular folk who refuse to invest in the institutionalized bigotry, injustice and state sponsored terror that has been Israel since the Al Nakba (catastrophe) began.

    Sincerely,
    Anne Selden Annab


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

    Jimmy Carter: Speaking frankly about Israel and Palestine
    http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-carter8dec08,0,7544738.story?coll=la-opinion-center

    Dear Editor,

    Bravo to former President Jimmy Carter for daring to use strong clear words and images to explain what our "friend" Israel has been up to.

    America should be outraged and disgusted both by Israeli Apartheid and the fact that it is "politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians. "

    America should also be outraged and disgusted by the fact that our mainstream media and our college campuses have been so bullied and manipulated by the agents for a very foreign country.

    Cut to the chase: Carter frames it as if Israel should be protected. I disagree. Why protect the institutionalized bigotry, hate mongering, home wrecking and armed violence inspired and exasperated by political Zionism... Having watched Zionist shenanigans both here and abroad I think it is becoming increasingly clear that the path to a just and lasting peace in the region is not through Israel- but a fully free Palestine.

    Sincerely,
    Anne Selden Annab

    Palestinian embroidery and textiles: A nation's tale by Khader Musleh ...

    from IMEU


    Where has our humanity gone?
    Laila El-Haddad, IMEU


    Salvaging Bush's Mideast disaster
    Gary Kamiya, Salon.com


    Israelis adopt apartheid
    John Dugard, Atlanta Journal- Constitution


    The Quartet: Locals unwelcome
    Alastair Crooke, The Daily Star


    Dems slam Carter, ignore reality
    Michael Brown, The Nation






    This article was originally published by This Week in Palestine and is republished with permission.

    Palestinian girls wearing traditional dress perform during a student festival in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. (Mouid Ashqar, Maan Images)
    Embroidery for Palestinians represents a bridge that connects the current context to their history before the Diaspora. This is one of the main reasons that many Palestinian women adhere to the traditional attire that has powerfully portrayed their lifestyle and traditions for hundreds of years.

    Many of the motifs we now see on modern Palestinian dresses can also be seen on ancient mosaics, carvings, and graffiti. Unfortunately, there are not many examples available to illustrate embroidered Palestinian textiles before the mid-19th century other than descriptions in the memoirs of travelers and the paintings of European orientalists. In general, the motifs, colours, themes, and materials of Palestinian embroidery have been modified throughout the ages to reflect the lifestyle changes in the Holy Land.

    Traditional Palestinian embroidery was typically produced by village and Bedouin women rather than town dwellers, who have usually worn Western or Ottoman attire. This fact probably explains why most of the research done to date on Palestinian costumes and embroidered art has focused mainly on the rituals and social ceremonies in rural and Bedouin areas.

    Since the introduction of Islam in the region, the traditional costume for men in Palestine has been very simple in design and its style has become identical to that worn by men throughout the Arab world. In contrast, women’s costumes, and in particular those costumes for special occasions, were regionally and stylistically diverse and placed great emphasis on ornamentation. The detailed visual elements of these costumes reflected a correspondingly detailed system of meaning that centered on identity and status.

    Historically, both Bedouin and village women made their own costumes for festive occasions, namely weddings and religious feasts. Until the end of the Mandate period, most village women made and embroidered their own dresses. In some areas, such as Ashdod, Gaza, and the Galilee, the women themselves wove and dyed some of their fabrics. Bedouin women, however, have never woven their own material and have often sought the help of village women in embroidering their garments.

    Palestinian embroidery can be divided into four categories - ritual, technical, geographic, and structural. It must be noted, however, that the entire tradition of embroidery in Palestine has revolved around preparations for bridal trousseaus, given that wedding ceremonies are considered to be the most important occasion in the life of the Palestinian family. Normally, wedding gear would begin to be assembled several years before the wedding day. It used to be a collective effort that involved the bride, her relatives, and sometimes her neighbours. Designs and colour distribution would be determined by older women who have more expertise and a better understanding of the significance of each motif.

    There are two types of ceremonial wedding gear: Bedouin and village. Bedouin wedding gear consisted of a black dress (thob), a head cover (quna’a), a veil covering the face (burquo’), earrings (schinafat), and wrist bracelets (khulkhal or asawer). The Bedouin wedding dress is made with wing-like sleeves, a chest panel, side panels, and a back panel. It is distinguished from the village dress by the extensive cross-stitch embroidery on the front panel, the soft, black material (habar), and the absence of the couching stitch.

    The villager's ceremonial wedding gear consisted of the thob or jillayeh, the head veil (known as ghudfeh in the Hebron hills and the southern plains, khirqah in the Ramallah region, and schall elsewhere), the hat (known as shatweh in Bethlehem and samdeh or takiyeh elsewhere), the belt (zunar or ejdad), the jacket (taqsireh or jubbah), the handkerchief (mihrameh), and the trousers (sirwal or libas). Though most of the main garments had an overall resemblance in design, their motifs were not identical. Jewelry was mounted on the hat and often called the wiqayeh (protection against economic hardships).

    A Palestinian women in traditional dress displays embroidered handicrafts at the Al-Manna Center in the West Bank town of Ramallah. (Mushir Abdelrahman, Maan Images)
    Palestinian women used various techniques, including appliqué, in order to embroider and connect the fabrics. Until the beginning of the British Mandate period, Palestinians used their own raw material except for raw silk and metallic threads, which were imported from Syria. After the Mandate, machine-made threads of artificial silk began to be imported. The fine texture and precision of the older types were no longer apparent on the garments that were embroidered with imported threads.

    The weaving and dyeing of the cloth and raw silk were done locally as the cotton was cultivated in the coastal plains and the dyes were produced locally from natural extracts such as indigo, sumac, pomegranate shells, saffron, or cochineal. The art of dyeing was monopolized by a few families who kept the blend a secret. By the turn of the 20th century, synthetic dyes had reached Palestinian markets from Germany and, consequently, the whole industry of dyeing collapsed.

    Weaving centres that produced linen and other fabrics were founded in the cities of Majdel and Gaza in the south, Safad in the north, and Nablus, Ramallah, and Bethlehem. Though Palestinian weaving never rivalled the sophistication or the intricacy of that of neighbouring Syria, the most important Palestinian textiles were embroidered on locally woven linen.

    Palestinian Embroidery by Region

    Until the end of the British Mandate in 1948, the garment was one of the features that indicated regional identity. The most distinguished regions in this respect were the Galilee in the north; Nablus, Jaffa, and Ramallah in the centre; and Bethlehem, Jerusalem, the Hebron hills, Majdel, the Gaza Strip, and the Negev in the south. Each of these regions had its own embroidery techniques and motifs.

    The most popular women’s ceremonial attire in the Galilee consisted mainly of trousers, a very fine muslin robe that was worn beneath an open coat (jillayeh), and for headgear, a hat decorated with coins. The jillayeh is characterized by its short sleeves and the patched appliqué (iqat) on the front and side panels. Geometric motifs were embroidered in cross-stitch on the back. The ceremonial sirwal was often embroidered on either white or indigo linen with motifs that resembled those of the jillayeh.

    The dress of the Nablus region was much simpler than the others. Some researchers attribute this to the fact that women in the Nablus region had less time to embroider because they were too involved in agricultural work. Early examples of the Nablus dress show that embroidery was done on locally woven white linen, with green and red silk stripes that signified hell and heaven. It is very rare to find any embroidery on the wing-like sleeves, the side panel, or the back panels of the Nablus dress.

    The costumes of the Jaffa and Ramallah regions had many similarities in terms of fabric colour and motif distribution. Both used black, indigo, or white linen with geometric and floral motifs. The Ramallah dress contained abstract pictorials of the tall palm, the leech, stars, birds, and the Ramallah moon. In the western regions of Jaffa, Ramleh, and Lod, the cypress-tree and almond-blossom motifs are dominant.

    The Bethlehem and Jerusalem garments can be distinguished by their fabrics, motifs, and couching techniques. The couched motifs, commonly known as watches (sa’aat), are representations of the tree of life. The Malak dress, which refers to the dress that must not be washed, is known as the royal dress of Bethlehem. Another distinguishing factor for costumes embroidered in the villages of Bethlehem and Jerusalem is the variety of Syrian fabrics that were used to make the thob. Such distinctive, silk-mounted fabrics are striped with yellow, red, or gold.

    At some stage, women from other regions sought the help of the Bethlehem embroiderers to introduce the couching technique into their own costumes. Such a welcome intervention can be clearly seen on the reputable dresses of Beit Dajan and on the famous jillayeh of the Hebron hills. Furthermore, the Bethlehem artisans excelled in making embroidered mini-jackets and the finely embroidered hat that was harmoniously decorated with coral, gold and silver coins, silver bracelets, and the ‘seven-souls’ chokers.

    The villages of Hebron are as distinctive as the others in the world of Palestinian embroidery. Women in the Hebron region embroidered handkerchiefs, belts, head veils, cushions, and jillayehs. The most famous villages in this respect are Idna, Samou’u, Iraq al Manshiyeh, Beit ‘Ummar, Deir Samit, Bani-Na’im, Beit Jibrin, Dahriyyeh, and Dura.

    The motifs used in these districts were illustrated by several types of stitching that included couching, the cross and satin stitches, and the running stitch. In addition, the appliqué technique was broadly used on the front of the wedding jillayeh. The motifs on the white wedding veil were mirror images of those on the dark or indigo jillayeh.

    What distinguishes the Gaza costume (zainiyeh) from that of neighbouring Hebron is the colour application, the motif distribution, and the fabric type. The motifs known as ‘amulet’, ‘butterfly’, and ‘comb’ of the Gaza dress are predominantly purple, whereas the motifs in its Hebron counterpart are predominantly maroon or red. The cloth for the Gaza thob was traditionally woven in nearby Majdel, either on white cotton, in the case of the very old examples, or on black or blue cotton striped with mauve and green linen.

    The Bedouin style of the Negev is different from that of the villages. The main difference is the embroidery on the front panel of the dress and the use of the cross stitch only. It is maintained that Bedouins embroider the front panel of the dress as a way to show respect to others. The face veil (burquo’) and the back head veil (quna’a) represent the main distinction between the two in terms of overall appearance.

    The examples above illustrate the richness and diversity of Palestinian embroidery as a means to preserve and communicate history and identity. The art of embroidery, even as it continues today, reveals a comprehensive set of values, traditions, and ethnic beliefs as well as a deep association with the landscape of the country.

    Khader Musleh is an expert on Palestinian costumes and can be reached at Nuhamusl@netvision.net.il.

    Thursday, December 07, 2006

    Right of Return Ring of Blogs 12-7-2006