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Jonathan Cook: We Didn't Disappear

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Thursday January 04, 2007

Jonathan Cook: We Didn't Disappear

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The document is likely to further increase tensions between the Israeli government and the country's Palestinian minority, and has already been roundly condemned in the Hebrew media.

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By Jonathan Cook

The official political leadership of Israel's more than one million Palestinian citizens issued a manifesto in Nazareth last week demanding a raft of changes to end the systematic discrimination exercised against non-Jews by the state since its creation nearly six decades ago.

Included in the manifesto -- the first ever produced by the community's supreme political body, known as the High Follow-Up Committee -- are calls for Israel to be reformed from a Jewish state that privileges its Jewish majority into "a state of all its citizens" and for sweeping changes to a national system of land control designed to exclude Palestinian citizens from influence.

The document is likely to further increase tensions between the Israeli government and the country's Palestinian minority, and has already been roundly condemned in the Hebrew media.

Although individual Arab political parties have made similar criticisms of the state before, it is the first time in its history that the High Follow-Up Committee -- a cautious and conservative body, mainly comprising the heads of Arab local authorities -- has dared to speak out. The committee is seen as setting the consensus for Israel's one in five citizens who are Palestinian.

The most contentious issue raised in the document, called "The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel", is Israel's status as a Jewish state. The authors -- leading academics and community activists -- argue that Israel is not a democracy but an "ethnocracy" similar to Turkey, Sri Lanka and the Baltic states.

Instead, says the manifesto, Israel must become a "consensual democracy" enabling Palestinian citizens "to be fully active in the decision-making process and guarantee our individual and collective civil, historic and national rights."

An editorial in Israel's liberal Haaretz newspaper denounced the document as "undermining the Jewish character of the state" and argued that it was likely its publication would "actually weaken the standing of Arabs in Israel instead of strengthening it".
The campaign among Israel's Arab parties for a state of all its citizens began in the mid-1990s after it was widely understood that under the terms of the Oslo Accords Israel's Palestinian population would remain citizens of the State of Israel. Until then the minority had kept largely out of the debate about its future, fearing that expressing a view would prejudice negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership.

The demand for a state of all its citizens has wide backing among the Palestinian minority: a recent survey by the Mada Al-Carmel Centre revealed that 90 per cent believed a Jewish state could not guarantee them equality, and 61 per cent objected to Israel's self-definition.

However, Israeli prime ministers, including Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, have always characterised the call for a state of all its citizens as tantamount to sedition. In a speech last week, Avigdor Lieberman, the new minister of strategic threats, repeated a similar line, telling policy-makers in Washington: "he who is not ready to recognise Israel as a Jewish and Zionist state cannot be a citizen in the country."

As well as highlighting the various spheres of life in which Palestinian citizens are discriminated against, the manifesto makes several key demands that are certain to fall on stony ground.

The High Follow-Up Committee argues that the Palestinian minority must be given "institutional self-rule in the field of education, culture and religion". Israeli officials have always refused to countenance such forms of autonomy. Instead, the separate and grossly under-funded Arab education system is overseen by Jewish officials; the status of the Arabic language is at an all-time low; and the government regularly interferes in the appointment of Muslim and Christian clerics, as well as controlling the running of their places of worship and providing almost no budget for non-Jewish religious services.

The manifesto also demands that Israel "acknowledge responsibility for the Palestinian Nakba " -- the catastrophic dispossession of the Palestinian people during Israel's establishment in 1948 -- and "consider paying compensation for its Palestinian citizens".

As many as one in four Palestinian citizens are internal refugees from the war, and referred to as "present absentees" by the Israeli authorities. They were stripped of their homes, possessions and bank accounts inside Israel, even though they remained citizens. Most homes were either later destroyed by the army or reallocated to Jewish citizens.

An internal government memorandum leaked several years ago showed that most of the internal refugees' money, supposedly held in trust by a state official known as the Custodian of Absentee Property, had disappeared and could no longer be traced.

Another controversial demand is for a radical overhaul of the system of land policy and planning in Israel, described in the manifesto as "the most sensitive issue" between Palestinian citizens and their state. Israel has nationalised 93 per cent of the territory inside its vague borders, holding it in trust not for its citizens but for the Jewish people worldwide. The land can be leased, but usually only to Jews.

Israel's Palestinian citizens, on the other hand, are restricted to about three per cent of the land, although they do not control much of the area nominally in their possession. Gerrymandering of municipal boundaries means that Arab local authorities have been stripped of jurisdiction over half of their areas, which have been effectively handed over to Jewish regional councils.

The manifesto calls for an end to other discriminatory land practices: the exclusion of Palestinian citizens from planning committees; the refusal of such committees to issue house- building permits to Palestinian citizens; the enforcement of house demolitions only against Palestinian citizens; and the continuing harmful interference by international Zionist organisations, particularly the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund, in Israel's land and planning system.

The chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee, Shawki Khatib, said: "We've already seen the reality of which the Arab public says to the Jewish public, 'I want to live together, and I really mean it', but the Jewish public has still not reached the same conclusion. This document is a preliminary spark. Its importance is not in its publishing, but in what happens after it."

The High Follow-Up Committee was established in 1982, in the wake of Land Day in 1976 when six unarmed Palestinian citizens were shot dead by Israeli security forces during demonstrations against a wave of land confiscations by the state to advance its official goal of "Judaising" the Galilee.

The Follow-Up Committee has lost much of its status over the past decade, widely seen as too unwieldy a body to represent the Palestinian minority's needs effectively. Members, drawn from the heads of local authorities and major Israeli Arab organisations and parties, do not have to submit to direct election and reach their decisions through consensus, which has often paralysed the committee into inaction. The manifesto is viewed as an attempt to reassert the committee's authority.

In recent years Arab political factions have called for direct elections to the Follow-Up Committee, but the Israeli government has intimated that it would consider an Arab "parliament" as an attempt at secession and react harshly.

In a related development, the Mossawa advocacy centre presented a position paper at a conference in Nazareth this month, arguing that internal refugees should be allowed to return to villages that existed before 1948. "The move by refugees of 1948 to their villages will not change the demographic balance or endanger the Jews," said Jafar Farah, head of Mossawa. "Unlike the [Palestinian] refugees in Arab states, we are [already] here."

-Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His book, “Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State” is recently published by Pluto Press. His website is www.jkcook.net

from antiwar.com: Israel's Bad Influence by Charley Reese

January 6, 2007

Israel's Bad Influence

by Charley Reese

Scott Ritter, a former U.N. arms inspector in Iraq, has written a book, Target Iran, in which he accuses the Israeli government and its American lobby of pushing the U.S. into attacking Iran. Ritter writes, "Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel." He accuses some members of the lobby of dual loyalty and urges that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee be required to register as a foreign agent. He also blasts the Israeli lobby for its use of the Holocaust and for crying anti-Semite every time Israel is criticized. "This is a sickening trend that must be ended," he writes. By coincidence, an Israeli general has verified everything Ritter says. According to an article published in Today.az on Jan. 2, Israeli Brig. Gen. Oded Tira published a statement urging an all-out effort by Israel and its lobby to push a U.S. attack on Iran. "President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran," the general is quoted as saying. "As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and U.S. newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iran issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure." The general urges the Israeli lobby to turn to Hillary Clinton and other potential presidential candidates in the Democratic Party so that they support immediate action by Bush against Iran. The lobby must also approach the Europeans, he adds, so Bush won't find himself isolated, and he calls for Israel to "clandestinely cooperate with Saudi Arabia so that it also persuades the U.S. to strike Iran." As Ritter says, a U.S. war in Iran will be a war made in Israel. Of course, Israel's American supporters, most of whom are ignorant of nuclear energy, ignorant of the history of Israel and ignorant of the people in the Middle East, will trot out their usual specious arguments. But let's lay out the undeniable facts. Israel considers Iran its main threat. Israel wants a U.S. attack against Iran. The Israeli lobby does what the Israeli government tells it to do. Anybody who claims the Israeli lobby is just another lobby is either ignorant or lying. The Israeli lobby is the second most, if not the most, powerful lobby in America. So, sit back and watch the Israeli amen corner start the propaganda to push America to war with Iran just as it did in the case of Iraq. It will try to have you believe that Iran can make nuclear weapons as easily as baking cakes. The truth is that even if Iran decided to seek nuclear weapons, the Iranians are a good 10 years away from having any. The truth is that Iran, even if it had nuclear weapons, is no threat to the U.S. All of which reminds me of my favorite undiplomatic comment by a diplomat. Some time ago at a private party in London, the French ambassador said of Israel, "Why does the world put up with such a sh*tty little country causing so much trouble?" Outraged British Zionists demanded his recall, but the French government ignored them. Sooner or later, Americans are going to wake up to the fact that Israel's influence on the American government is detrimental. If Israel wants a war with Iran, let the Israelis fight it. Of course, seeing how poorly they did against Hezbollah, I suspect that the Israelis, despite their public threats, would not choose to fight the Iranians. In my opinion, Americans who want American youth to die and bleed for the benefit of a foreign country are guilty of more than dual loyalty.

from thePencil.org:"Israel's Rights to Exist" by John Whitebeck

(Note: This E-Mail can be forwarded. Mailing List Information, including subscription/un-subscription instructions, are located at the end of this message.)

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Dear Annie,

Please read the following article by John Whitebeck, the title of the Article is: "Israel's Rights to Exist"

Now that the Palestinian civil war long sought by Israel, the U.S. and the EU appears on the verge of breaking out, it may be timely to examine the justification put forward by Israel, the U.S. and the EU for their collective punishment of the Palestinian people in retaliation for their having made the "wrong" choice in last January's democratic election -- the refusal of Hamas to "recognize Israel" or to "recognize Israel's existence" or to "recognize Israel's right to exist".

These three verbal formulations have been used by media, politicians and even diplomats interchangeably, as though they mean the same thing. They do not.

"Recognizing Israel" or any other state is a formal legal/diplomatic act by a state with respect to another state. It is inappropriate -- indeed, nonsensical -- to talk about a political party or movement, even one in a sovereign state, extending diplomatic recognition to a state. To talk of Hamas "recognizing Israel" is simply sloppy, confusing and deceptive shorthand for the real demand being made.

"Recognizing Israel's existence" is not a logical nonsense and appears on first impression to involve a relatively straightforward acknowledgement of a fact of life -- like death and taxes. Yet there are serious practical problems with this formulation. What Israel, within what borders, is involved? The 55% of historical Palestine recommended for a Jewish state by the UN General Assembly in 1947? The 78% of historical Palestine occupied by Israel in 1948 and now viewed by most of the world as "Israel" or "Israel proper"? The 100% of historical Palestine occupied by Israel since June 1967 and shown as "Israel" on maps in Israeli schoolbooks? Israel has never defined its own borders, since doing so would, necessarily, place limits on them. Still, if this were all that were being demanded of Hamas, it might be possible for it to acknowledge, as a fact of life, that a State of Israel exists today within some specified borders.

"Recognizing Israel's right to exist", the actual demand, is in an entirely different league. This formulation does not address diplomatic formalities or simple acceptance of present realities. It calls for a moral judgment.

There is an enormous difference between "recognizing Israel's existence" and "recognizing Israel's right to exist". From a Palestinian perspective, the difference is in the same league as the difference between asking a Jew to acknowledge that the Holocaust happened and asking him to acknowledge that it was "right" that the Holocaust happened -- that the Holocaust (or, in the Palestinian case, the Nakba) was morally justified.

To demand that Palestinians recognize "Israel's right to exist" is to demand that a people who have for almost 60 years been treated, and continue to be treated, as sub-humans publicly proclaim that they ARE sub-humans -- and, at least implicitly, that they deserve what has been done, and continues to be done, to them. Even 19th century U.S. governments did not require the surviving Native Americans to publicly proclaim the "rightness" of their ethnic cleansing by the Pale Faces as a condition precedent to even discussing what reservation might be set aside for them -- under economic blockade and threat of starvation until they shed whatever pride they had left and conceded the point.

Some believe that Yasser Arafat did concede the point in order to buy his ticket out of the wilderness of demonization and earn the right to be lectured directly by the Americans. In fact, in his famous statement in Stockholm in late 1988, he accepted "Israel's right to exist in peace and security". This formulation, significantly, addresses the conditions of existence of a state which, as a matter of fact, exists. It does not address the existential question of the "rightness" of the dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people from their homeland to make way for another people coming from abroad.

The original conception of the formulation "Israel's right to exist" and of its utility as an excuse for not talking to any Palestinian leadership which still stood up for the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people are attributed to Henry Kissinger, the grand master of diplomatic cynicism. There can be little doubt that those states which still employ this formulation do so in full consciousness of what it entails, morally and psychologically, for the Palestinian people and for the same cynical purpose -- as a roadblock against any progress toward peace and justice in Israel/Palestine and as a way of helping to buy more time for Israel to create more "facts on the ground" while blaming the Palestinians for their own suffering.

However, many private citizens of good will and decent values may well be taken in by the surface simplicity of the words "Israel's right to exist" (and even more easily by the other two shorthand formulations) into believing that they constitute a self-evidently reasonable demand and that refusing such a reasonable demand must represent perversity (or a "terrorist ideology") rather than a need to cling to their self-respect and dignity as full-fledged human beings which is deeply felt and thoroughly understandable in the hearts and minds of a long-abused people who have been stripped of almost everything else that makes life worth living. That this is so is evidenced by polls showing that the percentage of the Palestinian population which approves of Hamas' steadfastness in refusing to bow to this humiliating demand by their enemies, notwithstanding the intensity of the economic pain and suffering inflicted on them by the Israeli and Western siege, substantially exceeds the percentage of the population which voted for Hamas in January.

It may not be too late to focus decent minds around the world on the grotesque and fundamental immorality of this demand and of the bizarre verbal formulation on which it is based, whose use and abuse have already caused so much misery and threaten to cause more.

Regards,

ThePencil.Org Palestine Newsletter Team

Right of Return Ring of Blogs 1-5-2006

Right of Return Ring of Blogs

1-5-2006

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umkahlil

Friday, January 05, 2007

Mr. Occupied Jerusalem

Teddy Kollek, an Ashkenazi Jew, born in Hungary, raised in Vienna, immigrated to Palestine in 1935, hyped in the press as "Mr. Jerusalem," while those Palestinians actually born in Al-Quds, which means God's Choice, are denied entry to the place of their birth and repatriation of their personal property.
...more

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Screamer in the Matrix

Friday, January 05, 2007

Jimmy Carter and Uncle Tom´s Cabin

I really do like the informed comments of blogger "Xymphora", when he is not busy taking aim at Christians, who he once believed were the main culprits in the sorry state of the world.
In his newest post he explains how extraordinary it is, that the mainline media discusses Jimmy Carter´s book.

Harriet Beecher Carter

The fact that Jimmy Carter is allowed to appear on the mainstream media and mention Israel and apartheid in the same sentence is something of a miracle, and represents a sea change in the representation of Israel in the United States (of course, as I’ve mentioned before, this comparison is unfair . . . to the white South Africans).

Until recently, you’d be more likely to see hard-core porn on the American mainstream media than you would be able to obtain a smidgeon of truth about Israel. Now that the American Establishment – you know, the guys Noam says rule the world – have belatedly awakened to the fact that they are on the verge of losing trillions of dollars due to American official support for the racist tribal policies of the Zionists who run Israel and have taken over the American government, the taboo on truth about Israel has been ordered to be at least partially lifted.

Will Carter’s book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”, become the “Uncle Tom's Cabin” of the Palestinian people? It is commonly acknowledged now that the American Civil War was fought primarily for economic reasons, while justified on the moral grounds of eliminating slavery....more

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DesertPeace

Friday, January 05, 2007

FAMILY NIGHT OUT IN PALESTINE

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

I just received this letter from a dear friend, Sam Bahour. It says it all, I have nothing to add....

Dear Friends,
I wanted to write this last night but was exhausted from playing umpteen hands of the card
game UNO with my 6 year old daughter, Nadine (pic attached). Why this card frenzy,
especially given I hate playing cards? Well, we were in the center of Ramallah yesterday
afternoon, at 3:40pm when the almighty Israeli military decided, again, that it was time to
wreak havoc on our city. I should not really complain since what happened in Ramallah
yesterday happens across the West Bank and Gaza regularly. Nevertheless, I will make an
issue about it and urge every Palestinian, in every city, to make an issue about every Israeli
infraction on our lives.

Yesterday I was extremely busy all day and had a dinner appointment with a serious venture
capitalist in Jerusalem in the evening, so I agreed with my wife and girls that since I would not
be home all day and night, that I'd pick them up at 3:30 sharp and we would go for a late
lunch. We haven't been out much given all of the infighting lately so my girls were thrilled. I
rushed home at 3:30 to pick them up and found my daughters dressed to kill. To them, this
was a serious outing after a long holiday break which was spent mostly at home. The
restaurant they had as first choice was closed due to the holidays, so they reverted to their
favorite popular place, Angelo's Pizzeria, for those that know it.

Angelo's Pizzeria is on the main street in Ramallah, a few hundred meters from Lion's Circle,
the smack middle of town where you saw on the the news Israeli bulldozers destroying cars
last night. I parked on the Friends Girls School road which is behind the restaurant. As soon
as I exited the car I felt something was wrong....more

A YEAR WITHOUT SHARON~~ WHAT WOULD HE HAVE DONE?

Carlos Latuff












Today, the 4th of January, marks one full year since Ariel Sharon went into a coma. Reuters asks a question of its readers; 'What would Arik have done?'
I can honestly answer that in very few words, people on both sides of the wall are still suffering from the damage he did.... I wouldn't want to see what else he 'had up his sleeve'.
Read here to see what Reuters had to say..... make sure to read the joke at the end...

PALESTINE~~ THE YEAR IN REVIEW

It was a turbulant year. It was a year of violence, of destruction, of death. Take 3 1/2 minutes of your time to watch THIS video prepared by the Electronic Intifada.
Then take the next 365 days working to make sure the next year is a better one... for the entire world.
Now watch THIS to see how possible it is....
...more


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American-Palestinian New Generation

Friday, January 05, 2007

We need heros - A welcome story of an everyday hero

Its better than a purple heart in battle, as this man did not have to do anything to save the young man who fell onto the subway tracks. Mr. Autrey's valiant behavior is greedily sucked up by a media and a country thirsting for simplicity, honesty, and goodness. It deserves to be be front page news. Bravo Wesley Autrey!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Ah, the longing for Arik Sharon

In what might be perhaps considered a prescient eulogy, BBC's correspondent from Jerusalem, Katya Adler (already noted as a highly impartial reporter) practically goes gaga over the memory of Ariel Sharon. Evoking a bizarre sense of nostalgia upon this one-year anniversary of Arik's transition into purgatory, I can hardly keep up with my welling tears as Ms. Adler fawns over the "sleeping giant." "It is regarded by many Israelis as annus horribilis" she somberly expands. Heavens forbid we allow the current scandals of Israeli politicians to overshadow the tranquility of the past; oh such tranquil times as warrior Sharon's savagery on Arab villages from El-Bureig in 1951 and Qibya in 1953 to Sabra and Shatila in 1982; the provocation at Haram Al-Sharif leading to the Al-Aksa Intifada of 2000; and of course Sharon's stellar financial reputation. Yes, the narrow sentiment to beatify Sharon are best summed up in this quote by Daniel Ben Simon who says: "We cannot know what would have happened had Sharon stayed with us. But one thing is sure, he became a father figure." A more accurate picture of who Ariel Sharon was (he is a vegetable now with most certainly an anus horibilis) can be read in a prehistoric editorial from 2001 at CounterPunch.

Giuliani, McCain, the GOP and Jewish Money

Is former Mayor of NY Rudy Giuliani being sacrificed by AIPAC in favor of McCain? Its a little sketchy that the highly-favored former mayor is now out of the 2008 race based on a "leak" from a stolen book. Guess whose money and clout are behind both Giuliani and McCain? Big-time GOP fundraiser Lew Eisenberg, who on his trip to Israel with George Bush in 1998 said: "I had no inkling he would one day lead a global coalition to conquer terrorism..." [source]
Perhaps the Israeli lobby feels that Israel, in an era of American militarism, is better off with the soldierly McCain rather than the beauraucratic Giuliani, although RG is higher ranked as a good-for-israel president on the Israel Factor ranking of US politicians.

Posted by Terry Scott at 10:46 AM Comments

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Sabbah's

Jan5th2007

Apartheid in Israel?

by ~Psychomind-studio

Is Israel an apartheid state? Here are two pieces to answer this question. One is from and American professor, another from ex Israeli Minister of Education:

Truth at last, while breaking a U.S. taboo of criticizing Israel
By George Bisharat

Americans owe a debt to former President Jimmy Carter for speaking long hidden but vital truths. His book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid breaks the taboo barring criticism in the United States of Israel’s discriminatory treatment of Palestinians. Our government’s tacit acceptance of Israel’s unfair policies causes global hostility against us.
Israel’s friends have attacked Carter, a Nobel laureate who has worked tirelessly for Middle East peace, even raising the specter of anti-Semitism. Genuine anti-Semitism is abhorrent. But exploiting the term to quash legitimate criticism of another system of racial oppression, and to tarnish a principled man, is indefensible. Criticizing Israeli government policies - a staple in Israeli newspapers - is no more anti-Semitic than criticizing the Bush administration is anti-American....more

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peacepalestine

Friday, January 05, 2007

Israel bought 10% of the Moon (the rest belongs to the Americans...)

Another promised land?? (Italian original underneath)

Explosion of sales for pieces of land on our satellite that is up for private sale
For the company that is handling the offer, "It's an excellent occasion and a good investment."

"10 per cent of the Moon belongs to Israelis"

JERUSALEM - The fascination of outer space, with its promise of remote lands yet to be explored, remains undying. What to say then of the Moon itself, nothing short of irresistible. Especially for the Israelis, who own no less than 10 per cent of it. Giving the news of it is the Jerusalem Post: the Israelis are now owners of 10 per cent of the the satellite's territory put on sale for private ownership. It's a mania that was started on Internet, where it is possible to give the strangest of gifts such as donating to a newborn child a star that bears his or her name, or, as here, buying a piece of the Moon. For some it is only an extravagance, but many consider it to be a form of investment, that will allow them to appropriate terrain that will have a future value destined to go through the roof. ....more

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Annie's letters

• Miftah photo gallery: Then and Now
• 
  
• Sprinting Gazelle
• 
  
• Palestine: The Exodus and the Odyssey
• 
  
• The Institute for Middle East Understanding
• 
  
• Aliyah is.... Russian Smiles-Palestinian Grief
• 
  
• letter to USA Today regarding 'Iraq's refugee crisis...
• 
  
• The Palestinian Refugees INALIENABLE Right To Return
• 
  
• Talking to Americans by George S. Hishmeh
• 
  
• 8 Palestinians killed in clashes with Israel
• 
  
• Hope flickers still in gloom of Bethlehem
• 
  
• from THE pencil
• 
  
• 
  
• Jonathan Cook replies....
• 
  
• Thomas Jefferson's Koran to be used for Ellison's Swearing-in
• 
  
• Salwa Mikdadi: Bringing Palestinian art into the spotlight & more from IMEU
  
  

• With the New Year...from EI

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Peace For Palestine

Saturday, January 06, 2007

True Flag of Israel...

Not hidden with lies!

Friday, January 05, 2007

"Sorry, Kid! I Can't Hear you...."

U.S. Government is in Israel

Our Real Government Is in Israel

Sun Apr 13 2003

by Annie Oakley




I watched Colin Powell speaking to AIPAC (the Israeli lobby) on a morning C-Span show. I almost threw up. He announced that the U.S. is immediately giving Israel $1 Billion to assist their economy which this war has impacted. The Jews stood and applauded loudly. With a big smile, he said, "And that's not all. The president has asked for an additional $9 Billion in loan guarantees" (which means a non-repayable grant since the Cramden bill -passed some years back- guarantees adequate U.S. grants to pay any Israeli debt. Israel pays us back not one cent -- ever). Cheering and loud applause ensued from the audience.....more

Palestinian Disagreements?

A Political Wall

Surrounded by pressure from Israeli/American backhandness, with Abbas signing a devils pact bent on destruction or another Puppet government.

With Palestinian citizens caught in the middle.

Will the outcome be an attempt of complete annulations or is Mahmoud Abbas this naive?

Ellison Uses Qur’an in Swearing-In Ceremony

Barbara Ferguson, Arab News

WASHINGTON, 5 January 2007 — Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, used a Qur’an once owned by President Thomas Jefferson, and now housed in the Library of Congress, at his ceremonial swearing-in yesterday.

The third US president, serving from 1801 to 1809, Jefferson was a collector with wide-ranging interests. His 6,000-volume library, the largest in North America at the time, became the basis for the Library of Congress.

It was acquired in 1815 as part of a 6,400-volume collection Jefferson sold for $24,000, to replace the congressional library that had been burned by British troops the year before, during the War of 1812.

The English translation of the Arabic, the library’s Qur’an was published in 1764 in London, a later printing of one originally published in 1734.

Ellison’s spokesman said Jefferson’s Qur’an dates religious tolerance to the founders of the country, and to make the point that “religious differences are nothing to be afraid of.”

“It demonstrates that from the very beginning of our country, we had people who were visionary, who were religiously tolerant, who believed that knowledge and wisdom could be gleaned from any number of sources, including the Qur’an,” Ellison told reporters on Wednesday. Ellison was born in Detroit and converted to Islam in college.

“A visionary like Thomas Jefferson was not afraid of a different belief system,” Ellison said. “This just shows that religious tolerance is the bedrock of our country, and religious differences are nothing to be afraid of.”

Some critics have argued that only a Bible should be used for the swearing-in. Members are sworn in to the US House of Representatives as a group with no Bibles or other books involved. But in a country where three out of every four people consider themselves Christians, the Bible has traditionally been used in ensuing unofficial ceremonies which, among other things provide each member with a photo opportunity for themselves and their constituents.

Ellison said an anonymous person wrote him about the Qur’an, and he arranged with the Library of Congress to use it. The chief of the Library of Congress’ rare book and special collections division, Mark Dimunation, walked the Quran across the street to the Capitol and brought it back after the ceremony.

“This is considered the text that shaped Europe’s understanding of the Qur’an,” Dimunation said.


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Today in Palestine!

www.TheHeadlines.Org

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Bonsoir...
Wednesday, January 03, 2007 Carter: Israeli Apartheid Worse than South African
Last Word: Jimmy Carter , Revisiting 'Apartheid' Newsweek International
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Raising Yousuf, Unplugged

Wednesday, December 27, 2006
You know its Eid when....

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Saree Makdisi Archive

Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Jimmy Carter, Israel and Apartheid

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karmalised
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Body on the Line
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Blue Fog
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al-falasteenyia
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RAFAH TODAY
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secularavatar
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Don't Foresake the Steed

Miftah photo gallery: Then and Now

Al-Nakba: The Palestinian Dispossession Date posted: May 14, 2003 By MIFTAH

In 1948 their homes were taken away; today they are still denied their Right of Return! Then and Now

Sprinting Gazelle

Read Reviews Listen to clips Buy Album 1. Financial Times Pick of the Year (David Honigmann) – December, 2006 2. Best of Elsewhere 2006 (Graham Reid), New Zealand – December, 2006 3. Time Out Editor’s Pick (John Lewis) – December 2006 4. BBC London World Music DJ Ritu’s Best CDs of 2006 – December 2006 5. Properganda Magazine, Best of 2006 (Hidden Gems) – Dec/Jan, 2006/7 6. Nominated Best Distributor Music Week Awards – December, 2006 7. World Music Central Editor’s Picks (Angel Romero), USA – 24 November, 2006 8. Number One Bestseller, Folk Devils’ Whitby Musicport – October, 2006 9. British Council CD of the Month – June, 2006 10. Time Out Number One Critics’ Choice Recent Albums – 14 February, 2006

She doesn’t sing the music, but lives it with her whole body and soul. The sheer emotional power of it hits you right in the solar plexus, but it’s totally controlled – she can switch instantly from anger to laughter, from grief to celebration




& found on amazon.com
Better Together Buy this album with Exile ~ Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble today! Buy Together Today: $39.47

Palestine: The Exodus and the Odyssey

The Palestine Sunbird

This bird is really known as the Palestine sunbird (scientific name: Nectarinia osea). Common throughout Palestine. 2004, Oil on Canvas ISMAIL SHAMMOUT (1930 - 2006 obituary by Haithem El-Zabri)

"The Olive Tree" (2005)

One of 19 murals in the series "Palestine: The Exodus and the Odyssey." (1997-2000)

The Institute for Middle East Understanding.....

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West Bank closures, endless frustration Gideon Levy, Haaretz Jan 5, 2007 "The easing of restrictions of the closure" is already at its height: Hurray, we can travel to Qalqilyah. We can even somehow make it to Nablus. Not in our private car, it's true; they won't dream of such luxuries here. But in several taxis and on foot, from checkpoint to checkpoint. Oh, the enlightened occupation. Armenian priests pray in the Grotto of the Nativity, the spot where Jesus Christ is said to have been born, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. (Maan Images) Truth at last George Bisharat, Philadelphia Inquirer Launching the Academy of Art Palestine Haaretz Temples of the occupation Meron Benvinisti, Haaretz

Invasions are a way of life in West Bank town
Palestine News Network (Jan 5, 2007)

'My crime was to protest at Israeli assassinations': Israeli activist freed after 30 months in jail
The Guardian (Jan 5, 2007)

The gravest offenses? Trial of an Israeli activist
Haaretz (Jan 5, 2007)

Abbas slams "fake" peace moves, condemns deadly Ramallah incursion
Haaretz (Jan 5, 2007)

Abbas, Haniyeh meet, pledge to halt infighting
IMEMC (Jan 5, 2007)

Palestinian journalists protest to demand the release of Peruvian photographer
International Herald Tribune (Jan 5, 2007)

Four dead, 20 wounded as Israeli army rolls into Ramallah
Agence France Presse (Jan 4, 2007)

Mubarak: Israel must avoid steps that impede peace
Haaretz (Jan 4, 2007)

Russian Smiles-Palestinian Grief

Aliyah is....

Russian Smiles-Palestinian Grief

letter to USA Today regarding 'Iraq's refugee crisis offers problem, opportunity for U.S.'

Iraq's refugee crisis offers problem, opportunity for U.S.

Architects of the Iraq war planned for many things that didn't happen and didn't plan for many things that did. One of the things that didn't happen, at least not right away, was a refugee crisis. In fact, from the fall of Saddam Hussein in early 2003 through 2005, about 300,000 Iraqis returned to their homeland from other countries.

Dear Editor,

Interesting that you mention the Palestinians to illustrate the tragedy and danger of Iraq's growing refugee crisis. But what a shame you did not advocate that we kick start peace by demanding that Israel respect international and moral law by fully respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN Resolution 194, both from 1948 and both clearly spelling out the Palestinian refugees inalienable right to return to original homes and lands.... Not more forced transfer or terror tactics to push targeted ethnic and religious groups into exile, detention camps and despair but true return with true respect for the rule of fair and just laws.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other relief agencies, several hundred Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes in Iraq are now stranded in desolate areas on the Syrian and Jordanian borders. And every day in the illegally occupied territories Israel continues to attack Palestinian homes and communities- and refugee camps. This situation is absolutely insane and wrong!

Rather than shuffling these victims of multiple wars and bigotry from one bleak camp to another our highest priority should be to make sure that the children of Palestine are safe and respected in their country of origin no matter what it is named. Personally I think it should be called Palestine for ALL the people as the past 60 years of sovereign "Israel" have been nothing but an investment in institutionalized bigotry, injustice, escalating violence and punitive apartheid all along.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab