To mark International Peace Day, Jordan's Queen makes peace plea on behalf of war victims

http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=2379

Queen makes peace plea on behalf of war victims

AMMAN (JT) - Her Majesty Queen Rania has made a plea on behalf of victims of war in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

In a televised message to mark International Peace Day addressing supporters of the Peace One Day movement, the Queen highlighted the humanitarian crises in the region as a result of wars.

“The reality of peace is sadly absent from the lives of too many in the Middle East,” she told an audience of more than 4,000 supporters of the London-based movement, gathering Friday at the Royal Albert Hall in the British capital.

Referring to the holy fasting month of Ramadan as a time of giving, the Queen said it was “particularly painful” that “too many of my people’s mothers, fathers, children in Palestine and Iraq are starved of the thing they need the most: peace.”

“In a time where children are meant to be waking up to the sounds of laughter and honking school buses, many of the children of the Middle East are hearing cries of pain, bullets and bombs as the situation in the region continues to worsen,” Queen Rania said in the taped message, meant to raise awareness about humanitarian crises caused by wars in the region.

“Peace means our children can fall asleep to a mother’s soft voice, not screaming sirens; play with building blocks, not watch their homes destroyed; make friends not lose them; dream up big plans for the future, no wonder if they will have one,” said the Queen.

Peace One Day began as a film project by British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley in 1999. His aim was to establish the first-ever annual day of global ceasefire and nonviolence.

In 2001, September 21 was unanimously adopted by UN member states as the International Peace Day.

A nonprofit organisation, Peace One Day’s aim is to raise awareness of Peace Day and to engage all sectors of society in observance of the day through the practical manifestation of nonviolence and ceasefire, and encourage action to create a united and sustainable world.

The Queen’s audience in London enjoyed the sold-out concert, which included a well-blended mix of music and messages. Performances by Annie Lennox, James Morrison, Corinne Bailey Rae, Kate Nash, Yousif Islam, and Marc Almond were peppered with messages of support and advocacy from other famous personalities including Jude Law, Lord Puttnam, Ahmed Fawzi, David Beckham, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Angelina Jolie.

Encouraging the concertgoers to continue raising their voices for peace and all the supporters of peace worldwide, Queen Rania pleaded “whatever pledge you made for peace on this day - take it forward. Make it a pledge for all your days”.

The Queen also signed the Peace One Day commitment wall this week, where she committed “to advocate for the children of Palestine, Iraq, and beyond, caught up in war’s senseless tragedy”.

Jordan is a signatory to the International Peace Day.

23 September 2007

unrwra Refugee Stories: Student Parliaments – children exercising their rights

http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/stories/2007/StudentParliaments.html

Refugee Stories

Student Parliaments – children exercising their rights

Baqa’a, Jordan, September 2007

International Day of Peace (21st September) is an important time for reflection not only on what we understand by the term peace but also on which channels we can use to reach that goal. Student parliaments provide the perfect bridge between the theoretical components of peace and their practical application.

At the Baqa’a Prep Girl’s School it is the height of the election period and the campaigning is going on a pace. The corridor notice boards are filled with colourful posters on which the would-be parliamentarians display their slogans and electoral promises. Banners spelling out children’s rights cover every wall.

Recognising the need to engage the younger generation, in 2003 UNRWA piloted student parliaments in 20 out of its 177 schools in Jordan. The results were so positive that in the space of two years, all 177 schools had begun working with the initiative and today its merits are vaunted by teachers and students alike.

14-year-old Suha says that if she is elected she wants to help the slower learners with their school work and homework. "I want to be the link between students, and between students and teachers," says 7^th grade Rula. For other candidates, it is the experience itself which is important. "I want to become a lawyer so participating in the parliament will give me some good training," says 14-year-old Noor.

Last year Bushra, a student in the 9^th grade, worked together with her fellow parliamentarians to create a school constitution. The document stipulates what students and teachers, including the head teacher, should and should not do. As an example, the constitution states that it is forbidden for the head teacher to use corporal punishment. Through the formulation of the constitution, the parliamentarians were able to contribute to creating a renewed vision and mission for Baqa’a school.

Head teacher Fatmeh Mohammed Theeb’s enthusiasm for the student parliament project is clearly evident. Aglow with pride, she speaks about the achievements of the girls in her school. "We try to give students their rights by encouraging them to talk freely with their teachers, with me and with the area education officer," she explains.

Fatmeh meets with the school parliamentarians 3-4 times each academic year in order to get feedback on what they feel is good and bad about the school, the reforms they would like implemented and their evaluation of their teachers’ performance. She is keen to incorporate ideas presented by parliamentarians into her action plan for the next academic year. Right now, Fatmeh is trying to find the financial means to meet students’ demands for a dedicated place to hold their parliamentary sessions.

Student parliaments form an integral part of UNRWA’s human rights and non-violent conflict resolution programme, which runs alongside the mainstream curriculum in all UNRWA schools. The parliaments are also a critical component of UNRWA’s drive to foster Safe and Stimulating Schools through the promotion of children’s rights and a school environment in which tolerance and freedom of expression reign.

"Skills, knowledge and education in individual subjects are important, but so is education for life. Empowerment and capacity building ensure that we raise a new generation that believes in humanity," says Matar Saqer, Public Information Officer, UNRWA, Jordan.

By Vicky Samantha Rossi

from umkahlil: Letter re War on Gaza's children

http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2007/09/letter-re-war-on-gazas-children.html

Letter re War on Gaza's children

Dear Editor,

Thank you for publishing Saree Makdisi's "The war on Gaza's children."

According to the CIA's World Factbook the median age in Gaza is 16, with forty-eight percent of Gaza's population 14 and under.

In 1948 and after, Palestinian children died of diseases in the refugee camps which was their lot after Zionists dispossessed them and demolished their villages. Israel sees to it that Palestinian kids subsist on an anorexic diet while their Jewish counterparts all over the world are provided subsidies to immigrate.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gz.html

http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2007/02/sands-of-sorrow.html

"....But Israel’s Supreme Court demonstrated both the power of nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation, and its limits..."

http://palestinechronicle.com./story-092207142352.htm

Our West Bank Village Will Continue the Struggle

Our achievements are due to our persistence, the worldwide media attention we attracted, and the support we gained from committed Israeli activists.

Show Your Support The Palestine Chronicle is 100% reader-supported. If you find our publication worthwhile and valuable, we urge you to subscribe to our online edition today. Without your voluntary subscription the Chronicle cannot survive. Subscribe Now

By Mohammed Khatib

On September 4, after nearly three years of nonviolent protests by our village of Bil’in, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israel’s wall here must be moved further west, returning 250 acres of our farmland. In Bil’in we celebrated, along with our Israeli and international supporters.

But Israel’s Supreme Court demonstrated both the power of nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation, and its limits. On September 5 the court rejected our petition to stop the construction of another Israeli settlement, Mattiyahu East, on our land even further to the west. Israel, with US support, appears determined to retain major West Bank settlement blocs, including one west of Bil’in, that carve the West Bank into bantustans.

Bil’in is a West Bank agricultural village with 1600 residents located just east of “the Green Line”, the pre-1967 border between the West Bank and Israel. In Bil’in, as in tens of Palestinian villages, Israel exploited security justifications to build a wall deep inside the West Bank and seize Palestinian land for illegal settlements. Israel trapped 60% of our land behind the wall, mostly olive groves that we depend on.

In December, 2004 when the Israeli army started bulldozing our land and uprooting olive trees to build the wall, we went to our fields to protest. We learned from other West Bank villages that nonviolently resisted the wall, and we studied Gandhi, King and Mandela.

We developed creative activities for our weekly protests. One Friday, activists locked themselves inside a cage, representing the wall’s impacts. Another time, we built a Palestinian “outpost” on our village’s land located behind the wall and next to an Israeli settlement, mimicking the Israeli strategy of establishing outposts to expand settlements.

Another Friday we handed the Israeli soldiers a letter saying, “Had you come here as guests, we would show you the trees that our grandfathers planted here, and the vegetables that we grow… There will never be security for any of us until Israelis respect our rights to this land.”

We hosted two international conferences on nonviolent resistance, and many Israeli and international activists responded to our call to join us in a “joint struggle.” Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners suffered patiently together as the soldiers met our nonviolent actions with teargas, rubber-coated steel bullets, and clubs. Over 800 activists were injured in 200 demonstrations. An Israeli attorney and a Bil'in resident both suffered permanent brain damage from rubber-coated steel bullets shot from close range. Another Palestinian lost sight in one eye. 49 Bil’in residents, including some protest leaders, were arrested. Some spent months in prison.

Our achievements are due to our persistence, the worldwide media attention we attracted, and the support we gained from committed Israeli activists.

We never expected much from the occupier’s courts. The Israeli official who planned the wall told the Washington Post last month that he lost only three legal challenges to the wall’s path, out of 120 appeals filed, this though the wall isolates 10% of the West Bank and was ruled illegal where it is built inside the West Bank by the International Court of Justice.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. Still, Israel’s Supreme Court legalized the settlement of Mattiyahu East on our land, even though Mattiyahu East appeared to violate even Israeli law because it lacked an approved building permit.

The rush to build followed President Bush’s April, 2004 letter to then Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon stating that, “new realities on the ground, including already existing population centers” make it unrealistic to expect Israel to withdraw completely to the Green Line. Israel responded by expanding “existing population centers”, building huge apartment complexes, like Mattiyahu East, for hundreds of thousands of people, and calling them neighborhoods in existing settlements.

These expanding settlement blocs fall conveniently on Israel’s side of the wall. Strategically situated, the settlement blocs divide the West Bank into four isolated regions. Therefore, their annexation to Israel will render any Palestinian state unviable. Yet annexation of the settlement blocs is reportedly central to new Israeli government peace proposals to Palestinian President Abbas.

We will continue to challenge these expanding settlements because they threaten the futures of Bil’in and the Palestinian people. And we will put our experience at the service of other communities struggling against the wall and settlements. From Bil’in, we call on Israeli and international activists to join us as we renew our joint struggle for freedom.

-Mohammed Khatib is a leading member of Bil'in's Popular Committee Against the Wall and the secretary of Bil'in's Village Council.

[AL-AWDA-News] International Day of Prayer for Peace

NCOB 2007

International Day of Prayer for Peace

Venue: AEI Sumoud/ Peace House, (Anton's Al 'Ali building) near
Rachel's Tomb-Bethlehem/ Bilal Ben Rabah Mosque

Date: Saturday 22nd of September 2007

Time period: 16:30 – 18:00

The entire world, with its religious bodies, civil societies and
freedom seekers, pray for peace, non-violence and justice on this UN
declared day. As Palestinians in the Holy Land, our prayers should be
present and our united voice should be heard.

Suggested Schedule:

Time period Program
16:00 – 16:05 Welcome Speech by NCOB representative
16:05 – 16:15 Readings from the Gospel and the Qura'n on the theme of
Peace
16:15– 16:25 Speech by Bishop Atallah Hanna
16:25 – 16:35 Speech by Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi
16:35 – 16:45 Speech by EAPPI local coordinator
16:45 – 16:50 Justice and peace prayers/ reflections by youths
16:50 – 17:00 Dabka performance – Artas Heritage Centre
17:00– 17:30 Candle light vigil towards the Wall

Nidal Abuzuluf

Assistant Director

YMCA Rehabilitation Program

Coordinator

Network of Christian Organizations in Bethlehem(NCOB)

455 Jerusalem Street, PO Box 73, Beit Sahour, Palestine

Tel: 02 277 2713, 2185

Fax: 02 277 2203

Mobile: 0522 216 728 , 0599 642 925

George S. Rishmawi
Coordinator,
Siraj, Center For Holy Land Studies
Schools Street, Beit Sahour
Palestine
Website: www.sirajcenter.org
Email: george@sirajcenter.org
Telephone: +972 2 274 8590
Fax: +972 2 274 8774
Mobile: +972 599 180 872

=================================================================

Now Out - First Issue of Until Return
http://www.al-awda.org/until-return/1.html

Save the Date!
Sixth Annual International Al-Awda Convention
On The 60th Year of Al Nakba
Anaheim, California
May 16-18, 2008
http://al-awda.org

Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Become an Al-Awda Sustainer:
Monthly: http://al-awda.org/sustainers.html
Annual: http://al-awda.org/sustainers2.html

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

• Latest images

Palestinians wait to cross into Jerusalem at Qalandiya checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem September 21, 2007. Israel stopped thousands of Palestinians from entering Jerusalem for Ramadan prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque on Friday and tightened border security as Jews prepared for the solemn annual rite of Yom Kippur.

http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/IP_CON.htm?v=at_a_glance

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Last reviewed: 20-08-2007

ROCKY ROAD TO MIDDLE-EAST PEACE

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in a seemingly intractable dispute over land claimed by Jews as their biblical birthright and by the Palestinians, who seek self-determination.

World's longest refugee crisis

Roadmap to peace in tatters

Looming humanitarian crisis in Gaza

KEY FACTS

POPULATION
Israel	6.9 million (U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2006)
Palestinian territories	3.8 million (U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2006)
Settlers	There are around 430,000 settlers in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem (BBC Online)
Refugees	There are 4.4 million Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, of which 1.3 million live in camps. (UNRWA )
Palestinian prisoners	There are over 9,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, according to B/Tselem.
ECONOMY
Israel
GNI per capita (2006)	$18,620 (World Bank)
Palestinian territories
GNI per capita (2006)	$1,120 (World Bank)
Percentage below poverty line of $2.3 per day	80 percent in Gaza; 46 percent in the West Bank (World Food Programme, 2007)

September 22, 2007 1:52

News Flash: Muslim Denounces Terrorism!

Posted by Scott MacLeod

Among the unfortunate examples of Muslim bashing in the U.S. are Op-Eds of Thomas Friedman, who has sometimes used his very influential platform as a best-selling pop author, prestigious Middle East maven and New York Times pundit to accuse Muslims of some sort of collective responsibility for extremism and terrorism. One of his recurring points, as he wrote two months ago after the latest terrorism episode in Britain, is that "hundreds of Muslims have committed suicide amid innocent civilians...without generating any vigorous, sustained condemnation in the Muslim world."

Maybe it hasn't been up to Friedman's standards of being vigorous and sustained. But Muslim leaders and ordinary Muslims have consistently condemned extremism and terrorism. I agree if he is saying that the Muslim world can and must do more to advance unambiguous moral imperatives. On the other hand, many could (and do) turn around and say that Americans, including the U.S. government and Friedman too, are at fault for not making a vigorous and sustained criticisim of Israel's occupation policies...[more]

Ramadan sparks memories of happy days in Palestine by Mike Odetalla

http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070920/OPINION/709200506/1192/NEWS03

Ramadan sparks memories of happy days in Palestine
by Mike Odetalla

The holy month of Ramadan and its fasting are once again upon us. Muslims will fast from sun up 'til sundown, abstaining from food, water and intimate relationships.

Each year around this time, my memories are rekindled of Ramadan in our small village of Beit Hanina, a suburb of Jerusalem still without electricity, where people carried lanterns to light their way in the darkness as they went first to the mosque and then to visit friends and family.

Beit Hanina had a drummer, charged with the pre-dawn task of awakening the village to sahoor, the light meal whose end marked the beginning of each day's fast. Closing my eyes and thinking real hard, still brings back the sound of Beit Hanina's drummer banging away, and the delightful memories of joining the other children, carrying our decorated fanoosia lanterns with candles burning brightly inside them, as we ran along behind the drummer, singing, laughing and shouting to help awaken the sleeping adults and start them on sahoor and their new day.

How I admired the drummer. How I wanted his job and to share in his fun.

During Ramadan in 1979, when I made my first visit back to Palestine since the 1967 expulsion, my cousin and I, both 18 and living in the U.S., finally became the Ramadan drummers of Beit Hanina. The Israeli invasion of 1967 and the subsequent occupation made the drummers' job very high risk and today they are scarce. Ramadan drummers were often stopped, even beaten, and some have been killed by the Israeli occupying army.

By 1979, the village had not enjoyed a drummer in five years, so my cousin and I delighted in our job of walking through the village each morning banging away on large tin cans. It must have been a very humorous sight. The elderly were happy to hear us, while the younger people thought we were a great joke and made fun of the "bored Americans."

But everyone agreed that we had renewed some "life" that had been lost as we broke through the dark still nights of Ramadan. For me, however briefly, I was transported back to a happy childhood whose memories had never left me for a moment.

I still remember sitting by the family's transistor radio with my siblings listening to the special programs as we awaited the "cannon" to go off, signaling that it was time to break our fast. The "cannon" was a World War I-era English relic and merely made a loud bang, which was all that it was good for.

Ever since my own children were very small, I had regaled them with the many stories of my childhood in Palestine, enjoying the look of fascination on their faces as they implored me to tell them yet "another story of when you were young in Palestine."

This past summer, I took my children to visit the grave of my grandmother, which is located on a hillside cemetery off of Salah Eddin Street in the Old City. The cemetery is actually located inside the boundaries of the Palestinian village of Lifta, which was ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian inhabitants, including my wife's family, by the Zionists in 1948. Many people, including my grandmother and her family members, are buried there, although now it is considered part of Jerusalem.

As we made our way through the cemetery gates and up the hill so that we could read Al-Fatiha, which is the opening verse of the Quran, at her graveside, I noticed an old rusty cannon sitting on the top of the hill, virtually buried beneath the overgrown weeds. I decided to head up the hill and take a closer look. Much to my surprise, the cannon was an exact copy of the very same cannon that I had remembered as a youth. I called my children up the hill and showed them the cannon, surmising that the cannon was used to alert the residents of Jerusalem when to break their fast before the city fell under Zionist control.

During Ramadan, my mother would always invite friends and relatives to our home to break the fast with us. As Muslims, we are obligated to share breaking our fast with others, especially those less fortunate than us. It is considered a blessing to do so. It is something that we continue to do here in America as we invite friends and loved ones to share in our blessing on this holy month - the essence of which are a time of prayer, fasting and charity.

Some of the best memories that I carry with me are connected to the month of Ramadan in Palestine when I was a child. The closeness and feeling of "community" that I felt during those times is something that is almost beyond description. The sound of the drummer, the Muezzin call to prayer, the static emanating from the transistor radio, the "boom" of the cannon, the enticing aroma of the special foods that we only ate during Ramadan, the sight of families huddled together on a mat-covered floor around the evening meals, illuminated by the flickering light of a kerosene lantern, enjoying their meals, as humble as it may have been, in the company of family and loved ones.

These are my memories of Ramadan before the Israeli invasion and subsequent brutal and inhumane occupation, which has destroyed many families and communities and is now in the process of causing further havoc as Israel continues to erect its apartheid walls, checkpoints and roadblocks that have reduced many Palestinian villages and cities to nothing more than walled off ghettos and open-air prisons.

Unfortunately, these will constitute the next generation of Palestinian children's memories and experiences.

Mike Odetalla, a 30-year Canton resident, emigrated from the Middle East in 1969 when he was 8 years old, following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. For more on Ramadan, an Islamic religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, visit www.holidays.net/ramadan.

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

"Come, I'll tell you about Palestine" www.Hanini.org

My Home Town: http://www.beithanina.org/

http://www.palestinecalendar.org/

http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/

http://www.alnakba.org/

http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/

http://www.palestineremembered.com

http://www.al-awda.org

http://www.pcwf.org

Palestinian children receive food for Ramadan..& more from IMEU

Palestinian children receive food for Ramadan from a charitable organization in the West Bank city of Hebron. (Mamoun Wazwaz, Maan Images)

The war on Gaza's children

Saree Makdisi, The Los Angeles Times

Sep 22, 2007

An entire generation of Palestinians in Gaza is growing up stunted: physically because they are not getting enough to eat; emotionally because of the pressures of living in a virtual prison; intellectually because they are trying to study in circumstances that no child should have to endure.

Economics and occupation Karma Nabulsi, The Guardian

Christianity in Palestine Joel Carillet, WRMEA

No academic freedom George Bisharat, Baltimore Sun

Student challenges Gaza lockdown in court
The Independent (Sep 22, 2007)

Ramallah mon amour
Lily Galili, Haaretz (Sep 22, 2007)

Villagers protest Israeli separation barrier near Bethlehem
Maan News (Sep 22, 2007)

Israel concludes four-day Nablus sweep
The International Herald Tribune (Sep 22, 2007)

Fourth Palestinian killed in Gaza raid
Agence France Presse (Sep 21, 2007)

It's lobbying, but is it really pro-Israel?
M.J. Rosenberg, Haaretz (Sep 21, 2007)

Ramadan woes
Salah Al-Naami, Al-Ahram Weekly (Sep 21, 2007)

Full closure on West Bank, Gaza
Ynet News (Sep 21, 2007)

UN finds 40 new West Bank roadblocks in two months
Haaretz (Sep 21, 2007)

The Institute for Middle East Understanding provides journalists with quick access to information about Palestine and the Palestinians, as well as expert sources, both in the U.S. and the Middle East. Need story assistance? Contact us. New to the issue? See our Background Briefings.

letters

RE: Protest Coverage Worth Protesting & the letters You're Wrong About the War, and About the Rally, Too
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101885.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101725.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Dear Editor,

Good to see that the very mainstream Washington Post is indeed noticing anti-war protests (You're Wrong About the War, and About the Rally, Too & Protest Coverage Worth Protesting.)

Meanwhile on another front, off in the land of the less well known dissident press shall we say, this fascinating article popped up Justice Forgotten: Whatever Happened to Palestine? clearly explaining where and how Palestine is pushed aside and purposefully erased from the conversation as many anti-war groups refuse to touch the topic.

So it is safe to assume that really the protests were much smaller than they should have been.... but more importantly let us not forget what the protesters really had to say: Money for jobs and education- not for war and occupation!!!... and I even heard on CSPAN (after a great speech by Dr. Zahi Damuni of AL-Awda) a rousing round of FREE FREE PALESTINE shouted by the crowds- the big crowds... crowds that would have been bigger but for the fact so many 'peace activists' and groups refuse to fully condemn the crime called Israel.

Meanwhile getting right to the real point, the LA Times today noticed Palestine... "An entire generation of Palestinians in Gaza is growing up stunted: physically and nutritionally stunted because they are not getting enough to eat; emotionally stunted because of the pressures of living in a virtual prison and facing the constant threat of destruction and displacement; intellectually and academically stunted because they cannot concentrate -- or, even if they can, because they are trying to study and learn in circumstances that no child should have to endure..." The war on Gaza's children Israel's sanctions are leaving a generation of Palestinian children poorly educated and hungry. By Saree Makdisi LA Times, September 22, 2007

A shame that your news and opinion pages really didn't (notice Palestine). The children of Palestine are worth noticing and protecting.... and so is freedom and real democracy- including our own.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

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

RE: Israel letters
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/332651_webltrs22.html

Dear Editor,

Zionists write letters and Palestinians lose jobs. That's the tit for tat that's been going on for years and years and years while everyone tries to make peace with Israel- the idea of Israel.

PLEASE- look at what the idea that is Israel is really doing to the people of Palestine: "Israel is the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, despite having removed its settlers in 2005 and transforming the area, home to 1.5 million mostly refugee Palestinians, into the world's largest open-air prison which it besieges and fires into from the perimeter. Under international law Israel is responsible for the well-being of the people whose lives and land it rules." Dehumanizing the Palestinians Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, Sep 21, 2007

The Israel Defense Forces, one of the most powerful miltaries on earth, constantly attacks and assassinates vulnerable Palestinian men, women and children- while Zionist ideologues here in America studiously attack and assassinate characters and ideas....such as the idea that all the people of Palestine should be free- and equal.

Dershowitz defending racist Israel thrives in America, holding a prestigious job at one our most prestigious universities while professor, Nadia Abu El-Haj, who is of Palestinian descent, might lose tenure at Barnard College because she dared write a book called "Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society".

I think, for everyone's sake, we should stop trying to make peace with political Zionism.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

*****************************************
RE: Long memories in Jena
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/09/22/long_memories_in_jena/

Dear Editor,

Jena and Jenin- two place names from two very different parts of the world that blend together in my mind for their names and themes are almost the same.

In Jena the tell tale nooses strung from a tree have roused communities all over America to rise up and object to racist hate and injustice.

In Jenin, in 2002, defenseless Palestinian refugees were trapped and slaughtered- massacred- as one of the most powerful miltaries in the world, the institutionalized bigotry enforcer dubbed " The Israel Defense Forces" , attacked and pulverized yet another Palestinian refugee camp.

And in Gaza today 1.4 million Palestinian men, women and children are trapped and starving, intentionally being tortured and bullied by "The Jewish State" because Palestinians refuse to idolize the blatant bigotry and injustice that has displaced and impoverished countless Palestinians for years and years and years.... Jena and Jenin...

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES:
Jenin 'massacre evidence growing'
Searching Jenin: The Most Authoritative Report on the War Crimes We Will Ever Get By ILAN PAPPE :

Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion
Edited by Ramzy Baroud
Introduction by Noam Chomsky

Archive for the 'Jenin Region' Category

& on the same theme concerning the Sept. 15: the 25th anniversary of Sabra & Shatila Massacre...

*****************************************
RE: Want electricity? Stop the rockets
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-morris22sep22,0,7004385.story?coll=la-opinion-center

Dear Editor,

Israel is a blatantly racist rogue nation that has been intentionally torturing, demonizing and destroying the people of historic Palestine for generations.

Idiots, apologists and ideologues for this slow motion genocide want to convince US that starving the harshly persecuted, oppressed and imprisoned people of Palestine is a reasonable thing to do.

Idiots, apologists and ideologues for this slow motion genocide want our money and our support so that we are complicit in this barbaric crime against humanity... For everyone's sake, we seriously need to just say NO ISRAEL!

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

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

RE: The remarkable survival of Ehud Olmert
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9833007

Dear Editor,

There is nothing remarkable at all about Olmert- or his survival, not with political Zionism going strong. War Camp plus Peace Camp in a good cop/bad cop interplay adeptly keep racist Israel ready willing and able to continue with its genocidal campaign, with various Zionists thinking themselves respective heroes as the Zionist State thrives and Palestine seems to be shattered like glass.

But Palestine is not glass... Palestine is the people- all of them, everywhere worldwide: Palestine is warmth and wonder and millions of memories - and dreams- that will never ever go away. Palestine is laughter and the way a kite pulls you right up into the sky... Palestine was and always will be. I'd say the Zionist State might "win" every battle- but Palestine has already won the war.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES:
"The people who were butchered - twenty seven hundred or more - were butchered because of who they were, because they were Palestinians. They were refugees. They were denied their fundamental inalienable right to return to their homes in Palestine. A right that is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in international law, a fundamental, inalienable, and natural right..." Dr. Zahi Damuni, Co-founder of Al-Awda The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, speaking at the massive ANSWER antiwar rally in Washington DC on the 25th anniversary of Sabra and Shatila Massacre, September 15, 2007 (on cspan 11.44 minutes into the tape)

• UN Civil Society Conference on Palestinian Rights:...
• Dehumanizing the Palestinians by Ali Abunimah
• Around 1.4 million people live in the Gaza Strip. ...
• The Zionist Question- A History of Violence By M. ...
• [AL-AWDA-News] weekly report of israeli war crimes...
• How can an "active" peace movement forget all about the Palestinian people and their rights
• Ramzy Baroud: Convenient racism
• "Under no circumstances can Israel view it as an 'enemy entity'. Gaza is not an independent state, Gaza is under occupation
• High Commissioner for Human Rights concerned over imposition of punitive measures on Gaza.
• Bureau of Palestinian rights committee issues statement on Israel's decision to declare Gaza strip ‘hostile territory’
• Peace Torpedoed by Olmert Government Threat of Collective Punishment for Gaza on Eve of Rice Vist to the Region
• Stop the War Rally Washington DC September 15, 2007
• Three cultures, three views of terror by Rami G. Khouri
• UN finds 40 new West Bank roadblocks in two months...& more from IMEU
• Whatever Happened to Palestine? Justice Forgotten ...
• 16-year-old Palestinian boy crushed by Israeli bul...
• Israel and the UN : The 1948 United Nations Assemb...
• Israel’s Missed Opportunities By Joharah Baker for...
• [IfAmerKnew] Action Alert - Ain Refugee Camp under...
• Dr. Zahi Damuni's Speech on The 25th anniversary of Sabra and Shatile Massacre- delivered at the massive ANSWER antiwar rally in Washington DC, September 15, 2007
• We know it deep in its poetry, music and colour......
• Sherri Muzher: My Unsung Palestinian Hero
  
• Lawyers for Islamic Charity Urge Jurors to Ignore ...
• Israel's Agenda For Ethnic Cleansing and Transfer ...
• Palestinians left helpless by Israelis, World Bank...
• 14 years after the Oslo Accord, it''s time to draw...
• BBC News : West Bank village faces demolition
• Palestinian economy remains crippled: World Bank
• On the tenth anniversary of its founding, Adalah i...
• US officials finally react to Israel’s racism
• Palestinian Rights Committee reviews recent Middle...
• Ramzy Baroud: Diverted from 9/11's Lessons
• ZIONISM: A PRETEXT FOR GENOCIDE by Hala Dimechkie ...
• The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J...
• Israel and Censorship at Harvard
• Franklin Lamb : Sabra-Shatilla, 25 Years Later
• Despite Backlash, Many Jews Are Questioning Israel...

PALESTINE:
PEACE NOT APARTHEID

"One day when the world wakes up to the fact that a rights based solution is the only solution for Middle East peace, the Palestinian refugees will go home to live in peace and dignity on their own land and will no longer be subject to massacres." umkahlil No More Massacres: Peace and Dignity in their Own Land for Palestine's Refugees

FACTSHEET The Right To Return, a Basic Right Still Denied

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

"The humanitarian aid and assistance that UNRWA provides to the Palestine refugees can never be enough. But it will be required as long as the issues of statelessness, prolonged military occupation, economic marginalization and vulnerability characteristic of the Palestinian refugee crisis are not addressed." http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.htm?tbl=PUBL&id=4444d3c92f

By far the most protracted and largest of all refugee problems in the world today is that of the Palestine refugees, whose plight dates back 57 years.
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.htm?tbl=PUBL&id=4444d3c92f

& Forced Migration Review's (FMR) recent edition on Palestinian refugees
http://www.forcedmigration.org/

& more on the Palestinian Refugees....

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/israel/return/
http://www.badil.org/index.html
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/index.html
http://imeu.net/news/background-briefings.shtml
http://www.rorcongress.com/
http://www.al-awda.org/facts.html
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Right-Of-Return/
http://www.p4pd.org/refugees.html
http://www.plomission.us/links.php
http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/115746336017.htm
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/refugees.shtml
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_mamboezine&Itemid=182
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=10241&CategoryId=4
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/israel-palestine/returnindex.htm
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/israel-palestine/return/2004/0927necessary.htm
http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/MEPP/PRRN/papers/abusitta.html
http://www.world-crisis.com/analysis_comments/A147_0_15_0_C
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/687/region_ror.htm
http://www.al-awda.org/abusitta.html
http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0102/010220a.htm
http://www.fmreview.org/palestine.htm
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

Birthright Unplugged : Counter Tourism
& Re-Plugged allows young Palestinian children to see the places where their families come from...

Al-Nakba MAP

Palestine's Districts Before Nakba-1948 (for the satellite version or the Google Earth version)

PALESTINE: 60 YEARS OF FORCED EXILE...
TIME FOR RETURN

http://www.resistanceart.com/Posters.htm

http://www.palestineremembered.com/index.html

http://www.badil.org/Publications/Press/2007/press445-07.htm

The war on Gaza's children by By Saree Makdisi

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-makdisi22sep22,0,2737657.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

The war on Gaza's children

Israel's sanctions are leaving a generation of Palestinian children poorly educated and hungry.

By Saree Makdisi
September 22, 2007

An entire generation of Palestinians in Gaza is growing up stunted: physically and nutritionally stunted because they are not getting enough to eat; emotionally stunted because of the pressures of living in a virtual prison and facing the constant threat of destruction and displacement; intellectually and academically stunted because they cannot concentrate -- or, even if they can, because they are trying to study and learn in circumstances that no child should have to endure.

Even before Israel this week declared Gaza "hostile territory" -- apparently in preparation for cutting off the last remaining supplies of fuel and electricity to 1.5 million men, women and children -- the situation was dire.

As a result of Israel's blockade on most imports and exports and other policies designed to punish the populace, about 70% of Gaza's workforce is now unemployed or without pay, according to the United Nations, and about 80% of its residents live in grinding poverty. About 1.2 million of them are now dependent for their day-to-day survival on food handouts from U.N. or international agencies, without which, as the World Food Program's Kirstie Campbell put it, "they are liable to starve."...[more]

Israel imposes closure on Gaza and W. Bank on Jewish holiday

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/21/content_6766097.htm

Israel imposes closure on Gaza and W. Bank on Jewish holiday

www.chinaview.cn 2007-09-21 19:35:11

Special report: Internal situation in Palestine
JERUSALEM, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday that it has imposed a full closure on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank "in light of the significant terror threat" during a Jewish holiday.

The closure, starting Thursday midnight, will continue for the duration of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, which starts from Friday evening to Saturday evening, the IDF said in a statement.

......(Israeli spin removed).......

A similar closure was also imposed on the West Bank during the Jewish New Year holidays last week.

In the past days, Israeli forces have been conducting military operations in Gaza and the West Bank city of Nablus.

......(Israeli spin removed).......

The ongoing operation in Nablus in the last three days has already led to the arrests of 36 Palestinians.

UN Civil Society Conference on Palestinian Rights: A Call against Israeli Apartheid !

Worldwide Activism

UN Civil Society Conference on Palestinian Rights: A Call against Israeli Apartheid !
Worldwide Activism, Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, September 19th, 2007

This year’s UN civil society conference organised by the UN Committee on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people was one of the most publicized. Normally held in relative silence at one of the UN headquarters, the hosting of the conference at the EU parliament in Brussels has provoked an unprecedented media campaign launched by Israel and its lobby.

The proceedings of the ICNP steering committee meeting as well as the workshops and plenaries held during three days of meetings displayed a solid consensus on the basic analysis of the situation in Palestine and framework according to which solidarity is to be continued in the coming year. The importance of highlighting the apartheid nature of Israel and its policies was a constant thread in the discussions as well as the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

The focus on the Nakba and the ensuing plight of the refugees and the Palestinians within the Green Line was another common denominator in many interventions.

Consequently, ICNP are calling for the start of a year of raising awareness about the Nakba, which started 60 years ago and is still ongoing, to begin on the 29th of November 2007 – 60 years to the day since the Partition Plan was passed at the UN in Resolution 181. On that day the UN, national governments and international bodies are called to focus on Palestinian rights.

It was decided to hold a Global Day of Action on May 15th – the Palestinian Nakba Day.

****

UNITED NATIONS
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CIVIL SOCIETY
IN SUPPORT OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

INTERNATIONAL COORDINATING NETWORK
ON PALESTINE

European Parliament, Brussels
August 30-31 2007

Realizing the inalienable rights of the Palestinian People:
60 years is enough! End the dispossession; bring the refugees home!

PLAN OF ACTION

Israeli occupation and apartheid, backed by international support and acquiescence, continue to deny the Palestinian people their inalienable rights, including the rights of self-determination and return. While the humanitarian, political and social conditions inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory continue to deteriorate, especially in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, while Palestinian refugees around the world remain unable to exercise their internationally-mandated right of return, and while Palestinians inside Israel continue to face institutionalized discrimination, we recognize and remain committed to our global obligation to work to realize those rights.

As we civil society organizations convene again to take up that obligation, we continue to anchor our work within the principles of human rights, international law, the United Nations Charter and resolutions, and with a commitment to internationalism, a just peace, and the belief that the UN remains central to ending the occupation.

We meet in the sober recognition that international diplomacy has failed to achieve the Palestinians’ inalienable rights. Primarily because of U.S. support for Israeli occupation and apartheid policies, and because Europe, the United Nations and other international actors have failed to adequately challenge that support, diplomatic efforts including the Quartet and the so-called “Roadmap to Peace” have failed. We do not believe further diplomatic efforts within these inadequate frameworks, including the plans for a limited November 2007 meeting in which the United Nations and the European Union will be allowed to play only a marginal role, are any more likely to succeed.

Nevertheless, the role of parliaments and parliamentarians remains crucial to any future diplomatic success, and we commit ourselves to work closely with our own national and regional parliaments towards this end. We will particularly focus our parliamentary work on pressing governments to make good on their obligations to implement the 4th Geneva Convention and other aspects of international law. We continue to believe that international support for Palestinian rights remains a fundamental obligation of civil society organizations around the world. We also recognize our obligations to work towards the reassertion of United Nations centrality in Palestine-related diplomacy.

Palestinian democracy has been undermined, primarily by the crippling U.S.- and Israeli-led economic and political sanctions imposed on the Palestinians, resulting in an escalated humanitarian crisis, particularly in Gaza.

On the 29 November 1947, the UNGA passed Resolution 181, the Partition Resolution, which divided Palestine into a 'Jewish state' and an 'Arab state'; giving 55% of the land to the former and 45% to the latter. In three months time, on the 29 November, when festivals will be held in Israel to celebrate Resolution 181, we must protest the land theft that followed. Five and half months later, on the 15 May 2008, when Israel celebrates its founding, we must loudly and vociferously shout out our rejection of 60 years of dispossession and expulsion. We must say to the world that “Enough is enough!”

Israeli policies towards Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory constitute violations of the United Nations International Covenant Against the Crime of Apartheid. We will work to identify those violations and to bring to justice all perpetrators of that crime. We also commit ourselves and our organizations to continuing to work for the implementation and enforcement of the three-year-old Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice that held Israel's Apartheid Wall, and its entire settlement project in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, to be illegal. We recognize special urgency in regard to the Wall, because its encircling of Palestinian towns and cities in the most massive Israeli land-grab since 1967, is close to complete, and we renew our call on the United Nations, especially the General Assembly, to work for full implementation of its ICJ opinion.

We meet in the halls of the European Parliament, in the capital of Europe, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian nakba, or catastrophe, that resulted in the creation of the State of Israel. That continuing catastrophe, with its dispossession and loss of lands for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and the disempowerment of tens of thousands more, set the conditions for today's political, economic and humanitarian crises. We recognize the particular responsibility of Europe in the origins of that crisis, as it was the response to European anti-Semitism and ultimately the Holocaust against European Jews that led to Europe’s decision to support a solution to the “Jewish Question” that was taken at the expense of the Palestinian people. In acknowledgement of that stark reality, we call on Europe and the United Nations to join with civil society in recognizing 2008 as a year to commemorate the Nakba and to commit to reverse its losses.

We are committed to creating a new reality in the Middle East, for all its peoples: a reality based on justice, equality, human rights and international law; a reality that ends the occupation; and a reality that realizes, finally, the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination and return, and the right to establish an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.

We demand an immediate end to the isolation of Gaza. We call for the immediate release of Palestinian parliamentarians and cabinet ministers illegally kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces. We also call on Palestinians to move towards a renewal of political unity within the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and for immediate international recognition of such a reunified Palestinian polity. We support our Palestinian civil society counterparts, and we remain very concerned about the threat to democracy posed by the recent banning of 103 non-governmental organizations.

We thus make the following call:

Call to Action

We condemn the U.S.-Israeli led international boycott of the Palestinian people, and we will respond, following the call of Palestinian civil society in 2005, by strengthening our global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a non-violent effort against Israeli occupation, Apartheid and oppression.

We condemn Israeli policies of exclusivism and discrimination against Palestinians, and we commit ourselves to a campaign identifying and opposing Israeli policies as violations of the International Covenant Against the Crime of Apartheid.

We condemn the current U.S.-controlled diplomatic efforts as a politically-driven manipulation, and we will respond by working to expand and strengthen the role of the United Nations and global civil society. With our colleagues in the European Coordinating Committee on Palestine and others in global civil society, with the United Nations, with parliaments and parliamentarians as well as organizations such as the Council of Europe and the European Union, we will join efforts to demand that governments work to meet their obligations under the 4th Geneva Convention and under other relevant aspects of international law in respect of Israeli violations. We recognize the specific obligations imposed on all signatories to the 4th Geneva Convention to implement the ICJ Advisory Opinion.

We reject the claim that at a time of internal Palestinian division and crisis that the international community and global civil society must simply stand aside, and we reassert our renewed commitment to work for justice, equality and human rights. We call on the international community to respect the results of Palestinian democracy.

We call on the European Union to organize a fact-finding mission to investigate Israeli violations of the International Covenant Against the Crime of Apartheid and other international laws in its treatment of the Palestinians living inside Israel, as well as its violations of the 4th Geneva Conventions in Israel’s isolation campaign against the 1.5 million people of the Gaza Strip.

We condemn the rising triumphalism that marks so much of U.S., Israeli and European celebration of Israel's independence, and we are building a campaign of education and mobilization to mark 2008 as a year to commemorate Palestinian dispossession and expulsion, and a year committed to reversing those 60-year-old losses. In particular we call on the United Nations, the European Union and the Non-Aligned Movement to mark November 29, 2007 as an international day to commemorate the 1947 Partition Resolution and its consequences.

Finally, we commit ourselves, and call on global civil society, to join Palestinian communities inside Israel, in exile and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in mobilizing for a year of educational and campaigning work beginning on November 29, 2007. T