NOVANEWS
1 Haaretz
March 26, 2012
Christian Palestinians: Israel ‘manipulating facts’ by claiming we are welcome
Israel’s envoy to U.S. writes that Christians are morethan elsewhere in Mideast. Too bad the Christians disagree.
By Amira Hass
Here’s some information that Interior Minister Eli Yishai might want to consider: Since the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel, its Christian communities have expanded 1,000 percent.
This information might have excited the Americans who read a March 9 opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal written by Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, about Christians being forced out of Arab countries but flourishing in Israel.
Of course, Oren does not mention the Christians who lived in the country before 1948 and fled the horrors of war or were expelled by us – and who, like their Muslim compatriots, were not allowed to return to their homes after the establishment of the state.
He does, however, bring up the Jews who were expelled from Arab states. (Zionist ideology wants to have its cake and eat it too: It wants all the Jews from around the world to immigrate to Israel, and for this purpose it sent special emissaries who not only prepared the flying carpets but also encouraged and intensified the panic and flight; in the meantime, it complains about bans on Zionist activity and about the expulsion of Jews. )
Nor does Oren mention the systematic decline in the status of Jews from Arab states, who became third-rate citizens after they moved to Israel, a proxy agent of the enlightened West (a fan of slaves and other countries’ natural resources ) in the barbaric Middle East. He is too busy with current matters:
“As 800,000 Jews were once expelled from Arab countries, so are Christians being forced from lands they’ve inhabited for centuries,” he writes. Of all the countries in the region, he adds, a Christian community is thriving only in the State of Israel.
Oren distinguishes between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In these Palestinian areas, he says, the Christian community is dwindling: “Christians in those areas suffer the same plight as their co-religionists throughout the region.”
This statement sparked the following rebuke from Yisrael Medad, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, to post a comment: “Mr. Ambassador, Your repetitive use of ‘West Bank’ is unfortunate. Not only is it incorrect geopolitically, historically and legally; not only does it go against the direction of your superior, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who calls the area ‘disputed’; but it is simply damaging diplomatically. Use ‘Judea and Samaria,’ please.” And here we have the Israeli right wing airing its dirty laundry in public, or at least in front of whoever bothers reading the more than 240 reader comments.
The Wall Street Journal also published four letters rebutting Oren’s article. Geographic definitions were the least of the concerns expressed by Rev. Robert O. Smith of Chicago, who wrote: “The biggest problem with Mr. Oren’s analysis, however, is that it stands in sharp disagreement with the perspectives shared by those he presumably wants to protect. Mr. Oren seeks to speak for Palestinian Christians before he has spoken with them.”
And Oren’s piece did, in fact, anger these Christian Palestinians. Eighty prominent Christian Palestinians signed a letter sent to the ambassador last week in response to his article, accusing the ambassador of manipulating the facts.
“Your attempt to blame the difficult reality that Palestinian Christians face on Palestinian Muslims is a shameful manipulation of the facts intended to mask the damage that Israel has done to our community,” they said in the letter. “The exaggerated growth of the Christian population in Israel that Mr. Oren claims is due primarily to the immigration of Russian Christians whom Israel was unable to distinguish from the Jewish immigrants pouring into the country after the fall of the Soviet Union.”
One of the letter’s signatories is Rifat Qassis, the coordinator of Kairos Palestine, an umbrella organization of Palestinian Christians of various denominations that was founded in 2009 to explain, primarily to fellow Christians, what Israel’s occupation is all about. Speaking in measured tones, Qassis, who lives in the West Bank town of Beit Sahur, told me: “Oren is trying to reap propaganda dividends from what is occurring in the Arab world, whereas the context in which we Christian Palestinians live is completely different. There are problems in this region, and I don’t want to downplay them, but Oren is trying to erase the occupation as the main cause of Palestinian suffering.”
In 2006, Qassis conducted a survey of Christians who live in the occupied Palestinian territories, and, he says, the vast majority said their desire to emigrate was linked to the lack of security and stability they feel under Israeli rule. Less than 1 percent spoke about being afraid of Muslims.
Kairos Palestine also sent a letter to The Wall Street Journal that blamed Israeli policy for driving away Christians, but it was not published. “In the case of Bethlehem, for instance, it is in fact the rampant construction of Israeli settlements, the chokehold imposed by the separation wall and the Israeli government’s confiscation of Palestinian land that has driven many Christians to leave,” the letter states. “At present, a mere 13 percent of Bethlehem-area land is left to its Palestinian inhabitants.”
The letter also states that Oren’s article “reveals a disturbing conception of democracy itself” by claiming that Israel is acting to promote the prosperity of Christians who live under its rule.
“Oren implies the Israeli state’s lack of interest in ensuring the same [prosperity] for Muslims. Any democratic state that bothered to implement its own ideals – and, moreover, any ambassador to such a state – would be ashamed of such an evidently distorted attitude toward its inhabitants and their rights,” the Palestinian Christians write.
They also expressed amazement at Oren’s “ludicrous boast” that Israel guarantees free access to all Christian holy sites, writing that “one of occupation’s chief outrages is the fact that anyone would need a permit to visit the city to begin with: restricted freedom of movement is among the fundamental injustices constricting our lives.”
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2 Activists worldwide to mark Land Day with Global March to Jerusalem
To commemorate Land Day this year, Palestinians are planning a Global March to Jerusalem to highlight processes of land theft and dispossession in the city. Elsa Rassbach speaks with Palestinian leader Mustafa Barghouti on Jerusalem and the non-violent resistance movement.
http://972mag.com/activists-worldwide-to-mark-land-day-with-global-march-to-jerusalem/39358/
By Elsa Rassbach
On March 30 each year, Palestinians celebrate Land Day as a day of national struggle to commemorate protests in 1976 against Israeli confiscation of Arab land. The confiscation that sparked the protests took place in the Galilee and was seen as part of an Israeli policy to deliberately produce demographic change and create Jewish majorities in certain communities. The 1976 marches and general strikes spread to the Negev, resulted in the deaths of six unarmed Arab Israelis, and marked the first large-scale rebellion of Arab inhabitants of Israel after 1948. Widespread solidarity protests took place in the West Bank, Gaza, and in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
This year on Land Day, Palestinians throughout the Middle East and in the diaspora will call attention to the dangers facing the city of Jerusalem. The organizers of the “Global March to Jerusalem” allege that through methods of ethnic cleansing, Israel is forcing out Jerusalem’s remaining Arab inhabitants, thus endangering the multi-religious, multi-ethnic character of the city, part of which is the intended capital of a future Palestinian state. The Israeli government has long denied most Palestinians – whether Muslim or Christian – access to Jerusalem, even to visit holy sites.
On March 30, the Palestinians will attempt to get as close to Jerusalem as they can, including at the borders of Lebanon and Jordan, at checkpoints in the West Bank and at the Erez border crossing in Gaza. Demonstrations will also be held in Jerusalem itself. Supporters from five continents will join the march, and an advisory board to the Global March includes Nobel Peace laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mairead Maguire. Solidarity vigils and actions are also planned on March 30 at Israeli embassies and other locations in sixty cities around the world.
The Palestinian coalition organizing this Global March to Jerusalem may be unprecedented in its breadth. But after supporters from India, Malaysia, Pakistan and other Asian countries visited Iran on their way to Lebanon to join the March, some Israeli and U.S. press alleged it is being orchestrated from Iran and that violent clashes with Israeli forces are planned.
Among the most outspoken Palestinian supporters and organizers of the Global March is Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, 58, the well-known advocate of non-violent resistance. As secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr. Barghouti played a key role in recent attempts to bring Hamas and Fatah together. He is a medical doctor educated in the former Soviet Union, the United States and Jerusalem. He founded and leads Palestinian Medical Relief society, which provides health care to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 2005, Dr. Barghouti ran for presidency of the Palestinian National Authority and won 19 percent of the vote. He resides in Ramallah in the West Bank. We recently spoke via Skype about the Global March to Jerusalem.
You have joined with Palestinians from many different political perspectives and many places in the world to call for the Global March to Jerusalem. What is this initiative about?
It’s an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people. It will take place on Land Day, March 30th, a day that symbolizes the unity of Palestinians in the struggle for freedom and dignity and against theft of their land. We hope to bring to the world’s attention the very grave violations that Israel is committing against Jerusalem. Both the UN and the International Court of Justice hold that annexation of East Jerusalem, which is part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, is a violation of international law.
But there is illegal Israeli confiscation of Palestinian land throughout the Occupied Territories and also within Israel. Why the focus on Jerusalem?
Jerusalem is at the heart of the Palestinian cause. East Jerusalem should be the capital of the Palestinian state. If Jerusalem is lost, the whole concept and idea of Palestinian statehood is lost, and the possibility of peace is lost. And Jerusalem is an important place for all of humanity, a holy place for Muslims, Christians, and the Jewish people. It should be the place where peace begins.
Today in Jerusalem you see the Israeli system of segregation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing in the sharpest possible way. If a Palestinian man from Jerusalem marries a woman in Ramallah, only sixteen kilometers away, he will not be able to live with her. The Israelis will never grant her the right to move to Jerusalem, but if he moves to Ramallah, he will lose his ID and his residency permit in Jerusalem. And the permit may be withdrawn for political reasons as well. Though I was born in Jerusalem and worked there as a medical doctor for fifteen years, after I ran for president in 2005, the Israeli army thereafter refused to allow me in. Most Palestinians, including Christians and Muslims, also cannot enter.
But any Jewish person from anywhere in the world who decides to immigrate to Israel, whether from Siberia or the United States, will immediately be granted the right to live in Jerusalem or anywhere else in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Jerusalem is accessible to every Jewish person. It should be accessible to everybody. Many Jewish people from Israel and other parts of the world agree and are participating in and even organizing the Global March.
Among the demands of the March is “the right of return.” Why would Palestinians who live in historical Palestine support such a demand?
This demand means a lot to us, too, because there are huge numbers of refugees living in Gaza and West Bank who are denied access to the place they were forced to leave. Even Palestinians living in Israel who carry Israeli citizenship are not allowed to return home to their villages in Israel like Iqrit and Kafr Bir’im. The right of return is a right recognized by international law under a special UN resolution, 194. We do understand that its implementation will have to be negotiated, but the right itself has to be respected.
Last year on May 15, which is both Nakba Day and Israeli Independence Day, and on June 5, Naksa Day, the anniversary of the 1967 war, unarmed Palestinians tried to cross over the borders of Lebanon and Syria. According to some reports, in the two events, Israeli soldiers killed dozens, and wounded hundreds more. Could the Global March lead to a repeat of such violence?
The March will be an act of peace, an act of nonviolence, and that’s why Palestinians everywhere are united in supporting it. It reflects the consensus of Palestinians today on adopting nonviolence totally. We know that Israel is capable of terrible violence. All the organizers in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Israel/Palestine are aware of this risk. We hope that the U.S. and the European countries will pressure Israel not use violence against our nonviolence.
Elsa Rassbach is a filmmaker and journalist from the United States, now based in Berlin. She is a member of CODEPINK, an organization that has endorsed the Global March to Jerusalem. She is a frequent contributor to German and U.S. publications. Her award-winning film, ”The Killing Floor,” an historical dramatic film about a union’s struggle against racism in the Chicago Stockyards, will be re-released this year.
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3 Haaretz
March 26, 2012
The State of Israel’s worst missed opportunity
This week marks the anniversary of three connected events that resulted in a glorious victory for the enemies of the Zionist enterprise.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-state-of-israel-s-worst-missed-opportunity-1.420707
By Akiva Eldar
Tuesday, according to the civil calendar, is the 10th anniversary of the terror attack on Netanya’s Park Hotel, which killed 30 people as they were sitting down to their Passover seder. Wednesday will mark 10 years since the Arab Peace Initiative, which began as a joint Saudi-Jordanian effort. Thursday will be the 10th anniversary of Operation Defensive Shield, which was launched in retaliation for the Park Hotel bombing.
The result of these three connected events was the worst missed opportunity ever for the State of Israel, and a glorious victory for the enemies of the Zionist enterprise.
On March 28, 2002, 85 years after the Balfour Declaration, Arab leaders decided to reconcile themselves to the existance of the Jewish national home in the Middle East, within borders that would be agreed on and recognized. Within a few months, all 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (including Iran, under then President Mohammed Khatami ) gave their blessing to the initiative, which offered Israel normalized relations with all of them. The price: withdrawing from the territories taken in 1967, and a just and agreed-upon solution of the refugee problem, on the basis of UN Resolution 194.
The words “agreed-upon” in essence gave Israel the right to limit the number of refugees it would allow to be repatriated. Senior Arab spokespeople reiterated frequently that the initiative was only a framework for negotiations over borders, security arrangements and other core issues.
The terror attack in Netanya, and Operation Defensive Shield which followed in its wake, pushed the Arab proposal to the back pages of the newspapers. A book by Mohammed Arman called “Resistance – A View from the Inside,” reveals that the proximity between the attack and the launching of the peace initiative was not coincidental.
In the book, which came out two years ago, Arman, who had been sentenced in Israel to 36 life terms, tells of conversations he had with his friends in Hamas, most of whom he met for the first time in prison. During these conversations, he writes, it emerged that a few weeks before the Beirut summit at which the Arab initiative was launched, all Hamas cells had been given an order from the top to stymie it. During the first decade of the Oslo Accords, Hamas had learned that a terror attack was the best way to foil any threatening peace overtures.
Yet despite the Israeli incursion into the West Bank, which killed 250 Palestinians, after a year the Arab leaders stubbornly reaffirmed their initiative and once again presented it to Israel. Shortly afterward, then-U.S. President George Bush wrote in his administration’s “road map for peace” plan that the initiative was “a vital element in international efforts to achieve regional peace.”
And what was the response of the Likud government then headed by Ariel Sharon, who later founded Kadima? The government listed the initiative as one of the 14 reservations it had about the road map. Instead of proceeding ambitiously together with all the Arab nations, Sharon preferred to evacuate a few homes in Gaza and – as Tzipi Livni, who stood by him, once said – to throw the keys back over the border. More accurately, right into Hamas’ hands.
In July 2007, senior Kadima figure Meir Sheetrit, who was then housing minister, recalled that in 2002, he had urged Sharon to invite the Saudis to discuss their initiative with him, but Sharon didn’t do anything. According to Sheetrit, he had also suggested that Ehud Olmert adopt the plan, but was told by Olmert that it was not on the agenda. Even though the Arab League continued to re-ratify the proposal every year, the Kadima government never even debated the initiative.
From the opposition benches, neither Livni nor Shaul Mofaz has lifted a finger to advance one of the few peace initiatives that’s worthy of being described as “historic.” And the Likud government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is following in its predecessor’s footsteps. Bibi would prefer to harness his coalition to a war against the Iranian nukes than to join a coalition of peace with Tehran’s rivals. It’s more important for him to build settlements in the territories than to build trust with the Palestinians.
Although the Middle East is different now than it was 10 years ago, there are signs that the Arab Peace Initiative is refusing to disappear. Three months ago, the secretary of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, Prof. Ekmelledin Ihsanoglu, told an audience in Doha that the initiative was and remains the only framework for peace with Israel.
But it won’t wait forever. Ignoring this opportunity will cause us endless trouble.