From: Mazin Qumsiyeh'journal:
Sent: Fri, Apr 29, 2011 12:15 AM
We finally toured the devastated village of Awarta Wednesday and were
stunned at what we saw and heard. On the way, we stopped by a tiny village
called Izbet Al-tabib, a village of 350 people was served with a new order
by the Israeli military to take over a significant portion of their land.
The wall that will be built and isolate this land behind it is supposed to
"protect" the illegal highway 55, an Israeli road built already on
Palestinian lands to serve the Jewish colonies built on the rich Western
water aquifer of the Palestinian West Bank. Yet, instead of building the
wall on the colonial road 55, it is to be built a long distance from that to
the north side near the village houses with the idea of capturing the rich
agricultural land between. The villagers do not know what to do beyond
going to the biased Israeli courts run by Israeli judges that obviously
favor Israeli colonial interests. The work on the wall is slated to start
Sunday and the villagers asked if we could all go there then. Leaving this
small devastated village near Qalqilia, we headed east towards Nablus and
Awarta.
After a quick lunch in Nablus hosted generously by our friend Dr. Saed
Abuhijleh, we drove the short distance to Awarta. We enter the rich valley
from the Western side and past the Israeli military camp and notice the
colonial Jewish settlements dotting the hilltops around the valley. The
native village of 6000 brave souls is on the slope to north side of the
valley and villagers have to face this scene of growing colonial settlements
on their lands. The main colonial settlement built on stolen village lands
is called by Jewish settlers Itamar. Over 12,000 dunums (4000 acres) of
Awarta's lands were already taken by this colony inhabited by the most rabid
and fanatical of Jewish settlers. Two Palestinians from Awarta were killed
for coming within 500 meters of the fortified fencing of this colony. This
is one of the many reasons why we are very convinced that the whole story
about the killing of a settler family by two teenagers from the village of
Awarta is a lie. But the killing of these settlers set stage for a
ransacking of the village by the colonizing army of the state of Israel.
Beating people, massive destruction, torture and more was inflicted on the
village of 6000 people as collective punishment. It is hard to describe
what we saw and heard. The video just reveals a glimpse of it.
The village has already suffered repeated attacks from settlers in the past.
Just last year, settlers and soldiers executed (shot at close range) two
youths (18 and 19 year old cousins Salah and Muhamad Qawariq) who were
working their agricultural field. Villagers asked us why there was no
outrage and no one held accountable in any of these atrocities. We are all
100% convinced that that the settler family was not killed by the
Palestinian teenagers that are claimed as culprits by the Israeli
authorities. The story the colonial army gave is so full of holes that it
is simply not plausible. Things that do not make sense:
-Why would two young teenagers not involved in politics, one of them a
straight A student in his last year of high school and the other a
westernized rapper enjoying his life decide to do such a thing? Killing
children is especially not tolerated in our culture no matter what?
-How could such a pair manage to bypass one of the most heavily guarded and
secured colonies in the WB. How would they cut through the electrified
security fence and its other barriers in a settlement that brags that it is
the most secure of Jewish colonies in the West bank. How could two
strangers manage to stay in the settlement for two hours and even go back to
the same house supposedly after leaving to get an M-16 gun that happened to
be just sitting there in a bedroom (army story)?
-Why would two people who committed such a crime go back to studying and
enjoying their lives for days even after one of them was arrested,
questioned for 10 hours and released? Why not run away?
-There were reports in Israeli papers that a Thai worker who has not been
paid thousands of shekels as being involved but then this suddenly
disappeared from print. Why?
-What of the villagers' contention that this whole incident is calculated to
acquire 1000 more dunums of their lands?
-Why did Israeli authorities not allow media scrutiny of what was really
happening?
-Why did Israeli authorities not allow independent investigation or
International protection or presence to witness what was really going on?
-Why would the two young people be denied access to lawyers and family
visits?
These and hundreds of other questions poured out from the villagers. I was
particularly shocked to hear from Um Adam, a 77 year old grandmother (14
living children, over 75 grandchildren). She herself was arrested with
hundreds of others and forced (like all of them) to take a DNA test and to
put her fingerprints on a document in Hebrew that she does not read. She,
like hundreds, was not allowed access to lawyers during their detention. 14
of her children and grandchildren are still kidnapped by the colonial
soldiers. One of her Children still held by the Israelis is the volunteer
head of the Municipal council. Another child is the only doctor in town.
The homes of these two children, her home, and many other homes were
ransacked and heavily damaged (the fascist soldiers had clearly come to
destroy as an act of collective punishment). The doctor's room and his
medical books and supplies were not spared. While we visited nearly three
weeks after the damage and after much of the houses were tidied-up with help
of international volunteers, we still could see significant evidence of the
damages. To punish a whole village in such a fashion reminds us of the worst
regimes in history.
It is a stain on humanity that the world is silent about these practices of
land theft and destruction of people's lives. Now that Hamas and Fatah are
reconciling some of their differences, I wonder if any of them (in positions
of "authority") will do something for the villages of Awarta or Izbet
Al-Tabib. We are angry and sad and we ask all decent people (Israelis,
Palestinians, and Internationals) to shed what is left of our collective
apathy. We must insist that settlers be removed from all stolen Palestinian
lands and that Palestinians be provided protection. If the Palestinians
can't be provided protection by neutral parties, then it is almost certain
that, based on our history of 15 uprisings, a new uprising against this
injustice will be carried forth.
"Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as
a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human
rights should be protected by the rule of law,.." preamble of the universal
declaration of human rights
"If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution
inevitable." John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kmsI96i618
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinejn.org
http://pcr.ps
http://IMEMC.or
http://www.alrowwad-acts.ps
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Israel rejects Palestinian unity government with Hamas
BBC News
28 April 2011
Last updated at 06:24 ET
Palestinian unity demonstration in Ramallah There has been growing pressure from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to end internal divisions
Israeli officials have criticised a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas.
The foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman warned that Israel would not negotiate with the new unity government.
The US also responded coolly, saying the government that resulted must recognise Israel and renounce violence.
Under the agreement brokered in Egypt on Wednesday, an interim Palestinian government will be formed and a date fixed for elections.
Palestinians hope the move will end infighting that was politically damaging and caused hundreds of deaths.
The Fatah party of the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - which runs parts of the West Bank - and Hamas, which governs Gaza, have been divided for more than four years.
Their surprise deal, announced and brokered in Cairo, came after months of failed rounds of talks.
“The significance of the agreement is that... hundreds of terrorists will flood the West Bank and therefore we need to prepare for a different situation,”
Avigdor Lieberman Israeli Foreign Minister
"It needs to be clear that such an agreement crosses a red line," Mr Lieberman told Israeli military radio on Thursday.
"The significance of the agreement is that... hundreds of terrorists will flood the West Bank and therefore we need to prepare for a different situation," he added.
He threatened measures to restrict the freedom of movement of Mr Abbas and the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and freeze the transfer of taxes collected by Israel for the PA.
Earlier the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned that the PA could not have peace with both Hamas and Israel.
"I hope the Palestinian Authority will make the right choice - peace with Israel," he said.
Hamas has carried out bombings and rocket attacks against Israel for years and does not recognise its right to exist.
Public pressure
Thousands of Palestinians protested in Gaza this month, calling for reconciliation.
The protests were inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa. Further demonstrations were planned for 15 May.
The split between Fatah and Hamas occurred when violence erupted a year after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Cairo says that if the deal goes ahead, it will end the bitter hostility between the two sides and remove a significant barrier to the Palestinian campaign for statehood.
But he says there are many difficult issues to resolve - such as how the two factions will share security, how Gaza and the West Bank, separated by Israeli territory, will be governed, and whether the international donors will be willing to recognise Hamas.
Fatah and Hamas had been close to a deal last year but Hamas withdrew, saying the terms had been revised without its agreement. Mr Abbas has since been pushing for reconciliation.
The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says the Netanyahu government has repeatedly said it will not sit down and talk about a two-state solution if Hamas is any way involved.
Mr Netanyahu told the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday: "There cannot be peace with both [Israel and Hamas] because Hamas wants to destroy Israel and says so openly. It shoots missiles at our cities, it fires anti-tank missiles at our children.
"I think that the idea of reconciliation shows the weakness of the Palestinian Authority and raises the question whether Hamas will take over Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] as it has taken over the Gaza Strip."
US National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said: "The United States supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace.
"Hamas, however, is a terrorist organisation which targets civilians. To play a constructive role in achieving peace, any Palestinian government must... renounce violence, abide by past agreements, and recognise Israel's right to exist."
Violence between Israel and militant groups in Gaza escalated this March following a rocket attack on an Israeli school bus that killed a teenage boy.
Israel also launched a full-scale ground operation - named Cast Lead - in the Gaza Strip that began in December 2008 and ended in January 2009.
28 April 2011
Last updated at 06:24 ET
Palestinian unity demonstration in Ramallah There has been growing pressure from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to end internal divisions
Israeli officials have criticised a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas.
The foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman warned that Israel would not negotiate with the new unity government.
The US also responded coolly, saying the government that resulted must recognise Israel and renounce violence.
Under the agreement brokered in Egypt on Wednesday, an interim Palestinian government will be formed and a date fixed for elections.
Palestinians hope the move will end infighting that was politically damaging and caused hundreds of deaths.
The Fatah party of the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - which runs parts of the West Bank - and Hamas, which governs Gaza, have been divided for more than four years.
Their surprise deal, announced and brokered in Cairo, came after months of failed rounds of talks.
“The significance of the agreement is that... hundreds of terrorists will flood the West Bank and therefore we need to prepare for a different situation,”
Avigdor Lieberman Israeli Foreign Minister
"It needs to be clear that such an agreement crosses a red line," Mr Lieberman told Israeli military radio on Thursday.
"The significance of the agreement is that... hundreds of terrorists will flood the West Bank and therefore we need to prepare for a different situation," he added.
He threatened measures to restrict the freedom of movement of Mr Abbas and the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and freeze the transfer of taxes collected by Israel for the PA.
Earlier the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned that the PA could not have peace with both Hamas and Israel.
"I hope the Palestinian Authority will make the right choice - peace with Israel," he said.
Hamas has carried out bombings and rocket attacks against Israel for years and does not recognise its right to exist.
Public pressure
Thousands of Palestinians protested in Gaza this month, calling for reconciliation.
The protests were inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa. Further demonstrations were planned for 15 May.
The split between Fatah and Hamas occurred when violence erupted a year after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Cairo says that if the deal goes ahead, it will end the bitter hostility between the two sides and remove a significant barrier to the Palestinian campaign for statehood.
But he says there are many difficult issues to resolve - such as how the two factions will share security, how Gaza and the West Bank, separated by Israeli territory, will be governed, and whether the international donors will be willing to recognise Hamas.
Fatah and Hamas had been close to a deal last year but Hamas withdrew, saying the terms had been revised without its agreement. Mr Abbas has since been pushing for reconciliation.
The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says the Netanyahu government has repeatedly said it will not sit down and talk about a two-state solution if Hamas is any way involved.
Mr Netanyahu told the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday: "There cannot be peace with both [Israel and Hamas] because Hamas wants to destroy Israel and says so openly. It shoots missiles at our cities, it fires anti-tank missiles at our children.
"I think that the idea of reconciliation shows the weakness of the Palestinian Authority and raises the question whether Hamas will take over Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] as it has taken over the Gaza Strip."
US National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said: "The United States supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace.
"Hamas, however, is a terrorist organisation which targets civilians. To play a constructive role in achieving peace, any Palestinian government must... renounce violence, abide by past agreements, and recognise Israel's right to exist."
Violence between Israel and militant groups in Gaza escalated this March following a rocket attack on an Israeli school bus that killed a teenage boy.
Israel also launched a full-scale ground operation - named Cast Lead - in the Gaza Strip that began in December 2008 and ended in January 2009.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
China arrests Protestant Shouwang devotees
BBC News
24 April 2011
Last updated at 06:43 ET
At least 20 Chinese Protestants have been arrested as they tried to gather for an Easter service in Beijing.
The worshippers, from the Shouwang church, were trying to hold an outdoor service because they own no premises.
In recent weeks, the police have arrested dozens of people from the church, which has about 1,000 members.
The authorities have also been carrying out a wider suppression of dissent - harassing foreign reporters and detaining lawyers and activists.
The most high-profile detainee, artist Ai Weiwei, was taken by police as he tried to board a flight earlier this month.
His family say they do not know where he is, whether he has been charged with an offence, or even whether he has been formally arrested.
Round-ups
China's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the Communist Party tries to control where people worship.
There are an estimated 70 million Christians in the country, about 20 million of whom attend government-approved churches.
The rest worship with unregistered groups known as "house" churches.
Such groups are broadly tolerated, but Shouwang leaders have annoyed the authorities in recent weeks by insisting on trying to hold services in the open.
The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says police personnel were on every street corner in the area where the worshippers were due to meet on Sunday morning.
He says the authorities rounded up anyone suspected of being a member of the Shouwang church and loaded them on to buses to be driven to police stations.
One of the church's leaders Jin Tianming, who is under house arrest, told AFP news agency that between 20 and 30 members had been detained.
He said they had been taken to several different police stations.
About 100 Shouwang members were held earlier this month, and 12 of its leaders are under house arrest.
Bob Fu, of the US-based Christian China Aid Association, says the crackdown on Christian worship is wider than Beijing.
He says churchgoers in the southern city of Guangzhou have been refused permission to hold Easter services, and Christians in the northern city of Hohhot are facing repression.
"There is a very large house church in Hohhot. They were also under crackdown. More than a dozen of the leaders are now under criminal detention," said Mr Fu, who is a critic of Beijing's religious policies.
The authorities have not yet commented on the latest arrests.
24 April 2011
Last updated at 06:43 ET
At least 20 Chinese Protestants have been arrested as they tried to gather for an Easter service in Beijing.
The worshippers, from the Shouwang church, were trying to hold an outdoor service because they own no premises.
In recent weeks, the police have arrested dozens of people from the church, which has about 1,000 members.
The authorities have also been carrying out a wider suppression of dissent - harassing foreign reporters and detaining lawyers and activists.
The most high-profile detainee, artist Ai Weiwei, was taken by police as he tried to board a flight earlier this month.
His family say they do not know where he is, whether he has been charged with an offence, or even whether he has been formally arrested.
Round-ups
China's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the Communist Party tries to control where people worship.
There are an estimated 70 million Christians in the country, about 20 million of whom attend government-approved churches.
The rest worship with unregistered groups known as "house" churches.
Such groups are broadly tolerated, but Shouwang leaders have annoyed the authorities in recent weeks by insisting on trying to hold services in the open.
The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says police personnel were on every street corner in the area where the worshippers were due to meet on Sunday morning.
He says the authorities rounded up anyone suspected of being a member of the Shouwang church and loaded them on to buses to be driven to police stations.
One of the church's leaders Jin Tianming, who is under house arrest, told AFP news agency that between 20 and 30 members had been detained.
He said they had been taken to several different police stations.
About 100 Shouwang members were held earlier this month, and 12 of its leaders are under house arrest.
Bob Fu, of the US-based Christian China Aid Association, says the crackdown on Christian worship is wider than Beijing.
He says churchgoers in the southern city of Guangzhou have been refused permission to hold Easter services, and Christians in the northern city of Hohhot are facing repression.
"There is a very large house church in Hohhot. They were also under crackdown. More than a dozen of the leaders are now under criminal detention," said Mr Fu, who is a critic of Beijing's religious policies.
The authorities have not yet commented on the latest arrests.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Chinese police 'raid Tibetan monastery'
BBC News
23 April 2011
Last updated at 04:44 ET
Chinese police have raided a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in western China, killing two people, rights campaigners have said.
The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) says an elderly man and woman were killed trying to prevent police arresting monks at the Kirti monastery.
Tension has been high since a monk set himself on fire last month in an apparent anti-government protest.
Foreigners have been prevented from travelling to the region.
'Beaten'
The US-based ICT said paramilitary police raided the monastery in Aba, in the Sichuan province, on Thursday night and detained more than 300 monks.
As the monks were being driven away, the police beat a group of people who had been standing vigil outside Kirti, resulting in the deaths of two Tibetans aged in their sixties, ICT said, citing exile groups in contact with people in the area.
"People had their arms and legs broken, one old woman had her leg broken in three places, and cloth was stuffed in their mouths to stifle their screams," an exiled Kirti monk was quoted as saying by the rights group.
The BBC has not been able to independently verify the account.
Aba has been restive since Tibetan communities across western China rose up in protests three years ago.
23 April 2011
Last updated at 04:44 ET
Chinese police have raided a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in western China, killing two people, rights campaigners have said.
The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) says an elderly man and woman were killed trying to prevent police arresting monks at the Kirti monastery.
Tension has been high since a monk set himself on fire last month in an apparent anti-government protest.
Foreigners have been prevented from travelling to the region.
'Beaten'
The US-based ICT said paramilitary police raided the monastery in Aba, in the Sichuan province, on Thursday night and detained more than 300 monks.
As the monks were being driven away, the police beat a group of people who had been standing vigil outside Kirti, resulting in the deaths of two Tibetans aged in their sixties, ICT said, citing exile groups in contact with people in the area.
"People had their arms and legs broken, one old woman had her leg broken in three places, and cloth was stuffed in their mouths to stifle their screams," an exiled Kirti monk was quoted as saying by the rights group.
The BBC has not been able to independently verify the account.
Aba has been restive since Tibetan communities across western China rose up in protests three years ago.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Bilin Protester Shot with Live Ammunition by Sniper
Press release
http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=353&Itemid= 1
15 April 2011
Bilin Protester Shot with Live Ammunition by Sniper
The protester, a 35 year old resident of the village was hit in his shoulder and foot by 0.22 mm live bullets shot at him by a sniper during a protest in memory of Vittorio Arrigoni, murdered last night in Gaza. Live ammunition was also used in the village of Nabi Saleh.
A Border Police officer throwing stones at protesters in Bil'in today. Picture credit: Simon Krieger (see here for high resolution)
Around 300 people participated in the weekly demonstration against the Wall in the village of Bilin today. This week's march was dedicated to the memory of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, and protested his murder in Gaza City last night. As the peaceful procession approached the gate in the Wall, soldiers immediately began shooting tear gas projectiles at the protesters.
While most protesters were forced to retreat due to the gas, smaller groups of protesters remained in the area of the Wall, where clashes ensued. At some point, Samir Bournat, a 35 year-old resident of the village and regular demonstrator, noted that a sniper was aiming his rifle at a group of protesters standing nearby the iron gate in the Wall. He approached in order to warn them, and was shot by the sniper twice. One bullet hit his right shoulder, while a second bullet penetrated his left foot.
A Red Crescent ambulance which rushed to the sport to evacuate Burnat was also attacked with tear-gas projectiles shot directly at him by the soldiers. Burnat was eventually taken to the hospital in Ramallah, where an x-ray was taken and proved beyond a shadow of doubt that he was indeed hit by 0.22" caliber live bullets.
A short while after Burnat's injury, a few Border Police officers crossed the Wall in the direction of the village and proceeded to clash with the youth using tear-gas and rubber-coated bullets. Moreover, One of the soldiers, even threw rocks at protesters.
Following a number of deaths and subsequent ballistic tests held at the Adam military shooting range in 2001, the Judge Advocate General ordered the classification of 0.22" bullet changed from "less-lethal" to "live ammunition", forbidden for use as crowd control means. Despite the classification change, the Israeli Army resumed using these bullets against demonstrators, causing at least two deaths – 14 year-old Az ad-Din al-Jamal from Hebron on February 13th, 2009, and Aqel Srour from Ni'ilin on June 5th, 2009.
Two other protesters who were lightly injured were treated by a medical team on the ground and did not require being evacuated to the hospital.
The Bil'in Popular Committee is shocked and deeply saddened
by the killing of our friend and colleague Vittorio Arrigoni. Vik was
an inspiring activist and generous soul. Please keep his family and
friends in your thoughts.
http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=353&Itemid= 1
15 April 2011
Bilin Protester Shot with Live Ammunition by Sniper
The protester, a 35 year old resident of the village was hit in his shoulder and foot by 0.22 mm live bullets shot at him by a sniper during a protest in memory of Vittorio Arrigoni, murdered last night in Gaza. Live ammunition was also used in the village of Nabi Saleh.
A Border Police officer throwing stones at protesters in Bil'in today. Picture credit: Simon Krieger (see here for high resolution)
Around 300 people participated in the weekly demonstration against the Wall in the village of Bilin today. This week's march was dedicated to the memory of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, and protested his murder in Gaza City last night. As the peaceful procession approached the gate in the Wall, soldiers immediately began shooting tear gas projectiles at the protesters.
While most protesters were forced to retreat due to the gas, smaller groups of protesters remained in the area of the Wall, where clashes ensued. At some point, Samir Bournat, a 35 year-old resident of the village and regular demonstrator, noted that a sniper was aiming his rifle at a group of protesters standing nearby the iron gate in the Wall. He approached in order to warn them, and was shot by the sniper twice. One bullet hit his right shoulder, while a second bullet penetrated his left foot.
A Red Crescent ambulance which rushed to the sport to evacuate Burnat was also attacked with tear-gas projectiles shot directly at him by the soldiers. Burnat was eventually taken to the hospital in Ramallah, where an x-ray was taken and proved beyond a shadow of doubt that he was indeed hit by 0.22" caliber live bullets.
A short while after Burnat's injury, a few Border Police officers crossed the Wall in the direction of the village and proceeded to clash with the youth using tear-gas and rubber-coated bullets. Moreover, One of the soldiers, even threw rocks at protesters.
Following a number of deaths and subsequent ballistic tests held at the Adam military shooting range in 2001, the Judge Advocate General ordered the classification of 0.22" bullet changed from "less-lethal" to "live ammunition", forbidden for use as crowd control means. Despite the classification change, the Israeli Army resumed using these bullets against demonstrators, causing at least two deaths – 14 year-old Az ad-Din al-Jamal from Hebron on February 13th, 2009, and Aqel Srour from Ni'ilin on June 5th, 2009.
Two other protesters who were lightly injured were treated by a medical team on the ground and did not require being evacuated to the hospital.
The Bil'in Popular Committee is shocked and deeply saddened
by the killing of our friend and colleague Vittorio Arrigoni. Vik was
an inspiring activist and generous soul. Please keep his family and
friends in your thoughts.
Friday, April 08, 2011
Ban Koran-burning? If Islam becomes a protected faith, free expression will be no more
By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
The Washington Times
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Should the burning of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, be banned? This is the question many in Washington are asking, following last weekend’s deadly rampage in Afghanistan. On March 20, Pastor Terry Jones, who heads the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., presided over a Koran-burning. The actions of this crazy church leader set off cascading demonstrations across Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai publicly denounced it, fanning the flames of religious hatred.
Muslim clerics called for mass anti-American demonstrations. Last Friday, in northern Afghanistan’s largest city, Mazar-e-Sharif, thousands of protesters poured out of the large Blue Mosque and marched toward the United Nations mission a mile away. The angry, fanatical mob descended upon the compound and slaughtered seven United Nations workers - including defenseless women. The protesters chanted “death to America” and burned the U.S. flag. Demonstrations have continued to spread throughout the country.
Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of 150,000 U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, called Mr. Jones‘ actions “hateful, extremely disrespectful and enormously intolerant.” Top congressional Democrats, such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, have condemned the Koran-burning. Even some senior Republicans are infuriated. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina suggests that limits on free speech may be necessary to protect American troops on the ground. He recently said that he would like to hold Mr. Jones “accountable” for defaming and destroying Islam’s holy book.
Mr. Graham is wrong. In fact, one expects this kind of trendy politically correct nonsense from Democrats and the liberal media, but not a senior Republican from a conservative Christian state. This is not the first time Mr. Graham has demonstrated his progressive leanings. He has championed cap-and-trade legislation, amnesty for illegal immigrants and massive public spending. Yet, even by his establishment standards, this is beyond the pale: Who appointed him the arbiter of what is acceptable freedom of expression?
Moreover, Gen. Petraeus does not - and should not - determine the limits of the First Amendment. Mr. Jones (or any American) has the legal and moral right to burn any book - the Koran, the Bible, the Talmud - no matter how offensive. The point of freedom of expression is not to protect what is safe and socially acceptable; rather, it is precisely to safeguard provocative, even insulting actions or words. This is the true test of freedom: whether we are willing to allow those with whom we profoundly disagree to have free expression without fear of government coercion.
The paradox of liberal multiculturalism is that it seeks to undermine basic liberties in exchange for not offending the sensitivities of some officially designated protected identity-group - homosexuals, feminists, atheists, minorities and Muslims. Our freedom is being gradually eroded.
The cultural double standard and hypocrisy is appalling. Christianity is routinely denigrated in America - and across the Middle East. When a crucifix is dipped in a jar of urine, it is art. When cartoons mock the Prophet Muhammad, it is blasphemous and dangerous. In other words, because Christians are genuinely peaceful and will not engage in jihad, their faith can be systematically mocked. Radical Islamists, however, are able to determine the boundaries of legitimate expression. Our leaders are now bowing to the twisted whims of violent Muslim fanatics. Islamism trumps the Constitution.
Moreover, Muslim-majority societies are deeply hostile toward non-Muslims - especially, Christians and Jews. Bibles are banned in Saudi Arabia; when confiscated, many of them are burned or tossed into the garbage. Construction of churches and synagogues is prohibited. In Egypt, churches have been razed to the ground and Coptic Christians massacred. In Iraq, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, half of the Christian population has been exterminated or expelled; the other half lives in mortal fear. Iran executes Muslim converts to Christianity.
Shariah law - the legal basis of most Islamic states - is a form of religious apartheid, systematically classifying Christians and Jews as third-class citizens. Christophobia and anti-Semitism are rampant in the Muslim world. America’s political class, however, refuses to speak out.
Washington’s reaction to the Koran-burning is perverse. The rampage at the U.N. mission is not the fault of some blowhard, kooky pastor. Instead, responsibility lies solely with the savage attackers.
The bloodbath at Mazar-e-Sharif is a watershed. Afghanistan is America’s longest war. We have been fighting there for more than 10 years - with no end in sight. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the United States had no choice but to topple the Taliban and smash al Qaeda. The perpetrators - and enablers - of that horrendous war crime needed to be punished.
Yet, that noble mission was transformed into Wilsonian nation-building. The result is that Afghanistan has become another Vietnam - a protracted quagmire squandering precious American lives and treasure. It is time to cut our losses.
The tragic reality is that our efforts to transform this primitive, backward land into a South Asian Switzerland have failed. After all of our sacrifices, one Koran-burning event is able to trigger mass protests against America. The Afghans are clearly not ready for democracy or pluralism. Nor are they grateful for everything the United States has done. Islamic tribalism is all they know - and all they will probably ever know.
The Afghan adventure has cost us enough. It should not cost us our precious freedoms as well. Otherwise, the Islamists will have succeeded in the battle that really matters: defeating us from within.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute.
The Washington Times
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Should the burning of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, be banned? This is the question many in Washington are asking, following last weekend’s deadly rampage in Afghanistan. On March 20, Pastor Terry Jones, who heads the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., presided over a Koran-burning. The actions of this crazy church leader set off cascading demonstrations across Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai publicly denounced it, fanning the flames of religious hatred.
Muslim clerics called for mass anti-American demonstrations. Last Friday, in northern Afghanistan’s largest city, Mazar-e-Sharif, thousands of protesters poured out of the large Blue Mosque and marched toward the United Nations mission a mile away. The angry, fanatical mob descended upon the compound and slaughtered seven United Nations workers - including defenseless women. The protesters chanted “death to America” and burned the U.S. flag. Demonstrations have continued to spread throughout the country.
Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of 150,000 U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, called Mr. Jones‘ actions “hateful, extremely disrespectful and enormously intolerant.” Top congressional Democrats, such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, have condemned the Koran-burning. Even some senior Republicans are infuriated. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina suggests that limits on free speech may be necessary to protect American troops on the ground. He recently said that he would like to hold Mr. Jones “accountable” for defaming and destroying Islam’s holy book.
Mr. Graham is wrong. In fact, one expects this kind of trendy politically correct nonsense from Democrats and the liberal media, but not a senior Republican from a conservative Christian state. This is not the first time Mr. Graham has demonstrated his progressive leanings. He has championed cap-and-trade legislation, amnesty for illegal immigrants and massive public spending. Yet, even by his establishment standards, this is beyond the pale: Who appointed him the arbiter of what is acceptable freedom of expression?
Moreover, Gen. Petraeus does not - and should not - determine the limits of the First Amendment. Mr. Jones (or any American) has the legal and moral right to burn any book - the Koran, the Bible, the Talmud - no matter how offensive. The point of freedom of expression is not to protect what is safe and socially acceptable; rather, it is precisely to safeguard provocative, even insulting actions or words. This is the true test of freedom: whether we are willing to allow those with whom we profoundly disagree to have free expression without fear of government coercion.
The paradox of liberal multiculturalism is that it seeks to undermine basic liberties in exchange for not offending the sensitivities of some officially designated protected identity-group - homosexuals, feminists, atheists, minorities and Muslims. Our freedom is being gradually eroded.
The cultural double standard and hypocrisy is appalling. Christianity is routinely denigrated in America - and across the Middle East. When a crucifix is dipped in a jar of urine, it is art. When cartoons mock the Prophet Muhammad, it is blasphemous and dangerous. In other words, because Christians are genuinely peaceful and will not engage in jihad, their faith can be systematically mocked. Radical Islamists, however, are able to determine the boundaries of legitimate expression. Our leaders are now bowing to the twisted whims of violent Muslim fanatics. Islamism trumps the Constitution.
Moreover, Muslim-majority societies are deeply hostile toward non-Muslims - especially, Christians and Jews. Bibles are banned in Saudi Arabia; when confiscated, many of them are burned or tossed into the garbage. Construction of churches and synagogues is prohibited. In Egypt, churches have been razed to the ground and Coptic Christians massacred. In Iraq, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, half of the Christian population has been exterminated or expelled; the other half lives in mortal fear. Iran executes Muslim converts to Christianity.
Shariah law - the legal basis of most Islamic states - is a form of religious apartheid, systematically classifying Christians and Jews as third-class citizens. Christophobia and anti-Semitism are rampant in the Muslim world. America’s political class, however, refuses to speak out.
Washington’s reaction to the Koran-burning is perverse. The rampage at the U.N. mission is not the fault of some blowhard, kooky pastor. Instead, responsibility lies solely with the savage attackers.
The bloodbath at Mazar-e-Sharif is a watershed. Afghanistan is America’s longest war. We have been fighting there for more than 10 years - with no end in sight. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the United States had no choice but to topple the Taliban and smash al Qaeda. The perpetrators - and enablers - of that horrendous war crime needed to be punished.
Yet, that noble mission was transformed into Wilsonian nation-building. The result is that Afghanistan has become another Vietnam - a protracted quagmire squandering precious American lives and treasure. It is time to cut our losses.
The tragic reality is that our efforts to transform this primitive, backward land into a South Asian Switzerland have failed. After all of our sacrifices, one Koran-burning event is able to trigger mass protests against America. The Afghans are clearly not ready for democracy or pluralism. Nor are they grateful for everything the United States has done. Islamic tribalism is all they know - and all they will probably ever know.
The Afghan adventure has cost us enough. It should not cost us our precious freedoms as well. Otherwise, the Islamists will have succeeded in the battle that really matters: defeating us from within.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Israelis defend threatened Palestinian bookseller
Palestinian book shop owner Munther Fahmi poses for a photograph in his shop in east Jerusalem April 3, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun
By Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEM |
Tue Apr 5, 2011 12:51pm EDT
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Leading Israeli authors have joined a campaign against the deportation of a Palestinian book shop owner, whose business in east Jerusalem has become a hub for diplomats, artists and academics from across the world.
Jerusalem-born Munther Fahmi's residency was voided by Israel after he left in 1973 to study in the United States, where he acquired citizenship. For 18 years he has been living in Jerusalem intermittently, entering Israel on a tourist visa.
Israeli authorities have said they will no longer allow this and Fahmi faces deportation, but some of the Jewish state's most prominent authors, including David Grossman and Amos Oz, have rushed to his defense, urging Israel to let him stay.
"I think it's a scandal that the Israeli government wants to deport a man born here in Jerusalem, who has family and such a special business here. He just wants to continue his life," Grossman told Reuters.
Literature, history, art and even local cuisine cookbooks are stacked to the ceiling in Fahmi's store, lining the walls of the narrow shop which has been dubbed by some as the only decent English-language book store in the country.
The shop sits opposite the distinguished American Colony hotel, a favorite of top diplomats, ex-pats and foreign journalists. Fahmi says they all frequent his business.
"Presidents, prime ministers, historians, even Hollywood stars, from Kofi Annan to Uma Thurman -- they have all been here," Fahmi said.
A BRIDGE BETWEEN THE PEOPLES
One of Oz's novels sits in Fahmi's shop beside the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. On the neighboring shelf one can find Keith Richards' autobiography and opposite is a history of Syrian lingerie.
Oz told Reuters the owner of such a unique establishment must not be expelled. "The Bookshop is an important cultural center which draws people from many different backgrounds, cultures and nationalities," Oz said.
Fahmi says his shop is a bridge between both sides of the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The shop brings together Israelis and Palestinians. It's not just books, we hold literary events which both sides contribute to," he said.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem after a 1967 war in a move not recognized internationally. It offered locals citizenship, but many refused, not wanting to accept Israeli sovereignty. Most Palestinians have residency rights, but the government can revoke them if they live abroad or take dual nationality.
Fahmi said he lost a long legal battle to reinstate his residency. However, Israel's supreme court has recommended he appeal to the interior ministry on humanitarian grounds.
An interior ministry spokeswoman said an appeal on humanitarian grounds would be considered. According to ministry statistics, he stands a fifty-fifty chance of success.
Fahmi says his situation is a plight shared by many others.
"I'm not the only one facing this problem, there are thousands of others. My case is just being highlighted because of my position here and my work," he said.
Asked whether the book shop would close down if he was deported, a stern expression comes over Fahmi's face. "I'm not going to discuss that," he said, "it's not going to happen."
(Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Elizabeth
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Sudan accuses Israel over Port Sudan air strike
BBC News
6 April 2011
Sudan has accused Israel of carrying out an air strike that killed two people in a car near the city of Port Sudan on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Karti said one man was Sudanese, but the identity of the other passenger was unknown.
There has been no comment from Israel. But correspondents say Israel believes weapons are being smuggled through the region to Gaza.
Mr Karti said the air strike was an attempt to damage Sudan's reputation.
It was intended to disrupt the process of removing Sudan from the list of states that sponsor terrorism, he added.
Washington this year initiated the process to remove Sudan from that list after a peaceful January referendum in which the country's south voted to secede.
Shadowy war
The car was hit about 15km (nine miles) south of Port Sudan on Tuesday.
There is confusion as to whether the car was hit by a plane, helicopters or a missile fired from outside Sudan.
Mr Karti said one of the victims was an innocent civilian and efforts were being made to discover the identity of the second man.
"The attack was carried out by Israel. We are absolutely sure of this," Mr Karti was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
So far no-one has claimed to have carried out the attack.
"We heard three loud explosions," a source at Port Sudan airport told Reuters news agency. "Eyewitnesses told us they saw two helicopters which looked like Apaches flying past."
The car had been travelling into the city from the airport, one Sudanese official said.
Gaza connection?
In 2009, the Sudanese authorities said a convoy of people smugglers was hit by unidentified aircraft in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state.
There was speculation at the time that the strike may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons bound for Gaza.
map
The then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, appeared to give credence to the idea that Israel was involved in that attack, saying: "We operate everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure - in close places and in places further away."
Israel has not commented on the latest incident.
The BBC's James Copnall in Sudan says Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip, is on good terms with Khartoum.
There has been an uneasy peace in eastern Sudan for several years, following one of Sudan's many civil wars.
But the region is very underdeveloped, even by Sudanese standards, and there are fears about increased illegal activity there, our correspondent says.
6 April 2011
Sudan has accused Israel of carrying out an air strike that killed two people in a car near the city of Port Sudan on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Karti said one man was Sudanese, but the identity of the other passenger was unknown.
There has been no comment from Israel. But correspondents say Israel believes weapons are being smuggled through the region to Gaza.
Mr Karti said the air strike was an attempt to damage Sudan's reputation.
It was intended to disrupt the process of removing Sudan from the list of states that sponsor terrorism, he added.
Washington this year initiated the process to remove Sudan from that list after a peaceful January referendum in which the country's south voted to secede.
Shadowy war
The car was hit about 15km (nine miles) south of Port Sudan on Tuesday.
There is confusion as to whether the car was hit by a plane, helicopters or a missile fired from outside Sudan.
Mr Karti said one of the victims was an innocent civilian and efforts were being made to discover the identity of the second man.
"The attack was carried out by Israel. We are absolutely sure of this," Mr Karti was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
So far no-one has claimed to have carried out the attack.
"We heard three loud explosions," a source at Port Sudan airport told Reuters news agency. "Eyewitnesses told us they saw two helicopters which looked like Apaches flying past."
The car had been travelling into the city from the airport, one Sudanese official said.
Gaza connection?
In 2009, the Sudanese authorities said a convoy of people smugglers was hit by unidentified aircraft in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state.
There was speculation at the time that the strike may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons bound for Gaza.
map
The then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, appeared to give credence to the idea that Israel was involved in that attack, saying: "We operate everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure - in close places and in places further away."
Israel has not commented on the latest incident.
The BBC's James Copnall in Sudan says Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip, is on good terms with Khartoum.
There has been an uneasy peace in eastern Sudan for several years, following one of Sudan's many civil wars.
But the region is very underdeveloped, even by Sudanese standards, and there are fears about increased illegal activity there, our correspondent says.
Check how much we are giving the Saudis...Gates Holds Talks With Saudi King on Iran Threat, Region Tumult
$60 Billion dollars to buy off or put down a Saudi revolution.
Bloomberg News
By Viola Gienger
Apr 6, 2011 9:20 AM PT
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in the Saudi capital of Riyadh today to meet with King Abdullah on the upheaval in the region, the threat from Iran and a $60 billion U.S. arms package for Saudi Arabia, the Associated Press reported.
It is Gates’s third trip to the region in the past month. The regional turmoil has included troops from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states entering Bahrain to help quell protests in that Persian Gulf nation. The incursion occurred within days of a March visit by Gates to Bahrain’s capital, Manama.
Bahrain’s crackdown and the Saudi military intervention “could turn a mass movement for democratic reform into an armed conflict while regionalizing a genuinely internal political struggle,” according to an analysis published today by the International Crisis Group. The Brussels-based organization advocates for policies to prevent conflicts.
The U.S. defense chief, like other Obama administration officials, has urged Arab governments to respond quickly to peaceful protesters’ demands for reform.
Gates probably won’t raise Saudi Arabia’s own internal political tensions during the visit, the AP reported, citing a U.S. defense official traveling with the secretary. Relations with Saudi Arabia have been strained because the kingdom’s rulers saw the U.S. as abandoning a long-time ally, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, when demonstrators there successfully called for his ouster, the AP said.
Corporate America is making all Americans broke by spending these enormous wastes of tax-payer dollars on arms to protect foreign dictators who supply profits to Corporate America.
Bloomberg News
By Viola Gienger
Apr 6, 2011 9:20 AM PT
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in the Saudi capital of Riyadh today to meet with King Abdullah on the upheaval in the region, the threat from Iran and a $60 billion U.S. arms package for Saudi Arabia, the Associated Press reported.
It is Gates’s third trip to the region in the past month. The regional turmoil has included troops from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states entering Bahrain to help quell protests in that Persian Gulf nation. The incursion occurred within days of a March visit by Gates to Bahrain’s capital, Manama.
Bahrain’s crackdown and the Saudi military intervention “could turn a mass movement for democratic reform into an armed conflict while regionalizing a genuinely internal political struggle,” according to an analysis published today by the International Crisis Group. The Brussels-based organization advocates for policies to prevent conflicts.
The U.S. defense chief, like other Obama administration officials, has urged Arab governments to respond quickly to peaceful protesters’ demands for reform.
Gates probably won’t raise Saudi Arabia’s own internal political tensions during the visit, the AP reported, citing a U.S. defense official traveling with the secretary. Relations with Saudi Arabia have been strained because the kingdom’s rulers saw the U.S. as abandoning a long-time ally, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, when demonstrators there successfully called for his ouster, the AP said.
Corporate America is making all Americans broke by spending these enormous wastes of tax-payer dollars on arms to protect foreign dictators who supply profits to Corporate America.
The Muslim World's Coming European Revolution
Philip Jenkins RealClearReligion
April 4, 2011
The Muslim World's Coming European Revolution
By Philip Jenkins
A revolution is sweeping North Africa and the Middle East. No, not the one you've been hearing about in the media -- all the protests against dictatorship and oppression, in Egypt and Tunisia, and most violently, in Libya. The revolution I'm referring to certainly affects all those countries, profoundly, but its effects promise to outlast any change of regime, or even any new constitutions. Barely noticed by the West, many Muslim societies are experiencing a demographic transformation that is going to make them look far more European: more stable, more open to women's rights and above all, more secular. That change underlies all the current political upsurges.
The magic number in this story is 2.1, which is the fertility rate a society needs if its population is to remain constant. If the typical woman has significantly more than 2.1 children during her life, then that society's population will expand, and it will be a youthful community. If the rate falls below 2.1, then populations will stagnate and decline, and the average age will rise.
Muslims Europe
According to a familiar stereotype, Europeans have lost the long term vision that would make them want to have large families, and religion no longer provides such an incentive: the closer a woman lives to Rome, the fewer children she has. When commentators look at modern Europe, they worry about the long term prospects for low fertility nations like Italy (1.39), Germany (1.41) and Spain (1.47). Pundits are all the more concerned when they compare these European rates with the notoriously high-fertility Third World demographic profiles that long prevailed across the Middle East. It's not difficult to imagine a scenario in which those mainly Muslim Middle Easterners outbreed and overwhelm the staid Europeans, creating an Islamicized Eurabia.
But here's the problem. In just the last thirty years or so, those very Middle Eastern countries that used to teem with children and adolescents have gone through a startling demographic transformation. Since the mid-1970s, Algeria's fertility rate has collapsed from over 7 to 1.75, Tunisia's from 6 to 2.03, Morocco's from 6.5 to 2.21, Libya's from 7.5 to 2.96. Today, Algeria's rate is roughly equivalent to that of Denmark or Norway; Tunisia's is comparable to France. Counter-intuitively, that remark about "the closer to Rome" also holds good on the southern, Muslim, side of the Mediterranean.
Just what is happening here? Everything depends on the changing attitudes and expectation of the women in these once highly-traditional societies. Across the region, women have become increasingly involved in higher education, and have moreover moved into full-time employment. That sea-change simply makes it unthinkable for women to manage a rampaging tribe of seven or eight children. Often, too, images of women's proper role in life have been upended by extended contacts with Europe. Migrants to France or Italy return home with changed attitudes, while families who stay at home find it hard to avoid the media portrayals of Western lives they see via cable and satellite dish. Maybe Europe and the Middle East are merging into one common Eurabia - but it's far from clear which side is doing a better job of imposing its opinions on the other. Presently, it looks as if the Maghreb is becoming European.
Such a wrenching change cannot fail to have political implications. In a country with a Third World fertility rate, it is very unlikely that women will seek or be granted education: their designated career path as mothers is starkly clear. Meanwhile, adolescents and young men proliferate, and provide ample cannon fodder for armies or militias, to whom life is cheap. (Yemen's fertility rate is still over 5.0, Somalia's is 6.4). But then imagine a newer, more European society, in which men and women are intensely concerned about their nuclear families, and have invested their love and attention into just one or two offspring. As citizens become more educated, they are not prepared to accept the demagoguery and systematic corruption that has long passed for government in those regions. They see themselves as responsible members of a civil society, with aspirations that demand to be met: they feel they deserve full democratic participation. Of course the recent turmoil began in Tunisia, with its very low fertility rate and its intimate ties to France.
Sudden demographic change also seems to be closely linked to secularization, a point of potentially great significance in the Middle East. Smaller family sizes can result from a decline in religious ideologies, but falling fertility can itself drive such a decline, as has happened in modern Christian Europe. When children abounded, as they did in the 1950s, strong pressures kept families close to religious institutions, as they sought common religious training and religious rituals. parents attended churches to ensure their children received the familiar cultural heritage. Church prestige rode high when priests were shepherding hundreds of local children through annual confirmation classes. But as the children became scarce from the 1970s onwards, so the churches emptied. At the same time, couples highly concerned with their own personal and emotional fulfillment became increasingly impatient about clerical attempts to enforce morality laws. Women, especially, became highly disaffected from the mainstream churches.
If the European precedent is anything to go by, that could well provide a model for religious developments in the Maghreb over the next decade or two. A society so dependent on women in the school and the workplace simply cannot support the kind of intransigent orthodoxies offered by the familiar Islamists. Extremists may not vanish overnight, but they will have to adapt substantially to present their message in a civil society with a powerful taste for democratic values and gender equality.
Demography is not, of course, the whole story. But it has to play a full part in any attempt to understand the current political revolutions in the Middle East.
Philip Jenkins teaches at Penn State University.
April 4, 2011
The Muslim World's Coming European Revolution
By Philip Jenkins
A revolution is sweeping North Africa and the Middle East. No, not the one you've been hearing about in the media -- all the protests against dictatorship and oppression, in Egypt and Tunisia, and most violently, in Libya. The revolution I'm referring to certainly affects all those countries, profoundly, but its effects promise to outlast any change of regime, or even any new constitutions. Barely noticed by the West, many Muslim societies are experiencing a demographic transformation that is going to make them look far more European: more stable, more open to women's rights and above all, more secular. That change underlies all the current political upsurges.
The magic number in this story is 2.1, which is the fertility rate a society needs if its population is to remain constant. If the typical woman has significantly more than 2.1 children during her life, then that society's population will expand, and it will be a youthful community. If the rate falls below 2.1, then populations will stagnate and decline, and the average age will rise.
Muslims Europe
According to a familiar stereotype, Europeans have lost the long term vision that would make them want to have large families, and religion no longer provides such an incentive: the closer a woman lives to Rome, the fewer children she has. When commentators look at modern Europe, they worry about the long term prospects for low fertility nations like Italy (1.39), Germany (1.41) and Spain (1.47). Pundits are all the more concerned when they compare these European rates with the notoriously high-fertility Third World demographic profiles that long prevailed across the Middle East. It's not difficult to imagine a scenario in which those mainly Muslim Middle Easterners outbreed and overwhelm the staid Europeans, creating an Islamicized Eurabia.
But here's the problem. In just the last thirty years or so, those very Middle Eastern countries that used to teem with children and adolescents have gone through a startling demographic transformation. Since the mid-1970s, Algeria's fertility rate has collapsed from over 7 to 1.75, Tunisia's from 6 to 2.03, Morocco's from 6.5 to 2.21, Libya's from 7.5 to 2.96. Today, Algeria's rate is roughly equivalent to that of Denmark or Norway; Tunisia's is comparable to France. Counter-intuitively, that remark about "the closer to Rome" also holds good on the southern, Muslim, side of the Mediterranean.
Just what is happening here? Everything depends on the changing attitudes and expectation of the women in these once highly-traditional societies. Across the region, women have become increasingly involved in higher education, and have moreover moved into full-time employment. That sea-change simply makes it unthinkable for women to manage a rampaging tribe of seven or eight children. Often, too, images of women's proper role in life have been upended by extended contacts with Europe. Migrants to France or Italy return home with changed attitudes, while families who stay at home find it hard to avoid the media portrayals of Western lives they see via cable and satellite dish. Maybe Europe and the Middle East are merging into one common Eurabia - but it's far from clear which side is doing a better job of imposing its opinions on the other. Presently, it looks as if the Maghreb is becoming European.
Such a wrenching change cannot fail to have political implications. In a country with a Third World fertility rate, it is very unlikely that women will seek or be granted education: their designated career path as mothers is starkly clear. Meanwhile, adolescents and young men proliferate, and provide ample cannon fodder for armies or militias, to whom life is cheap. (Yemen's fertility rate is still over 5.0, Somalia's is 6.4). But then imagine a newer, more European society, in which men and women are intensely concerned about their nuclear families, and have invested their love and attention into just one or two offspring. As citizens become more educated, they are not prepared to accept the demagoguery and systematic corruption that has long passed for government in those regions. They see themselves as responsible members of a civil society, with aspirations that demand to be met: they feel they deserve full democratic participation. Of course the recent turmoil began in Tunisia, with its very low fertility rate and its intimate ties to France.
Sudden demographic change also seems to be closely linked to secularization, a point of potentially great significance in the Middle East. Smaller family sizes can result from a decline in religious ideologies, but falling fertility can itself drive such a decline, as has happened in modern Christian Europe. When children abounded, as they did in the 1950s, strong pressures kept families close to religious institutions, as they sought common religious training and religious rituals. parents attended churches to ensure their children received the familiar cultural heritage. Church prestige rode high when priests were shepherding hundreds of local children through annual confirmation classes. But as the children became scarce from the 1970s onwards, so the churches emptied. At the same time, couples highly concerned with their own personal and emotional fulfillment became increasingly impatient about clerical attempts to enforce morality laws. Women, especially, became highly disaffected from the mainstream churches.
If the European precedent is anything to go by, that could well provide a model for religious developments in the Maghreb over the next decade or two. A society so dependent on women in the school and the workplace simply cannot support the kind of intransigent orthodoxies offered by the familiar Islamists. Extremists may not vanish overnight, but they will have to adapt substantially to present their message in a civil society with a powerful taste for democratic values and gender equality.
Demography is not, of course, the whole story. But it has to play a full part in any attempt to understand the current political revolutions in the Middle East.
Philip Jenkins teaches at Penn State University.
Goldstone: An act of negligence
Downplay of Israeli aggression towards civilians during the Gaza War, causes scholars to question Richard Goldstone.
Noura Erekat
04 Apr 2011 15:04
More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the war on Gaza, while the Israeli death toll totalled 13 [GALLO/GETTY]
In the wake of a monumental victory in the human rights community to move the Goldstone Report out of the Human Rights Council (HRC) to the General Assembly where it can be underpinned by actionable follow up, Justice Richard Goldstone’s recent editorial makes some human rights practitioners wish it had been left to languish in the HRC.
Goldstone sought to do two things in his op-ed: to amend the record by stating that Israel’s attacks may not have been deliberate and second, to emphasise Hamas’s culpability under the laws of war. In the best case scenario, Goldstone’s intervention is a problematic attempt to cajole Israel to participate in the international process for accountability.
However, even in that case, the editorial is counterproductive, short-sighted, and casts Goldstone's attempts as no less than curious.
Just last week, I had the chance to speak to Goldstone at Stanford Law School where I participated in a debate on the report featuring him as a discussant.
Goldstone seemed struck by recent revelations made in Israel’s investigation of itself that its murder of 29 civilians in the Sammouni home, where approximately 120 civilians had taken refuge, was the result of negligence and not a deliberate attack.
He emphasised that had Israel participated in the investigatory process rather than boycott it, it would have been able to contest the mission’s findings before the report’s release thereby correcting its alleged bias.
He echoes this sentiment in his op-ed where he writes:
I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.
Goldstone should have known better: on the one hand, he accepts Israel’s investigatory findings at face value notwithstanding the Independent Committee of Experts’ conclusions that they are structurally flawed and unlikely to yield effective measures of accountability and justice.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, Goldstone takes for granted that Israel preemptively rejected the report precisely because the mission treated Hamas evenhandedly rather than dismiss it as a terrorist organisation whose annihilation is justified by any means necessary.
That is why it should come as no surprise that rather than respond to his proclamations with a renewed faith in international legal mechanisms, Israel’s staunchest allies are opportunistically characterising Goldstone’s editorial as an attitudinal shift towards Israel in the West while its prime minister has called on the UN to retract the report all together.
The Goldstone Report documents eleven incidents where the Israeli military directly targeted civilians. Four other fact-finding missions underscore these findings: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, and the National Lawyers Guild.
'No humanitarian consideration'
In a report conducted by Israeli war veterans, 26 Israeli soldiers who participated in the Operation confirm that there were no clear rules of engagement.
One soldier laments:
There was a clear feeling that no humanitarian consideration played any role in the army at present. The goal was to carry out an operation with the least possible casualties for the army, without its even asking itself what the price would be for the other side.
Together, the four investigations and the soldiers’ testimonies, demonstrates an Israeli policy of targeting of civilians and/or negligent behaviour that amounts to the direct targeting of civilians according to Article 51 of the First Additional Protocol.
This comports with a policy adopted by Israel since 2006, known as the Dahiyeh Doctrine. As captured by the Goldstone Report itself, according to Major General Gadi Eiskenot:
What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our perspective, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases.
Israel’s perspective however is not what matters - according to the twin linchpins of humanitarian law, namely the principles of distinction and proportionality, civilian villages are not to be targeted, are to be protected, and are to be spared excessive loss unless they directly partake in the hostilities.
Arguably therefore, no mission could have written a report to Israel’s liking unless it accepted this perversion of humanitarian law casting villages as bases.
In fact, after the report’s dissemination, Prime Minister Netanyahu requested "the facilitating of an international initiative to change the laws of war in keeping with the spread of terrorism throughout the world".
Accordingly, Goldstone’s painstaking efforts to highlight Hamas’s culpability, which he already makes plain in paragraph 108 of the report, are futile because the controversy has not been over the report’s inequitable application of the law but rather over Israel's insistence that it should be freed from the laws’ restraints in order to have its way with its "terrorist" adversaries.
Goldstone also miscalculates the value of Israel’s domestic investigations.
To date, the Independent Committee of Experts, chaired by New York Judge Mary McGowan Davis, has reviewed the domestic investigations process twice, and both times it found Israel’s investigations to be inadequate.
Whereas Goldstone applauds Israel for "dedicating significant resources to investigating 400 incidents of operational misconduct", he does not mention the rest of the committee’s findings.
'No' Israeli investigatory initiative
In particular, it took issue with the fact that "there is no indication that Israel has opened investigations into the actions of those who designed, planned, ordered and oversaw Operation Cast Lead".
The committee goes onto note that "more than one-third of the 36 incidents in Gaza are still unresolved or unclear. [And] Finally, the Committee is concerned about the fact that the duration of the ongoing investigations into the allegations contained in the FFM report - over two years since the end of the Gaza operation - could seriously impair their effectiveness and, therefore, the prospects of ultimately achieving accountability and justice".
In light of these conclusions, it is perplexing that Goldstone would accept Israel’s assertion that its attack on the Sammouni home was a regrettable act of negligence by those commanders "making difficult battlefield decisions". Consider also that this is the home where emaciated children were rescued four days after the attack because Israel prevented access to the Red Cross.
What kind of remorseful military commander negligently orders an air strike on a home full of civilians and then prevents humanitarian relief to its victims for four days? At most, Israel’s conflicting investigatory findings should have buttressed the report’s recommendation for an international judicial enquiry.
Perhaps Goldstone sincerely believes that Israel’s boycott of the mission was a function of remedial short-sightedness. Arguably then, his willingness to overlook a compelling record is an effort to lure Israel to the table of multilateral reconciliation.
In fact, his endorsement of “applying international law to protracted and deadly conflicts” for the sake of making warfare more humane indicates his enduring faith in the mission’s mandate as well as the need for accountability, rather than a disavowal of the report and the exoneration of Israel for its alleged crimes.
If this is indeed the case, the Justice exercised excessive good faith and poor judgement to believe that Israel would accept his gesture as an opportunity to reconcile with the UN-investigatory process, rather than cast the final blow against the report and the HRC.
Regardless of what may have been his best intentions, Goldstone has negligently, one hopes not deliberately, undermined the laws of armed conflict and emboldened those states, like Israel, who believe that it is a surmountable nuisance.
Noura Erekat is a Palestinian human rights attorney and activist. She is currently an adjunct professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in Georgetown University. She is also a co-editor of Jadaliyya.com.
Noura Erekat
04 Apr 2011 15:04
More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the war on Gaza, while the Israeli death toll totalled 13 [GALLO/GETTY]
In the wake of a monumental victory in the human rights community to move the Goldstone Report out of the Human Rights Council (HRC) to the General Assembly where it can be underpinned by actionable follow up, Justice Richard Goldstone’s recent editorial makes some human rights practitioners wish it had been left to languish in the HRC.
Goldstone sought to do two things in his op-ed: to amend the record by stating that Israel’s attacks may not have been deliberate and second, to emphasise Hamas’s culpability under the laws of war. In the best case scenario, Goldstone’s intervention is a problematic attempt to cajole Israel to participate in the international process for accountability.
However, even in that case, the editorial is counterproductive, short-sighted, and casts Goldstone's attempts as no less than curious.
Just last week, I had the chance to speak to Goldstone at Stanford Law School where I participated in a debate on the report featuring him as a discussant.
Goldstone seemed struck by recent revelations made in Israel’s investigation of itself that its murder of 29 civilians in the Sammouni home, where approximately 120 civilians had taken refuge, was the result of negligence and not a deliberate attack.
He emphasised that had Israel participated in the investigatory process rather than boycott it, it would have been able to contest the mission’s findings before the report’s release thereby correcting its alleged bias.
He echoes this sentiment in his op-ed where he writes:
I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.
Goldstone should have known better: on the one hand, he accepts Israel’s investigatory findings at face value notwithstanding the Independent Committee of Experts’ conclusions that they are structurally flawed and unlikely to yield effective measures of accountability and justice.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, Goldstone takes for granted that Israel preemptively rejected the report precisely because the mission treated Hamas evenhandedly rather than dismiss it as a terrorist organisation whose annihilation is justified by any means necessary.
That is why it should come as no surprise that rather than respond to his proclamations with a renewed faith in international legal mechanisms, Israel’s staunchest allies are opportunistically characterising Goldstone’s editorial as an attitudinal shift towards Israel in the West while its prime minister has called on the UN to retract the report all together.
The Goldstone Report documents eleven incidents where the Israeli military directly targeted civilians. Four other fact-finding missions underscore these findings: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, and the National Lawyers Guild.
'No humanitarian consideration'
In a report conducted by Israeli war veterans, 26 Israeli soldiers who participated in the Operation confirm that there were no clear rules of engagement.
One soldier laments:
There was a clear feeling that no humanitarian consideration played any role in the army at present. The goal was to carry out an operation with the least possible casualties for the army, without its even asking itself what the price would be for the other side.
Together, the four investigations and the soldiers’ testimonies, demonstrates an Israeli policy of targeting of civilians and/or negligent behaviour that amounts to the direct targeting of civilians according to Article 51 of the First Additional Protocol.
This comports with a policy adopted by Israel since 2006, known as the Dahiyeh Doctrine. As captured by the Goldstone Report itself, according to Major General Gadi Eiskenot:
What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our perspective, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases.
Israel’s perspective however is not what matters - according to the twin linchpins of humanitarian law, namely the principles of distinction and proportionality, civilian villages are not to be targeted, are to be protected, and are to be spared excessive loss unless they directly partake in the hostilities.
Arguably therefore, no mission could have written a report to Israel’s liking unless it accepted this perversion of humanitarian law casting villages as bases.
In fact, after the report’s dissemination, Prime Minister Netanyahu requested "the facilitating of an international initiative to change the laws of war in keeping with the spread of terrorism throughout the world".
Accordingly, Goldstone’s painstaking efforts to highlight Hamas’s culpability, which he already makes plain in paragraph 108 of the report, are futile because the controversy has not been over the report’s inequitable application of the law but rather over Israel's insistence that it should be freed from the laws’ restraints in order to have its way with its "terrorist" adversaries.
Goldstone also miscalculates the value of Israel’s domestic investigations.
To date, the Independent Committee of Experts, chaired by New York Judge Mary McGowan Davis, has reviewed the domestic investigations process twice, and both times it found Israel’s investigations to be inadequate.
Whereas Goldstone applauds Israel for "dedicating significant resources to investigating 400 incidents of operational misconduct", he does not mention the rest of the committee’s findings.
'No' Israeli investigatory initiative
In particular, it took issue with the fact that "there is no indication that Israel has opened investigations into the actions of those who designed, planned, ordered and oversaw Operation Cast Lead".
The committee goes onto note that "more than one-third of the 36 incidents in Gaza are still unresolved or unclear. [And] Finally, the Committee is concerned about the fact that the duration of the ongoing investigations into the allegations contained in the FFM report - over two years since the end of the Gaza operation - could seriously impair their effectiveness and, therefore, the prospects of ultimately achieving accountability and justice".
In light of these conclusions, it is perplexing that Goldstone would accept Israel’s assertion that its attack on the Sammouni home was a regrettable act of negligence by those commanders "making difficult battlefield decisions". Consider also that this is the home where emaciated children were rescued four days after the attack because Israel prevented access to the Red Cross.
What kind of remorseful military commander negligently orders an air strike on a home full of civilians and then prevents humanitarian relief to its victims for four days? At most, Israel’s conflicting investigatory findings should have buttressed the report’s recommendation for an international judicial enquiry.
Perhaps Goldstone sincerely believes that Israel’s boycott of the mission was a function of remedial short-sightedness. Arguably then, his willingness to overlook a compelling record is an effort to lure Israel to the table of multilateral reconciliation.
In fact, his endorsement of “applying international law to protracted and deadly conflicts” for the sake of making warfare more humane indicates his enduring faith in the mission’s mandate as well as the need for accountability, rather than a disavowal of the report and the exoneration of Israel for its alleged crimes.
If this is indeed the case, the Justice exercised excessive good faith and poor judgement to believe that Israel would accept his gesture as an opportunity to reconcile with the UN-investigatory process, rather than cast the final blow against the report and the HRC.
Regardless of what may have been his best intentions, Goldstone has negligently, one hopes not deliberately, undermined the laws of armed conflict and emboldened those states, like Israel, who believe that it is a surmountable nuisance.
Noura Erekat is a Palestinian human rights attorney and activist. She is currently an adjunct professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in Georgetown University. She is also a co-editor of Jadaliyya.com.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
In memory of our beloved friend Juliano Mer-Khamis
In memory of our beloved friend Juliano Mer-Khamis
From: Iyad Burnat
Juliano Mer-Khamis embodied the uncompromising struggle for freedom and for dignity. With his brutal murder the Palestinian struggle has lost a brilliant charismatic and courageous fighter for justice and freedom. Both parts of his life's work were seamlessly joined. His art was inseparable from his political commitment. The dignity and humanity which his art sustained were just as important to Palestinian resilience -sumud as his explicitly political work. His life was tragically cut short but he nevertheless managed to live a life full with purpose and meaning. In his typical way he fully dedicated himself to realizing his principles and gave up the comfort of life in Haifa to move to Jenin.
The Freedom theater which Mer-Khamis founded enriched the lives of countless young participants who all loved Juliano and their audience. It demonstrated the resilience of Palestinians, who transcended the most difficult situations to create a lasting legacy of art and consciousness. The effect of the Freedom theater reached far beyond Jenin and even the West Bank. People throughout the world were inspired to support the work of the theater and Palestinian solidarity in general.
We offer his family our condolences and support. We will always remember and miss him. His legacy will continue to inspire us to struggle for dignity and liberation. We will follow Juliano's example in his work and in his spirit.
the Popular Committees against the wall and israeli occupation.
Iyad Burnat
0598403676
ibel3in@yahoo.com
From: Iyad Burnat
Juliano Mer-Khamis embodied the uncompromising struggle for freedom and for dignity. With his brutal murder the Palestinian struggle has lost a brilliant charismatic and courageous fighter for justice and freedom. Both parts of his life's work were seamlessly joined. His art was inseparable from his political commitment. The dignity and humanity which his art sustained were just as important to Palestinian resilience -sumud as his explicitly political work. His life was tragically cut short but he nevertheless managed to live a life full with purpose and meaning. In his typical way he fully dedicated himself to realizing his principles and gave up the comfort of life in Haifa to move to Jenin.
The Freedom theater which Mer-Khamis founded enriched the lives of countless young participants who all loved Juliano and their audience. It demonstrated the resilience of Palestinians, who transcended the most difficult situations to create a lasting legacy of art and consciousness. The effect of the Freedom theater reached far beyond Jenin and even the West Bank. People throughout the world were inspired to support the work of the theater and Palestinian solidarity in general.
We offer his family our condolences and support. We will always remember and miss him. His legacy will continue to inspire us to struggle for dignity and liberation. We will follow Juliano's example in his work and in his spirit.
the Popular Committees against the wall and israeli occupation.
Iyad Burnat
0598403676
ibel3in@yahoo.com
From Mazin' journal: Murder of a friend, nonviolence, and April 9
From: Mazin Qumsiyeh
Humanity mourns. We are shocked. Juliano Mer-Khamis, a friend and fellow
peace activist, was murdered in Jenin. The masked killer/s whoever they
were were cowards whose madness will not deter those of us who continue to
work for justice and peace for all. If they thought they could kill
coexistence and love in the holy land by killing a symbol and a great
activist, they are mistaken. Juliano symbolizes what many of us have
worked for: a transformation of our homeland into a pluralistic democratic
state where every human being regardless of his religion (Jewish, Christian,
Muslim) would be treated with dignity and respect. Fundamentalist notions
of superiority were at odds with this message. His killers will not get
their way and justice will prevail. But Juliano’s loss is a shock to all of
us.
Juliano was a superb human being who embodied the best qualities of activism
and dedicated leadership for human rights, justice and peace. He was my age
and I first met him a few years ago when we brought him for the Connecticut
screening of the film Arna’s children, the story of his mother and the
Children of Jenin Refugee camp (see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNGmA8Ma1UM for scenes from the film and
Juliano’s words). On numerous occasions over the past few years I visited
Jenin Freedom Theater that Juliano cofounded and that injected so much
beauty and hope into the lives of the people at Jenin Refugee Camp. See
http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/
Juliano took the characters of compassion and caring of his Israeli Jewish
mother (she herself worked to challenge Zionist supremacy and fundamentalist
idiocies for decades) and gentile love of land and people and pacifist
characters of his Palestinian father. He exemplified everything that I and
millions of others aspired to: coexistence, tolerance, nonviolence, peace,
love, passion for life, richness in diversity and so much more. He had a
two year old child and his wife as I knew was pregnant or may have just
delivered their second child. His absence will be felt but I for one will
work to ensure that his work continues and accelerates. The best answer to
violence is to intensify our work and build on the vision thus never
allowing these forces of hate to destroy the future. As to who killed
Juliano: all humans are guilty.. our inability to rise as a species beyond
violence is largely due to our apathy and indifference to the suffering of
fellow human beings. It is telling that many political leaders (from Hamas,
Fatah, Israeli leaders) remain silent on the murder of Juliano when they so
readily spoke at other convenient political junctures. Those who are
apathetic are just as guilty as those fundamentalist racists who ordered
this killing or pulled the trigger to shoot fellow human beings. I for one
will have a lot of pain in my heart for Juliano, for Bassem, for Jawaher,
for Rachel and all the other friends we lost along the way. We must make
sure that their murders do not go in vain and the best thing we can do is
increase our efforts to continue the path and bring others to this
path. Killers must know that 10 will rise in place for every peace activist they kill. Those of us active in the same cause of coexistence and peace must intensify our work.
Ironically, I had yesterday given a sermon at a Unitarian Universalist
congregation addressing the issues of violence and nonviolence. It is
copied below and is appropriate for this occasion. But first, I urge all to
join the biggest chance to get attention for the Palestinian cause in the
U.S. the weekend of April 9 when tens of thousands will march against the
wars, occupations and the apartheid in Palestine and elsewhere. April 9 at
noon will see a huge rally and march in New York City. A major speaker is
Omar Barghouti one of the founders of the boycotts, divestment and sanctions
campaign. In the march there will be a "United Palestine Solidarity
Contingent" full of banners and flags. On the next day in San Francisco
there will be a similar demonstration. For more information see
www.unacpeace.org orwww.TheStruggle.org
500 endorsers include Ali Abunimah, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ann Wright, Ilan Pappe,
US Palestinian Community Network, Al-Awda NY, Code Pink, Palestine Right of
Return Coalition, Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, SJP’s from many
campuses, Middle East Crisis Committee, Middle East Children’s Alliance,
and many others.
Sermon at a United Universalist Congregation-Sacramento
About a year ago, I came back from a trip to Azerbeijan and was questioned
as usually happens in crossing the bridge from Jordan to the West Bank (the
only entry/exit point for us Palestinians). The obligatory good cop/bad cop
pair of Israeli officials questioned me for a very long time. At one point
I suggested they just google my name since everything about me is on the web
somewhere. But they kept questioning me. At one point the main
interrogater asked: “you are a Christian?” I answer “yes, and a Buddhist, a
Jew, a Muslim, and an agnostic among others”. He said angrily: you are
making fun of me. I said, no I believe there is truth in all these
traditions. He pointed at my ID card in front of him and said but it says
here you are a Christian. I simply said “but it is you all who put that
there not me”.
My family is indeed a mixed family like most humanity: my father was greek
orthodox, my mother Lutheran, my sister converted to Mormon Traditions, my
wife is Chinese American who comes from a Buddhist background, my son was
born in West Texas (I guess some would call that beinga red-neck) who is
exploring his world, some of my relatives married Jews, my friends are
Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and atheist of all gender identifications.
I cannot give you a sense of the suffering that is inflicted on 11 million
Palestinians; 7 million of us are refugees or displaced people. For that I
suggest you do what Doug Kraft and others have done before: come see it for
yourself. Spend a night or two at one of the refugee camps. Spend a day or
two at one of the villages like Al-Walaja in the seam zone between the wall
and the Green line. Spend an hour or two at the next demolition of
Al-Araqeeb, a village in the Negev that was demolished 18 times already. If
you are adventurous you may join us in nonviolent actions taking place every
day. The smell of spiked tear Gas and even the feel of tight handcuffs or a
shove by a burly security officer will be a totally unforgettable
experience. You can join us in morning those murdered by the mindless
violence of those with hate in their hearts.
But maybe I will simply stand here before you as this one fallible human
being and tell you about me and how I feel and what influenced me. I was
born literally down the hill of the Church of Nativity where tradition holds
that Jesus was born. Our village name “Beit Sahour” is Aramaic for the
house of those who stay up by night – in reference for the Shepherd’s who
watched over their flocks and saw that star. As descendant of those Aramaic
speaking shepherds, we Nebatean Canaanites took our mission of telling it to
the world seriously. While we adopted different and newer religions and
rulers came and went, we remained the people of that ancient land and we
were and remain pioneers. We were the first to develop agriculture (hence
the designations of fertile crescent and land of milk and honey). We were
the first to domesticate plants and animals. We were the first to develop an
alphabet – proto Aramaic alphabet evolved to the Arabic and Hebrew alphabet
right in this great land of Canaan. We were the first to develop law,
astronomy, math, and shipping.
The origin of the Aramaic word Canaan is debated and we see things like qna’
translated as satisfied or lying obedient or referring to the color purple
(hence the greek Phoenicia for that part of the world meaning also purple).
In our land various religious beliefs evolved and many people took them up
and used them for good or for evil. Our religions have statements that
clearly support the distinction between challenging and correcting evil and
harming the evil-doers. In Christian traditions loving our enemies does
not mean accepting the evil perpetuated (Jesus turned the tables in the
Temples). In Muslim traditions, yakrahu al-munkar (hate the evil) wala
yakrahu almunkireen (not thating eth evil-doers). This is the essence of
nonviolent transformation.
The problems for us are not the different religious beliefs or our own
tendency to spirituality. But it is religious dogma especially when married
to state power and uses violence to advance its agenda. Christianity became
state religion that led to the horrors of the crusaders. That is what my
friend and Jewish Theologian Marc Ellis calls “Constantinian Christianity”.
Ellis argues that Zionism today is essentially “Constantinian Judaism”.
I was reminded of this when I read a letter by Thomas Jeffersio to Mordecai
Noah, May 28, 1818:
“I thank you for the Discourse on the consecration of the Synagogue in your
city, with which you have been pleased to favor me. I have read it with
pleasure and instruction, having learnt from it some valuable facts in
Jewish history which I did not know before. Your sect by its sufferings has
furnished a remarkable proof of the universal spirit of religious
intolerance inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble, and
practiced by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to
this vice, protecting our religious, as they do our civil rights, by putting
all on an equal footing. But more remains to be done, for although we are
free by the law, we are not so in practice. “
He goes on to explain how religions would do well to keep the private myths
and discourses in the confines of their buildings while lending the more
common and respectful ideas to the public sphere (e.g. the golden rule). We
are reminded of these insightful and prophetic words of Jefferson about how
sects when feeble demand equality and when in power exercise discrimination
and violence.
The unfolding popular nonviolent resistance in the Arab world reminds us of
the power of such movements. We Palestinians have engaged in such
nonviolent struggle for over 130 years which I summarize in my recent book.
People can be very innovative in these nonviolent struggles. Palestinian
women thus were the first to use cars in mass demonstrations: 120 cars were
gathered and moved beeping their horns in a parade down the old city streets
of Jerusalem in October 1929, a spectacle at that time. When flying the
Palestinian flag was punishable by 9 months in jail, Palestinians hung
laundry in the colors of the flag. In 1988, Palestinians in my village
founded the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People which
brought internationals and even Israelis to nonviolently break the siege and
curfew laid on our town during the tax revolt. There were so many inspiring
and innovative acts of nonviolent resistance that were successful in so many
ways.
The key to understanding the power of these movements is to just look at the
history of how we got women’s right to vote, civil rights, the 40-hour work
week, ending the war on Vietnam, ending support for apartheid South Africa,
and many others. It is when people shed their fears, fears usually stoked
by those elites in authority, that they realize that nothing can stop as as
individuals working together nonviolently. In the 1960s civil rights
movement, the saying was “free your mind and your ass will follow”. Once we
free our minds, nothing can stop us. That is what Egyptians, Tunisian, and
others have realized. That is what we Palestinians of various religions
realized. That is what humanity is realizing. Howard Zinn said, you can’t
be neutral on a moving train. The choice before us as individuals and as
societies has always been between fear and courage, between hate and love,
violence and popular resistance to violence. Join us in Palestine July
8-16 for a week of activism and peace building. Thank you.
Reminder: Rallies in NYC and San Francisco April 9 and 10 (see above)
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
(still on the road in California but aching to come home to Palestine and be
with all who are suffering loss/bereavement).
http://qumsiyeh.org
Humanity mourns. We are shocked. Juliano Mer-Khamis, a friend and fellow
peace activist, was murdered in Jenin. The masked killer/s whoever they
were were cowards whose madness will not deter those of us who continue to
work for justice and peace for all. If they thought they could kill
coexistence and love in the holy land by killing a symbol and a great
activist, they are mistaken. Juliano symbolizes what many of us have
worked for: a transformation of our homeland into a pluralistic democratic
state where every human being regardless of his religion (Jewish, Christian,
Muslim) would be treated with dignity and respect. Fundamentalist notions
of superiority were at odds with this message. His killers will not get
their way and justice will prevail. But Juliano’s loss is a shock to all of
us.
Juliano was a superb human being who embodied the best qualities of activism
and dedicated leadership for human rights, justice and peace. He was my age
and I first met him a few years ago when we brought him for the Connecticut
screening of the film Arna’s children, the story of his mother and the
Children of Jenin Refugee camp (see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNGmA8Ma1UM for scenes from the film and
Juliano’s words). On numerous occasions over the past few years I visited
Jenin Freedom Theater that Juliano cofounded and that injected so much
beauty and hope into the lives of the people at Jenin Refugee Camp. See
http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/
Juliano took the characters of compassion and caring of his Israeli Jewish
mother (she herself worked to challenge Zionist supremacy and fundamentalist
idiocies for decades) and gentile love of land and people and pacifist
characters of his Palestinian father. He exemplified everything that I and
millions of others aspired to: coexistence, tolerance, nonviolence, peace,
love, passion for life, richness in diversity and so much more. He had a
two year old child and his wife as I knew was pregnant or may have just
delivered their second child. His absence will be felt but I for one will
work to ensure that his work continues and accelerates. The best answer to
violence is to intensify our work and build on the vision thus never
allowing these forces of hate to destroy the future. As to who killed
Juliano: all humans are guilty.. our inability to rise as a species beyond
violence is largely due to our apathy and indifference to the suffering of
fellow human beings. It is telling that many political leaders (from Hamas,
Fatah, Israeli leaders) remain silent on the murder of Juliano when they so
readily spoke at other convenient political junctures. Those who are
apathetic are just as guilty as those fundamentalist racists who ordered
this killing or pulled the trigger to shoot fellow human beings. I for one
will have a lot of pain in my heart for Juliano, for Bassem, for Jawaher,
for Rachel and all the other friends we lost along the way. We must make
sure that their murders do not go in vain and the best thing we can do is
increase our efforts to continue the path and bring others to this
path. Killers must know that 10 will rise in place for every peace activist they kill. Those of us active in the same cause of coexistence and peace must intensify our work.
Ironically, I had yesterday given a sermon at a Unitarian Universalist
congregation addressing the issues of violence and nonviolence. It is
copied below and is appropriate for this occasion. But first, I urge all to
join the biggest chance to get attention for the Palestinian cause in the
U.S. the weekend of April 9 when tens of thousands will march against the
wars, occupations and the apartheid in Palestine and elsewhere. April 9 at
noon will see a huge rally and march in New York City. A major speaker is
Omar Barghouti one of the founders of the boycotts, divestment and sanctions
campaign. In the march there will be a "United Palestine Solidarity
Contingent" full of banners and flags. On the next day in San Francisco
there will be a similar demonstration. For more information see
www.unacpeace.org orwww.TheStruggle.org
500 endorsers include Ali Abunimah, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ann Wright, Ilan Pappe,
US Palestinian Community Network, Al-Awda NY, Code Pink, Palestine Right of
Return Coalition, Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, SJP’s from many
campuses, Middle East Crisis Committee, Middle East Children’s Alliance,
and many others.
Sermon at a United Universalist Congregation-Sacramento
About a year ago, I came back from a trip to Azerbeijan and was questioned
as usually happens in crossing the bridge from Jordan to the West Bank (the
only entry/exit point for us Palestinians). The obligatory good cop/bad cop
pair of Israeli officials questioned me for a very long time. At one point
I suggested they just google my name since everything about me is on the web
somewhere. But they kept questioning me. At one point the main
interrogater asked: “you are a Christian?” I answer “yes, and a Buddhist, a
Jew, a Muslim, and an agnostic among others”. He said angrily: you are
making fun of me. I said, no I believe there is truth in all these
traditions. He pointed at my ID card in front of him and said but it says
here you are a Christian. I simply said “but it is you all who put that
there not me”.
My family is indeed a mixed family like most humanity: my father was greek
orthodox, my mother Lutheran, my sister converted to Mormon Traditions, my
wife is Chinese American who comes from a Buddhist background, my son was
born in West Texas (I guess some would call that beinga red-neck) who is
exploring his world, some of my relatives married Jews, my friends are
Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and atheist of all gender identifications.
I cannot give you a sense of the suffering that is inflicted on 11 million
Palestinians; 7 million of us are refugees or displaced people. For that I
suggest you do what Doug Kraft and others have done before: come see it for
yourself. Spend a night or two at one of the refugee camps. Spend a day or
two at one of the villages like Al-Walaja in the seam zone between the wall
and the Green line. Spend an hour or two at the next demolition of
Al-Araqeeb, a village in the Negev that was demolished 18 times already. If
you are adventurous you may join us in nonviolent actions taking place every
day. The smell of spiked tear Gas and even the feel of tight handcuffs or a
shove by a burly security officer will be a totally unforgettable
experience. You can join us in morning those murdered by the mindless
violence of those with hate in their hearts.
But maybe I will simply stand here before you as this one fallible human
being and tell you about me and how I feel and what influenced me. I was
born literally down the hill of the Church of Nativity where tradition holds
that Jesus was born. Our village name “Beit Sahour” is Aramaic for the
house of those who stay up by night – in reference for the Shepherd’s who
watched over their flocks and saw that star. As descendant of those Aramaic
speaking shepherds, we Nebatean Canaanites took our mission of telling it to
the world seriously. While we adopted different and newer religions and
rulers came and went, we remained the people of that ancient land and we
were and remain pioneers. We were the first to develop agriculture (hence
the designations of fertile crescent and land of milk and honey). We were
the first to domesticate plants and animals. We were the first to develop an
alphabet – proto Aramaic alphabet evolved to the Arabic and Hebrew alphabet
right in this great land of Canaan. We were the first to develop law,
astronomy, math, and shipping.
The origin of the Aramaic word Canaan is debated and we see things like qna’
translated as satisfied or lying obedient or referring to the color purple
(hence the greek Phoenicia for that part of the world meaning also purple).
In our land various religious beliefs evolved and many people took them up
and used them for good or for evil. Our religions have statements that
clearly support the distinction between challenging and correcting evil and
harming the evil-doers. In Christian traditions loving our enemies does
not mean accepting the evil perpetuated (Jesus turned the tables in the
Temples). In Muslim traditions, yakrahu al-munkar (hate the evil) wala
yakrahu almunkireen (not thating eth evil-doers). This is the essence of
nonviolent transformation.
The problems for us are not the different religious beliefs or our own
tendency to spirituality. But it is religious dogma especially when married
to state power and uses violence to advance its agenda. Christianity became
state religion that led to the horrors of the crusaders. That is what my
friend and Jewish Theologian Marc Ellis calls “Constantinian Christianity”.
Ellis argues that Zionism today is essentially “Constantinian Judaism”.
I was reminded of this when I read a letter by Thomas Jeffersio to Mordecai
Noah, May 28, 1818:
“I thank you for the Discourse on the consecration of the Synagogue in your
city, with which you have been pleased to favor me. I have read it with
pleasure and instruction, having learnt from it some valuable facts in
Jewish history which I did not know before. Your sect by its sufferings has
furnished a remarkable proof of the universal spirit of religious
intolerance inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble, and
practiced by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to
this vice, protecting our religious, as they do our civil rights, by putting
all on an equal footing. But more remains to be done, for although we are
free by the law, we are not so in practice. “
He goes on to explain how religions would do well to keep the private myths
and discourses in the confines of their buildings while lending the more
common and respectful ideas to the public sphere (e.g. the golden rule). We
are reminded of these insightful and prophetic words of Jefferson about how
sects when feeble demand equality and when in power exercise discrimination
and violence.
The unfolding popular nonviolent resistance in the Arab world reminds us of
the power of such movements. We Palestinians have engaged in such
nonviolent struggle for over 130 years which I summarize in my recent book.
People can be very innovative in these nonviolent struggles. Palestinian
women thus were the first to use cars in mass demonstrations: 120 cars were
gathered and moved beeping their horns in a parade down the old city streets
of Jerusalem in October 1929, a spectacle at that time. When flying the
Palestinian flag was punishable by 9 months in jail, Palestinians hung
laundry in the colors of the flag. In 1988, Palestinians in my village
founded the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People which
brought internationals and even Israelis to nonviolently break the siege and
curfew laid on our town during the tax revolt. There were so many inspiring
and innovative acts of nonviolent resistance that were successful in so many
ways.
The key to understanding the power of these movements is to just look at the
history of how we got women’s right to vote, civil rights, the 40-hour work
week, ending the war on Vietnam, ending support for apartheid South Africa,
and many others. It is when people shed their fears, fears usually stoked
by those elites in authority, that they realize that nothing can stop as as
individuals working together nonviolently. In the 1960s civil rights
movement, the saying was “free your mind and your ass will follow”. Once we
free our minds, nothing can stop us. That is what Egyptians, Tunisian, and
others have realized. That is what we Palestinians of various religions
realized. That is what humanity is realizing. Howard Zinn said, you can’t
be neutral on a moving train. The choice before us as individuals and as
societies has always been between fear and courage, between hate and love,
violence and popular resistance to violence. Join us in Palestine July
8-16 for a week of activism and peace building. Thank you.
Reminder: Rallies in NYC and San Francisco April 9 and 10 (see above)
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
(still on the road in California but aching to come home to Palestine and be
with all who are suffering loss/bereavement).
http://qumsiyeh.org
Monday, April 04, 2011
The daily face of Israeli fascism: Israeli occupation forces stormed Bil'in
At 01 am 04.04.2011, the army and police entered Bil’in and entered the house of Ali Ibrahim Burnat. They searched his house thoroughly inside and outside for about 40 minutes. According to witnesses they were looking for internationals who they assumed were living in Burnat’s house. After finishing the raid they moved on to the “Friends of Freedom and Justice” office located nearby Burnat’s house, and were searching the area around. It is not known what they were looking for there. The army and police then retreated and exited through the gate in the Wall. Nobody was injured or arrested.
After half an hour the same forces entered the village again, and this time they went to Khamis Abu Rahma’s house. When the owner saw army and police outside his house he went to open the door to avoid having his door broken – which normally is the routine if the door is not open. Abu Rahma was then body searched and his ID was taken, then he was questioned about who was residing in his house. Again they were interested in internationals, although they could not find any. The army and police then searched the house and the garden, including the garbage and inside cars located nearby. The second raid lasted for about 30 minutes, and did also not result in any arrests.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=217897778224593&set=a.102244519789920.5280.1000 00131186902&theater
http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=350&Itemid= 1
Iyad Burnat
Bil'in Popular committee
0598403676
After half an hour the same forces entered the village again, and this time they went to Khamis Abu Rahma’s house. When the owner saw army and police outside his house he went to open the door to avoid having his door broken – which normally is the routine if the door is not open. Abu Rahma was then body searched and his ID was taken, then he was questioned about who was residing in his house. Again they were interested in internationals, although they could not find any. The army and police then searched the house and the garden, including the garbage and inside cars located nearby. The second raid lasted for about 30 minutes, and did also not result in any arrests.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=217897778224593&set=a.102244519789920.5280.1000 00131186902&theater
http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=350&Itemid= 1
Iyad Burnat
Bil'in Popular committee
0598403676
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Israeli's want Goldstone's report scrapped in another attempt to rewrite their Zionist murders of innocents
I haven't posted the news reports coming in about Goldstone's recanting his report and Israelis seizing the opportunity to try to have that report eliminated from history because it's a really vile ugly action by both parties, Israelis and Goldstone. Also I do suspect there's been some very very serious arm-twisting by Zionist Jews to get Jewish Judge Richard Goldstone's to recant.
But here's the reality: Gaza happened and Israelis targeted civilians and used phosphorus bombs that killed and maimed hundreds of innocent people, children always among the victims of Zionist aggression.
Never Forget!
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About Me
- Steve Lewis
- Prophesy bearer for four religious traditions, revealer of Christ's Sword, revealer of Josephine bearing the Spirit of Christ, revealer of the identity of God, revealer of the Celestial Torah astro-theological code within the Bible. Celestial Torah Christian Theologian, Climax Civilization theorist and activist, Eco-Village Organizer, Master Psychedelic Artist, Inventor of the Next Big Thing in wearable tech, and always your Prophet-At-Large.