In this week in history: Filastin news-paper closed by the Ottoman authorities after Zionist complains (1914), bylaws of the "Muslim-Christian Association approved in Jerusalem (1919), First Palestinian Arab Congress opens in Jerusalem (1919), over 100 peaceful demonstrators were gunned down by British forces in Baghdad (1948), over 60,000 Palestinian demonstrated in Nazareth
The conference in Jericho was on changing course; some papers presented were excellent and most comments were exactly on target. I had heard similar comments from Palestinians in exile in the USA, Holland, Belgium, and Italy. But our block is not in diagnosis nor is it in the prognosis but it is in actually in administering the therapy or medicine which might be bitter at first. Everyone talks about creating an alternative political faction to the existing ones, dismantling the Palestinian Authority and returning to the liberation struggle, and/or changing the self-destructive direction of two-states to the winning strategy of one-state advocacy. People are finally ready for these. The question remains: who will do it? It definetly will not come from any of the existing aging leaders who like the limelight and who enjoy the status quo while TALKING (!) about "a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital".
It is precisely the current political landscape that prevents many Palestinians from engaging in rneeded forms of resistance and delay the next wave of revolt (intifada). The therapy has to be administered from the people not benefitting from positions and visibility, especially the younger generation. My suggestion is for the youth to call a meeting, not to study the problem or speak of different solutions, but to implement the known real agenda of change. The paradigm of one state for all its people is generally advocated by most Palestinians and it demands changing concepts of ethno- or religio-centric nation-state to concepts of equal citizinship and application of all human rights (including economic rights). Our struggle against racist ideologies was distracted by the "Oslo accords" but even whether this course was taken in good or bad intentions, that era has clearly ended (thanks to Zionist greed ansd racism). It was actually written in those same accords that it was to last a period of 5 years and it is now 20 years of deception and it is enough.
I am teaching a course this semester in Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle (a subject of my 2004 book "Sharing the Land of Canaan"). The syllabus and reading material maybe interesting for readers of this list. Any input woud be appreciated. http://www.qumsiyeh.org/syllabus/ .
Updated resource (some links expired and were removed): "This year will mark 64 years since the founding of the state of Israel on the ruins of 540 Palestinian villages and towns. As 7 million of the 11 million Palestinians in the world remain refugees or displaced people denied basic human rights, it is more important to debunk myths and lies. I updated this list to now include 64 lies/myths (one for each year)." http://www.qumsiyeh.org/liesandtruths/
Jewish Newspaper Editor: Israel Should Consider Assassinating Obama
(after an uproar about this, the editor decided to apologize. The talk in Israeli media was not that this is impossible to happen but that it should not be said and it is "stupid" to say. Israel ofcourse is well known for its targeted assasinations and bombings including those done via "false flag" operations such as the Lavon Affair when American and British interests were targeted by the Mosad while blaming others. Israel also intentionally targeted the USS Liberty ship to stop its intelligence gathering and claimed it was a mistaken attack)
EuroMediterranean Human Rights Network condemns the attack against Gaza human rights defender Mahmoud AbuRahma http://www.euromedrights.org/en/news-en/emhrn-releases/statements-2012/10940.html
A good article by Mahmoud http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=449852
Cyber-attacks strike Israeli stock exchange, airline, banks
Fellowship for one semester Postdoctoral Study at Columbia: The Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Award in Palestine Studies (deadline 3 February) http://www.columbia.edu/cu/palestine/about/fellowships.html
(Video) Road to Tantura: Tantura is one of dozens of villages in which massacres were committed to drive their inhabitants out in 1948. This is a personal story of a Palestinian http://vimeo.com/34769420
No comments:
Post a Comment