A New National Park in Israel

Today, December 29, 2012, Israel declared a new national park.  Interestingly enough, as with most of the parks in Israel, this park is complete with “historical ruins,” including a lovely old stone church.  Where do they get the land for national parks when Historical Palestine is about the size of Massachusetts, and is home to two nations?  The simple answer is, the land came from the same source as all of the land in Israel—it is land that belongs to Palestinians.  The land for this park once hosted a thriving village, called Biram.  The residents of the village were forced out by the Israeli army in 1949 and were not allowed back, in spite of a 1951 Supreme Court decision upholding their right to return. (http://www.facebook.com/welcometopalestine)

 Unfortunately, this is just the latest of the national parks that Israel has established at the expense of prior residents.  Canada Park, a centerpiece of the national park system, was established at the expense of three Palestinian villages.

The Wikipedia entry for Canada Park reads as follows:

Canada Park (Hebrew: פארק קנדה, Arabic:كندا حديقة) (also Ayalon Park)^[1] is a national park stretching over 7,000 dunams, mostly in the West Bank, with a portion in the region that was a no man's land before 1967 and incorporated into Israel in 1967.^[2] It is maintained by the Jewish National Fund of Canada. Canada Park is located west of Jerusalem, to the north of Highway 1 (Tel Aviv - Jerusalem), between the Latrun intersection and Sha'ar HaGai.^[3] The park attracts some 300,000 visitors annually.  Canada Park ... is filled with wooded areas, walking trails, water features and archaeological sites. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Park)

Although Wikipedia says that the park is “mostly in the West Bank,” it does not mention that before Israel captured that land during the 1967 war, the land was the site of the Palestinian villages of Imwas, Yalu, and Beit Nuba.  The people who lived on this land for generations are now refugees.

According to Eitan Bronstein, director of Zochrot (Remembering), 86 Palestinian villages lie buried under Jewish National Fund parks. A further 400 destroyed villages had their lands passed on to exclusively Jewish communities.  Zochrot is trying to educate people to the hidden history behind the establishment of the national parks in Israel.  http://electronicintifada.net/content/canada-park-and-israeli-memoricide/8126

This video shows rare footage of the villages and interviews several people with first-hand knowledge of the destruction of the villages.

A Starburst of Christmases

My first year in the Middle East (back when Christmas cards were carved on stone tablets),  I was supremely secure in my ignorance.  I ground my teeth in frustration as my students told me I couldn’t schedule the exam on January 7 because it was Christmas.  They knew that I had just come from the United States, and I’m sure they understood that I had lived in a largely Christian society my entire life.  What were they trying to pull?  Christmas was over—no more need to think about it until next year.

When I arrived at work the next day, there was a note from the head of the department asking me to come to his office as soon as possible.  Needless to say, I was ashamed and embarrassed to be told I had been culturally insensitive, or words to that effect.  The students were telling the truth.  Some of them did celebrate Christmas on January 7, and some celebrated on January 6.  I delayed the exam.  When I tried to reschedule for January 19, I was told once more that it was Christmas.  Surely the students were playing a joke on me.  Well it wasn’t going to work.  Unfortunately, some of us don’t learn from our mistakes.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem celebrates Christmas on January 19.

I knew all about the Protestant Reformation; I knew that Christian sects continue to proliferate.  I also knew that calendars had changed several time since the birth of Christ.  How could I have imagined that the birthplace of Christianity only gave birth to sects that agreed on a single date for an event that happened over two thousand years ago and stayed united through all the calendar changes that happened during that time?

I like to believe it was because I never asked about the differences between the many churches in Palestine.  I focused instead on what they had in common—the belief that man is worthy of salvation, and the eternal hope for peace on earth.

Too bad it doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon.

Palestine Wins World Recognition as a State

On November 29, 2012 Palestine asked to be admitted to the United Nations as the 194^th nation.  In this age of self-determination, where nations go to war under the banner of making the world safe for democracy, Palestine continues to be denied independence. 

In a vote that showed overwhelming support by the nations of the world.  Palestine was granted “non-member observer status.” It was an admission that Palestine is indeed a state.  (All pictures from: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/welcometopalestine)

On the floor of the UN General Assembly, a Palestinian flag was unfurled as the vote showed on the electronic board.  Although this shot does not show it, there were 41 abstentions.  I watched as UN Web TV streamed the proceedings, and picked up a couple of quotes I’d like to share.

         “Palestine is an open wound in the

               conscience of the world.”

                              --Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs

After the vote, the American ambassador to the UN said, “Tomorrow Palestinians will wake up and find that nothing has really changed.”  Almost true.  One of the intangible benefits is being able to stand just a little taller, knowing that most people in the world recognize the injustice that has been done to them.  Celebrations throughout the West Bank were more a sense of satisfaction, and they were even more subdued in Gaza, where thousands have not yet recovered from the latest violent attacks.

This photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org taken from The State of Palestine 194 facebook page, along with another picture showing a young man daring to scale the wall to plant the flag above the picture, shows a crowd in Bethlehem, watching the proceedings projected on the apartheid wall—right next to one of the watchtowers.  At least they found one use for the wall.  As one person commented, "In an honest world...this would be on the front page of every newspaper."

Speaking of the Apartheid Wall, several years ago the UN General Assembly, at the request of [non-state] Palestine, asked for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice concerning the Wall.  The Court condemned it, but it was only an advisory opinion.  Now that the United Nations recognizes Palestine as a state, it can bring suit in the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. 

Watch this space as more develops on this front.

Other articles of interest:  http://www.france24.com/en/20121128-palestinians-face-intense-pressure-not-sue-israel

http://www.palestinestate194.com/index.php/en/

 

Man’s Inhumanity to Man—will it ever end?

 

There is nothing I can say that pictures can’t say better-- 

Nothing I can say that won’t bring tears to my eyes.

 

Gaza is under attack.  Photo story of the events in Gaza http://electronicintifada.net/content/photos-israel-relentlessly-bombs-gaza-west-bank-protests-repressed/11901 

 

Land is constantly being appropriated

and homes destroyed.

 



WILL IT EVER END?

Apartheid—it’s so last century

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an article giving the results of a survey conducted on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.  The original headline for the piece was “Most Israelis support an apartheid regime in Israel,” but a search for it today yielded a headline “Survey: Most Israeli Jews wouldn’t give Palestinians vote if West Bank was annexed.”  Under the new headline was a note that supposedly explained what they now consider a headline which “did not accurately reflect the findings” of the poll.  http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/survey-most-israeli-jews-wouldn-t-give-palestinians-vote-if-west-bank-was-annexed.premium-1.471644?block=true

They didn’t say what they called the situation, if not apartheid. 

“The Palestinian minority in Israel: Systematic Discrimination” is the headline of an article in Qantara.de, a German based website.  http://en.qantara.de/Systematic-Discrimination/19419c497/index.html  The article goes on to say:

The Israeli government and its advocacy groups like to boast of the country's supposed democratic, multicultural way of life. In reality, Palestinians in Israel experience systematic discrimination in such a way that calls into question the validity of the "Jewish and democratic" formulation. By Ben White

It has been received wisdom in the West for decades to see Israel as "the only democracy in the Middle East". In recent times, however, Israeli policies have been subject to increased criticism, particularly in Europe – and specifically in terms of military action in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the territories occupied since 1967.

Unfortunately, criticism does not seem to have any effect on the actions of the Israeli government.  As a recent (October 31, 2012) article posted by Stop the War Coalition in the UK says, “The facts speak for themselves:  Israel is an apartheid state.”  The article has links to official UN documents stating the official definition of apartheid, and gives additional information of facts on the ground that support the headlines. http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/palestine-and-israel/1992-the-facts-speak-for-themselves-israel-is-an-apartheid-state%20

 

Church leaders support Palestine

 

This month 15 prominent church leaders sent Members of Congress a letter in which they spoke of “widespread Israeli human rights violations committed against Palestinians.” They also wrote that “unconditional U.S. military assistance to Israel has contributed to this deterioration, sustaining the conflict and undermining the long-term security interests of both Israelis and Palestinians.”  The full text of the letter can be found at http://www.kairosusa.org/?q=node/55.

The signers of the letter include leaders of denominations including Presbyterians, Methodists, United Church of Christ, and the National Council of Churches (USA), among others.

This historic letter is not an isolated incident.  The support by church leaders of the just cause of the Palestinians has been a little advertised aspect of the conflict for decades.  Another example of such is the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, which includes Christian leaders from many different denominations from many different countries. http://eappi.org/en/home.html

The letter is featured as part of the Peace Not Walls campaign of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls.aspx It is also supported by the Presbyterian Church on their website http://www.theipmn.org/

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has more details on their blog, http://blog.endtheoccupation.org/2012/10/pro-israel-groups-react-to-church.html  The following link has been copied from an article on the subject http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=3295

Whether or not you identify with one of the denominations whose leaders signed the letter, please take a moment right now to thank the church leaders for their important letter to Congress.

 

Pope Benedict XVI, although not a signer of the letter, pledged his support for Palestinian statehood on a visit to Bethlehem in 2009, as documented in the following video.

Russell Tribunal on Palestine, NY, Oct 6-7 2012

The International War Crimes Tribunal is also known as the Russell Tribunal or the Russell-Sartre Tribunal in recognition of the two founding members:  British philosopher, mathematician, and peace-activist Bertram Russell, and Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and playwright.  The original tribunal was convened in November 1966 following the publication of Russell’s book, War Crimes in Vietnam.  The justification stated for the establishment of the tribunal was the following:

“If certain acts and violations of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them.  We are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.”     -- Justice Robert H. Jackson, Chief Prosecutor, Nuremberg War Crimes Trials Further tribunals were set up in later years following the same model.  The most recent Russell Tribunal is the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. First Session: Barcelona, March 2010 – to consider the complicities and omissions of the European Union and its member states in the Palestinian-Israel crisis. Second Session: London, November 2010 – to examine international corporate issues in Israel and human rights law. Third Session: Cape Town, November 2011 – to examine Israeli practices against the Palestinian people in light of the prohibition on apartheid under international law. Fourth Session: New York, October 6 – 7, 2012 focused on “US Complicity and UN Failings in Dealing with Israel’s Violations of International Law Toward the Palestinian People.” Why is this important?  The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (or any of the other Russell Tribunals) have no legal force behind their findings.  They cannot pass sentence on miscreants; they cannot enforce punishment.  What they accomplish is to let the world know that just because crimes are not punished or even mentioned in the mainstream media of the U.S. does not mean they have gone unnoticed.  People all over the world are aware of the injustice of what is being done to the Palestinian people, and public opinion is growing among the citizens of the world—both great and small.  Noam Chomsky explains the situation in an articulate statement in his YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUl9LI_c8rg For a ringing endorsement of the Tribunal from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Alice Walker, see the YouTube Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCYpFv_FljE  More information about the New York session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine can be found at http://mondoweiss.net/2012/10/sold-out-russell-tribunal-on-palestine-kicks-off-in-new-york.html where the below video originated. More information about all sessions of the Russsell Tribunal on Palestine at http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/ More information about the history of Russell Tribunals can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tribunal

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewed a native American who spoke at the Tribunal, comparing the current situation in Palestine with the terrible acts that the United States had inflicted on him personally and his people.  A clip of the broadcast can be seen on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg6kSeq77kA  I found the interview very touching on a human level.  The entire interview can be found on the Democracy Now website at:  http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/9/stream

Watch live streaming video from http://mondoweiss.net/2012/10/sold-out-russell-tribunal-on-palestine-kicks-off-in-new-york.html