tagged w/ Illegal Settlements
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On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to jump-start the Mideast peace process. It remains to be seen whether this will be a substantive meeting or a photo opportunity, but one thing is clear: the question of what to do with the millions of Palestinian refugees is still on the backburner.
The refugees have been demanding to return to their original homes in what is now Israel for the past 61 years, but Tel Aviv insists that will never happen, because it would mean the end of the Jewish majority in the country.
In the meantime, the 58 refugee camps spread throughout the region are constant reminders that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is far from resolved.
In New York for a special series of programmes as world leaders gather for the UN general assembly Riz talks to the head of the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd.On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud... more
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Israeli settlement construction, including "natural growth," obstacle to a two-state solution.
After U.S. President Obama’s Cairo address to the Muslim World, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state under what’s called the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But access to water and land, amongst other issues raise serious questions about the feasibility of a Palestinian state, considering that more than half of the West Bank is already annexed by Israeli outposts and settlements.Israeli settlement construction, including "natural growth," obstacle to a two-state... more
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Petition to the Government of Israel and the United States Congress:In the words of President Obama, just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. We do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlements in the West Bank. They violate previous agreements and undermine efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.
President Obama's speech in Egypt yesterday was a stunning step toward achieving Middle East peace. His first new move: to press Israel's right-wing government to stop their self-destructive policy of building settlements on Palestinian land.
But Obama needs help from around the world to face down the powerful opposition already mobilising against him.
Let's raise a massive global chorus immediately to support Obama’s statement that the settlements in occupied territory must stop, by joining our voices to a petition based on his very own words.
Quotes from US President Barack Obama's Cairo speech:
- "I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors."
- "Just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop."
Add your name for peace now! And pass this to the people of the world.
Please sign the petition at the link...thank you!Petition to the Government of Israel and the United States Congress:In the words of... more
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President of UN General Assembly urges Israel to be recognized as an Apartheid state.
UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto referred to Israel as an Apartheid state. Phyllis Bennis analyzes the significance of this identification as compared to South African apartheid and the popular resistance struggles worldwide that helped end it. Israeli apartheid is built into a system of roads, walls, and fences which create segregation of Palestinians and Jews both inside the West Bank and between the West Bank and Israel. Gazan Palestinians are separated from Israel and West Bank Palestinians by the siege imposed by Israel after the election of Hamas. Bennis analyses the validity of the term 'apartheid' in the case of Israel and the proposed peace plan many Arab states have presented as a possible solution.
Phyllis Bennis is a Senior Analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. She is the author of Before and After: US Foreign Policy and the September 11 Crisis and Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power.
Her newest book Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer will be available in September 2008.President of UN General Assembly urges Israel to be recognized as an Apartheid state.... more
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Star of the first film ever to be written and directed by a Palestinian woman speaks on Palestine.
Suheir Hammad, poet and star of "Salt of This Sea" Speaks on the movie, which premiers at the Toronto Palestine Film Festival. She talks on the various worlds within Israel/Palestine and on the experience of access, segregation, and privilege.
Suheir Hammad is a Palestinian-American poet, author and political activist. Born to refugee parents in Amman, Jordan, Hammad has spent the majority of her life in Brooklyn, New York City. World renowned for her spoken word and written poetry, Hammad has won multiple awards. Her works include Born Palestinian, Born Black, Drops of This Story, and Zaatar Diva. Hammad is also the star of Salt of This Sea, the first film ever to be written and directed by a Palestinian Woman (Annemarie Jacir).
See film trailer at: http://current.com/items/89455839_salt_of_this_sea_trailer
Related Story:
http://current.com/items/89556269/poetry_for_palestine.htmStar of the first film ever to be written and directed by a Palestinian woman speaks... more
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Palestinian residents of the Al-Mazra’a ash Sharqiya village dismantle roadblock as symbol of resistance.
As Palestinian villagers decide to take dismantling the Israeli occupation into their own hands, the Real News Network's Lia Tarachansky speaks to Jesse Rosenfeld on segregation and the West Bank. Checkpoints and roadblocks play a key role in separating Palestinians from Israelis and Israeli appropriated areas, from commercial areas, and from each other. Since the beginning of the second Intifadah in September 2000 the number of checkpoints in the West Bank increased to over 500. In an act of resistance, the International Solidarity Movement organized a symbolic action of dismantling four roadblocks segregating four villages from each other. Hours after the protest Israeli bulldozers replaced two. This action comes days after former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told in a Yediot Ahronot interview he believes Israel must withdraw from most of the Occupied Palesitian Territories.
Jesse Rosenfeld is a Canadian freelance journalist who has been based in Ramallah since 2007. A former news editor at the McGill Daily and a founding editor of the Montreal Magazine Siafu, Rosenfeld has written for NOW Magazine, The Montreal Mirror, THIS Magazine and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
Palestinian residents of the Al-Mazra’a ash Sharqiya village dismantle roadblock as... more
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Olmert admits in interview Israel must withdraw from Occupied Palestinian Territories if it wants peace.
Ehud Olmert passes leadership of the Kadima Party to Tzipi Livni and leaves a challenging legacy. In comments he made during an interview with Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Olmert admits Israel must withdraw from areas of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and even the Golan Heights, an area at the center of the Israeli-Syrian dispute.
Jesse Rosenfeld is a Canadian freelance journalist who has been based in Ramallah since 2007. A former news editor at the McGill Daily and a founding editor of the Montreal Magazine Siafu, Rosenfeld has written for NOW Magazine, The Montreal Mirror, THIS Magazine and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
Olmert admits in interview Israel must withdraw from Occupied Palestinian Territories... more
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