April 28, 2010

"A Middle East Peace That Could Happen (But Won't)"

By Noam Chomsky, HuffingtonPost, April 27, 2010:
The fact that the Israel-Palestine conflict grinds on without resolution might appear to be rather strange. For many of the world’s conflicts, it is difficult even to conjure up a feasible settlement. In this case, it is not only possible, but there is near universal agreement on its basic contours: a two-state settlement along the internationally recognized (pre-June 1967) borders -- with “minor and mutual modifications,” to adopt official U.S. terminology before Washington departed from the international community in the mid-1970s.

The basic principles have been accepted by virtually the entire world, including the Arab states (who go on to call for full normalization of relations), the Organization of Islamic States (including Iran), and relevant non-state actors (including Hamas). A settlement along these lines was first proposed at the U.N. Security Council in January 1976 by the major Arab states. Israel refused to attend the session. The U.S. vetoed the resolution, and did so again in 1980. The record at the General Assembly since is similar.

There was one important and revealing break in U.S.-Israeli rejectionism. After the failed Camp David agreements in 2000, President Clinton recognized that the terms he and Israel had proposed were unacceptable to any Palestinians. That December, he proposed his “parameters”: imprecise, but more forthcoming. He then stated that both sides had accepted the parameters, while expressing reservations.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Taba, Egypt, in January 2001 to resolve the differences and were making considerable progress. In their final press conference, they reported that, with a little more time, they could probably have reached full agreement. Israel called off the negotiations prematurely, however, and official progress then terminated, though informal discussions at a high level continued leading to the Geneva Accord, rejected by Israel and ignored by the U.S.

A good deal has happened since, but a settlement along those lines is still not out of reach -- if, of course, Washington is once again willing to accept it. Unfortunately, there is little sign of that.

Substantial mythology has been created about the entire record, but the basic facts are clear enough and quite well documented.

The U.S. and Israel have been acting in tandem to extend and deepen the occupation. . . . [continued]

April 25, 2010

Presentation on Palestine at Doylestown Presbyterian Church, May 2, 9:45 AM

Doylestown resident Susan Johnson, author of the blog "Palestine: Seeing for Myself" at seeingformyself.blogspot.com, will give a presentation on what she witnessed in her travels to Palestine at the Doylestown Presbyterian Church, Celtic Cross Room, May 2, 9:45 a.m., as part of the "Know Your Neighbor" series.

April 20, 2010

"For Jerusalem, a response to Elie Wiesel"

By Yossi Sarid, Haaretz, April 18, 2010: "For Jerusalem's sake I, like you, will not rest. . . ." [continued]

April 19, 2010

Novel chronicles Palestinian refugee family

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa, reviewed by Maureen Corrigan, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 18, 2010:
Its "off-road" publishing history alone signals that Mornings in Jenin is a debut novel that generates fierce responses.

Susan Abulhawa's tale of four generations of a Palestinian family exiled to the Jenin refugee camp originally was printed in hardcover in 2002 under a more inflammatory title: The Scar of David. The book's small-press publisher went out of business shortly thereafter, but it was rescued from pulping by Bloomsbury Press, which has recently brought out the retitled novel as a paperback original. . . . [continued]

April 13, 2010

"Budrus" premiere in US April 25

http://www.budrusthemovie.com courtesy of http://www.justvision.org

"Finding Palestine's Ghandi in Budrus," by Fadi Elsalameen, HuffingtonPost, June 18, 2010.