Healing Israel/Palestine

Abbas, Netanyahu, & Obama at the UN: Responses from a Palestinian and a Jew

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As we often do in the magazine, the website, and in our emails, here are responses you are unlikely to read or hear or see in the mass media to the President of Palestine Abbas and the Prime Minister of Israel Netanyahu in relationship to what they have been doing at the U.N. Our first respondent is a Palestinian activist in Ramallah, the second a Jewish columnist in NYC. Here is the first response from Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, originally posted on his blog:
Kudos Mr. Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas gave a brilliant speech at the United Nations, getting rounds of applause from most of the representatives. I think it demonstrated clearly and unambiguously that the Palestinian leadership has been “unreasonably reasonable” and has instead seen the hopes of peace and of millions of Palestinians suffering for 63 years dashed on the rock of Israeli expansionist, colonial, and apartheid policies. He explained that Israel has been taking one unilateral action after another each resulting in more pain and suffering for our people. Going to the UN, he explained is putting things back where the problems started (he did not use the last two words but I do).

Healing Israel/Palestine

Obama and UN: Recognize Palestine AND Re-affirm Israel's Right to Exist as a Jewish State

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American diplomats acknowledge that they do not have the votes to prevent the General Assembly of the United Nations from recognizing Palestine and granting it some of the rights of member states. The U.S. can block full membership only by exercising its veto in the Security Council, an act likely to intensify hatred of the U.S. in many countries around the world.

Healing Israel/Palestine

9/11-Inspired Anti-Jewish Conspiratorial Thinking

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My post of a few days ago, “My experience of Sept. 11, 2001,” was a discussion of my emotional state at that time. This follow-up, while also emotional, is meant to be a more analytical reflection. A few years ago, someone misunderstood my point for the following statement, meant not to denigrate what happened on 9/11/2001, but rather to provide some historical perspective and a new measure for grasping the magnitude of the genocide against Jews during World War II:

I made a rough calculation of the number of Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Using the approximate start date of June 22, 1941, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, for its beginning — the Einsatzgruppen began their mass shootings at this time — I calculated that an average of over 29,000 Jews were murdered each week until the war ended on May 8, 1945.

Healing Israel/Palestine

My Experience of Sept. 11, 2001

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Although I’m not a direct survivor, the attack on my hometown hit me hard, one of several traumatic events that disrupted my life within the course of a single year. First, my mother passed away. She died of lymphoma but also had a form of dementia which plagued her for a number of years. Rightly or wrongly, I’m haunted to this day by a feeling that my family and I should have done more for her. In a shocking instance of the personal merging with the political, her death occurred almost exactly as the Second Intifada began in late September 2000.

Gender and Sexuality

Gender Bias in Israel’s Protest Movement

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When I returned from a six-month kibbutz experience in Israel in 1974, I felt the “culture shock” of reentry into American society. What surprised me most was that I suddenly became aware of women driving cars, and that it seemed strange. You see, on the kibbutz where I had been living, only one woman was given permission to drive the kibbutz car, and she was considered a little odd. I had become acculturated to the gender bias of that time and place. Of course, the Israel I knew has progressed in many ways around this issue, but the struggle continues.

Healing Israel/Palestine

The U.N. Will Recognize a Palestinian State and Expose America's Obstructionism

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According to a classified cable obtained by Haaretz, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, has informed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Israel has no chance of preventing the U.N. General Assembly from recognizing Palestine as a state. Prosor’s assessment is consistent with what has been observed for some time: that only a handful of U.N. member states plan to vote against the Palestinian initiative in the General Assembly, with an expected 130-140 countries voting in favor. And among Western nations, only five so far have pledged to vote against recognition of a Palestinian state: Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United States. Of those five countries, which nation stands alone in refusing to consider changing its voting stance if the Palestinians include language indicating a continued commitment to peace talks with Israel in its U.N. bid? The United States.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Thousands Chant in Tel Aviv "Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies" as Israel and Gaza Are Shelled

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On Saturday evening, with rockets falling upon southern Israel and bombs falling on Gaza – with the innocent dying on both sides – approximately 10,000 social justice protesters convened in Tel Aviv for a silent march. The gathering, which intended to both recognize the violence occurring and to remind government officials that social justice reforms cannot be jettisoned with the security situation intensifying, was mostly silent at first, with thousands carrying signs and torches while marching to the sea. However, not long into the march, an Arab-Jewish group (Hadash) began chanting, “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.” The chant was picked up by a large contingent, but it was also met with heated rhetoric, particularly from a group Ami Kaufman in 972 Magazine described as “right-wing racists.” The situation was tense, particularly in the shadow of the tragedy that occurred that afternoon, in which a rocket fired from Gaza hit a home in Beer Sheva, killing one Israeli citizen and injuring many more.

Healing Israel/Palestine

What an Israeli, Palestinian, and Canadian Did on Their Summer Vacation

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[youtube: video=”ne_JawaYY7w”]
Rarely does more than a week or so go by before something arrives in my inbox from Len and Libby Traubman, a couple that has helped lead a Palestinian/Jewish living room dialogue for two decades. And, opening that message always gives me a boost of hope for the world, even in the midst of bad news. Today was no different. They shared links to videos from an organization called Peace it Together. Check out this video and then, read more to learn about what happens when a Palestinian, an Israeli, and a Canadian spend part of their Summer vacation together, peace-building through film-making.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Obama's Words No Longer Matter to Palestinians

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Three years after Obama’s Cairo speech, the Obama administration is now turning its back on the Palestinians, for as the Palestinian Authority prepares to approach the United Nations in September, hoping for recognition of an independent Palestinian state, it is the Obama administration which is pledging to stand in the Palestinians’ way.

Healing Israel/Palestine

As Netanyahu Panics, an Opportunity Emerges in Israel

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The largest protest in Israel’s history overwhelmed the senses on Saturday evening, with over 300,000 citizens – spanning nearly all ages and political affiliations – swarming the country’s streets and squares, the throngs largely united around a host of economic issues. To put this number in perspective, approximately 4 percent of the country’s population took to the streets, which in the United States would equal approximately 12 million. Such numbers clearly have unnerved Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his cabinet. The first response heard from the prime minister’s camp in the wake of the protests was to downplay the numbers, to deny that those counting heads had done an accurate job. Netanyahu’s initial response was not only tone deaf, its reflexiveness revealed just how concerning the protests have become to Israel’s governing class, for downplaying the force of the protests that occurred on Saturday is akin to standing in a burning building and downplaying how hot it is.