James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute:
Forty years of Israeli occupation, destruction and humiliation have failed to quash the dignity and fortitude of the Palestinian people.
My work also brought me into contact with some extraordinary Israeli human rights activists. Two who stood out as most significant were Felicia Langer and Israel Shahak. The latter, who as a child was interned in the Nazi camp at Bergen- Belsen, chaired the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights. His motto was "Equal rights for every human being", and he lived it, letting no injustice pass. A brilliant researcher and analyst, and a tireless advocate, he devoted himself to opposing hypocrisy and abuse wherever he found it, whether from Israel or among the Arabs.
Derided by her detractors as a communist, Langer was an attorney and a passionate defender of Palestinian victims of Israeli land theft, home demolition and political repression. Each week she would write to me in elegant prose, telling me of her new cases and appealing for support. "Your letters from the US," she would say, "can hold back the hand of the torturer, and rein-in the bulldozers."
Over the years, I interviewed so many men and women who had suffered unimaginable horrors under the hand of occupation authorities. There were victims of crude torture whose stories moved me to tears. There were those whose homes had been demolished in acts of collective punishment, or whose centuries-old orchards had been uprooted to make way for settlements. There were young men hardened by years of imprisonment without charge and without trial. And there were men and women, young and old, who told stories of the indignity of countless acts of humiliation visited upon them by daily life under the thumb of military colonialism.
What remains with me from all of these encounters was the lack of anger. What these Palestinians wanted most was to return to a normal life and to secure the right to live as free people to rebuild Palestine.
Read the whole article, Palestine Chronicle usually let's me print their whole articles, but I did not want to wait to write this diary:
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/...
They are asking for support:
We are entering our second week of The Palestine Chronicle (www.palestinechronicle.com) appeal which calls for your support in keeping our independent online newspaper alive. We want to thank all those who have already responded and made a donation, while stressing the importance for this momentum to continue until we have raised the necessary funds to continue our work. Every contribution will allow the chronicle to remain freely available to all readers and to build its links with media outlets around the world.
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/...
The choices made by Israel, the US, PLO, and Hamas will influence millions of people. After a year and a half of escalating warfare, I can only hope that we will consider opening up a dialog with Hamas, if only to stop this humanitarian crisis.
Why have Palestinians turned away from Fatah, Abbas did nothing to stop corruption, but surrounded himself with Arafat cronies:
Instead of ending the anarchy and lawlessness, he promoted notorious warlords, and for the first time, the number of Palestinians killed in internal fighting under Abbas was higher than those killed by Israel. And instead of dismantling gangs and militias, whose members had long been terrorizing the Palestinian public, Abbas rewarded many of them by granting them "military" ranks and placing them on his payroll.
Many voters who went to the ballot boxes in January 2006 wanted to punish Abbas and his Fatah faction for having failed to improve their living conditions on all fronts.
That's why they voted for Hamas. Even some Christians are said to have cast their ballots for Hamas. The name of the game back then was: Let's punish these Fatah thieves and thugs who have been stealing our money and terrorizing us for so many years.
ON THE eve of the 2006 election, Hamas knew exactly what the Palestinians wanted: an end to financial corruption and good governance. That's why Hamas ran under the banner of Change and Reform. That's also why Hamas put on its list of candidates doctors, university professors, engineers, pharmacists and lawyers. By contrast, the Fatah list did not come up with any new faces.
http://www.jpost.com/...
Oh....and about that Israeli Boycott....wouldn't you know!
Report: Jews behind campaign to boycott Israel
Jewish Chronicle investigation reveals Jewish, Israeli academics justify their activity as part of struggle for Palestinian rights, ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories
Many of the key players in the escalating British campaign to boycott Israel are Jewish or Israeli, the Jewish Chronicle revealed in an investigation published Thursday.
According to the investigation, the Jewish academics justify their stance as part of the struggle for Palestinian rights and ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
http://www.ynetnews.com/...
The struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination cross many boundaries!