Land Theft Continues

Can we really call this a "separation fence?"


Settler theft of Palestinian land continues with the support of the Supreme Planning Council in Israel despite the efforts of the local people and the Israeli peace and human rights groups. The village of Bil‘in in the West Bank is the site of such theft currently. The Apartheid Wall (AKA "separation barrier" in more politically correct circles), is used as a security pretext to annex more Palestinian land to Israeli settlements. That is one way of legitimizing land theft for colonial purposes.

Time to Dump the Republican and Democratic Parties

President Bush's proposed 2008 budget is characteristic of what is ailing this expanding empire. With permanent tax cuts to the wealthy, increasing military spending, and cuts in social programs, the prospect looks dismal for the working people of this nation.

The Democrats have enabled this administration and the ones before to slash benefits to those who need it the most. The recent minimum wage increase does little to alleviate the struggle of the poor. The purchasing power of our wages is not what it used to be 30 years ago. Forty-seven million people and rising continue to be without health insurance and, neither the Republicans not the Democrats seem to be in a hurry to change the status quo.

It is with the help of the Democrats that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were started. It is with their help that our civil liberties are being eroded. It is with their help that the people of the Middle East continue to face brutal occupations and murder.

Nothing tangible has yet emerged from this new government. Maybe it is time to think in new paradigms that move us away from forms of labor that support mega corporations, mass slaughter, and poverty.

Our population is getting older. There will be fewer younger people who will be able to finance the social and military burdens of this empire. The bipartisan system has proven to be nothing more than politically appealing and misleading. It would be wise to look inside the imperial budget and get a glimpse of where our children are headed.

Is it time for something different?

Children's Wellbeing: How the Richest Nations Care for Their Most Vulnerable

The true measure of a nation’s standing is how well it attends to its children – their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialization, and their sense of being loved, valued, and included in the families and societies into which they are born.

The recent Innocenti Report Card published in 2007 by UNICEF on the status of children in the wealthiest countries has shown one stark fact; that wealth is not an indicator of the well-being of children.

Twenty-one of the wealthiest nations were studied using 6 measurable dimensions: 1) material well-being, 2) health and safety, 3) educational well-being, 4) family and peer relationships, 5) behaviors and risks, and 6) subjective well-being.

1) Material well-being: three components were measured under this one; relative income poverty, households without jobs, and reported deprivation. US rank=15/21, well below the average.

2) Health and safety: 3 components were measured; health at age 0-1, preventative health services, and safety. US rank=21/21, the worst with high accidental death rates for children and infants.

3) Educational wellbeing: 3 components were measured; school achievement at age 15, beyond basics, and the transition to employment. 11/21.

4) Relationships: 3 components were measured: family structure, family relationships, and peer relationships. US rank=20/21.

5) Behaviors and risks: 3 components were measured: health behaviors, risk behaviors, and experience of violence. US rank 20/21.

6) Subjective wellbeing: 3 components; health, school life, and personal wellbeing. Information for overall US ranking is not available.

The study highlights the fact that there is serious child neglect in the richest countries. In a decade where we are spending billions of dollars every month to finance wars and to give tax breaks to large corporations, it is apparent that children are not benefiting from the wealth we have.

Do we need to change our moral framework of thinking to place the rights of the most vulnerable human beings above the bottom line? Should we advocate for the welfare of our children along human rights lines by making it illegal and immoral to neglect their overall wellbeing because we are too busy working, not parenting, and fighting wars that serve no constructive purpose? Can we make access to proper education, health care, and fulfilling life opportunities available in a well-planned and future oriented manner?

Children are the future. They are our collective investment as a humanity. How well we treat them and nurture their best qualities will determine our fate as a species.

For the full report: Child Poverty in Perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries. A comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children and adolescents in the economically advanced nations

UNICEF

We Do Not Purchase Our Oil from Countries whose Regimes or Populations are Hostile to the United States

We Do Not Purchase Our Oil from Countries whose Regimes or Populations are Hostile to the United States

"Non Middle East countries whose "regimes or populations" American nationalists view as hostile to the United States, such as Venezuela are not targeted by the initiative." Ali Abunimah.

The Power of Symbols in Spreading Hate

"The TFO logo features the Twin Towers and an outline of the Pentagon with the flight numbers of the aircraft that were crashed into them by hijackers on September 11, 2001.......Other TFO propaganda features the image of Osama Bin Laden with his face crossed out, reinforcing the message that the entire population of the Middle East should be viewed as indistinguishable from Bin Laden. In short, the Terror Free Oil Initiative is as blatantly racist as somebody opening a "Usury Free Bank" and proclaiming "We don't lend Jewish money."' Ali Abunimah.

"Terror-Free Oil:" Another Front for Hatred

This piece by Ali Abunimah profiles one of the ways that the Zionist lobby is using "politically correct" avenues to further the alienation of the American public from Muslims or the people of the Middle East by vilifying all aspects of their lives. Symbolism and language are powerful tools and weapons that can create alternate realities in our minds and help shape how we view others. It is very apparent that most things Muslim or Middle Eastern automatically conjure up an image of "terror." This latest charade by the Terror Free Initiative is one to pay attention to and examine before any decisions are made.

Marilyn.

Media fall for pro-Israel hate group's "Terror Free Oil"
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 13 February 2007

In recent days, National Public Radio and the BBC have been among the countless media outlets to give prominent publicity to an organization calling itself "Terror Free Oil," (TFO) which claims to have established gasoline filling stations in several US cities, that do not sell oil from the Middle East.

Much of the coverage has read like a press release for the organization, or has treated it as a cute feature story, accepting at face value the claims made by its spokesman. The fundamentally racist nature of the claims TFO makes, and the long history of anti-Muslim statements and activities of its founder have been totally ignored. Continue......

The Burdens of Empire: The Indefinite Global War

The onward march to war across the Middle East continues to find momentum in the bipartisan mockery of a U.S. government and in the biblically archaic Israeli Knesset. The American and Israeli public have been "dumbed down." The seduction of war has taken a hold through the glorified excursions of U.S. soldiers in their daily and nightly "missions" into the sanctity of people's homes in Iraq and Afghanistan courtesy of Hollywood and the "Military Channel." We have been desensitized to the unknown and grotesquely large numbers of civilian casualties. We are in the process of getting desensitized to the numbers of U.S. casualties too. Why feel left out? After all, we have become accustomed to the daily killing of Palestinian children in their own homes and territory by the "most moral army in the world." They probably deserved it anyway because they live in the same neighborhoods as the "terrorists."

All eyes are on Iran now. Will Iran be the next excursion in the Israeli/Neo Con game of perpetual war? Only time will tell. Meanwhile, the drums of war are beating in Washington, His Mighty Highness, our Commander in Chief is singling Iran out in his State of the Union addresses, Iranian diplomats are being kidnapped, and every ill that has befallen the Middle East from Pakistan to Lebanon is the fault of Iran. So, what awaits the world beyond a possible war on Iran?

And another civilization may bite the dust and send humanity one step closer into another dark age. But that is part of the perpetual war scheme; the continuous threat provides for a permanent "state of war."


Marilyn

War Refugees: Hidden in Plain Sight

Among the many challenges facing the people of the Middle East are the constant wars that have caused millions to become refugees, either in their own countries or in other countries in the Middle East and around the world. Some exist in limbo between two countries.

The US invasion and occupation of Iraq and the ensuing violence that resulted since 2003, have forced almost 2 million Iraqis to flee, 1 million of whom are currently residing in Syria, one of the Arab countries with the least restrictive entry laws. It is worth remembering that Syria also accepted thousands of Lebanese civilians during the Israeli brutal assault on Lebanon and its citizens. Many Iraqis are also seeking refuge in the Kurdish areas in the north of their country.

The nations that caused this tragedy in the first place, mainly the US and its allies, have done little to compensate the countries that have accepted fleeing civilians without condition and who are providing much needed housing, schooling for the children, healthcare and jobs.

We live in a small world indeed. We have to remember that every time a war is waged on a country, the nationals of the invaded country will seek refuge with other nations. The cultural landscape of the world attests to that fact. We are becoming a species of refugees from all the violence that we are inflicting on each other.

At least we have THAT in common.

Marilyn.

By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press writer
http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2007/02/news02-05-07-03.shtml

Syria Struggles with Iraqi Refugees

DAMASCUS, Syria — Decades after the Middle East was hit by the mass uprooting of Palestinians, it is again struggling with a gigantic refugee problem — this time from Iraq. The exodus — one million to neighboring Syria alone, according to the U.N. — is another unforeseen byproduct of the 2003 Iraq invasion. When it might peak, nobody knows, but if it continues at its present rate, the consequences for the region would be profound.

Iraqis now make up more than 5 percent of Syria’s population, the U.N. refugee agency says. Jordan says its 700,000 Iraqis have swollen its population by 12 percent, and its officials say they have already moved to cut off the flow. So has Egypt, with 130,000 Iraqi newcomers. But Syria’s doors remain open and the new arrivals have transformed some Damascus neighborhoods to such an extent that Iraqi-accented Arabic is all that’s heard.

In the capital’s Jarramana suburb, restaurants advertise Iraqi dishes, along with belly dancers and singers imported from Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. Many store windows advertise apartments and houses for rent or sale. In al-Sayda Zeinab, another Damascus suburb, Iraqis crowd into the marble-tiled plaza of a Shiite mosque, far outnumbering Iranian pilgrims.

Syria is poor and lacking in jobs, and many Syrians grumble about the newcomers pushing up the cost of food and housing. The U.N. refugee agency says it is struggling to help the newcomers, many of whom are poor and running out of the meager funds they brought.

New York-based Human Rights Watch accuses the United States of doing too little, saying it should “significantly” increase the number of Iraqi refugees it will resettle this year and contribute generously to the U.N. appeal for funds to cope with the crisis. “Washington is spending about $2 billion per week on the war in Iraq, but has barely begun to address the human fallout from the war,” said Bill Frelick, Human Rights Watch’s refugee policy director.

The U.S. resettled several hundred Iraqis in 2006, according to the U.N. agency, whose formal title, UNHCR, stands for U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. It wants Washington to take up to 20,000 in 2007.

Egypt and Jordan have reported only minor security frictions with the refugees, but both say their fear of importing Iraq’s violence forces them to clamp down.Jordanian officials point to the killing of 60 people in 2005, when Iraqi suicide bombers linked to al-Qaida blew themselves up in three hotels in Jordan’s capital, Amman.

Human Rights Watch says Jordan refuses entry to Iraqi men between ages 17 and 35. Government officials acknowledge restrictions on the entry of Iraqis, but won’t give specifics. The Iraqi presence in Jordan is a “burden,” Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Judeh said. Jordan, he said, wants an international conference to discuss compensation for Arab nations hosting fleeing Iraqis.

Syria, population 18 million, is the refuge of choice primarily because of its relaxed entry regulations for Arabs, the relatively low cost of living and availability of schools and health care. President Bashar Assad’s government is reluctant to detail the costs. “There is indeed a burden, but Syria doesn’t complain to anyone and is not asking anyone for help,” Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa told reporters in Damascus in January.

Still, the impact is felt. Housing prices in the Damascus area have soared by up to 300 percent. Syrians also complain about higher food prices and overcrowding at some schools, which have reportedly admitted up to 28,000 Iraqi children. In areas where Iraqis have settled, residents say some classes have swollen from 30 pupils to 50.

The Damascus office of the UNHCR says about 40,000 Iraqis arrive monthly. They can stay for six months, then must leave and renew the visa process from scratch. The quickest way is a short trip to neighboring Lebanon, but at $20 a person or more, the sightseeing packages are too costly for the poor.Still, most Iraqis in Syria say they have no serious complaints about their life in exile, and have made a home away from home.

Some have settled in Palestinian refugee camps, where rents are lower, joining tens of thousands of Palestinians who came to Syria as refugees following the 1948 creation of Israel and the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.Iraqis also have set up a private university outside the capital, with Iraqi lecturers and a mostly Iraqi student body — a reflection of Iraq’s war-driven brain drain.Two Damascus theaters are showing Iraqi plays, complete with star actors-in-exile. “Homesick,” a slapstick comedy set in the offices of an imaginary Iraqi satellite TV channel based in Syria, has drawn near sellout crowds since opening Dec. 7. “My homeland is like a paradise even if it resembles hell,” blares a song from the theater’s speakers.

For $5 a ticket, Iraqis who have fled suicide bombings, death squads, gunbattles, unemployment and violent crime laugh hysterically as comedians Majid Yassin and Nahi Mahdi joke about Baghdad’s fuel shortages and power outages. “It is not a good life, but at least we are safe here,” said Ibrahim Hamad, a former Iraqi army officer who came to Syria eight months ago with his wife and three children from Anbar province, the heartland of Iraq’s Sunni-led insurgency.“No bombs, no shootings, no Americans, no militiamen and no power cuts,” he said. Hamad is not entitled to an army pension because he was an active member of Saddam’s now-outlawed Baath party. The family lives on the $250 a month he collects from tenants living in his central Baghdad apartment, and from dabbling in cross-border commerce. The promise of a well-paid job in a business run by relatives in the Persian Gulf city of Dubai keeps his hopes up.

The United States and Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government accuse Syria of harboring leaders of Iraq’s Sunni-led insurgency — particularly former Baath Party officials — and allowing them to move back and forth across the border with Iraq. Among the Iraqis in Syria are some 300,000 Shiites, but there have been no reports of Iraq’s Sunni-Shiite tensions spilling over into Syria. The UNHCR is struggling to deal with the flood of Iraqis across the region — and within their homeland. It says some 500,000 fled their homes to other parts of Iraq in 2006 alone, and that the number of internally displaced people could reach 2.3 million — nearly one in ten Iraqis — by the end of 2007.

This month, the Geneva-based agency made an emergency appeal for $60 million to help fleeing Iraqis. “Unremitting violence in Iraq will likely mean continued mass internal and external displacement affecting much of the surrounding region,” it said. Already, its resources in Syria are stretched thin. The waiting time for seeing a UNHCR official is five months, said Laurens Jolles, the UNHCR representative in Syria. He hopes it will drop to one month after his office recruits 10 new staff. “Syria’s generosity is admirable and must be noted,” he said in an interview.But many Iraqi families are running out of money and becoming increasingly dependent on aid from religious and political support groups, he said. Up to 30 percent of young Iraqis aren’t attending school, he added.

Some of the refugees are fortunate enough to find legal work, but Jolles said many more are employed illegally, and vulnerable to exploitation.The Iraqis pose no security threat, “but there are social ills like theft and prostitution,” said Elias Murad, editor-in-chief of the Al-Baath, official newspaper of Syria’s ruling Baath Party.

Saad Hamza Ilwan, a retired primary school teacher from Mahmoudiyah, a particularly dangerous Sunni Arab town south of Baghdad, came to Syria with his wife and three children nearly two years ago. He could only afford a flat in the al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, which is more like a sprawling suburb of Damascus. He sells cellular telephones and phone cards. “Business is slow,” he said as his 10-year-old son, Mohammed, dusted the shelves. “There are five shops selling the same things on this part of the street alone.” He said his children are struggling with a Syrian school system that is more rigorous than Iraq’s. “But the Syrians treat us well,” said Ilwan, who says he fled Iraq four months after U.S. troops stormed his home, arrested two of his brothers and held them for eight months.

In al-Yarmouk, the men spend their evenings smoking and drinking sweet black tea while swapping stories of conditions at home learned from telephone conversations with relatives and friends in Iraq. Mohammed, the 10-year-old, huddles by an electrical heater to fend off the cold and declares himself homesick. “I don’t like Damascus,” he says, drawing protests from his father. “I want to be back in my school in Iraq.”

The Laws of the State versus the Edicts of Religion

It seems that in an age where the rule of law is being challenged on more than one level across the globe and where many of the challenges are coming from the same people who enforce those laws, some are turning to an age old strategy: When all else fails, go to an even higher authority: God.

It is common practice in societies where religious identity is paramount that religious edicts (fatwas) hold a far more important place.

The rise of religious identity across the globe, and more specifically in the Middle East, is a symptom of the imperial and colonial policies of the West and the newly emergent globalization phenomenon. The dehumanizing effects of both have contributed to the disenchantment of whole populations whose attempts at “democracy,” “nationalism,” and “freedom,” were hampered by the far-reaching tentacles of the modern day empires of the USSR, Britain, France, Israel, the United States, China, and Japan. That, coupled with the oppression of large segments of Muslims by their own rulers, with the help of the Western powers, have driven many towards a more appealing and what is perceived as a more dignified sense of belonging and worth: religion.

In light of the deteriorating political situation in Lebanon (a fact aggravated by U.S. and Israeli meddling to eradicate any opposition to the current government), and in light of the recent clashes and deaths among college students along sectarian lines, fatwas were issued by both Sunni and Shi’a clerics making it forbidden (haraam) to kill other Muslims and Lebanese nationals (such killing is already forbidden under criminal law, of course). In this case, the fatwas were designed to reinforce current criminal law when emotional outbursts are high and the potential for large scale violence is imminent.

Religious fatwas have had their spot in the limelight in recent years, especially when mass produced by politically ambitious and occasionally delusional self-appointed wannabe religious legal experts. However, it is fair to say that they have been a life saver relative to the issues they were designed to address, mainly the ambiguous cases that do not have a precedent in religious or other law. Fatwas are not meant to address matters that have already been ruled on by the religion. For example: you cannot devise a fatwa that calls on people to kill others when it is already forbidden to do so in Islam. Fatwas were not designed to be whimsical edicts of personal preference, but well-thought out rulings based on the moral principles of the faith and history from which they derive.

Is this a trend that will continue among the Muslims of the Middle East? Maybe we will reach an age of "religious democracy" where people seek peace and justice through faith based edicts as opposed to national and international laws which do not have a significant compliance rate.

Something to consider in the midst of so-called "democratic principles" that are rammed down people's throats using high tech weapons and torture.

Marilyn.