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Thursday, March 28, 2024

US State Dept human rights officer latest to resign in Gaza protest: "She [Annelle Sheline] said she saw firsthand how US credibility has degraded... as the [Israel/Gaza]war progressed."

A boy walks with bags of produce as others ride bicycles near a destroyed building in Gaza City [AFP]
By 

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

“The genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians,” United Nations News: Rights expert finds ‘reasonable grounds’ genocide is being committed in Gaza

UN Human Rights Council/Sérine Meradji
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, makes remarks at the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147976 

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  Human Rights

Francesca Albanese was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where she presented her latest report, entitled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’, during an interactive dialogue with Member States.

“Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings,” she said.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.”

Three acts committed 

Citing international law, Ms. Albanese explained that genocide is defined as a specific set of acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. 

“Specifically, Israel has committed three acts of genocide with the requisite intent, causing seriously serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group,” she said.  

Furthermore, “the genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians,” she continued. 

‘A tragedy foretold’ 

“For over 76 years, this process has oppressed the Palestinians as a people in every way imaginable, crushing their inalienable right to self-determination demographically, economically, territorially, culturally and politically.” 

She said the “colonial amnesia of the West has condoned Israel's colonial settler project”, adding that “the world now sees the bitter fruit of the impunity afforded to Israel. This was a tragedy foretold.” 

Ms. Albanese said denial of the reality and the continuation of Israel's impunity and exceptionalism is no longer viable, especially in light of the binding UN Security Council resolution, adopted on Monday, which called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 

Arms embargo and sanctions against Israel 

“I implore Member States to abide by their obligations which start with imposing an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel, and so ensure that the future does not continue to repeat itself,” she concluded. 

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts like Ms. Albanese receive their mandates from the UN Human Rights Council. They are not UN staff and do not receive payment for their work. 

Israel ‘utterly rejects’ report 

Israel did not participate in the dialogue but issued a press release stating that it “utterly rejects” Ms. Albanese’s report, calling it “an obscene inversion of reality”. 

“The very attempt to level the charge of genocide against Israel is an outrageous distortion of the Genocide Convention. It is an attempt to empty the word genocide of its unique force and special meaning; and turn the Convention itself into a tool of terrorists, who have total disdain for life and for the law, against those trying to defend against them,” the release said. 

Israel said its war is against Hamas, not Palestinian civilians. 

“This is a matter of explicit government policy, military directives and procedures. It is no less an expression of Israel’s core values. As stated, our commitment to uphold the law, including our obligations under international humanitarian law, is unwavering.”

‘Barbaric aggression continues’: Palestine Ambassador 

The Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, noted that the report provides the historic context of genocide against the Palestinian people. 

He said Israel “continues its barbaric aggression” and refuses to abide by the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), issued in January, to take provisional measures in order to prevent the crime of genocide. Israel has also refused to abide by UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, including the one adopted on Monday, he added.  

“And this means that all recommendations in the report of the Special Rapporteur shall be implemented, and practical measures should be taken to prevent the export of weapons, to boycott Israel commercially and politically, and to implement mechanisms of accountability,” he said.

Displaced Palestinians walk through the Nour Shams camp in the West Bank.
UNRWA/Mohammed Alsharif
Displaced Palestinians walk through the Nour Shams camp in the West Bank.

 

Israeli settlement expansion 

Separately, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, presented a report on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory during the period from 1 November 2022 to 31 October 2023.

“The reporting period has seen a drastic acceleration, particularly after 7 October 2023, of long-standing trends of discrimination, oppression and violence against Palestinians that accompany Israeli occupation and settlement expansion bringing the West Bank to the brink of catastrophe,” she said.

There are now around 700,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, who live in 300 settlements and outposts, all of which are illegal under international humanitarian law. 

Expansion of existing settlements 

The size of existing Israeli settlements has also expanded markedly, according to the report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR.

Approximately 24,300 housing units within existing Israeli settlements in the West Bank in Area C were advanced or approved during the reporting period - the highest on record since monitoring began in 2017.  

The report observed that policies of the current Israeli Government “appear aligned, to an unprecedented extent, with the goals of the Israeli settler movement to expand long-term control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to steadily integrate this occupied territory into the State of Israel,” Ms. Al-Nashif said.

Transfer of power 

During the reporting period, Israel took steps to transfer administrative powers relating to settlements and land administration from the military authorities to Israeli government offices, whose primary focus is to provide services within the State of Israel.

“The report therefore raises serious concerns that a series of measures, including this transfer of powers to the Israeli civilian officials, could facilitate the annexation of the West Bank in violation of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations,” she said. 

‘Dramatic increase’ in violence 

There was also a dramatic increase in the intensity, severity and regularity of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, accelerating their displacement from their land, in circumstances that may amount to forcible transfer. 

The UN recorded 835 incidents of settler violence in the first nine months of 2023, the highest on record. Between 7 and 31 October 2023, the UN recorded 203 settler attacks against Palestinians and monitored the killing of eight Palestinians by settlers, all by firearms.  

Of the 203 settler attacks, more than a third involved threats with firearms, including shooting. Furthermore, almost half of all incidents between 7 and 31 October involved Israeli forces escorting or actively supporting Israeli settlers while carrying out attacks. 

Blurred lines 

Ms. Al-Nashif said the line between settler violence and State violence has further blurred, including violence with the declared intent to forcibly transfer Palestinians from their land.  She reported that in cases monitored by OHCHR, settlers arrived masked, armed, and sometimes wearing the uniforms of Israeli security forces. 

“They destroyed Palestinians’ tents, solar panels, water pipes and tanks, hurling insults and threatening that, if Palestinians did not leave within 24 hours, they would be killed,” she said.

By the end of the reporting period, Israeli security forces had reportedly handed out some 8,000 weapons to so-called “settlement defence squads” and “regional defence battalions” in the West Bank, she continued. 

“After 7 October, the United Nations human rights office documented cases of settlers wearing full or partial Israeli army uniforms and carrying army rifles, harassing and attacking Palestinians, including shooting at them at point-blank range.” 

Evictions and demolitions 

Israeli authorities also continued to implement eviction and demolition orders against Palestinians based on discriminatory planning policies, laws and practices, including on the grounds that properties lacked building permits.

Ms. Al-Nashif said Israel demolished 917 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, including 210 in East Jerusalem, again one of the fastest rates on record.  As a result, more than 1,000 Palestinians were displaced. 

“It is noteworthy that out of the 210 demolitions in East Jerusalem, 89 were self-demolitions by their owners to avoid paying fines from the Israeli authorities. This epitomizes the coercive environment that the Palestinians live in,” she said. 

The human rights report also documented Israel’s ongoing plan to double the settler population in the Syrian Golan by 2027, which is currently distributed among 35 different settlements.

Beside settlement expansion, commercial activity has been approved, which she said may continue to limit the access of the Syrian population to land and water..

Israel’s attempt to destroy Unrwa is part of its starvation strategy in Gaza

"... Israel’s obstruction flouts the UN security council’s demand that it lift “all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale”. That blockage is a war crime, as the international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan has warned. It also contravenes the international court of justice’s order in its preliminary genocide ruling, which, fueling further Israel’s animosity, relied in part on evidence provided by Unrwa.

Israel also hopes to destroy Unrwa because the government naively believes that Palestinian refugees would then somehow forget that they are Palestinian refugees and stop insisting on a right to return. Many would not exercise that right but others would. Israel denies this right not only for return to Israel within its 1967 borders but also for return to the occupied Palestinian territory – to Palestine..." 

People walk past Unrwa’s damaged Gaza City headquarters on 15 February 2024. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images
READ MORE    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/26/israel-unrwa-palestine

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Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Hate is evil and leads to evil things. Please no more wars and weaponry for Israel.

A rural Palestinian family in Ramallah around the year in 1914
Dear President Biden,

Has Israeli brutality gone far enough yet, for you to realize how wrong Israel has been from the start, wrong in denying full and equal rights to the indigenous non-Jewish people of historic Palestine.

1948 saw the world unite to stop injustice & bigotry, as from the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust a universal promise to humankind was created, carefully crafted to highlight the vital importance of respecting basic Human Rights. 

BUT tragically for all, Zionist propaganda dominates in our mainstream media here in the West, as a very foreign country called Israel seeks to procure as much money and weaponry it can obtain in order to persecute, silence, and destroy Palestinians.

But Palestinians are not stupid, they have not and will not be silenced or destroyed. Yes- Palestinian homes, villages, gardens, orchards, & institutions have been bombed & bulldozed; countless generations of Palestinian prisoners have been tortured; many innocent lives have been lost. Palestinian families have been fragmented & devastated on a personal level. But Palestine lives on gathering strength in the hearts, minds, photos, documents, stories, poems, art & nonviolent activism of a world wide diaspora. The truth will set us free. 

Apartheid Israel does not want peace- it wants all of the "Holy Land" minus indigenous Arabs, except those willing to work as wage slaves for 'The Jewish State'. 

Israel wants war and it wants Americans to hate Arabs and Muslims.  Hate is evil and leads to evil things. Please no more wars and weaponry for Israel.

A just and lasting peace starts with full respect for International Law & The Universal Declaration of Human Rights including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees' inalienable right to return to original homes and lands. 

As our great modern American hero MLK Jr declared in 1963 in his I Have A Dream Speech "Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

1963 Martin Luther King Jr's I Have A Dream speech about equity for all still rings true: "Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children"      https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/i-have-a-dream-speech

Pro-Palestine Activists Protest at the Met, Unfurling a Large Quilt Across Museum’s Stairs

The Catholic community in Gaza continues to show the world an incredible testimony of faith... May their courage be an example to everyone.

Israel Blocks UNWRA Aid as CHILDREN in Gaza STARVE and die, PLUS insult to injury also Blocks Indigenous Palestinian Christians from Jerusalem on Palm Sunday 2024

My published letters from 20 years ago (from my old webpage) ... I am only one- so many have tried, and many many more will continue to try to free Palestine: PEACE & JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL !

Rep. AOC Delivers Major Speech on Looming Famine in Gaza and America's Response to the Crisis

J Street Strongly Opposes Republican Efforts to Gut Palestinian Aid

Gaza is one of the world's most dangerous places to be a woman. Women are subjected to abuse and torture whilst detained by Israel or killed while fleeing.

If you are not careful...

This week Israel seized 800 hectares of Palesitnian land in the [illegally] occupied West Bank, Palestine

"The unbearable cannot become the new normal" Philippe Lazzarini UNWRA Commissioner -General

Why have people taken to video games to express solidarity with Palestine?

NPR: Israeli settlers step up attacks on Palestinian farms, expanding West Bank outposts: "Think if you got into a fight with your neighbor, and your neighbor was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and then all of a sudden, you discover that he's been made chief of police."

“Before the war, Gaza was the greatest open air prison. Today it is the greatest open air graveyard”. EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell

Mosab Abu Toha awarded Overseas Press Club of America's Flora Lewis Award for his essays on Gaza in The New Yorker "with his poet's gift of sparse, measured words, notably absent of vitriol ....

Art for Palestine Challenge #artforpalestinechallenge PLEASE HELP amplify PALESTINE & Palestinian Voices !

The New Yorker: The Children Who Lost Limbs in Gaza More than a thousand children who were injured in the war are now amputees. What do their futures hold?

Arabs remember Mother's Day on Spring Equinox amid Gaza heartbreak: Most countries in the Middle East and North Africa mark 21 March as Mother’s Day, but the day has been overshadowed by the war on Gaza.

CSM story by Taylor Luck Special correspondent: Ramadan peace prevails in Jerusalem as all sides keep extremists at bay.

Bishara Awad, a Palestinian Christian, was just a child when his father was killed by a sniper during the Israeli-Arab war of 1948. Awad's beautiful 2021 book about hope and resilience is a must read

Please don't be an idiot for Israel

What Was Palestine Before the Nakba?

In 1948 Israel could have chosen to include all indigenous Arabs- Christian and Muslim- as part of the process to make a real democracy for all human beings, but Zionists did the opposite by creating a huge refugee crisis.

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?

The UN Mediator for Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, believed that the Palestinians displaced had a right to return to their homes and wrote several UN reports to that effect.

"It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and, indeed, at least offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries."

Bernadotte was assassinated on Friday 17 September 1948 by members of the group Lehi, a Zionist terrorist organization, commonly known in the West as the Stern Gang

 

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world

Pro-Palestine Activists Protest at the Met, Unfurling a Large Quilt Across Museum’s Stairs

The artwork “From Occupation to Liberation” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: Alexa B. Wilkinson

 by Tessa Solomon 
 

A vast quilt calling for Palestinian liberation was unfurled across the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday, making the institution the latest one in New York to be targeted by activists seeking a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Each of the quilt’s squares were rendered in the green, black, and red of the Palestinian flag, and bore an artist’s response to a prompt: “From oppression to liberation, free Palestine.”

According to the artist-led advocacy group Hope in the Art World, 64 artists participated in the creation of 30-by-50-foot quilt, titled From Occupation to Liberation. The squares variably invoked tatreez, a traditional form of Palestinian embroidery; poppies, a national symbol and a plant that is indigenous to Palestine; and Thomas Kilpper’s Jenin Horse (2003), a 16-foot sculpture installed removed by the Israeli military during a raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

The quilt also honored the poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in December. His writings have frequently been invoked by pro-Palestine protestors, most notably the verse, “If I must die/you must live/to tell my story…”

The presentation of the quilt at the museum was realized by a group of autonomous organizers working with the artists. Scattered worldwide, the artists rallied around feelings of solidarity and resistance—which coalesced into Hope in the Art World—and began gathering contributions to the quilt.

One artist who contributed a square and was present at the action told ARTnews: “I worked on putting the quilt together, gathering artists to paint and stitch. It was an act of love, unfurling the quilt felt like alchemy. We must find a way for love to win, artists, dancers, musicians, culture bearers and activists all brought their care and skills together to demand an end to genocide and to show support for Palestinians.”...  READ MORE      https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/pro-palestine-activists-protest-met-stairs-quilt-1234700782/

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Monday, March 25, 2024

The Catholic community in Gaza continues to show the world an incredible testimony of faith... May their courage be an example to everyone.

 




Vatican News

The Catholic community in Gaza continues to show the world an incredible testimony of faith. Today, despite the war and its dangers, the Holy Family Parish celebrated Palm Sunday in the most solemn way.

May their courage be an example to everyone.
 
A blessed Holy Week to us all

Israel Blocks UNWRA Aid as CHILDREN in Gaza STARVE and die, PLUS insult to injury also Blocks Indigenous Palestinian Christians from Jerusalem on Palm Sunday 2024



 

My published letters from 20 years ago (from my old webpage) ... I am only one- so many have tried, and many many more will continue to try to free Palestine: PEACE & JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL !

 

Monday, March 25, 2024

My published letters from 20 years ago (from my old webpage) ... I am only one- so many have tried, and many many more will continue to try to free Palestine: PEACE & JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL !

 

Our words have a way of echoing out into either war or peace....

                                                                         Anne Selden Annab

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A Few of my Published Letters to the Editor


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Patriot News 11-16-03

Broken Promises

Once upon a time, perhaps in 1948, a two state solution made much more sense (news article, Nov 2), but only in complete tandem with the full implementation of United Nations Resolution 194,  from 1948, the Palestinian refugees inalienable right of return to live in peace.

Tragically for all,  time has only compounded the very real pain and suffering of the native Palestinians.

Reach back into the history of broken promises that have done irreparable damage to the Palestinians both individually and collectively.  Take for instance 1917's  Balfour Declaration: 


"His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

It is absolutely obvious to all who have the courage and compassion to reach beyond Israel's racist propaganda that the Palestinians have never really  been given the opportunity to actually live in peace:
Real peace depends on real justice.... and a leap of faith away from the ugly nightmarish realities wrought by Israel's own rampantly racist laws, walls and blind spots.

One people with full and equal rights for all-- one land, one people and one peace. Is that really so unreasonable.

Anne Selden Annab
Mechanicsburg PA



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Pittsburgh Post Gazette
11-16-03
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03320/240167.stm

Cultivating caring

Thank you for publishing the wonderful Forum piece "Taking Back Macho Foreign Policy" by Marlene Nadle (Nov. 9). And I am thrilled that there was even a very respectful reference to Rachel Corrie, the young American college student who was cruelly crushed and killed by an Israeli armored bulldozer while she was trying to prevent the Israeli Defense Forces from destroying yet another Palestinian family home.

Many closed-minded and cold-hearted warmongers have been working hard to convince the world that Rachel Corrie (along with the rest of the International Solidarity Movement) put her life on the line in the occupied territories in order to support and protect terrorism, which is totally and completely wrong.

The ISM peace activists are amazing modern-day heroes who go to be human witnesses and shields, bravely leaving comfortable homes and lives in hopes that their presence will help turn the tide away from ugly escalating hate and war. They are trained in peaceful protest and are doing what they can to spread peace not war by using words not weapons.

What happened to Rachel Corrie was a horrible, horrible thing, but it has been made even worse by the lack of a concerned, honest and thorough investigation by both America and Israel into the situation surrounding her death.

It gives me great hope to hear that women across the globe are organizing to do what they can to create a culture of caring worldwide.

ANNE SELDEN ANNAB
Mechanicsburg



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The Day
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/newstand/re.aspx?reIDx=5FD1C244-2AA7-4CDE-96AF-48A176A47E73

Israel's Wall Is One Of Hate, Not Protection

Published on 11/9/2003

Letters To The Editor:
Isaiah D. Cooper is the one with a blatantly disturbed view. (“Writer's view of war crimes disturbing,” Nov. 4.) Mr. Cooper sees Israel's huge concrete walls of hate as a good thing, or a rational and reasonable thing, blithely ignoring the obvious fact that not only are Israel's racist walls quite physically ugly, they are also morally ugly.

Israel's racist walls are an aggressive insult to the Palestinians, and it is apparent to any one who can read a map that Israel's awful walls of hate are being built not to protect innocent Israelis but to protect a very racist Israel's biased laws and polices that persecute and impoverish the natives of the land.

Since 1948 Israel has refused to adhere to international law by respecting the Palestinian refugees inalienable right of return. I'd call that intentional ethnic cleansing. Meanwhile Israel has been investing a great deal of time, money and energy in building and expanding armed Jewish-only settlements through out the illegally occupied territories. Is it any wonder that neighboring Jordan has been forced to protect itself from Israel's many aggressive official and unofficial land grabs?

Israel's own rampant racism has created horrible problems in the Holy Land, with widespread ramifications for us all.

Anne Selden Annab
Mechanicsburg, Pa

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New York Times October 30, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/30/opinion/L30KRUG.html

The Way to Answer Anti-Semitism

To the Editor:

"A Willful Ignorance," by Paul Krugman (column, Oct. 28), was exceptionally good. He dared to mention the fact that there are moderate Muslims. And he dared to look at the danger of assuming anti-Semitism in the wrong circumstances.

America has not kept itself well informed about world affairs, preferring to trust Israel's biased slant, which has thrust us onto a slippery slope.

The good news is that at least some are finally noticing that there is a "perception gap." Hang on to hope where you can, and you're much more likely to find the momentum to swing right up out of the messiest mess.  

ANNE SELDEN ANNAB
Mechanicsburg, Pa., Oct. 28, 2003


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New York Post  10-?-03

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/8905.htm

Why in the world is Daniel Pipes, the man recently "elected" to the U.S. Institute of Peace, digging up and flinging mud on a Palestinian Fulbright scholar in Florida? And why should any reasonable person trust Israel's accusations about who is and isn't a terrorist?

It is in Israel's best interests to completely oppress any intellectual stirrings that might lead to an actual questioning of Israel's racist laws and policies - especially peaceful Palestinian stirrings that might lead to sympathy for the very real plight of the Palestinian people.

Anne Selden Annab


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Miftah

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=2470&CategoryId=18

n Honor of Edward Said (A letter to President Bush)
September 27, 2003
By Annie Annab

Dear President Bush,

I am writing you today, in honor of Eward Said, a great and wise man who spoke out against America's massive support that arms and empowers Israel's ugly and racist war on the native Palestinians.

Edward Said bravely spoke out to help build a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. He, like so many others who dare point out the very real plight of the Palestinian people, was accused of supporting terrorism- but still he spoke out and encouraged others to do so also.

There is a phrase from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar ... "the rocks and stones themselves will start to sing".

Edward Said died today and his memory is being lifted up by many on the internet as all around the world people from many different races and religions and back grounds join together to mourn the passing of this amazing man who encouraged us all to speak out for the truth and for justice and for the inherent dignity of each individual and every culture and the beauty of music and the possibility of real peace.

Rocks and stones all around the world are protecting the truth as more and more people touched by wise heroes like Edward Said, see what Israel really is and how insane and counter productive America's support of a cruel and brutal and ugly Israel is.

Rocks and stones all around the world are coming together as witnesses to Israel's war crimes. Rocks and stones all around the world are speaking out to bash down Israel's walls of hate and neutralize Israel's poisonous propaganda so that real peace and possibility can take hold and flourish and fill people hearts and minds with hope.

Rocks and stones all around the world are rising up to protect both the truth and the Palestinians. We might not be scholars or wealthy or anything special but we all believe in peace.

There is no power greater than hope.... Hope holds the beauty of what once was and will be again. Hope holds the power of peace. Hope joins strangers so that billions of people of all races and religions and backgrounds can stand unified, mourning one wise man who died today.

He urged us all to speak out, and in honor of Edward Said, I urge you too to speak out about Israel's many crimes against humanity. And I urge every one I know to write their elected leaders and their newspapers and TV news shows and mourn the passing of Edward Said by doing what you can with your own voice and your own words and your hearts and your minds and humanity to prove Edward Said's words that "All human conflict is created by humans and it can be solved by humans."

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab


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LA Times 9-13-03

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-feldman13sep13,1,7486339.story?coll=la-news-comment-letters

Targeted Killings Fight Violence With Violence


I commend Walzer for condemning Israel's particular brand of brutal targeted killings but wonder why he didn't condemn all targeted killings. The big "if" underlying any targeted killing is what makes a targeted killing so very wrong: It is far too easy to accuse a person of a crime and then kill that person — plus any chance he might have to defend himself in a fair trial. The killer gets to kill not just his target but his target's personal story and any evidence he might have to prove his innocence, empowering propaganda rather than real justice.

Anne Selden Annab

Mechanicsburg, Pa.



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 Patriot News 8-19-03
Wall of oppression

William Safire erred when he described Israel's "fence" as a wire fence (syndicated column Aug 6). His misinformation is no surprise since our naive news media has mainly refused to actually show the ugly reality of Israel's wall of shame.

Israel's monstrously tall wide concrete wall is anything but a straight line division between black and white- which would be bad enough in an age when we should know better.

Israel's apartheid wall runs in semi- circles around the Palestinians, trapping them, rather like a house of one way mirrors built to confound and confuse the people stuck inside, while the Israelis looking in from
every angle have the freedom and ease to keep living subsidized lives in armed Jewish-only settlements built on usurped Palestinian land, able and willing to keep shifting walls and borders on a moments notice.

Israel's wall is an act of war, one of many Israeli acts of war on the Palestinians basic human rights.

There is nothing democratic about Israel's 54 year refusal to implement international law by granting the Palestinians full and equal rights in the land of their birth.  Israel has been ethnically cleansing the Holy Land rather than welcoming the natives of  the land with the right to live in peace in the land of their birth.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab


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New York Times 8-09-03
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/09/opinion/L09MIDE.html
 Can a Barrier Bring Mideast Peace?

To the Editor:

Ethan Bronner (Editorial Observer, Aug. 8) confronts Israel's wall for what it is: ugly and cruel.

Real peace and security depend on real justice. Moderates and idealists who believe in democracy should be speaking out in support of international law, with the highest priority given to respecting the inherent wisdom of United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948, the Palestinian refugees' inalienable right of return.

Israel's newest wall is one of many Israeli walls that have been imprisoning and oppressing the native Palestinians for generations. Israel's laws and policies helped build that ugly wall long before a single strand of barbed wire was strung.
ANNE SELDEN ANNAB


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The Day 8/4/2003
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/newstand/re.aspx?reIDx=FD6D0F3E-E4FE-42D4-BA02-581925003242
King Wouldn't Support Brutal Israeli Tactics

Letters To The Editor:
It was very brave — and very good — of you to publish Hassan Fouda's eye-opening letter (“Zionists Use Deception To Push Agenda,” July 24).

It's impossible to know for a fact what another person from another time and place would think, but given all the letters and speeches I have read by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I cannot help but believe that Dr. King would be quite horrified if he were to know about Israel's brutal state-sponsored terrorism of the Palestinian people.

And on further reflection surrounded as I am by the strength and beauty of dreams leaping up to be realized with full and equal rights for all people- regardless of race or religion, I am quite convinced that Dr. King would be publicly condemning a very racist Israel's apartheid walls and laws, and firmly calling for America to stop empowering Israel's persecution and impoverishment of the natives of the land.

Knowing what I know of our own struggles with civil rights, I am equally convinced that the key to a just and lasting peace is a real key. It is a large and cumbersome old metal key to a demolished home, a telling symbol treasured and polished smooth by the tender caressings of many young children listening to beloved parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts as they remember carefully-tended gardens and orchards and wells with cool water, laughter, work, school and a time when all brothers, sisters, cousins and friends were free to live and love each other in peace.

Anne Selden Annab


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Philadelphia Inquirer 8-3-2003
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/6444086.htm
 Star of David in Auth cartoon was upsetting

Tony Auth's July 31 cartoon really stunned me. What a powerful and surprisingly true image. Auth's sketch of the perfect symmetry of Israel's state emblem, the Star of David, gives three dimensions to mimic Israel's "security fence" and shows it as an obvious cage. What brilliant insight. And such courage, too, since he is sure to be accused of being anti-Semitic because he exposed the ugly side of Israel's wall with his wit.

Israel usurped the Star of David from the Jewish religion, placing the religious symbol on a political flag. What a shame that Israel has chosen to wave that flag while flagrantly violating both international law and the Palestinians' basic human rights.
Anne Selden Annab


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Washington Times 7-31-93
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030730-091824-9591r.htm
Responding to Suzanne Fields' Op-Ed column on Monday

"The last acceptable prejudice," the last acceptable prejudice is not anti-Semitism, it is our easy use of the word 'anti-Semitic,' which really is a racist word, a tainted remnant from a racist time when Nazis felt free to hate and hurt Jews just because the Jews were Jews. Racism is wrong period.

  No one should ever be persecuted or impoverished because of who their mother was or where and how they pray. We are all human. We are all fully capable of both love and hate. Race and religion are arbitrary lines of separation drawn by modern definitions and reinforced by placing rumors alongside fact. Many of us are products of more than one race, more than one religion and so it has been throughout history. Our actual ancestry is more a matter of what we want to remember than anything else.

  Rather than confusing justifiable complaints about Israel's own racist war on the Palestinians, Mrs. Fields should ponder the fact that Palestinians are Semites, too, but they are excluded from the word anti-Semitism in much the same way that Israel excludes the native Palestinians from full and equal rights in the land of their birth.

  Racism might seem harmless or even safe at first, starting out with low murmurs and mumblings. But it has a habit of quickly becoming monstrous and ugly and uncontrollable, making enemies out of strangers and spreading hate, despair, violence, anger and pain in every direction. Racist walls and words have no place in or even near a democracy. It should be enough to say that an offensive cartoon was a racist insult and that racism is wrong.

     ANNE SELDEN ANNAB
 

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Patriot News, June 27, 2003
Doonesbury' brilliance

     Joel R. Burcat ( Letters, June 20) must be confusing the sophisticated "Doonesbury" political cartoons of Garry Trudeau's with work like Peanuts, expecting silly Snoopy antics that are only meant to make us giggle.  Trudeau's creative brilliance is in his amazing ability to make stunningly brilliant social and political commentaries with brief glimpses and statements.   He does tend to tackle serious topics, and he does tend to  explore them as honestly as he can, which of cause does accidentally offend some people at times.

   Without a doubt it is a horrible tragedy when any human being, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation is killed by a suicide, a suicide bomber, or a bomb.   Nowhere did I see in Trudeau's series on suicide bombers any hint of approval or delight for suicide, suicide bombers, bombs, or Israeli snipers.  I did, however, see that his main focus was clearly on the media and stereotypes versus the truth.

    I find it odd that the Patriot News chose to publish a letter that perpetuates the very problems and contradictions that Trudeau was pointing out.

Anne Selden Annab


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The Morning Call
-- June 16, 2003
http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/letters/all-annabjun16,0,7897952.story?coll=all-newsopinionletters-hed
Congress and Israel need to rethink practices

Congress needs to rethink its practice of supporting Israel as a racist nation in the process of ethnically cleansing the Holy Land. I have been horrified by Israel's use of American-made helicopter gunships to kill people, including women and children, in crowded Gaza.

Israel really should fully implement international law, including the Palestinian refugees' inalienable right of return.

Anne Selden Annab


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Washington Times 6-13-03
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030612-104627-9757r.htm
Dissension and division in the Mideast

Thank you for publishing David Nassar's exceptionally good letter ("No 'zero-sum game,' " Wednesday). He summed it up quite well by saying, "Peace is not an ethnic birthright." The most important function of the peace advocates is merely to be witnesses to the horrors wrought by Israel's racist war on the oppressed and persecuted Palestinians.

Those International Solidarity Movement peace advocates are today's most valiant heroes in bravely standing up to a well-armed and racist nation and doing what they can for real justice and a lasting peace.

How dare we accuse any Palestinian or their pro-peace supporters of being terrorists when Israel sends in helicopter gunships and "accidentally" kills innocent Palestinian women and children with brutal missile attacks.

No one should be discriminated against because of race or religion, and it is insane that superpower America willingly arms and empowers Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Holy Land.
Zionism really is racism, and pretending it is not has only misled many otherwise decent people into thinking and doing despicable things. There is no security in institutionalized racist hatred; there is only a continuing holocaust and flagrant violations of both moral and international law. There is nothing but chaos, suffering and pain on both sides of Israel's apartheid walls.

ANNE SELDEN ANNAB


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USA Today 6-5-2003
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20030605/5215581s.htm
Mideast peace requires 'full and equal rights for all'

Commentary writer and rabbi Michael Lerner had some very good points in his column ''First draw peace map that works'' (The Forum, Tuesday). However, one vital point was not mentioned: the importance of implementing internal law, including United Nations Resolution 194, the Palestinian refugees' inalienable right to return.

As long as Israel is allowed to delude itself into believing that persecuting and oppressing the native Palestinians are actually security measures, there will be righteous indignation and perpetual war.

Full and equal rights for all -- including the right to vote -- are the basis for a real democracy, and actual justice is the foundation for a lasting peace.

Without the full implementation of U.N. Resolution 194, any road map is merely an exercise in driving in circles.

Anne Selden Annab


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Patriot News 5-30-03
Racist tirade threatens liberty

  I was shocked to see Cal Thomas' racist tirade against Muslims in his bigoted column "The Threat Among Us" (May 23) .

   Imagine if the words "Jews" or "Jewish" were swapped throughout his column for "Muslim" and "Islam". Within living memory,  Nazi propaganda tactics worked once to dehumanize the Jews and systematically raise the gullible public's level of fear and hate into a holocaust of pain, suffering and death for many innocent and decent and good people.

  Have we learned nothing from that horrible chapter in world history?   Racist hate really is evil and wrong and only leads to increasing ugliness and violence and despair for all. Racist hate poisons each one of us by imprisoning people with paranoias large and small spewing from a learned inability to perceive the inherent dignity of others.

 In addition,  Thomas' fear- mongering rants against the inclusive use of the word "Abrahamic"  defy  both logic and history.  Our civilization is deeply indebted to the Muslim world for contributing to and preserving  a great deal of knowledge and art during the Western world's Dark Ages.  Our Renaissance would have never  flourished with out the enlightening influences of Islamic scholarship.

 The day that our own democracy steps away from fully supporting freedom justice and equality for all is the day that the tyranny of hate wins and every American battle ever fought for freedom becomes a shackled slave to a state-sponsored war of terrorism on the basic human rights of each  individual.

Anne Selden Annab

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Christian Science Monitor 
5-29-03
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0529/p08s01-cole.htm
An exhibit US politicians should see

Thank you for publishing the fascinating article "An artistic 'road map' to progress" (May 28) concerning the Palestinian art show in Houston. The details about the difficulties in getting both the art and the artists here from the occupied territories gave a glimpse of the difficult circumstances that inevitably can't help but politicize any artist's work.

Perhaps all our own politicians should convene for talks in the midst of this telling exhibit of Palestinian art, drink deeply of the insight and expression found there, and think carefully before continuing to blindly endorse and empower Israel's war against the natives of the land.
Anne Selden Annab


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Ha'artz
  5-15-2003
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/LiArt.jhtml?contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0
Attacking the roots

Regarding "Israel to bar pro-Palestinian activists from entering country," by Amos Harel and Aluf Benn, Haaretz, May 2

Israel is to bar pro-Palestinian activists from entering country. Isn't it rather late right now - at a time when even the most obscure detail can be dug up and spread worldwide on the internet in mere seconds - to try to stop the work of the International Solidarity Movement?

Wouldn't it be easier, and kinder really, to let the ISM stay, but give them nothing horrific to witness? Wouldn't it be wiser to stop challenging the presence of the ISM and start challenging the circumstances that brought them in the first place?

An armored bulldozer demolishing a civilian home needs no blackening to make it look bad. Some things just are ... and are a very bad idea in the first place.

Anne Selden Annab


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New York Times
5-1-03
 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/01/opinion/L01MIDE.html

Mideast Path: Promise and Agony

To the Editor:

Israel claims to be a democracy, so where are the full and equal rights for all ("Mideast Hope Meets Its Enemy," editorial, April 30)?

If every Israeli were told that tomorrow he had to trade places with a Palestinian in the occupied territories, swapping lives and jobs and homes and even weapons and access to water, what choices would Israel be making today?

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you would be a higher priority than it is right now.

That Israel is in long-term violation of international and moral laws, including the Palestinians' basic human rights, is the major factor in this terrible nightmare of suffering and rage.

ANNE SELDEN ANNAB

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Harrisburg Magazine

http://www.harrisburgmagazine.com/hbgmag_online/0503dept-lttr-2-editr.html
May 2003 Issue

Dear Editor,

Concerning Harrisburg Magazine’s February “Last Paige” column on the Arab-Israeli conflict: The most sensible thing to do if you really want to work toward a just and lasting peace is to stop skimming the surface of the conflict and flinging out racist generalizations such as, “Perhaps the only way to end this conflict is to deconstruct the dominant Palestinian culture, which approves of terrorism.”

Israel’s racist laws and policies predate both Hamas and any Palestinian suicide bombing. Israel is in blatant and long-term violation of multiple U.N. resolutions … Racism is wrong… No one should be persecuted, impoverish or imprisoned in a ghetto because of what is or isn’t on an ID card.

The Palestinians are not the enemy, and neither are the Jews … racist hate is.
America should be insisting that Israel fully implement all the U.N. resolutions, including 194, the Palestinian refugees’ right to return.

Anne Selden Annab


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Advance Titan
The Student Newspaper of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh
http://at.mio.uwosh.edu/story.asp?issue=10924&story=2319

Letter to editor commended

4/26/2003

Online, I accidentally came across Barbara Fink’s letter “Holocaust not sole tragedy” concerning the current Holocaust in the Holy Land and I applaud you for printing her insightful letter.

I wish it were a billboard for all Americans to read because it is utterly insane that our hard-earned tax dollars are underwriting and arming Israel’s racist war on the Palestinians.

Imagine having multiple squadrons of armed “Christian-only” communities reached by “Christian-only” roads right here in America on every hilltop, leaving everyone who happens to have the “wrong” religion on their ID cards with little water and no rights.

Next imagine a select group of “world leaders” deciding that the solution to the rage and frustration that that racist “Christian-only” armed fortresses inspire is to shift those “Christian-only” armed forces to one side of an arbitrary line, leaving everyone else who happens to the “wrong” religion written on their ID card still with little water and no rights.

Sound far-fetched? Well that is exactly what is going on right now in the Middle East.

Israel should fully implement all the United Nations resolutions they are violating – including U.N. resolution 194, the Palestinian refugees (inalienable) right to return.

Anne Selden Annab
Pennsylvania

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 The Christian Science Monitor 4-10-03
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0410/p10s02-cole.htm
Watching the same war from different perspectives

The April 8 Opinion piece "Whose 'truth' is being reported?" by Mohammed el-Nawawy was utterly fascinating. I envy all who have both the ability to intelligently comprehend more than one language and easy access to more than one country's views.

My cable TV offers almost a hundred channels with multiple newscasts blaring basically the same bright, red-white-and-blue stuff. Being leashed to a very limited worldview will only make coexistence with the rest of the world more and more difficult every day.

Winning the peace would be a great deal easier if more Americans understood how very small this earth of ours actually is, and that our words have a way of echoing out into either war or peace.
Anne Selden Annab



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WASHINGTON POST
April 10, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1544-2003Apr9.html
Israel's Influence in America

Colbert I. King is sobered by "the realization that there are people in this country who regard Jews as so dangerous that they bear watching and keeping tabs on their comings and goings in government and in other positions of influence in society."

A fascinating observation. However, it is not Jews but Muslims and Arabs who are being watched by their own government. Muslim and Arab countries and charities are put on official lists as supporting terrorism, and rumor, innuendo and secret evidence are used to round up racially profiled suspects, strip them of their rights and charge them with being terrorists.

Recently, Robert J. Goldstein was arrested for allegedly plotting to blow up as many as 50 mosques in the Tampa area. Mr. Goldstein, who is Jewish, allegedly wanted to make a statement for "his people" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He had in his possession more than 30 explosive devices, including light-armor rockets, hand grenades and a gasoline bomb. But he was not charged with being a terrorist. Apparently, that privilege is reserved for Arabs and Muslims.

Perhaps if Israel did not receive such massive amounts of U.S. taxpayer money, weapons and political support; perhaps if Israel were not waging such a brutal and racist war against the Palestinians; perhaps if Israel didn't have such a loud voice in America's political process, sidelining politicians who show even an iota of sympathy for the Palestinians; perhaps if Israel weren't in the process of bulldozing Palestinian homes and confiscating Palestinian land and building apartheid walls -- well, perhaps then the threat of anti-Semitism would not be rearing its ugly head.

Racism is wrong -- period. The United States' support of Israel has ramifications worldwide, empowering sick lunatics such as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, who hijack the Palestinians' suffering and just cause for complaint.

ANNE SELDEN ANNAB


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Patriot News
3-25-2003
"Beautiful tribute to Ambrose Klain"

Thank you for publishing "Remembering" the beautiful tribute to Ambrose Klain the holocaust survivor who made his home in central Pennsylvania (news article , March 8).

"The Germans are much too civilized to do those things" Klaine's father said, when told of the death camps...and then Ambrose goes on to say in his memoirs "the ashes of their incinerated bodies rose from the gas chambers of Auschwitz to heaven. Their voices still cry to God for mercy and they are met by silence".

I cringe when I think of the atrocities wrought by racist hate then and even now, as all the innocent, the good, the decent, the kind, the gentle, the loving, the generous... as all that actually enriches our lives and fills our world with beauty and promise is butchered for
political purposes.

I am grateful that Ambrose Klain was able to come make his home in America and that he hasbeen able to help others like me hear the warning in the voice of his father who had no idea how much worse things would quickly become.

Racist hate for anyone is just so very very wrong; it leads to nothing but escalating despair and suffering and war.

There is no safety in racism, no haven in hate: We must always remember that Auschwitz, where Klain's family was murdered, is the real face of racism, and that there is nothing reasonable, much less civilized, in letting hate win.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
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Christian Science Monitor 3-19-2003 
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0319/p10s03-cole.htm

Palestinians not free to enjoy flowers

    Helen Schary Motro's March 17 opinion piece "An erstwhile island of peace" gently evades the very harsh realities of the situation in  Israel, such as the inherent brutality of laws and policies that have been the driving force behind violence and suffering and despair on  every side.

    While Ms. Motro is free to wander most anywhere she wishes in Israel, enjoying the
wildflowers that gloriously color the Galilee in early  spring, the Palestinians are imprisoned in rubble-filled ghettos by Israel's apartheid laws and walls, as army checkpoints, curfews, and tanks churn up and destroy Palestinian homes, villages, and farmland.

    As an American lawyer, she should be more aware than most of the importance of just
laws and civil rights. There is no security in Israel's racist laws, and there is no hope in empowering racist hate, no matter how gently it's done.

     Israel should fully implement all the UN resolutions it has been violating, including
Resolution 194, the Palestinian refugees' right of return:   one people, one land, one peace. Anything less is continued apartheid.

          Anne Selden Annab
         

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USA Today 3-13-2003
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20030313/4942619s.htm
Attack on Iraq would spur worldwide terrorism, war
Young Americans are rising up to voice their opposition to a military
strike against Iraq, and we really need to listen (''Debate over Iraq fires
passions not seen since the Vietnam War,'' Cover Story, News, March
6).

Pre-emptively annihilating Iraq likely would be the beginning of
worldwide terrorism and war, especially in light of the fact that for years
America has been planting seeds of despair, pain and righteous outrage
in the Arab and Muslim world by arming and empowering the Israelis
in their conflict with the Palestinians.

How dare we speak of spreading democracy while generously
underwriting Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Holy Land? How dare we
speak of freedom when, as far as I'm concerned, most of our elected
politicians and many of our media outlets suppress the truth about the
real plight of the Palestinians? They've been terrorized by Israel's hate
for more than half a century.

Anne Selden Annab

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Washington Times 2- 8- 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030208-15786076.htm#2
Misfired eulogy of Israeli astronaut
It was oddly disjointed how Mona Charen's column,
"One nation ... hails Columbia" (Commentary,
Thursday), went from praising and honoring American
nationhood for encompassing "a continent of different
ethnic, religious and racial groups" right into fully
sympathizing with Israel, which is a place where the
non-Jewish segment of the population has been fiercely
discriminated against for generations.
We simply do not know what was in Israeli astronaut
Ilan Ramon's heart in outer space when he gazed at the
drawing "Moon Landscape," which was made by a
young boy whose life and promise were cruelly usurped
by the Nazis, who imprisoned so many innocent men,
women and children in concentration camps.
Yet, Holocaust relics and stories have been used for
pro-Israel propaganda for years, as Israel is ever eager to
hijack the sick brutality of Adolf Hitler and his
henchmen to justify and expand Israel's racist war on
the Palestinians.
There is always the chance that Israel's "war hero"
abandoned his country's racist notions as he lifted off
from Earth and broke free from our atmosphere.
Perhaps he found his recent years of study in the United
States — where full and equal rights and opportunities
for all are assured by just laws — rewarding and
enlightening. Perhaps Holocaust victim Petr Ginz's
drawing "Moon Landscape" reminded him of all the
rubble and ruin wrought by Israel's racist war and of all
the Palestinian children trapped in impoverished ghettos
in the Holy Land.
Perhaps, as he gazed down at the fragile orb called
Earth, he fully understood that no child anywhere
should be discriminated against because of his race or
religion, and that every child deserves a future full of
possibility ... and peace.

ANNE SELDEN ANNAB

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Washington Post 12-7-2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21151-2002Dec6.html
Freedom, Justice, Equality -- for All

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, demonized Egypt
for broadcasting a TV series called "Horseman Without a Horse" [letters, Nov. 26].

If Mr. Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League spent as much energy insisting that the
Palestinians be treated fairly both on the ground and in the media, then I would find
his comments more pertinent. But he claims anti-Semitism whenever anyone questions
Israel's laws and policies.

As a prominent American voice, Mr. Foxman should be emphasizing secular freedom and
justice and equality for all, even the Palestinians. Egypt's "Horseman Without a
Horse" would have no audience if the Arab world wasn't witness to the racist crimes
perpetuated against the Palestinian people.

ANNE SELDEN ANNAB

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Philadelphia Inquirer
12-4-2002

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/4659470.htm
Stop hate, don't inspire it

I totally agree with Steven Rosenzweig's letter "Cartoon unfair
to Muslims" (Dec. 3).

In Hitler's Germany, anti-Semitism was part and parcel of the
times, and the media there and in many other
places were filling people's minds with horrible racist stuff.
Bad went to worse as people too easily accepted the
unacceptable and did not understand the ugly ramifications of
racism.

We should know better now.

Thank you for at least printing Mr. Rosenzweig's letter, but I
can't help but think the type of people most swayed
by cartoons need to be reached in the same medium. Auth should
work on stopping racist hate, not inspiring it.

Anne Selden Annab
                    Mechanicsburg

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Patriot News
Monday, December 02, 2002
SEEKING REAL PEACE
Israel's latest wall is not a wall of fear- it is a weapon (in response to Thomas
Friedman's column Nov 28) . A huge churning land confiscating choking primitive
weapon in a siege attack on the Palestinians' basic human rights.

Anwar el-Sadat declaring "No more war" is simply not enough to make this very
real nightmare go away. Real peace depends on real justice.

Israel should stop blaming the Palestinians for everything and start the long
and difficult task of building legal walls against racist discrimination... fighting
anti-semitism should include fighting for the full and equal rights of each and every
Palestinian.

In addition, fully implementing international law would go a long way towards
laying the ground work towards a just and lasting peace. Israel must fully implement

United Nations Resolution 194, the Palestinian refugee's right to return; anything
less is continued apartheid.

Peace really is possible.

Anne Selden Annab

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New York Times
11-10-2002

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/opinion/L10RAMA.html

On Being a Muslim in America

To the Editor:
Thank you for "Learning a Lesson for Ramadan," by Asma Gull Hasan (Op-Ed,
Nov. 6). Will this glimmer of truth help usher out all the wild assumptions,rash fears and gratuitous opinions about Islam, which are based mainly on misinformation and ugly stereotypes? I hope so — our democracy dependson it.

  ANNE SELDEN ANNAB


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USA Today 8-7-2002
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020807/4339713s.htm

'Honest' account depicts reality of Palestinians' lives

Thanks for publishing the brutally honest commentary by Sherri Muzher, an American of Palestinian descent (''Mideast conflict bores too many,'' The Forum, Friday).

I am outraged by our media's fixation on Israeli pain and suffering, especially when compared with the meager and limited information provided about the plight of Palestinians. I am shocked that U.S. taxpayers are giving billions of dollars in aid that empowers Israel's policies of
apartheid.

Despite the ongoing suicide bombings, Jewish Americans are still eagerly encouraging their kids to study in Israel. Jewish-only roads lead to Jewish-only settlements occupied by a fair portion of
American Zionists and guarded by American zealots determined to protect ''the Jewish state.''

It is obvious that the Palestinians are not monsters. They have just complaints about being made into refugees and being impoverished and persecuted by Israel. It's clear to me that Israel's
continued racism is made possible with U.S. aid.

A two-state solution is no longer possible because of Israel's state-sponsored terrorism, which includes many illegal settlements.

The only hope now is a secular state with full and equal rights for all. A good first step would be for the United States to stop supporting and sustaining Israel and start paying attention to what is
really going on.

Anne Selden Annab  
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A Small Sampling of My Published Poems

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Poems published at Moongate Internationale

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Aspens

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Poets Against The War

Sunrise in Suburbia

in the warmth
of flannel
and a soft sleepy stir of skin

in the warmth
cupping an old white ceramic mug
filled with sugared coffee and cream

my own babies sleep upstairs
snuggled in soft blankets
in rooms brimming with bright toys

while far away from print and film
Palestinian babies shiver with IDF bomb blast
and the grind of military tanks approaching again

My morning their afternoon
My sleep their despair
My silence
more deadly than arsenic or anthrax

as racist insanities obscure
the suffering sweeping our papers, and
films full of fluff as thick as blankets

flicker and dodge bullets so we won't know
of the faraway hunger and hopelessness
Flicker and dodge and deflect justice

wrap our minds with silk and our hearts with stone
so we can rise again to work for this war
our wages taxed to the hilt...

So that faraway children can shiver and bleed to death
glazing pebbles in the rubble of the Holy Land
with bright crimson blood.


                       Anne Selden Annab
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