From the Monitor, exposing a oft-unquestioned assumption that Palestinian students are educated with hatred toward Jews: Three years in the making at a cost of $500,000, the U.S. State Department–funded report explores textbooks issued by the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and religious bodies. The research, overseen by Sami Adwan from Bethlehem University and … Continue reading »
Tagged with Palestine …
Orient and Occident: Winter Edition
From my latest article on Orient and Occident: ‘The church in Egypt is better resourced to participate in society than in other countries of the Arab world, whereas in Palestine/Israel it constitutes only 1% of the population,’ says Stephen Sizer, a renowned critic of Christian Zionism, who presented a series of lectures in Cairo, including … Continue reading »
Palestinian Children Languish under Israeli Occupation
Moves by the Arab League in concert with British activists, are putting pressure on Israeli authorities to observe international legal commitments on children detained, imprisoned and tortured in Israeli jails. The Baghdad Declaration on the Palestinian and Arab Prisoners in the Israeli Occupation Prisons, issued on 12 December, 2012, includes a devastating critique of Israeli … Continue reading »
Friday Prayers for Egypt: Gaza
God, Above all, bring peace to Israel and Palestine. Stop rockets, stop killing, stop assassinations, and stop injustice. Allow all sides to argue over who most deserves these accusations, but draw them to a halt. As for Egypt, where these arguments are few, give wisdom to the president and political leadership on how to intervene … Continue reading »
Taming the Islamists
A friend of mine asked me the other day what I think of this quote from the Economist: ‘The best way to tame the Islamists, as Turkey’s experience shows, is to deny them the moral high ground to which repression elevates them, and condemn them instead to the responsibilities and compromises of day-to-day government.’ For … Continue reading »
As President Morsy Preaches Peace, Muslim Brotherhood Sanctions Jihad
In both his presidential campaign and inaugural addresses, President Mohamed Morsy has assured the world of Egypt’s commitment to peace. Yet in the run-up to the final election on June 14, the Muslim Brotherhood published an Arabic article calling this commitment into question. ‘How happy would Muslims be if the leaders of the Muslims … … Continue reading »
US Congressman Advocates ‘Limited Voting Power’
Does the phrase used in the title of this post suggest images of dictatorships restricting the rights of its people? Perhaps instead the decline of representative democracy in the face of big business and multinational corporations? On the contrary, it is the positive suggestion issued by a US congressman, though fortunately, concerning no one in … Continue reading »
Misnomers and Idealism in the Palestinian Question
As the Palestinian Authority prepares to request statehood from the United Nations, this essay will highlight a few terms which serve to obscure the public debate, as well as idealize the best way forward. It will not propose an answer to the ‘yes –no’ question faced by the United States at the UN, as either … Continue reading »
Nonviolence and Christianity
I would honestly say that if I could choose a religion, I would choose Christianity and its ideal of universal acceptance, love, and forgiveness. It is all so beautiful. It is just so unfortunate that the history of Christianity has nothing to do with these ideas. Eyad Sarraj, head of the Gaza Community Mental Health … Continue reading »
1967 and the Right of Return
Much of the political discourse following President Obama’s speech concerning the Arab Spring centered on his direct statement that the 1967 lines should serve as the starting point for negotiations between Israel and Palestine. His phrasing included ‘with mutually agreed swaps of land’, but was largely ignored in the subsequent hubbub. Commentators noticed that the … Continue reading »
Thoughts and Photos from Friday Protest: National Unity and Palestinian Solidarity
I was present at the Friday, May 13 million man demonstration in Tahrir Square. It has become commonplace for activists of all sorts to call for ‘million man’ demonstrations these days. While impressive in size, it was nowhere near the crowds assembled in Tahrir during the revolution. Rather, about one-third to one-quarter of the square … Continue reading »
