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Current Events 1998-2008 |
Fr. Ben: I just checked out your web site, and I must say that it is remarkable. It is surely the best single source of information on social justice and peace issues that I have found. The current events section is especially good. I have not found another source with so much information on so many issues of current importance. Kudos! Jay Guzwiller XU '98 |
Go to Current Events Archives:
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Restorative justice |
Signs of the Times
Jesus urged us to read the signs of the times. Here I share my own
reading of current events in the light of my vision of utopia, the truth of
tomorrow. As a community, as a nation, we have a collective light graced
story in which God has loved us and we have taken that love to others. The
I think we also need to face our collective dark graced story which takes courage and spiritual freedom to admit. God is present in our dark graced story revealing to us that it is dark and helping us to move the dark graced story to the light graced story side of the ledger. You may feel that what follows below is more of the dark graced story than the light. If you have more examples of the light graced story, I welcome them as part of our dialogue. I feel as long as we do not have basic human rights for each human person in our world, we have not reached the beginning. It's not enough for me to be relatively free and secure. I can't be happy as long as there's one person who is basically unhappy and lacking in the bare necessities.
Media
Modern media control public opinion and thus our limited democracy. Modern
media promote our culture of violence. Modern media does not represent
adequately workers, the environment, sustainable farming, peace groups, most of
what you find on this web-page. Modern media is owned by and controlled
by corporations. Modern media influences our understanding of religion and
faith.
I think we need a three-fold approach to the media. We need to critique TV,
radio, and the newspapers. (See for example, FAIR, Fairness in Accuracy in Reporting, http://www.fair.org/ ) The electronic intifada
http://electronicIntifada.net critiques the media on
Below
is an example of a critique of the corporate media: "Because This Is
the
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2921"On
July 16, CBS Face the Nation host (and CBS Evening News anchor) Bob Schieffer
dedicated the entire Sunday morning news show to the Middle East conflict. In
his closing editorial, he adapted a well-known fable in an attempt to explain
the causes of the current conflict--or rather, the lack of causes:
"Finally today, when the war broke out in the Middle East, the first thing
I thought about was the old story of the frog and the scorpion who were
trying to cross a river there. The scorpion couldn't swim, the frog was
lost. So the scorpion proposed a deal, 'Give me a ride on your back, and I'll
show you the way.' The frog agreed, and the trip went fine until they got to
the middle of the river, and then suddenly the scorpion just stung the frog. As
they were sinking, the frog asked, in his dying breath, 'Why would you do
that?' To which the scorpion replied, 'Because this is the
Lest
there be any doubt about who is the frog and who is the scorpion in that
parable, Schieffer went on to spell it out: "It is worth noting that the
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip did not kidnap that Israeli soldier and provoke
all of this because the Israelis were invading
Schieffer was echoing the media's conventional wisdom in portraying the Palestinian raid that captured the Israeli soldier as an inexplicable provocation. The New York Times, in a June 29 editorial headlined "Hamas Provokes a Fight," declared that "the responsibility for this latest escalation rests squarely with Hamas," adding that "an Israeli military response was inevitable."
The
media assumption is that in withdrawing from
From
the time of the pullout until the recent upsurge in violence, according to
B'tselem's lists, no Israelis were killed by violence emanating from
Hamas
also points to the capture of some of its leaders by
Moreover,
None
of this is to say that Hamas, which has regularly ignored the distinction
between military and civilian targets, does not share part of the blame for the
current crisis. But to act as though
Israel's
"response" has resulted in the deaths to date of at least 103
Palestinians, while no Israelis have died other than one soldier killed by
friendly fire (New York Times, 7/19/06). Meanwhile, Israel has also destroyed
Gaza's main power plant and its water system, leaving tens of thousands of Gaza
families without access to food, water and medical care (Oxfam, 7/19/06). In
Lebanon, Israel has killed over 300 people, the vast majority of them
civilians, wounded over 1000 and displaced half a million (MSNBC, 7/19/06). To
call such devastation an "excuse" for Arabs to "distance themselves
from
Why
is Bob Schieffer allowed to get away with such shallow, dismissive coverage of
complicated and tragic events? Because it's the
We also need alternative sources of information from the mainline news sources. One of these are the links on this web page. Another are the newsletters of the many peace and justice groups. One of the alternative sources of information is the web-site of the National Office of Jesuit Social Ministries www.jesuit.org Here you can access immediate information updates and urgent action steps which are priorities of the National Jesuit Social Ministries. Jesuit Advocates is a relatively easy way to contact your legislators.
The US Jesuit Conference is in a process of strategic discernment concerning the future apostolic priorities of the Society of Jesus. If you wish to give in-put, go to http://www.Jesuit.org/sections/default.asp?SECTION_ID=601.
Another Catholic Social Justice Lobby is Network www.networklobby.org
See also Archdiocese of Cincinnati www.Catholic
Cincinnati.org
See also Ecumenical Advocacy Days http://www.advocacydays.org Sojourners of Rev. James Wallis http://www.sojo.net
Jewish Voice for Peace also makes it relatively easy to contact public officials about Israel/Palestine/Lebanon http://www.Jewishvoiceforpeace.org
A third approach is to create our own means of communication. The picture
above is taken in the radio studio of WVXU, 91.7 FM. For twenty eight
years I had a weekly radio show called Faith and Justice Forum the response of
religious groups to God's call for social action.
A fourth approach would be community ownership of the communications media or
more wide-spread ownership. Presuming we achieve a genuine democracy, I
think this would give everyone a better chance to exercise their natural right
of free speech.
www.freepress.net
Free Press is a national nonpartisan organization working to increase informed
public participation in crucial media policy debates, and to generate policies
that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system
with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector.
We believe that a more democratic
Why care about media? Media play a huge role in our lives. The Internet, TV, radio, newspapers, movies and books inform our ideas, values and beliefs. They shape our understanding of the world. Media are also essential to our democracy. We depend upon the news and information we get from the media to make informed decisions and to hold our government and corporate leaders accountable.
What's wrong with media? Our media system is in a crisis.The takeover of our country's media outlets by a small handful of giant conglomerates puts too much power and influence in too few hands. That's bad for our democracy, which depends on our ability to access diverse sources of news, information and opinion. Our media is in trouble in other ways, too. The big cable and phone companies that control access to the Internet want to be gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites and services you can use depending on which companies have paid them the most. They want to turn the open Internet we've always had into a closed, private toll road.
And public broadcasting, one of our most
valuable public resources, is under constant threat in
Who owns the airwaves? Believe it or not, you do! The "airwaves" are the transmission frequencies used by radio, TV and satellite broadcasters, cell phone companies, even your TV remote control, to transmit signals. Although the airwaves are used for many different purposes, they ultimately belong to you, the American public, in the same way that your sidewalk or your local park belongs to you. The airwaves are a public resource. Unfortunately, citizens rarely even get to use the airwaves to make their own voices heard! Some businesses, like cell phone companies, pay the government to use the airwaves (also called "spectrum"). Radio and TV broadcasters, though, use these airwaves free of charge. In return for this generous government handout, broadcasters are required by law to serve the public interest.
Current Events 2008
Address of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Nations, April, 2008:
"As Pope John Paul II expressed it in 1995, the United Nations should be
"a moral centre where all the nations of the world feel at home and
develop a shared awareness of being, as it were, a 'family of nations'"
(Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 50th Anniversary of
its Foundation, New York, 5 October 1995, 14).
The founding principles of the UN -- the desire for peace, the quest for
justice, respect for the dignity of the person, humanitarian cooperation and
assistance -- express the just aspirations of the human spirit, and constitute
the ideals which should underpin international relations. As my predecessors
Paul VI and John Paul II have observed from this very podium, all this is
something that the Catholic Church and the Holy See follow attentively and with
interest, seeing in your activity an example of how issues and conflicts
concerning the world community can be subject to common regulation. The United
Nations embodies the aspiration for a "greater degree of international
ordering" (John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 43), inspired and
governed by the principle of subsidiarity, and therefore capable of
responding to the demands of the human family through binding international
rules and through structures capable of harmonizing the day-to-day unfolding of
the lives of peoples. This is all the more necessary at a time when we
experience the obvious paradox of a multilateral consensus that continues to be
in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a few, whereas
the world's problems call for interventions in the form of collective action by
the international community.
Indeed, questions of security, development goals, reduction of local and
global inequalities, protection of the environment, of resources and of the
climate, require all international leaders to act jointly and to show a
readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law, and promoting solidarity
with the weakest regions of the planet. I am thinking especially of those
countries in
Recognition of the unity of the human family, and attention to the innate
dignity of every man and woman, today find renewed emphasis in the principle of
the responsibility to protect. This has only recently been defined, but it was
already present implicitly at the origins of the United Nations, and is now
increasingly characteristic of its activity. Every State has the primary duty
to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human
rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural
or man-made. If States are unable to guarantee such protection, the
international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the
United Nations Charter and in other international instruments. The action of
the international community and its institutions, provided that it respects the
principles undergirding the international order, should never be interpreted as
an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of sovereignty. On the contrary, it
is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage. What is needed
is a deeper search for ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring
every possible diplomatic avenue, and giving attention and encouragement to
even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation.
The principle of "responsibility to protect" was considered by the
ancient "ius gentium" as the foundation of every action taken by
those in government with regard to the governed: at the time when the concept
of national sovereign States was first developing, the Dominican Friar
Francisco de Vitoria, rightly considered as a precursor of the idea of the
United Nations, described this responsibility as an aspect of natural reason
shared by all nations, and the result of an international order whose task it
was to regulate relations between peoples. Now, as then, this principle has to
invoke the idea of the person as image of the Creator, the desire for the
absolute and the essence of freedom.
This reference to human dignity, which is the foundation and goal of the
responsibility to protect, leads us to the theme we are specifically focusing
upon this year, which marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. This document was the outcome of a convergence of
different religious and cultural traditions, all of them motivated by the
common desire to place the human person at the heart of institutions, laws and
the workings of society, and to consider the human person essential for the
world of culture, religion and science. Human rights are increasingly being
presented as the common language and the ethical substratum of international
relations. At the same time, the universality, indivisibility and
interdependence of human rights all serve as guarantees safeguarding human
dignity. It is evident, though, that the rights recognized and expounded in
the Declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person,
who remains the high-point of God's creative design for the world and for
history. They are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and
present in different cultures and civilizations. Removing human rights from
this context would mean restricting their range and yielding to a relativistic
conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation of rights could
vary and their universality would be denied in the name of different cultural,
political, social and even religious outlooks. This great variety of viewpoints
must not be allowed to obscure the fact that not only rights are universal, but
so too is the human person, the subject of those rights.
[The Pope continued in English]
The life of the community, both domestically and internationally, clearly
demonstrates that respect for rights, and the guarantees that follow from them,
are measures of the common good that serve to evaluate the relationship between
justice and injustice, development and poverty, security and conflict. The
promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating
inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security.
Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated
with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then
become violators of peace.
The common good that human rights help to accomplish cannot, however, be
attained merely by applying correct procedures, nor even less by achieving a
balance between competing rights. The merit of the Universal Declaration is
that it has enabled different cultures, juridical expressions and institutional
models to converge around a fundamental nucleus of values, and hence of rights.
Today, though, efforts need to be redoubled in the face of pressure to
reinterpret the foundations of the Declaration and to compromise its inner
unity so as to facilitate a move away from the protection of human dignity
towards the satisfaction of simple interests, often particular interests. The
Declaration was adopted as a "common standard of achievement"
(Preamble) and cannot be applied piecemeal, according to trends or selective
choices that merely run the risk of contradicting the unity of the human person
and thus the indivisibility of human rights.
Experience shows that legality often prevails over justice when the insistence
upon rights makes them appear as the exclusive result of legislative enactments
or normative decisions taken by the various agencies of those in power. When
presented purely in terms of legality, rights risk becoming weak propositions
divorced from the ethical and rational dimension which is their foundation and
their goal. The Universal Declaration, rather, has reinforced the
conviction that respect for human rights is principally rooted in unchanging
justice, on which the binding force of international proclamations is also
based. This aspect is often overlooked when the attempt is made to deprive
rights of their true function in the name of a narrowly utilitarian
perspective. Since rights and the resulting duties follow naturally from human
interaction, it is easy to forget that they are the fruit of a commonly held
sense of justice built primarily upon solidarity among the members of society,
and hence valid at all times and for all peoples. This intuition was
expressed as early as the fifth century by Augustine of Hippo, one of the
masters of our intellectual heritage. He taught that the saying: Do not do to
others what you would not want done to you "cannot in any way vary
according to the different understandings that have arisen in the world"
(De Doctrina Christiana, III, 14). Human rights, then, must be respected as an
expression of justice, and not merely because they are enforceable through the
will of the legislators.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As history proceeds, new situations arise, and the attempt is made to link them
to new rights. Discernment, that is, the capacity to distinguish good from
evil, becomes even more essential in the context of demands that concern the
very lives and conduct of persons, communities and peoples. In tackling the
theme of rights, since important situations and profound realities are
involved, discernment is both an indispensable and a fruitful virtue.
Discernment, then, shows that entrusting exclusively to individual States, with
their laws and institutions, the final responsibility to meet the aspirations
of persons, communities and entire peoples, can sometimes have consequences
that exclude the possibility of a social order respectful of the dignity and
rights of the person. On the other hand, a vision of life firmly anchored in
the religious dimension can help to achieve this, since recognition of the
transcendent value of every man and woman favors conversion of heart, which
then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war, and to
promote justice and peace. This also provides the proper context for the
inter-religious dialogue that the United Nations is called to support, just as
it supports dialogue in other areas of human activity. Dialogue should be
recognized as the means by which the various components of society can articulate
their point of view and build consensus around the truth concerning particular
values or goals. It pertains to the nature of religions, freely practiced, that
they can autonomously conduct a dialogue of thought and life. If at this level,
too, the religious sphere is kept separate from political action, then great
benefits ensue for individuals and communities. On the other hand, the United
Nations can count on the results of dialogue between religions, and can draw
fruit from the willingness of believers to place their experiences at the
service of the common good. Their task is to propose a vision of faith not in
terms of intolerance, discrimination and conflict, but in terms of complete
respect for truth, coexistence, rights, and reconciliation.
Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom,
understood as the expression of a dimension that is at once individual and
communitarian a vision that brings out the unity of the person while clearly
distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the believer.
The activity of the United Nations in recent years has ensured that public
debate gives space to viewpoints inspired by a religious vision in all its
dimensions, including ritual, worship, education, dissemination of information
and the freedom to profess and choose religion. It is inconceivable, then, that
believers should have to suppress a part of themselves their faith in order to
be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy
one's rights. The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of
protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology
or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature. The full guarantee
of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship, but has
to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion, and hence to the
possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order.
Indeed, they actually do so, for example through their influential and generous
involvement in a vast network of initiatives which extend from Universities,
scientific institutions and schools to health care agencies and charitable
organizations in the service of the poorest and most marginalized. Refusal to
recognize the contribution to society that is rooted in the religious dimension
and in the quest for the Absolute by its nature, expressing communion between
persons would effectively privilege an individualistic approach, and would
fragment the unity of the person.
My presence at this Assembly is a sign of esteem for the United Nations, and it
is intended to express the hope that the Organization will increasingly serve
as a sign of unity between States and an instrument of service to the entire human
family. It also demonstrates the willingness of the Catholic Church to offer
her proper contribution to building international relations in a way that
allows every person and every people to feel they can make a difference. In a
manner that is consistent with her contribution in the ethical and moral sphere
and the free activity of her faithful, the Church also works for the
realization of these goals through the international activity of the Holy See.
Indeed, the Holy See has always had a place at the assemblies of the Nations,
thereby manifesting its specific character as a subject in the international
domain. As the United Nations recently confirmed, the Holy See thereby makes
its contribution according to the dispositions of international law, helps to
define that law, and makes appeal to it.
The United Nations remains a privileged setting in which the Church is
committed to contributing her experience "of humanity", developed
over the centuries among peoples of every race and culture, and placing it at
the disposal of all members of the international community. This experience and
activity, directed towards attaining freedom for every believer, seeks also to
increase the protection given to the rights of the person. Those rights are
grounded and shaped by the transcendent nature of the person, which permits men
and women to pursue their journey of faith and their search for God in this
world. Recognition of this dimension must be strengthened if we are to sustain
humanity's hope for a better world and if we are to create the conditions for
peace, development, cooperation, and guarantee of rights for future
generations.
In my recent Encyclical, Spe Salvi, I indicated that "every generation has
the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right way to order
human affairs" (no. 25). For Christians, this task is motivated by the
hope drawn from the saving work of Jesus Christ. That is why the Church is
happy to be associated with the activity of this distinguished Organization,
charged with the responsibility of promoting peace and good will throughout the
earth. Dear Friends, I thank you for this opportunity to address you today, and
I promise you of the support of my prayers as you pursue your noble task.
Before I take my leave from this distinguished Assembly, I should like to offer
my greetings, in the official languages, to all the Nations here represented.
Peace and Prosperity with God's help!
[The Pope repeated the above greeting in French, Spanish, Arab, Chinese and
Russian]
Association for the Rights of
Catholics in the Church http://www.arccsites.org/
In this year commemorating the enormous contribution to the
Muslim-Jewish-Christian
Thousands of our brothers and sisters have been killed, many have been tortured, and American civil liberties have been negated based on a story that has been challenged by hundreds of highly credentialed technical experts and scholars.
We, of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth during these trying times, execute the principles of our combined faiths: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8), God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and love. (2nd Timothy1:7), Say what is true, although it may be bitter and displeasing to people. (Prophet Muhammad: Hadith: Baihaqi) http://www.mujca.com
As we can
engage in wishful thinking, we can also engage in fearful thinking. It
takes a great deal of Ignatian spiritual freedom and courage to read and listen
to serious difficulties with the official explanation of Sept. 11, 2001. Dr. David Ray Griffin explains his own
perspective in Christian Faith and the Truth about 9/11. We can ask whether our own faith can
interface with the power of the media, corporations, and the government. Were
the teachings of Jesus on the dignity of each person opposed to the notion of
American empire presented by some neo-conservatives? Did Jesus have serious difficulties with the
empire that existed when he brought his life and his message to our
world? Was Jesus crucified because of His opposition to Empire? Does
Jesus today have difficulty with any empire?
Read also David Ray Griffin, The New
There are at least four
versions of 9/11:
1. The official
conspiracy story: on Sept. 11, 2001, 19 Arab Muslims hi-jacked four US
Commercial airliners. Two of them crashed into two buildings of the
Even after two planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the FAA knew another plane was flying toward Washington DC, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, the most protected building on the planet, indeed into the West not the East Wing of the Pentagon where the military leaders and Defense Department was, then the plane completely evaporated except for a paper Passport. The hijacker who had trouble flying a small single-engine plane performed a complex large plane maneuver that even an experienced pilot could not accomplish.
A fourth
plane was forced down in
2. Same as
above except that 9/11 was blowback to our gross violation of human rights
around the world especially to the Palestinians,
3. People in the US Government and military knew about the conspiracy and allowed it to happen, ordering Norad to stand-down its fighter planes which about 100 times a year intercepts flights off course or flights suspected of being hi-jacked.
4. People in
the US Government and Military conspired to carry out 9/11, collapsing the
three buildings in the
There is no
evidence the 19 Arabs named were devout Muslims ready to meet their Maker or
even that they were on the planes. Some of the nineteen are still
alive. The building fires were not even close to the temperature needed
to melt steel. No high-rise steel buildings before or after 9/11 have
collapsed because of fires or planes crashing into them. Millions of
dollars were made by those betting stocks would fall of the two airlines that
crashed into the
The 9/11 Truth Coalition includes Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, engineers, architects, scholars, veterans, air-plane pilots, many of the relatives of the victims, many of the fire and police departments and of the F.B.I (all of which latter three groups are afraid to speak out) etc. etc. Some have spoken out and have been ridiculed and dismissed as crazy, even fired or threatened. One of the greatest crimes in history has been committed and no one has been prosecuted. The FBI says it has no legal case against Osama Bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks. The latter’s “confession” on a poor quality video is obviously not him. To the extent that some Al-qaeda may have taken credit for out-witting the greatest super-power in the world, it has greatly increased their prestige and numbers.
Although no one pretends to know all the details partly
because much of the evidence has been destroyed, the one point that the 9/11 Truth
Coalition agree on is that there needs to be an entirely
new independent investigation. If respected
citizens from a friendly country like
In any case an end to
the war system with the secrecy that accompanies it is imperative and now. Likewise, an end to the
secrecy and confidentiality of economic and scientific research. Jesus says the truth will make us free. First the truth may hurt, but eventually the
truth will make us free. As St. Ignatius
of Loyola says in the Spiritual Exercises,
Discernment of Spirits, no. 326, if we reveal deceits and malice, the evil
spirit sees that he cannot succeed because his obvious deceptions have been
detected. On a positive level, to be
honest with ourselves is the very best effort a person or the human family can
make. The resources of our planet need
to be shared or there won’t be any resources to share.
A leader of the Patriots and in general agreement with the 9/11 Truth Coalition is Dr. Robert Bowman. Dr. Robert Bowman has a doctorate in nuclear physics, was a Lt. Col. in the Air Force, was highly decorated for his over 100 combat missions in Vietnam, was advisor to Ford and Carter on weapons in Space and the missile-shield "defense" system termed Star Wars. See http://www.thepatriots.US and also http://www.patriotsquestions911.com
Bob Aldridge is a World War II veteran and former engineer. He is an adviser/consultant sponsor of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, British-American Security Information Council and the Institute for Law and Peace. His book America in Peril puts in doubt the official version of 9/11 and recounts the intrigue and deception that has followed.
How can doing research into 9/11 be a call from God? Another false flag operation may precede the 2008 elections causing even more panic and fear.
See also http://www.cincinnati911truth.org/ Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth http://www.ae911truth.org/
410 architectural and engineering professionals and over 2000 other supporters including A@E students have signed the petition demanding of Congress a truly independent investigation.
If the evidence is so clear, why don't more people know about it?
911 Truth people feel that the Principalities and Powers including the media do not even want to discuss it because the global economy is so fragile that the truth would cause such a lack of confidence in the system that the truth would lead to a global financial collapse. However, 911 Truth think that not revealing the truth will cause an even greater evil, an ecological disaster. It's evident that no matter who is elected, there will be only small changes. The world needs such basic changes that only the truth will set us free. If we don’t challenge this false flag operation, the next time they will be more clever and efficient.
Some say the Anthrax incident is part of the neo-con
conspiracy; also the present support of
The main point that all in the 911 Truth Coalition agree on is that a
truly independent investigation is necessary and now. Otherwise those who planned and executed it
will try again and next time be more efficient. No one knows all of the details. But it’s clear that the official
explanation has huge holes in it. The
recent report of the National
I suggest that
whatever your religion, philosophy, or human values that you compare your
values and principles with those of the American Empire of some of the
neo-conservatives. I think you can see
from the vision presented on this web-page that my own Catholic faith and
vision is in direct contradiction with an American Empire or any Empire.
We need to join the
world community, create in a non-violent way a global ethic, put basic economic
and solidarity human rights into our legal and constitutional structures,
create a form of economic democracy and a democratic world federation.
Palestinian
Refugees
One of the most thoughtful and
detailed analyses of the Palestinian situation that could provide the basis for
honest negotiations beyond the pale of "security" and
"terrorism" which permits us to push the issue aside. Karen
Abu Zaid is Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
for
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Edward
Said Lecture |
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I am deeply honored to have been asked to deliver this year's Edward Said
lecture here at
It is to the
I begin with a few words on the remarkably gifted Palestinian to whose memory this lecture series is dedicated. Edward Said was born in British Mandate Palestine and his extended family was forced to flee the 1948 conflict to dispersed locations – Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and the United States, thus reflecting a blend of the Palestinian refugee and diaspora experience.
Some might wish to highlight the outward contrasts between Edward's life
of relatively privileged opportunity and the daily struggle for survival
presently confronting many Palestinians – refugees and non-refugees
alike. I prefer to note that, however wide the divide of class and
circumstance, Edward Said's work succeeded in illuminating for a global
audience the universal Palestinian predicament, and within it, the particular
ordeal of
Such perspectives resonate with UNRWA for a number of reasons. Our
humanitarian and human development activities are non-political in character and
practical in orientation. To be effective in our work, however, we must be
conscious of the complex context in which the
UNRWA's work is informed as much by an understanding of this context as
it is by our close physical connection with the
As many of you know, UNRWA's raison d'être is the direct provision of
essential public services to
Tonight, I shall offer glimpses of the
I chose the themes of exile, isolation and prospects to highlight
pertinent aspects of the uniquely fraught
The leading word in my title this evening is a defining attribute of the refugee condition everywhere. In refugee parlance, "exile" implies the occurrence of abnormal – usually tragic - events which threaten life, liberty or safety to a point where the instinct of self-preservation overrides attachment to community, land and livelihood, propelling flight to a place of safety. This sequence – flight, dispossession and arrival at a place of refuge – triggers a ripple of dissonance at a number of levels. The refugee is cast adrift from the moorings of identity, kinship, livelihood and belonging. And in their place emerges a sense of loss, the psyche of dislocation and an overwhelming longing for that which is lost.
Beyond the very personal, human consequence of forced flight, mass refugee movements disturb the often fragile equilibrium of international relations and immediately raise the issue of international responsibility.
States are under an obligation to guarantee the protection of rights and freedoms for their nationals and others in their territories. People become refugees when their country of origin is no longer able or willing to perform that obligation or afford them the protections necessary for normal life. To compensate, there is a matrix of shared, overlapping duties and roles entrusted to a variety of international actors. These are grounded in international law and custom and are meant to ensure that the "protection vacuum" in which refugees find themselves is filled.
Shared responsibilities straddle the humanitarian, developmental, political and diplomatic arenas. Ideally, these should function in mutually reinforcing harmony to deliver international protection for refugees. Inherently and by definition, such protection is finite in duration because the law and practice of refugee protection recognizes - at least implicitly - the refugee's fundamental need to physically restore the broken bond with his or her place of origin. Moreover, the protection framework assumes that reinstating the connection with the country of origin is the most effective way to resume full protection to the refugee.
If this condensed outline of forced flight and its connotations is accepted, it is appropriate to consider to what extent it corresponds to the experience of Palestinian exile and isolation, and how these themes play out in the countries and territory where UNRWA exercises its mandate.
On 14 May, 1948, the State of
For one side, the conflict was a war of liberation and independence, and victory an affirmation of the rightness of its cause. For the other, it was a catastrophe or Nakba presaging an era of suffering, struggle and unwavering resistance. One question on which views diverge particularly sharply, concerns the circumstances of Palestinian flight. Was it a "conventional" exodus of civilians seeking safety from an armed conflict in which civilian casualties were incidental, or was the scenario one of expulsion in which the ejection of, and casualties among, Palestinians were calculated and premeditated?
I raise this question to prompt reflection on a particular characteristic
of Palestinian exile, namely, that the conflict which 'created' the refugees
established at the same time a new and different entity on the
The point is the 1948 conflict was imbued with existential significance. In the popular consciousness of those in the new State and throughout the Jewish diaspora, there was at the outset (and reportedly long before) little appetite for allowing - let alone encouraging - the inclusion of Palestinians in the new State. On the contrary, many historians agree that the overriding intent was to discourage or exclude Palestinian return.
In the decades since 1948, this 'orientation towards exclusion' has been cemented in many ways. Recurrent conflict has reinforced deep-seated antagonism on both sides, playing into the hands of those, including many in positions of authority, who question the feasibility of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. And, of course, there is the demographic issue, which tends to cast natural Palestinian population growth as an effective bar to the possibility of return.
If we admit that the option of refugee return to the country of origin is
central to the protection framework, then we see how the special circumstances
surrounding the 1948 conflict and Palestinian exodus significantly constricted
– and continues to constrict - the scope for protection and just
solutions for Palestine refugees. I refer to the "orientation to
exclude" to describe part of the limitations placed on the protections
available to
Across the region in which UNRWA works, Jordan and Syria stand out as
countries where the trials of Palestinian exile have been tempered by a climate
favorable to their protection. In place of the inclination to exclude, in
In
Political instability and armed conflict have also been the bane of
While challenges remain in
There is a tendency to assume that conditions in the West Bank are
relatively acceptable in comparison to the situation in
I shall speak to four areas where Palestinian exile in the
The homes and landed property of Palestinians and
The circumstances of this invasion of fundamental rights vary. Some houses are destroyed in the course of military operations. Many are demolished in pursuance of judicially issued administrative orders on the grounds that the owners lack building permits. While the orders are issued under Israeli law, questions arise as to why so few Palestinians are able to satisfy the requirements for applying for building permits and why so many who do apply are denied them.
It has also been observed that the areas cleared by the destruction of Palestinian
homes and property appear to correspond to the expansion of Israeli settlements
on Palestinian land. The inference is that settlement activity and demolitions
may be allied elements in a larger scheme to create a Palestinian-free zone
around occupied
And land confiscation appears to be quickening of late, in parallel with
accelerated construction of Israeli settlements, with significant parcels set
aside for exclusive use by some 480,000 Israeli settlers or to support a vast
security infrastructure. It is estimated that some 38% of
Obstacles placed by the occupying power to impede free movement of
Palestinians and their goods are a feature of the closure regime in the West
Bank. These take a variety of forms: both stable and 'flying' checkpoints
manned by military or private security personnel; trenches dug across roads;
blocks of concrete; and mounds of earth or boulders. These obstacles, which
The illegal separation barrier, with its associated system of
checkpoints, terminals, permits and searches, is another practical
manifestation of exile exclusion and isolation of Palestinians in the West
Bank. The barrier is a hybrid structure. Much of it takes the form of a fence
with restricted security zones on either side along with an array of security
accessories – observation towers, patrol roads, trenches and razor wire.
In parts, the barrier is a wall of grey concrete slabs, 25 to 28 feet high and
several inches thick. It is a dominant, overpowering presence in the lives of
those who live in its shadow, a testament to the exclusion of Palestinians from
normal life and a bold statement of
Construction of the barrier has continued in disregard of the 2004
Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, and now stretches over
57% of its planned 723 kilometer route. When it is completed, it will have used
up or rendered useless nearly 10% of
Those who have seen the barrier firsthand or on a map will notice that it
runs a jagged course, encroaching deep into West Bank territory at many points,
creating pockets between it and the border with
And
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; But were we burdened with like weight of
pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain." These are the words
of Adriana, in Shakespeare's "A Comedy of Errors," a title that rings
with irony.
I hasten to add that there is nothing inherently wretched about the 1.5
million Palestinians in
The fortitude of Gazans is legendary. Their cries seldom reach our ears.
What we do hear, clearly and repeatedly, are pleas from within and outside the
United Nations to stem the suffering of
Since early 2006, after Hamas won free and fair, democratic elections in
the occupied Palestinian territory, a range of progressively more stringent
sanctions have been imposed on
The main crossings at Rafah and Karni have been closed for most of the
period since June, suspending exports from
Consider the decrease in the declining number of trucks allowed in over
the last 12 months. From January to June 2007, prior to Hamas taking control of
The blockade on
Among the blockade's most destructive effects on Palestinians are those
of a long-term nature. Last year, before
Most refugees are no longer able to supplement UNRWA rations with purchases of food; they cannot afford it, or produce never makes it from farm to market for lack of fuel or because there are too few donkey-carts.
And while the siege bites deeply into the lives of Palestinians, armed
conflict between
There is no shortage of certain items in
For those Palestinians involved in militant politics, the siege of
The siege of
A distinguished American jurist once observed that law and reason are "all we have standing between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feeling."
I fear that
For all these reasons, today's
If these are the outlines of Palestinian exile, if dispossession, exclusion and isolation are so deeply embedded in the Palestine refugee experience, what prospects might there be for Palestinians and Palestine refugees?
I referred earlier to the matrix of shared responsibilities which
constitutes the corpus of international protection. I feel strongly that the
distress of Palestinians and the wretched
In this regard, we are grateful to those nations, notably the
At the same time, it is impossible to deny the consequences of a divided, partial approach to international responsibilities. Humanitarian and human development work was never meant to function in an environment devoid of constructive efforts to resolve conflict or to address its underlying causes. Indeed, humanitarian work is profoundly undermined in a context where there is implicit or active complicity in creating conditions of mass suffering. This is the situation bedeviling Palestinian prospects. We are at a juncture where helping Palestinians with the basics of daily survival takes precedence over the achievement of human rights and longer-term human development outcomes. (And we are reduced from contemplating solutions to counting trucks and checkpoints.) UNRWA's commitment to Palestine refugees will persist, but we are under no illusions about the urgent need for complementary action from all sides on the diplomatic and political fronts.
I see initially three avenues for creating a glimmer of hope for
Palestinians,
To maintain the state of closure and siege means continuing to abdicate responsibility toward ordinary Palestinian men, women and children. The majority is neither politically nor militarily active, yet their lives are drastically impaired by measures whose pretexts are political or military. Continuing the siege denies Palestinians their humanity and pretends that Palestinian lives are not worthy of interest. If concrete action is to be taken to reverse abject conditions, the well-being of every Palestinian should be understood to be a matter of legitimate concern to the international community. It is from their humanity – and nothing more, certainly not their political leanings – that they acquire their status as subjects of international law and their entitlement to protection. For this simple but profound reason, objectives such as the strengthening, weakening or overthrowing of any political entity should not be deemed to override the need to protect and care for the hundreds of thousands with no direct affiliation with the intended target.
There is a need to re-open
A second avenue towards opening up prospects for Palestinians and
These simple yet fundamental precepts of humanity and justice contributed to the rapid development of international law after the Second World War. With the Charter of the United Nations at its centre, the modern legal scheme elevates the protection and integrity of the individual to a place of prominence under international law. Hence the attention it gives to human rights in international relations and jurisprudence and to addressing contraventions of human rights, not least those which, by virtue of their gravity, frequency or scale are deemed to "shock the conscience of mankind" and are therefore considered to offend the very essence of humanity.
Allow me to mention a few provisions from international humanitarian law
instruments, including the
There are clear prohibitions against: "systematic attacks against any civilian population"; "inhumane acts... intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury …to mental or physical health"; intentionally directing attacks against civilian populations or civilian objects; and the transfer by the occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. International law also proscribes "the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity".
Given the magnitude of civilian casualties in the conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory, the density of the Palestinian popula