Israeli/Palestinian Unions agree on cooperative framework

The Israeli national trade union centre Histadrut and the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), both of which are affiliated to the ITUC, have reached a landmark agreement to protect the rights of Palestinian workers employed by Israeli employers, and to base future relations on negotiations, dialogue and joint initiatives to advance “fraternity and coexistence between the two peoples.” The current agreement draws on the terms of an initial 1995 agreement, which it had not been possible to fully implement in the intervening years.

See here. Awesome. And, frankly, a slap in the face to those anti-Israel folks who think of themselves as socialists and leftists.

Let's not make comparisons of tragedies

I've seen a lot in just the past few days on the history of Mizrahi Jews in Muslim countries. See here, here (which comes to me via here), and of course this dedicated site.

Israel is perhaps the least efficient "ethnic cleanser" in the history of mankind, calumnies to the contrary notwithstanding.

In 1947 some 740,000 Palestinians lived in the British Mandate for Palestine. Today, the Arab residents of the West Bank and Gaza, together with Arab citizens of Israel, comprise a total of over five million Palestinians (altogether over nine million people worldwide refer to themselves as Palestinian.)

Using a popular population growth rate equation, the Palestinian growth rate has been calculated as close to double that of Asia and Africa over a comparable period of time.

Drazen Petrovic defines ethnic cleansing as "a well-defined policy of a particular group of persons to systematically eliminate another group from a given territory." By this definition, only one type of ethnic cleansing has occurred in the Arab-Israeli conflict - that of the Jews of Asia and North Africa. Whereas before 1948 there were nearly 900,000 Jews living in Arab lands, by 2001 only 6,500 remained.

There are two very important points here. First, Israel's evilness is greatly exaggerated. Second, Jewish refugees from Arab and Mulsim countries suffered greatly and deserve to have their stories heard. However, I do have a problem with the way these two points are made together. It's true that many Palestinian supporters are hypocrites incapable of recognizing Jewish suffering except through token insincerities, but it seems the rhetoric is to undermine sympathy for the Palestinians by saying, "We had it worse."

It is possible and necessary to recognize the suffering of all parties without diminishing the suffering of any.

Gaza Fulbright blog

Via a worthwhile post by Mira Vogel at Engage, filled with links, there is a blog for the Gazan students denied exit visas to take advantage of Fulbright scholarships. Four have so far been allowed to go, though subjected to humiliation under the guise of security checks.

Israel and Palestine are a single flower

I know that a lot of Palestinian actions are reactions to Israeli actions. And a lot of Israeli actions are reactions to Palestinian actions. In Buddhism, sometimes they call that "mutually co-dependent origination." I prefer to avoid such long names and think of it simply as "recognizing that we are all connected." No human being exists in isolation. We only exist inside and in relation to a larger society. We are part of this world, not apart from it. And this world that we are part of includes all of us.

When the Japanese occupation of Korea ended (and this was an occupation far worse in every way that I can think of than the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories), the great Zen Master Man Gong dipped a flower in ink to write the calligraphy, "The Whole World is a Single Flower." Understanding that the Japanese and Koreans were not separate but both a part of a larger world, he had an amazing ability to forgive that I only hope to be able to develop. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that white people need black people to love them. Understanding that black Americans and white Americans were not separate but both a part of a larger America, he had a boundless capacity for love that I only hope to develop. Understanding interconnectedness means that loving your enemy is as easy as loving yourself. More, it is the same as loving yourself.

The Israelis and Palestinians are part of a single flower. You act together to make war or to make peace. You act as one. But instead of understanding this, Palestianians say, "What else can we do; you see how awful our lives are." Israelis say, "What else can we do; you see how awful our lives are." You make "us" and "them." You make difference and opposites and enemies. So long as you view yourselves as separate --arguing over who has had it worse, who is at fault, who wants peace more, and so on-- I think you will continue to avoid everything necessary to making peace and to make your own situations worse.

But we can love each other. When your enemy commits an act out of fear and anger, you should try to feel compassion for someone suffering in fear and anger. I know this isn't easy. When I see people write things on mepeace.org that express fear and anger, I find it difficult not to react from my own fear and anger. But I know we have to try. And I know that trying --which is the reason we're all here in the first place-- is something wonderful that we all share.

Stand Up For Peace

Bloggingheads presents two people actually capable of talking about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict with compassion.

(via Engage)

Real Palestinians' opinions

There's little recognition over here of the range of views in Palestinian society. Right-wing Islamophobes and racists pretend that all Palestinians are terrorists (or perhaps will concede that some merely support terrorism) while left-wing "anti-Zionists" pretend that all Palestinians are saints who support terrorism because it's saintly. I'm afraid the willingness to see Palestinians as supporting a two-state solution (they do) has disappeared lately. At one point, I could swear people understood that.

Two interviews (via Guide to the Perplexed) with Palestinians Sari Nusseibeh and Bassed Eid, from New Society: Harvard College Student Middle East Journal, can help people to understand the real views of real Palestinians.

Sari Nusseibeh:

What is Hamas? It is a virtual construct. Behind Hamas are indi-vidual human beings. Now individual human beings are open sys-tems. In other words, one day they may adopt the ideology of this virtual construct and another day they might adopt something else. Hamas is itself, full stop. It believes, for instance, in the liberation of all of Palestine, in the creation of an Islamic state. The question to ask is who is the person who adopts those beliefs and is such a person also somebody who will continue holding those beliefs. My feeling is that that is not the case. I think a majority of Palestinians are prepared to accept a two-state solution based on 1967 lines, East Jerusalem as a capital, compensation for refugees, all those things. If the Palestinians are given this offer, they will take it.

Bassed Eid:

We are having to face the consequences of our actions over the past seven years. In my opinion, the Palestinians totally lost their way during the past seven years. Things will get worse if we continue in the same way. We will have to change our direction.

the simple meaning of "both"

Abba Eban– Israel’s world-renowned diplomat in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s– famously said at one point that "the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." I actually believe that this can be said of Israelis as well as Palestinians.

Ralph Seliger at Meretz USA. It can be said of both sides, and ought to be said of both sides. But it can be said of both sides.