The United States government has cut off funds to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organisation (UNESCO), following the agency’s admission of Palestine as a full member.

Washington’s decision to withold $60m in funding, which is about one-quarter of UNESCO’s annual budget, came after 107 out of 173 countries voted in favor of the Palestinian bid for statehood.

Although UNESCO’s membership marks a small victory for Palestinian officials, it could help them protect more than 20 monumental Palestinian cultural and religious sites.

The US also condemned UNESCO’s move, saying that it “undermines” the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.

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Palestinians say they are outraged by the Israeli government’s decision to withhold millions of dollars of tax revenues from them while accelerating settlement construction. The decision follows Palestine being recognised as a state by UNESCO — the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

There are now 150,000 Palestinian Authority employees across the West Bank and Gaza who do not know whether they will receive their full salaries next week.

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Sixty-three years ago, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was forced to leave his home in the Galilean city of Safed and flee with his family to Syria. He took up shelter in a canvas tent provided to all the arriving refugees. Though he and his family wished for decades to return to their home and homeland, they were denied that most basic of human rights. That child’s story, like that of so many other Palestinians, is mine.

This month, however, as we commemorate another year of our expulsion — which we call the nakba, or catastrophe — the Palestinian people have cause for hope: this September, at the United Nations General Assembly, we will request international recognition of the State of Palestine on the 1967 border and that our state be admitted as a full member of the United Nations.

Many are questioning what value there is to such recognition while the Israeli occupation continues. Others have accused us of imperiling the peace process. We believe, however, that there is tremendous value for all Palestinians — those living in the homeland, in exile and under occupation.

It is important to note that the last time the question of Palestinian statehood took center stage at the General Assembly, the question posed to the international community was whether our homeland should be partitioned into two states. In November 1947, the General Assembly made its recommendation and answered in the affirmative. Shortly thereafter, Zionist forces expelled Palestinian Arabs to ensure a decisive Jewish majority in the future state of Israel, and Arab armies intervened. War and further expulsions ensued. Indeed, it was the descendants of these expelled Palestinians who were shot and wounded by Israeli forces on Sunday as they tried to symbolically exercise their right to return to their families’ homes.

Minutes after the State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948, the United States granted it recognition. Our Palestinian state, however, remains a promise unfulfilled.

Palestine’s admission to the United Nations would pave the way for the internationalization of the conflict as a legal matter, not only a political one. It would also pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice.

Our quest for recognition as a state should not be seen as a stunt; too many of our men and women have been lost for us to engage in such political theater. We go to the United Nations now to secure the right to live free in the remaining 22 percent of our historic homeland because we have been negotiating with the State of Israel for 20 years without coming any closer to realizing a state of our own. We cannot wait indefinitely while Israel continues to send more settlers to the occupied West Bank and denies Palestinians access to most of our land and holy places, particularly in Jerusalem. Neither political pressure nor promises of rewards by the United States have stopped Israel’s settlement program.

Negotiations remain our first option, but due to their failure we are now compelled to turn to the international community to assist us in preserving the opportunity for a peaceful and just end to the conflict. Palestinian national unity is a key step in this regard. Contrary to what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel asserts, and can be expected to repeat this week during his visit to Washington, the choice is not between Palestinian unity or peace with Israel; it is between a two-state solution or settlement-colonies.

Despite Israel’s attempt to deny us our long-awaited membership in the community of nations, we have met all prerequisites to statehood listed in the Montevideo Convention, the 1933 treaty that sets out the rights and duties of states. The permanent population of our land is the Palestinian people, whose right to self-determination has been repeatedly recognized by the United Nations, and by the International Court of Justice in 2004. Our territory is recognized as the lands framed by the 1967 border, though it is occupied by Israel.

We have the capacity to enter into relations with other states and have embassies and missions in more than 100 countries. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union have indicated that our institutions are developed to the level where we are now prepared for statehood. Only the occupation of our land hinders us from reaching our full national potential; it does not impede United Nations recognition.

The State of Palestine intends to be a peace-loving nation, committed to human rights, democracy, the rule of law and the principles of the United Nations Charter. Once admitted to the United Nations, our state stands ready to negotiate all core issues of the conflict with Israel. A key focus of negotiations will be reaching a just solution for Palestinian refugees based on Resolution 194, which the General Assembly passed in 1948.

Palestine would be negotiating from the position of one United Nations member whose territory is militarily occupied by another, however, and not as a vanquished people ready to accept whatever terms are put in front of us.

We call on all friendly, peace-loving nations to join us in realizing our national aspirations by recognizing the State of Palestine on the 1967 border and by supporting its admission to the United Nations. Only if the international community keeps the promise it made to us six decades ago, and ensures that a just resolution for Palestinian refugees is put into effect, can there be a future of hope and dignity for our people. (Source)

Mahmoud Abbas is the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the president of the Palestinian National Authority.

It’s a place called, Palestine. No wonder why you, don’t know it. Israel was created in 1948, and it ethnic cleansed, Palestine.

Israeli Border Policemen have filmed themselves abusing and humiliating Palestinians in videos they have posted on YouTube over the past year.

In one clip uploaded to the video sharing website, an Arab youth is shown in arid terrain, slapping himself, while a voice is heard instructing him to say “I love you, Border Police,” and “I will f**k you, Palestine,” in Arabic. The victim is forced to respond to everything he is ordered to do, to the raucous laughter of the cameraman and his friends, all Border Policemen.

We the civil society representatives of the peoples of East Asia and South-East Asia, gathered in Shah Alam , Malaysia on 3-4 November 2010, having discussed and deliberated on the Asian Caravan to Gaza in support of the Palestinian National Liberation struggle hereby declare:

The Palestinian struggle for freedom is the defining & central geopolitical issue of our times & the Palestinian Intifada stands as the vanguard of the international resistance to imperialism and Zionism.

We extend our solidarity to the courageous people of Palestine in their struggle, resistance and intifada against the Zionist Israeli occupation and affirm our commitment to:

• Right of self-determination for the Palestinians;
• Stop the Zionist occupation of Palestine;
• The equation for the rights of all in the historic Palestinian state;
• Right of return intact for Palestinian refugees;
• International boycott against Israel’s policy of Apartheid;

We endorse the Cairo Declaration of 2010; the United Palestinian call of July 2005 for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to compel Israel to comply with international law; the Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI); and all other initiatives to end the occupation of Palestine.

Therefore, we urge and a commitment to develop and participate in the movement of the global community to cooperate with the Palestinian people for the independence of Palestine. We will also accelerate the formation of the Palestine Solidarity for Asia Society, in the form of a combination of community organizations, party-political parties, social movements and civil society institutions throughout the Asia community.

Taking a serious view of:

• Israel’s collective punishment sustained by the occupation and the blockade of Gaza;
• Placement / illegal occupation of the West Bank, including East Jeruselam, and the continuing development of the Jewish houses and the construction of separation wall;
• Denying the democratic rights of the Palestinian people as shown by Israel, the United States, Canada, the European Union, and other post-2006 Palestinian elections in Gaza;
• Genocide in the form of a war crime to remove the Palestinians by Israel;

A variety of threats that continue to occur to destroy al-Aqsa mosque and Qubattus Sakhra, as well as the many Christian holy sites as a result of Judaisation on these sites as well as all the historic sites in Palestine without mercy;
* Continuing discrimination and oppression faced by Palestinians who had lived in the territory of Israel;
* Exodus of Palestinians out of millions of Palestinian refugees;
* Zionist ideology which became the basis for Israel and a source of inspiration and legitimacy of the racist and oppressive measures,

We are committed to:

• Building solidarity with the Asian community for Palestinian independence;
• Provide assistance in kind, human resources, and volunteers to support the struggle of the Palestinian people;
• Support and strengthen the boycott of Israeli products in addition to efforts to terminate the financial companies that directly support the occupation and / or the Israel-owned industries;
• The campaign for not working with academic institutions, cultural and sporting events which includes Israel;
• Protest against government decisions and actions that support our country’s own economic, financial, military and diplomatic Israel and the actions and decisions that allow Israel to act arbitrarily;
• Launch a campaign to prosecute and punish the regime of Israel for their various war crimes;
• Reaffirm the UN Resolution 3379 which equates Zionism with Racism, with the support of the international community.

Therefore we demand the Zionist regime of Israel to immediately:

• End the blockade of Gaza;
• End illegal construction by Israel, breaking down barriers and to close the road blocks (check points), which has transformed into a prison of Palestine-while-open of the largest concentration camps in the world
• Respect the sanctity of the sites of Muslims and Christians in the Palestinian territories and stop their evil plans against al-Aqsa mosque and Qubbat-us Sakhra;
• Stop the murder plans against the leaders of the Palestinian state while brutal violence, torture and murder of civil citizens indiscriminately;
• Freeing the men, women and children of Palestinians in prison, which amounts to more than 11,000 people.

We urge our government to:

• Cut off all relations, whether open or secret, with Israel;
• Using international forums including the UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek accountability for Israeli crimes against humanity and war crimes;
• Full support of economic, political, diplomatic and military aid to the Palestinian resistance movement against their invaders;
• Support the boycott campaign, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), which was initiated by Palestinian civil society.

We unite with all peoples’ movements and national resistances, peace loving citizens and democratic states of the world for the establishment of a sovereign, independent and democratic state of Palestine with Jerusalem as the capital.

Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid
Chairman, “Asian Caravan to Gaza” Conference

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Over the past several months, a group of 45 Palestinians from all walks of life — men and women, on the political right and left, secular and religious, politicians, academics, civil society and business actors, from occupied Palestine, inside Israel, and in the Diaspora participated in a workshop. After several workshops in Palestine and abroad and a continuous online debate, the group have produced the first iteration of “Regaining The Initiative: Palestinian Strategic Options To End Israeli Occupation.” The document is posted at www.palestinestrategygroup.ps and reflects an alternative to an official but impotent Palestinian discourse that will very shortly, in the judgment of most Palestinians, run head-on into a brick (cement) wall.

Download “Regaining The Initiative: Palestinian Strategic Options To End Israeli Occupation” [.pdf format]

Palestinian society is a dynamic, thinking society which has been so battered and demeaned by Israel and its supporters that many folk, including many Palestinians themselves, will be surprised that the Palestinians have any options whatsoever. One thing is for sure: no matter how long the illegal Israeli occupation continues, do not expect the Palestinians to wake up one morning and accept that they are somehow less human than any other free person in this world.

The Palestinian people have given everyone — including their own traditional leadership — plenty of time to end this humiliating and brutal occupation. When all else fails, Palestinians will reclaim the initiative, and will continue to do so over and over, until this occupation is consigned to the trash bin of history, along with all the war criminals who allowed it to persist for so many years.

Mussab Abu Maateq, one, Hana Abu Maateq, three, Rudeina Abu Maateq, four, and Saleh Abu Maateq, five, were killed along with their mother when a tank shell hit their home in Beit Hanun, doctors at the Kamal Radwan hospital said. Ten people were reportedly injured in the incident, three of them sustaining serious to critical wounds, and one person was trapped under the rubble. A Palestinian source in the Strip said that a member of the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad’s military wing, was also martyred by Israeli occupation army soldiers.

Earlier Monday, Palestinian fighters fired three Qassam rockets from northern Gaza towards occupied territories. The rockets landed in the Netivot area, within the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council and on Palestinian territory. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian organizations are preparing for another round of talks in Egypt in regards to the offer for a truce with Israel. According to estimates, the parties will accept the proposal presented by Hamas leader Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar over the weekend.

Israeli daily Ynet said Sunday that Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, said that Israel is continuing its activities in the Gaza Strip, while completely ignoring the discussions on a truce. “Therefore, there is no reason for us to stop taking measures to defend ourselves,” he said.

Heavy exchanges of fire took place over the weekend between Israeli occupation forces and Palestinian resistance fighters in Beit Lahiya. A 14-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in the incident, and at least seven other Palestinians were injured, three of them sustaining critical wounds.

The hospital in the northern reported that the girl killed was the daughter of a senior Hamas members arrested by the forces during the incident. The Palestinians added that the girl’s mother was also injured in the clashes.

Sixty years after the Naqba, the catastrophe, Palestinians are still without a state. They are living under occupation, many are in refugee camps, others are scattered around the world, and a part of the Palestinian people are no more than second class citizens in Israel itself. The Palestinian struggle to achieve freedom and independence is therefore firstly a struggle to exist as a people. In this endeavour, resistance is essential. Resistance through memory, resistance through unwavering demands for their rights, resistance against open or covert attempts to displace them and take their land from them.

But what sort of resistance?

Armed resistance to occupation is legitimate and legal under international law, under the strict condition that it does not target civilians. But as someone who truly believes in the sanctity of human life, and as a doctor who always puts human life first, I have an inherent belief that non-violence is a fundamental philosophical choice.

Besides this, in a more practical way, I think that armed resistance is a narrow and elitist approach, involving only a select few and leaving the rest of the people out. And it is based on the assumption that armed force is the only force that exists in the world.

This is wrong. The decolonization struggle in India and the fight against the apartheid regime in South Africa clearly proved that non-violence is a force too, and a much more powerful one. When a whole people moves, it is an irresistible force.

And this is our choice for Palestine.

I lead the Palestinian National Initiative (Al Mubadara), a political party and social movement dedicated to involving people — all people — in a mass, popular, non-violent resistance movement to obtain our rights as Palestinians.

This choice may seem utopian after sixty years of conflict and so much violence and bloodshed. But this is only an appearance, because the media only reports on acts of violence, creating the misleading impression that violence prevails. This is exacerbated by the dominant Israeli narrative which consistently portrays Palestinians as aggressors and not as a people under occupation struggling for freedom, justice and independence.

In truth, Palestinians are masters of non-violence. They have been resisting the all-pervasive violence of a forty-one year old military occupation every day since it began. Forty-one years of resilience, of silent and stubborn efforts to live a normal life, to work, to raise children, to love and to exist, simply to exist, despite the hundreds of checkpoints, the incursions, the arrests, the killings, the house demolitions, the land dispossession, the discriminatory laws, the arbitrary and unjust actions of the Israeli military.

In such a situation building a school, choosing to become a doctor, cultivating your ancestral olive grove are all acts of resistance.

The Palestinian people made the strategic choice of non-violence decades ago. Now they need a leadership ready and willing to fully embrace this strategy, to capitalize on past experience and achievements in order to bring this formidable popular commitment to the next level: to switch from passive to active resistance; to start again a fully fledged, popular, mass non-violent resistance movement like the one that existed during the first intifada.

To achieve this goal, we need to engage with people, to convince and mobilize them, to reach a critical mass. And we need to defeat our greatest enemy: hopelessness. But we have a strategy.

The Palestinian National Initiative bases all its work on four pillars: 1 – Involving and organizing the people at the grassroots level. 2 – Helping people to stay where they live, providing support to their resilience and giving them the means to continue to resist in this most fundamental way, that is, to exist on their land. 3 – Working hand-in-hand with a strong international solidarity movement, which provides practical support and more importantly, moral support and hope. 4 – Working for a unified Palestinian leadership.

Today, in 2008, Palestinians are facing one of the most difficult periods in their history. The Gaza Strip is under a relentless and inhuman siege which began in January 2006, after HAMAS’ electoral victory in free and fair elections carried out under international observation. And Israel has been tightening this siege ever since, pushing the people of Gaza into an artificially created humanitarian catastrophe with the silent consent of the international community. The West Bank is more divided than ever, with the Apartheid Wall and settlements swallowing more and more Palestinian land. East Jerusalem is under threat of being entirely cut off from its Palestinian hinterland by new Israeli settlements carefully thought out to achieve the illegal annexation of the city.

And the Palestinian leadership, weakened and divided, could not react to the Annapolis meeting in any constructive manner. Palestinians are now engaged in an Israeli-controlled peace process which justifies holding 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza under siege, lacking electricity, fuel and even food. What kind of peace can this produce?

Today, Palestinians need your solidarity. The vocal few who have chosen non-violent resistance and the silent majority who have made the same choice, but are too exhausted, dispirited or weak to actively involve themselves in the struggle, both need your support. It is time for the people of the world to make their voices heard.

Expressing solidarity with the Palestinians who have chosen non-violence comforts them in their choice and strengthens their conviction. Your active solidarity means that you too are choosing non-violence.

Together, let us build a just and lasting peace for all, Palestinians and Israelis alike, based on justice, democracy and respect for human rights.

Not all Jews are Zionists and this report is certainly a prime example of what we are talking about.

The granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and a former West Bank resident spoke against Israel’s occupation of Palestine Tuesday night. Hosted by Athens for Justice in Palestine, Anna Baltzer’s lecture was one of many in her book tour. She wrote the book, “Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories,” to bring attention to the plight of Palestinians.

While teaching English in Turkey, Baltzer first learned the extent of the conflict when she traveled to other countries in the Middle East. She said at first she was shocked and angered by propaganda from the displaced Palestinian families, but Baltzer decided to see for herself if the stories were true.

She joined the International Women’s Peace Service and is now speaking against what she calls human rights violations in Israel.

Good to know that there are still decent people in the world who enjoy buying a picnic blanket in peace and solidarity with Palestine.