Plant 2,000 Olive Trees, Open UNGA fully to Palestinians

Beyond reach of law, Israeli armed forces, settlers commit continual assault on Palestinian farm families; Palestinians reach for UN status

Palestinian woman hugs
olive tree
uprooted by Israelis

Edited by Carolyn Bennett

  

U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation reports.

Israel’s military occupation enters year 45 and the work of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is more vital than ever. Contributions to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation help:

Produce and distribute educational resources to tens of thousands of people throughout the United States and support the community organizing work necessary to change U.S. policies.

West Bank village
Man picks olives

Continue support for boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns and build on recent successes in those campaigns.

Challenge U.S. military aid to Israel at every level of government ─ from city councils and school boards to Capitol Hill and the White House

Plant trees for Palestinian farming families.

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is the largest and most diverse coalition working to change U.S. policy toward Palestine/Israel to support human rights, international law, and equality.

Israeli Occupation repression:

Palestinian farmer

Increase in settler violence against Palestinian civilians since 2010:  39 percent

Increase in settler violence against Palestinian civilians since 2007: 315 percent

Palestinian trees vandalized (estimated number) by Israeli settlers in 2012: 7,500

Palestinian trees uprooted (estimated number) by Israel since 1967: 1.2 million

Palestinian families in the occupied territories who rely on farming for their livelihood:  80,000

Palestinian farmers’ applications for permits to access olive groves behind Israel’s apartheid wall DENIED: 42 percent

Gaza’s agricultural land rendered inaccessible because of Israel’s ‘buffer zone’:  30 percent

Suspects indicted out of 162 documented complaints of settler attacks against Palestinian trees: 1

Israeli settler burns
Palestinian olive trees

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has partnered with the Palestinian fair trade association to plant olive trees for Palestinian farming families.  

Toward a goal of 2,000 olive trees this year, the Campaign needs help to fund the planting of an additional 1,804 trees for Palestinian farming families.

UN General Assembly
193 Member States

In today’s news, the China Daily reports

Palestinians' UN bid

Despite the U.S. opposition to the Palestinian bid for non-member observer status in the United Nations, President Abbas affirms, “There is nothing preventing us from getting the incomplete membership in the UN.”

The permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said yesterday in a press conference ─ 

You give me an impression that you are ready for a historic event on the 29th of November.

Palestinian rights
Palestinian liberation

[The] historic event will take place when our president, President Mahmoud Abbas, with a large Palestinian delegation contribute to the efforts with all our friends and the General Assembly to legislate recognition of the State of Palestine at the United Nations and also change our status to a non-member observer state.

That will be a historic moment in the struggle of the Palestinian people, and a historic moment in the history of the United Nations.

The UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947, adopted Resolution 181, the China News article recalls, “which recognized the need to establish a Jewish state alongside an Arab state in the former British Mandate territory of Palestine.”

As soon as the Palestinian state’s membership is secured, President Abbas said, “The Palestinian side is ready to return to the negotiating table.” Before more time passes, he said, “This might be the last chance for making peace in the Middle East.”

Sources and notes

Contact information: officemanager@endtheoccupation.org or call 202-332-0994.

https://npo1.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1004565

Education for Just Peace in the Middle East (registered to do business as the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Tax-ID # 42-1636592).

http://www.endtheoccupation.org/section.php?id=300

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation conducts boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns and needs help to redouble its efforts in opposing unconditional military aid and diplomatic support for Israel.

“Palestine’s UN bid ‘historic moment’: envoy ─ UNITED NATIONS - Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, said yesterday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will submit the Palestinian bid for a non-member state status to the UN General Assembly tomorrow as planned. This will be ‘a historic moment’ for both the Palestinians and the 193-member states body.” (Updated: 2012-11-28 07:45, Xinhua), http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-11/28/content_15964928.htm

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Unmasking a “democratic” despot

From Al Jazeera’s “Middle East’s oldest dictatorship”

Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett

DICTATOR —

…Takes all

Israel took all but gave nothing in return. The settlements, the bypass roads and the industrial zones it built are exclusively for Jews. Israel and its various Zionist organizations have built more than 600 towns, villages and other forms of settlements for the Jews, but none for the Palestinians — not even those it considers part of its own citizenry who make up almost one-fifth of its population.

For decades, Israeli military and security services have ruled over another people against the will of those people. They have oppressed, tortured, exploited and robbed the Palestinians of their land, their water — and, most importantly, their freedom. There have been more political prisoners in Israeli jails than in the jails of any of its neighbors.

…Plays victim

Like other dictatorships, Israel denies the damage it has caused to the people under its rule and is delusional about an unrelenting occupation it deems necessary, benevolent — even divinely promised.

Like other dictatorships, Israel boasts of sacrificing for peace. It demonizes its detractors and opposition. It justifies its wrongdoing on the grounds of national security, order, and stability.

…Denies real victim

Palestinians live under multiple levels of military dictatorship and police state, separated by hundreds of checkpoints, ‘security’ walls and fences, policed by British/American-trained Palestinian forces under the supervision of Israel’s military and security services.

The ‘Palestine Liberation movement’ and PLO leadership in the West Bank are suppressing the urge to join the ‘Arab revolution’ instead of leading a Palestinian struggle for liberation from dictatorship.

PLO leadership for two decades has pursued a pipe dream — looking to Washington for salvation. Now Palestinians are petitioning the United Nations for recognition of a Palestinian State. Forcing them to continue accommodating a despot is both immoral and untenable.

Source

“The Middle East’s oldest dictatorship” (Source: Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst discusses Israel’s rule over the Palestinians beyond the peace rhetoric, Marwan Bishara) April 21, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/201142114189933416.html

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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