Our Wednesday News Analysis | Open Letter to António Guterres: Will the UN Protect Our Rights and End Our Suffering?

With temperatures dropping to near freezing levels, Gazan families resort to such methods to stay warm. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

Many voices from around the world criticized the omission of Israel from the ‘list of shame’. As reflected by Human Rights Watch, Israel’s continued omission from the list of shame does a grave disservice to Palestinian children.

Jehan Helou is a Palestinian author and intellectual. She served as the general director of the Tamer Institute for Community Education and she was a member and one of the founders of the Palestinian Child Rights Coalition (2000-2006)

Currently, Helou is the President and founder of the Palestinian National Section of The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), whose main aim is to ‘Protect and Uphold the Rights of the Child’.

It is in her capacity as IBBY President that Helou wrote a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on behalf of all Palestinian children.

His Excellency, António Guterres United Nations Secretary-General

Dear Mr. Guterres,

               I write to you on behalf of the Palestinian children in light of your most recent report on Children and Armed Conflict, in which Israel was regrettably not added to the “list of shame”, despite its ongoing violations against Palestinian children that warrant to be added to the list.

               This is a letter of Hope to ask where is the United Nations from the goal “A World Fit for Children”?

               Why, Mr. Guterres, did the Secretary-General decide to drop Israel from the “List of Shame”?

               Many voices from around the world criticized the omission of Israel from the list. As reflected by Human Rights Watch, Israel’s continued omission from the list of shame does a grave disservice to Palestinian children. The Secretary General’s report found Israeli forces responsible for 975 child casualties and 110 attacks on schools and hospitals in 2022…

               Those figures contained in the Secretary-General Report on Children and Armed Conflict for 2022, and relevant reports by UN agencies are shocking figures. Facts about Palestinian children killed, tortured, and denied basic human rights constitute solid proof that Israel should be the first to be included in the “List of Shame”...

Read more: Open Letter to António Guterres: Will the UN Protect Our Rights and End Our Suffering?

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THE TRANSITION FROM A JEWISH STATE TO TRUE DEMOCRACY WILL BENEFIT ALL

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/07/the-transition-from-a-jewish-state-to-true-democracy-will-benefit-all/

By NER KITRI
Published July 29, 2023

The transition from a Jewish state to a democratic state of all its citizens will benefit Jews by ending Zionism's conflation of Jewishness with a racist settler-colonial project.

ISRAELI POLICE ACCOMPANY A GROUP OF JEWISH SETTLERS AS THEY STORM PAST THE DOME OF THE ROCK IN THE AL-AQSA COMPOUND IN JERUSALEM, MAY 5, 2022. (PHOTO: WAFA/APA IMAGES)

"A transition to democracy would bring us closer to the Jewish values of being
a “light unto the nations” and of the commandments:
“you shall not kill”, “you shall not steal”, and, importantly —
loving and respecting the stranger who lives amongst us.

Instead of imposing a single, monocultural Jewish identity that erases where we come from, depoliticising identity would also allow us to explore ourselves
and our unique cultures and identities."

Amidst the obvious failure of the “two-state” proposal and Israeli society’s shifting even further to the right, the hundred-year-old vision for One Democratic State (ODS) is resurfacing in Palestinian as well as Israeli circles. A transition from the “state exclusive to Jews” to a state of all its citizens may not sound appealing to most Israeli Jews. Indeed, by calling for the establishment of a state exclusive to Jews, Zionism privileges Jews over non-Jews; but ODS is the fundamental antithesis of this, as it refuses to politicize identity in the first place and accordingly calls for a state of its citizens with no privileges for any religious, ethnic, or other identity group. Although it does not discriminate against Jews (as it would not be exclusive to Arabs or Muslims), it requires them to forgo any and all colonial privileges they currently enjoy under the Israeli state. But is this transition from “settler” to “citizen” really a downgrade — or an upgrade?...

Read more: The transition from a Jewish state to true democracy will benefit all

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PRIDE, HOPE, BETRAYAL: THE STORY OF AIN AL-HILWEH IS THE STORY OF PALESTINE

Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2351141

By Ramzy Baroud
Published August 7, 2023

Infighting in Ain Al-Hilweh, if not brought under control, may present Palestinian refugees as a liability to host countries-AFP

All of this is happening in a political context,
where the Palestinian leadership has completely removed the refugees from its calculations, where the PA sees the refugees only as pawns in a power play between Fatah and its rivals."

Ain Al-Hilweh is known as the “Capital of Palestinian Shatat.”

The term might not stir many emotions among those who do not fully understand, let alone experience, the harrowing existence of ethnic cleansing and perpetual exile — and the tremendous violence that followed.

“Shatat” is roughly translated into “exile” or “diaspora”. However, the meaning is much more complex. It can be understood only through lived experience. Even then, it is still not easy to communicate. Perhaps, the Kafkaesque blocks of concrete, zinc and rubble, towered one on top of another and serving as “temporary shelters” for tens of thousands of people, tell a small part of the story.

On July 30, violence returned to the crowded Palestinian camp, claiming the lives of at least 13 people. Scores more were injured and thousands have fled...

Read more: Pride, hope, betrayal: The story of Ain Al-Hilweh is the story of Palestine