Hungry for Sustainability?

The world hungers for sustainability, and yet we rarely seem to find it.  Meanwhile, we have an ancient and living model of sustainability within our reach.  Struggling to exist in the cradle of civilization, is a culture that has tended the land gently for thousands of years. ⁽¹⁾  Steadfast families still live in small villages, surrounded by fields, orchards, grazing lands, and woodlands that together supply nearly all the people’s needs.  But the world, rather than flocking to learn these ancient lessons of sustainability has turned its back.  These families, this land, suffers under grave and violent threat. ⁽²⁾ 

The photo is of a young man working in his family's field in the Palestinian village of Artas, famous for its Romaine Lettuce. ⁽³⁾ Israeli restrictions on travel to and within Palestine make it difficult or impossible for people to come to buy and trade from the source as they did decades ago. ⁽⁴⁾ Israel also controls all Palestinian business, the movement and sale of goods within Palestine, as well as imports and exports. ⁽⁵⁾  This imperiled ancient culture needs our protection.  We hope that the more you learn, the more you will care.

(1)  The ancient history of this culture is well documented. “ . . . a Neolithic agricultural civilization arose  . . . perhaps as early as 7000 BC  . . . " E.O. James, Archeologist:  http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2015/02/archeology-and-hebrew-mythology.html 

(2) To learn about the on-going threat facing these families, we recommend the movie, ‘5 Broken Cameras:’   http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2014/11/5-broken-cameras.html

(3) Photo from Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picking_Lettuce_in_Artas,_West_Bank,_Palestine.jpg

(4)  Scroll down to ‘For More Information,’ to learn more about the travel restrictions that Israel imposes on Palestinians:    http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2015/03/free-palestine.html

(5) ‘Israel’s Predatory Economics,’ are covered here: http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2015/03/israels-predatory-economics.html  Be sure to read the article in comments as well. 

 

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Be the Change!

The oppression and colonization of Palestine has been going on for over 60 years.  Powerful countries have failed to come to the aid of the Palestinian people, because what is being done to them is of benefit to large wealthy corporations.  It is up to us to be the change.  Please explore our boycott list to see how you may be supporting the erasure of traditional sustainable practices from the Holy Land: http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2014/12/boycott-list.html

We also encourage you to take additional nonviolent action in any large or small ways you can.  We have a list of letter writing campaigns and petitions you can sign, and we are starting to share other more involved actions as well.  Whether you have a few minutes or a few weeks, months, or years—there is something you can do! Check our blog every Thursday for calls to action:  http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/   Quick actions are also very easy to find: http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/search/label/Quick%20action

Thank you!  It is up to us to create the kind of world we want to live in!

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Participate!

Boycott for Peace would like to feature an article or meme about Palestinian sustainable practices at least a few times a year or even once a month.  We need your help to do this. If you find articles that address Palestinian sustainable practices be sure to share them with us.  If you live in or visit Palestine and can take photos and notes relating to traditional food production, we can help you polish them up and present them to the public.  The wisdom we all need to survive is being imperiled.  Let’s let the world know!

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Underneath the Forest is Beautiful

Underneath the Forest is Beautiful

Continuity in Palestinian Historical Narratives

The myth of Palestine as an empty and arid land becomes more plausible in the Jewish psyche when all evidence of Palestinian villages are razed to the ground and forests and settlements have been built over them. Israeli narratives of the Jewish people returning to their empty homeland has a more solid impact on the psyche of the Jewish immigrant when Palestinian villages no longer exist to incite any questions on the indigenous population of the area. The role of this post is to point to the fact that the territorial continuity that the Israelis claim to exist between the Hebrews of yesterday and the Israeli settlers of today is not real: it is a constructive narrative of one Jewish organization known as the Jewish National Fund.  (Pappe, Ilan, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, p. 227). 

Destroying any trace of Palestinian villages, farms and orchards in land designated as Jewish in the United Nations Partition agreement has two major objectives in Israeli historical narratives. The first is to focus territorial disagreement between Palestinians and Israelis on land occupied by Israel in 1967. In the Israeli mindset, having no visible trace or evidence of a previous Palestinian presence in Israel removes an possible justification for considering this illegally claimed property and land on the podium of negotiations between the two parties (Pappe, Ilan, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, p. 221).  It also implies that the Palestinian Right to Return will not be recognized because any traces of Palestinian existence in the area has been hidden underneath the forests constructed by the Jewish National Fund. Second, everything in Gaza and West Bank, according to Israel, is open to negotiation due to the illegal Israeli settlements located in the West Bank and currently the illegally confiscated territory in Gaza as security buffers between Israel and the Palestinians living in Gaza.

Just like the olive trees that have been spotted making their way back to the top soil of these forests and overrunning the conifers (pine and cypress trees) that the Jewish National Fund has been so readily to plant instead of the indigenous trees (almond and olive trees) Palestinians have to make their voice heard by commemorating the Palestinian villages that lie underneath the soil. The settlement of Mijda Ha-Emek lies over the Palestinian village of Mujaydil, the settlement of Tirat Hacarmel settles over the Palestinian village of Tirat Haifa, Qiryat Shemona settlement replaced the Palestinian Khalsa village, and Ashkelon settlement has taken over the land the belonged to Majdal. Note that each Palestinian village was replaced by a Hebrew version of the Arabic name.

Not only were entire villages razed to the ground, architectural buildings that called attention to the Palestinian presence in Jewish urban areas were targeted by the Jewish National Fund for destruction in order to maintain the false historical narrative of Jewish only presence in the area. Masjad al Khayriyya in the City of Givatayim and Sarafand mosque in Haifa were destroyed. Church of Birwa in the Jewish settlement of Ahihud no longer exists there. Majdal and Qisarya mosques have been converted to restaurants, and the Beersheba mosque into a shop. Five thousand dunams of Huj village makes up Ariel Sharon’s private ranch of Havat Hashikmim.

 

We must all continue to approach the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the starting point of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their rightful property. The trauma and memory of fear as the Palestinians sought refugee from the horrors of the Jewish militia need to be the starting point in any dialogues between Palestinians and Israelis. We  must work diligently to replace the fabricated Israeli narratives as a continued presence in the area with the authentic version of the ancient and the on-going Palestinian presence in the area. 

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For more information please see ‘Ancient Cultural Roots:’

http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2014/11/ancient-cultural-roots.html

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Take Action!

Write to the President about Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine:

http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-olive-branch-symbol-of-peace-or.html

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Roots of Israel-Palestine Conflict

“For in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country…The four great powers are committed to Zionism, and Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”

From Balfour’s famous speech of 1919, quoted in the article titled, 'Christians and Zion: British Stirrings,' which traces the roots of British Christian Zionism back to the 6th century AD.  From there it follows up this development to modern times:  http://www.christianzionism.org/Article/Wagner06.asp 

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"The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-infamous Balfour Declaration, called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."

"Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community."

From the article titled, 'Israel detains eight Palestinians in East Jerusalem for Facebook posts,' which
also documents on-going unequal enforcement of standards and laws which discriminate
 against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories:

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israel-detains-eight-palestinians-east-jerusalem-facebook-posts

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Native American - Palestinian Parallels

Graphic submitted by a reader, unknown origin . . . .

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Facebook Sharable Meme

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It is up to us to be the change!

 

 

This is happening today, and every day, until we change it!

The Palestinian people are being concentrated behind walls for the purpose of illegal land grabs and for the exploiting of their oil and gas reserves as well as other resources without their permission and without adequate compensation.  In addition, Gaza is used as a testing ground for weapons that Israel sells for profit.  

 Palestinian land, which has been maintained sustainably through grazing and small traditional family farms and orchards, is in a long, slow, and on-going process of being cleared of Palestinian people for illegal Israeli corporate and military development. 

Removing the people from their traditional homelands, lands they have occupied without dispute for at least 10,000 years, allows their oppressors to maintain an ethnic majority and the false appearance of democracy. 

This is colonialism, pure and simple, and it is alive and well in our world, today.


It is up to us to be the change!


Boycott for Peace!

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This is available as a meme you can share publicly on the facebook page, in the photo section on the facebook group, Boycott for Peace.  The link is directly above. 

The facebook meme has no accompanying text. It is meant to be a conversation starter, on your own page, or in a group.  It is hoped that it will help form bridges between the Palestinian cause and other justice movements.  

Thank You!

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