Website Focus: The Electronic Intifada

If you are looking for information about refugee crisises, there are many webpages that you can use. One in particular that follows the plight of the Palestinian people is http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml . Split up into different sections that cover different aspects of Palestinian life, you can read about Palestinian refugees, arts and culture, activism news, a human rights watch, and also opinion/editorial pieces about the current conflict. They present news stories and editorials from a Palestinian perspective, which is a rare thing to find if you are living in the United States, where most news is presented with a very heavy Pro-Israel slant.

Book review: Abdel Bari Atwan's "Country of Words" - http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9954.shtml

"A Country of Words: from the Refugee Camps to the Front Page is a remarkable Palestinian memoir, exceptional because of its abundance of compassion, humor and humility. Its author is Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Arabic-language daily al-Quds al-Arabi who also wrote The Secret History of al-Qa'ida. Individuals have their own lives and create their own narratives, and for Atwan, his story begins in Palestine. Born in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Deir al-Balah in Gaza in 1950, Atwan's life has been marred by tragic incidents, including the premature death of his father and later his brother, who supported his education."

One thing I love about The Electronic Intifada is that it shows Palestinians as real, human people. By presenting different parts of Palestinian culture, they let people see the real, hidden side of Palestinian life. They are more then just numbers and statistics, they are people trying to live their lives and still engage in their passions, from writing to music, poetry to painting. This specific post was a book review about "A Country of Words," a memoir about Atef Alshaer, a Palestinian journalist and activist, and how he lived through the multipule Intifadas and even spent time in refugee camps in multipule countries, from Egypt to Lybia to Saudi Arabia. This review goes to show the softer, more real side of Palestinians and the struggle that is an everyday part of their lives.


"Shimon Peres, you're a war criminal!" say Oxford students - http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9983.shtml

"Silent women in black, shouting students, small babies in prams, university lecturers and a local elected official were just some of the crowd gathered to voice their protest against an Oxford college's decision to honor Peres on Tuesday, 18 November as he gave the inaugural lecture in a series to be named after him. Some handed out leaflets and many were carrying signs, one of which read "Globalization of Apartheid," a pun on the title of the lecture, "Globalization of Peace.""

This article discusses the student protests surrounding Shimon Peres's speech which was the kickoff of a lecture series named after him happening at Oxford University. Students who were able to get inside and hear Peres speak continually interrupted him, calling out that he was a war criminal and should be ashamed of the way that he was treating the Palestinian people. The rest of the students and faculty who were present but unable to get into the hall stood outside, chanting louder then Peres' speech. I love how articles like this are always on the webpage. Sometimes it feels like issues including the Palestinian/Israeli conflict get pushed to the side. For those of us in the US who feel strongly about this, many times it is not the popular or common viewpoint, so being able to read about other students around the world who are also taking a stand can be very gratifying.


All in all, if you want a snapshot into the lives of Palestinians, The Electronic Intifada is a great website to get a real look at what is going on, free from the censorship and skewing that US media always does in regards to this conflict.

World Focus: Union of Myanmar

Since 1962, Myanmar (also known as Burma) has been under the control of a military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Situated in East Asia, Myanmar has been in and out of the news for various reasons, most notably widespread political protests in 2007 and the devestation caused by Cyclone Nargis in 2008, both of which contributed greatly to the refugee crisis in the area.

Starting in August 2007, there was a string of political protests throughout Myanmar that ilicited increasingly violent responses from the military junta. These protests stemmed from the junta's decision to remove all government fuel subsidies, causing some fuel prices to increase up to five-fold over the span of a week. Led by thousands of monks, the protests came to be known as the "Saffron Revolution" due to the colors of the monks' robes. In the first wave of protests, many demonstrators were beaten and arrested, including 13 of the nation's most prominent dissidents. Tens of thousands of monks marched in towns around Myanmar, and by the end of September, there had been a protest with an estimated 100,000 participants, the largest anti-government protest in Myanmar in over 20 years. Following that protest, the government started cracking down on the protestors, killing multipule monks, civilians, and even removing internet access from an entire town. By the end of the protests, over 130 people had died and thousands had been beaten or detained.

On May 3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar. The cyclone was so strong, over 130,000 were missing or dead after it hit. The United Nations estimated over one million civilians were left homeless after the natural disaster, giving Myanmar one of the largest refugee crisises in the world. In the areas worst hit by the cyclone, reports of malaria outbreaks were common. This situation was further complicated when the military junta refused to let United Nations aid workers enter the country to administer aid to the suffering public. The government claimed that it was adequately taking care of its people, hence not taking outside aid, but reports sent back to America from journalists within the country showed unprecedented amounts of need. Weeks later the government finally started allowing aid to enter the country, but then disguised the aid so it appeared to the people that it was being provided by the government, and withheld aid from certain communitites.

Before both of these events, over 140,000 refugees had already fled Myanmar for political reasons. After the protests and cyclone, that number swelled to over 1.2 million. What can we do about this situation? How can we, as a first world country, help? Many Americans helped by donating aid, but there is little information about how much of this aid actually made it to the people of Burma, not just the government and their families. If the United States is going to sanction Myanmar in response to the way that the government has acted, they need to do so in a way that affects the government, not the people. Collaboration with the United Nations and other countries in Asia is necessary. Hopefully Barack Obama will approach the situation with the best interest of the people of Myanmar as his number one priority.

More Fighting in Congo, Kivu

Even though there was a call for a cease-fire last week in the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fighting continues to plague aid workers trying to bring food and medical supplies into the war-torn region. The full story can be found here:

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL8561770.html

Over 5 million people have died from fighting in the Congo, making it the most deadly war since WWII. Even so, many Americans don't really know what is happening there, and when they think of conflicts in Africa, only think of Darfur and Rwanda. In the last two years, over 1,000,000 people have been displaced, but there isn't even a good estimate of how many refugees there are from this conflict as a whole, since it is so widespread throughout the region and heavily rooted in the Rwandan genocide and multipule Civil Wars in Congo following that. While a peace deal had been reached back in January, fighting erupted again 3 weeks ago when rebels siezed a military camp outside of Goma. Conflicts erupted between the rebels and UN Peacekeeping troops, and the rebels ended up taking the city. Widespread looting and fighting has continued over the last week, and just now talk about a humanitarian corridor has begun.

How should America approach this? We sent our Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jedayi Frazier to the area to help assess the current situation, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been in constant contact with the Presidents of neighboring countries. If we wanted to send aid, doing it through a political vessel (State Department, sending troops to deliver aid, etc.) might not be the best idea, since the rebels have said multipule times they view UN troops as the enemy and will fight them on sight, and would probably extend that view to cover US troops as well. At the same time, we can not sit by and let people be shot dead for supporting their own government, or for being a part of a specific ethnic group (the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda has crossed the border, and Tutsi and Hutu rebels are heavily involved in the fighting in Congo.) Talks of a regional summit to help promote the peace proccess in the near future put on by the African Union and European Union have started, and hopefully a better way of keeping aid workers safe will be discussed. If aid workers are not able to get to help the refugees that need it most, the humanitarian crisis in the area can only get worse.

US Politicians Speak Out About Israel

In light of the upcoming elections, I figured that I would highlight the way our current presidential candidates feel in regards to the Israel, the Israel Lobby, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Do you think that perhaps we have an issue if all of our candidates want to continue unprecedented and UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT for a nation that is the cause of over 4.25 million refugees worldwide??

Barack Obama speaks to AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cOJNC2EuJw

John McCain speaks to AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmdXkc9cuRk

World Focus: Palestine

Every so often, I will post about a specific refugee crisis around the world. These "World Focus" posts will cover the history of conflict, current refugee situations, and how the US is contributing to the conflict, either positively or negatively. While I will cover some of the more well-known conflicts, I do hope to raise awareness about situations that most Americans aren't as knowledgeable on. For my first World Focus, let's shift our attention to the Middle East...

While it would take me much more then a short blog post to explain the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I do feel that this is something that Americans MUST become educated on. Palestinian refugees are unique since the term covers not just Palestinians that were originally from the British Mandate of Palestine but then were forced to relocate as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the creation of the state of Israel, but also their descendants. According to UN information about the conflict, there are over 4.25 million Palestinian refugees who have been forced to relocate and are currently living mostly in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. These numbers don't even include the rest of the Palestinians who have always lived in Gaza and the West Bank and are living in refugee-like situations due to the Israeli occupation. The reason that there are so many refugees is because of Israel's official stance on displaced Palestinians - they feel that a solution to the problem must include relocation to other states, and they refuse to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland within the state of Israel, even though many have illegally tried to return. Because of this, the surrounding countries have become homes to HUGE refugee camps - Jordan is housing 1.8 million refugees, and both Syria and Lebanon have over 400,000 refugees. Even if they were able to return though, they would find nothing the same. Israel has confiscated all of the property of refugees who have fled, and continues to practice removing Palestinians from their homes only to bulldoze the land and then build homes for Israeli citizens there.

One of the main issues that is perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is disputes over Palestinian refugee's "Right of Return." The United Nations has always supported the belief that a displaced person should be allowed to return to their home country, or if they choose not to, be compensated for their lost land and property. The most commonly quoted source of this belief is the UN General Assembly Resolution 194, passed right after the end of the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. The Resolution calls for protection and free access to the holy places in Israel and the demilitarization and UN Control of Jerusalem, among other things, but most notably is Article 11, which calls for the return of Palestinian refugees.

"Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible. "

Israel refuses to do this. They are in direct violation of this and many other UN Resolutions, and yet the United States still gives Israel more aid then any other country. In fact, over 1/3 of the US's foreign aid budget goes to Israel. Even though all recent US administrations have dissaproved of Israel's settling of Palestinian property, they still increase the aid given to Israel every year, with less and less oversight. Should our government be giving unprecedented amounts of money to a country that goes against UN resolutions and is systematically removing a population from their country? I am not in any way trying to be anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic or claiming that the violence on the part of the Palestinians is acceptable, since I feel that violence in any way, shape, or form only hinders the peace process, but I do think that we, as the American people, need to start asking our government why they are giving so much money to a country that is responsible for one of the largest humanitarian and refugee crisis in the world.

Interested in learning more? Check out these websites...

http://www.un.org/unrwa/

http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml

http://www.mideastweb.org/refugees1.htm

What is a refugee?

As far back as we can go in history, there has been conflict. Sometimes, this conflict is justified and other times it is not, but regardless of the reasons, every conflict ends up hurting and displacing people. The silent victims of these conflicts are the refugees, the men, women, and children who face horrible conditions around the world as they try and flee violence and persecution. According to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), as of the end of 2007, there are over 67 million people in the world who are either international refugees or internally displaced as a result of war and armed conflicts or natural disasters. That is over 20% of the population of the United States. With such a large number of refugees around the world, it can seem like a problem too huge to tackle, but many organizations are working to help the plight of refugees worldwide.

It seems like in the news people are talking about "refugee crisises" all the time, but what exactly is a refugee? The current meaning of the term was officially defined at the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. They decided that a refugee would be anyone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country." This definition was expanded to include people who were fleeing war or violence in their home country, or who were displaced by natural disasters making their home country unsafe to live in.

Currently, there are many conflicts causing large numbers of refugees. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fighting in Sudan, and the current situation in Myanmar are the largest sources of refugees in the world. As Americans, we have contributed to the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine - 3 of the 5 largest sources of refugees. Even so, the aid we give to refugees is dwarfed by the amount of funding the US spends every month promoting war abroad in these places. We have an obligation to help these people return to the lives they had been leading before our soldiers or weapons or aid and support caused them to be displaced, losing their homes, safety, security, and many times, their lives. No longer can we sit by idly, while our government supports policy that is detrimental to the lives of millions abroad, mostly women and children. Before we can help though, we must understand why and how these conflicts came about, and what the United States has done to contribute to the conflicts. That is what my intention is for this blog - to spread information, raise awareness, and be a voice for the silenced.