Opinion Editorials, February 2012

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, February 27, 2011

Below is a test for students of Al-Quds University on the Israel-Palestine conflict.  Some of you might want to test your own knowledge :-)
 
In Hebron last Friday peace activists tried to draw attention to the illegal Apartheid closure of Shuhada street to Palestinians .  The soldiers' brutality and arrest of our friend Fadi Quran is shown in this short clip here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUeJEUX5Vtc and longer excerpt here http://on.fb.me/Ad6E4w and story here http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/02/26/197116.html
 
Monday and Tuesday we will have training for popular resistance in Palestine and I was looking forward to Fadi attending but he is still held (anyone in the area interested to attend the training should email me for details, Arabic only). The last time I spent hours with Fadi was in an Israeli detention facility in Atarot after we tried to ride the settler bus and all six of us were arrested.  Fadi like me is also a US citizen but this provides hardly any protection.  He can also be held in administrative detention.
 
Action: Israel apartheid weak
http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=3175
 
Another BDS victory this time in Naples, Italy
http://stopthattrain.org/?p=599
 
Veteran reporter and activist Marie Colvin killed in Syria http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/24/marie-colvin-1956-2012/
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/26/world/syria-marie-colvin/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
(Colvin graduated from Yale Univesrity where I worked for 5 years and has lost an eye before in another conflict zone.  It is a shame that the human species still has such conflicts.  Violence only begets violence._
 
A new film to highlight our departed friend and one of the greatest Palestinian artists, Ismail Shammout http://www.anafmoreno.com/Bumpy_Road_Films/Ismail.html
Family website http://www.ismail-shammout.com/

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*Human Rights 206- Human Rights and the Israeli Palestinian Conflict* MIDTERM TEST 1-

 Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh, 26 February 2012
 
1. The first key Zionist who helped establish political Zionist Jewish communities in Palestine was:
A) David Ben Gurion
B) Edmond de Rothschild
C) Theodore Hertz
D) Leon Pinsker
E) Alfred Dreyfus
 
2. The Philistines/Filistu/Palestine were first mentioned in documents/authenticated records:
A) >3000 years ago
B) At the time of Jesus
C) By Aristotle
D) By Roman rulers
E) By Arab travelers in the 6th century AD
 
3. The first uprising in Palestine against the political Zionist project was in the year:
A) 1881
B) 1921
C) 1929
D) 1936
E) 1987
 
4. The first use of armed resistance in Palestine against the Zionist project and/or its sponsors was in:
A) 1920-1925
B) 1930s
C) 1948
D) 1960s
E) 1970s
 
5. Martin Buber, Judas Magnes, and Albert Einstein were all
A) Political Zionists
B) Cultural or Religious Zionists
C) Self-hating Jews
D) Israeli academics
E) Supporters of the political Zionist leadership in Palestine
 
6. The early Canaanites included all these groups except
A) Phoenicians
B) Philistines
C) Nebateans
D) Babylonians
E) Jebusites
 
7. The total population of Palestine (Christians, Muslims, and Jews) in
1917 was closest to:
A) 700,000
B) 1.5 million
C) 3 million
D) 4 million
E) 5 million
 
8. The main hardships suffered by the remaining Palestinians inside the new state of Israel in 1948 include all the following EXCEPT:
A) They were subjected to martial law between 1948-1966
B) Many villages declared "unrecognized" receiving no government services
C) They had much of their remaining land taken from them
D) New discriminatory laws were introduced as well as pressures on school education
E) They had no legal residency right in the new state of Israel
 
9. Israel's basic laws include all these laws that discriminate EXCEPT
A) Israeli law of return allowing any Jews to acquire citizenship while denying it to Palestinian refugees
B) Land laws including absentee property law
C) Press laws
D) Knesset election laws to prevent anti-Zionists from running for election
E) National service laws that favor Jews who serve in the Army
 
10. Famous Palestinians from 1948 areas include all the following EXCEPT
A) Tawfiq Ziyad
B) Mahmoud Darwish
C) Azmi Bishara
D) Ghassan Kanafani
E) Sheikh Raed Salah
 
11. The first political organization among 1948 Palestinians after the foundation of the state of Israel on their lands came under which ideological system:
A) Communist/socialist
B) Pan-Arab nationalist (Nasserite)
C) Islamist
D) Palestinian nationalist (local)
E) Arab Israeli centrist (local)
 
12. In 1974, Yasser Arafat addressed the United Nations for the first time.
 These factors all likely played a role in his arrival at the UN for the first time EXCEPT:
A) The PLOs 10 point program of 1974 that allowed a change in International standing
B) The USA agreed to recognize the PLO after the PLO agreed to recognize resolution 242 and 338
C) There was a change in geopolitical structure of the Middle East after the October 1973 war (Egypt and Syria versus Israel)
D) The Arab summit had declared the PLO the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians
E) Popular struggle and armed resistance ensured prominence of the Palestinian cause
 
13. All of these are recognized key unique Palestinian dates for which Palestinians hold commemorations EXCEPT:
A) Nakba Day (15 May 1948)
B) Deir Yassin (7 April 1948)
C) Labor Day (1 May 1948)
D) Naksa Day (6 June 1967)
E) Land Day (30 March 1976)
 
14. All of these actions were forms of non-violent popular resistance in the 1920s in Palestine EXCEPT
A) Demonstrations
B) Petitions
C) Boycotts
D) Strikes and Economic disruptions
E) Defacing the British issued currency
 
15. All of these are characteristics of the UN Partition plan of 1947 EXCEPT
A) It allocated more lands for the "Jewish state" than the "Arab State"
B) It had provisions for removal of villages to make the two countries more uniform
C) It was issued when Palestine had 2/3rd of its population Christian and Muslim (1/3rd Jewish)
D) It proposed Internationalizing Jerusalem area
E) It was adopted after much pressure from the USA administration (President Harry Truman)
 
16. The Palestinian Refugee rights (and/or refugee rights in general) are recognized in all these documents except
A) UN General Assembly Resolution 194
B) Universal Declaration of Human Rights
C) Hague and Geneva Conventions
D) UN Security Council Resolution 242
E)  The Oslo accords
 
17. What was on the minds of refugees immediately after their expulsion from Palestine?
A) Survival (food and shelter)
B) Getting back home
C) Political organization
D) A and B
E) A, B, and C
 
18. Today the largest numbers of Palestinians in the world are where?
A) In historic Palestine
B) In Jordan
C) In Lebanon
D) In Syria
E) In South America
 
19. Every date in our history (even tragedies) had both positive aspects or outcomes and negative.  Please mention one negative and one positive aspect for each of those events. Try not to include the obvious- a massacre obviously has people killed so that is negative.  I am looking for thoughtful informed answers that show you were reading, listening, and analyzing.
A) The 1936-1939 uprising
Negative
Positive
 
B) The Naksa of 1967
Negative
Positive
 
C) The 1982 Sabra and Shatila Massacre
Negative
Positive
 
20. Give the Palestinian versus the Israeli Zionist positions on these topics (argue the case from each perspective) and what does International law say about it
A) On the right of Palestinian refugees to return Palestinian Position Israeli Zionist position International law position
 
B) On Israel as "a Jewish state"
Palestinian Position
Israeli Zionist position
International law position
 
21. The transition from Ottoman Rule to British rule in Palestine after the end of World War 1 was a dramatic shift for the Palestinian society.
 Mention at least four such changes that impacted life negatively for the Palestinian natives. (A sentence or two on each)
 
22. List at least three possible contributing factors or hypotheses to explain why the British government decided to issue the Balfour Declaration
2 November 1917.
 
23. I do not expect you to have memorized PLO charter articles but can you state two points to prove the thesis/theory that the text of the PLO charter was highly influenced by the politics and narrative of exile (having been written by those in exile!).
 
Bonus 1: What was the impact of the Oslo accords (1993) on the Palestinians inside the Green line (1948 areas)?
 
Bonus 2: The Balfour declaration said that while it supports "a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine" it should be understood that "nothing will be done to jeopardize the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities in Palestine". Why did Palestinians complain about this language?
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