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Fatah: Exerting Genuine Effort for Peace

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, left; Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, right

7 February 2009, Jamil Hamad contributed to this report.

Peace in an extensive conflict – ridden parts of the globe entail considerable efforts among those involved in the conflict. The participants in the conflict would most often need to set aside differences, compromise certain goals and try to get along with deeply rooted enemies. In the Israeli – Palestinian conflict the various factions representing the Palestinians would need to deal with Israel and in turn Israel need to deal with the Palestinians. This is not in terms of military action but rather in an effort to resolve the conflict without force of arms as the tool for resolution.

What is Fatah?

Recently a major faction in the Palestinian side of the conflict indicated its support for efforts to establish a lasting, stable and viable peace between the disputing sides. Fatah in fact seems to be taking initiative to show Israel that it is sincere in its attempt to build peace. What is Fatah? It is major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its main goal is complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence. However, despite its political inclinations and orientation, it openly supports reaching out to Israel in an effort to broker a peace with it.

An Effort to End Conflict

Fatah is generally considered to have had a strong involvement in revolutionary struggles in the past and has maintained a number of militant/terrorist groups. Unlike its rival, Islamist faction Hamas, Fatah is not currently regarded as a terrorist organization by any government. This makes them a viable party to any international effort to end the Israel – Palestine Conflict. Organizations that collectively lead the Palestinians are part of why the conflict has not ended. They prove difficult to negotiate with and are usually keen on setting aside diplomacy for suicide – bombings and the like. If ever the fighting would stop, fundamentally, there should be an internal effort to shift efforts, from armed means to diplomatic means.

This would create a ripple effect that would reverberate among the various factions of the Palestinian Organization and at least make them consider making peace with Israel. Israel actually is able to turn to negotiations rather easily in comparison to the Palestinians. But as we said the idea is for genuine attempts to attain peace to come from, and be pursued simultaneously by, all parties in the conflict.

Fatah’s Example to Pursue Peace

If differences will not be set aside over the course of the conflict the opportunity for peace will dissolve little by little until none is left to build peace on. Moreover conflicts like that of Israel and Palestine would likely spill out of and involve and entangle other countries. Notable in all of this is that Fatah, despite its inclinations, has put out an effort to set that aside and support the pursuit of peace. This not only assures Israel that negotiations are possible but also that not all Palestinian factions are in favor of resolving the conflict via force.

September 10, 2010 Posted by | News | , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Is Hamas going Anti – Women?

A Palestinian woman smokes a water pipe at a cafe in Gaza City, Sunday, July 18, 2010. Gaza's Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, calling it a practice that destroys marriages and sullies the image of the Palestinian people

(AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

The issue of women in Islam is highly controversial. While it is generally agreed that the rights granted to women in the Qur’an and by the prophet Muhammad were a vast improvement in comparison to the situation of women in Arabia prior to the advent of Islam. Judged by much of the media coverage, the status of Muslim women seems to come down to a matter of clothing: what they are required to wear in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia or what they were once discouraged from wearing in Turkey. But to veil or not to veil is hardly the question. The fate of women’s rights throughout the Islamic world today hinges on matters of far greater substance, from reforms of family and penal codes to new understandings of Islamic law and teaching. In these best and worst of times for Muslim women, it is perhaps not surprising that every promising bit of news seems to come with a disturbing counterpoint. But the Hamas in Palestine has taken this to a whole new level.

What Muslims around the world tell us they believe is that the key to progress is attachment to their spiritual and moral values. They really do see that Islam offers a solution for their problems and they see Islam as their society’s greatest asset. When we asked people what they admired most about the Muslim world, what they tell us is their attachment to Islam, Islamic values, value of hospitality, the value of family. So I think that whereas people around the world do feel that the problems are diverse, many of them do mention Islam as a part of that solution, and when we ask people what can Muslims do to help themselves, one of the most frequent responses is for them to unify and another is for them to follow Islam and make it a greater and more authentic part of their lives.
Islamic Feminism is concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of sex or gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate women’s rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement’s pioneers have also utilized secular and European or non-Muslim feminist discourses and recognize the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement. Advocates of the movement seek to highlight the deeply rooted teachings of equality in the Qur’an and encourage a questioning of the patriarchal interpretation of Islamic teaching through the Qur’an (holy book), hadith (sayings of Muhammad), and sharia (law) towards the creation of a more equal and just society.
Despite the blockade Gaza’s Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, sending plainclothes agents through popular beachside spots Sunday to enforce the edict. Some women in the Palestinian territory are grumbling. Again women’s rights are challenged by faith.

July 21, 2010 Posted by | News | , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Israel – Palestine: Endless Political Waltz Persist to Exists

We all stand for peace and wish Israel to stop the cruel war on Gaza's people. In recent news Israel on Monday dropped its long-standing restrictions on allowing consumer goods into the Gaza Strip but retained tight limits on desperately needed construction materials, redefining the rules of its heavily criticized Gaza embargo. But this in no way disentangles the problem. Surely the Israeli government would agree that the right of a nation state to exist is a question of international law. Under international law, no other country has ever demanded or been granted that another nation state be forced to officially recognize the claimant nation’s “right to exist”, under the threat of military reprisal no less. But since this is an original and unresolved question of international law and since Israel has forcefully put it on the table, it is relevant to examine whether Israel is following established principles of international law, such as the Geneva Conventions for example, or foreign country assassinations and kidnappings, or international waters commando attacks of civilian ships, etc. No country has the right to extort a statement of “right to exist” from any other country.

Every country has a right to its opinions and official positions about the legal and historic legitimacies of other states. What matters are actions and crimes and these matters in proportion to their magnitudes – the numbers matter, not the rhetoric. No country has a recognized God-given or otherwise right to exist, only responsibilities under international law and moral responsibilities. Persons have absolute rights not to be forcibly displaced, occupied, collectively punished by arbitrary sanctions, murdered, etc. – this includes Palestinians and Israelis, all persons. States are criminal states to the extent and to the degree that they violate persons’ rights – the numbers matter. Israelis justify their genocidal economic siege against Gaza Strip, their December 2008 barbaric war crime onslaught against 1.5 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and their international piracy against the international “Break the Siege Campaign” and the humanitarian aid Freedom Flotilla with the false claim that the democratically elected Hamas leadership, in the Gaza Strip, is a terrorist organization. Hamas did not evict complete populations of cities, did not perpetrate massacres of civilians, and did not level and raze complete cities. Israel did. Israelis had forcefully evicted the residents of Palestinian cities in 1948 and again in 1967. Israelis had committed many massacres against Palestinian civilians, such as the massacres of Deir Yassin, Ein al-Zeitun, Al-Tantura, Al-Dawayima, Jenin, and many others in Gaza Strip and Lebanon. The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, in his book “All That Remained” had documented 500 Palestinian towns the Israelis destroyed and leveled to the ground in order to erect Israeli colonies in their places.

Hamas, rightfully, wanted to rectify the previous unjust agreements, expressed willingness to establish a long term truce with Israel, and accepted the two states solution providing that Israel would completely withdraw to 1967 borders. Israel rejected Hamas gestures the same way it had rejected all Arab peace initiatives in the past.

July 6, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

   

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