WPnJ at the Peace Abbey

On Monday, the Walpole Peace and Justice Group held a planning meeting at the Peace Abbey in Sherborn. We all took a tour of the Abbey with Madeline:


The Abbey's courtyard features a monument to Emily (the cow) and a series of six walls covered with plaques containing statements of peace. It was a beautiful and warm evening, and we were able to enjoy the place with the setting sun.


An offering left at the monument to Emily.


Emily the cow escaped the slaughter-house by jumping a fence.


Madeline's Iraq War Casualties Project - each link in these paper chains has the name of an American soldier who has lost his or her life in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Links and Books on Israel-Palestine from John Spritzler

Here are some links to good books about the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Also, click here for links to my articles and books, many of which are about the Israel/Palestine conflict.

--John

BACKGROUND READING: PRO-ZIONIST AND ANTI-ZIONIST AUTHORS DISCUSS A JEWISH STATE

Articles by Pro- Zionist Authors:
Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001
by BENNY MORRIS

The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Cambridge Middle East Studies)
by Benny Morris

Morris describes the Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, but does not condemn it.

The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul
by Yoram Hazony

Hazony explains the anti-democratic foundation of a Jewish state. He also worries that many Israelis don't understand the importance of a Jewish state.

Perfidy
by Ben Hecht

Hecht supports the idea of a Jewish state, but was shocked to learn of the perfidy of Zionist leaders during WWII who betrayed European Jews for it's sake.

1949, The First Israelis
by Tom Segev , Arlen Neal Weinstein

I'm not sure if the authors consider themselves pro- or anti-Zionist, but they were the first to write the history of Israel's origin based on newly obtained archival records, and they challenged the pro-Zionist mythology.

Articles by Anti-Zionist Authors:

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine , by Ilan Pappe "This is a stunning and relentless collection of evidence. Pappe uses things such as military archives (opened in the 1990s), diary entries from Ben-Gurion, and oral histories from Hagana soldiers and Palestinians. He gives lengthy, village-by-village accounts of the destruction of homes and expulsion of residents. The expulsions were guided by files of the Jewish National Fund, which had been gathering intelligence data on the demographics of the villages for decades.

"It is hard to think of a book that is more opposite of a commonly accepted history than this one. According to Pappe, 1948 was not a desperate fight for survival by a surrounded Jewish enclave, it was a Zionist attack on the countryside. Most of the fighting stemmed from the Hagana's systematic destruction of 400 Palestinian villages. Most refugees were driven out BEFORE the main war started on May 15, 1948. Arab armies did intervene in a haphazard attempt to defend Palestinian sections (as set by the UN partition plan), but they were always out gunned, out numbered and out coordinated by the Hagana. Jordan, in particular, had a secret agreement with the Zionists to annex the West Bank in return for not joining an invasion of Israel. So the most effective Arab army, (and a Jordanian also commanded the pan-Arab "Arab Liberation Army") was not trying to destroy Israel, only protect its own designs on the West Bank and East Jerusalem." [a review on Amazon.com]

One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, by Ali Abunimah "Clear-eyed, sharply reasoned, and compassionate, One Country proposes a radical alternative: to revive an old and neglected idea of one state shared by two peoples. Ali Abunimah shows how the two are by now so intertwined—geographically and economically—that separation cannot lead to the security Israelis need or the rights Palestinians must have. He reveals the bankruptcy of the two-state approach, takes on the objections and taboos that stand in the way of a binational solution, and demonstrates that sharing the territory will bring benefits for all. The absence of other workable options has only lead to ever greater extremism; it is time, Abunimah suggests, for Palestinians and Israelis to imagine a different future and a different relationship" [from Amazon.com]

Sharing the Land of Canaan by Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, who proposes for the region, one single multi-cultural state, in which the rights of all peoples of the region, Muslim, Christian and Jew, are respected and preserved, and those who have been displaced and disenfranchised be granted the right, under the United Nations Charter, and principles of humanitarian justice, to return to their homeland.

The One-State Solution: A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock, by Virginia Q. Tilley

The One-State Solution by Edward Said (January 10, 1999)

Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, by Israel Shahak

Apartheid Israel : Possibilities for the Struggle Within by Uri Davis

Davis describes in detail how the Israeli government officially discriminates against non-Jews and denies them their human rights.

FATEH - Palestinian Liberation Movement Palestine, 1/12/2003

This Palestinian organization position paper rejects the two-state "solution" and calls for "Return First, and Peace for Two Nations in One State"

Karma Nabulsi is a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, a former PLO representative and adviser at the peace talks 91-93

Nabulsi reports, "Across the board, from the mainstream political parties as well as from the refugee camps, the petitions and the declarations have flooded in. Just read any half-dozen and you see immediately that they are unequivocal. For the absolute majority of the Palestinian people, the refugee issue is right at the core of the conflict, and it has to be addressed .."

What Price Israel? 50th Anniversary Edition 1953-2003
by Alfred M. Lilienthal

Lilienthal examines the controversial origin of a Jewish state.

51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration With the Nazis
by Lenni Brenner

Brenner has collected primary source documents revealing the collaboration between Zionist leaders and Nazis during WWII, based on their agreement that Jews and non-Jews could not live together in the same nation.

Dignity, Solidarity and the Penal Colony by Edward Said (September 25, 2003)

Zionism is the Issue: Building a Strong Pro-Palestinian Movement In the US By Lana Habash and Noah Cohen

Look Upon Your Works, Ye Israel, And Despair by Anne Gwynne

Sigmund Freud's letter to Dr. Chaim Koffler, 1930