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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Syria Live Blog | Al Jazeera Blogs

An example of the huge wrong done throughout the world of persecution for many different reasons.
From: AMERA - UK

Conflict, persecution and violence cause persons who lack protection from their national governments to flee their countries and become refugees. People who are forced to leave their country for fear of persecution on grounds specified in international conventions are, by definition, refugees.

A refugee is a person 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 his/her nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return home and avail himself/herself of the protection of that country. However, international protection is provided only after a refugee has been recognized by a host country. In the past, African and other governments in the South have granted asylum seekers refugee status automatically on the prima facie basis of their nationality. Today, it is increasingly common for asylum seekers to have their refugee status determined on an individual basis. This approach results in many rejections of otherwise legitimate claims because of procedural flaws, language barriers, and other concerns.

Legal aid, especially during the process of status determination, is a right of all refugees. However, this right has been sorely neglected in the poorest regions of the world. One of the most essential and practical forms of assistance required by refugees is legal aid for their claims for asylum. Being granted refugee status is the first step towards refugees taking an active part in governing their own lives and determining their own futures. However, it is only the first step. Accessing their other rights, including health services, education and employment may also require legal assistance and involve policy research. In addition to legal aid, there is a need for psychosocial assistance as many have endured torture and/or are victims of sexual abuse. Children may also need help to overcome the trauma of separation from their families, as well as assistance with reunification. A great many refugees suffer severe depression in the face of adapting to their new environments.


See this for the contrast of modern secularism versus the people in the souk. Syria: Global Science: 10 Theses For A Scientific Conception Of The 21st Century « Kawther Salam



The people in the souk caught between all the wrongs.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission, an opposition group that monitors the uprising, said at least 21 people were killed on Wednesday, five of whom were said to be defectors from the army.

The commision said 11 of the victims fell in Homs, five in Idlib including a woman and a defector, two in Saqba outside Damascus and one in Hama, Daraa and in Aleppo.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces killed a civilian in a village in the northwestern province of Idlib and the body of a youth detained nearly two weeks ago turned up in Homs.

A group of 140 Arab rights groups has demanded the withdrawal of the "flawed" Arab League observer mission from Syria and called for UN intervention to halt the violence.

The coalition sent a letter to the pan-Arab bloc urging it to withdraw the mission given the "flaws that have severely undermined" its efficiency and the Syrian government's failure to implement the Arab League peace plan.

The letter also urged the UN Security Council "to take action to address the violence".

The heavily criticised monitoring team has been in Syria since December 26 to oversee an Arab road map under which Damascus agreed to end the violence, withdraw the army from the main cities, give journalists and observers access to all parts of the country and free political prisoners.

The Arab League is due to meet on Saturday and Sunday to discuss its mission's future, as well as a proposal by Qatar to send Arab troops to Syria that Damascus has flatly rejected.[AFP]

British Prime Minister David Cameron says Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement are supporting Syria's violent crackdown on the country's uprising.

Cameron told lawmakers in the House of Commons on Wednesday that both were offering backing to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He described Assad as a "wretched tyrant who is killing so many of his own people".

Thousands have been killed in Syria's crackdown on the 10-month-old uprising, and Cameron has pledged to press for tougher international sanctions - despite opposition from Russia and China.

He says there is "growing evidence that Iran is providing a huge amount of support" to Syria's ruling regime.

Cameron is seeking a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the violence. [AP]

The Muslim Brotherhood has rejected an Iranian proposal to play a leading role in Syria's government in exchange for President Bashar al-Assad staying in power, one of its leaders told Al-Hayat newspaper.

Iranian intermediaries proposed that the Brotherhood "lead a government (in Syria) on condition we give up our demand to replace Bashar al-Assad," the group's deputy secretary, Mohammed Faruk Tayfur, told the London-based daily.

"It is the responsibility of the international community to protect civilians and establish security corridors," as French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe stated, said Tayfur.

"We must ask the Arab League to publish a report and transfer it to the (UN) Security Council," added the Islamist leader, who was speaking from his office in Istanbul.

Tayfur, who is also a member of the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group, dismissed reports the uprising against Assad's regime is turning more radical.

He accused the regime of "pushing (the revolt) towards militarisation and sectarianism."

"The regime has primary responsibility for what is going on in Syria. The Syrian revolution is peaceful; demonstrators insist on the non-sectarian aspect" of their action, he added.

"The people... will continue to demonstrate no matter the intensity of the repression, and act at the regional and international level to obtain an intervention aiming to protect civilians one way or the other." [AFP]

Activists say four people have been killed in Hama, Homs and Idlib today.

Jonathan Steele writes in The Guardian that Assad's popularity and the Arab League mission to Syria have been "distorted in the west's propaganda war".

Citing a poll commissioned by The Doha Debate, Steel writes:

The key finding was that while most Arabs outside Syria feel the president should resign, attitudes in the country are different. Some 55% of Syrians want Assad to stay, motivated by fear of civil war – a spectre that is not theoretical as it is for those who live outside Syria's borders."What is less good news for the Assad regime is that the poll also found that half the Syrians who accept him staying in power believe he must usher in free elections in the near future. Assad claims he is about to do that, a point he has repeated in his latest speeches. But it is vital that he publishes the election law as soon as possible, permits political parties and makes a commitment to allow independent monitors to watch the poll."

European Union foreign ministers are set to slap fresh sanctions on Syria next week, adding 22 individuals and eight companies to an existing blacklist, EU diplomats said on Wednesday.

"As long as the repression continues we will step up our restrictive measures," said an EU source speaking on condition of anonymity. [AFP]

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, who's been following events in Syria from neighbouring Lebanon and Turkey, tweets:

ZeinakhodrAljaz

The Free Syrian Army risks dragging Syria into "chaos without end", prominent opposition activist Michel Kilo said in remarks published in French newspaper Le Figaro on Wednesday.

"He wants to attack 400,000 people with just a few thousand soldiers that don't make up an army," Kilo said of General Mostafa Ahmad al-Sheikh, a defected officer who has created a military council to co-ordinate the attacks of the Free Syrian Army. "He is going to send the country into chaos without end. It's madness."

Kilo's comments reflect continued disagreement among the opposition over whether to resort to force to seek the president's overthrow or try to maintain peaceful protests.

Kilo, a writer who spent six years in jail for opposing Syria's leadership, also said Assad had become "desperate" and was trying to regionalise the conflict.

He said Assad's pledge on the one hand to use an iron fist to crush "terrorists", while also issuing an amnesty for criminal acts committed during the uprising, showed he had become a "desperate man".

"All that he is promising is a war against terrorism in which he thinks he'll get the support of the West or scare it, but this is a false premise," Kilo, a Christian, said.

"In Homs, at the heart of the rebellion, there are no Islamists in the co-ordinating committee. I believe Assad wants to regionalise the conflict and draw in Iran, Hezbollah, Iraq and to threaten Gulf countries with a long war." [Reuters]

Syria's state-run news agency on Twitter:

SANA_English

Global Science: 10 Theses For A Scientific Conception Of The 21st Century « Kawther Salam

Global Science: 10 Theses For A Scientific Conception Of The 21st Century « Kawther Salam

Global Science: 10 Theses For A Scientific Conception Of The 21st Century

The paper “Global Science: 10 Theses For A Scientific Conception Of The 21st Century” By the Syrian meddoctor and philosopher Dr. med. Nadim Sradj, MA was submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with the aim that the principles he presents would be accepted for recognized by the organization. Dr. Sradj first presented his paper as a lecture during the opening session the Conference 27th Annual Meeting of ARABMED in Madrid. The lecture is translated to several languages: English, German, Frenchand Arabic.

Dr. Sradj has also submitted his scientific paper for publishing at the worldwide news service and web sitewww.rense.com. He hopes that the readers will express their opinions and views on his paper “10 Theses For A Scientific Conception Of The 21st Century”.

Global Science in the 21st Century – A Definition from the Standpoint of Political Philosophy

We take the term ‘global’ to be the overcoming of internal (psychological) and external regional and national (geographic) limits on the multidimensionality of the pluralistic world (see appendix: “Development of Global Thought”). In contrast, what is local is marked by conscious demarcation. Borders are principally a negation of freedom.

Global science consists of three types of components:

1. Logical: the presentation of dynamic relationships of elements to each other while taking their functional complex of meaning into account (teleology). Structural knowledge differentiates itself from the conventional inductive experimental logic of John Stuart Mill (1843).

2. Genetic: Knowledge serves to gain orientation and experience improvement within the living environment and attempts to overcome detailed know-how for the benefit of orientational knowledge and in order to determine what is constant among what is changing.

3. Topical-perspectival: Common sense formulates a catalog of topoi (Aristotle’s Topics) in order to recognize and solve a problem situatively and argumentatively. It contrasts with normative expertise and expert’s authoritarian behavior (thinking about problems versus systematic thought).

In contrast to the scientific strategy of knowledge as ‘trial and error,‘ which leads to unending experimentation, we represent a dialectic of simultaneity including both progress and regress. This philosophy of dialog with the natural world attempts to overcome the knowledge sovereignty that is bound up with false consciousness and alienation, thus seeking to avoid irreversible damages from technology (Chernobyl,
Fukushima).

Similar to the United Nations’ non-governmental organizations (NGO), we call for the establishment of an independent control commission so that artificial demarcations such as that between ‘German’ and ‘Jewish’ physics during Nazi rule are not able to be repeated.

Knowledge, regardless of the form in which it comes, is bound neither to national borders nor powers. The dynamics of thought has as a consequence a situation where centers of knowledge and power are not able to perpetually hold their monopoly position.

The development of what is global proceeds from the part to the whole, from the simple to the complex, and from that which is static to changeably dynamic.

Crossing borders represents progress in the conscious awareness of freedom.

1 Aristotle. Topik Organon V. Hamburg, 1968.
2 Viehweg, Theodor. Topik und Jurispudenz – Ein Beitrag zur rechtswissenschaftlichen
Grundlagenforschung. C.H. Beck: München, 1969.

Global Science: 10 Theses For A Scientific Conception Of The 21st Century

1. Scientists cannot place themselves above or outside of nature.
“Knowers” and “non-knowers,” human beings as well as plants and animals, are an integral part of nature.

2. Laws composed by people can not determine nature.

3. Science is not the monopoly of any particular nation, state, society, or institution. Every nation has its own specific cultural tradition and is to be respected for its individual manner of viewing things and solving problems. For example, in Europe, China or India pain is treated differently. There is no hierarchy of knowledge. The dynamics of knowledge do not allow this, since cognition is constantly undergoing modification.

4. What follows is a call to methodological pluralism in research. There are no specific and exclusive methods leading to truth. The history of science is a history of trial and error.

5. The modern phenomenon of normative ‘expertocracy’ (leadership by the experts) constricts the scientific perspective in an inadmissible way. Common sense is formally more comprehensive than the so-called ‘scientific’ findings of experts. Arguments based on reason are more important and more often correct than statistical ‘proofs’ and ‘significant’ curves. The most recent international economic and financial crisis has provided evidence for this.
6. Expertocracy modifies scientific opinions and results into norms, standards, and laws. By this, it transforms knowledge of communication into knowledge as an instrument of power.

7. The adage of the philosopher Bacon that “knowledge is power” paves the way for corruption and crime. The philosopher Paul Feyerabend rightly introduced the term of “science mafia” as a new dimension of contemporary epistemology (comp. Feyerabend, P. Widerstreit und Harmonie (Conflict and Harmony), Vienna 1996, p. 78). Progress by science is not the only way of development; it is often used as mere justification of interests.

8. Establishing a strategic equilibrium for research approaches between economics and ecology, between technology and biology, and between natural and synthetic substances (gene manipulation) is called for.

9. Concepts, hypotheses, and theories are heuristically necessary but not sufficient. Additionally, pictures are required in order to make interrelationships clear. Art and science should compose an intellectual unity (e.g., Dali: watches + pictures of polyaxial chronometry).

10. Mankind has to give up the idea of dominating over nature and has to aspire after reconciliation and dialogue with nature. In this way the idea of ethics and of morality in science and research will regain their particular importance.

Call for Papers and Opinions

On the International Congress of Arabic Physicians in Europe (Arabmed) in Dublin November 2010, we agreed to open an interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue on “Global Science – Theses for a Scientific Conception of the 21st Century”.
The aim of this study is to point out the influence of scientific theories on the different societies of the world and to unveil socio-political backgrounds of our time.

Visible and invisible processes should be analyzed in order to understand more about international changes and developments.
This work is meant as a contribution to peace and to a better understanding among the peoples of the world. The intention is to publish these papers as a manifesto.

May we ask you to participate in our discourse by writing a short contribution to one or several theses mentioned in the following either in English, Arabic or German?

Please give your opinion about:

1- How do you see science in general and especially in your country?

2- Do you think that science is able to solve problems of nature and society?

3-Do you think that science does necessarily imply reason and mind? Does science always lead to progress?

4- Can we import or export logic and methods from one country to another?

5- Additionally to logic of research there is also psychology of research.
Do you think that science can influence the consciousness causing ideologies of science?

Thank you in advance!
Dr. med. Nadim Sradj, M.A. / Vice President of Arabmed
Union of Arabic Physicians in Europe / NGO Member of the United Nations. Sradj [at] gmx [dot] de

Explanatory Notes on 10 Theses for a Worldview in the 21st century

1. Scientists are unable to place themselves over or outside of nature. ‘Knowers’ and ‘non-knowers’ are, like plants and animals, an integral component of nature.

Science is a system of statements ordered according to principles which are either deductive, hypothetical (based on premises held to be true) or inductively empirical (based on problems and seeking to find a viable answer). In this connection, what is decisive is that the process of gaining knowledge can be traced intersubjectively and is logically stringent.

Over the course of the centuries, Protagoras’ statement that ‘man is the measure of all things’ has led to a massive overestimation of man’s own capabilities and an absolutization of mankind with all its negative consequences. After the ‘failure of reason’ (Kojev) it has become clear that living nature has a basic value which has largely been ignored up to the present. The consequence of this knowledge is the following:
Not mankind but rather whatever is alive, as a whole (man, animal, plant, usw.), is the measure of all things.

2. Laws composed by mankind cannot determine the laws of nature.
Immanuel Kant formulated his theory of knowledge in the following manner: ‘Human reason prescribes laws to nature.’ Without wanting to belittle the achievements of Kant as a great critical philosopher: In this respect he was not critical enough. To principally derive nature from human wisdom is not acceptable. This point of view corresponds to a false awareness, an ideology.

3. Science is not a monopoly belonging to a particular nation, state, society, or institution. Every nation has its own specific cultural tradition, having its own approach that is to be respected, its things to observe, and its problems to solve. For example, pain is treated differently in Europe than in China and India. There is no hierarchy and no authorities over knowledge. The dynamics of the matter do not allow this, since knowledge is subject to constant transformation.

While the scientific worldview of the 20th century was shaped by European philosophy, the tendency of the 21st century is to overcome this Euro-centrism. An example of this is the successful combination of different international research approaches in the development of our System Therapy we practice with respect to macular degeneration (see appendix: International Origins …). A patient in a critical situation (such as being in danger of blindness) no longer asks about national borders. The patient only seeks help – wherever in the world that might be!

4. What follows from this is the call for methodological pluralism in research. There is no specific and sole method which leads to truth. The history of knowledge is the history of trial and error.

In logic the saying applies that ‘nothing is closer to the truth than error.’ Every instance of scientific knowledge is imperfect, incomplete, and provisional. For the most part, scientific work consists of constantly expanding the frontiers and foundations of knowledge. What serves us as a foundation are the eight known logical and methodological forms. The selection of which of these methods and forms of logic should be applied in a certain case depends on the object and the specific set of questions at hand. While the inductive-experimental method basically assumes that every new piece of knowledge is progress and thereby the borders of progress are stretched, the Heraclitic-
Hegelian dialectic involves progress and regress in equal measure. The accuracy of this point of view is confirmed by the observation that in spite of highly developed technology, there is no reduction of irreversible environmental damage.

5. The modern phenomenon of normative ‘expertocracy’ (the rule of the experts) constricts the perspective in an impermissible manner. Common sense is formally more comprehensive than the reductionistic and so-called ‘scientific’ know-how. Arguments from reason are more important and mostly more correct than statistical ‘proofs’ and ‘significant’ curves. The most recent economic and financial crises have provided a demonstration of this.

Complexity and irregular dynamics in today’s world make it impossible for politicians to reach a clear orientation and to conceptualize their thinking and action. Frequently they have to move like firemen, rushing from one crisis to another. For that reason a new political class has arisen: the experts. However, experts have frequently overstepped their original advisory function and have become decision making structures. Over the course of time, they have acquired immunity and authority by virtue of so-called ‘scientific objectivity.’ As early as the 1972 report by the Club of Rome entitled “The Limits to Growth,” attention was drawn to anomalies and undesirable developments within the economy and science. Politicians and experts have totally ignored this warning up to the present day. It is time to call them to account in this respect.

The safeguarding of decisions by measures of significance, statistics, ‘clinical trials,’ experiments on animals, etc., i.e., through a so-called ‘scientific instrumentarium’ has all too often shown itself to be a mere justification of self-interest. Through the apparent objectivity of experts, the feelings and opinions, i.e., the subjectivity, of so-called lay people are practically shut out.


6. The legitimization of knowledge that is a consequence of expertocracy transforms the knowledge of communication into sovereign knowledge.

Statements made by experts are frequently dogmatized and declared to be the ruling opinions. To this end use is made of large amounts of research materials, multicenter studies, known personalities, international comparisons and – cooperation with and manipulation of the public media. Under these conditions, ‘justice’ is served and laws passed. The judicial justification for this is ‘convention.’ Viewed from the epistemological standpoint of the philosophy of science, ‘convention’ means an arbitrary, one-sided decision for a theory or hypothesis, which has to be neither logically nor objectively founded (Poincaré). The alliance between major industry, party politics, and legislation allows neither critical inspection nor an alternative thereto.

7. Bacon’s adage that ‘knowledge is power’ paves the way for corruption and crime. The philosopher Paul Feyerabend correctly introduced the term ‘science mafia’ as a new dimension of present day epistemology (comp. Feyerabend, P. Widerstreit und Harmonie, Wien 1996, p. 78; English title: The Tyranny of Science). Progress through science is not the sole path to development. This is often just a justification of interests.

Regarding the positive chief virtue of knowledge there are also cognitive, negative side effects, such as alienation in the sense of a degenerative change in consciousness. It is to be noted that normally knowledge is understood as an enrichment or value. As soon as knowledge is seen as power, one falls to the level of the misuse of power. The demoniacal aspect of power and the false consciousness of many a scientist shift the logic of research to the psychology and psychopathology of research. The history of science over the last one hundred years in particular has demonstrated anomalies such as the differentiation between ‘German’ and ‘Einsteinian’ physics. The falsification of scientific research results and the manipulation of statistics is in the meantime an open secret. On the one hand, scientific work holding forth new insights and knowledge is rejected through the intervention of an individual (one phone call suffices!) while plagiarism is simultaneously given the highest praise. Invoking ‘scientific scholarship’ is no longer a criteria for credibility and correct results.

8. There is the need for the production of a strategic balance of research approaches between commercial and ecological aspects, between biology and technology, between natural and synthetic materials (gene manipulation).

The Bush administration gave their vote in favor of the economy and against ecology with respect to the United Nations climate conference in Kyoto. During this conference, the Democratic Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, said that nature is sick and urgently needs a physician. The one-sided concentration on the economy and technology has inflicted irreversible damage on nature. The productions of synthetic materials, such as plastics and poisons, have upset the ecological system. The earth has become a giant car garage. Even medicine has left its historical roots and foundation for the benefit of overly subtle technologies and an exclusively artificial pharmacology. The overestimation of the economy and technology has brought about a shift in the relationship of knowledge and personal interests to the detriment of knowledge. In the long run, thinking in categories of pure material interest brings blindness to values.

9. Concepts, hypotheses, and theories are heuristically necessary but not sufficient. Pictures are also required in order to clarify the overall context. Art and science should build an intellectual unity (e.g., Dali: watches and poly-axial chronometric presentations).

If Hegel saw the exercise of philosophy as capturing its era in concepts, then art has the mandate to present its era in images. Abstract concepts such as methodology, epistemology, among others, are a matter of principle necessary but not sufficient for the advancement of knowledge. Every discipline has its own terminology. The interaction between a picture and a concept is hereby in the position of overcoming the ‘private sphere’ of individual disciplines. Color and form are in the position to make complicated abstract facts and circumstances understandable. In aesthetics we see a real possibility of bringing reason and nature together.

10. It is necessary to give up the idea of subjugating nature in favor of reconciliation and dialog with nature. In this connection the idea of ethics and morality in science and research receives renewed special importance.

In the end effect, subjugating nature is identical with subjugating mankind. The ‘wisdom’ concept is intercultural. Wisdom, as a goal and meaning of knowledge, places borders before mankind’s boundless pursuit of the subjugation of nature. We are on the wrong path! Expertocracy is at its end. In order to change directions, it is necessary for everyone to become involved. Read the full texts:
English: http://www.sradj.de/resources/Global+ScienceTeilEnglish.pdf
German: http://www.sradj.de/resources/Global+ScienceTeilDeutsch.pdf
French: http://www.sradj.de/resources/Global+ScienceTeilFrancais.pdf
Arabic: http://www.sradj.de/resources/Global+ScienceTeilArabisch.pdf

Dr. Nadim Sradj is a native of Syria who lives since 1956 in Germany (see more http://www.sradj.de/2.html). In Germany he studied Medicine and Philosophy in Mainz and Tübingen respectively, attaining the degrees of Dr. Med. in 1966 and the M.A. in Philosophy in 1968. Dr. Sradj specialized in Ophtalmology at the Universities of Frankfurt/Main and Giessen, where he held positions as scientific assistant professor.

Curriculum vitae

Dr. Sradj is the author of over 100 scientific papers during his career and is the inventor of several measuring instruments in the medical field. He has held lectures in many cities, among them Moscow, New York, Paris, Buenos Aires, Luxembourg and Brussels. He was an editor of the ARABMED magazine, and he is member of several professional and scientific organizations, among them AAAS (http://www.aaas.org/).

SRADJ, Nadim, ophthalmologist and philosopher,
1937 born in Aleppo, Syria,
1956 arrived in Germany,
1963 medical diploma university of Mainz,
1966 M.D. University of Tübingen, Germany,
1968 M.A. in philosophy, Univ. of Mainz,
1968-1969 scientific assistant and lecturer, University of Frankfurt/Main and Univ. of Giessen,
Since 1979 private clinic.
Research in neuro-ophthalmology and strabismology, biological medicine, basic research and scientifical strategy; introduction of French structuralism and physics of thermodynamics into ophthalmology. Invention of instruments (Torticollometer and Cyclometer) for measurement of cyclo- and head-deviation.
More than 150 scientifical publications and lectures in German, English, French and Arabic all over the world. Among them books:
“Rollungsschielen” (Cyclodeviation) 1979,
“Systemtherapie der Maculadegeneration” (4th edition 2004), English edition: “System Therapy of Macular Degeneration” 2008.
“Dynamik des Sehens” (dynamics of vision, perception and malperception, theory of operational aesthetics and its application in art) 2005.
“Theorie und Praxis des Augentrainings bei Arbeiten im Nahbereich und am PC” (2009)
Sradj is member of several European and international ophthalmological organizations. Scientifcal activities in Arabic countries, Argentina, Luxemburg and Russia.
Since 1995: consultant ophthalmologist of the Macular Degeneration Association /Germany (Selbsthilfegruppe Macula-Degeneration e.V.) see: www.macula-degeneration.de
Since 1995: in “Who’s who in the world” and “Dictionary of International Biography”. 2000: Member of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2000-2001: in “Who’s who in Medicine and Healthcare”.
Active member of Arabmed (Union of Arabic Physicians in Europe), responsible for cultural affairs and science policy. Since 2009 vice president of Arabmed


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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Palestine Cry: Palestine Cry: Kawther Salam » Europa & Palestine News - Christmas Memories From The Birthplace of Jesus

Palestine Cry: Palestine Cry: Kawther Salam » Europa & Palestine News - Christmas Memories From The Birthplace of Jesus

Palestine Cry: Kawther Salam » Europa & Palestine News - Christmas Memories From The Birthplace of Jesus

The wall of hatred around a Christian house in Bethlehem.

Nine years ago between 20 -27 December, as in several previous years, I moved from Hebron to Bethlehem to participate in the celebrations of the Christmas celebrations and to write about the event. I was staying at the residence of Bethlehem Bible College. Dr. Bishara Awad, Director of the college and his wife Salwa, Dr. Alex Awad, a professor at the College and his wife Brenda, welcomed me as in the previous years. They treated me with great courtesy and concern for my comfort, so much so that I felt as a member of the Awad family and as a welcome guest at the college.
I would leave the college every day and tour around Bethlehem. I would talk with Christians and Muslims, and everybody felt the happiness and joy of the holy Christmas. Muslims were waiting for Christmas exactly like Christians. In Palestine there is no difference between Muslims and Christians, everyone is equal and this tradition is celebrated by the adherents of both faiths. The ONLY obstacle during Christmas and other holidays was and is the zionist occupation, which assassinates the happiness, the joy, and the peaceful life of all Palestinians, Christians and Muslims equally.
Before 1993 and the signing of the so-called “Oslo peace agreement”, the Christmas celebrations were much nicer, much more comfortable than the celebrations I joined later and until 2002. It is sad to be forced to say that the Christmas celebrations under the horrible regime of the Israeli occupation were better than they are nowadays under the Palestinian Authority.

Since the signing of the Oslo agreement and its secret accessories, the demography of Palestine has changed. Everything was changed in TOP SILENCE and with full connivance of the “PNA”, not only in Bethlehem but in all Palestinian cities, towns and villages. The Octopus of the zionist occupation became more dangerous and worse than before with the criminal connivance of the PNA. The theft of Palestinian lands and the expansion of the colonies increased while the Palestinian themselves were happy to establish a useless administration, the “PNA” in return for a bunch of the miserable “VIP” cards for select functionaries and some thousands of para-military gangsters, riff-raff with different nationalities who were trained by several Arab dictatorships – US and UK colonies in all but name – who not-so-secretly befriend israel. (Click on the small images to make them bigger).
The theft of the Palestinian agricultural lands of Jabal Abu Ghnien in Bethlehem, the establishment of the zionist colony “Har Homa”, the division of the Bethlehem-Jerusalem-Hebron main street, the theft of the Islamic the Waqf building of Bethlehem, the ethnic cleansing and illegal appropriation of the northern district of Bethlehem (from the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem, the so-called “Rachel’s Tomb”, until Jerusalem), the theft of the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, the closure of the Muslim cemetery near the mosque, the closure of the Aida refugee camp, the apartheid wall and the establishment of the Iron border, these were all result of the so-called “Oslo peace agreement”.
I remember how the Christmas celebrations changed after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority under the Israeli occupation. I remember how much the obstacles for the Christian pilgrims increased each year. The worst Christmas celebrations were those place between 1999 and 2002, when the Christian religious convoy from Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour was halted in the middle of a military base of the Israeli occupation in front of the Bilal bin Rabah mosque which was stolen by the zionists and turned into a synagogue.
I saw the closure of the store of Mr. Michael Potros opposite of the Bilal bin Rabah mosque in Bethlehem. I sat several times at his store waiting for the Christians procession, for the clergymen coming from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas. In 2000, this store of a Christian Palestinian was closed by a military decision. All the surrounding area was declared a “military zone” so that the violent colonial squatters could pray undisturbed at the stolen mosque of Bilal ben Rabah. Mr. Potros and his family were forced to go to hell.
I saw how “Israel” violates the sanctity of the Christmas and how the occupation humiliates the dignity of the Christian clergy. They were all stopped like detainees in front of a military base, established over the territory of the city of Bethlehem, by the depraved soldiers of Israel. They were all waiting for the convoy of Patriarch Michel Sabbah. The manifestations of depravity and hatred were clear to see on their faces, instead of the expressions of Christmas joy and happiness present in the faces of the Christians and Muslims despite all the hardships forced upon them by the occupation.
In all countries of the world religious celebrations are held in peace, not under the tension of colonial occupation. ONLY in Palestine and since over 64 years, Christmas and other religious ceremonies are held under the constant threat of the military occupier and its tight restrictions. If any other nation held the Christmas celebrations under the presence of a colonial occupation, then for sure they would expiate in the sanctity of the ceremonies and they will find their ways to the struggle in order to celebrate the Christmas in peace.
The last time I saw a procession of Patriarch Michel Sabbah, he was humiliated at his arrival to Bethlehem. He was surrounded by armed police with automatic weapons and machine guns riding horses, and accompanied by military jeeps. And I saw him get out of his car at the entrance of the Aida refugee camp in the middle of the colonial zionist soldiers, because he was not allowed to enter Bethlehem in his car. I saw the Patriarch shaking hands with the Christians, standing frightened like inmates of a concentration camp among the armed soldiers in the city of Bethlehem. When I did not hear one word of condemnation from the Patriarch, then or later, for the inhuman treatment of the Christians, for the insults by the jews to the Christian faith at his every entry to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, then I knew what it means to be a hypocrite.
This year, Arte Channel showed a program about Christmas in Bethlehem. They filmed a Christian family from Bethlehem who have a workshop for carving Christmas gifts out of wood. The Camera filmed the lady of the house at home and her ways between the workshop and the church, all of which are far away from each other. The program neatly avoided the major problem, the Apartheid walls suffocating the city of Bethlehem, the hatred of the occupation checkpoints at the entrance of the city, the jewish colonies, the ubiquitous presence of israeli soldiers.
After watching this short film I understood how much the western media is managed and manipulated. I myself know what kind of journalistic work and what kind of questions the Austrian colleagues are asking. When the moderators at press conferences beg the Austrian journalists to ask their questions, they do not ask. I have witnessed such unreal scenes more than once, where none of the journalist present asks anything. Sadly, it is enough for them to use the press releases issued before the conference starts and publish them. I have wondered if they do this because they don’t care or because they fear losing their job if they upset anybody with a question.
Also, this year, like all previous years, the Austrian state TV, ORF, runs a program which shows how Austrian children “bring the light” from Bethlehem to Austria. The same like the Arte documentary described above, they completely avoid the issue of the occupation and that these days Bethlehem is more aptly described as a concentration camp than a city. It is very sad to see how the Catholic Church supports iniquity and grave crimes against humanity with their silence.

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3 comments:

ستيف في فيستا said...

I believe that Archbishop Fouad Twal is now the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and Sabbah is now a retired Patriarch. It doesn't really matter, the Latin Patriarchate is totally controlled by the Vatican. What you have to remember about the Vatican is that since the time of the 1958 Conclave to elect a Pope when Pope Pius XII died and especially since the False Council - Vatican II - started under a formal Anti-Pope - John XXIII (the second Anti-Pope by that name in history, but falsely touted as a true Pope) the Vatican has been run by Freemasons and Communists. They are no longer Catholic and no longer Christian, they will be of no help to anyone. No one controlled by them will be of help to anyone.

There is a prophecy in the old testament that is chilling and it has come to pass again in this age, it is this:


Zacharias (Zachariah) 11:15
And the Lord said to me: Take to thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.

This is Anti-Pope Paul VI who used to wear a JEWISH EPHOD as part of the Freemasonic Symbols of his that showed he was NOT a Christian.



Zacharias (Zachariah) 11:16
For behold I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who shall not visit what is forsaken, nor seek what is scattered, nor heal what is broken, nor nourish that which standeth, and he shall eat the flesh of the fat ones, and break their hoofs.

This is Anti-Pope John Paul II (John Paul I was murdered in office after one month). Anti-Pope John Paul II shared his chief controller's (Joseph Ratzinger) destiny in how he was punished prior to his death and commitment to hell by God. Karol Wotyjla (Anti-Pope John Paul II) did more than anyone, until Anti-Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger), to promote the Anti-Christian document concocted at "Vatican II" which is called Nostrae Aetate. That specious garbage makes the Talmudists of Judaism, especially their Rabbis, gods upon earth to be worshipped by all the sheep who have NO earthly shepherd to protect them. It is totally Antichrist in its intent.


Zacharias (Zachariah) 11:17
O shepherd, and idol, that forsaketh the flock: the sword upon his arm and upon his right eye: his arm shall quite wither away, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

This is Anti-Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger) - this punishment is beginning now and will continue until Ratzinger dies and goes to hell and joins his Freemasonic Antichrist predecessors there, namely all the Antipopes (John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI) after Pope Pius XII. It was Joseph Ratzinger (Anti-Pope Benedict XVI) and Karl Rahner and Karol Wotyja (Anti-Pope John Paul II) who were the foremost agents of concocting Nostrae Aetate and the rest of the garbage for the Antichrist to come to power upon earth and rebuild the temple of Remphan where the Noble Sanctuary is now in Jerusalem and try to force all people to worship him – whoever worships the Antichrist, ad-Dajjal, will be damned by God forever.

The Freemasons (the Freemasons are totally Khafir from the Muslim point of view, same as they are from a Christian point of view) are Satanic agents of the Antichrist, ad-Dajjal, and will only cause extreme harm to everyone they can.

May all Christians and Muslims come together to resist all of this and to defend the Palestinian cause and all that God, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, will have us to do, especially pro-life.

Free Palestine.

Stone Iblis to destruction.

Protect children.

Nothing to do with heresy and heretics (khafir).

Gather around Jesus Christ the Messiah and worship God.

ستيف في فيستا said...

This records a small part of the anti-Christian genocide that has taken place in the Holy Land perpetrated by the Jews over the entire period of the Naqba.

The Justice of God: The Truth from a priest from his own writings

ستيف في فيستا said...

May all Christians and Muslims come together to resist all of this and to defend the Palestinian cause and all that God, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, will have us to do, especially pro-life.