NY Event: Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians - Tuesday, April 25th

Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians

A talk by:
Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley

Tuesday, April 25, 2006
2 to 4 p.m.

Room 6112 (Sociology Lounge)
Sixth Floor
The Graduate Center, CUNY
(365 Fifth Avenue, between 34th-35th St.)

This book reevaluates both the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the peace process. Using Nelson Mandela and the South African success story as a point of comparison, the authors examine the widely invoked notion of an analogy between the contemporary Israeli/Palestinian situation and that of apartheid South Africa. Their critical analysis yields a host of ideas concerning the future direction of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

Adam and Moodley have previously written extensively on South African politics, including the 1993 book The Negotiated Revolution: Society and Politics in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Heribert Adam is prominent for his work on ethnonationalism and critical theory. Adam is professor emeritus of sociology at Simon Fraser University, and Moodley is Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia.

Reception to Follow
Sponsored by the Ph.D. Program in Sociology

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Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC)
The Graduate Center
City University of New York (CUNY)
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 817-7570
email: memeac@gc.cuny.edu
Web Site: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/memeac

NY Event: The Qana Massacre: Ten years later - Wednesday, April 19th, 2006

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), MADRE and the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) present:

THE QANA MASSACRE: TEN YEARS LATER

On April 18, 1996, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shelled a United Nations Compound in Qana, Lebanon, killing over a hundred civilians and wounding hundreds more. Approximately 800 civilians had sought shelter in the compound from the shelling of their villages by the IDF. The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution denouncing the IDF attack as violating the rules of international humanitarian law, and stated that Israel was responsible for compensation. Ten years later the victims have not been compensated, and justice has not been done. The Center for Constitutional Rights recently brought a class action lawsuit against Moshe Ya'alon, former Head of Army Intelligence for the IDF, demanding accountability and seeking compensation for the victims.

Join us as we commemorate this solemn anniversary with filmed testimonials from survivors eyewitness accounts of the aftermath updates on efforts to bring those responsible to justice.

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2006

6:30 - 8:30 P.M.

SAINT ILLUMINATOR'S HALL

221 EAST 27^TH St. (between 2^nd and 3^rd Aves.)

#6 Train to 28^th Street

Speakers include:

Vivian Stromberg, Executive Director, MADRE

Abdeen Jabara, CCR Cooperating Attorney and Board Member

Maria LaHood, CCR Attorney

The program will end with a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the victims.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Lauren Melodia at lmelodia@ccr-ny.org or 212.614.6481

Anne Bayefsky on the new UN Human Rights Council

Anne Bayefsky is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a professor at Touro Law School, and the editor of EYEontheUN.org. She is an internationally renowned expert on international human rights, so how could I not post her opinion of the UN Human Rights Council, right? Well, here's the article she authored in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle (this op-ed first appeared in the Weekly Standard), but copied below are some comments I found particularly worrisome:

There has been a massive disinformation campaign concerning the U.N. Human Rights Council, operated by General Assembly President Jan Eliasson, Secretary General Kofi Annan, and U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, with added muscle from Ted Turner's U.N. Foundation and financier George Soros.

What??!!
Is she in her right mind? And can we please see some evidence of this "disinformation campaign" in place of these sweeping statements?

In short, nothing has changed. The newly "reformed" human rights body of the United nations will once again include countries that have no interest in protecting human rights; the regions of the world with the fewest democracies will hold 55 percent of the seats. Standing in the background lamenting U.S. nonparticipation are some, like Amnesty International's Irene Khan, who believe that the "gulag of our times" is Guantánamo -- not the Egyptian, Syrian, Iranian and Sudanese torture chambers -- and that the business of promoting human rights is best conducted with the delinquents on the inside, enjoying the privileges of the human rights club, instead of standing outside until they reform.

Sen. Frist suggests a bold new direction for the international promotion of human rights outside the United Nations. The time is ripe for such an initiative.

Bayefsky's reference to Irene Khan's comments proved to be very thought-provoking for me. If one analyzes the UN Security Council closely and looks at the members who hold veto power, can one really say they've played an active role in the maintenance of peace and security in the world? US interventions in Vietnam, East Timor, Korea, and now in Afghanistan and Iraq, prove that being a member of an entity like a UN subsidiary body or agency does not ensure that what the members set out to do will in actuality ever happen. On the one hand, it is difficult to undertake such grand endeavors but on the other hand, wielding such power should make the bearers of the power realize that they have a great responsibility upon their shoulders. Can one really say with a straight face that the UN SC veto bearing powers have played the role expected of them?

I think not.

Miscellaneous comments on the Human Rights Council

Ever since the US announced it would not consider membership to the newly created Human Rights Council of the United Nations, many international affairs experts have expressed deep remorse and regret. I thought i'd put post their views here as well.

Comments by Ambassador William Leurs, President of the United Nations Association, can be found here.

Comments by Ambassador Tim Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation, can be found here.

Comments by Jeffrey Laurenti, Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, can be found here.

Christian Science Monitor on Israel Lobby report

I found this Christian Science Monitor article to be one of the most comprehensive pieces on the issue, gathering information and commentary from a wide variety of sources including Foreign Policy, the Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz, the Jerusalem Newswire, and other media outlets. A must read if you dont have time, but want a good gist of arguments and viewpoints.