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let's sit down at this cafe, have a cup of coffee and talk about politics.
Having just this month bicycled the length of the West Bank in Palestine from Jenin in the north to Hebron in the south, I feel no need to play “they say, I say” with the arguments put forth by the writers from the Jewish Federation and the Jewish Community Relations Council. Rather, I choose to honor the hundreds of enterprising, decent, welcoming folks I met and spoke with as we pedaled over sharp hills from town to town. They spoke of entire lives spent under military occupation and terror by Israel. Of homes and lives destroyed. Of people burned to death in their own home. I met the owner of a brewery struggling to conduct a viable business, but sabotaged by Israeli diversion of water from her town to illegal settlements; of product going bad while waiting to go to port through a commercial checkpoint closed for long periods and unjustifiable reasons. How can you brew beer without water? In spite of it all, they dance debka, they play the oud, they write poetry, they welcome strangers, Jewish strangers, into their homes.
The “conflict” is not a conflict, and it is not complex.
It is a massive violent presence by a military significantly funded by our own American tax dollars, and a ceaseless and courageous resistance to that presence by a civilian population. The nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement arose 12 years ago from this resistance and will continue until the abuses end. When the human rights abuses end, BDS will end. Omar Barghouti made this very clear in his talk at Yale recently. He can’t wait for it to end. He looks forward to fulfilling the other passions in his life: philosophy and choreography. We honor Omar for his dedication to the struggle for human rights, and look forward to dancing with him when, not if, that struggle succeeds.
Love this story….on a recent trip to Palestine as we were biking through the beautiful countryside and enjoying the food and the hospitality of the people I could not help but notice the countless dogs and cats that just seemed to be wandering around on their own. As I asked our tour guide about the welfare of the animals I immediately realized the ridiculous nature of my question as he indicated the folks in Palestine are having enough trouble just surviving with the water shortage and all of the rules and regulations imposed by the Israeli government. This lady is doing a good job in a difficult situation–she has a good heart–best wishes and prayers for her facility, not to mention it shines a light on the situation and the suffering, in general. Shining a light on the suffering in Palestine--dogs and people, too--what about the children. from the anguspost.com:
"This is not about politics this is not religious, this is pure human ethics.”
The war between the Israelis and Palestinians is timeless, and one known all too well by most of the general population. The thought of the two groups working together seems decades away from now. However, a recent situation involving shelter animals has struck the hearts of thousands of readers. The safety and well-being of stray dogs has convinced this community to finally work together.
Just east of Bethlehem, in a town called Beit Sahur, the only Palestinian-run animal shelter in the West Bank was in danger of shutting down last week. A crowd-funding campaign was created through Headstart, in which they were asking for NIS 50,000 in order to keep the shelter running. As of Sunday, August 28th, more than NIS 74,000 had been raised. The most incredible part of all of this is that over 400 of the backers were Israeli.
Thanks to hundreds of Israeli donations, it appears [the shelter] will continue its mission of protecting dogs and cats.
The campaign was started and is hosted by Preserving the Rights of Animals (PTROA), an Israeli organization, which will collect funds, and distribute the money to the Beit Sahur shelter. There are currently 60 dogs within their care.
There are currently 60 dogs at the small Palestinian-run shelter.
The shelter in Beit Sahur is run by a 38-year-old woman named Diana Babish. Before opening the shelter, Diana Babish was the regional branch manager of the Jordan Commercial Bank. She also has a Masters Degree in international cooperation and development from Bethlehem University.
Babish opened the shelter one year ago, in hopes of aiding the homeless animal population of Bethlehem, as the numbers have risen drastically throughout the years of war.
In an interview with Jerusalem Post, Babish described the reason why she believed an animal shelter was necessary for Bethlehem and surrounding areas.
The idea for a shelter came when I saw how dogs are being treated. Dogs are not a priority animal here and municipalities poison them.
Babish searched for a plot of land to build an animal shelter, but was turned down at every opportunity. Eventually, she was able to convince the Beit Sahur Municipality to provide a small piece of land, where she began construction of the animal shelter.
She paid for the construction out of her own pocket.
Preserving the Rights of Animals helped raise enough money to keep the shelter open.
President of Preserving the Rights of Animals, Yoram Erez, stated that Babish “didn’t know what kind of trouble she was getting into,” as the epidemic of homeless animals began to overflow her small shelter.
Within months, she was over $3,000 in debt to contractors, and forced to pay daily for the upkeep of the facility.
Though Diana Babish has been able to cut costs by feeding dogs chicken and rice from wedding services, she is still overburdened with expensive medical bills.
Babish often takes in dogs who are injured or sick, and many are in need of greater care than she can give them. Dogs in need of medical treatment are sent to Israeli veterinarians, where the medical bills add up quickly. One dog’s medical bill was over NIS 45,000. Thankfully, PTROA helped cover the cost.
After aiding Babish with her veterinarian care, they aimed to assist her further by creating the crowd-funding campaign. Yoram Erez believes that Babish is headed in the right direction.
The situation is not good for many dogs and cats in the Palestinian Authority, but I think Diana is the point that we need to start from to make a change.
Yoram Erez and PTROA hope that they will be able to raise enough money to open a larger, more modern animal shelter in place of the one Babish has created. They hope to have an open door policy, where both Israelis and Palestinians will have equal access.
For now, they are working in the field to help homeless animals, while raising money to keep Babish’s shelter afloat.
Animals, whether they are in Palestine or in Israel, have to be helped. This is not about politics, this is not religious, this is pure human ethics. I thank all the people for their love and support.
