Sid Shniad <shniad@gmail.com> Oct 23 09:23PM -0700
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20050780
* BBC News 23 October 2012 * Merkel to unveil Roma Holocaust memorial in
Berlin
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to unveil a memorial to the Roma victims
of the Nazi Holocaust in Berlin.
The memorial - a circular pool of water with a small plinth in the middle -
will be in the Tiergarten park, near the Reichstag, the German parliament
building.
The unveiling comes after years of delays and disputes over the memorial's
design and its cost.
Experts say between 220,000 and 500,000 Roma were killed during World War
II.
"It's very important to me that we have a culture of remembrance," Mrs
Merkel said in an interview on her YouTube channel.
"Every generation must confront its own history afresh. And for that we
must have suitable places that people can go to in the future, when the
witnesses from the time are no longer alive."
Mrs Merkel acknowledged that the building of the memorial had taken a long
time and entailed "may discussions", and recalled that the memorial to
murdered Jews of Europe had also taken more than 15 years to complete.
President Joachim Gauck and some 100 elderly survivors will join Mrs Merkel
at the opening ceremony on Wednesday.
*Ongoing discrimination*
The memorial has been designed by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan. A fresh
flower will be laid on the plinth at the centre of the memorial every day.
"Auschwitz" by Italian poet Santino Spinelli is engraved around the pool's
rim.
A chronology of the Nazi extermination campaign stands next to the memorial.
In 1982, Germany officially recognised the genocide of the Roma and Sinti -
a related people who live mostly in German-speaking areas of Central Europe.
The leader of the Central Council of Sinti and Roma in Germany, Romani
Rose, will also be at the ceremony.
He told Agence France-Presse: "Opening the memorial sends an important
message to society that anti-Roma sentiment is as unacceptable as
anti-Semitism."
In recent years, Germany has been moving to commemorate the persecution of
the Roma during World War II.
However, Roma organisations and human rights groups say they are still
discriminated against in many European countries.
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20050780
* BBC News 23 October 2012 * Merkel to unveil Roma Holocaust memorial in
Berlin
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to unveil a memorial to the Roma victims
of the Nazi Holocaust in Berlin.
The memorial - a circular pool of water with a small plinth in the middle -
will be in the Tiergarten park, near the Reichstag, the German parliament
building.
The unveiling comes after years of delays and disputes over the memorial's
design and its cost.
Experts say between 220,000 and 500,000 Roma were killed during World War
II.
"It's very important to me that we have a culture of remembrance," Mrs
Merkel said in an interview on her YouTube channel.
"Every generation must confront its own history afresh. And for that we
must have suitable places that people can go to in the future, when the
witnesses from the time are no longer alive."
Mrs Merkel acknowledged that the building of the memorial had taken a long
time and entailed "may discussions", and recalled that the memorial to
murdered Jews of Europe had also taken more than 15 years to complete.
President Joachim Gauck and some 100 elderly survivors will join Mrs Merkel
at the opening ceremony on Wednesday.
*Ongoing discrimination*
The memorial has been designed by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan. A fresh
flower will be laid on the plinth at the centre of the memorial every day.
"Auschwitz" by Italian poet Santino Spinelli is engraved around the pool's
rim.
A chronology of the Nazi extermination campaign stands next to the memorial.
In 1982, Germany officially recognised the genocide of the Roma and Sinti -
a related people who live mostly in German-speaking areas of Central Europe.
The leader of the Central Council of Sinti and Roma in Germany, Romani
Rose, will also be at the ceremony.
He told Agence France-Presse: "Opening the memorial sends an important
message to society that anti-Roma sentiment is as unacceptable as
anti-Semitism."
In recent years, Germany has been moving to commemorate the persecution of
the Roma during World War II.
However, Roma organisations and human rights groups say they are still
discriminated against in many European countries.
* * *
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jimmy-carter-netanyahu-has-abandoned-two-state-solution-in-favor-of-greater-israel/
Times of Israel October 22, 2012
Jimmy Carter: Netanyahu has abandoned two-state solution in favor of
Greater Israel
Former US president, visiting Israel, backs Abbas plan to have the UN
accept Palestine as nonmember state
*
*By Raphael Ahren *
<http://www.timesofisrael.com/jimmy-carter-netanyahu-has-abandoned-two-state-solution-in-favor-of-greater-israel/#comments>
Jimmy Carter meeting with Shimon Peres on Sunday. (photo credit: Mark
Neyman/GPO/Flash 90)
Former US president Jimmy Carter said Monday that Israel’s current
government has abandoned the two-state solution, making a “catastrophic”
one-state solution increasingly inevitable. Speaking to reporters in
Jerusalem, Carter endorsed the Palestinians’ plan to ask the United Nations
to accept Palestine as a nonmember state, and said he hoped Israel and the
US, who oppose the move, would nonetheless accept the outcome of the UN’s
vote.
“We are heading towards a one-state outcome, which will fail to ensure the
security and democratic rights of the people of Israel and renege on the
promise of self-determination for Palestinians,” Carter said. “The
two-state solution is vanishing. We urgently need a fresh approach by all
parties if a Palestinian state is to be achieved.”
Carter, who is visiting Israel as the head of a delegation of former
statesmen, said that all Israeli prime ministers since Golda Meir supported
the two-state solution — until Benjamin Netanyahu.
‘The two-state solution has basically been abandoned and we’re now moving
toward a Greater Israel, or Eretz Israel, taking over all of the land
between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river’
“Every prime minister I’ve known has been a pursuer of the two-state
solution and I don’t know that [US] President [Barack] Obama has found that
prime minister Netanyahu is going to go that route,” Carter said in the
American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem. “All indication to us is that the
two-state solution has basically been abandoned and we’re now moving toward
a Greater Israel, or Eretz Israel, taking over all of the land between the
Mediterranean and the Jordan River, which I think is contrary to the
two-state solution concept.”
“That policy of promoting a two-state solution seems to be abandoned now,”
Carter added. “And we’re deeply concerned about this move toward a
catastrophic one-state choice — it’s not a solution, it’s a choice. This is
a major concern.”
Carter, who sat in the White House from 1977 to 1981, is touring in the
Middle East as a member of “The Elders,” a group of former statesmen who
seek to promote peace across the globe. Carter is traveling with former
Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and Mary Robinson, the
former president of Ireland, who both also spoke very critically of Israel.
Robinson said she had witnessed “so many discriminations and human rights
concerns” during her visit to Israel.
“Each time we come, I see a real deterioration in the lives and in the
situation of Palestinians,” she said. “The growth of settlements — each
time it’s quite remarkable, it takes your breath away.”
Jimmy Carter, left, with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah (photo
credit: Mati Milstein/The Elders)
Earlier on Monday, the three “Elders” met with Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Abbas told them that he has decided to
go ahead with the plan to ask the UN General Assembly to accept Palestine
as a nonmember state in November. While Israel and the US fiercely oppose
such a move, saying it doesn’t change facts on the ground and would preempt
the outcome of future negotiations, Carter, Robinson and Brundtland
wholeheartedly endorsed the plan, as it would give the Palestinians “a new
stature.”
“My hope is that the Israelis will say: We were opposed to it but we accept
it, and the same for the United States,” Carter told The Times of Israel at
the press conference. “I’d hope that any country that votes against the
Palestinian move or abstains, after the decision is made by the General
Assembly will accept the results of the vote.”
The Elders delegation’s next stop is Cairo, where they are expected to meet
senior officials, including President Mohammed Morsi. Carter said he has
known Morsi for a long time and that Morsi intends to maintain the 1979
peace agreement with Israel.
Times of Israel October 22, 2012
Jimmy Carter: Netanyahu has abandoned two-state solution in favor of
Greater Israel
Former US president, visiting Israel, backs Abbas plan to have the UN
accept Palestine as nonmember state
*
*By Raphael Ahren *
<http://www.timesofisrael.com/jimmy-carter-netanyahu-has-abandoned-two-state-solution-in-favor-of-greater-israel/#comments>
Jimmy Carter meeting with Shimon Peres on Sunday. (photo credit: Mark
Neyman/GPO/Flash 90)
Former US president Jimmy Carter said Monday that Israel’s current
government has abandoned the two-state solution, making a “catastrophic”
one-state solution increasingly inevitable. Speaking to reporters in
Jerusalem, Carter endorsed the Palestinians’ plan to ask the United Nations
to accept Palestine as a nonmember state, and said he hoped Israel and the
US, who oppose the move, would nonetheless accept the outcome of the UN’s
vote.
“We are heading towards a one-state outcome, which will fail to ensure the
security and democratic rights of the people of Israel and renege on the
promise of self-determination for Palestinians,” Carter said. “The
two-state solution is vanishing. We urgently need a fresh approach by all
parties if a Palestinian state is to be achieved.”
Carter, who is visiting Israel as the head of a delegation of former
statesmen, said that all Israeli prime ministers since Golda Meir supported
the two-state solution — until Benjamin Netanyahu.
‘The two-state solution has basically been abandoned and we’re now moving
toward a Greater Israel, or Eretz Israel, taking over all of the land
between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river’
“Every prime minister I’ve known has been a pursuer of the two-state
solution and I don’t know that [US] President [Barack] Obama has found that
prime minister Netanyahu is going to go that route,” Carter said in the
American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem. “All indication to us is that the
two-state solution has basically been abandoned and we’re now moving toward
a Greater Israel, or Eretz Israel, taking over all of the land between the
Mediterranean and the Jordan River, which I think is contrary to the
two-state solution concept.”
“That policy of promoting a two-state solution seems to be abandoned now,”
Carter added. “And we’re deeply concerned about this move toward a
catastrophic one-state choice — it’s not a solution, it’s a choice. This is
a major concern.”
Carter, who sat in the White House from 1977 to 1981, is touring in the
Middle East as a member of “The Elders,” a group of former statesmen who
seek to promote peace across the globe. Carter is traveling with former
Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and Mary Robinson, the
former president of Ireland, who both also spoke very critically of Israel.
Robinson said she had witnessed “so many discriminations and human rights
concerns” during her visit to Israel.
“Each time we come, I see a real deterioration in the lives and in the
situation of Palestinians,” she said. “The growth of settlements — each
time it’s quite remarkable, it takes your breath away.”
Jimmy Carter, left, with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah (photo
credit: Mati Milstein/The Elders)
Earlier on Monday, the three “Elders” met with Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Abbas told them that he has decided to
go ahead with the plan to ask the UN General Assembly to accept Palestine
as a nonmember state in November. While Israel and the US fiercely oppose
such a move, saying it doesn’t change facts on the ground and would preempt
the outcome of future negotiations, Carter, Robinson and Brundtland
wholeheartedly endorsed the plan, as it would give the Palestinians “a new
stature.”
“My hope is that the Israelis will say: We were opposed to it but we accept
it, and the same for the United States,” Carter told The Times of Israel at
the press conference. “I’d hope that any country that votes against the
Palestinian move or abstains, after the decision is made by the General
Assembly will accept the results of the vote.”
The Elders delegation’s next stop is Cairo, where they are expected to meet
senior officials, including President Mohammed Morsi. Carter said he has
known Morsi for a long time and that Morsi intends to maintain the 1979
peace agreement with Israel.
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