OMNI
United
Nations WORLD REFUGEE DAY NEWSLETTER #9, June 20, 2020.
Compiled by
Dick Bennett for a CULTURE OF PEACE, JUSTICE, and ECOLOGY
(Newsletter #1 June 20, 2008; #2 Dec. 4,
2011; #3 June 20, 2012; #4, June 20, 2014; #5, June 20, 2015; #6 June 20, 2017;
#7, June 20, 2018; #8, June 20, 2019).
UN World Refugee Day is held every year on June 20, a special day when the world
takes time to recognize the desperate needs and the resilience of forcibly
displaced people, and to plan ways to help them.
A time too to celebrate the UN for its idealism, compassion, and
practical work.
CONTENTS UN WORLD REFUGEE DAY JUNE 20, 2020
SCOTUS
DACA Victory
UNHCR
Issues Dire Warning
History
of US Immigration
Film
about Middle East
Jesus
as Refugee
Google
Search, UN Refugee Day 2020
BREAKING NEWS
SCOTUS
GIVES DACA VICTORY
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IMPORTANT DACA UPDATE!
OMNI Center via googlegroups.com 6-19-20
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Jun 18, 2020, 2:00 PM (18 hours ago)
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Long-awaited Supreme Court decision on DACA
is down. And WE WON! Everyone who supports DACA people can
celebrate and prep for the next phase. Arkansas United shares their
plans in this newsletter. Thank you to all you dedicated folks who sent
good thoughts, signed petitions, and made donation over the years. YOU
DID THIS!
Gladys
Gladys Tiffany,
DirectorOMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology www.omnicenter.org
479-935-4422 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com
----- Forwarded
Message -----
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2020, 01:21:59 PM
CDT
Subject: IMPORTANT DACA UPDATE!
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DACA Decision!
6/18/2020
To our allies and all friends of the immigrant and
Latinx communities of Arkansas
Saludos Gladys!
In light of the decision handed
down by the Supreme Court today, Arkansas United released the following
statement:
Arkansas
United, an Arkansas immigrant advocacy group founded in 2010 by AR
Dreamers, welcomes today’s decision from SCOTUS to block President Trump
from ending DACA, rightly acknowledging that DHS’s decision was arbitrary
and capricious.
The
DACA program will reopen for applications, and the DACAmented will continue
to have the opportunity to renew. Arkansas United, Arkansas Dreamers and
legislative allies will host a Zoom-press conference today at 2pm (link
below) to offer their reactions to this ruling, and lift up the continued
asks, both, of Congress to offer a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and
of the Arkansas state assembly to continue its work to fulfill the
potential of the DACA program by expanding access to professional licenses.
Arkansas
United’s Immigrant Resource Centers in Springdale and Little Rock will
offer legal navigation support to any AR Dreamers seeking assistance with
DACA application. Arkansas United affirms that today’s victory was
the direct result of years of organizing by Dreamers and their many allies,
and today, the eve of Juneteenth, we look forward to remaining centered
around our shared call for justice for our Black community. Throughout
today on Facebook, we will be
featuring resources on DACA and tomorrow on how immigrants too can work to
counter anti-Blackness.
Thank
you for your continued support,
Arkansas
United
DACA EVENTS TODAY:
Tune into a Zoom Press Conference today at 2:00 p.m.
Tune into Arkansas United's Facebook Live
at 7:00 p.m.
Arkansas
United will be hosting a Field Call which will allow all those joining
to share feelings, thoughts, and ideas moving forward.
Staff
will be available on the call to provide more detailed information for
those with questions about today's decision.
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News covering the UN
and the world
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The number of people displaced by war or discrimination
has doubled over the last decade to reach a record 79.5 million -- or
approximately one percent of the global population, a report from the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says. "We are
witnessing a changed reality in that forced displacement nowadays is
not only vastly more widespread but is simply no longer a short-term
and temporary phenomenon," says UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi.
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US IMMIGRATION HISTORY
By David
Nasaw, New York Times, posted May 19, 2020
A review-essay on
new books by Jia Lynn Yang and Adam Goodman on the history of US immigration policy.
The author is a professor emeritus of history at the CUNY Graduate Center. His
latest book, on Europe's displaced persons after World War II, will be
published in September.
[H-PAD] H-PAD Notes 5/27/20: Links to recent articles of interest Historians for Peace and Democracy
FILM ABOUT MIDDLE EASTERN REFUGEES
Wednesday, February 5
- The Dupes (Syria 1973, directed by Tewfik Saleh). From a master Egyptian
director, this searing adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani’s celebrated
novella, Men in the Sun, follows three Palestinians of
different generations seeking to smuggle themselves from Iraq to Kuwait in
search of a better life (Arabic w/ English subtitles – 107 minutes)
Nadi Cinema, the Middle East Film Club, screens films from
across the Middle East and often beyond. Screenings are free and open to the
public. The series is hosted by Professor Joel Gordon and generally meets
monthly. Call 479-575-2175 or visit
the Nadi Cinema webpage for
more information on plans during the pandemic.
Nani Verzon. Program Manager, King
Fahd Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas 479-575-2175 | mest.uark.edu | Facebook: @UARKMEST | Twitter: @UARKMEST
Jesus was a Palestinian refugee
Justice Initiative via uark.onmicrosoft.com
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Dec 22, 2019, 1:02 PM (19 hours ago)
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Note: As the world is
about to acknowledge the birth of Jesus on December 25, some history of
Jesus as a Palestinian organizer, in opposition to the occupation of
his Palestinian homeland by the Romans, is of critical
importance.
The article below by Hamid Dabashi importantly makes
reference to Jesus as the Jewish Palestinian refugee that he was. Bethlehem,
the city of his birth, and Nazareth were in the country of Palestine.
In an article I wrote, in 2015, about Jesus' role as a revolutionary
against Roman abuse, entitled "A Personal Testimony:The History and Violence of Christianity." I noted the
following:
It never ceases to amaze me that given the importance of
the role of religion in our lives that we are rarely given the
opportunity to learn about its history from church leaders. This is
likely for two reasons. One is that many probably don't know the
history themselves and secondly if they do know they likely don't want
us to know that history. Knowledge, or certain kinds of knowledge, can
be empowering and prompt too many questions that church leaders
would probably want to avoid.
While there are questions as to his actual existence,
there are nevertheless a lot of interpretations of Jesus. I have mine
as well, based on my research. To me, he was a revolutionary. He grew
up in the Middle East, which is geographically in North Africa. This
was during a time of the stressful occupation of Rome in Palestine,
known as the home of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity
and Islam).
In 63 B.C.E, the Roman general Pompey conquered Palestine.
Jesus seemed largely concerned about the integrity of the Jewish faith
in the face of Roman corruption of some of the Jewish leaders. He was
also defiant against the Roman empire overall. In contemporary terms,
he was not an "Uncle Tom" and this is likely why he was
crucified. He defied Roman rule by developing a movement largely
against the Roman occupation and its dictates. (If we were
occupied by a foreign ruler we would probably do the same, as is now
yet again the case in Middle East. This time it is mostly America and
Israel, instead of Rome, wielding their power and there is, of course,
a reaction to this.)
Again, below, is the wonderful and explanatory article, by
Columbia professor Hamid Dabashi, about the history of Jesus. He wisely
notes:
Imagine Christ as a Jewish Palestinian labour organiser
refugee from Honduras! Donald Trump and
his Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen would probably not
have allowed him into the US.
December 21, 2019
Remember: Christ was a
Palestinian refugee
Jesus Christ
stands as a towering figure of unity in the face of the divisions and
hate being sown among us.
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A view shows the dome of the Assyrian
church facing a mosque minaret in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied
West Bank on December 24, 2018 [Mustafa Ganeyeh/Reuters]
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"And when the
angels said, 'O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word
from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary -
distinguished in this world and the hereafter and among those brought
near [to Allah]" (The Quran 3:45).
There is something
beautifully sacred about the moment in the Quran when the angels inform
Mary she is about to give birth to Jesus. Angels bring her the good
news. They tell her of how "He will speak to the people in the
cradle and in maturity and will be of the righteous."
The sublime
innocence of Mary at hearing this news can hardly be better captured in
any scripture: "She said, 'My Lord, how will I have a child when
no man has touched me?" [The angel] said, 'Such is Allah; He
creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it,
'Be,' and it is" (The Quran 3:47).
God Himself,
according to the Quran, teaches Christ: "And He will teach him
writing and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel" (The Quran
3:48).
Based on these
and other Quranic passages, Muslims should have no theological problem
marking, celebrating, rejoicing at the birth of Christ as a prophet
sent by God.
For every age, a 'different' Christ
All of these may
appear as strange and outlandish in a world plagued by religious
bigotry and historical illiteracy. Generations of European depiction of
Christ as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white man have made it difficult
for European and North American Christians today to imagine him for
what he was: a Jewish Palestinian refugee child who grew up to become a
towering revolutionary figure.
In his exquisite
study, Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture
(1985), the eminent historian and theologian Jaroslav Pelikan has
demonstrated that, throughout history the image of Christ has gone
through successive reformations, from a Jewish Rabbi to "Light of
Gentiles", "the King of Kings", "the Son of
Man", "the Monk who rules the World", "the
Universal Man", "the Prince of Peace", to a liberator
who inspired Lev Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr to
"the Man who belongs to the World".
In the Latin
American context, in particular, and through the emancipatory work of
liberation theologians, the figure of Christ emerges as the
revolutionary leader of the wretched of the earth.
The Peruvian
philosopher, theologian and Dominican priest Gustavo Gutierrez has
revolutionised our contemporary understanding of Christ. In my own work
on Islamic liberation theology, I have been deeply influenced by the
work of Father Gutierrez,
who next to the eminent Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas have
brought the prophetic voices of Biblical exegesis to bear on our
contemporary lives.
The
Nazareth-born Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman has a short film
called, Cyber Palestine (1999),
in which he presents the story of a modern-day Mary and Joseph as they
attempt to cross from Gaza into
Bethlehem. As a parable of the Palestinian predicament in their own
homeland, "Cyber Palestine" captures the quintessence of the
story of the birth of Christ under military occupation of the Romans
then and the Zionists now.
Imagine Christ
as a Jewish Palestinian labour organiser refugee from Honduras! Donald Trump and
his Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen would probably not
have allowed him into the US.
Against the grain of history
The dark days of
Zionism laying a false claim on Judaism and
Palestine alike are happily over. The lies of a gang of European settler
colonialists trying to rob Jews of their ancestral faith and
Palestinians of their historical homeland have finally come to a
crushing defeat when Jews and Palestinians, and Jews as Palestinians,
have come together to lay a post-Zionist claim on their ancestral faith
and homeland alike.
The massive
propaganda to cast the resistance of Palestinians to the colonial
occupation and theft of their homeland as a battle between "Jews
and Arabs" was so dominant in the la la land of the US and even
Europe that the very idea that Palestinians are Christians, too, and
that Jesus was, in fact, a Palestinian Jewish Rabbi scares and confuses
the living daylight out of their slumbering ignorance.
The very simple
fact that Palestinians have historically been Jews, Christians, and
Muslims was hard to digest in that la la land. By extension, also the
very simple fact that Christ and Mary are two seminal figures in the
Quran has also been seen as a strange proposition in this banality.
Jesus was a
Palestinian Jew who spoke Aramaic, a language in the same family as
Hebrew and Arabic. He came from the same prophetic tradition as
Prophets Moses and Mohammad.
There are, of
course, doctrinal differences between the figure of Jesus as he appears
in the Quran and his divinity as understood in Christianity.
Here it is crucial to remember the manner in which in both Persian
poetry and Islamic mysticism, the figure of Christ expands into the far
more pervasive icon of divine mercy. The seminal Sufi master Ibn Arabi
(1165-1240) has in his works, particularly in the chapter, The Wisdom
of Prophecy in the Word of Jesus, in his masterpiece, Fusus
al-Hikam/Bezels of Wisdom, sought to bring conceptual
harmony between the Muslim and Christian perceptions of Jesus.
Through his
doctrine of "Oneness of Being",
Ibn Arabi accommodated the question of sonship in Christian doctrine:
Jesus emerges as a "Perfect Man" and "the Seal of
Saints". Ibn Arabi cites the Quranic references to Jesus' ability
to bring a clay bird to life as an indication of the Divine Will.
In the Muslim
Sufis' Christology, we have a solid body of evidence in which we see
the current animus presumed between various religions of Palestine as
political hogwash. We need literary knowledge, historical
consciousness, and intellectual responsibility with all of which to
dismantle the thick apartheid walls that ignorant hateful people are
erecting among us all.
Merry Christmas
everyone! Remember Christ was a Palestinian refugee - a Jewish
Palestinian refugee, who is the founding figure of Christianity, and a
beloved prophet for Muslims. The rest is commentary.
The views
expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily
reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Hamid Dabashi
is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative
Literature at Columbia University.
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Google UN World Refugee Day
June 20, 2020
The United Nations' (UN) World
Refugee Day is observed on June 20 each year. This
event honors the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children
who are forced to flee their homeland under threat of persecution, conflict and
violence.
[Comment: Google is way behind in not including global
warming, climate catastrophe refugees, which will probably soon surpass all
other categories in number. –Dick]
العربية
· 中文 · English · Français; Português; Русский · Español · UN logo
· World Refugee Day 20 June ... 2020 Theme:
Every Action Counts ... This is at the heart of UNHCR's World Refugee
Day campaign. This year, we aim to remind ... Every minute 20 people
leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror.
Jun
20, 2019 - June 20 is the day the world commemorates
the strength, courage, and perseverance of millions of refugees.
Get to know more about World ...
Each June
20, the globe comes
together to honor World
Refugee Day. The United Nations General Assembly launched the holiday in
2000, and since then, the ...
Jun 20, 2020 - The UN General Assembly therefore decided
that 20 June would be celebrated as World Refugee Day from 2001 onwards. Further
information ...
Sat, Jun 20
World Refugee Day is held on June 20th.
This is an annual event, held on the same date each year. World Refugee Day honours the strength and courage
of ...
Sat, Jun
20
Jun
20, 2019 - On World Refugee Day, held every year on June
20th, we commemorate the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of
refugees.
World
Refugee Day, international observance
observed June 20 each year, is dedicated to ... Each year
on June 20 the United Nations, United
Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) ... This page was last edited on
16 June 2020, at 16:29 (UTC).
On June
20, 2020, the world will observe the United Nations' (UN) World
Refugee Day. This event honors the courage, strength and determination of women, ...
Searches related to UN World Refugee Day June 20, 2020
CONTENTS UN World Refugee Day June 20, 2019
Choosing the Right Words: Migrant v. Refugee
UN Report: Displaced from Poor Nations
UNA, USA, 70.8 Million
US Repression of Aid Providers
Public Protests:
Alison Moore, “Liberty”
In Defense of Open Borders
UUSC: Children in Federal Detention
Whistleblower v. ICE’s Solitary Confinement
International Rescue Committee
END UNITED
NATIONS WORLD REFUGEE DAY NEWSLETTER #9, June 20, 2020.
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