Hi All,
Sometimes when you go to new place, you suddenly become lucky, why not give it a
try.

http://www.visapie.com/?user=7493

Thanks
























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Top Giants Certifications resources like Microsoft, Sun, Cisco, Oracle.

http://www.vcertifyu.com?aff=1245

Exam Preparation, CCNA, CCNP, MCSE, MCSD, SCJP and others.

http://www.certgym.com/?aid=4598


Thanks.



























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If you wish not to receive future emails, simply go to the yahoo group through
which you are receiving my emails and click on a link "Edit membership" which
you can find in front of your email address. You can change your message
delivery option in this page in "Step 2" to suit your needs. If you are a group
moderator and no longer wishes to receive emails, please change my "post message
settings", otherwise email from your group moderator email address to
changepreferrence@... with the subject "remove- (your groupname).

There are many choices available and this is right aproach that first research
about degree and
than get one.

Master, Bachelor, Associate and Phds:
http://www.estudyglobal.com/?mem=3098




























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If you wish not to receive future emails, simply go to the yahoo group through
which you are
receiving my emails and click on a link "Edit membership" which you can find in
front of your
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Karen have added you to her favorite list, check Karen's profile here
http://karenabppassion.googlepages.com/bikerchicks.htm

SexyJoy has added you as a friend. Check SexyJoy's profile here:
http://sexyjoytofriend.googlepages.com/sexyjoy.htm

Handsome and Cool Bikers looking for fun!  Chat with them here:
http://coolbiker0190.googlepages.com/bikerboyz.htm

The Sabeel Conference in Cleveland, Ohio was a great success.  Kudos to the
organizers and the speakers.  Excellent speakers on issues of Palestine,
Islam, Christianity, peace making, liberation theology, and the heresy of
Christian Zionism. Next Conference being planned for Boston in October (for
more info, visit http://www.fosna.org ).
------------------------
Citizens for fair legistlation alert:
ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TO SUPPORT PEACE FOR PALESTINE BY NOT BOYCOTTING
THE UNITY GOVERNMENT
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/CFLWeb/campaign.jsp?campai\
gn_KEY=6781
----------------------
The real significance of the AJC attack on "progressive" Jews
http://www.southend.org/tiki-index.php?page=The%20AJC%20Attacks
or http://tinyurl.com/yrltfb
-------------------------
From Ron:
When MK Dr. Jamal Zahalka spoke at the Israeli Apartheid Week event at
Concordia Univeristy in Montreal last week, he pointed out that the core of
the illegal Zionist ethnic cleansing project and so-called Israeli
"Democracy" is maximum land with minimum Arabs. This reminded me of the
lyrics from the following excellent anti-Israeli Apartheid music video
produced by the group Dam from the slums of Lod in Israel.  The video is in
Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles.  Please watch, post and ciculate
the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIo6lyP9tTE
For more info about Dam plus some tracks from their latest album, visit:
http://www.dampalestine.com/main.html

Mazin adds: There are many Palestinian hip-hop artist in the US.  My
favorite is Arabesque: see http://www.myspace.com/besque
------------
The Palestinian Summer Celebration 2007 update and news from Siraj Center

The preparation for the Palestinian Summer Celebration 2007 have just been
finalized.  Siraj Center and Bethlehem University are ready for you now,
participants now are able to register online through Siraj Center Website
http://www.sirajcenter.org/courses.htm

The Palestinian summer celebration 2007
June 20 - August 18th 2007

Come and celebrate Palestine, learn Arabic, study history, know the people
and their culture, share some time with local families and volunteer with a
local community organization

The Palestinian summer celebration is a unique annual program that gives
people from all over the world the chance to encounter the life and culture
in Palestine in addition to donating some of their time to a local community
organization through voluntary work and internships.  The Palestinian summer
celebration 2007 will take place in the Bethlehem area in Palestine, between
Wednesday June 20th  and August 18th 2007. the annual celebration is
organized by Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies www.sirajcenter.org in
partnership with Bethlehem University www.bethlehem.edu and the US based
Society for Biblical Studies, www.sbsedu.org.
Participants will also have the opportunity to listen and question high
level speakers of various positions and expertise.

Educational opportunity:
An Arabic language Course and a Modern Palestine Course are offered by
Bethlehem U as apart of the program. Three credits hours will be given for
each course, upon the participant’s request.
Courses out line

For further information please visit:
http://www.sirajcenter.org/courses.htm

The Palestinian Cyclists Club

As the news about initiating the Palestinian Cyclists Club PCC  Siraj Center
has been receiving with Joy messages from many young Palestinians both males
and females requesting to join the PCC from all over Palestine.  Many
international friends of Palestine have been also expressing willingness to
participate in delivering the PCC to the state or readiness by participating
with their expertise in their training Palestinian Cyclists and by providing
the material needs for the Club.  Some have been designing logos other have
been busy thinking about the suitable name for the newly emerging youth
organization.  The dream is becoming a reality.  More members are welcomed
and further support is needed.

For further information about the PCC please visit:
http://www.sirajcenter.org/cycle.htm
--------------------
Mazin
http://qumsiyeh.org

_________________________________________________________________
With tax season right around the corner, make sure to follow these few
simple tips.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/PreparationTips/PreparationTips.aspx?\
icid=HMFebtagline

I have not posted anything for nine days.  Like many of you, we were busy
with the big rally and march in Washington DC which was followed by
teach-ins on Sunday and then a lobby day on Monday.  Due to my own job
growing demand, I actually spent three nights in the laboratory, two nights
on the road and two nights in DC.  Anyway, many readers suggested that it
would be helpful to have a summary up front with links to items if readers
want more details.  So here goes starting with brief comments on the rally
and march. While newspapers and TV pundits ducked their responsibility and
as usual underestimated attendance ("tens of thousands"), privately DC
police estimated 100,000 and organizers estimated 500,000 (so a good
guestimate is 200,000).  We had several buses and many cars and vans from
various parts of CT alone (a small state).

As in most such events, people come with varied agendas and try their best
to push their plans and ideas.  Religious leaders, code pink, communists,
various stripes of socialists, various stripes of capitalists, veterans,
students, anarchists, and on and on.  Arab community participation was
notably low.  International ANSWER coalition had a few but highly visible
people to publicize the March 17 rally on the Pentagon (they had tables, big
signs and bullhorns). The US Campaign to End the Occupation
(endtheoccupation.org) had a table and did some publicity for the June 11-12
national rally commemorating 40 years of the occupation of the Palestinian
West Bank and Gaza (i.e. the second stage of the colonization of Palestine).
   A feeder march for Palestine was small at 150 people (not very well
publicized) but was very visible and loud thanks especially to the work of
activists from NY.  It had large Palestinian flags and signs on Israeli
apartheid and connections between Iraq and Palestine.  Two bullhorns and
hundreds of flyers passed made sure people noticed the group and the
Palestine issue.  Not participating in that march but doing their own thing
was nearly 80 International Socialist Organization marchers who also did not
shy away from highlighting the struggle for Palestinian freedom. Others
speaking for Palestine included two people from IfAmericansKnew.org who
handed out tons of material.  I did not hear some of the speeches at the
main rally but of the ones I heard, I think the best was by Palestinian
American Noura Erekat who explained IMHO the meaning of true solidarity with
oppressed people.  After the talks, people marched around the Capitol.
Media coverage was far more positive than in past similar events (thanks to
activists' persistence in speaking truth to power and a growing anti-war
movement).

On Sunday and starting at 9:30 there were a number of parallel workshops at
a high school in Bethesda.  Over 800 people attended.  One workshop
facilitated by Josh Ruebner dealt with preparations for the June march and
rally.  Another was addressing whether Jimmy Carter was right in his
assessment (Is there apartheid?).  The latter was facilitated by Noura
Erekat was standing room only.  Two self-proclaimed peace Zionists tried to
derail the conversation and even challenge basic human rights (right of
refugees to return to their homes and lands). A general meeting was also
held to prepare the contingents for the lobby day.  Later in the day, the
various state contingents met separately to plan for the following day.  We
had 14 people from CT.  David Amdur of the American Friends Service
Committee office in Hartford had arranged meetings with 5 congressional
offices and the office of Senator Dodd. We decided to give one final call to
Senator Lieberman's office and if they did not want to see us, we were going
to go there anyway :-).

Monday morning, David called and Lieberman's office agreed to meet with us
(his foreign policy fellow).  We then went on to meet with others (total of
seven meetings for CT Congressional delegation).  Capitol hill offices were
swarming with peace activists (800 in total from 47 states).  The message
was clear and unambiguous at least for the delegations who let us know what
they were talking to the congress about): No war on Iran, bring troops from
Iraq home now, no military bases in Iraq, no to violations of Civil
Liberties, need for a new US foreign policy in West Asia (one rooted in
International law and human rights not gun diplomacy and war profiteering),
we demanded they excercise the power of the purse, and need for
investigations of abuse of powers.  Some of us were also not shy about
bringing up the issue of Palestine-Israel. We also agreed to meet with the
representatives themselves in our home states in 2-4 weeks to follow-up. We
are afterall, the majority in America.

In bad news from Iraq, Iraqi Oil law will be the real "victory" Bush does
not speak about as it intends to steal most of the Iraqi oil revenue to
profit US and British mega-corporations
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010807A.shtml). In bad news from
Apartheid Israel, colonization regime now putting the final touches on the
Bantustan system.  According to Israeli paper Haaretz article titled
"Impossible Travel: How Israel implements an apartheid system in the
occupied territories"
(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/815559.html ). Yet, several
presidential hopefuls already made the obligatory trips to Tel Aviv to suck
up to the Israeli lobby and its money.  Mitt Romney said in Herzlia "any
years ago, the Arab-Israeli conflict was looked at as a regional conflict
that dragged on, but it was not looked at as part of a global threat.
September 11th should have changed that. Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict
will not mollify the Jihadists. It has been the oldest most radical front of
the Islamic jihad in the world. This has not been about borders. This is
about the failure for them to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist…", peace
candidate John Edwards stated "Iran is serious about its threats...The
challenges in your own backyard -- represent an unprecedented threat to the
world and Israel... in order to ensure Iran never gets nuclear weapons, all
options must remain on table", and Hillary says "We know that a nuclear Iran
poses a direct threat to its neighbors in the region, with Israel as its
chief target. It also poses a significant threat to the United States by
combining access to nuclear materials and technology with support for
terrorists whose aim is to attack and kill Americans."

In good news, former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are joining
forces in "an effort to forge dozens of small and medium-size, black and
white Baptist organizations into a robust coalition that would serve as a
counterweight to the conservative Southern Baptist Convention"
(http://www.jewsonfirst.org/07a/back037.html).  BTW, when I was in North
Carolina, we worked with a progressive Baptist Church that was really
following the teachings of Jesus rather than the lunatic (Zionist) ravings
of Falwell and Robertson (modern day Pharisees). In other good news, a
German prosecutor ordered the arrest of nearly two dozen CIA and other US
agents involved in kidnapping a German citizen and flying him to Afghanistan
for interrogation. In other good news, it seems there is hardly any visible
support for Israel other than from fanatical Jewish Zionists. According to
the article "Israel’s Increased Isolation by MJ Rosenberg, it seems that
most letters to editor and other attacks on people like Jimmy Carter and
other human rights advocates come from the same tired and shrinking corner
(http://www.ipforum.org/display.cfm?id=6&Sub=15 ). Speaking of attacks, it
seems the Zionist rag called frontpage has decided to up their defamation
and attack on me.  The latest is an "interview" they conducted with paid
Zionist agent and imposter by the name of "Walid Shoebat"
(http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26655 ).  In it he
claims that I participated with him in riots.  The interviewer is a protégé
and employee of the racist David Horowitz.  For more on these persistent
attacks, see http://www.qumsiyeh.org/assaultontruth/ (some day when I have
more time, I will sue these guys).   While at it, you may want to read this
excellent editorial by Prof. George Bisharat: "From personal experience:
Some of Israel's supporters occasionally cross the line into suppression of
speech. When they do, U.S. policy is the loser."
(http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4504931.html )

In follow-up news, Amazon.com petition garnered over 17,000 signatures and
Amazon received so many letters.  While they did not back down fully, at
least they put an interview with Carter and otherwise also made effort to
make his Apartheid book page more positive.  They also fixed the incredibly
malicious skipping of his book in the top 10n sellers (list went from number
4 to number 6 skipping his number 5 for several days before pressure built
up).  Anyway, this shows that actions are important.  Keep writing and
engaging.

In other follow-up news, the World Economic Forum this year was a subdued
affair with limited US participation (no video conference with Condoleeza
Rice this year ;-).  They also met for the first time without their official
magazine Global Agenda which was closed after the controversy involving my
article on Boycotting Israel last year  (see
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/theworldeconomicsforumcontroversy/ ).  For those
interested about what the world really thinks about the US as published in
articles and ion broadcast (many translated from world press), See
http://www.watchingamerica.com

Finally, the Journal of Computer Science and Engineering is a new Journal
published in Arabic and encourages scholarly submission:
http://www.phillips-publishing.com/jcsea

Mazin
http://qumsiyeh.org

_________________________________________________________________
Search for grocery stores. Find gratitude. Turn a simple search into
something more.
http://click4thecause.live.com/search/charity/default.aspx?source=hmemtagline_gr\
atitude&FORM=WLMTAG

Here is the front image of wht could be ny virtual Christmas Card to you
http://ifamericansknew.org/images/beth06-front.jpg

Below are reflections/greetings for this holiday season (sorry it is not
more personal) followed by a statement and action alert from the Palestinian
American Congress.

1) Christmas Reflections/Greeting 2006
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/christmas2006/

It is at Christmastime that the sometimes-beautiful and sometimes-poignant
childhood memories of Bethlehem haunt me and other Palestinian Christians
most vividly.  Born in Shepherd's Field near Bethlehem to a Lutheran mother
and a Greek Orthodox father, I grew up feeling lucky because we celebrated
two Christmases.  The Christmas season was a time of family gatherings
around kerosene heaters where our fingers were cold but our hearts were warm
and stomachs full.

Today, Christmas is a time to reflect on the tragedy that has befallen this
most famous of little towns.  Israel militarily occupied Bethlehem in 1967,
but the landscape had begun to change well before that. In 1948, Bethlehem
became home to thousands of Palestinian refugees after more than 750,000
people were driven from their homes in what became Israel. Palestinians were
forbidden to return, and the cramped refugee camps of Dheisheh and Aida on
the outskirts of Bethlehem remain testaments to this nearly 60-year legacy
of dispossession.

After 1967, Israel built new illegal settlements on annexed Palestinian
public and agricultural lands and Israeli-only roads to connect these
settlements to Israel and one another.  We could do nothing but watch as
increasing portions of our homeland became off-limits to Palestinians. The
only forested region of East Jerusalem, Jabal Abu Ghneim -- where I used to
picnic and walk almost daily -- became the Jewish settlement of Har Homa.
Today, Bethlehem is surrounded by the settlements of Gilo, Har Gilo, and a
new settlement near Rachel's tomb.  The tomb is holy to Christians, Muslims
and Jews but is now off limit to Palestinians, including relatives of the
hundreds of Palestinian Muslims buried there.

Since 2002, Bethlehemites have faced the enormous human costs of a massive,
concrete segregation wall.  During my visit last July, I noticed that the
route of the wall zigzagged around Bethlehem, placing fertile Palestinian
agricultural lands on the "Israeli side" of the wall. The wall went straight
through centuries-old villages - separating Palestinian families from each
other and from their jobs, hospitals, schools, churches and mosques.

Many of my relatives have lost jobs in Jerusalem, a mere six miles away,
because it is virtually impossible for West Bank Palestinians to obtain
permits to enter Jerusalem. Even with a permit, checkpoints make travel
unpredictable and often impossible, precluding reliable work attendance.
Although I have an American passport, I am denied entry to East Jerusalem,
where I taught high school.  At Bethlehem University, where my brother has
taught mathematics for 25 years, the wall and checkpoints mean many faculty
and students can no longer make it to school.  The biblical and literal path
from Nazareth to Bethlehem is blocked by checkpoints and thirty-foot high
slabs of concrete.

I am saddened when I see how Bethlehem has been transformed.  A
once-thriving community is stifled, isolated and desperate. Tourism has
plummeted, jobs are scarce and Christian Palestinian families are leaving.
At Christmastime, typically a period of joy and hope, this grim reality hits
especially hard.

Israel's desire to acquire maximum geography with minimum Palestinian
demography is the root of the suffering afflicting the Holy Land.  Amnesty
International has observed that the peace processes failed because Israel
has ignored human rights, including the right of native Palestinians to
return to their homes and lands. There is now a broad international
consensus (with the exceptions of the US and Israeli governments) on the
danger to international peace and security posed by Israel's continued
violations of human rights and international law.

Although Israel's actions are given diplomatic and financial cover by my
adopted country of America, I feel hopeful.  Jimmy Carter's new book
"Palestine: Peace not Apartheid" marks the first time a major US politician
recognized publicly the reality of discrimination against the Christians and
Muslims of Palestine. The Iraq study group has recommended resolution of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict as critical to regional stability. People are
increasingly pausing to reconsider the value of our government's
unconditional support for Israel.  We need our politicians to follow suit.
In this season celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace, let us all
resolve to pray and work for justice in the holiest of lands.

May this holiday season and the new year bear the fruits of the collective
hard work for peace with justice to all people.

2) From the Palestinian American Congress: Holiday Greetings and Action
Alert

Many traditions celebrate holidays this season and we in the Palestinian
American Congress wish them all peaceful and happy Holidays.  Such holidays
remind us of those less fortunate than we are and of our responsibilities to
them.  We thus stand in solidarity with our Iraqi brothers and sisters of
all religions as they endure their fourth year under military occupation.
We stand in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters who are
unable to truly celebrate or even to practice their religious traditions
because of the Israeli occupation, ethnic cleansing, theft of their lands,
and destruction of their society.

Palestinian Christians this Christmas season cannot travel between Bethlehem
and Jerusalem (a distance of 7 miles) because of the illegal apartheid
walls. Palestinian Muslims this Eid Al Adha are subjected to similar
restrictions.  Both live in shrinking apartheid cantons subjected to
political, economic, and physical siege.  Most families cannot provide for
their Children's basic needs let alone buy gifts for the holidays.  Our
prayers and thoughts must be with those people.  But they need more than
that.  They need our solidarity and support. There are many things each of
us can do.  Here are just ten suggestions.

1) Learn more about history (http://www.PalestineRemembered.com) and the
isolation of Palestinians and infringement on their religious and civil
rights (http://www.maannews.net/en/,
http://www.openbethlehem.org, http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml ).
Learn more about suffering of Iraqis (see http://www.electroniciraq.net/)
and other people.

2) Support the Palestinian Civil Society call to action; for boycotts,
divestment and sanctions from Israel until it complies with human rights and
International law (see http://stopthewall.org/news/boycot.shtml).

3) Write letters to the editor (150-200 words) and/or op-eds (700-800 words)
to your local or national newspapers about the issues. Some media contacts
can be found here:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/contact/media.asp
http://capwiz.com/adc/dbq/media

4) Write and call your TV and radio stations and ask that they interview
native people from these areas on issues of religious freedom and the plight
of Muslims and Christians in Iraq and Palestine and
beyond (write to us if you would like suggested speakers near you).

5) Write and call your elected officials. Contacts available at
http://www.firstgov.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

6) Contact local churches in your area and ask that they bring Palestinian
Christians to speak to their congregations and that they pray for justice
and peace.

7) Contact mosques and ask that they dedicate a Friday Prayer to Donate to
worthy causes that help the suffering populations and/or those that educate
and lobby to stop policies of oppression and deprivation.

8) Take time to teach children about what is going on in Palestine. Give
them copies of this book titled "A little piece of ground" by award winning
author Elizabeth Laird (published by Haymarket Books) and then discuss it
with them. http://tinyurl.com/y7lej6 and http://www.haymarketbooks.org

9) Hold a teach-in, a vigil, a forum or other community gatherings to bring
attention to the plight of people in need.

10) Send this message to your relatives, friends, co-workers and
acquaintances and ask them to act.  Forward to other listserves.

Contact: media@...
=========
See also: What would happen if the Virgin Mary came to Bethlehem today?
http://news.independent.co.uk/appeals/indy_appeal/article2097790.ece

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org

_________________________________________________________________
Dave vs. Carl: The Insignificant Championship Series.  Who will win?
http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://davevsc\
arl.spaces.live.com/?icid=T001MSN38C07001

A brief diary of Palestine:

Monday: The trip from Amman to Bethlehem, a distance of 60 miles, took 11
hours of rather hellish time.  The procedures are really not about security
but are still about harassment and frustration of those traveling with
Palestinian documents.  A few of us also were delayed and asked to wait
longer than others and never told why the special selection. I was also
selected to go through some unusual machine  I felt bad especially about all
the young children and babies in the heat of the Jordan valley.  Forced to
endure meaningless waiting until Israeli soldiers decide it is time to go to
the next stop like herded sheep.  For some reason, I kept remembering the
stations of the cross.  Entering Beit Sahour (my hometown) after an absence
of 15 months though is always enough to make me temporarily forget all of
that (as is my mother's cooking :-).  I stayed late at night meeting
relatives and friends and deespite the exhaustion, it was difficult to go to
sleep.

Tuesday: In the morning, I filled out paper work to renew my documents
(expired every three years).  While I do have a US passport, Israel does not
allow me in on that passport as I am also a resident of the occupied areas.
These documents are sometimes mislabeled (e.g. "Palestinian Authority
Passport").  Passports are issued by independent states and this is not the
case here.  As far as "Palestinian Authority" there is an authority biut it
is not Palestinian.  It is still Israeli authorities who determine
everything here including who gets in or out, who gets a passport and who
does not, and even who gets to eat, drink, and have electricity.  Yet, life
goes on.  I met with so many people (over 50 in the course of this day
alone) exchanging information and ideas.  Ofcourse current politics dominate
but other subjects come up.  Ofcourse the World Cup is a huge distraction
here.  At 10 PM over 300 people gathered to watch the Italy-Germany game.
This was in the very large tent restaurant in Beit Sahour (originally
designed for tourists, now few toursits come).  Some Palestinians rooted for
Germany but more apparently were for Italy.  It was very spirited.  A
Palestinain young man donning the Germany flag struck a conversation with a
girl donning the Italian one.  Two Italian nuns drank beer and were rather
animated; jumping up and down with the crowds. We smoked Argila and ate
Mezza and exchanges stories (since I was at a pro-Italy tale I told them
about my recent tour of Italy :-).  Cars with flags and loud screams
streamed out after the stunning last 5 minutes were Italy scored two goals
to advance to the finals.   For a few hours, all had good time.  The night
then settled back.  I settled down to watch news after we drove home noting
the lights of the settlements (Efrata and Har Homa) and that unmentionable
monster called the apartheid wall.  I noted few people want to talk about
Aljidar Alfasil (the segregation wall) as compared to my conversations last
year.  It is almost like few people here also want to talk about cancer
which is also becoming more common here (especially epithelial cancers like
lung, liver, stomach).

Wednesday: My friend Imad Alatrash of the Palestine wildlife society
(http://www.wildlife-pal.org/) took me on a tour of areas destroyed and
areas threatened.  We started at a place that was forbidden to us and that I
personally never was able to get in: the site of the former Israeli military
camp in Beit Sahour.  As a child I remember seeing the Israeli soldiers
there and as an adult even last year I still saw them there and we could not
get close. Some of the nearby agricultural lands even outside the camp were
off limits to us.   It is from this camp that occupation soldiers shot at
Palestinain homes about a hundred yards away.  Dozens of homes were damaged,
some friends and relatives injured and terrorized. The camp was cleared by
the military on April 27th this year.  Gone were the tanks, APCs, the
military jeeps, and the soldiers.  What was left were the bunkers and the
ditches scarring the landscape and some of the fencing.  Much of the metals
(wires, fencing etc) was already taken by Palestinians for recycling.  This
is now a big thing here as everything of value is recycled, out of economic
neccessity.  The feeling I have as I stood on top of that hill videotaping
the area and absorbing the schene cannot be described easily.  THe area is
rich in archeological sites and it is still an open area (settlements and
Palestinian buildings are all growing).    I thus imagined a park, hiking
trails, trees and a water fountain.  I imagined a plaque that would say that
this is the site where an occupation army once stood and then left, where
humanity was reclaimed and that many more sites followed along the path for
freedom throughout Palestine.

Later in the day we visited the site of the foundation for the municipality
new building (which was to house a library and a museum that my grandfather
had dreamed of and donated partially the land and some resources to the city
to do).  Unfortunately because of lack of additional money and the political
circumstances, the project was frozen for the past five years.  We then
visited a natural site near Bethlehem where Rock Hyrax was recently
discovered by the Palestine Wildlife Society.   This was totally unexpected
positive finding.  Ofcourse there are also many devastating stories
(including the yet not studied environmental impact of the segregation
wall).   If I ever get to work on a new edition of my book "Mammals of the
Holy Land", I am sure it will reflect many distributional changes for wild
mammals.

I will try to send a brief report every few days.  I know ofcourse that Gaza
(off limits to me as is Jerusalem) is in much more dire situation than the
West Bank (and even here this area of Bethlehem/Beit Sahour is the more
prosperous and stable).  Below are reports from and on Gaza situation. A
luta continua.  The struggle continues.

Mazin in Beit Sahour http://qumsiyeh.org
------------
From Gaza, with Love  http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza and the Treason of the International Community by Ahmed Amr
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July05/Amr01.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism
http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html

From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html

_________________________________________________________________
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Dear Tariq

i hope this idea realy will come tru because Gaza need this project as
well.

i am ready to provide any help needed .

best regards

majdi al najjar
--- In GIFTA@yahoogroups.com, "Eddie Yacoub" <eddiey@...> wrote:
>
> To Everyone,
>
> This is a great Idea, I just left Arizona Monday, while I was there, I
met
> with an old colleague of mine whom works for Intel and currently helps
start
> up factories and trains all employee in the factories. I will call him
> today and see if he knows of this project from the inside scoop, what
is on
> the agenda, who is in charge, etc. Let me know if anyone has any
further
> questions. I will keep everyone informed, maybe we can set up a
meeting with
> Intel and formally introduce ourselves as a leaders in Innovation in
The
> Middle East. You don't get to many breaks like this, if we don't take
> advantage of these efforts, we may never get another chance to
interject
> ourselves in a Major Effort of this Nature that could put GIFTA on the
Map.
>
> Thanks
> Eddie Yacoub
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "zaid" zaid3k@...
> To: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 3:53 PM
> Subject: RE: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center in Gaza
>
>
> > hi tariq,
> >
> > i am available to help out as well. let me know
> > if anything is needed in getting this out of the
> > door.
> >
> > best
> > zaid
> >
> > --- Tariq Al-Muhtasib tariq_almuhtasib@...
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Team,
> >>
> >> First impressions are lasting impressions. I will
> >> begin drafting a letter of introduction about GIFTA
> >> and congratulation Intel on their efforts. I will
> >> not send it out unitl it's reviewed internally.
> >>
> >> This is exciting but It's important not just to
> >> rush into this. We need to have a point of contact
> >> who will manage this relationship in a consistent
> >> manner.
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Tariq
> >>
> >> Jihan Andoni jandoni@... wrote:
> >> I agree with Zaid. Let us at least introduce gifta
> >> and offer our help.
> >> Tareq, would you like to do that?
> >> Jihan
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
> >> [mailto:GIFTA@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
> >> zaid
> >> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 11:17 AM
> >> To: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
> >> Subject: Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
> >> in Gaza
> >>
> >>
> >> if one can contact Chuck Mulloy
> >> and ask how gifta can help intel
> >> with this effort. i think this
> >> will be a huge start.
> >>
> >> best
> >> zaid
> >>
> >> --- Feras Qumseya feras@... wrote:
> >>
> >> > I think we should. What in your opinion is the
> >> > recommended course of action?
> >> >
> >> > -----Original Message-----
> >> >
> >> > From: zaid zaid3k@...
> >> > Subj: Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
> >> > in Gaza
> >> > Date: Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 am
> >> > Size: 2K
> >> > To: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > hello,
> >> >
> >> > this is great news. are we doing anything
> >> > to get involved with this effort?
> >> >
> >> > best
> >> > zaid
> >> >
> >> > --- tariq_almuhtasib tariq_almuhtasib@...
> >> > wrote:
> >> >
> >> > >
> >> > > FYI...
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_hi_te/intel_gaza
> >> > >
> >> > > MESA, Ariz. - Intel, the world's largest
> >> > > semiconductor company, is
> >> > > planning to build the first information
> >> > technology
> >> > > education center
> >> > > in the volatile Gaza Strip.
> >> > >
> >> > > The Intel Information Technology Center of
> >> > > Excellence is intended to
> >> > > provide IT training to Palestinians and
> >> stimulate
> >> > > development of
> >> > > high-tech industry in an area where half the
> >> > labor
> >> > > force is
> >> > > unemployed. The center is being developed in
> >> > > conjunction with
> >> > > Washington, D.C.-based American Near East
> >> Refugee
> >> > > Aid and the
> >> > > Islamic University of Gaza.
> >> > >
> >> > > "We don't want to discount the tension in the
> >> > area
> >> > > ... but from our
> >> > > perspective, we view it as something that can
> >> > have a
> >> > > positive
> >> > > impact," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "If
> >> > you
> >> > > talk to the
> >> > > leaders of the Palestinian Authority, this is
> >> > > exactly the kind
> >> > > of thing they want. They want education, they
> >> > want
> >> > > paths to improve
> >> > > the economic well-being of their citizens."
> >> > >
> >> > > Intel has had a presence in Israel for more
> >> than
> >> > > three decades,
> >> > > but over the past few years has launched an
> >> > > initiative to also
> >> > > expand its investments in the Arab world.
> >> > >
> >> > > The center is the company's first large project
> >> > in
> >> > > the Palestinian
> >> > > territories, an area where American corporate
> >> > > involvement is rare.
> >> > >
> >> > > It will be staffed primarily by Palestinians
> >> and
> >> > > will be located a
> >> > > couple of miles outside Gaza City in an area
> >> > staked
> >> > > out to become a
> >> > > technology park with the Intel center as its
> >> > anchor,
> >> > > said Peter
> >> > > Gubser, president of ANERA. Construction is
> >> > expected
> >> > > to begin in
> >> > > about two months, with completion a year later.
> >> > >
> >> > > The cost to build and equip the center will
> >> only
> >> > be
> >> > > about $1
> >> > > million, Gubser said, because a dollar goes a
> >> lot
> >> > > farther in the
> >> > > Middle East.
> >> > >
> >> > > Though the security situation in Gaza is not
> >> > good,
> >> > > Gubser believes
> >> > > the willingness of Intel to be an American
> >> > corporate
> >> > > pioneer in the
> >> > > Gaza Strip may encourage other American
> >> > corporations
> >> > > to follow.
> >> > --- message truncated ---
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >> __________________________________________________
> >> Do You Yahoo!?
> >> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
> >> protection around
> >> http://mail.yahoo.com
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Yahoo! Groups Links
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> SPONSORED LINKS
> >> Computer science Science education
> >> Middle east
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------
> >> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
> >>
> >>
> >> Visit your group "GIFTA" on the web.
> >>
> >> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
> >> to:
> >> GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >>
> >> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the
> >> Yahoo! Terms of Service.
> >>
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------
> >> Yahoo! Mail
> >> Use Photomail to share photos without annoying
> > attachments.
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> > http://mail.yahoo.com
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

FWD
------
I think this is a great initiative and I myself would be honored to help in
any way I can. I am traveling to Palestine in July and would be also willing
to network and do what I can to promote this and other productive
initiatives (please give me any advise).  I would also suggest my friend Dr.
Jad Ishaq of Appied Research Institute (ARIJ.org)

I will also forward the request to the Palestinian Economy Forum and GIFTA
(http://www.gifta.net/)where we have many people interested in these issues

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org

>From: "Fouad Moughrabi" <Fouad-Moughrabi@...>
>To: Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:06:48 -0400

>Dear all: I am attaching an interesting and thought provoking lecture by
>Jay
>Lemke from the University of Michigan on Science Education for your
>information just to begin a dialogue among all of us.
>
>I would like to humbly request from each of you a list of individuals, both
>Palestinian and non-Palestinian, who are prominent in the area of science
>and science education, with whom we can begin a dialogue on the issue of
>promoting science education among the Palestinian people both inside and
>outside as per our discussions during the last Board meeting of the AMQ
>Foundation in London.
>
>At some point in the future I propose that we host a small conference ( or
>seminar) on the subject with invited papers on specific topics of interest
>to us. I would hope that we can then come up with a clear vision and some
>concrete suggestions on ways to proceed at various levels: a) research to
>be
>conducted by the Qattan Center for Educational Research and Development in
>Palestine; b) any special programs we may wish to undertake and with whom?
>
>Fouad Moughrabi
>Head, Department of Political Science, Public Administration and Nonprofit
>Management
>417 Fletcher Hall, Dept 6356
>615 MCallie Ave
>Chattanooga, TN 37403
>Tel.: 423-425-4231
>Fax: 423-425-2373

Opening Plenary
VIIth International Congress on Research in Science Teaching
Granada, Spain (2005)


Research for the Future of Science Education:
New Ways of Learning, New Ways of Living

Jay L. Lemke
University of Michigan
jaylemke@...


New information and communication technologies make it possible for students
to learn about science and about the natural world across multiple media and
multiple sites of learning. Research needs to help us understand better how
to help students integrate learning through text, spoken language, graphical
images, animations, audio, video, simulations, and three-dimensional models
and virtual worlds. We must also learn how to effectively link learning in
schools and other educational institutions with learning online, in nature,
at technological sites, and through internships. With these many new
possibilities, we need to re-examine the goals of science education. Should
they be the same for all? Should we focus science education more on social
issues and students' concerns? Can we make science education more democratic
and more politically progressive?


Re-engineering science education for the 21st Century

In the 21st century, what are the most important contributions which science
education can make to students and to society? How can we make science
education better serve the interests of all people? I will argue that
science education needs more wonder, more honesty, more humility, and more
real value for most students. For the youngest students, we must work to
create a more profound engagement with the wonder of natural phenomena. For
older students, we need to present a more honest picture of the harmful as
well as the beneficial uses of science. For all students, we should offer a
science education that makes science a true partner with other ways of
viewing the world and an essential contributor to students? general
multimedia literacy and critical thinking skills. I invite you to think with
me about how to make a new science education that will not be rejected by
the majority of students.

Science education research needs to re-direct its efforts toward better
understanding: (1) how emotional and intellectual engagement with the wonder
of natural phenomena combine in younger and older students; (2) how to
promote critical thinking about the harmful as well as the beneficial uses
of scientific knowledge; (3) how to present scientific ways of knowing as
constructive partners with other human ways of knowing; and (4) how science
education can make essential contributions to students? general multimedia
literacy and critical thinking skills. We need to focus more of our research
on learning how to increase the value of science education for those many
students who have no special interest in scientific and technical careers.
We need more attention to learning that will last a lifetime, learning that
demystifies quantitative reasoning, and learning that provides the keys to
thinking with multiple representations for our new multimedia world.

Aims and Goals of Science Education: Fundamentals

Any serious consideration of how we might fundamentally change science
education for the 21st century needs to begin with some larger questions
concerning its goals. The goals of science education need to be formulated
within the context of our larger goals for education in general, and our
definition of what will make for a better society and a better life for all
people. The goals of science education cannot be merely technical. It cannot
be our only purpose to provide skilled workers and educated consumers for a
global economy that students have not learned to intelligently critique. So
let me state briefly some of my own core beliefs about the social goals of
education.

Education must aim to contribute to the improvement of social life: To give
more people in the world a better opportunity for a better life and to
safeguard minimum standards of social welfare for all. To learn to take a
global and not only a local or national perspective; indeed to place the
local and the global above the regional or national interest. Education must
also contribute to better lives for students, across the needs of many
nations and many social classes. A better life for those most in need means
provision for health, education, basic necessities, protection from
disaster, insurance against disaster, hope. For those who have these basics,
it means greater opportunities to develop their skills and talents and to
use them in the service of a harmony between global society and the rest of
our planet?s ecosystem.

How can we translate these broad goals to more specific aims for science
education across the years of schooling and learning? Here is one beginning
of an answer:

For all young children ? to appreciate and value the natural world, enhanced
by understanding, but without removing the mystery, curiosity, and magic
For middle years children ? to develop a more specific curiosity about how
technologies and the natural world works, how to design and create things,
how to nurture and care for things, basics about human health
For secondary school ? to open the potential career path to science and
technology for all, to provide information about the scientific view of the
world that is of proven usefulness for most citizens, to give some sense of
the role of science and technology in social life, to help develop skills of
complex logical reasoning and use of multiple representations, and for those
who wish it: (a) a less intensive path that keeps open the option for a
science or technology specialization, (b) a more intensive path for those
who have already decided they wish to follow this path in university or
advanced technical education

Across all the years of schooling, we also need to take science out of its
isolation. We need:

To teach for a science that tells wonderful stories about the natural world
and helps us understand and create useful and marvelous technologies that do
the least harm to people, society and the environment.
To place more emphasis on the unity of science and technology and less on
purely abstract principles, until students have selected such an emphasis
for advanced study.
To teach science in closer relation to mathematics, history, literature,
economics, politics, and moral values.
To eliminate claims that science is the one, best way of knowing, which
often alienate many students from science.
To admit to the historical complicity of science with immoral military,
political, and commercial projects and seek to change the nature and
direction of science in the future to make such complicity less likely.
To teach for a science that strives to be a good global citizen with humane
moral values.

Beyond trying to define a set of goals, about which we can and should have
intelligent and serious conversations and even disagreements, we need to
become better critics of our own work. For too long now, others have
criticized us more than we have criticized ourselves. Better than any
others, we know the shortcomings of the work of science education, and we
need to discuss them more publicly and take action to change what we can
change.

Among current criticisms of science education in the United States and a
number of other advanced societies, I would identify the following as
especially important and troubling:

That its content emphasis is too abstract for most students
That its content selection has no empirical claim to usefulness for
nonspecialists
That it is designed far too much to train future technical workers
That it is boring and alienating for too many students
That it has the character of a compulsory activity and not a self-determined
activity
That it seeks to impose a particular way of thinking as superior
That it is shallow and superficial across all topics
That it insists that all students learn the same content, in the same way,
at the same rate
That it puts no emphasis on creativity, moral concerns, historical
development, or social impact
That it neglects the affective and emotional dimensions of learning
That it projects an inhumane image of science as not concerned with the
common cares and interests of most people and existing apart from the lives
of people who do science as well as those who use it and are affected by it



Proposals for Action

Having presented ambitious goals and serious criticisms of our work, I feel
a responsibility to present some initial proposals for action. After stating
these proposals, I will provide a more extended analysis of some of the
assumptions that lie behind them, and their implications for future research
on science education.

Let young children experience science mainly through nature study, working
with live higher animals, and reading or hearing wonderful stories about the
natural world and technological achievements

Let all students freely choose projects that have a science component and be
supported to conduct free and independent inquiry, alone or in pairs or
small groups, over extended periods of time (longer than one year for older
students).

Let students experience the reality of science and technology by regular
visits to laboratories, factories, generating stations, nature sites, zoos,
aquariums, and other sites where science and technology are visibly in use,
from the basement of the school to regional centers. Let them experience not
just the didactic displays, but the behind the scenes work that really uses
science and in some cases helps develop science.

Support students to explore in online communities and with online resources
that give information about scientific, environmental and technological
topics, and make this part of their total science education, with
school-based  learning one important component but not the sole or central
focus of concern for science educators and government support.

Let older students learn from internships in organizations where science and
technology are central to the activities of the organization.

Let students have direct online relationships with adults who do science and
use science and technology as a key part of their work and lives, across a
wide range of careers and activities.

Let younger and older students work and learn together, breaking down the
un-natural segregation of students by age, and promoting cross-age learning

Support students to apply their scientific and technological knowledge to
practical problems in their lives and local communities and to take interest
and action in relation to larger society concerns where science and
technology are central parts of understanding and responding to issues.

Eliminate, once and for all, from all but the most advanced scientific
education, the assumption that learning abstract principles and
decontextualized information will lead to practical applications of
knowledge or even enable such applications for most students.

Recognizing the importance of language as the primary medium for reasoning
and conceptualization in science, help students to reason more effectively
about scientific and technological issues also in more quantitative ways
using both algebraic and graphical tools as well as numerical examples. Do
this in the most concrete and contextualized ways possible, and not as
abstract procedures or the solving of artificial problems.

Support students in reasoning about natural and technical phenomena through
integrated combinations of linguistic, mathematical, and visual tools,
including computer models, simulations, and interactive-immersive
environments, but always directly linked to concrete real-world experience
and in-depth work on particular topics or issues.

At the same time, recognize the importance of narrative as a medium of
communication and learning and restore it to a place of honor and prominence
in science education.

Explore the potential of other forms of language, such as dialogue and
poetic diction, as effective media for learning about the natural and
technical world. Explore other forms of visual and audiovisual media, such
as three-dimensions interactive, immersive computer simulation and gaming
worlds for their value as well.

Eliminate once and for all the assumption that science education beyond the
early childhood years can ignore the emotional and affective dimensions of
learning; make the learning of science a subject about which students are
enthusiastic and which they enjoy emotionally as well as intellectually ? by
whatever means are necessary.

I have based these proposals on several considerations. Some concern our new
understanding of the nature of learning. Others concern the role of science
and science education in society, historically, at the present, and for the
future.


New Views of the Nature of Learning

Our best understanding of how people learn has changed a great deal in the
last few decades. Let me summarize what I see as some of the most important
new principles to guide education:

Learning takes place on multiple timescales, from moments to lifetimes. Some
learning that takes minutes becomes part of habits that last days, or years,
but most does not. Students need to learn how to cumulate and internalize
for the longer term more what they learn in the short term. They need to
work on extended projects that afford opportunities for what was learned
before to be used in what is being done now.

Learning takes place across multiple sites. If something learned in one time
and place is to become part of our habits of action more widely, then it
needs to be carried over from one place to another, one task to another, one
activity to another, and these cannot be restricted to schools and
classrooms. Students? learning needs to extend across classrooms and
laboratories, online environments and natural settings, places of work and
sites of community activity.

Learning takes place across multiple media. If language is one primary
medium for learning, whether from conversations or books, it is far from the
only one. We also learn from visual representations of many kinds (drawings,
diagrams, graphs, maps, photos, films and video, 3D simulations, etc.), both
static and dynamic. And we learn from observing and participating in
activities, which are themselves structured in many ways like language (i.e.
they form semiotic systems). Most of all, we learn by integrating meanings
across all of these modalities, combining text and image, activities and
summaries, narratives and observations. This integration is not automatic or
natural, it is culturally specific and must be taught and learned.

Learning is a natural and inevitable part of lifelong human development. You
cannot not learn from everything you do. All that is at stake is what you
learn from activity and how past learning affects future action. Students
who learn very little of the content of the curriculum in school still learn
a great deal about how to play the ?game of school?, about social life among
their peers, and much else that we generally ignore. Students are always
learning, but not always learning what we want them to learn.

Learning takes place most naturally in mixed-age communities, where younger
and older learn from one another, and more generally in diverse communities,
where we learn how to learn with and from one another across divisions of
age, gender, culture, social background, etc.

Learning is not fundamentally the acquisition of abstract and general
principles, but the development of concrete habits and strategies, some more
tacit, some more explicit and reflective, for using a range of tools, from
levers and microscopes to formulas and graphs, for relatively specific tasks
in particular contexts.


Science Education and the Needs of Society

Current science education is largely a product of the desire of governments
and corporations to produce a more technologically and scientifically
literate workforce for commercial and military enterprises. As such it has
not been designed for success in educating more than a small fraction of the
population.

Current science education has become far too isolated from the everyday life
concerns of students of all ages and also from the larger moral and social
concerns of older students.
At the same time, various historical trends defining social privilege and
status have led to the incorrect view that abstract learning is more noble
than practical and concrete learning and that it is also more effective as a
basis for practical activity. Current science education suffers greatly from
this ideology.

The opportunistic basis of government support for science education tends to
reproduce the artificial divide between science learning and learning in the
humanities and the arts, and learning about society itself, including its
history, laws, economics, and politics. National pride, and elite
self-interest, have also worked to render invisible the dark side of human
history and the dark side of the history of science, its long complicity
with inhumane commercial and military projects. Without a commitment to
honesty and reconciliation in the relations of our view of science to our
view of the rest of human life, science education cannot succeed in engaging
most students with science learning in a positive way. We must honest face
the fact that many students today, at least after the age of primary school,
have a negative attitude to science and many of its technologies.

Many of our students are idealistic and altruistic in their basic social
views. They see a world rife with injustice and the horrendous consequences
of prolonged injustice. There are also many global problems they will not
see unless we teach them how to see them. Science education, in order to
capture the imagination and loyalty of students, and in order to deserve
their commitment to learning what we have to teach, needs to orient itself
toward social issues and social problems, not toward teaching abstract
conceptual principles of dubious practical usefulness or skills needed for
technical occupations.

Three great issues I believe will dominate the century ahead for all of
humanity:

We are already on the cusp of a global environmental crisis of unimaginable
proportions, which governments and commercial interests blindly and
self-interestedly deny. Changes in fundamental understanding and attitudes
to the relation of our species to the rest of the planetary ecology are
needed and science education must re-orient its priorities in this
direction.

Global social injustice in the distribution of wealth and resources will
create intolerable conditions for all peoples in all nations as the
justifiable anger of exploited people turns to acts destabilizing the
comfortable societies which benefit from these injustices. Science education
must orient itself towards the role of science and technology in these
issues and their resolution by preparing citizens to understand them.

The last invisible form of oppression and injustice in global society is the
power relationships that give the middle-aged (or in some few societies,
those still older) unjust privileges relative to younger citizens and in
many cases also relative to our eldest citizens. New technological changes
in the means of production will shift economic power toward much younger
citizens and they will launch a political movement for their just rights.
Much of education today, including science education, labors under the
burden of an ideology of false beliefs about the incompetence of the young.
Science education must seek a new respect for and work to more effectively
empower young learners who are still denied the rights of full citizenship
and are treated by most schools as lacking in all fundamental citizen
rights.

In all these respects, science education must take political and moral
stands -- or else in the judgment of its students today and tomorrow, and in
the judgment of history and humanity in decades to come, we will be found to
have been as blind and socially irresponsible as the educators who came
before us who did not oppose imperialism, colonialism, slavery, or the
oppression of women, who did not prepare citizens to criticize levels of
sanitation, industrial pollution, or basic health care, deforestation,
over-fishing, or the creation and use of biological, chemical, and nuclear
weapons of mass destruction. These issues were never on the agenda of
science education in the past, and it is to our shame that they were not.

Who will history blame if citizens do not understand the risks of private
ownership of the genetic endowment of humanity and other species? Who will
history blame if global environmental catastrophes occur that could have
been avoided by the political action of a better educated citizenry?

What will be the attitude of the neglected peoples of the world toward a
science education that turned a blind eye to their needs and to the role of
science in their exploitation, when they who are the global majority
eventually force their will to prevail in history?

What will be the attitude of the young whom we treat as mentally deficient
and without rights or respect in our schools and science classrooms, when
they are earning more money than we are and making their voices and votes
heard regarding future policy for science education?

If this last dimension seems elusive or puzzling, imagine that you were
teaching science education to influential adults in the community. Would you
design a curriculum without consulting them at all about their interests?
Would you insist that they all learned what you specified, in the way you
specified, at the time and the pace you specified, without any consideration
for their individual preferences for learning? Would you deny them the
opportunity to undertake science learning projects of their own and fail to
support them in these endeavors over extended periods of time? Would you
teach them superficial bits and pieces of mostly useless knowledge rather
than giving them in-depth understanding of particular valuable topics and
problems?  And if you did, what would they do? Would they not look for
another teacher or another school? Would they not take their money and
resources and come together to support alternative institutions that would
be of more value to them in their learning? And would not our students do
this too if they only had the resources and the freedom to do so?

If we do not design science education for our students as if their desires
and preferences matter, is it not because we have been taught to see
students, even those who are biologically adult (at age 12 for most today),
or with many legal rights in progressive societies such as Spain (at age
15), as mysteriously infantile, irresponsible, and incompetent? And is this
not the basis for a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby our expectations and
treatment of the young encourages just these kinds of behavior?
Developmental biologists will tell you that juveniles of all species are
well-adapted to learning how to deal with their environments. For homo
sapiens, they are better, faster learners than we are, at almost any task
for which they have basic preparation.

This issue becomes more severe as our students become the young adults whom
society refuses to recognize as adults. Our society deliberately
infantilizes young adults in order to retain adult privilege and power over
them, for they are seen as a dangerous and potentially destabilizing force
in many societies. For centuries society did the same with regard to women,
if for slightly different reasons (exploitation of their unpaid labor or
sexual vulnerability), and historically we have held the same ideological
false beliefs about serfs, slaves, workers, most non-European peoples, and
even many poorer or more agrarian European peoples). None of these false
beliefs were contradicted by the voice of science until after changes in the
balance of political power. Will we wait for that to happen once again?

It may be the case that children below the age of four or five years are
relatively unable to participate in the structuring of their educations, but
this is not empirically established. It is certainly true that students from
the ages of twelve to eighteen are able and interested in having more of a
say in what and how they learn. From the age of six to eleven, we can assume
there is a growing ability to form more equal partnerships with teachers, if
we would encourage students in this and help them learn how to do so. If we
would teach them more of the skills of independent judgment and independent
learning.

Our present educational system of age-grading, or segregation by age,
justified today by relatively questionable evidence about developmental
readiness for different kinds of learning, was originally instituted because
younger and older students worked altogether too well with another ? in
planning and executing rebellions against their schoolmasters. What was then
a strategy of divide and conquer to maintain the power of the masters has
become today an obstacle to cross-age learning and learning in naturally
age-diverse groups and communities.

Science education is not alone in laboring under these cultural biases. But
science educators claim to be guided by rational principles and systematic
empirical evidence that challenges conventional wisdom and seeks
theoretically-guided ways of finding alternatives. By and large we have not
done this with regard to either the belief that our students are incapable
of having a greater voice in their own educations in science, nor with
regard to the equally unfounded cultural bias that favors teaching through
abstract principles rather than teaching through concrete experience and
specific issues. We have watched the light of wonder fade from the eyes of
our youngest students, to be replaced in all too many cases by boredom,
alienation, resistance, or a cooperative docility.

Yes, we are proud of the exceptions. The classes and activities where
students become for a time genuinely engaged. The few students whose
interest in science grows year by year. But for the most part these
instances are not typical. Schooled adults today are not for the most part
scientifically literate or prepared for technical careers. They are not
prepared to make intelligent personal or political decisions about medical
or technological issues. Their early wonder at the miraculous phenomena of
nature has not been nurtured or supported to develop in some direction that
might continue with them for the rest of their lives.

I do not believe, after more than 30 years in science education and
educational research, that we are going to succeed where past generations
have failed, unless we make major and fundamental changes in our approach to
science education. We must change the goals to better fit with student
interests and social issues. We must change the methods to support student
learning across multiple sites and multiple media. We must change the
curricula to support more in-depth study of fewer, more concrete topics.
Above all, we must change our own attitudes and beliefs, allowing us to make
our students as much equal partners in the design of their educations as
they truly can be.

For all these changes, much research is needed. Many alternative paths must
be explored and reported on for the benefit of the teaching-and-learning
community. I do not believe in a ?science of learning? in the same sense as
a science of electromagnetism. People are not the same sorts of natural
phenomena as electrons. Electrons are all alike; if you know how one
behaves, you know how they all behave. They have no memory, no history, no
culture, no processes of interpreting the meaning of their environments.
They have no emotions, no likes and dislikes. We can generalize about them
because they have no individuality. In the case of many more complex natural
phenomena, we can also generalize about them to the extent that the ways in
which they are alike are more important for our purposes than the ways in
which they are different.

I do not believe that the best education for every student is the same
education. I believe that the most important thing about educating a student
is the way in which his or her education is different from, not the same as,
the education of other students. I do not believe that all students need to
know the same things, at least not beyond the most basic content of primary
education. If there are truly fundamental principles in science, then the
extended study of any few topics in science will eventually bring students
into contact with those principles. (And if not, then they were not really
so fundamental, were they?)

We live in a society which tries to do mass education on the cheap. We
inherit a system of schooling and curricula that is based on the mass
production model of the factory assembly line. We know that system does not
work well for most students. We know that it places intolerable burdens on
too many teachers. We know that it is not a humane way to approach to
upbringing of the young. It does not send to our children the message that
we really care about them as individual people. It does not feel right. Why
should successfully educated adults spend so little time mentoring the next
generation and so much of their lives making profits for the owners of
large-scale enterprises? Why should society invest more resources in the
production and marketing of goods than in the education of its people?

Science alone will not make the world a better place. Learning the results
and methods of scientific research will not in itself help students make
better lives for themselves. We must all learn to understand how science and
science education can help us help ourselves. Science education still has a
great potential for good, but only if we take the true path of science
ourselves, rejecting what has been and exploring together new ways of
thinking, teaching, and learning.

_________________________________________________________________
Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search!
http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/

To Everyone,

This is a great Idea, I just left Arizona Monday, while I was there, I met
with an old colleague of mine whom works for Intel and currently helps start
up factories and trains all employee in the factories. I will call him
today and see if he knows of this project from the inside scoop, what is on
the agenda, who is in charge, etc. Let me know if anyone has any further
questions. I will keep everyone informed, maybe we can set up a meeting with
Intel and formally introduce ourselves as a leaders in Innovation in The
Middle East. You don't get to many breaks like this, if we don't take
advantage of these efforts, we may never get another chance to interject
ourselves in a Major Effort of this Nature that could put GIFTA on the Map.

Thanks
Eddie Yacoub

----- Original Message -----
From: "zaid" <zaid3k@...>
To: <GIFTA@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 3:53 PM
Subject: RE: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center in Gaza


> hi tariq,
>
> i am available to help out as well. let me know
> if anything is needed in getting this out of the
> door.
>
> best
> zaid
>
> --- Tariq Al-Muhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
> wrote:
>
>> Team,
>>
>>   First impressions are lasting impressions.  I will
>> begin drafting a letter of introduction about GIFTA
>> and congratulation Intel on their efforts.  I will
>> not send it out unitl it's reviewed internally.
>>
>>   This is exciting but It's important not just to
>> rush into this.  We need to have a point of contact
>> who will manage this relationship in a consistent
>> manner.
>>
>>
>>   Thanks,
>>
>>   Tariq
>>
>> Jihan Andoni <jandoni@...> wrote:
>>   I agree with Zaid. Let us at least introduce gifta
>> and offer our help.
>> Tareq, would you like to do that?
>> Jihan
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
>> [mailto:GIFTA@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
>> zaid
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 11:17 AM
>> To: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
>> Subject: Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
>> in Gaza
>>
>>
>> if one can contact Chuck Mulloy
>> and ask how gifta can help intel
>> with this effort. i think this
>> will be a huge start.
>>
>> best
>> zaid
>>
>> --- Feras Qumseya <feras@...> wrote:
>>
>> > I think we should. What in your opinion is the
>> > recommended course of action?
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> >
>> > From:  zaid <zaid3k@...>
>> > Subj:  Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
>> > in Gaza
>> > Date:  Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 am
>> > Size:  2K
>> > To:  GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
>> >
>> >
>> >  hello,
>> >
>> >  this is great news. are we doing anything
>> >  to get involved with this effort?
>> >
>> >  best
>> >  zaid
>> >
>> >  --- tariq_almuhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
>> >  wrote:
>> >
>> >  >
>> >  > FYI...
>> >  >
>> >  >
>> >
>> >
>>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_hi_te/intel_gaza
>> >  >
>> >  > MESA, Ariz. - Intel, the world's largest
>> >  > semiconductor company, is
>> >  > planning to build the first information
>> > technology
>> >  > education center
>> >  > in the volatile Gaza Strip.
>> >  >
>> >  > The Intel Information Technology Center of
>> >  > Excellence is intended to
>> >  > provide IT training to Palestinians and
>> stimulate
>> >  > development of
>> >  > high-tech industry in an area where half the
>> > labor
>> >  > force is
>> >  > unemployed. The center is being developed in
>> >  > conjunction with
>> >  > Washington, D.C.-based American Near East
>> Refugee
>> >  > Aid and the
>> >  > Islamic University of Gaza.
>> >  >
>> >  > "We don't want to discount the tension in the
>> > area
>> >  > ... but from our
>> >  > perspective, we view it as something that can
>> > have a
>> >  > positive
>> >  > impact," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "If
>> > you
>> >  > talk to the
>> >  > leaders of the Palestinian Authority, this is
>> >  > exactly the kind
>> >  > of thing they want. They want education, they
>> > want
>> >  > paths to improve
>> >  > the economic well-being of their citizens."
>> >  >
>> >  > Intel has had a presence in Israel for more
>> than
>> >  > three decades,
>> >  > but over the past few years has launched an
>> >  > initiative to also
>> >  > expand its investments in the Arab world.
>> >  >
>> >  > The center is the company's first large project
>> > in
>> >  > the Palestinian
>> >  > territories, an area where American corporate
>> >  > involvement is rare.
>> >  >
>> >  > It will be staffed primarily by Palestinians
>> and
>> >  > will be located a
>> >  > couple of miles outside Gaza City in an area
>> > staked
>> >  > out to become a
>> >  > technology park with the Intel center as its
>> > anchor,
>> >  > said Peter
>> >  > Gubser, president of ANERA. Construction is
>> > expected
>> >  > to begin in
>> >  > about two months, with completion a year later.
>> >  >
>> >  > The cost to build and equip the center will
>> only
>> > be
>> >  > about $1
>> >  > million, Gubser said, because a dollar goes a
>> lot
>> >  > farther in the
>> >  > Middle East.
>> >  >
>> >  > Though the security situation in Gaza is not
>> > good,
>> >  > Gubser believes
>> >  > the willingness of Intel to be an American
>> > corporate
>> >  > pioneer in the
>> >  > Gaza Strip may encourage other American
>> > corporations
>> >  > to follow.
>> >   --- message truncated ---
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Yahoo! Groups Links
>> >
>> >
>> >     GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________
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>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   SPONSORED LINKS
>>         Computer science   Science education
>> Middle east
>>
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>
> __________________________________________________
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>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
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>
>
>
>
>
>

This is really great. Ideally, we (GIFTA) would play a part of this, it
could be as a means to recruit people and build connections. After all, we
did say that we will work on establishing connections through our
database....

It would be nice if we can have a table.

Also, if we can have few people go and have their expenses paid (by AU, I
assume), that's even better. I wouldn't mind considering to go?

Elias Darraj
E-Global Interactive
3 Greenwood Pl, Suite 103
Baltimore, MD 21208
www.E-Global.com
edarraj@...
(443) 940-0400
(410) 258-1500 cell
(866) 680-1082 fax

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-----Original Message-----
From: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com [mailto:GIFTA@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
zaid
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 11:55 AM
To: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [GIFTA] Mathematics for Peace and Development



thank you issam for forwarding this.

if gifta members attend this conference
what do you see our goal to be besides
establishing contacts , and promoting
gifta ? is there room to present ?

best
zaid

--- issamandoni <issamandoni@...> wrote:

> A conference under the name Mathematics for Peace
> and Development will
> be held between 17- 23 July 2006 in Córdoba, Spain
> The American University seeks GIFTA's support to
> drive attendee from
> the Arabic word. All participants' expenses are
> covered.  For
> information on the event, please visit event web
> site at
> http://www.uco.es/congresos/mpd/index.htm
>
> Feel free to forward such invitation as you see fit.
> Interested party
> can contact Dr. Mary Gray at mgray@... and
> please mention
> GIFTA in your e-mail
>
> Thanks
>
> Issam Andoni
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>     GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com



Yahoo! Groups Links

hi Issam
how are you. you might hear from Profesor Aron Hadler
he is the president of a faculty network called fipp
(faculty for peace in Palestine-Israel)
he is very infleuntial and have faculty affiliates
across the globe. he might be useful for your Gifta
work
regards
Ghassan

--- issamandoni <issamandoni@...> wrote:

> A conference under the name Mathematics for Peace
> and Development will
> be held between 17- 23 July 2006 in Córdoba, Spain
> The American University seeks GIFTA's support to
> drive attendee from
> the Arabic word. All participants' expenses are
> covered.  For
> information on the event, please visit event web
> site at
> http://www.uco.es/congresos/mpd/index.htm
>
> Feel free to forward such invitation as you see fit.
> Interested party
> can contact Dr. Mary Gray at mgray@... and
> please mention
> GIFTA in your e-mail
>
> Thanks
>
> Issam Andoni
>
>
>
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

thank you issam for forwarding this.

if gifta members attend this conference
what do you see our goal to be besides
establishing contacts , and promoting
gifta ? is there room to present ?

best
zaid

--- issamandoni <issamandoni@...> wrote:

> A conference under the name Mathematics for Peace
> and Development will
> be held between 17- 23 July 2006 in Córdoba, Spain
> The American University seeks GIFTA's support to
> drive attendee from
> the Arabic word. All participants' expenses are
> covered.  For
> information on the event, please visit event web
> site at
> http://www.uco.es/congresos/mpd/index.htm
>
> Feel free to forward such invitation as you see fit.
> Interested party
> can contact Dr. Mary Gray at mgray@... and
> please mention
> GIFTA in your e-mail
>
> Thanks
>
> Issam Andoni
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>     GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

A conference under the name Mathematics for Peace and Development will
be held between 17- 23 July 2006 in Córdoba, Spain
The American University seeks GIFTA's support to drive attendee from
the Arabic word. All participants' expenses are covered.  For
information on the event, please visit event web site at
http://www.uco.es/congresos/mpd/index.htm

Feel free to forward such invitation as you see fit. Interested party
can contact Dr. Mary Gray at mgray@... and please mention
GIFTA in your e-mail

Thanks

Issam Andoni

http://www.techweb.com/wire/180205741

By K.C. Jones, TechWeb News

Intel and American Near East Refugee Aid plan to break ground on a
Gaza Intel Information Technology Center of Excellence within two
months.
Representatives of both organizations confirmed plans for the
groundbreaking during interviews Tuesday. The center, planned for
the Islamic University of Gaza, will be the fourth of its kind in
the Middle East and is part of broader and separate Intel and ANERA
Middle East initiatives.

ANERA formed 37 years ago to provide job, health, education and
emergency war relief opportunities in the West Bank, Gaza and
Lebanon. The nonprofit group partnered with Intel to open a similar
center at Al Quds University in Jerusalem in 2004. Since then, more
than 1,000 men and women have trained there.

The latest center will be the first of its kind in Gaza and should
be completed by next year, according to representatives from ANERA
and Intel. A Gaza pilot program, established in 1999 raised the
number of residents trained in Java, Oracle and Microsoft from seven
to 66. Now, several of those who completed the pilot program are
teaching others.

The push to train Gaza residents in everything from computer use to
managing networks aims to alleviate a 33 percent unemployment rate
among the 1.3 million people living in Gaza, ANERA's Director of
Communications Adrian Loucks said during an interview Tuesday.

Loucks said that most of the trainees were unemployed and 50 percent
of those without jobs acquired them after the training. Most cited
their certification under the pilot program as the reason for their
success, according to ANERA. The center will be staffed by
Palestinians.

"It's going to create jobs internally, whereas a lot of employment
previously, a lot of the laborers, had relied on Israel," Loucks
said.

For Intel's part, the $1 million center is a portion of a larger
strategy. Intel's Digital Transformation Initiative for the Middle
East has set aside $50 million in capital funds, established
scholarships and backed training in countries throughout the region.
The semiconductor company's program reaches Turkey, Egypt, North
Africa, Jordan and beyond. The main goals are to encourage
entrepreneurship, education, digital accessibility and technical
competencies.

Spokesman Chuck Mulloy said the company is trying to gain leverage
through new and existing programs, while facilitating dialogue and
coordination between different groups.

Intel has invested billions in bulding its FAB plant in Kiryat Gat on
Palestinian land confiscated from Iraq Al Manshiya villagers (who were
expelled even after Israel was established).  After significant delay (IMHO
prompted by pressures we applied on them), they decided to proceed with a
new phase of expansion in Kiryat Gat.  See
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/13309539.htm

At the same time they put in tokenism in a few computers in Jordan and
announced this tokenism in Gaza.  I would tell them to go ahead and invest
this tokenism in Gaza (and should increase it ten fold at least) but I would
still express outrage at their expansion on stolen Palestinian land.  I
would be careful to temper any enthusiasm.

Mazin Qumsiyeh

_________________________________________________________________
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hi tariq,

i am available to help out as well. let me know
if anything is needed in getting this out of the
door.

best
zaid

--- Tariq Al-Muhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
wrote:

> Team,
>
>   First impressions are lasting impressions.  I will
> begin drafting a letter of introduction about GIFTA
> and congratulation Intel on their efforts.  I will
> not send it out unitl it's reviewed internally.
>
>   This is exciting but It's important not just to
> rush into this.  We need to have a point of contact
> who will manage this relationship in a consistent
> manner.
>
>
>   Thanks,
>
>   Tariq
>
> Jihan Andoni <jandoni@...> wrote:
>   I agree with Zaid. Let us at least introduce gifta
> and offer our help.
> Tareq, would you like to do that?
> Jihan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:GIFTA@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
> zaid
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 11:17 AM
> To: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
> in Gaza
>
>
> if one can contact Chuck Mulloy
> and ask how gifta can help intel
> with this effort. i think this
> will be a huge start.
>
> best
> zaid
>
> --- Feras Qumseya <feras@...> wrote:
>
> > I think we should. What in your opinion is the
> > recommended course of action?
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> >
> > From:  zaid <zaid3k@...>
> > Subj:  Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
> > in Gaza
> > Date:  Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 am
> > Size:  2K
> > To:  GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> >  hello,
> >
> >  this is great news. are we doing anything
> >  to get involved with this effort?
> >
> >  best
> >  zaid
> >
> >  --- tariq_almuhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
> >  wrote:
> >
> >  >
> >  > FYI...
> >  >
> >  >
> >
> >
>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_hi_te/intel_gaza
> >  >
> >  > MESA, Ariz. - Intel, the world's largest
> >  > semiconductor company, is
> >  > planning to build the first information
> > technology
> >  > education center
> >  > in the volatile Gaza Strip.
> >  >
> >  > The Intel Information Technology Center of
> >  > Excellence is intended to
> >  > provide IT training to Palestinians and
> stimulate
> >  > development of
> >  > high-tech industry in an area where half the
> > labor
> >  > force is
> >  > unemployed. The center is being developed in
> >  > conjunction with
> >  > Washington, D.C.-based American Near East
> Refugee
> >  > Aid and the
> >  > Islamic University of Gaza.
> >  >
> >  > "We don't want to discount the tension in the
> > area
> >  > ... but from our
> >  > perspective, we view it as something that can
> > have a
> >  > positive
> >  > impact," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "If
> > you
> >  > talk to the
> >  > leaders of the Palestinian Authority, this is
> >  > exactly the kind
> >  > of thing they want. They want education, they
> > want
> >  > paths to improve
> >  > the economic well-being of their citizens."
> >  >
> >  > Intel has had a presence in Israel for more
> than
> >  > three decades,
> >  > but over the past few years has launched an
> >  > initiative to also
> >  > expand its investments in the Arab world.
> >  >
> >  > The center is the company's first large project
> > in
> >  > the Palestinian
> >  > territories, an area where American corporate
> >  > involvement is rare.
> >  >
> >  > It will be staffed primarily by Palestinians
> and
> >  > will be located a
> >  > couple of miles outside Gaza City in an area
> > staked
> >  > out to become a
> >  > technology park with the Intel center as its
> > anchor,
> >  > said Peter
> >  > Gubser, president of ANERA. Construction is
> > expected
> >  > to begin in
> >  > about two months, with completion a year later.
> >  >
> >  > The cost to build and equip the center will
> only
> > be
> >  > about $1
> >  > million, Gubser said, because a dollar goes a
> lot
> >  > farther in the
> >  > Middle East.
> >  >
> >  > Though the security situation in Gaza is not
> > good,
> >  > Gubser believes
> >  > the willingness of Intel to be an American
> > corporate
> >  > pioneer in the
> >  > Gaza Strip may encourage other American
> > corporations
> >  > to follow.
> >   --- message truncated ---
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >     GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
> protection around
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>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>   SPONSORED LINKS
>         Computer science   Science education
> Middle east
>
> ---------------------------------
>   YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>
>     Visit your group "GIFTA" on the web.
>
>     To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
> to:
>  GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>     Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the
> Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>  Yahoo! Mail
>  Use Photomail to share photos without annoying
attachments.


__________________________________________________
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Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Tariq;

Thanks for taking a lead in drafting a letter. The following below
around this effort is helpful to know.

Peter Gubser, president of ANERA very well aware of GIFTA goals and
mission. We met with him 3 months ago and briefed him on our
organization. In addition, GIFTA has some connection back to the
Islamic University in Gaza.

Issam

--- In GIFTA@yahoogroups.com, Tariq Al-Muhtasib
<tariq_almuhtasib@...> wrote:
>
> Team,
>
>   First impressions are lasting impressions.  I will begin
drafting a letter of introduction about GIFTA and congratulation
Intel on their efforts.  I will not send it out unitl it's reviewed
internally.
>
>   This is exciting but It's important not just to rush into this.
We need to have a point of contact who will manage this relationship
in a consistent manner.
>
>
>   Thanks,
>
>   Tariq
>
> Jihan Andoni <jandoni@...> wrote:
>   I agree with Zaid. Let us at least introduce gifta and offer our
help.
> Tareq, would you like to do that?
> Jihan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com [mailto:GIFTA@yahoogroups.com]On
Behalf Of
> zaid
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 11:17 AM
> To: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center in Gaza
>
>
> if one can contact Chuck Mulloy
> and ask how gifta can help intel
> with this effort. i think this
> will be a huge start.
>
> best
> zaid
>
> --- Feras Qumseya <feras@...> wrote:
>
> > I think we should. What in your opinion is the
> > recommended course of action?
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> >
> > From:  zaid <zaid3k@...>
> > Subj:  Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
> > in Gaza
> > Date:  Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 am
> > Size:  2K
> > To:  GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> >  hello,
> >
> >  this is great news. are we doing anything
> >  to get involved with this effort?
> >
> >  best
> >  zaid
> >
> >  --- tariq_almuhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
> >  wrote:
> >
> >  >
> >  > FYI...
> >  >
> >  >
> >
> >
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_hi_te/intel_gaza
> >  >
> >  > MESA, Ariz. - Intel, the world's largest
> >  > semiconductor company, is
> >  > planning to build the first information
> > technology
> >  > education center
> >  > in the volatile Gaza Strip.
> >  >
> >  > The Intel Information Technology Center of
> >  > Excellence is intended to
> >  > provide IT training to Palestinians and stimulate
> >  > development of
> >  > high-tech industry in an area where half the
> > labor
> >  > force is
> >  > unemployed. The center is being developed in
> >  > conjunction with
> >  > Washington, D.C.-based American Near East Refugee
> >  > Aid and the
> >  > Islamic University of Gaza.
> >  >
> >  > "We don't want to discount the tension in the
> > area
> >  > ... but from our
> >  > perspective, we view it as something that can
> > have a
> >  > positive
> >  > impact," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "If
> > you
> >  > talk to the
> >  > leaders of the Palestinian Authority, this is
> >  > exactly the kind
> >  > of thing they want. They want education, they
> > want
> >  > paths to improve
> >  > the economic well-being of their citizens."
> >  >
> >  > Intel has had a presence in Israel for more than
> >  > three decades,
> >  > but over the past few years has launched an
> >  > initiative to also
> >  > expand its investments in the Arab world.
> >  >
> >  > The center is the company's first large project
> > in
> >  > the Palestinian
> >  > territories, an area where American corporate
> >  > involvement is rare.
> >  >
> >  > It will be staffed primarily by Palestinians and
> >  > will be located a
> >  > couple of miles outside Gaza City in an area
> > staked
> >  > out to become a
> >  > technology park with the Intel center as its
> > anchor,
> >  > said Peter
> >  > Gubser, president of ANERA. Construction is
> > expected
> >  > to begin in
> >  > about two months, with completion a year later.
> >  >
> >  > The cost to build and equip the center will only
> > be
> >  > about $1
> >  > million, Gubser said, because a dollar goes a lot
> >  > farther in the
> >  > Middle East.
> >  >
> >  > Though the security situation in Gaza is not
> > good,
> >  > Gubser believes
> >  > the willingness of Intel to be an American
> > corporate
> >  > pioneer in the
> >  > Gaza Strip may encourage other American
> > corporations
> >  > to follow.
> >   --- message truncated ---
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >     GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>   SPONSORED LINKS
>         Computer science   Science education   Middle east
>
> ---------------------------------
>   YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>
>     Visit your group "GIFTA" on the web.
>
>     To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>  GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>     Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
Service.
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>  Yahoo! Mail
>  Use Photomail to share photos without annoying attachments.
>

I agree with Zaid. Let us at least introduce gifta and offer our help.
Tareq, would you like to do that?
Jihan

-----Original Message-----
From: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com [mailto:GIFTA@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
zaid
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 11:17 AM
To: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center in Gaza


if one can contact Chuck Mulloy
and ask how gifta can help intel
with this effort. i think this
will be a huge start.

best
zaid

--- Feras Qumseya <feras@...> wrote:

> I think we should. What in your opinion is the
> recommended course of action?
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From:  zaid <zaid3k@...>
> Subj:  Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
> in Gaza
> Date:  Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 am
> Size:  2K
> To:  GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>  hello,
>
>  this is great news. are we doing anything
>  to get involved with this effort?
>
>  best
>  zaid
>
>  --- tariq_almuhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
>  wrote:
>
>  >
>  > FYI...
>  >
>  >
>
>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_hi_te/intel_gaza
>  >
>  > MESA, Ariz. - Intel, the world's largest
>  > semiconductor company, is
>  > planning to build the first information
> technology
>  > education center
>  > in the volatile Gaza Strip.
>  >
>  > The Intel Information Technology Center of
>  > Excellence is intended to
>  > provide IT training to Palestinians and stimulate
>  > development of
>  > high-tech industry in an area where half the
> labor
>  > force is
>  > unemployed. The center is being developed in
>  > conjunction with
>  > Washington, D.C.-based American Near East Refugee
>  > Aid and the
>  > Islamic University of Gaza.
>  >
>  > "We don't want to discount the tension in the
> area
>  > ... but from our
>  > perspective, we view it as something that can
> have a
>  > positive
>  > impact," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "If
> you
>  > talk to the
>  > leaders of the Palestinian Authority, this is
>  > exactly the kind
>  > of thing they want. They want education, they
> want
>  > paths to improve
>  > the economic well-being of their citizens."
>  >
>  > Intel has had a presence in Israel for more than
>  > three decades,
>  > but over the past few years has launched an
>  > initiative to also
>  > expand its investments in the Arab world.
>  >
>  > The center is the company's first large project
> in
>  > the Palestinian
>  > territories, an area where American corporate
>  > involvement is rare.
>  >
>  > It will be staffed primarily by Palestinians and
>  > will be located a
>  > couple of miles outside Gaza City in an area
> staked
>  > out to become a
>  > technology park with the Intel center as its
> anchor,
>  > said Peter
>  > Gubser, president of ANERA. Construction is
> expected
>  > to begin in
>  > about two months, with completion a year later.
>  >
>  > The cost to build and equip the center will only
> be
>  > about $1
>  > million, Gubser said, because a dollar goes a lot
>  > farther in the
>  > Middle East.
>  >
>  > Though the security situation in Gaza is not
> good,
>  > Gubser believes
>  > the willingness of Intel to be an American
> corporate
>  > pioneer in the
>  > Gaza Strip may encourage other American
> corporations
>  > to follow.
>   --- message truncated ---
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>     GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com



Yahoo! Groups Links

SPONSORED LINKS

Computer science

Science education

Middle east

Tariq, I am interested in helping with this.

-----Original Message-----

From:  Tariq Al-Muhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
Subj:  Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center in Gaza
Date:  Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:29 am
Size:  1K
To:  GIFTA@yahoogroups.com

Team,

   The GIFTA executive committee explored various goals during a brainstorming
retreat on this past weekend.  One of the goals was to establish corporate
partnerships.  This Intel iniatiave would fall under this category..

   We will be releasing a summary report of our retreat next week some time.  For
those interested working in the corporate partnerships progam please respond
this email and we can begin a course of action.

   Thanks!

   Tariq




zaid <zaid3k@...> wrote:
   oh and by the way :

chuck is at chuck.mulloy@...

best
zaid

--- Feras Qumseya <feras@...> wrote:

> I think we should. What in your opinion is the
> recommended course of action?
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From:  zaid <zaid3k@...>
> Subj:  Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
> in Gaza
> Date:  Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 am
> Size:  2K
> To:  GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>  hello,
>
>  this is great news. are we doing anything
>  to get involved with this effort?
>
>  best
>  zaid
>
>  --- tariq_almuhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
>  wrote:
>
>  >
>  > FYI...
>  >
>  >
>
>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_hi_te/intel_gaza
>  >
>  > MESA, Ariz. - Intel, the world's largest
>  > semiconductor company, is
>  > planning to build the first information
> technology
>  > education center
>  > in the volatile Gaza Strip.
>  >
>  > The Intel Information Technology Center of
>  > Excellence is intended to
>  > provide IT training to Palestinians and stimulate
>  > development of
>  > high-tech industry in an area where half the
> labor
>  > force is
>  > unemployed. The center is being developed in
>  > conjunction with
>  > Washington, D.C.-based American Near East Refugee
>  > Aid and the
>  > Islamic University of Gaza.
>  >
>  > "We don't want to discount the tension in the

--- message truncated ---

oh and by the way :

chuck is at chuck.mulloy@...

best
zaid

--- Feras Qumseya <feras@...> wrote:

> I think we should. What in your opinion is the
> recommended course of action?
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From:  zaid <zaid3k@...>
> Subj:  Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
> in Gaza
> Date:  Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 am
> Size:  2K
> To:  GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
>
>    
>  hello,
> 
>  this is great news. are we doing anything
>  to get involved with this effort?
> 
>  best
>  zaid
> 
>  --- tariq_almuhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
>  wrote:
> 
>  >
>  > FYI...
>  >
>  >
>
>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_hi_te/intel_gaza
>  >
>  > MESA, Ariz. - Intel, the world's largest
>  > semiconductor company, is
>  > planning to build the first information
> technology
>  > education center
>  > in the volatile Gaza Strip.
>  >
>  > The Intel Information Technology Center of
>  > Excellence is intended to
>  > provide IT training to Palestinians and stimulate
>  > development of
>  > high-tech industry in an area where half the
> labor
>  > force is
>  > unemployed. The center is being developed in
>  > conjunction with
>  > Washington, D.C.-based American Near East Refugee
>  > Aid and the
>  > Islamic University of Gaza.
>  >
>  > "We don't want to discount the tension in the
> area
>  > ... but from our
>  > perspective, we view it as something that can
> have a
>  > positive
>  > impact," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "If
> you
>  > talk to the
>  > leaders of the Palestinian Authority, this is
>  > exactly the kind
>  > of thing they want. They want education, they
> want
>  > paths to improve
>  > the economic well-being of their citizens."
>  >
>  > Intel has had a presence in Israel for more than
>  > three decades,
>  > but over the past few years has launched an
>  > initiative to also
>  > expand its investments in the Arab world.
>  >
>  > The center is the company's first large project
> in
>  > the Palestinian
>  > territories, an area where American corporate
>  > involvement is rare.
>  >
>  > It will be staffed primarily by Palestinians and
>  > will be located a
>  > couple of miles outside Gaza City in an area
> staked
>  > out to become a
>  > technology park with the Intel center as its
> anchor,
>  > said Peter
>  > Gubser, president of ANERA. Construction is
> expected
>  > to begin in
>  > about two months, with completion a year later.
>  >
>  > The cost to build and equip the center will only
> be
>  > about $1
>  > million, Gubser said, because a dollar goes a lot
>  > farther in the
>  > Middle East.
>  >
>  > Though the security situation in Gaza is not
> good,
>  > Gubser believes
>  > the willingness of Intel to be an American
> corporate
>  > pioneer in the
>  > Gaza Strip may encourage other American
> corporations
>  > to follow.
>   --- message truncated ---
>
>
>
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>     GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> 
>
>
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

I agree with Zaid. Let us at least introduce gifta and offer our help.
Tareq, would you like to do that?
Jihan

-----Original Message-----
From: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com [mailto:GIFTA@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
zaid
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 11:17 AM
To: GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center in Gaza


if one can contact Chuck Mulloy
and ask how gifta can help intel
with this effort. i think this
will be a huge start.

best
zaid

--- Feras Qumseya <feras@...> wrote:

> I think we should. What in your opinion is the
> recommended course of action?
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From:  zaid <zaid3k@...>
> Subj:  Re: [GIFTA] Intel to Open Technology Center
> in Gaza
> Date:  Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 am
> Size:  2K
> To:  GIFTA@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>  hello,
>
>  this is great news. are we doing anything
>  to get involved with this effort?
>
>  best
>  zaid
>
>  --- tariq_almuhtasib <tariq_almuhtasib@...>
>  wrote:
>
>  >
>  > FYI...
>  >
>  >
>
>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_hi_te/intel_gaza
>  >
>  > MESA, Ariz. - Intel, the world's largest
>  > semiconductor company, is
>  > planning to build the first information
> technology
>  > education center
>  > in the volatile Gaza Strip.
>  >
>  > The Intel Information Technology Center of
>  > Excellence is intended to
>  > provide IT training to Palestinians and stimulate
>  > development of
>  > high-tech industry in an area where half the
> labor
>  > force is
>  > unemployed. The center is being developed in
>  > conjunction with
>  > Washington, D.C.-based American Near East Refugee
>  > Aid and the
>  > Islamic University of Gaza.
>  >
>  > "We don't want to discount the tension in the
> area
>  > ... but from our
>  > perspective, we view it as something that can
> have a
>  > positive
>  > impact," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "If
> you
>  > talk to the
>  > leaders of the Palestinian Authority, this is
>  > exactly the kind
>  > of thing they want. They want education, they
> want
>  > paths to improve
>  > the economic well-being of their citizens."
>  >
>  > Intel has had a presence in Israel for more than
>  > three decades,
>  > but over the past few years has launched an
>  > initiative to also
>  > expand its investments in the Arab world.
>  >
>  > The center is the company's first large project
> in
>  > the Palestinian
>  > territories, an area where American corporate
>  > involvement is rare.
>  >
>  > It will be staffed primarily by Palestinians and
>  > will be located a
>  > couple of miles outside Gaza City in an area
> staked
>  > out to become a
>  > technology park with the Intel center as its
> anchor,
>  > said Peter
>  > Gubser, president of ANERA. Construction is
> expected
>  > to begin in
>  > about two months, with completion a year later.
>  >
>  > The cost to build and equip the center will only
> be
>  > about $1
>  > million, Gubser said, because a dollar goes a lot
>  > farther in the
>  > Middle East.
>  >
>  > Though the security situation in Gaza is not
> good,
>  > Gubser believes
>  > the willingness of Intel to be an American
> corporate
>  > pioneer in the
>  > Gaza Strip may encourage other American
> corporations
>  > to follow.
>   --- message truncated ---
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>     GIFTA-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>
>
>


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