Now Israel is free to massacre Gaza again without worrying about back-talk from anyone in the MSA meetings. 
 
Here is the Boycott-Israel resolution that pained MSA so much that they shut down the First Amendment–
 
http://dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com/2008/09/msa-resolution-to-boycott-apartheid.html
 
_________________________________

MSA Resolution to Boycott Apartheid Israel, and to Stop Apartheid on Campus

Photo: Malcolm X, meeting with the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964. 

This was sixteen years after European Zionists invaded Palestine, destroying over 400 Palestinian villages. 

It was an extremely violent ethnic cleansing operation.

It exiled the majority of Palestinians out of Palestine.

This Resolution was proposed for an immediatevote by the Michigan Student Assembly, at the University of Michigan.

This Resolution then was torn up by the Assembly's General Counsel, as the "Michigan Daily" reporter watched:

http://dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com/2008/09/attempted-resolution-proposal.html 

But the Resolution was again presented to the Assembly for a vote. This Resolution has also been proposed for a vote by the University's LSA Student Government: 

Resolution to Boycott Apartheid Israel, and to Stop Apartheid on Campus 

Resolution Summary: 

1. Boycott all Israeli products.
2. Take that $1 trillion you’re spending to kill Muslims, and spend it instead on re-building Detroit.
3. Stop 400 years of White Privilege—the University should admit every Black high school graduate.

Boycott all Israeli products 

WHEREAS, White Supremacism, including Zionism, is the most genocidal force on Earth, 

WHEREAS, Congress has paid $300 billion to Israel, according to Congressman John Dingell, 

WHEREAS, Israel spent that money on a genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinian people, which has culminated in the Israeli siege against Gaza, 

WHEREAS, Israel has forced 1.5 million Palestinians into a concentration-camp existence in Gaza, where childhood malnutrition and anemia are rampant, 

WHEREAS, Israel is threatening to unleash a “Holocaust” on Gaza, 

WHEREAS, Malcolm X was right— the Zionists had no “legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes and seize all Arab property for themselves”

WHEREAS, Israel’s alliance with Apartheid South Africa was "more intimate and more extensive than anything similar in Israel’s history", according to Professor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, 

WHEREAS, Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons, which it tried to share with Apartheid South Africa,

WHEREAS, Israel is training its pilots to nuke Iran, a land of 76 million people who have never invaded anyone,

WHEREAS, Israel trained and oversaw SAVAK, the brutal force of torturers who kept the Shah of Iran in power, 

WHEREAS, the United States has been bleeding Iran with economic sanctions, then with U.S.-imposed dictatorship, then with U.S.-fueled invasions, almost continuously since 1952, 

WHEREAS, those economic sanctions still make it impossible for Iranians to get spare parts for any airplane, from anywhere in the world, 

WHEREAS, Israel is demanding even crueler economic sanctions against Iran,  

THEREFORE, the Michigan Student Assembly demands that Congress impose a total boycott against all Israeli products,

THEREFORE, we demand that Congress cut off all aid to the racist state of Israel, the last Apartheid State on Earth. 

THEREFORE, we demand that the University of Michigan Board of Regents declare a boycott against all products imported from the racist state of Israel. 

Take that $1 trillion you’re spending to kill Muslims, and spend it instead on re-building Detroit. 

WHEREAS, Congress has spent $1 trillion to kill millions of Iraqis since 1991,

WHEREAS, Congress has killed over a million Afghans since the 1980’s, using a series of unbelievable excuses,

WHEREAS, the U.S. repeatedly bombs Somalia, using more unbelievable excuses, 

WHEREAS, Senator Clinton threatens to “obliterate Iran”, and Senator McCain sings “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”, 

WHEREAS, Senator Obama threatens to invade Pakistan, then President Bush launches military strikes directly on Pakistan,

WHEREAS, Congress’s trillion-dollar genocide against Muslim lands is conducted at the direct expense of Black America,

WHEREAS, Congress’s trillion-dollar occupation of Muslim lands is conducted at the direct expense of Black America, the Michigan Student Assembly demands that Congress immediately remove its trillion-dollar army of occupation from every nation on Earth, because that army only brings coups, torture, racism, and death to the planet; 

THEREFORE, we demand that Congress immediately spend that trillion dollars, which was stolen from Black America, on the immediate rebuilding of Detroit, including mass transit that every Detroiter can walk to, including the best elementary, secondary, and university education in the nation, including the best neighborhood clinics, the best neighborhood libraries, and the best housing infrastructure in the nation, and including the necessary industrial facilities to build all of those things, and to employ every Detroiter of working age, with full union wages and benefits, 

THEREFORE, we demand that Congress similarly rebuild every U.S. inner city, and that this rebuilding be directed by Black engineers, architects, professors, physicians, educators, and managers, and that this rebuilding be staffed by Black union labor, nationwide, until Black unemployment ceases to exist, 

Stop 400 Years of White Privilege—

–the University should Admit every Black high school graduate. 

WHEREAS, centuries of government policy, backed up by organized white violence at every level, has attempted to beat down African political power, financial power, industrial power, and landholding power, from the Congo to Chicago, 

WHEREAS, Martin Luther King Jr. was right— the U.S. government is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today”,

WHEREAS, the U.S. has murdered and imprisoned African and African-American leadership on a mind-boggling scale, from Lumumba in the Congo, to Mandela in South Africa, to Fred Hampton in Chicago, to Marcus Garvey, to the Orangeburg Massacre, to the Jackson State Massacre, to the U.S.-Israeli-South-African invasion of Angola in the 1970’s, to the U.S.-Israeli-South-African creation of death squads across the African continent which have murdered millions and stripped Africa of unimaginable wealth, 

WHEREAS, today’s white suburban power structure was built with a trillion-dollar federal highway subsidy, and with massive governmental subsidies to build all-white suburban settlements, which have sucked the wealth and political power of Black America into virtually all-white enclaves, while barring the bulk of Black America from entry, 

WHEREAS, white political, economic, employment, and educational power has always been built on massive federal subsidies, from the railroads in the 19^th century, to the government-backed white academies created to suck away resources from any public educational system that might benefit Black students, 

THEREFORE, the Michigan Student Assembly finds it obscene that a violent, 400-year steamroller of white privilege– where whites use the riches of Black labor to perpetuate a closed circle of privileged white university admissions, a closed circle of white business connections, a closed circle of white jobs, perpetuated by a heavily subsidized white suburban political machine,– is called a “meritocracy”, while the slightest effort to get Black students into the University is called “reverse racism”; 

THEREFORE, the Michigan Student Assembly demands that the University of Michigan Board of Regents immediately guarantee admission, tuition-free, to every Black student who graduates from every Michigan high school, together with year-round tutoring for every new student who needs it; 

THERFORE, we declare, in advance, a highly visible picket line and a 3-day student strike, if any state authority attempts to “stand in the schoolhouse door” to block the open admission of Black students to this University.

____________________________________________________________________

Photo: In 1975, Israel had helped South Africa to invade Angola, sending military advisers and electronic equipment to the front. 

The next year, you see the Prime Minister of Apartheid South Africa, John Vorster (second from right), meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (right), with future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (left), and with Moshe Dayan, in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem (al-Quds).

Activists stage a sit-in to protest former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's visit to Tulane University. (Abdul Aziz/Penta Press)

By Emily Ratner *

On 13 October, Tulane University, an elite university in the southern United States, hosted former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a featured speaker. Forced from office due to corruption charges and under indictment in his own country, Olmert's speaking engagements at respected American universities should at the very least raise questions as to the propriety of such events. That he and members of his military and political cabinet have been accused of war crimes during the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and last winter's invasion of Gaza requires people of good conscience to raise their voices in dissent. In response to his visit, a coalition of students, teachers, activists and community members — Muslims, Jews, Christians, Palestinians and their allies — rallied in opposition and protest inside and outside the event. Despite much hostility, they also found a great deal of support and more momentum for their organizing efforts.

Although outnumbered, we were more powerful than the war criminal and his Mossad protectors and stronger than his security checkpoints and his electronically amplified lies. We strapped red tape to our bodies and stashed fake-bloodied clothes in our packs. Those of us who had the required documents, who had student IDs from New Orleans universities, passed through the checkpoints while our barred friends and allies gathered outside, armed with truths painted on poster board and voices amplified by our growing numbers. With less than two weeks' notice, we had formed a broad coalition that planned a multi-phased action to reclaim the same campus that is home to TIPAC (the Tulane-Israel Public Affairs Committee). In 2007, the university hosted conservative commentator Ann Coulter for "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" in 2007 and had invited Olmert for a brief respite from international and Israeli courts. As Tulane University constructed a safe-haven and solicited interviews and meetings on behalf of its delinquent guest, dozens of our neighbors began to organize. And scores more responded to the call for action.

Tulane has long been an unwelcoming environment to our broader community, as well as to Muslim and Arab students. Olmert's strategists and local friends chose the city's most Zionist and "secure" nonreligious institution for his visit, and many activists questioned the wisdom of challenging a hostile student body and a sometimes even more hostile private police force. Tulane voices have been almost entirely absent in a great many community dialogues and meetings about Palestine solidarity work, and the prospect of initiating a campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Tulane's campus has always seemed laughable. But New Orleans is a city where so many feel linked to the Palestinian struggle through shared themes like the experience of diaspora, the right of return and near-daily racist violence and oppression by police and military authorities. There is no space in our city where Israeli war criminals will not be challenged.

Tulane was as hostile an environment as we expected. Hundreds of Tulane students showed up to hear Olmert speak, and many laughed and applauded when he made jokes about the comments of overwhelmed Palestinians who threw up their hands in exasperation at his remarks (i.e., lies) and walked out of the building. Many of our own group were only kept silent by the red tape we'd hidden on our bodies and then used to cover our mouths when Olmert first walked onto the stage. Scrawled on the tape were words that enumerated some of Olmert's administration's crimes, such as "human shields," "illegal settlements," "white phosphorous" and "occupation."

We breathed deeply and sat through an onslaught of racist lies about our Palestinian friends and family, until Olmert began to talk about the mistake Israel had made in "withdrawing" from Gaza. Then, one by one, our jaws aching from biting down on our testimonials of what we have seen with our own eyes and what our families and friends continue to suffer, we rose from our seats throughout the auditorium, slowly made our way to the aisle, and walked out.

Olmert's audience became our own for a moment. They gasped and whispered as more than 20 individuals stood glaring at Olmert and his guards and then marched out of the auditorium. As we left, we heard the chants of our friends, and breathed freely for what felt like the first time in over an hour. The hostility inside was palpable, but we were embraced by our friends outside whose numbers had easily tripled since we'd last seen them. They'd been shouting for two hours now, competing with calls of "Heil Hitler" and "Palestinians are Nazis" from students passing by. A Muslim woman in a hijab (headscarf) was hit with plates of food thrown from an adjacent third floor balcony while campus police looked on.

Within 20 minutes we'd set up the next phase of our action: four persons dressed in bloodied clothes laid down on the ground in front of the auditorium, and we placed cardboard grave markers with the numbers of massacred Palestinians and Lebanese around them. As students began to flow out of the auditorium, we handed out fliers detailing Olmert's war crimes and tried to stop passersby from spitting on our friends on the ground. We were mostly successful, and prevented a student from urinating on one of the participants.

We were not at all surprised by the hostility we faced, but we were surprised by the positive responses of far more Tulane students than we expected. Members of Tulane Amnesty International, Tulane American Socialist Students United and individual undergraduate and graduate students were active in every phase. They were joined by students from the General Union of Palestine Students and Amnesty International of University of New Orleans and students from Loyola University. As a result of this action, the challenges we face in our local solidarity work seem more surmountable. Indeed, Olmert's visit marked the beginning of Tulane's Palestine solidarity movement.

* Emily Ratner is an organizer and mediamaker based in New Orleans. She is a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, and a graduate of Tulane University (class of 2007). In June, she joined a New Orleans delegation to Gaza. She can be reached at emily A T nolahumanrights D O T org.

Related Links:
Multimedia: Audio: Interviews with Olmert protesters in San Francisco (23 October 2009)
Opinion/Editorial: Why I disrupted Olmert (23 October 2009)

Source: Electronic Intifada

WRITTEN BY SONJA KARKAR

The sounds of “yes we can” still ring in our ears, Mr President, but we have yet to see the changes we can believe in. That was evident when you backed down to Israel on a settlement freeze in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. You made us believe that we can, but it seems that you no longer believe that you can.

On the matter of Palestine, many people in the world would have been happy if you had just stuck to your word. The tragic, relentlessly abused Palestinians were ready to say, “yes we can”; we can negotiate peace again, despite sixteen years of repeated failures, if you would ensure that Israel freezes and dismantles its illegal settlement building. We would all say “yes we can” if we could see the US finally become an honest broker in such an obviously unequal conflict.

However, the summit meeting you had with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders is worse than that sense of déjà vu everyone is talking about. We know that we have all been here before, but more Palestinians are dying Mr President, more of their land is being stolen and being built on, more of their children are suffering from hunger, anaemia and unrelieved psychological trauma, more of their painful hope is being tortured out of them by our miserable efforts to gloss over an ethnic cleansing we said would never happen again.

What are you waiting for Mr President if you cannot put at least a temporary hold on the $3 billion plus-a-year “aid” your country gives to Israel? If you cannot stop arms sales to Israel when US law expressly states they must be used for defensive purposes only, and when there is precedent for doing so? If you cannot countenance the UN Security Council reaching its own conclusions free of US veto on the charges of war crimes in the Goldstone report? If you cannot distance the US administration from Israel’s aggression and defiance even though it hurts America’s interests?

We didn’t need a United Nations report to tell us what was so blatantly obvious, but now that we have Goldstone’s documented war crimes in Gaza, your concerns about the validity of his mandate only make us wonder if law has lost its meaning. All this patter about moving forward without calling in the debts of horrific crimes against humanity will surely take us down a slippery slope to lawlessness – a licence for aggression – where anything goes for those in power. But what kind of power is it when you cannot stop what you have started? What kind of power is it when you fear the people you suppress by force and terror?

As each day passes, Mr President, people everywhere believe less and less that you will change the eight awful years of neoconservative rule. In fact, they see things getting much worse. The words “yes we can” increasingly grate, as you do nothing: and you of all people could have turned the Titanic midstream. The world would have been with you, no matter how powerful the military-industrial complex that your late President Eisenhower warned Americans about, no matter how shrill the cries of some 30 million Christian Zionists salivating over End Times in Jerusalem, no matter how intimidating the Israel lobby that shamefully holds Congress in its sway to the detriment of America’s own interests.

Do you really think we don’t know that these forces are dictating our futures?

What kind of future then do you envisage for the 4 million Palestinians under occupation and almost 5 million refugees Mr President? There is no two-state solution: it is a sham. In East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Palestinians are being stripped of their homes and their farming lands while Jewish foreigners flood in from abroad to populate the monstrous complexes being built illegally on the last remaining vestiges of the Palestinian homeland. And in Gaza, people are drowning in blood, ravaged by hunger, sickness and hopelessness while they watch politicians grin and shake hands and make promises that everyone knows are as empty today as they were yesterday. Must another generation of Palestinians watch their prison walls squeeze them in tighter while the world plays more games of pretending peace and talking about a future state vanishing before their eyes?

Be honest with us Mr President and tell us openly that you cannot fight the forces stacked against you alone. We would understand that. We do want to believe that a sense of justice will still move you to make the changes we can believe in. Billions of people in the world are ready to carry you on the crest of a tsunami, if you would only give us more than words. Perhaps from where you stand Mr President you don’t hear how hollow they sound.

Yet, it is in that very same hollow space that more and more people can hear the keening sounds of silence from Gaza and the rapidly fading echoes of your “Yes we can”. It is not too late Mr President to give us the changes we can believe in; it is not too late to say Palestine, “yes we can”.

Sonja Karkar is the co-founder and co-convener of Australians for Palestine and founder and president of Women for Palestine in Melbourne, Australia. She is also the editor of the website http://www.australiansforpalestine.com and has had numerous articles published in online and printed journals and Australian newspapers. She can be reached at sonjakarkar@womenforpalestine.org

Source
as well as: http://jnoubiyeh.blogspot.com/2009/09/palestine-yes-we-can.html
or
http://obamboozled.blogspot.com/2009/10/palestine-yes-we-can.html

Dr. Norman Finkelstein spoke on Friday September 26, 2008 to a predominantly Muslim audience at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn, Michigan. I'd liked a few things I'd read by and about him. His style was engaging and he had generally good things to say – that is, until he started giving the audience practical tips. He said that while his PhD dissertation was about Zionism, we should not get into "ideological conversations about who is a Zionist." What mattered was focusing on stances on torture and house demolitions. He also advised that Palestinians be “reasonable” and consider compensation instead of their full rights.

I challenged him on this point during Q&A in that opposing occupation without condemning Zionism is like opposing slavery without condemning white supremacy, and that we American taxpayers and participants in the genocide of Palestinians (whether intentionally or not) should have more humility than tell Arabs whether or not to discuss the ideology behind their dispossession. Otherwise, we would look like gatekeepers on the discourse.

Finkelstein became angry insisted that we not engage in "Starbucks discussions" about Zionism! He referred to Chomsky as an example of someone who should not be considered an enemy in spite of their Zionism. Then he deferred to the Palestinian academic sitting next to him who said he agreed with Finkelstein; that Arab nationalism was no longer useful; and that he even supported a Kurdish state! It was unclear why he supported Kurdish nationalism, the existing mode of which divides a war-torn Iraq and serves imperialism, but not Arab nationalism.

With all due credit to his bravery as an academic who lost his career to stand up for (some of) Palestinians’ rights, Finkelstein is not the primary victim of Zionism. Palestinians are, and for them discussion of Zionism is not an armchair philosopher’s debate. To suggest to Arabs not to discuss Zionism is disturbing (while nobody tells Jews and Roma not to discuss Nazism, or African-Americans not to discuss white supremacy). This is what happens when Arab leaders who unequivocally oppose Zionism are either martyred, imprisoned, defeated or sold out.

"Conquer All the Violence": Three Questions for Norman Finkelstein

WRITTEN BY Michelle J Kinnucan

Well, Norman G. Finkelstein has thrown down the gauntlet for a "public brawl" by his decision to make public his resignation from the Gaza Freedom March coalition. Finkelstein says, vaguely, he resigned because: "During the week beginning August 30, 2009 and in a matter of days an entirely new sectarian agenda dubbed 'the political context' was foisted on those who originally signed on and worked tirelessly for three months." Apparently, two Palestinian activists, Omar Barghouti and Haidar Eid, living in the West Bank and Gaza, respectively, had the incredible gall to insist that the US-based, Code Pink-backed International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza should deviate from the standard Left Zionist American line by clearly acknowledging "that Palestinians have for over six decades been denied their basic rights that they are entitled to under international law, including the right of return, and the fact that Palestinian civil society has adopted Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) as one of its main civil resistance strategies against Israel’s occupation and other injustices."
The coalition's newly adopted "Statement of Context" does indeed mention the Right of Return and BDS. This crossed one or more of Finkelstein's red lines. Now, I've read at least three books by Norman Finkelstein and I've heard him speak on two occasions. Additionally, I've watched debates and interviews with him and read some of his shorter online writings. Finkelstein has shown real courage and made important scholarly contributions to understanding Zionism and the Jewish state. It is unfortunate then that even as he has repeatedly been a victim of Zionists, Finkelstein is himself functionally a Zionist of the Left-liberal persuasion.
He does untold harm to the Palestinian people and the justice and peace movement by peddling his 'softer' but disguised Zionism to his adoring fans in the cloak of "the international consensus," etc. This makes him much more dangerous to the Palestinian solidarity movement than people like Netanyahu or Dershowitz because so many folks are unable or disinclined to see past the impressive surface to the heart of Finkelstein's pro-Zionist discourse. As Malcolm X once said, "I'd rather walk among rattlesnakes, whose constant rattle warns me where they are, than among those … snakes who grin and make you forget you're still in a snake pit."
Not so long ago, but before Finkelstein's recent resignation, I had the occasion to view Finkelstein's November 13, 2008, speech on "Resolving the Israel-Palestine Conflict: What we can learn from Gandhi." This speech is still featured prominently on the front page of Finkelstein's personal web site. You can watch a video of the speech here or read the text here. Drawing upon that speech and other works of Finkelstein with which I am familiar, I address three questions/comments to Dr. Finkelstein. In the light of his public resignation from the Gaza Freedom March coalition, I think now is a good time to reevaluate his role in the larger movement and the shaping of its discourse. (Except where otherwise noted all Finkelstein quotes below are from "Resolving the Israel-Palestine Conflict: What we can learn from Gandhi").
First, you say:

If I propose that Palestinians adopt Gandhi’s doctrine of nonviolent civil resistance, it is … because of a compelling pragmatic insight of his. There is nothing violence can accomplish, Gandhi maintained, that nonviolence cannot accomplish—and with lesser loss of life. … Palestinians have little to show for the violent resistance; indeed, nearly all the reckonings after eight years of bloodletting fall squarely in the debit column. It is at least arguable that the balance-sheet would have been better had Palestinians en masse adopted nonviolent civil resistance.

If you truly believe this then why is it that with scant exceptions you have never made it a point to speak directly or forcefully in favor of the ongoing, nonviolent Palestinian boycott campaigns against Israel? Specifically, I am referring to the 2005 call by 171 Palestinian political parties, unions, NGOs and networks for for broad boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel and the 2004 Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
Second, you characterize "the occasional calls for eliminating the 'Zionist entity' and embracing a 'one-state' solution" as "not command[ing] international legitimacy" and "enjoy[ing] exactly zero international support." You ask: "Where is the legal or moral precedent for dismantling the 'Zionist entity' … or a 'one-state' solution … ?"
Why do you not acknowledge that at any time in the last forty-one years the Israeli government had the power to let Palestinians try to form a Palestinian state? The Israelis chose instead to colonize the occupied territories. Why do you not acknowledge that the "two-state solution," aside from being arguably unworkable now, is the very epitome of apartheid and that the global South African anti-apartheid campaign provides us with the applicable legal and moral precedent? Why don't you just avoid the "sterile debate" of one vs. two-state by embracing the goals of the Palestinian BDS campaign? They are:

1. Ending Israel's occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

Third, you state:

The Caribbean poet Aimè Cèsaire once wrote, “There's room for everyone at the rendezvous of victory.” Late in life, when his political horizons broadened out, Edward Said would often quote this line. We should make it our credo as well. We want to nurture a movement, not hatch a cult. The victory to which we aspire is inclusive, not exclusive; it is not at anyone's expense. It is to be victorious without vanquishing. No one is a loser, and we all are gainers if together we stand by truth and justice. "I am not anti-English; I am not anti-British; I am not anti-any government," Gandhi insisted, "but I am anti-untruth—anti-humbug, and anti-injustice."(188) Shouldn't we also say that we are not anti-Jewish, anti-Israel or, for that matter, anti-Zionist? The prize on which our eyes should be riveted is human rights, human dignity, human equality. What, really, is the point of ideological litmus tests such as, Are you now or have you ever been a Zionist?

At not inconsiderable cost to yourself, you have undertaken to expose the "Holocaust Industry" as an ideological construct used to, among other things, mask human rights violation by Israel. Isn't it ironic that having taken on this loaded subject you are now counseling others to disregard Zionism, another ideological construct?
Your invocation of Aimè Cèsaire and Edward Said is curious to say the least. Here is Cèsaire's poem in its entirety:

For it is not true that the work of man is finished
That man has nothing more to do in the world
But be a parasite in the world
That all we now need is to keep in step with the world.
But the work of man is only just beginning
And it remains to man to conquer all the violence embedded
in the recesses of his passion
And no race possesses the monopoly of beauty, of intelligence, of freedom
There is a place for all at the rendezvous of victory.

Yes, there is "a place for all at the rendezvous of victory" but your words do a disservice to Cèsaire, Said, and Gandhi when you suggest that the violent ideology of Zionism should remain untouched and unchallenged and when you casually, but misleadingly, equate British colonial rule of India with the creation of the Jewish state–Israel–in Palestine. In the context of Palestine, ending or radically transforming Zionism is assuredly a key part of "conquer[ing] all the violence," as Cèsaire put it.
It is inconceivable that Said would agree with your exhortation to neglect or downplay the ideological component of the Palestinian struggle for justice and liberty. In his 1979 "Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims," Said writes:

… effective political ideas like Zionism need to be examined historically in two ways: (1) genealogically in order that their provenance, their kinship and descent, their affiliation both with other ideas and with political institutions may be demonstrated; (2) as practical systems for accumulation (of power, land, ideological legitimacy) and displacement (of people, other ideas, prior legitimacy). Present political and cultural actualities make such an examination extraordinarily difficult, as much because Zionism in the postindustrial West has acquired for itself an almost unchallenged hegemony in liberal "establishment" discourse, as because in keeping with one of its central ideological characteristics, Zionism has hidden, or caused to disappear, the literal historical ground of its growth, its political cost to the native inhabitants of Palestine, and its militantly oppressive discriminations between Jews and non-Jews. …
The fact also that no Palestinian, regardless of his political stripe, has been able to reconcile himself to Zionism suggests the extent to which, for the Palestinian, Zionism has appeared to be an uncompromisingly exclusionary, discriminatory, colonialist praxis . So powerful, and so unhesitatingly followed, has been the radical Zionist distinction between privileged Jews in Palestine and unprivileged non-Jews there, that nothing else has emerged, no perception of suffering human existence has escaped from the two camps created thereby. As a result, it has been impossible for Jews to understand the human tragedy caused the Arab Palestinians by Zionism; and it has been impossible for Arab Palestinians to see in Zionism anything except an ideology and a practice keeping them, and Israeli Jews, imprisoned. But in order to break down the iron circle of inhumanity, we must see how it was forged, and there it is ideas and culture themselves that play the major role. …
It is one of the most frightening cultural episodes of the century, this almost total silence about Zionism's doctrines for and treatment of the native Palestinians.

More recently in a 2003 interview with David Barsamian, transcribed in a chapter of Culture and Resistance entitled "At the Rendezvous of Victory," Said said:

Unfortunately, there's a significant number of Arab intellectuals who … say "Let's stop talking about the evils of imperialism and Zionism. Let's start talking about our self-inflicted wounds." People like Fouad Ajami and Kanan Makiya . It's a profound self-abjection, which I deeply resent. It suits perfectly the neoconservative idea that people are responsible for their own disasters. As if imperialism never happened, as if genocide never happened, as if ethnic cleansing never happened. I just think it's outrageous.

During Israel's Hanukkah Massacre in Gaza last winter, Ilan Pappe highlighted the importance of confronting Zionism. He writes in "Israel's righteous fury and its victims in Gaza":

There are no boundaries to the hypocrisy that a righteous fury produces. …
This righteous fury is a constant phenomenon in the Israeli, and before that Zionist, dispossession of Palestine. Every act whether it was ethnic cleansing, occupation, massacre or destruction was always portrayed as morally just and as a pure act of self-defense reluctantly perpetrated by Israel in its war against the worst kind of human beings. … Today in Israel, from Left to Right, from Likud to Kadima , from the academia to the media, one can hear this righteous fury of a state that is more busy than any other state in the world in destroying and dispossessing an indigenous population.
It is crucial to explore the ideological origins of this attitude and derive the necessary political conclusions from its prevalence. This righteous fury shields the society and politicians in Israel from any external rebuke or criticism. But far worse, it is translated always into destructive policies against the Palestinians. With no internal mechanism of criticism and no external pressure, every Palestinian becomes a potential target of this fury. Given the firepower of the Jewish state it can inevitably only end in more massive killings, massacres and ethnic cleansing.
The self-righteousness is a powerful act of self-denial and justification. It explains why the Israeli Jewish society would not be moved by words of wisdom, logical persuasion or diplomatic dialogue. And if one does not want to endorse violence as the means of opposing it, there is only one way forward: challenging head-on this righteousness as an evil ideology meant to cover human atrocities. Another name for this ideology is Zionism and an international rebuke for Zionism, not just for particular Israeli policies, is the only way of countering this self-righteousness. We have to try and explain not only to the world, but also to the Israelis themselves, that Zionism is an ideology that endorses ethnic cleansing, occupation and now massive massacres. What is needed now is not just a condemnation of the present massacre but also delegitimization of the ideology that produced that policy and justifies it morally and politically. Let us hope that significant voices in the world will tell the Jewish state that this ideology and the overall conduct of the state are intolerable and unacceptable and as long as they persist, Israel will be boycotted and subject to sanctions. [emphases added]

So, why is it that you, Dr. Finkelstein, have determined that Zionism is off-limits?

WRITTEN BY SAMEH HABEEB AND AYMAN QUADER

If you are a young Gazan, how do you react to siege, blockade and war? It's time to hear about the struggle to be constructive in the midst of so much hatred and destruction, and to ask how long it can survive.

26 – 08 – 2009

The Gaza Strip has lost 1,400 lives and a further 5,000, mostly civilians, have been maimed and wounded in the latest attack waged by the Israeli government. This came on top of an illegal, yet relentless siege that has dragged on and on for over two years, preventing 1.5 million Gazans from having access to the basic necessities of life, and to the wider world. You might well ask how young people respond to this blockade. Some of course resort to violence. But others have chosen a different tack.

The right to resist derives from the basic values of justice and freedom. It is not confined to the use of force. Millions of people in this world believe in solving conflicts through peaceful means, without shedding blood and causing more hatred. One day this noble struggle could even replace the violence used by humanity against their fellow human beings. Rockets, guns, tanks – as decisive as they are today – have little to say to the wider cultural struggle for a civilised existence.

The first ‘Intifada' uprising was a Palestinian show-case for a unique kind of resistance in which heavily armed Israeli soldiers were confronted by children with stones. That intifada mutated through several phases before it helped us to secure the Oslo agreement in 1993. More and more Palestinians nowadays are revisiting a non-violent resistance that has emerged from their history if only because it has been so dogged by violent conflict and by war.

In the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement inspired a non-violent movement of resistance in which locals only became involved when Israel started to build the annexation wall. The people of the Gaza Strip started their movement with a different sort of retaliation, this time against the blanket of silence which was the first stage of Israel's siege. Our response was ‘voices instead of bullets'. In the Gaza Strip, by mid-2007 we were engaged in numerous actions which drew international activist attention in our direction for the first time.

Sameh Habeeb, who was coordinator for the Popular Committee Against the Siege (PCAS) when Israel closed down all the border points, cut the electricity dead and with-held all fuel supply, remembers that moment as a turning-point:

"At first, there was just a stunned reaction of helplessness. We all rushed around wringing our hands about what could be done. We were entering an extremely challenging phase in which the question was: how to involve a wider public in our activities? Gazans are notorious for their loyalties and their endless capacity for confrontation. We thought we were in for a very difficult time indeed. But it turned out to be easy.

We realized that it was precisely at that moment, so in need of a clear way forward, that we must bring people onto the streets. We issued a call throughout Gaza to everyone who would listen. It took almost 5 days before any media outlets paid any attention to what we were saying. Then it started. Even the Israeli media were calling us to ask what was going to happen next. The Israeli government called on thousands of reserve soldiers who were promptly deployed along the borders with Gaza. We had promised some kind of action on a specific day – and as the day loomed, the Israeli media carried reports speculating on what might occur. Some predicted that tens of thousands of us would break through the borders with Israel."

The action day arrived and began early with massive media coverage from our side: ‘Human chain to challenge the siege.' Literally tens of thousands of people of all ages did indeed respond: schoolchildren, university students, labourers, women and children and many ordinary people hurried to the Salah El Din. The chain stretched from Rafah to Beit Hanoun and was around 36 kilometers long. The people went to the borders without guns in the manner of Ghandi to make a united protest. However, accorind to Al Jazeera, clashes erupted between youths and the soldiers who fired at them.

Since that memorable day, Jamal El Khoudary, chair of PCAS has launched numerous symbolic activities to end the siege. "Our approach to struggle has many means at its disposal. This is why Palestinian factions, political parties and individuals across the board participate in our actions. Through non-violent actions, we have been able to move the mainstream. However, you have to face the fact that you are always, at any minute, liable to be fired on." This is the price we have to pay to call attention to what is happening to us.

On January 26, 2008 the Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, led byDr Eyad Sarraj, proclaimed an international day of action against the siege imposed on the Strip. It is important that there is an international response to this call, but at the core of this activity was the coming together of organizations working for peace and solidarity in Palestine, civil society bodies, and human rights advocates and Gazan academics, with Israeli peace activists also wanting to extend solidarity to the people of Gaza in numerous joint actions and events. On that day thousands of activists demonstrated on both sides of the borders between Israel and Gaza. More activists came to Egypt and tried to cross over to Gaza.

The campaign launched a call to gather a million signatures to end the siege of Gaza. Teams of volunteers grouped in villages, towns and neighborhoods of Gaza to collect these names. The aim was to present them to the United Nations, and two hundred thousand signatures had been secured when all this was brought to a rude halt by the Israeli war.

Dr Eyad Sarraj, who is amongst various callings, an international peace campaigner said on that day, "The principal goal of this demonstration is to join the hands of both Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who want to end the siege and all kinds of violence. The most decisive factor in breaking the siege will be through a change in Israeli public opinion." The slogans were: ‘No Movement, No Life' and ‘Humanity, Not Humiliation: Peace, Not Punishment'.

By late 2008 this movement of civic protest was growing new dimensions. Seeing the Palestinians so committed to such actions, international support of various kinds began to build. The Free Gaza movement managed to send three boats into Gaza surrounded by such a media fanfare that the Israelis were not able to touch them. The sea of Gaza has been under a blockade for many years: the last boat to arrive was 41 years ago. They made their fourth attempt during the attack on Gaza, and this time, the boat was destroyed. The crew and cargo of the fifth, Spirit of Humanity, have just been seized by the Israeli government who have imprisoned those on board, including the Nobel Peace prize winner, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, and sequestered or destroyed the toys, medicines and tree seedlings. But our message continues to spread.

Then there is the music. In the beginning of November 2008, the Popular Committee Against the Siege organized a candle-lit protest carried out by young children in Gaza City to protest at the closure of the power station providing electricity to the northern Gaza Strip. The protest started only minutes after the main Gaza power station shut down and the entire city was plunged into total darkness. Gaza's residents started marching alongside the children in the city's streets while the children held candles, singing in both, English and Arabic. Indeed, kids are the light of hope of Gaza, when they call for the freedom that comes through peaceful means. The people of Gaza are finding their own ways of struggling against this inhumane collective punishment.

Many people who don't know Gaza reckon that we live under some kind of Hamas-Taliban Puritanical rule. It is't true, and we are proud to have been involved in what we called the first ‘opera show' ever in Gaza, starring an Italian artist who was willing to come over on one of these boats. On November 27 2008, this concert, ‘Sing for Freedom', organized by a group of young people in the Gaza Strip, was a great success. The aim was to find a new way of breaking the siege, through a resilience that young people can discover together through song, dance, poetry, and hip-hop, announcing to their audience and to the world that their spirit is strong, and that they will never give up their demand to live in freedom, justice and peace in Palestine.

These are just a few examples of the kind of actions that show Palestinian aspirations for a dignified, thriving and humane life that we all hope to see one day. Many unanswered questions still fill our heads. Is this movement effective in challenging Israeli occupation? Should Gazans give up armed resistance? Will non-violent resistance bring back our rights? When if ever will Israel stop killing peace activists in Gaza and the West Bank? (The last victim was Basam abu Rahma, Basam who believed in non-violence, but who was met by death for his beliefs….)

Things are looking bad in the West Bank, where Israel has dealt a particularly bleak hand to President Abbas, who, after returning to the road map in the agreement in Annapolis, clamped down on all sorts of armed resistance with the help of Premier Fayyad. In the end, how was this received? His efforts were greeted by more settlement-building, more invasions and more arrests throughout the West Bank. And in Gaza? More and more people were beginning to look to non-violent resistance under their siege conditions: then came the last war. People are bound to argue for a return to armed resistance. What should one say in return?

We asked three of our acquaintances in Gaza to comment:

* Nadine Rajab, a 25-year-old human rights advocate, says, "As a Palestinian citizen living under siege and under occupation in Gaza, I think resistance has a few legitimate aspects: the general humanitarian dimension, the religious dimension and the national dimension. There are many legitimate means of non-violent resistance such as demonstrations, boycotting products and civil disobedience. But we should engage in both non-violent and violent resistance, because we are part of the society and it is our duty to do so."

* Muhammad Ghates, a 25-year-old young man working in the Gaza Strip has a different view. His brother was killed by the Israeli army in 2007: "Israel is a state that only survives on instability in the region. It has launched several wars against its neighbours since its establishment. Israel only agreed on peace after it was defeated by the Egyptians in 1973. Israel can be made submissive again through resistance and fighting. Maybe non-violent resistance can pave the way, but it can never be the decisive factor." Ghates believes that Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 due to the heavy resistance of the Gazan people. He contrasts this with over four years of non-violent resistance in the West Bank that has come to nothing. It may have drawn worldwide attention to the wall issue, but this in turn has resulted in no identifiable pressure on the Israeli state, "My family is pro-resistance and my brother was killed while defending Gaza. We aspire to liberate our country through resistance and fighting as we are under occupation. When the Nazis were invading Europe, nations and populations had the right to resist. But our case is different: we are not granted that right. Our resistance is described as terrorism, regardless of the fact that we are under occupation. It seems Israel as a country only understands the language of power and blood not peaceful means. This was quite clear in their last bloody war on Gaza: everybody was under attack. My house too was damaged. It was a target though I'm a normal citizen and I have never lifted a finger against Israel."

* Another young 21 year-old student living in Al Nuserat camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip says, "Our peaceloving children insist on facing up to Israel, but in a different way. They have escaped into patriotic songs to sympathize with each other. Furthermore, they light candles to express simplicity and innocence. They also draw pictures and write words on walls to show the suffering e.g. even before this gruelling war I saw a picture of a Palestinian child who had written on his chest in Arabic letters, "I'm hungry". I do believe that the non-violent path of activism could be more fruitful than militant resistance."

source:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/non-violent-action-in-gaza

source: http://peaceforgaza.blogspot.com/2009/08/non-violent-action-in-gaza.html

Ayman T. Quader

I also strongly condemn and reject the interference of the Israeli military censorship, who tries to impose his dirty mission on newspapers, websites and blogs, published outside Israel with continued terror, bullying and intimidation done by many front organizations and individuals of lacking intellect, who call themselves “glorious” names “Fancy Titles” but who in fact work for Israel and the IDF censorship office in Beit Agron, and who also get paid by them.

I strongly condemn the military censorship imposed on my correspondence with my homeland Palestine, by Israeli military “security” in the post office, in the West part of occupied Jerusalem, people who open and empty my packages of it’s content, destroying my videos which shows the crimes of the military occupation in Palestine. (See a copy of a letter from the Post office informed me that my letter had arrived at their office opened and damages).

Yesterday I was forwarded an email been sent by one of these “Fancy Titles”  people, IDF fronts abroad, who tried bully a German website which translated and published my article into removing my article, thus de-facto imposing the IDF censorship in a foreign publication. See the e-mail attached as a PDF. This slanderous and menacing E-mail was sent to German government ministers in copy. The writers of this badly written E-mail questioned the validity of the information I mention in my article, and the validity of my sources. While the Email was sent to another website and only forwarded to me, I thought it appropriate to answer these small-time bullies because the article is mine. My response to the threat Email sent to LinkeZeitung as a PDF. I will translate both e-mails as soon as I can.

As a journalist I know how to get direct access to ministers and government offices; I have documented the crimes perpetrated by Israel since my family left their homeland in the north of Palestine, today called Israel, 61 years ago.

After the criticism of  the “Fancy Titles” people against my latest article body snatching by the IDF and their partners in crime at Abu Kabir, I have decided to publicize each crime with further details to show that Israel is a state of cutthroats and thieves next to being a criminal occupier.

I am also sure that all the governments know what happened to the Palestinians since 1948 until today, and that Israel is established on the destruction and genocide of the Palestinian nation. But while these governments are paralyzed and unable to do much about about the Israeli genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the violations of the international humanitarian laws because of their thorough infiltration by zionist elements, I have decided to go ahead with my work exposing further details about the Israeli crimes, whether the criminals and their allies and frontmen like what I write or not.

I will not start from the story of my relative murdered and autopsied. First I will start presenting the full details of the murder of three children and the abduction of their bodies and autopsy which I mentioned before. Here is the Press Release issued by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights concerning this crime.

here is the testimony in Arabic by the director of Al-Shifa’a hospital in Gaza as PD F.

(I was not able to translate it because of the horrible things which are described. Perhaps the people “Fancy Titles” and the IDF military censorship will be able to translate it)  I hope that the bullies from “Fancy Titles” people will enjoy it).

Below is a Press release which I received in 2002

Press Release

New evidence in case of three Palestinian children unlawfully killed by Israeli forces

Ref: 11/2002

Date: 30 January 2002

New evidence has been obtained demonstrating the excessive and disproportionate use of force by Israeli forces against three Palestinian children killed last month. According to recent statements made by the Israeli military commander of the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces used “Fletchette” shells (shells containing dart-like shrapnel which is fired over a large area upon impact) in the incident when the three children were killed.

PCHR, the legal representative of the victims’ families, expresses its serious concerns regarding this case and reiterates its call for the international community and the United Nations to initiate a full, independent and impartial investigation into the case, to bring to justice those responsible and to provide effective reparations, including adequate compensation for the families of the victims.

On Sunday, 30 December 2001, Israeli forces fired artillery shells at three Palestinian children north of Beit Lahia, killing them. The victims, all from Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza, were:

• Ahmed Mohammed Banat, age of 15.
• Mohammed ‘Abdel-Rahman El-Madhoun, age of 16
• Mohammed Ahmed Lubbad, age of 17.

At approximately 17:40 on that day, an Israeli tank positioned in the vicinity of “Elli Sinai” settlement, north of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, fired four artillery shells at a Palestinian agricultural area, under full control of the Palestinian National Authority, approximately 1200m south of the settlement.

Then, Israeli forces opened fire at the area from heavy and medium machine guns. Approximately 30 minutes later, the Israeli forces issued a statement claiming that they had killed three gunmen who were attempting to enter “Elli Sinai” settlement. Later, the Israeli forces stated that the three children were attempting to plant bombs in the area. A later statement from the Israeli military asserted that the children were armed with knives.

The Israeli authorities did not immediately release the bodies of the three victims and did not issue information regarding their identities or ages. Three families from Sheikh Radwan neighborhood notified PCHR about the disappearance of three of their children while they were returning home from a visit to a friend in Beit Lahia.

This raised fears that the three children might be the victims killed by Israeli forces. On 2 January 2002, PCHR, through an Israeli lawyer, Andre Rosenthal, sent a message to the Israeli military legal advisor, requesting the recovery of the three bodies to the Palestinian National Authority in order to be identified, and called for an investigation into the case. The bodies were handed over to the Palestinian National Authority on the same day, but no investigation was initiated by the Israeli military.

PCHR has continued to follow up the case internationally and within Israel. On 8 January 2002, PCHR sent appeals to John Dugard, Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, including Palestine; Asma Jahangir, Special Rapporteur for Summary, Arbitrary, and Extra-Judicial Executions; and Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict. PCHR requested that they take immediate steps to ensure a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into this incident is conducted, and that other cases of possible willful killings and excessive use of lethal force perpetrated in the Occupied Palestinian Territories be similarly investigated, with appropriate legal action taken.

In addition to following the case through its lawyer in Israel, PCHR coordinated with the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI), and Physicians for Human Rights, providing the two organizations with information, in order for them to pressure inside Israel for an investigation into the case. In its letter to the two organizations, PCHR stated its initial comments and conclusions regarding the incident:

 

• The children were fired at from a significant distance, when they had posed no threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers.
• The three children were extra-judicially killed since no efforts were made to arrest them.
• The victims were unarmed civilians under the age of 18.
• The bodies were taken to the Legal Medicine Institute in Abu Kabir without the approval of their families and without a court decision.
• An autopsy conducted by Palestinian officials indicated that the bodies had been mutilated and that one of the victims had been trampled by a large vehicle.

Following a request by Member of Knesset Tamar Jabotnisky, the Israeli parliamentary foreign and security committee held a session on 23 January 2002 to address this case. Representatives of the PCATI and Physicians for Human Rights attended the session.

In his statement before the committee, the Israeli military commander of the northern Gaza Strip revealed new information which supports the conclusion that the children were willfully killed.

His statement can be summed up in the following points:

• At approximately 17:48 on 30 December 2001, three suspects were noticed in the vicinity of “Elli Sinai” settlement. The officer in command of a tank fired four artillery shells at the three, killing them.
  
• One of the bodies was then run over by the tank. The tanks shells fired contained nails (flechettes) which were scattered as far as 100m away from the point of impact.

In his statement before the committee, Director of the Legal Medicine Institute (Abu Kabir) explained that the victims died having sustained injuries inflicted by the nails in the shells and that one of the bodies had then been run over by a tank. This information further supports the conclusion that the killings were willful and a violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.

The Israeli military representative also produced video footage before the committee showing that the victims were positioned at a significant distance from the Israeli military position. It is PCHR’s opinion that this information collectively indicates that the Israeli military extrajudicially killed the three, and used excessive and disproportionate force. All evidence indicated that the victims had not posed any threat to the lives of the Israeli soldiers, that the soldiers had not resorted to less lethal force as required by international standards and had made no attempts to arrest the suspects prior to opening fire. The video footage also reaffirmed that the victims were unarmed contrary to claims made by the Israeli military.

The session was adjourned, to be reconvened later this week, pending receipt of the report of the Israeli Legal Medicine Institute on the case.

In light of these developments, PCHR asserts:

 

The killing of the three children was willful and extra-judicial in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law, and that Israeli forces have full legal responsibility for their deaths, including with respect to the provision of compensation to the victims families, in accordance with international law.

In immediately resorting to the use of artillery shells despite no threat having been posed to the lives of the soldiers, the Israeli forces employed excessive and disproportionate force.

It was not the first time that Israeli forces have employed “Fletchette” shells against Palestinian civilians. A number of Palestinian civilians have been killed or injured by such shells, including when no threat was posed to the lives of Israeli soldiers, according to PCHR’s investigations.

Despite all these facts, Israeli forces have not initiated a full and proper investigation into this case or many other similar cases. The autopsy of the bodies took place at the Israeli Legal Medicine Institute without the approval of the victims’ families and without a court decision – according to the director of the institute, the bodies of the victims were brought to the institute without having been identified in contravention of Israeli law.

The video footage showing the killing of the three children should be made public.

The international community and the United Nations must call for a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into this incident, and that other cases of possible wilful killings and excessive use of lethal force perpetrated in the Occupied Palestinian Territories be similarly investigated.

The use of such shells against a civilian population is unlawful under international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. The Israeli military commander also confirmed that an Israeli tank ran over the body of one of the victims.

SOURCE: http://www.kawther.info/wpr/2009/08/28/fancy-title-people-and-the-idf-against-journalists

The latter option does not necessarily entail a call to arms. Clearly Israel has the overwhelming advantage in this respect in both conventional and unconventional (nuclear) weapons. Just as obviously, neighbouring Arab countries have neither the will nor ability to go the military route. However, the inability to wage war does not automatically mean surrender and eschewing other means to wage struggle.

As powerful as it is militarily, Israel has two major weak points. Firstly, it cannot impose political solutions by force of arms on a people determined to sustain a campaign of resistance. This has been amply demonstrated in two full-scale wars against Lebanon and, most recently, in the assault against Gaza. Secondly, the longer the Palestinians have remained steadfast, and the greater the role the demographic factor has come to play in the conflict, the more clearly Israel has emerged as an apartheid system hostile to peace. If the ethnic cleansing of 1948 and the colonialist expansionism describe the circumstances surrounding the birth of the Israeli state, the recent bills regarding the declaration of allegiance to a Jewish state and prohibiting the Palestinian commemoration of the nakba more explicitly underscore its essential racist character.

Ironically, just as Israel has attained the peak in its drive to fragment the Palestinian people, with geographical divides between those in Israel and those abroad, between Jerusalem and the West Bank and the West Bank and Gaza, and between one governorate and the next in the West Bank by means of ring-roads, walls and barriers, Palestinians have become reunified in their hardship and in the challenges that confront them. Regardless of whether or not they bear Israeli citizenship, or whether they are residents of Jerusalem, the West Bank or Gaza, they all share the plight of being victims of Israel's systematic discrimination and apartheid order.

If the only alternative to evading the struggle is to engage in it in order to resolve it, we must affirm that our national liberation movement is still alive. We must affirm, secondly, that political and diplomatic action is a fundamental part of managing the conflict, as opposed to an alternative to it. In fact, we must elevate it to our primary means for exposing the true nature of Israel, isolating it politically and pressing for international sanctions against it.

In this context, we must caution against the theory of building state institutions under the occupation. An administration whose security services would be consuming 35 per cent of the public budget, that would be acting as the occupation's policeman while furthering Netanyahu's scheme for economic normalisation as a substitute for a political solution, is clearly geared to promote the acclimatisation to the status quo, not change. Building Palestinian governing institutions and promoting genuine economic development must occur within the framework of a philosophy of "resistance development". Such a philosophy is founded on the dual principles of supporting the people's power to withstand the hardships of the occupation and reducing dependency on foreign funding and foreign aid. The strategic aim of the Palestinian struggle, under this philosophy, must be to "make the costs of the Israeli occupation and its apartheid system so great as to be unsustainable".

If we agree on this course for conducting the struggle, then the next step is to adopt a unified national strategy founded upon four pillars:

1. Resistance. In all its forms, resistance is an internationally sanctioned right of the Palestinian people. Under this strategy, however, it must resume a peaceful, mass grassroots character that will serve to revive the culture of collective activism among all sectors of the Palestinian people and, hence, to keep the struggle from becoming the preserve or monopoly of small cliques and to promote its growing impetus and momentum. Models for this type of resistance already exist. Of particular note is the brave and persistent campaign against the Separation Wall, which has spread across several towns and villages, offered five lives to the cause, and become increasingly adamant. The resistance by the people of East Jerusalem and Silwan against Israeli home demolitions and the drive to Judaise the city presents another heroic model. Yet a third promising example is to be found it the movement to boycott Israeli goods and to encourage the consumption of locally produced products. In addition to preventing the occupation power from milking the profits from marketing locally produced products, this form of resistance can engage the broadest swath of the population, from old to young and men and women, and revive the culture and spirit of communal collaboration. The campaigns to break the blockade against Gaza, as exemplified by the protest ships, the supply caravans and the pressures on Israel to lift its economic stranglehold, are another major type of resistance.

2. Supporting national steadfastness. The importance of this pillar is its focus on strengthening the demographic power of the Palestinian people so as to transform their millions into an effective grassroots force. It entails meeting their essential needs to enable them to remain steadfast in their struggle, and developing Palestinian human resources as the foundation for a strong and independent Palestinian economy. However, in order to achieve these aims the Palestinian Authority (PA) economic plan and budget must be altered in a way that pits their weight behind development in education, health, agriculture and culture, as opposed to squandering a third of the budget on security.

For example, the passage and immediate implementation of the bill for the national higher education fund would serve the educational needs of hundreds of thousands of young adults. In addition to elevating and developing the standards of university education, it would also work to sustain the impact of development aid and eventually reduce reliance on foreign support. The fund would also alleviate the school tuition burdens on more than 150,000 families, put an end to nepotism in the handling of student study grants and loans, and provide equal opportunity for academic advancement to all young men and women regardless of their financial circumstances. Equally innovative and dynamic ideas could be applied to other areas of education, or to stimulating the fields of public health, agriculture and culture with the overall aim of developing the educated, innovative and effective modern human resources needed to meet Palestinian needs as autonomously as possible and, hence, capable of weathering enormous pressures.

3. National unity and a unified national leadership. This strategic aim entails restructuring the Palestine Liberation Organisation on a more demographically representative basis and putting into effect agreements that have been previously reached in the Palestinian national dialogues held in Cairo. Over the past few years, the thrust of Israel's greatest advantage and the thrust of its assault centred around the Palestinian rift and the weakness of the disunited Palestinian leadership. In order to redress this flaw, the Palestinians must adopt a new mentality and approach. Specifically, they must: relinquish the mentality and practice of vying for power over an illusory governing authority that is still under the thumb of the occupation, whether in the West Bank or in Gaza; give up the illusion that Palestinian military might, however great it might become, is capable of leading the Palestinian struggle alone; adopt democracy and pluralistic democratic activities and processes as a mode of life, self-government, peaceful decision-making, and the only acceptable means to resolve our differences and disputes; resist all outside pressures and attempts (particularly on the part of Israel) to intervene in our internal affairs and to tamper with the Palestinian popular will. There must be a firm and unshakeable conviction in Palestinians' right to independent national self-determination.

The most difficult task that we face today is creating a unified leadership and strategy binding on all, from which no political or military decisions will depart, and within which framework no single group or party has a monopoly on the decision-making processes. Only with a unified leadership and strategy will we be able to fight the blockade as one, instead of evading unity for fear of the blockade. With a unified leadership and strategy we will able to seize the reins of initiative from others, as opposed to spinning from one reaction to the other, and we will be able to focus our energies on asserting our unified will instead of squandering them in internal power struggles in which the various parties seek outside assistance to strengthen their hand against their opponents on the inside. Only then will we be able to shift the equations that subordinated the national liberation movement to the narrow concerns of the PA (both in the West Bank and Gaza) and turn the PA into an instrument in the service of the national liberation movement.

4. Building and enhancing an international pro-Palestinian solidarity movement combined with a drive to impose sanctions against Israel. That such a movement already exists and is steadily growing is heartening. However, it will take enormous efforts to organise it and coordinate its activities properly so as to ensure it has the greatest possible influence upon decision-makers, especially in Europe and the West. Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities will need to be orchestrated towards the realisation of the same goals. If the solidarity movement has scored significant successes with the organisation of a boycott of Israeli products, the decision by the Federation of British Universities to boycott Israeli academics, and the decision taken by Hampshire College and some US churches to refuse to invest in Israel, much work has yet to be done to expand the scope of such activities and build up the momentum of the solidarity movement.

The Palestinian plight, which Nelson Mandela has described as the foremost challenge to the international humanitarian conscience, strongly resembles the state of South Africa at the outset to the 1980s. It took years of a concerted unified drive before the South African liberation movement finally succeeded in bringing around governments to their cause. The tipping point came when major companies realised that the economic costs of dealing with the apartheid regime in Pretoria were unsustainable. In the Palestinian case, the success of an international solidarity movement is contingent upon three major factors. The first is careful organisation and detailed planning, a high degree of discipline and tight coordination. Second is a rational, civilised rhetoric that refuses to play into Israel's tactics of provocation. The third is to address and recruit progressive movements and peoples in societies abroad, including anti-Zionist Jews and Jews opposed to Israeli policies.

None of the foregoing is new, by any means. However, these ideas have yet to be put into practice. The logical springboard for this is to operate on the principle that while the Palestinian cause is a Palestinian, Arab and Muslim one, it is above all a humanitarian cause that cries out to all in the world who cherish humanitarian principles and values. The success of the freedom fighters of South Africa, the anti-Vietnam war movement, and the campaigners for the independence of India stemmed primarily from their ability to forge a universal appeal. And this is precisely what we must do. Our mottos for the solidarity movement with the Palestinian people must be "the fight against the new apartheid and systematic racism" and "the fight for justice and the right to freedom." The International Court of Justice's ruling on the Separation Wall, the illegality of Jewish settlements and altering the face of Jerusalem is a valuable legal precedent that official Palestinian governing institutions have ignored for four years. This ruling should now become our platform for a drive to impose sanctions against Israel, just as the UN resolution against the occupation of Namibia proved a platform for mounting a campaign against the apartheid system in South Africa.

The four-pronged strategy outlined above, which is espoused by the Palestinian National Initiative Movement, can succeed if it is guided by a clear vision, patience, and systematic persistence. I do not expect that it win the approval of all. The interests of some combined with their sense of frustration and despair have deadened their desire to engage in or to continue the confrontation with Israel. We also have to acknowledge that certain sectors of Palestinian society have become so dependent upon interim arrangements and projects and the attendant finances as to put paid to the possibility of their contributing to the fight for real change. Yet, the proposed comprehensive strategy does respond to and represent the interests of the vast majority of the Palestinian people and holds the promise of a better future.

The Palestinian national struggle has so far passed through two major phases: the first steered by Palestinians abroad while ignoring the role of Palestinians at home, and the second steered by Palestinians at home while ignoring the role of Palestinians abroad. Today we find ourselves at the threshold of a third phase, which should combine the struggle at home and the campaign of Palestinians and their sympathisers abroad.

In closing I would like to address the subject of a one-state or a two-state solution. It is both theoretically and practically valid to raise this subject here for two reasons. First, Israel has consistently tried to undermine the prospect of Palestinian statehood by pressing for such formulas as home rule, or an interim state, or a state without real sovereignty. Second, the changes produced on the ground by Israeli settlements and ring roads have come to render the realisation of a viable state unrealisable. To some, especially Palestinians in the Diaspora, replacing the call for a one-state solution with calling for a "two-state solution" seems to offer a remedy that gives relief. It is a better remedy, without a doubt, but it is a long way from offering relief. Slogans do not end liberation struggles. Slogans without strategies and efforts to back them up remain nothing but idle wishes or, to some, a noble way to avoid responsibility and the work that goes with it.

Now, let us be clear here. Israel has been working around the clock to destroy the option of an independent Palestinian state on the ground and, hence, the two-state solution. But that does not leave the Palestinian people without an alternative, as some Zionist leaders undoubtedly hope. The single democratic state (not the single bi-national state) in which all citizens are equal in rights and duties regardless of their religious affiliations and their origins is an alternative to the attempt to force the Palestinians to accept slavery under occupation and an apartheid order in the form of a feeble autonomous government that is dubbed a state.

However, whether the aim is a truly independent sovereign state or a single democratic state, both of which Israel dismisses with equal vehemence, neither of these aims can be achieved without exposing and destroying the apartheid system. This requires a strategy. Therefore, instead of allowing ourselves to become divided prematurely over whether to go for the one-state or two-state solution, let us unify behind the common aim required to achieve either: the formulation and implementation of a strategy to fight the occupation, apartheid and racial discrimination. This will lead us to something that is absolutely necessary at this stage, which is to move from the world of slogans to the world of practical activism in accordance with viable strategic plans that mobilise demonstrators against the wall, intellectuals and politicians and other sectors of society. It is high time we realise that diplomatic endeavours and negotiations do not free us from the nuts and bolts of actual struggle. We have one road that leads to a single goal: the freedom of the Palestinian people. There is nothing nobler than to follow this road to its end. This is not a project for some point in the future; it is one that cannot wait. Indeed, we should probably adopt the slogan of the freedom fighters of South Africa: "Freedom in our lifetime!"

* The writer is secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative

SOURCE: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/960/op13.htm

“Lebanon’s endangered Green Sea Turtles are no less genetically imprinted by nature to return West to the Sea than her Palestinian Refugees are imprinted by justice to return south to their homes.”
Nehme Hamie, Horse Rancher near Baalbek, Bekaa Valley

It is hard to believe that it has already been three years since July 13 and 15, 2006, when American MK 82 and MK 83, 500 and 1,000 lb. bombs, and four US TOW missiles, gifted to Israel, destroyed Lebanon’s oil storage facility at Jiyeh, 30 kilometers south of Beirut.

The attack at Jiyeh was one of more than 12,000 Israeli air force bombing missions during the 33 day attack on Lebanon, as its navy fired 2,500 missiles as its Army fired over 100,000 shells. Large parts of the Lebanese civilian infrastructure were destroyed, including 400 miles of roads, 73 bridges, and dozens of other civilian targets bombed such as Beirut's Rafic Hariri Airport, ports, water and sewage treatment plants, electrical facilities, 25 fuel stations, 900 commercial structures, up to 350 schools and two hospitals. More than 15,000 homes were destroyed and an additional 130,000 damaged.

The intentional environmental disaster at Jiyeh was the worst of its kind in Lebanese history with more than 15,000 pounds of thick oil soaking Lebanon’s beaches turning some into tar pits. According to the World Bank the bombing of the oil storage tanks produced a 50,000 sq meter “carpet” of oil sunken below the sea just off the coast of Sidon which Greenpeace claims will require decades if not centuries to recover. Efforts by UN Sec.-General Ban Ki-Moon to collect close to a billion dollars from Israel to reimburse Lebanon for clean up and restoration costs remains stymied today by a US veto threat of any Security Council resolution that attempts to hold Israel responsible.

Why clean a Lebanese beach?

The Washington DC-Beirut based Sabra Shatila Foundation as well as American, European, and Lebanese co-sponsors, decided, as part of next month’s 27th Anniversary commemoration of the 1982 Massacre at Beirut’s Sabra Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp, to clean nearby Ramlet el Baida Beach and develop a continuing program to keep it clean. As one of very few free Lebanese beaches, Ramlet el Baida is used daily by Palestinian refugees, poor Syrians, Lebanese, and the nearly enslaved foreign ‘guest’ workers from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Sudan, Bangladesh and other countries.
To its great credit, and in support of the Free Gaza Campaign’s (freegaza.org) efforts to break the siege of Gaza, Beirut’s Municipality agreed with SSF that Beirut’s main beach would be renamed “Free Gaza Beach” for 24 hours and that Ramlet el Baida would be forever ‘twinned’ with Palestine’s Gaza Beach.

Since the beginning of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, Beirut’s beaches suffer from an inordinate amount of trash, some quite heavy. According to two Lebanese environmental NGO’s, Cedars for Care, and Big Blue, part of the garbage is from the huge sea-edge mountain of trash 45 kilometers south in Saidon. The eastern Mediterranean coast current runs approximately south to north and so as Saidon’s trash mountain rubbish washes out to sea, which it does daily, some of it ends up on Lebanon’s northern beaches. The further north one goes along Lebanon’s beaches, the more washed up trash one observes. When Lebanon resolves to recycle Saidon Trash Mountain, her beaches will be in much better shape for all to enjoy.

Some conspiracy theorists claim, without compelling proof, that the large number of plastic hypodermic needles on Lebanese beaches are from Israel’s sea dumped medical waste and relatively large heroin drug addict population, among the highest in the world on a per capita basis, according to the World Health Organization and UNODC (UN Office of Drugs and Crime).

Beach clean-up volunteers were asked to be particularly careful of handling needles, especially with Hebrew markings, or to leave them in place and report to their “team leaders”.

Most studies of the growing drug use to Lebanon’s south indicate that drug abuse is spread among all social strata in Israel. The most abused drugs among Israel’s growing West Bank settlement population are anti-anxiety and anti-depressant ‘cocktails’ as well as cannabis, heroin and synthetic ‘downers’ with heroin becoming more prominent in recent years. In 2006 Israeli authorities again reported a rise in the consumption of cocaine and a sharp increase in the use of LSD and amphetamines. In addition, Israel authorities are concerned about the widespread abuse of tranquilizers; attributed to “the pressure of living surrounded by enemies”. The drug-related crimes are reported to represent 75% of the total crimes committed in Israel. (See Isralowitz R; Reznik A; Spear SE; Brecht ML; Rawson RA. Título: Severity of heroin use in Israel. April, 2007).

Pollution from Israel is not new in Lebanon. Southern villagers have long experienced and resisted Israeli efforts to pollute their farm lands, steal fertile top soil, steal water, sabotage Lebanese crops, weaken the economy and attempt to eliminate commercial competition and ‘put the Lebanese on a diet’ to paraphrase former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert with respect to Gaza.

On August 2, shortly after 8 am hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese volunteers assembled on “Free Gaza Beach” to fill blue trash bags of trash from the 1.5 mile beach. Hezbollah pledged to send Madhi scouts and has since offered more beach cleaning help in the future. (For more on Hezbollah’s Madhi girl guides and boy scouts, see the forthcoming volume by F. Lamb: Hezbollah: Inside Out! Chapter 14: The Madhi Scouts: “Boys and Girls from Brazil or the kids next door?)

As the sun rose rapidly from Syria to the East, temperatures quickly climbed to 35 degrees. Palestinian Refugees Camp volunteers and supporters from Hezbollah, the USA, Iran, Europe, England, Canada, and Lebanon, fanned out across the beach in teams of 15-20 each.

One precocious 12-year-old Hezbollah Girl Guide from Haret Hreik in Dahiyeh, didactically inquired of her American companion from California, “Just how people expect the tiny baby turtles who, Inshallah, will hatch next month and try to crawl to the sea to grow up, can possibly climb over all the beach garbage?”

From the, skinniest tyke, with a determination that inspired some beefy battle hardened elders, they scoured the hot sand and plucked trash.
Some participated in a discussion led by a Syrian teacher who stood in front of a display of the Lebanese, American, Iranian, Palestine, Hezbollah, and various NGO flags. They considered the question of how these flags belonged to their people and not just to their governments. And why it is quite appropriate on such an occasions to fly them next to one other, despite differences among their governments. “Flags represent people, not just governments, flying them does not mean we accept the policies or military actions of governments du jour”, the teacher advised.

The kids learned more about the environment of the Mediterranean, its fragility and the need for helping its many species in danger from man’s abuse.

As the volunteers from various confessions and countries co-mingled, some asked fellow beachcombers questions including the “why do you guys hate us?” one and the “are you guys really terrorists and Islamophobes, you seem sort of nice?” one.

These questions and many others were heard here even among adults, as more and more visiting Americans and Europeans value the chance to engage in dialogue and gain reliable information, as well as understanding and insights unavailable in many media outlets.

No help from Uncle Sam this time

The US Embassy was asked if USAID might donate water or ice cream for the kids cleaning Beirut’s beach. USAID apologized and told the Sabra Shatila Foundation representative, lovely Ms. Nancy from Cape Cod Massachusetts, that after 3 days careful study of the subject that USAID “regrettably does not have the budget to provide water (cost? maybe $50) for Palestinian and Lebanese children who will be cleaning Ramlet el Baida beach on August Second”. During a follow up call by one of the American Boy Scouts who looked forward to joining fellow scouts from Muslim Sunni Jarrah Scouts and the Muslim Shia Madhi Scouts of Hezbollah, “that ice cream is a luxury these days and not in the USAID budget. However we are able to supply an American flag for display if you would like”.

Bless its heart; the American Embassy in Beirut did indeed present a fine large American flag which flew proudly on the beach next to the flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Norwegian People’s Aid, and Big Blue and Cedars for Care, Lebanese environmental groups.

As the thirsty camp kids contemplated “water, water everywhere and ne’er a drop to drink”, and trudged east to west, with the rising Lebanese morning sun on their backs, picking up trash, God shined his grace upon them and with the help of cash donations from American citizens from Florida, Washington State and New York and a Palestinian scholar in Oxford, England, 600 bottles of Lebanon’s finest ice cold pure mountain water, Sohat by name, as well as delicious Lebanese Cortina ice cream, and “Keep our Beaches Clean!” T-Shirts and Baseball caps appeared just in the nick of time.

In defense of USAID’s apparent stinginess it should be conceded that the Agency is not without its own issues. Giving anything to a Palestinian these days requires lot of analysis. One can imagine the hullabaloo in the Israeli occupied US Congress if USAID had provided water for this particular mixture of beach cleaning kids. Which member of Congress would be the first to complain of aiding potential future terrorists? A Congressional investigation might be demanded by close to 20% of its Members beefing up the AIPAC campaign to destroy President Obama’s Middle East initiatives in Palestine.

To excuse USAID further, in its 8/5/09 edition, the Washington Post suggests that decision making at “the main U.S. foreign aid agency(USAID) is in limbo, entering its seventh month without a permanent director despite pledges by the Obama administration to expand development assistance and improve its effectiveness in poor countries.

Both President Obama and Secretary Clinton have said how important helping foreign countries with environmental problems is.

“Increasingly, it's a painful contrast between their rhetoric and the reality of having no leadership at USAID”, according to Carol Lancaster, interim dean of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, who served as deputy administrator of the aid agency under President Bill Clinton.

Lancaster claims that USAID assistance oversees doubled, to $13.2 billion in 2008 and the agency has become a conduit for money flowing to contractors, who have limited supervision from the agency.

Reverend David Beckmann, president of the aid group Bread for the World, describing the plethora of political claims attached to USAID helping grassroots projects such as beach cleaning. The development program, he said, "is a mess. In the USAID budget, every dollar has three purposes: help build an Air Force base, support the University of Mississippi, and get some country to support our projects.

According to Reverend Beckmann, “The waste of billions of U.S. reconstruction dollars in Iraq and the growing role of development in the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan have given new urgency to long-running debates about reforming the USAID system.”

Sometimes cheery in outlook, the Sabra Shatila Foundation US Embassy contact noted that “after we finish our Iraq and Afghanistan work, and depending on what happens with the US economy, we may have more funding available for projects such as Lebanon’s environment. Next time gives us more notice and we will see what we can do.” No hard feelings.
The beach project was good event. Some volunteers called or emailed the Sabra Shatila Foundation this week and reported, ”we want to do more stuff”.
Slowly, slowly maybe mutual understanding in the Middle East is deepening.
One example, perhaps unrepresentative:

Last year, a former American Ambassador, part of a delegation from a Washington DC based US delegation who had served in the region at the time of Hezbollah’s birth, explained that he had changed his views of the Party of God. “Lamb, he said, “if the average American could come here to observe what is going on in Lebanon today and the ‘human face’ of Hezbollah, I am sure 85% of them would support the Lebanese Resistance and its work.”

Another former US Ambassador recently told a gathering of Americans in Beirut, relaxing with a drink or two following a long day of briefings: “Not only is Hezbollah the most secular of the Lebanese groups in my opinion, Hezbollah is as American as Apple Pie! We are very similar in many ways how we think and analyze problems.” He continued, “Our peoples are much alike. It’s no less than a goddamned shame that our government is currently at odds because if we worked together, with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, we could solve many Middle East problems from Iraq, Afghanistan to Palestine. We should also calm down about the Iran is seeking nuclear weapons b——-! That’s a red herring if ever I saw one! Hell I don’t claim to know what the Iranians are doing but if I was Iran facing that bunch running Israel I would sure get me a couple for self defense if I could! And while I am on this subject, when and if Iran gets a nuclear bomb, Israel is likely finished. Not because Iran will use it, but because its deterrence will stop Israel from threatening the region and you will see and international resistance bloom like Mao’s thousand flowers!”

Then the retired American Ambassador, who had served in China in the late 1970’s, downed his third scotch on the rocks and fixed his gaze on a svelt Lebanese beauty who entered the Hamra bar and smiled at him.

Fplamb is doing research in Lebanon and can be reached at fplamb@sabrashatila.org .

To the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano

To the Foreign Minister Franco Frattini

To the Italian Ambassador in Tel Aviv Luigi Mattiolo

To the Italian Consul in Jerusalem Luciano Pezzotti 

An eviction warrant hanging over two Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah and East Jerusalem was carried out last Sunday August 2. Early in the morning, IDF soldiers forced the Al Ghawi and Al Hanoun families (refugees since 1948) to leave their homes from the Sheikh Jarrah quarter, where they had been living since 1956. Israeli settlers have already occupied their houses.

Some citizens and Israeli and international activists for Palestinian rights have been backing up the two families’ determination not to forsake their own homes and not to become the victims of Israel’s ethnic cleansing policies.

According to the international law, East Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinian territories, which have been occupied by Israel since 1967 and the international community is required to demand that the UN resolutions preventing population transfers and any act aimed at changing the cities’ status quo be observed (Geneva Convention of 1949 and UN Resolutions 242 of 1967, 252 of 1968, 267 of 1969, 298 of 1971, 465 of 1980, 476 of 1980 and 478 of 1980).

The condition of the Palestinians living in Jerusalem is becoming increasingly unbearable due to the occupying government’s discriminating policies that aim at the relentless annexation of East Jerusalem to create territorial continuity between West Jerusalem and the illegal Israeli settlements surrounding East Jerusalem (Maale Adumim, Pisgat, Zev…).

Seventeen settlements have been built since 1967, occupying about 35% of East Jerusalem, where over 200,000 settlers live. According to OCHA sources (Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), 8,500 Palestinian homes have been demolished between 1967 and 2006. In the first four months of 2009 alone, OCHA has reported the demolition of 19 buildings in East Jerusalem, 11 of which were civilian houses. Consequently, 109 Palestinians, 60 of which are children, have become refugees.

The direct consequences of such actions of the Israeli government upon Palestinian society are the territorial fragmentation of the different quarters of East Jerusalem, as well as its isolation from the rest of the West Bank, thus creating the conditions so that Jerusalem may become the “only and eternal” capital of the State of Israel, in violation of international law and UN Resolutions.

The only defence which the Palestinians can resort to is the support of the international community, the sole one that can exert pressure upon the Israeli government to immediately revoke the eviction warrants against the Palestinians of East Jerusalem (Sheikh Jarrah, the Old City, Silwan, Bustan, Ras al Amud) and to put an end to the projects for building new settlements in Jerusalem.

The Al Ghawis, the Al Hanouns and Al Kurds (this family was kicked out of their home in November 2008) are only the first families of 28 (about 500 people) living in Sheikh Jarrah who risk being expelled.

The new US administration and the EU have condemned the confiscation and the demolition of the Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, as well as the construction of new settlements.

Therefore we demand that the Italian Government, and more directly the diplomatic representatives of the Italian Consulate in Jerusalem, join the severe condemnations against the Israeli government in consideration of the expulsions of the Al Ghawi and the Al Hanoun families, and urge the Israeli government to annul the eviction warrants; that the evicted families may return to their homes; that the orders to expel other families be revoked; that the plan to build new settlements in East Jerusalem be stopped, in keeping with what international law dictates.

As Italian citizens, we demand that Italy’s Consulate General in Jerusalem should visit the Al Ghawi, Al Hanoun and Al Kurd families in order to bring a message of solidarity and of human, and above all, political support, as already done by other European and American diplomatic representatives.

Translated from Italian by Diego Traversa and revised by Mary Rizzo, members of Tlaxcala.  
 

BASTA ESPULSIONI DI PALESTINESI DA GERUSALEMME EST
 
Al Presidente della Repubblica Giorgio Napolitano (presidenza.repubblica@quirinale.it)
Al Ministro degli Affari Esteri Franco Frattini (gabinetto@esteri.it)                                                    
All’Ambasciatore d’Italia a Tel Aviv Luigi Mattiolo (luigi.mattiolo@ esteri.it)
Al Console Generale d’Italia a Gerusalemme Luciano Pezzotti (luciano.pezzotti@ esteri.it)
 
Domenica 02 agosto e' stato reso esecutivo l'ordine di sfratto pendente su due famiglie palestinesi di Sheikh Jarrah a Gerusalemme Est. Alle prime ore del mattino i soldati dell'IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) hanno costretto con la forza le famiglie al Ghawi e al Hanoun, gia` profughi nel `48, a lasciare le loro case nel quartiere di Sheikh Jarrah, dove risiedevano dal 1956. Al loro posto sono gia' entrati nelle abitazioni coloni israeliani.

Da settimane la presenza di cittadini e attivisti per i diritti umani palestinesi, israeliani ed internazionali ha sostenuto la determinazione delle famiglie a non lasciare le proprie case e a non divenire vittime delle politiche di pulizia etnica dello Stato di Israele.

Secondo il Diritto Internazionale Gerusalemme Est fa parte dei Territori Palestinesi Occupati da Israele dal 1967 e la comunita' internazionale e' tenuta a far rispettare le risoluzioni delle Nazioni Unite che vietano il trasferimento di popolazioni cosi' come ogni intervento atto a modificare lo status quo della citta' (cfr. Convenzioni di Ginevra (1949) e Risoluzioni ONU (n. 242 del 1967, 252 del 1968, 267 del 1969, 271 del 1969, 298 del 1971, 465 del 1980, 476 del 1980, 478 del 1980). 

La condizione degli abitanti palestinesi a Gerusalemme Est si fa sempre piu' insostenibile a causa delle politiche discriminatorie del Governo occupante che hanno come obiettivo la irreversibile annessione della citta' di Gerusalemme Est creando continuita' territoriale tra Gerusalemme Ovest e gli insediamenti israeliani illegali che circondano Gerusalemme Est (Maale Adumim, Pisgat Zev….).

Dal 1967 ad oggi sono stati costruiti 17 insediamenti che occupano circa il 35% del territorio di Gerusalemme Est, nei quali vivono piu' 200,000 coloni. Fonti OCHA (Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – www.ochaopt. org/) riportano che tra il 1967 e il 2006 sono state demolite piu' di 8500 case palestinesi. Nei soli primi 4 mesi del 2009, OCHA ha registrato la demolizione di 19 strutture a Gerusalemme Est, che comprendono 11 abitazioni civili. Di conseguenza 109 palestinesi, tra cui 60 bambini, si ritrovano sfollati. 

Le dirette conseguenze sulla societa' palestinese di tali azioni del Governo Israeliano sono la frammentazione territoriale dei diversi quartieri di Gerusalemme Est nonche' l'isolamento di Gerusalemme Est dal resto della Cisgiordania, creando di fatto le condizioni per cui Gerusalemme diventi la capitale 'unica ed eterna dello Stato di Israele' in violazione del Diritto Internazionale e delle Risoluzioni ONU.

L'unica difesa a cui possono ricorrere i palestinesi di Gerusalemme e' il sostegno e il supporto della comunita' internazionale, l'unica che puo' esercitare pressione sul Governo Israeliano per revocare immediatamente gli ordini di espulsione dei palestinesi di Gerusalemme Est (Sheikh Jarrah, Citta' Vecchia, Silwan, Bustan, Ras al Amud) e per fermare i piani di costruzione di nuove colonie a Gerusalemme.

Le famiglie al Ghawi, al Hanoun e al Kurd, quest'ultima cacciata dalla propria abitazione nel novembre 2008, sono solo le prime tra le 28 famiglie (500 persone) residenti nel quartiere di Sheikh Jarrah, che sono a rischio di espulsione.

La nuova amministrazione statunitense e l'Unione Europea hanno condannato la confisca, la demolizione delle case palestinesi a Gerusalemme Est e la costruzione di nuovi insediamenti.

Chiediamo pertanto al Governo Italiano e piu' direttamente alla rappresentanza diplomatica del  Consolato Generale di Italia a Gerusalemme di unirsi alle severe condanne verso il Governo Israeliano per le espulsioni delle famiglie al Ghawi e al Hanoun, e di richiedere al Governo Israeliano che venga cancellato l'ordine di espulsione, che le famiglie cacciate possano rientrare nelle proprie case, che vengano cancellati gli ordini di espulsione per le altre famiglie e che vengano fermati i piani di costruzione delle colonie a Gerusalemme Est, come previsto dal rispetto del Diritto Internazionale.

In quanto cittadini italiani chiediamo al Consolato Generale di Italia a Gerusalemme di visitare le famiglie al Ghawi, al Hanoun e al Kurd per portare un messaggio di solidarieta' e sostegno umano e soprattutto politico, come gia' fatto da altri rappresentanti diplomatici europei e statunitensi.
 
 
Prime adesioni:
Associazione di Cooperazione e Solidarieta' – ACS
Disarmo e Sviluppo – DISVI
Terre Des Hommes – TDH Italia
Gruppo Volontariato Civile – GVC
Cooperazione Internazionale Sud-Sud – CISS
Centro Regionale di Intervento per la Cooperazione – CRIC
Centro Internazionale Crocevia – CIC
Consorzio Italiano di Solidarietà – ICS
Overseas
Associazione per la Pace
NEXUS
COSPE
EducAid
ARCS
Progetto Sviluppo
Un ponte per.. (Martina Pignatti)
Palestine Think Tank (Mary Rizzo)
Rete Radie' Resh (Anissa Manca)
Servizio Civile Internazionale – SCI Italia 
Donne in nero – Savona (Rita Fontanella)
Salaam ragazzi dell'olivo di Vicenza (Miriam Gagliardi)
International Solidarity Movement – ISM – Gaza (Vittorio Arrigoni)
Associazione Gruppo Abele
Associazione Universitaria per la Cooperazione Internazionale – AUCI (Pasquale De Sole, presidente)
FabioNews (Fabio Bovi)
Alleanza per la Terra Santa Libera
Fidest – Agenzia Stampa
PeaceLink (Giacomo Alessandroni – segretario, Alessandro Marescotti- presidente, Lorenzo Galbiati – redattore sito)
Centro Solidarietà Internazionalista Alta Maremma – CSIAM (Gianluca Quaglierini)
Il Mappamondo di Chioggia (Giorgio Rossi)
Radio Ciroma (Cosenza)
Associazione per la Pace – Padova (Gianna Benucci)
U.S. Citizens for Peace and Justice – Roma
Associazione culturale Aktivamente
Associazione Zaatar
Un ponte per… (Cinzia Filoni – Spinea – VE)
Comitato per la pace di Portogruaro – VE
 
Prime adesioni a titolo personale:
Martina Iannizzotto
Marina Errico
Davide Rossi
Mario Paolini
Leonor Crisostomo
Andrea Parisi
Fabio Pierini
Daniela Riva
Enrico Michelutti
Lorenza Masi
Debora De Cosmi
Eugenio Donadio
Valeria Moro
Emilia Sorrentino
Pasquale Zambrano
Bruna Taccardi
Saverio Mannarella
Silvana Mastropaolo
Livia Luberto
Ettore Acocella
Federica Battistelli
Federico Lenzarini
Rosella Bonarrigo
Rita Plantera
Roberta Pasini
Paola Tonelli
Pietro Bellorini
Sara Valerio
Maria Paola Pannaciulli
Barbara Antonelli
Raffaele Spiga
Cinzia Chighine
Vera Silveri (Roma)
Luciano Tribuzi (Roma)
Gianni D'Elia (Rivalta di Torino)
Lorenzo Galbiati
Chiara Pettenella (Verona)
Ilaria Siggia
Marco Zannetti
Lorenza Erlicher (Trento)
Chiara Carmignani
Sabrina Fraternale
Anna Biagini
Andrea Bonini
Andrea Merli
Sara Faustinelli
Loretta Mussi (direttore Un ponte per..)
Caterina Donattini
Federica D'Amato
Gennaro Corcella (fisico, Pisa)
Eri Garuti (giornalista, Milano)
Riccardo Bovolenta (Ozzano Emilia – BO)
Gabriella Grasso (MI)
Latif Al Saadi (P.C.iracheno)
Gianni Pastro
Ersilia Salvato
Franco Borghi (Cento)
Felicia Gattagrisa (Grumo Appula – BA)
Enza Talciani (Roma)
Gianfranco Argentero (Roma)
Francesco Rigamonti
Gianna Bennucci (Associazione per la Pace – Padova)
Luisa Morgantini (Donne in Nero e Associazione per la Pace)
Giacomo Bonan
Elisabetta Filippi
Marco De Luca (Milano)
Maria Rita PITONI (Rieti)
Floriana Raggi (Rimini)
Enzo Gargano
Francesco Andreini – Gruppo consiliare PRC – SE (Comune di Siena)
Fiorino Pietro Iantorno – Gruppo consiliare PRC – SE (Comune di Siena)
Maria Teresa Scarlato
Serena De Prezzo (Olivadi-CZ)
Gino Buratti (Massa)
Patrizia Cecconi (Rieti)
Franco Casagrande
Milena Manzoli
Fabiola Palmas (Torino)
Domenico Verdoscia – dottorando, Università di Bari –
Simona Brusco, Roma
Daniel Magrizos
Giuliano Compagno
Daniela Scarano
Valerio Baldissara
Natalia Fais
Rosanna Picoco
Lorenza Sebastiani
Maurizio Regon di
Piero Leone (Roma)
Francesca Antinucci (Senigallia – AN)
Emanuela Gasbarroni
Elena Monguzzi  (Macerata)
Pierina Leder  (Comitato per la pace di Portogruaro – VE)
Anna Maria Fiammengo (Torino)

Published by the Italian Newspaper  Liberazione on 19/07/2009

Israel wants to stop the non-violent struggle and the unity created amongst Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals, who since more than four years demonstrate in order to end the construction of the wall: in the last weeks the escalation of systematic arrests and kidnappings of activists in Bil’in by the Israeli soldiers.

Raids in the middle of the nights, with military vehicles crossing in the dark that illegal barrier represented by the Apartheid wall. Tens of armed soldiers laying close to the ground in order to not to be seen.

They proceed slowly, without lights, wearing dark military camouflage uniforms and black masks on their faces.

They arrive in the hearth of Bil’in crossing streets and fields. They surround houses destroying all that they meet on their path, kidnapping people, including 15 or 16 years old adolescents, confiscating documents, mobile phones and personal things of the detained persons. Also last Friday a 15-years-old boy has been abducted from his home at 3 a.m., and during the demonstration activists have been attacked with a strange sort of smelling water, probably containing chemical substances provoking blistering effects and with a suffocating smell.  

This is the same scenario taking place also in other villages in the West Bank, but Bil’in has become a symbol: the village –where the shame wall confiscates 49% of lands- in the last weeks has become a theatre of a further intensification of this kind of operations, that are real war operations, perpetrated against the activists of the Popular Committee of non-violent resistance, men and women, civilians, who are resisting in a non-violent, peaceful and creative way against the wall and the occupation.     

Often, the activists stand on the rooftops of the village, in order to forewarning the others of incoming of the raids that usually comprise of approximately 100 soldiers divided into groups of 20-30 men, each encircling the home of an accused stone-thrower at varying hours of the night. In the last three weeks, 17 young activists have been arrested -15 Palestinians, 1 Israeli, then released, and one American, according to what reported in a document by Miftah, the Palestinian Initiative for the promotion of Global dialogue and democracy, denouncing the escalation of violence in Bil’in.   

I saw with my own eyes many and many wounded people during the demonstrations that every Friday take place near the construction site of the wall and during which the Israeli soldiers use sound bombs, tear gas canisters, and a foul-smelling chemical spray: I was many times intoxicated by those gas, while rubber-coated bullets were shot at men’s height. 

On 19th April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahmah, 30 years old, a pacifist Palestinian demonstrator, was shot in the chest by an Israeli soldier with a tear gas bomb during one of Bil’in's nonviolent Friday protests: an use clearly excessive and inhuman of the force against unarmed demonstrators.

The week after the murder of Bassem, I have been many times in Bil’in with the Popular Committee. Together we have protested and built a symbolic grave in the place where he was killed.

We did under the fire of tear gas canisters and when we finished it, putting the memorial tablet with the name of Bassem, we were so happy. What a paradox to be happy for the construction of a grave!

In their attempts to dismantle the movement, the Israeli military specifically targets the youth: from 23rd to 25th 2009, four adolescents, 16-17 years old, have been arrested and forced to release the names of peace activists and information related to Bil’in Committee. The aim is not only to arrest, kidnap and physically neutralize the activists, but also to spread terror amongst the inhabitants of the village of Bil’in, 1,800 residents, in order to stop all kind of activity of non violent resistance, that become an example also for other realities of the occupied West Bank such as Nil'in and Ma'asara, whose land continue to be confiscated by the wall.

However neither all this, nor 1,300 wounded people and 60 arrests suffered by the activists have been enough to stop their determination. 

"If they want to arrest us all, they can. But our wives and children will continue the struggle" declared Abdullah Abu Rahmah, one of the coordinators of the Popular Committee of non-violent resistance of Bil’in. His daughter Luma, 7 years old, suffers of insomnia, as well as other children in Bil’in, a clear sign of the emotional and psychological despair: constantly in panic, Luma awakes in the middle of the night, sometimes in screams and tears, calling out for her father fearing that he has been abducted.

The injustices suffered by Bil’in residents and witnessed by many organizations for human rights and International and Israeli activists, are the most clear consequence of the oppression experienced by Palestinians because of the Israeli military occupation.

However their answer has become an example for all those who struggle for justice showing the way to follow and to support for the solution of the conflict.

Since 2005 residents of Bil’in responded in fact with a peaceful and non-violent resistance to the separation wall, that far from the Green line, snakes deeply inside the West Bank annexing 1,968 of 4,040 dunums of Bil’in lands, (196,68 hectares on 403,88).

Activists in Bil’in are only exerting their legitimate rights to defend their land against the arbitrariness of Israel, disregarding the International Court of Justice that five years ago condemned as illegal the construction of the wall inside the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), including in and around East Jerusalem, in violation of international obligations, intimating to Israel to stop the construction and to bring down the parts already built, terminating also the entire system of rigid restrictions on the freedom of movement of Palestinians in the West Bank since they represent a violation of human rights.

And also the Israeli High Court of Justice declared many times illegal the route of the wall in Bil’in, inviting the Israeli Government to actuate an alternative route: this invitation has of course been ignored while the Israeli settlements of Mod'in Ilit and Mattityahu continue to grow.

For all this, their Friday demonstrations have gained the solidarity of Israeli and International activists, united in the common need of justice and against the strangulation, the occupation and the apartheid. Together they oppose to the uprooting of olive trees replaced by the foundations of the wall, blocking the bulldozers  or preventing the installation of outposts of the Israeli settlements, still in expansion.      

The International Community must give more force to all those Palestinians, supported by Israeli activists (who represent the honour of Israel) and Internationals in the defence of their rights, pretending from Israel the end of the raids and the immediate release of all activists arreted – included Abeed Abu Rahme- as requested by the Campaign launched by the Popular Committee of Bil’in (on the website http://www.bilin-village.org/english/activities-and-support/Campaign-to-release-Palestinian-activist-arrested-in-Bil-in  the sample of letters of protest). It’s time also that the International Community demands with force and urgency to Israel to respect the International Court of Justice and to destroy the wall inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories, making reparation for all damage suffered by people affected by the wall, and to end military occupation, including all restriction of movement in the West Bank as well as the Siege that in Gaza, is collectively punishing over 1 million and a half of civilians.

* Journalist Yvonne Ridley and film-maker Aki Nawaz sailed to Gaza with the FGM on the first mission to break the siege in August 2008. Ridley was given a media award at the annual Muslim News awards. Her website is www.yvonneridley.org

During the first meeting held on Monday 8 May 2009 we had on board Dr Mohammad Odeh from UWE, head of the Arab Forum in Bristol which is going to be launched on the 17th of July in Bristol, this event will host many speakers and traditional Palestinian songs, food, music, and many other activities besides. Dr Odeh talked about the importance of public awareness regarding the history of Palestine, and the urgency to secure scholarships for Palestinian students to further their studies under horrific circumstances.

Another prominent participant in the twinning on behalf of the people working in the medical field was Dr Chris Burns-Cox (Retired NHS Consultant) who went on hunger strike in Egypt because he was banned along with others from entering Gaza to offer their help to the injured people in Gaza in urgent need of medical care. We have also the following personalities working on the twinning initiative:

Jeremy Clarke (Bristol Stop The War Coalition)

Rowland Dye, a teacher and a filmmaker who has done frequent visits to help Palestinians during the seasons of olive harvesting (Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign).

Owain Shearman (Public & Commercial Services Union – HMRC Bristol Taxes Branch)

Jane Collins (Twinning With Palestine)

Mohammad El-Haddad (UK Arabic Society)

Jo Benefield (Bristol Defend Asylum Seekers Campaign)

Artist Cliff Hanley (Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign)

Michelle Wren + 1 (Circus For Palestine) who has just returned from the West Bank where she was on a tour with the Circus and has brought back lots of feedback about Palestinian, children especially those with disabilities.

Lia Young (Bristol Quakers)

Carol Meghi – International Officer, UWE Unison Branch

Lisa Gunton (City Academy)

Paula, a teacher

Anthea Page (Dialect Radio)

Paulette North (City Academy & Bristol National Union of Teachers)

Iqbal Tamimi, an exiled Palestinian journalist and creator of online International Palestinian Mothers Network, member of NUJ branch of Bristol

Ruth Davey (Christian Aid)

Danyul Laskar (Bristol Muslim Cultural Society)

Alistair Oldham (Film Lecturer – UWE)

David Mowat  (Quaker & Musician)

And a number of students from Bristol schools

The following people sent their apologies:

Cllr Barbara Janke – Bristol City Council

Glen Burrowes (Rail Marine & Transport Union – Bristol Rail Branch)

Nella Stokes – City Of Bristol College

John Drake – South West Regional Secretary, Fire Brigades Union

Kevin Beazer – South West Regional Secretary, Communication Workers Union

Sakir Yildirim – participant in Viva Palestina! convoy

The following people were invited and since the meeting have confirmed an interest in the project:

Jon House – Deputy Chief Executive, Bristol City Council

Cllr Helen Holland – Bristol City Council

The next meeting will be on Monday July 6th at 1 pm, again in the Sunshine Room at Easton Community Centre, Kilburn Square, BS5 6AQ. We hope that many more people interested in twinning with Palestine will be present. Please feel free to join and invite anyone else who you think may be interested in the project

Jeremy Clarke introduced and chaired the meeting, stressing that what was being proposed was a project to build grass-roots links between groups and organisations in Bristol and similar groups and organisations in Palestine with the hope that eventually this may develop into some formal link between the city of Bristol and somewhere in Palestine. There followed a discussion among the attendees which demonstrated that there was considerable energy and enthusiasm for this project. There were suggestions that links should be attempted in a number of areas: 

Cultural – radio, film, performance

Education

Sport

Health & Medicine

Trade unions 

It was agreed that each of these would best be pursued through smaller meetings involving organisations and individuals interested in the specific areas. 

It was recognised that it was important to initially identify a place/area in Palestine with which links should be attempted. Suggestions made were Khan Younis (Gaza), Gaza City, Gaza Strip & Al Quds (East Jerusalem). After a hurried discussion towards the end of the meeting a vote was taken between Khan Younis & Al Quds with Gaza strip winning. To ensure an informed and accepted choice it will be necessary to re-visit this discussion at our next meeting. Proposers of each place/area have been asked to prepare a brief description of the place/area covering – location, population, industry/agriculture (if any), cultural organisations, educational organisations, any other relevant info.

It was recognised that after the next meeting it would be useful to set up a facility via the internet enabling those involved in the project to easily communicate with each other.

Those present undertook to report back to their groups/organisations and where possible to invite other interested groups/organisations to the next meeting. David Mowat said he would be reporting back to the Bristol Diocese (Church Of England).

Abdul Malik (Councillor) was thanked for his donation covering the costs of the meeting.

Media wise…and regarding Radio stations in Gaza:

There are 11 local radio stations in the 450 square meters Gaza, all of them are struggling to keep their services running under immensely difficult situation especially with the Israeli continuous siege that they can’t import any equipment or replace broken or consumed parts. In a joint effort they managed to create a Union for Palestinian Broadcasters due to the fact that the Palestinian Syndicate of journalists based in the West Bank is almost dormant with no elections since almost 10 years.

The radio stations are as follows:

1-      Alaqsa, providing news and social programs. The head of Alaqsa radio is Ibrahim Thaher, his e mail is daher_fm@hotmail.com and his mobile number is: 00970599333097 

2-      Alquds, (102.7 fm) providing news and social support, independent. Director is Saleh Suleiman El-Masry who is on the board of the Palestinian Union of Broadcasters. His mobile number is 00972599429810 and his e mail is: pin059@hotmail.com

3-      AlShaab, news (The national front to liberate Palestine).

4-      Almanar, (independent, owned by Talal Abu Rahmeh).

5-      AlEman, (independent) weak signal.

6-      Alburaq, (independent) weak signal.

7-      Gaza FM, (entertainment and songs).

8-      Furasn El-Erada, (aiming for the disabled) weak signal.

9-      Falasteen, (belongs to the government of Ramallah).

Osama Alkahlout 00970599852060 a young film producer proposed creating a training project named (The Centre of Free Media and Society Development), but it seems as though they got permission to go ahead by the Home Office of Ramallah, they could not open a bank account in Gaza to facilitate their charity project since there are orders from the PA not to open any bank accounts for charity establishments in Gaza, hence there is no way to handle the payments for licences. He said that trainees in media need equipment and training. There are media colleagues but the graduates hardly get any practical training, since every university have a maximum of 4 computer sets only and one Montage set for training in each.

Regarding newspapers, only two are printed in Gaza, one belongs to Hamas and another called Alistqlal belongs to Islamic Jihad. The rest of the newspapers like Alayyam, and Alquds are printed in the West Bank and distributed in Gaza.

The concrete and ambitious project we are proposing to everyone who shares our spirit is to take part in a work brigade in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in the south of Lebanon. Ein el-Hilweh is a real ghetto where the almost 100.000 Palestinians have been living for generations in a terrible situation.

We have engaged with our partners of Nashet, a youth association composed of both Palestinians living in the camp and Lebanese, in a wide task aimed at improving the condition of young people and families of the camp by means of a drop-out recovery program (school dropout is a dramatic problem in the camp) and professional education.

The first step requires the renovation of a building inside the camp – a building formerly used as an office by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and half-destroyed by Israeli rockets – to turn it into a place suited for the activities planned in the project.

Our role in this phase will be to help the renovation works by finding funds, but above all by the labour of our own hands. The latter activity has both a concrete and symbolical implication for us because we want to establish human relationships rather than bureaucratic nets.

In order to emphasize this aspect, the volunteers will be hosted by families of the camp, while meetings and other initiatives will be organized to get them in touch with the culture and society of the camp and the daily problems of its populace.

The work brigade will operate from August 19th to September 3rd. The final program will be released in some weeks but a first draft of the work brigade plan can be found here. If you wish to have a general idea of the place in which the Sumud work brigade will operate, you can glance at some of the pictures taken by our delegation and collected in this photo gallery.

Restoring the building presumes finding funds (€25.000). Sumud isn't an ONG, it isn't subsidized by state governments or by European Union or UNO. The money that will be used to erect the building destined for the political and cultural activities of Ein el-Hilweh Youth will be clean, they will not come from the same institutions that support or back aggression towards the Palestinian people. We will be able to reach the needed amount of money only if many people participate.

The costs of the airplane tickets are to be met by the volunteers, as are those of the stay (200-300€) which cannot be afforded by the very poor guest families.

All this has been discussed in detail and finally approved by the first assembly of SUMUD, held in Florence (Italy), on June 6th, 2009.
 www.antiimperialista.org/content/view/6163/50/
The directive committee of SUMUD
www.sumud.org/EN_index.htm

http://www.sumud.org/missioni-2009-foto.htm

British author Michael Palin at the Second Annual Palestine Festival of Literature

WRITTEN BY BRENDA HEARD: When Right Succumbs to Might

“The only democracy in the Middle East.”  It has become a cliché amongst supporters of Israel, a phrase as common with parliamentarians as it is with propagandists.  These supporters excuse themselves from turning a blind eye to Israeli violations of international law by claiming that they are not taking sides, but that they are defending the very principles of democracy.  They are ostensibly defending one of the basic tenets of democracy—the freedom of a people to think and speak for themselves.   

It boggles the mind, then, how one can explain away the recent actions of the so-called Israeli democracy.  On 23 May 2009, in a public display of ridicule, a dozen armed Israeli policemen entered the Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem and ordered the closure of the Second Annual Palestine Festival of Literature.

Although a full programme had been publicly announced on 16 April 2009, the Israeli Ministry of Internal Security waited until moments before the Festival opening to dictate that the “event could not be held because it was a political activity connected to the Palestinian Authority.”  Participants were ordered to leave and Israeli police were posted on the street outside.

The Palestine Festival of Literature, or “Palfest,” is an academic, literary event.  It aims to bring writers and artists from around the world to Palestinian audiences.  Part of a UK registered charity, Palfest is supported by UNESCO and the British Council, among others.  Palfest is the essence of transparency: its website offers minute detail of its organisational makeup.  A full list of literary participants can be found here.  A full festival programme can be found here.  Still photos here.  There is nothing devious afoot here, nothing to be construed as a threat to “Israeli internal security.”

Yet Palfest was forcefully and publicly snubbed.  Not to be undone, the Festival was by chance able to re-group at the nearby French Cultural Centre.  But not before the forces of Israeli “democracy” made their point.  As one participant described:

“The sight of the expelled participants and audience as we filed down East Jerusalem's main street, some people carrying dishes of canapes, to the new and hastily organised venue at the French Cultural Institute might have seemed merely odd or amusing. In fact, it was a vivid reminder of Israel's fear of anything which might suggest that Palestinians are as cultured, civilised and deserving of respect as their Israeli neighbours.”

This sort of action mocks the very foundations of democracy.  Yet we encounter such noble statements as the pledge of loyalty given by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 21 July 2008.  He stated that Britain was a true friend to Israel, one “who shares an unbreakable partnership based on shared values of liberty, democracy and justice.”  Many British citizens would beg to differ.  Watch the video below and ask yourself if the attitudes expressed are values you would share, values you would condemn the lives and liberties of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples to uphold.  (police enter the festival at approximately two minutes into the video.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJU7-9r-pVA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epalfest%2Eorg%2Fvideo%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

source: Friends of Lebanon