Thousands of people converged Thursday on the land of Safuria to mark the anniversary of the Nakba and to demonstrate for the right of return of the refugees. The crowd included mainly Palestinian citizens of Israel, and some Jewish citizens. Chants included "Long live Palestine," "Gaza is Palestinian and Golan is Syrian," and "We are all one people" invoking the West Bank, Gaza and Arab countries along with the people of the Galilee, and "The White House is the biggest terrorist." Some people released hundreds of black balloons into the sky to fly over the 60th Birthday of Israel celebrations and barbecues to remind them of those who were forced out 60 years ago.
Safuria was a town that was cleared of its residents and destroyed in 1948. It was larger than Nazareth at the time of its destruction. Many of the descendants of the former residents of Safuria now live in nearby Nazareth, while others fled to refugee camps in the West Bank and surrounding countries. The Jewish community that now lives on the land of Safuria is called Tsippuri. Each year for the last ten years, these Nakba commemoration demonstrations in the Galilee have been at the site of a different destroyed village.
When I left the demo, I saw riot police waiting across the street. However they seemed relaxed and simply there to make sure no confrontations took place with the Jewish people celebrating in the field on the other side. Then, the next morning, I saw this image of Member of Knesset Wasel Taha: I learned that after a couple hours of the demonstration, the police moved in, some on horseback, and attacked people with tear gas and sound bombs, brilliantly setting the fields on fire. My coworker was there with her small girls still at the time the police and army came into the crowd.
My older daughter was so afraid. She never wants to go again, though I told her no, the police are just trying to make us afraid. There were people with blood, and smoke and bombs and gas. We are not used to this and we didn't expect anything like it. There had been no problem- the police and the army came in and made the problem.
Six youth were arrested, and more were injured at the close of what was an otherwise peaceful demonstration attended by whole families with small children:
Blackwater disclosed that it engaged in 195 shootings since 2005, wherein its personnel shot first 84% of the time.
The security contractor Blackwater has been running loose in Iraq above the law and to the detriment of ordinary Iraqis. Amnesty International is calling for greater accountability in the contracting of such entities.
On September 16, 2007, private contractors working for the U.S.-based company Blackwater Worldwide shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians in streets near Nisour Square, Baghdad. The shootings occurred while Blackwater was under a contract with the U.S. State Department.
So pleased the government is with this excellent track record, it renewed Blackwater's contract.
It probably sounds like I am being a bit hyperbolic. The government takes no pride in such slaughter, right?
The State Department did conduct "investigations" -- probably so it could say it did -- but it also gave Blackwater contractors immunity for providing information about the shootings. "Just admit you did it, and we won't punish you... we'll even renew your contract."
(no really, it's better than the last one.) use whatever you want, just please write or fax something to:
Honorable Judge Gerald Lee U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia 401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314 Fax: (703) 299-3339
RE: The Unjust Imprisonment of Dr. Sami Al-Arian Your Honor,
I am writing to request that you restore some degree of integrity to the justice system of our country by releasing Dr. Sami Al-Arian in this month of April 2008. The plea agreement that was agreed to by both Dr. Al-Arian and the US Government in April of 2006 stipulated his release and expedited deportation on 11 April 2008. As you can see, this date has passed.
Dr. Al-Arian's case has made me lose a great deal of faith in the justice system of our country. It used to be the one branch of government that I was taught to believe was governed by principles. It turns out that this same justice system is willing to keep a man in prison for two and a half years after a jury of his peers failed to convict him of a single charge. It also kept him in prison, most of that time in cruel solitary confinement in a maximum security facility, before he was ever brought to trial. He was the lone pretrial detainee in that facility.
This is not the justice system that I grew up respecting. This is nothing more than a racially motivated abuse of justice for political ends.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have abused the grand jury process to keep Dr. Al-Arian detained more than a year beyond his original sentence. They continue to threaten further action with this latest court order seeking his testimony. This must not be permitted.
The plea agreement removed all standard language that would allow the government to pursue cooperation. Florida prosecutors have admitted, on the record, Dr. Al-Arian explicitly requested non-cooperation, and that they agreed to his request.
Dr. Al-Arian has been on a hunger strike since the 3rd of March. For the first 18 days, he abstained from both food and water. Since then, he has only taken water. He has lost 35 pounds and his life is in danger. His release is therefore requested not only on legal grounds, but humanitarian grounds as well.
The case of Dr. Sami Al-Arian has drawn international attention, and has dealt a severe blow to the United States of America’s domestic human rights record. Dr. Al-Arian is the most prominent political prisoner in the United States, and the only one currently on hunger strike. His release may restore some level of respect for our institutions in the world view, as well as at home. Only with the expedited release of Dr. Al-Arian can some measure of integrity be restored to our justice system.
Dr. Al-Arian's hunger strike continues; he has lost 34 pounds. Please contact the Attorney General:
Attorney General Michael Mukasey Department of Justice U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 Fax Number: (202) 307-6777 AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
To the Attorney General:
I am writing to request that you restore some degree of integrity to the justice system of our country by releasing Dr. Sami Al-Arian on 11 April 2008, as agreed to by both Dr. Al-Arian and the US Government in April of 2006.
Dr. Al-Arian's case has made me lose a great deal of faith in the justice system of our country. It used to be the one branch of government that I was taught to believe was governed by principles. It turns out that this same justice system is willing to keep a man in prison for two and a half years after a jury of his peers failed to convict him of a single charge.
This is not the justice system that I grew up respecting.
I demand that:
1. Dr. Al-Arian was promised release and expedited deportation in 2006. This must be honored immediately.
2. The Department of Justice must cease abusing it's power through continual grand jury subpoenas and new criminal charges.
3. Given Dr. Al-Arian's hunger strike, there are serious concerns about his health. He must be released and allowed to return to his family for humanitarian reasons.
4. Dr. Al-Arian's imprisonment, and the US Government's abuses of power, have come to the attention of the entire world. His release may restore some level of respect for our institutions in the world view, as well as at home.
PLEASE ALSO CONTACT
1. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration Field Office Vincent Archibeque Acting Field Office Director 2675 Prosperity Avenue Fairfax, VA. 22031 Phone: 703-285-6200
2. Honorable Judge Gerald Lee U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia 401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314 Fax: (703) 299-3339
UPDATE:
Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace April 12, 2008
Dr. Al-Arian Placed in Punitive Detention
VIRGINIA-- At 1 a.m. on Saturday, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was moved by hostile prison guards from a regular holding cell at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup, Maryland, to the "Special Housing Unit." The SHU is an extremely punitive and restrictive section of the prison where inmates are placed in solitary confinement 23 hours a day, usually in freezing temperatures.
Prisoners are normally moved there for violating prison rules. However, in the case of Dr. Al-Arian, he has always been placed there without reason or any explanation. In the SHU, prisoners are subjected to continuous, deafening alarm sounds and have little contact with the outside world. With no medical supervision, this is an extremely dangerous place for Dr. Al-Arian to be during his hunger strike, which is on its 41st day. Dr. Al-Arian was also held in solitary confinement for 37 months before and during his trial. This was a deliberate attempt by the government to break him down physically and psychologically and to prevent him from preparing for his trial.
Amnesty International has written several letters decrying the prison conditions of Dr. Al-Arian, calling his treatment "gratuitously punitive" and "inconsistent with international standards for humane treatment."
The Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace urges all conscientious individuals and organizations to contact the Howard County Detention Center and call for humane treatment of Dr. Al-Arian. We also call on media outlets to cover these abuses, which so far have received no attention.
TAKE ACTION
Call the Howard County Detention Center and ask that Dr. Al-Arian be removed from the Special Housing Unit, where he does not belong, and that the prison ensures he is given proper medical treatment during his hunger strike. The number is (410) 313-5200.
All of them! The Gazans and the Egyptian riot police underlings too!
The following account of the events in Mahalla has been circulating on listserves.
Intifada in Al Mahalla
A popular uprising has been taking place in Al Mahalla Al Kobra since April 6. Local residents, in the tens of thousands, took to the streets of this Nile Delta city in protest against price hikes, and in protest against the detention of more than 300 locals. With stone-throwing youth and Central Security Forces engaged in running street battles Al Mahalla has come to resemble the occupied Palestinian territories; and the protests in this city have come to resemble an intifada. Over 100 civilians and members of the security forces have been injured in clashes, and at least one civilian (a 15 year old boy) has been killed. Hundreds of CSF trucks have been deployed around the city and hundreds more within it. Upon approaching the outskirts of Al Mahalla on the night of April 7 one could clearly notice that the security forces were facing stiff resistance on the streets – because tens of these CSF trucks, which were stationed around the city, had their windshields smashed-in (despite the protective metal grids covering them.) Tear gas stings the eyes and irritates the respiratory system upon entering the city itself.
In the neighbourhood of Sekket Tanta black clad riot police were firing tear gas canisters at just about anybody on the streets – including women, children, and the elderly; other troops opened fire on protestors using shotgun shells filled with rubber-coated pellets. Yet CSF troops could not disperse the youth protestors on the streets of this neighborhood. Male teenagers, along with (a significant number of unemployed) youths in their early twenties were at the forefront of these clashes with the CSF. Youth rained stones down upon the security forces and hurled Molotov cocktails at them. Clashes in this neighborhood had subsided only after 11pm.
These youths chanted very expressive slogans against Hosni Mubarak, the government, and the interior ministry. Other protestors had destroyed photos and portraits of the Egyptian president that were found on the streets.
Every single resident of Al Mahalla, with whom I spoke, confirmed that the non-violent demonstrations against price increases on April 6 had turned violent only after security forces moved to forcefully disperse demonstrators. Thus a peaceful demonstration quickly turned into a violent expression of popular discontent. Public properties and private enterprises have been the targets of attacks – a microbus was set ablaze, while three schools were torched, and two branches of the local ful & falafel franchise Al-Baghl were partially destroyed. It could've been local youth protestors who were behind these acts, or it could very well be the doing of destructive elements deployed by the interior ministry - in order to serve as a pretext for further crackdowns, and/or to tarnish the image of the protestors.
One youth protestor said "I don't know who set fire to the three schools, or why they did so? But I think I understand the motives behind the burning of the microbus and the attack on the Al-Baghl Restaurants. The microbus was a state-owned vehicle, and thus a natural target for attack. As for Al-Baghl, I believe the restaurants were attacked due to popular discontent with rising food prices – only five years ago a ful or falafel sandwich at Al-Baghl cost 35 piasters, it now costs 65 piasters per sandwich."
Another youth protestor on the street asked a member of the riot police "when's the last time you had a bite to eat? The officers aren't feeding you poor folks are they?" Looking exhausted and being unable to leave his spot, he quietly replied "we haven't had anything to eat in nearly 24 hours."
The word used for 'bread' in Egypt literally translates to 'life'. Fitting?
Go to the 3arabawy blog for more updates and pictures from Mahalla.
There was a general strike called today all across Egypt to protest the inflation, corruption and general messedupedness in the country and the government's lack of concern - an Egyptian minister stated the other week that Egyptians can live on one pound and a half (less than 20 cents).
The leftist independent newspaper al-badeel claimed that this was the most widespread demonstration in egypt since the 1919 revolution (the 1952 revolution, whether one supports nasser or not, was executed as a coup). for those who can read Arabic, this blog gives blow by blow updates about the events of today.
As for me, I happened to have the honor of tasting the (desperate and pathetic) gangsterism of the regime today. I was walking past Tahrir Square on my way to AUC to meet up with friends and watch the events unfold, when I saw two other colleagues from AUC - Egyptian girls, standing in the middle of the square, chewing up pieces of `aish (egyptian wheat bread) and spitting the pieces out onto passing cars so as to demonstrate the pathetic nature of the situation with bread (see my previous post on bread in Egypt).
I call them the two Sara's and salute them for their courage in doing what they did. The general level of political awareness amongst spoiled AUC brats is pathetic, which makes the two all the more admirable. I came close to them so as to photograph and before I knew it, a bunch of plainclothes goons had grabbed us and dragged us all the way along the street, against our will into a waiting van (unmarked), while someone snatched my camera and the kuffiyeh I was wearing.
We were forced into a van that already had other people in it (all girls) and as soon as we filled it, they drove off to the outskirts of Cairo, yelling at us and threatening us along the way. I tried to use the American citizen card and one of the state security men told me he would throw me off a bridge. We arrived to Medinat al-Bu`uth in the outskirts of Cairo where there were other state security agents waiting for us and they started taking the information of everyone down.
One of the Egyptian women with us was crying hysterically - most of the people arrested had been onlookers or passers-by, news reports say that a lot of random arrests took place, not including the arrests of activists or demonstrators.
Some of the state security guys standing outside the van tried to provoke us by engaging in political discussion, chiding us for disrupting public order etc etc.
There was another guy playing the good cop who said ma`laysh this is our job, to which I responded being thugs is your job? They then made 4 of the women get down claiming they would drop them off somewhere else and drove back with me, Sara & Sara and 2 other women downtown.
We reached Maidan Abideen when they told me to get off. I had managed, from text messaging, to get the US embassy on the phone and it possibly made them want to get rid of me. The fact that they did not take us straight to a station or confiscate anything from us after loading us into the van seems to suggest that their orders were to drive us around for a while and drop each person off in a separate place. I did not want to leave with my friends at least, but they both told me to get off.
After some hesitation I decided to get off, but not before taking down the number of the van, which drove the ass-wipes wild ("you want to start again?"). I still am not sure whether my friends have been released - their mobile phones are off - which means they could have been released without the phones or be still held. If anyone knows anything about the two Sara's whereabouts, please let me know.
Journalists and activists I spoke to are telling me that they should most likely be released tonight or tomorrow morning early. And please, spread the news that Egypt is boiling under the lid of a pathetic, desperate, molding regime that will do anything, shamelessly, to stay in power. A regime that is scared of two people throwing breadcrumbs truly deserves to be called pathetic, especially given that it gets its breadcrumbs from the scraps of US aid.
Update: I just received word that my two friends are still being held, but doing OK.
Update at 2:39 AM: According to above-mentioned blog, both Sara's have been released. If anyone has any other information about other detainees please call the hotline of the blog: +20-118361000 or email 6april08@gmail.com.
It has been requested recently that letters urging Dr. Al-Arian's release be sent to Judge Gerald Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, to Attorney General Michael Mukasey and to congressional leaders.
Supporters are also being asked to write letters directly to Dr. Al-Arian.
Please write:
Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 (202) 307-6777 Fax askdoj@usdoj.gov
Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, DC 20530-0001
House Judiciary Chair: The Honorable John Conyers, Jr 2426 Rayburn Building Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-5126 (202) 225-0072 Fax john.conyers@mail.house.gov
Senate Judiciary Chair: Senator Patrick Leahy 433 Russell Senate Office Building United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 (202) 224-4242 senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
To contribute to Dr. Al-Arian's legal defense, please send checks to: National Liberty Fund P.O. Box 1211 24525 E. Welches Road Welches, OR 97067
Sunday is Yom al Ard, or Land Day, in Palestine and Israel. The activities held on the 30th of March each year mark the anniversary of protests in 1976 against the theft of Palestinian-owned land inside of Israel by the state. Six people were killed in the Galilee, and hundreds injured.
To my knowledge, not even the anniversary of the Nakba is recognized as popularly throughout the West Bank, Gaza and Israel as Land Day. The Nakba happened in 1948. Land Day is used to address the ongoing arbitrary confiscations of Palestinian property since that time, whether in Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza. For Land Day, demonstrations are organized in cities, towns, villages, and refugee camps throughout all of historic Palestine. They are especially pertinent in areas where new confiscations are taking place. This year, the focus is on Jaffa, where 500 families have been issued eviction notices before the neighborhood is razed to make way for Jewish development. (Notice the grounds for eviction: that the residents "invaded the properties." Many Jaffa residents are internally displaced persons who have been deprived once of their property, and were forced to take up residence in the homes of Palestinians who fled before them.)
Unrelated to Land Day, I would also like to bring your attention to this article on the assassination of the four men in Bethlehem a few weeks ago. I am sorry that I did not take a picture of their martyr poster when I had the chance. It shows the four, who are from different political factions, all standing together with weapons raised. I find it ironic, considering the way that they died: unarmed, sitting in a car waiting for their food order. As if the poster, like so many others, is an attempt to bestow some meaning on their deaths, which are no more than cold-blooded murders for which no investigation will ever take place and no justice will ever be served.
They did not even have the chance to move. Their bullet-ridden bodies were still sitting upright when passersby pulled them from the car.
It was the moral equivalent of a team of Palestinians, disguised as Israelis, driving an Israeli car into Tel Aviv and gunning down four off-duty Israeli soldiers.
I had the honor of attending the first annual Bay Area Arab Women's Conference this past Friday, March 14, in Mountain View, California. This event was organized by the Arab Cultural and Community Center of San Francisco and featured a diverse compilation of speakers and subject matters. Topics ranged from discussions on Arab women in the realm of politics, health, media, community activism, identity, and cultural expression.
Although the speakers all articulated themselves well and shared rich perspectives and vital information, I felt the heart of the conference came from the mere fact that Arab/Arab-American women gathered together in one room. This act alone garnered an overwhelming sense of solidarity, especially as every participant could identify with battling warp perspectives non-Arabs hold of Arab women, and the very personal struggles Arab women have in dealing with their own community.
Dr. Suad Amiry touched upon an element of these two struggles in her speech titled after her book, "No Sex in the City: The Generation of Secular Women in the PLO." Dr. Amiry expressed her frustration derived from the labeling of Arab women as either the subservient/oppressed type, or the overly emotional/mourning type. Those having such limited views of Arab women do a great injustice, as the contributions, lifestyles, and points-of-view of Arab women get overlooked. The exploration of these eclectic and unique differences among Arab women can give others great insight and understanding into a people often misunderstood.
Dr. Dina Ibrahim, in her talk about Arab women in the media, chimed into this subject as well. Her simple statement of how often people assume her to be "Mexican" or something other than Arab, as she doesn't fit the stereotypical look of an Arab (i.e., not wearing a hijab), emerged a powerful testament to the daily struggle of the Arab/Arab-American woman. The collective chuckle at the presumption of being an ethnicity other than Arab proved Dr. Ibrahim was not alone! I can most definitely relate, as can every one of my Arab cousins/friends.
The conference attendees also found unity when discussing issues plaguing women within the Arab/Arab-American community. Dr. Suad Amiry talked about her having to take great strides to conceal the identity of the women featured in her book, who spoke about their first loves, other romantic relationships, and their sex lives. These women feared "gossip" would construe as a result of their stories. Discussions related to health were also a cause of fear, which Dr. Sally Al-Daher and Nadiah Mshasha, MPH, reflected upon. For example, a result of the extensive survey they conducted on Arab/Arab-American women exposed that they tend to not conduct monthly breast exams as recommended by their gynecologists. The reason for this comes from being embarrassed to touch oneself; these acts are considered "aib," or shameful in Arabic.
Whether we discussed our strengths or areas of improvement, it felt empowering to have a forum focused on Arab/Arab-American women. Rarely does this outlet exist in the community, so being surrounded by women that could whole - heartedly empathize, relate, and most importantly, care - just felt good. I only hope this sort of momentum continues and escalates to an even grander, more encompassing scale in the future.
Some women in Saudi Arabia made a video of themselves driving on a main highway in the Kingdom. They then posted it on Youtube- 13 hours ago. CNN and BBC are mad Youtube savvy!
Across the desert (uh, literally, unless you rented a boat at the red sea and drifted north), a French national has been sentenced to three months in jail in Jordan for verbally insulting King Abdullah. I read about it here in the BBC.
In search of a more in depth story, I went to the Jordan Times homepage. Nothing! I even searched for French both today and last week. Not one word. Not a peep. The Saudi women have done something pretty cool as far as using media strategically as a tool for social change. The Jordan Times, well, you can read more about my frustration with the Jordan Times here.
I mentioned also in my previous posts slamming the Jordan Times that I expect better from them than to ignore abuses of fundamental human rights. The reason is this: the Jordan Times has actually done plenty in the past to bring about social change in Jordan precisely through its reporting. The Jordan Times was the first newspaper in Jordan to begin covering the trials of honor crimes perpetrators. Rana Husseini attended trial after trial to simply report in the newspaper about how crimes against women (mostly, sometimes men) go unpunished and are thus allowed to continue. Due almost entirely to her reporting, Jordanian society became appalled with the way the legal system was dealing with honor crimes (because really it isn't something that normal people can accept, no matter what you've heard about scary Arab men- honor killings also happen in Brazil, Italy, and in diverse societies all over the world), and things are actually changing. I have utmost respect for Rana Husseini and the Jordan Times for printing her work.
So, this is why the lack of reporting on abuses of Filipina workers in Jordan, and on this poor bastard who's gonna sit in jail for the next three months because of some words he spoke, frustrates me to no end.
Excuse all the British English spellings below. I will let it pass this time, but this time only (for the Americans reading this, they mix up their "s's" with z's, and add an extra u in some places).
For Immediate Release
*15th February 2008*
LSE Students' Union Demands Divestment from Israel
The London School of Economics Students' Union (LSESU) yesterday voted overwhelmingly to call on its university and the National Union of Students (NUS) to divest from companies that provide military and commercial support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, condemning the decades of human rights abuses and systematic oppression that has occurred as a result.
A motion, brought to the weekly Union General Meeting of more than 400 LSE students by the LSESU Palestine Society, resolved to lobby the LSE and NUS to divest from companies that provide military support for the Israeli occupation, facilitate the maintenance of the illegal "annexation" wall or operate on illegally occupied land or within Jewish only settlements. With a six to one margin, the Union voted to support the aim of targeted divestment until companies cease such practices or until Israel ends its discriminatory oppression and colonisation of Palestinian communities.
The Union also resolved to affiliate to the international campaign to end the siege on Gaza and engage in education campaigns to publicise more widely the injustices of Israel's discriminatory polices. This includes working with Palestine solidarity organisations such as Jews for Justice for Palestinians, the British Committee for Universities in Palestine (BRICUP), the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Zochrot and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), in a bid to end the legalised racial and religious discrimination in Israel.
This has been the result of much debate on LSE's campus over recent weeks, following an earlier motion which acknowledged growing public comparisons made between Apartheid South Africa and the legalised ethnic segregation that has been imposed for decades by the Israeli state. As such, the original proposed motion was amended to provide consensus across the Union in unequivocally condemning Israel's policy of ethnic segregation, with 339 students voting in favour of divestment compared to just 46 against.
Irene Calis of the LSESU Palestine Society stated: "This is an historic moment in the struggle for justice and peace for all citizens of the Middle-East. It is time for us to demand our universities divest and stop funding Palestinian oppression. By putting political and economic pressure on the Israeli state, the student movement can not only show continued solidarity with the Palestinian people, but also expedite the end of the Israeli occupation"
Emilano Huet-Vaughn, who spoke in favour of the motion added, "The resounding support for divestment after lengthy debate shows growing awareness of Israel's systematic discrimination against the Palestinian people and a disgust with the colonial settler regime in the West Bank, and the brutal siege of the Gaza Strip. As a result many LSE students of all backgrounds have voted to take a stand for justice, equality and human rights for all."
A US military invasion of Mosul is coming. US and Iraqi officials are saying Al-Qaeda re-grouped there after being driven from Baghdad.
This statement from individuals from around the world is calling attention to the likely outcome of such an attack -- more bloodshed and suffering. This war has been characterized by trade-offs in savagery. As an outsider, I have seen no compelling humanity or vision from either American military forces, their Iraqi allies, or any Iraqi or Arab insurgents.
Attacks like this are unlikely to help Iraq in the long run. They only seem to sow the seeds of future conflict. That is why foreign interventions like this do not work. They engender resentment.
Instead of fueling Iraq's economy and building is infrastructure, the US military focuses on what it is better at: killing and occupying. "For five years Mosul has been occupied by the US and the Iraqi military and still we have no electricity, no water. We have nothing," a journalist in Mosul said.
As the people of Mosul prepare for siege and continue to live in fear, I wonder if any will be appreciative.
An Emergency Statement of Intellectuals and Activists
No Attack on Mosul! Tue Feb 5, 2008
Bush´s failure in Iraq requires a new "success". While the blood-soaked US occupation in Iraq declares one victory after another sincenearly five years, it stages massacre after massacre of the people ofIraq.
Now the occupation declares a new "decisive" success is imminent, this time against the population of Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq. Its pretext is always the same: to eradicate "Al-Qaeda", while Al-Qaeda from its mouth means Sunnis, Baathists, Arabs and all patriotic Iraqis.
Although the occupation has on many occasions declared its victory, the fact that it needs to attack yet again an entire city and its population proves that it couldn´t and cannot eradicate the legal resistance of the Iraqi people. The only thing decisive is that the occupation by its tactics announces its defeat.
The occupation has escalated its air bombing campaigns by 400 per cent [1] in the past year and openly promises more indiscriminate attacks on populated urban areas. It uses disproportionate force indiscriminately against civilian populations in a pattern of actions that constitutes genocide under international law.
The imminent attack on Mosul - another urbicide following the ones of holy Najaf, martyred Fallujah, Al-Qaim, Tel Afar, Haditha, and whole neighbourhoods of Baghdad, among others - will only result, as with its precedents, in horrific killings, destruction and mass population displacement, thereby changing the historical, sociological and demographic makeup of the city.
This imminent attack is a pre-announced genocide. It is blood, death and destruction for oil. As the spreading of the resistance to Southern and Northern provinces proves, this new attack is in vain. The Iraqi people rejects - and will always reject - the criminal US occupation.
This imminent attack should raise condemnation, disgust and protest from peace loving people and human rights defenders worldwide. Five years of destruction and death should have taught the Bush administration that its litany of killing serves no purpose and leads only to moral suicide for the United States.
Humanity is in distress in Iraq. Our role and duty is to save it.
Act to stop the massacre in Mosul!
5 February 2008
Abdul Ilah Albayaty, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee - Iraq / France. Hana Al Bayaty, coordinator, Iraqi International Initiative on refugees - Iraq / Egypt. Margarita Papandreou, Former First Lady of Greece, Peace activist and honorary president of Center for Research and Action on Peace - Greece. Dr. Saadallah Al-Fathi, former head of the Energy Studies Department at OPEC - Iraq. Prof. Em. François Houtart, Director of the Tricontinental Center - Cetri, co-founder of the World Social Forum. Sara Flounders, Co-Director, International Action Center. Dr. James E. Jennings, PhD, President Conscience International - USA. David Swanson, Co-Founder AfterDowningStreet coalition - USA. Dr. Gerri Haynes, past president, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Kirkland, Washington. Dr. Hassan Aydinli, President, Committee for the Defence of the Iraqi Turkmens´ Rights. Niloufer Bhagwat, Vice President of Indian Lawyers Association - Mumbai / India. Dr. Curtis F.J. Doebbler, International Human Rights Lawyer - USA. Karen Parker, Attorney, Association of Humanitarian Lawyers - USA. Prof. Kazashi Nobuo, Faculty of Letters, Kobe University, NO DU Hiroshima Project - Japan. Carlos Varea, Coordinator of CEOSI - Spanish Campaign against Occupation and for the Sovereignty of Iraq - Spain. Marion Küpker, International Coordinator against nuclear-and uranium weapons for GAAA and DFG-VK, Germany. Dr. Ian Douglas, editor and correspondent for the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly and visiting professor in the Department of Political Science at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine. Dr. Imad Khadduri, former nuclear scientist - Iraq. Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee, Coordinator SOS Iraq. John Catalinotto, International Action Center - USA. Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, M.D., Anti-war activist, speaker, Global Exchange - Iraq / USA. Merry Fitzgerald, Committee for the Defence of the Iraqi Turkmens´ Rights. Michael Parenti, Author and scholar - USA. Prof. Em. Edward S. Herman, writer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Dr. Imad Khadduri, former nuclear scientist - Iraq. Prof. Stephen Soldz, Director, Center for Research, Evaluation, and Program Development Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice - USA. Prof. Em. Gideon Polya, retired senior biochemist, author: biochemical scientific publications and global avoidable mortality - Australia. Prof. David Miller, Professor of Sociology at Strathclyde University, co-founder of Spinwatch - UK. Prof. Paola Manduca, Geneticist, University of Genoa, Newweapons working group - Italy. Prof. Glen D. Lawrence, Long Island University, USA. Prof. Dr. Jean Bricmont, scientist, specialist in theoretical physics, U.C. Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium. Prof. Stephen Eric Bronner, Professor of political science, Rutgers University - USA. Dr. Thomas M. Fasy, MD PhD, Clinical Associate Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine - USA. Dr. Pol De Vos, Tropical Institute Antwerp, chair, Stop USA - Peace movement, Belgium. Anne Burns, U.S. Academics For Peace / Conscience International - USA.
David Peterson, writer and researcher, Chicago, USA. Comaguer, Anti-war Committee Marseille - France. Sarah Meyer, Independent researcher living in Sussex - UK. Cynthia Banas, Iraq Peace Team member, 2002-2003. Ludo De Brabander, chair, Vrede - Peace Movement, Belgium. Hans Lammerant, chair, Vredesactie - Peace movement, Belgium. Frank Vercruyssen, Actor, TG Stan - Belgium. Karen Hoover, USA. Frans Dumortier / Charles Ducal, Poet - Belgium. Suror Merza
Media Credit: DTH/Nicolas Gullett The Iron Sheik, a Palestinian-American writer, activist and hip-hop artist performs in the Great Hall on Saturday.
The culmination of Palestine Week at UNC wasn't a keynote address by a renowned politician and wasn't a lecture by a tenured professor in the history department. It wasn't even a vigil marked by a candlelit Polk Place.
But the event's organizers and performers would argue "Hip-Hop for Palestine," a concert that took place Saturday night in the Great Hall, was perhaps the best way to tie the week's events together.
One performer who hoped to prove that notion was Jacob Winterstein, a 21-year-old senior at Temple University. When he took the stage, Winterstein, born and raised Jewish, elicited powerful emotional responses from a crowd of more than 100 people.
"I like to provoke people," Winterstein said. "I hope I'll say something tonight that makes someone mad or happy or want to start a conversation about the issues."
Winterstein's performance poetry, he said, is the one way he believes he can best make his voice heard on issues such as Israel's oft-disputed occupation of Palestine, which was the focal point of Palestine Week.
"Please don't be indifferent," he said. "I want the end of these three minutes to be the reason for something else to begin."
And Winterstein, like all of Saturday's performers, said hip-hop is a dynamic and relevant method of both bringing specific issues to the attention of students and encouraging them to explore activism in general.
"When you add things like rhythm, rhyme, metaphors, analogies, intonation and speed, people hear things differently than if you tell it to them in a conversational way," he said.
That theory seemed to ring true, as the crowd collectively nodded, groaned and applauded with approval after powerful moments during Winterstein's performance.
But content is just as important as delivery, and Tarik Kazaleh, aka Excentrik, who also performed, followed a different path in compiling his message.
Kazaleh, a Palestinian brought up as an Eastern Orthodox Christian in the Bay area of California, said performers must be careful when dealing with issues pertaining to religion and ethnicity.
"I'm a savage secularist," he said. "If you're an extreme religious person, get out of my face."
So instead, Kazaleh said he relates events from his past in the context of his personal theology.
"It can be hard to fit in when you're automatically some kind of terrorist Arab," he said. "It's like a tub of those big Legos, and you're the Lincoln Log that got in there and doesn't belong."
But Kazaleh didn't pretend to conform to political correctness, and his set was interspersed with chants such as "Bye bye Bush" and "Oh! Bama! Oh! Bama!"
The last performer, Kevin James, aka Son of Nun, was perhaps the most effective in ensuring the continuation of discussions about the occupation of Palestine and the United States' role therein.
James stood in the middle of the crowd for his entire set, rapping about issues including the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips gang, and Hurricane Katrina, in addition to the situation in Palestine.
And James said he thinks both Saturday's show and the week as a whole were effective in encouraging further discussion of the role of U.S. foreign policy in Palestine .
"From what I've heard about the week this far, it's resulted in people taking sides on Palestinian issues," he said. "People are learning what their opinions should be because they've seen these issues addressed in this way."
-- Bennett Campbell, Daily Tar Heel University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2/4/08
Today marks the first day of Palestine Week at UNC. As May 2007 graduates of the University and teachers in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestine, we write to invite you to the week's events.
While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is immensely complicated, the organizers of Palestine Week have tried to make it as accessible as possible. The Tuesday program "Israel and Palestine for Beginners" is specifically tailored for that purpose. Students have the opportunity Wednesday to hear firsthand accounts of what it's like in Palestine from Tar Heels who have visited.
Living and working here for five months has been an exercise in trying to make sense of what's going on around us. We are regularly perplexed by the stories we hear and the experiences we have. Given this opportunity, we feel obligated to share them.
When we asked our ninth-grade students to write an essay about important events in their lives, we didn't expect to receive the stories we did. We knew that Israel has held the West Bank under military occupation for 40 years, but what exactly does that mean?
It means some of our students have never swam in the Mediterranean, despite being able to see it from West Bank hilltops.
It means many of our students are prohibited from using Israel's airport, only 30 miles away, and instead must travel four hours to the airport in Amman, Jordan.
It means some of our students have not left the West Bank in years because, despite living on their own land, the Israeli government would bar their re-entry.
It means one of our students could visit her sister undergoing chemotherapy in Jerusalem only twice over many months because she needed a permit from the Israeli government to do so.
It means our students, only 13 and 14 years old, have written about running away from Israeli soldiers and tanks.
It means Christina, the best friend of one of our students, was beaten by Israeli soldiers because she tried to go around a military checkpoint while running late to school. The ambulance taking her to a Jerusalem hospital was delayed at the same checkpoint.
Christina was dead on arrival.
We fully acknowledge that Palestinians have no monopoly on suffering and that the suffering of the Jewish people throughout history is virtually unparalleled. But like the Jewish academic Norman Finkelstein, we're wary of using past atrocities to justify current ones. To present a few statistics, the ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed in 2007 is 373 to 13. The ratio of prisoners held by each side is 10,000 to 1. The ratio of homes demolished as a part of official government policy is 18,000 to 0.
With the exception of these extraordinary living conditions, our students are hardly different from American high school students. They are talkative, rambunctious and eager to get away with anything they possibly can.
Coincidentally, four of them were born in North Carolina. Two were recently admitted to MIT and Duke University. All of them have taken English since first grade. Our ninth-graders are reading "The Diary of Anne Frank," and students in the International Baccalaureate program read Shakespeare and "Wuthering Heights." A group of seniors recently produced its own cinematic version of "Romeo and Juliet," set in Palestine. You can view its trailer by searching "In Fair Palestine" on YouTube.
These stories might not fit with the image of Palestine you had in mind, as they certainly did not when we first heard them. To learn more, take advantage of Palestine Week and take advantage of us. Send us an e-mail, and check out our blog and pictures. If you're ever in the neighborhood, let us know. As fellow Tar Heels, it would be our pleasure to host you.
AMMAN (Reuters) - George Habash, the founder of a radical movement that staged hijackings and kidnappings to highlight the Palestinian struggle, died in Jordan on Saturday, Palestinian officials said. He was 80.
Habash founded the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1968. A refugee from fighting which broke out over the creation of Israel in 1948 in British-ruled Palestine, he lived in exile and succumbed to a heart condition in a hospital in Amman, the officials said.
Scores of supporters thronged the hospital to offer their condolences to his wife Hilda and his two daughters.
"We will all carry the banner of Habash and the Arab nation he dearly cherished. Habash always believed Palestine would be liberated," Hilda Habash told Reuters.
She said Habash, who was hospitalised five days ago, was until the last hours of his life following events in the Palestinian territories and deeply moved by the humanitarian plight of Gazans who are under an Israeli blockade.
"He lived for his people and died for his people," she said.
