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Monthly Archives: March 2012

Commemorating Palestinian Land Day in Jordan – by Tighe Barry

31 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in Global March and April in Palestine

≈ 1 Comment

http://gm2j.com/main/blog/2012/04/01/commemorating-palestinian-land-day-in-jordan/

Saturday, 31 March 2012 / by Tighe Barry, Common Dreams
On March 30, 2012, hundreds of demonstrations took place across the globe in commemoration of Palestinian Land Day. This important day in the history of the Palestinian people is a sorrowful reminder of the six Palestinians who were killed by Israeli forces in 1976 while protesting the continued confiscation of their land.

Generation after generation, Palestinians continue to call for an end to the brutal Israeli military occupation and the right to return to their lands. The continued ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem has resulted in a massive outcry and demonstrations worldwide.

Today people from around the world came together in a massive orchestrated effort known as the Global March to Jerusalem (GM2J), timed to coincide with Land Day. Marches took place in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Italy, Korea, all over the United States, and in many more locations. A peaceful movement, the Global March to Jerusalem is a people-powered action designed to assert the importance of Jerusalem politically, culturally, and religiously to the Palestinian people and humanity as a whole.

I had the privilege of participating in one of those protests in Amman, Jordan.This issue is of particular concern in Jordan because it has the world’s largest concentration of Palestinian refugees. Nearly 65 percent of the country’s population are of Palestinian origin.

Throughout the day, throngs of Jordanian Palestinians were joined by tens of thousands of Jordanian supporters, as well as those from around the world. Many came from as far away as Malaysia, Indonesia, Canada, Europe and the United States. We all came together, tens of thousands, on a dusty plain on the furthest end of the Jordan Valley overlooking occupied Palestine. We were a sea of peaceful protesters calling for a free Jerusalem for all and for a return of stolen Palestinian land.

Although we could all see the occupied territories, the Israelis would not let us cross the border. Hundreds of Jordanian police and military personnel, along with dozens of tanks and police cars, made sure the crowd stayed about a mile away. So close yet so far.

Groups of youth, not satisfied with being kept away from the border, tried to test the limits. They moved back and forth along the police lines, trying to find a way through. But the authorities would have none of it, and after many rounds of police pushing back and protesters running, the civil disobedience ended in peaceful chanting, singing and dancing.

The explosion of color in an otherwise amber hued surrounding was amazing. Waves of undulating flags, keffiyehs, balloons and kites filled the area. Many handmade signs claiming the injustices of 60 years of occupation abounded. Face painting was the mode of the day for the young children and teens. All this provided an almost celebratory background to an otherwise mournful event commemorating the ongoing suffering in the Palestinian people.

Palestinian dignitaries gave powerful speeches, and the organizers called on representatives from around the world to share their thoughts. The representatives from South Africa conjured up memories of the racist Apartheid system that Israel is mirroring today. Those from India spoke of the Ghandian peaceful protests to overthrow British rule, calling on the world to recognize this same form of civil disobedience, including the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement being used by the Palestinian civil society today.

But the speech that would spoke directly to me was the American, Michael Rabb. He reminded us about the similarities between the Palestinian struggle and the civil rights movement of the 60’s in our own country. He spoke of Martin Luther King, Mississippi and the long struggle to free a people who had long been promised justice only to be denied equal rights for over a hundred years.

As a representative from the United States, I gave interviews to the press and denounced the $3 billion dollars that the U.S. government sends to Israel every year to prop up its repressive military, while here at home our sick lack healthcare and our youth can’t afford a college education.

This is a day I will never forget. I was touched by the extraordinary power of a people in resistance for so many decades. One day, they will cross this border and enter a Free Jerusalem and a Free Palestine. I hope I can walk with them.

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The Global March to Jerusalem: a view from Qalandia, West Bank

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in Global March and April in Palestine

≈ 5 Comments

Qalandia town and refugee camp, home to a notorious checkpoint separating Jerusalem from the northern West Bank, has a somewhat scary reputation as a place where the “shebab” (young guys with over-active throwing arms) are likely to chuck stones in the direction of the soldiers/ police—no matter what their elders might ask of them—thereby giving their “targets”, although far out of throwing range, the excuse they’d be looking for to move from the merely unpleasant (“skunk water”, tear gas, the generation of ear-splitting [at least for the under-thirty majority] noise, and the occasional “sound bomb”)  to the injurious and potentially lethal – rubber-coated steel pellets euphemistically referred to as “rubber bullets” and live ammunition.  That’s where the March 30 Global March to Jerusalem (GFM2J) events for the Ramallah-area were scheduled to take place, and Ramallah was where I had decided to participate in the GM2J.

I arrived in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning (the 28th) and passed through passport control with none of the difficulties I’d imagined I might encounter due to the fact of my name having appeared as representing IJV-Canada on the March on at least four websites (well, five, if you count my own), not all of them friendly. Maybe the Shabak (Israeli secret police) don’t read all our internal communications, after all . . .)  After spending the day visiting and e-mailing and sleeping, I ventured to enter Ramallah on Thursday.  Again my apprehensions–“They’ll stop me at the check point and discover that I hold Israeli as well as Canadian citizenship and will either fine me for attempting to enter the forbidden-to-Israelis “Area A”  or (far more likely) refuse me entry, at least until after the March”–were misplaced.  In fact, the Palestinian bus I was riding in wasn’t even checked (apparently the common practice at that checkpoint, in that direction these days) and in I went..

The ISM media office /apartment where I was scheduled to spend the next couple of weeks being inundated with visiting activists, I got to stay, at least for a couple of days, with Neta Golan and her young and growing family (pictures in a future post, I promise).

There is no ISM (International Solidarity Movement) group as such in Ramallah, but for the GM2J-related demonstration today, about a dozen ISMers and friends of the ISM descended on the apartment that houses the ISM Media Office here from West Bank cities as far north as Nablus and Jenin and as far south as Hebron. The preparation meeting last night was well-run and extremely helpful, and included nonjudgemental self-evaluation of our “level of comfort” with proposed roles in the demonstration, pairing up with “buddies” to watch out for each other at the demo, formation of small affinity groups, and a role-play of “dearresting” of self and others, including tips on “best practices” from a couple of the more experienced activists (I’m talking about folks with months of residence in West Bank hotspots and multiple demos). I left that meeting much reassured, despite Qalandia’s reputation as a “hot spot” and history of wounded demonstrators.

In short supply, however—both at that meeting and as far as I could see, at the demonstration itself—were significant numbers of internationals, on a scale even minimally comparable to the many thousands who were expected to converge on the states bordering the Palestinian territories for the GM2J events; e.g., in Lebanon, Jordan, and possibly Syria. I don’t know what the situation was at other sites in the West Bank (not to mention Gaza), but Rana and I from Canada and a former ISMer from Scotland who was there on other business–and of course the dozen or so folks camped at the ISM office–were the only ones in evidence at Qalandia Refugee Camp today after noon-time prayers.

I haven’t yet heard or read detailed accounts of the other demonstrations, but the fact that only one fatality has so far been reported (despite multiple woundings, many of them at Qalandia) suggests that perhaps a combination of the numbers of internationals and the high media profile the multinational reporting generated for the GMJ may indeed have had the desired effect of making it safer for the Palestinian demonstrators.

Nonetheless, the dearth of internationals at Qalandia was a disappointment. Another disheartening aspect of today’s demonstration—besides this and the perhaps predictable period of stone-throwing by the abovementioned over-exuberant shebab (admonitions from Abdullah Abu Rahmah from Bil’in, and perhaps others, to stop notwithstanding), which led to the predictable response—was a fight witnessed by one of my seat-mates in the service-taxi back to Ramallah, between members of rival Palestinian factions over who would lead the march toward the checkpoint, in which an ambulance was damaged and its patient beaten (rumour has it that the patient in question was Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, leader of one of the “warring” factions). This blog on the independent 972 Magazine site (http://972mag.com/land-day-at-qalandia-falls-flat/39695/) captures the feel of the demo at Qalandia accurately, at least as it felt to me.

My personal experience, by contrast, was a pleasant surprise. I had an attentive and reassuring “buddy” in the person of an experienced ISM organizer. I learned (also from her) that alcohol-impregnated hand-sanitizer wipes combined with a bandana or (in my case) a doubled-over T-shirt over one’s nose provided amazingly effective protection from the ultra-irritating form of teargas used in recent years (imagine mixing “regular” tear gas with pepper spray and you about have it); and to my surprise, repeat exposures seemed to have a decreasing effect on me (or maybe the wind-aided fast dispersal of the gas was just doing its job), and I didn’t break and run. Maybe—just maybe-I might even chance the Friday the thirteenth demo that will cap the upcoming Bil’in International Conference (April 10 – 13); or maybe I’ll just pay another visit to Beit Ummar and hope this time to experience one of their purportedly stone-throwing-free demos.

Meanwhile, for an overview of Qalandia and some other demonsrations today, check out http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Land-Day and http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/03/201233018384736481.html

And this video clip from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/thousands-protest-israel-gaza-man-killed-122/2012/03/30/gIQArKjplS_video.html

The rest of my Qalandia photos are at https://picasaweb.google.com/maxinekaufmanlacusta3/GM2JAtQalandia?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLPG9dL4h7Hv7gE&feat=directlink

Dorothy Naor of New Profile sent the following links:

BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17560066

The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2012/mar/30/land-day-protests-israel-palestine

France24 http://www.france24.com/en/20120330-palestine-protest-israel-land-day-jordan-lebanon-gaza-hamas

LA Times http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/03/palestinians-and-israeli-soldiers-clash-amid-heightened-border-tension.html

NYTimes http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/world/middleeast/palestinians-protest-land-seizure-and-control-of-jerusalem.html?_r=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/world/middleeast/palestinians-protest-land-seizure-and-control-
of-jerusalem.html?_r=1&ref=global-home>&ref=global-home

Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israeli-forces-deploy-for-palestinian-protests-
demonstrations-at-borders/2012/03/30/gIQA1dI4kS_story.html

Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/03/201233018384736481.html

Haaretz http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/one-palestinian-protester-killed-dozens-arrested-and-injured-in-idf-clashes-on-land-day-1.421742

Ynet http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4210306,00.html

Jslm Post http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=264164

Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=264164

2 TO READ ONLINE:  <http://bit.ly/LandDay2012> http://bit.ly/LandDay2012

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Female Rabbi Supports the Global March to Jerusalem

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in Actions, Updates from Activists and Activist Groups

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http://gm2j.com/main/blog/2012/03/28/female-rabbi-supports-global-march-to-jerusalem/

Wednesday, 28 March 2012 / PNN – Rabbi Lynn Gottleib, has served congregations in the United States for 37 years, is one of the first eight women to become a Rabbi in Jewish history, and has been a Palestine solidarity activist for over 40 years. She spoke to PNN about the importance of justice in Palestine and her hopes for the future of the region.

She currently lives in the Community of Living Traditions, a multi-faith residential community about 40 miles from New York City. In her own words it is a place “where Muslims, Christians, and Jews live together to study and practice non-violence in our own traditions, and to struggle for justice in the world.”

“We train activists in solidarity work… we run a conference centre together and we also offer people different kinds of programs, such as the art of resistance, [and] interfaith dialogues of action: once you begin your dialogue then what, what do you do then? We have special areas of interest such as justice for incarcerated people, and advocating human rights.”

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Gottleib said “for me this is not a symmetrical conflict. This is a conflict between occupied and occupier. I love every person: every human being has a right to freedom of movement, has a right to live in their home without the fear of their home being destroyed, has a right to do process of law, and has a right not to have their land confiscated. So when I look at the conflict I look at it from that perspective: how to end the occupation.”

Gottleib has been involved in the Global March to Jerusalem, which takes place on Friday in cities across the world, in Jerusalem, and along Israel’s borders. “This is one of many opportunities to make a public statement about the need to end occupation, to bring down the wall, to uphold international standards of human rights, and to respect the dignity of humanity by stepping back from militarism on the Israeli side.”

Skeptics have expressed worries that the march could turn violent, and the Israeli government has condemned the protest. “I think this is one step in many steps and it’s impossible to know when the massive efforts of several generations will bear fruit, but one can’t stop acting because you don’t know when it’s going to bear fruit, you have to keep acting on behalf of the current generation and next generations. I’ve heard stories now not only from my own people about the Holocaust and so forth, but also from Palestinians who have experienced the Nakba, the Naksa, and the first intifada, the second intifada and so forth. I feel that at this point in time there is growing awareness from many people that we have to create global solidarity for an end to occupation, and inshallah we will see the fruits in our lifetime. ”

On her status as one of the first eight [female] rabbis in Jewish history, Gottlieb remarked: “it was somewhat of a struggle, but history was ready for us when we finally came.” The first woman rabbi Regina Jonis was ordained in Germany in 1935, and perished at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. “History was ready for us. And I hope that history is ready for Muslims, Christians, and Jews; Israelis, both Jewish and 1948-ers, and Palestinians. I hope history is ready for us to finally live together in peace and in justice.”

In a closing comment Gottleib expressed her wish that more people would put their prejudices about Palestine to one side and visit the region without fear: “I would like to call on my Jewish brothers and sisters not to be afraid and to come visit beautiful Palestine. I have been coming here for so many years and have found so much hospitality, and grace and beauty.” She added “we really can’t let fear determine how we act towards each other. We have to trust in each other and try to create a situation where we can live in freedom together, so come visit.” —

Sarah Marusek
Social Science Doctoral Candidate
Maxwell School of Syracuse University

Associate, Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies
American University of Beirut

Beirut mobile 71 631 947

http://amiddleeastblog.blogspot.com

Freedom for Palestine and Jerusalem for Us All

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Exclusive Excerpt: Miko Peled’s ‘The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine’

25 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in Books of Interest

≈ 1 Comment

from Mondoweiss

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/03/exclusive-excerpt-miko-peleds-the-generals-son-journey-of-an-israeli-in-palestine.html

March 9, 2012

Exclusive Excerpt: Miko Peled’s ‘The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine’

by Helena Cobban

Miko Peled is a Jewish Israeli, born in 1961 into the heart of the Zionist establishment in Jerusalem… who has traveled a long, long way since then. Three years ago, Miko started work on a memoir of the transformative journey he has taken in the course of his life; and this week, we received the first advance copies of his amazing, intimate, and thought-provoking memoir The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine. My company, Just World Books, has been proud to work with Miko to bring his important memoir-writing project to completion.

To me, Miko’s book has many of the same qualities as My Traitor’s Heart

– for full review, please click on Mondoweiss link above –

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Windows / Shababik / Halonot – Channels for Communication

22 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in Actions

≈ Leave a comment

Another address for alternative tours of the West Bank and more – Windows: Channels for communication,  a trilingual site, a bilingual youth magazine, a joint organization with offices in Ramallah and Tel Aviv and centres in various locations in the West Bank and Palestinian and Jewish communities inside Israel. Windows / Shababik / Halonot strives towards “a future based on justice in the forms of ending occupation, ending discrimination and ending violations of human rights.”

 

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Israelis in Palestine: Part 1

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in First-person accounts

≈ Leave a comment

http://bethlehemblogger.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/israelis-in-palestine-part-1/

Check this out – I just subscribed -(there’s a Part II, too)
Maxine

“The other day I realized I have never actually been to the West Bank in my entire life. However, I doubt I would be welcome with open arms. There are many enraged Palestinians. Not that I blame them” . . .

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Nurit Peled-Elhanan on civil disobedience

20 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in Actions, Updates from Activists and Activist Groups

≈ 1 Comment

http://kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=52050

Civil Disobedience

By: Nurit Peled-Elhanan
10 March 2012

Speech at Beit Omar

I would like to dedicate my words to the memory of a five-year-old boy, Milad, the nephew of Wael Salame, one of the founders of the Combatants for Peace movement, who perished in a burning bus at the Adam settlement junction. The residents of the settlement did not send a rescue team and they refused to send ambulances. Nobody has brought them to justice for that. Nobody judged them and nobody arrested them. The land-thieves indifference to pre-school children burning to death at the gates of their home did not become the main headline in any newspaper or news broadcast. The reason is that racist behaviour of Israelis is not `news`. Rather it has been the norm for sixty years and more. Israels children are educated to it. We have all been educated to it at school, at home, in the youth movements, in literature and theatre, art and music. The more than twenty racist laws that were passed last year with hardly any opposition except that of their victims did not strike us like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky. Those laws are the most callous Establishment expression of the norms that have been in effect in this place for four generations now. Already in 1948 the poet Natan Alterman was decrying the Hebrew publics apathy in the face of delicate incidents for which the true name, incidentally, is murder. The present Israeli Knesset merely ripped the disguise off the face of the State when it made its repeated declarations that there will be no more pretending.

For decades now the Zionist project of colonizing the land and judaizing it has required the removal of the Palestinians one way or another, either by law or by the sword, and there is no longer any need to cover up those supreme objectives and to disguise them with empty words about democracy or security or historic rights. All of us are mobilized, willingly or unknowingly, in the project of the judaization of the land and all of us have memorized, since we began to memorize, the absolute necessity of a Jewish state with a Jewish majority in the Land of Israel. And the Land of Israel, as we all know, includes the State of Israel, the Palestinian territories and a lot more. There is no map in Israel that is called The State of Israel. All the maps are called The Land of Israel. Already three or four generations of Israeli children have been learning from books that contain maps that show the Palestinian territories as part of the Land of Israel which is devoid of colour, empty of institutions and empty of people ; an ancient area that is waiting and longing to be colonized by Jews or at least by non-Arabs. Israeli children have been learning for generations now that their neighbours whether they be Palestinian citizens of Israel or subjects of the State of Israel stripped of human rights are nothing but a terrifying demographic problem and a security threat. Those very children have meanwhile grown up, their senses of truth and justice and human brotherhood have been dulled by racist education and they have risen to be the politicians and generals who now declare openly and with the arrogance of all-powerful masters what was once concealed with hypocrisy: that the other face of the judaization project is the elimination of the Palestinian people, whether by rubber bullets or by bullets without rubber, by bombs or by laws: As the fundamental principle of Jewish Kibbutzim states: Every member of the community is required to contribute to the Zionist project according to his or her ability, as needed. In recent years the Judaization project has taken on more momentum than ever before, mainly due to the undisguised and unrestrained support of the United States and rich countries in Europe.

In 2009 the Russell Tribunal on Palestine was established in order to demand that the countries of Europe stop being partners in crime with the Occupation state and thereby perhaps avoid a Third World War. In October 2011 the Tribunal, which had symbolically convened in Cape Town, ruled that Israel has established an institutionalised regime of domination amounting to apartheid as defined under international law. Israel is discriminating against and eliminating an entire nation on racial grounds in a systematic and institutionalized way, and therefore all collaboration with Israel should cease.

The legal definition of apartheid is a situation in which 3 components are present: 1) Two separate racial groups can be identified; 2) acts of inhumanity are committed by the ruling group against the subject group, and 3) Those acts are committed in a systematic way, with an institutionalized administration in which one of the groups is ruled over by the other.
The Tribunal heard testimony on acts that constitute acts of inhumanity towards the Palestinian people by the Israeli authorities:

Control of their lives by military means.

Arbitrary imprisonment and protracted illegal administrative detentions.

Violations of human rights that negate their right to participate in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.

The Palestinian refugees are prevented from returning to their homes, and the laws of Israel facilitate the confiscation of their property and the denial of their human rights.

The civil and political rights of the Palestinians are denied or arbitrarily restricted.

Since 1948 Israel has maintained a policy of Occupation and colonization and accordingly of the expropriation of Palestinian land.

The siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip, as a collective punishment of the civilian population of the area.

Attacking civilians by means of large-scale military operations.

The destruction of the homes of civilians without any security justification.

The grave harm caused to the civilian population by the Separation Wall in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem

The forcible evacuation of and destruction of houses in unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev.

Continuing practices of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Various forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including restrictions on movement that subject Palestinians to humiliation by Israeli soldiers and Palestinian women being forced to give birth at checkpoints, and house demolitions as a form of inhuman and degrading treatment with severe psychological consequences for men, women and children.

The entire Israeli legal system establishes an enormous gap between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, with legislation typically designed to favour Israeli Jews and keep Palestinian Arabs in a situation of inferiority.

All the foregoing are defined by the Tribunal as crimes against humanity. And the Tribunal further found that unlike the overt legislation that was passed in South Africa, Israeli law is characterized by the ambiguity and inaccessibility of many laws, military orders and regulations. But we know that all the laws and regulations of the State of Israel, be they ambiguous or clear, are intended to change the face of this place from a beautiful and fertile Middle Eastern country, a land of green hills, pomegranates and olives, to a monstrous conglomerate of supposedly Western housing developments, built in the image of their residents: ugly and brutal, their sole objective being to cover with asphalt, steel and concrete all the hills that have long withstood the tests of time. The only way to fight this tendency is through a blanket rejection of the racist laws of the democratic Jewish state, and especially to teach our children of their democratic right to say no to evil, no to ignorance, no to apartheid, no to service in the Occupation army and no to collaboration with ethnic cleansing.

We must reject the very term Jewish and democratic state and especially, remove the conjunction and, which is not merely a conjunction but a sequential and that is: Jewish comes first, and only afterwards comes democratic or an and of conditionality, i.e. only when the state is completely Jewish can it be democratic.

Meanwhile we are living in a state that has absolutely nothing to do with democracy. We who have not grown up with democracy and whom no one taught the values of democracy, who have been educated to think that exploitation, plunder, lies, discrimination and slaughter are the very essence of democracy, need to admit openly that we are living and have always lived in an apartheid state that is a danger to all of us. A state that educates its boys and girls to unlimited violence and indifference to the agonies of children trapped in a burning bus. If we do not do this, then we ourselves will turn into the settlers from Adam, we will become those who flung the wounded Omar Abu Jariban by the side of a road to die of thirst, and we too will be thrust into the category of war criminals.

If we do not raise the banner of rebellion today, in a few more years people like us if we remain like as such will be herded into detention camps or prisons. The freedom of speech that already now is dangerously restricted will be eliminated altogether, and then, as Sami Chetrit wrote: the poet will no longer versify, he will no longer sing, he wont even chirp.

In conclusion, an anecdote: When Archbishop Desmond Tutu took the podium to welcome the Russell Tribunal to Cape Town, the chairman Pierre Galand announced that under the regulations of the Tribunal, there was to be no applause. Tutu, calling for an exception to be made to permit applause for the Tribunals honourary Chairman Stיphane Hessel, turned to the audience with a smile and said, it is because we disobeyed laws like this one` that South Africans have come as far as they have. Let us hope that we too can get that far.

Translated from Hebrew for Occupation Magazine by George Malent

 

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From the Rachel Corrie Foundation in Olympia, WA: Rachel Corrie – Nine Years Later

16 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in Updates from Activists and Activist Groups

≈ 1 Comment

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Spring Newsletter
Cindy and craig Corrie:
On the 9th Anniversary of Rachel’s Stand in Gaza
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.Dear Friends,

It has been nine years today since our daughter Rachel was crushed to death under an Israeli driven, U.S. funded and built, Caterpillar D9 bulldozer in Gaza. In March 2003, the news was full of talk of war with Iraq – a preemptive war to protect the west, particularly the U.S. and Israel, from the weapons of mass destruction then alleged to have been amassed by Saddam Hussein. When Rachel traveled to Gaza that year, the world was not watching. According to Human Rights Watch, from September 2000 until September 2004, 1,600 Palestinian homes in the city of Rafah were destroyed by the Israeli military as it occupied the Gaza Strip. One-tenth of the population lost their homes. Rachel chose to be in Gaza when the ground attack against Iraq broke out. She feared an escalation of the violence and a tightening of the isolation against people there, as the world looked to the northeast and watched the carnage in Iraq. It did not happen as immediately as some expected, but with the Israeli military attack on Gaza of November 2008 through January 2009, the violence became overwhelming, and the tightening of the seige initiated in 2006 by Israel to remove Hamas, made the isolation nearly complete.

In 2003, Rachel wrote: “I went to a rally a few days ago in Khan Younis in solidarity with the people of Iraq. Many analogies were made about the continuing suffering of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation and the upcoming occupation of Iraq by the United States – not the war itself – but the certain aftermath of the war. If people aren’t already thinking about the consequences of this war for the people of the entire region then I hope they will start.”

Now, in 2012, we listen to similar news – calls for bombing Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. The preemptive war has already begun with the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. Our government tells us sanctions against Iran will pressure their government to abandon any program to develop these weapons, but experience tells us sanctions only increase the defensiveness of repressive regimes and tighten their control over their populations.

The news from our politicians is discouraging and even frightening, but in the meeting places and streets in our communities, we are making the kind of change that Rachel envisioned. It is happening in Olympia with continuing support for the Olympia Food Co-op’s boycott of Israeli products until the rights of Palestinians are addressed. Throughout Puget Sound this week, we have successfully challenged efforts by the Israeli government to use members of the Israeli gay community to distract from the continuing oppression of Palestinian people. Churches in our region are conversing about divestment from corporations like Caterpillar Inc. for their refusal to address their continuing participation in human rights abuses and the illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

In 2002, Rachel wrote, “I think it’s important for people who oppose war and repression to speak about who we are as a community in addition to speaking about war and racism and injustice. We are not outside. I think it’s important that human rights and resistance to oppression be included in the way we define ourselves as a community…” As the threat of war with Iran, the disintegration of the situation in Afghanistan, and the bombing of Gaza continue, the work we are all doing cindy-aipac-small.jpgin our hometowns at the grassroots level is powerful and critical. Today, as we remember Rachel’s stand nine years ago, we encourage our friends across the country and world to strengthen your own communities, educate, educate, educate, support each other in taking action, and walk with peace, love, and forgiveness in your hearts as you work for change.

Cindy and Craig Corrie

March 16, 2012

Nine years later:
Rachel’s Reach
We are so honored and amazed at the numerous requests we receive from people throughout the world wanting to honor Rachel’s stand on March 16th and beyond. Here are a just a few ways her memory lives on:

  • Here in Olympia we are continuing our annual memorial tradition with a community gathering entitled
    “Gaza On My Mind’ with a potluck, speakers who have recently traveled to Gaza, music and dancing. Details here.
  • In Washington D.C., Ray McGovern, retired CIA officer, will be holding a poster of Rachel Corrie and speaking at a before-the-White-House noon-time prayer and reflection on Friday the 16th.
  • In Iowa, the Des Moines Catholic Worker has dedicated one of their homes the ‘Rachel Corrie House’ and is now actively working to start up and maintain a year-round presence in occupied Palestine by sending one community member every three months to the Middle East to volunteer with the nonviolent protective accompaniment organization that Rachel worked for, the International Solidarity Movement.
  • In Wisconsin, the Madison Rafah Sister City Project is holding it’s annual Rachel Corrie Commemorative Benefit Dinner to fund a water filtration system for the Al-Shuka Girls Preparatory School in Rafah, Palestine.
  • In Tokat and Sakarya, Turkey they are continuing the ‘International Day of Conscience” that began in Rachel’s memory with events and a demonstration, carrying posters of Rachel, against all occupations.

Please send us an e-mail at info@rachelcorriefoundation.org to let us know what you are doing in Rachel’s memory.

boycott, divestment, sanctions:
Legal Victory
On February 27th a Washington State judge dismissed the case against current and former board members of the Olympia Food Co-op for their decision to boycott Israeli goods, calling the lawsuit a SLAPP – Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation. To a full courtroom of Co-op supporters he said that he would award the defendants attorneys’ fees, costs, and sanctions. “We are pleased the Court found this case to be what it is – an attempt to chill free speech on a matter of public concern. This sends a message to those trying to silence support of Palestinian human rights to think twice before they bring a lawsuit,” said Maria LaHood, a senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights.court-room-small.jpg

» Read full press release from the Center for Constitutional Rights and visit their case page for the details.
» Read full press releasefrom Olympia BDS.

[…]

Rachel Corrie Foundation For Peace and Justice | 203 East Fourth Ave., Suite 307 | Olympia | WA | 98501

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP IN KEEPING RACHEL’S MEMORY ALIVE AND FOR SUPPORTING OUR EFFORTS TO CONTINUE THE WORK THAT SHE BEGAN.

Rachel Corrie - Interview
Rachel speaks in Gaza two days before her death.

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Please support the Rachel Corrie Foundation with your tax deductible contribution!

IN THIS ISSUE…Cindy and Craig Corrie:
On the 9th Anniversary of Rachel’s Stand in Gaza

Nine Year’s Later:
Rachel’s Reach
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions:
Legal Victory

WE ARE HIRING…
The Rachel Corrie Foundation is accepting applications for our Office Management Position. Applications are due on April 2nd. Check out the job description with details on how to apply here.
Thank You!
Find us on Facebook View our photos on flickr Follow us on Twitter View our videos on YouTube

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“I can’t take part in these crimes”: Israeli refusenik interviewed

15 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in First-person accounts, Updates from Activists and Activist Groups

≈ 1 Comment

“I cant take part in these crimes”: Israeli refusenik interviewed
Jillian Kestler-D’Amours
The Electronic Intifada
14 March 2012

Noam Gur holds a copy of her public statement saying she will reject military conscription.

(Oren Ziv / ActiveStills)

Earlier this week, 18-year-old Israeli Noam Gur publicly announced her intention to refuse mandatory service in the Israeli army. Set to be drafted next month on 16 April, Gur stated in an open letter: I refuse to take part in the Israeli army because I refuse to join an army that has, since it was established, been engaged in dominating another nation, in plundering and terrorizing a civilian population that is under its control (I refuse to join an army that has, since it was established, been engaged in dominating another nation: An interview with Israeli refuser Noam Gur, Mondoweiss, 12 March 2012).

The Electronic Intifada contributor Jillian Kestler-DAmours spoke with Gur about what influenced her decision to refuse military service, what the response has been so far and what she wants other young Israelis to know about the realities of serving in the Israeli army.

Jillian Kestler-DAmours: Why have you decided to refuse your military service?

Noam Gur: Israel, since it was established, is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, from the Nakba [the forced
displacement of 750,000 Palestinians in 1947-48] until today. We see this in the last massacre in Gaza, we see this in the everyday life of Palestinians under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, and we see this in Palestinians living inside Israel in how theyre being treated.

I dont think that I belong in this place. I dont think I can personally take part in these crimes and I think that we have to criticize this institution, these crimes and go out publicly saying that we will not serve in the army as long as it occupies other people.

JKD: That leads to another question, which is why did you decide to publicly state your refusal, instead of as Israelis who get out of their military service often do using some other kind of excuse?

NG: Ten years ago, there was a huge movement of refuseniks and in the last two or three years, its kind of disappeared. Im the only refusenik this year, so for me it was trying to let people know that it still exists, first of all.

Second of all, I dont want to be silent. I feel like [since] high school, weve always been silent. We always let our criticism be known only in small circles. The world doesnt know, Palestinians dont know. I dont know if it will change anything, but I can only try. I feel better with myself knowing that I tried to make even the smallest change.

JKD: Did your family or upbringing have any influence on your decision to refuse military service?

NG: My parents are really not political. Both of my parents went to the army. My father took part in the first Lebanon war and was injured there. My mom, the same thing. My big sister was in the border police. My story was that I would finish high school and I would go to the army. That was the path for me.

I guess from the age of 15, I started to take an interest in the Nakba of 1948. I started reading and seeing the whole picture. I dont know really why, but it just kind of happened. Then later, I started reading testimonies from the West Bank by Palestinians and former soldiers. I started to have Palestinian friends, and then eventually taking part in protests in the West Bank and seeing whats going on through my own eyes.

At the age of 16, I decided I wouldnt serve in the army.

JKD: What reaction have you received after you publicly announced your refusal?

NG: My parents are really not supportive. I guess my mom knows and my dad knows that they dont have an option to resist [my refusal] because its my opinion and Im 18 years old. I did not remain in contact with most of my friends from high school; most of them went to the army.

I received a lot of good feedback in the last few days, but also Ive received really not friendly comments.

JKD: How have the negative comments made you feel?

NG: Its made me feel that I should keep on with what Im doing. Most of the comments made me feel even if they were bad and not supportive, really made me see that its the right thing to do because Im following what I believe in. Its what I think is right, and I dont really care what other people might have to say about it.

JKD: What will happen when you formally submit your refusal to serve?

NG: On 16 April, I will have to be in the recruiting center in Ramat Gan. I will go in and I will have to declare that Im refusing. I will stay there for a few hours and then later I will be sentenced, for [between] a week to a month. I will serve my time in one of the womens jails; then I will be released. When I’m released, I will have to go again to Ramat Gan. Again, [I will receive] a judgment from [between] a week to a month, and this will continue until the army decides to stop.

JKD: What needs to change within Israeli society for more young people to refuse their military service?

NG: Im not sure if its possible. I think were at a place of no return. I really do think that if we want to change anything in the Israeli society, the pressure needs to be really, really strong from outside. Thats why I support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions call. Its really going to be hard to change it from within. I think its kind of impossible.

JKD: What would you say to other 18-year-old Israelis who are about to start their military service?

NG: I think its important that everyone look into what they are doing. I think that most of the 18-year-olds, from my personal experience, dont really know what theyre going into. They dont really know whats going on in [the West Bank and Gaza Strip]. The only way they will see Palestinians for the first time will be once they’re soldiers.

It will be a really smart move to start, before getting enlisted to the army, to see whats really going on. Try to realize, talk to people its not that scary. Try to read what people have to say. I think its really important to see what youre going into.

Jillian Kestler-DAmours is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Jerusalem. More of her work can be found at http://jkdamours.com/.

 

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Global March to Jerusalem Condemns Criminal Israeli Assassinations of Gaza Civilians

13 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta in Actions

≈ Leave a comment

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Statement from the Global March to Jerusalem Concerning Criminal Israeli Assassinations of Gaza Civilians

Just as defending and liberating Jerusalem are the duties of free people around the world, so is defending the safety and livelihoods of Palestinians throughout occupied Palestine. On March 9, the Israeli occupation army began their latest series of illegal assassinations of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. We, the Global March to Jerusalem, condemn the Zionist campaign of killing Palestinian citizens and imprisoning the Palestinians of Gaza in an open-air prison, just as we condemn the continued occupation of Palestinian land and the intentional destruction and Judaisation of Jerusalem, as well as all of historic Palestine.

In less than three weeks, history will be made when thousands of Palestinians and supporters from around the world march together. In light of the continued ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem and the latest bloody attacks on the Palestinians of Gaza, now more than ever, in solidarity with Palestinians, we call on all people to join Palestinians and supporters: on March 30, 2012, we will march to Jerusalem or to the nearest possible points in neighboring countries to protest Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing. We demand access to Jerusalem for all peoples; to uphold Palestinian rights under international law, including all refugees’ right of return; and the end to Israeli attacks on the Palestinians of Gaza.

The International Executive Committee of the Global March to Jerusalem [. .
.]
For information about GMJ- North America visit www.gmj-na.org
Contact us by email at organize@gmj-na.org or call +1 510-244-3518.
Contact media team at media@gmj-na.org

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Pelham Meeting (Quakers in Niagara)

Information from Quakers in Niagara

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Outposted blog, memoir, creative non-fiction

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Michael Redhead Champagne

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Coordinating Quaker Efforts to Bring Peace and Justice to Palestinians and Israelis

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We Are Palestine: The Faces, People and Dreams!

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A Letter to Canadian Jews Thinking About Their Vote

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Camp News & Registration Site

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Let's raise the issue, but lower the temperature.

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Just another WordPress.com site

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Supporting nonviolent resistance to the occupation: a blog of Christian Peacemakers Teams in Palestine

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...working together to promote justice for Palestinians.

A Mosaic For Peace

this blog will describe my journey as an Ecumenical Accompanier with the World Council of Church's Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel from September to December 2011, from February to April 2013, and my volunteer work with the Hebron International Resources Network in 2014 and 2015

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Author, tutor and campaigner

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Accompaniment in Palestine and Israel

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A Blog by Rabbi Brant Rosen

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Quaker, educationalist, linguist, mum, cook, swimmer and human rights activist.

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The struggle for justice in Palestine-Israel

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