UMD Students for Justice in Palestine

Summer Reading List

2011-07-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Take the opportunity of summer break to get informed on the history, politics, and situation in Palestine. Knowledge is power. Here are some recommended readings:

Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide
By Ben White

A great place to start. A short book of about 100 pages, it includes a glossary of important terms, a list of resources for more info, and an FAQ section that responds to points that people frequently make in debates.

One fact I learned from this book: During the second intifada in 2000, the IDF fired 1.3 bullets before there was any violence from Palestinians. According to scholar Derek Gregory: "The IDF responded with astonishing violence; no Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians until November, but by October Israel had already deployed high-velocity bullets, helicopter gunships, tanks, and missiles against the Palestinian population."

Popular Resistance in Palestine

By Mazin B. Qumsiyeh

How many times have you heard people say that the Palestinians would be better off if only they would resort to non-violent tactics? If only there was a "Palestinian Gandhi"? This book chronicles decades of non-violent resistance in Palestine.

One fact I learned from this book: During a period of 12 months starting in 1987, there were 2,882 documented instances of popular resistance (demonstrations, strikes, petitions, etc) by Palestinians. No Israeli soldiers were killed during this time but 204 Palestinians, mostly children, were killed.

The Lemon Tree

By Sandy Tolan

If you're looking for something more readable and less dry than a politics or history book, this is the perfect book. Although it is a non-fiction book, it reads like a novel and gives you a good overview of historical events over the past century while following the personal story of two individuals. You won't notice you're learning.

One fact I learned from this book: In 1977, the Sunday Times of London published a detailed investigation of "allegations of systematic torture by Israel of Arab prisoners... Torture is organized so methodically that it cannot be dismissed as a handful of 'rogue cops' exceeding orders. It is systematic. It appears to be sanctioned at some level as deliberate policy." By 1985, after 18 years of occupation, about 40% of Palestinian men had been to jail.

The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy

By John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt

Why should Americans care about Israel/Palestine? Our government is funding the Occupation as the Israel Lobby has an unchallenged grip on Congress. Learn about it so that you can change it.

One fact I learned from this book: Israel receives more aid from the U.S. than any other country in the world; it evens receives more aid than the entire continent of Africa. The vast majority of this aid is in military aid and it amounts to around $8.2 million a day to Israel.

Third Annual Palestinian Solidarity Week 2011!!

2011-04-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

Please note recent room changes for some events

Hey everyone! If you haven't been here before, welcome to the UMD Students for Justice in Palestine blog :) I hope you are all pumped for Palestinian Solidarity Week! We are busy prepping for the week, bringing in speakers and artists to help portray various aspects of the conflict. All events are free and open to the student body and public community. Come with open ears and respectful, curious questions!

PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY WEEK 2011:

Monday, April 11th:

The Wall Must Fall (Hornbake Plaza, 9am - 4pm), come see a representation of the Apartheid Wall that encompasses and cuts through the West Bank.

AND

"Eyes on Gaza" (Shoemaker 2102, 6-8pm)

Julia Hurley is at the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights (AAPER). The AAPER mission is to (a) educate Americans about Palestine and (b) lobby for an equitable U.S. policy toward Palestine. To help educate Americans about Palestine, Julia Hurley is conducting several speaking engagements across the United States. She will be speaking on her time spent in the West Bank and Gaza, her experiences in Palestine, and her current work on behalf of Palestinian human rights.

Tuesday, April 12th:

A Piece Is No Peace (1208 Eaton Theater in Knight Hall, 6-8pm)

Yousef Munayyer [the Palestine Center] and Noura Erakat [Legal Advocacy Coordinator for Badil Resource Center for Palestinian and Refugee Rights] will speak about "Apartheid", the Jewish National Fund, and the so-called "peace process".

Wednesday, April 13th: Co-sponsored with Jewish Voice for Peace DC Metro Chapter

This Time We Went Too Far (JMZ 0220, 6-8pm)

Speaker: NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

Norman Finkelstein has just completed a new book, This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion (OR Book April 2010). Finkelstein is a controversial scholar who has written extensively on Israel and its role in the Middle East. His new book examines the Israeli invasion of Gaza of December 2008-January 2009. Drawing on the numerous reports and studies in the wake of that invasion he challenges its defenders, analyzes why Israel launched it, and assesses its lasting implications.

Thursday, April 14th:

Poetry Fest: We Will Not Be Silent (JMZ0105, 6-8pm)
A Palestinian Poetry Night featuring Remi Kanazi

Friday, April 15th:

"My Name is Rachel Corrie" (Prince George Room, Stamp Student Union, 6-8pm)

A play based on the diary of American Activist Rachel Corrie, who died when she was 24 years old. She died defending a Palestinian home as it was being bulldozed by the Israeli Defense Forces. Her story is told all over the United States through a play.

Co-sponsored by:

The Organization of Arab Students, The Muslim Students' Association, Muslim Women of Maryland, Community Roots, Terpoets, MedLife, Students for a Democratic Society, Jewish Voice for Peace DC Metro Chapter and The Nyumburu Cultural Center

We hope to see you all there!! For questions, email us at umdsjp@gmail.com.

In Solidarity,

UMD SJP

Wikileaks related to Palestine

2010-12-01T07:53:00.000-08:00

So most of you know that the wikileaks website is currently down. (even after Amazon hosted it!)
A lot of the information listed below are Wikileak the Jerusalem Fund reposted. Please let me know if you have screen shots/links back etc.
-------

Top 10 Wikileaks Palestine Nuggets

By Yousef

This post will focus on the most recent leaks as they relate to Palestine, and below are 10 of the more interesting passages relating to Palestine, the Palestinians and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Note that quotes in the text below are from the documents themselves, which may be paraphrased summaries of conversations and are not necessarily verbatim. There is very little here that should come as a surprise to those closely following the international relations of the Middle East and the politics around Palestine. These documents do, however, provide interesting context and color to these relations that were previously unavailable. Since this seems to be the first part of a large document dump by Wikileaks, I will update this post or create another one as the information becomes available.

#1. Qatar's Prime Minister met with Senator John Kerry and discussed a variety of issues including Qatar's views on the Palestinian issue. At the time, the Prime Minister suggested proximity talks which were ongoing between the Israelis and Palestinians would waste time - in his estimate 4-6 months. He also emphasized that negotiations without Hamas are unlikely to be fruitful since the "Palestinian Authority (PA) cannot sign off on an agreement on behalf of the Palestinians where open divisions exist." To no one's surprise, Qatar's PM was not keen on the role Egypt has been playing in the region. Egypt, which has "no end game" in mind when it comes to brokering Hamas-Fatah reconciliation talks, is like a doctor relying on only one patient for business: "the physician is going to keep the patient alive but in the hospital for as long as possible."

#2. Egypt's head of General Intelligence Omar Suleiman would provide little evidence to suggest the Qatari leader's criticism of their biased brokering was untrue. In a conversation with U.S. General Patreaus he stated that "Egypt's three primary objectives with the Palestinians were to maintain calm in Gaza, undermine Hamas, and build popular support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. " Suleiman also stated that Egypt would continue to be committed to Palestinian reconciliation. "It is hard," he said, "but I am always optimistic. I consider myself a patient man, but I am loosing [sic] patience."

#3. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) just before becoming prime minister again and forming the current Israeli coalition government. When describing "his approach to 'economic peace' with the Palestinians, Netanyahu suggested he would cut through bureaucratic obstacles to Palestinian economic development to build a 'pyramid' from the 'bottom up' that would strengthen the Palestinian Authority, and offer the Palestinians a viable alternative to radicalism." He also indicated he wasn't interested in a sovereign Palestinian state emerging in the West Bank, but rather "an agreement over territory,settlements and 'refined' Palestinian sovereignty without an army or control over air space and borders." Further evidence of Netanyahu's stance, which he states is not unlike Livni's, is described in a cable about a meeting between Netanyahu and a Congressional Delegation (CODEL) in late April 2009. He states "A Palestinian state must be demilitarized, without control over its air space and electro-magnetic field, and without the power to enter into treaties or control its borders. Netanyahu concluded that he and opposition leader Tzipi Livni 'only disagree about the name,' i.e. the two-state solution."

#4. An Israeli assessment of Palestinian leadership: "Of particular interest throughout the meetings was the subject of the Palestinian political situation. It was widely agreed that President Abbas is currently in a weakened political state, and Israeli officials generally cast a dour assessment of Abbas's future. In one exchange, Amos Gilad stated his opinion that Abbas will not survive politically past the year 2011. Gilad further stated that Abbas is facing unprecedented criticism within the Palestinian Authority over his handling of the Goldstone report, and that this, coupled with a stubborn HAMAS, has weakened Abbas considerably. The Israelis said the perception in the Arab world was that the U.S. had encouraged Abbas to take difficult positions on Goldstone and settlements only to walk away from him. ASD Vershbow queried Gilad over measures that could be taken to bolster Abbas. Gilad responded by stating that Israeli-Palestinian peace discussions need to be resumed immediately, but without preconditions, and that both parties need to seek further cooperation on a range of issues -- specifically on the security sector front. Gilad expressed optimism over the current atmosphere in the West Bank, citing improvements in the security and economic spheres, and further stated that the reduced Israeli Defense Force (IDF) footprint in the West Bank has made conditions ripe for advancing the relationship."

#5. This cable, from a 2007 meeting between U.S. Congressmen and Netanyahu, sheds light on Netanayhu's strategy vis-a-vis Hamas and Fatah: "Netanyahu said Abbas was a 'nice man who means well,' but he added that Israel and the U.S. should focus on 'bringing down Hamas' through an 'economic squeeze'...Netanyahu predicted that Palestinians would vote for Abbas if they believe that he can deliver the money. He suggested putting in place an 'economic squeeze with an address,' so that Hamas would receive the popular blame."

#6. Israel-PA consultations before Israeli assault on Gaza? According to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in this cable: "the GOI had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas. Not surprisingly, Barak said, the GOI received negative answers from both."

#7. Europeans, particularly the French, are not pleased with their role in peace process: "A sense of frustration and ambition informs the French approach toward the Middle East peace process: they are frustrated that they must rely on the USG and on stubborn parties in the region to end a conflict whose persistence adversely affects their national interests, and they are ambitious to play a larger role in the peace process, in order to facilitate a successful outcome and to enjoy the prestige that such a role would earn them. As a case in point, last week Kouchner had to cancel a planned visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in part because of the continuing tension there, and in part because of Israel's refusal to allow him to visit a French hospital in Gaza."

#8. Germans suggested using Goldstone Reports at UNSC as leverage over Israel's policy of home demolition: "Heusgen said that Germany 'perceives this differently' and thought Netanyahu needed 'to do more' in order bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table. With Palestinians in East Jerusalem getting notices from Israeli authorities that their houses will be destroyed, it would be 'suicide' for President Abbas to move under the current circumstances. Heusgen said he could not fathom why Netanyahu did not understand this. He suggested pressuring Netanyahu by linking favorable UNSC treatment of the Goldstone Report to Israel committing to a complete stop in settlement activity. Gordon said that making a direct linkage between the two would almost certainly be counterproductive, but agreed that it was worth pointing out to the Israelis that their policy on settlements was making it difficult for their friends to hold the line in the UNSC. Heusgen said this certainly would be an issue when Netanyahu and 'half of his cabinet' visit Berlin on November 30 for bilateral government consultations."

#9. UAE reaction to Hamas 06 election victory: The UAE 'felt the Muslim Brotherhood rally behind Hamas' after its electoral victory in the Palestinian territories, and that the Hamas victory should be a lesson to the West. UAE Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid sounded a note of optimism when he told Secretary Rice February 23 that Hamas, 'with some pressure,' would understand the need to respect the will of the international community."

#10. Israel loves cooperation with PA: Amos Gilad "noted that Israeli-PA security and economic cooperation in the West Bank continues to improve as Jenin and Nablus flourish, and described Palestinian security forces as the 'good guys.'"

UPDATE:

Bonus #11. French President Sarkozy "called Prime Minister Netanyahu directly on October 26, to urge him to establish an independent investigation into the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces in the Gaza conflict. Sarkozy told Netanyahu that such a step would decrease pressure on Israel and its allies stemming from the Goldstone Report, but Netanyahu responded briskly: "No way." This preceded an Israeli-French strategic dialogue which included significant discussion about the peace process. The French and the Israelis did not see eye to eye and this made an Israeli official to describe "Franco-Israeli discussions on the status of the peace process itself resembled a 'conversation of the deaf'."

American bribe to Israel

2010-11-30T09:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-an-american-bribe-that-stinks-of-appeasement-2139101.html

3 billion to Israel to obey international law just for 90 days?
That is 3 billion that can be used to help Americans climb out of the recession or to protect U.S. Troops overseas. More importantly, appeasement to a nation that has been widely condemned for its unlawful settlement into Palestinian land makes no sense. Paying someone 3 billion to follow the rules? Also, bowing down to the special interests of a foreign nation while condemning corruption in countries across the world seems a little hypocritical to me. How can you expect two nations to be at peace if you pay one with 3 billion in the form of military aid while 46 % of the other country's citizenry does not have enough food to eat. The money could be used a lot more wisely. Actions like these will prolong the road to peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Pictures of our members at the Free Palestine Walk!

2010-11-16T22:19:00.000-08:00

We Are Accused of Terrorism

2010-10-31T15:33:00.000-07:00

We are accused of terrorism
If we dare to write about the remains of a homeland
That is scattered in pieces and in decay
In decadence and disarray
About a homeland that is searching for a place
And about a nation that no longer has a face

About a homeland that has nothing left of its great ancient verse
But that of wailing and eulogy

About a homeland that has nothing in its horizons
Of freedoms of different types and ideology

About a homeland that forbids us from buying a newspaper
Or listen to anything
About a homeland where all birds are always not allowed to sing
About a homeland that out of horror, its writers are using invisible ink

About a homeland that resembles poetry in our country
Improvised, imported, loose and of no boundaries
Of foreign tongue and soul
Detached from Man and Land, ignoring their plight as a whole

About a homeland to the negotiating table moves
Without a dignity or shoes

About a homeland
That no more has steadfast men
With only women therein

Bitterness is in our mouths in our talk in our eyes
Will draught also plague our souls as a legacy passed to us
from ancient times?

Our nation has nobody left, even the less glorified
No one to say "NO" in the face of those who gave up our
home bread and butter
Turning our colorful history into a circus

We have not a single honest poem
That has not lost its virginity in a ruler's Harem

We grew accustomed to humiliation
Then what is left of Man
If he is comfortable with that?

I search the books of history
For men of greatness to deliver us from darkness
To save our women from fires' brutality

I search for men of yesterday
But all I find is frightened cats
Fearing for their souls
From the authority of rats

Are we hit by national blindness
Or are we suffering from color blindness

We are accused of terrorism
If we refuse to perish
Under Israeli tyranny
That is hampering our unity
Our history
Our Bible and our Quran
Our prophets' land
If that is our sin and crime
Then terrorism is fine

We are accused of terrorism
If we refuse to be wiped out
By barbarians, the Mongols or the Jews
If we choose to stone the fragile security council
Which was sacked by the king of caesuras

We are accused of terrorism
If we refuse to negotiate the wolf
And reach out for a whore

America is fighting the cultures of Man
Because it lacks one
And against the civilizations because it needs one
It is a gigantic structure but without a wall

We are accused of terrorism
If we refuse current times
Where America the arrogant the mighty the rich
Became a sworn interpreter of Hebrew.

-Nizar Qabbani

A Look at the Israeli Ambassador's Visit

2010-10-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

These past several weeks have elicited within me a feeling of pity for those who feel that they are forced to fabricate arguments defending the human rights violations associated with the illegal and immoral occupation of Palestine. This pity was extended to Israeli Ambassador, Dr. Michael Oren, as I listened to his speech at the Clarence Smith Performing Arts Center last Thursday. As I listened to easily-digestible facts about the State of Israel, I expected no less from a man who is paid to regurgitate the predictable talking points and rhetoric of the acting Israeli Government. I found his arguments to be pathetic, if not desperate to say the least. For instance, in his talk, Oren justified the US support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine through a combination of cute quotes by famous American historical figures, and the citing of job and technology creations from the $3.2 billion Israel receives in foreign US military aid, as if these were valid points.

As a politician, Oren interestingly tried to appeal to both religious and secular Zionists, something that I wonder if Dr. Oren would do in person. His references to American historical figures who spoke of Jews returning to their homeland reflected an aspect of manifest destiny that is the underlying ideology behind Zionism. Personally, as a Jew myself, I like this idea of a manifest destiny of paper. But my rights to achieve a Jewish homeland for my people are only extended as far as not to infringe upon the freedoms and liberties of others. This is where I differ between Oren and nearly all present day Zionists, who feel that the human rights violations are secondary to achieving a Jewish homeland. I’m sorry Mom and Dad, but if the success of the Jewish State requires the militarized separation, immigration and citizenship discrimination, and the unapologetic dehumanization of a forcibly displaced people, then I can not support it as it as it currently exists. Not to mention, the land’s connection to the Jewish people is just as reasonable as the land’s connection to other nations and empires who have touched that region over the last 2,000 years, such as present day Italy, Greece, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UK, among others.

I was also taken aback by Oren insisting that the military contracting jobs created by $3.2 billion US aid somehow, at least in part, justified Israel’s questionable foreign and domestic policies. As if making money is more important than the suffering and discrimination of millions of people! Oren completely failed to mention any aspects of his country’s human rights violations nor did he ever use of the word occupation (as far as I remember). Instead, Oren focused on themes of security and combating terrorism, while completely disregarding how these are connected to the occupation. Such narrow-minded thinking does not fully put Palestinian resistance into context, and consequently, only demonizes the Palestinian people. It is much easier for Oren and the like to feel they have the higher moral ground when they completely ignore the existence of the occupation, and instead view Palestinian resistance as random acts of Anti-Semitic violence.

Oren also refused to take at least some responsibility on behalf of Israel, for Israel’s lack of contribution to the peace process and instead appeared to have laid all the blame on Palestinians for stalling peace. For instance, one talking point Oren repeated was that Israel would negotiate peace only if the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish State. One: how can Israel ask for such a demand when they do not even respect Palestine as an independent sovereign state? Two: this rhetoric regarding Israel’s demand to be recognized is completely baseless considering Israel has not instigated any peace talks in the last several years (until the past few months thanks to the US State Department) where such a demand could officially be made. If Oren is however referring to the Palestinian Authority’s current lack of enthusiasm for pursuing peace talks, as the basis for the claim that the Palestinians are the only deterrence for peace, then he completely failed to mention that the Israeli Government has ended its moratorium on settlement building, and is currently building 350 homes in the West Bank, the reason for Hamas’ and the PA’s frustration.

Overall, Dr. Oren’s speech was filled with vague rhetoric and fancy ideas, while simultaneously failing to address the important issues at hand. But I do not expect any less of him. He is a politician. He is no different from American politicians at home who blindly use vague words and ideas like “freedom” and “small government” before advocating that the Federal Government infringe upon the rights of Muslims to build a Muslim Community Center in New York. Perhaps Oren’s rhetorical tactics satisfy a concern among the Zionist community, a concern that was brought up by one of the students during the question and answer session; a concern to strengthen Israel’s PR campaign in order to maintain a more positive international image. Does their idea of achieving middle eastern peace really consist of calling for an overpowering State-run propaganda campaign that highlights trivial facts about Israel in the style of a holiday travel brochure, instead of addressing the cries of millions of people in the West Bank and Gaza? As long as the voices of the Palestinians are ignored as if their mouths were taped shut, then peace and security is impossible.

2010-04-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

UMD Students for Justice in Palestine presents Palestinian Solidarity Week 2010 from Monday April 12 to Monday April 19.

We are students, activists, advocates, sympathizers, fighters, and humans and we are appalled at the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine and the illegal occupation of its people. PSW aims to raise awareness about the conflict at large, as well as highlight specific issues that are of utmost concern and need to be addressed NOW. Each day of the week will feature a different event or speaker:

MONDAY, APRIL 12 at 6 pm: Prince George Room in the Stamp Student Union
FILM SCREENING featuring Slingshot Hiphop

Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.
http://www.slingshothiphop.com/

TUESDAY, APRIL 13 at 6 pm: Prince George Room in Stamp Student Union
Featuring SAMAR RIDI from United Palestinian Appeal speaking on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank (i.e. the Wall, checkpoints, closures etc) and the humanitarian effect it has on the people of Palestine. She will also speak about the efforts of United Palestinian Appeal and various ways for student/activists/citizens to help.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14 at 7 pm: 2203 Art and Sociology Building
Featuring OBI EGBUNA speaking on the frightening and very real parallels between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Palestine

THURSDAY, APRIL 15 at 6 pm: Thurgood Marshall Room in Stamp Student Union
Featuring PHYLLIS BENNIS from Institute for Policy Studies, speaking on "Your Tax Money to the Israeli Military?"

Is the U.S. really "pressuring" Israel? What's the deal with Israeli settlements? What do they have to do with us? Phyllis Bennis will discuss the recent flap between the Obama administration and the Israeli government, the $30 billion of U.S. military aid, and the changing discourse on Israel-Palestine across the United States.

FRIDAY, APRIL 16 at 6 pm: Nyumburu Amphitheater
Move the Movement: CONCERT featuring OMAR OFFENDUM and BIN LADEN BLOWING UP (BBU) as well as other student bands and poets.

MONDAY, APRIL 19 from 10 am-5 pm: Hornbake Plaza
I SAW PALESTINE
A demonstration of just a glimpse of life under occupation in Palestine, surrounded by a Wall and undergoing multiple checkpoints daily.

CO-SPONSORS: Organization of Arab Students, Muslim Student Association, Muslim Women of Maryland, Students for a Democratic Society, Community Roots, Nyumburu Cultural Center, Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy (MICA), Sikh Student Association

Homeless in Jerusalem

2009-12-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8390717.stm?ad=1

Jerusalem residency losses rise

Israel stripped a record number of Palestinians of their right to live in East Jerusalem last year, an Israeli rights group has said.

Some 4,570 people had their residency rights removed, more than a third of the total number since Israel took control of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Palestinians fear an attempt to reduce their presence in Jerusalem, which both they and Israel claim as their capital.

Israel says most of those stripped of their rights were living abroad.

Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were offered Israeli citizenship after Israel occupied the area in 1967 and later annexed it.

Many refused, not wanting to recognise Israeli sovereignty, and were instead given residency.

But, according to the Israeli rights organisation Hamoked, if these Palestinians live abroad for seven years, or gain citizenship or residency elsewhere, they lose their Israeli residency.

Hamoked obtained the figures from the Interior Ministry using the Freedom of Information Act.

The organisation said that some of those who had lost their citizenship may now be stateless, or may not even be aware they have lost their residency.

Family visits and students studying abroad would be affected, it said.

“ The state of Israel pays billions of shekels a year in stipends to people who don't even live here ”
Meir Sheetrit Former interior minister

Hamoked executive director Dalia Kerstein said the phenomenon had "reached frightening dimensions".

Israel's interior ministry said it had carried out a "comprehensive check" that people listed as residents of Israel had their lives centred in the country, and many were found to be living abroad.

Former Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, who initiated the survey, told the BBC "it is a very normal, regular idea that people who are not living here for a long time" are not supposed to be residents.

He said those who had appealed had been approved to stay.

"The state of Israel pays billions of shekels a year in stipends to people who don't even live here," he told Haaretz.

The figures come amid Palestinian fears that Israel is trying to increase its control over East Jerusalem and cut it off from the West Bank, through the building of the West Bank barrier, house demolitions and evictions.

The right-leaning government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that Jerusalem is Israel's "eternal, undivided capital".

But it says recent demolitions and evictions are simply issues of law enforcement.

On Tuesday, a draft document leaked to Haaretz suggested the EU was considering hardening its stance on the city.

According to the newspaper, the document called for East Jerusalem to become the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The EU has never recognised Israel's annexation of the east of the city, which is illegal under international law.

Its formal position has been that the city's status is to be decided in negotiations, although some EU leaders have called for it to be a future shared capital.

Israel's foreign ministry reacted angrily to the reports, saying the apparent move by Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, "harms the European Union's ability to take part as a significant mediator... between Israel and the Palestinians".

It said the EU should be pressuring the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table, but the step would have "the opposite effect."

About a third of Jerusalem's residents - a quarter of a million people - are Palestinians with Israeli residency or Israeli-Arabs, who have Israeli citizenship.

Israel's annexation of the east of the city has never been recognised by the international community.

London Students Showing Solidarity and Support for Gaza Students

2009-12-07T22:42:00.000-08:00

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1260181012111&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Dec 7, 2009 19:55 | Updated Dec 8, 2009 8:01

One of the UK's most prestigious universities is set to "twin" with the Islamic University of Gaza after its student union voted in favor of the move.

The London School of Economics (LSE) is set to link up with the Gaza institution after the student union passed a motion - 161 students voted in favor and 131 against - calling for the twinning.

The motion was put forward by the school's Palestine Society and called "To twin this union with the Islamic University of Gaza to show solidarity with the students there who have had their campus bombed and their colleagues killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces."

The motion also calls for a room in the new student union building to be named after a Palestinian student killed by the "Israel Occupation Forces."

The motion relied on an array of sources from organizations such as Amnesty International, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Action Palestine and other pro-Palestinian activists, who accuse Israel of an array of human rights offenses, including killings and torture.

However the proposer of the motion, Samer Araabi, maintained the motion was "not about Israel and Palestine, but about the right to education for all people."

Diversity of Thought Dialogue - Tomorrow!!

2009-12-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Hey SJP,

Make sure you come out to this tomorrow because diversity is more than tokenization - it is a variety in backgrounds and perspectives, something the University of Maryland needs to value more!!

- -

Diversity of Thought Panel: Unraveling Campus Tension

*Date: *Monday, December 7, 2009

*Time: *6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

*Place: *Multipurpose Room, Nyumburu Cultural Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

“*Diversity of Thought: Unraveling Student Tension” *to discuss the causes, effects and solutions to the heated atmosphere on campus. It will highlight and explore the problems officials and students see on the campus and in the educational system as a whole.

The panel will feature Solomon Commisong, Assistant Director of Student Involvement at the Nyumburu Cultural Center; Aisha Braveboy, MD State Delegate; Angel Miles, Graduate Student and Professor of Women’ Studies; Jared Ball, Professor of Communication Studies at Morgan State and former green Party Presidential candidate; and Dr. Cordell Black, Associate Provost of Diversity and Equity at the University of Maryland

Slingshot Hip Hop Screening THIS Sunday!!

2009-11-30T22:12:00.000-08:00

Hey ya'll,

After you rock out at the SJP concert this Friday, definitely come and chill with us and watch this fantastic documentary being shown in D.C. this Sunday!

See you all there!

SLINGSHOT HIP HOP screening & LEFT TURN issue release event

SUNDAY - Dec. 6, 2009 - 3-5 p.m.

DCAC

2348 18th St. NW

Washington D.C.

Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, Slingshot Hip Hop is about Palestinians crossing the borders that divide them and resisting the forces that oppress them.

We will al so be showing a slideshow of photos from a recent New Orleans people of color delegation to Gaza.

We will also have copies of the current issue, Left Turn #34: On the Move: Migrant Workers Organizing in Asia, which contains a number of articles about Palestine and Palestinians including photos from the New Orleans delegation to Gaza and AN interview with Jackie Salloum, director of Slingshot Hip Hop.

$5 donation to benefit Left Turn magazine!

for more info, leftturn-dc@onebox.com / 888 810 6202

WE WILL NOT BE SILENT CONCERT - THIS FRIDAYYYY

2009-11-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

WE WILL NOT BE SILENT - VOICES FOR JUSTICE

Friday Dec. 4th 2009

7-9 p.m.

Colony Ballroom - Stamp Student Union - Univ. of Maryland

Featuring:

Remi Kanazi,

Henry Mills,

Nurideen Bashir,

Tala Abu Rahmeh,

Head-Roc,

and Seif Ammus

"We Will Not Be Silent: Voices for Justice" will be a night of performances featuring various artists including local and student performers to showcase their works, music, and art to convey a message towards everlasting peace and justice in the world, centering on a hopeful and peaceful future.

Their work does not necessarily focus just on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict but also is open to all injustices and campaigns for peace, especially that of traditionally indigenous and marginalized communities from all corners of the world.

UMD Students for Justice in Palestine presents a night of musical expression and powerful words, bringing people together to represent different voices that are standing up for justice, awareness, peace, and self-determination.

***FEATURING***

[NURIDEEN BASHIR]

[TALA ABU RAHMEH]

[HENRY MILLS/DJ FLEG]

[SEIF AMMUS]

[HEAD-ROC]

and from Poets for Palestine

[REMI KANAZI]

This event is sponsored by: UMD Students for Justice in Palestine, The Nyumburu Cultural Center, The Organization of Arab Students, The Sikh Student Associaiton, The African Students Progressive Action Committee, Ethiopian Student Association, Students for a Democratic Society

UMD SJP Movie Night!!

2009-10-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

Come out next Monday 10/26 for a special screening of the compelling documentary : :

OCCUPATION101!

Where: University of Maryland - Art Sociology - Room 2230

When: MONDAY 10/26 @ 6 p.m.

Here is more information about the documentary :

A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike any other film ever produced on the conflict -- 'Occupation 101' presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never ending controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions.

The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. The roots of the conflict are explained through first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American media outlets.

The film covers a wide range of topics -- which include -- the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe in the 1880's, the 1920 tensions, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, Settlement expansion, the role of the United States Government, the second Intifada of 2000, the separation barrier and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as well as many heart wrenching testimonials from victims of this tragedy.

http://www.occupation101.com/

RSVP on facebook here!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161858671890&ref=mf

UN Human Rights Council Adopts Goldstone Report

2009-10-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

Finally! A step in the right direction!

From AlJazeera

Rights council adopts Gaza report

At least 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during Israel's three-week war on Gaza [EPA]

The UN human rights council has endorsed the Goldstone report on Israel's war on Gaza, which accuses the military of using disproportionate force as well as laying charges of war crimes on Israeli occupation forces and Hamas.

The council's resolution adopting the report was passed in Geneva by 25 votes to six with 11 countries abstaining and five declining to vote.

The inquiry, lead by Justice Richard Goldstone, calls on Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, to monitor whether Israel and Hamas conduct credible investigations into the conflict which took place last winter.

Should the two sides fail to do so, it calls on the UN Security Council to refer the allegations to the International Criminal Court.

Hamas 'thankful'

The Palestinian Authority had initially agreed to defer a vote on the UN-sanctioned report, but later backtracked under heavy criticism.

In depth

The United States and Israel were among those countries which voted against the resolution.

Mike Hanna, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Geneva, said the vote was a "very strong victory" for the supporters of the resolution, but that the large number of abstentions was also "very significant".

In Gaza, Hamas thanked the nations that voted to endorse the report.

"We hope that vote will lead to a trial of the occupation leaders," Taher al-Nunu, a Hamas spokesman, said.

Mousa Abu Marzook, the deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, Syria, told Al Jazeera: "We thank our people, all those who support to submit again this report to the human rights committee and all the countries who voted for the report.

"I think if the Palestinian Authority didn't withdraw this report it will be more efficient and the result will be stronger than the resolution.

"We will co-operate with this report and we will establish a new committee to investigate.

"Right now, there is no talking with Fatah, but during the dialogue between Fatah and Hamas in Egypt, within a few weeks, we are going to talk about reconciliation and, of course, this kind of subject we are going to talk about."

Israel condemned

In addition to endorsing the report, the resolution "strongly condemns all policies and measures taken by Israel, the occupying power, including those limiting access of Palestinians to their properties and holy sites".

Goldstone report vote

For: Argentina,

Brazil,

China,

Russia,

Bahrain,

Bangladesh,

Bolivia,

Chile,

Cuba,

Djbouti,

Egypt,

Ghana,

India,

Indonesia,

Jordan,

Mauritius,

Nicaragua,

Nigeria,

Pakistan,

Philippines,

Qatar,

Saudi Arabia,

Senegal,

South Africa

and Zambia

Against:

US,

Hungary,

Italy,

Netherlands,

Slovakia and Ukraine

Abstentions: Belgium, Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay

No vote: UK, France, Madagascar, Kyrgyzstan and Angola

It also calls on Israel to stop digging and excavation work around the Al-Aqsa mosque as well as other Islamic and Christian religious sites.

Israel rejected the charges saying the resolution – drafted by the Palestinians with Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tunisia, on behalf of non-aligned, African, Islamic and Arab nations – threatened peace efforts.

The Goldstone report recommended that its conclusions be sent on to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor in The Hague if Israel and Hamas do not hold their own credible investigations into allegations of war crimes within six months.

The report accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It also accused Hamas, which has de facto control of Gaza, of war crime violations, but reserved most of its criticism for Israel.

'Rights undermined'

On Thursday, Navi Pillay, the UN human rights chief, endorsed the report, calling for "impartial, independent, prompt and effective investigations" into the alleged war crimes.

Pillay said: "A culture of impunity continues to prevail in the occupied territories and in Israel," Pillay said during the UN Human Rights Council's special debate session on the report on Thursday.

In her speech, Pillay cited concern about the restrictions on Palestinians wishing to enter al-Aqsa and expressed "dismay" about the Israeli blockade of Gaza that she said "severely undermines the rights and welfare of the population there".

On Thursday, Goldstone, a former South African judge, criticised the resolution, saying: "I hope that the council can modify the text."

About 1,400 Palestinians – the majority of them civilians - and 13 Israelis were killed during Israel's three-week war on Gaza, which had the stated aim of stopping rocket attacks by Palestinian fighters from the coastal territory.

"Family who lost 29 members in Gaza war: We envy the dead"

2009-10-18T22:44:00.000-07:00

A horrifying story from Gaza.

From Haaretz

Family who lost 29 members in Gaza war: We envy the dead

By Amira Hass

Tags: Amira Hass

Richard Goldstone visited the Gaza City neighborhood of Zaytoun in late June to tour the compound of the extended Samouni family, the subject of coverage here in recent weeks ("'I fed him like a baby bird,'" September 17; "Death in the Samouni compound," September 25). Twenty-nine members of the family, all of them civilians, were killed in the Israel Defense Force's winter assault - 21 during the shelling of a house where IDF soldiers had gathered some 100 members of the family a day earlier.

Salah Samouni and the owner of the house that was shelled - Wael Samouni - took Goldstone around the farming neighborhood, showing him its devastated homes and uprooted orchards. In a telephone conversation this week, Salah described how he had shown Goldstone a picture of his father, Talal, among the 21 killed in the house. He told the Jewish South African judge and head of the United Nations inquiry team into Operation Cast Lead, that his father "had been employed by Jews" for nearly 40 years and that whenever he was sick, "the employer would call, ask after his health, and forbid him to come to work before he had recovered."

The Samounis were always confident that, in the event of any military invasions into Gaza, they could always manage to get along with the Israeli army. Until 2005, before Israel's disengagement from the Strip, the Jewish settlement of Netzarim was located right next door, and several family members worked there from time to time. When the joint Israeli-Palestinian patrols were active, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian security officials sometimes asked the Samounis to "lend" them a tractor to flatten a patch of land or repair the Salah al-Din Road (for example, when a diplomatic convoy needed to pass through). While Samouni family members worked on their tractors, gathering sand, the soldiers would watch them.

"When the soldiers wanted us to leave, they would fire above our heads. That's what experience taught me," recalls Salah Samouni, who lost a 2-year-old daughter in the IDF attack, along with uncles and both of his parents. The older men of the family, among them his father and two uncles who were killed by IDF soldiers on January 4 and 5, worked in Israel until the 1990s in different localities, including Bat Yam, Moshav Asseret (near Gedera) and the "Glicksman Plant." They all believed that the Hebrew they had learned would assist and if necessary save them during encounters with soldiers.

As was reported here last month - on January 4, under orders from the army, Salah Samouni and the rest of the family left their home, which had been turned into a military position, and moved to the other, the home of Wael, located on the southern side of the street. The fact that it was the soldiers who had relocated them, had seen the faces of the children and the older women, and the fact that the soldiers were positioned in locations surrounding the house just tens of meters away, instilled in the family a certain amount of confidence - despite the IDF fire from the air, from the sea and from the land, despite the hunger and the thirst.

On the morning of Monday, January 5, Salah Samouni walked out of the house and shouted in the direction of another house in the compound that he thought other family members were still in. He wanted them to join him, to be in a safer place, closer to the soldiers. Nothing prepared him for the three shells and the rockets the IDF fired a short time later.

"My daughter Azza, my only daughter, two and a half years old, was injured in the first hit on the house," Salah told Haaretz. "She managed to say, 'Daddy, it hurts.' And then, in the second hit, she died. And I'm praying. Everything is dust and I can't see anything. I thought I was dead. I found myself getting up, all bloody, and I found my mother sitting by the hall with her head tilted downward. I moved her face a little, and I found that the right half of her face was gone. I looked at my father, whose eye was gone. He was still breathing a little, and then he stopped."

When they exited the house - injured, confused, dazed, fearing the fourth shell or rocket would soon land - determined to get themselves to Gaza despite the soldiers' shouts from nearby positions to go back, they believed only corpses remained in the house. They did not know that under the dust and rubble in one large room, nine family members remained alive: the elderly matriarch and five of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren - the youngest of whom was three years old, the eldest 16 - along with another kinsman and his son. They had passed out, some of them beneath corpses.

When they regained consciousness, 16-year-old Ahmad Ibrahim and his 10-year-old brother Yakub saw the corpses of their mother, four of their brothers and their nephew. Mahmoud Tallal, 16, had lost his toes; bleeding, he saw that his parents - Tallal and Rahma - had been killed. Three-year-old Omar, Salah's son, was buried unconscious under 24-year-old Saffa's dead body, explaining why they hadn't found him during the terrible moment of panic as they left the house. Ahmad Nafez, 15, recalled how when little Omar woke up and pulled himself out from under the corpse, he spotted his grandfather Tallal and started shaking him, crying: "Grandpa, Grandpa, wake up."

The previous day Amal, a nine-year-old girl, had witnessed soldiers bursting into her home and killing her father, Atiyeh. She had taken shelter in her Uncle Tallal's home and together with other family members was moved to Wael's house. She did not know that her brother Ahmad was bleeding to death in his mother's arms, in another house in the neighborhood.

The children found some scraps of food in the kitchen and ate. Later, Ahmad Nafez told his relatives how Ahmad Ibrahim had gone from corpse to corpse - his mother, his four brothers and his nephew among them - shaking them, hitting them, telling them to get up. Perhaps from the blows, Amal regained consciousness, her head bloody and her eyes rolling in their sockets. She kept crying out "water, water," said she wanted her mother and father, and beat her head on the floor, her eyes rolling the whole time.

It is too dangerous to remove the shrapnel embedded in her head - that is even what the doctors at a Tel Aviv hospital say. Now everything hurts her and will continue to hurt her: when it's cold, when it's hot, when she's in the sun. She will not be able to concentrate on her studies.

No one can reconstruct how the hours passed for them in Wael's bombarded house; some remained in a state of exhaustion and apathy. The first to recover was actually Shiffa, the 71-year-old grandmother. On the morning of Tuesday, January 6, she realized that no one was coming to rescue them anytime soon. Not the soldiers positioned just meters away, not the Red Cross nor the Red Crescent nor other relatives. Perhaps they didn't even know they were alive, she concluded. Her walker had been bent and buried in the house, but she managed to leave with two of her grandchildren - Mahmoud (his legs bleeding) and little Omar.

They hobbled out and started walking - along the silent street, among the vacated houses, realizing some were occupied by soldiers. "The Jews saw us from above and shouted to us to go into the house," related Shiffa. That was when they were walking down the street and passed by her sister's home. They went inside, but didn't find a living soul. The soldiers - firing into the air - came in after them. "We begged them to let us go home. 'Where is your home?'" they asked. She told them "over there" and pointed east, toward the home of one of her sons, Arafat, located closer to Salah al-Din Road. The soldiers let them continue on. "We saw people coming out of Arafat's house and Hijjeh's house. Everyone was a bit injured and the soldiers were shooting overhead."

At Hijjeh's house she found everyone crying, each with his own story of those dead or wounded. "I told them what had happened to us, how everyone had fallen on everyone else, in heaps, the dead and the wounded." She remained there with the rest of the injured for another night. Omar remembers this house fondly: He was given chocolate there.

Only on Wednesday, January 7, did the IDF allow Red Cross and Red Crescent crews to enter the neighborhood. They attest that they'd been asking to enter since January 4, but the IDF would not let them - whether by shooting in the direction of the ambulances that tried to get closer or by refusing to approve coordination. The medical teams, which were allowed to go in on foot and had to leave the ambulances a kilometer or a kilometer and a half away, thought they were going to rescue the injured from Hijjeh's house. But then the grandmother told them about the wounded children who remained behind, among the dead, in Wael's house. The medical team set out to rescue them, totally unprepared for the sight they found.

On January 18, after the IDF left the Gaza Strip, the rescue teams returned to the neighborhood. Wael's house was found in ruins: IDF bulldozers had demolished it entirely - with the corpses inside.

In a general reply to questions from Haaretz regarding the behavior of the military forces in the Samouni family's neighborhood, the IDF Spokesman said that all of the claims have been examined. "Upon completion of the examination, the findings will be taken to the military advocate general, who will decide about the need to take additional steps," the spokesman said.

Salah Samouni, during the telephone conversation, said: "I asked [Richard] Goldstone to find out just one thing: Why did the army do this to us? Why did they take us out of the house one at a time, and the officer who spoke Hebrew with my father verified that we were all civilians - [so] why did they then shell us, kill us? This is what we want to know."

He feels that Goldstone, in his report, lent the victims a voice. He did not expound on his frustration upon learning that the debate on the report had been postponed, but sought a way to describe how he feels nine months after the fact. "We feel [we are] in an exile, even though we are in our homeland, on our land. We sit and envy the dead. They are the ones who are at rest."

American Jews Rethink Israel

2009-10-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

This is a really interesting article on how Jewish opinions are developing on Israel and its actions.

from The Nation

American Jews Rethink Israel

By Adam Horowitz & Philip Weiss

This article appeared in the November 2, 2009 edition of The Nation.

October 14, 2009

This year has seen a dramatic shift in American Jews' attitudes toward Israel. In January many liberal Jews were shocked by the Gaza war, in which Israel used overwhelming force against a mostly defenseless civilian population unable to flee. Then came the rise to power of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose explicitly anti-Arab platform was at odds with an American Jewish electorate that had just voted 4 to 1 for a minority president. Throw in angry Israelis writing about the "rot in the Diaspora," and it's little wonder young American Jews feel increasingly indifferent about a country that has been at the center of Jewish identity for four decades.

These stirrings on the American Jewish street will come to a head in late October in Washington with the first national conference of J Street, the reformation Israel lobby. J Street has been around less than two years, but it is summoning liberal--and some not so liberal--Jews from all over the country to "rock the status quo," code for AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee).

Sure sounds like a velvet revolution in the Jewish community, huh? Not so fast. The changes in attitudes are taking place at the grassroots; by and large, Jewish leaders are standing fast. And as for policymakers, the opening has been slight. There seems little likelihood the conference will bring us any closer to that holy grail of the reformers: the ability of a US president, not to mention Congress, to put real pressure on Israel.

First the good news. There's no question the Gaza conflict has helped break down the traditional Jewish resistance to criticizing Israel. Gaza was "the worst public relations disaster in Israel's history," says M.J. Rosenberg, a longtime Washington analyst who reports for Media Matters Action Network. For the first time in a generation, leading American Jews broke with the Jewish state over its conduct. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen said he was "shamed" by Israel's actions, while Michelle Goldberg wrote in the Guardian that Israel's killing of hundreds of civilians as reprisal for rocket attacks was "brutal" and probably "futile."

Even devoted friends of Israel Leon Wieseltier and Michael Walzer expressed misgivings about the disproportionate use of force, and if Reform Jewish leaders could not bring themselves to criticize the war, the US left was energized by the horror. Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of Code Pink, threw herself into the cause of Gazan freedom after years of ignoring Israel-Palestine, in part out of deference to her family's feelings. In The Nation Naomi Klein came out for boycott, divestment and sanctions; later, visiting Ramallah, she apologized to the Palestinians for her "cowardice" in not coming to that position earlier.

These were prominent Jews. But they echoed disturbance and fury among Jews all around the country over Israel's behavior. Rabbi Brant Rosen of Evanston, Illinois, describes the process poetically. For years he'd had an "equivocating voice" in his head that rationalized Israel's actions. "During the first and second intifadas and the war in Lebanon, I would say, 'It's complicated,'" he says. "Of course, Darfur is complicated, but that doesn't stop the Jewish community from speaking out. There's nothing complicated about oppression. When I read the reports on Gaza, I didn't have the equivocating voice anymore."

In the midst of the war, Rosen participated in a panel at a Reconstructionist synagogue in Evanston organized by the liberal group Brit Tzedek v'Shalom and read a piece from a local Palestinian describing her family's experience in Gaza. "It was a gut-wrenching testimonial. It caused a stir in the congregation. Some people were very angry at me; others were uncomfortable but wanted to engage more deeply," Rosen says. The rabbi has gone on to initiate an effort called Ta'anit Tzedek, or the Jewish Fast for Gaza. Each month over seventy rabbis across the country along with interfaith leaders and concerned individuals partake in a daylong fast in order "to end the Jewish community's silence over Israel's collective punishment in Gaza."

Grassroots Jewish organizations have experienced a surge in interest since the Gaza war. The Oakland-based Jewish Voice for Peace has seen its mailing list double, to 90,000, with up to 6,000 signing on each month. Executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson says JVP is finding Jewish support in unlikely places, like Hawaii, Atlanta, South Florida and Cleveland.

Jewish youth have played a key role. A group of young bloggers, notably Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, Spencer Ackerman and Dana Goldstein, have criticized Israel to the point that Marty Peretz of The New Republic felt a need to smear them during the Gaza fighting, saying, "I pity them their hatred of their inheritance." Rosenberg is overjoyed by the trend. "None of them, none of them, is a birthright type or AIPAC type. You'd think that one or two would have the worldview of an old-fashioned superliberal on domestic stuff, pure AIPAC on Israel. But they are so hostile to that point of view."

Dana Goldstein personifies this spirit. A 25-year-old former writer and editor for The American Prospect, she grew up in a Conservative community with close ties to Israel and has made her name doing political journalism. Years ago she vowed never to write about the Middle East; it was a thorny topic, and she felt nothing was to be gained by addressing it. But when Gaza happened, she felt she had to speak out. "The Israeli government is doing little more than devastating an already impoverished society and planting seeds of hatred in a new generation of Palestinians," she wrote in TAP. Gaza was especially dismaying to her because Barack Obama's election had felt like a new moment. "The Jewish community helped elect Obama, and Obama had a different way of talking about the Middle East," she says. Mainstream Jewish organizations' steadfast support for Israel's assault seemed very old school to her.

In this sense, Gaza is the bookend to the 1967 war. Israel's smashing victory in six days ended two decades of American Jewish complacency about Israel's existence; many advocates for the state, including neoconservative Doug Feith and liberal hawk Thomas Friedman, found their voices as students at around that time. In the years that followed, American culture discovered the Holocaust, and the imperative "Never again!" gave rise to the modern Israel lobby: American Jews organized with the understanding that they were all that stood between Israel and oblivion.

"Younger people don't have the baggage of 1967," says Hannah Schwarzschild, a founding member of the new organization American Jews for a Just Peace. "They are applying what they've been taught about human rights, equality, democracy and liberal American Jewish values to Israel," she adds, "and Israel-Palestine is moving to the center of their political world."

The shift is most pronounced on campuses, where being pro-Palestinian has become a litmus test for progressive engagement. Last winter a battle over divestment from the Israeli occupation rocked Hampshire College, and many students spearheading the movement were Jewish. One of them, Alexander van Leer, explained his support for divestment in a YouTube video: "I spent last year in Israel, where I firsthand saw a lot of the oppression that was going on there. And it hurt me a lot coming from a Jewish background, where I've been taught a lot of the great things about Israel, which I know there are, but I was saddened to see the reality of it."

The Hampshire students are part of an international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that demands Israeli accountability for human rights violations. "Gaza gave BDS a huge boost," says Ali Abunimah, author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. "It is shifting power between Israel and Palestinians. It shows there is a price for the status quo."

The growing impact of the BDS movement can be glimpsed in several recent events. Palestinian activists and Code Pink pressured the international human rights organization Oxfam to suspend the actress Kristin Davis (Sex and the City), who had been serving as a goodwill ambassador, over her sponsorship of Ahava, a beauty products company that uses materials from the occupied West Bank (Davis's commercial relationship with Ahava came to an end soon thereafter). Under similar pressure, a Brazilian parliamentary commission said Brazil should have no part in a proposed agreement that would bring increased trade between Israel and several South American countries until "Israel accepts the creation of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders."

Then there was the Toronto International Film Festival in September, at which a number of prominent figures, including Jane Fonda, Viggo Mortensen, Danny Glover, Julie Christie and Eve Ensler, signed a declaration opposing the festival's association with the Israeli consulate and a city-to-city program featuring Tel Aviv as part of a campaign by the Israeli government to "rebrand" itself after the Gaza conflict. The declaration read, in part, "especially in the wake of this year's brutal assault on Gaza, we object to the use of such an important international festival in staging a propaganda campaign on behalf of what South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann have all characterized as an apartheid regime."

Not so long ago, "apartheid" was a hotly disputed term when applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now even advocates for Israel, such as entertainment magnate Edgar Bronfman and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, have warned that Israel faces an antiapartheid struggle unless it can get to a two-state solution, and fast. Nadia Hijab, a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, says such statements are a sign that the BDS movement is gaining traction. "The Palestinian national movement does not have power," she says. "BDS is the only source of nonviolent power and is leading to an increasingly sophisticated discourse, but it's early days yet." Vilkomerson of JVP sees hope: "I think [the sanctions movement] will lead Israelis to shift. People do not want to be pariahs."

In short, the change in the liberal-left discourse has been remarkable. Illinois writer Emily Hauser says she sees it in her synagogue. People once turned their backs on her after she published op-eds assailing Israel over its actions during the second intifada. Today many thank her for voicing their concerns. "The suffering of the [Palestinian] people there is a very, very powerful thing for people to be talking about. The community as a whole is far less likely to throw you out," she says.

What does all this mean for the US political institutions that affect Middle East policy?

There are signs Washington is feeling the changes. Several members of Congress visited Gaza, and some dared to criticize Israel. After Democrats Brian Baird, Keith Ellison and Rush Holt returned, they held a press conference on Capitol Hill led by Daniel Levy, a polished British-Israeli who has played a key role in the emergence of J Street. The Congressmen called for Israel to lift the blockade. After first-term Representative Donna Edwards visited Gaza and called for a vigorous debate about the conflict here, old-line lobbyists came out against her. But J Street rallied to her side, raising $30,000 for her in a show of support.

Alas, those are the highlights. There have been few other courageous profiles. President Obama tried to change the game by speaking of Palestinian "humiliations" in his June speech in Cairo and calling for a freeze in Israeli settlement growth as a condition for progress toward a two-state solution. But the Israeli government has defied him, secure in the knowledge that Jewish leaders in Washington will back it. Dan Fleshler, an adviser to J Street and author of Transforming America's Israel Lobby, says he's frustrated by the lack of movement. "What I predicted in my book--that Obama could lay out an American policy and if Israel was recalcitrant about it, and if he took Israel to task in a serious way, he would get enough political support--well, he hasn't tried it yet." Fleshler is hopeful that the call for a settlement freeze isn't the last test. "Other tests are coming up."

Another longtime observer of Jewish Washington says the only thing that's really changed is the presidency. That's big, but it's not everything. "Obama is strong and popular (still). He has a majority in Congress. Many in Congress feel that their political fate depends on his success. That is what generates the change in atmosphere here. So yes, there is significant change. But I think it has to do more with the atmosphere created by Bush's departure and by the new policies of Obama than with generational shifts in the way Jews view Israel or talk about Israel."

And so when Obama has seemed to lose his nerve--say, when he helped to bury the UN's Goldstone report, which said Israel committed war crimes in Gaza--there has been very little resistance in the Jewish community to his capitulations. When Netanyahu was reported to have maligned Obama aides David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel as "self-hating Jews," there was little outcry in the American Jewish community. And when we asked Representative Steve Rothman, a liberal Democrat, whether he welcomed J Street, he said he didn't know enough about the group to say, before reciting the same old mantras about the "Jewish state": "It's always good for more people to get involved to support America's most important ally in the Middle East.... As our president and vice president have said, Israel's national security is identical to America's vital national security."

This is the treacherous landscape that J Street has stepped into, where it has been outflanked on occasion by both the right and the left. During the Gaza conflict, it issued a statement condemning not only Hamas but Israel, too, for "punishing a million and a half already-suffering Gazans for the actions of the extremists among them." It was a brave stance for a fledgling Jewish organization trying to build mainstream support, and it brought down the wrath of community gatekeepers. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote in the Forward that the statement displayed "an utter lack of empathy for Israel's predicament," calling it "morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve." Ouch.

More recently J Street has tacked in the other direction. During the Toronto festival it quietly began collecting signatures for a letter blasting the protest as "shameful and shortsighted." Although never released as a letter, the initiative didn't endear J Street to the growing grassroots movement. Which is not to say that progressives are not hopeful about its emergence. Rosenberg points out that in its more than fifty-year existence, AIPAC never got the positive publicity J Street got after just one year--a long, favorable portrait in The New York Times Magazine. "All the constellations are coming together. [Executive director] Jeremy Ben-Ami and Daniel Levy have a plan and a message, and they know how to work the media," he says.

J Street is trying to position itself so that it is the only game in town for liberal Jews, affording Jewish advocates for the two-state solution the big political tent they've been lacking to this point. Rabbi Yoffie, for instance, will be addressing the J Street national conference, overlooking his ferocious criticism of the organization in January. "Let's have a broad and generous definition of what constitutes pro-Israel," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in explaining his pragmatic shift.

The conference is sure to combine culture, youth and politics in such a way as to make AIPAC look about as à la mode as the former Soviet Union. "This is a watershed moment in terms of how people look at institutions," says Isaac Luria, J Street's campaigns director. "The old legacy institutions are dying." Nadia Hijab says this has been J Street's main achievement, transforming the terrain for left-leaning Jewish groups by taking on the traditional lobby in the mainstream political arena, mobilizing money and message. "J Street is a positive development as an alternative to AIPAC," Hijab says. "It's not comparable to AIPAC yet, but in the American context it is very smart."

Political dynamism is precisely what J Street hopes to display at its policy conference. Expected speakers include Senator John Kerry and former Senator Chuck Hagel; 160 members of Congress will serve as hosts for J Street's first annual Gala Dinner. It might not rival the famous "roll call" of luminaries attending AIPAC's annual conferences (more than half of Congress showed up last May), but it is an impressive show of firepower all the same.

The ultimate issue is whether J Street will have any effect in bringing about a two-state solution, an idea that, despite official support, has been neglected in Washington nearly to the point of abandonment. Dana Goldstein is thrilled by the possibility that the rubber will finally meet the road. "J Street has had a great influence on intellectual progressives in DC," she says. "There is now a lobby group that engages ideas that have been out there without political will. They are the political arm to this movement."

Some critics on the left argue that conditions on the ground have already made the two-state solution unreachable. There are more than 500,000 Israeli settlers occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with more arriving every day, and Gaza remains under siege. Add to this the political scene inside Israel, where Netanyahu has balked at Washington's request for a settlement freeze, and you could say that in the sixteen years since the Oslo Accords were signed, the possibility of two states in historic Palestine has never been as far off as it is today.

Abunimah sees the new organization as having little impact. "A kinder and gentler AIPAC does not represent serious change," he says. "J Street is supposed to represent a tectonic shift, but it operates within the peace process paradigm and doesn't challenge it at all." Still, J Street has clearly panicked conservative Jews. And the Israeli embassy fired a warning shot across J Street's bow in October, when it warned that the lobby group was working against Israel's interests.

For its part, J Street knows these are desperate times for the liberal goal of a two-state solution. As Israel becomes more and more isolated globally, the Israeli government and the traditional lobby have only gotten more intransigent. At the AIPAC policy conference last spring, its executive director warned that Israel's enemies were establishing a "predicate for abandonment" that only AIPAC's faithful could reverse. Don't expect such hysteria at the J Street conference, but behind all the hoopla, the organization will similarly be trying to preserve the old ideal of a Jewish state. "Getting Israel another thirty F-16s won't help us combat the legitimacy issue [with] people who are trying to undermine the right of Israel to have a state." Luria says. "Jews need a state. And that legitimacy window--the cracks in that window are getting wider. They're dangerous. Dangerous."

Turkey Critical of Israel Because of Gaza Offensive

2009-10-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

From CNN

Israel out of NATO event because of Gaza, Turkish official says

ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkey excluded Israel from a planned NATO military exercise partly because of Turkey's criticism of Israel's Gaza offensive nearly a year ago, Turkey's foreign minister told CNN on Sunday.

The Turkish government decided to change the list of participating countries and exclude Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces. As a result, the NATO exercise was effectively scrapped, although a U.S. embassy representative said it was only postponed.

Asked why Turkey excluded Israel from the exercise, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, "We hope that the situation in Gaza will be improved, that the situation will be back to the diplomatic track. And that will create a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations as well. But in the existing situation, of course, we are criticizing this approach, [the] Israeli approach."

Earlier, the Turkish foreign ministry said "a technical matter," not politics, prompted the delay of the Anatolian Eagle exercise.

Instead of the NATO exercise, Davutoglu said Turkey would be conducting "a national military exercise now after consultations with all the parties involved."

The United States and Italy -- which, along with Turkey, are members of NATO -- were scheduled to take part in the exercise. Both countries withdrew their participation from the drill after learning Israel had been excluded, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing foreign ministry sources.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Ankara would say only that the United States and its allies postponed the exercise "in hopes of re-scheduling it."

"We look at this as a postponement, not a cancellation," said embassy spokeswoman Deborah Guido.

Turkey is Israel's Muslim ally in the Middle East, and the two nations have enjoyed close military and economic relations over the last decade. But tensions have emerged over strong Turkish criticism of the Gaza offensive in December and January.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January after accusing Israeli President Shimon Peres of killing children during the six-week war.

The Anatolian Eagle exercise is held every few years to boost international aerial cooperation. It was to run from October 12-23.

CNN's Ivan Watson contributed to this report.

How Abbas Has Failed the Palestinian People

2009-10-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

From BBC

Goldstone fall-out plagues Abbas

By Heather Sharp
BBC News, Jerusalem

Palestinians sometimes joke about the fact that, when written in Arabic, "Palestinian National Authority" looks the same as "Palestinian National Salad".

Some Gazans threw shoes at posters branding Abbas a traitor

And to many here, the PA's handling of Richard Goldstone's UN report on the conflict in Gaza has been mixed up and limp.

What began as the publication of a damning report on Israel's military conduct - although it also condemned Hamas - has turned into an embarrassing debacle for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and Fatah leader.

Palestinians were outraged after the authority last week, under Israeli and US pressure, abruptly halted its drive to speed the report, which accuses both sides of war crimes, to the higher echelons of the mechanisms of international justice.

The PA initially urged UN human rights council members to refer the issue to the powerful Security Council which could in theory ask the International Criminal Court to open a war crimes prosecution.

But when the day of the vote came, the authority backed deferring discussion until March.

In response, rights groups in the PA's nerve centre of Ramallah took to the streets to denounce the decision.

UN body to debate Gaza 'crimes'

Palestinian U-turn on Gaza report

Gaza probe 'fatal blow' to peace

Gazans threw shoes - a sign of disrespect in Arabic culture - at Mr Abbas's portrait on posters that branded him a traitor.

Syria cancelled a planned visit by Mr Abbas to Damascus. An Israeli-Arab political party urged him to step down.

The authority's damage limitation exercises have done little to help.

Some PA figures initially denied a change in policy, while others tried to cast the move as a step to allow more time to build consensus.

On Sunday Mr Abbas ordered an "investigation" into how his own government made the decision.

On Wednesday one senior figure, Yasser Abed Rabbo, conceded the move was a "mistake".

Meanwhile negotiator Saeb Erekat has been threatening to name other countries - hinting that these include Arab governments which would face domestic anger - that he says pressured the Palestinians to back down.

Damaged credibility

Mr Abbas's credibility, which is heavily tied to attempts to negotiate a Palestinian state into existence, had already taken a knock two weeks ago as US attempts to restart peace talks appeared to stall.

The PA leader faced domestic criticism for participating in a tri-lateral meeting with US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite Israel's refusal to halt settlement building in the West Bank.

The trilateral meeting yielded little more than a reluctant handshake

Unofficial reports of the mini-summit, and US talk of Israel "restraining" rather than "freezing" settlement building, left Palestinians deeply disappointed. It seemed that Mr Obama had eased US pressure on Israel.

Also, Mr Abbas's Fatah faction's long-running feud with Hamas, and his own conduct during the Israeli operation in Gaza, have come back to haunt him.

He angered even some Fatah supporters by being slow to condemn the Israeli offensive which started in December. He criticised Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, even as Palestinian civilians were dying in Israeli air strikes.

According to local media, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the PA actually "pressured Israel to go all the way" in the operation.

UN condemns 'war crimes' in Gaza

Israel condemns UN Gaza report

Key excerpts: UN Gaza report

There have been reports - albeit from a news agency based in Hamas-controlled Gaza - that Israel threatened to release a video tape showing Palestinian leaders urging Israel to be tougher on Hamas during the Gaza offensive, unless the PA backed down over the Goldstone report.

While the tape may not exist at all, the rumours feed into perceptions among some Palestinians that Mr Abbas has at times swung almost traitorously close to Israel in his attempts to defeat his Hamas opponents.

Reconciliation

Paradoxically, the crisis for Mr Abbas has come amid signs that Fatah and Hamas may be close to a reconciliation deal that has eluded them for so long, that would pave the way for presidential and legislative elections.

Mr Abbas's four-year term ended in January, and his authority now rests on disputed legal arguments, rather than a clear expression of voters' views.

Goldstone has urged both sides to mount credible war crimes investigations

But Hamas, which won legislative elections in January 2006, will find itself in a similar position from January onwards.

Hamas declared the PA's Goldstone decision "a betrayal of the blood of the martyrs", and called for a delay in the planned reconciliation process.

But it has not pulled out of talks completely, and one school of thought suggests Hamas leaders may actually be keen to negotiate while Mr Abbas's hand is weakened.

Having failed to make progress on lifting Israel's blockade of Gaza, they are currently enjoying a rare moment of triumph boosted by the release last week of 20 female Palestinian prisoners in exchange of footage for the captured soldier Gilad Shalit.

The PA move in Geneva has probably not made a major difference to the likelihood of Israel ending up in the dock of the International Criminal Court. This was always low.

Even if the Palestinians had persuaded enough countries to vote last Friday to forward the Goldstone report to the UN Security Council, the US and possibly others would most likely have vetoed sending it any further.

But backing from UN member states would ratchet up pressure on Israel to comply with Mr Goldstone's recommendation that both it and Hamas mount credible, independent investigations into the report's allegations.

However, the PA decision's repercussions for Mr Abbas may be wider, especially if Mr Obama's drive to relaunch peace negotiations fails to bear fruit.

The weaker Mr Abbas becomes, the less credible any attempted peace process looks - and the less credible any peace process looks, the weaker he becomes.

SJP Event Tomorrow - Jewish Voices For Peace : Israelis and Jews For Justice in Palestine

2009-10-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard already Students for Justice in Palestine @ UMD will be having an absolutely fascinating event tomorrow!

Here are more details and we hope to see you all there!!

Jewish Voices For Peace :

Israelis and Jews Striving for Justice in Palestine

Jimenez Building

Room 0220

University of Maryland

@ 6 p.m.

Featuring speakers:

Jesse Hochheiser, a member of Ta'ayush (Life in Common) a Jewish-Arab partnership, and Shelley Fudge of Jewish Voices for Peace and CodePink will be coming to UMD to share their experiences and reflections as Jews who are taking action against the occupation and the injustice the Palestinian people face.

This event is sponsored by: UMD Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, CODEPINK Women for Peace, Organization of Arab Students, Muslim Students Association, Muslim Women of Maryland, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146293649800&index=1

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Stands With Palestinians On Strike

2009-10-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a statement below from the Jewish Anti-Zionist Network outlining their support for the Palestinian general strike, which you can read more about here.

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-LaborOctober 1, 2009

In the proud tradition of Jewish working class support for liberation struggles, IJAN-Labor stands in solidarity with the High Follow-up Committee for the Arab Citizens of Israel, the National Committee of Local Authorities, and all parties, movements and institutions of civil society of the Palestinian people in Israel, who have called a general strike for today, October 1, 2009.

This strike marks the ninth anniversary of the Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Day in October 2000 when Israeli authorities massacred 13 Palestinian protesters. The killers have never been brought to justice.

IJAN-Labor also welcomes the Trades Union Congress (U.K.) resolution of 17 September, which endorses the growing movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid, and calls for reconsideration of the TUC's relationship with the Histadrut, the Zionist labor federation that has supported Israel's attacks on Gaza.

The BDS campaign has been endorsed by a growing number of labor bodies, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Solidaires Industrie (France), UNISON (UK), Transport and General Workers’ Union (UK), Western Australia Branch of the Maritime Union of Australia, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario, six Norwegian trade unions, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Scottish Trades Union Congress, and Intersindical Alternativa de Catallunya.

In the United States, despite growing support from labor organizations and governments across the globe, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win fail to recognize what their British counterpart has now acknowledged: that Israel is a state built on defeating the aspirations and solidarity of working families not only in Israel but internationally.

Often without the knowledge or consent of union members, US Labor officialdom remains a leading accomplice of Israeli apartheid and the Zionist colonialism of which it is part. For more than sixty years, it has closely collaborated with the Histadrut, which has spearheaded — and whitewashed — apartheid, dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians since the 1920s.

Indeed, the Histadrut (as both employer and union) provided weapons which the South African apartheid government used against Black workers, while at home it either excluded or segregated Arab workers.

Today, in solidarity with the general strike of Palestinian workers in Israel and growing international labor support for BDS, we call on US labor organizations to divest their estimated $5 billion investment in State of Israel Bonds, and to end all relations with the Histadrut.

For more information IJAN Labor, please see our website: www.ijsn.netIf you are interested in participating in IJAN Labor, please email us at: Labor-IJAN@ijsn.net

Al-Aqsa Mosque Raid Left Palestinian Worshippers Wounded

2009-09-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

From Al Jazeera

Arab officials condemn Aqsa raid

Israeli forces fired rubber bullets and stun grenades, wounding many Palestinian worshippers [AFP]

Jordanian and Palestinian officials have condemned the Israeli security forces for storming Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque on Sunday during clashes that left many Palestinian worshippers wounded.

Deploring the Israeli action, the officials said it amounted to a "violation of the mosque's sanctity".

Trouble had broken out after a group of about 150 Israelis turned up and entered the mosque compound, reportedly under the guard of local authorities, on the occasion of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day.

Speaking to the JNA state news agency on Monday, Nabil al-Sharif, the Jordanian media affairs minister, said Amman viewed the Israeli action as a "provocative act".

"Both international law and relevant conventions and resolutions call for protection of places of worship against any violations", he said.

"We decry the repeated storming of the mosque by extremist Jewish groups and Israeli forces as a provocation that would exacerbate tension and ignite further violence that threatens regional security and stability."

Jordan's foreign ministry summoned the Israeli charge d'affaires in Amman to denounce the raid, saying that it came at "a time of concerted international efforts for resumption of peace talks" to find a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Palestinian condemnation

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the Israeli security forces' action was a deliberate provocation in support of unwelcome settler hardliners who opposed an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Noting that riots during Yom Kippur were becoming an annual event, Erekat compared Sunday's scuffles to the violence that followed the trip to the site in the year 2000 by the ex-Israeli PM Ariel Sharon.

"We've seen this before, and we know what the consequences are," Erekat said in a statement. "

"Providing a police escort for settlers who are against peace at all costs, and whose presence is deliberately designed to provoke a reaction, are not the actions of someone who is committed to peace, but of someone who will go to extraordinary lengths to scuttle all hopes of peace," Erekat said.

Raid details

Sunday's clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinian worshippers saw the Israeli forces intervening and firing rubber bullets and stun grenades.

The Al-Aqsa Foundation had warned a few days earlier that Israeli authorities were planning to permit settlers entrance to the area. Officials in East Jerusalem predicted that the break-in would occur on Sunday under the pretext of marking Yom Kippur.

Jews refer to sections of the mosque complex as historically part of their Temple Mount.

Many Palestinians sustained serious eye and head injuries. Nine Palestinians were also detained following the scuffles, Israeli sources said.

Clashes also erupted near Majlis Gate, one of the main entrances to the mosque, after police prevented worshippers from entering the area, according to witnesses. More clashes followed noon prayers near the Lions' Gate entrance to Al-Aqsa.

Last year, a similar incident on the Yom Kippur holiday resulted in damage to dozens of cars and shops.

Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it along with the rest of mostly Arab East Jerusalem in a move not recognised by the international community.

Here is an excerpt from a statement made by American Muslims for Palestine condemning the attacks:

AMP CONDEMNS SETTLER ATTACK ON AL AQSA WORSHIPERS

(PALOS HILLS, IL 09/28/2009) – On Sunday, the eve of the Jewish holiday of atonement and repentance, a group of Israeli settlers – people living illegally on Palestinian land – stormed the al Aqsa mosque compound under the protection of Israeli police.

At least 40 worshippers were injured when Israeli police fired high-velocity tear gas canisters and used their batons against the crowd, which protested the settlers' attack.

The American Muslims for Palestine strongly condemns the attacks by settlers and police in what has become a nearly annual occurrence at Yom Kippur.

“The attack on worshipers at al Aqsa is entirely unacceptable. It is just another tactic employed by Zionists and religious zealots intent on ethnically cleansing Jerusalem of its Palestinian population," said Dr. Hatem Bazian, AMP chairman and professor of Near East and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

First Event of the Semester!! - Faces of Occupation

2009-09-22T17:26:00.001-07:00

Radical Rush Week: Faces of Occupation

Looking at the Human Impact of the Conflicts in Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq

Host:	UMD Students for Justice in Palestine
Type:	Education - Workshop
Network:	Global

Date:	Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Time:	7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:	Jimenez 0105

Description

How many Palestinian civilians were killed in the recent Israeli offensive, Operation Cast Lead, against Gaza in January?

How many Iraqi civilians have been killed since the Iraq War started in 2003?

What types of roles, if any, does civilian suffering and humanitarian suffering play in these types of conflicts?

Is this imperialism? Is this colonialism?

Come out for an event with Students for Justice in Palestine and Students for a Democratic Society that will look at how civilian populations, especially women and children, suffer the greatest from these brutal conflicts. Ongoing offensives in countries like Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq will be presented and discussed as a group.

It's going to be an interesting presentation and discussion!!

It's Official.

2009-09-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

From BBc

Israel 'understated' Gaza deaths

A new report says more civilians were killed in Gaza than Israel admits

An Israeli human rights group says many more Palestinian civilians were killed in the Israeli military's campaign in Gaza than the army admits.

B'Tselem said detailed research with careful cross-checking showed 1,387 Palestinians died, over half of them civilians and 252 of them children.

This contradicts an Israeli army report stating fewer than 300 civilians died in fighting in December and January.

Israel launched the assault to halt rocket attacks from Hamas-run Gaza.

The overall B'Tselem total broadly tallies with the official Palestinian death toll and the findings of other non-governmental organisations, although the proportion of civilians it identifies is lower.

The group says the extent of civilian deaths does not prove, in itself, that Israel violated the laws of war.

However, it says it raises grave concerns about the military's behaviour when taken in the context of "numerous testimonies" from troops and Palestinians.

Amnesty International has already accused Israel of committing war crimes during its offensive.

The Israeli army has admitted "rare mishaps" during the campaign but denies troops violated international humanitarian law.

'Serious introspection'

B'Tselem said the findings had been compiled during months of research, including visits to the families of those killed.

It said it was unable to compare its figures with the official Israeli ones because the military refused to provide its list of fatalities.

The group said the results should compel the Israeli government to launch an independent investigation into its three-week offensive.

The complexity of combat in a densely populated area against armed groups that use illegal means and find refuge within the civilian population... cannot legitimise such extensive harm to civilians by a state committed to the rule of law

B'Tselem statement

Earlier this year the Israeli army said that 1,166 Gazans were killed in the conflict, a quarter of whom were civilians.

Its figures indicated that the toll included 709 militants from Hamas and other groups, and 295 non-combatants.

According to B'Tselem, 1,387 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military, including 773 civilians, 330 combatants and 248 civilian police - whom Israeli officials classify as militants.

B'Tselem has counted 252 children under the age of 16 who were killed - the military puts that figure at 89 - and 109 women over 18.

"The extremely heavy civilian casualties and the massive damage to civilian property require serious introspection on the part of Israeli society," B'Tselem said, adding that it considered the army's internal probe insufficient.

The group acknowledged the challenges of combat in the densely crowded Gaza Strip, and criticised the "illegal and immoral actions" by Palestinian militants accused of hiding among the civilian population.

But this "cannot legitimise such extensive harm to civilians by a state committed to the rule of law", B'Tselem added.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the report, but has previously rejected such criticism.

It has said the aim of the campaign "was target the Hamas terror organisation and not citizens of the Gaza Strip".

Uri Gordan speaking at St. Stephen's Church in Washington DC

2009-09-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Here is a heads up about an event that seems pretty interesting!

-

Uri Gordan speaking at St. Stephen's Church in Washington DC

Timezone: America/New York

Uri Gordon speaking about Anarchists against the Wall, and the joint struggle in Israel/Palestine
Come hear Israeli anarchist Uri Gordon talk about Anarchist Against the Wall and the practice of anarchist organizing in Israel.

Plus, his new book Anarchy Alive! will be available for %20 off the cover price!
http://anarchyalive.com

Tuesday, September 8

@7 pmSt.

Stephen's Church1525 Newton NW

Washington, DC

Free admission (donations appreciated to cover tour costs)

From IAS

A New Type of "Birthright" : Birthright Replugged

2009-08-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

what a great project!

From Haaretz

Fourteen-year-old Jum’a Ismail lives 50 km from the Mediterranean but had never seen the sea. The Palestinian youth had never set eyes on an Israeli civilian or an airport.

Juma’a’s horizons expanded this summer, when he left Jalazoun refugee camp in the West Bank with “Birthright Replugged” on a trip taking Palestinian children to Israel to visit the villages of their ancestors.

“It’s an attempt to get out, while they still can,” said the program’s creator, Dunya Alwan.

Once Palestinian children turn 15, they must carry Israeli-issued West Bank identity cards and are no longer able to travel through Israeli checkpoints without special permits.

“Birthright Replugged” is partially funded by the Carter Center’s Peace Program, founded by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. It takes groups of 20 Palestinian children into Israel twice yearly.

Alwan, an Iraqi-American from a Jewish-Muslim family, calls her work a counterweight to “Birthright”, the program offering Jewish youth from around the world an all-expenses-paid, two-week trip to Israel to foster ties to the Jewish state.

Movement from the West Bank to Israel was easier before the second Palestinian Intifada that began in 2000. Suicide bombings on Israeli buses and cafes triggered a security clampdown that is only now loosening, under international pressure.

Palestinians must still carry ID cards to move around the West Bank. That puts the Mediterranean coast and Israel’s Ben-Gurion international airport out of range. Alwan says her little trips may be the first and last opportunity for the youngsters. On their return to the West Bank, they cannot stop talking about the sea, the airport, how Israeli Jews and Arabs coexist, and how they have no roadblocks to worry about.

“They don’t ever seem to think about if there is going to be a checkpoint ahead or not,” says 14-year-old Haneen al-Nakhla. “We’re always worrying and calculating those kinds of things.”

They are puzzled to see Israelis who are neither soldiers carrying weapons, or settlers, who also tend to be armed.

Some 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. Israel is home to 7 million people, of whom around 20 percent are Israeli Arabs.

“We had no idea how many Jewish people there would be. There are more than Arabs,” said Haneen. “The Arabs and Jews talk to each other, like it’s normal. I thought it was really strange. We don’t ever talk to Jewish people at home.”

Alwan’s tour does not alter sentiments; the students all support a Palestinian “right of return” to homes and land lost during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 – a demand Israel says would destroy the Jewish character of the state.

For Alwan, simply showing the teenagers their former homeland turns an idealized dream into realities they can discuss.

Lydda, or Lod in Hebrew, was where their grandparents once lived. It’s now part of the sprawling airport outside Tel Aviv.

“These kids see the challenges and complexities. They see that what they have rights to now has an airport on it,” Alwan said.

Sobering it may be, but the airport is a big hit. Most of the teenagers have never flown or even been close to a plane, and they take countless photographs.

“I had to take pictures to show my family. They’ve never seen an airliner either,” said Jum’a, who at home hardly notices the watchtowers, razor-wire fences and high concrete walls of the barrier Israel has erected in the West Bank.

The normality of Israel’s heartland shocked them. “I really felt how much I live under occupation,” says Haneen.

She has decided she “would really like to become an airline stewardess”, and Jum’a says: “I definitely want to be a pilot.”

Back home, the Jalazoun kids seem conflicted. They start a sentence arguing for peace and freedom for Palestinians and Israelis, then end up saying there’s no hope of it.

But a talk with participants of past trips, who are a bit older now, suggests that ideals of coexistence tend to develop.

Ahmawd Ghazawy, 19, from Jenin refugee camp, was on the first Birthright Replugged trip in 2007.

“Before 1948 there were Jews and Arabs and they lived in peace,” he says. “It could happen again.”

Young Love in Gaza

2009-08-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

Absolutely beautiful story!

From ElectronicIntifada

- -

Eman Mohammed writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 17 August 2009

Newlyweds Rana and Mahmoud al-Zourby at their home in the Gaza Strip. (Eman Mohammed)

They say that all is fair in love and war. In Gaza, love and war have come together in a bittersweet union.

Rana, 26, like many women around the world, dreamed of walking down the aisle in a white dress and veil. But her marriage to Mahmoud is extraordinary in many ways as life is these days in Gaza.

On the rehearsal morning about a week before their planned wedding, Mahmoud, 21, got dressed with the help of his younger brother, then sat smiling in the corner as he waited for Rana to come visit to write out invitation cards. Before Israel's winter invasion of Gaza, it was easy for Mahmoud to recognize Rana from the merest glimpse. After the war he had to find new ways to sense her presence. "Sometimes I know she is around when I hear her giggle, or when I hear her talking to my mother," he said.

Mahmoud lost his eyesight and right leg during an air raid on the ninth day of the attack while he was having dinner with four friends at his neighbor's house. All survived but with severe injuries.

Rana is undaunted by the challenges Mahmoud faces adjusting to life with his injuries. "He lost his sight and his leg, but no bomb can ever take his heart, and he will never lose his sense of love," she said. "I can't understand why some people see what we are doing as hard; no marriage is easy," she added. "This is a life-long commitment, for better or worse."

At a traditional family gathering before the wedding, relatives and friends expressed their admiration for Rana and Mahmoud and have done much to support their wedding plans. Life for young couples is especially hard under the siege conditions in Gaza. A relative applied for Rana and Mahmoud to be included in one of the joint weddings held by the al-Tayssir Association, an Islamic charity that holds such events to help those injured in the war have normal lives. Mahmoud's parents have donated their bedroom to the young couple after renovating it for them.

Umm Rawhi, Mahmoud's mother, expressed her excitement about the expected wedding: "We may be simple people who don't have two pennies to rub together, but we are here for each other." Reflecting on her son's injuries, she added, "Marriage might be the last thing anyone in Mahmoud's shoes would think about, but life goes on."

Mahmoud's father, Abu Rawhi, added, "I was as surprised as others at Mahmoud's decision, but I would do anything to see him happy again, especially after all he has been through. Still, I would never want to jeopardize anyone else's happiness, even for my own son. So I thank God every day for sending Rana. She not only made my son happy, but she made all of us smile when we thought we would never smile again."

Eman Mohammed is a Jordanian-Palestinian freelance photojournalist and reporter based in the Gaza Strip since 2005.

Amnesty International Withdraws from Leonard Cohen's Israel Concert Fund

2009-08-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

Great News!! from PACBI

- -

PALESTINIAN CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (PACBI) & NEW YORK CAMPAIGN FOR THE BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (NYCBI)

Amnesty International Withdraws from

Leonard Cohen’s Israel Concert Fund

Media Contacts: pacbi@pacbi.org, info@boycottisraelnyc.org

New York, NY, August 18 – Amnesty International has announced today that it will abstain from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and will not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert‘s proceeds. A number of media accounts had reported that Amnesty International was to manage or otherwise partner in a fund created from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel that would be used to benefit Israeli and Palestinian groups. Amnesty International’s announcement today followed an international outcry over the human rights organization’s reported involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert fund, and an earlier international call for Cohen to boycott apartheid Israel.

Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) commented, “We welcome Amnesty International’s withdrawal from this ill-conceived project which is clearly intended to whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and human rights. By abandoning the Leonard Cohen project in Tel Aviv, Amnesty International has dealt Cohen and his public relations team a severe blow, denying them the cover of the organization’s prestige and respectability.”

A statement confirming Amnesty‘s withdrawal has now been posted on the Amnesty International website.

After reports in late July that Amnesty International would manage a fund from the proceeds of Leonard Cohen’s concert in Israel, groups in occupied Palestine and around the world mobilized to pressure Amnesty International not to participate in such a fund. The Palestinian Non-governmental Organizations’ Network (PNGO) called in an August 11^th letter on Amnesty International to reject management of a fund that is to be created from the proceeds of Leonard Cohen’s planned September concert in Israel. The West Bank village of Bil’in had made a similar appeal to Amnesty International. An international campaign of about one thousand letters to Amnesty International called for Amnesty’s withdrawal from the Cohen concert initiative. The only Palestinian organization that was claimed to be a recipient of the fund had previously announced that it was not involved in the project. Additionally, a representative of the joint Palestinian Israeli group Combatants for Peace, another previously announced beneficiary of the Cohen concert fund, had informed the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel in writing that the group had decided not to participate in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and not to accept any funds from its proceeds.

PNGO explained in their letter to Amnesty International that Israel Discount Bank, a major sponsor of Cohen’s concert in Israel, “is involved in the construction and the continuation of the Israeli settlement project in the oPT [occupied Palestinian Territories]… These settlements built on Palestinian lands are illegal under international law and are considered as war crimes in the Fourth Geneva Convention.” PNGO added that Cohen’s “concert in Israel contributes in normalizing Israeli occupation and colonization policies.” In an August 9th letter to Amnesty International, the West Bank village of Bil’in, a leader in the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement, said that, “Israel Discount Bank’s trading room and other computer services are run by an Israeli company called Matrix IT. Matrix IT’s trading room is located on our villages land stolen by the illegal settlement of Modiin Illit.”

Additionally, nineteen groups and organizations worldwide explained in an open letter to Amnesty International that, “Being one of the world’s strongest proponents of human rights and international law, you shall thus be subverting a non-violent, effective effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel‘s violations of international law and human rights principles.” The groups asserted that, “Accepting funds from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel is the equivalent of Amnesty accepting funds from a concert in Sun City in apartheid South Africa.” They also commented that the Peres Center for Peace, Amnesty International’s announced partner in managing the concert fund, “has been denounced by leading Palestinian civil society organizations for promoting joint Palestinian-Israeli projects that enhance ‘Israeli institutional reputation and legitimacy, without restoring justice to Palestinians.’”

On August 5^th, eleven groups launched a letter writing campaign to Amnesty International which has resulted in hundreds of emails sent. Among those urging Amnesty International to reject involvement with the Cohen concert are former Amnesty International USA board member Prof. Naseer Aruri, Amnesty International USA’s former Midwest Regional Director Doris Strieter, peace activist Kathy Kelly, and a number of Amnesty International members.

The announcement of Cohen’s planned concert in Israel was swiftly met by letters from British, Israeli and Palestinian organizations and protests at his concerts in New York, Boston, Ottawa and Belfast, among other cities, calling on Cohen to respect the international call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. In response to the protests, Cohen had tried to schedule a small concert in Ramallah to “balance” his concert in Israel. However, Palestinians rejected the Ramallah concert, insisting that Cohen should first cancel his Tel Aviv gig to be welcomed in Ramallah.

With the international community failing to take action to stop Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people, and inspired by the international boycott movement that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, Palestinian civil society has launched calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, including an institutional academic and cultural boycott. Ninety-three artists, writers and other cultural workers have signed onto the Palestinian cultural boycott call. Palestinian boycott calls have inspired a growing international boycott movement which gained added momentum following Israel’s assault on Gaza last winter.

Posted on 18-08-2009

"Nonviolent direct action, solidarity and struggle"

2009-08-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

great op-ed by Ramzi Kysia of the FreeGaza movement / article from ElectronicIntifada

A year ago, 44 ordinary people from 17 different countries sailed to Gaza in two small wooden boats. We did what our governments would not do -- we broke through the Israeli siege. During the last year the Free Gaza Movement has organized seven more voyages, successfully arriving to Gaza on five separate occasions.

Regardless of Israeli threats and intimidation, Free Gaza volunteers will continue sailing unarmed boats to Gaza. Ours remain the only international ships to reach the Gaza Strip in more than 42 years. By directly challenging the Israeli military with our small boats, we have concretely demonstrated that this siege has nothing whatsoever to do with security and is simply an illegal act of collective punishment.

But the siege of Gaza cannot be separated from the crisis of checkpoints and home demolitions in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, nor from the oppression of Palestinian citizens of Israel, nor from the harsh and unjust conditions of the millions languishing in refugee camps across the Middle East, nor from the plight of the more than 11,000 political prisoners held by Israel, nor from the calamity of extra-judicial killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces, particularly the killings of Palestinian children, nor from Israel's ongoing theft of Palestinian natural resources, nor from the right of return for all Palestinians in the Diaspora. Gaza is but one bitter element of the struggle for justice for all of Palestine.

Contrary to its presentation in the mainstream media, this conflict is neither a righteous war against terrorism, nor a long-standing religious or ethnic dispute. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the struggle of two irreconcilable and unequal causes: the struggle of an oppressed people for freedom, justice and self-determination against their oppressors' struggle to maintain their domination.

The purpose of nonviolent direct action and civil resistance is to take risks and put our selves in the way of injustice. We take these risks well aware of what the possible consequences may be. We do so because the consequences of doing nothing are so much worse. Any time we allow ourselves to be bullied, every time we pass by an evil and ignore it, we lower our standards and allow our world to be made that much harsher and unjust for us all.

Other international solidarity and action campaigns preceded ours, such as the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, and more have begun in recent months, such as Viva Palestina, the International Movement to Open Rafah Border, Code Pink's delegations to Gaza, and the Gaza Freedom March.

These campaigns are all important. Working together, we have been able to complement and multiply our efforts, drawing the world's attention to the suffering caused by Israel's illegal blockade. We have been able to bring in limited amounts of needed aid, and bring out of Gaza a handful of Palestinian students, medical patients and others. These are worthwhile labors, but they are not enough. As the great Indian resistance leader Mahatma Gandhi stated on 11 September 1924: "[The people] are as yet untouched by [our] politics ... Their politics are confined to bread and salt ... We must share their sorrows ... Then and not till then shall we truly represent [them] ..."

The truth is that all our work combined has yet to significantly impact the daily lives of the Palestinian people.

As solidarity campaigners, it's our job to take our direction from comrades already struggling inside occupied Palestine. But as internationals we should also remind ourselves that our primary work lies in our own communities. In the end, our struggle is not about charity; the Palestinian people need justice and political action, not charity.

Viva Palestina's journey through North Africa, on their first mission from Britain to Gaza, helped mobilize countless individuals. Their planned journey through Europe this December will mobilize countless more. Volunteers working and traveling with Viva Palestina have begun dozens of twinning projects between their communities in the West and communities inside Palestine. The fruits of these efforts are unknowable. However, there are tremendous possibilities for not only providing concrete assistance to those in need, but also for politicizing and mobilizing individuals across the world to get involved in the struggle for justice in Palestine.

Similarly, the Free Gaza Movement is working to mobilize individuals through the Right to Read campaign, and through direct lobbying of governments and the international community to actually enforce international law in regards to Palestine. We are reaching out to existing social movements and labor unions in the West, complementing existing efforts to establish and broaden boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against apartheid Israel.

The continuing failure of the international community to enforce its own laws and protect the Palestinian people demands that we as private citizens directly intervene to take action commensurate with the crisis. What is needed in our world today is not simply protest against the violence of occupation and oppression. What we need is a greater resolve -- a new militancy rooted in the profound respect for human life, and sustained by profound disrespect for any government or group that terrorizes our sisters and brothers around the world.

More than at any time in recent memory, ordinary people around the world seem to be answering this call.

Ramzi Kysia is an Arab-American essayist and an organizer with the Free Gaza Movement (www.FreeGaza.org).

Zionist Pioneer Denounces Zionism

2009-08-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

From Counterpunch

By HELENA COBBAN

I've never met Dov Yermiya, a Jewish Israeli peace activist who is now 94 years old. But I read of course the book he published in 1983 in which he wrote with anguish about the torture and other gross mistreatment of civilians he witnessed directly during Israel's invasion of Lebanon the year before.

I have it in my hand now.

I just learned, from an open letter published by Uri Avnery, that Yermiya, recently renounced the ideology and practice of Zionism with these stirring words:

“I, a 95 year old Sabra (native born Israeli Jew), who has plowed its fields, planted trees, built a house and fathered sons, grandsons and great-grandsons, and also shed his blood in the battle for the founding of the State of Israel,

“Declare herewith that I renounce my belief in the Zionism which has failed, that I shall not be loyal to the Jewish fascist state and its mad visions, that I shall not sing anymore its nationalist anthem, that I shall stand at attention only on the days of mourning for those fallen on both sides in the wars, and that I look with a broken heart at an Israel that is committing suicide and at the three generations of offspring that I have bred and raised in it.

“... for 42 years, Israel turned what should have been Palestine into a giant detention camp, and is holding a whole people captive under an oppressive and cruel regime, with the sole aim of taking away their country, come what may!!!

“”The IDF eagerly suppresses their efforts at rebellion, with the active assistance of the settlement thugs, by the brutal means of a sophisticated Apartheid and a choking blockade, inhuman harassment of the sick and of women in labor, the destruction of their economy and the theft of their best land and water.

“Over all this there is waving the black flag of the frightening contempt for the life and blood of the Palestinians. Israel will never be forgiven for the terrible toll of blood spilt, and especially the blood of children, in hair-raising quantities... “

Avnery's response is fascinating. He too is a veteran peace activist, and of about the same generation as Yermiya. But in the letter he is, I think, pleading with Yermiya not to renounce Zionism completely, but rather to reconnect with the "idealistic" Zionism that they both experienced during their youth.

He writes,

“When I think of our youth, yours and mine, one scene is never far from my mind: the 1947 Dalia festival.

“Tens of thousands of young men and women were sitting on the slope of a hill in the natural amphitheater near Kibbutz Dalia on Mount Carmel. Ostensibly it was a festival of folk dancing, but in reality it was much more - a great celebration of the new Hebrew culture which we were then creating in the country, in which folk dancing played an important role. The dancing groups came mainly from the kibbutzim and the youth movements, and the dances were original Hebrew creations, interwoven with Russian, Polish, Yemenite and Hassidic ones. A group of Arabs danced the Debka in ecstasy, dancing and dancing and dancing on.

“In the middle of the event, the loudspeakers announced that members of the UN Commission of Inquiry, which had been sent by the international organization to decide upon the future of the country, were joining us. When we saw them entering the amphitheater, the tens of thousands spontaneously rose to their feet and started to sing the "Hatikva", the national anthem, with a holy fervor that reverberated from the surrounding mountains.

“We did not know then that within half a year the great Hebrew-Arab war would break out - our War of Independence and their Naqba. I believe that most of the 6000 young people who fell in the war on our side, as well as the thousands that were wounded - like you and me - were present at that moment in Dalia, seeing each other and singing together.

“What state did we think of then? What state did we set out to create?

“What has happened to the Hebrew society, the Hebrew culture, the Hebrew morality that we were so proud of then?”

Then, he pleads this:

“You, Dov, have invested in this state much too much to turn your back on it in a gesture of anger and despair. The most hackneyed and worn-out slogan in Israel is also true: ‘We don't have another state!’

“Other states in the world have sunk to the depths of depravity and committed unspeakable crimes, far beyond our worst sins, and still brought themselves back to the family of nations and redeemed their souls.

“We and all the members of our generation, who were among those who created this state, bear a heavy responsibility for it. A responsibility to our offspring, to those oppressed by this state, to the entire world. From this responsibility we cannot escape.

“Even at your respectable age, and precisely because of it and because of what you represent, you must be a compass for the young and tell them: This state belongs to you, you can change it, don't allow the nationalist wreckers to steal it from you!

“True, 61 years ago we had another state in mind. Now, after our state has tumbled to where it is today, we must remember that other state, and remind everybody, every day, what the state should have been like, what it can be like, and not allow our vision to disappear like a dream. Let's lend our shoulders to every effort to repair and heal!
These are very weighty issues that these two longtime Zionists are debating.”

I remember the evening I had back in early March with longtime Jewish-Israeli nonviolence activist Amos Gvirtz. Gvirtz is "only" in his late 60s or early 70s. But like Avnery and Yermiya he grew up in Israel.

He told me in March,

“I became an anti-Zionist after Oslo, when the government expelled the Arabs of Jahhaleenn to make room for the big new settlement area if Maale Adummim... Like the Zionists, I believe we Jews need a state of our own. But unlike the Zionists I don't think this should be built on the ruins of someone else's home. So our state need not necessarily be right here.”

Gvirtz, too, like Avnery, identified a strong link between the events of 1947-48 and the situation today-- though the nature of the link Gvirtz identified was very different from Avnery's: "The Nakba wasn't really a single event that happened in 1948, so much as a long-drawn-out process, that continues to this day." In other words, he was quite unwilling to neatly divide Israeli history, as Avnery still does, between the idealized, prelapsarian days of the 1947 Dalia festival and the post-lapsarian era that was inaugurated-- in Avnery's view-- only by Israel's conquest of the West Bank.

Obviously, this is a very weighty issue for Zionists and their supporters to grapple with. Did 1967 mark a notable break between a laudable past and a troublesome present? Or were there indeed, as Gvirtz and many other current non- and anti-Zionists have argued, many elements of continuity from the 1947 period right through to the present?

Anyway, I'd love to see the whole text of the latest Yermiya letter from which Avnery is quoting, if anyone can provide a link to it, preferably in English. The only recent English text that I could find by him online was this letter, published in the Communist weekly Zo Haderekh in June 2008.

In it, Yermiya was returning to Defense Minister Barak the invitation he had been sent to attend a ceremony to honor all veterans of Israel's 1948 "War of Independence".

He wrote,

“As a veteran of the 1948 war, who was already wounded in face to face combat two weeks before the Declaration of the State, I feel obliged herewith to return the invitation to you, as Minister of Defence. I do so regretfully but see this as my duty.

“I consider you, Ehud Barak, as one of the top military commanders and prominent political leaders who were responsible for converting the army from ‘the Israeli Defence Force’ to an army of occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people and defender of the criminal settlements in their country.

“40 years of occupation have utterly corrupted the Israeli army and all strata of Israeli society.They are both characterized by the nationalist 'east wind' [the east wind brings the chamsin and locusts ]which blows and kindles conflagrations of endless wars, which threaten our people and land with the third and final destruction. Your share in the responsibility for all this is enormous, and therefore I return your invitation to you, without thanks...”

Helena Cobban is a veteran writer, researcher, and program organizer on global affairs. Since 2003 she has published "Just World News", a lively blog on international issues that has gained a broad international readership. She can be reached at hcobban@gmail.com

Free Ezra!

2009-08-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

Join Naomi Klein, Neve Gordon, Noam Chomsky and thousands of others and tell Israel not to jail Ezra Nawi, one of Israel’s most courageous human rights activists.

His crime? He tried to stop a military bulldozer from destroying the homes of Palestinian Bedouins in the South Hebron region.

Nawi, a Jewish Israeli of Iraqi descent, is a threat to the settlers and the Israeli government because he has brought international attention to efforts to illegally remove Palestinians from the Hebron region.

Ezra Nawi will be sentenced August 16th. We will bring thousands of signatures of support to the court house. Send the email below and be counted!

The New York Times has taken notice and written this profile of Nawi and his activism.

(Watch the remarkable video of Nawi trying to stop the home demolition and his subsequent arrest.)

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/t/9462/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27357

IDF Kills Palestinians Waving White Flags

2009-08-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Human Rights Watch called on Israel on Thursday to investigate seven incidents in which it said Israeli troops shot and killed Palestinian civilians who were flying white flags during the war in the Gaza Strip in January.

Expressing disappointment with Israel's response so far to a range of allegations of war crimes made by international bodies, the New York-based lobby group said governments should press for prosecutions under international law if Israel and its enemies in Gaza's Islamist authorities did not act themselves.

"These casualties comprise a small fraction of the Palestinian civilians wounded and killed," Human Rights Watch said. "But they stand out because, in each case, the victims were standing, walking or in slowly moving vehicles with other unarmed civilians, and were trying to convey their non-combatant status by waving a white flag."

"All available evidence indicates that Israeli forces were in control of the areas in question, no fighting was taking place there at the time, and no Palestinian forces were hiding among the civilians or using them as human shields."

From Haartez

How Israel Destroyed Gaza's Infrastructure Intentionally

2009-08-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

New Report - "Red Lines Crossed: Destruction of Gaza''s Infrastructure"

The report describes how Israel deliberately brought Gaza's humanitarian infrastructure to the brink of collapse in advance of Operation Cast Lead via its policy of closure and limitations on the entrance of inputs for the water, sewage and electricity systems.

From Gisha : an Israeli not-for-profit organization, founded in 2005, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents. Gisha promotes rights guaranteed by international and Israeli law.

Bil'in Village Stands Against Israeli Arrests and Intimidation

2009-08-12T08:11:00.001-07:00

Bil’in village will hold a mass demonstration against the ongoing Israeli arrest and intimidation campaign

14 August 2009

For Immediate Release:

Bil’in village will hold a mass demonstration against the ongoing Israeli arrest and intimidation campaign on Friday, 14 August 2009 at one PM. Bil’in residents along with Israeli and international supporters will attempt to march to the village land beyond the Apartheid Wall.

At 2 AM on the 10 August 2009, Israeli forces raided the home of a jailed member of the Bil’in popular committee, Mohammad Khatib. The heavily armed solders, their faces daubed with black paint, entered and “searched” the home now occupied by Mohammad’s wife, Lamya, and their small children. The soldiers then ordered Lamya to take them to the house of Khatib’s elderly father, Abdel Karim. Lamya repeatedly refused to cooperate. The soldiers proceeded to raid Mohammad’s father’s home and summoned him to appear for interrogation with the Israeli secret service (Shabak). While Abdel Karim was being interrogated by the Shabak the next day, an officer called his wife in front of him and threatened her with the arrest of her entire family.

The latest wave of arrests and Israeli night raids on the West Bank village of Bil’in began on 23 June 2009, To date, Israeli forces have arrested 25 people (most are under 18). Eighteen of the 25 remain in detention. Through Israel’s interrogation and intimidation tactics, two of the arrested youth have ‘confessed’ that the Bil’in Popular Committee urges the demonstrators to throw stones. With such ‘confessions’, Israeli forces then proceed to arrest leaders in the community, including Adeeb Abu Rahme and Mohammad Khatib.

Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of the Bil’in popular committee, states that “While the Bil’in committee does encourage residents, Israeli and international supporters to take part in demonstrations, we call for non-violent participation. The occupation forces in addition to using excessive and sometimes lethal violence against us have planted undercover agents to throw stones from the demonstrations on several occasions. Mohammad Khatib and Adeeb Abu Rahme, along with other leaders of the Palestinian popular struggle, are being targeted because they mobilize Palestinians to resist non- violently. Israel is stealing our land from us and then prosecuting us as criminals because we struggle non-violently for justice.”

Mohammad Khatib will be taken in front of a military court this Thursday,13th August when the military prosecution will ask to prolong his detention for the duration of his trial. A similar request to hold popular leader Adeeb abu Rahme was granted by a military judge on July 21st. Adeeb has been in detention since his arrest during a non-violent demonstration on July 10th. Both leaders are being charged with “incitement to damage the security of the area.”

Lamya Khatib, whose husband and younger brother, Abdullah, are both currently imprisoned at Ofer military base, stated: “It is obvious that the Israeli authorities will do all that they can to prevent Palestinians and Israelis from working together towards a just peace. but I know that Mohammed, Abdullah and I, and everyone in Bil’in, will continue our struggle for justice.”

Your presence and support are needed in Bil’in on Friday, 14 August 2009 at one PM! Join us in sending the message that the non-violent resistance campaign will continue until we reclaim our rights!

Israeli Troops Accused of Abuse

2009-08-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8186522.stm

As the US increases the pressure to get Israelis and Palestinians back to peace talks, the Obama administration has asked Israel to help improve Palestinians' quality of life.

But a former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody.

Some human rights groups also support the claims, saying that, at times, brutal abuse of Palestinian children is widespread.

Israel says it has to root out teenagers who pose a terrorist threat.

Gaza's Cars Barely Running

2009-08-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

Gaza's cars barely running
Eva Bartlett,
The Electronic Intifada,
3 August 2009

Even though six months have passed since Israel's brutal three-week bombardment of Gaza, Saleh, like many other Palestinians, has not been able to repair the damage. "I can't replace the windows and doors in my house; they were broken during the war. For the most part you can't find them in Gaza, and if they've been brought in through the tunnels then they're far too expensive."Facing the debt of an unpaid car part, needed insurance, and daily expenses, the driver is considering other ways of making money. "Maybe I'll have to sell my wife's only jewelry to pay the bills. Maybe I'll have to sell our refrigerator and television. That might bring 700 shekels [less than $200]."

From Electronic Intifada

- - -

so who exactly suffers the most from this occupation? is it hamas? no. fatah? no. it is all the innocent Palestinian civilians who have limited access, or none at all, to every basic necessity one needs to survive.

Israel-led blockade limits medical supplies in Gaza

2009-08-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

Gazans have limited access to proper medical supplies because of an Israel-led blockade on the Hamas-controlled region, and equipment now in

use is often broken or outdated, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

While some medicines are allowed in for humanitarian reasons, importing spare parts or new medical devices into Gaza is limited, a WHO official said. Also, the UN agency said, well-meant donations are not helping.

"The main issue here about the blockade is that it undermines the supply system as a whole," Mahmoud Daher, the head of WHO's office in Gaza, told a news conference in Jerusalem.

During Israel's punishing three-week offensive in Gaza in December and

January, aimed at stopping daily rocket attacks, two health care facilities were destroyed and others damaged, but the WHO said health care has since returned to prewar levels.

More than 1,100 Palestinians were killed and thousands wounded during the

Israeli operation.

From Haaretz

- -

How does preventing Gaza from receiving medical supplies make Israel any safer?

50 Palestinians evicted from their Jerusalem homes

2009-08-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

"Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families in east Jerusalem on Sunday, then allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes, drawing criticism from Palestinians, the United Nations and the State Department.

Police arrived before dawn and cordoned off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah before forcibly removing more than 50 people, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees.

U.N. staff later saw vehicles bringing Jewish settlers to move into the homes, he said.

Israeli police cited a ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab families had been living there illegally.

Gunness said the families had lived in the homes for more than 50 years."

Khawla Hanoun, 35, who lived in one of the homes, said police ordered her and 16 family members to leave the house before dawn and forced them out at gunpoint when they refused.

"Now our future is in the streets," she said. "We will remain steadfast until we return home. By any method, we must go back home."

from Associated Press

- -

I wonder what on this Earth, besides dying, can be worst than waking up at dawn to you and your family (of at least 50 people) being evicted out of your home that you have been living in for over 50 years. And why? Because some people like to think that because maybe their ancestors lived on this land thousands of years ago, they have the right to literally KICK you out of your homes and move in to the exact place where you lived.

If people are doing this in the name of religion, and God, what would God say about this type of injustice, brutality, and inhumanity where you strip people of all their dignity because you think you are better than them?

When will people see how OUTRAGEOUS this way of thinking is!? You left the very homes and comfort you have to make over 50 people homeless for your 'beliefs'. Amazing.

Life As An Israeli Arab

2009-07-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

From BBC:

Sami Salameh has taken me to what used to be his home before the Israeli authorities flattened it.

He insists this plot of earth belonged to his family dating back to Ottoman times. But Israel has claimed it as state land. He is not allowed to build here now.

Mr Salameh's new home is in the Arab town of Majdal Krum, in northern Israel. It's illegally built, as is the whole neighbourhood.

His family of 14 lives in three rooms. The sewage system is poor.

He points out the problems Israeli Arabs face - overcrowding, poverty and the ways, he says, Israel's authorities strangle Arab towns, restricting construction, progress and growth.

"You can see surrounding Sakhnin this military base - which of course prevents Sakhnin and the people from using these lands which they used to own," he says.

"You can see there are only tens of metres between the houses of Sakhnin and the industrial zone.

"Of course all the benefits of this industrial zone go to Misgav - which is the Jewish regional council."

An Israeli government commission came to the same conclusions.

The Orr Commission published a report on the status of Israeli Arabs in 2003.

It says Israel has effectively blocked the expansion of its Israeli Arab towns by surrounding them with highways, nature reserves, Jewish councils, military zones or other entities.

The Orr Commission concluded that "[the Israeli] government's handling of the Arab sector has been primarily neglectful and discriminatory".

Breaking the Silence on Israeli War Crimes

2009-07-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

“Breaking the Silence”, a group of courageous former combat soldiers, published a report comprising the testimonies of 30 Gaza War fighters. A hard-hitting report about actions that may be considered war crimes.

The generals went automatically into denial mode. Why don’t the soldiers disclose their identity, they asked innocently. Why do they obscure their faces in the video testimonies? Why do they hide their names and units?

How can we be sure that they are not actors reading a text prepared for them by the enemies of Israel? How do we know that this organization is not manipulated by foreigners, who finance their actions? And anyhow, how do we know that they are not lying out of spite?

One can answer with a Hebrew adage: “It has the feel of Truth”. Anyone who has ever been a combat soldier in war, whatever war, recognizes at once the truth in these reports. Each of them has met a soldier who is not ready to return home without an X on his gun showing that he killed at least one enemy. (One such person appears in my book “The Other Side of the Coin”, which was written 60 years ago and published in English last year as the second part of “1948: A soldier’s Tale”.) We have been there.

The testimonies about the use of phosphorus, about massive bombardment of buildings, about “the neighbor procedure” (using civilians as human shields), about killing “everything that moves”, about the use of all methods to avoid casualties on our side – all these corroborate earlier testimonies about the Gaza War, there can be no reasonable doubt about their authenticity. I learned from the report that the “neighbor procedure” is now called “Johnny procedure”, God knows why Johnny and not Ahmad.

Read the article here

Taken from Counterpunch, another great political site.

Alice Walker in Gaza

2009-07-24T08:09:00.000-07:00

Last March, poet, novelist and feminist Alice Walker joined a delegation organized by Code Pink, to travel to the Gaza Strip just weeks after the 22-day Israeli bombardment and invasion. Walker, globally acclaimed for her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Color Purple, had also traveled to Rwanda, Eastern Congo and other places where she witnessed cruel and barbaric behavior that left her speechless.

"Rolling into Gaza I had a feeling of homecoming. There is a flavor to the ghetto. To the Bantustan. To the "rez." To the "colored section." In some ways it is surprisingly comforting. Because consciousness is comforting. Everyone you see has an awareness of struggle, of resistance, just as you do. The man driving the donkey cart. The woman selling vegetables. The young person arranging rugs on the sidewalk or flowers in a vase."

We pass a hospital, bombed and gutted by fire. If one is not safe in a hospital, when one is already sick and afraid, where is one safe? If children are not safe playing in their schoolyards, where are they safe? Where are The World Parents of All Children? The World Caretakers of All the Sick?

There is ample evidence in Gaza that the Palestinians never stop trying to "better" themselves. What started as a refugee camp with tents, has evolved into a city with buildings rivaling those in almost any other city in the "developing" world. There are houses, apartment buildings, schools, mosques, churches, libraries, hospitals. Driving along the streets, we could see right away that many of these were in ruins. I realized I had never understood the true meaning of "rubble." Such and such was "reduced to rubble" is a phrase we hear. It is different seeing what demolished buildings actually look like. Buildings in which people were living. Buildings from which hundreds of broken bodies have been removed; so thorough a job have the Palestinians done in removing the dead from squashed dwellings that no scent of death remains. What this task must have been like, both physically and psychologically, staggers the mind.

The article is from Electronic Intifada (an amazing resource of information on Palestine).

Article here

The Story of 4 year-old Samar Abed Rabbu

2009-07-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

"Four-year-old Samar Abed Rabbu lost her two sisters during Israel's offensive in Gaza last December and January. "She has had two operations so far," said physiotherapist Pierre Van Lierde. "One in Gaza and one here in Brussels. But the bullets are lodged too deeply. It's too dangerous to remove them and at least one of them is embedded in her spinal cord."

The family alleged that Israeli soldiers had opened fire at close range - as they lined up outside the house and while Samar's grandmother waved a white flag.

When the war ended we travelled to Jabaliya, northern Gaza, to find Samar's father. He told us that Samar's two sisters - Soad, 7, and Amel, 2 - had been killed in the assault. We brought him news that his only surviving daughter was now paralysed. " -From BBC

M-1 From Dead Prez on Gaza

2009-07-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

Taken from Davey D's Hip Hop Corner:

"Why should Black people in America be concerned about political happenings in far off places like Iran or Palestine when we have problems here at home? M-1 gave us a history lesson and reminded us that the Black struggle has always been international from the days of Paul Robeson to Malcolm X wanting to take our case before the United Nations to Martin Luther King dealing with Vietnam on up to the foreign aid that came to help us when we went through Katrina. M-1 goes into detail about why Black folks had better be concerned about international struggles. He lets us know that our struggle at home would’ve been seriously hindered if we weren’t internationally connected. He also encouraged us to see our selves as part of a larger movement without borders."

Videos links here and here

Israelis Burn Olive Trees

2009-07-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

The Israeli extremism the American media never chooses to highlight:

Israel settlers burn olive trees

The arrests followed the removal of a structure at an outpost

"Ten people have been arrested during a series of disturbances caused by Jewish settlers in the West Bank after Israeli authorities removed an illegal caravan.

Two Palestinians were taken to hospital after settlers threw stones at cars and tried to block a road near Nablus in the northern West Bank on Monday night.

Settlers also set fire to a Palestinian olive grove in the area.

The caravan was part of an "outpost", a settlement illegal under Israeli law, which Israel has agreed to remove.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law."

- -

Why is it that something like this would never be featured on CNN/MSNBC/FOX news? When we talk about extremism in the Middle East it is almost always in the context of Palestinians being portrayed as evil, corrupt, crazy people. When presented with this type of information people refuse to believe there is extremism on both sides or they simply will excuse it for the Israelis while condeming Palestinians.

Breaking The Silence

2009-07-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

"Among the 54 testimonies are stories revealing the use of "accepted practices," the destruction of hundreds of houses and mosques for no military purpose, the firing of phosphorous gas in the direction of populated areas, the killing of innocent victims with small arms, the destruction of private property, and most of all, a permissive atmosphere in the command structure that enabled soldiers to act without moral restrictions. The booklet compiles the testimonies of about 30 reserve and regular combat soldiers from various units that participated in the fighting. The testimonies demonstrate that the soldiers were not given directives stating the goal of the operation and, as one soldier testifies, "there was not much said about the issue of innocent civilians."

Many soldiers said that they fought without seeing "the enemy before their eyes." "You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them," one of the soldiers testified that "a 20-year-old kid should not have to do these kinds of things to other people."

"The testimonies prove that the immoral way the war was carried out was due to the systems in place and not the individual soldier," said Mikhael Mankin from "Breaking the Silence." What was proven yesterday is that through the IDF the exception becomes the norm, and this requires a deep and reflective discussion. This is an urgent call to Israel's society and leadership to take a sober look at the foolishness of our policies."

An excerpt from Breaking The Silence

Israeli Soldiers Use Palestinians As Human Shields

2009-07-15T19:32:00.001-07:00

Many of those who vehemently support the Zionist ideology of Israel like to make claims that the Palestinian people are used as human shields by Hamas.

Interestingly enough, it is true that Palestinians are being used as human shields, but not by the Hamas, but in fact by Israeli soldiers themselves. The "defenders of democracy" and "freedom fighters" for the Israeli goverment, are not all too surprisingly, responsible for the same allegation they use to smear Palestinian resistence.

Here is an excerpt from the article whose link is below:

More than two dozen Israeli soldiers who fought in the Gaza war say the military forced Palestinians to serve as human shields and used reckless firepower that caused needless deaths, according to a report released Wednesday.

The Israeli military scoffed at the report, calling it defamation.

The testimonies of 26 soldiers who participated in the war early this year were collected by Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli army reservists critical of their country's policies toward the Palestinians. They describe demolishing homes and using firepower beyond what was necessary given the relatively light resistance they encountered. One said the regulations on when to shoot were vague.

"Sometimes the force would enter while placing rifle barrels on a civilian's shoulder, advancing into a house and using him as a human shield. Commanders said these were the instructions and we had to do it," one soldier said.

[...]

"There was no need to use weapons like mortars, like phosphorous. I have a feeling that the IDF was looking for an opportunity to show off its strength," one soldier said.

In solidarity,

UMDSJP

Welcome!

2009-07-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

We are students from the University of Maryland who stand in solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle for human dignity and self-determination.

We will be periodically updating this blog with informational resources for students/those who are interested, up to the minute news from Israel/Palestine, and information and reviews of events we will be hosting at the University of Maryland College Park.

Keep an eye out!!

In solidarity,
UMDSJP