Acre pogrom highlights Zionist anti-Arab racism

By Kim Bullimore
This article was first published in the Australian political newspaper, Direct Action (No. 6) www.directaction.org.au
It has also been published on Palestine Chronicle www.palestinechronicle.com

Violent attacks by Jewish residents in the Israeli city of Acre last month have left 14 Palestinian families, a total of 72 people, homeless. All 72 are Israeli citizens who had their homes destroyed. For the more than 1 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, the Jewish “riots” in Acre are only the most extreme example of the systematic discrimination they face within the Zionist state.

According to a report issued by the Mossawa Centre, an advocacy centre for Palestinian citizens of Israel, many of the 14 families were too frightened to return to what’s left of their homes. The October 20 report noted that the violence against the Palestinian families, which began on October 8, resulted in three homes being burnt to the ground and that in the case of several families the attacks were “another in a series of anti-Arab aggression[s] directed against them”, with at least one family having had their home “destroyed four times since 2000”.

Violence erupted after Acre Jews attacked a Palestinian man, Tawfiq Jamal, for driving his car through a Jewish neighbourhood to pick up his daughter from a relative’s house on the eve of the Jewish religious holiday of Yom Kippur. Jamal, along with his son, were attacked by hundreds of Jews when they arrived at the house of relatives, the Sha’aban family. According to an October 14 report issued by Badil, the Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugees, Jewish residents surrounded and attacked the family home, besieging 15 people inside, “while police stood outside”. As the attack continued, Palestinian Arab residents rushed to the aid of the besieged family, clashing with Jews attacking the house.


Israeli police look at a car that was flipped over during riots between Jewish and Arab residents of Acre; Israeli policemen arrest a rioter for driving during Yom Kippur (photos from Al Ahram)

Over the next four days, Jewish residents carried out repeated violent attacks against the 52,000 Palestinian Arab residents of Acre, who make up a third of the city’s population. Mobs of up to 1500 Jews wandered the streets stoning Palestinians and torching Palestinian residences, cars and businesses. The Israeli media reported that many in the Jewish mobs chanted “Death to the Arabs” as the attacks were carried out.

On October 13, the Israeli Ynet news service reported that the Northern District police commander Major-General Shimon Koren as saying, “the dominant elements behind the riots in Akko seem to be Jewish instigators”. Despite this, many Palestinians who attempted to defend themselves and their families from the pogrom were arrested. According to Badil’s October 14 report, while the police arrested equal numbers of Jews and Israeli Palestinians, the Israeli courts had systematically “released most of the Jewish detainees, while the time of detention for the Arab detainees is extended”.

On October 13, the Israeli police also arrested and charged Tawfiq Jamal for “harming religious sensibilities” by breaking the Jewish tradition of not driving on the Yom Kippur holiday. The Haifa District Court later sentenced Jamal to a week’s house arrest and suspended his driving license for 30 days. This was despite the fact that there are no Israeli laws which stipulate that it is illegal for either Jews or non-Jews to drive on Yom Kippur.

In response to Jamal’s arrest, Palestinian Israeli MP Ahmed Tibi from the United Arab list told Israeli radio on October 14 that the arrest was “unlawful”. Tibi went onto state that “the arrest proves that police had yielded to Jewish hooligans and I wonder if from now on they will start arresting Jews who eat and drink during Ramadan”, the Muslim holy month.

Israeli MP Mohammed Barakeh from the predominantly Arab-supported Hadash party also condemned Jamal’s arrest saying it was “aimed at appeasing right-wing extremists”. Barakeh told the October 15 Tel Aviv Haaretz daily that Jamal should be released immediately and that “the police abused a lynch victim while protecting gangs of extremists and settlers”.


1 of 3 Palestinian houses torched by Jewish rioters during Acre riots, Oct 2008
Photograph by Oren Ziv, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

The October pogrom in Acre isn’t the first to be carried out by Jews against Palestinian Israelis in Acre or other “mixed” cities in Israel. The anti-Arab riots by Jewish residents in Acre, however, have increased over the last decade with the establishment of a hesder-yeshiva, which combines military and religious training in the city, and with thousands of Israeli settlers being relocated to the city in the wake of Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

The violent attacks against Palestinians inside Israel are reflective of the similar attacks carried out by illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). On September 13, more than 100 Israeli settlers from the illegal colony of Yitzhar attacked the Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibliya in the Nablus district of the occupied West Bank. The attack, described as a “pogrom” by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was just one of thousands of attacks carried out by illegal settlers against Palestinians since 1967.

In 2001, the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem noted in their report, Free Reign: vigilant settlers and Israel’s non-enforcement of the law that “settler violence against Palestinians is extensive and has been prevalent in the Occupied Territories for many years”. B’Tselem noted that between December 1987 and October 2001, 124 Palestinians had been murdered by Israeli settlers. The report went onto note that the Israeli military and police regularly failed to protect Palestinians from such violent attacks. B’Tselem’s website notes that since 2001, the situation in the occupied West Bank has not changed but instead gotten worse.


Burning of Palestinian agricultural land by illegal settlers in June 2008
Photograph by Anne Paq, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

Both the Acre pogrom and the ever-increasing settler attacks in the OPT have highlighted the systematic racism endured by Palestinian citizens of the “Jewish” state, despite its “democratic” facade, as well as the Zionists’ racism against Palestinians living in the OPT. While Palestinian citizens of Israel are supposedly afforded full citizen rights by the Israeli state, Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, notes that the Israeli state systematically discriminates against its Palestinian citizens, who account for more than 20% of Israel’s total population. According to Adalah, Israel has never sought to integrate its Palestinian citizens, instead “treating them as second-class citizens and excluding them from public life and the public sphere. The state [has] practiced systematic and institutionalised discrimination in all areas, such as land dispossession and allocation, education, language, economics, culture and poltical participation.” Adalah notes that Palestinian Israelis are not recognised as a national minority. Instead, Adalah points out that “successive Israeli governments maintained tight control over the community, attempting to suppress Palestinian/Arab identity and to divide the community within itself”.

A March 2007 survey by the Israeli Centre Against Racism found that more than half of the Jewish population in Israel believes the marriage of a Jewish woman to an Arab man is equal to “national treason”, that 75% of Israeli Jews did not approve of apartment buildings being shared between Arabs and Jews. Sixty percent said they would not allow an Arab to visit their home, 55% said “Arabs and Jews should be separated at entertainment sites”, and 30.7% felt hatred when they heard Arabic being spoken on the street.


Anti-Palestinian graffiti in Hebron
Photo by Anna Baltzer
http://www.annainthemiddleeast.com/

The violent attacks by Jews against Palestinians in Acre and in the OPT are a result of the institutionalised discrimination and racist bigotry that are an integral part of Israel’s official Zionist ideology. Israel originated as a European colonial-settler state that continues to grant privileges to Jews, while systematically discriminating against its non-Jewish Arab citizens.

This racism in Israel, as Joseph Massad, an associate professor in Modern Arab politics at New York City’s Columbia University noted in an March 2007 Al Ahram essay, Israel’s right to be racist, is manifest “in its flag, its national anthem and a bunch of laws that are necessary to safeguard Jewish privilege”. As long as Israel continues to function as a “Jewish” state and continues its illegal and brutal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank there will be no resolution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict. As Massad notes, “no resolution will ever be possible before Israel revokes its racist laws and does away with its racist symbols, thus opening the way for a non-racist future for Palestinians and Jews in a decolonised bi-national state”.

Venezuela's Support for Palestine: A model for third world diplomacy

Dear friends,

please find below an very good article by Nikhal Shah outlining Venezuela's support for the Palestinian struggle.

As the article notes the Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela has come out clearly in support of the Palestinian people in not only words but in actions.

Not only was the Chavez goverment one of the few in the world to recognise the democratic vote of the Palestinian people in 2006, but it has repeatedly spoken out in support of Palestine and taken concrete action to support the struggle of the Palestinian people and others in the region suffering under the imperialist actions of Israel and the USA.

If you are interesting in finding out more about the Bolivarian revolution you can check out the following websites:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/

http://www.directaction.org.au

http://latinamericasolidarity.org/


in solidarity, Kim

****
Venezuela's support for Palestine: A model for third world diplomacy
By Nikhil Shah

September 24, 2008
ZMag
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18902


At a time, when the international community has turned a blind eye to Israel's crimes towards the Palestinians, Venezuela has been one of the few nations who has the courage to openly condemn Israel for its crimes and express support for the Palestinian people. Most members of the non-aligned movement professed support for the Palestinian cause during the cold war and severed relations with Israel as they saw the Palestinian struggle as part of the same anti colonial struggle that they were a part of.

Other commentators have stated that the non-aligned support for the Palestinian cause was not formed out of any genuine concern for the Palestinian people but as a way to align their foreign policy to that of the former Soviet Union for strategic purposes or to gather favor from several oil producing Arab nations for their development.

After the U.S. imposed Oslo Peace Process began in the early 90's, the international community eagerly resumed diplomatic ties with Israel and immediately started a process of military and technological cooperation with them. Many of these nations such as India and China had admired Israel as a nation that was technologically and militarily advanced and desired to have Israel share its expertise in these areas with them.[1] This build up of military cooperation and trade made many nations change their policy on criticizing Israel. These members of the international community turned a blind eye to Israel's practices towards the Palestinians in the years that followed, including a continued displacement of Palestinians, an increase in illegal Jewish settlements, continued expropriation of Palestinian lands, political assassinations, torture, discrimination against non-Jewish residents, and sabotaging the rights of Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 Al Nakba genocide.

Even after the outbreak of the second intifada, the international community refrained from holding Israel accountable for genocidal policies imposed on the Palestinians such as the forced starvation and economic devastation of over 1.5 million residents in Gaza or for the war crimes it committed during their illegal invasion of Lebanon in 2006. Occasional criticism or concerns would be expressed about Israel's actions but nation-states would refrain from severing diplomatic ties or holding Israel legally accountable for their crimes.

One exception to this diplomatic capitulation to Israel has been Venezuela under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez. Chavez has been outspoken in his criticism of Israeli policies and has undertaken and proposed steps to hold Israel accountable for their actions. Venezuela, like many other Latin American countries traditionally had friendly diplomatic relations with Israel. Since its existence, Israel has maintained military relations with right wing regimes in Latin America including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. Israel has also been active in supporting several right-wing counterinsurgency groups in Latin America (acting as a proxy for the U.S.) with weapons, advice and training in their fight with leftist governments.

Chavez, however broke with this tradition when he announced in 2006 that he was withdrawing his senior diplomat from Israel in response to their invasion of Lebanon.[2] Chavez chose to take this course not because of any action Israel had taken against Venezuela, but because of Israel's treatment towards Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.[3] Chavez publically compared Israel's actions towards Palestinians and Lebanese to the holocaust stating that "Israel is doing what Hitler did, killing innocent children and entire families." [4] Chavez went on to stop Venezuela from issuing tourist visas to Israelis and during a trip to Beijing called for Israel to be tried for genocide before the International Criminal Court.[5]

Chavez also visited Syria and made a joint statement with the Syrian government calling on Israel to end its illegal occupation of the Golan Heights, abide by UN resolutions and for an end to double standards towards Israel internationally.[6] Chavez also sent a Boeing 707 with 20,000 tons of humanitarian aid to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis caused in Lebanon and Palestine due to Israel's aggressive actions.[7] Chavez has publicly criticized UN Secretary General Ba Ki Moon for not doing enough to strop repression by Israel.[8] These statements and actions have made Chavez one of the most popular leaders in the Arab world and have led opposition political parties in Arab countries to urge their governments to copy Venezuela's actions towards Israel. [9] Venezuela previously had military ties with Israel but chose to abandon them in favor of standing up for Palestinian rights.[10]

Chavez's actions towards Israel is something that all members of the international community should be emulating to stop the genocidal policies of the Israeli government. Stephen Lendmen in an article about holding Israel accountable for international law violations stated that when nations ignore Israel's crimes such as their violations of UN Resolutions, the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter or tacitly cooperate with it while they are committing these crimes, they are indirectly responsible for aiding their crimes and are "criminal accomplices" under Article 6 of the Nuremberg Charter.[11]

Unfortunately, most nation states like India have chosen to ignore Israel's crimes during the last decade by continuing to increase military and cultural ties with them thus arguably becoming criminal accomplices in their crimes.

Also unfortunate is that nation state participation and support is required to legally hold Israel accountable for all their crimes against Palestinians and the surrounding Arab countries. The UN General Assembly can act to establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel like they did for Rwanda but this would require General Assembly members to act to bring about this proposal. Additionally, Palestinians can sue Israel for Genocide at the International Court of Justice but this again requires action brought by a nation state or at least consent for the suit by a nation state. Similarly, any attempt to expel Israel from the UN for defying UN resolutions and violating the UN Charter would require the action be brought by a UN member state.

It is for these reasons that citizens of various nation states who are concerned about the plight of the Palestinians must bring pressure to their governments to take Venezuela's lead and take concrete actions to hold Israel accountable for their behavior. Such demands can include breaking diplomatic ties with Israel and consenting to and supporting any suit brought against Israel for genocide in an international tribunal.

Many left parties in India and other countries have already taken the lead in the area and must continue to exercise pressure on their respective governments to follow Venezuela's lead with respect to Israel. Noted international lawyer, Francis Boyle, has also followed this strategy and lobbied Iranian officials for state consent to sue Israel for genocide against the Palestinians at the International Court of Justice.[12] Only actions such as these will serve to show the Palestinian people that the world will not turn a blind eye to the genocide that they are facing and will serve to motivate them to continue their anti-colonial struggle.


Nikhil Shah is an attorney in Los Angeles and a board member of the Los Angeles National Lawyers Guild.
________________________________________
[1] Krieger, Mathew, "Israel-China "water-trade" to rise significantly," Jerusalem Post, November 11, 2000.
[2] Ravid, Barak, "Israel may downgrade ties with Venezuela," Haaretz, September 30, 2007.
[3] Khatib, Dima, "Winning Arab hearts and minds," Al Jazeera, 18 August 2006.
[4] "Chavez Suggests Trying Israel for Genocide," Israel Today, August 27, 2006.
[5] Id.
[6]"Syria, Venezuela denounces U.S. "double-standard policy," El Universal, 31 August 2006
[7] Mather, Steven, "Israel Withdraws its Ambassador for Venezuela," Venezuelaanalysis.com, August 8, 2006.
[8] Mundial, Yvke, "Chavez criticizes Israel and Columbia for claiming right of defense to justify invasions," www.venezuelaanalysis.com March 3, 2008.
[9] "Syrian Communists urge Arab leaders to Copy Venezuela's protest against Israel," Khaleej Times, August 2, 2006.
[10] Parma, Alessandro, "U.S. Continues to Block Venezuelan Defense Development," Voltairenet.org, October 26, 2005.
[11] Lendman, Stephen, "Israel Must be held accountable for its International Law Violations," ZMagazine, August 12, 2006.
[12] Gelkin, Chris, "Lawyer seeks Iran's help to sue Israel over Gaza Seige," Worldpress, April 25, 2008, http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/3128.cfm

West Bank Settler riot: what the media left out

By Kim Bullimore
This article has also been published by Palestine Chronicle www.palestinechronicle.com

On September 13, in response to a 9 year old Israeli settler child living in the "wildcat" outpost of Shalhevet, about half a kilometre from the illegal Israeli colony of Yitzhar, being stabbed by a lone Palestinian, hundreds of illegal settlers rioted en-mass and terrorised several thousand villagers in the Palestinian township of Asira al Qibliya. In the course of the riot at least 8 Palestinians were seriously injured, six by live ammunition fired by the illegal settlers, who also vandalised residential homes and beat unarmed children and adults, while members of the fourth strongest army on earth stood by and let the settlers riot [1].

While much has been made by the illegal settlers and some of the Israeli and international press of the stabbing and "terrorist" attack on Yitzhar, little was said – if anything at all – about the fact that for the past decade the heavily armed settlers of Yitzhar and other nearby illegal Israeli settlements have been violently terrorising the unarmed Palestinian villages around them. Neither was it mentioned that in the last twelve months, such unprovoked attacks by the Yitzhar settlers have increased substantially. Nor was it mentioned that there had also been an increase in similar attacks by other illegal settlers against Palestinian villages in the Qaliqilya and Hebron region of the Occupied Paletinian Territories (OPT).

The intensification of these attacks in all the various regions throughout the occupied West Bank have been well documented by the Israeli military, international and Israeli human rights workers and have also been intermittently been reported in the Israeli media. In the Nablus region where Asira al Qibiliya is located, the attacks carried out by the illegal settlers – in many instances just before, during or after the Jewish Shabbat - have included the poisoning of Palestinian herds of goat and sheep, the torching and burning of hundreds of dunums of Palestinian agricultural land, the invasion of Palestinian villages by armed settlers, the beating and stoning of unarmed Palestinian residents, the destruction of Palestinian property and the firing of homemade missiles at Palestinian villages on several occasions [2]



Illegal settlers attack Asira al Qibiliya, 13 September 2008


On May 16th of this year, myself and my team mate from the International Women's Peace Service (IWPS) and members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) were called out to one of the many ongoing attacks carried out by the Yitzhar settlers against Asira al Qibiliya. On this particular occasion, 30 armed illegal settlers attempted to enter the village, hurling stones at houses and attempting to set alight the wheat fields belonging to the village. Over the next couple of hours an intense standoff occurred between the dozens of well-armed Israeli occupation forces and approximately hundred unarmed young boys and men from Asira al Qibiliya who had attempted to prevent the illegal settlers from entering the village and terrorising the inhabitants. The Israeli military rather than coming to the aid of the unarmed Palestinian villagers, instead opened fire on them with teargas and rubber bullets. One villager was hit in the face with a ricocheting bullet fired by the Israeli occupation forces and a woman and her four children, including a 2 month old baby and three other children under the age of 10 years suffered respiratory problems when the Israeli military threw teargas into their home [3]. According to the family, whose house lies on the outskirts of the village, close to the illegal colony this was not the first time their house had come under attack by either the settlers or the Israeli military. At around 7pm, the Israeli military finally left the village but at the request of the people of Asira al Qibiliya, ourselves and the activists from the ISM -who had arrived in the village during the middle of the standoff - stayed in the village overnight due to fears by the villagers that another attack would be carried out against them.

Because this was not the first attack on the village, over the next few months, IWPS, the ISM, the Ecumenical Accompaniers (EA) and Rabbis for Human Rights developed a roster to allow internationals and Israeli anti-occupation activists to either provide a presence in the village or to be on-call should any more settler attacks occur. Over the next few weeks, the illegal settler of Yitzhar and other illegal colonies attempted to carry out attacks on Asira al Qibiliya and other nearby villages. On a number of these occasions (but not all) the illegal settlers were prevented from entering the various villages or their surround fields, when the villagers demanded that the Israeli military stop them. While the Israeli military did on occasion prevent the illegal settlers from entering into the Palestinian villages, the settlers were never arrested or detained by the Israeli forces for attempting to carry out premeditated, unprovoked and violent attacks.

Despite this, however, settlers were still able to carry out a range of attacks on unarmed Palestinians. On June 16 illegal settlers from Yitzhar physically attacked three Palestinian sheppards from the village of Burin (located about a half hour from Asira al Qibiliya). According to the report issued by UN OCHA oPt (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories), the settlers also stabbed and killed three donkeys [4].

Three days later on June 19, both IWPS and UN OCHA oPt documented settlers from Yitzhar and other illegal setters attacking two houses in Burin, stoning Palestinian plated cars and setting fire to the farm lands of Palestinians villagers from Burin, Asira al Qibilya and Urif, destroying more than 800 dunums of olive groves. On the morning of this attack, myself and my team mates at IWPS had received an emergency call from locals in Asira al Qibiliya informing us that the illegal settlers were in the process of torching hundreds of dunums of Palestinian farmland in the area and were carrying out an attack on the nearby village of Burin. Two of my team mates quickly headed to Burin, while myself and another team mate alerted the media and other activists to the attacks.

As my team mates travelled to Burin, I rang contacts in the village. While talking to a Palestinian journalist who was on location in the village, I could hear yelling, shoots being fired and scuffles breaking out as villagers attempted to get to their fields to put out the fires set by the illegal settlers. The Israeli military, however, who had refused to stop the settlers setting the fire, also physically prevented the Palestinian farmers and villagers from getting to their fields to put the blazes out. Our field team also rang to tell us that despite being 15 minutes away from the village, they could see large plumes of smoke in the air and fields burning. Our field team were later to report that around 250 illegal settlers on board coaches who arrived in the area. According to our field team, the Israeli military accompanied the settlers and did not attempt to prevent them from endangering the lives of the villagers or destroying their property [5]. Instead, when the villagers of Burin attempted to defend themselves against the settler attacks, the Israeli military open fire on the unarmed villagers throwing teargas canisters into two of the houses under attacks. As a result an elderly Palestinian woman and a 3 month old baby suffered tear gas inhalation and needed medical attention. In addition, UN OCHA oPt noted that due to the settler attacks, the Israeli military were forced to close the road between Yitzhar colony (in the Nablus region) and Jit village (in the Qalqilya regioni) for seven hours between 11 am and 6pm. [6]

The following month on July 27, IWPS received yet another emergency call from Burin where 25 - 30 illegal settlers were using petrol to set fire to the village's olive and almonds trees after attempting to carry out a stoning attack on Palestinian sheppards [7]. The villagers reported to IWPS that this was the third attack the village had suffered at the hand of the illegal settlers that week.


Illegal settlers tie Palestinian man to telephone pole and beat him
Samoa, Occupied Hebron, July 2008

The failure to mention the growing number of attacks on the Palestinian villages of the Nablus region by the illegal settlers from Yitzhar and other illegal colonies, however, was not the only thing left out of the coverage of the settler riot by much of the Israeli english-language and international media. Also left out was that illegal settlers who reside in Yitzhar are some of the most hardcore and ideological of settlers, with a great many of them being adherents of the violent, racist anti-Arab ideology of American-born Israeli, Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Kahane, who was assassinated by an Egyptian-born American in 1990, was the founder of the racist Jewish Defense League in the USA and Kach (Thus) in Israel. He was also the inspiration for Kahane Chai (Kahane Lives) which was founded by his son. Kahane, who was elected to the Knesset in 1984 called for the expulsion of all Palestinians and Arabs from the Holy Land, the banning of sexual relationships between Jews and non-Jews and also believed that democracy and Judaism were not compatible [8]

In 1994, Kach and Kahane Chai were declared terrorist organisations by the Israeli government (and later the USA) after one of Kach's members, American-born Israeli doctor, Baruch Goldstein, massacred 29 Muslim men, women and children at prayer in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and wounded at least 100 others. At the time of the attack Kach issued statements supporting Goldstein's act of mass murder. The following year in 1995, a follower of Kahane, Yigal Amir assassinated Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin [9].

Jessica Stern in her 2003 book, Terror in the Name of God: Why religious militants kill, notes that prior to Goldstein's murderous attack and the assassination of Rabin, Kach and Kahane Chai had also claimed responsibility for a range of other attacks on Palestinians and Israeli government officials, including the murder of four Palestinians in 1993. Stern also documents that in 2002 Kach leader, Baruch Marzel, was arrested in connection "with a plot to leave a trailer laden with barrels of gasoline and two gas balloons outside a Palestinian girls' school in East Jerusalem" [10].

In the wake of the attacks carried by the illegal settlers, the Israeli english-language and international media reported that Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, stated that his government would not allow "pogroms against non-Jews" to be carried out. However, what was not mentioned in the media coverage was that the Israeli Prime Minister only found his voice after the Israeli television media aired extensively footage, obtained by Palestinian, International and Israeli anti-occupation activists, showing the intensity of the attack and that the Israeli military and police had accompanied the settlers to the village and stood by watched as the settlers to carry out the attack on the unarmed village, doing nothing to prevent it. Prior to the footage being shown, Olmert had little to say about this latest settler attack.

Also not mentioned by Olmert or the subsequent media coverage was that such large scale "pogroms" are perpetrated on regular basis by illegal settlers against Palestinians civilians and that the Israeli military and police do nothing to prevent them. This fact has been regularly document by Israeli human rights groups such as B'Tselem. In 2001, they noted in their report, Free Reign: Vigilante settlers and Israel's non-enforcement of the law, that "settler violence against Palestinians is extensive and has been prevalent in the Occupied Territories for many years [11]. B'Tselem noted that between December 1987 and the beginning of October 2001, that 124 Palestinians had been murdered by Israeli settlers, 11 of them between the one year period between September 2000 and October 2001. The report went onto note that the Israeli military and police regularly failed in their duties to protect Palestinians from violent attacks.

Seven years after B'Tselem's Free Reign report, the organisation's website notes that nothing much has changed. According to B'Tselem's website, "when Palestinians attack Israelis, the authorities invoke all means at their disposal – including some that are incompatible with international law and constitute gross violations of human rights – to arrest suspects and bring them to trail. Defendants convicted by military courts can expect harsh sentences" [12 ]. However, according to B'Tselem, "in contrast, when Israeli civilians attack Palestinians, the Israeli authorities employ an undeclared policy of leniency and compromise towards the perpetrators. This policy is reflected in the actions of the officials in charge of law enforcement – the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and the Israel Police Force (IPF) – which do not do enough to prevent harm to the life and property of Palestinians and to sop violent attacks by settlers while they are taking place. All law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities demonstrate little interest in uncovering the substantial violence that Israeli civilians commit against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories".

The recent "pogrom" carried out by the illegal settlers of Yitzhar is not an isolated incident or an aberration. Such pogroms happen with frightening regularity and are regularly ignored by the Israeli government who view the illegal settlers as their front line shock troops against the Palestinian population. These attacks are also regularly ignored by the mainstream media, who as media researchers Greg Philo and Mike Berry in their 2004 book, Bad News from Israel, note regularly fail to accurately report what happens in Occupied Palestinian Territories [13].

The failure of the media to do its job and to accurately report what is happening in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza is why it is important for those of us concerned about human rights to support B'Tselem's "Shooting Back" program (where video cameras are provided to vulnerable communities in the OPT), as well as the work of groups like IWPS and ISM who regularly document on the ground the reality of what is happening.

The recent settler riots in Asira al Qibiliya will not be the last to take place in OPT. Until Israel's illegal and brutal occupation is ended and occupation infrastructure such as the illegal colonies, outposts and the apartheid wall are dismantled and the Israeli military that protects them is removed, Palestinians will not be safe in their own homes and there will be no chance at a real peace, which will bring an end to bloodshed on both sides of the conflict.


Al Jazeera - Inside Story: Israeli settler violence (part1) 18 June 2008

References
[1] Weiss, E., (13 September, 2008) Palestinian stabs Yitzhar boy; settlers riot http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3595927,00.html

[2] Associated Press (13 July, 2008) Settler arrested in failed rocket attack on Palestinian town http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1001565.html

[3] Settlers attack Asira al Qibliya, ISM Report (17 May, 2008) http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/05/17/settlers-attack-asira-al-qibliya/

[4] Protection of Civilians Weekly Report (11 – 17 June, 2008) UN OCHA oPt http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/WBN_264.pdf

[5] IWPS Human Rights Report 360 http://www.iwps.info/en/articles/article.php?id=1153

[6] Protection of Civilians Weekly Report (18 – 24 June, 2008) UN OCHA oPt http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/WBN_264.pdf

[7] Mergui, R., and Simonnot, P., (1987) Israel's Ayatollahs: Meir Kahane and the Far Right in Israel. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Saqi Books

[8] IWPS Human Rights Report 371 http://www.iwps.info/en/articles/article.php?id=1177

[9] Kahane Movement, Anti-Defamation League http://www.adl.org/terrorism/symbols/kahane_2.asp

[10] Talking with Jewish Extremists (excerpts from Jessica Stern's 2003 book, Terror in the Name of God: Why religious militants kill) Israel's next war, Frontline, PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/israel/extreme/nameof.html

[11] Dudai, R., (2001) Free Reign: Vigilante settlers and Israel's non-enforcement of the law, B'Tselem: Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (Jerusalem)

[12] B'Tselem: Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories http://www.btselem.org/English/Settler_Violence/Index.asp

[13] Philo, G., and Berry, M., (2004) Bad News from Israel , Pluto Press, London

International Jewish Solidarity Network: opposing Zionism, racism and colonism

Dear friends,

The International Jewish Solidarity Network is a growing international coalition of anti-Zionist Jews. After two years of hard work, the Interntional Jewish Solidarity Network will be launched internationally on September 29.

According to IJSN Vision statement (on their website):
The International Jewish Solidarity Network (IJSN) envisions the building of just societies in historic Palestine, the larger region, and other places in which we live. In these societies, safety is sought in joint liberation, not in isolation. We seek to contribute to the global struggles for justice in accordance with our locations and ally ourselves with other liberation and social justice movements. This participation is first and foremost an uncompromising commitment to the liberation of Palestine. We also seek to extricate Jewish identities, histories, cultural and religious practices and politics from Zionism, thus allowing for Jewish plurality and the reemergence of broader Jewish participation in emancipation struggles. The next generation of people of Jewish descent will build continuity with this commitment to justice for all people, in Palestine and beyond.

Please find below the newsletter issued by the IJSN about their upcoming launch and activities including their call for 10 days of solidarity actions with resistance to Zionism and imperialism in Palestine between Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur: September 30 through October 8, 2008

For more information on IJSN you can visit their website at http://www.ijsn.net/en/

in solidarity, Kim
ps: the wonderful photographs are from the NO TIME TO CELEBRATE: Jews remember the Nakba website: www.notimetocelebrate.org

***

from: www.notimetocelebrate.org

International Jewish Solidarity Network
Jews Honor Resistance to Zionism, Racism, Colonialism Network will launch
internationally on 29 September, 2008 with the release of our Charter and our Week of Action: Confront Zionism - Divest from Israel

In This Newsletter

+ Who is the International Jewish Solidarity Network?

+ International building

+ Activities moving forward

+ GET INVOLVED

+ Work-to-Date

+ "International Resistance to Zionism"

+ The LAUNCH - Give input and join us!

+ Developing a new structure

+ Finding a symbolic name and logo

+ Contact Information

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Join us in launching the network!

IJSN will officially launch over the 2008 High Holidays: 1 - 7 October

Launch will begin with the release of our founding Charter and week of actions in support of Boycott, Divestment and Sanction against Israel and confronting Zionism.

Please click here to see an excerpt of the Charter and join us from 10 - 17 September to give your input.

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from: www.notimetocelebrate.org


International Organizing Update

September 2008

WE WELCOME YOUR PARTICIPATION AND PARTNERSHIP!

Who is the International Jewish Solidarity Network?

This a growing international network of Jews whose identities are not based on Jewish nationalism but on long histories of Jewish participation in liberation struggles from Eastern Europe and Iraq to Brooklyn and Mississippi. In this year of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the colonial State of Israel, we pledge to struggle against both the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the designation of Israel as a Jewish State.

For the past two years, the network has been building an international network of anti-Zionist Jews to support existing and seed new Jewish anti-Zionist organizing in solidarity with Palestinian resistance. As with any other struggle for justice, working locally or even nationally is not enough.

The enemy we face is international, and what we can do is limited unless we find ways to work together across boundaries and regions. We are building an international voice which challenges Zionism and its claim to speak on behalf of Jews worldwide. As an international force, we can contribute to the movement to defeat US-backed Israeli imperialism.

We do this through the following strategies: 1) solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian self-determination, 2) participation in broader anti-imperialist movements, and 3) the extrication of Jewish history, politics, community, and culture from Zionism.

To read more about the network, go to www.ijsn.net.


from: www.notimetocelebrate.org

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International building

From July 31 to August 3, 2008, in Berkeley, California, IJSN gathered anti-Zionist activists from continental Europe and the UK, India, Israel, the US and Canada. This first international organizing meeting was preparation for the public launch of the network over the 2008 Jewish high holidays. To read more about the meeting, go to www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/first_international/M36.

Since the international meeting we have engaged activists in Morocco and Argentina. The network seeks to expand its work to other parts of the US, Europe, Canada, South and West Asia, South America, South Africa, Australia, and Eastern Europe.

If you are interested in building the work of the network in your city or region, please email us at ijsn@ijsn.net.

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We hope you will join us in the following activities moving forward...

To join us in any of this work, or if you have other ideas for the role and work of the network, please email ijsn@ijsn.net to share your interest, input and thoughts.

* Charter release and Week of Action: On 29 September, 2008, the network will put out its founding Charter with a clear anti-Zionist Jewish analysis and a call for a Week of Action. See sidebar for more information and click here to read more about the Week of Action and add your ideas.

* Popular Tribunals: Over the next 2-3 years the network will organize tribunals that gather testimony in order to expose the tactics of and demand accountability from Zionist institutions and individuals. Visit www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/popular_tribunals/M36 to read more.

* Consciousness Raising: We will continue to engage in public education including forums, art exhibits, digital stories and workshops to the increase visibility of anti-Zionist narratives.

* Cross-movement building: Through supporting an anti-Zionist politic in the movements our members already participate in for racial, economic and gender justice, IJSN seeks to broaden support for the Palestinian struggle for justice.

* North American Organizing Meeting: At this gathering, activists from the US and Canada will develop long-term strategy, campaigns, and programs for partnership with broader Palestine solidarity work in the region.

* Education and Leadership Development: Through Unlearning Zionism workshops, Organizing Institutes, mentorship systems, and our Study to Action curriculum, study group program and educational resource website, the network will build the collective analysis, strategy and capacity of anti-Zionist Jewish participation in Palestine solidarity organizing. Read more about the Study to Action program at www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/study_to_action/M16.

* Participation in existing Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaigns and other efforts to challenge Zionism: The network will not lead BDS efforts, but will encourage and support participation of its members in local, national and international campaigns.

* Supporting joint struggle between Jews of Arab, Persian and Asian descent and Palestinians: IJSN activists in Israel are developing relationships of joint struggle against Zionism and Israeli apartheid.

* Building of Academic, Jews of Color and Jews of Arab descent, Student, Cultural/Artist, Youth, Spiritual/Religious Sector Networks.


from: www.notimetocelebrate.org

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Participate and partner with us as we launch!

We need your participation and partnership in launching and evolving the programs and infrastructure of the network

Give input into the charter, week of action, symbolic name, logo and structure by clicking on the following links:

* Charter
* Week of Action
* Symbolic name and logo
* Structure

Visit www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/C15/ to sign up for updates on the Charter release and Week of Action.

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Previous Work

To read about the network's previous activities - including the Study to Action program, Nakba at 60 organizing, and participation in the Palestinian Popular Conference, the Cairo Conference and Liberation Forum and the US Social Forum - please visit www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/C31/.

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"International Resistance to Zionism"

Leading up to our first international meeting, IJSN held forums in London, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. These events were very well received, with 120, 100 and 40 attendees respectively. Watch footage of the forum in London. Read and view photos from the forum in San Francisco. Listen to radio broadcasts from Los Angeles.



from: www.notimetocelebrate.org

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Please join us in a week of action from
1 - 7 October: Confront Zionism - Divest from Israel

Confront Zionism: Support the Palestinian call for boycotting Zionist and Israeli cultural, educational, sporting and political events and the academic boycott. Confront Zionist organizations that support Israeli Apartheid, censor and target individuals and organizations for criticism of Israel, and collaborate in US-European Islamophobia. Expose Jewish organizations that confuse support of Israel with defense of Jews and disguise economic and political support for Israel and Zionism as Jewish cultural and community work.

Divest from Israel: Support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israelthrough actions that target Israeli goods.

*Put the Charter out into the World:
Use the founding Charter as an opportunity to voice and bring visibility to anti-Zionist politics through educational, cultural and spiritual events and creative action.

*Please click here to see a full description of the Week of Action.

*Help us develop a new structure

*Toward preparing for broader participation in the network, IJSN is developing a representative structure for coordination, consultation and communication across and between local, regional and international organizing.

*Over the next year we hope to evolve and practice this representative structure to support and increase the connections across local and regional self-organizing, while continuing to grow our capacity for internationally coordinated actions and campaigns (initiated at any level of the network).We need your help as we figure out how to do this.

*Finding a symbolic name and logo for the network

In the coming month we will be searching for a symbolic name and logo for the network.

Join us in an online brainstorm and discussion of possible symbolic names and logos for the network.

Contact Information

You can reach the network at: Email - ijsn@ijsn.net, Web - www.ijsn.net.

Thank you for your contributions and support in building this network!

All the hearts of the people are my identity: the life and death of a poet

Mahmoud Darwish - the voice of a dispossessed people

By Kim Bullimore, September 2008
www.directaction.org.au


In 1964, a 22-year-old Palestinian poet named Mahmoud Darwish shared the struggle of his people with the world, writing: “Record!/ I am an Arab/ And my identity card is number fifty thousand/ I have eight children/ And the ninth is coming after a summer/ Will you be angry? … Record! I am an Arab/ I have a name without a title/ ... My roots/ Were entrenched before the birth of time/ And before the opening of the eras/ Before the pines, and the olive trees/ And before the grass grew ... Record!/ I am an Arab/ You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors/ And the land which I cultivated/ Along with my children/ And you left nothing for us/ Except for these rocks./ ... Record on the top of the first page: I do not hate people/ Nor do I encroach/ But if I become hungry/ The usurper’s flesh will be my food/ Beware/ Beware/ Of my hunger/ And my anger!”

The poem, “Identity Card”, was to become one of Darwish’s most famous, a symbol of cultural and political resistance to Israel’s forced dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of their homeland. Darwish’s poetry, filled with Arab romanticism, political insight and protest, and often transformed into song, spoke to millions of Palestinians and Arabs around the world, resulting in him becoming the most well known and loved of Palestinian poets.

Darwish died in Houston, Texas, on August 9, age 67, as a result of complications from heart surgery. Like many of his generation, he was not a spectator but an active participant in the modern history of Palestine. His poetry recorded the losses of the Palestinian people as well as their resistance and refusal to bow to the calamity that befell them in 1948. His death therefore has come as a shock to millions of Palestinians worldwide. More than 10,000 turned out to pay their respects to their poet on August 14, when his body was brought home to be buried within the grounds of Ramallah Cultural Palace in the Occupied West Bank.
Refugee childhood

Born in 1941 in the village of al-Birwa in northern Palestine, Darwish became a refugee in 1948, when his family was forced to flee Zionist terror gangs that attacked and destroyed their village. In 1949, Darwish and his family returned from Lebanon to live “illegally” as “internally displaced” refugees in the new Israeli state. In an interview with the British Guardian daily in 2002, he recounted: “We lived again as refugees, this time in our own country. It’s a collective experience. This wound I’ll never forget.”



Along with more than 150,000 other internally displaced Palestinians, Darwish experienced the harshness of Israeli military rule from 1948 to 1966. Palestinians with Israeli residency or citizenship endured harsh restrictions on their movements, including being forced to obtain special permits to travel to and from their villages, limitations on where they could work, restrictions on their political and civil rights to freedom of speech and to organise politically. During this period, more than 80% of Palestinian-owned land within Israel was confiscated and placed under exclusive Jewish control and use.

In 1960, at the age of 19, Darwish published his first collection of poems, Asafir Bil Ajniha (Wingless Birds). The following year, he joined the Israeli Communist Party and began to publish his poetry in a range of leftist newspapers. In 1964, his second anthology of poetry, Awraq Al Zaytun (Leaves of Olives) was published; it included the celebrated “Identity Card”. As a result of his poetry and political activity from 1961 to 1970, Darwish was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned. When “Identity Card” was transformed into a protest song in 1967, becoming a collective cry of defiance against the Israeli oppressor, Darwish was again arrested.
First intifada

In 1970, he travelled to the USSR to study political economy. A year later, however, he left Moscow for Egypt. In 1973, he joined the Palestine Liberation Organisation, resulting in Israel banning him from re-entering his homeland for more than 26 years. Darwish served on the PLO executive committee from 1987 to 1993 and wrote the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was announced by Yasser Arafat in Algeria.

In 1988, at the height of the first Palestinian intifada, Darwish wrote a poem that shook Israeli society to its core. The poem, “Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words”, aimed at Israel’s occupation army, which was violently putting down the unarmed Palestinian intifada. It was direct and uncompromising: “O those who pass between fleeting words/ Carry your names, and be gone/ Rid our time of your hours, and be gone/ Steal what you will from the blueness of the sea/ And the sand of memory/ Take what pictures you will, so that you understand/ That which you never will:/ How a stone from our land builds the ceiling of our sky/”

Darwish concluded: “It is time for you to be gone/ Live wherever you like, but do not live among us/ It is time for you to be gone/ Die wherever you like, but do not die among us/ For we have work to do on our land/ We have a past here/ We have the first cry of life/ We the present, the present and a future/ We have the world here and the hereafter/ So leave our country/ Our land, our sea/ Our wheat, our salt, our wounds/ Everything, and leave/ The memories of memory/ Those who pass between fleeting words!”

Although Darwish was later to say the poem was not one of his best, he was amazed at the fear the poem aroused in both the Israeli “left” and those in control of the Zionist state. In the grip of the intifada, Israel’s then prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir, quoted the poem in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) to “prove” that the PLO posed a threat to existence of the Zionist state. In response, Darwish said that he found it “difficult to believe that the most militarily powerful country in the Middle East is threatened by a poem”.
Oslo

The first intifada forced Israel to the negotiating table. However, the resultant Oslo Accords signed by PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1993 caused Darwish to resign from the PLO executive committee in protest. In the 2002 interview with the Guardian, he stated that with the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian people “woke up to find that they had no past”. Oslo, Darwish believed, would do little to bring justice, peace or a national homeland to the Palestinian people. In the wake of the failure of the accords, Darwish later said: “I hoped I was wrong. I am very sad that I was right!”

He returned to live in his homeland finally in the late 1990s, continuing to be a voice of his people, giving expression to their pain, yearnings and joys. The words within his 30 collections of poetry and prose, published in 35 languages, reflected the experience of millions of his countrymen and women and were their collective memory.

When Darwish wrote in the poem “Passport” that he carried within his identity, “All the wheat fields/ All the prisons/ All the white tombstones/ All the barbed boundaries/ All the waving handkerchiefs” and that “all the hearts of the people are my identity”, he spoke in the collective voice of his people. And while death has claimed him, his words of struggle and resistance will live on among his people, giving them a voice that can never be taken from them.

To listen to Mahmoud Darwish reading his poetry visit his official website at:
http://www.mahmouddarwish.com/english/audio.htm

This article was first published in Direct Action No 4 (September 2008) at www.directaction.org.au

A time to raise our voices: an update from Kim

Dear friends,
thank you to so many of you who have posted to Live from Occupied Palestine or emailed me personally with your support and well wishes. Thank you for your unwaivering support and the many kind words you have sent me. They have been greatly and very much appreciated.

After spending over a year in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, over the period of 18 months, I have now returned home to Australia for a spell from what has become my other home and a place I have grown to love deeply. I am planning to return to Palestine sometime in the not too distant future but for now that I am back in Australia, where I will continue to be part of and support the wonderful work of the International Women's Peace Service in Palestine (www.iwps.info).

While I am back in Australia, I hope also to continue to contribute to the raising of awareness about Israel’s brutal and illegal occupation and the struggle of the Palestinian people in Australia.

I am very excited by the work that is being done by a range of fabulous and highly committed Palestinian and Palestine solidarity activists in Australia and am hoping that I will be able to contribute in some small way to this work (please see some of the links to the different Australian groups on this blogsite).

In the meantime,the Live from Occupied Palestine blog will continue to be maintained, so please continue to visit it. I hope to continue to provide relevant and up to date information coming straight out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to also provide other information on campaigns and activities happening both in Australian and internationally in support the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.

Now that I am home, I will also continue to contribute for a range social justice forums, including Palestine Chronicle (www.palestinechronicle.com) and the new Australian socialist newspaper, Direct Action (www.directaction.org.au), both of which are fantastic forums which not only campaign for and support the struggle of the people of Palestine, but are also active in supporting other social justice and progressive campaigns.

As the brutal Israeli occupation continues, now in its 41st year, and the leaders of the so-called free world turn a blind eye, it is more important then ever that we take a stand and raise our voices in support of human rights and the just struggle being carried out by the people of Palestine.

On the ground in Palestine, the Palestinian people have not given up and neither should we.

In Ni’lin, Bil’in, al Khader, Umm Sulummuna and so many other villages throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Palestinian people have in the face of overwhelming odds continued to remain sumoud (steadfast) and to oppose the oppressive Israeli occupation. In Gaza, despite, a devastating siege which has plunged the region into an ever deepening humanitarian crisis, the people of Gaza have also not given up hope and neither should we.

In the past two weeks we have seen the wonderful and inspiring arrival of the SS Liberty and SS Free Gaza in the port of Gaza breaking the brutal and illegal siege imposed by the Israeli Zionist state – a siege which has been backed by the US and which the European Union has done little to oppose.

It is the actions of everyday, ordinary people from all walks of life and cultures and all religious and non-religious backgrounds such as those who sailed on the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty, who are moved by compassion, a sense of justice and a love of their fellow human beings, who are our shining lights, our beacons of hope and our inspiration - not the so-called “leaders” of the world who sit by and do nothing, while so many throughout the world suffer, not just in Occupied Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, but also elsewhere.

The Palestinian, Israeli and International activists aboard the two small wooden boats, supported by so many others around the world who believe in social justice, humanity and human rights, have taken to heart the words that Che Guevara penned and enacted so many years ago that “we must strive every day so that this love of living humanity is transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force” [1].

It is this love of humanity that moves us in our belief that the Palestinian people have a right to live in dignity, justice and freedom and not under the heal of a brutal occupation and oppression. And it is this love of humanity that moves us to continue to struggle for a better world and to support the struggle of the Palestinian people. And it is this love of humanity which carries us in our conviction that one day Palestine and its people will be free.

Thankyou once again for all your support.

For a Free Palestine and an end to the occupation now!

In solidarity, Kim
www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com

[1] Socialism and the Man in Cuba by Che Guevara 1965
http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/03/man-socialism.htm

Boats break the siege of Gaza!

Dear friends,
What an exciting week it has been with the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty breaking the siege of Gaza! On August 23, more than 40 human rights activists from 17 different countries sailed through the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza and into Gaza Port, welcomed by more than 50,000 Gazans.

Please find below the statement issued by the Free Gaza Movement upond their arrival in Gaza, as well as an article by Huweida Arraf who is one of the participants on board the boats (Huweida is also one of the co-founders of the International Solidarity Movement)

You can read more (and see photos and video) about the ongoing campaign to break the siege at their website at www.freegaza.org (or click on their link in the links section on this blog).

In solidarity, Kim
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FREE GAZA BOATS ARRIVE IN GAZA
23 August 2008


GAZA (23 August 2008) - Two small boats, the SS Free Gaza and the SS Liberty, successfully landed in Gaza early this evening, breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The boats were crewed by a determined group of international human rights workers from the Free Gaza Movement. They had spent two years organizing the effort, raising money by giving small presentations at churches, mosques, synagogues, and in the homes of family, friends, and supporters.

They left Cyprus on Thursday morning, sailing over 350 kilometers through choppy seas. They made the journey despite threats that the Israeli government would use force to stop them. They continued sailing although they lost almost all communications and navigation systems due to outside jamming by some unknown party. They arrived in Gaza to the cheers and joyful tears of hundreds of Palestinians who came out to the beaches to welcome them.

Two small boats, 42 determined human rights workers, one simple message: “The world has not forgotten the people of this land. Today, we are all from Gaza.”

Tonight, the cheering will be heard as far away as Tel Aviv and Washington D.C.


“We recognize that we’re two, humble boats, but what we’ve accomplished is to show that average people from around the world can mobilize to create change. We do not have to stay silent in the face of injustice. Reaching Gaza today, there is such a sense of hope, and hope is what mobilizes people everywhere.”
--Huwaida Arraf.

Huwaida is Palestinian-American, and also a citizen of Israel. She’s a human rights activist and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. In 2007 she received her Juris Doctor from American University in Washington D.C. Currently she teaches Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Al Quds University in Jerusalem. Huwaida sailed to Gaza aboard the SS Liberty.

“We’re the first ones in 41 years to enter Gaza freely - but we won’t be the last. We welcome the world to join us and see what we’re seeing.”
--Paul Larudee, Ph.D.

Paul is a cofounder of the Free Gaza Movement and a San Francisco Bay Area activist on the issue of justice in Palestine. He sailed to Gaza aboard the SS Liberty.

“What we’ve done shows that people can do what governments should have done. If people stand up against injustice, we can truly be the conscience of the world.”
--Jeff Halper, Ph.D.

Jeff is an Israeli professor of anthropology and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a non-violent Israeli peace and human rights organization that resists the Israeli occupation on the ground. In 2006, the American Friends Service Committee nominated Jeff to receive the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with Palestinian intellectual and activist Ghassan Andoni. Jeff sailed to Gaza aboard the SS Free Gaza.

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Sailing into Gaza

By Huwaida Arraf • August 25, 2008


On Saturday, after 32 hours on the high seas, I sailed into the port of Gaza City with 45 other citizens from around the world in defiance of Israel's blockade. We traveled from Cyprus with humanitarian provisions for Palestinians living under siege. My family in Michigan was worried sick.

They are not naïve. They knew that Israel could have attacked us — as Israeli forces did in 2003, killing nonviolent American witness Rachel Corrie (Editor’s note: Corrie, also of the International Solidarity Movement, was run over by a bulldozer operated by Israeli Defense Forces during a protest against the destruction of Palestinian homes; an Israeli military investigation ruled the death accidental) and Brit Tom Hurndall (an ISM representative who died nine months after being was shot in the head in Gaza by an IDF sniper; the sniper was convicted of manslaughter) as well as thousands of unarmed Palestinian civilians over the years.

My family members, though, remember that 60 years ago part of our own family was uprooted and driven from their homes in Palestine by Israeli forces. This loss no doubt fueled my decision to risk my safety and freedom to advance the human rights of innocent men, women and children in Gaza.
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Our two boats were greeted upon arrival by thousands of jubilant Palestinians who in 41 years of occupation had never witnessed such a scene. To get there we braved anonymous death threats and the Israeli military interfering with our means of communications despite rough seas that jeopardized our safety. Before our departure, the Israeli foreign ministry asserted its right to use force against our unarmed boats.

We nevertheless resolved to act, to symbolically end the siege of Gaza – and to do as civilians what governments have lacked the compassion or courage to do themselves. Once here, we delivered critical supplies such as hearing aids, batteries for medical equipment, and painkillers.

When a massive earthquake rocked China and cyclones ravaged Myanmar, the world responded. Governments and civilians alike rallied to help. Yet world governments have witnessed a manmade humanitarian catastrophe unfold before our eyes in Gaza. Karen Koning Abu Zayd, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), has asserted that "Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution, with the knowledge, acquiescence and – some would say – encouragement of the international community."

Israel claims that its occupation of Gaza ended three years ago with its pullout of soldiers and settlers. But because Israel objected to the outcome of a 2006 Palestinian election that the Carter Center deemed free and fair, it has blockaded Gaza, severely restricting movement of goods and people. Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was quoted shortly before the swearing in of the new Hamas government as saying, "It's like a meeting with a dietitian. We need to make the Palestinians lose weight, but not to starve to death."

More than 200 Palestinians have died in the past year according to Physicians for Human Rights – Israel because they could not exit Gaza for needed medical care. Over 80% of Gaza's population now depends on food aid from UNRWA and the World Food Programme. Unemployment is up to an astonishing 45%. And hundreds of young people are being intellectually starved by Israel's decision to prevent them from taking up overseas academic opportunities.

Now that we have made it into Gaza, we intend to assist Gaza's fishermen. We will sail with them beyond the six nautical mile limit illegally enforced by the Israeli navy. Palestinian fishermen are routinely harassed and attacked as they ply the waters to eke out a living. We hope our presence will keep the Israeli military at bay.

We do this because we are horrified that this siege of 1.5 million men, women and children is allowed to continue. We are saddened for the state of our world when decision-makers can sit back and watch an entire people being slowly and purposefully starved and humiliated.

We know that with our two small boats we cannot open all of Gaza to the outside world. We could not bring with us the freedom of movement, access to jobs, medical care, food and other critical supplies that they are denied today. But we brought with us a message to the people of Gaza: they are not alone. With our successful journey we show them that American citizens and others from around the world have been moved to advance humanitarian principles and human rights. Our efforts this week are undertaken in that spirit and with the hope that our elected representatives will one day follow our example.

Huwaida Arraf, a human rights advocate from Roseville, is a lecturer at Al-Quds University School of Law in Jerusalem and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement.

Growing campaign for boycott of Israel

Dear friends and supporters,
the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel has steadily been growing over the last couple of years, as more people become aware of the apartheid nature of the Zionist state.

Please find below an interview I did recently with Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

The interview was originally published in the Australian socialist newspaper, Direct Action www.directaction.org.au

in solidarity, Kim

***
Growing campaign for boycott of Israel
By Kim Bullimore, in Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
www.directaction.org.au

In April, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers became the latest union internationally to support Palestinians’ call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The resolution passed by the CUPW, which represents 50,000 workers, states that the union will seek to work “with Palestinian solidarity and human rights organisations to develop an educational campaign about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and the political and economic support of Canada for these practices”. The union would “call on other Canadian unions to join us in lobbying against the apartheid-like practices of the Israeli state and call for immediate dismantling” of the Zionist apartheid wall.

Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian political analyst and one of the founders of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), pointed out that the CUPW was “the first union in North America to execute a boycott against South African apartheid ... They stopped processing mail to and from South Africa.”

100 years of resistance
Asked about the genesis of the Palestinian BDS campaign, Barghouti told Direct Action that it builds on and is inspired by more than 100 years of Palestinian resistance to “the Zionist conquest”. While the idea for a sustained and institutionalised boycott campaign was first raised in 2001 at the UN conference against racism in Durban, South Africa, it wasn’t until 2002 that the first appeals were issued “with the reinvasion of Palestinian cities and the massacre at the Jenin refugee camp, which prompted Palestinian intellectuals and academics to seriously discuss boycott and, eventually, to issue personal appeals, ad hoc appeals calling for boycott”.

In April 2004, PACBI issued the first institutional call for BDS. “The appeal became internationally famous because AUT, the Association of University Teachers in Britain, picked it up and decided soon after to adopt the boycott against two Israeli universities and distribute the PACBI appeal to all AUT chapters in Britain”, he told DA. Barghouti noted that the AUT came under considerable pressure and, 34 days later, the decision was reversed. However, other trade unions began to adopt the PACBI call.

A year later, on July 9, 2005, the first anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling that Israel’s construction of the wall and its settler-colonies were illegal, a united Palestinian call for boycott, sanctions and divestment was issued with the support of more than 170 major Palestinian unions and other organisations. According to Barghouti, this was “the first appeal in modern Palestinian history to win the support of the three main Palestinian communities — Palestinians under occupation, Palestinian citizens of Israel and the Palestinian exile or refugee community — as well as the support of every major political party in Palestine”.




In June 2006, the 18,000-member Ontario section of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the 7-mllion-member Central Unica dos Trabalhadores (United Centre of Workers) in Brazil came out in support of BDS. Shortly after, the Irish Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union, which represents some 200,000 workers, called for sanctions against Israel, while the sacked Merseyside dockworkers in the UK issued a statement calling on trade unions to support the campaign. By the end of 2006, both the Norwegian Electrician and IT Workers Union, with 37,000 members, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, representing 1.8 million workers, had also come out strongly in support of BDS against Israel.

In 2007, the UK National Union of Journalists voted to support the campaign; however, under Zionist pressure, its national executive council rescinded the decision. But this did not stop the newly formed 37,000-member University and College Union at its inaugural conference in May 2007 from voting to support BDS. Barghouti notes that the UCU resolution “doesn’t use the word boycott, but is a very pro-boycott decision that was restated and confirmed in the UCU’s 2008 congress”. Soon after, in June 2007, Unison, then the largest union in Britain with 1.3 million members, voted to boycott Israeli goods and sporting contacts. In July, the British Transport and General Workers Union and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions also came out in support of BDS.

Trade unions aren’t the only supporters of the BDS campaign. In 2006, the Church of England General Synod voted to divest its shares in Caterpillar, the company that supplies the Israeli military with armoured bulldozers used to raze Palestinian houses. In February 2007, the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church decided to advise its congregations of more than 8 million members to divest their holdings from a variety of US corporations that support the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.



Official efforts failed
According to Barghouti, the BDS campaign began because “the international official efforts of bringing peace with any measure of justice to Palestine had miserably failed. The occupation has been entrenched, colonies have grown, Israeli oppression of Palestinian citizens has grown, institutional racism within Israel continues unabated, and the denial of refugee rights is even intensifying ... in blatant defiance of international law.

“Israel has been acting with total disregard to international law and with unprecedented impunity in the last few years. That called upon Palestinian civil society to issue an appeal to international civil society to act, since governments are hopeless. That was the main motive, that the three forms of injustice had intensified not just continued — the denial of refugee rights, the occupation and colonisation in the ’67 territories and the system of racial discrimination within Israel proper. They were the motivation for the BDS campaign.”

Barghouti noted that Israel is very worried about the success of the campaign. “Compared with the South African anti-apartheid campaign, we are going much faster, achieving far larger and far more significant victories in a much shorter time.” The African National Congress issued its boycott call in the 1950s but the world did not start to react until the 1970s and ’80s. By contrast, only three or four years after the Palestinian BDS call, “we are seeing an enormous reaction around the world ... Israeli apartheid and boycott have been put solidly on the agenda”.



Criticism
Despite the success of the campaign, not all supporters of the Palestinian struggle have supported it. According to critics, the BDS campaign won’t aid the Palestinian struggle because it will alienate individual Israelis and isolate supporters of the Palestinian struggle within Israel. In response to these arguments, Barghouti was very blunt.

“Palestine solidarity groups, in particular, who now, after four years, say that we are not sure how useful BDS is, or equivocate about BDS, do not deserve the name. I am very clear about this: do not deserve the name, ‘Palestine solidarity group’.” He added: “When Palestinian civil society, with all its forces, unites behind the BDS call and any group claiming solidarity with Palestinians refuses to heed this call, even in any context-sensitive campaign ... then they are not really solidarity groups.” Barghouti pointed out, however: “We are not asking every solidarity group to do everything in the BDS call, just any act of effective solidarity which supports boycott of Israel or divestment from Israel.

“There are three options for the Palestinian people: we surrender, resist violently or resist non-violently. Surrender is out of the question. Palestinians will not surrender. For 60 years, we have proven that despite all massacres and acts of ethnic cleansing, and acts of genocide like what is being committed in Gaza right now, we have not given up our resistance to colonial oppression, to Zionism. So that’s out of the question.

“So we are left with two choices, not necessarily mutually exclusive: violent or non-violent resistance. So those who say that civil resistance such as in BDS doesn’t work, are they supporting armed resistance instead? If so, they ought to come forth and say so — that they support the Qassam [Brigades] and other forms of armed Palestinian resistance as the way that Palestinians should go, in their opinion. If not, and they don’t support the civil resistance either, then they are telling us to surrender, which puts them in the camp of the enemy, not friends, unfortunately.”

The campaign for BDS against Israel, Barghouti said, needs to be seen both as part of progressive social movement across the world, and as part of the struggle by indigenous peoples for freedom and justice. “Indigenous activists should be our closest allies everywhere. As an indigenous population who suffered ethnic cleansings, we do see them as our natural allies, but also every progressive social movement should see the BDS movement as part of their agenda. We are part of the social movement across the world struggling for peace, democracy, justice, human rights and equality for all humans.”

[For more information on the global BDS movement visit its new website, http://www.bdsmovement.net/.]

The murder of Ahmed, Age 10

Another child has just been murdered.

On Tuesday, July 29, Ahmed Ussam Yusef Mousa, aged 10, was shot dead with a single shot to the head by Israeli occupation forces. Ahmed was murdered, just before 6pm, when he and a group of youth from Ni'lin village attempted to dismantle a section of barbwire fencing erected on the village's land by the Israeli occupation forces.

Ahmed is now the twelfth person and seventh child to be killed by the Israeli occupation forces in demonstrations against the apartheid fence [1]. He is one of more than 840 Palestinian children killed by the Israeli Zionist state since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000 [2].

My IWPS team mate and myself received the news of Ahmed’s death last night as we arrived in Ramallah. Within fifteen minutes we were at the hospital. As we arrived Ahmed's little body was being brought into the hospital. My teammate and myself were "lucky" in that we did not see Ahmed but two of our friends and activists from the ISM, who were at the hospital, did. Both experienced activists, they spoke quietly and with disbelief of how tiny Ahmed was.


Ahmed (facing camera) with other boys from his village, a few hours before he died.
Photo: Electronic Intifada and Palestine Solidarity Project

The initial shock, grief and tears we all felt were held at bay over the next few hours as we worked in the ISM's media office, ringing media persons, outlets, pulling together media releases. As we emailed out the press releases to the media and our various networks around the world, the emails poured in expressing shock, outrage and heartache.


Ahmed's father kisses him goodbye
Photograph by Anne Paq, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

As the night wore on we sat with each other, listened and supported each other, especially with those of use who had close ties with the villagers of Ni'lin and who had witnessed the arrival of Ahmed's body at the hospital. None of us could sleep, although we were all exhausted and we sat in the garden as the early hours of the mourning came upon us. Finally at around 3am, we forced ourselves to go to bed, but we all spent a sleepless night thinking about the grief the family must be experiencing - their shock, horror and disbelief - that their little boy was no longer with them.

In the morning, other members of the ISM and IWPS began to arrive in Ramallah, so we could all go to the hospital at 10am to be part of Ahmed's funeral procession and to accompany his family home with his body. At 10.30am, Ahmed’s family arrived, accompanied by many of the villagers from Ni’lin who came to pay their respects. Soon Ahmed's body was brought out and placed in the ambulance. As the ambulance drove out of the hospital car park, we took our place in the funeral procession made up of dozens of cars filled with villagers and others had come to pay their respects. Over the next 45 minutes, as we made our way through the streets of centre of Ramallah, we were joined by more cars, trucks and taxis.


Young Palestinian mourner carries poster of Ahmed in funeral procession, Ramallah
Photograph by Anne Paq, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)


Mourners in cars during funeral procession for Ahmed
Photograph by Anne Paq, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

Many of the cars displayed Ahmed's shihad or martyr poster (in Palestine the word martyr refers to anyone killed as a result of the Israeli occupation, not just militants who participate in suicide bombings or who are part of the armed resistance in the camps. Martyrs can be children and/or adults, who have died at the hands of the Israeli military). Ahmed’s poster displayed a handsome little boy, who was small and slight of build. Each time I looked at the poster, I wondered how anyone one could think that this tiny child could be such a threat to the security of their state? What could posses any person to think that the appropriate response to a small child was to fire live ammunition, deliberately shooting to kill?

As I looked at his photograph trying to image why Ahmed had to die, his funeral procession began to make its way out of Ramallah. As we left the city and began to traverse the hills and pass through the surrounding Palestinian villages, we sat in silence, very little to say to each other. As the procession drove on the chants from the Palestinian mourners continued, remembering Ahmed, God and opposing the occupation and the apartheid wall.


Funeral procession arrives outside of Ni'lin
Photograph by Anne Paq, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

As we weaved our way through one village after another, more cars joined us and villagers came to stand on the streets to offer their silent condolences and respect for Ahmed and his family. Along with adults, young children also lined the streets of the villages we passed through. My heart broke as I watch their little faces, many of them too young to comprehend what the procession was about. But as I watched these small children through the windows of our car, I kept wondering if one day they too would share the same fate as Ahmed. And the sadness and anger in me grew once again.


Funeral procession carries Ahmed's body to Ni'lin


Funeral procession arrives at Ni'lin

As we approached Bil'in village, a young father stood on the side of the road, along with a group of young children, many no doubt his own. They stood silent, bravely, in dignity with Palestinian flags held high in remembrance of Ahmed. Suddenly, all the composure and restraint I had imposed on myself since we first heard the news of Ahmed’s death left me and tears began to stream down my face.

When we reached Bil'in, many of the village residents who had been active in the struggle to save the lands of their village were waiting for the funeral procession. As the procession wound through the village, many of them joined us, as we began to make the last leg of the journey to Ni’lin.


IOF attack funeral mourners, including ambulance which carried Ahmed's body
Photograph by Anne Paq, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)


As we neared the settler highway that we must traverse to get to Ni'lin, we began to anxiously scan the hills and fields for the Israeli occupation forces who would be waiting for the funeral procession. As rounded the last bend before the highway, we caught our first glimpse of them and wondered would they try and stop the funeral procession? Would the use violence us? Would they attack the funeral procession, as the Israeli military had done on so many occassions before?

As we reached the highway, we could see the Israeli occupation forces had blocked the road and stopped Israeli plated cars from continuing towards the village’s entrance. This sight was a relief. Perhaps, we thought, they will let the funeral procession proceed unhindered. However, as we got closer to the entrance of the village and we and the rest of the Palestinians mourners and other internationals poured out of the vehicles on to the highway, we could see the Israeli occupation forces had set up another barricade near the village entrance. While the barricade did not prevent entry to the village, it was a clear sign that the military want to make their presence known. By placing the barrier directly opposite the entrance, rather then setting it up 50 or 100 or 200 metres or more away as they could have easily have done, the Israeli military seemed intent on provoking a confrontation with the mourners.



Ahmeds' Funeral procession arrives at Ni'lin. Video by Emad Bornat

As Ahmed's tiny body, wrapped in his funeral shroud, was carried above the crowd, the mourners chanted his martyrdom, against the occupation and the wall and for the greatness of God. Soon, smaller groups broke off from the procession to confront the soldiers, yelling at them angrily, as the emotions, anger and grief surrounding Ahmed’s death spilled over. In response the Israeli occupation forces began to throw sound grenades and flash bombs. As myself and one of my IWPS teammates moved closer to the front line to try and offer some sort of international presence, teargas began to be fired by the Israeli military. For the next few minutes, we were caught between the military firing on us and the young Palestinian men throwing stones in response to the occupation forces attack on the funeral procession.

As people began to run, we were swept up in the chaos and at one point people tried to crush past a park car, resulting in several young boys being dragged down and trampled. Suddenly, I saw a man dragging the limp body of a young teenage boy and at first my heart went to my mouth, as I thought another child had been shot. As the young boy was dragged to safety, he began to gain consciousness and my relief was palpable.

Tears streaming down my eyes from the teargas, I tried to locate my team mate and the internationals amongst the mourners who began to regroup. Soon, the funeral procession began to make its way once again, with Ahmed’s tiny body, towards the mosque. As Ahmed was carried up the stairs into the mosque, prayers were called and we waited in quite vigil for Ahmed and his family.

When the prayers finished, Ahmed was brought from the mosque and taken once again by funeral procession to the village burial ground. We walked quietly, as again the chants from the villagers and others Palestinians spoke of Ahmed's martyrdom, God and the occupation.

As we approached the burial grounds, women stood atop the house near where little Ahmed would be buried. As the funeral procession passed by they ululated, performing the zachrohtah, the traditional sound made to wish someone well. In performing this tradition, the women sought to ensure Ahmed's journey to paradise would be happy and joyful.


Women mourners on roof of house, as funeral procession takes Ahmed to be buried


Archway of burial ground with posters of Ahmed

As the men accompanied Ahmed's body for burial, we decided to remain outside. As we waited quietly, two young girls, both under the age of ten, shyly came to say hello. As we conversed, they asked me my name, where I lived and other innocent questions. As I responded, in my badly pronounced Arabic, they also began to ask if I liked Noor, the widely popular Turkish soap opera (which is dubbed in Arabic) that is showing at the moment on Palestinian television. I asked them if they liked Mohanad, the male lead, who all the Palestinian girls and young women have fallen in love with and they told me yes. As I practiced my Arabic with them and spoke of the things little girls find interesting and joyful, I thought again of Ahmed who will never have the chance to play games with his friends or his family and of how he would never be able to speak of the television shows he loved. And again the sadness swept over me for Ahmed and for his family, who would miss him so much.

*17 year old, Yousef Ahmad Younis Amera was shot in the head, twice, with rubber coated steel bullets at close range by the Israeli military, in Ni’lin village several hours after Ahmed was buried. Yousef was declared brain dead several hours after he was shot by the Israeli occupation forces.


[1]International Solidarity Movement (29 July, 2008) Ten year old shot In Ni’lin http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/07/29/10-year-old-shot-dead-at-nilin/
[2] Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Statistics relation to the Al Aqsa Intifada http://www.pchrgaza.org/alaqsaintifada.html