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Posted on Friday, 30 June, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Will post later on Gaza, bombings, The World Peace Forum up in B.C and so forth. Right now I’m going to carbon a to-do list from my pal Razen and then do some of the things on this list myself. As the great English dramatist John Fletcher (1579 – 1625) once said, “Deeds, not words shall speak me.”
Or, if you prefer, as the great American dramatist Chuck Norris (1940 – ?) once said, “Deeds, not words.”
From Razen (though, she’s reposted it as well):
How can you help Palestine
From Silence Gives Consent
From: I’m not against peace, Peace is against me
Date: May 10, 2006 5:08 PM
With the ongoing atrocities that are being committed daily in Palestine, there is a resounding voice of anger and desperation echoing world-wide, as people search for a way to provide any relief to those who are centered in the suffering. People are in search of ways to channel this anger.
With the emergence of the internet, and as technology makes our world smaller every day, new and creative ways to help and aid Palestinians emerge as well. The following is a list of things people can do to show solidarity and support. While many are quite simple, they have proven to be very effective.
1. Write letters everyday. If you have access to e-mail, you can send multiple newspapers the same letter and save time. The pro-Palestine voice needs to be heard and believe me; it makes a big difference to send just one letter a day expressing your thoughts about the media’s role or an article that was recently published in the newspaper. Check out Palestine Media Watch as a tool that has a comprehensive list of e-mail addresses and action items.
2. Boycott ALL Israeli products. Make sure that you read every label of every product you buy. Also, boycott all American made products or services whose companies support the economy of Israel. Two excellent websites that contain lists of companies and products to avoid are Boycott Israeli Goods and Innovative Minds.
3. Volunteer for Palestine no matter where you live. Volunteer your time to different groups in your area. This information can be obtained from within the Arab and Moslem communities. Websites such as Al-Awda, Palestine Chronicle have a list of activities and a calendar of events.
4. Donate money to Palestine. If you can not afford it, sell cookies and send the profit to a charitable organization. Palestine needs our support now more than ever and we can not let her down. Attend fundraisers, sell t-shirts, do something.
5. Learn the history of Palestine inside and out. Make sure there is no doubt in your mind about the truth so that you can respond to any discussion taking place. Also, if you have non-Arab friends, talk to them, convince them and show them how biased the American media and governments are.
6. Join rallies in support of Palestine. Make signs, express yourself. Invite the media.
7. Let everyone know that Semitic is a language classification which includes Arabic! We are not being “anti-Semitic” but pro-justice.
8. Join ADC (American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee). They are doing a superb job being the voices of the millions of Arabs and defending our rights. They also have excellent resources on their website such as Debunking 6 common Israeli myths .
9. Explain to people the definition of terrorism and what the Israeli government is doing to the original inhabitants of Palestine. Remind them that Israel is an occupying force.
10. Sign every petition that comes your way that you agree with. The internet has paved the road for our voices to be heard. Don’t be afraid to join the fight and list your name for the fight for a free Palestine.
11. Distinguish between those who are Jewish and those Israelis who are against Palestine. This is not a fight against the Jewish people. On the contrary, we need to thank those of the Jewish faith and those who are Israelis that have supported our cause and even fought our fight. Gush Shalom, B’Tselem, Uri Avnery are such groups and individuals that get a special thank you from the people who want peace to come to our land. Special thanks to all the groups and individuals that are not mentioned. We will not forget your deeds.
12. Support the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) for they have braved the Israeli army and some members are currently incarcerated for the Palestinian cause. Call your Congressmen and tell them to push for the release of these people. You can find more information on Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace. As for government listings, go to http://www.house.gov/ and http://www.senate.gov/. Always stay in touch with your representatives and senators to inform them, of the Arab point of view.
13. Be proud to be a supporter of Palestine. Wear pins that say Free Palestine, fly the flag, and don’t be intimidated. It’s a chance to educate the public when you wear a shirt that expresses your views. Please remember that the American public often relies on the biased media and does not have a chance to get factual information. When Europeans learned the truth, they backed our cause and so will the American people.
14. E-mail President Bush and let him know your views (OBSCURED EMAIL ADDRESS). The more people speak out, the further our cause will go.
15. Do something for Palestine every day. It can be in the form of donations, letter-writing, meeting your representatives, educating others, etc. Just one thing to Free Palestine!
16. If you were not around in Palestine in 1947 and 1948, call your relatives who were and ask them for information. Then write it down. We will never forget what happened and this way, we make sure it is documented.
17. Remember the Palestinians’ struggles throughout history. They were occupied for hundreds of years by the Romans, Crusaders, and Turks. This is just another part of history where they will come out victorious as they have for thousands of years. There will be a State of Palestine.
18. Remember those who are killed by Israel. Memories of the dead will never leave our minds, they are etched there forever.
19. Support Peace! Show the world that the Palestinian People are not terrorists but they are fighting for the right to survive in a State of their own. We should condemn suicide bombings as they take the struggle to a free Palestine back many steps. We understand that the Palestinian People have no Tanks, Apache helicopters, or F-16s and that they have the right to resist an illegal occupation by any means necessary, but most of the world does not. We need the support of all humanity now so please join the peace effort.
20. Keep your faith and pray for Palestine.
Please do not feel that you have to apply each activity, just take some action as we need all the voices available for our cause to be heard. Finally, I hope that you have found this information helpful and that you will apply some of the ideas included.
Free Palestine
Posted on Friday, 30 June, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
An email from Hannah
Dear friends,
After a week of traveling with a Birthright Unplugged group, I’m sitting in a beautiful apartment in Ramallah, watching the BBC report about Israeli incursions into Gaza.
And staring at a blank computer screen.
What is happening to the Palestinian people is so wrong, so clearly wrong, that it’s hard to know what to say.
Because I can’t just start at the Israeli bombings and cutting of electricity, food, and water, and the abduction of more than 25 Palestinian parliament members and a third of the cabinet, which is in response to the killing of two Israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of one, which was in response to the killing of dozens of Palestinian civilians, including Huda’s family on the beach.
I can’t just start at the lack of salaries for one third of the Palestinian population, which is a result of the government having no money to pay its workers, which is a result of the banks refusing to transfer money into Palestine, which is a result of the United States’ direct threats to banks and the rest of the world’s complicity in that, as well as the worldwide boycott against the democratically elected Palestinian government.
I can’t just start at the world’s unequal and mostly unconditional support for Israel, the media’s participation in the propaganda war, the fact that the law of force has consistently trumped the force of law, as a Palestinian friend often says.
I can’t just start at Israel’s refusal to engage in real negotiations with Palestinians over the years, the constant expansion of settlements and working out of agreements with the US that are then offered to Palestinian negotiators on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
I can’t just start at the military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem in 1967, which continues until today.
The truth is that 1948 is a tragedy unfolding every day. The expulsion of at least 800,000 indigenous people from their land, and the establishment of a state based on religion and ethnicity, is an injustice that plays out in each moment of each day in this land.
This is not a political doctrine. This is not rhetoric. When I say that the events of 1948 continue to unfold each day, it is not a figure of speech. Yesterday I sat in the living room of a man who was in first grade when Zionist forces came to the outskirts of his village and began to shoot.
He recalls bullets flying over his head, the killing of two of the village’s residents and the resulting fleeing of the rest. He remembers his father gathering up the family and the donkeys and leaving their ancestral lands, only to flee a few kilometers to where he now lives, as an Israeli citizen with fewer rights than other Israeli citizens because of the simple fact that he is not Jewish. He spoke about the land in the village, the places he played at 6 years old, and his eyes welled up with tears.
We then went to visit his village, Al Lajun, which has been taken over by Kibbutz Megiddo. We walked with him and two men in their 80s, along paths whose stones had been the stones of the houses. Each place we walked, one of these men, who were in their 20s in 1948, would point and say, this is where the Jabrin family lived, this is where Mahajne lived, this is where Mahamid lived. The pomegranate tree remains, the cactus remains, but the rubble from the houses has been flattened into the landscape and covered over with pine trees planted by the Jewish National Fund.
The people from this village, even those who are Israeli citizens living just 10 minutes away, are disallowed from returning to their land. 1948 is a tragedy happening today.
I sit in refugee camps with people who dream of having the right to choose where they live. 1948 is a tragedy happening today.
I find myself in a conversation with a Jewish Israeli man who runs a restaurant and bar in a building that used to be a mosque. He knows the village’s history, he knows that the former inhabitants of the village, the builders of the village, live just up the hill in a new village unrecognized by the Israeli government. He knows all this and he says that the past is past, that we must think about the future. Which is what most people with power say. After you have stolen something, after an injustice in which force has made you the “winner” and someone else the “loser,” it makes sense that you would want to forget the past. 1948 is a tragedy happening today.
So as the Israeli tanks assemble on the borders of Gaza and begin a massive incursion, I think also of Adnan’s tears as he remembers a pre-Israeli incursion into his own village. And I wonder how we can talk about one thing without talking about everything. And yet I wonder how we can deal with anything when we’re trying to deal with everything. The state of Israel will not become secular or democratic by tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or next year. How do we stop this incursion into Gaza, or the next one, or the starvation of the Palestinian people by the world community?
I don’t have clear answers. I’ve been pondering effectiveness and frustrated with myself and the Palestine solidarity community for not figuring out how to mount an effective campaign about anything. Because things here only get worse and worse for the Palestinian people, and the
Israeli government is quite skilled at keeping the Palestinian community in crisis mode. And the rest of us in reaction mode. So if Israel kills dozens of people in Gaza in the next few days, and then they stop, the world will thank them for stopping, justify collective punishment, and forget about anything that happened before.
So what can we do? In general, we need more creative and public actions, everywhere, to draw attention to the political crisis here that has led to a humanitarian crisis.
In the short term, let’s figure out how to get money here. Friends who have never asked me for anything before are starting to ask if I can help them or find others to do so. I have a critique of aid work and bandaid solutions both in theory and in practice, but when my friends can’t afford food and medicine, I’m not sure whether this critique can stand.
In the long term, please please please figure out how to isolate Israel from the world community, to force them to stop what they’re doing. I think the boycott / sanctions / divestment movement has some potential. It has worked in other places. Pressure your local supermarkets to stop buying Israeli goods or at least to label them so that consumers can choose which oranges to buy.
Pressure your universities, religious institutions, companies, and municipalities to stop investing in Israel Bonds, Israeli companies, or American companies like Caterpillar who continue to supply Israel with weapons. Pressure the US government to let the banks transfer money into Palestine, to pay the public school teachers and all other government employees who have been working without pay for 4 months.
And if you have any creative ideas, please let me know. We can work together.
Posted on Friday, 30 June, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
From the University Teachers’ Association
(Gaza Strip)
28th June: Last night the Israeli Occupation Forces began the
grotesquely named “Operation Summer Rain” on the Gaza Strip. Rafah,
scene of the May 2004 Rafah massacre by Israel, was re-occupied by
Israeli tanks.
Gaza City was bombed by Apache helicopters and F16 and V58 fighter
planes. Gaza’s only power plant was bombed as was the water
reticulation plant. Almost 750 000 of Gaza’s residents have no water
or electricity today. Three main bridges which connect different parts
of the Strip have been destroyed, slicing the Strip into two parts, and
separating its people from each other, their places of work, schools,
colleges and universities.
In addition, the Israeli military used powerful sonic bombs throughout
the night and during the day. These bombs damage eardrums, create
extreme feelings of fear and anxiety and prevent the whole Gaza Strip
population from sleeping at night. They also induce feelings of terror
in children and babies, who are already exhibiting anxious and clinging
behaviour.
These air-strikes and sonic bombs which damage essential infrastructure
and terrify and kill the civilian population are a form of collective
punishment against the Palestinian people and are war crimes which are
forbidden under international humanitarian law, especially the Fourth
Geneva Convention, which prescribes the manner in which armies must
treat civilians during times of conflict.
We call on the international community to exert pressure on the Israeli
military to conduct itself within the boundaries of international
humanitarian law and ensure the protection of all Palestinian
civilians.
We also demand the immediate halt of the Israeli Occupation Forces’
attacks on the Gaza Strip and an end to the closure and isolation of
the Strip, both of which are exacerbating an already desperate
humanitarian situation inside the Strip.
*** RECOMMENDED ACTIONS ***
- MEDIA: Please contact your local media and request that they do not
act as a mouthpiece for Israel by asserting that the aim of the Gaza
invasion is to rescue the captured soldier. At the very least, they can
say that this is what Israel claims is the reason, or they should use
the word “allegedly”. It should also be made clear that the primary
victim of this assault is the Palestinian civilian population, and that
this constitutes collective punishment of a captive population, which
is a direct (and repeated) violation of the Geneva Convention.
- LOBBYING: Please contact your elected representatives and ask them
whether they support Israel’s barbaric crimes against innocent
Palestinian civilians. If they oppose these atrocities, ask them what
they’re doing about it. Make your voice heard.
- PROTEST: Protests are needed at Israeli embassies and consulates
throughout the world. Even a one-person protest with a simple sign such
as “Stop Israeli Terrorism” can be good at bringing attention to
the situation and letting Israel know that there is widespread
opposition to its continued and escalating crimes against the
Palestinian people. Believe it or not, Israel does care about its
image, and if the government receives reports of a number of protests,
they will feel pressured to limit the operation. Please take action on
this TODAY – for the sake of the innocent civilians in Gaza.
Posted on Tuesday, 27 June, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
It’s kind of weird to be in a place where people are generally getting along, Israeli, Palestinian, Canadian, anti-imperial Yankess (forget that red state blue state crap) while a place that is one of the many focuses of this event continues to be ripped up by occupation forces.
Not hitting to many events myself at the World Peace Forum up here in Vancouver B.C., but there are no shortage of great things to get to. Will have a write-up upon return to Oly. You can read the latest here.
Today in Gaza, the Israeli occupation forces have launched a seige on civilian targets, apparently not content to launch missiles at families reclining along the beach. According to Associated Press coverage, “Israeli planes attacked a bridge in central Gaza late Tuesday, Israel Radio reported, and Israeli tanks were said to be on the move, possibly signaling the start of a military operation.” to be short, regarding last summer’s alleged and much touted “Disengagement,” there was no pullout. There was no giving up of seized land, no end to the occupation of any territory in that round of Three Card Monte. Some chips — how the Israeli government seems to view its own settler population — were moved from one place to another. End of story. Next. The only thing the removal of settlers from Gaza did was make it easier for military operations to wipe out scores more Palestinians without the fear of any immediate retaliation. There were no plans that didn’t involve those settlement houses to one day return.
During her talk last night in this forum, Nurit Peled-Elhanan, an Israeli educator and mother of a daughter killed in a suicide attack, said she no longer uses the words “peace” and “justice,” which she described as cover words to hide the killing and crimes that continue to be perpetuated by the policymakers that employ them. She has a point. There’s no reason for any Palestinian government, Hamas or otherwise, to see a negotiating partner in the Israeli government. That message seems to be the intent behind this attack.
Posted on Saturday, 10 June, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Lee Kaplan is a self-described “journalist” who is bent on wiping out the International Solidarity Movement, something he has been about as effective at as the U.S. government has been at finding chemical weapons in Iraq. But just becuase there’s no threat, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to shoot your mouth off about fictional ones.
Kaplan creates little online showcases with his pals with different names and designs to make themselves look much bigger than they are, such as FrontPageMag, Stop the ISM, DAFKA, Campus Watchand so forth. He’s claimed to have infiltrated organizations in the past for his “investigations,” which — if true — seems likes a waste of time and money since he’s churning out fiction anyway. When he’s not doign that outright, he’s just writing goofy, slightly creepy stuff.
In April of this year, Kaplan wrote that “Wahid Taysir, a Bedouin, is a better Israeli than me, a Jew” because Taysir was the guy who shoot unarmed British photographer and peace activist Tom Hurndall who was escorting children home in the Gaza border town of Rafah.. This bizarre screed reads all too similar to those fiery sermons from strident ministers who condemn violence in the same breath that they say that people who shoot abortion doctors willl surely go to heaven.
To be plain: Lee makes stuff up and/or is just plain weird, but has somehow parlayed these to dubious aspects about himself into a career.
But there is hope!
The other day someone forwarded me this funny website dedicated to following the exploits of one of the right-wing’s weirdest of wackos. Take a look at Lee Kaplan Watch! It’s one of this blog’s least favorite blogs.
UPDATE: Should have updated this a while ago. The above mentioned Kaplan WAtch blog (link now disabled) is now the personal blog of Lee and is not that of his watcher. There was a court case. It was this whole thing. There are other sites out there following the guy, though, if you have that much morbid interest in the subject.
Posted on Monday, 5 June, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Weapon of mass destruction
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
June 14th, 2006
This will be our third year demonstrating at NC Machinery for the National Day of Action coinciding with the annual Caterpillar shareholder meeting on June 14.
This meeting was postponed by Caterpillar from April to June due to the proximity of the anniversary of Rachel’s death and the censorship of the play, “My Name Is Rachel Corrie.” Caterpillar recently spent millions of dollars on a public relations campaign to clean up its image as a perpetrator of human rights abuses. We are already affecting Caterpillar Inc. through education, media and direct pressure.
A member of the Olympia community will traveling to Chicago to attend the shareholder meeting and to support a resolution challenging Caterpillar Inc. to abide by its own code of conduct which states, “as a company, we strive to contribute toward a global environment in which all people can work safely and live healthy, productive lives, now and in the future.” On this day, we need you to demonstrate your support of the resolution and hold CAT accountable.
Location:
NC Machinery
17035 W Valley Highway
Tukwila, Washington
Date & Time:
Wednesday, June 14th
4 pm
Carpools from Olympia:
Leave the corner of Harrison & Division at the Westside Plaza/old Rainy Day parking lot at 2:30 pm
For more information, directions or to volunteer visit www.olycatcampaign.org, email OBSCURED EMAIL ADDRESS or call (360)485-5745.
Sponsoring this event are Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project, Amnesty International – Olympia, Palestine Solidarity Committee – Seattle, Veterans for Peace – Rachel Corrie Chapter 109, the Green Party of South Puget Sound and many more.
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