Dorothy Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem
Chair of West Midland PSC

Dear Friends,

The 6 items below begin with a brief report on enormous destruction—settlers apparently had a hay day while setting things on fire including trees.

Item 2 is Isabel Kershner’s report on the desire of Palestinian youth to end the schism forged by the separation between Fatah and Hamas.

Item 3 reports that 100s rallied in Hebron today. The Jerusalem Post put the number of participants at over 1,600.

Item 4 is OCHA’s weekly report on the Protection of Citizens.

Item 5 relates problems that pressure from Israel-firsters had closed New York’s ‘famed’ LGBT center to both a “Party to End Apartheid!,” in preparation for Apartheid week as well as to the organization hosting it.

Finally, item 6 analyzes (I believe correctly) why suddenly there is so much fuss in the US and Europe about current events in Libya.

Wishing you good reading.

Dorothy

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1. Palestine News & Info Agency,

February 25, 2011

Settlers go on a Rampage in Nablus Area Date : 25/2/2011 Time : 12:59

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=15312

NABLUS, February 25, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers went on a rampage in Nablus area village Friday morning, setting a car and fields on fire, according to local sources.

Settlers burnt 25 trees in the village of Oreef, a tractor in the village of Burin, both south of Nablus, and they wrote racist slogans on walls in the village of Jitt, west of the city, they said.

M.A.

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2. New York Times,

February 24, 2011

Young Seek to End West Bank and Gaza Schism

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/world/middleeast/25ramallah.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast

By ISABEL KERSHNER

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Young Palestinians watching the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere in the region have no shortage of their own protest-worthy causes.

There is the 43-year Israeli occupation; frustration with the entrenched and aging leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization; lack of freedoms under the competing Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza; and more recently, anger over last Friday’s American veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity as illegal, a move that they said showed the “double standard” of the United States.

But in recent days, Palestinian students and youth activists have been finding a voice and a focus, coalescing around a single popular issue that they believe will help the Palestinians in all of the above: ending the schism between the West Bank, where the mainstream, secularist Fatah dominates the Palestinian Authority, and Gaza, which is under the control of Fatah’s rival, the Islamic militant group Hamas.

“This split weakens us,” said Hatem Abdul Rahim, 26, from Nablus, who volunteers for Sharek, an independent Palestinian youth organization with headquarters in Ramallah and Gaza. “It leaves the door open for the occupiers to do whatever they want.”

Sharek, which provides youth activities and programs, organized its first protest against the split and for national unity in mid-February in Ramallah. At the time, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas were both preventing demonstrations in support of the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia because they worried about being seen as taking sides in Middle East disputes and about the protests’ spilling out of control. But national unity is a consensus issue among Palestinians, and one to which the rival leaderships say that they subscribe.

This seemed like an appropriate time to present new positions, said Hazem Abu Helal, 27, a youth activist at Sharek, in an interview, because “the dictatorships surrounding us were the reason for the situation we are in now.”

Sharek held a news conference this week in Ramallah to present a youth manifesto, adopting the slogan, “The people want an end of the schism,” an adaptation of one resounding across the Middle East, “The people want an end of the regime.”

The rivalry between Fatah and Hamas worsened after the Islamic group won parliamentary elections in 2006 in the West Bank and Gaza, which are separated geographically by Israeli territory. A year later, after months of factional fighting, Hamas seized full control of Gaza, routing forces loyal to Fatah and compounding the divide.

Repeated Egyptian-brokered efforts at reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah have failed. But the renewed call for unity, spearheaded by the young people, seems to be catching on.

On Thursday, hundreds of Palestinians converged on Manara Square in Ramallah for a peaceful rally for national unity. In an unusual gesture, the diverse political groups that were participating put aside their own symbols and all marched under the Palestinian flag.

“Ending the division has become more urgent because of the American veto,” Suheil Khader, a Palestinian union official, said at the demonstration. “We would rather be hungry than pay with our dignity.”

Demonstrations against the veto and for national reconciliation have spread to other parts of the West Bank. And given the demand in the region for more government accountability, leaders in both the West Bank and Gaza have appeared eager to respond.

In the past few days, Palestinian officials have started talking about new efforts for unification. Ismail Radwan, a Hamas official in Gaza, said that his movement was consulting with national groups to find a new basis for national reconciliation. Nabil Shaath, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, said he was in contact with Hamas figures and would be heading to Gaza soon.

Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, is floating the idea of forming a new unity government including Hamas, which could pave the way for national elections and for a more comprehensive reconciliation agreement.

If Hamas was committed to maintaining a cease-fire with Israel, it could retain its security control in Gaza and share in the other, practical functions of government, according to Ghassan Khatib, spokesman for the government in the West Bank.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official and aide to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, spoke positively of the youth initiatives for national reconciliation in an interview with the official Voice of Palestine radio on Wednesday. “We also support and encourage them,” he said, “as they represent the Palestinian people’s will.”

Any genuine reconciliation, which still may be a long way off, would further complicate the prospect of peace with Israel. But the Palestinians suspended short-lived negotiations last September after Israel refused to renew a moratorium on construction in West Bank Jewish settlements.

As Mr. Khatib put it, “Do you see any negotiations that we should be worried about?”

Among the jumble of grievances, the youth activists complain of oppression. Mr. Abu Helal noted that youths who had called on Facebook for protests in solidarity with the Arab revolutions were summoned for questioning and said that his organization had been dealt with harshly by the security forces in both Gaza, where it is currently banned, and in the West Bank.

But many Palestinians in the West Bank seem generally satisfied with Mr. Abbas’s administration, which has restored law and order after years of chaos.

Mr. Abbas called for elections by September but Hamas immediately rejected the idea. Mr. Abbas now says that they can take place only if they can be held in the West Bank and Gaza at the same time.

Unlike some regional despots who have ruled for decades, Mr. Abbas is not an autocrat and has been the president only since 2005. He has said that he is not keen to run for another term, and he has on occasion threatened to quit.

“Abbas and Fayyad are very good for us,” said Muhammad Abu Ghazaleh, the owner of a jeans store in Ramallah. “They gave us security.”

As for ending the split with Gaza, he said, “Of course, all Palestinians want that.”

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3. Ynet Friday, February 25, 2011

17:35 , 02.25.11

Hundreds rally in Hebron; 5 officers hurt [the Jerusalem Post claims that 1, 650 protestedhttp://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=209861 ]

Palestinians mark 17 years since Baruch Goldstein killed 29 in Cave of the Patriarchs; confronted by security forces while trying to enter Jewish quarter

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4034100,00.html

Yair Altman

Hundreds of Palestinians protested in Hebron on Friday to mark the 17th anniversary of the massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs and demanded that Shuhada Street in the West Bank city be opened to Palestinian traffic.

During the march, protesters tried to enter the city’s Jewish quarter but were confronted by IDF and Border Guard forces. Five Border Guard officers were lightly injured. Three protestors were arrested by Israeli forces.

Four Border Guard officers were injured when stones were thrown at them by protestors, and a female officer suffered light injuries to her hand after being attacked by a protestor wielding a sharp object.

Israeli far-left activist Yonatan Pollack said that during the rally, which was held in memory of the 29 Palestinians who were killed by Baruch Goldstein in 1994, Israeli forces fired tear gas at the protestors.

Also on Friday, Palestinians rallied in Bilin, Na’alin, Nabi Saleh and Al-Maasara against the construction of the West Bank security fence.

Activists said that Israeli artist David Riv was arrested while he was videotaping the demonstration in Nabi Saleh.

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4. http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_report_2011_02_25_english.pdf

Protection of Civilians Weekly Report | 16 – 22 February 2011

Israeli forces kill three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and injure another 37. In the West Bank, settler-related incidents continue. Escalation in Area C demolitions. In Gaza, incidents along the fence continue. Rafah Crossing re-opens. Limited entry of wheat and construction materials continue to affect humanitarian assistance.

[follow the link for the full report. Dorothy]

Best,

Judith

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5. “MuzzleWatch” – 1 new article

http://archive.feedblitz.com/150615/~3983618/19724958/ca23c13dedd97c65e04f962dd3475928

NY’s famed LGBT Center folds under pressure – bans “Party to End Apartheid!,” Israeli Apartheid Week event and groups

Taking Pinkwashing to a whole new level, one of Israel’s very very good friends– gay male pornographer Michael Lucas– is boasting that he single-handedly got NY’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Trans Community Center to not only cancel a “Party to End Apartheid” fundraiser to cover costs for Israel Awareness Week, but to ban the group from ever renting there again. How? You know, the usual calls from supporters and threats to withhold major donations (according to Lucas). Stephen Thrasher in the Village Voice writes:

Lucas, one of gay porn’s most outspoken figures, is known equally for his “Men of Israel” films, hisrabidly right-wing political writing for theAdvocate, and his custom-made dildo in the shape of his own manhood.

We were surprised at how quickly he succeeded.

Just hours after writing, “It was an inexcusable decision on the Center’s part to associate itself with a hate group like Israeli Apartheid Week, but there’s still time for them to reverse course and begin restoring their reputation,” Lucas proclaimed victory, writing: “We prevailed! Congratulations to everyone who stood with me in support of Israel. With your help it took only eight hours to accomplish our mission.”

The LGBT Center released a two-sentence statement: “We have determined that this event is not appropriate to be held at our LGBT Community Center, which is a safe haven for LGBT groups and individuals. Therefore, the meeting at The Center has been cancelled and the host group will no longer meet at The Center.”

Safe haven? For whom exactly?

Perhaps it’s the use of the word ‘apartheid’ that got to Lucas. The event was part of Israel Apartheid Week- but that word, whether you agree with it or not, has long been used to describe conditions in Israel by many including former education minister Shulamit Aloni, and former Israeli Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair. And how is Israel so utterly weak that it apparently cannot stand strong or at worst strident language? Isn’t this the core of democracy- protecting popular and unpopular speech?

Here’s a recently released open letter from Queer Palestinians that has something to say about safety, which should extend beyond safety for just Michael Lucas and his friends. It also makes a compelling case that many other groups have made for aligning LGBT freedom with other struggles (including the fight for free speech). A message likely long ago internalized by the LGBT Center except, it turns out, when it comes to Palestinians.

We believe that, as Queer communities, we must pay close attention to any grave human rights violations on our way to support the LGBTQ struggle, especially in a context where the country in question that oppresses, discriminates, and implements an apartheid system. We should question the ethics and the values of Queer organizations or groups that voice fervent support for and participate in an apartheid state’s institutions. Human rights should not be compartmentalized, and the human rights of a certain group should not be more important than others’. We, as Palestinian queers, cannot ignore the struggle and the rights of the Palestinian people. To us, the two struggles go side by side.

All I can say is, the LGBT Center screwed. It’s appalling how easily they folded to threats from right-wing donors-apparently it took just 8 hours to make this unprincipled decision. I can’t imagine that NY area LGBT activists, who love and helped build the ground-breaking center, are going to like this anymore than the activist community in Toronto that staged a full-out Cairo-style rebellion when a small group of right wing friends of Israel similarly pressured Toronto Pride into banning the word ‘apartheid’ , when associated with Israel, in the parade. (Pride overturned the decision because, like this decision, it was indefensible.)

Thrasher says:

“Party to End Apartheid!” was a benefit for the Siege Busters Working Group, whose membership includes Emily Henochowicz, a Cooper Union art student who lost an eyeduring a peace protest in Israel, and the group Existence is Resistance. Both groups are raising money to send another aid ship to Gaza. The last such unsuccessful effort led to the death of nine people (and to the protest where Henochowicz lost an eye).

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6. [Thanks to Dorinda for forwarding]

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011

Nikhil Shah

Oil, Arms and the Imperial Enterprise in North AfricaThe Business of

Business in Libya

By TARECQ AMER

Another North African country is in the throes of revolution, causing yet

more confusion and consternation among western leaders. One can only imagine the chagrin these Europeans and U.S. American progenitors of universal morals feel as they woke up only to see another despotic investment (this time in the form of odd-ball dictator Muammar Qaddafi) fall to the wrath of his people. Money at risk, investments troubled, and cultivated relationships strained all under the hue and cry of popular uprisings that challenge the very foundations of neo-liberal capitalism. There is a clear and protracted state of confusion going on amongst these leaders. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (again) tries in vain to find the safest words to meet the moment of fury in the streets of Libya while not straying too far from the corporate demands for stability at any cost. Her boss, President Obama, hides away on Presidents’ Day perhaps hoping that by tomorrow all this will have gone away and he can get back to soaring speeches and mesmerized crowds.

Alas, that is unlikely. The violence unleashed upon the people of Libya, in

the streets of Benghazi, Tripoli, al Baida and beyond, could very well make

Libya a long-term dilemma for Washington. The people who have suffered

through four decades of psychotically messianic rule are not likely to

forget the meek (and in some instances downright offensive) statements of

the U.S.A. and Europe calling for restraint while fighter jets were dropping

bombs on their heads.

But the stakes are high at this point and go well beyond the shores of

Tripoli. Firstly, key member states of the European Union have made hefty

investments in Libya in the last few years and there isn’t a strong desire

to have these investments disturbed. With moves over the last decade to be

re-admitted into the so-called global community, Qaddafi’s Libya has caught the attention of nations and business. The 2004 application to the World Trade Organization, odd diplomatic feints such as suggesting a combined Jewish-Palestinian state called Isratine, and political posturing calling for a unified African nation are Qaddafi’s attempts to move Libya away from its revolutionary image of the 1970s and 1980s.

Secondly, natural resources have facilitated these rebranding attempts.

Libya’s vast oil reserves make it a critical player globally simply because

any interruption in supply would have a dramatic ripple effect on economies worldwide. Indeed, we are already beginning to see this at the gas-pump. And lastly, though he may be a disdainful bed partner, to send Qaddafi out the door now would simply add confidence to popular movements in more acceptable client states, thereby leading to the instability (also known as representative rule) that our Secretary of State so clearly dreads. This, at any rate, was the logic that seemed to guiding the brooding diplomats of the United States and Europe until a few days ago. There is likely to be a significant change of course simply because the level of carnage has exceeded the level of acceptability and could prove to be a far more destabilizing factor. That aside, let’s now take a look at some key examples that highlight the once enviable position of Muammar Qaddafi in the geopolitical arena.

Italy currently receives 20% of its total oil imports from their former

North African colony. This fact alone explains the despicable action of the

Italian government over the last three days, as well as its willingness to

be as evasive in condemning Qaddafi’s violence as their prime minister is in letting the world know why he has a penchant for paying underage prostitutes for sex. Just days ago, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, echoing the words of comfort given by his Prime Minister to Qaddafi, stated, “We should not give the wrong impression of wanting to interfere, of wanting to export our democracy. We have to help, we have to support the peaceful reconciliation.”

Perhaps, hearkening back to the brutal days of Italian colonial expeditions

in Libya, he forgot that people rarely seek peaceful reconciliation with

those who are comfortable with mowing down fellow citizens with 50 caliber machine gun rounds. Now granted, the Italians are apt to take a

not-too-terribly-clever passive stance if for no other reason than they have

a lot of money riding on the survival of Qaddafi. Oil imports at that scale

make a brutal strongman an asset, if he is able to keep the oil flowing.

That, though, is the ultimate unknown and we may well see Signor Frattini

change his song before long as tribes in the oil-rich south of Libya begin

to side with anti-government protesters, thereby threatening oil production.

Now to Britain. First on the list of Britain’s new love affair with the

Qaddafi regime is the central role of oil. In recent times, former Prime

Minister Tony Blair has become something of a Qaddafi fan, with multiple

visits with the Madman of North Africa over the past few years, including

one that was splashed all over the British headlines in June of last year.

What Blair has been up to hasn’t fully come to light, but his moves vis a

vis the Libyan regime were certainly pleasing to the Board of British

Petroleum. Lest we forget, Libya has some of the largest oil reserves on the

African continent and the prospect of untethered access to them made the

mouths of Big Oil water. For four decades, Qaddafi maintained a nationalized oil extraction and production industry, filling the coffers of the leader and his acolytes. But with the 21st Century came an attempted neo-liberal regime facelift. Three years ago, BP signed a substantial exploration deal with the Qaddafi regime, totaling 900 million USD. This was one of the first of many corporate deals that made western liberal democracies giddy with excitement. The flamboyant defender of the Palestinian cause was shedding the clothes of barbarism and coming to the light of free markets. Big oil now had access to huge reserves; lots and lots of money was to be had. This rapture has come to a screeching halt in the past few days. Odds are that BP executives have joined western leaders and diplomats in sweating bullets over the Libyan events. Strongman Qaddafi was a dream for them. His odd, cultish ways aside, he was meant to be a man who knew how to hold his people in check and did so quite well for 42 years.

These are the characteristics of a leader well suited for the rapacious

bottom-feeders of global capital. But they also demand that the ugliness of

business be kept tightly under wraps. In this regard, Qaddafi has failed

spectacularly.

And then, of course, there are the arms traders. Since its formation, the

Cameron government has had an arms dealers’ version of a tupper-ware party with the Middle East’s less savory dictators, including the selling of crowd control weapons to Libya. Here is the list of some lethal toys sold to Libya by the British, as reported by The Independent on February 18th: tear gas; crowd control and small arms ammunition; ammunition for wall- and

door-breaching projectile launchers. Also included in the list was military

infrared and thermal imaging equipment, which one may suspect have been used by mercenary snipers to target unarmed protesters over the past five

nights.

Qaddafi’s brutality towards his subject may have sealed his fate, though.

Recent history has shown that Big Oil and western governments have a strong stomach for mercenaries, violence, and cruelty for the preservation of profits. But Heaven forefend that these acts come to light. Reports of

fighter jets unleashed on the people of Libya and mercenaries roaming the

capital expose the mockery that is European values. As these stories find

their way to the webpages of Al Jazeera, the BBC, and CNN, we may see

considerably stronger rhetoric and action coming from the houses of power in the west, all signs that Qaddafi has become bad for business. This, of