NOVANEWS

In pictures: Gaza welcomes Hana Shalabi

Apr 02, 2012

Joe Catron

Following a weekly sit-in by the families of Palestinian political prisons inside Gaza’s International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), hundreds rallied outside to welcome former administrative detainee and hunger striker Hana Shalabi to Gaza.

(Photo: Joe Catron)

Shalabi, age 30, was exiled to the besieged Gaza Strip from her home in Burqin, Jenin for three years by Israel, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and following Israel’s denial of her access to legal counsel and medical advice, as part of an agreement ending her 43-day hunger strike.

(Photo: Joe Catron)

After her arrival, Shalabi told government officials, “I am in my country and among my family.” Today’s rally illustrated the broad support she and her hunger strike enjoy in Gaza, with visible participation by every major Palestinian party.

(Photo: Joe Catron)

In addition to praising Shalabi’s struggle against administrative detention and denouncing her exile, speakers addressed the urgent need to build Palestinian and international support forAhmad Al-Hajj Ali, a 72-year-old Member of Parliament and administrative detainee now on the 14th day of his hunger strike, and to mobilize on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.

(Photo Joe Catron)

Video: ‘Long range acoustic device’ and other weapons used on Palestinians on Land Day

Apr 02, 2012

Allison Deger

Russia Today video of Israeli Land Day fire in Gaza.

In Friday’s Land Day protests, hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were injured by Israeli dispersal weapons, and one in Gaza was killed. Weapons used against the protesters included tear gas canisters, live bullets, and water cannons. In addition, Israeli forces also used a Long Range Acoustic Device, a sound machine designed to emit a high frequency noise. The machine can be heard in the background of both videos. It sounds like a soft and piercing, high pitch.

In the West Bank over 200 were severely injured and at least nine in Gaza. Tens of Palestinians were also arrested in the West Bank. Russia Today was reporting live, and captured the Israeli weapons as they were used against protestors.

Russia Today video of Israeli Land Day fire in Jerusalem.

A twitter debate on Israel/Palestine and racism

Apr 02, 2012

Adam Horowitz

This past weekend saw a spirited and sometimes angry debate on twitter over racism, Israel/Palestine, and BDS (Phil referenced it briefly here). The discussion was touched off by acritique of BDS from The Nation‘s Ben Adler, which was responding to Kiera Feldman’s report on the Park Slope Food Co-op boycott vote. In his article Adler wrote:

And Israel’s destruction is indeed what BDS seeks. Calling for a Palestinian “right of return” is, as Feldman acknowledges, calling for the demographic abolition of Israel as a Jewish state. A lot of people have fled persecution over the years. I have no right of return to the Eastern European countries where my ancestors feared pogroms, nor do Israelis. Native Americans cannot reclaim the land in Brooklyn that the Park Slope Food Coop currently occupies.

The ensuing exchange lasted for nearly 26 hours, with many chiming in (including me tweeting under the Mondoweiss account).

Below are snippets from the discussion (see Adler’s twitter page for the full discussion).

[View the story “Ben Adler’s tweets on BDS” on Storify]

Ben Adler’s tweets on BDS

Storified by Mondoweiss

Apr 02 2012

The Problems With BDS | The Nation http://www.thenation.com/blog/167146/problems-bdsBen Adler

For the record, when one (eg @badler) refers to Palestinian bodies as “demographic” threats, that’s racist. More serious response to come.Kiera Feldman

@kierafeldman how exactly is referring to a demographic reality that would end Israel as a Jewish and democratic state racistBen Adler

@kierafeldman Israel is a Jewish state. It’s not the same as calling, say, Latinos a demographic threat to the U.S.Ben Adler

@kierafeldman can you tell me what Israel would be like for the 6 million Jews there if they lived with 8 million Palestinians?Ben Adler

@Mondoweiss if you think believing that Israel should be allowed to exist within the Green Line as a Jewish state makes me a racist, fineBen Adler

@badler please explain y that isn’t clear? Do U think it’s right that U can move 2 Israel 2morrow, but a refugee forced out in 48 cant?Mondoweiss

according to @Mondoweiss if you support Israel’s right to exist you “support racism.” So he must see racists everywhereBen Adler

I support Palestinians having their own state alongside Israel. @mondoweiss opposes Israel’s right to exist. but HE’s calling ME racistBen Adler

@Mondoweiss Looking fwd to your posts saying I have right of return to Hungary, Russia, Lithuania & calling anyone who disagrees a racistBen Adler

As someone who wants Israel to disband settlements and withdraw from West Bank, I find ppl like @mondoweiss who demand 1 state v unhelpfulBen Adler

Is there a stupider analogy than “it wd be racist to oppose latinos in US for demographic reasons so it’s racist to oppose right of return”?Ben Adler

so I guess @mondoweiss is an anti-filipino bigot for not boycotting Saudi Arabia over their immigration policy http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/jewish-food-fight.htmlBen Adler

@kierafeldman @Mondoweiss can i see your pieces calling for boycotts of the Gulf states for their racist immigration policies?Ben Adler

By @mondoweiss’ logic, Israel can’t have a different founding purpose than U.S. Funny how he’s never said that about, say, Saudi ArabiaBen Adler

I’m not calling @mondoweiss an anti-Semite for wanting Israel’s Jews to be ruled by Hamas. Bc I’m not a mud slinging hack like he isBen Adler

@kierafeldman @JoshuaHol but that’s precisely my point! convince bernie sanders to introduce a bill cutting off Israel … 1/2Ben Adler

@kierafeldman @JoshuaHol …. 2/2 that would generate more influential discussion that a losing vote at a food coop not to buy 6 productsBen Adler

.@badler But that’s my point, you refer to people wanting to “abolish Israel as a Jewish state,” demographics is a racist argument.Remi Kanazi

@Remroum for the record, i think if birthrates created arab majority within israel they could democratically alter it’s Jewish natureBen Adler

.@badler You’re excusing mass ethnic cleansing. People have a right to return. It’s NOT immigration, they were expelled from their homes.Remi Kanazi

@Remroum there’s a diff btwn allowing immigration policies to shape demographics and ethnic cleansing of ppl already there.Ben Adler

@Remroum just bc filipino guest workers in Saudi aren’t refugees from 60 yrs ago doesn’t make those ethnocentric policies non-racistBen Adler

.@badler Who is commending disgusting Saudi policy? Object & work against both. That’s the point. Stop deflecting.Remi Kanazi

@Remroum what exactly are you doing to change Saudi policy? Where are your posts calling Saudis & anyone not boycotting Saudi racists?Ben Adler

.@badler If Saudis or Filipinos called for boycott, I would sign on. Palestinian civil society, the oppressed, called for boycottRemi Kanazi

@badler It’s not “disrespectful” 2 point out what demographic fear means. It’s not progressive to say ‘but my demographic fear is DIFFERENT”Kiera Feldman

@kierafeldman it’s simply dishonest to equate demographic fear wrt Israel to anti-Latino sentiment in US. It’s not abt fear of Arabs … 1/2Ben Adler

@kierafeldman … 2/2 but rather any non-Jews. It’s not inherently more racist against Arabs than, say, Swedes.Ben Adler

@kierafeldman of course I’m not denying presence of horrible anti-Arab racism in Israel. Like you, I want to stop supporting thatBen Adler

.@badler Isnt racism when u say it’s ok to treat different groups differently? Would u deny right of return 4 any other refugee group?Kiera Feldman

@kierafeldman Yes and so do you, unless you’re moving out of your house so a Native American can move in.Ben Adler

.@badler Calling for justice for one dispossessed people doesn’t preclude justice here. BDS works w/First Nations groups here too you knowKiera Feldman

@badler I’m just saying if u want 2 call yrself progressive u should own up to the fact that yr definitions of citizenship are anything but.Kiera Feldman

@kierafeldman A) I don’t “Want to call myself progressive.” I call myself a liberal and I’ve been writing for lib mags for years …Ben Adler

@kierafeldman … I’ve written FAR more than you about immigrant rights, civil rights, voting rights in U.S. where I live …Ben Adler

@kierafeldman Yes, I do apply a different standard of citizenship of Israel than US. Just as you apply diff stand to Saudi v IsraelBen Adler

@MaxBlumenthal @mondoweiss Ben’s asking good questions, should read Omar’s book and meet more Palestinians. @badler :-)Tiny Dancer

@DianaValerie @MaxBlumenthal @mondoweiss I would love to meet more Palestinains. I’m waiting for my junket invite!Ben Adler

@youngcollier hahah. remind me never to write about the middle east again. they think im a terrible person bc of this: http://www.thenation.com/blog/167146/problems-bdsBen Adler

Hoping tonight’s episode of Mad Men is more awesome than last week’sBen Adler

Scenes from Qalandiya, Land Day 2012

Apr 02, 2012

Leehee Rothschild

Qalandiya, Land Day 2012 (Photo: Leehee Rothschild)

The sirens of the ambulances won’t stop for a minute, and they combine with the screams to create a horrible cacophony. Different sorts of explosions give the beat to the soundtrack of Qalandiya. As experienced listeners we tried to identify when was it gas, and when was it the rubber bullets cannon that was setting the tune. Qalandiya, the word rolls on the tongue so easily and softly, it gives no indication of the war zone in which one finds herself once the demonstration starts. Qalandiya, it doesn’t sound like hell, and yet, at time, that’s what it felt like.

Once again, I’m struggling to find the words to describe eyes which are blinded by clouds of tear-gas, and the foul smell of the skunk water that creeps through the nose. All senses are consumed, and the rubber coated bullets are buzzing around, they’re shooting them from canons now, ten at once. All of Qalandiya seems to be a frontline, and as we stand and chat a direct impact bullet passes amidst us and rolls at our feet. It’s small and blue, and yet, there’s nothing innocent about it.

Both in Palestine and all over the world people gathered in protests to mark the Land Day. Commemorating the day in which 36 years ago Palestinians protesting massive land expropriation by the state of Israel, by demonstrations and general strikes were violently repressed, by the Israeli army, leaving 6 of them dead, and hundreds injured and arrested, all of them Israeli citizens. All over the ’67 occupied territories, in Bethlehem, Qalandiya, Budros, Gaza, Damascus gate, Nabi Saleh, Bilin and many more Palestinians took to the streets to protest for their stolen lands.

When it comes down to the Israeli security forces, their attitude towards Palestinian protests hasn’t changed much since 1976. They brutally repressed all of those unarmed demonstrations with clubs and tear gas, rubber coated bullets and live ammunition, taking the life of 20 years old Mahmoud Zaqout, in Gaza, and injuring hundreds more.

In Qalandiya, approximately 1000 people gathered by the checkpoint, and the flags were flying high, as they prepared for the rally, red and orange and yellow, the flags of the different Palestinian fractions, colurful, and beautiful, at first. Soon enough, though, those fractions had become preoccupied in battling between themselves, instead of confronting the Israeli army. For a while, it seemed like in between the gas and the soldiers, and the people running around, some politicians were holding an elections campaign, instead of having a popular resistance, which left me with somewhat of a sour taste.

Later on, though, just before we left the place, a young Palestinian woman, who grew tired of standing idly, gathered her friends, and started making her way forward towards the soldiers, chanting loudly, with more people joining her with every step. They were not carrying the flags of this fraction or another. They carried just one flag, as they chanted for freedom and called for a revolution, the Palestinian flag, the flag of defiance. They too were dispersed with various sorts of weapons, but as I ran away from the gas, for the last time on that day, I once again tasted resistance.

Former State Dep’t official says Obama calls for human rights and democracy are ‘undercut’ by position on Palestinians

Apr 02, 2012

Philip Weiss

Anne-Marie Slaughter

Anne-Marie Slaughter served as director of Policy Planning at the State Department under Obama/Clinton until last year. Now she’s at Princeton. A week ago she spoke at J Street. Some of her comments:

I spent a lot of time on twitter. I have about 27,000 followers around the world. Because it connects me to people of many different countries and many different beliefs certainly beyond my community in this town, but also the global academic communities. I spend a lot of time following articles and messages, and videos and personal testimonies about Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Libya. Whenever I send out a message about the suffering, the detention without trial, civilian deaths by armed force in all these countries, I now get messages back that say to me, What about the Palestinians?

I am not for a minute going to say that there are no differences between what’s happening in Syria, in Libya, in Yemen, in Egypt. There are many differences between those circumstances and what is happening between Israel and the Palestinians. There are many differences. But there are some similarities.

And when I hear back from voices that I can shut out here in Washington– I can shut them out in Princeton– but I can’t shut them out in an open forum where I reach out to the world, and the world answers me….

[The U.S. failure on the peace process] undercuts what we say everywhere else in the region. I am the first to know that perfect consistency or even primary consistency is impossible. We treat Bahrain differently than we acted in Libya… There are obviously different circumstances in all these case, but we cannot say as we have been saying for over a year, that we stand for democracy and human rights and basic justice for the people of the Middle East—President Obama and Secy Clinton and every representative of the administration have given speeches on democracy and human rights and justice across the middle east– we cannot be saying that unless we’re doing everything we can to bring democracy and human rights and justice to the Palestinians….

I grew up in non democratic America. Virginia in the 1960s. All people were not able to vote, and we did not deliver on the promise of our values….

Comcast’s David Cohen is honored at fundraiser for religious nationalist group

Apr 02, 2012

Philip Weiss

Friends in Philly sent along the following video and report on an action last Thursday to commemorate Land Day:

The Philadelphia Coalition for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel staged a creative protest outside the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Tree of Life fundraiser at Vie, 600 N Broad St., on Thursday, March 29th from 5pm-7pm. The gala honored David Cohen, the Executive Vice President of the Comcast Corporation and the chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.

Carrying signs reading “Land Theft is Not Charity,” about forty protesters, who included members of Philly BDS, students from both Temple Students for Justice in Palestine and Penn BDS, and other activists from the Philadelphia Palestine solidarity community chanted as part of a spirited picket of the event that included puppets and street theater. The protesters’ “Bulldozing homes, stealing land; it’s all part of the JNF plan!”, called attention to the past and present role of the Jewish National Fund in the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians from Israel-Palestine. At issue is the fact that the JNF enjoys tax-exempt status as a charitable organization in the U.S.

Founded in 1901, the Jewish National Fund originally collected money from Jews throughout the world to “redeem the land of Israel” by purchasing land in historic Palestine. Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, the JNF has raised tens of millions of dollars for planting JNF forests, many of which are built on top of former Palestinian Arab villages.

Penn BDS stands with Philly BDS and Temple SJP, stating “We denounce the actions of the Jewish National Fund, which has been an integral part of the strategy of the State of Israel to evict Palestinian families from their homes, destroy Palestinian and Bedouin villages and remove traces of the Palestinian people. The Jewish National Fund is a full participant in Israel’s system of apartheid by restricting the use of its land to exclusively Jewish settlers, and the JNF should not be allowed to hide behind its current status as a charitable and environmental organization. Land theft is not charity.”

Temple Students for Justice in Palestine add, “We deplore the JNF for ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their land since the organization’s inception. The organization humiliates Palestinians and ultimately supports the ruin of an entire people. Additionally the JNF upholds segregationist’s policies by favoring land ownership for Jewish settlers over the indigenous population!”

“Why are American taxpayers granting tax-exempt status to an organization whose expressed mission is in violation of U.S. foreign policy regarding Israeli settlement expansion and military occupation?” said Susan Landau, a Jewish member of Philly BDS. “The JNF wants to be thought of as an environmental organization, but works hand-in-hand with the Israeli government to keep the land available only to Jews. The Negev Desert and the Galilee are two current focal points for JNF ‘greenwashing’—the use of environmentalist propaganda and projects to veil efforts in stripping Palestinians of their homes and land.”

The demonstration marks a commemoration of Land Day by Palestine solidarity activists in Philadelphia, PA. Every year since 1976, on March 30, Palestinians around the world have commemorated Land Day, a bloody day in Israel when security forces gunned down six Palestinians, as they protested Israeli expropriation of Arab-owned land in the country’s north to build Jewish-only settlements.

Marwan Barghouti calls for popular uprising for statehood. Israel puts him in solitary confinement

Apr 02, 2012

Annie Robbins

Palestinian Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti flashes the V-sign for victory as he is escorted by Israeli police into Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court. Jan. 25, 2012. Marco Longari/AFP – Getty

A week ago on March 26th Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian leader who has been imprisoned for ten years, called for a Third Intifada: a mass nonviolent uprising officially ending the charade of “peace negotiations,” and ending “all coordination with Israel” and turning “to the UN General Assembly and the rest of its agencies” to further Palestine’s bid for statehood.

Barghouti’s letter, read aloud during a rally in Ramallah, directly challenges the policy of Abbas and the Palestinian Authority for maintaining the occupation through their cooperation with Israel.

Yesterday the state of Israel punished Marwan Barghouti by placing him in solitary confinement.

Uri Avnery wrote The New Mandela on the eve of Land Day 2012. I urge everyone to read the entire article.

When the Oslo process died with the assassinations of Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, Marwan and his organization became targets. Successive Israeli leaders – Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon – decided to put an end to the two-state agenda. In the brutal “Defensive Shield operation (launched by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, the new leader of the Kadima Party) the Palestinian Authority was attacked, its services destroyed and many of its activists arrested.

Marwan Barghouti was put on trial. It was alleged that, as the leader of Tanzim, he was responsible for several “terrorist” attacks in Israel. His trial was a mockery, resembling a Roman gladiatorial arena more than a judicial process. The hall was packed with howling rightists, presenting themselves as “victims of terrorism”. Members of Gush Shalom protested against the trial inside the court building but we were not allowed anywhere near the accused.

Marwan was sentenced to five life sentences. The picture of him raising his shackled hands above his head has become a Palestinian national icon. When I visited his family in Ramallah, it was hanging in the living room.

A supporter of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti hangs his posters in Ramallah in 2004. Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP

He calls for a Third Intifada, a non-violent mass uprising in the spirit of the Arab Spring.

His manifesto is a clear rejection of the policy of Mahmoud Abbas, who maintains limited but all-important cooperation with the Israeli occupation authorities. Marwan calls for a total rupture of all forms of cooperation, whether economic, military or other.

A focal point of this cooperation is the day-to-day collaboration of the American-trained Palestinian security services with the Israeli occupation forces. This arrangement has effectively stopped violent Palestinian attacks in the occupied territories and in Israel proper. It guarantees, In practice, the security of the growing Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Marwan also calls for a total boycott of Israel, Israeli institutions and products in the Palestinian territories and throughout the world. Israeli products should disappear from West Bank shops, Palestinian products should be promoted.

At the same time, Marwan advocates an official end to the charade called “peace negotiations”. This term, by the way, is never heard anymore in Israel. First it was replaced with “peace process”, then “political process”, and lately “the political matter”. The simple word “peace” has become taboo among rightists and most “leftists” alike. It’s political poison.

Marwan proposes to make the absence of peace negotiations official. No more international talk about “reviving the peace process”, no more rushing around of ridiculous people like Tony Blair, no more hollow announcements by Hillary Clinton and Catherine Ashton, no more empty declarations of the “Quartet”. Since the Israeli government clearly has abandoned the two-state solution – which it never really accepted in the first place – keeping up the pretense just harms the Palestinian struggle.

Instead of this hypocrisy, Marwan proposes to renew the battle in the UN. First, apply again to the Security Council for the acceptance of Palestine as a member state, challenging the US to use its solitary veto openly against practically the whole world. After the expected rejection of the Palestinian request by the Council as a result of the veto, request a decision by the General Assembly, where the vast majority would vote in favor. Though this would not be binding, it would demonstrate that the freedom of Palestine enjoys the overwhelming support of the family of nations, and isolate Israel (and the US) even more.

Parallel to this course of action, Marwan insists on Palestinian unity, using his considerable moral force to put pressure on both Fatah and Hamas.

To summarize, Marwan Barghouti has given up all hope of achieving Palestinian freedom through cooperation with Israel, or even Israeli opposition forces. The Israeli peace movement is not mentioned anymore. “Normalization” has become a dirty word.

Guardian April 2, 2012

Prisons Authority spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said Barghouti “has been placed in isolation for a week and denied visits and access to the inmates’ canteen for a month” as a punishment for issuing the statement.

AFP

“I call on the Palestinian Authority to end all forms of coordination, security and economic, with the occupation,” wrote Barghouti…..

“The job of the Palestinian security services is to provide security and protection to Palestinian citizens, not to protect the occupation,” said the man widely recognised as the driving force behind the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, and who still commands great respect among Palestinians.

The letter also called on Abbas to “stop marketing the illusion that it is possible to end the occupation through these negotiations.”

……….

“We must affirm the absolute right of our people to resist occupation in all ways, and in the way appropriate to the situation — and at this stage, popular resistance serves our people,” he said.

Marking the tenth anniversary of his imprisonment, this is the first time Marwan Barghouti has called for a complete halt in ‘peace negotiations’.

(Hat tip Esther Riley)

In pictures: Gaza joins the Global March to Jerusalem

Apr 02, 2012

Joe Catron

As hundreds of Palestinians pressed toward the Beit Hanoun crossing Friday, braving Israeli gunfire that resulted in the death of 20-year-old Mahmoud Zaqout and the injuries of at least 30 others, thousands more rallied behind them, marking Land Day as part of the Global March to Jerusalem.

(Photo: Joe Catron)

Land Day is an annual commemoration of the Israeli state’s killing of six Palestinian citizens, who had joined a general strike protesting its expropriation of Palestinian land in the Galilee for “security and settlement purposes,” on March 30, 1976.

(Photo: Joe Catron)

This year it was marked by both a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Global Day of Action, held in Gaza and dozens of other locations, and the Global March to Jerusalem. The March drew tens of thousands of Palestinians and residents of neighboring countries to demand an end to displacement and racially discriminatory laws, access to Jerusalem and the protection of sacred sites, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.