From Gaza to Jerusalem: Jewish Voice for Peace statement on escalation of violence
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- Written by Jewish Voice for Peace Jewish Voice for Peace
- Published: 24 March 2011 24 March 2011
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From Gaza to Jerusalem: Jewish Voice for Peace statement on escalation of violence 3/23/10
Any act of violence, especially one against civilians, marks a
profound failure of human imagination and causes a deep and abiding
trauma for all involved. In mourning the nine lives lost in Gaza
yesterday, and the one life lost in Jerusalem today, we reject the
pattern of condemning the loss of Israeli lives while ignoring the
loss of Palestinian life. We do not discriminate. One
lost life is one life too many-whether Palestinian or Israeli.
Within the context of 44 years of the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the
West Bank, and East Jerusalem, in the past two years ( Jan 31, 2009 -
January 31, 2011), over a thousand Palestinians have been made
homeless by home demolitions, hundreds have been unlawfully detained,
and over 150 men, women and children have been killed by the IDF and
settlers, according to the Israeli human rights group B�tselem (1) .
Many acres of Palestinian land were taken and orchards uprooted
by armed settlers. Countless hours were lost at checkpoints, often
fruitlessly, while Palestinians attempted to get medical care, jobs,
and access to
education. One and a half million Gazans have been living with a
limited food supply, lack of electricity and dangerously toxic sewage.
This is occupation: daily, persistent acts of structural violence.
These acts don't reach our headlines because they are so habitual, so
we learn not to see them. But Palestinians live them everyday, and we
must keep that in mind, even as we ponder the terrible events of the
past few weeks (2):
- Someone or some people (we don't know who) bombed a bus stop in
Jerusalem, injuring 30 and killing 1 Israeli civilian;
- An Israeli bombing killed 3 children and an older man in Gaza;
- Someone or some people, (we don't know who), murdered 5 members of a family,
including three children, in Itamar, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank;
- The Israeli government suddenly tightened the siege of Gaza and
escalated military attacks, killing a total of 11 Palestinians and
injuring more than 40 since mid-March; (3)
- Palestinians fired over 50 shells and rockets from Gaza into
civilian areas in southern Israel
These terrible acts of violence remind us that to end the Israeli
occupation our best hope is supporting the inspiring nonviolent
Palestinian movement for change, in the form of unarmed protests
every Friday in places like Bil�in and Nialin, and the Global Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions movement. This is a movement that respects
life, that is part and parcel of the nonviolent democratic people's
movements we have been inspired by throughout the Arab world, that
welcomes the solidarity and support of Israeli and international
believers in equality and universal human rights. This is a movement
that fundamentally subverts the logic of armies, revenge and armed struggle.
Because it has been so powerful, it should come as no surprise that
this nonviolent resistance itself is under attack in Israel. Human
rights activists are being detained or imprisoned. Bills to
criminalize the BDS movement, or harass human rights organizations,
are working their way through the Knesset. Just yesterday, the very
act of publicly commemorating the Nakba, a crucial nonviolent act of
Palestinian remembrance, was essentially criminalized in Israel. (4)
As the Israeli government increasingly deploys anti-democratic
measures and military repression, we at Jewish Voice for Peace are
redoubling our efforts
to support the best hope- a nonviolent Palestinian-led resistance
movement in which we all work together to nurture life, justice and
equality. We invite you to join the movement.
www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
1) http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/Index.asp
2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/23/israeli-palestinian-tensions-timeline
3) http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/11-aic-projects/3441-israels-military-escalation-in-gaza
4) http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/a-blow-to-israeli-arabs-and-to-democracy-1.351026,
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=213357
--
Charting efforts to stifle debate about US-Israeli policy
www.muzzlewatch.org
Reports on the struggle for civil and human rights in Israel and Palestine
www.theonlydemocracy.org
Response to the Jewish Review on Oregon-Israel business ties
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- Written by Peter Miller Peter Miller
- Published: 24 March 2011 24 March 2011
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Response to the Jewish Review.
AUPHR had a protest of the recent inauguration of the Oregon Israel Business Assocation. Former Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has found his new career calling promoting Oregon business ties to Israel and was the keynote speaker at the event.
In a Jewish Review article entitled "Group backs Oregon-Israel business ties", reporter Paul Haist wrote:
During a question-and-answer period that followed Kulongoski’s formal remarks, two members of the audience asked political questions in which they vilified Israel as an “apartheid state,” in the words of one of the two, and accused Israel of human rights violations in regard to the Palestinians.
Political questions had been ruled out at the beginning of the program.
When the two individuals—including Peter Miller, the president of the Portland-based American United for Palestinain Rights—refused requests to decist, four uniformed security personnel ushered them from the room.
http://www.jewishreview.org/local/Group-backs-Oregon-Israel-business-ties
This is my response to that article:
Read more: Response to the Jewish Review on Oregon-Israel business ties
The sanctity of the soaring Qassam: helping to feed Israel's madness
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- Written by Amira Hass Amira Hass
- Published: 24 March 2011 24 March 2011
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The sanctity of the soaring Qassam
Perhaps Hamas thinks the Palestinians in Gaza were ready for another
high-tech Israeli onslaught, for another IDF video game in which
children playing on a roof are identified as lookouts and sentenced to
death.
By Amira Hass
The Hamas authorities once again forgot that the neighbor/occupier to
its east is crazy. Fact: Over Shabbat, Hamas' military wing fired more
than 50 mortar shells at Israel. Or perhaps it didn't forget: Perhaps it
merely thought the Palestinian people in Gaza were ready for another
high-tech Israeli onslaught, for another Israel Defense Forces video
game in which children playing on a roof are identified as lookouts and
sentenced to death.
In this testosterone-rich competition, there will always be more
checkmarks on the Israeli side. But Israel is clever enough to act like
the threatened party and to hide its deadly performances. Who cares that
the "appropriate Zionist response" to 50 mortar shells, which sowed fear
but did not kill, was the killing of two 16-year-olds? Imad Faraj Allah
and Qassam Abu Uteiwi, from the Nuseirat refugee camp, were the people
killed by Israel's retaliatory bombing later that evening - not "two
terrorists," as our media obediently said, parroting the commanders'
dictation.
[PHOTO]
Injured Palestinian in Gaza - Reuters - March 22, 2011
A Palestinian carries an injured boy into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza
City, after Israeli tank fire struck a home on March 22, 2011
Photo by: Reuters
Those 50 mortars were the "appropriate Hamas response" to the death of
two members of its military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, in an Israeli
airstrike. That teaches us that armed men are worth more than boys: The
response to the teenagers' death was a lone Qassam rocket.
Nor did the dialogue of testosterone end there. Tuesday morning, we
learned of another Israeli assault that wounded some 20 Palestinians,
including children. Due to lack of space, we won't detail what came in
between or what came before. But what will come next is frightening.
In the binary thinking of those who oppose the Israeli occupation
(Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners ), public criticism of the
tactics used in the struggle of an occupied and dispossessed people is
taboo. It is as if criticism would create symmetry between the attacker
and the attacked. To a large extent, this taboo has been broken with
regard to the Palestinian Authority: Many opponents of the occupation
have no qualms about portraying the PA as a collaborator, or at least as
the captive of its senior officials' private interests. But when it
comes to Hamas' use of arms, silence falls. As if there were sanctity in
the Qassam soaring high into the sky, only to fall amid the clamor of
Israeli propaganda.
The Goldstone report - so widely reviled by Israelis, but endorsed by
the Palestinians - actually did force Palestinian human rights
organizations to accept the application of the term "crime" to
Palestinian rocket launches at Israel's civilian population, both before
and during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009. In other words, it
forced them to distinguish between the Palestinians' right to defend
themselves (albeit unsuccessfully ) by force of arms against Israeli
military assaults and their lack of right to put on an act of being an
army, one that targets civilians, and thus provide Israel with more
ammunition for its victim show. But this distinction is not in use for
whatever doesn't appear in Goldstone's report.
Though they didn't denounce those 50 mortars, Palestinians who are not
Hamas supporters did give them a political interpretation. This wasn't
"the attacked party's right to respond" (or, more accurately, the fly's
right to play Ping-Pong with the elephant ), but a clear message to
young Palestinians, reinforced by the brutal suppression of their
demonstrations: You aren't in Cairo or Tunis, so stop pestering us with
theories about a smart popular struggle in our emirate.
But the neighbor/occupier to the east is crazy. It's wrong to provide it
with pretexts that would enable it to once again put Gaza's children and
old people through an ordeal like Cast Lead, or even one half as bad.
So for all those who demonstrated in support of the Gazans when they
were trapped under Israeli fire, all those planners of past and future
flotillas, this is your moment to raise your voices and say clearly: The
Qassams merely feed Israel's madness. It is not the Qassams that will
ensure the Palestinians, both in and out of Gaza, a life of dignity. It
is not the Qassams that will topple the Israeli walls around the world's
largest prison camp.
University of Johannesburg severs ties with Ben-Grion University
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- Written by PACBI PACBI
- Published: 23 March 2011 23 March 2011
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BREAKING NEWS: BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL VICTORY - Historic moment for movement to boycott of Israel
This was after UJ’s Senate rejected a last ditch motion by pro-Israeli lobbyists to have two separate bilateral agreements - one with a Palestinian University and another with an Israeli University. UJ chose instead to uphold its previous Senate Resolution that required taking leadership from Palestinian universities. Palestinian universities unanimously rejected any collaboration with BGU (in any form) and have come out in full support of the the academic boycott of Israel. UJ chose to respect this.
UJ is the first institution to officially sever relations with an Israeli university - a landmark moment in the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel campaign. Throughout the campaign, academics and international human rights activists have been anticipating this decision. This boycott decision, coming from a South African institution, is of particular significance. This has set a precedent and must start a domino boycott effect!
The movement to end ties with BGU was boosted by the overwhelming support given to the UJ Petition (www.ujpetition.com) - a statement and campaign in support of UJ academics and students who were calling on their university to end its apartheid-era relationship with BGU. As the UJ senate met today, over 400 South African academics, including nine Vice-Chancellors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors, had signed the UJ Petition.
Included in the list of supporters are some of South Africa’s leading voices: Professors Neville Alexander, Kader Asmal, Allan Boesak, Breyten Breytenbach, John Dugard, Antjie Krog, Barney Pityana and Sampie Terreblanche. South Africa's popular cartoonist Jonathan “Zapiro” Shapiro, Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu, Bishop Rubin Phillips, former Minister Ronnie Kasrils and leading social activist Zackie Achmat also backed the campaign.
Further, over 100 internationals began to lend their support, including several prominent international scholars: Professors Judith Butler, Vijay Prashad, Michael Burawoy, Wendy Brown, Ernesto Laclau, and acclaimed British author, John Berger.
Today UJ has made history by upholding and advancing academic moral integrity. Palestinians, South Africans and the international academic and solidarity community celebrate this decisive victory in isolating Israeli apartheid and supporting freedom, dignity and justice for the Palestinian people. UJ now continues the anti-apartheid movement - against Apartheid Israel.
In their own words . . .
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- Written by Barack Obama and Joe Biden Barack Obama and Joe Biden
- Published: 23 March 2011 23 March 2011
- Hits: 6256 6256
"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation" - Barack Obama
"I want to make clear and submit to the Untied States Senate pointing out the president has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran. And I want to make it clear, I want it on the record, and I want to make it clear, if he does, as chairman of the foreign relations committee and former chair of the judiciary committee, I will move to impeach him." - Joe Biden speaking about President Bush in 2007