Pro-Gaza Activism Contrasts with Congressional Votes

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Written by Nancy Hedrick Nancy Hedrick

Published: 10 December 2009 10 December 2009

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Recent activism and awareness-building events around the Israel-Palestine issue and the ongoing siege in Gaza are in contrast with an unfortunate vote in Congress to support belligerent actions by Israel once again.

Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) held the “Gaza Freedom March Fundraiser” at PSU’s Smith Center on November 6, to collect funds to send two students to the Palestinian region.  Close to a hundred people enjoyed the Arabic dinner and watched a staged reading of “Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza.”  (The same play,  by Caryl Churchill, was shown later the same month at Reed College.)  The statement of one of the students, Sarah Hassouneh, can be found on the national Code Pink web-site about the Gaza march.

Further south, at an OSU event in Corvallis on November 13, Palestinian-American physician and poet Fady Joudah spoke.  In addition to starkly describing his experiences in Africa with Doctors without Borders, Joudah talked of his family heritage and the refugee experience, as depicted in his book The Earth in the Attic. He is also a translator of Mahmoud Darwish, the most famous of Palestinian poet chroniclers, whose long poem “State of Siege” remains as true today as when published earlier this decade.

Around the same time as these university events, significant votes were going on in the UN General Assembly and the House of Representatives about the Goldstone Report on Gaza.  Richard Goldstone, a noted international law expert from South Africa who is Jewish and has family living in Israel, was the team leader for a UN inquiry into human rights violations on either side around the time of Israel’s attack on Gaza last winter.  Though his team found violations by both parties, the bulk of the final 546-page report detailed massive violations as well as war crimes by Israel.  The General Assembly vote of 114-18 supported the findings of the report, with the U.S. (of course) voting against the resolution.

Also in early November, the House of Representatives approved in an overwhelming fashion a resolution to condemn the Goldstone report (344-46), with the resolution calling the report “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.”   Symbolic Congressional votes of support for Israel after Israel has been the major perpetrator of violence (such as its attack on Lebanon in 2006) have typically been approved overwhelmingly for several years.

Greg Walden and Kurt Schrader voted with the majority, Peter DeFazio and Wu gave the non-committed “present” (which is at least a step in the right direction), and only Blumenauer and Baird of the Portland/Vancouver metro area voted against the measure.  Brian Baird, who has visited Gaza, had strong words about the vote, including the following:

What will it say about this Congress and our country if we so readily seek to block “any further consideration” of a human rights investigation produced by one of the most respected jurists in the world today, a man who led the investigations of abuses in South Africa, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Kosovo and worked to identify and prosecute Nazi war criminals as a member of the Panel of the Commission of Enquiry into the Activities of Nazism in Argentina?

At the end of the day, this is also about our own domestic security.  If we are seen internationally as condoning violations of human rights and international law, if our money and our weaponry play a leading role in those violations, and if we reflexively obstruct the findings of someone with the credentials, history and integrity of Justice Goldstone, it can only diminish our international standing and our own security.

Jim McDermott representing the Seattle area also voted “no”, and signed onto a letter with 20 colleagues asking for Goldstone to testify before Congress.

We should thank Blumenauer and Baird for their principled stance, and as well urge the other representatives to vote for justice and peace the next time.

Over 1,400 Palestinians were killed in last winter’s assault, with 13 fatalities on the Israeli side.  Massive and systematic destruction of the Gazan infrastructure, housing, and orchards also occurred.  Because of Israel’s ongoing seige, Gazans have been unable to even begin the process of rebuilding.  Visitors returning to Gaza have noted that almost no war damage has been repaired after four months.  This injustice cries out for our Congress to be less in thrall of AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups.

To support the PSU students, donate to Friends of Sabeel at PO Box 9186, Portland, Oregon 97207, with memo line showing “Gaza Freedom March.”  The students will participate in the Gaza Freedom March (www.gafreedommarch.org) and Viva Palestina Aid Convoys (www.viva palestina.org).  A copy and review of the “7 Jewish Children” play can be found at Nation site (www.thenation.com/doc/20090413/kushner_solomon).

Peter Miller, of Portland’s Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights (www.auphr.com) assisted with this article.  Jordan Johnson’s blog (http://Johnson Jordan.blogspot.com) was a reference for Joudah’s speech.

Nancy Hedrick is a member of Portland’s Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights and visited the Middle East in 2001 and 2004.

Obama defends war at Nobel award

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Written by BBC News BBC News

Published: 10 December 2009 10 December 2009

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[Defending Bush's war in Afghanistan and its tragic consequences while accepting a Nobel Peace Prize: Could you ever imagine such an outcome?]

BBC NEWS
Obama defends war at Nobel award

President Barack Obama has said the US must uphold moral standards when waging wars that are necessary and justified, as he accepted his Nobel Peace Prize.

In his speech in Oslo, he defended the US role in Afghanistan, arguing the use of force could bring lasting peace.

He also said his accomplishments were slight compared with other laureates.

Mr Obama was given the prize in October for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

Thursday's ceremony in the Norwegian capital came days after Mr Obama announced he was sending 30,000 extra US soldiers to the war in Afghanistan.

ANALYSIS
Paul Reynolds, BBC world affairs correspondent

He is careful to say that America respects the cultures and traditions of others - again, trying to project the US as a defender not an aggressor.

But he also wants to stand up for "universal values". It is a difficult balancing act.

His statement that "America has never fought a war against a democracy" might raise the issue as to whether it has fought on the side of non-democracies.

There was a mixed reaction when he was named as the winner of this year's prize, becoming the fourth US president to be given the honour.

Mr Obama's elevation to the rank of fellow laureates such as Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, before he has even spent a year in office, has sparked fierce debate.

Critics also said it was inappropriate for the honour to go to the commander-in-chief of a country involved in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Acknowledging the controversy, Mr Obama said he accepted the award with humility, adding: "Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize... my accomplishments are slight."

He could not argue with those who said many previous laureates were "far more deserving" of the honour than him, he said.

Defending his Afghan troop deployment, Mr Obama said there were times when "the use of force [was] not only necessary but morally justified," as long as force was proportionate and civilian casualties minimised.

"Instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace", he said.

"A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies," he added. "Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms."

He said the US "must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war" to differentiate it from "a vicious adversary that abides by no rules".

Mr Obama also emphasised alternatives to violence, stressing the importance of diplomacy and sanctions to confront nations like Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programmes.

While Russia and America were working to reduce their nuclear stockpiles, he said the international community must ensure Tehran and Pyongyang did not "game the system".

"Let us reach for the world that ought to be," Mr Obama said. "We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace."

He paid tribute to anti-government demonstrators in Iran, Burma and Zimbabwe, and said the US would always stand on the side of those who sought freedom.

Protests

Some anti-war demonstrators gathered outside city hall, where the ceremony was held.

"We are protesting against him because... we don't think he is a man of peace," one of them told AFP news agency.

Amid high security, the US president earlier signed the Nobel Prize book of previous laureates after arriving in Oslo with his wife, Michelle.

There has been some disappointment in Norway at Mr Obama's decision to stay only one day, even though Nobel ceremonies are usually held over three, and decline a traditional lunch with the king.

At a news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Mr Obama said he and his wife wished they could stay longer.

In the evening, Mr Obama is due to wave to a torchlight procession from his hotel balcony and attend a banquet.

The Nobel Prizes for chemistry, literature, medicine, physics and economics are also being presented, in the Swedish capital Stockholm.

Each laureate, including Mr Obama, receives a diploma, a medal and 10m kroner ($1.4m; £865,000).

Coinciding with the Nobel ceremony, a statue of Mr Obama as a young boy was unveiled in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, at a park, near where the president lived between 1967 and 1971.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8405033.stm

Published: 2009/12/10 15:05:29 GMT

© BBC MMIX

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Demo in Israel: Democracy, Human Rights, Us. NO WAY we're Giving them Up

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Written by ACRI ACRI

Published: 10 December 2009 10 December 2009

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Democracy, Human Rights, Us. NO WAY we're Giving them Up

First-Ever Human Rights March in Israel: Friday, December 11, 11:00-14:00, from Rabin Square to Tel Aviv Museum.

Facebook event page >>

Buses from across the country >>

List of 100 organizations marching >>

Calling all Internationals: This March is Our Opportunity to Show Our Support >>

For further details (English): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

There's a limit to how many blows democracy can take before it is trampled down and beaten into something else. Democracy and human rights are absolutely essential for protecting who we are, preserving our rights, and enabling us to realize the equality we all deserve.

Quite honestly, we're already living in a "challenged" democracy in Israel. For years now we've counted among us second-class citizens, third-class residents, and fourth-class migrants, not to mention the Palestinians living under occupation whose rights aren't counted at all. This dangerous reality has persisted for many years. Far too many.

But over this past year, the very foundations of our democracy have been shaken. As if the usual threats to our basic values weren't serious enough, we've seen a dangerous shift, propelling us toward a dark abyss. More and more Israelis are feeling this threat. More and more of us understand that the danger to our most basic values — the ones that enable us to live here together, the ones that give us hope for the future and protect us — are imminent and real.

This year, racism against Arab citizens has risen to the level of finding sanctuary in key positions of our current government. Attacks on the rule of law have intensified. Incitement against Israeli human rights activists has been unrestrained. The limitations imposed on freedom of expression during Operation Cast Lead were unprecedented, as was the publics' apathy towards the fate of the Palestinians. We've been witness to a government that wants to deport children born and raised here in Israel, that has threatened its Arab citizens and marked them all collectively as "the enemy", and that proposes laws that are inherently undemocratic. It's not the Kahanists or fringe extremists pushing these measures, but our very own government. Something at our core is under attack.

What these predatory legislative initiatives and anti-democratic measures share is that they are rooted in pessimism and fear — fear of the other, fear of an open and free society, fear of rights that we all have according to the most universal pre-requisite — our humanity.

Can we allow our democracy and our rights to thus be weakened and threatened right before our very eyes? No way.

We are not afraid of equal citizenship for all Israelis, nor do we have any qualms about living in a society where human rights are simply ours. Human rights are not conditional — they do not succumb to racist legislative initiatives, nor are they subservient to arbitrary government decisions that would wave human rights about as a carrot or a stick. There are those who would ransom the concept of human rights, who would transform our society into a limited democracy. There is no such thing. A state in which human rights are conditional is no democracy at all, and there is no way we will allow Israel to slide down that slippery slope.

We are not afraid to send our children to classrooms in which students of Ethiopian decent and native Israelis, or Sephardic and Ashkenazi girls, or Arabs and Jews, are given equal educational opportunities; are respected as human beings; and are provided with the skills to explore, evolve and make the most of their potential. We are becoming increasingly concerned that our children are attending schools that provide them with models of segregation, discrimination and alienation, which push aside the mission of educating for human rights.

We are not afraid to speak about the Nakba, but we are afraid of the possibility of living in a country that silences its citizens. Freedom of expression belongs to us all, and there is no way we will surrender it.

We are not afraid of refugees or of migrant workers. We are not afraid of their children. But we are appalled by politicians who believe that people in Israel without Israeli citizenship are not entitled to their human rights. We believe that people are human beings first, possessing unalienable rights; any belief to the contrary completely undermines the concept of human dignity.

We are not afraid of authentic public debate about issues that will determine our future in this country: whether to create a biometric database unlike any other in the world, whether to enact land reform legislation, whether to slash budget allocations for welfare and education. However, we are deeply troubled by a government that attempts to bypass democracy and seeks to determine law through unprecedented underhanded methods that bypass proper public debate, as in the case of Israel's "Economic Arrangements Law".

We will not remain in the closet regarding gays, lesbians, transgendered people and bisexuals — we state unequivocally that they are equal in their identity, in their love and in their human rights. The verbal and physical abuse directed at a person solely based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity is dangerous, ugly and, quite simply, racist.

We have no cause to fear equal access for everyone to health services, to housing, to education. And we do mean everyone: Bedouin in the Negev, children in Petach Tikvah, the homeless in Tel Aviv. Our fear is of a society that is apathetic to its periphery, to its weakened populations; a society that is indifferent to those who must forego proper medical treatment because it is not within their financial reach; a society that has no intention of guaranteeing housing for all, quality public medical care, equality in education, or a dignified existence for both the employed and the unemployed.

We do not fear the end of the occupation. We are afraid of its perpetuation, and the entrenchment of a separation regime that discriminates against Palestinians in favor of Israeli settlers in the territories. We are gravely concerned about the poisonous effect the continued occupation has upon our society, upon the rule of law, and upon our chances of becoming a true democracy. There is no way that Israel can be a true democracy without an end to the occupation.

Is it possible for us to stand up to these threats — and succeed?

We firmly believe that through our combined power as citizens we can succeed in standing together as equals possessing equal rights, without having to compromise our values and with the recognition that it's not too late to turn the tide. Human rights, equality, social justice — these are not utopian ideals. They are essential conditions for our shared existence, for living decent and worthy lives. The rule of law is not the sole realm of the courts, nor is the preservation of democracy a matter to be left exclusively to the Knesset. When we come out in defense of human rights and democracy, we come out in defense of ourselves. The power rests in our hands.

And this year, for the first time, it also rests in our feet. On Friday, December 11th, in honor of International Human Rights Day, we will take to the streets in Israel's first-ever Human Rights March. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) invites everyone to come out and participate: organizations for social change and equality, youth movements, human rights organizations, activists, and every one for whom it is crucial to protect all human rights for all human beings — and the future of this society in which we all play a part.

These are our rights and our future. There is no way we can allow ourselves to fail. On December 11th we begin to change direction. We will not wait for the next elections. We will not continue to grumble in the privacy of our homes. We will no longer rely on "someone" to do "something". We remind all those who perhaps have forgotten: We are here. And there is no way we will surrender our rights.

Hagai El-Ad, Executive-Director
ACRI

Peace Now: West Bank building 'more than in Israel'

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Written by BBC News BBC News

Published: 09 December 2009 09 December 2009

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More homes are under construction per inhabitant in the occupied West Bank than inside Israel despite recent curbs on construction, says Peace Now.

The rights group said 1,167 homes were being built for every 100,000 West Bank settlers, compared to just 836 for the same number of Israeli residents.

The Palestinians have refused to return to peace talks without a total halt to building in settlements.

Settlers are beginning to arrive at a protest against the construction pause.

Read more: Peace Now: West Bank building 'more than in Israel'