Jews for a Just Peace is an organization of Jews living in Vancouver, BC, Canada whose purpose is to build support in our community for a fair and just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read full text
June 16, 2009
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) Joins Campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel
Ottawa - Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) voted to join the growing international campaign in support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, at its first Annual General Meeting this past weekend. This decision makes IJV the first national Jewish organization in the world to do so. The adopted resolution states that IJV will "Support the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and complies with the precepts of international law, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194."
"Independent Jewish Voices has voted to join the international boycott campaign because we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and support their right to self-determination," says Diana Ralph, Co-Chair of IJV. "We are calling on the Canadian government and all Members of Parliament to push for immediate sanctions on Israel."
"The time has come for people around the world to rise to the challenge in Israel/Palestine, as we did for South Africa," says Fabienne Presentey, Steering Committee member of IJV. "All voices that can be raised against this injustice must be."
The resolution, which passed with the support of 95% of voting delegates, also calls on the Canadian government to "1) cease its one-sided and uncritical support for Israel and 2) insist that Israel abide by international law”.
The international call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions originated from 170 Palestinian civil society organizations and has sparked a growing global movement, modeled on the international campaign that successfully ended South African Apartheid. Many prominent organizations around the world have joined the BDS campaign, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), UNISON (UK), Transport and General Workers' Union (UK), Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario, six Norwegian trade unions, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Scottish Trades Union Congress, and Intersindical Alternativa de Catallunya.
Independent Jewish Voices is a member-led organization, with chapters in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax.
For More Information:
Diana Ralph, IJV Co-Chair, 613-321-2765, cell 623-314-2805
Sid Shniad, IJV Co-Chair, 604-314-5589
Fabienne Presentey, IJV Steering Committee member (for french interviews),
514-825-4610
Second Protest Report
3JAN2009—In a heavy snow storm and some of the coldest weather ever experienced in Vancouver, approximately 800 people gathered to express their outrage at the latest Israeli massacre in Gaza. Just as the protest was beginning, those gathered received news that Israel had begun a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
With over 430 Palestinians killed and approximately 2200 injured (over 680 of whom are children) in a series of intensive Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip over the past six days, hundreds of thousands have been protesting worldwide, including a previous protest of over 350 people in Vancouver on December 29th, 2008.
Protesters gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery and then marched along Vancouver's busy shopping district along Robson Street, including a stop at Chapters-Indigo bookstore whose majority shareholders financially support the Israeli military.
Speakers during the protest included Palestinians, Anti-Zionist Jews, indigenous elders, trade unionists, leaders within the BC Muslim community, community organizers, and students; all of whom condemned Israel's latest massacre, Israel's ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine, and the US and Canadian government's unconditional support of Israel including the siege and sanctions regime against Gaza.
$3,500 was collected from the crowd to send directly to the people of GAZA
29DEC2008—Hundreds came out in the rain, sleet and snow on Monday, Dec. 29th to show our solidarity with the people of Gaza. We're mobilizing again for Saturday Jan 3rd, 1pm at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Please come out rain, snow or shine to demonstrate your outrage and affirm our collective humanity in response to the latest massacre of Palestinians.
At least 360 Palestinians have been killed and 1690 injured in the latest Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip (The Province, December 20, 2008. p8) while the threat of further bloodshed persists as air strikes continue. This is the single largest massacre in Gaza since Israel illegally occupied Gaza in 1967. Many among the mounting dead are civilians. The Israeli state shows no sign of halting its assault anytime soon as they have begun to amass tanks and ground assault military vehicles on the border with Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, has stated that, “the operation will last as long as necessary.”
Israel’s latest massacre in Gaza occurs with official US and Canadian complicity towards Israel’s illegal siege and ongoing sanctions over the civilian population in Gaza. Over the past two years the Gaza Strip has been undergoing the daily violence of a wide-ranging humanitarian catastrophe triggered by severely reduced access to energy, food, and medicines. In effect, Gaza is the world’s largest open air prison.
Join us in Vancouver as people of conscience to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza and to demand an end to the siege of Gaza and Israeli apartheid.
Endorsed by Adala - Arab Justice Committee
Al-Awda - Vancouver
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign
Canadian Arab Federation - National
Canada Palestine Association - Vancouver
Canadians Against War
Canadian Islamic Congress BC
Canadian Muslim Union
Canpalnet
Code Pink Women for Peace (local chapter)
Indigenous Action Movement
Jews for a Just Peace - Vancouver
No One Is Illegal-Vancouver
Palestinian Islamic League - Canada
Salaam -Vancouver
Siraat Collective
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - University of British Columbia
StopWar Coalition
Muslim Canadian Federation - Vancouver
Students for a Democratic Society (UBC)
The Organizing Centre for Social and Economic Justice
Vancouver Socialist Forum
Injustice to Palestinians has led to current fight
Letter in the Nanaimo paper: The Daily News
Published: Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Many readers of the news will be tempted to throw their hands up in despair and give up trying to understand. I believe that the trouble in the Middle East can be traced back to the great injustice committed against the Palestinians, driven from their homes and for decades denied the right to return home or any form of compensation for their loss.
The Israeli military has unleashed its most vicious air assault against the people of Gaza in decades, killing over 280 Gazans and wounding over 700. Despite claims by the Israeli leadership that they are trying to avoid civilians the attacks have been concentrated on Gaza City and the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah. Israeli television reports that Israeli troops are massing on the border “in preparation for a supplementary ground offensive.” Read complete article
Press release: 27 December 2008 ISRAEL: END THE ATTACKS ON GAZA IMMEDIATELY!
ENTER INTO GENUINE NEGOTIATIONS TO END THE OCCUPATION NOW!
No to a military attack on Gaza!
War is not an elections spin!
Friday Dec. 26th, at 14.00, in the corner of Ben-Zion Ave. and King George St., Tel-Aviv
In the demonstration we will call for:
• Stop immediately siege on Gaza! Set no conditions for ending the inhuman suffering of innocents!
• Negotiations with Hamas and renew of the truce!
• Stop the military offensive and propose a political solution for ending the occupation!
• Learn from the Second Lebanon War! A military assault will not stop the missiles! Only an agreement can bring calm!
It is Israel which broke the truce – already a month and a half ago, in early November, the State of Israel broke the truce in a series of military attacks on Gaza, which caused the death of six Palestinians. In this way, the government of Israel, with its own hands, brought a rain of Qassam missiles upon the heads of the inhabitants of Sderot and the other Gaza Border communities. Afterwards, every time that the situation started calming down, more Palestinians were killed by the army, their killing provoking new salvos of missiles. Now, the government is using the breaking of the truce as the pretext to launch a new military offensive. An offensive which would cost the lives of civilians, and would not achieve any of its declared aims – certainly not the aim of bringing calm to the inhabitants of the border area.
It is Israel which is responsible for the poverty and despair, entailed by the siege on Gaza – already for months the million and half inhabitants of Gaza live under an Israeli siege, with stoppages of water and electricity and a severe lack of vital goods. The Hamas government is already for weeks stating that it would be possible to restore the truce, should Israel agree to open the passages and allow the entry of goods, products, gasoline and people into the Strip. The government chooses consciously to ignore the Hamas declarations and cynically chooses, for electoral purposes, the path of war.
Contact: Adi Dagan (Coalition of Women for Peace) 050-8575730
Adam Keller (Gush Shalom) 0506-709603
Jewish solidarity group urges Canadian gov’t to reverse decision to boycott Durban Review Conference
PRESS RELEASE: 15 OCTOBER 2008
Geneva – Appearing before the Preparatory Committee for the Durban Review Conference (Durban II), Independent Jewish Voices’ Coordinator Diana Ralph expressed her group’s strong support for the Durban process.
“Our organization, which represents 18 Jewish groups across Canada, unconditionally endorses the World Conference Against Racism Review and urges the government of Canada to reverse its decision to boycott these crucial proceedings,” Ralph declared.
In her statement before the Committee, Ralph explained that “Historically, Jews have actively participated in struggles against Apartheid and other forms of discrimination. Because we take anti-Semitism seriously, we object to those who characterize legitimate criticism of Israel's discriminatory policies as anti-Semitic.”
The 2001 World Conference Against Racism, known as Durban I, focused on a racist policies and practices around the world, including the plight of Aboriginal people, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, slavery, human trafficking, and more. It called for action against the underlying causes of racism: poverty, war, and global inequality.
“The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action that was issued after Durban I devoted fewer than 250 words to issues specifically addressing matters involving Jews and Palestinians. It carefully balanced recognition of the rights of Jews and Israel with those of Palestinians. There was no anti-Semitic content in that report,” Ralph emphasized.
“The fact is that a handful of participants at the NGO conference held in conjunction with Durban I engaged in a few, isolated instances of anti-Semitic behaviour,” Ralph stressed. “We unconditionally condemn these and all other manifestations of bigotry, which was also overwhelmingly rejected by the other NGOs and delegations that participated in Durban I,” she underscored.
“Unfortunately, there has a systematic attempt to portray Durban I was an ‘anti-Semitic hate-fest’,” Ralph pointed out. “This stems from the fact that at Durban some NGO participants and governments challenged Israel's racist policies. Instead of addressing the substance of these charges, the government of Israel and those who back it unconditionally chose to brand those who levelled criticism of Israel at Durban as ‘anti-Semitic’,” she noted.
“As Jews, we assert that it is entirely legitimate, not anti-Semitic, to criticize Israeli policies that discriminate against Palestinians – not to mention occupying, torturing, assassinating, and collectively punishing them. Those who have been so critical of the Review appear intent upon discrediting criticism of racist Israeli policies and practices – and to prevent the governments of the US, Canada, and EU countries from being pressured to redress historic and ongoing racist practices,” Ralph continued.
“It is our position that Jews of conscience must stand in solidarity with all victims of racism. Our Basis of Unity states that there is no justification for any form of racism, including anti-Semitism, anti-Arab racism, or Islamophobia, under any circumstances and that the vital battle against anti-Semitism is threatened whenever opposition to Israeli government policies is automatically branded as anti-Semitic,” Ralph concluded.
Here's a thought experiment. Try to imagine a major American political figure boldly calling on Europe to break with the United States, unilaterally lift the blockage on Gaza and negotiate directly with Hamas, the democratically-elected government of Palestine.
He then goes on to reveal -- from his access to the most highly classified intelligence -- that Israel, far from being at risk from "destruction" by Iran or anyone, possesses a minimum of 150 nuclear weapons: the first time that any such high-level U.S. official has ever publicly confirmed the existence of Israel's arsenal, much less detailed its size.
What's more, this Establishment renagade then calls for the complete withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, combined with pledges of massive aid to rebuild Iraq "from the destruction we've caused."
This fantasy became a reality yesterday in the drenching rain of a Welsh border town. Former President Jimmy Carter had come to Hay-on-Wye for the annual literary festival, and held forth in a wide-ranging interview before a large crowd. Carter denounced the policies of the so-called "Quartet" -- the U.S., EU, UN and Russia -- which have led to the strangulation of Gaza and immense suffering to the people "imprisoned" there, in Carter's words:
The blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza, imposed by the US, EU, UN and Russia - the so-called Quartet - after the organisation's election victory in 2006, was "one of the greatest human rights crimes on Earth," since it meant the "imprisonment of 1.6 million people, 1 million of whom are refugees". "Most families in Gaza are eating only one meal per day. To see Europeans going along with this is embarrassing," Carter said....
Referring to the possibility of Europe breaking with the US in an interview with the Guardian, he said: "Why not? They're not our vassals. They occupy an equal position with the US."
Here, of course, Carter has crossed perhaps the brightest glaring red line in American politics: equating a bunch of foreigners with the divinely blessed denizens of the shining city on the hill. No country, anywhere, is allowed to be the equal of the United States, in anything, at any time. This is not just a deeply ingrained part of the national psyche; it is also the avowed policy of the "unipolar dominationists" who have long controlled the commanding heights of American power. As we've noted before:
this goes back to the first Bush Administration, when then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney asked two of his top aides, Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby, to draw up a "Defense Guidance Plan" to shape American strategy in the post-Cold War world. They produced an aggressive, ambitious document calling for the unilateral use of American military might to "discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role." Military intervention would be "a constant fixture" of what Wolfowitz and Libby called a "new order" which the United States – not the United Nations – would "establish and protect."
As we all know, this document was refined, revised and expanded by the dominationists in their various think-tanks and corporate sinecures for years, reaching its fullest expression in the infamous PNAC paper of September 2000 (also known as the "boy, we sure need a new Pearl Harbor" document). It was later incorporated virtually whole cloth into the official "National Security Strategy" of the United States.
Carter has already been in hot water with the Establishment because of his recent dealings with Hamas. Barack Obama joined in the denunciations of Carter, declaring that he -- the self-proclaimed agent of hope and change -- would never negotiate with Hamas.
This brings up a curious point. Obama has taken a great deal of undeserved heat for his common-sense declaration that he would be willing to sit down with the leaders of hostile nations, such as Iran; but he adamantly refuses any negotiation with Hamas. In other words, he is (rightly) willing to negotiate with enemies of the United States -- but not with an enemy of Israel. This position is actually more hardline than that of the Israelis themselves, the majority of whom favor direct negotiations with Hamas.
Carter's unprecedented explictness regarding Israel's nuclear weapon somehow escaped the notice of the Guardian -- which sponsored the festival and conducted the interview -- but The Times picked it up:
Israel has 150 nuclear weapons in its arsenal, former President Jimmy Carter said yesterday, while arguing that the US should talk directly to Iran to persuade it to drop its nuclear ambitions.
His remark...is startling because Israel has never admitted having nuclear weapons, let alone how many, although the world assumes their existence. Nor do US officials deviate in public from that Israeli line.
But Carter, who as president had full access to America's secret knowledge about Israel's arsenal, steamrolled right over the long-held public line. The existence of this arsenal is of course the true context of Middle East relations: the fact that Israel that can "obliterate" any of its antagonists in a matter of minutes, while none of them poses, even remotely, a similar "existential threat" to Israel. Yet the entire U.S. "bipartisan foreign policy establishment" gears much of its Middle Eastern policies around the professed goal of guaranteeing the survival and security of Israel.
The plain fact is that Israel is more than capable of guaranteeing its own survival. As for its manifold security problems, these might be better addressed by a more realistic, pragmatic engagement with its neighbors, and with the Palestinians locked down under its control. But as long as Israeli leaders can count on the full backing of the United States -- financially, diplomatically and militarily -- no matter what they do, they will have no incentive to come to any viable terms, and can continue their own dominationist policies, which over the years have only bred more suffering, more radicalization and more intransigence in their opponents.
Carter's position on Iraq is, of course, the only sensible alternative left after years of needless slaughter and ruin: complete withdrawal and massive reparations. It goes without saying that neither of these essential elements play a part in the "withdrawal" plans of any of the remaining presidential candidates. [Carter's remarks on Iraq are not in the on-line Guardian story, but appeared in the print-only version.]
Carter's emergence as a dissident from the Establishment line is one of those bitter ironies in which history delights. As we have noted here before, Carter bears a large share of responsibility for the dismal state of the modern world. It was he who, on the advice of his foreign policy guru, Zbigniew Brzezinski, helped lay the foundations of the global jihad movement, giving guns, money and training to some of the most violent and retrograde extremists in the world -- in a deliberate, and successful, attempt to goad the Soviet Union into intervening to save its client government in Afghanistan. From this seed -- cultivated on a massive scale later by the Reagan-Bush administrations -- violent sectarianism spread across the world, helped at every point by the United States or its allies in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and elsewhere. This shadow world -- where covert ops, terrorism, organized crime and state policy mix inextricably together, sometimes colluding, sometimes falling ! out -- has now enveloped the globe.
Still, to paraphrase the great philosopher Donald Rumsfeld, you oppose mass murder, torture, repression and imperial aggression with the deeply tainted, grossly hypocritical public figures you have, not the saintly, unspotted agents of transformation you wish you had. Carter's remarks represent a welcome crossing of lines by a prominent Establishment figure. Too bad that no one in America will ever hear them.
March 14, 2008 I PROTEST!
I am shocked by the silence of the Israeli media after the government's decision to boycott the Aljazeera network as punishment for its coverage of the bloody events in Gaza.
As journalists and citizens of the "Only Democracy in the Middle East", it is our duty to be the first to raise our voice against this violation of the freedom of the press in our country.
The boycott will not harm Aljazeera. It will harm the State of Israel, because it puts us in line with the worst oppressive regimes in the region and the world.
Uri Avnery,
Sokolov Prize laureate
Published in Haaretz,
GUSH SHALOM Ad published in Haaretz —March 14, 2008
The people of
Sderot and Ashkelon
Should know:
The Barak-Olmert government
Does not intend to stop
The Qassams and Grads.
This week, when there was
A "danger" that the cease-fire
Would take hold,
They sent the "liquidators"
To Bethlehem and Tulkarm.
972-3-5221732
Help to pay for
Our activities and ads
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Gush Shalom, P.O.Box 3322,
Tel-Aviv 61033, www.gush-shalom.org info@gush-shalom.orgGUSH SHALOM
Ad published in Haaretz
Thursday, March 13, 2008 Two police officers arrested on suspicion of ill treatment
Following the submission of a complaint by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), the Police Investigations Department today arrested two police officers from the Maaleh Adumim police station on suspicion of severely ill treating a Palestinian detainee. Read complete article
Saturday, March 8, 2008 Kill A Hundred Turks And Rest.
George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, the Zionist neocon Elliott Abrams and the
assortment of American generals innocent of any knowledge are competing with Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and our own assorted generals, whose understanding reaches as far as the end of the gun barrels of their tanks. —Uri Avnery Read complete article
7-03-2008 Operational update Israel and the occupied territories – Latest report on ICRC activities in the field
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is extremely concerned by the high numbers of civilian casualties inside the Gaza Strip, following the latest escalation in fighting between Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian armed groups. Read full report
Friday, March 7, 2008 A defeated policy, not a defeated people
Let me be clear that the killing of civilians, Israeli or Palestinian, is wrong, repugnant, and cannot bring this one-hundred-year war caused by the Zionist colonization of Palestine to an end. —Ali Abunimah Read complete article
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Jews for a Just Peace Joins the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC).
We have supported the aims and the work of the ACJC since its inception, and individual members of Jews for a Just Peace (JJP) are members of ACJC. We decided at our last monthly meeting to affiliate with ACJC as a group.
The statement below was issued by ACJC on February 1, 2008. Jews for a Just Peace is in complete agreement with their statement and note that the illegal collective punishment of the people of Gaza has considerably intensified since the statement was published. We deplore the recent statement by Israeli deputy minister of defence Matan Vilnai, threatening Palestinians in Gaza with a 'holocaust' (shoah).
[Refer also to our statement on Gaza released on September 20, 2007]
Friday, February 1, 2008
Concerned Jewish Canadians Demand that the Siege on Gaza be Broken.
The Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC) is a pan-Canadian umbrella of Jewish anti-Occupation groups. We wish to join Palestinian Canadian and Québécois groups, and other concerned Canadians and Québécois/es, in expressing our outrage at the siege of the Gaza Strip. Gaza City was plunged into darkness this past month after Israel blocked the shipment of fuel that powers its only electrical plant. 1.5 million Palestinians civilians who live in Gaza are besieged and are suffering from severe food, medicine and life essentials, shortages imposed on them by the inhumane Israel aggression. Israel, which occupies the Palestinian territories, is starving and killing Palestinians in hopes of forcing them into submission and into accepting its illegal occupation and to forgo the right of return.
We the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC) join the Palestinian Canadian and Québécois community and other Canadians and Québécois/es of conscience in demanding that the Canadian government, politicians, and MPs:
Condemn the latest Israel aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza,
Demand an immediate halt to all Israeli brutal use of military force against the Palestinians which is taking a serious humanitarian toll on civilians,
Lift the blockade on the Palestinian people and allow all living essentials, food, medicine and energy to enter the territories without any delay.
Allow an independent international tribunal to enter the Palestinian territories to investigate Israel’s war crimes in the Gaza Strip,
Call upon the international community and Canada in particular to act immediately to stop these crimes;
And call upon the international community and Canada in particular to renew the call to the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their responsibility under Article 1 of the Convention, to ensure that it is respected under all circumstances, and their responsibility under Article 146 to pursue persons suspected of perpetrating serious violations of the convention. We affirm that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) violations are considered war crimes under Article 147 of the Convention and under its first protocol.
We ask MPs and other elected representatives to join the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and international human rights groups who have warned that the blockade will cause a health catastrophe, will drastically affect hospitals, sewage treatment and water facilities and to condemn the Israel government actions and force it to lift these inhumane measures which defy basic humanitarian standards.
International appeal to support the reinstatement of Malalai Joya
The case of Malalai Joya, the 29 year-old elected representative unjustly suspended from the Afghan parliament in May 2007, requires the urgent attention of the international community. Go to the petition page
Outlook
An Independent, secular Jewish publication
with a socialist-humanist perspective
"The moment that Abbas officially announces his resignation, even if I am in prison, I will put forward my candidacy for President (of the Palestinian Authority) and I will win." See entire interview
October 9, 2007
Promoting Open Discussion on Zionism:
A Message from Howard Zinn on behalf of the Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism
As you may have heard, in late August of this year, The University of Michigan Press, after receiving a series of complaining and threatening emails and letters from an ultra-Zionist group called StandWithUs, an offshoot of Campus Watch, withdrew from distribution Prof. Joel Kovel's book Overcoming Zionism, published by Pluto Press in London, United Kingdom. Since then, following numerous protests by fellow academics and scholars, The U. of M. Press Executive Board has restored the book to its distribution listings. But, ominously, the Board has indicated its intention to reconsider its contract with Pluto Press in mid October. http://www.codz.org/zinn-letter.html
Two Knights and a Dragon
By: Uri Avnery
The small, determined Jewish groups in the US who support the Israeli peace movements are remorselessly persecuted. Some of them fold after a few years. Members of Israeli peace groups who are sent to America are boycotted and slandered as "self-hating-Jews" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18504.htm
Dissenting At Your Own Risk
By Cecilie Surasky
Why is Israel's increasingly brutal 40-year occupation of Palestinian land regularly debated in the mainstream media abroad, including in Israel, but not here? And why is there an almost total lack of discussion among presidential candidates about the dollars that subsidize this occupation and the American diplomatic support that makes it possible? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18506.htm
Jews for a Just Peace Vancouver deplores the unanimous decision by the Israeli cabinet to impose sanctions on supplies of electricity, fuel and other basic goods and services to the civilian population of Gaza, and calls upon the international community to prevent this crime against humanity from being carried out. Indeed, the very legal framework invoked by Israel to carry out this illegal and immoral act – declaring Gaza a "hostile entity" within a "conflict short of war" – has absolutely no standing in international law. The collective punishment of an entire civilian population, by contrast, is explicitly prohibited and is another example of Israel's disregard for and contempt of international law.
We call on the Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to urgently convene the Security Council in order to tell the Israeli government that this step is completely unacceptable and must be rescinded.
We call on the governments of the world, and in particular the Canadian government, to censure this blatant disregard for human rights.
We call on the world's religious leaders to condemn this fundamental assault on human life and dignity, made especially poignant as it is being implemented during the holy month of Ramadan. As Jews, we call upon Jewish leaders to speak out unequivocally against this offense against Jewish values on the eve of Yom Kippur.
And we call upon the peoples of the world to let their officials and leaders know of their repudiation of this cruel, illegal and immoral act – an act that stands out in its cruelty even in an already oppressive Israeli Occupation. Jews for a Just Peace condemns attacks on all civilians, be they Israeli or Palestinian. Violations of international law by governments affecting millions of people are, however, especially egregious and must be denounced.
Israel's decision to punish Gaza's civilian population, with all the human suffering that entails, constitutes an instance of State Terrorism against innocent people who have been denied the right to self-determination and their right of return, and have been subject to an illegal and inhuman occupation. Only when Israel is held accountable for its actions and international law upheld will a just peace be possible in the Middle East.
Jews for a Just Peace
Vancouver, BC Canada
Adapted from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions' statement released September 19th 2007 [See Source]
An important marker has been passed by John Pilger
In a column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes his first encounter with a Palestinian refugee camp and what Neldon Mandela has called "the greatest moral issue of our age" - justice for the Palestinians. 'Something has changed', he writes, referring to the world view of sanctions and a boycott against Israel —Read complete article
On the eighth of June, DePaul University in Chicago denied tenure to one of the world experts on the Israel/Palestine conflict, Norman G. Finkelstein. There's been a great uproar on campus and worldwide because it is well known that Prof.Finkelstein's contract was terminated as a result of intervention from outside the university, and ultimately because of the power of his ideas. In a book entitled, The Holocaust Industry, Dr. Finkelstein argues that since 1967 Zionist organizations and certain Jewish leaders have capitalized on the memory of the Holocaust to generate wealth and power for themselves and to silence criticism of Israel's [war] crimes against Palestinians. Professor Finkelstein's ideas are dangerous, and he has paid the price, losing his position in academia despite his tremendous intellectual productivity -- 5 books in 12 years.
We, Jews for a Just Peace, write this statement because we are disturbed by the events at DePaul. We have been impressed by Dr.Finkelstein's incisive analysis and passionate defense of human rights and international law in the context of Israel/Palestine. We take this opportunity to share our thoughts about the relationship between his dismissal and the struggle to which we are committed.
Prof. Finkelstein's case reveals some of the contours of academic freedom in North America. Without denying the specificity of this situation, his dismissal confirms the growing consensus that sustained criticism of Israel and the Israel Lobby represents a risk for scholars, not to mention journalists and others. The fact that an academic of Dr. Finkelstein's calibre worked as an adjunct professor for over a decade before finally landing a tenure-track position is even stronger evidence for this assertion.
Terminating Prof. Finkelstein's contract is meant to set an example, to scare other scholars into biting their tongues. To the extent that this occurs, we are saddened. However, we are certain that many scholars will be inspired by his courage. In addition, Prof. Finkelstein's vulnerability leads us to reflect on the importance of research that is produced by networks of scholars, activists and others who support each other and cannot be so easily dismissed.
Although we recognize that Dr. Finkelstein himself may suffer hardship as a result of this decision, we are confident that he knew the risks of his work, and that he will continue. We also believe that in the future his writing will be taken even more seriously, since people around the world will recognize that only powerful ideas could provoke such a desperate attack.
As an organization focusing on human rights, we recognize continuities between an attempt to silence a professor and the conditions that make it difficult for marginalized people all over the world to express their political beliefs. Prof. Finkelstein's dismissal leads us to reflect on Palestinians living in West Bank and Gaza who risk more than tenure when they choose to speak truth to power.
We recall that scholars tend to study what they love. Although Dr.Finkelstein is a formidable critic of Israeli policies,and certain Jewish leaders and organizations, we believe his work is inspired by a great passion for justice and a desire to see the institutions he criticizes become worthy of our respect.
At this historical moment, we applaud Dr. Finkelstein’s supporters among the faculty and students, and call on DePaul University to reverse this unfortunate decision and grant Prof. Finkelstein the tenured appointment that he richly deserves.
Finally, we stand in solidarity with Dr. Norman Finkelstein, confident that his analysis will continue to illuminate our work in the years to come.
Monday June 4, 2007 On the eve of the anniversary of the Six Day War, we look back and assess the current situation
Sami Zeidan with Uri Avnery: Video:
Al Jazeera English takes a walk around the Old City of Jerusalem and discusses Israel's shock victory and rise of the newly formed state as a regional military power with former Knesset member, peace activist and Israeli journalist, Uri Avnery
Watch Video
The public debate between Uri Avnery and Ilan Pappe is a welcome event. Uri Avnery, who was “a machine-gunner in the Samson’s Foxes commando unit,” participated as a young man from Europe in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, which Ilan Pappe has described so well in his recent book. Uri Avnery became an intrepid and tireless campaigner for a peace agreement between the State of Israel and the Palestinian leadership. Ilan Pappe is a spokesperson for the Right of Return of the Palestine refugees. The very fact that this public debate is being held is a sign of the dissatisfaction of peace activists with the old strategies and the old slogans, and an openness to new ideas, previously thought to be “beyond the pale”.
Unlike Avnery and Pappe, I am not today on the front lines of the struggle in Israeli-occupied Palestine. Nevertheless, I am as interested as anyone that the political debate not get bogged down in false dichotomies or in secondary issues.
Briefly put, in my view, the important issue is not the number of states, but rather the quantity and the quality of the rights enjoyed by the people. So, there needs to be a discussion about goals. There is a no less important discussion about the slogans, the immediate demands, and the transitional demands, that form part of the strategic bridge to get from here to there.
Partition and Nakba
It should be recognized that the “one state-2 states” debate revisits the debates of the 30s and 40s. Moreover, with the benefit of hindsight, we can ask: From the point of view of securing peace and security in Palestine, was the Partition resolution of November 29th, 1947 correct? Further, was the war of 47-48 a just war, on the Israeli side, a war for national independence and national defense? Or was it an unjust war of conquest, occupation, and ethnic cleansing?
Israeli supporters of the so-called “2 state solution”, while purporting to be “realistic and pragmatic”, tend to support the Israeli side in the Nakba. They should admit this historic position openly or, rather, abandon it.
The Partition resolution needs be reconsidered, and analyzed, and denounced explicitly, and in detail. There is good reason to re-visit the positions taken by those democrats, worker-activists, and socialists who opposed Partition in the 1940s. The consequences of Partition – a Zionist state that prevents Palestinian self-determination, threatens the region, and serves as a death-trap for the Israelis – must be exposed in detail.
This is not a matter only of historical narrative and perspective. In October 2000, Arik Sharon noted that the 1948 war was still being fought. In fact, the “1948 file” was re-opened in Israel on Land Day 1976. The Partition resolution and the ethnic cleansing of 1947-48 must be re-evaluated in order to find the path to a peaceful modus vivendi in the Holy Land.
End the Occupation
One of the arguments of those peace activists who support the so-called “2 state solution” is that the oppression and suffering caused by the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is so acute that ending this occupation, and this oppression, and this suffering, is and must be an urgent priority. This is a powerful argument for a mass movement, in Israel and the occupied territories, to demand the unconditional end to the occupation. It is not an argument in favor of the so-called “2 state solution”, either as understood by Bush-Olmert, or by the Geneva Initiative, or by Gush Shalom.
The organized struggle to end the occupation need not be submerged in either “2 state” diplomacy, or in “one state” pie-in-the-sky. The strength of the anti-Zionists organized in Matzpen immediately after the June 67 was expressed in the demand: “Down with the occupation!” No ifs, ands, or buts.
This is also the slogan and the goal that mobilizes most people for struggle in the occupied territories. The Palestinian activists who risk their lives to end the Israeli occupation do not thereby endorse Partition or the so-called “2 state solution”. They merely want to be free. For them, a future “independent state of Palestine” need not be one that accommodates the Zionist entity.
In Israel, the fight to end the occupation is key to demonstrating solidarity with the oppressed. A commitment to removing the yoke of occupation and oppression from the Palestinian people, and thus open the way for them to freely determine their destiny, is the litmus test for any honest Israeli peace activist. Demanding a“2 state solution” (or “a Palestinian state alongside Israel”), rather than an unconditional end to the occupation, is evidence of liberal illusions in diplomacy and a betrayal of solidarity with the oppressed. Demanding a “one state solution” without demanding the unconditional removal of the yoke of oppression is a form of institutionalizing that oppression.
For Israeli peace activists and pro-democracy activists, who are truly motivated by solidarity with the oppressed, the demand to end the occupation unconditionally is a central plank of their political strategy, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
Let the refugees return
Too many Israeli “left-wing” opponents of the right of return warn ominously of a “tsunami” of returning refugees. Thus, these “left-wingers” contribute their share to generating and proliferating Israeli attitudes of hostility, vilification, and contempt against Palestinians. Israeli peace-activists and democrats have a duty to fight these racist attitudes and to cultivate feelings of solidarity with the oppressed. Advocacy for the right of return is a central component of democratic activism and solidarity.
Of course, Palestinian peace activists and pro-democracy activists can help undermine Israeli racism by emphasizing that returning refugees are not a threat to peace-loving Israelis. Palestinian activists can proclaim and demonstrate that they seek the return of the oppressed people, so that they may rebuild their lives in their homeland, live at peace with their neighbors, and build together a new society.
Upholding the rights of the refugees is key to exposing the undemocratic ethnic-nationalist character of the Israeli state and the need for regime change to open the road to reconciliation. Without reconciliation with thePalestine refugees, there can be no realistic peace plan. And, there is no “just resolution to the refugee problem” that excludes the right of return. Israelis who demonstrate their solidarity with the oppressed are necessarily in opposition to a regime based on ethnic cleansing. The demand to let refugees return must be front and center. I have suggested the slogan: “The refugees are our partner for peace. Let them come home!”
Release the political prisoners
The political superstructure of any state immediately calls to mind the need for political freedom. The cream of Palestinian political activists are denied political freedom because they are in Israeli prisons and detention centres. No political freedom for the Palestinian people is possible without political freedom for the Palestinian political prisoners, Intifada activists, and administrative detainees. The fight for Palestinian political freedom, and the exercise of the right to self-determination require that the plight of the political prisoners be front and centre. This is not a matter for 10th place on an agenda for diplomatic negotiations. Release of the Palestinian prisoners must be presented as a pre-requisite to negotiation and reconciliation.
After the capture of Gilad Shavit at Kerem Shalom, and before the start of the conflict with the Lebanese resistance, Israeli public opinion presented a conjunctural opportunity to demand the release of Palestinian prisoners “in exchange” for corporal Shavit. Israeli peace activists missed this relatively rare opportunity, even while there were large-scale demonstrations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip demanding the release of prisoners. An opportunity for solidarity was missed (just as, previously, Israeli peace activists had abstained from the struggle over the removal of the settler-colonies from Gaza), instead raising the sterile slogan “negotiations now”.
Regime change
The real issue is not one state or 2, but a realistic assessment of the nature of the Israeli state, as projected by the Partition resolution, as established in the ethnic cleansing operations of 47-48, and as expanded in June 67. The dominant features of the Israeli ethnic nationalist regime are:
a. settler colonialism;
b ethnic cleansing; and
c. racist discrimination
It can be patiently explained that such a regime is the main obstacle to peace.
Peace requires regime change. Nothing less.
Unfortunately, the main forces in the Israeli “peace camp” — Gush Shalom, Maki (ICP), Hadash (DFPE), and many other Israeli leftists who claim to adhere to “Marxism” and “socialism” — are nevertheless deeply opposed to regime change. They have not learned the lessons of the 20th century, a century of wars, revolutions, and counter-revolutions, or of the upheavals of the present young century. Rather than learn how to mobilize the people for regime change, they seek to create a diplomatic patch-up promoting a diplomatic solution involving only the Israeli elite and the Palestinian elite under the auspices of the imperialist “international consensus”. Once agitating tirelessly for an “international conference,” now calling for “negotiations now” and for the “2 state solution”, they reinforce the imperialist-imposed divisions among the people. It must be said that, with Bush and Rice, who are committed to the “political horizon” of the “2 state solution” that leaves intact imperialist assets in the Middle East, the only prospect is endless suffering for the people.
Objectively speaking, there is no alternative to regime change, which must be prepared systematically. This must be explained patiently, and demonstrated consistently with organized action. Those honest peace activists, who do not yet appreciate the need for regime change, can still recognize that the milestones on the road to peace include the demands to: a) end the occupation, b) release the Palestinian prisoners, and c) let the refugees return. Acceptance of the need for regime change will follow.
A democratic constitution that upholds human rights
I belong to those Israeli leftists who, in the early 1970s, welcomed the Palestinian proposal for a “secular, democratic Palestine”. The strength of this slogan, and this perspective, was its focus on the oppressive Zionist regime that needed to be removed (defeated, overthrown), while all peace-loving people, of whatever origin, could look forward to the benefits of coexistence. Ultimately, a joint struggle for liberation is the only strategy for coexistence. Then, as now, without “liberation”, coexistence is impossible, and “peace” is a codeword for the oppressive status quo. This is the true dichotomy now, as it was then.
The question today is how to enhance solidarity and advance today the struggle for peace.
A clear Palestinian statement, supported by mass action — demanding an end to the occupation, release of political prisoners, return of the refugees, AND coexistence under a democratic constitution that upholds human rights — would severely undermine the hold of Zionism on the Israeli population. It would re-establish the Palestinian liberation struggle as a movement of democratic reconciliation deserving the support of all decent people. Such a statement, and such a movement, would deliver a fatal blow to Israeli oppression, discrimination, and apartheid, and would strengthen its opponents everywhere.
In his recent book, Ali Abunimah has shown that the Palestinian fight against the occupation, for the return of the refugees, and to release political prisoners is part of a fight for coexistence and reconciliation. Abunimah demonstrates how the Palestinians can recapture the moral high ground by focusing on equality and human rights. He shows that the goal is not revenge or domination, but shared democracy.
When Palestinian activists make this goal front and center, they can obtain a hearing inside Israel that nothing else has achieved. They will pierce the armor of Zionist claims to provide security for the Israeli people. They will reach out directly to the oppressed inside Israel with the prospects of a new society.
One cannot be oblivious to the amazing capacity for social struggle exhibited recently by university students, byHistadrut workers, and by IDF soldiers. A political strategy must be developed that reaches into the class conflict that exists in Israeli society, informs it with the anti-Zionist program, and creates conditions for the future overthrow of the oppressive Zionist regime. Any cynicism on this count – relying on the imperialist “international consensus”, all in the name of “realism” – will only postpone the day when the people ofPalestine rise up, take responsibility for their own freedom and their own democracy, and create the political conditions for peace.
So, not one state or 2, and not illusions in diplomacy, and not passing the buck to the “international community” – but building a movement in Israel and the Occupied Territories, supported from abroad – is the way forward.
International solidarity
Unlike some popular misconceptions, the Apartheid regime in South Africa was not brought down by international sanctions. The struggle of the oppressed people of South African AND international solidarity are what ended the Apartheid regime. Similarly, decent people internationally must support the oppressed people of Palestine and those Israelis who recognize Palestinian rights. International solidarity with Palestine can use boycott, and other pressure tactics, thoughtfully and effectively to help the oppressed Palestinians and to help those Israelis who support Palestinian rights. It would be a shame if, in the name of “boycotting Israeli apartheid”, solidarity activists were to boycott oppressed Palestinians and their allies in Israel. The most important goal of any solidarity campaign must be the clarity of the political message that is conveyed and reinforced.
In places like Canada, boycott has already been used effectively against wines produced in the settler-colonies and sold in Quebec Government stores. A campaign should be mounted to oppose the Canadian Government’s blockade of the Palestinian Authority. A campaign has long been contemplated to remove the tax-exempt status from the Jewish National Fund, one of the main agencies of ethnic cleansing. The anti-Caterpillar campaign can be a means to take the message of Palestine solidarity to the farmers who buy Caterpillar tractors, and to the autoworkers who produce them. I have suggested the theme: “Oppressed Palestinians need our help! Israelis who support Palestinian rights need our help!” Much is yet to be learned, and improved, in this regard.
The Pappe-Avnery debate will present an opportunity to think about the fundamental issues, and to go beyond the false dichotomy of “one state vs. 2 states”. In any event, the resolution of this debate, in practice, is premature. When the people of Palestine are free of Zionist oppression, they will exercise their right to freely determine the political structures that they deem necessary. Now is the time to look for practical and realistic struggles and slogans to build a movement that can overcome Zionist oppression. Many Israelis and Palestinians want to break with the Oslo-era illusions in imperialist-led diplomacy, and mobilize to build a new society. Hopefully, they will find ways to strengthen their ranks for the challenges ahead.
The lives of Jewish Canadians, as well as the lives of Israelis, have been adversely affected by the policies carried out by the various governments of Israel. Despite growing international opposition to these policies, Israel continues to pursue a primarily military strategy while claiming to speak in the name of Jewish people around the world. In the absence of a public Jewish dissident voice all Jewish people are tainted by default with the fallout of such policies. Jewish Canadians have not been given an opportunity to discuss these issues, nor have we been able to make our views known except for media, groups and committees that have been marginalized.
It is surely time for those of us who have a different vision to come forward publicly to present our views to the Canadian Jewish community and to the people of Canada. We also need to explain to the Government of Canada that Jewish Canadians do not speak as one voice with respect to current Israeli policies, and that thousands have grave doubts which until now have been muted. We have joined together to create a cross-Canada alliance of Jewish anti-occupation forces prepared to present our position both within the Jewish community of Canada and before the general public. In short, the Alliance proposes to serve as a Canada-wide, umbrella organization for Jewish dissenting individuals and groups.
Jewish Canadians, seeking a peaceful resolution to the seemingly endless Israel-Palestinian Conflict, should no longer remain silent.
We urge Jewish Canadians to take a greater role in supporting and promoting a peaceful and just resolution to the Conflict.
For ACJC membership, send your name, email address / telephone number to : ACJC2006@yahoo.ca
See ACJC at Yahoo Groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ACJC2006
Tax-deductible donations to: La Galerie Fokus (designating the ACJC) and sent to:
ACJC, 68 Duluth Ave. East, Montreal QC, H2W 1G8
Standing Committee:
Abraham Y. Weizfeld Ph.D cand. Montréal
Jason Kunin PhD Toronto, Ontario
Mark Samuel Etkin M.D. FRCPC Winnipeg MB
Michael Mandel LL.B., B.C.L. Toronto, CANADA
Ophra Benazon Ph.D. Montreal, (Québec)
Stephen Aberle Vancouver, BC
Zalman Amit Ph.D. Bridgewater N.S.
Michael Benazon Ph.D. co-founder - 2006
Political Statement and Call to Action on Palestine
Joint Delegation of Palestinian Civil Society to the
World Social Forum
Nairobi, Kenya, January 2007
Political Statement and
Call to Action on Palestine
Forty years after Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and almost 60 years after the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, the Palestinian people is at a critical juncture. Global solidarity and support will be decisive in enabling the Palestinian people's struggle for freedom, justice and durable peace to prevail.
To date, official diplomacy has failed in enforcing scores of UN resolutions and relevant principles of international law aimed at ending Israel's occupation, colonization, displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people. US-led Middle East diplomacy, favoring military intervention and unilateralism over respect for international law, is also directly implicated in wars and occupation in Iraq and Lebanon, complicit with Israel's colonial regime in Palestine, and actively encouraging division and civil war in the region. Rather than being part of the solution, the US and the entire Quartet -- including the EU -- have become part of the problem in the region.
After intense efforts, transparent and democratic parliamentary elections were held in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) with the fervent backing of the US and the EU, both of which rejected the election results that brought Hamas to "power," an outcome that was not in line with their plans for the region, particularly their attempt to "convince" the Palestinians to accept limited self-rule in the OPT under the overall control of Israeli military authorities. Subsequently, Israel, the US and most European powers imposed a severe, inhumane regime of sanctions against Palestinians under occupation. In the words of the UN Special Rapporteur, Prof. John Dugard, sanctions were imposed on the occupied rather than the occupier, the first time an occupied people has been so treated.
Poverty, unemployment, de-development, and destabilization of vital institutions providing health care, education and social services were among the immediate results of this merciless blockade. This, coupled with direct foreign intervention, encouraged dispute in the Palestinian political system, undermining the ability for effective coping and eventually triggering open conflict between the two leading Palestinian political parties.
In the meanwhile, Israel has escalated with unprecedented impunity its colonial siege of Palestinian Bantustans; killing of Palestinian civilians, at least a third of whom are children; confiscation of Palestinian land and water resources; construction of the apartheid Wall, condemned as illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004; and wanton destruction of Palestinian agricultural lands, infrastructure and entire civilian neighborhoods. Furthermore, in 2006, the Israeli government issued four times more tenders for housing units -- in colonies built on occupied Palestinian land -- than in 2005. The recent massacre of defenceless civilians in Beit Hanoun is only the latest episode in this series of war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation force without accountability or censure from the world. By preventing Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the UN investigative commission headed by him from entering the Gaza Strip, Israel, with ample complicity from the West, is repeating the cover-up it got away with after its atrocities in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002. This time, again, world governments chose to turn their heads elsewhere, giving Israel the green light to continue with its criminal policies whose main goal is to instigate a slow process of ethnic cleansing of the OPT, which would achieve its historic objective of having a "land without a people."
In parallel, Israel's recent, widely acknowledged defeat in Lebanon has only pushed it further to the right, to the extent that an openly fascist party like Avigdor Lieberman's is now part of the government. Political disenfranchisement of Palestinians inside Israel has deepened, and racial discrimination against them in all vital domains -- family reunification, education, health, land ownership and job opportunities -- has increased. Home demolitions, crop destruction and forced displacement of entire communities, mainly in the Naqab (Negev), have become the norm in Israel's treatment of its own Palestinian citizens. Since the signature of the Oslo accords in 1993, many years of "peace-making" that ignored the basic requirements of justice have passed in vain, only helping the occupying power to literally cement its hold on the occupied land. Still, Palestinian civil society has not lost hope in achieving a just peace based on international law and universal human rights, most primary among them the right to full equality of all humans regardless of religion or ethnicity. Currently, as in past decades, the most fundamental impediments preventing such a comprehensive and lasting peace from being realized remain Israel's continued occupation and colonization of Arab lands; its denial of Palestinian refugee rights; its persistent expulsion policies; and its system of racial discrimination against its own indigenous Palestinian citizens. Palestinian civil society representatives strongly believe that, without applying direct, effective and consistent pressure on Israel to end its three-tiered oppression of the Palestinian people, the international community will not genuinely contribute to ending this age-old conflict and to bringing about a just and enduring peace to the entire region.
Call to Action
Based on the above, Palestinian civil society overwhelmingly advocates Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (or BDS) against Israel, similar to the international community's measures against apartheid South Africa in the past. Consumer boycotts of Israeli products; boycott of Israeli academic, athletic and cultural events and institutions complicit in human rights abuses; divestment from Israeli companies, as well as international corporations involved in perpetuating injustice; and pressuring governments to impose sanctions on Israel are all examples of effective, morally sound, non-violent measures that ought to be initiated and maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in 1967 and dismantling the Wall;
2. Ending its system of racial discrimination and recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, including their right to full equality; and
3. Recognizing the right of Palestinian refugees, including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), to return to their homes and properties, as stipulated in UNGA resolution 194.
International civil society, in close coordination with Palestinian and Arab civil society, has a critical role to play in bringing about justice and peace to the Middle East. By adopting diverse, sustainable, and context-sensitive, yet consistent, forms of BDS actions against Israel in various fields, conscientious organizations and individuals can shoulder their moral responsibility to end the Israeli system of colonialism and racial discrimination, providing a genuine opportunity for reconciliation and coexistence for everyone in the region, based on equality and mutual respect for international law and fundamental human rights.
The Palestinian Delegation to the WSF-2007, Nairobi:
• Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO)
• Ittijah - Union of Arab Community Based Organizations
• Palestinian NGO Forum, Lebanon
• Acting Steering Committee, Palestinian BDS Campaign
• OPGAI-Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights
Advocacy Initiative
• The Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
• APN-Arab Group for the Protection of Nature
January 18, 2007 Little Abir is dead
by Nurit Peled-Elhanan
Bassam Armin spent many years in the Israeli jail for planning some terrorist attack which had never taken place. But the murderer of his daughter, the Israeli soldier who shot 9 year old Abir in the head Wednesday morning, will not spend even one hour in jail. Because in Israel no one serves time for killing Arabs, young or old, real or "potential" terrorists. The army has not even made an inquiry. No-one was questioned. There was no investigation. For the IDF the shooting has never happened. Abir was hit by a stone thrown by one of her classmates "at our forces", this is the official version. But we know that stones thrown by 10 year olds don’t blow brains up. Just as we who live here know that every day, when Palestinian children go to school or leave school, Israeli jeeps come to circulate around them and pave their way home with shock-bombs, "rubber" bullets and gas bombs.
Abir was shot as she came to school with her sister. She was shot from behind. I saw her. A little girl sleeping quietly in a huge hospital bed, sleeping forever. Her face was white and her huge eyes closed. She was definitely shot from behind.
And now she is dead. The doctors in Hadassa hospital wont reveal the cause of her death to her parents who are trying desperately to find a way to perform an autopsy in order to have proof that Abir was murdered. Her father, Bassam, one of the founders of the Israeli-Palestinian movement Combatants for Peace, will not rest until the murderer, who was armed to his teeth, convinces him that Abir was a threat to his life or to the lives of the other armed soldiers in the jeep.
Tomorrow Abir will join so many other children in the underground kingdom of dead children upon which we tread every day, every hour. She will be welcomed by my own little girl. And I will sit next to her mother and try to say something like "We are all victims of the occupation". But I know that her hell is far more terrible than mine, because my murderer had the decency to kill himself in the process whereas her murderer will be probably drinking beer and playing shesh-besh with his mates when Abir is put in her small grave.
Abir's father is a fighter. He fought the occupation as a warrior and now he is fighting it as a peace activist. But he knows as I know that his little dead girl is taking to her small grave, wrapped in her small bones, the reasons for the war and its consequences. She is taking with her life and death, hope and vengeance. Being a Muslim he believes this is a test and that he must pass it as a man of honour, not to give up, not to abandon his struggle for peace and dignified life on his own land. Yesterday he asked me where do we take the energy to go on and I said from the children who are left to us. From the children who are still living. When the whole enlightened world stands aside and does nothing to save little girls from murderous soldiers, when the whole enlightened world is happy to blame Islam for all the atrocities the non-Islamic world is inflicting upon Muslims, when the whole enlightened world is afraid of little girls with scarves on their heads, of men who wear Kaffiehs and most of all of the Muslim womb, we – Jewish and Arab victims of the Israeli occupation – who live together and die together and lose our children together in this helly-land are the ones to remind this world that the children who are killed here by American bombs and bullets are mostly Muslim and that the people who are responsible for the massacres in the middle east are mostly Christian and Jews. That if the world does not come to its senses soon there will be nothing more to say or write or listen to in this land except for the silent cry of mourning and the muted voices of dead children.
September 22, 2006 Happy New Year
The following statement appears today in the New York Times. It is the most appropriate way to mark the Jewish new year, whose symbolism is the sweetness of harvest, for it is only in the direction pointed out by the signatories of this declaration that there is any hope to taste the fruits of peace. —Mordecai Briemberg, CanPalNet
Petition for U.S. Jewish Solidarity with Muslim and Arab Peoples of the Middle East
As Jews of conscience living in the United States, we are outraged by the violence being perpetrated in our name both as Jews and as U.S. citizens. We, the undersigned, represent Jews across the United States who are choosing to stand in solidarity with the peoples of Gaza and Lebanon.
We are appalled by the blatant self-interest revealed in the U.S.'s leveraging of Israel's actions towards a "New Middle East" agenda, which it has advanced in Afghanistan and Iraq in order to serve an increasingly unilateral economic and political program enforced through military aggression. With Israel as its military proxy, this destructive U.S. foreign policy agenda seeks to establish puppet governments across the Middle East, in a grand effort to ensure continued oil supplies to the West at devastating cost to civilian lives and democracy across the Middle East and beyond.
Focusing upon Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza as well as Iraq and Afghanistan, this vision for a "New Middle East" has facilitated hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian civilian deaths, over a third of whom are children, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani deaths. We Jews of conscience know that no justice, no democracy, and no peace can result from such brutality.
We call upon Jews everywhere to hold the U.S. government accountable for its 58-year role in facilitating and benefiting from Israel's long-standing, military occupation of Palestine, its repeated acts of collective punishment against both the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, and its military dominance over Lebanon and other countries in the region.
We are outraged, but by no means surprised, by Israel's brutality-and consistent support for it by the U.S. government. We are not surprised because Israel was founded through a process of colonization. It is well documented that Israel's founders knew then that their role in this colonizing process would require an ongoing military strategy to continue to "cleanse" the Palestinian population in the name of a "Jewish" state. They also knew that military dominance of neighboring Arab countries would be necessary in the name of Jewish "self-defense." Israel's current attacks on Gaza and Lebanon are consistent with this history and Israel's founding vision.
Over and above its betrayal of Jewish ethical claims to justice, reason, and equity, Israel, the "Jewish" state, has failed to realize its stated goal to provide sanctuary for persecuted Jews. Israel's tactics of fueling hatred and inciting fear, not least where tolerance and co-existence were once longstanding rules, cannot ensure Jewish safety but will endanger the lives of Israeli citizens and residents and of Jews around the globe.
There is no Jewish safety in a country that rehearses the violence and persecution which Ashkenazi Jews experienced for centuries through the annihilation of the Palestinian people and their homeland.
There is no Jewish safety in alignment with the current Christian fundamentalist attack on Islam, used historically not only to justify persecuting Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jews but to rain terror upon Arabs and Muslims since the time of the earliest Crusades.
There is no Jewish safety in allowing the history of Jewish persecution to be leveraged in support of U.S. political and economic interests as these entail amassing funding for Israel's military industry.
Finally, there is no Jewish safety, nor Jewish claims to justice, reason, or equity, beyond Jewish commitment to the unconditional safety and liberation of the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon and the other Arab and Muslim countries currently under assault by Israel, the U.S. and its allies.
We, Jews of Conscience, demand that the U.S. government:
Require Israel to stop its brutal siege on Gaza and on Lebanon and call for an unconditional cease fire.
Require Israel to stop the expansion of the Israeli Wall of Separation, dismantle the completed sections, and completely withdraw from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Support the United Nations resolutions demanding that Israel uphold international law and support the sanctions against Israel necessary to enforce these resolutions.
End military and economic aid to Israel.
Support reparations for the Palestinian and Lebanese people for the death and destruction they have suffered and for aid towards the rebuilding of their countries.
Tuesday August 1, No Hezbollah Rockets Fired From Qanaby Dahr Jamail
Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at least 60 civilians, have told IPS that no Hezbollah rockets were launched from the city before the Israeli air strike. Read full story
PROTEST HARPER'S SUPPORT FOR
ISRAELI ATTACKS
August 14
Monday Vigil, 6:00pm at the Art Gallery (Robson side)..
21 Jul 06 From the Editors of MERIP
Letting Lebanon Burn
With over 300 Lebanese dead and easily 500,000 displaced, with the Beirut airport, bridges and power plants disabled, the enormous Israeli bombardment of Lebanon is more than a "disproportionate response" to Hizballah's July 12 seizure of two soldiers and killing of three others on Israeli soil. It is more than the "excessive use of force" that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan decries. Yet virtually the entire American political class actively resists international calls for an immediate ceasefire, preferring to wait for an Israeli victory.
"Letting Lebanon Burn," a commentary from the editors of Middle East Report, is now available in Middle East Report Online: http://www.merip.org/mero/mero072106.html
18 Jul 06 A Lesson in Hatred
To our eternal shame, Israeli girls write messages on shells ready to be fired toward Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Photo: AFP
17 Jul 06 Canadians expect their government to uphold international law
Joint statement from StopWar.ca and Jews for a Just Peace, Vancouver
Monday, 17 July 2006—StopWar.ca and Jews for a Just Peace join in appealing to Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to take a more informed and balanced approach to the current events in Lebanon, Gaza and Israel, than his repeated statements in support of Israeli actions imply. Mr Harper should be aiming his remarks at ending hostilities as quickly as possible and encouraging all parties to participate unconditionally in peace negotiations.
Canadians expect their government to uphold and promote the tenets of international law that our country is signatory to and that are clearly accepted by most Canadians as an integral part of our commitment to universal human values.
While all parties have to accept responsibility for their actions, Israel's disproportionate response in both Gaza and Lebanon is cause for grave concern:
• for the extent of the suffering it has brought to large numbers of the innocent,
• for the risk of uncontrolled escalation and extreme destabilization in a volatile region, and
• for the appearance of attempting to change the rules of what is acceptable and thus undermining the efficacy of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
By calling Israel's response "measured," Mr. Harper shows a bias in favour of Israel which constitutes a disregard for the human worth of the civilian victims of Israeli excesses in both Occupied Palestine and Lebanon. Human dignity is the birthright of civilians on both sides of this tragic divide.
Today, Mr. Harper is reported to have said: "We are not giving in to the temptation of some to single out Israel, which was the victim of the initial attack."
We would remind Mr. Harper that Palestinians have a right under international law as an occupied people to engage with the Israeli military and to take their soldiers as prisoners of war. Only action against combatants is legitimate and collective punishment and the targeting of civilians is wrong on both sides.
While Hezbollah's initial attack on an Israeli military target and the subsequent attacks on civilian areas in Israel is in contravention of international law, these actions can never constitute a justification for Israel to ignore the Geneva Conventions and to launch the massive attacks on civilian populations that we have witnessed over the past five days.
Mr Harper has in fact singled out Israel as the party without guilt and this is plainly culpable and partisan. It should not be forgotten that while attention is focussed on Lebanon, attacks against civilians continues in Gaza and the Palestinian population of the West Bank continues to suffer under the yoke of occupation.
Mr. Harper's excusing of Israeli actions because "Israel has a right to defend itself" and "it is difficult to engage an enemy that has embedded itself in a civilian population" fails utterly to justify the destruction of Beirut Airport, Lebanese fuel tanks, bridges and the main highway to Damascus. Israel's argument that these actions are intended to secure the release of two illegally captured Israeli soldiers is simply transparent rationalization that can only be believed by those biased in Israel's favour. We expect greater objectivity from our government.
We call on the Canadian Government to insist that all parties to the conflict abide by international law with regard to their treatment of their prisoners.
Furthermore, we call on the Canadian Government to insist that collective punishment is a crime that cannot be accepted. We call on our government to work within all international arenas available to ensure that no one in this conflict flouts international law with impunity.
StopWar.ca and Jews for a Just Peace submit that it is both irresponsible and morally indefensible to make statements justifying the actions perpetrated by Israel. These actions are clearly in violation of international law. It behooves our government to act with compassion rather than from partisan considerations given the serious possibility of a bloodbath emerging from the current situation in the Middle East.
18.3.06 Uri Avnery A Disgusting Exercise
THE CENTRAL theme of this article is disgust. Therefore I apologize in advance for the frequent use of this and similar words.
In the thesaurus I find quite a number of synonyms: loathing, revulsion, dislike, nausea, distaste, aversion, antipathy, abomination, repulsion, abhorrence, repugnance, odium, detestation, and some more. They are all present in my feelings about the action that took place in Jericho on Tuesday.
IT WAS abhorrent, first of all, because it was an election propaganda gimmick. For a politician to send the army in to collect votes is an abhorrent act. In this action, three people were killed. Many more lives, Palestinian and Israeli, were put at risk.
The horrible cynicism of the decision was plain for all to see. Even the voters noticed it: in a public opinion poll two days later, 47% said that the decision was influenced by electoral considerations, only 49% thought otherwise.
This is not the first time for Ehud Olmert to walk over dead bodies on his way to power. As mayor of Jerusalem, he pushed for the opening of a tunnel in the area of the Muslim shrines, causing (as expected) dozens of casualties. Binyamin Netanyahu, his accomplice at the time, is made of similar material.
Netanyahu, at least, was once a combat soldier, who risked his own life in action. Much more distasteful is a politician who sends others to risk their lives but takes great care not to risk his own. This inglorious band also numbers George Bush and Dick Cheney, two serial war-mongers.
Olmert had a problem. His party was slowly sinking in the polls. As time passed, some of the Kadima fans started to notice that Olmert, after all, is no Sharon. Sharon's glory derives mainly from his being a victorious general, who walked around during the Yom Kippur war with a large bandage around his head (to this very day it is not quite clear what purpose it served). Olmert was in urgent need of a military action that would provide him with the laurels of a tough military commander, and would also help him shake off the nickname attached to him by the Likud: Smolmert. (Smol, in Hebrew, means left.)
The trick paid off. In the same poll, 20.7% of the voters said that the Jericho action persuaded them to vote for Kadima, or, at least, reinforced their decision to do so.
In general, one should beware of a civilian politician who succeeds a leader crowned with military laurels. It is enough to mention the classic case of Anthony Eden, the heir of Winston Churchill, who initiated the Suez war of October 1956.
WHAT DOES that war remind us about? The collusion.
The British wanted to topple Gamal Abd-al-Nasser, because he had the temerity to expropriate the property of the British shareholders of the Suez Canal Company. The French wanted to bring him down because of his support for the Algerian war of liberation. They conspired with David Ben-Gurion, who wanted to destroy the newly re-equipped Egyptian army. The main middleman of the collusion was Shimon Peres, now No. 2 on the Kadima list.
It worked like this: Israeli paratroopers, commanded by Ariel Sharon (founder of Kadima), were dropped near the Suez canal. Britain and France issued a fake ultimatum, calling upon Egypt and Israel to withdraw their forces from the canal - a preposterous demand, since the canal is deep in Egyptian territory. As agreed beforehand, Israel refused, and then the British and French forces invaded the canal area, leaving the Israeli army to take control of the entire Sinai peninsula. The collusion was so primitive and obvious that it was uncovered at once. End of Eden.
The Jericho affair is incredibly similar: the British and the Americans pretended to fear for the safety of their monitors, which were stationed in Jericho according to an agreement which we shall touch upon later. They told Mahmoud Abbas that they might withdraw them. At a time secretly agreed upon with the Israeli Prime Minister, the British and American monitors went out and the Israeli army went in. Preparations for the action had been going on for weeks.
One thing should be said in favor of George Bush and Tony Blair (and his miserable Foreign Minister, Jack Straw): they have returned the oldest profession in the world to the oldest city in the world. The scarlet thread of Rahav the Harlot (Joshua, 2) leads to this act of prostitution.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL Dan Halutz can be proud of this victory. In the past, he became famous for saying that all he feels is a slight bump on his wing when he drops a bomb on a civilian neighborhood, even if women and children are also killed. After that he sleeps well, he said. Now he has won real glory: with the help of dozens of tanks, gunships and heavy bulldozers he has succeeded in capturing six unarmed prisoners in the tranquil, non-violent little town that lives off tourism.
In the course of the action, Halutz' soldiers created a disgusting picture that has sullied the image of the Israeli army in the eyes of the hundreds of millions who saw it on their screens. They ordered the Palestinian policemen and prisoners to take their clothes off, and then let them be photographed, again and again - and again and again - in their underpants. There was no need for that. The pretext, that they might have hidden explosive belts on their body, was ridiculous under these circumstances. And even if it had been necessary, it could surely have been done far from the cameras. No doubt: the intention was to humiliate, to debase, to satisfy sadistic tendencies.
A person can, perhaps, get over beatings, or even torture. But he cannot ever forget humiliation, especially when it was done in full view of his family, friends, colleagues and all people around the world. How many new terrorists were born at that moment?
On that day I happened to visit friends in a Palestinian village in the West Bank. We - my hosts and I - were riveted to the TV screen (mainly Aljazeera). When these pictures appeared, I could not look them in the eye for shame.
THE ISRAELI media had a ball. Not just a ball, they went gaga for sheer joy. They contributed their special part to the loathsome event and stood to attention behind the government. Like a flock of parrots, unanimously repeating the mendacious official version.
It was a festival of brain-washing. The "Murderers of Ze'evi" have been captured! It was our national duty! We could not rest until they fell into our hands, dead or alive!
These three words - "Murderers of Ze'evi" - turned into a mantra. They were repeated endlessly on radio and television, and appeared in the printed newspapers (all of them!) and the speeches of the politicians (all of them!). That's how it is: Israelis are "murdered", Palestinians are "eliminated".
Why, for Gods sake? Rehavam Zee'vi, a cabinet minister at the time, preached day and night about "transfer" - the euphemism for driving the Palestinians out of Palestine. Compared to him, Jean-Marie le Pen in France and Joerg Haider in Austria are bleeding-heart liberals. His targeted killing is no different from the targeted killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin and scores of other Palestinian leaders, including Abu-Ali Mustafa, the chief of the Popular Front, who was allowed by Israel to return from Syria to the Palestinian territories after Oslo.
This is part of the endless chain of violence: The Israeli army killed Abu-Ali Mustafa. He was succeeded by Ahmed Sa'adat, who, according to the Israeli security service, ordered the killing of Rehavam Ze'evi in revenge, and whose capture was the aim of the Jericho action. And so it goes on.
Let's be clear: I oppose all murders. Theirs and ours. The murder of Abu-Ali Mustafa and the murder of Rehavam Ze'evi. But whoever spills the blood of a Palestinian leader cannot complain about the shedding of the blood of an Israeli one.
THERE IS still another side to the affair, which is no less disgusting: the attitude towards the keeping of agreements.
Sa'adat and his colleagues were held in Jericho in accordance with an agreement signed by Israel. On the strength of it, they left the Mukata'a in Ramallah, during the siege on Yasser Arafat, and entered the Palestinian jail in Jericho. The US and the UK guaranteed their safety and undertook to monitor their imprisonment.
What has happened now in Jericho is a blatant breach of the agreement. The miserable pretexts invented in Jerusalem, London and Washington are an insult to the intelligence of a 10-year old.
Israeli governments often regard the breach of an agreement as a patriotic act if it serves our purpose. Agreements are binding only on the other side. This is not only a primitive morality, it is also damaging to our national interests. Who will sign an agreement with us, knowing that it obligates only him? How can Israel convincingly demand that the Hamas leaders "accept all the agreements" signed by the Palestinian Authority?
Many Israelis believe that the Jericho action was a brilliant exercise. I found it simply loathsome.
March 3, 2006
Canada Palestine Association’s
Open Letter to the
Assembly of First Nations
We are saddened, hurt and shocked by the visit of a delegation of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) to Israel, as well as the following statement attributed to AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine:
Statement on the results of the Palestinian Election
Jews for a Just Peace calls for recognition of the democratic decision of the Palestinian electorate
VANCOUVER February 16, 2006 —Jews for a Just Peace calls for immediate recognition of the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people by the Government of Canada.
The refusal of Israel and other governments to acknowledge Hamas as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people on the grounds that Hamas is a “terrorist organization” is hypocritical. It is true that Hamas has perpetrated terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. It is also true that Hamas has observed a unilateral cease-fire for almost a year while Israel continues to terrorize Palestinian civilians with attacks on refugee camps, housing blocks and farms. Israel refuses to stop its program of assassination of Palestinian political leaders. Both of these are war crimes, as defined by international law.
The Israeli government threatens to withhold tax money collected by Israel and held in trust for the Palestine authority. We urge the Canadian government to demand that Israel release these funds immediately and unconditionally.
As a condition for negotiation, Western nations have stipulated the establishment of democratic procedures in the Mideast but, in the case of a Hamas victory, reserve the right to decide which democratic procedures are to their liking. Recognizing and negotiating with an elected government does not imply endorsing the ruling party's actions and policies. The fiction that Israel has "no one to negotiate with" has for too many years blocked moves toward a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The two peoples must negotiate with each other. For Israel to refuse to negotiate with a Hamas-led government is as absurd as it would be for the Palestinian Authority to refuse to negotiate with a Likud government in Israel. Hamas received the overwhelming support of the Palestinian people in free and fair elections. That population has suffered a cruel occupation for decades. The new Palestinian government deserves our recognition.
We also ask that Canada support an international effort to apply sanctions against Israel if it refuses to negotiate with the legally elected representatives of the Palestinian people.
On behalf of Jews for a Just Peace (Vancouver),
Martha Roth,
Marty Roth,
Stephen Aberle.
Israeli Committe Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
With a statement issued Thursday, January 27, 2005, ICAHD was the first Israeli peace group to call for sanctions in the struggle to end the occupation:
SANCTIONS AGAINST THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION: IT’S TIME
“If apartheid ended, so can the occupation. But the moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined. The current divestment effort is the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that direction.” —Bishop Desmond Tutu
Meditations on shifting possibilities bylawrence boxall
Human Rights?
Considering the long and rich tradition of Jewish ethics and spirituality, it is with a burdoned heart that one has to face the reality of modern-day Israel's human rights record. European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP) has recently declared its support for a non-violent campaign including a boycott to push Israel into compliance with the requirements of international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"We must free ourselves from the curse of dominating another people." —Yeshayahu Leibovitz
November 1, 2005 An Excuse to Ignore the Law
Apologists for the Israeli construction of the Wall would have us believe that it is legitimate because it works. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined in July 2004, that the wall is illegal. The campaign to discredit the ICJ and, by implication, the validity of international law in order to win approval for the building of the wall is cause for extreme concern.
Evidence of the widespread practice of torture in the Middle East, including in Israel, in a post Nazi world is frightening to say the least. It appears that the aims of the Nürnberg Tribunal and the 4th Geneva Conventions to create a more humane world are not being realized in our time.
There is no alternative for securing justice and peace on our planet, yet international law is ignored as governments concentrate on building armies and buying improved weaponry in the search for peace and security. The difference in military power between Israel and the Palestinian people is so enormous, it seems as though one has all the power while the other has nothing.
Has Israel's superior military power over the Palestinians brought the security that Israelis long for? Why would one continue along a path that is so obviously a failure? Is it perhaps a clever ruse to maintain the sympathy of the world while the real agenda is to take as much of Palestinian land as possible?
The argument that the wall works is not a valid legal argument and yet even the safety that is supposed to be derived from the wall is questionable. Uri Avnery explains:
An Opinion—28 Oct 05
The statement by President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad of Iran on wiping Israel from the map is so mind-numbingly stupid that it almost seems a waste of time to bother with a statement of condemnation. The most significant consequence of his statement is the likely misery that will be visited on the innocent population of his country. His statement also facilitates Sharon's drive to annex more lands from the Palestinian people. A worsening of the house of cards that is the US economy is inevitable as increased military spending is publicly accepted in renewed hysteria fuelled by the foolish words of the President of Iran.
Such is the arrogance that overtakes those who believe they are taking their orders directly from God.
“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power.” —Euripides.
A Condemnation—29 Oct 05
We are appalled by the heartless arrogance displayed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad in his recent statement calling for the wiping of Israel from the map. We condemn his statement for a viciousness that parallels the “Final Solution” of the Third Reich, the right-wing Zionist calls for ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, and Republic House Majority Leader Richard Armey's call for the expulsion of the Palestinians and Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
A Crucial Consideration—30 Oct 05
The injustices in Palestine/Israel, the injustices throughout the Middle East and the injustices throughout the world that fall within the ambit of international law lead easily to despair by virtue of their duration and the appearance that there is no foreseable end to rampant international lawlessness. However, it is precisely because of the horrors of war and the ease with which international relations have a history of turning to horrifying brutality that international law came into being.
At first the idea was that if the people of this planet cannot end warfare, at least let us minimise the pointless brutality and slaughter of innocents that inevitably accompanies war. By the end of WWII, however, the world realized that war itself was no longer acceptable. Thus the planning and waging of aggressive war become a criminal offence.
It would seem that the best alternative to hopeless despair in the face of the global carnage and destruction of war is to promote the universal acceptance of international law. With the inclusion of the rest of international humanitarian law, the people of the world can reasonably hope for justice and peace throughout the world.
It is in this context that we, the population of Earth, should expect leaders like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to consider carefully the consequences of their public statements. It is natural and even acceptable for a person to become emotionally upset over the offences under international law perpetrated by the leaders of Israel. However it must be born in mind that it is only individuals that the law can prosecute. Germany was not on trial at Nürnberg; those particular citizens of Germany that committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Nazi years were tried by the tribunal.
Similarly, it is not acceptable to accuse Israel as a whole of war crimes if it is the actions of its leaders and government agents that you refer to. No matter how unjust you consider the circumstances surrounding the establishment of Israel, Israel is a country created and recognized by the United Nations. To deny Israel's right to exist undermines the foundations of international law.* The US Administration has indicated in recent years that it is only too happy to see this happen, preferring to replace international law with its own military as the source of world order.
As we demand that Israel abide by international law, we should promote the universal applicability and acceptance of this body of law by recognizing Israel's right to exist.
*A pivotal issue today is the insistence on the part of Israeli leaders that Israel's right to exist "as a Jewish state" is recognized. It was clearly never the intention of the United Nations that Israel should be a Jewish state rather than a state for all of its citizens. To accept the above-mentioned demand would be the equivalent of recognizing the right of whites in South Africa to establish a white state. While this would clearly be unacceptable in the case of South Africa, there are many who conflate the idea of a Jewish state with the idea of a nation state like France or Italy and fail to see the racism inherent in the idea of a Jewish state.
October 15, 2005
Statement on the BC Teachers’ Strike
Jews for a Just Peace stands wholeheartedly in support of the stand taken by the teachers of British Columbia in their struggle to win back the rights, guaranteed under international agreements, that have been taken from them.
We call on the Government of British Columbia to repeal Bill 12 and all other legislation that denies teachers the right to free collective bargaining in accordance with international agreements that Canada is party to.
We encourage our friends and allies to join us in publicly supporting the teachers of our province and the BCTF.
October 15, 2005
Avenge But One of My Two Eyes:
On biblical and current suicide martyrs
Augustin Vellosa explores the irony of roundly condemning Palestinian suicide bombers for the taking of innocent lives while glorifying Samson for his act of suicide that killed three thousand Philistines
Canada's History with Palestine
Susan Howard-Azzeh's letter to Premier McGuinty regarding the 30 Ontario Chiefs of Police and other senior officials who went to Israel for police training.
"Only a few days have passed since the terrible murder in Shfaram, the blood of the victims has hardly dried, and we already are witnessing a foul campaign aimed at turning the victims into murderers and getting people to forget what really happened here," former Knesset Member Uri Avnery said in the course of a condolence visit of the Gush Shalom delegation with the bereaved families.
"The idea to start a police investigation against the inhabitants of Shfaram, the victims of a disgusting atrocity, and perhaps even to arrest and accuse them, is a severe provocation by those who, it seems, did not like the quiet and dignified way the funerals were conducted. There has never been a police investigation of this kind after such an emotional outbreak after an attack in which Jews were killed. Instead of initiating such an investigation, the authorities would be well advised to put an end to the discrimination of the Arabs citizens in Israel and to stop the incitement accusing them of being a demographic danger. This incitement could lead to more murders'" Avnery added.
The delegation, consisting of Teddy Katz, Adam Keller, Rachel Avnery and Uri Avnery, visited the joint mourning ceremony for the two Christian victims, Michail Bahout and Nader Hayk. Afterwards the delegation visited the mourning ceremony for the two Muslim sisters, Dina and Hazer Turki. Everywhere they were received with much warmth and friendship. The delegation members were asked to address the assembled mourners.
"I am sorry that we are coming here in such sad circumstances," Adam Keller said, "But I am glad that this tragic event is strengthening the ties of friendship and fraternity between us."
"The terrorist wanted to sow hatred between Jews and Arabs," the historian Teddy Katz said, "Our answer must be to come even closer together, Jews and Arabs; Jews, Muslims, Druze and Christians. We want to live together in the country in peace, co-existence and equality."
While the delegation was visiting the mourning halls, many hundreds of Arabs and Jews, members of the Knesset and religious dignitaries of all faiths were also paying their respects.
It was another heinous terrorist attack that took place yesterday in the Northern Israeli town of Shfaram. But this time, it was an Israeli Jew murdering four Druze Israelis. Read full text
29 July 2005 Mark MacKinnon in the Globe and Mail
The other side of Sharon's Gaza plan?
While the world praises the withdrawal, Israel tightens its grip on other areas
JERUSALEM—For many Palestinians, Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in three weeks is cause for great celebration. But with his family's home soon slated for demolition, Adnan Hushieh wonders if it's really time to start the cheering. Read Full Article
The Onions Were Needed— protesting in Bil'in and Tel-Aviv
The army knew we were coming - which is not surprising, since the people of Bil'in had been demonstrating every Friday for the past several months, and Israeli activists are every week coming to join them. Moreover, for today - the anniversary of the ruling by the International Court in the Hague (which Sharon is violating with impunity) a particularly intensive mobilizing effort was made by various Israeli groups, a lot of phone calls were made and email messages sent out, and also the weekly Gush Shalom ad in Ha'aretz contained a call upon supporters to come to Bil'in.
Read full article
All the world saw the horror on TV: a Palestinian boy lying on the ground, unconscious. An Israeli soldier bending over him, not knowing what to do. A settler coming up from behind and throwing a stone at the head of the injured Palestinian. Another settler dropping a big stone on him at point-blank range. A bearded medic, also a settler, approaches the wounded boy, hesitates, and then goes away without treating him, pursued by the chants of a chorus of settler boys and girls: "Let him die! Let him die!" Read full article
This week, the country was shocked by a terrifying train accident. A heavy truck was crossing the tracks as a train approached at high speed. The locomotive driver saw the truck but could not stop in time. The truck driver saw the train but couldn't get off the track in time. Result: many killed, many hurt, a scene of destruction. Read full article
Marda Villagers Under Attack as Resistance to Occupation and Apartheid Wall Steps Up
21 June 2005 Several villagers were injured on Tuesday 21st July, as resistance to the Apartheid Wall and Occupation continued in Marda. Read Full article
World Council of Churches Open Letter on the Status of Jerusalem by Peter Weiderud: While world attention is drawn to its Gaza withdrawal plans, the Government of Israel has intensified unilateral programs to consolidate control over Jerusalem and other occupied territory.Read full letter.
Without making war on the terrorist organizations, Abu Mazen succeeded in stopping terrorism. Our contribution to mutual confidence is to build thousands of new housing units in Judea and Samaria
By Shlomo Gazit, Ma'ariv, April 4
Translated by Adam Keller for Gush Shalom
Gazit, retired general and former head of the Israeli Military Intelligence, teaches at Ben Gurion University and was involved in various back-channel contacts with senior Palestinians during the Oslo period.
Five months have passed since the death of Yasser Arafat, three - since the election of Abu Mazen and the formation of a new Palestinian government. The new president succeeded in imposing a cease-fire on the Palestinian factions, and since then an almost absolute calm has reigned. True, he did it in his own way. He did not declare war on the organizations, nor did he engage in a head-on confrontation in order to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure. Still, the result speaks for itself. For the time being, at least, he has proven his worth.
For its part, Israel did free some 400 Palestinian prisoners, most of them of minor importance and who were soon about to be released anyway. After tough and prolonged negotiations we also passed over the responsibility for security in Jericho and Tulkarm into Palestinian hands. And then we hastened to announce that we freeze the continuation of handing over the West Bank cities - since the Palestinians do not take the steps we think they should. Simultaneously, we have given our own "contribution" to the calm, performed our own "share" in building mutual trust: we are about to create thousands of new housing units in the Judea and Samaria settlements.
As things look now - to quote the explicit words of senior figures in the defence establishment - there is no chance for the present calm to last long. According to these speakers, the most likely prediction is for a new intifada to break out soon after the completion of Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
We tend to attribute this expected new deterioration and escalation only to the deeds and failures of the Palestinian Authority. The Authority consistently refuses to do what we repeatedly demand: a physical head-on armed confrontation, aimed at totally disarming the Palestinian organizations - or, as we term it, "the complete dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure".
They might be right. It might really be, as these senior people say, that the Palestinian Authority has indeed reached a crossroads, that Abu Mazen's continued rule and his ability to promote the bilateral process with Israel depend on a violent confrontation between Palestinians. The precedents often mentioned are Ben Gurion's clash with the radical Jewish armed factions in May 1948, and King Hussein's crack-down on the Palestinians in the "Black September" of 1970.
However, we in Israel are still unable to internalize three basic things. First, we have not yet freed ourselves from the mindset of an occupier facing the occupied. We are unable to relate to the Palestinians as an independent entity with its own national considerations. Our decision makers, on both the political and the military and intelligence levels, must be constantly reminded that Abu Mazen is no quisling nor collaborator. On the contrary, the very act of making such strident public demands upon Abu Mazen is a sure recipe for causing his failure among his own people.
Second, when we so anxiously await and hope for an armed confrontation between the Authority and the organizations, we do not take a moment to ask ourselves some elementary questions: For example, what are Abu Mazen's chances of winning such a hard-fought struggle? What would be the results and implications, for them and for us both, if—God forbid!—the Authority is defeated in such a titanic struggle?
Third, and perhaps most important: in order to enter into such a decisive confrontation, the Authority must be able to point to a clear political aim. It would require no less than a comprehensive agreement with Israel, an agreement acceptable to the great majority of Palestinian public opinion as a significant achievement and a reasonable solution to their problem. Nothing less than that would be, in Palestinian eyes, a sufficient justification for the Palestinian armed forces waging an all-out campaign against intransigent factions. But such an agreement can only be achieved between two sovereign parties, Israeli and Palestinian. And it can result only from fair negotiations.
Recently—especially following some memorable and controversial remarks by Dan Kurzer, US Ambassador to Israeli—a fierce debate flared up in his country concerning what exactly did President Bush promise to the Prime Minster of Israel. This is no doubt significant, but concentrating on it tends to obscure the main issue. After all, it is not the Americans with whom we are supposed to sign a peace agreement. At the end of the day, it is the Palestinians with whom we have to strike a deal - and let us not delude ourselves, we are not going to get our dictat approved by the Americans and imposed by them upon Abu Mazen.
Israel should at last free itself of a whole system of concepts and illusions which have no viability in the world of reality. We must start regarding Abu Mazen and the Palestinian Authority as a true partner for meaningful dialogue. Instead of repeated missions to Washington and endless efforts to strike a deal with the Bush Administration, Sharon's confidential adviser Dov Weisglass should set out on the far shorter geographical distance to Ramallah. At the Mukata'ah, the Palestinian Presidential Compound, he should conduct confidential talks with Abu Mazen and his advisers. He should try to understand, at first hand, the needs of the Palestinian President, his plans at home and abroad, and how we in Israel can help - or at least avoid impeding - their implementation.
Weisglass' present mission to Washington can, at best, prepare a slightly better Israeli diplomatic position towards the outbreak of the new intifada. A mission to Ramallah might do a lot towards averting that terrible event.
