Palestinian Political Prisoners
Palestinians, Native Americans: Linked Struggles
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Weekly Report on the Occupation
Revised
This year commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for 'catastrophe') in Palestine. While this past January saw an escalation of the already brutal strangulation of Gaza, as well as continued colonization throughout historic Palestine, Palestinians have continued to resist in all of their historic land. In Gaza, under starvation conditions, Palestinians broke the siege by destroying the wall at Rafah crossing and continue to defend their land through armed resistance against settlers.
In spite of a wider public awareness of the brutal policies of colonial settlement in Palestine, the "United States" continues to provide the main economic, political and military aid to the Zionist settler colony. While every major presidential candidate pledges undying support for "Israel," there is a growing public discussion about the role of Zionism in the "US" political system, and especially of its relationship to the war in Iraq.
Zionism has played a role not only in defining "foreign policy," but also in the suppression of anti-colonial movements here—not least of all, because these movements have recognized the Palestinian struggle as part of a common global struggle against colonialism. In order to suppress the emergence of a serious pro-Palestinian bloc of oppositional power, Zionists have attacked genuine leaders and organizations, while at the same time cultivating less radical alternatives.
The combination of "Israeli" political ties to imperialist policies abroad and Zionist opposition to anti-colonial liberation movements here, has led to a repressive collaboration between Zionist political organizations, "Israeli" and "US" police and intelligence forces, mercenaries, and corporations in the private "security" sector.
Confronting Zionism is crucial to any movement forward against militarism and internal oppression.
Bringing together representatives of several movements, our conference will focus on two themes: Zionist disruption of anti-colonial movements and land as the basis of struggle and solidarity.
Co-sponsored by Jericho Boston http://www.jerichoboston.org
March 16, 2008
Jewish Labor Committee Attempts to Shut Down Boston Conference on Zionism
Zionists walked into a well-known center for left activists in Boston this week and managed, with a single complaint, to take away an already agreed-upon meeting space for an April conference on Palestine organized by the New England Committee to Defend Palestine. Around March 9, the local branch of a national group called the Jewish Labor Committee told the director of Encuentro 5 and the landlord of the building that houses Encuentro that the New England Committee to Defend Palestine is a "hate group" and demanded that it not be allowed to hold the conference in Encuentro's meeting space. On March 14, the director of Encuentro informed the conference organizers that he would have to accede to pressure from the Jewish Labor Committee and UNITE-HERE (the Union of Needle trades, Industrial and Textile Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union). UNITE-HERE is connected to a trust that owns the multi-story brick industrial building in Boston's Chinatown. Encuentro's space is on the 5th floor of this building and is held without a lease, making it vulnerable to landlord threats.
Beneath the facts of the case lie a number of ironies:
• Attacks like this are exactly the subject of the disputed conference. The purpose of the conference, whose title is "Zionism and the Repression of Anti-Colonial Movements," is to expose attacks on activists as they have been carried out historically by zionist forces. Activists scheduled to speak have been involved in the Native American struggle against European genocide on the North American continent, the Black liberation struggle in the US from slavery onward, the struggle against US imperialism in Central America, the movement against apartheid in South Africa, the struggle against US imperialism and genocide in Iraq, and the struggle against US-Israeli genocide in Palestine.
• Encuentro bills itself as "a space for progressive movement building" in Boston (http://www.encuentro5.org). Massachusetts Global Action -- the organization that runs Encuentro--argued the need for a "tactical retreat" and offered us $400 and help finding another venue if we would consent to leave. We told them that this would undermine the meaning of our conference, their own work, and the movement as a whole. Our suggestion to Encuentro was to take this matter to the activist community -- to the people who use the space -- to tell them what was taking place and invite them to help organize a struggle to defend the integrity of our collective work.
Zionist organizations like the JLC have more material and political power than perhaps at any time in the past. But this power is increasingly hollow, since it must increasingly assert itself by shutting down a discussion about that power—-a discussion that is growing and moving into the mainstream. The JLC did not succeed by persuading Encuentro 5, but by threatening them through the building’s owners. These are clearly threats that they have the power to carry out—a fact that proves what critics of zionism are saying.
But this also demonstrates that while they have more material power than ever before, they have less ideological support than ever before. The legitimacy of the zionist project—the passive consent given to US support for “Israel”— is collapsing. That collapse must come before the serious fight over material power— a fight that is coming.
We are disappointed that Encuentro 5 and Mass Global Action decided that it was not strategic for them to challenge this abuse of power now. We know that the repercussions might well have been severe, and recognize that this would affect a great deal of effort and work that has gone into building their organization. We offer the following as a challenge— not so much to them, but to the movement as a whole, since finally the question is not about any of our specific, struggling organizations:
Can we build a movement against imperialism, or against social injustice in the United States, if the limits of our discussion can be set by organizations like the JLC—organizations that are committed to ensuring that billions of dollars in US military and economic support are given yearly to one of the most militarized colonial states in the world?
There is widespread discontent with zionist power. This discontent will not turn itself into a meaningful response until it becomes organized around specific battles. This can only take place if at some point people are willing say “it stops here.”
• "Progressives" are not progressive. The "progressives" are the Jewish Labor Committee, which calls itself "the Jewish voice in the labor movement." The JLC did not come in from the outside but actually has an office in Encuentro's own space. The Jewish Labor Committee's web site (http://www.jewishlabor.org) shows its president, Stuart Applebaum, standing proudly with war criminal Shimon Peres in February in Jerusalem. The JLC has put out a statement condemning the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against "Israel." The JLC statement asserts that Israelis, who have brutally occupied Palestine for 60 years, carrying out a program of genocide ever since, should not be seen as "victimizers."
The progressives are UNITE-HERE, the brave union for oppressed garment and hotel workers, which acted in this fiasco as a landlord bully threatening to kick out tenants for political speech.
The progressives are leftists who support resistance in Palestine, but not resistance that uses measures of a kind used by its enemy -- namely, armed struggle. The leadership of the resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan today is Islamic. Progressives in the US support secular political movements, so they don't support the people who are actually carrying out the resistance in these countries which the US and "Israel" are busy devastating. Support for resistance by oppressed people should be given without qualification.
• The criminal has accused his victim of the crime. The real hate groups are those who support genocide in Palestine. The Boston Jewish Labor Committee's accusation that the conference organizers are a "hate group" comes right out of the manual of the Anti-Defamation League which has gone to great pains to define political speech and action as good or bad in terms favorable to the zionist project. The ADL is a "progressive" organization -- it seems to be for the right thing, except when it comes to criticism of "Israel." Criticism of "Israel" is anti-Semitism -- that's hate speech, that's against the law. The ADL was part of a recent attack on a mosque being built in Boston. It was exposed for lobbying Congress against a bill that condemns the Armenian genocide. During the late '70's and early '80's, it spied on organizations in the U.S. that supported the struggle against white supremacist apartheid in South Africa. This do-good "no place for hate" organization is actually a front group for a racist foreign power.
The limits of political speech on the left are now being defined by the very organizations who say they're working for the good. There is no open debate. The idea is to simply prevent political speech. Why is support for a nasty racist state in occupied Palestine driving so much of US and international politics? And the question goes beyond Palestine, since these same organizations have the power to set limits on the discussion of "social justice" and racism here inside the US. This includes a history of demonizing black nationalists like Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and the Black Panthers as "anti-Semites." In many cases people’s careers have been ruined and their reputations smeared by forces who never came out in the open. Joseph Massad, Tony Martin, Ward Churchill, and most recently Catherine Wilkerson, are examples. Ward Churchill will be among the speakers at the conference.
The New England Committee to Defend Palestine assures all those who have been invited to and registered for the April 12 and 13 conference that we have secured another venue and will be announcing it soon. We couldn't have provided a better example of zionist interference in anti-imperialist activism than the one that just happened here. We have great speakers coming from many different movements. We hope that supporters of the struggle in Palestine, and all those who recognize the need to build a truly independent opposition to oppression inside the US, will join us for this event.
New England Committee to Defend Palestine
Statement on Palestinian Resistance from the New England Committee to Defend Palestine, February 11, 2008.
We are a people with a just cause
While the world is drowning in silence, the resistance in Palestine speaks to the world in a loud, clear and honest voice. The resistance in Palestine under the banner, "Hunger and not submission", has withstood daily Zionist attacks and criminal international blockade with extraordinary perseverance and steadfastness. The resiliency shown by the people of Gaza is of a people who understand justice. A people who are not afraid to call the unjust "unjust". Under all this pressure, the resistance has been able to accomplish the impossible. It has reconnected itself with other parts of Palestine through launching missiles on Zionist colonies, severed its dependence on Zionist controlled goods and services by bringing down the wall of international injustice, and made it clear to all that the people of Gaza will not be humiliated.
From one victory to another
Bush's latest visit to the region is that of an emperor to his underachieving subordinates. His lesson to them is to be more ruthless. Hence, the subordinates are more exposed than ever. Official cooperation with the Zionist entity is the norm and oppression of protestors in the streets of Cairo, Beirut, and Ramallah has reached a new level. The divine victory of our brethren in Lebanon has shaken the Zionist system and exposed its inherent weakness ˆ that it cannot exist without the cooperation of the subordinate regimes in the region. The model of resistance in southern Lebanon and Gaza is capable of achieving justice for the people of the region by freeing them from the grip of subordination and ultimately realizing the defeat of the Zionist system. The U.S. government and the Zionist system understand fully the ramifications of the current resistance model. For this reason, it is crucial at this point to support the resistance in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq and spread the model across the region and across the globe to empower people and confront injustice.
Palestine is resisting
With the formulation of Abbas's new subordinate regime in Ramallah by the U.S. government and the Zionist system, it is crucial to remind people that the majority of Palestinians support the resistance model. In fact, Palestinian resistance is not limited to the West Bank and Gaza but includes 1948 Palestinians across Palestine. Daily demonstrations are organized in the Galilee and Muthalath against house demolitions, historic mosque demolitions, unearthing of cemeteries, and weekly convoys of tens of thousands to Al-Quds (Jerusalem) are organized to confront Zionist Israel's attempts to enforce its racist Jewish only vision of Al-Quds. Palestine and Palestinians are definitely resisting on all levels and resistance shall continue until injustice disappears.
February 11, 2008
New England Committee to Defend Palestine
www.onepalestine.org
Statement to the Lakotah People from the New England Committee to Defend Palestine, February 1, 2008:
TO: Republic of Lakotah, Porcupine, Lakotah
FROM: The New England Committee to Defend Palestine, Boston
February 1, 2008
Dear People of the Republic of Lakotah,
The New England Committee to Defend Palestine sends heartfelt good wishes to you in the wake of your December 2007 withdrawal from treaties broken by the United States, and the declaration of of your status as an independent nation.
We are a group based in Boston which works for the indigenous rights of the people of Palestine. All of us recognize the parallels between the indigenous people of Palestine and the indigenous people of this continent. We recognize that we are on land which rightfully belongs to the first nations. We would like to do whatever we can to help you.
The New England Committee to Defend Palestine
http://www.onepalestine.org
Israeli Occupation Forces demolished two houses in Arbouna village, east of Jenin, for the purpose settlement expansion.
(Source: http://www.pchrgaza.ps/files/W_report/English/2006/30-11-2006.htm)
On The Occasion of The 50th Anniversary of the Kafr Qasem Massacre
http://www.art.net/~samia/Fiftieth/Memorial.html
Palestinian political prisoner fact sheet
Statements from U.S. Political Prisoners In Support of Palestine
On the Occasion of A Commemoration of Black September And Palestinian Political Prisoners, Boston, September 17, 2006.
Excerpt from statement from Bill Dunne:
"The point, then, of remembering Black September is not to mourn the losses and condemn the oppression, though doing so goes without saying. It is to celebrate the spirit of the Palestinian people who would rise up for freedom nothwithstanding their long odds against armor and artillery and aircraft, who rise up in resistance to the depredations of king and capital, who rise up in continuing struggle against imperialist thuggery from one generation to another and yet another. Memory must not dwell on the price of pursuing life, liberty, and happiness. Instead, it must focus on affirmation of the indomitable consciousness that impels people to that pursuit and to accept nothing less. So acknowledge the tragedy of Black September, but commend and support the Palestinian commitment to justice and protracted struggle it represented. And let us hope it is contagious!"
Support the Resistance in Palestine:
A Call to Action
August 1, 2006
This is a critical moment in the history of the Palestinian struggle and the larger struggle for sovereignty over Arab land. Palestinian and other Arab resistance movements in Lebanon and Iraq are currently the only force standing between the Palestinian people and the completion of the genocidal project started by Zionists over sixty years ago.
Up until now, most efforts at solidarity – letters to the editor, protests at embassies, silent vigils, and "humanitarian aid" tied to the condition of renouncing resistance – have resulted in no meaningful support to the Palestinian people. As American and other Western European governments continue to criminalize resistance and dissent, public statements have been crafted to occupy a middle ground where the oppressors' aggression and the self-defense of the oppressed are treated equally. In some cases, calls have actually made Palestinians responsible for Israel's "retaliation" or blamed those who are bravely risking their lives to fight this oppression. Most importantly, these efforts have in no way disrupted the process of Zionist colonization.
We in the international community should not allow the threat of government repression to determine the limits and direction of our movement. It is our responsibility to expose the racist and genocidal aims of the Zionist movement, to support the full range of Palestinian people's resistance to those aims, and to disrupt the infrastructure of genocide where we live.
Final Checkpoint
by "Bell Way"
July 29, 2006
[Excerpt]
"There is no way to really describe a day like that. You just hope with everything in you that you will not ever have to live through another one. And of course, that is exactly the purpose for which these checkpoints were engineered. To take you beyond the end of yourself, so you will not find any psychologically sustainable option but to leave, if there is any way you can."
Guantanamo
Prisoners at Guantanamo
The Most Comprehensive Detainee List On The Web –
http://www.cageprisoners.com/index.php
"Cageprisoners.com is a non-sectarian Islamic human rights website that exists solely
to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainees
held as part of the War on Terror.The web-site is not aligned to any Islamic group or
organisation. The site was launched in October 2003 during the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan by individual Muslim volunteers who came together for the reasons set out below.
The inspiration for the web-site came from two other excellent web-sites on the
cage prisoners: http://www.alasra.org (in Arabic) and http://www.prisonerofwest.org.
We have the backingof both Muslim and non-Muslim lawyers, activists, former
detainees, families of prisoners and academics."
When Peace Activism Becomes Collusion With
Colonial Occupation
By Marta Rodriguez
"There are those who would argue that the CPT's [Christian Peacemaker Team's] actions
in Iraq are well-intentioned. Perhaps they are the product of the paternalism and naiveté
that is so prevalent in the American peace movement, rather than outright malice and
investment in their colonial/settler privileges. But the movement here could have sought
their release without acting as another mouthpiece of the occupation's demonization of the
Iraqi Resistance, or placing their need for freedom and safety above that of Iraqis.
They could have demanded that the occupation secure their release by freeing the
prisoners the abductors want liberated. Their failure to do that demonstrates once again
the self-indulgence, white exceptionalism, colonial arrogance, and anti-Arab bigotry that
have driven this movement's response to people fighting colonial conquest in the Middle
East."
Continued
Repression of Palestinian Activists in the US: Where are
the Defenders of Justice?
By Noah Cohen
"Based on the official position of the National Lawyer’s Guild in support of the
Palestinian Right of Return and other similar positions, one would expect strong
support in NLG chapters across the nation for the rights of Palestinian activists in the
US. The NLG has historically helped in the defense of Palestinians; David Cole
continues to represent the LA8 in their ongoing appeals.
In Boston, this support has not been forthcoming from any of the existing organizations.
In addition, active members of the civil liberties community who have taken public stands
on the Palestinian cause have clearly been on the side of “left Zionism.” Our experience
suggests that “left-Zionists” in particular may have an interest in silencing Palestinian
activists, since this allows them to dominate what passes for “pro-Palestinian” politics
in the US. Palestinians who call for strong positions in support of their full historic rights
to land and their right to defend themselves from colonial settlers “by any means necessary”
are frequently repudiated and shut out of public venues by these same nominal “
pro-Palestinians.”
Confessions of a human bomb from Palestine
by Hujayra al 'Arabi
"We are a strong people. We are steadfast. That is not enough to prevail against the
machinery of Death that has been set in motion against us. The fact that we have survived
a century of genocide speaks eloquently of our strength and steadfastness, but how much
longer can we endure? Those . who robbed us originally of our land die peacefully in
their beds of old age, having spawned another two or three generations of robbers and
thieves Those offspring convince themselves that they bear no responsibility for the
continuing deprivation of our people as they invite more robbers into our homeland,
while herding more of our people over the bridge to exile. They will not listen to the
voice of justice. They speak of 'peace' when they have made the word an obscenity."
Continued at:
http://www.freearabvoice.org/articles/ConfessionsOfAHumanBombFromPalestine.htm
**** Israeli Apartheid Laws, in print.
4strugglemag
The Spring 2007 edition of 4strugglemag is at http://www.4strugglemag.org/
Featuring articles by and for u.s. political prisoners and their supporters.
This issue features the San Francisco 8, discussion on hip hop, revolution and youth, information on Palestinian child prisoners, the Lynne Stewart Organization, the concluding part of Maroon Shoats dynamic article, material on Six Nations prisoners, Leonard Peltier's case and more.
See Jericho Boston for information on and activities in support of U.S. political prisoners.