Youth Conference and more

Items in today's email: Video of the event today at Al-Walaja (three arrested but subsequently released), Comments on the just concluded Herzliya conference, action item to do for Brussels Air, Youth Conference in Palestine in July, and more.

1) Video: On Sunday 5 Feb 2012, villagers from Al-Walaja and international supporters went to the area where the Israeli apartheid authorities were still destroying lands to build a wall that will isolate the villagers from their remaining lands and allow for further expansion of the illegal colonies of Gilo and Har Gilo.  Already over 90% of the village lands were taken for colonial settler activities in the past 6 decades. The area this short video was taken is just around the oldest tree in Bethlehem district (an olive tree > 3,000 year old).

http://youtu.be/XZ7Wn9KY4bI

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2) The "Herzliya Conference" just concluded.  This is the annual conference that brings the elites of the Israeli military industrial complex together to plot "strategy" in a coastal town named after the founder of Political Zionism Theodor Herzl. This location is on ethnically-cleansed Palestinian land (see for history of the location: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Jaffa/Abu-Kishk/index.html).  Shimon Peres, a war criminal and architect of Israel's arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction appropriately opened as a key note speaker.  There were several sessions that touched on Iran including "Iran: Will Sanctions Work?" and "The Ticking Clock: Dissuading and containing Iran's strategic ambitions" where war criminals like Danny Ayalon debated whether it is enough to continue to use clandestine terrorist operations in Iran or whether we need to push the US to start another war like they did on Iraq (one million civilians killed so far) on behalf of Israel.  There was a session on "Galilee: Setting Priorities for Regional Development" where a number of Jewish Zionists discuss how to transform the Galilee into a Jewish area (without consulting the native inhabitants of the Galilee). The Galilee and Negev were left with a good number of Palestinians after the ethnic cleansing during the foundation of "Israel". There were sessions titled things like "Advancing Israel Normalization in the International Community" where efforts to whitewash apartheid are celebrated and plans for new propaganda and lobbying campaigns debated. There were also sessions celebrating the anniversary of the Jewish National Fund or KKL (Keren Keyemeth L'Israel), a group that participated for decades in ethnic cleansing and continues to do so (e.g. in the Negev where Bedouins are being displaced to Judaicize the Negev). Participants were also taken to military bases and training facilities of the apartheid army so that they could visit with the most moral army that caused the largest post-World War II refugee crisis and that has murdered over 25,000 children. There was even some talk about how to get Mahmoud Abbas (whose term has expired long ago) to return to fruitless and endless negotiations. After all, the "Peace process industry" needs to be revived so that more time is allowed for continued rape of Palestine (expanding colonial settlement etc)!  In over 20 sessions, not one dealt with what the natives of Palestine (Christians and Muslims) go through or how we feel.  To cap the "conference" the Israeli government made announcements of more land confiscation (e.g. 430 dunums in Nahhalin) and more home demolitions (e.g. in Al-Aqaba).

Shamelessly, the head of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon addressed this gathering of apartheid leaders. Also Mr. John Baird, foreign minister of Canada (with MP Irwin Cotler) came to claim that Canada supports Apartheid Israel.  Mr. Riad Al-Khoury from Jordan came and thus also lent his blessings to apartheid. There was also the Zionist Zoelnick (head of the World Bank) and a few other American Jewish Zionists "discussing" how best to get Israel even more money and arms from our taxes. 

I guess I should look on the positive side: that this year, there were less of those "Internationals" willing to show their faces at this circus.  But it is a distraction to blame these rich elites but ultimately it is our responsibility to make sure that we end their games of domination, war, and destruction.  People are taking on the responsibility of change and each of us can do more to advance peace with justice.  The horrific events in Egypt (where 80 people were killed when fans of two football teams collided) also remind us of the worst element of human weaknesses.  It then matters a lot what those who disapprove DO.  

Unfortunately, many of our closest supporters and even Palestinians themselves do not understand basic issues relating to Palestine and the Israeli apartheid system.  Because of these misunderstandings, they make devastating choices including for example supporting the mythical "two state solution".  I will not discuss here why it is mythical and why it is what led us to 20 years suspension of the Palestinian liberation Struggle in return for an industry of negotiations (yes an industry that is profiting some Palestinians who became invested in the status quo (i.e. in the occupation) and addicted to the "security aid" and "humanitarian aid" that comes primarily from the US and Europe (respectively).  I already discussed this in detail in my 2004 book "Sharing the Land of Canaan".  But I am also willing to debate anyone in pubic on these issues.

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3) Example of action: I wrote to these email addresses the letters below about Brussels Air promoting Israeli apartheid.  Please read and if interested to write or take action based on your conscience, then please do.  That is how change happens in society: when enough people say enough is enough!

To Brussels Air and Ink Global

wlemmes@brusselsairlines.com  

gsciot@brusselsairlines.com

info@btheremag.com
jane.wright@ink-global.com
jenny.mcneely@ink-global.com
Bart.Beirlant@standaard.be

You did not respond to my earlier email (copy below) sent three weeks ago about your January 2012 Brussels Air magazine's shameless promotion of Israeli apartheid.  But then when I returned home from Belgium, I noted that this was not the first time you are promoting Apartheid Israel as a destination.  In fact, your web-page which I just checked http://www.btheremag.com starts out with the August 2011 issue promoting Tel Aviv and stolen Palestinian food (Falafel) as if it is an Israeli food "Tasting Tel Aviv: Where Fashion meets Falafel".  So I am now personally boycotting your airline and will be promoting a boycott of your airlines.

Sincerely,

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

Dear Colleagues in Brussels Air and Ink Global

It was my first trip on Brussels Air and it will likely be the last.  Your B.There! Airline magazine soured my trip since it promoted apartheid.  Imagine if at the height of Apartheid in South Africa, your magazine chose to highlight the white part of the segregated country and promoted it in three distinct locations in one issue, something you do not do for any other of the nearly 200 destinations to normal cities/countries.  This is precisely what you did by promoting Apartheid Israel in three locations in your January 2012 issue: On page 14 you promoted “Tel Aviv Art weekend”, on page 50 you promoted a Tel-Aviv “food blog”, and in page 55 you had feature article advertising (free) an Israeli company (Uploads).  Brussels Air according to your magazine and website flies to nearly 200 destinations around the world.  Yet, I saw most of those not mentioned in this magazine let alone deserving of three free promotional items.

This alone is favoritism but is scandalous when we add the fact that Israel is recognized by people around the world as an apartheid state and there is a worldwide movement for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions (BDS) called for by Palestinian Civil Society. 

I realize Brussels Air contracts with a British company to do their magazine and the mistaken bias likely originated with Ink Global.  Perhaps in your next magazine you can promote Palestine alternative tourism (www.atg.ps and http://sirajcenter.org/ ) or highlight the way Belgians are traveling to help their fellow human beings like in the upcoming welcome to Palestine Campaign (http://bienvenuepalestine.com/). I would be happy to help.

I have an email list of more than 50,000 activists and depending on your answer to this email, I will write to them to encourage a boycott of this airline.  After all, there are other ways to travel without being pelted with free advertisements for apartheid Israel.

Sincerely,

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

Palestinian – American Professor and author currently on speaking tour in Belgium

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4) Sabeel 7th Young Adult Conference. Challenging Oppression, on a Donkey:  Christ, Resistance, and Creative Discipleship.

4 -15 July 2012 http://www.sabeel.org/events.php?eventid=229

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5) With Jack Lew's appointment, Jewish community again has a White House address By Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraph Agency
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/01/10/3091107/with-jack-lews-appointment-community-once-again-has-a-white-house-address

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6) Mark Dubowitz, Jewish head of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, commends Obama for "shot across the bow"

http://blogs.jta.org/politics/#reactions-to-obamas-picking-jack-lew-orthodox-jew
(The "Foundation for Defense of Democracies" agenda is to fight for change only in countries deemed unfriendly to Israeli apartheid or US imperial tendencies but countries like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and Jordan are not to be touched by these hypocritical groups)

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7) And there is also the so called "National Endowment For Democracy"

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1-/10643-finito-with-putin-the-shady-national-endowment-for-democracy-a-the-prime-agenda.html

December in Palestinian history

December in Palestinian history is replete with important events*:

- December 1908: Palestinian villagers of Kafr Kama (near Tiberias) tried to reclaim land taken unfairly by the "Jewish Colonisation Association" (yes that was its actual name).

- 9 December 1917, British forces marched into Jerusalem to begin over three decades of repressive occupation that devastated the country and left an apartheid system in its wake.

- 14 December 1920: Third Congress of the Arab Executive Committee meets in Haifa and declares opposition to the Balfour Declaration and to Zionist plans for Palestine.

- December 1921: The Jewish Zionist Herbert Samuel appointed by the British as a "High Commissioner" of Palestine makes decrees allowing transfer of native Arab land ownership to the European Zionist movement.

- 7-17 December 1931: general Islamic conference held in Jerusalem attended by 145 key Islamic scholars and leaders from 22 countries.

- 13 December 1931: leaders of the previous organisation Al-Arabiya Al-Fatat and supporters of independence were mobilised and 50 of them met in the home of Awni Abd Hadi and drafted an Arab nationalist covenant. This document re-emphasised the regional Arab context for the struggle for Palestine as a joint effort against imperialism )this movement evolved later in 1933to form Hizb Al-Istiqlal).

- 9 December 1935: Palestinian strategy meetings and popular gatherings were held to commemorate the anniversary of the British occupation recognized as the beginning stirrings of the intifada/uprising of 1936-1939.

- December 1936: Michel Mitri, the most recognised Palestinian labour leader of the period, was assassinated by Zionist forces. He had dared to challenge the monopoly/hegemony of the Histadrut (Zionist labour federation) and always believed in popular resistance activities (non-violent).

- 2-4 December 1947: Three-day Palestinian general strike to reject the unfair conditions of a partition resolution at the UN which allocated 55% of the land to Jews who constituted less than a third of the population and were mostly new migrants (many illegal).

- 31 December 1947: Zionist forces massacred 60 villagers in Balad Al-Sheikh (Haifa district). Dozens of villages were "cleansed" in this December wave. Massacres were committed in Al-Tira, Haifa, Balad el-Sheikh, Yehiday, Khisas, and Qazaza.  Between December 1^st 1947 and May 14, 1948 (the date, the Zionists unilaterally declared their state), over half of the Palestinian refugee population was created.  Thus, half of the 530 village and towns were ethnically cleansed while the area was still supposedly under British rule and protection (another British government treachery).

- 1 December 1948: The (British appointed) King of Jordan convened a conference in Jericho of unelected Palestinian elites who were to profit from agreeing to his annexation of what became known as the West Bank of Jordan. Later, the Jordanian monarch and his British Army commander turned the Negev and the Galilee over to Israel to allow the further expansion of the nascent state. The ancient name of Palestine was thus erased on both sides of what was to be called the Green Line (the armistice line)

- 2 December 1961: Arab students at the Hebrew University convened and established the Arab Jewish Committee ‘to end the military rule’ (the few remaining Palestinians inside the new state of Israel were under military rule from 1948-1966).

-December 1975: Israeli occupation forces raid Al-Qassaba area of Nablus killing nonviolent protesters.

- December 1986: Israeli soldiers chase students inside Birzeit university and used live ammunition, killing two and injuring twelve students.

- December 1987: demonstrations throughout Palestine and dozens of civilians (most under 18) were murdered.

- 13 December 1988: Arafat addressed the UNGA meeting in Geneva and stated that all parties should live in peace and security ‘including the state of Palestine, Israel, and other neighbours’.

- 15 December 1988: The Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People (PCR) issued an invitation to Internationals (including Israelis) to Beit Sahour to help break the siege and curfew.  This was the beginnings of what evolved into the International Solidarity Movement.

- mid-December 1992: Israel took the unprecedented step of ordering the deportation to Lebanon of 416 Palestinians (an act contrary to international law).  They stayed near the border in tents provided by the Red Cross and resisted the deportation.

I could go on but as can be seen December is as any other period in history brings up both sad memories of atrocities as well as memories of resilience and persistence and resistance of ordinary people. As we look to 2012, we hope that what is left of December will see more of the latter actions. There is a genuine popular resistance movement in the Arab world. But, as happened previously there are those who try to profit from other people's work by posing only for the cameras or in conference rooms or worse yet engage in destroying the resistance while speaking about it in positive terms. There is a counter-revolutionary movement by forces allied with the US, with the apartheid regime (otherwise known as Israel), and with the cleptocracy (otherwise known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). There is an effort (which I think and hope will fail) to co-opt these revolutions.  Some in the West (goaded on by Israeli lobbies) now speak openly of "allowing" Islamic forces to take over and in return insist that each new government ignores its people's wishes and continue to support (or even increase) its support of Israel and allow "Free Market" businesses to continue to get rich people richer and poor people poorer.  Libyan elites indeed were very open about this as are some opposition forces in Syria blessed by the US.  The recent interview with a Mr. Ghalyoun of the Syrian opposition that appeared on the pages of the Wall Street Journal is an indication of such co-opted individuals.  But we are hearing more rational voices from Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Libya and elsewhere that is against dictatorships and for real democracy (which means isolating racist apartheid regimes).  We must support all these people and demand real democracy.

Let there be no mistake about it, hundreds of millions of dollars are being mobilized and intelligence services and diplomatic and business "teams" are very busy shuttling back and forth to ensure this outcome. There is also a game of regional interests and some groups watching their own interests (Iran, Hezbollah, Turkey etc.).   There are also dirty games of divide and conquer and false-flag operations.  In all this mayhem, better awareness and education are critical. People who do not become aware and engage in serious work will go extinct (or at least continue to be impoverished) in the wild foggy jungle.

 Palestinian Center for Human Rights: PLO’s Refusal to Pursue Accountability at UN Exhibits Disregard for Victims of Gaza Conflict

http://tinyurl.com/bw92pgh

From Occupation to “Occupy”: The Israelification of American Domestic Security" By Max Blumenthal

"Given the amount of training the NYPD and so many other police forces have received from Israel’s military-intelligence apparatus, and the profuse levels of gratitude American police chiefs have expressed to their Israeli mentors, it is worth asking how much Israeli instruction has influenced the way the police have attempted to suppress the Occupy movement, and how much it will inform police repression of future upsurges of street protest. But already, the Israelification of American law enforcement appears to have intensified police hostility towards the civilian population, blurring the lines between protesters, common criminals, and terrorists."…

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29892.htm

As an example of what Max is talking about, here is an example of a good peaceful action met with US police Brutality  http://blip.tv/zgraphix/freeze-flash-mob-police-brutality-don-t-buy-war-5793178

And [Israeli Apartheid] “Law Enforcement” Destroys Prayer House, Homes, School – Just Because They’re for Arabs http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/

Action for California people http://www.israeldivestmentcampaign.org/phpPETITION/index.php

UN assembly passes 6 resolutions on Mideast conflict

"Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and United States voted against each of the resolutions." [All other >180 countries voted for them with few abstentions]

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=441106

*Taken from the book "Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of hope and empowerment" where you can find references/citation

Mazin Qumsiyeh

A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home