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Mazin Qumsiyeh

Gaza Redux

Nov 16, 2012

For Gaza friends and others: How to stay connected if the internet is shut down

have a rooted android phone? You can install this app to make mesh network calls when the cell towers go down. http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/communication/the-serval-mesh_bgstt.html

Actions: Emergency global actions for Gaza

https://docs.google.com/a/qumsiyeh.org/document/d/1Iq4XZx9Vj0BDIiWzlHi2mUS0VUOn_t-prgtGGCzatQw/mobilebasic?pli=1

Israel forces have been attacking Gaza, destroying power grids, destroying infrastructure and killingcivilians.  They intensified the brutal attack after two home made rockets landed in Tel Aviv. Hospitals in Gaza are at the breaking point trying to deal with casualties while under siege for years.  But resistance forces in Gaza also reported dowing an Israeli jet.  Israeli authorities are caught lying to their own people about the extent of damage coming from the resistance (e.g. saying the rockets were intercepted and did not fall while Israeli citizens see them fall, fires breaking and ambulances rushing in. I myself heard the sirens blaring in the settlements of Gush Etzion and heard the thud of one largeb rocket (presumably of the long range Fajr type). But now for an analytical comment.

Is history repeating itself?  The Israeli attack on Gaza this week is happening between the US Presidential elections and the Israeli (early) elections.  The attack on Gaza four years ago also happened after the US elections and before Israeli elections. Some Israeli citizens thus put an advertisement in an Israeli paper titled “No to the election war!”  Netanyahu and company today are trying to repeat what Olmert and company tried to do four years ago: pound Gaza into submission while gaining right-wing votes.

This attack could also be a test of preparedness for a coming war on Iran (Gaza is weaker than Lebanon or Iran).  Early results show that the Israeli hasbara spin machine failed to make the attack on Gaza appear as “self-defense” and will fail at all its other goals just like happened in 2006 and 2008.  During the last attack on Gaza four years ago Israeli forces murdered 1400 Palestinians including nearly 400 Children in a period of just three weeks.  It was and remains a difficult propaganda task to hide the scale of atrocities against natives especially when all human rights groups and the UN describe such actions as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In Gaza just in the last 48 hours, the martyred Palestinians included two babies 10 and 11 months old.  Netanyahu hopes the Zionist media network and his bombing campaigns succeed in 2012 at what they failed to achieve in 2008.  Israel as an occupier/colonizer hopes to get away with murder while labeling any resistance from the occupied people as “terrorism.”  In the age of instant communication it is difficult.

After repeated aggressive wars (e.g. in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1982, 2000, 2006, 2008, and now 2012), the world is finally waking up.  People of the Arab world who engaged in real democratic revolutions now demand real change.  It is symbolically significant that high level officials from Egypt and Tunisia traveled to Gaza during the current attacks.

People know that Israeli lobbies like AIPAC (whose website was hacked by Anonymous this week) keep pushing for wars including an illegal war on Iran in the same way as they pushed for the illegal war on Lebanon and Iraq before. The latter war was foisted on the Western public using lies (connections of Iraq to terror actions of 11 September 2001 and weapons of mass destruction).  The war cost thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, and $3 trillion in direct cost to US taxpayers.  People know that Gaza is still under occupation per international law as the UN itself reported.

Even Israeli spokespersons and an Israeli document released by court order showed Israel is engaged in collective punishment of Gaza population, a crime against humanity per international law. The UN warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if the Israeli siege of Gaza continues.  Israel also continues to target any and all humanitarian ships trying to break the siege.Israeli politicians find it convenient every few years to launch a massive war to keep the “home-front” scared and united and hope to bolster their political careers.

“Rooting out terrorism” and keeping “Israeli citizens safe” are now seen even by Israelis as simply propaganda.  Israeli intelligence reports submitted to the Israeli government showed that Hezbollah became even stronger after the Israeli attacks of 2006 and that Hamas came out stronger after the Israeli attack in 2008.  Impoverished Gaza is teaching all lessons.  Olmert and Livni discovered that war crimes do not necessarily translate into votes.

A more important lesson that may take longer to sink in is that safety does not come from oppression and ethnic cleansing, the two pillars of Zionism. Safety comes from justice.  Israel is a racist apartheid and militarized state that caused the largest remaining refugee population on earth (7 million of the 12 million Palestinians are refugees or displaced).  Peace can come by acknowledging wrongs and engaging in restorative justice.

After the return of the Palestinian refugees (including the one million in Gaza) to their homes and lands occupied in 1948, we can all live here regardless of religious or other backgrounds in one secular democratic state.  I suspect the Israeli immoral and cruel attacks on Gaza will hasten this inevitable outcome.

source

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Mazin Qumsiyeh on Gaza

ACT: 64 ways to act http://qumsiyeh.org/whatyoucando/

People are subjected to massive well-funded propaganda trying to sell a
“product” that “Israel is defending itself” by massacring civilians in Gaza
(again) and engaging in extrajudicial executions of resistance fighters.
The truth is hard to hide as are the statistics: Over the last four days,
16 Palestinian civilians were killed including several children (while 3
Israelis were killed), and over 170 Palestinian civilians were injured
(very few Israelis).

Over 140 military excursions by the most
sophisticated US supplied war planes and navy ships on 1.5 million people
in a large open-air prison.  Anyone can find the pictures on the internet
of burned Palestinian babies, mutilated children, devastated neighborhoods,
and destroyed power plants and infrastructure.

The Gaza strip is one of the
most densely populated areas on earth thanks to the Israeli ethnic
cleansing creating the largest post-WWII refugee population on earth.
2/3rd of the 1.6 million people in this arid strip are refugees.

All
Israeli human rights violations are done by US funded horrific weapons for
which native Palestinians have no defense.  Home-made native projectiles
fair poorly as a response to the massacre by advanced technologies. Yet,
the US administration still sides with apartheid colonial Israel against
the native Palestinians and so are the governments of Britain and France
that are trying to live-up to their colonial activities.

Israeli
authorities intensified their attacks tonight after home-made projectiles
fired by resistance forces in Gaza landed in Rishon Le Zion (first colonial
settlement here) and Tel Aviv (first time since the gulf war that sirens
were heard in Israel’s de facto capital).  People of all backgrounds are
speaking out against these Israeli initiated attacks.  Here in Palestine,
we had demonstrations including against the silly bickering that the
factions go through.

There are also demonstrations around the world
demanding Israel end its aggression against this impoverished strip of land
full of refugees.  But we must do more than demonstrate and hold vigils.

Pictures from Gaza under attack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIpBnbnraCY

Timeline of the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza
http://imeu.net/news/article0023227.shtml

There are names to these murdered civilians
“The Health Ministry in Gaza reported that among those killed on Wednesday
evening are Ahmad Misharawi, 11 months old; Ranan Arafat, 7 years old;
Issam Abu Izah, 23; and Mohamed Al Kasih, 19. ”
http://imemc.org/article/64557

Reports from AlJazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012111419500140191.html

Take action:
1) 64 ways to act http://qumsiyeh.org/whatyoucando/
2) 1.2 million signed petition and took other actions to give Palestinian a
state and give Palestinians our rights.  I signed as a prelude to the
inevitable and logical and only durable solution: one democratic secular
state for all its people.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_worlds_next_nation_b/?kPZnccb

Also come visit us in Palestine (including Gaza)

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
In Beit Sahour
Palestine

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Mazin Qumsiye starts a blog

bandannie says : Mabrouk Oustad !

After being active in sending messages via the internet for nearly 20 years
I finally started a more formal web blog (in Arabic and English) that
focuses on my main interest for the past two decades: Popular Resistance.
Advantages of having such a blog include ease of readers posting comments on
my writings, ease of sending links to people, and better formatting.  It is
at http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com My blog today covers the rapidly
escalating situations in the Arab world (including the shocking massacre in
Libya where I spent two months traveling in throughout the country.  Tears
came to my eyes as I recalled the hospitality of the Libyan people. I also
discuss briefly the reality in Palestine (and yes the revolution will come
here too).  In the blog are also some actions happening in Palestine in the
next few days, video of the ongoing ethnic cleansing, news, and another key
action call to help open the Rafah crossing (you can help even from the
comfort of your home). For more details, visit
http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com and do leave a note to let us know
what you think of the new blog. Also as a reminder, I am leaving for 5 weeks
of talks in different countries and locations starting next week. See
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/upcomingevents/ for schedule.  Of course my wife
and I would love to see you if you are near one of the cities we will visit.

Mazin Qumsiye, PhD

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Mazin and Al-Walaja Update

The good news is that the bulldozers stopped working today thanks to the
brave people of Al-Walaja but they still need our collective support.  100
internationls will be in Al-Walaja tomorrow morning (Friday at 9 AM).

The video that I recorded and loaded this morning summarizes what happened
to us after our arrest in Al-Walaja, a peaceful beautiful village that is
slated for ethnic cleansing (for the second time). The beatings and pepper
spray used on Sheerin and the young men of Al-Walaja was truly vicious.
During the arrest, I managed to text message, take notes, and even take a
couple of pictures from under the stairwell without the soldiers being aware
(details maybe for my next book!).  We challenged the soldiers’ demand that
we not speak to each other or to them.  Many of the soldiers kept saying
they are obeying orders and I and others reminded them that obeying fascist
order is not an excuse in international courts of justice (we are not there
yet, but I believe the day is coming). I was truly inspired by the courage,
vision and dedication of villagers like Sheerin and Dia who exemplify
decency and dignified poise in front of the machine that still comes up
among humans every few decades.  From fascism to Nazism to Zionism, the
enemy is one: racism and greed that in the end is self-destructive. But if
enough good people stand-up, the end may come sooner and more people on all
sides would be saved the physical and emotional scars of colonization.
Anyway, here is my statement on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaa_6I-PMoM

Our friend Olivia Zemor and many others were denied entry on Ben Gurion
airport.  You can read her statement here (in French, may translate using
translate.google.com): http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article5701
However, thousands of people from around the world still managed to enter
Palestine through Israeli controlled ports of entry like Ben Gurion airport.
Some were asked to sign stupid statements about not entering “Palestinian
areas”. Of course all of this land is Palestinian areas, they should state
entering the ghettos or bantustans to make it clearer.

In the holding cell with tight handcuffs cutting our circulation, we had a
sense of peace and self-confidence.  We shared smiles and whispered words of
encouragement to each other. It was uplifting experience and camaraderie. I
myself started singing (Fairuz-Zahrat Al-Madaen, Christmas songs, the
Palestinian national anthem etc).  After all we were told not to speak to
each other but they said nothing of singing.  I wished to dance but then I
thought this might be too much for my cell-mates. We all believe that it is
a sign of weakness and desperation that the Israeli army increasingly
brutally attacks unarmed people who are simply challenging occupation
nonviolently or merely asking pointed questions. From the Gaza freedom
flotilla to Rafah to Bilin to Al-Walaja, to Stuttgart, to Paris, and to the
rest of the world,  the cracks in the walls holding empire of lies are being
felt. Again, there will be an event in Al-Walaja Friday at 9-11 AM. For
those outside Palestine, thank you for acting in your spheres of influence.
Auschwitz Survivor on Palestine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSlFR541Uoo

Why will there not be a US foreign policy that benefits US population? Is it
because certain Jews make money out of the tribalism that is Zionism? An
article in Haaretz on “How much do U.S. Jewish leaders [sic] make?”
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/how-much-do-u-s-jewish-leaders-make-1.33
0414

Song for Kairos Palestine (Manal abdo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IStkXO4eCks

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
<http://qumsiyeh.org> http://qumsiyeh.org

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Arrests from Al-Walaja

Description of an arrest. Three of us released after about 10 hours. Five others were kept overnight. Some will have to go to (unfair) trials where Colonial Israeli Judges and prosecutors execute their bureaucratic punishments with no real law other than apartheid racist laws that befit Jewish immigrants at the expense of native Palestinians.

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Mazin Qumsiyeh has been arrested

Mazin Qumsiyeh former of the faculty of Duke and Yale and now teaching at Bethlehem University has been arrested for objecting to an exapnding settlement in a Palestinian town. (details below)

The best time to make contact on arrests is immediately, before anything goes too far. Note from Jesse Qumsiyeh that they’ve already thrown water on the prisoners.

CALL CALL CALL

the U.S. office in Jerusalem for the Territories is

011-972-2-622-7221 or 011-972-2-622-7207

from 1 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time

at all other times for emergencies like arrests, use this number

011-972-2-622-7250

[ I just called so they do know the facts. What they need to see is that lots of people are behind Mazin ]

ask to speak to a duty officer

also make an email JerusalemACS@state.gov

Explain that you’re worried that American citizen Mazin Qumsiyeh will be mistreated, that the reason for the arrest is false, that Israelis have no right to build or expand a settlement on Palestinian land.

The arrest took place in the West Bank, in Al-Walaja, in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem. If you didn’t get Jesse’s email the main part is below

The other person to contact is Richard Blumenthal, the current Attorney General of the State of CT, Mazin’s last address. (Blumenthal was just elected Senator, but he still is AG) I’ve spoken to him in the past about Mazin.

attorney.general@ct.gov

Civil Rights/Torts Department
(860) 808-5160

And let your friends know about this.

—
Greta Berlin

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Israeli Police Claim They Have “Evidence” Against Mazin

Sent by Mazin  October 20:

After a third trip to Ofer military compound near Ramallah on October 18, 2010, and much expenses in terms of time and money, I am pleased to report that my trial based on manufactured charges by Israeli police was dismissed by the military judge. It was partially observed by Tamar and Aya, Israeli women of conscience who report regularly from the West Bank (see http://www.mahsanmilim.com/ . It was a manufactured “traffic violation” but in reality it was for “driving while being Palestinian” and even though both the policewoman and the prosecutor both lied and tried to twist the facts, the judge was decent enough to see through this. Unfortunately, upon arriving home, I found a delivered registered letter (my mother signed for it) that says that the Israeli police have now “evidence” and have sent a file to the prosecutor to charge me with new “security offenses” based on a military rule enacted in the occupied areas in 1982. They did not specify the offenses in the letter but gave me 30 days to respond to them in writing. The letter was in Hebrew and dated October 3, 2010 but mailed on October 6, 2010 and received October 18, 2010. This gives me and my lawyer little time to find out what the (trumped-up) “security” charges are and respond to them! This is obscene injustice but if the authorities think that this endless harassment helps in anyway to achieve their goals (whatever those may be), then they miscalculated and will sadly be disappointed! We will keep you informed.

Under a most extremist government in Israel’s 62 year history, the extent of the absurdities here have accelerated to become almost unbelievable. From attacking humanitarian ships in International waters, to laws to strip Israelis of their citizenship, to laws to demand loyalty by non-Jews to a Jewish state (imagine if South Africa under apartheid demanded loyalty to the white government), to laws to punish peaceful protesters (Abdullah Abu Rahma sentenced to one year under the charge of “incitement” for merely engaging in nonviolent protests in Bil’in), to laws to allow criminal prosecution of those who call for boycotts, to arresting children hit by a colonial settler car while driving in the children’s neighborhood that the settler is trying to take over*, and the list goes on. My study of history tells me that Israeli governments engaged in such irrational behavior the year before every major uprising in the past 62 years. One is tempted to accept the notion that “what we learn from history is that we (humans) learn nothing from history”. But we must maintain our faith in humanity and that maybe, just maybe, there are still enough rational people of all faiths and persuasions to salvage this (un)Holy Land from total descent into fascism and self-destruction.

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Science Fair Bethlehem University

These are images from the annual science fair held at Bethlehem University (BU). BU students create and run teh exihibits and hundreds of high-school and middle school students attend the fair.

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Watani and Palestine pre 1947


فيروز وطني و صور من فلسطين

The old lie that palestine was dry desert waiting for a people is just that–a lie. This clip for all people to see the Beauty of the Palestinian People before they were ethnically cleansed and murdered and made into refugees by the State of Israe.
Music Joaquin Rodrigo, lyrics Helmut Lotti, sung by Lotti
All Photos (b&w) from http://fai.cyberia.net.lb/

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