| September 20, 2010
Art is not Life Begging is not Taking Anguish is not Progress Art is not Life “Is/Is Not” Part Two by Husayn Al-Kurdi Learning is Life Learning is Life Dedicated to the Professors of Revolution who decisively influenced my viewpoint: A.M. Aflaq and J.C. Terpstra |
I will not comment on the Hamas killings of four settlers in the West Bank except to comment that I will not comment on those killings. As Seham points out in the last several months there were many Israeli attacks against Palestinians. Many Palestinians were shot or died and I did not even write about every atrocity I saw with my own eyes in Gaza. No one apologized for those atrocities. No heads-of-state spoke about the assassination of Ahmed Salem Deeb, nor did the New York Times decide to cover the day when a dum-dum bullet turned his leg to jelly, leading to his death. That paper does not cover or condemn the quotidian crimes committed against the Palestinian populace, and the good people of New York and LA either don’t know or don’t care that the attack against the armed paramilitary settlers in the West Bank is only visible because of the religion of the dead. The uproar is about racism, it’s about valuing a white corpse complicit in atrocity higher than the brown corpse of its victim, and so I see no particular value in condemning a people psychically lacerated by living through over 60 years of hell for lashing out against their tormentors [Sorry Ahmed], no matter the motivation.
What concerns me here is the reaction from the PA-Vichy quislings [Thanks David]:
In the largest arrest campaign since it took power in 1994, the Palestinian Authority, run by the Fateh party, sent security officers all over the West Bank Wednesday morning to arrest known members of the rival Hamas party, after Hamas’ armed wing claimed responsibility for the killing of four Israeli settlers Tuesday night. According to the Palestinian Authority, at least 300 were arrested and taken to Palestinian police stations and prisons.
Local sources report that the Palestinian security forces entered homes and workplaces, arresting anyone they suspected of being connected to the Hamas party. The crackdown on Hamas comes as the Palestinian leadership heads to Washington for negotiations with Israel, during which they must prove that they have full control over the West Bank, and are carrying out the interests of the Israeli state there.
Tuesday night’s attack marks the highest number of fatalities in a single attack against Israelis since 2006. Palestinians in the West Bank point out that during the last four years, which Israel calls ‘relative calm’, over 2,000 Palestinians have been killed, and daily invasions, blockades and land seizures have made life anything but calm for the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A leader of the Hamas party in Gaza, which was elected in 2006 but prevented from taking power in the West Bank by an Israeli-backed coup by the Fateh party, said that the attack Tuesday night was the natural result of the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
Omar Abdel-Raziq, a legislator with the Hamas party, said the arrest campaign was political, adding, “They are trying to tell the Israelis that they are capable of doing the job after the attack.”
The ability of the Palestinian Authority to control its population is one of the main issues that the Israeli government has said it would bring to the negotiating table in Washington. The Palestinian Authority, with no political, economic or judicial power, comes to the negotiating table without the means to push for their core demands to be met – the three core demands of the Palestinians are the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, the return of Palestinian refugees, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The job of the PA is to prevent resistance. By preventing resistance, the money keeps flowing to Ramallah, keeping the PA elite in a decent standard of living, and they will be permitted to administer the prison called a state that Israel and America will allow through the peace process. The point of the crackdown is to convince Israel that the PA is still a competent collaborator. It shows its competence by jailing the resistance and by ignoring the demands of civil society. It won’t last.
Military Communiqué
Al Qassam Brigades respond to the Zionist violations by Hebron operation
Al-Qassam Brigades is declaring its responsibility for the following operations as a response to Zionist aggression on the Palestinian civilians:
Day: Tuesday Date: August 31st, 2010.
Time: Afternoon – Al Qassam Brigades open fire at the Zionist settlers near what so called “Kirat Arba’a”, near Bani Na’em town North of Hebron.
Result: Four settlers were killed.
These operations are part of the repelling operations against the occupation assaults on Gaza Strip and West Bank, and as a response for the ongoing aggression against Palestinian people.
Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades
Information Office
August 31st, 2010
Editor Palestine Monitor
28 August 2010
The weekly protest march at the village of Bil’in ended in Israeli Occupation Forces storming the crowd, hitting three activists with tear gas grenades, and shooting a man in the knee with a rubber-coated bullet from less than thirty yards away.
Ashraf Khatib was rushed from the field to the Palestine Medical Center in Ramallah, according to the Bil’in local popular committee.
The march started at the local popular committee headquarters near the Bil’in mosque. Activists from all over the world joined Palestinians and residents in a 150-person protest of the construction of the separation barrier through the village.
“Wahda wahda wataniya!” they chanted.
Many donned masks of Abdullah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and leader of the popular struggle at Bil’in, who was convicted last Friday of “incitement” after an eight-month long trial.
“Today we are all Abu Rahmah,” said a village leader before the march. Called the Palestinian Ghandi, the investigation of the non-violence leader prompted a critique by European Union foreign affairs and security chief Catherine Ashton.
“[The conviction] and possible imprisonment is intended to prevent him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest against the existence of the separation barriers in a non-violent manner,” read Ashton’s statement.
The march snaked down through olive fields in the mid-morning heat, before stopping before a tangle of barbed wire and concrete. The marble grave of Bassem “Pheel” Abu Rahme, the only death since the weekly protest started, nearby. The group shouted at the distant soldiers across the road.
Detonation of a sound grenade interrupted the protesters. White trails of tear gas canisters brought gazes skyward tracing the dangerous chemical weapons – Bassem was killed by one.
Clouds drifted over the crowd and many ran, splitting them in two. Twenty minutes of continual waves of tear gas decimated the crowd. Two Palestinians used slingshots to hurl stones at the heavily armed soldiers with riot shields and helmets.
A cry from the uphill olive groves notified the protesters to running soldiers flanking their frontline position. Many ran back towards the village through the olive trees or up the road. Green uniforms and black guns followed. Eyes streamed tears.
“Bil’in is not the only or the first,” said an Israeli organizer before the tear gas and rocks. “But it has become a symble of the struggle against the wall.”
ST McNeil reporting from Bil’in.
August 30, 2010…7:58 am
Yesterday, Al Masry Al Youm celebrated Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali on the 23rd anniversary of his London murder (August 29, 1987).
Al-Ali, a prolific cartoonist, was—and is—widely loved in the Arabic-cartoon-reading world. However, with “cartoonists” (er, graphic novelists) hitting an even higher note of prestige and popularity in recent years, it’s a shame to have a pen like al-Ali’s missing.
According to Al Masry Al Youm, al-Ali viewed the role of a political cartoonist as not unlike that of other artists: “The function of a political cartoonist, as I see it, is to provide a new vision.”
Al-Ali’s best-known character, حنظلة, was a 10-year-old boy who always kept his back to the viewer and his hands tightly clasped. In a 1984 interview with Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour, al-Ali talked about what حنظلة meant to him:
That was when the character Hanzala was born. I introduced Hanzala [also transliterated as Handala, Hanthala, or Handhala] to the readers at some length: “I am Hanzala from the Ain Al-Helwa camp. I give my word of honour that I’ll remain loyal to the cause…” That was the promise I had made myself. The young, barefoot Hanzala was a symbol of my childhood. He was the age I was when I had left Palestine and, in a sense, I am still that age today. Even though this all happened 35 years ago, the details of that phase in my life are still fully presentto my mind. I feel that I can recall and sense every bush, every stone, every house and every tree I passed when I was a child in Palestine. The character of Hanzala was a sort of icon that protected my soul from falling whenever I felt sluggish or I was ignoring my duty. That child was like a splash of fresh water on my forehead, bringing me to attention and keeping me from error and loss. He was the arrow of the compass, pointing steadily towards Palestine. Not just Palestine in geographical terms, but Palestine in its humanitarian sense — the symbol of a just cause, whether it is located in Egypt, Vietnam or South Africa.
Although al-Ali collected his works into three books (and was preparing a fourth at the time of his death), only one book-length version of his work is, to my knowledge, available in English: A Child of Palestine. The collection, with an introduction by Joe Sacco, was released last summer by Verso.
Today, I started out by some work at the university with my students (research in biology) then taking a group of visitors on a tour of the area of Bethlehem that shows the impact of the wall and settlements. We also went to one of the weekly demonstrations and on this third Friday of Ramadan both here and Bilin and other places showed several injuries and use of excessive power by the Israeli occupation/apartheid army. The demonstrations commemorated the assassination of famous Palestinian Cartoonist Naji Al Ali and of the leade of the PFLP Abu Ali Mustafa. It also came in solidarity with the “conviction” by Israel’s apartheid courts of Abdullah AbuRahma on charges of organizing nonviolent demonstrations in Bilin. I posted 5 minute of the video I took of the event here. Please watch especially the unprovoked abduction of Kobi, an Israeli peace activist. They also detained Matan (not shown on video) who was released a short while later. Kobi was released also but will have to face trial later in an apartheid court.
On August 10, 2010 the Israeli army forcibly evicted the owners of three shops in front of Bab Al Baladiyah in Hebron, West Bank, welding the doors of the shops closed so that the owners would no longer be able to use them. The only conceivable reason for these closures is retaliation for the 100% non-violent protests that have been happening weekly in front of Bab Al Balidiyah protesting the apartheid conditions imposed on Hebron by the Israeli army.
Members of Youth Against Settlements, a non-violent Palestinian protest group were arrested for refusing to move from the shops. Two of them, Badia Dwaik and Tamer Al-Atrash are currently being held in military prison. PLEASE spread the word, and if you have even $5 to donate so that we can hire lawyers to represent them, or would just like to learn more about the situation in Hebron and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in general, go to http://www.youthagainstsettlements.org
Targeting: Barack Obama (President, USA), Rt Hon David Cameron (Prime Minister, UK) and Binyamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister, Israel)
Started by: Gail Vaughn
The following letter has been sent by Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, and Gerry Grehan, Chair of the Peace People, Northern Ireland, to President Barak Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, other world leaders and prominent personalities, to ask for their help in obtaining the lifting of all restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu and for him to be granted freedom to leave Israel.
Please express your support for this letter by signing this petition.
28 July 2010
We are writing to you on behalf of a good man, a man of peace and conscience, who was returned to prison for three months on 23 May 2010.
He was released from prison on Sunday 8 August 2010. We need your support to help gain his freedom from Israel.
He is Mordechai Vanunu the Israeli nuclear whistle blower. In October l986, Vanunu told the world that Israel had a Nuclear Weapons Programme. He was kidnapped and given 18 years imprisonment for espionage and treason. Twenty four years later he continues to be punished. In the Jewish Scriptures there is great emphasis on justice and freedom. He served the full 18 years of his sentence (twelve years in solitary confinement, described by Amnesty International as “cruel, inhuman and degrading”). Upon his release, the Israeli Government put severe restrictions upon him, including forbidding him to leave Israel and speak to the foreign media. It was the breaking of these restrictions, in summer 2004, by speaking to the foreign media, (mainly a long interview to the BBC), which resulted in his being returned to solitary confinement again this May.
Last month Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and called on the Israeli authorities to lift the restrictions immediately. “The restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu arbitrarily limit his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association and are therefore in breach of international law. They should be lifted and he should be allowed to start his life again as a free man. Mordechai Vanunu should not be in prison at all, let alone be held in solitary confinement in a unit intended for violent criminals. He suffered immensely when he was held in solitary confinement for 11 years after his imprisonment in 1986 and to return him to such conditions now is nothing less than cruel, inhuman or degrading.” 18 June 2010 Amnesty International
Yet, when he is released from prison he will still have to remain in Israel and the restrictions will be reviewed and probably renewed yet again, as they have been renewed each year for the past 6 years.
Vanunu is seen as a traitor by some, a hero by others. One thing is clear, he has been punished and served the full sentence and it is time after 24 years to do the human thing and let him live as a free man.
The Israeli Supreme Court continues to accept the Secret Services’ claims that he still has secrets, but a report by Reuters, 20 December 2009, shows that he does not :
” … Yet Uzi Eilam, a retired army brigadier-general who ran the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission between 1976 and 1986, said anything that Vanunu — a cause célèbre among disarmament campaigners — might still disclose about Dimona is of little relevance. “I’ve always believed he should be let go,” said Eilam.
“I don’t think he has significant things to reveal (about Dimona) now.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE5BJ0A5
However, we believe that he will be free and our hope is that you will in some way facilitate his early release which would be welcomed by a world waiting and watching for a peaceful and secure future for Israel and its people. We would greatly appreciate your advising us of any action you take – info@peacepeople.com.
Shalom,
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate
Gerry Grehan, Chair of the Peace People
Vanunu has been nominated year after year for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The many prominent names who have called for his release and respect of his human rights over the last 24 years include:
The late Nobel Laureates Joseph Rotblat and Harold Pinter; Nobel Laureates Former President Jimmy Carter; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Mary Ellen McNish (on behalf of AFSC); Betty Williams; Adolfo Perez Esquival; Rigoberta Menchu; Shirin Ebadi; Wangari Maathai; Mairead Maguire; John Hume
Kidnap victims Brian Keenan; Anthony Gray
Politicians and human rights activists: the late Robin Cook, former UK Foreign Secretary; former Israeli Minister Shulamit Aloni; Helen Bamber; Simon Hughes; Daniel Elsberg; Bruce Kent; Noam Chomsky; Rabbi Philip Bentley (USA); Michael Mansfield QC; Dr Paul Oestreicher; Baroness Helena Kennedy QC; Tariq Ali; Jeremy Corbyn; Ken Livingstone; Ben Birnberg; David Goldberg QC; Alex Salmund
Actors, writers, musicians and artists: Emma Thompson; Julie Christie; Susannah York; Vanessa Redgrave; the late Corin Redgrave; Yoko Ono; Bono; Peter Gabriel; the late Graham Greene; the late Yehudi Menuhin; Janet Suzman; Gilad Atzmon; Richard Hamilton; Michael Rosen; David Gilmore; Benjamin Zephaniah, Alexie Sayle; Maggie Hambling; Tom Conti; Simon Callow; Jeremy Hardy; Miriam Margolyes; Prunella Scales; Arnold Wesker; John Williams; Roger Lloyd-Pack; Christopher Logue; the late Adrian Mitchell
Journalists: Andrew Neil; Jon Snow; John Pilger; Robert Fisk; Duncan Campbell; Victoria Brittain; Richard Norton-Taylor
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