29 Noviembre 2011, Rebelión http://www.rebelion.org (México)
Declaraciones para el día de acción
Comité Nacional Palestino para el BDS
bdsmovement.net
Traducido para Rebelión por J. M. y revisado por Caty R.
• Los activistas europeos declaran que las importaciones de frutas y hortalizas de Israel facilitan las violaciones de los derechos palestinos y el derecho internacional.
• Más de 60 acciones se desarrollan en 10 países.
Palestina ocupada, 27 de noviembre.- En Europa los defensores de los derechos humanos, sindicalistas, ONG y grupos religiosos llevan a cabo una ola de manifestaciones, actuaciones multitudinarias breves y actos de presión para llamar a que se deje de comerciar con Israel y sus empresas agrícolas de exportación, como Mehadrin y Agrexco, porque son cómplices de las violaciones del derecho internacional y de los derechos de los palestinos.
El programa de las acciones, organizadas bajo el lema Dejar fuera del Menú el Apartheid israelí, coinciden con el Día de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Palestino, el 29 de noviembre, con el objetivo de crear conciencia sobre el papel que las empresas agrícolas de Israel juegan en el robo de tierras y recursos palestinos en territorio palestino ocupado ilegalmente y en la explotación de los trabajadores palestinos.
Las manifestaciones se llevaron a cabo fuera de las sedes principales de las empresas británica y francesa importadoras de la principal exportadora de frutas y vegetales de Israel, Mehadrin. Los productos que se exportan provienen de las colonias ilegales israelíes en territorio palestino ocupado y de la empresa estatal Mekerot, que priva a las comunidades palestinas de agua. Los activistas de Roma organizaron una manifestación nacional por el acceso irrestricto de los palestinos al agua.
Jamal Juma, coordinador de Stop The Wall, la campaña palestina contra el muro del apartheid, que está actualmente trabajando para apoyar a Al Hadidiye, una comunidad de beduinos en el territorio palestino ocupado y que recientemente recibió de las autoridades israelíes una orden de demolición, dijo: "A los residentes de Al Hadidye se les niega el acceso al agua y apenas pueden criar su ganado como consecuencia de ello. En los ilegales asentamientos cercanos de Ro'i y Beqa'ot, la producción agrícola se cultiva con abundancia de agua robada para que Mehadrin y otras empresas exporten sus productos a Europa, y son esas empresas las que se benefician de las demoliciones en Al Hadidye”.
"Las empresas como Mehadrin se benefician y están a menudo directamente involucradas en la continua colonización de tierras palestinas y el robo de nuestros recursos. Comerciar con estas empresas es la forma más importante de apoyo para el régimen de apartheid de Israel sobre el pueblo palestino y hay que acabar con eso", añadió Juma.
Los activistas en Bélgica, Gran Bretaña, Alemania, Suiza, Noruega y Suecia organizaron piquetes en supermercados, pidiendo a los consumidores que boicoteen los productos israelíes que las empresas agrícolas de ese país exportan y a los supermercados que dejen de venderlos. Muchos se centraron en supermercados que funcionan de forma cooperativa y que, tradicionalmente, se considera que tienen estándares éticos más altos que los supermercados comunes.
"Las campañas populares del BDS y la presión pública que resulta de ellas ya han obligado a los supermercados en varios países europeos a poner en práctica las políticas que convocan a evitar la venta de productos de las colonias ilegales de Israel", dijo Awwad Hind, coordinador con los palestinos del Comité Nacional BDS.
"Pero son las empresas agrícolas de exportación de Israel las que tienen la responsabilidad de la complicidad con Israel de las violaciones del derecho internacional, y no los productos de producción individual. Estas empresas, se ha comprobado, engañan a los consumidores sobre el origen de los productos que venden. Es por eso que los activistas están llamando a un cese total al comercio con estas empresas", agregó.
En Bélgica, los activistas llevaron a cabo acciones de presión sobre las oficinas de la Secretaría de Economía, para protestar por la venta en los supermercados belga de productos cultivados en asentamientos ilegales de Israel en territorio palestino ocupado.
"Los gobiernos europeos tienen la obligación de hacer que Israel se responsabilice de sus violaciones del derecho internacional, pero Europa sigue siendo el mayor mercado de los productos agrícolas israelíes, incluidos los productos de los asentamientos ilegales israelíes. La prohibición de comerciar con exportadores de productos agrícolas de Israel estaría en consonancia con las políticas establecidas sobre la ilegalidad de los asentamientos ilegales de Israel", dijo Awwad.
En Gran Bretaña, los activistas también protestaron en las oficinas de las filiales británicas de las empresas agrícolas israelíes, incluidas las que exportan flores, Bickel Flowers y Edom. Junto con su colega Orian, Flowrs Bickel ha adquirido recientemente la decadente compañía de exportación israelí Agrexco, de la cual se ordenó la liquidación después de registrar pérdidas récord y no pagar a sus acreedores. Los activistas dicen que su campaña a escala europea contra la compañía, que incluyó el boicot popular, los piquetes de los supermercados, los bloqueos de las instalaciones de la empresa y grupos de presión, fue un factor importante detrás del colapso de la compañía.
Las acciones se llevaron a cabo como parte de la rápida aparición del Movimiento Palestino para el Boicot, Desinversión y Sanciones (BDS) contra Israel hasta que cumpla con el derecho internacional.
info@bdsmovement.net
Notas
1.- Se puede encontrar un mapa interactivo de todas las acciones en:
http://www.bdsmovement.net/activecamps/take-apartheid-off-the-menu
Para más información ampliada:
http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/take-apartheid-off-the-menu-8313#.Ts92dXOVtMc
2.- Mehadrin se convirtió en la empresa agrícola de exportación más importante, a partir de la caída de Agrexco. La fuente de los productos son las colonias ilegales, incluyendo Beqa’ot en Cisjordania. Durante las entrevistas con investigadores, los trabajadores palestinos en esas colonias declararon que ganan la miseria de 11 euros diarios. Los envases de las uvas y los dátiles de los asentamientos llevan las etiquetas de “producto de Israel”.
El rol de Mehadrin en la provisión de agua a los agricultores y su relación con la compañía de aguas del Estado de Israel, Mekorot, supone una complicidad directa de la empresa con las políticas discriminatorias en la escasa provisión de agua que determina el Estado. Más sobre Mehadrin en:
http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/mehadrin-profile-8450#.Ts-BJXOVtMc Para información más detallada de otras empresas de exportación de productos agrícolas ver: http://bit.ly/vIrqLp
3.- Agrexco, la empresa exportadora más antigua de productos agrícolas provenientes de los asentamientos ilegales de Israel, fue alguna vez la responsable del mercado de exportación del 60/70% de los productos de las colonias ilegales. Para más información del impacto de las campañas sobre Agrexco ver: http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/palestinian-civil-society-welcomes-agrexco-liquidation-calls-for-celebration-of-this-bds-victory-8096#.Ts-CS3OVtMc, http://www.jnews.org.uk/commentary/why-did-agrexco-go-bankrupt
4.- La dominación de Israel sobre el abastecimiento de agua en Israel y en los territorios palestinos ocupados, deja a muchas comunidades palestinas con un mínimo de abastecimiento de agua. De acuerdo con las estadísticas de OECD, los agricultores israelíes utilizan la asombrosa cantidad de 1.127 millones de metros cúbicos de agua por año. Solamente cerca de unos 60 millones de metros cúbicos de agua se destinan a la totalidad de la Autoridad Palestina. OECD (2010), OECD Review of agricultural policies: Israel, 2010.Ver también Amnesty International: Sedientos de Justicia: Acceso de los palestinos al agua, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/028/2009/en
5.- Al Hadidiye es una comunidad palestina de unos 112 habitantes permanentes y unos 130 adicionales que durante los dos meses más fríos retornan a las aldeas cerca de Tobas porque las fuerzas israelíes destruyeron sus hogares y no encontraron necesario construirles refugios alternativos para que puedan protegerse del frio invernal. El jueves 10 de noviembre, las autoridades israelíes hicieron llegar a la comunidad otras nueve órdenes de demolición de 17 estructuras que afectarán a 72 personas, incluyendo mujeres y niños. Las organizaciones palestinas hicieron un llamamiento a quienes apoyan los derechos de los palestinos para que contacten a sus embajadas en Israel interesándolos sobre estas demoliciones. http://stopthewall.org/2011/11/13/al-hadidiye-be-demolished-once-again-halt-new-wave-ethnic-cleansing
Fuente: http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/europeans-call-apartheid-8493#.TtKtvLL7iRU
Mostrando postagens com marcador wall. Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador wall. Mostrar todas as postagens
quarta-feira, 30 de novembro de 2011
sexta-feira, 11 de novembro de 2011
From the American South to the West Bank: A Freedom Rider Bears Witness to Human Rights in Israel/Palestine
8 November 2011, Rav Shalom http://rabbibrant.com (USA)
by Rabbi Brant Rosen
On November 15, Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated Israeli settler public transport headed to occupied East Jerusalem in an act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the US Civil Rights Movement.
Fifty years after the US Freedom Riders staged mixed-race bus rides through the roads of the segregated American South, Palestinian Freedom Riders will be asserting their right for liberty and dignity by disrupting the military regime of the Occupation through peaceful civil disobedience. Organizers say this ride to demand liberty, equality, and access to Jerusalem is the first of many to come.
Ta'anit Tzedek - Jewish Fast for Gaza will stand in solidarity with the West Bank Freedom Riders with a very special conference call on the day of the demonstration. Please join us Tuesday, November 15 at 12 pm Eastern Time to join our conversation with Ellen Broms, one of the original Freedom Riders for civil rights in the American South and currently an activist for a just peace in Israel/Palestine.
During our call, Ms. Broms will talk about her own experiences as an activist/demonstrator for civil rights in the 1960's and why her activism has led her to take a stand on behalf of Palestinian human and civil rights.
Ellen Broms is a retired state worker who resides in Sacramento, CA. Her involvement in the civil rights movement began when, as a student at Los Angeles City College, she demonstrated at Woolworth lunch counters in support of similar sit-ins by students in the South.
In June 1961, Ms. Brom attended a freedom rally at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the keynote speech. After hearing a freedom rider speak, she was inspired to participate in the rides herself. On August 11, Ms. Brom was arrested with other freedom riders after they sat down and demonstrated in a Houston coffee shop.
In her words:
The police arrived, having been summoned by the owner and we were charged with unlawful assembly and taken to the Houston city jail. We were fingerprinted, mugged, and classified at the city jail and then transferred to the Harris County Jail. Ironically, I was booked as a "Negro" because of my dark hair and complexion. We declined to state "race" and they classified me as "High Yellow". Marjorie, a very fair skinned, green eyed female rider of African American descent was classified and booked as white. I was placed in the "tank" for black wo men and Marjorie went to the white women's tank. If we did nothing else during that ride, we did succeed in briefly integrating the jail.
After spending eight days in jail, Ms. Brom was released. The riders were found guilty of "unlawful assembly" by an all-white jury and fined $100 each. Their case was eventually appealed to a higher court and overturned.
Ellen Broms has since been honored by Congress, the state of Texas and the city of Houston for risking incarceration and violence as a Freedom Rider. She continues to work as an activist for peace and justice, particularly in the area of a just peace in Israel/Palestine. She is actively involved in the Sacramento branch of Jewish Voice for Peace and is campaigning on behalf of the West Bank Freedom Riders.
To participate in the call:
Dial Access Number: 1.800.920.7487
Enter Participant Code: 92247763#
There will be opportunities for questions and answers during the call.
Please click here for more information about how you can get involved in support of the West Bank Freedom Riders. Please share this information with others you think may be interested in participating.
We looking forward to your joining the call!
by Rabbi Brant Rosen
On November 15, Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated Israeli settler public transport headed to occupied East Jerusalem in an act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the US Civil Rights Movement.
Fifty years after the US Freedom Riders staged mixed-race bus rides through the roads of the segregated American South, Palestinian Freedom Riders will be asserting their right for liberty and dignity by disrupting the military regime of the Occupation through peaceful civil disobedience. Organizers say this ride to demand liberty, equality, and access to Jerusalem is the first of many to come.
Ta'anit Tzedek - Jewish Fast for Gaza will stand in solidarity with the West Bank Freedom Riders with a very special conference call on the day of the demonstration. Please join us Tuesday, November 15 at 12 pm Eastern Time to join our conversation with Ellen Broms, one of the original Freedom Riders for civil rights in the American South and currently an activist for a just peace in Israel/Palestine.
During our call, Ms. Broms will talk about her own experiences as an activist/demonstrator for civil rights in the 1960's and why her activism has led her to take a stand on behalf of Palestinian human and civil rights.
Ellen Broms is a retired state worker who resides in Sacramento, CA. Her involvement in the civil rights movement began when, as a student at Los Angeles City College, she demonstrated at Woolworth lunch counters in support of similar sit-ins by students in the South.
In June 1961, Ms. Brom attended a freedom rally at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the keynote speech. After hearing a freedom rider speak, she was inspired to participate in the rides herself. On August 11, Ms. Brom was arrested with other freedom riders after they sat down and demonstrated in a Houston coffee shop.
In her words:
The police arrived, having been summoned by the owner and we were charged with unlawful assembly and taken to the Houston city jail. We were fingerprinted, mugged, and classified at the city jail and then transferred to the Harris County Jail. Ironically, I was booked as a "Negro" because of my dark hair and complexion. We declined to state "race" and they classified me as "High Yellow". Marjorie, a very fair skinned, green eyed female rider of African American descent was classified and booked as white. I was placed in the "tank" for black wo men and Marjorie went to the white women's tank. If we did nothing else during that ride, we did succeed in briefly integrating the jail.
After spending eight days in jail, Ms. Brom was released. The riders were found guilty of "unlawful assembly" by an all-white jury and fined $100 each. Their case was eventually appealed to a higher court and overturned.
Ellen Broms has since been honored by Congress, the state of Texas and the city of Houston for risking incarceration and violence as a Freedom Rider. She continues to work as an activist for peace and justice, particularly in the area of a just peace in Israel/Palestine. She is actively involved in the Sacramento branch of Jewish Voice for Peace and is campaigning on behalf of the West Bank Freedom Riders.
To participate in the call:
Dial Access Number: 1.800.920.7487
Enter Participant Code: 92247763#
There will be opportunities for questions and answers during the call.
Please click here for more information about how you can get involved in support of the West Bank Freedom Riders. Please share this information with others you think may be interested in participating.
We looking forward to your joining the call!
‘International week against the Apartheid Wall’ seeks to rally the ‘global 99%’
10 november 2011, Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net (USA)
Anna Baltzer*
US Campaign National Organizer Anna Baltzer with #Occupy protesters
On October 25th at Oakland City Hall, barricades and riot police had replaced the hundreds of committed activists who had inhabited Oscar Grant Plaza since Occupy Oakland began. Helicopters swarmed above. The atmosphere was tense and thick with teargas. Earlier that day, Scott Olsen, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, had been shot in the head with a projectile and hospitalized.
Oakland native Tristan Anderson met a similar fate in 2009 when the Israeli military shot him in the head with a U.S.-made high-velocity tear gas canister while he nonviolently protested Israel's Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin. Bassem Abu Rahmah was fatally wounded the following year when the Israeli army fired a tear gas canister at his chest as he protested the wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in. His sister Jawaher died in January after inhaling U.S.-made tear gas, which the Israeli military fired aggressively during a protest against the wall, which still annexes huge swaths of Bil'in's land.
The connections between the struggles of Palestinians and the #Occupy movement are unmistakable: the spotlight on privilege and inequality, the mass imprisonment, the police repression, and the people's steadfastness. As the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) wrote in a statement of unity with the "global 99%":
Our aspirations overlap; our struggles converge. Our oppressors, whether greedy corporations or military occupations, are united in profiting from wars, pillage, environmental destruction, repression and impoverishment. We must unite in our common quest for freedoms, equal rights, social and economic justice, environmental sanity, and world peace.
The 9th Annual International Week against the Apartheid Wall is November 9 - 16, 2011. What will you do to nonviolently bring down systems of oppression both here at home and in support of Palestinians struggling to bring down the Apartheid Wall?
The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign is calling on people around the world to "Stand with the Palestinian popular resistance" and pressure our "governments, institutions and corporations to stop their support of Israeli apartheid" by organizing in four key areas. Below are ideas and resources for you to take action in your community.
Awareness-raising campaigns about the Wall and settlements
Action idea: Construct a "mock wall" on your campus, at your local city occupation, or elsewhere to educate passersby about the effects of Israel's Apartheid Wall and the connections between oppression of Palestinians and racist border practices targeting immigrants in the United States. Click here to see the new Mock Wall Campaign Toolkit created by students at the University of Arizona and Brown University.
Awareness-raising campaigns on Israel's repression of Palestinian popular resistance
Action idea: On November 15th, activists from the March 15th Palestinian Youth Movement will attempt to board segregated Jewish-only settler buses bound for Jerusalem as an act of civil disobedience. Worldwide activists are mobilizing to shine a light on Israel's repressive tactics and show solidarity for Palestinian popular resistance. Click here to sign up for information and a toolkit developed by coalition member group Jewish Voice for Peace to help local groups put together unique and exciting local actions in solidarity with the Palestinian Freedom Riders on November 15th.
Boycott and divestment campaigns against companies building the Apartheid Wall
Action idea: Hold a teach-in about boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) at your nearest city occupation, spotlighting Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, which produces the surveillance equipment and unmanned vehicles that monitor both the Israeli Apartheid Wall and the U.S./Mexico border. Click here to download member group Grassroots International’s fact sheet about Elbit's involvement in Israel’s oppressive policies targeting Palestinians and racist practices on the U.S.-Mexico border. Get TIAA-CREF to divest from Elbit and other corporations profiting from Israeli occupation by joining the growing "We Divest" Campaign.
To help build your case for local BDS campaigns, check out our BDS FAQs here.
Consider also distributing the BNC's moving statement of solidarity with the #Occupy movement. Click here to download the two-page handout.
Support the Palestinian call for a comprehensive and mandatory military embargo on Israel
Action Idea: Join our organizing campaign to end military aid to Israel by signing up to receive an organizing packet in the mail with fliers, fact sheets, postcards, and petitions. With this packet, you’ll have everything you’ll need to educate and organize people at your local #Occupy or other community event to end $30 billion in tax-payer funded weapons to Israel and redirect that money to unmet needs here at home.
Please email your planned events and actions to Mallory at Stop the Wall mallory@stopthewall.org. You can also read the call to action and find excellent resources on the Apartheid Wall here.
The night after Scott was shot, thousands of activists reclaimed Oakland’s public spaces for “the 99%” by breaking down the fences with which the city government had encircled the plaza, as Palestinians continue to struggle to tear down Israel's Apartheid Wall to reclaim their land and destinies.
As we struggle for justice here at home, let us remember that everyday Palestinians struggling under occupation are part of "the 99%." Join the International Week against the Apartheid Wall!
*Anna Baltzer is the National Organizer of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation where is is crossposted.
Anna Baltzer*
US Campaign National Organizer Anna Baltzer with #Occupy protesters
On October 25th at Oakland City Hall, barricades and riot police had replaced the hundreds of committed activists who had inhabited Oscar Grant Plaza since Occupy Oakland began. Helicopters swarmed above. The atmosphere was tense and thick with teargas. Earlier that day, Scott Olsen, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, had been shot in the head with a projectile and hospitalized.
Oakland native Tristan Anderson met a similar fate in 2009 when the Israeli military shot him in the head with a U.S.-made high-velocity tear gas canister while he nonviolently protested Israel's Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin. Bassem Abu Rahmah was fatally wounded the following year when the Israeli army fired a tear gas canister at his chest as he protested the wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in. His sister Jawaher died in January after inhaling U.S.-made tear gas, which the Israeli military fired aggressively during a protest against the wall, which still annexes huge swaths of Bil'in's land.
The connections between the struggles of Palestinians and the #Occupy movement are unmistakable: the spotlight on privilege and inequality, the mass imprisonment, the police repression, and the people's steadfastness. As the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) wrote in a statement of unity with the "global 99%":
Our aspirations overlap; our struggles converge. Our oppressors, whether greedy corporations or military occupations, are united in profiting from wars, pillage, environmental destruction, repression and impoverishment. We must unite in our common quest for freedoms, equal rights, social and economic justice, environmental sanity, and world peace.
The 9th Annual International Week against the Apartheid Wall is November 9 - 16, 2011. What will you do to nonviolently bring down systems of oppression both here at home and in support of Palestinians struggling to bring down the Apartheid Wall?
The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign is calling on people around the world to "Stand with the Palestinian popular resistance" and pressure our "governments, institutions and corporations to stop their support of Israeli apartheid" by organizing in four key areas. Below are ideas and resources for you to take action in your community.
Awareness-raising campaigns about the Wall and settlements
Action idea: Construct a "mock wall" on your campus, at your local city occupation, or elsewhere to educate passersby about the effects of Israel's Apartheid Wall and the connections between oppression of Palestinians and racist border practices targeting immigrants in the United States. Click here to see the new Mock Wall Campaign Toolkit created by students at the University of Arizona and Brown University.
Awareness-raising campaigns on Israel's repression of Palestinian popular resistance
Action idea: On November 15th, activists from the March 15th Palestinian Youth Movement will attempt to board segregated Jewish-only settler buses bound for Jerusalem as an act of civil disobedience. Worldwide activists are mobilizing to shine a light on Israel's repressive tactics and show solidarity for Palestinian popular resistance. Click here to sign up for information and a toolkit developed by coalition member group Jewish Voice for Peace to help local groups put together unique and exciting local actions in solidarity with the Palestinian Freedom Riders on November 15th.
Boycott and divestment campaigns against companies building the Apartheid Wall
Action idea: Hold a teach-in about boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) at your nearest city occupation, spotlighting Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, which produces the surveillance equipment and unmanned vehicles that monitor both the Israeli Apartheid Wall and the U.S./Mexico border. Click here to download member group Grassroots International’s fact sheet about Elbit's involvement in Israel’s oppressive policies targeting Palestinians and racist practices on the U.S.-Mexico border. Get TIAA-CREF to divest from Elbit and other corporations profiting from Israeli occupation by joining the growing "We Divest" Campaign.
To help build your case for local BDS campaigns, check out our BDS FAQs here.
Consider also distributing the BNC's moving statement of solidarity with the #Occupy movement. Click here to download the two-page handout.
Support the Palestinian call for a comprehensive and mandatory military embargo on Israel
Action Idea: Join our organizing campaign to end military aid to Israel by signing up to receive an organizing packet in the mail with fliers, fact sheets, postcards, and petitions. With this packet, you’ll have everything you’ll need to educate and organize people at your local #Occupy or other community event to end $30 billion in tax-payer funded weapons to Israel and redirect that money to unmet needs here at home.
Please email your planned events and actions to Mallory at Stop the Wall mallory@stopthewall.org. You can also read the call to action and find excellent resources on the Apartheid Wall here.
The night after Scott was shot, thousands of activists reclaimed Oakland’s public spaces for “the 99%” by breaking down the fences with which the city government had encircled the plaza, as Palestinians continue to struggle to tear down Israel's Apartheid Wall to reclaim their land and destinies.
As we struggle for justice here at home, let us remember that everyday Palestinians struggling under occupation are part of "the 99%." Join the International Week against the Apartheid Wall!
*Anna Baltzer is the National Organizer of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation where is is crossposted.
sexta-feira, 19 de agosto de 2011
ISRAEL’S FOREIGN POLICY LINKED TO ITS GROWING SOCIAL INEQUALITY
13 August 2011, World Socialist Web Site http://www.wsws.org (Australia)
By Jean Shaoul
Unprecedented social protests sweeping across Israel against soaring housing costs, social inequality, and declining living standards have focused on Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s embrace of “free market” reforms—and the resulting stranglehold of Israel’s dozen or so billionaires over the economy.
Little has as yet been said about one of the key factors behind this assault on Israeli workers’ living standards: the enormous economic strain coming from Israel’s brutal suppression of Middle Eastern workers in neighbouring countries, as part of Israel’s broader alliance with US imperialism. In recent years, the Zionist regime has spent billions of dollars on occupying and suppressing the Palestinian people, invading Lebanon, and building up a large military machine. Its crimes have been financed at the expense of the working class.
Moreover, these policies have been carried out largely in violation of the will of the Israeli population. In particular, repeated polls have shown that the majority of Israelis want a peaceful resolution of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A report by the Adva Centre’s Shlomo Swirski, The cost of occupation: the burden of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 2010 report, exposes the social cost to Israel of occupying Palestinian land—excluding East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed directly.
Swirski says that both sides are paying a heavy price, although “Palestinians are paying the heaviest price”. But his report shows how the occupation’s costs have been placed squarely on the backs of the Israeli working class, via a sustained assault on its wages, working conditions, social, education and health care.
Military expenditure in the Palestinian territories took off primarily after the first Palestinian uprising or Intifada in 1987—before which Israeli bosses had profited by using Palestinian cheap labour to drive down Israelis’ wages. After the Intifada, however, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) stationed two special units permanently in the Occupied Territories. Moreover, the expansion of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories after the 1993 Oslo Accords came at the expense of investment in peripheral towns in Israel itself and required more military spending to protect them.
The suppression of the second Intifada starting in September 2000 led to extra security costs and an economic downturn to which the government reacted by slashing all civilian spending. The cuts amounted to NIS 65 ($18) billion between 2001 and 2004, which the report described as “an unprecedented retrenchment”. From 2001 and 2005, child allowances were cut by 45 percent, unemployment benefits by 47 percent and income maintenance by 25 percent—cuts that the Ministry of Finance admitted were made to pay for the defence budget.
The 2001 levels of spending were not restored after Israel’s bloody suppression of the uprising. Social spending per capita has fallen every year following 2001, while defence expenditure has risen.
Israel receives $3 billion a year in aid from the US, much of it for military expenditure, but this in no way covers Israel’s total military budget, believed to be at least $13 billion or approximately 7-8 percent of GDP, one of the highest in the world.
Swirski adds that the prolonged conflict also prevented the integration of Palestinian Israelis into Israeli society, and their social and economic advancement. This marginalisation of 20 percent of the population has further undermined Israel’s economic development.
The occupation’s precise cost is unknown, however, because the military budget is never published. All that is published is the “additional special expenditures” for the occupation. These additional appropriations alone came to NIS 45 ($12.6) billion in 2009 prices between 1989 and 2010. The report notes that this is “larger than the total budgetary outlay on elementary, secondary and tertiary education in Israel”.
The 2005 “disengagement” from Gaza cost NIS 9 ($2.5) billion; the Brodet Commission estimated the cost of building the Separation Wall between Israel and the West Bank at NIS 13 ($3.7) billion, a sum equivalent to the health care budget.
The 2006 Lebanon war to eradicate the pro-Palestinian infrastructure in Southern Lebanon cost NIS 8.2 ($2.3) billion; Operation Cast Lead against Gaza in 2008-09 cost a further NIS 4.5 ($1.3) billion, plus an additional NIS 1 billion ($280 million) to fortify the area adjacent to Gaza.
The impact of such military spending has been nothing short of catastrophic for all layers of Israeli society—save the very rich. The Israeli government does not represent the interests of its citizens, or even of all its Jewish citizens, but those of a section of Israel’s financial elite, a corrupt and venal clique that operates as international gangsters on behalf of its masters in Washington.
Adva’s 2009-10 Annual Social Report shows that inequality is high and growing, not only between rich and poor but between different sections of the working class: Jewish Israelis of European origin, of Middle East and North African origin, Palestinian Israelis, migrant workers, the impoverished orthodox Jews, and the 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. In 2010, Israel’s Gini coefficient was 39 percent, making it one of the most socially unequal of the world’s wealthy countries.
The gross average income of 80 percent of workers fell in 2009, with the income of the poorest 40 percent declining most. The middle income group has shrunk from 33 percent of all households in 1988 to 27 percent in 2009, with the share of total income falling from 28 percent to 21 percent.
While 52 percent of Israelis are poor or very poor, the annual per capita income of Palestinian Israelis is about one third that of Jewish Israelis. They face discrimination in terms of employment and education, social welfare and housing investment budgets. Half of all the 850,000 poor children are Palestinian Israelis.
All levels of education, another key focus of the protest movement, are almost universally acknowledged to be dreadful. Teachers’ pay is low relative to other developed countries, while classroom sizes are above average. Students, including Israel’s top students, perform badly by international standards. Some 54 percent of 17 year olds failed to graduate from high school in 2009, reflecting even more starkly the income disparities between social groups.
Access to healthcare is no better, as reflected in average household expenditure on supplemental healthcare insurance, which has continued to grow as public provision has declined. While the poor spend a higher proportion of their income on healthcare, their more limited insurance buys them significantly fewer benefits.
The elderly have been particularly badly affected as the state pension is far below even a minimum standard of living, and the income of the majority is so low that they are unable to save for their retirement. According to Adva’s report, the bottom 20 percent saved almost nothing towards their retirement.
These conditions underscore that a successful struggle against social inequality in Israel poses the urgent necessity of a united struggle by the Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab working masses against the bourgeois Zionist state and the criminal policies of world imperialism.
By Jean Shaoul
Unprecedented social protests sweeping across Israel against soaring housing costs, social inequality, and declining living standards have focused on Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s embrace of “free market” reforms—and the resulting stranglehold of Israel’s dozen or so billionaires over the economy.
Little has as yet been said about one of the key factors behind this assault on Israeli workers’ living standards: the enormous economic strain coming from Israel’s brutal suppression of Middle Eastern workers in neighbouring countries, as part of Israel’s broader alliance with US imperialism. In recent years, the Zionist regime has spent billions of dollars on occupying and suppressing the Palestinian people, invading Lebanon, and building up a large military machine. Its crimes have been financed at the expense of the working class.
Moreover, these policies have been carried out largely in violation of the will of the Israeli population. In particular, repeated polls have shown that the majority of Israelis want a peaceful resolution of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A report by the Adva Centre’s Shlomo Swirski, The cost of occupation: the burden of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 2010 report, exposes the social cost to Israel of occupying Palestinian land—excluding East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed directly.
Swirski says that both sides are paying a heavy price, although “Palestinians are paying the heaviest price”. But his report shows how the occupation’s costs have been placed squarely on the backs of the Israeli working class, via a sustained assault on its wages, working conditions, social, education and health care.
Military expenditure in the Palestinian territories took off primarily after the first Palestinian uprising or Intifada in 1987—before which Israeli bosses had profited by using Palestinian cheap labour to drive down Israelis’ wages. After the Intifada, however, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) stationed two special units permanently in the Occupied Territories. Moreover, the expansion of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories after the 1993 Oslo Accords came at the expense of investment in peripheral towns in Israel itself and required more military spending to protect them.
The suppression of the second Intifada starting in September 2000 led to extra security costs and an economic downturn to which the government reacted by slashing all civilian spending. The cuts amounted to NIS 65 ($18) billion between 2001 and 2004, which the report described as “an unprecedented retrenchment”. From 2001 and 2005, child allowances were cut by 45 percent, unemployment benefits by 47 percent and income maintenance by 25 percent—cuts that the Ministry of Finance admitted were made to pay for the defence budget.
The 2001 levels of spending were not restored after Israel’s bloody suppression of the uprising. Social spending per capita has fallen every year following 2001, while defence expenditure has risen.
Israel receives $3 billion a year in aid from the US, much of it for military expenditure, but this in no way covers Israel’s total military budget, believed to be at least $13 billion or approximately 7-8 percent of GDP, one of the highest in the world.
Swirski adds that the prolonged conflict also prevented the integration of Palestinian Israelis into Israeli society, and their social and economic advancement. This marginalisation of 20 percent of the population has further undermined Israel’s economic development.
The occupation’s precise cost is unknown, however, because the military budget is never published. All that is published is the “additional special expenditures” for the occupation. These additional appropriations alone came to NIS 45 ($12.6) billion in 2009 prices between 1989 and 2010. The report notes that this is “larger than the total budgetary outlay on elementary, secondary and tertiary education in Israel”.
The 2005 “disengagement” from Gaza cost NIS 9 ($2.5) billion; the Brodet Commission estimated the cost of building the Separation Wall between Israel and the West Bank at NIS 13 ($3.7) billion, a sum equivalent to the health care budget.
The 2006 Lebanon war to eradicate the pro-Palestinian infrastructure in Southern Lebanon cost NIS 8.2 ($2.3) billion; Operation Cast Lead against Gaza in 2008-09 cost a further NIS 4.5 ($1.3) billion, plus an additional NIS 1 billion ($280 million) to fortify the area adjacent to Gaza.
The impact of such military spending has been nothing short of catastrophic for all layers of Israeli society—save the very rich. The Israeli government does not represent the interests of its citizens, or even of all its Jewish citizens, but those of a section of Israel’s financial elite, a corrupt and venal clique that operates as international gangsters on behalf of its masters in Washington.
Adva’s 2009-10 Annual Social Report shows that inequality is high and growing, not only between rich and poor but between different sections of the working class: Jewish Israelis of European origin, of Middle East and North African origin, Palestinian Israelis, migrant workers, the impoverished orthodox Jews, and the 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. In 2010, Israel’s Gini coefficient was 39 percent, making it one of the most socially unequal of the world’s wealthy countries.
The gross average income of 80 percent of workers fell in 2009, with the income of the poorest 40 percent declining most. The middle income group has shrunk from 33 percent of all households in 1988 to 27 percent in 2009, with the share of total income falling from 28 percent to 21 percent.
While 52 percent of Israelis are poor or very poor, the annual per capita income of Palestinian Israelis is about one third that of Jewish Israelis. They face discrimination in terms of employment and education, social welfare and housing investment budgets. Half of all the 850,000 poor children are Palestinian Israelis.
All levels of education, another key focus of the protest movement, are almost universally acknowledged to be dreadful. Teachers’ pay is low relative to other developed countries, while classroom sizes are above average. Students, including Israel’s top students, perform badly by international standards. Some 54 percent of 17 year olds failed to graduate from high school in 2009, reflecting even more starkly the income disparities between social groups.
Access to healthcare is no better, as reflected in average household expenditure on supplemental healthcare insurance, which has continued to grow as public provision has declined. While the poor spend a higher proportion of their income on healthcare, their more limited insurance buys them significantly fewer benefits.
The elderly have been particularly badly affected as the state pension is far below even a minimum standard of living, and the income of the majority is so low that they are unable to save for their retirement. According to Adva’s report, the bottom 20 percent saved almost nothing towards their retirement.
These conditions underscore that a successful struggle against social inequality in Israel poses the urgent necessity of a united struggle by the Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab working masses against the bourgeois Zionist state and the criminal policies of world imperialism.
segunda-feira, 18 de julho de 2011
RAISING A BLACK FLAG OVER THE DESTRUCTION OF DEMOCRACY
14 july 2011, Communist Party of Israel המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית http://maki.org.il
Decisions of the 14th session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel
July 8, 2011
The Boycott Law ("The Law for Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott - 2011"), which has just passed in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), is an outrageous attempt by the Israeli right to silence every form of criticism of government policy and especially the policy of settlement in the occupied territories. By threatening to impose costly damages on offenders, even without proof of damage, the right wing is attempting to shut out the voices of those who resist the occupation, and call, for instance, for a boycott of consumer products produced in the settlements.
This law joins a full series of other discriminatory and racist laws that have been proposed by Netanyahu's right wing government in recent years - laws that trample upon democracy, but have been approved by the Knesset.
The CPI condemns the "Boycott Law" as a grave assault on the freedom of speech, the freedom of criticism, and the freedom of protest, and calls for the forces who would defend our democratic space to rally together to put a stop to the fascist threat and to put an end to the injustices of the occupation.
Calling for a public campaign in favor of the UN General Assembly's recognition of a Palestinian State in the 1967 borders
The Obama government and European governments are applying pressure on the Palestinian Authority, demanding that it retreat from its appeal to the UN General Assembly - due to convene in September - to recognize a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders. These pressures are in service of the war-mongering policies of settlement and occupation pursued by the Netanyahu government, which are disastrous for both Israelis and Palestinians.
The Central Committee raises an alarm against the catastrophe that the next war will bring upon Israel and the regions' nations. This war is being devised by the Netanyahu government in an attempt to prevent a political settlement, that would involve retreating from all of the occupied territories, and to block the anticipated vote in the General Assembly over the Palestinian issue.
The Central Committee of the CPI stresses that the only steps that can lead to a just and stable peace agreement which can guarantee the security of the two people and their futures are: the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside Israel; the evacuation of all the settlements; dismantling of the separation wall; and a solution of the refugee problem based on UN resolutions.
The CPI congratulates the residents of Bil'in and all those struggling against the separation barrier, for their important victory in removing the fence from part of Bil'in's lands.
The Central Committee calls upon members of the party to enlist in the public campaign, initiated by Hadash, for Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967 lines. We send our blessings to TANDI (Movement of Democratic Women in Israel) and all of the Israeli women, who initiated a similar political action in collaboration with Palestinian women in the occupied territories.
Stop the blood bath in Syria and establish a democratic regime
The CPI's Central Committee reiterates its unambiguous stance against the killings, oppression, and mass persecution of the Syrian people, who are fighting for their freedom, for democracy and for social justice. The popular demands are legitimate and just demands.
We utterly reject any attempt on the part of the United States, Israel, and their allies to intervene in Syria by saying that they are taking the side of the people against the regime. The United States and its allies never intervened anywhere for the interests of the peoples it claimed to defend: it intervened only in the interests of the corporations and in order to establish imperial hegemony.
A regime that kills its own people, who are struggling by peaceful means, cannot be progressive and cannot claim any legitimacy. Our position is clear: we stand alongside the popular movement that is fighting for democracy, social justice and civil liberties, and which rejects any foreign intervention in the Syrian issue or dependency on imperialism, and which struggles against the Israeli occupation.
The voices that issued from the meetings with the Syrian opposition held in Turkey and France, as well as during the visit of the U.S. ambassador in the city of Hama, and which invited foreign powers to intervene, do not reflect the genuine interests of the Syrian people, and are at odds with the spirit of the masses' legitimate demands. We condemn the position voiced by various circles, both within the regime and within the opposition, who are pushing to resolve the question of the Syrian popular demands by means of an understanding with the U.S. and its allies that will create dependence on those foreign powers.
We call for an immediate end to the blood bath in Syria, and for the establishment of a democratic regime that strives for social justice, and that adheres to the principle of Syrian independence, and its national and geographical unity. We reject any attempt to divide the Syrian Arab people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or any other category.
We place a great deal of faith in the Arab-Syrian people, which carries a proud heritage of resistance to colonialism and occupation, and which fulfills an outstanding role in developing a progressive and enlightened culture. We are convinced that the Syrian people will not allow its wishes and its struggle to be hijacked, and will not allow its country to become a protectorate of the West.
We call upon all the elements of the society and people in Syria to attain full democratization and bring to an immediate end the bloodshed which is being carried out by the regime against the demonstrators who are using peaceful means while struggling for their rights.
Developments in Sudan
South Sudan has declared independence, and we honor the will of the Sudanese people both in the North and in the South. Sudan, as a country containing the sources of the Nile, is one of Africa's most important states. With its land and water resources, the country has untold possibilities for developing a thriving agricultural sector, as well as tremendous potential in terms of natural resources, especially in its southern part. Therefore, Sudan's status is of tremendous economic and strategic importance.
The West, and the United States in particular, is setting its sights on Sudan. The Western powers have worked for many years to keep Sudan divided, by fueling ethnic and geographic strife, while taking advantage of the crimes of the regime in Khartoum, and its denial of the legitimate demands of the Sudanese people in the south.
The division of Sudan was realized in wake of a referendum that took place in the south, whose results were also acceptable to the regime in Khartoum. This division was not a necessary step for solving the question of the south. It was advanced as part of Western intervention and the criminal policies conducted by the government in Kharoum, which ignored the desires of the country's inhabitants.
Rise in the cost of living and erosion of wages
During the past five years, the average real wage has risen by less than 3% while the prices of food have risen by 25%, the prices of fruit and vegetables by 36% and the cost of renting or buying a flat have doubled. The wave of price hikes, which have eroded the purchasing power of working families and senior citizens, is the product of a combination of monopolistic behavior on the part of the large corporations and the privatization policies of the government in support of capital.
The CPI calls upon the Histadrut (Labor Federation) to ensure that the workers receive immediate compensation for the recent price hikes by paying a one-time cost-of-living payment of 10% of the workers' wages.
Solidarity with the strikers
The CPI stands in solidarity with the workers of Haifa Chemicals, who have been on strike for three months now to demand a collective agreement and a fair wage for all the employees of the firm, and to protest against their degraded working conditions; with the doctors, striking to improve their working conditions and to save public medicine; with the nurses, who are implementing sanctions because of the lack of salaried positions and the abandonment of patients in the hospitals; and with all those fighting against factory shutdowns, layoffs, the privatization of government companies; and employment through temporary employment agencies.
An end to home demolitions
A year has gone by since the residents of Al-Araquib, joined by Jews and Arabs, began their resolute and courageous campaign to protect the village and villagers from the repeated demolitions of their meager homes at the hands of state representatives.
The CPI condemns the house demolitions in the Negev, which are an expression of the racist, anti-Arab policies that are attempting to uproot tens of thousands of Bedouin Arabs from their lands and villages.
The CPI's 26 Convention – in December
The Central Committee of the CPI has decided to hold the party's 26th convention on the 8-10th of December 2011, and has asked the relevant party institutions and organizations to begin preparations for the convention.
Decisions of the 14th session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel
July 8, 2011
The Boycott Law ("The Law for Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott - 2011"), which has just passed in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), is an outrageous attempt by the Israeli right to silence every form of criticism of government policy and especially the policy of settlement in the occupied territories. By threatening to impose costly damages on offenders, even without proof of damage, the right wing is attempting to shut out the voices of those who resist the occupation, and call, for instance, for a boycott of consumer products produced in the settlements.
This law joins a full series of other discriminatory and racist laws that have been proposed by Netanyahu's right wing government in recent years - laws that trample upon democracy, but have been approved by the Knesset.
The CPI condemns the "Boycott Law" as a grave assault on the freedom of speech, the freedom of criticism, and the freedom of protest, and calls for the forces who would defend our democratic space to rally together to put a stop to the fascist threat and to put an end to the injustices of the occupation.
Calling for a public campaign in favor of the UN General Assembly's recognition of a Palestinian State in the 1967 borders
The Obama government and European governments are applying pressure on the Palestinian Authority, demanding that it retreat from its appeal to the UN General Assembly - due to convene in September - to recognize a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders. These pressures are in service of the war-mongering policies of settlement and occupation pursued by the Netanyahu government, which are disastrous for both Israelis and Palestinians.
The Central Committee raises an alarm against the catastrophe that the next war will bring upon Israel and the regions' nations. This war is being devised by the Netanyahu government in an attempt to prevent a political settlement, that would involve retreating from all of the occupied territories, and to block the anticipated vote in the General Assembly over the Palestinian issue.
The Central Committee of the CPI stresses that the only steps that can lead to a just and stable peace agreement which can guarantee the security of the two people and their futures are: the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside Israel; the evacuation of all the settlements; dismantling of the separation wall; and a solution of the refugee problem based on UN resolutions.
The CPI congratulates the residents of Bil'in and all those struggling against the separation barrier, for their important victory in removing the fence from part of Bil'in's lands.
The Central Committee calls upon members of the party to enlist in the public campaign, initiated by Hadash, for Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967 lines. We send our blessings to TANDI (Movement of Democratic Women in Israel) and all of the Israeli women, who initiated a similar political action in collaboration with Palestinian women in the occupied territories.
Stop the blood bath in Syria and establish a democratic regime
The CPI's Central Committee reiterates its unambiguous stance against the killings, oppression, and mass persecution of the Syrian people, who are fighting for their freedom, for democracy and for social justice. The popular demands are legitimate and just demands.
We utterly reject any attempt on the part of the United States, Israel, and their allies to intervene in Syria by saying that they are taking the side of the people against the regime. The United States and its allies never intervened anywhere for the interests of the peoples it claimed to defend: it intervened only in the interests of the corporations and in order to establish imperial hegemony.
A regime that kills its own people, who are struggling by peaceful means, cannot be progressive and cannot claim any legitimacy. Our position is clear: we stand alongside the popular movement that is fighting for democracy, social justice and civil liberties, and which rejects any foreign intervention in the Syrian issue or dependency on imperialism, and which struggles against the Israeli occupation.
The voices that issued from the meetings with the Syrian opposition held in Turkey and France, as well as during the visit of the U.S. ambassador in the city of Hama, and which invited foreign powers to intervene, do not reflect the genuine interests of the Syrian people, and are at odds with the spirit of the masses' legitimate demands. We condemn the position voiced by various circles, both within the regime and within the opposition, who are pushing to resolve the question of the Syrian popular demands by means of an understanding with the U.S. and its allies that will create dependence on those foreign powers.
We call for an immediate end to the blood bath in Syria, and for the establishment of a democratic regime that strives for social justice, and that adheres to the principle of Syrian independence, and its national and geographical unity. We reject any attempt to divide the Syrian Arab people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or any other category.
We place a great deal of faith in the Arab-Syrian people, which carries a proud heritage of resistance to colonialism and occupation, and which fulfills an outstanding role in developing a progressive and enlightened culture. We are convinced that the Syrian people will not allow its wishes and its struggle to be hijacked, and will not allow its country to become a protectorate of the West.
We call upon all the elements of the society and people in Syria to attain full democratization and bring to an immediate end the bloodshed which is being carried out by the regime against the demonstrators who are using peaceful means while struggling for their rights.
Developments in Sudan
South Sudan has declared independence, and we honor the will of the Sudanese people both in the North and in the South. Sudan, as a country containing the sources of the Nile, is one of Africa's most important states. With its land and water resources, the country has untold possibilities for developing a thriving agricultural sector, as well as tremendous potential in terms of natural resources, especially in its southern part. Therefore, Sudan's status is of tremendous economic and strategic importance.
The West, and the United States in particular, is setting its sights on Sudan. The Western powers have worked for many years to keep Sudan divided, by fueling ethnic and geographic strife, while taking advantage of the crimes of the regime in Khartoum, and its denial of the legitimate demands of the Sudanese people in the south.
The division of Sudan was realized in wake of a referendum that took place in the south, whose results were also acceptable to the regime in Khartoum. This division was not a necessary step for solving the question of the south. It was advanced as part of Western intervention and the criminal policies conducted by the government in Kharoum, which ignored the desires of the country's inhabitants.
Rise in the cost of living and erosion of wages
During the past five years, the average real wage has risen by less than 3% while the prices of food have risen by 25%, the prices of fruit and vegetables by 36% and the cost of renting or buying a flat have doubled. The wave of price hikes, which have eroded the purchasing power of working families and senior citizens, is the product of a combination of monopolistic behavior on the part of the large corporations and the privatization policies of the government in support of capital.
The CPI calls upon the Histadrut (Labor Federation) to ensure that the workers receive immediate compensation for the recent price hikes by paying a one-time cost-of-living payment of 10% of the workers' wages.
Solidarity with the strikers
The CPI stands in solidarity with the workers of Haifa Chemicals, who have been on strike for three months now to demand a collective agreement and a fair wage for all the employees of the firm, and to protest against their degraded working conditions; with the doctors, striking to improve their working conditions and to save public medicine; with the nurses, who are implementing sanctions because of the lack of salaried positions and the abandonment of patients in the hospitals; and with all those fighting against factory shutdowns, layoffs, the privatization of government companies; and employment through temporary employment agencies.
An end to home demolitions
A year has gone by since the residents of Al-Araquib, joined by Jews and Arabs, began their resolute and courageous campaign to protect the village and villagers from the repeated demolitions of their meager homes at the hands of state representatives.
The CPI condemns the house demolitions in the Negev, which are an expression of the racist, anti-Arab policies that are attempting to uproot tens of thousands of Bedouin Arabs from their lands and villages.
The CPI's 26 Convention – in December
The Central Committee of the CPI has decided to hold the party's 26th convention on the 8-10th of December 2011, and has asked the relevant party institutions and organizations to begin preparations for the convention.
sexta-feira, 1 de julho de 2011
CARTA ABERTA À PALESTINA
O controle repugnante e draconiano que Israel exerce sobre os palestinos exige que as pessoas, com sentido de justiça, os apoiem na sua resistência civil
9 Junho 2011, Brasil de Fato http://www.brasildefato.com.br
Roger Waters (fundador dos Pink Floyd)
Em 1980, uma canção que escrevi, “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2”, foi proibida pelo governo da África do Sul porque estava a ser usada por crianças negras sul-africanas para reivindicar o seu direito a uma educação igual. Esse governo de apartheid impôs um bloqueio cultural, por assim dizer, sobre algumas canções, incluindo a minha.
Vinte e cinco anos mais tarde, em 2005, crianças palestinianas que participavam num festival na Cisjordânia usaram a canção para protestar contra o muro do apartheid israelita. Elas cantavam: “Não precisamos da ocupação! Não precisamos do muro racista!” Nessa altura, eu não tinha ainda visto com os meus olhos aquilo sobre o que elas estavam a cantar.
Um ano mais tarde, em 2006, fui contratado para actuar em Telavive.
Palestinos do movimento de boicote académico e cultural a Israel exortaram-me a reconsiderar. Eu já me tinha manifestado contra o muro, mas não tinha a certeza de que um boicote cultural fosse a via certa. Os defensores palestinos de um boicote pediram-me que visitasse o território palestiniano ocupado para ver o muro com os meus olhos antes de tomar uma decisão. Eu concordei.
Sob a protecção das Nações Unidas, visitei Jerusalém e Belém. Nada podia ter-me preparado para aquilo que vi nesse dia. O muro é um edifício revoltante. Ele é policiado por jovens soldados israelitas que me trataram, observador casual de um outro mundo, com uma agressão cheia de desprezo. Se foi assim comigo, um estrangeiro, imaginem o que deve ser com os palestinos, com os subproletários, com os portadores de autorizações. Soube então que a minha consciência não me permitiria afastar-me desse muro, do destino dos palestinos que conheci, pessoas cujas vidas são esmagadas diariamente de mil e uma maneiras pela ocupação de Israel. Em solidariedade, e de alguma forma por impotência, escrevi no muro, naquele dia: “Não precisamos do controlo das ideias”.
Realizando nesse momento que a minha presença num palco de Telavive iria legitimar involuntariamente a opressão que eu estava a testemunhar, cancelei o meu concerto no estádio de futebol de Telavive e mudei-o para Neve Shalom, uma comunidade agrícola dedicada a criar pintainhos e também, admiravelmente, à cooperação entre pessoas de crenças diferentes, onde muçulmanos, cristãos e judeus vivem e trabalham lado a lado em harmonia.
Contra todas as expectativas, ele tornou-se no maior evento musical da curta história de Israel. 60.000 fãs lutaram contra engarrafamentos de trânsito para assistir. Foi extraordinariamente comovente para mim e para a minha banda e, no fim do concerto, fui levado a exortar os jovens que ali estavam agrupados a exigirem ao seu governo que tentasse chegar à paz com os seus vizinhos e que respeitasse os direitos civis dos palestinianos que vivem em Israel.
Infelizmente, nos anos que se seguiram, o governo israelita não fez nenhuma tentativa para implementar legislação que garanta aos árabes israelitas direitos civis iguais aos que têm os judeus israelitas, e o muro cresceu, inexoravelmente, anexando cada vez mais a faixa ocidental.
Aprendi nesse dia de 2006 em Belém alguma coisa do que significa viver sob ocupação, encarcerado por trás de um muro. Significa que um agricultor palestino tem de ver oliveiras centenárias ser arrancadas. Significa que um estudante palestino não pode ir para a escola porque o checkpoint está fechado. Significa que uma mulher pode dar à luz num carro, porque o soldado não a deixará passar até ao hospital que está a dez minutos de estrada. Significa que um artista palestiniano não pode viajar ao estrangeiro para exibir o seu trabalho ou para mostrar um filme num festival internacional.
Para a população de Gaza, fechada numa prisão virtual por trás do muro do bloqueio ilegal de Israel, significa outra série de injustiças. Significa que as crianças vão para a cama com fome, muitas delas malnutridas cronicamente. Significa que pais e mães, impedidos de trabalhar numa economia dizimada, não têm meios de sustentar as suas famílias. Significa que estudantes universitários com bolsas para estudar no estrangeiro têm de ver uma oportunidade escapar porque não são autorizados a viajar.
Na minha opinião, o controle repugnante e draconiano que Israel exerce sobre os palestinos de Gaza cercados e os palestinos da Cisjordânia ocupada (incluindo Jerusalém oriental), assim como a sua negação dos direitos dos refugiados de regressar às suas casas em Israel, exige que as pessoas com sentido de justiça em todo o mundo apoiem os palestinos na sua resistência civil, não violenta.
Onde os governos se recusam a atuar, as pessoas devem fazê-lo, com os meios pacíficos que tiverem à sua disposição. Para alguns, isto significou juntar-se à Marcha da Liberdade de Gaza; para outros, isto significou juntar-se à flotilha humanitária que tentou levar até Gaza a muito necessitada ajuda humanitária.
Para mim, isso significa declarar a minha intenção de me manter solidário, não só com o povo da Palestina, mas também com os muitos milhares de israelitas que discordam das políticas racistas e coloniais dos seus governos, juntando-me à campanha de Boicote, Desinvestimento e Sanções (BDS) contra Israel, até que este satisfaça três direitos humanos básicos exigidos na lei internacional.
1. Pondo fim à ocupação e à colonização de todas as terras árabes [ocupadas desde 1967] e desmantelando o muro;
2. Reconhecendo os direitos fundamentais dos cidadãos árabo-palestinianos de Israel em plena igualdade; e
3. Respeitando, protegendo e promovendo os direitos dos refugiados palestinianos de regressar às suas casas e propriedades como estipulado na resolução 194 da ONU.
A minha convicção nasceu da ideia de que todas as pessoas merecem direitos humanos básicos. A minha posição não é antisemita. Isto não é um ataque ao povo de Israel. Isto é, no entanto, um apelo aos meus colegas da indústria da música e também a artistas de outras áreas para que se juntem ao boicote cultural.
Os artistas tiveram razão de recusar-se a atuar na estação de Sun City na África do Sul até que o apartheid caísse e que brancos e negros gozassem dos mesmos direitos. E nós temos razão de recusar atuar em Israel até que venha o dia – e esse dia virá seguramente – em que o muro da ocupação caia e os palestinianos vivam ao lado dos israelitas em paz, liberdade, justiça e dignidade, que todos eles merecem.
17 de Março de 2011
9 Junho 2011, Brasil de Fato http://www.brasildefato.com.br
Roger Waters (fundador dos Pink Floyd)
Em 1980, uma canção que escrevi, “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2”, foi proibida pelo governo da África do Sul porque estava a ser usada por crianças negras sul-africanas para reivindicar o seu direito a uma educação igual. Esse governo de apartheid impôs um bloqueio cultural, por assim dizer, sobre algumas canções, incluindo a minha.
Vinte e cinco anos mais tarde, em 2005, crianças palestinianas que participavam num festival na Cisjordânia usaram a canção para protestar contra o muro do apartheid israelita. Elas cantavam: “Não precisamos da ocupação! Não precisamos do muro racista!” Nessa altura, eu não tinha ainda visto com os meus olhos aquilo sobre o que elas estavam a cantar.
Um ano mais tarde, em 2006, fui contratado para actuar em Telavive.
Palestinos do movimento de boicote académico e cultural a Israel exortaram-me a reconsiderar. Eu já me tinha manifestado contra o muro, mas não tinha a certeza de que um boicote cultural fosse a via certa. Os defensores palestinos de um boicote pediram-me que visitasse o território palestiniano ocupado para ver o muro com os meus olhos antes de tomar uma decisão. Eu concordei.
Sob a protecção das Nações Unidas, visitei Jerusalém e Belém. Nada podia ter-me preparado para aquilo que vi nesse dia. O muro é um edifício revoltante. Ele é policiado por jovens soldados israelitas que me trataram, observador casual de um outro mundo, com uma agressão cheia de desprezo. Se foi assim comigo, um estrangeiro, imaginem o que deve ser com os palestinos, com os subproletários, com os portadores de autorizações. Soube então que a minha consciência não me permitiria afastar-me desse muro, do destino dos palestinos que conheci, pessoas cujas vidas são esmagadas diariamente de mil e uma maneiras pela ocupação de Israel. Em solidariedade, e de alguma forma por impotência, escrevi no muro, naquele dia: “Não precisamos do controlo das ideias”.
Realizando nesse momento que a minha presença num palco de Telavive iria legitimar involuntariamente a opressão que eu estava a testemunhar, cancelei o meu concerto no estádio de futebol de Telavive e mudei-o para Neve Shalom, uma comunidade agrícola dedicada a criar pintainhos e também, admiravelmente, à cooperação entre pessoas de crenças diferentes, onde muçulmanos, cristãos e judeus vivem e trabalham lado a lado em harmonia.
Contra todas as expectativas, ele tornou-se no maior evento musical da curta história de Israel. 60.000 fãs lutaram contra engarrafamentos de trânsito para assistir. Foi extraordinariamente comovente para mim e para a minha banda e, no fim do concerto, fui levado a exortar os jovens que ali estavam agrupados a exigirem ao seu governo que tentasse chegar à paz com os seus vizinhos e que respeitasse os direitos civis dos palestinianos que vivem em Israel.
Infelizmente, nos anos que se seguiram, o governo israelita não fez nenhuma tentativa para implementar legislação que garanta aos árabes israelitas direitos civis iguais aos que têm os judeus israelitas, e o muro cresceu, inexoravelmente, anexando cada vez mais a faixa ocidental.
Aprendi nesse dia de 2006 em Belém alguma coisa do que significa viver sob ocupação, encarcerado por trás de um muro. Significa que um agricultor palestino tem de ver oliveiras centenárias ser arrancadas. Significa que um estudante palestino não pode ir para a escola porque o checkpoint está fechado. Significa que uma mulher pode dar à luz num carro, porque o soldado não a deixará passar até ao hospital que está a dez minutos de estrada. Significa que um artista palestiniano não pode viajar ao estrangeiro para exibir o seu trabalho ou para mostrar um filme num festival internacional.
Para a população de Gaza, fechada numa prisão virtual por trás do muro do bloqueio ilegal de Israel, significa outra série de injustiças. Significa que as crianças vão para a cama com fome, muitas delas malnutridas cronicamente. Significa que pais e mães, impedidos de trabalhar numa economia dizimada, não têm meios de sustentar as suas famílias. Significa que estudantes universitários com bolsas para estudar no estrangeiro têm de ver uma oportunidade escapar porque não são autorizados a viajar.
Na minha opinião, o controle repugnante e draconiano que Israel exerce sobre os palestinos de Gaza cercados e os palestinos da Cisjordânia ocupada (incluindo Jerusalém oriental), assim como a sua negação dos direitos dos refugiados de regressar às suas casas em Israel, exige que as pessoas com sentido de justiça em todo o mundo apoiem os palestinos na sua resistência civil, não violenta.
Onde os governos se recusam a atuar, as pessoas devem fazê-lo, com os meios pacíficos que tiverem à sua disposição. Para alguns, isto significou juntar-se à Marcha da Liberdade de Gaza; para outros, isto significou juntar-se à flotilha humanitária que tentou levar até Gaza a muito necessitada ajuda humanitária.
Para mim, isso significa declarar a minha intenção de me manter solidário, não só com o povo da Palestina, mas também com os muitos milhares de israelitas que discordam das políticas racistas e coloniais dos seus governos, juntando-me à campanha de Boicote, Desinvestimento e Sanções (BDS) contra Israel, até que este satisfaça três direitos humanos básicos exigidos na lei internacional.
1. Pondo fim à ocupação e à colonização de todas as terras árabes [ocupadas desde 1967] e desmantelando o muro;
2. Reconhecendo os direitos fundamentais dos cidadãos árabo-palestinianos de Israel em plena igualdade; e
3. Respeitando, protegendo e promovendo os direitos dos refugiados palestinianos de regressar às suas casas e propriedades como estipulado na resolução 194 da ONU.
A minha convicção nasceu da ideia de que todas as pessoas merecem direitos humanos básicos. A minha posição não é antisemita. Isto não é um ataque ao povo de Israel. Isto é, no entanto, um apelo aos meus colegas da indústria da música e também a artistas de outras áreas para que se juntem ao boicote cultural.
Os artistas tiveram razão de recusar-se a atuar na estação de Sun City na África do Sul até que o apartheid caísse e que brancos e negros gozassem dos mesmos direitos. E nós temos razão de recusar atuar em Israel até que venha o dia – e esse dia virá seguramente – em que o muro da ocupação caia e os palestinianos vivam ao lado dos israelitas em paz, liberdade, justiça e dignidade, que todos eles merecem.
17 de Março de 2011
domingo, 26 de junho de 2011
Academics Support Israel’s “Civil Disobedience Women” Willing to Break Israel’s Entry Laws
23 June 2011, Alternative Information Center המרכז לאינפורמציה אלטרנטיבית
http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)
About 300 lecturers and teachers from institutes of higher education throughout Israel have signed a public advertisement in support of civil disobedience actions of a women’s group which openly infringes the law of entry to Israel.
Palestinian women enjoying a day at the beach with Israeli women who refuse to accept Israel's racist laws that prohibit Palestinian freedom of movement (photo: "Civil Disobedience")
The academics put their full names in an advertisement which was published in the Ha'aretz newspaper last Friday, 17 June 2011, next to an advertisement – the third in recent months - published by the women's group called "Civil Disobedience". The women, who have all been investigated by Jerusalem police and who now have official criminal records, called for the Israeli public to join them in their protest activity which consists of driving Palestinian women and children for a day at Israeli recreational sites and the beach. These actions come in the wake of writer and translator Ilana Hammerman,, who started publicizing such activities last year.
"We recognize neither the legality, nor the morality, nor the wisdom of the walls between us and our neighbors which have been erected with brute force," stated the group in its advertisement.
Alongside the women's statement, a support letter from the academics appeared, including the following words: We, the undersigned women and men, state that we are willing to collaborate with the actions of the "Civil Disobedience" women. In these dark hours, we are willing to drive their guests, Palestinian women and children, to hide them and to support their challenge in any other way, whether in deeds or in words. The action of these women shows the right way for any Israeli citizen who truly supports a democracy respectful of human rights. Should Israel's legal system find it appropriate to prosecute and penalize these women we shall be willing to support them, to join them and to be tried alongside them.
Additional information about Civil Disobedience may be found on the group’s website (Hebrew only).
http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)
About 300 lecturers and teachers from institutes of higher education throughout Israel have signed a public advertisement in support of civil disobedience actions of a women’s group which openly infringes the law of entry to Israel.
Palestinian women enjoying a day at the beach with Israeli women who refuse to accept Israel's racist laws that prohibit Palestinian freedom of movement (photo: "Civil Disobedience")
The academics put their full names in an advertisement which was published in the Ha'aretz newspaper last Friday, 17 June 2011, next to an advertisement – the third in recent months - published by the women's group called "Civil Disobedience". The women, who have all been investigated by Jerusalem police and who now have official criminal records, called for the Israeli public to join them in their protest activity which consists of driving Palestinian women and children for a day at Israeli recreational sites and the beach. These actions come in the wake of writer and translator Ilana Hammerman,, who started publicizing such activities last year.
"We recognize neither the legality, nor the morality, nor the wisdom of the walls between us and our neighbors which have been erected with brute force," stated the group in its advertisement.
Alongside the women's statement, a support letter from the academics appeared, including the following words: We, the undersigned women and men, state that we are willing to collaborate with the actions of the "Civil Disobedience" women. In these dark hours, we are willing to drive their guests, Palestinian women and children, to hide them and to support their challenge in any other way, whether in deeds or in words. The action of these women shows the right way for any Israeli citizen who truly supports a democracy respectful of human rights. Should Israel's legal system find it appropriate to prosecute and penalize these women we shall be willing to support them, to join them and to be tried alongside them.
Additional information about Civil Disobedience may be found on the group’s website (Hebrew only).
quinta-feira, 23 de junho de 2011
Why am I organizing the Gaza boat? Because Jewish history commands me
21 June 2011, Mondoweiss http://mondoweiss.net (USA)
by Jane Hirschmann*
People often ask me why I am part of a team to organize a U.S. Boat to Gaza that will be sailing this month with the next International Flotilla to break the siege of Gaza. They often make clear they are asking because I am an American Jew, whose family survived the Holocaust with some surviving family members ending up in Israel. And my only answer is: How could I not?
My parents raised me with stories about what happened in Germany and their family’s escape. I came to see that Israel represented for them a safe haven should there be another attempt at annihilating Jews. And yet, at the same time, they worried it was not so safe a haven given the animosity and physical threats and violence in the area.
But no one ever mentioned the displacement of 750,000 Arabs that was the result of the creation of Israel. I vaguely knew there were people living there, but I was never curious about who these “others” were. All I took away from my family’s history and the atrocities endured was that this should never happen again to anyone, anywhere.
Growing up in the ‘60s, I became active in opposition to the war in Vietnam, the anti-apartheid struggle and the women’s rights movement and later became involved in opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a social worker, I was focused on social justice issues but never questioned the relationship between the U.S. and Israel and their policies regarding Palestinians.
Then came the war on Gaza and a real political awakening for me.
Operation Cast Lead and the Goldstone Report were the catalysts. In November 2008, the ceasefire ended: Israeli soldiers broke it in a cross-border raid killing six members of Hamas and, in response, rockets were launched into Israel. Israel, fortified with American weaponry, attacked the people of Gaza. Approximately 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed compared to 13 Israelis. Gaza was pulverized. Judge Richard Goldstone and his team did a thorough report of the causalities on both sides. There was no doubt that the people of Gaza were disproportionally affected.
Right after the invasion in Gaza I realized I could no longer remain silent. I became one of the organizers of a group called Jews Say No! in New York City. We wanted to speak out and to make clear that the Israeli government did not speak in our name as they claimed. I began reading about the occupation, settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the building of the separation wall, Jewish-only streets for Israeli settlers, special identity papers for Palestinian citizens of Israel (one step away from wearing a yellow star) and the other indignities endured by the people of Palestine on a daily basis. And I saw the total collusion by the U.S. government – its unconditional support no matter what the Israeli government did, including giving them 30 billion dollars over a 10-year period for weaponry (F16s, Apache helicopters, white phosphorous, Caterpillar bulldozers used to destroy homes in Bedouin encampments) used ruthlessly against the Palestinians. This was intolerable for me.
I understand the fears and frustrations of Israelis being fired upon by rockets and the resultant deaths and injuries. But what about the thousands of Palestinians being killed and whose homes, schools, hospitals, farms, mills, factories and infrastructure are being destroyed? What about a people living under a brutal occupation who are being denied the right to live with dignity in their own homeland?
The siege and blockade of Gaza continue. The Israeli government controls the land, sea and air of this small area (25 miles long and roughly six miles wide) where 1.6 million people live. There has been no movement in recent years unless Israel allowed it. (Egypt’s partial opening of the Rafah gate to human traffic, though not to commerce, is a positive sign if it is allowed to grow). Most people cannot travel in or out of Gaza because of continuing restrictions, 61 percent of the population is food insecure, the unemployment rate is around 45 percent, one of the highest in the world, and exports remain banned with the exception of limited items like strawberries and carnations for European markets. Gaza is called an open-air prison even by England’s Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Given all this, I can remain silent no longer. Every day Palestinians are confronting the Israeli government at the wall, at check points, at demolition sites. They risk their lives. Like the Freedom Rides our boat is sailing to call attention to the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza.
My humanity and my Jewishness – Jewish history – demand my being part of an organizing effort to end the inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. The U.S. Boat, called The Audacity of Hope, will sail in late June to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla 2-Stay Human. We will be approximately 50 individuals from across the U.S. committed to non-violence, human rights and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.
To date, tens of thousands of individuals and over 80 organizations have endorsed this U.S. campaign and each day more sign on to travel with us in name. We travel in peace for justice, and I am proud to be part of this international effort.
*Jane Hirschmann is a member of Jews Say No!, a psychotherapist from New York City, co-author of three books, and one of the organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. More information about the The Audacity of Hope is available at www.ustogaza.org.
UPDATE: Original headline on this post said that Hirschmann is on the boat. She is not.
by Jane Hirschmann*
People often ask me why I am part of a team to organize a U.S. Boat to Gaza that will be sailing this month with the next International Flotilla to break the siege of Gaza. They often make clear they are asking because I am an American Jew, whose family survived the Holocaust with some surviving family members ending up in Israel. And my only answer is: How could I not?
My parents raised me with stories about what happened in Germany and their family’s escape. I came to see that Israel represented for them a safe haven should there be another attempt at annihilating Jews. And yet, at the same time, they worried it was not so safe a haven given the animosity and physical threats and violence in the area.
But no one ever mentioned the displacement of 750,000 Arabs that was the result of the creation of Israel. I vaguely knew there were people living there, but I was never curious about who these “others” were. All I took away from my family’s history and the atrocities endured was that this should never happen again to anyone, anywhere.
Growing up in the ‘60s, I became active in opposition to the war in Vietnam, the anti-apartheid struggle and the women’s rights movement and later became involved in opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a social worker, I was focused on social justice issues but never questioned the relationship between the U.S. and Israel and their policies regarding Palestinians.
Then came the war on Gaza and a real political awakening for me.
Operation Cast Lead and the Goldstone Report were the catalysts. In November 2008, the ceasefire ended: Israeli soldiers broke it in a cross-border raid killing six members of Hamas and, in response, rockets were launched into Israel. Israel, fortified with American weaponry, attacked the people of Gaza. Approximately 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed compared to 13 Israelis. Gaza was pulverized. Judge Richard Goldstone and his team did a thorough report of the causalities on both sides. There was no doubt that the people of Gaza were disproportionally affected.
Right after the invasion in Gaza I realized I could no longer remain silent. I became one of the organizers of a group called Jews Say No! in New York City. We wanted to speak out and to make clear that the Israeli government did not speak in our name as they claimed. I began reading about the occupation, settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the building of the separation wall, Jewish-only streets for Israeli settlers, special identity papers for Palestinian citizens of Israel (one step away from wearing a yellow star) and the other indignities endured by the people of Palestine on a daily basis. And I saw the total collusion by the U.S. government – its unconditional support no matter what the Israeli government did, including giving them 30 billion dollars over a 10-year period for weaponry (F16s, Apache helicopters, white phosphorous, Caterpillar bulldozers used to destroy homes in Bedouin encampments) used ruthlessly against the Palestinians. This was intolerable for me.
I understand the fears and frustrations of Israelis being fired upon by rockets and the resultant deaths and injuries. But what about the thousands of Palestinians being killed and whose homes, schools, hospitals, farms, mills, factories and infrastructure are being destroyed? What about a people living under a brutal occupation who are being denied the right to live with dignity in their own homeland?
The siege and blockade of Gaza continue. The Israeli government controls the land, sea and air of this small area (25 miles long and roughly six miles wide) where 1.6 million people live. There has been no movement in recent years unless Israel allowed it. (Egypt’s partial opening of the Rafah gate to human traffic, though not to commerce, is a positive sign if it is allowed to grow). Most people cannot travel in or out of Gaza because of continuing restrictions, 61 percent of the population is food insecure, the unemployment rate is around 45 percent, one of the highest in the world, and exports remain banned with the exception of limited items like strawberries and carnations for European markets. Gaza is called an open-air prison even by England’s Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Given all this, I can remain silent no longer. Every day Palestinians are confronting the Israeli government at the wall, at check points, at demolition sites. They risk their lives. Like the Freedom Rides our boat is sailing to call attention to the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza.
My humanity and my Jewishness – Jewish history – demand my being part of an organizing effort to end the inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. The U.S. Boat, called The Audacity of Hope, will sail in late June to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla 2-Stay Human. We will be approximately 50 individuals from across the U.S. committed to non-violence, human rights and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.
To date, tens of thousands of individuals and over 80 organizations have endorsed this U.S. campaign and each day more sign on to travel with us in name. We travel in peace for justice, and I am proud to be part of this international effort.
*Jane Hirschmann is a member of Jews Say No!, a psychotherapist from New York City, co-author of three books, and one of the organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. More information about the The Audacity of Hope is available at www.ustogaza.org.
UPDATE: Original headline on this post said that Hirschmann is on the boat. She is not.
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