Showing posts with label Action Alerts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Action Alerts. Show all posts

Roger Waters under attack for Facebook post saying Scarlett Johansson ditched human rights for SodaStream

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For those with Facebook accounts, please feel free to provide some counterbalance to the spleen-venting of the hasbarats.



In the past days I have written privately to Neil Young (once) and to Scarlett Johanson (a couple of times). Those letters will remain private.   

Sadly, I have received no reply from either. 

And so I write this note on my Facebook page somewhat in bewilderment.

Neil? I shall ponder all of this long and hard. We don't really know each other, but, you were always one of my heroes, I am confused.

Scarlett? Ah, Scarlett. I met Scarlett a year or so ago, I think it was at a Cream reunion concert at MSG. She was then, as I recall, fiercely anti Neocon, passionately disgusted by Blackwater (Dick Cheney's private army in Iraq), you could have been forgiven for thinking that here was a young woman of strength and integrity who believed in truth, human rights, and the law and love. I confess I was somewhat smitten. There's no fool like an old fool.
A few years down the line, Scarlett's choice of Soda Stream over Oxfam is such an act of intellectual, political, and civil about face, that we, all those of us who care about the downtrodden, the oppressed, the occupied, the second class, will find it hard to rationalize.

I would like to ask that younger Scarlett a question or two. Scarlett, just for one example, are you aware that the Israeli government has razed to the ground a Bedouin village in the Negev desert in Southern Israel 63 times, the last time being on the 26th of December 2013. This village is the home to Bedouin. The Bedouin are, of course, Israeli citizens with full rights of citizenship. Well, not quite full rights, because in "Democratic" Israel there are fifty laws that discriminate against non Jewish citizens.

I am not going to attempt to list, either those laws(they are on the statute book in the Knesset for all to research) or all the other grave human rights abuses of Israeli domestic and foreign policy. I would run out of space. But, to return to my friend Scarlett Johanson.

Scarlett, I have read your reposts and excuses, in them you claim that the Palestinian workers in the factory have equal pay, benefits and "Equal rights". Really? Equal Rights? Do they?

Do they have the right to vote? 

Do they have access to the roads? 

Can they travel to their work place without waiting for hours to pass through the occupying forces control barriers? 

Do they have clean drinking water?

Do they have sanitation? 

Do they have citizenship? 

Do they have the right not to have the standard issue kicking in their door in the middle of the night and taking their children away? 

Do they have the right to appeal against arbitrary and indefinite imprisonment? 

Do they have the right to re-occupy the property and homes they owned before 1948? 

Do they have the right to an ordinary, decent human family life? 

Do they have the right to self determination? 

Do they have the right to continue to develop a cultural life that is ancient and profound?

If these questions put you in a quandary I can answer them for you. The answer is, NO, they do not. 

The workers in The Soda Stream Factory do not have any of these rights.

So, what are the "equal rights" of which you speak?

Scarlett, you are undeniably cute, but if you think Soda Stream is building bridges towards peace you are also undeniably not paying attention.

Love
R.
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Take Action Now For 12 hunger strikers risk death in Israeli jails

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Twelve Palestinian and Jordanian detainees are staging a hunger strike in Israeli prisons. The strikers are all that remains of a larger group that included at least 23 prisoners in early July.
Administrative detainee Ayman Hamdan, who has gone the longest without food, has refused food for over three months in protest of his detention without trial or charge. The remaining 11 prisoners’ respective strikes ranged between 30 and 90 days.
The five Jordanian prisoners have launched their hunger strike since early May demanding their release from Israeli prisons so that they can serve their sentences in Jordanian prisons according to the Wadi Araba agreement between Jordan and Israel.
Israeli Prison Services is regularly accused by Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups of inhumane treatment of prisoners.
According to human rights groups, the Israeli Prison Services (IPS) has sought to punish the hunger strikers using excessive solitary confinement, withholding medication, blocking prisoners’ access to lawyers, limiting family visits, and physically assaulting them while they are handcuffed to their beds, to name a few, in addition to threatening to be force-fed.
One of the hunger strikers, Alaa Hamad, told Addameer that he was “threatened [by IPS] to be force-fed if he does not end his strike.”
The Israeli Ministry of Justice is currently working on passing a bill that will allow the authorities force-feed prisoners on hunger strike “legally”.
The Hebrew Haaretz newspaper said in its Thursday edition (11/7/2013) : “This proposal comes in the wake of the increasing number of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.”
Force-feeding has been roundly condemned by groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In response to criticism from groups like Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, IPS said that such groups do not “have the resources to conduct an objective assessment of medical practices in prisons and added that the medical treatment given to prisoners is both professional and responsible,” Times of Israel reported in April.
There are currently 4,979 Palestinians in Israeli lockup. A total of 238 are children, 44 of whom are under 16 years old. Another 156 are administrative detainees held on “secret evidence” without charge or trial.
Four of the present strikers are administrative detainees, and an additional four are serving a life sentence or greater.
The Israeli military defends its use of administrative detention as a necessary security measure for allegedly dangerous “security prisoners,” in violation to the fourth article of the Geneva Conventions.
In violation of the Geneva Conventions, which forbids an occupying power from removing detainees from the occupied territory, Israel frequently imprisons Palestinians from the West Bank inside Israel. In practice, this means that the families and lawyers of these detainees are rarely, if ever, are able to visit them.
All 12 of the current strikers are being held inside Israel, requiring their relatives to apply for entrance permits—scarcely granted—in order to visit them.
For many prisoners, hunger striking is the only chance to get the Israeli government to ease the harsh conditions of confinement or, in some cases, to release them.
By gaining international attention, hunger striking has helped cultivate global solidarity. When Khader Adnan pushed himself to the brink of death by refusing food for 66 days in early 2012, international organizations and activists across the globe pressured Israel until the former administrative detainee was released to his village in the occupied West Bank.
Inspired by Adnan and other successful strikers, including 44-day striker Hana Shalabi, a number of mass hunger strikes ensued.
Samer Issawi, a prisoner who was re-arrested after being released in the October 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap, went over 270 days without food before Israel finally agreed to release him to his hometown of Jerusalem.
In April 2012, over 2,000 prisoners launched a mass strike that forced Israel to concede to several specific demands to improve detainees’ living conditions.

 Source: Mintpress

Take Action: 75 days of strike. Abdullah Barghouthi in health crisis. Implement the demands of Jordanian hunger strikers!


 For media enquiries, please contact Khaled Waleed, Khaled@ufree-p.net, 00447721490579

Contact UFree Network:
Norway: 004746728978
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France: 0033605504061
Switzerland: 0041779351882
Germany: 004915211641506
UFree Network is a European organisation, registered in Oslo, Norway.
Organisation number: 996599019
Registration address: Sandakerveien 99, 0484 Oslo, Norway
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STAND YOUR GROUND : The Israeli government is planning the largest single attempt at the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the 1948 Nakba

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The Begin-Prawer Plan, which is the name of the law calling for the mass relocation of the Bedouin, passed its
first reading in the Israeli Knesset on June 23. If the law is fully passed and implemented, it will mean the destruction of up to 40 Bedouin villages.

Over the ruins of these villages, the Jewish National Fund—an Israeli para-statal organization with a charitable branch in Canada—will plant forests and help to establish Jewish-only settlements as part of its four billion
dollar campaign: Blueprint Negev

The Prawer Plan aims to:
· *confiscate around 210,000 acres of land in the Naqab (Negev) desert 
· * expel over 30,000 Palestinian Bedouins 
· * demolish about 40 unrecognized villages 
· * confine the Arab Palestinian Bedouins who are 30% of the Naqab in to 1% of the land

Repeatedly, the Israeli government has refused to listen to the strongest possible opposition from the Bedouin
community and their attempt to propose alternative plans. Instead, the government has chosen forced transfer.

These Bedouin Israelis are already the poorest sector of the population, many of whom live in villages
"unrecognised" by the Israeli government and who are denied basic services such as electricity, schools and healthcare.

At the same time, Israel is planning to evict about 1,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages in the South
Hebron Hills in the West Bank to make way for a military shooting range — yet another gross violation of international law. Palestinians have lived in these villages for centuries.

Scott Weinstein of Independent Jewish Voices-Canada denounced the Prawer Plan in the strongest terms: ‘This
proposed forced transfer of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin from their ancestral homes constitutes ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. It is a grievous crime enacted against an indigenous population for the purpose of  judaizing the Negev. IJV-Canada calls on the government of Canada to denounce this criminal act in the strongest possible terms.

To pressure Israel to obey international law, we urge people throughout the world to intensify the boycott of Israel, both economic and cultural. Bruce Katz of Palestinian and Jewish Unity commented: ‘ To transfer the Bedouin by force off their ancestral lands for the purpose announced by Netanyahu more than a year ago of creating a Jewish majority in the Negev reeks of the kind of vicious racism to which Jews themselves were subjected in Europe not so long ago. It is ‘Lebensraum’ Israeli-Style. Will the Harper government which crows about supporting democracy in the world, denounce it?’

It is to be noted that ninety-one Canadian authors, including Margaret Atwood, John Ralston-Saul and Michael
Ondaatje, sent a letter to Canadian and Israeli governments calling on them “to halt immediately and permanently the eviction of about 1000 Palestinians from their homes ... in order to clear land for an Israeli army firing zone....Evicting them would violate international law and cause extreme hardship.’’
                                                                               -30

For information:  
Scott Weinstein (514)
803-4264   (English) 
Bruce Katz         (514) 582-1642   (français) 
www.ijvcanada.org
www.pajumontreal.org 
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A NonViolent Movement For Freedom in Palestine is Growing, And it Needs our Help

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Still segregation in 2013


The video of 5-year-old Khaled screaming out for his father as the Israeli military dragged the older man off is hard to watch. This is daily life for Palestinians living in the segregated, military-controlled West Bank. But a nonviolent movement for freedom is growing. And it needs our help.Pledge now to get them lawyers, cameras, training, and campaigners to take this local resistance movement global:

Pledge now
It was the hottest week of the year. All Fadel Jaber wanted was some water for his family. But Fadel lives in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli government has redirected water pipes to provide swimming pools for Jewish settlers and empty faucets for Palestinians like Fadel.

When the Israeli forces dragged Fadel off for taking water, his heartbroken five-year-old son Khaled could be heard screaming “baba, baba!” as his dad was torn away. This is daily life for Palestinians living under the brutal fist of martial law where their land and water has been stolen by settlers and they have no basic civil rights. But after years of violence and hopelessness, a movement is growing in Palestine -- a nonviolent resistance seeking the same thing that all Israelis already have: freedom, dignity and a state of their own.

For years, the media has focused on Palestinian militants, and to this day, extremists on both sides are pushing peace further out of reach. But what’s lost in all that vitriol are the loving families like Fadel’s that just want a normal life. Now, those families are stepping forward, leading peaceful marches, organizing sit-ins, and working with Israeli activists to seek justice and freedom. In response, the Israeli military has thrown them in jail, beaten up organisers, and ripped children from their beds.

Days ago, I went to the West Bank to meet with these brave, peaceful people. When I proposed that our community could come to their aid, their eyes lit up. They need funds for lawyers when friends and family are jailed on spurious charges, cameras to document abuses, training in media skills and nonviolent tactics, and campaigners to take this local protest global. These families are the real hope. Let’s each pledge to boost the peaceful movement over the extremist ones and give Khaled a future worthy of his father’s dreams:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/palestines_nonviolent_hope_slt/?bKwnHdb&v=27649

This conflict has gone on for too long and its resolution has been controlled for too long by extremists on both sides. But today, there are a few things most people agree on: first, both the Jewish people and the Palestinians should each be entitled to a state; and second, the treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories violates every sense of justice we have, from international law to national law to basic common sense. Even hard-line retired Israeli military leaders are now saying this! 

But the current Israeli government is only making things worse. While they pay lip service to peace talks and a two-state solution, they expand more settlements into the West Bank, making a two-state solution permanently impossible. And the Israeli military subjects Palestinians in the occupied territories to a whole different set of laws than the Jewish settlers who have occupied those lands, even throwing children into prison for months at a time. 

The best hope for ending this injustice and finally reaching peace is this peaceful resistance movement.Here are a few of the ways we can support them:
  • Support life-saving legal aid to help nonviolent leaders defend themselves from trumped up charges and kangaroo military courts;
  • Bring in civil disobedience experts from other movements to share strategies and tactics with communities across the West Bank;
  • Provide media equipment and trainings to leaders so they can both document abuses and get the word out to the world about this hopeful, inspiring movement;
  • Hire top-notch campaigners on the ground to provide ongoing support to this movement, scale actions across the West Bank, and engage our global community to take this peaceful resistance from local to global;
  • Livestream their peaceful actions on our site and organise a global day of action across the world.
In our history we have seen how peaceful movements have freed peoples across the world -- Gandhi’s movement in India, Dr. King's movement in the US, and Mandela’s movement in South Africa. We know that it can work, and indeed in this case it’s our only hope. Let’s give this inspiring movement the global solidarity it needs to succeed. Pledge now and let’s help change history:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/palestines_nonviolent_hope_slt/?bKwnHdb&v=27649

The Avaaz community has been unwavering in its support for freedom, justice and conflict resolution across the world. Today, one of the most virulent bastions of injustice on the planet is the Israeli government’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. But even there, hope springs. And together, we can be a part of the generation that brings peace to two peoples, betrayed so often by their governments and others, both of whom so desperately need it. Let’s show what our community can do.

With hope and determination,

Alice and the rest of the Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION 

Video / Palestinian boy upset by father's arrest garners international media attention (Haaretz)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/video-palestinian-boy-upset-by-father-s-arrest-garners-international-media-attention-1.306155 

When Montgomery comes to Nabi Saleh (Foreign Policy)
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/04/26/when_montgomery_comes_to_nabi_saleh 

The Rise of Palestinian Non-Violence: A Conversation with Mustafa Barghouti (Daily Beast)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/07/the-rise-of-palestinian-non-violent-resistance-a-conversation-with-mustafa-barghouti.html 

Israel in Peril (New York Review of Books)
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/07/israel-in-peril/ 

'Drip, Jordan': Water supply as a focal point of occupation (Harper’s Magazine)
http://harpers.org/archive/2011/12/drip-jordan/ 

Is this where the third intifada will start? (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/magazine/is-this-where-the-third-intifada-will-start.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=all&_r=0 

For West Bank protesters, legal knowledge is power (+972 Magazine)
http://972mag.com/for-west-bank-protesters-legal-knowledge-is-power/71412/ 

The West Bank’s 2012: The Year of the Israeli Settlement (TIME)
http://world.time.com/2012/12/31/the-west-banks-2012-the-year-of-the-israeli-settlement/ 
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Please call Benjamin Netanyahu to tell him to Stop targeting those that want justice and peace

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The harassments and aggressive approach of Israelis and pro Zionist groups around the world does not stop.

In reality, the opposite it happening: while Benjamin Netanyahu in office (as the Israeli PM), the Shin-Bet, Mossad Budget increased by 20% (estimated). http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/06/03/306980/bibi-raised-israel-spying-budget/

Those organizations use their money to collect information from enemy states. (we could say its legitimate..?).

But they are also using their resources to silence, harass, target, peace activists and whistle-blowers!

The Israelis are not alone: many organizations like "Anti German", "Black-Block", ADL, JDL, Hilel, ..ext are acting in similar ways! (Protecting Israel whether its wrong or right).

The Israelis are targeting Roy tov (in Bolivia), Ami Meshulam (in Canada), and myself (in Germany), they are putting our lives / our health in danger, Isolating and extremely harassing us!

But list of targets is much bigger! http://www.masada2000.org/dirt-list.html ..The hate against us is unbelievable. 

Please call Benjamin Netanyahu office and suggest them to stop those targeting at once;

Invest their time and resources creating working places and infrastructure in Israel,

Listen to European voices calling for peace and boycotting settlements products!

Benjamin Netanyahu office:

Telephone: 02-6705555

Fax: 02- 5664838

PMO.HEB@it.pmo.gov.il

Office manager: Harel Locker 

* Israel's area code is 972 *

Defence ministry:

Telephone: 03-6976663

Fax: 03-6976218

Office manager: Ehud Shani

sar@mfa.gov.il

Here is a part of a later from my lawyer Ameena Sultan:

July 3, 2007

BY FACSIMILE

Randall Ellsworth

Office of the Area Director

Legal Aid Ontario

375 University Avenue, Suite 204

Toronto, Ontario M5G 2G1

Dear Mr. Ellsworth:

HLINOVSKY, Shahar

Opinion: Civil proceedings 

Certificate number: CE54716086

Our file number: 07-3431 

The above certificate authorizes the preparation of an opinion regarding the merits of pursuing or defending civil proceedings. The proceedings the client wishes to pursue relate to harassment and intimidation he has experienced in Canada and attributes to Israeli agents, and the failure of the police to take his complaints seriously.

FACTS

Mr. Hlinovsky is a 37-year-old Israeli citizen who has been accepted as a Convention refugee in Canada. Mr. Hlinovsky currently resides in Toronto and is taking steps to obtain his permanent resident status.

Background in Israel

Mr. Hlinovsky was accepted as a refugee in Canada on the basis of his political opinion, and in particular his activism in support of the rights of Palestinians and his association with various social and political groups. 

Mr. Hlinovsky worked as a police officer in the Israeli town of Ramat Gan starting in 1993. In 1997, while in his workplace, Mr. Hlinovsky began expressing political opinions in opposition to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. He began to notice changes in how he was treated in the workplace, including a worsening of his work assignments. Ultimately, after feeling cumulative pressure in the workplace, Mr. Hlinovsky quit his job on November 1, 1999. 

Subsequently, Mr. Hlinovsky became increasingly politically active. He participated in protests, demonstrations, meetings and convoys to bring food and supplies to Palestinian towns and villages. His political activities attracted the attention of Israeli police, the country's internal security service (Shabak) and right-wing extremists. Mr. Hlinovsky was harassed by the police and security services as a result of his political activities. In 2001 and 2002, his car was vandalized and stolen, apparently by right-wing extremists who opposed his political views. When Mr. Hlinovsky filed complaints, the police failed to investigate the allegations or otherwise assist Mr. Hlinovsky.

In 2002 and 2003, when he was called to fulfill his mandatory military service, Mr. Hlinovsky declined. Around December 2002, Mr. Hlinovksy attended a protest in Tel Aviv. Four undercover police officers approached him and took him to the downtown police station. They held him there for several hours while they "investigated" him. 

In July 2003, Mr. Hlinovsky undertook a one-man march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to highlight Israeli abuses of Palestinians. Near the beginning of the march, Mr. Hlinovsky was attacked by a group of men whom he did not know. Mr. Hlinovsky filed a police complaint in Tel Aviv that same day. Approximately one week later, after Mr. Hlinovsky had arrived in Jerusalem, he received a call from the police asking him to attend in Tel Aviv. They told him it was in relation to his complaint. When Mr. Hlinovsky attended at the police station, the police showed him photographs of people, none of whom were involved in the attack. The police also photographed and fingerprinted Mr. Hlinovsky. He was investigated by the internal investigation services who told him that he had become a security concern. 

In late August or early September 2003, Mr. Hlinovsky was called in again by internal investigation services. They told him they were watching him and he should cease his political activities. They warned that if he did not do so, action could be taken against him. Nevertheless, Mr. Hlinovsky persevered in his political activism. He contintued to experience regular police harassment as a consequence. 

In May 2005, Mr. Hlinovsky's residence was unlawfully searched, without a warrant, by two police officers. Mr. Hlinovsky filed a complaint in court naming the two police officers. The officers did not appear in court. After the complaint, Mr. Hlinovsky's treatment at the hands of the police and security services worsened further. In July 2005, his residence was again broken into by internal security forces. Yet again there was no search warrant. This time security personnel tore through his apartment, damaging or throwing out his belongings. 

Following the break-ins and near constant harassment, Mr. Hlinovsky investigated the option of leaving Israel. He came to Canada on November 2, 2005.

Events in Canada

Shortly after arriving in Canada, Mr. Hlinovsky retained the services of immigration lawyer Avi Sirlin to represent him in his claim for refugee status in Canada. Mr. Hlinovsky's application was submitted together with substantial documentation of the conditions faced by pro-Palestinian activists in Israel. Mr. Hlinovsky's hearing was held before the Immigration and Refugee Board on May 31, 2006. The decision issued July 28, 2006 found Mr. Hlinovsky to be a Convention refugee. 

When Mr. Hlinovsky first came to Canada, he resided for two months in Toronto. From January 2006 to January 2007 he lived in St. Catharines, Ontario, returning to Toronto in January 2007. Mr. Hlinovsky describes fresh incidents of harassment in St. Catharines and Toronto that he attributes to Israeli agents acting in Canada. The following is a description of these incidents. 

Assault: December 2005/January 2006 incident – Queen/Lansdowne, Toronto

Mr. Hlinovsky does not recall the precise date of this incident, which occurred sometime in December 2005 or January 2006. Mr. Hlinovsky was outside close to his home when he noted he was being followed by a man he described as tall and Asian-looking. Mr. Hlinovsky asked the man why he was following him. The man then got on the same bus as Mr. Hlinovsky and Mr. Hlinovsky used a disposable camera to photograph the man. From the bus, the other man telephoned some friends. Four Asian-looking men met the first man and confronted Mr. Hlinovsky, demanding that Mr. Hlinovsky hand over his camera and give them money. Mr. Hlinovsky was reluctant to give up the camera as it documented this and other matters of concern to him. The man and his friends set upon Mr. Hlinovsky when he would not give up the camera. Mr. Hlinovsky was injured in the altercation and suffered a broken tooth. He was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph's Health Centre. Police were called and took notes of the incident but the perpetrators escaped. Mr.Hlinovsky retained the camera, however, and provided the revlevant photograph to the police.....

Yours, 

Shahar Hlinovsky
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Support the Hunger Strikers - End the Media Blackout !

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Child prisoners  
More than 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike since mid-April, protesting against the apartheid Israeli regime which holds them in its jails, many without charge or trial. Two of the prisoners, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh, have been refusing food for more than 60 days and are reportedlyclose to death.
 
There has been almost complete silence from the BBC and other news media - media which is always quick to report when a rocket is fired from besieged Gaza into Israel.
 
UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk has called for the international community to take action.
 
The arbitrary nature of administrative detention was demonstrated yesterday as MP Hassan Yousef had his order renewed for the second time. He was released from prison in October 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap but was detained again last November.
 
Help us raise awareness of administrative detention and show the Israeli government that administrative detention is unacceptable. Use our easy e-tool to email BBC news departments and contact local and national media else where demanding an end to their news blackout on the hunger strikes.
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Action Alert: Al-Awda!

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[Please read, respond and forward this post widely!]  

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition needs your support! We call on you to help implement the right of Palestinians to return to their homes and land of origin.

The outbreak of the Arab Spring and the calls for freedom in the Arab World make the work of Al-Awda even more important and necessary. There is a significantly heightened urgency to demand our right to return to our homes and lands in historic Palestine.

Some work Al-Awda accomplished in 2011 and 2012 to keep the right to return cause alive:
  • Maintained a humanitarian aid program to Palestinian refugees.
  • Launched a Palestine Children's Rights Campaign to advocate for the release of all Palestinian children from Israeli prisons and to end the systematic Israeli terrorism, detention, torture and violence the children are subjected to.
  • Held Al-Awda's Ninth Annual International Convention in Garden Grove, California with hundreds of activists, speakers and supporters. Preparations for the tenth convention are well under way.
  • Organized speaking tours, lectures and discussions with a number of renowned experts including: Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, Tariq Ali, artist Samia Halabi, authors Susan Abulhawa, Ibtisam Barakat, and Mark Gonzales, and held community discussions about the meaning of the right  to return from personal perspectives.
  • The Southern California chapters held their Fifth Annual Palestine Picnic Day drawing hundreds of community members and supporters to the event. The Houston chapter held its first Palestine picnic drawing hundreds.
  • Organized film showings including the Nakba documentaries produced by Aljazeera.
  • Organized a number of protests around the US for ending the siege of Gaza, in support of the Arab Spring, for the right to return and calling for the release of all Palestinian political prisoners.
  • Recruited over 100,000 members to Al-Awda's cause on Facebook.
  • Maintained a Palestine National Center with the goal of institutionalizing and professionalizing our work.
  • Established an Educational Resource Center which continues to grow extending its collection of over three hundred books, a documentary film archive and journals.
  • Increased local organizing for the return with the growth of existing chapters and establishment of new ones including Al-Awda Washington DC and Al-Awda Conejo in California.
  • Actively participated in boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) actions, and will continue to do so until Palestinian rights are restored in full.
  • Held Yom El-Ard commemorations around the US
  • Al-Awda Cleveland participated in the Occupy AIPAC summit and protest in Washington, DC, in the Global March to Jerusalem and co-sponsored The Political Economy of Palestine lecture at Cleveland State University;  The chapter also held a rally to mark the 64th annual commemoration of the Deir Yassin massacre.
The Challenges Ahead:

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, is committed to its founding principles. The challenges to those of us living in forced exile from our homeland, and to those who support us, are greater than they have ever been! Our task continues to be to organize and educate on the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution of all confiscated and destroyed property in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International law and United Nations Resolutions upholding such rights. We are all called upon to make greater efforts than ever before.

Here's How You Can Help Us Continue and Spread the Reach of Al-Awda's Work:

Join Al-Awda's Monthly or Annual Sustainer Program:
To become a Monthly Sustainer, go to: http://www.al-awda.org/sustainers.htm
To become an Annual Sustainer, go to: http://www.al-awda.org/sustainers2.htm 
Make a Contribution:

To contribute at any time, click on the PayPal Donate button at:http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html  Alternatively, you can address your check or money order to PRRC, PO Box 131352, Carlsbad CA 92013, USA

You can also Shop for a Donation at our website. We offer a variety of educational materials including interesting and unique books, historical maps of Palestine (in Arabic and English), educational films, flags of various sizes, and colorful greeting cards created by Palestinian children. We also offer great looking T-shirts and caps. To view our entire selection, see http://al-awda.org/shop.html

Thank you for your support. We depend on it.
Until Return,

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible. To donate, please go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the instructions. To become a member, go to http://al-awda.org/membership.html
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Don't Collaborate with Apartheid

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Open Letter to Cornell University:

The U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel is gravely concerned about Cornell University's plans to collaborate with Israel's Technion Israel Institute of Technology to build a joint campus on New York City's Roosevelt Island, including the use of $100 million in public funds.[1]

Israeli academic institutions provide the technological foundation for Israel's military occupation and colonization of Palestine, Syria's Golan Heights, and of southern Lebanon. They provide the knowledge that undergirds Israel's ongoing colonial project. Technion, like all Israeli academic institutions, is deeply complicit with Israel's military, providing it with the technological infrastructure to maintain and expand its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land.

Technion's role in ethnic cleansing is extensive. One of their most notorious projects led to the creation of "a remote-controlled 'D9' bulldozer used by the Israeli army to demolish Palestinian houses and the development of a method for detecting underground tunnels, specifically developed in order to assist the Israeli army in its continued siege on the Gaza Strip."[2]

Technion's partnership with Elbit Systems, one of Israel's largest private weapons manufacturers, has played a leading role in the construction and surveillance of the Apartheid Wall in Palestine as well as along the U.S.-Mexico border with its subsidiary Kollsman. Technion trains its engineering students to work for companies like Elbit dealing "directly in the development of complex weapons in the process of researching their academic theses."[3] As a reward, Elbit has been funding research grants in upwards of half a million dollars to Technion's students conducting research.[4]

Technion's deep relationship with the Israeli military also includes work with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, one of Israel's largest government-sponsored weapons manufacturers famous for its "advanced hybrid armor protection system" used in Israel's Merkava tanks.[5] Technion developed an "MBA program tailored specifically for Rafael managers" in order to solidify its relationship between academia and Israel's military-industrial complex.[6]

Like its peer institutions in Israel, Technion rewards its students who perform their compulsory military service. Technion, however, also grants Israeli army reservists who participated in the Israeli massacre of Gaza in 2008-2009 "academic benefits in addition to the usual benefits for reservists."[7] This is in addition to a number of benefits that Technion and other Israeli academic institutions grant to those who serve in the Israeli army. Thus, not only does Technion participate in the development of weapons used to massacre and oppress Palestinians, it also rewards those students most actively involved inside and outside the classroom. Moreover, while rewarding Jewish students who serve in the Israeli army, Technion participates in the Atidim program while actively discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel.[8]

We call on our colleagues--students and faculty alike--at Cornell University to join our peers at McGill and Concordia Universities in Canada to refuse complicity in Israel's military-industrial complex.[9] Cornell's project means the active participation in an apartheid regime that oppresses Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese people through its military apparatus, bolstered by its academic institutions. We call on our colleagues to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions until Israel meets its obligations to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by: 1) ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; 2) recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3) respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.[10]

[1] Max Bluemnthal, "New York to Host Israel's Top Drone Lab." Al Akhbar. (24 December 2011). http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/new-york-host-israels-top-drone-lab.

2 Uri Yacobi Keller, The Economy of the Occupation: A Socioeconomic Bulletin. (Jerusalem: Alternative Information Center, 2009), 9. http://usacbi.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/economy_of_the_occupation_23-24.pdf.

3Ibid., 10

4 Ibid., 10-11

5 "Structures of Oppression: Why McGill and Concordia Universities Must Sever their Links with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology," 4. http://www.tadamon.ca/wp-content/uploads/Technion-English.pdf

6 Ibid., 3-4

7 Keller, 12-13

8 Keller, 40.

9 "McGill and Concordia Must Boycott Technion." http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/mcgill-concordia-technion-7102#.Tvrv9COomRw.

10 http://www.usacbi.org/about/.

US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel www.usacbi.org + usacbi@usacbi.org + Facebook + Twitter @usacbi

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!
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Use the media to highlight Palestine prisoner issue

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(While this call to action from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is intended for British activists, its suggestions can easily be modified for use in the United States and elsewhere . A number of online services, like PublishaLetter.com, make it particularly easy to send comments to American media. - Joe)

Palestinian prisoners: using the media

While the media is focused on the return of Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, the issue of Palestinian prisoners, often held for decades and without charge in Israeli jails, is being sidelined.

This is a good opportunity to write a letter for publication to a national newspaper on the subject, as well as your local paper if it's covered the exchange, as a way of giving the Palestinians a voice.

Giving your views
You could start by saying you've read with interest the paper's coverage of the prisoner exchange and the emphasis on Shalit's homecoming. You could then go on to raise one, or more, of the following points:

Palestinians in Israeli jails began an open-ended hunger strike in September in protest at a series of collective and punitive measures that have been taken against them by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS). These measures worsened after a speech by Israeli PM Netanyahu in June 2011 in which he said Palestinian prisoners would be subjected to collective punishment as long as Gilad Shalit remained in prison. The hunger strike ended today (18 October) after Israel agreed to end solitary confinement.

Your letter could express the hope that other measures imposed as part of the collective punishment (an illegal form of punishment) will now be lifted and the worsening conditions for Palestinian prisoners will improve. These new measures include the shackling of hands and legs during family visits, and the confiscation of the prisoners' salt supplies (an essential nutrient).

Welcoming the return of Prisoners
Your letter could welcome the release of the Palestinian prisoners and Shalit, but express concern that none of those being released from Israel's prisons in the first exchange on 18 October are children. You could then go on to say that there are currently 164 Palestinian children aged between 12 and 17 in Israeli detention facilities, including 35 who are aged 12-15. Seventy six of these children have been sentenced while 88 are being held in pre-trial detention. Every year, approximately 700 Palestinian children (12-17yrs) from the West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military courts after being arrested and interrogated by Israeli army, police or security agents. Their ill-treatment while in detention has been well-documented. The majority are charged with throwing stones.

Your letter could express the hope that the 164 children currently being detained will be among those Palestinian prisoners due to be released in the second part of the exchange in December. For more information and facts on child prisoners in Israeli jails >>

Your letter could welcome the release of the prisoners and then raise the point that approximately 6,000 Palestinians continue to be held in Israeli jails. Of these, at least 750 are detained without charge or trial, under what Israel terms 'administrative detention'. For details of the conditions, including torture, endured by these prisoners, which can be included in the letter>>

The Geneva Convention
The Geneva Conventions, the International Convention for Political and Civil Rights and the Convention against Torture and Cruel and Inhuman Treatment, all prohibit the use of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, without exception. Israel has consistently violated international laws in this regard. All details are given in the link provided. Your letter can express the hope that the international community will use the opportunity of this prisoner exchange to examine the inhumane conditions Palestinians are kept in in Israel's jails, and to look at the cases of those who are detained without charge.

Raise the point that while Shalit is going home, many of the released Palestinian prisoners are not being allowed to do so. Some of those from the West Bank are being sent to Gaza or to other countries including Turkey, Syria and Qatar, as report by the BBC, as they are deemed to be a 'security risk' by Israel. The likelihood is that they will never be allowed back to the West Bank, their homes and families in another example of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land.

Email addresses
Please state that your letter is for publication, and give your contact details, including a contact telephone number and full postal address (these will not be published).

The Guardian: letters@guardian.co.uk
The Independent: letters@independent.co.uk
Daily Telegraph: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Sunday Telegraph: stletters@telegraph.co.uk
The Times: letters@thetimes.co.uk
Sunday Times: letters@sunday-times.co.uk
The Mirror: mirrornews@mgn.co.uk
Daily Mail: letters@dailymail.co.uk
Daily Express: express.letters@express.co.uk
London Evening Standard: letters@standard.co.uk

This link gives lots of good information on how to write to newspapers, as well as additional email addresses for magazines such as The Economist and New Statesman.

As well as writing to the papers, you could consider calling in to radio talk shows and using the points above to contribute to the debate.

Telephone numbers and email addresses for radio stations can be found on the Muslim Directory:

Special focus: the BBC
Please also write to the BBC to ask why its coverage has failed to give the same focus to returning Palestinian prisoners as it has to Shalit. Where are the human stories of mothers, wives and childrens reunited with loved ones, and the coverage of what the Palestinians, many of whom have been incarcerated for decades, have endured physically and phsycologically? What about interviews with those families who will not see their loved ones because they are being immediately deported from their homeland? You could also rewrite the points above and ask if the BBC will be covering any of these issues.

To make complaints and comments about BBC coverage generally, please do so via the form on the BBC website >>

When given the choice of whether or not you'd like a reply, please select 'yes' from the drop-down menu.

To contact BBC Radio 4's Today programme directly, email Today.Complaints@bbc.co.uk


The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!
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