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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2004, pages 60-64 Waging Peace Fourth Annual PSM Divestment ConferenceOpening Plenary Session
THE STUDENT-LED Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM) to divest from Israel in support of Palestinian rights convened its fourth annual conference at Duke University in North Carolina on Oct. 15. Zionist efforts, similar to tactics used against the Rutgers conference last year, failed to shut it down. The Duke administration (unlike its Rutgers’ counterpart), though falling short of declaring an intention to divest, stood by the principle of free speech, and many members even attended sessions and perused vendor’s tables. Security was tight, with participants walking through metal detectors and wearing wrist bands, but only a few hecklers tried to disrupt the event. A cursory number of protestors outside failed to make much of an impression. Not needed to defuse any confrontations, several Duke security personnel mentioned that they had learned much from the conference, or requested literature on the issue of Palestine. The opening plenary, entitled “the Edward Said Memorial Panel,” featured Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu and Rev. Mark Davidson of the Presbyterian Church, whose national board recently voted to selectively divest from Israel. Unfortunately, famed South African poet and anti-apartheid activist Dennis Brutus was delayed in the UK and unable to attend. Buttu focused her talk on the apartheid wall that Israel is building on occupied Palestinian land. Using projected maps and photos to illustrate her points, she stressed the importance of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, especially its recommendation that the international community should not recognize the wall as valid or render aid toward its completion—and, moreover, should see that all impediments to Palestinians as a result of the wall are brought to an end. Buttu described the decision and recommendations as similar to an ICJ ruling regarding Namibia and South Africa. The difference, she pointed out, is that Namibia is now free. After delineating how far the wall strays from the Green Line—both in its actualized and visualized forms—Bhutto pointed out that not a single nation had stepped forward to follow the ICJ recommendations. “That’s where you come in,“ she told the audience of about 400. “ The task was great and the opposition formidable, she added, but the numbers of those working toward divestment are growing exponentially. Even though the movement was only in its fourth year, Buttu emphasized, the Presbyterian Church of the United States (PCUSA) already had endorsed it.
As if to prove her point, the next speaker was Rev. Davidson. In June, he said, the church board had passed by a large margin a resolution to condemn Israel’s wall, condemn Christian Zionism, direct the Middle East relations committee to study the feasibility of sponsorship and development, and to take action by 2005. The most controversial resolution was the authorization to divest. Davidson explained, however, that the divestment was a “phased selective divestment” which would follow various criteria toward implementation—including assessing the impact of corporate involvement, which corporations should be chosen, attempts at dialogue with those corporations, shareholder resolutions, then, if necessary, divestment. Since the decision was made, Davidson said, American Zionists have been accusing PCUSA of participating in an “immoral denigration of Israel” and “supporting terrorism,” and 14 members of the (U.S.) House of Representatives accused the church of “jeopardizing citizens of the ‘only democracy in the Middle East.’” Davidson responded, however, that divestment was an ethical form of social resistance, and that the $8 billion investment portfolio of the Presbyterian Church could have an impact. He further elucidated that divestment had been chosen as a tactic now because there was a growing sense of helplessness, a heightened awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people, and a growing realization that after years of moral appeals, it was time for action. —Sara Powell Segregation, Apartheid and Zionism
Segregation and apartheid, as well as their manifestation in the political movement of Zionism, are crimes against humanity, asserted long-time activist and political organizer Bob Brown of Pan-African Roots at another panel. While he was not an expert on Zionism, Brown acknowledged, Brown argued that he did know segregation and apartheid, describing them as slavery. Author of a recent book on the recognized illegality of slavery and the slave trade, Brown pointed out that economics played an important role in such systems—hence the importance of divestment. With the prevalence of mechanization, he said, colonists no longer were so concerned with exploiting labor, but instead with gaining control of the land and its resources. One must also pay attention to the banks profiting from segregation, apartheid and Zionism, he added. Macheo Shabaka, organizer for the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, argued that, just as anti-Semitism was wrong, Zionism as a response was wrong. Al-Nakba, the Sabra and Shatila massacres, and the Israeli troops at Al-Aqsa Mosque all were crimes against humanity, he reiterated. Agreeing that divestment was a start, Shabaka urged an education campaign and starting at the bottom with a grass roots movement. In response to a hostile questioner, Brown quoted Martin Luther King, who said “There comes a point when silence becomes a betrayal of that which you believe.” He then made the salient point of his address: “When you deny me my culture, that’s genocide.” —Sara Powell Role of the MediaOne well-attended panel at the divestment conference was entitled “Media: Bias, Strategy, and Promoting Divestment.” Rima Mutreja of Palestine Media Watch described various ways in which that organization responded to media bias. She stressed, however, that response was not enough, that those concerned with justice must be pro-active. In addition to letters to the editor—Mutreja advocated writing letters praising good articles as well as ones pointing out faults—activists also should write their own op-ed pieces and let the media know about events that would be worthy of coverage. Her talk included tips on being effective, including keeping letters short, focusing only on one or two points, and backing up assertions with facts. Alison Weir, founder of If Americans Knew, was to have been the other panelist, but took advantage of an opportunity to travel to the West Bank for the olive harvest. Her presentation on empirical studies of media representation of Palestinian and Israeli deaths during the Al-Aqsa intifada was delivered by this reporter. The presentation included statistical studies of San Jose’s The Mercury-News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and National Public Radio. The methodology can be used by activists to analyze their own local news outlets, and possibly lead to change within those bodies. Discussion afterward concentrated on specific strategies the PSM could use to get their divestment message out to the public through the media. —Sara Powell Struggle for Palestine
On the second day of the Palistianian Solidarity Movement (PSM) conference speakers at an early morning panel entitled “The Struggle for Palestine: History and Future” provided an historical background of the conflict and outlined the history of dissent in Israel, among other topics. Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Yale University professor and author of the recently published Sharing the Land of Canaan (available from the AET book club), gave a history lesson of the Palestine-Israel conflict, beginning with an examination of language used at the time. The term “Zionist colonization,” for example, was “regularly used by the British in the 19th century” in reference to Palestine, he explained. Referring to Zionism as a “disease,” Qumsiyeh said Palestine advocates should discuss the symptoms of disease, namely colonization. The media, he added, report only on “resistance to colonization,” not on the violence of “repression and ethnic cleansing.” Calling for a change in terminology, Qumisyeh, co-founder of Al-Awda (the Palestine Right of Return Coalition), concluded, “We should stop talking about ending the occupation…and [instead] talk about ending apartheid and colonization.” Duke University professor of cultural anthropology Rebecca Stein outlined the history of protest within Jewish Israeli society over the last two decades. Working on the premise that “there is no Jewish uniformity on the issue of Palestine,” Stein expressed concern about the charge of anti-Semitism regarding the PSM conference by some pro-Israel American Jewish groups. “Detractors and critics of the conference have stripped any history [of the conflict] from their criticism,” she maintained. Lobbing terms like anti-Semitism at gatherings such as the conference, according to Stein, “function[s] to obscure massive power inequities in the region.” Regarding dissent in Israel, Stein explained that the largest protest in Israel took place in 1982, in the aftermath of the country’s invasion of Lebanon, which resulted in the notorious massacres of Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. To protest the massacre and call for then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon’s resignation, Stein said, 400,000 Israelis marched in Tel Aviv. After the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising, she continued, Israeli groups such as Women in Black rallied and demanded that Israel recognize and deal with the PLO. That stands in stark contrast to the current state of dissent in Israel, she noted, in which the left “is silent in condemning Israel’s repression in the [second] intifada.” Nasser Abu Farha, a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of Wisconsin and author of Alternative Palestinian Agenda, rejected a two-state solution and called for a future federation of Israel and Palestine. He observed that Palestinians would not abandon their right to return to their historic homes inside Israel. —Laila Al-Arian Palestinians Face Oppression and Discrimination
Three speakers discussed “What Palestinians Are Up Against: Oppression and Discrimination” during the final day of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM) conference at Duke. Brian Avery, who volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Jenin, Palestine, where he was shot in the face by Israeli soldiers, said candidly, “There is a lot of work to be done in this movement.” He criticized the media’s “pro-Israel bent,” as well as the positions taken by President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry toward the conflict. “We have two candidates on auction to the Israeli lobby in this election,” Avery opined. However, he said, “there are still a lot of things to be hopeful about.” The media’s favoritism toward Israel, he noted, “doesn’t necessarily translate to a pro-Israel bias in the public.” Explaining why he decided to join the ISM, Avery said, “I wanted to share in the lives of Palestinians, show them that people care…and are willing to protest the Israeli occupation, not just make a bleak documentary on human rights.” The only way the situation will change for Palestinians, he suggested, is “by people taking direct action and coming back and reporting what they saw,” because “people will respond to hearing first-hand accounts.” Avery pointed to himself as an example, explaining that the subject of Palestine invariably comes up when people ask him about the visible injuries on his face. Rania Masri, a well-known writer, filmmaker and human rights advocate, said there is little difference between the presidential candidates when it comes to Palestine and Israel. Nevertheless, she continued, “I doubt Kerry would give a blank check to Sharon the way Bush would in the next four years.” Change in U.S. foreign policy will happen “when we have a shift in the U.S. public,” Masri suggested. She recounted her recent trip to Ireland, where she said she saw more Palestinian than Irish flags in occupied West Belfast. Contrasting that scene to occupied Palestine, Masri said that there the situation is such that “it is difficult to even wear Palestinian colors.” Rauda Morcos, a Palestinian poet and activist living in Israel and the founder of Aswat, a Palestinian lesbian women’s group, tied the struggles of national liberation and women’s liberation together. Morcos reminded the audience that while “women were everywhere” in the first intifada, they are less visible today. “Their voices are missing, not only because of the oppression of the occupation,” she noted, criticizing “Palestinian patriarchal society.” During the question-and-answer session, Morcos made clear that while Palestinian gays and lesbians cannot live openly in Palestinian society, they also face oppression in Israel. As the conference closed, several resolutions were adopted: among them were proposals to create a permanent divestment resources website, to boycott all Caterpillar products, and to endorse the Trees Not Walls Campaign. For more information the conference website is located at www.palestineconference.com or PSM can be reached at www.divestfromisrael.org. To find out more about conference performers Mark Gonzalez’ website is www.getunderground.com, Son of Nun’s is www.sonofnun.net, and Life Convicts’ is www.life-convicts.net. —Laila Al-Arian ICJ Ruling, Implications AssessedThe International Court of Justice’s July 9 ruling that Israel’s apartheid wall violates international law was the topic of a panel discussion at American Bar Association headquarters in Washington, DC. Co-hosted by the ABA and the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area, the Sept. 23 panel featured Ambassador Philip C. Wilcox, Jr., president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, and Prof. Douglass Cassel, director of the Center for International Human Rights at the Northwestern School of Law in Chicago. In introductory remarks, Edison Dick, the ABA’s U.N. coordinator, reviewed the highlights of the ICJ decision. Welcoming panelists and guests alike, John P. Salzberg, co-chair of the UNA-NCA’s Human Rights Task Force, observed that “compliance with international law—especially international human rights law—is essential to Israeli-Palestinian peace.” Ambassador Wilcox concurred, calling Washington’s abandonment of international law in favor of a unilateral approach a “huge mistake”—one that endangers Israel’s future as a democracy, defeats justice for Palestinians, discredits the U.S. role as an “honest broker,” and deepens Arab anger at a time when this country needs friends and allies. Wilcox proceeded to cite the key points of the ICJ ruling: that the West Bank is occupied territory; that Israel’s construction of the wall on occupied territory (as opposed to its own territory) violates international law, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention; and that Israel must dismantle that part of the wall and pay reparations to Palestinians whose land was confiscated for its construction. Panelist Cassel offered two criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the ICJ ruling: did the court make a constructive contribution to the peace process? And did the ruling enhance the credibility of the court, and of international law, as institutions? In Cassel’s opinion, the court could have done better on both counts and, as a result, “handed opponents several gifts which made it easier for them to reject” the ruling. Cassel was particularly critical of the court’s failure to “pay due attention to the question of [Israel’s] military justification for the wall” and of the security defense. The ICJ “could have and should have obtained [that] evidence,” he argued. Had it done so, Cassel said, the court could have said convincingly that “we have listened to the Israelis’ case.” Another controversial aspect of the ICJ decision, according to Cassel, was its ruling that Israel cannot invoke Article 51 of the United Nations Charter regarding member states’ “inherent right of individual or collective self-defense” in the event of “an armed attack.” The court interpreted that right as applying only to attacks by other states, as opposed to threats posed by “domestic” enemies. Regarding the question of enforcement, Ambassador Wilcox expressed the hope that the ICJ ruling would “oblige member states, especially the U.S., to return to much more active diplomacy” in the Middle East, and “use international law as an element to guide negotiations.” —Janet McMahon Ames Interfaith Council at FACES
The Ames Interfaith Council once again joined in the festivities at the annual city-sponsored fair, FACES—Families of Ames Celebrating Ethnicities—held Oct. 2, 2004. Under a cloudless Iowa sky on a perfect fall day, council chairperson Sana Akili, who represents Darul Arqum Masjid and Islamic Center of Ames, said she views FACES, which never fails to draw hundreds of people to the public spaces adjacent to City Hall, as a valuable opportunity to promote awareness of the Ames Interfaith Council and its role in the community. “We have people from the Christian, Muslim, and Hindu faiths active on the Council now,” noted Akili, “and we are hoping our Jewish friends will return to the council soon.” The council is the area’s only organization devoted exclusively to improving interfaith relations and encouraging a more vital and inclusive dialogue among members of the cosmopolitan university city’s various faith communities. The Ames Jewish Congregation suspended its membership in the council late in 2003 in protest of the council’s unanimous vote to co-sponsor, along with the Ames Public Library and the Iowa State University (ISU) Arab Student Association, a 13-week film and discussion series titled “Palestine Unabridged: Films about Life within the Conflict.” “I invited the Ames Jewish Congregation,” said Akili, who is a lecturer in marketing at ISU’s College of Business. “The council looked at the planning for FACES as another opportunity to reach out to our Jewish friends, and we voted unanimously to contact them and invite them back to the council’s table and to participate with us in FACES, but they didn’t respond.” Dozens of fairgoers, many arrayed in colorful national costume and ethnic dress, stopped by the Ames Interfaith Council table during the day to visit and engage in friendly and wide-ranging discussions about a variety of topics, including interfaith dialogue, international politics, and the occupations of Palestine and Iraq—all matters that are of great interest to many citizens regardless of race, religion, or country of origin. Outdoor events and entertainment included a Caribbean salsa band with steel drums, the Ames Humanitarian Award, Indian classical dance and music, Asian martial arts, square dancing, and a Malaysian lion dance. Indoor events included a display of wedding fashions from around the world, a Thai blessing dance, Latin American dance, Vietnamese traditional and romantic dance, Mexican dance, and the Virsky Ukranian National Dance Company. A special outdoor performance featured Palestinian singer Dana Awwad, who recently arrived in Ames from Ramallah, Palestine. The ISU graduate student sang a traditional Palestinian song titled “Yumma” and an Egyptian song titled “El Bahr Beyethak Leeh.” Paul Nelson, Lord of Life Lutheran Church representative to the council who teaches comparative religion classes at Des Moines Area Community College, estimated the crowd at several hundred. Russell Melby, Bethesda Lutheran Church representative to the council and Iowa regional director for Church World Service/CROP, said he consistently finds interfaith gatherings to be among the most enjoyable events in his schedule. The council’s annual Thanksgiving Eve Interfaith Service will be hosted by St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church this year. —Michael Gillespie Wheels of Justice Bus Tour Rolls into Iowa
The Wheels of Justice Tour Bus rolled into Iowa on the weekend of Sept. 25 and 26. The bus and its ever-changing roster of activist-speakers brings news of the occupations of Palestine and Iraq to audiences at middle and high schools, colleges, universities, churches and community centers around the U.S. As part of the Wheels of Justice fall tour of the Midwest, professor, author and Palestinian-American activist Mazin Qumsiyeh and Irish peace activist Michael Birmingham spoke to an enthusiastically receptive audience of about 50 at First Unitarian Church in Des Moines on Saturday evening. “I believe human rights must be at the center of any peace process if we are planning to have a durable peace in Palestine,” said Qumsiyeh. “When you remove barriers between people and co-exist with equality and justice, then you have peace,” he explained. “If you don’t do that, you continue the process of ethnic cleansing and the violence that the Palestinian people have been subjected to so far for 56 years, and the prospects for peace become dimmer and dimmer.” Qumsiyeh treated his audience to an overview of life under Israeli occupation and the major issues in the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli government’s campaign of ethnic cleansing in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories—complete with maps detailing the progress of the Sharon regime’s apartheid wall through Palestinian cities, towns, villages and farms, and its impact on Palestinian society. Qumsiyeh’s book, Sharing the Land of Cannan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle, published by Pluto Press earlier in 2004, is available from the AET Book Club. Michael Birmingham, who returned from Iraq in May after more than a year there with Voices in the Wilderness, spoke about his experiences in Baghdad. “Three things need to happen,” the Irish activist stated. “U.S. troops need to leave Iraq. U.S. corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel and others need to stop profiteering off the poverty of the Iraqi people. And the U.S. government needs to give up control over the lives of the Iraqi people, over their future.” Birmingham pointed out that U.S. involvement in Iraq didn’t begin with the war that removed Saddam Hussain from power. Outlining the long history of Western governments’ intervention in Iraq, U.S. military support for Hussain during and after the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, and the years of economic sanctions that punished Iraqi civilians for the crimes of Hussain after the first Gulf War, Birmingham skillfully argued that the long-suffering Iraqi people deserve an opportunity to govern themselves without Western intervention in their affairs. Concluding, he illustrated the violence and heartbreak of the U.S. occupation of Iraq by telling the story of an Iraqi couple, physicians, who struggled to build careers and have a family in Iraq. When the couple returned to Baghdad to have their first child, the husband was killed after a misunderstanding at a U.S. traffic checkpoint when the car in which he was a passenger was fired on by U.S. troops. Four of the five Iraqis in the car were killed because the driver, who did not speak or understand English, mistakenly drove away from the U.S. checkpoint thinking the U.S. soldier, who did not speak or understand Arabic and who tapped on the hood of the car, was sending him on his way. Wheels of Justice, now on its third bus, has traveled to hundreds of cities and towns across the U.S. and logged many thousands of miles carrying information about the effects of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The Wheels of Justice Bus Tour is endorsed by International Solidarity Movement, Middle East Children’s Alliance, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Montana Peace Seekers, Traprock Peace Center, Voices in the Wilderness, Pacific Life Research Center, Veterans for Peace, If Americans Knew, Jews Against the Occupation, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Colorado Communities for Social Justice, Iowans for a Free Palestine, and other peace and social justice organizations. For information about the Wheels of Justice Bus Tour, or to invite the bus to visit your community, visit <http://www.justicewheels.org/>. —Michael Gillespie |
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