help support a peace activist denied entry to Israel because he intended on going to the West Bank.
Action Alert!
Paul Larudee, piano tuner and nonviolent activist, has been denied entry to Palestine by the Israeli authorities and is being held in detention at Ben Gurion Airport. Please take a few minutes to take action to free him!
Paul Larudee, a piano tuner from El Cerrito, California, is the lastest of over 13,000 people to be denied entry to Israel/Palestine in recent years. Like many others, Paul was not trying to visit Israel, but territories ostensibly controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Yet the Palestinians have no say in deciding whether he is allowed to visit their country, where he was scheduled to tune more than 20 pianos.
People concerned about the detention and exclusion of Paul Larudee by the Israeli authorities can take the following actions:
1. Write op-eds and letters to the editor in your local newspapers or any other media you have access to based on the Talking Points below.
TALKING POINTS:
1. WE ARE NOT ONLY DEMANDING PAUL BE ADMITTED; WE DEMAND THAT THE UNITED STATES AND ISRAEL BREAK THE SIEGE ON THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE Israel's policy of denying entry to people who support Palestinian nonviolent protest and report on the situation to the world is one aspect of a campaign to isolate the Palestinian people from the world. This campaign, which began long before the election of Hamas affiliated candidates to lead the Palestinian legislature, includes closing the only passage for goods into the Gaza Strip (it has been closed more than 50% of the time since the beginning of this year), building the Segregation Wall, frequent closures on the West Bank, and malicious prosecutions of Israeli activists who participate in Palestinian-led demonstrations (recently a judge ruled that an almost two-year prosecution of two Israeli anti-Wall activists was completely devoid of merit). Recent U.S. moves to strangle the Palestinian people economically to punish them for exercising their democratic rights have created what the UN Food Program and the World Health Organization call a humanitarian disaster. Because the official Israeli view receives much more widespread coverage in the U.S. media than does the impact of these policies on the lives of Palestinians, it is important that people like Paul be able to go and report the situation accurately, and show the Palestinian people that the world has not completely abandoned them.
2. PREVENTING PEOPLE WHO PLAN TO SUPPORT PALESTINIAN NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY IS INTENDED TO DEPRIVE THEM OF THEIR RIGHT TO RESIST OCCUPATION, WHICH IS ENSHRINED IN INTERNATIONAL LAW. There is no evidence to support the claim that Paul specifically or ISM in general participate in "violent" demonstrations. Rather, ISM has clearly and repeatedly stressed its commitment to nonviolence. ISM requires nonviolent direct action training of all participants, and Paul has participated in a number of these trainings. The only violence at the demonstration at which Paul was shot in 2002 came from the Army.
Paul's desire to share his love of music and his skill as a piano tuner with people in the Occupied Territories demonstrates that his intent is to increase harmony in the area, not to support any form of violence.
3. OVER 15,000 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DENIED ENTRY BY ISRAEL IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS. SOME EXAMPLES:
1. Kate Maynard, UK Human Rights Lawyer (May 2006)
2. Raeed Tayeh, Palestinian American former public affairs director for the Muslim American Society (May 2006)
3. Enayeh Adel Samara, US citizen, married to a Palestinian, owned business in Ramallah, two kids born in Jerusalem (May 2006)
4. Meri Calvelli, representative of the Italian development NGO Centro Regionale d'Intervento per la Cooperazione (CRIC) (November 2005)
5. Black Umfolosi, renowned Zimbabwe music group (July 2003)
6. Curtis Unger, Michael Goode, Kathleen Kern, US/Canadian Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers (2002)
7. Ahmed Bahaddou, Belgian Reuters cameraman (August 2002)
8. Eva Rinsten, Swedish lawyer coming to work with PCHR (June 2002)
9. Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation of 19 people, including 9 Muslim Americans and quite a few Jewish Americans ((January 2001)
10. Cat Stevens, Pop Star (July 2000)
MANY OF THESE PEOPLE, LIKE PAUL, WERE NOT TRYING TO GO TO ISRAEL BUT TO SUPPOSEDLY PALESTINIAN CONTROLLED AREAS. The Palestinian people have the right to choose who can visit them. If Israel wants to be taken seriously about any plans to withdraw from the Occupied Territories, it cannot maintain control over Palestinian borders.
4. THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT CLAIMS IT IS EXCLUDING PAUL IN PART BECAUSE HE SLEPT IN HOMES OF FAMILIES OF PEOPLE WHO HAD CARRIED OUT ATTACKS AGAINST ISRAEL.
ISM's policy has been to provide accompaniment for families who are threatened with collective punishment by the Israeli forces because of acts committed by family members. This does not convey any support for attacks against civilians. Rather, it conveys support for international law, which considers collective punishment a war crime. In February 2005 Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz announced an end to the policy of punitive home demolitions, upon recommendation of a military panel. The Israeli human rights group Btselem had long campaigned for an end to the policy, which left at least 4240 people homeless.
5. IT IS NOT ONLY INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS WHO ARE BARRED FROM PALESTINE. MORE IMPORTANTLY, MILLIONS OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES LIVING ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE PREVENTED FROM RETURNING TO THEIR HOMELAND.
The ongoing refusal of Israel to implement UN General Assembly Resolution 194, passed in December 1948, requiring that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date is one of the most serious obstacles to peace in the region.
Moreover, 1552 Palestinians were deported from their homeland by Israel between 1967 and 1992, when such deportations stopped. However, even after 1992 Palestinians have been deported to Gaza from their homes in the West Bank.
Once again, the right of the Palestinian people to control their borders, and to travel freely to, from and within their land, is an essential condition for peace.
2. Call your local Israeli Consulate (San Francisco Phone 415-844-7000, Fax 415-844-7555) to protest the exclusion of Paul and hundreds of other nonviolent activists, human rights lawyers and Palestinians wishing to visit their families.
3. Contribute to the NorCal ISM Legal Fund, which is paying for Paul's appeal of his denial of entry. We need to raise at least $1,400 for his costs. Anything we raise over what is needed for Paul's defense will go toward the defense of Palestinians or international activists arrested in nonviolent protest or other ISM volunteers denied entry. To find out how to contribute, see www.norcalism.org/contribution.htm.
{ 24 } Comments
hello!
i really like your blog! its very interesting to read some trouth!
i hope you will find some time to see my life inside ramallah!
http://almanarasquare.blogspot.com/
Asad,
I'm very please to know that you are blogging from inside Ramallah, and will be more happy to read your blog and follow it.
It will be very interesting to read your comments here too.
I'll contact you by email soon. All the best!
1. WE ARE NOT ONLY DEMANDING PAUL BE ADMITTED; WE DEMAND THAT THE UNITED STATES AND ISRAEL BREAK THE SIEGE ON THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
Excuse me? You're saying Israel does not have the right to determine who enters the country and who doesn't? Oh, that's a winner. Why not just demand that Israel surrender it's status as a sovereign nation while you're at it?
Craig,
Read carefully again…
These activist are not there to enter "Israel", but to "Palestine". Yes Israel has the right to deny anyone to enter its state, but they have no right to deny anyone to enter Palestine. Oh… I forgot, Palestine is occupied, so is the borders of Palestine. Give the damn Palestinians their land and then deny access to anyone going through Israel to Palestine!!!
Craig,
You know very well that Israel controls the borders of the Occupied Territories and that they turn away people who are there to help simply because they are there to help the Palestinians.
You also know very well that tuning pianos is about as benign a cause as one can have. If Mr. Larudee wasn't stopped, the Palestinians may have done the unthinkable and… are you ready for this? … made music.
To prove what absolute brutes these melody-makers are, I have supplied links to sites outlining their subversive activities:
http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=1710&ed=114
http://ncm.birzeit.edu/
http://www.barenboim-said.org/
http://www.yabous.org/
And they do theatre, too! Please, save us from this madness:
http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=1399&ed=105
http://www.pnt-pal.org/index.php
http://www.ashtar-theatre.org/
To add insult to injury, the Palestinians are also teaching, amongst Engineering, Medicine, and Agriculture… you guessed it, Music… and, and Art http://www.najah.edu/
They teach it in a, what do you call that place, oh, yeah, a university. Wow. I think we are quite justified for having such fear of this backwards society and the ingrates that it invites to tune its pianos.
You know very well that Israel controls the borders of the Occupied Territories and that they turn away people who are there to help simply because they are there to help the Palestinians.
I know very well that Israel has the right to secure it's own borders in any way it sees fit, the same as any other country. If (and when) there is a soverieng state of Palestine, they will also have the right to control their own borders. Maybe you should be agitating to get that done, instead of trying to take Israel's sovereignity away from it?
As soon as Israel allows the Palestians to have any semblance of sovereignty, as they promised at the table at Oslo and subsequently denied, then we'll talk. Right now, the Israelis control everything, from the borders down to every shekel of tax revenues made on Palestinan trade. They control the drinking water, the air, the land. A Palestinian can't even travel between Ramallah and Birzeit, both in the West Bank, without being stopped by the IDF. With settlements deep in the West Bank and in the Jordan valley, Israel has seen to it that there will never be a sovereign Palestinian state. The "facts on the ground" slice it all up into little pieces, with the IDF buzzing around in their jeeps and imposing martial law on the natives.
Israel is completely set on the course of denying the Palestinians their sovereign state. They (and you, by affiliation) are a playground bully, giving the Palestinians black eyes and then telling them to stop hitting themselves.
Go fly a kite.
You also know very well that if the roles were reversed, you would still be rooting for the Israelis.
To clarify:
In case there is any cofusion, the last comments were meant for Craig, and any other blind Zionist proponents out there.
That's "confusion", of which there seems to be much when it comes to supporting the oppressive regimes of this wonderful planet.
Raymond,
Curiosity got me, as usual, and I started surfing about Paul Larudee. It seems he is a member of ISM, the International Solidarity Movement. According to everything I could find this organization as a whole is being denied access to Israel and they have had their passports stamped in order to prevent their reentry. I'm a little befuddled on this case. One thing I found on all the sites against Paul is that he slept in the bed of a suicide bomber and boasted about it. OK…I thought, what is the exact statement he made and what was the context, I found the statement http://www.gush-shalom.org/diary/diary37.html. It seems this suicide bomber (as all suicide bombers do) has a story and Paul was sleeping in his bed AFTER the suicide bomber's death because the family's home was going to be demolished. I absolutely do NOT condone suicide bombing but that's like saying I don't condone insanity. But he also made this statement,
"We believe in the application of international law. Although we are totally dedicated to nonviolence, we recognize not everyone in the Palestinian community is dedicated to nonviolence and under international law we recognize that violence is necessary and it is permissible for oppressed and occupied people to use armed resistance and we recognize their right to do so."
You know my sentiments, but somehow this Larudee fellow just doesn't sit well with me in some of the other stuff I read CLAIMING the ISM supports terrorism. Armed resistance is ABSOLUTELY understandable, but according to some info, and some of the contacts this organization has it is a little iffy in my mind. On the other hand, their site, http://www.palsolidarity.org/ is clearly one I like and would agree with.
I do NOT want to be the victim of misinformation against Paul, but I DO have some questions. Apparently he has a court hearing today, with the time difference it's probably already occured. Please understand my concern and questions.
Raymond, I give up. HAMAS is waging war against Israel, and you expect Israel to let enemies of Israel into the occupied territories. Yeah. OK. I get it. Have fun with that.
Me again Raymond,
I want to clarify my above post. I absolutely admire Paul Larudee for the "bed" incident. He was doing the same that Rachel Corrie did and I think Caterpillar has outdone themselves in the utility of their products. From all I can see the ISM does great work. BUT all it takes is for one member to have any connection to terrorist activity in order for the Zionists and US to condemn the whole entity. This is precisely why all the Palesinian charities were shut down here in the US (supposedly). (on the other hand, Israeli charities and aid THRIVE and they are KNOWN terrorists)
This is HARD to understand but I do NOT want to support suicide bombing while I do "understand" the cause. Hope you understand my confusion. This also does not mean I don't understand who holds the cards. I guess it just boils down to me being a pacifist to the core and being uneasy.
Craig,
Do you believe that the Palestinians deserve a sovereign state? I don't think you do, but the question begs answering.
None of this is fun for me. It is excruciating to see the Palestinians constantly under Israel's thumb. Is is equally as painful to see Fatah and Hamas fighting like dogs over the crumbs from the table.
There is nothing, really, to "get". Israel provides for no bargaining space. They make demands that the Palestinians roll over and play dead while they take what they want. Would you concede to this if the roles were reversed, if the Jews were living under occupation and the Palestinians were carrying out the same strategies as we see daily in the West Bank and Gaza? Another question that begs answering, because you seem hell-bent on Israel being the good-guy underdog with the self-declared sovereign state.
Maybe the Palestinians should just call a press conference and declare a sovereign state, like Israel did in 1948. I'm sure the Israelis will accept that.
Robin,
There is not a day that goes by that I don't wish for all of this to end without another death.
It is very difficult to maintain this position in light of the daily news reports of Israel's extrajudicial assassinations, air strikes and land sieges that kill militants and civilians indescriminately.
It is far easier to be a pacifist when you aren't dodging bullets and mortar shells.
Be that as it may, I will continue to help in the resistance by the most peaceful means I know, by being a voice against the occupation and its atrocities.
Latest on Paul Larudee:
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=6584
Israel's control of movement within the West Bank:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5032856.stm#jenin
Where is the sovereignty?
Raymond,
I 100% agree that it is difficult to remain a pacifist. And you are also 1000% correct that you and I are not the ones dodging the bullets and that is why I agree with the statement of the ISM about being totally committed to non-violence yet recognize the right to armed resistance. But my own personal feeling is that it is wrong to blow up busses or pizza parlors in Israel and to commit chaos within the Israeli general population. It is WRONG WROG WRONG what the Israeli's do to the Palestinians on EVERY level, but I am not an eye for an eye sort of person In the occupied territories where Israel has absolutely NO RIGHT to be (hence the word occupied) I believe that the gloves are off. There are two reasons for my stance 1) the belief that tactics such as these are immoral and 2) EVERY SINGLE TIME it happens the backlash, the attacks on the Palestinians and the home demolitions FAR out weigh what is the "perceived gain". Simply put, from the "logical" part of my psyche I feel that the costs outweight the benefits. If I thought that there was a sure-fired way for the Palestinians to wrap this up and defeat Israel militarily I would say "GO FOR IT". I may be a pacifist, but I am not stupid. And quite frankly, I can't pass judgement, it is their struggle 100%. I just see the consequences, and don't like what I see. Don't ask me for an answer, I have none. I just cannot stand the blood and destruction. As always, my prayers go out to all.
Raymond,
I read this http://www.rense.com/general21/eyewitnessaccount.htm
I am understanding
I am shaking
I am sick
Robin,
What is the date on the account you linked to in 26? Things have been very bad in Ramallah, but I suspect this account is from the 2002 Israeli siege.
Raymnd,
Yes, you are correct, it was from the siege of Ramallah but even knowing that it wasn't current I posted it because it was so utterly powerful to me when I read it. What tends to happen with the Israeli atrocities is that they keep "going into the archives" so to speak. I remember sitting glued to the tv when they were showing Arafat's compound surrounded and my daughter and I saying, "No, the Israelis wouldn't DARE kill Arafat, NO WAY" But the media, was only focused on Arafat's compound. Why?
After reading this article it tells how all the media were kicked out, one even killed by Israeli sniper fire. So while the world (or at least those of us who cared) watched as the Israelis hold Arafat's life in their grip, many cheering the Israelis on for one reason or another, we did NOT see what was going on in the rest of Ramallah. Hell, I don't even remember reading much about it. Of course there's the fact that I wasn't as attuned as I currently am, reading news from other sources and such, but still, it hit me as a MAJOR freaking manipulation of our media. Sort of like when someone says, "Look, what's that over there" and as you turn to look they steal your wallet. In this case, at the same time Arafat was under seige and the media had the US glued to the suspense, the horrors of this article were occurring.
Honestly Raymond, WHATEVER the Israelis do gets whitewashed in our media. I posted it just because it HIT me. Maybe the circumstances are not exactly the same on the ground now, but it made me sick to read about the CAPABILITIES of the Israelis. It, and a personal experience that "Sareera" is going through with a Zionist who she didn't know was a Zionist and stopped to help this week and has turned into a nightmare is just all coalescing in my mind as to the mindset of just how EVIL Zionism is. Sort of a "wake up little suzie" call. It's one thing to read a snippet, but this particular article for obvious reasons made me "visualize" it and FEEL it to where it made me sick.
You hit the nail on the head. The cameras were focused on the Muqata, while the tanks and army jeeps elsewhere were destroying the city.
That was 2002. Ramallah has had a few years to recover and now its in a shambles again from infighting. Divide and conquer. An old trick. Why are Fatah and Hamas falling for it?
I can tell you plenty of stories about Zionists. But I'll let you judge from your own experiences.
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by the Israeli authorities and is being held in detention at Ben Gurion Airport. Please take a few minutes to take action to free him! Paul Larudee, a piano tuner from El Cerrito, California, is the lastest of over 13,000 people to be denied entrRead the rest
Peace Activist Detained at Ben Gurion Airport On June 14th, 2006, from Sabbah's Blog
Peace Activist Detained at Ben Gurion Airport From Sabbah's Blog. Posted in Politics June 14th, 2006 |