By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

THIS week, when I return to my village in the occupied West Bank, I face possible arrest by Israel for engaging in nonviolent protests against abusive Israeli policies opposed by our own government.

This prospect is difficult after 29 years of living in the United States, where such activities are fully protected. It was this openness that attracted me to the U.S. I became a proud citizen and pursued work not only in my profession but also as a human rights advocate.

Over the years, I gave hundreds of talks and participated in many vigils and protests, mostly against the war on Iraq and for justice and equality in Israel/Palestine. The activities always involved people of all backgrounds.

When I moved back to Palestine in early 2008, I continued to engage in these activities. I teach and have helped to establish a master’s program in biotechnology at Bethlehem University. I also pursue my passion of educating others on human rights and engaging in civil resistance through protests and vigils.

On March 1, shortly after I left my village near Bethlehem for a visit home to the United States, the Israeli army invaded the neighborhood and surrounded our house at 1:30 a.m. My mother, sister and wife, terrorized for no reason, told the military I was out of the country but would be “happy” to talk to them upon my return.

The soldiers delivered a note demanding my appearance in a military compound five days later — a date I have missed because my ticket was scheduled for a few days later. I thus face the likelihood of arrest, administrative detention or worse when I go back.

My story is just a minor manifestation of a disturbing pattern. As civil resistance against Israel’s West Bank apartheid wall and settlement activities have increased, there has been an escalation of Israeli repression of nonviolent protesters.

Nonviolent resistance to colonization and occupation are consistent with international law and U.S. policies. President Barack Obama has stated that settlement activities in the occupied territories must stop as a prelude to ending the occupation that started in 1967. Yet, Israeli authorities continue settlement activities apace, while intensifying attacks against peaceful vigils and protests against this indefensible behavior.

Obama also gave clear encouragement to nonviolent Palestinian demonstrators in his Cairo speech, yet has remained silent as nonviolent demonstrators have been seized in recent weeks by the Israeli military.

Bethlehem has suffered significantly because of Israeli actions. The district is squeezed now by illegal Israeli settlements and military installations on three sides. Bethlehem’s 130,00 residents have access to only 20 percent of the original land of the district. The settlers, protected by the Israeli military, now want to build a settlement in the only remaining open side of Bethlehem — to the east in an area called Ush Ghrab.

The people of my village, Beit Sahour, are known for a history of nonviolent resistance, including a tax revolt in 1988 against the Israeli military government. We are a town with limited resources, comprised of 70 percent Christians and 30 percent Muslims, but have a highly educated middle class with more than 300 holders of doctorates among the population of 12,000.

Having lost so much land, and being well-informed and connected to the outside world, we decided to nonviolently resist the additional Israeli encroachment on our town. The Israeli response relied on brute force. Our first prayer vigil was attacked while a Lutheran priest was leading us in prayer.

As a member of the committee that organized the vigil and another peaceful event a week later, I was targeted. An Israeli officer warned me not to participate and threatened me, noting he knew I was planning to come home to the U.S. for a lecture tour.

Given that the Israeli government receives billions in U.S. military aid, my taxes and yours at work, our government should defend those of us who engage in nonviolent protests. I was encouraged last week, therefore, in meeting with the office of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that his office will pursue my concerns with the State Department and the Israeli government.

While I fear for myself, I am more worried for other activists who do not have the minimal protection of a U.S. passport. And, I am terribly worried for our future as we are squeezed into smaller and smaller apartheid-like Bantustans.

We will not be deterred from nonviolent protest. Despite being let down by numerous governments, we look to the United States and elsewhere in the international community to help defend us from abusive and violent responses to nonviolence.

* Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh is a tireless activist for Palestinian human rights who returned to his hometown of Beit Sahour in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and now teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. He is now president of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People in Beit Sahour, a suburb of Bethlehem. The author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle.

Call to action: Contact the State Department at 202-647-6575 or email them by clicking here: http://bit.ly/aoJVMp

Ask the U.S, State Department to intervene with Israel to keep Dr, Qumsiyeh safe and out of jail.

By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM

Groups in the Bethlehem area dedicate a series of events called Shepherds' Nights (December 23-25) to Jerusalem (increasingly being de-Palestinized) and hold a commemoration and protest asking to lift the siege on Gaza (December 31st).

See program below and join us (also we could use volunteers, please email me if you can help).

Here in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace was born in an area ruled by a tyrant ruler (King Herod while claiming Judaism engaged in slaughter of Aramaic speaking natives) who was supported by a world empire.

Here where 2000 years later, natives are still engaged in a struggle against tyrant rulers supported by distant empires. Here where civil resistance flourished and where its history over millennia is yet to be told.

Here where Jesus did not spare the money changers in front of the temple nor did the early Christian descendents (Muslim and Christian) spare the rulers from their anger at injustice starting a number of uprisings to challenge the brutality of occupation and colonization (we call such an uprising a shaking off or Intifada).

Here where life is so abnormal today that visiting internationals no matter how prepared are always shocked to see concentration camps surrounded by walls, Nazi-like behavior of occupation soldiers brought from around the world to police native people, and Palestinian officials who keep accommodating the occupation and finding out that the demands of the occupation keep increasing.

But here is also where love and hope grow and where people of all backgrounds (religions and ethnicities) get together to work for peace (and not just talk about it). Come and see.

You may want to see this Video of (at least last) Christmas in the Holy Land and an article I wrote about Christmas under occupation.

Shepherds' Nights Festival 2009

Join us this Holiday Season and show your support of Palestine
23 - 25 December (All events at the YMCA Beit Sahour) *
Theme: For Jerusalem

Day One - Wednesday 23:
17:00 Opening and Welcoming.
17:30 Band Show.
18:00 Dabka Dance Performance.

Day Two - Thursday 24:
15:00 Children show and Christmas Gifts Distribution.
16:30 Christmas Service at YMCA Shepherds' Grotto.
21:30 Choir Performance - Christmas Hymns.

Day Three - Friday 25:
16:00 Gathering at the Greek Orthodox Shepherds Field.
16:30 Candle Procession towards the YMCA Beit Sahour (Jerusalem theme).
17:30 Dabka Group Performance.
18:00 Christmas Carols.

* Organized By Palestinian Center for Rapprochement, Siraj Center, East Jerusalem YMCA / Beit Sahour Branch, and YMCA-YWCA Joint Advocacy Initiative

31 December 2009, 4-6 PM: Vigil and commemoration in Bethlehem to honor the victims of last year's massacres and to demand lifting the siege on Gaza. There will be simultaneous events around the world and a march on Gaza.

In Bethlehem, it is planned to have Children read names honoring the 300+ children murdered in Gaza a year ago and to pray and pledge to work for peace in 2010 (Organized by several groups in the Bethlehem area).

Again, we could use your support in many ways (volunteers, donations, etc) and you are always welcome to visit us here in Palestine.

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle. http://qumsiyeh.org

Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh *

One of these days, I would like to write a book to document the 1001 ways that Zionists use to take over land and distract attention at the same time. In history we had false flag operations like the Lavon Affair (Israeli agents attacking Western Interests to blame it on Arab nationalists) and countless other incidents of creating mayhem to ensure distraction. More recently as more ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem goes on, the Lebanese government reveals collaboration between Israeli intelligence in South Lebanon nurtured and worked with extremist groups to fire Katyusha's at Israel to keep the Northern front humming and give a bad name to Hezbollah. Israel pirates a ship in International waters it claims were destined for Hezbollah. Israeli agents infiltrate demonstrations wearing masks and insult Christians. Israel recruits agents among sick Palestinians in Gaza desperate to leave to get treatment and use trickery to capture Palestinian men in compromising position and use the pictures to blackmail them into collaboration. But mostly now, it is enough to keep scaring the Israeli public to stay on board with eth elites making billions off of impoverishing the average person (Israel builds massive security industries while more than 1/3rd of its population lives below the poverty line).

As Gideon Levy put it in Haaretz yesterday: "Every few weeks you have to sow fear, every few months you need to make threats, and once every year or two you have to have another little war. Blind cooperation between the defense establishment and the media holds the promise of another round of fighting. In that way, it's possible to escape some of the blame from the Goldstone report and wallow in the conditions we love best: being the victim, feeling threatened and uniting in the face of the great external danger allegedly in the offing"[1]

Though he did not explain why the victimhood card is used: because without it, this whole project of bringing Jews from around the world to settle on stolen Palestinian land collapses. It would collapse because the truth would come out. The truth that Zionism not only victimized the Palestinians (70% of us are refugees or displaced people) but also Jews [2]

The US State Department declared this week that "Israel dismally fails the requirements of a tolerant pluralistic society "[3]. Yet the US gives Israel the largest share of foreign aid, billions/year even as this is contrary to US law to support human rights violators. The Israel-first lobby in Washington ensures the US arm-twists smaller nations to vote against International law. Yet, even Israel's endless distractions and the US power and might seem unable to stem the bad news for the racist apartheid regime. The UN General assembly voted overwhelmingly to support the Goldstone report 114 votes in favor, 18 opposed and 44 abstentions. Those of you in different countries should check how your country voted and write to thank them if voting yes or to ask for explanation for those spineless ones who voted no or abstain. History will not be kind to sweeping war crimes under the rug. Goldstone had written to congress to correct the distortions, outright lies, and inaccuracies that were in the resolution that was drafted for them by AIPAC trained congressional aids in fascist congressmen offices (Like Ross-Lehtinen) but the Goldstone letter was ignored. Even the Gladstone report that they were condemning was not incorporated into the congressional record (otherwise future historians might see how stupid Congress is or maybe how stupid Congress thinks the public is). So the AIPAC resolution condemning the Goldstone report (and thus supporting war crimes) passed by 9:1. 36 brave congressmen stand out and should be thanked for showing some backbone. (Action link [4])

Here in Palestine, we commemorated with sadness the November 2, 1917 horrific Balfour Decalration in which Britain promised Palestine to the European Zionist movement in order to secure help in getting the US to join WWI.

In other news, a US army officer who as a psychiatrist treated patients suffering after return from illegal wars on Iraq and Afghanistan (and was scheduled to be shipped there) went berserk and shot 13 of his comrades and injured 31. The Zionists in the media are having a field day with this. No one even mentioned on the religious persuasion or family background of the many hundreds of other Americans who engaged in similar kinds of mass-killing. In this case had he been Jewish American, Mexican American or anything else his background or religious beliefs would never have been mentioned. I found it rather disgusting that outfits like the Associated Press engage in such smear campaigns. All major Muslim American organizations issued statements condemning the attack. This is indeed a sad event; killing should be condemned by ALL but is also sad that some are allowed to exploit such events for political purposes.

In yet other news, Mahmoud Abbas declared that he will not run for the upcoming elections. In essence he is telling the US an Israel: you did not want to have a two state solution based on the road map to peace that you yourself drafted (and that calls for full freeze on settlement activity including "natural growth" and including occupied Jerusalem). He is saying to them further that "if you do not want that, then my line of negotiations with you has indeed reached a dead end (he has actually been engaged in informal and formal negotiations for nearly three decades). And let Fatah come up with a different line." Now we could of course see a Fatah candidate who is more compliant with Israeli demands or we could see a more sober and realistic approach. My recommendation to Fatah is to give up on the "authority" and on the illusionary "two states" and begin the (yet hard) process of educating friends and foes about the value of a democratic secular state in all of historic Palestine. As I argued in my last book, that will bring a durable peace instead of the charade of the current "peace process" (I know the peace process industry will not be happy with us finally beginning to choke off their main source of income and power).

On more uplifting news, on the anniversary of the Berlin wall collapse, Palestinians breached the apartheid wall knocking down one of its concrete segments (video here [5]).

And residents of Aida refugee camp got to see the rest of Palestine. Rich Wiles wrote: "Um Qassim was born over 70 years ago in the village of Al Kabu. Her early childhood was spent amongst the clean air and fresh water of this Palestinian village. In 1948 everything changed for Um Qassim as it did for all Palestinians, and today she is one of the 4,500 residents of Aida Camp...I don't want to leave. I want to stay here forever. It's so, so, beautiful, and it's still ours..."[6] And a final action, please sign the petition Sign the petition to Norway's University of Trondheim to Boycott Israel (sign at link below [7].

A luta continua--the struggle goes on.

Notes

[1] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126077.html

[2] see Lenni Brenner's article "The Zionist Operation Was A Success, The Jewish Patients Died"
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/10/the-zionist-operation-was-a-success-the-jewish-patients-died/

[3] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126286.html

[4] http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=3517 and see how your congressperson voted and write to them all http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll838.xml

[5] see Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xh4ouc8Lac

[6] more at http://hullpsc.blogspot.com/

[7] http://www.petitiononline.com/boycott9/petition.html

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle. http://qumsiyeh.org

By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh *

It is not easy to remain a racist oppressor and it is getting harder to keep deflecting the critics by asking them to focus on nonexistent threats (like Iran). The Human Rights Council accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza and the Israeli government panics and deals with it as a public relations challenge!. Israeli human rights groups challenge Israel home demolitions in Jerusalem and a UN experts' panel names Israel as profiting from Ivory Coast blood diamonds. Heads are buried in the sand. Israeli leaders are either foregoing trips (to Europe where they may be arrested for war crimes) or going to speak and heckled and challenged by human rights activists (e.g. Olmert's tour of the US). Israel is being called to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Spain is fuming after Netanyahu asks the right-wing government of Italy to retain control of UNIFIL. Amnesty study shows how much Israel steals Palestinian water and deprives Palestinians of water. And the list is endless.

Israel however has lots of money from US taxpayers and from extortion and from deluded Jewish Zionists around the world. Zionism deploys legions of lobbyists and media/hasbara people and they are all working overtime. Some are members of the US Congress and managed to pass resolutions that violate US laws but please Israel. One Israeli apologist heckled Jewish American Anna Baltzer and Dr Mustafa Barghouthi on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart (see action alert below). Desperate mean actions are taken in last ditch attempts maintain a costly Jewish state with racist laws. Israeli jails are filling with human rights activists, conscientious objectors, civil resistance people and even journalists. Psy-ops (psychological warfare) are being waged by Israel to crush resistance to its colonial activities and stem the increased exposure in the era of the internet (when a video of settlers attacking olive pickers and cutting olive trees can circulate to millions in seconds). We see more denial of entry to Internationals, petty denial of education rights to Palestinian students (see Action below) and desperate moves to hide the atrocities.

All this (much of it backfiring) is reminiscent of what happened to south Africa in the 10 years preceding the end of apartheid. Thus, we are optimistic that we are in the final stage of a multi-stage process. The boycotts, divestments, and sanctions movement is mushrooming. More Israelis are joining the human wave demanding justice and equality and the Zionist movement has become more desperate in its fraudulent use of "anti-Semitism" and "self hating Jews" to silence the critics. Increasingly paranoid and shrieking delusions, even some life-long Zionists have started to question the direction of the movement and its increasingly ghettoized mentality. Others remain in their racist and ultimately self-destructive ways (several homes demolished in Jerusalem and in the Negev just the past two days creating far more animosity).

Instead of taking advantage of the weaknesses inherent in a racist ideology bent on ethnic cleansing, some Palestinians fell into the trap created by the Oslo process of talking about endless negotiations and elections for a "Palestinian Authority" (PA). In my humble opinion, the PA has already outlived its usefulness (it was supposed to be interim for five years anyway and now it is 16 years). The only elections we should be talking about are elections to the Palestinian National Council (rebuilding the PLO). This would be critical to avoid reducing the Palestinian question to the form of the Bantustans/ghettos in the West Bank and Gaza and who rules these ghettos. It is time to reshape and reinvigorate the struggle for freedom. And once Palestinians are free, the Jews who live here will be freed from the self-imposed chains of Zionism and racism.

Amnesty international devastating report on water usage in the West Bank is now available (PDF file): http://www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/File/Amnesty_water_112.pdf

Action 1: Fill out the form to a) thank the Daily show for interviewing Anna Baltzer and Mustafa Barghouthi and b) ask why the version broadcast was edited in a way to remove the most critical parts of what Anna said. The major issues cut out were (1) the US role in aiding Israel, (2) the lack of adequate coverage in mainstream US media, and (3) the Palestinian-led movement for Boycott / Divestment / Sanctions (BDS) to nonviolently pressure Israel to comply with international law. Go to http://www.comedycentral.com/help/questionsCC.jhtml (make sure to choose The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as your topic). You may also want to join the forums of the daily show and post your thoughts there and also call 212-468-1700.
(the unedited version) Dr. Mustafa Barghouti and Anna Baltzer on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show http://www.thedailyshow.com/?kw=thedailyshow&xrs=SI_70251174_3712568170_0

Action 2: Send a letter to the Israeli military authorities by email (cogatspokesman@gmail.com) or by fax (+972 3 697 6306) and let them know that you demand that they release Berlanty Azzam immediately so that she can resume and complete her last year of studies at the Vatican-sponsored Bethlehem University (she is being threatened with deportation back to Gaza).

Action 3: Resist the visit by the racist "mayor" of occupied Jerusalem representing the apartheid regime that built 50,000 housing units in Jerusalem for illegal settlers while demolishing hundreds of Palestinian homes in the city. November 3, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. Gates Concert Hall, Newman Center for the Performing Arts, University of Denver Campus 2344 E. Iliff Avenue, Denver. Demonstrations and other civil resistance actions requested to highlight Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing policies.

Finally a report from the conference "United in Struggle against Israeli Colonialism, Occupation and Racism"

24-25 October, 2009

Bethlehem, Palestine

Seminar Declaration

Towards the unity of all forces in struggle for boycott, divestment and sanctions for Palestine

Between the 24th and the 25th of October, 2009, the Occupied Palestine and Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI), together with the Alternative Information Center (AIC), organized an international seminar in the city of Bethlehem, Palestine. The seminar gathered Palestinian, international and anti-colonial Israeli activists, researchers, and others interested in promoting justice for the Palestinian people. The seminar placed a special emphasis on the economic interests behind the occupation and the potential impact that the international campaigns for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) can make in promoting justices for the Palestinian people. The seminar aimed to review, develop, and document the Palestinian advocacy mechanisms locally and internationally, to determine the impact of such efforts so far, in addition to raising the level of cooperation and coordination amongst the various related actions and activities.

The conduct of the seminar coincided with the continuing unprecedented state of polarization within the Palestinian people. The severe and disastrous consequences of this internal dispute not only hamper the current political performance of the Palestinian people, but also do away with years of sacrifice, struggle and accomplishments. Now, the Israeli occupation is at a crossroads facing a potentially historic opportunity to continue its politics of separation and expansion on all fronts, marked by the intensification of political assassinations, arrests, restrictions on movement and basic freedoms, takeover of lands, and the construction of settlements. While the process of Judaization and isolation of Jerusalem is accelerating, Israel insists on continuing the settlement and expansion activities in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, the daily crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, and the politics of aggression and discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

In light of the decision taken by the United Nations Human Rights Council to adopt the Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (the Goldstone Report), the United in Struggle Seminar joins in the call on Arab, Palestinian and international civil society and official institutions to take appropriate measures to bring officials from the occupying Israeli state to justice.

The participants in the United in Struggle Seminar call for the following:

1. To immediately restore Palestinian national unity.

2. To activate the Palestine Liberation Organization in a democratic and inclusive manner that will permit the participation of all Palestinian forces and factions based on the Cairo Agreement of 2005.

3. To activate and construct Palestinian national frameworks that will reinforce the capacity of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli occupation and to consolidate progressive Palestinian principals.

4. To continue the efforts on all levels to hold the state of Israel and its leadership accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity in international courts and milieus.

5. To consolidate and continue the efforts to end the blockade on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

6. To firmly oppose politics and projects of normalization with Israel in the Arab world by activating the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions for Palestine campaign (BDS).

7. To emphasise the 2005 invitation extended by Palestinian civil society to conscientious Israelis to support the call for BDS for the sake of justice and genuine peace.

8. To reinforce a stronger and more efficient position in the Arab states and societies to defend Jerusalem, in addition to boycotting all political, economic and cultural activities complicit with Israeli efforts to Judaize and isolate Jerusalem.

The Seminar Organizing Committee

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle. http://qumsiyeh.org

By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh *

We see and meet the nicest people but we also see and meet the meanest people in Palestine. Every day here is an experience in extremes. We contrast an activist for peace in her 20s who speaks many languages with a settler who (joined by other settlers) attacks people picking their own olive trees (because he is brainwashed to believe Palestinians are not a "chosen people"). We contrast a young man getting up at 3AM to try and cross the countless hurdles to make a trek to make a living for his family with elites like Netanyahu who told members of his cabinet that “our challenge is to delegitimize the continuous attempt to delegitimize the State of Israel. The most important arena where we need to act in this context is in the arena of public opinion, which is crucial in the democratic world." We contrast the niece of Tony Blair who sacrificed so much to join and understand and sympathize with Palestinian suffering with her uncle who cares little about people and prefers to keep his VIP photo-ops tightly controlled [1].

We see a woman trying to sell a few olives which she gathered with much hard labor from a few trees after their owners had finished harvesting them (a process we call Tsayyef). We contrast that with billionaire Zionist (Russian-Israeli) tycoon sentenced in France for arms dealings worth hundreds of millions of dollars (but of course he will for now escape justice just like Sharon, Olmert, Netanyahu and Barak). Israelis who are getting rich of selling weapons and training others to kill contrast with impoverished masses of gathered Jews from around the world tricked into coming to a land that belongs to others under myths of Jewish nationhood [2]. Israel now having destroyed Palestine is merely a vehicle for elites to make billions exporting death and destruction in the Middle East and beyond while the gathered masses of Jews suffer from "what next" syndrome. What next to distract the masses with (another war, another terror incident, another attack on Al-Aqsa mosque..). Colonial settlers squat in Palestinian homes in Jerusalem while owner families are made homeless as part of the ethnic cleansing that is Israeli policy since its inception. We see Israeli soldiers and officers in smug uniforms and smiles demolishing Palestinian homes [3]. We see Israeli officers starve 1.5 million Palestinians in the largest concentration camp in history called Gaza [4]. But we also see Israeli citizens like Ezra Nawi sentenced to prison for supporting Palestinians being ethnically cleansed [5] or Shir Hever writing and speaking out about the colonial oppression that is being done in their name [6]. We see Matzpen, Zochrot, and brave Israelis like Neve Gordon and Ilan Pappe expose ethnic cleansing and racism and support the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions. We see internationals in Palestine like Kristel who helped spawn a movement. We see Majd who helped mobilize Palestinian youth around the world. Jamal Juma'a, Eyad Burnat, Mohammed Othman (now languishing in an Israeli jail) and hundreds more who mobilized against the apartheid wall [7].

In one day in Palestine (in 24 hours to 8 AM Oct 26): Medics obstructed and injured as Israeli troops wound and beat people defending the Al Aqsa Mosque; Israeli soldiers abduct two 15-year-olds; Zionist fanatics attack olive harvesters and set fire to olive trees; Israeli F-16s terrorize Rafah; Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in refugee camp and 5 towns and villages; 3 attacks – 19 raids – 11 beaten – 16 injured-21 taken prisoner – 17 detained – 80 restrictions of movement... [8].

Outside of Palestine, we see decent principled politicians like Turkish leaders call a spade a spade (saying that Israel must be held accountable for war crimes). But we also see leaders like Husni Mubarak in Egypt collude with the occupiers in starving 1.5 million people and we see political leaders in Jordan, Egypt, and even some Gulf States hob-knob and schmooze with Israeli war criminals in elite conferences like the world economic forum. We see a large conference was held in Madrid to support Palestine. San Francisco refused to be overshadowed by Chicago in their reception of the war criminal Ehud Olmert. Indeed they tried to arrest him! [9]. The 2009 National Campus Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Conference, taking place Nov20th - Nov 22nd at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts [10]. Anna Balzer (Jewish American) and Mustafa Barghouthi (Palestinian) will be on the daily show with Jon Stewart Wednesday 10/28 at 11 PM EST on Time Warner Cable repeats at 1:30 am EST and a few times during the day on Thursday(check local listings). [11]

We could list tens of thousands of idiotic fools going with the systems of oppression of many backgrounds (yes including some Arabs and some Palestinians). We could list tens of thousands of brilliant activists everywhere who (had we lived in a fair world) should be political leaders. We indeed have had a less violent and more just society precisely because the former idiotic group is challenged at every turn. It has always been like this (think struggle to end apartheid in South Africa, think civil rights, think labor struggles etc). The real struggle we have and we have always had is clear to anyone with eyes to see. It was said that only dead fish go with the flow. So this is not a tribal conflict but a conflict between dead fish (or living dead as it were) that go with the flow and the living diverse population who swim against the current. What always gives us hope and energy is the beauty and diversity of the activist community seeking peace. They are non-conformist, diverse, and do not march to anyone's orders (except their conscience to do what is right). Actions and the company of nice people give us hope and energy to work for a just world. Come visit us in Palestine!

1. see Quartet envoy's eight-year-old niece sees the real Palestine http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=234091

2. Inventing Israel: Historian Shlomo Sand argues that ‘Jewish peoplehood’ is a myth “The key assumptions about Israel and the Jews are indelible. Forced from Jerusalem into exile, the Jews dispersed throughout the world, always remaining attached to their ancient homeland. Psalmists wept when they remembered Zion. A people were sustained by an unflagging determination to return to their native soil. “Next year in Jerusalem!” The triumph of Zionism—the founding of Israel—is the fulfillment of that ancient vow. The Israeli Declaration of Independence states it plainly: “Eretz Yisrael was the birthplace of the Jewish people... After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people remained faithful to it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom..Now suppose that none of it is true...” http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/18203/inventing-israel/ At NYU, Shlomo Sand predicts the Jewish past and pastes the Zionists by Philip Weiss on October 17, 2009 http://mondoweiss.net/2009/10/at-nyu-devilish-shlomo-sand-predicts-the-jewish-past-and-pastes-the-zionists.html

3. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE9g9THMGTk

4. See http://www.youtube.com/gazafriends#p/a

5. See http://acrosstheborderline.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/ezra-nawi-the-face-of-israeli-human-rights-activism/

6. http://www.vimeo.com/6789827

7. http://freemohammadothman.wordpress.com/

8. Details sent in a report from a monitoring group in New Zwealand. To get on the list to receive the regular reports, write to leslie@palestine.org.nz

9. Here is the amazing video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=491GOKwrN1s 22 activists, including several CODEPINKers, were arrested (http://bit.ly/OlmertWarCriminal )

10. Find out more and register at: http://www.hsjp.org/2009/09/21/CampusBDS/

11. The video is also posted the next day at http://www.thedailyshow.com/

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle. http://qumsiyeh.org

Illustration by Ben Heine

By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh *

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom." Martin Luther King Jr.

The past weekend, we had a conference over two days attended by over 200 people from around the world. The Conference addressed issues of Israeli colonialism, occupation, and racism. It was held in the Paradise Hotel in Bethlehem, a scene of previous Israeli attack that severely damaged this beautiful hotel. In workshops and panels we heard from distinguished activists like Omar Barghouti (PACBI), Shawan Jabarin (AlHaq), Ameer Makhoul (Ittijah), Jamal Juma' (Stopthewall.org), Shir Hever (AIC), Dalit Baum (WhoProfits), Ingrid Jaradat Gassner (Badil), Michael Warschawski (AIC), and many more. It was a very productive meeting with significant networking accomplished and plans for coalition building, for enhancing the growing BDS movement, for support of the people of Gaza and Jerusalem, and more. (see http://www.jai-pal.org/content.php?page=816 )

The meeting came at a critical and difficult period of our history when there is a confluence of events:

-- The ramification of the Goldtone report and growing calls not only to hold Israeli leaders accountable for specific acts that amount to war cries and crimes against humanity (e.g. in Gaza) but to clearly identify Israel as the racist, colonial state at its core (from which emanates all these atrocities tat include ethnic cleansing).

-- The intensified Israeli assault on the AlAqsa compound and the whole of the Holy City of AlQuds/Jerusalem in a final push to Judaicize the city and erase Arab Christian and Muslim heritage. Home demolitions, denial of basic rights of residence, denial of rights of worship and movement, and outright military assaults on the "city of peace" belie a culture of impunity and disregard for International law that has been allowed to grow. Leaders of Western, Arab, and Islamic world meanwhile oscillate between outright facilitation of the atrocities to collaboration to indifference (and I am not sure those are distinct or meaningful categories). Many of us began to think that should Israel destroy the holy sites and build a Jewish temple in its place, we would see merely a few more declarations and statements. [Stand-up for Jerusalem is new website to help families being ethnically cleansed http://www.standupforjerusalem.org/ ]

-- Self-created weaknesses. The continued split between Gaza and the West Bank with two "authorities" in essence as if two wings of the prison are being ruled by separate prison factions while the jailer is happy watching the prisoners waste time cursing each other. I looked into this and read and interviewed many people. My thought is that it is essential to speak the truth regardless of which prison section we are in. I noted that both leaderships stated things that are patently untrue about the reality of what transpired over the past three years. But also both ignored the fact that this situation is directly related to the original and huge mistake of signing Oslo and going down the path that led to an "authority" whose job it is to control the local population while the occupation remains. It is far better to simply state NOW that Oslo was supposed to be an interim 5 year arrangement, it is now 16 and it is time to declare it dead. Let us not bicker about "elections" in the West Bank and Gaza and instead make an agreement to dissolve those authorities and implement the agreement already signed by all factions on the revival/reactivation of the PLO. If we want to have more courage, these factions would take a political initiative like supporting the one state solution. We will explore these issues in the Arabic newsletter sent to those who indicated interest/wanted to be subscribed.

-- The logarithmic growth of the boycotts, divestments, and sanctions (BDS) movement (see http://www.bdsmovement.net )

ACTION 1: Join the Gaza Freedom March http://www.gazafreedommarch.org

ACTION 2: Petition to create special tribunal for Israeli war crimes (33,300n already signed)
http://www.petitiononline.com/EAFORD09/petition.html

ACTION 3: Join PACBI Listserve to stay abreast of academic and cultural boycott issues
http://www.pacbi.org/mailinglist.php

ACTION 4: Campaign to free Palestinian prisoners held in Egyptian jails, at least one of whom was clearly tortured to death (Arabic)
http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EE154C1C-BE12-4FD6-AEA3-8D757675B2B7.htm

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle. http://qumsiyeh.org

By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh *

Mahfoutha Shtaya - and Olive Tree

1) The olive (Zeitoon) was pickled (rsees) and eaten and perhaps it is the only food that is found in all three meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Its nutritional value is credited with significant health benefits.

2) The olive oil (Zeit) is THE oil in Palestine. It is highly nutritious and used in dozens of recipes. The main and most common folkloric recipe going back over 3000 years is Zeit u Zaatar (also sometimes called Zeit u Dukka); the bread is dipped in olive oil then in a thyme based powder (that includes sesame seeds and spices). Thyme and Sesame and many other plans were ofcourse first domesticated and used right here in Palestine (the left wing of the fertile crescent). Olive oil was used in Palestine more extensively in the past in oil lamps, in protection of hair and skin, as a lubricant, as an insecticide, and much more.

3) The olive pits (and less so olive wood pieces) are used to make "prayer beads" that were used by both Palestinian Christians and Muslims for hundreds of years. The simple act of running fingers through these beads sometimes meditating in the process while concentrating on that feeling gives us a sense of tranquility and peace (much needed considering the circumstances of Palestine over the ages).

4) The olive wood is used to make artifacts that locals sell to pilgrims as souvenirs from the Holy Land or keep at their homes. This is true for all monotheistic traditions. Here in Bethlehem, our ancestors made a living of this as artisans for generations (my own family relied on this and agriculture as far back as we can trace to the 16th century).

5) The herds of sheep and goats rely on olive leaves and branches trimmed during this season for a significant part of their annual diet.

6) The wood was used (less so recently) as firewood. It is a hardy wood that generates much heat per unit kilogram than any other wood I know. The glass smelters in Hebreon (famous for ist stained glass artistry) used olive wood derived coals as a main energy source.

7) The olive trees gave our people shelter from the strong sun and inspired poets, lovers, painters, and prophets across the ages.

8) Even the left over material after the production of oil is recycled for energy source.

Here are a few pictures taken by my wife of our harvest, pickling and squeezing of olives to get our yearly supply of these trees: http://bit.ly/45cFYD

Olive production is always high in one year low in the next**. Last year was high, this year was low and next year (Inshallah) it will be higher barring further destruction by Israel as happened in Gaza recently. In the meantime, we still enjoy our olives and hope that you will come visit us in Palestine so that we can serve you some of the fantastic dishes that include olives or their products and we can do it under the olive trees. I also noted this interesting story of a Palestinian in China proving again that you can take Palestinians outside of Palestine but you cannot take Palestine outside of Palestinians:

China’s first olive harvest strikes oil
http://www.olives101.com/2006/05/24/chinas-first-olive-harvest-strikes-oil/

The Olive tree: a folkloric briefing from Bethlehem University
http://library.bethlehem.edu/e-turathuna/OliveTree/

Attached photo is of Mahfoutha Shtaya, 65 year old who "inspired us when she stood up to Israeli soldiers and settlers in 2004 when they were uprooting hundreds of olive trees in her village-the source of her community's livelihood. Alone and defenseless, she clung to one of the few trees left standing. Her action spoke out powerfully against the wanton destruction and its disastrous effects for an already suffering people" http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/5050?page=7

** Olive Oil production in West Bank and Gaza in tons showing yearly cyclical change with higher production in even years:

Year -- Tons
1988 -- 31100
1989 -- 1690
1990 -- 27500
1991 -- 570
1992 -- 33700
1993 -- 525
1994 -- 18000
1995 -- 8628
1996 -- 24953
1997 -- 5500
1998 -- 22000
1999 -- 3800
2000 -- 30000
2001 -- 6686
2002 -- 31784
2003 -- 11300
2004 -- 30232

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle.
http://qumsiyeh.org

Illustration by Bendib

By Mazin Qumsiyeh *

On 16 October 1935, a barrel marked "cement" fell as it was being unloaded from ships at the port in Jaffa. The broken barrel contained guns, grenades, and ammunition and was one of many secret shipments to the underground Zionist terrorist militias in Palestine. That incident among others (including the British government collusion in marginalizing natives in Palestine while encouraging Zionist Jewish migration and takeover) led in the year after to the great Palestinian uprising of 1936.

Before the state of Israel was founded, these terrorist underground militias that were to become the Israel "Defense" Forces committed over 100 massacres of civilians. The atrocities intensified in the months leading up to the "declaration of indeperndence". In March and April 1948 alone over 25 massacres were committed including infamous ones such as Tantura and Deir Yassin. Israeli leaders themselves credited these actions as of great use in getting the Palestinians to evacuate Palestine so that a Jewish state could be established without a demographic "burden" of "non-Jews" (Christains and Muslims). The massacres continued after the war with government ordered slaughters at Kufr Kassem in 1956 (see http://www.taayush.org/new/kassem.html), and more until the latest slaughter of 1400 in three weeks in Gaza (most of them civilians). This showed that the state of Israel is still addicted to these policies of terror.

Israeli leaders as before try to intimidate the world into silence and some do comply (the US and some Western Countries also feed this addiction with money and weapons and use of veto power to protect Israel from Internatioanl law). However, ethnic cleansing via state terrorism has become more exposed over the decades and Israeli leaders have been frustrated. They started using other coercive tools to affect the Zionist goal of a Palestine free from Palestinians: economic strangulations, bureaucracy, unjust laws analogous to the Nutremberg laws etc. The major credit for the decreased effectiveness of slaughter as an instrument of policy is Palestinian resistance (most of it civil resistance). The second factor is that in the age of the internet, governments and wealthy racists have less control over information. The public even in the US, Holland, France, England etc is largely aware and disgusted by their governments' support of ethnic cleansing in Palestine. We need to now translate the public mood and sentiment into change in government policy. That takes determination, energy and opportunity. We have an opportunity NOW.

The UN Human Rights Council voted by 25 : 6 to accept the Goldstone report despite intensive lobbying by the Israeli government and by the (Zionist dominated) US government. 25 Countries voted for the resolution including China, Russia, Egypt, India, Brazil, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Mauritius, Nicaragua, and Nigeria. Six countries voted against the report: US, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine. 11 countries abstained: Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay. Others did not show-up to vote. Citizens of all those countries should write to their representatives in government (Presidents, parliamentarians etc) and commend those who supported accountability for war criminals and shame those who voted against it or abstained (spineless) thus becoming complicity in such war crimes. We must also reject the attempts by some countries to save Israel by asking it to conduct an internal investigation; you cannot ask a criminal to investigate his crime and Israel never found its leaders culpable for even one of the hundreds of massacres they committed). (British Prime Minister Brown and French President Sarkozy wrote a joint letter to Netanyahu with diplomatic language that only means more green light to do state terror in the name of "security")

The importance of this is not to be underestimated (hopefully eventually shocking the Israeli public out of its denial). This worries the Israeli government. The vote and potential downstream events have dominated the interest and talk of Israeli media and politicians. According to Haaretz: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Friday that Israel must prepare for a protracted struggle against a damning United Nations report.." and daughter of Irgun terrorist and war criminal Tzipi Livni stated "Today's vote was political and cynical. Israel will continue to do the right thing and to protect its citizens, and will continue the international battle against the report to ensure the legal protection of IDF officers, wherever they may be." The apartheid government is quickly forming a high level task force to exonerate itself and all its criminals. The Turkish government also took principled positions adding to the apartheid system delusions of denial and desperation (far better than positions of Arab countries like Jordan and Egypt and Israel is also panicking on this; imagine if Arab countries cut their ties) I think all of us should create grassroot committees all around the world to ensure accountability and to redouble our efforts on boycotts, divestments, and sanctions per the Palestinian Civil Society call to Action (http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52 ).

EI exclusive video: Protesters shout down Ehud Olmert in Chicago [Olmert is one of those war criminals who should be at the Hague for his crimes in Gaza and beyond]
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2009/10/17/protesters-shout-down-ehud-olmert-in-chicago/

Things are changing: American Jews rethink Israel
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091102/horowitz_weiss

Why Are Palestinians Losing Faith in Obama? Ask Rahm Emanuel

The Palestinians have the Cairo speech to hold on to, but I have bad news for them. Bibi is eating Obama's lunch. No one in that top 50, or the top 500 have any loyalty to the oppressed residents of the West Bank or Gaza. Official Washington has been drinking the AIPAC kool-aid for so long they don't know what all the fuss is about.
http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/why-are-palestinians-losing-faith-in-obama-ask-rahm-emanuel/

Episcopal News Service: JERUSALEM: Evicted Palestinian family keeps watch near home taken by settlers By Rev. Pat McCaughan
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_115574_ENG_HTM.htm

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle.
http://qumsiyeh.org

Illustration by Carlos Latuff

By Mazin Qumsiyeh*

Netanyahu looked old, tired, and angry as he delivered his "speech" in front of the Knesset. He had nothing new to say so he regurgitated the old myths about protecting Israelis from being charged with war crimes, lectured his audience (who also looked tired and bored) that the Goldstone report was a lie, that Israel will defend itself, that the world better "deal with Iran", and that Palestinians better recognize Israel as a Jewish state in order to have peace on the occupier's terms. A little bit earlier, Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech in which he stated that Hamas leaders are using the Goldstone issue to escape from signing reconciliation agreements. He reiterated his other positions that are now well known. He also looked tired, angry, and old. Then the leader of Hamas in Damascus, standing in front of a picture of the Syrian president, gave a speech that reiterated Hamas's known positions. He too looked angry and tired. George Mitchell came and went on another trip with no results (I lost count of how many times he had met with the "leaders" on all sides here). He too smiles for cameras but when giving his remarks appeared frustrated and angry.

The US administration said it is likely to "ramp-down" the peace efforts (thanks for the Nobel Peace prize anyway). Israel simply refuses to abide by its signed agreements especially by the requirements of the road map to freeze its colonial settler activities and return things to what they were before 2000 (a rather minimum and mild request I might add). Other parties issued tired statements and declaration for against this or that position. On the ground, things look rather poor. We now have a situation in which every Palestinian town or city has gates that can be locked or opened at the whim of the Israeli army. That Israeli occupation army kidnapped 12 more Palestinians in the West Bank in the past 24 hours. Doctors in Gaza report an increased incidence of birth defects (likely related to use of illegal weapons by Israel, polluted water, maternal malnutrition or all of these). In the West Bank, we learn to bathe with a bucket of water (and save it for other uses and do it less frequently!). Farmers are fending off increased settler attacks during the traditional olive harvesting season. Some are denied access to their lands. Homes continue to be demolished.

Surveying this obscene scene, one is tempted to feel discouraged. I know some Palestinians even give up. We were thinking of these things as we visited the Biotechnology Center at the Polytechnic University. Coincidentally, Western-Backed Mohammed Dahlan was to give a speech there. His public appearances have intensified as he is being groomed to replace Abbas as "president" of the "Palestinian Authority" (the quotes are deserved since we have no real authority other than the Israeli occupation). But we were not there to see Dahlan. We met with some faculty and students who are doing some real science. Practical, decent, hard-working people. This got me thinking about hope. No I have no hope that politicians will suddenly wake-up to reality! But hope because of deep belief in the goodness and decency of common people. Here, we mean the 11 year old amateur photographer in Aida refugee camp who has more wisdom and certainly more practical energy than many adults I know. The 70-year-old gentle man who smiles as he tells me that he still goes to his land even though checkpoints and walls are in the way. The old woman who was offered millions for her home in Jerusalem but refuses to sell it to colonizers and occupiers. The university professor and dear friend who lost his wife to an illness and keeps on pouring his heart and soul to educate a new generation. The blind girl who keeps up with her classmates. The unemployed man who keeps his dignity and asks for no help and keeps trying and hoping for work. The farmer who treats her vegetables as if they are her children. The Imam in the mosque and the priest in the church who listen to the people's problems with uncommon decency and compassion. Millions upon millions of those who by their mere presence and steadfastness inspire us.

Every morning when we drive to the University (my wife teaches classes at 8 AM so we drive together), we see school children laughing, holding hands, running, and in their eyes, we see hope. In their olive skins, jet-black hair, strong features, we see our Canaantitic ancestors egging us on. The difficulties of the present take their natural role as bumps along the road between our past and our future. Thus even a visit to a cemetery which we do just about every week as people die, becomes strangely connecting and empowering. The old died content in their homeland. The martyrs are remembered and praised for their sacrifice. Past, present, and future become only meaningful in the love of the land. In the past two weeks, I was doing some investigative work on a group of old pictures of Palestine that have just been digitized in the library of congress. Some of the pictures were of my hometown in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. I was thrilled to find one of my great-great-grandparent's home. The image (likely taken in the early 1920s) shows the only image of my great-grandmother in existence (an old relatives recognized her). Other pictures show the bountiful harvest of wheat. We have been farmers, shepherds, and artisans for hundreds of years and despite all the difficulties, WE still are. I smile as we begin preparation for the olive harvest (even though this year looks like it may not be as good as last year). I smile as I stop my car in a main road in Bethlehem to let a flock of sheep cross the street led by a guy who looks exactly like those individuals in those ancient images. Yes, the Zionist movement destroyed 530 villages and built a European style metropolis of connected colonial settlements everywhere here filling them with imported people brainwashed to believe that the only way to ensure power is to destroy others. But they will never feel at home until they recognize the injustice done to the native people and ask in humility for the return of those they expelled/forced out. That is part of the reason 700,000 naturalized Israeli now live outside the country.

Time is not kind to murderers and thieves. We are Palestine can never change as a land and its people are far from being defeated even if we are forced to live in these ghettos and in these refugee camps for another 10 or 30 years. The land is potmarked with ugly edifices of the occupation including the apartheid wall. But the land is red and soft and productive and patient. Afterall, it is all mixed with ashes of sweat of our ancestors. History is not static. We have more love and community than the amalgam of different people living in fancy homes in settlements with unlimited supplies. I smile when I see young teenagers do the traditional dabka dance (I am amazed at their energy as their feet seem to touch the ground rarely). The people continue to dream and hope and yearn for freedom. Acts of heroism and resistance continue. Despite difficulties, most Palestinians live comfortable psychologically and content in their lot in life certainly more so than the aloof usurpers or those few who have given up among our own people. Many Israelis and Internationals who come here every day to support us become part of this wonderful living healthy mosaic. That spirit is the spirit that moved African Americans to sing together while holding hands with decent white people "we shall overcome someday". That is the spirit of Jaffa, Haifa, AnNasra, Nablus, Jenin, Bil'in, Ni'lin, Al-Quds, Rafah, Gaza, Khan Younis, and the 1400 other towns and villages that we live in or those villages that still live in the heart of their owners who vow: we shall return someday-we shall be free someday-we shall overcome someday.

ACTION: Israeli leaders are squirming to not be charged with war crimes and to contain the growth of the Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. We are upping the pressure. Join the first marathon of BDS October 16-17 around the world.

1) Organize an event activity during Friday and Saturday 16/17 October 2009 and let us know at: freemohammad@stopthewall.org

2) Stop the Wall will publish a time table with all planned activities.

3) We will put you in touch with the activists mobilizing before and after you. If your activity and access to internet/phone allows, you will be able to directly take over from the previous activity and hand over to the next action.

You may organize activities such as protests, leaflets handouts, street actions, speaking events, video screenings, book readings, powerpoint presentations, radio/TV programs, internet actions, a twitter campaign, a fax blitz...Be creative!

For activist material to make your event a success, contact freemohammad@stopthewall.org

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. http://qumsiyeh.org

Illustration by Carlos Latuff

By Mazin Qumsiyeh*

My fellow Americans.

Millions of you and not special interest groups elected us to office on a platform of change and it is time for us all to deliver. I am laying out a program to do so but first we have to face some painful truths that have increasingly become obvious...

On the economy:

As you know, we now have the largest ever recorded debt for this government (at 11.9 trillion dollars meaning some $40,000 national debt per citizen of the USA). We have also just recorded the largest deficit in budget in history with our government expenses outpacing revenue by $1.4 trillion for the last fiscal year. The fact that our citizens and corporations are also frequently in debt to the same creditors means that those creditors hold a very strong stranglehold on our economy and our nation's future. Some of those people are individuals who have traditionally owed their office to the US government- people like royal families in the Gulf Arab states. Others have far more influence and control over International financial institutions. The future of America cannot be held hostage to those foreign interests.

A study by the economist Thomas R. Stauffer showed that the cost of the US support to Israel until 2003 was $3 trillion (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 2003). I have asked an independent team of economic advisors (not including any supporters of Israel or of Palestinians) to evaluate these figures and the panel concluded that the figures are actually somewhat higher. Seven years ago, our country has invaded and occupied Iraq costing us thousands of American lives and over a million Iraqi lives but also costing us an additional $3 trillion (see the book by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stieglitz and Kennedy School of Government professor Linda J. Bilmes, “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict”). That we attacked Iraq in contravention of the UN charter and at the behest of a group of neoconservative Zionists is now well established (see the book by Professors Mearsheimer and Walt on this Israel-first lobby). The same lobby is pushing us for conflict with Iran which other economists estimate will be even costlier (Iran has a size and population three times that of Iraq and its military is far more advanced than Iraq ever was even before the sanctions were applied to Iraq in the 1990s). In short, our support for Israel (even excluding conflict with Iran) has cost us more than half our national debt of $12 trillion. My administration wants to get our house in order and spend and live within our means. These desires shared by most of us must now be matched by actions and I call on us in the executive branch and on both houses of Congress to get together to effect a real change that will prevent any further erosion in our economic power and slowly begin to reclaim our rights.

On national security:

My fellow Americans....I was gratified to receive the Nobel Peace Prize but getting top peace is not an easy task when dealing with a history of wars and conflicts over the past 200 years. This is especially true when we in America had a large part to play in these wars and conflicts. In 1916, the first major European war was raging and had reached a deadly stalemate with trench warfare. Germany offered a deal to end the war and the parties returning to prewar borders. But our country was approached by a group of our own citizens who as part of the International World Zionist Organization have made a different deal with Britain and France. These citizens including one previous Supreme Court Judge pressured our government to enter the war on the side of the allies who promised the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine in return for this lobbying effort. Palestine then had a population that was 93% Christian and Muslim native Palestinians. The Jules (French) and Balfour (English) public declarations of support for the Zionist project were then adopted also by the US Congress under heavy Zionist pressure. Many humanistic Jews opposed the scheme that would collect them from around the world displacing native population. Despite the majority of the US public being against us entering that European first war, our government decided to go to war based on these narrow short-term political interests. After WWII, my predecessor President Truman decided to support the Zionist project for similar reasons. This only matched his decision to use atomic weapons that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of civilians even when he knew that surrender by Japan could have been achieved in other less deadly ways. Since 1945, we have used American military forces in over 40 countries killing millions. Today we have US troops stationed in three times as many countries. Our military uses most of our discretionary budget. We are now engaged in active hot conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Our military forces have also engaged in attacks in Somalia and Sudan in the last two years. It is not a coincidence that these are all countries in the Middle East that the domestic lobby called AIPAC has had a lot to say about long before the conflicts arose.

The security establishment now recognizes that our attacks on these countries did not enhance our security but degraded it in the long term and created a pool of millions who hate our policies. Since the events of Sept 11, 2001, the US has lost more credibility around the world as we failed to investigate the real reason behind these events or to draw the appropriate lessons. Instead our government chose to listen to foreign agendas and engage in brutal attacks on others who had nothing to do with Sept 11 using manufactured myths and propaganda that we are now resurrecting with respect to yet one more country- Iran. Surveys showed that even among our traditional allies in Western Europe, people believe the US and Israel (not Iran or North Korea) pose the most significant risk to world peace. My administration has done much to allay the fears of the rest of the world about US hegemony and intentions of unilateral dictates on their future. But our statements must be matched with actions on the ground which we have so far failed to achieve. We cannot address people’s legitimate concerns about US policy by public relations.

Addressing these challenges:

The conundrums created by the policies cited above cannot be solved by incremental changes like stimulus packages, healthcare reforms, shuffling some troops from one country to another, or closing Guantanamo (needed as these are). The American people and the world at large look for real change and it is time to listen to them instead of Washington lobbyists. I am laying out these principles that I believe are critical to begin to achieve the change we all seek:

1- I ask Congress to dissolve the Federal Reserve (a private unelected entity of Bankers) an institution that caused great pain in our country. The Government will print its own money and this money will return to being backed by Gold. We cannot continue down the same direction that already degraded the dollar value by 40% against the leading world currencies over the past few years.

2- I have invoked my right as a commander in chief and in compliance of US law that prohibit funding violators of human rights and issued an executive order that suspended all military and economic assistance to the state of Israel (now at $3 billion is our largest foreign aid recipient) until a) it complies with human rights and prosecutes all officers who committed human rights violations (especially those using US supplied weapons and finances) and b) it complies with all relevant United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions. I ask the American public to engage in discussion to expose the extent of financial loss caused to us by support of Israeli violations of these resolutions. Citizens have a right to demand transparency about who lobbies their congressional representatives and what decisions they make in Congress that benefits foreign powers at the expense of US citizens. Hillary Clinton had to step down as Secretary of State because of clear conflict of Interest issues that will be investigated involving the same foreign interests. I am pleased to report that Cynthia McKinney has accepted to be my nominee for Secretary of state.

3- I have instructed my Attorney General to create a task force to seek return and reimbursement to the American public from the World Zionist Organization and the State of Israel the massive transfer in wealth that occurred as a result of their activities especially when these activities were illegal under US laws (e.g. not registering under the congressional requirement of registration as foreign lobbies). There is now considerable evidence that the Zionist movement has accumulated hundreds of billions of dollars with schemes that are at best shady and at worst extortionist and illegal, it would be indeed possible using existing laws to seek a return of these assets. There is also evidence that some of these same money was recycled to spend on lobbying activities to and pressure tactics to get even more billions of dollars.

4- I have asked the Department of Defense to begin the process of withdrawing US troops from all 120 foreign countries they are stationed in (beginning with Afghanistan). Our budget prediction is that once this is accomplished we will be able to trim our defense budget in half saving tax payers hundreds of billions of dollars.

5- We will create two new national museums each with the same budget as the current National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. The museums will commemorate the genocides (holocausts) of Native Americans and of African Americans. This will begin to heal the wounds of our world and face-up to our own historical responsibilities.

6- Where we were wrong historically we must face up to it. I have thus asked ex-president Jimmy Carter and the group of elder statesmen to lead the creation of a "Truth and Reconciliation Department" with sections to deal with all outstanding issues including Vietnam, our war and Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. The commissions created under this Department will have jurisdictions to prosecute war criminals or refer them to the International Courts as legally appropriate.

7- We will no longer support dictators and corrupt leaders. We will demand removal of dictators like Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak who has been in office for over three decades with Western support. We will support democratic elections even when parties that get elected are not supportive of Israel or the previous US policy shaped in Tel Aviv. We will instead engage in immediate talks with groups like Hezbollah and Hamas and with countries like Venezuela and Iran to build a better future for all of us inequality and we will push for democracy and support of the will of the people even when this means resistance to Israeli hegemony. As John Kennedy stated once "If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable."

8- We must focus on the daunting real challenge of our planet not the manufactured crises that special interests want us to focus on. Thus, instead of confronting Iran, Venezuela, and other nations, I am now asking those nations to join us as equals on the table to discuss climate change and fair and equitable distribution of world resources. We will together invest in alternative energy and safeguard our joint environment. And we will eliminate nuclear weapons.

9- I urge our allies to use the example we set and face to the historical injustice they have committed (e.g. European Colonization in the Americas, Africa and Asia) so that we can put these issues behind us as we focus on other pressing issues.

These changes that provide practical solutions will be resisted by the same entrenched power that created the problems. We must be courageous enough to demand real change and implement it. We recall how in our nation’s history it was always people who made the change not politicians. It was the masses of people that gave the women's right to vote, and later achieved the pressure needed to realize the enactment of civil rights laws. It was massive people resistance that ended the war on Vietnam and ended US support for Apartheid South Africa. To these movements we are also grateful for the 40 hour week and for social security and for the support of education that allowed a person like me to be who we can be. I believe this is another pivotal moment in our history. As we rise to the challenge, our economical, political, and moral standing will begin to make a real turn around.

I stated before that these challenges and the changes they require are bigger than one government or one country alone can handle. People of various faiths and of all political and ethnic backgrounds are indeed joining together to address these issues. I know we can count on millions of you in America and millions abroad to join us in this historic struggle for a better future. Now is the time for real change. This is our moment. Join us. God bless you and God bless our planet.

[One can hope; if not Obama, then maybe another US president but only when and if more/enough US taxpayers wake –up to how they are being fleeced and cause the change... that is our responsibility...]

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD. A Bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home. http://qumsiyeh.org

By Mazin Qumsiyeh

It happened in October in Palestine (*)

October 1920: The Zionist ruler of Palestine and British official Herbert Samuel issues decrees that facilitate transfer of lands from natives to immigrants setting the stage for the beginning of the ethnic cleansing policies that continue to this day.

27 October 1933: Musa Kadhem AlHusaini (Mayor of Jerusalem who resigned rather than accept to implement he occupation dictates in 1920) was injured in a nonviolent demonstration protesting Zionist mass immigration in Jaffa. This injury hastened his death on March 27, 1934. AlHuaini was born 1853, spoke fluent Turkish, and served as an Ottoman administrator and then appointed Mayor of Jerusalem in 1918. He was later elected representative of Jerusalem to the 3rd (December 1920, Haifa), 5th (August 1922, Nablus), 6th (June 1923, Jaffa) and 7th (June 1928) Congress of the Arab Executive Committee and was its president from Dec. 1920.

7 October 1947: The newly established Arab League held a meeting at the Prime Ministers level to which the Arab High Committee was not invited because rulers of Jordan and Iraq who were trying to thwart Palestinian nationalism objected. Haj Amin AlHusseini made an uninvited appearance and none of the attendees had the courage to eject him. AlHusseini proposed formation of a Palestinian government in exile to replace the AHC but his suggestion was rejected (again by the delegates of Iraq and Jordan). From then on the Palestine question was being handled by Arab Countries, the UN, and the empowered and powerful Jewish Agency with Zionist lobbies around the world.

1 October 1948: The Arab High Committee convened a Palestine Congress in Gaza and elected a Palestine Government. A constitution was drafted and the delegates elected a cabinet led by Ahmed Hilmi Abul Baqi as Prime Minister and Haj Amin AlHusseini as first President. The nascent government was recognized by many countries including all Arab Countries with the exception of Trans-Jordan.

October, 1948: Beit Jibreen, a village midway between Hebron and Majdal (Ashkelon) was attacked and sacked by Zionist forces. Umm Ibrahim Shawabkeh, a refugee from the village stated: "I was 12 in 1948 when the Jews drove us out. We fled from the village when the soldiers came and started shooting people. My grandparents did not want to leave their home; they hid in a cave near the village and the soldiers found them and shot them."

October 1951: Israel rejects UN peace plan accepted by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Oct. 29, 1956: Israel invades and occupies the Gaza Strip and the Sinai peninsula with French and British collaboration. Backs down and withdraws after pressure from the US Administration (President Eisenhauer). The Zionist movement intensifies its efforts to establish effective lobbying in the US. The umbrella lobby group icalled American Israel Public Affairs Committee (established 1954) intensified its efforts with over 200 deceptively named groups to support Zionism (Delaware Valley PAC in Philadelphia, San Franciscans for Good Government in California, Cactus PAC in Arizona, Chili PAC in New Mexico, Beaver PAC in Wisconsin and even Ice PAC in New York are really pro-Israel PACs).

October 1973: Egyoptian and Syrian forces attack Israeli forces which were illegally occypying their land (Sinai and Golan respectively). The war could have bbeen won and the occupied lands liberated had it not been for US intervention in sending arms and intelligene and preventing the USSR from supporting the Arab armies.

14 October 1974: The UNGA recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people by a vote of 105 to 4 (US, Israel, Bolivia, Dominican Republic).

October 1987 and the start of the AlHijara Uprising: On 3 October 1987, demonstrations and strikes were held involving schools and colleges of the Gaza strip in protest of the killing by the Israeli occupation forces of three citizens near AlBureij refugee camp. These demonstrations were brutally attacked by Israeli soldiers which in turn led to more anger and more spreading of these demonstrations. On 8 October 1987, a number of demonstrations were held in cities, villages, and refugee camps in the Gaza strip after the killing of four Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces two days earlier. On 10 October 1987, demonstrations were held in many locations accompanied by strikes and 25 Palestinians were hit with live ammunitions. These demonstrations and strikes spread to the West Bank a women was killed and four injured in a peaceful demonstration in Al-Manara square in Ramallah on 12 October 1987. That murder prompted more demonstrations in the days that followed. Refugee camps in areas like Gaza Strip, Bethlehem, Nablus, East Jerusalem (Shufat refugee camp) had a leading role in these demonstrations. During the visit of US Secretary of State George Shultz to Jerusalem, a general strike was declared and a number of demonstrations were held in places like Jerusalem and Nablus with one youth murdered by the IOF. In one bloody incident the Israeli army attacked demonstrators in my current University (Bethlehem University) on the morning of Wednesday October 28, 1987 injuring 3 students with live ammunition one who died two days later with critical injuries (Ishaq Abusrour from Aida Refugee Camp). Subsequently, the occupying army ordered Bethlehem University to be closed for three months.

October 1989: Refusal to pay taxes to the occupation by residents of Beit Sahour (Shepherds' Field). The town was placed under siege and curfew while it was pillaged. Representatives of a number of European countries and church leaders attempted to visit the town but were turned back by the Israeli army but later managed to sneak in through a back road. The Palestinisn Center for Rapprochement Between People was founded. The ideas became the first inklings that led to the later formation of the International Solidarity Movement.

8 October 1990: Faisal Husseni penned this poem that captures the spirit of resistance after the massacres by Israeli forces attacked worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque

Oh God, the chest is replete with bitterness... do not turn that into spite.

Oh God, the heart is replete with pain, do not turn that into vengeance.

Oh God, the soul is replete with fear... do not turn that into hatred.

Oh God, my body is weak...do not turn my weakness into despair.

Oh God, I, your servant, am holding the embers... so, help me maintain my steadfastness.

Oh God, faith is love... Oh God, faith is forgiveness... Oh God, faith is conviction...

Oh God, do not put off the flame of faith in my chest.

Oh God, we wanted for the Intifada to be a white one, so protect it.

Oh God, we wanted freedom for our people; we did not want slavery for others.

Oh God, we wanted a homeland for our people to be gathered; we did not attempt to destroy states of others nor demolish their homes.

Oh God, our people is stripped of all, except for his belief in his right.

Oh God, our people is weak, except in his faith and in his victory.

Oh God, grant us conviction, mercy and tolerance in our ranks and do not make us war against ourselves.

Oh God, turn the blood that was shed into light that will guide us and strengthen our arms and do not turn it into fuel for hatred and vengeance.

Oh God, help us over our enemy so that we could help him reconcile with himself.

Oh God, this is my prayer to you... my invocation. So listen to it and grant us our supplication and guide us to the Straight Path.

October 1, 2000 a nonviolent demonstration by Palestinian citizens of Israel was targeted with a barrage of live ammunition from Israeli forces killing 12 civilians (including children).

October 29, 2008 the SS Dignity managed to get to Gaza again breaking the hermetic seal (later ships were attacked and crew kidnapped in acts of Israeli piracy).

*Copyright: part of an upcoming book on history of Palestinian civil resistance. Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home http://qumsiyeh.org

Image by: Carlos Latuff

By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

"Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right." Martin Luther King, Jr.

The power of the Israel lobby is waning in the public and in mass communications (media, books, etc) thanks to those who listen to their conscience. This will not impact the next elections since leading candidates in both major parties are still pledging allegiance to AIPAC. But whoever gets elected will soon realize that AIPAC's push for a war on Iran was the final treachery that will destroy what remains of the US's reputation (so far support for Israeli expansionism costs us over $2 TRILLION for wars and occupation of Iraq and Palestine and thousands of American lives). Evidence for this waning influence is everywhere where good people stand up for what is right. We can cite the failure of the lobby to silence or put a dent in the sales of books like Carter's "Palestine: Peace not apartheid" and Mearsheimer and Walt's "The Israel Lobby". Mearsheimer was even on the Colbert Report.

More evidence coming to light of results from people who follow their conscience rather than their fears:

# Chicago Tribune Special report. New revelations in attack on American spy ship: Veterans, documents suggest U.S., Israel didn't tell full story of deadly '67 incident By John Crewdson.
(letters can be sent to ctc-TribLetter@Tribune.com )

# "Jewish money" and the presidential candidates rush to support conflict with Iran: An excerpt from an Amy Goodman interview with Seymour Hersh (both have been labeled "self-hating Jews"):

AMY GOODMAN: Sy Hersh, I wanted to switch gears for the last question, and this has to do with it not just being Republicans who are sounding a drumbeat for war. The three leading Democratic presidential candidates -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards -- have all declared no options off the table. This is a clip from last week's Democratic debate. It was the day the Senate approved a controversial resolution calling on the State Department to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. At the debate, Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Gravel bitterly criticized Hillary Clinton for voting in favor.

MIKE GRAVEL: This is fantasyland. We're talking about ending the war. My god, we're just starting a war right today. There was a vote in the Senate today. Joe Lieberman, who authored the Iraq resolution, has authored another resolution, and it is essentially a fig leaf to let George Bush go to war with Iran. And I want to congratulate Biden for voting against it, Dodd for voting against it, and I'm ashamed of you, Hillary, for voting for it. You're not going to get another shot at this, because what's happened, if this war ensues, we invade, and they're looking for an excuse to do it. And Obama was not even there to vote.

TIM RUSSERT: Senator Clinton, I want to give you a chance to respond.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON: [laughter]

AMY GOODMAN: That was Hillary Clinton laughing. Fifteen seconds, Seymour Hersh. Your response?

SEYMOUR HERSH: Money. A lot of the Jewish money from New York. Come on, let's not kid about it. A significant percentage of Jewish money, and many leading American Jews support the Israeli position that Iran is an existential threat. And I think it's as simple as that. When you're from New York and from New York City, you take the view of -- right now, when you're running a campaign, you follow that line. And there's no other explanation for it, because she's smart enough to know the downside.

AMY GOODMAN: And Obama and Edwards?

SEYMOUR HERSH: I -- you know, it's shocking. It's really surprising and shocking, but there we are. That's American politics circa 2007.

AMY GOODMAN: Seymour Hersh, thank you very much for being with us, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist. His piece in the New Yorker is called "Shifting Targets: The Administration' s Plan for Iran."
[Source: Democracy Now]

# The lobby is partially successful where it bunches up on people who are not knowledgeable enough of the issues and when good people get silent (usually out of fear of being smeared with labels like "anti-Semitic" or "Self-hating Jews"). An example is the misinformed canceling of an event by Desmond Tutu (background here!)

Take Action: Join Jewish Voice for Peace in protesting the silencing of Bishop Desmond Tutu

(My own letter read: As a Palestinian Christian, I am appalled by your actions to bar Archbishop Desmond Tutu from speaking at your campus. Your succumbing to the minority - and they are a minority even within the Jewish community - Zionist position is shameful. Here is a link to over 100 Jewish led organizations who would disagree with the Zionist pressure to silence voices of peace.

Archbishop Tutu is a Nobel Peace Laureate with whose voice for justice will win against Israeli apartheid just as it did against South African Apartheid. I strongly urge you to reverse this decision, let Tutu appear and reinstate Prof.)

Update: University president reverses ban on Tutu

# And lest we are disconnected from reality of what is going on in Palestine, please read this account by Gideon Levy "The war for the house"

# AND IN AMERICA... "Israel's Toy Soldiers" By Chris Hedges

"If you are a young Muslim American and head off to the Middle East for a spell in a fundamentalist "madrassa," or religious school, Homeland Security will probably greet you at the airport when you return. But if you are an American Jew and you join hundreds of teenagers from Europe and Mexico for an eight-week training course run by the Israel Defense Forces, you can post your picture wearing an Israeli army uniform and holding an automatic weapon on MySpace."

# Jews for Ahmadinejad

"Just the facts Ma am, as Dragnet's Jack Webb used to say. When it comes to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad however, facts can be hard to find. We hope to present a few facts here that may have escaped your attention."

So "Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right." Martin Luther King, Jr."

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

An old saying in the fight against segregation in the South was "free your mind and your ass will follow". I was thinking about this in the past few days in several events that ranged from racists lecturing their audience about how muslims treat non-muslims to supposed peace gatherings that did not want to deal with violations of human rights and international law when it is done to Palestinians (too controversial! even though funded by our taxes) to gatherings of few dedicated activists discussing the growing (but still in its infancy) movement of boycotts, divestments, and sanctions. Hypocricy, racism, and infiltration of peace movements by government agents, racists and others is not new (read e.g. David Dellinger's book "From Yale to Jail" about the 1960s). But in this short article, I want to focus on something else, 70% of the US public thinks the invasion and occupation of Iraq was wrong, nearly 100% of Arabs and Muslims in America think both the occupation of Iraq and of Palestine are wrong. Yet of these millions few want to change their routine to effect change. I want to take time to address those who have yet to do so by asking them the question How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice? and till when will those who are silently observing (or cursing the darkness instead of lighting a candle) remain silent. But first, please take the time to review this very short vide on Gaza. It will change you even if you think you know what is going on: OCCUPATION 101: Gaza's Reality

So How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After all, it is about convenience. Fear of inconvenience permeates us. Our lives are commercialized (go shopping Bush told us after 9/11), sanitized from the suffering of others, routinized lest we encounter the unfamiliar, and stigmatized (both stigmatizing ourselves and others). All in all, avoiding what the Budhists call "having joyful participation in the sorrows of this world".

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After 60 years of ethnic cleansing, 6 million Palestinians refugees and displaced people. After 530 depopulated villages and towns and more land being confiscated daily (All done with Western governments direct and indirect support).

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After American-made Caterpillar bulldozers uprooted over 1 million olive and other fruiting trees. After colonial settlers (some of them soldiers) with US made M16 killed thousands of native civilians in their own lands including when the natives were protesting peacefully.

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After nearly $1 trillion of OUR taxes were sent to support the Israeli apartheid state (over $11 million daily) and some of it was circulated back to spread propaganda in America and gain the subservience of Congress with bribes (free trips, campaign donations, etc).

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After the lobby, lobby that was rated by Fortune magazine as third and sometimes fourth in power (and the first that advocates for a foreign state) with its tentacles in media and academia, after this lobby managed to get us into a war on Iraq that cost the lives of nearly 1 million people (and made 2 million refugees, a genocide 10 times the size of the atrocities in Darfur), After this lobby ramped up its campaign of lies and distortions about Iran to prepare us for another, even larger catastrophe.

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After an International Court of Justice ruling that the apartheid wall violates International Law, after Israel continues to violate dozens of UN security Council resolutions and hundreds of UN General Assembly resolutions. After our Israeli-Occupied US Congress violates US laws by funding those who persistently violate human rights and by issuing "resolutions" that are contrary to US laws and constitutional protections (e.g. on separation of religion and state).

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After our government held and tortured so many people without charges and without benefit of trial for years at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and countless secret prisons around the world.

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After Howard Zinn once wrote "you can't be neutral on a moving train" and countless books and literature (much of it available on the internet shows that you can't complain while feeding the beast that is devouring your brothers and sisters. Curse not the darkness, light a candle.

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

Will we be inconvenienced by working with those whom we do not agree with 100%? Will we be inconvenienced by having to argue for our positions, defend ourselves, speak truth to power? Will it be easier to just talk to the converted?

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

Will we be inconvenienced by demonstrating in Washington DC this Sunday (see endtheoccupation.org) instead of watching TV or whatever else we do? Will we be inconvenienced by taking time to write letters to editors, churches, and politicians? Will we be inconvenienced by picking up the phone to call them while not sure of the response? Will we be inconvenienced by engaging in boycotts, divestments, and sanctions, thus risking being called names ("anti-Semitic", "self-hating Jew", etc) by those who promote segregation, apartheid and racism? Will we be inconvenienced by taking matters into our own hands instead of waiting for Arab or American politicians (people becoming the leaders that politicians follow)?

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

And when death comes knocking on our door (as it inevitably will), will we remember how much time we spent at our jobs, petty lives, conveniences, fun? Or will we remember ...How willing were we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
---------------
Mazin Qumsiyeh

In the US, there is a saying that "two things are only certain in life: Death and Taxes".

Tax deadline in the US is traditionally on April 15, however, this year it was extended to April 17th because April 15th was a Sunday and Monday is public holidays.

Anyway, here are relevant facts and figures for US taxpayers:

• Percentage of US discretionary budget spent on education and other social services: 8%
• Percentage of US discretionary budget spent for military: 57% (but the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan are funded in supplementary budget requests so must be add to that!)
• US Military Budget as a percent of World total military expenditures: 49%
• Number of Americans classified as "food insecure" in 2004: 38 million
• Number of Americans without health insurance: 45 million
• Total direct aid to Israel 1948-2006: $255 billion
• Total Cost of US Support for Israel: $1.688 trillion (not counting money and lives lost in Israel propelled wars like Iraq, not counting loss of $trillions in business with the rest of the world because of US support for Israel etc)
• Federal aid for each resident in Louisiana in 2002 (from their taxes): $1,500
• Direct U.S. aid for each Israeli citizen in 2003 (per capita income in Israel-$16,710; they do not pay taxes to the US): $581
• Direct U.S. aid for each Ethiopian citizen in 2004 (per capita income in Ethiopia - $110): $2.50
• Percentage of U.S. foreign aid that goes to Israel: 27%
• Population of Israel as percentage of total world population: 0.1%
• Number of Palestinian minors killed by Israeli security forces (2000-2007): 814
• Total number of Palestinians injured or killed (September 2000-April 2007): 31,296
• Number of bullets fired by Israeli security forces in the first week of the second Intifada: 1,300,000
• Number of unexploded Israeli bombs strewn across South Lebanon after the 2006 war: 1,000,000 or 1.4 per resident

If you need more info on how your government spent your taxes, check out this:
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=286&Itemid=61

Action: Tell Your Rep. TODAY: No More Money for Bush's War!

[Source: Mazin Qumsiyeh, Image by Ben Heine]

Update From Beit Hanoun: (IsraelNN.com) According to an updated Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) report quoting medical officials in northern Gaza, over 20 civilians have been killed in the Beit Hanoun area from an Israeli Terrorist Army shell attack, including children and elderly residents.

This morning only, Israel killed 19 Palestinians in Gaza, including 14 Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli tank fire. Women and children were among the dead in the Gaza Strip. The total number of Martyrs in the last 7 days is over 70.

Do you still need any more proofs that "Israeli IS a Terrorist State lead by ELECTED Terrorist"?

Isn't it time for your action?

Alert From the The Palestinian American Congress http://www.pac-national.org

Since the Israeli "redeployment" from Gaza on August 20, 2005, Israeli occupation troops killed 694 Palestinians and wounded four thousand and is literally starving the Gaza strip. Israel also took advantage of media preoccupation with midterm elections to commit new war crimes including large scale home demolitions and indiscriminate firing on peaceful demonstrators. The atrocities of the last few days could intensify unless we focus attention on them and insist they be covered by the media and stopped immediately. Palestinians have also called for an international week of action against apartheid, against the wall, and against the ghettoization of Palestine for November 9-16 (see http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1328.shtml )

Please write about this subject to all national and local media outlets as well as to all elected officials (including newly elected officials). Some media contacts can be found here:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/contact/media.asp or using this link
http://capwiz.com/adc/dbq/media

Background to use in your letters/communications:

Electronic Intifada reports on the situation
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5973.shtml
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5951.shtml
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5939.shtml
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5927.shtml

Beit Hannoun women show the way
http://www.thepencil.org/index.php?categoryid=18&p2003_articleid=41

Gideon Levy on Israel's actions
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/783711.html

Amy Goodman Interview with Jennifer Lowenstein from Gaza. Casualties Mount in New Israeli Attack on Gaza, Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/02/1451201

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main....Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." John Donne.
[Hat tip: Mazin Qumsiyeh]