Sabbah Report » March

Palestinian people power – could it be a game-changer?

Alan Hart — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 06:14:27 +0000

By Alan Hart * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Because Israel's leaders prefer land to peace and there's nothing any American president can do about that so long as the Zionist lobby and its stooges in Congress call the shots on U.S. policy for Israel/Palestine, it's obvious that the Palestinians have nothing to gain, only more to lose, from politics and diplomacy. So what, really, can they do themselves to press their claim for an acceptable minimum amount of justice? (By definition an acceptable minimum amount of justice requires a complete end to Israel's 1967 occupation with provision for Jerusalem to be an open, undivided city and the capital of two states).

Way back in the early 1980′s, Major General (then retired) Shlomo Gazit, the best and the brightest of Israel's former Directors of Military Intelligence, said the following to me in a private conversation. "If we (Israel's Jews) had been the Palestinians, we'd have had our mini state long ago." He meant that they would have played the terror card. Simply stated (he knew he didn't have to spell it out to me), they would bombed Israeli government offices and commercial centres and properties of all kinds and blasted transport and other communication facilities to cause maximum disruption and destruction.

And they would have done so knowing that their terrorism, provided it was ruthless enough and sustained, would be effective, would eventually cause many Israeli Jews to say to their government, "We've had enough, do a deal with the Palestinians." (They would also have had the evidence of their own experience to go on. In 1947/48, mainly by terrorism, they drove out first the occupying British and then about 800,000 Arabs).

Though all governments deny it, a truth is that terrorism does work provided it is ruthless enough and sustained. And there's no mystery about why. In many countries, especially those in which citizens are free to express their thoughts and feelings (the so-called democracies), there are limits to the amount terror-created disruption and mayhem the soft underbelly of public opinion will tolerate. All politicians know this.

There's a case for saying that the Palestinians might have had some real bargaining power if they had played the terror card effectively at an early point in Israel's occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip (as the Zionists would have done if they had been the Palestinians). Arguably a good time to have played it would have been after the UN Security Council caved in to Zionist-driven American pressure and came up with a resolution, 242, which effectively put Zionism in the diplomatic driving seat. It did so by refusing to condemn Israel as the aggressor, by not demanding its immediate withdrawal from occupied Arab territories and by allowing it to attach conditions to its withdrawal. As I have explained in previous articles and my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, the Security Council should have put Israel on notice that it would be subjected to sanctions and diplomatic isolation if it settled occupied territory.

Today, and even if they wanted it, the Palestinians do not have a terror option. And again there's no mystery about why. In addition to the blockade of the Gaza Strip and checkpoints which are in place partly to humiliate the Palestinians who must pass or seek to pass through them, Israel's state-of-the-art surveillance makes it almost impossible for Palestinians on the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip open prison to have conversations which are not electronically bugged or listened to by one means or another. Palestinian organizations and groups are also riddled with informers, mostly Palestinian men who become Israeli intelligence assets in order to protect their women. The proposition often put to those who become informers is that if they don't do what Israel wants, their mothers/wives/sisters will be rapped.

Simply stated there is not an environment in which the occupied and oppressed Palestinians could organize and execute a sustained terror campaign.

So if the Palestinians have nothing to gain from politics and diplomacy and don't have a terror option, what can they do?

In theory their best weapon is their very existence and the demographic time-bomb it represents, but… It's reasonable to assume that Israel will continue to work on defusing it by means which could go all the way to a final round of ethnic cleansing.

It was Sharon as prime minister who started the work of defusing the demographic time-bomb of occupation by ordering the withdrawal of Israeli settlers and IDF forces from the Gaza Strip. At the time, and with the assistance of the mainstream Western media which (generally speaking) is terrified of offending Zionism either too much or at all, it was presented as Sharon seeking to advance the peace process. That was Zionist propaganda nonsense.

According to a recent report in Ha'aretz by Barak Ravid, even Netanyahu has now accepted that Israel must make some withdrawals from the occupied West Bank "if it is to preserve a solid Jewish majority inside the State of Israel." After his return from America that's what he told a shocked cabinet meeting when he presented to it a report by the Jewish People Policy Institute on demographic changes among Jews and Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank. The report was based on the demographic data of Prof. Sergio DellaPergola which shows that, in a number of years, the demographic trends will result in a Palestinian majority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

So very probably the time is approaching when Netanyahu, if he can overcome the opposition of some of his lunatic cabinet colleagues, will announce Israel's intention to make some limited withdrawals from the occupied West Bank. He will present them as "painful concessions" on Israel's part and proof that it is serious about peace. The truth will be rather different. The withdrawals, if they happen, will be for one purpose and one purpose only – defusing the demographic time-bomb of occupation in order to preserve a solid Jewish majority in a somewhat reduced Greater Israel, a Zionist state with borders taking in about 40% of the West Bank including all of Jerusalem.

As things are and look like going, that (about 60% of the West Bank with bits and pieces of pre-1967 Israeli land thrown in under the heading of "swaps") is the best deal the Palestinians are ever likely to be offered by any Zionist leadership; and it is, of course, totally unacceptable. So back to the main question – What, really, can the Palestinians do themselves to get some bargaining power?

The answer I want to float came into my mind when I was reading a recent column by Uri Avnery. He was writing about the "nightmare" that has haunted Israel since 1948. What is it? "The 750,000 refugees and their descendents, some five million by now, will one day get up and march to the borders of Israel from North, East and South, breach the fences and flood the country."

In my view getting up and marching to the borders of pre-1967 Israel is what the Palestinians should now do, and not only the Palestinians of the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip prison camp. They should be joined by Palestinian refugees from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. To guarantee peaceful proceedings on their part, the Palestinian marchers should be completely unarmed – not only no guns, but no stones.

Of course Israel would seek to prevent it happening by banning Palestinians assembling in numbers on the West Bank and, also, by threatening the frontline Arab states with reprisal attacks and even war if they allowed Palestinians in numbers to enter I967 Israeli occupied Arab land from their territories. But with effort and commitment on the part of the Palestinians it could be made to happen.

Just imagine it… Several hundred thousand or better still one or two million Palestinians or more marching peacefully to the 1967 borders.

For what purpose? When they got as far as they could go, they would demand that the governments of the world do whatever is necessary to oblige Israel to stop defying international law and end its illegal occupation of the West Bank and its criminal blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Such an event would demand and command the attention of the world's media, and it's by no means impossible that the coverage would light a fire of understanding throughout the Western world; understanding of the fact that the nuclear-armed Zionist state of Israel is the aggressor, the land thief and the oppressor and that the Palestinians are its victims. Such a fire, if it was lit, could trigger a people power response in the Western nations that would make it impossible for Western governments, even the one in Washington D.C., to go on supporting Israel right or wrong.

If Israel's leaders were stupid enough to order the IDF to break up and disperse the Palestinian marchers by shooting to kill, there would be a bloodbath. In that event it's possible, in my view probable, that the fire of understanding the Palestinians had lit in the Western world would become an inferno of anti-Israelism that would force Western governments, including the one in Washington D.C., to call and hold the Zionist state to account for its crimes.

Though it would further isolate Israel and America, I don't think a UN General Assembly resolution recognizing a Palestinian state in 1967 borders would change the facts on the ground. But if a vote in the General Assembly was taken against the background of the demonstration of Palestinian people power as outlined above, that could be a game-changer.

* Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle East. Author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews. He blogs on www.alanhart.net and tweets on www.twitter.com/alanauthor

Gaza Freedom March Set for Minneapolis on Dec. 30 and for Gaza on Dec. 31

SR Editor — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:10:25 +0000

By Coleen Rowley (Former FBI Special Agent) | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Gandhi said that the purpose of nonviolent action is to "quicken" the conscience of humankind. Citizens of Minnesota are called upon to stand in solidarity with an expected 1,300 International Peace Activists (including a number of Minnesotans) from over 40 countries marching in Gaza-to lift the inhumane siege of Gaza and to align ourselves with International Law and on the side of human rights.

Many Minnesotans who cannot afford the actual trip to Gaza are planning a parallel march that will take place in the sky ways of downtown Minneapolis. We will meet at the Hennepin County Government Plaza (2nd floor) at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, December 30th and will proceed into the sky ways from there. People are encouraged to bring children as we would like the nearly 1 million children in Gaza to be symbolically represented.

No one has better explained the importance of this historic action on a human rights level than one of the Minnesotans going to Gaza, Sylvia Schwarz, in her recent commentary, excerpted below:

Human rights: not to be entrusted to governments (excerpt from MinnPost "Community Voices" by Sylvia Schwarz | Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009)

The movement is gathering steam since Operation Cast Lead beginning in December of 2008. Israel framed this as a "defensive operation," but in reality it was an offensive assault on the Palestinians in Gaza. Even before the assault Israel maintained a siege on Gaza -- which, according to human-rights agencies, led to a humanitarian crisis. While Israel is not currently bombing Gaza, the siege continues to this day. Normal activities: farming, fishing, attending school, buying groceries, and earning a living, are impossible for Gazans. Construction materials are denied entry into Gaza so that no rebuilding has been possible after the massive destruction of the civilian infrastructure.

Investigations discounted; people galvanized Israel and pro-Israeli groups in the United States discounted all investigations into war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead, including the Goldstone Report, as biased against Israel. With typical near unanimity, the House of Representatives condemned the Goldstone Report in H.R. 867, assuring that it will not be brought before the U.N. Security Council.

But rejecting investigations, rather than inflicting amnesia, has galvanized people worldwide. Many church groups, labor unions, universities, and other organizations within Europe and the United States are now calling for BDS and for further actions and demonstrations to force the end of Israeli repression and human rights abuses.

On Dec. 27, 2009, one year after the start of Operation Cast Lead, an international delegation of more than 500 people from 35 countries and 32 US states (including several people from Minnesota) will cross into Gaza on the border with Egypt. They will meet with Palestinians, U.N. agencies, and NGOs working in the Gaza Strip. On Dec. 31, the delegation, along with thousands of Palestinians, in the spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., will march toward the Erez crossing in a nonviolent expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people and an effort to end the brutal siege of Gaza. Simultaneously, others will peacefully demonstrate in cities around the world.

Finally, people who have been despairing of ever seeing an end to Israeli human-rights abuses have effective grassroots tools to force governments to act morally. These actions -- the Gaza Freedom March and boycott, divestment and sanctions -- are the beginning of the end of the human rights abuses in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

We are also contacting Egyptian Consulate and Embassy officials (as well as our Minnesota Senators Klobuchar and Franken) to ask for Egypt's assistance in safely allowing the 1300 international human rights activists peaceful crossing into Gaza from Rafah. (Sample letter below--contact info is: Egyptian Consulate in Chicago tel # 312 828-9162; fax # 312 828-9167; Egyptian Embassy in Washington D.C. [contact person is Omar Youssef] tel# 202 895-5400 or easier to click "Tell Egypt: Don't Block International Gaza Freedom March!" at Just Foreign Policy).

Dear Egyptian Embassy officials:

My husband and I are writing and calling to express our full support for the December 31, 2009 Gaza Freedom March. Several Minnesotans have already made travel plans and are planning on participating. So we urge the Egyptian government to allow the 1,300 international delegates to enter the Gaza Strip through Egypt.

The aim of the march is to call on Israel to lift the siege. The delegates will also take in badly needed medical aid, as well as school supplies and winter jackets for the children of Gaza.

Please, let this historic March proceed without difficulties! Thank you.

Coleen Rowley, Apple Valley, Minnesota

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUBARAK FROM THE GAZA FREEDOM MARCH

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:12:49 +0000

December 26, 2009

Dear President Mubarak;

We, representing 1,362 individuals from 43 countries arriving in Cairo to participate in the Gaza Freedom March, are pleading to the Egyptians and your reputation for hospitality.

We are peacemakers. We have not come to Egypt to create trouble or cause conflict. On the contrary. We have come because we believe that all people -- including the Palestinians of Gaza -- should have access to the resources they need to live in dignity. We have gathered in Egypt because we believed that you would welcome and support our noble goal and help us reach Gaza through your land.

As individuals who believe in justice and human rights, we have spent our hard-earned, and sometimes scarce, resources to buy plane tickets, book hotel rooms and secure transportation only to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza living under a crushing Israeli blockade.

We are doctors, lawyers, students, academics, poets and musicians. We are young and old. We are Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists and secular. We represent civil society groups in many countries who coordinated this large project with the civil society in Gaza.

We have raised tens of thousands of dollars for medical aid, school supplies and winter clothing for the children of Gaza. But we realize that in addition to material aid, the Palestinians of Gaza need moral support. We came to offer that support on the difficult anniversary of an invasion that brought them so much suffering.

The idea of the Gaza Freedom March-a nonviolent march to the Israeli Erez crossing-- emerged during one of our trips to Gaza in May, a trip that was kindly facilitated by the Egyptian government. Ever since the idea emerged, we have been talking to your government through your embassies overseas and directly with your Foreign Ministries. Your representatives have been kind and supportive. We were asked to furnish information about all the participants-passports, dates of birth, occupations-which we have done in good faith. We have answered every question, met every request. For months we have been working under the assumption that your government would facilitate our passage, as it has done on so many other occasions. We waited and waited for an answer.

Meanwhile, time was getting short and we had to start organizing. Travel over the Christmas season is not easy in the countries where many of us live. Tickets have to be purchased weeks, if not months, in advance. This is what all 1,362 individuals did. They spent their own funds or raised money from their communities to pay their way. Add to this the priceless time, effort and sacrifice by all these people to be away from their homes and loved ones during their festive season.

In Gaza, civil society groups--students, unions, women, farmers, refugee groups--have been working nonstop for months to organize the march. They have organized workshops, concerts, press conferences, endless meetings--all of this with their own scarce resources. They have been buoyed by the anticipated presence of so many global citizens coming to support their just cause.

If the Egyptian government decides to prevent the Gaza Freedom March, all this work and cost is lost.

And that's not all. It is practically impossible, this late in the game, to stop all these people from travelling to Egypt, even if we wanted to. Moreover, most have no plans in Egypt other than to arrive at a predetermined meeting point to head together to the Gaza border. If these plans are cancelled there will be a lot of unjustified suffering for the Palestinians of Gaza and over a thousand internationals who had nothing in mind but noble intentions.

We plead to you to let the Gaza Freedom March continue so that we can join the Palestinians of Gaza to march together on December 31, 2009.

We are truly hopeful that we will receive a positive response from you and thank you for your assistance.

Tighe Barry, Gaza Freedom March coordinator
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK, USA
Olivia Zemor, Euro-Palestine, France
David Torres, ECCP, Belgium
Germano Monti, Forum Palestine, Italy
Ziyaad Lunat, Gaza Freedom March, Europe
Ehab Lotayef, Gaza Freedom March, Canada
Alessandra Mecozzi, Action for Peace-Italy
Ann Wright, Gaza Freedom March coordinator
Kawthar Guediri, Collectif National pour une Paix Juste et Durable entre Palestinens et Israeliens, France
Mark Johnson, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Thomas Sommer, Focus on The Global South, India

Egypt allow humanitarian group Viva Palestina to enter Gaza

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:26:02 +0000

Press release: Government of Egypt changes policy to allow humanitarian group Viva Palestina to enter Gaza December 27, 2009

Gaza Freedom March congratulates the Government of Egypt on its change of policy to allow international missions into Gaza during December with the decision to allow the Viva Palestina convoy to go into Gaza on December 27, 2009.

Organizers of Gaza Freedom March were told on December 20, 2009 by Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials that no international missions would be allowed to enter Gaza during December, including the Gaza Freedom March, because of serious security conditions at the border.

Today, December 23, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told Gaza Freedom March organizers that the decision had been made to alter its policy because of the â€œhumanitarian assistanceâ€ nature of Viva Palestina.

Since the Gaza Freedom March is also bringing in humanitarian assistance items valued at tens of thousands of dollars and the border is now considered safe, Gaza Freedom March will make a formal request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on December 24, that that Government of Egypt reconsider the request of the Gaza Freedom March for entry of its 1360 delegates from 42 countries into Gaza through the Rafah crossing on December 27.

Marchers and their friends have been flooding Egyptian embassies throughout the world with calls and emails. Embassies throughout Europe, the United States and Canada have told callers that they have been flooded with telephone calls from persons asking that the Gaza Freedom March be allowed into Gaza. Members of the Canadian, German, Swiss, French, Greek and Filipino Parliaments have written letters, as well as the Irish Minister of Defense, asking the Egyptian government to allow the march to proceed.

The Gaza Freedom March has families of three generations, doctors, lawyers, diplomats, 100 students, an interfaith group that includes rabbis, priests and imams, a women's delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas who have never seen their families in Gaza.

We have large delegations from the U.S., France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Greece, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands and Japan. We also have delegations from Sweden, Turkey, India, Ireland, Switzerland, Jordan, Morocco, Denmark, Lebanon, Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Tunisia, Algeria, Philippines, South Korea, Bahrain, Bosnia, Israel, New Zealand, Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Indonesia, Libya, Mexico, Mauritius, Romania and Serbia.

For more information see www.gazafreedommarch.org , especially Questions and Answers section, or contact:

In Cairo: Ann Wright 019 508 1493 microann@yahoo.com
In Canada: Sandra Ruch 416-716-4010 miriamswell@hotmail.com
In the US: Medea Benjamin 415-235-6517 medea@globalexchange.org
In Gaza: Haider Eid 970 599 441 766 haidareid@yahoo.com
In Europe (Portugal): Ziyaad Lunat +351938349206 z.lunat@googlemail.com

Gaza Freedom March is Determined to Break the Siege

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:03:23 +0000

Citing escalating tensions on the Gaza-Egypt border, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry informed us on December 20 that the Rafah border will be closed over the coming weeks, into January. We responded that there is always tension at the border because of the siege and that if there are any risks, they are risks we are willing to take. We also said that it was too late for over 1,360 delegates coming from over 42 countries to change their plans now.

Although we consider this as a setback, it is something weâ€™ve encounteredâ€”and overcome--before. No delegation, large or small, that has entered Gaza over the past 12 months has received a final OK before arriving at the Rafah border. Most delegations were discouraged from even heading out of Cairo to Rafah. Some had their buses stopped on the way. Some have been told outright that they could not go into Gaza. But after public and political pressure, the Egyptian government changed its position and let them pass.

Our efforts and plans will not be altered at this point. We have set out to break the siege of Gaza and to march in Gaza on December 31 against the international blockade. We are continuing the journey.

Egyptian embassies and missions all over the world will be hearing by phone, fax and email from delegates and the supporters of the Gaza Freedom March over the coming crucial days, with the clear message: Let the international delegation enter Gaza and let the Gaza Freedom March proceed.

Many delegates are already in Cairo and more are arriving daily. Delegates cancelled holiday plans months ago to come on the Gaza Freedom march and air tickets were purchased. We anticipate that virtually all of the 1,360 delegates will come to Cairo.

Because of the incredible humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the Israeli attack on Gaza a year ago and by the international siege on Gaza, we feel morally obligated to continue our mission to bring more international attention to the plight of the 1.5 million people imprisoned in Gaza.

For more information:
Ann Wright: microann@yahoo.com
019 508 1493 (cairo)

Medea Benjamin: medea@globalexchange.org
US +1.415-235-6517, Cairo 0189561919

Ehab Lotayef : lotayef@gmail.com
Canada +1.514.941.9792 Cairo 017 638-2628

Haidar Eid: haidareid@yahoo.com
Gaza +972 599 441 766

The Gaza Freedom March

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:23:18 +0000

On December 31, 2009, up to one-thousand citizens from across the world will gather in Gaza to march from the neighborhood of Iazbat Abu Drabo, a community in which nearly every building was completely destroyed during Israelâ€™s attack on Gaza one year ago, to the Erez border crossing into Israel. The international marchers will be joined by an estimated 50,000 Palestinians from Gaza. At the same time, Israeli and Palestinian activists will be marching through Israel, also toward the Erez crossing. Upon reaching the border, participants on both sides will release balloons, fly kites and wave flags to demonstrate their solidarity with one another. They will do so to "show the residents of Gaza that the international community of citizens has not forgotten them" and to "call worldwide attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis." Through the march and other activities, organizers "hope to force the leaders of our governments to tell Israel 'enough is enough; open the borders!â€™" This innovative and powerful expression of nonviolent resistance to the blockade of Gaza is known as the Gaza Freedom March.

According to Madea Benjamin, an organizer of the Gaza Freedom March and co-founder of CodePink, "The response to this march has been incredible. We put out a call, and people all over the world responded. We now have over 1,000 people coming from 42 countries-from Austria to Yemen. We have students and seniors, judges and doctors, businesspeople and union reps. We have imams, rabbis and priests. And inside Gaza, this march has helped galvanize civil society. We are grateful that on the one year anniversary of the Israeli invasion, we will be in Gaza to show the people that we have not forgotten them-that we will continue to struggle with them, until they achieve their basic rights."

The Gaza Freedom March has been endorsed by such notables as author Alice Walker, film director Oliver Stone, Dr. Patch Adams and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. Walker and Adams have themselves visited the Gaza Strip in the last year. In her blog, Walker explained her motivation for going to Gaza: "[In the days following the assault,] I waited to hear some word of regret, of grief, of compassion, from our leaders in Washington, who had sent the money, the earnings of American taxpayers, to buy the bombs destroying [their] world. What little concern voiced from our 'leadersâ€™ was faint, arrived late, was delivered without much feeling, and was soon overshadowed by an indifference to the value of Palestinian life that has corrupted our childrenâ€™s sense of right and wrong for generations."

Participants in the Gaza Freedom March are adding their voices to those who have gone before. Attorney Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, said, "For too long, and I do not exempt myself, most of us have stood silently by or made only marginal protests about the massive violations of Palestinian rights carried out by Israel." Mike Hearington, a member of Veterans for Peace from Georgia, told March organizers, "By my presence I hope to demonstrate to the people of Gaza my concern and compassion for their plight. As a U.S. citizen, Iâ€™m appalled that we provide the military support to Israel that results in such death and destruction in Palestine. As a Veterans for Peace member, I have the responsibility to serve the cause of world peace."

But Gael Murphy, a longtime activist with CodePink and a member of the Gaza Freedom March Policy Committee, explains that the march is more than a singular act of solidarity. She told AAPER, "Organizing for the march has helped to raise the visibility of the unjust situation in Gaza. In promoting the march we've created new opportunities for education and activism. Recruitment for the march has brought in new activists and deeper commitment to the Palestinian cause. Americans marching with Palestinians in Gaza on December 31 can only expand our possibilities for achieving greater wisdom and fairness in U.S. policy, including demanding greater accountability from Israel. People to people delegations like this serve to energize the struggle, moving us that much closer to ending the blockade."

*Organizations and individuals around the world are planning solidarity actions and events in their towns throughout the week of December 27th, as communities commemorate the one year anniversary of the assault on Gaza. To find or organize an event in your area, please visit http://www.gazafreedommarch.org