Category: In the Media

Activist’s parents recall Palestinian strife

By Tony Lystra
Gazette-Times reporter
Originally published in the Corvallis Gazette-Times

Corvallis crowd hears legacy of nonviolent stance

When Rachel Corrie was 2, she looked up at her mother and asked an unsettling question: “Mom,” she said, “Is brave part of growing up?”

More than two decades later, just before her 24th birthday, Rachel was mowed down by an Israeli military bulldozer as she tried to protect a Palestinian home from destruction.

On Tuesday, her parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie, of Olympia, Wash., spoke at the First United Methodist Church in Corvallis about their daughter, her legacy of nonviolent protest and a Palestinian people who soldier on in the face of the Israeli occupation.

Rachel, Cindy Corrie said, stood for “the right of Palestinians and Israelis to be secure in their homes, in their restaurants and on their buses.”

The Corries said their daughter was inspired by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to become involved in the international peace movement, and she soon decided to visit the Palestinian territories.

Rachel settled in Rafah, a small town on the Egyptian border, which Cindy Corrie described as “the most forsaken part of the occupied territories.”

On Tuesday, the Corries showed video footage of their daughter standing on a rooftop, talking about what she had seen in Rafah.

“Children have been shot and killed,” she said.

The Israeli forces destroyed more than half of Rafah’s water supply, she continued. And people there were “economically devastated” by the closure of borders.

“What I’m witnessing here is a very systematic destruction of people’s ability to survive,” Rachel said.

On March 16, 2003, Rachel stood in front of a Rafah house, trying to save it and the family inside from an Israeli bulldozer.

The house, the Corries explained, was right on the border with Egypt, where the Israeli government was constructing a large, steel wall.

In the wake of her daughter’s death, Cindy Corrie said she could hear Rachel’s voice: “Get moving, mom.” And so she and her husband have made several trips to the region and begun talking publicly about the plight of people in the Palestinian territories.

In a presentation that was highly critical of Israeli and U.S. policy, the Corries talked of the warm hospitality of Palestinian families. They showed photos of smiling Palestinian children and their grinning grandmothers.

They also showed photos of Israeli bulldozers as they smashed houses.

“Craig and I believe it was our tax dollars that bought the Caterpillar that killed our daughter,” Cindy Corrie said.

Only a small portion of the homes destroyed by Israeli bulldozers are punishment for suicide bombings, she said. Many others are knocked down because, although Palestinians own the land upon which the buildings sit, Palestinian families have had difficulty getting permits to build there.

The couple also showed photos of Israeli checkpoints, walls and chain-link fences.

The Corries made little mention of the reasons Israelis build these walls, including the steel barrier blocking Rafah from Egypt. But a January International Herald Tribune story said that, during the last 25 years, arms smugglers have dug dozens of tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

“Through them have come most of the weapons that fill this narrow Palestinian territory, threatening Israel and Palestinians themselves,” the Tribune reported.

Still, the Corries praised the efforts of nonviolent peace activists in the Occupied Territories, particularly a village called Bi’lin where Jews, Muslims and others from all over the world were gathering to peacefully protest the destruction.

“Something sensational is going on there,” Cindy Corrie said.

Help Respond to Inflammatory Attack on Nonviolent Solidarity Groups

PMWATCH ACTION CALL
02/13/2006
Op-ed libels PSM/ISM
mobilize NOW!
1-866-DIAL-PMW

PMWATCH – February 13, 2006 — On Sunday, February 12, 2006, the Washington Post published a defamatory op-ed by two academics, Eric Adler and Jack Langer, calling for the cancellation of the upcoming Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) conference at Georgetown University and accusing the PSM of being a “dangerous”, “pro-terrorist organization”.

The authors also used their forum to disparage the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and claimed that the ISM purposefully puts the lives of young international activists at risk in order to attract media to the Palestinian cause.

“Tragically,” the authors write, “the group got its wish in 2003, when ISM member Rachel Corrie, 23, was killed while trying to block Israeli bulldozers from demolishing Palestinian houses in Gaza.” It does take a certain special kind of chutzpah to cynically exploit Rachel Corrie’s killing to accuse the ISM of cynically manipulating its activists!

Please write to the Washington Post and share with them your thoughts on the ISM/PSM and the underhanded attacks they have endured from a crowd in whose eyes Israel can do no wrong, no matter how criminally they behave. Letters may be sent to letters@washpost.com

A copy of the Washington Post editorial is at the bottom of this post.

ISM and PSM talking points:

* The PSM and ISM are on the side of international law and numerous UN resolutions blatantly violated by decades of Israeli Occupation.

* The FBI does not consider the PSM to be a terrorist organization nor does any other government agency in the US or abroad.

* Divestment is a non-violent way to oppose Israel’s ever-expanding colonization of the West Bank.

* Communities in Norway and Ireland have taken steps to divest from Israeli interests.

* The PSM is joined in its call for divestment from mainline Christian churches, university faculty unions and student governments around the country.

* South African Jews such as Ronnie Kasrils, Max Ozinsky have highlighted the similarities between Israel’s system of control over Palestinians to South African Apartheid, as have respected South
African leaders, such as Bishop Desmond Tutu.

* Calls for divestment have come from Israeli University professors, like Ilan Pappe, and from well-respected human rights lawyers, such as Shamai Leibowitz.

* The Israeli government has not declared ISM an illegal organization.

* ISM works with several groups who advocate for a just peace in Palestine: Rabbis for Human Rights, The Christian Peacemakers Team, International Women’s Peace Service and the Israeli Committee
Against House Demolitions.

* One of ISM’s founders, Dr. Ghassan Andoni was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize along with Jeff Halper, co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition.

For tips on writing letters, go to:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/tools/T_WritingLetters.asp

Please also feel free to share with us your letters or a summary of your conversations with editors at letters@pmwatch.org

You can also call us at: (866) DIAL-PMW

Palestine Media Watch
info@pmwatch.org
(866) DIAL-PMW
http://www.pmwatch.org/

===

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/02/11/AR2006021101014.html

Why Is Georgetown Providing a Platform for This Dangerous Group?

Sunday, February 12, 2006; B08

This month Georgetown University plans to host the annual conference of an anti-Israel propaganda group called the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM). The PSM certainly is controversial. It is also dangerous.

The purported aim of the PSM is to encourage divestment from Israel. To this end, its conferences boast a cavalcade of anti-Israel speakers whose speeches often degenerate into anti-Semitism. At the 2004 conference at Duke University in North Carolina, for example, keynote speaker Mazin Qumsiyeh referred to Zionism as a “disease.” Workshop leader Bob Brown deemed the Six-Day War “the Jew War of ’67.” Not to be outdone, Nasser Abufarha praised the terrorist activities of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The PSM maintains that it is a separate organization from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which sends foreign students to the West Bank and Gaza to foment anti-Israeli sentiment.

All the same, the two groups seem to have intimate ties. At the 2004 PSM conference, for instance, the International Solidarity Movement ran a recruitment meeting called “Volunteering in Palestine: Role and Value of International Activists.” In that session, the organization’s co-founder, Huwaida Arraf, distributed recruitment brochures and encouraged students to enlist in the ISM, which, she acknowledged, cooperates with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Another ISM co-founder, George Rishmawi, told the San Francisco Chronicle in a July 14, 2004, news story why his group recruits student volunteers.

“When Palestinians get shot by Israeli soldiers, no one is interested anymore,” he said. “But if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.”

Tragically, the group got its wish in 2003, when ISM member Rachel Corrie, 23, was killed while trying to block Israeli bulldozers from demolishing Palestinian houses in Gaza. The Israelis said the houses were covering tunnels used to smuggle weapons.

Nor is this an ancillary part of the PSM’s mission. In the aftermath of the 2004 PSM meeting, conference organizer Rann Bar-On — who is an ISM member — informed the Duke student newspaper, “I personally consider the Palestine Solidarity Movement conference a huge success, as it brought about a tripling of the number of Duke students visiting Israel-Palestine this year, making Duke the most represented American university in the West Bank this summer.” By Bar-On’s own admission, recruitment into the ISM is the PSM’s raison d’etre.

In agreeing to host the PSM from Feb. 17 to Feb. 19, Georgetown can’t even claim that its regard for free speech and expression trumps all. In 2005 the university’s conference center refused to host an anti-terrorism conference sponsored by America’s Truth Forum on the grounds that it was “too controversial.” So why is free speech and expression of cardinal importance now? Perhaps it is related to the recent $20 million donation from Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, a prominent financier of the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

If Georgetown President John J. DeGioia is concerned for the safety of his student body, he will reject the 2006 Palestine Solidarity Movement conference. Pleasing donors is an important duty of a university president, but preventing the recruitment of Georgetown students into a dangerous, pro-terrorist organization is a more vital obligation.

— Eric Adler — Jack Langer

are respectively, a lecturer in the history department at Rice University and a doctoral candidate in history at Duke University.

Ghassan Andoni’s Statement Upon Receiving The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Nomination From The American Friends Service Committee


Ghassan Andoni

I am honored that the American Friends Service Committee, winner of the 1947 peace prize, found in my modest contribution to the cause of peace and justice in the Middle East important enough to nominate me for the Nobel Peace Prize. I am more honored that AFSC has chosen me for the same reasons I consider to be my most valuable contributions, namely my involvement in civil based resistance against occupation, oppression and injustice.

Even when I was the one chosen for nomination, many more great people, whom I worked with shoulder to shoulder and learned much from their courage, wisdom and creativity are a major part of this nomination.The people of my little town Beit Sahour, who showed me how much power peaceful freedom lovers store, and the wonderful people of the International Solidarity Movement, who not only stood firmly at the peace and justice side, but also practiced their faith with courage and determination.

I see this nomination as a valuable recognition from a respectful peace organization to the collective work of thousands who have chosen to fight oppression and injustice with their determination, courage, faith and bare hands. It is more dedicated to the most courageous among us, especially the dears we lost along the road; to Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall.

It is also an honor that AFSC decided to nominate Jeff Halper. Being a conscious objector with a strong critical voice, a committed person to the cause of peace with justice, and an activist who has the courage to swim against the tide and take considerable risks, makes the nomination even more meaningful.

The honor I received by the nomination is also a strong statement of recognition of the legitimate rights of my people, a cry that peace neither can be achieved, nor can be sustained in the absence of justice, and that working for peace and justice is not a mere conflict management.

ISM Co-Founder Among Duo Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Letter from the AFSC nominating Ghassan Andoni and Jeff Halper for the Nobel Peace Prize

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker peace and social justice organization, has nominated two candidates for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize: Jeff Halper from Israel and Ghassan Andoni from the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In a region torn by conflict, these grassroots peace activists have resolutely followed nonviolence as the path to justice, peace and reconciliation. For decades they have worked to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence – symbolized most clearly by the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. They have opposed every element of the Occupation, including settlements and the Separation Barrier, striving for equality between their peoples within the framework of sovereign and democratic states.

Ghassan Andoniis a Palestinian, a physics professor at Birzeit University and a resident of the Christian town of Beit Sahour, next to Bethlehem. He already began his peace activities while a college student in Iraq, leaving his studies in order to work in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon during that country’s civil war. Returning home to Palestine from Lebanon, he was arrested by the Israeli authorities and jailed for two years for his membership in the PLO. He subsequently traveled to the UK where, in 1983, he earned his MSc in Physics.

Once more back in Palestine, Ghassan was one of the main initiators of the famous Beit Sahour’s tax revolt against the Israeli Occupation during the first Intifada (1987-1993), perhaps the most effective broad-based community resistance to have been organized since the start of the Occupation in 1967. Ghassan understood the power that nonviolence has in leading a mass movement of liberation and utilized it effectively. After serving another jail term for his participation in the tax revolt, he co-founded in 1988 The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between Peoples, which sponsored dialogue and joint activities between Israelis and Palestinians. As the Occupation wore on, Ghassan and Rapprochement moved from dialogue to direct nonviolent action intended to end the Occupation. In this connection he co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), in which international volunteers and Palestinians initiated grassroots nonviolent actions of resistance to the oppression created by years of occupation. In working with ISM, Ghassan has insisted that all international participants commit themselves to nonviolence, both physical and verbal.

As he continued his peace work, Ghassan proceeded strategically. He realized that a nonviolent movement must always be able to respond creatively and effectively to ongoing developments. His creative, brave and proactive responses have made him one of the leading figures of the Palestinian peace movement.

Jeff Halper is an Israeli professor of Anthropology. A Vietnam War resister in America, he emigrated to Israel in 1973. Although he insists that Jews have a legitimate place in Israel/Palestine, he has always rejected the exclusivity of Jewish claims to the country that has led to the displacement of Palestinian refugees and to the Occupation. As an Israeli citizen he has refused to bear arms even during his military service, and refused to serve in the Occupied Territories. Two of his children have been imprisoned as conscientious objectors.

Jeff co-founded The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) in 1997, which was among the first Israeli peace groups to work with Palestinians inside the Occupied Territories. ICAHD works closely with other critical Israeli groups such as Bat Shalom, Rabbis for Human Rights, Gush Shalom and the Alternative Information Center, as well as with Palestinian partners such as the Land Defense Committee, Rapprochement and the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC). ICAHD resists the demolition of Palestinian homes, actions in which Jeff often displayed immense courage, sitting in front of bulldozers, confronting Israeli soldiers and suffering arrest. He and ICAHD also organize Israelis and internationals to rebuild demolished homes with Palestinians as acts of political resistance to the Occupation. Through resistance to Israel’s house demolition policy, ICAHD exposes the injustice of the Occupation and asserts the crucial role of the international civil society in bringing about change, just as Ghassan Andoni has done with the founding of the International Solidarity Movement.

ICAHD has been well ahead of other peace organizations in its appeal to the international community, disseminating information and networking, analyzing what Jeff calls the “matrix of control” employed by Israel in its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza – the framework created by strategic settlement blocs, settler-only highways and the Separation Wall. In ways that parallel the development of Rapprochement, ICAHD has come to see that reconciliation cannot be placed ahead of the restoration of justice – a justice to be brought about through nonviolent direct action and adherence to human rights.

Jeff Halper has in recent years spent a great deal of time traveling abroad to inform the public about the “realities on the ground,î and has established ICAHD chapters in the US, the UK and elsewhere. His travels and writings have added to his international stature. Ghassan and Jeff are currently working on a book about nonviolent resistance to the Occupation. They share a fundamental belief that Palestinians and Israelis who stand for human rights, international law, peace, justice and reconciliation are on the same “side.î This is what makes their message relevant and universal, and why their voices – the seldom heard voices of critical advocates of peace and non-violence – are acknowledged in this nomination.

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. It was the 1947 co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The AFSC’s national headquarters is in Philadelphia. It has nine regional and 34 area offices in the US and is active in 22 countries around the world. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice. Additional information about the AFSC can be found at www.afsc.org. Ghassan Andoni can be reached at g_andoni@yahoo.com; Jeff Halper at jeff@icahd.org.

Open Letter to Ehud Olmert

Deputy Prime Minister of Israel
Mr. Ehud Olmert
Tel Nr 00 972 2 670 55 55
Fax Nr 00 972 2 670 54 75
E-Mail: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il

Dear Deputy Prime Minister,

On last Thursday corresponding to 2/2/2006, the Israeli security forces arrested the Italian citizen Al Abed Mohammad, after he and his companion, Mr. Paraccino Danielle, were held for nine consecutive hours at Allenby Bridge. Both detainees were interrogated, subjected to humiliating naked search and their mobile phones were seized. Later on, Mr. Danielle was freed and informed that he was forbidden from any future visits to the Palestinian lands. Mr. Al Abed was led to the interrogation centre that belongs to the Shabak system in Petah Tiqwa in Tel Aviv.

On 23/1/2006 Mr. Danielle and Mr. Al Abed traveled to the Palestinian occupied lands on a human and judicial mission with the aim to visit two orphans under their sponsorship. They aimed also to visit a number of Palestinian charities in Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarim and Qalqilya, which provide aid to the poor and destitute children and families of these areas. The purpose of the visits was to verify the transparency of the work carried out by these charities as a step in their mission to prepare a report to be submitted to a court in Genoa in Italy. The report was supposed to include information on the disbursements of the donations granted to these charities by the Charity Society for the Solidarity with the Palestinian People (Associazione Benefica di Solidarieta` col Popolo Palestinese), located in Genoa.

Friends of Humanity International hereby expresses its profound concern for the continued detention of the Italian citizen Al Abed Mohamad by the Israeli security forces, and the physical and psychic suffering to which both Mr. Danielle and Mr. Al Abed were subjected. The Organization calls for the immediate release of Mr. Al Abed and for providing every mean to facilitate his return to his homeland where his wife and children are anxiously waiting for his return. Mr. Al Abed’s health condition is the object of his family’s anxiety as he suffers from diabetes.

Providing aid and assistance to the Palestinian destitute families is a noble human mission which should be supported and facilitated by the Israeli authorities. However, actual incidents indicate endeavours on the part of the Israeli authorities to hinder access of such aid to deserving beneficiaries.

Thanking you for your cooperation.

Gerald Kralik
President,
Friends of Humanity International
Vienna, 5/2/2006