Today at 2pm ISM Hebron held a teach-in at the Tel Rumeida checkpoint in Hebron. The kids learned about Martin Luther King Jr. and his successful non-violent struggle for the freedom and civil rights of black people in the United States. We compared the situation of black Americans during segregation to the lack of freedom for Palestinians, particularly in the area of Tel Rumeida where they cannot drive, or walk around freely and are subjected to ID checks and house invasions.
After the history lesson, the children were given the opportunity to create t-shirts with Dr. King’s famous quote, “Freedom is not voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed” in Arabic, Hebrew and English.
Soldiers who were observing and waving their guns around on nearby roofs were invited to join the lesson and make their own t-shirts, however none of them joined. One t-shirt was saved for a soldier but attempts to give it away to various soldiers were unsuccessful.
AP photo
After the demonstration, the weekly art classes continued at the Tel Rumeida community center where the lesson and t-shirt creation was repeated. At one point soldiers drove up and ordered the kids to go back into their homes. Apparently Marin Luther King is too subversive for the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Mona el-Farra, a Palestinian doctor working in Gaza should have been in London this evening, launching a campaign for peace between Israelis and Palestinians based on recognition of international law.
The campaign, simply called “Enough”, is backed by various aid organisations, trade unions, faith and other campaign groups.
Dr Farra was invited before Christmas, and planned to leave Gaza around January 15 to allow plenty of time to get through the difficult Rafah border with Egypt. But she is not in London today because – along with hundreds of other Palestinians – she was refused the right to cross the border. For a week, with her suitcase packed, she thought she would be able to come. But in the end the border was only opened one way – into Gaza from Egypt, not out of it.
Last week, in an attempt to get an exemption for Dr Farra, two eminent British doctors – Derek Summerfield and David Halpin – faxed new invitations to her to come to London. But these health professionals’ invitations also cut no ice with the Israelis.
For almost a year or more Dr Farra’s blog, From Gaza, With Love, has been giving a uniquely vivid idea of the day-to-day desperate poverty and total unpredictability of life in Gaza, and the work of a doctor in that place where everything is lacking.
Dr Farra coordinates incoming aid, and organises three doctors and dozens of women volunteers to distribute food parcels, milk, meat, blankets, money vouchers, medicines for sick children and cancer patients, university fees for needy students, etc.
The border was opened 14 times in six months, electricity was off for four months, she wrote. Patients died waiting at the border, women gave birth on the road waiting for permission to travel to hospital, ambulances have been restricted, four emergency health workers died in December …
Is this why the Israelis don’t want people in Britain to hear her speak?
It is her blogs, as well as personal experience of working in the occupied Palestinian territories on and off for 14 years that has brought Dr Derek Summerfield and many of his colleagues to support the call of Palestinian health professionals like Dr Farra, last November, for a boycott of links with the Israeli universities and hospitals which support the occupation, and stronger links with Israeli institutions and organisations which defy it. They joined the boycott call by 60 Palestinian trade union and civil society organisations.
Dr Summerfield, South African by birth, honorary senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, makes the parallels with the academic isolation of apartheid South Africa (which was much contested at the time):
This rightly included a boycott of the medical profession for collusion of a very similar nature to what we see today in Israel. For instance, the Medical Association of South Africa was for a time suspended from membership of the World Medical Association. On visits there in recent years I have heard it said more than once that the boycott played a distinct role in bringing the profession to its senses.
As in South Africa, the Israeli medical profession, and the establishment generally, is sensitive to opinion in the western world, not least from fellow doctors. An academic boycott in an extreme situation is a moral and ethical imperative when all else has failed.
The place to start is a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association, who have made their decisions with their eyes open over many years, and should be held to account for them. Any Israeli doctor who publicly dissociates him or herself from state practice becomes part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
Today the Planning Board in Beit-El gave its decision to approve the new scheme for the Matityahu East neighborhood, on the lands of Bil’in west of the Apartheid Wall. The Planning Board, composed of IOF and settler-colonist representatives, rejected all the fundamental objections to the scheme, but did introduce many changes in it, apparently in order to create the impression of an unbiased hearing on planning issues.
The approval of the scheme means the legitimization of most of the illegal building that took place in Matityahu East. More importantly, its approval creates the alleged legal framework for the legitimization of the present route of the Wall on Bil’in’s land. Under Occupation law, the scheme will become effective only 15 days after the Planning Board publishes an announcement about it in the newspapers (this announcement is likely to be published in the coming days).
Therefore, in the coming days, a new petition to the High Court of Justice will be submitted, against the approval of the scheme.
Agrexco is Israel’s largest exporter of fresh agricultural produce. The company is 50% owned by the Israeli state. Agrexco accounts for 70% ofIsraeli fresh produce sold abroad with annual sales of $750 million in 2006. Agrexco boast of being able to get produce to European markets within 24 hours.
The Valentines Day period is one of Agrexco UK’s busiest times as the company deals with large amounts of fresh flowers from Israel and the settlements.
The Boycott Israeli Goods campaign is planning a mass picket of the depot on Saturday February 10th in opposition to the sale of Israeli goods and in support of Palestinian farmers who are not able to market their goods internationally
In the UK Agrexco is known under the Carmel, Coral and Jaffa brands. The UK is the most important foreign market for Israeli fresh produce. Agrexco exports a wide range of produce to the UK including peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, spices, flowers and avocados.
Agrexco is the largest exporter of settlement produce for sale overseas. Much of this produce comes from colonies in the Jordan Valley. Carmel Agrexco hgave had dealings with the colonies of Tomer, Mehola, Hamra, Ro’i, Massua, Patzael, Mekhora, Netiv Ha-Gdud and Bet Ha-Arava.
Palestinians are calling for the solidarity movement to take action against Carmel Agrexco. 180 Palestinian organisations and unions, in response to the Israeli onslaught, have called for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Apartheid Israel.
Meet at 11am, (Bridge Place, Behind Victoria Station, Opposite UK Passport Office, outside the Hisperia Hotel) Central London, for transport to Agrexco’s depot in Middlesex
Meet at Carmel, Swallowfield Way, Hayes at 1pm (see map) if you are making your own way there. Email boycott@palestinecampaign.org to let us know you are coming
a Women in Black vigil outside the Disney Hall on January 14th
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local Peace and Human Rights Group to Hold Silent Candlelight Vigils Outside the Israel Philharmonic Concerts at Disney Hall Monday, Feb. 5th, and Tuesday, Feb. 6th in Downtown LA
Women in Black-LA Join Launch of International Campaign Calling for Sanctions and Cultural Boycott to End Israeli Apartheid in Palestine Inspired by Worldwide Movement That Helped End Apartheid in South Africa
WHAT: Silent Candlelight Vigil to Support a Boycott of the Israel Philharmonic and an End to Israeli Apartheid in Palestine
WHEN: Monday, February 5th – 6:30 to 8:00 PM
Tuesday, February 6th – 6:30 to 8:00 PM
WHERE: Outside the Disney Hall
1st Street & Grand, Downtown LA
WHY: International and Palestinian human rights leaders have asked supporters worldwide to begin cultural and economic boycotts, along with divestment and sanction campaigns to end Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem and to end Israeli Apartheid in Palestine.
This effort is modeled after the successful worldwide boycott and divestment campaign that helped end Apartheid in South Africa.
When they learned that the Israel Philharmonic would be stopping at Disney Hall while on their U.S. tour, Women in Black-LA joined the international campaign by launching their call for a Boycott of the orchestra, after first writing a letter to the Israel Philharmonic asking them to publicly oppose the occuptation.
Nearly 1,000 groups and prominent individuals, from former government officials to artists and activists, all over the world, signed the letter.
One of the signers, Silvia Tennebaum, step-daughter of Israel Philharmonic co-founder, William Steinberg, wrote: “My hope is that the orchestra will remember the suffering endured by the Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe and, in their memory, not implicitly support an occupation that seeks to strangle and displace a whole people.”
EXCERPT from letter to the Israel Philharmonic from WIB-LA:
“Imagine that the Israel Philharmonic’s denouncement of the Occupation and call for peace and justice will have a huge positive ripple effect on Israeli society. Imagine a future where Israelis and Palestinians share the resources of their land with respect and appreciation for each other’s humanity, cultures and needs. Maybe it’s the artists and musicians who will finally bring peace and justice to Israel, Palestine and the region.”
“When we didn’t hear from the Israel Philharmonic,” said Carol Smith, a member of WIB-LA and the National Lawyers’ Guild Los Angeles Chapter. “We wrote to the management of the L.A. Philharmonic asking them to cancel the performance or make an announcement before each performance, calling for an end to the occupation.”
“Now we are taking our protest to the audience at Disney Hall. Cultural and sports boycotts were a crucial part of the worldwide campaign that finally ended Apartheid in South Africa, and we call for a similar boycott to end Israeli Apartheid.”
“President Carter made it possible for us to go public with the comparison to Apartheid,” said WIB-LA member Greta Berlin. “Many of us worked in the anti-Apartheid movement and know how effective the cultural and sports boycotts were.”
“We felt that because Zubin Mehta, the conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, refers to it as ‘Israel’s flagship,’ the orchestra serves as a representative of Israel’s government and policies. On its website (www.ipo.co.il), the Orchestra talks about its role in playing for Israel’s soldiers in the field and in celebrating Israel’s military victories.”
President Carter writes in his new best-selling book, Palestine, Peace, Not Apartheid,
“Israel’s current policy in the territories is a system of Apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israel totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights. Israel’s continued
control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land.”
WHO: Women in Black is an international movement against violence and for justice. It was founded in Israel in 1988 to oppose the Israeli Occupation.
Women in Black-Los Angeles, founded in 2001, is made up of women and men from diverse faiths and national origins including Palestinians, Israelis and Americans, Jews, Muslims and Christians.
A number of members have made multiple visits to the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Please find a copy Women in Black-Los Angeles’ letters to the Israel Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras below and on the website at http://www.wib-la.org .
Also find below Los Angeles Times 1/27/07 article:
The Music Center area becomes a protest site
Groups intend to voice concerns, timed to appearances there by Mexico’s
Vicente Fox and Israel Philharmonic.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-protest27jan27,1,7420749.story
The vigils are endorsed by the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition, Campaign to End
Israeli Apartheid (CEIA), and Middle East Peace Fellowship of Southern
California.
Contact: Karin Pally
(310) 399-1921/ (310) 430-9607 (cell)
WomeninBlackLA@gmail.com
Passions over international human rights issues have given rise to an unusual sight outside the Los Angeles Music Center: political protests.
While protests are a sporadic element of life in Los Angeles, these demonstrations stand out because of their location — in the heart of L.A.’s cultural center, where political dissent is usually channeled through works of art, not street protests.
Two Los Angeles-area groups are planning protests against a talk by former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Monday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and two performances in early February by the Israel Philharmonic at Disney Hall.
A Los Angeles affiliate of the international Women in Black organization held one demonstration outside Disney Hall on Jan. 14 and plans a second one for 1 p.m. Sunday before the scheduled 2 p.m. L.A. Philharmonic performance of Schumann’s Second Symphony. Other protests will coincide with the Israel Philharmonic’s scheduled concerts Feb. 5 and 6.
Monday’s planned protest against the Fox visit is being coordinated by the Organization of the Binational Indigenous Front, which organizer Odilia Romero said represents Native Americans on both sides of the border. The group also demonstrated Jan. 14 across the street from the
center.
Romero said the group’s members were outraged by the center’s description of Fox, who left office in November after six years, as a promoter of Mexican democracy who helped stabilize an unruly economy.
“There were assassinations, political prisoners, migration for indigenous people” during Fox’s presidency, Romero said. “I don’t think he has stabilized the economy. The people are more in poverty than ever. We want our voices to be heard because we are the product of migration.”
Why protest at the Music Center in the first place? For pretty much the same reason Willie Sutton once said he robbed banks: That’s where the money is.
“It’s not about the program itself,” said Carol Smith, a leader of the Women in Black-L.A. group, whose demonstrations consist of more than a dozen black-clad women standing silent vigil while handing out informational pamphlets. “It’s about educating the people who attend the symphony.”
The group earlier had petitioned the L.A. Philharmonic to cancel the concert as part of its attempt to bring international pressure on Israel to change its policies toward Palestinians, including its occupation of Gaza. Israel has long maintained that its policies are driven by self-defense concerns.
WIB-LA is part of a broad campaign seeking to bring the same international mix of sanctions and cultural boycotts on the Israeli government as arose in the 1980s against the former apartheid
government of South Africa.
In a letter to WIB-LA, Deborah Borda, president of the L.A. Philharmonic Assn., rejected calls for a boycott of the Israeli orchestra.
“We will never support the silencing of artists from any culture as a means of political action,” Borda wrote. “Whenever this unfortunate course of action has been pursued by governments and political entities, it is always to the detriment of society at large, and certainly the artists.”
“The protests have been peaceful, and they are certainly welcome to express their opinions,” said Philharmonic spokesman Adam Crane.
