Tag: Global Actions - Page 51 - International Solidarity Movement

Palestine Popular Conference and two petitions

Mazin Qumsiyeh

The walls of silence, hatred, and pettiness are crumpling all around us. The hot winds of wars dissipate as they encounter the rooted resilience of the spirit of community. People who act on their good conscience are standing up everywhere to make a better future. It is great to be living at this historic time of dramatic change as power shifts from colonizers to colonized and from the few to the many. There are a number of conferences this summer that are relevant and that we will attend including the Ramallah Federation Convention (Detroit, July 4th), the Green Party Convention (Chicago, July 10), and the National Assembly against the War in Cleveland (next week). But especially exciting is the the last conference I will attend before moving to Palestine: the popular conference in Chicago, IL, August 8-10 (see registration info below). This is because it is not organized by a single group/political strand of thought but a grass root effort focused on productive team work. Over 20 workshops from participants ensure engagement as activists (not spectators or pupils to be talked to) and collective and inclusive decision making. Hundreds of younger open-minded individuals are taking matters into their own hands and deciding that their voices will not be silenced by self-appointed “leaders”. Just like the two young women in the Hijab who refused to be told not to sit on the stage behind Senator Obama, these activists are saying: no one can tell us where to sit and what to do. This strengthens our hope in the future of Arab Americans, all Americans, and all of humanity. Anyway, I hope to see ALL (even those skeptics) join and participate in inclusive events that advance activism for justice. After all, as Kahlil Gibran once wrote (and John F Kennedy later used in a speech): “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Here are two petitions to sign and the info to register/attend the Chicago Palestine Popular Conference.

ACTION 1: Sign Petition in support of Rima Sinclair Barakat who is running for office and has received significant attacks from racists and bigots. The petition challenges the smear campaign
http://www.petitiononline.com/Rima2008/

ACTION 2: Sign petition for right of entry for film-makers and others
http://www.petitiononline.com/entryOPT/petition.html

ACTION 3: REGISTER TODAY

POPULAR CONFERENCE FOR PALESTINIANS IN THE U.S.:
RECLAIMING OUR VOICE, ASSERTING OUR NARRATIVE

August 8 – 10, 2008 – Wyndham O’Hare – Chicago, IL

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The Popular Conference will constitute a significant step towards restoring old links while building new ones. It will provide an inclusive and impartial space that nurtures our unbreakable connectedness to Palestine and the Palestinian people. It is being built from the ground up to reflect the will of the participants. more information is available at www.palestineconference.org!

Registration fees include 5 meals – Friday Dinner, Saturday Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and Sunday Brunch.

Registration fees DO NOT include hotel stay. You must call the hotel directly at (847)-297-1234 to reserve your room(s).

Don\’t forget to mention USPCN to get the special rate of $89 a night, plus tax. Make your hotel reservations early since the rate will
expire August 1st. REGISTER EARLY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE EARLY REGISTRATION DISCOUNT. REGISTRATION FEES WILL INCREASE AFTER JULY 8TH.

U.S. Popular Palestinian Conference Network
http://www.palestineconference.org

International Days of Action to Stand With Gaza June 27th

On June 19th a ceasefire was called into effect between Gaza and Israel. Demonstrations of solidarity with the people of Gaza and the humanitarian crisis they continue to face are planned for the weekend of June 27th.

On June 27th, demonstrations will be held in Rafah City—both the Palestinian and Egyptian sides of the city—to show solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza. We call on international human rights activists, Palestinian rights organizations, and people of conscience around the world to organize parallel demonstrations on or near June 27th, alongside the demonstrations in the divided city of Rafah.

The siege was imposed by the Israeli government in June 2007 upon an economy already strangled by over a year of sanctions. In the past year, it has resulted in the repeated denial of vital medical access, severe food shortage, and strained supplies of food and electricity. It has rendered Gaza a virtual prison, and collectively punishes its residents in clear violation of international and humanitarian law.

Moreover, the European Union and the governments of Egypt, Israel, and the United States have defaulted on their obligation to enable and facilitate the flow of people through the Rafah border crossing, making us complicit with the deadly campaign waged by the government of Israel.

Please gather in your own city or town to say to your government “Not in my name!” and show your solidarity with the imprisoned people of Gaza.

From Italy: Solidarity and support with fishermen in Gaza

By Luisa Morgantini – Vice President of the European Parliament

In Occasion of the International Day of Action to support fishermen in Gaza

“The Right to Live. The Right to Fish. End the Siege on Gaza”

Rome 16th June 2008

Today 16th June, fishermen of Gaza took the sea claiming for the “Right to live. Right to fish. End the siege on Gaza”, a mobilization organized by the “End the Siege Campaign”, a Palestinian and International Campaign (http://www.end-gaza-siege.ps/ ) carried out by intellectual, physicians, lawyers and representatives of the Palestinian civil society.

In occasion of the International day of action in support of fishermen in Gaza, the Italian Lega Pesca, the oldest and largest organization of 13,000 Italian cooperatives representing more than 400,000 fishermen, expressed its “solidarity with the fishermen in Gaza, regarding the very serious human, social and economic conditions in which they are illegally forced to live in.”

In a press release, Italian fishermen expressed, “that the international community should take-charge of this injustice and remove all obstacles preventing the thousands of fishermen from exercise their undeniable right to work and be free.”

Many initiatives of solidarity with fishermen in Gaza took place in different coastal locations in Italy. In Pozzuoli, Naples, the Italian civil society asked for the end of the siege and the right to fish in Gaza.

“Civil society’s demands are the salt of the earth, as they call for freedom and justice,” stated Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament who organized the initiative in Italy, as she also demanded the immediate end of the siege.

Open Letter: To EU Represtentatives Regarding the Upgrading of EU-Israel Relations

Dear Friends,

On the 16th June, the European Union will be discussing the possible upgrading of relations with Israel. Please send this letter to your various representatives and express your concern at this measure while Israel continues to flaunt international law.

For details of your representative please click here

——————
Dear Madam / Sir,

I am writing to you now in order to express my profound concern about the possible upgrade of relations between the European Union and Israel and urge you to advocate for its rejection within the EU.

Israel’s ongoing systematic violation of Palestinian human rights, its flaunting of both its international obligations and international law is well documented, as is its violation of commitments to the EU itself.

As I understand it, under its ‘European Neighbourhood Policy’, the EU offers to neighbouring nations opportunities for political and economic co-operation. In turn, the EU expects these neighbouring states to respect and abide by EU values and practices, particularly those related to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. In the case of Israel, I am concerned that the EU may be offering opportunities for social and economic cooperation and integration, but abandoning its expectation that Israel will respect and practice the central principles of human rights and international law.

Israel has consistently and flagrantly denied the call for Palestinian national and individual rights, violated international law, defied even the most basic guidelines of the Road Map as discussed at the Annapolis summit in November 2007, and failed to uphold it obligations to the EU under the Barcelona Process. Let me give some specifics:

– Israel has embarked on a siege of the Gaza Strip that has resulted in the denial of medical access, shortages of food, fuel and electricity and stands as a grave act of collective punishment. This siege has been imposed amidst Israeli attacks on Gaza which have shown clear disregard for civilian lives.

– Israel has continued construction in more than 100 of its illegal settlements in the West Bank and throughout so-called “Greater Jerusalem”

– In the last six months, Israel has issued a call for bids on the construction of 847 new housing units in settlements throughout the West Bank and 1,300 units in East (Palestinian) Jerusalem

– In the last six months, Israel has demolished more than 185 Palestinian structures, including 85 homes

– Israel continues to operate over 600 checkpoints, roadblocks, and other physical barriers to the movement of the Palestinian population.

– Israel has still not complied with the 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice that determined that it must stop construction of the Wall, remove those parts already built, and provide reparations

– Through a series of restrictions, Israel has consistently hindered implementation of the Interim Association Agreement concluded between the EU and the PLO on behalf of the PNA

– Israel is in direct violation of its Association Agreement with the EU regarding products produced by its illegal settlements. Despite the Association Agreement, Israel continues to export products to the EU as if they were manufactured and/or wholly obtained within Israel and to refund settlement businesses, using illegal subsidies, for import taxes paid by these settlement-based businesses in their export to the EU.

In light of Israel’s systematic breach of European Union, international, and human rights obligations, agreements and laws, the EU’s possible upgrade of its relationship with Israel can only be viewed as a reward to unlawful behaviour. Israel will certainly understand this upgrade as not just a condoning of its behaviour, but as a complete absence of consequences for its illegal and unethical policies and actions.

Moreover, by upgrading its relationship with Israel, the EU would be discarding a key incentive to Israel in proceeding with a just peace process. The EU has a vital opportunity here to play an active role in encouraging a just peace in the region; not by improving its relationship with Israel regardless of its violation of international law, but as a reward for its compliance with international and human rights law and EU agreements.

There is a great need for accountability at this critical juncture in EU-Israel relations. It is imperative that the EU make clear to Israel that the key to improving their relationship lies in embracing and implementing fully the goals and values of Europeans.

I thank you in advance for urging the EU to uphold fair, consistent and objective standards in its dealings with neighbour states and to decide against the upgrade of its relationship with Israel until it abides by international and human rights law and all EU agreements.

Sincerely,

ei: Quebec Student Federation Joins International Boycott Movement

To view original article, published in Electronic Intifada, click here

Press release, Tadamon, 9 June 2008

Across the world grassroots movements struggling in opposition to Israeli apartheid are marking the 60th year of the Palestinian Nakba (“catastrophe”) — 60 years of dispossession, ethnic cleansing and exile for Palestinians resulting from the creation of the state of Israel.

A grassroots response in opposition to Israeli apartheid is growing throughout the world sparked by an appeal launched by Palestinian civil-society organizations in 2005 for an international campaign directed at the government in Israel, a campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions. This critical campaign is modeled on a successful international campaign similar in nature that played a critical role in bringing an end to the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Today students in Quebec are now joining the international boycott campaign in large numbers including L’Association pour une Solidarite Syndicale Etudiante (ASSE), an important Quebec-wide student federation representing over 42,000 students.

ASSE voted to support the international campaign against Israeli apartheid at a Quebec-wide level after several local assemblies at university and Cegep campuses across the province voted at a local level within general student assemblies to support the boycott campaign. ASSE’s boycott resolution marks the first time that a major student union in Quebec or Canada has voted to support the international boycott campaign opposing Israeli apartheid.

Throughout the 2007-2008 school year ASSE in collaboration with Tadamon! Montreal, with support from Federation nationale des enseignantes et enseignants du Quebec — Quebec’s largest college level teachers union — and the Quebec Public Interest Research Group organized multiple workshops throughout Quebec at Cegep and university campuses bringing together hundreds of students for popular education workshops outlining the critical importance for Quebec’s student movement to stand against Israeli apartheid.

ASSE represents the grassroots face of Quebec’s powerful student movement, with tens-of-thousands of members and a strong position against privatization and for free post-secondary education in Quebec.

In 2005 ASSE launched and lead a historic student strike across Quebec, with over one-hundred student unions participating at the height of a strike rooted in a demand for a cancellation on all student debt and free post-secondary education in Quebec.

Utilizing mass protest, creative direct actions and grassroots campus-based organizing ASSE has successfully fought against neo-liberal economic policies fronted by the Liberal government of Jean Charest, who upon taking governmental power moved to make important changes to financial aid program for students in Quebec, including a $103 million cut. After major protests lead by ASSE across Quebec the Liberal government was forced to reverse their cuts to student funding, marking one of the only times in Quebec’s recent history that grassroots social mobilization has successfully reversed unpopular government policy.

ASSE represents a grassroots power base within Quebec’s student movement, one that draws parallels between the struggle for accessible and free education in Quebec to larger movements for social justice in the Americas, the Middle East and internationally.

ASSE has now taken an important and courageous stand to support the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions, as a tangible step in solidarity with struggles against Israeli apartheid in Palestine and throughout the Middle East. This resolution marks the growing momentum behind the international movement against Israeli apartheid and a willingness to take action at a local level within progressive student networks in Quebec to challenge Israeli apartheid.

ASSE’s important stand also marks a critical opportunity for grassroots student and social movements in Quebec to challenge the Quebec and Canadian government complicity towards Israeli apartheid and today the outright support towards Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by Canada’s Conservative government.

Today we call on all student and labor unions to join L’Association pour une Solidarite Syndicale Etudiante in creating a strong and effective boycott movement against Israeli apartheid.

View the signatories here

Tadamon! (“Solidarity!” in Arabic) is a Montreal-based collective of social-justice organizers & media activists, working to build relationships of solidarity with grassroots political movements for social and economic justice between Beirut and Montreal.