Workers Resistance

Category: Palestine

  • Milwaukee based People’s Books Co-op boycotts Israel

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Milwaukee Palestine Solidarity Coalition.

    The Milwaukee Palestine Solidarity Coalition is celebrating a major victory this week as the People’s Books Cooperative bookstore joined a growing list of organizations that endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

    The People’s Books Co-op board voted in favor of “instituting a consumer, cultural and academic boycott of the Israeli state due to significant human rights concerns involved with Israel’s policies against the Palestinian community,” according to a statement released on their website (http://tinyurl.com/kcuubky).

    People’s Books becomes the second cooperatively owned business in the United States to sign on to BDS, behind the Olympia, Washington Food Co-op whose endorsement won a decisive court battle after being challenged by pro-Israel Zionists.

    People’s Books joins the likes of Nelson Mandela, Naomi Klein, Stephen Hawking, Stevie Wonder, Alice Walker, Roger Waters, Elvis Costello, Gil Scott-Heron, Judith Butler, The American Studies Association, and many others who have signed on to the Palestinian call to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel. The BDS movement was launched by Palestinian civil society in a 2005 call to the international community.

    The People’s Books board responded to the call to BDS by conducting a survey of their membership which resulted in overwhelming support for the boycott proposal. Members of the Milwaukee Palestine Solidarity Coalition advocated for their proposal before the board of People’s Books, who previously did not carry any Israeli products. We applaud the members and board of People’s Books for their principled stance on social justice issues, and their strong stance in support of Palestinian human rights, especially while facing the economic difficulties inherent to operating a small local cooperative business.

    The BDS movement is a growing, non-violent threat to Israel’s ability to continue its illegal occupation of Palestine which includes settlement construction, home demolitions, and illegal detention of Palestinian civilians. The Israeli state is scrambling to buy itself a better image abroad by throwing millions of dollars toward Israeli propaganda events in the US which deceptively present Israel as a liberal paradise with diverse culture and a healthy democracy. Israel’s propaganda strategy places college students, social justice activists, academic and cultural workers, and progressive people on the front lines. But those very people are increasingly throwing their support behind the cause of Palestinian liberation.

    The People’s Books Co-op stands as an example for all progressive people to follow as we work to build a better world that is free of war and apartheid, and based on the principles of social justice and cooperation.

    In Solidarity,
    The Milwaukee Palestine Solidarity Coalition

  • Land Day: PFLP calls for national struggle to defend and liberate the entire land of Palestine

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following March 30 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) that was issued to mark the Day of the Land, 2014:

    On this year, Land Day marks intensified struggle on Palestinian land in its entirely. The Zionist enemy is not maneuvering toward it nor nibbling gradually at our land. The occupation has taken its occupation of Palestine to the point where it demands Palestinian and Arab recognition of the “Jewishness of the state” as the legitimate embodiment of the Zionist movement and its falsified history. It has stolen the religious term “Land of Israel” and transformed it to a geopolitical claim on the land of Palestine as the “Jewish homeland,” and is acting constantly to enact more laws and regulations to seize yet more land and displace our people, to expand settlements on every area in the land of Palestine, including Jerusalem which is specifically targeted.

    The sacrifice and struggle of our people in the ’48 occupied areas on March 30, 1976, was not only a defense against the confiscation of thousands of acres of the lands of Arraba, Sakhnin and Deir Hanna, but also an expression of the collective consciousness of our people, the threat of the Zionist project against all Palestinian land, and to defend the Palestinian people and their right to live on their land.

    These same meanings are embodied wherever our people mark this anniversary, adhering to the rights of the Palestinian people on the entire land of historic Palestine, the land of our ancestors, the heirs of all civilizations that passed through them, a reality that will not be changed despite all the failing attempts of the occupation state to force its recognition or to change our awareness of the land by building settlements, changing signs on the roads and renaming Palestinian towns and villages with Hebrew names.

    The right of return of Palestinian refugees to their land is the core of the struggle to liberate Palestine; the insistence on this right is linked very closely to the current struggle on the ground, which requires us to center this goal in our national program and struggle and entirely reject any initiatives, negotiations or deals that undermine or detract from this fundamental right.

    We also see the very serious matter that has been generated in these ongoing negotiations around the “exchange of land,” which includes recognizing the rights of “Israel” in the majority of the land of Palestine. This land is all Palestinian land and any approval of the “exchange” of one part for another means providing cover and legitimacy to the violent confiscation of our land in 1948 and the ongoing displacement of our people of the ’48 areas, and is unacceptable.

    On this day, he land calls for the people to protect themselves and the land. To reject division, uphold resistance and achieve national unity, to act to bring the negotiations to an end, to confront the ongoing and comprehensive vicious attacks on our land and our people, to achieve a national program of struggle that reflects the objectives of our people, affirms their rights firmly, and adopts all means of struggle to achieve those rights.

    On this day, our salutes and greetings to the masses of our people in the ’48 areas, and our salutes to the six martyrs killed on March 30, 1976 as they confronted the enemy forces that repressed demonstrations and marches that swept through cities, towns and villages of the Palestinian people in the ’48 areas in defense of the land of the Galilee. We stand together with all of our people in defense of all of our occupied land, throughout the geographical and historical land of Palestine.

    Glory to the martyrs of Land Day. Glory to the martyrs of freedom. Freedom for the prisoners, and victory for our people.

  • Palestinian Authority told to end repression against Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following March 21 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

    PFLP demands PA security forces end campaign of arrests and persecution against its members

    The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the West Bank demanded the Palestinian Authority security apparatus and its intelligence services immediately halt the campaign of arrests and persecution of its supporters and members in various parts of the West Bank on March 20. Specifically, the PFLP statement pointed to al-Azza refugee camp, where 5 PFLP supporters were arrested, dozens of homes raided, and 5 others being pursued by PA security forces.

    The PFLP denounced the Authority’s security forces’ campaign against a Palestinian national faction that is targeted by the Zionist occupation, which is increasing its aggression against our people everywhere, including targeting our comrades with murder and mass arrests.

    The PFLP demanded that the PA end security coordination with the occupation, which has been a scourge upon our people, including the arrests of many honorable activists. It recalled that the past days have seen several occasions in which the Zionist occupation has arrested Palestinian activists and freedom fighters hours after they were released by the PA security apparatus.

    The Front demanded that the PA must learn that these practices are rejected by the Palestinian people. It is the proper task of any Palestinian security force to protect our people, their activists and their freedom fighters and not become a whip to lash at the rising of their own people and their activists.

  • Chicago International Women’s Day demands justice for Rasmea Odeh

    Chicago IL – To mark International Women’s Day (IWD) in Chicago, and to honor leading Palestinian women’s rights organizer Rasmea Odeh, 70 activists came together here, March 8, for a panel and dinner titled, “Winning Justice for Palestine & for Rasmea Odeh.”

    The dinner saw one woman speaker after another rising to recognize IWD and the guest of honor, Rasmea Odeh. Odeh is the community activist from Chicago who faces a trial in June on charges that could result in deportation and prison time. She was arrested in October 2013 and charged with violations on a questionnaire for citizenship from 20 years ago. She is the victim of another politically-motivated witch-hunt by federal law enforcement in their campaign to intimidate Palestinian community and solidarity activists.

    Professor Nadine Naber spoke about the history of IWD, and the honored place that Rasmea Odeh holds in the eyes of Palestinian people across the world for her history as a political prisoner and of organizing against Israel’s occupation. Naber offered a powerful analysis of how the U.S. empire claims that women in the Arab and Muslim worlds are oppressed and powerless, and cannot fight for their own rights, which is used to justify U.S. wars and occupations. She went on to say that Odeh and so many other strong women and women’s organizations are self-determined and do not want or need U.S. intervention.

    Sarah Chambers of the Chicago Teachers Union spoke about the teachers at her school, mainly women, who made national news when they refused to give the Illinois Standard Achievement Test to their students in protest of the education program of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, which values non-stop standardized testing over critical thinking and creative learning skills.

    Kait McIntyre talked about the efforts of the Anti-War Committee-Chicago to oppose new wars, as well as that group’s ongoing support for Palestine and for Rasmea Odeh . McIntyre used the opportunity to announce that she is running on an anti-war platform for the board of directors of Boeing Company. Chicago-based Boeing is the second largest arms manufacturer in the world and is bidding for the Pentagon contract to build a new, more deadly combat drone.

    Delores Phillips of the United Electrical workers thanked Odeh for standing up for her rights, in the same way that Phillips, newly elected president of UE Local 1118, and her fellow union activists have been standing up for their rights against the bosses in her workplace. She closed with, “We should support Rasmea in her struggle by showing other women that they are not alone. No woman should go without emotional, physical, educational, mental and financial support!”

    And Lulu Martinez of the Immigrant Youth Justice League described the international headlines made by her and eight other undocumented students – the Dream 9 – who ‘self deported’ by presenting themselves to federal agents in Arizona. She spent 15 days in a federal detention center there, and talked about that experience in prison, which made her respect greatly Odeh’s history as a political prisoner, as well as the tens of thousands of Mexican and other Latino women who have been deported in the past decade.

    The pre-dinner panel began with Palestinian activists Rama Kased, who is based in San Francisco and is a National Coordinating Committee Member of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, and Tarek Khalil of the Chicago chapter of the American Muslims for Palestine, speaking on the prospects of the peace talks in Palestine.

    Khalil criticized the terms of the negotiations, which he believes violated Palestinians’ rights from the outset. He suggested, like most Palestinians around the world, that the right to return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants should be the main demand in any negotiations.

    Kased declared that the Palestinian national bourgeoisie, represented by a small sector of the Palestinian Authority, stands to gain economically from a peace treaty, but that the vast majority of Palestinians will not. She also suggested that Palestine-support activists in the U.S. must analyze the issue not only from a human rights standpoint, but mostly from a “liberation framework,” especially since, as she explained, “We are not in the state-building stage of our struggle yet. We are still in the national liberation stage.” In answer to a question from the floor, she supported that the Palestine Liberation Organization needed to be reconstituted, and stated confidently that unity discussions happen regularly in Palestine and beyond, but “this fact just does not make the news here in the states.”

    After the analysis, solidarity activists on the panel held up the gains made by the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Leila Abdelrazaq, a leader in both Students for Justice in Palestine at DePaul University and on the national level, expressed the power of the BDS campaigns to pressure Israel. “BDS forces everyone to see that they can participate in opposing the occupation of Palestine.” She also gave an account of the BDS victories nationally; including the forced resignation of Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson from Oxfam International, the global human rights organization. Johansson chose being a spokesperson for the Israeli company, SodaStream, with its main factory located on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, over human rights. BDS activists declared victory and made international news pressuring her to uphold the boycott of SodaStream.

    Bill Chambers of the Palestine Solidarity Group wrapped up the panel by describing local BDS efforts, and asking people to join the BDS coalition in Chicago. Chambers also called for support of a new effort in Illinois to stop a bill in the state legislature. The bill would punish any college or university where faculty members went along with the boycott of Israeli educational institutions. The bill is in reaction to the historic resolution against Israeli apartheid adopted by the American Studies Association in the fall.

  • Palestine solidarity activists disrupt speech by ‘Homeland’ TV series creator

    Milwaukee, WI – Nearly 50 Palestine solidarity activists disrupted a speech hosted by the Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation on Jan. 30. The event featured Ron Leshem, the original producer of the Israeli television series Hatufim, which was adapted for U.S. television as the series Homeland.

    The event “TV: An Israeli Success Story” was designed to laud Israel’s cultural achievements in arts and entertainment while using those talking points to ignore or whitewash Israel’s illegal existence on stolen land. During the lecture, Leshem described his use of writing to humanize his subjects, who are often members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and showed a clip of an Israeli prisoner displaying his scars. Leshem spoke of shaping global public opinion, telling the “other side of the story,” and of making Israeli media more “cosmopolitan.”

    20 minutes into the presentation, an activist stood in front of Leshem and loudly announced “Occupation is not cosmopolitan, it’s genocide! If you want to understand the other side, listen to the 2002 Palestinian call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Stop filming on occupied territory, stop touring with the IDF, stop advocating for Israel. Occupation is not entertainment!”

    During the interruption, about 50 activists in the front of the room wearing t-shirts that read “Occupation is not education” and “Boycott Israel” stood up and slowly filed out of the event. About 30 people remained in the room, many hurling insults as the activists walked out.

    Israel funding campus propaganda

    With Palestine solidarity activism growing on U.S. campuses, Israel has poured millions of dollars into public relations to counter the success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. A 2013 move by the Jewish Agency for Israel will allocate $300 million a year to fund pro-Israel events, most of which will fund events on U.S. campuses, according to watchdogs.

    Campus activist groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine have found success in neutralizing pro-Israel events with walk-outs, disruptions, mock checkpoints and other direct actions.

    Ihsan Atta, member of the Milwaukee Palestine Solidarity Coalition states, “As Zionist groups continue to invite speakers who promote hatred and discrimination, we will continue to be there to remind them that oppressing the civilian population of Palestine is not acceptable nor will it be tolerated.”

     

  • PFLP leader Ahmad Sa’adat transferred to Gilboa prison by Israeli authorities

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Feb. 2 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

    The Popular Front’s prison branch reported that the Zionist prison authority has transferred the Front’s General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, from Shata prison to Gilboa prison.

    The Prison Branch said that this is aimed to distract and obstruct the efforts of Sa’adat as a leader in the prisons to unify the national prisoners’ movement and build the struggle within the prisons. The Branch noted that Sa’adat and other leaders of the prisoners’ movement are always subject to vindictive measures and are closely monitored by the Zionist prison authorities in attempts to obstruct their leadership and influence within the prisons.

     

  • Minnesota solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmed Sa’adat

    Saint Paul, MN – Activists from the anti-war and the Palestine solidarity movement gathered here, Jan. 24 to demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners and an end to Palestinian Authority (PA) security cooperation with Israeli occupation forces. The group rallied for an hour in the midst of a snowstorm. The vigil was held in response to a call from the Campaign to Free Ahmed Sa’adat for Freedom Weeks to commemorate the 12th anniversary of Sa’adat’s abduction by PA forces.

    Observed by hundreds of drivers at one of St. Paul’s busiest rush hour intersections, the group included members of the Minneapolis-based Anti-War Committee, the Minnesota Cuba Committee, students from nearby Macalester College and regular attendees of the long-running weekly Palestine solidarity vigil held in the same location.

    According to the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Samidoun, “Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, is one of over 5200 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails. These political prisoners – men, women and children – are activists, organizers and political leaders of the Palestinian people.”

    At the conclusion of Friday’s vigil, Anti-War Committee member Sophia Hansen-Day shared the following words, “We are here today to demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners and for an end to Palestinian Authority security cooperation with Israeli occupation forces. We are here today to commemorate the 12th anniversary of Ahmed Sa’adat’s abduction by PA security forces and to call attention to his ongoing imprisonment by Israeli occupiers.

    “We are here today to acknowledge the power of solidarity. In the words of heroic freedom fighter Samer Issawi prior to his release, ‘Your solidarity gives me the power to continue my hunger strike until I achieve my demand for freedom. It strengthens my steadfastness because it makes me realize that I’m not alone in the battle for freedom and dignity.’ Today we celebrate the release of Samer Issawi whose determination galvanized the Palestinian resistance, and we acknowledge the work yet to be done.

    “We are here today on land stolen from the Dakota people to mark the ongoing occupation of Indigenous territory both in the U.S. and Palestine, to recognize the crimson blood on all our hands and to adamantly refuse silent complicity with settler colonialism and its ongoing violence.

    “So, today, we raise our voices to the power of resistance, to the power of solidarity, to the power of demanding dignity and justice for all! Another world is necessary, another world is possible, another world is on her way. Long live Palestine!”

    For more information, please go to www.freeahmadsaadat.org or attend an Anti-War Committee meeting held 7-9pm Thursday evenings at 4200 Cedar Ave in Minneapolis.

     

  • PFLP: 12 years on since the arrest of Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Jan 15 statement from the leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). You can read Fight Back!’s interview with PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat here http://www.fightbacknews.org/2003-3-summer/pflp.htm

    To the struggling masses of our people…

    On January 15, 2002, the Palestinian Authority security apparatus committed the crime of arresting Comrade General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Majdi Rimawi, Hamdi Quran and Basil al-Asmar, in compliance with the requirements of security coordination. This did not stop the attacks on the resistance, the escalation of settlements and the building of the segregation wall.

    The Authority’s crime was completed by the enemy’s attack and abduction of the comrades from Jericho prison, when all agreements were disregarded in U.S. and British collusion with the attack, which exposed the inability of the Authority to protect even its prisons, while our comrades were taken to spend long years in isolation – for which the occupation is not solely responsible.

    We honour these heroic comrades – at their forefront, Comrade leader Ahmad Sa’adat, and affirm today that he was unanimously re-elected with full confidence in his leadership as General Secretary by the Central Committee and the Seventh National Conference of the Front. This is a well-deserved trust that he has earned, demonstrating steadfastness, clarity and unwavering commitment to struggle, principled and ready for struggle, with a broad political vision and carrying a high level of national respect. He and his imprisoned comrades, and all of the prisoners of our people together are at the forefront of the struggle, insisting on Palestinian national goals and rights in their totality on the ground, without prejudice, compromise, negligence, or barter.

    To the masses of our resisting people…

    The courage shown by the people of Qusra village and its area are a brilliant example of the struggling steadfastness of our people and their willingness to continue in all circumstances to confront and resist the enemy and their settlers. As we call on all to be inspired and learn from the steadfastness of our farmers and our prisoners, we are fully aligned with the alternative they present to relying on the futile negotiations. It is clear that the goal of the negotiations is the liquidation of the national liberation cause of our people, enhancing the status of the Zionist entity in the Arab world, and opening the doors to the official Arab regimes to normalize relations with it.

    Today, we confront the ongoing lessons of Oslo and all subsequent agreements and negotiations, while the Palestinian Authority continues to drive the PLO into relying upon this absurd and devastating process, attempting to close the door on a popular option while yielding to U.S. and Arab reactionary pressure.

    To our people and our nation…

    This date shares an appropriate coincidence with the shuttle diplomacy tours of the Secretary of State of the U.S. imperialists, between Palestine and the Arab countries, in order to liquidate our national cause and replace it with the issue of exchanges of land and population, drawing borders, and in support of the Israeli demand for recognition of the enemy state as the “state of the Jewish people.” This is an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian right of return and to whet the appetite for ethnic cleansing against the rights of our people in the areas of Palestine occupied in 1948.

    All of this comes with total disregard of international legitimacy and United Nations resolutions on Palestine, and of the United Nations as a reference, to implement the U.S./Zionist vision.

    What is happening now requires popular confrontation of any party who seeks to negotiate a temporary or permanent solution that detracts from fundamental Palestinian national rights. This moment requires of all national and social forces among the Palestinian people to mobilize to thwart this new scheme, to protect the resistance option, and return the Palestinian issue to the UN as a reference, with its resolutions to be implemented – not negotiated.

    Our cause is in danger from this heated American pursuit to enforce upon us the terms of the enemy. It seeks to take advantage of the state of demobilization and national division, and the resulting confusion about events in the Arab world. It is clear that the leadership of the Authority is unable to confront, and its options have been reduced to negotiations, negotiations, and then more negotiations.

    It is urgent to move past the era of division and return to the clear Palestinian national constants, build our movement and abandon once and for all the illusions that have proved thorny and dangerous. It is our people’s right to know what is going on in the corridors and back-rooms of negotiations, and it is their right to decide and judge on the basis of that reality.

    To the masses of our great people…

    On this occasion, we re-confirm our emphatic commitment to our pledge to the heroic comrades and all of the martyrs and prisoners. We renew our rejection of security coordination and we demand to put an end to the continuing illusions of negotiations amidst a frenzy of settlements and settler violence. We call for an end to the devastating division and the rebuilding of the Palestine Liberation Organization on the basis of a principled political strategy and a national democratic movement to restore the political unity of our people in the homeland, diaspora and exile, to rise and march again in the national liberation struggle.

    Salutes and tributes to our comrade General Secretary and his comrades
    Glory to the martyrs, freedom for the prisoners
    Unite to confront Kerry’s plan for the liquidation of our national cause

    Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – Political Bureau
    January 15, 2014

  • Israeli war criminal Ariel Sharon dies

    Israeli war criminal Ariel Sharon died today, Jan 11, having spent the last eight years in a coma. He was 85 years old.

    Those of us who support the liberation of Palestine regret the fact that he was never brought to justice for his crimes. He was one of the architects and builders of the racist apartheid state that is Israel.

    Sharon began his criminal career at a young age, when he joined the Zionist militia called the Haganah and participated in the campaign to drive Palestinians out of Palestine.

    When Sharon was Israel’s defense minister in 1982 he carried out his greatest single crime, the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon. Under his direction, Israeli troops and their right-wing Lebanese allies surrounded and then attacked the Palestinian refugee camp. Together they carried out the slaughter of more than 3000 men, women and children.

    Much of the Western press is saying that Sharon’s crimes at places like Sabra and Shatila are a point of controversy. No reasonable person can say this. Sharon’s criminality is a point of fact.

    The U.S. government, which aids and arms Israel, issued a disgusting statement from Secretary of State John Kerry today, praising Sharon’s life and efforts, but one odd phrase in the statement stands out as truth: “Ariel Sharon’s journey was Israel’s journey.” The cruel brutality of Ariel Sharon certainly was, and for that matter is, “Israel’s journey.” And it will come to an end. The Palestinian people will put an end to the occupation and liberate every inch of Palestine.

  • PFLP: Kerry proposals aim to liquidate Palestinian right to return

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Jan. 6 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

    US Secretary of State John Kerry is attempting to liquidate the right of Palestinian refugees to return through floating plans for “resettlement” in Australia and other countries, warned Dr. Rabah Muhanna, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

    Kerry’s role in the region is working hand in hand with the Zionist occupation and its plans for Jerusalem and Palestine as a whole, Muhanna said, stating that Palestinian officials must end their involvement with the negotiations scheme. The goal of this project is to attempt to provide legitimacy for the Zionist occupation and its existence, directly or indirectly, in the Jordan Valley, the continued expansion of settlements and the control of major areas of the West Bank through settlement blocs, Muhanna said. Kerry’s treacherous resettlement plans are aimed at liquidating the right of return of Palestinian refugees, the core of the national cause, he added.

    He noted that Saudi Arabia and Jordan and other Arab regimes are playing a role in supporting Kerry’s plan to concede Palestinian national rights. Muhanna urged mass Palestinian action to demand that Palestinian officials reject these dangerous plans and negotiations that will lead nowhere except for the threat of the birth of a new Oslo accord.