Southern Europe And Popular Resistance To Apartheid
15 April 2010By Mazin Qumsiyeh
Note: I am
available this summer from June 26-July 10 for talks
in Southern Europe especially on issues of popular
resistance to Israeli apartheid and direct stories
from under the colonial occupation. Invitations to
speak to groups, universities, and conferences would
be considered depending on the tour schedule and first
contacts receiving first priorities. For a biography,
see <http://www.qumsiyeh.org/aboutqumsiyeh/>
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/aboutqumsiyeh/
We had a meaningful event commemorating Deir Yassin
massacre in Beit Sahour on Friday even as the Israeli
regime holds memorials at Yad Vashem overlooking the
village ruins and ignoring the injustice of building a
state on the ruins of another people's lands. We had a
good trip to Birzeit and Ramallah Saturday (and a talk
by the mayor of Bethlehem Saturday night) and
participated in more actions on Sunday. Representing
the popular committee against the wall and settlements
in Beit Sahour, we joined with our friends in Beit
Jala, a town which lost nearly half its land to
Israeli Jewish-only colonial settlements over the past
four decades. Now town residents are prevented from
getting to additional areas near the apartheid walls
and bypass roads (all to serve illegal Jewish colonies
on Palestinian land). The weekly Sunday demonstration
proceeded as expected: soldiers stretching barbed wire
across the road, activists speaking to those present
(including soldiers) in Arabic, English, and Hebrew.
There was a poignant moment when a young German girl
tried to speak to a soldier who even refused to look
herin the eye.
We then drove to Hebron to show a visiting teacher
from Denver what it is like to have 400 racist
settlers ruin life for 150,000 Palestinians. The
settlers took over some buildings, built a few other
sites and make life in this largest Palestinian city
hell for its inhabitants (Hebron is largest now
because cities like Nazareth, Jerusalem, and Jaffa
have had much of their Palestinian population
ethnically cleansed). On the way to Hebron we stopped
by to visit our friend Musa Abu Maria in Beit Ummar
only to be told by his family that he was arrested the
day before by the Israeli occupation authorities. He
was arrested while helping farmers in their land
wheresettlers repeatedly uprooted trees.
I am trying to get a steadier hand and better editing
for youtube videos of these things. Below is my latest
attempt which I end by a more mundane segment showing
poor children who we took to a park ( they have not
been to a park for 2 years). We had Knaffa
(Palestinian dessert) with those children at that time
but did not have the camera then so I show what Knaffa
looks like in Bethlehem with our small group that
visited Hebron earlier. Awad Abu Swai, spokesman of
the Popular Campaign against the wall and settlements
is visible. Anyway, here is the video
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHd-8PqT0UA>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHd-8PqT0UA
In other news, Israeli authorities instituted new
regulations that will allow them to deport thousands
of Palestinians in contradiction to International law.
According to Haaretz "the first Palestinians likely to
be targeted under the new rules will be those whose ID
cards bear home addresses in the Gaza Strip - people
born in Gaza and their West Bank-born children - or
those born in the West Bank or abroad who for various
reasons lost their residency status. Also likely to be
targeted are foreign-born spouses of Palestinians." (IDF
order will enable mass deportation from West Bank
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1162075.html>
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1162075.html ) And
according to the Haaretz editorial: "Implementing this
new military order is not only likely to spark a new
conflagration in the territories, it is liable to give
the world clear-cut proof that Israel's aim is a mass
deportation of Palestinians from the West Bank. While
all Jews can settle wherever they wish, in Israel or
in the territories, Israel is trying to deprive the
Palestinians of even the minimal right to choose where
to live in the West Bank or Gaza."
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1162382.html>
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1162382.html
And the summer looks like will come with even more
drastic restrictions on use of water (already Israeli
settlers use 80% of the West Bank Water).
Maan news reported that "Four days after an Israeli
minister threatened to restrict the West Bank's water
supply, Israeli authorities closed off the main water
source used for agriculture in a Jordan Valley village
on Sunday, committee members and lawyers said. "
(Israel shuts off water to Jordan
Valley farms <http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=275681>
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=275681
)
In positive news, the Israeli authorities are under
pressure after having exposed how little freedoms
exist in the fascist state. There appears to have been
a 4-month Israeli gag order and undue pressure on a
journalist plus house arrest for his alleged source.
Now that the gag order was lifted
thanks to the leaks internationally and over the
internet making it illogical, there are many
questions. Yet, Israeli media are not asking why
journalists are being punished for revealing that
Israeli occupation authorities engaged in
extrajudicial executions even after the Israeli high
court ordered the practice ended? In any other
country, the revelation would ensure the punishment
not of the journalist but of the military leaders
(violating in this case not just International law but
even Israeli high court rulings).
In other good news, there have been growth in the
Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions; for example see
this good action at H&M in Europe:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IXglFpSTvM> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IXglFpSTvM
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a
villager at home <http://www.qumsiyeh.org> http://www.qumsiyeh.org
Popular Committee to Resist the Apartheid Wall and
Settlements-Beit Sahour Professor, Bethlehem and
Birzeit Universities Chairman of the Board,
Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People,
<http://www.pcr.ps> http://www.pcr.ps
©
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