Apartheid—it’s so last century

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an article giving the results of a survey conducted on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.  The original headline for the piece was “Most Israelis support an apartheid regime in Israel,” but a search for it today yielded a headline “Survey: Most Israeli Jews wouldn’t give Palestinians vote if West Bank was annexed.”  Under the new headline was a note that supposedly explained what they now consider a headline which “did not accurately reflect the findings” of the poll.  http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/survey-most-israeli-jews-wouldn-t-give-palestinians-vote-if-west-bank-was-annexed.premium-1.471644?block=true

They didn’t say what they called the situation, if not apartheid. 

“The Palestinian minority in Israel: Systematic Discrimination” is the headline of an article in Qantara.de, a German based website.  http://en.qantara.de/Systematic-Discrimination/19419c497/index.html  The article goes on to say:

The Israeli government and its advocacy groups like to boast of the country's supposed democratic, multicultural way of life. In reality, Palestinians in Israel experience systematic discrimination in such a way that calls into question the validity of the "Jewish and democratic" formulation. By Ben White

It has been received wisdom in the West for decades to see Israel as "the only democracy in the Middle East". In recent times, however, Israeli policies have been subject to increased criticism, particularly in Europe – and specifically in terms of military action in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the territories occupied since 1967.

Unfortunately, criticism does not seem to have any effect on the actions of the Israeli government.  As a recent (October 31, 2012) article posted by Stop the War Coalition in the UK says, “The facts speak for themselves:  Israel is an apartheid state.”  The article has links to official UN documents stating the official definition of apartheid, and gives additional information of facts on the ground that support the headlines. http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/palestine-and-israel/1992-the-facts-speak-for-themselves-israel-is-an-apartheid-state%20

 

Church leaders support Palestine

 

This month 15 prominent church leaders sent Members of Congress a letter in which they spoke of “widespread Israeli human rights violations committed against Palestinians.” They also wrote that “unconditional U.S. military assistance to Israel has contributed to this deterioration, sustaining the conflict and undermining the long-term security interests of both Israelis and Palestinians.”  The full text of the letter can be found at http://www.kairosusa.org/?q=node/55.

The signers of the letter include leaders of denominations including Presbyterians, Methodists, United Church of Christ, and the National Council of Churches (USA), among others.

This historic letter is not an isolated incident.  The support by church leaders of the just cause of the Palestinians has been a little advertised aspect of the conflict for decades.  Another example of such is the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, which includes Christian leaders from many different denominations from many different countries. http://eappi.org/en/home.html

The letter is featured as part of the Peace Not Walls campaign of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls.aspx It is also supported by the Presbyterian Church on their website http://www.theipmn.org/

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has more details on their blog, http://blog.endtheoccupation.org/2012/10/pro-israel-groups-react-to-church.html  The following link has been copied from an article on the subject http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=3295

Whether or not you identify with one of the denominations whose leaders signed the letter, please take a moment right now to thank the church leaders for their important letter to Congress.

 

Pope Benedict XVI, although not a signer of the letter, pledged his support for Palestinian statehood on a visit to Bethlehem in 2009, as documented in the following video.

Russell Tribunal on Palestine, NY, Oct 6-7 2012

The International War Crimes Tribunal is also known as the Russell Tribunal or the Russell-Sartre Tribunal in recognition of the two founding members:  British philosopher, mathematician, and peace-activist Bertram Russell, and Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and playwright.  The original tribunal was convened in November 1966 following the publication of Russell’s book, War Crimes in Vietnam.  The justification stated for the establishment of the tribunal was the following:

“If certain acts and violations of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them.  We are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.”     -- Justice Robert H. Jackson, Chief Prosecutor, Nuremberg War Crimes Trials Further tribunals were set up in later years following the same model.  The most recent Russell Tribunal is the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. First Session: Barcelona, March 2010 – to consider the complicities and omissions of the European Union and its member states in the Palestinian-Israel crisis. Second Session: London, November 2010 – to examine international corporate issues in Israel and human rights law. Third Session: Cape Town, November 2011 – to examine Israeli practices against the Palestinian people in light of the prohibition on apartheid under international law. Fourth Session: New York, October 6 – 7, 2012 focused on “US Complicity and UN Failings in Dealing with Israel’s Violations of International Law Toward the Palestinian People.” Why is this important?  The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (or any of the other Russell Tribunals) have no legal force behind their findings.  They cannot pass sentence on miscreants; they cannot enforce punishment.  What they accomplish is to let the world know that just because crimes are not punished or even mentioned in the mainstream media of the U.S. does not mean they have gone unnoticed.  People all over the world are aware of the injustice of what is being done to the Palestinian people, and public opinion is growing among the citizens of the world—both great and small.  Noam Chomsky explains the situation in an articulate statement in his YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUl9LI_c8rg For a ringing endorsement of the Tribunal from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Alice Walker, see the YouTube Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCYpFv_FljE  More information about the New York session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine can be found at http://mondoweiss.net/2012/10/sold-out-russell-tribunal-on-palestine-kicks-off-in-new-york.html where the below video originated. More information about all sessions of the Russsell Tribunal on Palestine at http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/ More information about the history of Russell Tribunals can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tribunal

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewed a native American who spoke at the Tribunal, comparing the current situation in Palestine with the terrible acts that the United States had inflicted on him personally and his people.  A clip of the broadcast can be seen on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg6kSeq77kA  I found the interview very touching on a human level.  The entire interview can be found on the Democracy Now website at:  http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/9/stream

Watch live streaming video from http://mondoweiss.net/2012/10/sold-out-russell-tribunal-on-palestine-kicks-off-in-new-york.html