Sanna Towns, Race-Talk, 4 March 2010

In two of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most memorable writings, his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and his 1967 speech, “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence,” he bemoaned the failure of Americans to speak out, to break their silence when witnessing injustice and immoral acts against humankind.  He confessed his disappointment that Birmingham’s white Christian and Jewish communities were more devoted to “’order’ than to justice.”  Motivated in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech to break “the betrayal of [his] own silences,”

King called for a “true revolution of values” within the United States – a revolution that shifted from profit motives and property rights to a society that valued people.   A society, he lamented, that didn’t speak to the social betterment of humanity was not just and thus made the “giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism . . . incapable of being conquered.”

Today there is a growing community of human rights activists in the U.S., around the world, and especially in Palestine-Israel whose behavior mirrors and extends King’s confrontation with injustice in their own efforts to break the silence on the injustice of the cruel, oppressive Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian people.  They realize that by maintaining a deafening silence, mainstream U.S. media and political leadership keep large segments of the U.S. population ignorant about the true nature of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and human rights.  Few Americans know that the Palestinian freedom struggle has been predominantly nonviolent for the vast majority of Palestinians, and has always been grounded in some of the same principles expounded by Martin Luther King, Jr.

In his “Letter,” King identifies four basic components of a nonviolent campaign:  “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action.”  So what are the facts of the Israeli injustices against the Palestinian people?  For more than 62 years beginning in 1948, reminiscent of the ethnic cleansing experienced by Native Americans, Palestinian Muslims and Christians (the indigenous descendants of the first Christians) have suffered as the Israeli government expels them from their homelands, creating the state of Israel upon the 500-plus Arab-Palestinian towns and villages.[i] The suffering continues under a 42-year Israeli occupation marked by land confiscations for settlement building and wall construction and by restrictions on movement: to work, markets and water; to agricultural land and olive trees; to health facilities and educational institutions; and to Christian and Muslim religious sites, all but destroying family ties – discrimination similar to America’s segregated past.  The separation wall and Israeli-only roads and settlements in Palestine divide populations racially for the benefit of illegal Israeli settlers (echoes of apartheid South Africa).  Israel’s apartheid system has caused thousands of civilian deaths, many of them children, and widespread human rights violations.[ii] While the injustices mount, Israel has defied rulings by the International Court of Justice,[iii] violating more than 65 UN Resolutions and the Fourth Geneva Convention.[iv]

Americans have been led to believe that Palestinians have not been “honest partners for peace.”  The truth is, however, negotiating for their freedom has been a daunting task.  Palestinians have experienced the same broken promises, “blasted” hopes, and deep disappointments that King describes in his negotiations with Birmingham’s white leaders.  President Clinton’s famed Oslo Peace Process began in 1993 with negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leadership and the promise to end Israel’s occupation and the formation of a Palestinian state.  Essential to these negotiations, however, was a blatant imbalance of power: on the stronger side, the nation of Israel, militarily superior and prosperous, supported by the wealth and power of the U.S., controlling more than 78% of original Palestine; on the weaker side, the Palestinians, barely surviving and holding on to the remaining 22% of land.

Currently, Palestinian leadership has refused to return to negotiations due to Israel’s unwillingness to abide by past agreements and to cease expanding illegal settlements.  Israel has scoffed at and dismissed longstanding U.S. policy of ending illegal Israeli settlement expansion in Palestine, a policy that President Obama attempted but failed to enforce upon Israel.

Surviving this imbalance and the suffering it causes has been traumatic for Palestinians, requiring unimaginable resources of strength and faith.  King would have identified with their plight and their need to find ways to cope with and confront their circumstances in ways that enable them to sustain themselves.  King describes the process of self-purification as self-analysis and a way of discovering the extent to which he and his fellow protesters were prepared to endure the ordeals of their nonviolent actions.  For many Palestinians, their lives as devoted Muslims and Christians make self-purification through fasting and prayer a much-practiced tradition and surely one that has empowered them during nearly 100 years of suffering and injustice. One ultimate self-purifying act within Palestinian society is articulated in the recent Kairos Document by Palestine’s Christian leadership, a document that proclaims “that our Christian word in the midst of all [the tragedies in our lives], in the midst of our catastrophe, is a word of faith, hope and love.”

While Americans know well the direct action tactics of the movement King led, little do they know about the decades of Palestinian engagement in nonviolent, civil resistance for justice and freedom.  As far back as 1902, Palestinian villagers, in what is now Israel, staged peaceful protests against confiscation of their land by European Zionist settlers. From 1987 to 1993, during the largely nonviolent mass movement of the First Intifada, Palestinians were involved in mass public demonstrations, refusing to pay taxes, boycotting Israeli goods and facilities, and planting olive trees on land confiscated by Israelis.[v] But the most effective resistance to Israeli expulsions, expansionism, and occupation has been their refusal to stop “living in their homes, going to school, eating and living.”

According to Palestinian scholar and human rights activist Mazin Qumsiyeh, “this colonial occupation wants all Palestinians to give up and leave the country. . . . When Shepherds . . . go to their fields despite repeated attacks by settlers and even the attempted poisoning of their sheep, that is non-violent resistance.  When Palestinians walk to school while being spat on, kicked and beaten by settlers and soldiers, that is non-violent resistance.  When Palestinians spend hours at check points to get to hospital, their farm land, their work, their schools, or to visit their friends, that is non-violent resistance.”

More recently, Palestinians, along with Israeli and international activists, are resisting by protesting the construction of the separation wall that is stealing more of their land.  In February, demonstrators in the village of Bil’in cleverly invoked Hollywood, reenacting the film Avatar by dressing up as the blue Na’vi natives opposing the encroaching occupation of an Alien (human) corporate empire.

Israel’s typical response to these nonviolent protests and others by Palestinians against home expulsions in East Jerusalem includes shooting rubber bullets and live ammunition, tossing tear gas,  and showering protesters with sewage – the Israeli equivalent of Alabama’s Bull Connor.

Gail Chalbi, The Northern Light, 5 March 2010

In 2007 Bishop Dyck wrote about the wall being constructed by Israel on Palestinian land (“But Not So with You,” April 2, 2007). Being interested in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, I asked what UMC was doing.

She directed me to the Palestine/Israel Justice Project Team, which I joined. That same summer the United Methodist Women’s School of Christian Missions highlighted the conflict. Resolution 6073 in The United Methodist Book of Resolutions 2008 expresses the church’s opposition to continued military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and other ways in which human rights have been withheld from residents of Palestinian lands.

I decided to participate in the Gaza Freedom March in December 2009. Some 1400 peace activists from 42 countries, including eight Minnesotans, would meet in Cairo and go into Gaza to commemorate the beginning of the assault by Israel in December 2008 and protest the blockade begun in 2007. We would be marching alongside 50,000 Palestinians to the Eretz crossing, while 10,000 Israeli activists would approach from Israel.

However, we learned that Egypt had withdrawn permission to enter Gaza. The first morning we were there, we made cards and tied them to the Kasr al Nil Bridge in remembrance of the 1400 Palestinians—many of whom were women and children—killed during the assault. Soon the police asked us to leave the bridge and tore down the notes..

The morning we were scheduled to depart for Gaza police told the cab drivers that if they unloaded their occupants and luggage, their taxis would be confiscated. Later we went to the UN headquarters where our leaders spoke with a delegate. As we waited in the plaza we were surrounded by police and metal barriers for six hours. It was here that Hedy Epstein, an 85-year-old holocaust survivor, started a hunger strike. She found it incomprehensible that the Israeli government would put a stranglehold on people after what the Jews themselves had suffered during World War II.

Next we went to our embassies seeking diplomatic help to enter Gaza. We were again corralled for over five hours by Egyptian riot police, who informed us that we were being contained at the request of the embassy! Organizers then met with Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubark. Eventually 86 activists went to Gaza for 48 hours, taking a message of solidarity and hope, along with much needed warm clothing and school supplies for the Palestinians.

Back in Cairo, several major demonstrations took place. On New Year’s Eve we gathered for a candlelight vigil near Tehrir Square where a number of Egyptian families joined us. An emotional moment was a cell phone call from Gaza thanking us for bringing international attention to their plight.

That afternoon for the first time ever a large contingency was allowed to demonstrate at the Israeli Embassy. As banners were displayed among people singing and chanting, passersby flashed the victory sign and took pictures. Our presence was front-page news in the Cairo papers and our experiences were written about and televised around the world. Suzanne Mubarak said we were like an earthquake in Cairo–we had done more good by protesting in Egypt than if we had all gone to Gaza.

Rukhsana Ghouse, Woodbury Bulletin, 27 January 2010

As a resident of Minnesota, I have a moral obligation to ensure that our state doesn’t make investments that oppress others. Minnesota’s investment in Israel supports Israel’s apartheid system which has caused thousands of civilian deaths, including children, and widespread human rights violations.

This system defies rulings by the International Court of Justice, more than 65 UN Resolutions, and the Fourth Geneva Convention. Recently the Progressive Caucus of the DFL passed a resolution for the state of Minnesota to divest from Israel Bonds. This resolution is similar to past divestment campaigns targeting apartheid-era South Africa.

This resolution and the DFL’s Progressive Caucus have come under attack by numerous Zionist special-interest groups, who believe that the state of Israel is above scrutiny and international law. However, I believe that this stance by the DFL’s Progressive Caucus, based firmly on social and political justice, needs to be supported in full. I would like to highlight this publicly and ensure that this resolution is taken forward in the interests of peace and justice.

I would encourage all Minnesota residents to join me in supporting the DFL’s Progressive Caucus, and the larger campaign to divest from apartheid regimes like Israel in the interests of human rights.

Rukhsana Ghouse is a resident of Woodbury, MN., community activist, and stay-at-home mom.

By Sylvia Schwarz, MinnPost, 20 January 2010

The four Geneva conventions at the core of international humanitarian law were adopted in 1949 and ratified by 194 countries in the world. These conventions specify conduct that can be found criminally culpable if violated. The first three are specifically applicable to conduct against military personnel who are not combatants (i.e., prisoners of war, medical personnel, wounded soldiers, etc.), and the fourth applies to civilian noncombatants.

Despite Israel’s protestations to the contrary, and despite its ratification of the four Geneva Conventions in August of 1949 (with the reservation that Israel would use the Red Shield of David instead of the Red Cross), it has violated these conventions through its 62-year history and continues to violate them to this day.

Below are just a few examples: In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel attacked the USS Liberty, killing 34 American sailors and wounding nearly 200 (in violation of the second Geneva Convention). Israel claims that it was a mistake, but there is a plethora of evidence to the contrary; the reason for the attack was to keep the United States from finding out about an ongoing massacre of Egyptian prisoners of war (in violation of the third Geneva Convention).

The first Geneva Convention applies to conduct toward medical transports, medical units, and medical personnel, all of which were targeted and many destroyed during Operation Cast Lead from December 2008 to January 2009. Israel denies that it targeted any of the protected facilities or personnel, but numerous reports show deliberate targeting of them. Israel claims that all of the reports critical of Israel are biased and that it has a legitimate right to self-defense. However, the Geneva Conventions also discuss what legitimate self-defense is and what constitutes illegal and disproportionate force.

The settlements issue
Conduct of an occupation is the subject of the fourth Geneva Convention, in which an occupier may not transfer a civilian population into occupied territory. Some Israel defenders have claimed that settlements in the West Bank are perfectly legal, but the fourth Geneva Convention is clear on that issue. Every single settlement, from the settler “outposts” to the large cities, is illegal according to international law.

With these examples and many others in mind, an attempt to put a resolution in the DFL platform for Minnesota to divest from its Israel bonds to force it to comply with international law was proposed at the DFL Progressive Caucus. The resolution passed unanimously in that caucus.

The strong ties between Israel and the United States, and specifically between Israel and Minnesota, have been given as reasons to reject the resolution. On the contrary, these strong ties are exactly the reasons we should divest from Israel bonds. The money invested in Israel bonds goes directly to furthering the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, by helping to develop the civilian infrastructure in the settlements, by building the separation wall, and by building roads that only the settlers can use. In other words, as investors in an illegal colonization we are violating international law.

Israel is getting messages from all over the world that policies violating international law cannot continue without consequences. These messages are coming mainly in the form of boycott, divestment and sanctions. Specific products and manufacturers that benefit from illegal occupation are boycotted, and universities and institutions are divesting from investments in Israel. We, as Minnesotans, should lead the effort and withdraw our financial support from a regime that violates international laws.

Sylvia Schwarz, St. Paul, is a member of International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network — Twin Cities (IJAN-TC).