Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right To Return Coalition
June 23, 2010

In the year and a half since Israel’s massacres in Gaza, the Palestine solidarity movement, for fifteen years weakened by the two-state “Peace Roadmap” of the 1993 Oslo Accords, has gone through what can only be described as a major political recalibration.

After years of meaningless “peace negotiations,” the aim of Oslo — a “Jewish state” on 78 percent of historic Palestine and a rump “Palestinian state” on the remaining 22 percent — is rapidly losing whatever credibility it may have once had among Palestinians. Indeed, outside the Palestinian Authority, created by Oslo to serve Israeli interests, it is hard to find any Palestinian voices advocating for such a solution with conviction.

From the ruins of Oslo have emerged new campaigns with holistic goals. The most significant of these has been the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, initiated and overwhelmingly supported by Palestinian civil society.

This campaign seeks to address the entire spectrum of what BDS leader Omar Barghouti describes as Israel’s “three-tiered system of oppression against the Palestinian people”: the 1967 occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem; the denial of Palestinian refugees’ right of return; and the systemic discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

These BDS demands present a direct challenge to the Zionist regime of Jewish domination over the Palestinian people. The same goals have generated growing support for the principle of a single, democratic state throughout all of historic Palestine. Even longtime two-state supporter Mustafa Barghouti concedes, “I believe the vast majority of Palestinians would accept equal rights and one person, one vote in one state with alacrity. I certainly would were we to reach such a day.”

Outrage over Israel’s atrocities in and against Gaza — including the recent assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla — has dramatically infused these ideas into the international Palestine solidarity movement, thrusting the Palestinian struggle in the world spotlight as perhaps never before. Despite attempts of its opponents to tar it with the brush of anti-Semitism, BDS is increasingly advocated throughout the world, often by Jewish activists.

Zionist organizations have noted these developments with alarm. The Reut Institute, a leading Israeli think tank, recently warned that support for BDS is based on a “set of ideas that are increasingly sophisticated, ripe, lucid, and coherent,” which, if not aggressively countered, could lead to a “paradigm shift from the Two-State Solution to the One-State Solution as the consensual framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Meanwhile, some in the solidarity movement seek to limit or even oppose BDS. They claim that it is “unrealistic,” or even morally undesirable, to advocate BDS goals that challenge the separate “Jewish state” envisioned by the “Two-State Solution.” Although those who argue this include courageous critics of Israeli policy, their position here is deeply flawed.

First, the principle of self-determination means, above all, that decisions about what is or is not “realistic” belongs to those who live under oppression, rather than their sympathizers — however well meaning. “As in the struggle against South African apartheid,” writes Omar Barghouti, “genuine solidarity movements recognize and follow the lead of the oppressed, who are not passive objects but active, rational subjects that are asserting their aspirations and rights as well as their strategy to realize them.”

Second, is there any social justice movement that has not seemed “unrealistic” or even impossible? Yet, circumstances change rapidly and unpredictably; what was fantasy yesterday often comes true tomorrow. It is enough to remember the long decades that preceded the abolition of slavery, the civil rights victories of the 1960s, or the collapse of colonialism and apartheid in southern Africa.

Third, the “Two-State Solution” is itself realistic only as ratification of a fractured, Israeli-controlled Bantustan; a “Two-Prison” solution, as Palestinian activist Haidar Eid bluntly describes it. This has been the Israeli and U.S. goal since the beginning of the “peace process”; indeed, anyone looking to catch glimpse of a future Palestinian “state” need look no further than the systematic strangulation of Gaza and continued “Judaization” of the land on both sides of the 1948 “Green Line.” In that sense, the most dangerous aspect of this solution is precisely that it is possible.

Finally, “pragmatism” at the expense of justice is always an illusion. As Martin Luther King Jr. famously pointed out, true peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice. An apartheid state built on the notion of Jewish supremacy in an Arab land cannot be part of that vision of justice; on the contrary, it promises unending oppression and conflict.

Although it would be naive to expect an imminent collapse of this state, the genie is out of the bottle. If King was right — that the arc of the “moral universe” does indeed bend toward justice — there is reason to be confident about the movement’s long-term prospects.

Now more than ever, it is time for the solidarity movement to align itself with the growing number of Palestinians in the 1967 occupied territories, the refugee communities, and within the 1948 lands calling for a single democratic Palestinian state of all its citizens from the river to the sea.

This cannot happen until all those and their descendants who were driven from their villages and cities in 1948 by terror, force and massacre are able to return and live in freedom and equality in all of historic Palestine. For those interested in true peace, that is the only pragmatic option.

If your organization would like to endorse or co-sign this statement, please email us at info@al-awdany.orgor use the form below.

Endorsers as of July 20, 2010

Organizations
Al-Awda NY
Al-Nakba Awareness Project
Labor for Palestine
US Palestinian Community Network
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine
Palestine Justice Network
Delaware Valley Veterans For America
Movement Support Project
Action for Gaza
Malcolm X Commemoration Committee
WESPAC Foundation
Jewish People’s Liberation Organization

Individuals
Mahmud Ahmad
Peter Brown – UK
Joe Catron – Brooklyn, NY
Sean Clinton, Limerick, Ireland
Anne Clinton, Limerick, Ireland
Thomas Cox – Artist
Susan Curtiss – Professor, Department of Linguistics, UCLA
Joel Eigen – Coffee Talk; Norristown, PA
Mani Gilyard – Co-Chair, MXCC, Brooklyn, NY
dequi kioni-sadiki – Co-Chair, MXCC, Brooklyn, NY
Tony Litwinko – Glendale, CA
Antony Loewenstein, author/journalist, Sydney, Australia
Amir M. Maasoumi
Dick Reilly – Hammerhard MediaWorks, Chicago
Dr. Kenneth Ring – Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Connecticut
Raoul R. Swart – Cape Town, South Africa
Shakeel Syed – Culver City, CA
Jerry Taylor – Yardley, PA
Gregory Vickrey – GVConsulting
Barry Weiss – Los Angeles, CA

Sign on here!
* Indicates required field.

Gaza’s Winter
produced by Najwa Najjar

A variety of short films about Gaza and Operation Cast Lead, a collaboration of 12 International filmmakers.

Gaza-strophe, The Day After
directed by Samir Abdallah

“We bring back images of Palestine, this country which is more and more becoming metaphorical. We entered Gaza as soon as the ceasefire of the last war (December 2008-January 2009) was announced and discovered with our friends from the Palestinian Human Rights Centre, the extent of the gaza-strophe. In spite of all this, our Gazaoui friends offered us poems, songs and even jokes and stories to tell”
-Samir Abdallah

Films will be followed by discussion with a distinguished panel

Purchase tickets now: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119164

Thursday, July 29th @ 7:00pm
Roxie Theatre (3116 16th Street, San Francisco)
Tickets: $9

Co-Sponsors: Al-Awda San Francisco, Middle East Children Alliance (MECA), Break the Silence and Mural Project, Answer Coalition, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, South Bay Mobilization, Culture and Conflict Forum, Free Palestine Movement, UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine, Arab Cultural Community Center of Silicon Valley, Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice (LC4PJ), Palestine Youth Network, US Palestinian Community Network (SF Bay Area USPCN), International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), Free Palestine Alliance, Sunbula: Arab Feminists for Change

“We affirm that Zionism is a form of racism that denies Palestinians the right to self-determination.”

- US Social Forum National People’s Movement Assembly 2010

The US Social Forum concluded on June 26, 2010 with a powerful National People’s Movement Assembly which produced an important series of resolutions, adopted by the over 18,000-strong Forum as a whole, reflecting the outcome of the People’s Movement Assemblies held at the Forum.

The final synthesis document produced by representatives of the over 50 Assemblies held at the Forum comprises a vision of unified struggle against racism, colonialism, oppression, exploitation and imperialism, including clear support for the Palestinian struggle. Such a clear statement is a significant development for the U.S. Left and an achievement for all who worked to ensure the Palestinian and Arab presence at the core of the Social Forum. As the U.S. government funds ongoing Israeli war crimes and welcomes the racist Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, DC, in sharp contrast, the US’s popular movements affirmed the centrality of the Palestinian liberation struggle and expressed full support.

The US Palestinian Community Network is one of the member organizations of the Forum’s National Planning Committee, and organized the Palestine Program of the Social Forum. The USSF has established a website, PMA 2010, where resolutions from the many PMAs at the Forum will be posted in their entirety, as well as an exciting video highlighting the PMAs and their participants, including the Justice in Palestine, United Against Racism, and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions PMAs, jointly organized by USPCN. The BDS PMA’s final statement is available, as is the United Against Racism PMA resolution.

View the new PMA video:

June 23, 2010

Dear Sisters and brothers:

In a historic accomplishment, the leadership of the US Social Forum voted this morning to cancel a workshop proposed by “Stand With US”, a Zionist organization <http://www.standwithus.com/> that sought to represent Israel as a safe haven for LGBTQI communities and undermine the broadening support for the cause of justice in/for Palestine. As the National Planning Committee (NPC) put it in its announcement, “the workshop ‘LGBTQI Liberation in the Middle East’ (Thursday, June 24 10:00am to 12:00pm) has been canceled for violating the submission procedure and transparency requirements for all workshops, and for being in violation of the anti-racist principles central to the U.S. Social Forum”.

We, Palestinian, Arab and Muslim activists, gathered at the US Social Forum, came together in a solid coalition with our allies from other marginalized communities of color, poor people’s movements, and anti-Zionist activists, to respond to the urgent call issued by our sisters and brother in Palestine and Lebanon http://queersagainstapartheid.org/2010/06/17/arab-queers-say-no-to-pinkwashing/ to cancel the Zionist workshop. The call was supported by Arab queer groups, such as SWANABAQ http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/SWANABAQ and by Palestinian and Arab community groups, such as the USPCN (US Palestinian Community Network) http://palestineconference.org/wp/, a group member of the National Planning Committee (NPC) of the US Social Forum.

As our sisters and brothers (Helem www.helem.net ASWAT www.aswatgroup.org, Al-Qaws www.alqaws.org, and Palestinian Queers for BDS www.pqbds.wordpress.com) made it clear in their statement that racist, Zionist, colonialist and Islamophobic politics and actions are as abhorrent as the politics and practices of homophobia and therefore have no place within movements for justice. We agree with this position and stand steadfastly and with unwavering commitment with this just struggle. Likewise, we stand steadfastly and with unwavering commitment to struggles against US and Israeli policies of war against poor and marginalized communities here in the US and that seek to undermine our unity and solidarity.

This is a victory for our struggle and indeed the struggle for justice for all. This victory makes it clear that the struggle for justice in/for Palestine is an integral part of the worldwide movement for freedom, dignity, justice and peace.
We call on all of you to participate in the US Social Forum process www.ussf2010.org by:

* Attending workshops and sessions in Detroit for the next 4 days
* Writing to thank the National Planning Committee (NPC) of USSF
* Working with the broad and diverse forces of justice and peace in your area.

Congratulations to all of us! Together, united for justice, another world is possible!

Al-Awda, NY; Arab American Action Network (AAAN); Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC); Arab American Union Members Council; Arab Youth Organization (AYO); Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid; Desis Rising and Moving (DRUM); Palestine Youth Network (PYN); US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN); Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA); South West Asia North Africa Bay Area Queers (SWANABAQ); General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS); Committee for Justice in Palestine (SJP)-UC Berkeley; Youngstown Arab Community Center.

The action is being organized by the Labor/Community Coalition in Solidarity with the People of Palestine, of which USPCN is a proud initiator. The coalition includes: Arab American Union Members Council, ANSWER- Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, Palestine Youth Network, US Palestinian Community Network, Al Awda – Right to Return Coalition, Arab Youth Organization, MECA-Middle East Children’s Alliance, Students for Justice in Palestine, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, International Action Center, International Solidarity Movement, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, International Socialist Organization, Peace and Freedom Party – SF, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee and many labor activists in the Bay Area.

Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions | Palestinian Boycott National Committee | UK Palestine Solidarity Committee | Oakland Education Association | Cuban Workers Central CTC

From the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee:

Message from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

To our respected sisters, brothers and comrades in the trade unions, labor councils and workers’ organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Since the beginning of the workers’ struggles in your country – the United States of America – international solidarity has been a constant part of workers’ organizing and struggle in solidarity with workers and people facing injustice everywhere in the world. We, the workers and the people of Palestine are suffering under oppression of the Israeli occupation of our land and people. This occupation began long ago, the longest-lasting occupation of the modern era.

As people who cherish life and wish to live in freedom, we look to and call upon ourfellow workers of the world, particularly today our friends of truth, democracy and freedom in the San Francisco Bay Area to take a stand of courage alongside Palestinian workers to obtain justice and freedom for the workers and people of Palestine. We call upon you to support our struggle to obtain our liberty, practice our self-determination, and build a sovereign, democratic Palestine, like all other nations on earth.

Dear brothers and sisters, trade unionists, workers, and people of the San Francisco Bay Area, we remember and salute your historic and massive action on the docks in 1984, when you acted to boycott the apartheid regime in South Africa.

We look to you today from the Gaza Strip and all of Palestine, and call upon you to repeat that courageous stand today. This genuine solidarity is something we have longed for and expected. As you are responding to our appeal, we expected from you nothing less because of your history of defending the oppressed, including our people suffering under Israeli occupation, and your stand in opposition to the attack on the unarmed Gaza Freedom Flotilla seeking to deliver humanitarian assistance to the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza. Your action today is a milestone ininternational solidarity from honest and brave U.S. workers and trade unionists.

Greetings to you from the trade unionists and workers of Palestine…from the trade unionists and workers trapped in Gaza, seeking freedom…from the entire world who cares for humanity, freedom, justice, progress, and to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

On behalf of your brothers, sisters and comrades in the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions,

/s/
Manawell Abdul-Al
Executive Committee Member
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions
June 19, 2010

Letter From UK Palestine Solidarity Committee To ILWU President McEllrath

ILWU President Bob McEllrath
robert.mcellrath@ilwu.org

17 June 2010

Dear Pres. McEllrath,
I write to congratulate ILWU Local 10 and its membership for their response to the Israeli act of piracy on the high seas and murderous attack on the Freedom Flotilla, immediately condemned by both the International Transportworkers Federation and the International Dockworkers Council.

The Flotilla aimed to break the ongoing siege of Gaza, still under Israeli military control following the invasion of Dec 2008 – Jan 2009 which killed 1400 Palestinians, mainly civilians including 300 children. The International Committee of the Red Cross condemns the siege as “collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law”, and states “The only sustainable solution is to lift the closure”.

In Feb 2009 the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and to the ITF, refused to handle the Zim Lines ship “Johanna Russ”, which had sailed from Haifa at the height of the Israeli bombardment.

Next week, the IDC-affiliated Swedish Dockworkers Union and the ITF-affiliated Norwegian Transportworkers Union will begin a joint blockade of trade with Israel. As the Swedish Dockworkers Union states, the action aims to influence the Israeli government to “Lift the illegal and inhuman blockade of Gaza, which has been going on for over three years” and to “Allow an independent, international inquiry into Israel’s boarding of the Freedom Flotilla (of which the Swedish Ship to Gaza was a member) in international waters” [4]

The Scandinavian blockade responds to an appeal last week from the entire Palestinian trade union movement, calling on dockers worldwide to boycott shipping trade with Israel “until Israel complies fully with international law and ends its illegal siege of Gaza”.

As with the battle to end South African apartheid and the military occupation of Namibia, action by trade unionists in solidarity with their Palestinian counterparts will be decisive and can impose a real price on Israel’s continued systematic racist discrimination against the Palestinian people and defiance of international law.

I hope and trust that the ILWU will uphold its very proud record of international solidarity this weekend.

Yours in solidarity

Greg Dropkin
Liverpool Friends of Palestine

cc:

ILWU Secretary-Treasurer William Adams
ILWU Local 10 President Richard Mead
ILWU Local 10 Secretary-Treasurer Farless Dailey
ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member Jack Heyman

Oakland Education Association OEA Calls On ILWU Longshore Workers Not To Load and Unload Ships From Israel

June 18, 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the ILWU,

At the June 2, 2010 Executive Board meeting of the Oakland Education Association, the following motion was passed:

“Consistent with our position on Gaza adopted in February 2009, the OEA condemns the Israeli attack on the humanitarian flotilla, calls for the lifting of the blockade, reaffirms the right of both Palestinians and Jews to live in Israel-Palestine, and supports an action by transportation workers nationally and internationally who refuse to handle military-related cargo destined for the Israeli Defense Forces.”

We join with the United Nations and Amnesty International, along with numerous international and national trade union organizations, including the Educational International, in condemning the Israeli commando attack on the Free Gaza Aid Flotilla and call for an impartial and independent international investigation of the attack.

We call on our brothers and sisters of the ILWU not to load or unload the Israeli ship docking at Stevedore Services of America. We recall the action of longshoremen in San Francisco in 1984 when they refused to unload a ship carrying South African cargo, which mobilized the anti-apartheid movement worldwide and was the inspiration for similar actions globally. And we remember May 19, 2007, when Oakland teachers and longshore workers shut down the same war shipping profiteer Stevedore Services of America in the Port of Oakland for a day as teachers demanded that Port revenues be used for the schools and other social services, not for war. We salute the ILWU for your long and proud history of supporting social justice.

In solidarity,

Betty Olson-Jones
President, Oakland Education Association
(510) 763-4020 x15
272 E. 12th Street
Oakland, CA 94606

Cuban Workers Central CTC Backs Labor Boycott Of Israeli Ship In Oakland California On June 20, 2010

Havana, June 18, 2010

To: Tim Paulson, Executive Director, San Francisco Labor Council

Robert McEllrath, President
International Longshore and Warehouse Union

William Harvey, President
Alameda Labor Council

The Cuban workers support the just protest of the workers and community of the San Francisco Bay Area that will take place on June 20 against the cruel and inhumane blockade which the Israeli government maintains in the Gaza Strip, depriving thousands of women, children and men of the most basic rights, especially the right to life.

Our people have lived for more than 50 years under an unjust and abominable blockade by the United States government. Therefore, we understand very well how the Palestinian people feel and we will always be in solidarity with their just cause. Today, we send you our most sincere support.

Long Live the Solidarity of the Working Class!
End the Blockade of Gaza!
Respect and Justice for the Palestinian People!

Carmen Godínez
America Coordinator
Department of International Relations
Cuban Workers Central (CTC)

Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee applauds the planned Labor and Community Picket of an Israeli Zim Line ship

Occupied Palestine, June 17, 2010 – The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, whose membership includes the entirety of the Palestinian trade union movement salutes all trade union branches, trade union activists and people of conscience in the San Francisco Bay area who have responded to the Palestinian trade union movement’s appeal issued June 8, 2010, [1] that called for taking effective and concrete measures to block Israel’s maritime trade in response to its massacre of humanitarian relief workers and activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla. The planned Labor and Community Picket of an Israeli Zim Line ship will be a moral and principled display of solidarity with Palestinian workers and the people of Palestine.

The global trade union movement, especially the dockworkers component of it, has once again demonstrated its courage and commitment to human rights by adopting concrete, ground-breaking labor-led sanctions against oppressive regimes in a show of effective solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world. Inspired by the courage of dockworkers unions around the world that boycotted South African maritime trade during the anti-apartheid struggle, trade unions are once again taking the lead in defending the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, freedom, the application of the right of return for our refugees, and an end to Israeli occupation and apartheid.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee warmly salutes all those that that stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

All Out to the House of the Lord Church 415 Atlantic Ave. Thursday June 17, 7 pm

MAVI MARMARA SURVIVORS HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HEARD!

Two weeks ago Israeli naval commandos stormed a Turkish ship loaded with humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. They murdered 9 unarmed passengers. The oldest, Ibrahim Bilgen, was 61. the youngest, Furkan Dogan, a U.S. citizen born in Troy , N.Y., was just 19.

On Thursday, June 17, two eyewitnesses to this horror, U.S. filmmaker Iara Lee and British political organizer Kevin Ovenden, and Ahmet Unsal, a former Member of Turkey’s Parliament, have been invited to tell their views and stories at a public forum at Brooklyn’s historic House of the Lord Church. The meeting is cosponsored by dozens of organizations.

They come with nothing but words. But words of truth strike fear into the hearts of certain hate-filled New York politicians who have voted time and again to turn U.S. taxpayers’ dollars into missiles and bombs for Israel’s war machine.

On June 14, City Council speaker Christine Quinn, Reps. Jerry Nadler, Anthony Weiner, Carolyn Mahoney, Charles Rangel and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer gathered in Times Square at the behest of the so-called “Jewish Community Relations Council.” They shamelessly demanded that the State Department investigate the invited speakers for “ties to terrorism.” They want to prevent or delay their entry the United States. This is a clear attempt to not only deny the passengers’ right to speak but to deny the people of the United States the right to hear their words.

The group of politicians who issued this call have supported every act of terror by the Israeli state against the native people of Palestine and its neighbors. They cheered the 2008-9 terror bombing and invasion of Gaza that slaughtered 1,400 people, including hundreds of children. They applauded Israel’s 2006 mass murder of 900 Lebanese civilians. They hail the cruel blockade that denies food, medicine, electricity and sanitation to the people of Gaza and they dare to support the killing and kidnapping of Turkish, U.S., British and Irish citizens who tried to break that blockade.

These political hacks now attack our very right to learn and discuss the issues involved. They seek to pin the label of ?terrorist? on any who oppose the vicious and immoral blockade of Gaza and the endless stream of U.S. guns and dollars to Israel’s brutal war machine. And they want to hide the truth about what happened that bloody night on the Mavi Marmara.

We call upon all people who believe in justice and freedom to resist this attack on our rights. Let your elected representative  know that you have the right to hear what the courageous survivors of the Mavi Marmara have to say. And let’s pack the House of the Lord Church Thursday night. Let’s answer this vile attempt at intimidation with a powerful mass meeting.

Sponsors include Muslim American Society, International Action Center, National Lawyers Guild-NYC, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement,  American Muslims For Palestine, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, NYC Labor Against the War,  Arab Muslim American Federation, Labor For Palestine, FIST, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, Action for a Progressive Pakistan, ANSWER Coalition, Anakbayan, Bayan USA, Creative Nonviolent Resistance against Injustice, Gabriela USA, International League of Peoples Struggle–NY/LOC, Middle East Crisis Response, El Beireh Society, The Indypendent, Socialist Action, International Socialist Organization, Westchester Peoples Action Coalition, American-Iranian Friendship Committee, US Palestinian Community Network – NY

LET THE TRUTH BE HEARD!

For more information, contact Al-Awda NY at http://www.al-awdany.org or info@al-awdany.org!

The US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) mourns the victims of the attack on the Liberty Flotilla and calls on all people of conscience to demonstrate their outrage by holding protests, set-ins, or press conferences to demand: (1) the immediate lifting of the siege against the people of Gaza, (2) the unconditional release of all members of the targeted Flotilla, and (3) the establishment of an Israeli war crime tribunal by the General Assembly of the UN.

We call upon all Palestinians in the US and their supporters to organize and participate in protests, press conference and mass demonstrations in front of Israeli embassies and consulates in all major cities. These crimes are made possible by the unconditional political, military and diplomatic support provided to Israel by the US government, to which we demand an immediate end. We salute those who sailed on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza and pledge to continue to break the siege, to liberate Palestine, and to continue on their heroic path to struggle for justice, freedom and liberation throughout the world.

PROTESTS TAKING PLACE TODAY, MONDAY, MAY 31:
Washington, D.C. at 3:00pm
Israeli Embassy
3514 International Dr. NW
(near Van Ness and Reno Rd.)

New York City at 3:00pm
Times Square
44th Street & 7th Avenue
+and Tuesday, June 1:
5pm – Israeli Consulate
42nd St & 2nd Ave.

Los Angeles at 4:30pm
Israeli Consulate
6380 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles
(Between Crescent Heights and San Vicente)

Boston, Mass. at 4pm
Park St. T Station

San Francisco at 1pm
Powell and Market

Miami at 5pm
Israeli Consulate
100 N. Biscayne Blvd.

New Haven, CT at 3pm
Federal Courthouse
141 Church St.

Additional protests here:
http://gazafreedommarch.org/cms/en/flotilla/protest.aspx

Letter text (download PDF)

سعادة سفير/قنصل الجمهورية اللبنانية المحترم،

نحن أبناء الجالية العربية في المهجر نريد أن نضع بين أيديكم بعض الحقائق و المطالب التي نتمنى ان تصل الى حكومة بلدكم.

لقد مرت 3 سنوات على كارثة تدمير مخيم نهر البارد في شمال لبنان، و مازال اهل المخيم يعيشون في ظل ظروف مأساوية، و يشعرون بأنهم متروكون و منسيون. وصلت الينا رسالة من طبيب يقيم في نهر البارد، و يعيش اليوم في مخيم البداوي شمال لبنان، يشرح فيها الأوضاع الراهنة في المخيم فيقول:

” يبدو الأمر كأنه المستحيل، القدرة على التعايش مع ظروف هي ترفضك وتلفظك. لكنه حصل وبدأت عجلة ترميم المنازل بالممكن وغيره، بعد ذلك   إستحدثت بركسات (غرف من حديد لإيواء النازحيين) .  لو تدري، هذه الغرف ليست صالحة للحياة الآدمية ، انها لا تليق بالحيوانات. عاد حتى الآن الى هذه البيئة نصف سكان المخيم وما زال النصف الآخر منتشرا، مشتتا على مساحة لبنان كله .تفتتت العائلات، غابت القيم، بطل العمل، وقتل الامل.  تحول المخيم الى معزل عسكري محاط باسلاك شائكة ، تحكمه قوانين الامن والعسكر بأبشع صور.. “

ويشرح الطبيب بداية المأساة:

“دون ادنى شك ما حصل تجاه الجيش اللبناني من المجموعة المسماة “فتح الاسلام” كان جريمة ارهابية كبرى بكل المقاييس، لكن المجرم الحقيقي المغيب  دوما هو الذي اتى بهم، جمعهم من كل اصقاع الارض ليستخدمهم كما يريد في الزمان والمكان المناسبين لمشروعه. فيخلص منهم ومن حقيقتهم  التي قد تورط الكثيرين من السياسين والامنيين محليين واقليميين  ودوليين.

لكن هل يبرر حجم الجريمة، التي اريد لهؤلاء الارهابيين ان يرتكبوها، أن يقفل البعض العقول والقلوب، ويصم الاذان عن سماع الحقيقة في جانبها الآخر الانساني والوطني؟ ان تاريخ وهوية وذكريات وعرق وتعب وجنى عشرات من سنين الكد والتعب لسكان المخيم تنتهك اليوم! كأننا في حرب شعواء لا مكان فيها حتى للصراخ من الالم..”

من هنا، اننا كجاليه عربية في المهجر نريد أن نعبر عن قلقنا البالغ و استنكارنا الشديد لأي انتهاك يطال حقوق المواطنين الفلسطينيين الانسانية في لبنان، و نضم صوتنا الى صوت اخواننا سكان مخيم نهر البارد في التحرك الذي سيقومون به يوم العشرين من ايار لتذكير العالم بمأساتهم. كما نحمل لكم مطالبهم التي نتبناها و نلخصها كالآتي:

1. نطالب الدولة اللبنانية باحترام حقوق المواطنين الفلسطينيين الانسانية في لبنان، مما يستدعي التوقف الفوري عن كل ما يؤدي عمليا الى سياسة عقوبات جماعية ضدهم، مثل: حالة الحصار العسكري المفروضة على سكان مخيم نهر البارد، و تقييد حرية حركتهم بالتصاريح، والتعامل المهين معهم  كمشبوهين.

2. الدعوة الى تشريع حكومي لبناني واضح وصريح لاستملاك ارض المخيم لاعادة الاعمار.

3. الدعوة الى مؤتمر جديد للدول المانحة لتمويل اعادة الاعمار.

اننا نعبر عن حزننا وأسفنا الشديدين لهذه الاوضاع غير المقبولة، التي تستطيع الدولة اللبنانية تغييرها في حدود امكانياتها ومسؤوليتها. في الوقت الذي نتفهم و نحترم سيادة لبنان على ارضه، فاننا نساند اخواننا في مطالبهم  لأن  العلاقات اللبنانية- الفلسطينية يجب أن تقوم على مبدأ التضامن و الاحترام : تحترم سيادة لبنان تماما، و تحترم حقوق الشعب الفلسطيني الانسانية و القومية.

Lebanese Embassies and Consulates in the US (Download full list here)

USA, Washington DC
2560 28th, Street  NW
Washington, DC  20008
Tel:   +1 202 939-6300
Fax:  +1 202 939-6324
E-mail:   info@lebanonembasssyus.org
Website: www.lebanonembassyus.org

USA, Detroit
New Center One Building
3031 West Grand Blvd.
Suite 560
Detroit, MI         48202
Tel: +1 313-758-0753
Fax:  +1 313-758-0756
Email:      info@lebconsdet.org
Website:  www.lebconsdet.org

USA, Los Angeles
660 South Figueroa St., Ste 1050
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Tel:   +1 213-243-0999 / 213-243-0990
Fax:  +1 213 612-5070
E-mail: consuloflebanon@sbcglobal.net

USA, New York
New York N.Y. 10021
9 East, 76th St.
Tel:      +1 212-744-7905
Fax:     +1 212-794-1510
E-mail:    lebconsny@aol.com
Website:  www.lebconsny.org

USA, Boston
366 North Main St.
Andover, MA 01810
Tel:   +1 978-289-4142/3
Fax:  +1 978-289-4145
Email:   abrahamhanna@hotmail.com

USA, Houston
2400 Augusta, Suite 308
Houston, TX       77057
Tel:   +1 713-526-2404
Fax:  + 1 713-526-1141
Email:   mabohsali@sbcglobal.net

USA, Miami
Gables One Tower
1320 South Dixie Highway
Suite 241
Coral Gables, FL  33146
Tel:   +1 305-665-3004
Fax:  +1 305-666-8905
Email:   consulmia@aol.com

USA, Raleigh
2501 Blue Ridge Rd.
Suite 150
Raleigh, NC   27607
Tel:   +1 919-863-4306
Fax:  +1 919-863-4101
Email:   honorconslebanon@aol.com

USA, San Diego
148 East 30th St. #D
National City, CA   91950
Tel:   +1 619-656-6991
Fax:  +1 619-336-4800
Email:   lebanonsd@cox.net

Second Palestinian Popular Conference:  

Together, Restoring our National Institutions, Reclaiming our Rights, Empowering our Community

( فلسطين: شعبٌ وَاحدْ ، وَطنٌ وَاحدْ ، مَصيرٌ وَاحدْ )

المُؤتَمرْ الشعبيّ الفِلسطيني الثاني في الولايات المتحدة الامريكية.

مَعاً نَبني مُؤسَسَاتنا الوطنيه، وَننتزعْ حُقوقنا، وَننهض ُقدُماً…

October 29-31, 2010
The Westin Chicago Northwest
400 Park Boulevard
Itasca, IL 60143
(10 minutes from Woodfield Mall; 25 minutes from O’Hare Airport)

To the Palestinian community in the United States, to the Arab and Muslim communities, in the US, and to all groups and individuals in solidarity with our cause….

On May 17, 2010, the 62nd anniversary of Al-Nakba, we remember our past and look towards the future of our cause. As we recall, and pledge to end, our people’s uprooting and displacement from their homeland, the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) calls upon you to participate in the Second Popular Conference for Palestinians in the United States in Chicago, IL on October 29-31, 2010.

Today, it is clear that 62 years of exile and occupation have not weakened the Palestinian people’s determination to regain their rights and liberate Palestine, their historic homeland. Today, and after more than six decades of colonization, imprisonment, massacres, home demolitions and expulsions, Palestinians are a testament to the utterly delusional nature of David Ben-Gurion’s assertion that “The old will die, and the young will soon forget.” Our elders are immortal in our hearts and minds, and our younger generations are forging new horizons of struggle for our cause.

This is an open call to all organizations, individuals and groups in our community and all solidarity movements to participate in the organizing of this popular Palestinian assembly and forum for the second time in Chicago, where the Palestinian community from all backgrounds and sectors – students, youth, and elders; women and men; professionals and workers – will come together to defend our national rights and mobilize our community.

We recall 800,000 Palestinians forced from their homeland by invading Zionist forces; we recall generations of resistance and struggle, within the lands occupied in 1948; within the West Bank and Gaza; in the camps of exile surrounding Palestine; and everywhere in the world where Palestinians established their communities, built their institutions and remained steadfast in their commitment for their land and people. Today, there are over seven million Palestinian refugees in our communities – dreaming, hoping, and struggling wholeheartedly for justice, return and liberation. We recall the history of racism, oppression and brutality – and our people’s history of resistance and struggle, and we are committed to build a future of justice and liberation.

Join us and participate in organizing the Second Popular Conference. The Conference’s primary goal is to empower our community in the US to assume a key role in realizing Palestinian rights and develop principled and pluralistic Palestinian national institutions in the United States. We have an obligation to become full participants in our Palestinian quest for freedom, self-determination and the return of the refugees to their original towns and villages. Your full participation in all aspects is essential as we march together for a free Palestine –  Palestine: One People, One Land, One Destiny!

To get involved with the Second Popular Conference for Palestinians in the US, email USPCN at conference@palestineconference.org or visit our website at http://www.palestineconference.org.

الجالية الفلسطينية الكريمة في الولايات المتحدة الامريكية

الجالية العربية والاسلامية ، أصدقاء وأنصار فلسطين في كل مكان…

تحية العودة والقدس،

اليوم ، الموافق 17 / مايو ، أيار ، 2010 /  ، ومن فضاء ذكرى النكبة الفلسطينية ومرور 62 عاما على طرد وتهجير شعبنا الفلسطيني من وطنه ودياره ، ُتعلن شبكة الجالية الفلسطينية ، بوصفها الهيئة الرّاعية والمنظمة للمؤتمر الشعبيّ الفلسطينيّ في الولايات المتحدة الامريكية، عن مَوعدِ ومكان إنعقاد المؤتمر الشعبي الفلسطيني الثاني ، وذلك في مدينة شيكاغو بولاية الينوي ، وعلى مدار 3 أيام  متواصلة ، تبدأ يوم  الجمعة ، الموافق 29 أكتوبر/  وحتى  يوم الاحد ، الموافق 31 أكتوبر / 2010 ، في قاعات فندق ويستين شيكاغو نورث ويست، إتاسكا ، إلينوي.

ايتها الاخوات، ايهاالاخوة،

هذه دعوة مفتوحة إلى كل أفراد وَمؤسسات الجالية الفلسطينية والعربية وأصدقاء فلسطين في الولايات المتحدة الامريكية ، للمشاركة في التحضير والتنظيم لِعقد التجمُع الشعبيّ الفلسطيني ألاكبر في الولايات المتحدة وللمرة الثانية على التوالي في مدينة شيكاغو ، حيث تلتقي جماهير شعبنا في أمريكا والجمعيات والمؤسسات الفلسطينية – الامريكية وبمشاركة جاليتنا الكريمة والعزيزة ، حيث يلتقي الطلبة والشباب والاطفال ، من مختلف المدن والولايات الامريكية ، لبحث شؤونهم وقضاياهم وللاحتفال بالتراث والهوية الوطنيه الفلسطينية.

اليوم ، اذ نبدأ إستعدادنا لعقد مؤتمرنا الشعبي الثاني ، ندعو أبناء وبنات فلسطين الى تعزيز وحدتهم ورفع صوتهم وتطوير قدراتهم . كما ندعوكم للتواصل والتنسيق والتعاون من أجل الدفاع عن الثوابت والحقوق الوطنيه الفلسطينية وعلى رأسها حق العودة للاجئين الفلسطينيين ، العودة الى ديارهم ووطنهم وقراهم ومدنهم ، على طريق انتزاع حقنا الجماعي والطبيعي في تقرير المصير وفوق ترابنا الوطني…

اليوم ، ندعوكم للوحدة والتلاقي والنهوض، حتى نقوم بدورنا وواجبنا الوطني والاخلاقي في تعزيز صمود ودعم الاسرى والاسيرات في السجون الاسرائيلية ، وللتاكيد على وحدتنا ، رغم المنافي والمهاجر البعيدة . وحدتنا الممتدة من شيكاغو ونيويورك وكاليفورنيا حتى غزة وحيفا ويافا وبيت لحم ورام الله والخليل والنقب وحتى كل بقعة يهتف فيها فلسطيني حُرّ : شعبٌ واحد ، قضيةٌ واحدة ، وطن ُواحد، مَصير واحد ، وعاصمة ابدية واحدة ، هي قدسنا المحتلة.

انها دعوة للانتصار الجماعي ، من أجل حقوقنا المدنية والسياسية والدستورية في الولايات المتحدة ، وممارسة حقنا القانوني والمشروع في بناء وتنظيم مؤسساتنا وحماية هويتنا وتراثنا وتنظيم وحشد قوتنا السياسية والاعلامية والثقافية..

دعوة للطلبة والشباب والاطفال ، للرجال والنساء والشيوخ ، لاطباء فلسطين ولكل المهندسين والفنانين والعمال والمبدعين من ابناء شعبنا ، الى االمشاركة في التحضير لعقد مؤتمركم الشعبي الفلسطيني الثاني ، مؤتمر فلسطين ، مؤتمر العودة ، مؤتمر القدس والوحدة الوطنيه.

نحو جالية فلسطينية قوية وموحدة وقادرة..

دمتم لشعبكم ..

الهيئة التنظيمية للمؤتمر الشعبي الفلسطيني الثاني في الولايات المتحدة الامريكية.

صدر بتاريخ الموافق17 / مايو ، أيار ، 2010 في الولايات المتحدة الامريكية..