The full statement on the cancellation is below:

US Social Forum: A Victory for Palestine, A Victory for Justice

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.

“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:

Ala Jaradat, the program manager of Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, and a former Palestinian political prisoner, traveled across the US from November 3-20, 2009, sharing his experiences campaigning for the freedom and rights of political detainees and actively working against the use of torture, arbitrary detention, isolation, and other forms of political persecution and repression.

His U.S. tour traveled to Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; Milwaukee, WI; San Francisco, CA; Youngstown and Columbus, OH; New York, NY; Detroit, MI; Philadelphia, PA; College Park, MD and Washington, DC, focusing on Addameer’s campaign against administrative detention as well as U.S. responsibility for Palestinian political prisoners. The $3 billion dollars of annual U.S. aid to Israel helps fund Israeli prisons and detention centers where 8,100 Palestinian prisoners — including 60 women, 390 children, and 550 administrative detainees held without charge — are imprisoned in substandard conditions and subject to torture.

The US Palestinian Community Network plans to follow up on the tour through continued advocacy to support Palestinian political prisoners and ensure their freedom, and continued work with the local groups across the country who made this tour successful – in fact, enthusiasm for the tour was so great that Ala Jaradat’s trip to the US was extended by one week in order to accommodate additional speaking events, illustrating the interest in the critically important voices of Palestinian political prisoners.

Dr. Adel Samara is a Palestinian writer and researcher who was born in 1944 in Beit Uor, Ramallah area, where he continues to live today. He holds a Ph.D.  in political economy and development from Exeter University – United Kingdom.

For more than two decades, Dr. Samara has written extensively about the most vital issues facing Arab and Palestinian struggles. He has written a plethora of books, both in Arabic and English, and co-authored and edited numerous articles and essays. His books include Epidemic of Globalization: Ventures in the World Order, the Arab Nation, and Zionism; The World Bank and Palestinian Autonomy; Development by Popular Protection vs. Development by State: Beyond De-Linking; Women vs. Capital in the Social Formation of Palestine; NGO’s or Bases Serving the Other? Intellectuals in the Service of the Other; and In Defense of Unity.

Dr. Samara is the editor-in-chief of Kana’an, an Arabic quarterly periodical published in Palestine devoted to the debate of theoretical, cultural, political, and economic issues that affect the Arab nation and is dedicated to the causes of Arabic unity, development, and socialism.

Due to his political views and activism, Dr. Samara has faced imprisonment several times. He was arrested three times by the Jordanian authority and spent two and half years in West Bank jails before the 1967 war. Under the Israeli occupation, he was imprisoned for five and half years. In November 1999, as one of the signatories of the Bayan Al-Ishreen (The declaration of the Twenty) he was placed under arrest for twenty-three days by the Palestinian Authority with other Palestinian leaders and intellectuals.

Dhoruba Bin Wahad is a former political prisoner and leader of the Black Panther Party whose conviction was overturned after spending 19 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Naji Mujahid is a Washington DC-based student activist. Both men were invited to attend the International Conference on Palestinian Political Prisoners in Jericho taking place this week alongside other  international lawyers and human rights activists.They rode a tourist bus to the bridge separating Jordan from Palestine, where, as the only two Black people on the bus, they were separated from the rest of the tourists, who were permitted to go on their way. Dhoruba and Naji were then interrogated, strip searched, and had their belongings confiscated before they were ordered to return to Jordan.

The treatment accorded Dhoruba and Naji mirrors Israel’s policy of driving Palestinians out of their homeland through settlement-building, land confiscation, checkpoints, the Judaization of Jerusalem, and the enactment of discriminatory laws against Palestinians in the parts of Palestine that were occupied in 1948. It also mirrors Israel’s continued denial of the right to return home to for over seven million Palestinian refugees and exiles. As Naji Mujahid himself stated, “the humiliation and frustration that we endured was a small taste of what we can be sure the Palestinians go through on a daily basis.”

Israel’s actions prevented important meetings between former American and Palestinian political prisoners. In addition, they disrupted the media coverage that both Dhoruba and Naji had arranged to provide for Black community news outlets about the conference, Palestinian political prisoners, and the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

The US Palestinian Community Network stands in solidarity with Dhoruba Bin Wahad and Naji Mujahid. We call upon the US State Department to protest this clear example of Israeli racism, and to take action about the ongoing denial of entry of US citizens and residents to Palestine on the basis of their race and/or national origin.

In Chicago and San Francisco, protesters held Olmert’s speech at bay for substantial time periods through sustained interruptions, educating the audience about his responsibility for war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon.

The Electronic Intifada published a substantial article and released the video below of the Chicago demonstration, which took place on October 15, 2009.  Hatem Abudayyeh, National Coordinating Committee member of the USPCN and one of the organizers of the Chicago protest, said that “there is real change happening, whether it’s the international response to the Lebanon war or the international response to the Gaza war. The US is the most powerful country in the world, Israel is a powerful military as well, but the Palestinians have the world on their side.”

Video of Chicago protesters shutting down Olmert:

Whereas, under Mr. Olmert’s personal direction, involvement, planning and knowledge, the crimes perpetrated during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip include, but are not limited to the following:

1.Crimes against peace (Article VI (a) of the Nuremberg Principles):
Planning, preparing, initiating and waging a war of aggression on a civilian population in which:

*1400 Palestinians were killed, the majority of which were civilians and non-combatants including over four hundred children,

*5300 Palestinians were injured, and

*the reckless and illegal use of white phosphorous caused untold suffering.

2.War crimes(Article VI (b) of the Nuremberg Principles):
Plunder of public and private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, and villages, and devastation not justified by military necessity, in which:

*more than 400,000 Gazans were left without running water, and

*4,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless, and

*more than 1000 buildings were bombed, including schools and mosques.

3.Crimes against humanity (Article VI (c) of the Nuremberg Principles):
Persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.

Whereas, six Norwegian lawyers have filed a lawsuit against Ehud Olmert and other Israeli officials over the Gaza war, citing “massive terrorist attacks” during the war which led to the killing of civilians; and

Whereas, Ehud Olmert, because he no longer has diplomatic immunity, can no longer travel to the UK, Norway, Spain, or Belgium, for fear of prosecution for war crimes via “universal jurisdiction”.

Ehud Olmert, as the Israeli Prime Minister during Operation Cast Lead, is charged with “war crimes” and possible “crimes against humanity” and is hereby authorized to be placed under arrest by and for citizens of the state of California, and for the international community in the name of justice.

Issued by San Francisco protestors against Ehud Olmert: Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (BACEIA), CODEPINK Women for Peace, Friends of Deiribzi’a, Northern California International Solidarity Movement, Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), South Bay Mobilization, Stop AIPAC, CAL Students for Justice in Palestine, US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Bay Area Women in Black

Photos from San Francisco Protest (by freelance photographer Ramsey el-Qare)