Olympia BDS - Take Action To Support Them TODAY :)

Last week the Board of Directors of the Olympia Food Co-op in Olympia, WA, the hometown of Rachel Corrie, took the courageous step of instituting a boycott of Israeli goods, the first grocery boycott of Israel in the US.

Already, there is a movement afoot to condemn the Co-op for taking this important stand. Please help us thank the Olympia Food Co-op and its board of directors for supporting human rights in Palestine!

Sign the petition here!

Civil Disobedience Earns Respect in Palestinian Resistance Struggle

My complaint with this article though is that it makes it seem like non-violent resistance is a novel concept for Palestinians when in fact the first Intifada (uprising) was almost completely non-violent and still do this day Palestinians regularly engage in CD and non-violent means. What the article misses is the fact that the American media coverage is so biased in favor of Israel that we are blind to these realities until unfortunately something like the Flotilla Massacre occurs and we think "oh, wow. people must be using non-violent means" - - even when Israel tried to villify this endeavor also.

Given this complaint though, I think the article is still very interesting because it reports on how groups that have in fact adopted violent means in their engagements with Israel and how they see CD now.

I'm sure though that in the long run that this sort of 'approval' from Hamas and Hezbollah will lead to even greater scrutiny of non-violent protests and resistance, but more so especially, because Israel too is realizing their powerful impact internationally.

-

Israel's Foes Embrace New Resistance Tactics
Hamas and Hezbollah Find Inspiration In Flotilla, Support Protest Movements

By CHARLES LEVINSON

JERUSALEM—Hamas and Hezbollah, groups that have long battled Israel with violent tactics, have begun to embrace civil disobedience, protest marches, lawsuits and boycotts—tactics they once dismissed.

For decades, Palestinian statehood aspirations seemed to lurch between negotiations and armed resistance against Israel. But a small cadre of Palestinian activists has long argued that nonviolence, in the tradition of the American civil rights movement, would be far more effective.

Officials from Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, point to the recent Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, in which Israeli troops killed nine activists, as evidence there is more to gain by getting Israel to draw international condemnation through its own use of force, rather than by attacking the country.

Agence France-Press/Getty Images

Israeli troops approach a model of a ship representing the Gaza aid flotilla during a demonstration by activists in the West Bank in early June.

"When we use violence, we help Israel win international support," said Aziz Dweik, a leading Hamas lawmaker in the West Bank. "The Gaza flotilla has done more for Gaza than 10,000 rockets."

Hamas and Hezbollah, the Islamist movement in Lebanon that has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s, haven't renounced violence and both groups continue to amass arms. Hamas still abides by a charter that calls for Israel's destruction; Palestinian youths still hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers across the West Bank separation barrier. And the flotilla incident didn't fall into conventional standards of peaceful protest: While most activists passively resisted Israeli soldiers, some on the boat where protesters were killed attacked commandos as they boarded, according to video footage released by Israel and soldiers' accounts.

The incident triggered international condemnation and plunged Israel into one of its worst diplomatic crises in years. In response, Israel said it would take some steps to ease its blockade on the Gaza Strip.

After the incident, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on supporters to participate in the next flotilla bound for Gaza. Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of the Hezbollah politburo in Beirut, said it was the first time Mr. Nasrallah had forcefully and publicly embraced such tactics against Israel.

"We saw that this kind of resistance has driven the Israelis into a big plight," he said. Organizers in Lebanon say they have two ships ready to sail, but no departure date has been set.

A senior Israeli foreign ministry official said Israel recognizes "changes in the tactical thinking of Hamas and other resistance movements." The official said the groups are no less committed to Israel's destruction, but have simply concluded they are more likely to defeat Israel by encouraging its international isolation instead of through military force.

"People who are provoking violence are using peaceful protest as a cover," said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.

The Palestinian protest movement picked up steam in the past year, spearheaded by activists in the West Bank and a coalition of pro-Palestinian international human-rights groups.

The absence of peace talks for much of the past two years has pushed the Palestinian Authority leadership to embrace the movement as well. Dominated by members of Hamas's more moderate rival Fatah, they long advocated a negotiated settlement with Israel and dismissed popular protest campaigns.

But in January, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad launched a campaign to boycott products produced in Israeli settlements and to plant trees in areas declared off limits by Israel. In April, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas outlawed settlement products in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas.

Hamas's turnaround has been more striking, said Mustapha Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian advocate for nonviolent resistance. "When we used to call for protests, and marches, and boycotts and anything called nonviolence, Hamas used these sexist insults against us. They described it as women's struggle," Mr. Barghouti said. That changed in 2008, he said, after the first aid ship successfully ran the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

"Hamas has started to appreciate just how effective this can be," Mr. Barghouti said.

Hamas has started organizing its own peaceful marches into the Israeli-controlled buffer zone along the Gaza border and supported lawsuits against Israeli officials in European courts. Hamas says it has ramped up support for a committee dedicated to sponsoring similar protests in Gaza.

Mr. Dweik, the Hamas lawmaker, recently began turning up at weekly protests against Israel's West Bank barrier.

Salah Bardawil, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza City, says Hamas has come to appreciate the importance of international support for its legitimacy as a representative of the Palestinian people and its fight against Israeli occupation, and has adapted its tactics. Hamas hasn't claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in years and now denounces the tactic as counterproductive. Since an Israeli military incursion into the territory in December 2008-January 2009, it has also halted rocket attacks into Israel.

"Hamas used to believe [international support] was just empty words," said Mr. Bardawil. "Today it is very interested in international delegations … and in bringing Israeli officials to justice through legal proceedings."

Indian Dock Workers Continue Labor Resistance to Apartheid

From Labor for Palestine

Dockworkers at the major Indian port of Cochin are refusing to unload Israeli cargo in protest of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip.

According to the Indian communist publication People’s Democracy, “The boycott began on June 17 on receipt of information that cargo unloaded at Colombo Port [Sri Lanka] from Israeli ship m/v Zim Livorno 16 was bound to arrive at Cochin Port in a feeder vessel.”

“On June 23, trade unions held a joint protest rally in Cochin Port near the office of Zim Integrated Shipping Services (India) Pvt Ltd – the Israeli shipping line,” the report added. At the demonstration, labor leaders denounced Israel’s attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May which left nine people dead.

Representatives of several trade unions—including those aligned with both left and right wing parties— joined the demonstration.

The port of Cochin, in the state of Kerala, is one of the biggest ports in India.

The Chochin dockworkers join workers at ports in Sweden, South Africa, and other countries who have refused to unload Israeli cargo. Calls for boycotts against Israel intensified in the wake of the flotilla raid.

On June 20th, dockworkers in Oakland, California, refused to unload an Israeli cargo ship after protesters picketed at the dock.

WHAT GREAT NEWS!!

solidarity is always SO unbelievably replenishing.

we are one.

Exciting BDS Update

Some very exciting BDS news within the Palestinian territories was featured recently in The Guardian.


I think this symbolizes a tangible connection between BDS actions internationally in countries like the U.S., Turkey, and Australia, to the resistance within the actual Palestinian territories. It is a very exciting time, indeed.

Enjoy!

"The objective is to ensure the Palestinian market is free of Israeli settlement produce by the end of this year," the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, said at the launch of the Store to Store campaign at the Alameen supermarket.

A team of volunteers will inspect 66,000 stores across the West Bank in the coming weeks, awarding certificates and window stickers to those free of settlement produce.

After a period of grace, shopkeepers retaining such produce in their stores could be liable to a fine of more than £9,000 or up to five years in prison under a law already passed but not yet enforced by the Palestinian legislative council.

"This is the daily expression of rejection of the occupation," Fayyad said. "It will help ensure that the Palestinian economy is self-sufficient. There will not be a store in Palestine which cannot carry our stickers."

Palestine & The Left

Great, great article. Must read for anyone on the left who has struggled with the Palestinian liberation struggle not being "hip" enough to be included, for a variety of reasons.

I like that the article is critical but then also talks about improvements that have been made since the 2007 Social Forum - including the Students for Justice in Palestine summit. Really exciting :)

Also - TOTALLY wish I could be in Detroit for the US Social Forum 2010. If you're in Detroit, or can get there pronto, DO IT! It looks AMAAAAZING.

-sj.

Integrating Palestine into the Progressive Left

by:

Noura Erakat

As progressive forces in the United States prepare to convene the second U.S. Social Forum this week in Detroit, Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Noura Erakat comments on the gap between Palestinian and Arab dreams of an America committed to justice and the reality of the work it would take to achieve this dream

Overview

The World Social Forum is a global movement of progressives that has gained in strength and influence over the past decade. Regional meetings build up to the Global Forum, and progressive forces in the United States are about to convene the second U.S. Social Forum June 22 – 26, 2010. Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Noura Erakat examines the gap between Palestinian and Arab dreams of an America committed to justice and the reality of the work it would take to achieve this dream, using the exclusion of Palestinian representation at the first U.S. Social Forum in 2007 as her entry point. She argues that in order to build on recent successes within the American progressive community -- including securing a key organizing role in this year’s forum -- it is necessary to see the struggle for Palestinian justice as a function of policies with global implications that impact Palestinians, other nations, and marginalized American communities.

Aspirations Vs. Action

Hardly an Arab or Palestinian living in the United States does not desire their fellow Americans to carry the banner of Palestinian justice and shift U.S. policy toward the conflict. Even the revered Columbia Professor, Edward Said, who commanded respect and attention in a broad spectrum of fields echoed this sentiment. At a 2002 Al-Awda rally in New York he called upon the impassioned throng to talk about Palestine everywhere, to everyone: at the supermarket, near the office water cooler, at the playground, with members of the Parent Teacher Association, on the bus, and at the bus stop -- everywhere.

Yet despite this yearning to nurture American solidarity, there is a vast divide between the aspiration and the understanding required for its realization -- that Palestinians, other nations, and millions of marginalized Americans contend with the same structural impediments standing between them and the full realization of their human dignity. The understanding of a common enemy and the affirmation of a common humanity is the linchpin of genuine solidarity.

Who then might constitute effective allies of Palestinians in the U.S.? Who contends with institutionalized discrimination similar to that which renders Palestinians second-class citizens on their own land? Which communities in the U.S. are racially profiled, systematically incarcerated, and rendered poor by a confluence of institutional factors, lack access to health care and employment and secure housing?

For progressive Arab and Palestinian Americans, these U.S. counterparts are immigrant communities, the working poor, migrant workers, indigenous peoples, racial minorities, and other U.S. communities considered expendable by a neo-liberal economic framework that touts itself as colorblind, reveres individualism, disdains social and economic rights, and places corporate profits above people’s welfare. These economic policies have driven poor families out of their homes in the U.S., have led to the systematic incarceration of African-Americans in prisons for profit, have devastated labor’s ability to negotiate workers’ rights, have accelerated gentrification in urban centers, and have fueled the insidious attack against immigrants.

Like their counterparts, Palestinians and other nations endure the brunt of neo-liberal prerogatives -- foremost of which is the expansion of labor and consumer markets as well as resource extraction -- by way of colonization and/or military domination.

Thousands of Americans opposed to neo-liberalism’s manifestation in the U.S. and beyond -- what I term the “progressive left” -- are organizing the second U.S. Social Forum to take place in Detroit, Michigan from June 22-26, 2010. The Forum is the U.S.-based counterpart to the World Social Forum and according to its architects it “will provide space to build relationships, learn from each other's experiences, share our analysis of the problems our communities face, and bring renewed insight and inspiration. It will help develop leadership and develop consciousness, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.”

The U.S. Social Forum reflects the political principles drafted at the World Social Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2001. At the heart of those principles is a commitment to a global collaborative process aimed at creating a world wherein nation-states will “rest on democratic international systems and institutions at the service of social justice, equality, and the sovereignty of peoples.”

Left Out of the Progressive Left

The U.S. Social Forum is an opportune space for Palestinians to forge alliances with other progressive forces as well as integrate the cause for Palestinian self-determination more firmly into the progressive left agenda. Arab and Palestinian Americans who consider the crises in the Middle East, and U.S. support for them, a function of unfettered neo-liberalism are seeking to do just that. However, even in this space, Palestinians have had to struggle to represent themselves and to push back against a liberal tendency to provide a “balance” of narratives before they could experience genuine solidarity.

At the first Forum held in Atlanta, Georgia in July 2007, no Arabs or Palestinians were invited to participate in the National Planning Committee which functions as the Forum organizing body and is comprised of U.S.-based social justice organizations. Palestinians and their allies urged the Committee to invite Palestinian civil society leader Jamal Juma’ as the plenary speaker to address U.S. militarization in the Middle East. Juma’ is a founding member of Stop the Wall and leading member of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Instead, the Committee invited a liberal Zionist Jewish woman instead. In her speech to nearly 12,000 people, she called for a mutual approach among Palestinians and Israelis to embrace non-violence and build peace. She thereby “balanced” Israeli and Palestinian narratives and portrayed the institutional discrimination, displacement, dispossession, and occupation endured by Palestinians as a product of civil war as opposed to U.S.-backed foreign colonization. According to Sami Kittimo, a Palestinian activist who attended the session, “the message to us was that Arabs and Palestinians were not a valued part of the Forum and there was no need for us to represent ourselves. On a panel about U.S. imperialism, here was a speaker advocating against self-determination for Palestinians and speaking in support of imperialist efforts in Palestine.”

News of the controversial speech quickly spread, especially at the Palestine Tent (“Nahr al-Bared”) the organizing hub of educational and cultural activities coordinated by Palestinian participants and their allies at the Forum. Kittimo and the other activists decided to draft a statement to the National Planning Committee expressing their concerns regarding the ill-suited plenary speaker. The Committee responded honestly, saying that it did not know any better and in fact had confused the speaker’s Hebrew name for an Arab one, thus thinking that she was Arab. As a reconciliatory gesture, the NPC invited the Palestinian activists and their supporters to read the statement before a captive audience the following night.

Since 2007, there has been consistent follow-up with the Forum organizers. Sara Kershnar, a founding member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network who attended the 2007 Forum, said that the follow-up coupled with the speaker controversy strengthened NPC commitment to prioritize Palestinian participation in the organizing of the 2010 Forum. In June 2009, a Forum representative asked the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), a loose coalition of Palestinian individuals and institutions dedicated to building a participatory and inclusive network for the U.S.-based Diaspora, to submit an application for membership in the National Planning Committee. The USPCN includes Palestinian individuals, organizations, and village/town-based clubs throughout the U.S., who share the aim of addressing and overcoming the fragmentation afflicting the Palestinian nation, affirming Palestinian national unity, and encouraging collaborative initiatives in furtherance of Palestinian self-determination.1 After an interview process, the USPCN’s application was approved and it has been a leading organizing member of the Forum since October 2009.

Building Solidarity at the U.S. Social Forum

The USPCN has managed to corral multiple efforts into an impressive force for the 2010 U.S. Social Forum, including the:

• Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions People’s Movement Assembly;
• Palestine Tent featuring cultural performances, speakers, and a bazaar;
• Palestine Track of 48 workshops; and
• Students for Justice in Palestine summit;

In addition, Jamal Juma’, coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, will be a keynote speaker on the international plenary panel. (http://ussf.palestineconference.org/) Juma’ will address the Forum by videoconference due to the travel restrictions that Israel has imposed on him in the aftermath of a 25-day detention for his political activities against Israel’s Apartheid Wall in the West Bank. According to Rama Kased, a leading USPCN organizer, “Jamal’s inability to physically address the Forum is not an impediment -- on the contrary, this highlights the arbitrary and capricious nature of Israel’s apartheid regime.”

Among the planned workshops is one called, “United Against Racism & War: From New Orleans to Palestine,” which, in Kershnar’s words, intends to strengthen an anti-racism movement by “discussing implications for building joint struggles against racism experienced by communities in the U.S. and those impacted by U.S. policies abroad, with a specific focus on U.S. support for Israel.” United Against Racism is a multi-racial, multi-national alliance that emerged in the wake of rising Arab and Muslim profiling post-9/11, the neglect of minority communities during and following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the mounting violence against Palestinians since the Second Intifada and especially since Hamas’ electoral victory in 2006. The alliance formally established itself in 2008 in preparation for the USPCN Popular Conference.

According to Kali Akuno, a Malcolm X Movement national organizer and co-founder of the alliance, United Against Racism chose to centralize Palestine in its anti-racist analysis because the alliance’s core activists and organizations “hold a common view that Palestine represents the barometer of the extent to which imperialism is willing to go to ensure that the capitalist system of oppression and exploitation continue unabated. There is a general understanding that the liberation of Palestine is a critical linchpin in the transformation of this system and the creation of a more humane global system.”

Challenges Ahead

Establishing firm alliances with those communities and persons who, like Kali, identify a common foe and affirm a common fate, represents only half the battle in solidifying genuine solidarity. The other half depends on the Arab and Palestinian community itself and specifically in its ability to commit to other struggles. As the USPCN has found in its outreach efforts for the U.S. Social Forum, although Arabs and Palestinians can identify the structural injustice inherent to Israeli colonization and apartheid, they are not as aware of similar injustices endured by marginalized communities in the United States.

Here is just one example from personal experience with a national Arab-American organization. During my last year of law school some years ago, I was seeking opportunities to practice law creatively in the advancement of social justice. After an initial conversation, this national organization encouraged me to submit a project proposal for a fellowship that it would sponsor. Excited by the positive response, I drafted a plan aimed at ameliorating Arab-Black tensions in Detroit by crafting joint campaigns against environmental injustice harming both communities and by nurturing dialogue between community leaders regarding the resentment bred between Arab-American liquor store owners and African-American patrons suffering from alcohol addiction. My rejection phone call was quite curt—I was told that my proposal was too “Bay Area-esque,” a euphemism for “too controversial.2

I suppose criticizing a targeted and minority community like the Arab-American one is a bit controversial but this is precisely emblematic of our condition. While we bemoan the lack of support for the Palestinian struggle for justice, we do too little to treat the racism in which our own communities engage, whether wittingly or not. If we want to achieve and benefit from genuine solidarity, then not only must we speak about Palestine to everyone, everywhere, as Edward Said advocated, but we must also speak to our own Arab and Palestinian communities about everyone else.

Union & Liberation Struggle Solidarity

This post officially marks my revamping of this blog. I used it to originally detail my trip to Egypt for the Gaza Freedom March and instead of starting a whole new one, I figured I would use this to write, post, and keep up on things going on with this "conflict".
--Will post later on why I put the word conflict in quotations :)

As a labor union organizer currently working for a local in D.C. this made me infinitely happy today. In many countries, and even in the history of this very local in Oakland, California, labor unions have been deeply embedded within social justice struggles. While there are few that are hardly as militant (read as in staunch, not as in violent) as they used to be, this certainly replenishes my hope in their change. I think for the greater BDS movement in the U.S. this is a very significant step and the fact that it was not only leftists/activists who participated but also Union Dock Workers makes me all the more optimistic for this movement.

Here's to many more ships being turned away.

-sj.

Bay Area dockworkers refused to cross a picket line early Sunday, leaving a ship loaded with cargo from Israel floating offshore.

Seven hundred demonstrators had gathered to protest Israel’s May 31 attack on a flotilla attempting to break the blockade on the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The assault on the flotilla, carrying 10,000 tons of aid, killed nine people and injured more than 100.

After members of Local 10 of the Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) chose not to cross the line at the Port of Oakland, citing a contract provision that protects their health and safety, the stevedoring company cancelled the next shift, anticipating another refusal to unload the ship.

The events followed a similar action by dockworkers in Sweden, responding to the call put out by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) to turn away Israeli goods. Dockworkers in Norway, Malaysia, and South Africa have also said they will not unload Israeli ships and cargo.

The call for longshore unions to refuse Israeli goods was amplified when Israel dispatched commandos in helicopters three weeks ago to seize small ships that were attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The humanitarian mission was sponsored by Turkish organizations, and hundreds of unarmed activists were on board.

Israel has prohibited food, household goods, and construction materials from reaching Gaza since the 2006 election of the militant Hamas movement to the territory’s government.

Israel, under heavy international pressure since the deadly assault on the flotilla, announced Sunday it will widen the list of goods allowed into Gaza.

Israel’s three-year blockade—and a 2008 military assault on Gaza that killed 1,440 Palestinians and destroyed 4,000 homes along with hospitals and water treatment facilities—has left the tiny territory in ruins, unable to rebuild.

Scores of unions around the world have condemned Israel’s blockade and attack on the flotilla, with the Congress of South African Trade Unions calling it “state-sponsored piracy.”

Along with US Labor Against the War, Labor for Palestine, a small US-based cross-union network, decried the assault on the flotilla. The AFL-CIO declined to comment.

BOYCOTT STRATEGY

Meanwhile, the South African Municipality Workers, among others, is campaigning to have cities break ties to Israel. Their drive is part of the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which activists in many countries are taking up to pressure Israel to change its behavior toward Gaza and its own Palestinian citizens. The campaign is modeled after the international movement that brought down South African apartheid in the 1980s.

Palestinian labor is asking for union solidarity in the campaign to sever ties with Israeli businesses, and to support new flotillas attempting to bring essential goods into Gaza.

Manawell Abdul-Al, a PGFTU executive committee member, responded to ILWU Local 10’s action: “This genuine solidarity is something we have longed for and expected,” he said. “We expected from you nothing less because of your history of defending the oppressed.”

The events followed a similar action by dockworkers in Sweden, responding to the call put out by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) to turn away Israeli goods. Dockworkers in Norway, Malaysia, and South Africa have also said they will not unload Israeli ships and cargo.

The call for longshore unions to refuse Israeli goods was amplified when Israel dispatched commandos in helicopters three weeks ago to seize small ships that were attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The humanitarian mission was sponsored by Turkish organizations, and hundreds of unarmed activists were on board.

Israel has prohibited food, household goods, and construction materials from reaching Gaza since the 2006 election of the militant Hamas movement to the territory’s government.

Israel, under heavy international pressure since the deadly assault on the flotilla, announced Sunday it will widen the list of goods allowed into Gaza.

Israel’s three-year blockade—and a 2008 military assault on Gaza that killed 1,440 Palestinians and destroyed 4,000 homes along with hospitals and water treatment facilities—has left the tiny territory in ruins, unable to rebuild.

Scores of unions around the world have condemned Israel’s blockade and attack on the flotilla, with the Congress of South African Trade Unions calling it “state-sponsored piracy.”

Along with US Labor Against the War, Labor for Palestine, a small US-based cross-union network, decried the assault on the flotilla. The AFL-CIO declined to comment.

BOYCOTT STRATEGY

Meanwhile, the South African Municipality Workers, among others, is campaigning to have cities break ties to Israel. Their drive is part of the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which activists in many countries are taking up to pressure Israel to change its behavior toward Gaza and its own Palestinian citizens. The campaign is modeled after the international movement that brought down South African apartheid in the 1980s.

Palestinian labor is asking for union solidarity in the campaign to sever ties with Israeli businesses, and to support new flotillas attempting to bring essential goods into Gaza.

Manawell Abdul-Al, a PGFTU executive committee member, responded to ILWU Local 10’s action: “This genuine solidarity is something we have longed for and expected,” he said. “We expected from you nothing less because of your history of defending the oppressed.”

Bay Area dockers refused to unload a South African ship in 1984, and would not load bombs headed for Chile’s military government in 1978.

55+ Injured in Viva Palestine Convoy

Just saw this, thanks Marwa for sharing!!

Al Jazeera reports

Clash in Egypt over Gaza aid effort

Egypt barred some of the vehicles in the aid convoy from passing through the Rafah crossing [Reuters] At least 55 people have been injured in clashes between Egyptian police and pro-Palestinian activists who were trying to deliver aid into the Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses say. Some 520 activists broke down the gate at the port in al-Arish late on Tuesday in protest against an Egyptian decision to ship some of the goods through Israel, medical workers and protesters said. The protests were sparked by an Egyptian decision to allow 139 vehicles to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing, about 45km from the port in al-Arish, but requiring a remaining 59 vehicles to pass via Israel. Around 40 members of the convoy had minor injuries while over a dozen policemen were hurt in the clashes with protesters, who also blocked the two entrances to the Sinai port with vehicles, medical workers said. The Viva Palestina convoy, led by George Galloway, the British MP, had already been delayed by more than a week, after he and a delegation of Turkish MPs failed to persuade the Egyptians to change their mind. Disputed route The convoy of nearly 200 vehicles arrived in al-Arish on Monday after a dispute with Cairo on the route. But the arrival came after a bitter dispute between its organisers and the government, which banned the convoy from entering Egypt's Sinai from Jordan by ferry, forcing it to drive north to the Syrian port of Lattakia. The convoy with 210 lorries full of medicine and other supplies set out from the UK nearly a month ago. Israel and Egypt have severely restricted travel to and from the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized power there in June 2007, after winning Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. In depth 'Fighting to break Gaza siege' Egypt blocks US activists' march Viva Palestina's bumpy road Video: Gaza aid held up in Jordan The blockade currrently allows only very basic supplies into Gaza. The siege has severely restricted essential supplies and placed Gazans in a dire situation, made worse by Israel's military assault last winter that reduced much of the territory to ruins. Hamas has accused Egypt of reinforcing the siege imposed. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the group, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that Egypt's moves to ban the Gaza aid convoy from reaching the enclave and to build an underground steel wall are deliberate policies that reinforce its participation in the siege. He said that such practices are unjustifiable and frustrating for Palestinian expectations from the Egyptian side. In other Gaza-related news, a Palestinian fighter was reportedly killed and four others wounded in an Israeli air attack on Tuesday in the city of Khan Younis, according to a security source. An Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel had launched the raid against fighters "planning to fire rockets at southern Israel". The armed wing of a group called the Popular Resistance Committee said its members had been targeted by the attack. - - DemocracyNow! Reports Dozens Wounded as Egypt Blocks Gaza Aid Convoy In Egypt, around fifty-five people were reportedly wounded Tuesday when Egyptian forces clashed with members of an international delegation trying to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Several protesters were hospitalized with injuries from rocks and tear gas. The Viva Palestina convoy of nearly 200 trucks departed Britain last month. Convoy leader and British lawmaker George Galloway said the group protested after Egypt tried to force dozens of trucks to pass through Israel. George Galloway: “Together with myself and other leaders of the convoy we were in negotiations with the Egyptian authorities about their determination to remove more than 55 of our vehicles and send them to the Israeli checkpoint. We refused this because it is a breach of the agreement we reached in Akabar between the government of Egypt and the Turkish side and it completely unconsciounable that 25 percent of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza. Because nothing that ever goes to Israel, ever arrives in Gaza.” The Egyptian government has blocked hundreds of Palestinian solidarity activists from entering Gaza around the one-year anniversary of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault that killed over 1,300 Palestinians. - All of this stuff is so out of control. Wow.

Viva Palestina Convoy in Crisis

Just got this update on Facebook - anyone have more info or details?

-

To all friends of Palestine


Our situation is now at a crisis point! Riot has broken out in the port of Al- Arish.


This late afternoon we were negotiating with a senior official from Cairo who left negotiations some two hours ago and did not return. Our negotiations with the official was regarding taking our aid vehicles into Gaza.


He left two hours ago and did not come back. Egyptian authorities called over 2,000 riot police who then moved towards our camp at the port.


We have now blocked the entrance to the port and we are now faced with riot police and water cannons and are determined to defend our vehicles and aid.


The Egyptian authorities have by their stubbornness and hostility towards the convoy, brought us to a crisis point.


We are now calling upon all friends of Palestine to mount protests in person where possible, but by any means available to Egyptian representatives, consulates and Embassy's and demand that the convoy are allowed a safe passage into Gaza tomorrow!


Kevin Ovenden
Viva Palestina Convoy Leader

Jerusalem <3

So - now that Gaza is no longer an option it looks like the only other rational thing to do is go to the West Bank! :)

I'm here another 10 days in Cairo and I've seen all the touristy things and seen the basics of Cairo and Egypt and they've been beautiful but its a new year, and its time for new ideas and I got a new game plan.

I'm going to try and hit up Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Bethlehem and somehow, alhumdulilah, I seem to know people in almost all of those areas so I'll have someone to show me around and inshAllah take me in maybe too if we can work it out like that.

West Bank, here I come!!

xoxox

Gaza Freedom March Wrap Up

I'm sure its going to take me some time to process everything that has happened in Cairo with the Gaza Freedom March over the past week or so but here are some of my initial thoughts and feelings. Bear in mind, these are my own opinions and reflections and they surely are not the same as the 1300 other people who were in Cairo. So for what its worth - here it goes:

This whole political experience here with CODEPINK, for me, has been honestly disappointing and angering. I'm going to be honest here, I did not participate in many of the protests that took place in Cairo because I had serious issues with the way everything was being handled and the way that the March really seemed to have fallen apart and unraveled once everyone realized that our chances of getting into Gaza were really slim to none. From the very first meeting that was held in Tahrir Square, the individuals who were going to be staying in Gaza longer (past January 2nd) were told to not participate in any of these demonstrations because if we did somehow come up with a way to get into Gaza, if we had any record or history with problems with the Egyptians - this would effectively eliminate any chance of us getting in. People told us to completely "disassociate from the March" and that because Egypt is not a democracy, "nothing we do will change their minds" - which sadly, ended up being quite true despite how often people demonstrated, were barricaded in by people, and some even beaten up. Moral of the story: This is not the U.S., they don't care that you're Americans, and we did not fly thousands of miles to protest in Egypt.

Aside from this though, there were so many critical problems with the way things were being done and decisions were being made that I really felt uncomfortable with doing anything that GFM was doing in Cairo.

I felt as though there was no insight to the way the Egyptian government works, or the greater public opinion in Egypt, at all. We cannot simply think that a country, who has religiously served the agenda of the U.S. and Israel, will do a complete 360 and open the borders when a group of activists show up, no matter how big. Anyone who has any familiarity with the politics of this conflict, know that Egypt's role in ensuring the Palestinian suffering is not a new or novel concept. Given that, the fact that CODEPINK did not prepare for the very unsurprising setback that Egypt delivered by closing its borders, really baffled me. When we got news on Monday, that the borders were going to be closed and no one would enter, I figured that this was a very expected move (especially after news of Egypt's steel wall just was released as well) and that the steering committee and whoever else also saw this coming and that surely back up plans and strategies were on hand now that Egypt played its cards. But after a couple days when everyone started arriving and it was time to figure out what we were going to do, it just seemed like these small fragmented actions (the hunger strike here, french sit-in there) were things that groups were doing on their own, hardly with any support from the mass collective. There was no unified message besides come out in the streets and protest. It felt like everyone kind of went their own way and that now instead of focusing on the occupation we were going to go after the Egyptian government - which as much as I have issues with that they are doing and how they add to the Palestinian suffering - that is not why I came here.

Lets clarify something here. As much as I hate Egypt, Egypt is NOT occupying the Palestinian territories. ISRAEL is. I mean, to a certain degree, by doing of all this, I feel, we took a lot of heat off of Israel b/c the press coverage just shows a bunch of people demonstrating in Cairo, which is giving the message that we have a problem with Egypt for what they are doing wrong when we were here to raise awareness of the ISRAELI OCCUPATION and Operation Cast Lead which was carried out by ISRAEL one year ago. Why are people shouting "Free Egypt" at the demonstrations? It makes no sense, we had no focus.

I want to believe that GFM tried to do the best that it could, given the circumstances, but honestly it just led to many people feeling as if they had to do something, anything, since we weren't being allowed in Gaza. Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in public resistance and demonstrating, even getting arrested when its necessary, etc - but you cannot do these things without tons of planning, proper escalation tactics leading up to massive direct action like that, and a solid SOLID solid foundation in Egypt (resources, connections, lawyers, etc) for the people that do take those risks. Otherwise, you just end up looking like a bunch of stupid foreigners (mostly Americans) who are protesting, sitting in, going on hunger strike - for what? We came here to deliver aid and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza - if that was not going to happen then we could have held all of these actions back in our home towns where we know how things work, we know what resources we have, and we can accurately assess what type of risk we are willing to take for this dire cause. After these past few days, I feel that all we've done is agitate Egypt for a brief period of time, spent a lot of money fueling this unjust country's economy, and made the daily lives of the Egyptian people harder.

When our plans fell through, and it did not seem like we were going to get in, there should have been a massive meeting/discussion with a vote with all of the delegates who have come from around the world as to what we think would be the best thing to do. But when people were told to figure it out and come up with ideas, you had serious fragmentation and people, like the French delegates, who were occupying the area in front of the Embassy feeling like they did not have support or instances like when the entire Japanese delegation just left after the first day for the West Bank. All I've been asking myself these past few days is "What the hell is going on?" and "What is all of this?". And to tell the truth, I still really don't know because I don't think GFM really even knows.

The "100 people to Gaza" stunt was also another fiasco that only further divided this group and our efforts. At first, CODEPINK accepts this offer and takes credit for it since the women went and talked to Suzanne Mubarak. They come up with a list in a very short time of these people who would get to go, not realizing what a bad mistake this is. After a few hour, they do realize its a bad idea, send out an official message saying how they have 'rejected' this offer, and yet, lo and behold people STILL got on the buses and went? Again, "What is going on?"

I realize that this has gotten really long already and these are just some of my preliminary thoughts from the past few days. As of right now this is how I feel: as much as I'd like to really blame fully the repressive Egyptian dictatorship for the Gaza Freedom March falling apart and not succeeding, I believe that CODEPINK, and the same old foreign arrogance/ignorance we have, has a lot to do with it this time as well. Sadly, the Palestinian people are still under occupation and I wish the best of luck to the VIVA Palestina convoys who seem to have a better grasp on how to deal with all this nonsense than we do.

Until later, free free Palestine,

-Sana

Egyptian Police Beating Protesters

So yesterday in Tahrir Square in Cairo there was a massive demonstration as Gaza Freedom Marchers tried to March to Gaza from Cairo, more in a symbolic fashion than anything, to show that the March would still try and carry on as much as possible.

People were quickly corralled in though by the police and when people started to sit down as a response to the aggression people were kicked, shoved, and punched.

Here are some videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbjBBd9xp60

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i2QRBLuE1Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vvln4HkQNA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MSclyt2yd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obSOaGp2yAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT4tk2RiNIo