NPK INFO - 11 augustus 2007

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NPK-info - Nederlands Palestina Komitee / www.palestina-komitee.nl

Today in Palestine! http://www.theheadlines.org

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Oproepen v.d. Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign

- Vanuit de Palestijnse vakbeweging, dus werk voor FNV- en CNV-leden!

Palestinian Labor Leader appeals: "Support this worldwide Divestment and Boycott Campaign Against Israel and Apartheid", July 22nd, 2007
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1505.shtml en zie hierbij

Dossier vakbonden

http://www.palestina-komitee.nl/dossiers/16

- Om onze Kamerleden te melden: Stop Apartheid Israel from joining the OECD! July 9th, 2007
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1498.shtml met dit erbij:

European hypocrisy, Saifedean Ammous, 9 August 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7153.shtml

- Ter inspiratie van consumenten: War crimes-complicit Carmel Agrexco under siege again in the UK, July 15th, 2007
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1504.shtml

Achtergrondberichten, enkele

- When Olmert and Abbas shake hands, Nora Barrows-Friedman, 10 August 2007 (*)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7156.shtml

- Bush's real agenda in Palestine, Ramzy Baroud, AL-AHRAM, 26 July - 1 August 2007
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/855/re91.htm

While Bush may be calling for peace conferences, the US policy of unequivocal bias

towards Israel and attacking all that defend Arab and Palestinian rights is as firm as ever.
- Mahmoud Abbas' war against the Palestinian people, Ali Abunimah,10 August 2007

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7160.shtml

- Overcoming the conspiracy against Palestine, Ali Abunimah, 18 July 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7116.shtml

- Statement: One country, one state; Press Release, 9 July 2007 (**)
http://electronicintifada.net:80/v2/article7102.shtml

NPK/WL, 11-8-2007

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(*) Diaries: Live from Palestine
When Olmert and Abbas shake hands
Nora Barrows-Friedman, Live from Palestine, 10 August 2007

On Monday, Israeli occupation Authority Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and occupied Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas once again met and shook hands, each promising respective constituents that a so-called "peaceful solution" is near. Olmert "agreed" that cooperation between Israel and the PA will expand, something that is not lost on the millions of occupied Palestinians who continue to suffer each day as many other things expand beneath their feet -- the settlement colonies, the apartheid wall, the egregious acts of violence and oppression enacted by the Israeli occupation military.

What does an expansion of cooperation between the PA and Israel mean when the prisons of the foreign occupier, the nuclear state, are filled to the brim with Palestinian political prisoners, as many as 12,000 people who are tortured and broken and humiliated? An expansion of cooperation comes with Abbas' capitulation to Olmert's designs of an ethno-centric state for Jews only, whose second-in-command, Avigdor Lieberman, is an unashamed proponent of ethnic cleansing from Moldovia who consistently demands that all Arabs be "transfered" or wiped out. An expansion of cooperation is called for as Mahmoud Abbas' private militia continues to beg Israel for arms and power moves against the democratically-elected Hamas party, like a kid asking a rich man for a few pennies to buy candy.

An expansion of cooperation means more whittling away of the rights of the Palestinian people. It means the further dispossession of land and farms and freedom and time and money and childhoods. It means the only true "solution" -- one state, for every person, and a respect for human rights and the Palestinian right of return -- continues to be further away from realization.

Meanwhile, as Abbas thanks Olmert for scraps, life here on the ground continues to worsen and sour. The Israeli military death squads are scooping people up in Nablus and throwing them in prison camps. Or shooting them. Or dropping bombs on them in Gaza. Or sealing off entire villages with the apartheid wall. Or making them wait in the blistering hot sun at some of the 450 checkpoints. Yes, thank you, Olmert.

A friend here in Dheisheh posed this question with a glint in his eye: What will happen when Abbas' constituents, the millions of Palestinians who see right through his capitualtions, go to back to the polls and re-elect Hamas? What will he do then?

Nora Barrows-Friedman is the senior producer and co-host of Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio, and also reports for InterPress Service in Europe. Her website is www.norabf.com.
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(**) Statement: One country, one state
Press Release, Course Participants, 9 July 2007

For decades, efforts to create a just peace for Palestinians and Israeli Jews have failed. The current crisis has further set back hopes for a political solution to the conflict.

In this context, a group of scholars, journalists and activists met in Madrid, at the invitation of Universidad Complutense de Madrid, for five days of intensive discussion on alternatives to this ongoing impasse, framed by their belief that a democratic state in all of historic Palestine provides the only moral and practical basis for a just, sustainable peace.

Presentations were informed by the understanding that the attempt to partition historic Palestine, regarded by the major powers as a solution to the conflict, has failed to bring about justice and peace or to offer a genuine process leading towards them. It was argued that the two-state approach encourages separation where equality and coexistence are imperative. Participants presented the two-state approach as failing to take into account physical and political realities on the ground and presuming false parity in power and moral claims between the two peoples.

Discussions ranged through many other issues including the forms of domination Israel exercises over the Palestinians and the racist practices this entails, such as ethnic cleansing, forms of apartheid, a legal system in Israel built on ethnic discrimination, and the denial of the Palestinian right of return, as well as how to define the rights of Israeli Jews. The discussions considered ways of reframing the question in terms of a struggle for equality and justice, equal citizenship for all the people in the land, and decolonization. Participants debated interpretations of international law, the nature of the conflict, Zionism, the role of religion, and re-imagining national identities.

Many issues for further discussion, action and research emerged, including forms of internal and international solidarity with Palestinians (such as boycott, divestment and sanctions), the lessons from other similarly structured conflicts including South Africa and Northern Ireland, rethinking the relationship between state and citizen, and how to organize a post-conflict society so that it provides a secure and dignified life to Palestinians and Israeli Jews.

The participants shared a committment to engaging deeply with these issues, in the context of their commitment to a democratic solution that will offer an enduring and just peace in a single state, and invite the widest possible participation in this quest.

The participants in the conference were:
Ali Abunimah
Omar Barghouti
Oren Ben-Dor
George Bisharat
Haim Bresheeth
Pedro Chavez Giraldo
Jonathan Cook
Leila Farsakh
Steven Friedman
Islah Jad
Joseph Massad
Ilan Pappe
Carlos Prieto Del Campo
Nadim Rouhana
Michael Tarazi
Virginia Tilley

This press release was issued on 6 July 2007 by the speakers in the course "Palestine-Israel: Un Pais, Un Estado," which took place from 2-6 July 2007 as part of the Summer Program of Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

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