Yasser Arafat (1929-2004)

Yasser Arafat (1929-2004)
Rotem and Gal 11.11.2004
Palestinians mourn Arafat but struggle for liberation will continue Many Palestinians will view the death of Yasser Arafat with a mixture of sadness and a wish that the Palestinian Authority he led, had done much more to end the poverty and oppression that blights their lives.
Whatever doubts some Palestinians may have had about his leadership they will see in his death, a snapshot of the brutal oppression and tenuous existence they face on a daily basis. Arafat remained a virtual prisoner in his compound for three years, a situation which undoubtedly contributed to the illnesses from which he died. Yasser Arafat is seen by most Palestinians as a symbol of the longstanding Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. His past as a guerilla leader since the 1960s as one of the founders of the Fatah organization and the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) gave him a special status among the Palestinian masses. It is hard for many Palestinians to think who could play the same role or have the same authority as Yasser Arafat. But while respect will be shown for the role he played amongst many Palestinians, there will be others who rightly question Arafat's (and the other PLO leaders') tactics and strategy in attempting to win Palestinian national liberation. In the earlier years of Fatah and the PLO this was armed attacks by secretive guerilla groups as opposed to mass action by the working class and peasantry armed for self-defence. Later on Arafat and other leaders attempted to form diplomatic alliances with corrupt Arab regimes and negotiate with imperialist powers. Black September When Arafat was faced with a revolutionary situation, he unfortunately betrayed such movements. September 1970 in Jordan was one such example where large sections of Palestinians and Jordanians rose up against the corrupt regime of King Hussein. Arafat and the PLO leaders could have led a revolutionary struggle for power which would have changed the whole face of the Middle East. Instead Arafat made concessions to King Hussein and tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed in the retribution by the Jordanian army that followed. After the war and the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s, Arafat and most of the PLO leadership escaped to exile in Tunis. Exile meant that they no longer had the same intimate connection with the Palestinians and also alienated them from the conditions that the majority of Palestinian faced. The distance between the Palestinian masses and the leadership based in exile was clearly demonstrated at the beginning of the first Intifada. The PLO leadership in exile was completely taken by surprise by this event, as was the Israeli regime. The first Intifada provided the basis for the growth of a new leadership from below in the West Bank and the Gaza strip. After the signing of the Oslo agreement brought the Tunis leadership back to the Occupied Territories, tensions and disagreements developed between it and the local leadership which have remained in different forms up to the present day. At the beginning of the 1990s the pace of the Intifada had slowed as a consequence of years of struggle without the defeat of the Israeli military occupation of the territories. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the support of the Fatah for Sadam Husain during the first Gulf War left the PLO isolated and financially bankrupt. Under the pressure of US imperialism, which feared future upheavals in the region, the Israeli ruling class took advantage of the PLO's weakened position to force it into negotiations and to accept the Oslo agreement. This deal was never meant to give the Palestinians national liberation. It was designed to grant a Bantustan-type prison existence to the Palestinian masses with the Palestinian Authority acting as guards and the Israeli state as prison governor. The Israeli ruling class preferred to deal with the old weak leadership from Tunis which was not as militant as the leadership on the ground. Arafat's regime represented the capitalist interests of the Palestinian elite and was totally dependent on the Israeli ruling class for its existence. As such it could not and never intended to solve the problems of the Palestinians. The standard of living under the PA regime declined severely hand in hand with the continuing oppression by the Israeli Defence Forces. At the same time a small elite enriched itself on the expense of the masses. Without any solution to the problems of daily life the peace process couldn't last for long. This was the basis for the second Intifada. Second Intifada The second Intifada was aimed against both the Israeli regime and in a distorted way the PA. The first reaction of the PA leadership was to condemn this outburst of the Palestinian masses. Only after they saw they could not hold back the movement, they tried to take the lead of the intifada. Over the last few years the Israeli blockade on Arafat in Ramallah, gave him back the status of a symbol of the Palestinian resistance. However, despite the fact that for many years Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, yearned for Arafat's death, the news about Arafat's life-threatening illness came at a very inconvenient time for him. In addition to the fear of being blamed for his death, and the affect it might have on the Palestinian street, the death of Arafat actually poses serious questions concerning the strategy of the Israeli ruling class. For the last few years the main claim of the Israeli regime was that Arafat is an obstacle to any negotiation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This was one of the main arguments Sharon used to justify the disengagement plan. The death of Arafat could lead to events which dramatically change the situation in Israel and he PA. Many names have been mentioned as candidates to replace Arafat as the PA president and the leader of the PLO and Fatah: Abu Alla, Abu Mazen, Muhamad Dahlan, even Faruq Kadumi (who opposed the Oslo agreement at first) and Marwan Baraguti who has sat in an Israeli jail for more than 2 years and holds credit for that in the Palestinian street. But none of them have the credit Arafat had as a symbol and a guerilla fighter. Even during Arafat's life we saw early struggles over the future control of the Gaza strip, when last summer Dahlan's faction in Fatah challenged the control of Arafat's armed forces. More complicated Now the situation has became more complicated, since Hamas have also laid a claim for a share in governing the PA. Hamas enjoy mass support in Gaza, but if it became part of the PA this might change over the long run and could cause enormous pressure to be exerted on the PA by the imperialist powers who could oppose its inclusion. Other issues might bring clashes quite quickly – even before his death there was a demand by the PA for him to be buried at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem which was ruled out by the Israeli authorities. Whatever the eventual decision on this issue, the main question will be that the funeral will be accompanied by a mass presence of Palestinians on the streets in a situation which will not be fully under the control of the PA. At the end of October Sharon won the vote on the disengagement plan in the Knesset (Israeli parliament). The Israeli ruling class wants to withdraw from the Gaza strip, but many of the Likud MPs from Sharon's party are opposed which has exerted huge pressure on the Prime Minister. Four of Likud's ministers tried to ambush Sharon during the voting. Sharon suffers from a lack of support inside his party, and his governmental coalition includes less than half of all MPs and therefore the government is unstable. At the moment he claims that nothing has changed since the death of Arafat, but there is strong pressure from inside the Likud for canceling the disengagement plan and going back to negotiations with a new future partner. The option of a government of national unity is still open but it seems like the next general elections in Israel are only a matter of a short time away. The death of Arafat has released forces of instability that were hidden beneath the surface, building up for a long time. These pressures did not develop because of the personality of Arafat but because of the inability of capitalism and imperialism to solve the daily problems of Palestinian and Israeli workers. The solution is way beyond the hands of capitalism and its agents. The problems of the masses can only be solved by the organisation of society under a socialist plan to reconcile national differences by establishing two socialist states as part of the struggle to build a socialist federation on the basis of equal rights in the Middle East.

G8 Summit

G8 Summit
G8 SUMMIT 2005 - PUBLIC MEETING IN READING: The G8 Summit comes to Britain in 2005
- but what on earth does that have to do with us? Public Meeting Saturday 30th October, 8.00pm Reading International Solidarity Centre 35-39 London Street, Reading Town Centre. Opposite the Central Club (the one with the Black History Mural) and close to the cinema end of Oracle Shopping Centre.
In July 2005, the G8 summit will be held at the plush golfing resort of Gleneagles Hotel, Scotland. We would like to invite anyone who is interested in learning about and discussing the summit, the implications of the G8 policies and the response of the world's social movements to a public meeting, organised by local Reading based activists in conjunction with 'Trapese -The Educate The G8 Collective'. The G8 (Group of Eight) is made up of the USA, UK, Italy, France, Japan, Germany, Canada and Russia i.e. the richest and most powerful nations on Earth. At their annual summit they devise policies which in turn instruct the worlds global institutions such as the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank. The actions of this 'global government' are completely unaccountable to the billions of people they affect. The policies they push for are at once closing our hospitals, polluting our air and water, privatising our services etc. whilst causing global climate change, fueling wars and creating unprecedented global poverty. When the G7 (before Russia joined) held their summit in London in 1990, it passed by quietly. There was no resistance. By the time they came back as the G8 to Birmingham in 1998, they were faced with a 'Global Day-of Action' including a 70,000 strong human chain around the summit and many other actions worldwide. Since then, no global economic/political summit has passed by unopposed. Diverse 'swarms' of protesters have shut down summits in Prague, Seattle and Cancun. As the G8 prepare to hold their 2005 summit in Scotland, the worlds social movements are preparing too. Charities and NGO's are mobilising to march under the banner of 'Make Poverty History'. In the UK the 'Dissent!' network has been set up to facilitate the convergance of thousands of diverse campaigns ranging from local issues to climate change, campaigns which all find the hand of big-business and big-politics at the root of their problems. The People Global Action European Conference has issued a call out for a 'Day-of-Action' on Wednesday 6th July 2005, the opening day of the summit, and for local actions to take place in villages, towns and cities worldwide. Some are planning on working together with groups based around Gleneagles, creating and developing social and ecological initiatives in the area; all wish to demonstrate their resistance to the G8. Plans are afoot! To find out more about how the G8 affects us, please come along to the public workshop at Reading International Solidarity Centre, London Street on Saturday 30th 0ctober. If we co-operate and co-ordinate now we can start building other worlds. It has never been so vital or so possible. For more info please email: reading-anti-g8@cyber-rights.net

Harkat: I'm no terrorist

Harkat : I'm no terrorist, just a victim of chaos Terror suspect takes stand to deny connection to al- Qaeda Andrew Duffy The Ottawa Citizen online October 28, 2004
To hear him tell it, Mohamed Harkat has been the innocent victim of turbulent forces the world over: a student whose university ambitions were dashed by a political crackdown in Algeria ; an aid worker who lost his job in Pakistan as Afghan refugees returned home; an asylum seeker in Canada falsely accused of being a terrorist.
Mr. Harkat took to the witness stand yesterday to defend himself for the first time against government allegations that he's an al- Qaeda terrorist. He flatly denied any connection to the terrorist network. Asked by his lawyer, Matt Webber, whether he'd ever been to Afghanistan , the one-time base for al- Qaeda and the home of its training camps, Mr. Harkat said: "Never, ever." Asked if he had ever associated with senior al- Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah , as alleged by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Mr. Harkat told his lawyer: "I never did, sir." Mr. Harkat repeatedly insisted there's no truth to any of the terrorist-related allegations that underpin the security certificate issued against him. That certificate, signed by two federal ministers in December 2002, has kept him locked in the Ottawa Detention Centre for almost two years. He will be deported to his native Algeria if Federal Court Justice Eleanor Dawson finds the certificate reasonable. Testifying in English in a calm, soft voice – a microphone had to be set up so that Judge Dawson could hear him -- Mr. Harkat told the court the story of a man wronged. Mr. Harkat testified he grew up in a small Algerian town where he studied hard to succeed in school. He did so well on his high school final exams, he said, that he was admitted into the university of his choice : Wahran University , a school about 400 kilometres from his home town. He began classes there in September, 1989 in pursuit of an electrical engineering degree. But by March, political events in Algeria put an end to his studies. Mr. Harkat said he left university and went into hiding after a military crackdown on a political party to which he belonged, the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS). The FIS promoted free markets, lower taxes, cuts to military spending and an end to government corruption. "I was so happy to change the situation in Algeria ," Mr. Harkat said of his political involvement, "so happy something new is coming to Algeria ." Mr. Harkat said he was introduced to the party by his high school math tutor who convinced him to allow the FIS to use a family-owned property as an office. That office was raided by the police who arrested local FIS leaders, he said. His uncle later warned him by telephone not to come home, that the police were looking for him. "I was scared and I went to hide out," said Mr. Harkat . "In Algeria if the army caught you, they can do anything. Or the police." He obtained a visitor's visa to Saudi Arabia and flew to that country with the names and phone numbers of contacts gleaned from his fellow students. He said he was hoping to resume his university studies. But he quickly realized it was impossible to enter a Saudi university since applications had to be made from outside the country. What's more, he found the $250 he came with -- it was enough money for a year in Algeria -- was fast disappearing. Harkat : I'm no terrorist, just a victim of chaos He slept in a mosque and ate only two meals a day while trying desperately to find a job. One of his contacts arranged a position for him with the Muslim World League, an Islamic charity, in Pakistan . (The Muslim World League is a Saudi-based charity suspected by some western security agencies of financing terrorists.) "I was so happy," he testified. "It like opened the door for me. There was nothing left for me except begging people on the street." It turned out the job in Pakistan involved managing a warehouse in what's known as the migrant's district, between Karachi and Peshawar , said Mr. Harkat . The warehouse was part of a makeshift city established for about 100,000 Afghan refugees who had fled the fighting in their homeland. Mr. Harkat said he worked for the league for four years in the early 1990s, sleeping in the warehouse, and supervising the delivery of supplies for the refugees. The time is crucial in the case against Mr. Harkat . CSIS claims that Mr. Harkat , during his years in Pakistan, travelled to Afghanistan and formed an association with Mr. Zubayda , who is now in U.S. custody. According to CSIS, Mr. Zubayda has identified Mr. Harkat by "description and activity" as operating a guest house in Peshawar , Pakistan for mujahedeen travelling to Chechnya . Mr. Harkat , however, flatly denied those charges, saying he never set foot in Afghanistan, has never met Mr. Zubayda and has never knowingly assisted any Islamic extremists. Rather, Mr. Harkat told court, he lost his job in 1994 as Afghan refugees began to return to their shattered country. Unable to renew his work papers and visa in Pakistan , he began to explore options for leaving. He considered claiming refugee status in England or Canada , and decided on the latter because he was convinced he would receive justice. He bought a false Saudi passport since he would be unable to get to Canada on his own passport – Canada required Algerians to obtain visas -- and made his way to Toronto in September 1995, claiming refugee status and turning over his phoney documents. He was allowed to leave the airport on the understanding that he return within three weeks with a translator. Mr. Harkat immediately took a bus to Ottawa , convinced the capital was the best place from which to make a refugee claim. He went to the Ottawa Mosque on Northwestern Avenue where he met an Egyptian-Canadian, Mohamed El Barseigy , who was looking to share an apartment. Mr. El Barseigy agreed to drive Mr. Harkat to Toronto for his appointment with immigration officials. Also in the van was Ahmed Said Khadr , the man believed to be the highest-ranking Canadian in al- Qaeda . Mr. Harkat testified yesterday he had never met Mr. Khadr before and did not speak to him anytime after their shared ride. (Mr. Khadr was killed in an October 2003 shootout with Pakistani security forces.) In Ottawa , Mr. Harkat worked up to 90 hours a week while holding down three jobs: two at local gas stations and one at Pizza Pizza . He was married on Jan. 2, 2001 , to a woman from Northern Ontario , Sophie, and continued to try to secure a better job. He trained to drive trucks, but couldn't find work. CSIS was a fixture in his life. He was interviewed by the security agency at least five times between 1997 and 2001. He was arrested in the lobby of his Ottawa apartment building on Dec. 10, 2002 on the strength of the security certificate that alleges he is a member of an al- Qaeda sleeper cell. "Do you have any idea why CSIS thinks you are an Islamic extremist?" Mr. Webber asked at the end of Mr. Harkat's day on the witness stand. "No," said Mr. Harkat , fighting tears. He will be cross-examined today by government lawyer James Mathieson .

National Lawyers Guild Rights for the Palestinians

National Lawyers Guild Rights for the Palestinians
October 25,2004 Susan Brannon Another huge victory in our quest for justice for the Palestinian people... The National Lawyers Guild, in its national convention in Alabama (which ends today)... HAS PASSED A RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGN!!!!! The National Lawyers Guild has consistently supported Palestinian rights, and has done much work in this field.
Their Middle East Subcommittee has sent delegations to Palestine, prepared reports about Israel's violations of international law and human rights, given talks, written op-eds, and even made a documentary film about Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people, called "In The Name of Security."  The film is available at Palestine Online Store and your purchase would certainly help support their work and help fund their upcoming film (about refugees).
In The Name of Security film, at Palestine Online Store: http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/films/inthenameofsecurity.htm Report by NLG delegation to Palestine "Israel and the Destruction of Palestinian Culture and Civil Society" (PDF, 39 pages)http://www.nlg.org/programs/mideast/name_of_security.pdf Israel's Wall: An Analysis Of Its Legal Validity Under U.S. and International Lawhttp://www.nlg.org/programs/mideast/wall.htm Information sheet condemning Israeli Military (PDF, 2 pages)http://www.nlg.org/programs/mideast/NLG_MidEast_41502.pdf Report by NLG delegation to Palestine "The Al Aqsa Intifida and Israel's Apartheid: The U.S. Military and Economic Role in the Violation of Palestinian Human Rights" (PDF, 74 pages)http://www.nlg.org/programs/mideast/al_aqsa_intifada.pdf NYTimes Op-ed: Palestinians in a State of Siege (March 16, 2001)http://www.nlg.org/programs/mideast/pacheco_oped.htm Emergency Gaza Relief Fund - Please Contribute Now http://www.al-awda.org/urgentemergencygazarelieffund/

AL-AWDA WEST COAST REGIONAL CONFERENCE

For Immediate Release 24 October 2004 EMPOWERING THE PALESTINE RIGHT TO RETURN MOVEMENT ON THE WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA
Please Note - Because of space limitations, early registration is highly recommended: http://www.al-awdacal.org/west_conf/register.html San Diego, California 10/24/04 - Al-Awda San Diego in conjunction with Students for Justice at The University of California at San Diego will be hosting a one-day West Coast regional conference for the Right to Return Movement for Palestinian refugees. The conference will take place on Saturday 20 November 2004 at UCSD in La Jolla, California.
The objectives of the conference are to: 1. Begin preparation and mobilization for Al-Awda's third International Convention, which will be held in Los Angeles California in the Spring of 2005. 2. Further develop and coordinate intra- and inter-state grassroots activism to further empower the Palestine Right to Return Movement on the West Coast. BACKGROUND Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition's Second Annual International Convention in New York City named California as the site of the organization's third convention. The convention is scheduled to take place in mid-April 2005. During the past year, new Al-Awda chapters have emerged on the West Coast of North America from San Diego, California to Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. In order to solidify and strengthen the network of Palestine Right to Return chapters and action committees on the West Coast, it is vital that activists meet, plan and strategize to insure a successful Al-Awda convention in 2005 while developing mechanisms to coordinate intra- and inter-state grassroots advocacy for the Palestinian refugees' right to return. The one-day regional conference, "Empowering the Palestine Right to Return Movement on the West Coast of North America", will take place on 20 November 2004 at the University of California in La Jolla, San Diego. The conference is important. It represents the first regional meeting for the Right to Return Movement on the West Coast. INVITATION We are inviting Palestinian, Arab and other community members, grassroots activists, students, and solidarity organizational representatives to attend and share their thoughts, needs, and how they'd like to see our collective efforts for the rights of Palestinian refugees develop on the West Coast of North America and at Al-Awda's upcoming International Convention in Los Angeles California. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 1. Program http://www.al-awdacal.org/west_conf/prog.html 2. Registration http://www.al-awdacal.org/west_conf/register.html 3. Accommodation http://www.al-awdacal.org/west_conf/hotel.html 4. Map, driving directions and transportation http://www.al-awdacal.org/west_conf/maps.html Al-Awda California The Palestine Right to Return Coalition PO Box 131352 Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA Fax: 1-360-933-3568 E-mail: info@al-awdacal.org WWW: http://al-awdacal.org

Why did the Iraqi Chicken Cross the Road?

Why did the Iraqi Chicken Cross the Road?

CPA The fact that the chicken crossed the road shows that decision making authority has switched to the chicken. From now on the chicken is responsible for its own decisions. Halliburton We were asked to help the chicken cross the road. Given the inherent risk of road crossings, and the rarity of chickens, this operation will only cost $326,004. Miqtada as-Sadr The chicken was a tool of the evil coalition and will be killed. US Army Military Police We were directed to prepare the chicken to cross the road. As part of these preparations, individual soldiers ran over the chicken repeatedly, And plucked the chicken. We deeply regret the occurrence of any chicken rights violations. Peshmerga The chicken crossed the road, and will continue to cross the road, to show its independence and to transport the weapons it needs to defend itself. However, in future, to avoid problem, the chicken will be called a duck, and will wear a plastic bill. 1 st Cavalry The chicken had no right to cross the road as it did not have the correct identification. Thus, the chicken was searched and detained. We apologize for any embarrassment to the chicken. Al-Jazeera The chicken was forced to cross the road multiple times at gunpoint by a large group of occupation soldiers, according to witnesses. The chicken was then fired upon intentionally, in yet another example of the abuse of innocent Iraqi chickens. Blackwater We cannot confirm any involvement in the chicken-road-crossing incident. Translators Chicken he corss street because bad she tangle regulation. Future chicken table against my request. U.S. Marine corps The chicken is dead.

Palestine News report 22 Oct

Palestine News report
October 22, 2004
Below are links to Palestine News Report
Headlines Oct 22, 2004 ~ Mideast crisis sorely needs outside mediation -UN Prendergast said Secretary-General Kofi Annan would soon establish a new group to register all damage caused by the constructions of Israel's barrier in the Palestinian West Bank, as requested by the General Assembly.  http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22715647.htm A Campaign to plant Olive trees near the Separation wall Tens of farmers from villages in the south of Qalqilia, in the north of the West Bank, started on Thursday morning, planting Olive trees near the Separation Wall, which separated the Palestinian villagers from their fields.  http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102204/Olive trees.htm Facts on the ground: The end of the two-state solution? The report draws on the experience of Christian Aid's Palestinian and Israeli partners and on first-hand accounts from the people with whom they work and looks at the progressive building of settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories and the construction of the Separation Barrier.  Click Here... French Journalist: “The Wall is a dedication for Racism” Alan Manark, a French Journalist and the author of “ Sharon's Wall”, which was published recently in France, said that the Separation Wall which Israeli is constructing in the West Bank is a dedication for Racism, and as a means to encircle the Palestinian in isolated geographical locations.http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102204/french%20journalist.htm The olive war Israeli practices aim to tighten the siege and eliminate all semblance of normal life in the occupied territories. One example was seen in the images carried by the Israeli media covering what is happening to Palestinian crops, particularly the olive harvest. Israeli occupation forces are working to destroy this important crop and wholly eliminate Palestinian agriculture  http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/713/pr3.htm Palestinian Child Prisoners in Cruel, Inhuman Conditions 391 Palestinian children under 18 years are still detained in Israeli detention centers, 7% suffer diseases and denied medical care, while 77% of child prisoners arrested from their homes,the Child and Youth Department in the Ministry revealed.  http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1801 Poetry for Palestine - Rhythms of Resistance The violence of the powerful Israeli occupation army using live ammunition, tanks and helicopter gunships is equated with Palestinians protesting against the loss of their rights, lands and lives." The artists in Poetry for Palestine disolve the fabrications and deceptions with their words and passion.http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/fscm2/contentviewer.php?content_id=720 Three killed in Khan Younis on Friday A Palestinian medical source in Khan Younis said that one woman died on Friday evening, of wounds sustained on October, 4, 2004, raising the number of Palestinians shot dead in Kahn Younis, on Friday to three residents.  http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/October/week4/102204/Khan%20Younis.htm Palestinian killed at funeral of Hamas militant Security sources and witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire at the funeral procession in Khan Yunis, killing Ahmed al-Haddad. But an Israeli army spokesman denied troops had fired at the funeral procession  http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=31458 Thousands mourn Hamas chief The funeral procession was headed by children waving the movement's huge green banners, followed by a rank of militants and armed men wearing masks, says the BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza. Behind them marched the great throng of mourners. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3945169.stm U.N.: Hundreds of Palestinians Homeless In addition, army shelling and bulldozers destroyed 19 public buildings and commercial properties, including government compounds, a mosque, two farms and three factories, among several other small shops, the report said. Sixteen buildings were damaged, including eight UNRWA schools click here... Church Responds to Congressional Criticism on Divestment I very much regret your disappointment, but in all candor, must also communicate with you that I am terribly distressed in the failure of the United States Congress to seek a peaceful resolution to this conflict that would both protect the right of Israel to live in peace with secure borders and the rights of the Palestinians to statehood and an end of the occupation of their territory.  http://www.pcusa.org/washington/divestment.htm Tensions boil as Holocaust survivor decries treatment of Palestinians On a recent trip to Israel, airport security guards informed her that based on her history as an activist she was considered a terrorist threat. She was subsequently stripped and cavity-searched. “When I stood next to that wall, I remembered what the motto of Holocaust survivors was: ‘Never again,'” she said. Epstein shook her head and continued, “We Jews are doing this.” http://daily.stanford.org/tempo?page=content&id=14971&repository=0001_article Sha'ath: PA needs a general election "Elections are the single most important act of reform because elections turn a stale democracy to a vibrant democracy," Sha'ath told reporters after talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492321.html Palestinians shell Gaza settlements after Israelis kill leading Hamas commander Tens of thousands of angry Hamas supporters joined the funeral procession for Adnan al-Ghoul, 46, a founder and deputy chief of the Hamas military wing who was on Israel's most-wanted list since 1990. Mourners and leaders of the Islamic militant group threatened revenge attacks against Israel.  http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20041022-0744-palestine.html South African President Mbeki meets with Deputy PM Olmert Trade between the nations stands at about $500 million per year, and officials say it could double in coming years. South Africa, which hosted talks last month with members of the Likud party to try to revive negotiations to end the Middle East conflict, has slammed Israel for building a wall in the West Bank  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492363.html Egypt proposes deploying 750 troops in Sinai If Israel agrees, the force will be deployed beginning on January 1, 2005. Egypt made the proposal to Israel during the last meeting of the special security committee on the Egyptian side of Rafah on October 5.  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492104.html The Launching of a New International Campaign of Sanctions Against Israel The aim of this press conference is to inform the public about the latest developments in the international movement to bring sanctions against Israel in order to end its aggressive policies and bring peace to the region. There are five factors pushing us to begin this campaign: http://www.palestinemonitor.org/new_web/October_update_archive.htm#sanctions Germany and Israel restart talks on sale of submarines According to German defense sources, Germany's Defense Ministry and military support Israel's request, which would supply employment at shipyards. However, implementing the deal requires approval by the government, which is divided on the issue. Click here... Churches urged to take proactive role in Israeli-Palestinian crisis Canada, he added should promote "justice and security. Genuine peace in Israel and Palestine must be founded on justice," he said, but justice is not the final objective Justice, however, is "the key to all to which we aspire. Only justice produces peace. Only justice leads to security. Only justice opens the way to reconciliation."  http://generalsynod.anglican.ca/stories/news.php?newsItem=2004-10-21_Ateekvisit.news Palestinian official urges Israel to resume peace talks Addressing delegates to a regional Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building, Abdalla said Israel and the Palestinians needed "to return to the negotiating table and implement obligations" under the roadmap. Click Here... 'To begin the real process of healing' - By: Daoud Kuttab In both cases, the Israelis create a point of view and corresponding terminology and idioms and then circulate them locally and around the world as undisputed truth. The irony is that in both cases, what the Israelis are talking about is the land, lives and future of someone else, namely the Palestinian people and land.  http://www.amin.org/eng/daoud_kuttab/2004/oct22.html Israel rampant - By Azmi Bishara This Israeli phase will be characterised by attempts to internationalise the Congress approved boycott of Syria. The recent UN Security Council resolution on Lebanon -- which has nothing to do with the Lebanese constitution and everything to do with encircling and striking at Syria -- can only be understood as a building block in this process.http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/713/op14.htm 10 years on, Jordan-Israel peace treaty remains cold Even intellectuals like Hassan Barari, who lived three years in Israel to learn Hebrew, say they are fed up. "Every time I see the scenes of Palestinian deaths and destruction on television I feel disgust" toward the Israelis, said the researcher from the University of Jordan's Center of Strategic Studies. "http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=9496 You bet he's got a mandate In February 2004, in an interview with Haaretz, Sharon dropped the bombshell about evacuating 21 settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. He needed time, but Sharon has ripened into a leader determined to carry out a plan that he believes is imperative, given our political situation, and in keeping with what most Israelis want. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/492039.html Israeli army faces a revolt from the right "When it comes to the crunch these rabbis are saying there is a higher law than the law of state," says Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. "This is a very serious challenge not only to the military but to the rule of law." http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1022/p01s03-wome.htm PART 2: The US-Israel tag-team act As the US presidential election campaign is coming to a close and Iraq continues to burn, another dangerous diplomatic tussle is taking place: the United States and Israel are acting as a tag-team against the potential emergence of Iran as a nuclear power. The stakes are high in this tussle. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ22Ak02.html ACLU files suit over FBI questioning of Muslims In its lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, the civil rights advocacy group said it had received reports that numerous individuals had been "interrogated" by the FBI since the summer "solely because they are Muslims or of Middle Eastern descent." Click Here... US fire killed two Fallujah girls: rescuer Villager Mahmoud Mohammed says the mother of the two girls and the driver of the car, who have both been wounded, had told him a US tank had fired at the vehicle in Naamiya, 10 km south-east of Fallujah.  http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1226253.htm Witness says CIA oversaw abuse at Abu Ghraib Witnesses in the trial of a U.S. soldier charged with abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib have told the court that the CIA sometimes directed abuse and orders were received from military command to toughen interrogations.  http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=606774§ion=news Muslim scholars arrested in Iraq The head of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) office in Kubeisa in western Iraq was arrested along with four other members. They were on their way back from Baghdad when US forces stopped their convoy and arrested them. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/037BF7E6-B239-4C23-A6A3-6E4F21DA44CC.htm British hostage pleads London to withdraw from Iraq as violence flares Kidnapped British aid worker Margaret Hassan pleaded for London to save her life by scrapping a plan to redeploy Britain's troops in Iraq and by pulling them out, as more than a dozen people died in clashes around the country. "Please help me, please help me, these might be my last hours," ... "I will die like Mr (Kenneth) Bigley," http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20041022/wl_mideast_afp/iraq

Palestine News Reports

Palestine News Reports
October 20, 2004 Susan Brannon
Below are links to news reports regarding Palestine.
A schoolgirl riddled with bullets. And no one is to blame The schoolgirl kept on walking toward the tower but was still several hundred metres away when two shots caught her in the leg. She dropped her bag, turned, tried to hobble away, and fell. Four or five soldiers emerged from the army post and shot at her from a distance. Palestinian witnesses and some Israeli soldiers say that the platoon commander moved in closer to put two bullets in the child's head. (This Action is clearly not Anti-Semite, looking at the silence...!) http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1332219,00.html Action Alert: Release Non-Violent Activist Ahmad Hassan Khalil Awad! Ahmad works closely with Abu Ahmad in organizing non-violent civil resistance to the Wall in Budrus and is an active member of the Committee Against the Separation Wall in the Northwest Jerusalem Region. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/palsolidarity/message/1079 Palestinians challenge fence route in Hebron Hills The petition claims the fence's route will damage the residents' lives and their livelihood. The petitioners are claiming that land-seizure warrants recently issued by the government are illegal. According to Israel Radio, the petition also claims the maps attached to the warrants are unclear.http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491865.html Internationals Beaten in Village of Al-Hatab Near Nablus Violence escalates as Israeli soldier puts gun to head of Swedish national and threatens to pull the trigger... At approximately 9:00AM, 18 internationals accompanied Palestinian farmers to their olive groves to harvest their olives near the village of Al-Hatab, East of Nablus. PalSolidarity Holocaust survivor protests wall So I did not imagine that the Israeli security force that guards Ben-Gurion Airport would abuse a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor, holding me for five hours and performing a completely unnecessary strip search of every part of my naked body. http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=14946&repository=0001_article Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes The coherence of the Palestinian health system is being destroyed. The wall will isolate 97 primary health clinics and 11 hospitals from the populations they serve. Qalqilya hospital, which primarily serves refugees, has seen a 40% fall in follow up appointments because patients cannot enter the city.http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3247.shtml Media Pro Greta Berlin Will Show Her Power Point Presentation Anywhere in U.S. “Now these same children's eyes look out in TV footage from Rafah as they witness Israeli bulldozers demolish their homes and see American-made Apache helicopters fire missiles on them. How will they ever see a better world,” Berlin asked, “when the Israeli military forces this deliberate carnage on their families?  http://www.wrmea.com/archives/Oct_2004/0410062.html PPS: Israeli Prison Services Further Humiliate Palestinian Prisoners According to testimonies gathered from several prisoners like N'aeema Nakhla (needing special care) from the West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, Abeer Amro (backbone problems) from Hebron and Maha Alka'ek (mentally ill), the prison's service offer pain killers for most cases only.http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=622 IDF soldier killed in blast on Philadelphi Route in Gaza In a leaflet that was distributed, Hamas claimed responsibility for the blast that killed First Sergeant Major Moshe Elimelech, from the Engineering Corps, saying militants had attacked soldiers and civilian contractors in the area. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491750.html Emergency Aid to Gaza! The Middle East Children's Alliance will send your contribution to purchase emergency food and medical aid for children in the Gaza Strip. https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=2236&cmid=8515:2097447 Armed wings issue joint statement over deaths of 2 Palestinians The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, armed wing of the mainstream Fatah movement, and Saraya al Quds, armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, issued a joint statement on Thursday, asserting that the Israeli army killed two militants in Gaza. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/21/content_2122948.htm UNRWA Gaza Field assessment of IDF Operation Days of Penitence During the operation, approximately 36,000 Palestinians in different locations, including Beit Hanoun (22,000 persons), Izbet Beit Hanoun (5,000 persons), the areas east of Sikka St. and Salah Eddin St (2,500 persons), Nada and Awda towers (2,500 persons) and parts of Jabalia camp (4,000 persons) were under siege. October 2004 has been the deadliest month so far, with 112 killed  Domino UN. Org UN: Gaza offensive left 675 homeless In its assessment of Operation Days of Penitence, which began late last month and was wrapped up over the weekend, the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) said 91 buildings, home to 143 families, had been destroyed. "Over 90 percent of those affected were refugees.  http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/palestine/?id=11644 Israeli Arabs slam policeman's promotion The families of Israeli Arabs who were killed in the October 2000 riots expressed outrage on Wednesday over the promotion of police Brigadier General Bentzi Sau, who was the commander of the Border Police in the north during the clashes. During the riots, 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian were killed  click here... After talks with PM, Shas leader says no to backing pullout Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said afternoon that the ultra-Orthodox party will not back Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan when it comes to a vote in the Knesset next week, Israel Radio reported. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491503.html Sharon removes disengagement funding from state budget bill Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided Thursday to separate funding for the disengagement plan from the 2005 state budget bill. The decision followed a request Monday by Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Haaretz Some Arab lawmakers oppose Gaza pullout Arab legislators said they struggled over their position on the evacuation of Jewish settlements in Gaza and removal of Israeli troops. But many ultimately concluded the "disengagement plan" would not bring Israeli-Palestinian peace closer.  http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17389411.htm European delegation to meet Arafat over Mideast peace process A senior Palestinian official saidon Thursday that an European ministerial delegation would meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat before holding a conference on thestalled Mideast peace process in Britain.  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/21/content_2122611.htm Egyptian FM, intelligence chief to visit Israel in November The visitors will meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to discuss the disengagement plan and security cooperation to prevent smuggling across the Egyptian border.  Haaretz Pre-army academies join call for soldiers to obey orders These recent letters come in reaction to a petition by some 60 rabbis, including heads of hesder yeshivas - which combine Torah study and army service - calling on religious soldiers to refuse to evacuate settlements.  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491436.html Israel denies pullout will crush Palestinian economy Tel Aviv hit back at criticism on Wednesday that an Israeli pullout would cause economic isolation and an increase in poverty in the Gaza Strip. According to Israel-based experts, the pullout next year could revive the local economy if Palestinian goods and laborers can freely move in and out of the territory.  http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=9441 A message from the Arab citizens And now, out of the blue, a survey has cropped up in which more than 77 percent of those questioned said they would "support" or "definitely support" the establishment of a constitution that defines Israel as a Jewish and democratic state that ensures full equality to Arabs.  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491475.html Noam Chomsky on the State of the Nation, Iraq and the Election The latest polls about a week ago, 17%. Now, a majority of the population thinks that we ought to equalize aid to Israel and Palestine, and we should deny aid to either one that refuses negotiations, which would entail denying it to Israel. That's the majority of the population. Those results are so unacceptable, the press won't report them.  http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/21/1441204 In Gaza, Debate Over Pullout Plan Pits Settler Against Settler She has been threatened with eviction from her home, her 2-year-old son was denied entry to the settlement's pre-kindergarten, and she has been ostracized by her neighbors -- all for supporting the disengagement plan, Cohen said.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49659-2004Oct20.html Arabs in US elections Any objective attempt to explain the deterioration of Arab-American relations must include a process of sober introspection and self-criticism. Intractable underdevelopment and relentless despotism and marginalisation have systematically decimated Arab civil and cultural society over the past 50 years, destroying, in turn, the bridges of unofficial dialogue. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/713/ed.htm Sharon or disaster From the left's perspective, the matter is very simple: only Sharon can do it. If Sharon will not be able to evacuate settlements in 2005, no one can. The occupation would become a permanent state of affairs. Yet even from the right's perspective, the matter is not especially complicated: Sharon is the last defender of most of the settlements.  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/491476.html IPI Intifada Report Says Press Freedom Deteriorating: Heavy Media Casualties, Perpetrators Go Unpunished The International Press Institute (IPI) today published the IPI Intifada Report, a chronicle and statistical analysis of 562 press freedom violations during the first four years of the Palestinian Uprising. At least 478 press freedom violations were carried out by the Israeli state, including the government, the judiciary, and even the legislators.http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3245.shtml Joint Irish-Palestinian appeal for release of kidnapped aid chief Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern and his Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath called in a joint written statement for her release for the "sake of humanity, compassion and the people of Iraq". Ahern and Shaath said they were making the appeal in their own names and "on behalf of the Irish and Palestinian peoples".  http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=31279 James Zogby: Why I'll Vote for Kerry While President Bush has been praised for projecting a vision of a Palestinian state, every step taken by his administration has made a realization of that vision impossible. During the past four years the administration has failed to support even its own initiatives, from the ill-fated “Mitchell, Tenet, Zinni” plans to the now dead “road map.” http://ummahnews.com/story.php?sid=20041021094341737 France expels two more students for defying headscarf ban France has quietly begun expelling Muslim girls for wearing head scarves to public schools in defiance of a new law banning conspicuous religious attire. Seven girls have been forced to leave school so far this week after two more were expelled Thursday. Haaretz Britain agrees to send 850 troops into US-controlled zone in Iraq Britain agreed to an unprecedented US request to redeploy 850 crack troops to a volatile area to the west of Baghdad, freeing up US soldiers for an expected assault on the "insurgent" stronghold of Fallujah. "The government has decided that we should accept the US request for assistance,"... click here...

Wave of Kidnappings in Iraq Continues

27 minutes ago By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD , Iraq - Gunmen kidnapped the head of an Iraqi government-owned construction company in Baghdad on Saturday, a brazen daylight attack in a new wave of hostage-taking across the country.
The kidnapping occurred a day after a senior Egyptian diplomat was snatched as he came out of a mosque, and suggested insurgents were growing bolder, particularly since kidnappers scored a stunning victory by forcing the Philippines to withdraw troops to save the life of a Filipino truck driver. Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged Egypt not to bow to the demands of the kidnappers. "It is time for us to close ranks to fight terrorism. There is no way to budge to terrorists and give them what they want," Allawi said during a visit to Syria . "The only way to deal with terrorism is to promote justice and to close ranks, and we hope Egypt and the Egyptian government will act accordingly." In other violence, a U.S. Marine died early Saturday of wounds sustained Friday during clashes in the Al-Anbar province, a volatile area that stretches west from Baghdad to the Syrian border, the military said. The military did not release the identity of the Marine, the 903rd U.S. military fatality in Iraq since the war began according to an Associated Press count. Gunmen in three cars attacked a convoy carrying the chief of police for west Baghdad on Saturday as he passed near the town of Mahmoudiya south of Baghdad . Two bodyguards were killed, but Brig. Sabah Fahad escaped unharmed, said Mahmoudiya hospital director, Dr. Dawoud al-Taie. A rocket exploded in the downtown Jubairya district in the northern city of Samarra , killing one man and injuring three other civilians early Saturday, police Maj. Sadoun al-Dulaimi said. It was unclear who fired the rocket. Saboteurs also set off two explosions on an oil pipeline 12 miles south of Samarra late Friday, police Capt. Khaled Abdul-Amir said. The 125-mile pipeline stretches from al-Doura oil refinery in Baghdad to Beiji, north of Samarra . The extent of the damage was unclear. Associated Press Television News footage showed bright orange flames and a thick black plume of smoke billowing from the ruptured pipeline. Insurgents across the country have waged a violent 15-month campaign of sabotage, bombings, kidnappings and other attacks against local officials and coalition forces. In the latest kidnapping, unidentified men riding in two cars blocked Raad Adnan's vehicle as he was driving through southeastern Baghdad on Saturday and snatched him, said Interior Ministry spokesman Adnan Abdel-Rahman. Adnan is the general director of Al-Mansour Contracting Co., a government-owned company that carries out construction contracts for Iraqi government ministries. Adnan, a construction engineer, was a member of the Baath party and helped build some of Saddam Husseins presidential palaces. On Friday, militants kidnapped Egyptian diplomat Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb as he left a mosque and demanded his country abandon any plans to send security experts to support Iraq 's new government, according to a video broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television station. He was believed to be the first foreign diplomat kidnapped in Iraq . An Egyptian official told the AP on Saturday that his country's mission to Egypt has not yet been contacted by the militants, a previously unknown group called "The Lions of Allah Brigade." "Iraqi authorities have contacted the Egyptian mission and offered help, but as yet there have been no negotiations or mediations with the kidnappers," said Badr el-din de-Souki. The rash of kidnappings, which also included the abduction of seven foreign truck drivers Wednesday, has threatened Iraq 's efforts to rebuild the country and persuade more governments to commit troops to the coalition here. Iraqi interim Public Works Minister Nasreen Berwari denounced the kidnappings as "inhumane and savage" attacks on Iraq 's "stability and well-being." "This problem can only be solved when the international community as a whole supports Iraq to sustain its security for its people and the people who are coming to help Iraq , and they are very much needed at this stage," she told reporters. The militant group holding the seven truck drivers announced new demands in a video broadcast Friday, calling on the hostages' Kuwaiti employer to pay compensation for those killed by U.S. forces in the city of Fallujah and demanding the release of all Iraqi detainees in Kuwaiti and U.S. prisons. The group, calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," had originally demanded the company stop doing business in Iraq and that the hostages' countries withdraw their citizens. The group threatened to begin beheading the three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian every 72 hours starting Saturday night. "I'm trying to get in contact government officials to find out it can do. I hope it's doing the best it can," Talal Mohamed, a brother of hostage Jalal Awadh, said in Kenya . The new demands in Friday's tape were almost certain to go unmet, but that tape did not appear to repeat the earlier beheading threat and bore no other specified ultimatum. The militants gave the company a 48-hour deadline, but it was unclear if that meant the initial deadline was extended until Sunday. Rana Abu-Zaineh, an official with the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport, Co., said the company was negotiating with the militants and was confident the hostages would be freed. She did not provide details. In India , External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh said the insurgents appear to be motivated by money, not politics, and that the victims may be released soon. Militants in recent months have kidnapped roughly 70 foreigners in their campaign to force countries to withdraw troops and to scare away contractors working on reconstruction projects. At least three hostages have been beheaded. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20040724/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_040724082609&printer=1

Gunmen Storm Gaza Govt Office, Challenge Arafat

Gunmen Storm Gaza Govt Office, Challenge Arafat
1 hour, 40 minutes ago By Shahdi al-Kashif
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian militants briefly commandeered a government building in the Gaza Strip) on Saturday, demanding President Yasser Arafat reinstate comrades they said had been dismissed from the national security forces. The Arafat-led Palestinian Authority, which is reeling from widespread unrest at charges of corruption in its ranks, rejected as "fabrication" the charges by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades gunmen who stormed the governorate of Khan Younis town at dawn. Hours earlier, unidentified Palestinians torched a two-storey police station in the nearby village of al-Zawaida. "We are trying to determine who took advantage of the instability in the Palestinian territories to commit this crime," Mayor Ahmed Abu Zayyid said. Al-Aqsa denied involvement. Dozens of militants barricaded in the Khan Younis office building had demanded the Palestinian president fire his nephew, Moussa Arafat, whose appointment to a top Gaza security post last week sparked armed standoffs with reformist vigilantes. By afternoon, the militants dispersed after announcing a deal under which 11 al-Aqsa men who they said had been dismissed from security jobs by Moussa Arafat would be reinstated. "The crisis is over, as we received a decision by President Yasser Arafat to stop the dismissal," the militants' leader, using the nom de guerre Abu al-Haj, told Reuters by telephone. Al-Aqsa, a disparate group of Fatah young bloods, has spearheaded a revolt that erupted in September 2000 after talks on Palestinian statehood in Israeli-occupied Gaza and the West Bank stalled. Its members have also grown vocal, and violent, in challenging the old guard's grip on Palestinian government. Moussa Arafat said no al-Aqsa members served in the security forces, nor had there been any firings. "This (Khan Younis militants' claim) is a fabrication," he said in a statement. But Moussa Arafat added that 10 security men were under investigation on suspicion of unspecified "security offences." Pointing to the al-Aqsa-Fatah link, Israel and the United States accuse Arafat of encouraging Palestinian violence. He denies it. The Palestinian president shuffled security chiefs on Monday, but did not dismiss his nephew. He has also scrambled to head off a resignation threat by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, who demands long-awaited reform of security forces.

Fallujah Actions

Fallujah Actions
Subject: Fallujah actions 1) Phone Blockade 3 November 2) Petition 3) Letter-writing 4) Contingency Plans
Dear all Fallujah and over a dozen other Iraqi towns are under threat of major assault by US forces. JNV supports those organising activities to try to prevent these assaults. No US attack is inevitable. Public protests inside and outside Iraq have the power to derail these attacks, or at the very least to minimise the damage done, and to help prevent further such atrocities. Britain is complicit in these attacks, directly, by redeploying British troops to the centre of Iraq to free up US forces to take part in the planned assaults. Here are some ideas for pro-active action, and some London contingency plans if the major attacks do take place. (More info on our website http://www.j-n-v.org ) Best wishes Maya Evans Milan Rai JNV
**************** 1) Phone Blockade of the MOD & Email Geoff Hoon Wednesday 3 November Phone the MOD between 9am - 5pm on the day after the US elections. Please ask to speak to Geoff Hoon, to tell him to oppose the planned assaults on Fallujah and other cities, and to demand that he withdraw the Black Watch from their supportive role in Central Iraq. MOD Public Enquiry Office: 0870 607 4455 MOD Press Office: 020 7218 2906 You may also wish to try this email address for Geoff Hoon's PA: sofs.pa2@modho.gsi.gov.uk **************** 2) Stop The Attacks - Petition At a meeting called by Voices UK, there was a call for a petition to be drawn up and circulated immediately for use this weekend. A pdf is attached of two versions of the petition, one concentrating on the immediate crisis, the other including the demand for troops to be withdrawn. Next is the text of the narrow focus petition: BASIC PETITION TEXT To Our Local MP Please tell Geoff Hoon: Don’t let British Troops support Bush’s massacres in Iraq’s cities. The senseless slaughter of civilians is making a desperate situation even worse. Don’t Attack Fallujahâ€"Recall The Black Watch TOP TIPS For Using This Petition This petition is designed to be used the weekend of 30/31 October. Using pretty much this text, Wrexham Peace & Justice Forum collected 450 signatures in 2 hours recently. 1) One reason for their success is that they had a huge poster version of the text behind them so that people knew what they were signing. People were queueing to sign. So JNV has included in the pdf full A4 size versions of the text, for you to enlarge to A3 or larger size (some photocopy shops can enlarge to A1). 2) Please do let the local radio and newspapers know about your petitioning, and take your own photos to send to the paper if they do not send a photographer themselves. Whatever the response of your local MP when you present the petition, that is worth press releasing also. 3) Please let us know the results of your petitioning. If you have any suggestions for improving the petition or how to present it on the street/at work, please let us know. This petition initiative came out of an emergency meeting called by Voices in the Wilderness UK. There may be further editions of this petition in future weeks. Please check out the JNV website and the Voices UK website for more campaigning information. **************** 3) Letter-writing Write to your MP This is something that anyone and everyone can do. If you ask your MP to ask Geoff Hoon to recall the Black Watch from central Iraq, and to withdraw all British support for the planned US assaults, then she/he will pass on your concerns to the Defence Secretary, and you get two (small) impacts from one letter. A veteran letter-writer informs us that when/if you receive a response, it is well worth writing back, as it is this reply of yours that has most impact. You can (a) find out who your MP is and (b) fax your MP from the following website: http://faxyourmp.org.uk/ Some possible points for a letter: 1) Human Cost Please remind the Defence Secretary of the horrors of the earlier (April 2004) siege of Fallujah - horrors which the British Government refused to condemn, ‘insist[ing] that there were “no disagreements” with the US about its tactics on the ground’ (Independent, 14 April). On 11 April the director of Fallujah’s general hospital, Rafie al-Issawi, estimated â€" on the basis of figures gathered from four clinics around the city as well as the hospital itself - that more than 600 people had been killed and that ‘the vast majority of the dead were women, children and the elderly’ (Guardian, 12 April). Ask whether the British government has sought assurances that US tactics and rules of engagement have been changed to prevent such carnage in any future engagement. 2) Redeployment Please ask the Defence Secretary why British troops are being redeployed with the ‘aim of … free[ing] US forces to attack Fallujah’ (Telegraph, 18 Oct) again â€" this time causing possibly even greater carnage. 3) Condemnation and Withdrawal I urge you to condemn the redeployment and to support calls for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. I would be grateful if you would ask the Defence Secretary to withdraw British troops from central Iraq, and ask also whether contingency plans have been prepared for the withdrawal of all British troops from Iraq in the event that the January elections produce a government in Baghdad which calls for the removal of foreign forces. Voices UK has drawn up more points for writing to your MP, available athttp://www.voices.netuxo.co.uk/actnow.htm#contactyourmp **************** 4) Contingency Plans There are now plans for a London demo, and for London nonviolent direct action, on the night of any major attack. Please see www.j-n- v.org for more details. If your local group draws up any similar contingency plans, please register them with Stop The War and with JNV. -- Justice Not Vengeance landline 0845 458 9571 (UK) +44 1424 428 792 (int) www.j-n-v.org

American security and Iraqi stability

American security and Iraqi stability depend on a prompt handover.

by William R. Polk

From childhood, we Americans are deluged with slogans. We often select our breakfast food, our soap, and our toothpaste by jingles and catchphrases rather than by reading the labels. So we fall easily into accepting evocative expressions in place of analysis even when it comes to national security. Our parents were sold on the slogan that the First World War was the “war to end all wars,” although the 20th century had more of them than any other in history. We went into Vietnam fearing the “domino effect,” although the struggle there had little relationship to events in any other Asian country. We were rushed into the war in Iraq by the assertion that little, poor, remote Iraq was at the point of attacking mighty America, and now we are bogged down there allegedly by a ragtag faction of Ba’athist diehards.

Seldom do we hear hard-headed analysis of what is happening, what is possible, what the alternatives are, how much each will cost in lives, treasure, prestige, and security. When I was the member of the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Council responsible for the Middle East, I had the duty to try to understand the reality in the problems we then faced, to comprehend the forces at work, and to identify what could be done. Now as a private citizen, I ask: what is the reality of Iraq, what do we face there, and what can we do?

Leaving aside Kurdistan, where roughly a quarter of all Iraqis live, Iraq is a shattered country. Its infrastructure has been pulverized by the “shock and awe” of the American invasion. Few Iraqis today even have clean drinking water or can dispose of their waste. About 7 in 10 adult Iraqis are without employment. Factories are idle, and small shopkeepers have been squeezed out of business. Movement even within cities is difficult and dangerous. And the trend in each of these categories is downward. Iraq’s society has been torn apart, and perhaps as many as 100,000 Iraqis have died. Virtually every Iraqi has a parent, child, spouse, cousin, friend, colleague, or neighbor—or perhaps all of these—among the dead. More than half of the dead were women and children. Putting Iraq’s casualties in comparative American terms would equate to about one million American deaths. Dreadful hatreds have been generated.

Not all hatreds are on the Iraqi side. American soldiers, often not knowing why they are in Iraq but only that they are getting shot at in 50 to 100 attacks each day, are fearful. Against an indistinguishable enemy, who fades into the general population, their fear turns into general hatred. To GIs, the natives are “ragheads,” just as in Vietnam they were “gooks.” And they may be suicide bombers. Hatred of the enemy appeared in a film made by NBC News inside a mosque in Fallujah showing a Marine shooting a wounded Iraqi. It also appeared in the photographs of the torture of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. Those scenes, in turn, helped to cement the image of the uniformed, indistinguishable foreign troops as the common enemy, whom the Iraqis are beginning to call the “crusaders.”

Such graphic demonstrations of hatred and contempt also, of course, echo far beyond Iraq among the more than one billion Muslims throughout the world. They have tended to corrupt the greatest of America’s national treasures, the nearly universal respect of mankind. As one former senior Army officer Andrew Bacevich said, “My sense is that such an impression has already taken hold in the Arab world.” He is certainly right.

Thus, even when, as in the Fallujah battle, the insurgents were outnumbered at least 20:1, and it was obvious that they could not win against a phalanx of helicopters, gunships, fighter-bombers, tanks, and artillery, they fought to become martyrs for their cause and thus to inspire others to take up their mission. They lost the battle of Fallujah as they will lose every battle. But they have not lost the war. This is the reality with which America must deal.

* * *

Guerrilla warfare is not new. In fact, it is probably the oldest form of warfare. But in recent centuries, so much attention was given to formal warfare that most soldiers forgot about informal war. Although few guerrilla leaders have given us accounts of how they organized, got their supplies, fought, retreated, regrouped, and fought again, history provides a rich lode of information. We can study experiences dating from the 20th-century conflicts in Europe, Asia, and Africa, including the Irish struggle against the British, Tito’s and the Greek ELAS’s struggles against the Germans in the Balkans, Mao Zedong’s war against the Japanese and then against the forces of Chang Kai-shek in China, the Viet Minh’s defeat of the French in Indo-China, the Algerian war of national liberation against the French, the Chechens’ centuries-long war against the Russians and, of course, our Vietnam and Russia’s Afghanistan.

The story they tell was well summarized by Mao Zedong when he described the guerrilla as a fish that must swim in the sea of the people. Absent popular support, Mao’s sea, the guerrilla is at best an outlaw and, more likely and sooner, a corpse. But with the support of the people, he is elusive, nourished, and ultimately replaceable. Consequently, almost no matter what forces are brought against him, he—or at least his cause—has proven indefatigable. If we are ignorant of this history, we are doomed to repeat it.

Generation after generation of soldiers and strategists have done just that— repeated it. Often ignorant of history and of the reflections of their predecessors, they attempted to find techniques to defeat the guerrillas. The ultimate way was by killing them. Caesar’s conquest of Gaul was essentially a war of extermination as was the British war against the Irish and the Tsarist and Communist Russians’ war on the Chechens. Even genocide rarely succeeded because new generations arose to replace the dead.

If not all could be killed, at least their lands and other resources could be taken away from them and given to alien settlers. This was the gist of colonialism as practiced by the French in Algeria and the Russians in Central Asia. Since we regard neither genocide nor colonialism as politically correct today, experiments have been made with various other tactics. In Vietnam, America tried a variety of them, as did the Soviet Union in Afghanistan without ultimate success. Today, in Iraq and in occupied Palestine, Americans and Israelis are repeating these campaigns, focusing primarily on the application of overwhelming military power designed to dishearten the insurgents. In 40 years, the Israelis have not achieved security; the chances that the Americans will in five years appear unlikely.

Why is this so? The answer is essentially simple: people of all religions and races share a common desire to control their own lives. Our Declaration of Independence puts it eloquently for us, and President Woodrow Wilson summed it up neatly for others when he spoke of the quest for “the self-determination of peoples.” Thwarted in this quest, some people—whom, if we approve of them, we call “freedom fighters” or, if not, “fanatics” or “terrorists”—take up arms, as Americans did in our revolution. They are usually few in number, perhaps 15,000 or so in Iraq today and roughly the same in Algeria in the 1950s, but many more people who do not themselves actually fight support them.

Knowing that they cannot defeat the foreign enemy, they seek not so much to win battles but to wear him down, to inflict upon him what he will regard as unacceptable casualties and other costs, and to erode his political support. Thus, almost inevitably, the techniques of guerrilla warfare fade into terrorism.

We have mistakenly acted as though terrorism was a thing or a group against which one can fight. But terrorism is merely a tactic that can be used by anyone. Ancient Britons used it against the Romans, the Zionists against the British, the Algerians against the French, the French against the Nazis, the Chechens against the Russians, the Basques against the Spaniards, and so on. It is the traditional “weapon of the weak,” who resort to it when all else fails.

At the beginning of the struggle against Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration charged that Iraq was a terrorist state acting in close collaboration with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda. In the emotional reaction to the attacks in New York and Washington, sloganeering drowned out intelligence. Saddam Hussein’s regime was certainly evil, but Iraq was not a terrorist state. It had no significant relationship with any terrorist organization as the American, British, and Israeli intelligence agencies knew. In fact, Osama bin Laden, a religious fundamentalist, had offered to raise a military force to fight Saddam’s secular government and denounced Saddam with the strongest condemnation a Muslim can utter, that he was a kafir, a godless person. Despite the findings of official American investigations, however, the rallying cries stick in our minds. Seven in 10 Americans still believe Saddam Hussein was working with Osama bin Laden in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

While that is wrong, Iraq has changed under American blows so that it is now a prime recruiting ground and justification for terrorism. As the commander of the 1st Marine Division, Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, put it just before the attack on Fallujah, “After we take Fallujah, the terrorists will have no sanctuary, nowhere to hide.” I remember similar words about the Vietcong. And within a day after the general said this, fighting broke out in a dozen Iraqi cities. The Russians could have told General Natonski that a decade after they did to the Chechen city of Grozny what his troops did to Fallujah, fighting continued. That is what we are now seeing in Iraq. This is the reality with which we must begin. So what can America do?

* * *

Today, there are no good options—only better or worse alternatives. Three appear possible:

The first option has been called “staying the course.” In practice, that means continued fighting. France “stayed the course” in Algeria in the 1950s as America did in Vietnam in the 1960s and as the Israelis are now doing in occupied Palestine. It has never worked anywhere. In Algeria, the French employed over three times as many troops—nearly half a million—to fight roughly the same number of insurgents as America is now fighting in Iraq. They lost. America had half a million soldiers in Vietnam and gave up. After four decades of warfare against the Palestinians, the Israelis have achieved neither peace nor security.

Wars of national “self-determination” can last for generations or even centuries. Britain tried to beat down (or even exterminate) the Irish for nearly 900 years, from shortly after the 11th-century Norman invasion until 1921; the French fought the Algerians from 1831 until 1962; Imperial and Communist Russia fought the Chechens since about 1731. Putin’s Russia is still at it. There was no light at the end of those tunnels.

At best, staying the course in Iraq can be only a temporary measure as eventually America will have to leave. But during the period in which it stays, say the next five years, my guess is that another 30,000 to 40,000 Iraqis will die or be killed while the U.S. armed forces will lose at least another 1,000 dead and 20,000 seriously wounded. The monetary cost will be hundreds of billions of dollars.

It is not only the casualties or treasure that count. What wars of “national liberation” demonstrate is that they also brutalize the participants who survive. Inevitably such wars are vicious. Both sides commit atrocities. In their campaigns to drive away those they regard as their oppressors, terrorists/freedom fighters seek to make their opponents conclude that staying is unacceptably expensive and, since they do not have the means to fight conventional wars, they often pick targets that will produce dramatic and painful results. Irish, Jews, Vietnamese, Tamils, Chechens, Basques, and others blew up hotels, cinemas, bus stations, and apartment houses, killing many innocent bystanders. The more spectacular, the bloodier, the better for their campaigns. So the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946, the IRA a Brighton hotel in 1984, an Iraqi group the UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003. Chechens blew up an apartment house in Moscow in 2003, while a Palestinian group blew up an Israeli-frequented hotel in Taba, Egypt in 2004.

Faced with such challenges, the occupying power often reacts with massive attacks aimed at terrorists but inevitably kills many civilians. To get information from those it manages to capture, it also frequently engages in torture. Torture did not begin at the Abu Ghraib prison; it is endemic in guerrilla warfare. Two phrases from the Franco-Algerian war of the 1950s-60s tell it all: “torture is to guerrilla war what the machine gun was to trench warfare in the First World War” and “torture is the cancer of democracy.” Guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency inexorably corrupt the very causes for which soldiers and insurgents fight. Almost worse, even in exhausted “defeat” for the one and heady “victory” for the other, they leave behind a chaos that spawns warlords, gangsters, and thugs as is today so evident in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

The longer the fighting goes on, the worse the chaos. Viewing the devastation of Fallujah, one correspondent wrote, “Even the dogs have started to die, their corpses strewn among twisted metal and shattered concrete in a city that looks like it forgot to breathe … The city smelled like dust, ash—and death.” Viewing the same scene, the deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said, “This is what we do … This is what we do well.” This is not new or unique; it is classic. Recall the statement the Roman historian Tacitus attributed to the contemporary guerrilla leader of the Britons. The Romans, he said, “create a desolation and call it peace.”

The second option is “Vietnamization.” In Vietnam, America inherited from the French both a government and a large army. What was needed, the Nixon administration proclaimed, was to train the army, equip it, and then turn the war over to it. True, the army did not fight well nor did the government rule well, but they existed. In Iraq, America inherited neither a government nor an army. It is trying to create both. Not surprisingly, the results are disappointing. Most Iraqis regard the American-selected and American-created government as merely an American puppet. And the idea that America can fashion a local militia to accomplish what its powerful army cannot do is not policy but fantasy. An Iraqi army is unlikely to fight insurgents with whom soldiers sympathize and among whom they have relatives. Many have reportedly thrown off their new uniforms and joined the insurgents.

Much has been made also of the constitution we wrote for the Iraqis. It reads well, as did the one the British wrote for the Iraqis 80 years ago in 1924, but it is not anchored in the realities of Iraqi society. Absent the institutions that give life to a constitution, it will be simply a piece of paper as was the one the British provided. Representative government grows in the soil of the people or it does not grow at all. It cannot be mandated by foreign rulers.

Thus, the best America might gain from this option is a fig leaf to hide defeat; the worst, in a rapid collapse, would be humiliating evacuation, as in Vietnam.

The third option is to choose to get out rather than being forced. Time is a wasting asset; the longer the choice is put off, the harder it will be to make. The steps required to implement this policy need not be dramatic, but the process needs to be unambiguous. The initial steps could be merely verbal: America would have to declare unequivocally that it will give up its lock on the Iraqi economy, will cease to spend Iraqi revenues as it chooses, and will allow Iraqi oil production to be governed by market forces rather than by an American monopoly.

The second step, more difficult, is to make a truce and pull back its forces. If President Bush could be as courageous as Gen. Charles de Gaulle was in Algeria when he called for a “peace of the brave,” fighting would quickly die down. This is not wishful thinking; it is what happened time after time in guerrilla wars.

Then, and only then, could Iraqis themselves set about creating a national consensus. It would probably not come through elections, although they might legitimize the process. We would probably not like the government that emerged, but we are already beyond being able to control that choice. What we should help and encourage is the essentially indigenous process of building civil institutions. Only as they emerge will some form of reasonably peaceful, reasonably free, reasonably decent government have a chance. This is the most sensitive and difficult part of the whole affair. It cannot be rushed, and we cannot do it for the Iraqis.

The danger during this period is twofold: on the one hand, Iraq, like Afghanistan, could shatter with local warlords seizing the pieces, or Iraq could split into a sort of eastern Balkans with Kurdish, Sunni Arab, and Shia Arab successor states. The one would certainly create mafia-style terrorism, while the other would promote mayhem as thousands of suddenly created refugees flee from now alien states. Further regional instability would be created, and possibly either Turkey or Iran or both would intervene, Turkey to suppress the Kurds and Iran to protect the Shi’ites. The results are unforeseeable but certainly ruinous.

On the other hand, in an attempt to avoid this disaster, we and our Iraqi protégés could, as we are now attempting, create a new Iraqi army. We should heed the lesson of Iraqi history. In the past, the British-created army destroyed moves toward civil society and probably would do so again, paving the way for the ghost of Saddam Hussein. In the period during and following American evacuation, Iraq would need a police force but not an army. A UN multinational peacekeeping force would be easier, cheaper, and safer. The balance between “security” and cohesion would be difficult to achieve and maintain, and we could be of only minimal help, but either extreme would be worse.

Meanwhile, a variety of service functions would have to be organized. Given a chance, Iraq could do them mostly by itself. With its vast potential in oil production, probably the greatest in the world, it could soon again become a rich country with a talented, well-educated population. Step by step, health care, clean water, sewage, roads, bridges, pipelines, electric grids, and housing could be provided by the Iraqis themselves, as they were in the past. When I visited Baghdad in February 2003, on the eve of the invasion, the Iraqis with whom I talked were proud that they had rebuilt what had been destroyed in the 1991 war. They can surely do so again. More important, in carrying out the rebuilding and reordering process, particularly at the grassroots level, Iraqis would begin to take control of their lives and start building the neighborhood institutions and consensus on which, if it is to grow at all, representative government will depend.

Economically, Iraq will also have to mend itself. Here the American role is primarily negative. We have imposed policies during our occupation that worked against the recovery of Iraqi industry and commerce. Abrogating these would spur development since any reasonably intelligent and self-interested government would emphasize getting Iraqi enterprises back into operation and employing Iraqi workers. That process could be speeded up through international loans, commercial agreements, and protective measures so that unemployment, now at socially catastrophic levels, would be diminished. Neighborhood participation in running social affairs and providing security are old traditions in Iraqi society and allowing or favoring their reinvigoration would promote the excellent side effect of grassroots political representation.

As fighting dies down, reasonable security is achieved, and popular institutions revive, the one million Iraqis now living abroad will be encouraged to return home. In the aggregate they are intelligent, highly trained, and well motivated and can make major contributions in all phases of Iraqi life. Oil production will play a key role. The income it generates can make possible great public works projects that will help to lure back Iraqi émigrés, employ Iraqi workers, encourage local entrepreneurs, and salvage the class of merchants and shopkeepers who traditionally provided security in Oriental cities. In its own best interest, the Iraqi government would empower the Iraq National Oil Company (INOC) to award concessions by bid to a variety of international companies to sell oil on the world market. This is obviously to the best interests not only of Iraq but also of the Western world.

Contracts for reconstruction paid for by Iraqi money would be awarded under bidding, as they traditionally were, but to prevent excessive corruption would perhaps initially be supervised by the World Bank. The World Bank would, of course, follow its regular procedures on its loans. Where other countries supplied aid, they would probably insist on (and could be given) preferential treatment in the award of contracts as is common practice everywhere.

In such a program, inevitably, there will be setbacks and shortfalls, but they can be partly filled by international organizations. The steps will not be easy; Iraqis will disagree over timing, personnel, and rewards, while giving the process a chance will require a rare degree of American political courage. But, and this is the crucial matter, any other course of action would be far worse for both America and Iraq. The safety and health of American society as well as Iraqi society requires that this policy be implemented intelligently, determinedly—and soon.

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A former member of the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Council, William R. Polk was responsible for the Middle East. He has been a professor of history at the University of Chicago and Founding Director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He is now senior director of the W.P. Carey Foundation.