The WPSR medical delegation in front of the wall near East Jerusalem.

By Gerri Haynes

(Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, has been sending back reports from inside blockaded Gaza. As she did three times before, Gerri organized a team of doctors and other health care providers to work in hospitals and clinics in Gaza in an effort to directly help the people there and to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Israeli blockade has created. Eighth and last in the series.)

This morning, we met with a representative of the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions. Driving through Jerusalem, we could see again the effects of the Separation Wall and the inequities of services provided on each side of the “Green Line.” Disputes over land and the right to build continue – it seems there is a long way to go to reach peace between the peoples of this land.

In the afternoon, members of our group toured the water facilities of Bethlehem, observing the ways provision of water to Palestinians is controlled or limited. And in the evening, we heard from a hydrologist in Bethlehem – learning more about the distribution of water resources between Israel and Palestine. Water use by settlers is four to five times that available for use by Palestinians.

We were treated to another delicious meal at Wi’am and listened to Rafiq and Lucas Zoughbi, joined by their cousin Larry, as they jammed in the Wi’am Garden – and so we head for security at Ben Gurion to fly back to the U.S.

Thanks for reading this blog!!

Rafiq and Lucas Zoughbi, joined by their cousin Larry, jam in the Wi’am Garden (Photo by Bob Haynes),

COMMENTARY

(To read more of Tomi’s writing, go to her bog: Disenchanted Princess, Peace through truth)

The U.S. has lost all credibility, as well as the opportunity to be relevant, in the region.

Tomi Laine Clark

Since the days of Eisenhower, our government has striven to make democracy our #1 export, in the perhaps mistaken belief that any democratic country would be our ally. Israel was the first country in the Middle East to get the American stamp of approval and, since its inception, this tiny state the size of New Jersey has received a total of $140 billion of aid (source), $53 billion of which was military aid (source). This is a symbol of America’s “special relationship” with Israel.

But what about our special relationships with the dictatorships of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, and the monarchies of Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia? Are we “supporting” them to the tune of billions of dollars annually in the innocent hopes that they will voluntarily enact democracy in their countries? Since 1987 (the year Tunisia’s Ben-Ali took power), the U.S. has sold $349 million worth of weaponry to Tunisia (source). US military aid to Egypt totals over $1.3 billion annually (source). We gave Jordan $666 million worth of military aid in 2007 alone, spending $80 million of that on an anti-terrorism training center (source). All these countries either have rigged elections or no elections at all and we have propped up their governments with billions of dollars worth of military aid for decades. We even provided the gas with which Saddam Hussein committed an act of genocide against his own citizens (source), an act we apparently didn’t consider reprehensible until 20 years later.

In fact, during the Iran-Iraq war, we provided weapons not only to Iraq, but Iran as well, and even sent the proceeds of that arrangement to the Nicaraguan Resistance, which resulted in a little scandal called Iran-Contra. And now we lambaste Iran for providing funding and weapons to the Lebanese resistance, Hezbollah. We call Hezbollah Iran’s proxy and say “no fair”, and meanwhile we have dozens of our own proxies that we fund and equip on a fantastically larger scale.

And now the citizens of all these countries call us hypocrites (like here), and we have the gall to build anti-terrorism training centers that are supposed to shield us from the results of our own actions.

Once upon a time, the U.S. had a chance to be truly relevant in the Middle East by brokering a lasting peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. We said we wanted peace, we sent our ambassadors and negotiators jaunting back and forth between Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and elsewhere. But, more than ever, it seems like that was play acting, what many political analysts refer to as “stagecraft” rather than statecraft. And now, with the Palestinian Authority seeking recognition from UN countries directly, without America’s support, it is even clearer that we are no longer needed.

The Palestinian cause is the poster child of injustice in the region. Everybody from Morocco to Qatar knows that the Palestinians are increasingly subjugated and abused in myriad ways by the U.S., who continues to fund the Israeli military machine at the rate of $8 million a day while expecting the citizens of our ally countries to believe that we are doing so because Israel is under threat (source). If Israel were to be attacked, the chances are staggering that it would be bombed with our missiles, dropped from our planes, by soldiers whose salaries are paid by our tax dollars.

We are financing war because it is more profitable than peace, and the Middle East, at least, is tired of the status quo.

We have lost our chance to be relevant. If we want a chance to survive at all, with any moral dignity, we need a drastic change of plans.

Tomi Laine Clark is currently doing research for her degree in Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco.

On Dec. 27, the second anniversary of Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza, Seattle-area activists are launching a Metro bus ad campaign to expose the use of U.S. taxpayer money to support Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.

Inspired by similar public advertising campaigns in Chicago, San Francisco, Albuquerque and other cities, the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign is launching the advertising campaign aimed at securing equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis, as well as an end to United States military aid to Israel, which continues at a time of economic crisis and severe budget cuts that have resulted in massive unemployment. A companion website at www.stop30billion-Seattle.org suggests ways that people can get involved locally.

The initial campaign begins on 12 Metro bus routes in the city of Seattle, with the slogan “ISRAELI WAR CRIMES: Your Tax Dollars At Work”. The ads will run 4 weeks.

Seattle activists will also hold a vigil and protest in downtown Seattle on Monday, December 27, starting at 5:00 pm at 4th & Pine St. The walking vigil will be in memory of those killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza and in protest of Israel’s ongoing crimes against human rights.

December 27, 2008 was the first day of Israel’s three-week military offensive against the captive population of Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians, most of them non-combatants, more than 300 of them children.

A formal inquiry by the United Nations found grounds for a criminal investigation i nto war crimes by Israel. The UN report concluded that Israel’s assault was not in self-defense, but was “a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population”. Amnesty International found evidence that Israeli soldiers used Palestinian civilians as human shields, and Israeli soldiers have testified publicly to other human rights violations. Yet the U.S. government has pledged $30 billion in military aid to Israel over the next 10 years, even though the U.S. Arms Export Control Act prohibits the use of U.S. weapons against civilians.

An increasing number of US citizens are becoming aware of this issue. “I had never heard the whole story of the Israeli occupation. I never anticipated US complicity in Israel’s crimes. I had no idea,” says one volunteer with the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign. “When I began to learn the truth, it was like an avalanche. I became angry. Why all the lies? Why the blackout of information? Why the silence from our government?”

Another volunteer was in the West Bank during Israel’s assault on Gaza. “I was in Ramallah during the entire Operation Cast Lead – watching TV with people from Gaza in the evening in the hotel reception area, talking with our staff in Gaza each morning to see if they had survived the night of bombings.”

The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign is incorporated in Washington State.

For more information: www.stop30billion-Seattle.org.

Wi’am is a grassroots organization working to promote peace by training people on both sides of the Palestine-Israel conflict in peaceful relationship-building, non-violent responses to injustice and conflict, and the promotion of human rights.

“Wi’am” in Arabic means “cordial relationships,” and developing relationships, Zoughbi said, is the essence of Wi’am’s mission.

The video is from an interview in Kirkland, WA on Saturday, Dec. 18. He was scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. at the University Lutheran Church, at 1604 NE 50th St. in Seattle.

And, if you don’t think we are up to our necks into this conflict, then I can’t tell you much. You shouldn’t even be here. Israel receives around $3 billion in direct foreign assistance every year from the United States, about one-fifth of our foreign aid budget.

That said, I do plan to write about some other countries – right after this.

There has been a growing movement in Canada and Europe, mostly, to boycott goods made in Israel in an effort to get the Israeli government to restart serious negotiations toward a lasting peace in the Middle East. So far, efforts by some groups here in the United States haven’t gained the momentum seen elsewhere.

Click here to view the site for the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. It has links to boycott sites around the world.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), a Canadian group, staged some creative nonviolent, and sometimes very entertaining, demonstrations to focus public attention on a couple of companies who deal in Israeli products.

Here is a video of those demos:

While I’m posting, I should mention the International Campaign in Support of Palestinian Political Prisoners. Addameer and other human rights and activist groups are calling for “days of action” during the week of April 11 – 17 in support of Palestinian political prisoners.

April 17, 2010 marks the 34th anniversary of Palestinian Political Prisoners Day. Several Palestinian organizations and solidarity groups feel it is a critical time to focus on these sometimes forgotten “heroes” of the struggle to liberate Palestine.

There are a total of 7,300 Palestinian prisoners, including 33 women and 300 children.
For more information visit:
www.freepalestinianprisoners.com

This note from Huwaida Arraf, an American lawyer with the Al Quds Human Rights Law Clinic at Al Quds University in Jerusalem, shows what Palestinians face on almost any given day:

Dear friends,

Thanks so much for your concern, solidarity and support. I was released last night (Saturday, March 20) at around 6:45pm from Neve Tirtze prison in Ramle. Save for minor cuts and bruises, I am OK. I haven’t gotten a chance to see Ellen Stark (the ISM volunteer shot in the arm) yet. I hear she has a broken wrist but is doing OK. (Huwaida also is a co-founder of ISM, the International Solidarity Movement, through which she has helped train thousands of volunteers in human rights documenting and reporting.)

Huwaida Arraf

When I got on the road the soldiers turned their guns on me but I just get talking and walking towards them. “We have a woman that has been shot; she needs help. Stop shooting. There is no reason to be shooting at people like this. You are in THEIR village.” For this I was handcuffed and thrown in a jeep, later accused of: (1) attacking a police officer; (2) cursing at the military and police; (3) obstructing the operations of the military; and (4) being in a closed military zone.

Instead of being taken to a police station, as Israeli citizens and foreigners are supposed to be, I was taken to the illegal settlement of Halamish where I was held for nearly eight hours outside in the cold. Two other Palestinians from Nabi Saleh, Omar who is 23 and Amjad, 22 were also arrested and brought there. The soldiers and border police were particularly abusive to Omar and Amjad, pushing them around, forcing them to stand for hours, handcuffed and blindfolded and every few minutes yelling at them to lift their heads, so they couldn’t rest or fall asleep. When I protested this abuse I was told to “shut the f*** up” and if I didn’t, I would get the same treatment. I responded, “I don’t really care, but it’s sad that you feel you have to treat people so inhumanely.” “Shut the f*** up!”

At one point, when Omar couldn’t feel his hands or move his fingers anymore (a combination of tight plastic cuffs and the cold, we were taken into a building supposedly to be checked by a doctor. The same officer who kept telling me to shut up, abusing his power because he can, ordered us to stand facing the wall. I refused this unnecessary measure and show of machoism, and was dragged back outside, lifted by my arms, while still cuffed behind my back, and then thrown on the ground. The dehumanization of Palestinians was not only evident amongst the soldiers, but also the Jewish settlers. Since we were held outside in the settlement, we were exposed to settler youth who surrounded and hurled profanities at us.

The ISM lawyer says that my arrest was illegal; that I should have been taken before a judge the same day I was arrested. Israeli citizens and internationals have that right. Palestinians don’t. I was separated from Omar and Amjad at about 2:00 in the morning as after we were interrogated I was taken to a women’s prison in Ramle, and they to the Ofer military prison.

In the end I was detained for 31 hours then released. If I had not been released I would have come before a judge last night. It will likely be at least another week before Omar and Amjad will be allowed to see a judge. At that point they will be accused of violence because they were protesting, unarmed, against the confiscation of their land. The heavily armed soldiers that invaded their village, immediately began shooting tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets; the soldiers that damaged 10 Palestinian homes and injured 25 people in Nabi Saleh aren’t the violent ones. We are. Omar and Amjad are likely to have to pay a fine and/or post a hefty bail to be released, if they are not held for months first.

The police released me right before I was scheduled to come before a judge. This is likely because they had nothing to bring before a judge. I probably should have refused release and challenged their actions in court, but I really didn’t want to make a big deal out of my arrest, when so many other worse things are happening.

That said, so many good things are happening also. Solidarity actions around the world are on the rise, the BDS movement is gaining more support every day, and the spirit of the Palestinian people is high. Israel expects to be able to continue stealing land and resources, subjugating the indigenous people, and using violence to subdue any kind of protest from the colonized and their supporters. We don’t have the weapons Israel has to fight back, but we have our spirit and our voices with which we will fight. Israel should be under no illusion that it can intimidate or break us.

Thanks so much again for your concern and support!

In solidarity & struggle,
Huwaida Arraf

In another village Saturday, the Israeli military killed 16-year old Mohammad Qadus from Iraq Burin, a village south of Nablus, with a live round on his heart. A second youth, Asaud Qadus, 19 years old, was critically injured after being shot in the head. Mohammad was trying to carry Asaud to safety when he was hit, according to a report by Stopthewall.org. The Associated Press also moved a brief story about the shootings.

From Stopthewall.org:

Today, just as every Saturday in the last few weeks, settlers from the settlement of Bracha attacked the village of Iraq Burin. The community of around 600 people has lost over 100 dunum to the settlers who claim more land.

Eyewitnesses report that today the number of settlers and Israeli military was unusually high. At around noon, settlers and soldiers invaded the village.

People stepped out of their homes to defend their village and a struggle ensued. The military took up positions with several jeeps at strategic points and chased the youth in the streets of Iraq Burin.

They shot tear gas, sound grenades and life ammunition randomly at homes and people. Asaud Qadus was shot by live ammunition in the head. Young Mohammad ran to carry the injured youth to safety but was himself targeted in the heart by live ammunition.

Medics and ambulances were prevented from entering the small community. Only after a long time both youth were allowed to be carried out of the village and to a hospital in private cars. Mohammad was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital in Nablus while Asaud is still in critical condition.

Two people were arrested but no further details are known about them yet.

Shoot-to-kill policy

Mohammad was the latest victim shot while protesting since Bassem Abu Rahmah, 31, was killed by a high velocity tear gas canister in Bi’lin last April. His death comes only two weeks after Ehab Barghouti, a 14-year-old boy from Nabi Saleh village near Ramallah was shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet by the Israeli military on 5 March 2010. He is still in critical condition.

Killing children with live ammunition is not an accident, It is a crime. Of the 16 people killed by the Israeli military in connection with anti-Wall protests since 2002, half were under the age of 18.

The pattern of killings related to anti-Wall protests shows that the occupation forces engage in killings cycles: during a wave of killings in 2004/2005 8 were killed, then again between July 2008/ April 2009 6 were killed. This is very likely just the start of yet another wave of killings.

This systematic criminal policy against our people is a war crime and supports the settlers in stealing Palestinian land. Israel will continue with its shoot-to-kill policy against our children and youth until the international community starts to hold it accountable for its crimes.

Here’s the letter:

Friends,
As many of you know, a civil lawsuit in the case of our daughter Rachel Corrie is scheduled for trial in the Haifa District Court beginning March 10, 2010. A human rights observer and activist,Rachel, 23, tried nonviolently to offer protection for a Palestinian family whose home was threatened with demolition by the Israeli military. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza.

The lawsuit is one piece of our family’s seven-year effort to pursue justice for our daughter and sister. We hope this trial will illustrate the need for accountability for thousands of lives lost, or indelibly injured, by occupation—in a besieged and beleaguered Gaza and throughout Palestine/Israel; bring attention to the assault on nonviolent human rights activists (Palestinian,Israeli, and international); and underscore the fact that so many Palestinian families, harmed as deeply as ours, cannot access Israeli courts.

In order to deliver these interconnected messages as effectively as possible, we are asking for large-scale participation in the trial itself as well as in the events surrounding it. We hope you will join us for all or some of the events listed below and help us to put the call out to others.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10
9:00-16:00—Trial Begins in the Haifa District Court (12 Palyam St. Haifa)
A strong presence of human rights observers, legal observers, and others on the first day of the trial will send the message that this case is being closely monitored and that truth, accountability and justice matter to us all. Other trial dates are: March 14, 15, 17, 21, 22 and 24. Supportive presence at all court sessions is both welcome and needed!

FRIDAY, MARCH 12
13:00-15:00—Film Screening at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque (2 Shprinzak St. Tel Aviv)
Screening of the documentary film RACHEL followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Simone Bitton
and the Corrie family. RACHEL is a cinematic inquiry into Rachel’s killing. It raises many of
the questions that should be asked and addressed during the trial.

TUESDAY, MARCH 16
20:00-22:00—Memorial; Location TBA
March 16th marks the seven-year anniversary of Rachel’s killing. We hope to mark this day as a “Day of Conscience” with a large gathering that calls for truth, accountability and justice, in Rachel’s case and beyond.

There will also be events in Gaza (at the Rachel Corrie Children and Youth Cultural Center in
Rafah), possibly in the West Bank (TBA), and around the world.

If you are not with us in Palestine/Israel, please think about how you and your group/community can be visible/audible on March 16.

We expect this to be a challenging time, but we know the friendship we have felt from so many of you over the years will help us navigate the weeks ahead. Though the course and outcome of the trial are unknown, we welcome the opportunity to raise and highlight many of the critical issues to which Rachel’s case is linked.

Thank you for your continuing support.
In solidarity and with much appreciation,
Cindy and Craig Corrie

More information on Rachel Corrie and other social justice issues can be found at the Rachel Corrie Foundation website.

“Anyone who says that within the next few years an agreement can be reached ending the conflict … simply doesn’t understand the situation and spreads delusions, ultimately leading to disappointments and an all-out confrontation here,” right-wing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said, according to news reports.

Lieberman said the two sides should instead come up with a long-term interim arrangement that would ensure prosperity, security and stability, the Associated Press reported. He recommended leaving the toughest issues, the status of Jerusalem and a solution for Palestinian refugees who lost homes amid war, to some time in the distant future. This is a position that the Palestinians have already strongly rejected.

Lieberman’s statements, a rejection of Obama’s efforts to bring about a resumption of peace talks, could also be a reaction to the European Union actions on a controversial U.N. report that harshly criticized Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

The EU gave its backing on Thursday to the report and offered praise for its chief author, saying the document is “worthy of consideration.”

“It is worthy of consideration needless to say, I think Mr. Goldstone is a person of high credibility and high integrity and accordingly his report carries weight,” Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt – whose country holds the EU presidency – told reporters in Stockholm, according to Agence France Presse (AFP).

The report by a fact-finding mission led by former international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone condemned both Israel and Palestinian leaders for war crimes during Israel’s military invasion of Gaza from December 27 to January 18, but it primarily blasted Israel for “actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity.”

The 22-day conflict that saw more than 1,400 Palestinians killed, the great majority civilians, and only 13 Israelis killed, the majority soldiers.

Israel has condemned the report for its bias and even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been pressured into holding off on further action on the report so that current peace efforts wouldn’t be jeopardized. The report had called for the U.N. Security Council to refer allegations of war crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if either side failed to investigate and prosecute suspects.

The only sign of hope in the Middle East seems to be the report saying that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which fought a week-long civil war in 2007 that killed over 100 people, are due to sign a deal later this month which is designed to pave the way for a unity government.