On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Association Belgo-Palestinienne invites all to a join in a day of solidarity.
What does the legal notion of the “crime of apartheid” mean? How can it be applied to the situation of the Palestinians? What are the consequences, on both sides of the separation wall and in Jerusalem? How is the Israeli prison system a tool of an apartheid system?
To answer these questions, ABP is organizing a special meeting bringing together experts and Belgian and Palestinian personalities.
Organized by Association Belgo-Palestinienne, with the cooperation of MunduBat, La Tentacion and Solsoc.
Free entrance, simultaneous translation EN-FR
3:00 pm: Opening
Exhibitions, stands, bar, food
Photo exhibition by Veronique Vercheval
Ahmad Saed’s exhibition on child prisoners
4:00 pm: Conference – Living under apartheid
Apartheid: Pierre Galand, President of ABP; Eric David, Professor emeritus of international law at ULB
Palestinian prisoners: Salah Hamouri, French-Palestinian lawyer and former prisoner; Alexis Deswaef, lawyer at the Brussels Bar
Jerusalem: Abeer Zayyad, director of the Silwan Women’s Center (Jerusalem); Anan Odeh, professor, lawyer and human rights defender (Jerusalem)
Iskra Soto, Mundubat Foundation, presentation of The Other Jersuealem Campaign
Gaza: Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO association PNGO (Gaza); Marianne Blume, member of the ABP, writer, former teacher in Gaza
7:30 pm: Palestinian meal – 7 EUR
8:30 pm: Alaa Shublaq Concert
9:00 pm: Karim Baggili Concert
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A l’occasion de la journée internationale des droits du peuple palestinien, l’association belgo-plastinienne (Abp Asbl) vous invite à une journée de solidarité avec le peuple palestinien.
Que signifie la notion juridique de “crime d’apartheid” ? En quoi s’applique-t-elle actuellement à la situation des Palestiniens? Quelles conséquences pour ces derniers, de part et d’autres du mur de séparation, et à Jérusalem? En quoi le système carcéral israélien est-il un outil d’une politique d’apartheid ?
Pour tenter de répondre à ces questions, l’association belgo-palestinienne vous propose une rencontre exceptionnelle entre expert(e)s, acteur(trice)s de terrain et personnalités associatives belges et palestinien(ne)s.
Par l’association belgo-palestinienne
Avec la collaboration de MunduBat, La Tentation et Solsoc
Entrée gratuite
Traduction simultanée EN-FR
Informations et réservations : info@abp-wb.be
Conférence – Exposition – Concert – Restauration
15h – Ouverture
Expositions – Stands – Bar – Restauration
Exposition photos de Véronique Vercheval
Exposition “Enfants prisonniers” de Ahmad Saed
16h – CONFÉRENCE – Vivre sous apartheid
Que signifie la notion juridique de “crime d’apartheid” ? En quoi s’applique-t-elle actuellement à la situation des Palestiniens? Quelles conséquences pour ces derniers, de part et d’autres du mur de séparation, et à Jérusalem? En quoi le système carcéral israélien est-il un outil d’une politique d’apartheid ?
Pour tenter de répondre à ces questions, l’association belgo-palestinienne vous propose une rencontre exceptionnelle entre expert(e)s, acteur(trice)s de terrain et personnalités associatives belges et palestinien(ne)s.
— L’apartheid —
Pierre Galand, président de l’Association belgo-palestinienne
Eric David, Professeur émérite de droit international à l’ULB
— Prisonniers palestiniens —
Salah Hamouri, avocat franco-palestinien
Alexis Deswaef, avocat au barreau de Bruxelles
17h30: Raj’een Dabkeh group, Free Mustapha Awad الحرية لمصطفى عوض
–Jérusalem–
Abeer Zayyad, directrice du Centre de femmes de Silwan (Jerusalem)
Anan Odeh, Professeur, avocat et défenseur des DH (Jerusalem)
— Iskra Soto, Fondation Mundubat, présentation de la campagne The Other Jerusalem
–– Gaza —
Amjad Shawa, Directeur de la coupole d’ONG palestinienne PNGO (Gaza)
Marianne Blume, membre de l’ABP, écrivaine, ancienne enseignante à Gaza
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181, a plan to divide Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. Immediately, Zionist militias began expelling the Palestinian population through terror and massacres. For example, in the village of Deir Yassin, Zionist terrorist groups killed around a third of the inhabitants in April 1948.
By the end of the war, the militias had expelled some 750,000 people. In May 1948, Israel declared its founding on a much larger territory than provided by the UN.
While Israel celebrated the 70th anniversary of its founding this year, Palestinians are left with nothing. For them it was the 70th anniversary of the “Nakba”, the disaster of expulsion, land theft, occupation and apartheid, which still continues today.
Since 1977, the UN marks the 29th of November every year as a day of international solidarity with Palestine. But this is not enough! Israel as an occupying power must be pressured internationally to recognize the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to accept the provisions of international law.
Am 29. November 1947 verabschiedete die UNO-Vollversammlung mit der Resolution 181 einen Plan zur Aufteilung Palästinas in einen arabischen und einen jüdischen Staat. Sogleich begannen zionistische Milizen mit der Vertreibung der plästinensischen Bevölkerung durch Terror und Massaker. So töteten z.B. in dem Dorf Deir Yassin zionistische Terrorgruppen im April 1948 rund ein Drittel der Bewohner.
Bis zum Kriegsende hatten die Milizen rund 750.000 Menschen vertrieben. Im Mai 1948 erklärte Israel seine Staatsgründung auf einem deutlich größeren Territorium als von der UNO vorgesehen.
Während Israel so in diesem Jahr den 70. Jahrestag seiner Staatsgründung feiern konnte, stehen die Palästinenser weiterhin vor dem Nichts. Für sie war es der 70. Jahrestag der “Nakba”, so nennen sie die Katastrophe aus Vertreibung, Beraubung, Besatzung und Apartheid, die bis heute nicht enden will.
Seit 1977 begeht die UN den 29. November alljährlich als Tag der internationalen Solidarität mit Palästina. Doch dies reicht nicht aus! Israel als Besatzungsmacht muss international unter Druck gesetzt werden, um das Recht des palästinensischen Volkes auf Selbstbestimmung anzuerkennen und die Bestimmungen des Völkerrechts zu akzeptieren.
We call on the directors of the Théâtre Garonne and the Cinémathèque de Toulouse not to condone Israeli apartheid. Renounce this dishonorable sponsorship!
The blood of Palestinians in Gaza was not yet dry when the “France-Israel Season” was inaugurated in Paris on 5 June, three weeks after the bloody repression of the Great Return March in Gaza. This whitewashing operation for the State of Israel is shameful and indecent by its very nature.
However, the Théâtre Garonne and the Cinémathèque de Toulouse have planned several shows and screenings in the second half of November, labeled as part of the “France-Israel Season.” They are participating in this attempt to restore the image of the Israeli state, somewhat tarnished by its policy of daily brutality against the Palestinians and its status as an exporter of arms and repressive securitization.
This is a state which has dispossessed the Palestinian people of their land for 70 years and continues without hesitation its occupation, colonization, blockade of Gaza, and much more. It completely destroyed the Al-Mishaal Cultural Center in Gaza on 9 August.
In July, it officially declared its status as a apartheid state with the passage of the so-called “nation-state law,” proclaiming the land to be the state of all Jewish people around the world while excluding the rights of Palestinians in Israel, whose language was also stripped of its official character. On that occasion, conductor Daniel Barenboim said that he was ashamed of being Israeli.
In a petition published on 4 May, 80 personalities from the cultural world, including Annie Ernaux, Jean-Luc Godard, Maguy Marin, Alain Damasio and Ernest Pignon-Ernest, declared: “In solidarity with the Palestinians, we refuse to appear in these events, we will not participate in the France-Israel Season and we call on others to not participate in any form whatsoever.”
A few days later, a petition from academics demanded the cancellation of the “festivities”: “How indeed could we act as if nothing had happened? As if dozens of young people had not been murdered with premeditation? As if hundreds of protesters demanding only respect for their fundamental rights had not been crippled for life? As if the Gaza ghetto does not run the risk of being liquidated, with the complicity, active or passive, of the international community?”
Rassemblement devant la cinémathèque de Toulouse :
MM. les Directeurs du Théâtre Garonne et de la Cinémathèque de Toulouse, ne cautionnez pas l’apartheid israélien. Renoncez à ce parrainage déshonorant !
Le sang des Palestiniens n’était pas encore sec, que la « Saison France-Israël » était inaugurée à Paris le 5 juin soit trois semaines après la répression sanglante de la « Grande Marche du Retour » à Gaza. Cette opération de blanchiment de l’État d’Israël est indécente dans son existence même et scandaleuse.
Pourtant, le Théâtre Garonne et la Cinémathèque de Toulouse ont prévu pour la deuxième quinzaine de novembre des spectacles et projections labellisés « Saison France-Israël » et participeront ainsi à la tentative de redorer le blason de l’État d’Israël, passablement terni par sa politique chaque jour plus dure à l’encontre des Palestiniens et son statut de start-up nation du sécuritaire.
Un Etat qui :
dépossède le peuple palestinien de sa terre depuis 70 ans, poursuit sans freins l’occupation, la colonisation, le blocus de Gaza,
a détruit totalement le 9 août le centre culturel Al-Mishal à Gaza,
a officialisé en juillet son statut d’État d’apartheid, par la loi « Israël–Etat nation du peuple juif » qui recrute tous les Juifs du monde en excluant les Palestiniens d’Israël, dont la langue est déchue de son caractère officiel. Le chef d’orchestre Daniel Barenboim a déclaré à cette occasion qu’il avait honte d’être israélien.
Dans une pétition publiée le 4 mai, 80 personnalités du monde de la culture, parmi lesquelles Annie Ernaux, Jean-Luc Godard, Maguy Marin, Alain Damasio et Ernest Pignon-Ernest, déclaraient : « Par solidarité avec les Palestiniens, nous refusons de figurer dans cette vitrine, nous ne participerons pas à la Saison France-Israël et nous appelons à ne pas y participer sous quelque forme que ce soit. »
Quelques jours plus tard, une pétition d’universitaires demandait l’annulation des « festivités » : « Comment en effet pourrions-nous faire comme si de rien n’était ? Comme si des dizaines de jeunes n’avaient pas été assassinés de manière préméditée ? Comme si des centaines de manifestants demandant seulement le respect de leurs droits fondamentaux n’avaient pas été estropiés à vie ? Comme si le ghetto de Gaza ne courait pas le risque d’être purement et simplement liquidé, avec la complicité, active ou passive, de la communauté internationale ? »
Queers & Allies Against Pinkwashing: No to Netta’s Artwashing! Boycott Eurovision in Apartheid Israel!
Netta Barzilai won the Eurovision contest in 2018 as a representative of the Israeli state. She continues to act as a cultural ambassador for Israel’s regime of occupation and apartheid and is actively promoting the Eurovision competition, which is to be held in Israel next year.
As queers and allies, we say no to the pinkwashing and artwashing of Israel’s crimes, no to Netta’s whitewashing of Israel’s crimes, and no to Eurovision in apartheid Israel.
We’ll be holding a creative protest outside the concert at Heaven nightclub on Wednesday 21 November featuring music, dabke and Palestine solidarity versions of your favourite gay anthems. Come through! Bring flags, placards and energy. #DontToyWithApartheid#BoycottEurovision2019
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Why are we protesting Netta Barzilai’s concert?
Israel systematically denies Palestinians their basic rights. It has done so since its establishment as a Jewish-majority state in 1948, which was only made possible by the premeditated ethnic cleansing (the Nakba) of indigenous Palestinians, who were expelled from their homes and land. This racist violence, dispossession and displacement is ongoing today.
Palestinians have struggled for liberation for more than seven decades, whether living in Israel as second-class citizens, in occupied Gaza and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) or in the diaspora as refugees.
In 2005, the absolute majority of Palestinian civil society issued a call urging people to support their nonviolent resistance to settler-colonialism, occupation and apartheid. Through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, we can put pressure on Israel to respect international law and human rights as was done during the international campaign against the apartheid regime in South Africa, led by the Black majority.
The cultural boycott of Israel is strictly institutional, targeting complicity in Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians. The BDS movement rejects boycotts of individuals based on their identity or opinion. However, if an individual is representing the state of Israel or recruited for Israel’s rebranding efforts, then their activities are subject to the institutional boycott called for by Palestinians.
Through its official “Brand Israel” project, the Israeli government uses culture to distract from its serious and consistent violations of international law. Israel also intentionally diverts attention away from its human rights abuses by shamelessly portraying the state as a progressive, gay-friendly tourist destination. This despite Israel’s brutal occupation and apartheid regime subjecting queer Palestinians to the same systematic oppression as all Palestinians. As queers and allies, we say no to efforts to pinkwash and artwash Israeli crimes.
**
Who We Are
London Palestine Action acts in solidarity with Palestinians, views the Palestinian liberation struggle as fundamentally an anti-colonial struggle, and supports the BDS movement. It is a core part of LPA’s work to challenge oppression in all its forms. We all have the responsibility to call out oppression–whether Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, or any other form of racism, sexism, homo-/transphobia, ableism, etc.
Israel’s fanatic prime minister Netanyahu has paraded and used Netta Barzilai, with her full agreement, as “the best ambassador of Israel.”
Netta Barzilai has willingly placed her music in the hands of the far-right Israeli government. It is using her as a propaganda tool to distract attention from Israel’s attacks on Palestinian artists and cultural centers, its illegal settlements pushing Palestinian families off their land and its racist apartheid regime that denies Palestinians their basic human rights.
Palestinian artists and cultural associations are calling for a boycott of Israeli institutions and state representatives due to their complicity in Israel’s oppression, colonization and apartheid
As groups opposed to racism and oppression, we are calling for a boycott of Netta Barzilai’s shows in Europe [or city name] due to her active and conscious role as a cultural ambassador for Israel’s regime of military occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people.
● On May 14, the day Israel massacred 62 Palestinians in Gaza, including six children, Netta Barzilai performed a government-hosted celebratory concert in Tel Aviv, and said, “We have a reason to be happy.”
● Barzilai performs at Israeli government-sponsored Pride events, contributing to the Israeli government’s pinkwashing agenda, the cynical use of LGBT rights to mask its ongoing denial of Palestinian human rights.
● Barzilai performed at the birthday party for US billionaire Sheldon Adelson, fanatic anti-Palestinian supporter of far right governments, from Israel’s to the Trump administration, who has made the racist and dehumanizing claim that “Palestinians are an invented people.”
#DontToyWithApartheid!
Take a stand against racism and oppression. Boycott shows by Israeli Apartheid Ambassador Netta Barzilai.
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Netta Barzilai: Botschafterin für israelische Apartheid
Israels fanatischer Premierminister Netanyahu hat Netta Barzilai, mit ihrer vollen Zustimmung, als “beste Botschafterin Israels” vorgeführt und benutzt.
Netta Barzilai hat ihre Musik gerne in die Hände der rechtsextremen israelischen Regierung gelegt. Sie dient als Propagandainstrument, um die Aufmerksamkeit von Israels Angriffen auf palästinensische Künstler*innen und Kulturzentren abzulenken, von ihren illegalen Siedlungen, durch die palästinensische Familien von ihrem Land vertrieben werden, und von ihrem rassistischen Apartheid-Regime, das den Palästinenser*innen ihre grundlegenden Menschenrechte verweigert.
Palästinensische Künstler*innen und Kulturverbände fordern einen Boykott israelischer Institutionen und Staatsrepräsentant*innen wegen ihrer Mitwirkung an Israels Politik der Unterdrückung, Kolonisierung und Apartheid.
Als Gruppen, die Rassismus und Unterdrückung bekämpfen, fordern wir einen Boykott von Netta Barzilais Show in Berlin aufgrund ihrer aktiven und wissentlichen Rolle als Kulturbotschafterin für Israels Regime der militärischen Besatzung und Apartheid gegen das palästinensische Volk.
● Am 14. Mai, dem Tag, an dem Israel in Gaza 62 Palästinenser*innen, darunter sechs Kinder, massakriert hat, gab Netta Barzilai in Tel Aviv ein von der Regierung veranstaltetes Festkonzert in Tel Aviv und sagte: “Wir haben Grund zur Freude.”
● Barzilai tritt bei von der israelischen Regierung gesponserten Pride Events auf und beteiligt sich am Pinkwashing-Programm der israelischen Regierung, der zynischen Nutzung von LGBT-Rechten, um die anhaltende Leugnung der palästinensischen Menschenrechte zu verdecken.
● Barzilai trat bei der Geburtstagsfeier für den US-Milliardär Sheldon Adelson auf, einem fanatischen anti-palästinensischen Unterstützer rechtsextremer Regierungen, von der israelischen bis zur Trump-Regierung, der die rassistische und entmenschlichende Behauptung aufgestellt hat, dass “Palästinenser*innen ein erfundenes Volk sind”.
#DontToyWithApartheid!
Bezieht Stellung gegen Rassismus und Unterdrückung. Boykottiert Auftritte der israelischen Apartheid-Botschafterin Netta Barzilai.
The following statement, initiated by BDS Austria, addresses the role of the Israeli Embassy and the University of Vienna in opposing Palestinian rights and supporting Israeli apartheid. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network as well as Samidoun Goteborg are signatories of the statement, along with other international groups and academics. Additional signatures are welcome – sign on at the link: https://goo.gl/forms/AHqS5u8AcFgKe8FA2, German language follows below:
Cartoon by Carlos Latuff
Israeli Apartheid State – GET OUT OF VIENNA UNIVERSITY #ApartheidOffCampus
The Austrian Students‘ Union (ÖH – Österreichische Hochschüler_innenschaft) will host a congress, Confronting Antisemitism(1) at the University of Vienna (Universität Wien) from the 15th to the 17th of November 2018. Israel’s embassy in Austria is a co-organizer(2).
From an historical perspective, we are dismayed by the choice of venue – the University of Vienna – which has doggedly persisted in standing on the wrong side of history. A hundred years ago this institution measured the skulls of non-Europeans for „scientific purposes“.
Today, it supports the whitewashing and legitimization of Israel’s occupation and expulsion policies by making its facilities available to Israeli institutions and other supporters of Israeli Apartheid, while denying such privileges to the former Black Panther Dhoruba bin Wahad based on his criticism of Israeli policies and support for human rights. (3)
Thus, while critical academics are boycotted and vilified, speakers who are known for their unconditional support of Israeli Apartheid are given the stage at the „Confronting Antisemitism“ event. In addition, some of these speakers have in the past called for denying Israeli BDS activist Ofer Neiman and Holocaust survivor Hedi Epstein the possibility of speaking in publicly supported facilities. (4) Moreover, Alexander Feuerherdt, who writes for the radical, racist, right-wing website „Liza’s World,“ gets the stage for his conspiracy theories. He claims, for example, that the repeated criticisms of the Israeli Apartheid state by the United Nations are „an expression of institutionalized anti-Semitism that is characteristic of the United Nations as a whole.” (5) Feuerherdt also accused the Jewish-Israeli activist Jeff Halper, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 together with the Palestinian activist Ghassan Andoni, (6) of „acting anti-Semitically,“ (7) and of serving as the “principal witness” for the accusations Palestinian solidarity groups level against Israel. This choice of conference speakers could be interpreted as an embarrassing mistake, or as an attempt to promote the broadest possible academic discussion,
but the co-sponsorship of the event by the Israeli Embassy, and the choice of an embassy official for the opening address are simply unacceptable.
As an anti-racist movement, we advocate that genuine past and present anti-Semitic phenomena be critically evaluated and dealt with. However, the labelling of people as ‘anti-Semitic’ because of their criticism of human rights abuses by Israel, is calculated to support the normalizing and legitimizing of Israeli occupation, Apartheid and human rights abuses.
More than 40 Jewish groups from across the world recently released a statement that opposes equating anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel’s policies and its system of occupation and Apartheid. (8)
Inviting a racist state to cooperate in an anti-racist event is not only bizarre and macabre, but also contravenes the ethics of science. After all, amongst other things, the Israel’s policies ensure that:
• Palestinian students and academics – inside and outside Israel – have their academic freedom restricted(9), are imprisoned(10) or even killed(11).
• new weapons and surveillance systems are developed in the context of an occupation that violates international law and are then exported throughout the world. Israeli universities participate in the development of these weapons, which are „tested“ on Palestinian civil society, and then sold as „battle-proven.“ (12)
• as this is written, the Palestinian population of Khan al Ahmar is under threat of being expelled from their homes; their village is inundated with sewage, and bulldozers stand ready to demolish their schools and kindergartens. (13)
• at the Apartheid fence in Gaza, F16 fighter jets blow demonstrators to pieces(14), snipers shoot hundreds of people and maim thousands (15).
• the European phenomenon of anti-Semitism, which had claimed millions of victims, is decontextualized and instrumentalized to construct a new and false anti-Semitism definition that is then used to stigmatize Palestinians and human rights activists, as well as to justify the inhumane and anti-democratic policies of the Israeli state.
Paraphrasing Bertolt Brecht, we would like to point out that there are various ways to kill people.
To list only a few, flood their village with sewage, have fighter jets blow them up, or lock them up in an open-air prison and cut the supply of vital necessities. Unfortunately, this hardly outrages anyone today.
That is why we call on academics and concerned people throughout the world to question the prevailing narrative, to manifest their outrage about the immoral and inhumane situation in Israel and Palestine, and to join the Palestinian call to boycott events with Israeli government sponsorship and/or official participation.
Dr. Graeme MacQueen, Canada Lucy Edwards, PhD, UK Nahla Abdo, Carleton University, Canada Peter Fitting Ronnie Barkan, BDS in Hebrew, Israel-Palestine Sunaina Maira, UC Davis, USACBI, United States Marwan Rashed, Sorbonne University, France Doris Ghannam, Germany Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, International Sam Durrant, University of Leeds, United Kingdom Haim Bresheeth, Free Speech on Israel, UK Cynthia Franklin, Professor, University of Hawaii , USA Stavit Sinai, Germany University of Brighton, Professor of Moral Philosophy, UK Christoph Glanz, BDS Initiative Oldenburg, Germany Dr. Anthony Leaker, University of Brighton, UK Ofer Neiman , Israeli citizen , Israel Dr. Jeff Noonan, Professor of Philosophy, University of Windsor, Canada David Comedi, National University of Tucumán and INFINOA (CONICET-UNT), Argentina Mona Baker, UK Prof. Stephen Pender, University of Windsor, Canada Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP) Sophia Deeg, Germany Dror WARSCHAWSKI, CNRS, France Omar Ramahi, Canada Deborah Cook, Canada Samidoun Göteborg, Sweden Em.Prof. Herman De Ley, Ghent University, Belgium BACBI (Belgian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Belgium Hadas Leonov, Israel Dr. Angela Waldegg, Austria Jules Townshend, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK Jonathan Ofir, Israeli citizen, resident in Denmark – conductor and writer on Israel-Palestine, Denmark Boycott from Within (Israeli citizens for BDS) , Israeli citizens , Israel Judith Bernstein, Germany Tali Shapiro, Israel John Chalcraft, LSE, UK Wilhelm Langthaler Amitai Ben-Abba, Israel/Palestine David Klein, California State University Northridge, USA Prof. Richard Seaford, University of Exeter, UK Juana Celia Djelal, Retired faculty, United States BDS Berlin Michal Sapir, Israel Dr. Med. Hiba Odeh, Palestine Greilsamer Jean-Guy, UJFP and BDS (France), France Dr. Les Levidow, Open University, UK Adi Shosberger, Palestine Michael Letwin, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return; Labor for Palestine, United States US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), United States Ahmed Abbes, Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Paris, France Tikun Olam, United States Ken Baker, The Human Race, UK Waltraud Schauer, Frauen in Schwarz Danielle Ravitzki Christl Meyer, Frauen in Schwarz / Wien, Austria Annette Groth, former MP, Germany Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Ireland Anja Matar BDS Berlin, No Apartheid in universities Ahmad Matar Trade Union Friends of Palestine, Ireland Philippe de Henau, Belgium Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, Africa Adanya Qaddafi , United States Jan Van Herzele, Belgium Shelly Steinberg, Israel Cuba Si, United States Dr. Nozomi Takahashi, Ghent University, Belgium Josef Pampalk, PhD Palestina Solidariteit vzw, Belgium Dr. Raymond Deane , National University of Ireland, Ireland FLOWERS FROM THE HOOD, Campaign to End the Death Penalty , USA Jasmine Schmid Theresa El-Amin , Southern Anti-Racism Network , USA Robin Dunford, United Kingdom
University of Leeds, United Kingdom Em.Prof. Marc De Meyere,University Gent, member of BDS, Belgium Association belgo-palestinienne , Belgium Angela Flynn, AfP , Ireland The Association of Norwegian NGOs for Palestine, Norway Gibanje za pravice Palestincev, Slovenia Gruppo Ibriq per la causa e la cultura Palestinese, Italy Nada Pretnar, Slovenia Salaam ragazzi dell’olivo Comitato di Trieste, Italy Dee Reynolds, United Kingdom UK-Palestine Mental Health Network, United Kingdom Kristine Martinsen , Norway Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden im Nahost, e.V., Iris Hefets (Vorsitzende), Deutschland Paul Reynolds, Reader in Sociology and Social Philosophy, UK Diensten en Onderzoek Centrum Palestina, Netherlands USA Palestine Mental Health Network, USA Palestina Solidariteit vzw , Belgium Dr. Suzanne Ross, Clinical Psychologist, Educator, and Human Rights Activist, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, US Samuel Welber Monika Vykoukal South African Jews for Free Palestine Dr. Susan Blackwell, Netherlands British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP), United Kingdom Robert Boyce, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, London School of Economics, United Kingdom Ruth Moshkovitz, Universität Wien, alumna, Austria The Iceland-Palestine Association (Félagið Ísland-Palestína), Iceland Peter Unterweger, International Metalworkers Secretariat, ret. Ariana Macon, Austria Camillo Friedrich, Germany Oskar Lechleitner, Austria Jeremy Phillips, UCT Palestine Solidarity Forum, South Africa
Israelischer Apartheidstaat RAUS AUS DER UNI WIEN – #ApartheidOffCampus
Vom 15. bis 17. November 2018 veranstaltet die ÖH – Österreichische Hochschüler_innenschaft den Kongress „Confronting Antisemitism“(1) an der Universität Wien. Mitveranstalter ist dabei auch die Israelische Botschaft in Österreich.(2)
Historisch betrachtet müssten wir den Ort der Veranstaltung – die Universität Wien – für ihre beharrliche Kontinuität beglückwünschen, immer auf der falschen Seite der Geschichte zu stehen. Vor hundert Jahren hat diese Institution zu „wissenschaftlichen Zwecken“ die Schädel von NichteuropäerInnen vermessen. Heute unterstützt sie die Legitimierung und Weißwaschung israelischer Vertreibungs- und Besatzungspolitik, indem sie israelischen Institutionen und anderen VerteidigerInnen der israelischen Apartheid ihre Räume zur Verfügung stellt und sie gleichzeitig KritikerInnen der israelischen Politik verweigert, wie jüngst dem ehemaligen Black Panther Dhoruba bin Wahad.(3)
Während kritische AkademikerInnen also boykottiert und diffamiert werden, bekommen im Rahmen der Veranstaltung „Confronting Antisemitism“ auch RednerInnen eine Bühne, die für ihre bedingungslose Unterstützung der israelischen Apartheid bekannt sind. Einige dieser ReferentInnen forderten vor einigen Jahren, dass dem israelischen BDS-Aktivisten Ofer Neiman sowie der Holocaust-Überlebenden Hedi Epstein die Möglichkeit verweigert werden solle, in öffentlich finanzierten Einrichtungen zu sprechen.(4) Auch der Journalist Alexander Feuerherdt, welcher für das rechtsradikale und rassistische Medium „Lizas Welt“ schreibt, bekommt eine Bühne für seine Verschwörungstheorien.
So behauptet er beispielsweise, die wiederholte Kritik der Vereinten Nationen am israelischen Apartheidstaat sei „Ausdruck eines institutionalisierten Antisemitismus, der für die Vereinten Nationen insgesamt charakteristisch ist.“(5)
Den jüdisch-israelischen Aktivisten Jeff Halper, der 2006 gemeinsam mit dem palästinensischen Aktivisten Ghassan Andoni für den Friedensnobelpreis nominiert wurde(6), bezeichnet Feuerherdt als „Kronzeugen“ Palästina-solidarischer Gruppen, der sich „antisemitisch betätigt“.(7)
All dies könnte noch als eine peinliche Fehlbesetzung oder als der Versuch, einen möglichst breiten akademischen Diskurs zu ermöglichen, betrachtet werden. Doch die Teilnahme der israelischen Botschaft und der israelischen Botschaftsrätin als Eröffnungsrednerin sind schlichtweg inakzeptabel.
Als antirassistische Bewegung befürworten wir eine kritische Aufarbeitung vergangener und gegenwärtiger antisemitischer Phänomene. Wenn jedoch Menschen, die Israel für seine Menschenrechtsverletzungen kritisieren, als „antisemitisch“ definiert werden, dient dies der Normalisierung und Legitimierung der israelischen Besatzung, Apartheid und Menschenrechtsverletzungen.
Mehr als 40 jüdische Gruppen aus der ganzen Welt haben kürzlich eine Erklärung veröffentlicht, in der sie sich dagegen aussprachen, Antisemitismus mit der Kritik an der Politik Israels, der israelischen Besatzung und dem Apartheidsystem gleichzusetzen.(8)
Einen rassistischen Staat als Kooperationspartner zu einer antirassistischen Veranstaltung einzuladen, ist nicht nur skurril, sondern auch unwissenschaftlich und makaber. Schließlich ist der israelische Staat dafür verantwortlich, dass (unter anderem)
palästinensische Studierende und AkademikerInnen innerhalb und außerhalb Israels in ihrer akademischen Freiheit beschränkt(9), inhaftiert (10) oder getötet(11) werden.
neue Waffen und Überwachungssysteme im Kontext der völkerrechtswidrigen Besatzung entwickelt und in die ganze Welt exportiert werden. Die Waffen werden mit Hilfe israelischer Universitäten entwickelt, an der palästinensischen Zivilgesellschaft „erprobt“ und dann mit dem Label „battle-proven“ versehen verkauft.(12)
die palästinensische Bevölkerung von Khan al Ahmar dieser Tage in Gefahr ist, aus ihren Häusern vertrieben zu werden. Ihr Dorf wird mit Abwasser geflutet und Bulldozer stehen bereit, um ihre Schulen und Kindergärten zu zerstören.(13)
F16 Kampfjets am Apartheidzaun in Gaza DemonstrantInnen in Stücke reißen(14) und Scharfschützen hunderte Menschen erschießen und tausende Menschen verstümmeln.(15)
das europäische Phänomen des Antisemitismus, der Millionen Menschen zum Opfer hatte, dekontextualisiert und instrumentalisiert wird. Um eine neue Antisemitismus-Definition zu konstruieren, PalästinenserInnen und MenschenrechtsaktivistInnen als AntisemitInnen zu brandmarken und damit die menschenverachtende Politik des israelischen Staates zu rechtfertigen.
Frei nach Bertolt Brecht wollen wir deshalb anmerken, dass es verschiedene Arten gibt, jemanden umzubringen. Man kann sein Dorf mit Abwasser fluten, man kann ihn in ein Freiluftgefängnis sperren und von jeglicher Versorgung abschneiden, man kann ihn mit einem F16 Kampfjet in Stücke reißen. Leider empört dies heute kaum noch jemanden.
Deshalb rufen wir AkademikerInnen und interessierte Menschen weltweit dazu auf, das herrschende Narrativ zu hinterfragen, sich über die Zustände in Israel und Palästina zu empören und sich dem palästinensischen Aufruf zum Boykott von Veranstaltungen mit offizieller israelischer Präsenz und/oder Mitwirkung anzuschließen.
2 Während die israelische Botschaft auf der Webseite nicht explizit genannt wird, zählt die Facebookseite des Events sie direkt als erste Mitveranstalterin auf, siehe https://www.facebook.com/events/713614398997118/
The following article, by Ramzy Baroud, was originally published at The Palestine Chronicle and is republished with permission:
When Israeli troops stormed the house of Palestinian parliamentarian and lawyer Khalida Jarrar on April 2, 2015, she was engrossed in her research. For months, she had been leading a Palestinian effort to take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Her research on that very evening was related directly to the kind of behavior that allows a group of soldiers to handcuff a respected Palestinian intellectual, throw her in jail with no trial and have no accountability for their action.
Jarrar was released in June 2016 after spending more than a year in jail, only to be arrested once more, on 2 July last year. She remains in an Israeli prison to this day. On 28 October, her “administrative detention” was renewed for the fourth time.
There are thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, most of them held outside the militarily-occupied Palestinian territories, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Nearly500 of these Palestinians are held with neither charge nor trial and detained for six-month periods that are renewed, sometimes indefinitely, by Israeli military courts with no legal justification whatsoever. Jarrar is one of those “administrative detainees”.
The parliamentarian is not pleading with her jailers for her freedom. Instead, she is keeping herself busy, educating her fellow prisoners about international law, offering classes and issuing statements to the outside world that reflect not only her refined intellect but also her resolve and strength of character.
Jarrar is relentless. Despite her failing health — she suffers from multiple ischemic infarctions and hypercholesterolemia, and was hospitalized due to severe bleeding resulting from epistaxis — her commitment to the cause of her people has not, in any way, weakened or faltered.
The 55-year-old lawyer has championed a political discourse that is largely missing amid the ongoing feud between the Palestinian Authority’s largest faction, Fatah, in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas in besieged Gaza. As a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and an active member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Jarrar has advocated the kind of politics that is not disconnected from the people and, especially, from the women who she strongly and uncompromisingly represents.
According to Jarrar, no Palestinian official should engage in any form of dialogue with Israel, because such engagement helps to legitimize a state that is founded on genocide and ethnic cleansing; a state that is currently carrying out various types of war crimes, the very crimes that Jarrar tried to expose before the ICC. As such, she rejects the so-called “peace process”, a futile exercise that has no intention or mechanism aimed at “implementing international resolutions related to the Palestinian cause and recognizing the fundamental rights of the Palestinians.”
It goes without saying that a woman with such an astute, strong position vehemently rejects the “security coordination” between the PA and Israel. She sees such action as a betrayal of the struggle and sacrifices of the Palestinian people.
While PA officials continue to enjoy the perks of “leadership”, desperately breathing life into a dead political discourse called the “peace process” and the “two-state solution”, Jarrar, a female Palestinian leader with genuine vision, subsists in HaSharon Prison. There, along with dozens of other Palestinian women, she experiences daily humiliation, denial of rights and various other Israeli tactics intended to break her spirit.
Jarrar, though, is as experienced in resisting Israel as she is in her knowledge of law and human rights. In August 2014, as Israel was carrying out one of its most heinous acts of genocide in Gaza — killing and wounding thousands in its so-called “Operation Protective Edge” military offensive — Jarrar received an unwelcome visit by Israeli soldiers.
Fully aware of her work and credibility as a Palestinian lawyer with an international outreach — she is the Palestine representative in the Council of Europe — the Israeli government unleashed their campaign of harassment, which ended in her imprisonment. The soldiers delivered a military edictordering her to leave her home in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, and go to Jericho.
The Israelis failed to silence her, so she was arrested in April the following year. Thus began an episode of suffering, as well as resistance, which is yet to end.
When the Israeli army came for Jarrar, its soldiers surrounded her home in great numbers, as if the well-spoken Palestinian activist was Israel’s greatest security threat. The scene was surreal and revealed what Israel’s real fear is: Palestinians, like Khalida Jarrar, who are able to communicate an articulate message that exposes Israel and its crimes to the rest of the world.
Indeed, the whole set-up was reminiscent of the opening sentence of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial: “Somebody must have made a false accusation against Joseph K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong.”
Administrative detention in Israel is the recreation of that Kafkaesque scene over and over again. Joseph K. is Khalida Jarrar and thousands of other Palestinians who are paying a high price merely for calling for the legitimate rights and freedom of their people.
Under international pressure, Israel was forced to put Jarrar on trial, levying against her twelve charges that included visiting a released prisoner and participating in a book fair. Her other arrest and the four renewals of her detention is a testament not just to Israel’s lack of any real evidence against her, but also to its moral bankruptcy.
Why is Israel afraid of Khalida Jarrar? The truth is that Jarrar, like many other Palestinian women, represents the antidote to the fabricated narrative which promotes Israel relentlessly as an oasis of freedom, democracy, and human rights, juxtaposed with a Palestinian society that purportedly represents the opposite of what Israel stands for.
As a lawyer, human rights activist, prominent politician, and advocate for women, Jarrar and her eloquence, courage and deep understanding of her rights and the rights of her people, demolish this Israeli house of lies. She is the quintessential feminist; her feminism, however, is not mere identity politics, a surface ideology, evoking empty rights meant to strike a chord with western audiences. Instead, Khalida Jarrar fights for Palestinian women, their freedom and their right to receive a proper education, to seek work opportunities and to better their lives, while facing tremendous obstacles like Israel’s military occupation, prison, and social pressures.
In Arabic, Khalida means “immortal”. It is a most fitting designation for a true fighter who represents the legacy of generations of strong Palestinian women whose “sumoud” — steadfastness — shall always inspire an entire nation.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His forthcoming book is ‘The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story’ (Pluto Press, London). Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.
Stand with Palestine in Manchester
Stop the Bombing and the Massacres in Gaza
UK: Stop Arming Israel
After killing 220 Palestinian unarmed protesters during the Gaza Freedom march Israel is once again massacring people in Gaza with massive bombardments and destruction. At least 12 more Palestinians have been murdered in the last two days, many more injured and homes destroyed.
We cannot let our high street banks profit from their investments in companies serving Israel’s massacres of the Palestinians. An entire people, a population that is mostly children, are being brutalised while the UK’s weapons companies and the investment bankers rub their hands at the joy of profit from mass murder.
Stand with Palestine in Manchester
12pm Saturday 24th November
Piccadilly Gardens
Called by
Manchester Palestine Action
Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Manchester Jewish Action for Palestine
BDS Society University of Manchester
Film screening 30 mins followed by a talk and a discussion.
We are so lucky to have Razan AlNajjar’s mother and father in Berlin, they will speak about the situation in Gaza now and the ongoing Great March of Return protest.
Speakers:
Mother of Razan Alnajjar: Sabreen Alnajjar.
Father: Ashraf Alnajjar.
Film maker: Iyad Alasttal
RAZAN EL-NAJJAR, a 21-year-old Palestinian, was killed on 1st June 2018, during the Great Return March, on the eastern edge of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
While working as a rescuer and wearing a jacket with the logo of the health services, Razan was fatally hit by an explosive bullet fired by an Israeli army sniper.
Film screening about Razan Alnajjar:
Director: Iyad Alasttal.
In this documentary film, we follow Razan’s mother and her family, in her house, and in the neighborhood, to learn about the life of this young woman, and to discover images of the Great Return March that are held every Friday in Gaza, since March 30th, 2018.
Short Summary about Razan AlNajjar.
Razan al-Najjar, a volunteer health worker, took all the precautions, her colleagues say, but she was still killed when she was struck in the chest by an explosive illegal bullet at the Great Return March.
The 21-year-old was the second medic to be killed in a 10-week Palestinian demonstration movement, and Gaza’s ministry of health says 25 others have been hit with live fire.
Razan Al Najjar had become an icon in Gaza before her death, with dozens of images published online of the woman who wore colourful headscarves and a resolute expression on her face.
She was often photographed with her white coat spattered with the blood of her patients, and one image shows her anxiously kneeling over a young man, feverishly bandaging his bleeding head.
So much to say about Razan, may her soul rest in peace.
Once again Israel provokes the start of a bloody attack on the Gaza Strip by infiltrating the eastern part of Khan Younis and killing 7 Palestinians. The same scenario is repeated as in 2008, 2012 and 2014 when they broke the truce; for the record; the Palestinian resistance; Yes resistance; despite having the right to resist occupation, never broke one truce which was brokered in the past by the Egyptian intelligence.
To add insult to injury; Israel is calling for the UN Security Council to meet to discuss the Palestinian terrorist rocket attacks. Israel, the executor is once again portraying itself as the victim.
It’s our duty to give voice to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere when they are facing the might of the fourth strongest army in the world with bravery that is against all odds.
Please come along; show the Palestinians that you are with them at this difficult time.
On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Association Belgo-Palestinienne invites all to a join in a day of solidarity.
