Activism

Palestine Studies 

Google prides itself on being all things to all people. And, befitting our globalized times, Google’s search pages are localized both linguistically and by web address. Visit Google in Rio de Janeiro and your Brazilian IP address (i.e. internet location) will direct you to google.br rather than the google.com Americans are accustomed to. In France: google.fr; google.tn for Tunisia, and so on.

For Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Google set up google.ps but initially titled the local search page the “Palestinian territories.” Then in Spring 2012, it changed its banner to “Palestine.” This sparked joy in the hearts of Palestinians: the world’s most prominent internet company had recognized the occupied territories as Palestine. Almost on cue, Israel protested. The then-Israeli deputy foreign minister, Ze’ev Elkin, sent an open letter to CEO Larry Page asserting that Google’s recognition of Palestine would “negatively impinge on the efforts of my government to bring about direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.” Palestinians, Elkin argued, would only be emboldened by Google to jettison direct negotiations with Israel and seek “one-sided actions.” Elkin’s histrionic letter had little, if anything, to do with sincere aspirations for peace and everything with Israeli opposition to any recognition, official or otherwise, of Palestine. Elkin’s words are belied by his outspoken opposition to a Palestinian state and support for Israeli annexation of the occupied territories. Google dismissed Elkin’s letter and a spokesman told the BBC that Google takes it cues from “the UN, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and other international organizations.”

Kudos to Google!

Not so fast, however, as Google appeared to bow to Israeli pressure recently by removing Palestine from Google Maps. Online protesters circulated screenshots of the map service alleging that where the West Bank and Gaza had previously been labeled Palestine, now only Israel is labeled and the occupied territories are just marked by a broken line:

A change.org online petition titled, “GOOGLE: Put Palestine On Your Maps!” quickly went viral. It attracted tens of thousands of digital signatures, and the hashtag #PalestineMap was trending Twitter.

It emerged, however, that Palestine was never erased from Google Maps because it was never there to begin with. A perfect example of Internet hordes getting ahead of the fact? Sure, but the false event raises a serious question: Why isn’t Palestine on Google Maps? After all, Google’s search engine −the heart of the company’s business model −recognizes Palestine, so why not Google Maps?

Such recognition would be in keeping with Google’s aforementioned guidelines as Palestine is a “non-member observer state” at the United Nations, a status it won in the General Assembly with the backing of 138 nations (with 9 against, and 41 abstentions) in November 2012. As a less-than-equal UN member (only a Security Council vote confers full recognition, but Palestine’s path is blocked by the ever-threatened U.S. veto), Palestine nevertheless joined the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a full member.

As at end-2015, 136 of the UN’s 193 member states (more than 70%) had recognized Palestine, including China, India, and Brazil, most of in the so-called developing world. Israel frets more about the so-called first world countries recognizing Palestine as Western Europe and the United States are its key trading partners, military suppliers, and diplomatic backers. Although lagging behind the rest of the world, Western countries are increasingly recognizing Palestine. Sweden and Iceland have officially done so; the national parliaments of the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Spain, Belgium, and Ireland have passed non-binding resolutions on the subject; and Italy and Norway have upgraded the Palestinian representative’s office in their respective capitals to a status befitting a sovereign nation. Moreover, the European  Parliament has passed its own motion proclaiming “in principle recognition of Palestinian statehood” by a vote of 498-88. Lastly, The Vatican has also bestowed its blessing of recognition on Palestine.

Last year, when the Palestinian Authority applied to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, there was some question as to whether Palestine could qualify, given its less-than-unanimous status as a sovereign state, but the ICC ended up ruling in favor of membership.

And if you were watching the Summer Olympics in Rio, you might have seen Palestinian athletes competing under the Palestinian flag. The International Olympic Committee has recognized Palestine since the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA.

A free Palestine, of course, remains an aspiration. But unlike, say, Tibet (recognized by no nation) or Abkhazia (recognized only by Russia), Palestine is recognized by most countries around the world, is a member of several international organizations, and is occupied by a power that pays lip service to the idea of a sovereign Palestinian nation. Going back to Google, Taiwan shows up on Google Maps even though the country’s international status−lacking a UN seat, for instance−falls short of Palestine’s. And in Google’s own backyard of Silicon Valley in California, Facebook−the world’s largest social media platform−recognizes Palestine. Facebook’s recognition isn’t akin to that of, say, the United States, but it isn’t a trivial matter either. When the social media behemoth recognized Kosovo in 2013, the New York Times reported, “Kosovo is hailing a grant of legitimacy by a new arbiter of national identity: Facebook.” The Times went on to observe—albeit with a slight hyperbole—that “in an era when accumulating ‘likes’ may top a seat in the General Assembly, at least for many young opinion leaders online, Kosovo’s leadership is hailing a change on a social media site as a diplomatic coup worthy of Talleyrand.”

In other words, what happens online matters, and that is why Israel was so peeved at Google in 2013 and why Palestinians and their allies reacted with alarm to the (false) reports of digitized cartographic erasure. Whenever a major Internet company, the resource of upwards of one billion individuals, recognizes Palestine, the idea of a free Palestinian nation gains a little more traction.

In the end, of course, Google Maps is incidental to the Palestinian struggle. In every tilled field and harvested olive tree, Palestine is a reality on the ground and in the hearts of countless millions around the world. As one Twitter user remarked,

Source: blog.palestine-studies.org

Press release: Rasmea Defense Committee

Rasmea’s prosecutors deny the horror of torture; Judge Drain accepts their argument

Rasmea Odeh, a survivor of vicious torture at the hands of the Israeli military, will be compelled to undergo hours of psychological evaluation by a government forensic examiner, according to a ruling by Federal Judge Gershwin Drain.  Drain cancelled a September 22 hearing on the matter in Detroit, where supporters from across the Midwest had planned to join Rasmea.

The 69-year-old Rasmea is a legend in the Palestine national movement. In Drain’s courtroom in 2014, she was convicted of a politically-motivated immigration charge, and in 2015, sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation. Rasmea appealed the decision, arguing that Drain had denied her defense the right to make its case.

In February of this year, in a major legal victory, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Drain was wrong when he refused to allow defense attorneys to present evidence that Rasmea suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The PTSD caused her to misunderstand the questions about the unlawful conviction and imprisonment she suffered under the Israeli occupation. At the trial, Rasmea was not allowed to tell the story of Israel forcing her to falsely confess to alleged bombings in 1969, when she endured over three weeks of brutal sexual, physical, and psychological torture at the hands of the Israeli military.

The appeals court sent the case back to Drain for an evidentiary Daubert hearing, where the government will challenge the validity and admissibility of testimony by torture expert and clinical psychologist, Dr. Mary Fabri.  With Drain’s latest decision, issued yesterday, Rasmea will be subjected to as many as six sessions (up to 18 hours) of interrogation by a government expert seeking to support its claim that Fabri’s testimony should still be excluded.

By forcing Rasmea to meet with a government expert whose job it is to discredit her, she faces the real possibility of being re-traumatized by the horrible experiences of her torture. The government is clearly using legal maneuvers to convolute a medical diagnosis by a world-renowned mental health professional, and Drain is allowing it.

In his decision, Drain rejected the defense argument that it is harmful to Rasmea’s mental health to be forced to repeatedly discuss the rape and torture she suffered.  He sided with the prosecution, claiming that Rasmea had discussed the torture on “numerous occasions” … “in the media and elsewhere.”

Lead defense attorney Michael Deutsch responded today: “That is just not true.  While Rasmea has become the most famous target of a political trial in the U.S. today, she has always avoided discussion of the crimes committed against her in that Israeli prison in 1969. The government case against Rasmea is based on the word of her Israeli captors, and yet at every turn, Judge Drain has denied her defense the right to challenge those statements in his courtroom. Once again, his latest decision favors the prosecution’s endless attempts to cover up the crimes of Israel against Rasmea.”

The hearing on the challenge to Fabri’s expert testimony is set for November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Rasmea’s supporters are already making plans to stand with her in Detroit that day, and they continue to educate the public on Israel’s crimes and this specific case, as well as raise money for the defense.

Source: us8.campaign-archive2.com

Arjun Singh Sethi 

USA Today

These crimes are meant to terrorize entire communities. They need to be prosecuted that way.

Violence against Arabs and Muslims continues unabated in America. Just this month, on Aug. 12, a young Arab American named Khalid Jabara was murdered outside his home in Tulsa, Okla. The next day, an imam and his assistant, Maulama Akonjee and Thara Uddin, were murdered after praying at a mosque in Queens, N.Y.

In the Queens case, video footage and eyewitness accounts show suspect Oscar Morel approaching Akonjee and Uddin from behind and shooting them in the head. The two victims, dressed in religious garments, had just completed afternoon prayer and were walking outside the mosque. Morel has been charged with first- and second-degree murder, and authorities say they’re exploring whether the killings were a hate crime. If they determine hate was a factor, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean the suspect would be charged with a hate crime.

The suspect in the Tulsa crime has a long history of racism and discrimination and had previously called the Jabara family “filthy Lebanese” and “dirty Arabs.” Just last year, the suspect ran over Khalid’s mother, Haifa Jabara, in a violent hit and run. He took Khalid’s life after being released on bond. Tulsa Police Capt. Shellie Seibert, speaking to The Washington Post last week, blamed the tragedy on a neighborhood dispute and the suspect’s “unusual fixation” with the Jabara family. On Tuesday, however, after days of community pressure capped by more than 50 civil rights and faith-based groups asking authorities to stop minimizing the possible role of hatred, the suspect was charged with murder and committing a hate crime.

The murders of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha in Chapel Hill, N.C. in February 2015 were also viewed in the context of neighborhood friction. The three young Muslim Americans were murdered, two of them execution style, by a man who hated Islam and had previously intimidated the victims. Craig Hicks turned himself in and faces the death penalty on triple murder charges. Yet, because he had a longstanding parking dispute with the victims, he was not charged with hate crimes.

Why are prosecutors reluctant to file hate-crime charges? It’s because courts regularly require prosecutors to show that hate was the sole factor motivating the crime, not just a substantial motivating factor. Those who commit crimes with mixed motives are thus often not charged with hate crimes.

This troubling logic can be applied in numerous ways. If a suspect vandalizes a mosque because he disapproves of Islam, but also dislikes the traffic the mosque causes in his neighborhood, it’s not a hate crime. If a suspect assaults a gay woman because of her sexual orientation, but also because he doesn’t like her mannerisms and attitude, it’s not a hate crime. Both Congress and individual states can remedy this failure by passing legislation or clarifying in guidelines that bias need only be a substantial motivating factor in proving a hate crime, not the sole factor.

America needs strong hate crime laws because hate crimes are intended to intimidate and terrorize entire communities. Attacking a Sikh gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wis., a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. and a gay club in Orlando, Fla. ripples through impacted communities nationwide. They can cause communities of people to feel vulnerable and isolated, spark national outrage and unrest, and create friction among racial, religious and ethnic groups.

It’s both restorative and cathartic for law enforcement to address hate and bias when it motivates crime. Think of it this way. Hate crimes send a message to vulnerable communities. Hate-crime charges send an even greater message to biased perpetrators.

In addition, the FBI should require hate-crime reporting from law enforcement agencies across the country. Reporting now is voluntary and incomplete. The Associated Press recently found that more than 2,700 city police and county sheriff’s departments, roughly 17% of all city and county law enforcement agencies nationwide, have not submitted a single hate crime report during the past six years. If you don’t understand the severity of a problem, you can’t fix it; if you understate its severity, you’ll look the other way. A requirement would increase awareness and ensure that we have the necessary resources to protect America’s most vulnerable.

Hate has become a quotidian part of life for many minority communities, especially Muslim Americans, Arab Americans, Sikh Americans, and transgender Americans. We may never be able to eradicate bigotry and bias from our country, but we should at least try to curb violence motivated by it through effective laws, data collection and resource allocation.

Arjun Singh Sethi, a Washington, D.C.-based writer and lawyer, is director of law and policy at the Sikh Coalition and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University and Vanderbilt University law schools.

Source: www.usatoday.com

Press release: Euro-Med 

The international secretary for the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and director of We Are Not Numbers joined the growing number of peace and justice advocates who are being denied permission to enter Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

   “Despite the fact that I already had been granted a permit to enter Gaza, the Israeli airport police said I was not allowed to enter the country due to my organization’s ‘illegal’ human rights work”   
Pam Bailey, international secretary for the Euro-Med Monitor

Pam Bailey, who arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport August 21 on her way to the Gaza Strip, was detained by the Israeli Border Police in a jail-like barracks for 11 hours—without access to her telephone or laptop—before being deported back to the United States. The Israeli border police also conveniently “lost” the suitcase of books Bailey was bringing into Gaza for youth there, including such dangerous topics as the latest Harry Potter story and a set of GRE study guides.

“Despite the fact that I already had been granted a permit to enter Gaza, the Israeli airport police said I was not allowed to enter the country due to my organization’s ‘illegal’ human rights work,” reports Bailey. “When I later consulted an Israeli attorney, I was told that Israel has created a growing blacklist of Palestinian and international NGOs it does not like due to their advocacy for human rights.”

Euro-Med monitors and reports on human rights abuses throughout the Middle East-North Africa region, with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and one of its primary field offices in the Gaza Strip. We Are Not Numbers, which Bailey founded and directs, is a Euro-Med project that trains Palestinian youth to be effective storytellers in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Bailey was on her way into Gaza to train a new group of writers, kick off a women’s empowerment initiative and supervise the production of a new report documenting Israel’s increasing crackdown on the entry of internationals into the Strip.

“Pam’s detention and expulsion from Israel without any evidence of wrongdoing or opportunity for appeal provided unexpected and personal documentation for the report now being prepared by Euro-Med,” says Inas Zayed, Euro-Med Monitor legal officer. “It is well known how Israel has deprived the Palestinians of Gaza of freedom of movement, but increasingly, Israel also is preventing internationals from entering. There is no defensible justification for such arbitrary denials and deportations, denying Palestinians of exposure to the outside world in every way possible.”

    “It is well known how Israel has deprived the Palestinians of Gaza of freedom of movement, but increasingly, Israel also is preventing internationals from entering.”   

Inas Zayed, Euro-Med Monitor legal officer

Earlier this summer, Israeli officials detained, interrogated and deported five Americans—including four black Muslims—trying to enter the country to “gain a better understanding of the situation on the ground,” according to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Upon their arrival on July 17, a U.S. campaign staffer and four other members of the group — all carrying U.S. passports — were interrogated by Israeli border police about their backgrounds and political involvement. They then were deported.

Likewise, on August 15, Charlotte Kates, international coordinator for the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, was denied entry to the West Bank by Israeli authorities at the King Hussein Bridge crossing in Jordan. Kates was attempting to join a delegation of European parliamentarians and lawyers in support of Palestinian prisoners.

The harassment and denial of NGOs and personalities has been long-running, although recently escalating. In 2014, for example, Israel denied entry to members of a UN inquiry into war crimes committed by Israeli military forces during Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip.

In many cases, deportations are accompanied by blanket orders to stay out of Israel for 10 years.

“We all have to unite and start fighting back against this arbitrary discrimination against those who seek to peacefully hold Israel to account,” says Zayed. 

Source: www.euromedmonitor.org

Jinan Aldameary

Al Jazeera

An international campaign to exert economic pressure on Israel to end its violation of Palestinian rights has not been defeated, one of its founders has said, despite claims made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We are winning the global battle for hearts and minds,” said Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian activist who co-founded the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in 2005.

Since its launch, BDS has aspired to campaigns such as those seen during the anti-apartheid era, when people were called on to boycott goods from South Africa and divest from the country. 

Netanyahu’s recent claims that BDS is in retreat are “laughable”, Barghouti told Al Jazeera.

“This [was] Netanyahu’s desperate attempt to deflect internal condemnation of his failure to stop BDS,” he added.

‘Hits on many fronts’

Addressing Israel’s Knesset State Control Committee meeting in July, Netanyahu said that BDS was “on the defensive”.

“They are taking hits on many fronts. We have beaten them”, Netanyahu said, according to media reports.

But several Israeli politicians at the meeting criticised Netanyahu’s administration for not doing more to defeat BDS.

OPINION: BDS is a war Israel can’t win

Participants also wanted to discuss two reports by Yosef Shapira, Israel’s state comptroller, which listed Israeli failures against BDS movement.

As the committee’s chairwoman Karin Elharra said: “Israel is facing a strong de-legitimisation campaign”. 

‘Build bridges, not boycotts’

Launched over a decade ago as a global, nonviolent campaign seeking to exert pressure on Israel through boycotts on its goods, deterring investment and calling for sanctions, BDS has been accused by its critics of anti-Semitism.

Addressing the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in February, US presidential nominee Hillary Clinton described the BDS movement as “alarming”, particularly “at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise”.

In May, Israel’s mission to the United Nations and the World Jewish Congress held a day-long conference at the UN’s headquarters in New York titled “Build Bridges, Not Boycotts” to denounce the efforts of BDS.

A month later, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order blacklisting organisations and businesses that supported BDS. 

That order led to a backlash and protests by those who accused Cuomo of limiting basic rights.

BDS founder Barghouti says the movement has nothing to do with religion and “never targeted Jews, or Israelis as Jews”.

“This is a movement that calls for the equal rights for all people, irrespective of identity,” he said.

‘Fundamental rights’

Cuomo’s executive order blacklisting BDS supporters “violates fundamental constitutional rights”, said Rahul Saksena, a lawyer at Palestine Legal, which is dedicated to protecting the rights of people in the US who speak out for Palestinian freedom.

“The government cannot create blacklists based on First Amendment-protected speech, and the government may not condition the receipt of government benefits on the requirement that we forgo constitutional rights,” Saksena told Al Jazeera.

Despite the renewed focus on BDS by Israel, the movement has recently enjoyed an increase in support, particularly at the grassroots level, and among trade unions, academic associations, artists, church groups and some governments, Barghouti said.

Although the movement continues to gain attention, it is yet to have a significant economic effect on Israel, said Marwan Hanania, a scholar of Middle East history and politics.

BDS should focus strictly on Israeli activities inside the West Bank and Gaza, which could even draw support from left-wing Israelis, Hanania said.

“It is important for activists to broaden their horizons and attempt to be more inclusive,” he said

“Their message has to resonate with people who are not particularly knowledgeable or interested in the Palestinian cause on its own terms.”

It is a view shared by US academic and political theorist Noam Chomsky, who described BDS as “too broad”, in an interview with Al Jazeera in February.

“I support the aspects of BDS aimed at the occupied territories. Those are the ones that have been successful; they are principled and correct,” Chomsky said, explaining that he opposed actions being taken “against Israel itself”.

That would be like boycotting the US for the policies of its government.

“I do not suggest boycotting Harvard University and my own university, even though the United States is involved in horrific acts … You might as well boycott the United States,” Chomksy said. 

Boycotting Israeli businesses and products outside the occupied territories would be ineffective, he added.

Source: www.aljazeera.com