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UCC leaders issue statement supporting the First Amendment right to use economic measures in the case of Israel-Palestine

By

United Church of Christ 

 

Prompted by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to halt state business with companies that back a boycott of Israel, and the growing interest in several state legislatures in criminalizing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement, the national officers of the United Church of Christ are speaking out against what they see as an infringement of First Amendment rights. 

Here is the text of their statement:

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order this week calling on his state’s agencies to boycott and divest from any entity that participates in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement related to Israel/Palestine. The governor’s action bypasses the New York legislature. But in seven states, initiatives to criminalize this targeted movement have already been adopted by state legislatures, and thirteen more are yet to be considered (including New York), according to the Jerusalem Post—this with the US Congress’s encouragement.

The United Church of Christ has actively supported human rights campaigns, sometimes through consumer boycotts and even divestment of companies that have profited from injustice. Most recently, the UCC Board of Directors endorsed a boycott of Wendy’s for not joining the Fair Food Program—refusing to pay a fair wage to Immokalee farm workers in Florida to pick tomatoes. Last summer, the UCC adopted a resolution at its General Synod calling for divestment from “companies that profit from or that are complicit in violations of human rights arising from the occupation of the Palestinian Territories by the state of Israel,” and to “boycott goods produced in or using the facilities of illegal settlements located in the West Bank.” While not a full endorsement of Palestinian civil society’s BDS Movement, the UCC’s action clearly supports one of that movement’s calls—an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

The UCC is deeply concerned about the attempts by state legislatures to stifle consumer boycott and responsible investment as expressions of free speech—guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The UCC remains committed to seeking justice and peace for Israelis and Palestinians, to working to support bringing an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and to using non-violent tactics—including economic leverage—to do so.

We call upon our elected officials at all levels of government to uphold the Constitutional right of free speech, in all its forms, including the right to use economic measures to bring change; we also call on our members, and allies in the quest for justice and peace for Palestinians and Israelis, to hold their elected officials accountable to that principle.

The National Officers of the United Church of Christ,

Rev. John Dorhauer
General Minister and President

Rev. James Moos
Executive Minister, Wider Church Ministries

Rev. Traci Blackmon
Acting Executive Minister, Justice and Witness Ministries

Source: www.ucc.org

The Orlando Shootings and American Muslims – The New Yorker

By

By Robin Wright 

New Yorker

Hena Khan, the author of best-selling children’s books, thought Muhammad Ali’s funeral on Friday was going to be a turning point for American Muslims. “Ali spent his life trying to show the real Islam—battling Islamophobia even as he battled Parkinson’s disease. That’s what was highlighted after he died,” she told me this weekend. “It was nice to feel proud—and to see people saying ‘Allahu Akbar’ interpreted in a positive way.”

On Saturday, Khan was herself honored for the publication of “It’s Ramadan, Curious George,” a groundbreaking new book that also tries to span the cultural chasm for a new generation. The Diyanet Center of America packed its auditorium with kids and their parents to hear Khan read from her book. In this latest spinoff, the mischievous simian learns from his friend Kareem about the sacred Muslim month of fasting, good deeds, contemplation, and evening feasts. Together, they help with a food drive for charity. George gets up to his usual antics, this time planning a good deed to donate all the shoes that Muslims leave outside a mosque when they go in to pray, only to be stopped in the nick of time. In the evening, George and Kareem break the fast together with pizza and chocolate-covered bananas. In honor of Ramadan, The Man in the Yellow Hat—the caregiver who brought Curious George to America seventy-five years ago—dons a yellow fez.

At the end of Khan’s reading, a teen-ager dressed as Curious George raced down the aisles, onto the stage, and fist-bumped Khan. The kids went wild. “It was a weekend of hope and feeling inspired,” Khan told me. “It was a time of reaffirmation,” especially during the first week of Ramadan.

On Sunday, Khan woke up and, as is her habit, checked the news on her cell phone before waking her family. It was consumed with the killings at Pulse, the gay night club in Orlando, Florida. “First it was twenty people, then fifty,” she told me. “I thought, Not another shooting! When is this going to stop? This is insanity.

“Then I saw the name,” Khan said, her voice choking back sobs. Omar Mateen, the lone gunman in the largest terrorist attack in the United States since the September 11th attacks, in 2001, is an Afghan-American. Khan is Pakistani-American. Both are second-generation. Mateen, who was twenty-nine, was born in New York and later moved to Florida. Khan, who is forty-two, grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and now lives with her husband and two children in the Maryland suburb of Rockville.

“It added a whole new layer of anguish,” she told me. “I bore this tragedy as much as any American, and then to see his name. You can’t even find the words. It’s unbelievable. And during Ramadan! As a Muslim, your heart sinks.”

Ramadan runs from June 6th until July 5th. The timing is based on Islam’s lunar calendar, which shifts by eleven days each year. Last month, Muhammad al-Adnani, the isis spokesman, released a video calling on other jihadists “to make it a month of calamity everywhere for non-believers . . . especially for the fighters and supporters of the caliphate in Europe and America.” A State Department report warned that a jihadi sacrifice during Ramadan “can be considered more valuable than that made at other times, so a call to martyrdom during the month may hold a special allure to some.”

Muslim groups across the United States rushed to condemn the attacks. Standing with Orlando officials, Muhammad Musri, the president and imam of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, called the attack “monstrous.” He appealed to Muslims to donate blood for the wounded and to coöperate with Florida police and the F.B.I. At a hastily organized press conference in Washington, Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil-rights and advocacy organization in the United States, scolded isis. “You do not speak for us,” he said. “You do not represent us. You are an aberration. You are outlaws.” He went on, “They don’t speak for our faith. They claim to, but 1.7 billion people are united in rejecting their extremism and their acts of senseless violence.”

Awad also pledged to stand with the gay community. “For many years, members of the L.G.B.T.Q.I. community have stood shoulder to shoulder with the Muslim community against any acts of hate crimes, Islamophobia, marginalization, and discrimination. Today we stand with them shoulder to shoulder,” he said. “The liberation of the American Muslim community is profoundly linked to the liberation of other minorities—blacks, Latinos, gays, Jews, and every other community. We cannot fight injustice against some groups and not against others. Homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia—we cannot dismantle one without the other.”

That has been a common theme in the reaction among America’s Muslims. Khaled Latif, the executive director of New York University’s Islamic Center and a Huffington Post blogger, wrote on Facebook, “Thinking of my brothers and sisters in the LGBTQ community this morning. I can only imagine how the loved ones of those killed in last night’s horrific actions in Orlando are feeling. The only way to make sense of such senseless acts is through living with hope, compassion and love. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.”

Khan, the children’s-book author, has also worked with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Muslim group based in Dearborn, Michigan, which published a report on the common challenges faced by Muslims and the gay community. “I view the L.G.B.T. community as an ally in fighting bigotry,” she told me. “There are so many parallels. Anti-Sharia and anti-gay laws reflect overlapping bigotry. We’re learning from each other. The fact that this community was targeted is tragic.”

The mother of two boys, aged eleven and fifteen, Khan posted a reflection on her Web site last October about anti-Muslim campaigns in the United States. “My gut reaction when I heard about the hatred-inspired anti-Muslim protests that are taking place later this week across the country was to grab my children, crawl under the covers of my bed, and distract us all with a Sponge Bob marathon,” she wrote. “My instinct is to retreat to a safe haven and hide, much like I did when I was young child. The difference is that when I was little, I had to wait until Saturday morning for the Looney Toons, and the threats were largely external—fostered by a Cold War and a common enemy that united us all in fear of a nuclear holocaust.

“Today, in this increasingly confusing world I wonder, who exactly is the enemy? Is it . . . me? My children? My Muslim family members who do amazing things that don’t make the headlines: strengthening government systems for the Department of Homeland Security, conducting flight safety tests on aircrafts, performing skin grafts on burn victims? Is it isis? The Taliban? Russia? Or is it the armed hate groups united under a false banner of ‘humanity’ planning to target mosques and Muslim communities to intimidate and bully us in an attempt to take back America from ‘people like you’?”

In the last of several conversations we had over the weekend, Khan said the identification of the shooter as a Muslim had consumed her. “I have this intense fear that it is going to change everything,” she said.

Source: www.newyorker.com

Rasmea To Appear In Detroit For Status Hearing 

By

For Immediate Release: Rasmea Defense Committee, June 12, 2016

Palestinian-American Rasmea Odeh to appear in Judge Drain’s Detroit chambers for a status conference Monday, June 13
At the same time, 100 supporters from all over the Midwest will rally outside the federal courthouse in support of #Justice4Rasmea

WHEN:
· Monday, June 13th, 2016, at 10 AM Eastern Standard Time for support rally and Rasmea Defense Committee press availability.
· Status conference in judge’s chambers (closed to the press and public) begins at 11 AM EST.

· Press conference with defense attorneys and other speakers after the status conference.

WHERE: U.S. Courthouse for the Eastern District of Michigan, 231 W. Lafayette Blvd., downtown Detroit

On Monday, June 13, 2016, Rasmea Odeh will appear with her attorneys in Judge Gershwin Drain’s chambers for a closed status conference at the federal courthouse in Detroit, Michigan. The Rasmea Defense Committee is mobilizing one hundred supporters to be there as well—from Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Detroit, Dearborn, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Cincinnati, Texas, and other cities and states. They will picket outside the courthouse to urge for a new trial for this Palestinian American icon, who was convicted of a politically-motivated immigration charge in 2014, and sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation last year.

In a February 2016 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Judge Drain, saying he had wrongfully barred the testimony of a torture expert that was critical to Rasmea’s defense. At the trial, Rasmea was not allowed to tell the entire story of Israel forcing her to falsely confess to bombings in 1969, when she endured over three weeks of vicious sexual, physical, and psychological torture at the hands of the Israeli military.

Rasmea suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because of this torture, which, according to world renowned psychologist, Dr. Mary Fabri, caused her to suppress the horrible recollection of the arrest when she answered questions on her immigration application. Judge Drain excluded Dr. Fabri’s testimony from the trial, and disallowed any evidence about the rape and torture. Appeals court judges sided with Rasmea’s defense team, and sent the case back to district court. If the judge cannot determine new legal avenues to exclude the expert testimony, Rasmea will be granted a new trial.

“The conviction of Rasmea Odeh was a travesty of justice. She is a hero who has dedicated her life to organizing for Palestinian liberation, and to building a society with dignity and justice for all. We will stand with her in Detroit on June 13, and call for a new trial, where she can finally tell her story,” said Nesreen Hasan of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), which, along with the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR), anchors the defense committee.

The status conference will likely determine the immediate next steps in the case, including the setting of dates for future evidentiary hearings and deadlines for filings. Lead defense attorney Michael Deutsch, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression leader Frank Chapman, and representatives of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, CSFR, USPCN, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition will be amongst the rally speakers before and after the closed session in the judge’s chambers.

Source: justice4rasmea.org

As ISIL claims attack, LGBT community in shock

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By NAHAL TOOSI 

Politico.com

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In their so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State extremists have killed suspected gay men by throwing them off buildings. On Sunday, the terrorist network claimed responsibility for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, one that left 50 dead, including the shooter, and dozens wounded at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

That the Islamic State could have played a role in the early morning attack, which came during Gay Pride Month, sent shudders through the LGBT community in the United States, where fears of terrorist assaults on soft targets such as schools, shopping centers and nightclubs already were on the rise.

Gays and lesbians are no strangers to discrimination and violence, but “historically, gay clubs and bars are a safe place so for that type of environment to be the victim of this is just very traumatizing,” said Ida Eskamani, development officer for Equality Florida, an advocacy group. “The whole community is just reeling from this.”

In a televised statement about the attack, President Barack Obama made sure to point out the impact on gays, lesbians and others in their community, calling what happened “an act of terror and act of hate.”

The gunman, Omar Mateen, who was killed in a shootout with police, was a U.S. citizen of Afghan descent. Media reports said he called 911 shortly before reaching the Pulse nightclub and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The group’s Amaq news agency said Sunday the attack was “carried out by an Islamic State fighter,” Reuters reported. U.S. officials, however, are still investigating the extent of the Islamic State’s connection to the attack; it could have played more of an inspirational role than an operational one.

Mainstream interpretations of Islam generally forbid homosexuality, and gays and lesbians in many Muslim countries live under social and legal threat, so relatively few are open about their sexual orientation. Islamists in particular often point to Western tolerance of homosexuality as a reason Islam can’t be reconciled with liberal values.

Still, the violence practiced by the Islamic State against gays — or for that matter other social, ethnic and religious minorities — is unusually vicious, whether it’s through beheadings, stonings or throwing people off buildings. But the terrorist network apparently views its approach as a sign of its fidelity to the faith — and one way to recruit.

“I’ve seen them point to Western tolerance for homosexuals as a reason why pious Muslims should repudiate Western countries and embrace the Islamic State,” said Will McCants, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has written extensively on militant Islam.

The shooter’s father, Mir Seddique, told NBC News that the attack “has nothing to do with religion” but added that his son was angered by the sight of two men kissing a few months ago.

Shadi Hamid, author of “Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World,” said the Islamic State’s leaders are far more focused on trying to retain their territory in Iraq and Syria amid a U.S. and Iraqi-led assault than they are on destroying gays and lesbians.

But the fact that the attack was on the gay community makes it easier for the group to justify the attack to Muslims who might question it. “From a messaging standpoint, it helps in the sense that they can argue to their followers that these people deserved to be killed,” Hamid said.

He noted that in part because of greater political awareness among American Muslims (some of it inspired by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.) there has been growing dialogue between Muslims and gay and lesbian organizations around the subject of civil rights.

Muslim organizations in the United States unequivocally condemned the Orlando assault on Sunday, and some urged Muslims to donate blood to help the 53 people wounded in the attack.

“The Muslim community joins our fellow Americans in repudiating anyone or any group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalling act of violence,” said Rasha Mubarak, an official with the Council on American Islamic Relations Florida chapter.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee also weighed in with a message of solidarity with gay rights groups. “We have worked regularly with the (gay and lesbian) community, as they have been on the forefront of helping combat Islamophobia and Anti-Arab sentiment,” it said.

Condolences poured in from around the world, including the government of Jordan, a key Muslim ally of the United States. In a news release, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani said the country condemns all forms of terrorism and violence “no matter what their source and motives are.”

Eskamani, of Equality Florida, stressed that the gay community is sympathetic to the discrimination faced by Muslims in the United States, especially in the wake of attacks carried out by extremists.

“That hate and that intolerance that they face is the same that the LGBT community faces,” Eskamani said. Equality Florida has launched a fundraising page to help the victims of the attack.

Eskamani said it’s possible that gay nightclubs and similar gathering places will look into ways to further enhance their security, but that because of the history of hate crimes against gays and lesbians, security has long been a priority.

“We don’t want to live in a world of fear, and we’re always going to choose love and compassion over fear and hate,” she said.

Source: www.politico.com

I’m a gay man. Don’t use an attack on my community as an excuse for Islamophobia.

By

German Lopez

Vox.com

 

Like other gay Americans on Sunday, I woke up to the news of the mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, with absolute horror. My immediate reaction was to turn to my sleeping husband and hug him, trying to ensure myself that we will be okay — that we are safe. But I could not shake the feeling that my community was under attack, and the hate I felt directed at my community was like nothing I have felt as an out gay man in the US for years.

It is the hate I felt directed at my husband, myself, and my community that makes me confident that we should not use this horrific act of violence to perpetuate even more hate — particularly against our Muslim brothers and sisters.

It didn’t take long, shortly after the shooter was revealed to be Muslim, for the typical Islamophobic cries from politicians. Here’s Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for a ban on Muslims entering the US:

I am not Muslim or religious at all. But I know what it’s like to have politicians say horrible things about your people. And I know, today more than ever, how it feels to be hated. So instead of using an act of hate to push even more hate, I would appreciate it if politicians and everyone else used the Orlando shooting as a time to reexamine their own bigotries — against LGBTQ people across the world specifically, but also against Muslim people, black people, Hispanic people, and women.

While it seems easy or possible to lump up Muslims into a monolith to pander to racist and xenophobic voters, the truth is most Muslims — like any other group of people — abhor violence. This is just a fact: Pew Research Center surveys have found that the great majority of Muslims around the world say that violence in the name of Islam is not justified. And it’s worth remembering that the primary victims of terrorist groups like ISIS are other Muslims.

The Orlando shooter, in other words, doesn’t represent the great majority of Muslims.

It’s also true that there are millions of LGBTQ Muslims around the world. Some may even be among the victims of the Orlando mass shooting. (We don’t have a full list of the dead and wounded yet.) They, surely, did not approve of the violence we saw today.

Ramadan and LGBTQ Pride Month are both underway. This should be a time to respect and honor the diversity that makes America so great. No terrorist attack — especially one that seeks to perpetuate hate — should be allowed to change that. We can’t fight hate with hate.

Source: www.vox.com

“Shame on Cuomo”: New Yorkers protest “McCarthyite” blacklist

By

Ben Norton

Salon.com

Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered outside the office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday, protesting a new pro-Israel policy that legal groups warn is “McCarthyite” and unconstitutional.

Cuomo signed an executive order this weekend that punishes institutions and companies that support a boycott of Israel on behalf of Palestinian human rights.

The New York Civil Liberties Union said the executive order establishes a discriminatory “blacklist” that “raises serious First Amendment concerns.”

Baher Azmy, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, called the new policy “plainly unconstitutional in its McCarthyist vision.”

More than 300 protesters joined the demonstration on Thursday, calling on Gov. Cuomo to rescind the executive order.

Jewish Voice for Peace, a social justice group that co-organized the protest, blasted Cuomo’s executive order as an unconstitutional “attempt to repress the growing movement for Palestinian rights.”

“The overwhelming turnout for this protest speaks to the fact that our political leadership is increasingly out of touch with its constituents,” Beth Miller, an activist with the New York City chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, or JVP, told Salon.

“The sidewalks and streets were packed with hundreds of people, standing literally toe-to-toe, to send the clear message that we refuse to be silenced,” she added.

“Gov. Cuomo’s executive order does not change the fact that it is our constitutional right to boycott, and it does not change the fact that it is right to boycott Israel until it respects and upholds Palestinian rights,” Miller stressed.

A dense crowd of protesters lined downtown Manhattan’s 3rd Ave. on Thursday evening.

(Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace/Jake Ratner)

They carried an array of signs and banners. Many expressed solidarity with past struggles.

One man held a sign that read, “Boycott worked in Montgomery and South Africa, and it will work in occupied Palestine.” Montgomery refers to a city in Alabama where a 1955 bus boycott helped kick off the civil rights movement.

(Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace/Jake Ratner)

JVP stresses that the “Palestinian-led civil society BDS movement is modeled on the global campaign that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa.”

BDS refers to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, an international grassroots movement that promotes nonviolent economic means to pressure Israel to comply with international law and cease its violations of Palestinian human rights. The global campaign was called for by Palestinian civil society in 2005.

Many veteran leaders in the struggle against U.S.- and Israel-backed apartheid in South Africa have endorsed BDS.

“The signs we held and messages we wanted to convey — such as ‘We will continue to boycott for justice until Palestinian refugees can return to their homes and land’ — reflect the many ways Israel is violating basic principles of human rights and international law,” said Donna Nevel, an activist with Jews Say No!, another group that helped organize the demonstration.

These are “the reasons that the BDS movement is so critical,” Nevel told Salon, stressing that BDS can help pressure Israel to change its illegal policies.

Gov. Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 157 declares that “the State of New York will not permit its own investment activity to further the BDS campaign in any way, shape or form, whether directly or indirectly.”

The new order, in its own language, establishes “a list of institutions and companies that… participate in boycott, divestment, or sanctions activity targeting Israel, either directly or through a parent or subsidiary.”

Cuomo summarized the new policy: “If you boycott Israel, New York will boycott you.”

JVP Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson published an op-ed in The New York Daily News on Thursday warning that Cuomo’s executive order will “set a dangerous and likely unconstitutional precedent for governments to deny groups financial opportunities and benefits because of their exercise of First Amendment-protected political speech.”

“When a chief executive unilaterally signs an executive order declaring that the state blacklist and divest from companies and organizations with a particular political view, we usually call that state repression,” she said.

At the protest outside Gov. Cuomo’s office, activists articulated many of the important reasons that a boycott is necessary. They carried a large banner that read “We will continue to boycott for justice until…”, which was accompanied by smaller signs that listed reasons for boycotting Israel.

Some of these reasons included: “until Israel respects Palestinian human rights,” “until the brutal occupation of Palestine ends,” “until Israel stops demolishing Palestinian homes,” “until Israel absolishes segregated schools,” “until Palestinian refugees can return home,” “until the siege of Gaza ends” and “until Palestinians have freedom.”

(Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace/Jake Ratner)

“Despite being planned at a very short notice, the protest had a robust turnout and a powerful presence by hundreds of outraged human rights advocates,” said Hani Ghazi, a member of Adalah-NY, the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, the third group that co-organized the demonstration.

Ghazi, a Palestinian American activist, told Salon, “We expect the governor to be democratic and to protect our right to free speech and to practice honorable and nonviolent activism.”

“We expect him to side with his constituents, the people of New York, and not with wealthy corporations that profit from, and institutions that comply with, Israel’s human rights abuses, international law violations and other apartheid policies,” he added.

One protester even donned an enormous papier-mache head that looked like Cuomo’s.

For months, the New York legislature unsuccessfully tried to pass anti-boycott legislation. Cuomo circumvented this legal process completely on Sunday, June 5, signing the surprise executive order.

Dima Khalidi, the founder and director of nonprofit legal advocacy organization Palestine Legal and a cooperating counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights, blasted Cuomo’s executive action.

“Gov. Cuomo can’t wish away the First Amendment with an executive order,” she told Salon on Monday. “It’s clear that Cuomo is bypassing the legislative process in order to muzzle morally-driven positions protesting systemically discriminatory state policies and a military occupation that is 49 years old this week.”

“As with the constitutionally faulty legislation that was pending in Albany, this Executive Order may not infringe — directly or indirectly — on the rights of New Yorkers to engage in constitutionally protected boycotts to effect economic, political or social change,” she added.

Palestine Legal issued a statement calling the executive order “a blatantly unconstitutional attack on freedom of speech [that] establishes a dangerous precedent reminiscent of McCarthyism.”

Riham Barghouti, another activist with Adalah-NY, accused Cuomo of acting undemocratically in order to implement an unpopular pro-Israel policy.

“Like other politicians, Gov. Cuomo is finding that blind support of the Israeli apartheid state requires repressive, undemocratic measures,” Barghouti said. “He is attempting to silence the growing number of morally conscientious individuals and organizations that support freedom, justice and equality for Palestinians.”

“We, along with our allies, demand that Gov. Cuomo rescind this order punishing supporters of Palestinian rights and BDS,” she added.

(Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace/Jake Ratner)

Anti-boycott legislation has been introduced in more than 20 states throughout the U.S. Bills that are likely unconstitutional have been passed in nine states.

Sen. Chuck Schumer heaped praise on Cuomo for his executive order. The New York senator said he is “looking at introducing a federal law to do the same thing” across the country.

Activists say Thursday’s protest was the first action in a new campaign to pressure the governor to repeal the order.

“This is a new low for the state-sanctioned backlash against the movement for Palestinian human rights,” Nic Abramson, an activist with Jews Say No!, said in a statement.

Abramson emphasized that the Palestinian solidarity movement “is growing and strengthening daily.”

JVP stands by the BDS movement. Vilkomerson, the executive director, defended BDS in Salon in February, warning that she and her organization were on the verge of being blacklisted.

“We act in solidarity with the Palestinian call for international grassroots pressure on Israel until it complies with international law and ends its ongoing repression of Palestinian rights,” explained JVP activist Gabrielle Spears in a statement.

She emphasized, “We will continue to boycott Israel until Palestinian children can live without fear of imprisonment and torture, until there are no longer separate roadways for Israeli Jews and Palestinians, until Israel stops bombing and killing Palestinians, and until the checkpoints and apartheid wall are dismantled.”

Source: www.salon.com

The Murder of Alex Odeh (Part 3/3)

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By Richard Habib Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU) The Rubin and Krugel Connection On Dec. 12, 2001, Irv Rubin, national chairman of the JDL, and Earl Krugel, the JDL’s West Coast coordinator, were arrested for plotting to blow up a Southern California mosque and an office belonging to Darrell Issa, a Republican member of … Continued

Cornel West Objects to Israeli Occupation of Palestine in DNC Platform Committee

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In an unprecedented discussion during the Democratic National Convention platform-writing committee hearing, Dr. Cornel West responded to Rep. Robert Wexler’s justification for Israel’s occupation. Dr. West respectfully pushed back from this justification, saying the occupation is a very real part of Palestinian suffering, and that peace cannot exist without an end to the occupation. Dr. … Continued

Muhammad Ali: His Funeral and the Greater Arab World

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By: Eugene Smith/Contributing Writer Muhammad Ali’s deeds reverberated in America’s conscious as emblematic of freedom, redemption, and an unwavering commitment to justice. He was prone to controversy, yet he never wavered from his principles. In his old age he rose to reverence, as a voice for peace and acceptance, garnering the utmost respect and admiration … Continued

Hishmeh: Tarnished dreams of a peace initiative

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By George S. Hishmeh, Special to Gulf News

The failure of the French-sponsored conference that was attended by senior representatives from 26 countries, including senior French and American officials, has failed to outline the next diplomatic step for a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, now approaching 50 years. This disappointing outcome underlined that this solution may not be sustainable.

The objective of France in hosting this one-day event last week in Paris was not very clear, although French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had acknowledged that the two-state solution was in “serious danger [and] we are reaching a point of no-return where this solution will not be possible”.

In turn, US Secretary of State John Kerry, who had failed in his long-lasting attempt at negotiating a settlement, also emphasised that all the participants at the Paris meeting agreed that direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians would be the only way to achieve a solution. This response mirrors a position favoured by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, along with his Palestinian counterpart, President Mahmoud Abbas, was not invited to the conference.

The expectations disappointingly focused on a new session towards the end of the year — not a very good time as the United States will then have a new government that will be preoccupied in establishing its administration and working out its relationship with the opposition party. In other words, the projected follow-up meeting may thus be held later next year.

An interesting point was raised by the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, who underlined at the Paris meeting that it was the duty of international and regional players to find a breakthrough since the two sides appeared incapable of doing so alone. Aaron David Miller, a vice-president of the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington and a longtime participant in the US negotiations with the Palestinians and Israelis admitted last Sunday in a column published in the Washington Post that he has not “given up hope for smart and well-timed US diplomacy”.

But, he continued: “I’ve abandoned my illusions of just how much America is able and willing to do to repair a badly broken, cruel and unforgiving Middle East. As the fix-it people, Americans have a hard time accepting when those directly involved aren’t willing or able to do so. But sometimes, it makes more sense for our diplomats and negotiators to stay home rather than look weak and ineffective while searching for solutions to problems they simply cannot resolve.”

What has been surprising this week is the trip that Netanyahu made to Moscow in an obvious attempt to divert attention from the Paris meeting and serve as a snub to Washington for its participation in the conference. At the same time, he has unexpectedly focused his attention on the Arab Peace Plan under which, the League of 22 Arab states offered normal relations with Israel, provided it abandon the Occupied Palestinian Territories. What has been amazing is that the plan, revealed in 2002, has never been discussed in an Israeli cabinet.

“In a familiar muddying of the water,” wrote Jonathan Cook in Mondoweiss, a news website, Netanyahu “has spent the past week talking up peace while fiercely criticising” the Paris conference, “the only diplomatic initiative on the horizon”. He noted that this was “the first time Israel has faced being dragged into talks not presided over by its Washington patron”. He underlined, “that [this] risks setting a dangerous precedent … worr(ying) that this time Washington may not be able — or willing to watch his back”.

 

Cook added that “even if negotiations fail, as seems inevitable, parameters for future talks might be established.” His conclusion: Still, Israel will try to ride out the French initiative until Barack Obama’s successor is installed next year. Then Netanyahu hopes, he can forget about the threat of two states once and for all. Cook’s column had this headline: ‘Israel wants a peace process — but only if it’s doomed to fail.’ Netanyahu keeps dreaming.

George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com

Source: gulfnews.com

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