Full Support for the Palestinian Resistance!

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Full Support for the Palestinian Resistance!

Palestinian Prisoners Day

Human Rights and Israel at 60 – A Look at the Conflicting Paths of Two Contemporaneous Projects

Free Palestine – National Demonstration

Five Years Later
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice

In this year of the 60th anniversary of the Nakba for the Palestinian people, WDIE reiterates its full support for the right to be of the Palestinian people, affirmed by resistance and struggle against all the attempts by the Israeli state and its big-power backers, headed by US imperialism and supported by the British government, to crush that right to be.

            Britain has always played and continues to play a nefarious role in Palestine and the oppression of the Palestinian people, particularly from the time of the First World War, the notorious Balfour Declaration and agreements to divide up the region as part of the re-division of the world which the imperialist powers were fighting over. Today, as part of its dreams of empire, and acting in the tradition of its Palestinian Mandate which ran up to the declaration of the state of Israel, Britain poses as an “honest broker” between the Israeli Zionists and the Palestinian people. Tony Blair himself has taken this mantle on his shoulders, as though his role as warmonger had no bearing on his parading as peacemaker. Foreign Secretary David Miliband has added his voice, trying to equate the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians on the one hand, and on the other the resistance of the Palestinian people against oppression, against subversion by and conciliation with the Anglo-US backed Israeli aggression, and in fighting for their rights as a nation. Blair and Miliband pose the issue as though the problem were Palestinian “extremism”, in the fashion of their criminalisation of standing on principle in Britain itself.

            The Palestinian people elected Hamas as their government, and have won important victories against the attempts of the Israeli war machine to starve, strangle and dehumanise them. WDIE calls on the working class and people to be very active in condemning the British government, supporting the just struggles of the Palestinian resistance, and demanding an end to the imperialist-backed Israeli Siege of Gaza.

Full support for the Palestinian Resistance!
All out for actions to end the Siege of Gaza!

Tomorrow, April 17, is Palestinian Prisoners Day – a date to remind the public that thousands of Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails under extremely difficult circumstances and are exposed to various forms of torture and inhumane treatment. A new campaign has been launched to raise awareness about the issue. The campaign asks people (among other things) to "wear black on the day and tell people why they are doing it". The Campaign's objective, as explained by Naji Mohamed, Action Palestine's campaigns officer is to "shed light on the plight of Palestinian prisoners which is a very crucial issue in the Palestinian cause but is very rarely talked about".

            Palestine student societies will organise actions and events about the issue of student prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres. The campaign which is supported by several organisations, including, NUS Black Students Campaigns, PSC and FOSIS alongside others, is calling on people to use the logo of the campaign as their Facebook profile picture on the April 17. Also a petition has been placed on the Downing Street website asking the Prime Minister to apply maximum pressure on the Israeli government for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

            Palestinian prisoners from the Occupied Territories, hundreds of whom are under the age of 18, are tried under military courts and sentenced by military judges. Defendants are often convicted on secret evidence and are given serve disproportionately long sentences.

            In what is referred to as "administrative detention" the Israeli army is allowed to arbitrarily arrest and detain Palestinian civilians for periods of six months. After this period has ended the sentence can be extended without explanation. These loose guidelines allow the Israeli army to exercise broad and unchecked powers against the Palestinian population.

            Naji added that Action Palestine as a student group is especially concerned with this issue as students in Palestine are the most severely affected by it. The Israeli army often launches waves of arrests against university students, particularly first year students, simply to collect information on them. The Israeli army has recently arrested eight Birzeit University students and one employee but none of them have been charged.

            Ruqayyah Collector, NUS Black Students' Officer, explained that given the current conditions within these prisons this Prisoners Day is particularly significant. In addition to the poor treatment and inhumane conditions under which Palestinians are held Palestinian prisoners at multiple detention centres have recently suffered direct attacks. These attacks often occur when Israeli forces attempted to transfer large numbers of prisoners from one detention facility to another. By moving prisoners around every few months Israel seeks to disrupt supportive relationships that form amongst prisoners.

            Ruqayyah stressed that it has become of huge importance that the people of the world pressure their governments to hold Israel accountable for its violation to international law, particularly after the failure of the international community in protecting the rights of the Palestinians.

Venue: Islamic Centre of England, 140 Maida Vale, London, W9 1QB

Date: 4 May 2008

Time: 11am to 6pm

Organised by: Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC)

The year 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Islamic Human Rights Commission's conference looks at both projects in a critical and contemporary light. All those interested in human rights and justice, from activists, to students and academics, are invited to attend and discuss what human rights mean in the context of Palestine-Israel, and what the violation of these rights means of the project of universal human rights.

            IHRC researchers will present brief overviews of aspects of international human rights norms like freedom of movement, the right to life, water, and global progress towards the universalisation of these rights. Those with direct experience from Palestine-Israel are invited to address what the violation of these rights means in a practical sense.

            Head of Research at IHRC, Arzu Merali states: "The issue of Palestine and its liberation is one firmly based within the project of human rights.  This conference interrogates the failure to protect Palestinian rights in the face of Israeli aggression.  In recent years, criticism of Israeli attacks on Palestinian aspirations has been demonised.   In fact, support for the Palestinians is actually support for human rights."

            Confirmed Speakers:

Meir Margalit, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions; Michael Bailey, Oxfam; Jennifer Loewenstein, University of Wisconsin; Yehudit Keshet, Checkpoint Watch; Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Centre; Daud Abdullah, Palestinian Return Centre

Saturday 10 May

• End the siege of Gaza

• End Israeli occupation

• For the right of return of refugees

Assemble 1pm Temple tube

– rally in Trafalgar Square

 

The Israeli government’s brutal siege and blockade of Gaza has created a humanitarian catastrophe worsening every day. The killing of Palestinians, and the destruction of Gaza, are escalating as are threats of a full scale invasion from Israeli ministers.

In Gaza :

            • 1562 patients need to leave the Gaza Strip for urgent medical treatment.

            • 90 patients have died due to Israel’s refusal to allow them medical treatment.

            According to the latest UN report:

            • 107 Palestinians, including 27 children, were killed by the Israeli army between 27 February and 2 March.

            • Essential services, including water and sanitation, are close to breakdown because of the combined lack of electricity, fuel, and spare parts.

            • 85 essential drug items, have run out. There are severe shortages of other essential medical supplies.

            • 30% of the population are without regular water supplies.

           

For the right of return of refugees

            In 1948, over 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and their lands, in an act that the Palestinians call the Nakba or “catastrophe”. The Israeli state legitimised the theft of their lands, houses, property and businesses offering no compensation and has continued to refuse the right of the refugees to return. Sixty years later, in 2008, Palestinian refugees, now numbering around eight million, are still denied the right to return to their homes and land – a right enshrined in UN resolution 194. The majority of Palestinian refugees still live in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip or in neighbouring countries.

End Israeli occupation

            Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza exposes the lie that Israel’s occupation of Gaza ever ended. Israel continually flouts UN resolutions to end occupation, end settlements and end the apartheid wall but acts with impunity because of the complicity of governments like the British government.

60 years since the Nakba

            Organised by: British Muslim Initiative, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Forum in Britain

                

Supported by: • UNISON • Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) • Unite the Union/T&G • Communication Workers Union • GMB • TSSA • National Union of Miners • Association of Palestinian Community UK • Amos Trust • Friends of Al Aqsa UK • War on Want •  Jewish Socialist Group • Pax Christi • Stop the War Coalition • Britain Palestine Twinning Network • ICAHDUK • Midlands Palestinian Community Association

           

Join us in calling for peace and justice for the Palestinians – 10 May!

Tom Wright and Therese Saliba

March 15, 2008

The darkness is infinite
As I leave the curtain's edge
It is filled with watchers
Silent judges

            – Rachel Corrie, about 11 years old

As their plane touches down in Tel Aviv this week, Cindy and Craig Corrie will mark five years since their daughter's death. On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed to death beneath an armoured Israeli bulldozer. The Corries are a short distance from Gaza, where Rachel was killed, and where in the past few weeks, an Israeli military incursion killed over 100 Palestinians, including many women and children.

            This week, the Corries come to Israel to attend the first Arabic-language performance of the acclaimed one-woman play, My Name is Rachel Corrie.

            Compelling though her story was – an American peace activist killed trying to block the demolition of her Palestinian host family's home, killed by the military of her own government's major regional ally – Rachel's story might well have faded quickly, subsumed in the weekly news cycle just three days before the "Shock and Awe" of the attack on Iraq. But her family's instinct, even in the first hours of grief and bewilderment, felt imperative: "We must get her words out." Rachel's emails home during her month in the Gazan border town of Rafah, volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement, had stirred and shaken her family and friends. Having travelled from her comfortable life in her hometown of Olympia, Washington, she had sat smoking late into the night, passionately reporting the other-worldly scenes of violence and destruction from the military occupation around her.

            From Rachel's habit since childhood of journal-keeping and poetry-writing, her parents knew her to be a writing talent of great originality and promise, and they sensed that her dispatches from Gaza could have a broader reach. Editors at the Guardian in London felt similarly, and told the Corries that Rachel's words "connected readers to the occupation more than anything they had read in a long while". The Corries granted the London newspaper permission to publish the e-mails nearly in total, yet to their knowledge, no US newspaper picked them up.

            From there, Rachel's writing came to the attention of the British actor Alan Rickman (best known here as "Snape" of the Harry Potter films), whose collaboration with Katherine Viner of the Guardian would lead to the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie, produced by the Royal Court Theatre in London. That project, which germinated and was nurtured in London, would later reach audiences in the United States and around the world.

            In the days following Rachel's death, the Corries' whole world was upended. With little connection to Mideast issues, they found themselves "catapulted into the midst of an international conflict and controversy". They moved back to Olympia, Washington, and immersed themselves in work, from local grassroots campaigns to national and international work on behalf of peace between Israel and Palestine. It was the beginning of an education.

The Search for Accountability

            The family wanted the help of their own government in the painful task of securing the return of Rachel's body, as well as in determining responsibility and seeking redress. According to the US Dept of State, on the day after Rachel's death, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised President Bush a "thorough, credible, and transparent" investigation. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher assured: "When we have the death of an American citizen, we want to see it fully investigated. That is one of our key responsibilities overseas to find out what happened in situations like these." US Representative Brian Baird, whose district includes Rachel's native Olympia, introduced House Concurrent Resolution 111 calling on the US government to conduct a full investigation of her death.

            When Israeli officials said that an autopsy had to be performed before Rachel's body could be returned, the Corrie family insisted that an official from the US Embassy be present. They also requested that it not be performed by anyone associated with the Israeli military, since after all, these were the people who killed her. Even an Israeli court ordered that a US official be a witness, and with this understanding the Corries acquiesced. Not until 2007 would the family learn that their requests, and the court order, weren't honoured. Although the State Dept. knew for four years that no American had been attendant, the Corries discovered this only through a Freedom of Information Act request. Furthermore, the autopsy had been performed by someone the IDF used regularly.

            The results of Israel's investigation were announced in May of 2003. Eyewitnesses had reported that Rachel was clearly visible, at eye level, to the two drivers of the Caterpillar D9 bulldozer, surely plausible given her Day-Glo flak jacket, and the highly charged context of the skirmishes with the ISM activists throughout the day. (One soldier entered into the log that day, referring to the International activists: "Those foreigners should be handled and their entrance into the Gaza Strip forbidden. Additionally the firing orders must state (illegible) that every adult person should be shot to kill.") But the military report simply found that they did not see her.

            The case was closed and no charges were brought. The report would not even be released to the US government, whose billions in annual largesse ranked Israel as by far the largest recipient of American aid. Pressed by the Corries, Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson acknowledged that regarding the Israeli Defence Forces report, "Your ultimate question, however, is a valid one, i.e., whether or not we view that report to have reflected an investigation that was 'thorough, credible, and transparent.' I can answer your question without equivocation. No, we do not consider it so." But the US government declined to conduct its own investigation, and claimed it could not force a "thorough, credible and transparent" inquiry from the Israelis. Congressman Baird's resolution calling for an investigation had gathered 77 cosponsors, yet died in committee that year without a hearing.

            The Corries persisted. It took nearly two years before they had a contact in the Justice Department, and were able to meet with the US Attorney in Seattle, John McKay. He explained that one of the elements to enable a prosecution was a certification by the US Attorney General that the killing was intended "to coerce, intimidate or retaliate against a civilian population or government". This anti-terrorism statute was used against Indonesia, when the FBI went to investigate the killing of an American, Rick Spier. Cindy explained how McKay told them, "'I'll give you as much time as you need, but I'm here to tell you that no Attorney General-past, present or future-will ever certify against Israel.' Maybe that's what shocked me the most," she said. "I couldn't believe that Mr. McKay was being so forthright. I was dumbfounded."

            On March 17, 2005, the family met with Barry Sabin, head of the Counterterrorism Section of the Criminal Division at the Justice Department. Sabin told them that the applicable criminal statutes could be applied to the military of a foreign country and that Rachel's killing could meet the criteria of "trying to coerce, intimidate, or retaliate," if there was proper evidence for it.

            The Corries said that such evidence was abundant, citing the killing of Rachel and two other international human rights observers within a seven week period by the IDF in Rafah, all of whom were documenting civilian home demolitions on the border between Gaza and Egypt. They pointed to the intimidation of internationals and Palestinian municipal water workers trying to repair water wells destroyed by the IDF in Rafah; finally, the mass demolition of civilian homes in Rafah was itself evidence of precisely such intimidation and coercion.

            But, echoing US Attorney McKay, Sabin told them there would be no investigation without the ability to prosecute, which would required certification by the US Attorney General.

            The family would meet once more with Justice Dept. officials Sabin and Michael Mullaney, more than a year later, when they were duly informed that the only applicable statute was Title 18, 2332, which required that Rachel's killing come under the rubric of a "serious, violent attack on a US citizen or US interests". But Justice wasn't going to pursue an investigation under Title 18, because, as Mullaney explained, they had to go back to the original intent of Congress in that statute, which meant it only to apply to "terrorist" attacks on Americans.

            Cindy says, " I really asked the question twice: 'Are you saying that no matter what amount of evidence we bring to you there will never be a US investigation into Rachel's killing?' And Barry Sabin said, 'I never say never, but no.' And our daughter Sarah said, 'Even if we could show intent?' And he nodded."

            Sabin counselled that the criminal justice system was not the means to solve all problems. He suggested to the family that perhaps the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, was the best way to address the issue.

Caterpillar-the Question of Liability

            Weighing more than 60 tons with its armoured plating, the Caterpillar D9 bulldozer that killed Rachel Corrie is built to destroy a reinforced concrete house in a matter of minutes. More than 70,000 Palestinians have seen their homes destroyed by the IDF since the occupation began, and some 1,600 of these homes were demolished in Rafah alone, between 2000 and 2004. The wholesale destruction of neighbourhoods on pretexts that were at best flimsy has long attracted the condemnation of the major human rights organisations, and executives at the Caterpillar Corporation can hardly claim innocence of the controversy. Rights groups have spent the last twenty years filling Caterpillar's In-box with appeals about grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to no effect.

            In April 2002, the home of Mahmoud Omar Al Sho'bi was bulldozed to rubble in the middle of the night, without warning, in the West Bank town of Nablus. Perishing inside were his father Umar, his sisters Fatima and Abir, his brother Samir and pregnant sister-in-law Nabila, and their three children, Anas, Azzam and Abdallah, ages 4, 7, and 9.

            In 2005, the Corries joined Mahmoud and four other Palestinian families as plaintiffs in a major lawsuit against Caterpillar.

            The suit charged not only wrongful death, public nuisance and negligence, but that Caterpillar violated international and federal law by selling the bulldozers to the IDF despite its knowledge of their intended, unlawful use. In doing so, claimed the lawsuit, Caterpillar aided and abetted war crimes such as collective punishment and destruction of civilian property.

            Judge Franklin D. Burgess in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed the case without permitting discovery or hearing oral argument. His reasoning included the disturbing interpretation that a company cannot be held liable for selling its products-merely knowing they will assist war crimes – unless it actually intended that the war crimes be committed. It is hard to imagine the corporate tort case that could surmount this kind of impediment.

            Corrie et al. v. Caterpillar then proceeded to the appellate level, before the Ninth Circuit. Just before the Court was set to issue its ruling, the Government weighed in on the matter with a late amicus brief – standing with Caterpillar, and against the Corrie plaintiffs. In the brief, the US first stooped to argue that there should be no liability for aiding and abetting human rights violations under the statutes germane to this suit, namely the Alien Torts Statute of 1789, and the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1992. (These Acts are part of the foundation of individuals' access to US courts in cases of human rights violations.)

            Then, in the same brief, the government declared (without submitting evidence) that it had reimbursed Israel for the cost of the bulldozers. Therefore, went its argument, to hold the company liable would be to implicate US foreign policy itself in criminal violations. Foreign policy being the prerogative largely of the Executive branch, the Court lacked jurisdiction. To hear the case would be a breach of the separation of powers.

            Incredibly, the Ninth Circuit embraced this "foreign policy" argument, and in September, 2007 affirmed the dismissal of the suit.

            "Foreign policy" challenges of this kind, based on the so-called "political question" doctrine, do come before the courts, but are usually rejected, explains Maria LaHood, Senior Attorney with the Centre for Constitutional Rights, and who led the legal team. It's just not the kind of dispute that has been found to involve a genuine "separation of powers" conflict, she argues. "Here we have private parties suing Caterpillar for war crimes and other violations, and way off to the side we have the possibility that the US is paying for the bulldozers. It's so far attenuated that it is a stretch to call this a political question. We allege violations of international law. That's what the court's role is-to adjudicate. Take this to its logical extension: you sue corporations, foreign officials, foreign governments, and anytime it may be a party that receives aid from the US government, it somehow interferes with US foreign policy? That just can't be."

            The plaintiffs are now awaiting a reply on their petition for a re-hearing of the appeal.

The Reach of Rachel's story

            In Rachel's case, all three branches of the US government have now taken a stand – against her, and in favour of Israeli and corporate impunity. The Corries aren't deterred. "The kind of impotence in government around this whole issue, after five years with Rachel's case," says Cindy, "points to the need for people at the grassroots level to find other channels, other ways of keeping the communications open, of building those relationships that ultimately are going to lead to some change in the world."

            Rachel's parents, along with many community activists, have established the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice (rachelcorriefoundation.org) and the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project (orscp.org), local initiatives fostering exchanges and projects with Palestinians. With Gaza under siege, and Hamas declared a "terrorist organisation", ORSCP faces financial obstacles, and delegates from both the US and Rafah face difficulties getting in and out of Gaza. Cindy states that the extreme difficulties "make it all the more important to keep trying to do the work. It's because it's that bad that it's so crucial for us to not just back away and say it's too hard."

            Yet even on the local level, the government is a hurdle to be overcome. The Olympia City Council rejected official sister-city status in April 2007 after a concerted campaign by local activists. Despite broad community support, as well as the backing of Sister Cities International, the City Council thwarted the initiative, deferring to some in the community who viewed the Palestinians as "terrorists" and the project as "divisive". As one organiser wrote from Portland, "If Rachel Corrie's city cannot gain official recognition, then who can?" Still, the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project, initiated by Rachel, won't go away. In the past month, two local delegates got in to Rafah to witness conditions under siege and the temporary breeching of the border wall, and to offer some slight economic relief through fair trade exchange of Palestinian embroidery, even as people imprisoned in Rafah are running out of basic supplies, such as thread, baby formula and medicines, not to mention food, water, and electricity.

            If all official avenues have been closed to Rachel's case and vision of justice, the power of her words has proven indomitable despite efforts to silence them. And if, as Justice Dept official Barry Sabin claimed, the stage play was indeed the best means of addressing Rachel's killing, then the play indicts the Israeli military in the deliberate killing of Rachel, as well as in the systematic onslaught on the Palestinians' ability to survive. My Name is Rachel Corrie, which opens this week in Haifa, in Arabic, is reaching audiences worldwide. From the cities of Lima, Montreal, Athens, New York, Des Moines, Seattle, and scores more, and with showings performed or scheduled throughout Europe, and in South Africa, Australia, even Iceland, Rachel's story continues to have what Cindy describes as an "unexpected impact". In several US cities, theatres have backed out due to political pressure. "If people aren't familiar with the political landscape," states Craig, "they can be blindsided and easily scared by the pressure." Yet artists and activists offended by the censorship and silencing, usually find creative ways to stage the play, bringing even more attention to Rachel's story.

            Moreover, this month has seen the release of “Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie” , a major publication by Norton. Here, as in the play, Rachel becomes more than a political symbol. As Cindy explains, "Sometimes she is demonised; sometimes she is lionised, but it makes it more possible for her to have more impact if people see her as human." The sustained beauty of Rachel's writings and sketches, and her incisive observations into personal and global relationships, from 10 years old into young adulthood, expose a young woman who is deeply caring, creative, quirky, wise beyond her years, anything but naïve.

            "People accuse Rachel of being naïve, which of course she wasn't," says Craig. "Though she may have been naïve about US pressure on Israel." Up to the day of her death, Rachel worked tirelessly, building relationships with Palestinians and Israeli activists, engaging in direct action, and strategising on the grassroots level to stop the "massive destruction of civilian homes" in Rafah. In a press release from March 2003, she writes, "We can only imagine what it is like for Palestinians living here, most of them already once-or-twice refugees, for whom this is not a nightmare, but a continuous reality from which international privilege cannot protect them, and from which they have no economic means to escape."

            Today, the Corries share Rachel's sense of urgency, even as they point to the hypocrisy of the US government, the world's superpower, claiming impotence and abdicating responsibility in Rachel's case, and in the case for Palestinian justice. As Craig says, "We have the luxury to sit around and discuss all of this, yet we feel the growing impatience. We want to drive home Rachel's message that we have a responsibility to act."

Tom Wright directed the documentary, Checkpoint: The Palestinians After Oslo, and was a founding member of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project.

Therese Saliba is faculty of International Feminism and Middle East Studies at The Evergreen State College, Olympia, and is a board member of The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice. Mail can be sent to tomwright59@comcast.net.