As Israel tightens war noose
Supporters of Palestine rally in NY
By John Catalinotto
New York
Chants and cheers filled Cooper Union's Great Hall in New
York Feb. 23 at the first of three U.S. rallies in solidarity
with the struggling Palestinian and Iraqi people.
The rally took place as Israel opened up what it called a
full-scale "guerrilla war" against the Palestinians and held
the Palestine Authority leader, Yasser Arafat, under house
arrest. The message of the speakers was loud and clear:
Palestinians will continue to struggle not only for the rights
of Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and
Gaza, but also for those inside Israel's 1948 borders and in
the diaspora worldwide.
The speakers also expressed determination to end the
murderous sanctions on Iraq and to organize opposition to the
new war against Iraq the Bush administration is planning.
The organizing group, International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop
War and End Racism), is holding rallies on the same topics
March 2 in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The three meetings
are part of ongoing activity leading to national demonstrations
April 20 in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco to demand
"Money for jobs and education, not war!"
ANSWER's fight to bring two speakers from Palestine to the
U.S. meetings added to the drama of the rally. ANSWER had
invited Mohamed Kanana, general secretary of Abna al-Balad and
an Arab citizen of Israel, and Omar Nazzal, founder and
director of Al-Wattan television in Ramallah, Palestine.
The Israeli state prevented Nazzal from leaving. Washington
refused Kanana a visa. It was an example on a small scale of
the coordination between U.S. imperialism and its client state
to try to stifle support for Palestinian
self-determination.
But, as co-moderator Sara Flounders of the International
Action Center pointed out, the highly developed technology that
U.S. imperialism uses to dominate the ideas of the world can
also be used to spread the truth. Al-Wattan was able to send a
video by satellite, and Kanana spoke through a telephone hookup
to the audience at the Great Hall.
Kanana: 'Fight to end the apartheid state'
Kanana, who had had both legs broken by the Israeli military
during a demonstration, outlined the situation for the 1.2
million Palestinians living inside the pre-1967 Israeli
borders.
"Twenty percent of the population [the Arabs] own only 3
percent of the land," he said, "and since the establishment of
Israel the Arabs have not been allowed to develop population
centers. Some 300,000 Israeli Arabs are internal refugees.
"We have been treated as enemies since the establishment of
Israel and as third- or fourth-class citizens. As a result, the
Arab population has become completely alienated from the
Zionist entity. It has tried to force us to deny our connection
to our past and to our community."
Kanana continued: "[Ariel] Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa
mosque was the straw that broke the camel's back. We knew then
we had to continue to fight for the right to return [to the
lands confiscated starting in 1947], for freedom, for
independence. Our people, the Palestinian Arab masses, began
demonstrations as never seen before in Israel in solidarity
with the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The government then sent
massive numbers of army to open fire on our people and arrest
hundreds."
Kanana said that even if the Palestinian leadership were to
accept Israel's condition that Palestinians give up the right
to return, the Palestinian masses would keep fighting. "The
right of refugees to return to their homes is guaranteed by
international law, by United Nations Resolution 194," he
said.
"Israel is an apartheid state," he continued. "We have to
fight to end racial discrimination, the occupation, and to
allow the return of the Palestinian population, so we can
together build a better future for all people, Arabs and
Jews.
"We must unite in the face of racism and apartheid. We hope
U.S. society can participate as it did in the struggle to end
apartheid in South Africa."
Another representative of the Palestinian struggle speaking
Feb. 23 was Michel Shehadeh of the Committee for Justice.
Shehadeh is one of the LA 8, seven Palestinians and one Kenyan
from Los Angeles who the U.S. arrested in 1987 and attempted to
deport simply because they were doing educational work in
support of the Palestinian struggle.
Shehadeh: 'Can we allow apartheid to be resurrected in
Palestine?'
Shehadeh accused the Israeli regime of using the "most
advanced technology in weapons against the most vulnerable part
of the population, including children." But, he said, "the
Palestinian people will always fight back until they win their
freedom. We have to ask if we here, after we have defeated
apartheid in South Africa, can allow it to be resurrected in
Palestine."
Shehadeh emphasized that the problem in Palestine "started
in 1947, not in 1967," meaning with the creation of Israel, not
simply the seizure of the occupied territories. "There are
eight and a half million Palestinians worldwide, of whom three
million live in the West Bank and Gaza.
"Of course we understand the immediacy and urgency of the
needs of the Palestinians living on the West Bank and Gaza.
They are attacked daily with the most sophisticated weapons,
planes, killing machines. We need to push the Israeli tanks
back.
"There is one solution in the region that will solve the
Jewish problem, that will solve the Palestinian problem, that
will solve the need for democracy: a democratic region that
guarantees the right of every minority, whether Christian,
Jewish, Kurdish, whatever.
"Don't be fooled into believing that one more mini-state
that has no power, no sovereignty, will be the solution. They
say the Palestinians will have control of 95 percent. But this
does not include Jerusalem. It does not include the
settlements. Not the resources, not the water. It is like
inmates who have control of 95 percent of the prison--not the
gates, not what they eat, not their movement.
"The Palestinian people have made it clear they are not
going to stop fighting. They will be encouraged by learning
there are people in the United States who care about them."
Broad solidarity with Palestinians, Iraqis
As has been usual for ANSWER's rallies, many diverse
communities that exist and struggle within the United States
were represented. All expressed solidarity with the Palestinian
struggle for self-determination and with the Iraqi people
against the new U.S. war threats.
Dr. Asha Samad Matias of the City University of New York, a
leader of Muslims Against War and Racism, spoke of the
repression in the U.S. against immigrants since Sept. 11,
especially immigrants from the Middle East and other Muslim
countries.
Two community leaders, Khalid Turaani of American Muslims
for Jerusalem and Dr. Hani Awadallah of the Arab-American Civic
Organization, gave voice to the shock and astonishment in
Muslim neighborhoods over the U.S. government's broad-brushed
assault on Middle Eastern residents in this country.
Among those speaking and moderating were Jennifer Wager of
IFCO/Pastors for Peace; Rania Masri, Iraq Action Coalition;
Samia Halaby, Al-Awda Palestinian Right of Return Coalition,
NY-NJ; Richard Becker, a co-director of the International
Action Center based in San Francisco; and Teresa Gutierrez of
the IAC's Colombia Committee, who reported on new U.S. war
threats to the people of that Latin American country.
The audience reacted emotionally to scenes from Al-Wattan's
video that showed Palestinian youths battling with stones
against Israeli tanks, defying the soldiers firing weapons at
them, rescuing their wounded and honoring their martyrs. The
video is available from International ANSWER.
They also applauded all mention of solidarity from the
Jewish population, either in the U.S. or in Israel. There was
an enthusiastic response to mentions of Israeli soldiers who
have refused to participate in repressive acts in the occupied
territories. A group of orthodox, anti-Zionist Chasidic Jews
from Brooklyn received a standing ovation when they arrived and
spoke at the rally.
Some of the strongest cheers were for Leslie Feinberg, a
leader of the transgender movement who is Jewish. Feinberg told
how s/he speaks and organizes for solidarity with the
Palestinian people and supports the right of return, the defeat
of Zionism and imperialism. "We will not stop fighting until
Palestine is free," s/he concluded.
The audience also gave a standing ovation to Ramsey Clark,
recognizing that the former U.S. attorney general has been at
the side of the Iraqis and the Palestinians for the past two
decades. Clark said, "We have to recognize that, unless we
compel the United States to act righteously, its violence will
terrorize the whole planet."
Call for April protests
Larry Holmes of the International Action Center explained
the importance of the national demonstration ANSWER has set for
April to stop the war planned against Iraq and to demand that
government money be used for jobs and social services at home,
not to make war abroad.
Joining that call from ANSWER and expressing solidarity with
the Palestinians and Iraqis were Kadouri Al-Kaysi of the
Committee in Support of the Iraqi People, Chuck Kaufman of the
Nicaragua Network, Macrina Cardenas of the Mexico Solidarity
Network, Yoomi Jeong of the Congress for Korean Reunification
and Korea Truth Commission--all members of the ANSWER steering
committee.
Reprinted from the March 7, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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