Al-Awda calls for solidarity with Palestinian, Lebanese people
By
Bill Cecil
San Francisco
Published Jul 24, 2006 11:32 PM
Al-Awda, the Palestine
Right to Return Coalition, held its fourth annual convention at San Francisco
State University on July 14, 15 and 16. The conference was preceded by a rally
of over 700 people at the Israeli consulate in San Francisco to protest the
U.S.-funded Israeli terror campaign against Gaza and Lebanon.
Protest in San Francisco starts conference with a struggle.
WW photo: Judy Greenspan
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The
convention was hosted by the San Francisco State University chapter of the
General Union of Palestinian Students. That Al-Awda held the conference was
itself a political victory over rightwing, anti-free-speech forces in the
administration who tried to block it.
Featured speakers included Prof.
Rabab Abdul Hadi, Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, Los Angeles 8 defendant Michel Shehadeh
and Dr. Hatem Bazian. Dr. Abdul Hadi put the Palestinian people’s struggle
in the context of the world struggle against racism and oppression. She said
that the United States and Israel are both settler states founded on the
genocide of Native people and that “we must never forget on whose land we
are walking.”
Dr. Abu Sitta debunked the myth that the Right of
Return is unrealistic. He pointed out that rural population density in the
so-called state of Israel is less than six people per square mile while the
refugee camps of the Gaza Strip are the most densely populated places on earth.
Most of the more than 400 Palestinian Arab villages destroyed by the Israeli
army in 1948 remain uninhabited, he said.
Michel Shehadeh, a target of
state repression since the 1980s, spoke about the importance of Israel to U.S.
oil corporations and the military-industrial complex. He pointed out that
Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. war contractor, spends 14 times more on
lobbying than the American-Israeli Political Affairs Com mittee. “If
Israel were really acting against U.S. corporate interests, they could not
compete for a minute,” he said.
The conference issued a statement
condemning the U.S.-Israeli attack on Gaza and Lebanon:
“These
assaults also aim to break the will of the Palestinian and Lebanese people, such
that U.S. imperial and Zionist hege monic interests can reign supreme through
out the region. This is consistent with U.S. policies in the Arab East,
specifically with regards to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, which we likewise
continue to condemn in the strongest possible terms,” it said.
The
statement called for mass action in the U.S. in solidarity with the Palestinian
and Lebanese people and supported the call for a march on Washington Aug.
12.
It concluded, “It is incumbent upon us to engage in an
escalating campaign of protest and education which will be critical for building
a movement that can challenge and ultimately bring an end to the brutality and
injustice which is unfolding before us. It is long past due that progressive
movements and forces in the U.S. unite and raise their voice in condemning the
U.S. government, Zionism and Zionist policies in the region, and demanding that
our people’s rights not be held hostage to the calculations of U.S.
mid-term elections or any other secondary consideration. Now is the time for the
anti-war movement to raise its voice in answer to the challenge that history has
placed before us.
“We continue to affirm the inalienable right that
all Palestinian refugees have to return to their homes, towns and villages. Our
work in Al-Awda will continue to be dedicated to the achievement of this
goal.”
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