CPT officially supports the BDS movement

Christian Peacemaker Teams, with whom I work in the occupied Palestinian territories, has officially supported the boycotts, divestments, and sanctions movement against Israel.  I am glad that we have supported the Palestinian civil society call for BDS against Israel.  I hope this begins to open a dialogue in churches, Christian circles, and society at large.  Here's the statement:  

CPT-Palestine has decided to endorse formally the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as called for by Palestinian NGOs, because sixty years of negotiations and diplomacy have only enabled Israel to solidify its military occupation of Palestine.  The international community has long called for Palestinian society to resist the violence of the Occupation nonviolently, so we, as members of an international peace organization, believe that when Palestinians mount nonviolent campaigns against the Occupation, we are morally obligated to support them.


 We affirm the words of Palestinian Christian leaders in their Kairos Document: "These advocacy campaigns must be carried out with courage, openly and sincerely proclaiming that their object is not revenge but rather to put an end to the existing evil, liberating both the perpetrators and the victims of injustice.  The aim is to free both peoples from extremist positions of the different Israeli governments, bringing both to justice and reconciliation.  In this spirit and with this dedication we will eventually reach the longed-for resolution to our problems, as indeed happened in South Africa and with many other liberation movements in the world."


 We recommend that members of our constituency review the following resources, so they can better understand the context from which the BDS movement has arisen:

 1) The Kairos Palestine Document, "A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering." The document is available as a PDF file in seven languages athttp://www.kairospalestine.ps/?q=node/2 and at http://www.oikoumene.org/gr/resources/documents/other-ecumenical-bodies/kairos-p\
 alestine-document.html <http://www.oikoumene.org/gr/resources/documents/other-ecumenical-bodies/kairos-palestine-document.html>

 2) "Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights 9 July 2005": http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52

 3) "Who Profits from the Occupation?"http://www.whoprofits.org/

 4) A 2009 report by a fact-finding committee of South African social scientists, which notes that "three pillars of apartheid in South Africa" are all practiced by Israel in the Occupied Territories: demarcating people into racial groups and allotting superior rights, privileges and services to the dominant racial group; segregating people into different geographic areas and restricting their movements, and suppressing any opposition to the regime using administrative detention, torture, censorship, banning, and assassination."http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Media_Release-378.phtml# <http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Media_Release-378.phtml>

 5) Dr. Neve Gordon's reflection, "Boycott Israel: An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to save his country," http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/20/opinion/oe-gordon20. See also "Palestinians, Jews, citizens of Israel, join the Palestinian call for a BDS campaign against Israel <http://boycottisrael.info/content/points-unity> and video clip by Israeli-American rap artist, Invincible, in support of the BDS movement:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MepX0PcjzfA
 After Gordon's piece appeared in the Los Angeles Times, he nearly lost his job at Ben Gurion University.  See the critique of Gordon's position by famed peace and human rights activist Uri Avnery:  http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1251547904 (which contains Archbishop Tutu's thoughts on the efficacy of boycotts) and subsequent critiques of Avnery's position by South African Ran Greenstein ("I agree more with Gordon than Avnery") http://gush-shalom.org.toibillboard.info/RanGreen.htmAbraham Simhony http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/archive/1251974606/ and Alternative Information Center director, Michel Warschawsky "Yes to BDS!" http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1733

Obama Hates Israel

An pretty unbelievable protest a few days ago in Jerusalem (h/t to Anthony Lowenstein). 


Here is a line from the supporters of the protest: 

Thousands withstood the weather for this historic gathering to shout that we will never again be silent. We are in solidarity with Israel's right to build in their Jewish capital. We stood for a Jewish Jerusalem and protested the administration's disgusting scapegoating of Israel.

The video might kinda make you sick.  I started shivering as I watched it.  It's vomitly racist.  I apologize for posting this kind of stuff, but I think it's important to know what people are thinking.  I mean thousands in new York showed up in the rain to support this.  


Some excerpts from the video: 

• For the first time in American history, we have an anti-Israel president. 
• The Islamization of the narrative must stop.  
• Truth is the new hate speech. 
• It's a Jew living in the Jewish homeland, there are no settlers in Israel.  
• What is the West Bank? It's Judea, JUDEA, and Samaria. 
• There is no occupation, except the Muslim occupation of Israel. 
• How dare President OBAMA jam his finger into the chest of Netanyahu. 
• What you have is an Islamicized President.

Nonviolent Demonstrators Met with Force

I found this video especially compelling, as a vehicle for demonstrating what sumud, persistent Palestinian nonviolent resistance, is all about.  This type of nonviolent direct action goes on every single day in Palestine, but it rarely gets reported.  All we hear about from the MSM (mainstream media) is about stone throwers and what is the latest polis-speak from the pariahs for the U.S. and Israeli governments.  This is the resistance that will slowly show the world the extreme force and repression used against those who argue for the human rights of Palestinians to be recognized.  


A cross-post from Joseph Dana:


More video from Al Walaja and the direct nonviolent action that the village is creating in order to stop the construction of the wall through their farmlands. This is what direct nonviolent action looks like in Palestine. This video was taken on 27 April 2010 by Activestills photographers.






Below is a report from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee:


Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators managed to stop the construction of the Wall in the village of alWalaja, south of Jerusalem for the second time this week. If completed, the path of the Wall in the area will surround the village completely, isolating it from all its lands, the cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem and essentially the rest of the world.


Demonstrators managed to block the bulldozers in the early morning, and even climb and take over one of the machines. A Border Police force at the scene arrested on of the demonstrators – 15 year old Nabil Hajajla – who was beaten and pepper-sprayed. Following Hajajla’s arrest, Border Police officers managed to drag the demonstrators away from the bulldosers and construction was resumed.


Al-Walaja is an agrarian village of about 2,000 people, located south of Jerusalem and West of Bethlehem. Following the 1967 Occupation of the West Bank and the redrawing of the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, roughly half the village was annexed by Israel and included in the Jerusalem municipal area. The village’s residents, however did not receive Israeli residency or citizenship, and are considered illegal in their own homes.


Once completed, the path of the Wall is designed to encircle the village’s built-up area entirely, separating the residents from both Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and almost all their lands – roughly 5,000 dunams. Previously, Israeli authorities have already confiscated approximately half of the village’s lands for the building of the Har Gilo and Gilo settlements, and closed off areas to the south and west of it. The town’s inhabitants have also experienced the cutting down of fruit orchards and house demolition due to the absence of building permits in Area C.


According to a military confiscation order handed to the villagers, the path of the Wall will stretch over 4890 meters between Beit Jala and alWallaja, affecting 35 families, whose homes may be slated for demolition.


Beit Jala is a predominantly Christian town located 10 km south of Jerusalem, on the western side of the Hebron road, opposite Bethlehem. Once completed, he Wall will Isolate 3,200 Dunams of the town’s lands, including almost 3,000 Dunams of olive groves and the only recreational forest in the area, the Cremisan monastery and the Cremisan Cellars winery.

A Racist Traffic Light?

Water: The wellspring of life

Receiving a call from someone we don't know, who asks us to come because there is or was a problem, is always interesting.  It's a challenge because it usually involves getting directions to a place where there are no road signs or obvious landmarks to direct us.  Usually it involves navigating through a serious of valleys, hills, orchards, and plowed fields; asking everyone we see to point us in the right direction.  

When we finally arrived, after taking the long way around, we saw a shepherd near the area where we thought we were headed.  

The shepherd called out to us, "You are from the peace team?"

"Yes we are."  

"Good, good, come here to photograph what the settlers did."

The man was shepherding a flock of about 40 sheep.  He proceeded to lead us into a cave, seemingly naturally formed, that wormed its way into a large chunk of rock and gradually descended several feet.  At the base of the cave was a pool of water, which the shepherd called an 'ayn (a ground spring).  He showed me that the settlers had filled the majority of the 'ayn with rocks which prevented him from drawing water for his sheep and goats.  The man and his son had taken many of the rocks out already in order to draw water from the shallow 'ayn that remained. 

He then led me outside to the hod (watering trough).  The hod was just outside the entrance of the cave, and sat below a narrow channel of rock into which buckets are water were poured.  The channel acted as a natural water slide, directing the drinking water into the trough.  The trough had been constructed of cement and rocks.  Now, it was useless, destroyed by settlers. 

The army had come at his request to look at the damage that was done.  The army said they could do nothing for him because they had no idea how his 'ayn and hod were destroyed.  The army said he could have damaged them himself, they had no idea.  "Why in hell would I destroy my own 'ayn and hod, how insulting to suggest that to me." 

The man had loaded up a plastic basin onto his donkey and brought it with him, to replace the cement trough which had been destroyed.  He set up the basin and poured the first bucket of water into it, but it tipped over and the water spilled uselessly across the rock. "You see, the hod works much better."  The man stood up and shook his head.  "Why would they do this?  It's water.  You need water, I need water, the settlers need water, and the sheep need water.  The whole world needs water and the 'ayn and hod  were how I provide water for the sheep.  Why would they do this?" 

But life goes on here in Palestine, albeit amidst heartache, frustration, and pain.  The shepherd eventually filled the basin, bucket by bucket, and the sheep were able to get water, water that sustains life.  I pray that water contains to sustain life here, and that the courage to maintain hope sustains resistance to injustice. 

Foreign Military Occupation = Paradise

A pariah for the state of Israeli posing as a journalist from the Jerusalem Post.  


"Thousands of people from around the world would like to move into the West Bank."
"Thousands of people from around the world want to move into a military occupied, stateless land?"   





"It's not easy...we're living in a very difficult part of the world."  

All taxpayers are complicit in these wars

From TomDispatch (h/t to Lowenstein):

If you’re an average American taxpayer, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have, since 2001, cost you personally $7,334, according to the “cost of war” counter created by the National Priorities Project (NPP). They have cost all Americans collectively more than $980,000,000,000. As a country, we’ll pass the trillion dollar mark soon.

See the Cost of War counters here.