AS ISRAEL TIGHTENS WAR NOOSE: SUPPORTERS OF PALESTINE RALLY IN NY
By John Catalinotto
New YorkChants and cheers filled Cooper Union's Great Hall in New York Feb. 23, 2002, 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.
posted 3/10/02
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