peacepalestine

Labels: activism, call to action, human rights violations, Israel, journalism, occupation, Palestine, Zionism

This blog hasn't gone away just when it's come back! I've been extremely busy uploading and editing dozens of posts for www.palestinethinktank.com

Make sure you bookmark it and visit it! Not only has it had great success with readers, many articles have been reprinted in sites such as Dissident Voice, Online Journal, AMIN, Mid East Online, Norman Finkelstein, The People's Voice, Redress, Rense, Al Jazeerah info, Rebelion, Alternet and quite a few more.

Will be back to add more content here, as you can always check out 890 archived articles, visit the links, and find new articles that even PTT won't carry.

Labels: activism, good news, journalism, Palestine

To anyone confused about the meaning of Anti-Zionism in the strange world of Tony Greenstein, here is a post of his to the Israeli Alef list. Worthy of Golda Meir!

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:49:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: tony greenstein tonygreenstein@yahoo.com

To: alef@list.haifa.ac.il

After the long celebration of "The Invention of the Jewish People" (in which I take side with Prof. Sand), perhaps now is the time to investigate "the Invention of the Palestinian Peoplehood". I believe that a very short research will discover that it was invented by the British occupation authorities right after WWI. Since the Philistines were absorbed by the Judeans during the kingdom of David (according to the Biblical myth, of course), there was nothing like "a Palestinian People", until the 20th century.

Yedidya

ironically Yedidya is quite right. But for the Zionists there would have been no Palestinian people. It was the British Mandate and the Zionist settlement project which created this people who would otherwise be living in Southern Syria, Arabia or whatever.

Tony

And folks, he adds this, because I complained that what he said was Zionist information:

Maybe Mary would like to explain why it is 'Zionist propaganda'. Or does she merely want to echo Jacob that the Palestinians as a nation have existed for 3,000 years? Nations are political and historical formations and the Palestinian nation or people came into existence as a result of Zionist colonisation of Palestine. There was no specific territorial entity called Palestine within the Ottoman Empire and the people within what is now known as Palestine/Israel saw themselves as part of the Arab nation and even Syrians rather than as Palestinians. Being Palestinian is a specific historical category, it isn't something fixed for all time and the temptation to write back into history from what has transpired should be resisted.

Tony

Mary responds: Tony, you used the word People. Or have you forgotten so quickly by trying to move the mirrors around? The Palestinians were a people since the time they inhabited that land, that is, as long as humanly possible, and if you don't seem to get it, read the comment by Ismail that I left on your blog. No, I'll reprint it here so that everyone can understand how mad you are and how clearly absorbed into the Zionist narrative you are that you don't even notice that you dismiss millions of humans and their belonging.

Dear Mary:

I find this unbelievable.
Where is the Palestinian state, that the zionists kindly provided to us? And who was living in Palestine [the land of Canaan] since history began, and long before the Hebrew tribes came to the Land of Canaan as invaders, and were driven out by other invaders, the Romans? Palestine has been invaded by scores of foreign invaders including the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Hebrew tribes, the Romans, the Turks and the British. Invaders come and go and have no right to conquered land anymore than the Romans to England which they conquered for hundreds of years.

There are many honourable Israelis and Jews who knew the historic facts and had the integrity to speak out. I met and knew the late Israel Shahak in 1970, when we were both invited speakers at St. Andrews University in Scotland, on the subject of Palestine and zionism. When I asked him how did he get involved in this conflict, he told me hoerrifying experiences he witnessed the Israeli forces subjecting Palestinian university students to, in Ramallah, which are horrible to relate here. He described their activites to what the Nazis did to Jews in Belsen, where he was held. He said after what he saw in Ramallah, he vowed ro fight Zionism to his dying days, and he did that. He was a man of unique honour who deserve to be acclaimed by all those who care about humanity and justice.

As to this outrageous statement you quoted, I'll let the late Jewish Professor Maxime Rodinson, who was Professor of History at The Sorbonne University in Paris, who stated in his book Israel and the Arabs, 1968: " The Arab population of Palestine was native in all the senses of the word and their roots in Palestine can be traced back at least forty centuries."

If that statement, you quoted, truly expresses the sentiments of Tony Greenstein, then I know where I stand in relation to this controversy, that I got involved in unknowingly.
I trust you do not think that, I hope...

Interestingly, I see the name of Zalman Amit included below. What is his role in this?
He lives in our neighbourhood in Nova Scotia and he is a good man and a friend of ours.

Thank you, Mary. I am simply bewildered, and I will leave it that. May be, I should ask Tony Greenstein if this statement represents his views.

Ismail Zayid

Labels: absolute madness, activism, gatekeeping, Palestine, Zionism

VERY INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS! read through to the end for the whole story. More actually follow in comments, as it is a "developing story"

Labels: activism, Atzmon, gatekeeping

from an email by Lana Habash
Zionists walked into a well-known center for left activists in Boston this week and managed, with a single complaint, to take away an already agreed-upon meeting space for an April conference on Palestine organized by the New England Committee to Defend Palestine. Around March 9, the local branch of a national group called the Jewish Labor Committee told the director of Encuentro 5 and the landlord of the building that houses Encuentro that the New England Committee to Defend Palestine is a "hate group" and demanded that it not be allowed to hold the conference in Encuentro' threats.

Beneath the facts of the case lie a number of ironies:

* Attacks like this are exactly the subject of the disputed conference. The purpose of the conference, whose title is "Zionism and the Repression of Anti-Colonial Movements," is to expose attacks on activists as they have been carried out historically by zionist forces. Activists scheduled to speak have been involved in the Native American struggle against European genocide on the North American continent, the Black liberation struggle in the US from slavery onward, the struggle against US imperialism in Central America, the movement against apartheid in South Africa, the struggle against US imperialism and genocide in Iraq, and the struggle against US-Israeli genocide in Palestine.

* Encuentro bills itself as "a space for progressive movement building" in Boston (http://www.encuentro5.org/ ).

Massachusetts Global Action -- the organization that runs Encuentro--argued the need for a "tactical retreat" and offered us $400 and help finding another venue if we would consent to leave. We told them that this would undermine the meaning of our conference, their own work, and the movement as a whole. Our suggestion to Encuentro was to take this matter to the activist community -- to the people who use the space -- to tell them what was taking place and invite them to help organize a struggle to defend the integrity of our collective work.
Zionist organizations like the JLC have more material and political power than perhaps at any time in the past. But this power is increasingly hollow, since it must increasingly assert itself by shutting down a discussion about that power--a discussion that is growing and moving into the mainstream. The JLC did not succeed by persuading Encuentro 5, but by threatening them through the building's owners. These are clearly threats that they have the power to carry out--a fact that proves what critics of zionism are saying.

But this also demonstrates that while they have more material power than ever before, they have less ideological support than ever before. The legitimacy of the zionist project--the passive consent given to US support for "Israel"--is collapsing. That collapse must come before the serious fight over material power--a fight that is coming.

We are disappointed that Encuentro 5 and Mass Global Action decided that it was not strategic for them to challenge this abuse of power now. We know that the repercussions might well have been severe, and recognize that this would affect a great deal of effort and work that has gone into building their organization. We offer the following as a challenge--not so much to them, but to the movement as a whole, since finally the question is not about any of our specific, struggling organizations:

Can we build a movement against imperialism, or against social injustice in the United States, if the limits of our discussion can be set by organizations like the JLC--organizations that are committed to ensuring that billions of dollars in US military and economic support are given yearly to one of the most militarized colonial states in the world?

There is widespread discontent with zionist power. This discontent will not turn itself into a meaningful response until it becomes organized around specific battles. This can only take place if at some point people are willing say "it stops here."

* "Progressives" are not progressive. The "progressives" are the Jewish Labor Committee, which calls itself "the Jewish voice in the labor movement." The JLC did not come in from the outside but actually has an office in Encuentro's own space. The Jewish Labor Committee's web site http://www.jewishlabor.org/ shows its president, Stuart Applebaum, standing proudly with war criminal Shimon Peres in February in Jerusalem. The JLC has put out a statement condemning the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against "Israel." The JLC statement asserts that Israelis, who have brutally occupied Palestine for 60 years, carrying out a program of genocide ever since, should not be seen as "victimizers."

The progressives are UNITE-HERE, the brave union for oppressed garment and hotel workers, which acted in this fiasco as a landlord bully threatening to kick out tenants for political speech.

The progressives are leftists who support resistance in Palestine, but not resistance that uses measures of a kind used by its enemy -- namely, armed struggle. The leadership of the resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan today is Islamic. Progressives in the US support secular political movements, so they don't support the people who are actually carrying out the resistance in these countries which the US and "Israel" are busy devastating. Support for resistance by oppressed people should be given without qualification.

* The criminal has accused his victim of the crime. The real hate groups are those who support genocide in Palestine. The Boston Jewish Labor Committee's accusation that the conference organizers are a "hate group" comes right out of the manual of the Anti-Defamation League which has gone to great pains to define political speech and action as good or bad in terms favorable to the zionist project. The ADL is a "progressive" organization -- it seems to be for the right thing, except when it comes to criticism of "Israel." Criticism of "Israel" is anti-Semitism -- that's hate speech, that's against the law. The ADL was part of a recent attack on a mosque being built in Boston. It was exposed for lobbying Congress against a bill that condemns the Armenian genocide. During the late '70's and early '80's, it spied on organizations in the U.S. that supported the struggle against white supremacist apartheid in South Africa. This do-good "no place for hate" organization is actually a front group for a racist foreign power.

The limits of political speech on the left are now being defined by the very organizations who say they're working for the good. There is no open debate. The idea is to simply prevent political speech. Why is support for a nasty racist state in occupied Palestine driving so much of US and international politics? And the question goes beyond Palestine, since these same organizations have the power to set limits on the discussion of "social justice" and racism here inside the US. This includes a history of demonizing black nationalists like Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and the Black Panthers as "anti-Semites." In many cases people's careers have been ruined and their reputations smeared by forces who never came out in the open. Joseph Massad, Tony Martin, Ward Churchill, and most recently Catherine Wilkerson, are examples. Ward Churchill will be among the speakers at the conference.

The New England Committee to Defend Palestine assures all those who have been invited to and registered for the April 12 and 13 conference that we have secured another venue and will be announcing it soon. We couldn't have provided a better example of zionist interference in anti-imperialist activism than the one that just happened here. We have great speakers coming from many different movements. We hope that supporters of the struggle in Palestine, and all those who recognize the need to build a truly independent opposition to oppression inside the US, will join us for this event.

New England Committee to Defend Palestine http://www.onepalestine.org

On the 60th Anniversary of the Nakba
the New England Committee to Defend Palestine presents
Struggle for the Land:
Zionism and the Repression of Anti-Colonial Movements
An Education and Strategy Conference
Saturday, April 12 to Sunday, April 13
Location to be announced.
Boston, MA
Suggested Donation: $15

Confirmed speakers include:

Amer Jubran, Palestinian activist and former political detainee
Saja Raoof, Iraqi anti-war activist
Kali Akuno, Executive Director of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund in New Orleans and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement National Organizer
Marta Rodriguez, Puerto Rican independence activist and member of the NECDP
Ward Churchill, American Indian Movement activist and author
Dara Bayer, Palestine solidarity activist
Jihad Abdul-Mumit, former Black Liberation Army political prisoner
Nada Elia, Palestinian activist, and member of the INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence national collective
Jeffrey Blankfort, anti-Zionist journalist and activist, co-plaintiff in a lawsuitagainst the ADL for spying on left organizations


as well as
Photography Exhibition from Gaza
Palestinian political artwork, and art by Brazilian Artist Carlos Latuff

This year commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for 'catastrophe') in Palestine. While this past January saw an escalation of the already brutal strangulation of Gaza, as well as continued colonization throughout historic Palestine, Palestinians have continued to resist in all of their historic land. In Gaza, under starvation conditions, Palestinians broke the siege by destroying the wall at Rafah crossing and continue to defend their land through armed resistance against settlers.

In spite of a wider public awareness of the brutal policies of colonial settlement in Palestine, the "United States" continues to provide the main economic, political and military aid to the Zionist settler colony. While every major presidential candidate pledges undying support for "Israel," there is a growing public discussion about the role of Zionism in the "US" political system, and especially of its relationship to the war in Iraq.

Zionism has played a role not only in defining "foreign policy," but also in the suppression of anti-colonial movements here-not least of all, because these movements have recognized the Palestinian struggle as part of a common global struggle against colonialism. In order to suppress the emergence of a serious pro-Palestinian bloc of oppositional power, Zionists have attacked genuine leaders and organizations, while at the same time cultivating less radical alternatives.The combination of "Israeli" political ties to imperialist policies abroad and Zionist opposition to anti-colonial liberation movements here, has led to a repressive collaboration between Zionist political organizations, "Israeli" and "US" police and intelligence forces, mercenaries, and corporations in the private "security" sector.Confronting Zionism is crucial to any movement forward against militarism and internal oppression.Bringing together representatives of several movements, our conference will focus on two themes: Zionist disruption of anti-colonial movements and land as the basis of struggle and solidarity.
For more information and to pre-register, go to www.onepalestine.org Co-sponsored by Jericho Boston http://www.jerichoboston.org
NECDPPO Box 681East Boston, MA 02128

Labels: activism, gatekeeping, Palestine, US, Zionism

from Counterpunch
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
By OREN BEN-DOR
I have recently signed a petition that condemns the constant attempts to silence Gilad Atzmon. The same petition also objects to the constant attempts to discredit and hinder the website that hosts, among others, Gilad's views--Peacepalestine--one of the more enlightening internet platforms on Palestine.

It would be an understatement to say that debating Gilad's voice is supremely important. No thinking person could fail to be stimulated by the deep connections Gilad makes.

Dwelling together in the unsaid is what makes intellectuals' innermost togetherness but it does not mean that all those who respond to the unsaid can be assimilated into one another so as to form some kind of a "group".

All those who try to smother Gilad's endeavours, to distort his voice through vulgar associations and conventional clichés, and to utilise uncritically accepted conventional havens for thoughtlessness, do not really do justice to the intellectual game as far as Palestine is concerned. I believe this message to be the essence of this petition.

In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel García Márquez narrates the story of a village in which everybody understands that a murder is about to be committed in the near future. Yet, nobody is doing anything about this forthcoming event that is chronicled to happen. Some deep causes combine to make everybody complicit in diverting, repressing, hindering, "forgetting", being "delayed", in short avoiding any possibility of stopping the chronicle from happening. This concealment thus becomes a part of that fate that eventually leads to the death of Santiago Nasar.

García Márquez may have given us a metaphor of how fate can unfold as possibilities that are always already grounded in denial of deep self-concealing past events. He also shows how the unfolding of this fate lurks amidst intensive highly-involved chatter.

Zionism may not merely be a cause of colonial injustice in Palestine in the sense of being a misguided response to anti-Jewish racism understood as "anti-semitism". Zionism can be conceived as a symptom the non-empathetic manifestations of which are historically and existentially continuing certain facets of Jewish being and thinking. It is very important to ask whether the originary aggression of victim mentality as well as the choseness-begotten separateness existentially links the Zionist and the Jewish question. This link may well pervade the mentality of Israelis whether orthodox or not.

The anti-Zionist struggle must not encage itself in too simplistic a link between the Jewish Question with the Zionist Question--a simplistic link that in fact craves to sever the deeper ontological connection that might persist between the two questions. Such a dominant, and far too quick, paradigm that by and large dominates the anti-Zionist struggle has been that Zionism's misuse of the Holocaust is somehow an aberration of Jewish thinking. Thus portrayed, Zionism can be successfully isolated and fought against by Jews as Jews.

It is this very denial of the existential link between the Jewish Question and the Zionist Question--a link that is suppressed by formulations such as "Jews Against Zionism" or, more broadly, by many attempts of "Jews" to become anti-Zionist - that needs to be questioned and destabilised.To be an anti-Zionist without due regard to that being and thinking that Zionism may so tragically continues, may well be to confuse symptom and cause, thus perpetuating that history that leaves the symptom--Zionism--intact. There is need to fathom the extent to which the slogan "Jews against Zionism" may be an oxymoron. Such an oxymoron may be at the heart of the denial, and protection bestowed upon the denial, of the oxymoronic nature of another notion, namely that of a "Jewish and democratic state".

It is the task of an intellectual to touch the untouchable and liberate thinking from its blackmailed, somewhere idle, comfort zones. I am firmly convinced that these vulgar attempts at silencing of Gilad and other courageous voices offends against supremely thoughtful, compassionate and egalitarian intellectual endeavours. This propaganda of silencing which is characterised by breeding conflict and heresy stalls a debate which is crucial for Palestine and for humanity. Intellectual reflections on actuality, historicity, causes of events--those primordial events that manifestations of violence, the Holocaust amongst them, respond to - are not to be decided by picketing, balloting and smearing.

What is an intellectual? What is an intellectual pursuit? Intellectual pursuit is to make a connection that brings the unsaid and the unsayable into language. As such, an intellectual pursuit is not only about sharpening and clarifying but about being able to hear the unsaid, thus making a connection and near actuality in a way that may shock and surprise in its strangeness. Being an intellectual is first and foremost to hold the mirror, or rather losing oneself in the mirror.

The essence of an intellectual is free speech and therefore some reflections on free speech are in order here.For an intellectual, free speech is not a matter of choice, but a way of being, or responding, of being response-able and therefore responsible. To authentically speak rather than to be spoken by, to be active rather than passive, is to respond in speech to self-concealing actuality.

That which needs to be brought into language by free speech is quite often that which is most difficult to say and to hear.In fact so difficult it might be that we might even venture to suggest that it is essentially impossible to respond in speech to what is. So, rather, it would be better to say that to speak is to respond to an always antecedent and mysterious call, thus essentially belatedly and distortingly--to respond to what needs to be attended to in speech. If speech is the captive of discourse, the captive of represented group identification, the captive of methodologies, the captive of a representative narrative of captive of amputating version of collective memory, the captive even in the notion of a thinking-subject, it is not yet active speech.The Saying of speech is irreducible to anything merely said and is always a response to a call by a yet always-antecedent Saying that has already called upon the speaker to respond.

Freedom of speech is an absence of constraint on free speech. Freedom of speech is not merely associated with freedom of information but with a freedom that ensures conditions for free speech, speech that responds to what is unsaid- to something which is nameless and inexpressible.

Sometimes freedom of speech can be understood as that condition in which nobody has dominance over the means of representation. But even this is not quite, not yet, to capture the essence of free speech. Even conditions of absence of dominance of the means of representation are still not conditions that allow for freedom of speech. This is because equality of the means of representation does not by itself entail free speech. Speech happens as the dark side of representations and their means. Freedom of speech ensures the conditions for some people to ethically bring the inexpressible into language without giving up the secrets that language holds--secrets that call upon the ear and the mind.

We need free speech in order to understand what might be the deep origin of Zionism and in order to contemplate Zionism's so-successful use of the Holocaust "memory". By simplistically condemning any free speech about the mystery of the Holocaust as "anti-Semitic" or "holocaust denial" the silencers suck all energy from our thinking, thus playing into the hand of denials and vulnerabilities, thus helping to tranquilise the mind from connectedness to primordial events.

Moreover, it is the idle speech of those silencers which may in effect deny the significance of the Holocaust. The significance of the Holocaust, like the significance of terror and violence, is not attended to by making it dependent upon, or subservient to, this or that person or groups. The significance of the Holocaust is both nebulous and ubiquitous to humanity.

We must not legalise the thinking about the Holocaust. We must not turn thinking about it into a moral, legal or indeed factual reflection. The horrors and murderous violence against Jews may have been a response to events that had corrupted the relationship between humans and Being long ago. Grasped thus, the Holocaust may have been severely distorted by National Socialism; by those who are said to "deny" the Holocaust by some arguments about facts; by self-righteous Jews-against-Zionism; by Zionists. All these forms of forgetfulness of the Holocaust may well be on a common matrix of denial. Indeed this denial may constitute a chronicle of another Holocaust foretold.

My point is that the Holocaust's significance lies beyond the actions by the Nazis who actually perpetrated the violence and who justified these actions by turning this significance into a militarist object of an idea. The same claim can be made in relation Zionists and their Jewish opponents.

Thus, a simplistic anti-Zionist struggle - including such struggle's memorialisation of the Holocaust by fighting against the abuse of Holocaust memory by Zionists - may itself tragically become the most sophisticated form of Holocaust denial. It is not simply that Zionism denies the Holocaust. Those who fight Zionism may have already fallen into that very fateful chronicle that Zionism participates in.

Voltaire's words concerning the freedom of speech loom large. I urge all people with free speech as their guide to sign this petition and to help by that to respond to the actuality of the actual in Palestine, an actuality, again, which embraces all humanity and the denial of which might well have catastrophic implications for humanity.

I believe that only through holding of the mirror might there be a faint chance to find a connective tissue to that being and thinking of Israelis. Without holding this mirror the egalitarian struggle against Zionism may well remain in distance and deafness to the self-preserving violence in the Middle East and the World.

Labels: activism, Atzmon, friends, gatekeeping, good news, holocaust, philosophy

As regular readers know, Tony Greenstein has been focused (obsessed, actually) for at least 3 years on trying to smear and defame Gilad Atzmon. Ever since Gilad criticised the "internal lobbying" of a group of Secular Jewish activists who were calculating to exclude other activists from continuing in their work, and attempting to smear them in such a way as to distance all people from them, Tony has decided that his campaigning would revolve around labelling someone who would expose the cheap shot as an "anti-Semite", as if there was actually something "decent" about the lobbying that was being done, and if Tony and Co. are legitimated to act "as Jews" when they do actions "as Jews" that are acts of censorship and pressure, no one is supposed to condemn that, because to do so, "is anti-Semitic", according to their logic. 3 years of ad hominem attacks, most of them based on falsification, invention, "guilt by association" and other tactics that impede upon the freedom people have to read or listen to Gilad Atzmon, all because he turns on some lights where others would prefer the darkness. It is a pressure and harassment campaign that has also extended to Gilad's close friends or affiliates, and even some who are not, but who get lumped in there because the "damage potential" might increase. Some of his friends and affiliates simply could no longer tolerate such kind of abuse and they wrote an open letter, which they had hoped would change the way Tony operates, and make him focus on problems of the Palestinian people if he cares to, rather than on continuous and sterile attacks on Gilad and on myself, especially since these people rightly identified this kind of vilification as a major way of Zionist gatekeeping framed as something else.

The problem for Greenstein is, Gilad is very independent. It is the "other" that allows Gilad to have a space to express himself. If Tony wants to silence him, he is then going to have to bother anyone who is willing to provide Gilad with a space. Call it platform, call it stage or call it site, there are very many who appreciate the hard work Gilad does and the time and resources he dedicates to the just Palestinian cause, and rather than shrinking, the interest in Gilad's message is in constant growth. Tony's actions against Gilad can take the shape of pressure to either the promoter of a meeting, a venue (Brighton, Bookmarks), a political party (SWP in the UK), a solidarity organisation (PSC, Redress), a press collective (IndyMedia) and naturally, sites that publish Gilad, including this one. But, it doesn't stop there. He sends emails to private individuals with his smears. Many of them have told me about this and have reported him for spamming and abuse of his account. In the blogs that post Tony's diatribes, he is allowed to use sexist speech against the women (he considers this normal) as well as avoiding any real confrontation of the issues, by inventing smears that he thinks will sway the audience. (To a primarily Marxist one, he says Gilad is on the Far Right, to a solidarity one, that he exploits Palestinian culture and artists, on a primarily Jewish one, that Gilad has converted to Fundamentalist Christianity, to Peace groups, that Gilad served in the IDF and was "surely" involved in horrible acts, etc., etc.) Yet, Tony will not rest until he wins at least one against Gilad. It's not really a simple task though... on a political level, it is nearly impossible if he doesn't want to come off as the great censor of the West (while at the same time writing a ludicrous article to smear Gilad and my blog with the title "There are no Gatekeepers". uh, yeah.... sure.) But actually, he doesn't mind to be found out as a censor of pro-Palestinian blogs. He is proud of his efforts, even though they are thwarted because there is no foundation of truth to his claims.

Now, why did Tony go into high gear with suing Gilad and trying to bring this blog down and have Google remove it? It obviously coincides with the open letter by Palestinians and activists for Palestine! During the Gaza seige and Israeli attacks against Gazans, having a blog that reports on it go offline is more important than anything for Tony, because on that same blog, some of the best activists around are telling Tony they are tired of his shit and want to concentrate on what matters. It certainly isn't that flattering to know there are 280 people who stand up to him and say they have had enough.

I hate to waste my time on the guy. I end up wasting far too much of it. Yet, this particular post is something I owe to those who signed the open letter.

Since the open letter, his "pieces" have gone from one a week to 2 or even 3. People I know have found the stuff in their inboxes because they belong to some of the same mailing lists he is on. It is as if rather than reflect on the request that people whose life revolves around the solution for Palestine, Tony has spat upon them and done the exact opposite of what they have requested, when not insulting them and stating that they are racists.

No one asked for Tony to be silenced. Many asked for him to stop the abusive ad hominem attacks for his private obsession. Many have told me that they were unsure before as to who he was, but since this event, his true colours have indeed come out. Sabbah's blog calls him "Zionist Night Dog", Desert Peace simply calls him "Zionist". "If it walks like a duck...." as Tony himself has taught us.

Now, I've been busy with many things, and my friend who has been compiling the many comments has been busy too. But, these comments were made, knowing they would be published, and so they will be.

There were comments on most of the posts. Since the format was complicated for signers, intended to keep the list only with those who really were interested, in that they had to send an email, and also to prevent spamming and abuse, managing the comments (in many languages) has meant a lot of effort and time. I want to thank my dear friend Walid for doing that. The comments fall into two categories:
ones that are actual comments and others that simply ask to add their name to the petition. For reasons of space, today I am only including those that have a comment with them that was down in the body of the text, not including the many that had as a Title "Solidarity with Gilad and Mary" or similar titles.

In a future post, equally interesting, will be the emails by friends and supporters who had shared with me the "experience" of having my blog be pulled. They fought together with me for hours, compiling all the content they could find, writing letters, opening blogs and sites for me, making phone calls, offering love, advice and support. These are some of the most precious communications I own. The demonstration of support and the flood of offers to help economically should I be sued, was something I was totally unprepared for. The kindness and generosity of supporters of this site and friends was a thousand times more than I could ever have imagined. When one sits at the keyboard, one is "alone", but then again, when it is time to stand united, none of my friends let me down. I have decided at the end of this section to print one of them, which puts the entire censorship affair into context.

Dear friends,
For me, as a survivor of 10 month of Auschwitz, one thing is clear, there is a fundamental flaw in Zionism. At least in the form in which it expresses itself in political reality. It has not accepted one of the fundamental truths of the Enlightenment: the essential and fundamental equivalence of all human beings.
Therefore, due to this fundamental flaw, political Zionism in its present form will eventually perish.Unfortunately, you the Palestinians will have to mobilise a lot of somoud. So far, you have been able to show that you can do it. Don’t despair, the enlightened world is with you. Dr Hajo G. Meyer, Heiloo, the Netherlands

Hello,
We at The People's Voice support this initiative wholeheartedly. Mr. Greenstein is very wicked. He is part of the Zionist agenda.
We will post this petition today on The People's Voice. Thank you for drawing our attention to this matter.
On behalf of Schuyler Ebbets and myself,
Ragnar B. Johannessen
thepeoplesvoice.org

I wish to add my signature to the petition supporting Gilad Atzmon and Mary Rizzo against attacks on them designed to infringe their right to free speech.
Dr Francis Clark-Lowes, founder and organiser of Invitation to Learn, member and ex-chair of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and member United National Association (UK).

Habebty, what can i say to you now? Not much words to express how much i love you and respect your work. Maybe we have some differences, maybe we have a political point of view in many things, I don't know, i wish we will have the chance to meet in person, discuss about the life, know each other better, but what i do know is that you are one of most committed person i ever met, more than many Palestinians or "peace activist" out there, that at the first difficulty hide their tale and are not ready to put in risk the comfortable sit. You are a truth Palestinian woman, yes, you don't have Arab blood, but you fight you justice of every drop of Palestinian blood lost in our endless struggle.

I am with you and I will stand near you always
Nadia (Nadia Hasan Palestinian of Chilean nationality)

I wholeheartedly support Mary Rizzo and Gilad Atzmon's right to continue their work. The malign harassment these two activists for human rights are being exposed to in their campaign for the liberation of Palestine from Zionism, is utterly despicable.
Susanne Scheidt, Al Awda Italia

It is the duty of every person, who cares for justice, to support persons of integrity, who stand courageously with the just struggle of the oppressed Palestinian people, who have been ethnically-cleansed from their homeland and denied their basic rights.
Ismail Zayid, Canada

I was orally requested by the following to endorse the petition in support of the Palestinian Arab cause's friends: Gilad Atzmon and Mary Rizzo: We appreciate your support to the Palestinian cause and OUR Right of Return to our homeland Palestine:
1- Samir Daoud - Akka Palestine - residence: Beirut – Lebanon
2 - Nadia Daoud - Akka Palestine - Residence: Beirut – Lebanon
3 - Hala Kawar - Nazareth - Palestine - Residence - Beirut – Lebanon
4 - Wajih Freij - Jerusalem - Palestine - Residence: Beirut – Lebanon
5 - Lamia Kawar - Nazareth - Palestine - Residence - Beirut – Lebanon
6 - Ibrahim Kawar - Nazareth - Palestine - Residence - Beirut - Lebanon

Dear Brothers in Al-Watan, Kindly add to the petition the three following names:
1- Arab Abdel-Hadi PMWATCH, Ansar Al-Quds. LEBANONVIEW, Free Palestine and others
2 – Malak Abdel-Hadi, Palestinian living in Dubai.
3 – Shahira Mehrez, Egyptian living in Cairo, Egypt
Thanks and wish you success.
P.S. I was asked by both Malak Abdel-Hadi and Shahira Mehrez to sign for them.

Mary, the least I can do after all what you did for me is to express all my friendship and support for you and Gilad. In the day when an alleged black-list containing the names of 162 Jewish Italian professors accused of lobbying pro-Israel has been published on a Italian blog, a fact reported with great emphasis by all the main news programs and blamed by all the most important authorities who have all warned against this new “anti-Semitic wave”, I can’t help seeing how distressing is to read once again that two wonderful friends are undergoing a campaign of smears and defamations. It’s a disturbing fact, given that it’s about two persons who stand up for the poor and the defenceless. There must be something wrong if people fighting for justice and against racism are constantly ill-treated and accused while someone who dared only name the names of the supporters of the most powerful and racist country of the middle-east causes the media to speak of a renewed anti-Semitic wave, thus proving once again that the Zionists are untouchable and the supporters of Israel’s shameful policies can do and tell what they want.
Respect for Mary, Gilad and all the people who constantly stand up for justice and peace: your struggle is priceless!!
Please add my name.
Diego Traversa. Italy

I was not surprised to know that Zionists would resort to their usual ways of reaction when if they are criticized! After all that is Zionism. Adib S. Kawar, Palestinian living in Beirut, Lebanon

My personal remark: We might not always agree one with the other, sectarism sometimes might take place in our souls and brains, where our common goal, the freedom and life in dignity for all Palestinians, those having resisted ethnic cleansing and humiliation, those having resisted torture, those who live, with their families, children and grandchildren uprooted, far from home, their land, we should not allow that one of the clearest, the most convicted, the less opportunistic, Gilad Atzmon, the man who makes feel uncomfortable those who prefer to give themselves an image of angels, whilst hesitating to defend the undefendable crimes of the last colonizers of our time, the Zionists, should suffer any harm, moral and physical. I call upon Tony Greenstein and his friends to lay aside, whatever would be their difference with Gilad and his thoughts, surely fruitless difference. If Gilad is a hard-liner, yes, he is a hard-liner: against zionist racism. So what? Sowing the spirit of discord has been for more than 60 years the "fine arts" of political zionism, those opposing crimes of zionism should resist the temptation of being trapped... Who of you, my friends, dares to ask Gilad Atzmon to be perfect, to be faultless? The people of Palestine deserve better than "friendly fire". Gilad stands up against injustice! And, you want to know a secret? Gilad hasn't been invited for the celebration of the destruction of "old Palestine", in the year of 1948!
Guenter Schenk, France/Germany, Aktionsbündnis für einen gerechten Frieden in Palästina

Hi, I totally support Mary Rizzo and Gilad Atzmon, they do a great and courageous work.You can add me to the list,
Ben Heine

Gilad Atzmon and Mary Rizzo are courageous and humane people who deserve credit for all their efforts to bring peace and justice to the Palestinian people. There are always Zionists who hate and slander the ones who speak the truth but that will not stop justice from being done. More strength and love to these valiant individuals!! Tom, Canada

Remarks: It's enough blood shedding. If any Jews-Israelis want to live in peace in Palestine, they should acknowledge the same rights to the ever-existing Palestinian people as their Israeli counterparts. Otherwise, there will be continual killing and miseries on both sides. Narrow-mindedness and bigotry will never save humans.
Dr Sadek Pharaon MD, Syria

I would like to add my name to the supporters of Mary Rizzo and Gilad Atzmon. Of course I have my disagreements with them but there can be no doubt of the very valuable contribution both have made both to disseminating information about the situation the Palestinians are in and to discussing the wider implications for everyone involved - Jews and non-Jewish Europeans included. For information about myself I refer you to my own website - www.peterbrooke.org.uk With relation to the specific Israel/Palestine situation I have long been committed to the 'one state' option for resolving the conflict. Yours
Peter Brooke

You can put my signature under your petition for Mary and Gilad.
Friendly yours,
Jean-Marie Flémal, writer and translator, WPB (Workers' Party of Belgium), Charleroi, Belgium.

P lease add my name to the petition in solidarity with Gilad Atzmon and Mary Rizzo and Palestine!
Edna Spennato, Brazil, Nationality: South African
Long Live Palestine!

Please add my name to Gilad's petition
Many thanks,
Glenn Bowman, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Kent, UK

All my support
Iqbal Tamimi, Exiled Journalist Network – UKA Palestinian journalist and poet

I would like to add my voice and team up with the art the brought to us such a magnificent talented people who escaped the darkness associated with racism, a racism that fight ethnical cleansing and doesn't respect human rights.
lina abubaker, London

We are glad to support your petition supporting the right to campaign on behalf of the Palestinians. Best wishes in your efforts. I will add an announcement of your petition to our website to give it the added attention it deserves. Sincere regards,
Brenda Heard Director Friends of Lebanon

It's an honour to sign this petition. Stop the attacks on these honorable artists.Yours sincerely,
Einar Schlereth, Journalist

Hi Mary
Please tell me how to add my name to the petition in support of both, you and Gilad Atzmon?
Emmanuel St John, London

I've known Mary most of my life, and know there is no one LESS racist than she is, and seeing the attempts to paint her with that brush are unbearable and ridiculous for anyone who is even remotely aware of her activities and character. Anyone who knows her knows that smearing her is going to involve lying, something we are all sick of. I've read almost everything Gilad has written and it's always provocatory and stimulating, but driven by a great sense of ethics and justice. The attacks against them are really bizarre, especially considering the source (Tony Greenstein and his strange little band of cohorts) and the devices used. I give my complete solidarity to Mary and Gilad and to their cause, freedom for the Palestinians and then, freedom for the rest of us. Freedom for Tony Greenstein that he liberates himself from his obsessiveness about the two of them.
Simon R-Levin, UK

Please add my signature to the petition in defence of Gilad Atzmon and Mary Rizzo!
Snorre Lindquist, Architect, Sweden

Please add my name to the petition in defense of Gilad Atzmon and Mary Rizzo, currently under heavy attack for their commitment to the just cause of the Palestinian people.
Further to my earlier message, I should add that I live in the UK. Sami Joseph

Aderisco con la mia firma alla Petizione, contro il razzismo, contro la discriminazione, contro il colonialismo odioso e difendo la causa palestinese e tutti le cause giuste nel mondo.
Raja IbrahimASSOCIAZIONE AMICIZIA ITALO – PALESTINESE

I strongly support Gilad Atzmon and Mary Rizzo in their fight against zionism for Palestine
Manno Mauro, Italy

I support Mary Rizzo and Gilad Atzmon
LanceThruster, LA, CA, USA

Aderisco all'appello affinchè emerga l'ingiustizia dell'attacco che Atzmon e M. Rizzo subiscono e per l'unità della causa palestinese, che ha bisogno di una mobilitazione internazionale, il più possibile granitica e decisa.
Maria Ingrosso, Lecce Italia

Signing the petition " To all the friends of the freedom of speech and opponents of racism"
Anne Selden Annab

I published the same (Arabic and English versions):
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/02/09/petition-support-gilad-atzmon-and-mary-rizzo/
Sorry if I'm late, I was out of station and just came back home today.
lots of affection, Haitham

Dear friends,
Please add my name to the Petition in support of Mary Rizzo and Gilad Atzmon:
Paola Pisi, Italy,
http://www.uruknet.info/
I posted it on our website:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m40945
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=s8070

Hello,
Please add my signature to the list below
Nadim Mahjoub, London, http://middleeastpanorama.blogspot.com/

Hi Mary and Gilad, Please add my name as well to your list of supporters.
Best wishes, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad http://fanonite.org/ Glasgow

Please add my signature to support Gilad Atzmon and Mary Rizzo
David Nir, Israel

Clément RENAUD, St-Denis, France, association Droits devant!
merci de voir inscrire nos deux noms dans cette pétition de soutien:
-gérard roudil (assoc, enfants du monde droits de l'homme)
-veroniqueque roudil (assoc.cvpr)

'ajoute mon nom à la pétition en faveur de Gilad Atzmon et Mary Rizzo
Aïda KRONFLI
Adhérente à; .
1. Association France Palestine Solidarité, ( France)
2. Association des Palestiniens en France (France)
3. CAPJPO- EURO PALESTINE ( France)

Please add my name to the Petition in support of Mary Rizzo and Gilad Atzmon:
Manuela Vittorelli, Italy

Bonjour,Vous pouvez ajouter ma signature, Charles Beillard à la pétition Gilad Atzmon et Mary Rizzo
Visiter notre site: http://www.enfantsdepalestine.org/

Hello, I wish to add my name to the petition of support for the two Palestinian activists, including my friend Mary Rizzo.
Mark Roland, Eugene OR

Dear Walid,Your petition has been passed on to me and I would like to add my name. It is terrible for you to have to deal with this kind of thing. The only thing to be said about it is that I am sure people like Greenstein do more damage than good to their cause by such action. When people read their hate-filled ranting, even people who don't understand the issues receive the impression that they are very unpleasant people and unlikely to be worth listening to. It must be very hard to deal with it on a daily basis though so you, Gilad, Mary and anyone else involved has my greatest sympathy - as well as my admiration for your courage and determination.
Yours sincerely,
Rachel Bridgeland

Please add my signature to the petition for Gilad and Mary,
Jeffrey Blankfort

Please add my name to your petition in support of Gilad and Mary. It goes without writing that I also support the resistance to Zionism and the assaults on the Palestinian people.
David Baldinger, Cartoonist, USA

Latuff, Cartoonist, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Please add me

you can use my name for Mary Rizzo and Gilad Atzmon .
Freedom ! Laurie Roy, Agent Littéraire & Cinéma, Levallois / France

Maryam Husain and Children send all support! Mary, my true friend who loves our cause with all her heart. Do not despair, for we do not despair! All our support and love to you, dear and sorely missed friend! Support to our Brother Gilad from our whole family.
Maryam, displaced Palestinian, many years in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, then in Canada, Italy and now in India. One day, back home to our beloved land.

Dear Walid,
Although I am rarely depressed, I am so now.
Here in France, Sarkozy is as bad as GWB; and in the USA, we are likely to nominate and elect another war monger. GWB, under the thumb of our so-called "ally" and "democracy," has turned potential friends into bitter enemies. In doing so, he has seriously damaged our - and the world's - economy.
Yrs.,
Cary Welch

Please sign me up:
Please add my name to the petition to help Mary and Gilad. Thank you.
Debbie Brown, Hacienda Heights, California USA

In solidarity with Gilad and Mary
Paloma Valverde, member of CEOSI, Spain.

Solidarietà con Gilad Atzmon e Mary Rizzo.
Maria Grazia Da Costa Lucca Campo Antimperialista

Thanks for the help and info Artie!
Alan 'Masher1' Reid. (Wake up from your Slumbers blog)
Palestine IS Coming!

Je m'unis à tous ceux qui défendent la cause palestinienne juste et souhaite l'unité de tous les palestiniens pour qu'ils puissent vivre en paix et dans la dignité,
Catherine de Crombrugghe, Charleroi, Belgium

Gardez la Force et la Foi, frères et soeurs Palestiniens...Notre coeur bat avec le votre...Que la Vie et la Lumière marchent avec ceux qui marchent pour la Paix... Resistance
Keny Arkana, Marseille – France, Collectif AASV

Please add my name to the petition
Location: Bethlehem - Palestine
Abdelfattah Abu-Srour, PhD
Director of Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center

There were many other names that came in privately to me, and I haven't yet organised them all in one place, but this gives the idea of the messages. To see the list, visit: http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2008/02/petition-for-two-activists-that-you.html (it gets updated).

And, this is a message from a fellow activist when he saw the blog get "pulled", future posts will print some others.

I was wondering what happened too, Mary. Seems quite "convenient" that your site goes down in the midst of a solid defense of both yourself and Gilad and an indictment of those seeking to defame you. Anti-anti-Zionist politics make strange bedfellows and it is not inconceivable that the Greenstein crew orchestrated it or had help (I think in the past you've shown they're somewhat technically inept). I had posted some comments on the azvsas.com website and Mr. Greenstein's argument was largely, "Nobody could disagree with me if they just read what I've written." I wish my technical abilities were such that I could set things right for you. As it stands, the construction of your blog site shows you're far more skilled than I am at these things. I hope you are able to resolve it but even if you start fresh, know that you deserve all the support you can get.

Labels: activism, Atzmon, Blogger, friends, gatekeeping

“Much depends on our belief in our capabilities. Hezbollah believed they could win, and if it wasn’t so, right now we’d be speaking as representatives of Occupied Lebanon.”

Rania Masri, PhD is a professor at the University of Balamand, Lebanon and member of Green Line Organisation. She came to the Bruxelles Tribunal as expert witness for the issue “The Environmental Impact of the Israeli War on Lebanon.” Her presentation was a devastating indictment at 360°, as well as a powerful analysis on the reasoning that seemed to be behind Israel’s claimed purpose that it would “turn back the clock in Lebanon back by 20 years.” I was overwhelmed by the completeness of the information, which presented aspects that the media simply does not cover, but more than that, it was the Round Table presentation that fully revealed the power of this speaker.

Professor Masri is a delicate and petite woman of doubtless elegance. Upon a casual glance, one might think that someone this beautiful was an actress. But, this is one of the cases where beauty of character is reflected in outward beauty, because the information was peppered with insightful and profound analysis that can only come from a scholar with a pure ethical sense. Her clear and powerful brand of communication was of absolute impact, and it left members of the public with a bulk of new information and with a drive to transmit this information as far as possible. She provided for the public copies of the dossier she prepared, with extensive details on the categories of her topic, as well as press releases from Greenpeace and other environmental organisations. I will try to upload the dossier on the peacepalestine documents blog in the near future.

Prof. Masri broke the destruction down into four types, and presented the essence of this destruction as having a three-fold characteristic of violence that was intricately linked.

The destruction can be broken down into
1) The Oil Spill and its consequences
2) Bombing of industries
3) Cluster Bombs
4) Demolition Dust from the destruction of buildings and other manmade structures

In the first, she described the bombing of the coastal Jiyyeh power plant (25 km south of the capital), which took place on 13 July, when the tanks were full to capacity, as energy consumption is increased in the summer. So severe was the damage and so likely was the danger of new fires, that only after two months could the Lebanese specialists intervene. As a matter of fact, the air and sea blockade imposed by Israel prevented any response to restrict the damage in the area of and other areas affected by it. It was impossible commence early clean-up operations for months, when any time there is such an economic disaster, immediate intervention is the rule.

The bombardment had destroyed the fuel deposits, and the destruction could be categorised into various sorts. The first was the fire itself, which raged for three days and nights, destroying the plant with the combustion of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil. Two kinds of soot came about from this, a white cloud of pulverised cement and a black rain of a different chemical nature. The soot that was in the air with “clouds that were visible and had debris that fell in flakes, like black cotton,” was also penetrating every living thing. “We breathe soot,” she declared. “The people of Lebanon were forced to breathe bio-accumulable and persistent chemical products that once inhaled, over time have been demonstrated to cause cancer.” The oil spill that was a consequence of the bombardment deposited into the Mediterranean 15,000 tons of crude oil, generating a spill measuring 150 km x 220 km, polluting the sea, the coast and the seabed causing long-term damage to the ecosystem that is impossible to quantify in its full entity with the current status of intervention. The destruction of the fauna was a consequence of this action, including the extinction of several rare species of turtles that have used this area for their reproduction since time began. Water wells were also polluted, and not in the south alone, rendering the potable water for personal and agricultural use nothing but a diseased source. The fishing industry was devastated as well by this disaster, and with it, the other major sources of income in the area, tourism, and agriculture. Priceless archaeological sites were damaged, including Byblos, one of the most antique settlements of humanity, which managed to survive other wars throughout the centuries.

To date, the Lebanese government has not presented any compensation claims to the UN or any of its relevant agencies. In the dossier furnished by Prof. Masri we read, “(it is) as if the disaster happened on another planet and not that the real responsibility lies in the hands of the US government which prevented then all calls for cease fire and then to end the blockade worsening the impacts of the spill. Professor Richard Steiner from the University of Alaska and member of the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Commission of Environmental and Social Policy reaffirmed his conclusion that Israel intended to cause an environmental disaster as it knew exactly that the oil can only be used for the power plant and not any other activities related to war, making this attack a clear war crime.”

Adding insult to injury, the Lebanese government has not created a National Contingency Plan to confront similar oil spills and that the areas are still so severely polluted it is as if there were no clean-up activities undertaken at all. Such would be natural, as the only resources were a measly 5 million dollars. International efforts to hold Israel liable and force compensation for their intentional damage caused to humans and the environment have so far been fruitless and donations to date are practically non-existent.

The second category, the bombing of industries, was no less crucial to the goal of “turning Lebanon’s clock back 20 years.” Liban Lait, the factory in Balbek, (quite far from the “Blue Line”) that produces 90% of the pasteurised dairy products in the Lebanese market, was bombed to smithereens by the Israeli Air Force. Prof. Masri posed an interesting question: “Was the milk factory destroyed for a political and economic reason? It is known that it had just prior to the war won a tender to supply the UN forces in the region with their dairy products.”

The third category of damage is considered by the expert witness as “the greatest damage of them all,” and that is Israel’s use of cluster bombs. “Seventy percent of southern Lebanon relies on agriculture as its main source of revenue. In almost the entire southern area, cluster bombs were dropped, and each day, new ones are discovered.” She stated that these unconventional weapons create a situation of turmoil that is very difficult to counter. “Farmers and those who raise livestock have a choice to make: they either decide to abandon the harvest and not put their lives at risk, or they carry out their work, knowing that these bombs are disseminated and scattered everywhere. This then is not only a problem of the loss of income and the destruction of the economy, but it has a more sinister side to it, and that is the essence of national security. People are in one way or the other forced to abandon their lands because they cannot safely carry out their work, or they are subject to a growing fear that gives them the feeling that they have no choice but to leave.”

She mentioned a detail that was quite interesting: “The Israelis know what they dropped, but they have made a choice. They have chosen to NOT provide complete information either on the sites or the nature of the bombs they dropped. They have willingly encouraged the growing fear and the tendency of those remaining in the area to abandon their land.”

The fourth category of damage demonstrates “criminal negligence or deliberate destruction having consequences on the civilian population that are almost difficult for us to imagine unless we put it in a context we are more familiar with. The debris that was the consequences of the Israeli attacks upon Lebanon were four times that of the material removed from the destroyed World Trade Center.”

The rubble provoked its own material damages, with destruction of homes, factories, bridges, roads, ports, television stations, airports and anything else built by man. But, possibly more insidious than the rubble itself was the “Demolition Dust”. It penetrated everything, and its chemical content is unknown. The dust is known to include high quantities of asbestos, lethal to human lungs. The dust remains in the atmosphere, soil and water wells, polluting everything. Not only was the dust from the bombardments themselves dispersed, but the movement of the debris and rubble polluted other areas that had not been directly involved in the bombardments.

Two aspects of this destruction were mentioned that were to this point something I had never considered: the problems of where to put the debris and where to get the new building materials. Prof. Masri indicated that Lebanon itself unwisely and with negligence dumped the debris into the sea, aggravating an already devastated situation. In order to rebuild, the mountains of Lebanon will see an increase in quarrying and deforestation activities, which will devastate the environment for many decades to come.

The three-fold violence had environmental, economic and social damage as part of its devastation. The military violence was meant to bend the will of the people to capitulate to Israel. Israel attempted to place the blame for all of these things upon Hezbollah and the resistance. In this, they had wreaked havoc and a near apocalypse upon the Lebanese people, but they did not break their solidarity with one another and their support of the resistance.

The economic violence is “a theft of people’s livelihoods. If they see no future for themselves, which is likely in the case of the south, or in the case of the industries, small and large, that were totally devastated, they are bound to feel there is no hope and they may perhaps emigrate or surrender to desperation.”

The environmental damage does not touch Lebanon alone, but the entire region. “The Israeli war is ongoing due to the environmental aspects. This is not the first Israeli war against Lebanon, but it IS the most blatant US-Israeli war against us. I’m sad to say, it won’t be the last war either.”

The Round Table discussion brought out qualities of the expert witness that are testimony of her extensive activist experience, and statements that struck the heart and mind. “Much depends on our belief in our capabilities. Hezbollah believed they could win, and if it wasn’t so, right now we’d be speaking as representatives of Occupied Lebanon.”

“We as activists are placed in the defensive. We have to stop doing this. It is time we understand that we have to propose. We have to contextualise our issues and causes with other acts of solidarity. It is vital for us to make links across communities and it is time we realised something important: we actually ARE the majority. Our arguments are what most people think and consider as right if they are exposed to our arguments. The problem is that we have not been effective in framing the argument.” She then quoted Commandante Marcos about the universality of solidarity.

The public reacted to her contribution in a mixed way. While all were very enthused, since the public was composed mainly of activists from around the world who came with the very desire to seek justice for Lebanon and the rule of law, there were some comments asking for clarification of the thoughts just expressed regarding the spirit of activism and how to concretely realise the belief paradigm. A young woman from Morocco, Miss Freser, said that she was disappointed that there were far too few young people and students at the Tribunal, while she recognises that young people should be utilised as a tool and as a weapon if necessary. “Your discourse was very inspiring, yet it may be too simplistic and removed from reality. The media is so strong, and it would take a lot of force to disregard what they tell us. We should work with the media if we can, but they don’t give us space. It is time all of us got the same message across and that is, ‘We have to wake up together’.”

Prof. Masri responded that she felt it was indeed true that the media was very biased in favour of Israel, but part of our ineffectiveness as activists could also be that we aren’t recognising the problem in its true dimensions. We have to first create a unifying vision. “Let’s conceptualise what we want. It will happen maybe in several hundred years, but we have to know our goal.” In a humorous aside she noted, “if someone tells us it is all within reach, let me know what they are on and I’d like some of that!” She made some suggestions that were both of substance and ones of form.
* carry out a boycott campaign and other instruments that have short-term results where effects can be seen
* there has to be continuity in action
* find the spectrum to convince others, infiltrate the media and push the point forward
* create an alternative media system

She also suggested for the victims of the Israeli war against Lebanon to carry out legal cases wherever they could. Individual legal cases for dual citizens should be brought about in every case possible. International law is built so that the rule of law takes precedence and violations will have to be accepted by the courts in the countries, even if Lebanon has not yet brought Israel to court. She hopes this day will come.

There were other comments to Prof. Masri’s interventions from the other panel members. John Catalinotto, of the International Action Centre commented, “We have to educate people of the progressive struggle of the resistance, and as far as belief goes, we have to ACT AS IF it is possible. We have to be ready for the possibility of change. Mustafa Badr al-Din said, “The world knows that resistance in a small country can change the world. This is an important lesson. As far as not having a media of our own, that should not stop us, because we always have the chance left of talking to honest media people.”

This is the second of a series of reports by Mary Rizzo regarding the Bruxelles International Jury of Conscience (People's Tribunal) for Lebanon

Labels: activism, Bruxelles Tribunal, documents, Israel, journalism, Lebanon, military, war, war crimes

At the left, a man searches in the ruins of his home for his family members after an air raid in Southern Lebanon.

First of a series of reports of the People’s Tribunal for Lebanon (Bruxelles, February 2008) Mary Rizzo, http://www.peacepalestine.org/

Many were the testimonies that we 250 members of international civil society were able to hear. All of them brought something important that we need to share with those who were not present. I will present the various testimonies and participants’ interventions one by one. Today, I begin with a testimony by Dr. Mustafa Badr al-Din, Mayor of Nabatiya, a city in the south of Lebanon, 25 km from the “Blue Line”. This witness brought a flood of emotion to the public, not only for the content of his intervention, but for the amazing spirit he showed to us all. A physician, a man with a poetic way of communication, but most of all, a beacon for his people, Dr. Badr al-Din presented an important testimony, and the following day, in round table discussion, allowed us to understand more in depth the meaning behind what had happened to his people, his city and his land. His demeanour was one of extreme gentleness and wisdom. His words were both crushing denouncements of the evil men do to other men, but mostly, of the indomitable spirit of resistance that is inside all truly free people, free inside no matter what kind of prison or war their bodies are being held in against their will. They remain free and alive as long as we continue to carry the flame of their spirit and pass it along to others.

Nabatiya is the capital city of a region that numbers one million citizens. It is of great administrative importance to Lebanon, as well as being a community that is mixed in religion. “This is a holy occasion,” he said, opening his testimony, as he told us that his municipality alone sacrificed 250 martyrs whose only crime was being Lebanese. Not only that, “their law, Israeli law, had stopped the arrival to us of food and medicine. We asked ourselves, ‘What do they want from us?’ ‘For how long will they continue?’ It is my responsibility as a witness to testify, and I, in the name of my people ask the world community, ‘How long do we need to say at war? How many more wars will there be? Is the international community available to hear us and respond to what we have undergone and are still undergoing? Are the Europeans able to act against genocide in our country as they are able to denounce it and act elsewhere?’ Most importantly, since we know that this war will not be the last, we have to ask what Israel’s hidden agenda is.”