Th. July 13: Briefing on Gaza Crisis

As a reminder, UFPJ is sponsoring an emergency briefing on the Gaza crisis this Thursday evening. We hope that someone from your group will be able to participate. Below is information on call logistics, the agenda, and groundrules for the call. Please read the groundrules before tomorrow's call.

 

Thursday, July 13, 8:30 EDT, 5:30 PDT

Emergency Briefing for UFPJ Member Groups on Gaza Crisis

Dial 605-990-0200  code: 505727#

  

TENTATIVE AGENDA

I. 5 minutes - OPENING: review agenda and groundrules

 

II. 25 minutes - PANELIST PRESENTATIONS on:

- conditions on the ground in Gaza, including Israel's targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure in violation of international law, the context for the current crisis, the Hamas government and Israel's objectives, etc.

- why the antiwar movement should speak out against Israel's policies, situation with Lebanon and Syria, suggestions for immediate tactics

- how to respond to questions/arguments on the crisis and messages we should be communicating

 

III. 40 minutes - QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

 

Briefing panelists:

- Nadia Hijab - Author, human rights advocate, and Steering Committee member of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation http://www.endtheoccupation.org/

- Phyllis Bennis - Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies. Her newest book is Challenging Empire: How People, Governments and the UN Defy U.S. Power. http://www.ips-dc.org

- Mitchell Plitnick - Director of Education and Policy, Jewish Voice for Peace http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

 

GROUNDRULES

1. If you are not speaking or asking to speak, please mute yourself.  On many phones you can mute by pressing 6 or the mute feature. Just before it is your turn to speak, unmute yourself by pressing 6 or mute feature again.

 

2. Stack: When we begin the Question & Answer section, the facilitator will ask who would like to be on the stack. That's conference call lingo for "who has a question?" Since she/he can't see you raise your hand, please call out your name (e.g. "James, stack"). The facilitator will make a list of people who want to speak, then she/he will call off names from the list. When your name is called, it is your turn to speak. When all the people on the list (stack) have had a chance to speak, the facilitator will ask if she/he should start another stack (if there is time), and we repeat the process. The facilitator may decide to take several questions at a time before asking panelists to respond. To ensure that a range of voices are heard (race, gender, geography, organization, etc.), the facilitator will use her judgement as to whether to change the order of the stack or ask people to step back.

 

3. Questions: To give the widest number of people the chance to ask questions, please limit your question to 30 seconds maximum. Also, if it is your turn to ask a question, please do ask a question rather than make a comment or launch a polemic (we've all been in meetings where that's happened!). The facilitator reserves the right to ask for conversations better suited for another forum to be moved to UFPJ's discussion list.

 

4. Respect your facilitator: Facilitating a conference call with tens of unseen people is not an easy task. Please support your facilitator by respecting his/her judgement as to how to proceed. If the facilitator needs help and you have a suggestion as to how to proceed, please call out your name (e.g. "James, procedural suggestion").

 

Additional resources are below. Talk to you Thursday!

 

Best,

 

Hany Khalil

UFPJ Organizing Coordinator

 

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

In the meantime, see the article at the end of this email, where Israeli writer Gideon Levy argues that Israel bears primary responsibility for the present situation in Gaza.

 

You can also get more information and ideas for action on the Gaza crisis from a range of perspectives at these websites.

 

- Alternative Information Center, http://www.alternativenews.org/

- American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, http://www.adc.org/

- American Friends Service Committee, http://afsc.org/israel-palestine/default.htm  

- Electronic Intifada, http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml

- Jewish Voice for Peace, http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

- Middle East Children's Alliance, http://www.mecaforpeace.org/  

- Stop the Wall Campaign, http://stopthewall.org/  

- Tikkun, http://www.tikkun.org/

- US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, http://www.endtheoccupation.org/

 

Download these excellent background fact sheets:

-          Freezing the Peace Process: Israel's "Disengagement" from Gaza http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1147

-          Ending the Occupation: It's the Law http://www.endtheoccupation.org/downloads/fact_sheet_2.pdf

Recent Statements Condemning the Offensive:

- A group of 300 British Jews: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5154838.stm

- The United Nations: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5154594.stm

www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19108&Cr=middle&Cr1=east

- The European Union: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5159050.stm

www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3272507,00.html

- The National Lawyers Guild: www.nlg.org/news/statements/gaza0706.htm

 

For more on UFPJ's approach to a just Palestinian/Israeli peace, visit http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?type=73&list=type

 

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Gideon Levy, "Who started?"

July 9th, 2006

Published in Haaretz, a major Israeli daily newspaper

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/736009.html

 

Gideon Levy argues that Israel bears primary responsibility for the present situation in Gaza.

 

We left Gaza and they are firing Qassams" - there is no more precise a

formulation of the prevailing view about the current round of the conflict.

"They started," will be the routine response to anyone who tries to argue,

for example, that a few hours before the first Qassam fell on the school in

Ashkelon, causing no damage, Israel sowed destruction at the Islamic

University in Gaza.

 

Israel is causing electricity blackouts, laying sieges, bombing and

shelling, assassinating and imprisoning, killing and wounding civilians,

including children and babies, in horrifying numbers, but "they started."

 

They are also "breaking the rules" laid down by Israel: We are allowed to

bomb anything we want and they are not allowed to launch Qassams. When they

fire a Qassam at Ashkelon, that's an "escalation of the conflict," and when

we bomb a university and a school, it's perfectly alright. Why? Because they

started. That's why the majority thinks that all the justice is on our side.

Like in a schoolyard fight, the argument about who started is Israel's

winning moral argument to justify every injustice.

 

So, who really did start? And have we "left Gaza?"

 

Israel left Gaza only partially, and in a distorted manner. The

disengagement plan, which was labeled with fancy titles like "partition" and

"an end to the occupation," did result in the dismantling of settlements and

the Israel Defense Forces' departure from Gaza, but it did almost nothing to

change the living conditions for the residents of the Strip. Gaza is still a

prison and its inhabitants are still doomed to live in poverty and

oppression. Israel closes them off from the sea, the air and land, except

for a limited safety valve at the Rafah crossing. They cannot visit their

relatives in the West Bank or look for work in Israel, upon which the Gazan

economy has been dependent for some 40 years. Sometimes goods can be

transported, sometimes not. Gaza has no chance of escaping its poverty under

these conditions. Nobody will invest in it, nobody can develop it, nobody

can feel free in it. Israel left the cage, threw away the keys and left the

residents to their bitter fate. Now, less than a year after the

disengagement, it is going back, with violence and force.

 

What could otherwise have been expected? That Israel would unilaterally

withdraw, brutally and outrageously ignoring the Palestinians and their

needs, and that they would silently bear their bitter fate and would not

continue to fight for their liberty, livelihood and dignity? We promised a

safe passage to the West Bank and didn't keep the promise. We promised to

free prisoners and didn't keep the promise. We supported democratic

elections and then boycotted the legally elected leadership, confiscating

funds that belong to it, and declaring war on it. We could have withdrawn

from Gaza through negotiations and coordination, while strengthening the

existing Palestinian leadership, but we refused to do so. And now, we

complain about "a lack of leadership?" We did everything we could to

undermine their society and leadership, making sure as much as possible that

the disengagement would not be a new chapter in our relationship with the

neighboring nation, and now we are amazed by the violence and hatred that we

sowed with our own hands.

 

What would have happened if the Palestinians had not fired Qassams? Would

Israel have lifted the economic siege that it imposed on Gaza? Would it open

the border to Palestinian laborers? Free prisoners? Meet with the elected

leadership and conduct negotiations? Encourage investment in Gaza? Nonsense.

If the Gazans were sitting quietly, as Israel expects them to do, their case

would disappear from the agenda - here and around the world. Israel would

continue with the convergence, which is solely meant to serve its goals,

ignoring their needs. Nobody would have given any thought to the fate of the

people of Gaza if they did not behave violently. That is a very bitter

truth, but the first 20 years of the occupation passed quietly and we did

not lift a finger to end it.

 

Instead, under cover of the quiet, we built the enormous, criminal

settlement enterprise. With our own hands, we are now once again pushing the

Palestinians into using the petty arms they have; and in response, we employ

nearly the entire enormous arsenal at our disposal, and continue to complain

that "they started."

 

We started. We started with the occupation, and we are duty-bound to end it,

a real and complete ending. We started with the violence. There is no

violence worse than the violence of the occupier, using force on an entire

nation, so the question about who fired first is therefore an evasion meant

to distort the picture. After Oslo, too, there were those who claimed that

"we left the territories," in a similar mixture of blindness and lies.

 

Gaza is in serious trouble, ruled by death, horror and daily difficulties,

far from the eyes and hearts of Israelis. We are only shown the Qassams. We

only see the Qassams. The West Bank is still under the boot of occupation,

the settlements are flourishing, and every limply extended hand for an

agreement, including that of Ismail Haniyeh, is immediately rejected. And

after all this, if someone still has second thoughts, the winning answer is

promptly delivered: "They started." They started and justice is on our side,

while the fact is that they did not start and justice is not with us.

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