Zionism, Manifest Destiny, and the stake of Black House Reps

Speaking of the woven projects of American Manifest Destiny and Israeli Zionism, the Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford takes note of where African Americans are situated in such obviously racist politics. Ford scrutinizes the roles played by Black Congressional Caucus members in the passing of a House resolution supporting Israeli's war in Gaza.
Glen Ford: Sullying Dr. King's Legacy

Could it be that Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Milwaukee's Gwen Moore are the only Black Caucus members who remember that Israel was racist South Africa's closest ally, the apartheid regime's hi-tech weapons quartermaster and godfather to its nuclear bomb project? Do the seven members that voted "present" - Donna Edwards (MD), Keith Ellison (MN), Hank Johnson (GA), Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI), Barbara Lee (CA), Donald Payne (NJ), Diane Watson (CA) - believe that by refusing to take a position on Israeli crimes against humanity in Gaza, they somehow salvage the Caucus's claim to be the "conscience of the Congress?"

Where has John Conyers' conscience disappeared to?

**** The Zionist ideology, and especially the chilling effect of Zionist power, is probably the second-greatest impediment to creation of a sustained American peace movement - the first obstacle being the ideology of American Manifest Destiny, which is in practice quite compatible with Zionism.

However, African Americans are least susceptible to the Manifest Destiny/Zionist Mythology combo. Both ideologies wreak of racism, and most Black people know it. The Congressional Black Caucus knows it, too, but they are terrified of offending Israel's innumerable political hit men.

Zionist power helped knock off two CBC members who refused to tow Tel Aviv's line, in 2002. Georgia's Cynthia McKinney and Alabama's Earl Hilliard found themselves heavily outspent and ultimately unseated by otherwise puny challengers in Democratic primary contests. AIPAC bragged of its ability to shut down independent-minded Black politicians who fail to understand that U.S. foreign policy is shaped by whatever is deemed good for Israel. Bullying works, especially against the meek. Except for Maxine Waters and Gwen Moore, the Congressional Black Caucus is out of the anti-war business.

That also goes for the Congressional Progressive Caucus which, with 71 members, claims to be the "single largest partisan caucus" in the U.S. House, but whose members voted overwhelmingly in support of Israeli barbarity. About two-thirds of the voting members of the Black Caucus also belong to the Progressive Caucus - meaning, they are members of two defunct organizations, and doubly useless to the cause of peace.

U.S. exporting ‘Indian country’ to the Holy Land

This article passed through the TUPOCC listserv. It strikes me as a biting reality-check for those in the US who understand Palestinians as nothing more than an oppositional concept. Extermination of people doesn't just happen, and those of us who live in the US rarely take pause to understand the mechanism that turned "indians" into geographical references or sports team mascots. We are so blind that we cannot even recognize that those same mechanics are turning in our midst, albeit by satellite and internet feeds.

Good Fox: Palestine: Stop the re-creation of ‘Indian country’ in the Holy Land | Indian Country Today | Opinion

As historians and scholars will remind us, Jewish people generally thrived and lived in respectful coexistence with Christians and Muslims in Palestine while they were subjected to prejudice (and far worse) in Europe and the United States. It was only during the mid-20th century that sustained violence began to occur between the populations – when the U.S. and Europe, out of their collective guilt for allowing the Shoah to happen, formed the state of Israel on top of Palestine.

This formation did not occur on empty land. Known as “Al-Nakba” (Arabic for “the Cataclysm”), this 1948 event involved the expulsion of an estimated one million Palestinians from cities and villages, massacres, torture and rape, and the destruction of nearly 500 Palestinian villages. Zionism, which activist Gabe Camacho has correctly described as synonymous with manifest destiny, is the hegemonic ideology of the colonizers in the Holy Land. And one of the ideas of Zionism/Manifest Destiny is the concept of “Indian country,” an anti-human rights activity that the U.S. exports internationally.

“Indian Country” is a U.S.-designated term for our remaining and secondary homelands; however, the term also is common in the U.S. military and colonization parlance such as when it was employed in the invasion of Vietnam or as seen in the ongoing occupation of Iraq. We see this term in action, too, in Palestine.

Free Palestine Alliance: it's colonialism, stupid

FPA Statement 12: Signs of Zionist Defeat Despite Palestinian Tragedy

Effectively, this is what this entire onslaught is about: control over the Arab nation and the placement of obedient functionaries as the effective powers over millions of impoverished Arabs. In this context, consider the position of Hugo Chavez. A similar position would not be possible by the Arab regimes due to their servitude to their colonial and neo-colonial powers. The real independence of Venezuela allows not only principled positions, but also the appropriate use of its wealth in the service of its own people and the people of the world.

Such was the essence of the conflict during the decolonization era of the fifties, sixties, and seventies, when the primary struggle was between colonists attempting to control wealth and resources and the colonized struggling to assert power over their own destiny. In 1956, the Tripartite attack on Egypt was in response to a Pan-Arabist perspective championed by Gamal Abdel-Nasser that Arab wealth belongs to the Arab people, and hence nationalized the Suez Canal to secure funds to build the Aswan dam and rebuild Egypt. France, Britain and Israel found that unacceptable and attacked, including attacking Gaza. The international solidarity that existed at that time, and the steadfast of the Egyptian leadership and people, secured a victory in the face of the onslaught. In the same context, consider the CIA coup in Guatemala in 1954 against Jacobo Arbenz, who dared to challenge the robbery of United Fruit Company and the impoverishment of the Guatemalan people. Such were, and continue to be, the same pretexts used against the people of Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and other Latin American countries to destabilize liberation movements and sovereign nations in favor of colonial or neo-colonial control. On the African continent, Amilcar Cabral, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, and many similar unique leaders for national liberation were targeted for attempting to secure freedom for colonized people.

Essentially, the wrath of colonists is aimed not only at destroying the lives of people and the robbery of nations, but also at the cumulative reservoir of the culture of resistance that humanity continuously achieves. The assault on Gaza, futile and horrendous as it maybe, could and has destroyed many lives. But certainly, it will be defeated in its attempt to destroy the Palestinian resistance movement to colonial control.

TUPOCC Condemns "Israel's" On-Going Genocide Against the Palestinian Arab People and Crimes Against Humanity in the Gaza Strip

DISCLAIMER: The viewpoint expressed in the following statement is not the viewpoint of the National Lawyers Guild or the National Lawyers Guild Foundation.

TUPOCC-NLG Palestine Sub-Committee & NLG Middle-East Steering Committee Strongly Condemn "Israel's" On-Going Genocide Against the Palestinian Arab People and Crimes Against Humanity in the Gaza Strip

January 7, 2009

The United People of Color Caucus (TUPOCC) Palestine Sub-Committee of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the NLG Middle-East Steering Committee (NLG-MESC) call upon the international community to join us in our strong condemnation of "Israel's" on-going genocide, crimes against humanity, and brutal six-decade-old occupation of Palestine. "Israel" has, yet again, intensified its ruthless campaign to intentionally destroy the Palestinian Arab People by murdering over 700 Palestinians—including scores of women and children—and brutally injuring over 3100 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past twelve days "Israel" has perpetrated round-the-clock carpet-bombing of Palestinian civilians, civil infrastructure, and civil institutions, including schools, markets, and refugee camps/neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip--one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. "Israel's" savage bombardment and deadly siege against Gaza has relentlessly deprived Palestinians of any ability to obtain the necessary fuel, electricity, food, clean water, medical supplies and basic necessities of life—"Israel's" admitted "starvation diet" campaign. "Israel" now demands that Palestinians leave Gaza to "avoid" death – a blatant and transparent attempt at permanently expelling Palestinians from their land.

"Israel" is callously perpetrating the "holocaust" against Palestinians as threatened by "Israeli" official Matan Vilnai in February 2008. "Israel's" on-going saturation bombing campaign savagely targets the over 1.5 million Palestinians civilians in the Gaza Strip—a majority of whom are refugees from the 78% of Palestine illegally occupied by Zionist forces in 1948.

"Israel's" genocide, occupation, and grave crimes against humanity in Gaza and the whole of occupied Palestine could not have been perpetrated without the direct and indirect complicity of the world governments, including the US, EU, and puppet Arab regimes. Moreover, the "green light" for genocide also stems from the dehumanization of Palestinian Arabs by Western corporate media outlets only to be reinforced by organizations who fail to condemn Zionism and its product, "Israel," or who advance the patently false symmetry between the occupied Palestinians and their Zionist occupiers.

Accordingly, TUPOCC's Palestine Sub-Committee and the Middle-East Steering Committee of the NLG call upon the international community and all people of good conscience to stand with the victims of Zionism and its product "Israel" by taking immediate action to put an end to the Zionist genocide against Palestinians. In reaffirming TUPOCC's "Statement in Support of Palestinian Liberation and Dissent from the National Lawyers Guild's Official Position on Palestine and Zionism," TUPOCC's Palestine Sub-Committee and NLG-MESC urge the international community to:

1) Support a full and comprehensive campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against "Israel";



2) Send desperately needed humanitarian aid to the Palestinian People suffering due to the on-going genocide by "Israel." Please go to http://www.kinderusa.org and make an online donation of $500, $250, $100, or whatever you can afford;

3) Demand an immediate end to all "aid" to "Israel," including the billions of taxpayer dollars which fund Israel's on-going genocide, occupation, and crimes against humanity waged against the Palestinian People;

4) Immediately end any recognition, legitimization, or normalization with "Israel";

5) Demand that the United Nations live-up to its Charter by immediately and permanently expelling "Israel" from the United Nations;

6) Support the Palestinian Arab People's right of self-determination and liberation throughout all of occupied Palestine—both the areas occupied in 1948 and 1967—as guaranteed to Palestinians by international law and the UN Charter;

7) Support and reaffirm the legitimacy of the Palestinian Arab People's right to struggle for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, particularly armed struggle. (United Nations Resolution A/RES/33/24 29 November 1978);

8) Demand all Governments and organizations, including the United Nations, to live-up to their obligations and unequivocally condemn Zionism as a form of racism as formally expressed under United Nations Resolution 3379 of 1975; and

9) Establish International Criminal Tribunals against "Israel" and all of its quasi-governmental organizations, including the World Zionist Organization, for their grave crimes against humanity including genocide and illegal occupation.

12th day of the Gazan war: we must condemn our own silence

Copyright of Khalil Bendib, www.bendib.com, all rights reserved.

Bush policy: people don't have a right to self-defense if they freely voted for what we consider to be an enemy of our own national interests

the following press conference exchange between White House Press Sec Dana Perino and indefatigable journalist Helen Thomas ends up elucidating the "blind spots" (willful disregard) in US foreign policy with respect to international law and self-defense.

Democracy Now! | Israeli F-16 Attack Kills Father of Palestinian Journalist; Israel Bombs UN School, Killing Three

On Monday, the veteran correspondent Helen Thomas question White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.

HELEN THOMAS: Why is the President letting more people be killed in this situation, instead of going for a ceasefire and calling for restraint, as they have in the past, on both sides?

DANA PERINO: We are calling for a durable ceasefire. That’s what we are trying to establish.

HELEN THOMAS: But why don’t you call it today and stop people from being killed?

DANA PERINO: Well, I think, Helen, strong views are held on this by all sides. We believe that Israel has a right to defend itself, and—

HELEN THOMAS: Do the Gazans have a right to defend themselves?

DANA PERINO: I think that what the Gazans deserve is a chance to live in peace and security. What President Bush has worked for is a chance to establish a two-state solution, so that the Palestinians could have their own state, so that they could live in their own democracy. And that’s what President Abbas, who is the President of all Palestinians, has been working towards.

HELEN THOMAS: The President did not recognize their election, which was fair and square under international law, as observers—

DANA PERINO: Look, when—the President did call for the—did support the elections. And when the elections were held, I don’t think that Hamas was elected because they said, “Vote for us, we’ll take you to war” or “We’ll hold you hostage” or “We’ll send rockets into Israel every day.” But they won because they were tired—the people of—the Palestinians, people of Gaza, were frustrated with the services that they were getting from the Fatah party, which was a wake-up call for the Fatah party as well. And they have worked to try to improve what they could provide governance-wise for all of the Palestinians.

HELEN THOMAS: So knowing that, why did the US cut off all relation—all aid to the people?

DANA PERINO: We certainly have not done that to the people of Gaza. We do not deal with the terrorist organizations, of which Hamas is designated as one.

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network launches

The new IJAN launched this week, publishing their charter. Here is the press release, dated October 7, 2008.

For Further information, Flo Razowsky 612 850 4942

Announcing the Launch of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)



Over the Jewish High Holidays - Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - which are a time for reflection and atonement for the individual and collective injustices we have committed or have allowed to happen...

In honor of the 60th anniversary of Al Nakba ('Catastrophe' in Arabic) and the eighth anniversary of the second Palestinian intifada which inspired a stronger solidarity movement and growing criticism of Israel...

And with hope for a year of greater possibility for justice in Palestine, the broader region and our world...

We launch the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network - IJAN - with the release of our founding charter.
Our pledge in the Charter will be carried out through our commitments to: 1) solidarity with Palestinian self-determination, 2) participation in global movements to end imperialism, and 3) the extrication of Jewish history, politics, community, and culture from the grip of Zionism.

Charter of the International Jewish anti-Zionist Network

We are an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part.
From Poland to Iraq, from Argentina to South Africa, from Brooklyn to Mississippi, Jews have taken up their quest for justice, and their desire for a more just world, by joining with others in collective struggles. Jews participated prominently in the workers' struggle of the depression era, in the civil rights movement, in the struggle against South African Apartheid, in the struggle against fascism in Europe, and in many other movements for social and political change. The State of Israel's historic and ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their land contradicts and betrays these long histories of Jewish participation in collective liberation struggles.
For the people of this planet to live in safety, justice and peace, the Israeli colonial project must be brought to an end. We joyfully take up this collective task of undermining a system of conquest and plunder that has tormented our world for far too long.
We pledge to: Oppose Zionism and the State of Israel
We pledge to: Reject the colonial legacy and on-going colonial expansion
We pledge to: Challenge Zionist organizations
We pledge to: Commit our solidarity and work toward justice
Do you stand against racism in all its forms? Then we call you to join with us in ending Israeli apartheid.


For the complete Charter, http://www.ijsn. net/about_ us/charter/

Launched: Don't Buy Apartheid - Hang Up On Motorola

from the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation:

after a year of research and polite engagement, the US Campaign to End the Israeli occupation is officially launching a consumer boycott against Motorola until they stop profiting from Israeli apartheid policies. Sign our pledge to say "Goodbye Moto" today.

The Campaign's research has turned up the following facts, among others:

• Producing the 980 Low Altitude Proximity Fuse for the MK-80 series of high-explosive bombs. On July 30, 2006, during its war on Lebanon, the Israeli Air Force dropped an MK-84 high-explosive bomb on an apartment building in Qana, Lebanon. The bomb killed at least 28 civilians, many of whom were children, who had taken shelter in the basement of their apartment building.
• Developing and supplying the Israeli military with the “Mountain Rose” secure cell phone communication system, which is the exclusive communications system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
• Supplying Israel with the Wide Area Surveillance System (WAAS) to monitor and maintain the illegal wall it has constructed in the Palestinian West Bank. Motorola Israel’s provision of the WAAS to Israel contradicts the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion in July 2004.
• Providing radar detection devices and thermal cameras for 47 illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. According to the Fourth Geneva Conventions, Article 49, it is a war crime for an occupying power to transfer its civilian population in to occupied territories.

Dr. Al-Arian Placed in Punitive Detention

Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace
April 12, 2008

Dr. Al-Arian Placed in Punitive Detention

VIRGINIA-- At 1 a.m. on Saturday, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was moved by
hostile prison guards from a regular holding cell at the Howard County
Detention Center in Jessup, Maryland, to the "Special Housing Unit."
The SHU is an extremely punitive and restrictive section of the prison
where inmates are placed in solitary confinement 23 hours a day,
usually in freezing temperatures. Prisoners are normally moved there
for violating prison rules. However, in the case of Dr. Al-Arian, he
has always been placed there without reason or any explanation. In the
SHU, prisoners are subjected to continuous, deafening alarm sounds and
have little contact with the outside world. With no medical
supervision, this is an extremely dangerous place for Dr. Al-Arian to
be during his hunger strike, which is on its 41st day. Dr. Al-Arian
was also held in solitary confinement for 37 months before and during
his trial. This was a deliberate attempt by the government to break
him down physically and psychologically and to prevent him from
preparing for his trial.

Amnesty International has written several letters decrying the prison
conditions of Dr. Al-Arian, calling his treatment "gratuitously
punitive" and "inconsistent with international standards for humane
treatment."

The Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace urges all conscientious
individuals and organizations to contact the Howard County Detention
Center and call for humane treatment of Dr. Al-Arian. We also call on
media outlets to cover these abuses, which so far have received no
attention.

TAKE ACTION

Call the Howard County Detention Center and ask that Dr. Al-Arian be
removed from the Special Housing Unit, where he does not belong, and
that the prison ensures he is given proper medical treatment during
his hunger strike. The number is (410) 313-5200.

--

PRESS CONFERENCE ON TUESDAY TO DEMAND RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN

Press Release:

Contact: Dowoti Desir,
Executive Director
The Shabazz Center
ddesir@theshabazzcenter.org

Dept. of Justice Must Keep its Promise
to Release Palestinian Professor on Hunger Strike

Press Conference:
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
To Demand the Release of Dr. Sami Al-Arian

Who:The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational and
Cultural Center, American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights, and the
Council on American Islamic Relations

WHAT: Press Conference to Call for the Release of Hunger Striking
Palestinian Professor Sami Al-Arian

WHEN: Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 11 A.M.

WHERE: The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational
Center 3940 Broadway, New York City, N.Y. 10032 (212) 568.1341

SPEAKERS:
THE HONORABLE RAMSEY CLARK
SARA FLOUNDER,Co-Director, The International Action Center
IMAM SIRAJ WAHAJ
IMAM TALIB ABDUR-RASHID, CAIR-NY Civil Rights Director, Sr.
HEIDI BOGHOSIAN, Executive Director of the National Lawyers' Guild
ALIYA LATIF, Civil Rights Director Council on American-Islamic Relations

LAILA AL-ARIAN, Daughter of Sami Al-Arian

MALAAK SHABAZZ, Daughter of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz -- Malcolm X

NEW YORK, NY. - Friday, April 11, is the scheduled release date of Dr.
Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian professor on a hunger strike, who has
been imprisoned for more than five years. But the Department of
Justice, through its continuous abuse of the grand jury system, is
threatening to keep him imprisoned for many years.
This Tuesday, April 15, at 11 A.M., American Muslim Taskforce on Civil
Rights and Elections, hosted by the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz
Memorial, Educational Center and Cultural Center, will hold a press
conference to demand Dr. Al-Arian's release as promised.

Sami Al-Arian, 50, was a tenured professor of computer engineering at
the University of South Florida. He was arrested in February 2003 with
much fanfare, and charged in a bloated terrorism conspiracy case. A
jury acquitted him of the most serious charges in December 2005.
Under a plea agreement reached in 2006, Dr. Al-Arian should have been
released last April at the latest. By forcing him to testify,
prosecutors are violating that agreement. For more on the case, please
visit www.freesaminow.com

Dr. Al-Arian began a hunger strike on March 3 to protest continued
government harassment. That day, Dr. Al-Arian was informed that he
would be called to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. "The
mistreatment of Dr. Al-Arian is part of the overall oppression of the
Palestinian people. This is cruel punishment," said Agha Saeed,
chairman of the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and
Elections (AMT). "The government is playing a cat and mouse game with
him. They did not decide to do this until the last minute, just as
he's about to be released. This amounts to psychological torture."

"Malcolm X stated, "Any person who claims to have deep feelings for
other human beings should think a long, long time before he votes to
have other men kept behind bars - caged. Behind the bars, a man never
reforms- he can't forget those bars." The past decades have been
marred by the erosion of civil liberties and the systemic silencing
through incarceration, torture, and deportation of non-conformist
voices. Unfortunately our brothers and sisters in the Islamic
community are the latest victims of such practices. The continued,
unwarranted incarceration of Dr. Al-Arian is a violation of his human
rights." Dowoti Desir, Executive Director, The Shabazz Center,

If you'd like more information on this topic, please visit
www.freesaminow.com , or to schedule an interview with any of the
speakers at the press conference, please call 212-568.1341 or email
ddesir@theshabazzcenter.org

--

PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAM COVERS AL-ARIAN CASE:
Please click on the link below to listen:
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0408c08.mp3/mediafile_view




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org

=============================================================

source of forwarded message:

[Ppnews] Al-Arian Placed in Punitive Detention

Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 ...


From: "Political Prisoner News"

**USA vs. AL-ARIAN: Film Screening and Q&A**

**USA vs. AL-ARIAN: Film Screening and Q&A**

Thursday, March 27 at 6:30pm
Vanderbilt Hall Room 220
NYU Law School
40 Washington Square South

Featuring: Laila Al-Arian, Journalist and Dr. Al-Arian's daughter

Co-sponsored by the NYU National Lawyers Guild, Law Students for Human Rights, MELSA, and the Islamic Law Students Association


For more information, visit http://www.usavsalarian.com/index.html

---

NLG leadership: TUPOCC must remove statement on Zionism

National Lawyers Guild Executive Council, acting on vote of the National Executive Committee, has demanded that TUPOCC remove and cease distribution of "TUPOCC-NLG Statement of Support for Palestinian Liberation and Rejection of the National Lawyers Guild's Embrace of Zionism, January 24, 2008"

More

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS THIRD SUMMONS TO GRAND JURY OF DR. SAMI AL-ARIAN PUNITIVE GOVERNMENT HARRASSMENT

Fwd: ... NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS THIRD SUMMONS TO GRAND JURY OF DR. SAMI AL-ARIAN PUNITIVE GOVERNMENT HARRASSMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 4, 2008

Contact:

Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg. org, 212-679-5100, ext. 11
Peter Erlinder, Counsel for Al-Arian, peter.erlinder@ wmitchell. edu, 651-290-6384

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS THIRD SUMMONS TO GRAND JURY OF DR. SAMI AL-ARIAN PUNITIVE GOVERNMENT HARRASSMENT

New York. Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian, who has spent the past four years in jail despite a jury’s failure to return a single guilty verdict against him, has been called before a third grand jury despite the fact that Al-Arian signed a “no-cooperation” agreement with the government providing that he would not be required to appear before any grand jury. The announcement came yesterday, one month before his scheduled release.

Past-National Lawyers Guild President Peter Erlinder, Al-Arian's counsel in 4th Circuit and 11th Circuit appeals, and on the "acquitted conduct" Supreme Court cert petition said, "The duplicity of the Justice Department and the failure of the courts to recognize basic contract-law principles in this case is an example of how politically- motivated "war on terror" prosecutions are distorting the American legal system. In the Al-Arian case, the Justice Department and the courts have made a mockery of the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial which should outrage all Americans as deeply as the Tampa jury that acquitted Dr. Al-Arian more than two years ago."

It is now likely that when Dr. Al-Arian again refuses to testify because of the "no-cooperation" agreement, he will be charged with obstruction of justice and could receive several additional years in prison. If he testifies, he faces a "perjury" trap based on Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg's past practice with other acquitted Palestinian defendants.

When he was arrested in February 2003, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was a prominent Palestinian academic and a leading member of the Muslim community in south Florida and one of the most prominent Palestinian academics and activists in the United States. He was acquitted on eight of 17 charges against him December 2005 after a six month trial with three co-defendants. In April 2006 he pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy, involving assisting his brother in law in his immigration matters and denying to a reporter that he knew of a colleague's association with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In return, federal prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining eight charges on which the jury had "hung" 10-2 for acquittal and to recommend a time-served sentence with release and deportation in May 2006. The Tampa AUSA admitted, on the record, that the usual "cooperation clause" was removed from the plea agreement because Dr. Al-Arian and his lawyers would not agree to any form of cooperation.

At sentencing on May 1, 2007, Tampa Federal Judge James Moody gave him the constitutional maximum sentence of an additional year, citing the very offenses of which the jury had acquitted him. Despite the "no-cooperation" agreement, and while the appeal of his acquitted conduct sentence was pending on appeal, Al-Arian was found in civil contempt in January 2007. In December 2007, a federal judge in lifted the civil contempt and Al-Arian's new release date was April 2008.

After the contempt detention Dr. Al Arian went on a 100-day hunger-strike because of the government's refusal to honor the plea agreement. (He has just begun another hunger-strike. ) Before trial Dr. Al-Arian was held in Super-Max solitary and was subjected to inhumane and punitive conditions, including 23-hour lockdown, abuse from prison staff, unsanitary conditions with exposure to vermin, denial of adequate winter clothing, bedding and religiously appropriate diet, all in breach of Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States is a party and has triggered an on-going investigation by the DOJ Inspector General.

“This latest decision to call Dr. Al-Arian before a grand jury clearly breaches his plea bargain and seems a political maneuver to lengthen his prison term,” said Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild. The prosecutor in charge of the grand jury case in Virginia uttered anti-Islamic remarks when discussing postponing Dr. Al-Arian’s transfer to Virginia during Ramadan. “Anti-Islamic remarks by the Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Gordon Kromberg are further cause for concern that Dr. Al-Arian is being subjected to especially punitive treatment based on his religion,” continued Boghosian.

Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.

-30-

TUPOCC Statement: We reject Zionism

TUPOCC has issued a unified statement clarifying our position on Palestinian liberation and Zionism as a form of racism.

Our mission, as much as our inspiration, is not bound by national borders. For this reason, TUPOCC cannot temper its radicalism when it comes to the oppression of Palestinians and the brutally imposed apartheid in their occupied land. Accordingly, TUPOCC condemns Zionism as a form of racism and rejects Zionism, in toto, as a parcel of any action purporting to support Palestinians’ rights and liberation.

Back to Roots by Dr. Salman Abu Sitta

"I submit to you that a campaign of genocide has been waged against the Palestinian people, a genocide of killing, a genocide of elimination, a genocide of exile and banishment, a genocide of decapitating people by assassinating their leaders, a genocide of starvation, a genocide of slow death by cutting sources of food, water and medicine, a genocide of civilized life by destroying schools, universities and hospitals, a genocide of oblivion by destroying the national identity and denying the right for citizenship and nationality.

Israel has done that and more. It is the raison d'etre of Israel. Ben Gurion said that the destruction of Palestine is a pre-condition for the foundation of Israel."

Back to Roots by Dr. Salman Abu Sitta
Al-Awda's 4th International Convention
San Francisco, 14th - 16th July 2006

http://al-awda.org/abusitta.html

Over half a century ago, it would have been inconceivable, that I, a Palestinian boy living peacefully in his home thousands of miles away, would be speaking to you here today, nor that many of you, third generation refugees from Palestine, would be here in such numbers, away from the homes of your fathers and grandfathers. But such is the working of al Nakba

I became a refugee at the age of 10, when strange European Zionist settlers invaded my country, destroyed my home and made me a refugee. I spent all my adult life wondering why this enemy destroyed my life. I tried to put a face to this invisible enemy - for I have never seen one before. Like millions of Palestinians, I started, then in 1948, on the long trek to return home, The trajectory of expulsion propelled us to the four corners of the earth but our compass was always directed towards our home. In unison and in unbelievable resilience, we vowed: We shall never rest until we return home.

This is the ninetieth year in our struggle for freedom and peaceful life in our homeland. In 1916, two European colonial diplomats, the British Mark Sykes and the French Georges Picot conspired to enslave the Arab people after winning the war in alliance with the Arabs against the Ottoman rule. While the Allies' planes were dropping leaflets expressing devotion to the Arab quest for freedom and democracy, Sykes and Picot charted on a map lines dividing of the territorial spoils of war.

A latent European colonial enterprise came into the fray. The Zionist leader, Weizmann extracted a fateful letter from the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, in November 1917 addressed to a Jewish millionaire, Lord Rothschild. None of the three conspiring Europeans lived in Palestine or had a legitimate presence in Palestine. The British army then had barely crossed the border of Palestine.

Balfour declaration was a false promise of those who did not own to those who had no title behind the back of the rightful owner. Thus began a relentless Western war against the Palestinian people, now in its ninetieth year.

Balfour was fully aware of what he was doing. True to his colonial heritage, he said in 1918,

For in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the countryŠ..[Zionism is] of far profounder impact than the desires and prejudices [not the rights] of the Arabs who inhabit this ancient land...

He said the Arabs are "wholly barbarous, undeveloped and unorganized black tribes".

The British Mandate ruled Palestine from 1920 to 1948 with the irreconcilable objectives of preparing the Palestinians for free democratic government and building a 'national home' for Jews in Palestine.

Nine decades before George Bush came up with his campaign for democracy for the whole world, the Palestinians started their campaign for democracy. When they petitioned, agitated and revolted for their cause, Churchill, the Colonial Secretary, told them in 1921,

Step by step we shall develop representative institutions leading to full self-government but our children's children will have passed away before that is accomplishedŠ..

They are still waiting. They have not given up.

In his five-year tenure (1920-1925), the Zionist first British High Commissioner of Palestine, Herbert Samuel, laid the foundations for the state of Israel.

Hebrew was introduced as an official language, separate Jewish institutions for banking, education, labour, water and energy were formed. A pseudo government and an embryonic army were established. What was left was to import citizens for the new state, hence the drive for Jewish immigration.

By 1948, with the collusion of the British Mandate, The Zionists failed to acquire, even by money, Zionist-inspired laws and economic pressure, more than 5.5% of the land of Palestine. But they succeeded in increasing the Jewish population from 9% to 30% of the total population and they trained an army of 120,000, or 20% of the Jewish immigrant population. (Compare this with a normal country, where the army makes up 1 - 2% of the population). This Zionist army was ready to bounce on Palestine.

It is often said in the standard Israeli narrative that, at the end of the Mandate, the Palestinians refused to accept the Partition Plan of Palestine, while the Jews accepted it. This narrative deliberately omits and distorts key facts.

How can the Palestinians accept to give away sovereignty over 54% of their country to Jewish European immigrants who controlled only 5.5% of Palestine, many of whom had just waded into their shores under the cover of darkness from a smuggler's ship?

In the would-be Jewish state, 457 Palestinian towns and villages suddenly found themselves under the rule of foreign immigrants. The Palestinians comprised about half of the total population of this new state.

They did not like it. Neither did Ben Gurion, for different reasons. In 1948, Ben Gurion proceeded to expel his Palestinian citizens even before Israel was declared and he went on, not only to conquer 54%, but 78% of Palestine and expel its population.. Al Nakba was born.

Zionists, now called Israelis, conquered 774 Palestinian towns and villages, depopulated totally 675 of them, while 99 remained under brutal military rule for 16 years to be replaced by second class citizen status.

It was the largest planned and foreign-supported ethnic cleaning in modern history.

Never before in modern history has a foreign minority descended upon the national majority of a country as in Palestine, depopulated its inhabitants, confiscated its land, property and records in the largest land robbery since WW II, destroyed its historical and religious landscape and obliterated its identity and history and called this crime as a victory for civilization and a divine intervention.

These who missed al Nakba of 1948 can see it re-enacted every day on their TV screens, albeit in different forms and under different pretexts.

Today the Palestinian population is about 10 million (9.650). Two thirds are refugees, the largest ratio among any people in the world. If you add those displaced in 1967, fully three quarters of the Palestinians are deprived of the normal human right to live at home. The remainder live under Israeli occupation, the longest and most brutal occupation in modern times.

You are the children and grandchildren of those refugees. You are fighting for the same cause: The right to return home. You have not sailed to Poland and Russia. Your adversaries sailed to your shores. You did not conquer, plunder and expel. Others did it to you.

Israel has waged 5 major wars, hundreds of raids by air, land and sea against the Palestinian people for exactly 21,412 days today. But Palestinians are still standing tall. They never surrendered.

In the last 6 years since the second intifada, 3500 Palestinians were killed, over 9000 are prisoners at present, but 40% of all adult male population have been imprisoned at one time by the Israeli occupation forces.

In what the author and film director, John Pilger, calls 'a war on children', seven hundred children were killed by Israeli occupation forces since 2000. This is not to mention Mohamed al Durra killed in his father's lap or Huda Ghalia, the child who lost all her family on a Gaza beach.

Ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity according the sixth principle of the Nuremberg Charter and the 1998 Statute of Rome. Collective punishment is contrary to Geneva Conventions. The International Court of Justice, the highest legal body in the world, in a landmark Advisory Opinion of July 2004, decreed that the Apartheid wall is illegal and Israel's brutal occupation is illegal.

The famous UN resolution 194, calling for the refugees' return has been affirmed by the UN over 130 times. It has been supported by all Human Rights Conventions. The majority of the people in the world support the Palestinian rights. Why then are they not implemented? Why do Palestinians continue to suffer?

I submit to you that a campaign of genocide has been waged against the Palestinian people, a genocide of killing, a genocide of elimination, a genocide of exile and banishment, a genocide of decapitating people by assassinating their leaders, a genocide of starvation, a genocide of slow death by cutting sources of food, water and medicine, a genocide of civilized life by destroying schools, universities and hospitals, a genocide of oblivion by destroying the national identity and denying the right for citizenship and nationality.

Israel has done that and more. It is the raison d'etre of Israel. Ben Gurion said that the destruction of Palestine is a pre-condition for the foundation of Israel.

We know all that. We also know that Israel could not have done that without the massive military, financial and political support of the US Administration. You live here and you know this better than me. You only need to read the report by Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, well-known scholars, not particularly pro-Arab, on the influence of Israel Lobby on US foreign policy and the damage it does to US interests.

While US foreign policy is openly and unashamedly biased in favour of Israel, Europe, The original colonial power, continues to play the same role it did in 1916. Europe gives conditional aid to Palestinians. It tells them: if you accept Israeli occupation and drop your rights, we will give enough aid to keep you alive. If you do not, we will let your starve. We will also not let anybody else help you. Deliberate starvation of a people is a crime against humanity. Yes this is what the hypocritical European politicians publicly declare.

The conditional aid they give to Palestinians is in effect financing the occupation. Israel, the Occupying Power, is obliged under the 4th Geneva Convention and generally Humanitarian Law to pay for all services needed for the occupied people. Europe relieves Israel from this burden and let it free to conduct its brutal occupation

I once said to some European diplomats : Do you not have the courage at least to recover the cost of hospitals you built and Israel destroyed? He could not answer.

The monumental verdict by the International Court of Justice of 9th July 2004 and its subsequent endorsement by the UN did not cause any western power to move Nato forces, apply sanctions or economic blockade, not even make a strong protest, against Israel's violation of international law, as they have done with ferocity in innumerable other cases.

Outside the UN resolutions, western powers have proposed over two dozen schemes for the so called "peace in the Middle East" since Israel was conditionally admitted to the UN in 1949.

As an exercise, I went through all those schemes. Not one of them, not one, forces Israel to implement International Law. They all require Palestinians to drop all or most of their rights, under the rubric of "realism" and ask them to legitimize Israel's violation of International Law.

Take the Right of Return. It is enshrined in International Law and affirmed repeatedly, particularly for the Palestinian refugees. It has been implemented in Kosova, Bosnia, East Timor, Ruwanda, Guatemala, Abkhazia, Afghanistan and Iraq. But not in Palestine. Why?

The response we here from sympathetic Europeans: it is not realistic, it is not feasible, there is no room, villages are destroyed, no where to return toŠ..etc.

What if this is true? This is like saying: If you intend to kill or steal, you will be punished. But if you successfully kill and steal, you are forgiven for the crime and what you steal is yours. There is no moral, legal or even political logic behind that.

But it is not true. Such Zionist myths have been demystified long ago. We have shown that:

1. The land of the refugees, which is 93% of Israel, is inhabited by 1.5% of Israeli Jews, largely in the Kibbutz, which is financially and politically bankrupt. The Kibbutz share the refugees' land with the army for its expansionist and occupation campaigns.

2. 90% of the village sites are still vacant, 7% are partially built-over, and only 3% are totally built over in Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem.

3. The total number of Russian immigrants is equal to all registered refugees in Lebanon and Gaza. If Israel wanted peace, refugees could have returned. Instead, new conflict is created and the racist Sharansky and Lieberman became new Israel's leaders.

4. 97% of refugees are located within 100 km from their homes and 50% are within 40 km, a mere bus ride. Many can see their houses but they cannot get there.

5. Gaza population density is 6000 persons/km2 while their land, a few kilometers away, is empty, at 6 rural Jews/km2. All the rural Jews in half of Israel, from Ramleh to Um Rashrash (Eilat) are less in number than a single refugee camp in Gaza.

We could go on and on. This was published in books and atlases. The facts were never disputed by Israelis, only the motives behind them.

That is about Palestine enemies. But what about the Palestinian position?

PLO was formed in 1964 as the representative of the Palestinian people with the sole aim of restoring their rights. In 1974, the UN passed several resolutions to affirm that these rights are inalienable. In 1988, The Palestine National Council made a major concession. It split its national objectives into two: (1) establishing a Palestine state on only one fifth of its territory and ( 2 ) pursuing the Right of Return of the refugees to their homes wherever they may be, precisely in the meaning of resolution 194.

Oslo Accords of 1993 were a watershed. Palestinian leadership, at its lowest ebb, accepted these Accords which had two major flaws: (1) they ignored the massive body of International Law that supported Palestinian rights, and (2) The Palestinian people were neither consulted nor have they agreed to Oslo Accords in any fully representative way through referendum or a freshly elected PNC. The major victim was the refugees rights.

Hence, the Rights of Return Movement was born. Committees, groups and associations were formed in every place in the world where there were concentration of refugees. By 1998, the fiftieth year of al Nakba, this movement became a formidable voice. Dedicated activists, academics, writers and community leaders worked tirelessly and joined forces with liberal and human rights groups. Today no one can deny their presence. But they lacked a unified consolidated political entity. This situation is becoming detrimental to our cause and cannot continue.

The reason is simple. The internal conflict between Hamas, the elected PA government and Fatah, the old largely corrupt faction, stifled any progress towards the essential Palestinian issues.

Last month, I met many Palestinian leaders, including Abu Mazen. It is my considered opinion, supported by many others, that Fatah clings to PLO structure, which it previously marginalized, as the only remaining vehicle for power.

Israel and Western powers support Abu Mazen more or less and act to destroy Hamas government because it is the elected representative that would not forefeit Palestinian inalienable rights.. Israel does not consider Palestinians or Arabs a military threat. But Palestinians have a coveted valuable prize that Israel desperately seeks: that is legitimacy, that is for Palestinians to say: there is no Palestine, no Palestinians, no rights big or small. They want Abu Mazen, the nominal head of outdated PLO, to sign on behalf of all Palestinians on the required concessions, in what would be called a historic settlement. Then he and PLO will be dumped in the bin.

Organized members of Fatah, Hamas and other factions do not count for more than 5% of all Palestinians. Where is the voice of 95% of Palestinians? Who represents them now? Who defends their rights? It is, and should be, the Palestine National Council, the source of ultimate power and the arbiter of the destiny of the Palestinian people.

As you know, the old PNC is now defunct, its members have been gathered arbitrarily and it has grown to 600 or 700 unknown people. Many have died or lost touch with the people. There must be a new PNC, clean, lean and truly representative council through elections everywhere. It is our only safety net.

We have a large database to know who the Palestinians are, where they come from, where they are today. Elections could be held in many parts of the world and, where not possible, other representative means may be devised.

The PNC membership should not exceed 250, at the rate of one member for 40,000 or 4 village units. Only 33% of Palestinians now live in Occupied Palestine of 1967, under PA. All Palestinians, including those in 1948, should be represented.

These simple and necessary principles are rejected or obstructed by current leadership. They wish to allocate half the seats to the one-third of the people under PA. They underestimate the weight of Palestinians abroad. One leader, who appears on TV frequently, told me, "we are in the fire. We represent you. That is enough". He did not mention the secret agreements by his ilk to drop the Right of Return, nor the corruption as his credentials.

This old tired leadership gives lame excuses for not holding PNC elections. They delay endlessly convening the meeting of the Preparatory Committee which should be entrusted with holding the elections.

They ignore the major fact, plain to all, that western powers court the present leadership for the single reason that they sign concessions in the name of PLO on behalf of the Palestinian people. Then they and PLO will be wiped out. The two thirds of Palestinians will be left to their own devices or forcibly settled somewhere.

We must prevent this happening. PLO and PNC are our major, probably only, achievement in the past half a century as the representative of the Palestinian people. A new PNC must be elected soon.

To do that, we have to forge a union of all groups to speak with one voice. We then must hold a popular conference of 1000-2000 people for Palestinians of all walks of life. A venue is already available. We must form a single unified people's voice very soon. We must participate in the Preparatory Committee of PNC and prevent it being high-jacked by old cronies.

As we have forced our presence in the media and human rights activism, we must now have a real, strong voice in shaping our destiny.

Our resilience and determination has carried us through 58 years. We should carry this message forward, a message of freedom and justice.

And as we always say:
Ma dha'a huqqon wara'hu mutalib.
(No right is lost if pursued vigorously).

---------
Her eyes and the tattoo on her hands are Palestinian,
Her name, Palestinian,
Her dreams and sorrow, Palestinian,
Her kerchief, her feet and body, Palestinian,
Her words and her silence, Palestinian,
Her voice, Palestinian,
Her birth and her death, Palestinian.

- Mahmoud Darwish.

NLG chapter censored at DePaul University over forum discussing

*Please circulate widely*

Defend Free Speech in Chicago!
DePaul College of Law Cancels Chicago Forum on Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq
Forum to be held tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 15 -- act now!

Succumbing to the pressure of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism in the U.S., the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago cancelled an ANSWER Coalition forum scheduled for tomorrow night, Friday, September 15. The room for the forum was reserved by the National Lawyers Guild chapter at DePaul. The National Lawyers Guild and ANSWER-Chicago were informed of the cancellation this afternoon, a little over 24 hours before the event.

Your help is needed to make DePaul abide by the right to free speech. Act now. Flood the Dean of DePaul University Law School, Glen Weissenberger, with phone calls and e-mails. Click here to send a letter to the Dean of the Law School. His phone number is 312-362-5146.

The title of the forum is "Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq: U.S. imperialism in the Middle East and the forces resisting it." Prominent Arab-American activist, Suzanne Adely, and the Western Regional Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition, Richard Becker, are scheduled to speak at the forum.

The university used three different excuses in its attempt to shut down the forum, claiming that the room was not big enough, that they would have to hire extra security and that there was an error on ANSWER's leaflet for the event. These excuses are hollow at best. Clearly, the cancellation was politically motivated and directed at silencing the subject matter of the forum.

Come to DePaul regardless

The ANSWER Coalition calls on all antiwar forces in the Chicago area to be at the Downtown DePaul campus at 25 East Jackson at 7pm -- no matter what.

By canceling the forum, the law school is attacking the free speech rights of people in Chicago and around the country and giving in to the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hysteria propagated by the Bush Administration, the right-wing and the ruling elite in this country. Supporters of the U.S.-Israeli war seek to attack, mute and drown out any voice that speaks the truth about the brutality of the Israeli war, apartheid and occupation.

Demand that the cancellation of the forum be rescinded. Demand that the DePaul University College of Law honor the free speech rights of Arabs, Muslims and everyone. Help make sure that the voices of struggle and justice continue to be heard. Below is the information to the Dean of Law School. You can also send a letter to him through the ANSWER Coalition website by clicking here.

Dean of Law School
Glen Weissenberger
(312) 362-5146
gweissen@depaul.edu

__,_._,___

Anti-Arab Racism, Islam, and the Left

Anti-Arab Racism, Islam, and the Left

by Rami El-Amine ; MR Zine; September 06, 2006

Racism against Arabs and Muslims long preceded the 9-11 terrorist attacks and has much of its roots in Western imperialism in the Middle East, especially Israel's colonization of Palestine.  Yet, the escalation that we witness today can be traced to the war on terror launched after 9-11 by Bush and his neoconservative ideologues with the backing of the Democrats.  Anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism has helped sell the detentions, wars, gulags, and occupations of US imperialism's latest and boldest venture into the Middle East and South Asia.  In turn, this imperial venture has further inflamed racist views of Arabs and Muslims.

What makes this growing racism so frightening is its wide acceptance in US society, particularly by the left.  With the latter, it is not as much conscious racism as not doing enough to fight it.  Part of this may be due to ambivalence, but it also stems from a lack of a dynamic understanding of Islamism.  Broad support gives anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism a sense of legitimacy and respectability that makes building a mass movement that can end the war and occupation of Iraq difficult, if not impossible, since so much of the support for the war is fueled by fear and racism.

We thrash, curse for air
As our strangler declares, look
How violent the Arab
-- Haiku for the Head Locked by Zein El-Amine

According to an ABC-Washington Post poll taken in March 2006, a majority of people in the US believe that "Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence," with 46 percent expressing a negative view of the religion, 7 percent higher than in the immediate aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  The poll also found that 25 percent of people in the US admitted to "harboring prejudice towards" Muslims and Arabs.  The institutional effect of this racism is stark.  The earnings of Arab and Muslim men working in the US dropped about 10 percent since 9-11, according to a new University of Illinois study.  The drop in wages was most dramatic in areas reporting high crime rates.  Robert Kaestner, co-author of the study said there was "an immediate and significant connection between personal prejudice and economic harm."

This should not come as a surprise when you consider the extent of anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism being perpetrated by governments and the media around the world.  The past year has seen the mass publication of Danish cartoons ridiculing Islam, police brutality and repression against North Africans in France, and a riot against mostly Lebanese immigrants in Australia -- all of which led to mass protests and, in the case of France, riots by Arabs and Muslims in response.

While such blatant racism has not yet provoked a similar response in the US, it has not been because of any shortage of incidents:

Last year a Washington, DC, radio host continuously referred to Islam as a "terrorist organization" on his show (Paul Farhi, "Muslims Call Comments by WMAL Host 'Hate-Filled,'" Washington Post 26 Jul 2005: C01).
The Coalition for a Secure Driver's License started a campaign to put up "Don't License Terrorists" billboards depicting an Arab holding a hand grenade in one hand and a driver license smeared with blood in the other.
 
Republican Congressman Tancredo of Colorado openly called for the US to preempt a terrorist attack by attacking Muslim holy sites like Mecca.
War on Terror

Anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism is an indispensable part of the so-called "war on terror" or "the long war," as it is now referred to, and US plans to dominate the Middle East.  By dehumanizing those that the US is waging war against, this racism makes their death and the destruction of their countries more palatable to the US public and quells domestic resistance to the war.  Today it helps numb people to the deaths of dozens of Iraqis per day and the mass murder of Lebanese and Palestinians by Israel.

Fomenting anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism has not been difficult because, as Noam Chomsky puts it, such racism has "long been extreme, the last 'legitimate' form of racism in that one doesn't even have to pretend to conceal it."  I do not want to minimize all the other forms of racism that run deep in this country, but there is indeed a certain legitimacy and respectability given to anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism that is not found with other forms of racism.  This legitimacy stems from the fact that anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism cuts across the entire political spectrum, from right to left.  It is accepted and even practiced by those who would not tolerate other forms of racism.  While the anti-racist record of liberals and some on the left is not the best, it is particularly bad when it comes to Arabs and Muslims.

Green Menace

Arabs have historically been more the targets of this racism than Muslims.  This began to change in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution because it was no longer just Arabs who were the enemy.  The end of the Cold War and resistance to US hegemony, particularly by Muslims in the Middle East, made Islam a useful scapegoat for US imperialism -- its new bogeyman now that communism was gone.  Books by the Orientalist Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations became popular because they gave "scholarly" backing to the idea that Islam was the main threat to Western "civilization."

Many have drawn parallels between this scapegoating of Muslims to the red scare during the Cold War, referring to it as the "green menace."  While the comparison is appropriate, the concept of the green menace is, in many ways, much more insidious because it relies on racism rather than ideology.  It is a more effective means of instilling fear in people, deflecting their attention from their everyday problems, and mobilizing them against some supposedly powerful enemy.  That is not to say that the red scare was not (and still is not) used in a racist manner against countries like Vietnam, North Korea, China, Cuba, and against black activists in the US.  It is just that the main communist bogeymen, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, were white Europeans.

The specter of the green menace, on the other hand, relies on the fact that Muslims look different and, even if they do not look different, they have distinct names, places of worship, dress, and customs that can be easily exploited to portray them as the "other" -- different, prone to violence, and barbaric.  Also, in the age of "full spectrum dominance," this racism can be used to justify and mobilize attacks on a huge swath of the world's poor because Muslims are not only present in large numbers in the Middle East, but in Africa, Asia, and most urban centers in Europe, the United States, and Canada.

Having said that, I have chosen to use the term "anti-Arab/anti-Muslim" rather than just one or the other because both groups -- and many others, including Sikhs, who are neither Arab nor Muslim -- are the targets of the racism we are seeing today.  The piercing words, physical assaults, and flying bombs and bullets do not know nor care that we are not all the same.

Republicratic Racism

The racist hysteria around an Arab company, Dubai Ports World (DPW), managing six US ports is a good example of both the uniqueness and pervasiveness of anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism in the US.  During the public debate over the deal, it was those who traditionally have at least paid lip service against racism, the Democrats, who were the most xenophobic and, in some cases, downright racist.  At a rally in Newark, New Jersey, attended by a number of Democratic Congressmen, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) described the port deal as an "occupation."  He added that "we wouldn't transfer the title to the Devil; we're not going to transfer it to Dubai."

The liberal group MoveOn.org was less blatantly racist but still contributed to the hysteria.  On its website it asked people how it should respond to the "port security scandal."  In their summary of the issue, they regurgitated the same distorted arguments politicians from both parties had been using, like "Dubai is . . . known as an international money laundering hub for Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks."  Such use of unsubstantiated generalizations only feeds into the stereotype that the Middle East is crawling with terrorists.  Of the five possible responses that MoveOn.org asked people to choose from, all but one fed into the anti-Arab hysteria whipped up around the deal.  For example, one of the choices was for MoveOn.org to "[f]ocus on whichever course is most likely to stop the ports from being handed over to the UAE."  The other was to "[s]upport the Democratic bill in the Senate banning all corporations owned by foreign governments from managing security at American ports."  None of the options were about exposing the anti-Arab bias of both political parties and the media.

With Democrats and liberals taking such a right-wing stance, it's no wonder that Bush and some Republicans were portrayed as supporting the deal because they were friends of Arabs.  In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, liberal Richard Cohen says, "Maybe because Bush is a Bush -- son of a president who got to know many Arabs -- or maybe because he just naturally recoils from prejudice, his initial stance on this controversy has been refreshingly admirable."

Yes, remarkably, Bush may indeed be a defender of Arabs.  However, he is selective in which Arabs he defends.  Bush is more than willing to protect the rich Arab monarchies that lord over the Gulf, but certainly not the thousands of Arabs and Muslims that his racist war on terror has maligned, detained, imprisoned, tortured, and killed.  Nothing captures this fact and the dehumanizing role of racism better than the following words from a letter Guantanamo Bay detainee Jumah Dossari gave his lawyer before attempting suicide:

The detainees are suffering from the bitterness of despair, the detention, humiliation, and the vanquish of slavery and suppression.  I hope you will always remember that you met and sat with a "human being" called "Jumah" who suffered too much and was abused in his belief, self, dignity and also in his humanity.  He was imprisoned, tortured, and deprived from his homeland, his family, and his young daughter who is in the most need of him for four years . . . with no reason or crime committed.

Sadly, Jumah Dossari is only one of thousands of Arab and Muslim prisoners, many of them nameless, being "detained" in US prisons and unknown "black sites" around the world, including here in the US at places like the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The Anti-war Movement

United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and others in the anti-war movement, as well as generally perceived progressive groups such as the Green Party sat out the DPW deal "controversy" and, more importantly, the whole anti-Muslim cartoons debate.  There were protests on every continent, led mostly by Muslims who saw this as part of a broader war on Islam by non-Muslims -- one that they were actually finally allowed to act on, as opposed to more egregious aspects of the war on terror like torture, imprisonment, and occupation that their rulers do not want to rock the boat over.  The failure of anti-war groups in the US to organize any events in solidarity with Muslims worldwide, let alone even put out statements condemning their publication, helped reinforce the perception that the anti-war movement is not concerned with anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism.

On the positive side, some of the anti-war groups who are part of UFPJ have been organizing speaking tours of Iraqis.  US Labor Against the War (USLAW) organized a tour of six Iraqi trade unionists around the country in June 2005, and in early 2006; Code Pink brought several Iraqi women to the US on a powerful tour involving Cindy Sheehan and other families of US soldiers killed in Iraq.  Such events are very effective in combating racism because they humanize Iraqis and help break down stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims.  The Green Party has also been good about issuing statements condemning the government's targeting and racial profiling of Arabs and Muslims.  However, if groups are genuinely concerned and committed to bringing about a just peace in the Middle East, then an explicit strategy of confronting anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism needs to be a central and consistent part of their work.

The failure of some anti-war groups to take anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism head-on may be due to the small number of Arabs and Muslims involved, and organizations' lack of movement on these issues then reinforces the lack of Arab and Muslim involvement.  For example, there is only one Muslim (and no Arabs) on UFPJ's Steering Committee.  While UFPJ does manage to have Arabs and Muslims speak at their actions and events, they are generally not involved in organizing with UFPJ on any consistent basis.

Islamophobia and Zionism

The failure of many in the US antiwar movement to fight anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism is often rooted in conscious or unconscious acceptance of two interconnected racist ideologies of Islamophobia and Zionism.  A good example of this is the anti-war movement's wary response to Hamas' overwhelming victory in this year's Palestinian legislative elections.

The election was immediately seized upon by Zionists to tighten the occupation and add to the already heightened racism against Arabs and Muslims in the US.  While US and European leaders were mobilizing the world against the new, democratically elected government of Hamas (punishing the entire Palestinian people in the process) on the grounds that it did not renounce violence and recognize the state of Israel, few in the anti-war movement were exposing the virulent anti-Arab racism found at all levels of the Israeli government, which is actively working to ensure that a Palestinian state will never exist, refuses to give equal rights to Palestinians (and all non-Jewish residents of Israel), and is killing Palestinians on a daily basis.  At the annual conference of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, DC, in March, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN commented: "While it may be true . . . that not all Muslims are terrorists, it also happens to be true that nearly all terrorists are Muslim."  This comment was applauded and went unchallenged by the media or any of the Congresspeople in attendance.

Calls for the ethnic cleansing or "transfer" of Palestinians are not uncommon in Israel, even at the highest levels of the government because Zionism -- a product of European colonialism -- sees a Jewish majority and Jewish-privileged state as being incompatible with respecting the rights of the indigenous inhabitants of historic Palestine.  Rehavam Zeevi, the Minister of Tourism assassinated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 2001, called Palestinians "lice" and "a cancer" and openly advocated their forced transfer.  In March, Zvi Bar'el, a regular columnist for the Israeli paper Haaretz wrote, "Israel's problem is not Hamas, strong or weak; the problem is with the Palestinian people, who chose it.  They have to be changed or eliminated if one wants quiet. . . ."  Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Israel Is Our Home party, the largest party in the sizeable Russian bloc in Israel's new Knesset, supports what is essentially a plan to ethnically cleanse Israel of its Palestinian citizens.  Sergei Podrazhansky, the editor of one of Israel's Russian language dailies, said "I know that even the most left-wing person in Israel wants to wake up and not see any Arabs here."  The annual poll by the Center for the Struggle Against Racism shows that comments like these are not isolated views. The poll found that 68% of Israeli Jews would refuse to live in the same building as an Arab and 40% believe "the state needs to support the emigration of Arab citizens" (Eli Ashkenazi and Jack Khoury, "Poll: 68% of Jews Would Refuse to Live in Same Building as an Arab," Haaretz 22 March 2006).

Support for the "transfer" or expulsion of Palestinians is evident in the US as well, particularly among neoconservatives.  In response to a suicide bombing in Israel in August 2001, two neoconservative Washington Post columnists, Michael Kelly and Charles Krauthammer, called for the expulsion of Palestinians.  So it was no surprise to read the rank racism in Krauthammer's column following Hamas' recent election victory.  He said, "By a landslide, the Palestinian people have chosen these known stances: rejectionism, Islamism, terrorism, rank anti-Semitism, and the destruction of Israel in a romance of blood, death and revolution."

The US media, and even many activists, perpetuate the steroetype that Hamas wants to destroy Israel, rather that listening to what Hamas has to say about its goals.  Hamas' leadership has often publicly committed to end violent resistance and enter into negotiations to resolve the main impediments to a just peace for the Palestinians.  In a July 11 Washington Post Op-Ed by the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh from Hamas, described the conditions necessary to make this possible: "[R]ecognition of the core dispute over the land of historical Palestine and the rights of all its people . . . reclaiming all lands occupied in 1967; and stopping Israeli attacks, assassinations and military expansion. . . . Statehood for the West Bank and Gaza, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem, and resolving the 1948 Palestinian refugee issue fairly, on the basis of international legitimacy and established law."

Colonial Mentality

Israel's colonization of Palestine has actually been the source of much of the anti-Arab/anti-Muslim ideas that have been accepted by the mainstream.  The propagation of the idea that Palestinians are Arab and Muslim fanatics not deserving of rights and equality, let alone their own state, has been an indispensable part of the process of the creation, expansion, and support of the state of Israel since 1948.  What has helped these ideas spread and become "legitimate" in the US are not neoconservatives like Krauthammer, but liberal supporters of Israel who are actively involved in the Democratic Party and social justice causes.  While this has changed over the past six years as more people have begun to identify Israel with US imperialism and apartheid South Africa, supporters of Israel still play an important role in making these ideas acceptable, particularly on the left (see the Arab Women's Solidarity Association's "The Forgotten ' -ism:': An Arab American Women's Perspective on Zionism, Racism and Sexism").

For example, in response to the US Green Party (USGP) Resolution 190 calling for divestment from Israel, opponents have started a "Let 190 Go" campaign complete with its own website, www.advocatesforisrael.org.  A number of prominent leftists and former candidates of the Green Party like Stanley Aronowitz and Marakay Rogers have been pushing to repeal the resolution.  While most have been careful to avoid racist arguments (a difficult thing to do when supporting a racist state), many have cited a letter from the Israeli Green Party (IGP) in their effort to convince more Greens to repeal the resolution.  The letter is rife with arguments based on racist stereotypes, like "Did you know that in the Palestinian media there is glorification of violence and of suicide bombers?"

In arguing against the resolution, one prominent global justice activist and member of the DC Statehood Green Party (DCSGP) said, "I feel if the USGP party won't listen to fellow Greens in Israel . . . my continued membership or enthusiasm for our party is going to shrink . . . as Green Values . . . seem to have changed with this stupid resolution."  But he exposed the colonial mentality of so many supporters of Israel when he said that it all boils down to the fact that "Israelis should have human rights too and quality of life doesn't have to suffer in order to improve the Palestinian's."  In other words, he is concerned about Israelis having to give up their swimming pools so that Palestinians could drink and water their fields.

Worthless Arab Lives

The tragic consequences of the failure of the anti-war movement in the US to challenge anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism were laid bare during Israel's bloody invasion of Gaza and Lebanon.  The public support for or, at best, indifference to such massive loss of innocent life and virtual destruction of entire countries and territories can only be fathomed in the context of a racism that basically says that Arab and Muslim lives are worthless and dispensable.  In what other situation would the blatant targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure and the carrying out of not one but three massacres in the span of a week by a close US ally -- with explicit US approval and military support -- be tolerated?  Add to this the fact that something similar continues to take place in Gaza and dozens of Iraqis are dying every day under the US occupation in Iraq.

Nothing exemplifies this dehumanization better than the case of Private Steven D. Green, the US soldier who raped a young Iraqi girl along with several other soldiers and then killed her and her entire family in the town of Mahmudiyah.  Well before this incident, Green had said in an interview with a Stars and Stripe correspondent (now AP reporter) that he came to Iraq to kill people.  He said, "I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing. . . . Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant.  I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza.'"  I'm not sure what's more problematic -- what Green said or the fact the reporter never reported it until charges were filed against Green.

Of course such racism is dismissed as the words and actions of some crazed individual.  But Green's comments --- like those of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who fought in the first Gulf War and said similar things -- are the logical outcome of the racism being espoused at the highest levels of government and in the media.  In response to the dozens of Lebanese civilians that were being killed in the early days of Israel's assault, US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said with no regrets: "There's no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and those killed in Israel from malicious terrorist attacks."  Meanwhile the mainstream media portrayed the war as being between equals even though over 1200 Lebanese, almost entirely civilians, and only 157 Israelis, more than two-thirds soldiers, were killed.

Instead of immediately challenging this and other lies, UFPJ reinforced the perception of a symmetrical war propagated by the media by mentioning first in communications their concern for "the loss of life on all sides . . . all attacks on civilians" and front-loading condemnations of Hezbollah, without necessarily even getting to the point of the grossly uneven death and destruction in Lebanon and Palestine caused by Israel.  Although the statements UFPJ released improved as the slaughter of Lebanese and Palestinians continued unabated (partially due to feedback from Palestine-solidarity activists), they did not even call for a day of decentralized protests around the country.

To get a sense of how conservative UFPJ was around the invasion of Lebanon, one need only compare their statements and actions to anti-war groups and individuals in other countries.  A widely distributed and lauded video during the fighting was British MP George Galloway's interview on Sky Television (Britain's Fox) in which he not only exposes the media's bias toward Israel but challenges the widely accepted view in the West that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.  This argument needs to be made because after 9-11 most people in the US don't need to hear anything beyond "this is a terrorist organization" to make up their mind about who is right and who is wrong.  Therefore, challenging the US government labels of "terrorist" would go a long way toward shifting the debate in this country on issues related to the "war on terror."

The reason no one in the US has done what Galloway did is that in addition to Islamophobia there is a level of acceptance of the lies about Islamism, even by radicals.  For example, the anti-capitalists who blog at www.threewayfight.blogspot.com posted an entry titled "Defending My Enemy's Enemy" during Israel's recent invasion of Lebanon in which they argued that while Israel is the clear aggressor in the conflict and needs to be opposed, it doesn't mean the left should support Hezbollah.  The bloggers argue:

ŠHezbollah is essentially a right-wing political movement.  Its guiding ideology is Khomeini-style Islamic fundamentalism.  Hezbollah's political ideal, the Islamic Republic of Iran, enforces medieval religious law, imposes brutal strictures on women and LGBT people, persecutes religious and ethnic minorities, and has executed tens of thousands of leftists and other political dissenters.

If it's not already, this argument will one day become part of one of Hillary Clinton's or even George Bush's (minus the part about LGBT people) speeches justifying a war on Lebanon and Iran.  Even though the entry is insignificant in terms of the number of people who probably read it, it articulates a political view that a lot of the left, particularly anarchists and anti-authoritarians, subscribe to but are not as open about -- hence their conspicuous absence from a lot of the organizing against Israel's invasion.

These kinds of arguments ignore the fact that Hezbollah gave up on fighting for a theocracy long ago.  It is an established political party in a multi-ethnic and -religious state in which they have the support and admiration of the other ethnic and religious groups and work closely with those on the left as well as the right.  Additionally, Hezbollah's recent victory was not just a victory over the Israeli apartheid state but a major blow to US imperialism, the main source of oppression and exploitation in the world.  It could possibly have a libratory effect not just in the Middle East but also in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Understanding Islamism

In short, proponents of anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism can be broken down into several groups.  One consists of the Pipes and Krauthammers of the world who see Islam as inherently violent, authoritarian, intolerant (anti-Semitic, misogynist, etc.), and therefore a natural breeding ground for terrorists.  Another group says that it is not Islam but political Islam or Islamism that is the source of terrorism -- that Islamists have twisted what is otherwise a "good" religion for their own fanatical purposes.  Fluctuating between these two groups is the majority of people in the US, who, according to the ABC-Washington Post poll cited earlier, have for now apparently bought into the first group's blatant racism.

This is not surprising since Pipes, et al. are given free reign in the op-ed pages of the Washington Post and New York Times and appear extensively in the media.  They also have the ears of a large number of politicians, including their fellow neocons in the administration.  But the main reason for the growth in the number of people who feel Islam is inherently prone to terrorism is the paucity of people exposing and combating these ideas.  Even those who say Islamism is the problem and not the religion itself end up feeding into stereotypes of Muslims because their arguments are based on generalizations -- that all Islamists are reactionary and even fascistic -- and the false belief that there are other stronger secular forces and factors that are being ignored by the media.

A good example of this could be seen on the USLAW tour of Iraqi trade unionists.  A number of people stressed that the tour was a good way to show that there was a more progressive alternative to the Islamists and Baathists when it came to opposition to the US occupation.  One problem with this is that it overstates the role unions play in the opposition to the occupation.  But the bigger problem is that the leaders of one of the unions doing the best work against the occupation, the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra (GUOE), clearly sympathize and have close relations with the Islamist Moqtada Al Sadr.  I would even venture to say that the majority of the Basra oil workers -- who have gone on strike several times, including most recently in February 2006, over economic as well as political issues like privatization and the occupation -- are supporters of Al Sadr.

The GUOE and its leaders are a perfect example of why a more dynamic understanding of Islamists -- one that does not lump them all into one homogenous group and dismiss them as reactionaries -- is needed.  While only a minority of Muslims might consider themselves Islamists, a large number, maybe even a majority, support them.  This is especially the case among the poor and marginalized.  As the Islamists have steadily filled the vacuum created by the disintegration of the left (a direct result of US intervention in the region), they have taken on some of the language and politics of the left, becoming the main force in resisting the ravages of poverty, imperialism, and authoritarian rule.  As a result, they have also gained the support of some non-Islamist political activists and co-opted others, becoming the hegemonic force in opposition to the ruling regimes and their imperial backers.

Islamists

This is not to say that all Islamists are progressive, but that they are not uniformly reactionary.  Moreover, each Islamist group or party differs from the other in significant ways.  They are products of their own distinct histories, shaped by different colonial experiences, class struggles, and imperialism.

For example, Hamas and Hezbollah reflect the experience of a much poorer and oppressed population than Al-Qaeda.  As a result of not being based in any one country and who its leaders are, Al-Qaeda says and does very little for workers and the poor.  Hezbollah takes positions against privatization and neoliberalism and for workers' rights that have historically been taken up by the left in Lebanon.  Moreover, like some of their fellow Shiite Islamists in Iraq, Hezbollah is not trying to create a theocracy through an Islamic revolution but work within a democratic system to ensure the rights and aspirations of the Shiites, the most downtrodden in Lebanese society.

In contrast, those groups who hold or have held state power like the Islamists in Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan are more right-wing and authoritarian, ruthlessly suppressing any resistance.  Almost all the groups that are allowed to operate openly -- or in the case of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, semi-openly -- provide a wide range of social services to the poor.

Hamas and Hezbollah have also been shaped by a resistance struggle against Israeli occupation and US imperialism.  In Iraq, the Sadrists took up arms against the US occupation while their fellow Shiite Islamists in the Dawa Party and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) supported it.  Hezbollah, and now Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, all participate in elections while Al-Qaeda and other Islamists reject them.

Even on the question of women's rights there are differences, with the level of involvement of women in the day-to-day activities of each group being an indicator of how supportive they are of women's rights.  With Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and most of the Islamist groups in Iraq, Sunni and Shiite, there is little or no involvement of women and little or no support for women's rights.  On the other hand, Hamas and the Egyptian Brotherhood ran women candidates; some even won.  And women are openly involved at many levels in Hezbollah (for more on this, check out the documentary The Women of Hezbollah airing on Link TV).

They'll Never Win

Exposing and ending anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism needs to be a priority in the anti-war movement and the left in general.  Doing so will not only bring more Arabs and Muslims into the movement, but also undercut the racist basis of support for the war.  It will also alleviate the sense of isolation and powerlessness that so many Arabs and Muslims feel as a result of being the targets of war and racism.

Such blatant injustice combined with a lack of any effective mass opposition to the US-backed murder of so many innocent Arabs and Muslims is, ultimately, what pushes people to resort to terrorism.  On the other hand, what the resistance in Lebanon has accomplished shows a successful alternative to such desperate and, ultimately, counterproductive tactics.  It has also shown how quickly things can turn in this seemingly overwhelming struggle to stop the US war machine.

Most importantly, however, Lebanon has shown that we, Arabs and Muslims, can be locked up, tortured, and bombed but we will never stop resisting US and Israeli efforts to beat us into submission.  Nothing captures this better than the words of Kamel, a shopkeeper who refused to leave Nabatiyeh, one of the hardest hit towns in south Lebanon: "Look around you, they have destroyed much of Nabatiyeh, but that is all they can do, destroy people's homes and livelihoods.  They can't destroy our spirit and that is what they don't understand and why they will never win this war."

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