Sun, Nov 1: From Vietnam to Palestine: the NYT Black Statement 50 years later

This is NOT about water but we felt that this is an important event to share; the Alliance is a co-sponsor.

from Rabah Abdulhadi:

I am writing on behalf of AMED Studies, the National Black Education Agenda and IFCO/Pastors for Peace to invite you to attend, share and/or co-sponsor our online open classroom, From Vietnam to Palestine: The New York Times Black Statement 50 Years Later," on Sunday, November 1st, 2020 at 11am-2pm PT (2-5pm ET, 9pm-midnight Palestine).

This event will mark the exact 50 years since the publication of The New York Times statement on Palestine by Black leaders on November 1, 1970. We are fortunate to host Black leaders who signed and published the statement. Fran Beal, Phil Hutchings, Robert Van Lierop will join Sam Anderson who edited the statement (and lost any possibilities of being tenured as a result). None of our distinguished luminaries need any introduction. We are so honored that they have agreed to share their oral histories, critical analysis, and what that statement means for today on Sunday.

This event will also mark the last in a 3 part series we held this year as a collaboration between AMED Studies and the National Black Education Agenda co-founded by our comrade Sam Anderson. As some of you know, we held the first event in person on February 15th in San Francisco in collaboration with the NBEA, the Freedom Archives and several other community groups, in honor of Black History Month. We held our second event on May 19th in response to the global pandemic that forced us, our students and classes to connect online due to global pandemic. And now we arrive at our third and last conversation.

We are so fortunate that Gail Walker, Executive Director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organizing will be co-moderating the discussion with me so we can give more time to Dr. Anderson to speak and discuss. Ms. Walker and IFCO/Pastors for Peace have had their share of retaliation and bullying by Israel lobby groups. Part of our discussion will focus on the cost of such bullying and intimidation while we insist, along with our Jewish comrades, that Zionists do not own Jewishness nor speak for all Jewish people.

There are so many issues to discuss, analyze, and draw historical lessons around. What I've shared is but the tip of the iceberg.

Share the event using this link.

Heartbreaking & Infuriating

"Illegal Israeli settlements discharge millions of cubic metres of wastewater into the West Bank every year. 

A large amount of the wastewater is untreated sewage that flows into Palestinian valleys and onto agricultural land. 

'Paradise lost': How Israel turned the West Bank into a sewage dump for its settlements

Residents and farmers say increasing quantities of sewage are being pumped onto their lands from the illegal settlements (MEE/Supplied)

Bi-Weekly Brief for October 19, 2020

Bi-Weekly Brief for October 19, 2020
 
Palestinians battered by Covid-19 and moves made by former Arab allies
In Palestine by Oct. 18 there were at least 58,227 cases (4,645 of them in Gaza) and 478 deaths.  Among those with Covid-19 are two of Palestine’s most prominent spokespeople, Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat, who is now on a ventilator in an Israeli hospital.  An interview by former US Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan on al Arabiya TV which was harshly critical of Palestinian leadership – past and present –signals the Saudi demotion of the Palestinian cause in the emerging anti-Iran regional re-alignment. On Oct. 12, the day the Knesset endorsed the UAE’s ‘normalization’ treaty with Israel, a cargo ship from Dubai arrived at Haifa.  The following day a Dubai-based company made a bid to buy Israel’s 3rd largest airline. 
 
Israel’s Covid strategy undermined by Haredi defiance and mounting civil unrest
Despite a plunge in cases after a month-long lockdown, the Covid-19 death toll keeps rising – it passed the milestone of 2,000 on October 12 and has now reached at least 2,202 deaths out of 302,911 who have been infected. The Haredim (ultra Orthodox), only 12% of Israel’s population, have been ignoring lockdown restrictions and account for 40% of new cases. With some restrictions relaxed on Oct. 18 but schools expected to stay shut, the Haredim defied the government by opening their boys’ schools.  Netanyahu, whose coalition includes ultra-Orthodox parties, appears powerless to stop them. Claiming the lockdown had ruined their business, some shopkeepers have burned their wares (Times of Israel, Oct. 15).  With the expiry of limits on the size of demonstrations, tens of thousands have again taken to the streets demanding Netanyahu’s resignation.  Haaretz (Oct. 17) reported that counter-protestors have used pepper spray and small explosives against the marchers and denounced them as “traitors” and “leftists.”
 
Green light given to settlement building as UN human rights agency denied visas
After the UN human rights agency last Feb. released the names of 112 companies that work in illegal Israeli settlements, its foreign staff were forced to leave the country.  Middle East Eye (Oct. 15) has revealed that no visas have been granted to the agency since then.  Meanwhile, according to Arutz Sheva (Oct. 14), more than 5,000 new settler homes have been approved for the West Bank.  With the onset of the olive harvest, settlers have attacked Palestinian farmers and burned their olive trees, adding to the estimated 800,000 trees vandalized or uprooted since 1967. 
 
As Israel consolidates de facto annexation, IDF raids accelerate in the West Bank
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Israeli soldiers made 127 incursions into the West Bank in a single week (October 8-14), raiding homes, making over 100 arrests, suppressing demonstrations, and demolishing buildings.  On Oct. 5, the IDF killed 24-year-old Sameer Ahmed Hamidi at a checkpoint near Tulkarem.  On Oct. 11, 53 people were hurt, at least 10 by live fire, when the army entered Amari refugee camp. Meanwhile Maher al-Akhras, a 49-year-old father of 6, is near death after an 85-day hunger strike to protest being detained without charges being filed since late July.  Dozens of other prisoners are hunger-striking in solidarity and to protest the leaders of the prisoners’ movement being placed in solitary confinement. 
 
Water Fact
On nearly a daily basis during the Oct. 5 – 19 period, Israeli gunboats have fired on Palestinian fishing boats within 3 or 4 nautical miles from Gaza’s shore, damaging vessels and causing panic.  After Palestinians were promised a fishing zone of up to 20 nautical miles (37 kms.) by the Oslo Accords, the Israeli navy issued arbitrary restrictions of 6-9 nautical miles when it imposed its blockade on Gaza in 2007.  There used to be 10,000 registered fishermen in Gaza.  There are now fewer than 4,000.
 
Compiled by The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine

Banner design by Paul Normandia of Red Sun Press

The Alliance Wants Congress to Listen to Palestinian Voices

The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine would like to share with you a letter being sent to Congress today from individual Palestinians and Palestinian-led groups.  We signed this letter in solidarity because we want Palestinian voices to be heard by Members of Congress, and because we are in strong agreement with its central message:

“For Palestinians to be free, the US must stop funding Israel’s military, which regularly engages in violations of human rights and and international law without accountability….We must stop spending U.S. taxpayer dollars on weapons and war and oppression, and start investing in our collective wellbeing.” 

You can read the entire letter here.
----------