Eid Mubarak

During this time of reflection, ARA would like to express its solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters living in Palestine. Recently, Eid al-Adha marked the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and, as the following article notes, this year's Eid was one of the most difficult in recent memory for Palestinian Muslims. Israeli colonialism is making it harder and harder for folks of all faiths to practice their religions. Let us reflect on these sober realities today, and begin working toward destroying them tomorrow.

Gazans say this Eid is the worst ever
Rami Almeghari writing from occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 20 December 2007

A 500-meter-long street in the heart of Gaza City is empty of cars and vehicles, but full of men, women and children. Omar al-Mokhtar Street is considered the largest commercial area in Gaza where people from all over the coastal region have always come to shop, especially during the holiday season.

In recent days, Gaza, like other Islamic communities around the world, prepared to celebrate Eid al-Adha, a major holiday marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj. Normally a time of joy, this year's Eid is different from past years because Gaza suffers from the tight Israeli closures on all travel and commercial crossings.

People across this large street spoke to EI, expressing how they view the occasion under the current conditions, mainly the economic siege Israel has imposed since mid-June.

Abu Muhammad al-Khudary, owner of a used clothing store, was sitting idle with a young boy who helps around the shop.

"This year's Eid is unprecedented, people just come, ask, examine clothes and when it comes to price, they leave things on the table and walk away," says Abu Muhammad.

Abu Muhammad tells us that in past years, he used to stay open extra hours on the eve of the Eid doing good business, but now he closes the shop much earlier because of the lack of customers.

"What has affected our business these days is the ongoing siege, in addition to people's inability to buy clothes, whose prices are higher than ever."

Rajab Mansour, another clothing vendor, stood in front of his stand with arms folded on Monday at midday.

"I have been standing here since 8:00 am, yet I have only sold four shirts, each for only 20 shekels (four dollars)."

Abu Ehab Nassar, owner of a women's clothing shop in the Shija'ya local market, reputed to be the cheapest shop around, says that people now only buy the basic things and in smaller quantities than ever.

"I have been here over the past 11 years, yet I have never experienced such a recession. It's because of the siege which has impacted people's purchasing power and prevented entry of goods. Nowadays, we close the shop by sunset, but in the past we used to stay working until midnight."

Om Hatem, a housewife from Gaza City, was picking out some shoes for her four children at the Shija'ya market when EI asked her about shopping for the Eid. "In this situation, I can only buy one pair of shoes for each child, yet I used to buy more than one," she said. "The cuts in our husbands' incomes over the past year have forced us to reduce our expenditures, and we can no longer guarantee a regular flow of salaries."

Traditionally on Eid al-Adha Muslims slaughter a sheep, a commemoration of the prophet Abraham's sacrifice. The meat is often distributed to the needy. But over the past six months of the Israeli closure, many goods including livestock have not been allowed in. As a result of economic hardships and an inadequate supply of livestock, many Gazans are unable to meet what they see as one of their basic religious obligations.

A Gaza taxi driver, who chose not to give his name, said he wouldn't be fulfilling the tradition this year. "Over the past 20 years, I have always slaughtered a sheep on the Eid, but this year I am not going to take part in the tradition. I cannot guarantee the near future and I have to save money under such crippling economic conditions."

Media reports suggest that hundreds of livestock have been allowed into the coastal region from Israel via otherwise closed commercial crossings. However, such a small number cannot meet the high demand of Gaza's 1.4 million population.

Israel claims its closure is intended to prevent Palestinian resistance factions from firing homemade rockets onto nearby Israeli towns. While Israelis are rarely injured by these rockets, Palestinians continue to be maimed and killed on a daily basis by Israeli attacks from land and air.

On the ground it's the people who are suffering most from the Israeli closure. This human-imposed poverty has left many Gazans saying that this Eid al-Adha is the worst ever.

Rami Almeghari is currently contributor to several media outlets including the Palestine Chronicle, aljazeerah.info, IMEMC, The Electronic Intifada and Free Speech Radio News. Rami is also a former senior English translator at and editor in chief of the international press center of the Gaza-based Palestinian Information Service. He can be contacted at rami_almeghari at hotmail.com.

Noted Detroit Activist Dies

"A hero of Detroit's leftist movement in the 1960s and '70s, Ravitz teamed with attorney Ken Cockrel Sr. to shred some of the most insidious forms of abuse by local police, courts and jails."

ARA notes with sadness the passing of Justin Ravitz announced in today's edition of the Detroit Free Press. Ravitz was an important player in the Detroit radical scene of the 1960s and '70s. He participated in and was a product of the social movement Detroit experienced at the time. This social movement, documented in the excellent Detroit I Do Mind Dying by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin, gave rise to the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, the Detroit chapter of the Black Panther Party, the Motor City Labor League, and the proud period in The South End student newspaper when it actually fought for social justice instead of against it, and its masthead boldly declared, "One Class-Conscious Worker Is Worth 100 Students." Some may recall that these movements, and the League in particular, consistently aligned themselves with the struggle for the liberation of Palestine, and an infamous editorial in the South End in solidarity with that movement created an uproar that eventually led to the dismissal of John Watson as editor of the South End.

Ravitz was a part of this movement along with John Watson, General Baker, Ken Cockrel, Mike Hamlin, Luke Tripp, John Williams and Chuck Wooten. Mentors of this movement included Grace Lee Boggs, CLR James, and Martin Glaberman, all long-time Detroit activists. With his passing, a legacy that activists today can and should learn much from passes further from our vision. We honor his legacy by learning from the movements he was a part of and applying their lessons to our own work for a better world today.

Christmas Homily 2007

Brothers and Sisters,
I wish you all a Blessed Christmas.

Mr. President,
1. This holy night, we pray for you, for your difficult task, for the security and unity of the people, and for peace. May God give you light, wisdom and courage. For the leaders of this country, for all the leaders in the Middle East, we pray that God will grant all of them the grace of being able to bring about peace and stability here and throughout the entire region.

2. Brothers and Sisters,
The grace of God has appeared. The Eternal Word of God became man. Saint John tells us in clear terms, whose meaning nevertheless escapes the understanding of many: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1, 1) and “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (Jn 1, 14). That, my Brothers and Sisters, is the meaning of Christmas, that is what we celebrate, and that is why we rejoice. The prophet Isaiah had predicted: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light…a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace” (Is 9, 1.5). Saint Leo the Great, commenting on this mystery, said: “Human nature and divine nature were united in one person so that the Creator of time might be born in time, and he through whom all things were made might be brought forth in their midst” (Leo the Great, 2nd reading, Dec. 17).

The one through whom all things were made was brought forth in their midst, here in Bethlehem, to fill us with his grace, and to save us from the evil against which we must fight every day. Saint John says: “From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (Jn 1, 16). He then says: “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.” These words tell us that on Christmas, the only begotten Son, who alone knows the Father, who was born here in Bethlehem, born to bring life to men and women, has also enabled us to know God and to enter already here on earth into eternal life. This life is meant to shed light on all our efforts as we try to build our human society and struggle for peace. We have the power to transform all our challenges, joys and suffering into life everlasting, i.e. into a life with God, with his light, his strength and his goodness.

Christmas renews us “by the Holy Spirit whom God richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior” (Titus 3, 6), so that in hope we might inherit eternal life. With the strength that comes from this grace, with Christmas present in us every day, we commit ourselves to live in our society in order to bring it the peace of Christmas. Life in this world, with all of its poverty, all of its weaknesses, but also with the strength that comes from grace, must become in us the beginning of eternal life.

3. With this faith in God, with this grace of Christmas, we meditate on the mystery of our land which has not yet succeeded in seeing God within it, and naturally has not succeeded in making peace. With Christmas, with the goodness of God which He himself placed in every human person, it is essential, first of all, to believe that we are capable of making peace. But to do that, we must surpass ourselves and look at the other person through the eyes of God in order to receive justice for ourselves and for the others.

It is also important to understand the universal vocation of this land, and to see the will of God for the land both in the Scriptures and in the evolution of history of which the same God is Lord. He is the one who gathered all of us here throughout the centuries, Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze, we who today constitute two peoples, Palestinians and Israelis. To understand and accept this universal vocation is to accept the plan of God for this land and to become capable of establishing peace within it. Any exclusivism that pushes the other party aside or imposes occupation or any other type of submission on it is not in keeping with the vocation of this land. This land of God cannot be for some a land of life and for others a land of death, exclusion, occupation, or political imprisonment. All those whom God, the Lord of history, has gathered here must be able to find in this land life, dignity and security.

Each one knows what it takes to make peace. Each one knows what is due to each of the two peoples who inhabit this land. It is not up to the weakest to submit themselves and continue to live a life of deprivation; it is up to the strongest, to those who have everything in hand, to detach themselves and to give to the weakest what is due to them. All of the difficult questions can be resolved if all those involved are truly determined to make peace.

4. With all of the religious leaders in this land, we have started to meet and to reflect together. We wanted to ask ourselves, each of us, the question, as believers before God: what is justice before God for each of us? We are on a long and difficult road, because it involves freeing ourselves from the political system, from its exclusive views, and from its fears, in order to enable ourselves to say and to bring something new and good to everyone.

Human history is full of wars, but it is also full of God. And God is love. There should not be any tyranny on the part of some believers, who call themselves believers, but who carry out not the will of God, but their own will, Muslims or Jews or Christians. Some also have recourse to violence in the name of God or of God’s promises. Violence cannot claim to be part of any religion. Extremism, in all religions, is the desire to appropriate to oneself, to exclude, and to subject others, not to a faith in God, but to human behaviors that are hostile to the others. Religious leaders have a role to play in the education of believers, by confirming them in the ways of justice, of what is right, and of forgiveness, all the while demanding their rights, and collaborating with all men and women of good will.

5. Brothers and Sisters, you might be asking yourselves what is your role as Christians in the peace process and in the future of this land. Pope Benedict XVI, in his recent encyclical on Hope, says that the characteristic of “Christians is that they have hope, and to have hope is to have a future.”

This applies to us, Christians in the Holy Land and in the entire Middle East. Everyone is worried about our Christian presence here: Israel as well as the Palestinian Authority. King Abdalla II of Jordan has called attention for several years to the seriousness of the exodus of the Christian Arabs. Numerous Muslim voices are being raised in many quarters, calling attention to the vacuum that the exodus of Christians would create in the Arab Muslim world. The Christian world, for its part, is equally worried about our survival and about our disappearance.

To you, Brothers and Sisters, to all of you Christians in this land, you who are tempted to emigrate, you who are the object of everyone’s preoccupation, I say to you what Jesus told us: do not be afraid. Christians should not be afraid and should not run away from difficulties. Being Christian means sharing the concerns of all, building peace with everyone else, and accepting the sacrifices this implies, prison, possibly life, or the difficulties of daily life, of occupation, of the wall of separation, and of the lack of freedom of movement. All of this is our common fate, and all of us together, by our sacrifices, we must build peace for everyone.

To those who are tempted or pressed by difficulties to leave the country, we say: you have a place here, and more than a place, you have a vocation: to be Christians here, in the land of Jesus, and not elsewhere in the world. Accept your vocation, despite the fact that it is difficult. Our presence here will remain a witness to the universal vocation of this land, the land of God, and the land of the three religions and of the two peoples that inhabit it. Listen to the voice of your vocation, and listen to the voice of all those who want you to be present here.

Indeed, we live not only in the midst of a conflict, but are part of a history of which God is the master, a history made by God who invites us to make this history with Him. He is Lord of the entire history of the human race, since its distant beginnings, since the time of biblical history until today. He is the one who was, who is, and who will be. No person or period in history can avoid Him. He is the inevitable one with whom and before whom we live, act, and exist (cf. Acts 17, 28). Full of hope, free from fear, we continue to move ahead.

6. Brothers and Sisters,
I wish you a Blessed Christmas. We pray here this night, here in Bethlehem, for all of you in Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus. We pray for all who suffer, for the sick, and for the prisoners so that they can finally enjoy freedom and dignity. We pray for all our leaders so they can envisage justice, enter into the ways of peace, and have the courage to give it to their people. To the entire Christian world, from Bethlehem, we say: have a pleasant and blessed Christmas. Amen.

+ Michel Sabbah, Patriarch

Merry Christmas! Remember Beit Sahour!

We, the people of Bayt Sahur, being an integral part of the Palestinian people and its Intifada, refuse to pay taxes to the occupiers of our land, considering such payment to be a symbol of slavery and oppression. We consider the occupation of one people by another to be a clear violation of all international laws and religions, and it is in violation of the most basic human rights and democratic principles. We strongly believe that every citizen has to pay taxes to his national government in order to enable it to perform its duties and obligations. No taxation without representation!

With this leaflet from November 5, 1989, the people of Bayt Sahur (Beit Sahour) announced the beginning of a campaign of civil disobedience centered around the nonpayment of taxes to the Israeli government. Israel, afraid that such resistance would become a model to other villages and towns throughout the Palestinian territories during the first Intifada, responded to their resistance with force.

Bayt Sahur is a largely Christian village in the West Bank with a population of approximately 12,000. Its Christian population dates back hundreds of years, and local legend asserts that it was Bayt Sahurian shepherds to whom the bright star above Bethlehem signaling the birth of Jesus Christ appeared. The reason for this, the legend goes, is that Bayt Sahurians have a legendary reputation for gossip, and God therefore figured the news of Christ's coming would travel quickest if Bayt Sahurians found out first.

Bayt Sahur was the site of perhaps the most organized and effective Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonialism during the first Intifada. Residents of Bayt Sahur quickly concluded that the Intifada was no passing phenomenon and began organizing their own resistance beginning in January, 1988. Initial attempts at a coordinated, regional network failed, but more localized efforts flourished and soon, much of the town was involved in active resistance to Israeli colonialism.

This resistance took the form of popular committees organized by the citizens of Bayt Sahur at the grassroots. These popular committees, lijan sha'biya in Arabic, were the driving force of the Intifada, and established a security force to fight Israeli settlers and the Israeli army. They also organized commerce, medical care, and even judicial affairs. The people of Bayt Sahur did all this at great personal risk, since many of these activities were illegal, and could even result in their death.

Perhaps the most memorable campaign of resistance that occurred in Bayt Sahur during the Intifada was city resident's refusal to pay taxes to the Israeli government. This followed a call by the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising (UNLU) from February 5, 1988, to conduct "complete civil disobedience" ('isyan muduni shamil) including the nonpayment of taxes. The Israeli response began in July of that year. On July 7th, a curfew was enacted and numerous people were arrested. A sit-down strike was soon organized to demand the release of all those arrested. This, too, was brutally repressed by Israeli authorities, who arrested hundreds of people who took part in this action, sending many to prison. On July 17th, Archbishop Michel Sabbah threatened to begin a hunger strike unless the curfew was lifted. The Israeli authorities so feared the leader of Palestinian Christians and his ability through his actions to motivate others to resistance, that they called off the curfew that day. These and similar skirmishes continued for over a year, until in September of 1989, Israel decided to put an end to Bayt Sahur's civil disobedience campaign once and for all.

On September 20th, 1989, Israeli troops surrounded Bayt Sahur, setting up military checkpoints, cutting telephone lines, and barring nonresidents entry. Tax officials entered Bayt Sahur with armed security personnel and began raiding businesses and private residences, taking cash when available, but settling for other valuables, such as couches, TV sets, chairs and tables when they had to. On October 4th, Israeli authorities eased their siege and allowed Palestinians to pay taxes. No one did. This enraged Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who declared that Israel was going to "teach a lesson" to Bayt Sahur, knowing that the resistance in Bayt Sahur had to be crushed so that it would not be seen as an effective model of resistance elsewhere in Palestine. Following this declaration, Israeli aggression intensified, finally ending on October 31st, 1989 with the withdrawal of Israeli troops, although not before collecting almost $1.5 million in goods from Palestinian businesses and homes.

Although costly, the withdrawal of Israeli troops was hailed as a victory by the people of Bayt Sahur, who quickly thereafter hosted a Day of Prayer celebration. This celebration was attended by the mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Sa'd al-Din al-'Alami, who was greeted enthusiastically when he visited the churches of Bayt Sahur. In solidarity with the struggle of the people of Bayt Sahur, 'Alami issued a fatwa against the purchase of any goods confiscated by israeli authorities during the month of siege, calling it "stolen property," and declaring that, "It is forbidden or a Muslim, Arab, or any man with a conscience to buy any of these unjustly plundered goods. Purchasing any such item is like participating in the theft of the plundered goods, and whoever does so deserves punishment for stealing his brothers' property." At auction, much of this confiscated property did not sell.

This Christmas, let people of all faiths and denominations remember and honor our Christian brothers and sisters in Palestine, past, present, and future, in their struggle against Israeli apartheid.

(This account owes much to factual information and analysis found in chapter 4 of Glenn Robinson's Building a Palestinian State, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.)

United in the Struggle Against Israeli Apartheid

Today, an article from Electronic Intifada refutes the notion that Christians in Palestine are oppressed by their Muslim brothers and sisters. Instead, it notes that Palestinian Christians and Muslims are united in the struggle against Israeli apartheid.

Coexistence in Gaza

Mohammed Omer

GAZA CITY, November 27 (IPS) - As Sunday dawns in Gaza City the traditional Islamic call to prayer mingles melodically with church bells.

Side by side, mosque and church doors swing open, welcoming the faithful. Greetings are eagerly exchanged.

The October kidnapping and murder of Rami Ayyad, the manager of Gaza's only Christian bookstore, sent shudders through the Christian community.

Was this a hate crime or simply a tragic occurrence?

Monsignor Manuel Musallam, head of Gaza's Roman Catholic community, doubts the attack was religiously motivated.

"Rami was not only Christian," the Musallam told IPS. "He was Palestinian. Violent acts against Christians are not a phenomenon unique to Gaza."

Immediately upon hearing of the murder, the elected Prime Minister Ismail Hanyieh of Hamas ordered the Palestinian ministry of interior to dispatch an investigative committee to "urgently look into the matter," labeling Ayyad's death a "murderous crime."

"We are all one people who suffer together for the sake of freedom, independence and restoration of our inalienable citizenship rights," Hanyieh stated publicly. "We are waging a single struggle and refuse to allow any party to tamper with or manipulate this historical relationship, [between Muslims and Christians]."

Currently, Palestine's Christian community hovers between two and 10 percent.

In Gaza, approximately 3,000 Christians still call this territory home -- with the majority of the community living within Gaza City near the three main churches: the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, and the Gaza Baptist.

Christians in Gaza have the same rights as their Muslim neighbors, rights guaranteed under the Palestinian Declaration of Independence. Within the Legislative Council, several seats have been reserved for Christian leaders.

Seventeen-year-old Christian student Ali al-Jeldah told IPS about attending a dual faith school: "My life is normal and I've never felt oppressed. Being Muslim or Christian is never an issue."

"I have many Muslim friends. We hang out and study together with no differences at all," Al Jeldah said.

Lelias Ali, a 16-year-old Muslim student at Holy Family School, concurs. "We have a unity of struggle, a unity of aim -- to live under the same circumstances. This land is for both of us and being a Christian or Muslim should not separate us," she said.

"I have lots of friends. Being Muslim or Christian is not an issue," Diana al-Sadi, a 17-year-old student told IPS.

"I go to my friends' homes for happy and sad occasions," al-Sadi said, "including Christmas and Easter. They visit mine during Eid [the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan]."

When the students were asked if Christians are being harassed by Hamas or the Palestinian police, all agreed that this was not the case.

"Every society has extremists," Lelias Ali states. "Sometimes I'm criticized for not wearing my hijab [headscarf]. But that has nothing to do with being Muslim or Christian. Those people don't represent our Palestinian society."

Pausing for a moment, she considered the assertions in the international media regarding Muslims and Christians: "We should not let such ideas sneak into our minds. If we don't unite, then we lose."

Asked if Christians in Gaza feel singled out or oppressed, Musallam says, "Palestinian Christians are not a religious community set apart in some corner. They are part of the Palestinian people."

But what of Hamas, an Islamic political organization? Have Palestinian Christians experienced persecution or racism under their leadership, as Western papers insinuate?

"Our relationship with Hamas is as people of one nation," Musallam contends. "Hamas doesn't fight religious groups. Its fight is against the Israeli occupation.

And what of the Western media assertions that Gaza's Christians are considering emigrating because of Islamic oppression?

Sighing, Musallam corrects the misconception. "If Christians emigrate," he states resolutely, "It's not because of Muslims. It is because we suffer from Israeli siege. We seek a life of freedom. A life different from the life of the dogs we are currently forced to live."

All rights reserved, IPS - Inter Press Service (2007). Total or partial publication, retransmission or sale forbidden.

The Plight and Resistance of Christians in Palestine

With Christmas approaching, ARA decided to post some stories of Christians in Palestine fighting against Israeli apartheid alongside their Muslim brothers and sisters. Their resistance takes the form of "steadfastness" or refusal to leave their homeland. These stories are important to popularize in the United States because many Christians are unaware that Palestinian Christians suffer from Israeli apartheid. Here, their stories will be given a chance to be heard. This particular story can be found on page 13 of the pdf pamphlet available here.

Faith in the Holy Land
Taking faith beyond the church

Costa Dabbagh, a Palestinian Christian in his 60s, has never met some of his grandchildren. He cannot see his daughter, who lives just 90km away. He cannot visit the rest of his family, who are scattered across the globe. He has faced bombings, the strafings of Israeli fighter jets, fighting between rival Palestinian factions and the fear of being a refugee. But he has chosen to remain in Gaza , his home. “Just after the Israeli occupation, my parents, my brother and sister moved away. I was offered a job in Australia and even got my visa. But I stayed,” he recalls. “My family kept asking me to join them, and I often thought of leaving. But I think it was God's wish for me”.

This grey-haired man remembers leaving Haifa in Israel with his family at the age of eight – “in darkness and under fire” – and fleeing to Gaza in 1948. He stays, not because he serves the tiny Christian community here as executive secretary of the Near East Council of Churches (NECC), but because of his courageous commitment to a wider humanity.

Trapped

The Gaza Strip is a land which has been crushed. Rubble, chunks of concrete and half-destroyed buildings line the dusty streets of Gaza City . Behind a sign reading ‘funded by USAID’ is a multistory building seemingly flattened with one blow. Even the small signs of modern life – washing hanging brave little beach umbrellas on the coastline vainly hoping for tourists – are dwarfed by bleakness. The departure of Israel 's settlers has not changed anything fundamental: the soldiers are gone, but the borders are still closed and poverty is increasing. Intermittent factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas is taking a terrible toll, as people trapped within the borders turn on each other.

At the time we were speaking to Costa, people were queuing for bread outside the bakeries because flour was not being allowed in through the borders. “It reminds me of a joke about Marie Antoinette we learned in school,” says Costa, “when she said, ‘let them eat cake.’”

Unemployment is skyrocketing to unprecedented levels and 80 per cent of Gazans depend on UNRWA food aid to put even the most basic meal on the table.

A moment of normality

There are few places here where life can feel normal, even fleetingly. The NECC office is one of them. It is tranquil and serene, in contrast to the tumult outside. In a nearby building, young women learn tailoring and accounting in the hope that they can some day have a job. Young men learn woodworking. There is a sense of hope and purpose. In the NECC family clinic, the cool tile floors and pristine white walls are startling after the grimy, broken down feeling of everything around it. More than half the children here are anaemic. Medicine stocks are running out and some people can no longer afford even the tiny clinic fee – seven shekels, or 85 pence. But the doctors continue to work.

Regardless of faith

“Christians are part and parcel of this land. We have never felt like outsiders,” says Costa. “Yes, we are Christians, but we are Palestinian Arab Christians. We all suffer the same problems – we are traveling in the same boat. The NECC has been an example here. People see that we have no agenda other than our Christian witness – to help people regardless of faith. The young people who come to our centres are so vulnerable. We train them and integrate them into society. We make them feel they have a future, which is now more important than ever.”

“We should stay”

“I was born a Christian and continue to be one. But I always judge people according to their actions. If I see an Israeli soldier without a uniform, I will see him as a son of God. But if he directs his guns at my children and my grandchildren, I will not give in, I am not defending myself from ‘Jews’ but from someone who wants to eradicate me and uproot me from my land. I will never leave Gaza . Our faith says we should stay - to try to create hope. But ultimately, hope can only be achieved with community and implementation of UN resolutions.”

Pray for all Christians faithful to our Lord in their difficult circumstances and thank God for their faithful witness. And pray that more Christians may be able to stay in the Holy Land and maintain the witness of faith for the world to share in. Remember too Ghassan Makhalfeh tour guide, and his family. Georges Rishmawi Greek Orthodox Christian and leader of Siraj - working for peaceful solutions Bob and Maurine Tobin of Sabeel.

Michael Dykes

The Case of the New England Committee to Defend Palestine

Approximately two years ago, Noah Cohen wrote an important article detailing the systematic repression faced by Palestine solidarity activists in the US. The article is called, "Repression of Palestinian Activists in the US: Where are the Defenders of Justice?" and it can be found here. The article recounts the encounters of leading organizers of the New England Committee to Defend Palestine (NECDP) with police, local Zionists, and progressive organizations, and clearly demonstrates that the struggle for the freedom of Palestine is just as much a struggle for our own freedom from racist attacks and imperialism in the United States.

This article also draws attention to some important dynamics for Palestine solidarity activists as well as all those who would seek to fight against imperialism and racism generally.

First, in this instance, the police and other authorities systematically intimidated, harassed, conducted surveillance on, and even arrested and tortured Palestine solidarity activists. The overall effect of such measures is to dramatically decrease the willingness of others to actively involve themselves in these struggles.

Second, while these attacks occur under the larger attack on Arab and Muslim folks conducted in the name of the "war on terror," their political character is often overlooked or downplayed. This cannot be tolerated, as immigration authorities have systematically sought the deportation of politically active people.

Third, the relationship between Zionists and the police is critical in this regard. The article notes that Zionists organizing events in the area paid police to provide security, contacted police about the intentions of Palestine solidarity activists to protest their events and even contacted the FBI. On the advice of these racists, police conducted surveillance on Palestine activists, obtaining photos of principle organizers who would later face intimidation, arrest, and torture.

Finally, the role of traditional support networks is considered, and a critical eye is cast on such organizations as the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) - along with its lackey the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) - and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Throughout these ordeals, these organizations failed to consistently uphold and defend the basic rights of Palestine solidarity activists, let alone their own basic principles. The author attributes this failure to two reasons. First, many of these progressive organizations are dominated by liberal Zionism. While critical of the state of Israel, they do not fundamentally challenge its existence as a racist Jewish state. Second, many progressives continue to be dominated by racist attitudes toward the struggles of Arab and Muslim people against colonialism. In this instance, the result was that these organizations consistently refused to fight for the freedom of Palestine solidarity activists in the US.

We must absorb and consider these key lessons as we take up the struggle for Palestine ourselves.

Our Lion

This is a poetry submission from an ARA supporter regarding the recent sale of a statue from ancient Mesopotamia. ARA would like to encourage other creative-minded folks to send over their own works on these and other topics for publication on the blog. Anonymity will be maintained for those who prefer it. Send submissions to struggle@wsuara.org.

Our Lion

this ancient lion of ours

has been auctioned off.

proceeds will go to a charitable trust formed by the martin family.

one of these days
an iraqi is going to steal the mona lisa
and sell it for 57 million dollars
for the proceeds to go to a charitable trust formed by abeer qassim hamza's family.
and it will be a popular news item
for many a web surfer to marvel at

and pat themselves on the back

for being informed.
perhaps they auction mesopotamia's artifacts

and protect mesopotamia's oil ministry

and write mesopotamia's constitution

and stand guard at mesopotamia's soil, rivers and skies
because the true owners

are too displaced
too tortured
too orphaned

too dead

to protect their own things themselves.

Another Review of Islamofascism Awareness Week

Here is another important reflection on Islamofascism Awareness Week from a student at NYU. It is refreshing to hear that across the country, people are militantly opposing racist forces on their campuses. Our solidarity and respect go out to the activists there fighting the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.

Attacking Muslims under the veil of free speech is wrong

by Chris Shortsleeve

A few weeks ago, something called Islamofascism Awareness Week came to almost 100 college campuses across the United States. Organized by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, this speaker series was intended, in its own words, to "alert Americans to the threat from Islamo-Fascism and focus attention on the violent oppression of Muslim women in Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan and other Islamic states."

A simple survey of modern Middle Eastern history will show that the number of Muslim women killed by American empire and its puppet regimes is more than the most egregious Muslim patriarchs could ever hope to accomplish with all the stones in Arabia. In Iraq alone - a country terrorized for decades by the American-backed dictator and former CIA agent Saddam Hussein - civilian casualties as a result of current U.S. occupation and U.S.-led sanctions that preceded it are now over one million.

Yet, white racists like Horowitz, who have no interest in the liberation of the Middle East, repeatedly whine about the veil and the lack of freedom in Muslim societies. This Horowitz-led diatribe against "Islamofascism" is not a good faith attempt at solidarity with Muslim women suffering under patriarchy, but a shallow, opportunistic demonization of an entire religion and culture, all for the ultimate purpose of justifying American imperialism in the Middle East. These people do not feel anything for the women of Islam. They preach from a pulpit of bones.

Horowitz's arguments about Islam are, of course, not new, but rooted in an ideological tradition of French and British colonialism. For centuries, this tradition has justified the violence and totalitarianism of colonialism in the Middle East through a civilizational hierarchy that equates Islam with patriarchy and backwardness, and the European (and now American) states with enlightenment and liberation. Today's American imperial project relies more than ever on an ideological polemic against the supposedly exceptional patriarchy of the Muslim faith. This is ultimately a cultural eugenicist argument, rooted in a philosophy of white supremacy.

Furthermore, Horowitz endorses the racist supposition that Middle Eastern peoples do not have the right to resist conquest and empire. He subscribes to a good Muslim-bad Muslim dichotomy whereby good Muslims endorse the so-called "war on terror," unconditionally renouncing the use of violence even in the face of terror, while bad Muslims are any who forge a political Islamic identity that dares to rear its head against U.S. supremacy in the Middle East.

Horowitz himself needs to be understood in the context of the rising white populist movement in this country. Since the 1980s, David Horowitz has had a documented political record of routinely supporting fascist and white supremacist forces abroad and in the United States. He supported the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, the Contra fascists in Nicaragua, the apartheid regimes in South Africa and Israel, as well as the State Department's favorite dictatorship, Saudi Arabia. At home, Horowitz has published articles on his website by Jared Taylor and James Lublinskus, key leaders of the white supremacist group American Renaissance, and has offered critical support for David Duke, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Furthermore, unlike many of his ideological allies, Horowitz is not just a talking head - he is a leading street-level organizer of a growing, insurgent right-wing movement in the United States. Islamofascism Awareness Week was not just an academic discussion, but was designed to recruit and consolidate this movement's campus youth forces. Over the last two decades, Horowitz has shown a determination to build a street force of young, conservative, ideologically sharp college students. The threat he poses to communities of color in this country, as well as to all Americans' basic democratic rights, should not be underestimated or misunderstood.

Islamofascism Awareness Week met with much popular student opposition, and many liberals have suggested that this opposition was somehow a violation of time-honored university principles of civil dialogue and academic discourse. This is a grave misunderstanding of what Horowitz actually represents, and frankly emblematic of a growing authoritarian political culture in this country that values assembly hall etiquette over principled opposition to organized racist forces. History has shown that organizations sympathetic to white supremacist ideas ultimately dialogue with no one.

Moreover, a question of double standards arises. If universities across America were to host a "Blackofascism Awareness Week" or a "Jewofascism Awareness Week," would this be acceptable university speech? Would we engage it "objectively" in the spirit of civil, academic dialogue? Why, then, was Islamofascism Awareness Week hosted by universities across the country and enthusiastically attended by their "objective" student bodies? As Arab and Muslim people increasingly come under attack in this country, those who truly believe in free discourse and the principles of the university need to stand up to these attacks and defend the Arab and Muslim-American community. It is a mockery of university principles that this conference was even hosted, and one more example of university bureaucracies using their institutional power to promote racist and imperial politics. Students who truly believe in democracy and open discourse need to start fighting for a democratic and open campus.

When Fear is Not an Option

Today, ARA is reposting an editorial written by our good friend and compatriot in the struggle for justice, Shemon Salam. He was recently visited by the FBI due to his opposition to "Islamofascism Awareness Week" on the University of Washington's campus. It can also be found on Counterpunch's website.

***UPDATE: Shemon was recently interviewed by Dan Tsang on Subversity, a radio show that appears on KUCI out of Irvine, CA. Audio is available on their website.

I was visited by the FBI at my residence on Thursday, November 29th. I am an Asian-American Muslim Man. I am an anti-war activist who believes that United States military has no business in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. I do not hide my political perspectives from anyone. Despite this, I refuse to be intimidated into silence.

The two FBI agents claimed to be investigating a "complaint" from the University of Washington's campus students that I might have said "things" which could suggest that I advocate violence against the U.S. This was in reference to my opposition to the Islamo-Fascist Awareness week that the College Republicans hosted in mid-October. During this week the CR showed a video which described all Palestinians as terrorists and posited a theory that Palestinian men are prone to violence because they are sexually repressed. (Ironic coming from the CR) Michael Medved also spoke during this week. I was part of a demonstration with a body of Muslims students and people of color who were barred from entering the event. The event organizers cited full capacity as the main reason. Why is my opposition to this event being criminalized?

The FBI agents wanted to see a flyer that I was passing out. I told them NO. I asked them, "Is this Stalin's Russia or McCarthy's America?" They have no business collecting literature from me or anyone else in the Untied States. Anyway, the flyers can be found all over campus because I have nothing to hide from my neighbors.

This is not one isolated incident. Muslims and Arabs are being attacked, harassed, and intimidated by the FBI across the country. The FBI claims that anyone who opposes US imperialism is a terrorist. Some Muslims leaders have come out in public and said "good Muslims" should cooperate with the FBI to help them control the "bad Muslims". Meanwhile, the FBI has sent spies to our mosques and broken into our houses in the middle of the night to kidnap our brothers and sisters and send them to Guantanamo without evidence of any crime. Who is causing the terror here? Most of the time it goes unnoticed and in the shadows Arab and Muslim families are destroyed. Let me make it clear--the FBI is a racist and anti-democratic organization. Granted, the two FBI agents who visited my house were very nice to me and even shook my hand. That should not cover up the crimes of the institution they work for.

Meanwhile the College Republicans, who claim to be defenders of democracy and free speech are inviting racists like Medved onto campus. The CR advocates perspectives that lead to the deaths of Arabs and Muslims and people of color and you don't see the FBI visiting them. I am not advocating state repression against the College Republicans; I simply wish to point out the racist double standard here.

I can ask how did the FBI get my house address? My address is not listed anywhere. Did the University administration give it to them? This would not be far-fetched considering that University administrations across the country have made it clear that they will stand with the FBI before they stand in solidarity with Arabs, Muslims, and students of color. Just look at their endorsement of the Patriot Act and the SEVIS registrations of international students. Given this climate, the burden should be on the UW administration to prove that they are not collaborating with such McCarthyist surveillance of campus activists like myself. How can they claim to be the patrons of free speech and dialogue if they facilitate such intimidation?

Only democratic and anti-racist students can curb the power of racist University bureaucracies and the FBI. Student organizing is part of a rich tradition of American history that has made the U.S. a more democratic and anti-racist country than it would be otherwise. However, across the country, University administrators and the FBI are working hand-in-hand to shut down and intimidate all who oppose U.S. Empire and domestic racism.

UW and the city of Seattle claim to be liberal and progressive places where racism cannot be found. This is a myth. Home grown white-supremacy stalks this campus. Every time we see the College Republicans, the FBI, and the Administration it is a reminder that people of color and Muslims and Arabs are not safe yet. However we are not silent victims. We do not know our own strength and no one dares to tell us. It is up to us to rediscover our democratic and anti-racist traditions. It is up to us to take back our university. Fear is not an option.

Member of the WSU Board of Governors Defends Apartheid Israel!

ARA was in attendance today as public radio station WDET 101.9 fm hosted a public forum on the future president of Wayne State University. The audio is available here. 58 minutes into the program, ARA got a chance to make its demands for a new president of WSU known. We posted those demands on our blog earlier today.

Board of Governors member Eugene Driker responded to our demands that the university recommit itself to the its urban mission by crying poverty. Driker complained that the university just didn't have the money to maintain programs that provide access to Wayne State to community members that need it most. Ironically, Driker had only minutes prior to these assertions praised recent fundraising efforts that netted $800 million for the university. In addition, the entire panel of current and aspiring representatives of official society, including Driker, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, journalist Cindy Goodaker and student council president Cindi Chidi, had just finished discussing how Wayne State was an oasis of sustained economic growth in the impoverished wasteland of Detroit. So which is it? Does WSU have $800 million as a result of fundraising drives and does it stand at the epicenter of burgeoning economic growth in Detroit, or does it not even have the couple hundred thousand dollar pittance required to maintain the Interdisciplinary Studies department and other programs that have recently fallen victim to Reid and the Board's ruthless attacks on Detroiters?

In addition, Driker once again affirmed the university's support for white supremacy and imperialism, noting that he was actually proud of Reid's decision to maintain investments in apartheid Israel. In fact, Driker had the nerve to flippantly ask us if we had any suggestions on where to come up with money to fund these programs. It just so happens that the solution we advocate for Israel would do wonders for underfunded programs at WSU. When ARA last filed a Freedom of Information Act regarding the university's investments in companies doing business with Israel, we found that the university has millions of dollars invested in such companies. Given a financial crisis in one area, and millions of dollars invested in morally reprehensible stocks elsewhere, the answer should be clear: divest from Israel, invest in the Wayne State community! Reinstate all the programs the university has cut. Fund them with the blood money of occupation and apartheid in Israel.

However, we in ARA didn't disagree with everything Driker said. We wholeheartedly agreed with his call to publicly debate ARA. We also enthusiastically greet WDET's proposal to arrange and host such a debate using their facilities. In fact, we encourage all our supporters to call and write Eugene Driker and the Board of Governors, as well as WDET and Detroit Today, encouraging them to engage in this important debate.

Driker's email address is as1223@wayne.edu. The board of governor's Executive Secretary is Teresa Boczar, who can be reached at 313-577-2034 or teresa.m.boczar@wayne.edu

WDET can be reached at detroittoday@wdetfm.org or by phone at 313-577-4146.

It is our strength that is decisive

Back in September, ARA posted our thoughts on President Reid's decision to resign as president of Wayne State University. We opposed him both for his domestic policies - gutting and destroying Wayne State's urban mission, disenfranchising working people in Detroit, and attacking black folks in general – as well as for his decisions on an international scale, specifically twice rejecting demands by students at Wayne State to divest from apartheid Israel.

What we would like in a new president of the university is someone committed to anti-racism and fighting imperialism. Whoever it is should not be afraid to proudly declare their support for such positions. Doing so would place them in the company of people like Malcolm X, Robert F. Williams, Stokely Carmichael, Selma James, Rosa Luxemburg, and many others.

However, let us be clear from the outset: a president who refuses to uphold these basic principles will reap the whirlwind of public sentiment. The Wayne State University community has a long and proud history of opposing racists, apologists of imperialism, and all others who would deny our right to self-determination along these lines. We in the Wayne State community are not unreasonable people. We are willing to give any new president time to prove which side of the barricades they prefer. But we refuse to remain idle forever. Our demands are the following:

• Immediately freeze all tuition hikes and fees for studying, including library fees, lab fees, and fees to use workout facilities.
• Re-commit the university to upholding its once-proud urban mission.
• Reinstate the College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs at Wayne State University.
• Reinstate the Interdisciplinary Studies Program and the College of Lifelong Learning.
• Reinstate open enrollment for all people with a high school diploma or its equivalent.
• Institute apprenticeship programs that provide job-training to lower-income and unemployed folks.
• Commit the university to intervene on behalf of movements against imperialism throughout the world, beginning with divestment from apartheid Israel.

We will give any new president a full semester to institute these demands. If our demands are refused, we will ruthlessly organize our power to ensure that the new president's tenure is as brief as possible. Our organization will reflect our strength, and our strength will be decisive.