Blog For Palestine

A protest that was planned today to take place in a suburb of Seattle to demand a cease fire has been canceled.  This is in light of some events that happened late last night where a Pakistani man went into a Jewish center and shot 6 people killing one.  The organizers of the protest felt that because of these events there might be a hostile response to the peaceful protest.

This response is very silly.  If anything these events should have made us more determined to protest.  To say that all violence is unacceptable.  To show that the logic of violence against civilians is tragic and to emphasize that Israel’s actions are no different.  Unfortunately the Seattlites decided to run and hide.  I actually don’t think it had anything to do with worrying about any conflicts at the protest.  I think the real rationale that remains unspoken is that a lot of these “organizers” are more worried about being lumped in the public eye with the shooter.

Let’s be honest, this is going to happen no matter what.  The accusation of anti-semitism are going to come to anyone that demands that Israel act in a legal and humanitarian way.  There will be racist accusations that all Arabs are violent and bloodthirsty.  There are classic tools of the pro-Zionist camp and we cannot succumb to these methods.  We need to find ways to combat them.

Anyways I’m off to slap some people on the back of the head for canceling this protest.

-Tineen

Over the course of the past two days the Rachel Corrie Foundation (RCF) put together a wonderful conference in Olympia, WA. The RCF was setup by Rachel Corrie’s parents and friends to continue her legacy and work on behalf of justice for the Palestinian people. For those who are unfamiliar with who Rachel Corrie is visit the RCF website and learn more about this wonderful human being.

The Peace Works Conference is the first event of its kind organized by the Foundation and they have done an excellent job. Even though I didn’t get a chance to be at most of the conference I did catch a couple of the lectures. The caliber and quality of the event was truly impressive. The list of speakers was great and I think reflected the orientation of the organizers. Huwaida Arraf, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Diana Buttu, Amira Hass, and Dr. Sara Roy are some of the speakers that were there.

I did have one disappointment in the event - the attendance. It wasn’t bad, but it could have been a lot more. Even more problematic was the almost absence of Palestinian or Arab participation. It was really sad. What brought it home for me was Mustafa Barghouti’s lecture about the challenges facing the Palestinians. After talking at length about the distress that the Palestinian people are living through on a political, social and economic level it became apparent that this is truly a fateful moment in the history of the Palestinian people. It’s clear that Israel is intent on the total and absolute destruction of the Palestinian people. Then he gives his analysis as to how we can solve the problem and one of his points is that it is essential to re-engage the Palestinian Diaspora. This statement was made to an auditorium where there were only a handful of Palestinians. That really broke my heart.

There is a lot to talk about in terms of this conference. I didn’t attend the first day, but it looked like they were videotaping the lectures. I’m going to try and get a hold of the recordings and sumarize what was said. I heard that Huwaida Arraf did an excellent job and I look forward to seeing her speech. Mustafa Barghouti’s presentation was great, I’m going to try and get a hold of it and post it here. Stay tuned…