From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Organization: Antiimperialist Camp News Subject: Report by the International Solidarity Delegation to Palestine The International Anti-imperialist Solidarity Delegation participates in a Demonstration against Israeli Occupation On December 31, second Day of the delegation's visit to Palestine, we participated in a demonstration demanding the end of Israeli occupation. A few hundred protesters left Bethlehem in order to reach Jerusalem located only a few Kilometres to the North. The demonstration was first stopped immediately after its very beginning at Paradise Hotel, which had recently been demolished by the Israeli army during its illegal entering of Palestine autonomous territory. The streets were opened soon after, however, the demonstration was definitely stopped at the checkpoint. The demonstration was organised by a broad coalition of local Palestinian organisations, the Christian churches and various international delegations. The main political demand, expressed in numerous banners saying "No peace without justice", was however mitigated due to the tendency of some of the international delegations as well as the churches to politically stick to the Oslo "peace agreements" - agreements that have proven to justify the continuous Israeli colonisation and oppression while Israel has never accepted the setting-up of a formally promised independent Palestinian State. Many peace delegations like to accompany their political demands by spectacular actions like the forming of human shields against the Israeli army. However, this cannot make up for the fact that their political orientation is very often insufficient and not productive since it is based on the assumption that agreements with Israel and the Western powers relflecting the genuine Palestinian rights could be reached. Similar to some NGOs financed by Western countries they invite the Palestinians to renounce to their legitimate democratic rights, such as the right of the Palestinian refugees to return. The Anti-imperialist Solidarity Delegation concedes that the demand for a democratic state in the 67 occupied territories can be a partial demand of a broad political campaign. However, the Western-Zionist aggression will be ended only when a secular state in entire Palestine granting democratic rights to all inhabitants will come into existence. The strangulation of Bethlehem On its first day, the Anti-imperialist Solidarity Delegation visited the damages caused by the entering and the shelling by the Israeli army in Bethlehem as well as in its two suburbs Beit Dschala and Beit Sahour. The two illegal Jewish settlements Gilo and Har Homa located on the hills opposite the city have been serving for months as a basis for shelling of Palestinian houses with machine guns, tanks and missiles. As a result, almost every house located opposite the Jewish settlements shows severe damages. Thousands had to be evacuated. Today, Bethlehem is about to be suffocated by a continuously narrowed encirclement of settlements and military posts. For its inhabitants, most of which are negated access to other autonomous areas, the situation has become unbearable. A frightening visit to Hebron On its second day, the Anti-imperialist Solidarity Delegation reached Hebron. We had to walk there, since the bus was stopped at the checkpoint. It is no coincidence that the occupants try to prevent as many international visitors as possible from accessing this city since it is there that the betrayal of the "peace agreements" as well as the brutal reality of land occupation is most clearly perceivable. In a city of various ten thousands of Palestinian inhabitants, 400 extreme right wing Israeli settlers, mostly immigrants from the USA, have established. With the help of the Israeli army, they are terrorising and thus trying to drive away the Arab population. Beginning from the city centre, the army has been expropriating Arab houses in order to give them to the settlers. The settlers are harassing and attacking the Palestinian population with their unbelievable racist hatred based on their convictions of the Jewish people's superiority. Most apparently their aim is to prep! are the ground for a larger influx of settlers driving away the original population through systematic "ethnic cleansing". Since this aggression has continued throughout the entire "peace process" and since it would be impossible without the army's active support, it appears clear to any objective visitor of Hebron that Israel has never had the intention to stick to the Oslo agreements. On the contrary, it has always been their interest to set up a Jewish apartheid state in entire Palestine. While visiting Hebron, the Anti-imperialist Solidarity Delegation was steadily accompanied by a military escort and increased movements of military vehicles. The heavily armed settlers, reminding us of American action heroes made in Hollywood, apparently tried to provoke clashes through their threatening presence. Bethlehem, January 1st, 2002 ************************************ Antiimperialist Camp PF 23, A-1040 Vienna, Austria Tel&Fax +43 1 504 00 10 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.antiimperialista.com/en ************************************ _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
