---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Date: Friday, July 04, 2003 10:13 AM +0200 From: Elliot Mathias <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Hasbara <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: FW: Pro-Palestinian Strategy: Their Minutes
Hey all,
check this out below. It's an email from an attendee of last week's Al-Awda convention - a Palestinian group that favors the right of return - www.al-awda.org elliot
Elliot Mathias Director, Hasbara Fellowships Aish HaTorah [EMAIL PROTECTED] US: 646-365-0030 IS: 064-231-428 www.israelactivism.com
Al-Awda Convention Workshop Minutes and Recommendations*
My personal report on the convention. - by Stanley Heller, one of Unity's moderators.
Our first international Convention drew 350 participants. That's a major achievement. This convention really was international with people coming from the camps, from Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, South Africa, and even the island of Mauritus (east of Madagascar). The political achievements were mixed, however. Nationalist rhetoric kept getting mixed into our anti-apartheid movement.
Driving into Toronto was interesting. No American flags! :) There were some Canadian flags on a few public buildings, but no national glorification. There were some signs about SARS in a poorer area with a Chinese and Vietnamese shops, but no one was wearing a mask and the matter was quickly forgotten. We met at the University of Toronto Education Center, which is built right over a subway. You could hear the trains roar all over the building. The facilities were first class, however.
It was great putting faces next to the names I've been viewing in cyberspace.From this list I met Uri Strauss , Bahija Reghaei, Abraham Weizfeld, HenryLowi, Steve Questor from Jews Against the Occupation (NYC), , and Mughir al Hindi. I've written to this list about the libel suit being pursued by Susan Howard-Azzeh from St. Catherines. She was there with her daughter and it was excellent meeting them.
Hands down, the highlight of the convention was the speech by Salman abu-Sitta. He dresses formally, but with style. At the dinner he wore a handsome blue suit with a bright red handkerchief. Born in the 1930's in Beersheba, he became a refugee and now lives in Kuwait and London. He illustrated his speech with a Power Point presentation in which he explained in great detail how 5,000,000 Palestinians could return to their homes without any major disruption to the Jewish population. He had it all nailed down. The first returnees will come to sites of the 500 demolished villages and build the houses for the next wave of refugees. He sees the whole process as taking 6 to 8 years. He talked about water, jobs, the whole gamut. Brilliant. As Edward Said said in 2000, Abu-Sitta is a national treasure.
Abu-Sitteh received the Faris Odeh award, named after the Palestinian youth photographed against the huge Israeli tank. I presented the Rachel Corrie award to representatives of the International Solidarity Movement from Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. They shared with us several wrenching accounts of what they saw in the territories.
It is becoming clearer to me that the refugee issue is at the heart of the conflict even more important than borders. Merely ending the occupation, getting the IDF out of the West Bank and Gaza, will not do the trick. The Palestinians are an exiled people with an enormous desire to return to their homes. This means Israel proper. The US and the Israelis are going to have to deal with this. If they don't all the paper agreements they get from the Abu-Mazen's and Arafats aren't worth a hill of beans.
Though our mission is to help the refugees, a lot of what went on at the convention addressed larger political issues and this wasn't always to the good. Members of the IAC were on two panels and gave the first address. No other political group had such visibility which gives a false impression that al-Awda is an IAC project. The IAC's Richard Becker's analysis of the Palestinian question and US anti-war work was very well done, but Elias Rishmawi's speech had problems. He thundered on about betrayals by PLO leadership, striking a very militant position, but ended before giving a positive program. He ignored criticisms from the audience about the costs of violence not only to innocent Israelis, but to Palestinians. I also disagreed with Ibrahim Makawi of the pan-Arabist Abnaa' Al-Balaad group who kept talking about Palestine being part of the Arab nation and using the term "1948 occupied Palestine" instead of Israel. Face the facts. There are four million Israeli Jews. There isn't a chance for a settlement if the Israelis think the Palestinians goal is to dominate Jews and treat them as miserably as the Zionists have been treating the Palestinians. The dissolution of apartheid is the model to follow, with the states or states that arise from its abolition becoming the property of the citizenry, not of a national, ethnic or religious group.
One of the best speakers was a man who knew South African apartheid very well, Na'eem Jeenah, a Muslim scholar and head of the Palestine Solidarity Committee of South Africa. He explained the similarities and differences between South African and Israeli apartheid with the Zionist variety being the more vicious! He pointed out that the South Africans government never tried mass expulsion of blacks and that it never included in the government parties dedicated to that kind of "solution". As for repression he pointed out the lack of collective punishement in South Africa. He explained that his own brother was killed by the authorities, but his family never feared that they would lose their home or be expelled. He said that what activists are calling the "apartheid wall" had no precedent in South Africa. Nor did South Africans ever invade townships with tanks and jet planes. While explaining that the ANC did at times kill civilians (what at the time were called "soft targets") he said that he completely opposed it and that the main factors that ended apartheid were internal popular resistance and international solidarity actions.
Another impressive speaker was Dr. Gadha Talhami who spoke on the panel "Palestinian Women in the Struggle for Liberation and Return". She challenged people to look ahead several years and look at the big picture. She warned about "alternative" plans for refugees like Shlomo Gazit's idea that the Palestine Authority should have a "law of return" modeled after the Israeli law. Then all the refugees in Jordan, Syria, etc. would get Palestinian citizenship and they would stay there forever. She also warned about the "Iraq file", Israeli claims against Iraq for property of Iraqi Jews who left for Israel. The Iraqi health care system is in tatters and polluted water is killing people all over, but Israel will demand that Iraq first deal with claims of Israeli from Iraq who are living very adequately in Israel. Talhami also warned the "Iraq file" would be used as a weapon against Palestinian claims for compensation against the Israeli government. She advised us to remember that Palestinians had nothing to do with forcing Jews out of Iraq and told us about a Palestinian leader who in the early '50's pointedly told the Iraqi Prime Minister that his actions encouraging emigration were doing no good.
In the hallways a number of "Unity" folks talked and I got a sense that we could really make something of our list. We've got to accept two ways of acting. Jews should join in solidarity groups as individuals and making the fight that way. They should also be comfortable in forming Jewish groups against occupation and apartheid. This helps Palestinians combat false charges of anti-Semitism and organizes those who prefer to embrace their Jewish identity in their political work.
There was one glaring problem with the convention, a total absence of Israeli Jewish speakers and participants. At our demonstrations in Washington and New York they were included, but not in Toronto. That's a real mistake. An Israeli-Jewish presence demolishes the propaganda which insists that the Right to Return is "national suicide" for Israelis.
At the close of the Convention there was a strategy session with time for recommendations about future work. Because of delays in morning sessions the section started several hours late and several key al-Awda leaders had to leave to make travel connections. I missed the session for the same reason. The strategy session was problematic. In many organizations the Convention is the ruling body of the organization. Not so for al-Awda. The al-Awda by-laws don't even mention the word convention. I think it's clear that the measures adopted at the session could only be advice to the Co-ordinating Committee (Al-Awda's highest body), but some on the CC argue that what was adopted in the Stragegy Session are now official Al-Awda positions.
Upon reading the minutes I wasn't impressed with the four "resolutions" adopted. [See full text at end of post] One I completely oppose. It reads: "Al-Awda convention, demands the immediate stop of using Israel/Palestine in all of its document, as it implies the existence of a Palestinian State." I can't understand it at all. My first impression is that there must be a typo and that the resolution was complaining about an "Israeli state". This is the thinking of those who talk about the "Zionist entity" and can't stomach the word Israel. I can understand the fury of suffering people caused by Israelis, but this kind of rhetoric plays right into the hands of those who say the real goal of the Palestinians is to drive the Israelis "into the sea". Nationalism is a bad idea for Jews. It's a bad idea for anybody.
I think the formulation "Israel/Palestine" is an excellent term. It recognizes Palestinians and Israeli Jews as basic ethnic groups of the land. It references all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan without implying borders. Its use certainly shouldn't be banned within al-Awda.
Two other resolutions emphasized rejection of compromise of Palestinian rights and support for struggle "spearhead by the intifada". Activists understand the term to mean uprising, popular struggle, but the way the resolution reads makes it easier for opponents to advance the slander that we support "suicide bombings".
I wish some concrete suggestions had been made, like support for the Rachel Corrie Resolution, and for committees opposing deportation of Amer Jubran and scores of Canadian Palestinans. There was no resolution about refugee rights in Lebanon, Jordan, etc. and that's a real mistake.
There's also the question of who is a member of al-Awda and who is not. The by-laws are incredibly broad allowing membership to anyone who believes in our mission and "who donate time and resources for the right to return". At the Convention the CC voted to study the idea of formal membership where people would formally sign up.
There were plenty of logistic problems at the convention, mostly stemming from over ambitiousness, every spare minute being set aside for panel or a talk, sessions ignoring time limits, 15 minute lunches, CC sessions going on until the early morning hours, lack of a large Al-Awda banner, etc. . It was a tremendous effort with mixed results.
Finally, Al-Awda and other groups are organizing a project called "Wheels of Justice". A bus will be driven all over the US and Canada with Al-Awda slogans, literature, exhibits, loudspeakers, etc. Cool!
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Minutes of the Strategy Session
---------------------------------
Resolution #1
On the definition of the Right of Return
"The Palestinian right of return is a historical, national and collective right rooted in the individual and collective inviolable right of an individual and a
people to their original homes, property, and homeland, and to restitution
regardless of agreements, developments in international law, and political
framework. It is a right that transcends generations, political entities, and
is not subject to any form of negation or compromise. It is an inextricable
right to the fundamental right of unconditional self-determination for the
totality of the Palestinian people regardless of their place of residence."
Resolution#2
On the Road Map
"Al-Awda convention opposes the US approved Road Map which aims at
suppressing the Palestinian people human and national rights. Al-Awda Convention expresses support for the Palestinian people struggle, spearheaded by the Intifada, to achieve national resistance goals including, but not limited to,
ending the Zionist colonization, implementing the right of return and achieving
self-determination. Al-Awda convention does not recognize the self-proclaimed right of the Palestinian leadership, elected or self appointed, in compromising
any Palestinian national right, especially the right of return."
Resolution#3
On the use of Israel/Palestine in Al-Awda Documents
"Al-Awda convention, demands the immediate stop of using Israel/Palestine in
all of its document, as it implies the existence of a Palestinian State."
Resolution#4
On Political Prisoners in Israeli & Palestinian Authority jails "Al-Awda Convention demands the immediate release of all political prisoners from all Israeli and Palestinian Authority jails."
Recommendation: #1
National Days Of Action
"Al-Awda Convention resolved to the following days as National &
International
Days of Action on the Right of Return, where local chapters would do
jointly or
collectively as planning allows:
September 26-28, 2003: Second Intifada 4th anniversary
April 9, 2004: Deir Yasin Massacre
May 15, 2004: 1948 Nakbah ."
Recommendation#2
Next Convention
That Next Al-Awda Convention would take place in one to two years,
in the Bay
Area (North California, USA)
************************************************************
Al-Awda Convention Workshop Recommendations*
--------------------------------------------
Fundraising and Refugee Support
- Continue Supporting the work of Palestinian Children Welfare Fund
(PCWF)
- Re-Activation of the Refugee Support Committee
- The use of the List Serve to meet these goals
Divestment & Boycott Campaigns
- Boycott until Return
- AFJ (More information will be provided later detailing this
recommendation)
Media
- Use of all media formats
- Focus on Alternative media
- Research Media
Women
- Forming Women for Al-Awda
- Focus on building women leadership
- Condemn oppression resulting from all factors
Advocacy
- Join Campaign against Caterpillars
- Train on Lobbying
- Push for Palestinian Rights in the next elections, especially with
Democrats.
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