Madison Rafah Journal

Jailan Zayan, AFP, April 28, 2007

Egypt and the Palestinians warned on Saturday of the explosive situation in the impoverished Palestinian territories, which are struggling against a devastating economic and political blockade.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was in Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on how to lift the aid boycott and end the deadly violence in the Gaza Strip.

The two discussed “the situation on the Palestinian front and the explosive security situation in the Gaza Strip,” the official MENA news agency said, after four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the territory.

Troops shot dead three members of the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas and wounded a fourth, a Palestinian medical source and the Israeli army said.

Another Palestinian, a farmer, was killed by Israeli tank fire in the southern Gaza Strip, a security official said. (Read on …)

SETTING GOALS FOR THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE IN A LEADERSHIP VACUUM

Monday, May 7, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
(SEE Today in the Union for location)
UW Middle East Studies Program

NADIA HIJAB is a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Washington DC and a founding member of the US End the Occupation Campaign. Her work involves research and analysis of the internal political factionalism within the occupied Palestinian territories and the geo-strategic ramifications for US foreign policy of its support for Israel and a continuation of the Iraq War.

This event is sponsored by Al-Awda Wisconsin, the Campus Anti-War Network, the Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice, and the Middle East Law Students Association, and is co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin’s Middle East Studies Program.

When: Sunday, May 6 at 6:00pm.
Where: The Overture Center (meet up at the corner of Fairchild Street and State Street)

The ultra right wing group Christians United for Israel (CUFI) is renting the theater in the Overture Center to host a fundraiser called “A Night to Honor Israel” here in Madison. Who is CUFI? Protestant fundamentalists who believe that the modern State of Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and who believe that the land from the Euphrates to the Nile belongs exclusively and eternally to the Jews. They support the extreme right-wing in Israel who wish to reclaim all of Biblical Israel by driving 3.5 million Palestinians out of their homes. They are guided by a literal reading of the Book of Revelations claiming that paradise for Christians can only be secured once Jews occupy and have gained control of the Holy Land and Armageddon occurs. CUFI’s theology is influential in the White House (they are currently pushing hard for war with Iran) and has helped shape American policy towards the Middle East.Madison JVP wants to tell them that not all Jews support ongoing bloodshed, never ending war in the Middle East, policies that spur starvation among Palestinians and a never ending occupation.

For the Capital Times article on this, see link.

For more information about Jewish Voice for Peace, go to www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org. For information about the Madison chapter, contact Tsela Barr, jvpmadison at gmail.com, 608-236-2141.

Madison, Wednesday May 2, 5 pm

Gather at the State St. corner of the Capitol Square in Madison. Bring signs, noisemakers and lots of friends. Please pass the word. Contact: Dennis Coyier, dcoy at execpc.com

Mairead Corrigan Maguire, CommonDreams.org, April 26, 2007

On Friday April, 20th, 2007, my friend Ann Patterson and I joined the Bil’in Peoples Committee, a Palestinian peace group (based outside Ramallah) for their weekly nonviolent protest and march to the Apartheid Wall. We were joined by Israeli peace activists and some two hundred other activists from over 20 countries, including France, America, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, and India.

Before the peace vigil, I participated in a Press Conference with the Palestinian Minister for Information, Mustafa Barghouti. Minister Barghouti praised the nonviolent vigil of the Bil’in people and the nonviolent resistance of many people around Palestine. He said that the Bil’in resistance movement was a model and example for all. He called for an end to the building of the wall, and for upholding of Palestinian rights under International Law.

I supported his call and thanked the people of Bil’in. I offered my support for the nonviolent resistance to the Wall as it contravenes International Law, including the International Court of Justice decision in the Hague. I also called for an end to the Palestinian occupation, which will mark 40th years in June, and full recognition by the international community of the Palestinian Government, together with restoration of economic and political rights to the people.

Both Dr. Barghouti and I called for the release of the BBC Journalist Alan Johnston. I also called for the protection of journalists all over the world, whose ability to cover the truth, is being daily infringed.

During the conference, the Israeli military drove through the main gate onto Palestinian land. Israeli foot soldiers also came through. They surrounded the journalists and warned us all that if we did not disburse, they would attack in five minutes. Dr. Barghouti and I condemned this threat as an abuse of freedom of the press, freedom of speech and the peoples right to protest peacefully. (Read on …)

David Pepose, The Brandeis Hoot, April 28, 2007

After weeks of controversy, false starts, and wavering club support, The Holocaust Industry author Professor Norman Finkelstein spoke before a crowd of over 100 in the Rappaporte Treasure Hall Tuesday. His three-hour lecture discussed Israel’s human rights record, alleged exaggeration of the Holocaust to exonerate Israeli policies, as well as touching upon his long-time feud with Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz.

“Dissent is tied to justice, justice tied to dignity,” said Harvard Professor Sarah Roy, who introduced Finkelstein. “Today, there is a war against dissent… our right to oppose has been stigmatized and devalued.” She also claimed that Finkelstein cut through “the artificial web of complexity” surrounding the Middle East Conflict.

“I’m being cast as a martyr these last few weeks,” said Finkelstein of his recent battles at DePaul to earn tenure. “Two thousand years ago, another Jew tried that with mixed results.” Describing former President Jimmy Carter’s controversial book Palestine Peace, Not Apartheid, Finkelstein said that “the actual content of the book… was remarkably uncontroversial… one might even call it tepid.” Instead, Finkelstein said, “what’s most striking is how uncontroversial this is, yet there is so much controversy when you bring it into a public forum.”

He added that the complexity of the Middle East conflict “is contrived, is fabricated, is conjured up.” Stating the World Court’s 2004 14-1 decision for Israel to return to its 1967 borders, Finkelstein said “it’s illegal to obtain territory through war… ‘disputed territories?’ Not so, says the World Court… it’s illegal under international law.”

Because of this, Finkelstein said, Carter’s book was far from controversial: “He is merely rendering the opinion of the highest international court in the world, the World Court.” He claimed that while other decisions were several thousand pages, the decision regarding Israel was less than 100 pages “because it was so uncontroversial.” (Read on …)

a movement among Israeli Arabs demanding that Israel declare itself a “state of all its citizens”

Ilene R. Prusher, The Christian Science Monitor, April 26, 2007

This time of year is often touching – and touchy. This week, Israelis celebrated their Independence Day, marking 59 years since the Jewish state’s founding in 1948. Palestinians will mark the same event as el-Nakba, the Catastrophe.

But this year, perhaps more than usual, eyes are turned to the people who are wedged in between: Arabs who make up about one-fifth of the Israeli population, and who increasingly consider themselves Palestinian.

At this moment, when narratives and nationalities collide, there is perhaps no one who symbolizes the inherent complications of being both Israeli and Palestinian more than Azmi Bishara.

Mr. Bishara, an Arab politician from Nazareth who’s long been a vocal force in Israeli politics, announced in Cairo at the start of the week that he was quitting the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. His decision to leave follows weeks of reports that Bishara, traveling in neighboring Arab countries, would be arrested and prosecuted upon his return to Israel.

While unnamed Israeli officials told major media outlets here Wednesday that Bishara would be charged with “aiding the enemy” in wartime, precise charges remain something of a mystery as they’ve been the subject of a gag order by state security officials. An Israeli court ordered a partial lift on the ban last week, allowing the police to announce that their international crimes unit is investigating Bishara. (Read on …)