Abunimah News

CORRECTED LINK: Answering Goldstone’s defense and denial of Israeli apartheid

2011-11-01T05:39:33Z

***Apologies for the incorrect link earlier***

Dear Friends,

The prominent Judge Richard Goldstone, lead author of the
Goldstone report into Israel's atrocities in Gaza, has
been under intense Zionist pressure to retract his
criticisms of Israel. His latest effort comes in the form
of a terrible op-ed in the New York Times arguing that it
is "slander" to refer to Israeli practices as apartheid.

For a great legal mind to resort to the kinds of silly
arguments Goldstone uses is shocking indeed. I have
written a reply to Goldstone, on The Electronic Intifada,
which you can read and share here:

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/answering-judge-goldstones-defense-and-denial-israeli-apartheid#.Tq_MEmBAvIZ

Best wishes
Ali Abunimah

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Answering Goldstone’s NY Times defense and denial of Israeli apartheid

2011-11-01T05:29:07Z

Dear Friends,

The prominent Judge Richard Goldstone, lead author of the
Goldstone report into Israel's atrocities in Gaza, has
been under intense Zionist pressure to retract his
criticisms of Israel. His latest effort comes in the form
of a terrible op-ed in the New York Times arguing that it
is "slander" to refer to Israeli practices as apartheid.

For a great legal mind to resort to the kinds of silly
arguments Goldstone uses is shocking indeed. I have
written a reply to Goldstone, on The Electronic Intifada,
which you can read and share here:

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/answering-judge-goldstones-defense-and-denialisraeli-apartheid#.Tq_JPmBAvIY.email

Best wishes
Ali Abunimah

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Inside the prisoner swap and what it means for "peace process" | Ali Abunimah | Salon.com

2011-10-21T12:53:52Z

Inside the Mideast prisoner swap

The "peace process" is dead and Hamas knows how to
negotiate

By Ali Abunimah, Salon.com, 21 October 20100

In recent days, we've witnessed the rare spectacle of
Israelis and Palestinians celebrating at the same time.
Ironically, this was the result of negotiations between
the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and the Palestinian resistance organization
Hamas, which Israel and the United States describe as
"terrorists." It was a moment that revealed what it would
take for negotiations between seemingly irreconcilable
foes to result in a credible agreement and why the current
"peace process" has gone nowhere.

But in the wake of the Israel-Hamas agreement under which
1,027 Palestinians held by Israel are being released in
exchange for one Israeli soldier held in Gaza, the editors
of the New York Times expressed a good deal of
frustration.

"If Mr. Netanyahu can negotiate with Hamas -- which shoots
rockets at Israel, refuses to recognize Israel's
existence," they wondered in an Oct. 18 editorial, "why
won't he negotiate seriously with the Palestinian
Authority, which Israel relies on to help keep the peace
in the West Bank?"

What are the chances of this happening?

To read the full article:
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/21/inside_the_mideast_prisoner_swap/singleton

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My latest article on Al Jazeera on Tony Blair's corruption and the "Quartet"

2011-10-05T08:54:38Z

Dear Friends,

Please find below my latest piece for Al Jazeera on the
corruption of Tony Blair, and why UN member states should
insist on abolition of the so-called "Quartet."

Ali Abunimah

***********************

Why the UN must abolish the 'Quartet'

By Ali Abunimah

Al Jazeera
5 October 2011

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/201110375817236134.html

Quartet envoy Tony Blair has been the target of stinging
criticism of late from officials close to Palestinian
Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. There have even been
murmurs that Abbas' officials may formally request Blair's
removal.

While Blair's Quartet role, which he took up the day he
left office as UK prime minister in 2007, has undoubtedly
been harmful to the Palestinian people and to any
semblance of international law, it would not be enough to
call for Blair to go.

It is the Quartet itself - an ad hoc committee of US, EU
and Russian officials, and the UN Secretary General, that
monopolises the so-called "peace process" - that has
destroyed what little credibility the United Nations has
left on the question of Palestine.

It functions as a front that launders Israeli and American
demands as UN and "international" positions, sidelining
international law and countless resolutions declaring
myriad Israeli actions to be grave breaches of the Geneva
Conventions.

To begin to restore UN credibility, Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon should end UN membership, funding and support for
the Quartet. If he doesn't, UN member states should demand
that he do so.

TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/201110375817236134.html

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How the PA's Statehood Bid Sidelines Palestinians | Ali Abunimah | Foreign Affairs

2011-09-19T12:09:14Z

Dear Friends,
I am pleased to share with you an article I wrote
published today by Foreign Affairs.

Ali Abunimah

**********************************************

A Formal Funeral for the Two-State Solution: How the PA's
Statehood Bid Sidelines Palestinians

Ali Abunimah | Foreign Affairs

19 September 2011

Summary:Â At least in theory, the Palestinian Authority's
bid for statehood at the UN is supposed to circumvent the
failed peace process. But the ill-conceived gambit
actually amplifies the flaws of the very process it seeks
to replace.

To read the entire article:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/68268/ali-abunimah/a-formal-funeral-for-the-two-state-solution

ALI ABUNIMAH is the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal
to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. He co-founded the
Electronic Intifada and is a policy adviser to Al-Shabaka,
the Palestinian Policy Network.

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EI exclusive: Israel's role in pursuing Palestine solidarity activists in US, involvement in BDS lawsuit exposed

2011-09-07T01:23:00Z

_______________________________

UPDATE FROM THE
ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

http://electronicIntifada.net
_______________________________

EXCLUSIVE TO THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA:

Uncovered: Israel's role in planned US lawsuit to fight BDS

By Ali Abunimah, 6 September 2011

An exclusive investigation finds that pro-Israel
activists, backed by an Islamophobic pro-Israel group and
with the knowledge of the Israeli government is planning
to take legal action to force the Olympia Food Co-op to
rescind its historic decision to boycott Israeli products.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/uncovered-israels-role-planned-us-lawsuit-fight-bds/10350

--

EI's Nora Barrows-Friedman interviews Noor Elashi,
daughter of Holy Land Five political prisoner Ghassan
Elashi:

Oral arguments begin in Holy Land Five's case for appeal

By Nora Barrows Friedman, 31 August 2011

The Electronic Intifada interviewed Noor Elashi as the
families and legal teams for the Holy Land Five were
preparing to head to the appelate court, in the hopes that
the judges would determine that these Constitutional
violations took place and therefore move to exonerate the
men.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/nora/oral-arguments-begin-holy-land-fives-case-appeal

***********************************************************

MORE HEADLINES FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA:

A subtle form of whitewash: the Palmer report on Israel's attack on the flotilla

Guest post by Sami Kishawi, 4 September 2011

Sami Kishawi takes a close look at the highly flawed
report on Israel's deadly attack on the Mavi Marmara aid
ship.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/subtle-form-whitewash-palmer-report-israels-attack-flotilla

-----------------------------------------------------------

Operation Establish a Sovereign Bantustan

By Jalal Abukhater, 2 September 2011

If we can't learn from recent history, what will we ever
achieve? We are being lured into a trap where the rights
of millions of dispossessed refugees are at risk, but who
is listening?

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/jalal-abukhater/operation-establish-sovereign-bantustan

-----------------------------------------------------------

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra disrupted by BDS activists

By Benjamin Doherty, 1 September 2011

Tonight's performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
was disrupted repeatedly by solidarity activists. These
activists who protested inside and outside the venue,
Royal Albert Hall, were responding to a call by the
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott
of Israel.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/benjamin-doherty/israel-philharmonic-orchestra-disrupted-bds-activists

-----------------------------------------------------------

Settlement produce exporter Agrexco set for liquidation

By Maureen Clare Murphy, 1 September 2011

The Israeli produce company Agrexco, which has been a key
target of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement
in Europe, is set for liquidation, the Israeli business
publication Globes reported Tuesday.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/settlement-produce-exporter-agrexco-set-liquidation

-----------------------------------------------------------

Telling off Palestinian leadership for being "idiots"

By Mohammed Suliman, 1 September 2011

Why Palestinians are increasingly dissatisfied with their
political leadership and why this leadership is considered
an obstacle on the road toward liberation.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/mohammed-suliman/telling-palestinian-leadership-being-idiots

-----------------------------------------------------------

Video installation documenting Israeli apartheid to premiere at Toronto festival

By Maureen Clare Murphy, 31 August 2011

"Road Movie," a six-screen video installation documenting
apartheid in Palestine by Elle Flanders and Tamira
Sawatzky of Public Studio, will have its world premiere at
this year's Toronto International Film Festival, 8-18
September 2011.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/video-installation-documenting-israeli-apartheid-premiere-toronto-festival

-----------------------------------------------------------

Wikileaks: Harvard protest against Israeli war crime suspect caught US government attention

By Benjamin Doherty, 31 August 2011

In Spring 2007, Dan Halutz, former chief of staff of the
Israeli military, participated in an exclusive 8 week
managmeent course at Harvard Business School. Halutz
oversaw the 2006 Lebanon war during which he ordered
Israeli pilots to bomb 10 multistory buildings in the
Dahiya district of Beirut as a response to Hezbollah's
rocket fire on Haifa.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/benjamin-doherty/wikileaks-harvard-protest-against-israeli-war-crime-suspect-caught-us

-----------------------------------------------------------

"Irvine 11" students in court to fight possible jail time for non-violent protest

By Nora Barrows-Friedman, 30 August 2011

The Electronic Intifada will be in the Orange County
courtroom this week to report on the first leg of this
important free speech trial.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/nora/irvine-11-students-court-fight-possible-jailtime-non-violent-protest

-----------------------------------------------------------

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My analysis of shocking new revelations from Wikileaks on Israel, Libya, Qatar, Egypt

2011-08-29T02:46:36Z

Dear Friends,

I wish to share with you some of my recent postings on The
Electronic Intifada, which offer some stunning revelations
from classified US government cables recently
released by Wikileaks.

Ali Abunimah

****************

Special treatment gives Israeli mobsters free access to US
soil: WikiLeaks

Known Israeli organized crime bosses are able to travel
freely to the United States, unlike counterparts from
Italy, China and Central America, because the State
Department has failed to apply US law to them.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/special-treatment-gives-israeli-mobsters-free-access-us-soil-wikileaks

****************

Did Wikileaks just reveal the US blueprint for Libya?

The US administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and
Barack Obama were set on developing deep â€œmilitary to
militaryâ€ ties with the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi,
classified US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks on
24 August reveal.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/did-wikileaks-just-reveal-us-blueprint-libya

****************

Egypt's military ruler Tantawi and the American siege of
Gaza: revelations from Wikileaks

The US administration of President Barack Obama was even
more actively involved than previously known in enforcing
the siege of Gaza along Egyptâ€™s border with the territory.
And the Pentagon provided direct assistance and technology
for these efforts, a newly released official document
reveals.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/egypts-military-ruler-tantawi-and-american-siege-gaza-revelations-wikileaks

****************

US accused Qatar of funding Somalia's Al Shabab militia,
Wikileaks reveals

The United States accused its close ally Qatar of funding
the Al-Shabab militia in Somalia, newly released
diplomatic cables reveal.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/us-accused-qatar-funding-somalias-al-shabab-militia-wikileaks-reveals

For more:

Bookmark http://electronicintifada.net and visit regularly

Sign up for EI NEWS and get the latest!
http://lists.electronicintifada.net/mail.cgi

Follow us on Twitter @intifada

Join us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/electronicintifada

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Islamophobia, Zionism and the Norway massacre | Ali Abunimah | Al Jazeera

2011-08-02T09:00:01Z

Dear Friends,
My latest piece for Al Jazeera English on how some of Israel's key
supporters helped foster the deadly Islamophobia that inspired
the Norway massacre.

Best wishes,

Ali Abunimah

****************************************************

Islamophobia, Zionism and the Norway massacre

By Ali Abunimah, 2 August 2011

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/2011829164395822.html

In a Washington Post op-ed last week, Abraham Foxman, the
National Director of the Anti Defamation League, likened
the hateful ideology that inspired Anders Behring Breivik
to massacre 77 innocent people in Norway to the "deadly"
anti-Semitism that infected Europe in the 19th and 20th
centuries.

This is a parallel that I, and many others who have been
observing with alarm the rise of anti-Muslim incitement in
the US and Europe, have made frequently.

Does this mean that Foxman - head of one of the most
hardline and influential pro-Israel lobby groups - has
found common ground with the Palestine solidarity
movement?

That would be a good thing if it helped to fight the
growing scourge of racist incitement. But by criticising
the ideology that inspired Breivik, and pointing the
finger at a few of its purveyors, Foxman appears to be
trying to obscure the key role that he and some other
pro-Israel advocates have played in mainstreaming the
poisonous Islamophobic rhetoric that has now - Foxman
himself argues - led to bloodshed in Norway.

To read the whole article:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/2011829164395822.html

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The Palestine Papers

2011-02-02T11:09:14Z

2 February 2011

Dear Friends,

I was asked by several people for some resources about the Palestine Papers, which were released by Al Jazeera on 23 January. These 1600 documents, dated from 1999 to 2010, including minutes, reports, emails, maps and presentations, constitute the largest leak and the deepest insight into the failed "peace process" ever.

I was one of several experts and analysts invited by Al Jazeera to take an early look at the documents and I wrote at least eight articles about them which are linked below. I've also included some key articles by other writers and links to the document archive itself. Scholars, historians and activists should take it onwards from here because there is still much exploring to be done of these valuable documents.

Ali Abunimah

ARTICLES:

Jordan, PLO clash on refugee issue
Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 24 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011124122125339673.html

A dangerous shift on 1967 lines
Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 24 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112411450358613.html

PA lobbying blocked Shalit swap
Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 26 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011126132936232554.html

Israel's lawyer, revisited
By Mark Perry and Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 24 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112412759856229.html

The US role as Israel's enabler
By Mark Perry and Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 26 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112614122782761.html

US sidelined Palestinian democracy
Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 26 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011126145337346201.html

The Palestine Papers and the "Gaza coup"
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 January 2011
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11756.shtml

"If US can't be 'honest broker' in Middle East, get out of the way"
Ali Abunimah, Christian Science Monitor, 27 January 2010
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0127/Palestine-Papers-If-US-can-t-be-honest-broker-in-Middle-East-get-out-of-the-way

ARTICLES BY OTHERS:

PA relinquished right of return
Amira Howeidy, Al Jazeera, 24 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011124121923486877.html

Dayton's mission: A reader's guide
Mark Perry, Al Jazeera, 25 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011125145732219555.html

'Not worth the paper they're printed on'
Mark Perry, Foreign Policy, 27 January 2011
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/27/not_worth_the_paper_they_re_printed_on

VIDEO: The Palestine Papers panel discussion

"Shlomo Ben Ami, former Israeli Forign Minister, Daud Abdullah, director of Middle east monitor UK and Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada make up the panel of analysts who discuss the Palestine Papers. This is Part three"

PART 1
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/01/2011123211019553829.html

PART 3
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/01/201112413023661845.html

Aljazeera English's special page on The Palestine Papers with many more articles and analsyes by other authors: http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/

All the Palestine Papers documents can be viewed at:
http://www.ajtransparency.com/en/search_english

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Remembering Gaza | & my three birthday wishes

2010-12-27T11:06:20Z

27 December 2010

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to share with you my latest article, "The Gaza massacre and the struggle for justice," marking the second anniversary of the start of Israel's three weeks of slaughter and destruction.

Before you get to it, I just want to say a few words. As you know, I do not send as many updates as I used to on this email list. That's because I put most of my energy, along with my colleagues, into publishing The Electronic Intifada, an independent online news source read by thousands of people every day.

Our articles are used by people in the growing global Palestine solidarity movement to educate and motivate others to join and work for justice.

As it is my birthday after tomorrow, I am going to make three wishes:

(1) If you haven't already done so, please sign up for EI News, The Electronic Intifada's regular news list. You'll get summaries and links to our latest articles twice a week not just by me but by all the incredible contributors who make The Electronic Intifada what it is. It takes about 3 seconds to do right here.

(2) Bookmark and visit http://electronicintifada.net regularly. It's an incredible resource thanks to the support of our readers and our amazing team.

(3) Consider making a year and donation (tax-deductible in the US) to support this work. We provide truly independent journalism that simply would not exist without readers like you. Read more about why your support is so important and what we do with it or make a donation.

Thank you and best wishes for 2011

Ali Abunimah

The Electronic Intifada relies on our readers' support to educate thousands of people about Palestine every day. Please make a tax-deductible donation before December 31.

Thank you.

The Gaza massacre and the struggle for justice

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2010 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11696.shtml

The Gaza massacre, which Israel launched two years ago today, did not end on 18 January 2009, but continues. It was not only a massacre of human bodies, but of the truth and of justice. Only our actions can help bring it to an end.

The UN-commissioned Goldstone Report documented evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in an attack aimed at the very "foundations of civilian life in Gaza" -- schools, industrial infrastructure, water, sanitation, flour mills, mosques, universities, police stations, government ministries, agriculture and thousands of homes. Yet like so many other inquiries documenting Israeli crimes, the Goldstone Report sits gathering dust as the United States, the European Union, Palestinian Authority and certain Arab governments colluded to ensure it would not translate into action.

Israel launched the attack, after breaking the ceasefire it had negotiated with Hamas the previous June, under the bogus pretext of stopping rocket firing from Gaza.

During those horrifying weeks from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, Israel's merciless bombardment killed 1,417 people according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza.

They were infants like Farah Ammar al-Helu, one-year-old, killed in al-Zaytoun. They were schoolgirls or schoolboys, like Islam Khalil Abu Amsha, 12, of Shajaiyeh and Mahmoud Khaled al-Mashharawi, 13, of al-Daraj. They were elders like Kamla Ali al-Attar, 82 of Beit Lahiya and Madallah Ahmed Abu Rukba, 81, of Jabaliya; They were fathers and husbands like Dr. Ehab Jasir al-Shaer. They were police officers like Younis Muhammad al-Ghandour, aged 24. They were ambulance drivers and civil defense workers. They were homemakers, school teachers, farmers, sanitation workers and builders. And yes, some of them were fighters, battling as any other people would to defend their communities with light and primitive weapons against Israel's onslaught using the most advanced weaponry the United States and European Union could provide.

The names of the dead fill 100 pages, but nothing can fill the void they left in their families and communities ("The Dead in the course of the Israeli recent military offensive on the Gaza strip between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009," PDF Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 18 March 2009).

These were not the first to die in Israeli massacres and they have not been the last. Dozens of people have been killed since the end of Israel's "Operation Cast Lead," the latest Salameh Abu Hashish last week, a 20-year old shepherd shot by Israeli occupation forces as he tended his animals in northern Gaza.

But the tragedy does not end with those who were killed. Along with thousands permanently injured, there is the incalculable psychological cost of children growing up without parents, of parents burying their children, and the mental trauma that Israel's offensive and the ongoing siege has done to almost everyone in Gaza. There are the as yet unknown consequences of subjecting Gaza's 700,000 children to toxic water supply for years on end.

The siege robs 1.5 million people not just of basic goods, reconstruction supplies virtually nothing has been rebuilt in Gaza), and access to medical care but of their basic rights and freedoms to travel, to study, to be part of the world. It robs promising young people of their ambitions and futures. It deprives the planet of all that they would have been able to create and offer. By cutting Gaza off from the outside world, Israel hopes to make us forget that the those inside are human.

Two years after the crime, Gaza remains a giant prison for a population whose unforgivable sin in the eyes of Israel and its allies is to be refugees from lands that Israel took by ethnic cleansing.

Israel's violence against Gaza, like its violence against Palestinians everywhere, is the logical outcome of the racism that forms the inseparable core of Zionist ideology and practice: Palestinians are merely a nuisance, like brush or rocks to be cleared away in Zionism's relentless conquest of the land. This is what all Palestinians are struggling against, as an open letter today from dozens of civil society organizations in Gaza reminds us:

"We Palestinians of Gaza want to live at liberty to meet Palestinian friends or family from Tulkarem, Jerusalem or Nazareth; we want to have the right to travel and move freely. We want to live without fear of another bombing campaign that leaves hundreds of our children dead and many more injured or with cancers from the contamination of Israel's white phosphorous and chemical warfare. We want to live without the humiliations at Israeli checkpoints or the indignity of not providing for our families because of the unemployment brought about by the economic control and the illegal siege. We are calling for an end to the racism that underpins all this oppression."

Those of us who live outside Gaza can look to the people there for inspiration and strength; even after all this deliberate cruelty, they have not surrendered. But we cannot expect them to bear this burden alone or ignore the appalling cost Israel's unrelenting persecution has on the minds and bodies of people in Gaza or on society itself. We must also heed their calls to action.

$79,000 of our $100,000 goal raised. Can you help us make it the rest of the way so we can keep publishing through 2011?

PLEASE KEEP THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA STRONG. MAKE A DONATION TODAY.

One year ago, I joined more than a thousand people from dozens of countries on the Gaza Freedom March in an attempt to reach Gaza to commemorate the first anniversary of the massacre. We found our way blocked by the Egyptian government which remains complicit, with US backing, in the Israeli siege. And although we did not reach Gaza, other convoys before, and after, such as Viva Palestina did, only after severe obstruction and limitations by Egypt.

Yesterday, the Mavi Marmara returned to Istanbul where it was met dockside by thousands of people. In May the ship was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which set out to break the siege by sea, only to be attacked and hijacked in international waters by Israeli commandos who killed nine people and injured dozens. Even that massacre has not deterred more people from seeking to break the siege; the Asian Convoy to Gaza is on its way, and several other efforts are being planned.

We may look at all these initiatives and say that despite their enormous cost -- including in human lives -- the siege remains unbroken, as world governments -- the so-called "international community" -- continue to ensure Israeli impunity. Two years later, Gaza remains in rubble, and Israel keeps the population always on the edge of a deliberately-induced humanitarian catastrophe while allowing just enough supplies to appease international opinion. It would be easy to be discouraged.

However, we must remember that the Palestinian people in Gaza are not objects of an isolated humanitarian cause, but partners in the struggle for justice and freedom throughout Palestine. Breaking the siege of Gaza would be a milestone on that march.

Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament and a passenger on the Mavi Marmara explained last October in an http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11599.shtml with The Electronic Intifada that Israeli society and government do not view their conflict with the Palestinians as one that must be resolved by providing justice and equality to victims, but merely as a "security" problem. Zoabi observed that the vast majority of Israelis believe Israel has largely "solved" the security problem: in the West Bank with the apartheid wall and "security coordination" between Israeli occupation forces and the collaborationist Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, and in Gaza with the siege.

Israeli society, Zoabi concluded, "doesn't feel the need for peace. They don't perceive occupation as a problem. They don't perceive the siege as a problem. They don't perceive oppressing the Palestinians as a problem, and they don't pay the price of occupation or the price of [the] siege [of Gaza]."

Thus the convoys and flotillas are an essential part of a larger effort to make Israel understand that it does have a problem and it can never be treated as a normal state until it ends its oppression and occupation of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and fully respects the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinian refugees. And even if governments continue to stand by and do nothing, global civil society is showing the way with these efforts to break the siege, and with the broader Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

Amid all the suffering, Palestinians have not celebrated many victories in the two years since the Gaza massacre. But there are signs that things are moving in the right direction. Israel begs for US-endorsed "peace negotiations precisely because it knows that while the "peace process" provides cover for its ongoing crimes, it will never be required to give up anything or grant any rights to Palestinians in such a "process."

Yet Israel is mobilizing all its resources to fight the global movement for justice, especially BDS, that has gained so much momentum since the Gaza massacre. There can be no greater confirmation that this movement brings justice within our grasp. Our memorial to all the victims must not be just an annual commemoration, but the work we do every day to make the ranks of this movement grow.

Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse and is a contributor to The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict (Nation Books).

The Electronic Intifada needs Your support today. Your donation helps strengthen the movement for justice in Palestine with original news and analysis every day. Please donate now!

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My oped on Aljazeera on recent escalation by Israel Lobby to muzzle growing Palestinian solidarity movement.

2010-12-06T11:01:10Z

Defending Palestinian solidarity
There has been a recent escalation by the 'Israel Lobby' to muzzle the growing Palestinian solidarity movement.

Ali Abunimah

Aljazeera.net, 06 Dec 2010 14:50 GMT

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/12/2010126104756228834.html

The Electronic Intifada, the online publication about Palestine that I co-founded in 2001, finds itself at the centre of a storm as a pro-Israel group applies pressure to have a grant from a Dutch foundation withdrawn.

This assault on our freedom of conscience is about much more than our website. It is part of a well-coordinated, escalating Israeli government-endorsed effort to vilify individuals and cripple organisations that criticise Israel's human rights record and call for it to respect Palestinian rights and international law.

The latest salvo came in a scurrilous article in The Jerusalem Post based on allegations from a group called NGO Monitor, accusing The Electronic Intifada of "anti-Semitism" - without citing a single example from the almost 12,000 articles we have published. The Electronic Intifada has responded NGO Monitor's accusations. Of course the charge of "anti-Semitism" has long been a weapon in the hands of Israel's apologists when they cannot find a factual basis to challenge factual reporting and analysis.

NGO Monitor zeroed in on a grant The Electronic Intifada has received from the Dutch foundation ICCO, which is itself subsidised by the Dutch government. Since 2006, this grant has made up about a third of The Electronic Intifada's budget (our total expenses were around $180,000 in 2009 as our public filings show and the majority of our funding comes from donations by our readers).

In published comments, Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said he would investigate the matter personally. MP Geert Wilders, Europe's most prominent Islamophobic politician, who has said he is proud to be compared to Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, also took aim at The Electronic Intifada in an interview with Israel's Haaretz.

It is clear that by attempting to starve us - and other organisations of funds - NGO Monitor is trying to silence us. That The Electronic Intifada, a publication run by a handful of people, finds itself under sustained assault, only demonstrates the impact that independent online media have had by consistently reporting stories and providing analysis that mainstream media have sidelined.

While NGO Monitor poses as an independent watchdog, it is in fact an Israeli organisation with close ties to Israel's radical West Bank settler movement, the government and military, and is supported by notorious purveyors of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim propaganda in the United States such as Daniel Pipes and Rita Emerson (who along with her husband Steven Emerson has been at the forefront of Islamophobic campaigns).

Before attacking The Electronic Intifada, NGO Monitor made its name going after Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and distinguished Palestinian human rights organisations among dozens of others. Notably it has launched a McCarthyite war from within against Israeli human rights groups and foundations such as B'Tselem, HaMoked and the New Israel Fund. Indeed, by its own indiscriminate definition, NGO Monitor could well be considered "anti-Semitic" as it spends so much effort attacking Israelis and Jews around the world, especially Zionist ones, who argue that Israel would be more viable if it had a higher regard for human rights. NGO Monitor, while calling for transparency from others, remains opaque about its own funding sources.

While NGO Monitor has been in business for years, its latest tactics fit into the strategy outlined by the Reut Institute, an influential Israeli think-tank that earlier this year called for Israel and its advocates to wage war against so-called "delegitimizers." Reut defined virutally the entire global Palestine solidarity movement, especially the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions modelled on the South African anti-apartheid struggle, and those who call for a one-state solution, as an "existential threat" which has the potential to rob Israel of its remaining legitimacy and bring about its collapse.

On its website, the Reut Institute called for Israel's intelligence agencies to use possibly criminal "sabotage," and for pro-Israel groups to "attack" activists all over the world in "hubs" such as London, Madrid, Toronto and the San Francisco Bay Area. After The Electronic Intifada raised the alarm, the Reut Institute sanitised its website, although a copy of its original document remains on The Electronic Intifada, along with our report.

Reut's call to "delegitimize the delegitimizers" and "name and shame" human rights activists has now become Israeli government policy. As part of its failed efforts to bribe Israel into renewing a largely fictitious moratorium on West Bank settlement construction, the Obama administration even promised, as Haaretz reported, to lend Israel support in the battle against "delegitimization."

Focusing on "delegitimization" rather than trying to change Israel's atrocious behaviour, has also become the central strategy of Israel lobby groups in the United States. In October the Jewish Federations of North America - an umbrella for 157 major pro-Israel organisations - and the Jewish Council on Public Affairs launched a $6 million initiative called the "Israel Action Network" to fight "delegitimization," especially boycott, divestment and sanctions.

I got a foretaste of what the Israel Action Network's tactics will likely be when Sam Sokolove, the head of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, launched a failed effort to get academic departments at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque to withdraw their support for a lecture I gave in November. Sokolove's campaign involved publicly vilifying me in the media, likening me to a member of the Ku Klux Klan. It is probably because of the publicity the Jewish Federation gave me that hundreds of people attended my talk.

These sorts of personal attacks and attempts to sabotage the work of people committed to justice and international law are only going to escalate. But will they work?

The campaign against "delegitimizers" is based on a fundamental misunderstanding among Israel and its advocates that Israel suffers from an "image problem" which can be fixed on the one hand with better public relations, and on the other with the sorts of dirty tricks used against The Electronic Intifada and others. But Israel does not have an image problem, it has a reality problem.

Its well-documented war crimes and brutal siege in Gaza, its expanding settlements in the West Bank, its slow ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, its escalating racism against Palestinian citizens of Israel, its use of extra-judicial executions and torture and its killing of unarmed activists on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla cannot be concealed.

A fatal flaw in Israel's plan to fight back against "delegitimization" is that it offers only justifications for these deplorable realities and no positive vision of a decent, peaceful, sustainable and just life in the future for Israelis and Palestinians. For years, the so-called two-state solution filled this void - at least rhetorically - but it has lost all credibility in no small part because Israel lobby groups were so successful at protecting Israel from any action, especially American pressure, that would bring an end to the colonisation that has destroyed any possibility of a Palestinian state.

Now, these same lobby groups find themselves fighting against growing support for the alternative their own actions have rendered inevitable: a struggle for equal rights for all the people who inhabit the land. Their war against "delegitimization" offers nothing more than anger, hatred and demonization, often in alliance with the most racist and openly Islamophobic elements in Israel and North America. That is not a vision but a dead-end. And while it will be another challenge on top of so many faced by Palestinians, it won't stop those who have a vision for justice, equality and universal rights and who are working to make it a reality.

Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country, A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli Palestinian Impasse.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera

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