We’re Like Firemen (Times Union)

We’re Like Firemen.

31 of us, representing national and international NGOs, gathered in the Hebron RC conference room earlier this month [April 2013].  The increasing number of children being seized here by Israeli soldiers – 27 in one day, last month [March of 2013] – drew us together.  What could we do to reverse the trend and end the IDF’s abuse of Palestinian children?  The Israeli military pays no attention to Articles 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — which are supposedly binding on all member states of the United Nations — or to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by the government of Israel in 1991.

The US government pays scant attention to Israel’s violations of those agreements or to the organizations that have reported on what happens to children held in Israeli military custody. Most other UN member nations do little more than mount the podium occasionally and call on Israel to stop violating the rights of Palestinian children.  Does the fact that this charade has been going on for decades send any message but that Israel can – with impunity – do whatever it chooses with the lives of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories?

Everyday journey to school in occupied Palestine, photo by Alice Brody

Governments continually fail these children. The NGO representatives seated round the table were struggling with ways to help.  Proposals like “expose the Israeli violations against children,”  follow up legally on behalf of the children who were seized, and provide “treatment and therapy for the children” were discussed.  Listening to these ideas that have been discussed and acted on over the years, it struck me we were like firemen trying to douse a raging fire, while other more powerful actors pour fuel on that fire.

Palestinian children going to school in Hebron, photo by Alice Brody

Of course, it’s important to continue trying to put out the flames; but isn’t it time to stop those who add fuel to the fire?  In addition to the Israeli government, two major arson accomplices are the US government, which funnels three billion of our tax dollars to the Israeli military every year, and the corporations that support and profit from the Occupation.  When other nations condemn the apartheid policies of the Israeli government, the US government is silent.  When the Israeli government imposes collective punishment that hurts Palestinian children, the US government is silent.  When respected international organizations like UNICEF, Defense for Children International, Christian Peacemaker Teams, the YMCA and Save the Children expose the damage done to children by the Israeli government, the US government responds with little more than finger shaking.

We write letters to politicians and to newspapers, we share information far and wide; but we have to do more to make those who are feeding the fire change their ways.  We need to apply economic pressure to end the occupation and the IDF’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  Boycotts and divestments can stop those who are fueling the fire.  Don’t buy items like Ahava cosmetics and Soda Stream carbonation units…products produced in illegal Israeli settlements.  Contact those who sell such products and ask them to sell alternative competing products instead.  If you or organizations you’re part of, hold stock in companies profiting from the occupation and its illegal settlements (Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Cement Roadstone, for example), divest from those companies and tell them why you’re divesting.

Do we now have the will to stop those responsible for torching the lives of Palestinian children?

Going to school under occupation, Hebron Checkpoint, April 2013, photo by Alice Brody

Palestinian children going to school under occupation. Photo by Alice Brody

Paul Rehm is a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams who has been working in the occupied Palestinian Territories for many years.  He lives in the Capital District when he’s not traveling.

Worldwide campaigns for divestment and boycotts of companies supporting the occupation and military abuses and the illegal presence of settlements continue to gain momentum.  Here are just a few examples:

Tarak's letter

First person Account of Guantanamo

After 58 days of my own hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners at Guantanamo, I have little patience for the bigotry, ignorance and gullibility of Robert Fusco, who wrote last week defending force-feeding and other criminal Obama policies concerning Guantanamo prison.

At any rate, here are some facts to keep in mind.

During its 11 years of existence, the prison has violated international human rights laws by holding prisoners without charges or right to trial and subjecting them to severe conditions, including indefinite detention, prolonged solitary confinement, physical violence, and psychological abuse.

Most Gitmo detainees were imprisoned illegally and have never been charged with a crime. Most were arbitrarily taken and turned in to the U.S. government after 9/11 by opportunists and/or disgruntled neighbors who received bounties of $2,000-$5,000 for pointing a finger at a neighbor or Arab foreigner. Over 90% of those incarcerated at Guantanamo were never even remotely connected to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Gitmo has been condemned internationally for inflicting cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Interrogation tactics and practices of torture include sleep deprivation, water-boarding, shackling in stress positions, extended exposure to very cold temperatures, beatings, religious and sexual humiliation.

It is in response to such horrific conditions that prisoners resort to the extreme measure of hunger striking.

Robert Fusco’s opinionated letter stated “it is also a hunger strike done by . . . individuals who believe suicide is rewarded in the afterlife, especially if they kill a mass of innocents with them.”

One wonders how long Fusco has been mainlining Donald Rumsfeld’s brand of bigotry and hatred.

The prisoners want to be free to live, like all people, not just exist in what must be equated with hell itself.  The hunger strike is the only option they have left to call attention to their plight.

Obama and Congress’ indifference and inaction are heartless but that’s no surprise.  Diane Wilson, the writer of An Unreasonable Woman and a 58 day water-only solidarity hunger striker, said, “If the chains of American indifference continue, hard and unabated, as they currently have been, then the men of Guantanamo Bay might remain there until hell freezes over."

I just returned from the 2013 Veterans For Peace National Convention in Madison.  Captain James Yee, former prison chaplain at Guantanamo, gave a chilling account of what actually transpires at Gitmo, as well as his own experience when accused of aiding the enemy.  To watch the video, google “James Yee at VFP. “

Letter to the editor

For the past 2 years, Syria has spiraled from what began as a peaceful call for freedom by Syrian citizens into a bloody conflict fanned by foreign fighters who have joined both sides in this war. Over 90,000 Syrians have been killed and 1,500,000 more been forced to flee the country and are living as refugees in neighboring countries.

This is a complex conflict. The Assad government, a heavily armed and brutal dictatorship, has repressed the majority of its people and promoted the dominance of Syrian society by a religious minority. The rebels, a heavily armed conglomeration, includes the al-Nusra Front, an ally of al-Qaeda that is pursuing a fundamentalist takeover of Syria, and the Free Syrian Army, which is a catch-all term for numerous factions, including other fundamentalists, that is dominated by ongoing internal struggles for control and has been unable to forge a cohesive strategy. Both Assad and the rebels have the support of a significant part of the citizenry. Both sides have brutally killed unarmed citizens. Both sides have committed war crimes. Both sides are supported by outside forces with their own agendas: Saudi Arabia and Iran are each using Syria to further their own ambitions to dominate the region as well as using it as a battleground for the age-old sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims; the United States, Russia, and China are using Syria as another way station in their battle for global dominance. The reality is that Syria is now a non-functioning society that is overrun with weapons and disorder.

Where to stand in this crisis? We should neither defend the brutality of the Assad regime or its right to exist, nor should we defend or support the rebels, who would also deny human rights and rule using violence and religious coercion. There are no good solutions that we, or anyone else, can impose from the outside. Syrians should decide Syrian destiny. Remaking a society in our vision, as we have tried to do in Iraq and Afghanistan, is a disaster for the people of those countries. What we can do is stay focused on the very people who are most threatened in this nightmare—the civilians—and reach out to them with humanitarian aid. We can and should stand in solidarity with those in Syria, who are currently marginalized within the opposition, and share a peaceful, democratic vision for their country. Care and concern for Syrian civilians should guide U.S. policy. Military action will only exacerbate the crisis. No arms to Syria.

Nicholas Abramson

To the editor

Since the question I've asked as to whether Israel is Jewish or democratic goes unanswered, I'll have to let it be, for the nonce. I've been accused of defending Fred Nagel, and that's absolutely not true; Fred needs no defense. The rabid Jewish defenders of Israel's politics at any cost, are the ones who are the anti-semites; they present a white-washed picture of who the Jewish people are. Just like everyone else, they are capable of goodness and of evil. I helped to liberate Buchenwald, Dachau, and Flossenburg, and I know anti-semites when I see or read them. They work mightily to maintain a facade of innocence, just like the Germans I encountered during the war. They use the Holocaust and attacks on Israel to cover over anything Israel is doing today to the Palestinians. A dangerous game; they remind me of children shouting "You did it first" as an excuse. I'm old enough to remember "Lebensraum", the Nazi acquisition of other people's lands because they, the Germans, claimed they needed that land for themselves, and I've seen the yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear during that regime. It's curious to me that todays Israeli's, for some reason, provide Palestinian automobiles with yellow license plates. An unfortunate choice, in a sea of ruinous choices. I still have hopes that the genius and creativity of the Jewish citizens in Israel will survive the destructiveness of the Governments there.

Jay Wenk

No Arms to Syria

There are many crises in the Middle East.  The most recent is in Syria.

Middle East Crisis Response (MECR) is opposed to the US sending military aid to the so-called "rebel" forces.  MECR deplores the violence of both the Assad government and the opposition forces.  We support the use of diplomacy and other non-violent means to resolve this bloody conflict, and we believe that it is only the Syrian people who have the right to determine their own future.

Providing more military weaponry to anyone in Syria will only enhance the possibility of more violence; unfortunately, the victims of this violence are predominantly civilians—men, women, and children who are left dead or mutilated, homeless or stateless.  Sadly, while civilians suffer and die, the only real beneficiaries of supplying weapons are the weapons manufacturers and dealers, who line their pockets, often with taxpayer money.

The US has no business engaging in regime change in the Middle East (or anywhere else).  US intervention is catastrophic and results in widespread death, destruction, and corruption; one only has to look at Iraq, Libya, or Afghanistan.  The only place we should be engaged in regime change is right here in the USA.

MECR Steering Committee

Nic Abramson
Pia Alexander
Eli Kassirer
Jim Mays
Helaine Meisler
Fred Nagel
Katja and Paul Rehm
Jane Toby

To the Editor:

School children buried beneath buildings in Oklahoma - many dead and many injured. To even contemplate this is unbearable, one can only imagine the suffering, grief, and distress of the mothers and fathers of these children.

Our hearts too are broken and we understand the grief and pain of the families with dead and missing children. This tornado was indeed a cruel and brutal act of nature. Sadly, there are man-made actions that also bury children beneath buildings.

In Pakistan our drones have killed nearly 5000 people since 2001 - at least 176 were children. In 2009 Israel attacked Palestine and "Operation Cast Lead" damaged or destroyed 20,000 buildings in Gaza. 1606 children were injured and 313 died, many were buried beneath the debris of bombed buildings.

We and our media rightly express profound compassion and empathy for the fate of buried children in Oklahoma, but somehow the identical suffering of Palestinian or Pakistani children is unacknowledged and unreported. Where are the tears for those innocent children buried beneath buildings demolished by US drones or those buried by buildings bombed by Israeli pilots in F-16 jet fighters (paid for with our tax dollars) ?

Surely the families of all children whether Palestinian, Pakistani, or American suffer and grieve the loss of loved ones. The tornado in Oklahoma was an act of nature but the drone attacks and Israeli bombings are intentional. What is wrong with us that we cannot make this connection and stop intentional government acts that result in children being buried beneath bombed out buildings?

Eli Kassirer

Guantanamo Nightmare

There are still 166 prisoners at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Of these, US authorities have cleared 86 for release, some in 2009 under President Obama, and others as early as 2004 under President Bush. The US government never charged these any of these 86 with crimes of terrorism or violence. Yet, they remain in Guantanamo because of our complete disregard for their basic legal and human rights. In addition, an executive order issued by President Obama two years ago, designated 46 other prisoners for indefinite detention without charge or trial. These 46 men were deemed too dangerous to release, even though not enough evidence exists to put them on trial. This is the same President Obama, a constitutional scholar, who promised to close Guantanamo more than four years ago.

More than 100 of these men are on a hunger strike, which began on February 6, in non-violent protest of worsening prison conditions, mistreatment of prisoners, religious provocations (alleged desecration of Qur’ans), and the reality that after 11 years of suffering in indefinite detention there is no end in sight. More than 29 of these prisoners are being force-fed, and 5 have been hospitalized. In a letter to the US Secretary of Defense, 20 organizations, including the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the NYU School of Law’s Global Justice Clinic, protested that the force-feeding of competent prisoners constitutes “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.” Force-feeding violates the Geneva Conventions.

On May 17, as part of a national day of solidarity, 14 of your neighbors gathered on the Woodstock Village Green to protest the treatment of the prisoners at Guantanamo and to say, “No, not in our name.” Some of us are fasting in solidarity with them.

To what depths has our country fallen? Can we justify anything because of our fears? Do we know no bounds? Can we know about this and not be culpable? What responsibility do we have as human beings?

Please call the White House, 202-456-1111; Department of Defense, 703-571-3343; and your US representatives and senators to express your concerns about the hunger strikers, to demand freedom for those the US authorities have already cleared for release, to bring all other prisoners to speedy trials, and to insist on the closing of Guantanamo.

Nic Abramson