Intifada Diary, Haifa, Palestine

20 Thursday May 2021

Posted by freehaifa in Herak Haifa, Palestine 48, Popular Struggle, Uncategorized

Tags

Haifa Court, Haifa Demonstrations, Herak Haifa, Police Violence, Tal3at

The uprising in Haifa is drawing from all sectors of the Palestinian community, as the Israeli government brings in the Shin Bet to help smash the protests.

(The second report about the Intifada in Haifa, as appeared in Mondoweiss)

On Saturday it seemed that Haifa is somewhat calmer. But that is only relatively to the last stormy six days. But the Israeli massacre of Gaza’s children continues in all its ferocity.

After the first days of fear, shock, and rage at the attacks on isolated Arab homes in mixed neighborhoods by the fascists, and at the attacks on the Arab population at large by the police and the army, people are now closely following all the developments in the struggle. Almost all Palestinians in Haifa are involved in the struggle in this way or that. Wherever you go you meet more people that were attacked by fascists or by the police, and hear more stories about friends and relatives who have been injured or detained (or both).

In this short dispatch I will try to convey some of the events from the 7^th and 8^th days of the intifada in Haifa.

Saturday, May 15

This was the 7^th day since the current intifada reached Haifa. The fascist mobs were not on the streets. But the police, reinforced by heavily armed “border guards”, patrolled the Arab neighborhoods with a clear intention to “take revenge” on the people. It is not only against Gaza that the Zionists want to “restore deterrence”. On the other side, the activists wanted to restore the self-confidence of the people by developing mutual solidarity and social activity, sometimes avoiding direct confrontation.

I went with a group of activists to check the situation in Halisa, where we heard of a campaign of detentions overnight. We climbed our way to an old crumbling house just a hundred meters from the massive buildings of the Haifa police headquarters. In the house we found a mother and her daughters, as the family’s father and three sons were all arrested in a police raid on their house. They show us videos how the police attacked the house, broke in and beat them cruelly in their own home, even after they were laying flat on the ground. They tell us that the police accused them of attacking their religious Jewish neighbors. They told us that they are on very good relations with those neighbors. Actually, the neighbors themselves came to the court to testify with them in the remand hearing! The neighbors waited with them for hours, but the court refused to hear them and remanded the detention of all four of the detainees. (They were later released on Sunday, after the judge finally agreed to witness the videos and was shocked by the police’s violence).

The evidence of harsh treatment was evident on the bodies of the released detainees in Halisa

We climbed the hill to Hussein St. where we met a group of youths sitting on the pavement. They told us how on Friday night, at about 1:00 am, as they were sitting near their houses, the police fired tear gas into the street without any provocation. After the tear gas came the border guards and started beating people randomly and detaining some of them. As we were trying to check with our volunteer lawyers what happened with the detainees, some of them came walking from the police headquarters. Some of them spent the night in the hospital after the beating. Now they were released on the condition that they stay out of Haifa (where they live and work) for the next 15 days. The bloodstained signs of the beating could be clearly seen on their bodies.

The breadth of the protests

We hardly know what happens in other towns around Haifa and beyond. We are very busy with the events, the Israeli media hardly write anything about Palestinians suffering from Israeli oppression or resisting it, and the Arab media can hardly catch up with the events. In normal days when there is a demonstration or a clash with the police you can expect to read an article about it in Arab48. Now there are dozens of demonstrations and clashes every day. The daily report only gives a list of seven or eight places where they happened, and mention that it is only a partial list. At best you can find a few lines about some of the events.

Luckily, the police are obliged by the law to bring detainees to court within 24 hours of their detention (more or less). It means that people that were detained on Friday are brought to court on Saturday night. As most courts are closed, detainees from many Arab towns around Haifa are brought to Haifa, and it is an opportunity for us to meet families of the detainees and some of the activists, and hear some news about other fronts in the battle. Everybody that we talk with is in high spirits. We hear of daily demonstrations and clashes with the police in every location. Everybody agrees that all the attempts to wipe out Palestinian identity and make the people, especially the youth, care only for their personal fate completely failed. The youth are leading the struggle and have their own network of organizations, outside the influence of all the traditional frameworks.

We hear of one town where the municipality begged the police to prevent the selling of dangerous fireworks toward Eid al-Fitr. The police did nothing of the sort. Now there is no Eid and all the fireworks are directed at the police.

The same story repeats itself on Sunday morning, as it is the eve of the Jewish Shavuot holiday, and on Monday night after all courts were closed for the holiday.

Demonstrations again

Long before the current uprising, Herak Haifa planned to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba, in coordination with other Palestinian movements all over Palestine and the diaspora, with a special event with lighting the torch of return. The activity was planned to take place in Prisoner’s Square, in the German Colony, where the clashes started in the first three days of last week. Now, as Palestinians in Haifa are under attack, the German Colony is not regarded a safe place. The fascists issued calls for attacking the Herak activity, and we know very well that the police would be more than happy to take part in such an attack. The youth in the Arab neighborhoods are mobilized for self-defense of the population, but the Herak didn’t want to farther strain their efforts and cancelled the activity.

Tal’at demo in Habibi Circle, Wadi Nisnas

Meanwhile, many women activists felt that they were sidelined while the main forms of activity are clashes with the police or physically confronting attackers. In the last few years, we have witnessed several very significant struggles led by “Tal’at”, a feminist Palestinian initiative that unites Palestinian women in all different localities. Now Tal’at called for a 15^th of May Nakba demonstration in Emil Habibi Circle in the middle of Wadi Nisnas. Many were afraid, after the experience of the last days, that any demonstration would be attacked by the police. But more than a hundred activists, around 80% of them women, came anyway to the demonstration. The police were watching from the other side of the circle and the demonstration took place without being interrupted.

At the end of the demonstration, most of the participants walked through downtown Haifa to the court, and held another lively demonstration there. As we arrived near the court, we found that the police and border guards concentrated heavy forces in front of the building. There was a big gathering of the families of detainees from all the towns in the Haifa district, and the police kept the demonstrators separated from the families. There were even police dogs ready to bite us. Later we learned that the police mobilization was probably due to the fact that Sheikh Kamal Hatib, the deputy leader of the banned Islamic Movement, was also brought for remand. He was arrested the previous night from his home in Kafr Kanna (Cana of Galilee) near Nazareth in a very violent way, which included firing live munition at protesters, wounding many, several of them dangerously.

Nightly demonstration in front of the Haifa court, Saturday, May 15

Sunday, May 16

In the morning we went to the court again, to see who was arrested the previous night, to support the families of the detainees, and to encourage the volunteer lawyers. There are many Arab lawyers that are volunteering to defend the detainees from the protests. Their presence is a very strong message to the detainees and their families: you are not alone; you are part of a society that is under attack and stays strong by caring for each other. We, in Haifa, are lucky to have a special team of young female lawyers that organized prior to the current crisis in order to defend Palestinian political prisoners. Now they work day and night, giving consultations to detainees before they are interrogated and representing them in the remand hearings.

The journalist

Rashad Omari is clearly the bravest Palestinian journalist in Haifa. He is the owner and editor of “Al-Madina”, a local weekly that is freely distributed in Haifa and surrounding towns. He personally covers all of the Palestinian demonstrations in Haifa, as well as many social issues. On Friday he was arrested from his home in Haifa and was accused of “incitement”. They did not say what this supposed incitement consisted of, or where and when it was published. He spent the night in prison and later the police suggested to release him on condition that he keep out of the city for the next 15 days. He refused, and as a reprisal the police brought him to court on Saturday night and requested to remand his detention. The judge didn’t find any evidence of any offense and he was released without conditions. He was the last person to walk out of the court at 2:00 am.

On Sunday morning he was already in front of the court again, covering the remand hearings of other detainees, interviewing families and laughing with friends.

Police dogs in front of the Haifa court, May 15, 2021

The lecturer

As we were waiting in front of the court, we saw a man approaching with a sense of urgency. It was Ashraf Kortam, a well known local public figure, a lecturer on life skills. He was looking for the offices of Mahash, the special unit in Israel’s “Justice Ministry” that is responsible for investigating complaints against the police. He shows us a video, filmed by his neighbors, of how a policeman came to his house in a police car and hit him with a police baton again and again without any apparent reason. Unlike in most such cases, he knows the officer’s name. We find that Mahash is in “the missile building”, just on the other side of the avenue. He hurried there but found that the “justice ministry” is on holiday in Shavuot’s eve. He will go there after the holiday. I didn’t like telling him that the main role of Mahash is to hide evidence and close files.

Enter the Shin Bet

It was reported in the Israeli papers that the Shabak, or Shin Bet, was requested by the Israeli government to help the police in suppressing the mass protest. We have started to feel the heat. Before the police would only attack us only after we started to demonstrate in the street, now they sit tightly on our communications and arrest people that try to plan a demonstration. On Saturday they arrested two of the Herak activists just as we were discussing the proper way to commemorate the Nakba.

On Sunday morning one of the activists from Wadi Nisnas called his friends near the court to ask how many people were gathering there. He told them that he planned to bring manakish to the hungry masses. Before he had time to get out of his home, the police were there and took him with them. He was accused of an unclear charge of taking part in organizing the protests. After a few hours he finally joined the crown near the court, as a released detainee and, of course, without manakish. The cooperation between the police and the Shabak proved itself again as an efficient way to prevent “threats to Israel’s security”.

Today, Monday, (17.5.2021), we were all preparing for the general strike that was declared for tomorrow. The general strike is an opportunity for the society as a whole to stand out and prove that the protest is not only the matter of the youth activists. I hope to cover the preparations with the report about the strike itself in the next dispatch.

Fighting Zionism is NOT Anti-Semitism

27 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by freehaifa in International, Uncategorized, Zionism

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Argentine Left, Definition of Anti Semitism, International Solidarity, Israels' crimes against humanity, Right of Self Determination

An Open Letter to my comrades in the Argentine Left

(This letter is also available en español)

My dear comrades in the Argentine Left,

While people all over the world struggle today to fight the heritage of colonialism, slavery and white supremacy that is deep rooted in Western Capitalist societies and institutions, our people in Palestine are still facing the cruelest forms of active colonization, with all its brutality and blatant injustices.

We are used to the mobilization of all the imperialist forces to support Israel, militarily, economically and politically, in its constant drive to deprive all Palestinians of the most basic human rights. For the likes of Trump and Bolsonaro, their support to Israel is a natural extension of their racist and anti-democratic policies everywhere. But we naturally expect those fighting against racism and for social justice in their own countries to oppose Israeli colonialism and Apartheid and support the just struggle of Palestinians to live as free people in their own homeland.

For this reason, I was shocked to hear of the support of leftist parties in the Buenos Aires parliament to a declaration which is supposed to be against anti-Semitism, but in fact plays into the hands of the Zionist campaign to stigmatize and delegitimize criticism of Israel’s crimes.

In the “definition”, the first censored manifestation of “anti-Semitism” is “targeting of the state of Israel”. The carefully worded text goes on to allow “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country”. We should ask ourselves:

Which other country expelled the majority of the native population just 72 years ago, destroyed most of the villages and towns all over the country, and prevents the refugees till this day from returning?
Which other countries hold the majority of the native population under direct military rule with no right of self-determination?
Which other country, till this day, demolish houses, confiscate land and evacuate whole villages of the native population (all over the country, both citizens of Israel and under military occupation, just because they do not have the right religion) in order to give their property and build settlement on their land for people from the state’s religion?
Which other country holds 2 million people (many of them refugees) in the biggest prison on earth, surrounded by tanks and snipers, on the verge of starvation, with electricity supplied for a few hours a day, and bombing them regularly?

Sorry, comrades. From the “definition of anti-Semitism” that you adopted I may understand that if I don’t criticize Denmark for doing all these, then blaming Israel with such outrageous accusations is dangerously out of the mark.

The same definition goes on to denounce “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” How could you call a state that is based on systematic ethnic cleansing, expropriation, oppression and discrimination of the native population on the basis of race and religion other than “racist”? In what political lexicon does the “right of self-determination” imply the right to colonize other countries and expel the original population? And, yes, colonialism, racism and white supremacy are not “flaws” in the development of Zionism. They are at the basis of Zionist colonization, like other settler-colonialist movements. The difference is that Israel is still in the most brutal stage of expansionism and expropriation while most of the rest of the world is trying to move to a more civilized stage in the development of humanity.

In another hypocritical defense of Israel, the “definition” denounces “double standards” and demands that Israel would be treated like “any other democratic nation”. What does it mean for million of Palestinians under Israeli occupation that have no right to speak, protest or vote? Would you expect the world to treat Videla and his Junta “like any other democratic regime”?

Defending the crimes against humanity that are systematically performed by Israel in the name of fighting anti-Semitism is doing a disastrous damage to the fight against anti-Semitism, against racism in general and to the cause of the Left internationally. We should not forget the position of the Soviet Union and the Stalinists parties that supported the establishment of the colonialist state of Israel in 1948 and supplied much of the arms which was used to massacre and ethnically cleanse the native Palestinian population. This shameful position, preferring the interests of an European settler minority over the native majority, discredited the cause of Socialism in a very important period in the strategic battle for the future of the world.

We can’t allow ourselves to repeat this kind of prejudice in the 21st century.

I would like to believe that you just didn’t think out well your position. I hope that you would have the political courage and responsibility to reconsider your position and stand out clearly against Zionism, for the rights of the Palestinian people, for the return of the refugees and for one democratic state in all of Palestine.

Comradely Greetings,

Yoav Haifawi

June 27, 2020

Response from the Buenos Aires leftist deputies

After publishing the open letter above, I received the following response in my Facebook inbox:

ALWAYS WITH THE PALESTINE CAUSE AGAINST THE ZIONIST STATE

We rectify a mistake made in the CABA Legislature Always with the Palestinian cause against the Zionist state.

Statement by Buenos Aires deputies of the Left Front Myriam Bregman, Gabriel Solano and Alejandrina Barry.

The Left Front has been denouncing the prostration to Zionism of the national government as stated in Alberto Fernández’s first trip to Israel to meet with the genocidal Netanyahu, who these days is advancing with his policy of finishing annexing the Zionist state to the Palestinian West Bank.

In light of the aforementioned, it is clear that for the Left Front the table should be voted negatively.

We have always carried out our fight to the death against anti-Semitism on the basis of denouncing Zionism and the State of Israel, built on the basis of genocide and the occupation and theft of land and property from the Palestinian people.

We have made our principled position on this point clear by actively participating in the demonstrations taking place in our country at the Israeli Embassy and denouncing the permanent arrangements of all governments with Zionism.

We are in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their cause. We demand the release of all political prisoners by the Israeli state and all Palestinian demands in the face of an exponential increase in their hardships since the emergence of the pandemic.

To make our position clear, we will send this text to the Parliamentary Secretariat of the Legislature to inform you count our vote in a negative way.

Myriam Bregman, Gabriel Solano, Alejandrina Barry, CABA Deputies for the Left Front (Argentina)

The original corrective statement (in Spanish) was published here.

We Refuse to Die

24 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by freehaifa in China's Rise, Corona Pandemic, One World, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Corona Virus, Italy, Johnson, Merkel, Pandemic 2020, Trump, Wuhan

I was reading the news about an Italian Priest, Giuseppe Berardelli, who died of Corona after refusing to use a respirator machine especially bought for him by his parishioners, choosing to give it to another patient, whom he didn’t know. According to our Islamic culture we would call father Giuseppe “shahid”, martyr for a holy cause. In the context of the heroic struggle of our beloved Humanity against the Corona virus, he joined the ranks of martyrs symbolized by Jesus and Che Guevara.

The People’s Resistance Against the Pandemic

In a world preoccupied by internal conflicts and by man-made damage to the environment, the pandemic returns us to the basic conflict that Humanity faced from its early days: the struggle with the wild forces of mother nature. The epidemic is very much like old epidemics – but our Humanity is changing very fast, and our modern, educated, connected, 21^st century Humanity is striving to rewrite the rules of the game.

While we watch in our billions the horrific numbers of infected and dead going up faster by the day, we already achieve one basic new standard: Every person counts! It is not up to the scientists or the historians to count post-mortem the damage, but it is a matter of all of us to be aware to the Human toll of the epidemic, as it happens. By this acute awareness we set the world’s priorities: The scientists and the doctors, nurses and medical teams that are fighting the virus are our new cultural heroes; The politicians that do not want to do the most to stop the pandemic are the public enemy; We refuse to die!

For the first time we face a major challenge as one Humanity. We have many reasons to be proud: From the people in the windows in Wuhan, singing and waving, making the “V” signs with their fingers, to the people in Italy, Catalonia and Spain, singing from their balconies and clapping their hands to thank the medical teams, to the teams of Chinese and Cuban doctors putting their lives in danger to help fight the disease in far-away countries.

And, yes, it is the people’s resistance against the pandemic, in which the voice of each of us counts (either to the side of Humanity or to the side of the virus). The initial tendency of the great leaders of the old capitalist order was to avoid fighting the pandemic. After they spent the first two months cynically enjoying the suffering of the Chinese people, trying to throw the blame on the communist party or hoping for some advantage against Chinese competition, they were completely surprised by the fact that we are all Human, the same type of organism, and we are all vulnerable to the virus. So, after squandering the first two months that should have been utilized for preparations and prevention (not to say helping to stop the epidemic in China), Trump, Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel and their likes, thought they can continue with “business as usual”: let people get sick and die. This is what happened in so many previous pandemics. After so many years of sanctifying “economic growth” – who would dare to stop the holy bourse festivities only because some old people are dying?

We already won the first stage of this war – the battle over priorities. We refuse to die. China played a major role in setting a new standard for Humanity by stopping the epidemic in its first center before it widely spread worldwide. Now politician in other nations can’t hide their preference to care for the interests of the capitalists few, at the expense of the lives of millions, behind the will of god or nature or inevitable fate. Every extra death due to the unwillingness to do what is needed to stop the pandemic is the direct responsibility of those making these deadly decisions.

We refuse to die and we will win the struggle against the Corona pandemic… We must!

But the people’s resistance should not stop there. It must continue to lay the foundations for a new world order, putting people’s lives and well being first.

Construire une nouvelle réalité politique sur les ruines du colonialisme: actualisation de la campagne pour un seul état démocratique

04 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by freehaifa in En français, ODS, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Awad Abdelfattah, Haifa, Ilan Pappe, la campagne pour un seul état démocratique, les élections à la Knesset, les Palestiniens des frontières de 1948, un seul état démocratique

(This article appeared also in English)

Le premier semestre 2018 a été bien occupé pour la Campagne pour un seul Etat démocratique (One Democratic State Campaign – ODSC). Cette initiative lancée depuis la Palestine même vise à raviver une solution positive à la souffrance et au combat du peuple palestinien, soumis depuis un siècle au sionisme et au colonialisme à travers le mot d’ordre d’un Etat démocratique unique, du fleuve Jourdain à la mer, avec égalité des droits de tous ses citoyens. Des consultations, publiques ou non, ont été organisées auprès d’une centaine de militants et intellectuels pour définir et adopter le programme politique de cette campagne qui a été publié en août 2018.

Puis il y a eu les élections d’octobre 2018 (dans la Palestine de 1948 – C’est à dire l’Etat israélien), suivies des élections à la Knesset israélienne en avril 2019. La Campagne est jusqu’à présent principalement menée par les Palestiniens des frontières de 1948, où les élections municipales sont prises au sérieux puisque la population s’y efforce de peser sur la gestion municipale quotidienne. De nombreux militants et sympathisants de la Campagne se sont largement impliqués dans les élections, et certains ont même été élus conseillers municipaux.

Les élections à la Knesset d’avril 2019 n’ont pas seulement perturbé la Campagne, elles ont aussi engendré un dilemme politique profond. Les Arabes palestiniens de citoyenneté israélienne se sont divisés, à parts quasi égales, entre ceux qui ont participé aux élections, et ceux qui n’ont pas voté ou ont activement boycotté les élections. La solution d’un Etat démocratique unique se fonde sur la compréhension qu’Israël n’est pas un Etat démocratique et que la majorité juive-sioniste à la Knesset est au pouvoir du fait du nettoyage ethnique et de l’oppression de millions de Palestiniens sous le joug militaire israélien, en Cisjordanie, à Gaza et à Jérusalem-Est, où ils sont privés de leurs droits humains et politiques les plus élémentaires. En gardant cela à l’esprit, je considère que la position la plus naturelle de la Campagne pour un seul Etat démocratique est de s’associer au boycott palestinien des élections tout en proposant une alternative réellement démocratique.

Mais l’orientation de la Campagne a pris une direction différente. Elle ne se considère pas comme une nouvelle force politique, qui aspire à marginaliser les partis et mouvements actuels, mais comme une initiative pour mettre en avant une perspective politique s’adressant non seulement à l’opinion publique mais aussi à des segments de la direction politique palestinienne actuelle. La Campagne ayant des sympathisants dans les rangs des partis palestiniens représentés à la Knesset, elle n’a pas voulu les obliger à choisir entre leur soutien à la campagne et la loyauté à leur parti. Plus généralement, elle a choisi de ne s’aliéner aucune composante d’une population palestinienne divisée, et a décidé d’éviter de se prononcer publiquement sur la question de la participation aux élections ou du boycott. Ne pas adopter une position claire sur les élections à la Knesset a conduit à accepter d’être marginalisés à l’occasion d’un débat politique intense.

Se réorganiser

Après les élections à la Knesset, les militants pour un seul Etat démocratique se sont réunis pour reprendre l’initiative. Le résultat des élections a montré, à nouveau, que les politiques israéliens sont emmurés dans une spirale de haine raciste et de guerre militariste ne laissant aucune place même à une once d’espoir de paix ou à un tournant vers plus de démocratie et d’égalité. Les principaux partis sionistes d’opposition, le parti Bleu et Blanc et les Travaillistes, ont violemment reproché au gouvernement ultraconservateur de ne pas avoir été assez dur avec les Palestiniens. Les partis arabes qui ont tenté d’avoir quelque influence à la Knesset en participant aux élections ont eu la déception d’être à nouveau rejetés comme partenaires légitimes de la politique israélienne. Et le camp croissant du boycott a fait face aux questions incessantes tant de ses sympathisants que de ses détracteurs : quelle est votre alternative à ces élections ?

La Campagne pour un seul Etat démocratique vise à unifier les Palestiniens d’où qu’ils soient, en abattant les murs, les frontières et les traditions politiques, pour constituer un mouvement regroupant les Palestiniens de l’ensemble du territoire historique de la Palestine, comme ceux de la diaspora. Elle vise aussi à encourager la participation active au combat contre le sionisme au sein de la société juive de Palestine.

Mais, comme le gros des militants de la Campagne vient des territoires palestiniens de 1948, nous avons décidé de regagner le terrain perdu en organisant une journée d’études à Haïfa fin juin.

Dans le passé, en 2008 et 2010, deux grandes conférences pour le Droit au retour et un Etat démocratique en Palestine se sont tenues à Haifa au théâtre al-Midan (c’était une initiative du mouvement Abna’a al-Balad). Depuis, le théâtre al-Midan, autrefois le théâtre palestinien le plus important de la région, est devenu la cible des attaques du gouvernement et de la municipalité. Sa programmation artistique a déclenché l’ire des autorités israéliennes et a été sanctionnée. Il lui est maintenant interdit de louer ses salles à tout rassemblement à coloration politique. Les militants culturels palestiniens d’Haïfa ont trouvé une alternative en ouvrant le théatre Khashabi avec l’intention manifeste de ne chercher aucun soutien du pouvoir en place, de garder une totale indépendance de répertoire artistique, et d’encourager la liberté de parole. Aussi le théatre Khashabi a été le choix évident pour accueillir la journée d’étude pour un seul Etat démocratique.

Un programme solide peut influencer la réalité

Le jour de la réunion, la petite salle du théâtre était pleine de quelques 70 personnes. La militante Aya Mana a ouvert la première séance. A noter que nous avons commencé seulement 10 minutes après l’heure prévue, ce qui témoigne largement du sérieux des participants. Les participants étaient divers, aussi bien des vétérans du combat que des jeunes militants, des intellectuels, des membres de divers mouvements, partis et ONG. Mana a salué toutes ces composantes et a invité chacun à participer non seulement au soutien de la campagne et de son programme, mais aussi à la discussion critique sur le programme et à la recherche commune des moyens les plus efficaces de construire un mouvement puissant avec pour enjeu essentiel l’obtention de la justice, de la liberté et de la démocratie.

Le premier intervenant fut l’historien Ilan Pappé, un des initiateurs de la Campagne. Si je ne me trompe pas, c’était sa première intervention publique totalement en arabe, et il a parfaitement réussi le test, transmettant un message clair sur le contexte historique de la solution ancienne et réactualisée d’un seul Etat démocratique.

Pappé a analysé les origines du mouvement sioniste comme élément du phénomène mondial du colonialisme européen, et plus spécifiquement comme un exemple de colonisation de peuplement. Il a souligné que la colonisation de peuplement est la forme la plus dangereuse du colonialisme, puisqu’elle aspire non seulement à occuper un pays et à exploiter sa population, mais à la remplacer par des colons. Dans ce but, la colonisation de peuplement mène facilement à la logique de génocide, comme cela a été réalisé avec succès contre la population indigène aux Etats-Unis et dans d’autres colonies. Il a expliqué comment la colonisation de peuplement construit un mythe national déformé selon lequel les colons sont décrits comme « indigènes » et la population indigène accusée d’être une « menace étrangère». Un mythe supplémentaire affirme aussi que la patrie était « vide » jusqu’à l’arrivée des colons, ignorant et niant ainsi l’existence même d’une population indigène.

Ce contexte explique pourquoi il n’y a aucune discussion réelle chez les politiques israéliens sur la recherche d’une véritable solution qui puisse rétablir les droits des Palestiniens arabes et leur permettre de vivre librement et en toute égalité. La proposition d’une solution de deux Etats dans son contexte israélien n’est qu’une variante de la même recherche des moyens de se débarrasser de la population indigène.

Pappé a consacré une grande partie de son intervention au contexte international actuel du combat. Il a insisté sur l’importance d’une reconnaissance croissante des droits des Palestiniens dans la société civile internationale, et sur la disponibilité de nombreux secteurs du mouvement de solidarité à entendre et accepter la seule solution fondée sur les droits de l’homme et la démocratie : un seul état démocratique.

Il a expliqué que, d’un autre côté, le fort soutien à Israël et à sa politique raciste de la part des forces réactionnaires, comme Trump et les nationalistes européens, n’est pas un hasard. Leur soutien est fondé sur leur aspiration à restaurer la suprématie blanche de l’ère coloniale et l’incitation à la haine des peuples du tiers-monde. Le soutien des forces réactionnaires à Israël est célébré par le gouvernement israélien, mais il signifie aussi que ce n’est plus un sujet de consensus occidental. Le conflit israélo-palestinien est une des questions au centre du combat politique sur l’avenir du monde entre forces progressistes et forces réactionnaires.

Ce nouvel alignement mondial concernant la lutte palestinienne ouvre de nombreuses possibilités, mais il exige une approche plus active et bien-ciblée. Pour pouvoir construire de nouvelles alliances et maximiser le potentiel de solidarité internationale, il est important que les Palestiniens eux-mêmes reviennent à la nature fondamentale de leur mouvement de libération, qui est la lutte pour la liberté et les droits de l’homme pour tous.

Pappé a développé l’importance d’avoir une vision politique claire et d’utiliser la terminologie correcte pour décrire la réalité actuelle. Par exemple, parler du régime d’apartheid israélien est autre chose que seulement se plaindre de la « discrimination ». Parler de décolonisation est différent de parler de la « résolution du conflit ».

Répondant à une question, Pappé a corrigé une lecture erronée habituelle de l’histoire. Une fréquente idée fausse distingue « le modèle algérien » où les colons ont été expulsés et « l’approche sud-africaine » où la société s’est transformée pour que Blancs et Noirs deviennent des citoyens à part entière et égaux après le démantèlement de l’apartheid. La réalité historique est que le mouvement de libération algérien a proposé aux colons français le choix de rester citoyens de l’Algérie nouvellement libérée (un choix qui faisait partie des accords d’Evian de décolonisation de 1962 entre le FLN et le gouvernement français). Mais la grande majorité des colons a préféré rentrer en France. Et de nombreux Blancs sud-africains ont émigré après le démantèlement de l’apartheid. Le programme d’un seul Etat démocratique est l’alternative naturelle au colonialisme. Il rendra la Palestine à ses communautés locales et régionales, il abolira les privilèges des colons, et leur donnera la possibilité d’intégrer le nouvel Etat sur la base de l’égalité civique.

Un intérêt croissant

Awad Abdelfattah, un des principaux coordinateurs de la Campagne, qui était précédemment secrétaire général du parti Alliance nationale démocratique (connu par son acronyme hébreu Balad), a commencé son intervention par un rapport optimiste sur l’élargissement de la Campagne et les nouveaux contacts , particulièrement parmi les Palestiniens d’autres régions. Même si la Campagne elle-même n’en est qu’à ses débuts, des militants du mouvement de résistance populaire en Cisjordanie et à Gaza ont manifesté de l’intérêt pour le message et les activités de la Campagne. Abdelfattah a rapporté que certains d’entre eux ont expliqué qu’ils n’avaient jamais abandonné ce rêve – puisque ce n’est que dans ce cadre que le droit au retour peut se réaliser et la totalité des droits des Palestiniens être rétablie – et voulaient le raviver comme un moyen de réactiver le mouvement palestinien.

Les participants ont montré un vif intérêt quand Abdelfattah a rapporté les progrès de la discussion avec des militants palestiniens dans les prisons d’occupation, notamment avec Ahmad Saadat, secrétaire général du FPLP (Front populaire de libération de la Palestine). L’information concernant l’intérêt porté par le mouvement des prisonniers au programme pour un seul Etat démocratique a fait les gros titres du site Arab-48 le lendemain.

Abdelfattah a ensuite décrit la crise du mouvement de libération nationale palestinien, qui est en train de prendre réellement conscience que la solution des deux Etats et les accords d’Oslo n’ont fait que perpétuer l’occupation. Il a cité, parmi les effets les plus désastreux des accords d’Oslo, la dislocation du peuple palestinien. La Cisjordanie est séparée de Gaza, des millions de réfugiés sont expulsés hors de leur pays sans espoir de retour, et les Palestiniens vivant à l’intérieur des frontières de 1948 subissent une discrimination systématique, et de surcroît se trouvent régulièrement exclus de la cause nationale palestinienne.

Une autre conséquence des accords d’Oslo est l’anéantissement de l’OLP, qui a servi d’outil révolutionnaire jusqu’aux accords d’Oslo, avant d’être usurpée par l’Autorité palestinienne sans avoir réalisé son objectif de libération de la Palestine occupée. Abdelfattah a ajouté ironiquement, si on peut dire, que les accords d’Oslo ont réalisé l’unité des Palestiniens dans la détresse.

Abdelfattah a, au contraire, souligné l’importance du regroupement des Palestiniens autour d’une nouvelle vision qui redonne espoir aux jeunes générations en reprenant les principes de base du combat bénéfique de libération, tout en adaptant les perspectives et les moyens de la lutte à la situation actuelle et aux nouvelles technologies et à la mondialisation. Cette nouvelle initiative est essentiellement un pas vers une vie différente, vers une situation politique nouvelle et moderne, où tous les Palestiniens comme les Juifs d’Israël pourront lutter ensemble pour construire une nouvelle entité politique démocratique sur les ruines du colonialisme, de l’apartheid et de la séparation raciste des communautés. L’Etat futur sera fondé sur les principes de justice et de citoyenneté pleine et égale.

« Tout en étant conscients que la lutte devant nous sera longue, nous pouvons commencer aujourd’hui à reconstruire notre compréhension de la situation et à nous réorganiser sur de nouvelles bases », a déclaré Abdelfattah.

Il a ajouté qu’il espérait que « la Campagne va progressivement se développer en mouvement massif de résistance populaire contre l’occupation ».

Abdelfattah a ensuite réfuté les arguments de ceux qui hésitent à soutenir la perspective d’un seul Etat démocratique : un seul état démocratique disent-ils est une utopie irréaliste vu la situation politique actuelle, puisque le rapport de force est favorable au colonisateur, qui est soutenu par l’Etat le plus puissant au monde, les Etats-Unis ; qu’ aucun courant majeur palestinien ne reprend la solution d’un seul Etat et qu’aucun parti israélien, petit ou grand, n’est prêt à abandonner le principe de l’« Etat juif ».

Il a résumé la réponse à ces arguments ainsi : « Tout d’abord, nous devons souligner que nous fondons notre approche sur le principe du rétablissement de la justice pour tous les Palestiniens, ceux qui ont été expulsés et dépossédés comme ceux qui ont survécu à la purification ethnique perpétuée par le mouvement sioniste. Deuxièmement, la solution des deux Etats est morte depuis longtemps et les deux populations sont maintenant inextricablement liées. Cette réalité s’est enracinée du fait de la politique constante et systématique de spoliation de la terre et de colonisation de peuplement. En conséquence, toute la Palestine est devenue une unité géographique et démographique soumis à un régime ouvertement colonial pratiquant l’apartheid. »

Il a ajouté : « Nous devons balayer l’illusion qu’Israël pourrait accepter un Etat palestinien indépendant. En même temps, nous devons unifier les Palestiniens, la société civile internationale sympathisante et les Juifs antisionistes sur l’axe du combat pour défaire ce régime. A propos, l’utopie n’est pas toujours une chimère. De nombreuses idées qui ont pu paraître utopiques sont devenues réalité grâce à une vision claire, une organisation réfléchie et une forte détermination. L’Afrique du Sud en est un exemple brut qui nous inspire. »

Point de vue légal et culturel

La deuxième séance, rendue possible par le militant Majd Nasralla, visait à répondre à certaines questions pratiques auxquelles nous serons confrontés dans la construction d’un mouvement fondé sur la solution d’un seul Etat démocratique.

Une des questions essentielles qui nous a souvent été posée est la place de la solution d’un seul Etat démocratique au regard du droit international. Certains hésitent à soutenir ouvertement la perspective d’un seul Etat démocratique parce qu’ils croient que les droits des Palestiniens sont légalement garantis par le droit à l’auto-détermination dans le cadre d’un Etat palestinien au sein de la solution des deux Etats. Ils craignent que l’adoption de la solution d’un seul Etat démocratique, n’ayant pas de reconnaissance internationale, affaiblisse la base légale des revendications palestiniennes.

Un autre expert, le professeur Munir Nusseibeh, a donné un avis éclairé sur le soutien à la solution d’un seul Etat démocratique du point de vue du droit international. Il a expliqué qu’il n’y a aucun principe qui exige une séparation des Etats au nom d’une séparation des identités nationales. Il a expliqué que le droit à l’auto-détermination est fondamentalement le droit de ne pas être soumis à une oppression étrangère. Il a décrit les étapes du développement du droit international vers l’adoption des droits de l’homme comme principe de base universel et la nécessité des les garantir à tous les peuples.

La plus grande partie de l’intervention de Nusseibeh s’est concentrée sur le concept de « justice de transition » sur lequel il a fait des recherches complètes. Il a critiqué les experts juridiques sionistes et certains de leurs apologistes occidentaux qui tentent d’utiliser ce concept pour diluer la responsabilité israélienne pour crimes de guerre, nettoyage ethnique et les autres crimes contre le peuple palestinien. Il a souligné qu’au cœur du concept de « justice de transition » il y avait l’affirmation d’une vraie « transition ».

Le professeur Nusseibeh a expliqué que le concept de justice de transition ne se pose qu’après qu’un régime fondé sur la négation des droits de l’homme élémentaires a été démantelé et que s’y est substitué un autre régime qui les garantisse et en finisse avec l’injustice. Dans ce cadre, le nouveau régime prend l’entière responsabilité des conséquences des injustices passées et de la restitution aux victimes de leurs droits. C’est seulement alors qu’intervient la justice de transition qui va s’occuper des auteurs des crimes, notamment de leur inculpation et de leur condamnation, qui peut prendre en compte les circonstances et la nécessité de reconstruire une société après un traumatisme. Mais, avant tout, nous devons garantir la transformation complète des bases légales du régime, qui ne sera possible que dans le cadre d’un seul Etat démocratique.

Le dernier intervenant a été Majd Kayal, écrivain et un des militants principaux des mouvements de la jeunesse qui ont joué un rôle majeur dans les manifestations palestiniennes dans les territoires palestiniens de 1948 au cours des dernières années. Il a parlé du rôle de la culture et décrit les activités culturelles qui peuvent aider la société palestinienne à se libérer de l’hégémonie sioniste. Il a expliqué que si la mise en avant de mots d’ordre politiques est un aspect naturel de la vie et de la culture, ce n’est pas l’essence de ce qui est indispensable. Dans certains cas, les mots d’ordre politiques sur la nationalité palestinienne ou même la levée du drapeau palestinien peuvent contribuer à consolider l’actuel rapport de force déformé – si cela est fait dans un cadre imposé par le régime sioniste. Ce qui est indispensable c’est de créer et développer un cadre indépendant de créativité culturelle hors de l’influence du régime et qui traite de tous les aspects de la vie – depuis la critique sans crainte de la situation politique jusqu’à la discussion des problèmes sociaux profonds, et le traitement de sujets purement esthétiques et artistiques.

Préparer les prochaines étapes

Après ces deux séances, nous nous sommes répartis en ateliers. Le premier atelier a discuté du programme politique de la Campagne, pour ceux qui avaient rejoint le projet récemment et ceux qui voulaient proposer d’améliorer le programme. Le deuxième atelier s’est penché sur les prochaines étapes de la construction de la Campagne : la stratégie politique et médiatique.

A la fin des discussions en atelier, les organisateurs ont annoncé la création de deux groupes de travail permanents. L’un développera la campagne en direction de l’opinion publique et des partis et mouvements politiques. L’autre travaillera sur la publication de nouveaux matériels et dessinera le profil média de la campagne. Les deux groupes de travail sont ouverts à tout nouveau militant.

Dareen Tatour’s appeal: Would the poem be acquitted and the poet remain convicted?

27 Sunday Jan 2019

Posted by freehaifa in Dareen Tatour, Uncategorized

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Freedom of Expression, Gaby Lasky, Nazareth Court, Palestinian Poet, Trial for a Poem

(This report is also available in Hebrew. An edited version of it was published in +972 Magazine)

In ordinary trials, after a defendant has finished serving his or her sentence, one can safely assume that the legal drama is over. There is nothing ordinary, however, about the trial of Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour.

Although she was released on September 20 from a five-month prison sentence, on top of two and a half years under house arrest imposed on her as “danger to the public” during the trial, she continues her legal battle against her conviction of incitement to violence and support for a terrorist organization. On December 25, the Nazareth District Court convened to consider the appeal filed by Tatour’s attorney Gaby Lasky.

20181225_consultin_at_break_in_the_hearing

Consultation during a break in the hearing: Gaby Lasky, Einat Weizman and Dareen Tatour

The great human drama of imprisonment has already moved to other places. On the same day that the appeal was heard, Sheikh Sayah a-Turi, the leader of the struggle against the evacuation of the village of Al-Araqeeb in the Naqab (Negev), entered Ramleh Prison. Many of the activists who had accompanied Dareen to the numerous hearings of her trial were there to accompany him.

But Tatour’s trial continues to stir up the cultural circles in Israel and serve as a front line in the war between those who defend freedom of expression and the authorities who try to prevent any artistic expression of resistance to the occupation. At the latest act in this struggle, “Culture” Minister Miri Regev has prevented the display of Tatour’s poem “Resist My People“, that was at the center of the indictment against her, in an exhibition in Jerusalem called Barbarism, which deals with censorship.

Poetry and red lines

The trial’s protocol presents a lengthy monologue by defense attorney Gaby Lasky, who spared no effort to prove that the accusations against Tatour are unfounded and should be rejected, followed by a contradictory monologue by state attorney Avital Sharoni. But the drama that was played in the courtroom rolled out differently. The panel included three judges of the District Court, headed by Judge Ester Hellman. It seems that there was a division of labor between the judges, so that one of them, Judge Yifat Shitrit, studied the file in advance and led the discussion throughout the hearing. Already at the beginning, she clarified that the court intends to stick to the criterion of criminal law according to which “if there is doubt – there is no doubt.” As if to say that if Tatour’s words could be interpreted differently than what the indictment attributed to her, she should be acquitted.

The court’s schedule: Tatour against the state of Israel

Attorney Lasky tried to concentrate all her arguments on the importance of freedom of political and artistic expression, which are not only the rights of the individual but also the soul of democracy and vital to society as a whole. The judges tried to direct her in a different direction and requested her to define herself when a poem might cross the boundaries of the criminal law. After lengthy negotiations, Lasky declared that, according to her belief, and also according to the defense expert Professor Nissim Calderon, the state should not apply the criminal law to poetry. She admitted that the law itself does not provide such protection for poetry, but it sets definitions of criminal expression that include “direct call to violent action” or, in case of an indirect call, “real possibility” that a violent act might be realized as a result. She made clear that Tatour did not publish any call for violent action and the prosecution did not bring even a shred of evidence that her publications might have inspired any violent act.

Finally, Lasky mentioned that she knew of only one previous case in which a poet was accused in Israel of incitement following a poem he wrote. This was the case against the poet Shafiq Habib from Deir Hanna in the early 1990s, following his poems dedicated to “the stones’ children” from the first intifada. Habib was convicted in the Acre Magistrate’s Court but was later acquitted in the Haifa District Court.

Understanding the intention of the poet

The judges seemed to be trying to examine the meaning of the poem’s words, especially the line “Follow the caravan of martyrs,” which Judge Adi Bambiliya-Einstein, who convicted Tatour, interpreted as calling for suicide operations. Two of the justices, Helman and Shitrit, first demonstrated the prevailing prejudice among the Jewish public as if the word “shahid” could be interpreted as a “suicide bomber”. But here came the third judge, Sa’eb Dabour, who relied on his personal knowledge of the Arabic language and explained that the word shahid refers to people who died under various circumstances, including innocent victims of the conflict.

After settling the dispute over the meaning of the word shahid, the judges again discussed the context of the line within the poem. They recognized that all the martyrs mentioned in the poem, such as Hadil Al Hashlamoun and Ali Dawabsheh, were victims of the occupation and were not killed due to violent action on their part.

At a certain stage, apparently in the middle of the defense arguments, the judges requested to watch the video containing the poem, as submitted to the court as part of the evidence. The state-of-the-art video equipment that was prepared in advance did not work, and everyone took a long break until the technical staff fixed the problem. When we returned from the break and the video was finally played, the judges seemed to have changed their minds again. During the trial, the prosecution argued, and the judge repeated this in the ruling, that the video shows violent activity that casts on the meaning of the poem. The prosecution also emphasized the dramatic music accompanying the video. Now the District Court judges also expressed their opinion that the music increases the effect of the poem and the video.

Attorney Lasky insisted that the video presents a daily reality of a violent clash between the army and the population under the occupation, the same harsh reality that constitutes the background to the poem’s writing. The poet’s statement, Lasky claimed, should be sought in the words of the poem itself. The prosecutor repeated the claim that the video showed “stone throwing and Molotov cocktails” and Laski corrected her that there are no Molotov cocktails, and that the violence in the video is at the low threshold of what we regularly see in the news. At a certain stage, when the prosecutor and the judges repeatedly talked about the violence that the Palestinians were using in the video, Lasky couldn’t hold herself and recalled that while the Palestinian youths were throwing stones, the soldiers fired at them: “What is more violent?” she asked. After a long argument it seemed that the judges are ready to accept the possibility that the video is the background and does not necessarily constitute a statement by the poet.

Consent or decision

The judges hinted to both sides that they should better reach an agreement that the charge against the poem “Resist My People” would be canceled, but the poet’s conviction in the two other statements mentioned in the indictment, which are non-poetic statuses on Facebook, will remain in place. This would ostensibly erase the disgrace that was imposed on the State of Israel and its judicial system as someone who persecuted and imprisoned poets – but the poet herself, who was persecuted and imprisoned, will continue to bear the blame. The judges explained that this is also the poet’s interest – since she wants to continue writing poems. By stipulating that the poem did not exceed the criminal limit, it will remove or at least distance the whip that threatens the freedom of artistic expression.

20181225_dareen and gaby posing out of the court b

Dareen Tatour and Gaby Lasky – Optimist after the appeal hearing

The judges will wait for the parties’ response to the compromise proposal, and if this is not accepted, they would announce a later date for a decision on the appeal.

The unfairness of the proposed compromise is striking: One of the statuses of which Tatour was convicted is the inscription “I am the next Shahid” – published in protest against the murder of the boy Muhammad Abu Khdeir. In this context, her claim that the publication is a protest against the murder of innocent people is even more obvious.

Nevertheless, we went out with the feeling that if the indictment against the poem would be canceled it will constitute a certain victory for freedom of speech and the devoted struggle of Dareen Tatour and the many activists and artists who stood by her in the long struggle against the regime’s persecutions.

Llamada a la solidaridad internacional: ¡Libertad a Raja Eghbarieh!

19 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by freehaifa in Abna elBalad Movement, En Español, Political Detention, Uncategorized

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Abnaa Al-Balad, Hijos de la tierra, izquierda palestina, Raja Eghbarieh, solidaridad internacional

(This call is also available in English)

El 11 de septiembre de 2018, Raja Eghbarieh fue arrestado desde su casa en Umm Al-Fahm, en 1948 Palestina. Su detención fue dos veces renovada y la fiscalía israelí anunció que lo imputarían el jueves 20 de septiembre. Según las audiencias durante la prisión preventiva, todos los “delitos” del camarada Eghbarieh son sus mensajes en su página de Facebook, que según la acusación israelí contienen “incitación a la violencia”. El camarada Eghbarieh explicó en el tribunal que todos sus mensajes son una expresión de una resistencia política legítima a la ocupación israelí y a los crímenes de guerra. La fiscalía declaró que solicitarán su detención por un período ilimitado hasta el final del juicio.

El camarada Eghbarieh es un miembro veterano del movimiento palestino de izquierda, Abnaa Al-Balad (“Hijos de la tierra”). Fue el primer secretario general del movimiento y sigue siendo uno de sus principales líderes.

El arresto y la condena de Raja Eghbarieh es parte de un modalidad de agresión continua del estado sionista contra la libertad de expresión y la organización de los árabes palestinos, también aquellos que formalmente tienen la ciudadanía israelí. Mientras que los activistas son interrogados y arrestados regularmente, en los últimos años vemos un intento orquestado de erradicar el marco de las organizaciones políticas y los movimientos sociales árabes. Comenzó con el Movimiento Islámico, declarado fuera de la ley en noviembre de 2015. Muchos de sus miembros fueron arrestados y sentenciados a prisión por delitos tales como organizar oraciones en la mezquita Al-Aqsa. Esta modalidad continúa con el ataque a la Alianza Democrática Nacional (Balad), ya que muchos de sus activistas fueron interrogados y hay una demanda constante entre los partidos sionistas para evitar que participe en las elecciones de la Knesset (parlamento israelí).

El movimiento Abnaa Al-Balad, que representa una línea más de izquierda y radical , boicoteó las elecciones a la Knesset, siendo perseguido muchas veces, y sus líderes y activistas fueron víctimas de arrestos y detención administrativa. Ahora la detención del camarada Eghbarieh apuntaría al derecho de expresar posiciones nacionales palestinas en Internet.

La solidaridad internacional es urgente y es la forma más importante de defensa del escaso margen de actividad política para los palestinos en Palestina de 1948, que se suponía que disfrutarían de “la única democracia en el Medio Oriente”. Los políticos israelíes y la opinión pública están abandonando cualquier apariencia de democracia, ya que todos los partidos sionistas compiten para promover el concepto colonialista de un estado “solo judío”. La opinión pública árabe es vista con desprecio por las autoridades israelíes.

El hecho de que Israel puede realizar todos éstos crímenes, se debe al apoyo constante de las potencias occidentales, que le suministran armas, dinero, acceso preferencial a los mercados e impunidad legal. Todos estos privilegios se otorgan en base a la mentira de que Israel es una democracia.

Para las organizaciones de izquierda y los demócratas sinceros, hay una razón especial para defender y apoyar a Abnaa Al-Balad. Este movimiento nunca se retiró del llamado palestino original para el establecimiento de un estado democrático secular en toda Palestina, para todos sus habitantes y como un marco para permitir el regreso de todos los refugiados palestinos. El ataque a Abnaa Al-Balad demuestra que el estado sionista, con todo su poderío militar, siente temor ante la sola idea de una solución democrática en Palestina.

¡Libertad a Raja Eghbarieh!

¡Fuera las manos de Abnaa Al-Balad!

¡Libertad para el pueblo palestino!

‘A Blade of Grass’: Support Ashraf Fayadh, Dareen Tatour, and New Palestinian Poetry

28 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by freehaifa in Uncategorized

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ARABLIT & ARABLIT QUARTERLY

Smokestack Books is currently crowdfunding — through October 15 — for their forthcoming anthology A Blade of Grass: New Palestinian Poetry. Those pledging £20 or more will receive a copy of the book:

By crowdfunding, the press seeks to raise money to help pay contributors’ fees and printing costs, as well as to donate to the legal campaigns of imprisoned poets Ashraf Fayadh and Dareen Tatour.

The title of the collection comes from a Mahmoud Darwish quote: “Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by cultivating an attachment to human frailty, like a blade of grass growing on a wall as armies march by.”

A Blade of Grass: New Palestinian Poetry will be a facing-page, meet-in-the-middle collection that brings together, in English and Arabic, new work by poets from historic Palestine and the diaspora, including work by Marwan Makhoul, Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, Fatena Al-Gharra, Dareen Tatour, Ashraf Fayadh, Fady Joudah, Naomi Shihab Nye, Deema K. Shehabi, Mustafa Abu Sneineh, Farid…

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Poetry award from a Danish foundation to Dareen Tatour

30 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by freehaifa in Dareen Tatour, Uncategorized

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Carl Scharnberg, Dareen Tatour, International Solidarity, Palestinian Poetry, Scharnberg Foundation

By Ditte Scharnberg

‘Chains can imprison a poet physically, restrict his movements and impose house arrest, but they can’t restrict his thoughts, tongue, words and poems’.

Ditte Scarnberg announcing the Award to Dareen Tatour

Those were the words from Dareen Tatour to the Danish Carl Scharnberg Foundation, when, in June 2017, we awarded her a prize – 2000 euros – to support her fight for poetry, art and justice.

All of us in the foundation feel strongly about encouraging Dareen to keep on fighting. And we are quite sure that had he still been alive, my father Carl Scharnberg (1930-1995) – poet and political activist – surely would have been among her supporters and surely would have printed her poems to be read in Denmark.

(Here is a video from the ceremony.)

Who was the poet Carl Scharnberg?

My father was called the working man’s poet. Not without cause. For a couple of generations he was traveling all over the country, giving talks and reciting from his own literary works at trade union meetings and at the schools of the labour movement. About thirty books were produced on the way: novels, shorts stories, essays and collections of poems.

Actually he performed the unique trick of getting the man on the shop floor to enjoy poetry – Carl’s poetry anyhow – because his poems are down-to-earth and at the same time sensitive, committed and engaging.

Underway

To choose – it’s not to yield and submit

and gently lower one’s voice,

or to give in to pretty words

avoiding a troublesome choice.

To choose is more than taking a risk,

much more than a question af trade.

To choose is in spite of your innermost fear

to do what you want to evade.

(A poem by Carl Scharnberg)

The fight for peace

Influenced by his experience as a child at the Second World War, Carl Scharnberg became a political activist, especially interested in the struggle for world peace. He founded the Danish campaign against nuclear weapons in the 1960’s – which succeeded to keep Denmark free of nuclear weapons on its ground. Through the rest of his life, he always supported the wide range of movements for peace in the world – with his poems and by standing up as a speaker at demonstrations.

“Unofficial points of view”

From 1968 and until his death Carl Scharnberg was supplying a wide circle of trade union periodicals and grass-root publications with a private and independent ‘press service’. In close cooperation with well-known writers, poets and illustrators he spread a monthly issue of articles, mini-posters, etc. all over the country, provided with a general permission to reprint and copy. It was called ‘unofficial points of view’.

A foundation for solidarity, human rights and peace

After my father’s death in 1995, many people in the trade unions, with whom he was working for decades, decided to build a foundation to support artists and activists working in his spirit. Our family, my brother, mother and me, were very moved by the idea, and have supported it ever since.

During more than twenty years the foundation every year awards prizes and grants. The prizes are announced in June, related to the day of Carl’s birth. Till now we recognized and supported this way the contributions of 73 different people, groups and movements working for solidarity, human rights and peace.

The Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour is now among those brave and strong people. All of us must do whatever we can to support her!

Carl Scharnberg’s Poems in English and Danish

Kafr Qasem Martyr Muhammad Taha Fell in the Struggle against Crime

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by freehaifa in Palestine 48, Popular Struggle, Uncategorized

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Fighting Crime, General Strike, Israeli Police, Kafr Qasem, Martyr Muhammad Mahmoud Taha, Muhammad Taha, Palestine 1948, Palestinian lives matter, Police killing, The follow up committee

The same tragic scene that we see over and over again throughout occupied Palestine was repeated in Kafr Qasem on the evening of Monday, June 5, 2017. Angry

Shahid Muhammad Taha’s Funeral

protesters were surrounding the police station. A guard came toward them and shot Muhammad Taha with live bullets in his face and his chest. Muhammad, newly-wed 27 years old, was taken to the hospital but soon died.

Cold Blood Murder

A local lawyer that was present at the scene of the killing, Adel Bder, testified (here in Arabic) that the policemen at the place were in no danger, and that he was arguing with them and trying to calm them down before the shooting, but they insisted on opening fire on the protesters in cold blood.

Thousands of mourners attended Mr. Taha’s funeral on Tuesday, including

The funeral entering Martyrs’ Cemetery

delegations and public leaders of the Arab Palestinian population from all over the 48 occupied territories, from the Galilee to the Naqab. They raised Palestinian flags and chanted “The martyr is loved by god”. The body was laid to rest in “the martyrs’ cemetery”, where the 49 victims of the 1956 Kafr Qasem massacre were buried.

Shooting of Palestinians by racist Israeli army and police, for any reason or no reason, is a daily event in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. Inside the 1948 occupied territories, where the Palestinians are formally citizens of Israel, there were more than 50 cases of fatal shooting since human rights organizations started to keep records beginning with the October 2000 intifada.

As always, the racist Israeli government, political establishment, media, police and courts all unite to blame the victims and assure the impunity of the murderers.

Struggling against Crime

What is special about the murder of martyr Muhammad Taha is how it raises the question of the struggle of the Arab Palestinian society against criminality.

All the organs of the Israeli state are operating within the concept of building a Jewish state, which means that they serve the interests of the Jewish population while striving to make the lives of the Arab population unbearable. The police, doing its most to carry this mission, is specializing in issuing fines and securing house demolition and land confiscation in Arab towns and villages, but is doing nothing to fight crime as long as the victims are Arab.

Martyr Muhammad Taha - with Arabic writing

Martyr Muhammad Mahmoud Taha

With no effective policing, under-funded education system, few public services and limited access to proper work, there is a wide class of hopeless youth that are easy to mobilize to serve criminal gangs, as the only way out of idleness and misery. Social alienation and the absence of the rule of law also cause many petty disputes to escalate to violence between family members, neighbors or commercial rivals.

The surge in violence within the Arab society, especial the growing number of murders, became a major concern over the last years. Many times there are conflicting positions about the right answer. Should we demand solutions from the racist Israeli police? Should we support more police patrols and the building of police stations inside Arab towns? Will such presence reduce criminality or intensify oppression and harassment of the population at large?

The Self Defense Alternative

Kafr Qasem witnessed the murder of 7 of its people from the beginning of the year before the racist police, which have its station placed in the middle of the town, added Mr. Taha to this long sad list. Reading the papers you just learn about the horror that fell upon the people there, but no details about the background to these murders. The police, of course, didn’t solve any of these murder cases and didn’t

emergency meeting of Arab leadership in Kafr Qasem

Emergency meeting of the Palestinian Arab leadership in 48

detain suspects.

Only after the murder of Mr. Taha caused public uproar we could read in the papers about a very special experience taken by the Kafr Qasem municipality to defend its people. They established a local guard composed of a nucleus of few municipality workers and many volunteers in order to fend off criminals. The last surge in the violence happened as criminal gangs started to kill citizens that opposed their terror and extortion activities.

Locals complain that the police did nothing to stop the murderers or arrest them after the crime, even as they testify that they gave the police names of those behind some of the crimes. In fact the people of Kafr Qasem held a general strike on Sunday,

General Strike on June 7

June 4, against the free hand that the police was giving to the criminal gangs to terrorize them. In this strike there was a strong demand that if the police is doing nothing to enforce the law and protect the citizens it should get out of the town. A protest tent was placed in front of the police station.

The response of the police was to attack the defenders of the city and take revenge on the population at large, humiliating people in provocative road-blocks. On Monday the police arrested one of the leaders of the local guards, what caused a new wave of protests and the gathering in which Mr. Taha, who was also active in the guards committees, was killed.

Widening Protest and Solidarity

If the police thought to frighten the people of Kafr Qasem and make them abandon their attempts to defend themselves against the criminals, the killing of Mr. Taha may have the opposite effect. On Monday’s night there was a surge in violent

Burning police vehicle – Monday June 5

protests against the police, stones were thrown at the station building and some police vehicles were burned. On Tuesday the funeral united the whole town in protest at the police murderers but also in support of the brave guards, some of them still under police detention.

The leadership of the Palestinian Arab population in the 48 territories gathered in Kafr Qasem just as the news came in on Monday’s night. In a pre-dawn emergency meeting they condemned the police murderers, blamed the ex-Shabak head of the police Alsheikh and the racist political leadership, and called for several protest actions, including a general strike of all the Arab population on Wednesday, June 7.

The need to resist criminality and violence is a crucial issue all over the local Arab society. The behavior of the police in Kafr Qasem gave a strong argument for all those that oppose the presence of the racist police in Arab towns. Kafr Qasem’s experiment with self defense is an important example how a population that is not receiving basic services from the state, including the maintenance of personal safety, can work to improve the situation by its independent efforts.

Crazy Zionism and Capitalism

Haaretz, June 7, 2017: “Battle between the Islamic movement and crime families”

In some of the Israeli media, the efforts of the Kafr Qasem municipality and citizens to guard their city against criminals were reported as an organization of “a Muslim Militia”!

Also, notice the following paradox. Some proponent of “the rule of law” tried to defend the actions of the police by claiming that in an orderly state only the police has the permission to use violence to fight crime. On the other side, after the shooting of Mr. Taha the police defended itself saying that the person that shoot him was not a police officer but a private guard that was hired to stand in the entrance of the police station to guard the building. So, the police don’t even protect its own building in Kafr Qasem, but they arrest local people for organizing guards to defend themselves… just as the police were doing!

The Poet’s Trial: How to Prove a Poem?

27 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by freehaifa in Dareen Tatour, Uncategorized

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Bialik, Dareen Tatour, Facebook Trials, Gaby Lasky, Nazareth Court, Nery Ramati, Nissim Calderon, Tchernichovsky, Trial for a Poem, Uri-Tsvi Greenberg, Yoni Mendel

Below is a report about the Sunday, March 19^th, hearing in the trial of Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour. An edited version of this report was published in the +972 site. This article was also translated to Spanish by Rebellion.

Arresting a poet for publishing a poem is extraordinary enough. Putting her on trial while a translation of the poem by a policeman is fully cited at the center of the indictment made thing surreal. Last week the defence case laid the lyric response by bringing a literature expert and a translator to testify in court. Update about the unprecedented trial of Poet Dareen Tatour.

The poet’s ordeal

It is almost a year and a half since Poet Dareen Tatour was arrested from her home in Reineh (near Nazareth) on the 11^th of October 2015. She spent 3 months in different prisons and half a year in house detention in exile in Kiryat Ono. Now she is still under strict house detention in her home as the trial against her on charges of incitement is grinding to its end in the Nazareth Magistrate’s court.

Dareen and friends waiting for trial smaller

Waiting for the hearing to begin

The prosecution finished to rest its case in September 2016. Most of it was designed to prove that Tatour’s Facebook account belonged to her and that she really published the poem and the two Facebook statuses that are the subject of the indictment.

On November Tatour testified in the court and admitted that she published those publications in their Arabic original. She explained that she expressed a legitimate protest against the occupation denouncing the crimes that are committed against the Palestinians by the army and the settlers. She said that the police translation distorted her texts. Over three long days of counter interrogation, in November and January, she was grilled by prosecution attorney Alina Hardak that tried to make her “confess” her “support of terrorism”, but she solidly defended her principles.

Should poets be arrested?

On Sunday, March 19, defence lawyers Gaby Lasky and Nery Ramati brought two expert witnesses to testify before Judge Adi Bambiliya-Einstein.

The first witness was Prof. Nissim Calderon, an expert on Hebrew literature. In his written expert opinion he stated that there are special rules concerning the free expression of poets. He described a long tradition of poets that used harsh words in response to oppression or injustice, sometimes clearly calling for violent actions. He concluded that such calls in the context of poetry were not legally persecuted even by very oppressive regimes like the Tsarist regime in Russia or the British Mandate in Palestine.

Dareen Tatour and Prof. Calderon

Prof. Calderon chose three of the most prominent Hebrew poets and brought specific examples of their subversive texts. He cited Bialik writing that “With furious cruelty / We will drink your blood mercilessly”. In other lyrics, also cited, Tchernichovsky says “Give me my sword, I won’t return it to its scabbard / What did my lips elicit? I want battles”. Despite these clear calls for violence by leading Jewish poets, the anti-Semitic Tsar’s secret police didn’t arrest or prosecute them.

The third example cited in length by Prof. Calderon was the case of right-wing Zionist poet Uri-Tsvi Greenberg. He openly incited for violence and was actually a member and ideologue of the explicitly named “Brit Ha-Biryonim” (The Thugs Alliance) that organized violent resistance to the British occupation but was not punished for his poems.

In cross examination the prosecutor tried to imply that Greenberg was not arrested for his poetry because the British Mandate didn’t prosecute inciters. No, said Calderon, my uncle was exiled from Palestine because he supported illegal Jewish immigration. When the prosecutor suggested that the immunity of poetry should be limited at tense times, he mentioned that the British didn’t prosecute Greenberg even as he called for resistance to their rule at the time that they were fighting the Nazis in the Second World War.

What did the poet mean?

Both the prosecutor and the judge already understood that they have a problem with the police translation of Tatour’s poem. The policeman that translated it had no specific expertise in translation. When he testified in court he was asked why he was chosen to translate the poem and answered that he learned literature in high-school and loves the Arabic language.

Dr. Yoni Mendel – opening a window to understand Palestinian way of thinking

When Tatour testified, the prosecutor wanted her to give her own translation to Hebrew, but she refused, saying that she doesn’t know Hebrew well enough to translate poetry. The prosecutor wanted her to read the poem in Arabic so that the court’s translator will translate it and the words will be written in the protocol as her own words. She refused.

Maybe they felt some relief as the defence brought its own translation of the poem, made by Dr. Yoni Mendel, an experienced literary translator and a researcher of the Arabic language in its social context and its role in Arab-Jewish relations in Palestine. His translation was significantly different from the one in the indictment. He testified as an expert that the police’s translation is deliberately and systematically distorting the text to make it appear extremist and violent.

The most blatant contradiction between the two translations was in the following lines: “Do not fear the tongues of the Merkava tank \ The truth in your heart is stronger \ As long as you rebel in a land \ That has lived through raids but wasn’t exhausted.” The last two verses were translated by the policeman to “As long as you resist in a land \ Long live the Gazawat and will not tire”. Typically the policemen left the word “Gazawat” in Arabic, probably because he didn’t find the proper word. In his testimony he explained that the word was used by Arab tribes at the time of the Jaheliya (before Islam) to describe attacks on other tribes for robbery or enslaving women. Where the text clearly speaks about the raids that the Palestinians are subjected to as victims, the police translation transformed the victim into the aggressor.

Who are the martyrs?

On a more profound level, much of the emphasis about the translation, and much of the counter interrogation, surrounded around the sentence “Follow the convoy of martyrs”. The Arabic word for “martyrs”, Shuhadaa, was not translated to Hebrew by the police translator but grammatically adjusted to Hebrew to become “Shahidim”. In his expert opinion and enlightening explanation in the court Dr Mendel showed how basic Arabic terms are kept in Arabic in a way that neutralizes their original meaning and the basic human empathy that this meaning implies. Instead Arabic words like Shahid or Intifada acquire new threatening meanings in Hebrew far from their original context.

Lawyer Gaby Lasky – All the objections were refused

He explained that for the Palestinian Arab public the word martyrs refers to all the victims of the occupation, the majority of them didn’t even try to resist. It is an Israeli invention to interpret the word “Shahid” as referring to those Palestinians that died while attacking Israelis. In the specific context of Tatour’s poem, Mendel supported his interpretation by the fact that the poem relates to three specific martyrs: 16-years old Muhammad Abu-Khdeir from Jerusalem who was kidnapped and burned alive, Baby Ali Dawabsheh who was burned with his parents in his home at Duma and Hadeel Al-Hashlamoun who was shot at an army checkpoint in Al-Khalil.

The prosecutor tried to prove that the interpretation of “Shuhadaa” as victims was wrong as, after all, the poet couldn’t advise her readers to be murdered like them. Dr. Mendel explained that the call to follow the martyrs didn’t mean a wish to die but a more general concept of following their heritage: Embrace bereaved families, don’t give up the struggle and refuse to accept solutions that deny Palestinian national and human rights.

Solidarity

The case of poet Dareen Tatour became a symbol for the hundreds of cases where Israel is persecuting Palestinians over political expression, mostly in social media. Many poets, writers, intellectuals and activists, both in the country and abroad, expressed their solidarity with her and called for her immediate release and for the charges against her to be dropped. Pen International and related writers organizations all over the world adopted the case.

The fact that leading intellectuals like Prof. Calderon and Dr. Mendel volunteered to give evidence and endure torturing counter-interrogation (Dr. Mendel was grilled for 5 hours) is the last example how this trial resonated in much of the liberal public opinion. Now defenders of the right of expression and free arts also collect money to help with the legal expenses, which till now fell solely on the poet’s family.

On Tuesday, March 28, the last defence witnesses should give evidence. As the sides will summarize in writing, it will be probably the last hearing before the verdict will be given, maybe two or three months from now. The maximum penalty might be up to 8 years in prison. An appeal from one or both sides is very likely in this high profile case. In the meantime poet Dareen Tatour is under house arrest and might easily stay so for full two years before the judicial decision about the meaning of her poem.

(If you know Hebrew you can read more about this hearing in Haifa HaHofshit, Local Call and HaOketz).

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An Open Letter to my comrades in the Argentine Left

Response from the Buenos Aires leftist deputies

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The People’s Resistance Against the Pandemic

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Se réorganiser

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Poetry and red lines

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Consent or decision

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By Ditte Scharnberg

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(A poem by Carl Scharnberg)

The fight for peace

“Unofficial points of view”

A foundation for solidarity, human rights and peace

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Cold Blood Murder

Struggling against Crime

The Self Defense Alternative

Widening Protest and Solidarity

Crazy Zionism and Capitalism

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Below is a report about the Sunday, March 19th, hearing in the trial of Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour. An edited version of this report was published in the +972 site. This article was also translated to Spanish by Rebellion.

The poet’s ordeal

Should poets be arrested?

What did the poet mean?

Who are the martyrs?

Solidarity

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Like this:

Below is a report about the Sunday, March 19^th, hearing in the trial of Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour. An edited version of this report was published in the +972 site. This article was also translated to Spanish by Rebellion.