ISRAEL LOBBY GROUP OUTLINES DIRTY TRICKS AGAINST CAMPUS PALESTINE ACTIVISTS

NAME-AND-SHAME IS A MUST,

BUT HOW WE DO IT 

MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

 .

Ali Alunimah

Electronic Intifada
June 25, 2011

 .

What is the best way to smear Palestinians 
and Palestine solidarity activists 
and get away with it?

That is the question David Bernstein, Executive Director of the pro-Israel propaganda group, The David Project, asks in a surprisingly frank article titled “How to ‘Name-And-Shame’ Without Looking Like a Jerk” posted on Israel Campus Beat, a website sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Bernstein writes:

One of the more controversial tactics in a growing effort to counter the delegitimization of Israel is to “name-and-shame” ~ to go after those who actively delegitimize Israel and seek to delegitimize them.

There are even those, such as British journalist Melanie Phillips, who argue that our entire strategy should be to relentlessly attack the other side and to cease “defending” Israel.

While name-and-shame tactics can be put to positive effect, they can also easily backfire and do more harm than good.

We need to learn the art of being disagreeable in the most agreeable possible fashion.

HIDING VILIFICATION BEHIND A VENEER OF “CIVILITY”

Bernstein offers advice on how to be as insincere as possible in order to undermine Palestine solidarity work, especially on college campuses.

 As unpopular as Arab causes are among the general public, anti-Israel forces are gaining ground in left-wing U.S. circles, particularly on campus. There’s a real danger that if the delegitimizers make further inroads, eventually we may lose ground among mainstream liberals and in the larger American body politic. We can’t afford to give them a free pass.

The trick is to tar the delegitimizers as the anti-peace hate mongerers that they are, while minimizing the risks of alienating mainstream American support – to bring them down but avoid bringing ourselves down in the process.

Here’s how we can do it:

Start every critique with supportive words for peace or free discourse or both.

Don’t accuse anti-Israel forces of anti-Semitism unless they openly vilify Jews; accuse them of being anti-peace for opposing Israel’s right to exist.

On campuses and other places where anti-Israel groups act in a disruptive manner, write and promulgate civility petitions calling on all parties to engage in a respectful discussion. If the anti-Israel groups sign it, then they constrain their future actions; if they don’t, they can be accused of being uncivil.

In taking on an anti-Israel professor on campus, don’t focus on the substantive arguments they make. That will make you look like you’re trying to stifle discourse. Instead, accuse them, in the words of Professor Gil Troy, of “academic malpractice” for propagandizing the classroom.

When someone on campus justifies Hamas or Hezbollah, call them out by asking a question: Do you really support the Hamas charter’s call for killing Jews? Can that ever be justified?

Avoid indictments against all Muslims or Islam; preface any criticism of a Muslim radical group with an acknowledgement of peaceful Muslims.

No one should be fooled by the mask of civility ~ Bernstein makes clear that the goal is to “delegitimize” and marginalize, not to actually engage in “civil” debate.

THE DAVID PROJECT’S DIRTY TRICKS

The David Project has a long history of dirty tricks. Indeed, the group was a key factor in the slander and fabrication campaign against Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad, part of the unsuccessful effort to deny him tenure (Massad explains the background in a statement on his website after his list of publications).

More broadly, the effort to “name and shame” Palestine solidarity activists is part of the broad “anti-delegitimization” efforts underway by American Zionist organizations at the suggestion of The Reut Institute, an Israeli think-tank which in 2010 called for a campaign of “sabotage and attack” on activists and organizations.

In October 2010, the Jewish Federations of North America – an umbrella for 157 major pro-Israel organizations ~ and the Jewish Council on Public Affairs launched a $6 million initiative called the “Israel Action Network” to fight “delegitimization” ~ a strategy that will undoubtedly include “name and shame.”

As I wrote for Aljazeera.net last December in “Defending Palestinian solidarity”:

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

It is probably because of the publicity the Jewish Federation gave me that hundreds of people attended my talk.

We can thank Bernstein for his honesty in explaining to us what Israel lobby tactics amount to:

personal vilification hiding behind a thin veneer of calls for “civility.”

It’s a further sign of the bankruptcy of so much “pro-Israel activism.” It is not so much “pro-Israel” as anti-Palestinian.

It has no positive message to offer whatsoever, certainly not one of peace.

MELANIE PHILLIPS NAMED AND SHAMED

One final note of irony. In his piece, Bernstein cites Melanie Phillips, a very prominent pro-Israel advocate in the UK who has routinely attacked and vilified many people who have spoken up for Palestinian rights.

Last week, Phillips left her position at The Spectator under a cloud: the publication was forced to make several high profile apologies for Phillips’ totally false attacks against several people and organizations for alleged anti-Semitism or criticism of Israel. Phillips has been particularly virulent in her Islamophobic attacks on British Muslims, as Mehdi Hasan of The New Statesman reports.

GAZA FREEDOM MARCH: ON THE MARCH AT LAST

The protest at Tahrir Square. Photo by Ellen Davidson

Ellen Davidson and Judith Mahoney Pasternak
The Indypendent

31 December 2009

At 9:50 this morning, hundreds of Egyptian Museum-bound tourists milled around Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. Camouflaged among them were several hundred Gaza Freedom marchers, their “Free Gaza” t-shirts and “My heart is with Palestine” buttons hidden under jackets, their backpacks holding a day’s worth of water and snack foods.

At a few minutes before 10, says marcher Brad Taylor of New York City, the marchers converged and began to march down Meret Basha Street, waving banners and “Free Gaza” signs in Arabic and English and blocking traffic on half this heavily traveled multi-lane main artery. The Gaza Freedom March was on the march at last, if not in Gaza.

In Gaza, hundreds of Gazans marched with international activists against the Israeli blockade of the territory, according to Haaretz newspaper. Gaza residents have been unable to rebuild since Israel’s devastating bombing and invasion last year because the Israeli blockade has prevented construction materials from being brought into the area. Some 300 Israeli activists protested on the Israeli side of the Erez crossing.

The members of the GFM delegation in Cairo had come from around the world to join the march in Gaza, but were unable to get into the territory because the Egyptian government refused to allow them through the Rafah border crossing, which Egypt controls. Israel has completely shut down any movement through the Erez crossing at the other end of the territory.

In Cairo, the marchers got about 100 yards before they were completely blocked by a solid line of Cairo police in riot gear. The police surrounded the marchers from all sides, says Taylor, and began to push them very violently, dragging demonstrators off the street and throwing them onto the sidewalk, some pulled by the hair.

After ten or 15 minutes of very intense pushing and shoving, the entire group had been moved onto sidewalk. By 11:00, all the marchers were penned in. The police were letting people in ~ indeed, they were sometimes forcing onlookers into the penned-in crowd.

Some GFM participants, however, were unable to join the march, as they were held on the sidewalk in front of the Lotus Hotel, where many GFM organizers are staying. Beginning around 9 am, police barricaded activists on the sidewalk. They allowed non-GFM participants to leave the area, but anyone who looked like they might be part of the GFM delegation was prevented from going outside the police line.

Some 15-20 people stayed out on the sidewalk in front of the hotel, holding banners and signs and chanting “Israel, Open the Border” in Arabic. At about 3 pm, police closed in on them and forced them inside the building, where they were no longer visible to passersby.

As of 3:45 pm, 200-300 protesters were still inside the police circle at Tahrir Square. They had set up a makeshift toilet, said Antony Lowenstein, who had been inside since the morning, and were settling for the long haul and strategizing their next moves. “The energy of all the people was just amazing,” he said.

Updated on December 31, 2009

MUBARAK LOSES HIS CHANCE AT DECENCY ~ AGAIN

In early 2008 the US gave $23m in military aid to the Egyptians to stop the tunnels, sending in a team from the engineer corps to advise and train in several techniques, including ground-penetrating radar. Another plan was to build a deep canal along the border to prevent tunneling. ~ Guardian UK

The same news­pa­per reported yes­ter­day that for the first time ever and con­trary to the pre­vi­ous years, the U.S. aid to Egypt (Mubarak regime) in 2010, which is about $48.76 Bil­lion will be uncon­di­tional because of Egypt’s good coop­er­a­tion and assist­ing the U.S. in the Mid­dle East. ~ Grid Focus

Egypt’s President Mubarak
blows his chance to behave decently

(What is a little decency compared to almost $49+ BILLION?

By Stuart Littlewood

27 December 2009
Redress Information & Analysis

My $.02 of Snippits and Snappits in green. But right from the start, did anyone ever really expect this puppet with power to be decent? He has repeatedly sold out his fellow Arabs and begun the Westernizing of Egypt. He snuggles up with war criminals like Tzipi and starves the Palestinians. If I did not know better, I would suspect he is Jewish, he certainly is Zionist in his allegiances.

Stuart Littlewood argues that time is running out for Egyptian President Husni Mubarak to prove that he is not an Israeli stooge and allow the Viva Palestina international humanitarian aid convoy to reach the besieged Gaza Strip in time for the first anniversary of Israel’s mass slaughter of Gazans.

”The convoy’s request for easy passage was Mubarak's big chance to show that he was not, after all, the cruel and unprincipled Zionist stooge that civilized people across the world had already consigned to the dustbin of history. It is not too late to make amends. But if he doesn’t act quickly he’ll blow it for everyone, including himself.”

Gee, thanks President Mubarak. Thanks for ruining Christmas for so many.

Gosh, a Christian celebration. And for Palestinians. Two strikes against the convoy right there. Bah humbug!

But that’s par for the course in the cesspit of treachery that is the Middle East.

Despite Saudi Arabia's record (and it is getting worse but not reported back in the West), Egypt wrote the book on treachery. Perhaps that is the secret of the Sphinx.

The human tragedy of Gaza just gets worse and worse. Nobody seriously believed the Viva Palestina convoy would get through unmolested; and so it came to pass. It is stranded at Aqaba, and its precious cargo is spoiling in the heat, because Mubarak’s henchmen will not allow it to enter Egypt through the port of Nuweiba.

The excuse, we hear, is that the road across the Sinai from Nuweiba to Rafah runs close to the border and the sight of 250 trucks and ambulances laden with food and medical supplies might distress the oh-so-sensitive Israelis. Some vehicles might cause “a big infiltration problem”.

Odd how sensitive these people are. Such tender constitutions! But then, as the only human beings on the planet, the rest of us being unfeeling goyim chattel/cattle, incapable of intelligent thought or the delicacy to feel true pain and emotions, they are truly the only ones capable of such experiences. Despite their bloody slaughter of all others, somehow, when it comes to seeing such things as international aid, or even a Christmas manger, they are sensitive to the point of nausea.

Surely, Egypt is capable of providing an escort to ensure that no trucks leave the column and defect to Israel. Why would they wish to do so anyway when they have taken great trouble and gone many hundreds of extra miles especially to avoid Israel?

The question here is why help Palestine? What's in it for Mubarak? Can it outbid the offers at the top of this post?

That’s not the only nonsensical thing about the situation. Fully 24 hours before Viva Palestina owned up to it, news reports were saying that Egypt’s Foreign Ministry had issued a statement announcing that “

the Egyptian government welcomes the passage of the convoy into the Gaza Strip on 27 December, on condition that it abides by the mechanisms in place for humanitarian aid convoys to the Palestinian people, including most importantly the entry of convoys through the port of El-Arish".

Local pressures being what they are, it might well make things awkward for President Mubarak if the convoy were to travel close to the border with Israel. But one would expect a powerful man like him to overcome any difficulties for human decency's sake and for the sake of his brothers and sisters imprisoned and bombarded by Israel.

He is powerful only if Israel loosens his tethers. I imagine those great humanitarians Lieberman and Netanyahu are giving him instructions ~ or perhaps the fellows up in the banking area of London pull the strings. Or maybe America. Or maybe the lot of them together, but someone is guiding him.

Nevertheless, the convoy organizers must have obtained prior permission for their route. Were they aware of the El-Arish stipulation? Although asked to be precise about what the Egyptian authorities told them, the organizers remain vague. This makes it difficult to explain to well-wishers, and particularly to waiting Gazans, why the convoy is kicking its heel in Aqaba and going nowhere.

Egypt, sadly, has failed miserably to honour its obligation under the Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA), in which it undertook to keep the Rafah crossing open.

Honor? Mubarak? In the same sentence? Unlikely.

Now, incredibly, this Arab country is actually collaborating with Israel and the US in the construction of an iron wall to hermetically seal the tiny enclave of Gaza and ensure its inhabitants suffocate to death ~ a project of unspeakable evil.

It is beyond evil. They say there will most likely be another confrontation with Israel and Palestine in the coming year; the Israelis having never ended the last Holocaust on Gaza. They have remorselessly continued to prod, kill, push, and test the people of Palestine further. They are pushing until the people, desperate beyond human endurance, to action, ~ whether large or small ~ out of pure frustration; then they can justify going in and slaughtering, as they did the last time. This is their usual mode of doing things.

The convoy’s request for easy passage was Mubarak's big chance to show that he was not, after all, the cruel and unprincipled Zionist stooge that civilized people across the world had already consigned to the dustbin of history. It is not too late to make amends. But if he doesn’t act quickly he’ll blow it for everyone, including himself.

Who cares what he does to himself? You should hear what the Egyptians say about him. It ain't pretty at all! I have many Egyptian friends who refuse to say the traditional greeting "Eid Mubarak" an old common Muslim greeting during the celebration of Eid. They use a substitute word instead.

Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk.

GOOD NEWS! (MAYBE!)

December 28, 2009

PRESS.TV

Cairo forces Viva Palestina to take detour

Thanks to Cairo's obstruction, Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy en rout to the Gaza Strip will take a detour and head to Syria Latakia, in a bid to enter Egypt through El-Arish.

The convoy of 250 vehicles has been stranded in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba after Egypt refused to allow it to go through the Red Sea port of Nuweiba ~ the most direct route. Cairo insisted that the convoy can only enter through the Mediterranean port city of El-Arish.

"The aid convoy will leave Aqaba for (the Mediterranean port of) Latakia in Syria before going to El-Arish, in line with Cairo's decision," said Maysara Malas, of Jordan's powerful trade union federation, which has been helping to organize the aid convoy.

"We hope that Egypt does not put more obstacles. It's unfortunate that Israel has interfered in Egypt's decision, which serves the Zionist entity," he added.

It is my belief that, in the long run, this wall will not stop the ingenuous and desperate Palestinians from the smuggling, but it will force them to go deeper and will likely cut both profits for the smugglers as well as use of the hundreds of superficial tunnels closer to the surface that are used to move the bulk of the goods.

THE LATEST ON VIVA PALESTINA US

July 14, 2009, 11 pm,
Cairo

The Viva Palestina US caravan has received a permit to allow the group passage through the Rafah gate and into Gaza after spending 10 days in Cairo trying to overcome a series of bureaucratic delays.

The American convoy is mobilizing to carry busloads of supplies to the people of Gaza on Wednesday, July 15, and expects no further delays to their humanitarian mission because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already confirmed that all 200 delegates have satisfied all technical requirements required for travel.

Weeks ago, the Viva Palestina US convoy received assurances from Egyptian diplomats that they would expedite the delivery of a convoy of trucks, medical and relief supplies and American human rights volunteers into Gaza, but restrictions were then imposed on the initial Viva Palestina plan.

“We are now on our way to complete our humanitarian mission, more determined than ever and stronger in heart than when we entered Egypt,” says George Galloway, British Member of Parliament. “We now look forward to seeing in a matter of hours the faces of the besieged people of Gaza.”

This is a victory for the people of Gaza.

We were determined not to be denied in bringing humanitarian aid to the children of Gaza.

The silence of the world is deafening as the people of Gaza suffer, but the two hundred Americans and over one million dollars worth of aide that is going through confirms our commitment to a free Palestine.

Long live the people of Palestine.

VIVA PALESTINA EMAIL ALERT ~ JULY 14, 2009

NAVIGATING EGYPT'S OBSTACLE COURSE

July 14, 2009

The Viva Palestina U.S. convoy has been facing barrier after barrier in recent days despite having initially hoped to cross into the Gaza Strip this morning. The Egyptian government, collaborator in Israel’s severe blockade for the past 2 years, has set up a course of administrative obstacles which will delay the group’s entry into Gaza.

George Galloway, the British Member of Parliament who organized this effort as well as the first Viva Palestina caravan which drove from London to Gaza in March, sent a letter to President Mubarak of Egypt prior to the departure of the U.S. convoy.

This letter informed the president that over a million dollars had been raised with the intention of purchasing vehicles, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid to bring to Gaza. Viva Palestina was also in contact with the Egyptian ambassadors in London, Washington, DC and Tripoli, Libya, who, at their request, were provided with a list of the names and passport numbers of all convoy participants.

Yet when the first contingent attempted to cross the Mubarak Peace Bridge to the Sinai Peninsula Saturday evening, they were denied entry. That group spent 12 hours at the checkpoint and entered into a stand-off with authorities as they negotiated the length of their stay in successive increments.

Members of the delegation demonstrated at the bridge, obstructing access to the vehicles, and also held keys and occupied driver’s seats in order that the 4 buses could not be moved.

Although Egyptian officials first stated that the convoy could not pass due to unrest in the region and potential danger to the delegates, ultimately Viva Palestina was informed that each of its members required a Gaza affidavit signed and notarized by an official at the U.S. Embassy in order to pass.

“This is an American convoy. And Americans are used to refusing to give up seats on buses in the struggle for justice. I regard everyone who’s putting themselves on the line tonight at the Suez Canal for the success of this humanitarian mission as nothing short of a hero.” ~ George Galloway, MP

That contingent decided to return to Cairo to obtain the affidavits and regroup with other delegates, thereby strengthening their numbers for the next crossing.

The Gaza affidavits are essentially indemnity agreements asserting that the individual has signed away the inalienable right to the protection of the U.S. government. Previous delegations of U.S. citizens to Gaza have not been required to sign these, and these were not requested prior to reaching the Mubarak Bridge checkpoint, despite Viva Palestina’s well-publicized plan.

The Egyptian government refused to accept one group affidavit on behalf of the entire convoy. Each individual affidavit will cost convoy members $30 USD.

Yesterday, Egyptian officials asked for a detailed inventory of all aid items, which has now been compiled and will be submitted to border officials at the Rafah crossing.

Late this afternoon, the Head of the Palestine Desk of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who has been tasked by the Foreign Minister with logistical planning, informed convoy leadership that only the 2 ambulances, of the 47 total vehicles which were purchased earlier in the day at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, would be allowed to enter Gaza.

The people of Gaza, with whom MP Galloway has been in frequent contact, have indicated that new vehicles are sorely needed in Gaza for various public services.

Viva Palestina organizers were also informed that convoy members would be permitted to spend only 24 hours in Gaza. Individuals overstaying that time period will not be permitted to leave until the next general opening of the Rafah crossing, which has been continuously closed since June 2007.

New York City Councilmember Charles Barron, who is traveling with the convoy, believes the reason behind these new requirements and restrictions is clear. “They don’t want this to be successful because they don’t want any more convoys,” Barron said. “They want to set an example with us. They were hoping that they would discourage. That’s why the delays; that’s why adding on stipulations. They want us to implode.”

Viva Palestina leadership has emphasized that these tactics will not dissuade the group from its avowed purpose of breaking the siege on Gaza, nor will future convoys be canceled.

MP Galloway has announced that he intends to lead caravans this year from Venezuela and Moscow, as well as a second U.S. convoy in December to commemorate the first anniversary of Israel’s brutal attack.

At a private meeting of the Viva Palestina delegation this evening, an agent of the Egyptian government was found to be present taking notes. His notes were confiscated and he was escorted out of the room by MP Galloway.

Convoy members Barron and Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Representative and 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate, will be contacting President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tomorrow to pressure the Egyptian government to allow additional vehicles through the border and a longer stay in Gaza for convoy members.

Additionally, Viva Palestina is calling for supporters to organize demonstrations at Egyptian consulates in the U.S. and to call on the White House and the State Department to support Viva Palestina’s effort in bringing medical supplies to what Obama called the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza during his June 4 speech in Cairo.

By Soozy Duncan

FOR UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ON THIS MISSION ~ PLEASE GO TO VIVA PALESTINA US.

NEW YORKERS SEND OFF VIVA PALESTINA CONVOY

Commentary by Chippy Dee,
Photos by Bud Korotzer
July 3, 2009
DesertPeace

On Friday evening, July 3, ‘09, the House of the Lord Church on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn hosted a high spirited send-off for the 200 members of the Viva Palestina humanitarian aid convoy led by MP George Galloway and Ron Kovic, VietNam veteran and peace activist.

They will be bringing about 100 truckloads of medical equipment and medicine, through Egypt, to the people of Gaza who are in very desperate need because of the Israeli attack last winter and the 2 year Israeli blockade that is strangling them.

Rev. Daughtry welcomed everyone to his packed church and said that the church has always been at the center of human rights struggles. He is deeply affected by the dimensions of the humanitarian problems in Gaza and called for peace in the area. He hopes all there would soon live as members of a human family.

Some of the organizers of the convoy praised Rev. Daughtry for giving then full reign in his church. The downstairs area is full of wheelchairs, walkers and other medical necessities. They believe this is a very historic moment. Civil rights workers here are supporting the people of Gaza and the people there are aware of their support here.

They have seen the huge demonstrations against the Israeli attacks on their TVs and they are hoping that public opinion will change public policy. Several rabbis are part of the convoy because of their belief in justice. The U.S. consul in Cairo has been invited to meet the 200 Americans delivering the aid because, after all, Obama has said that aid should be sent to Gaza.

There will be a 2nd US convoy at the end of this year, it will go through France and North Africa and is scheduled to arrive in Gaza on December 27th, the anniversary of the Israeli attack.

NYC Councilman Charles Barron spoke with his wife, NYC Assemblywoman Inez D. Barron, at his side. He said it was easier to do the right thing than to be spineless and that he is not a politician, he is an “elected revolutionary”. He will be part of the convoy and intensely hopes that there will be no interference with them delivering the essential aid.

Inez Barron agreed and said that she wished she was able to go. A recording of a phone conversation with Cynthia McKinney from her Zionist prison cell was played. She said that there are 11,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Many are children and many are being tortured.

Rev. Lucius Walker of Pastors for Peace was the next speaker. His group allowed the Viva Palestina aid organizers to use their financial set-up, their sponsorship, to raise funds since people have been made to feel nervous about contributing. He said that the US government has been complicit in destroying the hopes of the Palestinian people. The government’s silence was very loud when Israel attacked Gaza.

We must find ways to creatively resist injustice. He quoted Fidel saying that “A better world is possible.” The convoy, he continued, is bringing love, justice, and the hope of peace. It is telling the people of Gaza that they aren’t alone, people stand with them. Rev. Walker couldn’t be part of the convoy because he is going to Cuba with the Pastors for Peace to bring aid there. However, he will be part of the next Viva Palestina convoy bring aid at the end of the year.

The next speaker was Daniel Meyers, N.Y. President of the National Lawyers Guild, the oldest and largest human rights bar organization in the country. He said the NLG supports the caravan and the liberation of the Palestinian people. The Israeli occupiers had violated international law by committing crimes against humanity intentionally targeting civilians when using drones and white phosphorus.

Stopping a power that will do anything to destroy a population is difficult. He then warned the participants about conspiracy laws and told them they must be very careful to be truthful and accurate when speaking to any public official. He also assured them that, should they face any legal problems when they return, the NLG will be there to support them.

Fr. Luis Barrios, the next speaker, recently spent 2 months incarcerated in a federal prison for participating in civil disobedience at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning because torture is taught there. It is “a symbol of US despotism towards our Latin American countries”. He said that people who make history are those that “cross the line”. We can create a miracle ~ we can stop Israeli crimes.

Brenda Stokley, organizer of the Million Worker March, said that we have to build a united front in our country, not just get together to deal with individual crises. We have to tell the mayor and Obama to stop being on the side of oppression. Black people are going to Gaza, she added, they are revolutionaries, always aware of the ugly underbelly of imperialism wherever it is.

The final speaker was one of the convoy organizers in N.Y., Lamis Jamal Deek. She sees this event as the beginning of a major movement that will support the Palestinian right of self-determination and opposition to Zionist colonialism.

Photos © by Bud Korotzer

THENECESSITY OF A CULTURAL BOYCOTT

The international movement to boycott Israel has gained

irrepressible momentum. (Mushir Abdelrahman/MaanImage)

If there is anything new in the never-ending sad story of Palestine it is the clear shift in public opinion in the UK. I remember coming to these isles in 1980 when supporting the Palestinian cause was confined to the left and in it to a very particular section and ideological stream.

Those Palestinians were bomb-throwing suicide-bombing heathen, illiterate, wild, hateful of all that was good, all that was Israel. Even speaking of them was almost taboo, terrorism was BAD.The Israeli lies about rockets and Hamas are still built on this bias.

The post-Holocaust trauma and guilt complex, military and economic interests and the charade of Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East all played a role in providing immunity for the State of Israel.

Poor little Israel, the good guys, a valliant democratic nation surrounded by millions of hostile Arabs lusting for Jewish blood, despite its humanitarian ways and pleas for peace.

Very few were moved, so it seems, by a state that had dispossessed half of Palestine's native population, demolished half of their villages and towns, discriminated against the minority among them who lived within its borders through an apartheid system and divided into enclaves two million and a half of them in a harsh and oppressive military occupation.

Almost 30 years later it seems that all these filters and cataracts have been removed. The magnitude of the ethnic cleansing of 1948 is well known, the suffering of the people in the occupied territories recorded and described even by the US president as unbearable and inhuman.

Sir George Galloway MP spoke tirelessly against Israeli aggression and purposefully created much public controversy over the true condition of the Palestinians. His words inspired the Viva Palestina movement that, despite Zionist and legal challenges, eventually caught the hearts and minds of the international community and broke the Israeli blockade.

Interestingly, as more knowledge of Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians becomes public, and Israeli lies are exposed, Israel has tried to pass a law in Knesset making serious discussion of the Nakba an imprisonable offense. Simultaneously, internationally, in Canada, the US, and Argentina, Germany and other places, to even discuss this event is paramount to Holocaust denial and termed "hate speech" and people can and have been jailed for their freedom of speech.

In a similar way, the destruction and depopulation of the greater Jerusalem area is noted daily and the racist nature of the policies towards the Palestinians in Israel are frequently rebuked and condemned.

The reality today in 2009 is described by the UN as "a human catastrophe."

It has been bad enough what they have been doing to Lebanon and Palestine over the decades, but the last horrific massacre in Gaza drew the eyes of the world to their atrocities. No matter how they tried to suppress the news, the world saw and was horrified. The fact that Israel denies, justifies or out and out fabricates about everything in the face of such overwhelming evidence does not serve their reputation well. Every claim they made about this catastrophe has been proven false. Interestingly, according to Peace Watch, of 144 countries, Israel is the 4th most violent state ahead only of Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The conscious and conscientious sections of British society know very well who caused and who produced this catastrophe.

This is not related any more to elusive circumstances, or to the "conflict" ~ it is seen clearly as the outcome of Israeli policies throughout the years. When Archbishop Desmond Tutu was asked for his reaction to what he saw in the occupied territories, he noted sadly that it was worse than apartheid. He should know.

The ridiculous tired cliche of "anti semite" was immediately thrown at Tutu. Just the idiocy of that move did not do Israeli PR much good. Considering that the Palestinians are the Semites and the Israelis are 90% Ashkenazim the charge is already pretty foolish and does not carry the same weight it once did before people opened their eyes.

As in the case of South Africa, these decent people, either as individuals or as members of organizations, voice their outrage against the continued oppression, colonization, ethnic cleansing and starvation in Palestine.

The people began to demonstrate, all races coming together in protest.

They are looking for ways of showing their protest and some even hope convince their government to change its old policy of indifference and inaction in the face of the continued destruction of Palestine and the Palestinians.

Many among them are Jews, angry because these atrocities are done in their name according to the logic of Zionist ideology, and quite a few among them are veterans of previous civil struggles in this country for similar causes all over the world. They are not confined any more to one political party and they come from all walks of life.

What Israel is is what Israel is. Israel hides the peace movement within its own borders for fear of seeming to be disunified. There are many great Jews in Israel who work internationally for the Palestinians or in Palestine itself.

Moderate Jews around the world not tainted by Zionism do not want to be tarred with the same dirty brush used for the Zionists. As a result they are speaking out and showing their humanity against an inhumane situation which Zionists see it as war. Organizations such as Neturei Karta carry great weight in educating people who might otherwise tar all Jews with the same brush. Remember, being Jewish is a human element. Zionism is a political element.

The support for Palestine by Neturei Karta of UK, Jews United Against Zionism, shown here in a London march, also opened eyes of many people to the situation as it really is.

So far the British government is not moved. It was also passive when the anti-apartheid movement in this country demanded of it to impose sanctions on South Africa. It took several decades for that activism from below to reach the political top.

It takes longer in the case of Palestine: guilt about the Holocaust, distorted historical narratives and contemporary misrepresentation of Israel as a democracy seeking peace and the Palestinians as eternal Islamic terrorists blocked the flow of the popular impulse.

But it is beginning to find its way and presence, despite the continued accusation of any such demand as being anti-Semitic and the demonetization of Islam and Arabs.

The third sector, that important link between civilians and government agencies, has shown us the way. One trade union after the other, one professional group after the other, have all sent recently a clear message: enough is enough.

It is done in the name of decency, human morality and basic civil commitment not to remain idle in the face of atrocities of the kind Israel has and still is committing against the Palestinian people.

The movent has began to slowly move up and now the kiffaya is seen on business people, everyday people, not "just" activists and revolutionaries. The day we see one on Brown or the Royals, I predict there will be dancing on the streets.

In the last eight years the Israeli criminal policy escalated, and the Palestinian activists were seeking new means to confront it. They have tried it all, armed struggle, guerrilla warfare, terrorism and diplomacy: nothing worked. And yet they are not giving up and now they are proposing a nonviolent strategy ~ that of boycott, sanctions and divestment.

For years now Palestinians have been protesting in complete peace at Bil'in against the illegal wall and the military has killed many Palestinias and internationals in their utter disregard for human life. This does not look so good, even if their apolgists try to put the lame back on the

With these means they wish to persuade Western governments to save not only them, but ironically also the Jews in Israel from an imminent catastrophe and bloodshed. This strategy bred the call for cultural boycott of Israel.

This demand is voiced by every part of the Palestinian existence: by the civil society under occupation and by Palestinians in Israel. It is supported by the Palestinian refugees and is led by members of the Palestinian exile communities.

It came in the right moment and gave individuals and organizations in the UK a way to express their disgust at the Israeli policies and at the same time an avenue for participating in the overall pressure on the government to change its policy of providing immunity for the impunity on the groundOne of the wilder events in Kensington in support of Gaza.

It is bewildering that this shift of public opinion has had no impact so far on policy; but again we are reminded of the tortuous way the campaign against apartheid had to go before it became a policy.

It is also worth remembering that two brave women in Dublin, toiling on the cashiers in a local supermarket, were the ones who began a huge movement of change by refusing to sell South African goods.

It was Ireland again in this instance that seems to have brought the boycott to the Isles. They know imperialist agression very well.

Twenty-nine years later, Britain joined others in imposing sanctions on apartheid. So while governments hesitate for cynical reasons, out of fear of being accused of anti-Semitism or maybe due to Islamophobic inhibitions, citizens and activists do their utmost, symbolically and physically, to inform, protest and demand.

They have a more organized campaign, that of the cultural boycott, or they can join their unions in the coordinated policy of pressure. They can also use their name or fame for indicating to us all, that decent people in this world cannot support what Israel does and what it stands for.

They do not know whether their action will make an immediate change or they would be so lucky as to see change in their lifetime. But in their own personal book of who they are and what they did in life and in the harsh eye of historical assessment they would be counted in with all those who did not remain indifferent when inhumanity raged under the guise of democracy in their own countries or elsewhere.

On the other hand, citizens in this country, especially famous ones, who continue to broadcast, quite often out of ignorance or out of more sinister reasons, the fable of Israel as a cultured Western society or as the "only democracy in the Middle East" are not only wrong factually. They provide immunity for one of the greatest atrocities in our time.

Some of them demand we should leave culture out of our political actions. This approach to Israeli culture and academia as separate entities from the army, the occupation and the destruction is morally corrupt and logically defunct.

Eventually, one day the outrage from below, including in Israel itself, will produce a new policy ~ the present US administration is already showing early signs of it.

History did not look kindly at those filmmakers who collaborated with US Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s or endorsed apartheid. It would adopt a similar attitude to those who are silent about Palestine now.

Not only is Loach the most political British filmmaker, but also the most censored, because he gives a voice to those who aren’t allowed to speak. Yet as political potent his films are, Loach does not see himself as a political filmmaker, but more as a social filmmaker, who is privileged by having a well paid job.

A good case in point unfolded last month in Edinburgh. Filmmaker Ken Loach led a campaign against the official and financial connections the city's film festival had with the Israeli embassy.

Such a stance was meant to send a message that this embassy represents not only the filmmakers of Israel but also its generals who massacred the people of Gaza, its tormentors who torture Palestinians in jails, its judges who sent 10,000 Palestinians ~ half of them children ~ without trial to prison, its racist mayors who want to expel Arabs from their cities, its architects who built walls and fences to enclave people and prevent them from reaching their fields, schools, cinemas and offices and its politicians who strategize yet again how to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine they began in 1948.

Soming so soon after Israel's very internation suppression of the international literary meeing in Palestine last week, the intelligentsia begin to see the pattern of denial of all forms of expression by Palestinians by the Zionists.

Loach felt that only a call for boycotting the festival as whole would bring its directors into a moral sense and perspective. He was right; it did, because the case is so clear-cut and the action so simple and pure.

It is not surprising that a counter voice was heard. This is an ongoing struggle and would not be won easily. As I write these words, we commemorate the 42nd year of the Israeli occupation ~ the longest, and one of the cruelest in modern times.

It does not help the Israelis to expect the world to celebrate their glory and deny the Nakba, the result of their occuption!

But time has also produced the lucidity needed for such decisions. This is why Ken's action was immediately effective; next time even this would not be necessary. One of his critics tried to point to the fact that people in Israel like Ken's films, so this was a kind of ingratitude.

I can assure this critic that those of us in Israel who watch Ken's movies are also those who salute him for his bravery and unlike this critic we do not think of this an act similar to a call for Israel's destruction, but rather the only way of saving Jews and Arabs living there.

But it is difficult anyway to take such criticism seriously when it is accompanied by description of the Palestinians as a terrorist entity and Israel as a democracy like Britain.

Scenes such as this, as the Viva Palestina enter Gaza were very emotional for all to see. The witnesses who entered Gaza returned home to England with stories and impetus to share what they saw to their fellow Brits. These photos and eyewitness accounts carried a lot of weight that contrasted greatly with what the general media and Rothschild-controled BBC showed the populace.

Most of us in the UK have moved far away from this propagandist silliness and are ready for change. We are now waiting for the government of these isles to follow suit.

Ilan Pappe is chair in the Department of History at the University of Exeter. This essay was originally published by pulsemedia.org and is republished with the author's permission.