Also see December 1, Truth and Trauma in Gaza and December 2, We Want It to Stop.

Eman El-Hawi, a smart and perky 24-year-old business student from Gaza got teary when she told our delegation about what she witnessed during the eight days that Israel pounded Gaza. “I saw the babies being brought into the hospital, some dead, some wounded. I couldn’t believe Israel was doing this again, just like four years ago. But at least this time,” she said with pride, “we struck back.”

The fight was totally disproportionate. Israeli F-16s, drones and Apache helicopters unleashed their fury over this tiny strip of land, leaving 174 dead, over one thousand wounded, as well as homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and government buildings damaged and destroyed. On the Palestinian side, crude Qassam rockets left six Israelis dead and caused little damage. But for many Palestinians, it was a perverse kind of victory.

If the Israeli government was trying to teach the Palestinians a lesson with this latest pummeling, the unfortunate lesson many learned was that the only way to deal with Israel is through firepower. We asked people why this round of violence lasted only eight days, unlike the 22-day attack in 2008. Some credited the Arab Spring that has created a new wave of pro-Palestinian public sentiment that governments have to respond to—especially in Egypt where the ceasefire was brokered. But others believed the Israelis backed down because Palestinian rockets had reached into the heart of Israel.

“It’s not that we want to kill Israelis but we want them to know we are not helpless,” said Ahmed Al Sahbany, an engineering student. “We want them to know that when they attack us mercilessly, when they treat us like animals, we will fight back.” A rap song by a West Bank group called “Strike, Strike Tel Aviv” that came out during the fighting was a hit among many of the Palestinian youth.

Many young people we talked to were dismissive of peace talks with Israel. They say the Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank has been talking to the Israelis for 18 years and all they have achieved is a new brand of apartheid, with bypass roads, separation walls, expanding settlements, Jerusalem ethnically cleansed, 500-600 checkpoints, and the continued siege of Gaza.

This latest round of attacks is just a continuation of the daily attacks we live with here in Gaza every day,” said youth leader Majed Abusalama. “Israeli soldiers shoot at our fishermen and confiscate their boats just for fishing in waters that belong to us. Israeli soldiers shoot at our farmers when they try to farm their lands that are close to the border, lands that belong to our farmers—our land!” In fact, a week after the ceasefire, our delegation visited a group of farmers in Rafah who were still unable to farm a good portion of their land. One of them, hobbling around in a cast, had just been shot in the leg, without warning, for venturing too close to the fence that separates Israel and Gaza.

Raji Sourani, a lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a group that meticulously documented the crimes committed during the 8-day war, lost his normally calm demeanor when speaking to our delegation about Obama and the US Congressional support for what they called Israel’s right to defend itself. “How can Obama say Israel is defending itself when we are the real victims? We are the target of this dirty war, just like we were the last time in 2008, just like we are every day,” Sourani shouted. “The Israelis practice the law of the jungle with full legal immunity and no accountability.”

Sourani was happy with the vote that gave Palestine a seat at the UN because it showed that Israel and the US were opposed by most of the rest of the world. But he said the UN seat would only be meaningful if the Palestinian Authority used it as an opportunity to take Israel to the International Criminal Court, something the Western powers are pressuring them not to do.

The most poignant indictment of Israel and the Western powers came from Jamal Dalu, the shopkeeper whose home in Gaza City was demolished by an Israeli bomb that left 12 dead, including his wife and four children. Looking around at the wreckage that was once his home and family, he faulted President Obama for giving Israel the green light to carry out its attacks. “Obama, you say you want to teach us about democracy and the rule of law. Is this what you mean by democracy? Is this the rule of law?” he repeated over and over.

“I really don’t understand what the Israelis and their backers in the United States want,” said Sourani, throwing up his hands in despair. “They want us to vote, and when we do they refuse the recognize the winner. They say they want a two-state solution, but keep building settlements that make two states impossible. But if we say we want to live in a single, democratic state, they say we want the destruction of Israel because we produce lots of babies and will outnumber them. Honestly, I don’t know what they really want, but I can tell you this: the way things are right now can’t last forever, and time is running out.”

The delegation brought funds from Americans to support the Shifa Hospital and the Palestinian Red Crescent, and took up collections to help the Dalu family and a disabled group called the Al Jazeera Club whose building had been destroyed. The funds, and the gesture of solidarity, was much appreciated, especially since the US government is giving $3 billion a year to support Israel’s militarism. Also appreciated is the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign that is providing a nonviolent means for people around the world to challenge Israeli policy.

“Please don’t wait for the third Israeli round of attacks,” said Hala Ashi, a 24-year-old whose home was badly damaged and whose neighbor was killed, “and help show us, the youth of Gaza, that violence is not the answer.”

Photo Credit: Code Pink

The following update is based on a press release issued by Code Pink. You can read the entire press release here.

CODEPINK Group Travels to Gaza to Bring Aid and Witness Devastation From Israeli Assault

In the wake of the ceasefire brokered by Egypt, a 20-person delegation of American journalists and peace advocates is traveling to the decimated territory to witness the hardships now facing the 1.7 million residents, deliver emergency aid and call attention to the need for a longer-term strategy to achieve peace and justice for Palestinians.

The delegates include CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin; former State Department official and retired Col. Ann Wright, and Voices for Creative Nonviolence co-coordinator Kathy Kelly.

“The U.S. government allowed Israel carte blanche for eight days while it pounded more than 1,000 sites in Gaza, disproportionately killing civilians,” noted Wright. “Americans of conscience must witness and report back on the heavy price exacted by our support of Israel, so that taxpayers back home will call for a more humane, productive use of their hard-earned dollars.”

A total of 162 Palestinians were killed during the attack. An estimated 73 percent were civilians, including more than 25 children. Five Israelis were killed. “We mourn the loss of lives on both sides,” said CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, “but we think it’s important to recognize the that the Palestinians have suffered much greater losses, and that the Israeli armaments used in the attack were financed largely by the United States, which sends Israel $3 billion in military funds every year.”

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Continue here to read the complete Press Release.

TAKE ACTION!

• Follow along: Delegation members will post reports on twitter, facebook and on www.codepink.org.
• Support GAZA! There are a number of actions you can take to support Gaza listed here.

photo: jewish voice for peace

The following was written by intern, Jenna Laila Bitar.        _________________
Divestment from the Israeli occupation has taken some remarkable strides ahead in the last few weeks.

After MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International), a leading investment tools company, removed Caterpillar from its socially responsible investment index, pension giant TIAA-CREF followed suit and divested from Caterpillar in its Social Choice account. This shows how mainstream responsible investors are acknowledging that corporate complicity in human rights violations in Palestine should be counted towards a company’s social responsibility record.

Caterpillar has been the target of investor activism for the last 8 years because of the company’s role in selling tools to the Israeli army which are specifically used in severe human rights violations and war crimes. Religious groups communicated directly with Caterpillar and the other companies regarding their concerns of human rights and the companies demonstrated no interest in halting their supplies to the occupation. After receiving no positive response from Caterpillar directly, religious institutions began to take action. The Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation (FFC) led the way and divested $900,000 worth of shares of the company at the end of May.

The United Methodist Church resolved to boycott products made by Israeli companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories. The Methodist church subsequently made a call for all nations to prohibit any financial support by individuals or organizations for the construction and maintenance of settlements and the import of products made in settlements.

Following years of grassroots activism in both the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church, both held their general conferences in the last few weeks, and found themselves split over proposed resolutions to divest from Caterpillar, HP and Motorola Solutions over their direct involvement in human rights violations in the Israeli occupation. Powerful testimonies were made for divestment on the floor of both mainstream denominations, recognizing the call of Palestinian Christians for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions.

In both cases, there was a strong consensus against the Israeli occupation and for taking concrete actions by the church to offset the situation. Despite the strong support of Jewish-American and Israeli activists, both denominations responded to the fear of “harming relations with the Jewish community” and postponed divestment, replacing it with a call for further engagement with the companies or investment in the Palestinian economy.

The close votes (333-331 in the Presbyterian general assembly!) and heated debates show again that investment in the occupation is a crisis of conscience for the church, and the move towards divestment from these companies seems inevitable. Both churches have also voted overwhelmingly in favor of the banning and boycott of all products made in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including Ahava cosmetics, Hadiklaim dates and SodaStream carbonization devices.

Make sure to read the official statement on divestment put out by the church Israel/Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) and the IPMN statement on the successful boycott of settlement products by the church.

Jewish activists have sent out an open letter to the Presbyterian Church responding to the historic vote, listing key companies to boycott.

News on the decision can also be found on the church GA website.

To witness the testimonies and debate from the plenary, watch videos from Thursday afternoon, evening and Friday morning.

For all of you who supported the church divestment effort this year, your support has been invaluable. We are succeeding in getting these huge institutions to go beyond their avowed commitment to justice and freedom in Palestine, and to take action. Churches around the country are beginning to wake up to their power to change injustices on the ground in Palestine, and it is our job to continue leading the way in our communities through local and even individual divestment and boycott initiatives. Let’s use our own power to change, our power as investors and consumers, our power as moral agents, students and organizers, activists and church goers. Just like in previous movements in the history, when people lead, politicians follow.

As the Presbyterian and Methodist Church has chosen to boycott settlement products, you can also support institutions to do the same. Global Exchange has many tools on our website, such as information on SodaStream which uses illegal settlement of the Mishor Edomin Industrial Zone as its main production site, exploiting Palestinian land, resources and labor. The Ahava Campaign also works to raise awareness on the beauty products from stolen Palestinian natural resources in the Occupied West Bank, and produced in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem.

Educate yourself and your community about settlement products sold in your area, check for vendors who sell SodaStream or Ahava – educate them and their costumers about the origins of this product. Check your own investments, ask your pension fund provider for an occupation-free portfolio! Organize in your church or school to stop investment in HP, Caterpillar or Motorola Solutions. If you haven’t had the chance yes to sign the We Divest petition, sign it today and ask the investment giant TIAA-CREF to take the next step, and divest fully from the crimes of occupation.

For more information, resources and toolkits from Global Exchange, follow our Economic Activism in Palestine program.

Another huge victory to the global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement achieved.

In an effort led by Palestinian civil society, pension fund giant TIAA-CREF has agreed to divest its social choice accounts from longtime target Caterpillar, Inc.

The invested shares were valued at over $72 million, making this the largest divestment action of this kind in the U.S. so far.

Caterpillar produces and sells bulldozers and civil engineering tools to the Israeli army under the U.S. military aid to Israel. These tools have been regularly used by Israel in internationally condemned violations of human rights and international laws, such as the systematic demolition of Palestinian homes and land resources and the attacks on civilians in Gaza and in South Lebanon.

This divestment came out of the removal of Caterpillar from the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) World Socially Responsible Index, a list used by many Socially Responsible Investment (or ESG) funds in screening their investment portfolios. In its announcement MSCI lists the use of Caterpillar bulldozers in the Israeli occupation as one of the “main factors” in the delisting of the company. This is a monumental moment for advocates of human rights in Palestine, as all responsible investors are expected to follow TIAA-CREF and divest from Caterpillar. Moreover, this action shows how human rights violations in the West Bank have been overlooked by the ESG investment community up until now, and it is time for it to screen their portfolios for other corporations involved in crimes in the Israeli occupation.

Though we must take time to celebrate the victory of our hard work, there is still much to be done. While they dropped Caterpillar in their Social Choice Account, TIAA-CREF still holds investments in Caterpillar and other companies supporting the occupation. We need your help!

Join us as part of the We Divest Campaign to ask TIAA-CREF to divest all of its funds from corporations that are directly involved in severe human rights violations in the Israeli occupation, including: HP, Motorola Solutions, Veolia and Elbit.

More BDS actions this week: This week the Presbyterian Church (USA) is holding their national General Assembly in Pittsburgh where they are considering divestment from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard. Support for divestment is overwhelming, including support from Palestinian Christians and Jewish Rabbis.

UPDATE (7/3/2012): The Presbyterian committee on the Middle East has voted overwhelmingly in favor of divesting from three companies whose products are used by the Israeli military. The full plenary vote is set for Thursday or Friday of this week. (via Mondoweiss)

You can support church divestment!

• Follow updates on twitter and retweet using #churchdivest in your tweets.
• Watch the livestream of the plenary voting sessions this Thursday – Friday. To find the exact time of the voting and more resources visit www.RabbisLetter.org.
• You don’t have to wait for the Presbyterians to divest and boycott the Israeli occupation. Sign the petition in support of divestment.

Thank you for standing in solidarity and taking action to bring justice in Palestine through corporate accountability.
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A special thank you to Jenna Bitar for compiling the information for this post. 

UMC protest Photo credit: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

The United Methodist Church (UMC) took bold strides at the General Conference earlier this month to end the Israeli occupation and support justice in Palestine.

BDS stands for boycotts, divestment and sanctions.

Led by human rights activists within the UMC and supported by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a resolution was passed calling for an explicit boycott of all Israeli companies “operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The resolution at the General Conference — the highest decision-making body of the Church — also urges the U.S. government to “end all military aid in the region.” Read the full resolution text and US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation’s account from the General Conference.

This resolution, voted on by 1,000 delegates from around the world, is a major step forward in recognizing the rights and dignity of Palestinians, and also sets the stage for other faith groups standing in solidarity to end the Occupation.

It is difficult to see this groundbreaking resolution as a complete victory, though. The General Conference fell short and voted against divestment from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett-Packard (HP) — three companies that are actively complicit in the Israeli occupation and in serious violation of international law.

Alex Awad Photo credit: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Despite falling short of full support for divestment, pressure continues to mount on these three companies through the “We Divest” campaign urging financial giant TIAA-CREF to divest from companies involved in the Israeli occupation. Not only that, the Presbyterian Church in the US will be meeting this summer to consider resolutions on boycotting settlement products, and divesting from Caterpillar, Motorola, and HP. Endorse here.

The UMC resolution was supported by grassroots activism in the Church working together with other BDS activists from around the world, including Jewish human rights activists. The struggle to end the Israeli apartheid continues, and BDS activism continues to raise awareness and organize advocacy campaigns to bring this issue to the fore.

As pointed out in the BDS Movement’s statement:

“The road to ultimate victory over oppression, as Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. teach us, is never straight or paved with flowers; every turn and decline are opportunities to learn how to persevere and to rise stronger against the challenges ahead.”

 TAKE ACTION:

• Visit our website to learn more about Global Exchange’s Economic Activism for Palestine campaign.
• Join us! As a membership organization, we rely on the support of individuals like you to keep doing the social justice work that we do. Consider joining us today, become a Global Exchange member!

THIS JUST IN:
Our friends at the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has reported that the Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation (FFC), which holds over $900 million in assets, has decided to divest from Caterpillar.

The FCC will be divesting $900,000 in Caterpillar shares. Caterpillar is responsible for building and selling bulldozers to the Israeli army, which are weaponized and used in the systematic demolition of Palestinian homes, schools, hospitals, and lives.

Join the US Campaign in thanking the FFC for their monumental decision.

The following post was written by leading Palestinian activist, medical doctor, academic and writer, Ghada Karmi. March 30th, on Palestinian Land Day, the Global March to Jerusalem will take place. Global Exchange is an endorser of this global initiative. See a listing of actions around the world.

On March 30th a ground-breaking event will take place. I had not expected it would ever happen when I first heard about it. While teaching at the Summer University of Palestine last July in Beirut, I met a group of Indian Muslims taking the course. They told me they were organising a people’s march to Jerusalem to bring to the world’s attention to Israel’s assault on the city’s history and culture, and its impending loss as a centre for Islam and Christianity. They explained how they and their friends would set out from India, drawing in others to join them as they passed through the various countries on their way overland to Israel’s borders.

They seemed fired up and determined, and I could not but admire their zeal and dedication to try and rescue this orphan city which has been abandoned by all who should have defended her. But I thought their ambitions would be thwarted by the harsh reality of trying to implement their dreams. It would never succeed, I thought, but I was quite wrong. The movement they and their fellow activists spearheaded, called the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ), is now in its final stages. A distinguished group of 400 advisers, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nobel Laureate, Mairead Maguire, are promoting the GMJ. The marchers will head for Jerusalem or the nearest point possible on March 30th.

This date also commemorates Land Day, a significant anniversary for Palestinians. On that day in 1976 six Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces. They had participated in a peaceable general strike to protest against Israeli confiscations of privately owned Palestinian land, and paid with their lives for this act of non-violent resistance. Since then this tragic event has been commemorated annually by Palestinians everywhere. Today, it is a fitting reminder of Israel’s other confiscation of Jerusalem’s land, ongoing since 1967.

photo: GMJ

No one knows the exact numbers of marchers who will make it, but they promise to be large. Land caravans have been traveling for weeks from India, Pakistan and other Asian countries towards the meeting places in the countries bordering Israel. At the same time, marches towards Jerusalem will take place from within the occupied Palestinian territories. “Palestinians and their international supporters will attempt to get as close to Jerusalem as they can, whether at the borders of Lebanon and Jordan, at checkpoints in the West Bank or at the Erez crossing with Gaza”, the organizers have announced.

In tandem with this, solidarity protests and rallies are planned in 64 countries around the world, centered on Israeli embassies in each place. In London a mass rally is planned opposite the Israeli embassy. All the protests aim to be strictly peaceful, bearing in mind Israel’s brutal reaction on Nakba day in 2011, when 13 refugees were killed close to the border with Israel. This time the signs are that the army is preparing to behave similarly. Israel has already warned the neighboring states they must prevent protestors from reaching the border. Israeli troops have been deployed along the borders with Syria and Lebanon. The Israeli cabinet has met urgently to discuss security arrangements against the marchers at the borders and in the West Bank. In a sign of panic, they have accused Iran and Islamic fundamentalism of being behind the GMJ.

However it turns out on March 30th, it will have been a brave and admirable attempt to awaken the world’s conscience. Jerusalem is unique and irreplaceable, and its pillage and destruction at Israel’s hands ever since 1967 has been tolerated for far too long. Governments, institutions and official bodies have signally failed to halt Israel’s encroachment on the holy city. They must now make way for ordinary citizens to take charge and come to Jerusalem’s aid. That is why the Global March to Jerusalem matters and why it must succeed.

Ghada Karmi, 72, is a medical doctor and a leading Palestinian activist, academic and writer. She is a research fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic studies at the University of Exeter, Britain, and writes frequently for The Guardian, The Nation and Journal of Palestine Studies. Her books include Married to Another Man: Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine and In Search of Fatima, an autobiographical work about her exile from Palestine. Karmi was born in Jerusalem to a Muslim family and grew up in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Katamon with its mixture of Palestinian Christians and Muslims. As a young girl she and her family were forced to flee in the 1948 Nakba and settled in England.  In 1998 she visited her childhood home in Katamon for the first time since 1948. She was one of the first supporters of Global March to Jerusalem and is a member of the Advisory Board. 

AIPAC has tremendous clout but its influence has been disastrous for U.S. foreign policy and U.S. democracy. Here are ten reasons why AIPAC is so dangerous.

1. AIPAC is lobbying Congress to promote a military confrontation with Iran. AIPAC – like the Israeli government – is demanding that the U.S. attack Iran militarily to prevent Iran from having the technological capacity to produce nuclear weapons, even though U.S. officials say Iran isn’t trying to build a weapon (and even though Israel has hundreds of undeclared nuclear weapons). AIPAC has successfully lobbied the U.S. government to adopt crippling economic sanctions on Iran, including trying to cut off Iran’s oil exports, despite the fact that these sanctions raise the price of gas and threaten the U.S. economy.

2. AIPAC promotes Israeli policies that are in direct opposition to international law. These include the establishment of colonies (settlements) in the Occupied West Bank and the confiscation of Palestinian land in its construction of the 26-foot high concrete “separation barrier” running through the West Bank. The support of these illegal practices makes to impossible to achieve a solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict.

3. AIPAC’s call for unconditional support for the Israeli government threatens our national security. The United States’ one-sided support of Israel, demanded by AIPAC, has significantly increased anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East, thus endangering our troops and sowing the seeds of more possible terrorist attacks against us. Gen. David Petraeus on March 16, 2010 admitted that the U.S./Palestine conflict “foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel.” He also said that “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the [region] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support.”

4. AIPAC undermines American support for democracy movements in the Arab world. AIPAC looks at the entire Arab world through the lens of Israeli government interests, not the democratic aspirations of the Arab people. It has therefore supported corrupt, repressive regimes that are friendly to the Israeli government, such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Events now unfolding in the Middle East should convince U.S. policy-makers of the need to break from AIPAC’s grip and instead support democratic forces in the Arab world.

5. AIPAC makes the U.S. a pariah at the UN. AIPAC describes the UN as a body hostile to the State of Israel and has pressured the U.S. government to oppose resolutions calling Israel to account. Since 1972, the US has vetoed 44 UN Security Council resolutions condemning Israel’s actions against the Palestinians. President Obama continues that policy. Under Obama, the US vetoed UN censure of the savage Israeli assault on Gaza in January 2009 in which about 1400 Palestinians were killed; a 2011 resolution calling for a halt to the illegal Israeli West Bank settlements even though this was stated U.S. policy; a 2011 resolution calling for Israel to cease obstructing the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees; and another resolution calling for an end to illegal Israeli settlement building in East Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights.

6. AIPAC attacks politicians who question unconditional support of Israel. AIPAC demands that Congress to rubber stamp legislation drafted by AIPAC staff. It keeps a record of how members of Congress vote and this record is used by donors to make contributions to the politicians who score well. Members of Congress who fail to support AIPAC legislation have been targeted for defeat in re-election bids. These include Senators Adlai Stevenson III and Charles H. Percy, and Representatives Paul Findley, Pete McCloskey, Cynthia McKinney, and Earl F. Hilliard. AIPAC’s overwhelmingly disproportionate influence on Congress subverts our democratic system.

7. AIPAC attempts to silence all criticism of Israel by labeling critics as “anti-Semitic,” “de-legitimizers” or “self-hating Jews.” Journalists, think tanks, students and professors have been accused of anti-Semitism for merely taking stands critical of Israeli government policies. These attacks stifle the critical discussions and debates that are at the heart of democratic policy-making. The recent attacks on staffers at the Center for American Progress is but one example of AIPAC efforts to crush all dissent.

8. AIPAC feeds U.S. government officials a distorted view of the Israel/Palestine conflict. AIPAC takes U.S. representatives on sugar-coated trips to Israel. In 2011, AIPAC took one out of very five members of Congress—and many of their spouses—on a free junket to Israel to see precisely what the Israeli government wanted them to see. It is illegal for lobby groups to take Congresspeople on trips, but AIPAC gets around the law by creating a bogus educational group, AIEF, to “organize” the trips for them. AIEF has the same office address as AIPAC and the same staff. These trips help cement the ties between AIPAC and Congress, furthering their undue influence.

9. AIPAC lobbies for billions of U.S. taxdollars to go to Israel instead of rebuilding America. While our country is reeling from a prolonged financial crisis, AIPAC is pushing for no cuts in military funds for Israel, a wealthy nation. With communities across the nation slashing budgets for teachers, firefighters and police, AIPAC pushes for over $3 billion a year to Israel.

10. Money to Israel takes funds from world’s poor. Israel has the 24th largest economy in the world, but thanks to AIPAC, it gets more U.S. taxdollars than any other country. At a time when the foreign aid budget is being slashed, keeping the lion’s share of foreign assistance for Israel meaning taking funds from critical programs to feed, provide shelter and offer emergency assistance to the world’s poorest people.

The bottom line is that AIPAC, which is a de facto agent for a foreign government, has influence on U.S. policy out of all proportion to the number of Americans who support its policies. When a small group like this has disproportionate power, that hurts everyone—including Israelis and American Jews.

From stopping a catastrophic war with Iran to finally solving the Israel/Palestine conflict, an essential starting point is breaking AIPAC’s grip on U.S. policy.

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of www.codepink.org and www.globalexchange.org. She is one of the organizers of www.occupyAIPAC.org, which will take place March 3-5 in Washington DC.

The following was written by Global Exchange intern Bethany Schmid:

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For many, the term “segregation” brings to mind separate bathrooms, ‘Whites Only’ signs on stores and restaurants, the cone hats of the Klu Klux Klan, and other images of the American South in the 1960s. In order to bring the nation’s attention to the inhumanity of segregation during that time, “Freedom Rides” were organized as a form of protest during which black activists  boarded buses reserved for white citizens. These Freedom Rides are the inspiration for a similar kind of action…in Palestine.

Here too, blatant segregation affects the daily lives of Palestinians who are severely restricted in where they can live and work and travel—all within their own land. In contrast, Israelis are permitted to move freely in Palestine, even settling there, contrary to international law. The Separation Wall, checkpoints, and settlements are all examples of barriers to Palestinian movement in the occupied territories and serve as forms of discrimination favoring Israeli citizens.

On November 15, 2011, Palestinian Freedom Riders attempted to board a bus serving illegal Israeli settlements and East Jerusalem—destinations barred to Palestinians. See a video of their action here. On this same day, cities across the nation, including Oakland, organized peaceful demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian Freedom Riders. The aim of these activists was to call attention to the intrinsic segregation of Israel’s military occupation and its violations of international law, as well as to shed light on the role of corporations in maintaining the occupation, such as the companies running these bus lines: Veolia Environnement, a French transnational company, and Egged, an Israeli company.

Despite their actions being nonviolent, each Palestinian Freedom Rider was arrested and dragged from the bus. According to Jewish Voice for Peace, as he was being arrested, one activist called for people to stand in solidarity with the struggle for freedom, justice, and dignity, and to divest from corporations involved in the occupation. To see how you can become involved in this work, visit our current Global Exchange Campaign, Economic Activism for Palestine, which supports corporate accountability campaigns targeting companies profiting from the occupation of Palestine, such as Veolia Environment.

And do whatever you can to support the goal of the Palestinian Freedom Riders by bringing attention to the Israeli occupation and the corporations that profit from it (see Who Profits from the Occupation for more information). This could mean anything from starting your own corporate accountability campaign, to educating your school or community about Israel’s violations of international law, to signing a petition to divest from a company involved in the occupation.

Take Action: Check out our Economic Activism for Palestine Program for ways to get involved and take action.

photo: Lina Attalah

Two boats full of courageous passengers were on their way to Gaza when they were intercepted on Friday, November 4, by the Israeli military in international waters. We call the passengers courageous because they sailed from Turkey on November 2 with the knowledge that at any moment they might be boarded by Israeli commandos intent on stopping them—perhaps violently, as the Israeli military did in 2010 when they killed nine humanitarian aid workers on the Turkish boat named Mavi Marmara.

The boats—one from Canada and one from Ireland—were carrying 27 passengers, including press and peace activists from Ireland, Canada, the United States, Australia and Palestine. They were unarmed, and the Israeli military knew that. They were simply peace activists wanting to connect with civilians in Gaza, and the Israeli military knew that. Yet naked aggression was used against them in international waters—something that is normally considered an act of piracy.

The passengers on the boats were sailing to Gaza to challenge the U.S. – supported Israeli blockade that is crippling the lives of 1.6 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza. They were sailing to stand up against unaccountable power—the power of the Israeli government—that has been violating the basic rights of the 5.5 million Palestinians that live inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders or in the Occupied Territories.  They were sailing for us, civil society, who believe in human rights and the rule of law.

The Arab Spring – which has now spread to cities across the United States in the form of the “#occupy” movement, and has been echoed in protests against economic injustice in Europe and Israel as well – has fundamentally been a challenge to unaccountable power. Some countries experiencing this protest wave are dictatorships under military rule or ruled by monarchies; others are generally considered “democracies.” But in all instances the majority feel that they have been shut out of decision-making and have been harmed by policies benefiting a narrow elite with disproportionate power.

The blockade of Gaza’s civilians is an extreme example of unaccountable power. Palestinians in Gaza aren’t allowed to vote for Israeli or American politicians. But due to political decisions taken in Israel and the United States, Palestinians in Gaza are prevented from exporting their goods, traveling freely, farming their land, fishing their waters or importing construction materials to build their homes and factories.

We have been to Gaza before, where we have seen the devastation firsthand.  We have also been to Israel and the West Bank, where we have seen how the Israeli government is detaining Palestinians at checkpoints, building walls that cut them off from their lands, demolishing their houses, arbitrarily imprisoning their relatives and imposing economic restrictions that prevent them from earning a living. We have seen how Palestinians, like people everywhere, are desperate to live normal and dignified lives.

A UN Report released in September found that “Israel’s oppressive policies [in Gaza] constitute a form of collective punishment of civilians”, that these policies violate both international humanitarian and human rights law, and that the illegal siege of Gaza should be lifted.  The International Committee of the Red Cross also called the blockade of Gaza a violation of international law because it constitutes “collective punishment” of a civilian population for actions for which the civilians are not responsible. The Red Cross is a neutral humanitarian organization. It doesn’t usually go around making pronouncements on matters of public policy. The fact that it has done so in this case should be a strong signal to the international community that the blockade of Gaza is extreme and must fall.

History has shown us again and again that when political leaders decide it’s in their interest, then peace, diplomacy, negotiations are possible. Recently, Israel and Hamas – with the help of the new Egyptian government – successfully negotiated a prisoner exchange that had eluded them for five years. In speeches, the Israeli government “opposes negotiations with Hamas,” and in speeches, Hamas “opposes negotiations with Israel.” But when they decided it was in their interest, they had no problem sitting down at the table and hammering out an agreement.

If Israel and Hamas can negotiate an agreement to release prisoners, then surely Israel and Hamas can negotiate an agreement to lift the blockade on Gaza’s civilians.

But the people of Gaza can’t wait for political leaders to decide it’s in their interest to negotiate, so it’s up to us—as civil society—to step up the pressure. That’s what these waves of boats are doing. That’s what the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is doing.

More than a year ago, President Obama called the blockade unsustainable. “It seems to us that there should be ways of focusing narrowly on arms shipments, rather than focusing in a blanket way on stopping everything and then, in a piecemeal way, allowing things into Gaza,” he said. That hasn’t happened. Why not? Why shouldn’t it happen now? What does blocking Palestinian exports from Gaza to Europe or keeping people from getting medical treatment abroad have to do with arms shipments?

The Israeli military stopped these two small ships carrying peace activists to Gaza, but they won’t stop the Palestinians who are demanding freedom, and they won’t stop the solidarity movement. We won’t stop challenging the blockade on Gaza’s civilians—by land and by sea– until the blockade falls. And we won’t stop challenging the denial of Palestinian democratic aspirations until those aspirations are realized.

Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange. Robert Naiman is the Director of Just Foreign Policy.

Photo Credit: AlterNet

The following piece by Medea Benjamin, Co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK:Women for Peace, originally appeared on AlterNet.
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The Congressional recess is a time for elected representatives to be home in their districts, reaching out to their constituents. So why are one in five taking a junket to Israel?

In this time of economic austerity, when jobs are being slashed and Americans are fearful about their future, the Congressional recess is the time for our elected representatives to be home in their districts, reaching out to their constituents and servicing the people they are paid to represent. Instead, this August one out of every five representatives will be taking a junket to Israel, compliments of an affiliate of the Israel lobby AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) but still clocked in on the taxpayer’s dime.

Americans who have lost their jobs and seen their life savings evaporate because Congress can’t seem to get it together deserve an explanation of how this crisis will be solved. Following the recent debt debacle, the public is hungry for information about the mysterious 12-person “super committee” that will slash over one trillion dollars from the federal budget. But instead of opening their doors to their constituents, 81 members of Congress will be getting briefings from Israeli government officials, touring historic religious sites, and perhaps “seeking a salty dip in the Dead Sea.” Representative Steny Hoyer, who is leading the Democratic delegation, said he is pleased members of Congress have this opportunity “to gain a deeper understanding of the issues involved in increasing stability in the region.” One has to wonder whether our elected officials are more concerned about the stability of Israel or the well-being of American families.

Not surprisingly, trip expenses are being paid by an affiliate of the all-powerful AIPAC lobby, the American Israel Educational Foundation. AIPAC lobbies hard to ensure that Israel is kept on the U.S. dole, with $3 billion of US taxpayers’ dollars a year going to the Israeli military. Without AIPAC and the financial contributions to Congressional campaigns made by its affiliate organizations, our representatives would be freer to speak out against funneling precious taxdollars to this already wealthy nation. This junket goes to show that those who claim AIPAC has a stranglehold over our Congress are not far off the mark.

Going on an AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel is the moral equivalent of using an Anglo-Boer travel company to visit apartheid-era South Africa. Although they claim to be visiting leaders “across the political spectrum”, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, you can bet your bottom dollar that AIPAC will not be giving these 81 Congresspeople a fair and balanced view of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. They won’t observe one of the weekly demonstrations in Bi’lin or Nabi Saleh, where Israeli soldiers routinely tear gas and arrest non-violent protesters. They won’t spend time with grieving Palestinians whose homes have been demolished to make way for more Jewish-only housing. They won’t spend a few hours at a checkpoint to witness how Palestinians are detained, abused and humiliated, or how this “thriving democracy” forbids Palestinians from driving on Jewish-only roads. They won’t go to Gaza, where 1.5 million people are suffering under an unbearable siege, unable to travel freely, conduct business transactions across borders or even rebuild their homes destroyed by the Israeli invasion. And they won’t likely be visiting the burgeoning tent cities in Tel Aviv where hundreds of thousands of Israelis are currently camped out protesting the lack of affordable housing, gas and food.

With the disapproval rate for Congress at a record 82%, now is not the time for our representatives to pander to AIPAC. Now is not the time for “free” junkets to Israel—with an implicit promise of $3 billion of our taxdollars in return. Now is the time to stop the freefall of the American economy. If our representatives want to earn more respect from the American public, they better prove that their allegiance is not to a foreign government or a group that lobbies on behalf of a foreign government, but to their constituents back home.

TAKE ACTION:
Contact your congressperson and ask where they will be this August recess. Call 202-224-3121.