MONDAY, SEPT. 27: Rally at FBI headquarters to protest raids!

The Committee Against Political Repression is calling for an emergency rally to be held at 4:30pm Monday, Sept. 27 at FBI headquarters in Chicago, 2111 W. Roosevelt (NOT at Federal Plaza as some earlier announcements indicated).

By now, news is spreading widely about last Friday's FBI raids -- and the larger federal assault -- on anti-war activists, solidarity workers and people committed to peace with justice in the U.S. and abroad.

We will assemble to send a strong message to say that these raids will not keep us silent. Similar rallies are to be held throughout the US in the next few days. An injury to one is an injury to all, and solidarity to protect our most basic rights to dissent is more important than ever.

Checks to support the legal defense for the Chicago victims of the raids can be made out to Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ (WAUCC) with Committee Against Political Repression identified in the memo line. Checks can be mailed to Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ, 615 W. Wellington Ave., 60657

FBI Raids will not Silence our Movement

I remember this feeling, I thought as I read that on Friday the FBI raided the homes of peace and justice activists in Minneapolis and here in Chicago. It's the same way I feel whenever the Israeli government decides it's time to round up Palestinians nonviolent activists. In these situations I always find that I feel a little bit confused, a little bit scared, and very, very powerless.

The thing is - that's exactly what a government trying to squash political opposition wants its citizens to feel. When the FBI raided the home of Joe Iosbaker and Stephanie Weiner, they didn't make any arrests. They just took 30 boxes of papers and personal items. Some of those papers showed the labor activism and peace activist that Joe and Stephanie have been involved in for so long. The rest of it? Strictly personal items, like baby pictures and letters. That's a tactic designed to scare Joe and Stephanie and their friends. And why does our government want to intimidate us? "All we ever did was work against U.S. military aid to the governments of Colombia and Israel and to support the peoples of Colombia and Israel in their struggle for justice," said Joe.

We have a choice now. We can become scared and and stop talking about about how the United States and Israel are systematically violating human rights in the name of empire-building, or we keep moving forward with renewed energy. Yesterday, activists held a press conference calling this so-called terrorist investigation what it is: political intimidation. Tomorrow, we'll be rallying again and I'm asking you to join us. Because speaking out is what it takes to maintain a democracy.

For myself, I keep thinking about the hundreds and hundreds of Palestinians who've been arrested for their nonviolent resistance: who was tortured for grazing his sheep on his land, Nasser who spent a month in jail for building a house, Hafez who was beaten and arrested for protesting the wall, the guys from Tuba who keep being arrested for doing farm work, the three boys who were taken by Israel soldiers and handed over to settlers who beat them. I'm thinking about all of the political prisoners, including Amer Makhoul, who are in Israeli jails right now. They are why I'm will not be intimated and silenced. I learned from Palestinians the meaning of "samoud," steadfastness. We're not going to give up.

You totally want to support the 2010 Women's Cooperative Tour! (What's this? A Blog Post?)

Oh, blog. You're wonderful and all, but sometimes my life is too exciting for you. It's just beyond your scope. See, I've been working away on my graphic novel about Tuwani. Yeah, it's kind of like turning this blog into a giant comic book. In other words, it's fantastic. But I'll be back to you soon. I promise. Until then, here's something totally cool that I know you'll totally want to support. Wait, you're a blog and you don't have money. Wait, let me stop talking to you and start talking to your readers. This is getting a little weird...

Hey, I'm certain you incredibly generous, wonderful people will be excited to read the letter below. It's about an exciting project to spent Keifah (one of the regular heroes of this blog) to Italy on a speaking tour. Read it and give as much as you call. At least spend us some love - nice, free love.

We may not currently have the might of the Israeli army nor the power of traditions confining us in certain roles, however, we know that one woman standing behind another in a line of solidarity is a force more powerful than both.


- Keifah Addera, At-Tuwani Women's Coperative

Dear friends and supporters of At-Tuwani village,


We would like to invite you to support a force more powerful than violence: the voices of Palestinian women. In late November 2010 , Humanity Together will host Keifah Addera and her husband Nasser on a speaking tour in Italy. Keifah will be speaking about the experiences of women in At-Tuwani as they nonviolently resist both the Israeli occupation and sexism. We hope that you will consider financially supporting this exciting project.


The people of At-Tuwani have often told their allies that the most important way we can support their struggle is to share their stories in our own communities. Keifah Addera, the organizer of the At-Tuwani Women's Cooperative, is a powerful voice uniquely able to speak about the resistance of Palestinian women. While in Italy, Keifah will speak about the effect of the Israeli occupation and settler violence on women and children in Tuwani as well as the women's cooperative's work for justice and gender equality. Keifah's husbandwill speak about his experiences as a prisoner in Israeli jail after being arrested for his participation in nonviolent demonstrations. Keifah and Nasser will present at the annual Italian Pax Christi peace conference as well as other public meetings in Rome, Trento, Ravenna, and several other locations.


Few Tuwani residents are as experienced in speaking with visitors as Keifah. She often hosts groups in Tuwani and has a rare talent for creating relationships with the people she meets. For this reason we are excited by the opportunities for building international support and women's solidarity that this trip will provide. We are trying to raise 2,500 euros to cover the cost of flights, visa procedures, lodging, transportation in Italy, and food expenses. To donate, follow this link to our Pay Pal. Thank you so much for your support

In solidarity,

Humanity Together

http://www.humanitytogether.com/home

Palestine Solidarity Project's Sister City Protest in the News

So here's an update on the demonstration I mentioned a few days ago. The protester who was arrested was released by five pm that day. I'll update you all with more information after we get some legal advice about what is good to put out to the public and what is not.

In the meantime, here are a couple of great articles about the campaign to get Chicago to drop Petach Tivak, it's Israeli sister city.

First, from IMEMC: Protester Arrested in Chicago While Challenging Israeli Segregation

Second, from Electronic Intifada: Global Boycott Movement Claims Victories, Arrests

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this demonstration and the larger campaign. I've been wondering how to best pressure the Sister City office to drop Petach Tivak, and more importantly, how to make sure that everyday folks are hearing about our campaign. I really do believe that the strength if the boycott movement lays in its ability to engage people and show us how we can act for justice and peace, wherever we are. So, how can we get that message out to a larger audience?

After Nine years of Struggle, Tuwani is Connected to the Electric Grid

This photo brought tears to my eyes. Finally, after nine years of struggle, At-Tuwani is connected to the electric grid and enjoying electricity 24 hours a day. I hope all of my favorite women are celebrating with dance parties that can finally continue past 9:30 pm.

For more information about the the village's victory, check out Electronic Intifada

Breaking News: Chicagoan arrested calling for boycott of Israel's Guantanamo

So, this press release will show you how I spent my lunch hour. I'll keep you updated as we get more information from the activist who was arrested. I just called several media outlets here in the city and I'm not sure that this story will be picked up by any of them. As usual, it will be up to us to spread this story around.

Chicagoan arrested calling for boycott of Israel's Guantanamo
Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago media advisory

Chicago police at downtown Millennium Park today arrested an activist who was exercising his free speech rights during a protest organized by the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago. At the Chicago Sister Cities' annual International Festival, more than 30 activists protested Israel's inclusion in the program and called for the cutting of Chicago ties with Israeli apartheid.
The activist was arrested while the protest was concluding outside of the International Festival tent. The protesters were on their way out when the police began shoving the activists and grabbed the young Arab male protester and placed him under arrest (he remains in detention at the time of this release).
Minutes earlier, after picketing and chanting outside of the tent, activists brought the message into the venue. Protesters chanted in the tent for a few minutes to make the message clear: "Drop Petach Tikva!", Chicago's sister city in Israel. The pianist who was performing in the hall at the time stood at attention out of respect once he heard the protesters' message.
The PSG and allies were compelled to bring the message directly into the festival because for the last year and a half, the Chicago Sister Cities International has refused to meet with PSG and members of the community to hear about Petach Tikva's special role in Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people.
Petach Tikva -- an officially segregated city, the first Jewish-only settlement in historic Palestine and the site of the primary detention center where Israeli forces abuse and torture Palestinian political prisoners -- has been dubbed by rights group Amnesty International as "Israel's Guantanamo."
Upholding the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions measures on apartheid Israel, PSG and its allies object to business-as-usual with Israel. Under the false premise of promoting culture and education, Petach Tikva's inclusion in Chicago Sister Cities promotes Israel-US business ties while it whitewashes Israel's occupation and human rights abuses.
Anel Montes, a manager with the Chicago Sister Cities, reiterated the program's refusal to take a principled stance or meet with activists, using the false language of "neutrality." However, Chicago Sister Cities has made its stance clear by maintaining its relationship with Petach Tikva, whose committee members belong to organizations that have played a role in the dispossession of the Palestinian people and are committed to promoting US aid to apartheid Israel.
PSG and allies can claim a victory. Petach Tikva was not visible at today's festival as war-profiteering corporations Motorola and Boeing -- the main sponsors of the Chicago Sister Cities International -- don't want protesters raining on their public relations parade. PSG and its allies will keep up the pressure until Chicago Sister Cities drops Israel's Guantanamo

# # #

At-Tuwani to be Connected to the Water and Electrical Grid? Maybe.

I wouldn't hold your breath just yet, but it seems like At-Tuwani may have electricity and running water soon(ish). That's what the Israeli authorities are saying now. They've been under pressure from Israeli groups to do something about the situation in Tuwani and seem to have caved. I hope to be able to be provide more details soon, once I find a new article I like better than the ones I've seen so far.

Like folks in the village, I'll believe it when I see it. But here's hoping.

What's New in "I Saw it in Palestine"?

A friend of mine just told me that I'm the busiest person she knows. Well. I doubt that, but I have been happily occupied (heh heh) lately.

First, I've gotten involved with the Chicago Sister-City campaign, an effort to convince the City of Chicago to drop it's relationship with Petach Tikva, a city known as Israel's Guantanamo because of the torture of Palestinians that takes place in the city's prisons. I'm excited about this campaign because I think it's a great way to participate in the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that I'm always talking so much about. The campaign is local, it's focused, it has a clearly defined goal and we're certainly doing everything we can to be as strategic as possible. More information is here - anyone local should get involved!

Second, I've helping to organize a speaking tour for K., the head of the At-Tuwani women's cooperative and simply the coolest person I know. The speaking tour will take place in Italy, as getting a visa for her and her husband to come to the US is simply way too difficult. I'm really excited about the connections that K. will be able to make while she's in Italy. Next year she's hoping to host an international women's conference in Tuwani and this could be a great opportunity for her to lay the ground-work for that - while also educating people about the situation in Tuwani and women's resistance. I'll keep you updated about how you can get involved over the next couple of days.

Lastly, I've been writing like a fiend. I'm currently working on turning this blog into a comic. Well, sort of. I'm writing a graphic novel about At-Tuwani, much of which will be based off of essays and other entries that you read here first. I'm getting close to half way finished with the first draft. And I'm so excited! I hope you will be as well.

That's the state of "I Saw it in Palestine." Now, I'm ready to start acting a little less busy.

As seen on Israel Channel One? Palestinian Shepherd Films Israeli Settler Stealing Sheep

It's another day of waking up, turning on my computer, and finding the same old story coming out of Tuba. On the 22nd, an Israeli settler came out of the settlement and calmly stole a sheep owned by one of the shepherds from Tuba. But this time, Ahmed, the shepherd in question, caught the whole thing on tape.



Here's what my friend Diane, who is in Palestine right now, has to say:

Last week Wednesday Ahmed was shepherding and several settlers came and stole one of his family's sheep. As a result of the video that Achmed took of the incident the Israeli police were able to identify the settlers and Achmed's father went with the police to retrieve the sheep from the settlement. While Ahmed and his father Omar were at the Israeli police station filing a complaint against the settlers (Ahmed for 5 hours), one of the settlers came in and filled a counter complaint against Omar (which is bogus as Omar wasn't even at the incident). At first the police didn't want to give Ahmed a copy of his complaint, but the B'tselem field worker who accompanied Ahmed insisted on a copy as if the case goes to court and Palestinians don't have a copy of the complaint that they filed the Israeli police have sometimes claimed that none was filed. And then the complaint of the settler is the only one for which there is paperwork for and the case would go badly for the Palestinians. In instances such as this with both the Palestinians and the settler filing complaints the case will mostly likely be thrown out by a judge – and the settlers will not be prosecuted for stealing a sheep.

Check out the rest of her blog entry here. And more details here.

Like I said, this is kind of a case of same-old, same-old. I've been working hard on a graphic novel about the Tuwani area and feeling a little defeated. I feel like I'm telling one story, over and over. But the truth is, that one story contains in it a lot of hope. For example, take Ahmed. Ahmed is an amazing videographer - probably the best activist filmmaker I know. Filming a settler stealing your sheep is a risky thing to do, but this is far from the first time that Ahmed's taken that risk and kept filming. I'm told that this footage actually made it on to Israeli TV. That's pretty incredible. And then there's the larger context - Ahmed is simply one of those people who shine. He's hella smart and his family (and a few random foreigners) are hoping that he'll be able to go to college or do anything else that he wants to do. Being the sort of person that brings that kind of hope into a group of people's lives is pretty fantastic. It's resistance, for sure, but it's also just life. Also just Ahmed. So, hey - thumbs up for Ahmed. Tongues stuck out at stupid settlers and the stupid Israeli system that creates and sustains them. Let's get back to resisting the Israeli colonialism. Or, I at least should get out of bed.

New video about the Tuba, Susiya, and Um El Khair from the New York Times

Nicholas D. Kristof just put together another piece on the the Tuwani-area for the New York times. This one is a video and as always, it's very powerful to *see* the situation. Kristof is becoming very good at finding a way to clearly and un-apologetically say the occupation is morally wrong. Props to him for that - I mean, telling the truth about our experiences ought to be one of the things we as people do, but the truth threatens the powerful and people with power, especially journalists, risk something when they say it.

But Kristof sure missed the mark at the very end of his piece. He says that settler attack Palestinians because they're scared. He says that a number of settlers have been killed by Palestinians living in the area. Well, as far as I know, that number is two. Two. Let's be honest, while settlers certainly use fear to marshal their supporters, they attack Palestinians because they want to drive them off of the land. That's what their own statements indicate.

Nonetheless, I was glad to take look at what Kristof says and how he says it. There are a couple of arguments he makes that I think are worth using.

The BDS World Cup: Penguins vs. Ostriches



From the U.S. Campaign for the Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel:

"It’s the Penguins vs. the Ostriches in this Boycott Israel summer match — a showdown between artists like Elvis Costello and the Pixies who cancelled their Israel concerts in respect of the boycott, vs. Metallica, Rihanna and Elton John who are going forward with theirs, despite growing criticism."

All right, I just don't get the obsession with vuvuzelas, but this video is fun. It makes me stupidly happy. But, damn do we have a lot of work to do on BDS. Artists are feeling the pressure not to perform in Israel, but the media's not covering. It's up to us to get information out.

Independence from what and for whom?

This afternoon I was walking down the street here in the city. To my right I saw house flying an American flag. Then to my left whizzing down the street came a Chicago Police Department car. As its siren wailed, I smirked to myself. How appropriate, I thought. I kept walking down the street. In a store window a saw a racist cartoon of people whose stolen land I live on emblazoned with the words, "Congratulations Stanley Cup Winners!" I turned the corner. Hanging on the next house was a banner saying "Marine Corps, USA." Yeah, things didn't seem so ironic any more.

So this is what "Independence Day" looks like. I'm not going to apologize for refusing to celebrate the independence of land-owning white men. But believe me, I take freedom very seriously. But freedom for whom? And when will it be freedom for Palestinians? When will it be freedom for all of us?

New York Times Covers the Tuwani Area: Two Sides of a Barbed-Wire Fence.

I like any article that ends "But we must not lose sight of the most basic fact about the occupation: It’s wrong."

I like it even more when it's in the New York Times. Color me surprised.

And I like it best of all when it's about the communities where I've worked.

Take a look at this article. You'll enjoy it. And if you've got a minute, drop the NYT a note telling them so. They'll be getting a lot of letters saying the opposite.

Poverty in the Tuwani area is worse than in Gaza

For the better part of a week, I've wanted to stand on my roof and scream. I'm not sure when I'm going to feel like stopping.

This article is why I feel so desperately angry: West Bank poverty 'worse than Gaza.'

Worse than Gaza. Did that get your attention? It certainly got mine.

"Children living in the poorest parts of the West Bank face significantly worse conditions than their counterparts in Gaza" Al Jazeera reported. According to Salam Kanaan, Save the Children's director in the occupied Palestinian Territories, "The international community has rightly focused its attention on the suffering of families in Gaza but the plight of children in Area C must not be overlooked. Palestinians in the West Bank are widely thought to enjoy a higher standard of living but tragically many families, particularly in Bedouin and herder communities, actually suffer significantly higher levels of malnutrition and poverty."

Bedouin and herder communities? That's Tuwani. It's Tuba. It's Magher Al Abeed. It's Mufagra. It's Susiya. It's all of the places I've been talking about for the last three years.

Because of Israeli restrictions that prevent Palestinians from accessing their land and developing infrastructure, Palestinians who live in "Area C" - 60 percent of the West Bank - are in poverty worse than in Gaza. Thousands of Palestinian children don't have enough food and many are getting sick. In fact, when Save the Children surveyed communities in Area C, 44 per cent of the children surveyed were suffering from diarrhoea. Diarehoea is the world's biggest killer of children under the age of five. Many kids were showing signs of stunted growth - more than double the rate in Gaza. More than one in ten children surveyed were found to be underweight.

Let me make this a little more personal. Adam is one of favorite kids in the whole world and oft times the star of this blog. Adam's nearly five and I pick him up and play with him whenever he'll let me. I mean, take a look at this kid. He's a charmer.

Adam's little. Really little. Recently I came back to Chicago and tried to pick up a three year old - another total charmer - and nearly dropped the poor kid. This kid is a year younger than Adam and at least 50% heavier. I was shocked. Over three years of playing with kids in Tuwani, I'd forgotten how much a healthy kid weighs.

And here's the rub- Adam lives on a farm. He's parents know how to grow their own food. They don't need to "make the desert bloom" because they know how to live sustainably on the edge of the Negve. Adam shouldn't be hungry. There's no reason for that. The reason why kids in Tuwani aren't getting proper nutrion has nothing to do with the natural world. It's because the Israeli government wont stop settlers from attacking Adam's mom and dad when they try to access their land. It's because the Israeli government uses closed military zones to prevent farmers in Tuwani from farming. It's because the Israeli government wont let Tuwani have electricity.

This video was filmed in Susiya, a village near Tuwani. When I watched it, I sat there with my mouth hanging wide open.



"That's Abu Jihad. That's Ahmed. That's Heba."

I know everyone in that video.

These are the people who are suffering needlessly. Let's do something about it.