-We just celebrated the success of a hunger strike by over 1600 political prisoners despite attempts to stifle the story in Zionist dominated Western media. They succeeded in achieving a part of their basic rights including receiving family visits and ending solitary confinement.

-We are 11.5 million people and while most of us are refugees and displaced people, we remain steadfast and hopeful and connected. Thanks to persistence and now the internet and modern communications, even the feeble attempts to isolate us from each other failed. Thousands of Palestinians still go to their main city of Jerusalem without Israeli permission. Thousands connect across the Green line to the areas occupied since 1948.

-We are still the most educated people in the Middle East with the highest per capita of postgraduates.

-We now have 12 universities inside the occupied Palestinan territories. On Saturday we held the second biomedical research symposium in Bethlehem showing scientific work rivaling that done in countries with a strong tradition of research. This is miraculous considering the conditions under occupation.

-We are still the people who helped develop the Arab world and even remind it of its unity and common destiny. But more than that, our resistance shielded fellow Arabs from the original plans of Zionists for an empire from the Nile to the Euphrates. We are still the main obstacle to the victory of the racist Zionist project.

-We have an amazing history of 130 years of struggle against the most well-financed, most-organized, most-supported (by Zionists and their Western backers) colonial project in human history.

- We have the fastest growing boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in anti-colonial struggles. In less than 7 years we accomplished far more than what was accomplished with BDS in any other place (including in 25 years in South Africa).

-Palestine is still the place where people of different religions lived together in the same neighborhod unsegregated until European Zionists came and recreated ghettos for Palestinians (Muslims and Christians) and one large ghetto for Jews called Israel coexist in harmony. Church bells and the call of the Muezzin to prayer still penetrate deep in our souls despite all the Zionist attempts to silence them (e.g. the ethnic cleansing and destruction of 530 villages and towns).

- We educate our children that racism and notions of choseness are wrong and they grow to believe that we can still have the new Palestine that will be like our old Palestine: multiethnic, multireligious, multicultural and beautiful.

- Palestinians inspired activists around the world. Polls show great sympathy for our cause among average people. Palestine is now cause celebre among those struggling against oppression. Even Nelson Mandela said that South Africa will not be fully free until Palestine is free. According to polls, a majority in Western Europe correctly view Israel and the US as the two greatest threats to world peace. Thousands of internationals joined us in the struggle locally. Israel has become so paranoid about any solidarity visits and in the process exposed its apartheid racist nature.

We are grateful to be participants in shaping a better future for all. I am 100% sure that our Nakba will end, refugees will return, freedom and equality will happen, and Israelis will also be liberated from being oppressors and colonizers and become integrated into the fabric of the new and better Palestine. We can then become a “light unto the peoples.”
—————————-
Died: Vidal Sassoon who volunteered for and fought in the Israeli army during the ethnic cleansing in 1948 (the largest since WWII). His “beauty” empire participated (and continues) in the financing of the ugly Zionist crimes against humanity.

Podcast Radio interview: Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities, author of Popular Resistance in Palestine: a History of Hope and Empowerment. – Around 2000 Palestinian prisoners, out of desperation, are on hunger strike. Some are near death. Yet western media are silent. Many prisoners have been arrested and re-arrested, under “Administrative Detention”, i.e., no charges and no trials
http://plainsfm.org.nz/podcasts/ (then click Earthwise)

Lest we forget: Palestinian Refugees: Right to Return and Repatriation. Chapter 4 from Sharing The Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle”. http://www.qumsiyeh.org/chapter4/

Two chapters from a new book titled “The Case For Sanctions Against Israel”
Hind Awwad: “Six Years of BDS: Success!”
http://www.odsg.org/co/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2552
Ilan Pappé: the boycott will work, an Israeli perspective
http://www.odsg.org/co/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2555

See this link to an al-Jazeera documentary about the theft of books from Palestinian homes and libraries during the 1948 war. It is a very tragic story with many of the books looted from Khalil al-Sakakini’s library and others, then kept at the Israeli national library. There is an opening poem by Sakakini dedicated to his stolen books http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2012/05/20125915313256768.html

Phil Monsour features Rafeef Ziadah – Ghosts of Deir Yassin

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
http://qumsiyeh.org

Changes took an awkward turn when oil found, as many states were created out of tribes not nations. Looking at today’s Middle East, you either see failed states, or small consumer entities that cannot depend on themselves.

Why the region failed when it was once one of the leading progressive entities in the world?

Rulership has always been a strange thing: when it stems from the demand of those who were ruled (we are not talking about democracy here), it’s always more successful. When it’s imposed by the others, it alienates itself form the ruled, even if it’s sufficient enough.

When the Middle East is not ruled by the others, it’s ruled by those who are dependent on the others, or have a strict belief in the other’s way of life and politics.

Middle East finds it difficult to stabilize because it does not have local rulers, local researchers, local ambitions, etc. As the rulers advocate for democracy while imposing dictatorship, the researchers try to find out the latest trend in the west, while youths suffer from lack of places to reside.

As a Middle Eastern, I see the problem as: a people with no hope of making something out parlous situation. The vision of future is sacrificed to the waiting for the invincible westerns to surprise us with any invention, far beyond our imagination.

This is true not only for iPad and BlackBerry, but the way of life and ruling. And it’s hard for me to say we’d always be losing unless we grow some sort of local thinking. In the other words, unless we improve our self-esteem and try to surprise the world, and even help them with what we can do.

Unless people decide to act for a big project in mind, nothing can appear from those who are delighted with discussing Apple’s latest invention, or Fukuyama’s latest theory.

Don’t take me wrong, I’m not saying the ‘evil other’ is the cause, but saying we are the cause since we do not have a hope of making ourselves something instead of waiting for the mercy of the other.

The change which we see at the moment carries hope, yet we should know the real change should be in people’s way of thought not rulers, otherwise we may see Middle East caught in a huge trend of Balkanization, as it once did one century ago.

As a British-Kurd Patriot, I felt I was bounded ethically to offer something back to my ancestral roots of Iraqi-Kurdistan, being my education and skills within the healthcare arena. Armed with an optimistic smile and faith as my ammunition I visited different hospitals in the region alongside the medical universities as a would-be patient to assess the patient experience. The image I portrayed was of an individual that knows no-one therefore probably taken as a poor disadvantaged individual. Following the signs and speaking to other patients, then went on to try and seek medical assistance, with a plan to be giving symptoms that I knew required further examinations. To my surprise, in a mouse house room filled with an aroma of dried blood and bleach the medical team would be consulting with ten patients at a time, with little regard to confidentiality. Sitting with fellow patients with a claustrophobic itch somebody would come who was known to have strong networks or ‘connections’ and be seen to almost immediately even if the doctor was with a life threatening patient who required critical care.

However, the interesting aspect of my ultimate observations and findings were that it varied on who was on shift and on different days and times it would generate a different outcome. Thus, it could be that at certain times the service exceeded expectations and at times went below standard. Working within policy and strategy, this tells me that firstly there is a lack of infrastructure with standardised guidelines, and secondly the ‘policy’ in place is flexible and lacks accountability. The general blame as with every other problem that arises in Kurdistan is pointed to the Kurdistan Regional Government. However, I disagree as I feel that as professionals we have a social and moral responsibility to ensure compliance and there is a limit to government intervention. To target this problem, a root cause analysis must be performed, that would identify exactly where the issue is. The Kurdistan Regional Government is partially responsible in that funding is centralised and perhaps it would be more efficient and effective if hospitals had autonomy on budget but then on the other hand, with the current resources it depends if the hospitals have utilised the channels and created a regulatory framework.

It is off beam to label the healthcare system as a disaster as the NHS in the United Kingdom is not labelled as perfect either, neither is the quality of care standardised within all trusts. But, there are frameworks and regulatory boards to enforce compliance. In order for the Kurdistan Healthcare to progress, the professionals must be challenged, and held accountable for there actions rather than frequently using the Kurdistan Regional Government as a scapegoat. Perhaps it would be ideal if British expertise guided our local professionals in order to establish dialogue and share best practice by reflecting on different cases.

Another issue is the wide distribution of expired medication within the region. One of the methods to target this epidemic is by developing information systems that record and classifies all drugs that are imported within the region to be able to have a national database. Most importantly, the medical professionals must uphold the medical practice ethical code and oath and refuse to give any expired medication to patients that would force the intervention of the Ministry to take action. The role of the Ministry is to educate and inform the public on healthcare issues but most significantly to devise national guidelines and policy, this can only be done by the input of local professionals through public consultations and the region must start devising such routes of communications.

Iraqi-Kurdistan is known as the Other Iraq, and quite rightly prides itself on its booming economy and infrastructures but one of the fundamental pillars that determines whether we live or die, is the pillar of health, and until a professional, expert-led policy think-tank and unit is devised than there will be only a few that will label the healthcare delivery as a dream.

“Mosireen”, Arabic equivalent of Persistent, was formed in 2011, as a social/citizen media collective that focuses mainly on picture and video to disseminate authentic news to combat the state controlled propaganda.

“Mosireen”, which rhymes with the Arabic Masrieen or Egyptians, are persistent to: Continue the goals of the revolution, produce and make films that support the revolution, raise awareness, train young youth on using social media and video techniques, archive the revolution visually, and finally network between similar initiatives, bloggers, activists and filmmakers.

Sherief Gaber is one of the spirited revolutionary group of youth that we’ve encountered in the elegant high-ceiling headquarters of Mosireen in Down Town Cairo. A young Egyptian-American man who left his Texas studies behind to revolt.

The podcast features three different voices: Ahmed Zidan, Sherief Gaber, and also Nick Holdstock, a Scottish author, researcher and freelance journalist who has spent three weeks in Egypt meeting with activists from grassroots initiatives.

During a Kazeboon screening in Tahrir Sq

Gaber explains in this podcast what is the Collective exactly, and why “Mosireen”?, and then delves into the very successful street screenings of Kazeboon and the challenge of authentication of footage.

He then talks about moving beyond Tahrir, and reaching out to Cairo’s crammed informal settlements.

Also he highlights military trials and SCAF’s propaganda concerning foreign funds, and how does it impede civil society work, and how people perceive it.

Listen to the podcast or download it now!

Subscribe to Mosireen YouTube channel from here, follow the Collective on Twitter from here, and join their page on Facebook from here.

Zionist colonization is not driven by emotion or haphazard action. It is done as instructed by the founding father of Political Zionism Theodore Herzl in 1897: “we must investigate and take possession of the new Jewish country by means of every modern expedient.” Modern expedients advocated by Herzl include planned methodical structure to remove the native people (with or without agreement of some Arabs) and create a large Jewish state. Herzl was not specific on size of the “required estate” but Ben Gurion and people of his era thought it possible to go as far as between the Nile and the Euphrates.

The plans of colonizers are remarkably similar and known from the diaries of Herzl in 1897, from the letter from Ben Gurion to his son in 1937, the Allon plan of 1967, and from the Hebron accords of 1997. It is a plan of expansion without some Arabs consenting or occasionally with agreement from some Arabs. These agreements, like the treaties that some Native Americans signed with the government of the United States in its expansionary phase, were and are violated because they are merely consolidation tools [4]. I think like these Native American chiefs some Palestinians thought that they are doing the best they could under difficult circumstances. Most of the Native American “leaders” had no concept or understanding of the true nature of the notions and emotions driving the Westward expansion of the white colonialists in the USA. They did not delve deeply into notions of manifest destiny, choseness, and racism that characterize their oppressors. One could say the ideology of Native Americans exhibited the exact opposite of their colonizers and thus they presumed that whites are ultimately human and could be dealt with as equals.

Peace for natives is to get their freedom, to live in dignity, and most of all to get the boot of colonization off our necks. Peace for the colonizers is to have the victim stop wiggling under their boots. Towards this they devised ingenious plans including a Palestinian Preventive Security force. Any rational human being can see this dictation and imbalance of power in daily news. Thus the people are left out of decisions whether on “negotiations”, on “national reconciliation”, ongoing and not going to the UN, or on how they may eventually be liberated. Despairing and riding a ship without compass or rudder, the people grumble and boil underneath and later erupt in revolt.

Needs and desires of the colonizers and the colonized are not the same. Occupiers and colonizers want more opportunities to progress via consolidation and strengthening of the status quo and allowing them to expand further. We, the occupied and colonized people, want to halt and eventually reverse the process of injustice. Palestinians want to return to our homes and lands and live peacefully as we did for millennia. We insist on return and self-determination. We insist that the country must remain multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-cultural. This is not a border dispute nor is it a quibble over the Israeli illegal control of the religious sites. Like in the struggle in South Africa under apartheid, it is a struggle that pits two very different visions of the area: one of racism and apartheid and the other of justice and equality.

Sporadic acts of heroic popular resistance are not enough to reach peace with justice. Coordination and joint action must take place. What hinders it is a system developed by the occupiers and agreed to by some of the occupied people. Personal economic benefit maintains the status quo. What is done with support from a Palestinian authority is nothing short of making this occupation the most profitable in history (several billion dollars flow annually to Israeli coffers as a result of this occupation). Already Israeli and Palestinian business deals are being executed for example in area C. This is the “economic peace plan” of Netanyahu and others. Those who may think of disrupting the status quo are investigated and punished. Most Palestinians are excellent diagnosticians and have figured this out. But I think many have not started to articulate solutions or ideas to get out of this mud hole that the Oslo Process (actually started with the 10 point program in 1974) put us into. It is not going to be easy and it does require sacrifice. But those delusional individuals who think that they have a salary or a position and they do not want to risk rocking the boat should think again. They should think of how their children or grandchildren would live under a system of racism and oppression. This is as true of Israelis as it is true of Palestinians.

Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) give us hope. Shimon Peres, the architect of Israel’s arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction and a war criminal once explained: “In order to export you need good products, but you also need good relations….[If] Israel’s image gets worse, it will begin to suffer boycotts. There is already an artistic boycott against us and signs of an undeclared financial boycott are beginning to emerge.” International figures who worked against apartheid in South Africa argued convincingly of why this can help here in Apartheid Israel [5]. But BDS is only a tool and certainly not sufficient to effect the needed change. There has to be a structured program from the people which includes an articulation of a vision with concrete goals for the future. In my book “Sharing the Land of Canaan” in 2004 I argued for precisely such a program to move from apartheid to a state of all its citizens. These notions have gained widespread acceptance among intellectuals and activists of various religious and political backgrounds. To arrive to this vision, we need organization.

Organization requires visionary leadership arising organically from a maturing rising population. We should not be reluctant to push our existing leaders and if they are not willing to move then to create alternative leadership. ALL Factions have aging and non-innovative leadership and ALL factions have younger energetic and dedicated (but marginalized) individuals. Clearly the status quo is devastating for us and cannot last. We know from history that people will rise-up and DEMAND change.

Is it time for varied voices to coalesce into a thunderous uproar that cannot be ignored? May we organize meetings and discuss publicly the path forward? While many for example discussed the failure of the “two state solution” and some articulated future visions, we need more than that. Can we as a people in 1948 areas, in the WB and Gaza and in exile create mechanisms and structures that take us to where we decide to go? Can we convince the world and even Israelis that we are serious about working for a future of peace with justice and prosperity for everyone? Voices of negativism must not dominate this critical stage. This conversation must be open to people of goodwill from all factions and from independents. While it must start among Palestinians, we must later involve our trusted supporters from around the world. We do have the resources: financial, intellectual, emotional, and physical. Let those who have skills in organizing organize and those who have skills in media work do media work. Let those who have skills in social networking do that. Those who have skills in music write songs for the revolution. Imagine if we can get even 5% or even 1% of the Palestinians around the world as participants in an organized effort. The change that could happen can be monumental.

The world today only respects those who respect themselves and struggle for their own rights. We have nothing to be ashamed of as Palestinians even though 7 million of us are refugees or displaced people. We have a lot to be proud of from our history [6]. We cannot give up now that the crisis of Palestine weighed on the world conscience and when the Arab spring could change the whole geopolitical reality of the Middle East. Even if we fail at our goal this time, the positive spirit that results would enrich all our lives. It would unleash the creativity and the energy that we know is in us. Change can and must happen because it ours is an existential struggle for 11.5 million Palestinians in the world and for our children and grandchildren born and unborn. Each of us has a role to play and has skills and other resources to contribute. Even if we start slow and among a few individuals, it will grow because we have no other choice. Let us get on with it.

[1] http://www.alhaq.org/documentation/weekly-focuses/569-palestinian-prisoners-near-death
[2] Ramzy Baroud- Israel plots an end-game
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/05/03/illegal-settlements-bonanza-israel-plots-an-endgame/,
Jeff Halper http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/2012428124445821996.html but see also Susan Abulhawa’s reply to Jeff Halper http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=19274#.T6RigYJSHIA.twitter
[3] Ben Gurion letter to his son, sent October 5, 1937 Translation here
http://www.palestine-studies.org/files/B-G%20Letter%20translation.pdf
[4] The Oslo accords were an excellent tool by Israel to consolidate its hold and in violations of the Geneva conventions allowed Israel “civil control” in >60% of the West Bank called area C. In further negotiations it was leaked how much people like Saeb Erekat were willing to keep going in handing over these areas to Israel http://www.aljazeera.com/palestinepapers/
[5] Desmond Tutu on the need for Divestment from Israeli apartheid
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/justice-requires-action-to-stop-subjugation-of-palestinians/1227722
[6] “Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of Hope and Empowerment” http://www.qumsiyeh.org/popularresistanceinpalestine/

You dodge a bullet or two, if you’re lucky. And when it’s all said and done, new
elections are held, the old guard may even be ousted from power, or so you
think, and in come a new crop of leaders who leave you guessing as to whether
the change that they have in mind is in sync with the change you were hoping
for.

What’s wrong with this picture?

People are putting their lives on the line, and so far at least, there remain strong
doubts as to what it will all mean. There seems to be a dis-connect between the
aspirations of the people on the one hand, and the kind of change that is
likely to come about on the other.

What do the people on the street want? It’s hard to say for sure. Maybe they don’t even
know. But there are hints. Mohamed Bouazizi, who started it all in Tunisia, was
college educated and without a job. His was the story of many in the Middle
East. He sold fruits and vegetables to support his mother and sister. When the
police harassed him, and confiscated his cart, he set himself on fire, and set
the Middle East ablaze. What was he telling us in that final act of despair? My
guess is that he was saying that he needed a way to support his family, and he
needed as well the freedom to live his life as he saw fit.

So it could be said that at the heart of the Arab Spring is a yearning for good paying
jobs, and personal freedom.

And yet, as clear as this may be, there is still a gap between the change that people want,
and the change that is likely to come about. So how do you bride this gap?

You can’t depend on slogans. Slogans come and go, and are subject to the whims and
fancies of those who set out to exploit them. You can’t depend on violence.
Violence begets violence, and you end up with leaders who assume power because
it is in their nature to be even more violent than anyone else. You can’t just
hope that things will work out. Most times, power vacuums are filled in a grab
for power, by leaders who are not inclined to listen to their people.

So what can you do to get your voice heard, and to bring about the kind of change you can
only imagine? You build a model, a model that inspires a sense of hope, and
that delivers on that promise with jobs, with dignity, and with personal
freedom. We’re not talking about a make-believe model. We’re talking about a
real model that you can see and touch, a model that will shine as beacon of
light, for all to see, and for all to follow.

Want an example? Build a Green Industrial Zone in the most unlikely of places, in
Rafah, Gaza, and use it as a new model for the Middle East. Make it an Arab
initiative, to be funded by wealthy Arab investors. And let this model resonate
with hope on as many levels as possible. If you believe in empowering women,
then finance female entrepreneurs so that they can start their own businesses.
If you believe in educating young people, then include a vocational school to
teach needed skills. If you believe in sustaining the environment, then use
state-of-the-art research and technology to address some of the environmental
issues endemic to the region, such as: clean water, food production, healthcare
and green energy. Imagine Jews, Christians and Muslims showing up to work, on a
daily basis, and building a new Middle East.

If you believe in the rich legacy of Arab dignity and pride, then reclaim it with a new model
for the Middle East, one that can be replicated in a bid to revitalize the
entire region with jobs, and with the personal freedom to which we are all entitled
by virtue of our common humanity. A model of this sort will make very clear
what we are fighting for, and how to get there.

For more information, and a new video, you are welcome to visit us, with your comments,
at www.sellingavisionofhope.org

Faced with the Syrian government’s extremely repressive tactics and unwillingness to cooperate with the outside world, the Syrian revolution has become at its core about revealing Truth, and Syrian activists have dedicated their lives to uncovering this truth. As important as documenting the regime’s crimes against its own population, these activists also work to uncover the core truth about the Syrian people, about their drive towards freedom and justice, about their unity across racial and religious lines, and their creativity in their resistance to this brutal regime.

What has allowed the Syrian revolution to thrive thus far has been the intricate networks of support, resistance, and information set into place through the work of many activists on the ground. These networks, dominated by the Local Coordinating Committees and the Syrian Revolution General Commission, have become Syria’s replacement for the civil society long suffocated by the regime. Before the literal and spiritual cracking that broke Syria’s fear barrier for good, civil institutions where people were free to gather and nurture a political discourse were rare finds. Groups that were active before the revolution, such as the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression established in 2000, were always subject to harassment and censorship by the regime, and those involved were at risk of arrest. Despite the dangers, the Syrian Center for Media continued to operate after the revolution began by providing support to activists in Syria and information to the outside world.

Their bravery came at a cost when sixteen of their members were arrested on February 16th, including the president of the center, Mazen Darwish and well known blogger Razan Ghazzawi. Razan and six others were released upon condition that they report daily to intelligence agents. Seven activists and journalists were held by the regime, without any information about their whereabouts. On April 22nd, four of those who were conditionally released and three of those who had been detained indefinitely were charged with “possessing illegal materials” by the regime. They are still in prison in Damascus. Five of those arrested in February, including Mazen Darwish, are still being held without any information provided to their families in a prison system known for its use of torture to silence dissidents.

The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression is an example of how the regime works to try to dismantle activist work from its core. Arrests, divisions, insecurity. There is a reason Razan was released, and a reason she and her comrades forced to march into security offices and wait for hours to be dismissed. There is a reason no one has heard a word from Mazen and his comrades since February, despite many efforts and inquiries. The Syrian regime manipulates power in the crudest way, thinking that in this manner, it will wrap its people in the cloak of fear that it had been so used to dressing us in.

The Syrian people could not have made it more clear that this cruel and crude mechanism of wielding force and manipulating power will not work to silence our revolution. Activists, organizers, journalists and protesters have all navigated around the predictable terrain of Assad’s brutality, guided by their vision for a Free Syria. In order to survive, the Revolution has developed a number of tactics, outside of more traditional social justice methods. Secrecy and creativity keep people and the revolution alive. In this setting, no one face can define the revolution, no person can gain admiration for their actions, because doing so almost definitely puts that person at significant risk, and even more important, sacrifices the efficacy of their work.

Hence, we cloak ourselves in names, but not in fear. That is not to say no names come out of Syria. Only recently, a protest of red signs and flowers, demanding an end to the killing and a Syria for all Syrians, became famous because of its advocate, Rima Dali, a young woman whose energy and bravery shone off her face. But Rima Dali (along with many of the nameless young women and men standing beside her) are now in prison, lost in the same system of cells and abuse that attempt to break the source of a dream.

But one of the reasons that the Syrian revolution has lasted so long is that it has set into place a system of resistance rather than placed people to fight power. When one activist is taken, another ten are inspired to take her place. The work that goes into a single act against the regime is often the result of dozens of brave people, putting hours of planning and forethought, and considering every scenario. Rima Dali may have gone into the streets of Damascus having said goodbye to her family, but she is only one of many brave Syrians who did the same.

Most chances to participate in the revolution are much less public. A man might kiss his family good night, and in the cover of darkness, drive to an abandoned village, or to a hillside location. Under the utmost of secrecy, with supplies that are only there because of networks that involve thousands of people in multiple countries, these people might go about their tasks, of writing, emailing, skyping with the press. Driving the engine of the revolution.

In Syria, our revolution has turned into an art, perfected to combat the decades-long developed methods that the regime has of silencing dissent. Every act, from distributing revolutionary flowers to revolutionary sweets, to organizing protests in the right street to protect the most people, to filming and uploading and distributing dramatic videos of a country being reborn under the harshest circumstances, these small acts are what make up the Syrian revolution. All too often, we only hear about the heroes behind these acts after their arrest or their death, despite the fact that they should have been honored during their lives. All too often, we don’t hear about these heroes at all.

A prayer should go out to Yahya Shurbaji, imprisoned despite his non violence stance. And for Noura Aljizawi, who distributed humanitarian aid. And Yara Shammas. And for Abdulaziz Durayd. Selena Ibaza. Sasha Ayoub. Ahmad Lababidi. Saba Melhem. Rami al-Nano. Mais Mubarak. Samer Mubarak. Semo Khanji. And all of these people’s friends, families, loved ones, co-workers, or those people’s families. Or those families’ coworkers.

In short, the names of the brave and the imprisoned should stretch for pages. Not a single one of their efforts should be forgotten, and the beauty is that it will never be. Syria will never be the same, thanks to the dedication of these people and thousands upon thousands more.

More than half of the world billionaires are Zionists who are shameless in their support of the apartheid state of Israel in its attempted genocide of the Palestinians. 530 Towns and villages were depopulated thanks to numerous massacres committed against the native Palestinians in the past 64 years. 7 million Palestinians are refugees or displaced people. Thousands languish as political prisoners in Israeli jails. Those political prisoners are now engaged in a hunger strike and have called for making 1 May 2012 a day of strikes and actions to highlight the Palestinian struggle. Whether the thousands of Palestinians in the small prisons or the millions of us languishing in large prisons like Gaza or Bethlehem, we say it is time for all of us to stand together.

Doing action in the direction for peace and justice is liberating to everyone.

Consider suing Israel for genocide

Action 1: Sign the The Peoples Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’: (Blog)

Europe’s airlines enforce Israeli travel ban on activists hoping to repair Palestinian schools.

Israel (the supposed democracy) prevents its own citizens from simply holding signs with the names of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages on the so called “Independence day” of apartheid Israel. (English)

(Hebrew including amazing video of brave citizens standing up to fascist police).

Action 2: Call Airlines to stop being sub-contractors to Israeli occupation.

Action 3: Jewish voice for peace asking you to sign in support of 60 minutes for doing a story on Palestinian Christians that actually asked us Christians to speak! I signed.

See also “Palestinian Christians respond to Israeli ambassador Lies” -

And “Israel’s not-so-stellar record on treatment of Christians”

I wrote this letter to the NY Times public editor (Ombudsperson), Art Brisbane, public@nytimes.com, (212)556-7652 and as a letter to the editor
letters@nytimes.com. Please consider doing the same.

To the editor (for publication):

Why does the New York Times allow itself to be a vehicle for distributing lies and hatred? The “public service” message from Mr. Horowitz published in the NY Times is precisely that. It claims that those who called for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against South Africa under apartheid and now call for similar nonviolent tactics against Israeli apartheid are “anti-Semites” and worse even as promoters of genocide!

This is utter lies and defamation of decent people who act on their conscience to try to influence the Israeli government and elites in the same manner we succeeded in influencing the apartheid system of South Africa. I do know that such shrill attacks will not deter those who act on their conscience. More and more Israelis and Internationals are finally saying enough is enough of these tactics of intimidation and McCarthyism. [Below is one such voice from an Israeli Dorothy Naor which I urge you to solicit from her as an op-ed piece].

We, Palestinian Christians have also issued a call for BDS in the spirit of truth (kairospalestine.ps). Humanity will not be silenced by the tactics of those who support racism and apartheid.

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
Professor, Bethlehem University
Occupied Palestine

The goals of this campaign are:

To raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails.

To strenghen the support of the Tunisian civil society to the Palestinian prisoners living in deplorable conditions in the jails of occupation.

To call the international community to intervene to get Israel to respond to the humanitarian demands of striking Palestinian prisoners and to put an end to the policies of humiliation toward Palestinian prisoners and their families.

Holding banners reading “Wataniya for sell” and shouting “media of shame”, “Ben Ali traitors”, the protesters have even resorted to verbal and physical assaults to voice their discontent with the state media organs that once backed the ousted Ben Ali regime.

Tunisia ‘s revolution put state media to the test on January 2011. State media anchors and journalists labelled protesters shamelessly as terrorists, thugs, prostitutes and criminals. State media ‘s failure to be on the side of the people have generated serious public anger and mistrust.

The revolutionary fever, nonetheless, has touched upon the state media recently. The National Union of Tunisian Journalist (SNJT) have called for boycotting the minister of interior Ali Larayedh ‘s activities following the brutal crackdown on the peaceful demonstrators who were commemorating Martyr’s Day in the Avenue Habib Bourguiba on April 9, 2012.

“Media privatization is one of the demands of the Tunisian people” argued Amer Larayedh, a representative of Ennahda at the Constituent Assembly on a TV show last week on Wataniya. This declaration has been interpreted as an explicit complicity between the new government and the protestors who are mostly Ennahda supporters to stifle dissent and demonize opposition.

The spokesman for the interior ministry, Khalid Tarrouch, announced on Monday that Department of the interior has decided to lift the sit-in outside Wataniya after more than 6 weeks of consistent protest that exposed Wataniya employees to several types of aggression along governmental indifference.

Press and media outlets need to play the role of the 4th estate to contribute to the smooth success of the transition period rather than serving as puppets in the hands of the state propagating their “wise decisions” and turning a blind eye on their corruptions. Intolerance of media freedom is one of the symptoms of a return to dictatorship. The Tunisian people have made it clear that there is no going back to the way things were.