-In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful-

Assalamu alaykum (peace be upon you),

You may have heard of the recent event at UC Irvine with Michael Oren, the ambassador of Israel to the US.

While he was invited by a student organization to speak on US-Israeli relations, the UCI Law School and the Political Science Department cosponsored the speech by Oren, a public figure who represents a state that continues to commit more human rights violations than any other country. See the MSU’s statement regarding his presence on campus for more details: msuuci.com

At the event, 11 students who chose to protest by making clear and organized statements were arrested and held in a room until after the event. The school is also currently threatening to punish the students, aiming to send a political message by selective enforcement of university policies.

Contact UCI Chancellor Michael Drake NOW to declare that it is unjust to arrest these students. Supporters of the arrests are contacting administration in large numbers, and your support is needed desperately!

Ask to speak with Chancellor Drake or leave a message at: (949) 824 – 5011 and email him at: chancellor@uci.edu

Speak to the Dean of Students office, who are determining the punishment at: (949) 824-5181 and email them at: deanstu@uci.edu

Here are some important points to bring up:

• · It was unjust to arrest students for simply having the courage to stand up and speak out against a man responsible for propagating the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
• · Civil disobedience has historically played an instrumental role in the civil rights movement in America the eventually ensured equality and human rights for all minorities.
• · Michael Oren is a representative of a state that is condemned by more UN Human Rights Council resolutions than all other countries in the world, and he should not be honored at UC Irvine.
• As concerned community members, we will not support an educational institution that threatens to punish its’ students with suspension and expulsion for standing up for their principles.

Thank you for your support.

Jazakum Allahu khairan.

www.guardian.co.uk

by Yousef Farsakh

As the situation in Gaza deteriorates and the world’s superpower endorses the growing violence by not bringing accountability to Israel’s actions, many have forgotten about the humanitarian blockade of the West Bank. While not remotely as deadly and evil as the blockade, siege, and now massacre in Gaza, the world must not forget that Israel’s support for Abbas’ Fatah government has not prevented them from continuing the illegal confiscation of Palestinian freedom and humanitarian right.
I write about this just as I complete a one-week medical mission in Nablus, Palestine with two American doctors through the Palestine Children Relief Fund. The objective of this mission was to complete 28 pediatric urology surgeries on complex medical cases from all around the West Bank. My first glimpse of Israeli cooperation and compassion was the six and a half hours my Arab American colleague and I spent being questioned at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. After questioning every aspect of our identity and upbringing as well as relations with the state of Israel, we were released to our patient driver awaiting our final arrival. Upon our arrival initially in Ramallah and then Nablus, we discovered that the medical equipment, instruments, and supplies that the doctor brought with him were confiscated at the airport.
Perhaps one of our biggest obstacles that eventually proved too large to be overcome actually ended up being one of our most aspiring inspirations. I say this for a few reasons. Pediatric urologist Dr. Balcom decided to declare his personal and medical items to Israeli customs. Following questions regarding the future use of the instruments, the doctor reported that they would be utilized in a volunteer medical mission in one of Palestine’s largest hospitals, Rafidia Hospital, as part of a scheduled PCRF mission. With this information at hand, the Israeli customs made the decision to withhold the bags of supplies.
Once we all met in Nablus and were able to organize, we began efforts to recover the bags. Mrs. Balcom was very active in this process and initiated a contact and interchange with the American consulate and embassy. The process proved unpromising as the blunt nature of Israeli control reared its hypocritical head. Customs officials instructed the American embassy that, because of what these items will be used for, and where they are going, tax needs to be paid on the entry and exit of the instruments. Additionally, our organization will need to have a signed letter from the Minister of Health of the Palestinian Authority stating who’s supplies these are, how and where they will be used, and that none of the items will stay in Palestine or be donated to the hospital. These conditions effectively told us that we would not get out supplies, and to give up on the bags. Because of this, the doctors began to use local instruments and adapted to the present circumstances.
This had a positive effect because of the reflection and impression it left on the local doctors. For the American doctors to use the same local instruments, and with them perform the advanced surgeries, the local Palestinian doctors gain confidence with regard to their own performance as well. By the end of the mission, these Palestinian doctors were doing the same work our doctors were.
But our efforts to retrieve the items did not end with the initial Israeli demands. After continuous efforts put forth by Mrs. Balcom, who is a practicing paralegal, Hana Abdeen, a PCRF social worker out of Nablus, as well as myself, contact with the hospital’s executive director allowed us a path to reach the Minister of Health. Surprisingly, after half of the mission had already gone by, we were able to secure the letter and had it forwarded from the American embassy to the Israelis. The response from Israel was that we now need a letter from the Minister of Health of the State of Israel. It was very typical of Israeli political discourse and dealings with Palestinian or pro-Palestinian human rights organizations. Despite this, our mission was a success and thanks to the doctors, many children received critical surgeries and will make good and swift recoveries.
I would like to thank the Palestine Children Relief Fund and Steve Sosebee for their work and persistence despite the hostile and illegal actions of Israel. I would like to thank the doctors who go through these situations and come out with more resolve to do good, despite the Israeli violations of human rights. Moreover, I would also like to thank the donors who make all of this possible and who should rest assured that their money is doing remarkable and essential work in many places and for many people.

By: Habib Hamidi

www.ccmep.org

Authoritarian leaders subjugate their people to their absolute ways.  They expect everyone to follow their rules and what they deem as right.  Many times, they enforce their rules violently and make it known to their people that dissent is not tolerated. They promote their agendas through the media by stressing how deleterious it would be for the society as whole if they allowed the opposition to speak”that the national security and the life of the ordinary citizens would be compromised.  This is how they justify their suppression of people’s freedoms.   As bad is it may sound, it’s nearly not evil as apartheid, or worse yet, Hitler’s Nazi Germany.    In a country led by an authoritarian regime, there are rules to follow and you just have to toe the line.

In apartheid and other more malicious forms of authoritarian government, race is a determinate in how you are treated in society.  There is no line for you to toe.    You are who you are genetically, and there is no way to change that.   If you are an Arab living in Israel, that’s the reality you woke up to everyday for the past sixty years.   You know that if you are taking your pregnant wife to the hospital to give birth, you are going to be stopped at a checkpoint for the simple reason that you are Arab.   If you own a house, you know that any day, Israeli authorities can knock on your door and confiscate it from you because you are Arab.  If you are a student and have been working your hard your whole life to study in a place outside of Israel and you are successful in receiving a scholarship, the Israel government can deny your leave, again, because you are Arab.    Simply going to class is a daunting task because you don’t know what the checkpoint procedures are everyday.  Because you are Arab, you have to leave for class hours before your classes start in order to make it to school on time, even though the school can be down the street from you.

www.pcdc.edu.ps

Israel justifies their treatment arrogantly by comparing it to the treatment of American Indians at the hands of early settlers and the treatment of African Americans before the Civil Rights Movement.   What they fail to realize is that we have acknowledged how wrong that was and we have learned from it.  No American would want their country to repeat that history because it was shameful and wrong.   Unfortunately, few Americans know that we are perpetuating the same policy by supporting Israel.   Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America’s entire foreign aid budget (www.ifamericansknew.org). In per capita terms, the United   States gives each Israeli a direct subsidy worth about $500 per year. Furthermore, the US aids Israel militarily.  According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, current U.S. military aid grants to Israel “represent over 20% of the overall Israeli defense budget.”  The only reason Israel can get away with the apartheid is because the US supports them.   There have been 65 UN resolutions passed against Israel. But Washington used its veto 32 times to shield Israel from critical draft resolutions between 1972 and 1997. This constituted nearly half of the total of 69 U.S. vetoes cast since the founding of the U.N.

Without the US support, Israel will cease to exist in its current form and may be more likely to act as pluralistic society like ours where citizens view diversity as a source of strength instead of a challenge.   They would have to change because the world does not tolerate apartheid, just as it did not tolerate Hitler or South   Africa, because sensible people know that countries capable of inflicting harm on others have the ability to inflict harm on them.  So, as horribly as we may see authoritarian rule, the Arabs in Israel would prefer it to Israeli apartheid.   Democracy is only a dream and a fantasy in their mind.

Naomi Klein wrote in the Nation on January 7,  2009, “It’s time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.”