Let’s Build A Playground in the Bordertown of Sásabe

MRSCP is passing along an unusual opportunity to help build a playground for migrant children in the Mexico-US border town of Sásabe. We have installed similar playgrounds in Rafah and Hebron in Palestine, and we know firsthand how much these simple facilities mean to the children who use them.

Infrastructure For the Youth, For the Future. No More Walls.

School of the Americas Watch, August 27, 2022

Sásabe is a small rural border town in Sonora, Mexico only a short distance from the border. Since the implementation of Title 42 in March 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has been dropping hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers at the doorsteps of the citizens of Sásabe every week. Even though the town had nothing in place to help support these vulnerable people, they helped as much as they could with very limited resources. The town reached out to Dora Rodriguez (Salvavision) and Gail Kocourek (Tucson Samaritans) and asked for their help. Dora was already involved with providing aid to Nogales, Sonora.

In response to the request, in 2021 Dora and Gail opened a Resource Center (Casa de la Esperanza) in Sásabe. Only walking distance from the port of entry, it is a space for migrants who need aid and refuge. “Our mission is to restore some of their dignity with a hot meal and a little hope” says Dora.

Dora and the Mayor of Sásabe asked Mike Tork, a Veterans For Peace (VFP) national board member, who also works with the School of Americas Watch (SOAW), if it would be possible to build a playground for the children, those living in Sásabe and those dropped off by CBP.

Mike has assembled a team to build the playground. “This is about reclaiming space and filling it with kindness and compassion. It’s a way to resist hatred, racism and to be in solidarity with vulnerable people and communities” he said.

We will follow the guidance of Dora, Gail and the community. Construction is planned to begin in the fall (Sept/Oct) once the weather is cooler.

Please donate generously. Funds will go towards the playground and to help support Casa de la Esperanza.

    To make a tax-deductible donation via check or money order, please include “Playground” in the memo line, make payable to “SOA Watch,” and mail to our address:

      SOA Watch
      225 E 26th St, Suite 7
      Tucson, AZ 85713

      or Donate Online


“Cancel the F-35”: Organizations Sign Letter to President & Congress


Rep. Francesca Hong addresses concerns for the arrival of F-35 jets in Truax Field, surrounded by Eken Park Resistance members. CAMERON CIESZKI/CAP TIMES

One goal of this letter is to bring organizations on the national and international level together with local organizations who have been working against F-35 training in their communities for years. Another is to use the F-35, the most expensive weapons program in history, to address the larger issue of unchecked military spending. The F-35 is causing harm at home and abroad in primarily working class and BIPOC neighborhoods. We hope to begin a substantial and sustained campaign to cancel the F-35 program.

President Biden & Members of Congress,

We, the undersigned organizations from around the world, are calling for a cancellation of the F-35 program, an end to F-35 training in residential areas like South Burlington, Vermont and Madison, Wisconsin, and a reinvestment of the project’s funds to life affirming programs. We are making these demands based on the harm caused abroad, cost of the program to the taxpayer, inefficiencies and failures, the environmental impact of F-35s, and the effects training has on local communities. 

HARM CAUSED THROUGH MILITARISM

We primarily stand firmly against the F-35 as a weapon of war. Although not ready for full-scale production, the U.S. intends on producing countless F-35s to sell around the world that will without a doubt be used to harm people living in the Global South. F-35s have the capacity to carry nuclear weapons, and the deployment of these jets only aids nuclear proliferation. The U.S. already makes up 40% of the global arms trade, aiding and abetting war crimes all over the world. Israel is procuring F-35’s from the United States which will undeniably be used against Palestinians to further Israel’s goals of ethnic cleansing and displacement in Palestine. Saudi Arabia has expressed interest in F-35s as well as the UAE while both countries wage a brutal war on Yemen. The F-35 is a disaster of a project, but also  a potential disaster for humanity. 

INEFFICIENCIES AND FAILURES

The F-35 spending is becoming impossible for important members of Congress to justify. The Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith called the F-35 a “rathole.” Another member of HASC, Rep. John Garamendi had some scathing comments about the F-35 in a HASC subcommittee hearing in May: 

“For the contractors out there, what are you doing? Why can’t you give us a piece of equipment that actually works? You should never have a contract. And for Lockheed, you want a five-year maintenance contract? You can’t do what you’re doing today. Come on. What are we thinking? If I have not adequately expressed my frustration, I would assume that my frustration is less than the frustration of the pilots and the maintainers out there. … The primary maintenance responsibility on this is Lockheed and you gentlemen.”

The Government Accountability Office said the F-35 “continues to fall short of prescribed mission-capable rates and is consistently missing reliability targets”. According to the GAO, the F-35A in 2021 was fully mission capable 50% of the time, while the F-35B was fully mission capable less than 20 percent of the time. The F-35c was only capable 9.5% of the time.

The signatories call attention to the failures of the program to address harmful projects seeing never ending investment while programs that protect people such as universal healthcare never see the light of day. 

COST TO THE TAXPAYER

The failures of the program make the spending impossible to justify, even from a militaristic standpoint. The F-35 program is the Department of Defense’s most expensive weapon system program. As of now, the F-35’s projected total cost is $1.7 trillion, which includes $1.3 trillion in estimated operations and sustainment over 66 years.  The F-35 is horribly behind schedule, experiencing massive cost overruns with maintenance costs doubling.  The F-35 is not ready for full scale production. According to the GAO, “if DOD moves forward as planned, it will have bought a third of all F-35s before determining that the aircraft is ready to move into full-rate production.” Spending billions to trillions of dollars on a plane that is not yet up to speed with what the government has requested is poor fiscal policy. 

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

F-35s also have a significant impact on the environment with their high carbon emissions and pollution on local bases. The F-35 uses a significant amount of fuel – about 2.37 gallons of fuel for every mile traveled and around 1,340 gallons of fuel per hour. This is particularly egregious compared to the F-35’s predecessor, the F-16, which used at least 415 gallons of fuel per hour less. One single F-35 tank of gas produces the equivalent of 28 metric tons of carbon dioxide. These emissions heavily pollute air and water sources in basing locations in the U.S. and abroad. Base site construction for F-35 training in the U.S. has also disregarded the need for environmental remediation of pre-existing contaminants such as PFAS, risking further pollution of surrounding communities. F35 pollution is an environmental justice issue, as they are disproportionately tested, trained, and deployed in low-income communities of color.

These environmental impacts do not even account for the role of the plane in active combat. As they’re deployed around the world, we see Lockheed Martin’s jets subjecting communities globally to egregious noise levels, environmental contamination, and the risk of nuclear warfare. The F-35 is also a part of the U.S. strategic nuclear bomber force, possessing the capability to carry and deploy the B61-12 guided nuclear bomb. If deployed, this bomb – and all other nuclear weapons – would have catastrophic long-term environmental consequences.

EFFECT ON U.S. LOCALS

Currently, F-35 training in Vermont disrupts the lives of working-class people. The training is irregular and Vermonters go without warning of when these trainings will take place.  The noise caused by the F-35 hits 115 decibels which especially hurts and injures infants and children, the elderly, and the disabled. The F-35 has 300 to 600 takeoffs and landings a month

Let’s consider the City of Winooski, VT. More than half the city is within the US Air Force designated 5.2 mile by 1.2 mile oval-shaped F-35 noise target zone centered on the runway. Winooski is a working-class city, the most densely populated in Vermont, with the state’s most ethnic diversity. As reported by the US Air Force itself in 2013, repeated exposure to military aircraft noise at the level of the F-35, can damage hearing. The Air Force also reported that the much lower aircraft noise level produced by civilian aircraft was still sufficient to impair the learning and cognitive development of children living in the flight path of heavily used commercial airports. The US Air Force identified the entire oval-shaped noise target zone as an area “generally considered unsuitable for residential use.” So it was no secret for the state’s political and military leaders that locating the F-35 at BTV would cause pain and injury to children and adults on a mass scale.

In Madison, where the F-35 is likely to deploy in the next few years, Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin has identified the following risks to children from noise and air pollution:

    • Preterm or low birth weights
    • Delayed speech development
    • Hearing loss
    • Interference with concentration, long term memory, reading and math comprehension.

In addition, adults as well as children would face increased risk of:

    • Stress hormones that cause sleep disturbances
    • Anxiety
    • PTSD
    • Asthma
    • Cancer
    • Heart disease
    • Strokes.

For all the aforementioned reasons, we, the undersigned organizations, reject the government’s reckless over investment in the F-35 program and demand its immediate cancellation. The costs of this program to the taxpayer, the environment, local communities, and the communities upon which the US and its allies will wage war are too high to justify. It is time for the government to prioritize the welfare of human beings and the planet over military superiority and the weapons industry’s profits.

We call on our policy makers to cancel the F-35 program, cancel training within the U.S. and reinvest that money into universal healthcare, student debt forgiveness, housing guarantees and more. 

Current Signatories:
Action Corps
Anti-Imperialist Action Committee
Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (USA)
Backbone Campaign
Baltimore Nonviolence Center
Ban Killer Drones.org
Casa Baltimore Limay
Citizens Against Nuclear Bombers
CODEPINK
Community Organizing Center
Demilitarize Western Massachusetts
Divest Ed
Earth care not warfare
Eisenhower Media Network
El Centro de la Raza
Family Farm Defenders
FCNL Lansing Area Advocacy Team
Feel The Bern San Fernando Valley Democratic Club
Feminist Foreign Policy Project
Food Not Bombs
Foreign Policy Team, Progressive Democrats of America
Freedom Forward
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Greenpeace USA
Historians for Peace and Democracy
Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project
Interfaith Peace Working Group
Iowa Peace Network
Justice and Peace Team, Edgewood United Church, East Lansing, MI
Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice
Kalamazoo nonviolent opponents of war
Kickapoo Peace Circle
L.I.Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives
Lansing Area Peace Education Center
Lauren Faith Smith Ministry for Nonviolence
Linda and Gene Farley Center for Peace, Justice & Sustainabiility
Madison Environmental Justice Organization
Madison-Rafah Sister City Project
Maine Veterans For Peace
Military Poisons
Minnesota Peace Project
National Priorites Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
No More Bombs
Nuclear Ban.US
Oregonizers
Our Wisconsin Revolution
Pax Christi Lansing
Pax Christi USA
Peace Action
Peace Action Bay Ridge
Peace Action of Michigan
Peace Action of San Mateo County
Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW!
PEACEWORKERS
People for Peace & Security
Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin
Racine (WI) Coalition for Peace & Justice
ReThinking Foreign Policy
Rooms for PEACE
RootsAction.org
Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin
Seattle Anti-War Coalition
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Justice Team
Spokane Veterans For Peace #035
STEM Strikes for Peace
Stop the War Coalition (UK)
The Center for International Policy (CIP)
The Herd of Northern Vermonters
Transformative Wealth Management, LLC
U.S. Labor Against Racism and War
Veterans For Peace
Veterans For Peace Chapter 27
Veterans For Peace Golden Rule Project
Veterans For Peace Jon Miles Chapter 13, Tucson
Veterans For Peace Linus Pauling Chapter 132
Veterans for Peace Madison, Clarence Kailin Chapter 25
Veterans for Peace the Hector Black Chapter
Veterans for Peace Vermont
Veterans For Peace, Milwaukee Chapter 102
Veterans for Peace, North Texas
Veterans For Peace, Santa Fe NM Chapter
Victoria Peace Coalition
Washington Against Nuclear Weapons
WESPAC Foundation, Inc.
WEST SUBURBAN PEACE COALITION
Western WA FOR Seattle Chapter
WILPF ST.Louis
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Women Against Military Madness
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom- Triangle Branch
World BEYOND War
World Without War
Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation

July 14, 2022
Join Roger Waters for student solidarity with Palestine

Webinar: July 14 at 2 PM CT via ZOOM

 
On the eve of Roger Waters Montreal’s Bell Centre performance, the rock legend will be supporting McGill students who’ve faced a litany of attacks for advancing the Palestinian Liberation movement. The event will discuss attacks against Palestine solidarity on campuses across Canada and the importance of supporting the Palestinian struggle.

Waters will be joined by a McGill student representative to talk about the success and roadblocks to Palestine solidarity at McGill.

    Host: Canadian Foreign Policy Institute

    Co-sponsors: Just Peace Advocates, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill and Palestinian and Jewish Unity Montreal

    Media Sponsor: Rabble.ca

    Read: Rock legend Roger Waters will rally with McGill students for Palestine by Bianca Mugyenyi, July 11, 2022, Rabble.ca

    Share TweetInvite on Facebook

    See media release and list of several dozen endorsing organizations.

Register

AIPAC’s new tactic to unseat Rashida Tlaib

A new Super PAC aligned with AIPAC looks to undercut the only Palestinian Democrat ever elected to Congress, and diminish the growing support between Palestinians and African-Americans.


REP. RASHIDA TLAIB (PHOTO: TLAIB.HOUSE.GOV)

MITCHELL PLITNICK, Mondoweiss, MAY 31, 2022

A new Super PAC has reared its head and it’s made no secret of its first target: Rashida Tlaib. 

It comes as no surprise that Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American woman and the only Palestinian Democrat ever in Congress, is coming under severe attack ahead of her primary two months from now. But the nature of that attack is a particularly dangerous and pernicious one, and its nature is one that constitutes a unique and serious threat to not only advocates of Palestinian rights and freedom, but to progressives across the board.

The Urban Empowerment Action PAC (UEA) says its “supporters include a broad coalition of African American business, political and civic leaders, working alongside peers in the Jewish community.” Its stated mission is to “narrow the wealth gap between Black and white Americans.”

They explicitly stated that ousting Tlaib was their focus, and they planned to spend over $1 million to support Janice Winfrey, a centrist African-American and the Detroit City Clerk since 2005, against Tlaib. 

UEA squares its thin anti-racist rhetoric with targeting one of the most progressive members of Congress by implicitly accusing Tlaib of ignoring the needs of the Black community. To carry that case, UEA is employing activist and CNN commentator Bakari Sellers, who has long been one of the leading spokespeople for AIPAC in the Black community. 

In 2016, Sellers was a key figure in the fight between the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders camps over how to address Israel and the Palestinians in the Democratic Party platform. Sanders’ camp led an effort to draft wording that called for “an end to occupation and illegal settlements,” which clearly aligned with stated U.S. policy in 2016. 

Sellers wrote a letter opposing the mention of occupation or settlements and got dozens of other African-American leaders to sign on. A compromise was eventually reached where the Democratic platform expressed some sympathy for the Palestinians for the first time, but there was no mention of occupation or settlements. There is little doubt that Sellers’ efforts were an important factor in staving off what was a popular proposal during the 2016 race. 

A photo posted to Twitter by Bakaki Sellers of him meeting Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.

Sellers was hardly subtle in his attacks on Tlaib. “Congresswoman Tlaib, I’m sure, serves admirably,” he told POLITICO. “However, we were hoping that we can have a candidate that doesn’t have varying distractions…we want someone, particularly in these Black communities, that does not get distracted by shiny things or media opportunities but is focused on the uplift of our communities and does right by them.

“I don’t have a beef with her directly,” Sellers continued. “I just think that there are individuals who will have the interest of their district, first and foremost, and not their brand. And will do things in the interest of uplift of that community. It’s not as much of a knock on her as it is that somebody else can do the job better because they’re focused on these particular issues.”

Sellers characterizes Tlaib as being self-centered, an odd charge considering that her politics are not well-suited to upward mobility and she has remained closely connected to the grassroots in her district. He makes no secret of what he means by “distractions,” noting that her criticisms of Israel are “high on the list” of his concerns about Tlaib.

Sellers focuses on Tlaib’s “no” vote on Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill to make the case that she is not serving the interests of the Black community but is grandstanding in Congress instead. Tlaib voted “no,” along with five other progressive Democrats, because Democratic leadership had vowed not to vote on that bill unless it stayed together with Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill, which had far more social spending than the infrastructure bill, which was largely a corporate giveaway. She knew the bill would pass regardless of her vote so her “no” vote was aimed at getting more for marginalized communities while risking nothing.

Moreover, UEA is not targeting the other five Democrats who voted against the infrastructure bill, only the one Palestinian-American. Sellers is arguing that Tlaib is not representing the Black community and its issues, but her record contradicts this contention. 

So, it’s hard to escape the idea that Tlaib is being targeted because she is a Palestinian-American. She is bringing an American face to Palestine, and she is not afraid to speak on behalf of and as a Palestinian on the floor of the House of Representatives. 

It’s even harder to escape the fact that Sellers is trying to counter the growing sense of solidarity between African-Americans and Palestinians. That solidarity, which has existed for a long time, has been much more visible since the protests and violent police response in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. That event, which happened in close proximity to one of Israel’s bloodier campaigns in Gaza, both brought forth and enhanced Black-Palestinian solidarity, and it has been notably visible ever since.

Bakari Sellers knows exactly what he’s saying and who his audience is when he implies that Rashida Tlaib is too wrapped up in both her personal ambition and her focus on Palestine to do good works for other marginalized communities in her district. Her legislative record, which reflects a great deal of attention to issues of racial justice, health care equity, and poverty, belies this accusation as well. 

But with Michigan having just lost a seat in the House after the 2020 census, and having undergone significant redistricting as a result, there is concern in the African-American community that Detroit will not have a Black representative for the first time in decades, and that the entire state may not have a single Black representative in Congress. While chances are this will not be the case, the other Detroit race, which mostly features African-American candidates, does include one Indian-American Democrat, state Rep. Shri Thanedar, who has deep pockets and is financing much of his own campaign. Yet it is not Thanedar that UEA is working to defeat. 

This fear is one that Sellers is addressing when he says “We want people who are elected to Congress that have keen focus and understanding on the plight of African Americans and the uplift thereof.” Sellers is a very experienced politician, and he has been shilling for AIPAC for many years. He has also worked on civil rights issues for a long time, and he knows that AIPAC, and supporters of Israel in general, are now widely (and correctly) perceived as standing against progressives and for conservative, even reactionary politics. 

So, when he was asked why he and UEA were trying to cannibalize Tlaib’s, an incumbent’s, seat instead of targeting an open seat, like the one Thanedar is contesting, he was quick to deny that he and UEA were standing against progressives. 

“We’re not cannibalizing,” Sellers said. “We’re not trying to replace a progressive member with a nonprogressive member. That’s just not the case.

“You do bring up a good point. But right now, we’re just laser focused where we can make sure that our impact is felt, and it’s going to be felt in Detroit.”

That is as blatant a non-answer as you’ll ever see, and it provides solid evidence that Sellers and UEA’s coalition of “African American business, political and civic leaders, working alongside peers in the Jewish community” are going after Tlaib precisely because she is on the cutting edge of progressivism, ad is especially powerful on Palestine, as a Palestinian. 

Whatever the outcome, this attack on the only Palestinian Democrat ever elected to Congress represents a broader effort to attack the Palestinian-American community and, crucially, to diminish the growing support and sense of empathy between Palestinians in Palestine and African-Americans struggling against racism in the United States. There is, unfortunately, no shortage of people like Bakari Sellers who will do the dirty work for AIPAC. It makes strengthening the bonds of solidarity in every way even more important. 

Stop the Line 5 Pipeline Expansion

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project supports these efforts by Indigenous Women to end fossil fuel projects and protect water.

USA, April 27, 2022 Today, Indigenous women leaders, joined by over 200 organizations, representing millions nationwide, submitted a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers urging the department to deny necessary permits for the expansion of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, and to conduct a federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire pipeline within the Army Corps of Engineers’ jurisdiction.

Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline was originally built in 1953, and continues to operate nearly 20 years past its engineered lifespan, transporting 22 million gallons of crude oil each day through northern Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and under the Straits of Mackinac. Currently, Enbridge is proposing to expand the Line 5 pipeline, despite the strong opposition of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and other Tribes.

Enbridge proposes to route Line 5 through hundreds of waterways that flow into the Bad River Reservation, their extensive fisheries, and the navigable waters of Lake Superior. The letter sent today delivers key information detailing the impacts the Line 5 tar sands pipeline expansion project would have in the region, and clarifies how it directly undermines Indigenous rights and perpetuates the climate crisis:

“We call on you to reject permits for the expansion of Line 5. This plan places massive risk squarely upon the Bad River Tribe and the Red Cliff Tribe against their will. Furthermore, we consider the pipeline construction an act of cultural genocide. Damage to the land and water destroys food and cultural lifeways that are core to our identity and survival. The pipeline would cut through more than 900 waterways upstream of the Bad River Reservation. The U.S. EPA determined that the plan ‘may result in substantial and unacceptable adverse impacts’ to the Kakagon and Bad River slough complex. This is unacceptable.”

The letter also brings attention to the ongoing investigations and environmental issues with Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota, and details Enbridge’s pattern of misrepresenting risks, violating permits, and covering up environmental damage. While constructing the Line 3 pipeline, Enbridge caused at least 28 frac-outs, polluting surface water and releasing undisclosed amounts of drilling fluid into groundwater, amongst other permit violations.

The letter concludes by bringing attention to the global repercussions of the Line 5 pipeline, noting that increased fossil fuel production will not support President Biden’s goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, nor align with the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which calls for urgent emissions reductions as quickly as possible.

The letter comes from Indigenous women who are advocating to stop Line 5, and is endorsed by local and national groups representing Indigenous groups, environmental organizations, health professionals, faith groups, and more. Please see quotes from the original signatories of the letter below:

Jannan J. Cornstalk, Citizen of Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and Director of the Water is Life Festival: “There needs to be a shift, to ensure that Tribes and Indigenous communities are part of the process not after the fact but from the very beginning. That’s consultation. Our very lifeways and cultures hang in the balance as pipelines like Line 5 get rammed through our territories and water. These are our lifeways– when that water is healthy enough that rice is growing– that not only benefits our communities, but that benefits everybody up and down stream. The Army Corps and Biden Administration must put people over profits. Allowing Line 5 to proceed is cultural genocide. The disturbances go deeper than you are hearing. That water is our relative, and we will do whatever it takes to protect our water, our sacred relative.”

Aurora Conley, Bad River Ojibwe, Anishinaabe Environmental Protection Alliance: “As a Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe member, I am calling on the Army Corps of Engineers to reject the permits for the expansion of Line 5 in northern Wisconsin. The construction of this pipeline will bring massive risk and destruction. We do not want to see irreversible damage to our land, water, and wild rice. We do not want our lifeways destroyed. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, stated in their own letter that this plan “may result in substantial and unacceptable adverse impacts” to the Kakagon and Bad River sloughs complex. The Ojibwe people are here in Bad River because of the wild rice. This pipeline would cut through more than 900 waterways of the Bad River Reservation. This is unacceptable. We will not stand for this. We are saying “No” to the expansion of Line 5.”

Jaime Arsenault, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe: “When it comes to extractive industry, the Army Corps has historically chosen not to use every tool at their disposal to ensure meaningful consultation with Tribal Nations occurs and to listen when Tribes say ‘no’. We saw a multitude of preventable environmental tragedies  occur in Minnesota with the destruction brought by Line 3. As a result – wild rice, watersheds, traditional life ways and the wellbeing of Indigenous communities are still under constant  threat. And so, what will the Army Corps do about that? Right now, the Army Corps has the opportunity to protect Waterways, rice and lands in the destructive pathway of the Line 5 pipeline proposed by Enbridge. Honor the treaties, deny the 404 permits and ensure a federal EIS is conducted.”

Rene Ann Goodrich, Bad River Tribal Elder, Native Lives Matter Coalition and Wisconsin Department of Justice MMIW Task Force Member: “Grandmother, mother, auntie, relative to the peoples here in Wisconsin, Minnesota and along the great lakes. I represent Indigenous grassroots community-led work within these territories, bringing awareness and advocacy leading to action for our MMIW,R families. I am a family advocate. I am greatly concerned about how the Line 5 pipeline, all pipelines, and the fossil fuel industry contributes to missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives ongoing epidemic. We saw what happened at Line 3. Even with preventative measures from Enbridge to reduce violence, there were still documented instances of trafficking and we still see an increase in solicitation and violence. Pipeline projects that bring an influx of hundreds to thousands of temporary workers – they bring this violence into our communities. This is totally unacceptable. How will Line 5 be any different.The Army Corps of Engineers can help us protect our indigenous women, girls, two spirit relatives and people by denying the permits and making sure Line 5 never reaches the ground.”

Carrie Chesnik, Oneida Nation, Wisconsin, Executive Assistant at R.I.S.E. Coalition: “We have an opportunity here to cease the Line 5 pipeline, together. We all have the responsibility and agency to act in a good way, to care for the land and waters. What our communities have known for a long time is that the water is hurting, Mother Earth is hurting, and pretty soon we won’t have clean water for our kids, for future generations. As a Haudenosunee woman, an auntie, daughter, and sister, I have an inherent responsibility to the water and our children. We are in a moment where we must stop our global dependence on fossil fuels– this is too critical, too crucial, we need everyone to stop this. Every single one of us has agency and a responsibility to take action, honor the treaties, and protect Mother Earth. It is the time to be brave and courageous.”

Gwendolyn Topping, Associate Judge, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa: “I feel that this is important as a mother, a sister and a community member.  I have walked for the water and I have spoken for our stolen relatives. I have gathered rice, berries and medicines.  Line 5 will only cause harm to the natural life that our people has passed on traditionally.”

Gaagigeyaashiik – Dawn Goodwin, Gaawaabaabiganigaag (White Earth-Ojibwe), Co-founder of R.I.S.E. Coalition, Representative of Indigenous Environmental Network: “As a member of the Wolf Clan I have an inherent responsibility to protect the environment and the people. The United States Army Corps should be on my team, we should be working together. The government has failed to protect the water— something is wrong. The process is broken and here we are again speaking against Line 5, after the fight to stop Line 3, where we followed the process, 68,000 people stood against Line 3. Everything terrible that has happened, we predicted would. We say ‘No, do not go through these lands, no!,’ and still this continues. Our treaties are being ignored and yet, treaties are the SUPREME LAW of the land. It is time to honor the treaties as the supreme law of the land. We have been through this entire process and realize it was never meant to work for the protection of our 1855 Treaty lands and water. What can the Army Corps do to help protect these lands? We are the women calling upon you to rise to protect all that is sacred.”

Nookomis Debra Topping, Nagachiwanong (Fond du lac), Co-founder of R.I.S.E. Coalition: “We have been through this whole process. We’ve attended these public comment periods, we’ve demonstrated, we’ve marched, we’ve stopped traffic, we’ve put ourselves on the line to stop this, because what we said was going to happen has happened.  I don’t want to hear your excuses, I don’t care what the permit needs. “NO” means “NO”.  What part of that don’t you understand?  Nibi (water) is sacred, what part of that don’t you understand?  Manoomin is sacred, that is our life blood, that is us, that is why we are here. What the State of Minnesota and Canadian Corporation Enbridge have done to us is genocide. We’ve followed the process, the science is there, the evidence is there. Deny Enbridge any further allowance to destroy our mama aki (earth).”

Carolyn Goug’e, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa: “I am an Ojibwe elder, a mom, grandmother, Jingle dress dancer and a water protector. I have grown up on the Shores of the beautiful Lake Superior and have raised my family here, alongside all who call our beautiful area home. Our families sustain themselves by fishing and gathering medicines. I, amongst the many Anishaanabe Women, Men, and friends have taken a personal oath because of our love and for the teachings of our Anishannabe Elder, Grandma, and friend Josephine Mandamin baa, (Anishanaabekwe), The “Water Walker”. Auntie Josephine, she has since gone home with Creator, but we continue to carry on our responsibilities.

Our protocols are based on Ojibwe Ceremonial understandings of water. I (we) walk to honor the rivers, the lakes and the spirit of the water. In our walk we call attention to the sacred gift of water, the source of all life. Oil spills are of great concern to the Anishinaabe people. They have caused disasters to our water, fish, animals, our manoomin, and our vegetation. We do not want pipelines across our counties, communities, or our Mother the Earth.  We, Anishinabe people, we speak for the water. She cannot speak, so we speak for her. We think about our next seven generations and how Line 5 would impact them. Our common denominator of life is water. We know this all from the teachings and oral inscriptions left by our ancestors. This is for perpetuity. I ask the Army Corps to consider this, to consider what we do for the water and how that can guide its decisions on Line 5. I ask the Army Corps to please do the right thing, Deny the permit.”

The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International

www.wecaninternational.org – @WECAN_INTL

April 22, 2022: Earth Day!

In-person activities from 350 Madison

    Friday 5 pm on Library Mall
    Saturday 10 am at the Capitol Square Farmer’s Market

and

Online: Frontline Demands for Climate Justice

Speakers from Palestine, the Philippines and other Indigenous Communities

This Earth Day, speakers from Palestine, the Philippines, and other indigenous and frontline communities will discuss the conditions of climate disaster in the midst of intensifying militarization. Under the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the U.S.-backed Duterte regime in the Philippines, trees and forests are uprooted for settlements and extractive industries while land defenders are harassed and killed. Meanwhile, indigenous people here demand an end to criminalization and the return of their land. Clearly environmental justice means defunding the militarization that destroys both land and life.

Learn about existing legislation that focuses on ending U.S. complicity in human rights abuses supported by our foreign military funding programs, including H.R. 2590, the Palestinian Children and Families Act, and H.R. 3884, the Philippine Human Rights Act, as well as other vehicles that advance international climate justice by centering those most impacted by the combination of climate change and U.S. backed administrations.

Hosted jointly by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and the Malaya Movement USA, co-sponsored by Adalah Justice Project, Friends of Wadi Foquin, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, NDN Collective, and MADRE.

Yemen: ¡Presente!

While the world is focused on the war in Ukraine, another vicious and devastating war grinds on with no end in sight in Yemen, creating what is likely the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today.[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”14″ display=”basic_slideshow”]Some months ago Tuesday, March 1 was designated as another national day of protest to call for an end to U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen and express solidarity with the people of Yemen.

The specific demands are that Congress:

  • Call on Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Lift the Blockade, Opening Airports and Seaports. Speak to President Biden by March 1st to insist he use his leverage with Saudi Arabia to press for the unconditional and immediate lifting of the devastating blockade.
  • Pass a War Powers Resolution. Co-sponsor – or introduce if it has not yet happened – a Yemen War Powers Resolution before International Women’s Day on March 8th, if the blockade of the country has not yet been lifted, to stop war support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
  • Stop Weapons Sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Oppose further arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE while the blockade starves the people of Yemen.
  • Support the People of Yemen. Call for the restoration and expansion of humanitarian aid.

The full text of the call and a list of endorsers can be found here.

MRSCP has endorsed this call. Please send a message to your congressional representatives.

Tutu’s courage on Israeli apartheid is played down in U.S. media

Archbishop Desmond Tutu used his moral stature to call out and oppose Israeli apartheid, but the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR are leaving it out.


ARCHBISHOP TUTU AND JIMMY CARTER VISIT PALESTINE WITH “THE ELDERS,” A GROUP OF EMINENT GLOBAL LEADERS. THEY STAND IN FRONT OF THE ISRAELI BARRIER DURING A VISIT TO THE WEST BANK VILLAGE OF BILIN NEAR RAMALLAH, AUGUST 27, 2009. (ISSAM RIMAWI, (C) APA IMAGES)

JAMES NORTH AND PHILIP WEISS, MONDOWEISS, DECEMBER 30, 2021

The Guardian has published an important eulogy to the late Desmond Tutu by Chris McGreal, saying what so many in the Palestinian solidarity community are saying: After fighting apartheid in South Africa, Tutu used his stature to call out apartheid in Israel and Palestine, and he paid a large price for doing so.

Indeed, opposing apartheid in Palestine was one of Tutu’s salient achievements. And yet the American media are — no surprise — playing that angle down in memorializing Tutu as a great moral leader. They seem embarrassed by this aspect of Tutu’s legacy.

The PBS News Hour gave the Anglican archbishop’s work on Palestine one line in a lengthy obit, between his visiting Rwanda after the genocide and his opposition to the Iraq war. “He weighed in on the Israeli Palestinian conflict, at times likening Israeli actions to apartheid era South Africa,” the News Hour said simply.

National Public Radio repeatedly failed to mention Tutu’s stand on Palestine in coverage here, here and here — even as its correspondents discussed the ways that Tutu “used his reputation” since the fall of apartheid by speaking “truth to power.”

The New York Times also scanted Tutu’s courage on Palestine in its obit, titled, “Desmond Tutu, whose voice helped slay apartheid, dies at 90.” This paragraph came near the very end, and it slights Tutu’s direct accusation of apartheid against Israel.

He remained equally outspoken even in later years. . .

In 2010 he unsuccessfully urged a touring Cape Town opera company not to perform in Israel, invoking South Africa’s struggle against apartheid in criticizing Israel’s policy toward Palestinians. He said that the company’s production of “Porgy and Bess” should be postponed “until both Israeli and Palestinian opera lovers of the region have equal opportunity and unfettered access to attend performances.”

The Washington Post adopted the same approach. Its main obit left Tutu’s pro-Palestinian views to the fourth paragraph from the end, and gave them half a sentence.

He also called for President Barack Obama to apologize for the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and repeatedly compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to South Africa during the apartheid regime.

The Post partly made up for that with an Op-Ed by the South African journalist Redi Tlhabi about Tutu’s activism for justice globally, including opposition to the Iraq war and statements on climate change. Tlhabi’s op-ed had Palestine in the headline — “Desmond Tutu stood for Palestinians and many others” — and this good summary in the text:

But it was perhaps his support for Palestinians and his criticism of Israel that got him in trouble with many who wanted to preserve him in amber, a sort of living monument to a past struggle. “When you go to the Holy Land and see what’s being done to the Palestinians at checkpoints, for us, it’s the kind of thing we experienced in South Africa,” he told The Post in 2013.

Many around the world have reached the inevitable conclusion that Israel is an apartheid state, including leading human rights organizations.

Chris McGreal made a similar point to Tlhabi’s in his piece in the Guardian. Tutu crossed a line with his stance on Israel, but the world is catching up to him.

“Tutu’s real crime in the eyes of Israel’s most unrelenting supporters was to liken its rule over the Palestinians to apartheid and then refuse to back off in the face of an onslaught of abuse,” McGreal says. He gives some of those statements.

“I know first-hand that Israel has created an apartheid reality within its borders and through its occupation. The parallels to my own beloved South Africa are painfully stark indeed,” [Tutu] wrote in 2014 in a call for the Presbyterian general assembly in the US to back sanctions against Israel.

Tutu alarmed the government of Israel with these testimonies, McGreal writes, and the situation has only gotten worse. With the two-state solution “moribund,” the discourse of apartheid has accelerated in the last year, with two leading human rights groups accusing Israel of practicing that crime.

More on the mainstream’s myopia. Terry Gross yesterday ran excerpts of two superb interviews she did with Tutu on “Fresh Air”, in 1984 and 1999. Gross is a great interviewer, but she made no references to Israel and Palestine in the 43-minute-long segment. Gross has long objected to the apartheid discourse about Israel, as when she assailed Jimmy Carter for using the word in 2006 — and cited Alan Dershowitz as an authority on the matter.

Dershowitz is still with us, too: He published an op-ed saying that Tutu was a bigot who hated Jewish people. And that op-ed has gotten a lot of attention from Israel and its friends.

J Street tweeted the excellent Tlhabi piece in the Washington Post on Tutu, but the liberal Zionist organization has not directly eulogized Tutu, even as it mourns the loss of Harry Reid. Saluting Tutu might be a bridge too far for liberal Zionists, when Democratic Majority for Israel is ignoring Tutu’s death and Dershowitz is slamming Tutu.

By the way, Terry Gross’s interview with Tutu from 1984 is particularly insightful. Tutu repeatedly said the only thing that would bring down a hateful, brutal order was international pressure. “What do you think other countries can do in support of dismantling the apartheid system?” Gross asked. Tutu’s brilliant answer:

I believe that they must make it quite clear that there is no way in which the perpetrators of apartheid will ever become respectable, and that apartheid will ever become acceptable. I think, I mean, that the perpetrators of apartheid must continue to be treated as pariahs in the world community. And the world community must lay down stringent conditions. I think that the world community can say — I mean, especially the business community, who are the ones who have enormous clout, you know? That is indicated by the fact that if I were to say on your program that I support economic sanctions against South Africa, disinvestment, that is a criminal offence. And until recently, if I was found guilty, the minimum mandatory sentence would be five years in prison, which shows that those who invest have considerable leverage, which they are refusing to use.

And so I would say to them, please, remember that your investment in South Africa is as much a political and moral factor as it is an economic one, that you are buttressing one of the most vicious systems in the world. 

That lesson applies today, when only outside pressure will bring down Israeli apartheid. But so far powerful media outlets in the U.S. can’t report that news.

h/t Adam Horowitz and Dave Reed.

Liberal Zionism is joining the Palestinian solidarity movement

Everywhere but Washington


FADI QURAN, PETER BEINART, AND LARA FRIEDMAN ON FMEP WEBINAR ABOUT POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF ISRAEL PALESTINE AT YEAR’S END.

PHILIP WEISS, MONDOWEISS, DECEMBER 26, 2021

The Foundation for Middle East Peace had a webinar about the state of U.S. politics on Israel/Palestine as the year ends, and here are some of the takeaways.

Peter Beinart — the former liberal Zionist who came out a year ago for one democratic state — said that liberal Zionism is becoming discredited among progressives due to the failure of the two-state solution, so liberal Zionists are joining the broader movement for equal rights. Beinart said there used to be two parallel tracks on the American left, the BDS call from Palestinians of 2005 and the two-state agenda pushed by J Street and other liberal Zionists, but the second discourse is collapsing.

I think what’s happening is that the boundaries between these two movements are starting to collapse. Or another even more provocative way you can say it, is the Palestinian solidarity movement is in some ways becoming broader and taking in. It’s not necessarily an equal marriage. I would say because the movement on the ground has made the two state solution and the idea of liberal Zionism harder and harder and harder to maintain, then I think ultimately what’s happening and ultimately what we have to move towards and I think is happening is a broader Palestinian solidarity movement in which people who used to be liberal Zionist or support two states, and more people inside the Jewish community, and others, find their way into it.

Now it’s not an easy set of relationships always, and I think it involves lots and lots of different kinds of conversations and things that are difficult to figure out in a lot of ways… You don’t see it necessarily manifested in Washington, where a group like J Street is still much, much more influential than the Palestinian solidarity groups, but if you think of where the momentum is coming– I think especially because the Black Lives Matter movement forced a new kind of reckoning in the American public square with the lack of representation from Palestinians, which I don’t think is going to end. So Palestinians are going to become more prominent in these conversations…. We will see a broader Palestinian solidarity movement, in which Jews including Jews who once considered themselves liberal Zionists and maybe even some who still do consider themselves liberal Zionist will find a place. I think that will ultimately be a more powerful opposition to the status quo than what we’ve had before.

Fadi Quran, a leading Palestinian human rights worker formerly of Al-Haq, now with the activist network Avaaz, said he was hopeful about the ways the Palestinian narrative is gaining a global audience.

From a more Palestinian perspective what has dawned more and more, for my generation, is that our narrative, just what’s going on with us– the fact we’re surrounded with cameras that literally flash red, yellow or green based on facial recognition, that there’s a whole system of surveillance, that we’ve had a woman who fought and almost went on hunger strike just for the right not to have to give birth in a prison. The narratives of people in Sheikh Jarrah [occupied Jerusalem] surrounded by one of the most powerful armies in the world, staying strong and standing for their homes and two basically early 20-year-olds [Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd] just kind of carrying the movement on the back… There are people literally who have been buried– mothers were holding on to the graves of their kids who were killed so the graves wouldn’t be razed by the Israeli military.

All the stories– and then the epicness of having 200 kids in prison by Israel right now, and still kids going out in the face of tanks to throw stones. The power of this narrative if we speak to it just factually but also in depth really carries a whole new generation of people. That’s what we saw in May [during Gaza onslaught]… More than at any other time, despite all the strategic efforts… to silence the Palestinian voice, our voice and that narrative at least for a glimmer managed to break through. And then it was silent.

Lara Friedman of Foundation for Middle East Peace said some had hoped that the Biden administration would lead “a breakthrough” on Israel-Palestine, but it has proved to be a great disappointment.

Their performance thus far would suggests that there is really no energy there. The energy there is going to be spent on, Well we managed to delay temporarily one settlement, but by the way we’ve given in on the consulate, we’ve given in on the PLO mission, and we’ve given in on all the other settlements and by the way we’re not going to say a word publicly to defend the NGO sector [the six leading Palestinian groups smeared by Israel as terrorist] even though defending human rights organizations is supposed to be the core identity of this administration. It’s hard to believe that people are still holding out hope…. Pressure is going to matter.

Beinart said that the political reality of Israel Palestine can be characterized by the fact that not even Bernie Sanders can support one democratic state– yet. And by the way that the Israel lobby crushed Omari Hardy, an appealing young Florida state legislator who dared to support BDS and run in the Democratic primary for Congress in Fort Lauderdale.

A guy who has a moral compass woke up one day and said, you know what, Palestinian rights are consistent with everything I believe. And he gets predictably snowplowed. He had to explain 17,000 times why he supports BDS.

No one ever asked Hardy’s many primary opponents why they didn’t support the human rights reports naming Israeli “apartheid,” Beinart said.

That political dynamic seems very far from changing. Politicians will look at [the pushback against Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Jamaal Bowman] and think, Who needs that? Who needs that level of headache? We haven’t changed that political dynamic, sometimes I feel like we’re still very far away.

(Beinart also said that no one came to Hardy’s defense except for Twitter and Jewish Currents, the publication he works for. Our site and others supported Hardy. Our friend Roger Waters was a leading advocate for Hardy. Despite Beinart’s concern about cancel culture, he always cancels us.)

Lara Friedman echoed Beinart’s point by noting the prominence of Rep. Ritchie Torres, a progressive who represents the South Bronx and is relentlessly pro-Israel, and beloved by the party establishment and Israel lobby for that stance.

I always say to people, Look at Ritchie Torres. That’s so much the direction, certainly the energies of those who have power– that’s the direction they are organizing around.

Friedman warned that Democratic Party fear of supporting Palestinians can lead to terrible policies. She said that Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar recently called for the removal of the Al-Aqsa mosque.

He’s dogwhistling to the end time folks. He’s referencing scripture about the abomination and desolation on the site where the temple must be rebuilt so you can have the second coming of Christ. That scares the crap out of me. I really worry that Democrats who by and large don’t want to spend too much political capital on Israel Palestine in defending Palestinian rights and free speech, I worry that they have their heads in the sand as to how bad this can get. And I think that’s going to be tested next year.

On the upside, Friedman said, the discourse is changing and Democrats are being forced to reckon with the “shifting and more honest narrative around the Palestinian experience.” And alluding to the global controversy over the Israeli spyware company, the NSO group, she observed, “Any conversation about weaponized surveillance takes you back to Israel and any conversation about Israeli surveillance takes you back to Palestinians.”

The bottom line is at this point if you’re talking about the erosion of democratic values, and liberal values, worldwide and you’re not talking about Israel, then it’s clear you’re making an exception and you’re a hypocrite. That I think is something that strengthens those of us who say if you care about this worldwide, you have to care about Palestinians.

Quran described his detention by Homeland Security in the U.S. at Israel’s behest two months ago.

If you’re Jewish American, on so many levels, your voice matters more than a Palestinian and at the same time we are going against actors that will go to all ends possible including the worst lies to devastate those of us who have the loudest voices…

I had the experience and I didn’t share this before, but I will share it with you. When I traveled to the U.S. in October to visit my father who is sick, for the first time in my life, I was stopped by Homeland Security in Dallas airport. They stopped me, they interrogated me…Where do you work? Have you been arrested? Etc. Etc. The core question, the last bit, because the lieutenant who was interrogating me really felt for me, and I showed him my phone with my personal messages to members of Congress– ‘Whoever told you I’m an evil person, these senators wouldn’t be messaging me if I actually was.’ He was like ‘We got a report against you from an allied government claiming that you support terrorism. We have been investigating you since May.’ I was surprised that he shared this information. ‘There’s nothing on you, I’m going to let you go.’ But it was, ‘The moment you booked your ticket we have to bring you in and interrogate you on this’…

These actors that want to silence the work that we are all doing are going to go to that level and more. And I think we need to be prepared for it next year. But we also need to remember the sacrifices we make… they literally will benefit all the other struggles we care about.

Beinart and Friedman also had an interesting if coded discussion about rhetorical concessions the left will have to make to broaden the movement for Palestinian rights. Friedman said that the next generation of Palestinian leaders is brilliantly using the idea of “post colonial framing” for understanding the Palestinian issue. But that concept will be very challenging for a lot of people who see themselves as allies. “There is a reservoir of support that can be tapped into that wasn’t there before,” as people see that simply reciting the catechism of two states is not going to do it.

Friedman had this good observation: “Every movement has its assholes. That doesn’t mean a movement is discredited. It’s only this movement that is held to that standard.”

Thanks to Yakov Hirsch — expert on “Hasbara Culture” — for pointing out this dialogue to me.

January 21, 2022
Just World podcast “The World From Palestine”!

Dear Friends–

Happy Martin Luther King Day! I hope it finds you well.

This week, on Friday, Just World Ed will be launching our new podcast series, “The World From Palestine”. In each episode of this ten-week series the Palestinian scholar Yousef Aljamal and I will explore different aspects of the intersection between Palestine’s liberation struggle and other anti-imperialist struggles — throughout history, and until today.

The new podcast series will be available globally on Just World Podcasts and will also be available for streaming or download on Apple, Spotify, and all other major audio-streaming platforms.

I am particularly excited to work on this podcast with Yousef, given his wide experience of settler colonialisms in many parts of the world including Hawai’i, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Ireland, Algeria, in Palestine (of course!)… and here on Turtle Island.

In 2014 and 2019, he undertook speaking tours of the United States, speaking to super audiences and connecting with Palestinian-rights leaders and activists nationwide. In 2019, he also held good meetings with key members of the U.S. Congress and numerous congressional staffers.

Learn a little more about our new podcast project below…

In the meantime, I also want to tell you about another cutting-edge project that Code Pink is organizing and that Just World Ed is co-sponsoring. This is a webinar, “A Closer Look at China in Africa”, that will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, at 1pm ET.

It will feature two intriguing speakers:

  • Mikaela “Mika” Nhondo Erskog,an educator and researcher working at the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a member of the organizing committee at No Cold War, and a member of the media and research collective Dongsheng News.
  • Kambale Musavuli, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is a human rights advocate, the Student Coordinator and National Spokesperson for the Friends of the Congo, and an analyst with the Center for Research on the Congo/Kinshasa.

Register for this webinar that we’re co-sponsoring here.

Give to Just World Ed now!

So now, back to our podcast series… I want to tell you that I’ve really found that my decades-long, in-depth study of the Palestine Question has given me powerful tools for the exploration I’ve been engaged in over the past year, into how it was that a handful of tiny countries perched on the Atlantic coast of Europe came, over the centuries, to exercise a dominant role over the entirety of humankind.

In a sense, the Western settler-colonial project in Palestine– which is ongoing, as we speak– can serve as a microcosm for that whole earlier period of Western empire building.

By having our public conversations on “The World From Palestine” podcast, Yousef and I hope to cast useful new light both on the Palestinian struggle and on the history of settler colonialism itself… And of course, we hope to strengthen the ties of solidarity between Palestinians and anti-imperialist strugglers all around the world!

I’ll let you know the moment the first episode gets released, this Friday!

You might also be interested to see what I’ve been writing thus far this month? In my ongoing “Project 500 Years”, I’ve been exploring the role that successive generations of Quakers played in initiating and pushing forward the English settler-colonial project here in Turtle Island. (The top four articles there all deal with that topic. You can also read them here.)

Did you know that there were Quakers in the Chesapeake a quarter century before the English monarch “gave” William Penn a huge chunk of land along the Delaware River? Read all about that here.

(The map at the right shows who was living along the Delaware before Penn took over and started putting “White” settlers there in their place…)

So now, we are moving into an era in which– I hope!– there will be considerably more equality between all the world’s peoples

Over the next ten weeks, Yousef Aljamal and I will be exploring some aspects of the quest to make this happen. Please support Just World Educational in our podcast project and the other projects we’ll be undertaking this year. If you’re able to make a donation to support our work, that would be great.

Here’s to building a much more equitable, safer, and better world, going forward!

My warmest good wishes–

Helena.

Give to Just World Ed now!

Join the #WetsuwetenResistance Pipeline Fight

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project supports the efforts of the Wet’suwet’en nation to exercise their rights as a sovereign nation to manage and protect their lands and waters. In particular, they have the right to disallow construction of the proposed TC Energy Coastal GasLink pipeline.

As advocates for human rights in Palestine, we see the struggle of the Wet’suwet’en nation as another face of the same colonial theft of land that has caused the Palestinian people to be deprived of basic human rights in their own country. We are especially appalled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s repeated use of force against the Wer’suwet’en people, including the forced removal of Indigenous people from their land at gunpoint and the cruel and violent treatment of prisoners.

We call on the government of Canada to stop this violence against the Wet’suwet’en nation and to respect their sovereignty.


JOIN THE WET’SUWET’EN RESISTANCE 🔥
For the third time in three years, the Wet’suwet’en have faced militarized raids on our ancestral territory. One month ago today, the RCMP violently raided unceded Gidimt’en territory (Nov 18-19, 2021), removing Indigenous people from their land at gunpoint on behalf of TC Energy’s proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline.​​ The Wet’suwet’en enforced our standing eviction of CGL by closing roads into the territory November 14-17. Following the raids, arrestees received cruel and violent treatment in prison. The conditions set forth by the court are human rights violations to Indigenous peoples.

We call on all nations, allies, accomplices, and supporters everywhere to RISE UP in solidarity. We must employ all the collective strength in our hearts and minds to stop the machine of global empire that is destroying us. The time on the world clock is NOW to unify around our common goal as beings on this planet, to honor Indigenous sovereignty and put an end to end of history! We are in this fight for the long haul and we will not back down. This pipeline will never be built. Join the WET’SUWET’EN RESISTANCE!

Take Action:
🔥 Come to Camp yintahaccess.com/come-to-camp
🔥 DEC 20 WEEK OF ACTION TOOLKIT: https://bit.ly/3IYHKBR
🔥 Issue a solidarity statement from your organization or group. Email to: yintahaccess@gmail.com
🔥 Pressure the government, banks, and investors yintahaccess.com/take-action-1
🔥 Donate. https://www.yintahaccess.com/donate
🔥 Spread the word.

More information and developing stories:
Website: yintahaccess.com
Instagram: @yintah_access
Twitter: @Gidimten
Facebook: Gidimt’en Checkpoint
Youtube: Gidimten Access Point
TikTok: GidimtenCheckpoint

#WetsuwetenResistance #DivestCGL
#ShutDownCanada #WetsuwetenStrong #AllOutForWedzinKwa #ExpectUs
#indigenous #landback #decolonize #mmiw #mmiwg #waterprotectors #landdefenders #defundcgl #climateaction #wetsuweten #wetsuwetensolidarity #sovereignty #tierra #terre #resistance

Beauty pageant boycott

Many South Africans see a boycott of the Miss Universe pageant in Israel as a chance to stand up for Palestinians and against injustice


Lalela Mswane walks across the stage during the Miss South Africa beauty pageant in Cape Town, South Africa on Oct. 16, 2021. AP

Ryan Lenora Brown, Christian Science Monitor, December 9, 2021

JOHANNESBURG — When Lalela Mswane glided across a Cape Town stage in a red satin ball gown at the finals of the Miss South Africa pageant in October, she moved with the poise of someone who commanded her country’s attention. 

But in the days after the 24-year-old law student and model was crowned, that gaze took on a sharp edge.

Pro-Palestine activists began demanding she boycott the Dec. 12 Miss Universe pageant because it will be held in Israel. In mid-November, the South African government withdrew its support for Ms. Mswane’s entry, so she will compete without her country’s backing.

“The atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinians are well documented and Government, as the legitimate representative of the people of South Africa, cannot in good conscience associate itself with such,” wrote the Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture in a statement. The pageant organizers, meanwhile, soldiered on, stating that Ms. Mswane “would not be bullied” into boycotting the pageant. (The Miss South Africa organization and Ms. Mswane did not respond to requests for comments for this story.)

The Miss Universe competition may seem an unusual place for a government to stake a major geopolitical stand. But in South Africa, activists say the anti-apartheid movement taught them that the struggle against injustice takes place everywhere, from parliamentary debates and mass marches to boycotts of sports games, grapefruits, and yes, even the stage of a beauty pageant.  

“It was not our wisdom and strength as South Africans that ultimately delivered us from apartheid – it was the support we had from the international community that backed us up,” says Duduzile Mahlangu-Masango, a board member of Africa4Palestine, formerly known as the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, which advocates in support of Palestinian rights in South Africa. “We learned then that when you speak the big language of politics, you don’t bring everyone along. But when you talk about things ordinary people care about, you bring the issue closer to them.”

For those like Ms. Mahlangu-Masango, that kind of activism has a long history. For decades, boycotts and cultural isolation were a major weapon in the war against apartheid. 

In the 1960s and ‘70s, activists fought to have South Africa barred from major sporting events like the Olympics and World Cup, and advocated for Europeans and Americans to stop buying South African fruit and cigarettes. The liberation movement asked international musicians to boycott South Africa.

In 1976, after a massacre of schoolchildren in Soweto, near Johannesburg, turned the world’s attention to South Africa’s atrocities, nine countries announced they would boycott the Miss World pageant for allowing South Africa to participate. A second boycott followed the next year, forcing the organizers to ban South Africa. 

“These calls to isolate South Africa culturally were very important” because they reinforced the country’s exclusion from the global community, says Ottilia Maunganidze, head of special projects at the Institute for Security Studies, a South African think tank.

Fast forward 45 years and activists are using the same arsenal of tools to try to isolate Israel, she says.

The calls for Ms. Mswane to boycott Miss Universe started almost as soon as the crown was placed on her head in mid-October. Activists staged a protest at the Miss South Africa offices in Johannesburg, and the hashtag #NotMyMissSA began trending on social media. Its supporters, including Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, called on the beauty queen to draw parallels between Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and the dispossession and violence committed against Black South Africans under apartheid.


Zwelivelile Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s eldest grandson, speaks during a protest calling for Lalela Mswane to withdraw from the Miss Universe pageant, outside the Miss South Africa headquarters in Johannesburg, Nov. 19, 2021. Many South Africans draw parallels between their own history of apartheid and Israeli treatment of Palestinians. (Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)

“We must persist in isolating Apartheid Israel in the same way that we isolated Apartheid South Africa,” wrote Mr. Mandela on Instagram. 

For many former anti-apartheid activists, including those now in government here, the question of Israel and Palestine is a particularly evocative one because it calls up vivid memories of their own history.

“The first time I set foot in Palestine, it was like setting foot into the world I grew up in,” says Ms. Mahlangu-Masango, who was raised during the dying years of apartheid in the 1970s and ‘80s. “I really cannot understand a South African who chooses to forget the history of where we come from.”

For supporters of Ms. Mswane, however, the anger at her misses the mark.

“Lalela will be a role model to young women – not just across the country, but across the African continent,” wrote Stephanie Weil, CEO of the Miss South Africa organization, in a statement on Instagram. “Anyone who wants to rob Lalela of her moment in the spotlight is unkind and short-sighted.” Ms. Mswane herself has not spoken publicly about the controversy over her competing. 

Meanwhile, former Greek delegate Rafaela Plastira announced on social media in November that she would boycott the competition in support of Palestinians. (Several days later, the organization in charge of Miss Greece distanced themselves from Ms. Plastira and stated that she was not their delegate.) 

“Humanity ABOVE beauty pageants!” she wrote in an Instagram post. Greece is sending Sofia Arapogianni to Israel as the country’s delegate.

“There have been arguments that you shouldn’t politicize a beauty pageant,” says Ms. Maunganidze of the Institute for Security Studies. “But the very act of hosting it in Israel is an act of politicization. For many people, it legitimizes what Israel is doing in Palestine. Or at the very least, it says, let life go on.”

An earlier version of this story omitted to mention controversy that has emerged about the candidacy of Greek beauty queen Rafaela Plastira.