This bit of news from our own backyard happened eleven days ago but is so explosively shocking that it deserves special mention: On Wednesday, March 12, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was received with great pomp and ceremony at the Massachusetts State House, on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary. A group of people attempted to deliver a letter to their state reps and senators when they were met by members of the Jewish Community Relations Council who told them that only those on the JCRC list would be allowed to enter. They were finally allowed in by the State Police to hear the Minister's speech, after much scanning of their belongings (of which, incidentally, the JCRC members were spared). Upon exiting, however, they were intimidatingly photographed more than once at close range by a State trouper who refused to identify herself, and forced to leave the premises under threat of arrest. That the Massachusetts State Police should have conspired to hold our State Legislature hostage to the demands of the JCRC, or any group for that matter, is beyond shockingly unconscionable behavior. This kind of attack on our civil liberties calls for vigorous protests and demands on the Massachusetts Legislature to hold hearings on this matter; severely censure the State Police; and take appropriate steps to ensure that this kind of event never happen again.
Presidential hopeful John McCain went to pay the obligatory pre-election tribute to Israel, demonstrating once again that the road to the White House goes through Tel Aviv. In Israel, McCain predictably proclaimed his fealty to Israel and refused to meet with Palestinian officials.
Talks in Yemen aimed at reconciliating Fateh and Hamas were held in Yemen. While Hamas sent a delegation of Hamas officials, PA President Mahmoud Abbas tellingly sent delegates of the PLO in which Hamas is not represented. That gesture on the part of Mr.Abbas served notice of his dismissal of Hamas as a rogue group and his unwillingness to negotiate a truce short of a Hamas capitulation. The delegations remained an extra day at the request of Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh, but the talks failed because of Mr. Abbas' insistence on Hamas unconditionally relinquishing control of Gaza to Fateh, and his refusal to consider a compromise solution advanced by Yemen's president that would yield power to a coalition government. What he could not get by an armed coup to topple Hamas with the help of the Americans and Israelis, Mr. Abbas wants to have handed to him on a silver platter under threat of continued internal strife which he knows would cause great suffering to his people.
The reconciliation talks in Yemen, and previously in Egypt, have revealed the extent to which Mr. Abbas is a faithful servant to his masters in Tel Aviv and Washington.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution announced on Thursday that 250,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have signed a petition demanding national reconciliation between Fateh and Hamas. The centre issued a statement which said that a team of volunteers has been collecting signatures since the beginning of March and is aiming to collect half a million signatures as part of the popular campaign for national reconciliation. The centre also called on the Palestinian public to take part in a rally next Wednesday in Gaza City.
In other news, Luisa Morgantini, Vice-President of the European Parliament led a delegation of forty members of Italian civil society, including lawyers, doctors, students and journalists, in a visit to Palestine and Israel which began on March 19th and is due to end next Wednesday, March 26th. The objectives of the mission are to visit Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, El-Khalil, the West Bank refugee camps, Tel Aviv and Sderot to independently witness the situation on the ground and meet with Palestinian and Israeli peace and human rights organizations; representatives of the Palestinian Authority; and Members of the Knesset, the European Union, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the UN Relief and Works Agency.
In Gaza, Hassan Abu 'Abid , a 60-year-old Palestinian farmer, was killed on Thursday morning by Israeli forces east of Al-Qarara north of Khan Younis. Mr. Abu 'Abid died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Fifty Egyptians who were stranded in Gaza since the breakout a month ago started on a hunger strike, and the body of Sa'd Abd El-Razeq, a Palestinian citizen who died while stranded on the Egyptian side of the border, was delivered by Egypt through the Kerem crossing.
Amid all this pain and suffering, we saw last week yet another display of the formidable resilience and spirit of the Palestinian people. A coalition of 27 women's organizations held a festival marking International Women's Day organized by the Women's Affairs Center based in Gaza City. The event entitled, "Gaza women defy the Israeli siege," was held at the Beach Hotel along the coast. The festival featured exhibits and sales of traditional Palestinian folk dresses, and homemade accessories, household items, and Palestinian foods. Organized during the crippling siege of Gaza, the exhibitors faced many problems, not the least of which were the unavailability of raw materials and the public's inability to purchase the offered goods. Nevertheless, as Reem Elneerab, the organizer of the exhibition said: "The exhibition is sending out a message of steadfastness by Gaza's women that despite the Israeli closure and measures, the Palestinian women can emerge with more creativity and ability to sustain."
Our guest Skip Schiel has visited Palestine many times and has taken a beautiful collection of photographs which you can see by visiting his website at: http://teeksaphoto.org. You can also view his photographs and videos and read his dispatches at his blog: http://skipschiel.wordpress.com. Skip has visited Palestine last November as part of a delegation under a project sponsored by the Boston Committee on the Middle East, and has recently returned from Gaza. He joins us by telephone.
This is a weekly 45-minute segment of news from Palestine, and discussion of issues relevant to the Palestinians' struggle for freedom from Israel's brutal military occupation and colonization of their homeland.
Truth and Justice Radio is aired Sundays 6-10am (Eastern Time) on WZBC 90.3FM, Newton, MA, streaming at wzbc.org. The program's own website is truthandjusticeradio.org. It links to our playlists, which link in turn to archived audio.
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