Interview with Said Zulficar, political analyst, Cairo, Egypt
Egyptians are jubilant over achieving the first step in forcing decades-long dictator Hosni Mubarak out of power, as the military is now in charge.
The following is the transcription of Press TV’s interview with Said Zulficar, a political analyst in the capital Cairo, regarding the latest developments in the crisis-hit country and what might follow.
Press TV: Mr. Zulficar, how are you feeling right now? It must just be an electric time in Cairo at the moment.
Zulficar: Well I was in Tahrir (Liberation) Square when the news came that the president has resigned. I knew that a couple of hours before he had left Cairo and was in Sharm el-Sheikh. I was in front of the television station which was surrounded by several thousand demonstrators and I walked to Tahrir (Liberation) Square when the news came out. Of course there was over joy, jubilation, etc… I still have reservations about this whole thing because although we have the first step or the first necessity demanded by people that the president resigns and leaves but the regime seems still to be in place because the person who is the head of the military council is one of his closest associates. General Tantawi has been minister of defense for more than 25 years and he is a very close friend of President Mubarak. So what has happened is, I think, the military top brass have found out that the president was a liability and that they must put order, they must save the bridges, the opposition and the state and they are taking over.
Now what is [Vice President] Omar Suleiman’s position? No one knows that he remains in his position as vice president. The government of course is going to be changed. But the top brass, all of the members of this military council, [are] all very close hand-picked generals picked by Mubarak over the years. And obviously screened by CIA. So I still have reservations, we’re just starting. We have succeeded in a very important step which is getting rid of Mubarak. But Mubarak for the past five years has not been governing this country. He’s been sitting in Sharm el-Sheikh where he is now; he has been for five years. He hardly ever comes to Cairo. It has been run by General Omar Suleiman who was vice president until a couple of hours ago, may still be. It was run, from security point of view and from a foreign policy point of view by Omar Suleiman. He is a close friend of the Israelis and of the Americans. Nothing has changed.
Press TV: The question I want o pose to you is 18 days, such a short amount of time for such an uprooting revolution that people want. What does this 18 days signify to us? Does it signify that the army possibly in coordination with other powers has implemented a plan B or is that assessment taken from people’s success and their achievement in 18 short days?
Zulficar: My assessment is the fear which is for the populations to be afraid of the regime has changed camps. The people are no longer afraid. They have shown that they can overturn an oppressive government. But fear is in the other camp. And the other camp was not just the regime but the people are supporting the regime, which was the army. I still think that the top brass of the army has not changed that fundamental feeling. They are doing what they call the crisis management. They are in daily, maybe in hourly contact with the Pentagon, these people. They are all hand-picked. So I suspect that the Pentagon has been advising them what to do. That they have to get rid of Mubarak who was a total liability and that they must do some crisis management, which is take over power and try and have certain amounts of reform which I fear might be cosmetic unless the people who are no longer afraid must continue the movement. They must not be demobilized by what happened tonight. They must not demobilize. They must still maintain the aims of the movement. They must maintain the demands which are the dissolution of both houses of the parliament, the abrogation of the emergency law, the establishment of social justice and a normal, legal justice and having a civilian government.
We don’t want a military dictatorship here. We don’t trust this top brass even though they have changed style but they only changed style because they are in fear. They are in fear of popular power.
Press TV: You’re still in touch with what’s going on on the streets. I guess tonight people are going to be just thinking about celebrating and not about politics at all.
Zulficar: Yes, they are celebrating right now with fireworks right now just outside my window. So people are celebrating but I just hope they will not demobilize. This is only the very beginning of a long process. We must be sure that we have civilian rule and not military rule. We must be sure that the remnants of this regime that are still in positions of power do not remain in these positions.
As I said this military committee is handpicked by Mubarak. They are all American stooges basically and they all have relations with Israel. As long as these people run the show we have to be very vigilant. And one last word I have is to give thanks to the Tunisian people who showed us the way. They showed that you could overthrow oppressive, terrible, dictatorial regimes just by people’s power and by specific means by civilian upsurge. The national Intifada which is unheard of in our part of the world. The dictators in all over the Arab world must be shivering now. They must be trembling because their time will come and I am sure people in Washington must be very distraught because their whole so-called new Middle East is falling apart. And people are freeing themselves from the shackles of American imperialism and its Israeli acolyte, Israeli colonialism.
Press TV: I would like to ask your predictions now because you have been on defense over the last couple of weeks. What would be the determining factor for you?
Zulficar: As I said I have reservations about being overjoyed. Of course we have to be overjoyed but as I said Mubarak was not ruling this country over the past five years. It was ruled by Omar Suleiman and people around him. So we have to be very vigilant. We must not lay down our arms. We must not demobilize. I have discovered some young people, the leaders of the April Sixth Movement, Ahmad Maher people like Honein …who just came out of prison. These young people who are their late twenties or early thirties who started this whole Internet revolution through Facebook. They deserve to become ministers in this country. They deserve to have a role and get rid of all these old faces that have been mismanaging for 60 years a country which could have been wealthy, which is now in chaos and in poverty because it has been looted by the people who have been mismanaging and running it, by the family of Hosni Mubarak and wild-cat capitalists that they have around it. We should make sure not to lay down our arms and let the young people take over from these generations of old people that have mismanaged and misruled what used to be ‘the mother of the world.’ Now when you look at it, it is nothing but debris.
One day after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, thousands of protesters have vowed to stay in Cairo’s Liberation Square until their demands are met.
Activists have demanded the release of political prisoners, the lifting of a 30-year-old state of emergency and the disbandment of military court. They say demonstrations will continue until the army accepts the reforms.
Political groups are also calling for the formation of a government led by civilians.
The Muslim Brotherhood says the military should hand over power to a civilian-led government.
A senior Muslim Brotherhood official, Rashad Bayoumi, said a civilian government must run the country until free and fair elections are held.
He also called for a constitution that guarantees freedom and human rights.
Meanwhile, the April 6th Youth movement also called for the formation of a civilian-led presidential council to run the country during the transition period.
The call came after Mubarak handed power over to the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces, which is headed by Defense Minister Gen. Mohammed Tantawi.
The transition of power to the military comes while Mubarak, Vice President Omar Suleiman and Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq are all former military men. Analysts believe despite the transition Mubarak would still remain in power.
This is while millions of Egyptians have for the past 19 days called for the departure of Mubarak and the establishment of a democratic government.
Experts say the Egyptian revolution may fail to bring about reforms unless the military establishment is taken over by a civilian-led government.
“We have succeeded in a very important step which is getting rid of [President Hosni] Mubarak. But Mubarak for the past five years has not been governing this country. He’s been sitting in Sharm el-Sheikh where he is now,” Zulficar, a political analyst, told Press TV on Friday.
Zulficar added that Mubarak “hardly ever comes to Cairo. It (Egypt) has been run by Vice President General Omar Suleiman who was vice president until a couple of hours ago, may still be. It was run, from security point of view and from a foreign policy point of view by Omar Suleiman. He is a close friend of the Israelis and of the Americans. Nothing has changed.”
He further said that the Egyptian revolution “is only the very beginning of a long process. We must be sure that we have civilian rule and not military rule. We must be sure that the remnants of this regime that are still in positions of power do not remain in these positions.”
As part of a regular feature, The Electronic Intifada reports on the latest developments of the Palestinian-led global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli violations of human rights and policies of apartheid.
BDS campaigners scored a significant victory this month as the London Borough of Tower Hamlets voted to exclude Veolia, a French firm that has provided services to the Israeli occupation in the West Bank, from receiving any contracts with the municipality. Activists have also staged protests and launched campaigns in Ireland, Belgium, Palestine. Meanwhile, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) announced the third annual global day of action to be held on 30 March 2011.
Ireland
Activists with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) are calling for a global boycott against Israeli “blood diamonds” on Valentine’s Day, 14 February.
In a statement on the campaign’s website, IPSC activists are urging consumers to make conscious choices in buying jewelry gifts for their loved ones.
“This Valentine’s Day, don’t let dazzling diamonds blind you to the plight of those whose misery and suffering is funded by revenue from the Israeli diamond industry,” IPSC stated (“Global Call to Action – Flashy Stones and Broken Bones,” January 2011).
IPSC has campaigned against the Israeli diamond industry for more than a year, petitioning Irish jewelry associations to stop carrying Israeli gemstones.
Sean Clinton, chairman of the Limerick branch of IPSC, wrote last year for The Electronic Intifada that “The diamond industry is a major pillar of the Israeli economy … No other developed country is so heavily dependent on a single luxury commodity and the goodwill of individual consumers globally.”
Clinton added that Israel holds a “dominant position” in the diamond industry, and the state currently chairs the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme, an international regulation and certification program that is tasked with eliminating “blood diamonds” from the industry. Blood diamonds are gemstones mined from areas in the world — mostly in the African and Asian continents — that are involved in, or directly finance, ongoing human rights violations, violence and war.
In its campaign statement, the IPSC added: “[diamonds] are the currency of broken bones and bombed out homes in Gaza. The burning glow of the white phosphorous that rained down on Gaza doesn’t come cheap, but the $1 billion the Israeli military derives from revenue from the Israeli diamond industry each year helps to fill the coffers of the criminal military regime.”
IPSC stated: “Every time someone buys a diamond processed in Israel some of the money goes to funding the Israeli war machine that stands accused of war crimes. Israeli diamonds are blood diamonds.”
United Kingdom
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK is intensifying its efforts to urge local authorities to exclude French urban services corporation Veolia from major public contracts. This comes on the heels of the recent findings of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine that Veolia is liable for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law because of its numerous contracts with the Israeli government’s settlement industry in the occupied West Bank (“The Boycott VEOLIA Campaign-A Fortnight of Actions In February,” February 2011).
Campaigners around the UK are planning a series of actions, including sit-in protests at two London borough council meetings to protest possible city contracts with Veolia for waste management systems. On 1 February, the group organized a protest at Veolia’s UK headquarters in Islington, North London.
On 2 February, Tower Hamlets, one of the London Borough councils, passed a motion to formally exclude Veolia from its urban waste management contracts, citing that the corporation has “clearly committed acts of grave misconduct in relation to the Palestinian people and the maintenance of illegal settlements …” (“Full text of the Council meeting,”2 February 2011 [PDF]).
Additionally, the council voted to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign “against the pariah state of Israel,” and stated that “urgent steps should be taken to review all contracts with Veolia and not to place any further contracts with the company.”
The council also passed a motion to urge the Mayor of London to write to Veolia to communicate the council’s “determination to terminate any relationship” to the company.
The action by Tower Hamlets is reminiscent of similar actions by many UK local authorities during the 1980s campaigns against apartheid in South Africa.
After the Russell Tribunal, Veolia Environmental Services UK spread the news that the company had pulled out of the operation of the Tovlan landfill site in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. The landfill serves mainly illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and municipalities in Israel. Meanwhile, Who Profits? (www.whoprofits.org) — a project of the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace — verified the information against facts on the ground. The Israeli environmental protection authority of the settlements in the West Bank told Who Profits? in early February that Veolia is still operating the Tovlan landfill.
Belgium
Solidarity activists staged a protest inside an international tourism industry exhibition in Brussels on 5 February, encouraging attendees to boycott the Israeli exhibit. Wearing matching T-shirts emblazoned with “Free Palestine” and “Palestine Vivra” (Palestine will live), with “Boycott Israel” on the back, activists formed a human chain around the Israeli tourism tent and chanted in support of boycott.
In its statement on 9 February, PACBI expressed “great dismay” at Gray’s decision to keep her Tel Aviv performance date, and warned her that she would be “electing to serve directly the interests of the [public relations] campaign to Brand Israel” (“Open letter to Macy Gray,” 9 February 2011)
“This is a campaign that has been launched by the Israeli government and promoted by institutions throughout the country and abroad in order to whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and project a false image of normalcy,” PACBI added.
PACBI stated that Gray has promoted this campaign already, by playing at the opening of the Israeli consulate offices in Los Angeles and, more recently, releasing a statement declaring her support for Israel at the request of Israeli diplomats in California.
After Gray announced that she would proceed with her planned performance, she said she would visit Ramallah, the West Bank city where the US-supported Palestinian Authority is based, during her visit, a move which PACBI said is a “a patronizing attempt to dictate the terms of the Palestinian people’s struggle — by wanting to visit Palestinian schools or play a show in Ramallah, as though the Palestinian people need your pity.”
PACBI added: “We have asked, as an occupied people, for the minimum act of solidarity by not playing in Tel Aviv. We have been answered with your dismissal of our struggle in favor of your own way of helping, as though you know better. While we acknowledge there are many ways to help, we ask that people who do so are not directly delegitimizing the popular will of the Palestinian people. By playing in Tel Aviv you will do this and more. Your action will imply support of the occupation and the colonial Israeli state, denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, and dismissal of a system of apartheid.”
Global boycott, divestment and sanctions day of action
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) announced the third annual global day of action to be held on 30 March 2011, in a call to intensify boycott actions around the world while commemorating an historic day in the Palestinian anti-colonialist movement (“Commemorate Land Day 2011 by Joining the Global BDS Day of Action“).
“Inspired and buoyed by the popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia and their unique manifestation of courage, dignity, civility and determination, we stand resolutely with worldwide struggles for self-determination, freedom, democracy, social justice and equality, and we call for intensifying BDS actions globally as the main form of solidarity with Palestinian rights,” the BNC stated.
The BNC said it is calling on people of conscience all over the world to join the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement by launching and supporting local, national and international divestment initiatives; by taking part in consumer boycotts; to pursue legal action against Israeli war criminals and violations of international law by corporations complicit in Israeli military policies; and more.
The date of the global day of action, 30 March, is the annual commemoration of Land Day. In 1976 the Israeli military shot and killed six young Palestinian citizens of Israel during a massive uprising in protest of the Israeli government’s plan to build new Jewish-only colonies and expand existing Jewish cities.
“Today, Land Day symbolizes Palestinian resistance to Israel’s ongoing land expropriation, colonization, occupation and apartheid,” the BNC wrote in its statement.
The first Global BDS Day of Action was announced by Palestinian civil society with overwhelming support at the World Social Forum in 2009.
Egypt’s vice president says Hosni Mubarak has handed power over to the high military council, despite millions-plus involved in pro-democracy demonstrations.
In a brief announcement, Omar Suleiman said on Friday that Mubarak had “abandoned the presidency,” handing over the power to the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces.
The transition of power to the military comes while Mubarak, Suleiman and Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq are all former military men. Analysts believe despite the transition Mubarak would still remain in power.
The transition means that Egypt, which has been under a state of emergency for the past 30 years, will continue to be ruled by the military.
This is while millions of Egyptians have for the past 18 days been calling for the departure of Mubarak and a new democratic establishment.
Earlier in the day vigilantes opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in Egypt in a move unprecedented over the past couple of days.
The shooting in El-Kharga came as protestors took over several government buildings in major cities across Egypt on Friday. The last time that live bullets were used against protesters was on Wednesday, when six protesters were killed and hundreds of others were injured — some of them critically.
Reports say protesters have also clashed with security forces and attacked police stations in El-Arish. About 1,000 protesters attacked the police station in El-Arish in an attempt to free political prisoners held by the regime for their anti-Mubarak stance.
More than 20,000 Egyptians have marched towards the City Council in the port city.
Millions of protesters in various cities across Egypt are calling on President Hosni Mubarak to step down.
A large number of Egyptians have surrounded the Presidential Palace and the state Radio and Television building in Cairo as the Mubarak regime dispatches scores of vigilantes to attack pro-democracy protesters. The Army, however, has prevented protesters from entering the buildings.
According to a Press TV correspondent, the republican guards have been deployed around the palace with snipers positioned on the rooftop of the building.
The measure was taken after protesters began gathering outside the presidential palace following the Friday Prayers.
This is while, a huge crowd of pro-democracy protesters have already gathered in Cairo’s Liberation Square.
Reports say protesters have marched to the US Embassy, which is under tight security. The families of US diplomats have already been evacuated from Cairo.
Aside from Cairo, Alexandria and the port city of Suez have also been the scene of large protests since the country’s pro-democracy rallies began 18 days ago.
Suez has also seen some of the most violent clashes in the same timescale.
Police have used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.
More than one million pro-democracy protesters have taken to the streets of Alexandria. Protests have also broken out in Mansura, Port Said and Beni Suef. About 10,000 people took to the streets of Ismailia.
The Freedom Flotilla II will sail for Gaza during the last two weeks of May 2011, to commemorate the anniversary of the deadly attack on the first Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010, which left nine activists dead.
The International Coalition of the Freedom Flotilla II met in Madrid, Spain from the 4-6th of February to discuss the upcoming journey. The meeting, organized by the host delegation Rumbo a Gaza, was attended by delegates from organizations in Algeria, Canada, Scotland, Spain, France, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.
“We have at least 15 different groups right now at one or two boats each,” said Huwaida Arraf, chairperson of the Free Gaza Movement, one of the leading nongovernmental organizations in the effort. “Every meeting we have, we get one or two new country-based networks or coalitions that want to join.”
The flotilla will be sailing to Gaza from southern Turkey, and IHH, the Turkish humanitarian organization, has reported that European parliamentarians, Arab and Turkish parliamentarians will also be joining the flotilla regardless of the potential threat of Israeli force.
According to organizers, the Freedom Flotilla II will have at least twice as many boats as last year, more volunteers, and more aid for the people in Gaza.
Israeli Special Forces attacked the Freedom Flotilla convoy in 2010, boarded the Turkish ship the Mavi Marama, and killed 9 Turkish citizens and injured dozens more.
The situation in Gaza, which has been dire for some time due to the Israeli military blockade, significantly worsened following Israel’s military attack Operation Cast Lead. The 22-day military strike reduced much of Gaza’s infrastructure and homes to rubble, and killed some 1,400 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians. The population is still reeling and in desperate need of supplies..
According to the UNHRC’s “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories”, published in January, Rapporteur Richard Falk notes: “the situation of the civilian population in Gaza continues to be of critical concern. In 2010, Israeli uses of force resulted in 58 Palestinians killed in Gaza (including 22 civilians) plus 233 Palestinians injured (including 208 civilians).”
“Israel has declared a buffer zone that extends for 1,500 metres into Gaza from the border fence (comprising 17 per cent of Gaza), and Israeli military personnel fire at farmers and children who are pursuing normal peaceful activities close to the border,” the report continues. “These characteristics of the ongoing Israeli relationship to Gaza are strongly confirmatory of the legal and factual assessment that Gaza remains an occupied territory.”
At the eighteenth day of massive protests demanding the removal of Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, and his regime, the Egyptian army was extensively redeployed in several streets in Cairo, especially those leading to the Presidential palace.
The army was deployed in Nasr and Masr Al Jadeeda where the palace is located, and sealed off several other roads.
The army is aiming mainly at protecting the palace, Intelligence headquarters, and the building of Egypt’s official government-run TV station.
Local sources reported that the Curfew in Cairo was escalated while the army tightened its siege in Cairo and installed dozens of roadblocks to be added to the ones that were installed after the protests started.
Yet, Egyptian military sources said that the army will not prevent the residents from reaching the Tahrir Square in Cairo, the center point of the protests.
Meanwhile, the Youth Revolutionary Coalition denounced the statements of Egypt’s Vice President, Omar Suleiman, in which he stated that the alternative of dialogue is a coup.
The coalition said that such statements are a serious threat to the revolution, and confirmed their determination to continue their protests until the regime of Mubarak is ousted.
Ahmad Maher, coordinator of the April 6 Movement, stated that Suleiman is a man who runs secret intelligence services, and that he is wasting time in order to ensure the current government and its head remain in power.
Maher added that Suleiman’s call for dialogue with the revolting Egyptians is only a manipulation, and that after his calls were rejected, Suleiman started holding talks “with fake parties and unknown persons”.
He further stated that the Egyptians will not leave the Tahrir Square and all other squares where protests are being held, adding that “the threats of Suleiman and others will not intimidate the revolution”.
An Egyptian former MP has said that military personnel will join the protesters if the current situation in Cairo gets worse.
“It is obvious that military apparatus will leave Mubarak alone if the situation deteriorates… Unless something happens between military apparatus and people, the army will leave Mubarak alone,” Talaat Sadat told Press TV in an interview on Thursday.
The army is deployed to suppress the revolution as the nation prepares for another planned million-man march by the opposition on Friday.
Egypt’s revolution youth movement has also called on the army to join anti-government protesters.
Speaking to Press TV, members of the movement rejected remarks by the Egyptian Vice-president who said the protesters have to accept the government’s proposals to end the revolution or they will face army action.
The movement said it has information that some army officers will disobey any order from their superiors to open fire on the protesters.
Sadat also condemned the US stance on the Egyptian revolution.
“I think [US President Barack] Obama resembles a liar who cannot do his job properly and does not know what is going on in Egypt and the Islam world,” he said.
Nationwide protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s regime continue for the 17th day as striking doctors and a host of other workers have joined the revolution.
Anyone with any exposure to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will also be exposed to certain oft-repeated words and phrases that are woven through it like threads – or which are deployed around it like firecrackers. These words become markers, signals, and judgments. They are written and spoken all the time, but not always clearly defined – despite being among the most important ideas to truly understand.
One such word is normalisation. When actors in the Palestinian struggle for a just peace use this term, what do they mean? What is the reasoning behind a refusal to work with an individual or group because of a “normalising” attitude or act? And why is normalisation so damaging to achieving justice?
In order to clarify this goal – justice – it’s also important to clarify normalisation. I’d like to start with a straightforward definition of normalisation as expressed by the first Palestinian BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) conference, held in Ramallah in November 2007:
“Normalisation means to participate in any project or initiative or activity, local or international, specifically designed for gathering (either directly or indirectly) Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis, whether individuals or institutions; that does not explicitly aim to expose and resist the occupation and all forms of discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people.”
This definition can take many forms in daily life. Among the important ones are succinctly defined in a document published by the Ma’an Development Center of Ramallah.[1]
Normalisation encompasses:
1. “Projects that do not agree on inalienable rights for Palestinians under international law and the conditions of justice,”
2. “Projects implying equity between Israelis and the Palestinians in the responsibility for the conflict, or that claim that peace is achieved through dialogue and understanding and increased cooperation between both sides, without achieving justice,”
3. “Projects that hide the situation of the Palestinian people as victims of the Israeli colonial project,”
4. “Projects that refuse, ignore or dilute the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the right of return and compensation according to the UN resolution No. 194,” and
5. “Projects supported by or in partnership with the Israeli institutions that do not recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people or projects receiving support or funding (in part or in whole) from the Israeli government such as cinema festivals, information technology exhibitions, etc.”
To me, the second kind of normalisation – implying equity between Israelis and the Palestinians in the responsibility for the conflict, or claim that peace is achieved through dialogue and understanding…without achieving justice – is among the most important to understand. Indeed, it is among the subtle, the most common, the most liable to be hidden under the trappings of good intentions – and, therefore, among the most difficult to stop.
Politicians are not the only ones who commit normalisation when it comes to the Israeli occupation. Newspapers do it, television does it, filmmakers and artists and pop singers do it, ordinary people talking politics over dinner do it. Language does it. Normalisation is the process, the instinct, the narrative that neutralises what can never be neutral, that renders over six decades of meticulously institutionalized Israeli military rule into an eternal and incorrigible spat between two groups of people who “can’t get along.”
If only the Palestinians would just stop throwing rocks! If only the Israelis would just stop building settlements for a few weeks! Then the talking could begin; then peace would be just around the corner. This is the belief that lies below the surface of even the most well-meaning normalisation. Let’s negotiate; let’s send rock bands to Tel Aviv as long as they go to Ramallah too; let’s send our children to summertime peace camps in the United States. Let’s do everything we can to domesticate anger, to level the scales by holding one of them down by force, to position Israelis and Palestinians (civilians, politicians, jazz musicians, whomever they may be) in a “dialogue” that disregards the fact that Palestinian civilians live without even most basic human rights; that Palestinian national politicians do not represent any actual nation; that Palestinian jazz musician cannot cross their checkpoint of choice in order to play where they please.
As the saying goes, only free men can negotiate. Normalisation is what makes them do it anyway.
I must once again stress the importance of language in all contexts, both overtly political and not, when it comes to normalisation. In its most brutal forms, normalisation is what turned the December 2008/January 2009 Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip, in which 1,400 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, including over 300 children, from a massacre into a “war.” Normalisation is what turns the Apartheid Wall into a “security fence.” Normalisation is what turns the 99 permanent military checkpoints, most of them inside the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) rather than along any kind of border, into “terminals.” And normalization in its less intentionally aggressive forms is what turns “colonialism” into “prejudice,” what turns “occupation” into “discrimination.”
This is crucial: normalisation prevents us from calling a spade a spade, from defining our reality as it is. If we cannot do that, we are lost.
To call it a spade, then – to deny the denial of our rights, and to demand those rights – we as Palestinian civil society organizations and as Palestinians in general must refuse to participate in this process that reduces us. In other words, we must refuse to participate in activities or collaborations with groups or individuals who perpetuate acts or atmospheres of normalisation. One important manifestation of this philosophy is the global BDS campaign, which is by definition a struggle against normalisation. I’d like address the BDS campaign further in this context: both the campaign itself and the importance of its opposition to normalisation, and the criticisms such a strategy often attracts.
The global BDS campaign calls upon us to boycott – to refuse normalisation – with the full range of injustices perpetrated by the state of Israel against Palestinians. The Israeli occupation restricts the entirety of our rights, not only the ones you can exercise in a court or a voting booth: it affects our economy, our education, our mobility, our language, our health, and our hope. It constitutes the geographic, economic, political, social, spiritual, and psychological fragmentation of Palestinian communities and lives. There is nothing remotely normal about any of this. To dismiss injustice and inequality only in name – while continuing to fund Israeli companies or buy Israeli products or play a concert in an Israeli hall because to do so seems logistically convenient or ethically uncomplicated – misses the point altogether. The BDS campaign is a reminder that the Israeli occupation is an enormous and intricate apparatus that can only change if we refuse to support it. Which is to say, if we refuse to normalise with it.
Both within the Israeli community and around the world, there exists a great deal of discomfort and confusion about the tactics and intentions of anti-normalisation work. Many people find the BDS campaign, among others, to be “imbalanced” or overly punitive; many believe the Palestinians should “dialogue” with the Israelis about what’s happening in the oPt, because the problem is just a lack of information and mutual understanding; many believe that only a “positive” approach will do, and BDS doesn’t qualify.
Unfortunately, these claims are not only patronizing and ineffectual, but also irrelevant. There is nothing “positive” about sixty-three years of land appropriation, expulsion, military violence, and systematic human rights violations. Nor is there anything “positive” in the way the Israeli state responds to dissent: targeted arrests, military brutality at nonviolent protests, blacklisting human rights organizations, the deportation of activists. The goal of “balanced dialogue” is impossible in a place where there is no balance, a place of forced silence. In short, it is absurd and offensive to advocate for “positive engagement” with an apartheid state, to “convince” it to be more empathic with the people it subjugates, to construe the ultimate goal as “mutual understanding” rather than an end to oppression itself.
The BDS campaign, then, is the only way for the Israeli community – and the world – to truly see, experience, and know what their government is doing in Palestine. Our responsibilities to the truth, both as Palestinians and Israelis, are both collective and deeply personal; anti-normalisation work is a way to honour and act upon those responsibilities. It is powerful – and powerfully nonviolent – resistance, with human solidarity as a tactic as well as a goal.
Let us remember that normalcy without honesty is meaningless, as is cooperation without justice. Let us care so deeply about our capacity for change that we will refuse to undermine ourselves, and each other, along the way.
~
Rifat Odeh Kassis is the President of Defence of Children-International, the Director of Defence of Children – Palestine Section and a Board Member of the Alternative Information Center (AIC).
With every passing day, the Egyptian uprising gathers strength as more citizens rally to the cause and demand the immediate resignation of Hosni Mubarak. The regime’s pillars are crumbling. Yesterday, the demonstrators surged out of Tahrir Square and marched towards the National Assembly and the building that houses the Ministry of Interior. But perhaps the most important development was the smaller demonstrations held in front of government owned media outlets and the resignations of a number of prominent journalists on the regime’s payroll.
The defection of journalists and TV personalities means that the regime has lost its ability to control the message. Until Monday, the coverage of the uprising by the government owned press has been scandalous. Now, the change in tone coming from the regime’s very own megaphone suggests that even state paid propagandists have read the writing on the wall and decided that the demonstrators have gained the upper hand.
One prominent headline in Wednesday’s issue of Al-Ahram, the official megaphone of the regime, demonstrated the dramatic tilt in coverage. “Fi Al Tahrir Hata al Raheel” translates into “We’ll Occupy Tahrir Square until Mubarak steps down” or in other words “We shall not be moved.” That would have been unthinkable a week ago.
What’s more astonishing about these developments is that a day earlier, Omar Suleiman, held a two hour meeting with the management of major government daily papers and privately owned opposition papers. I guess whatever message he was trying to deliver just didn’t sink in. It appears that even disreputable government employed journalists have bailed out on Mubarak because they understand the liability of being too closely identified with the dictatorial regime.
Every journalist in the country is suddenly howling about the mind boggling corruption of Mubarak’s government. The former minister of interior, Habib Adly, apparently amassed a fortune of $1.3 billion dollars. Not bad for a government employee. Other former ministers have amassed similar fortunes. According to Al-Ahram, the former Minister of Tourism, The former Minister of Housing and the former Minister of Health are all billionaires and the attorney general has already issued orders freezing their assets and barring them from leaving the country. In a country where the minimum wage was only recently raised to the equivalent of $70 a month, even a million dollars is considered surreal wealth. So you can only imagine how these revelations sit with the man on the street especially when they are confirmed by the government’s own media establishment.
Of course, the net worth of the Mubarak clan is still a taboo subject. There is speculation in the foreign press that the president is one of the richest men in the world with a fortune estimated at $40 billion. Al-Ahram won’t go there – not yet anyhow. But the disturbing news of the first family’s fabulous wealth has already reached Tahrir Square and it helps explain why the demonstrations are gaining strength.
With the sudden change in the sentiments of the scribes of the government press, all eyes are now focused on the army. So far, the army has maintained a neutral stance. The common wisdom in the western press is that the army will eventually tilt towards the regime because its senior officers are beneficiaries of many perks. That might be true but they’re still Egyptians and they won’t easily give up their status as the single most respected institution in the country. While the generals are often handsomely rewarded by the regime for their loyalty, the vast majority of officers are middle class and their compensation has taken a downward dive even as Mubarak targeted his largess towards the police and the Republican Guards. Anybody who knows anything about Egypt understands that the junior officers in the military will abandon their posts before accepting orders to abort a popular uprising. The military establishment has two choices – they can play a meaningful and constructive role in the Post-Mubarak era or they can prop up the faltering regime for a few months at the expense of losing the trust of their people.
As the uprising gains momentum, college professors, professional associations and trade unions are joining the fray. They know which way the tide is turning and so does the army’s rank and file.
The young people who led this uprising have a spirit and a love of country that no Egyptian can ignore. There is a surge of patriotism in the country that transcends anything seen since the 1973 war. Egypt has not experienced a popular uprising of this magnitude since 1919 when Egyptians became the first third world people to secure nominal independence from the British Empire. Those kids in Tahrir Square know their history and have seen three hundred of their finest shed their blood for freedom. They will honor their sacrifices by standing tall against any force that attempts to abort their uprising. A word to the wise – listen carefully to what these young men and women are saying – “we shall not be moved.”
On January 25, 2011, people gathered in cities across America to demonstrate against the ongoing harassment of peace organizations and individual activists by law enforcement agencies. In particular, these “solidarity actions” were focused on the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who had served subpoenas and raided the homes of people involved in anti-war and international solidarity work in Minneapolis and Chicago in late September 2010. From Boston to Los Angeles, activists rallied at federal buildings, collected petition signatures, distributed pamphlets, and peacefully demonstrated on street corners as part of the “National Day of Action to Stop FBI Repression and Grand Jury Witch Hunts.”
In Chicago, over 350 people assembled in front of the Dirksen Federal Building to protest U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s decision to subpoena 23 antiwar activists and order them to appear in front of a grand jury. In Minneapolis, more than 100 people swarmed the sidewalk at the downtown Federal Building, waving signs that read “Opposing war is not a crime” and “Hands off free speech,” denouncing the infiltration of their groups with undercover agents, and stating that they will not cooperate with the grand juries even if it means going to jail. Actions large and small were held in over 50 cities across the nation in a show of solidarity for peace activism and against official harassment.
Perhaps the most curious — and potentially revealing — episode among these many actions played out in Memphis, Tennessee. In a bizarre twist, the small group that had assembled there on January 25th was visited by the FBI and local law enforcement, ostensibly to warn them about their own event and stating that they were there for the activists’ own safety. A local media outlet reported on the episode:
“When a police SWAT team and an FBI anti-terrorism squad showed up Tuesday at a Memphis church where peace activists were staging an event, a scene reminiscent of the turbulent 1960s ensued. The activists, members of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center who oppose the war in Afghanistan, characterized the encounter as police intimidation and a case of illegal surveillance. FBI and Memphis Police Department representatives countered it was all a misunderstanding. They said they were there to protect the activists from potential harm by extremists who might oppose their views.”
Interestingly, the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center (MSPJC) had planned no public demonstration as part of its activities that day, but were merely holding a small meeting of about a dozen people to fill out forms under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to investigate the extent to which activists in their community may have been under surveillance, infiltration, or other forms of potential intimidation. The media release sent out by the MSPJC stated that the event was being held to “demand an end to FBI harassment of peace, anti-war and solidarity activists.” In response, according to the MSPJC’s Director, it appears that the agents and officers were in fact sent to the event to monitor and intimidate the group. As reported by local television station WREG:
“Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin says officers routinely patrol demonstrations. He says this time officers stayed, even though they weren’t supposed to sit on the scene. Godwin blames the confusion on miscommunication, and he stresses the MPD is in no way monitoring the activities of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. Jacob Flowers has his doubts about the intentions of both the FBI and the MPD. He says he’s been the director of the center for six years, has held several protests and marches, but has never seen the type of law enforcement presence he saw Tuesday. ‘We have never had the MPD TACT squad follow us along, so we find it to be a coincidence that on the night people were here filling out forms to ask for their files to be released by the MPD and the FBI, they choose to send an entire tactical squad to sit on us.’”
MSPJC’s Organizing Coordinator Brad Watkins told the local ABC News affiliate that “it’s a clear intimidation tactic. If they want to protect us and there was a threat against us, then wouldn’t a smart thing [to] do [be] to let us know from whom or if there was a threat against us? We had no communication from MPD, they just showed up and surrounded the church.” Watkins added that the scene (which was captured in a short online video) involved “a total ridiculous amount of law enforcement presence claiming that they are here for our protection — but to protect us from who?” A subsequent blog entry noted that Watkins had posted in real-time on Facebook: “Just had a visit from the FBI … they claimed that they wanted to alert me that some Anti-war activists were planning something around my building…. I paused and tried not to laugh. When I said, ‘Uh, yes sir, these are the offices of the Mid-South PEACE and Justice Center’ … they promptly left.”
While all of this was unfolding, it was later learned that sheriffs had entered at least two homes of “progressive Memphis area activists” earlier that day, “citing (but not showing) warrants for individuals” and going “room to room with guns drawn for a ‘failure to appear’ charge in traffic court.” On his blog, Watkins observed that calls came into the center about police activities of “checking warrants at the DeCleyre Co-op near the University of Memphis … and local socialist, social justice and anarchist orgs have reported harassment and warrant checks all going down today. Yet MPD claims these events are all unrelated.” While local media have generally reported the day’s events as merely a “misunderstanding,” Watkins remains adamant that “this is about intimidation and abuse of law enforcement powers.”
I recently spoke with MSPJC Director Jacob Flowers about this episode and its aftermath. He said that the FOIA meeting on January 25th was intended as part of the national day of solidarity and to explore potential spying on local peace groups, including the MSPJC, the Progressive Student Alliance, and the Socialist Party. Flowers noted that the MSJPC had been “watched before,” primarily in the 1980s during antinuclear actions and as part of crackdowns on the Sanctuary movement. Despite this history, he said, the MSPJC actually enjoys “good relations” with local authorities, and has cultivated a reputation as a diligent and peaceful organization. “I’ve been here at Mid-South for six years, during which we’ve held street corner protests, marches with hundreds of people, and more,” said Flowers, “and we’ve never had the SWAT team show up before.”
The event that day was small, he noted, with only about a dozen people sitting in a room in a church, filling out forms, and talking about the correlation between nonviolent activism and official harassment. When the FBI showed up at the MSPJC offices with badges displayed, “they told us that they were there to inform us about an antiwar protest that was to be held near our facilities,” Flowers said. Upon being told that this actually was the headquarters of the antiwar organization, one of the FBI agents stated, “I guess this is a waste of our time, then.” Prior to this visit, there had been no notification to the MSPJC of any potential security concerns surrounding their meeting. “They said they were there to protect us, and for our own safety,” said Flowers, “but there was no one there but our group of peace activists.”
The implications are not lost on seasoned activists and organizers like those at the MSPJC. “If they do this to us — people who know how to ‘raise hell’ and get a message out — what are they doing to other, more vulnerable groups and individuals to violate people’s civil rights?” Flowers asked rhetorically. The MSPJC is still awaiting a cogent response, he said, but in the meantime they are taking affirmative steps to prevent similar intrusions in the future. In addition to consulting with local civil liberties organizations, they also went ahead and filed their FOIA forms the day after the FBI “visit” to their headquarters, and have contacted the offices of the Mayor and their congressional representative in an attempt to find answers. More broadly, Flowers sees this troubling event as an opportunity “to make a wider push for community-based policing” and other alternatives to potentially repressive forms of law enforcement.
As a member of the MSPJC posted after the episode, “the progressive community in Memphis is taking this as … a challenge to unite in earnest with struggles in our city against widespread police brutality and daily police oppression. We are determined not to be intimidated.” This echoes the national call to resist harassment of peace groups and nonviolent activists, with upcoming regional organizing conferences recently announced for Chicago, Oakland, Chapel Hill, and New York. Rather than capitulating to intimidation, it seems that activists are taking this as a call to peacefully confront the attempts to break their movements. And perhaps in that, justice will be served after all.
The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee is proud to announce a new campaign, the “Dismantling Impunity Fund”. This fund will directly challenge Israel’s culture of impunity surrounding the murder and maiming of Palestinians. The fund will be managed by a committee that will include representatives of Popular Committees and Palestinian human rights organizations.
The Abu Rahmah family will be the fund’s first recipient. The family has lost two of their children, Bassem and Jawaher, to Israeli military violence. Both were murdered while nonviolently protesting Israel’s separation wall, built on their village’s land. The family has filed a civil suit in Israeli courts demanding compensation for Bassem Abu Rahmah’s 2009 murder, in which he was shot in the chest from 40 meters with a high-velocity tear gas canister.
The court is demanding 25,000 shekels ($6,700) as a deposit from the Abu Rahmah family. According to a loophole in Israeli law, Palestinians can be considered “foreigners”. This enables the court to demand an upfront deposit large enough to cover the defense’s legal fees, should the prosecution lose the case. If the family does not submit the money, the court will close the case without hearing it.
Through this loophole, Israel has supported its culture of impunity. Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territories are effectively prohibited from filing civil suits against Israel, the Israeli army or individual soldiers. Financial resources are needed to combat this loophole and enable Palestinians to seek legal redress.
Bassem Abu Rahmah was shot in the chest with the same type of canister that critically injured US citizen Tristan Anderson one month prior. After conducting an extensive investigation into Abu Rahmah’s death, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem demanded a criminal investigation be launched. B’Tselem’s findings proved that Abu Rahmah was shot in direct violation of open-fire regulations while acting in a nonviolent manner. Despite video footage and expert testimony to corroborate this, no one has yet been punished or even charged with Bassem’s killing. A civil case is now the option left for the Abu Rahmah family to seek legal redress.
Mohammed Khatib, Coordinator, Popular Struggle Coordination Committee: “From our experience with the Israeli legal system, we do not expect justice from the occupier’s courts. But we do know that a court case brings to light things that the occupation would rather keep in the shadows. By suing, victims of Israeli violence would be extracting both a monetary and political price for the crimes that Israel has committed against them. It is essential to challenge the prevailing culture of impunity, in which Israeli soldiers and settlers murder and maim Palestinians while going unpunished and unquestioned.”
Donate Electronically to the “Dismantling Impunity Fund” by following the link and checking the “Dismantling Impunity Fund” box.
Donate by check: Write checks to “Alliance for Global Justice”, with “CfJS-Dismantling Impunity Fund” in the memo line. Mail checks to:
Alliance for Global Justice
1247 “E” Street,SE
Washington, DC 20003
Ma’an – 08/02/2011
Spanish FM Trinidad Jimenez tours the Old City of Hebron, moments before she was verbally assaulted by settlers. [MaanImages]
HEBRON — A heated argument broke out between Hebron settlers and local Governor Kamil Hamid as the latter was escorting the visiting Spanish Foreign Minister through the occupied Old City.
As Minister Trinidad Jimenez left the historic Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Cave of Patriarchs, right-wing settler leader and activist Itamar Ben-Gvir shouted at the woman, calling her an anti-Semite and “Israel hater,” the Israeli daily news site Ynet quoted.
Speaking to Ma’an after the incident, Hamid confirmed the report, saying a group of setters had accosted the delegation and called Jimenez and “anti-Semite,” and told her to “go back to Spain.”
The settlers, he added, “were under the protection of the Israeli police.”
Hamid condemned the assault, saying it was a shame for settlers to attack the representative of a nation that is behind the peace process. “It is a clear message to the EU,” he said.
Minister Jimenez said she was unsettled by the incident. “I do not hate anyone, I came to the Middle East to support the peace process and to provide more support for the awful humanitarian situation in Hebron,” she told Ma’an.
The Spanish government is ready to help the PA and the Palestinians she said, adding that her government was ready to recognize a Palestinian state.
In January, Ben-Givr initiated a swarming of a home the governor was visiting in the Tel Rumeida district of the city. A mob of settlers surrounded the home shouting “terrorist,” preventing his delegation from leaving the area for more than three hours.
Israeli police operating in the neighborhood reportedly interfered when a fight broke out between settlers and members of the governor’s delegation, but the governor complained when the police failed to evacuate the settlers from outside the home.
Angered at the failure of the police to remove the settlers, Governor Hamid said the officers “might as well go home and let the settlers take control,” adding that the mob clearly already had the upper hand on the soldiers.
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