Academics against Israeli Aggression on Lebanon and Gaza
To: Academics who condemn Israel's aggression against Lebanon and Gaza
While the United States government applauds the collective punishment of already vulnerable populations, we U.S.-based academics stand together to condemn the atrocities being committed by the U.S.-funded and armed Israeli military against the peoples of Lebanon and Palestine. Scholars based outside of the United States are also welcome to sign this letter as an expression of their support.
The brutal bombing and invasion of Gaza (whose people have never escaped the torment of Israeli occupation despite official Israeli “withdrawal”) and of Lebanon and are acts of Israeli state terrorism. Along with the devastating U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the current U.S.-Israeli threat to Syria and Iran, Israel’s escalation indicates another terrifying example of the heightened reliance on military force by both these powers in their ongoing struggle for hegemony in the Middle East.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in Lebanon. Scores are missing. Latest reports put the number of refugees at half a million. The attacks on Lebanon’s infrastructure – power stations, factories, bridges, and ports – will take decades to rebuild. The people of Lebanon are already weary from reconstructing their country after years of civil war and the last ruinous Israeli invasion in 1982.
In Gaza the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen. Hundreds have been killed. Water treatment plants, greenhouses, bridges, and homes have been the major targets of Israeli bombs in “Operation Summer Rain,” the code name for the latest Israeli military invasion of Gaza that began on 27 June 2006.
There is no military solution to the current crisis. War and occupation threaten all life in the region and around the world—and will never bring security to anyone. We call for an immediate cease-fire against Lebanon, an end to the occupation of Palestine, and the release of Palestinian and Lebanese political prisoners in Israeli jails.
Given the vacuum of political leadership from the governments of the world in the face of U.S. and Israeli intransigence, we feel it is incumbent on ordinary citizens to organize and support peaceful means for bringing economic and political pressure on Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories. It is urgent that individuals and non-governmental groups apply such means until Israel fully complies with international law and respects the fundamental human rights of all people.
While we unequivocally condemn the killing of civilians in Israel, it must be recognized that Israel's destructive and expansionist policies are primarily to blame for the seemingly perpetual "Middle East crisis.” To call Israeli atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon simply a “disproportionate response” helps justify Israeli war crimes by making Israel the victim and obscuring both the short and long-term sources of this catastrophic violence.
Silence is a form of complicity with the war crimes being committed by the state of Israel. Business as usual should not continue – in the U.S. academy or elsewhere – while people experience the emotional, physical, and psychic terror of the Israeli military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Stop the War Coalition
National Emergency Demonstration (UK)
LEBANON: WE NEED YOUR HELP URGENTLY
NATIONAL EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION
SATURDAY 5 AUGUST: ASSEMBLE 12 NOON
SPEAKERS CORNER, HYDE PARK, LONDON
MARCH PASS US EMBASSY AND DOWNING STREET
TO PARLIAMENT SQUARE FOR RALLY
After the Qana massacre, no one can deny what we are witnessing: the systematic destruction of two countries. Everyone who is horrified at what is happening can help to bring this carnage to an end. We need the biggest possible turnout on Saturday's emergency demonstration. What you do in the next few days can make a difference. Tony Blair is under the most intense pressure on all sides to detach himself from his master George Bush's catastrophic warmongering and call for an immediate unconditional ceasefire. His party wants him to stop. His cabinet wants him to stop. The vast majority of people in the country want him to stop. Our demonstration can intensify that pressure to breaking point.
Stop the War has not experienced anything like it since the run up to the Iraq war in 2003. Over 1000 people every day are contacting the Stop the War office. They want to be on our mailing list. They want to know what they can do to build Saturday's emergency demonstration in London. They want to know where to get leaflets, where coaches are arranged to transport people to London. They want to donate to help fund the demonstration.
WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW: WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1 DONATE: We have had the most fantastic response to our emergency financial appeal, from pensioners sending us a few pounds to peers in the House of Lords. But we still need much more to help fund the demonstration and publicise it as widely as we can. Please donate whatever you can big or small. GO HERE TO DONATE: http://tinyurl.com/qvzt5
2 LEAFLET EVERYWHERE: Download the demonstration leaflet from our website and distribute it as widely as you can. Encourage everyone you know to join the demonstration and spread the word among their friends, work colleagues, neighbours etc. Leaflet mosques (we're getting a phenomenal response), churches, community centres, libraries, tube and bus stations.
DOWNLOAD LEAFLET: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
If you are in London, get leaflets from the Stop the War office: 020 7278 6694.
3 OUTSIDE LONDON: If you are outside of London, find out about coaches in your area on our website. Get together with friends and book a coach yourselves and get everyone you know to buy a ticket. People who know about the demonstration want to be on it and want to know how to get there. There are dozens of coaches already booked from every corner of Britain. More are being booked every day. See our website: http://tinyurl.com/fzq2g
4 IN LONDON: If you live in London and have time to help this week, contact the Stop the War office. We have much to do to ensure that the people of London know about the demonstration and to prepare for Saturday. We need help for mailouts, to make placards, to leaflet mosques, churches, community groups etc. We need help to steward the demonstration on Saturday. TELEPHONE 020 7278 6694
5 THURSDAY IS TUBE LEAFLETTING DAY. We are making Thursday 3 August tube leafletting day. We need every tube station in London leafletted in the morning and evening. Leaflets are available from the Stop the War office. Contact us now if you can help. 020 7278 6694. Email office@stopwar.org.uk
6 KEEP SIGNING THE TONY BLAIR LETTER
Get everyone you know to sign the letter to Tony Blair, which we will hand in to Downing Street during the demonstration on Saturday. We are being sent thousands of signatures by post and email. Many thousands are signing online. SIGN HERE: http://tinyurl.com/rgdwt
7 HELP STEWARD THE DEMONSTRATION. We need stewards urgently to help on the day of the demonstration. If you can help, phone 020 7278 6694
NATIONAL EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION
UNCONDITIONAL CEASEFIRE NOW
STOP ISRAEL'S ATTACKS ON LEBANON AND GAZA
END TONY BLAIR'S SUPPORT FOR BUSH'S WARS
Italian Antiwar MPs
A Call for International Solidarity
by Gilbert Achcar; July 09, 2006
Eight members of the Italian Senate and two members of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, all belonging to the left-wing of the ruling coalition (l'Unione, led by Prime Minister Romano Prodi) have announced their intention to vote against the government on the issue of Afghanistan. Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's previous Premier and George W. Bush's buddy, had sent 1,300 Italian troops to Afghanistan as a component of the Nato force operating there, as well as 2,600 troops to Iraq as part of Bush's "coalition of the willing."
The new "center-left" government, betraying the expectations of the majority of its electors, has announced a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq that doesn't differ much from the one Berlusconi had already negotiated with the US government. At the same time, l'Unione has proclaimed its intention to extend the mission of Italian troops in Afghanistan, despite the fact that Nato forces in that country, recently redeployed toward the South, are increasingly engaged in war activities, acting as US auxiliary forces. Even if Italian troops were not sent to the South, they would nevertheless be part of Nato's war-machine. The Afghan people are of course entitled to security, but neither US troops, nor the troops of the US-dominated Nato, can provide this.
Since l'Unione holds no majority in the Senate without the eight Senators, there is tremendous pressure being exerted on the latter to get them to change their stance, in the name of coalition solidarity and interest, including a threat to move the decree by means of a vote of confidence that would face them with the choice between reneging on their stance or letting the government fall. However, the latter threat is defused by the announcement by some members of the "center-right" that they will vote for the decree extending the mission of Italian troops in Afghanistan, as they don't want to abstain on an issue that they support wholeheartedly, particularly since the Afghan deployment was initiated by the Berlusconi government to which they belonged.
To counter the pressures exerted on them, the antiwar MPs have launched a petition and called for expressions of support. These will be reported at an important antiwar assembly, organized by the Peace movement and the antiwar MPs, to be held in Rome on July 15. The debate and vote in the Senate will take place in the last week of July.
The build-up of support, including international support, for the antiwar Italian MPs is thus very important for their fight and their ability to resist the pressure.
There are two ways for supporting them: either by signing the petition at www.sinistracritica.org (see below for an English translation of the petition and the information needed to sign it) or -- if you are well-known in Italy or represent a well-known organization -- by directly sending them a message to: nironi1973@libero.it. Noam Chomsky's message to the MPs sent on July 7 (see below) got a wide publicity in Italy and was reported and quoted in the mainstream media.
The Petition
DON'T VOTE FOR THIS MISSION
A call for support of the Senators and Deputies who have announced that they will vote against the decree for re-funding of the [Italian participation in the Nato] mission in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, there is a war in which Italy fully participates through the mission led by Nato.
The Prodi government, carrying on from the previous government, has decided to maintain Italian troops in Afghanistan without changing in any way their military presence.
These last years, we have protested "with no if and no but" against all wars, including the war in Afghanistan.
For these reasons, Italy cannot and should not participate in this mission, and pacifist left-wing forces, starting with the PRC, should not support it.
We call on members of Parliament to cast a vote that is consistent with their own convictions, and we call on l'Unione to acknowledge this clear stance and make a turn toward an "exit strategy" from Afghanistan in conformity with article 11 of the [Italian] constitution that is written in the governmental program.
[Following is the translation of the headings for the information that needs to be filled in in order to sign the petition]
Nome e Cognome [first and last name]
Indirizzo e-mail [E-mail address]
Città [City and Country]
Struttura [Organization; you can also write here instead your profession or whatever information about you is relevant; if you wish to leave that space blank, just type any character in]
After filling the four spaces, click on Invia [Send]
Noam Chomsky's Letter to the Italian Antiwar MPs
Dear friends,
I have learned of your courageous stand against Italy's participation in military operations of NATO, as it is being converted into an international intervention force subordinate to the United States. Expansion of NATO to the East, in violation of firm guarantees to Gorbachev when he agreed to a unified Germany within NATO, was already a very serious threat to international peace and security, even apart from the deceit. The new and still more expansive role NATO is assuming poses serious threats to international order. I would like to express my personal appreciation for your insistence on upholding the principles of Article 11 of the Italian Constitution, that "Italy repudiates war as an instrument of offence against the liberty of other peoples and as a means of resolving international disputes; accepts, on the condition of equality with the other States, the limitations on sovereignty required for an order which ensures peace and justice between Nations; promotes and encourages the international organisations established with that end."
Sincerely yours,
Noam Chomsky
Bush Crimes Commission Update
Over the last two months, teams from the Bush Crimes Commission have fanned out across the country, speaking to audiences on 16 campuses, including Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, M.I.T., U. of Chicago, and U.C.L.A.* We now have plans for major events in the fall, that will, with your help, continue to spread the testimony from the Commission and its findings.
Gen. Karpinski, Daphne Wysham, and Ann Wright at U.C.L.A.
In city after city, students, faculty, and community members were all moved by first-hand accounts of the crimes being committed in our name. Some of the key witnesses who testified had themselves been participants or eye-witnesses to these events who could no longer be silent. These included Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former commander of all prison facilities in Iraq; Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan; Ray McGovern, the former CIA analyst who recently took on Donald Rumsfeld at a public program in Atlanta; Ann Wright, former U.S. diplomat in Kabul; Daniel Ellsberg; and many more.**
These programs gave students a sense of the scope of the shocking crimes being committed by this regime, and called them to action: to change the terms of debate on their campus and society as a whole. For once people grasp the enormity of these crimes, they cannot but feel an obligation to make them stop and to ensure that they never happen again.
Most came to these programs because they already held grave concerns for what the Bush regime is doing. But hearing the full scale and scope of crimes that shock the conscience of humanity caused audience members on campus after campus to tell us that this was the most powerful program they have ever been to. These are crimes against humanity, and they must be branded as such and those responsible must be held accountable.
Over this summer, we want to complete the set of DVDs that document the core evidence presented before the Commission. They will be something you can use in classrooms, at meetings and house parties, and for broadcast on local television. They will be a powerful weapon as we go into a tumultuous fall.
All this costs money. The spring tour cost over $18,000. The fall programs, which will include major forums in key cities, will cost at least $50,000 beyond the money raised in each locality.
$50 from each person receiving this mailing will ensure the completion of the DVD series right now, and prepare the printing of the Commission’s final verdict. So please give generously. You may contribute on line at www.nion.us/NSOC/sign.htm or make your check payable to Not In Our Name and mail to Not In Our Name, 305 West Broadway #199, New York, NY 10013.
Finally, we invite you to start participating in our new web site: www.bushcommision.org. Our redesigned site is interactive, and if you create a user account, you can post your comments on the work of the Commission (look for the “add new comment” at the bottom of most pages).
When we first set out last year to prosecute this administration for crimes against humanity, many were skeptical that the charges could be made to “stick.” Now, after the massacre at Haditha, international condemnation of Guantánamo, further destruction of the environment, sabotage of international programs to defeat AIDS, and the newest revelations that the levees around New Orleans were fatally flawed from the start, can there be any doubt?
Now the issue is, will millions get to see the hard evidence and act in time? What is the responsibility of each of to see that this happens?
* The complete of campuses, in chronological order, is Berkeley, Hawaii, Sarah Lawrence, John Marshall Law School, Lake Forest, Columbia College, Harvard, M.I.T, Berkeley (2nd time), Stanford, Santa Cruz, Sonoma State, Northwestern, U. of Chicago, UCLA, and U. of Washington. We did all these events in two months, which shows what becomes possible as people see the urgency of the situation.
** Other participants included Vanessa Brocato, Joshua Dawson, Larry Everest, Ted Glick, Clark Kissinger, Taigen Dan Leighton, Peter Phillips, Cindy Sheehan, Stephan Sonnenberg, Daphne Wysham, and Philip Zimbardo.
|
