Human Rights

I was planning to go on a trip to Venezuela as an international delegate from the US working class section for “The Congress of the Peoples (El Congreso de los Pueblos)” conference, which was also the bicentennial for an important battle for the independence of Venezuela, led by the liberator Bolivar, the Battle of Carabobo in 1821. People from all over the world were coming, not just from this hemisphere, I was especially looking forward to meeting comrades from Libya, a country whose history I have studied extensively, and which is still suffering the consequences of the NATO invasion 10 years ago. It is interesting to note that June 23rd Micaela Bastidas, who is mentioned in the speech, and I was unaware of till after writing it, had her birthday. The conference was from June 21st-24th. I also mention Evo Morales, who I later found out was present at the conference. There were logistical problems in the last moment and I could not go, but I plan to go in the fall. This is the speech I would have gave had I been able to go. There were many speakers, I did a video reading it, but it was unable to be shown.

“The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie.”

I offer these words of Nikole Hannah-Jones, whose 2019 essay is part of the New York Times Magazine’s “1619 Project,” to the Heritage Foundation and the horde of Republican politicians currently trying to update the look and feel of American racism (a.k.a., “the lie”), to make it, you know, respectable and politically correct, so that it fits seamlessly into the mores of the 21st century.

The political discourse of Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, is similar to that of an ineffectual king who has been isolated in his palace for far too long. The king speaks of prosperity and peace, and tirelessly counts his innumerable achievements, while his people are dying of starvation outside and pointlessly begging for his attention.

 But Abbas is no ordinary king. He is a ‘president’ by name only, a designated ‘leader’ simply because Israel and the US-led international political system insist on recognizing him as such. Not only had the man’s political mandate expired in 2009, it was quite limited even prior to that date.  At no point in his career did Abbas ever represent the entire Palestinian people. Now, at 85 years, chances are Abbas will never serve this role.

he Palestinian-Israeli nightmare has a solution: men must exit the process.

The blood rivalry is deepening. It’s being used to fuel anti-Jewish/anti-Muslim hatred, spiraling into an epic abyss extending far beyond the Middle East. Global catastrophe stares us in the face.

Parallel disputes have been mitigated, including Northern Ireland’s unhinged 350-year Catholic-Protestant civil war, where women played a key role in bringing about peace.

But this one stands alone. It demands a game-changer.

As everywhere, men are responsible for nearly all the violence. We must now defer to the ultimate arbiters of birth and survival — women.

Only those who bear the first joy and pain of childbirth can grasp the magnitude of this situation.

Here’s how it can go:

Simultaneous referenda must be staged within the Israeli and Palestinian communities.

The ceasefire on May 21 has, for now, brought the Israeli war on Gaza to an end. However, this ceasefire is not permanent and constant Israeli provocations anywhere in Palestine could reignite the bloody cycle all over again.

The ‘Palestinian Revolt of 2021’ will go down in history as one of the most influential events that irreversibly shaped collective thinking in and around Palestine. Only two other events can be compared with what has just transpired in Palestine: the revolt of 1936 and the First Intifada of 1987. 

Have you been asked about your support for Palestinian's?   Mr. Qumsiyeh offers some help.

On April 1, a mural appeared in the Southern Italian city of Naples, depicting Palestinian workers lining at an Israeli military checkpoint near the occupied city of Bethlehem, in the West Bank. It is called ‘Welcome to Bethlehem’.

The mural, which quickly became popular in the town and on social media, was the work of a well-known Italian artist and photographer, Eduardo Castaldo.

Castaldo, who is a cinematic and television photographer, is not your typical artist, as he dedicates part of his time and efforts to championing struggles for human rights, equality and justice, especially in Palestine and throughout the Middle East.  

There are two separate Sheikh Jarrah stories—one read and watched in the news and another that receives little media coverage or due analysis.

The obvious story is that of the nightly raids and violence meted out by Israeli police and Jewish extremists against Palestinians in the devastated East Jerusalem neighborhood.

For weeks, thousands of Jewish extremists have targeted Palestinian communities in Jerusalem's Old City. Their objective is the removal of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. They are not acting alone. Their riots and rampages are directed by a well-coordinated leadership composed of extremist Zionist and Jewish groups, such as the Otzma Yehudit party and the Lehava Movement. Their unfounded claims, violent actions and abhorrent chant "Death to the Arabs" are validated by Israeli politicians, such as Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Arieh King.

The decision on April 30 by Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, to ‘postpone’ Palestinian elections, which would have been the first in 15 years, will deepen Palestinian division and could, potentially, signal the collapse of the Fatah Movement, at least in its current form.