The Israeli government’s recent announcement of Army order No. 1,650 was just the latest act of provocation in a series of calculated measures to derail any possible resumption of peace negotiations. Under this new draconian measure, anyone who doesn’t have a “permit” to be in the West Bank is to be considered an “infiltrator” and subject to expulsion or risk up to seven years in jail.
Expulsions and deportations are not something new for the Israeli military administrative system which was established in 1969, shortly after the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War. At the time, the Israeli military was given the legal power to expel “infiltrators” without trial for various unspecified “security reasons.”
The following is an interview with Ryan Hecker, the 29-year-old, Houston-based Tea Party activist responsible for the Contract from America, the statement of 10 principles for the Tea Party movement that was unveiled this week.
The interview was conducted on Wednesday (hence Tax Day, April 15th, referred to as “tomorrow). Hecker let people vote on their favorite principles for the movement on his website beginning in March, narrowing the list down to a final 10. The document was advertised by Tea Party groups at rallies on Tax Day.
The author spoke at the Revolution Books Town Hall Meeting at Ethical Culture Society on January 13, 2009 condemning Israel and USA complicity in Israel’s murderous destruction and genocide of the innocent men, women and children of GAZA and the West Bank.
Dedicated to the children of GAZA.
Score: Angels Of The Universe.
Song: b um b um bambal.
Composed By: Sigur Ros & Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson.
Chris Hedges graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School and was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for the New York Times and other publications. He shared the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. In his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (Public Affairs, 2002), Hedges gives an account of the “intoxication” of war, which he covered in regions around the world, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. His most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Nation Books, 2009).
Note: I am available this summer from June 26-July 10 for talks in Southern Europe especially on issues of popular resistance to Israeli apartheid and direct stories from under the colonial occupation. Invitations to speak to groups, universities, and conferences would be considered depending on the tour schedule and first contacts receiving first priorities. For a biography, see http://www.qumsiyeh.org/aboutqumsiyeh/
We had a meaningful event commemorating Deir Yassin massacre in Beit Sahour on Friday even as the Israeli regime holds memorials at Yad Vashem overlooking the village ruins and ignoring the injustice of building a state on the ruins of another people’s lands. We had a good trip to Birzeit and Ramallah Saturday (and a talk by the mayor of Bethlehem Saturday night) and participated in more actions on Sunday. Representing the popular committee against the wall and settlements in Beit Sahour, we joined with our friends in Beit Jala, a town which lost nearly half its land to Israeli Jewish-only colonial settlements over the past four decades. Now town residents are prevented from getting to additional areas near the apartheid walls and bypass roads (all to serve illegal Jewish colonies on Palestinian land). The weekly Sunday demonstration proceeded as expected: soldiers stretching barbed wire across the road, activists speaking to those present (including soldiers) in Arabic, English, and Hebrew. There was a poignant moment when a young German girl tried to speak to a soldier who even refused to look her in the eye.
We then drove to Hebron to show a visiting teacher from Denver what it is like to have 400 racist settlers ruin life for 150,000 Palestinians. The settlers took over some buildings, built a few other sites and make life in this largest Palestinian city hell for its inhabitants (Hebron is largest now because cities like Nazareth, Jerusalem, and Jaffa have had much of their Palestinian population ethnically cleansed). On the way to Hebron we stopped by to visit our friend Musa Abu Maria in Beit Ummar only to be told by his family that he was arrested the day before by the Israeli occupation authorities. He was arrested while helping farmers in their land where settlers repeatedly uprooted trees.
I am trying to get a steadier hand and better editing for youtube videos of these things. Below is my latest attempt which I end by a more mundane segment showing poor children who we took to a park ( they have not been to a park for 2 years). We had Knaffa (Palestinian dessert) with those children at that time but did not have the camera then so I show what Knaffa looks like in Bethlehem with our small group that visited Hebron earlier. Awad Abu Swai, spokesman of the Popular Campaign against the wall and settlements is visible. Anyway, here is the video
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