On
the campaign against Omar Barghouti (by Haidar Eid) http://mondoweiss.net/2017/04/campaign-against-barghouti/
Petition:
Drop the charges on Omar Barghouthi
Statement
from Omar Barghouti:
Dear
friends and colleagues,
Finally,
I was allowed to access my email account after 12 days of being banned from
doing so during the most intense phase of the ongoing interrogation I am
subjected to by the Israeli authorities. The BNC statement on this issue
accurately sums up this latest chapter in the Israeli regime's war on the BDS
movement.
Due
to a gag order, I am not allowed to delve into any facts about the case. I am
thus denied the ability to even refute the vicious lies published by Israel's
regime against me. I am in no hurry to do so, though, as their main objective
-- attempting to tarnish my reputation and, by extension, hurting the BDS
movement -- has clearly failed. Their campaign of repression has, to an extent,
backfired. By preventing me from travelling to the US to receive the Gandhi
Peace Award, jointly with Ralph Nader, Israel's regime has inadvertently
increased the publicity around this award.
Before
anything else, I read the many moving messages of solidarity that many of you
have sent, and this gave me even more strength and hope to resist the
McCarthyite witch hunt against me. I deeply appreciate your letters and the
sincere sentiments of support that they convey. I am so grateful to everyone
who wrote an article and every organization that issued a petition in this respect.
Nothing
empowers human rights defenders facing political persecution like the warm
feeling that there is a whole community of activists and people of conscience
standing with them and carrying on the struggle no matter what.
For
more than a year now my colleagues in the BDS movement and I have been warning
about the "tarnishing unit" established by the Israeli Ministry of
Strategic Affairs as a key organ in fighting BDS. As I have personally written
and argued many times, this devious unit's key function is summed up in "digging
up dirt" against human rights defenders and networks associated with the
BDS movement and if no dirt is found in fabricating it.
McCarthy
would be proud of his loyal heirs in Israel's regime of oppression and
repression. Many of you have asked how best you can support me to face this
latest persecution. My answer is, without hesitation ... more BDS!
We
need to expand, mainstream and build on our many inspiring BDS campaigns,
academic, cultural and economic, as the most effective way to respond to the
new McCarthyism designed by Israel's regime of occupation, settler-colonialism
and apartheid and exported to states where its lobby groups enjoy massive
influence.
Further
growing our movement for freedom, justice and equality is the answer.
Highlighting and popularizing the recent, unprecedented verdict by a UN body
that Israel is guilty of apartheid -- the second most serious crime against
humanity in international law -- is the answer.
Countering
their racism, hate, "black lists" and ugly colonial repression with
our inclusiveness, categorical rejection of all forms of racism, and our
boundless passion for freedom and justice is the answer. Further strengthening
our principled intersectional alliances with movements for indigenous, racial,
economic, social, gender, climate and other forms of justice is our loudest
response to their xenophobic, far-right, fascist-leaning agenda and their
draconian laws.
As
they desperately attempt to sow fear and despair, to chill our free speech, to
tarnish our records, and to bully us into silence, we nourish our well-founded
hope with generous doses of effective, strategic, morally-consistent campaigns
for justice and equality and insist on our right to freely express ourselves
and to defend our rights.
As
humans, we need permission from no one to pursue our inherent rights. As human
rights defenders, no degree of intimidation and bullying can deter us in our
passionate, nonviolent resistance to injustice, inequality and colonial
slavery.
Alone,
we fail. Together, we prevail. The latest savage, even irrational, attacks on
our movement indicate, more than anything else, that we are indeed prevailing.
In
gratitude and hope,
Omar
========
March
10th, 2017
Dear
Excellencies, Mr. François Hollande, President de la Republique Mr.
Bernard
Cazeneuve, Premier Ministre Mr. Michel Cadot, Préfet de Police de Paris
We
are writing to you as Jewish citizens of the State of Israel who are opposed to
the illegal and immoral practice of the Israeli governments over the years. It
has come to our attention that attempts are currently underway in the city of
Paris, to restrict and even ban altogether the ongoing demonstrations in
support of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign against Israeli
human rights violations. It is therefore of utmost importance for us to state,
as clearly as possible, that the BDS campaign is not anti-Semitic and is
clearly opposed to all forms of racism. Rather than being racist, it is founded
on the strong basis of adhering to international law and universally respected
human rights. Only recently, on March 7th, 2017, the campaign unequivocally
stated1
that :
Adhering
to the UN definition of racial discrimination, the BDS movement does not
tolerate any act or discourse which adopts or promotes, among others,
anti-Black racism, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism,
xenophobia, or homophobia. We strongly condemn apartheid, genocide, slavery,
colonial exploitation and ethnic cleansing, which are crimes against humanity
that are founded on racism and racial supremacy, and we call for the right of
their victims, including descendants, to full reparation. We equally condemn
and stand in solidarity with the victims of other human rights violations
including human trafficking, workers’ exploitation, and sexual exploitation.
Furthermore, we are appalled by the false accusations made by Ms.
Kosciusko-Morizet, in a letter of February 15th 2017 to Mr. Cadot, le Préfet de
Police, where it is claimed that the BDS discourse amounts to hate speech.
We
are clearly opposed to Israel’s grave violations of international law,
including its practice of the Crime of Apartheid as defined in the Rome Statute
and we are unapologetic about it. Our demand to end Israeli apartheid is a
clear expression of love towards all the residents of Israel-Palestine, along
with our insistence on the most basic values of equality, freedom and justice
for all. It would be outrageous if France, of all states, would ban freedom of
expression of its population who insist on respect of the law and on these
fundamental human values which are the very foundational elements of the French
constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
We
therefore urge you to respect and protect the rights of those who challenge
Israel’s severe human rights violations and to protect your French citizens who
campaign on behalf of the BDS movement to be able to freely do so, without
being intimidated with legal persecution or with physical threats as had
happened in the past.
Sincerely,
Ronnie
Barkan
Einav
Kaplan-Raz
Maya
Rotem
Lia
Tarachansky
Guy
Davidi
Ron
Merom
Lizi
Sagie
Tamara
Traubmann De-Colonizer
Ofer
Neiman
Herzl
Schubert
Michel
Warschawski
Shir
Hever
Lorien
Newman
Stavit
Sinai
Sergio
Yahni
Yudit
Ilany
Jonathan
Ofir
Eyal
Sivan
Yael
Kahn
=================
Stay
Human
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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