[lbo-talk] Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement -- Register Now

Michael Pugliese debsian at pacbell.net
Sun Aug 3 13:15:48 PDT 2003


Re: Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of the PalestineSolidarity Movement -- Register Now To: marxism at lists.panix.com Subject: Re: Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of the PalestineSolidarity Movement -- Register Now From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2003 13:10:39 -0400 In-reply-to: <p05001910bb526cac1d9f@[140.254.114.141]> References: <p05001910bb526cac1d9f@[140.254.114.141]> Reply-To: marxism at lists.panix.com Sender: owner-marxism at lists.panix.com

In response to my request that UFPJ endorse the Third National Student Conference on the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, Nadia Hijab of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (@ <http://www.endtheoccupation.org/>) has brought to my attention that at least seven Arab NJ Solidarity steering committee members resigned in protest of the practice of the other steering committee members and issued a public statement indicting their unwise choices and undemocratic means -- see below for both Nadia's postings and the public statement in question. Given the problems in NJ Solidarity, I put my request for endorsement on hold, pending a major change in NJ Solidarity's practice.
> Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2003 07:45:33 -0400
> From: Nadia Hijab
> Subject: Re: [ufpj-pal] Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of the
> Palestine Solidarity Movement
>
> Thanks Yoshie for all your hard work on the draft and on keeping members
> of this group informed about different events. I look forward to seeing
> the draft after Rania and Josh have had a chance to go over it.
>
> Re the upcoming conference at Rutgers below, I would not support
> recommending it for SC endorsement because New Jersey Solidarity is now a
> splinter group of the original.
>
> The remaining members reportedly used non-democratic means to push a
> platform that divided the group (pasting a new statement on the website
> and locking out the other members), and the Arab and Palestinian members
> had no option but to leave the group. We at the US Campaign to End the
> Israeli Occupation have removed NJ Solidarity from our list. My
> understanding is that ISM has also done so.
>
> I'm pasting below the public statement by the members who left the group.
> Best, Nadia
>
>> Public Statement from former NJ Solidarity Steering Committee Members
>>
>> We the undersigned, former steering committee members of NJ Solidarity,
>> would like to publicly and officially sever any and all ties with the
>> current leadership of NJ Solidarity.
>>
>> Recently, NJ Solidarity has taken a very radical turn towards something
>> akin to militancy. We, the majority of its steering committee, have
>> resigned to protect ourselves from what we have been advising others to
>> avoid.
>>
>> The NJS Mission Statement was originally crafted to provide a safe
>> environment for activism and dialogue on issues affecting Palestine and
>> its people. The few members which remain with NJS have far different
>> visions for the organization.
>>
>> NJS members have recently been involved in actions that have been
>> thoughtless and immoral with regards to administrative matters. A window
>> on this pattern of incident shows that the foundation of NJS, its
>> mission statement, remains in theory but has been cast aside in practice
>> by a number of its members. Those who prefer reckless rhetoric have
>> tried amending the Mission Statement to include "Israel has no right to
>> exist" and have openly welcomed the idea of inviting Hamas to events. We
>> have had debates against Steering Committee persons who hold tight to
>> the idea that there are no Israeli civilians and when confronted with
>> "even the kids?" the reply was "yes, everyone's fair game". This has
>> been escalating for a number of months now. It has gone well past the
>> point of return.
>>
>> After a final week of attempted dialogue with the aforementioned, we
>> have been received with an increased pattern of deception. A series of
>> deception now aimed at Steering Committee members, who held tight to
>> upholding the Mission Statement, has forced us to resign our services to
>> the organization for our own safety and for fear of the future
>> principles of this organization.
>>
>> We expect those who remain on the NJS Steering Committee to displace
>> blame for these incidents, or perhaps deny they ever occurred. Hopefully
>> this will not be the case as we are all here to work for truth and
>> justice. But if this comes to light we remind people that under the
>> original NJS policy of complete transparency, we are comfortable in
>> knowing that those who scrutinize our position will find it thoroughly
>> upheld with quality materials.
>>
>> We are passionate about Palestine and its people and dedicated to truth
>> and empowerment, but we realize that there is a right and just way or a
>> wrong and treacherous way to do things. We have chosen not to follow the
>> latter. We will, however, continue to work within our communities and
>> with one another to build similar mechanisms to continue to educate and
>> empower our communities on issues of relevance.
>>
>> Mona Abdallah
>> Basem Hassan
>> Iman Mohammed
>> Abeer Mustafa
>> Enam Saadeh
>> Summer Sharaf
>> Jamal Al Din Talib
> Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2003 10:30:51 -0400
> From: Nadia Hijab
> Subject: Re: [ufpj-pal] Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of the
> Palestine Solidarity Movement
>
> Yoshie, I agree that it is important for the information to get out as
> widely as possible.
>
> Just for a bit more background: when we were discussing this on the US
> Campaign Steering Committee, I checked the NJ Solidarity website and it
> contained language that said the Palestinians had the right to resist
> using any means possible. The right to resist occupation is recognized
> under international law, but attacks on civilians violate international
> law.
>
> I had been invited to speak at Rutgers last November (before the split)
> and met both Charlotte Kates and Summer Sharaf, who had organized my
> talk. After we removed NJ Solidarity from the Campaign list, I sent an
> email to Charlotte Kates explaining our decision on the basis that their
> positions violated international law, and invited her to call me if she
> wanted to discuss this further, but she did not do so.
>
> If you do forward my message, please remove my email address as I don't
> want to get on to any listservs - I have enough problems dealing with my
> Inbox as is!
>
> All the best, Nadia
-- Yoshie * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/> References: Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of the Palestine SolidarityMovement -- Register Now From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> Prev by Date: Lou: Re: ISO criticism of DSP & reply Next by Date: Re: ISO criticism of DSP & reply Prev by thread: Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of the Palestine SolidarityMovement -- Register Now Next by thread: Wall Street's role in Argentina collapse Index(es): Date Thread



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