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>
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