Sunday March 28 2010, 1PM Gaza & Egypt 2009, Arlington West Film
LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
6522 Hollywood, Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Los Angeles delegates from the Gaza Freedom March 2009, Dara Wells-Hajjar
and Shae Popovich will relay experiences of their recent trip to Gaza and
Cairo. They will share stories, photos and art from this extremely dangerous
but powerful trip. They will also discuss how we can continue the work to
change global public opinion around Gaza and the occupied territories.
The afternoon will also include a screening of Arlington West and a
presentation by the film makers, Sally Marr and Peter Dudar.
I hope, for the sake of peace, that young people all over the country will
see ARLINGTON WEST and come face to face with the consequences of war.--
Howard Zinn
Sunday April 11 2010, 1PM Film screenings:
Panama Deception: Exposing the Cover Up!
Cover Up: Behind the Iran Contra Affair
Destination Nicaragua
Thursday April 15 2010, 7pm Artists for a New South Africa, screening and
presentation.
LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
6522 Hollywood, Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Center For the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) Exhibit:
Art Against Empire uses the power of posters to document 60 years of
opposition to U.S. interventions into the domestic affairs of sovereign
nations. Political, economic and military interventions, many of them
covert, have repeatedly resulted in unacceptable deaths and misery for
millions. These posters show hopes and dreams, and the pain of dreams
destroyed.
Art Against Empire will showcase over 100 political posters in the LACE
galleries, spanning two dozen sovereign nations including Korea, Vietnam,
the Philippines, Guatemala, Haiti, Cuba, Iran, and South Africa. It attempts
to inform, challenge and inspire by confronting the viewer with images of
past struggles that remain powerfully relevant today. It both raises
questions about past interventions and fosters debate about present ones.
The exhibition will also provide insight into why the amount of devastation
caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti can be linked to its long history
of French colonialism and U.S. imperialism.
The United States is the focus of this exhibition. As citizens, we are
ultimately responsible for the actions that are taken by our government in
our name. Censorship and repression, so prevalent in wartime, invariably
attempt to eliminate dissent, thereby violating the principles on which this
democracy was founded. These posters document the efforts of people who
refuse to remain silent and who use the power of art to inspire action.
***
ZCommunications.orgFrom: no-reply@zcommunications.org
Israel Is an Apartheid State and That is Why They Are Losing Legitimacy
By Judy Rebick
Rebick's ZSpace Page: March 4, 2010
Before Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) even began members of the Ontario
Legislature and the Canadian Parliament are falling all over each other to
denounce it. I can't remember another time when elected legislators formally
denounced a student activity like this. Perhaps during the 1950s when
McCarthyism was rampant but that was before my time.
Last week the Ontario Legislature unanimously passed a resolution denouncing
Israel Apartheid Week submitted by PC Peter Shure who said calling Israel an
apartheid state was "close to hate speech." While there were only 30 MPPs in
the Legislature at the time, NDP MPP Cheri di Novo was one of them and spoke
in favour of the resolution. This week a Conservative MP is introducing a
resolution calling IAW anti-Semitic.
Before I deal with why these unprecedented attacks are taking place, I'd
like to share with you a great talk I heard last night at Ryerson from
Na'eem Jeena activist and academic from South Africa who works for
Palestinian solidarity. He told us that South African apartheid had three
pillars of apartheid and Israel shares all three.
1. Different rights for different races. In the case of Israel, it is
different rights for Jews and for non-Jews. For example the law of return of
1950 says Jews can return to Israel and be given citizenship even if they
have no links to the country other than mythical biblical ones; whereas
Palestinians cannot return even if their parents or grandparents lived
there.
2. Separation of so-called racial groups into different geographical areas.
Even within the borders of Israel, 93 percent of land is reserved as a
national land trust or Jewish National Fund land is for the exclusive use of
Jews. The 20 percent of the population that is Palestinians living in Israel
have to share access to the 7 percent of private land that is left. The
Israeli Supreme Court has made a number of decisions that Palestinians
cannot live on Jewish lands. There are not only residential areas that are
banned to Palestinians but there are separate roads for Jews and
Palestinians. That was never true in South Africa even in times of crisis.
Moreover Palestinians have less access to water than Jews living nearby.
Finally the movement of Palestinians is severely restricted much more so
than were blacks in South Africa. The famous pass laws in South Africa meant
that blacks had to show government issued passes to move around but
Palestinians are even more restricted by walls and checkpoints and if they
live in the Gaza Strip can't leave at all.
3. Security and Repression Matrix of Laws and Security. There was serious
repression in the black townships but there were never tanks or planes
buzzing overhead like there is in West Bank. Israeli military violence
against Palestinian communities, says Jeena, is far worse than anything
suffered by blacks in South Africa during apartheid.
If Israel is becoming a pariah in the world it is not because of
anti-Semitism, it is because they are practicing a form of apartheid even
more egregious than that practiced in South Africa. Others have compiled
comments from some of the most respected leaders of the anti-apartheid
movement in South Africa who see what Israel is doing as apartheid. There is
a reason why the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign is
strongest in South Africa. People there recognize apartheid when they see
it.
Finally the UN Convention on Apartheid condemns the crime of apartheid that
refers to a series of inhuman acts - including murder, torture, arbitrary
arrest, illegal imprisonment, exploitation, marginalization, and
persecution - committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining the
domination of one racial group by another. If the shoe fits.
So why are politicians including some from the NDP setting a student
activity like IAW in their sites? An all party coalition of parliamentarians
has been holding hearings on what they call the "new anti-Semitism," by
which they mean criticism of Israel. They heard from every University
President who appeared before them that there is no rise of anti-Semitism on
their campuses and yet the false rumours of such a rise persist because of
the equation of criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Israel is beginning
to see that the non-violent anti-apartheid and BDS (Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions) movement is a greater threat to their power than the any military
threat. In Israel and Palestine, they are moving to arrest non-violent
activists who are leading the movement there. And they are using all their
economic and political power to push friendly governments to move against
these protests. But there is a problem. It's called democracy and freedom of
speech. However much you might disagree that Israel practices apartheid, you
cannot shut down a discussion of the issue or a demonstration or
disinvestment campaign against Israel because freedom of speech is a
fundamental democratic right in most Western countries. In Canada, the only
way to shut down the movement is to vilify it as hateful or anti-Semitic.
That is what our parliamentarians are now trying to do.
I am Jewish and have been working on and off for Palestinian rights for many
years, as have many other Jews who feel a special responsibility to speak
out against injustices committed by Israel. During that time, I have rarely
experienced any anti-Semitism. In the IAW organizing, I have experienced
none. If Israel is losing legitimacy in the world, it is because of what
their government is doing to the Palestinians, not because of anti-Semitism.
This attempt to shut down criticism of Israel is the most frightening
assault on freedom of speech I have ever seen in this country. Whether or
not you think Israeli Apartheid Week is the best name for this week of
discussion supporting Palestinian rights, please write your MP and your MPP
and tell them you think it is wrong for Parliamentarians to denounce this
kind of educational activity. o
Judy Rebick is the CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy and
maintains a blog at www.transformingpower.ca where this article first
appeared.
From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
http://www.zcommunications.org/israel-is-an-apartheid-state-and-that-is-why-they-are-losing-legitimacy-by-judy-rebick
.
Commentaries: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/
No comments:
Post a Comment