The Foreign Policy Top 100 Global Thinkers

The Idiots in Foreign Policy didn't choose me as one of the globe 100 thinkers, AGAIN!.
Come on people what should I do?, Starting a revolution? But did we ever finished any, to start another one
"The Palestinian have a long list of unfinished revolutions!", plus it's so old school.
Standing up against a regime? No, I am such a cowered when it come to this.
Starting a social media site? Mehh, NERDS are not cool!!
So, out of desperation and laziness, I decided to declare myself the world best thinker, and those are my answers to Foreign Policy weird Questions!

MusePatrice Émery Lumumba Stimulus or austerity?Stimulus.America or China?I want a true freedom and a true democracy so Neither Arab Spring or Arab Winter?A long winters, before an even longer spring! Reading listWretched of the Earth by Frantz Fannon, We want freedom by Mumia Abu Jamal, and I write what I want by Steve Biko Best ideaThe people taking their faith into their handsWorst ideaThe PA going to the UN for a Palestinian state! 

In Solidarity with Egypt

Earlier tonight a group of Palestinian gathered at Al Manarah sq. in Ramallah, Palestine in solidarity with the Egyptian people who decided to take the street again, and return to Al Tahrir after the military dictators failed to meet the Jan25 revolution demands. 

The protest started in Friday November 18, until writing those lines the number of dead passed 30, and the injured is more than 1000. 

Palestinian holds a sign that read "we want a military code that can protect Egypt and liberate Palestine"

Palestinian holding signs during the protest

My takes on the Freedom Ride

In November 15, 2011, a group of Palestinian activist calling themselves the "freedom riders", attempted to ride "Israeli only" bus in its way to Jerusalem " all Israeli buses operating between the settlement in the occupied west bank don't allow Palestinian IN" , the action organizers said this action is to........ read the press release here

This action I didn't support, and those are my reasons:

1- The Name, "Freedom rides": Although the use of this name may help the average US citizen to relate the palestinian freedom ride with original freedom rides in the late 60's. It was a historical political statement against segregation and white supremacy.
Yet what the people missed is, average person will make the relation directly, they wont read the press release "how many people you think actually read". Next thing you know is tweets and posts "Brave Palestinian fighting the Israeli segregation in the West Bank demanding equality and social justice" specially if they knew so little about the conflict.

2- It was an educational event, introduced to the world as a Liberation act. YES, it was a great method to educate the world about Israel's segregation system in the occupied West Bank. Yet the the freedom ride  was introduced to the media as an act of liberation. which confused individuals and media outlets, turning the Palestinian struggles from a fight for liberation and decolonialization into a struggle for equality with colonizers and social justice.

3- All struggles for justice, equality, and freedom, all over the world, established its personal tactics in resisting oppression whether they used chooses Nonviolent as their weapon, such as the civil right movement, or used armed resistance such as the Cuban revolution.
At the same time Palestinian failed to establish their own resistance tactics, well, this is not fair, the Palestinian did establish their own tactics, they did adopt the popular war in the first Intifada".
In other hand when the Palestinian adopted nonviolent, they end up imitating other nations, without any creativity or consideration to the special case the Palestinian cause is.
They even used the same names for god sake "really? freedom rides!!?".
Using the wrong tool leads to the wrong out comes.. simple logic

4- Disengaging the average Palestinian. let me put it this way, when you do something almost half of the world know about it, at the same time your own people almost knew nothing about it, then what ever you do, does not represent them, but represent you as an individual or your group. In other words, you are doing it wrong.

5- finally, It just didn't feel right!

Best

Palestinian Freedom Riders to Ride Settler Buses to Jerusalem

Inspired by the Freedom Rides of the US Civil Rights Movement Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated Israeli settler buses to occupied East Jerusalem

Action video on Youtube

[Ramallah] Groups of Palestinian Freedom Riders will attempt to board segregated settler buses heading to Jerusalem through the occupied West Bank this Tuesday November 15, in an act of civil disobedience that takes its inspiration from the US Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders aim to challenge Israel’s apartheid policies, the ban on Palestinians’  access to Jerusalem, and the overall segregated reality created by a military and settler occupation that is the cornerstone of Israel’s colonial regime. While parallels exist between occupied Palestine and the segregated U.S. South in terms of the underlying racism and the humiliating treatment suffered then by blacks and now by Palestinians, there are also significant differences. In the 1960s U.S. South, black people had to sit in the back of the bus; in occupied Palestine, Palestinians are not even allowed ON the bus nor on the roads that the buses travel on, which are built on stolen Palestinian land.

In undertaking this action Palestinians do not seek the desegregation of settler buses, as the presence of these colonizers and the infrastructure that serves them is illegal and must be dismantled. As part of their struggle for freedom, justice and dignity, Palestinians demand the ability to be able to travel freely on their own roads, on their own land, including the right to travel to Jerusalem.

Palestinian activists also aim to expose two of the companies that profit from Israel’s apartheid policies and encourage global boycott of and divestment from them. The Israeli Egged and French Veolia bus companies operate dozens of segregated lines that run through the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, many of them subsidized by the state. Both companies are also involved in the Jerusalem Light Rail, a train project that links illegal settlements in East Jerusalem to the western part of the city. By facilitating population transfer into occupied Palestinian territory, Egged and Veolia are actively and knowingly complicit in Israel’s settlement enterprise, which the International Court of Justice has determined to be a breach of international law, and particularly Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting an occupying power from transferring part of its population into occupied territory.

This Tuesday, Palestinian Freedom Riders will head to Jewish-only bus stops in the West Bank and attempt to board the settler buses. Palestinians understand that this act of nonviolent disobedience may result in violent attacks and even death at the hands of Israeli settlers that are to Israel what the Klu Klux Klan was to the Jim Crow South, or the authorities that protect them. Nonetheless, the Freedom Riders believe that this act of civil resistance is necessary to draw the attention of the world to the immorality of Israel’s occupation and apartheid system as well as to compel justice-loving people to take a stand and divest from Egged, Veolia, and all companies that enable and profit from it.

The Freedom Riders will be joined by activists from all around the world who will stage activities in their cities that highlight the systematic oppression of Palestinians and the need to divest from Egged and Veolia.

For inquiries send an email to palestinianfreedomriders@gmail.com

For more Info visit the action BLOG 

Background

The buses that the Freedom Riders will be boarding are operated by the Egged, the largest Israeli public transportation company, and by the French transnational company Veolia. Both companies are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law due to their involvement in and profiting from Israeli's illegal settlement infrastructure. Palestinian Freedom Riders endorse the call for boycotting both companies, as well as all others involved in Israel’s violations of human rights and international law.[1]

In July 2011, an Egged subsidiary won a public tender to run bus services in the Waterland region of the Netherlands, north of Amsterdam. The company makes money from trampling on the rights of Palestinians and has been a target of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which is endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society. The Freedom Riders call on the people of the Netherlands to sever all dealings with companies, like Egged, involved in human rights violations.

Veolia, has been a target of an international divestment campaign or running bus lines through the West Bank connecting settlements to Jerusalem and for its involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail which connects Israel’s illegal settlements in and around occupied East Jerusalem to the western part of the city, thereby directly servicing the settlement enterprise.[2]

Over 42 percent of Palestinian land in the West Bank has been taken over for the building of Jewish settlements and their associated regime[3] (including the wall which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004), depriving local communities of access to their water resources as well as agricultural lands. Settling Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory constitutes a war crime according to the Fourth Geneva Convention[4] and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[5]

The occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip constitute only 22 percent of the Palestinian homeland from which over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in 1948 when the state of Israel was created. Since then, Palestinian refugees have been languishing in refugee camps and other places of exile, denied the right to return to their homes.

Settlements' infrastructure includes hundreds of kilometers of segregated roads that are forbidden for Palestinians to use. They carve deep into the West Bank further separating Palestinians and their cities and villages from each other.

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[1] Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/call.

[2] http://www.bigcampaign.org/veolia/

[3] B’tselem Report: “By Hook and By Crook, Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank, July 2010; summary available at: http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook.

[4] See “Israel’s settlement policy is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention,” The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza, highlighting the relevant articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention to support the determination that settlements are a war crime, athttp://www.pchrgaza.org/Intifada/Settlements.conv.htm; see also “Demolitions, new settlements in East Jerusalem could amount to war crimes – UN expert,” UN News Centre, June 29, 2010, at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35175&Cr=Palestin&Cr1.

[5] Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court prohibits “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

Eid is Here!

Every Eid night, I would take my new clothes, put them on my bed, look at them, putt them back in the closet, trying them, take them off after mom yelling on me for ruining them, telling me to wait for tomorrow.

I would get very excited to wake up at 5 in the morning so I can go with my dad to the Eid prayer then to the grave yard, before heading back to the family house where we all gather to have breakfast before we go in the day long Eid's trip, driving from one house to another, greeting relatives and passing Eidyeh "a symbolic amount of money the working men in the family usually give to the women and children". 

Visiting all those houses used and still take us 2 whole days to finish, always finish with stomachache from coffee and Ma'amool "Eid cookies stuffed with dates". 

4 years ago it hit me, what seemed, those enjoyable days I have twice every year are nothing but a boring routine, what used to be the best days of my life became just another day, in which I have to wake up very early, dress up for it, and then be nice to people you see twice a year. it's no longer amusing. 

Although I am aware this feeling is very much expected from someone in his med 20's,, yet I dearly miss having my old Eid, when everything was much simpler, with no concern but what to buy with those few hundred Shakels you curry around. I know time has changed so people, and I don't want them to change. It will be great if they did though,

Hijacking of MV Saoirse “Violent and Dangerous”

Irish Ship to Gaza National Coordinator Fintan Lane was able to make a phone call this afternoon from the Israeli prison in which he and 13 other Irish citizens are being held. He communicated the following to the Irish Ship to Gaza team in Dublin:

The takeover of the MV Saoirse was violent and dangerous. Despite very clear protests from the occupants of the two boats that they did not want to be taken to Israel, they were forcibly removed from the boats in a violent manner. The whole takeover took about three hours. It began with Israeli forces hosing down the boats with high pressure hoses and pointing guns at the passengers through the windows. I was hosed down the stairs of the boat. Windows were smashed and the bridge of the boat nearly caught fire. The boats were corralled to such an extent that the two boats, the Saoirse and the Tahrir, collided with each other and were damaged, with most of the damage happening to the MV Saoirse.  The boats nearly sank. The method used in the takeover was dangerous to human life. The Israeli forces initially wanted to leave the boats at sea, but the abductees demanded that they not be left to float at sea, for they would have been lost and possibly sunk. All belongings of the passengers and crew were taken from them and they still do not know if and what they will get back.  The 14 Irish citizens remain in Givon prison.

The phone call was very rushed and ended abruptly with Fintan saying, “I have to go.”
Claudia Saba, spokesperson for Irish Ship to Gaza, who received the call from Lane, said:

“The account received from Fintan Lane flatly contradicts the Israeli narrative that Israel ‘took every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of the activists on board the vessels’. It is a small miracle that no one was seriously injured during this obviously very violent boarding of the Freedom Waves boats.”

Irish Ship to Gaza spokesperson Laurence Davis added:

“This account confirms our fear that the hijacking of the boats was very violent, and explains the time lag between the point at which we lost contact with the boats on Wednesday at 11:12 am (Irish time) and news of the passengers’ arrival at Ashdod not before 5pm.”

In an interview he gave to www.Omniatv.com, Greek captain of the Tahrir Giorgos Klontzas has confirmed the use of violence on him by Israeli soldiers during his interrogation.
The Canadian boat lawyers are today being denied access to the detainees by the prison authorities. We were informed by the Canadian land team: 

“They kicked the lawyers out at 5pm yesterday, after only three hours, and today they have not been responding to any calls (either on the main line or the cell number of one of the prison officials) to coordinate a visit or arrange phone contact with the detainees.”

We also have reports that at least one of the Canadian boat participants was electrically tased and beaten. Canadian David Heap is now limping as a result.

ENDS

Source: Here

In Solidarity with Alaa

In Solidarity with the Egyptian blogger, tweep and political activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, Alaa is currently in Jail for refusing to cooperate with the Egyptian military persecution.

I don't know how me or you can help, I can think of nothing but praying for him and for the 15000 Egyptian civilians taken to military courts. Pray for the Revolution in Egypt.

Alaa wrote from inside "Arabic"

نبدأ من الأول: ازيكم، أنا علاء، جندي مشاه في الثورة، فيه اللي ضحى أكتر مني بكتير، و فيه اللي أشجع مني بكتير، و فيه اللي دوره أهم مني بكتير.
أنا علاء و فخور جدا أني بعمل اللي أقدر عليه و بفاجئ نفسي أحيانا بمدى اللي أقدر عليه. و عارف نفسي و عارف ايه اللي مقدرش عليه. و بحاول متأخرش أبدا و بحاول أتغلب على الخوف دائما و بحاول أكون في الصفوف الأمامية بانتظام.
لو شفتم فيا شجاعة أو شهامة أو جدعنة اعرفوا إنها مستمدة من أمي و أخواتي البنات الأصغر مني و مراتي (اللي فراقها أصعب حاجة في الحبس).

Palestinian Youth Demand U.N. Action

On 2 November 2011, two boats carrying 24 civilians from various countries, including a representative from our youth movement, set sail for Gaza. Conscious of the violent tactics that Israel has used to intercept previous boats to Gaza, including the 31 May 2010 military assault on the Freedom Flotilla, which resulted in the death of nine volunteers and the injury of over 50, we call on the United Nations to take urgent action to protect this mission as well as to end its compliance with Israel’s criminal blockade of Gaza.  Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, has been returned to his family, removing one of Israel’s main pretexts, albeit not a justification, for its Draconian closure policy. And while 1027 Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged for Shalit (although 550 have yet to be released), over 1.5 million Palestinians remain caged in the prison that is Gaza.

In our schools, universities and through our organizations, we are taught about human rights and international law, and yet it seems like Palestinians fall into a class of people upon whom these rights don’t apply. Like the blacks in America a half a century ago, or in South Africa two decades ago, we are victims of an exclusivist ideology and those who tolerate and enable it. Indeed the voices pontificating loudest on human rights, liberty, the rule of law, are those who make possible the systematic violations of these very principles.   We are tired of listening to these self-righteous entities that do not respect our people, but pay lip service to our rights and aspirations. What has the U.N. gained from condoning this hypocrisy, double-standard, and systematic violations of its own laws and principles?

Last May, in seeking to discourage Freedom Flotilla II, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon stated that all aid to Gaza should go through “legitimate crossings and established channels,” which in practice means through Israel. It is shameful to witness the head of a world organization that is supposed to defend and promote the rights of all peoples, advocate on behalf of a belligerent occupying power to the detriment of an occupied people. Stop treating Gaza (and Palestine as a whole) as a charity case! Our problems and humanitarian crises are the results of deliberate Israeli policies denying us freedom and other human rights. There are no “established channels” through Israel for our freedom.

We, Palestinian youth born and raised under the yoke of occupation, declare our support and full participation in Palestinian and international actions nonviolently challenging Israel’s brutal policies, particularly Israel’s closure of Gaza, which constitutes illegal collective punishment, according to the U.N.’s own statements, of our people there.  We call on the United Nations, tasked with maintaining world peace and security, to cease its recognition and compliance with the closure regime, which only serves to give Israel’s policy false legitimacy, thereby allowing this collective punishment to continue, and tainting the entire U.N. system. It is incumbent upon the U.N. to take urgent steps to protect the boats en route to Gaza and all of the humanitarian volunteers aboard, as well as to declare its support for nonviolent, humanitarian action, designed to do what the U.N. and its members states have thus far failed to do.

We say today, in no uncertain terms to the United Nations, to the Secretary-General, and to all nations supporting the collective punishment and continued oppression of the Palestinian people whether actively or through complicity (including silence and inaction) – stand up for what’s right or stay out of our struggle, stay out of our way.

Palestinian youth join boats set to challenge Israel’s siege of Gaza

Palestinian youth join boats set to challenge Israel’s siege of Gaza

• Irish and Canadian boats in international waters on their way to challenge illegal siege policy
• Palestinian activists call for end to international complicity in Israel’s crimes
• Support actions taking place throughout the West Bank and inside Israel

[Ramallah] Two civilian boats, the Canadian Tahrir (Liberation), and the Irish Saoirse (Freedom), carrying 27 people from nine countries (including journalists and crew), are currently in international waters making their way to the beleaguered Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s ongoing criminal blockade of the territory. A Palestinian youth activist from Haifa has joined this renewed international mission to challenge Israel’s unrelenting stranglehold on Gaza via the sea. The message they carry is one of unity, defiance, and hope, in spite of Israel’s policies that have physically separated Palestinians from each other. The “Freedom Waves to Gaza” organizers chose not to publicize the effort in advance given Israel’s efforts to block and sabotage Freedom Flotilla II last July. The boats, which set sail from Fethiye, Turkey, are expected to arrive in Gaza on Friday afternoon, sailing from international waters straight into Gaza’s territorial waters without entering Israel’s waters. The boats carry symbolic cargo - $30,000 in medicines, along with a diverse group of passengers, all committed to nonviolent defense of the flotilla and Palestinian human rights.

“Israel has caged Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, prohibiting physical contact between us. We want to break the siege Israel has imposed on our people,” said Majd Kayyal, a Palestinian philosophy student from Haifa on board the Tahrir. Kayyal added, “The fact that we’re in international waters is already a victory for the movement. Israel’s siege of Gaza is untenable and it’s a moral responsibility to put an end to this injustice.”

Meanwhile, a statement signed by Palestinian youth urged the international community and the U.N. in particular “to take urgent action to protect this mission as well as to end its compliance with Israel’s criminal blockade of Gaza.” They condemned the U.N. Secretary General’s previous declarations calling for aid to Gaza to go through "legitimate crossings and established channels," despite the U.N.’s own admission that Israel’s failure to own up to its responsibilities has created an unprecedented crisis of human dignity.

Throughout the week Palestinian activists in the West Bank and inside Israel are organizing solidarity actions with the Freedom Waves mission, including a presence outside the UN compound (Tokyo Street, Ramallah) and rallies across West Bank towns.

This is the 11th attempt to break the siege of Gaza via the sea, with five missions arriving safely in Gaza between August and December 2008 and the remaining violently intercepted by Israel. On May 2010, Israel attacked passengers of the Freedom Flotilla in international waters, killing nine civilians and injuring over 50. Israel’s actions were widely condemned and led to protests around the world. Efforts to bring a second flotilla to Gaza were foiled by the government of Greece last July following pressure by Israel and Western governments, as well as by acts of Israeli sabotage.  

Israel has intensified in the past days its aerial bombardments on Gaza, underlining the need for international initiatives of deterrence similar to this one.

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For more information contact:

+970-592-346-895

FreedomWaves4PAL@gmail.com

Note to editors:

For up to the minute information on the Freedom Waves flotilla: http://witnessgaza.com/

Twitter: @PalWaves #FreedomWaves