Letter to Peace Action
10 August 2010
Before I returned to Palestine two years ago, I was on the board of Peace Action Education Fund. I remember we engaged in some discussions (mostly in person) about the issues that have now resurfaced about whether Israel-Palestine issue will continue to be marginalized in the community of peace activists in the US. We discussed whether this is because of the presence of some who feel (for personal and reasons) that they are connected to Zionism and Israel and that any examination of these issues touches on sacred notions of exceptionalism or whether there is latent ‘anti-semitic’ (ie. Anti-Jewish) feelings among those of us who are gentiles or ‘self-hating’ among those of us who are Jewish and speak out.
I am invited to speak to NATO Defense college every six months (nearly 80 officers from many countries attend this obligatory course for their officers). For NATO to clearly understand the centrality of the Israel-Palestine question to issues like global security and nuclear proliferation while many in the peace movement bury their heads in eth sand is shameful IMHO!
In short, I would like us to be able to engage in a discussion of priorities and directions for peace action in terms of its stated mission and goals. Here are the actions listed on the Peace Action Website:
Ask Obama to work for a nuclear free world
Host an Afghanistan house party
Sign the better plan to bring peace to Afghanistan
Collect signatures to shift military spending
Join the Pacific Freeze Campaign
Help Prevent Accidental War with Iran
Help Bring The Guard Home - It's The Law!
What else is missing and is some of what is listed really couched in the best language to achieve the stated result? Should we be talking about whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu who is persecuted even after spending 18 years in Jail most of it in solitary confinement had spent now an additional 3 years for simply speaking to media after he was released? Should we be speaking about who really pushed for the war on Iraq and who is now pushing for conflict with Iran? (see this short video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Fs73XZqm8 )
Where can this be discussed and in what format can data be presented and voted on by informed membership of PA?
Where you are, you have the luxury of discussing and acting without being tossed in jail or beaten. I am going in an hour for another session of interrogation by the Shabak (Apartheid Israel ‘security’ services). Speaking out here has a heavy price but silence anywhere IMHO is complicity.
Best
Mazin Qumsiyeh
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