Coalition for Justice & Peace in Palestine (CJPP)

Saving Khader Adnan’s life is saving our own soul

CJPP — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:01:37 +0000

“The world watches as tragedy unfolds beneath its gaze. Khader Adnan is entering his 61st day as a hunger striker in an Israeli prison, being held under an administrative detention order without trial, charges, or any indication of the evidence against him.” Read this article by Richard Falk a distinguished academic lawyer who is currently serving his third year of a six-year term as a UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.
Contact Kevin Rudd’s office – ask our government to insist Israel either releases Khader or charges him and that they end the practice of administrative detention.
Hon Kevin Rudd MP Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs
Telephone: (02) 6277 7500 Fax: (02) 6273 4112
More info: AMNESTY UN PRESS RELEASE
Write to the newspapers: letters@theaustralian.com.au, letters@smh.com.au, letters@theage.com.au

Events

CJPP — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:39:36 +0000

Films, forums, actions, quiz nights… Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney… View the CJPP Current Events page to see a listing of events on in your state, then get along, get active, get involved!
“Open Shuhada Street 2012” 5:30pm Friday 24 Feb 2012 Norton St., Leichhardt -organised by Leichhardt Friends of Hebron
Student action for Palestine and Israeli Apartheid Week on Sydney campuses: more details here…

Much too promised land

CJPP — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:36:32 +0000

Hal Wootten discusses Peter Kosminsky’s The Promise – recently screened on SBS and about to be released on DVD:
“Apologists for special interests have a choice. They can be open to The Promise as one of many ways a film about the Israel–Palestine conflict could be made, they can accept its challenge to seek solutions, they can learn from it, even if some of the lessons may be painful, and they can offer competing views and interpretations and emphasise different points if they wish. Alternatively they can firmly close their minds, refuse to recognise the challenge or seek solutions, resist any lessons they could learn, and seek to suppress the film.”
Read the whole article at http://inside.org.au/much-too-promised-land/

Manning: Political stance on Palestine is out of step with public opinion

CJPP — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:21:54 +0000

13 February 2012 [Sydney Morning Herald]: Political stance on Palestine is out of step with public opinion - Peter Manning

“…The overwhelming trend [in opinion polls] shows a sharp swing since the 1980s against Israel’s image and actions among ordinary Australians. The fact of the current disjunction between government policy and public attitudes on the Israel-Palestine issue receives almost no publicity, unlike polls on Afghanistan. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to hide.”
View full article on SMH website here >>>
View results of 2011 Opinion Poll and 2009 Opinion Poll conducted by Roy Morgan Research on our website.

‘Memorcide: Crime, Closure & Reconciliation in Palestine’

CJPP — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:04:39 +0000

Genocide Memorial Day 2012 has been commemorated by the Islamic Human Rights Commission since 2010, who invited guests to remember the victims of all genocides that have been perpetrated and are still being perpetrated today. This year’s event on 22nd January 2012, in London, featured a range of presentations including Ilan Pappe who discussed ‘Memorcide: Crime, Closure & Reconciliation in Palestine’.

Watch the video of his presentation on Genocide Memorial Day 2012 or link to an article about this video.

abc

Confronting intimidation,
working for justice in Palestine – Ilan Pappe,
The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2011

If we had a wish list for 2012 as Palestinians and friends of Palestine, one of the top items ought to be our hope that we can translate the dramatic shift in recent years in world public opinion into political action against Israeli policies on the ground. We know why this has not yet materialized: the political, intellectual and cultural elites of the West cower whenever they even contemplate acting according to their own consciences as well as the wishes of their societies.

This last year was particularly illuminating for me in that respect. I encountered that timidity at every station in the many trips I took for the cause I believe in. And these personal experiences were accentuated by the more general examples of how governments and institutions caved in under intimidation from Israel and pro-Zionist Jewish organizations.
View full article on The Electronic Intifada site here >>>

Innovative ‘Wall Museum’ in Bethlehem

CJPP — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:19:57 +0000

24 December 2011 [MA'AN News Agency] – New ‘wall museum’ tells women’s stories: A unique museum has been set up on the path of Israel’s wall, which snakes through the West Bank city of Bethlehem. An initiative of the Sumud Story House, it is designed to communicate Palestinian women’s stories about the “truth of Palestinian life which the wall tries to hide and kill,” a statement said. … During Christmas, 25 posters are being attached to the wall on the northern side of Rachel’s Tomb.
View full article on MA’AN News Agency site here >>>

Santa joins West Bank Wall protest

CJPP — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:00:45 +0000

23 December 2011 [MA'AN News Agency]: Santa Clauses with Palestinian flags rallied against Israel’s wall in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, Dec. 23, ahead of Christmas. [Israeli] Soldiers dispersed the protest with tear gas. At the rally, Palestinians called for national unity, resistance and freedom for prisoners.
View full article and photos at MA’AN News Agency >>>

Meantime…..

22 December 2011 [MA'AN News Agency] - Gaza Christians depart for Bethlehem: Christian Palestinians leave the Erez border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip on Dec. 22, 2011, as they make their way to the West Bank town of Bethlehem. The Israeli army on Thursday gave permits to some 500 Christians from Gaza to enter Israel as they make their way to Bethlehem.
View full article and photos at MA’AN News Agency >>>

Bethlehem Mayor calls for boycott of Israel

CJPP — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:15:58 +0000

15 December 2011 [MA'AN News Agency]: The mayor of Bethlehem said Thursday after his annual Christmas address that the international community should boycott Israel until it accepts Palestinian aspirations for independence.

“We have a right to self-determination,” Victor Batarseh told reporters in Bethlehem. “We are peaceful people. We want peace,” he said after announcing the start of Christmas festivities. But it must be a “just and legal peace based on UN resolutions,” and the “only way Israel will agree to peace is if it is forced. I don’t mean violently, I mean it should be boycotted. Boycott Israel culturally, educationally, in sports and in trade,” Batarseh continued… He compared Palestine’s situation to apartheid South Africa, before it abandoned racial discrimination in the face of a global boycott, sanctions and divestment movement and local resistance.
View full article on MA’AN News Agency site >>>

Russell Tribunal finds Israel guilty of Apartheid

CJPP — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:54:38 +0000

The third international session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP) has determined that Israel’s practices against the Palestinian people are in breach of the prohibition of apartheid under international law. Following two intense days in Cape Town, South Africa (5-7 November 2011), listening to testimony from expert witnesses, the Tribunal concluded unanimously that “Israel subjects the Palestinian people to an institutionalised regime of domination amounting to apartheid as defined under international law.”

Posing the question: “Are Israel practices against the Palestinian People in breach of the prohibition on apartheid under International Law?”, the RToP jury reached this conclusion having paid particular attention to the legal definition of apartheid and ensuring that each of the defining criteria was met. This included the following facts: “(i) that two distinct racial groups can be identified; (ii) that ‘inhuman acts’ are committed against the subordinate group; and (iii) that such acts are committed systematically in the context of an institutionalised regime of domination by one group over the other.”

Russell Tribunal on Palestine: Full Findings, Cape Town Session, 5-7 November 2011
Russell Tribunal on Palestine finds Israel guilty of the crimes of Apartheid and Persecution, Dr Hanan Chehata, Middle East Monitor, 7 November 2011

Order your Bethlehem Greeting Cards now

CJPP — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:36:13 +0000

Only $12 for a pack of 10 cards including envelopes & postage. More information here

Cards are available now – order from: cards@coalitionforpalestine.org