Friday, March 28, 2008
Come one, come all! The New England Committee to Defend Palestine and Mumia fan club Jericho Boston present A Night to Celebrate Nakba:
On the 60th Anniversary of the Nakba the New England Committee to Defend Palestine presents
Struggle for the Land: Zionism and the Repression of Anti-Colonial Movements
An Education and Strategy Conference
Saturday, April 12 to Sunday, April 13
Saturday April 12 at 12 PM: Community Church of Boston
[snip]
Suggested Donation: $15
Confirmed speakers include:
Amer Jubran, Palestinian activist and former political detainee
Saja Raoof, Iraqi anti-war activist
Kali Akuno, Executive Director of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund in New Orleans and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement National Organizer
Marta Rodriguez, Puerto Rican independence activist and member of the NECDP
Ward Churchill, American Indian Movement activist and author
Dara Bayer, Palestine solidarity activist
Jihad Abdul-Mumit, former Black Liberation Army political prisoner
Nada Elia, Palestinian activist, and member of the INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence national collective.
Jeffrey Blankfort, anti-Zionist journalist and activist, co-plaintiff in a lawsuit
against the ADL for spying on left organizations
as well as
Photography Exhibition from Gaza
Palestinian political artwork, and art by Brazilian Artist Carlos Latuff
This year commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for 'catastrophe') in Palestine. While this past January saw an escalation of the already brutal strangulation of Gaza, as well as continued colonization throughout historic Palestine, Palestinians have continued to resist in all of their historic land. In Gaza, under starvation conditions, Palestinians broke the siege by destroying the wall at Rafah crossing and continue to defend their land through armed resistance against settlers.
In spite of a wider public awareness of the brutal policies of colonial settlement in Palestine, the "United States" continues to provide the main economic, political and military aid to the Zionist settler colony. While every major presidential candidate pledges undying support for "Israel," there is a growing public discussion about the role of Zionism in the "US" political system, and especially of its relationship to the war in Iraq...
Sorry for the lengthy quote, but I just had to get to that final (quoted) paragraph. After all, we're used to seeing Israel in scare-quotes, but not "United States". What? You didn't know? According to post-colonial theory, the US is a colonial-settler state and therefore inherently illegitimate, just like Israel.
The NECDP is a frequently spotted fringe group in the area here. Their poster boy "political prisoner" and co-founder, and former Islamic Society of Boston member, Amer Jubran, far from being persecuted for his political views, was actually &persecuted" for kicking a Jew and other aggressive physical behavior. In fact, I'm not sure what he's doing in the country, or why he's been allowed back in.
The list is a who's who of radical nobodies (a flock of jumbo shrimp if you will). Ward Churchill needs no introduction, of course, and Carlos Latuff is the Jew-obsessed cartoonist who took second place in Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial cartoon contest.
Attire for the event is, of course, black.
Oh "groan".
What the hell is it with the "far left" and "scare quotes," anyway? I'm going to start using ""double scare quotes"" just to piss them off. The ""revolutionaries"" can ""suck my chubby nuts!""
I have yet to see an "anti-war activist"
- decry firing kassam rockets into Israel
- suicide bombers
- racist sermons based on suras in the koran
- stabbings
- shootings
- hijackings
- honor killings
- current day slavery in sudan
- racist indoctrination of children
- beheadings of bound captives while masked men cry "allah akbar"
- genocidal speeches by the policitical head of an islamofascist regime
- demonstrations with placards with threatening statements like "UK you will pay, your 9/11 is on its way"
These "anti-war" phoneys are despicable.
Regarding the quotes, I think we should make better use of them in response.
Maybe the conference should be called Zionism and the "Repression" of "Anti-Colonial" Movements, be sponspored by the Committee to "Defend" "Palestine", and feature "thoughful presentations" by "scholars" and "peace activists".