 |
 |
 |
 |
ISSUES
March 2008
Call for International Palestine Tribunals
Please download, print and distribute widely! [DOWNLOAD CALL FOR TRIBUNAL PDF]
Below is a concise and direct declaration that calls for holding international tribunals for those guilty of the successive campaigns of terror against the Palestinian people. It is unique in that it is the first international public effort to hold guilty Arab regimes, Palestinians, Israelis, and US officials fully responsible for the ongoing Zionist crimes. By signing this declaration and by passing it through as much as possible worldwide, where all signatories are sought and welcomed, we will be initiating the first real steps to holding war tribunals internationally. This is also a tangible step to returning Palestine to its international position as a flagship for justice and self-determination. We urge you to actively support this declaration wherever you are, on every continent. Take it to your protests, ask your organization to sign on, engage everyone about who is responsible, and help build a momentum that will go well beyond protests and temporary reactions into sustained efforts and full accountability. We look forward to forming international tribunal committees soon after.Please sign and pass it on. Time is critical!
"We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, regard what is taking place against the Palestinian people, particularly those of the Gaza Strip, not only as a war crime but also as a crime against humanity. While we hold the Zionist Israeli government directly responsible for these murderous campaigns, we also hold guilty Arab regimes, including the Palestinian Authority and the office of Mahmud Abbas, as accessory to these crimes in collaboration with the US administration. Through this declaration, we are taking the first steps to begin the process of holding international tribunals for all those guilty, either directly or as an accessory through their deadly silence, irrespective of who they are. The unbelievable and seemingly unending suffering of the Palestinian people requires that those responsible are forthwith brought to justice under international criminal law."
To sign on to this declaration, pleaseSEND MESSAGE TO PALTRIBUNAL @ GMAIL.COM OR [CLICK HERE].
Signatories will be updated periodically.
Organizations:
The Free Palestine Alliance,
Individuals:
November 2007
Palestine is Not for Sale
While the Free Palestine Alliance (FPA) condemns in the strongest possible terms the wholesale of Palestine at the upcoming Annapolis Conference; we recognize well that condemnation alone is no longer of any real value. The time is now for a clear alternative to emerge in place of this hopelessly corrupt leadership.
Annapolis, like Camp David, Madrid and Oslo before, is the natural outcome to the path of surrender that Abbas and others have taken. Although this upcoming conference itself may not be a terminal one, it is nonetheless a stepping stone to the gallows, if we allow it, where Palestine is intended for execution by the United States and Israel in full collaboration with their Arab and Palestinian functionary minions.
We have warned before that we can no longer trust this treasonous leadership. Starting with Abbas and passing through Abed Rabbo, Dahlan, Mansour, Malki, Irakat, Qurei, and a host of others too long to be named here, the US government has now added yet another parasitic group of functionary Arabs that can only survive if they deliver the defeat of Palestine on a silver platter.
As was the case following the Nakba of 1948, when the Palestinian movement was reclaimed from the corrupt minions of Britain and the United States, and pan-Arabism emerged in opposition to despotic monarchs and colonial rule, it is once again our role to put an end to this ongoing charade of shame.
"Palestine is Not for Sale", we must all announce loud and clear. And all those participating in its butchery must be tried for their crimes, despite the passage of time.
At this critical stage, the Palestinian people must openly challenge the false claim of representation by Abbas and his minions. We must organize away from all those providing cover and legitimacy for this path of surrender. We must challenge them wherever they are - in every living room, in every mosque and church, and in every political setting. No one should be able to pull the wool in front of our eyes anymore by using the old cliché of "unity". There can be no unity with those defending treason. And certainly there can be no unity with those extinguishing our existence and burying alive our history.
Treason and surrender can never be acceptable alternatives to our people. Never!
What we need now is a popular and principled unity in the form of a front to oppose this path to disaster. This is the time to organize for a long term political alternative and strategy, starting from every camp, town, and community in Palestine and throughout exile. There are hundreds of thousands of trade unionists, political organizers, professionals, and activists with decades of experience who have arrived at the same conclusion worldwide. Countless meetings are being held in every corner of this globe where our people are systematically rejecting the treason of this corrupt and imposed leadership. A popular and democratic alternative is, therefore, inevitable, and the time is now.
Meanwhile, it is our duty here in the US to expose the likes of Mansour, Asali, Ibish and so many others like them who are benefiting from this silent butchery. If we accept treason and surrender as a "difference in opinion", and give cover and legitimacy to institutions and organizations that serve first and foremost the interest of corrupt despotic regimes, we would be making a mistake of historical proportions.
Enough is enough! This absurdity must stop.
It is time for an alternative to emerge. Details of the Los Angeles meeting will be announced soon.
The FPA on the Popular Conference in the US
During the past months, we were asked by many to address the upcoming Popular Conference being planned for August 2008 in the City of Chicago.
The Free Palestine Alliance (FPA) had launched an initiative approximately 2 years ago in response to the escalating need for an alternative to the downward and destructive spiral that is plaguing the Palestinian Arab people. Our intent was and remains to be empowering our community and leveraging its resources in favor of the fundamental principles of the Palestinian national liberation movement, paramount of which are the right to return and the indivisible unity of Palestine as a people and land inextricable from the larger Arab Nation (Al-Watan Al-Arabi).
Our goal was to facilitate small gatherings and discussions on the state of the Palestinian and Arab struggle. We were, as we continue to be, motivated by the Arab democratic nationalist traditions to renew and reinvigorate the discourse of egalitarianism and democratic popular empowerment, anchored in our collective history away from imposed sectarianism and religious divides that are alien to our society. We reject the notion that we are supposed to replace the long-celebrated dual vision for social equality and national liberation for scant political expediency. As a society, we can not afford to lose either pillars of this duality if we are to emerge victorious.
Mission and Definitions
1. The Free Palestine Alliance (FPA) is an integral part of the Palestinian Arab Community in the United States - itself an inseparable part from the Palestinian Arab people.
2. The FPA affirms that the Palestinian Arab people constitute an indivisible unit naturally bound to the land of Palestine despite the passage of time and the onset of colonial rules, and in spite various agreements, programs or entities attempting to sever that unbreakable union.
3. The FPA affirms that all constituent sectors of the Palestinian people – regardless of imposed demarcation borders inside Palestine and including all Palestinians in exile - constitute one inseparable collective national unit; and further affirms the Arab identity and totality of Palestine and its people.
4. In addition to the Palestinian people, the FPA recognizes that the struggle for Palestine is a joint responsibility of the Arab people as a whole, and an integral part of the peace, justice, solidarity and liberation movements worldwide. In that context, the FPA recognizes the unique symbiotic relationship of the reciprocal political-economic-military interests between Western colonialism in general, the US Empire, the Zionist movement and its material manifestation - the racist Apartheid State of Israel.
5. The FPA fully recognizes the emerging Arab-American character of our community in the United States, and seeks to establish programs and projects to empower, safeguard, and develop our cultural, linguistic and political identity.
6. The FPA values its partnership role in the struggle within constitutional means for a just society in the United States in shaping political agenda and defending civil rights and liberties of all; and fully recognizes the struggle for justice of oppressed communities and movements. Accordingly, the FPA considers itself a component in the vision for a just future and a United States that is at peace with itself and the world.
7. The FPA regards the national democratic movement of the Palestinian people to be inseparable from the struggle for gender, racial, and religious equality within the larger struggle to end economic/political disparity, colonialism, foreign occupations and globalized domination. Emerging from the cumulative struggle of our people everywhere, and building on our community's rich and wide institutional heritage in the US, including the struggle for civil rights and liberties for and by all, we declare our presence and assume our responsibilities.
