[Nettime-bold] WLUML statement on the current situation in Palestine/Israel

[Harsh Kapoor <aiindex@mnet.fr>]

4 April 2002

The international solidarity network Women Living Under Muslim Laws 
(WLUML) is well placed to identify extreme Right political projects 
hidden under religious/ethnic agendas and their devastating effects 
on progressive forces at large and on women in particular.

The present escalation in Palestine/Israel is not due to a conflict 
between religious and ethnic communities. Clearly, it is the result 
of the coming to power in Israel of extreme Right forces mercilessly 
bent on implementing a colonial project.

Unfortunately, its brutality sparked off the hijacking of the 
legitimate protest and struggle of the Palestinians by extreme right 
fundamentalist forces within them. We know from experience that the 
rise of such forces will inevitably work against the interests of 
people, especially minorities and women in Palestine.

We here pay tribute to the progressive people in Israel who have for 
decades now struggled against the colonial project of their 
successive governments and today continue to do so under such violent 
and dangerous circumstances. We pay tribute to Israeli women and men 
who have refused to participate as soldiers in the war against the 
Palestinian people. We pay tribute to those who demonstrate daily 
against occupation of Palestinian land, be it by creating new 
settlements, by evictions, by destruction of properties or by 
military occupation. We pay tribute to those who physically joined, 
as human shields, the Palestinian villages attacked by the Israeli 
army, the Palestinian plantations of orange trees and olive trees 
that were pinpointed for destruction by the Israeli army.

We especially pay tribute to the Women in Black anti war movement and 
to all the women organizations that have consciously and stubbornly 
attempted and succeeded in bridging the divide between Jews and 
Arabs. We fully support their struggle and share their analysis of 
the fascist nature of the present government of Israel.

We also pay tribute to all those from Arab countries who have 
struggled for a just peace in the region without falling into the 
arms of fascist fundamentalists, without adopting hatred and racism 
as rallying elements of their struggle. We pay tribute to all those 
who fight fundamentalist fascism from within their own contexts. We 
pay tribute to all those who have recently met with their fellows in 
peace making within Israel, confronting the accusation of betrayal 
for doing so and bearing with the following threats they suffer.

We pay tribute to all those Palestinians women and men who, under 
such a deluge of fire from the Israeli government and army, maintain 
their human and political links with Israeli progressive and anti war 
forces in the hope of building a durable and just political 
settlement.

We pay tribute to all those who, in Europe and especially in France 
these days, confront the rise of anti-Semitic racism - i.e. racism 
against "Jews" as well as racism against "Arabs" or "Muslims"- and 
the terrorist acts of destruction that are now taking place against 
synagogues or shops owned by French Jews. We pay tribute to the 
Muslim religious authorities and ordinary immigrants from North 
Africa who have arrived at the scene of these barbarities to show 
their solidarity and speak up against racism.

We call on international media to - at last - give visibility to 
progressive forces within Israel and within Palestine who offer the 
only viable alternative to the war in the region.

In order to immediately stop the bloodshed, we call upon the UN 
Security Council to take extraordinary but necessary measures, 
including steps to enforce an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal from 
Palestinian cities and send UN peacekeeping troops to 
Palestine/Israel. We call on the Security Council to force the 
Israeli government to immediately implement past UN resolutions that 
it has systematically disregarded. By failing to act decisively, the 
UN Security Council becomes an ally in the massacre of Palestinians 
by the Israeli government.

We demand that the women and men from Israel and from Palestine who 
have actually worked hand in hand towards a just peace during the 
past decades of conflict be the ones to be called to the negotiation 
table. No other group can bring peace to the region.

------------
The petition below will help the lawyers in Belgium who are suing 
Ariel Sharon for war crimes.

http://www.petitiononline.com/warcrime

They need 1,000,000 signatures. Please sign and forward the petition 
to all your contacts.
-------------

Email: wluml@wluml.org
WWW: www.wluml.org

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