Direct action from Birmingham to Gaza

[Tom Joad]

Last week, the US celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the official end to segregation and racial discrimination in this country. As we celebrate certain historic advances, we mustn't forget that these policies are far from over in this country, and that as we struggle against one injustice we are perpetuating another system of discrimination and segregation on the other side of the world in occupied Palestine, a land where there are separate roads, schools, hospitals, neighborhoods, and legal systems, access to which depends on one's ethnicity or religion.....
(Snip)
In Palestine, that inevitable discomfort -- or tension, as Dr. King calls it -- has taken the form of popular nonviolent resistance met with army brutality, checkpoints, roadblocks, invasions, curfews, house demolitions, and mass imprisonment. In this country, that inevitable tension has taken the comparatively mild -- but admittedly unpleasant -- form of moral blackmail: anyone who dares criticize Israel's violations of human rights and international law is labeled anti-Semitic. But this is absurd. Occupation, oppression -- these things have nothing to do with Judaism, and to oppose them in Israel, Palestine, or anywhere else in the world is simply not anti-Semitic. On the contrary, it is in line with the Jewish tradition of critical thinking, open debate, and social justice, which have been a source of pride for Jews through history.

The Israel-Palestine struggle is portrayed in our media and elsewhere as an endless religious rivalry, but it is no more a war between Jews and Muslims than the civil rights struggle was one between African-Americans and whites. This is a struggle for justice, one that affects us all and in which we all play a part. In the words of Dr. King, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

This mutuality is clear in the collaboration today between Palestinians and the Israelis who support their struggle, working together towards an end to discrimination and the occupation, towards a common future of integration and coexistence. In the United States, churches are once again taking the lead. The United Methodists, the Presbyterians, and others have started campaigns calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the Israeli government until it complies with international law. This is a crucial campaign not only because it has the potential to be successful in conjunction with Palestinian resistance (after all, it was Black South African resistance supported by international solidarity and divestment that ultimately contributed to the end of Apartheid there), but also because it was called for by Palestinian civil society. This is a Palestinian struggle, and we need to be taking our lead from Palestinians. They have been reaching out for support through the years, particularly last week in Gaza as they were cut off even further from the world. We need to reach back.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9267.shtml

Please read the whole thing. And please check Anna's schedule so you can meet this remarkable young woman yourself.

Anna Baltzer is a 28-year-old Jewish American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar, and the granddaughter of Holocaust refugees. She is a three-time volunteer with the International Women's Peace Service in the West Bank and is currently touring the United States with her book, Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories. For more information visit: http://www.AnnaInTheMiddleEast.com . This essay is adapted from a sermon she delivered at Linden Hills United Church of Christ in Minneapolis, MN.

[Shaktimaan]

1. Interesting.

Does anyone else feel ill whenever someone recruits the memory of an icon like MLK into the service of a specific cause, insinuating that if alive today he would surely support the author's own political position? I can't count how many times I've seen MLK's memory pressed into service for the Palestinian cause, extrapolating his views and statements to sometimes-absurd lengths, especially considering Dr. King's own views on political violence.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Dr. King's quote regarding anti-Zionist rhetoric... “Don’t talk like that. When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking Anti-Semitism.”

While it is true that merely criticizing Israeli policy isn't anti-semitic, I found it ironic that the author chose to make these statements on electronicintifada, a site which is dedicated to criticizing much more than just Israel's occupation of Palestine or specific Israeli actions. EI is pretty open about their opposition to Israel's creation and Zionism in a general sense, something that many people DO find anti-semitic. And assuming that the Dr.'s quote is accurate, something that he may have as well.

[Tom Joad]

2. You think he would have applauded the million cluster bombs dropped on

the people of Lebanon?
tens of thousands of Palestinian homes demolished?
Farmlands plowed under?

We really don't know, if he had lived, what he would have done.

We do know that groups like the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a group he was long associated with, has strongly condemned the ongoing occupation and its fierce violence against the people of Palestine. And supports the work people like Anna is doing, supporting nonviolent direct action to end the occupation.

[bemildred]

3. CAMERA ALERT: Letter by Martin Luther King a Hoax

We must inform you that “Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend” (see at bottom of alert) allegedly written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is apparently a hoax, although, the basic message of the letter was indeed, without question, spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. in a 1968 appearance at Harvard, where he said: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism.” < from “The Socialism of Fools: The Left, the Jews and Israel” by Seymour Martin Lipset; in Encounter magazine, December 1969, p. 24. >.

---

The following letter is a fabrication/hoax:

“Letter to an anti-Zionist friend”
Selections from the Writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

…You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely ‘anti-Zionist.’ And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews — this is God's own truth.

Antisemitism ... has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so....

The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'!

My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism... But I know you have been misled — as others have been — into thinking you can be ‘anti-Zionist’ and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share. Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews — make no mistake about it.

(From M.L. King, Jr., “Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend,” Saturday Review XLVII Aug. 1967, p. 76) Reprinted in “Shared Dreams,” by Rabbi Marc Shneier, preface by Martin Luther King III

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=8&x_article=369

[Tom Joad]

4. Not to mention that Anna's point was not King's position on Middle East politics, but

his philosophy of nonviolent direct action to produce social change.

[Shaktimaan]

6. Actually, Anna was drawing

a direct comparison between MLK and Hamas. She pays a little lip service to non-violence but then reminds us that any boycott must work in conjunction to the Palestinian "resistance."

In another story she applauds the brave fighters of Jenin, saying... Jenin has a reputation for fighting back. Locals say that in the Spring of 2002, it took 12,000 Israeli troops eight days to capture one small section of the city because so many people fought to the death. History suggests that many people in Jenin would rather die than surrender their homes and lives to military control.

Then draws a comparison between Jenin and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising... That March, a deadly Palestinian suicide attack on the eve of Passover in the city of Netanya killed about thirty Israelis. Allegedly in response to the bombing—but using an offensive planned far in advance (in part by studying German tactics in taking over the Warsaw Ghetto, according to one Israeli officer) before going on to exhume accusations against Israel of committing a massacre there, even referring to the camp as a sort of mass grave. The fact that this charge has been completely dis-proven doesn't seem to faze her.

Here she reflects on a recent suicide bomber's last thoughts, after hearing of an attack in Tel Aviv that killed four Israelis as they waited to enter a dance club. We thought about the courage and anger it must have taken to push that button and end his life, and what kind of determination and hatred a person would need to do such a thing.

Would Dr. King have voiced such reverent support for Hamas? Anna seems to think so. But then, she's clearly an easily manipulatable person. Which makes her fallacious anti-zionist propaganda forgivable. But no less fallacious.

http://annainpalestine.blogspot.com/2003/11/jenin-camp.html

[Tom Joad]

7. she is not insane. She is a wise and wonderful person who loves

justice. and a Fulbright scholar.

who is used to the vile attacks of people wedded to the status quo.

[Tom Joad]

8. do you think a people under occupation have a right to fight back?

or must they surrender their rights?

[Shaktimaan]

11. I think that

people who support the suicide bombing of civilians as a means of resistance do not have the right to put MLK's name behind their cause or otherwise try and use his legacy to disguise violent terrorists like Hamas.

[Tom Joad]

18. Who is supporting suicide bombing of civilians???

though i can see instances of people who are supporting bombing of civilians by the Israeli regime. certainly i oppose both illegal actions.

[Tom Joad]

9. Dr King saved his greatest wrath for

the US government, calling it the most violent on earth. When he talked about the Vietnam war, he talked of the violence of the occupier as the greater injustice. even though he was not in favor of violence, he recognized the difference of violence of an aggressor and the violence of those resisting occupation and control from outside.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tom Joad]

20. So you do insist on twisting my words. how boring

how disgusting. I don't know what Dr. King would be supporting now if he were alive. No one does. I do think, that like me, he would at all times oppose attacks against civilians, whether carried out against Israelis or Palestinians.

If opposing attacks against Palestinian civilians is your definition of "supporting Hamas", then that's your problem, *^*&&^%!

[Vegasaurus]

16. So this kind of violence

from those "resisting occupation and control from the outside" is fine with you, right Tom?

Where do you draw the line? All suicide bombings and rockets and murders are fine with you if they are "resisting the occupation"? I thought you said you were against targetting civilians.

:think:

[Tom Joad]

19. Vegas, i clearly have said many times that all attacks directed by

groups against civilians is wrong.

[Tom Joad]

21. I don't like any kind of violence.

but i do see the difference between demolishing a home and someone shooting at tanks demolishing homes.

[Vegasaurus]

22. So do I

But I think that "resistance" generally is acceptance of suicide bombers etc., and trying to "understand" why they need to resist this way.

Violent resistance has not made life better for the Palestinians. In fact, it has made it much, much worse, so I am wondering why they keep up with a strategy that is so unsuccessful and makes their people so miserable.

[Tom Joad]

23. violent occupation has not made life better for Israelis.

[Tom Joad]

10. do you think Martin would be calling for Palestinians and Israelis to work together

to end a violent occupation... or would he, like some here, suggest the violent annexation of the West Bank, the denial of voting rights to Palestinians who are allowed to remain, and the rest forcibly transfered elsewhere?

that is the kind of sewage the seeps into the website you post at, shakti.
we know people by the friends they keep.

[Shaktimaan]

13. Good job Tom. Good ole' Joe McCarthy couldn't have said it better himself!

I take it he's a hero of yours.

Haha. Ahhh, ok. I actually don't know what you're talking about, DU's the only site I post at. (I kinda have a life, y'know.) That comment was just too ridiculous to let slide by. So I'm sorry your research didn't turn up anything to use against me at the hearings, but I don't name names anyway. Haha. Seriously though, it's actually pretty creepy. I hope you don't do this kind of thing often.

[Tom Joad]

17. Hey, aren't you the one who tried to smear Anna because of what

has been posted at EI? whose the Joe McCarthy fan here really?

yes, i also post here, and these same people, the some who support crimes against humanity no less, also post here. But i only speak for myself.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

14. It's hard to conceive that MLK would support

any aspect of Israel's violent military occupation.

I image that MLK, with his clear knowledge of evil power structures, would share the view of Palestinian scholar As'ad Abu Khalil: "...any evaluation of Palestinian political violence must be made in the context of Zionist mass violence that for decades had set out to destroy Palestinian society and resistance and replace it with its own exclusivist vision."

[Shaktimaan]

5. Um... OK.

Yes, I heard about this letter, I am aware that it is a fraud. But I didn't quote from it, I quoted the statement that your link verified as true.

I'm not sure why you are posting this as a response. So some douchebag forged a pro-Zionist letter from MLK, big deal. Surely that doesn't detract from his actual pro-Zionist statement, does it?

[bemildred]

15. The link verified nothing.

It just repeated a hear-say statement that MLK said something like what the book claimed he said in the non-existent letter. It is a transparent fraud. If MLK actually had much to say about the issue one would expect some evidence of it to exist aside from one conversation reported by an obviously self-interested party long after the fact. There would be more writings and there would be more people with such "memories".

In any case, MLK was assassinated at approximately the time the OPT came into being, so it is fairly ridiculous to claim that he addressed the political issues now present.

Edit: I think this sort of thing is extremely tacky and shows a lack of respect. Dr King deserves better treatment.