[News] Mobilize - NCA Statement on August 12th

Fri Aug 11 08:43:06 EDT 2006

National Emergency March
When: Saturday August 12, 2006 at 11:00 am
Where: Civic Center, San Francisco

ih.constantcontact.co/644AB13B
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Statement of the National Council of Arab-Americans
On the Occasion of the National Demonstrations of August 12, 2006
"Occupation is a Crime, From Lebanon, Iraq, to Palestine"
][
   August 10, 2006

There are no words to describe the barbaric cruelty being inflicted 
upon the people of Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq today. The ongoing 
onslaught evidenced by the mass killing, maiming, imprisoning, and 
torturing of thousands of Arabs at the hands of the US-Israeli war 
machine has become a daily affair, sanitized by the US corporate 
media as though it were a natural part of the universal order. The 
most recent unleashing of premeditated ferocious military campaigns 
against the people of Lebanon and Palestine, with their clear 
targeting of civilian infrastructure, and their desire to collapse 
and eradicate democratically elected movements who do not bend to 
their will, represents an affront to the values of all civilized 
humanity. These campaigns are possible only when the lives of Arabs 
and Muslims are deemed to have no moral equivalency to those of 
Americans or Israelis. In short, these are war crimes, facilitated by 
the ugliest forms of racism, and intended to widen US and Zionist 
hegemonic interests in the region.

But the Arab people are not merely passive victims in these 
endeavors. The heroic resistance waged by the organically grown, 
popular movements in these localities against the most sophisticated 
military technology in the world is truly inspirational. It 
represents an affirmation that the Arab people, like all other people 
in the world, have the right to their lands, homes and resources; 
that they have the right to self-determination; and, that they have a 
right to resist a savage colonial occupation that seeks to divide and 
rule them, whether directly or through collaborating proxy regimes. 
Ultimately, the forces of injustice and inhumanity will not triumph 
over those who still hold that there are things in this world more 
valuable than the profit margins of US oil companies and 
multinational corporations.

This is precisely why the US government has not only 'given the green 
light' to Israeli state terror, but is actively facilitating this 
terror by bountifully supplying it with diplomatic immunity, 
weaponry, and fuel, all paid for by the US taxpayer. These US- 
equipped campaigns are designed to snuff out the flames of 
resistance, yet history tells us that these attempts have failed in 
the past and will fail in the future.

<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=sw77pxbab.0.8w87ixbab.g4bqvpbab.1084&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arab-american.net%2Fcommunity%2Flebanon%2Faugust122006%2Fbody_august122006.html>On 
August 12, 2006, thousands across America will take a stand to say no 
to the crime of occupation, and no to US and Zionist designs for the 
Middle East. They will also gather to say that nothing can hide the 
blood dripping from the hands of the Republican and Democratic 
parties, and that this will not be forgotten as we return to our 
communities and engage in activism through social justice, and later 
on, at the voting polls. Moreover, it must be noted that those in the 
US anti-war/ peace movement, who have persistently argued that the 
question of Palestine, and the nature of Zionism are not worthy 
issues to be included in its agenda, have indirectly facilitated the 
atrocities that we are witnessing today.

Valuable time and energy have been wasted, and Israeli belligerence 
has thrived as claims that issues of the national liberation of 
Palestine and the right of return for Palestinian refugees were 
somehow "different," "complicated," or 
"restrictive."<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=sw77pxbab.0.8w87ixbab.g4bqvpbab.1084&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arab-american.net%2Fcommunity%2Flebanon%2Faugust122006%2Fbody_august122006.html> 
Today we see the true face of Israeli terror, and the inseparability 
of the issue of occupation in Palestine, Lebanon, or Iraq, and the 
uniformity of the causes and results of such acts. So the time has 
come for the US and international peace and justice movement to take 
a clear and unabashed stance against Zionism and the racist, 
colonialist regime of Israel. We stress: Zionism is not compatible 
with justice, human rights, peace or genuine solidarity.

Further, it must also be stated that all those who bet against the 
resistance--including pro-US Arab regimes and their auxiliary wings 
amongst Arab- American communities in the US -- should also be 
exposed for their despicable collaborative stances.

Let August 12, 2006, be the day when a new and principled US anti-war 
movement is born ; a day when our solidarity with the oppressed is 
affirmed; when the right to resist is defended; when connections 
between movements here and abroad for social causes and political 
justice are forged; and when the forces of racism, colonialism, and 
imperialism are forthrightly rejected. Only by doing so can we hope 
to put an end to the intolerable suffering we witness not only in 
Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, but also amongst so many of the poor and 
disenfranchised in America as well.
Support the People of Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq!
Support the Right of Return of all Refugees!
Stop US Aid to Israel!
Support Divestment from Israel and Boycott all Israeli Products!

NCA National Office
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)

email: 
<mailto:nationaloffice at arab-american.net>nationaloffice at arab-american.net
phone: 530.756.5548
web: 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=sw77pxbab.0.qcizvpbab.g4bqvpbab.1084&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arab-american.net>http://www.arab-american.net

[]

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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