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<font size=3>From Cynthia McKinney<br>
"They're White Just Like Us . . . "<br>
March 16, 2010<br><br>
</font><font size=4>"They're white just like us and the people
they're killing . . . are Arabs."<br><br>
</font><font size=3>This bit of erudition came, with a shrug of the
shoulders, at the end of the first session of the newly-formed Russell
Tribunal on Palestine. It was not a part of the official record
because it was stated in the anteroom, just off the auditorium of the
elegantly-appointed Barcelona Lawyers Building where the Tribunal was
held. The person making this comment was not an official expert
witness--but he was a European who understood the mindset that made
Europeans complicit, not only in Israel's crimes against the Palestinian
people, but also in Israel's impunity. <br><br>
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is organized by the Bertrand Russell
Peace Foundation and has local organizing committees in each of the
places where sessions will be held: Europe, United Kingdom, South
Africa, and the United States. The Tribunal will next venture into
London, then to South Africa to ponder the peculiar institution of
Israeli apartheid. And finally to the U.S. where the mother of all
complicity resides.<br><br>
The Tribunal stresses its independence from the influence of special
interests and each Local Organizing Committee conducts fundraising
activities to make each Session a success. Barcelona can be chalked
up as a success that serves the Tribunal organizers well for the upcoming
London Session. More information on the Barcelona proceedings can
be found at
<a href="http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.net/">
http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.net/</a>.<br><br>
The original Bertrand Russell Tribunal was seated in the mid-1960s and
considered the case against the U.S. war against Vietnam. Its
second seating was to deliberate on human rights abuses in Latin
America. Consideration of the situation of the people of Palestine
commands its third seating. <br><br>
The organizers of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine scoured the globe to
find people of conscience to serve as jurors who are noted for acting on
their convictions. The jurors include a woman who served with
Bertrand Russell on the original Tribunal and another woman whose work
eventually was recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize. The Tribunal's
mandate is to inform and urge action by a larger community of conscience
and its urgency is the understanding that the Tribunal must act in the
face of inaction by national and international authorities.
<br><br>
In addition, the "BRussells" Tribunal on Iraq (operating from
Brussels, Belgium at
<a href="http://brusselstribunal.org/index.htm">
http://brusselstribunal.org/index.htm</a>) is the brainchild of Russell
Tribunal veteran François Houtart. The BRussells Tribunal was
conducted in 2004 and found the United States guilty of committing an act
of aggression against Iraq.<br><br>
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine, Barcelona Session, convened for three
days, considered the evidence presented to it, and delivered its decision
in response to a series of questions that could be summed up as:
"Is the E.U. complicit in Israel's crimes against Palestinians, and
if so, in what way? What is the E.U.'s legal responsibility to
itself and to international law?" <br><br>
During the proceedings, I did pose the "Why?" question several
times. However, the unofficial respondent answered the question in
a way that even I was totally unprepared for: from his
gut.<br><br>
"They're white just like us and the people they're killing . . . are
Arabs."<br><br>
This comment haunted me for the remainder of my European tour. And,
it seemed that I could never escape it. In Brussels and then again
in Paris; in London, I was consistently reminded of the color line and
that I was traveling in places not usually broken by it: economic
and political status in these places is as defined by skin color as it is
in the United States, the Presidency of Barack Obama
notwithstanding. <br><br>
Combine my European experience with the fact of the illegal pillage of
Africa by way of stoked "civil wars" and fake "rebel
groups" created for the purpose of facilitating non-African Africa
pillage--done since the first Berlin Conference that organized the
so-called "Scramble for Africa" at the dawn of the 20th
Century. Juxtapose that to the opening of the 19th Century where
Africans in Haiti defeated Napoleon Bonaparte's Army. Not only was
Africa robbed of its strongest human resources for centuries during
slavery, it continues to be robbed of its human and natural resources
even now. Africans' patrimony is being transferred, on the cheap,
to Europe, the United States, and Israel. <br><br>
Anyone who doubts these facts should consider the case of the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), now suffering six million dead just since the
Rwandan/Ugandan invasion in August of 1998 facilitated by the United
States. The tragedy is told in the first United Nations Report on
the pillage of DRC, written by Madame Ba-N-Dow, whose life was threatened
by those named in the report, causing her to have to go into hiding
because she told the truth. Additionally, numerous books and
articles on the subject have been written by Camerounian-Parisian Charles
Onana of Editions Duboiris, for those who read French, and by Wayne
Madsen and Keith Harmon Snow, for those who don't.<br><br>
As I looked into the faces of Europe's most recent immigrant Africans and
Asians, the immigrant wars being fought today inside Europe, Israel, and
the United States crystallized in the most dismal of contexts. With
each glance into every face, I strained to make eye-to-eye contact to see
beyond the face of the individual in order to understand the totality of
the life I was encountering. Sadly, the realities all seemed the
same: certain Europeans (including certain Americans and Israelis)
had arrogated to themselves the right to go into any land, vilify the
indigenous, denigrate their culture and dignity, steal the resources,
overturn the local economy, destroy the local polities, and ignore the
human rights of self-determination and resistance to occupation, and then
dare the "others" to emigrate. For context today:
Think the Muslim World in Africa and Asia. Think Latin
America. Think Gaza.<br><br>
Everywhere around Europe, as is also the case in Israel and the United
States, immigration is an issue. It seems that Europeans--who have
a quality of life that includes, among other things, mass transit and
continental rapid rail that works, subsidized education, subsidized
healthcare, and secure work and pensions--have reached their
"immigrant tolerance level:" that is, more
"others" are not welcome. And, as in the United States,
the role of the special interest media cannot be discounted in the
popularization of hate. This is especially sad when one realizes
that the Europe of today exists as it does largely because of its past
policies and current bondage with the United States that politically and
economically wreck the countries of the "others."<br><br>
For example, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Israel are all diamond trading
capitals of the world, yet none of them is a major miner of
diamonds. The diamonds mainly come from Africa, and the consequent
diamond empire that links all of these capitals was built on slavery and
theft. (Please see the film "Diamond Empire" by
investigative journalist Janine Roberts, banned in the United States
because of its inconvenient, name-naming content.)<br><br>
Now, take a look at these diamond-producing capitals of Sierra Leone,
Democratic Republic of Congo, and black South Africa--even
post-apartheid--and one quickly grasps the level of theft and criminality
that continues still today. Please think about this the next time
you are tempted to buy a beautiful sparkling diamond in your local mall
jewelry store.<br><br>
And, for those who have never left America's shores, one need only look
inside the United States at the genocide of America's indigenous people
and the continued pillage of their land to understand how today's life of
largess was made possible by years of mistreatment, lawlessness, and
genocide committed generations ago.<br><br>
In 1948, the cycle began again when Zionists eager to wield state power
were placed in control of Palestine by Europeans, Britons, and Americans
and created the State of Israel on the land where Palestinians
lived.<br><br>
I inquired of one Israeli testifying at the Tribunal what did Operation
Cast Lead tell us about the nature of Zionism. And it was through
this line of questioning that I again heard something that I have heard
all over the world, but never in the media: "I am an anti-Zionist
Jew."<br><br>
In the United States, Zionists at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) purport to speak for
all Jews and they would have non-Jews believe that criticism of them or
of Israel is criticism of all Jews. For many that I encounter in
the world whose only previous information came from the media,
their most startling discovery is that this is a lie. And I have
heard some of the most impassioned critiques of Israel's policies toward
Palestinians from anti-Zionist Jews. I intend to write more on this
later.<br><br>
Yesterday, it was announced in the English news that blacks and Asians
are stopped by the police alarmingly more than whites. The study
that published these findings also suggested that if such disparities are
allowed to persist, then the communities of color so targeted could
become increasingly disenchanted and volatile. London, Paris, and
Oakland, California have all burned in recent memory as a result of
persistent disparities and loss of hope for change. If unchecked
now in communities of color, repression of all will surely be
next.<br><br>
Given my experiences and reflections during this European tour that
included the Russell Tribunal; a standing-room-only meeting of Congolese
who came from all over Europe to Brussels; a standing-room-only crowd of
young people in "the hood" of a Paris suburb attending an event
organized by rapper Joe Dalton; and several events in London that
included a standing-room-only 9/11 Truth - 7/7 Tube Truth event, I find
the observation of the Russell Tribunal attendee both poignant and
relevant: It is still possible for people battered by
propaganda and lies, covert and false flag operations, and the meanest of
media blackouts to see and hear those of us who dissent and act on
conscience. Our message is being received. A growing global
critical mass see the humanity that binds us together despite the lies
and the screens of religion, race, ethnicity, language, gender, and
sexual orientation--skillfully used in the past to divide us.<br><br>
The real message from my Russell Tribunal respondent is clear:
Resistance to lies, injustice, war, and indignity is necessary and more
people seeing that, join with us in our principled struggle.<br><br>
For more information on the Barcelona proceedings, please see:
<br><br>
Press
TV:<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRjG7XrpKZY">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRjG7XrpKZY</a><br><br>
The Real news network:
<a href="http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4882">
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4882</a>
<br><br>
-- <br>
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http://dignity.ning.com/<br>
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Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.<br><br>
<br>
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