Re: Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement -- Register Now

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

In response to my request that UFPJ endorse the Third National
Student Conference on the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, Nadia
Hijab of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (@
<http://www.endtheoccupation.org/>) has brought to my attention that
at least seven Arab NJ Solidarity steering committee members resigned
in protest of the practice of the other steering committee members
and issued a public statement indicting their unwise choices and
undemocratic means -- see below for both Nadia's postings and the
public statement in question.  Given the problems in NJ Solidarity, I
put my request for endorsement on hold, pending a major change in NJ
Solidarity's practice.

> Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2003 07:45:33 -0400
> From: Nadia Hijab
> Subject: Re: [ufpj-pal] Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of
> the Palestine Solidarity Movement
>
> Thanks Yoshie for all your hard work on the draft and on keeping
> members of this group informed about different events. I look
> forward to seeing the draft after Rania and Josh have had a chance
> to go over it.
>
> Re the upcoming conference at Rutgers below, I would not support
> recommending it for SC endorsement because New Jersey Solidarity is
> now a splinter group of the original.
>
> The remaining members reportedly used non-democratic means to push a
> platform that divided the group (pasting a new statement on the
> website and locking out the other members), and the Arab and
> Palestinian members had no option but to leave the group.   We at
> the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation have removed NJ
> Solidarity from our list.  My understanding is that ISM has also
> done so.
>
> I'm pasting below the public statement by the members who left the
> group. Best, Nadia
>
> > Public Statement from former NJ Solidarity Steering Committee Members
> >
> > We the undersigned, former steering committee members of NJ
> > Solidarity, would like to publicly and officially sever any and all
> > ties with the current leadership of NJ Solidarity.
> >
> > Recently, NJ Solidarity has taken a very radical turn towards
> > something akin to militancy. We, the majority of its steering
> > committee, have resigned to protect ourselves from what we have
> > been advising others to avoid.
> >
> > The NJS Mission Statement was originally crafted to provide a safe
> > environment for activism and dialogue on issues affecting Palestine
> > and its people. The few members which remain with NJS have far
> > different visions for the organization.
> >
> > NJS members have recently been involved in actions that have been
> > thoughtless and immoral with regards to administrative matters. A
> > window on this pattern of incident shows that the foundation of
> > NJS, its mission statement, remains in theory but has been cast
> > aside in practice by a number of its members.  Those who prefer
> > reckless rhetoric have tried amending the Mission Statement to
> > include "Israel has no right to exist" and have openly welcomed the
> > idea of inviting Hamas to events. We have had debates against
> > Steering Committee persons who hold tight to the idea that there
> > are no Israeli civilians and when confronted with "even the kids?"
> > the  reply was "yes, everyone's fair game". This has been
> > escalating for a number of months now.  It has gone well past the
> > point of return.
> >
> > After a final week of attempted dialogue with the aforementioned,
> > we have been received with an  increased pattern of deception. A
> > series of deception now aimed at Steering Committee members, who
> > held tight to upholding the Mission Statement, has forced us to
> > resign our services to the organization for our own safety and for
> > fear of the future principles of this organization.
> >
> > We expect those who remain on the NJS Steering Committee to
> > displace blame for these incidents, or perhaps deny they ever
> > occurred. Hopefully this will not be the case as we are all here to
> > work for truth and justice. But if this comes to light we remind
> > people that under the original NJS policy of complete transparency,
> > we are comfortable in knowing that those who scrutinize our
> > position will find it thoroughly upheld with quality materials.
> >
> > We are passionate about Palestine and its people and dedicated to
> > truth and empowerment, but we realize that there is a right and
> > just way or a wrong and treacherous way to do things. We have
> > chosen not to follow the latter. We will, however, continue to work
> > within our communities and with one another to build similar
> > mechanisms to continue to educate and empower our communities on
> > issues of relevance.
> >
> > Mona Abdallah
> > Basem Hassan
> > Iman Mohammed
> > Abeer Mustafa
> > Enam Saadeh
> > Summer Sharaf
> > Jamal Al Din Talib

> Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2003 10:30:51 -0400
> From: Nadia Hijab
> Subject: Re: [ufpj-pal] Endorse the 3rd North American Conference of
> the Palestine Solidarity Movement
>
> Yoshie, I agree that it is important for the information to get out
> as widely as possible.
>
> Just for a bit more background: when we were discussing this on the
> US Campaign Steering Committee, I checked the NJ Solidarity website
> and it contained language that said the Palestinians had the right
> to resist using any means possible.  The right to resist occupation
> is recognized under international law, but attacks on civilians
> violate international law.
>
> I had been invited to speak at Rutgers last November (before the
> split) and met both Charlotte Kates and Summer Sharaf, who had
> organized my talk. After we removed NJ Solidarity from the Campaign
> list, I sent an email to Charlotte Kates explaining our decision on
> the basis that their positions violated international law, and
> invited her to call me if she wanted to discuss this further, but
> she did not do so.
>
> If you do forward my message, please remove my email address as I
> don't want to get on to any listservs - I have enough problems
> dealing with my Inbox as is!
>
> All the best, Nadia
--
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>