Sunday 28 March 2010

Land Day - in defense of the land and of memory



Write down
I am an Arab,
You stole the orchards of my ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children.





And you left nothing for us,
Nor for our descendents,
Except for these rocks...
So will the state take them,
As it has been said?
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Mahmoud Darwish: Identity Card
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On 30th March the Palestinian People Remember Land Day


The events commemorated on this day go back to the 30th March 1976, starting with the confiscation of hundreds of hectares of Palestinian land by the Israelis in areas with an Arab-Palestinian majority, particularly Galilee.

Following this act, Arabs in the territories occupied in 1948 called a general strike, challenging the Israeli authorities for the first time since 1948.

The Israeli military response was harsh: the army invaded Palestinian towns killing and wounding several defenseless people.

The protests started on March 29th, with a demonstration in Deir Hanna - repressed by force - followed by another in Arraba, where the Israeli military reaction was even stronger and led to the killing of Khair Yassin and the wounding of dozens of citizens.

News of the killing of Yassin led to increased protests in all the Arab areas. The next day, another five people were killed: : Raja Abu Raia, Khader Khalaylah, Khadija Shawahneh, di Sekhnin; Muhsen Taha di Kufor Kenna, and Rafat al-Zuhairi di Ain Shama.

Since then, things have not improved - on the contrary, the policies of expropriation have been extended to the territories illegally occupied in 1967. Confiscations of land continue, as do the colonial projects: day after day, the apartheid wall steals Palestinian land, dividing orchards, villages, towns, families. New settlements are built and older ones are extended.

Racist attitudes are also on the increase, attempting to strip Palestinians of their legal and political rights and to cancel the historic memory of the Palestinian pople. On February 26, the Israeli parliament approved a law that bans the commemoration of the Nakba, the catastrophe of the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Palestine with the creation of the state of Israel. Penalties will be imposed on anyone who shows "signs of sadness and mourning" on the 15th May within the (undefined) borders of Israel. On that date, Palestinians recall the creation of the refugee crisis.

The Israeli group
Zochrot (Remember) is working against these attitudes, insisting that without awareness of the Nakba as an intrinsic part of the creation of the state of Israel, peace cannot be achieved. They also try to bring the history of Palestinian villages to Israelis and foriegn tourists, as shown in these videos:





Sunday 14 March 2010

International Women's Day - Nothing to Celebrate in Ciudad Juarez

In the realm of non-justice
impunity reigns
total silence is imposed
identifications are hidden
clues, facts, and evidence
are ignored

In an act of complicity
requests are not listened to
meetings are not granted
questions are not allowed
laws do not exist.

In act of negligence
they act as if there have never been
evidence of the crimes of
abducting, torturing, raping,
killing girls
who are poor, fragile, defenceless



In an act of infamous impunity
No one discovers
No one accuses
No one judges
No one punishes
The murderer

In an act of absolute injustice!





From Marisa Ortiz of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa:

Be away of the diversionary offers of governments designed to make us think - presenting us with a flower or opening spaces to speak - how beautiful it is to be a woman and to give us hypocritical recognition. If this consciousness of equality really existed, instead of reserving a DAY for women, they would give us a life and worthwhile social, family, and work-related space, treating with respect and recognition for what we do and what we are, not one day, but an entire life. We women don't need a day of tender attentions, or to be told that we very lovely, nor that a prize be given to the best of the year. To hold debates and conferences that remind us of how miserable are the lives of many women in the world, but .... our own lives? the subject of feminicide is avoided. There's no discussion that even recognises that it exists, because doing so implies the responsibity to be coherent and to act consequentially.

We women of Juarez serve our community, our country, and we make an effort every day to make our work better, we only ask for equality and that there should be justice for all.

On the other hand, what is there to celebrate if the macho attitudes of our governments and authorites continue to favour impunity and to look the other way when they know that women continue to be murdered, that hundreds of girls have been abducted by people known to be protected. Indeed, so far, no one has been found as a result of investigations and we have never found out who are the abductors. We know why, because their destroyed bodies, and their terrible wounds speak to us of horrific torture and violence to which they have been subjected before having their lives torn away.

These attitudes of the government have led to an increase in the murder of women, because there are no effective investigations and the perpetrators are never punished - or even looked for. An even worse, they imply that the girls are responsible for their own tragedies because they had relations with people from the world of drug trafficking, or they try to damage their reputations with false accusations.

The violence against women because they are women continues, and it's enough to look at the figures from CasaAmiga on domestic violence, and other figures never recognised by the government of the countless women abducted, raped, and murdered as has been happening since the 1990s - without even counting the hundreds of disappearances, where the family don't even have the consolation of being able to visit the cemetary with a flower or a prayer, because nothing has ever been found out about their fate, but day by day hope dies of finding them alive.

The autorities can no longer deny or hide the fact that the problem persists: there are 29 girls, almost all minors, about whose fate we know nothing; and a similar figure last year. This year 30 girls are being sought by their families. How many women have been murdered is also unknown, but last year more than 80 women were murdered with extreme violence, and no one even mentions the consequences of these losses for their families: damage to physical and mental health, a tremendous strain of the useless search for justice, disintegration of the family and serious economic, social, family, and scholastic problems when the victim leaves children.

Luckily, the National Observatory of Feminicide, of which we are part, has a register not only of every town but also maintains a count in those parts of the country where this terrible phenomenon is most present, and the figures continue to be alarming. Only last year, therewere 733 women murdered in 11 states of the country.

Faced with this, the question is: what is there to celebrate? It would be better that we dedicate this day to teh memory of the victims, and from now on dedicate or efforts, no matter how humble, to trying to put an end to this misogyny that has created this cultural model that permits and tolerates violence against women in this community that we love.

A strong embrace to all who love and defend life as an inalienable right, to my friends and companions ; HAPPY LIFE







In Ciudad Juárez, young women, mostly from humble backgrounds, have been abducted, kept in captivity, and subjected to ferocious sexual violence before being killed.

Juarez-libro[1]
Ciudad Juarez, la violenza sulle donne in America Latina, l'impunita', la resistenza delle madri.

Wednesday 3 March 2010

A day without us


What would happen if the four and a half million immigrants who live in Italy decided to stop work for a day? And if the millions of Italians who are sick of racism supported their actions?

On March 1st 2010, at least 300 thousand people coloured the streets of Italy yellow - from Trieste to Siracusa, from Palermo to Turin. And so many workers, both Italian and non-Italian did really stop work witnessing to the fact that legal and constitutional instruments cannot have a copyright.

All the demonstrations were peaceful and well attended. And the success of each one cannot be measured only by the number of participants - the hundreds who filled the streets of Siracusa have the same worth as the 30 thousand in Milan or the 20 thousand in Naples. Each reality expressed what was possible to express and gave the best. .

The women in black took part - foreigners not from the point of view of registration, but foriegn to the climate of racism that is poisining Italy today.



We sign up to the manifesto of the 1st of May movement with all our hearts:


1st March 2010, a day without us is a non violent movement that unites people from all backgrounds, genderes, faiths, education, and political orientation.

We are immigrants, children of immigrants, and Italians, brought together by a rejection of racism, of intolerance, and of the closure that characterises Italy today. We recognise the importance of immigration (not only from an economic standpoint) and are indignant about the denigratory and xenophobic campaigns that, in recent years, have led to the approval of laws and ordinances that are far awy from the letter and the spirit of our constitution.

We condemn and reject stereotypes and discriminatory language, racism of every type, especially institutional racism, the manipulatory use of appeals to cultural roots and to religion to justify national and local policies of rejection and exclusion.

We recall that the right to emigrate is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that human history has always been a history of migrations without which there would have been no process of civilisation and construction of cultures. The violation of this and other fundamental rights damages and offends society itself, not just the individuals who are directly affected.

Seeing immigrants as an anonymous mass of parasites or an inexhaustible font of cheap labour represents an immoralf, irrational and counterproductive position.

The overwhelming majority of immigrants present in Italy work hard and fulfil functions that are essential for the maintenance of a complex society such as ours. They are an integral part of Italy today.

The counterposition of "us" and "them" "natives" and "foriegners" is destined to fall, leaving place for the recognition that today we are together, old and new citizens, involved in building the future.

We want an end, here and now, to the politics of double standards, both in law and in the actions of people. Our first objective is to organise a large non-violent demonstration on March 1st 2010,in common with other European countries, non only has France inspired us with la Journée sans immigrés, 24h sans nous, but also Spain, Greece and other countries are gradually taking action.

Together with them, we want to stimulate a serious consideration about what would happen if the millions of immigrants who live and work in Europe decided to stop work or go away . On March 1st, we will make our voices heard in various ways which will be defined in collaboration with regional committees on the basis of feasibility and effectiveness.

We do not rule out anything, but we will always act with respect to the law and to non-violence.

http://www.primomarzo2010.it