With the recent visit of Prime Minister Berlusconi to Israel, the Italian government has made our country complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people and in the possible escalation of war in the Middle East.
Italy is officially supplying armaments, economic investment, and scientific collaboration to anIsraeli government, condemned by international institutions for the construction of the segregation wall, for war crimes in Gaza and for the colonial occupation of the Palestinian territories.
We, as Italian citizens, do not accept complicity in this policy of oppression and war.
For these reasons
We call for the revocation of the military, commercial, scientific and cultural agreements between the Italian and Israeli institutions.
We call for the ending of the Italian and European participation in the shameful embargo of the Palestinian population of Gaza who have been under siege for 4 years.
In the west there's the notion that Afghanistan has been liberated and the fundamentalists deposed, but it's not like that. There's an image of Afghanistan that the media provides and there's Afganistan described by Afghan women
But who will make the voices of Afghan women heard?
RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) has been fighting for 30 years in defense of women's rights and for a secular and democratic state, free of fundamentalism.
Rawa's founder, Meena, was assassinated in 1987 by Afghan agents of the KGB. Since then, the fate democratic opponents of the regime has not changed. Today, RAWA is still forced to work clandestinely, with serious risks to the lives of activists. RAW is active in both social and political projects. Activists perform many social activities in the fields of education, health care, providing microcredits for women's craft projects, while continuing to denounce the violence and the violations of human rights, reported on the site www.rawa.org that has been created by self-taught women.
After the last 8 years of "war on terrorism" with thousands of dead - the most part civilians - the situation in Afghanistan has worsened. 80% of the population live in poverty. Social reconstruction has not happened. Production of opium has increased, and now represents 93% of world production.
Conditions have not improved for Afghan women. On the contrary, the number of abductions, rapes, selling of daughters, forced marriages, prostitution, and suicide have reached unprecedented levels.
Everything is forbidden to women (studying, employment, going out alone) in spite of the fact that the new Afghan consitution recognises equal rights for men and women since 2004.
The Italian Women in Black have been supporting the Afghan women of RAWA since 1999 with direct relations, visits, meetings, and support for funding campaigns. In 2004 the Italian Coordination in Support of Afghan Women (CISDA) was formed on the initiative of the Women in Black, womens organisations, and individual women. It promotes international cooperation projects in favour of Afghan women.
This month, CISDA organised a series of initiatives with Mehmooda, a RAWA activist, in several Italian cities. In Ravenna, the Women in Black Organised two meetings to make afghan women's voices heard Interview with Mehmooda
In December, at the request of the Legislative Assembly of the Marche region, on the occasion of the founding of the association "Peace University", the Women in Black of Fano invitied RAWA activist Zoya to bring her testimony.
Here are some of the points of Zoya's speech that impressed us all very deeply.
8 years ago, Afghanistan was occupied for three motives: liberation of women, establishment of a democracy, and war on terrorism. After 8 years, after troops from 42 countries have intervened militarily in Afghanistan, after billions of dollars have been spent, these three "aims" have not been realised.
Liberation for women
Domestic violence, rape, abduction - all these crimes remain unpunished, because often those who commit them are linked to those in power, including those close to the government and to the forces of law and order. In the west, it's said that we've been liberated, that the obligation to wear the burqa has been removed, that the law allows us to go to school. but many girls are attacked and acid is thrown in their faces, so they don't go to school and they put the burqa back on. The burqa has only disappeared in Kabul and only among women from the elite sectors.
Women are very poor and hungry. There are families that are forced to sell their daughters for 400 dollars. We are told that so much money is arriving, but wear has it ended up? Because of government corruption, it goes to drug traffickers. In all this, what remains for the women? Only suicide! And unfortunately, it seems to be becoming a fashion among young women.
Democracy
It's not RAWA, but the UN who have said that the elections in Afganistan were fraudulent.
There is no freedom of speech. Independent journalists have a very difficult life. Some are even killed. RAWA, for example, cannot speak openly. The democratic voices in parliament that denounced war crimes have been expelled.
War on terrorism
After 8 years and billions of dollars, 80% of Afghanistan is under Taleban control. At the beginning we were optimistic about the western intervention, but then we understood that western forces were making comprises and supporting fundamentalist groups.
Boycott is an instrument for the people and for individuals to express their solidarity concretely with those who are struggling in a just cause, and in today's world there is no juster cause that that of the Palestinians.
In 2005, Palestinian civil society made a united proposal to the international solidarity movements; identify ways of boycotting Israeli products, of disinvesting from commercial activities in Israel, of imposing sanctions on the state of Israel, of imposing academic and cultural boycotts on Israelis who do not take a position against the occupation and against apartheid.
All these requests have been coherently formulated in the BDS campaign, which has already achieved many successes (for example against Veolia, Africa-Israel, Motorola..) and has obtained support from organisations in civil society - accademic groups and trade unions from all over the world, including Israel. All the prAinciple unions that represent the Palestinian workers, often used as a workforce in Israel and in the settlements, are among the promoters of the BDS campaign.
Apartheid farms and Carmel Agrexco
In several European countries, a campaign has built up against Agrexco Ltd; the principle export company for Israeli agricultural products, which is partly state-owned.
With the Carmel lable, Agrexco sells around 70% of all fruit and vegetables produced in the Israeli settlements in the occupied territores, including those in the Jordan valley.
Some reasons to boycotto Agrexco:
In the Jordan valley, which covers one third of the West Bank, the Israeli settlers control 95% of Palestinian land with military bases, 30 illegal settlements, and immense plantations, in violation of the Oslo accords.
The agriculatural activities of the settlements have led to the illegal confiscation of land and the diversion of Palestinian water resources. Palestinians are not allowed to extend their houses, dig wells, or transport their few agriculatural products to market. So, while their products rot at checkpoints, those of the settlements are freely exported to Europe.
The company has benefited from agricultural subsidies granted by the Israeli government to intensify colonisation of the Jordan valley, and has used them to increase production of fruit, flowers and vegetables, that are then sold in Europe, Latin America, Africa and East Asia.
80% of the Agrexco's products are exported to Europe, by way of France, Spain, and since last summer, also through Italia's Vado Ligure port in Savona. So, since 2009, Italy has become an essential link in the distribution of agricultural producs from Israeli settlements to Southern Europe.
Each of us can contribute to the construction of a different future for the Palestinian people, opposing Israeli violations of UN resolutions;
boycotting Carmel-Agrexco, Israeli exporter of products from illegal settlements.
protesting against the docking of the ships at the port of Vado.
Per further information about the StopAgrexco Italia campaign, write to savona@donneinnero.it
A year ago, we were out on the streets to show our indignation and our pain for the massacre caused by the Israeli military intervention - Operation Cast Lead - against the Gaza Strip, to call for a ceasefire, to bring an end to the siege and to guarantee the right of life of Gaza's population.
In 23 days of bombardment, more than 1,400 dead (one third were children) and more than 5000 palestinians injured. 13 Israelis dead (10 soldiers and 3 civilians). Thousands of homes, many schools, 20 mosques, the water and electricity supply networks destroyed; UN centres, hospitals and ambulances struck by the Israeli army. Tens of thousands left homeless.
A year has passed and the siege continues
You can't get into Gaza and you can't get out. Amnesty International described the blockade of Gaza as a "form of collective punishment of the entire population, a flagrant violation of Israel's obligations under the 4th Geneva Convention". The special UN rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, condemned the siege as "a crime against humanity". The consequences of the siege are undeniably causing a situation of mass suffering, created for the most part by Israel, but with the active complicity of the international community, in particular the United States and the European Union. The illegal siege of Gaza isn't happening in a void. It is one of many illegal acts committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories, militarily occupied in 1967.
Illegal:
The wall and the settlements
The demolition of houses
The indiscriminate destruction of agricultural land.
Closures and curfews
Roadblocks and checkpoints
La detenzione
Torture
The occupation itself.
The ending of the military occupation which began in 1967 is a fundamental condition for bringing abouot a just and lasting peace. For more than 60 years, the Palestinian people have been denied their right to freedom, to self-determination and to equality.
1400 people from 43 countries (the Gaza freedom March) tried in recent days to enter Gaza, to join with thousands of Palestinians in a non-violent march which would have gone from the north of the Strip to reach the border with Israel, calling for the end of the siege.
Egypt stopped them leaving Cairo, allowing only around 100 to enter Gaza. Hedy Epstein, 85 year old Jewish pacifist and Holocaust survivor, started a hunger strike in protest.
“It is important that the population of Gaza, under siege, know that they are not alone. I want to be able to say to the people of Gaza that I represent many people in my city and in the USA who are indignant about the policies adopted by Israel, the USA and Europe towards the Palestinians and that ever more people are coming to think in this way.”
said Ms Epstein, who escaped from the Nazi persecution while her parents died in Auschwitz.
Together with the participants in the Gaza Freedom March who demonstrated in the streets of Caior on January 1st, and with all those who at the same time marched in Israel and in the Gaza Strip, with those who protested in Ramallah, Bethlehem and in other West Bank cities, joining the protests organised in many cities throughout the world, we continue to draw attention to Gaza. We do not forget the tragic attack on the strip and we demand justice.
We call on politicians - local and national, on the government, on the European Union and the governments that are part of it to ensure respect for international law that has been trampled on. And to the leaders of Israel, we say:
End the siege of Gaza, stop the building of settlements in the West Bank, end the occupation, respect and apply the UN resolutions. That is the only way to peace.
The date of the Gaza Freedom March, 31st December 2009, is drawing near. The march is a historic initiative to break the siege that imprisons the one and a half million people who live in the Gaza Strip.
The march will bring together people from all over the world, hand in hand with the people of Gaza, to call on Israel to open the borders. More than 1,300 people from 42 countries - amoung them 140 from Italy - will take part in the march, carrying with them humitarian aid, solidarity and love for the people of Gaza.
On the first anniversary of the Israeli invasion that left more than 1,400 dead, this is a global response from ordinary people, to the inaction of their leaders and of the world's political institutions.
This year, we have seen:
Aid donated by people from all over the world blocked by the Israeli and Egyptian governments.
Gazan fishermen and farmers injured or even killed by the Israeli armed forces.
The ship of the Free Gaza movement attacked and hijacked by the Israeli navy.
The Goldstone report ignored by European governments and denigrated by the US congress.
But we have also seen the indignation of people for what happened in Gaza, the solidarity and the determination to do something, despite the inaction of their governments. We've seen aid convoys and delegations of activists struggle to enter Gaza, and we've seen them succeed.
No we must struggle to make the Gaza Freedom March succeed. On December 20th, the Egyptian authorities communicated their intention to not open the Rafah crossing to permit the participants of the march to enter Gaza.
Click here to send a message of support for the march to the Egyptian ambassador in Italy.
People are mobilising. The message is clear:
End the siege, end the occupation, respect for international law.
But Gaza needs concrete solidarity from all. Click here to find out how you can contribute.
Bil’in is a Palestinian village that wants to continue to exist, that fights to protect its land, its olive groves, its resources and its freedom.
The state of Israel, by annexing 60% of Bil'in's land to construct the separation wall, is destroying this village each day, confining its inhabitants to an open-air prison.
Every Friday, supported by Israeli and international activists, the inhabitants of Bil'in protest peacefully in front of the construction site of shame - and every Friday, the Israeli army respond with physical and moral violence.
The most recent attempt by the Israeli army to reduce Bil'in's non-violent resistence campaign to silence is a wave of nocturnal raids and the multiplication of arrests of demonstrators, in particular the leaders of the Bil'in Popular Committee. Since June 23 2009,
31 Bil'in residents have been arrested by the Israeli military.
People arrested in Bil'in since the start of the campaign of intimidation
The latest to be detained is the coordinator of the non-violent resistence movement of Bil'in Abdallah Abu Rahmah, arrested during the night of December 10th by Israeli soldiers. At 2 in the morning, 7 Israeli military jeeps stopped near to the home of Abdallah Abu Rahmah in the city of Ramallah. The soldiers burst into the house and arrested Abu Rahmah in his bed, in the presence of his wife and children. Abu Rahmah is a school teacher at the Latin Patriarch school in Birzeit near to Ramallah and he is the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee against the wall and the settlements. In previous attempt to arrest Abu Rahmah, on September 15th, the Israeli army used such violence that a soldier was indicted.
What can you do?
Support the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and its efforts to free the detainees.
A simple man called Gandhi led the non-violent struggle in India and simple people like Rosa Parks led the struggle for civil rights in the USA, simple people here in Bil'in are carrying out a non-violent struggle that will bring them freedom. The example of South Africa demonstrates that injustice can be defeated.
Lettres de cachet were letters signed by the king of France with which a subject could be condemned to imprisonment without trial or the possibility of defense or appeal.
Lettres de cachet were abolished immediately after the French Revolution, but naturally such a useful practice was not completely abandoned. All the colonial powers used similar regulations. Administrative detention, still used today by the Israeli occupation forces in Palestine, is one of these regulations.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile..
Article 9 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Administrative detention is a form of detention without charge or trial, authorised by an administrative order rather than a judicial decree. An administrative detention order can be for a maximum period of six months, but there is no limit to the number of times it can be renewed. It was introduced in Palestine by the British authorities during the Mandate, and was used against both the indigenous population and the Jewish immigrants.
The Zionist jurist Dov Joseph, protesting against its use by the British authorities said:
Are we to be subjected to official terror? ... no citizen can be safe from life imprisonment without trial... it is not necessary to have committed any crime, a decision taken in some office is enough..
After the establishment of the state of Israel, the British Emergency Regulations, which included administrative detention, were incorporated into Israeli law and Dov Joseph, by then minister of justice, used them against the Palestinian population. Since then, administrative detention orders have struck children, women, young people, old people, intellectuals, students, political and trade union leaders, and in the last three years it has been the turn of elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Since 2000, more than 19,000 administrative detention orders have been handed down.
Currently, more than 500 Palestinians are subject to administrative detention orders. The most recent detainee is Mohammed Othman. Mohammad was arrested by the Israeli authorities on 22nd September. He was returning to the West Bank from Norway where he had spoken at public meetings and met with government officials. Despite two months of detention, isolation, and lengthy interrogations, no charges were brought against him and finally the military authorities requested an administrative detention order.
Click here to send a mail to President Obama asking him to press for Mohammed's immediate release.
Click here for more information about the campaign against administrative detention.
Report on the arbitrary detention of Palestinians prepared by the Israeli human rights organisations B'tselem and Hamoked.
Noi Donne in nero siamo una rete internazionale di donne contro le guerre. Ripudiamo ogni forma di guerra, di terrorismo, di fondamentalismo e di violazione dei diritti umani e civili
One of the practices of the Women in Black is to demonstrate our opposition to war, to violence, and to discrimination, in silence and dressed in black. There are regular Women in Black vigils in the following Italian cities:
Alba: Last Friday of the month, from 18.00 to 19.00, in via Maestra (via Vittorio emanuele II).
Bologna: Wednesdays from 18.00 to 19.00 in piazza Nettuno.
Como: Fortnightly, on Saturday from 15.00 to 16.00 in piazza San Fedele .
Florence: Thursdays from 18.00 to 19.00 in piazza Beccaria.
Milan: In piazza Cordusio at the corner of Via Mercanti Fridays from 18.00 to 19.00
Naples: Wednesdays or Fridays at 18.00 on the Ponte di Tappia, in via Roma.
Padua: First Wednesday of the month, from 17.00 17 to 18.00, in piazza Garibaldi.
Piacenza: Fortnightly, on Saturday from 17.00 to 18.00, in piazzetta San Francesco.
Rome: Twice monthly, Wednesdays from 18.30 to 19.30 in Largo Argentina.
Savona: Fridays from 17.30 to 18.30 in piazza Mameli.
Turin: Last Friday of the month, from 18.00 to 19.00, in via Garibaldi at the corner of via XX Settembre.
Udine: Saturdays from 17.00 alle 19.00, in Piazzetta Lionello
Varese: Fridays from 18.00 to 19.00 in piazza Monte Grappa.
Verona: Wednesdays in piazza Bra’ from 18.00 to 19.00
