hupcollective

Dear friends,

Below is an urgent message from Dr. Mona, a dear friend to many of us. Her situation is both outrageous and tragic. However, multiply that by 6,000, because that is how many Palestinians have been waiting for up to five weeks on the Egyptian border to get to their homes in Gaza. Twenty-eight of them have died from heat, exhaustion, stress and their own delicate condition.

Please call AND write your members of Congress (or other elected representatives outside the U.S.), and demand their intervention to get Israel and Egypt to open the borders. Be sure to copy Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on your messages at eulmert@knesset.gov.il. Go to www.congress.org to find your senators or representatives. Call the Congressional switchboard at 1-800-839-5276 and ask for your member of Congress.

Paul

Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:39:02 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Marhaba..are you back?
From: "mona El-farra" <mona@gaza-health.org>

sorry i canot write more , can you circulate this to friends
and supporters
love
mona Sunday, July 15, 2007

My mother is in her last moments and I cannot cross the borders

My mother is in the hospital at the moment. She is severely ill. She was
admitted to hospital 3 days ago. I cannot reach her.

I finished my 45 day speaking tour in the USA. Everywhere across the USA
and in each lecture I told the audience about our suffering, living in
this big prison called Gaza. I told them about the borders closure and
about the patients who passed away while waiting to cross.the borders .

Now it is my personal story, like the daily stories of 1.4 million people
in GAZA under siege and occupation.poverty , lack of resources , killing
shooting violence etc....

I cannot cross the borders, I cannot cross the Rafah crossing. I badly
need to be next to my mother. I badly need to be there with her to help
her, to do whatever I can for her.to say good bye mum , I was always there
for my patients and many people, to help and try to alleviate their
suffering.in her last hours i canot be there my hands are tied, I am
helpless, I can do nothing, I just have to wait and wait and wait.my
throat is dry my are eyes full of tears .
this is unjust, unhuman . it is the occupation , how come to be just and
fair ,when it is mainly based on injustice , agression and cruelity .

Can somebody help me to go home? I badly need to be at home next to my
mother in her last moments.
Good bye mum ,hpoe you rest in peace , peace we donot enjoy in Gaza

The borders have been closed for more than 5 weeks , 28 patients died
while waiting to crossthe Rafah crossing .the only crossing between gaza
and egypt , all other exits are completely sealed by the Israeli army
The border was opened 70 times in one year

love and solidarity

[Dr. Mona Elfarra]

Placing Palestine solidarity and solidarity with Arab and Muslim people internationally and in the US central in our anti-militarization, anti-war and anti-imperialist organizing.

Arab Movement of Women Arising for Justice (AMWAJ), the International Jewish Solidarity Network – USA, Left Turn Magazine, and the Palestinian Popular Conference Network have brought together organizations and activists from across the country to develop this crucial track that will explore connections between Palestine Solidarity and domestic struggles for justice; reframe the issue of Palestine as a liberation struggle; analyze the history of US imperialism leading up to the current situation in Palestine and the Middle East; and foster discussions on how to build our movement.

Please join us in using this opportunity to come together for important discussions that will help us move beyond our isolation and build a stronger movement for justice.

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Nahr Al-Bared Palestine Tent Schedule

(tentative--check our tent near registration for updated schedules)

The “Nahr Al-Bared Palestine Tent” will offer a mix of cultural, political, and cross-movement activities going on all day, every day! Stop by for cultural events, film screenings, and presentations; attend gatherings for progressive Arab activists and anti-Zionist Jewish activists; join discussions about Palestine & Middle East solidarity work; pick up t-shirts, DVDs, books, fair trade Palestinian olive oil, and much more at the vendor tables; and check out our amazing “Picture Balata” and “Birthright Re-plugged” photograph exhibits. ( Collapse )

CELEBRATING PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE
Asserting Our Narrative; 59 Years after the Nakbah

When: June 8th, 6:30 - 9:30 PM
Where: SF Women's Building, Auditorium
3543 18th St. at Valencia

Palestinian and Arab community activists have come together to honor the 59th year of our continuous resistance and unbroken steadfastness in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine . Join us for an evening packed with cultural expressions of our resistance.

Program includes music, speakers, performances by Al-Juthoor (Palestinian Dabkeh Troop), and more. The night will also feature a photo exhibit documenting our displacement and ensuing struggle for freedom. This is an event not to be missed!

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http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?nf200704

Here is an article about the current situation:
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=tqyfjnxDdNnvzcffqm3kYcxKjWm3pgDH

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Harvard Law Professor Works to Disrupt Tenure Bid of Longtime Nemesis at DePaul U.

By JENNIFER HOWARD

The highly public feud between Norman G. Finkelstein of DePaul University and Harvard Law School's Alan M. Dershowitz has taken an unusual procedural twist, with Mr. Dershowitz attempting to weigh in on Mr. Finkelstein's bid for tenure at DePaul.

How Mr. Dershowitz's move will play out remains to be seen. Mr. Finkelstein's department supported his tenure bid, but the dean of his college has refused to support him. A final decision is expected next month.

There's no love lost between Mr. Finkelstein, an assistant professor of political science, and Mr. Dershowitz, a law professor. The two scholars have attacked each other repeatedly in the past few years, hurling accusations of plagiarism and polemicism at one another.

They've taken adversarial stances on such issues as the Israel lobby, anti-Semitism, and what Mr. Finkelstein terms "the Holocaust industry." Mr. Dershowitz threatened to take legal action against the University of California Press if Mr. Finkelstein's Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History (2005) went to print with allegations that Mr. Dershowitz plagiarized portions of his 2003 book The Case for Israel (The Chronicle, July 22, 2005).

Last fall, with Mr. Finkelstein up for tenure, Mr. Dershowitz sent the DePaul law school faculty and members of the political-science department what he described, in a letter dated October 3, as a "dossier of Norman Finkelstein's most egregious academic sins, and especially his outright lies, misquotations, and distortions."

"I hope that this will serve as an introduction and primer to the so-called scholarship that Finkelstein will present this term as he is considered for tenure," Mr. Dershowitz wrote.

Mr. Finkelstein said in an interview on Monday that Mr. Dershowitz had embarked on "this frenetic and relentless campaign to deny me tenure."

"He sent to every member of the law school ... a dossier which came, I think, to about 50 pages, leveling or, I should say, recycling all of the allegations he's been putting forth for the past couple of years. And he sent a copy of that dossier to every member of my department."

The packet included what Mr. Dershowitz's letter called "some of the lies I am absolutely confident that Finkelstein told" on such points as Israeli torture and whether or not Mr. Dershowitz writes his own books.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday with The Chronicle, Mr. Dershowitz confirmed that he had sent the information to "everybody who would read it." He said he had compiled the material at the request of some two dozen DePaul students, alumni, and faculty members who were alarmed at the prospect of Mr. Finkelstein's receiving tenure.

Asked what he hoped to accomplish, he said, "Revealing the truth -- all I'm doing is disclosing the truth."

Mr. Dershowitz continued, "It would be a disgrace to DePaul University if they were to grant tenure. It would make them the laughing stock of American universities. ... His scholarship is no more than ad hominem attacks on his ideological enemies."

He added, "I think, by every standard, he's worse than Ward Churchill. ... He's a propagandist, not a scholar."

Given Mr. Dershowitz's history of clashes with Mr. Finkelstein, some might conclude that the matter had by now become more personal than professional. Mr. Dershowitz denied that. "For me, it's not personal. It's institutional." He said that Mr. Finkelstein sent "a message to other pro-Israel writers: If you dare write anything scholarly in favor of Israel, I will call you names, I will call you a plagiarist."

Mr. Dershowitz's involvement has stirred serious concern among the DePaul faculty.

Gil Gott, a professor of international studies at DePaul who is chairman of its Liberal Arts and Sciences' Faculty Governance Council, said in an e-mail message on Wednesday that the council had taken up the matter at its November 17, 2006, meeting. (Mr. Gott was not then chair of the council.)

According to the minutes of the session, the council voted unanimously to authorize a letter to DePaul's president, Dennis H. Holtschneider, and the university's provost, Helmut P. Epp, along with the president of Harvard University and the dean of Harvard Law school. The letter was to express "the council's dismay at Professor Dershowitz's interference in Finkelstein's tenure and promotion case" and also to explain "that the sanctity of the tenure and promotion process is violated by Professor Dershowitz's emails."

The minutes add: "A discussion followed in which members expressed their views that this was a very disturbing intrusion which attacked the sovereignty of an academic institution to govern its own affairs."

Asked whether it was unusual for a scholar to weigh in on tenure deliberations at another university, Mr. Dershowitz responded, "What's so unusual about a concerned academic's objecting to his receiving tenure? He would be the first person in history ever to receive tenure based on no scholarship other than personal attacks."

Mr. Finkelstein contacted The Chronicle last weekend to discuss his concerns about the status of his case. He said that his department had investigated Mr. Dershowitz's claims and "concluded that none of the scholarly allegations that Dershowitz leveled against me had any merit."

But he added: "DePaul is in a growth mode, and they see me as an albatross because they're getting all this negative publicity because of me. And they want to get rid of me. And now the question is, what's going to prevail? The principles of fairness, the principles of academic freedom, or power and money in the form of a mailed fist?"

According to Mr. Finkelstein and to departmental reports sent to The Chronicle, his department voted 9 to 3 in favor of granting him tenure, with the majority voicing strong support for his scholarship and giving him high marks for his pedagogy. One of the reports described him as "an outstanding teacher whose contributions to student learning and transformation are impressive." It concluded that "while not all members of the department share a love of polemic and inflammatory rhetoric as practiced by Norman and his adversaries, there is clearly a substantial and serious record of scholarly production and achievement."

The College Personnel Committee subsequently voted 5 to 0 in favor of tenure for Mr. Finkelstein. But Charles S. Suchar, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, shot down the recommendation in a March 22, 2007, memo, a copy of which was also obtained by The Chronicle.

In language similar to that used by Mr. Dershowitz, the dean wrote, "I find the personal attacks in many of Dr. Finkelstein's published books to border on character assassination and, in my opinion, they embody a strategy clearly aimed at destroying the reputation of many who oppose his views."

Because the process is not yet complete, the DePaul administration has not made a public statement about Mr. Finkelstein's case.

"No comment at this time," Mr. Suchar wrote in an e-mail message. "The promotion and tenure review process is still under way, and final decisions are not expected until mid- to late May." The final decision on whether Mr. Finkelstein receives tenure rests with the provost and president of the university.

Action Alert from the NCA
The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Dr. Al-Arian is currently under his 60th day of a water-only hunger strike in protest of his maltreatment by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al- Arian from any further questioning, he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia.

Dr. Al-Arian is currently being held at a medical facility in North Carolina. He is in critical condition, having lost 53 pounds, over 25% of his body weight. According to family members who recently visited him he is no longer able to walk or stand on his own.

More information on Dr. Al-Arian's ordeal can be found in the transcript of a recent interview with his wife, Nahla Al-Arian on Democracy Now.

ACTION:

We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.

Call, Email and Write:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530- 0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224- 4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314


For background and more infomration please read
"The Persecution of Sami Al-Arian" by Alex Cockburn