PEP: Consecutive Statements of the Free Palestine Alliance

Consecutive Statements of the
Free Palestine Alliance

FPA Statement 15: How History is Made!
January 19, 2009
http://www.freepalestinealliance.org/

In this fifteenth installment, the FPA remembers Dr. Martin Luther King., Jr. through our own eyes, reflects on the destruction of the Zionist assault, analyses the cease fire, and puts forward a plan of action.

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In Memory of MLK:

Today, as the Palestinian people continue to search for their dead in the Gaza Strip and bury their scorched children, mothers, and fathers, the United States as whole, the very custodian of Zionist bigotry and colonial malice, is recognizing a champion of civil rights, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is a man that the US imprisoned, beat, accused of treason, and ridiculed before it celebrated, and only after he was assassinated. He is a preacher of a people whose churches were firebombed and burned to the ground, just like Palestinian mosques and churches; and against whom the US segregated, on whom it set vicious dogs, beat with batons, rifles and fire hoses. This is a people whose leadership and everyday activists in the struggle for equality were shot at, assassinated, and indeed, lynched by mindless mobs supported by public policy. They are a people whose history is relegated to the margins, whose art and cultural expressions robbed by others, whose youth remain subject to the combined brutalities of poverty, wretch racism, and police powers.

In the context of the amplified suffering of the past 23 days and in recognition of the proud resilience of the Palestinian people, sadly yet proudly, the likeness to the Palestinian struggle is enormous. Be it African American or Palestinian, geography is perhaps the only difference.

Tomorrow, on Tuesday, January 20, and as displaced Palestinians continue to return to homes bombed by US Apaches and F-16 fighter jets, these same United States will be inaugurating the first African American president. The US will do so as it hangs a faulty façade to hide away the long and brutal legacy of slavery, butchery, and institutional bigotry perhaps in an attempt to wish it all away, if only for a day, lest it is remembered by its recipients. But make no mistake about it, this is a president who stands squarely and totally on the immeasurable dignified shoulders of all those who braved the viciousness, cruelty, institutional racism and overt bigotry of Jim Crow, Joseph McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, George Wallace, and so many more like them, including George W. Bush - just as the Palestinians today brave the cruelty imposed by the institutional racism and system of Apartheid that constitute the very essence of Zionism.

For President Obama to stand on these dignified shoulders, he now has an obligation to do what is right to take even the smallest steps in that direction, all while he remembers that "yes, he can". This is not a choice in any way. Obama has an obligation to place equality in morality; and to place morality in public policy, both foreign and domestic. And when he finds out that the US system of government and geopolitical interests do not allow him so, he must make the change he championed. To this day, he has been a follower not a leader on these critical issues.

Today, it is the much-sought-after equality, freedom, and morality in policy that are glaringly missing in the US political system, particularly towards the Palestinians. It is a policy driven by the same racism and greed that enslaved Africans and segregated against them, obliterated Native Americans, interned Japanese Americans, nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and conquered so many around the world. For there to be "Hope", and for the incoming president to assume the moral position set forth by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is incumbent upon him to rise to the challenge of those who swept him into office - the millions of shoulders injured by colonial bigotry and hate who especially today continue to challenge that same hate as it destroys the lives of the Palestinians in the most vicious manner.

Today and tomorrow, the Palestinians will be burying their dead with endless tears and anguish, but they too will also be celebrating their journey - for they will continue to rise from the ashes of a firebomb, hurled by Zionists or the KKK it is all the same - to continue their march forward to liberation. And the remains of the dead will undoubtedly evolve into a monument of steadfast and a memorial of emancipation for generations to come.

The Destruction:

At the conclusion of 22 days of a murderous campaign in the Gaza Strip by the Zionist army paid for by US tax dollars, the Zionist polity announced a "unilateral cease fire." Utilizing a diplomatic cover by the US, Arab regimes, and Western Europe, the defeated Zionists are setting a trap and are spreading a dangerous lie. Having achieved not even one of its goals, the Israeli leadership is opting for a change in tactic.

As of today, at least 1,300 Palestinians have been murdered and more than 5,500 have been injured, with a minimum of 500 in very critical conditions, including severe phosphorous burns. The number of killed Palestinians is expected to continue to rise as more decomposed and dismembered bodies of family members are uncovered from under the destruction, similar to the 100 bodies already uncovered yesterday. Children comprise at least 420 of the murdered and 2,000 of the injured, many are infants and toddlers. Many families were wiped in their entirety, as they were huddled together to escape the indiscriminate bombings.

More than 20,000 buildings have been damaged with over 4,000 fully destroyed. Mosques, churches, schools, hospitals, UN compounds, most streets, sport clubs and stadiums, ports, and the Gaza beach were shelled with high impact conventional explosives and white phosphorous bombs. At least 50 UN facilities sustained damage. The UN alone is currently operating 50 emergency shelters for more than 50,000 displaced people. The actual number of displaced is unknown as many are with families, or have refused to go to shelters lest they are attacked. Gaza City's wastewater treatment facility was shelled, causing the lagoon that holds 2 million liters of sewage to leak to surrounding agricultural and other sensitive areas.

In 22 days, at least 2,500 air strikes were carried out, not including the continuous sea and land artillery shelling from gunboats and tanks, with no less than 1,000 tons of explosives dropped on a tiny area of land. This estimate is certain to be revised upward once an investigation is completed in the sort of firepower used. It is estimated that no less than $1.6 billion would be needed to bring the Gaza Strip to an operating minimum.

The Cease Fire:

Astonishingly enough, the Israeli Zionist leadership did exactly what was expected: attack a civilian population for 3 solid weeks, pull back when it can't go forward due to a solid resistance, and race to declare victory despite defeat. Never mind that not only none of its goals were met, not one, but also the reversal actually occurred.

Victory of what, we ask? The resistance forces are that much stronger politically, and that much more supported nationally and internationally. The ability of the resistance remains fully intact, albeit affected by the assault. The Palestinian people embraced rather than turn against the resistance, with an unbelievable display of solidarity, dignity and order even in the face of destruction. In fact, while the Israelis and Abbas were hoping for looting, robbery, and chaos following the attacks, the exact opposite took place mutual solidarity and popular support on a scale not seen before. The Arab regimes are increasingly weak and embarrassed and are no longer able to sustain the mandated obedient functionary role. The US is at odds with its Arab allies, particularly Egypt. Monarchs are racing to pump financial support. Resistance parties occupied center stage at a major emergency Arab Summit while Abbas would not dare to attend. Mahmud Abbas has been made much weaker. His henchmen are nearly disappearing. And his ability to speak of the Oslo package is significantly challenged. Nations have begun to cut relations with the Israeli polity, and war crime charges are about to fill courts on an unprecedented scale.

Consider the Economic Summit held in Kuwait yesterday which was supposed to include those with allegiance to the US. The Israeli polity had expected that the participants of that summit would go to political and economic war against the participants of the Qatar emergency Gaza Summit, which featured the resistance parties, Syria, and Iran. Nothing of the sort took place. The two flanks of the Arab political spectrum announced that they are unified, and the Saudis even started speaking of withdrawing the Arab Initiative. Essentially, Zionist brutality is embarrassing Arab despotic regimes to a point that they could no longer go on with business as usual without some movement to absorb the boiling popular anger. At this point, one of the main areas where the Israeli atrocities precipitated a major loss for the Zionist is the end of the normalization process on a popular level. For many years, Arab regimes, namely Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority under Abbas, have attempted to implement a long term Zionist normalization process on all levels, including economic, political, cultural, and security. This process is now faced with major challenges making it impossible to implement.

On a military level, the Israeli invading forces could not once display areas and instances where they have captured prisoners, confiscated arms, or imprisoned leadership. There was no surrender by anyone. There were no scenes of defection. There were no scenes of capture of command centers. The only scenes were of massive destruction and murdered children, elderly and families. While the leadership of some of the resistance forces sustained casualties in terms of injury and death, such did not impact the level of resistance to a point that until the day Israel announced its cease fire, the Palestinians were responding at the same level. The resistance movement never accepted any conditions, regardless of who delivered or attempted to market these conditions, be it Egyptian intelligence officers or otherwise. It never accepted to cease responding to the brutality and suffocation of the Israeli Zionist polity.

Even the agreement between the US and Israel on joint control of the Palestinian-Egyptian border was rejected by the Egyptian regime, which found itself fully humiliated and marginalized. This was to a point that the Egyptian regime had to hold its own summit with European powers and the Jordanian monarch to salvage whatever it had left of credibility as the prime obedient functionary of the region. Another sign of the defeated Zionist forces, as these summits and meetings serve to provide Arab regimes and the Israeli political establishment with a means to unilaterally quit the campaign using some forum of political cover, never mind the fact that none of the intended goals were achieved

So we ask: What victory? It is a Zionist defeat if there was ever one, similar to that in Lebanon in 2006. Gone forever are the days when the Israeli army was seen as unbeatable. Gone are the days when those beating the drums of surrender could be heard or even entertained for a moment. Gone are the days when it was thought that savagery of attacks would ever bring the Palestinians and Arabs to their knees. This is a time of dignity and resilience, not of capitulation and surrender. What Zionist victory, we ask? It is a defeat if there was ever one!

Here, the FPA is clear that the so-called cease fire is nothing but a charade to allow future assaults to take place under the guise that it is the Palestinians who are violating the terms of the so-called cease fire. Let it be clear to all that the blockade and siege were not lifted. The starvation and suffocation continue. The imprisonment of 1.5 millions has not changed, and the crossings were not opened. Lest some are misguided by the announcements by Israel - no, the occupation was not ended. A political discourse has not been set in place to allow for a realization of liberation, return, and independence. In that regards, the cease fire amounts to an attempt by the Zionists to regroup for a come-back at a later day. We are under no illusion that this will not be the last massacre, so long as Zionist armament remains aimed at the Palestinian people. The tanks pulled to the boundary of the tiny Gaza Strip of 365 square kilometers, ready to return for another failed attempt, just as they have done in the past in South Lebanon.

Once again, we remind all that the same areas that were bombed by the Zionist army were also bombed and destroyed in the early seventies. Yet, the Palestinians remained strong. In fact, the people at the receiving end of this latest assault are the same ones that were expelled first in 1948 from their homes, then again in 1967, and later attacked in the early seventies and into the eighties and beyond.

This latest cease fire exposed the failure of the US-Israeli-Arab regime axis in destroying the Palestinian resistance, just as it failed in 1948, then in 1970 in Jordan, in 1978 and 1982 in Lebanon, during the eighties and early nineties during the 1987 Intifada, and throughout the years of the most recent Intifada into the Janine and Gaza massacres. Hence, while colonial projects kept creeping onto the Palestinians, the conscience of the people and their ability to withstand massive destruction has been monumental. It continues on!

To this day, 60 years into conquest and the Zionist polity is unable to extract the national belonging of the Palestinian Arab people, especially within 1948 borders. This is true to a point that recently the Zionist polity had to ban Arab parties from running in Israeli parliamentary elections, hence once and for all dropping even the feeble fig leaf the Zionists once had. This occurred as a testament to the sharpness of the dichotomy between the Zionist movement and the Palestinian liberation movement A dichotomy that has reached an apex and is headed to a new beginning.

Of major concern is the price of the financial support the Saudis and other Gulf countries will attempt to extract from the resistance. As has always been the case, despotic Arab regimes never act in favor of freedom and liberation, only in favor of sustaining their ability to rule. It is critical at this stage not to be fooled by promises and side deals with dictators and functionaries. The Palestinian resistance has the upper political hand and must materialize that into real political power. The Palestinian people cannot barter their freedom for political expediency.

For instance, the need for humanitarian relief should be recognized as an obligation on the part of the Arab and international community. It is not a substitute for the political national demands that could dangerously transform the Palestinian national liberation movement into a humanitarian crisis campaign needing pity and aid. This is very dangerous. Many organizations are already falling in that trap, and are being leveraged for the purpose of marginalizing the recently achieved political victory in favor of a campaign of pity and humanitarian aid. This should be rejected by all of us.

The Palestinian movement is not about a group of dispossessed refugees seeking food and shelter. It is about a movement for liberation by a people robbed of their land and who are determined to emerge victorious against their colonists. The Palestinian people do not need handouts. We reject them and return them to the sender. We demand and expect solidarity and reciprocate it in kind.

What Now?

This is the time to translate political victory to organizational gains. The Palestinian and Arab people must seize this opportunity to reorganize and position the movement on its proper track. For one thing, this is not the time to sweep under the rug the "political garbage" that has helped the Zionists over the past several years. They must be exposed and expelled from the Arab collective. All those who have stood in favor of surrender and normalization, those who have not stopped denigrating Arab resistance, and those who have become enablers for the Zionists, must be exposed in every locality and every area. They are the rot that is destroying what our people build. They exist in every realm. They are regimes and they are organizations. They are writers and they are activists. You know them from their slogans, and from their opportunistic behavior and political positions. Their discourse is a danger to our youth and to our future.

This is also the time for the Palestinian left to examine its ranks. It is time to self-clean. Those who have given cover to the PA and who enjoy the political comfort of their relationship with the likes of Abbas and his henchmen should not be setting policy for the left. Clearly, they are a failure like their sponsors. They have damaged the Palestinian left enough. The egalitarian and revolutionary perspective that is rooted in a democratic pan-Arab alternative should remain as the unifying slogan for the Palestinian left.

This is the time to strengthen our movement by giving it a program of solidarity that involves boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. This is the time for war crime tribunals to be enacted everywhere, and for war criminals to be apprehended and brought to justice. This is a time to expose the sadistic nature of the weaponry used by the Zionist, paid for by US taxpayers. This is a time to end all support to Israel, in every way, to properly position it as the Apartheid regime of today, and to isolate it economically, culturally, and diplomatically. This is a time to once and for all recognize that Zionism is nothing but a colonial ideology rooted in racism and hate.

In essence, we can build on this victory and the steadfast of the Palestinian people, by building on our own small victories in our workplace, towns, and universities.

The Free Palestine Alliance
January 19, 2009

FPA Statement 14: A Free Palestine has never been Closer!
January 13, 2009

http://www.freepalestinealliance.org/

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To read all previous statement and reports on protest actions, scroll down.
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While the depth and breadth of pain of the ongoing Zionist massacre against the Palestinian people is immeasurable, victory for the Palestinian people has never been closer. Although the past 18 days of pure fascistic Zionist murder spree have to date killed more than 971 Palestinians and have injured over 4,400, the resulting local, national, regional, and international conditions are all pointing towards a political crisis of monumental scale for the tripartite axis. Composed of the US, the Zionist Israeli polity, and various Arab regimes, this tripartite axis of colonial and neo-colonial conquest is now facing a dead-end spanning geopolitics, demographics, and economy.

The overall political balance today is that the two forces that are diametrically opposed to each other (colonists and colonized) are that much more entrenched in their positions. On the one hand, the axis of colonists and neo-colonists is running out of political space to maneuver.

The fight today is in the very last homes (actual houses) where the Arab people live, be it in Palestine, Lebanon, or Iraq. In this context, the only option available is to physically conquer not only the very families that reside in these last homes, but also impose a political structure that would be acceptable to these same embattled families. Lebanon and Iraq both have shown that this would not be possible in any way, regardless of the level of military devastation used. In the case of Palestine, it has been tried before numerous times, and has failed each and every time without exception. In fact, the same areas of Gaza currently under attack by the Zionists are the ones that were literally erased with bulldozers during the early seventies to make room for the advances of the Zionist armies. The Zionists' scorched earth policy is also efficiently scorching any Zionist ability to impose its will, directly through military rule or indirectly through proxy powers such as that of Mahmud Abbas.

Additionally, the repeated brutality during the past few years in Iraq, Lebanon, and now Palestine again, targeting all aspects of society through direct bombardment and long term forced starvation, has forever exposed the role played by local and regional complicit functionaries. The Arab masses in every Arab state are now increasingly calling for regime change in unison, directly accusing their leadership of treason in an unprecedented manner. Undoubtedly, this is a prerequisite prelude to organized political movements leading to change. This is a dangerous condition for all Arab despots, as they have now exposed their role in total, including their inability to conquer the conscience of the Arab people. It is for this specific reason that the United States opted not to veto UN Security Council resolution 1860, simply to give its allies of Arab functionary regimes a fig leaf with which to return home. Anyone following the official Egyptian television and print media can detect a highly defensive and overt pushback by the regime in an attempt to justify that it did not commit treason. It actually uses these very terms. This is unprecedented, particularly since the vast majority of Egyptian population is also overtly making the charge of treason at the risk of imprisonment, indicative of the dictatorial regime.

The banning of Palestinian Arab political parties from running in the upcoming Israeli elections within 1948 Palestine is perhaps the biggest indication of the crisis the Zionists and their allies are facing. While we are certain that the majority of political activists will race to point to the organically and structurally racist character of the Zionist polity, and they are certainly correct in that, we opt to consider the real causes and implications of such a decision.

Effectively, the Zionist political leadership is succumbing to its exclusivist need for self-preservation as a colonial settler polity. Effectively, the Zionists are unable to use even a feeble fig leaf to cover its Apartheid system. How else would a polity expel 20% of the population from political representation, albeit superficially, while simultaneously scorching its surrounding in the literal meaning of the word? The Zionist political system is clearly showing significant signs of implosion. It cannot reconcile settler colonialism with democratic representation, and certainly cannot reconcile citizenship with theocratic exclusion. Hence the two major attributes of Zionism (exclusion and colonialism) are the very same factors that the Israeli polity is now facing.

This was the case in South Africa. Several decades after it was founded as a settler colony, and years following the imposition of the Apartheid system as a state policy, it too had to face the inevitable: settler colonialism and democratic representation cannot be reconciled. And it too imploded during a time when many believed that it was the strongest military power in the area and one of the most powerful in the world. Naturally, South Africa's strongest ally was at that time the Zionist polity itself, given the equivalence in ideology, form of government, and militarist nature. In fact, just as the Zionist regime continuously attacks Lebanon, the Apartheid regime continuously attacked neighboring states.

Interestingly enough, the two decades leading to the implosion of Apartheid witnessed a similar political scene as the one currently faced by Zionists:

(1) International condemnation that eventually led to widespread boycotts, sanctions, and charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is underway and is expanding. In that regard, we call for a widespread boycott of all aspects related to the Zionist polity, including economic, cultural, sports, political, and diplomatic. This boycott must evolve into sanctions. As an initial step, popular sanctions can be implemented through the process of divestment, to be followed by official sanctions. The Arab people must lead this effort by ending all aspects of normalization with Zionism, forced as it maybe.

(2) Collapse of the surrounding regimes, leading to regional economic, diplomatic, and political isolation. All surrounding regimes are facing major challenges that will require structural political change.

(3) Internal contradictions caused by political dynamics, demographic changes, and the inability to impose on a long term basis a racist structure of government on a colonized people; hence the banning of the Arab Palestinian parties from the elections.

(4) Political and organizational defection within the social structure as well as in within allies.

(5) Failure of the military option to secure military victories over a significantly less equipped population. While the Zionist army must show actual military victory and full control, the Palestinians need only withstand the assault and brutality. At the conclusion of the assault, the Zionist army will have to withdraw leaving the resistance movement that spans the entire Palestinian political spectrum (not just Hamas) that much stronger in terms of its political influence. The Gaza Strip will be ungovernable by any entity not supported by the Palestinian people.

(6) The inability of the regime to impose a governing system that would be acceptable to the colonized, an inability that is significantly exacerbated with the level of brutality imposed. Hence, the obedient PA option is null and void at this point.

(7) Recognition by the US and Western allies that role played by the regime is a threat to the interests of the Western powers in the area. This has not yet occurred in the Zionist case, albeit starting.

(8) Loss of economic trade and supply of needed natural resources, including the once available labor pool.

(9) A reversal in the flux of people, where more colonists leave than colonists arrive.

(10) A full collapse in all attempts to normalize the conquest. This is a major task for the Arab political spectrum throughout the Arab Homeland (A-Wattan Al-Arabi).

These factors lead to a conclusion that Zionism as a political system is unable to survive in the long term, just as was the case for Apartheid. This is because it needs extraordinary brutality over a lengthy period to force the presence of an exclusivist political system that cannot survive otherwise.

As such, in the current Palestinian resistance against Zionist fascism, the only outcome for the Palestinians is to approach victory and the only option for the Zionists is to sustain cumulative defeat. There will come a point when there will be enough quantitative change in the geopolitical spectrum that a qualitative change will occur. This will occur when the Palestinian steadfast, supported by an Arab populist movement within an international sea of solidarity, crosses the threshold where the losses for the colonial axis are more than the gains. We are at that point.

Here, it is critical to recognize the importance of progressive and principled solidarity movements. They constitute the only sea within which a liberation movement can survive. Just as the resistance in the Gaza Strip is carried out by the entire spectrum of the Palestinian population (it is not Hamas vs. Israel, it is the Palestinian people in their entirety resisting a colonial project in Gaza and everywhere), the solidarity movement must be all inclusive. The FPA recognizes the principled role played by many organizations and political parties worldwide, and we ask that this role be amplified and expanded. The Palestinian struggle remains a critical anchor for all anti-colonial struggles everywhere, including the fight to end war and occupations.

In the US, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been that principled ally to the Palestinian people, standing firm on the fundamentals of the struggle as a national liberation even when under massive Zionist and liberal attacks. While we recognize that there will always be damage caused by the attacks of camouflaged Zionists, the gains of a principled position far exceed that damage. In that context, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has evolved and has been the principled political and organizational space from within the Palestinian and Arab community can organize on large scale in the US. It is also the vehicle to appropriately make the needed links of a reciprocal solidarity with other targeted peoples and communities - the stronger the movement, the faster the victory.

The Free Palestine Alliance
January 13, 2009

FPA Statement 13:
All Out this Saturday in Defense of the Palestinian People!

January 9, 2009

http://www.freepalestinealliance.org/

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To learn about the FPA and read quality and unique analysis, go here.

The Massacre Intensifies:

As we prepare this thirteenth FPA statement, the Zionist army was continuing what it does best the wholesale slaughter of children and unarmed civilians. As would be expected of the current state of affairs of the US-controlled international scene, the massacre of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is continuing despite yesterday's feeble UN Security Council resolution that calls for Israel to immediately stop its attack. Actually, the US-Zionist leadership went the other way -- more and more attacks. The Israeli Zionist army was given additional orders to escalate the conquest as it enters into a third phase of obliteration. Simultaneously as the Israeli cabinet was giving orders for a higher kill and destruction ratio, the US Senate was not going to be outdone by Zionists. It had to add to its long and shameful record. So it secretly issued a fast-tracked resolution fully supporting the ongoing massacre and giving Israel the needed cover. We ask, is this Senate resolution in the best interest of the people of the US?

But is it not the legacy and norm of the US-Israeli alliance to discard the will of the people of the US and the world. Is it not their norm to discard any and all UN resolutions that may remotely disagree with their strategic plans? The examples are far too many to list, including both UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions dating as far back as 1947.

Yesterday's UN resolution was approved by 14 of the 15 nations that currently sit on the Security Council, with the US abstaining. As would be expected, the resolution did not address the deadly siege that has been imposed on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, nor did it condemn outright the fascistic actions of the Zionist polity.

Sadly, Palestinian victims have now reached at least 800 murdered and more than 3,300 injured. And these numbers are certain to climb substantially. Yesterday alone, fifty Palestinians were found murdered under their destroyed homes, some with their bodies already beginning to decompose. The Red Cross reported finding 4 near-death children slumped near and over their decomposing dead mothers. These children, like many others, were reported by the Red Cross to have been left without rescue in starvation and thirst for four full days around their killed mothers due to attacks on rescue workers.

On the very same day the UN Security Council resolution was issued, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that serves approximately 800,000 Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip decided that it was forced to fully halt its services. This decision came following the killing of one of UNRWA's truck drivers, and due to the extreme conditions imposed by the Zionist army on relief workers. The UNRWA also strongly condemned the Israeli cover-up used to justify the bombardment of the Al-Fakhoura school that murdered and injured over 100 children and their parents.

Come Out in Force Tomorrow:

The people of the US have a moral obligation to turn out in massive numbers tomorrow, Saturday, from Washington, DC to San Francisco, Los Angeles and in between, to send a clear message that this campaign of murder must stop at once. In DC, we will be right there to send a message to the Bush administration, the incoming Barak administration, and to the entire US Congress. In San Francisco, where the United Nations took its first founding steps, we can highlight the charade of UN resolutions and international diplomacy, pointing to the double standards and outright racist behavior of the US and its allies. In Los Angeles and all other cities and towns, we can and must mobilize to join in protest in the largest possible numbers. This is the time to stand for what is moral and just. We cannot continue funding Israel while the people of the US are in dire need for funds right here to rescue homes and towns from collapse.

To join a protest tomorrow and get more information, go here.

Rather than pay for the destruction of the Gaza Strip, let us pay for the construction of roadways, parks, and schools.

Rather than destroy thousands of Palestinian homes, let us fix the collapsing housing market and keep people in their own homes.

Rather than send more people homeless, let us protect folks from evictions and foreclosures.

Rather than kill doctors, nurses, and relief workers, let us build hospitals and provide health care to the millions without it.

This is our time to let Obama know that he could very easily stimulate both the economy and the morality of the US by stopping all funds used to kill babies and their mothers. Instead, we can invest these same funds in the education and upbringing of millions of impoverished children, right here in the US.

This is indeed our time, folks, and we must come out to lead the US Congress and administrations to the moral high ground. The interest of the US and its people is best served by supporting the construction of US infrastructure, housing, schools, hospitals, and by creating jobs at a living wage. Rather than kill Arab unionists, let us support strengthening unions and their demand for a respectable life and wages.

This is our time to show that Palestine is but a symbol for ALL just struggles. Struggles we all wage every day in various forms. The massacre against the Palestinian people should focus a very bright spotlight on what is wrong with US policies: US tax dollars are being sent to the Israeli army under US diplomatic cover, and are being used to boost corporations that manufacture military hardware, to conquer and destroy countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than rescuing a failing nation from its impending economic depression.

Signs of Defeat:

We regard the UN Security Council Resolution as a fig leaf void of legitimacy. For one thing, it came 13 days following the massacre, and after more than 4,100 Palestinian casualties between killed and injured. It appears that key power-brokers at the UN had hoped that by waiting long enough (13 days) without action, the Zionists could in fact secure a political and military victory.

While the resolution attempts to provide a diplomatic cover for the Israelis and the US as a way out of their unattainable goals, it is nonetheless a clear indication that the ongoing conquest is unable to achieve any Zionist political gain. In fact, politically speaking, the US-Zionist-Arab regime tripartite axis is only achieving the very opposite of what they had intended through this massacre: (1) the Palestinians have achieved massive international, Arab, and Palestinian support; (2) the possibility for appointing a client regime in the Gaza Strip is non-existent; (3) the sustenance of the Abbas PA in its current formation has become very uncertain; and (4) the little legitimacy some Arab regimes have is that much more diminished.

To the extreme dismay of the US and Zionist leaders, the UN resolution demands an immediate stop to the attacks and the opening of all crossings; and it opens the gates for humanitarian aid. Hence, rejected by the Zionist leadership at once. Due to the weight of the pressure on US Arab allies, who could not under any circumstance return home empty-handed, the US had no choice but to abstain rather than give its usual veto -- a way to give the US-supported despots a piece of paper to wave in the face of a sea of millions and millions in protest everywhere. Ironically, the gravity of the massacre made a full circle, compromising the stability of the alliance that is responsible for its implementation. The more violent the attack, the more stubborn the resistance, the more widespread the support, and the weaker the grip of despotic regimes.

Let us join the millions who have taken to the streets thus far, including today, in thousands of towns and cities in the world. There are those who are volunteering as doctors, nurses, and rescue workers, with many already killed and injured; there are those who are giving blood to hospitals and to the Red Cross and Red Crescent; those who are protesting; many are writing, painting, dancing and singing for freedom and liberation; and there are those who are holding sit-ins, and those who are giving flowers of appreciation to the Venezuelan government for their principled stance. All are out, and all are outraged.

Come and join!

Take your stand and come out tomorrow. Make it known that this massacre cannot continue!

All Out in Solidarity with the Palestinian People!

The Free Palestine Alliance

January 9, 2009

http://www.freepalestinealliance.org/

To join the FPA mailing list and get more information, write to: joinfpa@gmail.com

FPA Statement 12: Signs of Zionist Defeat Despite Palestinian Tragedy
January 7, 2009

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As we prepare this 12th FPA statement, more than 697 Palestinians have been murdered and at least 3,075 have been injured, with many with very serious conditions. The majority of the casualty continues to be children and their mothers and fathers. Many elders have also been killed as they attempted to take refuge with their children and grandchildren. Medics, rescue workers, and journalists are also repeatedly targeted, causing the death and injury of many. All the Palestinian political parties have reported that very few Palestinian fighters have been killed, and that the overwhelming majority of the targets have consistently been residential neighborhoods, including schools, mosques, churches, and clinics. This was evident in the repeated outrageous shelling of schools, as was the case yesterday, killing more than 43 in one single bombing of the UN-run Jabalya school.

The FPA continues to renew its call to sustain a widespread popular protest, and to heed a call for a National Emergency Plan of Action issued by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, MAS Freedom, the Free Palestine Alliance, the National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda. We call on our community to join the National March on Washington on January 10, as we have an obligation to send a loud and clear message of condemnation and outrage to the Bush administration and to the incoming president, Barack Obama, who has arrived to Washington awaiting his inauguration.

Zionist Options are Slim:

As casualties increase in the ranks of the Zionist army, it is now facing a major decision indicative of their impending defeat: to stop where they are or move forward deeper on the ground to a third and more engaged phase. Regardless of the decision, the outcome is dire for the Zionist leadership. If they stop and withdraw, their plan would be faced with a clear political defeat. If they move forward, they will essentially have to stop at some point and withdraw; and this will be at a higher political and military price. Their available option at this point is to attempt to maximize damage while simultaneously finding ways for political cover.

As the Israeli elections come closer, there are many unanswered questions that the Zionist leadership cannot handle. For example, will this slaughter achieve the declared goals, let alone the undeclared? Will it have to be repeated, as was the case in Lebanon? What will the political, military, economic, and diplomatic costs be? Has the Zionist army lost its presumed supremacy as a military force, once and for all and that they are simply regarded worldwide as killers of children? How does the Israeli polity reconcile the massive Palestinian resistance within the 1948 borders with the concept of a unified polity? How long will the Israeli polity be able to sustain its colonial Apartheid character, especially when exacerbated with military conquest?

Effectively, the Israeli Zionist establishment is at a point where it has to search very hard for a political cover, internally and externally. This provides great difficulties for its allies, such as the US and Arab regimes, as they too have to search for their own interests in the region. At what point do these interests diverge, is a question that faces the axis of colonists and their proxy functionaries. To be sure, the intensity of the Zionist onslaught only aggravates the answers to this and similar questions, and makes the alliance that much more difficult to sustain, particularly for the weak Arab despots who are despised by the Arab people.

Diplomatic and Political Status:

In the most principled and practical position yet taken by a head of state, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled the Israeli Ambassador from Venezuela in an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people. President Chavez's action is in sync with previous solidarity positions taken by him when the same Zionist army attacked Lebanon in 2006. Simultaneously as we salute this principled position by President Chavez, we reiterate our strongest condemnation of positions adopted by the US, the European Union, and Arab regimes. The UN Security Council once again failed to take an appropriate position, and continued the charade of condemning "both side", hence equating the colonists with the colonized.

The Egyptian regime, supported by the PA's Mahmud Abbas and Nicolas Sarkozy of France, put forth an initiative for a "temporary cease fire". The Israelis announced that they will halt the bombardment everyday for 3 hours to allow for "humanitarian support". Both of these positions are transparent for what they are, a fig leaf to cover the murderous onslaught. The real purpose is to realign the political and military configuration to gain control over a runaway situation headed for Zionist defeat.

As we have indicated before, and as is being reiterated by many, including Zionist military experts, there are no Israeli options for political or military victory in this situation. Israel's defined goals are flat out unattainable. They are only capable of inflicting damage on the Palestinian population with the false hope that the Palestinians will opt to surrender the resistance.

Clearly, one of their major goals is to replace the current political formation in Gaza with a more obedient functionary polity, to be headed by Mahmud Abbas. This option is now nearly impossible to attain since the Palestinians will not accept a replacement that would come on an Israeli tank. Recognizing this reality, Abu Mazen's PA yesterday announced that they would not seek or participate in a regime change in Gaza under these conditions. In reality, Abbas could stop the negotiations, terminate all agreements, announce that the Palestinians everywhere would mobilize in every manner to support the Gaza Strip, and send all possible aid/support through Egypt. This is what any respectable leader would have done in this case, unless that presumed leader is complicit in the attack.

As for Egypt, it is not at all difficult to understand what the appropriate response should be: Open the Rafah crossing, allow all support to enter, terminate all relationships with the Zionist polity, stop the supply of natural gas, and provide the Palestinians with a support base. This is just the minimum. Of course, the remaining Arab regimes are no exceptions.

In the Context of History and Geopolitics:

We here would like to refute the claim that the Arab nation does not possess enough power to affect change. We believe that we do. We are the owners and producers of the majority of the world's oil. We control the intersection of three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe). We are major trade partners with Asian, African and European nation. We control maritime, land and air trade routes. We are the custodians of the birth place of the three monotheistic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). We span a land mass from the Arabian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean that borders many significant powers in the world. Currently, Arab regimes act as hosts to various western bases and hubs for a variety of purposes. Therefore the Arab people have the ability to exert massive economic, diplomatic, and political pressure in a very effective manner. What is needed, however, is a clear political will.

Effectively, this is what this entire onslaught is about: control over the Arab nation and the placement of obedient functionaries as the effective powers over millions of impoverished Arabs. In this context, consider the position of Hugo Chavez. A similar position would not be possible by the Arab regimes due to their servitude to their colonial and neo-colonial powers. The real independence of Venezuela allows not only principled positions, but also the appropriate use of its wealth in the service of its own people and the people of the world.

Such was the essence of the conflict during the decolonization era of the fifties, sixties, and seventies, when the primary struggle was between colonists attempting to control wealth and resources and the colonized struggling to assert power over their own destiny. In 1956, the Tripartite attack on Egypt was in response to a Pan-Arabist perspective championed by Gamal Abdel-Nasser that Arab wealth belongs to the Arab people, and hence nationalized the Suez Canal to secure funds to build the Aswan dam and rebuild Egypt. France, Britain and Israel found that unacceptable and attacked, including attacking Gaza. The international solidarity that existed at that time, and the steadfast of the Egyptian leadership and people, secured a victory in the face of the onslaught. In the same context, consider the CIA coup in Guatemala in 1954 against Jacobo Arbenz, who dared to challenge the robbery of United Fruit Company and the impoverishment of the Guatemalan people. Such were, and continue to be, the same pretexts used against the people of Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and other Latin American countries to destabilize liberation movements and sovereign nations in favor of colonial or neo-colonial control. On the African continent, Amilcar Cabral, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, and many similar unique leaders for national liberation were targeted for attempting to secure freedom for colonized people.

Essentially, the wrath of colonists is aimed not only at destroying the lives of people and the robbery of nations, but also at the cumulative reservoir of the culture of resistance that humanity continuously achieves. The assault on Gaza, futile and horrendous as it maybe, could and has destroyed many lives. But certainly, it will be defeated in its attempt to destroy the Palestinian resistance movement to colonial control.

The Free Palestine Alliance
January 7, 2009

FPA Statement 11: Gaza's Future in the Context of its Heroic History
January 6, 2009

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As we prepare this eleventh FPA statement, the devastating images of murdered children and entire families are piercing the hearts of every person with conscience. Today, at least 42 Palestinians were murdered together and 45 were injured as they were collectively shelled in the UNRWA school of Al-Fakhoura in the dense refugee camp of Jabalya. Hundreds had taken refuge together from the fascistic Zionist bombardment in that UN-run school. The numbers of killed and injured are sure to rise as more dismembered bodies are removed from under the destroyed school.

And to the satisfaction of Bush, Arab despots, and of course, Zionist leaders, yet another entire family was slaughtered outright today. The father, mother, children and grandchildren, a total of 13, were murdered wholesale as they too were huddled in their home. They join many other families killed in the past few days in this sadistic spree of Zionist murders. Lest there are doubts remaining, the butchery is live on television for the despots of the world to savor and for all others to be outraged in fury.

Today alone, at least 82 Palestinians were butchered, making the total thus far at least 660 murdered Palestinians and more than 2,950 injured. The majority are children and families seeking refuge. Images of Deir Yasin, Sabra and Shatila, and the fully erased 417 Palestinian villages and towns, race to the present day as we witness yet another display of colonial Zionist savagery.

The FPA continues to renew its call to sustain a widespread popular protest, and to heed a call for a National Emergency Plan of Action issued by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, MAS Freedom, the Free Palestine Alliance, the National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda. We call on our community to join the National March on Washington on January 10, as we have an obligation to send a loud and clear message of condemnation and outrage to the Bush administration and to the incoming silent president, Barak Obama, who has arrived to Washington awaiting his inauguration.

As the Egyptian regime continues to hamper any humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, and as Arab despots, western powers, and the US continue to wrestle in the UN and everywhere with a more palatable way to allow the massacre while saving some face, it is critical for all of us to take a step back and review the political possibilities of the near and long term future.

Here is the setting of Gaza: The Gaza Strip is disjointed from the West Bank, bordered to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, from the north, south and east by Palestinian areas colonized by Zionists in 1948. It has only one connection away from Israel's control; it is the Rafah Egyptian connection at the very tip of Palestine to the south. That means Gaza is locked within the 360 square kilometers. The Gaza Strip has a population of 1.5 millions. The majority are refugees. Al-Qita' (or the Strip) is impoverished, with little access to significant industry, agriculture, and commercial centers. With the imposition of the blockade, Al-Qita' quickly transformed to a tinder box.

Given the wretched poverty and dispossession of the area, the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip have displayed heroic abilities to organize, rebel, and forge a change. In fact, when the Zionist army conquered the remaining portions of Palestine in 1967, it especially targeted the various Gaza refugee camps for displacement. This displacement included the complete destruction of thousands of homes and the transport of families to various areas with the goal of securing a "governable" and "controllable" Gaza. Those were the days of a protracted and entrenched leftist rebellions lead by the likes of Guevara Gaza in Jabalya, Beach Camp, and other Gaza areas. You can look forward to details on some of these events in upcoming FPA statements.

At that time, the Zionist forces sought to create an alternative to the resistance by propping up Palestinian oligarchy and allies of the Hashemite regime to act as functionaries. Aided by Arab regimes and Zionists, these functionaries attempted to build a power structure that could control the daily lives of the Palestinians, from travel documents to becoming day laborers at Israeli factories. It was not long after that the dawn of every morning would witness thousands of young and old Palestinians forced by poverty to be lined up as cheap wage labor to build the very Israeli economy used for their suppression. This was primarily enabled by the oppressive structure created by imposed functionaries.

The fact that leftist and Pan-Arab (Qawmi) culture of resistance evolved strongly in the Gaza Strip was not accidental either. During the period between 1948 and 1967, when the West Bank was controlled by the Hashemite Monarch, the Gaza Strip was administered by Egypt. Lead by the incomparable Gamal Abdel-Nasser, the Egyptian administration facilitated the development of a powerful Pan-Arab Palestinian culture, despite periodic political disagreements with various Palestinian political forces. Pan-Arabism and a strong feeling of pride in being Palestinian Arabs prevailed from elementary school children to the older generation. This developed into a unique awareness of the meaning of resistance and evolved to produce one of the most glorious periods of the Palestinian movement during the Gaza guerilla warfare of the late 60s to mid 70s.

It was in Jabalya Camp that the Intifada of 1987 erupted. And it is in the Gaza Strip where Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, was born. Factors leading to the emergence of Hamas will be detailed by the FPA in future statements, but they are similar on the socio-economic front to the ones that produced the emergence of the left and Pan-Arabists earlier. They differ, however, in terms of the international, regional, and local balance of power. A summary is forthcoming in future statements.

With this significant political and socio-economic history, the Gaza Strip emerges as non-governable by any colonists, regardless of the level of suppression and violence imposed. Hence, the FPA believes that regardless of the outcome of this assault in terms of destruction and death, the only possible result in the long run is that Gaza will continue to be an anchor for Palestinian and Arab liberation. Here is why?

The socio-economic conditions that have produced the culture of resistance will likely remain, producing a more acute and developed form as a result of the viciousness of the recent assault. Hence, the possibility that Gaza will soon be sanitized from its soul is wishful thinking and will not happen, even if the combination of the various political forces are weakened, including Islamists, Pan-Arabists, and leftists.

Even if one assumes that the Zionists and their allies are able to enter the Gaza Strip, who then will implement administrative control? The conditions as they stand today render impossible the ability of Abbas to govern Gaza. The Israelis will never remain as they will sustain heavy casualty, and are likely to run. The Egyptian regime wants to stay as far from Gaza and the Palestinian movement as possible. Internationals would require a local administrative control. How then will Israel be able to administer a non-governable population that refuses to be colonized? The answer is simple. It can't. It is for that reason that we believe that no matter what occurs, the political end result will undoubtedly be in favor of the Palestinian people and their option of resistance.

However, this condition will likely have a more dire implication for the US-Zionist-Arab regime axis. It will further weaken their grip on the region, especially with the recent Israeli defeat in Lebanon in 2006, and the inability of the US to sustain an occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Palestinian functionaries will have to reconsider their roles and positions, as they have already, and the likes of Dahlan will be dealt a blow. In fact, this assault has placed the PA in a position where it could no longer behave as it once did.

Essentially, as the violence of the colonists escalates, causing that much more suffering for the colonized, the political formulation of those in power will be taken to its ebb. Often, as has been the case throughout history, the colonists will eventually be forced to accept defeat and the will of the people for freedom and liberation will prevail. Such will be the case in the Gaza Strip despite all the suffering of today.

The Struggle Continues.

The Free Palestine Alliance
January 6, 2009
http://www.freepalestinealliance.org/

FPA Statement 10: Gaza under Fire and the Struggle Continues
January 5, 2009

This is the tenth consecutive statement, marking 10 days of vicious Zionist assault on the Gaza Strip. To date, more than 540 Palestinians have been killed and over 2,500 have been injured, many in critical conditions. Medical personnel are reporting their inability to keep up with the number of casualties as a result of the intensity of the attacks on all including medical rescue personnel. Currently, there is an alarming absence of power, equipment, medical supplies. Essentially, Gaza's infrastructure has fully collapsed, making rescue efforts nearly impossible. There are no effective communication lines remaining, water, power, or food supplies.

Additionally, there are various reports that the internationally-banned white phosphorous bombs are now being used by the Zionist army, causing severe burns. These are the explosives that have been shown on all news agencies that engulf the attacked areas with white smoke, essentially raining fire on one of the densest areas of the world.

Despite facing the onslaught of the strongest military power in the region and one of the most powerful in the world, the Palestinian people are resisting with everything they have. Heavy fighting has been reported throughout the areas where the Zionist army is invading, causing the Israeli government to begin releasing reports of casualties in their own ranks, despite their typical attempts to hide such reports.

The FPA is renewing its call to sustain a widespread popular protest, and to heed a call for a National Emergency Plan of Action issued by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, MAS Freedom, the Free Palestine Alliance, the National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda. We call on our community to join the National March on Washington on January 10, as we have an obligation to send a loud and clear message of condemnation and outrage to the Bush administration and to the incoming president, Barak Obama, who has arrived to Washington awaiting his inauguration.

As this sea, air, and ground assault continues, presumed diplomatic efforts are underway on multiple fronts. Of note is the French president visit. We remind President Sarkozy of the French colonial legacy in Algeria, where despite attempts by French colonists to destroy that Arab and African country, Algerians nonetheless triumphed. We remind Sarkozy of the words of Jean-Paul Sarter, in his preface to Fanon's Wretched of the Earth, as he tells the French who were upset by the anger of the Algerians: "Our victims know us by their wounds and shackles: that is what makes their testimony irrefutable." We tell Sarkozy, Obama, Israeli and Arab Zionists, and for that matter, the world, the same: You are known by the wretchedness of the wicked lives of dispossession you have imposed, the death you have delivered to children; and the suffocation that fills the air.

Again, as was the case for all colonists, Sarkozy and others seem to relegate the misery of the victim to the margin, and focus primarily on the colonial need of the colonists. Such has been the disgraceful performance of the UN Security Council and the European Community, not to mention their functionaries, the Arab regimes. What must happen for a position to be taken, we ask? The answer is clear. Positions by colonists, imperial powers, and their despots are taken only to cement colonial and imperial designs. The examples are far too many.

Lest some buy into the insulting and false argument being floated at the UN that this is a "war" between two equal parties, it is critical to know the reality of the Gaza Strip and its people.

The impoverished Gaza Strip is located at the most southern portion of the Palestinian coast on the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of no more 1.33% of Palestine. It has no oil fields, no army, no tanks, no planes, no artillery, no major industry, and no financial markets. In addition to its once beautiful sea and once fantastic citrus groves, it now only has its determined and very proud and resilient Palestinian Arab people. It is 41 kilometer long and between 6 and 12 kilometers wide, for a total area of 360 square kilometers.

The Gaza Strip is considered one of the densest areas in the world, with a density of 55,000 persons per square kilometer in the highly crowded eight refugee camps. Beach Camp, located in western Gaza City, has a registered population of over 81,000 living in less than 1 square kilometer. As a reference, the average density of major urban and dense areas in India is 15,700 and is 29,400 in Hong Kong (persons per square kilometer).

The majority of the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip are refugees displaced in 1948 mostly from areas immediately to the north, particularly from the City of Yafa and surrounding villages and towns. The eight major refugee camps in the Gaza Strip are: Jabalia, Rafah, Beach, Nuseirat, Khan Younis, Bureij, Maghazi, and Deir el-Balah. All of these camps are under severe bombardment and all have been under siege for an extensive period of time.

Indeed, this is a standoff between colonial wrath and the will of a proud people, who have been dispossessed multiple times, and who insist on liberation and freedom in total. The people of the world has a duty to stand in solidarity.

The Free Palestine Alliance
January 5, 2009

FPA Statement 9: The Geo-Politics of the Assault on Gaza
January 4, 2009

The combined Zionist assault on the Gaza Strip by ground, air, and sea is escalating. As of issuing this ninth FPA statement, at least 509 Palestinians have been murdered and more than 2,450 have been injured. In the meanwhile, people from every corner of the world continue to protest in the millions in unprecedented solidarity with the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip. Within 1948 Palestine, hundreds have been jailed during the past few days alone and the Israeli secret service (Shabak) is pursuing many more for protesting the massacre in Gaza. The Palestinian Arab people stand humbled by this overwhelming solidarity. It is solidarity such as this that gives a besieged and impoverished population an additional ability to withstand the onslaught of a fascistic army.

The FPA calls on all to sustain a widespread popular protest, and to heed a call for a National Emergency Plan of Action issued by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, MAS Freedom, the Free Palestine Alliance, the National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda. We urge our community to come out strongly and join the National March on Washington on January 10. We must send a loud and clear message of outrage to the Bush administration and to Barak Obama, who is already in Washington at this time awaiting his inauguration on a presumed platform of "Change" and "Hope".

The Palestinian people are under no illusion about the nature of the all-encompassing geopolitical goals of this assault, both short and long term, tactical and strategic. They also well understand the vicious and inhuman means and methods with which the Zionist political machinery hopes to achieve these goals. Only through understanding the geo-politics involved that one can understand the deafening silence of Obama and the full support of the Bush administration, the UN Security Council disgraceful inaction, and the criminal complicity of Arab regimes.

The US-Israeli long term strategy is to transform that area of the world into a "New Middle East" that would be needed for the functionality of imperial control. Any resistance, regardless of its ideological inclination that may be seen as an obstacle, will be and has been targeted for obliteration. The Palestinian national liberation movement in its current formation is one such obstacle, particularly since the PA's Mahmud Abbas (supported by the regimes of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) is unable to turn Gaza into an obedient polity.

Other examples of perceived obstacles are many. They include the the 1953 CIA coup in Iran under Mossadegh; the destabilization of Egypt under Nasser, including the 1956 and 1967 attacks; the 1958 US marines in Lebanon; the propping of despots and monarchs throughout Arab countries and the dismemberment of the Arab nation; the 1970 Black September massacre in Jordan at the hands of the Jordanian monarch; the many Zionist assaults on Lebanon in 1978, 1982 and several times then after, including July 2006; the systematic attacks on the Palestinian national liberation movement since its inception, including systematic assassinations and numerous massacres; the occupation and destruction of Iraq by the US and the creation of client states in Afghanistan and Pakistan; the systematic destabilization of Sudan and Yemen; and now the vicious attacks on the Gaza Strip, only to name a few. Of course, the wholesale expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948 and the establishment of Israel as a materialization of colonial Zionism was the critical transformative watershed of all.

The US-Israeli plan is to fully control the region by having a strong grip on: all oil fields and pipelines; critical waterways linking Asia, Africa and Europe such as the Suez Canal and the straits of Gibraltar, Hormuz, and Aden; consecutive land masses that border the south of the former Soviet republics and west of India and China; all trade routes; and other similar geo-political interests.

In this context, one can understand the criminal roles of the various players and could explain all actions and reactions. This battle in the Gaza Strip is, therefore, not a battle simply to control rocket fire, as falsely claimed by Israel and the US, nor is it to secure colonial borders, true as that may be. It is mostly a battle against the process of resistance opposing the advance of Empire, in all of its tentacles and client forms.

It is incumbent on all to take a position of solidarity with the people of Gaza as they stand today facing the advance of empire in its Zionist form. Gaza is not a wealthy region. The majority of its inhabitants are impoverished 1948 refugees. Yet, the wealth of resistance it has shown throughout its modern history, from before 1948, to 1956, to 1967, to the 70s, the Intifada of the 80s, the latest Intifada, and now, is an indication that the will of people to be free and liberated is an existential reality despite the ravages of empire. History has no constants, except the will to struggle against tyranny.

All Out in Solidarity with the People of Gaza!

The Free Palestine Alliance
January 4, 2009

FPA Statement 8: Zionist Ground Assault Begins
January 3, 2009

The Zionist ground assault on the Gaza Strip has begun on 5 fronts, spanning the north, east, and south of the Gaza Strip. According to live Aljazeera news reports, Palestinian fighters from various political parties have engaged the invading forces in intense battles and are already reporting casualties in the Zionist army.

Preceded by a fascistic Zionist bombardment for 8 continuous days and a suffocating blockade for 16 months, this assault is certain to place 1.5 million Palestinians in a smoldering inferno. To the time of issuing this statement, at least 470 Palestinian have been murdered and more than 2,400 injured, with over 250 in very critical conditions. The number of casualties and the extent of destruction are expected to rise sharply. To date, at least 800 air strikes targeted the Gaza Strip in more than 600 population centers at an average of one strike every 20 minutes. This rate will now rise substantially.

Contrary to the complicit and criminal silence of Arab regimes, the people of the world are outraged. Protests have included politically-qualitative massive demonstrations in 1948 Palestine, where over 150,000 took to the streets defying all claims that they have been gutted out of the Palestinian Arab totality. In fact, the definitional events that took place in the last 3 days amongst our brothers and sisters in the 1948-occupied cities and towns of Yafa, Akka, Haifa, Naserah, Sakhnin, and today in Tel Aviv, in support of our people in Gaza, came as a reminder that Palestine and the Palestinians are indivisible, regardless of who or what is in power.

The intent of the Zionist invasion is political, aiming to create a de facto reality that would enable the Bantustan option under the leadership of Abu Mazen devoid of resistance and fulfilling a functionary role similar to that of the various Arab regimes. The only means for the Zionist polity to secure this option is to destroy any remaining resistance, as it attempted to do in South Lebanon and failed.

Essentially, violence is intensified politics with overall strategy and tactics. Tactically speaking, the Zionist army will attempt to shift the balance of power towards the option of surrender. Strategically, it aims to leverage this tactical shift of power towards its overall goal of creating a dependent-functionary client entity. This is the US strategy in Iraq. It is for this reason that Arab regimes remain quiet, hoping that this latest campaign will materialize its goals expeditiously, just as they awaited a defeat in Lebanon, and were complicit in the destruction of Iraq. The Arab people have repeatedly defeated the political plans of these criminal regimes and their Zionist-US partners, and they will certainly do the same this time.

Therefore, the FPA warns against a false understanding of the ongoing assault that it is simply a humanitarian crisis. We must go beyond only alleviating the humanitarian crisis that is rapidly evolving to accurately understanding the roles played by the various elements in this anti-colonial struggle. The Zionists are targeting a national decolonization movement by the Palestinian people that has been raging for 60 years, with all the dimensions and complexities of such a struggle. It is a struggle that will go through many battles, political and military, and the cost will be very high as fascistic Zionists will employ all available means of destruction including the commitment of massacres. Facing all this, the Palestinian Arab people must remain vigilant and clear that theirs is a struggle for full justice and liberation that deserves the solidarity and support of the international community in every way. It is a struggle that can only succeed within the overall Arab struggle for progress and unity away from despotism, dictatorships, and complicit monarchs and corrupt rulers.

Gaza is battle of dignity to be won, not a battle to be mourned. Such are battles of free people!

All Out in Defense of Gaza!

The Free Palestine Alliance
January 3, 2009

FPA Statement 7 on the Gaza Strip Massacre:
Our Duty as a Community and People
January 2, 2009

As of the time of this seventh FPA statement, the number of murdered Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had reached at least 434 and those injured exceeded 2,280 with more than 200 in very critical conditions. Full families were slaughtered from infants to parents. Numerous mosques were obliterated as the indiscriminate assault continues unabated.

Today, all indications point to an imminent ground attack. It is likely that it will be intense and focused on specified areas with prescribed goals. Typical of the Zionist leadership, it remains focused on attaining its colonial goals with utter disregard to the popular international outcry that has erupted worldwide and continues to this day. Political and military Zionist leaders are encouraged by the complicit response from Arab regimes, especially Egypt. Israel correctly recognizes the silence and inaction on the part of the regimes as a green light to escalate.

The fact that the Egyptian regime would not open the Rafah crossing beyond limited medical needs, and that it would not even consider ending any of the numerous relationships it has with Israel, is enough signal for Israel to keep up the massacre and even escalate. What would have Egypt done had it not been run by the Mubarak despots? At a very minimum, it would have opened the Rafah crossing unconditionally. It would have cut all relationships with the Zionist polity and terminated the supply of natural gas to it. It would have championed a support bridge from around the Arab world to sustain the Palestinian people against one of the most equipped armies in the world. Egypt could have assumed a leading position among all Arab states in galvanizing an international diplomatic and political support against the barbaric Zionist actions that would have isolated the Zionist Apartheid state.

Very few have any expectations that the Egyptian regime would ever consider entering the fight in any way, but no one could have imagined that it would simply stand silent counting the dead, as it has thus far and as it has done in 2006 when Lebanon was attacked Other Arab regimes have similar and equal responsibilities that they are also abrogating, to the disdain and outrage of the entirety of the Arab people. But those regimes are of no use to the Palestinian or the Arab people. They could not even hold a summit or agree on a language of condemnation. Their only role is to implement their complicit function, and in that they excel. After all, their jails are filled with Arab political activists, teachers, union leaders, and community members who are being brutally muted for simply expressing a natural yearning for dignity and liberation.

While we strongly urge all to participate in all protest activities scheduled today and in the coming period, we especially ask our community to begin the process of internal evaluation. The likes of Mubarak, Abu Mazen, and the various despots that plague us as a people, are our responsibility. They have extensions in our midst that must be organizationally and politically opposed and exposed. They come in various forms, from presumed scholars and journalists to destructive organizations and funders. They are destroying our youth by normalizing within them the ideology of defeat and surrender. They are so hateful to all resistance movements and obedient to colonial masters, that they aid and abed in the destruction of these movements. They have been financed and paid for by monarchs and by questionable sources, to say the least. They are the fat cats that despise everything that is genuinely Arab. Here, we salute our community members who have spoken against these poisonous organizations and individuals.

As a community, we must be able to distinguish between our principled allies and those who preach to us in a patronizing scolding, explaining to us how we must accept partial rights, and how we must sit quietly as they find us a seat at the corner of the table with some leftovers to have. This is our time, and we must embrace it. This is a duty from which we must not walk away.

The Arab people are in the streets daily defying imprisonments, beatings, and interrogation by Arab regimes to call on their respective governments to stand in support of the Palestinian people. The least we can do is to do the same with organizations that claim to be our own or in our solidarity.

As the savagery of Zionism continues, there is no room for equating the victim with the victimizer, and there is no role for those who spread hate and false information about our people. They must be exposed for what they are: obedient servants to their funders and keepers. At the very least, they must not speak for us.

We have a duty as a community to embrace a consciousness that distinguishes between our constitutional belonging in the US and the manufactured ideological enslavement imposed on us by hand-picked functionaries. Opposing the Gaza Strip massacre is a moral obligation that transcends citizenship and nationality. It is based on its own merits and rooted in internationally recognized rights and principles. The only reason for any regime, entity, organization, or individual not to be able to fully take a clear position on this matter is due to their ideological and political allegiance. Such is the test today. Where do you stand on the Gaza Massacre and what are you doing to stop it?

The Free Palestine Alliance
January 2, 2009

FPA Statement 6 on the Gaza Strip Massacre
Gaza: The Latest Installment of 111 Years of Zionist Settler Colonialism
January 1, 2009

This is the sixth in a series of statements the FPA is issuing daily on the ongoing Gaza massacre that has entered its sixth day. As of the time of writing this statement, at least 414 Palestinians have been murdered and more than 2,070 have been injured. The FPA calls on all to intensify their opposition to this fascistic Zionist massacre.

We call on our community to make a special effort to join the various protests planned tomorrow, Friday, throughout the United States. We especially call on our people to join the march in Washington, DC, on January 2, called for by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, MAS Freedom, and the National Council of Arab Americans. By marching from the Israeli embassy to the Egyptian embassy, both located at the doorsteps of the White House and in the backyard of the Pentagon, this march will focus direct attention on the complicity between the US, Israel and Arab regimes in attempting to destroy the Palestinian people and transform their national aspiration into an obedient Bantustan.

In Washington, D.C., there will be a protest on January 2, 2009. Gather at 3:30 pm at the Israeli Embassy (3514 International Dr NW) and march to the Egyptian Embassy (3521 International Ct. NW). (Red Line Metro to UDC/Van Ness.)

This systematic and unrelenting bombings of the besieged and impoverished 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of whom are refugees, smack of an orchestrated genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people. It is the latest installment of a colonial conquest that spans the full 100 years of the 20th Century. Starting with the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, thus far the Palestinian people have endured 111 years of settler colonialism of the ugliest type, including 60 years of dispossession and exile since the Nakba of 1948. Under the slogan "a land without a people for a people without a land," Zionists joined the likes of Cecil Rhodes, Jan Smuts, Louis Botha, and others in forging settler schemes with western colonial powers to establish bridgeheads in various areas of the globe.

As is typical of all settler colonists, the wholesale removal of the indigenous population is a prerequisite to forming the sought-after functionary polity (the Palestinian Authority). For example, this was the case throughout Africa. Who else but settler colonists that trafficked millions of Africans in slave trades and also obliterated the indigenous people of the Americas and Australia, to name only two examples? The difference in the case of Palestine is that it is taking place today, in modern time, and is being televised live to every living room in the four corners of the globe.

The Gaza Strip massacre, and all those that preceded it including Deir Yasin, Qibya, Sabra and Shatila, Qana, Janin, and many more, could be renamed with any of the massacres against any of the native people that fell victim to colonial conquest. The Palestinian people are today's Sioux and Cheyenne, and are the Zulus and Xhosas. Consider, for example how the only place where Israel and Zionism find significant support is in the US (the primary imperial power of today), and in Western Europe, the birthplace of modern colonialism and Zionism. Nowhere in the decolonized world does Zionism have any popular support - none whatsoever. In fact, it is accurately understood as a hateful racist colonial ideology that found alliances with the Apartheid regime and the neo-colonists of Central America, such as the Contras and the Death Squads of El Salvador.

Just as indigenous people worldwide have been demonized as the ones responsible for their very own destruction, so are the Palestinians today. In fact, the language of dehumanization remains the same that Palestinians do not value life and that they are savages and uncivilized. Blaming the victim is part and parcel of the "White man's burden" to "civilize", "conquer", and "enlighten" the Other, even if by force and even if enlightenment results in wholesale obliteration.

In order to be able to carry out its conquest, as has been repeatedly done by Western colonists, it is imperative for the US and Israel to neutralize any emerging resistance and suffocate its cultural and political breathing space - hence the deadly blockade on and ongoing massacre in the Gaza Strip. But completing the assault also requires a local extension of complicit functionaries and collaborators. Such is the role played by the Arab regimes, Abu Mazen, and their protégés. Opposing this deadly colonial adventure therefore requires that we oppose all of its tentacles, in all of its forms, and no matter how well-disguised it maybe.

It is a moral duty to stand firm against this new campaign of colonial ethnic cleansing, as it is nothing but an extension of the very oppressive colonial forces that has destroyed so many people before.

The Free Palestine Alliance, USA
January 1, 2009

A Tribute to Our Youth:
FPA Statement 5 on the Gaza Strip Massacre
December 31, 2008

This is the fifth in a series of statements the FPA is issuing daily on the ongoing Gaza massacre that has entered its fifth day. As of the time of writing this statement, at least 394 Palestinians have been murdered and more than 2,000 have been injured. The number of killed and injured continues to rise as the Zionist Israeli army persists in its savagery and more people are uncovered from under destroyed homes and neighborhoods.

The intense bombardment has been indiscriminate, targeting homes, markets, schools, neighborhoods, places of worship, along with administrative offices and government centers. Lest it is forgotten, these bombs are raining on the roofs and streets of a starved and besieged people, whose only lifeline and access to the world have been mere hand-made tunnels that have now been completely destroyed.

The vehicles and weapons of destruction are US-made and paid for by American tax dollars during a time the people in the US are losing their homes to foreclosures, jobs to lay-offs, and retirements to swindling CEOs. Pulling the trigger is the Zionist Israeli army under an international diplomatic cover, including complicit Arab regimes. The trigger is pulled each time with the full support of the Bush administration while the elected president, Obama, remains suspiciously and immorally quiet.

We are issuing this statement following a powerful National Day of Action that shook the streets of the US in protest and outrage from coast to coast. Demonstrations, marches, sit-ins, and vigils took place yesterday, December 30, heeding a call by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, MAS Freedom, the Free Palestine Alliance, the National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda the Palestine Right of Return Coalition.

We are especially proud of and humbled by the determination of our young generation that has taken the lead in expressing indignation and determination from Washington DC and New York to San Francisco and Los Angeles. Marching in the thousands, shoulder to shoulder with youth from all backgrounds and ethnicities, once again Arab youth politically stamped the pavement of US streets with the determination that justice will inevitably be achieved.

Such was the case on April 20, of 2002 in protest of the Janine massacre, when the US movement witnessed a paradigm-changing event in Washington DC and San Francisco under the leadership of Arab and Muslim organizations in a principled partnership with the unwavering A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. Over 100,000 people defied all expectations and emerged at that time to send a bicoastal loud and clear message that Palestine will be free. Since then, the movement in the US was never the same. The ways of tokenism and marginalization that were the norm of the old guards and the contemporary neo-liberals of the movement was seriously challenged and forever defeated. A new dawn of young hope emerged then and re-emerged yesterday, cemented strong on the history of those who have preceded us, from the youth of the Intifada of the 80s to the modern expression of defiance in art, music, and political organizing across the globe.

The facing off of Zionists in San Francisco and drowning the voice of hate with an ever sustaining and thundering "Free, Free, Palestine", is symbolic of the struggle to be won. Such determination was taken down the streets of San Francisco by a 10,000-strong march, and was echoed by 5,000 powerful voices in Washington, DC, as they sent a resilient message to the White House of their demand for freedom and dignity away from the wrath of war and destruction. The tremor of hope was also felt in Manhattan on the East, and Wilshire Blvd. on the West, and along scores of town centers in the US as the wave spread from coast to coast, travelling to embrace Jabalia and Beit Hanoun, Rafah and Deir El-Balah, and every town and camp in the besieged Gaza Strip.

As the bombings and destruction continue, the collective challenge to build and strengthen a movement for justice and liberation remains a task for all. There are only two roads to be walked today, the road of servitude chosen by complicit regimes and obedient brown-nosed organizations and self-imposed leaders; and the road of dignity and defiance. The first road is paved with photo ops, millions of dollars from monarchs, invitations to galas and decadence of despotic wealth and dictatorial rule. Such is the road marched by those inflicting our pain, directly or indirectly.

Ours is the second road. While it is undoubtedly paved with pain, suffering, and starvation, it is nonetheless the only road of dignity away from servitude. We walk it in solidarity with each other, with small sums of money scraped by struggling workers to fund a movement, and fueled by a determination and love for freedom that the even the wicked pain of war becomes tolerable. Such is our collective road, with the glorious shores of Gaza visible and evident at its end. These are the shores of dignity awaiting all ships of freedom to dock!

The Free Palestine Alliance, USA
December 31, 2008

FPA Statement 4 on the Gaza Strip Massacre
December 30, 2008

This is the fourth in a series of statements the FPA is issuing on the ongoing Gaza massacres to call for urgent action and to focus a light on some of the critical aspects of what is occurring. We call on all to join in the National Day of Action today, Tuesday, December 30, called for by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, MAS Freedom Foundation, the Free Palestine Alliance, the National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda. There is a protest in or near your city. Join it and let your voice be heard.

Today, as we prepare to take to the streets from coast to coast in a National Day of Action, the Zionist army is simultaneously preparing for an all-out ground assault on the Gaza Strip, which is certain to expand the destruction and suffering. As the bombing continues for four consecutive days, the death toll has climbed to more than 384 with at least 1,750 injured. According to the BBC, "Israeli tanks and troops are massed along Gaza's border," and Olmert considers the air assault as "the first in several stages." He stressed that the attacks will not end until Zionist goals are achieved.

A commencement of a ground attack would signal that the Israeli army is unable to achieve its goals through aerial bombardment. Thus far by all accounts, The Zionist forces have failed to force the Palestinians into submission and surrender, with every additional bomb fueling more Palestinian fortitude and resilience. In April 2002, Sharon tried to do the same in Janine and failed miserably despite the massive destruction of that refugee camp. This was also the goal in Lebanon in July 2006. There too, Zionist Israel attempted to use brute force to impose favorable political realities. It has failed before and it will fail again.

Joining the Zionist plan and adding insult to injury, now enters the camp of the usual choir of apologists. They too are repeating the same obedient brown-nosed role they have always assumed, as was the case recently in Lebanon and before that in Janine. They sing an all-too-familiar tune of blaming the victim and saddling the impoverished and dispossessed with their wretched lot in life. They call for "cease fire on both sides"; they blame the Palestinians for Zionist massacres; and they excuse their complicity in starving and suffocating the people of Gaza by pointing to normalizing relations with Zionists as the "strategic option" for the Arabs.

These complicit apologists have Arab despots as their pack leaders. They include Egypt's Mubarak, Jordan's Abdallah, and the PA's Abbas, only to name a few and not to forget the Saudi monarchy. Following these despots are numerous organizations throughout the world, including here in the US. The national leadership of the ADC, the AAI, and the ATFP, are but few examples. They are quick to blame the victim simply to secure picking up as much crumbs as possible in the form of political appointments, photo opportunities, and funding commitments.

Joining the choir are various media outlets that are oblivious to the wholesale destruction and dispossession Israel and the Zionist movement have caused over 60 years on the Palestinian people. These outlets are only focused on acts of resistance on the part of the victim. To these media apologists and brown-nosed organizations, the suffering of the victim is merely a spoiling nuisance, no more. Their sense of justice is so twisted and distant from reality that they regard Zionist monstrosity as "needed retaliations" and Palestinian resistance as "terrorist violence." This is the same bigoted mentality that created Bantustans; institutionalized segregation; trafficked and benefited from slavery, appropriated wealth of nations to monarchs and feudal lords; enslaved children as domestic servants; fought against unions; bankrupted banks and repossessed homes; degraded the environment; and waged successive wars to secure more and more wealth.

This camp of hateful bigots is the one setting the agenda today for the future US presidency, where change has no hope of occurring. It is our time to put our agenda of justice and friendship between nations on the table.

All Out in Solidarity with the Palestinian People!

The Free Palestine Alliance
December 30, 2008

FPA Statement 3 on the Gaza Strip Massacre
December 29, 2008

As of the writing of this statement, more than 345 Palestinians have been killed and over 1,650 have been injured as a result of the ongoing Zionist massacre in the Gaza Strip. Early this morning, a mother and her five children were murdered in Jabalia. Such are the victims of this Zionist monstrosity - mothers, fathers and children, besieged in hunger, starved for life, and killed on live television before the world to see. And that is not enough for Zionist leaders. In fact, Israel is now preparing for a ground assault that will increase the carnage and drive the pain and suffering that much deeper.

But why wouldn't Israel have an open season on the Palestinian people. Barak Obama is quiet, with indications that he supports the attacks. We ask, where is your "change and sense of justice", Obama does it stop at the doorstep of the Arabs? The Bush administration is in full support, economically, militarily, and diplomatically. Arab despotic leaders, who are functionaries for Israel and the US, are doing their best to tighten the siege and maximize the damage. The Palestinian Authority blames Hamas, and is still trying to figure out how to maintain its grip over the Palestinian people. "Bunker busting" massive bombs and missiles, the latest F-16 fighter jets, and other high technology weapons of mass destruction are being sent to Israel by the US to be used against the Arab people, as is the case today in Gaza.

This was the same complicity of conspirators that occurred in July 2006 when Israel attacked Lebanon, only to be defeated soundly despite the carnage it left behind. Such is certain to be the case today in Gaza.

To counter this alliance of colonial interests and lethal impact, here is what must happen immediately: The Rafah border with Egypt in southern Gaza must be opened by the Egyptian people. Arab and international support must be brought into Gaza through this crossing, including food, ambulances, medicine, and all related necessities. All Israeli ambassadors must be expelled from Arab lands, and all relations with the Zionist polity must be ended immediately. The boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign against Israeli interests must become a central program for all institutions, organizations, and individuals worldwide, particularly in the United States. And most importantly, all people must take to the streets in protest and solidarity in every corner of the globe. And all must demand the Obama takes a stance for real change in the atrocious US policy in the Middle East.

To the dismay of the US administration and Arab dictators, and to the callous disregard of a hateful Zionist political establishment, people around the globe in fact did take to the streets in outrage. The Arab masses are increasingly expressing their indignation of their imposed despots and are taking to the streets in every city and town. Europeans in many nations from Turkey to Spain, Britain, France and more are in the streets demanding an immediate halt to the massacre. The Egyptian people are demanding that the Rafah border be opened. The Jordanian people and members of their parliament are taking a powerful stance inside and outside the halls of government. Libya is sending planes and ships of food and medicine, despite being turned away by the complicit and criminal Egyptian government. Yemenis, Iranian, Iraqis, Lebanese, Syrians, Moroccans, Mauritanians, Qataris, Omanis, Kuwaitis, Saudis, Sudanese, Algerians, Tunisians, and many more are in the streets daily.

Here in the US, the protest is growing and spreading. A National Day of Action is awaiting us tomorrow (Tuesday) to fill the streets of the US from coast to coast. Only yesterday in Los Angeles, thousands took to the streets in anger and protests, as many others joined impromptu demonstrations in cities across the US. The Los Angeles protest set s a powerful lead for what is to follow this Tuesday in solidarity and outrage.

At all times, we must remain hopeful and steadfast that we, the people of the world, who yearn for justice and freedom, for a living wage and dignified home, are indeed the salt of this earth and the makers of our destiny. Despite hunger, death and pain, we can come together in mutual solidarity. We can show that it is us, the recipients of the wrath of war, who can lead the world to justice and away from colonial hate and bigotry.

The people of Gaza are us. They are an inseparable part of the Palestinian Arab people, who time and again continue to rise above the wound to defy the mightiest of armies. The starvation and mayhem felt today in Gaza City, Rafah, Jabalya, Khan Younis, Beit Hanoun, and every corner of the Gaza Strip, must and should be turned into seeds of liberation and d ecolonization. The despots and dictators must and will leave. Arab wealth must and will be the fuel to a progressive and hopeful future. Refugees must and will return. And friendship between nations must and will be the thread to bind us together.

We call on all to stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the Palestinian Arab people, and in support of the heroic mothers, fathers, and children as they bury their dead in Gaza.

For only ours together is the future.

The Free Palestine Alliance
December 29, 2008

FPA Statement 2 on the Gaza Strip Massacre
December 28, 2008

The FPA is issuing these consecutive statements on the ongoing Gaza massacres to call for action and to focus a light on some of the critical aspects of what is occurring. We call on all to seek or start protests in their respective areas and to join in the National Day of Action on Tuesday, December 30, called for by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, MAS Freedom Foundation, the Free Palestine Alliance, the National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda.

As the Zionist colonial army continues unabated in its onslaught of murder against the besieged Gaza Strip, escalating the number of killed to 290 and rising, with over 800 injured and 200 in critical conditions, it is important to briefly evaluate the role of the United States, Arab regimes, and the Palestinian Authority in allowing these massacres to continue.

The United States:

Undoubtedly, these acts of colonial murders would not be possible without a diplomatic and political green light from the failed Bush Administration. This Administration, plagued with consecutive disastrous decisions, from the war on Iraq and Afghanistan to the collapse of the overall US economy, is further displaying its disregard to international law and moral obligations. The neo-cons of the Bush Administration believe that they can bomb the area into a new Middle East, where resistance to colonial power is non-existent. They seek to control land mass, waterways, air space, and oil resources that are concentrated in the Arab world, to rob resources just as they have robbed banks, investments, and homes in the US. These attempts are taking place directly by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan and indirectly through Zionist colonialism in Palestine and Lebanon. Many believe that the Obama presidency will cause a significant change in this policy. Yet to date, we have not heard a condemnation or a position from Barak Obama. This is a chance to set a new policy regarding Palestine, Iraq, and the Middle East as a whole. We call on the US peace and justice movement to continuously demand a clear position of justice and a change of US policy under the Obama tenure, which to date has not shown any movement in that direction. A honeymoon of continued failed policies is not an option, as it has a bitter taste to its recipients.

The Arab Regimes:

It is beyond shameful that Arab regimes have entered servitude to a point that the Israeli murders in Lebanon and Palestine no longer invoke any relevant reactions There should be no illusion that a reaction will come Those are client regimes in their entirety, imposed on the Arab masses by force and through dictatorships These despotic regimes do not represent the aspiration and hopes of the Arab people and hence can't be expected to assume their expected role to protect sovereignty and dignity A regime change throughout the Arab world is a must, without which the Arab people will continue to suffer from despotism and dictatorial rule Arab wealth belongs to the Arab impoverished Arab masses, not to monarchs and dictators.

The Palestinian Authority under Mahmud Abbas:

The PA was ushered into reality by Oslo and Madrid It is an authority brought to existence to carry out the policies of a Bantu government, much like the role played in South Africa under Apartheid It has a functionary and complicit role Only today, it stopped protests in Ramallah rather than join the people in protest It plays the role of an overt policeman and security agent for the Zionist army. Politically, the Palestinian movement was never about securing servitude or a Bantustan, nor is it about truncated borders and partial rights The PA is playing the role of misleading the Palestinian people to a path of neo-colonialism away from liberation, very much similar to what many decolonized nations went through during the decolonization era from the fifties to the seventies The PA has evolved to be a real hurdle to liberation, not the needed catalyst for freedom.

In essence, the current onslaught has the complicity and explicit agreement of 4 players: Israel, the US, Egypt, and the PA Only with such explicit complicity could such murder take place before the eyes of the world.

Call to Action:

The time is now to seek full change in policies in the United States and the Arab world Peace and justice are inseparable, and real chance can only occur when the Palestinian people, particularly those starved and besieged in Gaza, achieve full freedom and independence It is time for Zionist colonial actions and their complicit Arab despots to be exposed The Lebanese people have proven that the Zionist army can and will be defeated The Palestinian people in Gaza will do the same despite starvation and wholesale murder

The Free Palestine Alliance, USA
December 28, 2008

FPA Statement 1 on the Gaza Strip Massacre
December 27, 2008

The Free Palestine Alliance condemns in the strongest terms the wholesale fascistic Zionist attacks against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Using the lies of targeting military and police centers, the Israeli killer army is in fact targeting entire families, killing fathers, mothers and children. To the time of issuing this statement, at least 206 Palestinian have been murdered and more than 400 severely injured. The number of victims are expected to rise, and Israel's Zionist assault is expected to continue and widen, as Israel has declared.

While we hold the Zionist fascistic regime fully responsible, we also hold the Palestinian Authority, the Egyptian government and all Arab regimes equally responsible. How many more meetings and conferences will be held before a mere and meager condemnation can be issued?

The PA headed by Abu Mazen must come to an understanding that its continued role of servitude to Israel places it squarely responsible for the killing of our people. The Egyptian government can't turn a deaf ear as it shares in the starvation of our people by insisting on closing the borders. The Arab regime must be held responsible for its unabated complicity in the ongoing killing fields.A time must come, and that time is now, when fascistic Israel must be stopped in its murderous campaigns against the Palestinian people. How long can these atrocities continue unabated, and how long will the international consciousness remain unshaken by a Nazi like regime that is shameless in its hate and colonial bigotry?

We call on our people to demand an immediate stop to any and all relations with the Zionist regimes. All Israeli embassies must be closed and all ambassadors must be expelled. We call on the Egyptian people to march to Rafah and open the borders that have been shut closed by the government of Egypt. We call on the Arab masses and communities in all 5 continents to take to the streets in solidarity of our people. The Arab people no longer want to hear about Arab League meetings and inconsequential condemnations. The time has come for concrete steps to affect change. Enough declaration and lies! Colonial Zionist hate and murder must be stopped!

We call on the newly elected United States President, Barak Obama, to recognize his historic role in immediately halting the long standing complicity of the US government in Israeli genocidal campaigns against the Palestinian people. The US can't continue to support Israel with endless military, economic and diplomatic support while the US economy itself is sinking, homes foreclosed and jobs lost. A new US moral policy must come to fruition, or at least begin to move in that direction.

Finally, but most importantly, we salute the heroic people of Palestine, especially those of Gaza. We salute your steadfast and recognize your pain, for it is also ours.

Together, we will undoubtedly triumph.
The Free Palestine Alliance
December 27, 2008