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GMJ minus one
At 7 am, in our room at the Relax Furnished Apartments, I got a call from Paul Larudee, the leader of the North American delegation, asking me to deliver the speech on behalf of the GMJ-NA at the media conference at Beirut Press Syndicate at 11 am. I had written the speech for Ann Holubeshen, one of our Canadian delegates (from Hamilton) to deliver on March 30 on behalf of the GMJ-NA at the big mobilization in Amman, Jordan. It was duly approved by Paul Larudee over a week ago.
I decided to dress up in a black shirt and black trousers and to wear the red and white Canadian flag tie I bought for $1.29 at So-Lo Sales on Concession Street. It was a flimsy polyester cravate made in China.
The reason that Paul couldn't deliver the speech was that he had to chair the media conference. And the reason that Paul had to chair the media conference was because Feroze Mithiborwala, the originator of the movement for a Global March to Jerusalem, was still in detention at the port of Beirut, along with about 30 Indians, Philippinos, and Iraqis whom the immigration authorities refused to admit to Lebanon.
All along the way, except in Iran, every country created some hassle or other about the admission of nationals of one country or another, creating all kinds of problems and expenses for the Asian convoy since it left Jakarta on March 7. About 125 members of the convoy were admitted to Lebanon and were expected at the media conference this morning. They had arrived the day before, having been delayed by bad weather from departing a port in Southern Turkey.
The 31 detainees were being held without food, water, or showers and, after three weeks on the road, were at the ends of their ropes.
The European and North American delegations arrived at the Press Syndicate, which is right on the road running by the seaside, in our blue bus. Soldiers in urban camouflage, armed with M-16's, patrolled the sidewalks along the sea, with scattered guardposts, here and there. But they weren't there to hassle us.
On the second floor of the building, above the BMW (?) showroom on the first floor, the delegations gathered in a side room for a short meeting before the conference at which Paul explained the strategy for the meeting. It was already after 11 am and the Asian convoy had not arrived. At least 20 television cameras were set up in the large hall and the media people were getting antsy to start: they probably had deadlines to meet.
We all took our places . (I was seated at the conference table) Paul was just about to begin when there was big hubbub at the back and a whole swarm of international delegates waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans flooded into the hall. They swept right to the front of the room, displacing the Europeans and North Americans with their enthusiasm and taking over the conference table and, in fact, the whole hall. Many wore bandannas with slogans written on them in Arabic and Farsi. It took about 15 more minutes to sort out who should sit where and to find enough chairs for everyone to sit.
Their timing could not have been better. Their presence and exuberance made everyone's spirits soar.
Just as everything settled down, the delegation of six rabbis in traditional orthodox garb (black fedoras, sidecurls, black tunics, black knee socks, black shoes) arrived. Once again, the hall was set into turmoil as the Naturei Karta rabbis has to be given places of honour.
Finally, Paul got the media conference underway. But now, one of the Lebanese organizers introduced a new time constraint. All of the main five speakers had only three minutes to speak. This was a problem for me since the speech was set for about five minutes.
Paul spoke about the importance of the GMJ and also reflected the fact that the European and North American delegations were upset about the constraints that the Lebanese government had set on the event at the un-named site in the south of Lebanon for the next day, when only 5000 people could participate. (We had been organizing for a demonstration in Lebanon in excess of 50,000 people. However, it wsn't just the Lebanese government that was at fault. The fractious nature of Lebanese politics where they are many parties among each of the ethnic and religious communities in the country (Sunni, Shia, Christian, Druze, Palestinians, etc.) made it impossible this year to organize a single united manifestation.)
Paul went on to say that, if most of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon could not attend the event, the internationals would split up to attend any events the refugees might be able to organize in their camps.
One spokesperson from each country of the world was invited to come up and give their names and countries and, in thirty seconds, make a brieff statement about the GMJ. Eva Bartlett (a.k.a. "Canada's Rachel Corrie", for her courageous work as a human shield under sporadic Israeli gunfire in Gaza for the Palestinian farmers, fishers, and schoolchildren) spoke well, as usual, for Canada.
All the other speakers took their turns speaking about the GMJ from the perspectives of their own continents. One of the rabbis made a very welcome speech distancing the State of Israel from Judaism and condemning israel in no uncertain terms about its crimes against the palestinian people.
It was finally my turn. The speech I read, minus the first and last couple of paragraphs, is below. (NOTE: In Lebanon, a state of war exists with Israel. And it is a criminal offence to refer in public to the "State of Israel" other than by various other formulations.)
"On behalf of the Global March To Jerusalem - North America, I would like to thank the government and people of Lebanon for permitting us to come to this country and participate in the historic global event tomorrow of the Global March to Jerusalem here in Lebanon.
You would not know it from the governments or the media of Canada and the United States of America that there are millions of people in North America of good conscience who wholeheartedly support the Palestinian cause, people of every national origin, every religion, and of many political perspectives. Many of these people endorse the aims of the Global March to Jerusalem:
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to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem;
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to secure unrestricted access to non-Jewish places of worship in Jerusalem and protect these sites from "excavations" and other threats;
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to affirm the rights of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and farms in Palestine soon;
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to end the brutal and illegal occupation of Palestine by the criminal regime in Al Quds;
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to make Jerusalem the capital of a Palestinian state.
Both the governments of the United States and Canada enable the government of the State of Israel to commit the many heinous and illegal crimes of aggression, ethnic cleansing, and dispossession of the Palestinian people. For example, the government of the USA donates some 3 billion dollars in subsidies to the Zionist state every single year plus the latest weapons, technology, and intelligence, which the regime in Al Quds uses to oppress the Palestinian people with extra-legal assassinations, drone attacks, Apartheid Walls, home demolitions, evictions, racist laws, restrictions on water, electricity, demolition of Palestinian infrastructure, and a host of other apartheid measures that are too long to list. Despite his many promises to the contrary, President Obama has given the green light to the criminal regime in Al Quds to build a never-ending number of illegal settlements in the West Bank and to unleash terrorist attacks on the unarmed civilians of Gaza. In fact, it is only with the support of the US government that the Zionist government in Jerusalem can maintain the illegal blockade of Gaza, which is a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention on the rights of peoples under occupation, and is causing a humanitarian catastrophe in that place, which is now the world's largest concentration camp. Furthermore, President Obama has turned a blind eye to the ethnic cleaning of Jerusalem. Finally, without US help, the regime in Al Quds could not resist the worldwide call for a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East and is instead planning to attack other countries in the region to maintain its nuclear advantage.
This enabling of the Zionist regime by the US government must stop!
The Canadian government is also an enabler of the Zionist regime. After the Palestinian general elections of 2006, the Canadian government, under Stephen Harper stopped sending aid to Gaza and to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. This aid was previously distributed to Palestinian refugees. Now they get no help from the Canadian government. In fact, the Hamas government in Gaza has been added to Canada's list of terrorist organizations. This is shameful!
In addition, the Canadian government has hosted and feted the war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, on several occasions, including at the time his government launched its murderous Cast Lead attack on Gaza in 2008. The Canadian government has also signed the Canada-Israel Security Cooperation Agrement to share intelligence with the Mossad and other nefarious Zionist governmental organizations. In many statements, the Harper government has shown its completely one-sided support for the State of Israel even to the point of declaring that "an attack on Israel is an attack on Canada." Canadian cabinet ministers openly boast that Canada is the best friend of the Zionist state in the whole world.
This enabling of the Zionist regime by the Canadian government is shameful and must stop!
We, in the Global March to Jerusalem - North America, wish to assure you that these war-like positions taken by the governments of North America do not represent the general views of the people of both Canada and the United States of America. Its views represent the top one percent of the population. Our views represent the views of many among the other 99 percent.
(There were another few paragraphs here. However, I ran over time. So I finshed with-)
Jerusalem is the very heart and symbol of Palestine. It will become the capital of the liberated Palestinian state. This year, along with demonstrations around the world, we march in lebanon. Hopefully, we will march next year IN Jerusalem!"
I read it a lot faster than I wanted to, but it was received with applause.
At the end of the media conference, Stephen Said, who recorded the lead song on the GMJ benefit album (which you can download for $10 at www.gmj-na) took out his guitar and performed the song to the clapping and singing-along audience. It was the perfect finish to a very impressive media conference.
But that was only the beginning of the day's program!
(to be continued...)
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