<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Qumsiyeh's report, which includes links to powerful talks by Ilan Pappe, Ali Abunimah, Mazin Qumsiyeh and others.<div><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>Ali Abunimah:<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><a href="http://vodpod.com/watch/5033431-ali-abunimah-palstinakonferenz-in-stuttgart-">http://vodpod.com/watch/5033431-ali-abunimah-palstinakonferenz-in-stuttgart-</a>am-27-november-2010 </font></div></blockquote><br></div><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>Ilan Pappe:<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><a href="http://vodpod.com/watch/5039927-ilan-pappe-palestine-conference-in-stuttgart">http://vodpod.com/watch/5039927-ilan-pappe-palestine-conference-in-stuttgart</a>-26-november-2010 </font></div></blockquote></div><div><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>Mazin Qumsiyeh:<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><a href="http://vodpod.com/watch/5039913-mazin-qumsiyeh-palestine-conference-in-stutt">http://vodpod.com/watch/5039913-mazin-qumsiyeh-palestine-conference-in-stutt</a>gart-26-november-2010-publicsolidarity </font></div></blockquote><br></div><div>This took place in Stuttgart, Germany at the end of November. <br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">"Mazin Qumsiyeh" <<a href="mailto:mazin@qumsiyeh.org">mazin@qumsiyeh.org</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">December 9, 2010 12:29:28 AM CST<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><a href="mailto:brussel@uiuc.edu">brussel@uiuc.edu</a><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Cc: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Human Rights Newsletter <<a href="mailto:humanrights@lists.qumsiyeh.org">humanrights@lists.qumsiyeh.org</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><b>[HumanRights] power shifts to the people</b><br></span></div><br><div>In this week's email: 1) Follow-up on Stuttgart conference and 2) the final<br>dropping of all veils and dissolution of the last empires<br><br>Videos from the One State Conference in Stuttgart, November 26-28, 2010<br>available at website: <a href="https://www.publicsolidarity.de">https://www.publicsolidarity.de</a> <br><blockquote type="cite">From the number of hits, we can see that there is a big interest in the<br></blockquote>speeches and discussions so far and we hope there will be much more. It<br>looks like the conference could be a turning point for the promotion of<br>the BDS-campaign in Germany. For this reason the local organizers launched<br>an extra homepage for the German BDS-campaign: <a href="http://www.bds-kampagne.de">www.bds-kampagne.de</a> <br>Individual videos for some of the talks are also posted:<br></div></blockquote><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>Ali Abunimah:<br><a href="http://vodpod.com/watch/5033431-ali-abunimah-palstinakonferenz-in-stuttgart-">http://vodpod.com/watch/5033431-ali-abunimah-palstinakonferenz-in-stuttgart-</a><br>am-27-november-2010 <br>Haidar Eid:<br>http://vodpod.com/watch/5023128-haidar-eid-palestine-conference-in-stuttgart<br>-26-november-2010 <br>Lubna Masarwa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ju_Iv5rCJQ <br>Ilan Pappe:<br>http://vodpod.com/watch/5039927-ilan-pappe-palestine-conference-in-stuttgart<br>-26-november-2010 <br>Mazin Qumsiyeh:<br>http://vodpod.com/watch/5039913-mazin-qumsiyeh-palestine-conference-in-stutt<br>gart-26-november-2010-publicsolidarity <br>Photos of the conference <br>http://www.arbeiterfotografie.com/galerie/reportage-2010/index-2010-11-26-28<br>-stuttgart-palaestina-konferenz.html <br><br>The last of the veils are slowly dissipating. <br>By Mazin Qumsiyeh<br>http://www.qumsiyeh.org/thelastoftheveils/ <br><br>The extent of the Arab governments' conspiracies against their own people<br>and sub-serviance to the US and Israeli governments was known to most<br>people. But the documents released from Wikileaks simply confirm and extend<br>this knowledge. For example, we now know how a Mr. Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese<br>official ran around to the US, France, Saudi, Jordanian and other officials<br>to mobilize against Hizbollah's fiberoptic network in Lebanon. The first<br>people he informed about this network were Hanna Seniora (now discredited<br>who was then prime minister, Walid Jumblatt, and the Maronite Patriarch,<br>clearly factional interests. And w learn that Elias El-Murr, Lebanon's<br>"defense" minister informed US officials that the Lebanese army would not<br>interfere if Israel invaded Lebanon as long as the Israeli army does not<br>attack Christian villages.<br><br>We also learn of Egyptian foreign minister mirroring his boss Hosni Mubarak<br>to refuse to talk about human rights and freeing of political prisoners and<br>instead kept emphasizing dangers of Hamas and their possible connections to<br>the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and to Iran. The way the governments work<br>revealed via these cables proves what Barbara Tuchman had to say<br><br>"Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a<br>remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in<br>terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary<br>signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be<br>deflected by the facts. It is epitomized in a historian's statement about<br>Phillip II of Spain, the surpassing wooden-head of all sovereigns: No<br>experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its<br>essential excellence " (The March of Folly. Alfred A. Knopf, New York,<br>1984).<br><br>In short the released cables while theoretically showing a fear of Iran and<br>Islamic spread in the Middle East will only discredit Arab leaders and<br>encourage people to start to look for alternatives to what is now a clear<br>axis of evil: the US government, Israel, and the reactionary dictatorial<br>arab leaders serving those. To be blunt, we had better possibilities in the<br>1960s and early 1970s to standing up to hegemonic US/Israeli designs of<br>subjugating and dividing the Arab world than we do today. Today we face(with<br>few exceptions) a solid block across the board of collaborative Arab regimes<br>(known before but now clearly exposed via wikileaks with more to come) and a<br>mostly apathetic Arab public including many Palestinians. What are<br>alternative organizing centers for the period to come of dissolution of<br>dictatorships and empires and the bankruptcy of racist ideologies of<br>chosenness? There are few possibilities:<br><br>1) Leftist secular traditional parties (PFLP, DFLP, PPP, Baathists,<br>Nasserites etc). Each of these factions/parties is small on its own. They<br>have lost much support after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Here I am<br>not talking about financial or direct other support (it was relatively small<br>and came to only few of these groups). I am talking about the general<br>decline of the left around the world that ensued with the "perceived win" of<br>the capitalist west. It was a strong PR campaign from many quarters that<br>enhanced this perception (wrong as it is) that the decline of the soviet<br>union meant that the unfettered free market system is the only game in town.<br>I do not want here to enter into an analysis of this phenomenon. Others<br>have done a far better job at it including candid and self-critical analysis<br>by those belonging to those various (left) parties, factions, and liberation<br>movement. But my point is that even with their reduced cadres due to this<br>and other challenges (e.g. the dependence of some of them on financing<br>through the Palestinian Authority dominated but emasculated PLO), they<br>remain collectively a potent force for the future. When they did join<br>forces (e.g. in selected local elections), this power can be manifested.<br><br>2) Islamic forces: Again I do not presume to try and analyze the power of<br>these factions or their diversity let alone their potential to develop in<br>positive directions that effect real change in their societies. But I think<br>everyone agrees that such groups are indeed gaining adherents and carry a<br>significant weight in the streets and that they will play a role in the<br>future. <br><br>3) Decent individuals within Palestinian elites (governing bodies and<br>business people) and even elites in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,<br>and other Arab countries. Of those I would give more possibilities for<br>growth and providing decent alternatives to the status quo among<br>Palestinians Lebanese (and perhaps Jordanians and Egyptians). Some may<br>decide that even their own long term financial and societal positions are<br>served better by challenging the status quo.<br><br>4) Independents: people with a conscience but who do not belong to political<br>factions and are not associated with governments. Many of those are<br>intellectuals who might finally move to activism as happened in the past (in<br>Palestine and elsewhere).<br><br>These issues are increasingly being discussed by individuals within those<br>sections of society. I believe it is possible to organize those (or most of<br>them) into a coherent positive force that challenges the roads of wars,<br>racism, colonization, and occupation. But my own humble opinion is: <br><br>A) Do not discount the likelihood of the dissolution of the Israeli/US<br>empire on its own ala the Roman and Soviet empire out of their own<br>arrogance, hubris, and disastrous policies (the signs are all around us from<br>the $3 trillion dollar war on Iraq, to the attacks on the freedom flotilla,<br>to the bitter arguments in Israeli society about the reliance of this 4th<br>strongest state in the world on foreign aid to put out a few fires, literal<br>and otherwise etc).<br><br>B) Do not discount people (Palestinians, other Arabs, internationals etc).<br>History teaches us that when we discount what people are able to do, we are<br>almost always wrong. Think of the perception of the French and after them<br>the US government of what the Vietnamese peasants could do in the few years<br>just before their liberation. Think of South Africa in the early 1980s.<br>Algeria in the 1940s and 1950s. India in the 1920s and 30s. Think of the US<br>South in the 1940s. Even here in Palestine, just think of the dismissal and<br>opinions of pundits about the end of Palestine offered in 1928 (before the<br>1929 uprising), 1935 (before the 1936 uprising), 1955, 1970, 1981, 1986, and<br>1999. <br><br>That even the US administration has stood unable to effect even the minor<br>change in Israeli colonial settler activities is just one indication that we<br>are reaching a dead end in the old ways and the new ways and new actors must<br>step forward. Things will change as power shifts to the people. Around<br>the world, many are now realizing what is happening and few are leading the<br>way of change. <br><br>WIKILEAKS deserves protection, not threats and attacks.<br>http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/wikileaks/dont-shoot-messenger-for-<br>revealing-uncomfortable-truths/story-fn775xjq-1225967241332 <br><br>Mazin Qumsiyeh<br>http://qumsiyeh.org<br>-------------- next part --------------<br>An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br>URL: <http://lists.qumsiyeh.org/pipermail/humanrights/attachments/20101209/94c7e7e8/attachment.htm><br>_______________________________________________<br>HumanRights newsletter<br>http://lists.qumsiyeh.org/mailman/listinfo/humanrights<br>This message was sent to brussel@uiuc.edu. To unsubscribe, visit:<br>http://lists.qumsiyeh.org/mailman/options/humanrights/brussel%40uiuc.edu<br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div></div></body></html>