[Peace-discuss] Barak Obama disappoints ISM Activists

[David Green]

Barak Obama disappoints ISM Activists

International Solidarity Movement member Katie, 
reporting from the Occupied West Bank, had high 
hopes for Barak Obama when he visited the 
Jerusalem University in Ramallah. She told her 
skeptical friends he was "very progressive". 
However, after hearing him speak, she "came away 
with a different point of view" as Johnny Cash 
would have said. She has invited Barak to 
"witness the humiliation Palestinians face" at 
the Qalandia checkpoint. Read her report below.

An Invitation for Barak Obama

January 15th, 2006
by Katie
ISM

The morning of Thursday, January 12, myself, and other
Palestinian and international activists were invited
to the branch of Jerusalem University in Ramallah for
a conference that Barak Obama, the US senator from
Illinois, was holding with students. The others were
skeptical about him, but I assured them that he is a
very progressive politician and he would be supportive
of the Palestinian cause. Barak Obama began the
conference by saying how surprised he was that it
was cold and raining in Ramallah, that it went against
his preconceived notions about the climate in the
Middle East. He spoke about his background and how he
was the underdog in his race for the Senate. He
explained to us that even though the US has made many
foreign policy mistakes, that he believed in our
system of checks and balances. He then offered to
start a dialog with the audience.

One student asked how Arab governments can create a
paradigm shift and
improve relations with the US. When he answered the
question, I tried
not to give in to frustrated laughter because, I shit
you not, this is
what he said (I am paraphrasing and my comments are in
parenthesis):
The Arab governments need to embrace democracy, not
theocracy. When you
allow the will of God to influence the laws of your
country, you will
not win the support of the US. (what about Israel
claiming they have
the God given right to rule this land ?) The Arab
governments need to
renounce violence against civilians. (What about
100,000 dead Iraqis,
were all of those people terrorists, Baathists,
foreign fighters or
were some of them civilians ?) The US is opposed to
theocracy and
terrorism and if the Arab governments want to create a
paradigm shift,
they need to address these concerns of ours.
So then I asked him, "You say the US is opposed to
theocracy and
terrorism, how can you explain to the Palestinian
people how the US can
be opposed to these things but still supports a state
that has racist,
oppressive, unjust and apartheid policies. And do you
see how this
paints an inconsistent picture to the people of the
Middle East?"
He began his answer by saying he would not accept the
assumptions I
made and therefore was not going to address that part
of my question. He said he could understand the
Palestinian view that the policies of the US were one
sided but he said the relationship with Israel was not
going to change. My high hopes for Barak Obama's
foreign policy ideas were shot down !

Obama said this was his first trip to the Middle East,
that he had just come from Qatar and Jordan. I imagine
he stayed in some pretty fancy
hotels. I'm not sure that if you are a powerful
American politician
on your first ever trip to the middle east that you
can really get a
good idea of what things are like here.
So Barak Obama, I would like to send you an
invitation. I invite you to
consider that maybe your preconceived notions about
the weather in the
Middle East are not the only notions that were
incorrect. Barak Obama,
I would like to invite you to stand in line at
Qalandia checkpoint, I
would like you to witness the humiliation Palestinians
face there,
I'd like to invite you to take part in a peaceful
demonstration like
Mohammad Mansour was doing when his friend was shot
and killed, or
Roni, who was shot in the neck and who is now
paralyzed from the waist
down. I'd like to invite you to acknowledge that there
are families
on the Palestinian side of the wall who cannot travel
5 minutes away to
the next village to see their families on the Israeli
side of the wall.
I would invite you to meet Ahmad, a five year old boy
I met on the way
back from Jenin whose father was killed by Israeli
soldiers. I would
like you to consider that if a Palestinian wants to
leave the country
by plane , he or she cannot leave via Ben Gurion
airport in Tel Aviv,
he or she must travel by land to Jordan and leave via
the airport in
Amman. This is the Middle East's only democracy, Mr.
Obama ! I would
invite you to consider how the unconditional support
for Israel with US
tax dollars affects 4 million Palestinian people who
just want to live
their lives and be free from oppression.





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