Stand in Solidarity with the Palestinian Freedom Riders

Dear friends,

In the next few hours, history could be made in Palestine. A small number of brave Palestinians will brave attack and arrest to commit a forbidden act — they will board a public bus.

Lacking their own state, Palestinians are forbidden to use buses and roads reserved for non-Arabs – part of a host of race-based rules that US President Jimmy Carter has called “apartheid”. 50 years ago, blacks in the US challenged these rules by simply and non-violently refusing to follow them. In a few hours, Palestinians will take the same approach, and their actions will be live webcasted by Avaaz teams at the link below.

As diplomats stall in the fight for a Palestinian state, the Palestinian people are taking the fight into their own hands, one public service at a time. And they’re doing it with the simple, elegant and unstoppable moral force of non-violence in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The Palestinian spring begins right now – click below to watch it LIVE, register support, and give these brave activists the global solidarity and attention they urgently need to win:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?tta

Non-violence is the game-changing force in this long standing conflict. Boarding buses is a symbolic act, but so was Gandhi’s salt march, and Rosa Park’s own ‘freedom ride’ on a segregated bus in the US. Just as non-violent protest was able to topple dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, so can it finally free the Palestinian people from 40 years of crippling military oppression by a foreign power.

There are many dangers. Israel has been arming the extremist settler population, a tactic which is likely, if not intended, to provoke awful violence that will draw the news cameras away from the brave acts of non-violence. Even the Palestinian authorities are pushing back on the action which they fear will start a democratic protest movement that they cannot control. But these few brave Palestinians have had enough, and if we stand with them now, we can help them ignite a flame that will burn its way all the way to a free and peaceful Palestinian state:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?tta

We have no idea what will happen in the next 24 hours. Maybe the authorities will crush this brave action. Maybe it will spark into a massive conflagration. Maybe it will sow the first seed of an unstoppable movement with tremendous integrity. But we can watch it live, and lend our voices to the effort. And maybe one day, we can tell our grandchildren that we were there when Palestinians boarded the buses that would ultimately take them to freedom.

With hope and determination,

Ricken, Alice, Emma, Alice, Raluca, Pascal, Diego and the rest of the Avaaz team

Sources:

I Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Set on Freedom
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clarence-b-jones/i-woke-up-this-morning-wi_b_1087407.html

Freedom Riders: 1961 and the struggle for racial justice
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/books/review/19foner.html

Palestinian Freedom Rides echo the Civil Rights Movement
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3888-freedom-rides

‘Freedom Rides’ to Resume in Palestine
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17242
_________________________________________________________________

Honored to be a “Freedom Rider”
by Mazin Qumsiyeh

I was honored to be a freedom rider and it was team effort at its best
(those who rode and the many who worked behind the scenes). Two other
Palestinians were also arrested with us who were there as a
reporters/observers not participants. All eight of us were released
eventually pending potential trials. Fajr kindly gave us a ride to the edge
of Beit Sahour from Ramallah (we were released at Qalandia checkpoint) where
my wife met us there with my car and then she and I gave a ride to Nadim and
Badi’ to Hebron. I thus arrived home at 1:30 AM and the phones started
ringing again at 7 AM. I am extremely tired and with a headache but wanted
to send you a brief report and links to stories about this amazing and
inspiring experience. While released, we are still charged with “illegal
entry to Jerusalem” and with “obstructing police business” pending potential
trial.

This was one of the most heavily covered media events I ever participated
in. It was also streamed live on the internet and nearly 100,000 people
signed a petition of support for us freedom riders
(https://secure.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?aerQkcb). Thus, I do
not need to write to you in detail about how three buses refused to let us
board and then one driver (who later told journalists he did not know what
was going on otherwise would have also refused) allowed us on the bus and
what happened on and off the bus. Below are some links to stories published
that give you a taste of this. Note especially the signs that we carried and
showed before we rode the bus and from the windows of the bus (I am the one
with the “DIGNITY” sign). Perhaps I will write more personally when my mind
is clearer and I have had some sleep. But there are two anecdotes that
happened that are kind of unusual and funny and in some way worth telling
while they are fresh in my mind:

-They took me to the Shabak (“Israeli intelligence”) guy before they took me
to the investigator for the bus issue. The Shabak guy did not ask me about
the bus at all. He introduced himself as head of the Shabak area of
Ramallah (and previously of Nablus and Jenin). He asked me if I was abroad
recently. I said yes. He said what happened when you came back. I said I
was interrogated at the bridge. He said “come-on interrogating is a big
word”. I said I do not know what else to call an 8 hour delay including 2
hours of actual questioning. He said what else they told you. I said that
the interrogation would continue and that there is a captain “Suhail” or
“Suhaib” or something like that who will call me later. He said that that
it is him and his name is “Shihab”! I said “well then maybe we will save
another visit”! He told me that is not likely as I seem to continue to
“cause problems and violate laws”. I said there is something called
international laws and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Denial of
freedom of movement and entry to Jerusalem while allowing colonial settlers
to live on our land and have freedom to travel in and out of Jerusalem on
segregated buses is a violation of the International Convention Against the
Crime of Apartheid. We also engaged in a political discussion and I
explained about why Israel now has no incentive for peace (the three main
sources of income for it would all dry up if there is peace) and my views of
a democratic, pluralistic country for its entire people.

-One young Ashkenazi soldier was very arrogant and even called me “Professor
Teez” (Teez is Arabic for “ass”). We all (freedom riders) laughed it off
and I told him that I did not insult him and that when someone insults me
they demean themselves first. When he repeated it after my interrogation
by the Shabak, I stood up and confronted him and the Druz officer intervened
and the soldier moved away. There were other incidents with other people
similar showing that our collective attitude was strong, defiant, and
resilient. We all had Palestinian Kuffiyyas and kept wearing them. Fadi
even wrapped himself in the Palestinian flag the whole time except when they
did the full body search. We have some video from inside the compound which
I will share later.

I came out to find the news that the Zionist mayor of New York Mike
Bloomberg ordered the clearing out of the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters
for now; a very important protest *. But my reading of history and trends
tell me that the global intifada will only accelerate as a result of
repression by the powers to be.

Freedom Riders odyssey:

http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-arrests-freedom-riders-challeng

ing-apartheid-road-system/10595#.TsNplD3z3qE

http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?cl=1388878149

&v=11131
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=245717 (there is a
picture here of me being taken off of the bus)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/15/1036888/-We-Shall-Overcome-A-Photo-

Diary-of-Todays-Freedom-Riders?via=sidebar

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/11/israel-palestinians-freedo

m-riders.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills

http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article6642

&var_mode=calcul

http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/follow-the-freedom-rides.html

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/palestinians-embark-on-civil-disob

edience-protests-against-demographic-segregation-1.395820

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15744576

http://theonlydemocracy.org/2011/11/statement-of-the-palestinian-freedom-rid

ers/
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/14/177154.html (Arabic)

*Arundhati Roy: Occupy Wall Street is “So Important Because It is in the
Heart of Empire”

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/15/arundhati_roy_occupy_wall_street_is

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a village at home
Qumsiyeh.org

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