Just International

Deleting Muslims

Dear friends across India,

In a few days, India will delete as many as 7 million Muslims in Assam State from its master list of “citizens” because they speak the wrong language and worship the wrong God.

Husbands, wives, and children could be torn apart and left to rot in prison camps.

This is how genocides begin – how the nightmare of the Rohingya began. But it’s all unfolding quietly — if we raise a massive alarm calling for the UN Secretary-General and key governments to intervene – we can stop this horror on our doorstep before it starts:

The Assam government has already begun quietly building another new prison camp and deploying troops.

Like the Burmese regime that attacked the Rohingya, the government claims they’re acting against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. But the vast majority of the people targeted are just poor, illiterate Muslim citizens without “proper” documentation. They’ve never needed it before!

António Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN, has pledged to fight on behalf of those who can’t: “I will raise my voice. I will take action. I will use my rights to stand up for your rights.” We need to hold him to those words because right now the Bengali Muslims in India have no one to speak for them on the global stage — except us. Sign the petition below and together we can stop a road to genocide in Assam:

The rise of virulent Hindu nationalism is behind this aggressive move to render millions of Muslim people in India stateless and vulnerable. History teaches us that these movements know no limits except the ones citizens set for them. Let’s draw a line in Assam, and send a message to governments everywhere – we’re watching.

With hope and determination,

Sign the petition here 

Emma, Nate, Ricken, Antonia, Flora, Alice, Wissam, Danny and the entire Avaaz team

 

Free Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian parliamentarian and feminist

Palestinian leader Khalida Jarrar, a leftist, feminist parliamentarian imprisoned by the Israeli occupation, has been jailed without charge or trial since 2 July 2017. As her friends, family and comrades awaited her release, they were instead informed on 14 June that her administrative detention had been renewed for the third time for an additional four months. Take action to demand the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar and her fellow Palestinian prisoners!

As Palestinians march in Gaza in the Great Return March, and as they take to the streets in the West Bank in the Lift the Sanctions movement, the Israeli occupation is extending Khalida Jarrar’s detention without charge or trial to keep this strong, powerful leader off the streets and away from her people.

Khalida’s administrative detention renewal is scheduled to be approved by an Israeli military court on 2 July. Before this approval happens, it is important that international solidarity is heard, loudly and clearly, demanding her freedom!

Khalida Jarrar is a longtime advocate for the freedom of Palestinian prisoners, the Vice-Chair of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and its former Executive Director. A member of the Palestinian Legislative Council elected as part of the leftist Abu Ali Mustafa Bloc, associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, she chairs the PLC’s Prisoners Committee.

She is also an outspoken leader in the fight to hold Israeli officials accountable for war crimes in the International Criminal Court. She is a member of a Palestinian commission charged with bringing complaints and files before the international court about ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, from attacks on Gaza to land confiscation and settlement construction to mass arrests and imprisonment.

This is not the first time she has faced arrest and persecution. In 2014, she resisted – and defeated – an Israeli attempt to forcibly displace her from her family home in el-Bireh to Jericho. Only nine months later, in April 2015, she was seized by Israeli occupation forces and ordered to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. After a global outcry, she was brought before Israeli military courts and faced 12 charges based on her political activity, from giving speeches to attending events in support of Palestinian prisoners.

After she was released in June 2016, she resumed her leading role in the Palestinian liberation movement, only to be seized once more on 2 July 2017 and once again thrown in prison with no charges and no trial. Her administrative detention was already renewed for another six months in December 2017, and it is clear that the Israeli occupation has no intention of releasing Khalida, one of the leaders among the 6,200 Palestinian prisoners (including nearly 500 administrative detainees) in Israeli jails.

She, along with her fellow administrative detainees, boycotts the Israeli military courts that rubber-stamp their military detention orders. They are demanding an end to the practice of administrative detention, first brought to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist occupation. Administrative detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time, and they are indefinitely renewable. Palestinians have spent years at a time jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention.

Within the Israeli occupation prison, she has played a leading role in supporting the education of the minor girls held there, organizing classes on human rights and in review for mandatory high school examinations when the prison authority denied the girls a teacher.

We know that the Israeli military court hearing is a sham. But it is more important than ever that our voices are heard and our actions are visible throughout the next week to demand freedom for Khalida Jarrar. Protests are already being organized in New York and elsewhere around the world. Join us and take action!

Sign the petition here.

Thank You to Google Employees Who Reject the Business of War

GOOGLE EMPLOYEES AND ALL WORKERS EVERYWHERE

We the undersigned applaud those employees of Google who resist allowing Google to work in the business of war. We want to express our deep gratitude for your willingness to take this critical stand. The particular new dangers of automated weapons provide one more reason to make mass killing a thing of the past and to move public policies to a world beyond war.

We further want to encourage all workers at all companies in all countries, including at Google, to expand this effort until it results in a firm commitment to reject all military contracts — until every company meets the demand of Google’s employees to “publicize, and enforce a clear policy stating that neither [this company] nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology.”

*****

Note that Google’s new statement of principles says “[W]e will not design or deploy AI in the following application areas: . . . Weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people,” but says nothing about non-AI military contracts.

 

 

To: Google employees and all workers everywhere
From: Chandra Muzaffar

We the undersigned applaud those employees of Google who resist allowing Google to work in the business of war. We want to express our deep gratitude for your willingness to take this critical stand. The particular new dangers of automated weapons provide one more reason to make mass killing a thing of the past and to move public policies to a world beyond war.

We further want to encourage all workers at all companies in all countries, including at Google, to expand this effort until it results in a firm commitment to reject all military contracts — until every company meets the demand of Google’s employees to “publicize, and enforce a clear policy stating that neither [this company] nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology.”

 

Sign this petition here : https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/thank-you-to-google-employees-who-reject-the-business-of-war?link_id=1&can_id=a4f488f42ad134d4357acc4bfa4bb613&source=email-re-link-that-works-thank-google-employees-who-reject-war&email_referrer=email_366780&email_subject=re-link-that-works-thank-google-employees-who-reject-war

 

NO to U.S. military transports through the eastern German state of Brandenburg and other regions of Germany

NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO)

Between May and June 2018, over 100 U.S. military convoys are planned to cross the eastern German state of Brandenburg and other regions of Germany towards Eastern Europe. According to NATO propaganda, these U.S. troops, as well as other NATO troops, will serve to protect the Baltic States from the “aggressor Russia.”
However, large parts of the population in Brandenburg know that the aggressor is NATO. It is the United States, the leading NATO country, which has positioned nuclear weapons and a missile defense shield against Russia within Europe. It is NATO that has moved closer and closer to Russia’s borders during the last two decades.

By acting in this way, the NATO states risk provoking war, which entails unforeseeable dangers not only for Germany and Europe, but for the entire world.

In this sense, the protest of the citizens of Brandenburg against the U.S. military transport is a concrete contribution toward bringing together a common resistance — in Germany, the United States, and the whole world – against U.S. military bases worldwide, which form the backbone of NATO aggression.

Great hopes are to be put in the Coalition against U.S. Foreign Military Bases and in forming a truly global coalition against U.S, and NATO military bases in the world.

This statement originated by Potsdam Peace Coordination.

Tell Facebook to Stop Deleting Accounts at the Direction of Governments

Facebook has been deleting accounts at the direction of governments, including the Israeli, U.S., Chinese, and German governments.

Facebook has used the rationale that the accounts it has deleted were inciting violence. Yet Facebook refrains from deleting many accounts that very openly encourage violence.

Please sign this petition to Facebook, and then, on the next page, click to visit and like our new page on Facebook called Facebook Uncensored:

Facebook should apply its policy consistently for deleting accounts that encourage violence, and not at the direction of any government. It should also apply the same policy to the many government accounts that encourage violence, including war and police violence.

Sign up for your action alerts here: https://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=13214

Jerusalem must remain the capital of Palestine

Donald Trump is expected to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The move will break long-time US policy and potentially stir unrest, not only in the Middle East but around the world.
Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967 and subsequent occupation of the area is still considered illegal by the United Nations.

This announcement could spark controversy and provoke violence across the world and fan flames of militancy. It will also break decades of diplomacy and disrupt the Arab-Israeli peace talks.

Help us stop this declaration. 1967 borders must be respected and Jerusalem must remain the capital of Palestine.

من المتوقع ان يعلن دونالد ترامب القدس عاصمة لاسرائيل.

هذه الخطوة ستكسر سياسة الولايات المتحدة وتزيد من الاضطراب، ليس فقط في الشرق الأوسط ولكن في جميع أنحاء العالم.
لا يزال يعتبر ضم إسرائيل للقدس الشرقية في عام 1967 والاحتلال اللاحق للمنطقة غير قانوني من جانب الأمم المتحدة.
هذا الإعلان قد يثير الجدل ويثير العنف في جميع أنحاء العالم ويشعل نيران من التطرف. كما انه سيكسر عقود من الدبلوماسية ويعرقل محادثات السلام العربية الاسرائيلية.
ساعدنا في إيقاف هذا الإعلان.

القدس يجب أن تبقى عاصمة فلسطين

 

Sign petition here.

Petitioning Naheed Nenshi and 89 others (Free Ahed Tamimi)

My name is Nasri Akil from Toronto, Canada. I started this campaign to support” Ahed Tamimi”, her mother “Mariam”, her cousin “Nur” and the other kids detained by the evil hands of the Zionists of the fake state of Israel. In a desperate hope to get enough signature to put pressure on decision makers to do something about the constant twisted detention of Palestinian kids. In turn this will expose the evil of the zionists and pressure the international community.

I would like to mention here that this petition has nothing to do with race or religion or ethnicity. It’s pure right against wrong. Zionism is not Judaism. Judaism is a religion not a race. Many Jews are not Zionists. Most Zionists are not Jews. Many Zionists hate Jews. Opposition to Israel is NOT anti-Semitism.

Ahed Tamimi, 16, was arrested ( kidnapped actually ) by Israeli forces in the middle of the night. Since she was a young child, she has been active in weekly demonstrations against Israel’s theft of her family’s land in occupied Nabi Saleh. But as Tamimi stands against Israeli occupation, she underscores: whenever a people face oppression, we must show solidarity. Israeli soldiers shot Ahed Tamimi’s relative in the head, leaving the teenage boy in a coma, and then invaded her family home. She demanded that the occupying Israeli soldiers leave her property immediately, shouting “don’t touch me” and “leave!” Now she’s in Israeli military detention, where 75% of Palestinian children report assault.

Ahed is a child, and like thousands of Palestinian children she could be humiliated and abused if we don’t get her out fast.

She has become another child statistic of the countless other children detained illegally in Israel. Her court date is December 25th, 2017. She was taken into question at the Moscobiyeh prison, notorious for it’s dungeon cell, torture tactics fully utilized on children, and extensive harassment. She was put in isolation, left in an icy cell, without proper food. In fives days she was moved three times. Why? To exhaust and break her. When her mother arrived to be there with her, she too was arrested.

We demand that Ahed and all Palestinian children are released from Israeli prisons now.

The international community must put an end to the ill-treatment and detention of Palestinian children. Enough is enough.

Ahed Tamimi represent all the innocent kids in the Isareli detention and represent the Palestinians struggle against the illegal occupation of Palestine.

Since 1967, Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have been living under Israeli military law and prosecuted in military courts.

Israeli military law, which fails to ensure and denies basic and fundamental rights, is applied to the whole Palestinian population.

Israel is the only country in the world that automatically prosecutes children in military courts that lack basic and fundamental fair trial guarantees. Since 2000, at least 8,000 Palestinian children have been arrested and prosecuted in an Israeli military detention system notorious for the systematic ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children.

Around 500-700 Palestinian children are arrested, detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system each year.

The majority of Palestinian child detainees are charged with throwing stones, and three out of four experience physical violence during arrest, transfer or interrogation.

Unlike Israeli children living in illegal settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian children are not accompanied by a parent and are generally interrogated without the benefit of legal advice, or being informed of their right. They are overwhelmingly accused of throwing stones, an offense that can lead to a potential maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years depending on a child’s age.

AHED TAMIMI will go to trial on Christmas Day for slapping an Israeli soldier, illegally trespassing on her property, the day after her 15-year-old cousin was shot in the face. In December 2011, Mustafa Tamimi was killed during a protest in the village when an Israeli soldier shot him in the face with a tear gas canister. One year later, Israeli soldiers shot and killed Rashadi Tamimi in the village. One wonders why the “slap” is the Crime?

I decided to do something about it and start with what I can. So that’s why I am here asking you to help me help Ahed, her family and all the other kids. I also started a fund raising campaign on “GoFundMe” hoping to raise enough money to hire as many legal advisors to support Ahed and the others legaly in the court and get some justice. I mean enough is enough…I can’t sleep I can’t eat and these kids are experiencing all of that twist. Someone must do something.

This is not right. This is not humanity. We cannot make this acceptable by doing nothing.

I earnestly ask that at the very least, we make some noise in support of Ahed Tamimi and the other children that are held prisoners with no charge, no defense, all in violation of international laws.

She is one, but we are many. It takes a united front to add pressure, to induce accountability and hopefully give freedom to the oppressed, weak and innocent.

To Ahed and all the children in Israeli jails: We stand by your side, and are holding you in our hearts. We will not give up until you are free. You are not alone.

As a wise man ounce said: “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible”

Sign. Support. Make Noise. Add Pressure. Be Human.

what if Ahed was your daughter, sister or just a friend? What would you do?

Sign petition here.

NC4P MEDIA RELEASE AND CALL TO ACTION November is #PalestineMonth, marking the 40th UN Day for Palestine

01 November 2017

INTRODUCTION: The 29th of November 2017 marks the 40th anniversary of the United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – passed in 1977 by the UN General Assembly, Resolution 32/40B.

BACKGROUND: During the 1980s, the UN, through its General Assembly as well as its agencies, commissions and committees, passed various resolutions in support of the struggle against Apartheid including several motions supporting forms of boycott and sanctions. For example, in October 1983 the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid produced a database “blacklisting” artists who were involved or who had performed in Apartheid SA.

TODAY: Likewise, the UN is playing an increasing role against Israel’s occupation, oppression and apartheid policies. In December 2016, the UN security Council officially expressed its strong disapproval of the Israeli settlement project that effectively makes Israel an apartheid state. In March 2017 a UN report found “beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crimes of apartheid” as defined in international law. The UN report further called for the backing of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign (click here). In addition, the UN Human Rights Council is currently producing a database “blacklisting” companies involved in or profiteering from Israel’s illegal settlements (click here).

JOIN US: As we dedicate the month of November to the struggle of the Palestinians against Israeli occupation, oppression and Apartheid, get involved by organizing events, actions and other activities during this month. Events you could organize include rallies, protests, lectures, cultural performances, concerts, films and workshops in your city, community, work place or campus. Let us know of what events or activities you are hosting by sending an email to info@nc4psouthafrica.comand your event will be listed on www.nc4psouthafrica.com/palestinemonth. Also contact us for movies, flyers and other info.

ENDORSE: If your organization would like to endorse this “Palestine Month” campaign send an email to info@nc4psouthafrica.com and your organization’s name will be listed online at www.nc4psouthafrica.com/palestinemonth

DID YOU KNOW: Nelson Mandela, exactly 20 years ago, marking the 1997 UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, famously said: “we know too well that would freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

 

Reverend Edwin Arrison, Chairperson of the National Coalition 4 Palestine (NC4P)
For Comment: 0847351835 / 0740543826

EMAIL: info@nc4psouthafrica.com
WEBSITE: www.nc4psouthafrica.com
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/NC4Psouthafrica
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/nc4psouthafrica
WEBPAGE FOR #PALESTINEMONTH: www.nc4psouthafrica.com/palestinemonth

The NC4P is a coalition of various South African human rights organizations, trade unions, faith based groups and other associations.

Letter to Colombian President re Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Solidarity

Friends,

Your and your organizations’ support is urgently needed for a letter that will be sent to Colombian President Santos and the Commission to Monitor, Promote, and Verify Implementation of Colombia’s Peace Accord (CSIVI) offices, as well as released to the public. The letter will be sent at the end of the day on October 2, 2017.
 
This letter is a call demanding that Afro-Colombian and indigenous groups be included in, and made an integral part of, the ongoing peace process in Colombia. While this process continues, the Colombian state and ruling class seeks to once again make invisible the demands and concerns of these communities who continue to suffer from political, economic, and social/cultural violence.
 
We are hoping to make a very public statement that no peace process can be considered inclusive or truly progressive if it does not explicitly address the needs of Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, and if it is not infused with the necessary anti-colonial political discourse.
 
Please consider signing on to the letter by responding to sign-on@madre.org.
Your organizations’ endorsements will further build momentum in this continuing anti-colonial process of peace and progress.
In Solidarity,
Eric Draitser

Peace Now and Forever Campaign Between India and Pakistan

NOTE: This Resolution has over 1000 endorsements obtained on a personal basis, listed alphabetically at this link. It is online here as part of the Peace Now and Forever Campaign Between India and Pakistan.

PEACEMONGERS’ JOINT RESOLUTION FOR PEACE

In the 70 years since independence and Partition, the people of India and Pakistan have seen too many conflicts and the loss of many valuable lives. Enough of the distrust and tensions. Those who suffer particularly are ordinary people denied visas and those in the conflict zones, especially women and children as well as fishermen who get routinely rounded up and arrested for violating the maritime boundary.
We condemn all forms of violence regardless of its objectives.
Deeply concerned at the current rise in animosity and antagonism between India and Pakistan, we urge both governments and their security establishments to take all steps possible towards improving relations.
We note that whenever it seems that relations might improve, some form of disruption takes place ranging from jingoistic statements to militant attacks. The traditional response to such disruptions only strengthens those who want continued tensions between our two countries.
We, citizens of India and Pakistan, and concerned citizens around the world, move this joint resolution towards a peaceful subcontinent and make the following demands to the governments of India and Pakistan, urging them to:
Develop an institutionalised framework to ensure that continuous and uninterrupted talks between India and Pakistan take place regularly no matter what. Make dialogue uninterrupted and uninterruptible.
Ensure that political leaders, diplomats and civil servants from both countries conduct talks on the sidelines of all international and multilateral forums.
Recognise that the Kashmir dispute above all concerns the lives and aspirations of the Kashmiri people, and work to resolve it through uninterrupted dialogue between all parties concerned.
Implement the 2003 ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan.
Renounce all forms of proxy wars, state-sponsored terrorism, human rights violations, cross-border terrorism, and subversive activities against each other, including through non-state actors or support of separatist movements in each other’s state.
Support and encourage all forms of people-to-people contact, and remove visa restrictions and discrimination faced by citizens of both countries. This must be further taken forward to allow visa-free travel between India and Pakistan.
Increase trade and economic linkages, sports and cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan.
Further, we pledge to uphold the principles of impartial reporting and urge media houses on either side to prevent the growing militarisation of debate. We must act responsibly and stop broadcasting hate speech and creating public hysteria aimed at the other country and/or vulnerable communities.
UPDATE: This resolution is endorsed by over 1000 prominent peacemongers in India, Pakistan and around the world – singers, actors, artists, writers, journalists, retired armed forces personnel, parliamentarians, filmmakers, lawyers, historians, physicians, businesspeople, economists, students and rights workers. They include Gulzar, Noam Chomsky, Shubha Mudgal, Aruna Roy, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Asma Jahangir, Mubarak Ali, Romila Thapar, Ayesha Jalal, Admiral L. Ramdas, General Talat Masood, General Mahmud Durrani, Jean Dreze, Nayantara Sahgal, Mahesh Bhat, Nandita Das, Naseeruddin Shah, Salima Hashmi and Amin Hashwani to name a few. See some of the names in the list online, alphabetically ordered. This resolution is also endorsed by the Sarhad song of Aisi Taisi Democracy.

Hundreds of organisations in India, Pakistan and other countries partnering for The Peace Now Campaign are also obtaining endorsements for this resolution through an on-the-ground signature campaign. Scores of programmes in different cities and towns are providing platforms to people of both countries to assert their desire to resolve all issues amicably and reclaim an atmosphere of peace for the sub-continent.
NOTE: Endorsements collected online and on the ground until 15 August 2017 will be delivered to the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan by the end of August 2017.
This petition will be delivered to:
India, Pakistan
Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan

Please sign here.