Letters to the Editor, July 23, 2004

Web-feature on Israel's illegal apartheid wall and the ICJ ruling

Dear Editor,

We thought your readers might be interested in this Pacifica radio web-feature we've prepared on Israel's illegal apartheid wall and the ICJ ruling:

www.me-radio.org

Readers will find audio files and transcriptions of interviews from Occupied Palestine, along with photographs, links and information.

Sincerely,

Johayna Marlow and John Young

The Wall

Israel is once more complaining not listening or thinking. "I find myself challenged to convince the Israeli people that the European Union is a partner we can trust," Mr Shalom said at the joint news conference. Well, Mr Shalom the rest of the world (apart from your sateillite America) finds your actions repulsive and we certainly don't respect or trust you much either.

We have seen 'defensive walls' before. I saw and crossed the Berlin Wall which was built to prevent the East German population from fleeing to the West. It was, of course, BUILT ON EAST GERMAN TERRITORY. The Israeli wall of shame, by contrast, is built on Palestinian land. It is theft. QED.

Israel is destroying itself with its immoral actions.

Phil Hong

Australian Support for Israel

Australia is one of the few nations along with the USA that supports Israel's separation barrier. The Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer has said the barrier keeps Terrorists out of Israel.

What about the terrorists from within Israel? The Israeli soldiers who terrorise Palestinians at checkpoints on their way home from school or work.

Mr Downer, maybe you could put yourself in the place of a Palestinian man coming home from work being stopped at a checkpoint not knowing whether this will be the day you will be arrested because maybe the soldier is tired and hot and will take it out on you. Maybe the soldier will keep you waiting and might say offensive things but you cannot react because if you go to prison who will look after (for example) your elderly parents. Maybe you do get home and find you no longer have a home and your family is buried under a pile of rubble.

Mr Downer, the Palestinian people face these possibilities daily. The possibility of being terrorised. Yet, not once has the Australian Government condemned Israel for it. Instead, it has chosen to support the pro Zionist policies of the US government. Zionism is a tribulation for everyone, Jews included.

Janice Keenan

The Liberation of Palestine from Israeli Occupation: A Universal Cause, A Response

Dear Editor,

I read with great interest the opinion editorial by Genevieve Cora Fraser entitled "The Liberation of Palestine from Israeli Occupation. A Universal Cause, Not Merely an Academic Exercise," on the Conference that was organized in Brussels (Al Jazeerah, July 14, 2004).

Since I was one of the two local organizers, and also one of the members of the scientific committee you can imagine that I fully agree with the cause, and fully subscribe to the first part of the title of Ms Fraser's paper. I can also sympathize very much with the second part. Obviously, this liberation is a Universal Cause, and not only an Academic Exercise, but the conference itself was supposed to give views by academics, as well as by witnesses.

I think that well crafted academic studies that analyze carefully the situation can and have been made, and are extremely useful to convince people that the cause is a just cause. I am convinced, but I am, unfortunately, among the very few who are.

After all, this conference was organized by Academics, to create and/or strengthen networking among Academics. And though of course academics can and should have political opinions, this was, according to me, not a political conference. This was my understanding while the conference was planned and organized.

This being said, I think that the editorial reports quite fairly on what happened. Here are nevertheless a few remarks that Ms Fraser may be willing to take into account, or at least read. I do not have her address, otherwise I would have contacted her directly.

(a) The boycott letter was indeed read, and interrupted (I think it was after the letter had been read, I have to check the video-tapes, I really cannot tell now), among others by me, for the reasons that, wrong or right, I exposed above. This led to bad things and to good ones. The bad ones are that perhaps if the reader had not been interrupted, not much more would have happened, and the issue would not have been hovering around even if silently, in all the rest of the conference, and taking time and thinking from other issues that one may find more important. The good thing is that the letter was photocopied, and distributed, and that an unplanned workshop on boycott issues was added to the program, was well-attended, and very polite. At the end of the session, and though I had, the day before, “interrupted” the reader of the letter, I said that I was grateful to him, and that the group as a whole should also be, since the issue would perhaps not have been discussed at all. I hope that there will be a report of the discussion. Note that in the workshop, a significant majority seemed to be against the boycott. Among the Palestinians attending, some were also against.

(b) Security was indeed there, not as tight as Ms Fraser says, and was imposed by the authorities of the University, certainly not by the organizers of the conference, who will now have to pay for it, and believe me, it is not cheap!

(c) Attendance of Palestinians. Indeed, two Palestinian speakers who were on the program did not attend. One of them, because the EU visa regulations impose that a passport has to be valid for at least the six next months. His was unfortunately not. The other was, after FFIPP's intervention, permitted to get out of Gaza. At the checkpoint, he was met by other Palestinians who asked him why he could get out, while they could not. He decided, and this is fully understandable, that he would not leave Gaza.

(d) "A counter balance to any Zionist perspective". Because of the many duties that a conference organizer has, I could not attend all the panels/discussions, but in those that I attended, there was no the slightest trace of Zionism proffered.

(e) I am really sad that Ms Fraser did not discuss the presentation by Professor Okasha, from Egypt or the one by Adi Ophir, from Israel which were, I think, and many others do also, including Etienne Balibar, among the best in the conference. She did not touch either on the presentation by two EU high ranked officials. This was a rare opportunity to have such people around, and listen to what the position of the EU was.

Yours sincerely,

Victor Ginsburgh

Professor of Economics,

ECARES C.P.114 Universite Libre de Bruxelles 50, avenue F. Roosevelt 1050 Bruxelles tel: +32 (0)2 650 3846 fax: +32 (0)2 650 4012 email: vginsbur@ulb.ac.be

Professor Ginsburgh's remarks are in response to the editorial by Ms Genevieve Cora Fraser that was published at Al-Jazeerah.info, on July 14, 2004, about the Brussesl Conference on a Just Peace between Palestine and Israel.

Professor Ginsburgh was a member both of the scientific committee, and of the local organization committee of the conference.