Sean Bell Remembered

On the sixth anniversary of his death

On graves all across the globe we spot the familiar "RIP." This is a death wish. We wish that the souls of dead persons can rest. If such a wish were ever true, it would be highly unlikely that Sean Bell could be so blessed. Six years ago Justice Arthur Cooperman found credible the versions of police officers who killed an unarmed Sean Bell while he was attempting to escape their deadly gun fire. The New York City Police Department found otherwise. The undercover police detective who fired the first bullets in the 50-shot barrage that killed an unarmed Sean Bell as he left his bachelor party was fired. Three other officers involved in the slaying resigned.The officers fired 50 bullets at three unarmed men who sat defenceless in a car. The defence painted the victims as dangerous drunken thugs. Drunk they may have been, but they were unarmed. No drugs were found in their possession. No opened containers of alcohol. No outstanding court summonses. Three young persons of color were at a rowdy bar celebrating the marriage of Sean. He was to be married later that day. Judge Cooperman believed the officers, just as the jurors believed the officers in the shooting of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant who was also gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun.

How can the soul of Sean Bell "rest in peace?" He can't. We can't either. The officers who fired their deadly bullets at Bell did not receive a pass on this one. Justice Cooperman's verdict will be debated as to whether it was just. 

GEORGE McGOVERN - THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE I VOTED FOR

In 1972 I was a student at Concordia Teachers College (Now Concordia University - Nebraska) when George McGovern's bus pulled up to the Seward County Court House. It was the first, and only time I heard a presidential candidate speak at an open rally. I don't remember the speech he gave that day. Perhaps I was caught up in the excitement of being so close to a person who might have been president. Through the years, I have been drawn to McGovern's stand on immigration. Unless you are a native American, and I would add, African American, you are in America due to immigration. That's what made America. McGovern knew that, and he championed the cause of immigration. I voted for McGovern in 1972. It was the first time I voted for anybody. McGovern lost by a landslide. Many of us who heard McGovern that day were energized. We would vote again. We would look for politicians who represented our values. And we would be successful in getting a few elected. I am proud of my vote for McGovern. It was not wasted.

Christian leaders who questioned US aid to Israel

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) reacted to a letter sent last week to congress by several American Christian leaders that called on lawmakers to "make U.S. military aid to Israel contingent upon its government's compliance with applicable US laws and policies" with "thinly-veiled charges" of anti-Semitism. These charges are being used as a club to stifle legitimate critique of Israel. This is short sighted. Anti-Semitism is alive. But the church leaders who signed that letter are not engaged in anti-Semitism. They are on an errand. This is a conversation about, and a call for justice. Given the history of maltreatment, disenfranchisement, displacement, and death, and given the shared experience of genocide itself, where is the grief, the hurt, the repulsion at what is being done to Palestinians by the State of Israel? When will there be recognition of the violence being done by Israel?

CESARIA EVORA "BAREFOOT DIVA"

Cesaria Evora, known as the "Barefoot Diva" died in her native island of Sao Vicente in Cape Verde Saturday. I became a fan of Evora in July 2011 while in Palestine. We were sitting on a patio listening to music, when someone downloaded Evora's Cabo Verde.It took me a little while (she sings in her native creole), but before long I was downloading another song. Evora's style of African island music is close to jazz, blues, and Brazilian music (It is hard to classify!). Her music, traditional music of the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa is soulful, jazzy, and stirring. Evora was 70. Evora is a grand addition to my small collection of international musicians.

ISRAEL'S MEKOROT WATER COMPANY AND THE JABER IRRIGATION PIPES

Twice this past summer, on July 6 and July 11, I traveled with a Christian Peacemaker Team colleague to the Beqa'a valley to view water irrigation pipes which had been destroyed by Mekorot, the national water company of Israel. Atta Jaber called the Hebron CPT Office to report that Mekorot Water Company was destroying plastic irrigation pipes at family gardens. The Jaber family has a long history in the Beqa’a valley. The Jabers have been on their deeded property for over 400 years. Mekorot employed young Palestinians to cut the water lines. Mekorot accused the Jabers of stealing water by tapping into lines which supply the nearby settler communities of Harsina and Kiryat Arba. According to Jonathan Cook (1), “Israel controls 80 per cent of the West Bank’s water sources, and diverts most of that supply to its own citizens, inside Israel and the settlements.” Three million West Bank Palestinians use only 250 million cubic meters per year (83 cubic meters per Palestinian per year) while six million Israelis use 1,954 million cubic meters (333 cubic meters per Israeli per year). Palestinians are left with a fifth of the West Bank’s water. More than 200,000 rural Palestinians, most living in Area C under Israeli control, have no running water at all and have to buy water from Israeli tanker-trucks. (2) Cook reports that Palestinians consume far less than the 100 liters each “…recommended by the World Health Organization as the daily minimum.” (3) Atta Jaber believes that the water which flows to the Beqa’a valley comes from an aquifer in the West Bank. He said “Palestinians should not have to pay for what is already their own.” Jaber is familiar with the United Nations Covenant which establishes that under international law it is illegal for Israel to expropriate the water of the Occupied Palestinian Territories for use by its own citizens, and doubly illegal to expropriate it for use by illegal Israeli settlers. (4) Jaber believes that if their gardens fail, the empty dunams of land will be declared unused, or abandoned, and settlers will claim them.
Photos of the events
http://cpt.org/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=23678

1 Jonathan Cook. disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair. New York. Zed Books, 2010, p. 122.
2. ‘The lights of Netzarin’, Ha’aretz, 7 November 2003
3. Ibid. Cook, p. 122.
4. Article 1(2) of the 1966 United Nations Human Rights Covenants proclaims: “All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based on the principle of mutual benefit and international law. .

The Illogic of Jewish Settlements

The buzz which accompanies Israel's stance against a Palestinian state underscores it's obession with demographic and security threats. Yet, Israel continues to establish new settlements in the West Bank. This seems illogical and even suicidal. If a single state emerges out of Israel and Palestine, it will not be a Jewish state. Within a few years the population of Palestinians inside the West Bank, Gaza and Israel will outnumber Jews.

CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAM - A PROTEST MARCH NEAR TUWANI

By invitation from Palestinians living in the village of Tuwani, we traveled from Hebron to Tuwani on the morning of July 8 for a Walking Action. Palestinians were protesting the extension of a settlement onto land belonging to Palestinians. At Tuwani we joined Palestinians, Israelis and internationals at a school for the march. School children lead the way with banners. One banner read: “We want to live in peace and dignity.” About 100 participated in the Action.

When the group had traveled to Humra, the children began to water trees which settlers from the Havot Maon Outpost had destroyed two months ago. The Military, using a bullhorn, declared the March Action area a “closed military zone.” The land we were marching on had Palestinian gardens, although some of the land near the settlement was fallow. Some Israeli activists in our group began to go toward the illegal extension of the Havot Maon Outpost. The Palestinians tried to reason with the commanding offer, an Israeli general and the police. An Operation Dove member and a Palestinian were arrested, and the soldiers, Border Police and Blue Police advanced and threw sound bombs followed by tear gas. A number of marchers were affected by the tear gas and smoke. No one was seriously hurt. The Palestinians dispersed, but Amiel, leader of Tay’yush gathered the Israelis and internationals and debriefed with them about what happened. He pointed out that the the Palestinians decided to offer no resistance. All activists followed suit.