Mach 5, 2003

Features
http://otherpress.douglas.bc.ca

fi Persistence for Peace

Devon Lewis
OP Contributor

The truthful extent of the crippling injustice going
on in the Middle East will not be found on the
daily six o-clock news, but instead from the words
of those brave enough to have been to the front-
lines. These people are the ones who sought out
the real nes without biased media propaganda on
their shoulder, without closed minds, eyes and
ears, and above all without some political agenda
to fulfil. On Saturday, March 1, Douglas College
was privileged to hear, un-edited, some of the sto-
ries that aren't making the news, from intellectuals
either who have lived in Palestine, worked in the
hospitals in the Gaza Strip, who have used their
bodies as human shields against Israeli occupation;
in other words, straight from the mouth of experi-
ence. Hearing from people who have been right
where the bullets flew by, or where the bomb had
dropped, war seemed alarmingly too real, and yet
in Canada, we are blessed to be so far away from
this kind of trauma—so surreal.

The International Solidarity Movement of
Vancouver was the main coordinator of this event
who all proceeds, by donation, went to. The ISM
is a peaceful Palestinian-led movement of interna-
tional activists who believe in supporting the
Palestinians against Israeli occupation. According
to the ISM, Israel is not complying with interna-
tional law by violating basic human rights against
the Palestinians. The Palestinians are being literal-
ly kept as prisoners on their own land as on the
Gaza Strip where 1.1 million are being kept locked
in and separated by a barb-wire fence. Also lock-
ing them in is the Wall of Apartheid, a wall 8
metres high, 360 kms long with trenches, guard
towers and even motion sensors to keep the
Palestinians in. According to Jaggi Singh, an active
member of the ISM as well as one of speakers at
the event, “It makes the Berlin wall look like noth-
ing.”

The Israelis, while being only one third of the
population, own most of the land, including the
most fertile, as well as most of the water supply.
They have imposed checkpoints, curfews, shut
down schools, as well as destroyed homes in order
to build the Wall of Apartheid, meanwhile man-
hunting Palestinians for some make-believe crime.
Some call this occupation, some call it ethnic
cleansing, and some simply label it genocide.

Two women from the Canadian Peace Team,
Linda Morgan and Jen Ziemann, spoke of the
present situation in Iraq, a place where the Bush
regime is just itching to bomb though there is no
proof in connection to 9/11. The US has refused
to lift the harmful sanctions imposed on the Iraqi
people since the end of the Gulf War, which is
killing people, mostly children, everyday. In one
hospital that Morgan and Ziemann visited and
filmed, a doctor stated that he sees an average of
three to four babies die every single day because of
the lack of drugs to treat them,

Before the Gulf War, Iraq was a prosperous
nation with free medical and education, including
women’s rights, but on August 6, 1990 under UN
resolution, the US and its allies imposed these
sanctions to bring invasion of Kuwait to an end
during the Gulf War. Under the sanctions and
imposed oil for food program was forced on Iraq.
This program however, is not doing its intended

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duty to the people. While Iraq sells its oil, the
money goes to a UN controlled bank. This money
should be going to the people, but is instead going
to Kuwait for war reparations as well as paying for
the UN inspectors to search for elusive weapons of
mass destruction. The aftermath of this is the Iraqi
people living in horrible situations where children
are playing in open sewer lines because the govern-
ment cannot afford to repair the streets. However,
the infamous CIA funded Suddam Husein also
likes to build plenty of new palaces when he feels
the urge.

The effect of this is people dying everyday from
the contaminated water that they are forced to
drink, malnutrition, and the depleted uranium
from the Gulf War. And even through all the
everyday suffering of these victims—the civil-
ians—the US still wants to bomb Iraq. But, what
would more civilian deaths prove? It is becoming
well-known that that the US wants to gain control
over the vast oil reserves in the Middle East for its
fat oil guzzling diet. According to Hanna Kawas,
who spoke at the event, “Capitalism has always
seen war as one of its instruments of power.”

These are the kind stories that the speakers at the
Peace Conference came to enlighten us with on
Saturday. As well as the speakers already men-
tioned, such intellectuals such as Dr. Adel Samara,
Mordecai Briemberg, and Riadh Muslih provided
some potent information on the conflict in the
Middle East. As well as a riveting speech, Kawas
provided walls of artwork, which were displayed in
the Douglas Student Union building along with an
array of food and beverages, raffle prizes, and live
music after the teach-in. Other participating
groups involved were Jews for a Just Peace,
CamPalNet, the Palestine Solidarity Group, the
Canada Palestine Association, CESAPI, the Iraq
Peace Team, and the Nov 17. Peace Coalition.

I am disheartened to say, however, that there was
a sense of hostility that arose at one point during
the Peace Conference. There were a few incidents
of disrespect toward the speakers where a very
select few, instead of addressing the speakers dur-
ing some of the question and answer periods, took
the liberty of using the microphone, forcing people
to listen to their rigid fundamentalist views.
Hostility grew from the audience, as they did not
come to hear some dogmatic mantra, but to hear
stories of Palestinian and Iraqi situations from the
appointed speakers.

One incident arose where a person left fuming in
anger spewing words of hatred against Jaggi Singh,
claiming that he had been insulted. He was yelling
at a Peace Conference of all places, to a person who
had came straight from a de-iced plane in
Montreal to fulfill his promise to speak at Douglas
College.

The graphics of war-mangled bodies and disease-
born children from the video that Morgan and
Ziemann had shown were still clutching hard to
my mind, and the words of anger that were being
thrown across the room needlessly didn’t help alle-
viate that disparity that I was feeling. It baffles me
how even after all the horror and atrocities laid out
for us by heartless conflict in the Middle East,
some people haven't learned the lesson and still
can't seem to get along...you know...peacefully.

 

 

the other press

Jaggie Singh

 

Muslih, Briemberg & Samar