Dr. Sami al-Arian is still imprisoned for crimes he did not commit. A Palestinian intellectual, al-Arian was acquitted on terrorism charges, yet remains incarcerated by US.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire Photo File
A Call for Protest
FOR JUSTICE & PEACE, U.S. OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST
Across the Country--Protest on November 27 & 28
ADD YOUR NAME to the growing list of signers calling for Bush to call off the phony peace meeting - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/annapolisendorse.shtml
List your local action
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/nov2707volorgcent.shtml
We call on the anti-war movement to organize and demonstrate on November 27 & 28, during President George W. Bush’s phony “peace meeting” at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
It is a monumental insult to the people of the Middle East and all justice-minded people that war criminal Bush would dare to convene a “peace meeting” while Washington continues to bring occupation, genocide and devastation to Iraq and Afghanistan, destabilization to Palestine and Lebanon, and constant threats to Iran and Syria in its quest for oil and colonial empire. This phony meeting should be called off.
As an anti-war movement, we must ask ourselves: Can we allow the war criminals, who time after time have callously ignored the anti-war majority in the U.S. and globally, to get away with this outrageous farce?
Some may be confused about the purpose of the Annapolis meeting, so let’s speak plain truth: It isn’t really about peace and justice for the Palestine–it’s about deception, occupation and war. It’s about isolating popular forces and countries that reject U.S. rule. It’s about attempting to force new concessions on the Palestinian people, while attempting to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and other Arab governments with Israel. All while Tel Aviv continues its all-out assault on the Palestinian people. And it’s about preparing for a new war.
At this moment, Palestinians in Gaza are being deprived of food, fuel, medicines and other basic necessities by an economic embargo imposed by Israel and backed by the U.S. Meanwhile, more Israeli settlements, roads, walls and checkpoints are being set up in the West Bank each day. Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities in the U.S. have also been subjected to a war of racist repression and need our support
Beyond pretending to be a “peace broker,” Bush hopes that the Annapolis meeting will:
Divide and weaken the just struggle of the Palestinian people;
Prop up the unstable Israeli occupation regime;
Legitimize and strengthen the illegal occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and U.S. plans for colonization of the whole Middle East;
Help prepare for aggression and war against Iran.
Representatives of the Israeli apartheid regime will be in Annapolis, along with some Palestinian and other Arab forces that are under severe pressure from Washington or are willingly in its orbit. Those who refuse to tow the line have not been invited or chosen to boycott the meeting.
We must not be silent when the war criminals in the White House and Pentagon are talking peace - while waging war and planning new wars. This is the time for anti-war forces to take a strong stand!
END THE WAR NOW
* Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan NOW
* Stop preparations for war under the guise of “peace,” from Iran to Syria, Palestine and Lebanon
* Free Palestine – Support the Right to Return and self-determination
* End the blockade of Gaza
* Occupation is a crime, from Iraq to Palestine
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Initiated by: Troops Out Now Coalition
(Endorsers List in formation)
Arab American Union Members Council
Al-Awda - Palestine Right To Return Coalition, NY & Omaha
American Iranian Friendship Committee
Artists and Activists United for Peace
All India Anti-imperialist Forum
Asia-Pacific Action
All Peoples Congress
Ahmad Kawash, Palestine American Congress, Executive Board, Boston
Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of Pan-African News Wire
Angeles Maestro, former MP, Spain, Corriente Roja
Amr El-Bayoumi, Alexandria Association of Human Rights Activists (Egypt)
Alexander Moumbaris, Les dossiers du BIP (Editions Démocrite)
Bisphop Filipe C. Teixeira, OFSJC, Northeast Diocese of St. Francis of Assisi, CCA
Bernadette Ellorin - BAYAN USA*
Brenda Stokely - NYC Labor Against the War*
BRussell's Tribunal
Campaign for Healthcare Not Warfare
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
Chuck Turner - Boston City Councilor
Elena Everett, GPAX*, North Carolina Green Party*
Gloria Pérez Berrocal - TV producer, Spain
F.I.S.T.-Fight Imperialism Stand Together
Haiti Support Network
Harlem Tenants Council
International Action Center
Isma'il Kushkush, Journalist
Itziar Maqua Pérez - Realizadora - Spain
Jaume d'Urgell -, reporter - Spain
Javier Maqua Lara - Film writer and director, Spain
Javier Maqua Pérez - Antropólogo - Spain
Jersey City Peace Movement
Joachim Guilliard, Irak Koordination Germany
Joaquín Suárez López - jubilado - Spain
Kamau Franklin, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement-NY*
Lenora Foerstel, Women for Mutual Security
Lynne Stewart
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Oakland Chapter
Millions for Mumia
New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti
NJ Solidarity - Activists for the Liberation of Palestine
NY Committee to Free the Cuban Five
Pakistan-USA Freedom Forum
Pam Africa, Internat’l Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Peoples Video Network
Queers for Peace & Justice
Spanish Campaign to end the Occupation and for the Sovereignty of Iraq
Stop War On Iran Campaign
Susan Abulhawa, Author (Scar of David)
Womens' Fightback Network
November 21, 2007
ReplyDeleteWanted: Participants for Mideast Talks
By HELENE COOPER and ISABEL KERSHNER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — The Bush administration finally acknowledged publicly on Tuesday that it had issued formal invitations to 40 countries and organizations that it hopes will attend a heavily anticipated Middle East peace conference scheduled for next week in Annapolis, Md. But the long, drawn-out route that State Department officials followed before making the acknowledgment reflected the high-stakes gamble that the administration is taking, as well as the unsettled nature of the outcome. Even late Tuesday afternoon, administration officials were still in negotiations with their Arab counterparts over whether Saudi Arabia and Syria would send their foreign ministers to the conference, or make do with lower-level envoys.
President Bush telephoned King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to enlist his support for the conference, and in particular to try to get an agreement from him that the Saud family would be represented at the conference by Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, administration officials said.
The presence of Prince Saud is seen as critical to assure a certain level of Arab commitment to the peace process. But the Saudi royal family has been unwilling to give the Annapolis conference a high-level endorsement without assurances that the negotiations will be substantive, with real concessions from Israel, including a freeze on settlements that would lead to Israeli withdrawal from land that it seized in 1967.
Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, would say only that Mr. Bush and King Abdullah had “shared their views of the process that is under way between the Israelis, Palestinians and the international community.”
C. David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said in a news conference on Tuesday evening that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sent an invitation to both Prince Saud and the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem. Mr. Welch said the decision to attend was up to the individual countries, but added, “I’m hopeful and expectant of a positive response.”
An Arab official with knowledge of the negotiations said it was likely that Prince Saud would attend the Annapolis conference. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing diplomatic protocol.
Mr. Welch said “we won’t turn off the microphone” if Mr. Moallem, who rarely interacts with administration officials because of administration policy toward Syria, attends the conference and wishes to speak there. Israeli officials had asked that Syria be invited, and several State Department officials have said privately that it would be a mistake to exclude Syria from the meeting.
If Saudi officials sit down with the Israelis, it will be a rare event at public Israeli-Palestinian talks. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then the Saudi ambassador to the United States, attended a peace conference in Madrid in the fall of 1991, but as an observer, not a formal participant.
Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel, although Saudi officials have also urged the Bush administration to push hard to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli peace issue. There have been some unconfirmed reports of other contacts between Israeli and Saudi officials, including some earlier this year.
The conference, which will begin with a preliminary meeting in Washington on Nov. 26 and move to Annapolis on Nov. 27, is supposed to initiate final-status peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to settle the long-running, seemingly intractable issues that have bedeviled peace negotiators since 1979.
“This is the holy grail of diplomacy,” a senior administration official said. “We’re trying to rally the Arab world for support of this process, and they are master fence-sitters.”
Mr. Bush is expected to begin the Annapolis conference with a substantive speech, and part of the American effort to woo Arab leaders includes assurances to them that he will lay out an ambitious agenda that will pin all sides to firm negotiations on the status of Jerusalem, the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the contours of a Palestinian state.
“This is the point where the rubber meets the road,” said Martin Indyk, the former United States ambassador to Israel. “The United States really wants for Arab states to turn up, to bless the process.”
Until Tuesday evening, State Department officials would not officially confirm even the date of the conference.
“My hope and desire is that we can talk to you, in the not-too-distant future, about not only the list of invitees, but the date as well as the agenda for the Annapolis conference,” Sean D. McCormack, the department spokesman, said at a briefing early in the day, in language that was opaque even by diplomatic standards. “I anticipate there’s going to be a day that all the participants are going to be at Annapolis, and there are probably going to be events the day before and the day after.”
Appearing with the Israeli prime minister in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday gave his full endorsement to the scheduled gathering, and raised hopes among Israeli officials of wider Arab participation at the meeting.
“Obviously we would hope that Egypt’s position will be representative of a larger Arab position,” said Mark Regev, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman.
At a joint news conference at Sharm el Sheik, an Egyptian Red Sea resort, both leaders billed the Annapolis meeting as a springboard for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations toward a final settlement of the conflict.
Israeli officials described Tuesday’s summit meeting as “covering bases” ahead of a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on Thursday. Israel sees Arab support for the budding Israel-Palestinian peace process as crucial, to give added legitimacy to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Isabel Kershner from Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.