Human Rights

Ever since Ted Kennedy died a few months ago, I've been reading magazine articles and books on his life and accomplishments. I've always admired Kennedy's leadership in progressive causes, but I have to admit that I didn't realize how much he had accomplished until I read some of the bills that he had passed.

Quadeer Porter, currently a sophomore at Rutgers University, is originally from Newark, NJ. Quadeer is a self-described “humanitarian” whose most recently is working to found a chapter of Journalists for Human Rights on his campus. Quadeer is currently Vice President of EOPSA, a student government organization for students from underprivileged backgrounds. EOPSA is involved in lobbying the state government on behalf of the Educational Opportunity Fund students. The organization is also involved in community service, and in providing students with scholarship information Recently, I spoke with Quadeer outside an EOPSA meeting about his involvement with these organizations

This is part two of the progressiveu.org interview originally published 04/29/09

Connelly: An essay of yours appears in a new book published by The Nation alongside such heavyweights as Ralph Nader, Howard Zinn, and Naomi Klein. How does it feel to be lumped in with such leftist mainstays?

Kilkenny: It’s pretty neat. I actually had no idea I was in the book until my boyfriend’s brother called me from a bookstore and was like, “Um, did you know you’re in a book?” And I’m such a neurotic mess that I assumed someone had written a smear piece about me, or some angry diatribe about how I’m a leftist radical Marxist (someone did call me that once. Redundant much?) Anyway, it’s very nice I’m in the book. It’s a huge compliment.

Connelly: What do you make of President Obama's apparent lack of enthusiasm concerning torture investigations? What motivates this apathy?

On April 10, 2009, Billy Briggs reported from occupied east Jerusalem that Mordechai Vanunu informed him, "I was walking here this morning and a car drew slowly up alongside me. There were four men in the car wearing sunglasses. One of them shouted at me…the car followed me…the man call out again in Hebrew. 'You are garbage,' he said. But I kept on walking and ignoring him." [1]

When Vanunu entered the foyer of his rundown backpacker's hotel the men "leapt from the vehicle, flashed ID cards and ushered him into the back seat. Residents and traders, many of whom know the famous Israeli, stood and watched his public humiliation.

"They took me to the local station and warned me not to go to Bethlehem this year to celebrate Christmas. They said they'd be watching me and that I should also not speak to journalists or foreigners." [Ibid]

The Shin Bet has developed a ritual of publicly harassing Vanunu at Christmas and Easter time because he is a Christian convert; an unpardonable sin for particular people.

When the whistle blower of Israel's WMD Program emerged into the light of day after 18 years in a windowless tomb sized cell on April 21, 2004 he announced:

On Arpil 5th, 2009, President Obama stood on the world stage amongst thousands of flag-waving Czechs and spoke of good humor, home town Chicago, the will of the people over tanks and guns, old conflicts, revolution, moral leadership as the most powerful weapon, iron curtains that fell and the state of 21st century nuclear weapons.

An excerpt:

…We are here today because enough people ignored the voices who told them that the world could not change. We're here today because of the courage of those who stood up and took risks to say that freedom is a right for all people, no matter what side of a wall they live on, and no matter what they look like. We are here today because the simple and principled pursuit of liberty and opportunity shamed those who relied on the power of tanks and arms to put down the will of a people…

Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped, cannot be checked -– that we are destined to live in a world where more nations and more people possess the ultimate tools of destruction. Such fatalism is a deadly adversary, for if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then in some way we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable…

The best understanding of a martyr is one who chooses to suffer, to die rather than renounce their principles. A martyr is also one who has given themselves up as a witness...

The essence of Christianity is to bear witness to what Jesus was always on about; forgiveness, love, reconciliation and the intrinsic equality of all people.

Within days of the announcement of a record 205 nominations for 2009’s Nobel Peace Prize, [one of several prizes endowed by Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel] perpetual nominee Mordechai Vanunu declined the honor in a letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo:

I am asking the committee to remove my name from the nominations…I cannot be part of a list of laureates that includes Simon Peres…Peres established and developed the atomic weapon program in Dimona in Israel…Peres was the man who ordered [my] kidnapping…he continues to oppose my freedom and release…WHAT I WANT IS FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM….FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM I NEED NOW.

Peres and Machiavelli

In 1963, when Vanunu was nine years old the Zionists came to his home town of Marrakech, Morocco and convinced his Orthodox father to abandon his general store and pack up the first seven of his eleven children for the land of milk and honey. Instead, the Vanunu's were banished to the desert of Beesheva.

Moved to express in song his compassion for the innocent ones of Gaza, Garth Hewitt wrote and performs, From The Broken Heart Of Gaza: Father Musallam's Letter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5YCic77JHQ&feature=email

Father Manuel Musallam, the Parish Priest of Gaza wrote to The International Body of Christ.

His letter was made public in January 2009 and the PDF can be read at
http://amostrust.org

In November 2006, Father Manuel, the parish priest at the Latin Church and school in Gaza wrote:

"Gaza cannot sleep! The people are suffering unbelievably. They are hungry, thirsty, have no electricity or clean water. They are suffering constant bombardments and sonic booms from low flying aircraft.

"They need food: bread and water. Children and babies are hungry...people have no money to buy food. The price of food has doubled and tripled due to the situation. We cannot drink water from the ground here as it is salty and not hygienic.

"People must buy water to drink. They have no income, no opportunities to get food and water from outside and no opportunities to secure money inside of Gaza. They have no hope...

"Without electricity children are afraid. No light at night. No oil or candles...

With "the fierce urgency of now" Jimmy Carter writes of reasons why recent "public opinion polls in the Arab world revealed that the United States was seen as a greater threat than Iran, and a successful peace effort in Palestine could be the most important factor in improving its citizens' opinion of America."[Carter, Page 101]

Due to their lack of political and military power, the Palestinians have been dependent on the international community to survive; and they have commitments from the UN, the International Quartet and the Arab League who have all dreamt a dream of a sovereign peaceful Palestinian state beside a secure Israel.

The Carter Center Team in Ramallah reported that the failure of negotiations post Annapolis "may well mark an end to the two-state solution for Israel Palestine…The conclusion seems to be that even second class Israeli citizenship is preferable to unending occupation, or in other terms, the future may lie in one state."[Carter, Page 160-161]

Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qurei predicted, "If Israel continues to reject our propositions regarding the borders [of a future Palestinian state], we might demand Israeli citizenship."

A Fatah leader quipped, "Where will a Palestinian state rise up? The Israeli nation is inside us already."

Hong Kong, April 30, 3pm:

***** The Pillar of Shame painted Orange *****

The eight meter tall sculpture The Pillar of Shame
was today painted orange by the Chinese Democracy Movement

We have just received photos and uploaded them to the internet at:
http://www.thecolororange.net/uk/page160

The authorities had tried to obstruct the painting of the sculpture by denying the Danish artist Jens Galschiot and his staff access to Hong Kong as they landed in the airport on April 26. The expulsion has caused wide discussions in Hong Kong about whether China is now introducing their own visa rules and censorship on to Hong Kong. The Danish artist has been in Hong Kong several times before and is known for making peaceful art installations. He has put up The Pillar of Shame which has become a renowned memorial about the massacre on the Tienanmen square in Beijing 1989.