 an interview with Flo Razowsky by Ed Felien
“If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution
inevitable.”
—John F. Kennedy
Flo Razowsky, Pulse correspondent in Palestine, former cook and manager at
Hard Times Café, and dedicated peace worker, was arrested Sunday, March
14 while protesting, non-violently, against Israeli bulldozers that are creating
a walled ghetto for Deir Qaddis and eight other Palestinian villages.
She has been arrested before for participating in actions critical
of the Israeli government. Representatives of the Ministry of the Interior met
with her in jail and told her she would be deported. She said she would appeal
that decision. They said they would charge her with inciting violence and assaulting
a police officer.
We spoke with her in her jail cell while she was waiting for
a court date: “We have an injunction. We’re waiting for a court
date. There is a lot of false information in my court records. I was not inciting
violence. I did not assault a police officer. According to the police file,
I agreed to leave the country, but that was never a condition of my release
last time. All I was told was to report once a week, which I’ve done.”
 “Have you thought
about becoming an Israeli citizen? That would make it impossible for the government
to deport you,” we asked.
“I’ve thought about it, but that’s not an
option for the Palestinians that I work with. They can’t become Israeli
citizens and return to the homes that were taken from them more than 50 years
ago.”
“How are you being treated?”
“I’m being treated fine here in Nazareth, but before
I was held in three jails and a prison, and once I was forced to sit in a chair
for seven hours, and police officers came into the room and screamed at me.
That was quite unpleasant.”
“Is there any hope for a change in the government?”
“Most people feel there will be no change. Sharon is
responsible for the current war, and all it has done is increase fear in everyone.
His assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin will surely bring retaliation. He seems
to be deliberately escalating the violence to make life as intolerable as possible
for the Palestinians.”
“Doesn’t all this violence deter immigration of
Jews to Israel?”
“There are many Middle Eastern and African Jews who still
immigrate to Israel because there are economic opportunities here that they
don’t have back home. Before the Zionist movement, Christians, Jews and
Muslims lived together peacefully in Palestine. But the European Jews brought
with them a notion of property and statehood that was quite different from what
was practiced in the Middle East.”
“Do you still have hope for peace in Israel?”
“If I didn’t, I couldn’t stand it. But the
problem is with the Israeli government. In just the year that I’ve been
here, Hamas has said at least three times they are willing to have a cease fire,
but that has been met with an Israeli assassination and further escalation.”
“What’s going to happen to you?”
“I have a feeling they’re going to force me to
leave. If I left voluntarily they would still put me on a blacklist, so I couldn’t
get back into the country. So, we have demanded a hearing and a trial. We think
there will be a hearing soon. I am being persecuted because I am a peace activist
and I am standing with Palestinians.”
To help with Flo Razowsky’s court case send money
to:
Madeline Gardner
Attn: Flo’s Defense
504 Pelham Blvd
St. Paul, MN 55104
|
