News & Letters to
the Editor
12-12-01
| Phillips explores energy co-op idea | by Abdel Shakur |
| Letters to the Editor | by People |
| Women speak out to stop the bombing | |
| NORML tangles with DEA over hemp food ban | by Sam Wilhide |
| Francis Drake Hotel agrees to anti-discrimination plan | by Amanda Luker |
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| Christian Peacemakers add voice to debate As part of the continuing series in this publication on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, our organization was asked to share some of our background and experiences working in the city of Hebron and throughout the West Bank. CPT operates violence-reduction projects in Chiapas, Colombia, and with Native American communities in the United States and Canada. In each location, our team has been invited by a local community or organization also working to reduce violence in their area. The Christian Peacemaker Team has maintained a nonviolent presence in the Old City of Hebron (under Israeli occupation) since 1995. We were initially invited by the municipality of Hebron for a six-month period following the Baruch Goldstein massacre in the Mosque of Abraham, and during which the Hebron Accords were to be implemented. The accords, calling for the withdrawal of Israeli settlers and military from the Old City, never took place, and we are still here. In Hebron, our work takes a variety of forms. We document and report human rights violations occurring within the Occupied area of the city; we support and accompany nonviolent activists, peacemakers, and human rights workers from both Israeli and Palestinian organizations; and we intervene non-violently in situations of violence as they are happening. We are committed to speaking the truth, which is rarely the exclusive domain of one side or the other in conflict situations. In our monitoring of clashes between Israeli soldiers and stone-throwing Palestinian youths, we have never witnessed Palestinian gunmen firing from behind the youths. However, there are several Palestinian neighborhoods from which gunmen shoot at nearby Israeli settlements. Although we recognize the rights of people under military occupation to resist using violent means under international law, we cannot support this type of resistance, nor the singling out of settlers to be killed. We have accompanied several nonviolent demonstrations led by Palestinians protesting the roadblocks cutting off access to Birzeit University from Ramallah, from which most of the students and faculty come. There is no Israeli settlement or military installation along this road. Ambulances from the villages surrounding Ramallah are denied access to Ramallah's hospitals due to this same roadblock. Nearly every day in Hebron we are called to document and/or intervene in situations where Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian civilians or their property. Settler graffiti can be found on each storefront in the Old City. Often next to a Star of David is written, “Death to the Arabs.” Settlers frequently break into and vandalize Palestinian businesses and homes near their settlement compounds. Next to the settlement of Avraham Avinu, a Palestinian family has constructed a cage around their house in order to protect themselves. This shields them from the countless rocks, garbage, and even Molotov cocktails settlers throw down on them each day. However, it does not protect them when the soldiers stationed on their roof urinate—on anything that might happen to be below. The scene is repeated at Tel Rumeida, only the family who didn’t build a cage has been forced to flee their home and the settlers come and go each Shabbat as they please. One week, they strewed the family’s remaining possessions throughout the house. The next week, they smashed the furniture. Long before, all the windows were broken, the vineyards destroyed, the family unable to use their street because the settlers blocked their path. Still, in the upstairs apartment, the mother of the family refuses to leave. She has barricaded herself inside and will not cede her lifelong home to either the encroaching settlement nor the accompanying military base. Once in a while, she sneaks in and out for food. Last month, the settlers burned her laundry off the lines. She showed us the pieces. As if in another world, bands of settlers have often entered the Palestinian market and upturned fruit and vegetable stands, smashed merchandise, and physically attacked the shopowners. Palestinians know that if they fight back, they will be arrested and imprisoned, if not shot on-site. Instead, many Palestinian families and shopowners have done the only thing they can do to protect themselves from this daily violence—leave. The settlers face no penalty for their deeds. Although we are committed to non-violence and human rights, our team members are regularly confronted by settlers on the streets of Hebron and called “Nazis.” We are also spit upon, attacked with stones, eggs, and garbage, and sometimes beaten. This also happens regularly to the larger U.N.-mandated international observer group that has been here since 1996. They are now only able to enter the Occupied area of the city in a bulletproof car due to settler assaults and threats of further violence. Strangely enough, we see much of this same behavior perpetrated against the soldiers and police when they try to rein in the settlers’ rampages. More often, the soldiers and police simply stand by and let the settlers do as they wish. As Christians seeking peace based on human rights and freedom for all people living in conflict situations, we are saddened when Christians come to the Middle East and meet with representatives of only one faction of one side of the conflict. Meeting only with Israeli settlers in the Occupied Territories during a fact-finding tour here would be akin to meeting with only Islamic militants and reporting their views as the definitive Palestinian position to an audience in another country. When we host quarterly delegations of Christians seeking to understand this conflict, we take them to meet representatives of a variety of perspectives, both Palestinian and Israeli. We work with a number of Israeli groups and individuals working to end the Occupation. We have found no evidence that these Israelis are self-hating Jews. Rather, they are deeply concerned for the integrity of their nation and their religion, and for human rights for all people, regardless of ethnicity. We work with a number of Palestinian [Christian and Muslim] and international organizations and individuals who are committed to ending the Occupation and reconciliation with their Israeli neighbors using nonviolent means. We do not support any organization advocating violence as a means of achieving political or human rights goals. We do not tolerate any form of anti-Semitism, and frequently remind frustrated Palestinians whom we meet that the armed Israeli soldiers and settlers in front of them do not represent all Israelis or all Jewish people. For readers wishing to learn further about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we suggest the following resources: • www.btselem.org (The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) • www.rhr.org (Rabbis for Human Rights) • www.gush-shalom.org (Gush Shalom/The Israeli Peace Block) • www.phrmg.org (The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group) • yesh_gvul@hotmail.co.il (Yesh Gvul [There is a Limit] An Israeli organization helping Israeli soldiers refuse tours of duty in the Occupied Territories) • www.cpt.org (our own Web site with regular reports from all of our projects) Le Anne Clausen Christian Peacemaker Teams |
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| As mainstream media touts the War on Terrorism,
spirited Americans are displaying flags in front yards, on T-shirts—anywhere the
symbols will be seen as a sign of support for President Bush. Meanwhile, some U.S. citizens are scratching their heads, questioning the appropriateness of our country’s response to the events of Sept. 11. Many of these questions came up on Dec. 5 at a panel discussion entitled “Behind the Veil of Deception: The U.S. War on Afghanistan.” The event, sponsored by Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), was held at the Amazon Bookstore in South Minneapolis. Panel members included April Knutson, a lecturer for the University of Minnesota, speaking for WAMM; Soraya Amra, president of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee; Alissa Oppenheimer, speaking for Minnesota Jews for a Just Peace; Janet Wambold-Buraik with the Islamic Working Group; and Trish Kanous, representing the Committee for Peace in Palestine. Each speaker shared her views on issues surrounding the bombing of Afghanistan, including cultural assumptions and misconceptions about Islam that feed the current war and how we can support the process of creating a lasting, meaningful peace with justice. The War on Terrorism has the potential to cost the United States one billion dollars a month. “We must ask ourselves who profits from this war, and who dies,” said Knutson. Knutson also suggested that the president’s declaration to “help” the women of Afghanistan is merely a self-serving attempt to win the female vote in America’s next presidential election. We must question everything we hear and read in the media, according to Kanous. “Is Sept. 11 the real reason we’re at war? It’s not unreasonable to expect answers,” she said. Wambold-Buraik lived with her husband in Afghanistan when the Taliban first entered the country. At first, the Taliban revamped schools and hospitals as a strategy to gain the trust of Afghan citizens. Then the Taliban turned on the people. In fact, Wambold-Buraik and her husband left after three years under Taliban rule, when the group threw their things into the river. On another note, Wambold-Buraik explained that she and other Muslim women cover themselves with a hijab, not as an involuntary symbol of subjugation, but as a choice and means to make spiritual connection with their creator. In Wambold-Buraik’s opinion, if women in Afghanistan feel pressure from Western forces to shed their hijabs, they will feel oppressed. Amra and Oppenheimer provided background information on their affiliate organizations and urged the audience of nearly 50 women and men to write letters to mainstream media and politicians, participate in vigils, and make the minority voice heard. “With a price tag of one billion dollars a month, the cost of this war will inevitably be financed at the expense of programs for women and children in the United States. One billion dollars a month should be used to promote genuine advancement of the cause of women in Afghanistan and around the world,” said WAMM Representative Sally Kundert. |
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| On Oct. 9 the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration announced the ban of all hemp foods and beverages containing THC
(tetrahydrocannabinols). Taking advantage of a 60-day public comment period, the Minnesota
chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) held a rally on
Tuesday, Dec. 4, to protest the ban. Organizers met outside the DEA office building at 330
Second Ave. S. in downtown Minneapolis to pass out information and hemp seed granola bars. “We received many favorable responses from the public, both because we were offering free, tasty food, and because folks were rightly offended that the DEA is wasting its time in these troubled days by treating environmentally friendly granola bars, ice creams, and breads the same way it treats heroin,” wrote Paul Sheridan, a University of Minnesota/Duluth student who came down for the rally. The ban is the DEA's attempt to clarify federal law regarding the status of hemp products. Hemp usually refers to the parts of the cannabis plant that cannot produce any psychoactive effect. However, the DEA Web site makes the case that “‘hemp’ is not a term that is found in federal law.” It reads, “While most of the THC in cannabis plants is concentrated in the marijuana, all parts of the plant, including hemp, have been found to contain THC. The existence of THC in hemp is significant because THC, like marijuana, is a schedule I controlled substance.” According to literature distributed at the rally, “banning hemp seed and oil foods with trace THC is like banning poppy seed bagels and orange juice because they contain trace opiates and alcohol.” NORML estimates that hemp food products sold in organic stores around the country constitute a $5 million industry. The rally was part of a nationwide collaborative effort between NORML, SSDP (Students for a Sensible Drug Policy) and Vote Hemp. Similar actions were planned for 40 other cities in 17 states. The Minneapolis action attracted 15-20 participants. The rally was peaceful and low key for the most part. However, an incident occurred when protesters tried to offer granola bars to DEA agents. “At 4:30 PM we went up to the office, knocked on the door and waited,” said Alex Thorsen, volunteer coordinator for NORML’s Minnesota chapter. “At first nobody would answer. Then two agents came out and herded everyone into the office.” Once inside, protesters said they were bullied and harassed by DEA agents. Thorsen was told he had to hand over the film from his camera. He refused, prompting more intimidation by agents who claimed that they worked undercover and that photographs would endanger their lives. The confrontation resulted in an official complaint being filed by NORML against one DEA agent. “We’re thinking about pursuing further legal action,” said Aaron Neumann, chair and cofounder of the Minnesota chapter. “All we really want is an apology. Then we were thinking maybe we could resolve this on ‘Let’s Bowl.’” “The DEA could send whoever they want, the actual agents themselves don’t have to bowl,” said Thorson. “We understand if they don’t want to reveal their secret identities on TV. We just think ‘Let’s Bowl,’ would be a good way to get some closure.” Under Neumann’s guidance NORML has recently become a significant voice in Minnesota politics. They worked with the Commissioner of Public safety and the Commissioner of Health in the Ventura Administration to introduce legislation this spring that would protect seriously ill patients from prosecution for medical marijuana use. Then in April Neumann and others from NORML organized the first ever state sponsored medical marijuana forum, which Gov. Ventura attended. “This was just one of the many things NORML does that go largely unnoticed,” said Neumann, referring to Tuesday’s rally. “And that’s the way the DEA wants it. They want to interpret federal law without oversight and without the public knowing about it.” |
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| Hate crimes committed against Somali immigrants
in the Twin Cities appear to be on the rise since Sept. 11, especially since the raid on
several Somali money-wiring services in mid-November. However, these instances are not the
first. After several years of complaints against the management of one Minneapolis shelter
for homeless people, management has agreed to a plan that could influence other businesses
toward greater sensitivity to varying cultural needs. During the summer of 2000, three Somali families—the mothers, in particular—complained repeatedly about discrimination and hate crimes at the Francis Drake Hotel, an overflow shelter in Minneapolis. The Buluf, Ahmed and Hassan families were all forced into shelters while looking for permanent housing, and eventually stayed at the Drake, a last resort shelter used when People Serving People and others are full. The Sept. 23, 2000, edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that one mother, Fadumo Buruf, said “she and her four children were accosted in front of the Francis Drake Hotel...by young men who knocked her down and kicked her under her right breast, leaving a bruise that made nursing her newborn child difficult.” Other Somali women staying at the Drake also complained of beatings by other residents and passersby outside the building. Another complaint, though less violent, vividly illustrates the cultural gap. The Somali women said they could either buy food or starve, since the Drake had pork on the menu several times a week and pig products are strictly forbidden in the Muslim faith. Complaints continued even after they began serving more chicken, vegetables and fish since staff still used the same utensils to handle the pork and the other dishes. In the fall of 2000, these three families brought their grievances to the Somali Women’s Association and filed complaints of discrimination with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. Complaints against the staff of the Drake had much to do with the cultural and language barriers new immigrants to this country feel—especially when homeless. Legal Aid’s Housing Discrimination Law Project’s James Wilkinson, a representative of the families issuing the complaint, called the situation “sensitive and difficult.” He brought up that if, for instance, management told Somali parents their children could not play outside and parents didn’t understand because of language barriers, there is a communication breakdown. Fathia Warsame, another Legal Aid representative of the claim, agreed that management had a hard time admitting to the problems. For example, “If someone gets killed in your building,” she said, “it should be your responsibility.” Staff at HUD investigated the case for several months and eventually suggested to try to settle the case. Their goal, formulated with the help of Legal Aid and SWA, was the adoption of new policies to reduce the likelihood that immigrants would face bad treatment at the Drake. Although management at the Drake was not willing to claim guilt in instances of discrimination, they were compliant in adopting the plan to prevent and deal with future problems. “I was pleased that the Drake attorney and staff of HUD were able to come and work with us to come up with a plan,” said Wilkinson. The plan includes several features, including management taking accurate reports of discrimination or hate crimes from staff, residents or others recording the Drake’s responses; referral of non-English speakers who complain of such problems to city and county or community-based resources; removal of identified violators from the shelter; assisting hate crime victims to find other shelter; civil rights training for staff; and the adoption and publication of no tolerance policy for hate crimes for all residents to understand. The Drake Hotel will be closed for the month of December but plans to reopen in January. |