Los Angeles coalition meets in support of Palestinians
by
Hector Carreon
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - August 25, 2001 (ACN) A wide coalition of groups met at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles on Saturday to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people's struggle to liberate their homeland from Zionist occupation forces. The struggle and resistance movement has intensified recently as the brutal Israeli military forces utilized their U.S. supplied tanks, Huey helicopters, F-16 fighter planes, and both ground-to-ground and air-to-ground missiles to enforce the occupation. In addition, Zionist undercover police and military forces have increased the number of targeted assassinations of Palestinian political leaders. The Palestinian freedom fighters have fought valiantly but they are poorly supplied and have very few high power and sophisticated weapons. They have to resort to guerilla tactics that often means having to trade their lives for success in meeting a military objective.
The Palestinians are presently suffering high casualties including a large numbers of civilians. Many women and children are getting killed and injured. The Israeli occupation forces have become one of the most brutal in the history of world conflicts. They are now resorting to torture of captured resistance fighters and are punishing the Palestinian civilian population by withholding their water, burning their crops, and demolishing their homes. Part of the conference at Loyola included the showing of a video that depicted the horrific beating of young Palestinian men by Israeli soldiers similar to the beating of Rodney King by the LAPD. Military checkpoints at roads that lead to Palestinian towns are essentially serving to keep the people in large reservation camps where they are pretty much being starved to death. It is just unbelievable that the Jews have now become more criminal and racist than the Nazis. It is a well known fact that children who are abused become adult abusers. Perhaps the Jews have been affected by the same syndrome.
The three hour conference also included speakers from the American Arab community and from the various coalition groups. Ollin Tezcatlipoca, leader of the Mexica Movement, spoke on behalf of the large Mexica Delegation that attended the conference. Ollin Tezcatlipoca stated that the Mexica Movement is in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. He stated that they will be participating in efforts to equate Zionism with racism and for the reparations to indigenous groups that have suffered oppression from European based colonial powers and for the reparations to Afro-Americans for their losses due to slavery. He added that these subjects will be discussed at the World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa that will commence on August 31, 2001. The Mexicas have a website at: http://www.Mexica-Movement.org
The last hour of the conference was devoted to audience participation. Many members of the community gave excellent suggestions of what should be done to help the Palestinians with their struggle against the Zionists. One was to focus on stopping U.S. military aid to Israel. Presently over three billion dollars per year in the form of weapons are being shipped to the Zionists. These weapons are then used to oppress and kill the Palestinians. There is a need to identify those U.S. representatives and senators who are voting in favor of sending the military aid to Israel. Here in California, the two U.S. Senators are of Jewish descent and both are Zionists. They vote consistently to send military aid to Israel. They are Senators Feinstein and Boxer. Senator Feinstein has even made moves in the senate to take away the little humane aid that is given to the Palestinians and is proposing sanctions that will have a deadly affect on Palestinian children. This is criminal. Another suggestion was to identify goods and services, from those International Zionists that are aiding the Israeli occupation, and boycotting them. The owner of Estee Lauder cosmetics products was identified as a notorious Zionist. An appeal was made to women not to buy any Estee Lauder products. Also, the Zionist Michael Eisner was mentioned. Michael Eisner owns Disneyland and many media companies including the ABC television network. Most of the news on ABC concerning the Palestinians are very biased. They portray the Palestinians as "terrorists" instead of freedom fighters. Presently the Mexica Movement here in the U.S. is boycotting Disneyland for their racist hiring practices. The Mexicas picket Disneyland in Anaheim every Saturday because of Michael Eisner's insensitivity when making films involving Mexicans and specially in the upcoming movie "Zapata" in which he has casted a white Spaniard instead of an indigenous person which Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary was.
If the Palestinian Middle East struggle escalates into a full war in the region, the situation may become as the Vietnam War and a strong anti-war student movement needs to develop. The U.S. college and university campuses are going to become important battle fields. There are signs, presently, that student groups are already mobilizing for the fight. One of many efforts is one by "Students for Justice in Palestine" at the University of California at Berkeley. They have scheduled a conference on October 12-14, 2001 titled "Holding the University Accountable: Divesting from Israeli Apartheid" and are holding a series of pre-events including a mock trial of the war criminal Ariel Sharon. Another conference is being held at California State University at Long Beach on "The Palestinians Right of Return" on October 5-7, 2001.
The Free Palestine Coalition:
American Arab-Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Mexica-Movement, International Action Center (IAC), Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Office of the Americans, Baptist Peace Fellowship, Guatemala Education Action Project, Socialist Workers Party (SWP), Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Partnership, National Lawyers Guild, Palestinian American Women Association, Veterans For Peace, Humanitarian Law Project, Save the Iraqi Children Coalition, Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba, The Chapter of the Committee of correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, The Arab Community Center, The Arab American Council, Birzeit Society, Al Bireh Society, Al-Taybeh Society, Arab American Press Guild, People against Racist Terror (PART), Palestine Arab Fund, All African People’s Revolutionary Party, Friends of Sabeel, Middle East Fellowship, LA Tendencia Revolucionare of El Salvador, Arab Students Society of UCI, Comite Pro Democracia Mexico, Black Radical Congress, Freedom Socialist Party, Radical Women, CSULB Campus Progressives, South Central Coalition, The Organizer, FMLN, Fellowship for Reconciliation, Open Tent Middle East Coalition, Arab Commission For Human Rights, Islamic Association for Palestine, SOL Foundation, Task force on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Acting in Solidarity with Afghan People, The Coastal Convergence Society of Huntington Beach, NorCal/Ta Shunka Witko Brigade. (Organizations are urged to support and join the coalition).
The Mexica Movement Delegation to the Free Palestine Conference
Loyola Law School - August 25, 2001
