Wheels of Justice

• We call for adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• We oppose all violence against any civilians; every human being has a right to live.
• Through education, outreach, nonviolent actions and personal witness, we stand in opposition to the violence and injustice of war, terror and occupation.
• We recognize that to find peace, the root injustices must be sought, seen and directly dealt with.
• We seek and practice nonviolent alternatives to the current violence and advocate solutions to the roots of war in Iraq and Palestine/Israel and our own communities.

Truth-Telling:

To speak honestly and openly about Palestine/Israel, one must recognize that the Israeli military occupation continues a legacy that began in 1947 with the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to make room for the State of Israel. The violence suffered by Israelis and Palestinians will continue as long the roots of the conflict remain-colonization, occupation, displacement, apartheid and the denial of the right of Palestinian refugees.

To speak honestly and openly about the war against and occupation of Iraq, one must recognize the ongoing legacy of U.S. involvement in Iraq. The current U.S. occupation of Iraq, the lifting of sanctions under U.S. military rule, and the continued local instability deny the Iraqi citizenry the very self-determination championed by the United States. The cultural, political and economic institutions of Iraq belong to the Iraqis, not to Washington; the hijacking of Iraq’s culture and resources by a foreign power exacerbates and prolongs the consequences of the 13-year U.S.-led war, and the ordinary people of Iraq still have no self-governance.

You cannot have peace without justice, you cannot see justice without actively resisting injustice, and you can’t nourish a nonviolent resistance without a supportive community. The consequences of these wars and occupations fall upon the shoulders of the poor and oppressed, the refugees and the marginalized, and those in our own communities whose needs are neglected by governments’ costly pursuit of foreign wars; the human cost is paid for by the innocent and most vulnerable, here and abroad. To see an end to the violence and injustice of war and occupation, we must invest in justice and human rights for those living with and living under the occupation and war.

The Only Roadmap for Peace:
Justice and Human Rights

As people of conscience working for peace, we see that the only roadmap for peace is justice and human rights. We call upon all parties involved to recognize and adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and we call for nonviolent resistance to this violence of war, terror and occupation.

As much of this violence is supported by our tax dollars and by our elected officials, Americans bear a great responsibility. The people of the world know this, and U.S. government policy provokes rage and retaliation against Americans.

Further, draining our treasury on weapons and wars helps prolong and exacerbate our economic downfall and diverts resources greatly needed to build American schools and infrastructure and provide employment and healthcare to our own citizens.

To break the cycle of violence we must change our roles in these conflicts; as individuals and as a nation, we must move from instigator to negotiator, from enabler to resister.

Educational Focus:

• Self-determination for both Iraqis and Palestinians versus occupation and colonization (drawing parallels to the dispossession and oppression of other peoples, including American Indians, African Americans, South African blacks under Apartheid, etc.)
• Universal Human Rights and equality under the law
• Effects of war and occupation on civilians in Palestine/Israel and Iraq, including house demolitions, armed conflict, apartheid laws, collective punishment, and degrading humanitarian conditions
• US taxpayers’ footing the bill and bearing the consequences of flawed US foreign policy in Iraq and Palestine/Israel.

Action Focus:

• Promote solidarity with Iraqis and Palestinians under war and occupation.
• Cultivate, promote and take nonviolent direct action for peace and justice.
• Build and strengthen networks of action groups in states visited.
• Engage in advocacy with elected and appointed officials; challenge pro-war and pro-occupation officials in public.
• Engage in mass media campaigns.
• Raise material support for home rebuilding, refugee aid, and advocacy work.

Recommended Reading Materials:

Israel/Palestine Historiography

• Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, ed., Transformation of Palestine: Essays on the Origin and Development of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 2nd ed. (Evanston: Northwestern UP, 1987).
• Naseer H. Aruri, The Obstruction of Peace: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995).
• Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians (Boston: South End Press, 1983).
• Norman G. Finkelstein, Image and Reality of the IsraelBPalestine Conflict (London and New York: Verso, 1995).
• Simha Flapan, The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities (London: Croon Helm, 1979).
• Yehoshafat Harkabi, Israel’s Fateful Hour, trans. Lenn Schramm (New York: Harper and Row, 1988).
• Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947B1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
• Benny Morris, 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990; rev. and exp. ed. 1994).
• Akiva Orr, Israel: Politics, Myths and Identity Crisis (London and Boulder, CO: Pluto Press, 1994).
• Ilan Pappé, Britain and the ArabBIsraeli Conflict, 1948B51 (London: Macmillan, 1988).
• Edward Said, The Question of Palestine (New York: Vintage Books, 1980).
• Avi Shlaim, Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988).
• –. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2000).
• Contemporary Analysis of the Israel-Palestine Conflict
• Zachary Lochman and Joel Beinin, eds., Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising Against Israeli Occupation (Boston: South End Press, 1989).
• Tanya Reinhart, Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948 (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2002).
• Tom Segev et al, eds., The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent (New York: The New Press, 2002).
• Roane Carey, ed., The New Intifada: Resisting Israel?s Apartheid (London: Verso, 2001).

Critiques of Zionist Culture

• Ammiel Alcalay, After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture (Minneapolis and London: U of Minnesota P, 1993).
• Rosemary Sayigh, Too Many Enemies (London: Zed Books, 1994)
• Viola Shafik, Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity (Cairo: American University in Cairo P, 1998).
• Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel (London: Pluto Press, 1999).
• Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years (London & Boulder: Pluto Press, 1994).
• Ella Shohat, Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation (Austin: U of Texas P, 1989).
• Idith Zertal, From Catastrophe to Power: Holocaust Survivors and the Emergence of Israel (Berkeley, LA, London: U of California P, 1998).