File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1999/postcolonial.9912, message 9


From: Zahi Damuni <zdamuni-AT-email.msn.com>
Subject: STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE PALESTINE SIGNATORIES
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 18:26:11 -0500


STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE PALESTINE SIGNATORIES

December 1, 1999

We, the undersigned, condemn in the strongest terms the arrests by the
Palestinian Authority of Palestinian citizens, signatories of a statement
expressing their alarm about corruption in the Palestinian Authority, and
the failure of the Oslo Accords to secure the minimum of the Palestinian
people's rights. Those arrested should be released immediately, and all
proceedings against the signatories should be halted immediately.

The arrests are a totally unjustifiable attack on the freedom of
expression, which should be guaranteed to every person. While carrying out
these arrests, the Palestinian Authority is using the mantle of
nationalism and the language of unity to stifle legitimate and necessary
criticism and debate. Such repressive measures only harm the Palestinian
people, and help their enemies, who point to the lack of democracy as
evidence that Palestinians are incapable of governing themselves, and to
the abuse of human rights by the Authority as an excuse for their own
abuses.

The statement rightly argues that continued widespread corruption and
abuse of power threaten to stifle Palestinian civil society from within.
It correctly notes that the agreements so far signed with Israel have
utterly failed to secure Palestinian rights or to stop the continued
assault on the Palestinian people from without.

We affirm in conclusion that Palestinian national aspirations cannot be
achieved in the absence of a fully democratic and open political system
and that no agreements signed with Israel will be legitimate unless they
represent a genuine, broad-based national consensus. Hence, new free and
fair elections are an urgent requirement.

SIGNED:

*Asad AbuKhalil, California State University, Stanislaus
*Fawzi Abu Ayyash
*Ali Abunimah
*Munir Akash, Editor of Jusoor,  The Arab American Journal of Cultural
Exchange
*Ali H. Alyami, Organization for Human Rights in the Arab World
*Naseer Aruri, Chancellor Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts,
Dartmouth
Member of the Palestine National Council and Central Council
*Fawzi Asmar, Journalist
*Khalil Barhoum, Stanford University
*Zahi Damuni
*Arjan El Fassed, Hanthala
*J. Farah
*Samih Farsoun
*Elaine Hagopian
*Nubar Hovsepian, Rutgers University
*Hussein Ibish
*Shawqi Issa, Executive Director, LAW--The Palestinian Society for the
Protection of Human
Rights and the Environment
*Showki Kassis
*Rashid Khalidi
*Alfred Khoury, Physician
*Atif Kubursi, Professor of Economics, McMaster University
*Clovis Maksoud
*Hala Maksoud, President, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
*Joseph Massad, Assistant Professor of Modern Arab Politics and
Intellectual History,
Columbia University
*Rania Masri
*Jamal Nassar, Professor of Political Science and Department Chair,
Illinois State University,
Normal, Illinois
*Imad Sabi
*Edward Said, University Professor of English and Comparative Literature,
Columbia
University
*Nizar Sakhnini
*Hisham Sharabi, Professor of History, Georgetown University
*Michel Shehadeh,
Committee for Justice to defend the Los Angeles Eight, ADC West Coast
Director
*Ghada Talhami, Professor of Political Science, Lake Forest College, Lake
Forest, Illinois
*George Zahr
*Anan Jardali Zahr
*Amira El-Zein, Professor, Georgetown University
*Elia Zureik, Professor of Sociology, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada

TO ADD YOUR NAME TO THIS STATEMENT GO TO:

http://freecenter.digiweb.com/pages/palestine/

OR

http://hanthala2.virtualave.net









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