The organizational issues have been ironed out, not without some defections, including the high-profile departure of Norman Finkelstein, the dreamer of the march, who will be missed, as well as some Canadians. More relevantly and more importantly, dozens of endorsements have flowed in, faster than the web-keepers have been able to sift through and post them, from individuals and organizations across civil society in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Baroness Helena Kennedy, a Labor-party member of the House of Lords [credit: Max Ajl. Yes!] and the International Solidarity Movement. A CODEPINK delegation is about to be en route to Gaza to firm up logistical plans with the still-unformed "host committee," which will now be considerably happier to host us.
There are considerably more endorsing groups than I want to list in this space, so I'll just grab a handful from the tail end of the alphabetized list: The One Democratic State Group, Gaza, The Rachel Corrie Foundation, Rafah Youth Sports Charity, Rural Family Welfare Charity, Gaza, Shomer Shalom Institute for Jewish Nonviolence, University Teachers' Association in Palestine, Veterans for Peace National Board, The Vision of Palestine Association, Gaza, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War Resisters League, WILPF, Women in Black, Vienna, Women for Palestine (Australia), Yabous Charity Organization, Gaza, Yesh G'vul, Youth Thought Development, Gaza.* Around 3,000 individuals have endorsed as well.
A speaker from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network also spoke up at the meeting and said quite a bit, emphasizing that his group was invigorated and enthused by the addition of the slightly-inelegant Statement of Context [the lack of literary elegance caused a moment's discussion at the meeting, which at least got people laughing a little]. His group actually drafted an open letter, co-signed by the Middle East Children's Alliance and several members of the Palestine Solidarity Committee--Johannesburg. A few excerpts are below. The fracture within the movement was essentially over the degree of partnership we were to have with the people in Palestine--whether the vision would be a shared, compromise vision, or one conceived here, given our judgment of the tactics/framing needed for success in American/Western society. This point has heft, but ignores something vital: that the Palestinians are going to be the overwhelming majority of the people marching, that it is necessarily their struggle. The argument was in that sense tactical, it was an argument some people lost, and the deployment of charged rhetoric of "sectarian" or "precious constituencies" was unpleasant and gratuitous.
Beyond that, organization and mobilization continues apace--we need money, participants, and press coverage. You got, we want. Help out!
From the open letter:
The new document's only demand is the end of the siege of Gaza. There are no other demands. Nothing in it prevents activists committed to a "two state solution" and a "Jewish state" from participating. We therefore strongly object to representing the new language as an attempt to limit the scope of the march. We take strong offense to the attempt to label the recognition of the concerns of Palestinian liberation within the context of a solidarity action as "sectarian." We seriously doubt that the number of people willing to fly to Egypt and then march in Gaza, yet who refuse to recognize the history of Gaza, is very large.
...
In supporting this compromise, we are mindful of the original intention of the organizers to aim for large and "ecumenical" participation. We share that goal. Our conversation would benefit however from being honest about the meaning of "ecumenical." It never means "everybody." Had the march's organizers joined Israel in blaming Hamas for the continuation of the siege, we could have pitched participation to the Simon Wiesenthal Center mailing list. We could have recruited celebrities such as Alan Dershowitz and Daniel Pipes. We don't just want the maximum number of marchers; we want the maximum number that can be achieved in a manner that does not compromise the visions of the diverse organizers and solidarity groups participating in this particular project.
Where should we draw the line? In truth, we do not know. This is a difficult decision that haunts every political struggle and always requires deliberation, negotiation, and compromise. Framing this debate as one between those who want maximum participation and those motivated by ideology is misleading and unfortunate, in particular when it is aimed towards delegitimizing the concerns of prominent Palestinian activists representing a significant portion of Palestinian grassroots organizing. We all have political lines that we won't accept to cross. The lines drawn by those at the very heart of the struggle deserve our particular respect.
Yup.
*A caveat: some of these groups may have initially endorsed the initial statement but not yet the current one: I believe this is the case with the War Resister's League, for example.
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Max,
I know that Medea is busy and Haidar will not probably know can we somehow find out who has dropped out in terms of organizers the * you put at the end. Was hoping that you would have asterisked the aforementioned organizations, but realize you are a third party and not know. I can ask one of the CP committee organizers I know but in case they don’t get back to me. Others here might want to know. Of course, albeit interesting, would love to see a headcount of those who still endorse the march minus those who dropped off is not humanly possible.
Diane,
I’m not exactly a third party [I’m one of the organizers too] but I don’t think anyone is necessarily keeping track of who dropped off/signed on. I think it is safe to say that number lost will be dwarfed by the number gained, if what I’ve seen in-person and on-line has been any indication. The person from the War Resisters’ League, for example, said at the meeting that they’d obviously re-endorse, no question, but that as a matter of process they’d have to make the decision again. I suspect most are operating along similar lines.
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