Gaza Youth Break Out (A Manifesto for Revolution in Gaza, Palestine)

A revolutionary wave is sweeping the Middle East the likes of which we have never seen before….

“

Fuck Israel. Fuck Hamas. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community! We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference like the Israeli F16’s breaking the wall of sound; scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this fucking situation we live in; we are like lice between two nails living a nightmare inside a nightmare, no room for hope, no space for freedom.

We are sick of being caught in this political struggle; sick of coal dark nights with airplanes circling above our homes; sick of innocent farmers getting shot in the buffer zone because they are taking care of their lands; sick of bearded guys walking around with their guns abusing their power, beating up or incarcerating young people demonstrating for what they believe in; sick of the wall of shame that separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us imprisoned in a stamp-sized piece of land; sick of being portrayed as terrorists, homemade fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our eyes; sick of the indifference we meet from the international community, the so-called experts in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions but cowards in enforcing anything they agree on; we are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas and completely ignored by the rest of the world.

…

We are youth with heavy hearts. We carry in ourselves a heaviness so immense that it makes it difficult to us to enjoy the sunset. How to enjoy it when dark clouds paint the horizon and bleak memories run past our eyes every time we close them? We smile in order to hide the pain. We laugh in order to forget the war. We hope in order not to commit suicide here and now. During the war we got the unmistakable feeling that Israel wanted to erase us from the face of the earth. During the last years Hamas has been doing all they can to control our thoughts, behaviour and aspirations. We are a generation of young people used to face missiles, carrying what seems to be a impossible mission of living a normal and healthy life, and only barely tolerated by a massive organization that has spread in our society as a malicious cancer disease, causing mayhem and effectively killing all living cells, thoughts and dreams on its way as well as paralyzing people with its terror regime. Not to mention the prison we live in, a prison sustained by a so-called democratic country.”

More here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gaza-Youth-Breaks-Out-GYBO/118914244840679?v=info

A few notes from beirut on the verge of war

from former co-oper alex, in beirut…

It’s strange living in the shadow of war. For the last few months every week or so some political leader or another has threatened to take this country to war over some issue or another, but in the last week the government has collapsed and the threats are becoming daily. Yesterday, one friend was swearing tonight would be the first clashes; other friends think he’s being ridiculous and a fearmongerer but are sure that within two weeks we’ll be at war. Tonight, tires are burning in major cities across the country and the roads have been blocked by protesters, while the radio is telling us not to go out. A number of members of Parliament have labeled tomorrow a “day of rage.” Life continues.

This being Lebanon, plastic surgery and expensive boutiques are still doing brisk trade, but the streets feel notably tenser as banners have gone up the past few days in every other neighborhood reiterating their allegiance to one warlord or another. The issues are unbelievably complex; it suffices to say that it involves Lebanon, Syria, the US, Israel, Qatar, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sunnis, Maronite Christians, Shias, Orthodox Christians, Druze (an offshoot of Islam), Alawites (another offshoot of Islam), Armenian Refugees, Greek Catholic Lebanese, Palestinian refugees and an extremely delicate balancing act between all of them. But that’s always been life here for the Lebanese: the 4 million here, and the 15 million scattered around the globe. But now, again, it almost seems like the whole thing is about to disintegrate…

Even amidst this chaos, however, we all continue working. A feminist collective I’ve joined tries to expand the discourse on what indigenous feminisms and sexualities will look like in this region, while at my office we continue coordinating workshops on democratic governance and children’s rights among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a population around 300,000-strong that were forced out of their homes in what is now Israel in 1948 and will probably never be allowed to go back to their homeland so they can practice their “democratic governance” skills. It’s a bit tough realizing the world’s biggest military power [the US] and their most militarized ally [Israel] are pretty set on not letting you go back to your home (in order to keep Israel a majority Jewish state). And annoying in a silly way realizing that road blocks have been set up by protesters on the road I need to take to help set up one of the seminars tomorrow morning in the South…

So much is left to be fixed in this world, and there are still so many intent on fucking it up. Here, in Beirut, the results of policy decisions made in Washington D.C. are felt on a very real level- as I wrote this the U.S. government released a statement saying that they would loath to recognize the new Lebanese government, a decision that would serve as a virtual okay for an Israeli attack and invasion á la Gaza 2008-9.

So much of what needs to change cannot be affected by those who are themselves being affected; unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Empire must be brought down from the inside, even as we strive to support those who work from the periphery. Militarism is the only way many of the beleaguered Lebanese feel they can defend themselves after invasion after invasion and war after war that the world community did little or nothing to prevent; but it is up to us, as children of the Empire, to fight for the real change that must come at home. Our safety cannot and must not be guaranteed at the expense of others’ safety, and we must always be aware that this is the case.

It is not that we live in peace while others suffer; no, this is far too simplistic and naïve of an equation. Others live in insecurity and war BECAUSE we live in peace, because we have a government willing to murder abroad to keep the peace at home. We must never forget the true cost of our stability in Los Angeles. Here in Beirut, no one is given even a chance to forget, as tonight’s riots remind us.

.