Gaza Freedom March

[Magda Hassan]

Please distribute widely

Vivienne


>
> The landmark statement below was issued today by Gaza
> Freedom Marchers, at the initiative of representatives of the Congress
> of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Initial signers include both
> New York City Labor Against the War and Labor for Palestine (signature
> #s 130 and 132, below). To add your own endorsement, send a message to:
> cairodec@gmail.com.
> Read below for the Cairo Declaration from the Gaza Freedom
> March, endorsed by Labor for Palestine. Also, consistent with the
> demands expressed in the declaration, click here to sign the Labor for
> Palestine Open Letter to AFL-CIO President Trumka!
>
> (Cairo) Gaza Freedom Marchers approved today a declaration aimed at
> accelerating the global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
> (BDS) against Israeli Apartheid.
>
> Roughly 1400 activists from 43 countries converged in Cairo on their
> way to Gaza to join with Palestinians marching to break Israel’s
> illegal siege. They were prevented from entering Gaza by the Egyptian
> authorities.
>
> As a result, the Freedom Marchers remained in Cairo. They staged a
> series of nonviolent actions aimed at pressuring the international
> community to end the siege as one step in the larger struggle to secure
> justice for Palestinians throughout historic Palestine.
>
> This declaration arose from those actions:
>
> End Israeli Apartheid
>
> Cairo Declaration
>
> January 1, 2010
>
> We, international delegates meeting in Cairo during the Gaza Freedom
> March 2009 in collective response to an initiative from the South
> African delegation, state:
>
> In view of:
>
> o Israel’s ongoing collective punishment of Palestinians through the
> illegal occupation and siege of Gaza;
>
> o the illegal occupation of the West Bank, including East
> Jerusalem, and the continued construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall
> and settlements;
>
> o the new Wall under construction by Egypt and the US which will
> tighten even further the siege of Gaza;
>
> o the contempt for Palestinian democracy shown by Israel, the
> US, Canada, the EU and others after the Palestinian elections of 2006;
>
> o the war crimes committed by Israel during the invasion of Gaza one
> year ago;
>
> o the continuing discrimination and repression faced by Palestinians
> within Israel;
>
> o and the continuing exile of millions of Palestinian refugees;
>
> o all of which oppressive acts are based ultimately on the Zionist
> ideology which underpins Israel;
>
> o in the knowledge that our own governments have given Israel
> direct economic, financial, military and diplomatic support and allowed
> it to behave with impunity;
>
> o and mindful of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
> Indigenous People (2007)
>
> We reaffirm our commitment to:
>
> Palestinian Self-Determination
>
> Ending the Occupation
>
> Equal Rights for All within historic Palestine
>
> The full Right of Return for Palestinian refugees
>
> We therefore reaffirm our commitment to the United Palestinian call
> of July 2005 for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to compel
> Israel to comply with international law.
>
> To that end, we call for and wish to help initiate a global mass,
> democratic anti-apartheid movement to work in full consultation with
> Palestinian civil society to implement the Palestinian call for BDS.
>
> Mindful of the many strong similarities between apartheid Israel and the
> former apartheid regime in South Africa, we propose:
>
> 1) An international speaking tour in the first 6 months of 2010
> by Palestinian and South African trade unionists and civil society
> activists, to be joined by trade unionists and activists committed to
> this programme within the countries toured, to take mass education on
> BDS directly to the trade union membership and wider public
> internationally;
>
> 2) Participation in the Israeli Apartheid Week in March 2010;
>
> 3) A systematic unified approach to the boycott of Israeli
> products, involving consumers, workers and their unions in the retail,
> warehousing, and transportation sectors;
>
> 4) Developing the Academic, Cultural and Sports boycott;
>
> 5) Campaigns to encourage divestment of trade union and other
> pension funds from companies directly implicated in the Occupation
> and/or the Israeli military industries;
>
> 6) Legal actions targeting the external recruitment of soldiers
> to serve in the Israeli military, and the prosecution of Israeli
> government war criminals; coordination of Citizen’s Arrest Bureaux to
> identify, campaign and seek to prosecute Israeli war criminals; support
> for the Goldstone Report and the implementation of its recommendations;
>
> 7) Campaigns against charitable status of the Jewish National Fund
> (JNF).
>
>
>
> We appeal to organisations and individuals committed to this declaration
> to sign it and work with us to make it a reality.
> Please e-mail us at cairodec@gmail.com
>
>