Requesting support for a community-wide open le

    Salaam
    
    This letter that I have received from comrades in the 
    anti-war and palestine solidarity movements in the US. 
    I'm sure some of you from Norht America would have 
    received it too. While for most of us on the this list, anti-
    war and palestinian issues cannot be separated, this is 
    not the case with the broad anti-war movement in the 
    US. Comrades there are now trying to prevent this 
    delinking from happening. This letter calls for the link to 
    be maintained. They are asking for endorsements for it. 
    Mostly, endorsements are from US and Canadian orgs, 
    but they want to include a section of endorsements from 
    organisations outside of North America as well. If your 
    organisation wants to endorse this call, please email me 
    and I will pass the endorsement on.
    
    I will urge all organisations, esp from North America to 
    support this call. We cannot allow Palestine to be 
    isolated as an issue unrelated to colonialism, imperialism 
    and the threat to world peace.
    
    na'eem
    
    
    
    Dear friends,
    
    I am sending this message to a select number of friends and 
    colleagues only.
    
    This is a request for organizations in your respective areas to join a 
    list of now 135 organizations from across the United States and 
    Canada in support for the following open letter (please see below). 
    The reasons for the open letter are outlined in the "Background" 
    section that precedes the text of the letter. As the situation stands, 
    we have finally made great headways with those who were insisting 
    on dropping Palestine from the anti-war movement- they are now 
    searching for language to include it. However, the March 20 
    National Coalition, of which our community is akey anchor, has 
    significantly expanded to include all major centers in the US, with 
    massive support from all significant areas. This massive coalition is 
    significantly an positively affecting the way various community 
    centers, peace organizations, churches, andlabor unionsfrom 
    across the USsee our issues.
    
    You can help a great deal by sending your organizational 
    endorsement as soon as possible - we will issue this open letter with 
    the new list in the next 2 days. We encourage all organizations to 
    join, not only our community entities.
    
    We appreciate your help very much, as we anticipate a great 
    mobilization on March 20, 2004, and from there onward as we 
    engage in grassroots efforts to make significant impact on US 
    policies domestically and otherwise.
    
    All the best
    
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    ** For wide distribution **
    
    Background: A call to mobilize against colonial 
    occupations on March 20th, 2004, was issued and 
    endorsed by a large nationwide coalition of 
    organizations and communities that included the 
    A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition; Al-Awda, the Palestine 
    Right to Return Coalition; the National Lawyers 
    Guild; the Arab Muslim American Federation; the 
    Free Palestine Alliance-USA; the Muslim American 
    Society Freedom Foundation; and the Muslim Student 
    Association of the U.S. and Canada. The National 
    Council of Arab Americans (NCAA) supported this 
    call in full. 
    
    The call to mobilize demanded ending "all colonial 
    occupations from Iraq to Palestine to 
    everywhere". It also called for "bringing the 
    troops home NOW" without delay, and for opposing 
    giving an international cover to the colonial 
    occupation of Iraq.
    
    Some sectors in the anti-war movement objected to 
    and are organizing against these demands, 
    insisting that Palestine be dropped from the call 
    for March 20 (as these same sectors have often 
    demanded), and that internationalizing the 
    occupation of Iraq should remain a viable option.
    
    As a result, and in the context of a long history 
    of being silenced and marginalized, the Arab- 
    American and Muslim community prepared this open 
    letter to the movement.
    
    
    An Open Letter from the Arab-American and Muslim 
    Community to the US Anti-War Movement
    
    Dear peace and justice organizations and 
    activists,
    
    On March 20, 2004, the world will mobilize against 
    war and colonial occupations. The significance of 
    this historic day is evident to all and requires 
    no further elaboration. The political clarity and 
    character of this mobilization in the US, however, 
    remains illusive. 
    
    This is where our community stands:
    
    In confronting war, the people of Palestine and 
    Iraq have paid dearly. They stand against the 
    imperial project shoulder to shoulder with 
    communities of color and the working class in the 
    United States, along with great many subjugated 
    peoples around the globe - from Afghanistan to 
    Colombia, and from the Philippines to Vieques, and 
    on. Without a doubt, the Palestinian and Iraqi 
    people are both welded together in an inextricable 
    unity at the forefront of the global anti-war 
    movement, transforming themselves as a whole as 
    its embodiment and paying in its defense with the 
    dearest of all - their very existence. Yet, 
    despite every home destroyed, child murdered, acre 
    confiscated and tree uprooted, town colonized and 
    ethnically cleansed, wall built, refugee remaining 
    nation-less, and incremental robbery of their 
    self-determination, they remain the very 
    antithetical formulation of empire and with a 
    vision of justice for all.
    
    In the United States, we, Arab-Americans and 
    Muslims have been maliciously targeted, stripped 
    of our rights, and positioned outside the 
    constitutional framework of this country. A new 
    COINTELPRO has been unleashed against our homes 
    and living rooms, as our fathers, mothers, sons, 
    and daughters are plucked away and thrown into 
    unknown prison cells. Thus, in a continuum of 
    history, we stand with African Americans, Japanese 
    Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and all 
    others in the painful struggle for justice. From 
    them all, we take our cue, for they are our 
    predecessors and our partners in this long march.
    
    Accordingly, we the undersigned hereby declare 
    that:
    
    1. We do not accept delinking the struggle of the 
    Palestinian people from the anti-war movement, and 
    regard the struggle in Palestine, as it is viewed 
    worldwide, to be central to any peace and justice 
    mobilization.
    
    2. We insist that the Palestinian right to return 
    and to self-determination are the key anchors of 
    the Palestinian struggle, and that organizations 
    that attempt to diminish, sidetrack, or abrogate 
    these rights, regardless of any other position 
    they may take on Palestine, are acting contrary to 
    the will and aspiration of the Palestinian people.
    
    3. We view all attempts to relegate our collective 
    presence to the margin and to tokenize our 
    participation in the movement to be racist in 
    character. In its attempt to silence the Arab and 
    Muslim voices for decades, particularly that of 
    the Palestinian people, the movement in the US has 
    stood alone in the global movement for justice. 
    We see ourselves as full partners in leading the 
    movement as signified in the heavy price we 
    continue to pay along the way, and reject any 
    attempt to objectify our presence.
    
    4. We regard the positions that the "colonial 
    occupation of Iraq must be internationalized", or 
    that ending the occupation must be conducted over 
    a period of time until the "Iraqis are able to 
    secure their democracy", as implicitly colonial 
    and racist. These are positions that are rooted 
    in the construct of "manifest destiny" and the 
    "white man's burden" to "civilize".
    
    5. We call on our people everywhere to hold all 
    organizations accountable to the positions they 
    take, especially those that depict racist 
    attitudes towards us, implicitly or otherwise, 
    particularly those that tokenize and objectify our 
    struggle. Any organization or movement that finds 
    it acceptable to minimize or disregard for 
    political expediency the struggle of any people 
    should not be allowed to function within the 
    global justice movement. Justice is neither 
    selective, nor partial or conditional.
    
    We are firm on these principles for the March 20th 
    mobilization and beyond as we call on all 
    communities and organizations to mobilize and 
    stand in force under the following unifying five 
    slogans:
    
    1. End all colonial occupations from Iraq to 
    Palestine to everywhere! 
    2. Bring the troops home NOW! 
    3. No to internationalizing colonial occupations! 
    4. Stop the attacks on civil liberties! 
    5. Money for jobs, education, and healthcare not 
    for war!
    
    As we salute and stand empowered with sectors of 
    the movement that have taken a principled stand on 
    justice, we seek to participate in the empowerment 
    of all as we call for a genuine global united 
    front against war.
    
    All out on March 20, 2004!
    

    1. Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return 
    Coalition
    2. Al-Bireh Palestine Society, California Chapter
    3. Al-Qalam Institute
    4. American Muslims for Jerusalem (AMJ)
    5. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 
    Greater Sacramento Area Chapter
    6. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 
    New Jersey Chapter
    7. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 
    Seattle Chapter
    8. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 
    Los Angeles/Orange County Chapter
    9. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 
    San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
    10. Arab Center of Washington - Seattle
    11. Arab Muslim American Federation
    12. Arab-American Community Center, Chicago
    13. Arab-American Forum, New Hampshire
    14. Arab-American Press Guild
    15. San Francisco Bay Area Palestine Coalition
    16. Canada-Palestine Association
    17. Canada-Palestine Friendship Society
    18. Canadian Arab Federation
    19. Committee for Democratic Palestine - Canada
    20. Committee for Justice - USA
    21. Deir Yassin Society of New York
    22. Free Palestine Alliance - USA (FPA)
    23. Friends of Ghassan Kanafani, Toronto Chapter
    24. Kana'an Review
    25. Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation 
    (MAS Freedom Foundation)
    26. Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and 
    Canada (MSA-National)
    27. Muslim Students Association, California State 
    University, Sacramento
    28. Muslim Students Association, University of 
    California, Davis
    29. National Council of Arab Americans (NCAA)
    30. Palestine Children's Welfare Fund
    31. Palestine House Educational and Cultural 
    Center, Canada
    32. Palestine Right of Return Congress - USA
    33. Palestine Solidarity Committee - Los Angeles
    34. Palestine Solidarity Committee - Seattle
    35. Palestine Solidarity Group - Chicago
    36. Palestinian American Women's Association 
    (PAWA)
    37. Sacred Roots
    38. Students for Justice in Palestine, California 
    State University, Sacramento
    39. Students for Justice in Palestine, University 
    of California, Davis
    40. The Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP)
    41. The United Muslim Association of High Schools 
    Club