Code Pink to "Honor" Palestinian criminals

Its shocking, even by Code Pinks' standards.  Code Pink has published their "AnnoyAIPAC" list of activities scheduled for this weekend.  In addition to their usual inane theatrics, their egregious decision to "honor" those convicted of acts of terror against the  Israeli people is breathtakingly evil.  With this action, they move from the realm of the naive, ill-informed and  tragically misguided to the lonely landscape of the downright evil.

Expose AIPAC is off to a great start! Yesterday we "occupied" AIPAC headquarters with settlements and an apartheid wall very much like the ones in Israel that AIPAC supports. It was a great action, check out the video here! We are delighted to be planning a vibrant opposition to the powerful Israel lobby at a time when Israel continues to colonize more and more Palestinian land, and pushes for an attack on Iran. We'll be in the streets telling AIPAC that their pro-apartheid, war-mongering agenda doesn't fly with us!

Stay updated: check out our pictures throughout the weekend, and watch for Expose AIPAC in the news! We'll be posting updates on the Occupy AIPAC website, and help us spread the word via social media by following @OccupyAIPAC, @Codepink, and using the hashtag #ExposeAIPAC.

Here are the weekend highlights:

Expose AIPAC Grassroots Advocacy Training, hosted by Interfaith Peace Builders
When: Saturday, March 2nd, 8:30 am
Where: Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church (900 Massachusetts Ave)
Speakers include Rebecca Vilkommerson, Jonathan Kuttab, Josh Reubner, Phyllis Bennis, Philip Farah, Jamal Abdi, Robert Naiman and more!
Registration for the Grassroots Advocacy Training is a sliding scale of $40 – $125 ($30 for students), payable when you register.

New Perspectives on Peace with Justice: An Evening with Interfaith Peace-Builders
When: Saturday, March 2nd, 6:30 pm- 9:00 pm
Where: The Goethe Institut, 812 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20001
Requested Donation: $30 – $100; Food and Beverage provided
Featured Speakers: Reverend Carolyn Boyd - Adjunct Pastor at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, former national Co-Chair of Black Voices for Peace; Hanan Idilbi - Board Member of Interfaith Peace-Builders, and member of the US Palestine Community Network.
Musical Guests: Feras and Ehab - Playing modern oud compositions rooted in the deep cultural traditions of Palestine; Luci Murphy - a D.C.-based vocalist and community activist in the peace and social justice movement, singing songs of freedom.

Expose AIPAC Mobilization and Street Protests, hosted by CODEPINK
When: Sunday, March 3rd at 11:00 am-all day!
Where: Outside the AIPAC Conference (corner of Massachusetts and 9th) for dubka, a flashmob, and greeting AIPAC goers as they leave the convention center at the end of the day!

11am: Our actions will begin. We'll have awesome visuals (including "settlements" you can wear so we can show AIPAC just how obstructive settlements are) but feel free to bring your own signs! We'll be rallying, protesting, singing and dabke dancing.

2pm: Press conference and rally.

3pm: Choreographed action. Our plan is to honor the Palestinian political prisoners who are currently on hunger strike by dramatically posing outside the AIPAC conference. We ask that you bring black clothes to wear or change into, and we will be providing black blindfolds, chains (to loosely bind your wrists), and placards with the names of hunger strikers (and the amount of days they've been refusing food). At 3:00pm we will assemble everyone along the sidewalk, solemnly kneeling, facing the AIPAC conference during their break time between sessions when thousands of AIPACers will be milling around outside. They won't be able to miss it. We definitely need photographers and videographers for this!

5 pm: Take a dinner break and then come back to protest as AIPAC's conference day is ending at 7:00 pm.

Protesting the AIPAC Gala!
When: Monday, March 4, 7:00-8:30 pm
Where: In front of the Washington Convention Center
Join CODEPINK as we talk to the hundreds of Congresspeople going into the gala to show their support for AIPAC.

To Alli, Ann, Barbara, Deb, Dooler, Liza, Medea, Michael, Noor, Tighe, The Existencialists, Sasha, Sergei, and the rest of the CODEPINK Expose AIPAC team.  

How does honoring those convicted for acts of terror against Israelis  promote peace? Samer Issawi was convicted of attempted murder, possession of weapons and explosives, and other charges relating to membership of a prohibited terrorist organization. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison. He fired an AK-47 at Israeli civilian buses. Why do you believe is this a man to be “honored”?

Ayman Sharawneh was Hamas operative from Dura, arrested in 2002 for his involvement in a bombing in Beer Sheva in which 18 civilians were injured, the attempted kidnapping of a soldier and firing at soldiers. Sharawneh was sentenced to 38 years in prison.  Immediately following his release, Sharawneh returned to his military activities under the auspices of Hamas and was therefore arrested once again on 30 January 2012. Why do you believe is this, too is a man to be “honored”?

Al Awda Protest Rally Massive Epic fail

What if you gave an anti-Israel protest and no one came?  A March 1 protest was called in front of the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco by Al Awda and their partners in Slime. It was endorsed by many, yet the streets were empty.   Two dozen bored and listless self styled anarchists , aging hippies and their Islamist allies loitered around aimlessly, then invented excuses to leave early.

Even with the collective might and power of endorsers including: Bay Area Women in Black, GUPS: General Union of Palestine Students, Northern California. Friends of Sabeel, US Palestine Community Network, Palestine Action Network ,All-African People's Revolutionary Party, ANSWER: Act Now to Stop War & End Racism, Arab Resource & Organizing Center,

BAYAN USA,  Gabriela USA, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, International League of Peoples' Struggle, International Socialist Organization, Middle East Children's Alliance, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement,  Palestinian Youth Movement, and  the SF Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines the "solidarity rally' achieved neither sound nor fury.

Is it possible that the anti-Israel movement in San Francisco Bay area, once considered a hub of the de-legitimization of Israel, is losing steam?  Or is it  just too hard to find common cause with Palestinian hunger striker and convicted terrorist mastermind  Samer Issawi, who has been

convicted of severe crimes, which including five attempts of intentional death. This included four shootings, between July 2001 and February 2002, in which Isawi and his partners fired on police cars and buses travelling between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem. In one attack, a policeman was injured and required surgery. On October 30, 2001, Isawi, together with an accomplice, fired at two students walking from the Hebrew University campus to their car in a nearby parking lot. In another case, Isawi provided guns and explosive devices to a squad, who fired on a bus. Finally, in December 2001, Isawi ordered an attack on security personnel at Hebrew University, providing a squad with a pistol and a pipebomb. Two of the squad members tracked security personnel but opted not to execute the attack.

Or, wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, could the local anti-Israel crew actually have found day jobs?
Nah....

Incidentally, while Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) did not officially endorse the street protest, they had no trouble shilling for terrorist Samer Issawi via their twitter feed

Neglected Facts About Hunger-Striking Prisoner Samer Issawi

Via CAMERA

Who is Samer Issawi and why had he been imprisoned? 

According to the Israel Prison Service, Samer Issawi of Issawiyeh, Jerusalem was arrested in April 2002 and sentenced to 26 years for attempted murder, belonging to an unrecognized (terror) organization, military training, and possession of weapons, arms and explosive materials. Issawi (identification number 037274735) was one of the 477 Palestinian prisoners released in the first stage of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in October 2011. (The Prison Service lists him as Samir Tariq Ahmad Muhammad. Multiple names are not uncommon among Palestinians. The date of his arrest, birth, his sentence term and the terms of his release are consistent with the details provided about Samer Issawi in media reports.)

In an October 2011 letter to the editor of the Guardian, Amir Ofek of the Israeli embassy in London took that paper to task for failing to provide information about Issawi's terror activities. He detailed:

Your centrefold (19 October) carries a double-spread photograph of released prisoner Samer Tareq al-Issawi in a cheering crowd, after being freed under the terms of the deal to release Gilad Shalit. It is important to point out the grave terrorism offences of which Al-Issawi was convicted, including firing a gun at a civilian vehicle in October 2001, indiscriminately firing an AK47 assault rifle at civilian buses, and manufacturing and distributing pipe bombs used in attacks on Israeli civilians....

As part of the Shalit deal, a condition of Issawi's release was that he had to remain in Jerusalem. In July 2012 he reportedly violated the terms of his release by leaving Jerusalem and crossing into the nearby neighborhood of A-Ram, and was therefore rearrested.

Other media outlets have also failed to report Issawi's violent activities. AFP, which has reported extensively over the last few days about Issawi's hunger strike, is rather vague about Issawi's violent crimes:

Issawi, 33, and Sharawna, 36, were long-term security prisoners who were initially released by Israel under a prisoner swap deal in October 2011.

But within months, they were both rearrested following unspecified allegations that they violated the terms of the agreement, with Israel ordering them to serve out the remainder of their original sentences.

Sharawna was rearrested on January 31 and began refusing food on July 1 to protest against his re-arrest and demand his immediate release.

Issawi was arrested on July 7 and stopped eating on August 1, to protest over his re-arrest and retrial based on information which was not made available to him or his lawyer. (Emphasis added.)

Likewise, AP does not specify why Issawi was imprisoned in the first place, although it does does a slightly better job than AFP. AP reports:

Issawi's original sentence was 26 years "for a terrorist act" but he had served only six years, [Israel Prison spokeswoman Sivan] Weizman said. [sic: He served nine years, from April 2002 until October 2011.] 

The four were re-arrested and sent to prison for violating the terms of their release, Weizman said. She said Issawi was banned from entering the West Bank but entered three times after he was freed.

It's unfortunate that the prison spokeswoman failed to specify Issawi's terrorist acts (and that she also misstated the length of the term that he served), but AP could have easily consulted the list of released prisoners and their crimes for more detailed information, as CAMERA had done. (Indeed, after AP's earlier, October 2011, whitewashing of the crimes of another Palestinian prisoner released as part of the Shalit deal, CAMERA had been in touch with AP editors. After pointing out the Prison Service document, AP commendably corrected.) 

How Long a Hunger Strike?

Ha'aretz's photo caption yesterday reported as fact that Issawi "has been on hunger strike for 209 days," while the AP reported that Issawi "has been on an on-again, off-again hunger strike for several months" (emphasis added). According to the Feb. 15 article by Ian Deitch, there are conflicting claims about the extent of Issawi's hunger strike. He reported:

Issawi is under medical supervision and eats periodically, [Prison spokesman Sivan Weizman] said.

Issawi's sister, Shirin, said he has been on hunger strike for 206 days. She said he has only been drinking water since January. She said the prisontakes her brother to an Israeli hospital for treatment.

The Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, Issa Qaraqe, said Issawi began his fast in August and has been observing it intermittently.

In other words, the Israeli prison spokeswoman and the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs agree that Issawi has been eating periodically, yet Ha'aretz reports as fact that he "has been on strike for 209 days." Even a partial hunger strike is most certainly a difficult ordeal. But why is it so difficult for Ha'aretz to stick with the facts? How long will the paper continue to supply its English readers with a steady stream of agenda-driven, whitewashed propaganda?

Read the entire article at CAMERA 

UPDATE

Capt. Eytan Buchman, an IDF spokesman, has provided CAMERA with additional details about Issawi's terror activities. He writes that Issawi

was convicted of severe crimes, which including five attempts of intentional death. This included four shootings, between July 2001 and February 2002, in which Isawi and his partners fired on police cars and buses travelling between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem. In one attack, a policeman was injured and required surgery. On October 30, 2001, Isawi, together with an accomplice, fired at two students walking from the Hebrew University campus to their car in a nearby parking lot. In another case, Isawi provided guns and explosive devices to a squad, who fired on a bus. Finally, in December 2001, Isawi ordered an attack on security personnel at Hebrew University, providing a squad with a pistol and a pipebomb. Two of the squad members tracked security personnel but opted not to execute the attack.