May 18, 2009

Palestine solidarity activists in France reject antisemitism

Here's a letter from EuroPalestine in France about who they will be supporting in the up coming Euro elections:
Dear friends,

A short note about the elections at the European Parliament that will take place soon (June 7), to tell you that, as you know, we’ve asked all the political parties in France (except for the right and the extreme-right) to support the BDS campaign (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions against Israel) in order to put an end to Israel’s impunity.

We got only one positive answer : it came from the NPA (New Anticapitalist Party led by Olivier Besancenot). So we decided to support its candidates in the whole country. Inasmuch as these candidates do not only make statements about the boycott, but they act accordingly. See for instance this video : http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php ?article4089

In 2004, our association presented a list of EuroPalestine candidates in the Paris region, because at the time, not one party accepted to even quote Palestine as one of the issues to deal with at the European Parliament. So our tiny association spent more than 100 000 euros to be present in just one region in France (out of 8) — money that was not refunded. But we had a good campaign, even without any media coverage. This time we are happy to see that a larger organization, with more means, has agreed to deal with this vital issue. Of course this decision is linked to the indignation created among the population by the Gaza massacres, but also by the fact that many men and women in France and in Europe have not stopped their mobilization at the end of January, but have started being very active in the boycott campaign (of Israeli goods, for example). They have not waited for politicians to act. They have shown the way.

In 2004, The French comedian Dieudonne was part of our list of candidates. We chose him because he had principles. He had fought against the extreme-right (Le Pen’s National Front) in the city of Dreux, and had dared criticize the Israeli settlers on TV. But after the media — following the Israeli lobby decisions— rejected him from all kind of media appearance, he made the wrong choices, choices that we condemned as soon as September 2004, and that have nothing to do with the Palestinian cause. He chose to make a filthy alliance with the the extreme-right, becoming friend with le Pen, a man who is proud of having tortured Algerians during the French war in Algeria, who makes jokes about Blacks, saying that their unique competence is to run fast, who hates Jews and Arabs, and asks for the expusion of all immigrants from France.

Dieudonné announces that he will run in the European elections in Paris Region under the label : "Anti-zionist Party". But how can you fight zionism which is a form of racism consisting in excluding all those who are not Jewish from a land conquered by violence, and favor other kinds of racisms ?

We cannnot accept that. We want to fight for Palestine with those who share the sames values as we do, and kick back all the Lieberman (see the video http://www.europalestine.com/article.php3 ?id_article=4080 ) and alike. Let the boycott campaign become each day stronger in all Europe !

Best wishes, CAPJPO-EuroPalestine http://www.europalestine.com

Very sad about that Dieudonné chap, still c'est la vie.

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