Bill the spouse is just back from Jerusalem. Yesterday he was in Hebron and Ramallah. He brought back some interesting Palestinian election materials. Like this, which is from a T-shirt:
That says: “On the path of Yasser Arafat”. I’m afraid the part of it above– which says simply “Vote for Abu Mazen”– for some reason didn’t scan.
Then we have this bumper sticker:
It says: “For the sake of bringing down the racist separation wall– Let us vote for– Doctor Mustafa Barghouthi.”
Mustafa Barghouthi, in case you’d forgotten, is not the same as Marwan Barghouthi. the “radical” inside Fateh who decided not to run. Mustafa is a generally leftist physician who’s the long-time head of the Medical Relief Committees in the occupied territories. He’s a wonderfully smart and sincere guy who’s a good organizer.
Finally, this flier:
It says: “So that we place the Cause in trustworthy hands!” (except it’s better in Arabic, because it rhymes.)
- Toward a change for the better… and the return of hope to the Palestinian people. Towards the future, with a struggling spirit;, on the path of dignity and pride, and the path of freedom, independence, and justice.
Let us vote for– Doctor Mustafa Barghouthi
From a quick glance at Barghouthi’s presentation of his bio inside the flier, I learned that he not only has a medical MD from Moscow, but also an “advanced degree” in philosophy– plus, he has an MA in “organization building and development” from Stanford University.
I wonder if the ever-powerful Stanford graduates’ network in DC is rooting for him?
Mainly, though, I wonder how everyone look back on these pieces of ephemera in the future.
By the way, Bill’s report of how Hamas’s members are reported to be swinging is that in Hebron, they probably won’t vote at all, but in Gaza, a good number may vote for Barghouthi. This, in spite of his well-polished, generally “leftist” credentials. But since Hamas don’t have their own candidate, if they want to register a strong protest against Abu Mazen, then supporting Barghouthi would be a good way to do that.
Mustafa Bargouthi is intelligent, dedicated to the good of the Palestinian people, nonviolent, and uncorruptable. That is probably why the Israelis keep arresting him for no apparent reason.
January 8 / 9, 2005
An Open Letter to NPR’s Producers
The Distortions of NPR on Palestine
By ELLEN CANTEROW
Tom Ashbrooke’s program on the Palestinian elections this week failed to mention the West Bank detention and beating of Dr. Mustapha Barghouti
Helena click
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Meat for your revisionist Joshua?
Best regards
Y.D.
The counterpunch article contains its own distortions. It, among other things, mentions the shelling of Palestinian children in Beit Lahia. But it omits that the Israelis were returning fire that had just come from the area. No Preference, whom I have had disagreements with, astutely pointed this out.
Any violence against Mustafa Barghouti is wrong and unacceptable.
Palestinians choosing to fire at IDF outposts in Gaza and shell Western Negev communities on election day is not exactly paving the way for Democracy either.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/524949.html
There were other incidents throughout the campaign as well. It’s fair to say that neither side has behaved perfectly during the campaign. But I prefer to focus on the positive. On balance, the elections appear to be going smoothly, and the Palestinians deserve congratulations for that.
1. Why bother to “detain and beat” Dr. Barghouti if he is so obviously going to lose? I’m not saying it didn’t happen, I just want to know why, if it did. Dr. Barghouti was trained in the Soviet Union. Does that mean he is a Leninist? Would that be a reason?
The Future is More Interesting than the Past:
2. Even if the elections are a sort of sham for the world press, the Palestinians just might get to like the idea. Arafat died while serving in the 8th year of his 5-year term, we’ll see how long this term is.
Tom Friedman warned about “One man, one vote, one time” in the Arab world.
3. Advocates of democracy often say that democracy bring peace because people never or rarely vote for war and a democracy cannot launch a surprise attack. We’ll see if that applies, if there is democracy. In this case democracy might intensify the war.
4. The Israeli Knesset voted in a new government today. Same as the old government? Same PM, different parties.
Greetings from Jerusalem!
The comments I’ve heard while here, directly in most cases, is that many Palestinians in Jerusalem did not vote because of fear of losing their rights. Another Palestinian family in Israel tried to vote but their names were not on the registration list even though they had registered. Other Palestinians could not vote because they couldn’t get back to their villages due to the checkpoints. There were many EU election observers in our midst. We missed seeing Jimmy Carter by about 20 minutes but the word is that he personally called Sharon to complain about some obstacle to voting.