|
January
19. 2002
Jordan
Green
Enron
Stole Our Future
January
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
The
Enron Model
Walt Brasch
Enron
at the White House
CounterPunch
Wire
Human
Rights Groups Says Guantanamo Prisoners Must
Be Treated as POWs
January
17, 2002
Gideon
Levy
Bulldozing
Rafah
Uri Avnery
That
Weapons Shipment
January
16, 2002
John Chuckman
The
Angel and the Pretzel
Lawrence
McGuire
Subverting
the
Geneva Convention
Kathy
Kelly
An
Open Letter to
Richard Perle on Iraq
January
15, 2002
George
Monbiot
Greenpeace,
Lord Melchett
and the Business of Betrayal
Jack McCarthy
Follow
the Pretzel
William
Blum
Atta
and the Times:
Follow the Changing Story
Edward
Said
Emerging
Alternatives
in Palestine
January
14, 2002
David
Vest
Open
Bag. Eat Pretzels.
Patrick
Cockburn
Collapse
of Georgia
Ignored by the World
Mokhiber/Weissman
Enron's
Accountants:
When In Doubt, Shred It
January
13, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
Why
We Kill People
January
12, 2002
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Forbidden
Truths
January
11, 2002
Lee Balllinger/Dave
Marsh
Neil
Young's Duet with Ashcroft
January
10, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Bush,
Enron, UNOCAL
and the Taliban
St. Clair/Cockburn
Greenpeace
to Greenwash?
Hans von
Sponek
Iraq:
Is There an Alternative
to Military Action?
Jim Lobe
Israeli
Human Rights Group Assails Army
Marina Mayakova
Russia's
Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL
January
9, 2002
David
Vest
The
Super-Burqa
and the Big Tent
ND Jayaprakash
Winnable
Nuclear War?
Rafiq
Kathwari
Kashmir
Will Make Ground Zero Look Like a Bonfire
January
8, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Sting
Like a B-52
Nelson
Valdés
Al-Qaeda
at Guantanamo Bay
John Chuckman
Dark
Tales from the
Ministry of Truth
Richard
Corn-Revere
Do
We Fear Freedom?
Joan Hoff
The
Nixon You Haven't Heard
January
7, 2002
Lawrence
McGuire
Confusing
Economic Tales About Argentina
Wael Masri
They
Are Taking
Our Rights Away
Philip
Farruggio
Better
Medicine
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
January
21, 2002
Martin Luther King Jr.
and the Palestinian Dream
By Ahmad Faruqui
It is almost forty years since Dr. King made his
landmark speech in which he spoke of his famous dream. By drawing
attention to the plight of the African-American people in the
US, he helped establish the Civil Rights movement that serves
as a beacon of hope for millions of minorities throughout the
globe. Had Dr. King been alive today, he would no doubt be talking
about the plight of the Palestinians.
He would have observed that they are
still not a free people, but a people "sadly crippled by
the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination."
A state sits in occupation over their territories, and periodically
shuts off access to their economic lifeline. They are forced
to live "on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a
vast ocean of material prosperity." He would have observed
that they have been forced into exile in their own land, "sweltering
with the heat of injustice and oppression."
We get a glimpse of what Dr. King by
reading the writings of Nelson Mandela. Mandela wrote last year
"Palestinians are not struggling for a 'state' but for freedom,
liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom
in South Africa." He said that there are two judicial systems
in Israel, one for Jews and one for Palestinians. Palestinian
property is not recognized as private property because it can
be confiscated.
The Palestinians live under conditions
of apartheid, in a culture of state-sponsored terrorism. The
Israeli military machine, using US-supplied weapons and technology,
wages war to subjugate them. He would have spoken of the imperative
to prevent terrorism, by trying to get to the root causes-- which
are social and political--rather than seeking security through
military means.
Of course, Dr. King abjured violence,
and was a strong believer in Gandhi's philosophy of ahimsa, or
non-violence. He would have counseled the Palestinians, just
as he counseled the African-Americans on the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial on August 28, 1963 that they must conduct their struggle
on the "high plane of dignity and discipline." He
would have quoted from the Koran that human life is sacred, and
under no conditions does Islam sanction the killing of innocent
civilians.
He would have been outraged by the suicide
bombers who murder civilians in the most cowardly fashion. But
he would have been no less critical of a democratic state that
bombs innocent civilians indiscriminately, on the pretext that
they are hiding terrorists in their midst. He would have been
shocked that a state would use bulldozers to raise homes, on
the pretext that they may have once housed suicide bombers.
And he would have condemned the tactics of this state's security
forces, which snare children into stone throwing, so that they
can be gunned down with automatic weaponry.
He would have asked the US to live by
its fundamental values-- that all men are created equal-- in
its foreign as well as its domestic policies. He would have
called upon his fellow Americans to value a Palestinian life
just as much as they value an Israeli life, and to recognize
the fundamental injustice of a situation where a thousand Palestinians,
mostly children and teenagers, can be killed in front of the
world's television cameras, and yet the blame for violence can
be laid on the door of the Palestinians.
He would have called on the US to impose
economic or political sanctions on the state that deprives its
citizens of the most basic of human rights, just because they
are of a different race, not reward it with economic and military
aid. He would have pointed out the futility of using the US
veto in the UN Security Council to prevent the policies of this
state from being censured when it already stands condemned in
the eyes of world opinion.
He would have offered to go to the Middle
East and mediate peace between "the children of Abraham."
He would have tried his best to bring the warring parties together.
He would have told one that killing terrorists would not solve
the problem of terrorism, because new ones will arise in their
place. He would have told the other that they will not be able
to destroy the state by random killings of its innocent civilians,
because the balance of power will ensure that they will lose
20 of their own for every one of the other they kill.
He would asked both to make genuine peace
with each other, and visualize the day when both Jews and Palestinian
children will be able to hold hands and sing the old spiritual,
"Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Free from our mutual hatred, free from our prejudices, and free
from our fears.
Ahmad Faruqui
is a Fellow with the American Institute of International Studies.
A native of Pakistan, he has lived most of his adult life in
the United States. He holds a Ph. D. in economics from the University
of California, Davis.
|