The Convivencia Alliance is deeply shocked and disturbed by the brutal murder of Shireen Abu-Akleh by the Israeli occupation forces. This call has been released today, May 17th, 2022.
Shireen Abu Akleh was the most famous and revered Arab journalist for many years, and with good reason. Her courage, her acute reports, her face and voice made her an icon of Arab, and especially Palestinian youth. She was a clear reminder that journalism is not the demeaned occupation of supporting the regime and the powerful, as it has become so many times in the West, and especially in the current war in Ukraine.
Now she has also become the most famous journalist across the world, with the number of websites mentioning her name doubling every two days, and currently appearing on more than 10 million. The fame that she achieved during her lifetime by working for Al Jazeera, has been multiplied through her murder by Israeli soldiers. Even after her death, as often happens to other victims, her family home was invaded, and the shocking scene of Israeli soldiers beating her pallbearers has become the most watched video clip since her death.
Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder with its ruthless brutality has done more in few days than any other Palestinian killing at the hands of the Apartheid Israeli regime. No amount of lies by the Israeli propaganda machine will wipe this murder from people’s memories. The revulsion expressed by millions around the world is a clear sign that people cannot and will not condone their governments’ continued collusion with Israel.
We are not surprised by the IDF behaviour. To silence those who expose its behaviour has been a priority since 1948, started with the suppression of the reporting of every single massacre committed during the Nakba; the same alacrity of denial, lying and pure invention has been the hallmark of Apartheid Israeli as it tries to portray itself as a Western democracy. But one should never be surprised by the IDF and the other murderous Israeli security forces killing another Palestinian. - This has become normalised in Israeli life, a perfect example of the banality of evil principle, as Hannah Arendt has terms it. It was best exemplified by Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, who admitted in an interview: “I’ve killed many Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with that.”
In Israel, it seems, this is far from a problem but rather a necessity precondition for senior political office. To kill Arabs is not a problem because in Israel they are simply denied the same civic rights as Jewish citizens. And Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories and Gaza have no rights whatsoever.
Every day, Palestinians are shot and killed by the IDF. Every day, Palestinian homes are broken into in the middle of the night, residents are dragged out of their beds - men women and even children in the co-called name of security, but in reality to show where the power lies. Every week more Palestinian land is stolen to extend the illegal Israeli settlements. Frequently, Palestinians praying in their mosques are brutally attacked, hospitals, clinics, schools and universities invaded or targeted for collective punishment. Families are made homeless as their homes are demolished then forced to pay the cost of the bulldozers.
If these war crimes were conducted elsewhere - Ukraine comes to mind - the world would not have waited 75 years before even considering sanctions. Yet Israel has remained immune from Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) throughout the decades unlike Russia or Iran. Indeed, insead of being sanctioned, Israel is now a leading arms exporter spreading death and destruction around the globe.
The Convivencia Alliance calls upon all those who care about a just peace in the Middle East to unite behind the BDS campaign against Israel, and bring an end to the Zionist apartheid regime. Instead, we support the creation of a single democratic state of all its citizens in Palestine-Israel, including the right of return for refugees, where all people, Jews, Muslim and Christians irrespective of ethnicity or religion, can live together in peace and equality. Let the memory of Shireen Abu Akleh be a constant reminder that a Zionist Apartheid Israel should have no place among the nations, any more than an Apartheid South Africa did.
David Cannon - Chair
Haim Bresheeth-Zabner - Jewish Network for Palestine
Rifat Kassis
Massoud Shadjareh - Islamic Human Rights Commission
Reverend Dr. Stephen Sizer
Statement by the Convivencia Alliance for Just peace in Palestine
Shireen Abu Akleh was the most famous and revered Arab journalist for many years, and with good reason. Her courage, her acute reports, her face and voice made her an icon of Arab, and especially Palestinian youth. She was a clear reminder that journalism is not the demeaned occupation of supporting the regime and the powerful, as it has become so many times in the West, and especially in the current war in Ukraine.
Now she has also become the most famous journalist across the world, with the number of websites mentioning her name doubling every two days, and currently appearing on more than 10 million. The fame that she achieved during her lifetime by working for Al Jazeera, has been multiplied through her murder by Israeli soldiers. Even after her death, as often happens to other victims, her family home was invaded, and the shocking scene of Israeli soldiers beating her pallbearers has become the most watched video clip since her death.
Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder with its ruthless brutality has done more in few days than any other Palestinian killing at the hands of the Apartheid Israeli regime. No amount of lies by the Israeli propaganda machine will wipe this murder from people’s memories. The revulsion expressed by millions around the world is a clear sign that people cannot and will not condone their governments’ continued collusion with Israel.
We are not surprised by the IDF behaviour. To silence those who expose its behaviour has been a priority since 1948, started with the suppression of the reporting of every single massacre committed during the Nakba; the same alacrity of denial, lying and pure invention has been the hallmark of Apartheid Israeli as it tries to portray itself as a Western democracy. But one should never be surprised by the IDF and the other murderous Israeli security forces killing another Palestinian. - This has become normalised in Israeli life, a perfect example of the banality of evil principle, as Hannah Arendt has terms it. It was best exemplified by Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, who admitted in an interview: “I’ve killed many Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with that.”
In Israel, it seems, this is far from a problem but rather a necessity precondition for senior political office. To kill Arabs is not a problem because in Israel they are simply denied the same civic rights as Jewish citizens. And Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories and Gaza have no rights whatsoever.
Every day, Palestinians are shot and killed by the IDF. Every day, Palestinian homes are broken into in the middle of the night, residents are dragged out of their beds - men women and even children in the co-called name of security, but in reality to show where the power lies. Every week more Palestinian land is stolen to extend the illegal Israeli settlements. Frequently, Palestinians praying in their mosques are brutally attacked, hospitals, clinics, schools and universities invaded or targeted for collective punishment. Families are made homeless as their homes are demolished then forced to pay the cost of the bulldozers.
If these war crimes were conducted elsewhere - Ukraine comes to mind - the world would not have waited 75 years before even considering sanctions. Yet Israel has remained immune from Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) throughout the decades unlike Russia or Iran. Indeed, insead of being sanctioned, Israel is now a leading arms exporter spreading death and destruction around the globe.
The Convivencia Alliance calls upon all those who care about a just peace in the Middle East to unite behind the BDS campaign against Israel, and bring an end to the Zionist apartheid regime. Instead, we support the creation of a single democratic state of all its citizens in Palestine-Israel, including the right of return for refugees, where all people, Jews, Muslim and Christians irrespective of ethnicity or religion, can live together in peace and equality. Let the memory of Shireen Abu Akleh be a constant reminder that a Zionist Apartheid Israel should have no place among the nations, any more than an Apartheid South Africa did.
Signed for the Convivencia Alliance
David Cannon - Chair
Haim Bresheeth-Zabner - Jewish Network for Palestine
Rifat Kassis
Massoud Shadjareh - Islamic Human Rights Commission
Reverend Dr. Stephen Sizer