arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

For almost one year, a weekly action of solidarity with the Palestinian people takes place on Friday afternoon in front of the Brussels Bourse (Stock Exchange). Today, hundreds of protesters showed up, in the context of a new Israeli Defence Force (IDF)-agression in the Palestinian territory.

All those present showed their true anger in front of another Israeli campaign to annihilate the Palestinian leadership and its institutions in Ramallah and try to force the Palestinian people on its knees. The main message from Brussels is clear : the Palestine people is not fighting alone. Although it has to endure a large-scale humiliation, hardly ever seen in recent history, the women, men and children from Palestine should know that our solidarity-movemement never will let down until the Palestine claims are fulfilled. These claims have been repeated today in Brussels. It is to say : the complete witdrawal of Israeli troops and the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine territory, an independent Palestine state and the return of all Palestinian refugees.

A dozen of speakers adressed the protesters in Brussels. Mrs. Jamileh Aslih stressed the fact that the Palestinian people is victim now of genocide. Mrs. Aslih's son Asil - aged 17, and working with the NGO Seeds of Peace (http://www.slider17.com) - was killed by Israeli occupying forces in October 2001. Former MP mr. Walid Sadik, in the Knesset for the peace-party Mertz until one year ago, expressed his deep indignation. Mrs. Souha Bechara was there too. Mrs. Bechara spent 10 years in an Israeli prison, 6 years of which in complete isolation, after her assault on colonel Haddad of the occupying forces in South-Libanon.

Several women voiced the solidarity from the Third World for the Palestinian struggle. Among them mrs. Laura Bonaparte, one of the leading personalities of the Weaping
Mothers-Movement from Argentine, and mrs. Madjiguene Cissé from Senegal. Mrs. Cissé, who has been leading the Sans-Papiers-movement of clandestine immigrants in France, firmly opposed the anti-immigrant policy of the European Union and claimed that the so-called Schengen-Zone should widely open its borders for refugees, be they political of economic, and thus for Palestinians too.

Belgian politicians made very usefull suggestions for a true solidarity. Senator Van Quickenborne made a call to boycot all Israeli products. It has been done against South-Africa in the Apartheid-era, the senator said, and it should be donde again against Israel, because what is happening now in the occupied territoires is nothing but Apartheid. Others stressed the need for the European Union to end its Association-agreement with Israel or to put more pressure on parliaments in Belgium and the EU.

Maria McGavigan (PTB) made a parallel with the upcoming war against Iraq. She explained that while US-minister Dick Cheney was in the Middle East recently, he only wanted to obtain a pause in the Israeli agression against the Palestine people so that the USA has its hands free to launch a new attack against Iraq. There's only one solution, she said : mobilise, mobilise, mobilise ! Finally, several NGO's showed their firm conviction to support Palestine. Among these non-governmental organisations we noticed several migrant associations, Oxfam-Solidarity, Vrede (Peace) and the Werkgroep Theologie en Maatschappij (Theology and Society).

Finally, we should mention that actions are continuing and other ones are coming up. Tomorrow, poeple will travel to Strasbourg in France to take part in a European protest-march against the Israeli agression. On April 13, another European march takes place in Amsterdam. And on April 12, a party of some 100 journalists, activists and researchers leaves for Bagdad to investigate the situation in this country. And as usual, the Brussels protests keep taking place on Friday at the Bourse.

One last suggestion from myself as a writer and a TV-journalist. Once again and even on this most dramatic moment, the corporate media newsbulletins completely distort the reality in the occupied territoires. Once again : no testimonies at all from the Palestinians who are being molested in their houses in Ramallah or elsewhere; once again not a single image of the unseen suffering of the Palestinian people; and once again a criminal misrepresentation which says that the agressor is the victim and the Palestinians are the terrorists. If this goes on - and I think we know that it will - we, as media-activists, should start considering and executing actions against the complicity of the corporate media.