Home > Dear friends
We most sincerely want to take our hats off to all those amongst you who contributed to creating a stir in the world around the mission “Welcome to Palestine”.
We reached our aim to impose a debate on the question of Palestine, to break the silence about the Israeli occupation and the imprisonment of all the Palestinians.
By refusing to allow men, women and children to go to the West Bank because these dare say openly they are going to Palestine, they are nonviolent and support the Palestinians, the Israeli occupier shows even to its own public the falseness of their propaganda.
It reveals its vulnerability when deploying a whole mob of police officers and soldiers in order to block people who had stated peacefully they intended to build a school, and in order to grab a few “Welcome to Palestine” scraps of paper from the hands of Israelis who had come to welcome them!
After wailing about provocation, that government could not even show a single image of violence from the 79 internationals arrested at the Tel Aviv passport control, as soon as they had uttered the word “Bethlehem”.
It certainly succeeded in getting our politicians to do its dirty work. They shamelessly ratified the drawing up of black lists of those guilty of having beliefs, but at a price!
The export of Israeli methods into Europe, brought home the arbitrary nature and racism behind such behaviour, to more than one, including the airport staff and even the police, not to mention the public as a whole, made aware of this situation through the media.
When an Air France hostess finds herself forced to ask a female passenger if she is Jewish, in order to know whether she can let her board the plane; when businessmen and diplomats are refused access to the plane because they are neither Israeli nor Jewish; when candidates to the presidential election end up on the black list drawn up by Israel, not everyone comes out unscathed, and more than one then understand that collaborating with a State that ignores the law might have unfortunate consequences.
Our Palestinian friends told us of their pride at seeing the determination of all those who took part in this initiative:
– Women and men who preferred finding themselves in jail rather than playing the game of negationism imposed by Israel, which consists in claiming that neither Palestine nor the Palestinians exist, who were imprisoned, then started a hunger strike, in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners and to proclaim their rights.
– All the participants who went to the many airports in order to protest against the refusal to take passengers on board, in order to demand explanations and denounce the double language of those politicians who say they support the freedom of circulation in Palestine and the two State Solution but transform France into a new Israeli colony.
– All the activists who were far from getting discouraged by this behaviour and took many public actions to denounce the strangulation of the Palestinian people, in the days following Sunday 15 April, in various countries and towns: occupation of prefectures, gatherings in front of foreign ministries, boycotts of Israeli products, demonstrations of solidarity with Palestinian prisoners…
(see videos on the website http://www.europalestine.com ).
The Palestinian associations’ communiqué giving the results of the mission, published on 23 April, also the message from Jacques Neno, coordinator of ‘EJE’ (Les Enfants, le Jeu et l’Éducation - Children, Play and Education) are clear.
In their opinion, the consequences of this initiative are very positive, in terms of visibility of Palestine, awareness in world public opinion and recruitment of new activists.
The international school project itself, thanks to the mission, gained an interest, loans and gifts from around the world. Far from being abandoned, it progresses, and Jacques Neno has invited us again to come to Bethlehem and participate in this work at the end of the summer.
Meanwhile, let us meet:
– ON 1ST MAY, SO THAT PALESTINE WILL BE PRESENT ON THIS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF STRUGGLE FOR WORKERS AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE (ASSEMBLE IN PARIS AT 1PM, DENFERT-ROCHEREAU)
– ON 8 MAY, LET US WALK TOGETHER TO TELL OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES, WHATEVER THE RESULTS OF THE POLLS: “No more State islamophobia, negrophobia or racism! *Troops out of Afghanistan! *No military intervention in Syria or Iran! *Justice in Palestine! *France out of Africa! *Truth and Justice for all the victims of police crimes! *A place to live, a school and a job for all! * (ASSEMBLE AT 2PM AT BARBÈS, PARIS)
– ON THE EVENING OF 9 MAY, IMPORTANT ACTION MEETING FOR PALESTINE IN VENISSIEUX (Assemble at 7pm, Salle des fêtes et des familles, 20 avenue de la Division Leclerc)
LET US DEVELOP THE BDS CAMPAIGN!
Important news : The retail and insurance British giant CO-OP has just announced "no longer engaging with any supplier of produce known to be sourcing from the Israeli settlements".The Co-op’s decision will immediately affect four suppliers, Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin, Israel’s largest agricultural export company.
Let’s remember that two sentences are to be passed on 4 and 24 May by the Bobigny magistrate’s court and the Paris Court of Appeal, regarding activists who are participating in the international BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions) campaign against Israel. As, once more, our freedom of expression is seriously threatened, let us show to all and sundry that intimidation only reinforces our determination to make the occupier pay for the occupation. You will find on our website as well as on several others, the actions taken during the past weeks, in Lille, Lyons, Paris, to say “NOT A SINGLE PENNY TO THE ISRAELI OCCUPIER!”
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF CAPJPO-EUROPALESTINE ON 10 JUNE
We invite you to participate in great numbers in the AGM of our association, which will take place on Sunday 10 June at 2pm in Paris. This will be the occasion to analyse the situation together and to decide on our next actions.
We are able to accommodate in the Paris region all the members who will make a request.
The night before, we are offering you an exceptional solidarity and celebration evening, in the presence of the artist and cartoonist Carlos Latuff who will come especially from Brazil to meet us and present his whole collection of drawings. His travelling expenses will be paid back through the sale of his drawings which he will autograph on this occasion!
If you have not yet joined our association or not yet paid your 2012 subscription, we invite you to do it, sending us a cheque for €50 (or 20 euros for students, unemployed and those on income support) to the following address: CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, 16 bis rue d’Odessa Boîte 37, 75014 Paris.
We are also collecting money to support our comrades who were imprisoned in Israel and were not reimbursed of their flight tickets unlike those who were denied boarding. Thank you for your help !
Best wishes,
CAPJPO-Europalestine