Here’s the event info:

2013 18th Seoul Human Rights Film Festival
Screening times: 11am 2013/05/23 (Thu) to 9pm 2013/05/26 (Sun)
Location: Cheonggye Plaza, Seoul (Gwanghwamun Stn. (Subway Line 5),  Exit 5. Walk 20 meters.)
Slogan:  ‘I know what is really going on in this place’
Special opening event: 7pm, Thursday (May 23)
Special closing event: 6pm, Sunday (May 26)
Full schedule: http://hrffseoul.org/en/timetable

If you have time please come on out and say hi! and check out some of the great films on offer. Not all of the films are in English but you can see the full listing of more than 25 films by clicking on the link below.

2013 Seoul Human Rights Film Festival

A particular highlight for me is the film saved for the closing ceremony, ‘Shadows of Liberty’ (2012, 93 mins) by director Jean-Philippe Tremblay from England which looks how the mainstream media is controlled and censored by corporate interests and governments, even driving nations to war. But there are plenty of issues covered this year so check it our for yourself to see what you’d like to watch.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish is visiting South Korea to promote the launch of the Korean translation of his book ‘I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity’. He spoke last night at Korean Green Foundation’s Rachel Carson Hall on the subject of huminatarian healthcare as a model for peace. The event was cohosted by South Korean medical humanitarian NGO MediPeace  and Palestine Peace and Solidarity and PPS’ very own Teon Kim opened the event with a brief discussion about his visit to Gaza earlier in the year in which he led a medical aid mission.

Born and raised in poverty in Jabalia Refugee Camp, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish became the first Palestinian medical doctor to work inside Israel and Gaza at the same time and the first Palestinian to complete a formal residency at an Israeli hospital.  From an early age he has worked tirelessly to help others, waking at 3 or 4 am each morning when he was young to work before going to school to help support his family.

While he is now Associate Professor of Global Health at the University of Toronto and has been awarded the Order of Ontario before his personal tragedy he used to travel to and from Israel every week through the Eretz crossing to work inside an Israeli hospital. He recalled that when he first started working, Israeli’s didn’t think of Palestinians as human beings and so he wanted to meet people face to face and hold up his hard work and success as an example to fight this racism.

PPS activists at our stall outside the event

His own childen worked hard and were high achievers in all that they did. They also attended a number of peace camps and had taken on board their father’s message of peace. But just weeks after their losing their mother to cancer, tragedy struck the family during the Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009 which left over 1,400 Palestinians dead. Their house was shelled by the Israeli Defense Forces and three of Izzeldin’s daugthers and one niece were killed. One of his daughters was decapitated and he described the blood of his daughters on the walls of his home. As no medical support was provided despite his desperate story been broadcasted on live Israeli television, he was left to carry his own children through the streets of a warn torn Gaza.

After the loss of his daughters, he established a foundation in their memory named Daughters for Life and has campaigned tirelessly to spread his message of peace and justice. While his journey has been marked by deep personal pain and suffering, he spoke from the heart and appealed to the conscience. One of his key messages was that silence in the face of injustice equals complicity in that injustice. It is the responsibility of all to speak out against injustice wherever we see it in the world rather than wait until it is directed at us; otherwise how can we expect others to fight for us if we are silent in their oppression?

Most importantly from a health perspective, he sees healthcare as a model for social justice. As all patients are treated equally within the four walls of a hospital, humans too must strive for equality and break down the walls of discrimination. He described hate as a cancer that must be fought against with the weapons of peace and justice.

He is a courageous example of Palestinian resistance and hope. He reminds us not only with his words but with his deeds that Palestinians are not victims of hate and injustice, they are survivors. It is with this spirit that peace will be achieved.

A friend and members of Palestine Peace & Solidarity join hand in hand with Dr. Abuelaish

This graphic from Visualizing Palestine offers a visual representation of displacement, dislocation and loss of homeland through the forced exile of Palestinians.

As this Al Jazeera documentary shows, the plan to cleanse the land of its Arab inhabitants goes back at least to a conquering and war hungry Napolean but took shape through the Zionist project with British colonial support involving Jewish militias and terror groups.

The massacre at Deir Yassen is the most well known symptom of this violent history but the loss of Palestinian culture and heritage through the organized robbery of Palestinian books is violence of another form. As this excellent documentary from Al Jazeera shows, the fact that these books remain inside Israel in a library that most Palestinians cannot visit is symbolic of the ongoing Nakba.

A commemoration of a tragic event that is still unwinding in military occupation and apartheid must be fuled by tears, but there are many sources of strength and hope. It is to the struggle of some of the most oppressed people on the planet we share that we must turn our attention also. As sweat next to tears, the cries of resistance are as deep as the wounds. Here is a collection of poems read aloud in his own voice by Palestine’s late national poet Mahmoud Darwish to the music of Le Trio Joubran.

“If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears.”  – Marmoud Darwish

And, finally, here is a selection from Fatma Kassem’s 2011 book, Palestinian Women: Narrative histories and gendered memory (Zed Books) in which she tells the story of the ongoing Nakba through the lived herstories of Palestinian women now living inside the State of Israel on what was once Palestinian land.  I shall let the author describe in her own words which are taken from the opening lines of her book:
“This book traces and documents the gendered memory and narrative histories of a group of ordinary urban Palestinian women who witnessed the events of 1948, when the State of Israel was founded. Importantly, these women have all remained on their homeland after it subsequently became Israel, the Jewish state. Told in their own words, these women’s experiences serve as a window for examining the complex intersections of gender, history, memory, nationalism and citizenship in a situation of ongoing colonization and violent conflict between Palestinians and the Zionist State of Israel. Known in the Palestinian discourse of nationalism as the Nakba, or the Catastrophe, this event and those that have followed since 1948 still exert a powerful influence on the present-day lives of these women – as women, as members of the broader Palestinian community to which they belong and as Israeli citizens. Examined from a sociological perspective, the unique experiences of these Palestinian women from the margins can shed more light on the multiple continuing effects of the Nakba.”

The Nakba must end. Palestinians will be free. Until then, those of us with the freedom to raise our voices against injustice must.

Our event was held as part of a number of events organized by the Asian Peoples’ Solidarity for Palestine (APSP) which includes public conferences, rallies, exhibitions, seminars and other events in a number of locations across the region including 15 cities in Afghanistan, India, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and South Korea. This regional initiative is a part of the “Global Campaign to Return to Palestine” organized by members of the network to address the issue of the right of return for the millions of refugees who remain unable to return to their family homes.

The film depicts the story of two Palestinian friends living in the West Bank who volunteer to take part in a suicide attack inside Israel. The story addresses the issues of violence and nonviolence, hope and hopelessness in the ongoing Palestinian struggle under Israeli military occupation. The film screening was followed by a group discussion about different forms of resistance and the meaning of the ongoing daily Nakba for Palestinians and we shared some Arabic salad and hummus and flatbreads together. Thank you to all those who attended and for your patience and interesting input into our discussion.

There are signs that Israel may be gearing up for another assault on Gaza. A popular Israeli web portal has reported that Israel may be preparing a second Operation Pillar of Defense as it conducted last November in which 160 Palestinians were killed and countless more wounded. The article, as reported by Press TV, is claiming that the IDF may carry out another military operation in order to destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure.

War and Peace

The revised peace deal put forward by the Arab League for a settlement between Israel and Palestine has been rejected outright by Hamas. The Arab League’s proposal is a weaker version of that first suggested and rejected by Israel in 2002 and includes potential land swaps. Mondoweiss is reporting that Netanyahu’s backing of the proposal is in part fueled by his fear of an eventual one-state solution: “The purpose of the future agreement with the Palestinians is to prevent the eventuality of a binational state and to guarantee stability and security.”

Over the weekend Israel reportedly bombed a number of sites including a military research facility near the Syrian capital of Damascus, purportedly targeting advanced Iranian-made missiles that were earmarked for Hezbollah. One report suggests 100 soldiers were killed in the strikes. The U.S. has predictably defended Israel’s right to bomb a sovereign nation. You would be forgiven if the varying accounts had left you rather confused about the whole situation.

It is important to note that Israel was the first and has been the loudest to claim that the Assad regime has been using chemical weapons, especially given that the U.S. may use this as a pretext to escalate its involvement (thus far through covert training operations) in backing Syrian opposition forces with lethal force. Interestingly, while there is no hard evidence of the Assad regime using chemical weapons, a recent Haaretz article reports that the United Nations has gathered testimony that indicates that opposition rebel forces have been employing saran gas.

The last time Israel bombed Syria was January 31, but this time the bombings were reportedly on a much larger scale. Such a move could certainly provoke a response that could quickly escalate into a larger regional conflict. As Larry Derfner suggests that it is in part a show of strength, “The rules of this game are that Israel continually flies spy planes over Lebanon, bombs Syria now, and may bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities later, secure in its belief that the targets can’t do much in return… In other words, Israel’s air strikes in Syria were meant to maintain its ability to carry out continued acts of aggression against its enemies without fear of challenge. This is the game, and this is what Israel doesn’t want anyone to change.”

Resistance is Never Futile

Despite the threat of a future Israeli attack on Gaza and the ongoing occupation, Palestinans remain resiliant and defiant. Members of Jenin’s Freedom Theatre in the occupied West Bank recently performed a play depicting the resistance of the villagers of Nabi Saleh based on the testimonies of children from the village itself.

Check out more wonderful images from ActiveStills. You can also check out their latest online newsletter here.

PPS @ May Day 2013.

Palestine Peace & Solidarity attended the main event for May Day in front of City Hall in downtown Seoul. We found ourselves a space amongst the other booths and were quickly absorbed into the crowd as many thousands of workers filled the plaza.

Organic bbopki or Korean traditional candy.

Before the event, our rockstar activists Nyaong and Sarah melted organic sugar in the morning at the fair trade café Tripti in Sinchon where Sarah works and cooked up a treat of some damn fine bbobki (traditional candy) to sell at our booth.

Goodies galore.

Many people visited our booth and supported our activism by purchasing some of our items, including keffiyeh’s from the last keffiyeh factory in Palestine and other items that were hand made by our members and supporters. Thank you to everyone who came out to support us!

Our Fashion Guru is currently setting up our official online merchandise store which will raise money to support our activism here in Korea and also to help us to get over to Palestine to show our support in kind. The online store’s not yet completely finished, but will be in the near future. You can take a sneak preview here.

The little shop of PPS – coming soon!

Hope to see everyone out at the Human Rights Film Festival that will be held from May 23 – 26 at Cheonggye Plaza near Gwanghwamun, Seoul. Admission is, as always, free for the public. We’ll be there and we hope that you’ll drop by to say hi!

2013 Human Rights Film Festival

A free trade agreement (FTA) between Israel and South Korea has been in pipelines for a number of years and a final deal was expected to be agreed upon by April of last year. While no formal agreement has yet been reached, it is hard to follow progress given that these deals are rarely brokered with public consultation. While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists the agreement as still being under consideration, a feasibility study was launched in August of 2009 and completed in August of 2010.

It’s the “Creative Economy”, Stupid

Another important aspect of South Korea-Israel relations is the influence of the so-called “creative economy” that is currently the buzz word in the Blue House. The term comes from Israeli economic policy in which investment is focused on small startup companies which in turn is said to lead to overall economic growth. It came to popularity in Korea by former Yonsei University professor Yoon Jong-lok through his translation of the book ‘Start-Up Nation’. After gaining the ear of the Korean president, Yoon has now been appointed as the second vice minister of the Ministry of Future Planning and Science which has set up the Office of Creative Economy Planning. Following suit, the Ministry of Security and Public Administration established the Office of Creative Government Strategies, and it appears that other ministries are eager to adopt the new trend.

The fact that the Israeli economy relies in part on U.S. aid, which in turn goes into maintaining the military occupation of Palestinian land, seems not to have been a major consideration with the new buzz word floating around. The authors of ‘Start-up Nation’ explain how  Israeli struggled against the odds to achieve its economic miracle despite being “surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources”. Interestingly, this perpetual “state of war” has been used to imprison, kill and maim scores of Palestinians since 1948 and the lack of natural resources is in part made up for by illegally diverting water resources from the occupied Palestinian territories. Presumably these tidbits didn’t make it into the text.

In reality, the catch phrase appears to have little substance to it. No dramatic changes have been put into place since the change in administration that saw Park Geun Hye, daughter of former military dictator Park Chung Hee, come to power in South Korea. In one article that reads like satire an analyst was quoted as saying that, “The creative economy is a magic wand that can resolve all the problems. But the problem is that nobody knows where it is and how to control it.”

Samsung Expanding its Investment in Israel

One company that is caught up the hype is Korea’s largest chaebol or conglomerate, Samsung. The company is increasing its activity in Israel and earlier this month set up a benchmarking team to investigate the Israeli model in which some 500 ventures are launched each year by young Israelis. In February of this year the South Korean company launched a 100 million dollar venture capital fund to invest in early stage high tech start-ups in the U.S. and Israel. An innovation center is being established under the Samsung Semiconductor’s R&D center in Ramat Gan which already employs 200 workers. Apart from investing in startup companies, the center will also invest in Israeli academia and local venture capital funds investing in Israeli startups. Samsung also operates another R&D center in Yakum which it acquired in 2007.

The Most Recent Human Costs of the Military Occupation

The latest United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory (OCHAOPT) report for the week ending April 22 offered the following figures for 2013 thus far: 9 fatalities at the hands of the IDF, 2,032 Palestinians injured by the IDF, 119 incidents resulting in Palestinian casualties or property damage (20 incidents relating in Israeli casualties or property damage), 170 Palestinian structures (including homes) demolished with 327 people displaced. For the week ending April 26, the International Middle East Media Center is reporting that at least 98 military invasions were made by the IDF into Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. At least 52 Palestinians including 6 children were arrested. In addition, claiming to be in response to a rocket attack from Gaza on civilian communities in Southern Israel, the IDF bombed three sites in Gaza, two belonging to the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and another belonging to the military wing of Islamic Jihad. No injuries were reported.

Home demolition in Al Tur, occupied East Jerusalem, 24 April 2013. From ActiveStills.org.

Sameer Issawi to be released back to Jerusalem in 8 months’ time. Photo credit: Active Stills http://www.activestlils.org

Unlike former prisoner Ayman Sharawneh who brokered a deal which saw his was release days before Obama’s visit last month which will see him spend the next ten years exiled to the Gaza Strip, Issawi will not agree to being exiled upon his release and is also firm in his resolve not to give any legitimacy to the military courts. These court proceedings, which have been widely condemned by human rights groups like Amnesty International, are used to detain Palestinians without having to provide a reason for their detention or give them a fair chance to defend themselves.

His first arrest took place when he was just 17 years old. He was arrested again during the second intifada and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. After being released 10 years later in the 2011 prisoner swap negotiated between Israel and Hamas in which 1,027 Palestinians prisoners and detainees were exchanged for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, he found himself rearrested by the IDF on July 7 of 2012 for supposedly violating the terms of his release. He is one of the many prisoners released in the prisoner swap who have since been since rearrested under questionable circumstances.

Sadly, Issawi’s story may not be unique, but it is worth sharing as it illustrates how systematic the imprisonment of Palestinians has become under the Israeli military occupation. He lost one brother in 1994 who was shot dead by the IDF at the age of 16 while taking part in a demonstration against the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre in Hebron in which a Jewish settler had opened fire on over 100 Palestinians Muslims in prayer, killing 25 of them. Assawi’s remaining five siblings have all served prison terms including one brother who is currently serving out his nineteenth year in an Israeli prison. His family faces constant harassment which includes basic supplies being cut off to his mother’s home and the destruction of one brother’s home.

The pending release of Issawi should be considered a victory for his own personal struggle against the Israeli military authorities and will hopefully offer encouragement to others exercising their right to resist, but it is far from a concrete step towards real justice. There is no guarantee that he will not be re-arrested in the future and this is little relief for the more than 160 other Palestinians being kept under administrative detention.

Palestine Peace & Solidarity Action Review

Hyundai Flash Mob (April 12): PPS activists and friends gathered in front of Hyundai Heavy Industries’ main building in Jongno and in locations in Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul, on April 12 to call on the company to make a commitment to end all sales of its products for use by Israel to carry out illegal activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. We were met by a representative of the company who agreed to pass on our complaint and get back to us. We are still waiting on their reply and have promised to return in the future if no such commitment is made. You can read our statement on Hyundai here and see a video of our action below.

GDAMS (April 15): April 15 was the Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) and PPS teamed up with 23 other anti-war/peace groups and other civil society organizations to demand that both Koreas put down their arms for peace. A promotional video was made which won the Craziest GDAMS Video award which I hope you will take a few minutes to watch.

As the day coincided with the reopening of the National Assembly, a press conference was held in front of the assembly building with members from the different groups as well as 15 parliamentarians in attendance. The full press statement can be read here. In addition, a Korea-Japan Civil Society Joint Statement was endorsed by participating groups and published and activists donned Teletubby costumes and gathered messages of peace from the public throughout the day. It is interesting to see how these larger-than-life creatures can disarm even the most pro-war of pedestrians! The day ended with a talk titled ‘Sorrows of Empire: Confronting U.S. Military Imperialism’ by U.S. Veterans for Peace activist Dud Hendrick at which he discussed the impact of the U.S. empire of bases around the world.

We encourage you to join the photo petition by taking a photo of yourself calling for peace on the Korean peninsula and uploading it here onto the GDAMS Tumblr page.

 Palestinian Prisoners’ Day (April 17): PPS prepared a street action a day before the official day, on April 16, in front of the Israeli Embassy in downtown Seoul. Focusing on the practice administrative detention widely employed by Israel on Palestinians including many children, we handed out a bilingual information leaflet from Addameer and demanded an end to this cruel practice. You can read our short report on administrative detention here.

Palestine Peace and Solidarity activists In front of the Israeli Embassy, Seoul (April 16)

The human costs of occupation

The Palestine Center for Human Rights reports that during the week of April 11 – 17 the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) made a total of 71 incursions into the occupied West Bank in which four civilians (including two children) were wounded. A Palestinian shepherd was also shot and wounded by the IDF in the Gaza Strip and fisherman continued to be shot at by Israeli forces imposing the 3-nautical mile limit off Gaza’s western coast. 40 Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank, seven of whom were children.

Resistance and Hope

Palestinian Tent Villages: A new form of protest is gaining popularity in Palestine in which Palestinians are establishing what are referred to as ‘tent villages’ throughout the occupied West Bank in opposition to the development of new illegal, Jewish-only Israeli settlements. In a sense, the use of tents to form villages can be seen as an inversion of the illegal Israeli appropriation of Palestinian land. While not a completely new tactic, the recent use of tent villages as a protest space for Palestinians and international activists supporting their struggle began in January and gained momentum during President Obama’s recent visit. The aim is to build a national movement to occupy land from which Palestinians have been dispossessed.

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: Momentum appears to be increasing in the U.S. for the BDS campaign. The Student Senate at the University of California – Berkeley debated through the night of April 17 and into the morning of April 18, finally passing a resolution to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza.

In addition, the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) recently adopted a resolution in support of the boycott of Israeli academic institutions at its annual meeting. The US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel is stating that it is the first U.S. academic organization to boycott Israeli institutions.

In another success for the BDS movement possibly driven by the concerted effort of Palestine-based Addameer and other Palestinian prisoner support organizatons, G4S, the world’s largest security company in the world has signaled that it will end some of its contracts with Israel. The company currently operates in 125 countries hand has supplies security systems to all of the major Israeli prisons and detention centers where Palestinians are detained. The company claims it will end its contracts which provide security systems for Israeli military checkpoints, one prison and a police station in the occupied West Bank, but will continue to service prisons inside Israel where thousands of Palestinians are held.

Refuseniks: the courage to say No!: 19-year-old Israeli Natan Blanc is the latest brave Israeli to face jail time as a conscientious objector after refusing to serve in the Israeli military in opposition to its brutal occupation of Palestinian territory. He has already racked up 120 days in prison but refuses to abide by anything but his conscience. Other refuseniks, as they are known in Israel, include the nephew of current Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, Bibi Netanyahu who views Israel as an apartheid state. Below is a short interview with Natan which is quite inspiring.