Why You Should Care about the Hikers Held in Iran...

Dear friends,

Nine and a half months ago, two of my friends, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, were arrested along with their friend Josh Fattal while hiking near the Iranian border with Iraqi Kurdistan.

You probably heard about the hikers in the news, but most people don't know much about them personally. They are incredible people I spent a lot of time with while living in Damascus, Syria last year. Shane was doing photo-journalism around the Middle East. Sarah was working without pay for the Iraqi Student Project, teaching English to Iraqi students whose education was interrupted by the war and occupation and helping secure scholarships and spots for them at US universities. She invited me to give a presentation on Palestine to her students, which I happily did. The presentation was enhanced by memorably insightful comments by Sarah that demonstrated clearly her wisdom and experience in movements for social justice and creating a better world for everyone. The last time I saw Sarah and Shane was at a pot-luck they threw shortly before I left.

I was going to write an article about my friends but the article below really says it all. The three hikers' families had asked us not to write anything related to politics about them until now.

Thanks for reading,

Anna


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Why You Should Care about the Three Americans Held in Iran


by Scott Campbell


Watching the news in August 2009, you may have heard about three U.S. citizens being detained in Iran. Arrested for allegedly crossing the Iran-Iraq border on July 31, 2009, they remain in detention nine months later in Iran's Evin prison. Dubbed "the hikers" due to the fact that they were on a hiking trip in the Kurdish region of Iraq when they were detained, in their nine months of imprisonment Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal have had only three visits from Swiss consular officials, have been permitted only one brief phone call to their families, and have been denied access to their Iranian lawyer. Their mothers applied for Iranian visas more than four months ago and have received no response. Though Iranian officials occasionally sputter about "espionage," the only charge they face is "illegal border crossing," punishment for which is a fine, not indefinite detention.

All of this is outrageous enough, but the picture is even bleaker. Thursday, April 22, was the most recent visit to the hikers by the Swiss -- the first since October. Sarah -- who is in solitary confinement -- told them she is suffering from depression and a severe gynecological condition. Shane, originally also held in solitary but now sharing a cell with Josh, told them he is enduring a stomach ailment. The three of them are considering beginning a hunger strike, despite their poor health and isolation.

The three have lamentably become political pawns in the U.S.-Iranian staring contest. The fact is, despite the West's belligerence towards Iran, these three individuals demand our support and solidarity. Though they were simply on a hike, they are much more than hikers -- they are individuals dedicated to working for a better, more just, and more sustainable world. They are comrades, fellow travelers, activists, organizers, whatever you may want to call them.

It is pertinent to mention that Sarah and Shane are good friends whom I've known for several years. I first met Sarah in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2005 when we organized locally to support immigrant rights and participate in the historic May Day marches of 2006 and sent groups down to the border with Mexico to confront nativist vigilantes like the Minutemen. She and Shane lived in a house in Oakland that served as the base for the Midnight Special Law Collective, which provides legal support and much more to activists around the country. In 2007 and 2008, we all worked with Direct Action to Stop the War to organize a series of civil disobedience and direct action efforts to mark the fifth anniversary of the war on Iraq.

Before moving to Syria together, Sarah spent time doing solidarity work with the Zapatistas in Chiapas and Shane went to Iraq to document the U.S. occupation, as well as making two trips to Darfur where he covered the rebels fighting the Sudanese army and militias. In Syria, they lived in a Palestinian refugee camp and did Palestine solidarity work, as well as visiting their friend Tristan Anderson in an Israeli hospital where he has been ever since being shot in the head by an Israeli soldier with a high-velocity tear gas canister while protesting against the separation wall in the West Bank. Before heading to Kurdistan, Sarah worked with Iraqi refugees, while Shane reported on the U.S.'s creation of death squads in Iraq for The Nation.

Having never met Josh, I unfortunately know less about him. He spent time at the Aprovecho Research Center working on issues such as sustainable agriculture, food justice, and permaculture. He is deeply committed to issues of ecology and truly democratic politics.

Sarah, Shane, and Josh are not three random Americans. They are allies in the struggle for a better world. And right now they are in a dire situation. In that spirit, I ask for your help. If you're anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-occupation, help free the hikers. If you oppose sexism, racism, and homophobia, help free the hikers. If you believe in environmental justice and ecological sustainability, help free the hikers. We need them out of there so they can be fighting with us here. Please visit www.freethehikers.org to sign the petition, send letters to the U.S. and Iranian governments, and get in touch to help organize actions to protest their detention and demand their release.

3 Jewish Initiatives to Support BDS & the Movement...

Dear friends,


A lot has been happening over the past few weeks, particularly within the global movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). It may not feel like much if I'm the only list you're on, but there are new campaigns and votes all the time (and if you want notification of them, you can join the BDS email list). The most recent vote at UC San Diego last Wednesday was sent to committee. You can read the resolution, sign the petition, and/or send a letter of support.


I want to tell you about three initiatives—a statement, a book, and an assembly—by Jewish Americans supporting BDS. Here they are, in order…


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I. BREAKING THE LAW OF RETURN


Below is a statement I worked on with Hannah Mermelstein, Nava Etshalom, and Amy Kaplan and an accompanying video. I invite others to read, watch, sign, and/or support the initiative. It speaks for itself…


Recommended: Click here to Watch the Video!


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We are Jews from the United States, who, like Jewish people throughout the world, have an automatic right to Israeli citizenship under Israel's "law of return."

Today there are more than seven million Palestinian refugees around the world. Israel denies their right to return to their homes and land—a right recognized and undisputed by UN Resolution 194, the Geneva Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meanwhile, we are invited to live on that same land simply because we are Jewish.

We renounce this "right" to "return" offered to us by Israeli law. It is not right that we may "return" to a state that is not ours while Palestinians are excluded and continuously dispossessed.

In 1947-49, Zionist militias destroyed more than 500 Palestinian villages and made more than 800,000 Palestinian people refugees in order to create a Jewish state on land where the majority was not Jewish. It is Palestinians who have the right to return to their own land.

Now in Gaza, where more than three quarters of the people are refugees, the State of Israel not only denies the population its right of return, but also incarcerates the entire Gaza Strip under illegal and inhumane siege conditions.

We reject the notion that Israel is a "safe haven" from anti-Semitism for Jews. No one is truly safe when the price of that "security" is oppression, inequality, and occupation of another people.

Today there is a growing transnational movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, called for by Palestinian civil society and supported by activists, artists, and academics around the world, including an increasing number of conscientious Israelis. As part of this campaign, we pledge to boycott the "law of return." As an act of political and ideological divestment, we repudiate the claims the State of Israel makes on us as potential citizens.

We protest Israel's colonial policies and discriminatory laws toward the Palestinian people, as well as the U.S. government's political and financial support of these policies.

We hereby renounce Israel's "law of return" and refuse to lend the state our support, resources, or passports.

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1. If you are a U.S. Jew, you can add your name to the signatories (there are already hundreds!) by emailing breakingthelawofret urn@gmail. com with your name, city, and institutional/ organizational affiliations (optional).


2. Join our Facebook group – all people who support this statement are welcome!


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II. "SHIFTING SANDS"


This is your last chance to pre-order at a discount the upcoming book, Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation, which comes into print on Tuesday!


I contributed a chapter, as did Hedy Epstein, Alice Rothchild, Starhawk, and many others. Israeli journalist Amira Hass wrote the preface and Cindy Sheehan wrote the foreword. The editor, Osie Gabriel Adelfang, will also be donating a portion of the proceeds to the cause. She did an incredible job. Even the cover is beautiful (some of you will recognize the wall around Munira's home from my DVD).


Visit the book's Official Website and note the Events Calendar at the top.


Order the book online (ASAP if you want the pre-order discount). Consider writing a review on Amazon if you read it and like it. I only have twelve for Witness in Palestine (thank you, whoever you are!) but it sure helps!


And don't forget to join the Facebook fan page and/or follow Shifting Sands on Twitter.


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III. U.S. ASSEMBLY OF JEWS: CONFRONTING RACISM & APARTHEID


June 19-22, 2010


Between the Allied Media Conference and the US Social Forum in Detroit this summer, there will be a historic gathering of anti-Zionist Jews to develop strategies for US organizing, advance the BDS call, and much more!


Join the Facebook group and visit the Official Website to get more information, register, propose a session, contribute, check out the endorsements, or spread the word…



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Although it should not be exaggerated, these three initiatives are testimony to a continuing shift in Jewish consciousness on this issue. It is no longer an extraordinary thing to meet Anti-Zionist Jews in the United States, and Jewish Israelis are among those calling loudest for BDS. AIPAC's membership hovers around 100,000 while Jewish Voice for Peace's mailing list has now surpassed that. We join with millions of others of all backgrounds around the US and around world, forming the critical mass needed for change, led by the Palestinian people themselves. As Cecilie Surasky of Jewish Voice for Peace wrote in her incredible piece (read it!) on the UC Berkeley Divestment vote, It's Clear What the Future Looks Like...


If you're not active now, there's no better time to start!