African Americans for Justice in the Middle East and North Africa Statement Regarding the Aggression Against Gaza

The initial signers of this petition include former People's Hurricane Relief Fund director Kali Akuno, and writer and scholar Robin D.G. Kelley. To see the original petition, click here.

African Americans for Justice in the Middle East and North Africa (AAJMENA) strongly condemns Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The arguments offered by the Israeli government for its attack on Gaza are nakedly cynical in both form and content. That a truce had been negotiated, with the assistance of the Egyptian government, between Israel and Hamas only to be broken by the Israeli assassination of Hamas military commander Ahmad Jabari clearly indicates that the Netanyahu government is not interested in peace. Israel is responsible for the escalating violence and for this epic breach of human rights.

This crisis underscores a stunning power imbalance. Nuclear-armed Israel, by far the most powerful military force in the Middle East (and among the mightiest in the world), has unleashed its immense war making capacity on Gaza’s captive population, mobilizing warships and tanks and launching more than 1,000 F-16 airstrikes since the attack began. The use of such weapons on civilians is a flagrant violation of the US Arms Export Control Act.

The aggression against Gaza must be understood as the latest act in the decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government. Blockaded Gaza has been plunged into misery by the Israeli-US effort to thwart the democratic will of the Palestinian people as demonstrated in their 2006 legislative elections. When a coup was attempted against Hamas—and failed—the Israelis sealed Gaza, spinning events to make it appear that those not interested in peace were the Palestinians. As a result, Gaza is the largest open-air prison in the world, with 1.5 million people locked into a roughly 140-square-mile strip of land. This latest humanitarian crisis has caused the disproportionate death and suffering of Palestinians, but casualties on both sides will be the consequence of Israeli aggression.

Rather than taking a stand against the Israeli’s onslaught and issuing an unambiguous demand for an end to the bloodshed, the Obama administration has condemned alleged Palestinian terrorism, repeating the dishonest line that this violent attack is merely in defense of Israel (a position reinforced by the one-sided coverage of the corporate news media). This represents a massive failure on the administration’s part. For all Obama’s denunciation of the Assad regime in Syria, it appears that his administration regards the outright slaughter of civilians in Palestine as acceptable. It is crucial that we recognize the extent of US complicity in the bloodshed; our tax dollars ($8.5 million a day) enable Israeli militarism at a time when those funds are desperately needed to fill gaps in services and infrastructure back home.

As African Americans and people of African descent in the US from academia, activism and various social movements, we cannot remain silent. We call upon all people of good will to:

1. Endorse this statement.

2. Communicate with the White House and the US Department of State to request that President Obama demand that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF cease the bombardment of Gaza and withdraw their armed forces immediately. Insist that the US condition aid to Israel on compliance with U.S. and international law.

3. Contact the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. and demand that Israel withdraw its forces and end the blockade.

4. Send your local media outlet a letter to the editor expressing outrage against the provocative and murderous acts of the Israeli government.

5. Join protests against Israeli aggression.

6. Support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and back the efforts of labor unions and student groups to compel their employers and administrators to divest from companies that do business in Israel.

Photo above by Abdul Aziz.

New Orleans City Council Candidate Launches Anti-Obama Attack

District B City Council candidate Eric Strachan sent out a mailer this week attacking one of his opponents for supporting Barack Obama. While President Obama is not popular in Louisiana, he is popular in New Orleans, including in the district Strachan seeks to represent. In 2008, Obama easily carried the city with 79% of the vote in New Orleans. Strachan, a Republican who switched his registration to Democratic in 2011, presents himself as a Democratic candidate, while also seeking Republican support.

In the mailer, which was paid for by the Strachan campaign, District B candidate Dana Kaplan is also attacked for being a liberal, a community organizer, and for her work with Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. Strachan also overreaches in claiming credit for establishing the Office of Inspector General. In fact, the office was approved by voters in 1995, long before Strachan's career in government began, and implemented a decade later through a push by Councilmember Shelly Midura, among others.

New Series of Short Videos on Al Jazeera Highlight Election Issues

Al Jazeera English is a 24-hour news channel available in more than 250 million households in over 130 countries. They have 65 bureaus across the globe, mostly rooted in the global South. As part of their US election coverage, they are airing this series of short videos focused on some of the issues that have shaped this election. The videos were produced by a team that includes New Orleans journalist Jordan Flaherty and filmed in cities across the US.

Miami - Immigration

Washington, DC - Foreign Policy

Arlington, VA - Health Care

Chicago - Money in Politics

Fort Lauderdale - Economy

Milwaukee - Economy

The channel has also been airing shorter versions that can be seen at the following links: Miami, Washington, Arlington, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, and Milwaukee.

If you're not with us, are you against us?

If you’re not with us, are you against us?

Where do Louisiana Democrats stand on healthcare reform?

Why are members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation having such a difficult time either supporting President Obama’s healthcare reform initiative, or at least supporting an alternative that effectively directly addresses the deadly healthcare circumstances in Louisiana?

For some of the more fortunate around the country, healthcare reform is more a question of only resources: how do we build a sustainable system that gives everyone the right to healthcare coverage and access to quality, affordable healthcare? How do we break free from the economically unsustainable system of healthcare that while profitable for healthcare insurers, will eventually bankrupt us all.?

But in Louisiana, the stakes are much higher. . . it’s a question of life and death for some Louisiana family every day.

No one can deny that Louisiana is the pitiful poster child for healthcare reform.

Just a few of the more compelling circumstances which cost the lives every day in Louisiana that our congressional leadership is apparently unwilling to address:

• Louisiana consistently has among the worst medical outcomes of any state;
  § 50th in deaths from diabetes;
  § 50th in breast cancer deaths;
  § 49th in infant mortality;
  § 46th in overall cancer deaths
  § 48th in deaths from colorectal cancer;
  § 42nd in deaths from stroke and cerebrovascular diseases.
• Overall we rank 46th in access to healthcare and healthcare outcomes (according to the non partisan Commonwealth Fund State Scorecard on Health System Performance, 2007). 61 or 64 parishes in Louisiana are medically underserved and 54 are classified as poor in terms of healthcare access)

If this is not compelling reason for our congressional delegation to support some kind of effective healthcare reform, perhaps nothing is.

• Louisiana has the fifth highest rate of uninsured in the country with a third of African Americans uninsured, more than half of Latinos (legally in the country) uninsured.
  
• And Louisiana ranks fifth to last in employer sponsored health insurance.
  

Because of these inhumanely high levels of uninsured, the dearth of employers who make healthcare available to their workers and the poor penetration and lack of competition among insurers and managed care organizations, Louisiana needs a public option or some other effective means to give our people real choice when it comes to quality, affordable healthcare coverage available to our citizens. An “exchange” composed of the effective oligopoly of Louisiana’s private healthcare insurers and managed care organizations is no real choice at all. We need a public option to protect us from the healthcare insurance industry that has in recent months showered Congress with millions in campaign cash.

Time and time again, hundreds of thousands of working poor folks and African American voters had placed their loyalty and their hopes in Democrats in elections for Congress in Louisiana.

Trust, especially when it comes to government and politics, is a finite virtue.

It’s time for Louisiana’s congressional delegation to stand with us, and not with the entrenched moneyed interests that share responsibility for the dire healthcare circumstances people in Louisiana suffer and die from everyday.

If you’re not with us, are you against us?