Press Release from the GEAR Campaign, 30 June 2010. Contact: Charlotte Bunch, 732-642-5271 or cbunch@ig.org, Bani Dugal, 646-404-4210 or bdugal@bic.org, Rachel Harris, 301-535-9702 or rachel@wedo.org

The Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign celebrates the United Nations General Assembly resolution, agreed to on 30 June and to be formally adopted by the General Assembly on Friday, 2 July, to establish “UN Women”—the new gender equality entity at the UN.   This move has been sought by women’s organizations and other civil society organizations around the world since the UN established a System-Wide Coherence Panel for UN Reform in 2006. Charlotte Bunch of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University, a founding member of the GEAR Campaign, stated, “We have high expectations for this new agency to be a solid foundation for advancing the human rights of women as central to global policy efforts to reduce poverty and move toward greater realization of peace and democracy in the world.   The coalition of women’s groups and other social justice, human rights and development organizations that played a pivotal role in this effort will now turn its efforts toward ensuring that the new body has the human and financial resources necessary to succeed.”

Particularly notable in the resolution are the paragraphs regarding the importance of civil society participation in the new entity.  The body must have increased operational presence at the country level including engagement with women’s groups and other civil society organizations invested in gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The GEAR Campaign’s global, regional, and national networks will be contacting UN representatives at all levels to work with the transition process and the new Under Secretary-General, once appointed, to ensure they are connected with organizations on the ground ready to provide their expertise and support.

As the new entity is developed, GEAR supporters will continue to advocate for four major elements critical to its implementation:

• Meaningful, systematic and diverse civil society participation at all levels
• Strong, country-level operational capacity and universal coverage
• Ambitious funding with stable and predictable resources aimed at reaching $1 billion within a few years
• Strong leadership at the top with an Under Secretary-General who combines a global vision with gender equality expertise on the ground

“We know that this is only the beginning,” stated Rachel Harris of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO).  “We must continue to ensure that we are building a United Nations that really works for all women on the ground.  Implementation requires active engagement of all stakeholders to get the entity up and running successfully.”

Background

The GEAR Campaign is a network of over 300 women’s, human rights and social justice groups around the world that have been working for four years to gain UN Member State and UN Secretariat approval for creation of a larger more coherent coordinated UN agency that can advance further the UN’s   mandate of working for gender equality as a crucial component of development, human rights, humanitarian concerns, peace and security.

The new Gender Equality Entity to be headed by an Under-Secretary General, will consolidate the four existing UN bodies on women, increase operational capacity at the country level and have gain increased funding for work on women’s empowerment and advancement. The UN currently has four separate entities dedicated to women’s issues which will be combined in the new entity: the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), and the Office of the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI).  Bringing these together and coordinating their work more with gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system should the UN and governments to deliver more effectively on their obligations and many commitments to advance gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights.

For more information please go to the GEAR Campaign website http://www.gearcampaign.org – or contact the GEAR Campaign at: gearcampaign@gmail.com

Photo taken by tm at March for Palestinian Human Rights in Lebanon yesterday. Click on photo to visit the gallery on Flickr

A couple of days ago, I read an article in which an American Palestinian describes his troubles in renting a house in Lebanon, and how he at least has a little advantage on his fellow Palestinians because he holds a foreign passport. He goes on to talk about Lebanese racism towards Palestinians first, and towards migrant workers as well.

Palestinians have a right to a life of peace and comfort that has not been granted to them in their land nor in Arab countries where they live. Their movement is restricted in Egypt, they have suffered in Jordan, were kicked out of Kuwait, and their physical and political activities are closely monitored in Syria. They are discriminated against in most Arab countries, but don’t dare to talk about their situation except in Lebanon, not because their suffering is greater, that is true relatively, but because they know that they will not be held accountable for their words and writings. They will not be held in the airport or at the borders. In Lebanon, they have a freedom they have never known or lived since they were kicked out of their homeland.

Palestinians tried to live their freedom – chaos on Lebanese land. They withheld freedom of expression and mobility and living from Lebanese. Instead of trying to liberate their land and country, they worked to build an alternative state that passes through Jounieh, not through the Southern borders. We don’t want to open wounds of the past every time the Palestinian issue is brought up because their rights are human rights and Lebanon must work seriously to deliver some of these rights according to capabilities that do not affect Lebanese citizens negatively.

But in return, have the Palestinians made any effort to express good will towards Lebanon? Have they controlled terrorism in Nahr Al Bared camp before the Lebanese army had to go into a harsh battle with them and lose over 100 martyrs? Have they delivered to the Lebanese authorities a fugitive who is hiding in Ain El Helwe camp? Did they prevent a terrorist from sneaking in to blow up commercial stores in East Saida villages? Did they control and turn in their weapons outside the camps in compliance with agreements of the National Dialogue Conference and to preserve the respect of the Lebanese state? Did they take permission from the required authorities to hold their military maneuvers in Qusaya and other places?

Is it always up to Lebanon to give up and concede and tolerate, and after all this, someone comes to hold us responsible and accuse our government and people of racism? In all countries of the world, the Palestinian is treated like any other citizen because he is like everyone else. But in Lebanon, he is above Lebanese citizens because he is above the law.

And so enough, a thousand times enough, to the statements and speeches, and television interviews of organizations that don’t exist, or that represent only a hundred or so people, while the majority has escaped from their clutch. Justice, enough offending and bruising Lebanon, destroying its well-being and identity. These are nothing but biddings that aim to hurt others and pay back for older unsettled accounts that belong to no one now that the snow has melted.

And finally, since the Palestinian Authority still exists, why doesn’t it issue official passports to all Palestinians on Lebanese land so that they are counted and identified, and can thereby get work permits just like any other Arab citizen?

Do they dare to discuss this option? More importantly, can they agree to this option? Will the Palestinian Authority respond? Of course not, and if the answer is set already, will it always be “Lebanon’s fault?”

Translated from الاستقواء الفلسطيني على لبنان published in Al Nahar newspaper on Monday, June 28.

Hmm..

Like thousands of other Lebanese fans (and wannabe fans), I was excited about Placebo performing in Beirut this Wednesday. For many years, their music and lyrics, full of hurt and angst and queerness, have accompanied me through phases of depression, anger, calm, and even hope.

Last week the attacks on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla inspired me to learn more about strategies of Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS), widely viewed as a growing movement to end Israeli apartheid and occupation. And so, I put together a quick talk where two speakers explained the basics of the movement to me and some fellow activists. The movement is largely inspired by the similar campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, which was successful back in the 80s due to international pressure. I will not explain much about the movement. Please read about it to find out more. Let me focus now on the issue of Placebo.

I only find out about Placebo playing in Tel Aviv on Saturday (same night of their concert). It was also the same day when I understood why it was necessary to pressure musicians NOT to play in Israel. Our goal is to de-legitimize the state of Israel, which is an enemy state to both Palestine and Lebanon. And boycott should not only be in form of economic boycott on a personal or industry level of companies that are Israeli or that invest in Israel. Economic boycott is not enough. We must also boycott academics, sports, art, and culture that is Israeli or that “invests in” Israel. What does it mean to not “invest in” Israel sports-wise? It means that national sports teams around the world must refuse to play with Israeli teams. The whole world must always, every minute, be pressuring Israel to end its apartheid regime, lift the Gaza blockade, and be held accountable for the crimes committed towards Palestinians and Lebanese over the past 60+ years. Nobody must be playing sports with Israel! Nobody should be performing in Israel either. When a band or a musician perform in Israel, they are not only acting like Israel is a normal state, they are ignoring the fact that only kilometers away from their stage, millions of Palestinians are living in humiliation, starvation, poverty, dirt, rape, fear, depression, hopelessness, and more.

To me, it is as if I went to visit a friend who has someone locked in her basement, crying and starving, while I sit in the living room with my friend having coffee and listening to music. It is not acceptable. It makes my friend’s house seem normal. I would even go so far as to say it makes me an accomplice in the crime. I should no longer be friends with this person. And if I want to be, I should refuse to visit her house until she lets the prisoner in the basement go. The Zionist agenda, on the other hand, works hard to get more artists, more events, more sports teams into Israel to make it seem like everything is normal. Any sane person knows that everything is not normal. Everything, in fact, is rather severely messed up. There is no such thing as: “this is art, not politics” or “why do you have to ruin art with politics?” or “art is above politics.” No, my friends, art springs from the very personal, from the very pains of life, from our struggles, from our feelings, from our oppressions, from our joys, from falling in love, from breaking up, from dreaming, from being, it springs from our hearts and it touches the world. Art is the food of revolutions. Art is always political. And even if you, for some reason, believe art is separate from politics, you should still be able to see the problem in international artists traveling to Israel to perform there as if everything is normal.

I was raised to believe quite strongly that there is no solution to the Palestinian crisis and that Palestinians should just get over themselves and give up. As I read and learn more about the conflict, however, I realize that resistance is important, for me personally, and as a message I must convey to others. I must resist the helplessness promoted by the Zionist entity. I must resist the nonchalance that my family taught me. And I must believe, despite how I have been raised, that there is hope for justice in Palestine. There is hope for justice for all Palestinians. And to me, that hope is in the BDS movement. History has proven that it works since the very first act of boycott the abolitionist movement performed back in the 1700s when the Brits started drinking their tea without sugar because the sugar trade was the backbone of the slavery channels from Africa to America to Britain. There is no doubt in my head. The BDS movement to end Israeli apartheid will work. Check out this song by Artists United Against Apartheid refusing to play in South Africa back in the 80s.

And so, I don’t want any artist, especially one that I love, to play in Israel. Many, such as Carlos Santana, Elvis Costello, Gorillaz, the Pixies, Gill Scott-Heron, have canceled gigs there specifically in protest of Israel’s war crimes. Others have been pressured to do so but have not cared. Placebo is one of them. They played yesterday. Here is a video of Brian describing how he loved eating hommos in Israel and how attractive its people are:

If I had known about this before Saturday, I would have protested, in the humble ways that I protest.. by blogging, tweeting, writing emails, letters, posting on forums, spreading the word, doing anything I can to ask people to pressure Placebo into not playing in Tel Aviv. I have learned my lesson. I will be more alert about these things now. And I start right now by asking you to join me in asking Elton John to cancel his June 17th concert in Israel. Check out this brilliant video made with Elton’s own songs:

HEY ELTON from John Greyson on Vimeo.

and please spread the word.

What Does This Have to Do with Artists Playing in Lebanon?

You might say: Ok, fine, I support asking artists not to play in Israel, but it has nothing to do with artists playing in Lebanon. You might say this for a variety of reasons, including perhaps that you really want great artists to perform in Lebanon or that you think: “But all musicians play in Israel!! Do we boycott all of them??” Well, that’s going to be very difficult, of course. But to not boycott just because boycotting is so difficult is lame. That’s exactly what they want us to think: “Hahaha.. idiots! You might as well boycott everything!” Um, no, but I will boycott everything I can.

You might also ask “but then nobody will come to Lebanon anymore!!” Don’t worry. They will still come. In fact, we are such a powerful cultural destination that we can use it to our advantage to convince artists not to perform in Israel. Ideally, they will choose Beirut over Tel Aviv. Yes, we can make that happen. Wouldn’t that be awesome? And not just Beirut, but all the progressive cities in the world. And so to your question: “Will this small action feed the hungry children of Gaza??” I answer: Maybe not right now. But it is part of a much larger movement that will force Israel to end its occupation and lift its blockade. “All because Tori Amos refused to play there??” you will ask again cynically. Not all because, I will say, but partly, yes. Every little push counts.

It gets particularly difficult with music. I will give you a personal example. I love Regina Spektor. I loved her music for a while before I learned that she plays often in Tel Aviv and that she is a vocal supporter of the Israeli state. It made me very sad. But what do I do? Stop listening to her? Who can hate Regina’s music? Not me. Will I go to her concert when she plays in Lebanon? I will want to buy the first ticket. It will be a difficult choice that I am free to make myself. Perhaps I will build a website, explaining to her, as her fan, why she should boycott Israel. Perhaps I will write her emails and letters. Perhaps I will hope that with the support we are building, she will realize that BDS is important. Perhaps I am crazy? Still, I will do something. I will think about it. I will take action. I will not say: “she is above all politics just because she makes great music.” No. Everyone must be held accountable for their choices, artists especially.

But that is still a hypothetical case that (I hope) we will deal with later. I personally see a much simpler scenario to deal with right now. Placebo just played Tel Aviv, enjoyed Israeli hommos, less than a week after the Flotilla murders, while Gaza is still being bombed, are coming to Beirut a week later, and expect me to just smile & go to their concert? Nope. Aslan, performing under apartheid is so incredibly against Placebo’s spirit that I can’t understand it at all. But it’s too late to explain it to them now. Not going on Wednesday and letting people know why I am not going is a small action I can do. I am as free as you are in you going to the concert.

Meanwhile, the Gorillaz will be playing Byblos in July. They, on the other hand, took a stand and canceled a gig in Israel this week. Hell yeah! Enjoy some awesome Gorillaz tunes as a treat:

In case you would, be careful!

On a similar note, I receive an email or SMS message asking if I’ve requested a new password for my gmail account at least once every 3 months. Hacker, be you friend or stranger, if you get in, please do help out with the 1300 unread emails I’ve been meaning to find time to organize.

Before the Attack

We tweeted and tweeted and #flotilla did not trend, although it was technically ahead of many trending topics over 24 hours. Even the Jerusalem Post recognized the phenomenal effort we put. I flipped through the TV channels and found no news covering the topic, except for occasional updates from Al Jazeera. By 5am Beirut time, over 13,000 viewers had been watching the live stream continuously for hours. The flotilla had been surrounded by Israeli warships and air force. Nobody reported about it. I stupidly thought there was no way Israel would attack the activists, who all appeared in positive, high spirits on the live stream. One young woman, an Arab American laughed and said to the camera she apologizes to her family for not telling them she was going to Gaza again. She was really cool. Max, I thought, the Israeli warships would block the flotilla near Gaza and escort them to the tents they had prepared in Ashdod. How else does one deal with a peaceful, non-violent protest?

And so, I went to sleep, waiting to hear the news of the flotilla in the morning. I woke up to the horror that 16 activists had been killed and that the flotilla had been captured by the Israeli military. I was shocked and speechless for a good hour. #Flotilla had risen to over 0.7% on twitter but still wasn’t trending. It is undoubtedly a case of censorship. I challenge anyone to tell me it wasn’t. I saved all the graphs. @ShantDotMe suggested that we try and trend another term since twitter must have blocked #Flotilla. I figured they also had the excuse of flotilla being a common noun, so I suggested we go for #FreedomFlotilla. An hour later, both “Gaza Flotilla” and #FreedomFlotilla were trending and have been for the past couple of hours.

We did not mean for #Flotilla to trend because of a massacre. No, that was not our purpose at all. We wanted #Flotilla to trend while the boats were on their way towards Gaza so that the world could follow what was happening.

The Wrong Kind of Trending

But all of that doesn’t matter. We did not mean for #Flotilla to trend because of a massacre. No, that was not our purpose at all. We wanted #Flotilla to trend while the boats were on their way towards Gaza so that the world could follow what was happening. We wanted the world to follow the facts, to meet the faces on board the boats, to see the situation unfold in front of their eyes. The Zionist propaganda machine is extremely powerful and it was on full speed last night with arguments like: people on the flotilla are armed, they are on their way to murder thousands of Israelis, they are smuggling guns to give to Hamas, all bullshit accusations. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla was an international group of over 700 people from 40 different countries, carrying thousands of tons of aid to the Palestinians who have been under siege for over 1080 days. Do you think they would be brave enough to sail to Gaza, knowing the threat they were under, if their purpose was to smuggle arms? Of course the point was not only to deliver the aid; they were on a political action to break the siege. Their action was brave and courageous and pacifist and non-violent. The world continues to be silent about the siege. Gazans continue to suffer. And so the activists wanted to wake the world up by sailing straight to Gaza through international waters.

And so, what is Israel to do in the face of non-violent protest? First, of course, Israel tries to play the innocent helpful role: give us the aid, we will deliver it ourselves, knowing the organizers would not agree because this is not an isolated incident of sending aid to Gaza. This is a political message to break the siege. Second, of course, Israel tries to delegitimize the non-violence, accusing the activists of “provoking” the Israeli warships. But who provoked who really? Israel taunted the activists, circling them by sea and sky, in international waters, signaling and threatening to take action. The flotilla boats then huddled close together and diverted their course a little in order to avoid the clash with the Israeli warships, and their spirits remained high. The Zionist taunting did not work. Israel weighs out the options:

1. Attack the flotilla, kill a few people, scare everyone from ever attempting such actions again, take a tiny bit of criticism, remain protected by impunity, whitewash the crime with excuses of self-defense, and come out of it unscathed; or
2. allow the activists to reach Gaza, break the siege, deliver some aid, and give hope to thousands of other activists that non-violent marches (or sails) actually work?

Meen Irhabi?

The choice is obvious. The Israelis thus act ruthlessly – even in the face of such non-violence – to scare the hell out of these activists and any others. Their message is clear: you cannot resist Zionism, not even non-violently. They will shut down every glimpse of it lest it grow too powerful. And no, my dear Arab leaders, you are not getting off the hook so easily. All of you are racing now to denounce the attacks on the flotilla. Where were you a few days ago when the mission needed your support? Where are all the other boat and ships from all the other countries to join the flotilla? Astankir, nastankir.. shut the fuck up!

*Calms down*

So. Israel knew exactly what to do. The question now is: what are we to do? Our choice is just as obvious.

Let’s trend #flotilla on twitter all day tomorrow, Sunday, May 30, by tweeting news, thoughts, and links about the Freedom Flotilla’s trajectory to Gaza. Once we trend it, millions of people will see the term and click on it to find out what it means and why it’s trending. We will also be providing moral support and sailing (twailing?) in solidarity with the brave activists risking their lives on board the flotilla. Here’s what you can do:

1. Be online on Sunday, May 30 starting 12pm Cairo time (5am New York time) and throughout the day. We want to get #flotilla trending by the early afternoon and keep it trending through the night.
2. Let us know you have joined us. Sign up here or tweet to @nmoawad or @justicentric.
3. Recruit fellow tweeps to join us.
4. Use Facebook to get the message across.
5. Get more information here: http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/cms/en/flotilla.aspx and here.
6. Follow all the tweets on the #flotilla here.

Group trending is a lot of fun & will connect you to so many wonderful new tweeps. So get on board; we need every tweet. When tweeting, take note to:

1. Hash #Flotilla only once (or else it doesn’t count).
2. Don’t use the automatic retweet button (or else your tweet doesn’t count).
3. Tweet often but not more than once or twice a minute (or else your account will get blocked).
4. Tweet useful information about the #flotilla and #Gaza. Our mission is to raise awareness, not simple to trend.

It’s very short notice but we can do it!

Hi Nadine,

Facebook will roll out changes today that will make it easier for our users to understand and control their privacy settings. As this change will have an impact on our users, we wanted to let you, a valued advertising partner, know about it. Please note that this change will not affect your advertising campaigns and there is no action required on your part.

Facebook is a company that moves quickly, constantly innovating and launching new products to improve the user experience. The feedback we heard from users was that in our efforts to innovate, some of our privacy settings h ad become confusing.

We believe in listening to our users and taking their feedback into account whenever possible. We think the following changes address these concerns by providing users with more control over their privacy settings and making them more simple to use.

Starting today, Facebook will:

*	Provide an easy-to-use “master” control that enables users to set who can see the content they share through Facebook.  This enables users to choose, with just one click, the overall privacy level they’re comfortable with for the content they share on Facebook. Of course, users can still use all of the granular controls we’ve always offered, if they wish.
*	Significantly reduce the amount of information that must be visible to everyone on Facebook. Facebook will no longer require that users’ friends and connections are visible to everyone. Only Name, Profile Picture, Networks and Gender must be publicly available. Users can opt to make all other connections private.
*	Make it simple to control whether other applications and websites access any user information. While a majority of our users love Facebook apps and Facebook-enhanced websites, some may prefer not to share their information outside of Facebook. Users can now opt out with just one click.

I encourage you to take a moment to read our CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post and check out the new Facebook Privacy Page.

Thanks,
The Facebook Ads Team