24 hours for Palestine

Carta que recebi do Avaaz e cuja assinatura da petição online recomendo. Para já, pelo que percebi para além de Portugal, também a Espanha e França votarão favoravelmente à entrada da Palestina nas Nações Unidas como estado observador não-membro.

Only 24 hours until the UNGA vote, we are winning country after country across Europe with our massive push. Click below to sign up and send a direct message:

Dear Avaazers,

In 24 hours the UN will vote on whether to recognise a Palestinian state. 1.6 million of us have helped get over 100 countries to back this historic peace initiative! But Israel's far-right government is furiously opposing it and many countries are still on the fence -- let's get to 2 million voices for Palestinian freedom!

In 24 hours, the UN will face a historic vote on Palestinian statehood. While extremists in Israel and Gaza killed civilians on both sides last week, responsible leaders backed this peace initiative, and it needs our help to win.

UN recognition of Palestine could help end 40 years of repression and lead to two states -- Israel and Palestine -- living in peace and security side by side. 1.6 million of us have signed on and helped get over 100 countries to support the bid! But Israel's far-right government is lobbying hard and many countries are still on the fence.

Heads of state are deciding right now. Our petition is already being widely covered in the media and delivered through actions like a 4 storey-high flag (at right) in front of key government buildings. Click below and let's get to 2 million voices for a freedom and peace that the Palestinian people have not known for a generation:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_worlds_next_nation_eu_rb/?bVEOXbb&v=19616

After the terrible violence and killings in Gaza and Southern Israel in recent weeks, the urgency for a sustainable solution could not be more obvious. This is a legitimate, non-violent proposal that could turn the tide on endless bad-faith 'peace' talks that simply provide cover for the steady illegal colonization of Palestine by Israeli ‘settlements’. This bid could rescue the path to a fair peace process between two states.

The Israeli and US governments are strangely calling the Palestinian bid ‘unilateral’, when in fact it's a massively popular initiative and all it's asking is for the world to vote. The UN, World Bank and IMF say that the Palestinians are ready to run their own state, if only the Israeli military occupation would end.

Last year the US alone blocked a Palestinian bid at the UN Security Council. But in the UN General Assembly, all nations vote and this resolution could end the US hegemony over this conflict. It can't make Palestine a UN member, but it can declare Palestine a state that could have access to a range of international organisations, and it is a crucial step towards ending the occupation.

After our mega campaign in Europe, France and Spain appear to be voting yes! If we all raise our voices now we can persuade all countries to stand on the right side of history and back a Palestinian state. With firm support and financial aid, this could be a turning point. Join the urgent petition to support the bid now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_worlds_next_nation_eu_rb/?bVEOXbb&v=19616

Palestinian statehood will not bring a resolution to this intractable conflict overnight, but UN recognition will change the dynamics and will begin to unlock the door towards freedom and peace. Across Palestine, people are preparing, with hope and expectation, to reclaim a freedom their generation has never known. Let's stand with them.

With hope and determination,

Dalia, Alice, Jeremy, Marie, Ricken, Aldine, Nick, Pascal and the rest of the Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

Two-State Solution on the Line (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/opinion/global/brundtland-carter-two-state-solution-on-the-line.html

UK to back upgrading Palestinian UN status (FT)
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2cc62538-37f3-11e2-b8d3-00144feabdc0.html

Palestinian statehood wins European backing (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/19/palestinian-statehood-wins-european-backing

France indicates support for Palestinian UN vote (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/22/france-palestine-vote-idUSL5E8MMCID20121122

Palestinian Authority rejects calls to postpone statehood bid (RT)
http://rt.com/news/abbas-palestine-un-statehood-504/

Q&A: Palestinian bid for upgraded UN status (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13701636

Guerra civil na Síria

Tenho tido alguma dificuldade em escrever sobre o que se está a passar na Síria. Claramente o governo de Al Assad Junior está envolvido numa perseguição violentíssima aos revoltosos, sem dó nem piedade e mostrando todos os tiques de ditador brutal tão comuns pelo médio oriente. A oposição, que inicialmente imitava em estilo a revolução egípcia e tunisina entrou numa metamorfose e é hoje uma facção militar (ou muitas, não é totalmente claro) e em que alguns relatórios mostram que está a cometer crimes muito semelhantes aos do tal ditador.

O regime Baath da Síria representa uma espécie de ditadura monárquica disfarçada de república, liderada por um todo poderoso líder sem o mais pequeno carisma. Ainda parece ter o apoio de uma parte relevante da população, mas como não tem a coragem de fazer eleições livres nem ele saberá nunca quantos sírios estão ao seu lado.

Novas imagens de tortura e guerra civil vão chegando aos media mundiais fruto das novas tecnologias e do fenómeno dos repórteres-cidadãos. Estes videos ultrapassam em violência e crueldade tudo aquilo que nos habituámos a ver na televisão durante décadas (não porque o fenómeno não existisse, mas pelos códigos das televisões que editam as imagens de forma a que possam ser mostradas a um público familiar).

Resumindo, Assad e o seu regime são hoje monstros que sobrevivem apenas devido aos medos: medo das alternativas, medo da sua polícia secreta e medo de uma guerra civil.

O que fazer então? Mais pressão diplomática e económica? Dar armas à resistência? Intervir militarmente de forma limitada (ar e mar)? Ocupação geral do país? Deixar que qualquer intervenção seja feita apenas pela liga árabe? Cortar a cabeça da serpente (leia-se operação do tipo Abbottabad)?
O conselho de segurança das Nações Unidas, conseguiu mais uma vez falhar uma decisão sobre o assunto. Ocidente de um lado, Rússia e China do outro. Por vezes parece que nada mudou desde os anos 50...

Sei que voltarei a este assunto novamente, mas para já deixo-vos com um texto que a ONG Avaaz me enviou esta tarde e que me tocou profundamente:

Dear friends,
 
Powered by millions of online actions and donations from 75,000 of us, our community is playing a central role in supporting the Syrian people as they persist in peaceful protest against all odds. Together, we're empowering citizen journalism, smuggling in medical supplies and western journalists, and much more. We're making a difference, but the staggering bravery of the Syrian people is their gift to the rest of us. Read this email for the full story, or look at this recent media coverage of Avaaz's work on Syria: BBC, CNN, El Pais, TIME, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, AFP.

This morning, 4 western journalists are home safe with their families, the echoes of the horror and heroism of Baba Amr still ringing in their ears. Over 50 Syrian activists, supported by Avaaz, volunteered to rescue them and scores of wounded civilians from the Syrian army’s killzone. Many of those incredible activists have not survived the week.

Abu Hanin is one of the heroes. He’s 26, a poet, and when his community needed him, he took the lead in organizing the citizen journalists that Avaaz has supported to help the voices of Syrians reach the world. The last contact with Abu Hanin was on Thursday, as regime troops closed in on his location. He read his last will and testament to the Avaaz team in Beirut, and told us where he had buried the bodies of the two western journalists killed in the shelling. Since then, his neighborhood of Baba Amr has been a black hole, and we still don’t know his fate.

It’s easy to despair when seeing Syria today, but to honour the dead, we must carry forward the hope they died with. As Baba Amr went dark and fears of massacre spread, Syrians took to the streets -- yet again -- across the country, in a peaceful protest that showed staggering bravery.

Their bravery is our lesson, the gift of the Syrian people to the rest of us. Because in their spirit, in their courage to face the worst darkness our world has to offer, a new world is being born.

And in that new world, the Syrian people are not alone. Millions of us from every nation have stood with them time and time again, right from the beginning of their struggle. Nearly 75,000 of us have donated almost $3 million to fund people-powered movements and deliver high-tech communications equipment to help them tell their story, and enable the Avaaz team to help smuggle in over $2 million worth of medical supplies. We’ve taken millions of online actions to push for action from the Security Council and the Arab League and for sanctions from many countries, and delivered those online campaigns in dozens of stunts, media campaigns and high-level advocacy meetings with top world leaders. Together we’ve helped win many of these battles, including for unprecedented action by the Arab League, and oil sanctions from Europe.

Our team in Beirut has also provided a valuable communications hub for brave and skilled activists to coordinate complex smuggling operations and the rescue of the wounded and the journalists. Avaaz does not direct these activities, but we facilitate, support and advise. We have also established safe houses for activists, and supported the outreach and diplomatic engagement of the Syrian National Council -- the opposition movement’s fledgling political representative body. Much of the world's major media have covered Avaaz’s work to help the Syrian people, including features on BBC, CNN, El Pais, TIME, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, AFP and many more, citing our "central role" in the Syrian peaceful protest movement.

Today, a dozen more nightmares like that visited on the city of Homs are unfolding across Syria. The situation will get worse before it gets better. It will be bloody, and complicated, and as some protesters take up arms to defend themselves, the line between right and wrong will blur. But President Assad’s brutal regime will fall, and there will be peace, and elections, and accountability. The Syrian people simply will not stop until that happens -- and it may happen sooner than we all think.

Every expert told us at the beginning that an uprising in Syria was unthinkable. But we sent in satellite communications equipment anyway. Because our community knows something that the experts and cynics don’t -- that people power and a new spirit of citizenship are sweeping our world today, and they are fearless, and unstoppable, and will bring hope to the darkest places. Marie Colvin, an American journalist covering the violence in Homs, told Avaaz before she died, "I’m not leaving these people." And neither will we.

With hope, and admiration for the Syrian people and courageous citizens everywhere,

Ricken, Wissam, Stephanie, Alice, David, Antonia, Will, Sam, Emma, Wen-Hua, Veronique and the whole Avaaz team

P.S. If you want to do more, click here to help keep our lifeline of hope into Syria open:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/smuggle_hope_into_syria_rb//?vl