AHMET DOGAN, via Ann Wright, Greta Berlin
Professor Dogan, whose 18-year-old son Furkan was killed during the Israeli military raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in May 2010, is in Washington, D.C. He hopes to convince U.S. officials to open an independent investigation into his son’s killing by Israeli commandos and to discuss with them what the U.S. has done, or will do, to ensure justice and accountability for his son’s killing. Furkan was an American citizen born in Troy, New York while his father was finishing his master’s degree.
Professor Dogan just wrote a piece titled “A Father Speaks for His Son,” which states: “The Obama administration’s failure to support my son and my family’s humanitarian concern for Palestinians comes from the same misguided policy that has led to decades of support for Middle East autocrats and Israeli governments that have long oppressed Palestinians. … Furkan, though young, also saw the bigger picture. He sought not simply humanitarian relief for Palestinians, but also freedom from Israeli subjugation. With freedom advancing in Tunisia, Egypt, and around the Gulf, Palestinians’ long efforts to free themselves from Israeli domination are also worthy of recognition and support.”
Note: Former Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni writes today in the Washington Post of “the pursuit of aims by peaceful means, commitment to the rule of law and to equality before the law.” See previously “Livni: A lawyer ‘against law’?”
NOUR JOUDAH
Joudah is a graduate student at Georgetown University and a spokesperson for the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. She said today: “The leadership of the Palestinian Authority acted without proper delegation from the Palestinian people. Their actions echo the dictatorial rule that has typified the rest of the Arab world and however unfortunate, it is no surprise that the PA has suppressed popular Palestinian protests in solidarity with the Egyptian people in the Occupied West Bank. As Arabs move to protest such rule over their lives, from Tunisians, to Egyptians to Yemenis to Jordanians, Libyans and Bahrainis, we also move as Palestinians of the U.S., refugees outside our land and an inseparable part, like other Palestinian refugees the world over, of the Palestinian national body, to protest the dictatorial and unrepresentative rule of the PA.” USPCN will hold a news conference on Monday outside the PLO offices in Washington, D.C.
Background: Recently Al-Jazeera released the “Palestine Papers,” which document acquiescence by the PA to Israel. The head Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, resigned after their release.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
