SEE original article documenting this action by Stevie Wonder at m.forward.com for wed. nov 28 or CLICK here
Published Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Petition Called on R&B Star To Shun Israel Army Event
By JTA
Stevie Wonder is set to pull out of a performance at a fundraiser for the Israel Defense Forces, a source told JTA.
Wonder’s representatives will claim that he did not know the nature of the group, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and that he believes such a performance would be incongruent with his status as a U.N. “Messenger of Peace,” according to a source who has read email exchanges between Wonder’s representatives and organizers of the event.
Wonder was scheduled to headline the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces annual gala in Los Angeles on Dec. 6. The event raises millions of dollars annually to support the Israeli military.
An official of Friends of the IDF, reached at its Los Angeles office, had no comment. Wonder’s agent at Creative Artists Agency did not return a request for comment.
The spokesman for the U.N. Secretary General also had no comment on the matter. The United Nations does not usually impose restrictions on its goodwill representatives. Wonder most recently performed at a U.N. concert commemorating its 67th anniversary.
Wonder had come under intense social media pressure to pull out of the event. An online petition calling on him to cancel his performance had garnered more than 3,600 signatures.
The petition was launched more than a day ago on the change.org website.
“You were arrested in 1985 protesting South African Apartheid, now we ask you: please remember that apartheid is apartheid, whether it comes from White Afrikaaner settlers of South Africa or from Jewish Israelis in Israel,” the petition reads. “Desmond Tutu has recognized that Israel’s Apartheid is worse than South Africa’s – will you stand with us against apartheid and cancel your performance at the IDF fundraiser.”
A second petition, launched by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, calls on Wonder to “(p)lease continue your legacy of speaking out for the oppressed. Please be a ‘full-time lover’ of justice by standing on the right side of history and canceling your performance for the Israeli army.”
Wonder performed at a 1998 gala honoring Israel’s 50th anniversary.
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Support Palestine’s membership in the United Nations (As Rabbi Lerner recently & passionately urged)
http://oneheartforpeace.blogspot.com/2012/11/100-christian-leaders-support.html
New Internationalism Project
TALKING POINTS
By Phyllis Bennis
Visit the Institute for Policy Studies' website [ http://www.ips-dc.org ]
The Gaza Ceasefire Holds: A Little Bit to Be Thankful For
So far the ceasefire holds – at least on the Palestinian side. The Israeli military violated it just 36 hours after it went into effect, when soldiers shot at Palestinian farmers walking across their land near the Israeli-installed border fence, killing one and injuring twenty others. The Hamas government in Gaza treated it seriously, reporting it to Egypt as the guarantor of the ceasefire but significantly not responding in kind.
So the truce holds. But it remains very fragile. And the killing of Anwar Abdelhadi Quiedh provides a clear reminder of just what the Gaza crisis is all about: occupation. Quiedh was part of a group of Palestinian farmers who walked out to their own fields on Gazan land which Israel had declared a "no-go" zone about a kilometer wide along the border. For years Israeli soldiers had turned it into a shoot-to-kill zone under their own control.
The terms of the November 21st ceasefire included specific language restoring the rights of Palestinians in Gaza to their land; it called for "refraining from restricting residents' free movement, and targeting residents in border areas." Israel was obligated to honor that "after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire." But somehow, Israel apparently didn't view itself as obligated to honor it at all. So Anwar Abdelhadi Quiedh and twenty other Palestinian farmers who walked out to their fields after hearing the news that they would be able to till their land for the first time in more than seven years, paid the human price.
...implied in the Israeli gov's stance: Until Washington says differently, there's no reason for Israel to feel obligated to abide by any ceasefire, treaty, international law or UN resolution – because the U.S. has got its back...
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