Law of the land: one woman's
struggle against the odds

Lea Tsemel, a Jewish Israeli
attorney who has lived in Israel since
1965, has been active for many years
in the Israeli peace movement and in
defending Palestinians in the Israeli
Military Courts.
Since 1967, when Israel seized the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, she has
been a witness to Israeli brutality in
the territories. She and her husband
Michel Warschawski, along with other
Israelis and Palestinians, run the
Alternative Information Center in
West Jerusalem. The AIC is dedicated
to providing alternative news

coverage and reports about the
Intifada and the situation in occupied
Palestine, working to end the Israeli
occupation, and building solidarity
between Israelis and Palestinians.
Recently, the Israeli High Court
sentenced Warschawski to eight
months imprisonment andfined the
AIC $5,000 for "shutting their eyes,"
a common charge leveled against
Israelis who stand in solidarity with
the Palestinian uprising.
Warschawski refused to disclose the
identity of a Palestinian man for
whom the AIC was going to provide

typesetting services. The booklet in
question described techniques
Palestinians could use to resist
interrogation and torture by the
Israeli Security Services.
The guilty verdict and the fine
threatens to close the AIC and in the
words of Tsemel "poses a grave threat
to Israeli-Palestinian solidarity."
Tsemel was in Detroit last Monday
and spoke to Weekend Magazine:
Weekend: The Intifada has
been a popular struggle which has
involved many different sectors of

0
Palestinian society, yet after three
years, the political gains from the
struggle seem to be meager. What
was the status of the Palestinian
uprising - Intifada - before the
Gulf crisis and what has changed
since the Gulf crisis?
Lea Tsemel: The recent gulf
crisis has made it clear to people
that Israel plays a decisive role for
the United States in the Middle
East. The very strong Israeli
regime helps the very strong
American imperialist regime
control the oil wealth of the Arab
world, deprive the Arabs of that
wealth and take it out of the
Middle East and transfer it to
Europe or the United States.
Additionally, Israel helps keep
the Arab masses in poverty and
under oppression. The United
States allows Israel to keep the
Palestinians under immediate
occupation in return for the
services that Israel provides the
United States. The United States
says 'Ok, we'll shut up, we'll not
talk out against your occupation
of Palestine. We'll allow you,
Israel, to do whatever you want to
the Palestinians as long as you
render us the services we require.'
But the moment Iraq wants to
occupy Kuwait, the US Military,
with all its arsenal, quickly moves
into Saudi Arabia to protect the
Arab Kuwaitis from Saddam

Hussein s occupation.
WE: The most recent time the
situation in Palestine got any
substantial coverage in the US
media was last May when an ex-
Israeli soldier massacred a group
of Palestinian workdrs. After that
died down, the press reported
virtually nothing about the
Palestinians until the invasion of
Kuwait at which time the press
reported how the Palestinians
support Saddam Hussein. But
nothing about the current
situation in the occupied
territories appears in the
mainstream press. So, after three
years of the Intifada, what are the
living conditions of Palestinians
living in the West Bank and
Gaza?
LT: The Intifada goes on. It
perhaps has changed faces, it is no
longer large numbers of people
rushing into the streets, but now
an Intifada which is attempting to
build alternative committees
which provide services for
Palestinian society and for their
future independent state. Every
Palestinian wants an independent
Palestinian state. It is not only a
dream, but it is imperative for
Palestinian security.
The Intifada was meant to be a
peaceful struggle, a nonviolent
struggle in order to attract world

You turn on a television in
Amsterdam, you get five
channels. None of this 60
channels of Nashville Home
Black Weather Channel crap we
have to contend with here. You
turn on your Dutch 'rv, you watch
MTv (in English), cNN (in
English), or one of the three
Royal Dutch Test Patterns.
That's it.
So when I was in Amsterdam
this summer, I had to watch cN.
It was either that or go out and
speak Dutch, and I don't have
that kind of spare saliva
to be throwing around.
Now, CNN International


0

Whose Regents are they, anyway?

is a special and
wonderful thing. It's
piped to countries all

m

U I

over the world, countries
like Holland where
there's nothing else to
watch. Their
programming agenda is
simple; they have 2 kinds of
segments.
Type A. those that remind the
world what complete and utter
dolts Americans are. These are
the "human interest" segments,
where CNN goes live to Waylon,
Arkansas to visit Randall Morris
and his paper towel collection.
Type B: those that are
calculated to stir anti-us
resentment in people somewhat
less well-off than ourselves.
Lifestyles of the Rich and
Famous and all that. The people
of the African nation Chad, with
their 4 miles of paved road and
one working television, were no


doubt transfixed by this summer's
report of President Bush's new
royal jet, with its 50+ on-board
telephones. This plane could go
down over Chad and (aside from
not having to worry about
crashing on a highway) advance
the country's state of telephony
by 25 years.
One interesting tidbit covered
by the extended CNN
International report, but ignored
by the domestic version, related
to what federal aircraft telephone
technicians thought was an
elusive
flaw in the
telephone
system. In
mid-flight,
generally
in the lull
between
dinner and
the movie,
random
phones would start ringing. The
Secretary of State, or the Attorney
General, or whoever, would
answer, and hear only a muffled
aspiratory sound, followed by a
click and disconnection. Baffled
engineers attributed the problem
to electrical variations in the
aircraft's power supply, but were
unable to isolate the faulty
machinery. The problem was
eventually solved by taking Dan
Quayle's phone away.
"Hey," you say, "What a
cheap shot." Someone will always
come to Dan Quayle's defense.
"He's our Vice President, after
all, we owe him some respect."

Now, snide on the Regents of
the University and step back and
watch the dander you fail to raise.
What's the difference? Unlike
the Regents, Dan Quayle is our
fault.
Imagine if the whole world got
to vote for President of the us.
Imagine further that because of
growing resentment resulting
from cNN International's Type B
segments, the world exacted its
revenge by electing Jimmy the
Greek as our President.
It's even worse than that. The
Regents aren't even elected by
people. They are elected by a
small piece of metal inside voting
machines that is triggered when
someone moves the
"Republican" or "Democrat"
lever. Regental candidates don't
have to campaign, they don't have
to demonstrate anything to the
people; not tact, not
administrative competence, and
certainly not sensitivity to their
real constituency: the faculty,
staff, and students of the
University.
Care to take a guess at how
many students, faculty, and non-
central-administration staff woke
up on election day with an itchy
voting finger tugging them
towards that Deane "bathroom
patrol" Baker lever? Probably
about two.'
The only interest the
thunderingly vast majority of
voters have in the goings-on of
the University are: one, their tax
money being spent; and two, the
smug satisfaction from the phone

call to their in-laws fr Toledo
when Michigan beats Ohio State.
Now, in the University's 1990-
1991 budget, $2% million (17%)
is expected from State of
Michigan money, and $291
million (16%) from tuition. In
other words, although students
contribute almost as much to the
school budget as the entire state,
the non-uM-affiliated share of the
Regents' electorate outnumbers
students, faculty, and staff by
about 50 to 1.
What can be done? Here's
what you can do: the Regents
meet once a month, Thursday
and Friday, in the Fleming
building (public comments
session in the Michigan Union
Friday afternoon is a special
bonus: watch Regents tell each
other jokes while students in tears
express their concerns). The
meetings are open. Listen to the
people - who ultimately decide
every aspect of how the
University operates - callously,
actively, brush off viewpoints and
concerns of the faculty, staff and
students, as they vote your
freedom away. It's not fair to say
all the Regents do this, or that all
of them are insensitive to your
concerns. But just as in the
process of electing them in the
first place, a concerned minority
accomplishes little. Go see for
yourself.
Or drop in front of the tube
and watch cNN. You never know
when they might revisit Randall
Morris and his paper towel
collection.
'Standard 'the Michigan Review
doesn't count' disclaimer applies.


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where Duke was the elected
representative.
I didn't know New Orleans
well, but I figured I'd just watch
for the protestors outside the
rally. I spotted them alright, but it
was hardly a milling crowd. 25
people holding "Honk if you hate
Nazis" signs were standing in
front of the Holiday Inn, listening
to a horrendous torrent of abuse
from passing motorists. I
approached a young man wearing
chinos and a polo shirt and asked
him how the protest was going.
"Not too good", he said, smiling
wanly.
"How come the protestors are
all white?"
He frowned.
"I dunno, man. It's hard to
organize a coalition against Duke.
There are lots of groups opposed

uncomfortable.
"Some people think
we're just a bunch of
do-good yuppies. .."
His voice trailed off,
and I headed into the
rally.
There were about
350 people crammed

 NEMYA DRETR

3 i
i

to him, but they don't see any
common interest."
The abuse from passing cars
was unrelenting.
He looked back at the other
protestors, who were looking very

DUKE! DUKE!". I was feeling
very edgy, especially when (being
from Ireland) I couldn't recite the
Pledge of Allegiance, and
mouthed the words to the Our
Father instead. To these people,

George Bush was a
Massachusetts
liberal. The pledge
trailed off, "And
justice for all."
"And especially for
white people!"
shouted someone
from the back. The

Association for the Advancement
of White People, Duke was
elected as state representative by
a large majority. With four years
as a representative behind him,
he is aiming for a US Senate seat.
Duke has already tied up the
racist vote, and he is moderating
his message in the hope of
attracting new votes.
At the Holiday Inn, he worked
the crowd like a veteran. His
barbs are predictably conservative
- lambasting the press, the
yellow-bellied liberals, those who
want to give a "free ride" to
minorities. Among his specific
plans are making those on welfare
work for their check, eliminating
minority set-asides in industry
and eliminating affirmative
action, which Duke calls
"discrimination". As the crowd

clap
then
worm
illeg
whop
chilk
disgi
the &
thur
wild
A
who
the s
rally
prod
Non
desi
the c
t
Rdnd
WeA
feutu


into the reception room, all white,
all ages, and all fairly well-
dressed, apart from one huge
biker with a confederate bandana
and mirrored sunglasses. I was
sitting behind four burr-headed
ROTC types who spent the whole
evening screaming "DUKE!

crowd laughed, and out came
David Duke.
Tall and Aryan, 41-year-old
David Duke was seeing his
political star rise. Formerly the
National Imperial Wizard of the
Ku Klux Klan and for nine years
President of the National


8 WEEKEE


WEEKEW

September 28,1990

I