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In the first week of June
the bosses of the eight most economically powerful nations of the world will meet
for a nice cup of tea in the German resort of Heiligendamm, close to Rostock. To guarantee the security
of the cozy meeting, the place will be surrounded by a security fence 2 1/2
meters high, one meter deep into the ground, and 13 kilometers long, using 12.5
million Euros worth of barbed wire and cement.
Just like the rich in the
metropolises of the world, like the exploiting North against the exploited
South, like the US-occupant in Baghdad, like the Israeli occupation in
Palestine—in the era of neoliberal capitalism, oppression needs walls and
fences, racist laws and ethnic cleansing, discourses of exclusion and
"clashes of civilizations" in order to defend itself.
To control the key
resource, oil, the issue of strategic control is essential in Palestine as in the whole region. A region of
puppet regimes—considered as the "moderates"—is emerging who are
willing to do the dirty business of oppressing their peoples. This is what the
project of a "Greater Middle East" is all about. Like any other
colonial project, it considers tribal and religious identity as essential, it
relies on separation, racism, and the alleged incompatibility of cultures. It
builds ideological walls and walls of concrete, in Palestine a wall that
separates farmers from their olive groves, students from school and university,
workers from their jobs—a wall that doesn't serve anybody's security, but is
rather designed for land grab and making people homeless.
G8, walls, wars and
exclusions go together. That is why thousands from the region, from all over Germany, Europe, Israel,
and Palestine will come to Rostock to protest against the meeting of
those who rule the world without being legitimized:
- During the international
demo block "Palestine—no wars, no walls", June, 2nd , in Rostock
- on the day of blockades against militarization, wars and occupations on June,
5th around Rostock-Laage airport
The participants of the
summit will land in Rostock-Laage. This airport is partly used by the military,
partly for civil purposes. It has become the most important military air base
in Northern Europe and will be further
enlarged as a central military base. It serves as an airfield not just for
cheap tourist flights but also for Eurofighters. These are of essential
significance for the German military as well as for the NATO Response Force, in
other words for international military interventions. As in the case of this
airport, as in the case of the summit talks and in general, when strategies of
global power are being dealt with, civil matters and military matters merge and
become indiscernible from each other. The political and social spheres are
penetrated by and subordinated to the demands of a vague and all-encompassing
idea of "security"—the security of the few against the many. Wars are
no longer being fought between armies, but they are fought—without being
declared—against civil populations and stay as bloody occupations—in Palestine for the last 40
years. Civilians, sovereign states, territories, international accords and
human rights are overrun and bombarded, as in Iraq,
in Lebanon, in Afghanistan, in Palestine.
Zones excluded from any rule of law, torture centers, prisoners' camps are
everywhere, even in the wealthy regions of the world. Enjoying the most basic
rights has become a privilege, that is being defended fiercely, just as
prosperity, security and the access to resources is being defended fiercely
against those "outsourced" by global neoliberal economy.
The "War against
Terror,” explicitly declared as a never ending, preemptive global war, aims at
pushing and securing the interests of global players. It is waged in many ways:
as annihilation of civil rights and extension of the surveillance state, as
undermining of the right of asylum and the right of residence, as fortification
of the islands of prosperity, as export of democracy and human rights—actually
impeding self rule and undermining human rights. If juridical, diplomatic, and
political manipulations don't work, or if those aimed at dare to resist—it is
the sheer violence of war and torture that is being used against them. This
happens in Palestine
and in different forms and degrees in many places all over the world.
The orchestra of global imperial rule needs regular tuning—that's what the G8
summits are all about. And that's what our resistance is about, as part of the
global resistance and protest movements—on 2/6, against war and racist segregations
- on 5/6, against the military component of neo-liberal globalization—in
Palestine and everywhere .
Palästina—Solidarität gegen G-8
Palestine—Solidarity against G8
Palestine—solidarité contre G-8
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