The AIC and Palestine Indymedia

Friday September 13, 2002 08:33

by The AIC and Palestine Indymedia

"it is with deep regret that we are forced to announce that due the latest developments in IMCP, we are forced to detach our collective from IMCP in respect to hosting this group." - the Alternative Information Center

Dear Friends,

As of year 2000 the Alternative Information Center proposed to individuals and organisations in the area of Bethlehem (Palestine) to develop a local media center networked with the IMC network. Our proposition recognised both the global importance of IMC project and the centrality of the cause of Palestinian liberation. Though our own youth group and other connections we sought to develop the impetus to create and run an IMC site run by Palestinians and in full recognition of the independence of the IMC from the AIC.

The AIC collective understands that the Palestinian Intifada is central to the global struggle against imperialism and it wars in the Arab East, in Central Asia, in Africa and in Latin America. We, like IMC, recognise that the liberation of the Palestinian people is conditioned by the outcome of the struggle between the interests of international capital and social justice. For this reason, the AIC was ready to support the building of the IMC Palestine out of its own slim resources, providing space, facilities, connectivity and support staff.

The AIC was very pleased to host an IMC. The AIC gives special attention to local and global radical democratic struggles and the colonial nature of the State of Israel. The AIC collective is a Palestinian-Israeli venture that disseminates information, research and political analysis on Palestinian and Israeli societies as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while promoting cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis based on the values of social justice, solidarity and community
involvement.

Because of our continued commitment to these shared values and practices, the Alternative Information Center collective will continue to seek deeper cooperation with the IMC network and will continue to cooperate with it wherever it operates, and in whatever way it is in our power to assist.

However, it is with deep regret that we are forced to announce that due the latest developments in IMCP, we are forced to detach our collective from IMCP in respect to hosting this group.

IMCP is today involved in a partisan and sectarian quarrel with which we want no part. The AIC fully rejects the discriminatory, sectarian and male-chauvinistic trends that have appeared in the IMCP. We take particular exception to the sectarian conditions imposed on the local participation in the IMCP project. We believe that the disagreements created by the self interest of individuals/groups are not only destructive to the group but impact extremely negatively on the Palestinian cause. The behaviour of certain actors is reinforcing internal division and creating distrust and acrimony within a community already under brutal repression.

At present, IMC Palestine represents neither the ethos of IMC nor the AIC and we strongly recommend that the IMC Palestinian site be suspended. We recommend this not because of any interest in AIC involvement with the IMCP, but because it is a destructive force within the Palestinian community.

We also recommend that IMC seeks to gather the opinions of all the participants in the failed IMCP, in order to move forward with the rebuilding of the Palestinian IMC in such a way that it reflects the goals of social justice disseminated by IMC and thus to be a force for positive support for the Palestinian people.

With respect and in solidarity.

The AIC.

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