A Statement of Solidarity with Moroccan Historian, Maâti Monjib

[Image of Maâti Monjib. Image from Avaaz] [Image of Maâti Monjib. Image from Avaaz]

A Statement of Solidarity with Moroccan Historian, Maâti Monjib

By : Jadaliyya Reports

[The following is a statement published in three different languages expressing solidarity with Moroccan historian, Maâti Monjib, who is "wanted for undermining state security," and has been recently prevented from leaving Morocco. The contents of the statement below are republished from an online petition in his support.] 

Professor Maati Monjib "Wanted for Undermining State Security"

Mr. Maati Monjib, president of Freedom Now, was abnormally delayed at the Mohammed V Casablanca Airport upon his arrival on an Air Arabia flight from Montpellier (France) on 31 August.  After requesting an explanation, Mr. Monjib was told by the police officer that he was “wanted." Standing by was another plainclothes officer holding a document with official letterhead containing Mr. Monjib’s national identity number and the note: "sought for undermining state security." This latest incident comes in the context of other intimidation and pressures Mr. Monjib has suffered, including a considerable number of defamatory articles published in known politically-motivated newspapers and news sites, as well as threats made against the security of his person. Mr. Monjib keeps a record of such attacks and threats, and has delivered parts of that record to the Minister of Justice and Liberties. The Freedom Now Executive Office strongly condemns such practices and calls on the Minister of Justice and Liberties, the Minister of Interior, and the President of the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH) to investigate these acts that violate national laws and international human rights conventions ratified by Morocco. To that end, Attorneys Abderrahmane Benameur, Abderrahim Jamai, and Abdelaziz Nouaydi also sent a notice to the Royal Prosecutor at the Rabat Court of Appeals on 10 September. This notice bring pressures suffered by Mr. Monjib, Mr. Samad Ayash Mr. Hicham Mansouri to the Prosecutor’s attention. Mr. Monjib was summoned by the police to visit their premises in Casablanca for questioning on 14 September.

The Executive Office of Freedom Now, 13 September 2015

Objet : Maâti Monjib « recherché pour atteinte à la sécurité de l’Etat. »

Monsieur Maâti Monjib, président de l’Association Freedom Now a été retardé d’une façon inhabituelle lors de son arrivée à l’aéroport de Mohammed V-Casablanca sur un vol Air Arabia en provenance de Montpellier (France) le lundi 31 aout dernier. Demandant une explication à ce retard, l’agent de police lui a répondu qu’il est recherché. Effectivement, un officier en civil debout à côté de l’agent tenait bien entre les mains un papier avec en-tête officiel où est inscrit, en dessous du numéro de la carte d’identité nationale de M. Monjib, la note : « recherché pour atteinte à la sécurité de l’Etat. »

Ce nouvel incident fait suite à une série de provocations et de pressions dont a été victime M. Monjib et qui incluent de très nombreux articles diffamatoires publiés dans des journaux et sites d’information connus pour être proches de certains milieux et des menaces contre sa sécurité et sa vie. M. Monjib dispose d’un dossier réunissant ces attaques et menaces et dont une partie a été remise en main propre à monsieur le ministre de la Justice et de Libertés.

Le bureau exécutif de Freedom Now condamne avec indignation ces basses pratiques et demande à MM. les ministres de la Justice et des Libertés, de l’Intérieur ainsi qu’au président du Conseil National des Droits de l’Homme (CNDH) d’ouvrir une enquête sur ces agissements qui violent les lois nationales et les conventions internationales ratifiées par le Maroc et qui protègent les droits humains.

Me. Abderrahmane Benameur (ancien bâtonnier), Me. Abderrahim Jamai (ancien bâtonnier) ainsi que Me Abdelaziz Nouaydi ont adressé, à cet effet, une mise en demeure le 10 septembre à monsieur le procureur général du roi près la cour d’appel de Rabat. Cette mise en demeure attire l’attention de monsieur le procureur général sur les pressions que subissent M. Monjib ainsi que MM Samad Ayach et Hicham Mansouri.

Le Bureau exécutif de Freedom Now, le 11 septembre 2015 

المعطي منجب رئيس `` الحرية الآن " مبحوث عنه للمس بسلامة الدولة 

تعرض السيد المعطي منجب، رئيس جمعية "الحرية الآن"، إلى تأخير غير اعتيادي، بمطار محمد الخامس بالدار البيضاء، عندما كان عائدا إلى المغرب من مونبولييه في فرنسا على متن رحلة لـ "إير أرابيا"وذلك يوم الإثنين 31 غشت المنصرم . وعندما سأل عن سبب هذا التأخير أخبره شرطي جوازات السفر بأنه مبحوث عنه. وبالفعل كان يقف إلى جانب الشرطي ضابط شرطة بلباس مدني كان يحمل بين يديه ورقة رسمية كتب عليها تحت رقم البطاقة الوطنية للسيد المعطي منجب، العبارة التالية: "مبحوث عنه للمس بسلامة الدولة"

هذا الحادث الجديد يأتي على إثر سلسلة من المضايقات والضغوطات التي تعرض لها السيد المعطي منجب، بما فيها مجموعة من المقالات المفترئة التي نشرت في العديد من المواقع الرقمية المشبوهة في قربها من بعض الجهات، وتهديدات ضد سلامته وحياته. ويتوفر السيد المعطي منجب على ملف كامل يتضمن كل هذه التهجمات والتهديدات وقد قام بنفسه بتسليم بعض منها إلى السيد وزير العدل والحريات

إن المكتب التنفيذي لجمعية "الحرية الآن" يدين بشدة هذه الممارسات المنحطة، ويطلب من وزير العدل والحريات، ومن وزير الداخلية، ومن رئيس "المجلس الوطني لحقوق الإنسان"، فتح تحقيق حول هذه المضايقات التي تنتهك القوانين الوطنية والمعاهدات الدولية التي صادق عليها المغرب والتي تكفل حماية حقوق الإنسان

وقد قام السادة المحامون، النقيب عبد الرحمن بنعمرو، والنقيب عبد الرحيم الجامعي، والأستاذ عبد العزيز النويضي، يوم 10 شتنبر، بمراسلة السيد الوكيل العام للملك بمحكمة الاستئناف بالرباط، لإثارة انتباهه حول الضغوطات التي يتعرض لها السيد المعطي منجب وصمد عياش وهشام المنصوري.

المكتب التنفيذي"الحرية الآن" ,11/09/2015

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Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 


[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412