Movement for One Democratic Secular State Monthly News

Editor's Note:
Welcome to the second issue of the MODSS Member News. Over the month of September fourteen new people joined the MODSS project and we're still roughly maintaining our academic/activist ratio, with about a third of our members comprising academics and the other two thirds comprising non-academic progressive activists. So our goal of fusing academia with the progressive activist community continues to advance. One of the constant criticisms of the one-state concept is that it is a purely academic exercise, confined to the "ivory tower" and lacking any substance in the "real world"; we hope that our efforts in bringing together academics and activists will help to discredit this mistaken impression.

Further, at present at least three members of the Movement are writing books on the one-state topic and as you will see below we are doing the preliminary work for a "spring campaign" in the hope of aggressively promoting the one-state agenda. See below for more MODSS development projects and agenda items being worked on presently.

We are interested in your feedback, so if you have any comments, criticisms, or suggestions, please be sure to share them with us!

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MODSS Member News
ones...@hotmail.com
ones...@eccmei.net
October 4, 2004
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Online at: http://www.angelfire.com/co4/eccmei/newsletter/1004newsletter.html
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Words of Wisdom...
"Palestine is a part of Israel's religious heritage, as it is a part of the heritage of two other religions of the world. We look forward to the ultimate establishment of a democratic, autonomous government in Palestine, wherein Jews, Moslems, and Christians shall be justly represented; every man enjoying equal rights and sharing equal responsibilities; a democratic government in which our fellow Jews shall be free Palestinians whose religion is Judaism, even as we are Americans whose religion is Judaism...."American Council for Judaism, "Statement of Views", Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1943
(From: "Judaism or Jewish Nationalism, The Alternative to Zionism" by Rabbi Elmer Berger of the American Council for Judaism, 1957)

MODSS Development

Several new projects have been initiated in September and other ideas remain on the agenda. The following will give members an idea of how the project is developing.

At present, the MODSS project continues to be directed by the Provisional Steering Committee comprised of Aref Nammari, John Sigler, and Virginia Tilley. No new proposals were presented by members in September to change this provisional structure. In these early days of the project, a speedy and effective executive - as represented by the Provisional Steering Committee - is a definite advantage in trying to get the project moving forward. Of course any member is more than welcome to present a motion for either expanding the existing Steering Committee or setting up a more permanent administration at any time.

Due to the lack of concrete proposals for direct action on the Purpose page, for the first time since we went public on August 8, this page has been modified. Section II, "Program of Action", has been added to provide visitors with a better idea of the tangible goals of the MODSS project. Please take a minute to visit the page and read this amendment and as always, feel free to share your thoughts on that matter on either of the online discussion forums or directly to the Steering Committee via ones...@eccmei.net

The idea of creating a comprehensive online magazine/journal focused on the one-state issue is still in the works, however there were no new developments on this agenda item in September.

Stemming from a member suggestion, we have created the "MODSS FAQ Project" which is accessible through the member's area of the website. This project is meant to help present various views of various issues related to one-state advocacy as well as to help identify trends in MODSS member opinion regarding various issues. Any member is free to submit either questions or answers to the FAQ at anytime as it is meant to be an ongoing composite project. Feel free to actively participate in this new feature.

For organizational and proprietary purposes, we are looking at forming a "One State Foundation" providing a legal entity to support the MODSS project. This entity will be separate from MODSS as such, but will serve as the primary vehicle for MODSS operations, i.e. it will be able to hold property (domain, website, and copyrights, c.) as well as solicit donations, handle MODSS donations and finances, and so on. A formal proposal for the structure and organization of this entity will be presented to those interested in October and will hopefully be realized by the end of the year. Those members interested in this particular aspect are welcome to participate, just send a note to that effect to ones...@eccmei.net.

On the matter of translation, we continue to call for help with translating the Homepage, the Purpose page, and the Positions page into other languages. At present an Arabic version is currently in the works and though we received an offer of help in translating these pages into Italian, we haven't heard back from the member that made this offer so we're not sure if this is still in the works. We are still primarily interested in having these three pages translated into Hebrew, French, and Spanish.

Regarding the email discussion lists, when put to a vote, the majority opted for a merger with the London One-State List, however the majority also voted to maintain our own MODSS list as well. As a consequence, we added a direct link to the London list on our list's homepage along with encouragement for our members to join the London list. At the same time, a series of discussions emerged on the London list dealing with topics that are manifestly incompatible with the Positions of the MODSS project (dealing with racism and accusations against particular religious/ethnic groups as such) which rather dampened the enthusiasm for the proposed merger. At present the MODSS email discussion list still exists and is open to general discussion. Further there is a proposal for a separate list specifically confined to activist and advocacy work. This proposal has not been realized as of yet but is on the agenda.

The "Spring Campaign" for 2005

When? At present this is an open question. CLICK HERE http://www.angelfire.com/co4/eccmei/month.html TO CAST YOUR VOTE!

Who? Hopefully all MODSS members to one extent or another. More information will be forthcoming shortly.

Where? Hopefully everywhere that MODSS is represented by a member, more will be given soon.

Why? To meet the goals of the MODSS project in working to "normalize" the one-state idea as well as to give members more working experience in one-state advocacy. More information will be provided soon.

The formal proposal for the "Spring Campaign" detailing the intention will be coming soon. Nevertheless, please use this opportunity to take a vote on which month we should focus on (see above).

New Book by MODSS member...

Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, most noted for his activist work on behalf of the refugees with Al Awda has recently authored a book calling for one state in Israel/Palestine. Sharing the Land of Canaan is currently widely available. I found my copy on the shelf at our local Barnes Noble, which means it should be easy enough for anyone to find.

September 2004 One State Press Review

In that an ever increasing number of people of all stripes and perspectives are coming to realize that the two-state separatist schemes are no longer possible, or at best growing ever more impossible by the day, discussion of the topic is steadily becoming more popular throughout the world. Of course this is not to say that all the commentary is sympathetic with the one state perspective. Quite the contrary, for Zionists it is frequently viewed as a "nightmare scenario", and yet one of Israel's own creation.

As discussion of the topic continues to expand, we hope to provide MODSS members with a monthly press review of articles in the media discussing and/or commenting on the one state idea.

This press review is NOT meant to be all inclusive and it focuses primarily on articles published in English.

Nevertheless we hope this resource helps to inform members of MODSS about what is being said and by whom. We include articles that are Pro-Unity, Neutral, and Anti-Unity in order to provide a balanced portrayal of current one state discussion.

Click Here http://www.angelfire.com/co4/eccmei/newsletter/pressreviews/1004.html for the September 2004 Press Review

For more, see also the Archive http://www.angelfire.com/co4/eccmei/news/archive.html of MODSS NEWS stories, generally more related to one-state advocacy and activism.

Advocacy Tips

In that the Movement is meant to be an active advocacy campaign, one that seeks to "normalize" the one state position - see the "Program of Action" on the Purpose page, section II - here we intend to provide advocacy tips for the one state activist/advocate.

If you have your own advocacy tip to share, have comments about the tips we provide, or a story of how one of our tips worked (or didn't work) for you, please be sure to send them to ones...@eccmei.net

Writing an effective "Letter to the Editor"

'So What's the Point?' - An interesting exchange and advocacy tactic

Click here http://www.angelfire.com/co4/eccmei/newsletter/advocacytips/index.html for the index of previous advocacy tips

Also, if you're American, remember that our friends at Citizens for Fair Legislation have a system set up whereby you can send either a pre-written letter, or one you write yourself, advocating one state directly to your state Senators as well as your specific Representative. It takes all of five minutes. Remember that letter writing plays a significant for AIPAC and other Zionist lobbyists, so it certainly can't hurt our cause.

Featured website

Each month we intend to feature a member's one-state related website. For this second newsletter, we'd like to feature Roger Tucker's "The Middle East Project: A Single State Solution".

http://www.alternativeflags.org/mideasthome.html

Previously Featured: http://www.one-state.org

Copyright©2004 MODSS Member News

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