Press Release: July 2010

JULY 27TH 2010

PRESS RELEASE: The Veritas Handbook- Download Now!

Dear World,

July is historically an important month in the struggle for Palestinian human rights. It was in July when the British Empire officially established its control over Palestine through the League of Nations Mandate System (July 24^th 1922); it was in July when the first major Zionist terrorist attack against Palestinian civilians occurred (July 26^th 1938); it was in July when the International Court of Justice ruled the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank to be illegal in international law (July 9^th 2004); and it was also in July when the Palestinian people issued their historic call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel (July 9^th 2005), which has formed the basis for the global mobilization against Israeli apartheid in recent years.

These events may at first appear unrelated, but in fact they are significant historical watersheds marking significant junctures in the nearly century-long struggle for Palestinian human rights. The Veritas Handbook team places great emphasis on understanding the last twelve decades as a totality and viewing it as the necessary context for framing the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. As such, we have provided an essential historical background, in addition to extensive resources, which will provide readers with a fuller understanding of the development and progression of the Palestinian struggle for justice and equality.

The Handbook consists of five sections:

1. A Concise History of Palestine: Geared towards educating an uninformed audience while solidifying information that any regular activist may have, it has been designed such that it could be a course for activists with a one hour session, once a week, for ten weeks.
2. Commonly Asked Questions: Aimed towards providing activists with factual, comprehensive answers to commonly asked questions.
3. Perspectives and Debates: Contains scholarly and academic insight by some of the most significant thinkers in the field and seeks to inform activists about the important issues surrounding our work and the controversies that arise. These issues, including the interpretations of Israel’s “right to exist,” approaches to confronting the Israeli occupation regime, non-violent and violent resistance, and the varying proposals for a solution to the Zionist-Palestinian conflict, are all addressed from a variety of perspectives. We have not taken a stance on any of these issues, but instead hope to provide you with the resources to make your own decisions.
4. Appendices: Five appendices with a comprehensive resource guide with numerous sources for accurate information, solidarity organizations, links to printable posters and pamphlets, human rights reports, and primary resources. We strongly suggest referring back to the primary resources and human rights reports that llie at the heart of understanding the reality of the situation. We have also included significant information not easily accessed, such as details about the Palestinian villages destroyed and depopulated during the 1948 Nakba, a list of Palestinian prisoners (men, women, and children) currently held illegally in Israeli detention, and a list of the children murdered by Israel during Operation Cast Lead. This section is best used virtually as it contains links to many resources, and if you do choose to print the handbook, we suggest that you omit this section.
5. Extended Bibliography: Comprehensive bibliography that can be used as a reading list.

We have tried to make the handbook qualitative as opposed to quantitative. Sifting through thousands of resources and materials was an arduous task and although 350 pages may seem endearing, we can assure you that this was after a dire effort to contain the plethora of resources available, choosing the best.

Finally, we wish to emphasize once more that our basic premise for the project is to raise awareness about the struggle for Palestinian human rights. This stems from our uncompromising commitment to justice everywhere, and our strong opposition to all forms of racism, oppression, injustice and persecution. As such, by raising awareness about the situation in Palestine, we have aimed to make The Veritas Handbook an important contribution and resource not only beneficial to the struggle for Palestinian human rights, but also a demonstration that the global struggle for justice and equality requires education, action and effort, not merely words or emotions.

We hope that you will support the initiative by signing up to the list serve and fan page. We also urge you to spread this to all of your contacts! You can get access to all of the above by visiting our website www.veritashandbook.blogspot.com

Follow our blog and facebook page for updates in regards to exciting additions to the handbook and more. Feel free to ask us any questions and we will try to reply as soon as we can. The team can be contacted at theveritashandbook@gmail.com

In Peace & Solidarity,
The Veritas Handbook Team

theveritashandbook@gmail.com

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