Synopsis | P.E.D.A.L.

Political (or positive) resistance is when “politically oppressed groups fight back against               the powers that oppress them” and “aims at change“. Lennard Davis

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P.E.D.A.L. is a group of community organizers, artists, food growers and cyclists planning to travel from London to Palestine by bicycle in 100 days in Spring 2011.

The international political community is taking no real action to stop the daily oppression and violence used by the Israeli government to maintain the occupation of Palestine; the continued construction of illegal settlements in the occupied territories,the illegal blockade on Gaza, and illegal construction of the Wall in Palestinian territory.

These actions by the Israeli government add up to a systematic theft of land, water, time and space from the Palestinian people.

No effective steps have been taken to reprimand those responsible for the IDF’s numerous illegal military operations, such as Operation Cast Lead in January 2009 and the flotilla attack in April 2010.

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In the shadow cast by the failure of international powers we see the strength and courage of the Israeli and Palestinian popular resistance movements – forcing the change that needs to happen – in fighting for self-reliance, political rights, and liberation.

We are responding to the call-out born from Palestinian civil society in 2005 for international support of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign.

Our 100 day journey will track communities fighting for social and environmental justice where  we will contribute to the sites we visit and share stories, skills and strategies for resistance- mapping counter-cultures from the UK to Palestine.

P.E.D.A.L. will pollinate information, plans and campaigns on BDS to expand the network fighting the occupation. We will trace a trail of those who profit-from and are complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestine- highlighting their involvement in settlement trade and normalizing the Israeli state’s oppressive actions. http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/london-session and http://corporateoccupation.wordpress.com/)

We will focus on the BDS campaign of highlighting the role of the Jewish National Fund in removing access to land for Palestinians in the name of environmentalism.

And during the 100 days we will visit and work with communities resisting those who prevent access to land and community control of resources linking peasant movements across Europe to the Middle East.

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P.E.D.A.L. cycles in solidarity with groups using legal structures to bring justice to those who deepen the occupation, and also those using civil disobedience as necessary action.

Through popular education and creative methods in the communities we visit P.E.D.A.L. will celebrate the cultures and arts of resistance and form a document of the messages of solidarity, stories of hope and strategies for radical political change.

As we collect the material for the document we will share this through video and audio diaries building dialogue between the ride, the communities on the route and grassroots movements in Israel and Palestine.

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P.E.D.A.L. is self-organized on a participative level- making decisions collectively through consensus processes.

We are committed to integrating an anti-oppression framework and analysis into all of our work. This means addressing whose voices are heard, which priorities are chosen, what actions are taken, who does the work, and who gets the credit.

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via 100daystopalestine.org