Identifies Israeli and American militarism and oppression as “the root injustices” that give rise to such phenomena as the Iraqi insurgency and Palestinian terrorism
Offers "eyewitness accounts" of the suffering in Iraq and in Palestinian villages
Has addressed audiences in hundreds of cities and thousands of venues
Founded
in July 2003, Wheels of Justice (WOJ) is a bus tour that “canvasses
the United States with education, outreach, training, active
non-violent resistance, and network/community-building.” The
tour was established to “build
upon and reassert the massive domestic opposition to [the U.S.] war
against Iraq and [Israel's] occupation of the Palestinians.” Toward that end, WOJ “instructors”
(i.e., activists and public speakers) have addressed audiences in hundreds of cities and
thousands of venues—including many middle schools, high
schools, colleges and universities—delivering “eyewitness
accounts” of the suffering they personally witnessed during visits to
Iraqi and Palestinian villages. These speakers—many
of whom have been affiliated with (the now defunct) Voices in the Wilderness and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)—identify American and Israeli militarism and oppression as “the root injustices” that
first gave rise to such phenomena as the Iraqi insurgency and Palestinian
terrorism.
During the Iraq War, WOJ condemned the U.S. government’s "costly pursuit of foreign
wars" for "hijacking ... Iraq’s culture and resources" and depriving the Iraqi people of “self-governance.”
With
regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, WOJ charges
that virtually every social, economic, medical, and spiritual ill
afflicting the Palestinian people can be attributed to Israel's policies
of "colonization,” “occupation,” “displacement,”
“apartheid,” “house demolitions,” “collective punishment,”
and “ethnic cleansing”—all part of a “legacy that began in 1947.”
Reasoning that the violence in Iraq and “Palestine/Israel” is
“supported by our [U.S.] tax dollars and by our elected officials,” WOJ
claims that: “Americans bear a great responsibility. The people of
the world know this, and U.S. government policy provokes rage and
retaliation against Americans.… To break the cycle of violence we
must change our roles in these conflicts; as individuals and as a
nation, we must move from instigator to negotiator, from enabler to
resister.”
WOJ likens
the allegedly brutal policies of the U.S. and Israel to those
that, in times past, promoted “the dispossession and oppression of
other peoples, including American Indians, African Americans, South
African blacks under Apartheid, etc.”
WOJ has compiled a recommended reading list that includes books
authored or edited by Noam
Chomsky; Norman
Finkelstein; Tanya
Reinhart; Edward
Said; Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (a former member of the
pro-Arafat
Palestine National Council); Simha Flapan (the first
National President of the pro-Soviet, pro-Stalin party called Mapam);
Roane Carey (author of The
New Intifada: Resisting Israel’s Apartheid);
and four so-called “new
historians” who place all blame for the Arab-Israeli conflict
on Israel—Ilan
Pappe, Avi Shlaim, Benny Morris, and Tom Segev.
WOJ
implores its ideological supporters to engage in some form of
nonviolent protest against Israeli and/or American wrongdoing.
“Nonviolence,” the organization once stated,
“can be interpositioning yourself between Israeli tanks and
Palestinian civilians, or standing with Iraqi families as their
backyards become a proving ground for the most powerful military
machine the world has ever seen.” Less perilous measures, says
WOJ, “can also take form in speaking truth to the power of a
state’s legal system, refusing to accept one people as
fundamentally ‘evil’ and another as ‘good,’ and refusing to
bankroll war, terror and occupation.”
Other activities suggested by
WOJ include: organizing public teach-ins, lectures, presentations,
vigils, protests, movie screenings, slide shows, and poetry events;
supporting “bands against bombs” concerts and musical
performances; participating in religious services “for justice and
peace in ... Palestine/Israel”; attending campaign rallies and
events featuring public officials; and taking part
in protests against companies that “indirectly or directly
participate in war/occupation and related activities.” WOJ specifically singles out such companies as Boeing (which manufactures weapons and military aircraft); Bechtel
(which handled reconstruction projects in post-invasion Iraq);
Lockheed-Martin (a maker of missile and missile-defense systems); and
Caterpillar (which manufactures bulldozers that are used by the
Israeli Defense Forces to raze the homes of Palestinian terrorists).
