PALESTINE-RELATED
EVENTS in the SEATTLE AREA for July 10-31
For
information about history, issues, and our Seattle Divest from Israeli
Military Occupation campaign, please see www.palestineinformation.org
E-mail us at palestinejustice@aol.com. We try to limit this listserve to
Seattle
area events and news about the International Solidarity Movement to End
the
Occupation. To have us post an
event on this calendar, please email
lindabevis1@aol.com.
For more general news and analysis
on the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict without a pro-Israeli-government bias,
please see:
www.palestinechronicle.com
and other sites listed on
our website.
To send a letter
about anything you learn here to your congressional rep:
http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=2174&ms=irqpeace
PALESTINE SOLIDARITY
COMMITTEE/ISM SEATTLE NEWS
*
Next Palestine Solidarity Committee Meeting: July 14, 5:30-7:30
* Next ISM Seattle subcommittee
meeting: TBA
* Next ISM
Seattle Discussion Cafe: Aug. 4, 5-8 pm (every first Wed.)
* Next Sidewalk Education, Aug. 14,
12-2 p.m.
* Next
Divestment meeting: TBA
*
Next Theatre meeting:TBA (usually every first Tuesday)
* Next ISM pre-training: Fall
* Next ISM Palestine Campaign:
Summer 2004 -- June 25-Aug. 19
* Palestine Film Festival: October 2004
Call 206
633-1086 for locations, dates, times.
PSC now has a copy of the new
Media Education Foundation video, "Peace,
Propaganda and the Promised
Land: American Media and the Subversion
of Peace" (75
minutes)
that you can borrow to show in your living room or community hall.
We previewed the video and found
it extremely informative as a tool for
understanding what is really
happening in the Occupied Territories and why Americans
don't know about
it. For more details on the
video, go to the website of
the Media Education Foundation at www.mediaed.org. To borrow the video, email
woodwend@earthlink.net with
your request. For information about other videos in
PSCÕs lending library,
contact: palestinejustice@aol.com
THIS WEEK:
WOMEN IN BLACK ***ISMÕS FREEDOM SUMMER BEGINS
(ongoing) ***PALESTINE IN YOUR
LIVINGROOM? BRING SPEAKERS AND VIDEOS TO
YOUR FRIENDS ANYTIME -- CALL PSC FOR
MORE INFO 206 633-1086***
WOMEN
IN BLACK. Stand against occupation and war every Thursday at Westlake.
4th
& Pine. 5-6 pm. Wear Black. Men can support.
June 25- Aug. 19:
FREEDOM SUMMER IN PALESTINE. It's
not too late to join the
International Solidarity Movement in their
nonviolent direct action campaign
against Israeli occupation. Contact
palestinejustice@aol.com to find out
details of logistics, training, and
partial funding help.
UPCOMING: *** ISMÕS FREEDOM SUMMER (ongoing)***PALESTINE
WORKSHOP AT ROLLING
THUNDER ***SIDEWALK EDUCATION ***ISM DISCUSSION CAFE
***PALESTINE IN YOUR
LIVINGROOM? BRING SPEAKERS AND VIDEOS TO YOUR FRIENDS
ANYTIME -- CALL PSC FOR MORE INFO 206 633-1086***
June 25- Aug. 19:
FREEDOM SUMMER IN PALESTINE. It's
not too late to join the
International Solidarity Movement in their
nonviolent direct action campaign
against Israeli occupation. Contact
palestinejustice@aol.com to find out
details of logistics, training, and
partial funding help.
July 31. ROLLING THUNDER, the series of
Democracy Festivals started by Jim
Hightower and Michael Moore, is
happening again this summer in Seattle. The
event will feature a number of
speakers, including Hightower, William Rivers Pitt,
Tom Hayden, and Velma
Veloria. There will also be more than 30 workshops,
including a PALESTINE
WORKSHOP, and panels on poltics and activism, and a whole
lot of music.
The music schedule currently includes Fruit, Po'Girl, Paula Maya,
Geoffrey
Castle, and a lot more.The festival happens on July 31 from noon to
8 pm,
at Magnuson Park. For more information: mike55@foxinternet.net
August
4. ISM DISCUSSION CAFE at the
B&O Espresso, Belmont and Olive on
Capitol Hill. Drop by anytime
between 5 and 8 pm to learn more about the
International Solidarity
Movement to End the Occupation.
Every first Wednesday of the
month. More info: 206 633-1086.
Aug,
14, 12-2 pm. SIDEWALK EDUCATION FOR PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS. Usually
every
2nd Saturday from 12-2 pm. We have
info, banners, signs, and welcome all
anti-racists to join us. Palestine
Solidarity Committee. More
info:
palestinejustice@aol.com. Check our calendar for
updates. Call 206 633-1086 if you
need to confirm a location.
Westlake Park: 4th & Pine, downtown Seattle.
PALESTINE IN
YOUR LIVING ROOM: As always, Palestine Solidarity Committee
would love to
help you discuss this issue with your community. Invite friends over
for
dinner or tea and show a video and host a speaker whoÕs just back from
witnessing
the occupation. All for free. Let us know if youÕre interested: 206
633-1086,
palestinejustice@aol.com.
ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
STOP THE
WALL CAMPAIGN ***GO TO RAFAH TO INVESTIGATE RACHEL CORRIEÕS
DEATH
CAMPAIGN***OLYMPIA-RAFAH SISTER CITY PROJECT*** SEATTLE DIVEST FROM ISRAELI
MILITARY OCCUPATION CAMPAIGN***
STOP THE WALL CAMPAIGN
The
Wall is higher than the Berlin Wall, will take millions of American tax
dollars
to build, and cuts the West Bank in two: confiscating some of the
richest Palestinian
farmland and many wells for Israeli
use. For more info:
John
Reese, jreese@scn.org, 206-568-7110
or Community Action Network
can@drizzle.com
This
link is to a translation of a May 23rd article in Yediot Ahronot titled
Ò
Wall in the Heart.Ó
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1546.shtml
These
links have additional information on the wall including maps.
http://www.gush-shalom.org/thewall/index.html
http://www.poica.org/casestudies/Changing%20Wall%20Path%2016-06-03/index.htm
The
Israeli government continues to build a massive wall to surround
Palestinian
areas and turn their ghettos into large prisons. Twice as high and
planned-to-be three times as long as
the Berlin Wall, Israel's latest project of
dispossession has already
uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinian fruit and
olive trees and has
destroyed or isolated from Palestinian farmers tens of
thousands of dunams
of farmland, de facto confiscating the Palestinian people's most
fertile
land and most important water wells.
Entire farming communities are
losing all of their agricultural
land. More statistics:10% of the
West Bank
will be confiscated by and for Israel by the path of this
wall. As of December
2002,
some 11,500 dunams of land have been razed for the footprint of the
wall,
and 83,000 trees uprooted. Over 31
groundwater wells will be in the
confiscated areas of the wall's first
phase. A number of villages are to lose their
ONLY source of water. Land confiscation, destruction, and
severe restriction
of movement will translate into the loss of over 6,500
jobs. Over 100
buildings have
thusfar been destroyed to make way for the wall, mainly shops, an
important
source of income for families and communities At least 17 Palestinian
communities
will be trapped between the wall and the Green Line. Some co
mmunities will
be surrounded on all sides by the wall.
If completed as planned, some
95,000 Palestinians will be isolated.
A number
of small villages have been informed that their proximity
to the wall will
deem most of their community demolished. Courtesy of PENGON. For more
information and
statistics, see: www.pengon.org
The
ISM invites you to join the Palestinian people in coordinated
direct-action,
nonviolent resistance to this strangulation, oppression and affront to
peace
initiatives. While leaders talk
about peace and the "road map", take part
in working for justice
on the ground and paving the road to freedom. For more
information: www.palsolidarity.org
SEATTLE
DIVEST FROM ISRAELI MILITARY OCCUPATION CAMPAIGN: Ask Seattle City
Council
to divest its pension funds from American companies selling war machines
to
Israel. Includes Caterpillar and Boeing. More info:
www.palestineinformation.org;
206 633-1086.
GO TO RAFAH CAMPAIGN
CALL ON YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
TO GO TO RAFAH TO INVESTIGATE RACHEL CORRIEÕS
DEATH & TO SUPPORT THE
RACHEL CORRIE RESOLUTION (H.Con.Res. 111 calls for a U.S.
investigation
into her death. Rachel Corrie was a 23
year-old American peace
activist who was killed by an Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) bulldozer while
nonviolently protesting the
demolition of the home of a Palestinian doctor and
his family in the Gaza
Strip on March 16. For more details, please see:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org.):
Murray: 206.553.5545; Cantwell: 206.220.6400;
McDermott: 206.553-7170;
Baird:360.695.6292....
DONATIONS IN MEMORY OF RACHEL CORRIE:
International
Solidarity Movement -- Palestine
c/o Linda Bevis & Ed Mast
4330 2nd
Ave. NE
Seattle, WA 98105
(you can also send donations to Rafah to this
address; make checks out to
“MECAÓ)
Rachel Corrie Memorial
Fund
The Community Foundation of South Puget Sound
111 Market Street
NE, Suite 375
Olympia, WA 98501
More information on the Community
Foundation can be found at:
http://www.thecommunityfoundation.com
Rachel
Corrie Memorial Fund
c/o The Evergreen State College Foundation
Library
Building, Room 3122
The Evergreen State College
2700 Evergreen Parkway
NW
Olympia, WA 98505
Corrie Scholarship Fund
c/o Elizabeth
Abuhayder
351 Lee Street
Seattle, WA 98109
Plant An Olive Tree
in East Jerusalem in RachelÕs Memory
$20 buys a tree
Contact: Joan Abu
Jebara
PR & Advocacy Desk Coordinator
YWCA Palestine
email:
pr.advocacy@ywca-palestine.org or olivetree@ywca-palestine.org
You can also send a check to
"Friends of Sabeel-North Amerca", which is an
IRS registered 501(c)(3) organization and the local
contact is: sister Elaine
Kelley, admin. officer, 2036 SE Jefferson St.,
Milwaukie, OR 97222-7660 Ph:
503-653-6625 email: kelleysfcc@aol.com (do
this and sister Elaine sent us a
receipt and forwarded the forms to the
YWCA/ YMCA in Jerusalem).
The Corrie family also encourages people to
remember Rachel by doing
volunteer service in their community.
Cards
and remembrances for the Corrie family should be sent to:
P.O. Box
12149
Olympia, WA 98508
Emails to the family can be sent to:
rachelsmessage@the-corries.com
"MIDDLE EAST JUSTICE SCHOLARSHIP IN MEMORY OF RACHEL
CORRIE" has been
created.
This was created with the generous contributions of our
communities.
If people are still interested in making contributions to this
fund they can
do so by writing a check to the name of the scholarship fund
and send this to
Evergreen State College at 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW.,
Olympia, WA, 98505.
OLYMPIA-RAFAH SISTER CITY PROJECT
Dear Friend,
WeÕre writing to ask your help
on an urgent matter.
As you likely know, the Palestinians of Rafah, in
the
Gaza Strip, have been enduring a terrifying assault by
the Israeli
occupation forces. Hundreds of
homes in
Rafah were wantonly demolished last month in an
indiscriminate
campaign of destruction that Amnesty
International labeled a “war crimeÓ.
Thousands of
people, already impoverished, were then left homeless,
and
the campaign of home destruction continued with
scores of houses leveled in
the month of November. A
grave
humanitarian crisis is taking shape, with many
injured persons cut off from
medical care by the
Israeli Occupation forces, and local hospitals
unable
to cope with the growing number of casualties.
One international volunteer
currently working in Rafah
sent this dispatch on November 19th, which gives
a
look into the grim daily existence of Gaza:
We are
spending much of our days visiting families who
have lost children and
other family members from
Israeli bullets. The other day in Gaza City,
halfway
through Ramadan, a very poor family lost one of its
sons. The
13 year old was out catching birds with
other kids from the neighborhood
when an Israeli
military foot patrol came upon them. The autopsy
report
describes the child as being shot 17 times at
close range and his face was
injured from being
stomped on by the soldiersÕ boots. His arm was
broken
when they dragged him from the place of his murder to
the
border, in order to claim they shot him because he
got too close to the
Green Line.
In
Rafah, another 13 year old child was shot in the
stomach on his way
home
from school. That day there was an unusual amount
of gunfire all day long…In
Block O, one of the refugee
camps along the border, this child was just
getting
out of class and on his way home when he was either
targeted or
hit with a stray bullet. He was not killed
instantly, but was taken to the
ICU where over the
course of 3 days was given 16 liters of blood. In
the
end the doctors could not stop the bleeding and the
child died.
Stories of such atrocities are almost entirely
absent
from U.S. media reporting, yet are common fare to
those involved
in solidarity work inside Palestine.
As citizens of the country that
finances and enables
the Occupation, we are trying to provide some
immediate
relief and hope to the victims, while laying
the foundation for long-term
change.
Who We Are
The concept of an Olympia-to-Rafah sister city
relationship
was begun last year by our friend and
colleague Rachel Corrie, who was
killed by an Israeli
military bulldozer on March 16. Rachel insisted on
living in Rafah
because she thought it was there that
people faced the occupationÕs
harshest conditions. It
is
well known that she was a member of the
International Solidarity Movement
and that she lost
her life defending a Palestinian familyÕs home from
destruction. Not so well known were her efforts
at
establishing a sister-city relationship. She traveled
to Rafah with the names of school children
from her
hometown, seeking to pair them with counterparts in
Rafah in a
pen-pal exchange. She
imagined all sorts
of cultural exchanges, aid projects, and direct
ways
of connecting people across the many barriers of
distance,
language and misunderstanding that separate
us. She believed that only then might our countryÕs
misguided
policies be confronted and changed.
Although RachelÕs life was cut short, many of us
were
inspired by her and have resolved to carry out her
project. Beginning with a small core group, we
have
steadily expanded since our formation last Spring. A
number of our members have gone
to live in Rafah,
building connections with people and institutions
there. We have begun a Fair Trade exchange
for
Palestinian artwork through the Union of Palestinian
Women, we
support a Center for Disabled Persons, we
have sponsored cultural
exchanges, and we offer
translation between English and Arabic for our
pen-pal
program. You can find
out more about us, or contact
us, through our website at
http://www.orscp.org/.
What You Can Help With Right Now
Right now the people in Rafah
are asking us for help
in obtaining medical equipment and supplies. The idea
of a Sister City in the
U.S. has raised hopes inside
Rafah, and we wish to respond to their appeal
as
generously as possible.
While we have longer-term
ideas about setting up doctor exchanges
and assistance
from local hospitals, we would like to respond to the
more
immediate request of obtaining medical supplies.
Our groupÕs ability to
respond to such an appeal is
limited, and so we are reaching out to you
for
assistance.
Any
contribution you can make to support this project
will be fully
tax-deductible, and our transfer of
funds to Palestine will be completely
legal and
transparent. Our
501(c)3 fiscal sponsor is the Middle
East ChildrensÕ Alliance in Berkeley,
CA, directed by
longtime activist Barbara Lubin. If you are not
familiar with them, see their website
at
http://www.mecaforpeace.org/. MECA is one of the
most established aid
organizations in the U.S. working
in the Mideast.
The funds they send to Rafah for us will
be
distributed through Dr. Mona El-Farar of the Union of
Health Work
Committees. You can read Dr. El-FararÕs
recent report on RafahÕs medical
crisis at
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2054.shtml.
If
you have any questions, feel free to contact us by
phone at (360) 867-0290
or via email at
tomwright59@comcast.net.
Thank you so much for
your help.
Tom Wright and Therese Saliba