PALESTINE-RELATED
EVENTS in the SEATTLE AREA for July 19-31
(NOTE: NO SIDEWALK ED IN AUGUST; JOIN US ON 9/11 FOR
THE NEXT SIDEWALK
EDUCATION)
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: Aug. 1 , 6-8
* Next ISM Seattle subcommittee
meeting: TBA
* Next ISM
Seattle Discussion Cafe: Aug. 4, 5-8 pm (every first Wed.)
* Next Sidewalk Education, SEPT.
11, 12-2 p.m. (NO AUGUST SIDEWALK ED)
* 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 (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)***ÓFOLLOW THE MONEY: PALESTINE
FOR
ACTIVISTSÓ 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 (ÒFOLLOW THE MONEY: PALESTINE FOR ACTIVISTSÓ
(time TBA), 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.
Sept. 11, 12-2 pm. (NO
SIDEWALK ED IN AUGUST) 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 ***ÓGO TO RAFAH TO INVESTIGATE RACHEL CORRIEÕS
DEATHÓ
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
ÒA Wall in the HeartÓ
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
ÒMECAÓ)
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 Òwar 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