End the Siege on the People of Gaza

International Day of Action, Jan. 26

Call for a Comprehensive Ceasefire, End US Military Aid to Israel Israel is continuing to escalate its attacks on Gaza, killing more than 40 Palestinians just this past week and wounding scores more, and has placed the already besieged territory under complete lockdown.That is eliminating what little access the besieged population had to food, fuel, clean water and ever-more-urgent medical services. By Sunday Gaza's only power generator was shut down because of a lack of fuel; hospitals are starting to be affected and Palestinian medical officials reported five gravely ill patients had died.

Israel's announcement, under international pressure, that it would allow one day's worth of fuel to re-start Gaza's only power generating plant does not mean an end to the crisis; Gaza will remain desperate as Israel continues to use the access to vitally needed fuel and other goods as a weapon of occupation to impose collective punishment on the entire population of Gaza. The conditions in Gaza have become desperate, and international solidarity organizations in London, Rome and elsewhere around the world are mobilizing to demand an end to the siege of Gaza in protests on January 26. That same day Israeli peace groups are organizing an emergency convoy to try to break the siege.

Israel's increasing attacks on Gaza - the economic blockade and military assaults - are not in response to the rocket attacks from Gaza. The Israeli attacks, and Israel's continuing occupation-through-siege of Gaza, are the reason for the rocket fire in the first place. But even if the Israeli attacks were in response to Gaza rockets, such a response would still be illegal (collective punishment is always illegal), disproportionate, and ultimately futile.

U.S. military support bolsters Israel's occupation and enables the current escalating punishment. The U.S. must stop all military aid to Israel, and demand that Israel end its collective punishment and indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population of Gaza. Further, the U.S. must push for a comprehensive ceasefire that covers all the occupied Palestinian territories. Otherwise, the U.S. will continue to be vilified for its support of collective punishment and attacks on civilians, U.S. citizens will be seen by the rest of the world as complicit in major human rights violations, and any future talks about "peace" will be viewed as providing continuing support for an Israeli-imposed military settlement.

TAKE ACTION:

Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at 202-647-7209. Demand:

• An immediate end to the assault on Gaza, and the opening of its border crossings to people and goods.
• A comprehensive ceasefire that covers all territories and all parties to the conflict.
• An end to U.S. military aid to Israel. Oppose the new $30 billion military aid package to Israel by clicking here.

Call your national as well as your local media. Demand:

• Coverage of what's going on in the Occupied­ Palestinian territories. This is particularly important since the Israeli lock-down of Gaza has resulted in very little news emerging of the most recent attacks.

• Write a letter to the editor in response to an article in your paper using the talking points in this action alert.

For contact information, click here.

If your group has consultative status at the United Nations, call the office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon:

• Demand that the UN hold Israel, as a member state, accountable for its human rights violations.
  
  
• Protest the Secretary-General's statement of January 17, 2008, repeated on January 18, in which he demanded an "immediate halt" to Palestinian rocket and sniper fire from Gaza, but only urged "maximum restraint" from the Israeli occupation forces assaulting Gaza. In both statements he "reminds all parties of their obligation to comply with international humanitarian law and not to endanger civilians," without acknowledging the different obligations between an occupied population and an occupying power already violating numerous UN resolutions that demand an end to the occupation itself.

Contact:Office of the Secretary General, Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar:

nambiar@un.org or 1-212-963-8922.

Find out about the January 26 convoy that will try to break the siege of Gaza with food and medicine:

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1200266785

Join Protests in the United States on Jan. 26 or Organize Your Own

-The Cleveland Middle East Peace Forum will sponsor a rally and town
meeting in support of the January 26 actions. For more information, contact donmbryant@yahoo.com

-In Philadelphia various groups are supporting the Jan. 26 day of action, with a press conference on Friday 1/25 and a march to the Israeli consulate on 1/26. For more information, contact rkamel@verizon.net

-January 24 Boston Action
COME JOIN OUR DEMAND TO ALLOW HUMANITARIAN RELIEF INTO GAZA NOON, THURSDAY 24 JANUARY
ISRAELI CONSULATE, PARK PLAZA HOTEL, BOSTON
MEET AT HADASSAH WAY AND PROVIDENCE ST
in support of the Gaza Relief Convoy
http://gush-shalom.org.toibillboard.info/ConvJan08.htm

JEWS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN GAZA
Let us know you are coming gazahumanrights@gmail.com
Please bring a food item to deliver to the consulate. We are going to present cartons of food and medical aid to the Israeli consul's office (Park Plaza Hotel, noon Thursday 24 January) and request that it be taken to Gaza, and that the Israeli government let the Gaza Relief Convoy through the Erez Checkpoint on 26 January. On Saturday, January 26, from NOON to 1 PM in Harvard Square there will be a demonstration in support of the International Campaign to Break the Siege of Gaza. On that date, Israeli peace groups will attempt to enter the Gaza Strip with a convoy of essential supplies and medicines. Gaza no longer has sufficient fuel to keep its power station running. Hospitals and homes are dark and cold, remaining food stocks are being spoiled, the water and sewage infrastructure is breaking down. We American taxpayers — who make this collective punishment possible — must raise our voices. Please join us if you can — the group will gather on the sidewalk in front of Au Bon Pain.
Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights

BACKGROUND & TALKING POINTS

1. Demand an immediate end to the assault on Gaza and open borders

The 1.5 million citizens of Gaza, half of whom are children aged 14 and
under, have been under an increasingly tight siege since January 2006 when Hamas was elected in free and fair elections - at least as free and fair as any election held under military occupation can be. The living standards of the population have plummeted and their access to medical services, education, and basic food has dwindled.Over 80% of Gazans now live in poverty according to the United Nations and the World Bank. The World Bank has identified Israel's tight control of movement of people and goods into and out of, as well as within, the occupied territories as the single most important reason for the collapse of the Palestinian economy. Israel has never implemented the agreement on movement and access that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice negotiated in November 2005. Israel must end its assault on Gaza and let Gaza have open borders to the rest of the world.

2. Call for a comprehensive ceasefire that covers all territories and all parties to the conflict

Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed a ceasefire that included Gaza on November 26, 2006. However, Israel continued to conduct incursions into the West Bank and carry out "targeted assassinations," some of which resulted in the murder of civilians. Between November 26, 2006 and April 3, 2007, Israeli forces killed 51 Palestinians in the West Bank. Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel came as a clear retaliation to these killings. The ceasefire collapsed on April 22, 2007. Although the U.S. media continually claims that Israeli attacks are in response to Palestinian rocket fire, the actual pattern of Israeli attacks provoking Palestinian responses has been documented by Israeli journalist Gideon Levy.(See his July 9 and December 3 2006 articles on www.haaretz.com, as well as Institute for Palestine Studies Policy Notes No. 15 on www.palestine-studies.org) Official U.S. statements supporting Israel's assaults on Gaza make the U.S. government complicit in Israeli violations of the Geneva conventions (which prohibit all collective punishment).

3. Urge an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.

Although Israel has not dismantled even the West Bank "outposts" as it had promised the U.S., let alone the rest of its illegal settlements and infrastructure in the West Bank, the U.S. has increased military aid to Israel by 25% for a total of $30 billion over the next 10 years. U.S. military and political support means Israel can ignore legitimate Palestinian aspirations for independence, sovereignty, equality and justice. It makes a mockery of claimed U.S. support for the "peace process," because the U.S. guarantees the overwhelming superiority of the Israeli occupier and its decades-long exploitation of Palestinian land and resources.

The U.S. must not be complicit in what the rest of the world understands to be one country's destruction of a country and people.Only an end to U.S. military aid to Israel will signal that our country is beginning to get serious about peace.

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Gaza will not be forgotten!

End the siege of Gaza

We  want to appeal to all concerned, whether it be official bodies in the
International community, those in Israel and/or those within the Palestinian
community to work together to prevent the crimes being committed against the
civilians in Gaza because it is our responsibility to take a stand against this
oppression.

We would particularly like to raise awareness about the effect the fuel
shortage is having on everyday life. The civilians left without fuel are left
without the basic rights stated in Article 25 of Universal declaration of Human
Rights: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health
and well-being of himself and of his family, including medical care". These
standards have been removed because without fuel there is no source of heating,
ability to cook or clean water supply. In addition some of the hospitals have
been forced to limit their energy usage to only essential life-saving
equipment, and heating cannot be one of these priorities even in this
particularly harsh winter. 

We, Palestinians and Internationals together, invite u to join us in solidarity
with those in Gaza suffering from the sanctions Israel have imposed upon them.
We are here to protest against the collective punishment from which the people
of Gaza are suffering. Collective punishment is illegal according to
international law.

We will not stay silent in front of blatant injustice.
Please join us, bring a candle in front of the Nativity Church, at 6pm, Tuesday
22 January and spread the word,

Call Ghassan Bannoura on 0599180184 for English
Or Samer Jaber on 0598169276 for Arabic

George S. Rismawi
Coordinator,
Siraj, Center For Holy Land Studies
Beit Sahour, Schoold Street
P.O.Box 48
Palestine
Email: george@sirajcenter.org
    abusaliba@yahoo.com

MLK on Apartheid, Israel Apartheid Week, Movement against Apartheid Speaking Tour

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation


Mon, Jan 21, 2008 08:45 AM


In 1962, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. issued a joint statement with Chief Albert Lutuli, President of the African National Congress (ANC) and Nobel Peace Prize winner, entitled "Appeal for Action against Apartheid."

In the appeal, King and Lutuli argue that an international boycott is necessary to bring down South Africa's apartheid regime. "The apartheid republic is a reality today only because the peoples and governments of the world have been unwilling to place her in quarantine."

King and Lutuli strongly believed that international civil society had a crucial role to play in bringing this about. "Translate public opinion into public action by explaining facts to all peoples, to groups to which you belong, and to countries of which you are citizens until AN EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL QUARANTINE OF APARTHEID IS ESTABLISHED."

Were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. still alive today, there is no doubt that his commitment to racial equality and social justice would have compelled him to join Palestinian civil society, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, and many other groups to call for campaigns of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel and corporations that profit from Israel's human rights abuses against Palestinians.

As part of our commitment to BDS, the US Campaign is embarking on a national boycott of Motorola. Soon to come: resources, organizing materials and other helpful information to help launch this important campaign to end Motorola's profiting from human rights abuses in Palestine. If you or your group is interested in becoming involved in the Motorola campaign, please contact Suha Dabbouseh, National Organizer, at 202-332-0994 or organize@endtheoccupation.org for more information.

Just as King protested apartheid in South Africa, so too must we carry on his torch by protesting U.S. support for Israel's apartheid policies against Palestinians. Later this year, the US Campaign will be organizing a national anti-apartheid speaking/organizing tour. If you or your organization is interested in helping to organize a stop on the US Campaign's anti-apartheid tour, please contact Suha Dabbouseh, National Organizer, at 202-332-0994 or organize@endtheoccupation.org.

In the meantime, the US Campaign is endorsing and helping to publicize two events in February on the same anti-apartheid theme, which we hope that our member organizations and individual supporters will take part in.

ISRAEL APARTHEID WEEK, FEBRUARY 3-10, 2008

Events will be taking place throughout the United States, Canada, Palestine, South Africa, and more! Find out how to get involved and organize an event in your city by clicking here.

THE MOVEMENT AGAINST APARTHEID IN PALESTINE, 2008 U.S. NATIONAL SPEAKING TOUR & FILM SCREENING, FEBRUARY 1-MARCH 4

Mansour Mansour, a Palestinian from Biddo, is a member of Northwest Jerusalem Popular Committee and the Biddo Popular Committee. He studied radio broadcasting at Bir Zeit University and helped organize protests against the checkpoints that are preventing many students from reaching their universities. He is also Executive Director of Biddo Community Development, a not for profit organization aimed at enhancing the lives of children and adults through education and employment. With the organization he conducts weekly workshops with youth and adults promoting the experience of non-violence as a means to resisting occupation. He was also Campaign Coordinator and non-violent trainer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) since 2004. Among his responsibilities of coordinating an ISM presence in regions throughout the occupied Palestinian Territories he is also responsible for administering the training for international members. Biddo has succeeded through active non-violence to push the construction of the Apartheid Wall back to the 1967 Green Line.

Shai Carmeli Pollak is a prominent director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He has made an award winning documentary in late 2006, called Bil'in Habibti, about his involvement in the struggle of the village of Bil'in against the Apartheid Wall. He addresses the political non-violent struggle there, what the struggle means for the village and his growing friendships with the Palestinians in the village. The movie won best documentary in the Jerusalem film festival and has since been screened all over the world. Since the movie was made Bil'in has also won a court victory, where they ruled that the wall should be moved so that farmers have access to their farm land. Shai can talk about his experience as an Israeli in solidarity with Palestinians and screen parts of his movie or the whole thing depending on the organizer's preference.

TOUR DATES

New York, NY


Feb-1-08

Boston, MA


Feb-02-08

Philadelphia, PA


Feb-03-08

Washington, DC


Feb-4-08

Raleigh, NC


Feb-05-08

Pittsburgh, PA


Feb-08-08

Cleveland, OH


Feb-09-08

Detroit, MI


Feb-10-08

Ann Arbor, MI


Feb-11-08

Chicago, IL


Feb-13-08

Houston, TX


Feb-16-08

Austin, TX


Feb-17-08

Seattle, WA


Feb-19-08

Olympia, WA


Feb-20-08

Denver, CO


Feb-22-08

Boulder, CO


Feb-23-08

Las Angeles, CA


Feb-27-08

Berkeley, CA


Mar-1-08

Oakland, CA


Mar-1-08

San Fran, CA


Mar-2-08

End of Tour


Mar-4

For more info, please contact Project Coordinator Raad Amer at freepalestine1980@gmail.com

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King

We have your dream too!

Crisis in Gaza

Yesterday in Connecticut, we had the honor to hear from the father, mother, and sister of 10-year-old Abir Aramin who was murdered by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in occupied Anata, Jerusalem, Palestine. We also heard from Israeli refusenik Yonatan Shapira. Abir’s father Bassam Aramin was jailed in Israel starting at age 17. When released he and Yonatan cofounded Combatants for Peace which combined Israelis and Palestinians who now advocate nonviolence and justice. He and others continued with the group even after his daughter was murdered in front of her school and while walking with other classmates, friends, as well as her sister (who gave us a heart-wrenching account of what happened and who spoke movingly about how Palestinian Children want to live like other children). There is no symmetry between occupied and occupiers, oppressed and oppressors; the occupation must end and human rights restored. This is understood by leaders of this group ( http://www.combatantsforpeace.org/ ), as well as by the group that is arranging the US tour and raising money to build a garden in the name of Abir (The Rebuilding Alliance http://www.rebuildingalliance.org/ ). We can only hope that this tour will bring people to act. While the killing of Children in the West Bank abated in the past few months (in order to advance the Israeli political agenda of domesticating the Palestinian Authority leaders), the situation got worse in Gaza. 92 children were murdered by the IOF since Abir's murder exactly a year ago and most were in Gaza. Today we face a major catastrophic situation unfolding in this concentration camp otherwise known as the Gaza Strip (home to 1.5 million Palestinians, 70% of them refugees). A very short message from a resident in Gaza reminded me with the call we heard from Jerusalem during the massacres by the Crusaders or other calls in history: "Wa Mu3tasmah...". It was simply: “Dear all: This is going to be short, as short as possible: At least 80% of Gaza under darkness. Not only the lights but every thing related to electricity. It is expected to have hundreds or even thousands of people dead if this situation continues. What can we do with this WAR CRIME? Bassam M. Nasser, Gaza, Palestine" Ofcourse that is still an understatement. Already dozens have died for lack of medications. Some are already hungry and 70% live below the poverty line thanks to the Israeli murderous siege (benignly referred to as "collective punishment"). A European colleague candidly noted in an email that Gaza now is new concentration camp “conceived as such” and “needs a new Nuremberg trial.” For those who know history they know that large scale deaths at concentration camps only occurred years after they were inhabited by thousands of inmates (communists, gypsises, homosexuals, Russians, Jews, Poles etc). Let us not wait for this progression, let us not wait for the day when Israelis parade before mass graves in Gaza. But what indeed can we do with the continuing Nakba in Palestine (60 years of mayhem, ethnic cleansing, destruction etc.)? Read about the mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza http://www.freegaza.ps http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BBA4E18B-E72F-4AB2-A1B4-26612DEFEAE3.htm We think we also have 60 years of heroism, sacrifices, acts of justice, and yes also lots of acts of kindness. That has always made the difference that prevents total annihilation and keeps the hopes of liberation, justice, freedom alive. So if you are like us outraged by these and others tories you hear, then do something. Below is from a US Citizen asking fellow citizens to act but if you are not in the US, please do similar actions with your government and the media: If you are an American TAX PAYER you are culpable in these crimes against humanity and silence is complicity! WRITE and TELEPHONE THOSE WORKING FOR YOU IN WASHINGTON AND DEMAND THAT THIS CARNAGE END! It is the PEACEMAKERS who are the children of God, NOT those that starve, bomb, torture and occupy others! President George W. Bush (202) 456-1414 president@whitehouse.gov White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111 Fax: (202) 456-2461 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (202) 647-6575 Any Senator (202) 224-3121 Any Representative (202) 225-3121 E-Mail Congress: visit http://www.congress.org Embassy of Israel, 3514 International Dr., NW, Washington, DC 20008 (202) 364-5515 AND WRITE TO/CALL THE MEDIA AND DEMAND THEY COVER THIS HUMANITARIAN DISASTOR AND ONGOING WAR CRIMES. Media contacts: http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/contact/media.asp http://capwiz.com/adc/dbq/media Ask Journalists to interview Palestinians; there is no shortage of those (e.g. in the US, here is a listing of many Palestinian Americans: http://imeu.net/news/palestinian-americans.shtml ). ======== Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD http://qumsiyeh.org http://justicewheels.org

Enviro Frauds hoisted on their own Gallegos petard

It's a pity that Paul Gallegos has to be the public fall guy for the sleazeball activists pulling his strings behind the scenes. Ken Miller should be the one facing the music for his actions as this is not the first time a founder of Humboldt Watershed Council has had his poorly written, poorly presented "case" against Palco and Maxxam thrown out of court. HWC founder Bob Martel was fined $110,000 I believe for wasting the court's time but here, it's Humboldt taxpayers who will pay for Humboldt Watershed Council's puppet in office's legal fiasco.

I have been a critic of anti-corporate enviro activism since 1990 because that's the year I first began to see that our local enviro and now Prog activists are not activists for the community here but for a political agenda that overrides community relationships. That political agenda is the destruction of the corporate capitalist system which is such a huge undertaking, and one that has already failed even with the massive militant coercion of Soviet and Chinese Communist intervention.

The means of production are slowly but surely being shut down here in Humboldt County. Humboldt County's ability to create and maintain a quality life for working class people is deteriorating rapidly with only those with incomes tied to outside sources, e.g., HSU, government grants or pot industry, able to make ends meets.

Without a strong industrial economic base to our community, it will deteriorate even faster as infra-structure monies dry up. We have a set of selfish activists who themselves are set up financially but who want to make the lives of those less fortunate, the unemployed timber workers, the clerks serving with no benefits, the poor living on social security, even harder.

Free drug samples go to wealthy and insured

Neediest least likely to get medicines marketed by pharmaceutical firms

Reuters
updated 7:48 a.m. MT, Thurs., Jan. 3, 2008

WASHINGTON - Insured and wealthy Americans were more likely than the poor to get billions of dollars in free drug samples distributed by pharmaceutical companies to win patient and doctor loyalty, a study released on Wednesday showed.

The pharmaceutical industry contends that the samples help the uninsured and people with low incomes, but the study of prescription use by nearly 33,000 U.S. residents during 2003 found that the neediest were least likely to get samples.

"Our findings suggest the free samples serve as a marketing tool, not a safety net," said Dr. Sarah Cutrona, co-author of the report to be published in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group representing most major drugmakers, called the study out of date and said a major facet of the problem is that many uninsured do not get health care from doctors' offices.

Samples are popular among doctors who want to try new drugs.

"As important as free pharmaceutical samples are in improving healthcare, they represent one — not the only — option for patients in need," Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the group, said in a statement.

Lack of access to regular medical care by the uninsured and underinsured is a major factor contributing to who gets free drug samples, the report said. The uninsured are more likely to get care from emergency rooms and clinics.

Nearly 47 million people living in the United States do not have health insurance.

New, expensive drugs promoted
About $16.4 billion in drug samples were given out in the United States in 2004, up from $4.9 billion in 1996, the study said. Distributed by sales representatives, samples are nearly always the newest, most expensive drugs, the report said.

Critics have said that in addition to steering doctors and patients to pricey drugs, samples can lead to medications being used for conditions they were not intended to treat.

Drugmakers are forbidden from recommending drugs for uses for which they have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but doctors can prescribe drugs for any use.

The now-recalled painkiller Vioxx, made by Merck & Co, was the most frequently distributed free drug sample in 2002, the study found.