============================================================================ Delivered-To: •••@••.••• Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 08:11:44 -0700 From: CyberBrook <•••@••.•••> Subject: Palestine: A Call for Decisive Action (fwd) To: •••@••.••• from a friend... --------- Forwarded message ---------- To: •••@••.••• Cc: •••@••.••• Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 03:10:35 -0400 Subject: Palestine: A Call for Decisive Action (fwd) X-Mailer: Juno 4.0.11 From: "Michelle J. Kinnucan" <•••@••.•••> Dan, I know Thom personally, he's a good guy who's been in the struggle for a long time. His call deserves a good response. Please forward it to your friends. Thanks. Michelle A Prescription For A Real Democracy: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mjkinnuc/index.htm --------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Thom Saffold" <•••@••.•••> Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 10:03:45 -0400 Dear Friends, The Call to Action below is followed by an update. Please read it, consider it, and reply if you are interested. As the update indicates, the response in less than a week has been overwhelming! In fact, this morning I received an endorsement and offer of full support from Dr. Hanan Ashrawi! A CALL TO DECISIVE ACTION TO STOP ISRAELI VIOLENCE IN PALESTINE Because Israeli violence against civilians in Palestine has worsened, many American allies of the Palestinian cause want to do more than write letters, demonstrate, present programs, or send humanitarian aid. They want to do something more dramatic to stop Israeli attacks on Palestinian neighborhoods and people, with bombs and bullets, or closures and curfews, and to stop the United States from massively rewarding Israel for its brutality and protecting its occupation of Palestine. If this describes your feelings, this call is for you. Plans are underway to create an international citizen’s peace-making force. This is an invitation to join that campaign, or to support it financially. You have read that some governments have suggested a UN or other NGO-type peacekeeping force, but it is not happening. There was similar talk in 1992 about sending a force to war-torn Bosnia, but, again, there was no action. In August of 1993, a thousand young Italians organized themselves and almost a thousand others from around the world to journey to Bosnia as a peace army. I was one of 54 Americans who heeded the call. That experiment in peace making helped bring the world’s attention to that conflict, and led to military intervention to bring the massacres there to a halt. If we had had thousands more volunteer "peace warriors," we could have brought the fighting to an absolute end, without military intervention. The West Bank and Gaza are much smaller than Bosnia. If we had even 500 people, trained and committed to putting ourselves in between Palestinian civilians and the Israeli army and say "In the name of humanity, STOP!" how could the Israelis resist? An Israeli woman, Neta Golan, did that very thing to protect Palestinians from her own nation’s troops and settlers, as they picked olives. As the Christian Peacemaker Teams motto says, Neta "got in the way" by putting her life on the line for true peace. What if 500 people from the United States and other countries did the same thing as her, and as 2000 people did in Bosnia? I teach the history of the Civil Rights campaigns of America. The Palestinian cause is as just as was the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The forces of Martin Luther King, Jr. did not cakewalk their way to the degree of freedom Black Americans now enjoy. They had to risk their lives by facing police dogs, fire hoses, billy clubs, bullets, beatings, arrests, abuse in jail, etc. In that struggle, people like Dr. King and many people most of us have never heard of put their lives on the line, not just for Black Americans in the 1960’s, but for humanity, to show our species a different way of resolving conflict, the way of nonviolent direct action. Friends, the Palestinian struggle is a Civil Rights Struggle, and just as Dr. King challenged people all across the nation to join him in places like Birmingham and Selma, the spirit of that cry is calling many of us to go to Palestine. Imagine that the year is 1939 or 40 instead of 2001. We know that the German government is waging war against Jews. They have not yet developed their Final Solution at Wannsee, but will. We have a chance to take decisive action, even though a war wages, action that will save the Jews from their holocaust. People like us failed then. The failure of the world to care enough about the Jewish people then created some of the very attitudes and worldview that motivate nationalistic Jews to wage war on Palestinians—they do it, they think, for their own "security." We owe it to Israeli Jews, as well as Palestinians, to put our bodies on the line and in the name of whatever we consider holy or ethical to put an end to the fighting and provide truly democratic (people power) leadership to bring the conflict to a just conclusion. The war the Israeli government is waging is not only against Palestinians, but also against humanity and, I say, against their own faith and against their own security. If they continue along the present path, I fear, they will provoke only escalating violence. Although this idea has been floated on this and other e-mail lists, no one has taken concrete action. I am making it a project through the Direct Action Center of Washtenaw County. I have been in contact with Neta Golan and other Jewish Israeli and Palestinian activists who will support this campaign. Several people have already volunteered, and the Italians who helped organize the Bosnian campaign appear to be interested, as well. We are preparing a 2-3 week mass International Citizens Protection Force in August to protect Palestinians and bring media awareness to the brutality and illegality of Israel’s actions in dramatic ways. We go to support, strengthen, and draw positive awareness to the brave efforts of Palestinian and Israeli justice groups. They will provide leadership for this effort. The campaign is dedicated also to create on-going and continuous support for justice efforts there by encouraging Americans and internationals to volunteer for on-going programs of civil disobedience, development of Palestinian economic infrastructure, etc. Please send me your name, if you are at all interested in exploring the possibility of joining such an audacious group. If you want to send money, send it to: DAC 2084 Pauline Blvd. Apt. 2-B Ann Arbor, MI 48103 •••@••.••• 734-668-1549 and make the (tax deductible) check out to ICPJ (or Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice), and put DAC (or Direct Action Center) in the memo line. Please respond, and spread the word! Over 90 people have now signed up to participate in the campaign in August, and dozens of others indicate that depending on the scheduling, they, too may join us. The e-mails and calls are still coming in, and I have not had time to reply to all of them yet. Also, two Italian groups are working with Israeli activist Neta Golan on this project, and we are negotiating to merge with a similar program of a Dutch group, called "Lifeline Palestine." They put out their call to action just after we did. I've also heard from an Israeli named Charles who is organizing what he described as a "Jewish Peacemaker Team" (modeled after CPT in Hebron) that will recruit American Jews to go to Palestine and do civil disobedience against the Occupation! There's more, but it’s late. There are four main objectives of the campaign: 1. To protect Palestinians for several days from attacks by Israelis and to stand in solidarity with all Palestinians. 2. To present a message of concern for Israeli men, women, and children, and for the well-being of Israel itself, and demonstrate that our concern is not only for Palestinians. Just as many of us Americans recognize that our military industrial complex and imperialist culture is a danger to our well-being and the well-being of so many people in the world, we will express the same concern with the militarization of Israeli culture and policies. I think we should appeal to the essential Jewish value of justice. 3. To create a media event that will present to the American media (the rest of the world already knows what's going on :o)) OUR viewpoint about the Occupation and about the Palestinian people and their struggle. We are not going there to "lead the way" or "run the show," but to support the wonderful work that is being done by Israeli groups, Palestinian groups, and joint groups. In other words, we are going to back them up, to show our confidence in their leadership, and we will look to them for leadership. There have never been 500 or more internationals brought together for this purpose. We believe that the US media will HAVE to showcase us and if we do our jobs, the reality of the occupation and of the nobleness of the Palestinian Cause WILL get into the newspapers. But the people who actually go to Palestine will not be able to do this alone. An important part of the campaign will be to get thousands of people in the United States to help impact the media. They, too, can be an integral part of the mass campaign. With internet and innovations like streaming media, they can find out what's happening almost as it happens. Then they can call their newspapers, television stations, NPR and other news media and BUG them to cover the campaign. Since the safety of people in the Campaign in Palestine will be enhanced by the maximum US media coverage, this "Media Brigade" will be doubly important. If interested in being part of the Media Brigade, please let me know. 4. To call attention to, support, and help strengthen on-going projects that Palestinians and Israelis are doing, and create new ones that have never been tried before. Not only projects to protect and support Palestinians throughout the physical Intifada, but projects that will: --help them to build the kind of economy that they will need as a state, --find ways of nonviolently forcing the Israelis to give up the settlements, return all the land, and obey international laws guaranteeing the right of return to any and all Palestinians. Boycotts, disvestment of stock in companies doing trade with Israel, working like mad to stop US aid of any kind to Israel, and insisting that American Jews stop supporting Israel’s illegal policies, are some possible tactics. --focus world attention on the lives of Palestinians living within Israel, name it the apartheid system it is, and work for an end to it --work for a viable two state or one state solution. Thom Saffold 734-668-1549 --- To unsubscribe, email <•••@••.•••> with the message signoff social-movements
