Madison Rafah Journal

Judith Davidoff, The Capital Times, December 22, 2004

A Madison woman is being detained in an Israeli prison awaiting a judge-ordered deportation.

Kelly Bornshlegel, who has an Israeli visa, was arrested last week in the village of Bil’in, west of Ramallah.

Reached by cell phone Friday at the Hadera Deportation Prison, Bornshlegel said she was arrested while filming a protest against construction of the separation wall between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Though not allowed to meet with a lawyer, Bornshlegel, 23, said her attorney dropped off a bag of things for her with a cell phone inside.

Bornshlegel said she was part of a group of about 15 people from the International Solidarity Movement who tried to convince soldiers on Tuesday of last week to delay construction of the wall, which would destroy many of the village’s olive trees.

Bornshlegel said the soldiers responded with tear gas and sound bombs. About an hour into the demonstration, she said she was arrested while filming a teenage boy being beaten by Israeli soldiers. (Read on …)

Wisconsin State Journal :: OPINION :: A10
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Jennifer Loewenstein

After careful consideration of the Presbyterian Church’s decision to selectively divest from multinational corporations directly involved in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project has decided to support this policy.

The Presbyterian Church’s “selective, phased divestment process” is designed to “engage a limited number of companies whose presence in Israel is perceived to undergird, in some critical way, Israel’s intransigence” — including:

* Refusal to end the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

* Continued illegal building of settlements in these areas.

* Building a “separation wall” that further intensifies the difficulties of day-to-day life for Palestinians and follows boundaries that the Israeli Supreme Court has declared illegal. (Read on …)

TWO MEN REFUSED TO BE SOLDIERS

Judith Davidoff, The Capital Times, November 9, 2004

Like other young Israeli men and women, Noam Bahat and Shimri Zameret were called up to serve in their country’s army once they finished high school.

But, unlike most of their peers, Barat and Zameret refused to enlist.

Part of a growing movement of “refuseniks,” Barat and Zameret served time in military and civilian prisons after being court-martialed for refusing to serve in the Israeli army. Both object to the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Israel Defense Forces.

Released in September after about two years in prison, Barat and Zameret are traveling around the United States to speak about their experiences and to raise consciousness about the role the United States plays in supporting Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

On Wednesday night, Bahat and Zameret will speak at the First Unitarian Society Meeting House here at a program sponsored by the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and the Madison Area Peace Coalition. (Read on …)

Wednesday, November 10, 2004
7:00 pm
First Unitarian Church
University Bay Drive

We will be hosting a program with two of the five high school “refuseniks” from Israel, Noam Bahat and Shimri Zameret, recently released from prison.

Sun, 31 Oct 2004
From: Barbara Olson
Subject: Fwd: photos from Rafah
To: rafahsistercity@yahoo.com

Everyone: Ruba E. forwarded this from the Children’s Parliament in Rafah. The text that accompanied the pictures is below.

Barb

Our activites in October:

Children of Mini Palestinian Parliament had a peaceful march to protest against killing of two schoolgirls in Rafah: Ghadeer Mokhamer (She was in her class in UN school) and Iman Al-Hamms (She was walking to her school when a spiteful soldier of Israeli Occupation Forces shot her by 24 bullets). (Read on …)

7:00 pm
UW Campus
Rm. 3650 Humanities Bldg.

The Fourth World War will have its Madison premiere hosted by producers/directors Rick Rowley and Jacqueline Soohen. MRSCP is one of the co-sponsors of this showing.

Shot on the front lines of struggles spanning five continents, The Fourth World War is the untold story of people who resist being annihilated in the current global conflict. The film weaves together the images and voices of the war on the ground — in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, Seattle, Genoa and New York. The intensity and immediacy of its images are beyond anything the mainstream media can shoot, the intimacy and passion of its stories are beyond anything it can feel. Narrated by Tony Award winner Suheir Hammad and Singer Michael Franti of Spearhead, it is a radical story of hope and human connection in the face of a war that shatters and divides.

Richard Rowley and Jacqueline Soohen are New York-based filmmakers whose groundbreaking feature documentaries Zapatista (1998), Black and Gold (1999), and This is What Democracy Looks Like (2000) have won top honors at hundreds of film festivals worldwide. Established video journalists, they have reported from Argentina, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, East Timor, South Africa, and Palestine, where they were the only video team to break the 2002 siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Free and open to the public. For info call 262-9036.