Madison-Rafah Journal

Sunday, August 17, 2 pm
Escape Java Joint
916 Williamson Street

The film Occupation 101 will be shown as part of the People's Networking Convention, a counter-convention for "anyone who wishes to do something about democracy in our country".

Occupation 101 is a thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike any other film ever produced on the conflict, Occupation 101 presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never-ending controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions.

Shafia Powell and her friend Nabila have generously offered to host a garage sale next weekend to benefit the Rafah Youth Soccer Tournament planned for this September.

THE SALE WILL BE ON MADISON'S NORTH SIDE AT 3601 MARCY LANE, OFF OF TROY DRIVE. THE TENTATIVE HOURS ARE:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 12 NOON - 5 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 9 AM - 5 PM
SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 9 AM - 3 PM

Tournament supporters in the U.S. were successful in raising the money needed to launch the tournament and will shortly be doing "Phase 2" fund raising to support it.

IF YOU HAVE ANY ITEMS TO DONATE TO THE SALE, please contact Nabila at 242-9179 to arrange to drop them off. If you need help transporting donations please contact Shafia at 772-5744. Holy Land Olive Oil should be available at the sale as well.

Please help us spread the word about this sale. And as always, thanks for your support.

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Bush is ratcheting up the rhetoric on Iran. He says "All options are on the table." Congress is considering a resolution to blockade Iran – an act of war.

What can we do to stop it?

Join us as we hear from a panel of experts:

• History of US policy – Joe Elder
• US covert operations – Allen Ruff
• Middle East context – Tsela Barr
• The nuclear issue – Jeff Patterson
• Why we shouldn’t go to war – Majid Sarmadi

Discussion and brainstorming on working for a peaceful world will follow. Bonnie Block will moderate.

Tuesday July 15, 2008
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Lowell Hall, Room B1-A/D
610 Langdon St., Madison

Co-sponsored by: Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Madison Pledge of Resistance, United Nations Association-Dane County Chapter, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Health Writers, Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and more.

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Austin Greenberg, The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, June 21, 2008

As Dallas, Texas, resident Charles Gelfand, 69, was reading the Dallas Morning News in his home about three months ago, he decided to test his news knowledge by taking a current events quiz he saw in the paper.

“I am the president of the Palestinian National Authority and a leading member of the Fatah political group,” read the first sentence of the “Newsname” section of the quiz under a picture of the smiling Palestinian leader.

Though he was already a lock to earn 15 points for knowing the correct answer (Mahmoud Abbas), Gelfand read on.

“I have often been seen as the Palestinian voice of moderation by Israel and the West. In the past few days, Israeli attacks in Gaza killed more than 110 Palestinians, including 22 children, in the deadliest military assault on Gaza in years.”

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PALESTINE HISTORY CLASS
March thru October at Escape Java Joint, 916 Williamson St., Madison

In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the 1948 Palestine War and subsequent events, based largely on the book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe (One World Publications 2007), 313pp., $14.95 pbk, which can be ordered though Rainbow Books. The series began on March 22, but you can join anytime. Dates and topics follow; for more specific information contact dvdwilliams51 at yahoo.com • 608-442-8399

SAT. JUNE 7 • 2 - 5 pm “The Two ‘Nakbas’, 1948 and 1967: Parallel Conquests and Parallell Mythologies.” Screening and analysis of the 2007 WGBH Boston Public TV documentary “Six Days in June.”

Standard Israeli and American accounts of the 1948 War repeat a story of “David” versus “Goliath”: “Little Israel” threatened on all sides by overwhelming Arab forces bent on destruction of the Jews. In 2007 WGBH Boston presented “Six Days in June” on the 40th anniversary of the 1967 War, recycling the standard portrayals. It was screened on PBS affiliates across the U.S. without any rebuttal or countervailing points-of-view. Peregrine Forum will screen the film with critical commentary on inaccuracies and distortions.

SAT. JUNE 14 • 2- 4 pm “The ‘Arab-Israeli War’ of June-September 1948.” Reading from Pappe.

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JUDITH LAITMAN and TSELA BARR, Wisconsin State Journal, May 16, 2008

This month, Jews around the world are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel.

These celebrations reflect the understandable joy of Jews who view Israel as the symbol of 60 years of freedom from centuries of persecution, culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. While Israel provided a safe haven for many Jews, the terrible fact is that more than 700,000 Palestinians were made into refugees to make room for the future state of Israel. Sixty years later, that number has swelled to an estimated 7 million.

Many live in 58 registered refugee camps dispersed throughout the Middle East, and some 4 million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories continue to endure reprehensible collective punishment to this day.

That is why the creation of the state of Israel is known as the Nakba, or the Catastrophe to Palestinians.

Any peaceful future depends on recognizing both the Palestinian and the Israeli narrative. And yet, just as the names of more than 400 pre-1948 Palestinian towns and cities have been deliberately erased from maps, the history of the Palestinian Nakba itself has been all but erased from consciousness.

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