Unite now to stop #GazaGenocide and start dismantling Israeli apartheid!

Let’s make November 29th a global day of action to stop #GazaGenocide

Tomorrow, November 29th, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the #BDS movement is calling for an all day social media storm. Our physical and digital actions can be used together to strengthen our demands:
 
  • Permanent ceasefire and lifting the siege to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
  • Lawful sanctions on Israel, including a #MilitaryEmbargo.
  • Pressure on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

Click here for prepared messages and images to use for the social media storm.

Millions of you have taken to the streets for the largest protests the world has seen in the last 20 years! We are grateful to each one of you who, through your voices and creative actions, have built up unprecedented grassroots power to end Israel’s genocidal war against 2.3 million Palestinians in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip. 

You have shown meaningful solidarity with Palestinian rights by pressuring governments to take action and hold those responsible and complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza accountable. Across the Global South – from South Africa to Colombia – several states have cut diplomatic ties with Israel or expelled or recalled their ambassadors. Others have referred Israel’s war criminals to the International Criminal Court. 

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Yet, Western governments are continuing to arm, fund and provide political cover for Israel’s genocide, promoting a new doctrine of unaccountable, unmasked, and extreme violence  against  those  who  challenge  Western  powers  and  their  interests. Theirs is an alliance of the world’s racist, colonial regimes culminating in the mass murder of Palestinians. 

Time has long run out – we need to turn the scales in favour of people’s power now! 

Ending all state, corporate and institutional complicity with Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime is more urgent than ever. Palestinian lives and livelihoods literally depend on it. To this end, and as time has shown, BDS is the most effective form of solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. 

Under the banner, Unite now to stop #GazaGenocide and start dismantling apartheid!, the Palestinian-led global BDS movement calls for a Global Day of Action on November 29th, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, to end business-as-usual with apartheid Israel. We call for escalating worldwide peaceful mobilizations and expressions of meaningful solidarity to stop the genocide including:

  1. Whenever feasible, organizing peaceful disruptions, sit-ins, occupations, etc. targeting  policymakers, as well as the corporate enablers of genocide and apartheid (arms manufacturers, investment firms), and institutions (media, universities, cultural spaces, etc.).

  2. Disrupting the transport of weapons, or weapon parts, to Israel, including in transit states, by supporting trade unions refusing to handle such shipments, as has been done in Belgium, US, and the Spanish State, and as expressed by trade unions in India, Turkey, Italy and Greece. 

  3. Pressuring parliaments and governments to cancel existing military contracts and agreements with Israel, as Colombia’s president publicly espoused, and as demanded by the BDS movement in Brazil, a demand supported by civil society and more than 60 parliamentarians in the country

  4. Intensifying all strategic economic boycott and divestment campaigns against complicit corporations, and escalating campaigns to cut all ties to apartheid Israel and its complicit academic and cultural institutions as well as sports teams.

  5. Mobilizing your community, trade union, association, church, social network, student government/union, city council, cultural center, or other organization to declare itself an Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ) on November 29th, if it hasn’t already, and organize a solidarity event or action on November 29th.

  6. Pressuring your elected officials, where relevant, through direct communication or collective direct action, to demand real pressure on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to urgently prosecute Netanyahu and all other Israeli officials responsible for genocide, apartheid, and war crimes.

November 17, 2023
Jam the phone lines for Palestine



 
Dear Friend,

The pressure is working. Congress members are inundated with phone calls and emails demanding that they push for a ceasefire—and their offices are filled with protesters who insist on being heard. We must keep it up. No business as usual!

NOW is the time to raise the pressure on Congress to listen to the people. Our protests have won over the public, and 100+ staffers in Congress who recently held a walkout to demand a ceasefire.

We can force Congress to support #CeasefireNOW. We can #StopArmingIsrael.

Join us! Take action during the next 30-minute USCPR Power Hour on Friday, November 17 at 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT, for the SHUT IT DOWN 4 PALESTINE Day of Action.

Jam Congress’s phone lines on Friday for a CEASEFIRE NOW!

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I WANT TO JAM THE PHONE LINES IN CONGRESS
 
This Power Hour will be an opportunity to mobilize our masses for Palestinian liberation, building the pressure on Congress until they can’t ignore us any longer. That means making sure the phone is ringing off the hook on Friday, at the same time that activists are protesting around the country.

Join the Power Hour to call Congress at this key moment, and learn more ways you can keep taking action.

Why participate?

1. You can increase the impact of your calls to Congress by taking action collectively during this strategically timed power hour.

2. You can help move Congress, using a tactic that staffers acknowledge as having a major impact.

CALL CONGRESS NOW and keep calling every day until we achieve a ceasefire.

Join us weekly, starting this Friday, November 17, for a Power Hour to collectively call and email our representatives.

Take these three steps:

➡️ CALL NOW: uscpr.org/GazaCall 

➡️ Join USCPR’s phone jam power hour this Friday November 17 at 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT: uscpr.org/PhoneJam

➡️ Organize your own phone jam power hour: bit.ly/ShutItDownPhoneZap

I WANT TO JAM THE PHONE LINES IN CONGRESS
 
Onward to liberation,
CELINE QUSSINY
National Field Organizer

P.S. Looking for more resources to take action? Check out our new Strategic Direct Actions for Palestine guide.

DONATE

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
PO Box 3609
Washington, DC 20027
United States

MECA: Act now to stop the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza

Middle East Children's Alliance

 
The people of Palestine need you like never before. This genocidal attack is reaching a new phase. We need you to act now to stop the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza.

As Israeli bombs hit Gaza from the land, sea, and air, 2.3 million people are now are completely cut off from the outside world and each other. Heavy Israeli airstrikes earlier today have taken out all methods of communication: no landlines, no cellphones, no internet. 

This is a terrifying development. It means:

  • Families can no longer check on their relatives
  • Ambulances cannot be called
  • Rescue workers don’t know where to go
  • Local journalists can’t document the atrocities

This communications blackout also impacts MECA’s emergency aid for children and families. We can’t reach our staff or partners in Gaza and they can’t communicate with local suppliers. We are uncertain if we will be able to organize more distributions of critical aid for children and families. 

Meanwhile, Israel continues to kill, injure and displace Palestinians in Gaza everywhere, at every moment. 

Please don’t wait. Don’t close this email. Take these actions now to stop the genocide in Gaza!

P.S. If you are looking for news from Gaza, Al Jazeera is one of the few news outlets still able to broadcast live from Gaza and tell the world what is happening. 

TAKE ACTION FOR GAZA!

Protest to Stop the Genocide!

Join us in SF tomorrow to demand that our government stop supporting the genocide in Gaza!

Saturday, October 28, 1pm
Harry Bridges Plaza (Embarcadero

Not in the Bay Area? Find a protest in your area

Download signs for your local protests

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SOUND THE ALARM!

Over 7000 Palestinian people have been killed by the Israeli military and over 2 million Palestinian people trapped in Gaza under the heaviest bombardment yet. Just now, Israel completely cut off Internet and cell networks in Gaza in a total blackout. WE ARE WITNESSING GENOCIDE.

We are not helpless in this moment. We need everyone to TAKE ACTION.

CALL ON CONGRESS
TEXT A FRIEND
FIND A PROTEST

The people of Gaza have a number one demand: KEEP UP THE PRESSURE & CALL FOR A CEASEFIRE NOW.

Use your power and influence to hold our U.S. government accountable.

Visit http://bit.ly/StopGazaGenocide

Ceasefire NOW

Join more than 400 organizations and 80k people in calling for a #CeasefireNOW to ensure the protection of civilians.

This campaign aims to reach 2.2 million signatories – 1 for each of the Palestinians living in the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip.

https://chng.it/SxNdmDBwCG


Facebook  Twitter  Instagram

Middle East Children’s Alliance
1101 8th Street
Suite 100
Berkeley, CA 94710
United States


 

October 27, 2023
Emergency Gaza Protest at the Capitol

Capitol at State Street

Israel has announced plans to level Shifa hospital, where thousands of civilians are sheltering with no way to evacuate.

PLEASE change your Friday plans and come demand a ceasefire. The US sends Israel $8 million a day in predominantly military funding, making it our responsibility to say no to the genocide now unfolding in Gaza.

#ceasefire

— Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and Palestine Partners

 

Jewish Voice for Peace calls on all people of conscience to stop the imminent genocide

 
Jewish Voice for Peace The Wire, October 11, 2023

The Israeli government has declared a genocidal war on the people of Gaza. As an organization that works for a future where Palestinians and Israelis and all people live in equality and freedom, we call on all people of conscience to stop imminent genocide of Palestinians. 

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) mourns deeply for the over 1,200 Israelis killed, the families destroyed, including many of our own, and fears for the lives of Israelis taken hostage. Many are still counting the dead, looking for missing loved ones, devastated by the losses. 

We wholeheartedly agree with leading Palestinian rights groups: the massacres committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians are horrific war crimes. There is no justification in international law for the indiscriminate killing of civilians or the holding of civilian hostages. 

And now, horrifyingly, the Israeli and American governments are weaponizing these deaths to fuel a genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, pledging to “open the gates of hell.” This war is a continuation of the Nakba, when in 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing violence sought refuge in Gaza. It’s a continuation of 75 years of Israeli occupation and apartheid

Already this week, over 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed.  The Israeli government has wrought complete and total devastation on Palestinians across Gaza, attacking hospitals, schools, mosques, marketplaces, and apartment buildings.

Continue:

As we write, the Israeli government has shut off all electricity to Gaza. Hospitals cannot save lives, the internet will collapse, people will have no phones to communicate with the outside world, and drinking water for two million people will run out. Gaza will be plunged into darkness as Israel turns its neighborhoods to rubble.  Still worse, Israel has openly stated an intention to commit mass atrocities and even genocide, with Prime Minister Netanyahu saying the Israeli response will “reverberate for generations.”  

And right now, the U.S. government is enabling the Israeli government’s atrocities, sending weapons, moving U.S. warships into proximity and sending U.S.-made munitions, and pledging blanket support and international cover for any actions taken by the Israeli government. Furthermore, the U.S. government officials are spreading racist, hateful, and incendiary rhetoric that will fuel mass atrocities and genocide. 

The loss of Israeli lives is being used by our government to justify the rush to genocide, to provide moral cover for the immoral push for more weapons and more death. Palestinians are being dehumanized by our own government, by the media, by far too many U.S. Jewish institutions. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is “fighting human animals” and should “act accordingly,” As Jews, we know what happens when people are called animals.

We can and we must stop this. Never again means never again — for anyone. 

We call on all people of conscience to stop the imminent genocide of Palestinians. We demand our government work towards de-escalation, that it immediately stop sending weapons to the Israeli military. A future of peace and safety for all, grounded in justice, freedom and equality for all, is still the only option.


Tell Congress: Don’t fuel this devastating violence.

We cannot stand by while our politicians fuel genocide in Gaza.

JVP’s sibling organization, JVP Action, has developed a tool to move our members of Congress to de-escalate and prevent the further loss of Palestinian and Israeli life.


Get grounded together: Power Half-Hours for Gaza.

Looking for a space to get grounded in community, find resources, and channel your grief and rage into collective action? Sign up for JVP’s Power Half-Hours for Gaza, starting tomorrow, October 12 at 3pm ET and going every day until Wednesday, October 18.


Poking holes in the mainstream media’s march to war.

Amid a wave of one-sided media coverage without any context — and as our politicians beat the drums of war — many are looking to Jewish Voice for Peace for moral clarity. Check out this media roundup featuring our national staff and local organizers.


 

Middle East Children’s Alliance Statement

The Middle East Children’s Alliance, October 7, 2023

Terrifying sounds of airstrikes hitting nearby buildings are everywhere in Gaza. Hundreds of people have been killed and more than one thousand injured. The local hospitals are asking for people to donate blood. 

Amidst the ongoing attack, MECA team and partners in Gaza are preparing to provide emergency assistance to families who have fled their homes to seek shelter with relatives or at schools being used as makeshift shelters as well as procuring emergency medical supplies for hospitals and clinics. 

Electricity is out in most areas of Gaza but we are still in contact with all of our staff. Dr. Mona El-Farra, our Gaza Project Director, left her apartment earlier today after a residential building in her neighborhood was leveled by an Israeli airstrike. Thousands of people have left their homes, especially in the areas close to the separation fence.As Dr. Mona explains, “We expect the worst.”We at MECA extend our solidarity and support to the families in Gaza enduring another brutal attack by the Israeli occupation.  

Please join MECA and our partners in providing emergency aid to families in Gaza with a donation today.

Make an emergency donation now

News we are following…

  • Palestinian resistance in Gaza launches unprecedented surprise attack on Israel
  • Hamas fighters from Gaza storm Israel, capture and kill soldiers
  • Israel strikes Gaza tower as death tolls jump after Hamas attack
  • Why the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on Israel? All to know 
  •  

    Support Sami Huraini

    On October 30th, Palestinian Human Rights Defender Sami Huraini will be sentenced by the Israeli Court in retaliation for his activism. Since Sami and his family have defended their home village of Masafer Yatta from Israel’s land theft, they have routinely been targeted by the Israeli military and court system with repressive tactics.

    The Israeli Court wrongfully and unjustly convicted Sami on August 22nd, 2023, for “obstructing soldiers” during a protest in 2021. An obvious attempt to silence his activism. Now, it’s URGENT to call on members of Congress to defend Sami this month before his sentence hearing. Congress must pressure Israel to drop all charges against Sami, and roll back the unjust 99% conviction rate of Palestinians.

    Email Congress now to get out the word on Sami’s case and remind our U.S. legislators of their role to defend human rights now and always.

    Thank You from Palestine!

    Hello friends,

    Thank you all so much for helping me to come back to Palestine, and for sponsoring young olive trees to be planted in Masafer Yatta in the coming growing season.

    I attended the September 6 hearing in the legal case  against the Israeli settler who assaulted me in March of this year in the Palestinian village of Tuba, but the judge did not issue a verdict. The court scheduled another hearing for November 2, during which the settler will testify. 

    During the September 6 hearing both the prosecution and the lawyer for the settler questioned two of the doctors who cared for me after the assault.   Lawyers for the settler refused to accept written hospital reports and documentation, and insisted on questioning the doctors at length in an attempt to claim that the injury was not serious.  It was not easy for these doctors to travel to the hearing, and I am so grateful to them, both for their wonderful care when I was injured, and again now for their help in insisting on legal consequences for the settler.

    The lawyer for the settler also argued that the settler should be released, however as I understand he remains on house arrest in the home of his grandparents.

    The US consulate did not attend the hearing, which was held completely in Hebrew, and fairly early in the proceeding the judge forced the human rights lawyer who was accompanying me to leave the room. As a result I know only what the doctors were able to tell me about their  testimony, and what the prosecutor told me during a few minutes of conversation  after the day- long hearing.  I am trying to get a court transcript. 

    Meanwhile in the area of Masafer Yatta, where the attack on me occurred last March, Palestinians continue to confront escalating attacks by settles, backed up by Israeli soldiers. In one village that I visited last spring, Widade, the violence from settlers has been so relentless and terrifying in these past months that the family has been forced to flee, leaving their home and barns and the livelihood they built over generations. Their sheep have been sold now and all they know has been lost.  Settlers have already arrived to destroy everything that remained, and there is now no hope of them returning to their land.

    The majority of legal complaints made by Palestinians to the Israeli police against settlers are dismissed before they reach the prosecution stage and legal consequences for settlers involved in assaults  on Palestinians are almost unheard of.

    At this time, in 2023, Palestinians are facing violent attacks by Israeli settlers at the rate of 2.8 per day in the occupied West Bank. This unrelenting pressure and violence is forcing families to flee, and resulting in the depopulation of villages that will be lost forever.

    In addition to attacks on people, settlers continue to burn and slash olive trees, steal sheep and donkeys, vandalize homes, cars and personal belongings and destroy water wells and crops. The Israeli military and police routinely back up the settlers, and refuse to intervene to protect civilians.  US taxpayers send Israel 3.8 million dollars per day in aid, the majority of which is received by the military, so when these attacks occur, we own a piece of the violence. 

    I hope that in response you will consider passing on to a friend this chance to sponsor an olive tree, at a cost of $24 per tree, to be planted here in Masafer Yatta in the coming planting season as an act of solidarity with these families who are struggling every day to hold on to their land.

    Please visit https://tiny.one/MadisonOliveGrove

    Many many thanks,
    Cassandra

    Click to sponsor an olive tree!


    Please consider sponsoring one or more olive trees via the Madison-Masafer Yatta Olive Grove project. Thanks to your generous support, the initial goal of 40 trees has been met, and we are on our way to the next goal of 80 trees donated.

    If you prefer to donate by mail, you can send a check payable to MRSCP and marked “Olive Grove” to:

      MRSCP
      P.O. Box 5214
      Madison, WI 53705

    Bruno Mars: Don’t play apartheid Israel

    Top-selling artist Bruno Mars just announced a concert in apartheid Tel Aviv. JVP and numerous movement partners are calling on him to stand with the Palestinian people and cancel his show. 

    Countless artists have joined the cultural boycott of Israel, recognizing that the Israeli government uses these concerts to cover up its crimes against Palestinians. 

    Together, let’s push Bruno Mars to follow the lead of these artists and stand up for justice. 

    Tell Bruno Mars: Don’t play apartheid Israel.

    Mars is set to play at Yarkon Park, which was built on the lands of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village of Al-Shaykh Muwannis. This ethnic cleansing continues today, as the Israeli government escalates its brutality and openly supports the dispossession and killing of Palestinians.

    The South African apartheid government also invited big-name musical acts to distract from its abuses. Conscientious artists, then and now, knew that playing a concert in an apartheid state would be used by the government to whitewash its violence. 

    Inspired by this history, over 1,500 musicians have joined #MusiciansforPalestine in recent years, refusing to perform in Israel while the state carries out a system of segregation, oppression, and war crimes against Palestinians. 

    Let’s push Bruno Mars to add his name to that list.

    In solidarity,

    Jason Farbman
    Digital Director

    Tell Bruno Mars to stand for justice and cancel his show in apartheid Israel
     

    Sign Petition to Release UNRWA Food Aid to Gaza

     

    Washington, D.C. | adc.org | September 7, 2023 – The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to release the $75 million in United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) food aid for Palestinian refugees currently being blocked by Senator Jim Risch (R-ID). This inhumane hold on aid is a brazen attempt to hold civilians, many of whom are children, hostage using food as a weapon. ADC’s understanding is that Secretary Blinken has the authority to release the funds right now.

    In a letter sent to the Secretary, ADC highlighted that ensuring the provision of food assistance to refugees in need is desperately needed, is a direct reflection of American values, and is in the best interest of US diplomatic and security interests. According to UNRWA, if the money is not released soon, 1.2 million Palestinians, including nearly half a million children, will stop receiving food aid, and the next ten days are critical to preserving the flow of aid. There is no moral or humanitarian reason for the continued denial of this assistance, and Secretary Blinken has an obligation to supercede Sen. Risch’s hold on the funds.

    Add Your Name to an Open Letter Demanding Senator Risch Stop Harming Palestinian Refugees

    Sen. Risch’s hold on the funding is particularly devastating for Palestinians in Gaza, where food insecurity is already at a tipping point. Right now, cuts to the World Food Programme’s budget have reduced the number of Palestinians in Gaza that are served from 300,000 to 100,000, and a further reduction in food assistance will have a catastrophic impact on the health of those Palestinians. In addition, UNRWA food represents 60% of Gaza’s overall monthly commodity imports. Any interruption of these imports will have disastrous consequences for the economy in Gaza, worsening what is already an economic and humanitarian crisis.

    ADC National Executive Director Abed Ayoub said, “Senator Risch’s decision to withhold $75 million in essential UNRWA food aid for Palestinian refugees – a lifeline that supports some of the most vulnerable members of society – is inhumane. Time is running out, so it is essential that humanity and compassion prevail over politics. We urge Secretary Blinken to utilize his power to override this hold and ensure that food assistance reaches those in dire need. We believe in an America that champions human rights and humanitarian assistance, and we should expect that our leaders will act accordingly.”

    Desperately needed refugee assistance should never be used as a political hostage. Food is a basic human necessity, not a political weapon. Senator Risch can stop playing politics with human lives or Secretary Blinken can override him, either way this funding must be released as soon as possible.
     

    Why we are anti-Zionist Jews

    JUDITH LAITMAN AND TSELA BARR — GUEST COLUMN, JUNE 14, 2023

    This year on April 26, millions celebrated the 75th anniversary of Israel’s creation on Israel Independence Day. However, we, as anti-Zionist Jews, did not celebrate.

    Instead, on May 15, we stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people by commemorating the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” The Nakba was the mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians prior to and following the official establishment of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948. It was the direct result of a deliberate campaign by Israel to expel the region’s indigenous people.

    During that period, an estimated 13,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces or terrorist gangs. More than 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed. In just a few months, according to Israeli historian Benny Morris, 34 massacres of Palestinians occurred. As a result, 731,000 Palestinians fled and were never allowed to return to their homes.

    While the Holocaust created an urgent need for a safe haven for Jewish refugees during and after World War II, the establishment of Israel was the culmination of the Zionist movement that began a half-century before. This movement sought an exclusive homeland for the Jewish people, a group that had faced persecution and displacement for much of their history.

    Ironically, Palestine had long been a place that accepted Jewish immigrants. In fact, by 1931 Jews were approximately 17% of Palestine’s population. Zionists, however, wanted more. In 1958, Israel Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion told the country’s lawmakers that in just a decade of existence Israel had “redeemed thousands of Jews from poverty and degeneration in exile, and transformed them into proud, creative Jews.”

    Sadly, the Zionists’ dream became the Palestinians’ nightmare. Indeed, the Nakba that began 75 years ago has never ended.

    The reality is that Zionism is not and never has been a redemption for the Jewish people. Rather, it has been a colonial project of displacement, theft of land and subjugation of one set of people by another. The truth is that Israel is a democracy only for Jews. In January 2021, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem issued its report called “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.” It described Israel as a state that has a different set of rights for Palestinians that is “always inferior to the rights of Jews.”

    This year, an extreme right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has escalated attacks on Palestinians and greenlighted additional illegal Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land. This government has removed even the veneer of democratic discourse in Israel, with some government officials openly espousing racist policies and inciting violence. As of mid-May, Israeli forces had killed at least 123 Palestinians, including at least 27 children.

    Even worse, Israel continues to commit its crimes against the Palestinian people with impunity. Instead of being sanctioned for its human rights abuses, Israel receives over $4 billion a year in U.S. tax dollars to help ensure it has one of the world’s most powerful militaries. The U.S. also provides Israel with political cover when its human rights violations come up in the U.N.

    One reason for this impunity has to do with the branding of criticism of Israel as “antisemitic.” This lie is designed to silence and shame critics. But criticism of Israel is not antisemitic; it is demanded by Jewish ethical teachings.

    As Jews, we applaud new efforts in Congress to condition U.S. aid to Israel on ending its oppression of Palestinians. U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum recently re-introduced the Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act. This legislation would prohibit Israel’s government from using U.S taxpayer dollars for the detention or abuse of Palestinian children, or from seizing or destroying Palestinian property.

    Americans can act now to be on the side of the oppressed by contacting Congress in support of this bill.

    Judith Laitman and Tsela Barr are members of the Madison chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.

    Tsela Barr is a founding member of Madison-Rafah Sister City Project.

    Hebron Emergency Caves Project

    We are getting closer to our goal of providing emergency housing to one family in the Masafer Yatta area of the South Hebron Hills.

    The need is urgent; since we first took this on, demolitions have proceeded including the Sfai school, which was demolished for the third time in spite of international appeals.

    Please read the message below from Cassandra Dixon, and then consider a donation to help us provide shelter to one of many families. Every amount helps.

    Donate online, or send a check payable to MRSCP marked “Caves” to:

    MRSCP
    P.O. Box 5214
    Madison, WI 53705

    So far, we have raised just over half of the $2000 needed, thanks to those who have already donated.

    As always, thanks for your generous support!


    A Message from Cassandra Dixon

    Dear Friends,

    I’ve been visiting Palestine as a volunteer for more than a dozen years, and because I earn my living as a carpenter, people always ask me if I got to build anything over there.  I’ve always had to say no.

    But my trip this spring was different. Before I was struck and injured by an Israeli settler, I was able to help friends in a village slated for demolition by Israel to create a home in a naturally occurring cave — making the space taller, dividing the living areas, and even creating a rock niche for a TV.

    The renovation of caves is a brilliant and desperate effort on the part of these families to remain on their land if the threatened demolitions are carried out. Even if Israeli bulldozers reduce their homes, schools, and barns to broken stones, they intend to stay.

    I’ll be returning to Masafer Yatta this fall for the trial of the settler who assaulted me, and I hope to be able to visit the homes of families who have become so dear to me. But the Israeli high court has cleared the way for the military to demolish the villages at any time. So I am grateful that the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project has taken on this Palestinian-led project to create safe, clean living spaces for these families as they nonviolently resist forced removal from their lands. I hope you will join me in donating to this campaign.

    Sincerely,
    Cassandra Dixon

    Apartheid-Free Communities – Cut Your Ties to Israeli Apartheid


    All people are equal and should be treated with dignity and respect

    But for decades, the Palestinian people have faced Israeli settler colonialism and occupation enforced through racist and discriminatory legal regimes, forced displacement, blockade and movement restrictions, and systematic human rights abuses. According to legal scholars and the international human rights community, this situation constitutes the crime of Apartheid. It must end.

    As people of conscience and loving communities, we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their call for equal and full rights. Inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, we want to declare our own communities “Apartheid-Free.”

    Let’s build an Apartheid-Free world, starting with our own communities: our faith congregations, cities, campuses, and workplaces. We need to educate ourselves and others about racist laws and state systems at home and abroad, and we want to ensure that our communities do not contribute to the maintenance of Apartheid regimes. Together, we can work to promote freedom, justice, and equality for all.

    Support Palestinians in Masafer Yatta

    “We are staying here, herding our sheep and cultivating our land. Nothing will uproot us from our land.” —Jaber Dbabseh, Masafer Yatta

    Two Hundred Fifteen Palestinian families in Masafer Yatta, near the southern border of the West Bank in Palestine, are asking us to help them resistforced expulsion from their lands. Israeli authorities have delivered  demolition orders for ALL of their above ground structures, including homes, schools, agricultural buildings and energy and water installations. These demolitions are already underway.

    Stop the Wall and the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) have responded to requests from these families to assist in transforming existing caves on their lands into livable environments. They have launched a campaign to purchase cement, tile, cooking and heating stoves and reinforced front doors, as well as tents and generators for temporary use after the the imminent demolitions. 

    Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) has decided to raise the $2,000 needed to renovate one cave space. We hope you will join us in supporting this campaign.

    BACKGROUND

    About 2,000 Palestinians, more than half of them children, live in 13 Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta. Their forced expulsion by Israel would be the largest since 1967. 

    The area was seized by Israel in 1979 for the creation of “Firing zone 918”. Classified documents have recently shown that these firing zones — which now take up roughly 18% of the West Bank — were created in order to take large tracts of Palestinian land using false claims of “national security”.

    The villages have fought orders for their removal in Israeli courts for decades, but the Israeli high court has now denied their final appeal and Israeli forces have already demolished schools and homes.  Primary students in Sfai have seen their school demolished twice in recent months.

    Many residents of Masafer Yatta arrived in the area as refugees after being driven from their original villages in1948. After Israeli soldiers forced 700 civilians onto trailers and demolished their homes in 1979, many returned to their lands and their flocks of sheep and goats. Since then they have waged a legal battle for the right to stay, and have resisted repeated demolitions of their homes, roads, schools, wells and agricultural buildings by Israel.  They suffer frequent Israeli army live fire exercises that leave their land scattered with spent ammunition, their crops destroyed by tanks and military vehicles, and their children and animals terrified by gunfire and low flying helicopters.

    Meanwhile illegal Israeli settlements and outposts have expanded, seizing more and more Palestinian land and subjecting shepherds and schoolchildren to violent attacks and intimidation. Two Israeli outposts in the area (Avigayil and Asahel), illegal under both Israeli and international law, have recently been recognized by Israel as settlements giving hundreds of settlers the right to remain in the firing zone even as Palestinians whose land they have already stolen face imminent forced expulsion.

    Please join us in supporting the residents of Masafer Yatta in their resistance to expulsion by making a tax deductible donation to turn these spaces into homes.

    You can
      • donate online here or
      • mail a check made out to MRSCP marked “caves” to:

      MRSCP
      P.O. Box 5214
      Madison, WI 53705

    As always, thank you for your support!