Tag Archives: Take Action

Hebron Emergency Caves Project

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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

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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

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“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!

 

January 3rd CODEPINK Capitol Calling Party

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CODEPINK.ORG

You are invited to join our Tuesday CODEPINK CONGRESS Calling Party to talk with special guests about what’s happening in Palestine and efforts to end US complicity in Israeli crimes.

Chat with peacemakers and experts Tuesday, January 3rd at 5 pm PT/7 pm CT/8 pm ET:

None

 

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians escalated in 2022 with West Bank settlers on the rampage, defiling mosques, vandalizing shops and assaulting Palestinians in Hebron and other Palestinian cities. Instead of stopping the settlers, the Israeli military turned on Palestinians, adding to the year’s death toll: 150 Palestinians killed, 33 of them children. Meanwhile, the most racist Israeli government returns to power with former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – under criminal indictment – set to serve his sixth term. This new ultra-nationalist government stands in explicit – no longer implicit – opposition to a Palestinian state and threatens to strip the courts of their power.

US Secretary of State Blinken insists the US commitment to apartheid Israel is ironclad, despite whispers last month that the Biden administration might refuse to meet with some of the most reactionary members of the new Israeli government. 

Join us as we detail the situation on the ground in Palestine and examine US congressional and grassroots efforts to end US complicity in Israeli crimes. 

Featuring

Mazin Qumsiyeh is an activist, environmentalist and author. He is founder and director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University. He served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke University and the Yale University, and now researches and teaches at Bethlehem university. He is the author of hundreds of articles and several books including Sharing the Land of Canaan and Popular Resistance in Palestine.

Anat Biletzki is a professor of philosophy at Quinnipiac and past professor at Tel Aviv University. She is a steering committee member of FISP – The International Federation of Philosophical Societies. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, and is co-founder and co-director of the Program for Human Rights and Technology at MIT. Born in Jerusalem, she was Chair of the Board of B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights NGO, from 2001 to 2006, having served as a B’Tselem Board member for several years before. Her most recent book is Philosophy of Human Rights: A Systematic Introduction (2019).

Take Action!

End-of-Year Appeal: Help with Rafah Family Home

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Dear Friends of MRSCP,

We hope you will consider contributing to our year-end fundraising drive to renovate and repair a family home located in the Tal al Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, where we previously installed a playground.  This house is one of 20 that the U.S. organization Rebuilding Alliance has selected for their new Gaza Family Guided Home Construction Project which involves each family as well as local agencies and contractors in design and construction of their particular space.

We are also asking you to support a housing solution here in Madison: Occupy Madison’s Tiny Houses project.

 
Help Provide Shelter in Gaza

As you are probably aware, the housing crisis is just one of many afflicting the over 2 million men, women and children trapped in Gaza. The fifteen year-long Israeli-US-Egyptian blockade has made it virtually impossible to keep up with the demand for proper shelter created by population growth, or to recover from the devastation of either massive demolitions along the borders or Israel’s periodic devastating military bombardments.

Rebuilding Alliance has launched this pilot program to implement low-cost housing solutions for 20 families which will (1) improve access to water & sanitation facilities; (2) decrease overcrowding and allow more privacy by adding upstairs rooms; and (3) upgrade heating and ventilation.

The home that MRSCP hopes to renovate is occupied by two parents and three children. The father has become disabled and the mother works to try to keep the family afloat.  Their small apartment is desperately in need of roof repairs, interior renovations especially to the main living area and bath, and the addition of another room–especially now that the cold and rains of winter have arrived.

The project will be completed in three stages. As of this writing, we have raised $960 of the $3080 needed for Phase 1. The total cost of all three phases is $10,064.
Contributions to the Rafah home project can be made online via Global Giving.
 
If you prefer, send a check payable to MRSCP marked “Rafah House” to MRSCP, P.O. Box 5214, Madison, WI 53705.
 

AND… 
 
Help Provide Shelter Here in Madison

Once again, we also ask your support for a local project that is related to our campaign in Rafah. Please consider donating to Occupy Madison’s Tiny Houses, addressing the housing crisis right here at home.

Occupy Madison has built two tiny house villages that house 30 formerly homeless individuals and is in the process of buying a third property. Self-governed by the people who live there, the goal is to become self-sustaining by selling goods made in a wood shop, home-grown flowers and plants, crafts and jewelry and soon, a coffee cart!  There is a very long waiting list for these houses. 

Your donation will help support the current villages and build new houses for another village.

You can donate online to Tiny Houses here. (Please include a note in the comment box that the donation is for the Tiny Houses.) 
 
You can also send a check made out to Occupy Madison marked “Tiny Houses” to Occupy Madison, 304 N. Third Street, Madison 53704.

We hope you are able to help support these two projects. And as always, we thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Rowan Attala, Tsela Barr, Cassandra Dixon, Samir El-Omari, Ashley Hudson, Barb Olson, Donna Wallbaum and Kathy Walsh for MRSCP 

 

December 10, 2022
Cookie and Crafts Sale for Dar Al Kalima University Scholarships

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9:00 AM – 12:00 Noon
Memorial United Church of Christ
5705 Lacy Rd, Fitchburg

This will be the 18th year of selling crafts and cookies to support a full-year scholarship to a student at Dar Al Kalima University of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem. We sell hand-made crafts made by the congregation, and Christmas cookies by the pound, too!

For more info contact Nancy Baumgardner at 608-320-0977.

Rafah Family Guided Home Construction

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A fundraiser by the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project

Our goal is to raise $10,064 to renovate a family apartment in the Tal al Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, where in 2005 we funded a playground for local children.

This family consists of a father, mother and three children. The father has become disabled and the mother works to try to keep the family afloat. Their small apartment is desperately in need of roof repairs, interior renovations to the main living area and bath, and the addition of another room — especially now that the cold and rains of winter have arrived.

The building condition directly affects the family’s health and well being. The family covers the roof panels with cloths to try to keep out the rain, but that’s not enough to keep the rooms dry. They cannot afford to repair the concrete ceiling.

The family was nominated by the Al Amal Society for Rehabilitation, a Palestinian Non-Government Organization in Gaza that has partnered with Rebuilding Alliance since 2017. Our grant will be transferred to and administered by this partner organization. Rebuilding Alliance’s Site Engineer, Heba El Khozondar, will supervise the project to sign-off for each phase.

The project will have three construction phases, each commencing as soon as enough funds have been donated:
▪ Phase 1: $3,080  Poured concrete roof repair
▪ Phase 2: $3,555  Main Living Space
▪ Phase 3: $3,429  Adjacent new room
$10,064  Total

Donate Online

You can also mail a check to MRSCP marked “house repairs” to
MRSCP
P.O. Box 5214
Madison, WI 53705
Mailed contributions will NOT count toward the Global Giving match on November 29.

As always, thank you for your support.

Gaza Background
• Israeli raids in Gaza and the humanitarian fallout, December 16, 2022
• Gaza archaeologists find ‘complete’ Roman-era cemetery, 12 December 2022
• Caged Sparrows: Palestinian Stories from the Gaza Sea, December 12, 2022
• Israeli warplanes attack Gaza as EU calls for ‘accountability’, 4 Dec 2022
• Photos: Gaza struggles to accommodate the living and the dead, 6 Oct 2022
• Fifteen years of the blockade of the Gaza Strip, 03 July 2022


ACTION ALERT: The Israeli army closes Youth Against Settlements Community Center

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Friends of Hebron (FOH)

Dear Friends,

The Israeli army showed up and closed our community center! The house belongs to Human Rights Defender Issa Amro, who is now left alone and isolated while under threat from the nearby Israeli settlement and army base. Tell the U.S. State Department to act now!

While Americans were celebrating Halloween, Israeli soldiers enforced a special closed military zone order onto Issa’s house, which doubles as the Youth Against Settlements (YAS) center.

A closed military zone order (CMZ) means that no one can enter—no journalists, volunteers, family members, or medical personnel. Issa is left alone, isolated, and fears for his safety. He has already received multiple death threats from settlers and soldiers.

The CMZ order specifically targets Issa’s house, as this satellite image shows.

Please sign the petition and don’t forget to donate! 

Israel Hayom‘s lies were the same lies about Issa that have often been perpetrated by the Israeli settlers in Hebron who terrorize the local Palestinian population on a daily basis in the city. These lies show that the newspaper had gotten used to publishing slander promoted by settler populations about Palestinians without any consequences, promoting these narratives without any actual journalistic standards or investigation.

The house is a meeting point for international and Israeli delegations, a training center for local volunteers, and a community center for Palestinians living in Hebron’s most restricted areas.

YAS were in the middle of a campaign to help local Palestinian famers harvest olives from their trees. Israeli settlers assaulted and harassed the farmers and volunteers multiple times during this period. Mr. Amro attempted to file a complaint at the local Israeli police station, but was refused. His house was closed the following day.

Help us call on the U.S. State Department to pressure Israel to lift the closure!

“Israeli settlers have long been asking the Israeli military to close my house in Tel Rumeida,” Amro stated. “They don’t want me to talk to any international and Israeli audience about the Israeli apartheid and the Israeli occupation.” Amro stated that he is now isolated and afraid to leave the house, and has faced death threats by Israeli soldiers and settlers since the closure.

Friends of Hebron has a U.S.-registered IRS 501(c)3 charity status. Donations are tax-deductible.

During these tense times, please consider supporting our work on the ground in Hebron by donating.

With peace,

Friends of Hebron
Working for Peace and Justice
https://www.friendsofhebron.com/

Rising up against Israel’s repression

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Twitter StandWithThe6 600

Today across Palestine, we’re witnessing the Palestinian people rise up united once again. It is a moment in which our people declare we will not die quietly at the hands of Israel’s massive violence, but we will resist, and keep resisting, until Palestine is free.

Palestinian people on the ground are on a general strike today. The youth of Shuafat refugee camp called for the strike after Israel killed 17 Palestinian people in October alone, including Odai Tamimi yesterday, and after a series of violent attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers.

At the same time, we’re nearing the one-year mark since the Israeli government attacked six Palestinian organizations to stop their essential human rights work, on Oct. 22, 2021. Israel wants to shut down the #StandWithThe6 organizations, and we can’t let that happen.

Israel’s brutal violence and repression of Palestinian human rights defenders is part of its all-out assault on the Palestinian people, especially anyone who dares to challenge the colonial Israeli regime.

Today, prominent supporters of Palestinian human rights like Dr. Cornel West and Rep. Rashida Tlaib are speaking up to #StandWithThe6, and you can join them.

The #StandWithThe6 organizations are currently facing Israel’s continued repression, from the shuttering of their offices this past August to Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hammouri of Addameer without charge or trial.

Today, they’re asking: What happens #IfWeDisappear? Who will hold the Israeli government accountable for its brutal violence, as Israel continues to kill Palestinian people every day?

Watch and share the videos now.

Palestinian people on the ground are creating bold new ways to resist Israel’s colonial violence day by day, and we must defend their rights as we all push toward liberation.

Take action:

  1. Watch the videos.
  2. Share on social media.
  3. Contact Congress.

October 14-23 Global Week of Action

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Palestinian Youth Movement, Oct 11, 2022

We, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), call upon all supporters of the Palestinian struggle to join us on October 14th – 23rd for a week of action in support of Palestinian political prisoners and their fight for freedom and dignity.

On September 25th, 30 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli military prisons began an indefinite hunger strike calling for an end to their “administrative detention.”

Administrative detention is a systematic policy of arbitrary imprisonment whereby the Zionist state detains Palestinians and incarcerates them, without charge or trial, for an indefinite period.

The policy is one of the many colonial tactics used by the occupation to routinely target, harass, intimidate, and silence Palestinian youth and organizers who become a symbol of hope for their people.

Read our full statement on our website to learn more about the strike and how you can get involved. We look forward to your participation!

Emergency Zoom on Conditions in the West Bank

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In this time of crisis, I invite you to an

Emergency Zoom Forum with the UN: Conditions on the Ground in the West Bank
Sunday, October 16th, at 1pm CT
Register for Sunday’s Zoom Forum

Who: Our guest speaker is the U.N.’s West Bank Field Coordinator, Jonathan Whittall, who will be calling in from Jerusalem.

  • Before he joined UNOCHA, he spent 5 years as Director of the Humanitarian Analysis Department at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders)
  • As head of the humanitarian innovation team supporting MSF operations in conflict, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine and South Sudan, focusing on negotiating humanitarian access

What: In this hour long Zoom forum, Jonathan Whittall will focus on the West Bank — including the recent escalation in violence, Israeli Military closure of Palestinian communities, loss of life, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis — and encourage discussion of ways to de-escalate and ensure the safety and security of all.

Why: A midnight phone call with the U.N. helped shed light on something that might help: Congressional intervention. Now is the time when calls from your members of Congress can ease tensions and ensure the safety and security of all, especially for Palestinian children and families. I fear Congress won’t do the right thing unless you, their constituents, ask.  

Email Congress Now to express your concern and invite them to their own RA Zoom briefing with the U.N.

The Sunday Zoom Forum is an important opportunity for you to hear about what is happening on the ground in the West Bank, ask questions, and share ideas.

Click this link to register for the Zoom Forum on Sunday

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Sincerely,Donna Baranski-WalkerFounder and Executive Director, Rebuilding Alliance

P.S. Al Jazeera in Jerusalem reported this in Arabic on Friday, 10/14, ‘In light of prominent Palestinian models for decades, civil disobedience SUCCEEDS in breaking the siege of Shuafat camp’It includes a history of Palestinian nonviolent civil disobedience movements. You can use Google Translate to read it.