IFPB Delegates,
As part of our education and advocacy program, we send out periodic e-mail updates addressing specific issues in Israel/Palestine. We try to be current with these updates in the hopes that they will provide resources and information you will find helpful in your own action and advocacy.
Recent weeks have seen a prolonged Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, the firing of numerous crude rockets into Southern Israel and violent attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank, perpetrated against both Israelis and Palestinians. Research has also recently surfaced which sheds light on the split in Palestinian politics between Hamas and Fatah - and the US role in the inter-Palestinian conflict - which continues to define the geography of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to this day. David Rose’s article in Vanity Fair addresses this situation and is linked to below.
Included here are additional links to other recent articles, reports from humanitarian and human rights organizations, blogs which feature voices from Gaza and South Israel, and opportunities to take action on these issues. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Interfaith Peace-Builders, our staff or our partners.
It is also worth noting that this week marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and the fifth year of US military occupation of that country. On March 13 - 16, Iraq Vetarans Against the War and other groups held "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan" where they recorded testimonies of American veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read the chilling testimonies here. People around the country are mobilizing to mark the anniversary of the invasion with protests and actions.
We do hope you will find the resources and information helpful. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or if you would like more targeted assistance in taking action in your community.
In peace,
Jacob Pace
Communications and Grants Coordinator
Interfaith Peace-Builders
ARTICLES:
These articles report on aspects of the current situation in Israel/Palestine and provide background research on issues of importance. This is a selective listing of recent news and analysis.
Israel's ultimate plan for Gaza
Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 10 March 2008
www.electronicintifada.net/v2/article9387.shtml
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai's much publicized remark last week about Gaza facing a "shoah" -- the Hebrew word for the Holocaust -- was widely assumed to be unpleasant hyperbole about the army's plans for an imminent full-scale invasion of the Strip. More significantly, however, his comment offers a disturbing indication of the Israeli army's longer-term strategy towards the Palestinians in the occupied territories.Heads to the Right
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz Daily, 9 March 2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/962041.html
Writing in the Israeli daily, Ha’aretz, Gideon levy provides background and context for the shooting attack which killed 8 Israelis at the yeshiva in Jerusalem.The Gaza Bombshell
David Rose, Vanity Fair, April 2008,
www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804
United States officials including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice participated in a conspiracy to arm and train Contra-style Palestinian militias nominally loyal to the Fatah party to overthrow the democratically-elected Hamas government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The allegations of such a conspiracy, long reported by The Electronic Intifada, are corroborated in Vanity Fair with confidential US government documents, interviews with former US officials, Israeli officials and with Muhammad Dahlan, the Gaza strongman personally chosen by Bush.The breakthrough that did not happen
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz Daily, 27 February 2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/958472.html
Israeli journalist Amira Hass provides perspective on the efficacy of Palestinian nonviolence in the Gaza Strip.She was a girl from small-town America with dreams of being a poet or a dancer. So how, at just 23, did Rachel Corrie become a Palestinian martyr?
Louise France, The Observer, Sunday March 2, 2008
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/02/israelandthepalestinians/print
March 16 was the fifth anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie. It is impossible to underestimate quite how much life for Rachel Corrie's family has changed since she was killed by an Israeli army Caterpillar D9 bulldozer in the Gaza Strip. Louise France speaks with her family about her life, her death and their efforts to continue her work five years after she was killed.
REPORTS:
Humanitarian and human rights organizations report on the crisis in Gaza.
Gaza Humanitarian Situation Report
The United Nations Office on the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), 27 February - 3 March 2008
www.ochaopt.org/documents/Gaza_Situation_Report_2008_02_30_Final5.pdf
Israeli air strikes on Gaza and rocket attacks on Israeli towns from Palestinian militants in Gaza continued during the reporting period. Between 27 February and 2 March, 107 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF and a further 250 injured. During the same period two Israeli soldiers and one Israeli civilian were killed and 25 injured, mainly by Qassam rockets and Grad missiles fired by Palestinian militants towards Israel. Essential services, including water and sanitation, are close to breakdown. Because of the combined lack of electricity, fuel, spare parts and inability to upgrade networks, the Gaza Coastal Municipality Water Utility is forced to continue dumping daily 20 million litres of raw sewage and 40 million litres of partially treated water into the sea.Weekly Report on Human Rights Abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, March 6 – 12, 2008
www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/2008/13-03-2008.htm
The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights compiles weekly reports on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. Weekly reports detail human rights abuses perpetrated by Israeli and Palestinian actors throughout Gaza.
BLOGS:
Residents of Gaza and Sderot report on the situation from on the ground.
Life must go on in Gaza and Sderot
http://gaza-sderot.blogspot.com/
A blog is written by 2 friends. One lives in Sajaia refugee camp in Gaza and the other lives in Sderot, a small town near Gaza on the Israeli side. There is ongoing violence between Israel and Gaza which has intensified greatly since October 2000. Many have been killed and many have been injured. This blog is written by 2 real people living and communicating on both sides of the border.From Gaza, with Love
www.fromgaza.blogspot.com
The blog of Mona El-Farra, a physician by training, a human rights and women's rights activist by practice, in the occupied Gaza Strip.Rafah Today: Daily Life in Palestine
www.rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm
The blog of Mohammad Omer, an independent journalist in the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.Sunshine
www.sunshine208.blogspot.com
The blog of Fida’ Qishta, an educator , journalist , interpreter , and the founder and manager of the Lifemakers Center, which serves 70 children aged 6-18 in Rafah, Gaza Strip.Raising Yousuf, Unplugged: diary of a Palestinian mother
www.a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com
The blog of Laila El-Haddad, a Palestinian journalist who divides her time between Gaza and the United States, where her son Yousuf's father, a Palestinian refugee denied his right of return to Palestine resides.
ACTION:
Two ways you can act now to address the current crisis.
Residents in Gaza and Sderot Issue an Urgent Call for a One Month Cease Fire!
Sign the Petition!
www.one-month.org/sign/index.php?sid=24594&lang=en
Give us a break. We, citizens of Gaza, Sderot and people all over the world desperately call you, our leaders and decision makers, to completely cease fire immediately. Both sides are in a dead lock and One Month will give all parties an opportunity to rethink their policy and to find new paths out of this senseless and hopeless reality. All we ask for is One Month.Take action in the US to promote a nonviolent resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
www.endtheoccupation.org
Visit the website of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation for action alerts and other opportunities to organize.
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