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Dear Friends,
In the last few days, the Israeli government has announced draconian new measures to reduce electricity and fuel deliveries to Gaza, and six Israeli human-rights organizations have joined in protesting.
Below you will find more details; meanwhile, I urge you to call and fax the following three people to protest:
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, to urge that the US demand the Israeli government abandon plans for this worsening of its blockade. Phone, 202/ 647-5291; fax 202/ 647-2283.
The Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman: phone, 212/499-5510; fax, 212/499-5515.
The Israeli Ambassador to the US, Sallai Meridor (thru the public-affairs office) : phone, 202/364-5542; fax, 202/364-5423.
Please also drop us a note at Office@shalomctr.org to let us know you have made these contacts.
The reason given for the new measures is as a response to continuing rocket attacks against the Israeli town of Sderot. These attacks are reprehensible and contemptible, but collective punishment upon an entire civilian population is profoundly immoral.
It is true that a majority of Gazans voted for Hamas, and that Hamas has not prevented and may have sponsored the rocket attacks on Sderot. But even in the years when the Israeli Army sat directly in Gaza and could be present on every inch of land it wanted, these rocket attacks were ongoing.
Hamas has also proposed a cease-fire, and a number of leading Israeli intellectuals (reports the Israeli newspaper Haaretz) have signed a petition calling for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas.
The signatories of the petition include the novelists Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, David Grossman, Meir Shalev, Judith Katzir, Eli Amir, Savyon Liebrecht, Yehoshua Sobol and Dorit Rabinyan.
The petition, titled "Agreement with [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas, cease-fire with Hamas," reads: "Israel has in the past negotiated with its worst enemies ... Now, the appropriate course of action is to negotiate with Hamas to reach a general cease-fire to prevent further suffering for both sides."
One of the Torah stories of which Jews have been proudest is that Abraham protested against God's own Self, when God planned to destroy S'dom and Gomorrah. Abraham demanded that "Shall not the Judge of all the world do justice?" and God finally agreed that if there were even no more than ten decent people in S'dom, it would not be destroyed.
Does anyone claim there are not even ten decent people in Gaza?
Try to imagine that after the 2004 US election, in response to the devastation brought upon Iraq by the US attacks, the world had gotten together and put a blockade on crucial civilian needs of the American people. Suppose the world had said, "The American people has reelected the government that devastated Iraq. So now the American people must suffer the full consequences."
Please read below the statement by six Israeli human-rights organizations about the new blockade.
With hopes for peace -- shalom, salaam - and determination to keep seeking it; for as the rabbis taught, the meaning of the Psalmic saying, "Seek peace and pursue it" is that we must pursue peace even when it is running away from us.
PRESS RELEASE September 20, 2007
B'Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Right in the Occupied Territories
Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
Physicians for Human Rights
Public Committee against Torture in Israel
HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual
Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights
Israeli rights groups condemn proposed state sanctions against Gaza civilians:
Cabinet decision will impose collective punishment on a civilian population, lead to grave breach of International Law
Seven Israeli human rights organizations jointly warn that yesterday's Cabinet decision to limit the electricity and fuel supply to the Gaza Strip and to further restrict movement in and out of Gaza will exacerbate the existing humanitarian crisis there. In addition, the sanctions constitute a grave breach of the foremost principle of international humanitarian law: the obligation to distinguish between combatants and civilians. In addition, the decision is liable to constitute a violation of one of the absolute prohibitions of international law: the ban on collective punishment. The coalition believes that these sanctions will also not prevent armed groups from launching rocket attacks on Israeli communities.
The Israeli Cabinet's claim that the proposed sanctions will not affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is false. Limiting the electricity supply will drastically reduce the functioning capacity of hospitals and health clinics. In addition, limited electricity will reduce Gaza's water pumping system, and will cripple its sewage system and water supply. Thus, the Cabinet's decision not to cut Gaza's water supply is not a humane gesture because the other sanctions will effectively diminish it in any case.
The human rights organizations urge the Cabinet to reverse its decision to impose collective punishment on the Gaza Strip - a grave violation of international humanitarian law.
The coalition of human rights groups consists of: The Association for Civil Rights in Israel; Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights; B'Tselem - the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories; Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement; HaMoked: The Center for the Defense of the Individual; Physicians for Human Rights; The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.
For additional details:
Sarit Michaeli, B'Tselem Communications Director, +972(0)50-538-7230
Sarit Michaeli
Communications Director
B'Tselem
+972 (0)2 6735599 (office)
+972 (0)50 5387230 (cell)
http://www.btselem.org/
Again: I urge you to call and fax the following three people to protest:
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, to urge that the US demand Israel abandon plans for this worsening of its blockade. Phone, 202/ 647-5291; fax 202/ 647-2283.
The Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman: phone, 212/499-5510; fax, 212/499-5515.
The Israeli Ambassador to the US, Sallai Meridor (thru the public-affairs office) : phone, 202/364-5542; fax, 202/364-5423.
Please also drop us a note at Office@shalomctr.org to let us know you have made these contacts.
If you want to help us build these protests, please make a (tax-exempt) contribution as shown blow.
Thank you for pursuing peace even when it is running away from us. --
Arthur
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Comments
Israel Denies Re-entry Visas to Holy Land Arab Christian Clergy
Bethlehem Wall Friends of Sabeel--North America
Voice of the Palestinian Christians
23-Sep-07
The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF)
Toll free at +1-866-871-HCEF (4233)
The Israeli Government has rescinded its policy of granting re-entry visas to Arab Christian ministers, priests, nuns and other religious workers who wish to travel in and out of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, according to information provided to the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF) by Christian clergy in Jerusalem.
Until now, re-entry visas were normally granted in Israel by the Israeli Government to Arab Christian religious workers in the Holy Land, and clergy traveled relatively freely to and from points overseas, including the United States.
However, HCEF has been informed that Arab Christian church workers will henceforth have to apply for re-entry visas at Israeli consulates abroad each time they travel outside the areas of Israeli control.
Since visa applications submitted to Israeli missions abroad are normally not acted upon for months after they are filed, his new Israeli policy means that religious personnel will no longer be able to move freely between their parishes in the occupied territories and any points out side of those areas.
Christian church workers normally travel frequently between their parishes and their churches' offices in Jerusalem. Some also must travel often to countries outside the region, including the United States.
Many of the clergy and other church workers in the occupied Palestinian territories are from nearby Jordan; the new Israeli policy will prevent them from visiting their families there.
Indeed, that has already happened. Rev. Fares Khleifat, a pastor and the only Greek Melkite priest in Ramallah, traveled to Jordan for several days in mid-September; when he tried to return to his parish on September 14, he was stopped at the Israeli border, and his valid, multiple-entry visa was canceled.
Forced to remain in Jordan, he has been effectively deported from the Holy Land by the Israeli government, and his parish now has no priest.
The new Israeli policy makes it unlikely that any Arab Christian priests, ministers or other religious workers from the Holy Land will be able to attend HCEF's Ninth International Conference, scheduled for October 26-27 in Washington.
Christian personnel based in the Holy Land have participated in all eight previous conferences of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation.
http://www.hcef.org/index.cfm/mod/news/ID/16/SubMod/NewsView/NewsID/1849...
Eileen Fleming,
Reporter and Editor of
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "KEEP HOPE ALIVE" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu"
Thank you! + shalom + salaam=PEACE
And Peace requires JUSTICE!
Thanks for posting this Action Alert
+ i hope + i pray everyone who reads will respond by taking the action above and also send an easy email to U.S. Secretary of State, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, who refused to condemn the Israeli move, despite her pronouncement that the U.S.:
"will not abandon the innocent Palestinians in Gaza, and indeed will make every effort to deal with their humanitarian needs."
Remind her that cutting the utilities to the whole civilian population in the Gaza Strip makes a mockery of her promise and that the actions of Israel amount to collective punishment.
Instead of making the citizens of southern Israel safer, will only increase the frequency of the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and create a fertile breeding ground of more angry people.
This email to Ms. Rice and Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert,will be sent via Jewish Voice for Peace
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/jvfp/campaign.jsp?cam...
Thanks for doing something,
e
Eileen Fleming,
Reporter and Editor of
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "KEEP HOPE ALIVE" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu"