May

Fast for Peace

Please join us in a monthly action. The last Sunday of each month is designated as a day of fasting, prayer, and meditation to end the violence in the Middle East. Peace,

Kathleen Russell,

Member of West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition and Fountain Street Church

--- FUEL PROTEST 2004 ---

   National Protest   (more info coming soon)

Is it time to protest againt our
goverment robbing the motorist again ?

Amazingly enough the government thinks that it is fair to charge a whopping 340% tax on petrol.

That means that for every £50 you spend, £37 is pure tax.

Please email and tell as many friends, colleagues & neighbours as you can about the protest.

You really can make a difference.

Join the Fuel Protest 2004

"Lets make Bliar's bigots unemployed"

Boycott Gas Stations Every Wednesday

In reference to an editorial on your website by Charles A. Beers posted the 15th of May, "DON'T BUY GAS ON MAY 19TH": I was wondering if Mr. Beers had any measurable feedback as to the May 19 action he proposed. I forwarded his suggestion to all that I know, and the response was overwhelmingly positive in support. Irrespective if the economic effect is measurable, I feel such demonstration is quite symbolic, and is something very many seem to be willing to participate in. I go on to propose that that this demonstration of not buying gas on Wednesday should be extended to every Wednesday as long as gas prices remain high and the United States remains at war with the Middle-East.

I also like to remark, I find your website without a doubt the most exciting one on the entire internet, and many of my friends tell me the same. I only wish one day the wars will one day settle to allow more intriguing cultural discussions.

Respectfully,

Robert Stumm Virginia, USA.

Meeting to organize flyering, street theater & other creative actions for June 4

Chicago chapter of the International Solidarity Movement

This is a call for a meeting to organize flyering, steet theater and other
creative actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the scheduled
rally and march to demand justice in Palestine on June 4th.

The Israeli Consulate has typically been the primary target of
demonstrations because it serves as the official representative of the
government of Israel to the Midwest. But it might surprise some people to
learn that there is an extensive network of Chicago-based organizations
dedicated to providing economic, social, political and/or military support
to the state of Israel and strengthening the "special relationship" that
exists between Israel and the United States.

The attrocities taking place in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere in Palestine
demand action on our part. No longer can we allow this support to be
decontextualized and go unchallenged. We must become more proactive,
vigilent and creative in our efforts to educate the public-at-large, stop
all U.S. aid to Israel, and bring about an end to the illegal and brutal
military occupation of Palestine.

The basic idea is to organize leafletting, street theater, and other
creative actions in front of as many of these support organizations as
possible on June 4th (and beyond) in order to provide the public-at-large
with the kind of exposure that these attrocities demand and that the
corporate media outlets consistently fail to provide. Following the
meeting, which is being called by a number of solidarity groups, a more
specific call to action will go out with detailed action plans so that
people who were unable to attend the meeting can still participate in the day of action.

For additional information please contact the Chicago chapter of the International Solidarity Movement at: [email protected] or call 312-491-1789.

MEETING INFORMATION:
Thursday, May 27
7:00-9:00PM
New World Resource Center
773-227-4011
1300 N. Western Ave. (Western and Potomac)
One block north of Division

Some of the more notable support/advocacy organizations:

- America-Israel Business Exchange Institute (AIBEX Institute)
Develops and produces bilateral business exchanges, featuring leading-edge
technologies. AIBEX facilitates U.S.-Israel trade and investment
opportunities.

- American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
Pro-Israel lobbying on Capitol Hill on issues regarding the U.S./Israel
relationship.

- Americans for a Safe Israel
Education on security issues in Israel; lobbying for Israel defense issues.

- Friends of the Israel Defense Forces
Fundraising for humanitarian, educational, and social programs for Israeli
soldiers and their families.

- Herut-Likud
Supports the policies of Sharon's Likud Party.

Our activities will end in time for people to participate in the Rally and March for Justice in Palestine. The rally will begin at 3:30 PM at Tribune Plaza (435 N. Michigan Avenue) and the march to the Israeli Consulate begins at 4:15. A concluding rally will run from 4:30-5 PM at the Israeli Consulate.

Mass Rally & March on June 5
Thousands at the White House will say:
"Bush and Rumsfeld - Guilty of War Crimes"

Michael Berg, the father of Nicholas Berg who was murdered in Iraq, will be a speaker at the June 5th Speak Truth to Power mass demonstration and speak-out in front of the White House. This rally will reflect the grassroots voices of those who have suffered and are suffering because of the Bush administration's war in Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and right here against working people in the United States.

The Speak Truth to Power rally will feature the voices of the mothers and fathers of soldiers who oppose the war; those in the Muslim and Arab communities whose families have been ripped apart through raids, detentions, and secret hearings; representatives of the working class communities in Washington, DC and elsewhere who are suffering because of the destruction of social programs; we will hear the voices of the people of Haiti and the Philippines and Korea who are living under U.S. military intervention and occupation. June 5 is the anniversary of the Israeli seizure of the West Bank and Gaza and we will hear the voice of the embattled Palestinian people who to this moment are having their children shot and their homes razed as the U.S.-backed violence escalates.

Following the People's Speak-Out, thousands of people will march through working class neighborhoods and arrive at the home - the mansion - of Donald Rumsfeld. Coming as it does just three and a half weeks before the June 30 phony "transfer of sovereignty," the June 5 rally and march will be a powerful challenge by the people to the administration and its plans for continued occupation. The people of the world and the world media will be looking on June 5th to see if the people stand against the Bush administration's wars of aggression.

Abu Ghraib and Vietnam

The scope and systematic practice of torture, savage beatings, sexual assault and sick humiliation of prisoners in U.S. custody in Iraq and elsewhere burst again into the front pages of newspapers around the world after the publication of statements from detainees and new pictures in the Washington Post (May 21), and the broadcast of new videos documenting a few of the horrors inflicted on an occupied people. No one should doubt for a moment that the people of the region are seething - they and the whole world now know for a fact that the torture and cruelty visited upon mass arrest detainees in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and now Iraq was an approved operation by Bush and Rumsfeld.

On the same day as the Washington Post released the new horrifying photos, U.S. aircraft dropped bombs on a wedding party in northern Iraq killing more than 40 people, including the bride and groom and a large number of children. The U.S. military followed up on the ground shooting those that lived one by one. In response to world outrage at this massacre and the images of wounded, dead and decapitated children, Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, told reporters in Fallujah, "Bad things happen in wars. I don't have to apologize for the conduct of my men."

With all the obvious differences, it is clear that in its essence the Iraq occupation is George W. Bush's Vietnam. The Bush and Rumsfeld fantasy will be defeated, in many ways it is defeated. That's what makes it their "Vietnam." Unless the people of the United States act now, however, the killing in Iraq will continue for years. In Vietnam the killing and carnage continued for years after U.S. policy makers knew full well that they could not militarily defeat the Vietnamese.

U.S. political and military leaders became convinced that the war in Vietnam was not winnable as early as 1968 and yet the war dragged on for another five bloody years. The bombing continued on, the CIA assassinations of opponents in south Vietnam escalated (the Operation Phoenix Program) into the tens of thousands between 1968-1973, another 30,000 soldiers went to their graves during those years, and the number of Vietnamese civilians killed could be counted in the thousands each week. What a waste, what a crime, and it will be repeated in Iraq unless the people unite to demand: End the Occupation, Bring the Troops Home Now!

The stakes are high and the June 5 mobilization will open the next stage of the antiwar movement - utilizing new tactics to begin mass organizing on the grassroots level in every community.

Please see the below links to find out how you can get more involved:

Get on the bus to DC! Click here to see a listing of transportation centers from around the country. Please check back frequently, as this list is updated daily. If you are organizing a bus, van or car caravan to be in DC, SF or LA, fill out the Transportation Form.

Help spread the word! Multiple versions of flyers for Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles can be found on the Downloads page. These versions include:

Washington DC:
two color version

Washington DC:
black and white version

Washington DC:
Spanish language,
two color version

Washington DC:
Spanish language,
black and white version

San Francisco
Los Angeles

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
www.ANSWERcoalition.org
[email protected]
Washington 202-544-3389
New York 212-633-6646
Los Angeles 323-464-1636
San Francisco 415-821-6545

Join Us

Anti War Protests until June 30

Every Friday

4:30 to 6:00 PM

Five Points Downtown, Atlanta

(Intersection of Marietta/Peachtree/Edgewood 1/2 block from Marta station)



Join Us. We are group of people who rally every Friday against the war in Iraq, against Bush administration militaristic foreign policies in the Middle East and elsewhere, and against Bush administration anti civil liberties and civil rights policies with in our own boarders. We pass out leaflets, get petitions signed, and let our voice to be heard. Bring your signs and banners and your voice! You Present Make a Difference, Please Join Us Because:



Our Collective mission is to tell the world that the American people stand with the people all over this world for global economic opportunity, environmental responsibility, social justice, and freedom and democracy for ALL. This mission is not dependent on the outcome of the elections in November. Politicians come and go, but civic responsibility is ongoing.

For Peace & Justice

Azita & Marcus Patton

June 5-11: End US Support for Israel's Occupation!

On June 5-11, join with United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and UFPJ member coalition US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in a national week of action to demand that our government end its military, economic, and diplomatic support for Israel’s illegal military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

OCCUPATION: WRONG IN IRAQ, WRONG IN PALESTINE

The lesson of Abu Ghraib isn’t that a few bad apples went awry, as Rumsfeld and Bush want us to believe. It’s that occupying other people’s countries inevitably requires brutal and dehumanizing means to try to make the occupied accept foreign control of their land and resources.

It is a fact that more than 3 million Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation have known for 37 years.

June 2004 marks the 37th anniversary of Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestine’s West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. This occupation denies the Palestinian people the right to self-determination, fuels bloodshed, and prevents the establishment of a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians whereby both peoples can live in freedom, dignity, and security.

If occupation is wrong in Iraq, why would it be right in Palestine?

WHY U.S. SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION MUST END

While it is Israel that directly occupies these Palestinian lands, it is our government that provides Israel the military, economic, and diplomatic support Israel depends on to sustain its military occupation. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. financial aid in the world, receiving $7.7 million per day in direct U.S. aid. Washington views this support as central to U.S. efforts to dominate the Middle East for U.S. economic and military advantage.

Worse, Bush has given unqualified support to the illegal occupation policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He has backed Sharon’s brutal military measures, extra-judicial assassinations, and apartheid-like wall snaking through the West Bank. In April Bush abandoned decades of formal U.S. policy and backed Sharon’s unilateral plans to keep Israel’s colonial settlements built on occupied territory and reject Palestinian refugees’ right to return to the properties from which they were driven out by Israeli militias during the 1948 war.

Sharon’s policies trample on the human rights of Palestinians, violate international law, flaunt U.N. authority, and fuel the tragic cycle of violence between Palestinians and Israelis. But with a blank check from the U.S., Sharon faces few obstacles to pursuing his reckless dream of taking “as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians as possible,” as Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe recently put it. Without that blank check, Sharon would feel pressured to end Israel’s occupation, remove the settlements, and negotiate a just Palestinian/Israeli peace.

TAKE ACTION—JUNE 5-11, 2004

NO MORE U.S. SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION!

It’s time for the U.S. to stop giving Israel a blank check for occupation. UFPJ is calling for June 5-11 to be a national week of action and education to expand public backing for ending US support for Israel's illegal military occupation. UFPJ formally called for these actions last December, but the deepening of the Bush/Sharon alliance makes them even more urgent. Here’s what you can do:

1) EDUCATE YOUR COMMUNITY. If you or your group hasn’t taken a position on or undertaken work for a just Palestinian/Israeli peace before, we encourage you to organize educational events for your group or community during the national week of action. For more information about Israel’s occupation and U.S. support for it, see the resources below.

2) ORGANIZE A PROTEST in your city or town. Let others know by posting your event on UFPJ’s on-line calendar at http://www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar_gxinput.php . Be sure to cross-post at the US Campaign’s on-line calendar:

http://endtheoccupation.org/calendar_input.php

3) SIGN A PETITION TO CONGRESS. The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is seeking individual and organizational endorsements of its petition to end U.S. support for Israel’s occupation. The U.S. Campaign will deliver the petition to Members of Congress and the State Department during the US Campaign's grassroots advocacy day on Capitol Hill on June 7. The Campaign’s goal is to have 500 organizational endorsements and thousands of individual endorsements. To read and sign the petition, please see:

http://endtheoccupation.org/petition.php?pid=2

4) WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR or opinion article for your local newspaper demanding that the United States end its support for Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestinian lands.

RESOURCES

* For more information on Israel’s illegal occupation, its violations of international law, and the role of the United States in supporting them, please visit:

http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?sub=43&list=sub

http://www.endtheoccupation.org/

* Download the U.S. Campaign’s “Dual Occupations: If It’s Wrong in Palestine, Why is the U.S. Doing it in Iraq?” at: http://endtheoccupation.org/downloads/dual_occupations.pdf and “Ending the Occupation: It’s the Law” at: http://endtheoccupation.org/downloads/fact_sheet_2.pdf

* For information on UFPJ’s approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, go to http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?sub=43&list=sub

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ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545

To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

Friday, May 21- 4 PM: Emergency Protest in Chicago for Rafah Horror by IDF!

When: Friday, May 21, 4:00 PM
Where: Israeli Consulate. 111 East Wacker Drive - just east of the corners of Michigan Avenue and Wacker.

Logistics: Please signs, banners, posters, Palestinian flags, props, and most importantly as many people as you can reach. Peace and justice organizations can add their endorsement of this action by posting to this list-serve.

- Initiated by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine

What Happened?

At least 11 ( and possibly as many as 20 people) were killed outright when an Israeli Apache helicopter and tank opened fire on a crowd of Palestinian demonstrators who had gathered to protest Israel's efforts to flatten hundreds of Rafah homes to widen an Israeli army-controlled security corridor along the border with Egypt

Earlier Wednesday,Israeli forces ordered all males over 16 in the Rafah refugee camp to gather in one place or risk demolition of family homes. Israel has threatened to carry out a systematic destruction of homes in the impoverished area since the start of the invasion.

The Palestine News Network estimated that some 1,500 people were particpating in the peaceful march in Rafah when the attack began. BBC News reports later put the estimated crowd size at about 3000. The attack happened as protesters marched down the main street of Rafah towards the Tel Al-Sultan area where Israeli raids have been concentrated in the last two days.

Eyewitnesses report that people fled screaming, some dragging bloodied comrades and others carrying wounded children in their arms. "It was horrifying," said Mahmoud Abu Hashem, 35. "There was one person with his intestines coming out. Another had blood covering his face and you couldn't even make out his features". Fatalities are expected to quickly rise, with at least 50 - the majority school children and women - seriously wounded.

Emergency demonstrations are now being organized world wide to protest this latest outrage.

>From 7:45 AM to 11:30 AM (three services) Our purpose is to take our message seeking an end to Serial Wars to all those who attend this great church. We realize its Mom's day, but the war is going on. Mothers are losing sons every day, so let her sleep in, and if you must leave early its OK. Thanks Mothers!

You may bring an appropriate sign or poster, and some large sings will be furnished. Two feet square or larger recommended with large letters. Use your imagination and try for a short, positive message, some we are using:

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS DEMAND PEACE IRAQ? WWJD? (WHAT WOULD JESUS DO) CHOOSE LIFE, NOT WAR CHRISTIAN RACISM KILLS PALESTINIANS INNOCENT BLOOD ON OUR HANDS, PALESTINE, Iraq

* location is on Lindsay north of highway # 60 in Mesa. * Remember, you are addressing the churchgoers, not the general public. * Please dress in traditional church attire. * Refrain from loud exchanges with anyone! This is a silent vigil. * Stay spaced so all the signs may be seen, Direct signs at churchgoers. * Please park your car off the church property and walk only on sidewalks. * Please refer all press and other official inquires to the sponsors. * Hand out literature will be provided. * Bring you cell phone and camcorder if you have one.

For information: Project Strait Gate P O Box 14491 Scottsdale, AZ 85267 ( www.whtt.org C. E. Carlson Call 480 947 3329 Cell phone on site 602 741 4650

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