Occupy Wall Street and What Congress does

A quick point.  While occupy wall street is growing, in numbers and cities, congress has its own priorities.  Is it any wonder the movement finally got started? 

Here is what's is going on (besides a speech right now by Jessie Jackson Jr. on Republican candidate Perry (Texass) and the name of the ranch (NiggerHead):

Let's Take Our Message to the Streets & Congress!

Dear Supporter,

Congress is now threatening sanctions against Palestinians for seeking UN membership. Take action!

Outrageous! The United States claims to support Palestinian statehood but Congress is now threatening sanctions against Palestinians for seeking UN membership.

Last weekend, The Independent reported that even before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas submitted Palestine's UN membership application, Members of Congress had quietly placed "holds" on spending already allocated U.S. assistance to Palestinians.

And now, as if that weren't bad enough, Congress is considering additional far-reaching sanctions against Palestinians as punishment for seeking UN membership. 

Supporter, take action right now!  Contact your Members of Congress and tell them not to sanction Palestinians for seeking to achieve their freedom and self-determination, but to sanction Israel for denying Palestinian rights.

Palestine has waited more than 64 years to become a UN member. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: "For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!'... This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'" The worst stumbling block to freedom's advance, King argued, is the person who "believes he can set the timetable for another" person's freedom.

Today, we're releasing a brand new online resource to help you make sense of these sanctions and U.S. aid to Palestinians. 

In our new online resource, you can:

Write your Members of Congress to oppose sanctions against Palestinians,

Read our FAQ that details our position on U.S. aid to Palestinians, which is often more problematic than it may appear,

View a slideshow and interactive database to get details about what U.S. aid funds,

Learn more about the proposed Congressional sanctions against Palestinians,

Educate yourself about U.S. aid to Palestinians in our resources guide.

However, it's not enough to contact Congress. 

We need to take our message to the streets!  Right now, in more than 200 cities across the country, thousands of people are out protesting against corporate greed and militarism and for funding human needs.

Congress remains deaf to the demands of the people as the "Super Committee" meets behind closed doors to debate deficit cutting measures that are likely to bring additional cuts to the critical social services that should be guaranteed to all. Yet $30 billion in military aid to Israel remains untouched, a budgetary "sacred cow."   

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation urges all of its member groups and individual supporters to become involved with Occupy Together, and participate in a local event near you.

Supporter, sign up today to receive an organizing packet to end military aid to Israel and we'll ship it to you right away by express mail so that you can use these materials at an Occupy Together event this weekend. Each packet comes with fact sheets, fliers, postcards, and petitions--everything that you'll need for going to Occupy Together events to help end U.S. military aid to Israel and redirect that money to unmet needs here at home. 

Speaking of MLK... for those of you who will be in Washington, DC, for the rescheduled dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial on Sunday, October 16, let us know if you'd like to join us to organize there to end military aid to Israel.  Check out these great flyers we put together for the event, and sign up to help us distribute them.

One last thing... Last month we asked you to sign our petition on the White House's "We the People" website calling on President Obama not to veto Palestine's UN membership application. We've already received enough petition signatures to get a response from the White House and we're currently the second most popular foreign policy petition.  We've got until October 22 to collect additional signatures.  Let's send a strong message to the Obama Administration--help us become the most popular foreign policy petition on the White House website by signing today!   

Thank you for everything that you do.

In solidarity,


Josh Ruebner
National Advocacy Director


PS: Your support makes it possible for us to create these educational resources and run these organizing campaigns.  For every $10 that you donate, we'll be able to send out one organizing packet to a volunteer to go out this weekend and organize to end U.S. military aid to Israel.  Thank you for your support! 

#Libya, #Gaaza, and #Palestine

We have a couple of pressing items to deal with. 

One is the attack on Libya and the reasons surrounding it:

1) We know that Gaddafi is a bad guy because we saw a clip of him playing chess with the head of the International Chess Federation.  People who play chess are always bad guys, we know that.  But a recent documentary on HBO makes the point even clearer.  Bobby Fischer was a chess player and he was prosecuted by the United States for playing chess in *gasp* Yugoslavia!  Also, he said he hated Jews, even though he was Jewish.  This chess stuff has got to stop.

2) It is only costing us $10,000,000/day.  That's cheap.  If we didn't spend it there, we'd probably be frittering it away on teacher's salaries and hiring police.

3) Since it has been 60 days, there is all this claptrap about the war powers act and congress being involved.  What do they think this is -- Russia?  The President has the right to attack anyone he wants to.  God told him.

4) We haven't just been killing Libyan civilians -- we also hit some tanks and stuff.

5) A tanker of Libyan oil is on it's way here -- see?

6) So stop this nonsense about 60 days.  We just marked the 40th Anniversary of the War on Drugs and we all know how well that has worked.

So now, here are a few things about Gaza, Palestine, and people impudent enough to flash the peace sign.  A bunch of Hippies over there:

Top 10 Reasons why Rafah opening doesn’t cut it

In This Issue... Top 10 Reasons why Rafah opening doesn’t cut it More Recent Articles Search The Only Democracy?

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From Gisha’s Gaza Gateway, more on the inadequacy of the new Rafah Crossing rules on the Egypt-Gaza border.

The top 10 reasons why the opening of Rafah Crossing just doesn’t cut it

In no particular order of importance, we thought we’d list some of the reasons why the opening of Rafah, while significant and helpful, doesn’t meet all of Gaza’s needs for access and why, as some voices in Israel have recently suggested, it can’t serve as Gaza’s only access point. Despite four unanticipated days of closure last week, the crossing has been operating for the passage of travelers on a more regular but still semi-limited basis.

1. Passage through the crossing remains limited: Egypt has indicated that it will operate the crossing six days per week during regular working hours, but it seems this won’t be enough: between 400 – 450 individuals have been able to travel through the crossing per day from Gaza to Egypt. From November 2005 to June 2006, approximately 660 passengers per day exited the Gaza Strip through Rafah and according to the Palestinian Crossings Authority, 10,000 people are currently waiting to travel.
2. The situation is unstable: As last week’s closure of the crossing indicates, the situation on both sides of Rafah remains unstable, such that it’s not clear whether the crossing will remain open, nor exactly to what degree.
3. Rafah doesn’t lead to the West Bank: Travel and movement of goods between Gaza and the West Bank remains severely limited, a problem which Rafah cannot address, as goods and Gaza ID holders are not allowed into the West Bank even via the Egypt-Jordan route. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are part of the same customs envelope, and are recognized, including by Israel, as a single territorial unit, which, despite four years of tight closure, still shares one economy, one education system, one healthcare system and countless familial and social ties.
4. Export is not moving and not through Rafah either: Export remains severely limited (about 2 truckloads per day, the last of which left Gaza on May 1, 2011, compared with a target of 400 per day in the Agreement on Movement and Access) and is currently not taking place through Rafah at all. This is impacting industries across Gaza which used to sell or export their wares in Israel, the West Bank and abroad. Before the closure, the vast majority of Gaza’s “exports” were sold in Israel and the West Bank.
5. Construction materials do not enter through Rafah: Construction materials are being let into Gaza via Kerem Shalom only (between Israel and Gaza) for approved projects undertaken by international organizations and following exceedingly lengthy bureaucratic procedures. Each month since January 2011, about 10% of what entered monthly in the years prior to June 2007 has entered for these specific projects. At present, Egyptian authorities have not indicated if or when they will allow construction materials to pass at Rafah.
6. Import of goods does not take place at Rafah: Imports to the Strip purchased by the private sector enter Gaza from Israel via Kerem Shalom Crossing. Even if Egypt were to allow goods to enter at Rafah (and there is no indication that they intend to do so nor when) the crossing and surrounding roadways are not currently equipped to handle the transfer of large quantities of goods, on the scale of the access needs of the Strip.
7. Humanitarian aid does not regularly enter through Rafah: Aid enters Gaza via Kerem Shalom Crossing, between Gaza and Israel. At present, Egyptian authorities have not indicated if or when they will allow convoys of humanitarian aid to pass at Rafah.
8. Medical patients in need of treatment not available in Gaza cannot always make the long journey to Egyptian hospitals. In any case, Palestinian hospitals in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, part of a common Palestinian health care system, are there to serve all residents of the Palestinian territory, including Gaza residents.
9. Reports prove it: Restrictions on access at the crossings between Israel and Gaza (at Kerem Shalom for goods and Erez for people) continue to impact the well-being of residents of the Strip. Yesterday UNRWA published a study showing high rates of unemployment and the Association for International Development Agencies also reported recently on how limits on the entrance of construction materials primarily impacts the work of aid agencies and residents of Gaza.
10. Rafah doesn’t lead to the West Bank: Oh wait, did we say that already? Well, we’re saying it again, because it’s very, very important.

 

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More Recent Articles

• Guardian series of videos by East Jerusalemites
• Restrooms and Sanitation at Umm-Al-Kheir (a story for Shavuot)
• Gaza not un-besieged after all
• Why do protesters only count in Syria?
• Bassem Tamimi speaks out in Israeli Court at the beginning of his trial

And just now, the crime of crimes:

Palestinian imprisoned for flashing the peace sign

In This Issue... Palestinian imprisoned for flashing the peace sign More Recent Articles Search The Only Democracy?

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From the Occupied Palestine blog comes this report of another nonviolent activist arrested.

Khaled Zawahre’s military hearing has concluded delayed ruling until Sunday they will either release him or keep him in custody for 101 days. We want to ask your support to keep sharing this information widely so the cases of arbitrary arrest by Israel get more media attention. For putting a unarmed civilian on trial for a military court after an arbitrary arrest without any proof is a severe  human rights violation

Khaled Zawahre was arrested in Qalandia while stopping in front of the Skunk Car he has been detained in Ofer prison and Military court extended his emprisonement with another 101 days of arrest until end of investigation they accused him of beating up a soldier and throwing rocks even though the films show he was standing non-violent infront of the car being skunked !

Earlier on May 15 2011, Khaled also got injured during a similar nonviolent demo and was hit with a rubber bullet and lost consciousness twice from the teargas (HRW May 20, 2011 issue) on the same day, Israel answered nonviolent protesters with great and disproportionate violence which caused 15 deaths.

For more photos and videos of Khaled and Qalandia, visit the Occupied Palestine blog. Khaled was previously seen on this blog in the video from the “Naksa day protests.”

 

• Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments • •

More Recent Articles

• Top 10 Reasons why Rafah opening doesn't cut it
• Guardian series of videos by East Jerusalemites
• Restrooms and Sanitation at Umm-Al-Kheir (a story for Shavuot)
• Gaza not un-besieged after all
• Why do protesters only count in Syria?