On the Sixth Anniversary of the Intifada... STOP the WAR AGAINST THE ARAB PEOPLE! >From Palestine to Lebanon, from Iraq to Brooklyn...
March and Rally Saturday, September 30th Gather at 12 Noon March steps off at 1:00 p.m. Grand Army Plaza, at the Fountain Brooklyn, NY Subway: 2 or 3 to Grand Army Plaza
Join the Coalition in Solidarity with the Arab People to march on the sixth anniversary of the Intifada to stop the war against the Arab people! We demand:
* Stop war on the Arab world! * Immediate & Unconditional Right to return for all Palestinian refugees! * End the occupation of historic Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and everywhere! * End all U.S. aid to apartheid Israel * Release all political prisoners! * Support the people's right to resist!
We stand united in our opposition to US war, empire, occupation and racism everywhere, from Afghanistan to Brooklyn, and in solidarity with the people of Iran and Syria against the ongoing threats of war.
Join us to march, and raise our voices for justice!!
The Coalition in Solidarity with the Arab People (Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition - NY; American-Iranian Friendship Committee; Anakbayan NY/NJ; Arab American Association of New York; Arab Muslim American Federation; BAYAN USA; International Action Center; International League of People's Struggle; Malcolm X Grassroots Movement; New Jersey Solidarity - Activists for the Liberation of Palestine; New York City Labor Against the War; New York Committee to Defend Palestine; Pakistan-USA Freedom Forum; Workers World Party)
Also endorsed by: Million Worker March Movement (East), New York Committee to Free the Cuban Five, Queers For Palestine-East Coast
Endorse the demonstration! Send your endorsements to info @ al-awdany.org or call 718-228-8636!
For more information, to join the coalition, and to get involved, please contact: Al-Awda NY http://www.al-awdany.org 718-228-8636 info @ al-awdany.org
Campaign for Accountability for U.S./Israeli War Crimes
August 28, 2006
Join us Wednesday 6 - 9 pm United Nations Church Center 777 UN Plaza - 44th St. & 1st Ave, NYC Momentum for the Campaign for Accountability for U.S./Israeli War Crimes is building. The campaign has received thousands of endorsements from across the globe over the past weeks as the world learns more and more about the horrific crimes committed by the U.S. and Israel in Lebanon and Palestine.
A recently released report from Amnesty International accuses the Israeli Army of deliberately attacking civilian targets -- a crime under international law. Even the U.S. has been forced to respond to global outrage by announcing an "investigation" of Israeli use of cluster bombs against civilians. However, the U.S. has been pressured into conducting several investigations of this sort in previous decades, but this never stopped the flow of arms and military aid to Israel. And it never stopped the brutal crimes against the people of Palestine and Lebanon. The only force that will stop the U.S./Israeli crimes against humanity is a global peoples movement to demand justice.
We need your help to build launch this Campaign for Accountability. In just a few days, we will hold our initial session in New York City's U.N. Church Center. Over the next few months, we plan to assist and organize similar sessions across the U.S.--in schools, community centers, churches and mosques--to expose U.S./Israeli War Crimes. We need your help to do this. Please consider joining us in our initial session on August 30 in NYC. If you are unable to do so, contact us about organizing a local meeting. We also need help with the enormous costs of this campaign--renting meeting spaces, printing literature, producing multimedia presentations, etc. Please consider making a donation to help build this campaign.
A message from Ramsey Clark:
Dear Friends,
On August 30, 2006 the International Action Center will launch a major campaign to require accountability by the United States and Israel for their wars of aggression and assaults on the equal sovereignty of nations, which are crimes against peace, and their war crimes which include excessive force,
AUGUST 30 Wednesday 6 - 9 pm United Nations Church Center 777 UN Plaza - 44th St. & 1st Ave, NYC
indiscriminate bombing, targeting civilians and civilian facilities and collective punishments of entire populations.
Reparations are required for more than a thousands deaths, many thousands of injures and an estimated $10 billion for destruction of civilian facilities in Lebanon in one month alone; and thousands of deaths and injuries in Palestine since the Oslo Accords, the systematic destruction of the government of Palestine, the kidnapping of half the cabinet and the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, the assassination of leaders and indiscriminate killing of others, and the destruction of the offices of President Arafat, the Foreign Ministry and civilian facilities throughout Gaza and the West Bank.
If the present ceasefire does not hold, bolder action must be taken. There must be absolute assurance from the U.S. and Israel that they will honor the equal sovereignty of Lebanon, Syria, and Iran and recognize and honor the sovereignty of the State of Palestine, cruelly delayed for 58 years. Individuals in the U.S. and Israeli governments must be held accountable by prosecution for their criminal acts, and responsible leaders must be removed from office by impeachment in the U.S. and appropriate legal action in Israel.
The new tragedy of Lebanon has brought death to hundreds of civilians, children, women and men. Hundreds of thousands, approaching one-fourth the population of four million, are fugitives from their homes within and outside of their country. Destruction of the infrastructure will require decades to rebuild, if and when peace comes. Rage at Israel and the U.S. dominate all other emotions in Lebanon and throughout the Muslim world. New anger is spreading over every continent.
If the capture of two soldiers, or one in the case of Palestine, justifies assaults against whole nations and peoples, as Israel has done, then there is no law, no alternative to war, no hope for peace. Only a person with a memory no longer than three weeks could believe the capture of three Israeli soldiers began the present violence. Was not cross-border violence between Israel and Lebanon commonplace for decades? Had not Israel kidnapped half the Palestinian cabinet, destroyed its Foreign Ministry offices and other government buildings and engaged in summary executions throughout Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza, since the elections this year of the Hamas majority in the Palestinian parliament? Was there not a continuum of assaults at will against the Palestinian people over decades?
We must ask whether the forced withdrawal of Syrian peacekeepers from Lebanon earlier this year by the U.S., and Israeli political pressure after the murder of former Lebanon Prime Minister Hariri, were the preludes of a plan for Israel to assault Lebanon and reoccupy territories up to the Litani river in Southern Lebanon. While Syrian forces were present in Lebanon, such an assault did not occur.
And we must ask whether the fierce assault on Lebanon and Palestine are the prelude to broader actions against Syria and Iran. President Bush has made it abundantly clear that he would like nothing better than regime change in Iran and Syria and has attempted to lay responsibility for violence in Lebanon and Palestine at their door.
As Iraq descends into uncontrollable sectarian war, President Bush needs new threats to distract the attention of people in the U.S. from what his Shock and Awe policy has brought for Iraq, for us, and for the world. War in Lebanon helps divert attention temporarily and may serve to widen the conflict to include Syria and/or Iran. If not, there are always Cuba, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela and others to act against.
As with Iraq, in Lebanon we have seen a war of aggression, the supreme international crime; an attack on the equal sovereignty of Lebanon, violating the First Principle of the United Nations Charter; excessive force of a major magnitude, with Israeli planes striking a nation defenseless against aerial assaults; indiscriminate bombing; targeting of civilians; and collective punishment, in which everyone in Lebanon suffers.
The future of Palestine remains the central issue for peace in the Middle East. That future is more endangered than at any time since the Oslo Accords. Everyone in Palestine suffers from the violence unleashed on its people by Israel’s renewed Roadmap to War.
President George Bush supports every act of Israel, every strike against Lebanon and Palestine, alone among international heads of government. And Condoleezza Rice congratulates the Prime Minister of Lebanon for his courage while telling him there must be further destruction of his nation and government--an insult to every human being who cares about peace and understands that the world cannot be made safe for hypocrisy.
By permitting President Bush to pursue his policy of domination through threat and lawless force, we risk ever widening international violence.
I hope to see you at the UN Church Center on August 30th . This historic meeting will be the first in a series of national and international mass public gatherings in a Campaign for Accountability for U.S./Israeli war crimes in Palestine and Lebanon. We need your support, participation, and donations.
I hope that you will lend a hand to this campaign as best you can. We must persevere until peace prevails.
Sincerely, Ramsey Clark P.S. By making a donation, you will support the August 30th event and the ongoing work of the Campaign of Accountability, including videos and podcasts, international dissemination of testimony given at that event and other information giving the truth about U.S./Israeli war crimes.
No Justice, No Peace - U.S. Out of the Middle East
No Justice - No Peace - U.S. Out of the Middle East!
August 5
Support the Palestinian and Lebanese Peoples' Right to Resist!
End the Occupation of IRAQ, PALESTINE and LEBANON
Support the Palestinian People's Right to Return
U.S./Israeli Troops Out Now
No More Fighting and Dying for Oil Profits
STOP U.S. Aid to Israel
What you can do to help:
* Join us for a work session Friday, from 2 pm to 7 pm and Saturday, from1 pm to 3 pm, at our new office at 55 W. 17th St. 5th Floor. We will need help assembling placards, painting banners, and preparing other materials for Saturday's demonstration.
* Help get the word out. We have only two more days to get out tens of thousands of flyers, stickers, and posters. Come by our office (55 W. 17th St. 5th Floor) and pick up materials to get out in your neighborhood, on the subways, in your workplace, etc.
* Volunteer during Saturday's demonstration. We will need volunteers to help collect names, hand out literature, staff tables, and to help with takedown after the closing rally. Look for the Troops Out Now table to volunteer.
* Donate to help with the enormous expenses of organizing national demonstrations.
* Download leaflets. We have local and national leaflets available in English, Spanish, and Arabic.
* At Saturday's demo, look for the Troops Out Now table to buy your bus tickets for the August 12th National March on Washington.
Force it into the headlines, call your local media, complain, inform and demand coverage...
Rally in anger, in memory, in support of the Palestinian struggle to survive.........
Friends and supporters of Justice in Palestine: join Chicago, New York, Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, Boston, and dozens of other cities in North America, calling for a Day of Action in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their struggle against the Genocidal Apartheid Israeli State. WHEN: Friday, June 16th, 2006, at 5:00 PM. WHERE: Union Square South
**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY**
EMERGENCY RESPONSE: PROTEST ISRAEL'S MURDER OF PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS! END THE SIEGE ON PALESTINE! RESPOND TO HODA CRIES FOR JUSTICE!
11 Palestinians, Including a Man, His Two Children and Two paramedics, Killed and 30 Others Wounded in an IOF Air Strike on a Civilian Car in Gaza
On Tuesday noon, 13 June 2006, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) committed a new extra-judicial execution in Gaza City, which killed 11 Palestinians, including 9 civilian bystanders. A man, his two children and two paramedics were among the victims. The targeted person in this attack was a member of the Islamic Jihad. Investigations conducted by PCHR indicate that IOF aircrafts launched a missile at dozens of civilians, including paramedics, who gathered near a civilian car shortly after IOF aircrafts attacked it, targeting a member of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad. Thus, the number of extra-judicial executions committed by IOF in the past 4 days has mounted to 6, which have killed 18 Palestinians and have wounded at least 40 others. This latest attack and other similar attacks have come as an implementation of a series of decisions taken by the Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz to escalate extra-judicial executions against Palestinian militants to stop launching locally made rockets at Israeli towns. Peretz has been also considering intensifying military operations in the Gaza Strip, whose victims are often unarmed civilians.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 11:45 on Tuesday, 13 June 2006, an IOF aircraft launched one missile at a civilian vehicle (Voks Wagen) that was traveling near Martyr Mohammed al-Durra Hospital in al-Tuffah neighborhood in the northeast of Gaza City. Two members of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, were traveling in the car. The missile directly hit the car, killing the two members of the al-Quds Brigades: Hammouda al-Wadiya; and Shawqi al-Saiqali. Palestinian civilians living in the area gathered around the car and two paramedics from the nearby hospital came to provide first medical aid. Immediately, IOF aircrafts launched another missile at the car, killing 10 civilians, including a man, his two children and the two paramedics:
In addition, at least 30 other civilians, including a number of children, were wounded; the wounds of 12 of them have been described by medical sources as serious.
PCHR strongly condemns this latest attack. PCHR is gravely concerned over the Israeli escalation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). PCHR asserts that such crimes serve to escalate tension in the region and threaten the lives of Palestinians. PCHR calls upon the international community to immediately intervene to stop such crimes, and reiterates its calls for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to meet their obligations to ensure protection for Palestinian civilians in the OPT.
On Friday evening, June 9th, 2006, at least seven Palestinian civilians were killed when Israel Navy gunboats firing artillery shells hit a beach in the northern Gaza Strip. Some 40 others were wounded. Among the dead were three children, three women and one man. Many of those wounded in the attack were also children, Palestinian sources said. Hoda came back to the beach to find her family murdered in cold blood by Israeli bombing.
This horrifying escalation of violations by the Israeli occupation forces, coupled with the prolonged humanitarian crisis that the Palestinian people are already enduring, is fueling rising tensions and instability on the ground. As the European and U.S. governments demand the freezing of humanitarian assistance to the people of Palestine, Israel has continued its military attacks against the Palestinians, arresting hundreds more civilians, destroying countless homes and property, expanding its illegal settlements and its Apartheid Wall, and imposing more than five hundred checkpoints and roadblocks throughout the territories, including in and around East Jerusalem, seriously restricting freedom of movement and suffocating the economic and social life of the Palestinian people.
In the past week, Israeli forces have launched missile air strikes against "targets" in densely populated civilian areas of the occupied Palestinian territories, directly intended to kill Palestinian civilians, a policy of extra-judicial executions that has continued unabated even though the democratically-elected Hamas-led Palestinian government, and the vast majority of resistance organizations, have complied with a self-imposed, unilateral truce against the Israelis for over a year.
On June 5th, Israel launched an air strike against a car in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing Mr. Imad Mohammad Assaliya and Mr. Majdi Tayseer Hammad, and wounding three other people. And on June 7th, the occupation forces, using artillery bombardment, attacked a national security post east of Gaza City, killing four Palestinian men.
Moreover, Israeli continues to raid Palestinian cities and villages, carrying out military and arrest operations. On May 31st, Israeli soldiers stormed the Balata refugee camp east of the city of Nablus, shooting and wounding two Palestinian children in an "operation" to arrest six other Palestinians in the camp, including two women. A series of arrests have also been carried out in the Qalqilya, Jenin, Al-Khalil (Hebron), Bethlehem and Ramallah areas, typically with no information given to the families of those detained as to their whereabouts or conditions. Israel's army also continues to restrict the movement of ambulances treating wounded or sick civilians, and has even fired upon ambulances during the recent period, including the shooting at one, which was carrying a woman in labor, on May 27th, destroying the vehicle's engine, terrorizing the woman, and delaying her arrival at the hospital. END THE SIEGE ON PALESTINE NOW! END ISRAELI OCCUPATION NOW!
The Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC) is a national grassroots coalition of antiwar activists, trade unionists, solidarity activists and community organizers.
For more information, or to find out how you can get involved, visit our homepage at TroopsOutNow.org
