North America Nakba Tour: The Exiled Palestinians

May 28, 2016 / admin / Comment / Posts

 – DIRECT FROM THE REFUGEE CAMPS –

Jewish Voice for Peace-East Bay, South Alameda County Peace & Justice Committee, Ecumenical Peace Institute, Friends of Sabeel North America,
in cooperation with the Free Palestine Movement, International Solidarity Movement-Northern California and al-Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition
invite you to

North America Nakba Tour

The Exiled Palestinians

Stateless Palestinians from the Camps in Lebanon

Mariam Fathalla interview (9-min. version)

Mariam lFathalla interview (2-min. version)

On May 14, 1948, as Zionist leader David Ben Gurion was proclaiming a Jewish state in Palestine, his troops drove out the inhabitants of the ancient Palestinian town of al-Zeeb. 18-year-old Mariam Fathalla was one of them. She and her young husband fled to Lebanon. By year’s end the 4,000-year-old community had been leveled. More than half of all Palestinians were killed or expelled and more than half the cities, towns and villages disappeared, a crime that Palestinians call al-Nakba (the Catastrophe).

Now 86 years old, Mariam has spent the last 68 years in crowded, makeshift refugee camps in Lebanon. She has raised three generations, all waiting to return to Palestine. She has seen five Israeli invasions of Lebanon, as well as the 1976 Tel al-Zaatar camp massacre that killed more than 2000 refugees there.

Mariam wants meet you.  So does Amena Ashkar, the great granddaughter of other Nakba survivors.  They have a different message.  They do not live in Palestine.  They have no citizenship anywhere.  They do not live under Israeli occupation. Israel does not allow them to visit their homes, much less live there.  Amena has never met an Israeli, and Mariam not since 1948. They have a different perspective.

VENUE: St. John’s Presbyterian Church
TIME: Friday, June 3, 7:00 p.m.
LOCATION: 2727 College Ave., Berkeley (Berkeley BART)
CONTACT: 510-236-4250, solidarity@ism-norcal.org

FREE EVENT
-donations to support tour expenses gratefully accepted-

Appeal from U.S. to World: Help Us Resist U.S. Crimes

May 24, 2016 / admin / Comment / Posts

Roots Action Petition

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States of America has systematically violated the prohibition against the threat or use of force contained in the UN Charter and the Kellogg Briand Pact. It has carved out a regime of impunity for its crimes based on its UN Security Council veto, non-recognition of international courts and sophisticated “information warfare” that undermines the rule of law with political justifications for otherwise illegal threats and uses of force.

Former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin B. Ferencz has compared current U.S. policy to the illegal German “preemptive first strike” policy for which senior German officials were convicted of aggression at Nuremberg and sentenced to death by hanging.

In 2002, the late U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy described post-September 11th U.S. doctrine as “a call for 21st century American imperialism that no other nation can or should accept.” And yet the U.S. government has succeeded in assembling alliances and ad hoc “coalitions” to support threats and attacks on a series of targeted countries, while other countries have stood by silently or vacillated in their efforts to uphold international law. In effect, the U.S. has pursued a successful diplomatic policy of “divide and conquer” to neutralize global opposition to wars that have killed about 2 million people and plunged country after country into intractable chaos.

As representatives of civil society in the United States, the undersigned U.S. citizens and advocacy groups are sending this emergency appeal to our neighbors in our increasingly interconnected but threatened world. We ask you to stop providing military, diplomatic or political support for U.S. threats or uses of force; and to support new initiatives for multilateral cooperation and leadership, not dominated by the United States, to respond to aggression and settle international disputes peacefully as required by the UN Charter.

We pledge to support and cooperate with international efforts to stand up to and stop our country’s systematic aggression and other war crimes. We believe that a world united to uphold the UN Charter, the rule of international law and our common humanity can and must enforce U.S. compliance with the rule of law to bring lasting peace to the world we all share.

This will be sent to all the world’s national governments. You can sign as an individual on this page. To sign as an organization click here.

Click HERE to sign petition