Three Anti-Annexation barrier protests Friday 3rd of March

All the protests will begin at 12:00

Villagers of Beit Sira will hold the Friday prayers on their land being annexed along with the Makabim settlement to Israel. Last Friday Israeli Matan Cohn was shot in the eye and Hussni Rayan had a rubber coated bullet enter 8cm into his body when border police opened fired rubber coated bullets indiscriminately at the crowd of protestors.

Villagers of Bil’in who’s land is being annexed together with the Modi’in Elite settlement and the illegal Metityahu Mizrah to Israel will hold it’s weekly demonstration.

Christian and Muslim residents of Abud who’s land’s are being annexed to the Ofarim and Beit Ariyhe settlements will march to the construction site of a secondary fence, in addition to the one built on the green line that is being built on their land.

For more information call:
Beit Sira-Mansur 0545420464
Bil’in- Abdullah 0547-258-210
Abud–0599311344
ISM media office at 02-2971824

Remembering Rachel Corrie

The International Solidarity Movement Support Group in Northern California invites you to join us at the third annual Rachel Corrie Memorial.

We will celebrate the life of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old ISM volunteer who was killed by an Israeli soldier while nonviolently resisting the demolition of a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip in Palestine. The event will also honor victims of violence everywhere and those unjustly imprisoned. Its objective is to raise awareness to and make connections between various global and domestic issues of social justice particularly the issue of Palestine.

Remembering Rachel Corrie
Thursday, March 16th 7:00pm
Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts
(formerly the Alice Arts Center) at 1428 Alice Street (cross street 14th), Oakland
(near 12th Street Bart, see Map)
Suggested Donation: $10-$20
See below for speakers and performers.

This event is accessible for disabled persons in wheelchairs.
There will also be ASL interpretation for the hearing impaired.
Speakers: Huwaida Arraf, Dolores Huerta, Maria Labossiere, Todd Chretien,

Kiilu Nyasha, Mary Jean Robertson.
Performers: Dennis Kyne, Stephen Kent, Ras K’ Dee, Lorene Zouzounis, Andrea Prichett, Dave Welsh, Dabke Dance Troup,
Speakers:


Huwaida Arraf
Huwaida is a cofounder of the International Solidarity Movement.
Huwaida Arraf is a first generation Palestinian-American. She was born and raised in Detroit, MI. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1998 with majors in Political Science, Arabic and Hebrew & Judaic Studies. Huwaida spent her junior year abroad, studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem – the only Arab on the program. After graduation, she worked for the Arab American Institute to promote the rights of Arab-Americans. In 2000, Huwaida became a Program Coordinator in Jerusalem with Seeds of Peace – an American-based non-profit organization focused on working with youth from regions of conflict, including the Middle East, Cyprus and the Balkans.
Huwaida left Seeds of Peace after becoming involved in active resistance to the Israeli occupation forces and policies. With other Palestinian and international activists, she co-founded the International Solidarity Movement in April, 2001. Huwaida has been arrested over a dozen times over the past four years by the Israeli military for nonviolent protest in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In addition, Huwaida co-edited Peace under Fire (2004), a collection of personal accounts of ISM volunteers published by Verso Books.
Huwaida is married to fellow human rights activist, Adam Shapiro.


Dolores Huerta
Dolores C. Huerta is the co-founder and First Vice President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (“UFW”). The mother of 11 children, 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, Dolores has played a major roll in the American civil rights movement.
Dolores Huerta is one the century’s most powerful and respected labor movement leaders. Huerta left teaching and co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez in 1962: “I quit because I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children.”
The United Farm Workers movement has been an inspiration for millions with their use of creative, active nonviolence in advancing the cause of justice for working people around the world.
See More

Maria Labossiere
Organizer with the Haiti Action Committee
The Haiti Action Committee is a San Francisco Bay Area-based network of activists in the USA who have supported the Haitian struggle for democracy since 1991.
More.


Todd Chretien
Todd helped author and organized Proposition I in San Francisco (the College Not Combat initiative) that passed with 60% of the vote on November 8. He has also been involved in union organizing with the Cesar Chavez Student Center at San Francisco State University for SEUI 790. He is currently running for the U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket.


Kiilu Nyasha
Black Panther veteran, Kiilu Nyasha has been in the liberation struggle for Blacks and all oppressed people most of her life. She is a long time supporter of political prisoners and a death penalty abolitionist. An revolutionary internationalist, Kiilu has actively supported Palestinians’ right to self-determination for decades, using her oratory and journalistic skills to tell the truth about Palestine and the ongoing Israeli occupation. Kiilu was heard regularly on Pacifica’s KPFA beginning in 1983, when she was a commentator for “Traffic Jam,” and later as a programmer with Freedom Is a Constant Struggle from 1991 through 1995. After “Freedom…” was cancelled on KPFA, Kiilu took it to S.F. Liberation Radio and Free Radio Berkeley, micro radio.
More recently, she hosted the biweekly, “Connecting the Dots on KPOO,” a Black listener-sponsored radio station in San Francisco.
Currently, Kiilu free lances for KPFA and KPOO, and writes for the San Francisco Bay View, a national Black newspaper.

Mary Jean Robertson
Mary Jean Robertson is Cherokee, Choctaw, Hessian, Scottish, and “who knows what else”. Mary hosts Voices of the Native Nation on KPOO 89.5 FM. Over the years she has interviewed the likes of Dennis Banks, Floyd Redcrow Westerman, Bill Wahpepah, Janet McCloud, Mary and Carrie Dann, Phillip Deer, and Leonard Peltier for the show.

Performers:

Dennis Kyne
Dennis Kyne is a military veteran who served for fifteen years in the US Army, and over a year on the front lines of Gulf War I as a battlefield medic. He has seen first-hand the effects of Depleted Uranium weapons and PB Tablets. Dennis is tired of hearing “Support the Troops,” a phrase, he says, has lost all sense of sincerity.
After an honorable discharge in 2003, Dennis devoted his life to Support the Truth. Today Dennis travels the country describing his first-hand military experience, and educating young Americans about the ill effects of Depleted Uranium.
Dennis Kyne advocates for veterans of American wars, and for current military personnel, who are treated as tools and guinea pigs both home and abroad.
He has recently released a Rock CD, I’m not resisting.
“This CD is jam packed with powerful eye opening messages and good music to back it all up. It does not get any more sincere than this. That was the intention of Kyne all along, to carry a message to his fellow man while rocking your soul every step of the way.” -Keith Hannaleck


Stephen Kent
A master didjeridu player, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Stephen Kent has been involved with a number of eclectic musical projects in both Europe and the USA.
“…merging spirituality and the modern world…[Kent is] a true future primitive…doing Worldbeat in the most expansive sense possible.” Brad Balfour – The New Review of Records More….

Ras K’ Dee
Ras K’ Dee is a Native American Hip Hop Artist. He has recently released the album “Street Prison” To hear some of his music, go here.

Lorene Zouzounis
Lorene is a Palestinian poet and committed peacemaker. Zarou-Zouzounis was born in Ramallah Palestine and left her homeland with her family in 1964. She has been writing poetry since the age of 13 and has poems published in many poetry anthologies including Food For Our Grandmothers ;South End Press; The Poetry of Arab Women, Interlink Publishing Group; War After War-Review #5; City Lights ,San Francisco; The Space Between Our Footsteps; Simon & Schuster. She also self-published a book of poems entitled Inquire Within in 1987, and her forthcoming book of poems will be entitled Faces. Zarou-Zouzounis also teaches children’s writing workshops and has been reading her poetry at book stores, libraries, universities and many cultural and political events since the mid 80’s.

Andrea Prichett
Andrea is a folk singer with the folk trio Rebecca Riots. She is also a founding activist with the group Copwatch, and has volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine.

Sponsors of the Rachel Corrie Event
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-San Francisco, Bay Area Women in Black, Breaking the Silence, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Copwatch, Corpwatch, Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace (FFIPP), Friends of Deir Ibzia, Global Exchange, Haiti Action Committee, International Socialist Organizing, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for a Free Palestine, KPFA 94.1FM, KPOO 89.5 FM, Labor Committee for Peace & Justice, Middle East Children’s Alliance, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Not In Our Name, Palestinian American Congress, Rebuilding Alliance, SUSTAIN, Students for Justice in Palestine, Veterans for Peace.

Of Shabbat, Settlers and Destroyed Homes; Reports From Occupied Hebron

by Mary

26/02/06

It was Shabat (25/02/06). In the morning, I was at the crossroad at the top of Tel Rumeida hill, waiting to escort Palestinian children to their homes near the Tel Rumeida settlement. When two girls, who live opposite the settlement arrived, I walked with them up to the soldier outside the settlement. The soldier said to go no further and that he would see the children to their house. I turned to come back to the crossroad. There were three teenage settler boys coming, followed by about ten settler adults. While the soldier’s back was turned, a boy of about 16 came over to me and spat in my face; he was laughing. I called to the soldier and showed him the spit on my glasses. I also indicated which boy was the offender. The soldier was shocked, and the settler adults spoke to the soldier as they passed behind the boys into the settlement.

Later, when I took another group of children up to the soldier, he seemed frightened and asked me to please not come up there. He said that he would see that the children were properly looked after and safe, and more soldiers arrived. I do not know who the settlers threatened – the children, the soldier or me. But I would not want to be the cause of danger so I stayed back.

Beer il Haia 25/2/06

I went with a Palestinian friend to Beer il Haia in H2 ( Israeli controlled Hebron), where the Ajlum and Gait families now live. Four years ago, they moved to Beer il Haia, when they were forced to leave their previous homes behind the Ibrahim (Abraham) Mosque. The families concerned need more accommodation and have been obliged to build without a permit from the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces). The IOF will not grant permits, saying that the land is zoned for agricultural use. A few days ago, the IOF came with a bulldozer and destroyed a house, a well and a stone shed, which provided shelter for sheep and goats. They are supposed to give notice for such action and they say they did. However, the notice was left on the ground and not handed to the owners of the land and buildings to be destroyed. The owners did not see it.

There are two more houses, which are inhabited but not completely built and which are to be destroyed because they have been built without a permit.

There is great inconsistency between the IOF behavior when dealing with settlers and Palestinians. Here, in Tel Rumeida, we have settler caravans assembled on a street, without permit, and left there for years. Palestinians families, living on that street, are not allowed to use the street and have difficulty reaching their homes. At Beer il Haia, there is plenty of space to build and the land is owned by the families. There are plenty of houses about and there seems to be no good reason why there should not be more. It’s not near a settlement, so that’s not the reason for the IOF’s decision. And, if it is to be agricultural land, why did the IOF destroy the well and animal shed?

Beit Sira Replants Trees in the Shadow of the Wall

by Henry

The demonstration today in the village of Beit Sira was a peaceful march of one hundred people to the village land where olive trees are being uprooted to make way for planned route of the annexation Barrier. The Route of the Barrier in Beit Sira is designed to annex the Makabim settlement and more of Beit Sira’s land to Israel. To the left of the crowd, on the hill bulldozers were seen working on the wall’s foundation throughout the day.

We walked in the direction of the site until they reached the line of Israeli soldiers waiting to block us. We were dismayed to see that the same border police unit who had shot Matan Cohen in the eye and Hussni Rayan from close range waiting for us. A stand off ensued in which both the soldiers and the demonstrators behaved in a restrained manner. A village elder negotiated that a group of us would cross the road (which had been partially destroyed by the Israeli Military) in order to replant trees. While one group planted trees, the rest of us chanted, while being flanked by mostly border police.

After finishing, the internationals formed a line between the border police and the demonstrators, and after approximately 20 minutes, the people all moved back to the village. As opposed to the previous demos in Bet Sira, there were no injuries at today’s demonstration Another demonstration in Bet Sira is scheduled for this Friday.

Rickman Slams ‘Censorship’ of Play about US Gaza Activist

by Julian Borger
Published on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 by the Guardian / UK

A New York theatre company has put off plans to stage a play about an American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza because of the current “political climate” – a decision the play’s British director, Alan Rickman, denounced yesterday as “censorship”.

James Nicola, the artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop, said it had never formally announced it would be staging the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, but it had been considering staging it in March.

“In our pre-production planning and our talking around and listening in our communities in New York, what we heard was that after Ariel Sharon’s illness and the election of Hamas, we had a very edgy situation,” Mr Nicola said.

“We found that our plan to present a work of art would be seen as us taking a stand in a political conflict, that we didn’t want to take.”

He said he had suggested a postponement until next year.

Mr Rickman, best known for his film acting roles in Love, Actually and the Harry Potter series and who directed the play at London’s Royal Court Theatre, denounced the decision.

“I can only guess at the pressures of funding an independent theatre company in New York, but calling this production “postponed” does not disguise the fact that it has been cancelled,” Mr Rickman said in a statement.

“This is censorship born out of fear, and the New York Theatre Workshop, the Royal Court, New York audiences – all of us are the losers.”

Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old activist from Washington state crushed in March 2003 when she put herself between an Israeli army bulldozer and a Palestinian home it was about to demolish in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.

The International Solidarity Movement, of which she was a member, claimed the bulldozer driver ran her over deliberately. The Israeli Defence Forces said it was an accident, and that she was killed by falling debris.

The Israeli government said the demolitions were aimed at creating a “security zone” along the border. The Palestinians say they are a form of collective punishment.

“Rachel Corrie lived in nobody’s pocket but her own. Whether one is sympathetic with her or not, her voice is like a clarion in the fog and should be heard,” Mr Rickman said.

My Name is Rachel Corrie consists of her diary entries and emails home, edited by Mr Rickman and Katharine Viner, features editor of The Guardian. It won the best new play prize at this year’s Theatregoers’ Choice Awards in London.