A Special Message from Partners for Peace
27 November 2006
A Special Message from Partners for Peace
At the present moment a tenuous cease-fire initiative has brought Israeli forces out of the Gaza Strip. The casualties from the prolonged military incursions in Gaza are still being tallied. The humanitarian toll, however, is enormous. Although the cease-fire has thus far held and there have been no new attacks, Israel continues to impose a siege on Gaza, whose residents are left with limited electricity, medical supplies, food and water.
In response, a coalition of Israeli peace groups has called for a day of action to end the seige on Gaza. Organizations around the world have taken up the call and are organizing demonstrations on Saturday, December 2. Marches and rallies will be held across the US. Click here to see a list of events and details on actions in your area.
Included below is a special message from Partners for Peace President Jerri Bird and Chairwoman Alma Abdul-Hadi Jadallah who express the need for your financial support for the work of Partners for Peace and the voices of Israeli and Palestinian women peacemakers at this crucial time. If cease-fire initiatives are expected to hold, the voices of peacemakers must be amplified. This is the work of Partners for Peace and we ask your support in continuing it.
From the President and Chairwoman:
“I come from Hell, from a big prison called the Gaza Strip”
– Ghada Ageel, Jerusalem Women Speak 12
Dear Partner for Peace:
The massacres of Gazans during recent weeks have reached monstrous levels. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz has reported that the dead are civilians, in some cases whole families, including eight children and seven women were among those killed in a recent attack. These assaults on civilian areas hit Palestinians who are already facing widespread poverty, joblessness and malnutrition. The BBC reportst that Dr. Ali in Beit Hanoun says that there had been no rockets launched from the area recently.
For the second time we had a woman from Gaza on the tour just completed, and her first hand accounts of life in the outdoor prison describe a people who are desperate and hopeless.
Never has the Jerusalem Women Speak tour traveled and spoken at such a critical time to audiences in the United States. The contrast could not have been more pronounced between the news from their homes that our women received as they traveled — and the colorful and flamboyant autumn scenery that greeted them in the communities they visited throughout New England towns and cities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Yet, despite their acute awareness of the grave situation at home during the month of October 2006 — particularly in Gaza — they remained determined to bring their message to the many attentive members of the audiences to whom they spoke.
Their presentations highlighted for us the significance and urgency of our mission, which is to help the women convey the increasingly difficult realities of their everyday life. In order to reach more people we need your financial contributions which will enable us to fund our expanded program for 2007.
We would like to give you an idea of some of the places our tour went this past fall and some of the audience reaction to our message. As you may recall, our speakers were Ghada Ageel of Gaza, a Palestinian Muslim — Shireen Khamis of the West Bank, a Palestinian Christian — and Rela Mazali of Israel, a Jewish Israeli. The three spoke in churches, synagogues, and community centers, addressing campus, civic, and religious bodies — and, importantly because of the numbers reached — to the media at each stop on the way. We made many new contacts and secured new friends for Partners for Peace during our travels.
Their message — amplified by their several graphic power point presentations — dramatically traced the shrinking of Palestinian lands over decades of occupation along with Israel’s expansion of its increasingly encroaching settlements, and the separation wall now being built on Palestinian land in the West Bank. Settlements and the wall appropriate much of the territory once earmarked for an independent Palestinian state. Israel’s destruction of the infrastructure of the West Bank and Gaza — the devastation of roads and the erosion of public services — the demolition of homes, schools and public buildings — the freezing of the Palestinian economy and the financial reserves needed to compensate its public sector employees–has resulted in havoc and despair.
Yet, despite all, Palestinians remain determined to end the oppressive Israeli military occupation and gain international recognition as people deserving peace and self-determination. To a person, they are united in their struggle to find a way to begin to rebuild their fractured society, to restore their shattered infrastructure, and to return to a stable economy — free of Israeli control.
Clearly, their determination deserves our support with both our enthusiasm and our dollars.
We learned from Rela Mazali that Israeli citizens are beginning to question — ever more vigorously — the wisdom of the occupation.
The impact of the occupation on Israelis is severe – especially its impact on Israeli youth who are required to perform military service in increasingly dangerous zones — and under increasingly brutal conditions. The financial toll that the costs of the occupation have placed on the Israeli community has resulted in increasing poverty levels – particularly among young children and the elderly – for example, increasing numbers of Holocaust survivors living in Israel now subsist below the poverty line, according to the latest statistical reports. (See the editorial by Rela Mazali that provides her view from Israel.)
We seek your help to speak effectively of all this to the media — to concerned citizens – and to the policy makers who can help make a difference within American society and at the international level. Please plan to send your contribution now to enable us to publish reports of this tour and to plan our next Jerusalem Women Speak tour in spring 2007.
Our media presentations started on the first day of the tour, in Washington, DC, with an hour long interview — answering listener call ins — on Pacifica Radio station WPFW –89.3 FM. Media coverage also included The Hartford Courant, the Salem News, the Jewish Advocate of Boston and the Newport Daily News as well as the television coverage on Al Arabiya Satellite News Channel of Dubai. You can see the complete details on our website www.partnersforpeace.org.
During the tour the women spoke at various academic institutions, including The Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, The University of Connecticut at Storrs, and The American University in Washington, DC as well as to community and faith groups.
Please give us your support at this critical time – your tax deductible donation to Partners for Peace can make all the difference in our ability to reach out to a public who rarely hears the authentic voices of the women of the region – their story by and large will remain untold without your continued financial help and your moral support upon which we depend to sustain our efforts.
Your financial help and enthusiastic support in the past have made our work possible — we are eager to bring the women to new audiences and we seek your help in suggesting venues to which our spring tour can travel and find receptive audiences and media coverage. Along with your financial contribution to our work, we welcome your offer of a speaking engagement in your town to audiences who may be eager to hear our women. Our 12th annual Jerusalem Women Speak tour was a success because of your contribution to the work. We are now planning our 13th tour so do let us hear from you – we welcome your suggestions.
In peace,
Jerri Bird
President
Alma Abdul-Hadi Jadallah
Chairwoman
P.S. It is only with your support that we are able to cover the expen
