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CJME Alert #31
End the Blockade of the People of Gaza
Call the White House, Write Letters to
Kansas City Area Media
THE ISSUE -
Israel is continuing to escalate its attacks on Gaza,
killing more than 40 Palestinians just this past week and wounding
scores more, and has placed the already besieged territory under
complete lockdown.That is eliminating what little access the
besieged population had to food, fuel, clean water and
ever-more-urgent medical services. By Sunday (1/20/08) Gaza’s only
power generator was shut down because of a lack of fuel; hospitals
are starting to be affected and Palestinian medical officials
reported five gravely ill patients had died.
What You Can Do:
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1. Call the White
House at 202-456-1111 and State Department's Bureau of Near
Eastern Affairs at 202-647-7209.
Demand:
- An immediate end to the assault on
Gaza, and the opening of its border crossings to people
and goods.
- A comprehensive ceasefire that covers
all territories and all parties to the conflict.
- An end to U.S. military aid to
Israel. Oppose the new $30 billion military aid package
to Israel by
clicking here.
2. Call your national as well as your local
media. Demand:
- Coverage of what's going on in the
Occupied Palestinian territories. This is particularly
important since the Israeli lock-down of Gaza has
resulted in very little news emerging of the most recent
attacks.
- Write a letter with 150 words or less
to the editor of the Kansas City Star . Send letters to
letters@kcstar.com or leave a comment for Voices in the
Kansas City Star, call (816) 234-4493.
- Write a letter to the editor in
response to an article in your local newspaper using the
talking points in this action alert. or contact
information,
click here.
3. If your group has consultative
status at the United Nations, call the office of UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon:
- Demand that the UN hold Israel, as a
member state, accountable for its human rights
violations.
- Protest the Secretary-General's
statement of January 17, 2008, repeated on January 18,
in which he demanded an "immediate halt" to Palestinian
rocket and sniper fire from Gaza, but only urged
"maximum restraint" from the Israeli occupation forces
assaulting Gaza. In both statements he "reminds all
parties of their obligation to comply with international
humanitarian law and not to endanger civilians," without
acknowledging the different obligations between an
occupied population and an occupying power already
violating numerous UN resolutions that demand an end to
the occupation itself.
- Contact: Office of the Secretary
General, Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar: nambiar@un.org or
1-212-963-8922.
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4. Send an email to info@cjme.org and let us
know that you responded to this alert.
BACKGROUND - Points you can make in a letter or call:
Demand an immediate end to the assault on Gaza
and open borders
The 1.5 million citizens of Gaza, half of whom are children aged 14
and
under, have been under an increasingly tight siege since January
2006 when Hamas was elected in free and fair elections - at least as
free and fair as any election held under military occupation can be.
The living standards of the population have plummeted and their
access to medical services, education, and basic food has
dwindled.Over 80% of Gazans now live in poverty according to the
United Nations and the World Bank. The World Bank has identified
Israel's tight control of movement of people and goods into and out
of, as well as within, the occupied territories as the single most
important reason for the collapse of the Palestinian economy. Israel
has never implemented the agreement on movement and access that U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice negotiated in November 2005.
Israel must end its assault on Gaza and let Gaza have open borders
to the rest of the world.
Call for a comprehensive ceasefire that covers all territories
and all parties to the conflict
Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed a ceasefire that
included Gaza on November 26, 2006. However, Israel continued to
conduct incursions into the West Bank and carry out "targeted
assassinations," some of which resulted in the murder of civilians.
Between November 26, 2006 and April 3, 2007, Israeli forces killed
51 Palestinians in the West Bank. Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel
came as a clear retaliation to these killings. The ceasefire
collapsed on April 22, 2007. Although the U.S. media continually
claims that Israeli attacks are in response to Palestinian rocket
fire, the actual pattern of Israeli attacks provoking Palestinian
responses has been documented by Israeli journalist Gideon Levy.(See
his July 9 and December 3 2006 articles on www.haaretz.com, as well
as Institute for Palestine Studies Policy Notes No. 15 on
www.palestine-studies.org) Official U.S. statements supporting
Israel's assaults on Gaza make the U.S. government complicit in
Israeli violations of the Geneva conventions (which prohibit all
collective punishment).
Urge an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.
Although Israel has not dismantled even the West Bank "outposts" as
it had promised the U.S., let alone the rest of its illegal
settlements and infrastructure in the West Bank, the U.S. has
increased military aid to Israel by 25% for a total of $30 billion
over the next 10 years. U.S. military and political support means
Israel can ignore legitimate Palestinian aspirations for
independence, sovereignty, equality and justice. It makes a mockery
of claimed U.S. support for the "peace process," because the U.S.
guarantees the overwhelming superiority of the Israeli occupier and
its decades-long exploitation of Palestinian land and resources.
The U.S. must not be complicit in what the rest of the world
understands to be one country's destruction of a country and
people.Only an end to U.S. military aid to Israel will signal that
our country is beginning to get serious about peace.
- Background provided by Middle East Children's
Alliance
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