Call for internationals to come to Palestine

2002-04-05

Richard Moore

============================================================================
Delivered-To: •••@••.•••
From: Institut für Globale Friedensarbeit <•••@••.•••>
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:@gpo3.mail.iol.ie;>
Subject: Call for internationals to come to Palestine
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 20:20:42 +0200

FORWARDED INFORMATION AND APPEAL
With this we forward you some current news that we received
from Palestine. Included is the appeal to Internationals to
come to Palestine in great numbers. We start out with a
short comment:

Dear friends,

Many of us are without words for the situation in
Israel/Palästina. What can I all alone do? Many people have
this question. If everybody would go to the streets with a
"I want peace, but what can I alone do against war?" we
would recognize that millions would be in the streets with
this question. A big movement would start.

We want to inform you about the current situation of our
friends in Jerusalem/Palestine. We want to give our support,
everybody should do this in his own way. We are grateful
that more and more international people find the courage to
travel to Israel/Palestine and help, that the violence in
this country can be stopped. We ourselves won`t travel to
Israel at the moment, because we need all our energy here,
in order to prepare the Peacecamp Israel/Palestine in the
summer. Furthermore we concentrate on creating a powerful
political peace network and on building up new social forms
of non-violence and living together in a peacefull way. It
is a big social task to create social forms of life which do
not create  war and violence....this knowledge of peace has
to be developed with all  the power we have. For many other
people the best to do is traveling directly to  the places
where help is needed directly. We want to support this
movement. May  this international peacework grow more and
more. For this we send this information to our network, even
though we know, that it is dangerous to go there.

The Israelis also attack the international people. They do
so in order that the fear will grow and everybody stays
quiet. For this we send you direct information from our
friends who live there in the area of war.

Please go for possibility of support if you have the
possibility and the inner knowledge of peace and protection.
But no one should go as a hero, if there is fear in your
heart. The support which is needed must come from an open
und fearless heart....if you don't feel like this, give your
support in another way, by sending the information all over
the world, so that people can be aware, what is happening
just now...

Please help, that the violence and fear can disapear from
this planet.

In the name of the IGF team
Sabine Lichtenfels

----------------------------------------------------

For more information you can write to: "pcrbs" 
<<mailto:•••@••.•••>•••@••.•••

APPEAL:
Urgent call for Internationals to come to Palestine. the
International Solidarity Movement ISM calls upon who ever
can come to Palestine to come. you are all needed now. ISM
and GIPP groups in Ramallah and Bethlehem are doing great.
They are the only protection for President Arafat, they are
with families in camps, joining Ambulances. your presence
makes a difference. if you can find your way into Jerusalem
we will do our best to get you in bethelhem or Ramallah.

---------------------------------------------------
And here an account of El Hadr by Ibrahim Issa of the
Hopeflower school:

Update from Bethlehem

April 1, 2002

Around 150 internationals and dozens of Palestinians marched
peacefully towards the occupied city of Beit Jala. The peace
activists marched with slogans calling for peace and against
war and violence. The peace activists were attempting to
visit the families besieged in their homes, which have been
taken by Israeli soldiers and turned into a military
checkpoint.

Israeli soldiers sited in their tanks and ABCs blocked the
road in front of the peaceful marchers. While two of the
marchers were just starting to move towards the tanks with
their hands up in order to negotiate with the soldiers,
soldiers started shooting randomly at both the crowd and the
reporters.

As a result, 8 people were injured. The injured people are
three Americans, two from the UK, one from Japan, one from
France, and a Palestinian reporter. All were treated at Beit
Jala Hospital. An American girl was operated and still in
the hospital. All others were released.

What happened in Beit Jala is a serious warning about the
intentions and attitudes of the Israeli soldiers in their
campaign to re-occupy the already occupied Palestinian
areas. A sign that indicates that a big massacre is in its
way.


April 2, 2002

More than 150 Israeli tanks invaded Bethlehem area from all
directions. Heavy shooting and shelling is regular all
morning long. The Israeli army is moving towards the Church
of Nativity. Bethlehem is sliced into a dozen of isolated
areas. Soldiers and Apaches are shooting at any moving
target. More than 150 internationals are staying with
Palestinian families inside the Refugee camps of Bethlehem.
Their lives as well as the lives of their hosts are
endangered.

April 2, 2002

In a phone talk with ISM activist Neta Golan who is staying
inside the presidential compound in Ramallah, she indicated
a sever shortage of medicine, water, and food. More than 32
internationals are staying inside the compound trying to
create a human shield against any Israeli attempt to attack
and kill president Arafat and his assistants.


Dear Ina,
I am not sure if I can come to Germany next week. the
situation is very bad and no one can even leave his/her
home.

In Bethlehem thing are going very very bad after the Israeli
reoccupation of Bethlehem. Bethlehem became a closed
military zone. No media or press are working in Bethlehem,
the ambulances are not allowed to work and to risk any
victim. There are more than 200 Israeli tanks and APC's
(armored personnel carriers) in Bethlehem, with more than
3000 Israeli soldiers occupying  an area of less than 20
square km's. We hear the whole day shootings and bombing
from tanks and helicopters in the old part of the city of
Bethlehem. the center of fighting is located in the Nativity
square and in the refugee camps . We hear the whole day
people calling local TV asking if there is a doctor to save
one's life. Yesterday the Israelis killed a priest in a
church and wounded 6 sisters. they even burned Omar Bin Al
Khatab mosque in the Nativity square - just beside the
nativity church- . This mosque symbolizes the Islam
/Christianity unity in Bethlehem against the Israeli
occupation. we hear about massacres in Bethlehem, but no one
can leave his home because he/she could be the next victim.
we hear about bodies of peoples in the streets. The
situation is becaming worse especially after the American
support to the Israeli Massacres. what's going in Bethlehem
these days is war crimes and the world is closing there
eyes. Even the Arab countries are closing there eyes. The
Palestinians are suffering since 50 years of the Israelis.
The Palestinian media call it war for liberation while the
US and Israel call it war against terror. I never heard that
an occupation army could defeat a nation, sooner or later
the Israelis have to admit that they cannot defeat the
Palestinian people, but the painful thing is how much blood
and how many people should be killed from both sides before
the Israelis end their occupation.

I am listening the whole day to the news, an Israeli analyst
said the Israeli army which is sent to Bethlehem and
Ramallah is enough to occupy Jordan, Syria and even to reach
the borders of Iraq, if it was fighting against an ordinary
army.

We need peace, more than ever. this situation is disaster
for both Palestinian and Israelis. The Hope Flowers School
is still there, our dedication to peace and democracy
education remaind rock solid. There is no other way for both
Palestinians and Israelis than PEACE  and COEXISTANCE. War
never solved a problem, on the contrary it complictes every
thing. The whole area became a war zone. No place is save.
Children are terified, adults are scared, it is very bad
feeling to feel so powerless that we cannot change anything.
One of teachers lost her husband in the fighting, her
husband was wonded two days ago and remained in the street
without any medical care, this afternoon he passed away.
this teacher is ONLY three months married and she is
pregnant. Her husband lost a brother almost one year ago.
This is heart breaking for us at the Hope Flowers. We are
terribly affected by violence.

The Hope Flowers School is in urgent need for all of the
friends support. the school is facing since few months a
huge problem in Paying the teachers salaries. Please find
attached the latest newletter of the Hope Flowers school.
you can find also the way to donate to the school. would you
please notify us when you send your donation in order to
follow up with the bank.


Best wishes, Ibrahim

-----
IGF - Institut für Globale Friedensarbeit (Institute for
Global Peace Work), Monte do Cerro, P-7630 Colos,
<http://www.tamera.org>www.tamera.org
<mailto:•••@••.•••>•••@••.•••, Tel: +351-283 635
3-06, Fax: -74
 
============================================================================

Share: