============================================================================ 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 ============================================================================
