By Barbara Taft, co-chair

WILPF Middle East Committee

WILPF’s Middle East Committee supports the Goldstone Report and also calls for a credible, independent investigation into Israel’s conduct in “Operation Cast Lead.” The truth must be exposed, and those who have committed war crimes must be punished. Let your political representatives in Washington, D.C. know how you feel.

When Odile Hugonot-Haber and I recently attended the J Street conference in D.C. we found many engaged Americans who wanted to talk about peace. J Street (http://www.jstreet.org/) is the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement. The organizers of the conference were expecting about 500 people to attend, and were happily surprised to find themselves hosting 1,500 people, all enthusiastic about a group that proclaims itself to be “Pro Israel/Pro Peace” and to speak for what they believe to be the majority of Jews in both the U.S. and Israel: people who believe that making peace is good for Israel, the Palestinians, the region, and the world, and that doing so is a moral imperative.

Children of Gaza     ‘Victims of the victims’  by Regina Birchem

(This article was published in the International Peace Update  Volume 74. No. 1. June 2009)

Click here to view and download a pdf version of this article.

The sliver of land called Gaza is part of the Palestinian territories bordered by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. About twice the size of Washington, DC, it has a population of 1.4 million with more than a third living in extreme poverty. About 900,000 are classified as refugees. Children make up about 56% of the population. 

TO: Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs

The undersigned organizations are writing to urge you to oppose the President’s FY2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Israel, an increase of $225 million in military aid compared to FY2009.  At this time of acute economic crisis, as well as from a political, legal, security, and moral standpoint, our country should not continue to provide Israel with this blank check.

Israel consistently misuses U.S. weapons purchased through FMF to commit grave human rights abuses against Palestinians and systematic violations of international law in its illegal 42-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. Some of those violations are documented every year in the State Department's own human rights reports; far more are documented by the United Nations and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. 

10 February 2009

On 27 December 2009 Israel launched a military operation on the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated part of the Palestinian Territory under Israeli occupation since 1967. The operation was code-named Cast Lead and began with heavy bombardments of the Strip and its population, followed by a ground invasion. The stated immediate purpose was to destroy enough Hamas military installations in order to stop the shooting of missiles into Israel.

NEW! Click here to go the United Nations website to read the article dated January 8, 2009 and entitled: Security Council overwhelmingly calls for immediate Gaza ceasefire.

Click here to view sample letters to be sent to governmental representatives and to local and national media (Microsoft Word document).

Click here to view sample letters to be sent to governmental representatives and to local and national media (pdf format).

We, the members of the Women's International League for  Peace Freedom, are horrified at Israel's bombing of Gaza.

We join with millions around the world in protests and call for an immediate cease fire.

We are profoundly distressed, knowing that the continuous  bombardment will lead to further civilian deaths and suffering, and this massive escalation of violence could spiral out of control and engulf the whole region in war.

The massive air attack is a crime against humanity as it comes on top of the two-year inhumane siege that Israel has imposed on the one and a half million people living in Gaza, the world's largest prison.

Here is some of the text and facts the Mid-East Committee recommends for the Gaza post cards.

The WILPF US section states that we are too long overdue in responding to the cries of the people of Gaza. Israel's declaration as an "hostile entity" has resulted in imprisonment and collective punishment of the civilian population, without electricity for power and water treatment, without fuel for cooking and heat, with dangerous limited amount of food and medicine, and bombing of homes and infrastructure.

Peace cannot be Obtained by imprisoning and starving 1.5 million people.
Therefore we urge Congress to do the following:

• Call for an immediate cease fire
• Call on Israel to rescind the "hostile entity" designation  of Gaza -Call on Israel to immediately to lift the Gaza blockade and restore freedom of movement for people and goods.
• Demand that Israel fulfill it's obligation as an occupying power subject to International and human rights law.

Please send a postcard to your Congress persons urging them to take the above actions.

Gaza Human Rights Facts