_____________________

Organic Olive Oil
Fair Trade from Palestine
NOW AT OUR STORE!
Extra virgin, cold press,
three delicious varieties
Rebuilding Alliance sells Organic Olive Oil

Also available:
- Sun-Dried Couscous
- Za'atar (thyme with roasted sesame seeds)
- Olive Oil Soap




Tell Congress to join you in saying
"I Care About Peace, I Care About Al Aqaba"
to stop the demolition of Al Aqaba village
Rebuilding Alliance sells Organic Olive Oil
__________________

You Are a Beacon to Us All: Messages from Gaza and Israel

“You are a beacon to us all” – that is what Roger Waters of Pink Floyd said in his message of solidarity with the Gaza Freedom March.   He made me think about the many colleagues in Gaza and in Israel who are my beacons — so I picked-up the phone to ask their thoughts about the march, the New Year, and how they hold on to hope. 

The candlelight vigil for Gaza in San Franciscos Union Sqare on Sunday, Dec. 28th, 2009

The candlelight vigil for Gaza in San Francisco's Union Sqare on Sunday, Dec. 28th, 2009

Here are comments from just a few of my “beacons”:  Dr. Eyad El Sarraj in Gaza City, Eric Yellin in S’derot, Dr. Samir Nasrallah in Rafah, Shmuel Groag in Jerusalem, Adnan in Rafah, Khaled Nasrallah in Rafah, and Roni Segoly in hmm, West Jerusalem and Bassam Aramin in East Jerusalem.   I enclose the English translation of a speech given by Israeli human rights attorney Michael Sfard to Combatants for Peace last week, entitled, Truth Cast in Lead, and close the newsletter with  Bassam Aramin’s short holiday message.

As thousands take to the streets in solidarity marches around the world today, may their words warm your heart, provide insight, and give you encouragement.  

In rebuilding peace,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance


 Dr. Eyad El Saraj, founder of the Gaza Community Mental Programme, in Gaza City, Gaza:

Very good and noble idea to have people to come to Gaza to express their feelings and demonstrate.  I am not very happy with Egyptian authorities in not allowing them to come.  I hope that people especially in America will consider action against the siege because it is essentially an American policy.

But this is not about hope or hopelessness – it is a question of duty.  Since no one can come here, we should send a delegation of Gazans representing the people of Gaza to the US to meet with President Obama and Congress.    I hope this can happen in February – let’s make it happen.

Happy New Year to you and thank you to all of our friends.


Eric Yellin, co-founder of Other Voice – Sderot,  in S’derot, Israel:

“The importance of the Gaza Freedom March is in the power of people from all around the world to unite for the purpose of bringing world attention to the ongoing suffering of the people of Gaza trapped in the largest prison in the world stripped of their rights and freedom.

The importance of the march is in breaking the walls of indifference in the world and in Israel.

The importance of the march is in its call to all those responsible, to end the senseless collective punishment caused by the ongoing siege on Gaza, rebuild its ruins, and promise a better and more humane future to its citizens.

For Other Voice – People from Sderot and nearby communities around Gaza, the march signifies all the above and yet more:

  • It signifies a march towards our neighbors whom we wish to meet some day soon as equals without fear and prejudice.
  • It signifies our understanding that we, maybe more than anyone else, must understand the traumatizing effect that the war and fear have created. We who only now start to feel safe and in a process of recovery, look across the border at our neighbors in Gaza who cannot recover, rebuild their homes and live the normal life they deserve.
  • The march for us is not only a gesture of empathy, but a recognition of our own responsibility as humans and neighbors. 

Other Voice works daily to plant seeds of human hope by tearing down the walls of mutual hate and fear.  Now is time for leaders on both sides and throughout the world to do the same.”


Dr. Samir Nasrallah, in Rafah, Gaza.  He is the pharmacist whose family Rachel Corrie sought to safeguard when she stood before the bulldozer that threatened their duplex home in Rafah, Gaza in 2003:

“Happy New Year to you and to friends around the world. 

Insh’Allah –  Of course we are under siege now three years.  We hope to open the border, to visit our family, to visit my father and my mother.  We hope for the peace – it is the main important thing, the peace between the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, no war.  No war next year, no war in the future. Mostly now we want to open the border, we want to be free.”


 Shmuel Groag, in Jerusalem.  He is the co-founder of the Israeli human rights group, BIMKOM: Planners for Planning Rights.

“I am trying to be optimistic.  I really hope we will see a change – even though it is hard to believe.  I am always optimistic because we really don’t know anything about how things are run, and therefore change can come even though we cannot predict the way it occurs nor exact time to expect it. 

I often give the example of Haj Sami Sadek, as a person making a big change in his own region, really able to move people to help — and governments to help, and policy-makers too.   I hope we will have more such examples everywhere.

People around the world are paying attention now.  BIMKOM is seeing more and more interest in our work.   More attention – yes, even while there is more destruction with the demolitions of Palestinian homes and the settlement expansion.   As more and more people gain a deeper understanding of what is happening and why this is unacceptable, I hope it will impact policy.
The Israeli public, overall, is quiet about the one year anniversary of Operation Cast Lead.   As for me personally, I will be part of the march on Saturday in Tel Aviv.  I wish you and your family a Happy New Year.”


 Adnan in Rafah, Gaza.  He is the cofounder of the Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative who helped clear rubble to make the “Unity Club Soccer Field” The Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative organizes the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament to bring everyone together to play:

“In general, just think of the people of Gaza in their daily life… free movement, the ability to contact with people…. Dbw note:  phone line cut off.   It took another hour and many tries to re-establish a connection

“First, people need to travel, to visit their families, to go to hospital, movement to the West Bank, or Israel, or Egypt for trade.  It is all very important.

Second, there’s a lack of cement.  Israel is not allowing cement to come into Gaza, to rebuild – and people really need a way to repair and rebuild their homes.

We are hopeful that the international community will make this next year the last year of the siege…  It is not fair for innocent people to suffer this.  There is no use imposing this siege on civilians to extract something from the current regime.  It is not fair, it should not happen.

At our Unity Club Soccer Field, young people are playing soccer on a daily basis.  Next we will install a playground, and hope to build a gym someday for women’s sports.   We invite the Gaza Freedom Marchers, here and around the world, to visit us! ”  


Khaled Nasrallah, accountant and social worker for UNRWA, in Rafah, Gaza.  Khaled and his wife Samah along with their baby Sama, came to the U.S. to join Cindy and Craig Corrie on a nationwide speaking tour organized by the Rebuilding Alliance.   Khaled is Dr. Samir’s brother and he and his family were in their upstairs flat of their duplex home when Rachel Corrie stood before the bulldozer that threatened it.

DBW Note:  when I called, little Sama picked up the phone. 
“Khaled:   Sama just came from school – she received a new schoolbag and pencils at the kindergarten, donated by someone in the world, and she is delighted!  I am on vacation today and tomorrow.  

I hear about the Gaza Freedom March in Egypt and the Galloway convoy. 

May I cheer you with another idea?  On January 10th our Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative committee will make a gallery of art about ending the siege, a gallery of drawings made by artists throughout the Gaza Strip.   We’ll hold our exhibition in Rafah, Gaza and we hope one of the British Ministers of Parliament will be here to open the show.  One location in Rafah,  many artists.    Our “Break the Siege” exhibition will use art and human feelings to reflect the situation here.  Maybe someone will want to print their work into a calendar to sell throughout the world.  Maybe in this way, art will break the siege in a peaceful way.

Please say hello to your family and all the people we visited and stayed with during our trip to the U.S.”   


Roni Segoli in Jerusalem.  He is the Israeli Coordinator for Combatants for Peace
“I can’t talk right now but I need to tell you that last Sunday, on the memory day for the one year anniversary, Israeli Combantants for Peace gathered together in Tel Aviv for a special commemoration. Because we held this in Tel Aviv, this gathering was mostly the Israeli group.   The space was filled, it was an important time for us – it meant a lot to have this moment of reflection. For those of you who speak Hebrew, please take a look at this short video:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5pej9MEKN4


Michael Sfard, Senior Attorney for the Israeli group, Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights
DBW Note:  When I called, Michael Sfard explained that in two minutes he would be starting his presentation before a conference of the Israeli Bar and asked me to call him tomorrow.    So instead of Michael Sfard’s comments for the New Year, here is the English translation of his presentation at the Combatants for Peace gathering last week Sunday:

Truth Cast in Lead
by Michael Sfard, esq., translated by Sol Salbe

Cast Lead was our second war of independence. In the first, we liberated ourselves from two thousand years of living under the control of others. In the second, we liberated ourselves from the ropes of Jewish heritage and morality that have been binding us for years.

A year has passed, just a year, but we can already tell that this one was different. This was not another “Rainbow”, “Summer Rain” or “Days of Penitence” – the Israeli Defence Force’s operations in recent years in Gaza. Perhaps the officer in charge of the code names has been replaced, or maybe we ran out of pastoral names. But at any rate, our last ferocious attack on Gaza was given a label that carried a violent connotation: “Cast Lead”. In retrospect, that operation marks a crucial turning point in the Israeli society’s value system.

There, in that besieged strip of land, we revealed the crystal-clear truth to ourselves, unadorned and free of shame. We once escaped the truth by sweeping it under the carpet. We employed self-deception which got more sophisticated from war to war and from military operation to military operation. But, like the man who has dropped political correctness and furiously sends his wife to the kitchen, we too have come out of the closet. This is what we are – and we are proud of it!

During Cast Lead we rained bombs for three weeks on one of the most densely populated civilian regions in the world. We pointed our weapons at clear-cut civilian targets, we made use of phosphorus, we deliberately and systematically destroyed thousands of homes and public buildings. We did it all while maintaining a tight siege that prevented civilians from escaping from the combat zone.

We did not set up temporary refugee camps for civilians. We did not arrange for a humanitarian evacuation corridor. We did not spare the hospitals, the food storage warehouses or even the UN welfare organisations. We did not express any sham regret. We did not claim that these were tragic mistakes and we even avoided taking the wounded children to hospitals in Israel.

The outcome is frightening: about 1400 killed, more than half of whom did not take part in the fighting and among whom there were 320 children and 120 women (B’Tselem figures) In three weeks we killed more Palestinians than in the whole of the first Intifada and all the violent incidents in the Occupied Territories till the beginning of the second Intifada combined, that is from 1987 to 2000.

The denizens of Gaza, whom we imprisoned earlier in a corral set up for them, discovered that the wardens had set fire to the jail and thrown the key out of the window. We did not pretend to hold ourselves up to the standards we believe in; nor did we pay lip service to them.

Government offices? No problem. They are officially legitimate targets for attack. So what if the people working there are civilians? What difference does it make that they are used to run civil life: transport, agriculture and welfare for 1.5 million human beings?

A collective liquidation of over a hundred police cadets in the middle of their graduation ceremony? Absolutely – they are Palestinians in uniform; that will do.

The firing of white phosphorus, which keeps on burning for days after it is discharged, on alleys where kids are playing? We have cast-iron stomachs; we can digest any poison easily. Our hearts are made of cold steel. We don’t take pity on anyone.

Cast Lead was our second war of independence. In the first, we liberated ourselves from two thousand years of living under the control of others. In the second, we liberated ourselves from the ropes of Jewish heritage and morality that have been binding us for years. We no longer have to comply with the prohibition of killing the righteous with the wicked. We are exempted from remembering the lessons of being an occupied people without rights. The unavoidable insights of those who have been silenced have been erased and substituted with attitudes reserved for sub-humans.

In the past, we have transgressed some of the moral imperatives, but then we made sure not to reveal that to ourselves. On this occasion, we decided that the time for pretence was over. We have told enough lies to the world and ourselves. From now on we tell the truth: the Jewish state is of the opinion that the laws of war need amending in a way that reduces the risk to combatants, even if this means an increased risk to civilians. The Jewish state believes that in this new kind of war it is permitted, indeed necessary, to bombard power stations that provide electricity to hundreds of thousands of civilians. It is permitted to destroy the food-supply infrastructure and obliterate schools and mosques. And the Jewish state will not tolerate any criticism, either from within or from without.

The new freedom to act was also applied against Israeli oppositional voices. In an unprecedented move, the Israeli Police arrested hundreds of demonstrators against the war. The IDF spokesperson, an officer in uniform, orchestrated a campaign of vilification and delegitimisation against organisations that dared criticise the military’s activities. The Foreign Minster laboured to dry up such organisations’ sources of finance. Moral decay devoured everyone: the commanders who ordered, the fighters who carried out the orders, the lawyers who certified it legal, the academics who kept mum and the press that fanned the flames of war and was so devoted to the IDF spokesperson that it became a unit in a brigade under his command.

These processes have a price. They lead to a loss of faith in Israeli society’s ability to find strength within itself to return to the values upon which it was created. They generate external pressure, international investigations, prosecutions abroad, boycotts and sanctions. All these now have a legal moral basis upon which to blossom. And we, who are so addicted the freedom of having a light finger on the trigger, do not even consider quitting the habit.

Translated by Sol Salbe. Hebrew original: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3824763,00.html

 


 

From Bassam Aramin in East Jerusalem.  He is the Palestinian co-founder of Combatants for Peace and also the
executive director of the Al Quds Center for Democracy and Diplomacy.   His family lost their daughter, Abir, when she was killed by a soldier’s rubber-coated steel bullet in 2007.

“wish you happy new year, happy 2010, happy christmas.  live your day, hope for tomorrow, dont stop hoping for better life.”
– Bassam Aramin


 

 If you can support the work of the Rebuilding Alliance, please do: 

We have you to thank — your gift will make dreams real

We did our best and it mattered.   When faced with the immense loss of life and destruction of Gaza neighborhoods in December/January, we held “Sweep Down the Walls” teleconferences every three days for three weeks to put peacemakers in Gaza and peacemakers in Israel on the phone line with dozens of Rebuilding Alliance supporters across the U.S. and Europe.  They told the concerned audience what they were seeing and brainstormed with listeners to do our best to help safeguard families in Gaza and in Israel and make this stop.  YOU are the ones we thank for making it possible to connect when they most needed us  — and  we ask for your support now.

As the assault ended, we listened hard to our friends at the Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative who said, “Start with soccer,” because soccer immediately draws neighborhoods together and helps to heal the trauma each person experienced.   So in August, despite the blockade, the Rebuilding Alliance successfully installed the first unit of a community center in time for the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament!  Then our small grant stretched to install lights out to the field, and to provide new sand, fully levelled!  And in September, Cindy and Craig Corrie and their delegation personally delivered soccer uniforms to youth league teams in the last week of the tournament.  Now we’ve received a small grant to get doors, wall cement, and windows to these communities in an innovative strategy to lift the blockade.  We have YOU, our committed supporters, to thank.

Ours is a holistic approach to peace-building, combining community-directed rebuilding with grassroots and diplomatic advocacy.   We stretch your every dollar to seed endeavors that make a difference and grow.  Trust builds with each rebuilding project and draws upon a grassroots network to keep the projects safe. 

Twice this past year, people at the State Department have told us we are amazingly effective.  The Secretary  of State sent her highest advisor to our kindergarten in Al Aqaba village.  Now we put them to the test as we work to lift new eviction orders and assure this village its right to issue building permits.  We’re using their case to raise concern about the steep rise in demolition orders overall in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  Your financial support makes it possible for us to engage diplomatic assistance in this and all our projects, and shore up this assistance when you call your senators and representatives to ask them to use their influence on your behalf.

We ask for your help.  And yes, even in these challenging financial times, we ask you to stretch your budget to include the Rebuilding Alliance in your generosity.  We won’t take government funding; we proudly rely on grassroot donations.  Your support sustains us.  Truly, our accomplishments are the result of your gifts!
Thank you very much for your dedication to our work.
In Rebuilding Peace,

Donna Baranski-Walker        
Executive Director

P.S.  Here are the Dreams we will Make Real with your Support:

Forming a team to enter the Global Social Venture Competition
In 2003, our social venture plan to finance and build Palestinian neighborhoods was a semi-finalist.  We are now forming a team to develop a bold plan:  “Micro-Mortgaging: a World-Wide Investment Plan to Help War-Torn Neighborhoods Rebuild.”   Call me at 650 440-9667 if you would like to join our team.

Peace Builder Toolkit  –
The Rebuilding Alliance will present a hands-on workshop at M.I.T. to design and test a Peace Builder Toolkit for Congressional Districts using cloud computing (Salesforce.com), GovTrack, and Google maps.  We are inviting peace and justice organizations in Boston to join in a pilot project.

First Birthing Center in the Jordan River Valley -  
Al Aqaba dreams of converting its 2 room clinic into a birthing center to serve 50,000 Palestinians in the West Bank’s Area C. Our proposal won “Most Donors” on GlobalGiving in Great Britain.   The Rotary Clubs of Nazareth, Israel and Woodside / Portola Valley CA are offering a matching grant for phase 2.  The British Nasheed music group, Aashiq Al Rasul, is planning a charity concert at the Birmingham Town Center!   And we’ll need to press for diplomatic assistance to deliver the 1st ever ambulance with incubator.

Abir’s Garden:  A Safe Place to Grow
After a little girl was killed, Israeli and Palestinian Combatants for Peace asked our help to build playgrounds in her memory – we’ll start construction of the 2nd playground in January.  Let’s help them build 20 more — and make them safe using the Leahy Amendment and through recognition from Congress.

Soccer now, a Community Center soon, Open the Blockade and let’s build!
Next we design a Gym / Community Center using locally-available materials.   Of note: Our Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza has been halted by the siege for three years.  We’ve received a seed grant to work with an Israeli peace group in Sderot Israel to purchase doors, cement, and windows for Gaza and press forward with this new, local-benefit approach to ending the blockade.

Our Fair-trade Store
When people taste our organic olive oil, fair trade from Palestine the whole discourse changes.   Our store, with three delicious kinds of olive oil, za’atar, sun-dried couscous, and even olive oil soap, helps the Rebuilding Alliance pay our rent while providing a fair price to the farmers and a scholarship fund for their children.  Do you know a store near you who might like to carry Za’atar?   Call us!

Magic at our home office. 
We share a beautiful workspace and are delighted to fill our office with 5-10 volunteer interns each quarter.   They come from 5 countries + the US:  seasoned professionals, new graduates, and high school students working on rebuilding projects, legal research, contact congress initiatives, writing and social networking campaigns, and marketing our  organic olive oil and za’atar.  We dream of  hiring an operations manager and  renting more desk-space to grow.

Flying over the Rockies on my way to Washington DC

Way cool to be on the internet, here at 35,327 feet above the Rocky Mountains!

My goals for this trip to Washington: 
(1) to meet with sister groups working to build peace and justice  to tell them of our work, especially on behalf of Al Aqaba village, and explore a pilot project using a new connection technology we’ll be developing at a workshop at MIT;

(2) to speak with members of the House and Senate about Al Aqaba;

(3) to meet with Amnesty International and key people who know about the Leahy Amendment;

(3) to join Cindy and Craig Corrie who are speaking at a house-party gathering for the Rebuilding Alliance in Virginia.

Dreaming aside, there’s a lot of work to be done — great to have internet on the airplane!   From here, I’ll finish our annual appeal letter and send it off to the copycenter for pick-up later today!

How to Call Congress about Al Aqaba — and Give Palestinian Villages a Future

I am writing to ask you to email a letter to your Senators and Representative, then call the senior staff for foreign policy at your senators and representatives offices in Washington DC regarding new demolition orders in Al Aqaba village and throughout Area C.   You can find the email addresses and phone numbers at www.House.gov (enter your zip code) and www.Senate.gov (enter your state).  I’ve included a template letter below – please email or fax it.
Why contact Congress now?  The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)  reports that since August 2009, the Israeli Army through its Civil Administration has issued orders for the demolition of 50 entire Palestinian neighborhoods.   On Nov. 24, 2009, the Israeli Army stormed Al Aqaba village to issue new orders threatening 7 more families with the forced evacuation of their homes, animal shelters, and demolition of their new road.  Al Aqaba residents are ordered to appear in hearings before the Inspection Subcommittee of the Israeli Army on December 10th and Dec. 17th at the Israeli Army’s Civil Administration offices within the Israeli settlement of Beit El.

Please use the campaign name,   I Care About Peace, I Care About Al Aqabain your calls – IT WORKS!  When the Rebuilding Alliance team brought Al Aqaba Mayor Haj Sami Sadeq and BIMKOM co-founder Shmuel Groag to meet with Congress, Senator Carl Levin’s staff said this was a campaign he could get behind.   With the encouragement of Michigander Mares Hirchert and postcards from a thousand constituents, Senator Levin wrote a letter to the State Department and received a positive response on behalf of Al Aqaba.
 Call me (Donna) at 650 440-9667 if you need help or have feedback.  I’ll be in DC on Thursday and Friday to meet with sister organizations to expand this campaign, and also to ask key senate and congressional staffers for assistance.  Please call me if you would like me to meet with your senate or congressional staffer to coordinate schedules. 
Personalize the template letter below and email or fax it to your Senators and
Representative.   If you want to develop a close relationship with their senior staffer for foreign policy, please download our powerpoint,
How to Call Congress 
 

Sincerely,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance
 

P.S. You can find the email addresses and phone numbers at www.House.gov (enter your zip code) and www.Senate.gov (enter your state).  I’ve included a template letter
below – please email or fax it.  Cut and past this template letter into your email or
download the MSWord Doc:
_________________________
Your Name Here
Street Address, City, State Zip Code • Phone: xxx xxx
xxx • your email
 

Month Day, 2009
By Facsimile (their number here) or By Email (their email here)     

The Honorable Rep. or Senator (Your congressperson’s or senator’s title and name here)
House of Representatives or Senate of the United States
Washington, DC 20515

Re: Urgent Appeal to Save Peaceful Palestinian Village Slated for Demolition

Honorable (Your Representative or Senator title and name here):

Please call the Israeli Embassy and the U.S. State Department on my behalf to say that you care about peace and that you care about the Palestinian village of Al Aqaba.
The Israeli Army has ordered demolition of a kindergarten that serves 130 students, the women’s sewing cooperative, nearly all the homes in the village, their mosque, and medical clinic.   On Nov. 24, 2009, the Israeli Army stormed the village to issue new orders threatening 7 more families with the forced evacuation of their homes, animal shelters, and demolition of their new road.   Demolition of Palestinian villages does not further the cause of peace.
 
I know you are following with sadness the many stories of American families losing their homes to foreclosure because they cannot pay their mortgage. However, Palestinia families own their homes free and clear — their homes (and their life-savings invested in those homes) are being demolished because the Israeli Army has a long-standing policy of preventing, as much as possible, Palestinian construction in 60% of the West Bank known as Area C by refusing to issue building permits and then using this pretext to demolish homes.

This is not just happening to one or two homes. During the past 9 years, the entire area has been seeded with demolition orders from the Israeli Army’s Civil Administration. Since
August 2009 the Israeli Army has ordered demolition of 50 entire Palestinian neighborhoods. In fact, 130 Palestinian villages in Area C of the West Bank are impacted by the Israeli Army’s recent escalation in demolition and stop work orders. Al Aqaba village is one of these.  Please use your calls to urge the Israeli government to rescind demolition orders against Palestinian neighborhoods.
There is a ray of hope that can benefit from and requires your immediate help.   Attorney Abdullah Hammad who represents Al Aqaba village, notes that the Israeli Army has yet to approve Al Aqaba’s new master plan.   When you make your calls, please urge the State Department and the Israeli Embassy to assure Al Aqaba village and the other 130 Palestinian village in the Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank the right to self-determination, including the right to draw-up their master plans and issue building permits to secure their future — just like towns here in the U.S.

Please let me know what you learn in your calls.  I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Your name and signature
P.S.  The Israeli Human Rights group, BIMKOM: Planners for Planning Rights, has   published a study entitled, The Prohibited Zone: Israeli planning policy in the Palestinian villages in Area C  explaining the problem in detail.   Peace Now reports that 94% of Palestinian requests for building permits are denied by the Civil Administration.   The
Guardian in their April 15, 2008 article,
 “
Area C strikes fear into the heart of Palestinians as homes are destroyed
reported  that the Israeli Civil Administration granted Palestinians only 91 of 1,517 building applications, while during the same period 18,472 housing units were sanctioned and built in Jewish-only settlements.

A Much Bigger Challenge — New Demolition Orders in Al Aqaba Village

I ask for your urgent attention.  On Tuesday, just after I sent my email to ask your help to win the GlobalGiving Challenge, we received word that the Israeli Army entered Al Aqaba village to issue very serious orders that may quickly lead to the demolition of the homes of seven families and the demolition of Al Aqaba’s new Peace road. The families are required to evacuate their homes by Dec 17th.

Al Aqaba is scrambling to file petitions in time. We need your help, in parallel to the village’s efforts to save homes and roadside.  During this Thanksgiving break, please plan to send an email both your Senators and Representative requesting they call the Israeli Embassy and the State Department on your behalf. Our State Department takes this very seriously and visits Al Aqaba often. Because of your calls to Congress through the years, many Senators and Congressmen care too. Just think about it for now — I’ll post a model letter soon for you to use. 

We take this very seriously. In the past 2 months there has been a significant escalation in the number of demolition orders.  According to Al Aqaba’s attorney Abduallah Hamad of the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC).  Overloaded JLAC is filing petitions to save some 50 Palestinian neighborhoods of 7-50 homes each , in response to this huge number of demolition orders in Area C!

Please show you still believe in this peaceful village’s future by making a gift in the GG Challenge for Al Aqaba’s Birthing Center. Even a $10 contribution makes a big difference: http://www.globalgiving.com/projects/birthingcenter/

Every individual donation will help keep this village standing, so please share this message with your friends!
In Rebuilding Peace,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance
P.S.     Haj Sami Sadeq signed his urgent action letter yesterday as follows, “However, Al Aqaba Village still believes in peace and love for all peoples in the world. And invite them to stand beside them to protect their village from threat of demolition. In peace we believe, Haj Sami Sadeq”.  Please take heart, give now for Thanksgiving and for the children’s Eid al-Adha holiday, and then watch Al Aqaba’s “Peace Camp” video from this, their 3rd year participating in Pinwheels for Peace, spinning 1000 pinwheels on International Peace Day:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv4z99OEzX8

7 Days to Go: Help Gaza & West Bank Projects Win Much Needed Challenge Grant

 Last summer, a hundred people made large & small donations to our projects and they earned the “Most Donor” grants at GlobalGiving.com.   We won the awards, we made amazing progress with each project –  but have yet to reach our fully-funded goals to complete these projects.   I ask your help to win GlobalGiving’s “Give More Get More” challenge — their largest challenge ever. 

Please click on one, two, or all three of the Rebuilding Alliance projects on GlobalGiving, and make a donation.  The minimum amount is $10, but you can contribute more than that also.  Each unique donor counts, giving the Rebuilding Alliance another vote towards a $5000 grant!   And the more money you contribute, the more that GlobalGiving will match it!

 

 
Global Giving for Abir's Garden Global Giving Competition Soccer Global Giving Competition Soccer

How do you choose?   Each project has a ripple effect.   Small miracles happened this past summer through this competition.  Here’s what we did:

Our mission is to help war-torn communities rebuild — and also to make them safe.   Your aid makes a difference and so do your numbers in advocacy.  Please give what you can!

In Rebuilding Peace,

Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance

P.S. Right now, our projects are way at the bottom of the Global Giving Leaderboard so we really need your help – and your friends too.   To win the “Most Donors” award of $5000, we’ll need more than 200 unique donors.  To win another $5000 for the “Most Donated”, we must raise over $25,000 for any one project – we’ve never done anything like that before.  Please note that GG will match up to $500 of your donation.  Please Give Now and make this a groundswell.

November 24th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Israeli High Court and Abir Aramin

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday, Oct. 14th, the Israeli High Court of Justice heard arguments in an appeal to reopen the investigation in the killing of Abir

What happened to Abir?

What happened to Abir?

Aramin.  The court did not make a final ruling but instead, as stated in the Jerusalem Post, “The court gave the state 14 days to present it with materials from the investigation and documentation of official police communications from that day.”   The court will receive the materials this Wednesday, Oct. 28th.   Upon their review, the court will either acknowledge that Yesh Din Attorney Michael Sfard’s arguments are correct and order the state to indict the Border Policemen, order a re-opening of the investigation, or dismiss the petition depite 14 eye-witnesses and independent autopsy.

During the Rebuilding Alliance’s first speaking tour with our partner Combatants for Peace, we sought to tell this story and raise funds for the Abir’s Garden playground project.  I brought Abir’s mother and father, Salwa and Bassam Aramin, and her sister Areen who was with her when she was shot, to testify at the U.S. State Department.   Israeli Combatant for Peace, Yonatan Shapira, joined us to testified how his brother Zohar Shapira and other Combatants for Peace, stayed with the family through the nights at the hospital as Abir struggled to hold on to life.  Together their testimony would enter her killing into the 2007 Human Rights Report on Israel and the Occupied Territories.   As Areen testified, her mother Salwa’s eyes filled with tears, then she asked for justice for her child and her family.  Bassam explained how their family came to understand in the long vigil by Abir’s side that Abir was not only his and Salwa’s child but that she was Zohar’s child too, indeed she was everyone’s child – and in recognizing this, their family set aside revenge to press for justice and continue to extend their hands through Combatants for Peace.

In the autumn of 2008, after the State of Israel closed the investigation of Abir’s death and denied the appeal to re-open it, Yesh Din filed their petition to the High Court of Justice (HCJ).   At that time, I asked Yesh Din attorney, Emily Schaeffer, to clarify the jurisdiction of the HCJ.  She wrote,
“The HCJ is not an appeals court (which would review decisions, in this case criminal, made by lower courts based on review of law and fact) – it hears only constitutional and administrative challenges to decisions made by governmental bodies (i.e. the Police Investigation Unit of the State Attorney’s Office).

“Therefore, it can void a decision (here the decision to close the investigation without filing indictments), but it cannot reverse an acquittal (had there been one) or convict the suspects. Those acts would take place, if an indictment were to be served, within the regular court system (which the HCJ is not a part of). And as the representatives of the family of the victim Yesh Din would not have the right to appeal an acquittal or appeal for a heavier sentence (this lies within the prosecution’s authority). Therefore, the maximum relief that the Aramin family can seek and receive in Israel is a reopening of the investigation.

“It is true that the High Court of Justice is a body set up by the British (in fact in all of their colonies, not just in the Mandate over Palestine). Its purpose was to ensure that the Queen’s decisions would not be adjudicated in the domestic courts of the colonies, by the colonized. However, it is not accurate to describe it as weak. Its jurisdiction is simply limited, as are the types of remedies it can provide. But within that framework, its decisions are binding and have the full force of any court of last resort.”

Nurit Peled Elhanan, after witnessing the High Court proceedings on Oct. 14th in her summary “The court does not sympathize,” noted that “Judge Beinish reminds Sfard – twice – that there have been such incidents in the past and that soldiers have rarely been put on trial or even indicted, so it would be best to just forget it. The State Counsel, with a laugh: I had the pleasure of attending such trials.”  When I called Bassam and Salwa just after the Oct. 14th High Court hearing, Bassam asked me if I could hear a loudspeaker in the background.  Their family had just finished their afternoon dinner.   Bassam explained that the Border Police soldiers were driving by the school in Anata, taunting the children by saying, “Come out, you heroes.”   After Abir was killed, the Border Police had met with the parents and agreed to end patrols near the Anata schools but that agreement did not last very long.  Now the Border Police are back every day and Bassam says they routinely use the loudspeakers to yell profanity at homes while on patrol — all this on the Palestinian side of the Separation Wall in Anata.

 In the October 23rd edition of Bill Moyer’s Journal, Judge Richard Goldstone called truth-telling an essential building block for peace.  Judge Goldstone said, … it’s been my experience in the countries in which I’ve been involved and many in which I haven’t been involved, that in the aftermath of serious human rights violations, you cannot get enduring peace if you leave rancor and calls for revenge in the victim population. What victims need is acknowledgement. They need official acknowledgement of their victimization. And whether that’s done by Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, as we did in South Africa, or through domestic prosecutions or international prosecutions, that official truth-telling is an essential building brick to lasting peace.

Like so many in Palestine, in Israel, and around the world, I hope that when the Israeli High Court reviews the evidence, they will decide in favor of the petition on behalf of Abir Aramin and insist that those responsible be brought to trial.  I hope their decision will lead to justice in the Israeli court system – and result in policy change to move the Israeli Border Police far away from Palestinian schools, and so make the schools and the playgrounds we call “Abir’s Garden,” safer places to grow.

Sincerely,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance

P.S.  Recently, Andrea LeBlanc of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows donated $500 to help us reach our fundraising goal for the 2nd Abir’s Garden playground, to be constructed by Combatants for Peace in Si’ir Village (near Hebron).  This project won 2nd place in the GlobalGiving.com competition this summer and just needs about $5000 to reach its goal. Andrea made her donation in the hope that you would be inspired to donate too.   Please donate through GlobalGiving.com, DONATE NOW.

October 25th, 2009 | Category: Combatants for Peace, East Jerusalem, In the news..., Schools needing playgrounds | Leave a comment

With Sad News regarding Mary’s daughter, memorial tomorrow

Dear Staff, Interns, and Volunteers of the Rebuilding Alliance,

I am writing to convey sad news:  Mary Abu-Saba’s daughter passed away on the evening of Oct.  8th after a long fight with cancer.   Mary is our Outreach Director at the Rebuilding Alliance and upon returning to work here at the Rebuilding Alliance this past summer, she’s held us steady with her heart, insight, and wide sense of humor.  I am honored that the Rebuilding Alliance has been a touch stone for Mary, a restful link to the outside world with work that Mary describes as a tangible focal point outside the storm of her daughter’s declining health and the grief that she and her family must now go through.

The memorial service for Leila will take place this Saturday, October 17, 2009, at 2pm, at St. Lawrence O’Toole church, 3725 High Street, Oakland, Calif., 94619.  You can RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=165514983536.  

Leila’s family and friends have created a Memorial Website and would appreciate your message of condolence:  http://leilaabusaba.wordpress.com/  IN LIEU OF FLOWERS: The family is creating an award to be given annually to a Mills MFA student whose work embodies the spirit of exuberance, vitality, and social engagement that runs through Leila’s writing.  Checks may be made payable to “The Leila Abu-Saba Memorial Fund,” and delivered at the event. Donation checks may also be written to Mills College directly with “Leila Abu-Saba” on the memo line, and mailed to: Mills College, Office of Institutional Advancement, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, CA 94613.

Leila, beloved mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, is also a writer mourned in the blogosphere.  Her now famous piece, “Hello Kind World,” http://bedouina.typepad.com/doves_eye/2008/10/hello-kind-world.html, ends with the following advice:

“So please, friend, bless what you have and let go of fear for the future. Today is the only day you have got. You are breathing. Enjoy your breath. You are alive. Enjoy your life. You have a daughter and parents. Love them. Bless everybody who comes across your path. And the work? Whatever.  Bless your work, too.  Bless your town, your bills, your possessions.  You are lucky to be here for all of it.  If some of it gets taken away, well fine, something else will take its place. You are an amazing confluence of billions of variables and nobody else is having your life right this minute.

Enjoy! And don’t worry about hope. Just breathe and appreciate your breath. Everything arises from that.”

Sincerely,
Donna

P.S.  Another thoughtful link, Global Voices:  http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/10/13/arab-american-blogger-leila-abu-saba-mourned/

October 16th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Strategy- Soccer. Goal- Open Blockade of Gaza

2009-09-15-images-ThrowIn4.5.gif

The Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament is now underway in Rafah, Gaza, on a field cleared from the rubble of demolished homes –and I need your help to pay freight for a shipment of 16 big boxes of gently worn sports shoes.

Overall, I am proud to tell you that your past contributions arrived in time and we installed the portable office unit just before the Ramadan Tournament began. This little building is the first step in developing a community center at the Unity Club Soccer Field, there on the edge of the Ybnah Refugee Camp in Rafah. In addition, proceeds from the GlobalGiving  competition have now been fully transferred to Gaza, via the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, so that some lights are already being installed this week.  We continue fundraising through GlobalGiving.com to be able to complete the “Beam of Light Ramadan Soccer Project in Rafah” and extend tournament play (and community-building) into the night.

Why send soccer and sports shoes?  Some are playing soccer barefoot on that hard-packed sand. They need shoes, but the blockade means few if any shoes are available and no jobs, no money with which to buy them. Back in the First building of a Community Centerspring, Adnan in Rafah asked for used sports shoes so we put up a big sign at the Rebuilding Alliance office and hundreds of people in our neighborhood donated their gently-worn sports and soccer shoes, and uniforms. More would give too, but let’s see if we can get these through the blockade.

Next week, Cindy and Craig Corrie and Rachel’s friends with the Olympia Rafah Sister City Project (ORSCP) will leave Cairo to reach Rafah where they will join with Rachel’s friends in Gaza for the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament. We scrambled to get the shoes boxed up and sent to Cairo where Craig Corrie will pick them up for the mini-bus trip to Gaza.

As of yesterday, our 16 boxes (325 pairs) are enroute, arriving on Sunday. If all goes well, the ORSCP delegation will bring the shoes with them through the blockade. I have so many questions about the benefit of sending gently worn soccer shoes to Gaza.  Here they have no value, but there, if we can get them through, they could mean a lot. Logistically, used sports shoes are a low-cost
Palo Alto donates sports shoes for Gaza
way to press through the blockade (no tariffs, no possible security risk, easy to pack and ship). At each step along the way, more and more people join-in to help, e.g. lots of schools want to do shoe drives, the freight forwarders cut their price by half and paid for pick-up. The head of a receiving company in Cairo said that he will do all he can to help, “As a Palestinian, a Gazan, and a human being.”

I don’t know if this will be successful … it feels so small in the face of big governments’ (our’s, Egypt’s,
Israel’s) misguided, intractable blockade, — policies of collective punishment. I take a leap of faith
(sometimes just a fragile thread) that the outpouring of goodwill here and all along their way matters. As the shipment moves forward, we are developing the grassroots and diplomatic network needed to reach our next goal: to get building materials in. “Crunchtime” is defined as a critical moment or period (as near the end of a game) when decisive action is needed.  Let’s use our collective goodwill to end the blockade game. My team here at the office reminds me that, “Small things in life really matter.”  The connection between the person who donated his shoes, her shoes to the person who receives them, that connection can bring out the best in us all. Please find ways to share this story with your friends and please make a donation, large or small, so that we can tell the story and keep trying. Over the next week, as the shoes near Gaza, I’ll update you on their progress — and I’ll ask you to call your Senators and Representatives when the shoes get stuck, and then thank them gracefully when the way opens.

Here at the Rebuilding Alliance, we’re on the hook for $1680 dollars for this shipment to Cairo –
Please click the DonateNow button and give what you can.

DonateNowIn Rebuilding Peace,

Donna Baranski-Walker

______________________________________________________________________

P.S.  How to Call Your Senators and Representative:

No matter how old you are, your congressman and senators represent you and are there to help.  When you call,

  1. Ask the receptionist to connect you with the senior staffer for foreign policy (be sure to write down their name)
  2. Tell them you are  working to get soccer shoes to Gaza and you need their help now to lift the blockade to get the shoes in from Egypt.
  3. Please tell them that clothing, shoes, books, and music CD’s are all barred from entry to Gaza right now. So are building supplies for the 20,000 severly damaged homes and the 4500 homes demolished.
  4. Ask them to call the State Department and the Egyptian Embassy on your behalf — and to call you back to let you know that soccer shoes will be allowed into Gaza;
  5. Be sure to ask for their email and send them a confirmation email as soon as you put down the phone, writing this message in your own words, and providing your contact info for their return call.
  6. Be polite. Give them the opportunity to help.

Good luck!  Feel free to call me if you would like some coaching:  Donna  at 1-650-325-4663

 

September 15th, 2009 | Category: Children without shoes, Gaza, Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative | Leave a comment

Gaza Soccer – Start Here! orphan

<html>
<head>
<meta content=”text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1″ http-equiv=”Content-Type”>
<title>”Strategy- Soccer. Goal- Open Blockade of Gaza”</title>
</head>
<body>
<p style=”font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;”><big><span
style=”font-size: 12pt; color: black;”><img
src=”http://www.rebuildingalliance.org/images/banner4email3.gif”
alt=”Rebuilding War-Torn Communities, Making Them Safe”
style=”width: 792px; height: 154px;”><br>
</span></big></p>
<span style=”font-size: 12pt; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;”></span>
<p><a href=”https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=786″><img
alt=”Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament in Gaza”
src=”http://www.rebuildingalliance.org/images/ThrowIn4.5.gif”
style=”border: 0px solid ; width: 324px; height: 308px;” align=”left”
hspace=”10″ vspace=”5″></a>Dear
Friends,
</p>
<p>The Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament is now underway
in Rafah, Gaza, on a field cleared from the rubble of demolished homes –
and I
need your help to pay freight for a shipment of 16 big boxes of gently
worn
sports shoes.<span style=”">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p>
<!– Start Cut-and-paste Code – DonateNow Button –>
<div style=”text-align: center;”><a
href=”https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=786″><img
src=”http://www.groundspring.org/button/orange_lrg.gif” alt=”DonateNow”
border=”0″></a></div>
<!– End Cut-and-paste Code – DonateNow Button –>
<p>Overall, I am proud to tell you that your past
contributions arrived in time and we installed the portable office unit
just before the
Ramadan Tournament
began.&nbsp; This little building is the first step in developing a
community center at the Unity
Club Soccer
Field, there on the edge of the Ybnah Refugee Camp in Rafah.<span
style=”">&nbsp;
</span>In addition, proceeds from the GlobalGiving
competition have now been fully transferred to Gaza, via the Gaza
Community Mental Health Programme, so that some lights are
already
being installed this week. <span style=”">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>We
continue
fundraising through GlobalGiving.com to be able to complete the “Beam
of Light Ramadan Soccer Project in Rafah” and
extend
tournament play (and community-building) into the night.<img
style=”width: 216px; height: 173px;”
alt=”First building of a Community Center”
src=”http://www.rebuildingalliance.org/images/DSCF6814OurCaravanSmall.gif”
align=”right” hspace=”10″ vspace=”5″> </p>
<p>Why send soccer and sports shoes?<span style=”">&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span>Some are playing soccer barefoot on that
hard-packed sand.<span style=”">&nbsp; </span>They need shoes, but the
blockade means few if any shoes are available and no jobs, no money
with which
to buy them. <span style=”"></span> Back in the spring, Adnan
in Rafah asked for used sports shoes so we put up a big
sign at
the Rebuilding Alliance office and hundreds of people in our
neighborhood donated their
gently-worn
sports and soccer shoes, and uniforms.<span style=”">&nbsp;
</span>More would give too, but let’s see if we can get these through
the
blockade.</p>
<p>Next week,&nbsp; Cindy and Craig Corrie and
Rachel’s friends with the
Olympia
Rafah Sister City Project (ORSCP) will leave Cairo to reach Rafah where
they will
join with Rachel’s friends in Gaza for the Rachel
Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament. &nbsp; We scrambled to get the shoes
boxed
up and
sent to Cairo where Craig Corrie will pick them up for the mini-bus
trip to Gaza.<span style=”">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>As of yesterday, our
16
boxes (325 pairs) are enroute, arriving on Sunday.<span style=”">&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span>If all goes well, the ORSCP delegation will
bring the shoes with them through the blockade.</p>
<p>I have so many questions about the benefit of
sending
gently worn soccer shoes to Gaza.&nbsp; Here they have no value, but
there, if we can get them through, they could mean a lot.&nbsp;
Logistically, used sports shoes are a low-cost <img
style=”width: 377px; height: 264px;”
alt=”Palo Alto donates sports shoes for Gaza”
src=”http://www.rebuildingalliance.org/images/SportsShoesForGaza.gif”
align=”left” hspace=”10″ vspace=”5″>way to press through the
blockade (no tariffs, no possible security risk, easy to pack and
ship). &nbsp;&nbsp;<span style=”"> </span>At each step along the way,
more and more people join-in to help, e.g. lots of schools want to do
shoe
drives, the freight forwarders cut their price by half and paid for
pick-up. &nbsp;<span style=”"></span>The head of a receiving company in
Cairo said that he will do all he can to help, “As a Palestinian, a
Gazan, and a human being.”&nbsp;&nbsp; <br>
</p>
<p>I don’t
know if this will be successful … it
feels so
small in the face of big governments’ (our’s,
Egypt’s,
Israel’s) misguided, intractable blockade, — policies of collective
punishment.<span style=”">&nbsp; </span>I take a leap of faith
(sometimes just a fragile thread) that the outpouring of goodwill here
and all
along
their way matters.&nbsp;&nbsp; As the shipment moves forward, we are
developing the grassroots and diplomatic network needed to reach our
next goal:&nbsp; to get building materials in.&nbsp; “Crunchtime”<span
style=”">
is defined as </span>a critical moment or period (as near the end of a
game) when decisive action is needed.&nbsp; Let’s use our collective
goodwill to end the blockade game.
</p>
<p>My team here at the office reminds me that, “Small
things in life really matter.”<span style=”">&nbsp;
</span>The connection between the person who donated his
shoes, her shoes to the person who receives them, that connection can
brings out
the best in us all.&nbsp;&nbsp; Please find ways to share this story
your friends and
please make a donation, large or small,
so that we can tell the story and keep trying.&nbsp;&nbsp; Over the
next week, as the shoes near Gaza, I’ll update you on their progress
– and I’ll ask you to call your Senators and Representatives when the
shoes get stuck, and then thank them gracefully when the way opens.
<br>
</p>
<p>Here at the Rebuilding Alliance, we’re on the hook
for
$1680 dollars for this shipment to Cairo – <span
style=”font-style: italic;”>Please click the DonateNow button</span> <span
style=”font-style: italic;”>and give what you can.</span><br>
</p>
<!– Start Cut-and-paste Code – DonateNow Button –>
<div style=”text-align: center;”><a
href=”https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=786″><img
src=”http://www.groundspring.org/button/orange_lrg.gif” alt=”DonateNow”
border=”0″></a><!– End Cut-and-paste Code – DonateNow Button –><br>
</div>
<br>
In
Rebuilding Peace,<br>
<span style=”font-size: 12pt;”><br>
Donna Baranski-Walker<br>
650 325-4667<br>
</span>
<div style=”text-align: center;”>&nbsp;
______________________________________________________________________
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em><strong>P.S.&nbsp; How to Call Your Senators
and
Representative:</strong></em></p>
<p><em>No matter how old you are, your congressman
and senators represent you and are there to help.&nbsp; When you call, </em></p>
<p><em>1. Ask the receptionist to connect you with
the senior staffer for foreign policy (be sure to write down their
name); </em></p>
<p><em>2. Tell them you are&nbsp; working to get
soccer shoes to
Gaza and you need their help now to lift the blockade to get the shoes
in
from Egypt.&nbsp;&nbsp; Please tell them that clothing, shoes, books,
and music CD’s are all
barred from entry to Gaza right now. So are building supplies for the
20,000 severly damaged homes and the 4500 homes demolished;</em></p>
<p><em>3. Ask them to call the State Department and
the Egyptian Embassy on your behalf — and to call you back to let you
know that soccer shoes will be allowed into Gaza;</em></p>
<p><em>4. Be sure to ask for their email and send
them a confirmation
email as soon as you put down the phone, writing this message in your
own words, and providing your contact info for their return call. </em></p>
<p><em>Be polite. Give them the opportunity to help.</em>&nbsp;
<em>Good luck!&nbsp; Feel free to call me if you <o:p></o:p> would
like some coaching:&nbsp; Donna&nbsp; at 1-650-325-4663<br>
</em></p>
<br>
<br>
</body>
</html>

September 15th, 2009 | Category: Children without shoes, Families with damaged homes, Gaza, Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative | One comment
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