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- Written by Peter Miller Peter Miller
- Published: 28 December 2008 28 December 2008
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STOP THE MASSACRE IN GAZA NOW!
Emergency Demonstration
Tuesday December 30, 2008
Gather at 4:30 and Rally 5:00 pm
Where: Federal Building, Downtown Portland, SW 3rd & Madison
This emergency action is being organized by Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights and the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition. The action is endorsed by American Jews for a Just Peace, International Socialist Organization, War Resisters League Portland, Oregon Community of War Tax Resistance, Pacific Green Party, American Friends Service Committee, Sean Slattery Chapter of Veterans For Peace, Living Earth, and others.
Dear friends of Portland Peaceful Response,
Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 30, at 4:30PM, at the Federal
Building in downtown Portland (SW 3rd & Madison) for a
demonstration protesting the Israeli massacres in Gaza. Already the
death toll is over 350, with many, many times that injured. Please see
the joint statement, appended below, sent out by Americans United for
Palestinian Human Rights and PPRC on Saturday; take a moment to contact
the White House, the State Department, and our representatives in
Congress, to protest the Israeli attacks in Gaza and call for an
immediate cease-fire. Check the PPRC website for updates: www.pprc-news.org
Help spread the word about the Tuesday demonstraton at the Federal Building:
STOP THE MASSACRE IN GAZA NOW!
Emergency Demonstration
When: Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Time: Gather at 4:30 and Rally 5:00 pm
Where: Federal Building, Downtown Portland, SW 3rd & Madison
This emergency action is being organized by Americans United for
Palestinian Human Rights and the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition.
The action is endorsed by American Jews for a Just Peace, International
Socialist Organization, War Resisters League Portland, Oregon Community
of War Tax Resistance, Pacific Green Party, American Friends Service
Committee, Sean Slattery Chapter of Veterans For Peace, Living Earth,
and others.
Peace, Justice, Solidarity,
PPRC General Meeting
Local Peace Groups Condemn Israeli Attacks in Gaza - Dec. 27, 2008
"The Portland Peaceful Response Coalition and Americans United for
Palestinian Human Rights unequivocally condemn Israel's criminally
ruthless attacks on Gaza, attacks that have killed over two hundred
Palestinians, including many civilians, and people whose only crime was
to have been a part of what little civil service still exists in Gaza,"
said William Seaman, a volunteer with PPRC and a member of American
Jews for a Just Peace. "It is clear that the overwhelming majority of
the scores of victims of this US-financed and US-supported assault had
nothing to do with the Qassam rocket and mortar fire coming out of
Gaza, and it is equally clear that this latest massacre of Palestinians
is grossly disproportionate, and on these two counts alone the assault
constitutes a serious war crime."
Seaman also emphasized that the rocket fire from Gaza that followed the
Israeli attacks demonstrates further that the Israeli attack was
ineffective and did not strike the Palestinian militants who have been
attacking Israeli civilian towns and cities in the Western Negev and
just north of Gaza along the Mediterranean coast. "The rocket fire from
Gaza, just like any attack on civilians, on non-combatants, is strictly
prohibited under international law and constitutes war crimes," said
Seaman. "But we completely reject the claim that these rocket attacks
justify the wholesale slaughter that Israel has just
carried out in Gaza."
According to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem (The
Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories), "from 2004 to the end of 2007, eleven Israelis, four of
them minors, were killed by Qassam rockets fired by Palestinians.
Another Israeli civilian and one foreign national were killed by Qassam
rockets that struck [Israeli] settlements in the Gaza Strip." UN
figures, cited by B'Tselem, put the number of rockets fired from Gaza
in 2006 at 1,786, and in 2007 at 1,331, with almost all of these
rockets resulting in no injuries or deaths. The ongoing rocket fire
from Gaza
nonetheless terrorizes the Israeli civilian population along the Gaza
border regions. Regardless of the effectiveness of these weapons, the
targeting of civilians is strictly illegal and immoral.
"The root cause of this ongoing conflict is the ongoing, illegal,
US-backed Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza," said Seaman.
"In Gaza this occupation takes the form of a blockade that is
strangling the entire civilian population, a siege that has brought
widespread malnutrition to Gaza's children, crippled the healthcare
system, and has utterly dismantled the economy." Seaman said that
unless there is a comprehensive resolution to this decades-old
conflict, a resolution that recognizes fully the human rights of the
Palestinian people, the resistance by Palestinians will continue. "That
resistance has taken many forms in these last few decades, some
peaceful, and some violent," said Seaman, "and unless we recognize the
legitimate demands of the Palestinian people, especially those of us
who are citizens of the country which most aggressively supports
Israel's crimes, and unless we work for a just peace, we will continue
to share responsibility for the victims on both sides of this conflict."
The Israeli attack was carried out in part with F16 fighter jets and
missiles provided by the United States. "Israel's latest massacre in
Gaza could not have been carried out without the military and political
support of our country," said Seaman. "This means simply that we have a
direct and central responsibility to take action by protesting this
attack and demanding an immediate cease-fire." PPRC and AUPHR are
asking Oregonians to contact the White House to protest the attack and
to demand an immediate cease-fire. The White House can be contacted at
202-456-111 or by e-mailing atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The State Department should also be contacted with the same message at
202-647-6575. In addition, PPRC and AUPHR urge Oregonians to
contact our representatives in Congress. Contacts for the Oregon delegation can be found at www.pprc-news.org ; additional action links are available at the US Campaign to End the Occupation website at www.endtheoccupation.org.
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