Gush ad 13.12.13
After much hesitation,
Israel sent the
Knesset Speaker
To the funeral of
Nelson Mandela.
Speaker Edelstein
Lives in a settlement
In occupied territory,
Traveling daily
Over apartheid roads.
Nelson Mandela dies aged 95
From the Guardian: "South Africa's first black president died peacefully in company of his family at home in Johannesburg, Jacob Zuma announces"
Black Friday (November 29th) saw the Portland Palestine SodaStream Boycott Coalition joining with national efforts to boycott SodaStream which is made in an illegal Israeli settlement.
Hundreds of flyers where handed out in downtown Portland, Oregon in front of Macy's and Target which both sell SodaStream. The stores had received letters from the coalition detailing their concerns.
The coalition plans to leaflet every Saturday until Christmas.
Click Here to signup to our campaign
For more than a year, religious and human rights
organizations across the country have urged Macy’s and Target to de-shelve
SodaStream products because of SodaStream's complicity with Israel's occupation
and settlements. This fall, Friends of Sabeel – North America began a
“SodaStream 14” campaign to send letters to CEOs of Macy’s, Target and other
corporations. Local Human Rights organizations and concerned citizens have also
contacted the downtown Macy's and Target Galleria stores, providing information
about SodaStream’s role in the military occupation of Palestine, and requesting
that these stores de-shelve SodaStream products. Leafleting and speaking with customers who
shop at these stores is a logical and necessary next step. Click here to see
the letters we sent locally to Target or Macy's. For more information about the
SodaStream boycott campaign go to: www.sodastreamboycott.org
It’s barely 100 meters, but a fence Israel plans to build through four villages in the heart of the iconic hills of the West Bank shows how deep the occupation reaches into Palestinian life.
Earlier this month, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) ordered the construction of a separation fence in the north central West Bank on agricultural land belonging to four Palestinian villages. The “security fence,” or “security wall,” from the Hebrew and Arabic appropriation orders respectively, will run east-west along highway 5, near Tapuach Junction, a checkpoint between Ramallah and Nablus.
This fence is not an extension of the famous separation barrier. Rather it will be a free-floating chain linked plank in the heart of the West Bank. A miniature version of the wall, it separates nothing and can easily be bypassed on foot. It only stretches 3.8 dunums in length, well under one kilometer. Still this fence is part of a patchwork of barriers in the Nablus district that trace the highway system.
The fence is slated for construction on farms lands belonging to the hillside localities of Beita, Osrain, Qabalan and Yitma. Together the four villages form a square with two to the north and two to the south of an Israeli highway. The planned path of the fence lines the bisecting highway.
Read more: Israel to build security fence in the heart of the West Bank
Here are several links to organizations helping Syrians face this terrible crisis
Oxfam: http://www.oxfam.org/en/emergencies/syria-crisis
Medical Teams International: http://www.medicalteams.org/donate/syrian-refugees-relief
This from Oxfam:
More than two million refugees have now fled violence in Syria and are in desperate need of shelter, food and water. Over half of them are children.
The scale of the Syria crisis is rapidly deepening, particularly as winter approaches, leaving relief agencies overstretched and struggling to cope with massive numbers of refugees, who are often living in inadequate shelter in neighboring countries.
We've reached more than 220,000 people with aid. Any donation, no matter how small, will help us support more families caught up in this crisis.
The scale of the Syrian crisis
Fighting continues to escalate across northern Syria and its western border. With growing numbers of people fleeing the conflict in Syria, the situation has become critical. Aid agencies and host countries have almost reached their capacity to cope with recent surges.
The UN estimates that almost 7 million Syrians inside of Syria are in need of assistance, including 4.25 million internally displaced.
Thousands continue to flee Syria daily.
The total number of refugees in neighboring countries is now more than 2.1 million.
It is estimated that the population of Lebanon has increased by more than 10% and the population of Jordan by 6%. This is putting extreme pressure on local infrastructure.
Additionally, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the majority of Syrian refugees in Jordan live in urban areas, outside of formal camp settings. This makes it harder for them to access vital help.
