A Big Success for Peace Movement - Thank you to KC Sabeel Conference participants

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Matt Quinn

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Nov 8, 2006, 12:44:38 AM11/8/06
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Contents

1. A Sabeel Conference Summary

2. Facts on the Ground - report on two conference speakers

3. More on the conference and how to Get Involved

4. An urgent appeal for Gaza...

1. A Sabeel Conference Summary - a big success for the peace movement in the KC area

Thank you all for supporting or participating

in the Kansas City Sabeel Conference held October 20-21, 2006 at Village Presbyterian Church. From reading just a few comments from participants, it's easy to see that you gathered important information and hope about the difficult situation in the Middle East.
  • The speakers and many who I met at the conference were such a ray of light for me. What I have learned and what I experienced at this conference will most definitely be shared with many others who I come in contact with. -- John B., Lenexa, KS
  • "I attended the Sabeel conference in KC. It was quite an experience! It is hard not to get discouraged about the situation in Palestine, but two things stand out: the Palestinians continue to survive and resist (mostly nonviolently) and since they do, we must stand with them; and as Phyllis Bennis and others mentioned, due to the changing situation politically in the US and also Israel (because of the Lebanon war especially), there are possibilities for debate opening up, including the U.S. role, that were not there before." - Joy, St. Louis, MO
  • "Congratulations--a truly Class Act. I had the special good fortune to spend a lot of time with Jeff Halper, as well as delightful moments with Fahed Abu-Akel and Anna Baltzer. You all did such a good job. I think it will be a model for the future, and demonstrates how well Village can perform as a hosting entity. Shalom!" - Chuck G., Kansas City, MO

336 people attended the two-day conference

 and 41 sponsors offered their financial support. Organizers are happy to report the conference exceeded expectations, especially the quality of presentations and interest level of participants. Well over 100 books and DVDs were sold, providing a wealth of resources and gifts to conference participants. We also raised $400 for the Middle East Children's Alliance during the silent auction at the conference.

Go to the KC Sabeel Conference web site for to view full-length videos from conference presentations, newspaper reports and photographs of conference speakers - http://www.kcsabeelconference.org/report.htm

2. Facts on the Ground - report on two conference speakers

 > Conference participants listened to updated analysis and perspectives on a wide range of topics focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jonathan Kuttab, a leading human rights lawyer in Israel and Palestine, gave a presentation on "International Human Rights" on October 20. He addressed how the domination and isolation of the Palestinians has accelerated under the "guise of fighting terrorism" since September 11. He reasoned that the election of Hamas has been "plugged into the whole matrix of controlling terrorism," severing financial and civilian contact with the Palestinian government.

Kuttab stated that the isolation of Palestinians has drastically increased with illegal settlement growth and the rapid building of the separation barrier/wall/fence deep inside the West Bank. Well before the "Lebanon War," there was complete despair in the Palestinian territories with the UN irrelevant, Arab nations paralyzed on how to engage the Palestinian government and no prospect for a peace process with Israel. In fact, Kuttab indicated, the peace process is frozen. While the official policy of Israel is one of "separation," Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank experience assassinations and disproportionate attacks on civilians and infrastructure. Separation is the "wrong policy" for peace in the region, Kuttab said.

He concluded that "despite everything that is happening there continues to be among the Palestinian people today, a majority that still have not given up the hope that still continues to have faith in God...despite the utter weakness of the situation, the perfidy of our friends and the ineffectiveness of our leaders, despite the total ignoring of our claim by the international community that God is still there."

  >  Jeff Halper, an Israeli anthropologist and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), outlined his analysis of the current events during a plenary presentation "In Search of a Just Peace in Israel-Palestine: A View from the Ground." Halper reported the Israeli "matrix of control" will prevent a viable Palestinian state "Forever."

In the last six months, Halper's ICAHD reports that Israel has demolished 500 homes of Palestinians in Gaza that had nothing to do with the crisis. Israel has gone further when it appointed a Demolition Administration within the Interior Ministry last year that slated the demolition of 20,000-40,000 homes of Israeli Arabs, pointing out this goes "way beyond occupation" to displacement, dispossession.

While Americans are accustomed to easy explanations of the conflict -- such as a "cycle of violence" or "they hate us because of who we are" -- the entire Palestinian society has been cut off from Jerusalem, Halper stated, where 40% of the Palestinian economy revolves. Israeli policy has resulted in a convergence of eight settlement blocks, leaving Palestinians isolated in smaller non-contiguous "bantustans" similar to the enclaves forced upon black South Africans during the apartheid era. Halper indicated the resulting Israeli policies are apartheid, reaching the same conclusion of Jimmy Carter in a forthcoming book titled "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" (Simon & Schuster) to be released on November 14 by the former US president.

3. More on the conference and how you can get involved...

For those of you that were not able to attend the conference, several of the major presentations from the conference are now available on the Internet

If you missed the KC Sabeel Conference, read about the February 16-17, 2007 the Cleveland Sabeel Conference - "Making a Difference: Working towards positive changes in Palestine, Israel and the Middle East" - http://www.middleeastinterfaith.org/. There have been 15 Sabeel conferences throughout the US and Canada, visit the Friends of Sabeel--North America web site (www.fosna.org) for information on how to host a conference in your community.

 > Are you looking for to get involved in a Kansas City area group working for peace between Palestinians and Israel? We need your help to plan new educational activities on this issue. We also need people to build legislative and media action work to dispel misleading information in the Congress and the press. Come to the next Citizens for Justice in the Middle East (CJME) meeting on Monday, November 20, 7:00 pm at Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission Road, Prairie Village, Kansas. Call 913-236-9825 for more information.

4. An urgent appeal for Gaza...

Ramallah, November 5, 2006: Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) urgently appeals

to its friends and partners around the world to take immediate action to bring an end to 5 days of carnage in the northern Gaza Strip, in which at least 47 Gazans have been killed, more than 21 of whom were mostly civilians, including 7 children, 3 women, and 3 paramedics, since Israel began its bloody re-invasion of Beit Hanoun last Wednesday.  A 12-year-girl was killed by a single shot to the head from an Israeli sniper in Beit Hanoun on Saturday evening. [ Read full appeal - http://www.cjme.org/alert29.htm ]

Towards a just peace,

Matt Quinn
Citizens for Justice in the Middle East
jmq...@msn.com


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