Calling For Intervention To End Israeli Occupation

Calling For Intervention To End Israeli Occupation

Israeli Peace Organizations & You Calling For Intervention To End Occupation

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

Press release

[ The following is a joint call of Israeli peace organizations for intervention to end the occupation. Supporters of the peace organizations are asked to help the campaign by sending their own letter to world leaders. For more information:

Adam Keller: +972-3-5565804 / +972-56-709603 / +972-56-709604 ]

Dear Friends,

The situation continues to be grave in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. As reported by Ha'aretz journalist Gideon Levy, this is the worst Ramadan in many years. Prime Minister Sharon demands "seven days of quiet" before entering into negotiations, while making sure that these seven days never happen. His policies towards Palestinians constitute a string of provocations and brutal oppression.

The undersigned Israeli peace organizations ask you to join us in sending the letter below, or a similar one, to the US President, the US Secretary of State, the EU President, and UN officials, calling upon them to bring the occupation to an end. We regard the occupation as the root cause of both the oppression of Palestinians in the territories and the subsequent violence against Israelis. Contact information follows the letter.

Alternative Information Center
Bat Shalom
Coalition of Women for a Just Peace
Gush Shalom
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

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Dear Sir / Madam,

We request your intervention to protect the Palestinians in the occupied territories and to bring the Israeli occupation to an end, an occupation that only feeds the cycle of mutual violence and thereby endangers both nations and the stability of the region.

Prime Minister Sharon demands "seven days of quiet" before entering into negotiations, and yet he pursues policies that tighten the grip of the occupation, increase the misery and humiliation of the Palestinians, and therefore feed the cycle of violence and prevent the onset of negotiations. Endless military roadblocks, ostensibly to prevent movement of terrorists, have not achieved their stated aim, but they do impair the ability of Palestinians to reach work, school, and medical treatment. Palestinians who, for years, have held jobs in Israel are no longer given work permits or allowed to enter. Massive unemployment foments unrest and is a poor basis for "seven days of quiet". Palestinian lives and property are frequently attacked by Israeli settlers, without hindrance by the Israeli army or government. Moreover under the pretext of "security measures", "licensing laws", and "road construction" (for settlers), Sharon's government has relentlessly destroyed, or allowed settlers to destroy, Palestinian homes, roads, and fields. In response to Colin Powell's speech last week, the Sharon Government allowed the Jordan Valley Regional Council to offer free housing to new settlers.

Mr. Sharon's recent military rampage and partial re-occupation of Palestinian towns, following the assassination of Israel's Minister of Tourism, left a wide swathe of death, injury, and destruction. The vast majority of those harmed had nothing to do with the assassination.

The recent assassination of the Hamas military commander ordered by Israeli government was clearly designed to raise the level of violence and thus escape international pressure to enter into negotiations.

We urgently request the intervention of the United States, the European Union, and other concerned nations to apply pressure on the Israeli government to end the occupation of Palestinian territory, and the subsequent nightmare for the Palestinian people, which only brings violence into Israeli life as well. In the interim, we request that an international monitoring body be immediately dispatched to the region to end the cycle of violence and counter-violence.

Respectfully,........................................

.............................................................

Please note: Printing out and faxing your letter (or personally making a phone call), whenever possible, is more effective pressure than e-mail.

President George W. Bush E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov Fax:(202) 456-2461

Secretary of State Colin Powell email: secretary@state.gov Fax:(202) 261-8577

European Union President Romano Prodi romano.prodi@cec.eu.int

Mr.Terje Rod Larsen Personal Representative of the Secretary General to the United Nations in Palestine Email: unsco@palnet.com Tel: + 972 8 282 2914 Fax: + 972 8 282 0966

Ms. Mary Robinson United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights webadmin.hchr@unog.chor Fax: +(41-22) 917-9016

[cc to]

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres e-mail: sar@mofa.gov.il Fax:+972-2-5303704

Israeli Defense Minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer e-mail: sar@mod.gov.il Fax: +972-3-6916940 or +972-3 6976990

PrimeMinister Ariel Sharon Fax: (+972-2) 566-4838 or (+972-2) 651-3955 (+972-2) 651-2631

You may also consider sending a copy to a Republican Senator Christopher Bond kit_bond@bond.senate.gov who recently organized a petition by 88 US Senators for the protection of Israeli "interests" ("Senators Urge Bush Not to Hamper Israel" November 17, 2001, New York Times; the text of the petition is on http://bond.senate.gov/isletter.cfm)

For emailers we compiled the following list:

To: US President George W. Bush president@whitehouse.gov Secretary of State, Colin Powell secretary@state.gov, Mr. Romano Prodi romano.prodi@cec.eu.int, Mr. Terje Rod Larsen unsco@palnet.com, Ms. Mary Robinson webadmin.hchr@unog.chor

cc to: Defence Minister Benjamin Beneliezer sar@mod.gov.il Foreign Minister Shimon Peres sar@mofa.gov.il, Senator Christopher Bond kit_bond@bond.senate.gov

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