Working for Peace on Earth and Peace with Earth since 1952
Working for Peace on Earth and Peace with Earth since 1952
Doctors Without Borders is rejecting the latest false solution to the starvation crisis, Biden's "temporary pier" for Gaza. It calls it a "distraction". It notes, " The food, water, and medical supplies so desperately needed by people in Gaza are sitting just across the border. Israel needs to facilitate rather than block the flow of supplies. This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem." And it calls for an end to the warfare. Even if the aid gets onto Gaza soil the war presents immense problems for distribution, lack of usable roads, no gas for vehicles, Israel shooting at people crowding around food trucks.
Muhammad Shehada writes on Twitter, " Biden's floating seaport in Gaza is being built with the bloodied rubble of the homes Israel bombed on top of its inhabitants. There's an estimated 8,000-10,000 people presumed dead under the rubble of their homes, so their remains can possibly be scooped with this rubble. "
The New York Times notes that the "harrowing image of a skeletal Yazan Kafarneh" has gone viral on social media. He was a ten-year-old boy who starved to death in Rafah. The boy had significant health problems but with medicine and a special died he was coping. After Oct. 7 he had little of that. The NYT article says that 20 children have died of " malnutrition and dehydration", some as young as 2-days-old.
The Times of Israel reports that in January, Col. Moshe Tetro, an official with Israel's
Update: March 1
On Thursday, March 7, the Connecticut legislature's Energy & Technology Committee is holding a public hearing. One of the bills on their agenda, SB 300, is, as we see it, a pro-fracked gas bill with the ultimate aim of prolonging and expanding gas pipelines in Connecticut. Please, speak up in opposition and help stop this terrible bill. Even a brief statement, a few short sentences, can help.
Register to testify in person or via Zoom
Here is a document with more info about 2 hearings and the bills of note, including this one!
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The Enbridge Company has its eyes set on the Northeast. In 2023, Enbridge shockingly announced plans to resurrect the “Access Northeast” pipeline expansion, under a new name: “Project Maple”. Enbridge is working to secure contracts for the additional gas that would be shipped into the Northeast as part of the project. Preliminary documents show that Enbridge is hoping to expand pipelines, and compressor stations in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, last ditch plans to once again build LNG export terminals in Nova Scotia have remerged.
This plan would include building out compressor stations and other dirty energy infrastructure — wreaking havoc on our air and climate, and directly contradicting the clean energy goals mandated by New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
The new fight against this pipeline project and massive fracked-gas build out is just beginning. But by taking cues from the Stop Spectra movement, it’s important to start organizing regional opposition, building up our tool kit to launch a diversity of tactics, all while following the lead of frontline communities. Together we can stop Project Maple, and End Enbridge.
It's important to oppose ALL expansion of natural gas facilities.
In Connecticut: Milford and Brookfield
From the CT Sierra Club:
As you may know, TC Energy and Berkshire Hathaway are attempting to expand their compressor stations along the "Iroquois" pipeline route that runs from Canada to NYC. This project includes adding cooling systems to a compressor station in Milford, CT and doubling the size of a compressor station in Brookfield, CT.
The facility in Brookfield is situated just 1900 feet from a Middle School, posing a serious health and safety risk. It also lies at the intersection of the Enbridge pipeline and can switch gas between the two pipeline systems. The expansion project already has its FERC permit, so the final permit needed for the Brookfield compressor station is from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).
Brookfield residents and Sierra Club CT are asking Connecticut based groups to sign on to this letter urging DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes, and Governor Ned Lamont to reject the permit for the expansion, and to fund air monitoring in Brookfield.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the letter, or the proposed expansion. We are asking that groups sign on to the letter by February 8th.
Thanks so much,
-Nick
--
Nick Katkevich
Northeast Field Organizer
Sierra Club
Also see Food and Water Watch
[a vote will be taken on this on Tuesday, 2-20-24 at the Hamden Legislative Council.]
Resolution Expressing Support of a Ceasefire in Gaza and Enduring Peace in the
Southern Levant
Presented by: Councilman Abdul-Razak Osmanu
Whereas, the Town of Hamden recognizes and stands in solidarity with our diverse, interfaith communities across town, reaffirming our commitment to their safety, security, and well-being; and
Whereas, beginning with the 2021-2023 Legislative Council, land acknowledgements have been adopted by the Legislative Council upon the opening of meetings; and
Whereas, over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, with many more in dire need of humanitarian assistance; and
Whereas, Israel is now engaged in efforts that fall under the definitions of ethnic cleansing previously put forth by organizations such as the European Union and United Nations by explicitly requiring two million Palestinians to leave Gaza immediately or risk being bombed in their homes by the Israeli army; and
Whereas, Gaza is known as “the world’s largest open-air prison” due to ongoing, unbearable living conditions imposed by Israel, including a full air, land and sea blockade, enclosure of its borders by concrete walls and barbed wire fences, and the strict prohibition of Palestinians from leaving and entering the territory freely; and
Whereas, 1,200 Israelis were killed by Palestinian armed groups on October 7th and nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in this escalation of violence; and
Whereas, we mourn the loss of all civilian lives lost from October 7th to the present likewise the countless lives lost throughout the 76 years of displacement, occupation, oppression and blockade endured in Palestine, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem territories deemed “Occupied Palestinian Territory” under international law by the United Nations; and
Whereas, there currently are 134 remaining Israeli captives and 9,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of which are minors and activists and 3,500 of whom are held without trial; and
Whereas, this blockade on Gaza has caused a 46% unemployment rate as of the 4th Quarter of 2023, while the vast majority of the population relies on humanitarian aid and food donations as a means of subsistence in light of conditions such as the World Bank’s estimate that
approximately 85 percent of workers in Gaza have been out of work since October 7, and that
the Palestinian economy will lose USD 1.5 billion in nominal GDP for 2023 alone; and
Whereas, the International Court of Justice found that it is plausible that Israel's conduct amounts to genocide, and a U.S. federal district court also found that the evidence "indicates that the current treatment of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military may plausibly constitute a genocide in violation of international law; and
Whereas, on October 26th8, and reaffirmed on December 12th the United Nations General Assembly, in a near-unanimous vote, called for an immediate and sustained humanitarian ceasefire joining international organizations, such as the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, Amnesty International and the International Rescue Committee; and
Whereas, the United States, alongside several world powers have suspended their funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, an act that effectively serves as the collective punishment of over 2.2 million Palestinians deprived of basic necessities such as food, water & electricity; and
Whereas, the first 2 months of the Palestinian-Israeli alone have been found to have
contributed carbon emissions at such levels greater than the carbon footprint of 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations
Whereas, the State Treasury of Connecticut has approximately $95 million of public employee pension money invested in hundreds of Israeli companies and in State of Israel Bonds
Whereas, the Connecticut Federal Delegation and Federal Government hold immense diplomatic power to save human lives, notwithstanding the moral obligation to pursue such as representatives of the Town of Hamden; and
Whereas, the Hamden Legislative Council expressly condemns the bomb threats directed towards the Mishkan Israel Synagogue on October 5th and stands with our Jewish Community in the face of antisemitism and bigotry at large; and
Whereas, the Hamden Legislative Council condemns the recent rise in anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and other racist sentiments in our town and across the nation, including but not limited to: the murder of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume in Plainfield, Illinois; the shooting of three Palestinian students, one a Connecticut resident, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ahmed in Burlington, Vermont; and the doxxing of elected
officials, professors and students in the our region, alongside journalists, and others speaking truth to power; and
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Hamden Legislative Council:
1. Supports U.S. Congress House Resolution 786 and joins over 40 U.S. city councils in calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages, including Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel, the unrestricted entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, the restoration of electricity, water, food, and medical supplies to Gaza, an end to the siege and blockade of Gaza, and respect for international law by all parties; and
2. Affirms its commitment to combat anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, anti-semitism, and Islamophobia in all its forms and to ensure the dignity and safety of all its residents;
and
3. Takes seriously the entreaty of “Never Again,” and that the historical memory of the Holocaust means fighting ethnic cleansing and apartheid everywhere; and
4. Affirm, as the legislative body of the Town of Hamden, clear opposition towards
investments in the arena of war, be it it’s direct and indirect vestiges; and
5. Implore the Town of Hamden, ahead of the 2024-2025 Fiscal Budget to report on bonds held by the town, as to give clarity to the investments of the town and ensure alignment between investments and values of the town
6. Calls for the reinstatement of funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and humanitarian causes that prove vital to the maintenance of human life; and
7. Commit to the sending of a copy of this resolution to the offices of: Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett; Connecticut State Representatives, Robyn Porter, Michael D’Agostino, Joshua Elliot, Mary Welander, and Elizabeth Linehan; Connecticut State Senators Jorge Cabrera and Martin Looney; Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont; U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro; U.S. Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal; U.S. President Joe Biden; U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris; U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken; and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, urging them to take immediate action to use their position and influence to call for a ceasefire to urgently end the violence and facilitate the entry and disbursement of humanitarian assistance.
You can reach Hamden officials:
this page has all the phone numbers as well as emails, one by one
https://www.hamden.com/353/Legislative-Council
You can reach all of them at once.
banthony@hamden.com; thunt@hamden.com; dbaez@hamden.com; lsweet@hamden.com; kkiely@hamden.com; tfiglar@hamden.com; scardwell@hamden.com; pirvin@hamden.com; jalston@hamden.com; awebber@hamden.com; aosmanu@hamden.com; tstevens@hamden.com; sgallagher@hamden.com; rcaldwell@hamden.com; janthony@hamden.com;
the Mayor's email is lgarrett@hamden.com; Also send to her chief of staff sgrace@hamden.com
Here is PEP's letter
February 19, 2024
Councilors,
I am writing as the president of Promoting Enduring Peace (PEP) founded in New Haven in 1952. Our office is now in Hamden. We're best known for our Gandhi Peace Award, given every few years to leaders in the struggles for international peace and climate justice, often at the UU Church in Hamden.
I'm writing on behalf of our members to ask you to support the resolution that will be considered at the special meeting of the Hamden City Council on Tuesday. It would put the city on record as calling for "ceasefire" in Gaza.
We in PEP are particularly horrified against the violence against children with over 10,000 Palestinian children killed and, according to CNN, ten Palestinian children suffering amputations daily.
Certainly, humanitarian assistance must be allowed into Gaza without restriction, as the resolution states. To that end we have worked with "Plant the Land" in Gaza City. We're in touch with our associate from that organization who is still in Gaza City. His own home was bombed and rendered unlivable, and he has been unable to obtain insulin for months. He says little or no assistance is getting to the hundreds of thousands of people still in the northern Gaza Strip. Also mentioned in the resolution is the idea of reversing the ban on U.S. funding for the UN organization UNRWA that supports Palestinian refugees. We agree that the ban should be overturned.
We hope you can help Hamden stand with other cities crying out for ceasefire.
Sincerely,
James Clement van Pelt
President
Stanley Heller
Administrator
Promoting Enduring Peace was founded in Connecticut in 1952 and we're still based there so we take special interest in what goes on in the state. Read PEP Administrator Stanley Heller's piece about CT investments in Israel that appeared in the Connecticut Mirror. Shamefully the apartheid and genocide practiced by the Israeli government has not caused Connecticut to stop investing in Israel. One of the investments is in Elbit, Israel's largest weapons-maker.
The problem is not only with Connecticut. We suspect every state Treasury has investments in Israel. (and a lot of unions, too). Why not google your state Treasury office and write and ask about exposure of the state's pension fund money to Israeli corporations, Israel State bonds and Israeli currency. And then start complaining
Here we are at the start of 2024 and the climate news continued to be bad. COP28 was a joke. Temperatures for the year averaged just a hair under the 1.5 degree centigrade limit that climate scientists believe necessary to avoid catastrophic changes to world climates. Parts per million of carbon dioxide last month where at 423, far above the 350 that should be the limit for that gas in our air.
The Biden Administration continues Obama's "all of the above" strategy, combining incentives to go electrical with continued oil drilling, pipeline and subsidies for oil exploration.
Groups like Climate Defiance, Extinction Rebellion, 350 and Greenpeace in different ways are trying to rise to the challenge.
In Connecticut there will be a big climate march on February 2nd at noon starting at the Old State House. The legislature promised to bring down emissions nearly in half by 2030, but is nowhere on track to do so. In fact emissions are going up! The rally demands the state keep its promise.
We've updated the look on our climate countdown clock. It counts down the time to 2030, the year the IPCC in 2018 said we MUST cut emissions by 45%. We also link to some new article on climate and nature. Click here to see the clock and the links.
And on a lighter note be sure to see Netflix' "Life on Our Planet" narrated by Morgan Freeman. Spectacular! This is the trailer.
Watch Garrison Hayes’ video which is posted on the "Mother Jones" feed on Twitter.
So in 1967 King cancelled his trip to Israel. 1967 was not the right time for his peace address, not while Israel was reveling in its new conquests.
Here’s a piece on the site “The Conversation” comparing King’s moral stance against the Vietnam war with the Israel war/genocide against Gaza Palestinians today
We’re going to go way way out on a limb and say that King would be calling now for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. He did not believe in once-and-for-all military solutions to problems. There’s an effort before the New Haven Board of Alders to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire. As of 1-13 it is stalled. Why not write to the Alders? Here’s their emails.
Here's Kings famous 1967 address against the Vietnam War which he gave when many of his advisers said he should stick to civil rights.
See King's 1964 Promoting Enduring Peace Medallion in the next section
In 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. was voted the award by Promoting Enduring Peace primarily for his work with the Southern Christian Leadership Council. He was just 35 years of age. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize that year.
From the book, "In Gandhi's Footsteps" by James van Pelt, " He agreed to come to New York to accept it[the award] in late 1964. Before a date could be arranged, the Nobel Prize Committee announced that he had been chosen to receive the 1964 Peace Prize. Given the intensity of attention that followed for Dr. King, on top of his already gargantuan schedule, and the difficulty in communicating with him as he moved from place to place, it was simply impossible to find a workable date within a period the Board found acceptable. As a result, no award was made in 1964, and Gandhi’s greatest living American exemplar did not become a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award. "
We've talked many times about Anas Arafat in Gaza City who worked as part of "PLant the Land" making areas more self-sufficient in food and distributing vegan food.
We told you how his diabetes and sporadic access to insulin left him with severe eye problems. Many of you donated to help him get to Egypt where a doctor was able to reverse the damage to a certain extent.
He actually lives north of Gaza City not too many miles from the fence with Israel. When Hamas attacked on October 7 and Israel started dropping bombs from planes he immediately took his wife and two children and started moving from place to place for refuge. He learned that his house had been bombed as was an educational center he ran. Six children who were in that center seeking a place to live were killed. A dozen members of Anas family have been killed since October 7.
He tried to follow Israeli directives and go south with his family, but the vehicles before his were bombed and he turned around. For a while he was living in the ruins of his house.
His pregnant wife gave birth on December 15. He has not had insulin for a month at least. And now they are hungry all the time as are thousands still left in the northern part of Gaza?
How can we help his family? There's no quick fix, no donation to give. There has to be a complete ceasefire. Israel and the U.S. have to let a flood of aid in (the world will give). Roads and hospitals have to be restored.
Let Gaza Live!
Associated Press article says 1 in 4 are starving
Read the Human Rights Watch report.
Of course, this is another vile war crime.
The 85,000 who gathered in Dubai, UAE are supposed to come up with a path to meet the 1.5 degree limit. However, since the conference is being held in an absolute monarchy and its head is the chief of the huge UAE oil company you know the outcome. On 12/11 Al Gore tweeted that the meeting was headed for disaster. The world's climates are changing [actually "collapsing" is a better word].
Read The Guardian's George Monbiot who talks about the refusal of the COP to phase out fossil fuels or do anything meaningful on global warming gases from meat production. He says, " However we do it, we need to break the power of the Earth-devouring industries before they break us "
Our bold/radical climate ideas need to be considered:
A Bold Plan to Preserve a Livable Climate
https://pepeace.org/peace-with-earth
Stop Using SORES, Small Off-Road Engines
https://pepeace.org/stop-sores
Go to a Plant-Based Diet
https://pepeace.org/go-to-a-plant-based-diet
The BDS Movement was set up by Palestinian organizations nearly 20 years ago to call for and guide campaigns of BDS(Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions) to pressure Israel on Palestinian rights. On December 1 it sent out these recommendations:
Unite now to stop #GazaGenocide and dismantle Israeli apartheid! Let’s use our people power to demand:
Click here for printable posters to use at rallies
The Speech Biden Won’t Give
by Dan Fischer
Nov. 11. President Biden could prevent many further Palestinian and Israeli deaths by giving this speech insisting on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza along with a release of hostages. It would be widely popular among the two-thirds of eligible voters—including 80% of Democrats, 57% of independents, and 56% of Republicans—who favor a ceasefire. It’s unlikely that Biden will give such a speech, since he sees Israel as an enforcer for the U.S. and global elite. Thus, massacres will likely continue and the “genocide” designation could become less and less ambiguous. If there’s anything that might force Biden to stop the bloodshed, it’s the peaceful uprisings worldwide demanding mutual security and a swift transition to a democracy between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.
Good evening. Earlier this month, I was challenged by one Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg: “Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now.” I have been thinking about these words ever since.
When I ran for vice president in 2008 and for president in 2020, I promised to be a steadfast friend of the Israeli people. Being a good friend sometimes means stepping up to offer criticism. It means not enabling self-destructive behaviors. As true friends of the Israeli people, we Americans must demand an immediate end to the massacres of Palestinians, a mutual release of all Israeli and Palestinian hostages and prisoners, and a policy shift toward respecting universal human rights as guaranteed under international law.
It’s been nearly five weeks since October 7, and it’s estimated that more than 1,200 Israelis and 11,000 Palestinians are dead. The full death toll may be higher, with many Palestinian bodies lying under the rubble of destroyed and damaged homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, and marketplaces. It is clear that the vast majority of fatalities on each side were civilians. In Gaza, more than two-thirds of the dead are estimated to be women and children.
Around 240 Israelis were taken hostage on October 7, and we can only hope that they have survived the past month’s often indiscriminate crossfire. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians are detained without any charge or trial, in Israeli prisons where they’re tortured and ill-treated.
My fellow Americans, I apologize for not being more honest with you. Over the past weeks, I have amplified Israeli propaganda points even when they contradicted the best available evidence. I claimed I saw photos of babies beheaded by Hamas, even though I had not seen them and was relying on the words of Israeli officials. I accused Hamas of routinely using “human shields,” although Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and UN fact-finders have time and again found no evidence supporting the claim. I disputed the integrity of the Gaza’s Health Ministry death toll estimates, despite their numbers being historically reliable and even though my administration’s assistant secretary Barbara Leaf had informed me the death toll could be significantly higher.
I should have forthrightly told the Israelis that recent history suggests that Hamas won’t likely be defeated by military means. Gazan support for Hamas significantly increased after Israel’s bombardments in 2014 and 2021. There’s nothing like war and massacre to harden one’s heart. As Palestinian anti-Hamas activist Rami Aman has explained, Israeli missiles are “creating more Hamas, more Hamas more Hamas.”
I have failed to denounce the frankly genocidal incitement coming out of the mouths of Israeli leaders. I should have spoken up when Netanyahu invoked a Biblical instruction to “slay both man and woman, infant and suckling” and when President Isaac Herzog declared, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.” I should have said something when Defense Minister Yoav Gallant dehumanized Palestinians as “human animals” and military spokesperson Daniel Hagari explained “the emphasis is on damage and not accuracy.” I should have voiced outrage when the New York Times reported “Israeli leaders believed mass civilian casualties were an acceptable price,” and officials cited “the dropping of the two atomic warheads in Hiroshima and Nagasaki” as a model.
In truth, Israel has clearly been committing war crimes with U.S. weaponry and support. This will no longer happen. Collective punishment, disproportionate attacks, targeting of civilians, and use of white phosphorus will no longer be tolerated. The vicious cycle of bloodshed and bitterness needs to end. In the words of Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian member of Congress, millions of Americans have protested because they “don’t believe the answer to war crimes is more war crimes.”
On October 24, an Israeli pilot dropped a U.S.-supplied missile on a three-story house in southern Gaza where the poet and journalist Ahmed Abu Artema and dozens of his extended family members resided. The blast injured Abu Artema and instantly killed his two aunts, a cousin and a stepmother. Abu Artema’s 12 year-old son Abboud and 10 year-old niece Joud were critically injured and would both die in intensive care over the following days. From his hospital head, Abu Artema asked harrowing and important questions.:
“Israelis are claiming and saying that it’s a war against Hamas. But where is Hamas? Take my house as [an] example. Four women and two children were killed in this Israeli strike. And this is what’s happening every day. Thousands, the vast majority, of the victims of this Israeli war until now are innocent women and men and children, complete families. Israel is targeting the families.”
I say to Mr. Abu Artema that the attack on his family is an example of the atrocities that Israel will no longer be allowed to commit with impunity. I hereby announce that I will be working with Congress to immediately end military aid to Israel.
There is thankfully a path toward peace. Families of Israeli hostages have already said they support an all-for-all prisoner swap. Hamas has already said they would agree to such an exchange. The Israeli and U.S. governments have been standing in the way.
We should also speak about a longer-term vision, one that provide lasting peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis. With steadfast U.S. support, Israel’s decades of settlement expansions have fragmented the West Bank and made a two-state solution obsolete. The status quo is also a nightmare for Israelis and Palestinians, and neither population cannot afford decades of more negotiations over a two-state plan that hasn’t and won’t work.
My administration will therefore be urging Israeli and Palestinian leaders to establish a unified democratic state with one vote for each person from the river to the sea.. In 2007, Palestinians were asked if they would support “a one-state solution in historic Palestine where Muslims, Christians and Jews live together with equal rights and responsibilities.” 70 percent said yes, they would. Many Israelis would share this aim if Palestinians could convince them it’s a real possibility.
Finally, there is much that needs to be done here at home. It is a disgrace that my predecessor Franklin Roosevelt didn’t do much more to stop the extermination of the Jews and prioritize rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. The White House will host a press conference tomorrow with leading immigrant and interfaith advocates. There, I will announce a plan we have drafted to ensure that the United States and our allies, including the future joint Israeli-Palestinian state, will collectively open our arms to Jewish and other refugees of any religion or race who need to seek safety. Never again will refugees be sent back to their exterminators as happened to hundreds of passengers on the St. Louis in 1939.
We will replace the 3.8 billion dollars in annual military aid to Israel with aid for sustainable reconstruction and a just implementation of Palestinian refugees’ right of return. By further slashing the U.S. military budget, we will also redirect money toward enacting a Just Transition here on Turtle Island, as many Native Americans have called North America before Europeans arrived. We will move together beyond the wasteful extraction-based economy of infinite growth, fossil fuels, nuclear power, factory farms, commercial ranching, pollution and deforestation. Indigenous and People of Color-led initiatives will help defend Native sovereignty and build a low-energy, renewable-powered economy with fresh and local plant-based food made available and affordable to all. America and Israel have colonial pasts, but we can share a decolonial journey going forward.
Videos
Thousands march in New Haven against genocide and for Palestinian rights
more coming
Statements and Articles
PEP Administrator Heller tears up Israeli rationale to bomb Gaza's biggest hospital in this New Politics article.
Useful articles about Palestine/Israel
While we support Palestinian rights 100% we, of course, cannot support gross human rights violations by Palestinians such as what happened on Oct. 7 when the justifiable break out from the Gaza "prison" was accompanied by atrocities against
Israeli civilians in which perhaps 1,000 civilians were slaughtered.
We urge you to join in demonstrations demanding "Ceasefire" and an end to the siege of Gaza
Some chants in rallies may at first seem to allow no place for Israeli Jews in a democratic future, but "Free Palestine" means democracy and human rights for all between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
How Israel and Netanyahu in Particular Helped Hamas
It was seen as a useful rival to the Palestinian Authority
How Israel Helped Create Hamas - The Intercept Feb. 20, 2018
Former Israeli official Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s, told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat.
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Why Did Netanyahu Want to Strengthen Hamas?
article in the Israeli paper Haaretz on 10/11/23 by Dmitry Shumsky
"That’s because since he took office as prime minister a second time in 2009, that same Netanyahu developed and advanced a destructive, warped political doctrine that held that strengthening Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian Authority would be good for Israel."
"This is solidly documented. Between 2012 and 2018, Netanyahu gave Qatar approval to transfer a cumulative sum of about a billion dollars to Gaza, at least half of which reached Hamas, including its military wing."
"In an interview with the Ynet news website on May 5, 2019, Netanyahu associate Gershon Hacohen, a major general in reserves, said, “We need to tell the truth. Netanyahu’s strategy is to prevent the option of two states, so he is turning Hamas into his closest partner. Openly Hamas is an enemy. Covertly, it’s an ally.”
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For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces
The Times of Israel - Tal Schneider, October 8, 2023
"The idea was to prevent Abbas — or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank government — from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian state."
"Meanwhile, Israel has allowed suitcases holding millions in Qatari cash to enter Gaza through its crossings since 2018, in order to maintain its fragile ceasefire with the Hamas rulers of the Strip."
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A Shaken Israel Is Forced Back to Its Eternal Dilemma
Roger Cohen, New York Times, Oct 8, 2023
"The assumption was...that it could even be a useful vehicle for weakening the more moderate Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, thus burying talk of a Palestinian state."
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Thomas L. Friedman on Israel’s ‘Morally Impossible Situation’
"Prime Minister Netanyahu really had a very intentional policy of strengthening Hamas and weakening the Palestinian Authority. So strengthening the Palestinian group that would never recognize Israel while weakening the one that would."
Oct 20, 2023
Friedman is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist
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We also have to mention what was perhaps the founding atrocity of Hamas, a massacre of Palestinians in Khan Younis camp in Gaza in 1956 on November 3. Historian of Palestine Zachary Foster recounts how on that day between 275 and 525 Palestinian men and youths were stood against walls and executed. The IDF probably thought they were dealing with the problem "once and for all".
Funny how those "solutions" never work out. Abdulassiz Rantissi, then 8-years-old lived in that camp and decades later co-founded Hamas.
Foster's source for the above was Jean-Pierre Filiu in " Gaza: A History. Oxford University Press" published in 2014, p. 271. Also look at the graphic "Footnotes in Gaza" by Joe Sacco. He depicts the massacre extensively.
Monday August 21 will see demonstrations, rallies and vigils remembering the mass murder of 1400 people by Assad forces ten years ago in Ghouta Syria
The Hartford event will be held on the sidewalk near the Old State House at noon. It's the area facing the highway. Tell your GPS to go to 1 Market Street. Parking on the street or in a garage a block up at 19 Market St.
Attorney Maryam Bitar will lead the event.
The event is sponsored by the Syrian American Council, Promoting Enduring Peace and the Middle East Crisis Committee
"Cluster Bombs, the Russian Invasion, Ukrainian Resistance - a Broad Discussion"
Wed. August 2
8:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
on Zoom (see below for link)
Our main goal is an open discussion. To get things going we'll hear from Ted Zuur who is in Bogota Columbia and Joanne Sheehan from Eastern Connecticut. Most of the session, though, will be thoughts from those attending.
Ted Zuur is a semi-retired teacher, translator, waiter, and small farmer who lives in Bogotá. He is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area where he was a student and later a trade union activist. He was the Peace and Freedom Party candidate in San Francisco's 5th congressional district twice, and debated his opponent Nancy Pelosi numerous times. She won both elections.
Joanne Sheehan is a nonviolent activist and educator who has worked for decades with organizations like the War Resisters' League and Voluntown Peace Trust
Moderator: Stanley Heller
Administrator
Promoting Enduring Peace
PEPeace.org
More details and suggested background reading coming
You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Aug 2, 2023 08:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUkf-qvqzItGtambH7hA0igESJ1_G5f7PAV
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Some articles you may wish to read beforehand:
With Ukraine's Cluster Bombs Killing Its Own Citizens, Biden Readies order to Send More
https://theintercept.com/2023/07/05/ukraine-cluster-bombs-biden/
Russian Mines in Ukraine - The Threat is Pervasive
https://www.dw.com/en/russian-mines-in-ukraine-the-threat-is-pervasive/a-63214795
Cluster Munition Coalition | CMC (stopclustermunitions.org)
Human Rights Watch
Cluster Munitions | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)
Ukrainian Use of Cluster Bombs is Both Legal and Just - Kyiv Independent
Cluster Bombs and Morality - Anthony Boynton
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Cluster Bombs and Morality by Anthony Boynton
Why are cluster munitions immoral. Because a bunch of governments have signed a treaty banning their use? Because civilians, especially children have been killed and wounded by cluster munitions? (See for example Alex Shephard’s New Republic article of July 11, 2023: Biden’s Immoral, Indefensible Decision to Send Cluster Bombs to Ukraine https://newrepublic.com/article/174218/bidens-immoral-indefensible-decision-send-cluster-bombs-ukraine)
By the second standard, war itself is immoral, and all weapons of war are immoral. Most pacifists believe this. The first standard is laughable because it assumes that a large number of today’s governments actually have moral standards.
In the Marxist tradition aggressive war with the intent to conquer and destroy is immoral, but defensive war is justified and eminently moral. So too is a revolutionary war by the oppressed against their oppressors.
If the Ukrainians defensive war is moral, then there is the issue of their usefulness.
There are three principal Russian-made obstacles to that counteroffensive right now:
· Extensive Russian minefields throughout occupied Zaporizha, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea.
· Extensive systems of entrenchment in these same area.
· Helicopter gunships armed with missiles that are capable of destroying Ukrainian demining equipment and soldiers from a safe distance (These helicopters could easily be destroyed IF the USA and NATO would supply Ukraine with the aircraft it needs.)
Next to aircraft and longer range missiles, they are exactly what the Ukrainian counter offensive needs right now to clear the Russian’s systems of fortified entrenchment.
The kind of munitions the Ukrainians will receive are 155 mm artillery (and possibly 105 mm howitzer) shells rather than missiles or bombs dropped from aircraft.
These munitions can kill soldiers protected by trenches much more effectively than conventional unitary artillery ammunition, and they can destroy vehicles and groups of soldiers on open roads. They can be targeted to relatively small areas of just a few meters, or to larger areas of as much as 200 meters in diameter.
However, how effective cluster munitions are at demining operations is an important question, especially for destroying antitank mines (See David Walters’ post.) Other explosive devices are effectively used for demining. Bombs dropped from aircraft and missiles can destroy large percentages of anti-tank mines, and several existing demining vehicles use rocket launched, explosive packed tubes to destroy anti-tank mine fields and reportedly destroy 90% of mines. Most interestingly, The Ukrainian military is reportedly successfully using hand grenades dropped from drones to destroy Russian anti-tank mines.
Nevertheless, there is no evidence how effective cluster munitions are at demining operations easily available online. These munitions were not designed for this task and have not been field tested for this task as far as I can tell.
One point that has to be considered is that cluster munitions effectiveness for this job can probably be varied since they can be loaded with different numbers and size of bomblets. A cluster shell containing fewer, larger, more powerful bomblets might do the job that conventionally packed cluster shells cannot do.
Since Ukraine’s airpower deficit makes it difficult to take out the Russian helicopter gunships, they will try to use cluster munitions to replace human engineers and demining vehicles or at least to supplement them. Ukraine will provide the world with the data we now lack, only because the United States and NATO leave it no other option.
There are a few myths about cluster munitions that should be addressed:
· Cluster munitions deliver dozens of smaller bombs across a huge territory, the very definition of indiscriminate bombardment.
· Many go unexploded, leaving bombs—many of which are oddly shaped and colorful and thus appealing to children—littered behind.
· They could fall on areas where Ukrainian civilians live.
· In the long-term, they represent a tremendous threat to Ukraine’s own civilian population.
1. The area to be covered by cluster bomblets is determined in advance by setting the altitude at which the shell will release its bomblets. It can be as large as 200 meters in diameter, or it can be only a few meters in diameter. Cluster munitions have been deliberately and intentionally used for indiscriminate bombardment of civilian populations, but they can be used in other ways depending on the decisions of the military unit using them.
Ukraine has pledged that they will use these munitions to clear the Russian invaders from their entrenched positions in occupied Ukraine. Why would they do otherwise?
2. The munitions the United States is providing are not oddly shaped and colorful, but some fail to explode upon impact. Some are designed not to explode on impact, instead acting as mines.
Unexploded ordinance including mines is a terrible remnant of war in every country that has suffered any warfare since the early 20th century. Demining operations are long, expensive, time consuming and dangerous.
However, Ukraine is now the most heavily mined country in the world. Russia has extensively mined the entire land bridge between Donbas and Crimea, and much of Donbas and Crimea, too.
These are exactly the areas in which Ukraine will use any cluster munitions they receive.
Arguably, they will add very little to the danger already presented by Russian minefields.
3. The entire region has already been partially depopulated by the Russian invasion and occupation, but the areas the Ukrainians are likely to use cluster munitions on are the Russian minefields and trenches, not the towns and cities. Why would they do otherwise?
4. Cluster munitions do represent a long term threat to Ukraine’s population, but a lesser threat than the Russian jackboot, and a lesser threat than Russian landmines. Ukraine is being destroyed slowly and relentlessly by Russian missiles. Why shouldn’t the Ukrainians have the weapons they needed to stop that destruction?
War is terrible. Ask the Ukrainians. They think losing a war to Russia would be worse. They also have shown that leaving Russia in control of any Ukrainian territory would be a Russian victory that would most likely lead to another invasion in the future.
The moral thing to do, here, now, today, is to give Ukraine the arms it needs to win: F-16s and other aircraft, longer distance missiles, and cluster munitions.
Anthony Boynton
https://rstudio-pubs-static.s3.amazonaws.com/175739_d1a8dc3d159249b6a2968c20adb81115.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-purpose_improved_conventional_munition
Ukrainians Government Warns
The Peril:
Ukraine holds disaster drills amid fears Russia could sabotage nuclear power plant - ABC News July 1 - Chief of Military Intelligence Budanov "told The New Statesman magazine that Russian troops had rigged the station's cooling ponds with explosives, that if destroyed could lead to the reactors melting down. He also said Russia had moved explosives-laden vehicles into four of the plant's six power units."
Zelenskiy: Russia may be preparing to trigger nuclear plant explosion - The Guardian (UK)
Russia reducing personnel at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant - Ukrainian intelligence
Also note The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)also warns that as a result of the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the nuclear plants have only about two months of water for those cooling pools. [destruction almost certainly caused by Russia]
The Idea:
Get the UN General Assembly to order an international unit under its command to take over control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant complex, a peace-keeping force. Establish a demilitarized zone around the plants.
See this petition created by the Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign
Let anti-nuclear, anti-war and trade unions know about this idea
Update May 29. Biden and McCarthy worked out a deal. Federal programs except military will be basically frozen at 2023 levels (because of inflation that means about a 5% cut a year.)
So we have a debt ceiling, an ingenious reactionary weapon to prevent the exploited classes from getting government help. Biden can certainly just ignore the ceiling and say it violates the 14 Amendment to the Constitution. The problem is that the Trump Supreme court may slap him down.
There is a very sensible alternative. Cut the military budget starting with the nukes and all the imperial military bases. Take a look at the program of "Defuse Nuclear War".
Also, take a look at our no-nukes archive.
Promoting Enduring Peace was one of the groups that signed on to this statement which begins:
On January 18, in the course of their latest militarized raid on the forest, police in Atlanta shot and killed a person. This is only the most recent of a series of violent police retaliations against the movement. The official narrative is that Cop City is necessary to make Atlanta “safe,” but this brutal killing reveals what they mean when they use that word.
Forests are the lungs of planet Earth. The destruction of forests affects all of us. So do the gentrification and police violence that the bulldozing of Weelaunee Forest would facilitate. What is happening in Atlanta is not a local issue.
Politicians who support Cop City have attempted to discredit forest defenders as “outside agitators.” This smear has a disgraceful history in the South, where authorities have used it against abolitionists, labor organizers, and the Civil Rights Movement, among others. The goal of those who spread this narrative is to discourage solidarity and isolate communities from each other while offering a pretext to bring in state and federal forces, who are the actual “outside agitators.” The consequence of that strategy is on full display in the tragedy of January 18...
See the full statement by clicking here
Watching Democracy Now in mid-November 2022 many were surprised to learn that while the U.S. tells the world not to import Russian natural gas, U.S. companies freely import Russian uranium.
In response the Ukrainian Socialist Solidarity Campaign organized a petition to call for the U.S. to ban Russian uranium imports. It started on 12/3. There are two major reasons 1) to take profits away from the Putin government (whose Roskam sells uranium) and 2) to swiftly wean the U.S. away from nuclear power
Read the Greenpeace article entitled, "Nuclear exception leaves gaping hole in EU Russia sanctions as uranium ship reaches France"
A report on the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
US and EU imports of Russian uranium and enrichment services could stop. Here’s how.
Russia is occupying Europe's largest nuclear power plant, in southern Ukraine. In the words of Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency the situation there "is completely out of control" and "Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated.”
Russian President Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons to get his way in Ukraine
We say,
Watch Democracy Now 8/4/2022
Everyone you see in the picture on the right was kidnapped by Assad forces on March 9, 2013. The mother depicted, Rania Alabbasi, was a dentist and Syria's most famous chess champion. In addition to the 8 people shown here the secretary of Ms. Alabbasi was also taken.
Nothing has been heard about any of these 9 people since they were taken.
Click here to watch a 3/7/22 interview with Hassan Alabbasi, Rania's brother who is in Ottawa.
Ask your local media or Congress to raise this issue.
Write to producers@democracynow.org and ask DN! to cover the story.
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