This is quoted from Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project:

For the last three years, community members in Olympia, WA, and Rafah, Palestine, have been working together to create a lasting, sincere partnership to better foster understanding between people who have not traditionally had a chance to get to know one another. It is our belief that by forming such bonds between communities, misunderstandings can be overcome and distances and differences - whether they be cultural, linguistic or political - can be bridged. We believe these sorts of humanistic, people-to-people connections are vital to creating a world in which all people are treated with respect.

VIGIL and showing of THE IRON WALL
Vigil for Palestine in St. Mark's May 18
Vigil: 5:00 - 6:00 soup: 6-6:30

Film: THE IRON WALL, produced in Palestine

THE IRON WALL provides graphic evidence of the intentions of Zionist leaders: "Zionist colonization must . . .proceed regardless of the native population . . . which means putting them behind an iron wall that the native population cannot breach." J. Jabotinsky, 1923

"The settlement of the Land of Israel is the essence of Zionism. Without settlement, we will not fulfill Zionism." Yitzhak Shamir, 1997

"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can . . . everything we take now will stay ours . . . Everything we don't grab will go to them." Ariel Sharon, 1998

Vigil & movie sponsored by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship

A few days later this informal meeting is scheduled:

The Palestinian refugee problem was created as the result of two wars (Al-Naqba of 1948 and Al-Naksa of 1967), massacres, and other aggressions perpetrated by Jewish underground and terror groups such as Haganah, Irgun, and Stern. After the War of 1948, the UN Conciliation Commission estimated that 726,000 Palestinians (75% of the Arab population of Palestine) had fled outside ("1948 refugees") while 32,000 remained within the armistice lines. Some 531 villages and towns were destroyed or resettled with Jews only (see attached map below). The total losses of destroyed or confiscated Palestinian property is estimated at US$209 billion.

Washington, DC, June 10-11

JOIN US IN PROTESTING THE 40th ANNIVERSARY OF THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION

Tens of thousands to mobilize for protest rally and lobbying day on June 9th and 10th in Washington, DC.

Where on earth would you expect to see a military forces going out at 5:30 AM to throw out 'handicapped children' to the cold streets after snatching the kids out of their beds?

ISRAEL, no where else!

A report released today by two Israeli human rights organizations (B'Tselem and HaMoked) charges Shin Bet security service in regularly torturing almost all Palestinian detainees. Despite Israel High Court of Justice ruling from 1999 limiting the use of force in investigations, B'Tselem and HaMoked reported torture methods includes beating, painful binding, back bending, body stretching and prolonged sleep deprivation.

The following shocking testimony is a sample of what an uprooted Palestinian face if s/he wish to return home, Palestine.

Nadia Hasan is a Palestinian woman with a Chilean passport. She is a human rights activist and translator. She visited Palestine once before, but since then, her only "sin" is wishing to set foot in the land that gave birth to her family, the land that is part of her. For this sin, for the racist prejudice against Palestinians, for the fear that Israelis have of facing the fact that the land they came to live on is the land that others yearn for and have been attached to for countless generations, she is paying the price.

With Israel always refusing the presence of International monitors, civilian activists around the world recognized that they did not need to wait for their governments to take action.

June 2007 marks the 40-year anniversary of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights.

The ICNP (International Coordination Network on Palestine) has launched during last year's annual UN civil society conference on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people a global Call for Action Days on June 9-10, 2007, under the banner, "The World Says No to Israeli Occupation."

Why would Palestinian activists be concerned enough to conduct a tribute to the students and professors who died in the Virginia Tech massacre? This question may only be really answered by Palestinians themselves, who have died in the tens of thousands since 1948, attempting to defend their ancestral lands. Most of them, innocent civilians, including many hundreds of children, died an unjust death. And so when Palestinian peace activists see the deaths of innocents such as occurred at Virginia Tech, they feel empathy.

By now, most of you have heard of Azmi Bishara. If not, Dr. Bishara is the Head of the National Democratic Assembly political party in Israel, a Christian Palestinian and a citizen of Israel who USED to represents Israel's Palestinian minority in the Knesset until few days ago.

In this remarkable 30 minutes speech presented at the City Club couple of years ago, Bishara discusses the last question of colonialism and its distinctive features that make it unique.

April 28-29, 2007 "Pursuing Justice in Israel/Palestine: Changing Minds, Challenging US Policy" A JVP Conference - Everyone Welcome!

This issue is one of the most intractable barrier to a Middle East peace settlement. Millions of Palestinian refugees will always fight for their right to return to their occupied lands and property that was occupied by Israel and now is called the State of Israel.

What is America's Image in the World? How the world views U.S. role? Will you be surprised to know that much of the world are rejecting the notion of the United States as a world leader? In fact, a new poll shows that people in 10 out of 15 countries believe that the U.S. cannot even be trusted to "act responsibly in the world."

This '52 minute' video is a must-see by our fellow Americans (and everyone else) who still have doubts about the power of the pro-Israel Lobby (particularly AIPAC) in the USA and the situation in the Middle East.

Fresh one!

The following is a "new" (April 11th, 2007) video evidence that document another human rights violation by using Palestinian youths as human shields.

[Image by Carlos Latuff]

In a not-so-surprising newsreport, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights (PICCR) reported that Israeli occupation soldiers forced 68 pregnant women to give birth on road blocks after barring them from crossing as they were being transferred to hospitals and medical centers.

Quoting Saed Bannoura's report on IMEMC:
http://imemc.org/...

Dr. Anthony Löwstedt, an independent Swedish researcher released his extensive research analysis titled :"Apartheid – Ancient, Past, and Present: Systematic and Gross Human Rights Violations in Graeco-Roman Egypt, South Africa, and Israel/Palestine." (PDF File)

In his focus on the Middle Eastern conflict since the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, he said that the vast majority of grave violations of human rights falls under the responsibility of the Jewish state.

Researcher says Israel Responsible for at least 97.8 Percent of Serious Human Rights Abuses in Conflict.