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Reply-To: adcsf-owner@yahoogroups.com<br><br>
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<br>
</font><font size=4>Stop the Siege of Gaza and Support the Palestinian
People<br>
</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>We call upon all people
of conscious to condemn and protest the escalating military attacks and
economic terror being inflicted by <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel on the
Palestinian people.<br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Thousands of armed Israeli
troops, supported by U.S. tax dollars, are amassed on the northern and
southern borders of Gaza waiting to carry out another massacre of
Palestinian men, women and children. <br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Israeli missiles have
destroyed Gaza's main power plant and blocked shipments of fuel to
operate four smaller facilities. The people of Gaza, who have been
surviving and resisting sustained Israeli military attacks, are now
without clean drinking water, medicines, electricity and international
relief groups warn that within three days there will be a severe
humanitarian crisis. On top of all this, sixty-four officials of
the democratically elected Palestinian government have been illegally
arrested by Israel. These efforts are aimed at ethnically cleansing
Palestine of Palestinians. Such collective punishment not only
violates international and humanitarian law but clearly expose Israel's
inherently racist nature. <br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>In the past month, Israel has
killed 28 Palestinians, 7 of which were children. There has
been no outrage over these state-sponsored murders. While the names
of the Palestinians killed will never be remembered or even known by most
people in this country, the entire world is being made aware of one
captured Israeli soldier. Mainstream media has been responsible for
perpetuating a distorted, skewed version of the situation and it is our
duty to raise our voices against this racism and injustice.<br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>There is never symmetry
between acts of an occupier and acts of people defending
themselves. Yet any act by Palestinians to resist occupation is
condemned and attacks by Israel are portrayed as legitimate, especially
by mainstream media in the US. Israeli lives are sacred while the lives
of Palestinians worthless and not worth mentioning. The racism that
underlies mainstream media coverage of the situation is shocking and
outrageous.<br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Organizations concerned about
social justice in the US cannot keep quiet about the ethnic cleansing
being carried out in Palestine. We call on every organization and
individual to take a stand against not just the latest Israeli atrocities
but against all the crimes that Israel has committed against Palestinians
with US arms and US acquiescence for over half a century.<br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>We believe that through
international pressure in the form of boycotts, divestment and sanctions
(BDS), among other things, will Israel’s apartheid state be challenged so
that the legitimate rights of Palestinian can be realized. Many
organizations, churches and unions have started to embark on this
strategy which brought down the apartheid state in South Africa. In
the near future, we hope to let people know how to more directly be
engaged in these strategies at your schools, work and communities.<br>
</font> <br>
Lastly, we would like to register our strong disagreement with the June
28, 2006 press release sent out from the ADC National Office which
implies some sort of symmetry and balance between Israeli belligerent
actions and the Palestinians right to resist occupation. As we prepare to
mobilize against the siege with friends and supporters of Palestine and
community members including ADCSF members, we find the statement to be
destructive to our mobilization efforts and inaccurate in its
assumptions. We hope our community and supporters will engage in
campaigns and actions in the coming weeks to stop Israeli atrocities and
support the Palestinian people.<br>
<br><br>
<br>
<tt>-------------------------------------------<br>
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee<br>
San Francisco Bay Area Chapter<br>
522 Valencia St San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 861-7444 adcsf@adcsf.org<br>
<a href="http://www.adcsf.org/" eudora="autourl">www.adcsf.org<br><br>
</a></tt><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
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