Peace

By Alisa Pimentel

Among the almost 20,000 activists gathered in Detroit for the US Social Forum this week are several Grassroots International partners and allies. Grassroots International regularly provides funding to our partners and allies to participate in movement-building and leadership development gatherings.

Former Grassroots International Board member and current Board member of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Bill Fletcher Jr. recently blogged on CNN.com about the "frequent tendency to misrepresent the lessons of [the U.S. black freedom] movement and apply them to other social movements overseas in a way that misses the mark.

Ahmed Sourani is the Director of Projects & Cooperation for the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC). PARC is a longtime partner of Grassroots International and perhaps the most important player in the Palestinian agricultural sector. PARC focuses its work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on rural development including food security, income generation, water rights and protecting against land confiscation by Israel; environmental protection; and strengthening women's position in society.

Grassroots International board and staff members Marie Kennedy and Salena Tramel saw first-hand the devastation in Gaza after the Israeli assault on the territory in Dec08-Jan09.

Grassroots International supporter and friend, Felice Gelman is currently in Gaza on an international solidarity delegation. She is also a member of the WESPAC Committee for Justice & Peace in the Middle East. In March this year, Felice was part of a delegation organized by CODEPINK and Grassroots International, among others, invited to Gaza by the UN Relief and Works Agency. To read her blog, click here.

President Obama's 2010 budget calls for $2.775 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Israel, an increase of $225 million compared to the 2009 budget.  Send a resounding message to Congress that this appropriation for military aid to Israel is unacceptable.

Israel has consistently misused U.S. weapons to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians and systematic violations of international law.  Some of those violations are documented every year in the State Department's own human rights reports. Even more are documented by the United Nations and respected human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Gaza:  War on civilians in the world's largest open-air prison[1]

The information below is adapted from a press release by Code Pink.

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP -  A 60-member aid delegation was allowed entry into war-torn Gaza today through the Egyptian border crossing today. Two Grassroots International staff and board members (in the middle of the photo above) are part of the delegation, which includes Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker.

The surge in solidarity with Palestinian people in Gaza is still strong. And I hope it will never wind down. My inbox is flooded with op-eds and solidarity messages from all over Latin America. Indigenous communities from Mexico speak about the similarities between the unjust occupation of a sovereign territory and their situation as peoples whose right to land is ignored. Messages from Brazil call on people to increase support to Palestinian farmers.

Again raising both legal and moral questions, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on January 6, 2009.  Below are both his introduction to the letter and the text itself. Please write to thank Rep. Kucinich for his leadership on this issue.

From Dennis Kucinich:

In light of press reports that Israeli forces fired on a United Nations school where civilians were taking shelter, I sent notice today to Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, that Israel's actions in Gaza since December 27th, 2008 may constitute a violation of the requirements of the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (AECA).