[fwd] Now is the time for forwarding the "Save Palestine and Israel" call

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

Now is the time to make opinion makers and political leaders worldwide aware of the following 
call of renowned academics, put to our attention by one of the signatories, the Jerusalem-
based peace activist Professor Victoria Buch.

--------forwarded message follows---------------
From:           	Victoria Buch <vvbb54 at yahoo.com>

Save Palestine and Israel
Urgent Appeal for International Involvement: 

http://www.ffipp.org/petition_save_p_i.htm

 Hello everybody, 

 While the war in Iraq is taking its toll, and the
world attention is focused there, the occupation
machine keeps grinding Palestine relentlessly. Please
join forces with the above appeal, which was published on the site
of Faculty for Israel-Palestine Peace, and signed by
153 Israeli academics, including well-known
intellectuals in many fields.

 We must stop the ongoing devastation of Palestine,
which is carried out by Sharon's government under the
guise of fight against terror. These policies are
designed to oppress, humiliate, terrorize, and
expropriate,  and not to prevent terror attacks. A
clear evidence to this effect has been the gruesome
regularity of terror attacks on Israelis for the last
two years. In the long run, Sharon's policies are very
destructive for Israel as well. 

PLEASE COPY THE TEXT BELOW AND SEND IT TO
POLITICIANS of your choice. Add a sentence
such as "I should like to join this appeal by Israeli
academics." US citizens: e-mails to US Congress and
Senate are especially important (see address info in the 
end of this message).

Best regards, Victoria Buch
              vvbb54 at yahoo.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 URGENT APPEAL FOR INTERNATIONAL INVOLVEMENT: SAVE
PALESTINE AND ISRAEL

 The elimination of the Palestinian national presence
west of the Jordan River is implicit in the long-term
aims  of the Israeli right wing. A violent,
apocalyptic driving-out of the entire Palestinian
population is explicitly advocated by the rightmost
political circles. What has actually been taking place
since the beginning of the 35 years of Israeli
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but at an
unprecedented rate for  the last two years, is a
systematic process of demolition of Palestinian
private and public property, and mass expropriation of
Palestinian land on behalf of settlers. The guiding
principle is the effort to minimize the size of the
area actually inhabited by Palestinians. At the same
time, huge-scale harassment has been taking place, by
means of prolonged curfews, road-blocks, humiliations,
beatings, military invasions of densely populated
areas, detentions of thousands without trial under
sub-humane conditions, obstruction of  access to work,
medical care, schools and universities, and a host of
other means. The soldiers were given license to treat
any  Palestinian as a potential terrorist.  Millions
of Palestinians have been reduced by Israeli
government policies to life in fearsome ghettos. Most
are now subsisting under the poverty line, on savings
or handouts from humanitarian
 organizations.

The ever-intensifying oppressive measures are being
inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli government,
ostensibly to fight terror. We unequivocally condemn
terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. There can
be no justification for acts of violence against any
unarmed people.However, the Israeli policies are not a
way to reduce terror; rather, they promote it, as
evidenced by the dramatic increase in terror acts
during the last two years. The terror acts are then
cynically used by Prime Minister Sharon as a pretext
to inflict more damage and hardships on the
Palestinians, and to further de-legitimize their
existence in the occupied territories in the
perception of the Israelis. THE PALESTINIAN PRESENCE
STANDS IN THE WAY OF SHARON'S LIFE-LONG VISION OF
GREATER ISRAEL, WITH SETTLERS SUPPLANTING
PALESTINIANS. THIS OBJECTIVE IS TRANSPARENT TO ANYBODY
WHO FOLLOWS WHAT HIS GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN ACTUALLY
DOING, rather than listening to the frequently uttered
but empty declarations about peace intentions, "once
the security problems are solved".

The Israeli society pays a high price for the attempts
of its politicians to extend the Israeli domination,
and for their addiction to territorial expansion. The
drive to develop Israel as a modern, productive and
tolerant society was cruelly truncated. This drive has
been evident in periods of hopeful peace negotiations
with neighboring Arab states, and with Palestnians.
Fatalistic resignation to the vicious circle of fear,
oppression, violence and counter-violence is depriving
the whole society of positive energy, forward looking
projects  and hope. The drain on the state resources
by the war effort and the expansion of the settlements
and the concurrent loss of investment result in large
scale unemployment and economic recession. Large
sectors of the Israeli society are denied access to a
decent standard of living, to decent education, and to
productive integration into modern technological and
cultural world. Instead, backward-looking
ultra-nationalistic ideologies are taking firm hold on
the social and political scene. Young Israeli soldiers
sent to implement the brutal occupation measures are
likely to be morally scarred for life.

 The ongoing devastation of Palestine must be stopped,
for the sake of both Palestine and Israel.

 Prof. Zach Adam, Prof. Colman Altman,	Dr. Janina
Altman, Dr. Issam Aburiya, Dr. Amotz Agnon, Dr. Shmuel
Amir, Prof Daniel Amit, Prof. Zalman Amit, Dr. Yossi
Amitay, Prof. Michael Ardon, Dr. Judith Avrahami,
Prof. (Emeritus) Shalom Baer, Dr. Outi Bat-El, Prof.
Maya Bar-Hillel, Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal, Prof Ron
Barkai, Dr. Anat Barnea , Prof. Matania Ben-Arzi, Ofra
Ben-Arzi, M.A., Dr. Shmuel Ben-Dor, Prof. Ziva
Ben-Porat, Dr. Louise Bethlehem, Prof. Anat Biletzki,
Dr. Jose Brunner, Dr. Ido Bruno, Prof. Victoria Buch,
Prof. Ruth Butler, Raz Chen-Morris, Dr. Eliot Cohen,
Dr. Raya Cohen, Dr. Veronica Cohen, Dr. Leo Corry,
Dr. Michael Dahan, Prof. David Degani, Prof. Sidra
DeKoven Ezrahi, Dr. David De-Vries, Athena Elizabeth
DeRasmo, Prof. Tommy Dreyfus, Dr. Otniel E. Dror, Dr.
Freema Elbaz-Luwisch, Prof. Emmanuel Farjoun, Dr.
Elizabeth Freund,Prof. Gideon Freudenthal,
 Dr. Iris Fry , Prof. Michael Fry , Michal Gal, Prof.
Chaim Gans, Dr. Ido Geiger, Prof. Avner Giladi, Prof.
Rachel Giora, Dr. Snait Gissis, Prof. Eli Glasner,
Dr. Daphna Golan, Prof. Oded Goldreich, Dr. Ofra
Goldstein-Gidoni, Dr. Neve Gordon, Prof. Lev Grinberg
, Prof. Yossi Guttman, Dr. Ruth HaCohen, Prof. Uri
Hadar, Dr. Jeff Halper, Yuval Halperin, Shoshana
Halper, M.A., Prof Don Handelman, Prof. Galit
Hasan-Rokem, Prof. Avram Heffner,	Dr. Sara Helman, Dr.
Yitzhak Hen,
 Prof. Hanna Herzog, Prof. Ze'ev Herzog , Prof. Hannan
Hever, Prof. Peter Hillman, Uri Horesh, Prof. Ehud
Hrushovski,	Tal Itzhaki, Prof. Eva Jablonka,
 Dr. Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, Prof. Naftali Kaminski,
MD, Prof. Jacob Katriel, Prof. Tamar Katriel,
 Dr. Shoshana Keiny, Prof. Baruch Kimmerling,	Judy
Kupferman, Dr. Orna Kupferman, Prof. Raz Kupferman,
Dr. Ron Kuzar,	Dr. Idan Landau, Prof. Hubert Law-Yone,
 Daphna Levit, Joyce Livingstone, MS,	
Prof. Ram Loevy , Dr. Orly Lubin, Haim Luski, Prof.
Ruth Manor,	Prof Uri Maor,	Dr. Anat Matar, Dr. Nina
Mayorek, Dr. Sara Meilijson , Prof. Isaac Meilijson,
Prof. Amnon  Meisels, Prof. Ben Tzion Munitz, Dr.
Doron Narkiss, Prof. (Emeritus) Gad Nathan, Dr. Isaac
(Yanni) Nevo, Prof. Ami Oren, Prof. Avraham Oz, Ronie
Parciack, Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan,
 Prof. Yoav Peled, Dr. Kobi Peter, Dr. Yuri Pines, Dr.
Uri Ram , Dr. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Dr. Ofra Rechter,
Prof. Ya'acov Ritov, Dr. Daniel Rohrlich, Prof Freddie
Rokem, Dr. Dana Ron, Dr. Moshe Ron,	
Prof. Tova Rosen, Dr. Maya Rosenfeld, Dr. Zeev Rotem,
 Dr. Amalia Sa'ar, Dr. Ilan Saban, Prof. Benny Shanon,
Dr. Nita Schehet, Dr. Christoph Schmidt, Prof. Avraham
Schweiger, Dr. Gideon Shelach,	Ricki Shiv, Prof. Moshe
Shokeid, Prof. Idan Segev, Prof. Leon Sheleff, Rinah
Sheleff, M.A., Prof. Nomi Shir, Prof. David Shulman,
Prof. Anna Sfard, Marcos Wasem, Dr. Amiel Vardi, Dr.
Vered Vinitzky, Renata Wolfson, M.A.,
 Smadar Tabenkin-Ezer, M.A., Dr. Zvi Tauber,	
Dr. Dudy Tzfati, Rakefet Zalashik,
 Dr. Niza Yanay, Dr. Michael Yogev, Prof. Joseph
Zeira,	Dr. Moshe Zuckermann, Prof. Moshe Zimmermann
------------------------------------------------------------


To make this message effective, please send a copy of
the appeal to politicians and media you feel close to.
Also you could take inspiration from internet sites:

Israeli embassies
http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel1.htm 

US Congress:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/directory/directory.dbq?
command=congdir US Senate
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Contact information for European Governments
http://europa.eu.int/abc/governments/index_en.html

Permanent Missions to the United Nations
http://www.un.int/missions/webs.html
Many of e-mail addresses of UN missions are formatted
as follows: <france at un.int>, <germany at un.int>,
<india at un.int>, <ireland at un.int>, <italy at un.int>,
<uk at un.int> etc