[GushShalom] Support for the pilots starts coming + more upcoming actions

Tue Sep 30 16:16:23 IDT 2003

GUSH SHALOM  pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 www.gush-shalom.org

Our vigil in front of the Defence Ministry yesterday provided the first 
support  for the 27 pilots visible on Israeli TV.
With the government-led media campaign against the group of 27 we 
had expected that there would be some hostile reactions from the 
street. But it is remarkable how many positive honking and waiving we 
also got. 

Among the following forwarded messages is the one about another act 
of support being prepared - a petition of lecturers and students, and the 
statement of General (ret.) Amos Lapidot. 

Today's new target of the hate-campaigners is the appeal to the 
Supreme Court about the Shehadeh assassination war crime - see 
also below. (Deputy education minister Zvi Hendel suggests to expell 
the books of the participating writers from the school curriculum.)

[] Evening in Solidarity with Mordechai Vanunu - 1.11.03
[] Petition in support of the 27 pilots
[] Statement of former IAF commander General (ret.) Amos Lapidot
[] Petition of women against the Wall
[] The Shehadeh assassination war crime appeal 
[] Refuser Solidarity Network September Newsletter

[] Evening in Solidarity with Mordechai Vanunu - 1.11.03

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Sun, 28 Sep 2003 15:55:21 +0200
From:           	rayna moss <legalese at netvision.net.il>

An Evening in Solidarity with Mordechai Vanunu 

A solidarity event marking the 17th anniversary of Mordechai Vanunu's
kidnapping and imprisonment by Israel.

October 1, 2003, at Salon Mazal, Simta Almonit 3 (entrance from King
George St), 8:00 p.m.

Lecture: The History of the Atom Bomb - Akiva Orr, physicist and
antinuclear activist Film: Israel's Secret Weapon, BBC documentary 
(2003)
- English, no translation Discussion

Information: Rayna Moss, 051-368236

[] Petition in support of the 27 pilots

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	"Anat Biletzki" <anatbi at post.tau.ac.il>
Date sent:      	Mon, 29 Sep 2003 03:06:12 +0200

Hello All,

(...)

The following is a statement drafted in support of the pilots' statement. 
{No English version.]

Those who agree with the statement and wish to sign should urgently 
send their name, title, and university affiliation to one of the following:
(Also for receiving attachment with the Hebrew text.)

hasan at h2.hum.huji.ac.il
shulman at prism.as.huji.ac.il
msyonata at mscc.huji.ac.il
tzfati at cc.huji.ac.il
edit at vms.huji.ac.il

Lehitra'ot,

Anat

--------------------------------------------------------
H A K A M P U S   L O   S H O T E K
-------------------------------------------------------

[] Statement of former IAF commander General (ret.) Amos Lapidot

General (ret.) Amos Lapidot, commander of the Israeli Air Force from 
'82 to '87 expressed mild criticism and a lot of sympathy with the 
refuser pilots in an interview in Yediot Aharonot of today.

"I understand the protest of the refusers. Their protest is not against 
the Air Force but against those who give the orders and define the 
policy which leads us nowhere. I share the view of the refusers that the 
occupation is increasingly corrupting our people. Professor Yeshayahu 
Leibowitz said it already 36 years ago, and now everybody with eyes in 
its head could see it. Just look at the violent behavior of drivers at the 
Israeli roads. I think that the refusers took an unwise step, since a pilot 
in the Air Force is a volunteer anyway and nobody could force him to 
fly. What should have done is collectively resign from the Air Force.

About the liquidations: I think that when there is a ticking bomb, 
somebody who is about to commit a suicide bombing or participate in 
it, it is justified to kill him but the policy makers should look further 
ahead. We are not enough sensitive and aware of what we are doing to 
the other side. We have to recognize that the Oslo agreement failed 
not only because of them but also because of us. We should create a 
horizon of hope and start immediately with dismantling the settlements.

(Yediot Aharonot, Sept. 30, on page 7, in "I understand the refusers. 
We should stop the occupation" by Yigal Mosko & Yossi Yehoshua - 
together with statements of several other former IAF commanders who 
were against.)

--
Send the pilots your letter of support 
mailto:info at tayasim.org.il
--

[] Petition of women against the Wall

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: <tsilligoldenberg at hotmail.com> 
To: Gush Shalom info at gush-shalom.org 
Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2003 5:55 PM 
Subject: women against wall- tsilli

WOMEN  AGAINST  THE  WALL

Only a border on the “Green Line” between Israel and Palestine will 
bring peace and security

To:	Prime Minister Ariel Sharon					Fax:  02-6705475
The Prime Minister’s Office
Building 3, Kaplan Street 3
Jerusalem 91919						1st October, 2003

Mr. Prime Minister!
You promised peace and security but you have failed.  Peace has not 
come.  We have known no security for the three years of your time in 
power.  We have only known terror, killing and destruction – 800 of our 
citizens have been killed, families devastated and thousands of people 
injured.  Every single opportunity for peace has been destroyed by you 
in acts of revenge.  You have not entered into peace negotiations, but 
only tried to use military force.  The way you have chosen has been to 
lure us into war.
We, citizens of Israel, accuse you of being guilty of ruining the peace 
process and of a policy of violence and illegal activities against the 
Palestinians.  The bombs, the assassinations, the killings, the 
demolition of houses, collective punishment, checkpoints, closures 
and curfews have only increased the suicide bombings in our streets.  
Leaving us abandoned with no hope.
Today a Separation Fence is being built which is supposed to bring 
security.  At the beginning it was proposed to be built on the Green 
Line.  Under the guise of a so-called Security Plan, and with no 
opportunity for public debate, the Fence has become a strategy by 
which 50% of Palestinian West Bank land is being expropriated.  It has 
become a means of annexing settlements into Israel in a deceitful 
infringement of international law.  One and a half million Palestinians, 
denied their rights and left with no income, will be locked into cantons 
and camps, as Israel closes them off with walls on the east, north, 
west and south.  (See the attached map.)  This is a program of 
annexation which will bring us neither peace nor security.  You are 
using a policy based on deceit, in a pattern of behaviour which we are 
familiar with from the past. The route of the fence you are building over 
approx. 700 kms (more than double the length of the Green Line there), 
reveals you are not in the least interested in a negotiated border 
between Israel and Palestine.  Your only interest is victory by means of 
Occupation and shedding of blood.  In your time in power as prime 
minister, there will never be peace.
We do not agree to take part in or to permit the annexations by the 
Wall which you are building and which go against all principles of 
justice, morality and law and which harms both Palestinians and 
Israelis.  We do not agree that in our name parents are being 
separated from their children, pregnant women from their hospitals, 
farmers from their land and students from their schools and 
universities.  We do not agree to be hostages in the hands of settlers 
who number only 3% of Israel’s population.  Nor do we agree to be 
partners in an economic policy which is stealing bread from the elderly, 
children, single mothers, the sick and the handicapped for the sake of 
building this wall of annexation, settlement and war.  We refuse to be 
partners in this disgraceful crime on both nations which you are 
committing.  In this reality which you are intentionally and deliberately 
creating,  anyone with conscience cannot live here anymore.  No walls 
and no fences will bring peace or security.  That will only be achieved 
by the evacuation of settlements, the end of Occupation and the return 
of Israel to within the borders of the Green Line.
Signed:	
Bat Shalom and others, including Women Against the Wall:
Tsilli Goldenberg, Nurit Steinfeld, Ofra Ben-Arzi, Rivka Merhav, Angela 
Godfrey-Goldstein
JOIN US

We, Women Against the Wall, call on all citizens of Israel to join us 
and sign this letter, by sending your name to 
tsilligoldenberg at hotmail.com
with the subject of "Women Against the Wall" so that your email is 
easily identifiable from spam!!

Or by telephone to Tsilli: 056-403429

Protest against the wall

Thursday, 2 october, 2003,  at 15:00 at the prime minister's office, 
hakirya, jerusalem.
We will hand the above letter to the prime minister and demand the 
immediate halt of the construction of the "separation fence".
We invite all men and women to protest with us.
For  additional information contact:
Tsilli 056-403429

[] The Shehadeh  assassination war crime appeal 

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	"peretz kidron" <cherryk at zahav.net.il>
Date sent:      	Tue, 30 Sep 2003 08:43:27 +0200

   Dear friend,

  Yesh Gvul, in association with a group of Israeli intellectuals, is
  submitting a petition to the Supreme Court, requesting that the Court
  direct the state's legal authorities to launch a criminal investigation
  into the deaths of 14 innocent civilians who died when an Israeli plane
  dropped a one-ton bomb on a residential district in Gaza, with the aim
  of killing senior Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh.  

  The petition was submitted after both the army's chief prosecutor, and
  government chief attorney Elyakim Rubinstein, turned down Yesh Gvul
  requests for an inquiry to be held.  The intellectuals associated with
  the petition are authors Izhar Smilansky, Sami Michael, Ronit Matalon
  and poet Natan Zach.

  Yesh Gvul regards the petition as one final effort to induce Israel's
  legal and judicial system to face up to its responsibilities in relation
  to suspected war crimes  by Israel's armed forces. In the words of the
  petition: "...This is the last stop of the law-enforcement train before
  it goes beyond the national borders."  If the Supreme Court fails to
  offer due recourse, Yesh Gvul will seek ways of submitting the matter 
to non-Israeli tribunals in countries whose laws allow for such cases to 
be adjudicated.

  Internet links on the Supreme Court petition
  y-net (hebrew)
  http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-2772397,00.html
  maariv (hebrew)
  http://images.maariv.co.il/channels/1/ART/548/713.html
  haaretz hebrew

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=345500&
contra
  ssID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0 haaretz english
  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/345223.html Yesh Gvul has 
launched
  an appeal for funds to help cover the legal costs incurred through the
  Supreme Court petition.  Contributions (cheques to "Yesh Gvul") can 
be sent to Yesh Gvul, POB 6953, Jerusalem 91068, Israel.

US residents who wish to make a tax-deductible donation can send 
checks (made out to "Eschaton/Yesh Gvul") to:

Eschaton Foundation
515 Broadway
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 USA

[] Refuser Solidarity Network September Newsletter

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	Steven Feuerstein <steven at stevenfeuerstein.com>
Date sent:      	Fri, 26 Sep 2003 09:28:32 -0700 (PDT)

Dear Supporters of the Refuser Movement,

We hope this message finds you well.  
The newsletter can always be read on our website at:

http://www.refusersolidarity.net/default.asp?content=rsn_fall_letter

Sincerely,

The Refuser Solidarity Network

{HYPERLINK "mailto:info at tayasim.org.il"}
--
Our site:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)

with
\\photos - of actions or otherwise informative 
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English 
\\the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
\\and a lot more

N.B.: 
On the Gush Shalom website links for:
Articles and documents in German, French and Spanish

In order to receive our Hebrew-language 
press releases [mostly WORD documents - 
not always same as English] mail to:
gush-shalom-heb-request at mailman.gush-shalom.org 
+ NB: write the word "subscribe" in the subject line.

If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can 
send a cheque or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece 
of paper to: 

Gush Shalom
pob 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033
Israel

or ask us for charities in your country which receive 
donations on behalf of Gush Shalom

Please, add your email address where to send our 
confirmation of receipt. More official receipts at 
request only.