|
Anti-war
Coalition Calls for Emergency Actions
Stop the
attacks! Cut off U.S. aid to Israel!
June 28,
2006
Using the capture of one of its soldiers as
the pretext, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) launched a brutal assault
on the entire population of Gaza in the early morning hours of
June 28. U.S.-supplied F-16 fighter-bombers destroyed the main power
station in Gaza and destroyed bridges on the only major roads linking the
northern and southern sections of the region. The people of Gaza
are now without water and electricity -- and many will die. The
use of U.S. planes and other military goods against illegally occupied
territories is a violation of both international and U.S. law.
Israel is also threatening to widen the
war, sending war planes over Syria to "buzz" the home of Syrian
President Bashir al-Assad, whose government the U.S. has been actively
working to bring down for more than two years.
The Palestinian population of Gaza, one of
the poorest and most densely populated areas of the world, was already
suffering severe shortages of food, medicine and other necessities due to
Israel's blockade of Gaza and the cut-off of international aid to the West
Bank and Gaza, in effect since January 2006. The new Israeli assault has
resulted in the cut-off of power, water and food supplies to most of the
people in Gaza. The situation constitutes a deliberately created
humanitarian disaster.
Deliberately attacking the civilian
population, with the intent of causing maximum suffering, is clearly a
crime against humanity. What we are witnessing today in Gaza is collective
punishment against the population as a whole. It is just one part
of Israel's colonial policy toward the Palestinians. In historic
Palestine, whether the West Bank, Gaza or inside the 1948 borders of
Israel, an apartheid system is in place, where many rights reserved for
Jewish Israelis are denied to Palestinians. More than six million
dispossessed Palestinians are denied the right to return to their
homeland.
Israeli apartheid and the latest assault on
Gaza is supported by the Bush regime, Congress and the corporate media,
because of Israel's vital role in Washington's project of Middle East
domination. That is why Israel receives more military and economic aid
from the U.S. -- over $3 billion annually -- than any other country.
While a great hue and cry is heard
in the mass media about one captured Israeli soldier, the same media pays
no attention whatsoever to the 9,800 Palestinian political prisoners
being held illegally (it is illegal for an occupying power to transfer
prisoners from occupied territory) under terrible conditions in Israeli
prisons. At least 335 of these prisoners are children.
Palestinian prisoners are systematically tortured after arrest. Just two
days ago, the Israeli parliament gave the Shin Bet (the secret police) the
right to double the time for secret "interrogation" of
Palestinian prisoners -- a green light for even greater torture.
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition (http://www.answercoalition.org/),
which has organized the largest anti-war protests in Washington, DC and
in other U.S. cities over the past five years, including the historic
demonstration of over 100,000 people supporting Palestinian rights in
Washington on April 20, 2002, is calling for and supporting protests at
Israeli embassies, consulates and U.S. federal buildings, to demand:
- The immediate end to the U.S.-supplied
Israeli assault on Gaza
- The release of all Palestinian political
prisoners from Israeli jails
- An end to all U.S. aid to Israel
- An end to colonial occupation, support
for self-determination for the Palestinian people including the right
of return.
- No new U.S.-Israeli war against Syria.
A.N.S.W.E.R is also calling on
justice-minded individuals and organizations to contact Congress and the
White House demanding an immediate end to U.S. aid to Israel. Click
here to send your message. For
more information go to http://www.answercoalition.org/
ANSWER Chicago (Act Now to
Stop War & End Racism)
www.ChicagoANSWER.net
answer@ChicagoANSWER.net
ANSWER Office in Chicago
3334 W. Lawrence #202
Chicago, IL 60625
773-463-0311
Volunteer Meetings Every Thursday, 7 pm at the ANSWER Office. The Weekly
ANSWER Volunteer Meetings are a great way to meet other Chicago area
volunteers/activists, talk about politics and get plugged into anti-war
outreach. Join us!
To donate click here
or make a check out to Chicago ANSWER and mail it to ANSWER at 27 N. Wacker
Drive #199, Chicago, IL 60606
|
