[Peace-discuss] TAKE ACTION: House Votes TODAY on Palest. Sanctions

[Robert Naiman]

Johnson should be totally reachable on this. The ask is that the House not
go beyond existing US law; voting no would be consistent with the position
of the State Department and Johnson's Republican Illinois colleague Ray
LaHood, who circulated a Dear Colleague against it, see below. I just called
and the woman in Johnson's office said this was the first call.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation <
uscampaign at mail.democracyinaction.org>
Date: May 22, 2006 7:43 AM
Subject: TAKE ACTION: House Votes TODAY on Palest. Sanctions
To: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com



<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=127483355&url_num=1&url=http://www.endtheoccupation.org/>

TAKE ACTION: House Votes TODAY on Palestinian Sanctions



Do you think that Palestinians should be subjected to draconian sanctions
for voting?

If not, then we *NEED* you to please pick up the phone *TODAY* and call your
Representative because the House is voting tonight, *Monday, May 22,* on
HR4681, the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006.

Call the Capitol switchboard today toll-free at *1-888-355-3588 *and ask for
your Representative, or call them directly by looking up their numbers on
our Congressional Report
Card<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=127483355&url_num=2&url=http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=89>.
Even if you've already contacted your Representative before on this issue,
please call again today!

If you've ever doubted your ability to have an effect on your
Representative, here is some tangible proof that your efforts are paying
off:

* Every Member of Congress has received a fax from the US Campaign of a
petition<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=127483355&url_num=3&url=http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1188>signed
by more than
*330 US-based organizations opposed to HR4681*.

* Despite intense arm-twisting and hysterical emails from AIPAC, close to
140 Representatives have refused to co-sponsor HR4681. *AIPAC has even
acknowledged the intense grassroots opposition to this bill*.  In an email
to their supporters, AIPAC states that "Around the country the opponents of
this bill are engaging in grassroots activism in opposition to it and it
is important that Congress hear from the bill's supporters."

* *Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN-4) has banned AIPAC from her office* until it
apologizes for equating her committee vote against HR4681 to "support for
terrorists".  In a
letter<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=127483355&url_num=4&url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19063>to
AIPAC, Rep. McCollum states that "During my nineteen years serving in
elected office, including the past five years as a Member of Congress, never
has my name and reputation been maligned or smeared as it was last week by a
representative of AIPAC."

* Reps. David Price (D-NC-4), Lois Capps (D-CA-23), Ray LaHood (R-IL-18),
and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-3) issued a *Dear Colleague letter against HR4681*.
These Representatives criticized the bill on the grounds that it "would
prohibit all assistance to the Palestinian people, other than
narrowly-defined categories of humanitarian aid (excluding, for example,
education and economic development)."

** Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA-7) entered a scathing critique of HR4681* in the
Congressional Record<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=127483355&url_num=5&url=http://www.peacenow.org/roundup.asp?rid=&cid=2565>in
which he asked "And what can we expect if we turn our backs on the
real
and growing humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people? It doesn't make
sense to put restrictions on funding the NGOs that provide the Palestinian
people with hospitals and schools. As a medical doctor, I am gravely
concerned about the fate of millions of innocent Palestinians who rely on
international aid for food, health care, and for developing their economy
and businesses. Recent news reports say that international sanctions are
preventing hospitals in Gaza from providing dialysis machines for patients,
and they may not be able to supply immunizations to children. The World
Health Organization sees a 'rapid decline of the public health
system.....towards a possible collapse.' This bill will only make the
already dire situation even worse. As a doctor I took an oath to heal. As a
nation, we took an oath to lead. Allowing innocent Palestinians to go
hungry, while denying them medical treatment cannot possibly correct
injustice, or lead to peace."

* *Rep. Earl Blumenauer* (D-OR-3) submitted an additional
view<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=127483355&url_num=6&url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/2?&sid=cp1096kaUp&hd_count=2&xform_type=3&refer=&r_n=hr462p1.109&db_id=109&item=2&sel=TOC_84688&>to
the House International Relations Committee report on HR4681, calling
it
"the wrong answer to a most difficult challenge."

Please pick up the phone today and make sure that your Representative knows
that her/his constituents oppose sanctioning the Palestinian people for
voting.  *Call today:* *1-888-355-3588 *

*WHY IS HR4681 SO IMPORTANT?*

HR4681 is the most draconian sanctions bill that Congress has
*EVER*considered imposing against the Palestinians.  The
anti-Palestinian
sanctions in it include:

* Restricting US humanitarian aid and potentially eliminating entire US aid
projects, such as infrastructure and small business development;

* Threatening to withhold a portion of US dues to the United Nations because
it maintains bodies that advocate for Palestinian human rights and seek to
hold Israel accountable to international law;

* Defining territory controlled nominally by the Palestinian Authority as a
"terrorist sanctuary", thereby requiring US businesses to obtain special
export licenses for most goods destined for the Occupied Palestinian
Territories and gutting the provisions of the US free trade agreement with
the West Bank and Gaza;

* Refusing visas to members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the
Palestinian Mission to the UN, even those who belong to political parties
that the United States does not classify as "foreign terrorist
organizations";

* Restricting the movement of PLO diplomats at the United Nations and
threatening to close the PLO's office in Washington, and;

* Instructing the US representative to the World Bank to use the
considerable strength of the United States in international financial
institutions to vote against the continuation of humanitarian aid projects.

*CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY:** **1-888-355-3588   *


-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/peace-discuss/attachments/20060522/3375f509/attachment.htm