[Peace] Fwd: Urgent Action to support the Gaza Freedom March/Peaceable Assembly Campaign Updates

[Karen Medina]

Requests have come from both "Just Foreign Policy" and "Voices for Creative
Nonviolence" asking people to contact a few consulates and embassies to
show:
* Support for the December 31, 2009 Gaza Freedom March.
* Urge the Egyptian government to allow the 1,300 international delegates to
enter the Gaza Strip through Egypt.

The contact information is below as well as a sample suggested message.

Thank you for your valuable time.

-karen medina

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Voices for Creative Nonviolence <info at vcnv.org>
Date: Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 7:59 PM
Subject: Urgent Action Gaza Freedom March/Peaceable Assembly Campaign
Updates
To: kmedina at uiuc.edu


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Gaza Freedom March
Urgent Action!
December 21, 2009

We are determined to break the siege.  We all will continue to do whatever
we can to make it happen

Using the pretext of escalating tensions on the Gaza-Egypt border, the
Egyptian Foreign Ministry informed us yesterday that the Rafah border will
be closed over the coming weeks, into January. We responded that there is
always tension at the border because of the siege, that we do not feel
threatened, and that if there are any risks, they are risks we are willing
to take. We also said that it was too late for over 1,300 delegates coming
from over 42 countries to change their plans now.  We both agreed to
continue our exchanges.

Although we consider this as a setback, it is something we've encountered
-and overcome- before.  No delegation, large or small, that entered Gaza
over the past 12 months has ever received a final OK before arriving at the
Rafah border.  Most delegations were discouraged from even heading out of
Cairo to Rafah.  Some had their buses stopped on the way. Some have been
told outright that they could not go into Gaza. But after public and
political pressure, the Egyptian government changed its position and let
them pass.

Our efforts and plans will not be altered at this point. We have set out to
break the siege of Gaza and march on December 31 against the Israeli
blockade. We are continuing in the same direction.

Egyptian embassies and missions all over the world must hear from us and our
supporters (by phone, fax and email)** over the coming crucial days, with a
clear message: Let the international delegation enter Gaza and let the Gaza
Freedom March proceed.

Contact your local consulate here:
http://www.mfa.gov.eg/MFA_Portal/en-GB/mfa_websits/

Contact the Palestine Division in Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo
Ahmed Azzam, tel +202-25749682 Email: ahmed.azzam at mfa.gov.eg

In the U.S., contact the Egyptian Embassy, 202-895-5400 and ask for Omar
Youssef or email omaryoussef at hotmail.com

The GFM Steering Committee

* * Sample text

I am writing/calling to express my full support for the December 31, 2009
Gaza Freedom March. I urge the Egyptian government to allow the 1,300
international delegates to enter the Gaza Strip through Egypt.

The aim of the march is to call on Israel to lift the siege. The delegates
will also take in badly needed medical aid, as well as school supplies and
winter jackets for the children of Gaza.

Please, let this historic March proceed.

Thank you.

For more info on the Gaza Freedom March click here.
<http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?list=type&type=416>


Peaceable Assembly Campaign (PAC) Update:

It is not too late to register <http://vcnv.org/pac/registration> and join
us in Washington D.C. for Phase Two, the PAC Days of Resistance.
We will be holding vigil in front of the White House everyday from 10:30AM
to 1:00PM, January 19, 2010 to February 2, 2010.
If you need housing please contact us by January 5, 2010.

New PAC Resources:
KEY CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES — MEMBERS AND CONTACT INFO
Membership and contact information for Representatives and Senators who are
on the Armed Services; Appropriations; Foreign Affairs / Foreign Relations;
and Intelligence committees.
For this and other resources please click here.<http://vcnv.org/pac/resources>

PAC Event:
DAYS of RESISTANCE: Break the fast with Witness Against Torture and gear up
for more action with the Peaceable Assembly Campaign. Frida Berrigan and
Rev. Graylan Hagler speak truth to power, emma’s revolution add to the
festivities.
January 23, 2010
5:00PM to 7:00PM
Busboys and Poets <http://www.busboysandpoets.com/>
2021 14th Street
the Langston Room
Washington, DC
Google Map<http://maps.google.com/?q=2021+14th+Street%2C+Washington%2C+DC%2C+%2C+us>
Free will donations to Witness Against Torture and the Peaceable Assembly
Campaign will be gratefully accepted.

For more PAC updates as they happen go to www.peaceableassemblycampaign.org

No Military Solution to Conflicts
by Arshin Adib-Moghaddam | Bitter Lemons
December 17, 2009

"The nature of the current wars in the wider western Asian area reveals a
disturbing trend: next to sources of conflict between states there are an
increasing number of conflicts within them. In Yemen, the civil war has had
a ripple effect throughout the Persian Gulf region provoking the military
intervention of Saudi Arabia and a humanitarian crisis that has remained
largely unreported. In Iraq, the aftermath of the devastating US/UK invasion
in 2003 continues to cast a shadow on the timid post-war reconstruction
efforts of the al-Maliki administration.

Indeed, seven years after the "shock and awe" campaign of the US military
and six years after the abuse at Abu Ghraib, the plight of the Iraqi people
has largely been forgotten. The news about the recent car bombs that killed
over 120 people in Baghdad did not make it to the front page of major
newspapers in Europe and the United States. The western consciousness has
been coded to move on to a new strategic theater, "AfPak". The drones of the
US military are now bombing the border areas between Afghanistan and
Pakistan. Civilians are routinely killed. Iraq is old news."

Read the rest of the article.

<http://www.bitterlemons-international.org/inside.php?id=1220>
Report on the Situation of Economic and Social Rights in Afghanistan - IV
Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission
November/December, 2009

"Executive Summary

This report assesses the situation of economic and social rights in
Afghanistan and investigates the progress made by the Afghan government in
ensuring these rights from early 1387 (March 2008) to late 1387 (March
2009). The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has already
published three reports on economic and social rights in the years 2006,
2007, and 2008. This report is also available online at AIHRC website at
www.aihrc.org.af.

The Afghan Constitution and the International Covenant on Economic, Social,
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)1, form the two fundamental sources of the
Afghan government’s legal framework for the realization of economic and
social rights. These legal sources are complemented by Afghanistan’s
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Afghanistan National Development
Strategy (ANDS).2 Accordingly, the government of Afghanistan has a duty to
protect these rights for its citizens, pave the way for social security,
create conditions for enjoyment by the people of their right to an adequate
standard of living, socially reintegrate returnees and internally displaced
persons (IDPs), safeguard family life, and provide Afghan citizens with
educational and health services.

It is not an easy task to ensure economic and social rights and bring about
an adequate standard of living. Serious, continued, and time-consuming
efforts are required to implement commitments made by the Afghan government.
Afghanistan’s regional geographical position and its natural setting can lay
a solid basis for socioeconomic development, but political will,
comprehensive strategy-making, and proper programmes are needed to make the
most of these opportunities."

Read the rest of the
article.<http://vcnv.org/report-on-the-situation-of-economic-and-social-rights-in-afghanistan-iv>

Obama's Dirty War
by Douglas Valentine | Consortium News
December 13, 2009

In his Nobel Peace Prize speech, President Barack Obama declared “we’re in
Afghanistan to prevent a cancer from spreading throughout that country.” The
phrasing signals that his war escalation will follow the dictates of what
the CIA calls political and psychological warfare, the cornerstones of
counterinsurgency.

By viewing this “cancer” as a political and ideological threat – as much as
a military one – the U.S. counterinsurgency strategies will merge violence
against armed enemies with attacks on their unarmed supporters, as has
happened in such conflicts around the world, from Indochina to Latin America
to Africa.

In Algeria, the French dubbed their counterinsurgency “la sale guerre,” the
dirty war, due to its reliance on terror to coerce the civilian population
into submission. The elements of dirty war traditionally include murder,
kidnapping, torture, disappearances and the total disruption of the nation’s
political, cultural, and economic infrastructure.

Obama’s Dec. 10 speech in Oslo also marked an important juncture for him as
he took on the job of selling a counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan, which
has already been stained by the blood of thousands of innocents killed in
bombing raids that targeted militants mixed with non-combatants.

Read the rest of the article.<http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/121309a.html>

 DECEMBER 1, 2009

CURRENT CAMPAIGN:
THE PEACEABLE ASSEMBLY CAMPAIGN:
FALL of 2009 to SPRING 2010
A Campaign to Demand Alternatives to U.S. Militarism <http://vcnv.org/pac>

Click Here for Campaign Resources <http://vcnv.org/pac/resources>
The Resource section includes tools for lobbying, the PAC foundational
document, a flyer and other documents to help put local PAC activities into
action.

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-- 
karen medina
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
"In this universe, we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the
ability to ask questions." (Mary Oliver, American poet)
A third gift is the ability to laugh. (Jenifer, a friend)
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