TAKE ACTION

Contents:

Free Gaza Campaign
Participate in Divestment Campaign for Initiative 97
Latest action alert
Letter-Writing Guidelines
Contact Your Representatives
Ways of Visiting Palestine/Israel
Archives of Past Action Alerts

Welcome to the Action section of PSC's web site. This page explains the work of the outreach committee of PSC-Seattle and invites you to become involved. There are two main aspects to our work: action alerts and a speaker bureau.

To receive action alerts, sign up to participate in our Response Network by writing us at outreach@palestineinformation.org. Once you sign on, you will receive periodic alerts that will prompt you to write to a newspaper or to your Congressional representatives. We also encourage you to send us copies of your letters. You will find letter-writing guidelines below [click here].

In addition to posting action alerts, we also coordinate state-wide appearances of speakers familiar with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. Many of our speakers have spent time in Palestine and Israel, often with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). If your church, school, or community group would like to sponsor a presentation, please get in touch. We are also prepared to provide video/DVD films with our presentations.

Possible topics we can discuss include:

»  History of the conflict
»  Palestinian resistance to occupation
»  U.S. support for the occupation
»  Current events (Gaza disengagement, construction of the Separation Wall, etc)
»  Divestment
»  Christian Zionism
»  Israeli and international solidarity activities
»  What you can do

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JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TO GATHER SIGNATURES FOR ANTI-WAR AND ANTI-OCCUPATION INITIATIVE 97  

       The Palestine Solidarity Committee -- Seattle supports Seattle Ballot Initiative 97, which calls for the city of Seattle to divest its Employees' Retirement 
       System funds from corporations involved in the various illegal wars and occupations in the Middle East. Please help collect the signatures needed to get 
       the initiative on the ballot! Visit http://www.divestfromwar.org for more information or to volunteer.

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--PLEASE FORWARD THIS ALERT TO OTHERS WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED--

Please write the Seattle P.I. about Sunday's op-eds by David Brumer and Johann Hari, inserted below. Presumably inspired by the upcoming 60^th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, Brumer has written yet another exaggeration of Israel's innocence and victimization. Loaded with stereotypes and falsehoods, this column paints a picture of Israel as a "vibrant democracy" apparently demonized, unfathomably, by deranged "progressives" and fundamentalists who wish for the destruction of the state. Standard Brumer fare.

In the same issue, the P.I. reprinted an editorial from the Independent by Johann Hari. This column provides a partial response to Brumer, in that it mentions the 60-year displacement of the Palestinians, and it describes the environmental racism practiced against them by Israeli settlers.

Our response could further any or all of the following goals:
1. bring up the "rest of the story:" Israel's creation involved a catastrophe for the Palestinians that is still being imposed to this day (see details in talking points below).
2. Suggest that the P.I. give the ubiquitous Brumer a rest and find an Israeli patriot who can avoid such malicious and fanciful writing.
3. Note with appreciation that the P.I. tried to answer Brumer's article with an opposing point of view, but how about giving the Palestinians a chance to speak for themselves?

Time by which action should be taken:
--Ideal: Monday, May 5
--Still helpful: Thursday, May 8

Articles:
 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361594_israel04.htm l
"An incontrovertible right to exist"
By David Brumer
and
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361593_hari04.html
"Israel built over the ruins of its crimes against Palestine"
By Johann Hari
The full texts of the articles are inserted at the end of this e-mail.

Context:
In this 60^th anniversary year of the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe"), when over 700,000 Palestinians were displaced and hundreds of their villages were destroyed, opponents of human rights for Palestinians are particularly on the offensive, urging the general public to celebrate the establishment of an idealized Jewish state, while burying the rest of the history that has happened in historic Palestine over the past century. There were Palestinians. Most of them were displaced, their lives uprooted. The Palestinians have resisted this crime, and the crimes continue, as does the Palestinians' resistance. This year, we turn a corner in educating the public about this history. Heretofore we have mainly concentrated on the now 40-year occupation of Palestinian territories, but we have resolved to put that occupation in the context of the larger dispossession of the entire Palestinian society. For Americans to understand why there is a conflict in Palestine and Israel, they must have information that goes back before 1967.

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Talking points for letter writing:

Your letter can be very brief; it is the response to the editorials that counts. Below are some points that could be expressed.

--Express objection to the P.I.'s giving space to Brumer's tired, overblown, racist comments. Express appreciation for Hari's reprinted article. Request air time for Palestinians.

--Brumer's framing of his argument centers on the alleged questioned existence of Israel. For most of us concerned with the conflict, the central issue is the ongoing, flagrant violation of Palestinian human rights. Re-frame the discussion this way. Put differently, Brumer's grandiose worrying about Israel's right to exist is a version of the security argument. But it leaves out the question of Palestinian security!

--On the issue of Palestinian security, let's remember:
-that in 1948 over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their ancestral land, which they had continually inhabited for many centuries, and around 500 of their villages were destroyed at that time.
-That several hundred thousand more Palestinians were displaced in 1967, and the rest of Palestine, that is, the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, were then occupied at that time.
-that the Palestinians within Israel have been treated as (at best) second-class citizens ever since 1948, and those in the Territories have been living under a harsh, brutal military dictatorship for the last fifty years.
-that Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are routinely denied their rights to worship, livelihood, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and that they are subject to random arrest, torture, jailing without trial, confiscation of their land, and uprooting of their orchards. The "separation barrier" separates from their land and from Jerusalem, their  holy city (for Palestinian Muslims and Christians) as well as that of the Jews.
-that Palestinians within Israel are denied equal opportunity, education, and livelihood on a par with Jewish Israelis.  

--These and many other offenses to Palestinian security are the root of Israeli insecurity. Brumer finds the "delegitimization" of Israel baffling. He should take a look at these ways that Israel ruins its own legitimacy.

--Reinforce Hari's comments that show that Israel is not in fact the idyllic land, the vibrant democracy falsely portrayed by Brumer. As Hari writes, the history of 1948 needs to be "excavated," indeed. Part of that process will addressing the refugee problem. As part of the condition for Israel's membership in the United Nations, it signed on to UN Resolution 194, which acknowledged the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.

--In burying the true history of 1948, Brumer also ignores the fact that the establishment of settlements on Palestinian lands continues to this day, in the West Bank. Cementing territorial dominance through settlements, besides being prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, is an outmoded way of conquering people and land, and it does not work.

--Although Brumer doesn't recognize occupation, he touts the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a commendable move. He notes the removal of 8,000 "Israeli citizens" from that territory, but doesn't explain what they were doing on someone else's land. Furthermore, the ongoing Israeli control of Gaza's borders, air, and resources leave Israel under the onus of occupation law. Most objectionably, Brumer does not recognize the continuing torment imposed on Gaza by the complete shutoff of fuel in, and commerce out. This has reached such drastic proportions that UNRWA (UN Relief Works Agency) last week suspended relief operations in Gaza due to lack of fuel for deliveries. Starvation is threatening Gaza.

--Brumer mentions suicide bombing, but not the targeted assassinations, regular army incursions, and bombing of Gaza that leave its population helpless and desperate. Apologists for Israel's behavior usually point to the rockets fired on Sderot as the cause of all this, but is Gaza really the place to look for Gandhian resistance? Meanwhile, last month Hamas offered yet another truce to the Israeli government, one that was once again ignored.

--Brumer cites partition plans as if they were the most reasonable "compromise" imaginable. From the Palestinian side, these plans have always meant theft of their homeland.

--Brumer writes of gay and women's rights in Israel, but where are the Palestinians in that commendable scenario? For the Palestinians, Israel is not a democracy. Their representatives in the Knesset are routinely marginalized; to fill out parliamentary coalitions, the most extreme religious and pro-expulsion Zionist parties are chosen in their stead. Palestinian villages remain sidelined, deprived of public services, roads, new schools, and utilities. Palestinians within Israel, in the most developed country in the Middle East, suffer from Third World diseases, lacking the health care that Brumer touts.

--Brumer also claims that Israel boasts of religious freedom, but if that is so, then why did Israeli soldiers beat Arab Christians in Bethlehem on Easter, violently preventing them from worshipping in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher?

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Email your letter to: editpage@seattlepi.com

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Reminders:

1) Please write even if you only have time for a brief note. Numbers count. If you are not published, you will be helping someone with a similar viewpoint get into print.

2) The word limit for letters that are intended for publication is 200.

3) Begin your letter with a reference to the title and date of the article or opinion piece to which you are responding. Example: "Regarding William Safire's Friday column ("Sharon shifts Middle East politics")....

4) Personal experiences and/or qualifications, when relevant, can be helpful in establishing your authority. However, you can also establish your authority by writing factual, logical, respectful letters. When possible, include a reference to your source, such as, "according to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem,..."

5) Don't try to respond to every problem with the piece in question. Just pick one or two points to concentrate on.

6) Don't forget to include your full name, street address and contact phone numbers. The paper needs these to verify that you are actually the author. Only your name and city will appear in print.

7) Please bcc us at alerts@palestineinformation.org or forward your letter to that address. This is for our media monitoring records.

Thank you!

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Full text of articles:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361594_israel04.html
An incontrovertible right to exist

By DAVID BRUMER
GUEST COLUMNIST

The creation of Israel, the modern flowering of an ancient people, was one of the few redeeming acts in a century of atrocity and shame. Yet, as the Jewish state celebrates its 60th birthday, a chorus of defamers sees the modern incarnation of the Jewish people in their homeland as a historic injustice. For some in academia, the media and even the United Nations, Israel's very "Right to Exist" is considered a subject for legitimate debate. It's ironic, too, since few nations can claim the kind of historic legitimacy and connection to a place as can the Jewish people.

For more than 3,000 years, Jews have been spiritually as well as corporeally bonded to the land of Israel. In 1921, Winston Churchill proclaimed, "It is manifestly right that the Jews, who are scattered all over the world, should have a national center and a national home. And where else could that be but in this land of Palestine, with which for more than 3,000 years they have been intimately and profoundly associated?" For French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the recreation of a sovereign Jewish state "is the most significant event of the 20th century." He described Israel's re-establishment as "the 20th century's miracle" and noted that "defending its existence is an international duty."

So why, 60 years later, or 3,060 years, if you will, is Israel living under such a barrage of existential threats? Why does Israel still have to prove itself worthy of being included in the family of nations? Why indeed is Israel singled out as the one nation on Earth whose very existence is questioned? Cynthia Ozick bristles at the "the scandal of calling into question a living nation's existence ... The Big Lie that demonizes Israel and contaminates the viler estuaries of what is nowadays dubbed 'the international community' ... ."

Yet among "progressive" intellectuals, especially in Europe, it is axiomatic that Israel is not merely "not doing enough to for peace in the Middle East," but is responsible for Islamist "outrage" against the West; that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains at the core of the Arab world's grievances, and, if only this conflict could be solved, peace would ensue. Leaving aside the illogical nature of this proposition (al-Qaida and other radical Islamists have as much a gripe against Christian nations whom they see as usurping their place in history), it is hard to find a country that has striven more for peaceful co-existence with its neighbors than Israel. No nation has taken more demonstrable risks for peace. Israel proved its intention to live in harmony with its neighbors when it enacted peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Israel has shown its willingness to make painful sacrifices in the name of peace, withdrawing from all of Gaza in 2005 while evacuating more than 8,000 Israeli citizens from their homes.

Israel has said yes to virtually every partition plan put forth in modern times while the Palestinians have said no, starting with the Peel Commission in 1937, which would have given the Palestinians nearly 80 percent of the land between the "River and the Sea." In 1947, the Palestinians again rejected statehood on 45 percent of the land, while Israel agreed to the remaining 55 percent divided into three cantons (60 percent of which is desert). Finally, in 2000 Israel offered the Palestinians more than 96 percent of contiguous West Bank land and all of Gaza in the hopes that the century-old conflict could end. The Palestinian response to that offer was the Second Intifada, more aptly understood by Israelis as a Terror War unleashed against the Jewish State.

Yet Israel continues to be viewed as the obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Israel, which at 60 continues to be a vibrant, secular democracy. Israel, which is accused of human rights violations and even apartheid, remains an oddity in the Middle East where gays participate openly in military service; all women have the right to vote, with 17 of them serving in the 120-member Knesset (Parliament). Another12 members are Arab-Israelis, with three parties representing the Arab segment of the population. And all Israeli citizens, Christians, Muslims and Jews, enjoy freedom of speech, the press and unfettered religious expression, as well as access to education, modern health care and the professions.

Of course, Israel is far from perfect, and legitimate criticisms launched against specific conditions and policies are expected and welcomed. It is the demonization and delegitimization of the Jewish state that is as baffling as it is malevolent. Israel, which has produced more Nobel laureates per capita than anywhere else in the world, a nation of highly educated and motivated people, producing cutting-edge technologies in medicine, science and business; and all this in the face of ongoing threats -- and actualities -- of war, and the unwillingness of too many of its neighbors to accept Israel's very right to exist as a Jewish nation. The world might better applaud the miracle of Israel's rebirth in its deliberately tiny ancestral land as a model of decency, tolerance and intellectual vibrancy, for these are the true criteria of legitimacy, and focus its urge to deligitimize on societies that celebrate (and wish to spread around the world) the values of suicide-bombing, uncompromising intolerance, and irrationality.

David Brumer is a media analyst, writer and consultant on Middle Eastern affairs. He is on the advisory board of StandWithUs Northwest and is a member of Israel Bonds Speakers Bureau. Visit his blog, BRUMSPEAK, at brumspeak.blogspot.com

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361593_hari04.html
Israel built over the ruins of its crimes against Palestine

By JOHANN HARI
GUEST COLUMNIST

When you hit your 60th birthday, most of you will guzzle a glass of champagne and wonder if you have become everything you dreamed of in your youth. Soon, the state of Israel is going to have that hangover.

She will look in the mirror and think -- I have a sore back, rickety knees and a gun at my waist, but I'm still standing. Yet somewhere, she will know she is suppressing an old secret she has to face. I would love to be able to crash the birthday party with words of reassurance. Israel has given us great novelists such as Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua, great filmmakers such as Joseph Cedar, great scientific research into Alzheimer's, and great dissident journalists such as Amira Hass, Tom Segev and Gideon Levy to expose her own crimes.

She has provided the one lonely spot in the Middle East where gay people are not hounded and hanged, and where women can approach equality.

But I can't do it. Whenever I try to mouth these words, a remembered smell fills my nostrils. Across the occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish settlements, along large metal pipes, straight onto Palestinian land. From there, it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs and become a poison.

This is no freak: A 2004 report by Friends of the Earth found that only 6 percent of Israeli settlements adequately treat their sewage.

Meanwhile, in order to punish the population of Gaza for voting "the wrong way," the Israeli army is not allowing past the checkpoints any replacements for the pipes and cement needed to keep the sewage system working. The result? Vast stagnant pools of waste are being held within fragile dykes across the strip, and rotting. Last March, one burst, drowning a 9-month-old baby and his grandmother in a tsunami of human waste. The Center on Housing Rights warns one heavy rainfall could send 1.5m cubic meters of feces flowing all over Gaza, causing "a humanitarian and environmental disaster of epic proportions."

So how did it come to this? How did a Jewish state founded 60 years ago with a promise to be "a light unto the nations" end up flinging its filth at a cowering Palestinian population?

The beginnings of an answer lie in the secret Israel has known, and suppressed, all these years. Even now, can we describe what happened 60 years ago honestly and unhysterically? The Jews who arrived in Palestine throughout the 20th century did not come because they were cruel people who wanted to snuffle out Arabs to persecute. They came because they were running for their lives from a genocidal European anti-Semitism that was soon to slaughter 6 million of their sisters and their sons.

They convinced themselves Palestine was "a land without people for a people without land." I desperately wish this dream had been true. You can see traces of what might have been in Tel Aviv, a city that really was built on empty sand dunes. But most of Palestine was not empty. It was already inhabited by people who loved the land, and saw it as theirs. They were completely innocent of the long, hellish crimes against the Jews.

When it became clear those Palestinians would not welcome becoming a minority in somebody else's country, darker plans were drawn up. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, wrote in 1937: "The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war."

So, for when the moment arrived, he helped draw up Plan Dalit. It was -- as Israeli historian Ilan Pappe puts it -- "a detailed description of the methods to be used to forcibly evict the people: large-scale intimidation; and laying siege to and bombarding population centers." In 1948, before the Arab armies invaded, this began to be implemented: About 800,000 people were ethnically cleansed, and Israel was built on the ruins. The people who ask angrily why the Palestinians keep longing for their old land should imagine an English version of this story. How would we react if the 30 million stateless, persecuted Kurds in the world sent armies and settlers into England to seize everything below Leeds, and swiftly established a free Kurdistan from which we were expelled? If we are not going to be endlessly banging our heads against history, the Middle East needs to excavate 1948, and seek a solution. Any peace deal -- even one where Israel dismantled the wall and agreed to return to the 1967 borders -- tends to crumple on this issue. The Israelis say: If we let all 3 million come back, we will be outnumbered by Palestinians even within the 1967 borders, so Israel would be voted out of existence. But the Palestinians reply: If we don't have an acknowledgement of our right under international law to the land our grandfathers fled, how can we move on?

It seemed like an intractable problem -- until, two years ago, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted the first study of the Palestinian Diaspora's desires. They found that only 10 percent -- around 300,000 people -- want to return to Israel proper. Israel can accept that many (and compensate the rest) without even enduring much pain. But there has always been a strain of Israeli society that preferred violently setting its own borders, on its own terms, to talk and compromise. Last weekend, the elected Hamas government offered a six-month truce that could have led to talks. The Israeli government responded within hours by blowing up a senior Hamas leader and killing a 14-year-old girl.

Perhaps Hamas' proposals are a con; perhaps all the Arab states are lying too when they offer Israel full recognition in exchange for a rollback to the 1967 borders; but isn't it a good idea to find out? Israel needs to ask what kind of country she wants to be in the next 60 years.
Johann Hari is a columnist for The Independent in Britain.
 
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The website of the Palestine Solidarity Committee is
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The response network sends out periodic emails asking you to take action
on specific Palestine-related issues.

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GUIDE FOR WRITING LETTERS:

Many of our alerts will be in response to biased reporting that negatively portrays Palestinians as the cause of the conflict.  We will ask you to write in, pointing out the flaws in those articles.  It's also very important to write in to support positive reporting.  In either case, you can email editors with an opinion or a correction of content.  In just a few lines you can get your view across.

For example:  "On Wednesday, December 8th, you published (“title of piece”).  In this article you stated that a relative period of calm had just ended in Israel.  Are you aware that according to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem, there have been 30 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during this period of 'relative calm?'  Eleven of those killed were under the age of 16, and 22 were noncombatants.  There is never a 'relative calm' for Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation."

Please keep the following in mind:

(1) Write whatever you have time and energy for.  If you can dash out a sentence or two, please do.  If you want to craft something longer and more detailed, please do.  Most newspapers have a word limit for letters to be published: Seattle Times and Seattle PI both have limits of 200 words, for example.  If you want to write more than that and don't want to edit down, send it anyway.

(2) In your opening sentence refer to the news story, column, or previously published letter you are responding to by its headline (or author if it's a letter) and the date it was published, for example:  "Thank you for covering the event at Westlake ‘Remembering the Dead’, Dec.1."

(3) Keep the tone of your letter respectful.  Passion is fine, especially when backed up with solid facts, but avoid needlessly harsh language.  Be positive whenever possible.

(4) Resist the temptation to respond to every point in the article, and pick one or two points to focus on.

(5) If the article was generally positive towards Palestinians, but you are responding to misrepresentation or bias, e.g., the paper using “disputed territories” instead of  “occupied territories,” or stating there’s been a “period of relative calm” because no Israelis have died in a period of time when Palestinians have been killed, thank the paper for publishing the article to encourage more coverage, and then make your critical points.

(6) Send your letter to the address that we will provide in our alert.  Be timely.  Responding within 24 hours is best, though within 2 or 3 days is still okay, and letters are still noticed even after that.  Include your full first and last name, street address, and day/night telephone numbers.  Only your name and city of residence will be included if your letter is published.

(7) Newspapers will not always publish sources or links in the body of your letter.  If you want to include references to support specific facts, do so but be aware that they might not be included.

(8) Use whatever relevant authority you have, for example, if you’ve had personal experience living or traveling to the Occupied Territories, if you are knowledgeable about the Middle East, etc.  However, authority can also be established by using correct facts and by writing a polite, logical, well-written letter.

(9) Proofread your letter for errors.  If possible, have someone else read it for objective input.

(10) BCC or forward your letter to us separately at alerts@palestineinformation.org. It's important to us to know what response is generated by our efforts.
Don't be discouraged if your letter is not printed.  Every time you submit a letter you are educating the editorial board of the paper, and you are weighing in on the side of justice when it comes to tallying how the public received a published piece.
If you do get published, the same paper will probably not publish you again for a month or two.  However, please continue to write letters to the editor as numbers always count and you will be helping another person with a similar viewpoint get published.

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Every year hundreds of Palestinians are forced from their homes, homes built on land they own. They watch helplessly as Israeli bulldozers and pneumatic drills destroy in minutes both the physical structure called home and all that a home provides to a family. The Israeli government claims that these houses are illegal because they have been constructed without building permits; however, the Israeli authorities refuse to grant building permits to Palestinians. In reality the destruction of these homes facilitates Israeli territorial expansion and construction of the Wall, both illegal under international law.

Annually since 2003, ICAHD has made it possible for internationals and Israelis to join together with Palestinians in Anata, East Jerusalem, to resist the Occupation and rebuild the demolished home of a Palestinian family. In the summer of 2008, ICAHD will once again rebuild a Palestinian home during our two-week camp. We invite you to participate in the incredible opportunity to learn first-hand about life under Occupation.

"Creating Alternative Facts on the Ground," ICAHD's 2008 Summer Rebuilding Experience, takes place from July 14-29, 2008. In addition to construction, there is a full program including field trips, cultural events, films and much more. 

For more information and an application form, please visit: http://icahdusa.org/projects/summer-camp or contact Richard Wark -- summercamp@icahdusa.org.

2008 marks 60 years since the state of Israel was established. It also commemorates 60 years of displacement for the Palestinian people.

In order to strengthen the voice of the international community, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and Experience Travel Tours (ETT) encourage people to visit the Occupied Territories and Israel to be an eye-witness to the situation on the ground. No amount of reading, attending lectures or watching films can convey an accurate understanding of the “facts on the ground”, which are crucial to any program of advocacy. Our study tours bring visitors to meet with key people from both sides of the divide examining several aspects of life today in Israel, Jerusalem and Palestine. The tours provide a unique opportunity to gain first-hand, in-depth knowledge of some of the latest analysis.

A ten-day study tour will take place in November. It will be based in Bethlehem, giving support to the community imprisoned behind the Wall. There will also be a stay in Jerusalem, day trips visiting Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Hebron, Ramallah and villages in the Occupied Territories.

Experience the olive harvest. Be guided by ICAHD’s staff and receive the latest political analysis. Also meet other organisations such as Women in Black, Machsom Watch, Sabeel, Breaking the Silence and Zochrot. Visit with local people. Cost per person sharing a twin-bedded room is £900 including flights from Heathrow, the full tour programme, three-star hotel rooms with private facilities on half-board (bed, breakfast and evening meal), tour guides and tips. Not included: lunches, supplement for single room (£120), insurance. Separate land fee available. To receive an application form contact tours@icahduk.org.

Clinicians' Study Tour to Palestine & Israel: 10 Days in November 2008

See the situation on the ground and receive expert analysis from Palestinians and Israelis who work for a just and sustainable peace.

Visit 8 hospitals and 2 community-based services and compare treatment offered to Israelis and Palestinians. Hear first-hand accounts from patients and staff on how checkpoints, the wall, home demolitions and the restriction of supplies affect their lives and health. Hear about health in prisons and torture.

Stay in Bethlehem, Gaza and East Jerusalem and visit the Old City of Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah. See the evidence for yourself then discuss the facts and theories with some of the best placed and most informed individuals in the region and in the company of a varied and supportive peer-group.

A humanitarian element to the tour will enable participants to give seminars and to offer donations. Participants will also help provide treatment in selected clinics according to their professional training. All clinicians are very welcome, but those with a background in orthopaedics, oncology, cardiology and paediatrics are particularly needed.

Applications will be considered by clinicians from the UK who have experience in travelling to Israel and Palestine. A meeting will be held in London to prepare participants and another will be held after the return to share thoughts and to follow up issues.

The tour costs £1085 and is being coordinated with Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Dove & Dolphin Charity and the Foundation for Al-Quds Medical School. For more information please contact tours@icahduk.org.


GLOBAL EXCHANGE'S DELEGATIONS TO PALESTINE & ISRAEL 

Global Exchange's delegations to Palestine & Israel provide first-hand exposure to the daily struggles and realities of Palestinians living under Occupation. The delegations strive to further the US public's understanding of the conflict by listening to the aspirations and frustrations of Palestinians, by examining the dimensions of the human rights crisis under Israeli rule, as well as learning from Palestinians and Israelis who are working for a just peace and an end to the Occupation. 

 Prospects for Peace with Justice Tours
 November 6-November 17
 December 06, 2008 - December 16, 2008 
 July 25, 2009 - August 4, 2009

For more information you can contact Global Exchange
See also http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/byCountry.html#15
and http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/957.html
 (800-497-1994 x. 251) or email palestine@globalexchange.org