Subject: Become Active: Join the Peace Camp

Dear Friends


We hope you are well. Here is a special reminder for our American subscribers: we invite you to join us for tomorrow's Webinar.


"USA Activism: how can we help the cause?"
April 1st, 7:30pm EST, 4:30pm PST


For a complete list of our weekly webinar series, please scroll to the bottom of this email.

This week, we started a new information and social outreach campaign online. Many recent incidents indicate that settlers and Israeli security forces are increasing their attacks on Palestinian communities in the West Bank, taking advantage of the fact that the world is preoccupied with the Corona pandemic. Yet, the suffering of the occupation has only increased because of Corona. We as Combatants for Peace, with our wide network of activists, friends and partners, will use our platforms to expose the occupation to the world. Together we can end the occupation.


Check out the posts we publish on Facebook: Combatants for Peace and American Friends of CfP

Below is a message from Galia Golan, Combatants for Peace activist and leader in the Israeli peace camp for over 50 years.

We are all in this together – battling (or waiting out) the coronavirus.  Pandemics, by definition, do not know borders, even as we may close borders to try to limit the spread.  Everywhere, it seems, people are coming together to help each other – neighbors making sure we have food, communicating with those living alone (and others), looking for solutions and sharing information.  


Yet, I'm ashamed and embarrassed to say – this is not the case here. I'm ashamed and embarrassed to say, here the occupation continues.  It is in fact horrifying:  as we try to cope with this medical emergency, quarantine and lock downs, the Israeli army, my army, continues as if nothing has changed, as if Palestinians are not human beings like us Jews, as if we must continue to sow fear and dread.  Unbelievable as it is, soldiers, from my army, the Israel Defense Forces, continue their middle of the night invasions of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank, some even in protective medical gear, destroying, frightening and arresting. Unbelievable as it is, soldiers, from my army, continue to move about the Jordan Rift Valley harassing local communities, destroying their tents, depriving them of livelihood and shelter, and more.


I don't understand who gives these orders.  Orders that should be accompanied by a black flag (the designation by the army for an order that should be rejected, disobeyed, as wrong, immoral, cruel and evil).


The occupation has never been good, just, or justified, and many of us have long struggled to see it ended. There were so many awful things that we in the peace movement protested, so many things we tried to block and stop – whether the occupation was denying people their basic rights in area C or it was collaborating with the settlers in Hebron and elsewhere.  But somehow, what is going on now, in the time of the Coronavirus, is beyond belief, beyond exaggeration.  


And to add to this shame, we are about to have a government, still under Netanyahu, now joined by Gantz – a duo that supports the Trump plan and is likely to go for annexation, perhaps under the cover of the medical emergency.  


We cannot let all this go on.  And we certainly can't let people continue to ignore the occupation even as they express concern over the (very real) threats to democracy in Israel. 

 

Galia Golan



Support next Memorial Ceremony
Support next Memorial Ceremony (US tax-deductible donations)

Webinars & Online Events
(RSVP to this email for any or all of the upcoming events) 


"How is the Corona Virus affecting life in Israel and Palestine?"
with CfP Activists Galia Galili and Sulaiman Khatib
Watch the recording


"USA Based Activism, How Can We Help the Cause?" 

Wednesday, April 1st
7:30pm EST, 4:30pm PST  


"Faith in Activism: Freedom or Oppression?" 

in partnership with Churches for Middle East Peace
Tuesday, April 7th
5:30pm GMT (UTC)


"Personal Storytelling, a Tool of Transformation" 

with CfP Activists Ahmed Helou and Tuly Flint
and special guest speaker, Author Scott Bergstrom
Monday, April 13th
6pm GMT (UTC)


Book Discussion – Apeirogon, a Novel by Colum McCann

Order the book
 with special guest speaker, book character & CfP co-founder, Elik Elhanan 
Sunday, April 19th
4pm GMT (UTC)


Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Ceremony

Monday, April 27th

5:30pm GMT (UTC)
The Ceremony will be broadcast worldwide.
Click here for the latest details


"Cultivating Young Leadership"
in collaboration with Creativity for Peace
Saturday, May 9th
4pm GMT (UTC)

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