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hello dears,
below:
- help Yesh-Gvul flush out war criminals
- petition in support of refuseniks
- eye2eye: video / audio archive
- poetry events: Charles Olson, Etel Adnan
- sponsor
love,
oz
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help us flush out war criminals
email from Yesh-Gvul
Dear friend,

As you probably know from media reports, Yesh Gvul has taken a f urther step in its campaign against Israeli officers suspected of human rights abuses or war crimes. Operating on material we supplied, a UK law firm has formally filed criminal complaints with the local police, against a number of senior IDF officers. One such, reserve general Doron Almog, narrowly escaped arrest when he remained on board the El Al plane that brought him to London, and returned to Israel without disembarking.

Alongside Almog, more senior figures now under investigation in Britain include IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz, after Israel's judiciary and law enforcement agencies systematically evaded our demands for an investigation into his role in the killing of civilians in the bombing of a Gaza residential building. Having exhausted Israel's judicial process, we decided to take the Halutz case to a foreign court in the hope of getting the thorough investigation denied here in Israel.

That initiative has aroused enormous anger from Israel's political and military leadership, and we have come under furious attacks in the media. On top of the resentment such an initiative would evoke in other lands, it is also a direct challenge to the traditional Jewish reluctance to "wash dirty linen in public", and the equally traditional hatred within minority Jewish communities toward the "moiser" ("snitch"). The publicity has spawned legal initiatives to penalise Israelis who take cases to foreign courts. Equally sinister: hate mail and death threats directed at Yesh Gvul members associated with the case.

As you can imagine, we are currently under heavy pressure, and we're in urgent need of aid, moral and material. We will welcome any declaration of support. We'll welcome it even more if it's backed up with a financial donation, because our already strained resources are simply not up to meeting the challenges and opportunities now created.

Peretz Kidron * Ram Rahat

PS. For full details of our campaign against war crimes in the occupied territories, contact us for a complete brief, including the legal actions we have taken in chronological sequence.

DONATIONS TO YESH GVUL
Israel: cheques to PO Box 91068, Jerusalem 91068
or: bank transfer to: Yesh Gvul, Acct. no. 36666, Bank Hapoalim, King George St., Jerusalem (POALILIT)

You can also make a contribution (tax-deductible in the US) by credit card at www.refusersolidarity.net (click on "Donate Now" and be sure to select "Yesh Gvul projects" as the RSN project) or by sending a check to:
Refuser Solidarity Network
P.O. Box 53474
Washington DC
20009-9474
(202) 232-1100
Be sure to write YESH GVUL on the memo line of your check!
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Petition in support of the occupation refusers
Sign a petition in support of the occupation refusers
And to demand their immediate release
Alex Cohn, Wissam Qablan, Orwa Zidan and Shaul Mograbi-Berger are currently in military prison for their refusal, on grounds of conscientious objection, to serve the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Alex Cohn (19) is currently serving a seventh term in prison, and has spent a total of 124 days in military jail. Alex is one of the initiators of the 2005 Shministim (high school seniors) letter, which was signed by about 350 young people. In this letter they state that they do not intend to serve in the Israeli army so long as it serves the Occupation. In his letter to the Minister of Defense, Alex writes among other things: "It is impossible to serve in the occupation army without taking part in the injustices it causes. The occupation is the result of a policy and not imposed by circumstances. The extent and power of its ramifications for the Israelis and Palestinians cannot be grasped. It is therefore unacceptable by any moral standard. Because one cannot serve in the army without taking part in the occupation, I cannot, in good conscience, enlist."
Wissam Qablan (20) has spent 100 days in prison. He first refused to enlist already in late 2003 and did not appear at the National Induction Base on the appointed day. This year he decided to present himself and he was subsequently jailed several times over on the grounds of his refusal. Wissam says that he refuses to serve in the army because he regards it as a tool used by the government to conduct a policy that destroys both peoples. He will not become part of such an organization.
Orwa Zidan (19) is now spending his second 21-day term in military jail. His brother, before him, was imprisoned too after he refused to serve on conscientious grounds. He was released after five months. Orwa's father, as well, was a CO in 1974, and his mother is active in the Druze refusal movement.
Shaul Mograbi-Berger (19), like Orwa, is currently in jail for a second term of 21 days. Shaul is an activist in the non-violent movement against the separation wall and with the Shministim. In his letter, dated January 2005, to the minister of defense, he wrote, among other things: "For as long as this army is an occupying power, it won’t have room for me. (...) Non-resistance to the occupation, and even more so to military service, is tantamount to approving of the occupation. (...) In making my refusal, I do not follow positive law, according to which it is my duty to enlist for military service, but I am faithful to substantive law. The latter, as I learned during civics classes, is, as its name suggests: the foundation and essence of democracy."
The Forum of Parents ofConscientious Objectors (the Parents Forum) is asking you to sign the petition below in support of the occupation refusers and demanding their immediate release from military prison. (This petition will be published in the press.)

Refuse the Occupation
Now, that the smoke-screen of the disengagement plan has dispersed, it has become clear once again that Israel’s brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories has by no means ended and is in fact gaining force. The Israeli government continues building the separation wall, expanding its illegal settlements and oppressing the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.
Wissam Qablan, Alex Cohn, Orwa Zidan, and Shaul Mograbi-Berger are in military prison for their conscientious refusal to enlist and take part in the occupation and its ensuing oppression. Their imprisonment is meant only to punish them and prevent them from obeying the dictate of their conscience.
We call upon the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff: Allow the jailed objectors to follow their conscience -
Free the Occupation Refusers!
sign at: refusers.petition@gmail.com
For further information: www.refuz.org.il, www.shministim.org.il
Donations: Please write cheques made out to New Profile and send to:
New Profile, POB 9013, Jerusalem 91090, Israel
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Eye2Eye
Dear Friends,
Eye2Eye is the production unit of the Alternative Information Center AIC. Our focus is the production of audio/visual material for television and internet broadcasting. The aim of Eye2Eye is to offer the Israeli and International audiences an accessible representation of the reality of the occupation - independent of mainstream media; emphasizing social, economic, environmental, political and legal aspects of the occupation with a concentration on Jerusalem. The material produced varies from short clips and news reportage to documentary movies.
You can watch the audio/visual clips by intering the below link:
http://www.alternativenews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=235&lang=ISO-8859-1
We'll be happy to have your feedbacks, which will be taken seriuosly.
Best Regards,
Yasser Akawi
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Etel Adnan reading
Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery in New York City
131 East 10th st.
Wednesday, 8:00pm
Her latest book, In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country, is a memoir told in lyrical vignettes that explores identity, history, displacement, and war from an Arab American perspective Adnan writes, "Contrary to what is usually believed, it is not general ideas and grandiose unfolding of great events that impress the mind during times of heightened historic upheavals, but rather the uninterrupted flow of little experiences, observations, disturbances, small ecstasies, or barely perceptible discouragements that make up day-to-day living." She'll be reading with Robin Blaser.
A hebrew version dnan's PARIS, WHEN IT'S NAKED, is forthcoming from Andalus publishing, by yours translationally.
http://www.poetryproject.com/calendar.html
(i think i'll just have to visit in NYC to see this)
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OlsonNow
http://olsonnow.blogspot.com/
Thirty five years have passed since the death of Charles Olson in 1970. While all the signs were there when he died, the country he lived in is almost unrecognizable: decades of covert wars, domestic and international imprisonment on a massive scale, and the flexing of imperial muscle that now finds the U.S. military in Iraq reveal that the "pejorocracy" Olson warned of is well entrenched. As almost all forms of knowledge and culture have become administered and poetry has become a profession, the questions Olson raised about the world and the role of poetry and knowledge in it are more pointed than ever.
The first major public event emerging from the project will take place on:
December 3, 2005, from 12 to 7 at the
Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery in New York City
131 East 10th st.
http://www.poetryproject.com
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