Mideast Just Peace

<>GRAND RAPIDS MINISTER TO SPEAK ABOUT BETHLEHEM MISSION
Building Goodwill and Playgrounds for Palestinian Children
Nathan Dannison, a graduate student at Chicago  Theological Seminary and
director of Outreach Ministries at Park Church in Grand Rapids, will be in Traverse City  on Saturday, March 29, 2008 and Sunday, March 30, 2008 to talk about his upcoming trip to Palestine to learn Arabic, follow in the footsteps of Jesus, and finance and build a playground for Palestinian children in Bethlehem. The playground is a project of the Philadelphia-based Playgrounds for Palestine (www.playgroundsforpalestine.org), whose mission is to give Palestinian children bright, safe, developmentally appropriate places to play. The group describes its work as “an affirmation of their right to childhood and a minimal recognition of their humanity… an act of Love.”

Dannison’s presentations are sponsored by the local peace group MidEast:
JustPeace which was founded in Traverse City in 2002 to bring more
attention to the efforts to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. Attendees will be asked to help with donations toward the Bethlehem
playground. Dannison will speak three times over the weekend.

• Saturday, March 29th at the Grace Episcopal Church Hall, 341 Washington St. at 6:00 PM beginning with a potluck Attendees
  are asked to bring a dish to share and their own plates and utensils.
  Presentation at 7:00 PM.
  
• Sunday, March 30th at the Traverse Area District Library at 2:00 PM.
• Sunday, March 30th at the Potter’s House Church, UCC at 5:00 PM. The Potter’s House Church, UCC meets at Grace Episcopal Church, 341 Washington St. The Potter’s House is co-sponsoring his presentation at their church.

<>“Ever since I became “politically aware” in high school the Israeli / Palestinian conflagration has deeply troubled me. In my adult
life have had an opportunity to spend my graduate career studying and             following Jesus of Nazareth, a man from Palestine, who was a healer and proclaimed the justice tradition of the prophet Isaiah and
the Tanakh,” said Dannison. “[Reports state that] only 2.5% of children living in the occupied territories are free from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and one survey found that 83% of local children had witnessed shootings. This, coupled with the fact that Palestinian children are regularly killed by military actions carried out near their homes, is why I feel very strongly about what Playgrounds for Palestine is doing for the people who live in this impoverished region.” For more information please call Marian Kromkowski at 231.271.5600 or
Gina Aranki at 231.620.6515.

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation Condemns H.Res.951 March 6, 2008
On March 5, the House of Representative passed by a vote of 404-1 H.Res.951, a biased, one-sided resolution on the situation in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Gaza Strip. Read the US Campaign’s analysis of this resolution, learn more about what we did to­ protest it, and how you can take action.Read More »

A defeated policy, not a defeated people
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 7 March 2008 Here
The fallacy that lies behind the differential concern for the lives of innocent Israelis and Palestinians is thatthe massacre in Jerusalem and the massacres in Gaza can be separated. Israeli deaths are “terrorism,” while Palestinian deaths are merely an unfortunate consequence of the fight against “terrorism.” But the two are intricately linked, and what happened in Jerusalem is a direct consequence of what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians for decades.

THE MEGA PRISON OF PALESTINE
By Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, 5 March 2008 Here
In several articles published by The Electronic Intifada, I claimed that Israel is pursuing a genocidal policy against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The argument was that since Israel does not know how to deal with the Gaza Strip, they opted for a knee-jerk reaction in the form of massive killings whenever the Palestinians in the Strip dared to protest their strangulation and imprisonment. The end result so far is the escalation of the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians — unfortunately validating the adjective “genocidal” I and
others attached to these policies.

Rights Group: More than 50% of Gaza casulties weren’t militants by Haaretz Service Here
The human rights organization B’Tselem on Monday said in a statement that more than half of the Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip in Israel Defense Forces operations in recent days did not take an active part in the fighting. This statement came after the IDF Chief of Staff issued a statement saying that 90 percent of those killed were in fact armed militants.

The War on Lebanon: A Reader
Edited by Nubar Hovsepian, Olive Branch Press

Parts One-Three on Tuesday, March 25
Parts Four-Six on Tuesday, April 22
Discussion at 7PM at Horizon Bookstore in Traverse City
Buy the book at Horizon at get a 10% discount as part of MidEast:JustPeace Book Club

Our book selection for March and April is “The War on Lebanon: A Reader”, a compelling set of essays on Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon.

What explains Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers and the scale of Israel’s retaliation? Why did the US reject an early ceasefire, instead egging on Israel as it pummeled Lebanon and casualties mounted? Why did President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice believe the Lebanese and other Arabs would welcome the “birth pangs” of a “new Middle East” designed by the US and Israel? And where will it all lead? Can the party continue to be both part of Lebanon’s parliament and an independent resistance movement? Will Lebanon become a modern, non-sectarian state or will the confessional order be further entrenched?

These and other vital questions are addressed in this collection of essays by internationally respected scholars and experts from around the world who examine the ethical, legal and strategic issues of the conflict, and analyze the consequences facing the region and the world in the wake of the Israeli invasion. Ultimately, the solution for Lebanon is intricately connected to the wider issues of the Middle East, including the right of the Palestinians to independence.”

Contributors include: Rashid Khalidi • Yoav Peled • Virginia Tilley • Sara Roy • Ussama Makdisi • Noam Chomsky • Fawwaz Traboulsi • Asa’d Abukhalil • Lara Deeb • Georges Corm • Stephen Zunes • Irene Gendzier • Azmi Bishara • Yitzhak Laor • Rasha Salti • Elias Khoury • Ziad Majed • Rami Khouri • Assaf Kfoury • Richard Falk • Phyllis Bennis • Haneen Sayed • William Hartung • Fred Halliday • Nubar Hovsepian • Hanady Salman • Kirsten Scheid • Hiam Brinjikji • Asli Bali • Frida Berrigan • Zafiris Tzannatos