GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/
Urgent alert Sunday, 11/2/2001
Palestinian sources report that 22 Palestinian families living in the Mawasi District of the Gaza Strip (near Han-Yunes) were yesterday (Sat. 10/2) given eviction orders requiring them to evacuate their houses TODAY (Sunday, 11.2); the houses are set for demolition for "reasons of security". The inhabitants decided they will defy the orders and stay on in their homes.
The information reached the Jerusalem-based RTIC (Real-Time Information Center <rtic2000mail at hotmail.com>) engaged in monitoring the situation in the Occupied Territories (it is affiliated to the Alternative Inforation Center). RTIC alerted Knesset Members and peace organizations, among them Gush Shalom (the Israeli Peace Bloc).
The Mawasi is an enclave of Palestinian houses and farms surrounded on all sides by the Israeli settlments of the "Katif Bloc". The settlers have long tried to "get rid" of this Palestinian presence, and violently assulated their Palestinian neighbors on various occasions. In one case, about a month ago, settlers were shown on Israeli and international TV setting fire to Palestinian fields, orchards and houses at the Mawasi. (Two settlers were arrested, but soon released on bail). At the time, the settlers' pirate radio station "Arutz 7" broadcast interviews with settler leaders, who called upon the army to completely destroy the Palestinian homes in the Mawasi. It seems that army is now preapred to implement this settler demand - at the very time when negotiations are underway between outgoing PM Barak and his successor Sharon on the forming of a "National Unity" cabinet. The mass demolition order at the Mawasi, issued while Barak is still formally in charge, seems to be the shape of things to come: an unholy alliance in which the brutal oppression characteristic of Ariel Sharon throughout his career is given Labour Party approval and legitimation.
We ask anybody who can to send IMMEDIATE messages of protest (it can be a short one, as in the sample):
To Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak
The planned demolition of 22 Palestinian houses in the Mawasi District of the Gaza Strip, which already was targeted by settlers, is a shame. The whole world is watching you.
[your name]
---------------- Because governmental emails have a tendency not always to function please email to all the following addresses.
PM Ehud Barak <pm at gov.il> PM Ehud Barak <e.barak at pmo.gov.il> Minister of Defence (=Ehud Barak) <sar at mod.gov.il> Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh <sgansar at mod.gov.il> Spokesperson for the PM Merav Parsi-Zadok <dover at pmo.gov.il> and/or send a fax to: + 972 2 566 4838 / 691 7915
Copies to President George W. Bush <President at Whitehouse.gov> Secretary of State Colin Powell <secretary at state.gov> fax: (202) 736-4461 and to: rtic2000 at yahoo.com & info at gush-shalom.org
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_________________________________________________________________ No Return = No Peace March and Rally, New York City, 7 April 2001, http://al-awda.org. _________________________________________________________________