–An article by Rebuilding Alliance volunteer Kate Gould
 Street in front of Al Basma Club in downtown Gaza City “You know, all Palestinians are disabled,” Eid Shaqura told me as soon as I arrived at the Al Basma Club for the Disabled. All the
board members in the room laughed and I sat down to join them. “All of us are disabled,” Eid continued, “whether physically, psychologically, or in some other way. It’s life here.”
Al Basma Club for the Disabled is a non-profit, non-political, all-volunteer Gaza NGO providing sport and recreational opportunities for people with disabilities in the Gaza Strip. It is the only sports club in the Gaza Strip to specifically focus on the needs of deaf and disabled people. 150 deaf and disabled people are registered members with their club, but dozens more have yet to be registered and the number is growing all the time. The athletes compete with other deaf athletic teams as well as able-bodied teams. One of Al Basma’s teams had just won first place in its competition with the Palestinian Football Federation for the Disabled. Half of the team was chosen to go to the championship, but can’t go since it’s in Jordan, which is so difficult for Gazan Palestinians to receive permits to visit. I asked Eid how sports impacts the rest of a deaf athlete’s life.
“One of the characteristics of deaf people is that they are especially anxious, but through sports we help them create a new
mentality,” Eid explained. He described how sports boosts their self-esteem and radically increases their ability to trust other people and to calm themselves. Later, I told Eid I had never heard before that anxiousness and difficulty in trusting people were associated with deafness.
“Of course! Imagine that you live your whole life never understanding the people around you,” Eid said. New members arrived in the room, introduced themselves, and immediately began a conversation in Arabic I didn’t understand. I sat back trying to figure out what was going on when Eid turned towards me and smiled. “See, now you are deaf.”
AL BASMA CLUB
 Eid Shaqura, Chairman of the Al Basma Club. The only soccer balls available for purchase in Gaza under the blockade come through the tunnels from Egypt. The soccer ball Eid is holding cost $50 (due to inflated prices of all goods through the tunnels) but after only two kicks it split and deflated. The Rebuilding Alliance bought soccer balls for the MV Rachel Corrie to bring to Gaza, but all of its cargo has been impounded by the Israeli government. Eid Shaqura and Abeer Jaber co-founded the club in 2005 when deaf kids were playing soccer in the street and tried unsuccessfully to enter a club for able-bodied persons. Eid was called and asked to solve the problem. Both Eid and Abeer previously worked for the Palestinian Sports Federation for the Disabled. Disabled by polio in her youth, Abeer has been involved in the disabled community for most of her life. Eid has worked with disabled people from childhood as well, beginning with caring for his uncle who was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. ”We had a dream — just one dream — to establish a new club for the disabled people.”
Eid estimated that about 20,000 deaf people live in the Gaza Strip. Most are born deaf while others become deaf later in life. Some children became deaf from Israeli airstrikes nearby. Over half of both the overall population of the Gaza Strip and its deaf population are under 18. Doctors Without Borders reports that 5,300 Gazans were wounded in the 2009 assault on Gaza, while the World Health Organization estimates that 20,000-50,000 will experience long term psychological illness from that war. Al Basma Club has become a crucial hub of empowerment for Gaza’s rapidly expanding deaf and disabled community.
MORE THAN SPORTS — A COMMUNITY
I was sitting on a couch at the Al Basma Club when deaf members of the Club flooded in, beaming with pride as they shook Eid’s hand and then my own. Eid explained that they had just returned from their temporary jobs with the International Red Cross, which he had secured for them. The job was only 15 days long, but for many of them it was the first paying work they had ever been able to get. It gave them a sense of great pride and a boost of confidence to be able to provide even the smallest share of income to their families.
According to the World Health Organization, the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip is 42%. The Future Society for Deaf Adults in Gaza estimates that the unemployment rate for deaf adults in Gaza is 72%, as the deaf population faces widespread discrimination in finding employment.
 Me with Abeer Jaber, Secretary General of the Al Basma Club for the Disabled I spoke with Shaher Ziara, one of Al Basma’s soccer coaches about what kinds of changes soccer made to the lives of these athletes. He told me how he would make regular visits to the athletes homes and their families would often come watch their games. ”Parents would often tell me that playing soccer changed their behavior. Their kids used to be distrustful of people, but after joining the soccer team they would be much friendlier and trusting,” Shaher told me.
DREAM POTENTIAL WITH THE FLOTILLA CARGO
I asked the members about the importance of the flotilla cargo to them. The MV Rachel Corrie cargo included soccer balls, footballs, sports uniforms, sports equipment, and school supplies designated for the Al Basma Club. Eid explained that due to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, the only available sports equipment enters through the tunnels, and all of these goods are of an extremely poor quality and very expensive.
The only soccer balls available for purchase in Gaza under the blockade come through the tunnels from Egypt. The soccer ball Eid is holding cost $50 (due to inflated prices of all goods through the tunnels) but after only two kicks it split and deflated. The Rebuilding Alliance bought soccer balls for the MV Rachel Corrie to bring to Gaza, but all of its cargo has been impounded by the Israeli government.
 Eid Shaqura using an exercise machine that the Al Basma Club bought for $100 just a month ago but already it is falling apart. After just one use the back board split and had to be repaired by one of the deaf carpenters in the Club. The Rebuilding Alliance bought new exercise machines for The Al Basma Club but all of the cargo on the MV Rachel Corrie was impounded & is currently being held by the Israeli government. Eid estimated that a new soccer ball in Gaza costs $50. However, these balls do not last for more than a few games. After just two hard kicks the soccer balls split in half and deflated. The three exercise machines on the flotilla would double the number of exercise machines Al Basma Club has, bought one month ago for $100 each. ”After being used just once, one of them was already broken,” Eid told me as he showed me where the wood had splintered. I examined the exercise machines and was astonished by just how flimsy they looked. They seemed to be on the verge of falling apart.
Abdallah Abu Halloub is the Head of the Deaf Committee of Al Basma Club, which makes him a spokesman for the deaf members at Al Basma. I asked him what most excited him about from the flotilla cargo which was intended to arrive at Al Basma. ”I will be particularly happy to see my children’s faces when they receive new backpacks,” Abdallah said through Eid’s translation from Palestinian sign language into English. Eid explained that since none of the members on the Al Basma board are paid, he had hoped to give them backpacks for their school-age children.
Hazim Abu Halloub is one of Al Basma’s first members. He is from Beit Lahiya, and his neighborhood was heavily bombarded during the 2009 assault on Gaza. His family had to leave for his uncle’s house, farther away from the center of the bombing, and explained to me that “deaf people can’t hear the bombs, but we can feel each one of them.” He was one of the deaf young people playing soccer in the street whose failed attempt to get into an able-bodied persons club led to Eid’s and Abeer’s decision to found Al Basma Club. He is from Beit Lehiya and his entire family had to move during the war. New uniforms will encourage not only the soccer team but also all the deaf kids in the community. It will provide the new generation motivation to practice this kind of sport and believe more in themselves.”
COMMUNITY AWARENESS
 Hazim Abu Halloub is a deaf soccer player & member of the Al Basma Club. He is 20 years old and has been an athlete with the Al Basma Club from the very beginning. “There is discrimination here–many people think deaf people are dumb,” Eid explained. ”Part of what we’re doing here is spreading community awareness, and showing that our members are talented and that really we’re all equal.”
Eid showed me pictures of a bike race last spring in which one of Al Basma’s deaf athletes won 5th place. I scanned through pictures of gleeful deaf women on an outing to the beach — a rare opportunity for them to be together. I was amazed to see the sorts of opportunities Al Basma Club provided for the deaf and disabled: swimming competitions, human rights courses, table tennis tournaments for athletes confined to wheelchairs, and well-attended workshops on disabled persons’ rights. Al Basma’s athletes are bursting stereotypes that have crippled disabled people more than any disability ever has.
Supporting deaf and disabled people is extraordinarily important in any society, but during my three days in Gaza I was struck by how particularly important it is for this large population of people on a small strip of land. The number of people left deaf and disabled by war and poverty in Gaza has been steeply increasing, so providing support to this population is extraordinarily important for supporting stable foundations for the future of this besieged society.
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At this time of shock, sadness, and outrage, please turn your concern to the safety of the flotilla’s 700 passengers whose fates remain unknown nearly twenty-four hours after the attack.
Email the template letter below to your senators and representative with your request they make 2 calls on your behalf — then call them Tuesday morning, asking to speak to a senior staffer to confirm.
The State Department immediately responds to messages from Congress – so does the Israeli Embassy. Your representatives represent you.
When you ask, staffers will make calls of inquiry on your behalf and brief the senator/congressperson accordingly.
Use www.GovTrack.us for phone numbers and email addresses.
If you need help, please give me a call at (650) 325-4663.
The Rebuilding Alliance stands with the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, shown here full of hope with Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire. Follow their status at http://www.WitnessGaza.com.
In Rebuilding Peace,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director
P.S. Below is an urgent letter to email to your senators and representatives:
Your Name Here,
Your Street Address, City, State Zip
Code • Phone: xxx xxx xxx • your email
By Facsimile (their number here) or By Email (their email here)
The Honorable Rep. or Senator (Your congressperson’s or senator’s title and name here)
House of Representatives or Senate of the United States
Washington, DC 20515
Re: Urgent Appeal for Passengers on Boats Carrying Humanitarian Aid to Gaza
Dear Congressman or Senator (name here):
As a resident of (your Congressional District or your state), I am deeply shocked and saddened by reports that 19 civilians have been killed and dozens more wounded when Israeli troops attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters. These six international ships were bringing humanitarian supplies and construction materials to the Gaza Strip. While I deplore the actions of Israel’s government in violation of International Law, my first concern is for the safety of the flotilla’s 700 passengers whose fates remain unknown nearly twenty-four hours after the attack. Please call the Israeli Embassy and the U.S. State Department as soon as you receive my message to
1. Request names, current location, and status of all passengers and crew, including the
number of dead and injured, and the names of the victims and on which ships the
injuries occurred;
2. Request the Israeli government guarantee U.S. Embassy access to all passengers
especially the Americans on board;
3. Urge the Israeli government to calm their rhetoric to avoid further escallation in
response to this tragic miscalculation on the part of the Israeli military;
4. Ask them to guarantee that the boats will be returned to their owners without
damage and either the boats be allowed entry to Gaza with supplies or the humanitarian
supplies aboard be dipatched to Gaza without delay;
5. Lastly please urge immediate action to end the appalling blockade and closure of the Gaza Strip.
The Elders, a group including six Nobel peace prize winners — former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, former US president Jimmy Carter, detained Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Mr. Nelson Mandela and frmr. Archbishop Desmond Tutu condemned the deadly Israeli attack on a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza as “completely inexcusable.” “This tragic incident should draw the world’s attention to the terrible suffering of Gaza’s 1.5 million people, half of whom are children under the age of 18.”
Please call the Israeli Embassy and the State Department now, on my behalf, and let me know what you learn.
Yours truly,
(Your name here)
(Your street address, city, state, zip)
(Your phone number, Your email)
(Copy to others in your congressional district or state who you think should know about this)
The Rebuilding Alliance: contact @ RebuildingAlliance.org (please copy us and we’ll update our count)
P.P.S. To continue our work and develop it further, we need your help. Remember us; remember our shared work ahead. Please join us to Open a Passage to
Palestine by making a financial contribution to the Rebuilding Alliance today.
_____________________________
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The Freedom Flotilla is the Berlin Airlift of our time. Or rather, it could be.
In 1948, the United States and British governments responded to the Soviet blockade of Western Berlin with massive humanitarian aid operation, delivering food, medicine, and other essential supplies. But this time, our governments are failing us. Because they failed to take a principled stance in the face of the appalling Gaza blockade, civil society — specifically the Gaza Freedom Flotilla — is trying to fill this gap.
Now our collective work is essential. Start by engaging your elected leaders to get those boats through.
The Rebuilding Alliance has worked from the start to raise funds and place humanitarian aid on the Free Gaza Ireland flagship for delivery to three NGOs in Gaza. We are proud to report that, thanks to your donations, the flagship MV Rachel Corrie is carrying chocolates, school supplies, sports equipment, and wheelchairs for the Al Basma Club for the Disabled. A surprise donor even came through with 300 bags of cement to help the Ybnah Community Charity build a kindergarten!
To ensure that the Ybnah camp can build its kindergarten, send an email to each of your senators and your representative. Urge them to call the Israeli Embassy and the State Department on your behalf to challenge Israel’s warning to block the ships bringing humanitarian aid to nongovernmental organizations in Gaza. Express your concern for the safety of the 700 people aboard the Freedom Flotilla, and ask them to assure safe passage. Ask them to help you help the Ybnah Community Charity build its kindergarten and to end the strangulating blockade of Gaza.
The State Department immediately responds to messages from Congress – so does the Israeli Embassy. Your representatives represent you. When you ask, staffers will make calls of inquiry on your behalf and brief the senator congressperson accordingly. Use www.GovTrack.us for phone numbers and email addresses.
Email the sample letter below. If you need help, please give me a call at (650) 325-4663. The Rebuilding Alliance stands with the Freedom Flotilla. We urge the diplomatic and international humanitarian communities to recognize that open and transparent aid to Gaza’s non-governmental organizations as a great way to assure the health and welfare of Gaza’s children and families.
 Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire on the Freedom Flotilla Flagship the MV Rachel Corrie Open a passage to Gaza. Open a passage to Palestine.
In Rebuilding Peace,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director
P.S. Follow the Gaza Freedom Flotilla at http://www.WitnessGaza.com/.
Read more here about the Berlin Airlift.
Our photos: Gaza- Children in Ybnah Camp hope for kindergarten (May, 2010), Berlin-Children hope for chocolates (July 1948), Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire aboard the Freedom Flotilla Flagship MV Rachel Corrie.
Below is a sample letter to email to your senators and representatives:
____________________________
Your Name Here, Your Title
Street Address, City, State Zip Code
Phone: xxx xxx xxx • your email
By Facsimile (their number here) or By Email (their email here)
The Honorable Rep. or Senator (Your congressperson’s or senator’s title and name here)
House of Representatives or Senate of the United States
Washington, DC 20515
Re: Urgent Appeal to Ensure Safe Passage of Boats Carrying Humanitarian Aid to Gaza
Dear Congressman or Senator (name here):
As a resident of your (Congressional District or your state), I write to you with urgency to help ensure that boats carrying humanitarian supplies are allowed safe passage to Gaza. Please make two calls on my behalf: call the U.S. State Department and the Israeli Embassy to (1) Express my concern for the safety of the 700 people aboard the Freedom Flotilla, and ask them to assure safe passage; (2) Ask them to guarantee that the Ybnah Community Charity will receive the cement they need to build their kindergarten; and (3) Lastly please express my concern over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and urge them to end the strangulating blockade on Gaza.
I want you to make this the “Berlin Airlift” of our time. The MV Rachel Corrie, the flotilla’s flagship from Ireland, is carrying chocolates and school supplies, sports equipment, and wheelchairs for the Al Basma Club for the Disabled. A surprise donor even came through with 300 bags of cement to help the Ybnah Community Charity build a kindergarten! Please see that these ships gets through.
The blockade of Gaza is now in its third year. According to American-born Israeli human rights lawyer Allegra Pacheco, “ The siege – enforced by land, air and sea — has blocked the import and export of supplies, goods and persons in and out of the Gaza Strip for 35 months, punishing 1.4 million Palestinians in the tiny territory. More than half of Gaza’s population are children and nearly 80 percent of the population lives in poverty. Ninety percent of the natural sources of water are undrinkable, and school and health services continue to deteriorate, 17 months since Israel’s military invasion of Gaza in 2008-09. UN and international aid agencies have sent in limited food and humanitarian supplies to Gaza which managed to prevent starvation and the spread of disease, but … never enough to stop the deterioration of livelihoods and critical services like water, sanitation, education and health.”
Please call the Israeli Embassy and the State Department now, on my behalf, and let me know what you learn.
(Your name here)
(Your street address)
(city, state, zip)
CC: (Copy to others in your congressional district or state who you think should know about this)
The Rebuilding Alliance, contact at RebuildingAlliance.org (please copy us and we’ll update our count)
_______________________________
P.P.P.S. To continue our work and develop it further, we need your help. Remember us; remember our shared work ahead. Please join us to Open a Passage to Palestine by making a financial contribution to the Rebuilding Alliance today!
_____________________________
We did our best and it mattered. When faced with the immense loss of life and destruction of Gaza neighborhoods in December/January, we held “Sweep Down the Walls” teleconferences every three days for three weeks to put peacemakers in Gaza and peacemakers in Israel on the phone line with dozens of Rebuilding Alliance supporters across the U.S. and Europe. They told the concerned audience what they were seeing and brainstormed with listeners to do our best to help safeguard families in Gaza and in Israel and make this stop. YOU are the ones we thank for making it possible to connect when they most needed us — and we ask for your support now.
As the assault ended, we listened hard to our friends at the Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative who said, “Start with soccer,” because soccer immediately draws neighborhoods together and helps to heal the trauma each person experienced. So in August, despite the blockade, the Rebuilding Alliance successfully installed the first unit of a community center in time for the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament! Then our small grant stretched to install lights out to the field, and to provide new sand, fully levelled! And in September, Cindy and Craig Corrie and their delegation personally delivered soccer uniforms to youth league teams in the last week of the tournament. Now we’ve received a small grant to get doors, wall cement, and windows to these communities in an innovative strategy to lift the blockade. We have YOU, our committed supporters, to thank.
Ours is a holistic approach to peace-building, combining community-directed rebuilding with grassroots and diplomatic advocacy. We stretch your every dollar to seed endeavors that make a difference and grow. Trust builds with each rebuilding project and draws upon a grassroots network to keep the projects safe.
Twice this past year, people at the State Department have told us we are amazingly effective. The Secretary of State sent her highest advisor to our kindergarten in Al Aqaba village. Now we put them to the test as we work to lift new eviction orders and assure this village its right to issue building permits. We’re using their case to raise concern about the steep rise in demolition orders overall in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Your financial support makes it possible for us to engage diplomatic assistance in this and all our projects, and shore up this assistance when you call your senators and representatives to ask them to use their influence on your behalf.
We ask for your help. And yes, even in these challenging financial times, we ask you to stretch your budget to include the Rebuilding Alliance in your generosity. We won’t take government funding; we proudly rely on grassroot donations. Your support sustains us. Truly, our accomplishments are the result of your gifts!
Thank you very much for your dedication to our work.
In Rebuilding Peace,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director
P.S. Here are the Dreams we will Make Real with your Support:
Forming a team to enter the Global Social Venture Competition
In 2003, our social venture plan to finance and build Palestinian neighborhoods was a semi-finalist. We are now forming a team to develop a bold plan: “Micro-Mortgaging: a World-Wide Investment Plan to Help War-Torn Neighborhoods Rebuild.” Call me at 650 440-9667 if you would like to join our team.
Peace Builder Toolkit –
The Rebuilding Alliance will present a hands-on workshop at M.I.T. to design and test a Peace Builder Toolkit for Congressional Districts using cloud computing (Salesforce.com), GovTrack, and Google maps. We are inviting peace and justice organizations in Boston to join in a pilot project.
First Birthing Center in the Jordan River Valley -
Al Aqaba dreams of converting its 2 room clinic into a birthing center to serve 50,000 Palestinians in the West Bank’s Area C. Our proposal won “Most Donors” on GlobalGiving in Great Britain. The Rotary Clubs of Nazareth, Israel and Woodside / Portola Valley CA are offering a matching grant for phase 2. The British Nasheed music group, Aashiq Al Rasul, is planning a charity concert at the Birmingham Town Center! And we’ll need to press for diplomatic assistance to deliver the 1st ever ambulance with incubator.
Abir’s Garden: A Safe Place to Grow
After a little girl was killed, Israeli and Palestinian Combatants for Peace asked our help to build playgrounds in her memory – we’ll start construction of the 2nd playground in January. Let’s help them build 20 more — and make them safe using the Leahy Amendment and through recognition from Congress.
Soccer now, a Community Center soon, Open the Blockade and let’s build!
Next we design a Gym / Community Center using locally-available materials. Of note: Our Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza has been halted by the siege for three years. We’ve received a seed grant to work with an Israeli peace group in Sderot Israel to purchase doors, cement, and windows for Gaza and press forward with this new, local-benefit approach to ending the blockade.
Our Fair-trade Store
When people taste our organic olive oil, fair trade from Palestine the whole discourse changes. Our store, with three delicious kinds of olive oil, za’atar, sun-dried couscous, and even olive oil soap, helps the Rebuilding Alliance pay our rent while providing a fair price to the farmers and a scholarship fund for their children. Do you know a store near you who might like to carry Za’atar? Call us!
Magic at our home office.
We share a beautiful workspace and are delighted to fill our office with 5-10 volunteer interns each quarter. They come from 5 countries + the US: seasoned professionals, new graduates, and high school students working on rebuilding projects, legal research, contact congress initiatives, writing and social networking campaigns, and marketing our organic olive oil and za’atar. We dream of hiring an operations manager and renting more desk-space to grow.
Way cool to be on the internet, here at 35,327 feet above the Rocky Mountains!
My goals for this trip to Washington:
(1) to meet with sister groups working to build peace and justice to tell them of our work, especially on behalf of Al Aqaba village, and explore a pilot project using a new connection technology we’ll be developing at a workshop at MIT;
(2) to speak with members of the House and Senate about Al Aqaba;
(3) to meet with Amnesty International and key people who know about the Leahy Amendment;
(3) to join Cindy and Craig Corrie who are speaking at a house-party gathering for the Rebuilding Alliance in Virginia.
Dreaming aside, there’s a lot of work to be done — great to have internet on the airplane! From here, I’ll finish our annual appeal letter and send it off to the copycenter for pick-up later today!
I am writing to ask you to email a letter to your Senators and Representative, then call the senior staff for foreign policy at your senators and representatives offices in Washington DC regarding new demolition orders in Al Aqaba village and throughout Area C. You can find the email addresses and phone numbers at www.House.gov (enter your zip code) and www.Senate.gov (enter your state). I’ve included a template letter below – please email or fax it.
 Why contact Congress now? The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC) reports that since August 2009, the Israeli Army through its Civil Administration has issued orders for the demolition of 50 entire Palestinian neighborhoods. On Nov. 24, 2009, the Israeli Army stormed Al Aqaba village to issue new orders threatening 7 more families with the forced evacuation of their homes, animal shelters, and demolition of their new road. Al Aqaba residents are ordered to appear in hearings before the Inspection Subcommittee of the Israeli Army on December 10th and Dec. 17th at the Israeli Army’s Civil Administration offices within the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Please use the campaign name, “I Care About Peace, I Care About Al Aqaba” in your calls – IT WORKS! When the Rebuilding Alliance team brought Al Aqaba Mayor Haj Sami Sadeq and BIMKOM co-founder Shmuel Groag to meet with Congress, Senator Carl Levin’s staff said this was a campaign he could get behind. With the encouragement of Michigander Mares Hirchert and postcards from a thousand constituents, Senator Levin wrote a letter to the State Department and received a positive response on behalf of Al Aqaba.
Call me (Donna) at 650 440-9667 if you need help or have feedback. I’ll be in DC on Thursday and Friday to meet with sister organizations to expand this campaign, and also to ask key senate and congressional staffers for assistance. Please call me if you would like me to meet with your senate or congressional staffer to coordinate schedules.
Personalize the template letter below and email or fax it to your Senators and
Representative. If you want to develop a close relationship with their senior staffer for foreign policy, please download our powerpoint, How to Call Congress
Sincerely,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance
P.S. You can find the email addresses and phone numbers at www.House.gov (enter your zip code) and www.Senate.gov (enter your state). I’ve included a template letter
below – please email or fax it. Cut and past this template letter into your email or download the MSWord Doc:
_________________________
Your Name Here
Street Address, City, State Zip Code • Phone: xxx xxx
xxx • your email
Month Day, 2009
By Facsimile (their number here) or By Email (their email here)
The Honorable Rep. or Senator (Your congressperson’s or senator’s title and name here)
House of Representatives or Senate of the United States
Washington, DC 20515
Re: Urgent Appeal to Save Peaceful Palestinian Village Slated for Demolition
Honorable (Your Representative or Senator title and name here):
Please call the Israeli Embassy and the U.S. State Department on my behalf to say that you care about peace and that you care about the Palestinian village of Al Aqaba.
The Israeli Army has ordered demolition of a kindergarten that serves 130 students, the women’s sewing cooperative, nearly all the homes in the village, their mosque, and medical clinic. On Nov. 24, 2009, the Israeli Army stormed the village to issue new orders threatening 7 more families with the forced evacuation of their homes, animal shelters, and demolition of their new road. Demolition of Palestinian villages does not further the cause of peace.
I know you are following with sadness the many stories of American families losing their homes to foreclosure because they cannot pay their mortgage. However, Palestinia families own their homes free and clear — their homes (and their life-savings invested in those homes) are being demolished because the Israeli Army has a long-standing policy of preventing, as much as possible, Palestinian construction in 60% of the West Bank known as Area C by refusing to issue building permits and then using this pretext to demolish homes.
This is not just happening to one or two homes. During the past 9 years, the entire area has been seeded with demolition orders from the Israeli Army’s Civil Administration. Since
August 2009 the Israeli Army has ordered demolition of 50 entire Palestinian neighborhoods. In fact, 130 Palestinian villages in Area C of the West Bank are impacted by the Israeli Army’s recent escalation in demolition and stop work orders. Al Aqaba village is one of these. Please use your calls to urge the Israeli government to rescind demolition orders against Palestinian neighborhoods.
There is a ray of hope that can benefit from and requires your immediate help. Attorney Abdullah Hammad who represents Al Aqaba village, notes that the Israeli Army has yet to approve Al Aqaba’s new master plan. When you make your calls, please urge the State Department and the Israeli Embassy to assure Al Aqaba village and the other 130 Palestinian village in the Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank the right to self-determination, including the right to draw-up their master plans and issue building permits to secure their future — just like towns here in the U.S.
Please let me know what you learn in your calls. I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Your name and signature
P.S. The Israeli Human Rights group, BIMKOM: Planners for Planning Rights, has published a study entitled, The Prohibited Zone: Israeli planning policy in the Palestinian villages in Area C explaining the problem in detail. Peace Now reports that 94% of Palestinian requests for building permits are denied by the Civil Administration. The
Guardian in their April 15, 2008 article, “Area C strikes fear into the heart of Palestinians as homes are destroyed” reported that the Israeli Civil Administration granted Palestinians only 91 of 1,517 building applications, while during the same period 18,472 housing units were sanctioned and built in Jewish-only settlements.
I ask for your urgent attention. On Tuesday, just after I sent my email to ask your help to win the GlobalGiving Challenge, we received word that the Israeli Army entered Al Aqaba village to issue very serious orders that may quickly lead to the demolition of the homes of seven families and the demolition of Al Aqaba’s new Peace road. The families are required to evacuate their homes by Dec 17th.
Al Aqaba is scrambling to file petitions in time. We need your help, in parallel to the village’s efforts to save homes and roadside. During this Thanksgiving break, please plan to send an email both your Senators and Representative requesting they call the Israeli Embassy and the State Department on your behalf. Our State Department takes this very seriously and visits Al Aqaba often. Because of your calls to Congress through the years, many Senators and Congressmen care too. Just think about it for now — I’ll post a model letter soon for you to use.
We take this very seriously. In the past 2 months there has been a significant escalation in the number of demolition orders. According to Al Aqaba’s attorney Abduallah Hamad of the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC). Overloaded JLAC is filing petitions to save some 50 Palestinian neighborhoods of 7-50 homes each , in response to this huge number of demolition orders in Area C!
 Please show you still believe in this peaceful village’s future by making a gift in the GG Challenge for Al Aqaba’s Birthing Center. Even a $10 contribution makes a big difference: http://www.globalgiving.com/projects/birthingcenter/
Every individual donation will help keep this village standing, so please share this message with your friends!
In Rebuilding Peace,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance
P.S. Haj Sami Sadeq signed his urgent action letter yesterday as follows, “However, Al Aqaba Village still believes in peace and love for all peoples in the world. And invite them to stand beside them to protect their village from threat of demolition. In peace we believe, Haj Sami Sadeq”. Please take heart, give now for Thanksgiving and for the children’s Eid al-Adha holiday, and then watch Al Aqaba’s “Peace Camp” video from this, their 3rd year participating in Pinwheels for Peace, spinning 1000 pinwheels on International Peace Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv4z99OEzX8
Last summer, a hundred people made large & small donations to our projects and they earned the “Most Donor” grants at GlobalGiving.com. We won the awards, we made amazing progress with each project – but have yet to reach our fully-funded goals to complete these projects. I ask your help to win GlobalGiving’s “Give More Get More” challenge — their largest challenge ever.
Please click on one, two, or all three of the Rebuilding Alliance projects on GlobalGiving, and make a donation. The minimum amount is $10, but you can contribute more than that also. Each unique donor counts, giving the Rebuilding Alliance another vote towards a $5000 grant! And the more money you contribute, the more that GlobalGiving will match it!
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How do you choose? Each project has a ripple effect. Small miracles happened this past summer through this competition. Here’s what we did:
- Our Lights for Ramadan Soccer Tournament in Rafah won first place in GlobalGiving’s summer competition. With that small grant and a match from a family fund, we stretched each dollar to make it count. We installed the a community center office unit building at the Unity Club Soccer Field just in time for the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament! We used the transformer in the office unit to install lights for the walkway out to the field, and Cindy and Craig Corrie brought the soccer uniforms we collected. With the funds remaining, our little grant also bought new sand, and paid to level the playing field. Just three weeks ago, the UN Relief and Works Agency came through on their promise to clear the rubble around field to make room for a playground and someday a gym for girls and women, and a permanent community center. With your new donation, we’ll finish installing lights for the field so whole community can come out at night to watch soccer. The Rachel Corrie Sports Initiative believes this to be a critical way to help their Ybnah Camp community recover from trauma, tangibly and immediately, as we expand advocacy and diplomatic intervention to lift the blockade.
- About Abir’s Garden, we are so close to reaching our goal and getting this project underway! Does it matter? Yes! A Sabeel delegate from the U.S. told me she was surrounded by little girls when she visited the first Abir’s Garden playground in Anata! Here at the Rebuilding Alliance a remarkable volunteer team of interns is working with human rights experts worldwide to make the Abir’s Garden playgrounds safe, by invoking the Leahy Amendment. Please help us help Combatants for Peace build the next playground — and the next and the next. Even Senator Kerry wants to get involved with this — C4P can get started as soon as we reach our funding goal! Please support their important work and open this gentle, critical path to end the Occupation.
- Our newest project, the First Palestinian Birthing Center in the Jordan River Valley, will be a key accomplishment in Area C, serving 50,000 people in this north/central West Bank area and helping assure Palestinian moms safe childbirth without crossing checkpoints. This project also will also provide one of the only ambulances in Area C and include a portable incubator. The Rebuilding Alliance was recently complimented by staff at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem who said, “You are very effective!” With this project we continue to press forward Al Aqaba Village’s right to plan its future on the land it owns — at a time when Israeli officials have threaten permanent take-over of the Jordan River Valley.
Our mission is to help war-torn communities rebuild — and also to make them safe. Your aid makes a difference and so do your numbers in advocacy. Please give what you can!
In Rebuilding Peace,
Donna Baranski-Walker
Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance
P.S. Right now, our projects are way at the bottom of the Global Giving Leaderboard so we really need your help – and your friends too. To win the “Most Donors” award of $5000, we’ll need more than 200 unique donors. To win another $5000 for the “Most Donated”, we must raise over $25,000 for any one project – we’ve never done anything like that before. Please note that GG will match up to $500 of your donation. Please Give Now and make this a groundswell.
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