JJ in Palestine

ISM Chicago Member J.J. recently traveled to Palestine. His trip was financially supported by the ISM Chicago Travel Fund. Thank you for your contributions.

Greetings from Beit Hanina,

Nour is fifty-one years old. He was a cop. Like most cops he has tacky sunglasses and a bad haircut. Unlike most cops, his house was demolished by his old boss.

Nour Eldin Domiry is Palestinian but he didn't work for the Palestinians. He worked for the Israeli Civil Administration for 28 years as a police officer inJerusalem. After finishing school he joined the Jerusalem police department in 1974 and started out guarding the Al Aqsa Mosque.   He worked the beat in the Old City for over 15 years in two stints. He was even stationed in Beit Shemesh for a year, a city without any Palestinians far inside the Israeli side of the 1949 armistice lines. Cops don't get paid particularly well but it was enough so that when he and his family were tired of renting, he was able to use his savings and secure a loan to buy some land and build his house in Beit Hanina.   He spent about US$17,000 on the piece of land he bought. It was fairly cheap for being within the municipality of Jerusalem (Beit Hanina is to the north of East Jerusalem but still within the borders of the municipality) as there was no road, no water and no electricity accessible to the land.   Almost US$90,000 (half from 28 years of savings, half from a bank loan) later the land had all of that, plus a fairly large house.

The house was big enough that Nour could live there with his wife Ataf and their four children, ages 2-6. The permitting process to build a house of that size on that piece of land, less than half a dunam, would have cost an additional US$20,000.   That's money that Nour didn't have and couldn't get. What part of theUS are you in that getting a building permit for a house would cost $20,000 anyways? To put it in perspective, to build his home in Tempe, Arizona, a house with a similar cost would have a permit fee of about US$2200 dollars, almost one tenth of the price in East Jerusalem.   The economy in Tempe is a tad bit more likely to support a fee of $2200 than Jerusalem is to support a fee of $20,000 as well. So Nour built his house without a permit starting in October of 2002 and finishing a few months later. I saw pictures of it and it's was a handsome one-story brick building with a huge front window that looked out from the hill his land was on.

In February, 2003, Nour decided to retire from theJerusalem police force. He said that the police reaction to the Al Aqsa Intifada was one of collective punishment didn't exist in Jerusalem before, although he concedes that it was probably the norm in the rest of the West Bank and Gaza.   Previously he thought that the Jerusalem police were professional. He says, "The police must be police, not Arab or Jewish," and he found that to be generally true for most of his career although he was certainly not unaware of departmental discrimination and unusually harsh treatment of Palestinian prisoners.   Nour has a large plaque and a shelf full of commendations from the municipality for his nearly three-decades of service.

Two months after he retired from the police force, on4 April 2003, Nour's home was demolished. It was illegal. He didn't have a permit. The head officer with the team that came that morning was his old boss. "Nour, I didn't know this was your house," he said.   It didn't matter.

Amidst the wreckage of his old house Nour cleared off some space and built a rickety, tin-roofed two-room house so he and his family would have a place to stay. He still owes the balance of the loan from his first house which he should finish paying off by 2008.   He also owes a fine of about $50 per square meter of his house. That's what the municipality takes for demolishing a house.

Nour's rebuilt mini version of his old house has a demolition order against it as well. He's already almost through all the appeals he has to save it. He doesn't have money for a lawyer so one is working more or less pro-bono. The lawyer has stayed the demolition for almost one year at this point but the house will receive its final Three-Day notice shortly, likely within three months.   He does not have the money to build again as his job as a security guard for a Seeds of Peace doesn't pay crap.

He pleaded for help from the Palestinian Authority when he first received a demolition order but they told him to ask his old boss for help. Nour sold out. He worked for the Israeli Civil Administration for 28 years enforcing their discriminatory laws.   He only has a little accent when he speaks Hebrew. His entire professional career he spent with an overwhelmingly Jewish organization, the Jerusalem Police Department. It didn't matter. If this is howIsrael treats those who collaborate, what's it like for people who resist?

love,
Jimmy Johnson of Chicago

For information on how you can help change policies in/towards
Israel/Palestine feel free to drop a note to me or to visit the following
websites
The International Women's Peace Service
http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org/
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
http://www.icahd.org/
Jerusalem Center for Women
http://www.j-c-w.org/
Zaytoun
http://www.zaytoun.org/
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
http://www.gcmhp.net/
The International Solidarity Movement (In Chicago: ISMinChicago@aol.com or 773-489-3505)
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
(Chicago chapter: ISMinChicago@aol.com)
B'Tselem
http://www.btselem.org/
Machsom Watch
http://www.machsomwatch.org/
Palestine Solidarity Group
http://psgchicago.org/
Not in My Name
http://www.nimn.org/
Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza
http://www.pchrgaza.org/
There are many other groups as well. Of the above, Not In My Name,Palestine
Solidarity Group and The International Solidarity Movement haveChicago
chapters.

You can also send me money or Aussie red licorice.

Jimmy Johnson
c/o ICAHD
7 Rehov Ben Yehuda
PO Box 2030
91020 Jerusalem
Israel

Greetings from Baqa,

The Palestinian village of Jayyous, near Qalqilya, sits on some of the best farmland in the West Bank. The monstrosity alternately referred to as; The Wall, The Fence, The Security Barrier, The Separation Fence passes right through Jayyous in the form of a fence with electronic sensors. Not the inhabited parts though. The Fence separates the people of Jayyous from their lands. The lands are now on the side of Zufin (see the link for a map).

http://www.poica.org/casestudies/Jayyus%2011-01-2005/Map%20of%20location.jpg

On 9 December bulldozers arrived and began to destroy and uproot olive trees. From then until 20 December over 600 olives trees were uprooted clearing some 24 dunums of land. On 29 December the New York Times reported that many of the trees were over 600 years old. The land is to be used to found the new settlement Nofei Zufin. The land was annexed by military order in 2000 but nobody bothered to inform the owners. It is, to understate a bit, more than a little curious that the military confiscated land two years before construction of The Separation Barrier began that would be used to found a settlement on the west side of The Fence. This is the most blatant example to date that The Separation Barrier is what many have said all along, nothing but a land grab.

On 31 December a group of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals marched to the site of the destruction to replant olive trees where they were uprooted. Members of Ta'ayush, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Rabbis for Human Rights, The International Solidarity Movement, Gush Shalom joined villagers from Jayyous on both sides of the fence. Followed by a few dozens Israeli Border Police, constantly reminding us that we were trespassing and videotaping us, we replanted some 50 trees and then marched to The Fence. The gate at Jayyous where Palestinians have to cross at certain times each day if they are to cross at all was closed. With the efforts of all on both sides of The Fence we were able to negotiate a crossing for the Palestinians. That is the scale of the victories we have here as mobilizing the Israeli public to defend Palestinians is exceedingly difficult. A larger effort is being made by the Rhode Island-Qalqilya Alliance (www.riqa.info) who have managed to get some of their representatives interested.

On 4 January we returned to Jayyous under the banner of The Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (www.pengon.org) to replant more trees. It was another successful outing with no tear gas, sound bombs and rubber or live ammo being fired.

You can find out more about the situation in Jayyous here:
http://www.poica.org/casestudies/Jayyus%2011-01-2005/casestudies.htm
http://www.riqa.info/riqaupdate.htm

I've been house-sitting in Baqa for the last two weeks. Baqa was one of the Palestinian villages depopulated after 1948. I've been walking the dogs that live in a house that sits on land that was forcibly taken from the indigenous populace. Anyone who has slept indoors in the United States should know the feeling. More to come shortly. Long live sea monkeys.
typing, Jimmy Johnson of Chicago

For information on how you can help change policies in/towards
Israel/Palestine feel free to drop a note to me or to visit the following
websites
The International Women's Peace Service
http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org/
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
http://www.icahd.org
Jerusalem Center for Women
http://www.j-c-w.org/
Zaytoun
http://www.zaytoun.org/
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
http://www.gcmhp.net/
The International Solidarity Movement

In Jabal Mukaber yesterday two Cats and a Daewoo machine destroyed a house and a shop. In line with what I posted a few days ago about the Hitachi Excavation Drills if one knows progressive Koreans who might be interested in organizing locally. Photos in a new gallery.

Greetings all. I've uploaded some photos of The Israeli Civil
Administration using Hitachi Excavating drills to destroy a house in
Anata on 29Nov2004. It's the second time I've seen Hitachi drills,
instead of Cats, being used to destroy a house. I'm told also that
Volvo manufactures a similar drill that is used for similar purposes
but I've not had the misfortune to see one of them yet. I've raised
this with Japanese ISM members here and Japanese travellers that
have passed through the hostel where I'm based and they've been very
receptive to starting a campaign back home. If anyone has good
progressive contacts in the activist community in Japan feel free to
pass on my email and we'll get more photos along with information
about when and where they were used and for what
professed "reason". Also, recognizing that the D-9's are a leading
reason of homelessness in Gaza, in the West Bank it seems to be
primarily excavating equipment, almost always made by Caterpillar,
that is used to destroy homes. The following is from UNRWA on
30Nov2004. Demolitions so far this year in Gaza:

Total No. of houses demolished:
Refugees;2,076
Non-refugees;389
Total: 2,465

Total No. of houses damaged beyond repair:
Refugees; 352
Non-refugees; 80
Total: 432

Total No. of persons whose houses were demolished:
Refugees; 19,754
Non-refugees; 3,642
Total: 23,396

Total No. of persons whose houses were damaged beyond repair:
Refugees; 3,672
Non-refugees; 685
Total: 4,357

******************************************************************************
December 1st

Greetings to all from Jerusalem,

Since it's about the time for World AIDS Day I thought I might just remind everyone who gets this that a good portion of Sub-Saharan Africa is being depopulated by a third. For example, if you were average and happened to be from Botswana, you'd likely be dead as most people on this listserve are over the 30.76 years that Batswana are expected to live. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique and others are beginning to suffer a dearth of 45-year-olds because white people don't care enough to help. The update about my trip is below and it doesn't really get any happier.

The family of Muhammed Dandis is living in a tent tonight. Two days ago in Anata he, his wife and their six children were forced out of the house by Israeli soldiers who then proceeded to move out all the furniture, then demolish the house. Muhammed Dandis owned the land his house was on. His attempts to get a permit to build a home were rebuffed as is the rule for almost all Palestinians. The control of the growth of towns and the building of houses is one of the most obscene aspects of the Occupation. While settlers can stake out territory they have no right to with government protection, Palestinians are not even allowed to build on their own land. The reason for the denial of the permit was that his land was on a slope. For those of you familiar with the topography of Jerusalem (Anata is the easternmost part of the Jerusalem municipality) you might scoff at the notion as there is almost no flat land in Jerusalem at all. The notion that one could be denied a permit because it will be built on a hill is absurd to the extent of incredulity. At least it would be incredible if it wasn't stated as such on papers with the demolition order. It is this type of city management that is planning the Palestinians right out of Jerusalem. Because of the denial of the right to make a home on your land, there are 25,000 housing units missing in Jerusalem. The Palestinian population is growing and without the ability to build upon legally obtained land they are forced to leave Jerusalem. If one's "center of life" is moved from Jerusalem then one would lose his/her Jerusalem id meaning that the bulk of the West Bank economy which is located in Jerusalem is no longer accessible to you. In fact, depending on where you live you might need a permit simply to leave your town. As it is Muhammed and Co. watched as demolition equipment paid for by the USA and made by the Caterpillar Co. of Peoria, Illinois tore into his home and left nothing that could be recognizable as a building in it's place. There was a huge pile of cement and steel, nothing more, homeless. Muhammed's was the second house to be demolished that day in the neighborhood. Earlier an apartment building housing some 23 people was demolished just 100 meters away. The army had closed off the area before anyone knew the demolitions would happen preventing volunteers from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and International Solidarity Movement from trying to prevent the demolitions. As it was today during the demolition of the house of Muhammed Shabani though, even when we manage to get into the houses before the army or border police it's only a matter of time before the drag us out (or off the roof) and demolish the house anyways. After the destruction of Muhammed's house there was little more for us to do there. We didn't have the thousands of dollars that it would take to rebuild the homes. We didn't have the words to console people who've lost their space on the planet. We didn't have anything else to contribute. We left at about 2pm, that's all the time it takes. Turns out that 2pm was about three hours before the army returned and bulldozed the better part of a Bedouin encampment just down the hill. A total of 19 structures fell that day making homeless some 9 families (the Bedouins have one small structure for living and one for cooking and so on). None of the families were accused of any type of terrorism. None of them were on land that did not belong to them. None of them had permits for their building. All of them tried to get them.

In the past week over thirty houses have been destroyed in the West Bank alone. According to the United Nations in a report that came out today, 2,428 homes have been raised in the Gaza Strip alone this year. That scale of devastation doesn't make the Tribune, the New York Times of the Washington Post. Liberal stalwarts like Thomas Friedman have little or nothing to say about it. Nor does it register with much of the Israeli public. By this time, most Israelis have somewhat of a grasp on many aspects of the Occupation but even those that do know normally are not talking about the same issue as the Palestinians. The Palestinians are talking about self-determination and the Israelis are talking about security. The Israeli leadership (and to be sure the more extreme Palestinians) considers these two thing to be mutually exclusive and when they hold all the cards, the Palestinian question takes a back seat. It might be appropriate to put security in quotes perhaps as the Israeli government fails consistently to act in a way that would make its citizens safer. If, for example, the "Security Fence" was really about Security then why would it pass right through the middle of Abu Dis? I can stand on a short, as yet unwalled area in Abu Dis and do a full circle and not see an Israeli home but for one single house that was built by members of the National Union (expel the Arabs to Jordan is part of their platform). Except for that house you have to go literally, a couple of miles to find an Israeli house. This is not in a rural area, this is right through the heart of a major urban center. The wall is separating Palestinians from Palestinians. Up north in Anin it separates Palestinians from their lands and olive and citrus groves, not Israelis from Palestinians. Israelis are entitled to as much security as everyone else but for their government to seize Palestinian lands and demolish Palestinian houses only to separate Palestinians from Palestinians and to do so in the name of "Security" reaches the peaks of absurdity and callousness.

It's left to individual Israelis (depressingly small in numbers) and internationals to try and stop the grotesque policies of the Israeli Occupation. The problem is when we turn out some 19 activists to protect a single home and are able only to slow down the demolition by a couple of hours one gets an overwhelming feeeling of impotence, knowing that everything that could have been done that day was done. It took a total of eleven soldiers to get me off the roof and drag me behind the army jeeps. There was media there from everywhere from Qatar to Sweden (not the US or Israel though). We had B'Tselem representives and citizens of some ten nations there as activists. None of this made any difference except to let the Palestinians know that someone else was trying to struggle with them, even if we failed on that day we almost always do. Having the media there helps get the word out but if it doesn't reach Israelis or their sponsors in the White House it isn't going to change things soon, which is needed for the families that lost their houses today and those that are going to lose their houses tomorrow.

love, JJ

http://www.icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=216

http://www.icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=214

For information on how you can help change policies in/towards Israel/Palestine feel free to drop a note to me or to visit the following websites
The International Women's Peace Service
http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org/
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
http://www.icahd.org
Jerusalem Center for Women
http://www.j-c-w.org/
Zaytoun
http://www.zaytoun.org/
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
http://www.gcmhp.net/
The International Solidarity Movement
http://www.palsolidarity.org
B'Tselem
http://www.btselem.org
Machsom Watch
http://www.machsomwatch.org/
Palestine Solidarity Group
http://www.palsolidaritygrp.org/
Not in My Name
http://www.nimn.org/
Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights
http://www.jcser.org/
There are many other groups as well. Of the above, Not In My Name, Palestine Solidarity Group and The International Solidarity Movement have Chicago chapters.

You can also send me money or a bicycle, I bike I promise not to hock for crack. Hit me back for an address if you're wealthy and willing.

******************************************************************************

Caterpillar equipment, your US tax dollars and the Israeli army complete another demolition.

ICAHD VOLUNTEERS DRAGGED FROM HOUSE ICAHD VOLUNTEERS DRAGGED FROM HOUSE; DEMOLITION PROCEEDED BEIT HANINA, JERUSALEM-Israeli and international volunteers occupied the one-room house of Muhammed Shabani in order to prevent its demolition by the municipality of Jerusalem accompanied by over forty Israeli police. The volunteers were asked to leave, but several ICAHD staff members and volunteers refused and were dragged out of the house by force. A Caterpillar construction crane then demolished the house in three minutes. Muhammed Shabani, his wife, his eight children and his grandmother lived in this house for a year and half before demolition. The last order was delivered on November 24, 2004, citing a lack of permit because the family's land is zoned “open green space” by the city master plan. The family spent an estimated $15,000 in court fees until the High Court issued a ruling supporting the demolition. The volunteers were members of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, B'Tselem, the International Solidarity Movement as well as other Israelis and internationals. After the demolition, Ari King, a representative of the National Unity political party, arrived to verify the house was demolished. The National Unity party states in their platform that Arabs should be expelled and transferred in favor of Jewish settlements. The party seeks to expand the settlement of Pizgat Ze'ev, just 200 meters over the hill from the Shabani family, and actively pressures the Jerusalem Municipality to demolish houses in areas of interest. For more information, visit www.icahd.org or call the Jerusalem office at 972-(0)2-624-5560. Timeline -Shabani Family December 1, 2004 Beit Hanina, Jersualem 7:00 am ICAHD staff and volunteers arrive at the Shabani house. 7:20 am A construction crane is sighted demolishing the top four stories of a six-story house in Beit Hanina. 8:00 am Media reporters arrive. 8:30 am A police jeep arrives at the Shabani house, presumably to deliver the demolition order. The police ask who the volunteers are and depart. 8:56 am A half-dozen police jeeps and a jackhammer-equipped Caterpillar construction crane surround the Shabani house. The ICAHD volunteers wait inside the house while others climb onto the roof. 9:12 am The commanding officer enters the house with soldiers to deliver the official demolition order to Muhammed Shabani. Everyone is given 10 minutes to leave. The Shabani family leaves the house. 9:27 am Soldiers order the volunteers to exit the house. 9:53 am Several dozen soldiers enter the house and climb the roof to physically remove the volunteers. They carry the volunteers 50 meters from the house and leave them under guard. 10:06 am Foreign laborers employed by the demolition subcontractor remove the family's possessions from the house. 10:15 am The Caterpillar crane begins destroying the four pillars of the house. 10:18 am The walls crumble and the roof collapsed. The Caterpillar pulverizes the remaining pieces to make it unsalvageable. 10:35 am Ari King, a representative of the National Unity political party serving settler interests in expelling the Palestinian population from this hill, arrives to verify the house has been demolished. 11:24 am ICAHD volunteers depart the family after collecting money in order to help the family rent an apartment during their first night without a house. # # #

Hello from, um, the City of Peace?

Last Tuesday volunteers from The International Solidarity Movement (www.palsolidarity.org) and Rabbis for Human Rights (www.rhr.israel.net) went to the West Bank village of Awarta to assist Palestinians in their attempt to gather their harvest from inside the gates of the Israeli settlement of Itamar. In the past years the Itamar settlers have harassed, stoned, beaten and killed Palestinians from Awarta and other nearby villages both during the Harvest and at other times. The settlers expanded the fence around their enclave a few years back and the people of Awarta were not able to access their trees for the previous two years. Rabbis for Human Rights had coordinated the harvest with the Israeli po-po and the Israeli Defense (is that the right word?) Force in the hope that the fourth strongest army in the world would be able to, somehow, stop settler violence. When we arrived in Awarta we were greeted by several IDF soldiers who informed us that the Palestinians wouldn't be able to harvest that day as the IDF, despite prior coordination, did not have a force large enough to guarantee the safety of the Palestinians. The presence of a couple of dozen soldiers armed with M-16's (http://www.army.mil/fact_files_site/m16/) along with two vehicle-mounted machine guns of some sort (kind of like http://www.army.mil/fact_files_site/m-240b/index.html) would seem to be an effective deterrent but the army said no and after attempts to negotiate with the local and regional commanders we were guaranteed that the Palestinians would have access to their land and trees the following day. Given that there was no real alternative at the moment the Palestinians said it was ok for us to go and assist with the Harvest that day in Jayyus (details to follow below). The next day the Palestinians were greeted with offers that had been made previously by the settlers that they would purchase the olives or pay them for their trees if they wouldn't come onto the Itamar settlement. The Palestinians had no desire to willingly give their trees and land to the settlers and refused. After over an hour of stalling (well, two years and an hour) they were allowed to onto their land. To the surprise of nobody who was there (except for some of the internationals), they found that the settlers had stolen or otherwise removed about 80% of the fruit from the trees. Despite that the Palestinians continued with their harvest for about 45 minutes before settlers began to set fire to the trees. It is beyond credulity that the IDF, a machine with the technological capability of identifying Palestinian militants in the dark in the concrete jungles of Gaza, could fail to miss a fellow with a flaming torch making for the trees. They were after all, between the settlement's housing units and the trees yet somehow the arsonist slipped through. He wasn't alone however as several apparently Houdini-like settlers with stones snuck past the IDF to begin to pelt the Palestinians. The fire was put out fairly quickly with damage to only three trees and the Israeli police arrested 16 settlers for their attacks. Rather then allowing the Palestinians to continue to harvest their olives though, the IDF claimed that they couldn't control the situation and thus the Palestinians, not the settlers, had to leave the Palestinians' land. As of today they have not been able to re-enter their land to finish harvesting. For a different picture of Itamar visit http://www.cfoic.com/index.asp?mainpage=adoption&id=108 . If you want a challenge try to find the names of Awarta, Beit Furik, Odala or any other indigenous village on the website.

What is amazing to me is that this is not an extreme example of violence against the Palestinians, whether channeled through the IDF or otherwise. There is much violence too in the opposite direction but despite the wishes and best efforts of the most extreme of the Palestinian militants, the overwhelming preponderance of violence comes from one side, as might be expected in a clash between a modern industrial state and a largely agrarian, impoverished people.

After being rebuffed by occupation forces with guns on Tuesday we set off for Jayyus to help with the harvest there. Their problem is less with settlers (although they still harass when it's convenient) as it is a 25ft wall that separates the people from their olive trees. This is also the case with Anin (where it's an electric fence instead of a wall), where we harvested Saturday. Israel only allows a couple of family members to assist with the harvest if it's outside of some arbitrary boundary. Plucking a thousand olives from a tree one by one-ish with perhaps eighty trees is a difficult task, especially for maybe four people with less than a week. Why less than a week? Because that's all Israel gives them. After that and they could be arrested and the nominal settler-deterrent that the government provides is withdrawn. The amount of time allotted for the harvest and the number of Palestinians allowed to assist varies widely and apparently arbitrarily. It also changes from year to year. Palestinians thus depend on volunteers, both Israeli and international, to help gather as much of their crop as possible in the time allotted to them. The harvesting itself is fun. It consists mostly of talking with other harvesters, debating policy (surely you all must realize how torturous it is for me to be forced to talk politics…) and figuring out ways to get the olives off the tree faster. In my case I spend a great deal of time entertaining Israelis and Palestinians with my attempts to properly pronounce Hebrew and Arabic. As yet I've succeeded

The harvest Saturday in Anin went quite well. ISM, ICAHD and RFHR volunteers traveled under the umbrella of the Women's Peace Coalition (my offers to dress as a woman to help fit in were politely declined) to assist three families in their harvests. It had rained for the previous two days so the trees were not nearly as dusty as the previous groves we had worked. There was minor harassment from some of the more morally challenged members of Israeli society towards the end of the day but the big problem was Israel not allowing a tractor to pass a checkpoint to retrieve the harvested olives. Travel restrictions such as this are part of everyday life in Palestine. This is being done in the name of security by one of the top five militaries in the world against a people without a military. Although they are devastating and terrible when they do hit Hamas and Islamic Jihad shoot like storm troopers except, without the cool technology. Journalists from Gaza joke that the safest place during a fight to be is in front of a Palestinian gun. Ehud Barak was exactly right when he said of the Palestinians, "As a military threat they are ludicrous. They pose no military threat of any kind to Israel." That some may pose a threat to individual Israelis is apparently of no concern as Israel continues and even accelerates with policies guaranteed to incite more violence against it.

If anybody has questions, comments or concerns please feel free to send them to me at johnson_jimmy@earthlink.net. Please send any news from where you are, along with naked pictures of yourself. If you don't have naked pictures then the news about yourself and your life will be fine. Sorry this first note took so long to get out and sorry as well that there isn't much in the way of pictures either. Riseup.net either doesn't support them on the listserve or I'm simply missing something. I have some from Arafat's funeral and rallies around that as well as from the harvests, settlers hoodlums and others. May your breakfast break your fast.

typing, Jimmy Johnson of Chicago

For information on how you can help change policies in/towards Israel/Palestine feel free to drop a note to me or to visit the following websites
The International Women's Peace Service
http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org/
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
http://www.icahd.org
Jerusalem Center for Women
http://www.j-c-w.org/
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
http://www.gcmhp.net/
The International Solidarity Movement
http://www.palsolidarity.org
B'Tselem
http://www.btselem.org
Machsom Watch
http://www.machsomwatch.org/
Palestine Solidarity Group
http://www.palsolidaritygrp.org/
Not in My Name
http://www.nimn.org/
Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights
http://www.jcser.org/
There are many other groups as well. Of the above, Not In My Name, Palestine Solidarity Group and The International Solidarity Movement have Chicago chapters.

You can also send me money, a camera or a bicycle, all of which I promise not to hock for crack. Hit me back for an address if you're wealthy and willing.

Send mail to sustainnwburbs@yahoo.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2003 SUSTAIN Northwest Suburbs Last modified: February 27, 2005

Send mail to sustainnwburbs@yahoo.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2003 SUSTAIN Northwest Suburbs
Last modified: February 27, 2005