The following is the text for a full-page ad to appear in the New York Times. Jewish Voices Against the Occupation is soliciting signatures nationwide for this ad.

JEWISH VOICES AGAINST ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION OF PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

We believe that there can be peace between Israelis and Palestinians, a truly just resolution to their conflict. But there can be no peace or security for Israelis or Palestinians until Israel completely evacuates its settlements in Palestinian territories, ends its military occupation, and returns to its pre-1967 borders.

We are outraged and saddened by Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestinian lands and its suppression of Palestinians’ right to sovereign statehood, guaranteed under Articles 1 and 55 of the Charter of the United Nations. These lands, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, were taken by force of arms in 1967, and have been held ever since in violation of international law and numerous U.N. Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.

In taking the above positions, we support many in the Israeli peace movement, including Bat Shalom, Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, Committee Against House Demolitions, Gush Shalom, New Profile, Physicians for Human Rights, Rabbis for Human Rights, and Ta’ayush.

As Jews, we call upon the Israeli government to take the following steps:

Israel must agree to the immediate establishment of an international peacekeeping force in the occupied territories to protect civilians from violence by the Israeli military and settlers. In particular, the following actions violate the Fourth Geneva Convention:

• Collective punishment of civilians: Israel has demolished homes, applied debilitating closures to parts or the whole of the territories, destroyed crops, agricultural land and wells, and obstructed access to water and to medical care;

• Use of excessive military force against civilians: Israel has employed tanks, F-16s, helicopter gunships, missiles, as well as rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition;

• Assassinations of Palestinian leaders and activists;
  [On October 19, 2000, the United Nations Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution condemning Israel s “disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force” against Palestinian civilians, and accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity.]

• Israel must immediately stop building or expanding settlements as a first step toward their complete evacuation.
  [The settlements are illegal under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”]

Israel receives approximately $3 billion each year in U.S. aid. According to the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, the military portion can be used only for “legitimate self-defense” and “internal security.” In addition, the Leahy law prohibits U.S. assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights. Israel’s use of U.S. military aid to purchase U.S.-made weapons such as helicopter gunships and fighter jets, with which it has attacked civilian populations, clearly violates U.S. law.

Therefore, as Jews and U.S. taxpayers, we call upon the U.S. Government to:

1. suspend military aid to Israel until it withdraws completely from occupied territories, and

2. reduce economic aid by the amount Israel spends on maintaining the settlements until all the settlements are evacuated. These funds should be used to reconstruct the devastated infrastructure of Palestine.

Finally, we urge the Israeli Government to acknowledge that it bears significant historical responsibility for the dispossession of the Palestinian people, and to join in the effort to find a just solution to the plight of Palestinian refugees.

We also call upon the Palestinian Authority to make every effort to curtail acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians.

Israel’s security policies harm all the peoples of the Middle East and make Israel less safe, not more.

• THE SETTLEMENTS MUST GO.

• THE OCCUPATION MUST END.

• THERE CAN BE NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE.

From September 29, 2000 (beginning of the second Intifada) until July 5, 2001

• 560 Palestinians killed, 174 of them children

• At least 16,000 Palestinians injured; 1,500 of them permanently disabled • 130 Israelis killed, 25 of them children

• 472 Israelis injured

• 269 Palestinian homes destroyed

• About 80,000 olive and other fruit trees uprooted

• 2,260 acres of agricultural land bulldozed, rendered unusable

Why No Palestinian Could Accept Barak’s “Generous Offers”

• Barak reportedly offered the Palestinians 90% of the Occupied Territories. But with the West Bank “settlement blocs” (10%) and land in the Jerusalem area that Israel would “annex,” together with a “security zone” stretching along the Jordan River and southward, over 25% of Palestinian land would remain under Israeli control. (Remember that the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem comprise only 22% of pre-1948 Palestine.)

• Israel would also supervise all border crossings in and out of Palestine, control its air space and main water supply, and indefinitely retain military and civil control of the “security zone.”

• No viable state could result from this offer: Israeli “settlement blocs” would incorporate Palestinian villages with about 90,000 inhabitants and much of the West Bank s fertile land. These “blocs” would cut the Palestinian state into three separate segments connected only by narrow strips of land.

• Barak’s offer addressed neither the question of the 61 Israeli settlements located within the future Palestine nor the issue of Israeli control over the 300 miles of bypass roads built throughout the Occupied Territories.

• Barak reportedly offered Palestinians sovereignty over some outlying Jerusalem suburbs and administrative control over other neighborhoods near the city center, but no details were supplied. Israel would exercise sovereignty over Haram Al-Sharif, Islam’s third holiest site.

• Palestinian refugees would renounce the right to return from exile (except to the Palestinian state) or to be compensated for their losses and suffering.

At the Taba talks in January 2001, Barak made more generous offers, but political developments in Israel made it impossible to proceed with these proposals.

(End of ad text)

Since this ad will be paid for by the signatories, we are asking a minimum contribution of $36 per signer, but urge you to contribute as much as you can. While this ad represents Jewish voices, we welcome contributions from others who support this project.

All monies received beyond the cost of the ad will be used to publish a similar ad in Israeli and other U.S. newspapers.

You may sign this ad at http://www.jvao.org/ , but you should send your contribution by check to: Jewish Voices Against the Occupation, P.O. Box 11606, Berkeley, CA 94712.

Activists condemn US policy on Iraq: fast continues

Grassroots activists in the National Network to End the War Against Iraq are condemning the most recent U.S. bombings of Iraq and encouraging people to support efforts to lift the deadly sanctions on Iraq. U.S. officials say the Aug. 10 attack by 50 American and British aircraft on Iraqi military sites was part of the maintenance of the “no-fly zones” in Iraq, implying the strikes were defensive. But the no-fly zones have not been authorized by any U.N. Security Council resolution, and the U.S./U.K. military action is blatantly illegal. U.S. references to “coalition forces” are meant to obscure the fact that except for the British, the United States has no support for these actions.

Activists in the Network — along with most governments around the world and scores of human-rights groups — argue that the real threat in Iraq is the continuation of sanctions that have been imposed for 11 years. U.N. studies indicate more than 1 million Iraqi civilians have died as a direct result of the sanctions. Most of the nations of the world want the embargo lifted so that the Iraqi economy can be rebuilt, but the United States has used its power to keep them in place.

While the United States continues to pursue aggressive and illegal actions against Iraq, members of the U.S. peace group Voices in the Wilderness continue their fast to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. The “Breaking Ranks: A Fast to End the Siege of Iraq” action across the street from the U.N. building in New York began Aug. 6 and will continue through Sept. 14.

In early September, Voices members and local activists across the United States will organize “Life Under Siege” tent encampments to depict living conditions forced upon Iraqis by the sanctions. For information, go to http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/pages/145.htm. The National Network to End the War Against Iraq was formed after a national conference in Denver that brought together activists from peace-and-justice, faith-based and student groups working to end the U.S. military and economic attack on Iraq. For information, visit www.endthewar.org.

Breaking ranks: a fast to end the siege against Iraq

from Voices in the Wilderness Fast Group

On Day 10 of the fast, (Wednesday, August 15), nine participants along with three supporters were arrested for bringing a meal of cooked lentils and rice to the steps of the US Mission to the UN. We invited staff members to share the meal and engage in dialogue about how sanctions affect Iraqi civilians. The NYPD jailed us for 8 - 10 hours of “processing.” On September 20 we’ll be tried for criminal trespass and obstruction. The head of security for the US Mission to the UN stated several times that we have no right to be on the steps of the US Mission because we have no official business to conduct inside. Rev. Daniel Berrigan, SJ clarified that we have very important business to conduct, that we had come to talk about the death of 5,000 children under age five who, according to UNICEF, die each month as a direct result of the economic sanctions against Iraq.

Those arrested included Rev. Dan Berrigan, SJ New York, NY, Rev. Simon Harak, SJ New York, NY, and Dr. Earl Crow, Winston-Salem NC. Others also arrested are Cynthia Banas, Ceylon Mooney, Melissa Muro, Kathy Kelly, Mark Paye, Lori Blanding, Johannes Limberger, Rev. Jerry Zawada, OFM, and Joan Gregory.

Our August 13, 2001 letter of invitation to the US Mission to the UN, said: “We again invite you to partake with us in a simple meal of cooked lentils and rice, symbolic of daily fare available to many Iraqi civilians as a consequence of economic sanctions. We will also have with us untreated water from the East River. We don’t want to serve or drink it, but rather remind ourselves of how vulnerable Iraqi civilians are to water borne diseases. Many of us have traveled to Iraq and, like you, we have tried to keep ourselves apprised of developments as they affect ordinary Iraqi people. We have followed the proposals of the UK and the US as regards smart sanctions very carefully, yet the UK proposal in its final form still did not convince us that the so called smart sanctions would alleviate the suffering endured by innocent Iraqi civilians. We look forward to an opportunity to talk with any members of your staff who are willing to gather with us.”

In a press statement, the fasters noted that Condaleeza Rice assured the world that the US has Iraq on its radar screen.

Our response to her statement: “We’d like to see the vulnerable Iraqis, particularly children, who continue to suffer under sanctions and bombardment, appear on the screen.”

In 1999, UNICEF estimated that the sanctions had already cost the lives of 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of five.

We were pleased to celebrate, in jail, two anniversaries: Dan Berrigan professed his vows as a Jesuit priest 62 years ago and Jerry Zawada took vows as a Franciscan priest 42 years ago.

ACTION: Visit our website, http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw, for updates, photos, reflections from our delegation just returned from Iraq and descriptions of “life under siege” encampments planned for September 1 - 14. Voices in the Wilderness, 1-773-784-8065, 1460 West Carmen Ave, Chicago 60640.