STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS
Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment
February 2004
A Modesto Peace/Life Center Publication
Peace & Justice
Israeli and Palestinian peace and
justice websites
Local
peace group presents slide show on current Iraq situation
By
WENDY HESSE and DEAN ZAHARIAS
On Thursday, February 12, 2004, 7 p.m. at the Aronos Club (37 E. Elkin St., Sonora), Tuolumne County Citizens for Peace (TCCP) will present "Eyewitness Iraq: A Report From the Front," a slide presentation with live narration.
The featured speaker, Peter Lumsdaine, will give an hour-long presentation followed by questions and answers. There is no admission charge.
Lumsdaine and his wife, Meg, an ordained Lutheran pastor, were in Iraq last November, on a three-week fact-finding mission. They traveled to the Sunni Triangle and Karbala, and also visited Baghdad with Christian Peacemaker Teams at the beginning of Ramadan, when the city was rocked by a wave of car bombings. Drawing on their experiences with community and religious leaders, US soldiers and officials, as well as the ordinary Iraqis, the Lumsdaines have created a compelling slide presentation which includes segments on the land, culture, and history of Iraq as well as an examination of conditions under the current US occupation for Christian communities and various Muslim sects. Their program also looks at likely scenarios for Iraq's.
Coordinator of the Military Globalization Project and co-founder of the Vandenberg Action Coalition, Peter Lumsdaine has worked for US Department of Energy, private business, and non-profits including Global Exchange. He spent five years as Latin America/Globalization Program Coordinator for the Eschaton Foundation/Resource Center for Nonviolence, and served a two-year federal prison sentence for disabling a military satellite in the early 1990s.
Lumsdaine's wife, Meg, hosts the radio show "Leap to Faith," and has traveled to Cuba and El Salvador with human rights delegations. Both Peter and Meg have been involved in high-intensity non-violent resistance actions for global justice.
TCCP' is a local, grassroots organization whose mission is "to live, learn, and communicate peace and justice in our community in order to create a world without war," TCCP grew out of the 2003 Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration and has organized the February 15, 2003 Sonora Peace March as well as four other educational programs (see them on TCCP’s twice-monthly program on Cable 8).
ACTION: For information, email Wendy and Dean, tccp@sbcglobal.net; 209-533-4032
Compiled by LEN and LIBBY TRAUBMAN
In the New Year 2004, we bring to you year-end 2003 stories of Muslims, Jews, and Christians who refuse to distance themselves. Young and old they opt to move toward one another to discover their shared humanity and spirit at the deep base of each person, each religion. We urge other to do the same wherever you live. — L&L
In December, 2003, a delegation of 33 of America's most prominent Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders met in Washington, DC to announce their new, unprecedented, collaborative effort, The National Inter-religious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East. These citizen-leaders and their plans are described at: www.walktheroadtopeace.org
They will continue working within their communities and together "to mobilize broad public support for active, determined and effective U.S. leadership in pursuit of peace between Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states."
They insist on a viable, independent, democratic Palestinian state alongside the existing state of Israel with enduring peace and security for both sides, thus amplifying the voices of increasing numbers of courageous Arabs and Jews of goodwill.
The Washington convergence was initiated by A Different Future (www.adifferentfuture.org), the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East (www.usicpme.org), and the United Religions Initiative (www.uri.org) with initial financial support from the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
MUSLIM AND JEWISH STUDENTS COOPERATE, LEARN TOGETHER AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
From Becky Jane Eisen (BEisen@umich.edu)
The Muslim Student Association and the Progressive Israel Alliance co-sponsored a Habitat for Humanity Build Day.
Muslim and Jewish students, 15 of each, spent the majority of the day working on a house for a lucky Ann Arbor family. "It went smashingly, people got along very well, and all expressed interest in doing it again," Becky wrote. There was a great vibe to the event and everyone involved agreed that they wanted to do more in the future.Becky says: "We are organizing a service exchange for the Muslim Student Association for sometime later this semester, possibly during Ramadan so they can take us to a mosque on Friday and afterwards we can take them to a Friday night service and break their fast with a Shabbat meal."
They will also co-host a lecture/discussion about the origins of the concept of fasting on Ramadan in Yom Kippur at some point during Ramadan. Also, the students are starting the new Progressive Arab Jewish Alliance (PAJA), co-chaired by a Jewish and Arab student.
Becky adds: "Hopefully this will take over the majority of the dialogue taking place on campus and will spread our message to previously unreached segments of the population."
Finally, through PAJA the students will soon start a bimonthly discussion group to read and discuss articles and documents about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They will look at biased literature from both sides of the conflict and learn how to sort through bias and half-truths while attempting to gain the full picture of the situation.
Despite violence and obstacles that inhibit or stop others in the Middle East, the young Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians who co-write and publish Crossing Borders magazine every two months have never given up. The magazine is the product of several dozen youth who about journalism and deepen their understanding of each other through face-to-face dialogue.
Read more at www.crossingborder.org/newspaper/.
The project is hosted by the International People's College, and managed by Garba Diallo (Garba@ipc.dk). The Israeli coordinator is Shimon Malka (liloo@zahav.net.il) from Givat Haviva's Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, the Arab-Israeli is Andre Kaldawy (Kaldawy@inter.net.il), the Palestinian is Suheir Hashimeh (TJT@jerusalem-times.net), and the Jordanian is Khaled Shorman (KShorman@nets.com.jo).
VIDEOCONFERENCE CONNECTS MUSLIM, JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN YOUTH BETWEEN U.S.A., MIDDLE EAST
"Global Perspectives: One World, Many Celebrations" project linked students between Polyprep Day School in Brooklyn, NY and The Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles with Open House, a youth center in Israel founded in 1991 to further peace and coexistence among Palestinian Israelis and Jewish Israelis.
Watch the two-hour telecast
online in streaming video at: www.gng.org/frame.html
The exchange deepens over time, becoming more and more revealing of the differences and separation between people, the openness and closedness of different participants, and the break throughs young people have made in their own lives.
More about Open House is at www.openhouse.org.il/.
--Edited
