RSS Feeds
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it    
Occupation magazine - Activism

Home page  back Print  Send To friend

If anyone can open hearts, children can - the new US Congress meeting Palestine
Donna Baranski-Walker, Rebuilding Alliance
contact@rebuildingalliance.org

Good news: Palestinian youth are coming to brief the new Congress on Feb
5th! A Senior Senator is sponsoring the briefing because if anyone can open
hearts, children can.


1. Invite your Senators and Congressperson to the Briefing
The #ICareAboutPeace Congressional Briefing will be held
on February 5th, 11am-Noon, in the Capitol Building, Room SVC 212-10


By far our most effective form of advocacy, this will be Rebuilding
Alliance`s fourth #ICareAboutPeace Congressional Briefing. This event brings
children from the West Bank and Gaza to Congress to present their visions of
peace and justice.

This year, a child from Susiya will show the Pinwheel for Peace he made and
explain what peace means to him. His mom will speak of when settlers turned
their dog on his father. His cousin, Aysar, returns to now speak in English
to provide an update of their village`s ongoing efforts to prevent the
demolition of their village - and I hope he will talk about his birds and
animals. If all goes well, for the first time, a teen from Gaza City and her
mom will be allowed to cross their borders to join us. She was chosen as the
best English-speaker among all the youth in the refugee schools in Gaza to
come on this trip. Although she`s seeing hunger among her classmates, she
too will speak of what peace means, and what peace looks like.

They will be joined by human rights defenders from Israel and Palestine to
provide maps and context as we ask Congress to restore humanitarian aid for
food, education, and health care and personally make calls to the Israeli
Embassy to express concern, stop the demolition of Palestinian villages,
recognize Palestinian planning rights, turn on the lights in Gaza, and open
the blockade.


2. Next, invite the New Congress to go see for themselves.
Ask them to join Rebuilding Alliance`s second Congressional Leadership
Learning Mission
to Jerusalem & the West Bank, March 15-23rd.


Seeing is believing. Rebuilding Alliance`s Congressional Leadership Learning
Mission provides Congress with an opportunity to see the situation in the
West Bank and Jerusalem with their own eyes. Because the State Department
prohibits Congress from entering Gaza, we are actively pursuing permits that
will allow our speakers from Gaza to join the Mission for one day.

Rebuilding Alliance will pay for each Senator`s or Representative`s trip and
for one family member on this fact-finding mission in support of equal
rights for Palestinians. Based upon Ethics Committee rules, participants
have until February 13th to submit their application.

Gentle Constituent, it all starts with you. Each member of Congress promises
to take action when a constituent faces an urgent issue with a Federal
agency. Hungry children in Gaza, West Bank families whose homes may be
demolished by morning - these are urgent issues. The letters I am asking you
to send will receive a reply as your email is routed to their schedulers who
will get back to you to confirm next steps.

Please spread the word.

Links to the latest articles in this section

Stop considering – Recognize Palestine Now!
US involvement in the Gaza carnage: Protests in Tel Aviv - and in Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles
Back home on the Gaza Border - and the terrible war still goes on