While supposedly negotiating the end to the Occupation and the emergence of a Palestinian state, Israel has continued to develop a Matrix of Control over the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem through land expropriation, settlement expansion, the construction of exclusively 'Israeli' roads, an economic closure and the creation of controlling "facts" on the ground. The dismantling of the Matrix of Control is the key to achieving a just peace.
Patrons of ICAHD UK
Prof Marc Ellis
Uri Fruchtmann
Prof Colin J Green
The Rt Rev Michael Langrish
(Bishop of Exeter)
Prof Ilan Pappe
John Pilger
Prof Avi Shlaim
Clare Short MP
Revd Stephen Sizer
Baroness Jenny Tonge
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This full-page ad by ICAHD UK appeared in The Guardian on Wed 6th June, announcing ICAHD’s campaign to rebuild every Palestinian home demolished over the next year.
Dear Friends,
As we enter the 40th year of Israeli Occupation, a note of urgency has entered into our struggle to end it and, with that, to press on to a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis. ICAHD has long warned that Israel’s unilateral expansionist policies spell the doom of the two-state solution. Given, however, the unwillingness of Israelis, the international community and, it must be said, most of the Palestinian public to entertain another solution, we are willing to join, on this 40th anniversary, the global campaign to end the Occupation once and for all, totally and immediately. We join the worldwide chorus of voices in declaring: ENOUGH!
The Campaign to Rebuild All Palestinian Homes Demolished Over the Next Year
As part of its contribution to the global campaign against the Occupation, ICAHD is announcing the launch of a campaign, in partnership with ICAHD-USA and ICAHD-UK, to rebuild each and every Palestinian home demolished by Israel in the Occupied Territories in the coming year – about 300 homes, batei sumud, “houses of steadfastness” against policies of transfer and dispossession. With funding coming mainly from Jewish donors appalled by the Israeli government’s house demolition policy, ICAHD is able to mount this major challenge to the legality, morality and even self-interest of the monstrosity that is the Israeli Occupation. This represents a timely and appropriate intensification of ICAHD’s ten year struggle against the Occupation and its most cruel expression, the demolition of Palestinian homes – 18,000 since 1967.
Returning to the Place Where the Occupation Began
In fact, the very first act of the Israeli Occupation in 1967 was home demolitions. On June 11th, as the Six Day War was drawing to its close, more than 135 Palestinian families in the historic Muslim Mughrabi Quarter of the Old City – most of them refugees from 1948 – were roused from their beds in the dead of night to watch in horror as Israeli bulldozers summarily destroyed their homes and the quarter’s two mosques, all in order to create an open plaza in front of the Western (Wailing) Wall. It was an operation that had nothing to do with either the war or security, but to create the first of thousands of “facts on the ground” intended to make Israel’s control of the Occupied Territories permanent. In the wanton and illegal razing of the Mughbrabi Quarter, Hajja Rasmia Tabaki, an elderly Palestinian woman, was killed when her home was demolished on top of her. She became the Occupation’s first victim.
We Need Your Help!
Our campaign will succeed only if we can mobilize world public opinion. We need groups and individuals throughout the world to place ads in their local newspapers, even if it is in local religious or community publications. This can be done before or after June 11.
If you are willing to join our campaign, attached are two versions of the ICAHD ad that you are welcome to use. The shorter one is appropriate for smaller ads, the longer one for full-page ads or leaflets. Anyone wishing more information about ICAHD’s work or ad, please contact ICAHD at info@icahd.org or call +9722-624-5560.
ICAHD-USA has produced an ad which appeared in the New York Times on June 3rd. If you would like to have a copy or would like more information regarding the campaign in the USA, please contact ICAHD-USA at outreach@icahdusa.org, or call 919-277-0632. ICAHD-UK is also producing an ad to appear in The Guardian. For further information contact ICAHD-UK at info@icahduk.org or call 020 7383 3893.
And, of course, we always need financial support, especially for ads and other materials necessary for keeping our campaign in the public eye as it develops.
ICAHD will launch the campaign with help from you, our supporters in Israel and abroad. But monitoring its progress is equally important. This opposition to Israeli government policy will not go unanswered. We will only succeed in challenging the Occupation if public attention is focused on our nonviolent resistance and, at every turn, our supporters throughout the world mobilize public opinion and their governments. Together we can cause the unjust structure of Occupation to collapse, thereby releasing the Israeli and Palestinian peoples to find a just and sustainable resolution to their more than century-old conflict – and the world as a whole to move on to addressing the grievances of the wider Middle East, thus bringing a measure of hope, stability and reconciliation.
In Solidarity,
Jeff Halper (ICAHD Coordinator) and Lucia Pizarro (International Coordinator)
The Enough! Coalition
The Enough! Coalition has been set up to press for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory
and further the cause of a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
2007 marks the 40-year anniversary of the Six Day War, in which the Israeli army took military control of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Since that time the government of Israel has built 'settlements' in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and assisted its citizens in setting up homes and businesses using land and resources stolen from the Palestinian people. This situation has continued to the current day despite Israel being in violation of international humanitarian law and over 60 UN resolutions.
The Occupation has created serious poverty for the Palestinians, as well as severe human rights violations. But Palestinian suffering dates back further to 1948, when the state of Israel was created and 750,000 Palestinians were driven or fled from their homes. The United Nations asserted the refugees' right to return home in 1948, but Israel has refused to allow this. Meanwhile the refugee population has grown to over four million, one of the largest in the world, many of whom live in camps waiting for international law to be upheld.
Britain bears a particular responsibility for this suffering. From 1917 to 1948 Britain controlled Palestine. Along with the US and many EU countries, the UK government is today involved in a close military, economic and political relationship with Israel, and fails to stand up for the rights of the Palestinian people.
We say Enough! We are a group of charities, trade unions, faith and other campaign groups. We have come together because we want peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike. This can only be built on justice, equality and freedom. In order to achieve this goal governments like the British government must stand up for international law and human rights.
