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ACTION ALERT
For Immediate Release
14 May 2004
A massive Israeli operation to destroy hundreds of Palestinian
homes at Rafah Camp in the Gaza strip is currently underway.
Besides punishing residents of the camp, the operation's
main goal is to create a "buffer zone" near the border
with Egypt. Already over 11,000 Palestinian residents of the camp were made homeless
by the occupation forces.
Israel is using the recent killing of five occupation soldiers in Gaza by the
Palestinian resistance to the occupation as the main pretext behind its ethnic
cleansing of nearly half of Rafah. However, there is ample evidence to suggest
that the ongoing operation is part of a larger plan which the Israeli occupation
army formulated in 2001. Parts of the plan had already been carried out in a
piecemeal fashion over the past three years.
Today's escalation against the Palestinian people in Gaza coincides with the
56 anniversary of the Nakba (Catastrophe), when over 800,000 thousand Palestinians
were expelled from homes and lands by Zionist colonial forces. Today, the
people of Rafah refugee camp, all of whom are refugees from parts of Palestine
occupied in 1948, find themselves scurrying for refuge as Israeli bulldozers
and tanks demolish their homes away from home.
Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, calls on its members, supporters
and all people of conscience to protest the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinian
civilians at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces by:
- Organizing demonstrations in front of Israeli embassies
and consulates
- Stage street theatre in major cities and towns dramatizing
house demolishment
- Organize protests in front of the offices of the Caterpillar
Corporation. See http://www.caterpillar.com/ for
information on company locations throughout North America.
- Write your Congressman/woman and Senator and remind
them that Israeli ethnic cleansing against the people
of Rafah constitutes a grave violation of international
law, including Articles 33 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, and constitutes a war crime.
- Donate
to Al-Awda's Emergency West Bank and Gaza Relief Fund. All donations will
be directed to the UNRWA for distribution to the victims
of Israeli ethnic cleansing in the Rafah Camp.
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return
Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return
Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists
and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are
a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3)
organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines,
your donations to PRRC
are tax-deductible. |
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