ACTION ALERT
Stop Funding Racism! - Build Levees NOT Walls!
January 22, 2006
For Immediate Release
As our brothers and sisters in New Orleans and the Gulf States struggle to
rebuild their lives from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, and while the
White House has indicated that the Federal funds assigned for hurricane
recovery are not enough, Israel is demanding additional billions of
dollars from the US administration for the expansion of Jewish-only
settlements on Palestinian land.
These Israeli demands come after Congress had already awarded ONE THIRD of
the total foreign aid budget to affluent Israel, which is also heavily
subsidized with tax-deductible contributions by wealthy American Zionists.
In addition, US labor unions (through the AFL-CIO), local
governments and universities hold Israel Bonds, another form of private
subsidy to Israel. Further, to this day, US citizens are still forced to pay
taxes to bribe Russians and other white Europeans to leave for Israel, while
the Israeli government refuses Palestinian refugees their inalienable,
natural and historical right to return to their homes.
Now, as African American and other hurricane victims in Louisiana and
Mississippi face eviction from emergency housing and endless delays in
obtaining building permits, frequently failing to receive straight answers
from the government as to when or whether the ruined levee system will be
rebuilt, Israel is insisting that our Congress appropriate billions of our
tax dollars for planned Israeli developments on land where Palestinians now
live and have lived for generations. The people living on these lands in the
Jaleel (Galilee) and Naqab (Negev) regions are to be evicted and
replaced with Jewish-only settlements and segregated roads, water systems
and industrial areas built with these US tax dollars.
Some of these funds will also be used to extend the illegal Annexation
Wall, a 26 foot high, 400 mile long concrete and barbed wire structure meant
to keep Palestinians penned up in their towns and villages, or force them off their land
entirely. Major Palestinian towns including Qalquilya, Tulkarem and
Bethlehem have already been imprisoned this way, using US tax dollars. Next
on the list for further aggression are the
Palestinian town of Nazareth in the north, and the arid
grazing areas of the Naqab where Bedouins have made their living by
agriculture and herding for centuries. The Bedouins are now faced with being herded
into reservations themselves.
What happens to the people of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans when there
is no more money in the treasury for rebuilding the ruined neighborhoods and
infrastructure? Will the US government put its people into
concrete-walled ghettoes?
ACTION REQUESTED
The Educate Congress Action Committee of Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to
Return Coalition, is asking Al-Awda members, supporters and all people of
conscience to call, email, and fax your letters to the White House,
the Secretary of State and your congressional representatives.
TALKING POINTS
* Tell them that our tax dollars must be used to rebuild the levees and the
devastated neighborhoods of Louisiana and Mississippi; to keep jobs in the
US; and to refuse any additional funding to the racist Israeli government
which uses these funds to oppress and dispossess our Palestinian brothers
and sisters.
* Remind them that the White House has already indicated that the Federal
funds assigned for hurricane recovery won't be enough.
* Tell them that all people have the Right to Return to the homes they were
forced to flee due to natural or man-made disaster. This right is
enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the US has
ratified.
* It's the Law - Everyone Has the Right to Return Home! *
CONTACT INFORMATION
*President George W Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Email: president@whitehouse.gov
Phone: 202-456-1414
Fax: 202-456-2461
*Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Tel: 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339 (Federal Relay Service)
Fax: 202-261-8577
Web Form: Use the "Send a Message to the Secretary of State" link at
http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.cfg/php/enduser/home.php
* Your Representatives and Senators:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt?command=congdir
Call the Capitol switchboard at: 202-224-3121
Letters in the US may be faxed online via: http://www.tpc.int/sendfax.html
Please cc your correspondence to alerts@al-awda.org
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. |