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PeaceWorks
The PJALS PeaceWorks Committee
plans and develops strategies for raising popular awareness of violent,
oppressive situations -- particularly those resulting from our own
nation's policies. We work to enhance public understanding of the
available peaceful, non-violent, and durable solutions; because we are
confident the majority of our citizens would support them -- if only
they knew.
Our recent work has focused upon the social and economic costs of a
war-focused society.
- We produce community forums, for example, series of
presentations on the Implications
of Perpetual War; Deconstructing
Empire;
Palestine: the Forgotten People; The Essential Iran; Brother, Can You Spare
a Dime: the Last
and Coming Depression.
- We are concerned about the increasing militarization
of our youth and we have worked to counter
military recruitment in schools,
- We are concerned about police
accountability in this
community where serious police abuses have been committed with no
public oversight, very little internal oversight, and little, if any,
recourse for the victims or for the community.
- Our regular activities, designed to increase
awareness
of the truth, have included leafletting, demonstrations, rallies and
vigils, and bringing important speakers like Jeremy Scahill, Kathy
Kelly and Barbara Lubin to Spokane.
Working for Peace and
Justice by Non-Violent means takes many forms, requires many
approaches, and needs many courageous hands.
We welcome new people, new ideas. Please call PJALS 838-7870 to get the
date of the next meeting and join us!
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| The
Gaza Files |
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Noam Chomsky on Gaza
Speaking at MIT
January 13, 2009
Click
here
to
watch
his
speech
Click
here
to
read
the
text
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We will not go down
a Song for Gaza
Click
here
to
listen
&
see
|
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U.S.
Complicit
in
Israel's
Crimes
Sources
say over 1,300 people have been killed in Gaza so far. Roughly
one-third
were children and about two-thirds civilians. This is roughly 100 times
the number of Israelis killed, including three civilians. Israel is
preventing international journalists from entering Gaza, making it
impossible to independently confirm casualty figures, which are likely
worse.
It's hard, sometimes, to
grasp what these numbers mean; but the
pictures...oh god!
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Israel's
occupation
of
Gaza and its disproportionate
violence there
violate international law and the will of virtually all nations.
Jewish American historian Norman Finkelstein tells us that Israel first
violated the ceasefire with Hamas by entering Gaza on November 4th and
killing 6 or 7 Palestinian militants. Hamas then retaliated, firing
rockets, giving Israel the excuse it was seeking to provoke. According
to Israel‰s own daily newspaper, Ha‰aretz, Israel‰s Defense
Minister Barak developed invasion plans before the ceasefire even
began.
Why plan the invasion? In part because Hamas had begun signaling it
would join
the international consensus and accept a diplomatic settlement along
the 1967 borders. This meant a potential durable regional peace
agreement well short of full spectrum dominance, something Israel and
the U.S. have regularly sabotaged since 1948.
U.S.-supplied F-16 jet fighters, recently delivered 250-pound "smart"
bombs, and annual U.S. aid of $2.5 billion plus make our nation
criminally complicit in the ugly, price-was-worth-it genocide in Gaza.
Even the U.S.-dominated Security Council just passed Resolution 1860 by
a vote of 14-0 (U.S. abstaining) calling for immediate ceasefire.
Israel‰s long-term siege and destruction of Gaza must end. Please stop
supporting the Israeli State‰s aggression.
-PJALS Steering Committee
_______________________
Photo captions and sources available at http://rollyo.com/startmeup/flickr/.
Search
for
Gaza
dead
and
Gaza
injured.
Most
photos
from
Dec.
2008
and
January
2009,
some
earlier
in
2008 |
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