…..goes to the Democratic and Republican conventions.
In January 2008, Bush made this unequivocal statement about ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people. These negotiations must ensure that Israel has secure, recognized, and defensible borders. And they must ensure that the state of Palestine is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent.”
The Israeli government immediately ignored him and his peace initiative, along with the earlier Road Map and the Annapolis conference, which were just brushed aside. That American military equipment and funding is supporting the occupation, the ethnic cleansing, and the killings of innocent Palestinians that goes on daily means nothing to right wing Israelis intent on completing the colonization of all of original Palestine, which would include the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is undaunted in its efforts to educate the American people and our compliant leaders about the brutal military occupation we are supporting with our taxes. This human rights injustice would not be happening without our support.
In less than one month, tens of thousands of protesters, thousands of convention delegates, and hundreds of media outlets will descend upon Denver and St. Paul for the DNC and RNC conventions, respectively. The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation will be there as well, talking to Members of Congress and conference delegates, distributing thousands of fact sheets and postcards, and hiring huge mobile billboards to circulate through downtown Denver and St. Paul with the message: do we really want our tax dollars to support a 41 year long military occupation that goes on for the sole purpose of continuing the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian nation.
The US Campaign sees the conventions as an important opportunity to educate politically influential people, the media, and the general public in a nonpartisan way about its issues, and a way to help both major political parties understand that people in the United States oppose Israeli military occupation and apartheid against Palestinians.
Here is what they ask if you are willing to contribute time and effort to this human rights issue.
At the DNC in Denver
The US Campaign is partnering with United for Peace and Justice as a part of “Progressive Central”, a five-day forum organized by Progressive Democrats of America and The Nation. From this base we’ll be educating convention delegates and Members of Congress. We’ll also be coordinating volunteers to distribute information at delegates’ hotels and outside of Mile High Stadium where 80,000 people are expected to witness Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. (We will also) have an enormous billboard circling the streets of downtown Denver.
We also need volunteers. If anyone can make it to Denver from August 25-28th, please contact Josh Ruebner, National Advocacy Director, at congress@endtheoccupation.org or 202-332-0994.
At the RNC in St. Paul
The US Campaign is working with member organizations in the Midwest to bolster the Palestine solidarity contingent within the permitted Labor Day march. In addition, we plan to distribute literature and hire a billboard to circulate in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
We’ll need all hands on deck to make our RNC protest a success – if you will be in the St. Paul area from September 1-4, please contact Katherine Fuchs, National Organizer, at organizer@endtheoccupation.org or 202-332-0994.
Earlier this year, the US Campaign ran a mobile billboard campaign in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the 1948 dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It was one of their most successful advertising campaigns-the billboard turned heads on the streets and in the press.
The key here is “the press.” Americans are practically censored from reality-based information about the horrors that go on week after week in the Palestinian territories.
