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June 28, 2006

Horrifying Breaking News from Gaza

From the "Hamas leaders arrested; Israeli executed," by Associated Press:

Hamas officials said more than 30 lawmakers have been arrested in the West Bank.

Palestinian security officials said Israeli forces detained the Palestinian deputy prime minister, Nasser Shaer, and three other Cabinet ministers, as well as four lawmakers in Ramallah. Several others were arrested in the town of Jenin, they said.

Israeli media reported a roundup of Hamas lawmakers in Jerusalem and other locations. Also, the Hamas mayor of the West Bank town of Qalqiliya and his deputy were detained, security officials said.

Army Radio said the Hamas leaders might be used to trade for the captured soldier. [...]

Israel held the Palestinian government headed by the Islamic Hamas responsible for the fate of the soldier, also blaming the Hamas leadership in exile in Syria.

An Israeli Cabinet minister said the Syria-based Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, was a target for assassination. In a bold warning to the country that shelters him, Israeli warplanes buzzed the seaside home of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the port of Latakia.

This is in addition to the indiscriminate destruction of civilian power and water supplies by the Israeli army.

Please join me in calling, emailing, or faxing the White House and State Department to insist that the US government force Israel to stop its aggression. I am currently working with WILPF's WCUSP campaign to issue an action alert on this. Below are my suggested talking points:

-- The US government must use its special relationship with Israel to demand the release of Palestinian politicians illegally arrested by the Israeli army.

-- The Israeli people, along with the world community, has condemned the current incursion on Palestinian territory. This latest action is further proof that the Olmert government is only interested in military control over their Palestinian neighbors.

-- As a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and a resident of the United States, I insist that my government work towards a peaceful end of the Israel / Palestinian conflict by recognizing that Israel's bombing of Palestinian infrastructure and civilian areas, its imprisonment of democratically-chosen PA cabinet members, and threats to murder Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Syria are "actions of violence and terror."

-- The US government needs to recognize that Israel caused the current escalation of violence and the US government must work to end Israel's illegal use of force and insist that Israel release the politicians it arrested, immediately stop its military incursion in the Gaza Strip, and use the international legal system to bring alleged terrorists to justice, rather than assuming the right to assassinate people.

Posted by cj at June 28, 2006 10:06 PM

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