August 21, 2003
Action Needed - Israeli Army to Demolish Rachel Corrie Peace Center
Printable Version | [eMail this article!] |The following came to me via email, but I have also tracked it down at the Palestinian Labor Support Committee so I believe this to be a valid report and a valid request.
You may remember Rachel Corrie, a peace activist who was murdered with a bulldozer in Palestine this spring. Labor Art and Mural Project's delegation to Palestine/Israel has been contructing a peace center in memory of Rachel Corie. Now Israeli authorities have told the group that the center will be demolished.
The full information is in the extended text, or at the link above.
Destruction of Corrie Peace Center
Everyone, below is a letter from Chris Gauvreau from East Jerusalem. Please let me know how you can help demonstrate against this barbarity.
--- [email protected] wrote:
Dear Friends,
The Labor Art and Mural Project's delegation toPalestine/Israel is facing a grave challenge: This morning, four cars of Israeli authorities- the IDF, the Civil Administration, and the police department- arrived at the work camp in East Jerusalem where LaMP activists are helping to construct a peace center in memory of Rachel Corrie. The authorities issued a 'stop work' order and confiscated building materials. They also announced that the building and mural- both scheduled for completion on Thursday- would shortly be demolished.
Israeli and Palestinian activists are massing to spend the night in the building, or arranging to be at the site at 4:30 tomorrow morning in an attempt to stall or prevent the demolition. Some activists will carry out civil disobedience. Your messages of protest are crucial as well.
The building, called the Beit Arabia Peace Center, is the project of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions. As an act of resistance to the occupation, ICAHD is holding a work camp to rebuild on the site of the home of Arabia and Salim Shawamreh of Anata. The Israeli authorities have demolished the Shawamreh home four times. In addition to memorializing Rachel Corrie, the center will memorialize the death of Nuha Makadma Sweidan, a pregnant Palestinian woman killed in Gaza in March 2003 when an Israeli bulldozer demolished her home on top of her. The center will house a permanent exhibit of the ongoing tragedy of house demolitions, and will also serve as a center for educational activities, study tours, activist events and peace-building between Palestinians and Israelis. It is poignantly located across a valley from a new Israeli police and interrogation center.
The mural being painted by U.S. labor muralist Mike Alewitz is anchored by an image of broken bulldozers and war equipment. In the sky float images of Corrie and Sweidan. A railroad track runs to the horizon, reminding viewers of the collective dreams of radical Jewish and Arab unionists in the mandate period who fought for joint organizing of the Haifa rail workshops. It is this kind of vision- of Jews and Arabs fighting for socialist future where the interests of working people will be central- that the Israeli authorities hope to bury in their escalating demolitions of rebuilt houses and structures.
Please protest this outrage by contacting the U.S. State Department, your representatives in the Senate and Congress, and the U.S. Consulate General, Jerusalem, at 18 Agron Road, Jerusalem 94190 / 27 Nablus Road, Jerusalem 94190;PHONE: 972-2-6227230 / 972-2-6253288;FAX: 972-2-6259270.
The following Israeli authorities should hear your protest as well:
Coordinator of Activities in Judea and Samaria
General Yaakov Orr
Ministry of Defense
Ha-Kirya Tel Aviv, Israel
Phone: 972-3-697-5351
Fax: 972-3-697-6306;
Spokesperson: Mr. Shlomo Dror
Mobile: 972 2 50-398-652