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.