[WCUSP] Fwd: report from alan haber

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

this is alan' brief  report so you can have a taste of what we went trough.
i spent one day with Marsom watch with Dapne Banai, we saw a disable
man beaten up by israel soldiers who would not acknowledge his disable card....
it was horrible, i was told told that an older woman doing check point watch
had s stroke and was also left standing there for a couple hours until an
amulence came.

many israelis are aware of the dehumanization of that occupation produce.
i regret not to have more time wih wilpf Palestine but i had a visit
with hanan awad. she though we should focus on prisonners and the right
of return, doing at least some writings.
we tried twice to get in jenin unsuccessfully.
hopefully i will write a more detailed report next week.

i need to refocus on us policy and find out what are the bills we need
to focus on.

odile wih one hand and one finger.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alan Haber <megiddo at umich.edu>
Date: May 16, 2007 12:23 PM
Subject: Re: need vitals
To: Allison Stupka <alstupka at gmail.com>
Cc: reconchat at umich.edu




We have combination announcement, "mazel tov,"  for our safe return,
"condolence" for having  experienced the realities in Israel and
Palestine and the ugly interface between them, and "congrats" for
successful advances of the Megiddo Peace Project,

Alan and Odile, are returned from a two week travel in Israel and
Palestine, and are eager to report and tell the stories of what we saw
and did,

and discuss actions on what some people called "wedge questions," like
family unification, women and children prisoners,  homes demolitions,
land confiscations associated with the separation barriers, check
points.

And, more positively, we want to report  on the school of peace,
freedom theater, remembrance memorials,  healing music, Arab center for
holocaust education, sulha traditional peace making, art making, non
violent direct actions, sustainable agriculture and cultural survival,
gate to humanity,  and the Israeli peace movement, women's movements,
and also student organizing.

For lovers of Israel, ours is not a happy report:  de Nile, denial, is
not a river in Egypt, it is a state of mind too prevalent in Israel and
also among Jews in Ann Arbor.  We ignore the internal crises in Israeli
society, and in relation to Palestine, at the peril of Jewish honor and
future security.

The militarized occupation of Palestine is finding blow-back in
increasing violence inside Israeli families.  And the de-development
and impoverishment of Palestine is  being reflected, karmicly  if not
causally, in increasing Jewish impoverishment also,  even while "the
economy" prospers.   A religious community of prayer, living more than
less on women's/wives' labor, and government subsidies,  is apparently
oblivious to the violations of Torah and morality the government
perpetuates in their name.  The political leaders class, right to left,
is tarnished by corruption and ethical errors, and no new lights show
brighter alternatives.

Disheartened from having failed to win the war, Israeli people doubt
that peace is possible, and the Palestinian is all the more demonized.
from routine atrocity at check points to systematic discriminations in
Israel.   There is a house divided against itself that cannot stand.

Help is needed:  not to lockstep bolster the failed politicians of
confrontation, but to affirm the actions that affirm interaction,
crossing the borders, opening the gates, turning our hearts, meeting
our cousins,  in our homeland, and theirs too, and here in Ann Arbor,
also.

We have some imaginative proposals, produced in interaction with some
marvelous people,  deserving of material aid and an attentive ear

*  Miriam's garden, a bustan of peace in the Negev

*  inviting an Israeli musician for peace, Offer Golani, to bring some
healing music, for a  2 week tour in Ann Arbor area in October.

*  partnering with a freedom theater,  in Jenin /west bank/ Palestine

*  creating a "peace center" at Lejun / Megiddo, Israel

In our travels we have continued to work to bring together sufficient
creative elements needed for a citizen initiated peace meeting for all
the wars of the world, with an art exhibit of  "visions of peace" art
and concerts of music "to turn the heart," with a global cyberspace
interconnect. ever perseverent in the big dream: peace on earth, good
will to all.

Incidentally, the "peace table" (for the meting to make peace in the
world) is on exhibit in an art for peace show, "Seeding the Dream," at
the Michigan Union, south gallery just inside the front doors, through
May.

We are available for meetings and discussion in synagogues, community
centers, schools, living rooms and kitchens.

Our phone is 734 761-7967;  email at megiddo at umich.edu

Alan Haber and Odile Hugonot Haber