[WCUSP] Fwd: request - please confirm receipt

Tue Oct 9 16:21:14 CDT 2007

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Felicity Hill <felicity.hill at wilpf.ch>
Date: Oct 9, 2007 7:35 AM
Subject: request - please confirm receipt
To: dtaller at igc.org, Odile Hugonot Haber <odilehh at gmail.com>

Dear Dolores, Dear Odile

I am sending this letter (attached and pasted below) to you, hoping
that you will discuss this with the appropriate colleagues in the US
section and let me know soon if it would be possible for your section
to support this.  Sorry for not knowing who to send this to in Philly
now that Mary Day has left, but I trust you will share it with the
right persons.

If all 5 sections could share the support, it would work out to be
about 800 CHF each - is this a possibility?

yours in hope and haste

Felicity

To:     WILPF Sections in Sweden, Norway, US, Switzerland and Germany

From:   Felicity Hill

Concerning the Middle East

Dear Friends,

I have spent much time and effort in trying to finalize the Congress
resolution on the Palestine/Israel conflict and re-engage the
Palestine section in this effort. We are almost but not quite there.

This process, and also the constantly worsening situation in the
Occupied Territories, and in particular in Gaza, and the new US
initiative for a peace conference in the US at the end of November,
have confirmed my conviction that it is urgent to visit our Israel and
Palestine sections and get a feel of what is going on on the ground.

I have talked to Edith about the possibility of the two of us to go
Israel at this point and to speak to our sections, and also to meet
with other women's and peace organizations, especially in Palestine.
She would be prepared to go. I am writing to ask you whether your
sections could support such a trip.

We propose to go from 8-16 November.  After costing the air tickets,
the internal transportation and accommodation costs, we have
calculated that we need 4370 CHF or 3710 USD.  Do you have any funds
that might be spared?

We believe a face to face encounter would be very useful and
beneficial to WILPF. As you know, the Palestinian Section decided to
boycott the Bolivia Congress due to what they felt was unfair
treatment by the Nominations Committee.  We have both done a lot of
work to encourage the Palestinian section to engage with the draft
resolution from Congress that was left open to integrate their
feedback.  It has been a worthwhile process, and we feel some good
will has been generated. However, a good deal more listening and
talking to our Palestinian section will hopefully help to deplete the
resentments and hurt that has accumulated and help us to move forward.

Such an exercise would provide an opportunity for some frank and
direct feedback to the Section that possibly only someone as trusted
as Edith can deliver after such longstanding contact.  We would like,
for instance, our visit to facilitate some joint meetings with other
Palestinian women's peace organisations that both of us are familiar
with and would like to bring into closer contact with our Section.
For example, the Palestinian women from the Jerusalem link have not
heard from WILPF or some time, and nor has the Women's Centre for
Legal Aid and Counselling, the director of whom, Maha Abu Dayyeh
Shamas is interested in supporting WILPF's involvement on the
International Women's Commission – the UNIFEM supported initiative for
women's organisations to engage more with the Quartet. The Quartet,
which includes the UN, has been such a miserable failure and should be
subject to sharper criticism and strong demands.

Our Israel section is participating in so many activities – in the
Women's Peace Coalition, the Checkpoint Watch, the Jerusalem Link, the
list goes on and on, and is truly impressive.  Through this coalition
work, WILPF is visible, but is not really doing so much AS WILPF. We
think it might be useful to work with the section on some ideas to
develop a WILPF contribution to the peace effort.

The political situation is something WILPF needs to come to greater
grips with.  There will be a summit in late November in the US, which
could be a step forward, but it could also be several steps back.  The
Middle East Committee have started to prepare a WILPF input and
position on this, but have only just begun and could be finalised
during the visit.

A visit by a larger group of WILPF sections is planned for early next
year.  The Convenor of the Middle East Committee, Heidi Meinzolt plans
to go in February, and would like to have other WILPF sisters join
her. Felicity understands there is interest on the part of some WILPF
members in the Norwegian section, and certainly there could be others.
 Our trip could go someway towards preparing the way for that larger
group.

While it is ambitious, we believe that with the help of UN colleagues
that we may be able to enter Gaza.  A WILPF eyewitness account/report
from Gaza right now could be something to help raise the awareness and
alarm of our members over the situation in the Middle East.  Accounts
of how the wall is affecting women, and the status of the house
demolitions and efforts by NGOs to rebuild the houses torn down in
Jerusalem, as well as the effectiveness of UNRWA and other UN
programmes at this time could similarly help to educate and update our
sections.

Thank you for considering this request, and providing any feedback or
comments you might have on the ideas we would take into such a
journey.

Best wishes

Felicity Hill
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