Cease-Fire Now! Take Emergency Action
August 2nd, 2006
A Joint
Call from United for Peace and Justice &
theU.S.
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
Qana Victims Killed by Israel with U.S. Weapons
Demand that Congress Support Cease-fire Resolutions and
End Weapons Deliveries to Israel Now!
THIS WEEK: Call Congress and the White House Every Day
NEXT WEEK: Emergency Week of Action, Aug. 7-11
On Sunday Israel bombed
a residential apartment building in the Lebanese village of Qana,
killing 57 civilians, including 37 children (see below for details).
When
U.S. soldiers killed civilians in Fallujah and other densely populated areas of
Iraq, the Bush Administration claimed the “war on terror” justified such
actions. But nothing justifies bombing innocent civilians, no matter who does
it or in what country.
It is likely that U.S. weapons
provided to Israel with
U.S.-taxpayer dollars killed the villagers of Qana. According to The Washington
Post, a bomb fragment found at the Qana bombing site read “For use on MK-84,
Guided Bomb BSU-37/B”. MK-84’s are free-fall unguided bombs; Boeing-produced
Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM’s) are attached to MK-84’s to convert them
into GPS-guided “smart” bombs.Between
2002-2004, the Pentagon notified Congress of impending sales of 6,000 JDAM’s
and 2,590 MK-84’s to Israel through
its Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program - valued at $346 million.
There is no military solution to the current conflict. The
Iraq war
hasn't brought peace or security to the people of Iraq and the
U.S. Bombing civilian populations has not and will not bring greater peace or
security to the people of Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel.
The only way out of the carnage is an immediate and
unconditional ceasefire, followed by multiparty negotiations to resolve the
underlying political disputes based on human rights and international law. Most
of the world agrees, but the governments of the U.S., Britain, and Israel have so
far rejected calls for an immediate cease-fire.
So long as Washington
provides military and diplomatic support to Israel’s
indiscriminate killing of civilians, a cease-fire will not be possible. It is
time for the people of this country to speak up!The US Campaign and United for Peace and Justice, the country's largest anti-war coalition, call on you to take
action to press Congress and the White House to back an immediate ceasefire and
prevent Israel from
using U.S. weapons
to commit war crimes.
TAKE ACTION THIS WEEK: Call Congress and the White House
Call your Congressperson and the White House every day
this week and demand an immediate cease-fire and a Presidential report to
Congress on Israel’s
misuse of U.S.-supplied weapons to kill civilians and destroy civilian
infrastructure in violation of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act. Call
202-456-1111or email comments@whitehouse.gov today to
reach the White House!Call Congress at 202-224-3121 for the
Capitol switchboard.
TAKE ACTIONNEXT WEEK: Emergency Week of Action, Aug. 7-11
During the week of Aug. 7-11, while Members of Congress
are home on recess, organize local pressure on your Representatives and
Senators to demand an end to support for Israel’s human
rights violations, an immediate cease-fire and a just peace, and the end of
weapons deliveries to Israel.
Depending on the position of your Members of Congress,
local organizers should decide whether a protest, vigil, meeting, or nonviolent
civil disobedience is the most effective way to express opposition to U.S. support
for Israel’s
attacks.
Your delegation should include, if possible, constituents
who were evacuated from Lebanon so that
they can provide eye-witness accounts.
- Click
here to see where events are being organized or to sign up to organize
one.
- Click here
and here for resources on the legislation
mentioned below, action alerts with talking points, and policy briefs and
news articles on Israel’s
misuse of U.S.
weapons.
- Click here for the addresses of the
district offices of your Members of Congress.
- Click
here for a template to fax a constituent meeting request to your
Members of Congress.
- Click
here for tips on how to conduct a meeting with your Members of
Congress.
ISSUES
TO RAISE WITH YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:
1.
Support Kucinich & Jackson-Lee Resolutions for Immediate Cease-Fire &
Just Peace
On July 19, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced H.Con.Res.450,
calling for an immediate cease-fire and multi-party negotiations with no
preconditions. On July 25, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) introduced H.Res.945,
calling for the cessation of targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure,
secure humanitarian corridors to be opened in Lebanon, an
immediate cease-fire, and a comprehensive and just resolution to the Israeli-Arab
conflict. Ask your Representatives to sign-on as a co-sponsor of these
resolutions, or thank them if they’ve already done so. Ask your Senators
to introduce a similar resolution in the Senate. Pressure on Congress has
already resulted in 34 Representatives signing on to the Kucinich resolution,
while 16 have signed on to the Jackson-Lee resolution.
If your Congressperson is a member of the Out of Iraq
Caucus, let them know you expect them to support an immediate end to the
bombing of Lebanon. And
urge them to publicly announce their support for a cease-fire now.
2. Stop U.S. Support for Israel’s Attacks on Gaza and Lebanon
On July 18 and 20, the Senate and House respectively
passed one-sided resolutions expressing unconditional support for Israel’s
attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip
(S.Res.534
and H.Res.921).
Tell your Members of Congress that the United
States should be supporting human
rights and international law, not expressing support for their violation.
If your Representative was one of the few who voted no or abstained, thank them
for not supporting this biased resolution.
3. End Weapons
Deliveries to Israel Now
Over the past month, Lebanese and Palestinians civilians
by the hundreds have been killed by Israel with
U.S.-supplied weapons. By using U.S. weapons
to kill civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure, Israel is
violating the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), which limits the use of U.S. weapons
to internal policing and legitimate self-defense. Instead of stopping the
flow of weapons as required by law, the United
States is rushing jet fuel and
satellite- and laser-guided bombs to Israel.
Ask your Members of Congress to demand from the President a report on Israel’s
violations of the AECA as a first step toward cutting off U.S. weapons
to Israel.
Get voices for peace into the media
Now is the moment to help people see there is an
alternative, and getting our voices into the media should be a central part of
what we do:
- For your local newspapers:
send a letter to the editor and encourage others to send letters; try to
arrange for an op ed piece or a guest editorial; if you or someone you
know has been personally touched by this crisis, try to get a reporter to
do an interview.
- Call into radio talk shows:
you can often talk about anything that's on your mind and reach thousands
of people.
- If you organize a visit to
your member of Congress, invite a reporter to come with you.
- Be sure to let the media
know about any public educational or protest events you are organizing.
BACKGROUND ON QANA AND CIVILIAN
DEATHS
Israeli
officials are blaming Hezbolla for the Qana deaths, saying Israel cannot be held responsible for
killing civilians in “terrorist strongholds.” But according to Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch, the most recent strike on Qana
"suggests that the Israeli military is treating southern Lebanon as a free-fire zone… [and] seems
to consider anyone left in the area a combatant who is fair game for attack.”
According to Human Rights Watch, the consistent failure to distinguish between combatants
and civilians is a war crime. http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/07/30/lebano13881.htm
In three weeks the Israeli government’s bombing
campaign has killed at least 750 Lebanese, the vast majority civilians; made
700,000-800,000 Lebanese homeless; and methodically destroyed Lebanon's
infrastructure. Hezbollah fire has killed 52 Israelis, 19 of them civilians.