U.S. Movement to Safeguard Palestinian Schools

This past Monday was remarkable:

• Rebuilding Alliance held five zoom briefings — three of the five were with Senate offices: two Republican offices and one Democratic.
  
  
• Even more remarkable, the first office brought four Senate staff to our meeting!
  
  
• Most importantly, four constituents were on the line
  
  
• Our guest speakers called-in from New York and London. Both psychoanalysts from the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network, they are experts in trauma recovery especially after brain damage.

Rebuilding Alliance has completed over 550 Zoom-briefings since our Contact Congress program began. The is all because of you — thank you!

Why did 4 Senate staff come to this particular briefing?  

• Our team has built-up trust. Staffers return to meet with us.  Meeting an expert on the line often from Palestine or Israel, along with Constituents, is of value to Senate and House offices
  
  
• Nearly 430,000 people signed the Change.org petition to free Ahmad Manasra
  
  
• This is an urgent case

Ahmad Manasra, a Palestinian boy arrested at the age of 13, has been in prison for more than seven years now. Most recently, he's been in solitary confinement for seven months straight, and we recently moved to the prison hospital. Due to life and death urgency of this case, Rebuilding Alliance asked all House and Senate senior staff to Zoom with us, with mental health experts on the line.

These Contact Congress briefings matter because Israel's Special Release Committee (a type of parole board) insistes it has not juristiction to release him.  But no one else does either.

Here’s another reason why these Zoom-briefings matter:  On June 29th, the Israeli Supreme Court heard the Sumreen family's appeal in an eviction case that has been ongoing for over 30 years. 

• When COVID first broke out, as we shut our office down, I wondered how Rebuilding Alliance would even continue. Rabbi Arik Ascherman, the Israeli head of Torat Tzedek, invited RA to join the Sumreen Coalition
  
  
• I’m convinced that the Supreme Court accepted the family's appeal due to RA's series of 35 Contact Congress briefings 
  
  
• A pivotal letter to the Prime Minister of Israel was led by Congresswoman Jackie Speier and 25 other offices signed on

The Supreme Court hearing went surprisingly well. The Justices listened for two and a half hours asking key questions. According to the Israeli Human Rights Group, Peace Now, the Court gave the Government of Israel 45 days to explain why the title to the Sumreen family home was taken from them under Israel’s Absentee’s Property Law when this family was never absent.

Our Contact Congress briefings are a lifeline for Palestinian communities because these communities have no representation – the Supreme Court decided that NO Palestinians are allowed on the Regional or local planning councils. When Congress intervenes, the village, the family, the Palestinian NGO, or even a young man facing a return to tortuous solitary confinement, has half a chance. 

Look, this is not easy, and not all Congressional offices follow-through to make their calls to the State Department and the Israeli Embassy — but when constituents ask, most offices respond. 

Thank you for all that you do.  Mark your calendar for next Wednesday when GlobalGiving will match donations over $100 up to $1000.

Sincerely, 
Donna

P.S.  In April, I went to live in Al Aqaba Village because back in January, a Israeli High Court judge who is himself a settler, ruled against a young family building their new home on their own land in Al Aqaba, in Firing Zone 900. His ruling put nearly every house in Al Aqaba at risk of demolition — especially the 20 or so homes in construction.  The late Mayor Haj Sami, the Villagers, and Rebuilding Alliance had kept them free of demolitions for 12 years ... what a remarkable model we pioneered.

So to keep them safe, I lived and worked in the Firing Zone for two month in Al Aqaba. So far, so good.  More on this soon.

Links:

• New Yorker: Story of Ahmad Manasra, a 13yr-old boy in Jerusalem
• Sign the Change.org #FreeAhmadManasra Petition
• Email your Senators and Representatives to urge Ahmed's release