By Donna Baranski-Walker | Founder and Executive Director
In this time of crisis, our challenge is to keep Palestinian communities standing. Every day now, across the West Bank, the Israeli military is issuing 96-hour orders to demolish Palestinian homes and schools, while the Municipality of Jerusalem forces Palestinians in East Jerusalem to self-demolish their homes. The Kafkaesque rules are tightening, spurred on by Israeli settler groups and ultranationalist leaders.
We’ve found three things make a huge difference:
The first two are necessary but not sufficient. Personal intervention by House and Senate offices may be the only way to safeguard a Palestinian home, school, or neighborhood. It has made all the difference in the past; we hope it will continue to make a difference now.
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For our part, Rebuilding Alliance is doing our best to help Constituents — and their members of Congress — gain traction. In February, Rebuilding Alliance brought our 5th Leadership Learning Staff Delegation to Jerusalem and the West Bank, our first for Senate staff. Two amazing individuals, staff to Senators Mike Lee and Cory Booker, joined the delegation, along with 7 incredible constituents and RA advisors. Our goal was to introduce them to Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, and UN staff who are working for peace and justice and to help them understand how to intervene when help is needed like it is needed now. Our visit to the U.S. Embassy included a remarkably thoughful discussion with State Department staff from the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs and Pentagon staff from the Office of United States Security Coordinator.
There are 58 Palestinian School facing demolition orders. The Jubb Al Dhib Elementary School near Bethlehem is the latest — and the villagers were not even allowed to defend themselves in court against an Israeli group with no standing called Regavim, that won a lawsuit to destroy the school within 90 days.
Because I know that Congress can stop this, last Friday, I sent an urgent scheduling request to all Senators and all Representatives and we have their attention — some 90 schedulers have already responded. To complete the scheduling they need
To see the calendar of the Congressional offices that are scheduling, click the link below. Rebuilding Alliance is arranging for a guest speaker from the region for every Zoom Briefing — and Constituents will be the most important people on that zoom call.
May I count on your participation? Use the link below to email your Senators and Representative, and tell them you’ll be joining the call. We’ll notify you and all constituents who sent their emails, as soon as the schedulers confirm the date and time.
Thank you for all that you do and for believing in Rebuilding Alliance. Your support of our work is deeply appreciated and because of it, we’ve built a remarkable advocacy team. With your support, we will continue.
P.S. The photos are by Eid Suleiman, Stephanie Meyer, and Alestin Sphere, The photo by Eid shows the mural in memory of his father, Haj Suleiman.
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