hupcollective

Dear friends,

Below is an urgent message from Dr. Mona, a dear friend to many of us. Her situation is both outrageous and tragic. However, multiply that by 6,000, because that is how many Palestinians have been waiting for up to five weeks on the Egyptian border to get to their homes in Gaza. Twenty-eight of them have died from heat, exhaustion, stress and their own delicate condition.

Please call AND write your members of Congress (or other elected representatives outside the U.S.), and demand their intervention to get Israel and Egypt to open the borders. Be sure to copy Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on your messages at eulmert@knesset.gov.il. Go to www.congress.org to find your senators or representatives. Call the Congressional switchboard at 1-800-839-5276 and ask for your member of Congress.

Paul

Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:39:02 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Marhaba..are you back?
From: "mona El-farra" <mona@gaza-health.org>

sorry i canot write more , can you circulate this to friends
and supporters
love
mona Sunday, July 15, 2007

My mother is in her last moments and I cannot cross the borders

My mother is in the hospital at the moment. She is severely ill. She was
admitted to hospital 3 days ago. I cannot reach her.

I finished my 45 day speaking tour in the USA. Everywhere across the USA
and in each lecture I told the audience about our suffering, living in
this big prison called Gaza. I told them about the borders closure and
about the patients who passed away while waiting to cross.the borders .

Now it is my personal story, like the daily stories of 1.4 million people
in GAZA under siege and occupation.poverty , lack of resources , killing
shooting violence etc....

I cannot cross the borders, I cannot cross the Rafah crossing. I badly
need to be next to my mother. I badly need to be there with her to help
her, to do whatever I can for her.to say good bye mum , I was always there
for my patients and many people, to help and try to alleviate their
suffering.in her last hours i canot be there my hands are tied, I am
helpless, I can do nothing, I just have to wait and wait and wait.my
throat is dry my are eyes full of tears .
this is unjust, unhuman . it is the occupation , how come to be just and
fair ,when it is mainly based on injustice , agression and cruelity .

Can somebody help me to go home? I badly need to be at home next to my
mother in her last moments.
Good bye mum ,hpoe you rest in peace , peace we donot enjoy in Gaza

The borders have been closed for more than 5 weeks , 28 patients died
while waiting to crossthe Rafah crossing .the only crossing between gaza
and egypt , all other exits are completely sealed by the Israeli army
The border was opened 70 times in one year

love and solidarity

[Dr. Mona Elfarra]

Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."1

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place"--but it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the odds are stacked against them. Together, we can make sure their story is told, that this becomes an issue for the Governor of Louisiana, and that justice is provided for the Jena 6. It starts now. Please add your voice:

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1749-62943

The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set the stage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over the next couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building of Jena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the same weekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party. The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by a young white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ran away. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students were arrested for the theft of the gun.2

That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital but was released and was well enough to go to a social event that evening.3

Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. Bail was set so high -- between $70,000 and $138,000 -- that the boys were left in prison for months as families went deep into debt to release them.4

The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal's parents were ordered not to speak to the media and the court prohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where the judge could see them.

Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jail for 22 years.5 Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bail this week.

The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fighting tooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they are standing strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone, their sons will be a long time coming home. They will lose precious years to Jena's outrageous attempt to maintain a racist status quo. But if we act now, we can make a difference.

Please add your voice to the voices of these families in Jena, and help bring Mychal, Theo, Robert, Carwin, and Bryant home. By clicking below, you can demand that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco get involved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1749-62943

Thank You and Peace,

-- James, Van, Gabriel, Clarissa, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
July 17th, 2007

References:

1. "Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang From the ‘White Tree,'" truthout, July 3, 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070307B.shtml

2. "Racial demons rear heads," Chicago Tribune, May 20, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/yvh7t5

3. See reference #1.

4. See reference #1.

5. "'Jena Six' defendant convicted," Town Talk, June 29, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/ysxtgg

Other resources:

NPR: Searching for Justice in Jena 6 Case (streaming audio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11756302

Democracy Now! - The case of the Jena Six ...
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/10/1413220

Too Sense: Free The Jena Six Now
http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/07/free-jena-six-now.html

While Seated: Jena Six
http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml

Nooses, attacks and jail for black students in Jena Louisiana
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/28/144445/384

Justice In Jena, by Jordan Flaherty
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=12783§ionID=30

The Perpetrator becomes the Prosecutor (and other related entries)
http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/blog/

'Stealth racism' stalks deep South
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6685441.stm

On Woman of color Blog I found a bunch of YouTube clips of things from the social forum.



clips from the Gender and Sexuality Plenary

Also (I didn't embed these) part one of market socialism vs parecon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et91gXGMLwA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbrownfemipower%2Ecom%2F%3Fp%3D1713

(You can find the rest on YouTube if you like it!)

and here's page one of search results for US social forum on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=US+social+forum&search=

You cna also search USSF, but about half the hits are military related.