A March of Return action step, `1948: Creation & Catastrophe,' and helpful news media resources

I want to share an advocacy alert related to the March of Return, a new film on the Nakba, and two media reports that I think are especially helpful. 

ELCA Advocacy alert

Ask your U.S. senators and congressional representative to attend the congressional briefing on Gaza’s March of Return, and attend one of the anniversary events being held near you. 

What would happen if Palestinians marched nonviolently and in large numbers towards the boundary fence between Gaza and Israel to demand respect for their rights and call attention to the Israeli-imposed blockade that has created hardship for millions of people for more than a decade? In 2018, Palestinian writer Ahmed Abu Artema asked this question in a Facebook post from his home in Rafah, Gaza. The result was Gaza's March of Return. A U.S. tour, sponsored by American Friends Service Committee, will get underway March 1-22. Get information here; please check for a location near you and share.

During the Washington stop, Artema and Abusalim will present a congressional briefing at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19, in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Congressional Meeting Room South (CVC 217). Please ask your U.S. senators and congressional representative to attend and/or send a staff member on their behalf. Sample language for your message follows. Sample language for your message is at this link.

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1948: Creation and Catastrophe

A new film on the Nakba is out, “1948: Creation & Catastrophe." I count filmmaker Andy Trimlett as a friend, since we worked together on some FOSNA projects. Andy told Mondoweiss, "Once I understood 1948, everything that is happening today made sense – the settlers, the home demolitions, the checkpoints, the wall, the violence. This is basically a conflict over land and who lives on that land. Throughout the entire history of the conflict, one side has been pushing the other side off the land through a variety of means. In recent years this process has taken place by creating unlivable conditions for Palestinians and by confiscating Palestinian land through the construction of a wall that runs deep into the West Bank. In 1948 it was done by means of active expulsions."

The film is available on Prime TV and at this link: 1948:Creation and Catastrophe. I watched it twice and was fascinated (and saddened) by the first-person stories and memories. Honestly, this may have been the last chance for many of these  witnesses, Israeli and Palestinian, to tell us what happened. 

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Qalandiya gallery

Mondoweiss has published a photo gallery that is perfect for showing in a presentation on the checkpoints. "On a typical day at the largest Israeli checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, hundreds of mostly West Bank Palestinians line up and patiently stand in between metal bars, their hands gripped around their 1hawiya,' or identity cards, waiting to cross the maze of concrete called Qalandiya." Use this link - Qalandiya: How Palestinians experience the largest Israeli checkpoint, in photographs

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The New Yorker tours Hebron

There's an outstanding overview of the situation in Hebron in The New Yorker. I have shared it extensively. "Hebron is a microcosm of the West Bank, a place where the key practices of the Israeli occupation can be observed up close, in a single afternoon. For several years, two activist groups, one Israeli and one Palestinian, have been leading tours of the occupation of Hebron. I recently went on both, crossing from the living city of Hebron to its hollow shadow and back several times." Find the article at this link:  A Guided Tour of Hebron, from Two Sides of the Occupation

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