This is a call to all people in Ireland to support the human rights of the Palestinian people by calling on CRH to divest from Israel.

Thank you for visiting the IPSC's CRH: Stop Your Involvement in the Apartheid Wall campaign website - we hope you will take action on this vitally important issue. The first actions you can take are to familiarise yourself with the campaign, and then sign the online petition by clicking here. For other ways to get involved in a more hands-on manner, please see the 'What You Can Do' section of the campaign site. For in depth information about the campaign, please read on...

Join the CRH Campaign Maling List - Click Here a Please take the time to sign the IPSC's online petition calling for CRH to divest from the Israeli Mashav Group, and thereby ending their complicity in the construction of the Apartheid Wall and illegal colonial settlements and mining operations in the occuiped West Bank. Click here to sign the petition Campaign News a Mashav cancels Hanson Israel acquisition [Adi Ben-Israel, Globes Israel - 28.12.09] IDB Holding Corp. Ltd has cancelled its acquisition of cement company Hanson Israel Ltd. The acquisition was to have been made through IDB unit Clal Industries and Investments Ltd. subsidiary Mashav Initiative and Development Ltd., which owns 75% of Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises Ltd... Read more Tainted Cement: CRH’s Business Dealings with Israeli Company That Exploits Resources on Occupied Lands [Shir Herver, Alternative News - 25.11.09] On 14 November, hundreds gathered in Dublin, Ireland for a demonstration against the CRH Irish construction company. The demonstration was organized by the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (IPSC)... Read more Irish construction giant digs deeper in occupation [Adri Nieuwhof, Electronic Intifada - 18.08.09] A recent acquisition by the Israeli subsidiary of brick and mortar giant Irish CRH has placed the European conglomerate under increased pressure from Palestine solidarity activists. Irish CRH, formerly known as Cement Roadstone Holding, owns 25 percent of the Mashav Group, an Israeli construction firm... Read more Read more CRH: Building for the future? [Claudia Saba, Socialist Worker - 12.10.09] The company’s products are being used in the construction of the light rail project in Jerusalem - an apartheid public transport system which connects Israeli settlement neighbourhoods with the city centre while cutting off Palestinian neighbourhoods from each other... Read more News Archive a

About the CRH Divestment Campaign

The aim of this campaign is to convince CRH to cease its involvement with the illegal occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people by divesting from the Mashav Group, an Israeli construction company.

Background to CRH and the illegal apartheid wall

2001 CRH Europe Materials Division acquired a 25% shareholding in the Israeli group Mashav Initiating and Development Ltd. Mashav is the holding company for Nesher Cement which is the sole Israeli cement company. It is reported that Nesher produces approximately 85% of all cement sold in Israel.

2002 The apartheid separation wall commenced construction.

2004 Under questioning from Amnesty International, CRH accepted that “in all probability” Nesher cement is being used in the construction of the wall. The ICJ begin its investigation.

2004 The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the wall is illegal as they consider it to be an attempt by Israel to annexe Palestinian territory contrary to International Law and that it constitutes an interference with the right of Palestinians to self determination.

Following the ruling the UN General assembly voted overwhelmingly in support of the advisory opinion by 150:6. Israel continues to ignore the ruling and world opinion as does CRH plc.

2010 CRH continue to profit from the rapid expansion of the colonial settlements (pop currently 450,000) which are illegal under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Resolutions 446, 452 and 465. The UN Global Compact states that ‘businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights within their sphere of influence’.

The wall is currently 450km long. Its planned route will be 711km, twice the length of the 1967 line. It is predominantly (82%) built in 1967 occupied Palestinian territory. So far it has annexed 10% of Palestinian territory.





In cooperation with the
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

28.02.2010 Kairos and Playground for Palestine CALL TO ACTION

Playground for Palestine is sending out this CALL TO ACTION to alert our supporters about a troubling development in the Oush Grab Peace Park, the site designated for a 2010 PfP playground installation.

The Israeli military is trying to implement a decision to confiscate community and privately held property belonging to the community and families in the Palestinian Christian town of Beit Sahour.

Included in this swath of land is the treasured Peace Park, which serves as a community space, park and recreational facility where Palestinian families gather daily and was to be the site of one of PfP’s next playgrounds.

We ask you to call and write to Israeli officials in order to protest this action, call upon them to stop the construction of the watchtower, prevent settlers from attacking the park, and cease any idea of building a settlement in the site.

Follow the link and enter zip for to contact local congressmen - http://www.congress.org/communicate
Call the Israeli ambassador 202 364 5500 or email info@washington.mfa.gov.il
Email the Consulate General of the US, Jerusalem - uscongenjerusalem@state.gov
Call the Israeli consulate in Philly 215 977 7600
Contact the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Near East Affairs - Jeffrey D Feltman 202 647 7209
Injustice in Beit Sahour
A Statement by Kairos Palestine

(Jerusalem 20.03.2010) As described by town residents, Ha’aretz,Ma’an News, and other sources in recent days, Israeli soldiers and bulldozers arrived on February 10 at a family recreation park in Beit Sahour – a town slightly east of Bethlehem in the West Bank, and the site of the former army base Osh Grab, which was abandoned by the IDF in 2006 – and declared it a closed military zone.

KAIROS Palestine condemns this action and calls upon churches worldwide to advocate for the Christians and all residents of Beit Sahour and intervene in the damage, present and projected, wrought upon their home.

Please join KAIROS Palestine in condemning these oppressive actions in Beit Sahour and working to restore the justice that is both our calling and our right.

We ask you to call and write to Israeli officials in order to protest this action, call upon them to stop the construction of the watchtower, prevent settlers from attacking the park, and cease any idea of building a settlement in the site.

Please make appeals to:

[Ehud Barak] Minister of Defense, Ministry of Defense,
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
Fax: +972 3 691 6940
Email: minister@mod.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Minister

Israeli Ambassador in your respective country

Copy to the:

Mayor of Beit Sahour
Email: bsmuni@p-ol.com
Kairos Palestine: www.kairospalestine.ps
Email: Kalimatuna@gmail.com

KAIROS Palestine is a group of Palestinian Christians who authored “A Moment of Truth” – Christian Palestinian’s word to the world about the occupation of Palestine, an expression of hope and faith in God, and a call for solidarity in ending over six decades of oppression – and published it in 2009.

From our board member, Nathan Dannison, more information at –

Here is a great background video re: the site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZaFwi6WBo&feature=player_embedded
and more background information from decolonizing architecture:
http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/?page_id=428

Here’s two articles regarding my non-violent protest and its result:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=204315
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=56403

Here are some photographs of the event:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dannison/BethlehemPart2#5233543371141960338 (scroll forward to see more)

Here are my relevant blog entries:
http://michigantopalestine.blogspot.com/2008/08/praying-for-childrens-hospital.html
http://michigantopalestine.blogspot.com/2008/08/ush-ghrab-is-safe-again.html

Here is some troubling information regarding the current state of affairs:
http://michigantopalestine.blogspot.com/2008/08/ush-ghrab-is-safe-again.html

Also –

Photos of popular resistance including tearing down the apartheid fences in Bilin
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//100219/ids_photos_wl/r1248158112.jpg/#photoViewer=/100219/481/4865168bfb7a4784947f920bbbd07b13

Beit Sahour: a new struggle by Ben White - 21 February 2010 11:49, The Newstatesman

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/02/palestinian-israeli-settlers

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Statement of Purpose and Principles

Amnesty International has called the blockade of Gaza a “form of collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza, a flagrant violation of Israel’s obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Human Rights Watch has called the blockade a “serious violation of international law.”

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has said the people of Gaza are being treated “like animals,” and has called for “ending of the siege of Gaza” that is depriving “one and a half million people of the necessities of life.”

One of the world’s leading authorities on Gaza, Sara Roy of Harvard University, has said that the consequence of the siege “is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely by Israel, but with the active complicity of the international community, especially the U.S. and European Union.”

The law is clear. The conscience of humankind is shocked.  

Yet, the siege of Gaza continues.

The people of Gaza have exhorted the international community to move beyond words of condemnation.

It is time for us to take action!

The Long March toward Freedom

To mark the anniversary of Israel’s bloody 22-day assault on Gaza the International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza will dispatch contingents from around the world to Gaza.

On January 1, 2010 we will march alongside the people of Gaza in a nonviolent demonstration that breaches the illegal blockade.

The march is inspired by decades of nonviolent Palestinian resistance from the mass popular uprising of the first intifada to the West Bank villagers currently resisting the land grab of Israel’s annexationist wall.

It draws inspiration from the international volunteers who have stood by Palestinian farmers harvesting their crops, from the crews on the vessels who have challenged the Gaza blockade by sea, and from the drivers of the convoys who have delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza.

It draws inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi called his movement Satyagraha-Hold on to the truth. We hold on to the truth that Israel’s siege of Gaza is illegal and inhuman.

Gandhi said that nonviolence requires more courage and is more effective than violence. We want to prove the truth of Gandhi’s beliefs with our deeds.

We are not afraid, we won’t turn back, we won’t let Gaza die.

Gandhi said that the purpose of nonviolent action is to “quicken” the conscience of humankind. We want to bring humankind not just to deplore Israeli brutality but actively to stop it.

Those of us residing in the United States also draw inspiration from our Civil Rights Movement.

If Israel devalues Palestinian life then-just as northern whites went down South during Freedom Summer-we must both interpose our bodies to shield Palestinians from Israeli brutality and bear personal witness to the inhumanity that Palestinians daily confront.

If Israel defies international law then-just as federal marshals were sent in to enforce the law of the land against racist southern sheriffs-we must send nonviolent marshals from around the world to enforce the law of the international community in Gaza.

We take no sides in internal Palestinian politics. We side only with international law and basic human decency.

We conceive this march as yet another link in the chain of nonviolent resistance to Israel’s flagrant disregard of international law.

The siege is illegal.

The wall is illegal.

The settlements and house demolitions are illegal.

The closures and curfews are illegal.

The roadblocks and checkpoints are illegal.

The detention and torture are illegal.

The truth is that if international law were enforced the occupation would be unsustainable.

The march can only succeed if it arouses the conscience of humanity.

If we join ranks with the people of Gaza in the march for freedom, and millions more around the world watch the march on the internet, we can breach the siege without a drop of blood being shed.

If the whole world is watching, Israel can’t stop us.

Please join us.



To: Beatriz Corredor Sierra,

Ministerio de Vivienda, Government of Spain.

Paseo de la Castellana,112

2807, Madrid, Espana

Dear Minister Sierra,

RE: SOLAR DECATHLON EUROPE - MADRID 2010, Participation of Ariel.

As members of the international organisation, Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine, and academics from Universities in the UK, we are astonished to see that the  self-styled Ariel 'University Centre’ of Samaria is representing Israel in the Solar Decathlon, and has been selected as a participant in the final entries.

This 'college' is not in Israel, but in territory which the settlers call ‘Judea and Samaria’, in the West Bank illegally occupied by Israel. The settlement of Ariel has been constructed illegally, and its settlers and institutions illegally set up, to create facts on the ground that will negate the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. This is in complete contradiction to international law and the Geneva Conventions.

Under the Rome statute of the Geneva Convention, "The transfer ... by the occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" is a war crime – an apt description of the Israeli settlement process. The International Criminal Court Act states that it is an offence to aid and abet war crimes. So it is considered illegal for an EU country to award any recognition to this sort of institution, let alone to "enhance its prestige" which is one of the stated aims of the Decathlon.

The International Union of Architects (UIA) has already taken note that Israeli architecture and planning in the West Bank is contrary to its professional ethics and Codes of Conduct and Accords. Architects, planners and academics around the world have signed petitions against the illegal settlements.

Ariel college, whose degrees are not even recognised by Israel’s own Council of Higher Education, generally excludes the local Palestinian population, who are confined and restricted in every detail of their lives and controlled by hundreds of checkpoints and barriers, and prevented from travelling on the main settler-only highways in the West Bank. Their water resources and land are expropriated, and their houses and trees demolished. The head of the architecture department in Ariel College in the West Bank commented that his students watching out of their classroom windows  "see the Arab villages, but don’t notice them. They look and they don’t see.”

Ariel College has been the subject of international boycott by academic institutions around the world, and the Palestinian community and NGOs (PACBI) have requested that the participation of the illegal colonial institutions like Ariel, set up against international law by Israel, have no place in international forums. Their participation would convey undeserved respectability and recognition to them.

In the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression, and as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, we sincerely urge the organisers of the Solar Decathlon to withdraw the participation of this illegal institution. Its presence in the Decathlon will only sour the atmosphere and constructive spirit of such an important gathering.

We look forward to your urgent response.

With best regards

Abe Hayeem, RIBA Chair, Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine,UK
Hans Haenlein, RIBA
Kate Mackintosh,RIBA
Cezary M Bednarski RIBA FRSA SARP
Dr. Ghada Karmi, MD, Exeter University, UK
Prof. Haim Bresheeth, Chair of Media and Cultural Studies, University of E. London
Walter Hain, Architect,UK

Martin O’Shea, RIBA

Isabel Camacho, arquitecto COAM, Spain.

Jonathan Rosenhead, Emeritus Professor of Operational Research, LSE

John Murray, Architect,UK
Gail Waldman,RIBA

Malcolm Hecks,RIBA, UK, France
John van Rooyen, RIBA
David Berridge, RIBA
Professor Osama Hamdan, Architect, Al Quds University, Jerusalem
Mike Gwilliam, RTPI, Planner UK
Zahira Nazer, Architect, Urban designer, Lebanon, UK
Mike Cushman, LSE
Dr. Robert Boyce, LSE

Dr. Derek Summerfield, London Institute of Psychiatry

Edwin Rutledge, Architect USA/Germany
Prof. Fahmi Salameh ,Architect, Universitat Politecnica, Barcelona, Al Quds
Ahmad Barclay, Architect, UK, dip.Arch Nottingham University

Yara Sharif, Architect, Unversity of Westminster, Birzeit University, Ramallah
Sara Wood, UK
Nicholas Wood, Architect, UK

Kelvin Bland,RIBA

Aun Qurashi,RIBA

Dr. Sue Blackwell, Birmingham University
Dr.Keith Hammond, Glasgow University

Phil Marfleet, University of East London,UK

Steve Fox, RIBA

Paul Barham,Architect,UK
Mayyad Bader, Architect, UK
Francesca Visconti, Architect, Italy
Anne Markey,RIBA, London Metropolitan University
Robert Shaw,RIBA Practice

John Lynes, Engineer, Christians’ Peacemakers’ Team, Iraq
Anil Korotane, Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory (FAST) UK

**************************************************************************************

Letter from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Campaign

Palestine, September 2, 2009

Beatriz Corredor Sierra,

Minister of Housing, Government of Spain.

Javier Uceda Antolín,

Rector, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid,

Subject: The participation of ARIEL UNIVERSITY’s Center of Samaria IN THE SOLAR DECATHLON MADRID 2010 

Illegal Israeli settlements should not be promoted as a form of sustainable architecture.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), which is drawn from the major Palestinian political and social force is deeply concerned about your selection of Ariel 'University’s' Centre of Samaria (hereafter referred to as AUCS) as a participant in the Solar Decathlon, organized by the Spanish Ministry of Housing and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and taking place in Madrid in June 2010. Extending an invitation to AUCS is a form of complicity in breaching international law through offering concrete support and legitimation to an illegal Israeli settlement built on occupied Palestinian territory.

The Palestinian BDS campaign has called for the academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions until Israel fully complies with its obligations under international law.[1] Israeli academic institutions have “either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying … [Israeli colonial] oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence."[2] AUCS is especially complicit as it is itself a colony built on occupied Palestinian territory, violating the Fourth Geneva Convention which regards such colonization as “war crimes.” The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2004 also ruled in its advisory opinion on Israel’s Wall that all such settlements are illegal.

Founded as a regional branch of Bar-Ilan University, AUCS is located in the Ariel settlement which, together with its industrial zone Barkan, is the second largest Israeli colony in the West Bank, just after the occupied East Jerusalem settlement block. It is located 22 km away from the “Green Line,” cutting deep into the Palestinian Governorate of Salfit and grabbing more than  22% of its land: 10% is used to house 17,000 settlers, and 12% is used for military training purposes[3].

Israel’s illegal apartheid Wall divides the governorate into separate Bantustans in order to facilitate the annexation of the Ariel settlement block to Israel. The colony destroys the livelihoods and water sources of Palestinian farming communities as prime agricultural lands are buried under its cement or polluted by its waste.

The Fourth Geneva Convention states that "the transfer by the occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" is a war crime.[4] Also, U.N. Security Council Resolution 465 confirms the illegality of Israeli settlements and calls on “all states not to provide Israel with any assistance to be used specifically in connection with settlements in the occupied territories.”[5]

Ariel settlement

The most recent European Council meeting in Brussels, held on June 15^th, 2009, has once again reiterated the illegality of Israeli settlements and has defined them as "obstacles for peace."[6] Spain, represented by its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Angel Moratinos, has explicitly adopted this European position on Israeli settlements, which lends further support to why Spain should not engage in any cooperation with AUCS.

The Israeli project, called ‘the stretch house’ is in fact the ultimate model of Zionist expansion and colonialism. Fayeq Kishawi, coordinator of the popular committees against the Wall and the settlements in Salfit district, comments: “The Israeli project represents Israeli claim to expand control over our land and resources and to expel us, occupy us and destroy our livelihoods at their own whim and desire. It is a recipe for how to steal more and more land. As somebody living in Salfit and suffering like the others from Ariel’s continuous ‘stretching’ I wonder how the Solar Decathlon can accept a project submitted by an institution that has stolen our land and will build its project on our stolen land.”

Abe Hayeem, chair of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, has referred to the irony of the name Ariel College chose for its project at the Solar Decathlon, "the stretch house;” illegal settlements, like Ariel, have been built by 'stretching' and distorting international law to justify their construction. Hayeem believes that “Ariel’s entry boasts of proposing a different alternative at a time of growing awareness for sustainability and ‘green’ architecture" in blatant disregard for international law.

The inclusion of “the stretch house” into the “Solar Villa” undermines international law and offers concrete support for and complicity with Israeli war crimes. We ask that you reconsider your invitation to the illegal settlement institution to display its model illegal expansion rebranded as one of ‘sustainability.’

The International Union of Architects (UIA) has charged that Israel’s architecture and planning in the occupied West Bank are contrary to its professional ethics and Codes of Conduct and Accords. Architects, planners and academics around the world have signed petitions against the illegal settlements.

Thus, inviting AUCS to participate in the Solar Decathlon is not only a breach of international law, but also lends validity to the illegal settlement through promoting its model of ‘illegal sustainability’ in house building.

 In compliance with international law, and in the spirit of international solidarity and moral consistency, we ask the organisers of the Solar Decathlon Madrid 2010 competition for sustainable architecture to cancel the participation of AUCS. We ask that you recognize that the ‘stretch house’ is not a sustainable housing development, but rather a model that actively breaches international law. We sincerely hope that Madrid’s Solar Villa will not include a model promoting the Israeli occupation and apartheid.

The Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC)

www.bdsmovement.net

Endorsed by Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP)

www.apjp.org  

[1] This includes ending the occupation, facilitating the right of Palestinian refugees to return and ensuring equal rights for all Palestinian citizens of Israel. For more information please see the Palestinian BDS call: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52

[2]http://www.pacbi.org/printnews.php?id=1051

[3] http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_barrier_report_july_2009_english_low_res.pdf. Page 40.

[4] Rome Statute of the Geneva Convention, Art. 8 (2) (b) (VIII)- and as a source of International Humanitarian Law Art. 85(4) (a) as quoted by the International Red Crescent Committee: http://www.icrc.org 

[5] “All measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.” See: http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/db942872b9eae454852560f6005a76fb/5aa254a1c8f8b1cb852560e50075d7d5

[6] Conclusions on the Middle East Peace Process, adopted by the Council on 15 June 2009

(11046/09) http://www.europa-eu-un.org/articles/es/article_8923_es.htm

****************************************************************************************************************************

To:

David Miliband <mailto:private.office@fco.gov.uk> UK Foreign Secretary
Ron Prosor <mailto:ambassador@london.mfa.gov.il> Israeli Ambassador
Ehud Barak <mailto:ehudb@knesset.gov.il> Israeli Minister of Defence
His Excellency Shimon Peres <mailto:president@president.gov.il> President of Israel
Itzhak Lipovetzky , President,The Israeli Association of United Architects<u-architects@barak.net.il> 

22 August 2009

End IDF terror in Bil’in!

We are writing to protest in the strongest possible terms at the illegal military incursions and attacks by the IDF into the peaceful West Bank village of Bil'in near Ramallah. These terrifying night time incursions have resulted thus far in the arrests of 25 people (most under 18) 18 of whom still remain in detention.

Since 1991, 60% of Bi’ilin’s agricultural land has been confiscated to build settlements for Israelis, unlawful under the Geneva conventions, continue the enforced constructon of the annexation Wall, decreed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004.

Our international group Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine are extremely concerned at these actions, and the resulting expropriated land stolen from these West Bank villages, including the participation of Israeli architects and planners involved in the design and construction of the illegal housing, against professional ethics and the UIA codes of conduct.

The effect of these actions has been both to impoverish the defenceless Palestinian community and to imprison them in their village, where they are subject to repeated attacks by the Israeli army. These attacks have resulted in injury and even death.

However the people of Bil'in have responded with immense self-control. They have shown the strength of their commitment to a humanitarian outcome by opting for a strategy of non-violence. They have organised weekly demonstrations against the Wall, after Friday prayers. These demonstrations have attracted supporters from Israel and from peace campaigners around the world. However the Israeli army, under no threat whatsoever, has responded with tear gas and rubber and live bullets. On 17th April 2009, Bassem Abu Rameh, known to everyone including the Israeli army, as a man of peace, was shot dead at close range by a high velocity gas cannister. Thus far there seems to have been no credible investigation of his death, or arrest of the known soldier who perpetrated this crime.

The Israeli government seems to find non-violent responses to its illegal behaviour extremely threatening. This may explain the dangerous escalation now taking place. Since June there has been an increased intimidatory atmosphere with regular night raids by heavily armed, face blackened IDF soldiers. These raids are accompanied by threats and intimidation of vulnerable civilians in the Bil'in area and by arrests. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the state wishes to make an example of those who would justifiably protest non-violently. They have the power to do this through the terror of night time raids, threats and intimidation of women, old people and children, and by jailing the members of the organising committees.

As supporters of Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine, anxious for a peaceful and just solution to the conflict, we urge you to use your good offices with the Israeli Government and Ministry of Defence to call for Israel's and its IDF's adherence to international law.

We also call for:

- a halt to these vicious and indiscriminate pogroms in the West Bank villages and an immediate end to the terror incursions and arrests.
- the release of all who have been arrested,
- an end to all illegal settlement construction, and participation in this by Israeli architects and planners.
- removal of all settlers in housing already built on Bil'in land, and from all expropriated land in the Occupied Territories.
- the return of the land to the rightful owners, the village of Bil'in
- dismantling of the illegal Separation Barrier and compensation for all the destruction created by the wall as demanded by the ICJ in 2004.
- an embargo on all arms trading, joint training and EU privileges,
- comprehensive sanctions until Israel adheres to international law and all UN resolutions. 

In addition in meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu, we urge you to demand:
* Israeli settlements blocks – they must be dismantled, not just frozen
* End Israel ’s siege on Gaza
* End Israel ’s ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem

Yours sincerely

Abe Hayeem, RIBA Chair APJP

Hans Haenlein, RIBA

John Hodge, RIBA

Michael Goulden, RIBA

Walter Hain, Architect. UK

Jake Brown, Architect, UK

Anil Korotane, F.A.S.T.

John Lynes, Eng. UK

Isabel Camacho, Arquitecto, Spain

Ian Martin, journalist, UK

Kelvin Bland, RIBA, UK

Gail Waldman, RIBA,UK

Robert Shaw, RIBA

John Murray, Architect

Malcolm Hecks, Architectural and Planning consultant, France

Martin O’Shea, RIBA, UK

David Berridge, RIBA

Beatriz C. Maturana, Architects for Peace, Australia

John Dorman, Architects, Ireland

Mustafa Chaudhury, Architect, UK

Haifa Hammami, Architect, UK

Faisal Khan, RIBA, UK

Asif Khan, MRTPI, Planner UK

Aun Q Qurashi, RIBA

Kim Linden, RIBA

Anne Markey BArch MSc RIBA

John Dorman, RIAI, Ireland

Stephen Kerpen, Architect, US

Michael Gwilliam, MRTPI, Planner, UK

(this is only a representative list which is ongoing-

please contact us if you wish to add your name.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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May 1, 2009
For Immediate Release

Contact: Ramzi Kysia, Cyprus: +357 99 08 17 67, rrkysia@yahoo.com
Greta Berlin, France, +33 60 73 74 512, Iristulip@gmail.com
Angela Godfrey Goldstein, Jerusalem: +972 547 366 393 angela@icahd.org

In most of the world, May 1st is a day of international labor solidarity. It is a day of joy as workers picnic together with their families and celebrate the achievements of one of the most phenomenal movements of the 20th century.

It is fitting, then, that the Free Gaza Movement chooses May 1 to announce the launching of the HOPE FLEET TO GAZA. We are leaving on June 1 as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians, a people who have been massacred, terrorized and suffocated by the Israeli military.

We sail again to break Israel’s blockade of 1.5 million civilians, 80% unemployed because of Israel’s draconian siege. “I believe the Israeli government policies are against international law, against human rights, against the dignity of the Palestinian people,” said Mairead Maguire whose efforts for a peaceful solution to the violence in Northern Ireland earned her the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. “And I feel grateful to be able to go again on one of these boats to visit the people of Gaza.”

The Free Gaza Movement will use the Free Gaza as the lead vessel in the flotilla. In August 2008, it was the first boat to dock in the Gaza port in 41 years. The movement intends to donate it to the fishermen who labor every day to make a living under the gunboats of Israel.

The Dignity will carry Mairead as well as two other high-profile passengers, 84-year-old Hedy Epstein, a holocaust survivor and Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia Congresswoman and candidate for U.S. President under the Green Party. McKinney was on the Dignity when it was rammed three times by the Israeli navy on December 30, 2008 when they tried to sink the small sturdy yacht.

"We cannot let Israel's threats and aggression deter us. To do so would give in to violence and concede that might is stronger than right. To do so would turn our backs on our brothers and sisters in Gaza who have been waiting far too long for the international community to stand up to this injustice,” said Huwaida Arraf, one of the delegation leaders on the Hope Fleet.

Our boats are a part of a larger flotilla making its way to Gaza loaded with humanitarian aid and building supplies such as generators and electronic equipment for hospital emergency machines. The people of Gaza need cement and lumber and PVC to rebuild their shattered infrastructure, and Israel refuses to allow anything into the small enclave except for food and some medicine.

“The Palestinians don’t want hand-outs from the international community. They want their lives back. They want their human and civil rights. They have a great labor force wanting to rebuild their communities. They are perfectly capable of that if their borders, including the sea border, were open,” states Lubna Masarwa, another delegation leader of this flotilla and a passenger on board the rammed Dignity.
###

For more information or to make a donation the HOPE FLEET, please visit www.FreeGaza.org

--
Greta Berlin
Media Team
Free Gaza Movement
310 422 7242
www.freegaza.org
www.flickr.com/photos/29205195@N02/

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www.arkitekterutangranser.se
ASF-Sweden, c/o BBA,
School of Architecture and the Built Environment
KTH, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

January 28, 2009
Open letter to
The Israeli Association of United Architects
68037, Tel Aviv (Jaffa), ISRAEL (u-architects@barak.net.il)

Dear colleagues,

Architecture Sans Frontières – Sweden (ASF-Sweden) is an independent non-government organization work-ing for ‘fair and sustainable development initiatives in active collaboration with disadvantaged people or communities’, as expressed in our platform, the Hasselt Charter, agreed upon by 16 national and international organisations within the network ASF-International. In our Charter it is furthermore stipulated that professio-nals shall follow principles of human solidarity and non-discrimination, and help communities achieve self-sufficiency.

One of our instruments to achieve these aims is to engage in a project of co-operation with the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC), which since 1996 has been restoring the ancient fabric and upgrading the infrastructure of the Old Town of Hebron - one of the oldest cities in the world. The aim of the committee’s work is to safeguard Hebron’s architectural heritage, but also to revive traditional craftsmanship, create jobs and allow inhabitants to stay in the city. The role of ASF-Sweden is to spread information about the valuable work of HRC, and to contribute with Swedish experiences of integrating a child perspective in urban planning.

During our engagement in this project, we continuously face the presence of militant Jewish settlers, protec-ted by Israeli military forces (IDF), and its paralyzing impact on all normal social and economical city life in Hebron’s city centre. In addition to the immediate humanitarian consequences, severe enough, the settlers’ claims for spatial separation have brought a long term decay, destruction and fragmentation to the unique fabric of the city core. This is an alarming issue for us as professionals, and we gratefully keep in mind seve-ral supportive actions of our Israeli colleagues.

In 2004, a petition to the High Court of Justice by the Israeli NGO Planners for Planning Rights (Bimkom), prepared by architect Shmuel Groag, appealed for a stop to an IDF decree, slating for destruction of exten-sive parts of the city core for a settlers-only thoroughfare. In the same year, at the World General Assembly of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a joint Israeli-Palestinian resolution was passed that "expresses its great concern with the ongoing destruction and constant threat to cultural heritage in Israel and Palestinian territories and calls upon all parties to take positive action to respect international agreements." Regrettably, these and other actions have been largely unsuccessful, and the situation in Heb-ron has anything but improved since then. Vital streets prohibited for Palestinians, demolished and emptied houses, expelled or trapped-in inhabitants, shops closed forcibly or by lack of access, children attacked on their way to school - this is the everyday reality of life in Hebron.

We hope for an active participation of the Israeli Association of United Architects in the ongoing efforts of our colleagues, at HRC and elsewhere in the world, to safeguard Hebron’s physical and social survival, and to preserve its unique cultural heritage for the posterity.

We have also understood that Israeli architects have participated in designing illegal settlements on expro-priated Palestinian land in the Occupied Territories since 1967. These activities are in violation of professional ethics and the UIA Charter. We assume that the Israeli Association of United Architects makes this fact very clear to its members, and considers membership incompatible with such activities.

Signed by Jonas Jernberg, architect SAR/MSA

Chairman ASF-Sweden

www.arkitekterutangranser.se
ASF-Sweden, c/o BBA,
School of Architecture and the Built Environment
KTH, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden