See these amazing photos from Rafah in Gaza where Palestinians broke through the wall there today:

Gazans Cross Border Wall (NY Times)

From our Israeli friend, Jeff Halper, with Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions:

Excerpt: “As an Israeli Jew, I have been saddened and mortified that my own people, after all they have experienced, cannot see what they are doing to others. But on a larger scale, not as an Israeli Jew but as a human being, I take heart in the Palestinians’ active refusal to be ground under a global system that is producing unimaginable wealth and power for a few at the expense of the growing ranks of the wretched.

I am not a Palestinian; I am not one of the oppressed. I only hope I can use my privilege in an effective way in order to redeem the gift the people of Gaza have given all of us: the realization that the people do have power and can prevail even in the face of overwhelming power. We may each express our responsibility towards the people of Gaza in whatever way most suits us, but as the privileged we must do something. We owe the Palestinians and the Palestinians writ large at least that.

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Dear Friends,

The Rachel Corrie Foundation began because of our desire to create a place where work reflecting Rachel’s values and her passion for the world would continue. We were motivated by other families who when faced with losses like ours had also looked to a foundation to provide a structure for work that could continue in their children’s names – by the family of Amy Biehl, who was killed in South Africa as she registered voters for the first election in which all South Africans could vote, and by the family of Daniel Pearl, who was brutally murdered while working as a journalist in Pakistan.

While our family birthed the Rachel Corrie Foundation, we knew from the outset that it would take many others to build a sustainable organization, as well as one that would reflect the breadth of Rachel’s interests and the creativity and inclusiveness that were hallmarks of her life. With a small number of board members and continuous support from our local community, as well as from friends throughout the country and world, we have engaged in efforts related to our core emphases of education, connection, art and the written word, and grassroots activism – all in the pursuit of justice and peace. [Read more…]

The following is an e-mail from my sister Bonnie, written during her visit to the Nahar al Barad refugee camp near Tripoli, Lebanon:

We have seen with our own eyes what’s inside the Nahar al Barad refugee camp near Tripoli, Lebanon. It was a camp of around 45,000 people that the Lebanese army moved into to root out about 150 Fatah al Islam group members (radical group that infiltrated camp) between May and mid-October. [Read more…]

This case was filed on behalf of the family of activist Rachel Corrie and four Palestinian families whose homes were demolished by Caterpillar bulldozers.

September 17, 2007, New York, NY – Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of CCR’s case charging Caterpillar, Inc. with aiding and abetting war crimes and other serious human rights violations on the grounds that the company provided bulldozers to Israel knowing they would be used unlawfully to demolish homes and endanger civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Today’s decision [click here to download the Decision] from a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals found that it did not have jurisdiction to decide the case because Caterpillar’s bulldozers were ultimately paid for with money from the United States. Because of the U.S. government’s decision to grant military assistance to Israel, any decision regarding whether Caterpillar aided and abetted war crimes would impermissibly intrude upon the executive branch’s foreign policy decisions. In today’s decision, the Court did not rule on the question of whether Caterpillar aided and abetted Israeli war crimes.

“We are extremely disappointed with the Court’s refusal to decide whether Caterpillar violated the law, essentially because it did not want to question the U.S. decision to pay for the bulldozers,” said CCR Senior Attorney Maria LaHood. “The Court has a constitutional duty to uphold the law, and the law prohibits aiding and abetting war crimes – regardless of who’s footing the bill.”

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