We’re writing to ask your help on an urgent matter. As you likely know, the Palestinians of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, have been enduring a terrifying assault by the Israeli occupation forces. Hundreds of homes in Rafah were wantonly demolished last month in an indiscriminate campaign of destruction that Amnesty International labeled a “war crime”. Thousands of people, already impoverished, were then left homeless, and the campaign of home destruction continued with scores of houses leveled in the month of November. A grave humanitarian crisis is taking shape, with many injured persons cut off from medical care by the Israeli Occupation forces, and local hospitals unable to cope with the growing number of casualties.

One international volunteer currently working in Rafah sent this dispatch on November 19th, which gives a look into the grim daily existence of Gaza:

We are spending much of our days visiting families who have lost children and other family members from Israeli bullets. The other day in Gaza City, halfway through Ramadan, a very poor family lost one of its sons. The 13 year old was out catching birds with other kids from the neighborhood when an Israeli military foot patrol came upon them. The autopsy report describes the child as being shot 17 times at close range and his face was injured from being stomped on by the soldiers’ boots. His arm was broken when they dragged him from the place of his murder to the border, in order to claim they shot him because he got too close to the Green Line.

In Rafah, another 13 year old child was shot in the stomach on his way home from school. That day there was an unusual amount of gunfire all day long…In Block O, one of the refugee camps along the border, this child was just getting out of class and on his way home when he was either targeted or hit with a stray bullet. He was not killed instantly, but was taken to the ICU where over the course of 3 days was given 16 liters of blood. In the end the doctors could not stop the bleeding and the child died.

Stories of such atrocities are almost entirely absent from U.S. media reporting, yet are common fare to those involved in solidarity work inside Palestine. As citizens of the country that finances and enables the Occupation, we are trying to provide some immediate relief and hope to the victims, while laying the foundation for long-term change. Who We Are The concept of an Olympia-to-Rafah sister city relationship was begun last year by our friend and colleague Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer on March 16. Rachel insisted on living in Rafah because she thought it was there that people faced the occupation’s harshest conditions. It is well known that she was a member of the International Solidarity Movement and that she lost her life defending a Palestinian family’s home from destruction. Not so well known were her efforts at establishing a sister-city relationship. She traveled to Rafah with the names of school children from her hometown, seeking to pair them with counterparts in Rafah in a pen-pal exchange. She imagined all sorts of cultural exchanges, aid projects, and direct ways of connecting people across the many barriers of distance, language and misunderstanding that separate us. She believed that only then might our country’s misguided policies be confronted and changed.

Although Rachel’s life was cut short, many of us were inspired by her and have resolved to carry out her project. Beginning with a small core group, we have steadily expanded since our formation last Spring. A number of our members have gone to live in Rafah, building connections with people and institutions there. We have begun a Fair Trade exchange for Palestinian artwork through the Union of Palestinian Women, we support a Center for Disabled Persons, we have sponsored cultural exchanges, and we offer translation between English and Arabic for our pen-pal program. You can find out more about us, or contact us, through our website at www.orscp.org/

  What You Can Help With Right Now

Right now the people in Rafah are asking us for help in obtaining medical equipment and supplies. The idea of a Sister City in the U.S. has raised hopes inside Rafah, and we wish to respond to their appeal as generously as possible. While we have longer-term ideas about setting up doctor exchanges and assistance from local hospitals, we would like to respond to the more immediate request of obtaining medical supplies. Our group’s ability to respond to such an appeal is limited, and so we are reaching out to you for assistance.

Any contribution you can make to support this project will be fully tax-deductible, and our transfer of funds to Palestine will be completely legal and transparent. Our 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor is the Middle East Childrens’ Alliance in Berkeley, CA, directed by longtime activist Barbara Lubin. If you are not familiar with them, see their website at www.mecaforpeace.org/. MECA is one of the most established aid organizations in the U.S. working in the Mideast.

The funds they send to Rafah for us will be distributed through Dr. Mona El-Farar of the Union of Health Work Committees. You can read Dr. El-Farar’s recent report on Rafah’s medical crisis at electronicintifada.net/v2/article2054.shtml.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us by phone at (360) 867-0290 or via email at tomwright59@comcast.net.

Thank you so much for your help.

Tom Wright and Therese Saliba

This is the listserv for the Friends of Palestine Solidarity Committee, based in Seattle. You can find out more about PSC by replying to this email address, emailing us at palestinejustice@yahoo.com, or by coming to one of our events. Once you've come to a meeting, you may become a member of PSC. We welcome all non-racists working for justice and human rights all over the world, including Palestine.