Neighbors For Peace
News
June 15 at the Evanston Public Library
http://www.neighborsforpeace.net/uploads/docs/sheehanayersjune15e.pdf
Award-winning Palestinian Journalist Allowed Entry to the U.S. for Chicago Event
Following Public Pressure Campaign, Award-winning Palestinian Journalist Allowed Entry to the U.S. for Chicago Event
"Reflections on Life and War in Gaza," Featuring Mohammed Omer, April 5th
Organizers Protested Visa Hold, Enabling Speaking Tour on Conditions in Palestine as Debate Between U.S. and Israel over Expanded Settlements Continues
7:00 pm, Monday, April 5th at the Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton
MOHAMMED OMER and ALI ABUNIMAH,
author, One Country, and founder, Electronic http://intifada.net/>Intifada.net
CHICAGO, IL-- Back from the brink of censorship, a presentation on conditions in Palestine will take place April 5th with award-winning journalist and photographer Mohammed Omer. Subjected to an extended, and unexplained, hold on his visa, Omer and supporters launched a public pressure campaign, winning his entry from the U.S. consulate today.
In 2008, Omer became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, for his firsthand reportage of life in the besieged Gaza strip. As his prize citation explained, "Everyday, he reports from a war zone, where he is also a prisoner. He is a profoundly humane witness to one of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless... Working alone in extremely difficult and often dangerous circumstances, [Omer has] reported unpalatable truths validated by powerful facts." Upon attempting to return to Gaza following his acceptance of the Gellhorn award in London, Omer was detained, interrogated, and beaten by the Shin Bet Israeli security force for hours; and eventually hospitalized with cracked ribs and respiratory problems (For the full story, visit <http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/999330.html>Haaretz). He has since resided in the Netherlands and continues to undergo medical treatment there for his subsequent health problems.
Nearly canceling his planned speaking tour, the U.S. consulate held his visa application without explanation. Organizers decided to protest, as in recent years, numerous foreign scholars and experts have been subject to visa delays and denials that have prohibited them from speaking and teaching in the U.S.--a process the American Civil Liberties Union describes as "<http://www.aclu.org/national-security/ideological-exclusion>Ideological Exclusion."
As his hosts at Haymarket Books commented, "The issue of Palestine, and particularly the voice of Palestinians is so frequently side-stepped and marginalized in mainstream political discourse. Yet the Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays a huge role in American foreign policy, as we can see in the ongoing debate between the U.S. and Israel over expanded settlements. We believe that the conditions in Palestine represent one of the great humanitarian catastrophes of our time; and we were simply not willing to accept that Mohammed did not have the right to travel to the U.S. to share his reportage--and that Chicagoans did not have the right to hear what he has to say."
Omer will visit Houston, Santa Fe, and Chicago, as planned, where local publisher Haymarket Books will host his Newberry Library event, "Reflections on Life and War in Gaza," alongside a broad set of interfaith religious, community, and political organizations. Omer will discuss, with Ali Abunimah, Chicago-based author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, his reportage, personal experience, and the struggle for Palestinian rights:
Reflections on Life and War in Gaza: A Discussion with Palestinian Journalist Mohammed Omer
In conversation with Ali Abunimah, author One Country and founder Electronic Intifada
Monday, April 5th at 7:00 pm at the Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton, Free
Train: Chicago Red and Brown, Clark/Division Red. Bus: #66 Chicago, #29 State
Funded by the LANNAN FOUNDATION. Sponsored by HAYMARKET BOOKS
In cooperation with: American Friends Service Committee-Chicago, Committee for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel, Episcopal Diocese of Chicago-Peace and Justice Committee, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, International Socialist Organization, International Solidarity Movement-Chicago, Islamic Medical Association of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Middle East Task Force of Chicago Presbytery, National Lawyers Guild-Loyola, Neighbors For Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine-DePaul and UIC chapters, and Ta'anit Tzedek--Jewish Fast for Gaza.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=10150127461370195&ref=ts
Background on Mohammed Omer:
Mohammed Omer was born and raised in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza strip. He maintains the website http://www.rafahtoday.org Rafah Today and is a correspondent for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. His home in Rafah was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer while the family was inside, seriously injuring his mother. Yet, as Omer explained in an article he wrote upon winning the award, "My ambition was to get the truth out, not as pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli, but as an independent voice and witness." His reportage features interviews with regular Gazans attempting to survive amidst bombing, home demolitions, and the crippling economic blockade, which has created devastating shortages of electricity, water, fuel, and other necessities for survival.
**Mohammed Omer and Ali Abunimah are available for select interviews. To request, contact: Sarah Macaraeg, 312-315-8476, sarah@haymarketbooks.org
Tax Day Leafletting-Evanston Post Office
Apr 15, 2010
Time: 08:00 am
Description: PROTEST PAYING TAXES FOR WAR!
TAX DAY LEAFLETING ACTION:
CAN YOU SPARE AN HOUR OR TWO TO TELL PEOPLE THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FEDERAL BUDGET AND WHERE THEIR INCOME TAX MONEY REALLY GOES?
Every year on April 15, people of peace in the North Shore distribute "Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes," a detailed and accurate flyer produced by the War Resisters League.
Sponsored by Neighbors for Peace and the North Shore Coalition for Peace, Justice, and the Environment, the leafleting takes place this year on Thursday, April 15 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Evanston Post Office on Davis and Oak, just two blocks West of the El. All materials are furnished and parking is generally available on Davis. To see the flyer, go to http://www.warresisters.org/files/FY2011piechart.pdf.
Sixty volunteers are needed-or more-to sign up for one or two-hour shifts. It's easy, it's fun, and it's a day when people are genuinely receptive to the message for peace. Contact Rosalie Riegle at 847. 644.2281 (or through this site at Iraqi Student Project DePaul) with the hours you'd like to leaflet. Show citizens of the North Shore a different message than that of the "tea baggers."
OR order your own leaflets from War Resisters League and coordinate one at your local post office.
"This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the
sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its
children. Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket
fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and
are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." -- Dwight D.
Eisenhower
More Information: http://www.warresisters.org/node/642
Mission Statement
Peace is the Way to Peace Mission Statement of Neighbors for Peace
We want peace among all people. We support and would take part in peaceful alternatives to respond to September 11 and other conflicts.
We condemn acts of terrorism, including state terrorism, and we mourn its victims. We support an international effort to bring the perpetrators of all terrorist actions before the International Criminal Court.
We Demand fundamental changes in U.S. foreign policy: from militarism and global domination to cooperation among all nations in creating a healthy, peaceful and sustainable planet where the dignity of every person is respected. We therefore oppose the U.S. making war in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere.
We Adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which among other things prohibits unjust, inhumane and illegal detention. We oppose secret military tribunals and any legislation that limits civil liberties.
We demand our government recognize in practice the worth of all people and work to eliminate ethnic and belief-based discrimination, profiling, and racism. We work for a more equitable distribution of the world's wealth and disapprove the policies of welfare for and protection of multinational corporations at the expense of working people.
We implement practices of peace and justice as we conduct our meetings, sponsor events, and educate ourselves and the public. Peace leads to peace.
Laser Uranium Enrichment Undermines US Nuclear Non-Proliferation Efforts
WASHINGTON - October 8 - Experts last week warned that a proposed uranium enrichment nuclear facility in Wilmington, NC would undermine U.S. efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and materials in other countries.
In a letter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the experts noted that the planned Global Laser Enrichment Commercial Facility would complicate diplomatic efforts to discourage the use of this technology in other countries. They explained that, "Should the United States be seen to embrace the use of laser isotope enrichment as a commercially viable technology, there can be little question that other states will be strongly encouraged to follow this lead and develop such technology for their own use," and that, "Given the great difficulty of detecting laser isotope enrichment facilities, their spread could undermine U.S. nonproliferation efforts and the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency to confirm the absence of undeclared nuclear activities in nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) non-nuclear-weapon states."
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering a license request by General Electric-Hitachi for its planned Global Laser Enrichment Commercial Facility.
Laser technology would be used as an alternative to centrifuge or gaseous diffusion to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel. The use of this uranium enrichment technology could detract from U.S. and international security efforts to detect and monitor nuclear programs worldwide as global interest in nuclear power grows. If enriched to a concentration of 20% uranium 235 or higher, enriched uranium can be used to make nuclear weapons.
A covert enrichment facility using laser technology would be harder to detect because it would use less energy and be of smaller size, and thereby be easier to hide.
A laser uranium research program in Iran escaped detection in 2002. Another laser enrichment research experiment was also detected in South Korea in 2004 after several years. The discovery of undeclared centrifuges enrichment facilities in Iran, at Natanz in 2002 and more recently at Qom,underscore the importance of being able to detect covert facilities that could be used to make nuclear weapons-usable material.
The full text of the letter is below and available online. The attachments referred to in the letter are "Nuclear Power, Disarmament and Technological Restraint" by James Acton, Survival, Vol 51 No. 4, August-September 2009, pp.101-126, and "Laser Enrichment: Separation Anxiety," by Jack Boureston and Charles D. Ferguson, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 61, no. 2, March- April 2005, pp. 14-18, available online**
September 30, 2009
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC
Dear Members of the Commission:
We believe the potential demonstration effect on other states from licensing the General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment Commercial Facility (Docket No. 70-7016) in Wilmington, North Carolina raises significant proliferation issues. Should the United States be seen to embrace the use of laser isotope enrichment as a commercially viable technology, there can be little question that other states will be strongly encouraged to follow this lead and develop such technology for their own use. Given the great difficulty of detecting laser isotope enrichment facilities, their spread could undermine U.S. nonproliferation efforts and the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency to confirm the absence of undeclared nuclear activities in nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) non-nuclear-weapon states. The rationale for such concerns is set forth in greater detail in the attached articles by two of the signers
Accordingly, we request (1) that the Commission makes the potential of this facility to contribute to the spread of laser isotope enrichment technology-and thus to the increased risk of nuclear proliferation-an explicit factor in its decision, and (2) that the Commission prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on the licensing of laser isotope separation facilities that includes specific consideration of the demonstration effect of such U.S. action on international proliferation risks.**
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The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan research organization dedicated to enhancing international peace and security in the 21st century. The Center is funded by grants from private foundations and the generosity of thousands of individual donors.
**The letter, with signatures, can be found at
www.cfr.org/content/thinktank/Ferguson_BAS_separation.pdf