Posted on 03/30/2002 2:19:11 PM PST by kattracks
NEW YORK, Mar 30, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Steve Quester is spending his spring break in the West Bank.
Quester, a public school teacher, is joining about 20 other American activists who are traveling to the Palestinian territories to act as human shields for Palestinians as the Israeli military mounts retaliatory strikes for a series of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.
"We're going to put ourselves in the way between Israeli military aggression and a helpless civilian population," said Quester, 39, who departs Sunday for a ten-day trip. He and other activists, several of whom are already in the Mideast, plan to stay in Bethlehem, Nablus and Gaza.
The group, which includes Jewish and Palestinian Americans, hopes to engage in various nonviolent protests and activities "to stop the madness that's going on there," said Quester, who teaches first grade in the New York borough of Brooklyn.
Their goals include removing Israeli roadblocks around Palestinian towns, observing Israeli-controlled checkpoints, helping rebuild demolished Palestinians homes and accompanying Palestinians on protest marches, he said.
The activists are part of a growing contingent of foreigners, mostly from Europe, who are in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to protest the Israeli occupation and recent military action. On Thursday, about 600 activists arrived in Ramallah, where Israeli tanks have surrounded the offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat since Friday.
The U.S. activists are working in cooperation with a Palestinian-led coalition called International Solidarity Movement that has appealed to foreigners to bring attention to conditions under the Israeli occupation. This is the third time that Americans have made trips to the Mideast in conjunction with the coalition, most recently in December.
An American member of this coalition, Adam Shapiro, and an Irish woman, Caoimhe Butterly, spent Friday night inside Arafat's Ramallah compound. Shapiro left the offices Saturday, but Butterly decided to stay because she has medical training.
The Israeli siege is part of a major military offensive launched after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 22 Passover diners on Wednesday.
Quester, who has lived in Israel for three years and speaks fluent Hebrew and "shaky" Arabic, says his "heart breaks for everyone killed in the violence."
He believes the suicide bombers are "desperate and hopeless" and that that ultimately "all the heartbreak flows directly from Israel's policy" of occupying the Palestinian territories.
He hopes his trip will boost the morale of Palestinians "by seeing more internationals standing shoulder to shoulder with them."
"I'm a Jew," Quester said. "The Israeli army and government are perpetrating a great evil on the people of Palestine, and they're doing so in my name. I can't let this stand."
Also, as an American, Quester said he opposes the financial and military aid that the United States provides Israel, which in his opinion perpetuates the violence.
Israel receives more than dlrs 3 billion a year in civilian and military aid from the United States.
"We U.S. citizens have a special responsibility to stop the madness that's going on there," he said.
By MALCOLM FOSTER Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Their REAL goal is to get their names in the newspapaper and impress their liberal friends.
I'd be willing to bet that once they get over there and have a few rounds whiz by thier heads, they'll soil themselves and spend the rest of the week cowering in their hotel room.
Here's a link to their "official website".
and they have some kind of working agreement with Pastors for Peace and The Caravan For The Children Of Cuba!
BTW I think Bruderhof is usually spelled with one "f" but I've always used two.
I tend to think of them as mildly militant and totally misguided Amish.
prisoner6
TULKARM, WEST BANK -- In a rare letter of protest sent this week to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian women's group demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop using children as cannon fodder.
''Our children are being sent into the streets to face heavily armed Israeli soldiers,'' said the letter from the Tulkarm Women's Union -- a local branch of the Palestinian Women's Union, a trade-union group that promotes the status of women in the Palestinian Authority.
''The Palestinian Authority must put an end to this phenomenon. We urge you to issue instructions to your police force to stop sending innocent children to their death.''
LOL!...you might consider sending that sentiment to some lefties too. They are paranoid as can be right now. Many of them think Ramsey Clark is a deep cover CIA spook. The more time they spend figuring out who is who and what is what in their circles, the less time they have to mess with us.
You'll be able to find them because they will have bombs strapped to them.
PS Don't come back
This is disturbing. What are U.S. Jews teaching their children?
I think they are suffering from the "Judas Iscariot/Adolf Hitler/Adolf Eichmann Syndrome" which seems to be epidemic in NYC. Maybe it's a virus found in Matzo. All three betrayed their own. (Adolf Hitler's mother was Jewish)
And maybe that's why they stay here.
You only read about the liberals because that's who the press wants to portray as "mainstream".
Jews who are conservative in the FR sense are either non-persons, or daubed with the "right-wing" brush.
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