Small group of American activists head to Palestinian territories to act as human shields

AP | 3/30/02 | MALCOLM FOSTER

[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

[glory]

This is disturbing. What are U.S. Jews teaching their children?

Unfortunately a good number of US Jews are cultural Jews only. They are secularists through and through.

[Elsie]

"Fools and their blood are soon parted.""

---

John Walker Lindh has served as a great example, hasn't he!?

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Dear Future targets,

Do you realize the velocity of a .223 round and the damage it will do? Just checking. Oh, and by the way, you should be arrested as traitors.

Sincerely,
The American Taxpayers who are funding this b.s. trip through the extortion of the NEA or some other communist backed education association.

[Dark Wing]

Think of it as evolution in action. All of these yo-yos are volunteering for the 'Darwin Awards.'

[dagtaggart]

We should be encouraging others to join them. Good way to cleanse the voting pool.

[MarkL]

My brother actually said to me the other day (after sedar) that the Palestinians were going through a phase!! I went ballistic, I said a child goes through a phase playing with one toy, or a teenager goes through a phase wearing his hair green--Palestinians want to kill all the Jews--period--that's a fact, not a phase!!!!

And most "phases" are things people grow out of in a relatively short period of time. This one's lasted over 50 years, and there's no chance of palestinian children "growing out of this phase," given the indoctrination of hatred that they're brought up with.

Mark

[MarkL]

I have a Luthern neighbor who is a democrat NOTHING you can show or tell him makes a difference even though he HATES affirmative action, quotas etc etc

There is also a democratic committee man who is Irish and the same way . He drives me goofy. Everything he hates the dems stand for, but he stays in the party

Well, there's an old saying:

"You buy them books, but you can't make them read..."

Here's some more info to bring them to their senses: demonRAT plan for the future

Mark

[glory]

I'm glad to hear this is not the norm mrustow.

[reg45]

Odds are that "small" group will get smaller.

Hoo Yah!

[maica]

If you are planning any public events around the current crisis in Palestine, we would be delighted to provide a speaker who could address the issue from a Jewish, pro-Palestinian perspective. We can usually meet requests for speakers on evenings and weekends, and can sometimes meet requests for daytime speakers.

Classic communist technique! A couple of fast talkers can make a "movement" in the minds of a lot of uninformed 'well-meaning' listeners.

[reg45]

I'm gonna email some of Arafat's men that Quester's group is actually a CIA Mossad front.

Even better!!!

[putupon]

Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 17:28:44 -0800 (PST)
From: Steve Quester
To: spt31@columbia.edu
Subject: Jews Against the Occupation

I am writing to you today as a member of Jews Against the Occupation (JATO). Elizabeth Wilson gave me your address, and said that you could forward this message around.

JATO is an organization of progressive, secular, and religious Jews of all ages throughout the New York City area that is actively organizing and advocating around issues of peace and justice for Palestine. We bear witness to the fact that the Jewish community does not have one monolithic voice of unconditional support for the Israeli government. Rather, there is a growing national movement of American Jews who oppose Israeli oppression, and support Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

Oy Dude, where's my car bomb?

[maica]

The far left loved the Nazis when Hitler and Stalin were best of buddies; I guess it should come as no surprise to see them repeating themselves by cuddling up to another batch of racists. They will deny that they ever supported the likes of hamas and the PLO later, of course, just as they denied their support of Hitler after Hitler when he broke with Stalin, and just as they denied they supported Stalin when the truth was becoming impossible to conceal about his mass murders.

It is tragic that VERY FEW people remember these times - or even acknowledged these truths at the time. A friend of mine was trying to explain to her 15 yr old son why Canadians got upset when (then) Prime Minister Trudeau named his son Sasha. When she explained that it was like naming a child Adolf after World War II, her son refused to believe her.

Holocaust is a word every one knows but a whole generation has gone through school hearing nothing about the evils of communism.Her son refused to believe that Soviet communism was as bad as Nazism.

[Fintan]

"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.

Gee, Stevie, where were you on September 11?

[Caipirabob]

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

Perhaps we should start a regular program for public school teachers who'd like to participate. If we can do so, pretty soon the schools will be in the hands of teachers like Summer and Teacher317(?). Then I can send my kids there instead of paying for it.

We could call it the "Israeli's American Education Enhancement Program".

[maica]

from the Observer (UK) - the sunday version of the Guardian - (I'm having trouble making the link with this computer)

As we approached the compound we could see the tanks and armoured personnel carriers ringing his sprawl of offices and barracks. On every side were soldiers taking positions and aiming their weapons.

Approaching closer the Israeli army tried to prevent us following a delegation from the Palestinian solidarity movement into the compound, led by José Bové, the French farmers leader and anti-globalisation protester.

In a surreal touch Bové and his colleagues had marched through the ruins of the town, even as fighting continued. With hands above their heads, and carrying palm fronds as Easter symbols of peace, they approached Arafat's compound with two columns of heavily armed Israeli infantry jogging the last few hundred metres behind.

Here is the common thread. These are the same idiots who protest anything Western or Capitalist.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

I think the U.S. Justice Dept. should revoke their citizenship and dniy their entry back into the United States...

These people are basically terrorists themselves!

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

I think the U.S. Justice Dept. should revoke their citizenship and deny their entry back into the United States...

These people are basically terrorists themselves!