October 13, 2000
Subject: The Hour of Truth in the Middle East: Worldwide Prayer Vigil this Saturday, October 21 (2:00 PM New York Time) "Praying Peace in the Middle East" with James Twyman + "Never give up the hope for Peace" from Hagit in Israel + Peace Prayer / Meditation for Middle East during the Full Moon this Friday as suggested from Thailand by Helen Jandamit + Jerusalem, Oh Jerusalem! + Ramallah bombed by the Israeli Forces + Spiraling Violence Threatens Middle East Peace + Mob Kills Two Israeli Reservists + Israeli Women Members of Knesset: Give Peace Another Chance!!
Hello everyone
If you have been following the news, you know by now that the situation in the Middle East is now taking a turn for the worst as the violence escalated Thursday to levels never seen between the Israelis and the Palestinians since the peace process began 7 years ago following the signing of the Oslo Accord on the White House South Lawn and the end of the Intifada. According to most political commentators, it will be very hard to revive the peace process, especially now that Ehud Barak wants to create a "unity government" which *may* include the Likud party headed by Ariel Sharon who is vehemently opposed to the peace process. It seems that only a miracle may change the overall atmosphere of hate, anger and violence now prevailing in Israel, Palestine and much of the Arab world.
Well it may not be too late to turn such a dream of a miracle into a shining, astounding reality...
I've compiled below some recently received meditation suggestions for this Friday and Saturday and some more complementary information on the latest developments.
And of course the Peace Meditation Focus Group will issue this Friday another Meditation Focus dedicated to this critical situation with the usual suggestion to join a globally synchronized meditation this Sunday at 16:00 (4pm) Universal Time (GMT). But this time we will all be invited to approach this situation from a "new angle" that may greatly help turn things around - along with all the other related meditations and peace-making efforts underway around the world.
So stay tuned and participate a best and as often as you can to all these global joining of minds and hearts that may indeed succeed in contributing to turning this crisis into a resounding victory for the Will of Love and the Light of Peace within every soul involved in these dramatic circumstamces during these most critical of times.
Peace, love and blessings to all of you
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
and Focus Group Facilitator
http://www.aei.ca/~cep/focusgroup.htm
From: OwlWoman33@aol.com
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000
Subject: James Twyman/Cloth of Many Colors to Jerusalem
"Praying Peace in the Middle East"
Join authors James Twyman, Doreen Virtue and Gregg Braden
in a focused meditation to heal the current violence in the Middle East.
The worldwide Prayer Vigil will take place on Saturday, October 21, 2:00 PM, New York, USA Time.
About the Vigil:
Author and Peace Troubadour James Twyman will travel to Jerusalem to help
focus a worldwide prayer vigil to heal the conflict in the Middle East on
Saturday, October 21. He brings with him a section of "The Cloth of Many
Colors," the mile long peace quilt that was presented at the United Nations,
the US Capitol and the Pentagon last month.
(For more information on the Cloth go to: http://clothofmanycolors.com/)
Gregg Braden and Doreen Virtue will join him on http://worldpuja.org/ for a live
meditation at 2:00 PM, New York time. Please pass this message on to everyone
you know. In the past, hundreds of thousands or even millions of people have
joined this team in prayer while critical peace negotiations were taking
place in various parts of the world, often with miraculous results. Together
we can extend healing prayers that have the power to shift the recent
violence away from destruction and toward a world based upon peace and
compassion.
How You Can Participate:
1. Pass this email on to everyone on your list.
2. Stop what you are doing at the appropriate time and "Pray Peace" for the
Middle East. (For more information on this mode of prayer go to
http://www.findhornpress.com/prayingpeace.html for an excerpt from the
new book: "Praying Peace" by James F. Twyman in conversation with Gregg
Braden and Doreen Virtue).
3. Log onto http://worldpuja.org/ at 1:30 PM for interviews and the live vigil.
A Note From James Twyman:
"I believe that this vigil is of vital interest to us all, more than we might
initially imagine. The "New Jerusalem" will be realized only when we allow
the old form, based upon competition and intolerance, to fall. The events of
the last few weeks call us to claim the power of this new world, and I
believe that a focused vigil like this can lay the foundation that will allow
this to happen. Please join us."
Gregg Braden, Doreen Virtue and James Twyman have focused several worldwide
prayer vigils including the Great Experiment on April 23rd, 1998. Two months
earlier, Twyman, author of "Emissary of Light," had been invited by Saddam
Hussein to perform The Peace Concert in Iraq, and hundreds of thousands of
people from all over the world stopped to Pray Peace and bring an end to the
conflict there. Again on November 13, 1998, the three were together for
another vigil for the people of Iraq. President Clinton ordered the air
strikes to begin at the same time the prayer vigil took place, and while
thousands of people prayed he gave an unprecedented stand down order. The
jets returned to their ships and at least for one night no bomb was dropped
and no one died. This as well as many other examples demonstrates the power
of a mass prayer, and we ask you to participate again.
Doreen Virtue will be joining the vigil from Hawaii where she will be
swimming and interacting with dolphins.
The situation in the Middle East grows more tense each day. Please join us in
bringing to bare the power of focused prayer to bring peace.
May Peace Prevail on Earth!
From: "Hagit" <h-raanan@netvision.net.il>
Subject: Sukkat Shalom - Arishat Il Salam - Hut for Peace
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000
May Peace Prevail on Earth - May Peace Prevail on Earth - May Peace Prevail on Earth
Sukkat Shalom - Arishat Il Salam - Hut for Peace
Exactly these time only year ago, a group of Israelis celebrated Succoth (The Tabernacles Feast) in Gaza together with Palestinian friends. On that occasion we also planted a Peace Pole in there. I had a dream to go there once again this year, to celebrate with my friends and to erect another Peace Pole. But Divine Plan wants it different. Sometimes, on its surface, it seems not to work as we think we wont it to. Sometimes our sight is too narrow to see the whole picture.
Knowing that, and in order to defeat darkness, which so hard try to take over on the Middle-East and obviously might severely influence the entire world, I intent to go tomorrow to the Erez Checkpoint on the border of Gaza, to build Sukkat Shalom - Arishat Il Salam - Hut for Peace. That deed is to encourage anyone among the two societies who are determined never to give up the hope for Peace. As much as it is hard for some of us to believe - there are many brave people in the two nations who truly & honestly know that there is only one option - living in Peace! Take my word, this is first hand knowledge.
I wish we could all come together, but as the presently illusionary 'reality' is preventing us from doing so, I invite whoever feel it resonating in his/hers heart to come and be there with me. I direct this hearteningly call to your heart, you who remember who you really are, you who connected to your true presence as Light Bearer, please come join me on that trip.
As we are still negotiating with the Israeli authorities for the needed permits and as we have no desire to irritate nobody, I'm not yet sure on what time we'll be there. For further information you may call 052-533240.
Open your heart,
Be the love that you are,
Don't ever give up.
Deny fear and worship HOPE.
Hag Same'ach, Peace, Love & Light - Hagit
Hagit Ra'anan
POB 39, Kiryat Ono 55100, Israel
Tel/Fax 972 (0)3-5353496
Mobile 972 (0)52-533240 972 (0)54-833240
UNFORTUNATELY, IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE TO JOIN THIS MEDITATION BUT THE FULL MOON LASTS FOR A WHOLE DAY SO YOU MAY STIULL USE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWER LIGHT OVER THE WHOLE MIDDLE EAST AREA THIS FRIDAY.
From: "Helen Jandamit" <selena@bkk.loxinfo.co.th>
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000
Subject: FW: Peace Prayer / Meditation for Middle East
Dear Friends in Living Light and Love,
This Friday at 3.54 pm (Thai time) (1:54 am CDT in US) is the full moon.
The full moon is a time when people come together to synchronise their
meditation or prayer for Peace. At this time there is much unrest in the
middle east. This message is to alert you to the synchronised meditation
which will happen at 3.54 pm (8.54 am GMT/UT) this Friday and to invite you
to join in mind or to gather in groups to pray, meditate chant, sing,
visualise or just intend a peaceful and harmonious outcome in the middle
east for the highest/wholest good of all.
What follows are some extracts from a message sent out by a small group of
wonderful people in Jerusalem about what they are doing to enhance the
manifestation of peace in that area. Will you join them in mind this Friday?
...............
Shalom friends
I send this report of a peace vigil that I was a part of that helped me to
respond to events since Rosh Hashana in Israel. Please forward to as many
people as you can to get the word out....
Eliyahu
From last Wednesday through Friday afternoon (October 4-6), a fast and prayer
vigil for peace was organized by Gabriel Meyer, Deborah Brous and Eliyahu
McLean. We held the vigil in a small courtyard in the Jewish quarter of the
Old City, directly overlooking the Western Wall and Dome of the Rock.
We were united by a desire to respond to the recent conflicts in the Holy Land
with positive action.
Devorah offered an intention to end the suffering and polarization, as
we begin a shmita year, (the seventh year of rest from harvesting the
land) we pray for a shmita or cessation of violence, seven days after the
violence started, and seven years after the Oslo process started. Eliyahu
offered prayers in Hebrew and Arabic, asking G-d to open the hearts and
bring unity between all the Children of Abraham in the Land of the Prophets.
Gabriel offered verses from the Quran and the Tanach that support the call
for peace, such as verses from the Torah that show how Isaac and Ishmael
came to reconciliation at the burial of their father Abraham.
What follows is our statement of purpose--posted at the vigil...
"We are fasting in response to the senseless bloodshed of the children of
Abraham in the Land of the Prophets. We are gathering for the
brotherhood and respect among Muslims, Christians, and Jews and all
peoples. The vigil is taking place in the Holy City of Jerusalem,
overlooking the Kotel and Al-Aqsa mosque. We are praying for an ending of
the violence which was sparked at this shared holy site just one week ago.
We are praying for the harmonious coexistence between all the peoples in
Israel and Palestine. We realize that peace must be built through justice
and security for both sides. We began our fast Wednesday night, and we
shall continue fasting, praying, and studying together. We are heartbroken
by the loss of lives of both the children of Isaac and Ishmael, and yearn
for a permanent and peaceful resolution of the conflict in the Holy Land."
During the first evening of the vigil, we were joined by Youssef, a
Palestinian Christian from the Old City. During a "talking circle" he
shared his perspective on the cause of the violence, and offered a prayer
from the heart that true peace will come. He then brought blankets from his
home for the people at the vigil to stay warm.
On Thursday morning, we were joined by a 14-year-old Palestinian Muslim,
Muhammad, who translated our statement to Arabic. During a prayer circle,
Muhammad offered a prayer in Arabic that touched everyone there.
Two Israeli soldiers who were assigned to the area, Motti and Guy,
supported our action. When we sat in 1/2 hour segments in silent meditation
for peace, they (who the previous week had witnessed the violent events on
the Temple Mount), asked bystanders to be quiet for us.
As Thursday progressed more people joined the circle, with a core group of
25. We sat in prayer, song and silence and at various points were joined by
people from many parts of the world, including two large groups of 60 -70
European tourists. From among the second group prayers were offered in German
by a Christian priest, and a prayer was sung by their choir. Together we
chanted for peace as a group of some 100 people of conscience. In the
evening, both Palestinian and Haredi Jewish youth came to sit or stand next
to us and listen. We broke the fast together Thursday night, and continued
to sing, and pray, singing "Shalom Aleichem" invoking an army of angels of
peace to help us. We were transmuting our sense of powerlessness into a
well-focused intention for an end to all bloodshed and for a ceasefire -
to bring harmony to the city of Peace.
Early Friday morning the energy and tension was building.
The Arab leadership had declared a "Day of Rage", and police were
anticipating protests at 1:20 PM, when Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa mosque
were scheduled to end. At 1:20 exactly, we could hear tumult as Muslim
worshippers exited the mosque. The police chased away everyone except us.
At this time we were being filmed by Israeli TV and this made it
onto the afternoon news. Things quieted down shortly afterwards. An Israeli
policewoman said "it seems like their prayers really helped prevent the
situation from getting worse."
This Yom Kippur, we pray to soften the hearts blocked by fear and anger and
transform them into hearts filled with understanding, compassion and
forgiveness for the other.
Eliyahu McLean, Deborah Brous, Moshe Haim Gress
yahuolan@hotmail.com
Michael Lightweaver of PAN says ( I'm sure that these ones in Jerusalem who
are carrying the Light would appreciate knowing that you are with them in
your love and meditations).
HERE IS WHAT MICHAEL LIGHTWEAVER HAD WRITTEN IN SUPPORT OF THIS LETTER ABOVE FROM Eliyahu McLean
From: Lightweave@aol.com
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000
Subject: PAN Alert - Jerusalem, Oh Jerusalem!
Jerusalem, Oh Jerusalem, How Often Have I Wept For You!
(one of the ancient prophets - I forget which one.)
Dear Pan Friends,
As you know, I am extremely conservative in sending emails to PAN
participants except for the updates every two weeks. However, I know that
all of us have been horrified by the events taking place in the Mideast.
Perhaps like me, you have felt the deep fear, frustration & suffering of the
Jewish and Palestinian people. I have also felt a certain sense of
helplessness which is rare for me.
Today I received something which touched me very deeply. In fact, a lot of
pent up tears started to flow freely. It helped me to remember who I am -
who we are - why we are here - and what this is all about. We are
everywhere, quietly doing our work on behalf of positive transformation.
In the darkest hour, it is acts of grace as described below, that light a
candle and point our hearts toward the human potential for good. Let us
never forget...
Let us see the blood & tears flowing from the land of Jerusalem as the birth
blood and labor pains of a new day for our Planet - a new dawning. As the
sun rises each morning, let us hold the vision of Eden - a time soon come
when differences are celebrated and even the memory of weapons have been
erased from the consciousness of our species.
As midwives of a new era, let us hold this vision steady and resist the
temptation to respond only with our emotional bodies. Let us honor the fear,
frustration, anger and hatred, grief and hopelessness of all those involved
and bring it into our hearts for transmutation - sending it back as wave upon
wave of love, healing and goodwill. While, even as I write, a part of me
feels this sounds "pollyannaish" - I know in the deepest part of my being, we
have no other choice.
Love & Blessings,
Michael Lightweaver
CLIP (He had included the same material also networked by Helen Jandamit above)
From: Khader Michael <kmrantisi@hotmail.com>
Subject: Ramallah bombed by the Israeli Forces
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000
After 30 minutes of issuing this press release Ramallah bombed by Israeli Forces.
Urgent Alert - 1:00 pm locally.
Al-Haq and Al-Mezan call for the International Community to Immediately
Intervene to Prevent any Israeli Reprisal
The continuous Human Rights violations of the belligerent Occupation Forces,
proves that they persist to continue their aggressive attacks against the
Palestinian Civilians. They, as well as the Jewish settlers, continue to
shoot at the Palestinian civilians. In this context, the Undercover Units
of the Israeli Occupation Forces have been involved heavily in the recent
wave of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians. The Undercover
Units were formed, for the first time, during the Intifada (1987-1994).
These units constitute the (Death Squads) of the Israeli army. They disguise
themselves as Palestinians and enter Palestinian areas to kill Palestinians.
Today, a group of the Israeli Undercover Units/ Death Squads entered the
city of Ramallah in the West Bank to kill Palestinians. Two of them were
killed in the city. The circumstances of the incidence are not clear yet.
In such a situation, there is a very high possibility that the Israelis,
either soldiers or settlers or both, will try to take revenge, which can
take the form of massive massacres.
In the light of this, Al-MEZAN and Al-HAQ Human Rights organizations are
highly worried about the safety of the Palestinian civilians in the Occupied
Territories especially the city of Ramallah, AL-MIZAN AND Al-HAQ Centers
warn that the results of such an aggressive Israeli attack will be very
dangerous, so we request the international community to intervene
immediately.
END
AL-HAQ, an NGO in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council
of the United Nations and the West Bank affiliate of the International
Commission of Jurists-Geneva, was established in 1979 by a group of
Palestinian lawyers in order to uphold the rule of law and defend
Palestinian human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
AL-HAQ, P.O. Box 1413, Ramallah, Palestine.
Tel: +972 2 295 4646, Fax: +972 2 295 4903,
E-mail haq@alhaq.org, Website: www.alhaq.org.
For more latest news, see from:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001013/wl/mideast_leadall_dc_148.htm
Israel on Alert After Violence Sinks Peace Process (Friday October 13, 2000)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli forces were on high alert for Palestinian protests and possible guerrilla attacks on Friday after an explosion of violence that has all but killed off¨Middle East peacemaking.
CLIP
And also FULL COVERAGE AT:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/World/Middle_East_Peace_Process/
From: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001012/wl/mideast_leadall_dc_142.html
Thursday October 12
Spiraling Violence Threatens Middle East Peace
GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli helicopters blasted targets in two Palestinian-ruled cities Thursday to avenge the mob killings of Israeli soldiers, and Palestinians said the raids amounted to a declaration of war.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced he hoped to form a ``national emergency government'' in the next few days as he tries to tackle the growing wave of violence.
Israelis described their attacks on targets in the West Bank and Gaza as a limited response to a ``hideous crime,'' the killings of at least two captive Israeli soldiers by an angry Palestinian mob. Palestinians said they were tantamount to declaring war on them.
Both Israelis and Palestinians said the spiraling violence could throttle Middle East peace efforts, as world statesmen urged both sides to stop clashes that have killed at least 97 people, all but seven of them Arabs, in the past 15 days.
Fighting erupted again later Thursday in the divided West Bank city of Hebron and Palestinian officials said helicopter gunships attacked a police training center in the West Bank town of Jericho. No deaths were reported in the incidents.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, an explosives-laden boat blew up near a U.S. destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing at least five U.S. sailors and injuring 36.
Oil prices roared to a fresh 10-year high because of the Middle East violence and benchmark Brent crude traded above $35 a barrel.
President Clinton (news - web sites) cleared his schedule Thursday evening to concentrate on the volatile situation, a White House spokeswoman said.
Clinton spoke to several leaders in the Middle East and was due to meet his ``Middle East peace team.'' He condemned the killings of the Israeli soldiers.
Missiles Slam Into Targets
Missiles fired from helicopters smashed into what Israel called military and security targets in the West Bank city of Ramallah and in Gaza City hours after youths stabbed and beat the Israeli soldiers to death in ugly scenes in Ramallah.
The Israeli army said the soldiers were reservists who had lost their way and driven accidentally into the town before being seized and taken to a police station by Palestinian police. Palestinians called the men undercover agents.
A crowd gathered outside, stormed the police station and stabbed and beat the Israelis to death. At least one body was tossed from a window into the crowd below and trampled on.
A spokesman, Colonel Raanan Gissin, said the mob had mutilated the bodies in a ``hideous crime.''
Barak said Israel could not let what he called the lynching of the soldiers go unanswered. Deputy Prime Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer later said a third Israeli soldier might have also been captured and killed.
``The action today is a warning signal to the Palestinian Authority that it not misinterpret Israel's restraint and desire for security and peace,'' Barak said in a statement.
President Yasser Arafat responded defiantly, saying on a visit to wounded people in Gaza's Shifa hospital that the Palestinian people would remain strong and ``continue their march to Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian independent state.''
``There's no doubt that the peace process in its present form... doesn't appear to have a chance and if we want to revive the process, it will have to be revived with other tools,'' Israel's acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami declared. But he said negotiations were ultimately the only option.
At the United Nations, Palestinian representative Nasser al-Kidwa demanded an urgent Security Council meeting. ``We believe that Israel, the occupying power, has taken military actions today tantamount to declaring an all-out war against the Palestinian people,'' he said.
Barak Plans Unity Government
Barak said he hoped to form an national emergency government swiftly with the participation of Ariel Sharon, a leading opponent of peace deals with the Palestinians.
``The right thing to do is a national emergency government, even if it takes three or four days to set it up,'' Barak said. ''Ariel Sharon is a deserving, serious man and definitely a very important partner for a national emergency government.''
Bringing Sharon into the government would anger the Arab world and some of Israel's allies who have condemned his September 28 visit to a Jerusalem shrine holy to Jews and Muslims. Palestinians said his visit had ``defiled'' the site, and the spasm of violence broke out soon after.
Palestinian hospitals said 17 people were wounded in Thursday's helicopter raids, the most spectacular Israeli military action in the 15 days of clashes since Sharon's visit to the shrine.
Clinton called for an immediate cease-fire.
``Now is the time to stop the bloodshed, to restore calm, to return to dialogue and ultimately to the negotiating table,'' said Clinton, who has mounted an intensive effort over the past two weeks to stem the violence and rescue peacemaking.
France, Britain, Russia and China were among other countries to appeal for restraint and a return to negotiations. European Commission (news - web sites) President Romano Prodi issued a similar appeal.
Turkey urged Israel to halt military actions. Several Arab nations, including Syria and Iraq, voiced support for the Palestinians and Oman suspended its low-level ties with Israel.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who arrived in the region Monday to try to stem the bloodshed, called for restraint.
Israel said it had given Palestinians three hours' warning to evacuate the targeted buildings in Gaza and Ramallah before bombing them.
An official of the Islamist Hamas movement said Palestinian guards had abandoned a prison in Gaza, allowing jailed Hamas militants and common criminals to escape. Another Hamas official said about 35 Hamas activists had been freed from a Palestinian jail in Nablus in the West Bank.
Hamas's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, vowed revenge for the Israeli attacks. ``We will spare no effort to retaliate for this aggression,'' he told Reuters.
Marwan Kanafani, an aide to Arafat, said Palestinian police had tried to protect the Israeli soldiers from the demonstrators who had just returned from the funeral of a slain Palestinian. He said 13 Palestinian policemen were injured in the attempt.
Plumes of black smoke curled into the sky in Ramallah, where a radio transmission site near Arafat's office, a police station and a security headquarters were hit by Israeli fire. The raids interrupted power supplies for 18,000 people in Ramallah, witnesses said.
From: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001012/wl/israel_palestinian_mob_killing_2.htm/a>
Thursday October 12
Mob Kills Two Israeli Reservists
By JAMIE TARABAY, Associated Press Writer
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - It started with a wrong turn, and ended with the most serious intensification of violence in the 15 days of Palestinian-Israeli clashes.
Israeli defense officials said two - perhaps three - reserve soldiers were on their way to a call-up at a West Bank base near the Palestinian controlled West Bank town of Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem. They were in a car with Israeli plates.
The soldiers took a wrong turn into Palestinian territory, the army said. West Bank roads are not clearly marked, and such wrong turns are not unusual. In June, four Israeli buses headed for a settlement turned into Kalandiya refugee camp, and were torched.
Army officials said the men were not stopped when they unwittingly passed through a Palestinian roadblock. The roadblock is frequently unmanned.
At least one of the men - who remain unidentified until their families can be notified - was in civilian clothes, and one other was in uniform. Reservists usually receive their uniforms only once they register at their base.
The army said a crowd of Palestinians identified them as Israelis and chased them. The car made a U-turn, and headed for a Palestinian police station they had just passed, near Manara Square in central Ramallah.
The Israelis ran inside the police station, seeking shelter. Police said they were contacting Israelis to come pick up the men when the mob attacked.
Word got out that the Palestinian police were holding several Israeli soldiers, and that they may even belong to the hated undercover units that deploy gunmen disguised as Arabs to hunt Palestinian fugitives.
Hundreds of Palestinians - as many as 1,500 - surrounded the police station and called for the execution of the Israelis. Police ordered the crowd away, but about a dozen men climbed in through a window.
Israeli army officials say they believe that the Palestinian police did nothing to protect the soldiers, and may even have assisted in the killing.
TV footage showed one of the attackers run to the second floor window and make a victory sign, and then return to the fray. In the background, several men were seen pounding on something or someone lying on the floor. The crowd erupted into cheers.
The attackers tossed one of the men out of the window, another out the door. The mob - some with bloodied hands - surrounded the men, some stabbing at them with the broken bars of a window grille. One of the men was dragged out of the police compound and through the streets, witnesses said.
The army eventually received two bodies. Army officials said the two Israelis had been badly mutilated. Initial examinations showed contusions from kicks and beatings with a metal bar. One of the bodies was beaten beyond recognition, they said.
Army officials say they believe a third soldier was in the car, and they are unsure of his fate.
Hours later, Israeli helicopter gunships targeted Palestinian security targets in the West Bank and Gaza, in retaliation - actions Palestinian Cabinet ministers described as a ``declaration of war.''
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000
From: bat shalom <batshalo@netvision.net.il>
Subject: Israeli Women Members of Knesset: Give Peace Another Chance!!
Press Release Bat Shalom: 5631477
Monday night, October 9, 2000
We Share the Pain, the Anger, and the Sorrow
Members of Bat Shalom of the Jerusalem Link and the undersigned Members of
Knesset share the pain of our Arab sisters, Israeli citizens and
Palestinians in the Palestinian Authority.
We have all undergone ten terrible days and we must do everything in our
power to prevent the link of sisterhood from unraveling, a link that was
woven with such great labor and care.
For years, we have proven in our joint work that the walls of estrangement
can be lowered, the alienation lessened, and that personal and public
cooperation can take place.
We share the belief that force and violence are no solution; we have
already seen how short the journey is from inflammatory words of incitement
to the stone and the gun that take lives.
We demand that the government instruct the police to maintain order without
the use of excessive force, while safeguarding the right of citizens to
demonstrate their pain and anger.
We appeal to all women, Israeli and Palestinian, Arab and Jewish, to join
our call to all the leaders of the region and all those bearing arms of any
sort: Give peace another chance!
Do not drag us into another superfluous war! Return to the negotiating
table now and not at the end of more blood-drenched battles.
Signed:
M.K. Naomi Chazan
M.K. Yael Dayan
M.K. Zehava Galon
M.K. Anat Maor
M.K. Tamar Gozansky
Bat Shalom is a feminist peace organization working toward a just peace
between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Bat Shalom, together with The
Jerusalem Center for Women, a Palestinian women's peace organization,
comprise The Jerusalem Link. Visit our web site for more information and
our latest activities: http://www.batshalom.org
We gratefully accept contributions to help support our work. Checks in any
currency can be mailed to Bat Shalom, POB 8083, Jerusalem 91080, Israel.
Tel: +972-2-563 1477; Fax: +972-2-561 7983. See our web site for
information about tax-deductible contributions or bank transfers.
To subscribe to Bat Shalom's newsletter, please reply by e-mail with the
word "Subscribe" in the subject line.
