Palestinian Youth Need Your Support

On July 18, 2018, Israel passed a Basic Law (equivalent to a constitutional law) which states that "the exercise of the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish People", thus excluding all others. In addition to Israel’s continuing blockade of Gaza, this law has immediate impact in the West Bank, Israel, and Jerusalem. Children are going hungry, families are living without access to electricity and in fear of their homes being demolished. The situation is dire and the time for action is now.

Rebuilding Alliance’s will be hosting its fourth #ICareAboutPeace Congressional Briefing on February 5th, 2019.  We will be bringing children from the West Bank and Gaza to Congress to present their visions of peace and justice. We need your help to continue funding this ongoing effort.

This year, a child from Susiya will show the Pinwheel for Peace he made and explain what peace means to him.  His mom will speak of when settlers turned their dog on his father. His cousin, Aysar, returns to now speak in English to provide an update of their village’s ongoing efforts to prevent the demolition of their village — and I hope he will talk about his birds and animals. If all goes well, for the first time, a teen from Gaza City and her mom will be allowed to cross their borders to join us. She was chosen as the best English-speaker among all the youth in the refugee schools in Gaza to come on this trip. Although she’s seeing hunger among her classmates, she too will speak of what peace means, and what peace looks like.

They will be joined by human rights defenders from Israel and Palestine to provide maps and context as we ask Congress to restore humanitarian aid for food, education, and health care and personally make calls to the Israeli Embassy to express concern, stop the demolition of Palestinian villages, recognize Palestinian planning rights, turn on the lights in Gaza, and open the blockade.

Following the Congressional briefing, Rebuilding Alliance will take members of Congress to Jerusalem and the West Bank during the Congressional recess, March 15-23rd. This is a one week fact-finding tour and all expenses will be paid by Rebuilding Alliance in full accordance with Ethics Committee guidelines. The trip will allow members of Congress to witness the situation on the ground firsthand. Last year, our Congressional Leadership Learning Mission was instrumental in keeping the village of Susiya standing.

I know that those who follow our blog are passionate about securing equal rights for Palestinians. That is why I am reaching out to see if you could help maximize the impact that our brave young speakers will make by making a donation to support our ongoing advocacy efforts. Following the visit to Congress, the children and their parents will remain in the US for two more weeks to do a multi-state speaking tour along the Eastern seaboard. I am looking for caring individuals like you to donate to Rebuilding Alliance so that we can continue to spread this important message. Contributions to Rebuilding Alliance are tax-deductible and every little bit helps. To donate, please click here.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your tireless dedication and ongoing support.

Sincerely,

Donna Baranski-Walker