SAMIH FARSOUN
Author of Palestine and the Palestinians and professor of sociology at American University, Farsoun is available for interviews about Bush’s trip to the Mideast, as well as the region’s political and economic development.
SIMONA SHARONI
Sharoni is professor of peace and conflict studies and Middle East politics at Evergreen State College and executive director of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. She is participating in a series of events with other groups in and around the United Nations this Thursday, marking the 36th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These groups will be urging a number of steps for peace, including the application of U.N. Security Council resolutions that Israel has been violating. They also advocate placing international observers in the occupied territories to help defuse the situation. The U.S. government cast the sole “no” vote on such a proposal at the U.N. Security Council in March 2001, blocking the proposal.
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LEAH HARRIS
Harris is the vice president of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel. She said today: “We believe that as Jews outside of Israel, we have both a right and obligation to speak out in favor of an Israel that pursues peaceful, ethical and democratic policies….”
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CINDY CORRIE
Cindy Corrie is the mother of Rachel Corrie, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement who was killed by the Israeli military earlier this year. Israel’s military is now banning members of the group from the Gaza Strip.
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MARK LANCE
Associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, Lance said today: “The ‘roadmap’ does not require solutions to any of the significant obstacles to a just or peaceful settlement: the rights of Palestinian refugees, the removal of settlements, the return of Arab portions of Jerusalem, or equitable distribution of water rights. Without these issues being solved, there is no prospect for a solution that will present Palestinians with a livable state…. Israel continues to receive massive U.S. economic and military aid, receives the most sophisticated U.S. weapons, continues to build its nuclear arsenal without comment, receives U.S. intelligence and diplomatic cover, and has been given no reason to think that any of this would be withdrawn…. So long as this unquestioned support from the world’s dominant military power continues, there is not the slightest chance of any legitimate roadmap being implemented.” Lance noted that currently the West Bank is broken up into many Palestinian patches, with Israel having overall control. A map is available at:
www.btselem.org/English/Publications/Summaries/Land_Grab_Map.asp.
Lance works with the Sustain Campaign, which seeks to end U.S. government funding for the Israeli government. The group organized an address by Noam Chomsky in Washington last night at the University of the District of Columbia. Chomsky also appeared on C-Span yesterday. For audio and video of these events see: http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=71340&group=webcast, www.booktv.org/feature/archive.asp.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
