YITZHAK FRANKENTHAL, IBRAHIM BUSHNAQ
Frankenthal and Bushnaq head a delegation of the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families Forum. They will be in Washington, D.C. from June 5 to June 7. Frankenthal, who founded the group which is made up of members of Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones in the conflict, said today: “The continuing violence highlights the relevance of our message. The majority of both peoples support peace. A recent poll found that, even after the recent Israeli military incursions, 75 percent of Palestinians support peace and security for both sides. Likewise, in Israel, polls consistently find that the majority of Israelis would like to dismantle the settlements and reach a peaceful solution. The U.S. has a choice: it can support the leaders who seem to want to continue down the current path or support the people who are on the side of peace and co-existence.”
DAVID POTORTI
COLLEEN KELLY, KELLY CAMPBELL
Potorti, Kelly and Campbell are members of Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization founded by family members of September 11 victims in order to seek effective nonviolent responses to terrorism and identify a commonality with all people affected by violence throughout the world. Many members have already traveled to Afghanistan to meet with civilian victims of the bombing of Afghanistan as well as their families. More will be traveling there soon. Peaceful Tomorrows favors the creation of an Afghan victims fund to match the outpouring of support for U.S. victims. The following are also among those available for interviews:
MYRNA BETHKE is a Methodist minister in Freehold, New Jersey, who lost her brother at the World Trade Center. She will visit Afghanistan in mid-June with an interfaith delegation. The New York Times reported on May 26: “She says she has forgiven his killers, but makes a distinction between retaliation, which she is against, and consequences, which she is for. She is going to Kabul in part to help remind herself that the people there have names and faces — making it harder to want to retaliate against them.”
Several Peaceful Tomorrows family members visited Afghanistan in January. They include DERRILL BODLEY, a music teacher in Stockton, California who lost his daughter. He said today: “Real security depends on respect and love, peacefulness and sharing, and if those were in place, we would have security.” RITA LASAR is in New York, KELLY CAMPBELL in California and EVA RUPP in Washington, D.C.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
