NATO member heads of state begin meeting in Washington, D.C. today. See prior news releases.

MOATAZ SALIM, moatazs97@gmail.com, Instagram: @tazsdc
Salim is a Palestinian graduate student at George Washington University with family in Gaza. He has lost over 100 members of his extended family. He was a speaker at the recent No to NATO, Yes to Peace summit. He said today: “Israel is one of several partners of NATO. It can be seen as the ‘tip of the spear’ of the wider colonial project, with NATO projecting power around the world, especially in Africa and increasingly in Asia.” [See from Reuters: “Episcopal Church protests closure of its Gaza hospital by Israeli evacuation orders,” and from Jeremy Scahill in the new platform Drop Site: “On the Record with Hamas.”]

TARAK KAUFF, takauff@gmail.com, @VFPNational
ELLEN BARFIELD, [in the D.C. area] ellene4pj@yahoo.com
Kauff and Barfield are members of Veterans For Peace, which just completed a peace walk from Maine to Washington, D.C. See stories on the march from Maine Public Radio and the Baltimore Fox affiliate.

Kauff said: “As the genocide in Gaza continues with children being killed and starved, it’s more important than ever to dramatically say that violence and war is not the way.”

Barfield was stationed in South Korea while in the U.S. military and recently took part in protests there.

Walk organizer Ellen Davidson, a VFP director said: “We are walking to expose the undemocratic power of corporations like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics and the other Madmen Arsonists who are setting fires around the globe.”