WLOE
e-news: the war in Lebanon and Gaza; Iraq: Troops Home Fast! from Iraq; Hiroshima-Nagasaki
Anniversary
6-9 August 2006
The 61st anniversary
of the first use of the atomic bomb comes at a time of explosive conflict and
great danger in the Middle East. Thus the focus of this newsletter is on women's
action for peace.
Israeli
and Palestinian Women Call on Quartet to Intervene to End the Conflict
Members of the International Women’s Commission for a Just and Sustainable
Palestinian-Israeli Peace convened an emergency meeting in Athens, July 13,
2006. Following deliberations, and issued the following appeal:
"The present crisis is escalating out of control in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory (especially in Gaza), Israel and Lebanon, threatening the region as
a whole.
We reject the use of force. We call for an immediate end to the fighting and
a return to the political process.
Civilians, mainly women and children, are paying the price daily for this vicious
cycle of retaliation and counter-retaliation. This is a time of great danger.
Political collapse will lead to total loss of control, anarchy and chaos. If
no action is taken today, tomorrow will be too late..."
Read the 2 page statement in pdf format at:
http://www.womenwagingpeace.net/content/articles/Israeli%20and%20Palestinian%20Women%20Call%20on%20Quartet%20to%20Intervene%20to%20End%20the%20Conflict.pdf
Israeli peace activist
Gila Svirsky on peace action: "In Jerusalem alone, 100 people
turned up for a vigil on Sunday (30 July) in a surge of anger, protest, and
mourning following the killing of children and adults in Qana, Lebanon..."
http://www.wloe.org/WLOE-en/resources/wwaa/womenwriters/gila%20svirsky/gs31july06.htm
STATEMENT
BY WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM (AUSTRALIAN SECTION)
August 4, 2006
"There never can be a military "solution"
to the problems facing the Israeli and the Lebanese peoples in the present situation
across their common border. The peoples involved or, more precisely, their representatives
need to be brought to the recognition that they must seek a political solution
- a negotiated "talking" solution - if they are ever to achieve a
just and lasting peace and freedom..."
Read full statement: http://www.wloe.org/WLOE-en/information/peace/australia.html
War
Crimes and Lebanon: letter to The Guardian, August 3, 2006
Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Howard Zinn, Ken Loach, John Berger
& Arundhati Roy
"The US-backed Israeli assault on Lebanon has left the country numb, smouldering
and angry. The massacre in Qana and the loss of life is not simply "disproportionate".
It is, according to existing international laws, a war crime.
The deliberate and systematic destruction of Lebanon's social infrastructure
by the Israeli air force was also a war crime, designed to reduce that country
to the status of an Israeli-US protectorate. The attempt has backfired. In Lebanon
itself, 87% of the population now support Hizbullah's resistance, including
80% of Christian and Druze and 89% of Sunni Muslims, while 8% believe the US
supports Lebanon. But these actions will not be tried by any court set up by
the "international community" since the US and its allies that commit
or are complicit in these appalling crimes will not permit it..."
Full text: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060803.htm
Get the facts: War
on Civilians: A MADRE Guide to the Middle East Crisis July 19,
2006
Code Pink: "After 28 days
of fasting, anti-war hunger strikers received a breakthrough victory for their
sacrifice: Leading members of the Iraqi Parliament invited fasters to join them
to discuss their plans for peace in Iraq. On Wednesday, August 2, hunger strikers
will travel to Amman, Jordan to meet with these Iraqi MPs and break their fast..."
more
Women
of South Korea call for a peaceful world and the Korean peninsula free of war
http://www.wloe.org/WLOE-en/information/korea/wmp270706.htm
Gyung-Lan Jung from "Women
Making Peace" sent us this statement by the Korean women's movement
on July 27th, the 53rd year of the Korean armistice agreement. It
is included in our website section developed as a joint project with Korea Women's
Associations United (KWAU), the largest coalition of progressive women's groups
in South Korea:
http://www.wloe.org/WLOE-en/information/korea/koreastart.html
And this weekend
the many thousands of victims of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were
remembered around the world :
In Australia:
"In commemorating the victims of nuclear war on Hiroshima Day, this Sunday
6 August, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has condemned the Federal
Government's undermining of international efforts to control the spread of nuclear
weapons...l"
http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=881
See our pages
on: Hiroshima,
Nagasaki: never again!
http://www.wloe.org/WLOE-en/information/peace//hiroshimanagasaki.html
women
and the bomb
http://www.wloe.org/WLOE-en/information/peace/womenandbomb.html