14 Friends Of Palestine

We have purchased Gaza’s Ark - with your help, we will sail towards justice

When Palestinians and other people of conscience mark Nakba (Catastrophe) Day on May 15, they insist that the world acknowledge the history of Palestinian dispossession since 1948. As world leaders have ignored Palestinian dispossession in general, they have also ignored the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza under the Israeli blockade. Gaza's Ark is a people-to-people campaign to force the injustices faced by Palestinians in Gaza back onto the world's agenda.

Fast with us in Solidarity with Samer Issawi

Members of 14 Friends of Palestine and the 2013 Sponsored Diet for Palestine invite people of conscience to join them in a 24-hour fast in solidarity with Samer Issawi, the Palestinian political prisoner who has now been on hunger strike for over 210 days. Issawi has been held since July in administrative detention; this means he has not been formally charged with a crime. He either wants to be formally charged and given a fair trial, or released, and will continue his hunger strike until one of these things happens. We also demand Israel release imprisoned Palestinian hunger strikers Ayman Sharawna, Tareq Qaadan and Jaafar Azzidine together with all Palestinian political prisoners.

We will start the weekly fast on Fridays at 8pm, and continue until Saturday 8pm, eating no food whatsoever and drinking only water.

This time was chosen as most people do not have to work on Saturday. However, you are welcome to pick your own day and time to fit your schedule. The exact date is not important; any time from now is fine. However, we would ask you to please tell your local media that you are fasting, and why. Also tell as many friends as possible. Our goal is to raise awareness across the world about the plight of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, often without charge or trial; men, women and even children.

If you would like to join the 24-hour fast, please accept the invitation on the Facebook event page here.

Or email us at 14friendsofpalestine@gmail.com

Please also visit the Free Samer Issawi Campaign Facebook page here

Finally, please read Samer Issawi's message of Feb 16th, the 209th day of his hunger strike:

16.02.13 - "I turn with admiration to the masses of our heroic Palestinian people, to our Palestinian leadership, to all forces, parties and national institutions. I salute them for standing by our fight to defend our right to freedom and dignity.

I draw my strength from my people, from all the free people in the world, from friends and the families of the prisoners who continue day and night chanting for freedom and an end to the occupation.

My health has deteriorated dramatically and I'm hung between life and death. My weak body is collapsing but still able to be patient and continue the confrontation. My message is that I will continue until the end, until the last drop of water in my body, until martyrdom. Martyrdom is an honor for me in this battle. My martyrdom is my remaining bomb in the confrontation with the tyrants and the jailers, in the face of the racist policy of the occupation that humiliates our people and exercises against us all means of oppression and repression.

I say to my people: I'm stronger than the occupation army and its racist laws. I, Samer al-Issawi, son of Jerusalem, send you my last will that, in case I fell as a martyr, you will carry my soul as a cry for all the prisoners, man and women, cry for freedom, emancipation and salvation from the nightmare of prisons and their harsh darkness.

My battle is not only for individual freedom. The battle waged by me and by my heroic colleagues, Tariq, Ayman and Ja'affar, is everyone's battle, the battle of the Palestinian people against the occupation and its prisons. Our goal is to be free and sovereign in our liberated state and in our blessed Jerusalem.

The weak and strained beats of my heart derive their steadfastness from you, the great people. My eyes, which started to lose their sight, draws light from your solidarity and your support of me. My weak voice takes its strength from your voice that is louder than the warden's voice and higher than the walls.

I'm one of your sons, among thousands of your sons who are prisoners, still languishing steadfasting in the prisons, waiting for an end to be brought to their plight, their pains and the suffering of their families.

The doctors told me I became exposed to stroke because of the disorder of my heartbeats, the shortage of sugar and the drop in blood pressure. My body is full of cold and I can't sleep because of the continued pain. But despite the extreme fatigue and chronic headaches, as I move on my chair, I'm trying to summon all my resources to continue on the road till its end. There is no going back, only in my victory, because I'm the owner of Right and my detention is invalid and illegal.

Do not be afraid for my heart if it will stop, don't be afraid for my hands if they will be paralyzed. I am still alive now and tomorrow and after death, because Jerusalem is moving in my blood, in my devotion and my faith."

Samer Issawi

2013 Sponsored Diet to Benefit Palestine

This from a friend in Gaza:
"Wow! What an idea ! What a great mind to come up with an idea. What a dedication to a cause to do a such thing. Thank you guys."

Israel's Attacks on Gaza

Bay to Breakers - raising money for the Maia Water Project

14 Friends of Palestine sent a team of five to join MECA in the Bay to Breakers on Sunday, May 20th, to raise money for the Maia Water Project, bringing safe drinking water to the children of Gaza.

Currently the aquifer under Gaza is so low that sea water is creeping in and making the drinking water supply too salty. Kidney disease is rife among the young, as well as Methemoglobinemia, a disease of the red blood corpuscles that converts the haemoglobin to methemoglobin that prevents the red blood cells from carrying sufficient oxygen to all the organs of the body. It is caused by drinking polluted water, and an alarmingly high number of children in Gaza have resultant permanent brain damage from this disease. It is known as ‘blue baby syndrome’. This could be easily prevented by installing water purification systems in every school.

MECA is working in partnership with community organizations in Gaza to build water purification and desalination units in schools throughout the Gaza Strip, and has provided clean water to 14 large UN schools in Palestinian refugee camps and to 13 kindergartens in refugee camps, towns, and villages. Our joint goal with MECA is to raise $11,500 to provide a water purification system for one middle school in Gaza, so that the children there can have safe, clean drinking water.

Late donations for MECA will be accepted through end of July, 2012.

You may donate directly online here...

or send a tax deductible check made out to MECA, with Water Project in memo line, to us at:

14 Friends Of Palestine,
PO BOX 6634,
San Rafael, CA 94903
USA

Thank you for your continuing support!

Bay to Breakers 2012 - team raising money for the MECA Maia water project

You can also check out the successful fund raising we did in 2010 for the Maia Water Projecet here...

2012 Sponsored Diet

The 2012 Sponsored Diet for Palestine is pleased to announce their grand total: $2,627.63

The main recipient was 14 Friends of Palestine. In addition we also supported 3 other organizations. The money was distributed as follows:

$1,101 for 14 Friends of Palestine

$50 for Khitam specifically

$504 for the Gaza Mental Health Foundation

$409 for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

$563.63 for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Many thanks to all who took part, both the dieters and their generous sponsors, in raising such a respectable amount for Palestine

Israel Divestment Campaign

We are currently focusing on collecting signatures for the Israel Divestment Campaign.

Please sign the online petition by clicking here.

Members of the Israel Divestment Campaign will be delivering the petition to the boards of the State Retirement Systems, CalPERS and CalSTRS, to request the following:

We, the undersigned, oppose investments by the California State Retirement System (STRS) and the California Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) in any company that profits from the State of Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, includingEast Jerusalem.

According to your own investment reports, more than $3 billion is invested in companies that we believe facilitate Israel's violation of human rights, its repudiation of international law and its disregard of UN Conventions and Resolutions.

Further, we are concerned that these investments put the retirement funds at risk of major loss as a result of increased worldwide divestment activity.

Therefore, we the undersigned, all of whom are either STRS and/or PERS members and/or California State taxpayers, call on you to honor your own policies prescribing socially responsible investing and respect for human rights and to begin your own defined process of engagement with the companies that supply Israel the equipment, supplies and services that facilitate the violation of human rights.

Thank you for signing this petition. You may choose not to have your name displayed on the website. When you have signed, please confirm your signature or it won’t count. Please forward widely.

Please sign the online petition by clicking here.

Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception. - Mark Twain 1916