This Summer, the VFP Veterans Peace Team will send a delegation to the West Bank to stand in solidarity with Palestinian nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation and to the encroaching settlements on what remains of Palestinian land. Some of the places we may be visiting are Hebron and nearby villages, Jordan Valley, Bethlehem, (includuing refugee camps), Bil'in, Al-Walaja, Jerusalem and environs, Nablus, Nebi Saleh, the Negev, Galilee including destroyed villages and finally in conjunction with Israeli veterans, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. We are asking for your support for this project.
The Israeli occupation and settlements, much of this financed year after with well over 3 billion in U.S. tax payers money is a source of violent, degrading and dehumanizing daily oppression in all these areas. Currently Palestinians are risking life and limb to establish new villages in the South Hebron Hills and to resist the Netanyahu government's plan to take over even more Palestinian land.
"We began building the tents and were surprised when a large force of the Israeli army began attacking us and destroying tents and hitting us,” Younis Arar, coordinator of the popular committee in the southern West Bank, told Ma'an news. According to Haaretz, the water sprayed at the protesters was “foul water,” also known as “skunk water,” which has a putrid smell that can linger on clothing. A Hebron human rights activist told Al Jazeera, "The Israeli army does not distinguish the journalists from activists, or from the people living there--they just attacked everyone. They were very aggressive today."
Our intention as nonviolent veteran activists is more than just to observe, return home, and report. We plan to present a team of U.S. military veterans and allies standing shoulder to shoulder with Palestinian and Israeli activists as brothers and sisters, observing, recording and taking the same risks as they do every day in the face of overwhelming IDF use of force.
We have been in touch with people in the Palestinian/Israeli resistance, including members of Combatants for Peace, Breaking the Silence, Boycott From Within and Anarchists Against the Wall. The Palestinian people living in the West Bank that we have approached with this idea are very enthusiastic to have a VFP team of U.S. military veterans recognizably stand in solidarity with them.
To insure that we are not turned back by the Israelis, we are not making public the exact timing and participants of this initiative. However, everything we do will be documented. Those coming on the trip will be expected to be trained and immersed in nonviolence theory and practice and to be well versed in the history of the struggle for Palestinian self-determination.
We need your financial and moral support in order to make this important project a reality. Your donations will be used to help defray travel costs and expenses for the team. You can make donations at http://www.stopthesewars.org/palestinetrip/. If this project inspires you and you would like to participate, we still have a few spots open. Please contact Tarak at takauff@gmail.com or by phone at 845-679-3299. You will need to be known to some of the team or to have solid references from other known VFP members.
In solidarity and gratitude,
The VFP Veterans Peace Team for Palestine