On March 19, the Israeli army fired artillery shells into the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip, instantly killing Emad Farajallah and Qassem Abu Otaiwi, two 16 year old boys from the al-Nussairat Refugee Camp.
The shells that killed them were likely some of the 337,861 artillery shells, valued at $9.2 million, that the United States gave to Israel and paid for with American taxes from 2000 to 2006.
Three days later, the Israeli army fired four artillery shells into a residential area of Gaza City. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, "the third shell landed near a number of boys who were playing football near their houses." Two boys - Mohammed Harara and Mohammed al-Hilu - were killed and their bodies dismembered.
The fourth shell killed another child, as well as his grandfather, while they were trying to evacuate the wounded to a hospital. In addition, 11 Palestinians, including eight children, were injured in the barrage. These shells may have been from the more than 47 million pieces of ammunition and ordnance, valued at $9.5 million, that the United States sent to Israel from 2007 to 2009. The misuse of U.S. weapons to commit these human rights abuses is s crime under U.S. law.
Nevertheless, securing more weapons for Israel to brutalize Palestinians will once again be the top lobbying item on the agenda of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) at its annual policy conference in Washington, DC, this May. AIPAC is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington, but we won't let AIPAC's advocacy for more Israeli human rights abuses, military occupation and anti-Palestinian apartheid go unchallenged.
On May 21-24, join more than 80 peace and justice groups at the "Move Over AIPAC" conference. This historic gathering will feature speakers such as: John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt (authors of the groundbreaking book "The Israel Lobby"), Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, Jewish Voice for Peace Director Rebecca Vilkomerson and many more!
Join us at "Move Over AIPAC" to challenge the harmful policies that AIPAC promotes and to condemn AIPAC's dangerous and destructive influence on American foreign policy.
For more information, please see: www.moveoveraipac.org and www.endtheoccupation.org
Distributed by PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)
WWW.PAJUMONTREAL.ORG