Yesh Gvul Needs You!

This came in yesterday:

Dear friend,

Well-known left-wing columnist Haim Baram recently published the following comments about Yesh Gvul and our efforts to promote a criminal investigation of IDF deputy commander-in-chief Dan Halutz:

Yesh Gvul is the most important organisation in the Israeli peace camp, the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire going before all the others. I agree with YG activists that there is no prospect of Halutz being dismissed.... But the purifying sacred labours of Yesh Gvul enable all Israeli humanists - and there are many - to sense that they are living in their own country, and that they have allies. (Kol Ha'Ir, 26/11)

Thanks Haim, it's always a pleasure to read compliments, but fine words don't pay the grocery bill, nor do they cover legal costs !

We are keeping up our legal efforts for a criminal investigation of Dan Halutz, over his approval, as air-force commander, of the dropping of a 1-ton bomb on a residential home in Gaza, causing the deaths of 14 non-combattants (along with the professed target, Hamas militant Saleh Sh'hadeh). Our petition to the Supreme Court to this end is pending. Under consideration is a further petition against the appointment of Halutz to his present post (in effect, demanding his suspension). We insist that Halutz face criminal proceedings, and if the Israeli judicial system is not up to the task, we will seek ways of bringing the case to other courts.

Attorneys Avigdor Feldman and Michael Sfard do their utmost to lighten the burden, these legal actions require considerable financial outlay, and our money is running out !

To make sure our campaign against war crimes does not grind to a halt due to a lack of resources, we are launching an emergency appeal. We call on you, and the friends who have supported us this far - please give to the best of your ability !

Donations:

Cheques to: Yesh Gvul, PO Box 6953, Jerusalem 91068, Israel

Bank transfers: Yesh Gvul, Acct. no 366614, Bank Hapoalim, King George St. branch (690) Swiftcode: POALILIT

USA: tax-free donations to Refuser Solidarity Network, P.O. Box 53474 Washington DC
20009-9474 (Please write “Yesh Gvul” on the memo line!)Credit card donations-through www.refusersolidarity.net and the "donate now" section.

Peretz Kidron - Ram Rahat

Yesh Gvul supported me during the months of my diliberation , and of course during my imprisonment. They've been supporting refusniks ever since the Lebanon war.

Chava Alberstein cries in the morning

We went to hear her yesterday at the Barbican. The flyer said she's refused to sing in Israel for the last three years. She told us how her mother would not allow them to sing of laugh in the morning. Her belief was that "if you laugh in the morning, you will cry at night". So now, she says, I cry in the morning so I can sing for you at night.

One of the songs she performed goes something like:

Every man has a shadow
But the white man has a shadow even in the dark
When the white man stops for a quick lunch with his friends
His shadow washes his dishes

I haven't visited Shovrim Shtika site for a while. If you've never been there, go now. On top of the pictures from the exhibition, they have started translating testimonies to English.

I just read a commentary in Ha'aretz the other day, suggesting that the recent dissent against IDF practices started with this initiative. It all comes down to a mother asking her officer son: "boy, did you that kind of thing?"