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Dear friend-

I hope you are well and enjoying the equinox? Here at Just World Ed we’re hard at work organizing the “Palestine in Crisis” speaking tour we’re organizing with the great Gaza-Palestinian rights activist Yousef Aljamal.

We will share more details about Yousef’s tour, later. But planning is well advanced for him to speak– hopefully live!– at events in the NYC/Tristate area, Washington DC, Williamsburg and Richmond VA, Atlanta GA, Madison and Milwaukee WI, Portland OR, and Honolulu.

Do contact us if you’d like to help out at any of these events– or if you’re a media person from those areas or anywhere else in the United States who’d like to book Yousef for your show!

Yousef, who’s currently completing his PhD studies in Turkey, is a great communicator and a smart analyst who will be available to speak on three different aspects of the current Palestinian crisis:

1. He can speak on Gaza, the region in which he grew up as a refugee (from 1948 Israel) and where, for several years prior to his departure to Turkey, he was a go-to person at the Center for Political and Development Studies.
2. He can speak about Palestinian child detainees. He translated into English the recent book Dreaming of Freedom: Palestinian Child Prisoners Speak (which is now available in North America as a paperback: 174 pages, $9.99.) As a member of the DoF team, Yousef worked closely with the colleagues who had gathered those testimonies in the West Bank– an area with which he also has close family ties.
3. He can speak eloquently to the whole issue of settler colonialism in Palestine.
4. I am particularly happy to be bringing Yousef back to audiences in the United States. Back in 2014, my company Just World Books worked with the American Friends Service Committee to organize a nationwide speaking for three young writers from Gaza, of whom Yousef was one. You can read some accounts of that tour on this little blog we set up at the time.

   I saw firsthand the deep transformations that can take place in the thinking of American people who previously had never knowingly met a person from Gaza, when they first meet and listen to one! Americans are subjected to such a high degree of demonizing propaganda about the Palestinians in general, and Gaza Palestinians in particular…

   Talking of which, I hope you’ve seen the 4-page factsheet we produced recently: “Understanding Gaza and Hamas”? If not, you can download it here. It’s a PDF that occupies 294 KB.

   I should tell you that Yousef is still awaiting his U.S. visa. Of course, we’re strongly hoping it will come through in time for him to make all his gigs. If by chance it does not, then the plan is to have him “appear” at the events organized by our partners and friends all around the country via video link. Stay tuned.

   … Also, friends, as I’m sure you understand, all our programs take resources to accomplish well. If you are moved to make a donation to help support Yousef’s tour and our other programs, that would be very much appreciated!

ATU Local 998

https://geopoliticsalert.com/turkey-manbij-sanctions-ankara

 On: October 14, 2019

Ankara (GPA) – The US seems to be helping the Turkey Manbij operation even as President Donald Trump threatens sanctions on Ankara.

The situation surrounding Syria is proving to be as complicated as ever as day six of Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring in northeast Syria comes to a close. Despite the initial claims by United States President Donald Trump that US forces would be leaving Syria, there now seems to be some confusion on where exactly Washington stands.

Over the past several days, the Turkish-backed rebels known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) backed by Turkish troops have made quick advances into several areas formerly controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)

The SDF is an umbrella organization primarily composed of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) which is led by members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by not only Turkey but also the US and NATO as a whole.

Related: Trump Outsources Syria Destabilization to Turkey in Bid to Ease Tensions

Chicago Teachers Union

Photo: Joe Brusky

CTU and SEIU Local 73 members packed the Chicago Temple Building where they rallied before taking to the streets for a march through downtown in advance of their Thursday strike date.

#FairContractNow #REDforED #PutItInWriting

CLOSEmsdf October Picket

901 N 9th Street, 11:30 A.M. – 1 P.M., Milwaukee County Courthouse

Why do we picket?
1. To educate people on the inhumane conditions at MSDF.
2. To memorialize the 18 people who have died in MSDF since it opened.
3. To let WI taxpayers know that each day someone spends in MSDF for a crimeless rule violation costs us $100.84 vs $40 to treat that person in the community where their job, housing & support systems stay secure.
4. To hold Governor Tony Evers to his campaign promises. He told the Journal Sentinel he thinks MSDF should close “as soon as possible”. It is possible right now, and he can do it himself, with a few just and necessary policy changes.

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Please join us during the lunch hour on Thurs Oct 24 out front of the courthouse. If enough people turn out, we may expand the picket to the state office building on 6th and Wells, where the DOC has community supervision offices.

Parking is metered or nearby public lots. If you don’t mind walking a couple blocks, its often easier to find free parking on the other side of the freeway.

We’ve been holding down this monthly picket since the spring of 2017. A coalition of Milwaukee organizations have joined up to shut down MSDF. This facility is a building within a building, where captives have no access to fresh air or sunlight. They are triple bunked in lockdown cells for over 20 hours a day. There is no outdoor rec. The facility was built and is run using funds that should be used for diversionary programs to keep people out of jail, instead it’s being used to keep them on supervision under arbitrary and vindictive probation and parole officers.

We take this action in solidarity with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, who has called for monthly actions on (or near) the 23rd of every month to bring attention to 23 hour a day lockdowns. http://www.nrcat.org/about-us/take-action-current-legislation/563-together-to-end-solitary

Can’t come?

SIGN THE PETITION!!!!

If you haven’t signed the petition yet yourself, please do here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/its-time-to-close-milwaukee-secure-detention-facility-msdf

Mike, Take a Hike! Protest outside Uline

11559 80th St. at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 17. Doors open at 10:30 a.m.

Join us in “welcoming” Pence to town! He is coming to broker a business deal with Uline. Let’s show him how much we “appreciate” him! More details coming… Students for a Democratic Society – Parkside‎

Dreaming of Freedom: Stories of Palestinian Liberation

Come meet and hear from Yousef Aljamal, a Gaza-Palestinian rights activist and scholar who is on a speaking tour in the U.S., including Milwaukee! He will share stories and analysis about the incarceration of Palestinian children, many of whom languish in Israeli jails for years without charge, and the situation in Gaza, which has endured 13 years of continuous siege. Join us at 6:30p for a Palestinian meal, followed by Yousef’s talk. All welcome.

Yousef grew up in a refugee camp in #Gaza and lived through the three major assaults that Israel launched on the Strip in 2008, 2012, and 2014. Yousef’s family fled their home in 1948 from Israeli military forces, and he subsequently grew up in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in southern Gaza, attending schools run by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency). He earned his BA from the Islamic University of Gaza and is currently working on a PhD in International Relations at Sakarya University in Turkey. For several years he ran the Hashim Yeop Sani Library in Gaza’s Center for Political and Development Studies.

Yousef recently translated into English the book Dreaming of Freedom: Palestinian Child Prisoners Speak and he contributed a short story to the anthology Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine. Both books will be for sale at the event.

Don’t miss hearing this powerful voice from #Gaza. Please let us know if you are “going.”

The venue is wheelchair accessible. Please email us at milwaukee@jewishvoiceforpeace.org if there are other ways we can strive to make the space accessible.

The U.S. tour is sponsored by Just World Educational.

Co-sponsors: USPCN Milwaukee