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----- Original Message -----
From: Marissa
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 6:38 PM
Subject: Sponsor a Child in Palestine - Program Update Dear Sponsor, The Middle East Children's Alliance and the Ibdaa Cultural Center sincerely thank you for your continued support for Sponsor a Child Program. The past year has been a difficult one for the children in Dheisheh refugee camp and your support for these children has provided a measure stability for them during very uncertain times Communication within the camp and with outside world has become increasingly difficult due to Israeli military activities and we apologize for not sending a recent update on your child. We have new photographs for many of the children and will be sending those in a separate email. Soon, we will be sending out individual reports on your child but for now you will find an update on the Dheisheh community. Daily life for the children in Dheisheh is marked by military incursions, closures, curfews, arbitrary arrests and threats to life. In March a child in the program Mahmoud Omar Mohammed Zghari, was shot and killed by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in Bethlehem. His death brings the number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces since September 2000 to 620. Unpredictable and increasingly violent activities by the Israeli military over the past 6 months has made daily life extremely difficult, and dangerous especially during the arbitrary military invasions by the Israeli military. Invasions begin in the early hours of the morning and usually last two to three days, during which time the military assumes total control of the camp. It is during these invasions that Palestinians between the ages of 12 and 70 are targeted for arbitrary arrests. Israeli forces enter Palestinian family homes after midnight, and force the families outside at gunpoint, taking mostly the men and boys into custody. These house-to-house searches have become a nightly routine in Dheisheh camp over the past three months and no family has been left un-affected. During MECA’s April delegation to Palestine, our Executive Director Barbara Lubin witnessed these nightly invasions and saw at least two arrests each night. During a meeting with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Bethlehem, she was told that almost all of those arrested were being held in administrative detention (without charge for up to six months and always renewable) and without access to lawyers, family-members, clean clothes and medical care and most according to the ICRC had been tortured. For the children in the sponsor program, their classmates and their friends, all efforts to get an education continue to be severely impeded by frequent closing of the checkpoints that surround in Bethlehem. At this time of writing, the Segregation Wall being built inside the West Bank is almost complete in the Bethlehem area, and soon access to education will be more difficult than ever as there will be no more than two exit/entrances in Bethlehem. Reports of abuse at checkpoints, including mental and physical harassment and collective and individual humiliation have been commonplace throughout the occupation, but the abuse has become increasingly brutal over the last couple of years. Furthermore, larger scale Israeli military activities in Palestinian neighborhoods have meant that parents are becoming more and more afraid to send their children to school. Often, schools are closed due to Israeli military offensives in other areas of the West Bank. Daily life for Palestinian children and youth has become a waiting game. Israeli military invasions, closure and curfews have become framework within which Palestinian children and their families live out their days. The overall health and well being of the community in Dheisheh is being undermined by the increasingly brutal Israeli occupation and families are struggling to keep their children safe. It is our hope that through our sponsorship program we can help these families in one of the best ways we can, providing for education. It is also our hope that your connection with these outstanding children will help to bring their situation to light here in our own communities. **At the time of writing ( June 10 2004) Dheisheh and the Bethlehem Area were invaded once again by the Israeli military. Local eyewitness reports a curfew and heavily shooting into Palestinian residential areas by the Israeli forces. Marissa Ashkar Sponsor Program Coordinator Middle East Children's Alliance 901 Parker Street Berkeley, CA 94710 tel (510) 548-0542 fax (510) 548-0543
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