[pjw] REPORT BACK: Palestine solidarity: Friday rally #160 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello again IAG supporters

Last night's Friday Rally for Peace and Justice coincided, as it does once 
a year, with the last Friday of Ramadan. As such, a sizable group (perhaps 
15-20) of Palestine solidarity activists were already on the corner when 
we arrived. We definitely got a lot more honks than usual from passing 
cars, so I'm thinking this is one of the messages that resonates with 
Portlanders.

There were 8 of us of the Friday Rally regulars there... plus one person 
who asked to hold a "No More War" sign but never picked it up, so we 
retrieved it before the march. Three other people did not march with us so 
we ended up with five. The weather was quite pleasant. We handed out 
somewhere in the range of 45 fact sheets again... hooray!

Here are some of the headlines we talked about at the rally:

--In light of our allies being at the corner, I began with the 
Israel/Palestine news. After Israeli extremists once again stormed the Al 
Aqsa mosque during Ramadan

  https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-extremists-again-raid-al-aqsa-compound-ramadan

...Israel banned non-muslims from going there. A little too little a 
little too late, but at least a meaningful gesture.

  https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-bans-non-muslim-visits-al-aqsa-compound-until-ramadan-end-2023-04-11/

--You may have heard about the massive top secret information leak, which 
mostly has to do with the war in Ukraine. Naturally the government isn't 
embarrassed about the policy contents, they want to punish the leaker 
and conduct more surveillance on social media. The gist of the leaks 
includes that the US is spying on its allies and manipulating things 
behind the scenes to perpetuate its warmongering goals.

  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-intel-agencies-missed-classified-documents-leaked-on-discord-rcna79404?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma&taid=643711501d49bb0001313082

--The US and the Philippines this week ran their largest-ever military 
exercise. China, China, China.

  https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/4/11/philippines-and-us-start-largest-ever-annual-military-drills

---In case that message wasn't clear enough, the US also sent a warship 
close to China controlled areas of the South China Sea.

  https://news.antiwar.com/2023/04/10/us-warship-sails-near-chinese-controlled-reef-in-south-china-sea/

--Saudi Arabia invited Syria to an upcoming meeting of the Arab League, 
where they have been country not grata since 2011. Qatar is objecting, but 
I think since the Saudis are hosting the meeting they get final say. This 
could mean an actual opening to resolving the war in Syria with diplomacy.

  https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/reasons-syrias-arab-league-suspension-still-stand-says-qatar-2023-04-13/

--This week also saw the excitingly named "Global Thunder 23." What's that 
you ask? American-led nuclear war games including bomber aircraft. What 
better time to do this than while ratcheting the doomsday clock the 
closest to midnight its ever been?

  https://www.stratcom.mil/Media/News/News-Article-View/Article/3356644/us-strategic-command-commences-annual-nuclear-command-and-control-exercise/

--In Iraq, ethnic tensions flared up on 20th anniversary of Baghdad's 
fall; you remember, the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled this week in 
2003. Then the US set up a government which defined people as Sunni, 
Shiite or Kurd instead of acknowledging that they are all Iraqis.

  https://www.newarab.com/news/20-years-after-us-invasion-iraq-yet-see-stability

--The UN says that 24 million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian aid. 
According to a population total I saw of 41 million, that means 58% of 
Afghans are in need.

  https://tolonews.com/index.php/afghanistan-182933

--In "good news/bad news": The letter circulated by Rep. Rashida Tlaib 
asking to drop charges against Julian Assange got circulated this week. 
The sad thing? Only six other Democrats signed, none from Oregon.

  https://d12t4t5x3vyizu.cloudfront.net/tlaib.house.gov/uploads/2023/04/Congressional-Letter-to-DOJ-on-Julian-Assange-Indictment_Final.pdf

In local news, though the police aren't directly involved in this scheme, 
the City's poised to vote to give $50 million to a horrible private firm 
called Urban Alchemy to run mass houselesss encampments here. Right now 
only two people are signed up to speak to this item Wednesday.

  https://www.portland.gov/council/documents/ordinance/authorize-agreement-temporary-shelter-operation-services

Here's some background on Urban Alchemy; be aware there is a swear word in 
here that _is part of the company's web page_:

  https://wraphome.org/2023/01/19/portland-oregon-troubling-rise-of-urban-alchemy-privatization-of-public-space-labor-exploitation-and-criminalization-of-homelessness-zine/

Along the march route, since I'd already given general Israel Palestine 
news, I noted that we're coming up on Tax Day. As we know about 1/2 of the 
discretionary funds in the US are used to pay for current and past 
military. The largest recipient of foreign aid is Israel, and activists 
have organized to hand out coupons showing how much housing, education, 
or health care can be paid for with the aid going to Israel.

  https://uscpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Tax-Day-Action-Flier-coupon-size-front-and-back.pdf

Side note: I spaced out on printing the War Resisters League Tax Day 
flyer this year, but you can find it here:

  https://www.warresisters.org/store/where-your-income-tax-money-really-goes-fy2024

As we got close to our end point, I relayed that a stalemate in Congress 
over the new budget could freeze the military to 2023 spending levels. 
Apparently this is partly how the 2013 "sequestration" came about.

  https://www.defensenews.com/congress/budget/2023/04/11/from-ukraine-to-debt-ceiling-its-a-balancing-act-to-pass-fy24-budget/

We've now seen nearly identical behavior from the Ann Huntwork Peace 
Memorial Sign four weeks in a row-- freezing up on 4th and going out once 
we head up Yamhill. It's nonsensical, annoying and weird, but at least now 
we have some consistency. By the way I brought the sign to the Keaton Otis 
monthly vigil on Wednesday and we got a comment on it: "That must have 
been expensive." *Sigh.*

In this last week I have heard about three people I know or work with who 
have gotten COVID recently, so I'm thinking PJW's policy of masking up 
still makes sense. I heard a story on the radio about people with long 
COVID pushing back on President Biden's declaration that the emergency is 
over. Anyway, if you want to join us any Friday at 5 PM we would be 
appreciative of your company.

thanks
--dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group