[pjw] REPORT BACK: Ukraine forever...war: Friday rally #165 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello peaceful people

Eleven people gathered and ten marched last night at the Friday Rally for 
Peace and Justice. The weather was pretty warm for a May evening, but it 
felt as if everyone was getting used to it. We had a lot of supportive 
honks, including one car with two people in it who blew us kisses and 
thanked us for our signs saying "Free Palestine." We handed out somewhere 
around 40 of the new statements about Ukraine-- there's not an exact count 
because some of the "regulars" took a few to hand out elsewhere.

Here are the headlines we talked about:

--This week marks the Nakba (catastrophe), the day in 1948 when hundreds 
of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly removed to make way for the new 
state of Israel. The United Nations recognized the Nakba for the first 
time.

  https://www.palestinechronicle.com/for-first-time-in-history-un-commemorates-palestinian-nakba/

--As noted yesterday, the war in Ukraine one year later is marked by 
little change except the further encroachment of NATO near Russia and 
billions spent by the US on weapons. But also, lots of carnage and 
thousands of people killed. Here's the link again to the PJW statement:

  https://pjw.info/ukraine_statement0523.pdf

---The US expects the war in Ukraine to drag on like the one in Korea, 
which started in 1950 but has never technically ended since there's no 
peace treaty, just a "demilitarized zone" separating the war parties.

  https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/18/ukraine-russia-south-korea-00097563

---Ukraine told China they won't cede land for peace, making the idea of 
ceasefire talks even more elusive.

  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/18/ukraine-tells-china-envoy-peace-plan-must-not-lose-land-to-russia

---And in more fuel-on-the-fire gestures, as the US agreed to let 
Ukrainians train on fighter jets, Poland sent some over to get things 
started.

  https://archive.is/BFrHX
  https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article275209896.html

--Meanwhile, the Pentagon admitted they probably killed a civilian, not 
and Al Qaeda leader, when they bombed Syria on May 3. That they killed a 
civilian is sadly not as shocking as they fact that they admitted it.

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/18/pentagon-drone-strike-syria-civilian-al-qaeda/
  https://archive.is/2YqCP

--39 House Democrats told President Biden not to block the momentum 
toward peace in Yemen, specifically saying to stop supporting the Saudis 
in that war.

  https://news.antiwar.com/2023/05/18/dozens-of-house-democrats-tell-biden-to-support-ending-yemen-war/

--A study came out saying that the wars started by the US since 9/11 have 
led to roughly 4.5 million deaths. Tragic.

  https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2023/IndirectDeaths

--Even though the US has been seizing ships with Iranian oil, they are 
using Iran's seizure of oil-bearing ships as an excuse to send more 
warships to the Persian Gulf.

  https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/12/us-military-middle-east-iran-seizes-tankers-00096708

--Iraq and Iran have agreed to strengthen their energy ties despite the 
fact that the US sanctions technically limit or prohibit such trade. Iraq 
has had limited exemptions which have to be renewed every few months.

  https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle-East/Iraq-And-Iran-Ignore-US-Sanctions-In-Talks-To-Expand-Energy-Ties.html

In local news, Portland City Council on Wednesday:

a) tentatively passed a budget increasing the Police Bureau's slice of the 
pie to hire 43 more officers, even though there are currently 77 open 
positions and 98 cops who can't finish basic training due to a backlog. 
Why not wait till those 175 cops are on the street before budgeting for 
more?

b) in accepting a report from the Police Accountability Commission (of 
which I'm a member) about progress on designing the new oversight system, 
they asked questions like "Why does the new board get 5% of the Police 
budget?" Uh, it's in the City Charter. "Why are there no police on the 
board?" Uh, that's also in the Charter. "Why do they get to work without 
interference from other parts of the city?" Guess the answer if you can.

  https://www.portland.gov/charter/2/10

Commissioners Mingus Mapps and Rene Gonzalez, along with Mayor Wheeler, 
hinted at sending out a new ballot measure to amend the charter (which was 
amended by the people in 2020).

Along the march route I relayed news that Israel is stepping up its 
violence against Palestinians-- by this time last year they killed 52 
Palestinians but so far this year it's already 151, nearly three times as 
many.

  https://www.newarab.com/news/palestinians-killed-january-triple-during-last-year

And the US keeps sending them money; as noted in the Ukraine statement, 
the second highest recipient of US military aid after Ukraine is Israel.

As we got close to our end point, I talked about this article which says 
that if the US actually defaults on its debt, they won't be able to pay 
the military to do their jobs. At least there will be some benefit to the 
default!

  https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/here-s-what-could-happen-to-the-military-if-the-us-defaults-on-its-debt/ar-AA1bcyHG

On that topic, the President is talking global economy in Hiroshima Japan 
with the G7, where the leaders heard from survivors of the 1945 US bombing 
and said never again. But, as this NPR story points out, Japan relies on 
US nuclear weapons for "protection." (? really?)

  https://www.npr.org/2023/05/19/1177194149/g-7-leaders-gathered-in-hiroshima-meet-an-atomic-bomb-survivor

Second week in a row the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign made it around 
the corner from 4th to Yamhill but shut off as we were across the street 
from the Apple store.

We're still masking up for extra safety, but always welcoming more folks o 
join us any Friday if you are able and willing.

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