CPTnet
January 27, 1998
Chicago: Campaign for Secure Dwellings-A Call for 99 More Matches

by Wendy Lehman

"We need all people to put out their hands to help all the people of
the world," wrote Palestinian Atta Jabber in a letter calling on North
Americans to commit to ending the demolition of Palestinian homes,

Because of its location near an Israeli settlement, the home of Atta, Rodina,
and their two children is threatened with destruction by the Israeli
military, as are more than 1,000 other homes in the Israeli-occupied
territory of the West Bank. CPT is calling on families and churches to
consider joining the Campaign for Secure Dwellings (CSD) to help stop these
house demolitions, and/or write letters to the government officials listed
below calling for an end to this destruction.

As the media talk about the escalating violence in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, the CSD campaign calls on Christians and other peace workers to
escalate nonviolence by putting themselves at risk for the sake of those
families facing the loss of their homes and their land.

Through the CSD, the Jabber family has been partnered with a North American
family in Rochester, NY -- the Klassen family -- and the church the Klassen's
attend -- Rochester Area Mennonite Fellowhip. Through a similar program
organized by Israeli partners, a Peace Now chapter in Israel was
also matched with the Jabber family. This partnership campaign thus involves
the work of Palestinians, Israelis and Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT)
members.

The Jabber family's livelihood is being strangled by by-pass roads
destroying their land, and if their home is destroyed, they will not be
permitted to rebuild on the land that has been in their family for
generations. Like many others, they would then need to move in with
relatives in already crowded conditions. Yet they are refusing to give up.
Rodina has said she will live in a tent on her land before she leaves it.

The Jabber famiy was matched with the Sue and Victor Klassen family and their
church soon after Christmas. Sue ,
her ten-year-old son Nathan and seven-year-old daughter Sylvia have already
initiated personal contact with the Jabers by exchanging letters and pictures
of their family. The
Rochester church has remembered the Jabbers in their prayers every Sunday
this month. On Sunday, January 11, long-term Hebron CPTer Kathleen Kern, who
has lived with the Klassen's for six years, gave each of the children in
church a piece of rubble from a demolished Palestinian house. They will say a
prayer for the Jabbers everytime they look at their rocks.

Those who are matched through CSD are called on to commit to acts of witness
at least once a month. This may include prayers, writing letters to
government officials to urge for an end to demolitions, speaking publicly
about the situation, organizing public witnesses, going to Hebron to help
rebuild a home, or other similar activities.

Harriet Lewis, the co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions who launched a similar campaign, wrote that the matches they and
the CSD are doing, "can have a powerful cumulative effect in inducing a
change in Israeli policy."

Those interested in learning more about this campaign, should contact CPT at
the address below. This is an urgent
call for families, churches and peace groups to match with 99 other homes
scheduled for demolition in the Hebron area.

Please also write to the addresses below to urge for an end to house
demolitions.

Ministry of the Interior, Israel: (fax) 011-972-2-566-6376

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: (fax) 011-972-2-651-2631;
likud1 [at] likud [dot] org [dot] il

Israeli Foreign Minister: ask [at] israel-info [dot] gov [dot] il

Embassy of Israel (Ottawa): (fax) 613-237-8865; (tel) 613-567-6450;
embisrott [at] cyberus [dot] ca

Embassy of Israel (Washington): (fax) 202-363-4156; (tel) 202-364-5500;
ask [at] israelemb [dot] org

U.S. President Bill Clinton: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW; Washington, D.C.
20500; president [at] whitehouse [dot] gov; (tel) 202-456-1414

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy; House of Commons (no
postage necessary); Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6; tel: 613-995-1851; fax:
613-996-3443; e-mail: axworl [at] parl [dot] gc [dot] ca